JACK

Rose: Have you remembered yet?
Raiden: You mean April 30th? It's your birthday, isn't it.
Rose: Wrong! You're not even warm!
Raiden: What is it then?
Rose: Forget it... it's nothing. Maybe I'm just a little... a little jealous... You'd better get moving. Good luck.

JACK

JACK, DO YOU KNOW WHAT DAY IT IS TOMORROW?

What is that rhythm?

I suck with the technicalities of music, what all the beats are called and whatever. But there's something about the rhythm in Masafumi Takada's earlier works that feels really special to me. Something about them that appeals to me a lot.

I have no idea what the term for them, but if you listen to:
- Without Chewing Gum Syrup
- Deep Shot of Midnight Sun (Both from Flower, Sun and Rain)
- The Silver Case (The title theme)

... hear that rhythm? That fast one that you could drum easily with your fingers? That one.

ALSO, HAPPY BIRTHDAY HARU.

What the hell is Lux-Pain?

I had no idea what to expect from Lux-Pain. All I knew was that it was published by Marvelous/Rising Star, which is pretty cool. Summarised from my conversations with the poor souls who I rambled to about this:

NO WAIT OK

a young man gifted with special powers who is very handsome
scans a building and finds the residue of disturbing thoughts
and goes up to investigate

he finds a dead guy who has a box full of dead animals because he tortured them

and then he goes into another room and is about to get attacked or something when his partner shows up and tells him IT'S OK ALSO GET RID OF MORE OF THESE THINGS
that's what happens, i'm serious

like... it's pretty cool, i guess

but at the same time, it's like OK WHAT THE FUCK AM I SUPPOSED TO DO, WHAT DO ALL THESE TERMS MEAN

oh man, and also, you have to like, scan people to see what their bad thoughts are and shit
so when you do that, there's like this bar above their head and a timer and to scan them you have to like, scratch the screen and find the yellow dot that's constantly moving

what i didn't know is that if you scratch too much, the bar depletes really, really quickly

so suddenly this guy pops up and he's like

YOU'RE NOT A TELEPATH

GAME OVER

also i think my teacher in the game is hitting on me

In short, I still have no idea what to expect from Lux-Pain. Nor do I know what the fuck it is about.

Birthday wishes.

Happy Birthday, J. =)

ALSO I FORGOT THIS

I saw a promotional ad for this in one of the chapters. Then I looked it up.

I'm going to be a nitpicking fan and yell: IF THIS IS BASED ON THE ORIGINAL GENSOMADEN SERIES, WHY ARE THEY WEARING THEIR RELOAD OUTFITS? Also, I laughed really hard at Kou and Doku. Also Kanzeon is a man, which is pretty much accurate. ... Man, I'm going to have to download this. And cry.

SAIYUKI BINGE AHOY

Well, this reminds me of the old days!

I forgot I owned a whole bunch of Minekura artbooks until I saw them perched on my shelf behind my Jigglypuff collection. I flicked through them and holy balls, say what you like, but they are nice, nice books. Then I decided, hey, since mum's in Singapore and she'll be buying me Reload #9, I'm in the mood to re-read it all.

And then I realised that I had completely forgotten about Gaiden. Last time I read Gaiden (years ago) there was only one volume which had been incorporated into season 2 of Gensomaden. Everyone knew it wasn't the end, except everyone stayed up to date while I just forgot about it. Until today, when I went and downloaded everything available (chapters 9-33), and found some interesting things...

HUGE SPOILERS IF YOU CARE.

There was something that made me shit a few bricks in chapter 9, which was Li Touten mentioning to Nataku that there was not one, but TWO unclean beings currently residing in heaven. One of them is obviously Goku, and I'm not exactly sure who the other is although I get the feeling Li was just trying to rile Nataku up a little. However, a few pages later, there's a flashback image of a man with his back turned to the viewer. Judging by the cloak though, I'm pretty sure it's Homura. HOLY FUCK, HOMURA! But in the context of the situation, I think they were just explaining what happened to the War Gods and how quickly they were replaced. But in the anime, Homura was widely regarded as a heretic because he had a gold eye. You know what? I'm going to rewatch the anime. I don't remember shit about that guy, except that he made me rage.

ALSO SUDDENLY, SEITEN TAISEI!

Re-reading everything in its entirety made me realise that the Konzen/Goku pairing isn't actually all that credible. Goku's still just a kid. And despite Konzen changing because of Goku suddenly appearing in his life (which would make millions squeal with delight), his attitude still suggests that it's purely platonic. He seems to care a lot more though. And anyway, that's a metric fuckton of homolust 500 years later with him and Sanzo.

But goddamn, chapter 33 is depressing.

Konzen: There’s no guarantee that there’s hope beyond that light we’re heading toward now. You might meet with more suffering there. …But even then, I wanted to put in everything that I have to give, just to tell you - how happy I am to have met you.

While trying to get down to earth (because there's no place in Heaven for them any longer), Konzen and Goku have a showdown with Li Touten. As they're about to make it through the gates, Li starts to close it and Goku, on the opposite side of the gates tries to reach out for Konzen to pull him through. But:

Konzen: ... Go on. Goku. ... You were the one... who reached out to me first.
Goku: Konzen... ?
Konzen: Next time, I promise... I... I'll be the one to reach for you. I'll definitely reach for you. ... Oh... you really are... like the sun."

And the gates slam shut.

... Well, fuck. Cue tears.

An Asian movie we don't get a year after everyone else?!

Saw Shinjuku Incident with J today. It was kind of odd, seeing a movie starring Jackie Chan that was:
A) A serious drama; and
B) Not full of martial arts.

Whenever there was a fight scene, I expected Jackie Chan to grab a pole out of nowhere and kick eight guys in the face. Nothing of the sort, just gritty street fighting. It was a good film; it shows that Jackie Chan could be more than a funny man and it realistically portrays the inner workings of the Yakuza as well as the position of illegal immigrants who make their way to Japan in hopes of a better life.

Pretty marvelous stuff. [9/10]

This is what Persona 4 is really about

Sundance Shot says:
also i think my mum just walked past brosuke and profag lying on the ground beside each other, saw the text '... That sure beat words.' and thought BEV THIS GAME SURE IS GAY
[ruben] --> says:
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA
[ruben] --> says:
OH WOW!
Sundance Shot says:
HAHAHAHAHAHA
Sundance Shot says:
OH DEAR GOD
Sundance Shot says:
to make things worse, yosuke just said, complete with voice acting: YOU REALLY ARE SOMETHING
[ruben] --> says:
HAHAHAHHAHAAHHAHAHA
[ruben] --> says:
BROMANCE
Sundance Shot says:
AWESOME

Review: Nanashi no Game

NOTE: As it turns out, I wrote this review months ago and completely forgot about it until now.

Nanashi no Game: Let’s see how many times I use the word ‘game’ in a single sentence.

Title: Nanashi no Game (aka: Nameless Game)
Developer: Square Enix
Publisher: Square Enix
Year: 2008 (JP)

When I first heard of Nanashi no Game, my initial reaction was ‘Oh my god. Square Enix? Not doing a RPG?!’ Well this is true for the most part. Nanashi no Game is basically two games in one – part old-school, Dragon Quest-style RPG and part first-person adventure. ‘What gives?’ You may wonder, but it makes sense if you look at the storyline.

Now, I don’t know Japanese, but from what I can gather (along with various previews and translation efforts), they game’s about a cursed RPG that is making rounds and killing people who play it after seven days. If this sounds like a certain J-Horror film, you are totally correct! The whole point of Nanashi no Game is to find out the source of the curse and therefore, break it. Before you dismiss it as being a cheap knockoff though, I’d like to say that Nanashi no Game actually pulls it off quite well in that:

1. You never see your character, adding a whole personal level to it; and

2. You do get to play the cursed game – even having to navigate through a DS menu to get into it. [I’ve read from various sources that some creepy, fourth wall-breaking messages pop up (ala Eternal Darkness) so here’s hoping for an English release so we can all actually understand them.

Being a horror game, Nanashi no Game contains its fair share of jump scares, but is also notable for being one that doesn’t rely on them entirely. Every area you visit in the game oozes creepy, and it certainly doesn’t help that they are all completely empty. Maybe they mention why all the buildings are empty somewhere in the game, I don’t know.

There are a considerable amount of ‘Oh, fuck’ moments, especially when you swing round into a corridor and suddenly see a sickly-blue ghost just standing there, like it’s daring you to come closer. The ‘oh, fuck’ turns into ‘FUCK’, especially if you’re trapped in a tiny area (which WILL happen) and the ghost is actively chasing you (the control scheme doesn’t help this either, but more on that later).

Your little forays into the cursed RPG occur at the important points of your adventure. For example, at one point in the game, the main character throws a fit and smashes his DS, along with the cursed game – only to find another DS nearby! (I don’t think I’m spoiling anything by telling you about this because as we all know, you can’t outrun a curse that easily!) The DS makes a little tone when the cursed game is available for play, prompting you to hit ‘SELECT’ and go, go, go.

There’s no dragon-battling in the cursed game, though. It’s more of a story-driven thing in which you basically wander around talking to people until something significant happens. The cursed game, while probably a lot creepier if you know Japanese, is still pretty unsettling to play. It comes complete with haunting melody which distorts at various points. Couple this with graphics that go all glitch whenever you take a step and it makes you wonder if YOU’RE going to die in seven days.

Playing Nanashi no Game requires you to hold your DS like a ‘book’ as is the case with games like Hotel Dusk and Brain Training. Moving is purely touchscreen-based, with the option of using the directional pad in order to make your character move faster. It was certainly kind of them to give you this option because your character is really quite fucking slow. Does he have a broken leg or something? Maybe a sprained ankle? Even with this ‘speed boost’, he’s still terrible. It’s hard to manoeuvre, particularly if you’ve got to do a 180 degree turn. As I mentioned previously, this WILL happen, ESPECIALLY when you’re in a tiny corner.

Nanashi no Game is worth having a shot at if you enjoy survival horror and/or games like Hotel Dusk. Despite its flaws, it’s like The Ring of horror games (disregarding the godawful Dreamcast game) in a literal sense, only not a classic. Perhaps if it was ever translated and released in North America and/or Europe, it will receive, at the very least, the attention it deserves.

[6/10] – Interesting, but not interesting enough. When you get a wishbone, wish for a translation.