SMTI for iOS Gives Me a Reason to Finally Use my iPod

I'm still in the stone ages of tech. My all-in-one device is a laptop. My phone and iPod are separate and neither are my places to check email. And I sure as heck don't write essays or play app games on my iPod. It is just a music machine for me.

And then Atlus announced the North American release of Shin Megami Tensei I for iOS this March. For like $8.00.

And I said, why the hell not?

It's been over twenty years since it first came out, and there are a bunch of ports of it already only in Japan. A version of it (maybe the PS1 port, or just the music from the PS1 version will be used) will finally be available without turning my computer into an emulation machine or learning Japanese to play an old Famicom game. If the port sucks b/c most RPG ports on iOS seem to turn out bad, then... at least it's eight bucks. As iffy as this made some people who relied on emulation and ROM hacks, I'm happy about this. Officially, this game will become localized and will be released to the North American public. This is a sign that Atlus might send their Japanese-only stuff over here in the future. 

A-Anywho. *sniff*

Regardless of the port's quality, I'll still support it. The game will be obscenely hard and dated, but having it for the sake of giving it a chance never hurts. I'm not sure how soon I'll tackle it, but I'll make time. My backlog is pretty big, but manageable.

Well, for once I don't have to save up pennies. Sweet. If I end up hating SMTI, I can drown out my sorrows with some new music. 2013 was a good year for heavy metal apparently. I should check to see what bands I like released new material...

The Closest Thing to Me Ever Releasing My Awful Fanfiction

... Then in a few years that statement will bite me in the ass.

Anywho. Time to vent.

Whenever I sit on my lazy young adult bum with a roof over my head thanks to owing thousands of dollars in loans for something called "education", my mind wanders. Usually the ideas are silly or nonsensical in the grand design of the universe. But sometimes when I use my imagination, I usually wonder how I could use my ideas in a productive manner. Writing was the only tool I knew I would have the easiest time using. Maybe not to the degree of becoming an author - though my one friend has urged me to - but enough so I could articulate my thoughts well in English. Other times, I could destroy someone's grammatically poor rough draft and give him/her pointers to make a better piece before the final copy is due.

If I put enough effort into it, I could write a well-written, grammatically sound paper. The actual quality behind or emitting from the mechanical aspects tends to confuse me more. My teachers and professors say my knowledge of grammar is solid, but how do they know what I'm saying is worth a cent of thought? What do I say that ensues my earning an A-?

Outside of academia and term papers, I always wonder, what makes a story "good"? How do you know it "clicks" or "works"? Preferences for style and genre only can go so far, I'm sure. Still, determining what is "good" bothers me when I look at my own work.

"PSA From a Fangirl" Has Been Upgraded

I'm on Twitter as of today. Yep. I'm a terrible hypocrite, I know.

Well this is just something I want to test out for a while, like I did with Facebook before the site and my "friends" harassed me with constant images, locations, and info I could not care about. So now I'm just using Twitter to follow the sites and people I like online. Since Rants From a Fangirl is listed as my website, I'm still going by Melanie Light (or Fangirl) as my handle. If I post something new here, I might post a link there in case I get enough followers. Considering how few I have here, I doubt it.

Anywho, this pretty much means my "PSA From a Fangirl" section here will be done. I won't have much reason to make minor updates on my state of being when I'm not vomiting nonsensical articles. That being said, I'll still probably be snarky and opinionated as ever. It gives me slightly more ground to cover without needing to jump on the Youtube audio and video medium. And in case something big comes up, like a protest against online surveillance or the revival of SOPA-related laws, it might be easier to participate that way.

Otherwise, this blog is still my baby. It's still small, but I'm keeping at it. Besides, I still have Mass Effect 3 and it's awful controversy to talk about. Then some guys from DDS-Net suggested I tackle Shin Megami Tensei IV. I'm thinking about other stuff too, especially since a young adult novel I actually liked may have been butchered horrendously thanks to the Hollywood machine. And since I'm a fan of the source material, I need to bring my battle armor and face the beast.

There is so much wrong with this, I don't know where to begin.


Meanwhile, when I'm not wanting to harm my computer, I realize that the semester is 33% over already and I'm confused out of my mind. Time doesn't seem to exist or make sense anymore. I still haven't adjusted to that yet... But for now, I need to get through this busy week. Then I'll be homebound. I will attack my adorable cats, bug my family, and squeeze in some time with my PS3. Once I get more ideas on what I can talk about, new material will come out.

But man, Vampire Academy... those books were actually good and then this movie happened... *sobs*

Celebrate with Nostalgia: February 2014 Update

今天是情人节！(1)

Happy Valentine's Day to those who celebrate it! For the rest of you, happy February 14! Or... February 15 if you're in Asia... or Europe... 'cause by the time I'm posting this... yeah, never mind.

Just goofing around. Listening to music. Preferring blue to red...

Thankfully I am becoming less and less bothered about this particular day of the year. The pressure to have a boyfriend and give out cards to people just because you have to doesn't exist much anymore. Or maybe I hang out with too many people who think that way. Regardless, the fact I'm letting some things roll off my back is a sign of maturing. The superior being(s) know(s) I'm neurotic over everything else.

Other than indulging too much in my music listening, I'm continuing to cool off from my last project here. Nothing else needs to be said about that for a long time. Let me move to other things... like one of the most controversial games of 2012. Or one of the most underrated games of 2013. Or TV shows who use Marilyn Manson's version of "Sweet Dreams" for their pilot episode. (BTW, The Following is pretty awesome. Nothing beats House, but crazy cultists are pretty whacky too.)

The "Best Song Ever"...?

HALT!

I know 99.9% of my viewers will look at this post, shun me from public society, and ensure my blog will crash and burn for even mentioning One Direction. If I have to clarify, the only music group I am a diehard fangirl of is HIM. A Finnish rock band with a steady lineup for over twelve years captured the little girl in me and provided lyrical food for thought can never and will never lose to a British boy band with goofy kids and creepy subliminal messages in their lyrics.

Yeah, if all girls should fall in love with a band in the same way all boys should worship superheroes, robots, and or sic-fi action, then I probably had one of the "safer" options. Still, I was greatly uninterested in boy bands in my childhood. I only heard the of Backstreet Boys' "I Want It That Way", and the only fact I knew about NSYNC was that Justin Timberlake managed to earn a lucrative career in the after years. This highly contagious, massive 90's genre never meant anything to the immune moi, so One Direction failed to appeal to me in that way.

They never caught my heart since it always belonged to another, but I don't find this group particularly threatening. I can't remember any of these guys' names or whose voice belongs to whom. They're overhyped because no direct or fair competition exists. Justin Beiber comes close, but I'm too busy laughing at that pip-squeak's descent into humiliating obscurity. (By the way, I'm allowed to badmouth him all I want. That toddler, who makes me feel like a 90 year old, is three months younger than me.) Otherwise, no other boy bands have enough presence to start a war.

And I'm at the point when music like this just doesn't mean anything to me anymore. I'm long done with my impressionable years of social insecurity. I'm barely trying to "fit in" just to please the system all the time. Or even in my early twenties I still run into a ton of neurotic men who have no motivation or courage to talk to me like I'm a human being. One Direction's creepy "you're hot enough to be mine and too spineless to ever leave me" undertones in some of their songs ("What Makes You Beautiful" and "Little Things", especially) fail to entice me. I'm not a wide-eyed preteen anymore. I don't have any use for simple love songs with as much depth and description as self-incert fanfiction. At least Ville Valo and the gang reference other and often more interesting bands to help me appreciate rock music and HIM's inspirations. It's just not fair to compare apple pie to a cardboard cutout of an orange.

I know most of them have stupid names...
"Zayne"? "Harry Styles"? REALLY?!

That. Being. Said. One Direction is not completely awful. They just don't have anything going for them that appeals to my oddly inconsistent tastes that sometimes clashes with my sex and age demographics. Well, until this earworm came out: "Best Song Ever".

Opening chords ripping off of "Baba O'Riley" by The Who? That's fine; nothing's original under the sun anymore. But if One Direction were to steal anything from bigger, better groups with far more style, class, and talent, then keep stealing riff from rock music. Anything to ease my depression over the increasingly shrinking presence of that awesome genre. Other than maybe Gotye's odd hit "Somebody I Used to Know" two years ago, the indie scene bores me to tears. And someone please tell me why the frustratingly smug Fall Out Boy and ear-drum assaulting Paramore are back. So to hear One Direction "steal" a melody or riff from something actually good makes my day.

I really like this song more than I have any right to. The whole thing fills a tiny hole in my heart that I missed for so long. Though I never liked boybands, there were a few really dumb, cheesy pop rock songs I used to hear a lot in the early 2000s. I kinda wish Good Charlotte came back for that reason. "The Anthem" was silly, "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" was goofy, and "Hold On" was tacky, but they cured my longing for some real guitars and drums blaring. Even the Click 5's really stupid pining over unrequited love in "Just the Girl" was adorable. Though slightly more acoustic at times, I still like Michelle Branch's "Everywhere" and "Breathe" to this day. Soft and pop rock were my childhood, so anything that reminds me of it in the midst of the autotune, country-hiphop, and dub step black hole of suck earns a listen from me.

When I take off my nostalgia glasses, however, this is one of the only One Direction songs that feels authentic and honest. The lyrics paint a story that seems believable. A guy is so into this amazing girl, and even after hanging out and teasing playfully, he didn't "win her over". But the time he spent with her was so wonderfully biased, the other details of that night were blurred.  He can't remember "the best song ever" because he was so focused on just being with her. That's understandable. Yeah, I'm not a guy, but I've had memories and thoughts that were greatly exaggerated and influenced. I was so completely on an emotional high the whole time when I saw HIM in concert that I happily declared that my life was complete. Ah, I was so silly back then... but that concert was AMAZING.

So a band of boys with music that emotionally affects preteens mixed the kind of music I've been missing for years along with a simplistic but sympathetic scenario to create the "Best Song Ever"? And all the boys sound like they are of age to flirt with the listener? And it's so happy, lively, and energetic?

Take that, Justin Beiber! I might've found you mildly annoying instead of just f^%$ing awful if you attempted a feat like this!

On the other hand, I can only call this song the best song ever because that's its name. In reality, it just isn't quality wise. It's very cocky and arrogant, but it makes sense within the context of the story it tells. It's not supposed to be taken seriously; it's supposed to be pure fun. The boys really sound like they had a blast recording it. They're cheering loudly and lively, and the chorus swells with so much life after the tremendous buildup in the verses. To my ears, "Best Song Ever" succeeds in a very surprising way. One Direction, I have to give you some credit for making a song that definitely screams "This is us!".

So guess I can let the Directioners... or whatever the fans are called... have their handful of years worshiping these five kids. At least those girls are finally abandoning the crashing and burning Beilieber bandwagon. One Direction may have one decent song for once, and I don't mind crediting them for it, but I'm not buying the hype. I can tolerate their existence because they are far from the worst thing in pop music. ... And I still can't stand their voices, ranging from okay to flat to boring to screechy. Just saying.

3 out of 5

Good for what it is, "Best Song Ever" is probably One Direction's best and only good song. That's fine. Besides, nothing can replace my love of tall, dark-haired baritone men. @///_///@

I wuv u Ville ^//_//^

... And now Youtube will harass me for all of eternity with One Direction-related videos. I hate my life...

'Persona 4' Part IV

I'm done. I am practically screaming at a brick wall within my own psyche by this point. I just cannot bring myself to enjoy Persona 4. The more I think about it, the more problems I find and want to bitch about.

But I'm done. Once I finish this review, I will just live my life as if this installment meant nothing to me. I will ignore the abhorrent concept of Dancing All Night existing, and I will keep my Vita's skin, even if I hate the majority of Golden's content. I can tolerate Arena because I get to see some of the old members of SEES again. I'll still play Persona Q just for everyone in SEES coming back.

Maybe one day, I'll pick up the original Persona 4, just to get a better sense of the gameplay. Otherwise, if I have killer hangover and have the need to be blinded by yellow, I'll just watch the anime.

Now, let's finish this review. Onto things I am more positive about before I give out my already controversial final verdict.