'Quantum Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner, Vol 2'

Three years. I've been biting my nails in anticipation for this book for three bloody years.

And now I have to wait for the translation of volume three. And this book ends on an even more nerve-wrecking note than volume one. I love this book so much that my anxiety for volume three's translation and publication might kill me.

While it has been a long time since I last thought of the five-volumed Quantum Devil Saga and its spiritual older brother the Digital Devil Saga duology, I easily jumped back into the narrative and world without feeling like a day passed since I last read about Serph, the Embryon, and the denizens of the mysterious Junkyard. I rarely felt that connected to a story's world, and I cannot praise everyone involved in the games and this book series enough.

Before reading further, I suggest checking out my thoughts on Quantum Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner, Vol 1 from 2014. Also, as I went down memory lane to prepare for this post, I remembered Kevin Frane informing me that the guys at Bento Books read my review of volume one and liked it. Supposedly. I-I'm still kinda in denial about it. *fans self to prevent fainting*

Anywho, enough about silly me. SPOILERS AHOY!

First Impression(s): 'Dragon Age'

With the seventh generation of games finally coming to an end, I've happily been seeking out discounted games I missed to fill up my library. (i.e. Who can beat Deus Ex Human Revolution for $3.00?!) I dipped my toes in some JRPGs for the most part, like White Knight Chronicles and the Tales of Xillia duology, but my Mass Effect-loving heart told me to give Dragon Age a try since Bioware is phenomenal at writing original characters and lore.

I don't mind fantasy stories. In fact one benefit of fantasy to me is that one does not need to worry too much about addressing and staying consistent with scientific concepts beyond your league. So with dragons, elves, magic, and political intrigue what could possibly go wrong?

*sigh* (1)

'Quantum Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner, Vol. 1'

There have been numerous reasons my blog hasn't been updated lately, and this is one of them. For the past several months, I have been really, really excited for this book. I sat on pins and needles, watched a few interviews with the translator Kevin Frane, helped hold a small contest to promote the book, and pre-ordered this as soon as I could. Now that I finished it in just a day a week ago, I have no regrets.

Quantum Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner is a five-volume novelization of a story Yu Godai created when approached to create a scenario for Digital Devil Saga. Though she didn't work with Atlus long enough to finish her work for the RPG (although she is still credited), she planned to write her own version of the story, as it was her original idea. The fact Quantum exists has fans of the Megami Tensei franchise who adored Digital Devil Saga squeezing with delight.

And it's translated into English. Well, volume one at least, thanks to translator Kevin Frane and Bento Books. Since I want the other four volumes released outside of Japan as soon as possible, I owe it to myself to stand on my podium and rant away on this tiny little blog.

Spoiler: I really, really, REALLY love this book. And some spoilers are here, sort of.

July 2013 Update

When I'm not continuously suffering from blogging-writer's block, I'm up to my usual shenanigans. Listening to music, playing video games, reading a few books, waiting for summer to end...

Yeah, summer's not as fun as it used to be as a kid. For the first time in my life, I actually prefer sitting at a desk and listening to teachers drone on and on. It gives me a more predictable schedule. Now? All my friends either live too far away to meet up with or they're so busy it's impossible to find the perfect day. So yeah, I'm a bit of a sad bum for now. I do some housework to keep things going, but... The awkward late-teens early-twenties transition can be a pain. At least once I get back to school, I'll probably be a tudor to earn a few bucks...

Anywho. Onto slightly more entertaining things. Like Fire Emblem: Awakening.

...Why was I complaining about a $40 game for the past several months?

Last weekend, I was at Best Buy, contemplating on trying out either Skyrim or Fire Emblem Awakening. The universe FINALLY dashed the price of the former in half (only for the newest version with all DLC to be at $60 - fair enough I guess); the latter continued to linger at the $40 benchmark. Realizing that my handheld sat with only Ocarina of Time as a 3DS title in my DS library... the most recent blue-haired, dragon-slaying prince won.

Now TV Tropes has a new reason to suck my soul away bit by bit...

As I hoped, Fire Emblem Awakening is really, really, damn fun. I am still angry at Nintendo for last year's E3; they announced the game's US release via a small text. One lousy message sent to one of the guys in Nintendo who mentioned it briefly before diving back into the over-the-top Mario festival of excess they held.

Sure, Mario is not my thing. I prefer Sonic the Hedgehog, and playing The Legend of Zelda: Collector's Edition was the reason I wanted a Gamecube. Now with two Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing games, I have no reason to get Mario Kart. When I play Super Smash Bros, I use any and characters besides those in the Mario franchise. And as much as I found Mario Party and Super Mario Sunshine to be mildly entertaining, for some subjective reason I just can't seem to care about the adventures the red plumber goes on.

Yes. Even THIS train wreck is more entertaining than Mario.

This is a rant for another time, I guess.

For now, I'm still playing Fire Emblem: Awakening... seventy hours of one and one-half playthroughs and counting. Looks like this and Persona 3 Portable are my distractions for the next semester. As long as I keep a decent GPA...

Anywho.

I'll try to complain less and enjoy the free time I have. In moderation.
Plus I have a few drafts sitting around that need to be worked on.

I'm still alive, and that's fine for my blog... maybe.

PS - A part of my world felt empty and sad after the last single-player DLC for Mass Effect 3 came out. There are several things I miss, like a companion and criminal with an adorable sense of silliness and humor.

"...Sugar?"

Thanks, Fire Emblem: Awakening. He's no Kasumi Goto, but Gaius is a keeper. :)

Happy 2013!!: An Update

Lo and behold, everyone was wrong about December 21, 2012. Not only was 2012 one of the stupidest movies ever made, but the Mayan calendar technically sees the day as the end of a time period and the beginning of a new one. Kind of like a "new "year", I guess. Nothing happened. I bet at 16:00 Eastern Time, the Japanese were either asleep or laughing at our ludicrous claims of "ZOMFG, doomsday!!!!!!"

And I lived to see me birthday. And laughed. Very loudly.

I was busy plowing through repetitive missions
with the Mako while y'all caused a ruckus at 12 am.

Anywho, Happy New Year to the few individuals who read my blog!

2012 was a pain in the neck. I would get caught up in college life, video games, music, etc. and forget to update. This may be because I don't like treating this as a "here's what I'm doing today" sort of blog. I've had diaries in the past, but I'd barely use up ten pages. Writing down every single mundane thing I do or think about never had much appeal to me. Sure, there has been a few posts when I would briefly talk about what I've been up to, but I only want to write posts when I feel like it. As a result, I have gone on for weeks without any content.

We'll see how 2013 goes. I make resolutions and act when I need to, not when people cheer because the clock struck 0:00 on the first day of 2013. Ah, cynicism! ^_^

Before I disappear again, let me say a few more things.

Thanks for the those who voted in my small poll. I wanted to get a sense on how to even talk about Mass Effect. Since I quickly became a fervent fan over the summer [and came up frequently in my posts] it seemed inevitable that I would have a desire to ramble on talk about it. Because so much could be said, I wanted an idea on how willing some of you would be when you read the posts. Currently three drafts have been composed over the past few months: two of which still need extensive editing before being ready to be put out.

My dad gave me Mass Effect Trilogy for Christmas, so now I have extra copies of 2 and 3 as well as a physical copy of the first game. Until I played through it a few times, it will be the first post on the series as a whole. In other words, this whole thing might take a really long time. Once Spring semester starts, I will not have access to my PS3 and the game will be put on hold. For now, I'm trying to play it as much as possible to get a feel for it. Plus I have heard about how frustrating the glitches can be. The PS3 version of Mass Effect seems to have all new problems that have ruined the experience (i.e. game files not being transferable to Mass Effect 2, audio issues, mini game issues, etc.)

First impressions?

After spending about 40 hours on the game and completing one of my two save files... It's a whole different kind of difficult. Frustrating at times, but it was definitely worth it. Thankfully my experience was only ruined by problems that most likely existed with the original XBox 360 version. No game-breaking crashes, no mini-game problems. Heck, I'm only happy I could transfer my file into Mass Effect 2 without any penalty. Now I can experience everything from start to finish, the right way.

Enough about video games though.

The other week I had the chance to see The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey in 3D. Hearing mostly negative things about it from critics - hmph... figures - I got a bit worried. Diehard Tolkien fans, however, seemed a bit less angry about the film. (Can't say about the 3D gimmick though...) As much as I loved film versions of The Lord of the Rings, I'm far from being a Tolkien fan. He put so much content and love in Middle Earth that I'd have to dedicate my whole life to his fiction. I'd be open-minded about the lore, but it's too overwhelming to dive into. At least what little I have seen (and read) the material is not too hard to swallow.

Anywho.

The Hobbit was probably one of the only books I ever enjoyed reading for school. Even then, the extremely particular and detailed notes and tests we had to take nearly killed the experience. So I reread it in my free time once or twice. So, yeah, I was damn happy to see a film adaptation.

Looks like I'll have to review it sometime soon. I could easily rant on about it without trouble. I still have ideas, people, I just need the motivation to write sometimes.

Well, Happy New Year everyone!

'Fullmetal Alchemist'... in General

 I can hear it already: "Fangirl, do mean the 2003 series or Brotherhood?" Fans get into arguments about which one is better. Others just want a clarification since the two versions go in polar opposite directions by the end. Because of this I didn't want to cover Fullmetal Alchemist right away. As of this post I still have not finished watching either show (at about 30 episodes in the first series and 32 in the second.) So consider this a premature, "superficial" review/analysis of the two shows.

"Superficial" in the sense that I will not nitpick every nook and cranny of both versions. Furthermore, several aspects of each will be glossed over.

However, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood has the advantage since it closely follows the manga, which I read in its entirety. Maybe about halfway through this, you might already know which adaptation I like the most. Regardless, I will try to mention what aspects of each show were well executed.

"And everyone wears a mask..."

To briefly break the anime mood that my blog has indulged in lately, I just found this and wanted to post it.




It's been a looooooooong time since I last saw it, but I love MirrorMask. I find movies where artistic and surreal (severe understatement in this case) designs are the main focus tend to be a hit or an unwatchable miss - for subjective reasons - but this is a really fascinating film. This song should have been in the movie because "Wake the White Queen" by The Crüxshadows really captures the spirit of the film beautifully.

Guess that's another band to research. Haha!