'No.6'

I hate stories that both succeed and fail. Or maybe this does neither. I honestly have no clue anymore.

The premise touches upon a theme that you usually like, and you assume it'd be an easy ride. Then you realize ten minutes in that it focuses on another theme that sets off every alarm bell in your mind. Despite your discomfort, you press on because the cast endears you enough to give them and their story a chance. Then about halfway through the journey as you make friends with the passengers, the main plot train breaks are busted. The narrative steamrolls towards a huge crash after it climbs a steep hill. Impact is immanent, but you hang on anyway because, as your life flashes before your eyes, you realize the main characters and the secondary theme that initially terrified you are the only reasons you're still on the damn ride in the first place. Finally, the train derails. But by some divine miracle the passengers you grew to love are safe and unharmed. You share tearful farewells as everyone is taken to the hospital. And as you look back at the burning remains of the plot, you wonder if the memory of this strange, avoidable catastrophe is even worth remembering.

That was my time with the anime and manga adaptations, as well as the original light novels, of No.6.

Spoilers, cursing, rage, and feels aplenty.

'Free!', Male Beauty, and Fanservice

OH, GOD DAMN IT, 2017, STOP KICKING ME IN MY OVERLY ANALYTICAL AND CYNICAL ASS WITH STUPID SHIT I'M SUPPOSED TO HATE! THESE STRANGE FEELS BURNING IN MY HEART HURT LIKE A MOTHERFU--

*clears throat*

Well, that was very undignified of me. My apologies.

Despite the obnoxious recent track record of consuming media that has pushed me beyond the comfort zone I maintained for much of my life, I don't feel particularly conflicted or violated in any psychological manner in regards to Free!. Thank whatever deity or deities that do or do not exist for that reprieve.

Over the course of a week  last month, I have marathoned Free! with its two seasons, handful of OVAs, and prequel film. After trying to have no expectations for the series' quality, I found myself really enjoying Free!. And felt feels. Felt enough feels that I laughed. And cried. Good to know that I'm still a woman.

That's the short story. The long story requires me to go back to 2012, when a little known Hollywood film caused a bit of controversy in some circles thanks to some good old double standards regarding good old fanservice.

How to Wish Me a Happy Birthday, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and Happy Valentine's Day with $65

Well, I guess I have no right to bitch about something I was asking for and whining about for six months.

Still, it's such a shame. Just when my brain and heart have successfully completed couples therapy, amicably decided not to file a divorce, and happily started to get along again... my best friend repaid me for my dragging her into the insane maelstrom that this show birthed by sharing the news of this super special awesome DVD/Blu-ray box set the other day.

I guess I still have a lot of recovering to do from the hard punch to the face my arrogant ego deserved.

... And did I say I need twenty lifetimes worth of showers to purify my soul? I actually need a million. And that still might not be enough.

Personal crack... too powerful... must... resist...

*weeps at the email receipt from PayPal and Funimation*

Looking on the bright side, at least the box set uses my favorite promotional image of Yuuri and Victor. Might as well have something nice to look at as I complete my nosedive into obsessive fangirl hell.

Seriously though, thank you, Em, for my early birthday gift. The last time I squeed so loudly and uncontrollably was when I saw HIM perform live in 2010.

Honestly, I really am extremely happy I can finally buy Yuri!!! on Ice. The wait for February will kill me, but at least I know it'll be totally worth it.

Yet Another Guilty Pleasure: Romance and 'Yuri!!! On Ice'

...

... I love Yuri!!! On Ice.  It's better for me to come out and say it on my own platform rather than on Twitter or Tumblr. Oh god I can't make myself look up YOI on Tumblr or Google without safe search...

Please don't ask me to rate this. I've no clue how to rate it anyway. This isn't a review. If you want to watch Yuri!!! On Ice, go forth and watch. If not, don't watch it; that's perfectly acceptable. If you're undecided, well, don't feel the need to watch it because of me or anyone else who asserts that this is the best thing ever (SPOILER: it isn't). This is not a show you need to watch right now, because it already has deserved more than enough praise. SERIOUSLY, this show does not need any more fans and/or attention.

Yet here I am, a fan, blushing uncontrollably as I'm typing this. I am ashamed. So very ashamed. I tried to resist this damned anime, and I have never failed so spectacularly in not giving a shit.

Yuri!!! On Ice, you broke me. You fucking broke me. You have left my brain and heart at odds over your stupid existence. I want those 30+ hours and five weeks worth of repeated binge-watching back. And you owe me a million grams of insulin for the diabetes you inflicted upon me. And I need directions to the nearest volcano to throw myself into.

There be SPOILERS ahoy... if you care enough. Seriously, please don't read beyond this point. You don't need to see me at my most pathetic. Seriously, read one of my older posts instead. You'll get more use out of my badly written high school drivel than this. Please. don't read any further. I beg of you. Don't do it.

The Squees of Spring: An Update

Once I purchased Persona 5, I fell into a deep rabbit hole in which I think I'm climbing back out of. It's hard to say at this point since I'm still in the middle of being distracted. I haven't streamed or updated my blog due to my narrow focus as of late. At least I have uploaded nearly 20 chapters of my Persona 3 fanfic on a semi-regular weekly basis, though I had to pause briefly to make some additional changes to my drafts before continuing the upload.

I will keep working on my Mass Effect: Andromeda post, but with the three released patches and the news that Bioware's Montreal team is being downsized due to all the backlash and EA being EA, I still don't feel entirely confident rendering judgement on the game. My excitement has sobered considerably, particularly because Persona 5 is vastly superior in nearly every single way, and I have been unable to bring myself to complete my third run with my Vetra-mancing Ryder despite being 75% done the main story. That sentence might damn the game more than a long rant, but I have to be honest about where I'm sitting as of today.

Rather than focus on lukewarm topics, I'll share more positive news.

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...

Out From Under a Rock!: First 2014 Update

Please don't kill me! I'm back for realz, I swearz!

Looks like I got so caught up in vacation and breaks that... well... I neglected my blog again. Whoops.

Thus in a vain attempt to make my two or three imaginary readers forgive me for my crimes, let me say I have been pretty busy during the holidays. Real-life stuff, of course. Mostly enjoying a mellow and agnostic Christmas, freezing my ass off thanks to below 0 Celsius weather that swept the east coast lately, realizing my cousins are counting down the months to when they can get me legally smashed, lamenting my B+ average grades this semester, etc.

Otherwise, I've been gaming. No shock.

So Much for Working on 'Persona 4'...

I am sorry. I really am. With all the work I have to do before the end of the semester, I need to focus my free time on only a handful of things. My fanfiction keeps chugging along since it flexes my writing muscles. Video games have been off and on with me bouncing between Persona 2: Innocent Sin Portable and Fire Emblem: Awakening. I've been trying to get to my New Game Plus run of Persona 4 Golden, but I keep pushing it back. And I would prefer to tackle the game after I go through it more than once, you know? I have to commit to what I review. That's why I did a ton of playthroughs and research on my Mass Effect reviews.

So again. I apologize for my not meeting my own expectations and deadlines.

...

...

On the other hand...

Candy for the Ears

Midterm exams are underway soon and I'm trying to hit the books. On the other hand, I just got a Playstation Vita and I'm trying really hard to not play with it too much. Predictably, I give into temptation easily.

It's been a long time since I had anything to say about my taste in music. Over the past several years, my library has slowly grown and my mood has fluctuated. My Pandora account is in use sometimes, but I only really expand unless I'm really bored. The last musical goldmine I ran into was Bentley Jones.

Covering J-pop, remixing currently popular songs, and overusing autotune might not sound very appealing, but if more pop music sounded more like what Bentley does, then I'd love to turn the radio back on again. Heck, his PHUNKSTR remixes often sound a lot better than their original versions. Or maybe that's my biased ear talking.

Regardless, I've been listening to his new album lately. It took several listens, but it has grown on me. Such a decent voice should not be masked by so much autotune. (TT-TT) At least his melodies are really good.

Yeah, if this blog goes down like the Titanic, I only hope that at least one person that visited here would be interested in this guy. The dude needs more attention. His stuff is on iTunes. Give the guy a buck or two. Or at least five minutes of random music preview samples.

*shrug* I'm used to preaching to the choir.

When I'm not indulging in pop music that only the Japanese are willing to put on their store shelves, I always go back to HIM. No surprise, I know. After XX - Two Decades of Love Metal came out, I decided to go through their entire library again for old time's sake. Whatever comes of Tears on Tape, I really hope their cover of "Strange World" is not them at their best after that post-Screamworks hiatus. They better not be out of juice yet...

At least they have seven other albums to cling to.

Okay, that's enough cheesy-poppy music to make your teeth grow cavities. But heck, it could be MUCH WORSE. All the girls get into Justin Beiber and One Direction, I get into sappy pop-rock with pretty-boy singers that make and perform their own music without as much exposure. So hipster of me.

Anywho, the third piece of musical awesome I'm diving into is good ol' Breaking Benjamin... which are also on hiatus. (Just my luck.) They are probably the only "nu metal" act I still enjoy. Ever since the un-freakin'-listenable A Thousand Suns, Linkin Park just continues to piss me off. Evanescence continues to subconsciously come off as trying to be gothic metal while actively denying any hints proving the statement right. Three Days Grace has some great emotion... with hilariously silly lyrics. Nickleback does not exist on my playlists, and Disturbed is a kiddy meal next to In Flames. I can go on and on...

Breaking Benjamin... I'm not sure why I go back to them so often.

For actual metal music though... hmm... I go back to Moonspell sometimes. Too bad Grooveshark has deleted their entire library of songs. Now how am I to get my fix without commercial interruptions? They just released some new material too. Yet another thing to add to my list of music to listen to before I kick the bucket.

I guess for now a whole assortment of songs are floating around in my head. Some rock, some pop, some video game soundtracks, some obscure, some embarrassingly not. It's kinda hard to pinpoint what exactly I listen to when talking to people. It's even more fun when people have no damn clue what I'm talking about. Try asking some random person on the street what symphonic metal is. Then good luck explaining it without boring the person to death.

Which is why I keep to my self like a recluse. :)

Enjoy [or ignore] the rest of the songs I randomly post here.

And the finale. I have no shame. This song is awesome.

Credit to all the people who worked their butts off on these songs to get a paycheck.

Now... back to studying...

February 2013 Update

Finally! I completed the first review on Mass Effect! Thank you to the one or two people who patiently waited for them to come out. It took several months to gather ideas and flesh them out. Hopefully ME2 and ME3 will not take as long to push out.

My Singles Awareness Day was as great as usual. I made sure to play as much HIM as possible. Even after four years, I still love 'em. Currently, I'm still saving my pennies for Tears On Tape; April 30 is too damn far away... T-T

College life is getting easier to adapt to... kind of. The work itself can be annoying at times, but it's everything else that is difficult. Because of meeting certain required academic requirements, there are a few programs I am a part of that either lift some financial burden or offer academic challenges. The price? Community service. Networking. Staying on top of things. Knowing who's who, and where they can be found.

Sometimes I have been so absorbed with staying on top of everything that this poor blog sits un-updated. Every now and then I wonder if the quality of my posts are suffering along with the quantity. Regardless, I still try my darnedest to keep this thing alive. It's almost been three years and sometimes I still feel like I only talk to myself. In a way that helped me to keep this thing going. Sure, I can keep track of how often people visit my blog, but I know that the world at large does not care about what I have to say. No one pressures me to meet a deadline, to put something out or risk losing money. I do this because I want to.

"...Really, Fangirl?" some might say, "Why do you keep bringing that up in every single update you make? You're a broken record by this point!"

Fair enough. But sometimes I'm too blunt for my own good. I'm not a blogger who focuses on DYI projects, I don't have a central theme or series of topics to pump out, and I'm not a professional reviewer. I'm just a person who just says whatever comes to her mind [within reason].

When people see "Fangirl"... some might think I'm like this. :/
HAHAHAHA... wrong.

I started off doing nothing but immature rants. Slowly, I did reviews of music and movies. Sometimes I would find a video or funny image and post it for the laughs. Now I'm going on about video games. Whatever I've done, they were nothing but long-winded, immature ramblings that a handful of people happened to like. Those few people keep coming back for some odd reason.

So to drive the point home for the billionth time... thanks to everyone who keeps coming back. And thanks to that one-time visitor who found me too ridiculous to remember. That's fine. In many ways, this blog is for me, and only me. Still, I can't help but smile when I see that I have a few followers, and several viewers from across the globe.



Okay, enough of this cheese. Let's move on.

What have I been doing in my free time? ... ... ... THIS.

I would like to thank Voltech, a far better blogger and writer than I, for making my life a living hell thanks to recommending THIS.

Imagine all the overwhelmingly tear-enducing scenes from Titanic, The Notebook, and Clannad jumbled up together... and on STEROIDS.

... Crap... my PS3 is still at home... Now I want a PSVita... *sniff* damn you, Atlus....
TT-TT

Where the Heck Were You, Fangirl?

Long time, no update! :)

I'm currently studying for my midterm exams, but I have some time for this. :)
So... what have I been up to?

Another Piece of Art Finished

Right before I went off to college, I had my last weekend art lesson, which I had attended for nearly seven years. Typically I work on a big project and it takes many months to finish. My last piece was extremely detailed, and a bit annoying.

When I visited home, my mom had it framed and it looks amazing. I forgot my camera, and all I had were photos of it I took right after my last lesson.

Acrylic paint. I tried watercolor at first, but it ended in failure. Ever since I was a young kid, I always hated watercolor painting. Thankfully after the change, I was able to complete this. :)

Living on my Own...

I have settled in reletively fine. Even though I never had siblings, my roommate and I get along pretty well. We snark, bicker, joke around, all that fun stuff.

The puppy hates waking up, shit happens, and the bed is unmade.
A perfect morning sight! 

Our room is evenly separated so we each have our own side. Sadly, though, things can get... messy. My side is presentable enough, but sometimes its hard to enter the room sometimes, you know? She has a lot more things than I do and has a hard time finding a place to put everything. She tries to not let it get too out of control, so I don't let it bug me.

Food on the other hand... my roommate and I keep getting so much food because some people think we are starving and have no access to nutrition. And apparently some think I'm losing weight... so they give me Oreos. =_='

The only place where I can be sloppy.

Socially, I'm doing a lot better than I expected. No wonder people hate high school so much, college is so much better! I get along with a good number of the girls on my floor pretty well. I have several people to hang out with in case person A or B is in a meeting or is studying. While I've been pretty low-key with certain activities, I'm trying to stabilize everything that is manditory to my staying in the institution. Socialization always came second or third, and I keep it that way.

Nearly everyone I know loves this poster. It's got so much charm to it! 

"If you've got human chorionic gonadotropin in your system, produced by the newly forming placenta - well, by golly, you're knocked up!"

Still Obsessed with That Overrated Sci-Fi Drama?

ABSOLUTELY.

When I went home a few weeks ago, I quickly bought the Leviathan downloadable content and immediately played it. I was tired of waiting for it and I was completely satisfied. Since then, I have been rereading the Mass Effect wiki site's articles and discussion pages. Even TvTropes is an addicting wonderland, and it has a TON of ME notes and topics to read for HOURS.

These daily activities have made my PS3 withdrawal more unbearable.

Meanwhile, Mass Effect 2's soundtrack has been purchased from iTunes to my library recently, and I had ME3's free with the collector's edition of the game. Now, I'm thinking of buying an N7 sweatshirt from BioWare's website. Better get to it.

me wantz badly... $_@

You know how girls are obsessive with things like shoes or make-up and want a massive collection? That's me with scarves and sweatshirts (I have a HIM sweatshirt that's near the end of its life and a scarf.) You can never run out and they keep you warm. ^_^

Also... I am so psyched for the Mass Effect Trilogy. I can play ME1 on my PS3!! No need to tweak my computer!! XD

Pandora Has Yet Another Box

I made a separate Pandora account not too long ago, so I can experiment with different stations. You can only have about 100 stations, and my old account has somewhere between 50 and 60. As away for me to start from scratch, I've been trying out fun., a-ha, and a 90's pop station. Though "Some Nights" is an awesome song, fun. is just a "meh" band. Maybe it's because they have some association with Paramore, a band I happen to despise.

After being stuck with a bunch of different people for nearly two months, I'm starting to go back to things I enjoyed as a kid. Heck, we all pretty much feel like kids. My roommate was sick the other day and watched shows on the Disney Channel and The Lizzy McGuire Movie. Some of us bought stuffed animals, hoola-hoops, even *NYNSC CDs. Heck, I found a few people who actually liked Hillary Duff when they were younger! (This one admits to still liking her music... >.<)

There's one thing I have learned while here, this world is a lot smaller than I thought. o_O


Now, though, I have to go back to studying for my midterm exams. It's not fun. :/
But I am still alive, guys. I'm still alive... :)

Mini Shots: 'Mass Effect'

After spending all of July glued to the coach and oblivious to my blog's existence, I have returned and am as (in)sane as usual. By now I think I have nearly maxed out my fun with my presents so I can move on to college life and not cry myself to sleep. I simply enjoyed not having a life while it lasted.

But now I present some kind of material for the first time in a billion years!

It seems like it was only yesterday when gamers went insane for Mass Effect 3, only for all hopes and dreams to be crushed by the almighty power of EA. How could I have avoided any comments about this series? March was swamped by the fury of raging, homicidal fans crying "BETRAYAL!!!" This circus was too entertaining to avoid!


Alas, I'm a suicidal masochist.

After so many warnings, clearly I am an idiot.

*sigh* Here I am starting yet another collection of pointless merchandise for the sake of indulging my selfish desires. All I'm missing are T-shirts with quotes or running gags. The world warned me that I was putting myself in the same position as every other fan who got punk'd. Suddenly, money vanished from my pockets and all this crap landed on my doorstep.

All joking aside, there are a few things I want to address since anyone who sees the words "mass effect" will probe me with the same old questions. There is a crapload of stuff I could say about the franchise, so I have to severely restrict myself. This is NOT a review; that may not happen until everything sinks in for several months.

Mass Effect 1

This? A space opera? I have dismissed that claim!

Because Microsoft has always made devices that want to plant seeds of hatred in my disposition, I have never played the first game. However, I have been planning to set up my laptop so it can run like a PC so I might have a chance of playing it. It will take a while for me to get this set up, but I do plan to play it somewhere down the line.

Long before I bought ME2, I watched various people play this so I can better understand the plot, characters, politics, terminology, and all that other detailed stuff. Sadly, I have come to the conclusion that most Youtubers who uploaded their sessions have no damn clue how to edit out the dumbest mistakes they make. All these awkward let's plays and walkthroughs were long and torturous. Somehow I made it through... and vowed that I will play it so only I can see my first-time-player stupidity.

Obviously, I enjoyed it enough that I made it to this point, so the pain was worth it. It's only a shame the sequels released on the PS3 force me to miss out on some of the overly-long gags from the first game's side missions.

Mass Effect 2

I love these misfits... well, all but three.

The game that picked up so many perfect scores that Fangirl should be furious at such insanity! Well, yes, it is outrageous that Mass Effect 2 received as much ass-kissing as it got. To be honest, it has some technical issues that rub me the wrong way. (i.e. Sonic 06 has shorter and far less annoying loading times. Let that sink in for a moment.) It didn't change the fact that the game is ridiculously fun. It may be like a "filler episode", but I came to like nearly all of the 12 squadmates I recruited. Since this game gave me the time to get to really know the characters, this narrative was extremely satisfying in the long term.

Getting used to the controls, however, was not fun. Fangirl has now caught up with the times and has learned how to play a shooter. Yay. =_=

Mass Effect 3

The giant space cthulhus have arrived!!

Better controls, better conversations, better graphics, better load times, and a great experience... until the last twenty minutes of the game.

This is far more polished than its brother, while getting back on the same track in terms of tone and narrative as the first game. Everything was so well done that I cried just as hard as when I watched Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. I was a sobbing baby for 34 hours and I regret none of it. After all of this, I can happily say that the Mass Effect trilogy finally got me to appreciate role-playing games. The only problem is to find another RPG to care about... with an ending that doesn't cause an internet wildfire.

The Ending(s) [or lack thereof... kind of]

No, you little punk. It was your fault Marauder Shields died!

This may get complicated....
**Spoiler Warning**

Heads up, everyone. Everything about the endings has some trace of BULLSHIT in it.

That one Destroy ending in which Commander Shepard takes half a breath before the screen turns black? Bullshit. Either commit to the character being dead or returning to the Normandy and high-fiving every one of those loyal misfits who stood by Shepard through hell and back. And just because it's the one ending where Shepard lives, that does not automatically mean it's the best ending.

None of the endings reflect upon the ideas discussed throughout the course of the trilogy? Bullshit. Destroy the Reapers? That was the reason why Shepard had to unite the galaxy. Control the Reapers? Cerberus and the Illusive Man obsessed about it. Synthesis of organic and synthetic life? Didn't Saren mention something about that in the first game? I would not argue that the ideas are ass pulls, but that the writing team poorly explained these ideas to create a cohesive and acceptable conclusion. (i.e. What is this "new genetic makeup" of all life in the Synthesis ending? Why do all artificial and virtual intelligences die with the Reapers in Destroy?)

Forcing a condition on someone against his or her will is what makes Synthesis and Control the worst choices. Uh, what? No matter which option you pick you either A) exterminate an entire race of beings, regardless of their morality, and/or B) force an entire new way of life on the galaxy. No matter the option, you are playing god, forcing your will upon every living thing in the galaxy. Free will is completely ignored. This argument is absurd.

The creators cannot coexist peacefully with the created? Well, if you, like some players, busted your butt to end the quarian-geth subplot without one group or the other facing extinction head-first... uh, bullshit. Even with the Extended Cut, it would have been so nice if Shepard would point out that he/she did manage to resolve that conflict. Instead, the game treats it as if that whole incident never happened. Nice.

The Indoctrination Theory is the only reasonable explanation for the plotholes. Bullshit. After all the horrible crap he/she goes through, I have no problem believing that Shepard may have had hallucinations. But when people take this "it was all a dream" theory as the best possible explanation for everything that happened in the ending, this spells laziness. I would rather take the contrived, forced writing behind the Catalyst's epic logic fail than to say, "The Reapers were screwing with you in this messed up dream!"

Before I get a ton of hate messages, I'll stop. As for the Refusal... you were given the chance to beat the Reapers and you blew it. Enough said.

On the bright side though, the Extended Cut brings the emotional closure that many fans have been crying over the most. I installed it right before I started playing Mass Effect 3 and I am a happy camper. Despite the endings being confusing and frustrating if you think too much, I can happily say this did not desecrate my overall love of this series. Maybe it's because I already knew how the endings went so  the punch to the gut was nowhere as intense as I originally feared.

Extras

Critical research fail.

I have been reading Revelation, Ascension, and Retribution. Since the author was one of the major writers for the first two games, I figured I would enjoy the supplementary material. And I am very muchly. So much so that I shall avoid Deception because that new author fails at RESEARCH.

Comics are not really my cup of tea, so I have not checked out the other spin-off stuff.

I look forward to the Paragon Lost anime coming out later this year. As for the live-action film that's in the early stages... this better not suck. The fanbase is pretty rabid, and video game adaptations tend to be badly received. This better not be a disaster or else the Mass Effect fans will be no better than the Silent Hill fans in my eyes. There are enough nitpicky purists out there. 

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It will be a long time until I review any of these. Who knows? Maybe Mass Effect will be a flash-in-the-pan obsession of mine and I won't give a crap in three months.

At the very least I'll say one last thing. Mass Effect 2 is better than 3 in terms of story, and 3 is better than 2 in terms of gameplay.

....

Oh... and FemShep for the win. ^_^

July 2012 Update

I have been pretty silent lately because of my PS3. Lame excuse, I know. Since I refuse to take it with me to college until I am sure it will not be stolen by cheap morons, I want to treasure it as much as possible. So far, it's a really fun system and a billion times better than my PS2. The last thing I want to do is ramble on about my every opinion of the video game industry in a quick update post, so I may save it for later... along with the 70+ drafts waiting for my edits.

Forget Radical Train! Crisis City = un-####ING-controllable

Being a loyal fan, I made sure to play a Sonic game. Sonic Generations is so addictive and extremely nostalgic that it is a good enough reason for me to keep a console of this dying generation. After Sonic Heroes and Sonic Unleashed infuriated me to the point that I refused to beat them, this truly made me fall in love with the blue blur again. I easily spent three hours a day playing the mini games alone. Then I spent $17.00 on Sonic '06 and dared myself to beat it before I head off to college. To this very post I only completed 50% of Sonic's story before I pulled out my hair, threw my couch out the window, and cried myself to sleep. So much energy poorly channeled...

While on that went on, I tried to keep myself somewhat openminded. Assassin's Creed: Revelations and Dragon Age: Origins reminded me that I am no longer a child who cannot play anything above the T rating. The former game is so fun that I am excited for Assassin's Creed 3 this fall. The latter is so fun that I am scared for its mixed bag of a sequel. But that's nothing next to that OTHER controversial RPG.

Sonic Generations has collected dust for a few weeks because I've been playing Mass Effect 2 until it 3am most days. Once I heard about the new free downloadable content for the final installment that "fixes" the ending, I told myself to finally give the series a shot. So many hours of my life have been wasted. I regret little of it. Now that I have ME3, I can stop biting my nails, finish playing the series, and start writing more posts again.

In non-video game related stuff, my movie-going spirit has been at its all-time low with the abysmal Prometheus and the awkwardly executed Brave. Not to mention, The Dark Knight Rises is right around the corner, waiting for me to bite my thumb at everyone who throws praise at that overrated cash cow. Thankfully The Amazing Spiderman... was amazing, except 3D still sucks.

My music hunt has been pretty weak as well. My favorite acts either have no new content or are working on them, so I am left to find other bands to check out. Since electronic music is still my big craving, lately I've been considering checking out Julien-K and Kaya or diving deeper into Apoptygma Berzerk. Hell, if I'm desperate I'll try out Skrillex.

While in an indecisive phase, I'll look into my library and see what I can review for the sake of this blog. But, must... save Earth... from Reapers...  ... I need medical attention. T-T

What did I get myself into?

Fangirl's Mini Shots: Sonic Games

Because I can never seem to have any organized thoughts about a particular series of... anything, why not I do so now? With that darned blue hedgehog still in my mind I might as well make my opinion of certain aspects of the Sonic franchise. It might clear up some of the mess from a crappy review made this year, as well as set up any later reviews or rants. When it comes to Rants From a Fangirl, I have no clue where the heck my mind will wander next month. @_@

Just as a quick note, I hopped on the Sonic bandwagon right before Sonic Heroes in 2004. Therefore I am more familiar with "modern Sonic" and the gang.

With that out of the way... begin:

It took skill to save all the critters from the evil Eggman!

It's pretty embarrassing to be a casual fan but have never played the game that started it all. (The mini game version in Sonic Adventure does not count.) And as an owner of a Gamecube, I have no excuse to not buy Sonic Mega Collection. Better dash to it!

Sonic and pals at one of their happiest and finest!

Yay, the game that marked the beginning of the 3D era! Supposedly it's the only one handled right. Character-wise, this is absolutely true: Adventure made me fall in love with the cast. Gameplay-wise, this is the most memorable, albeit slightly dated.

Back when the reflection was not solely a piece of reusable "fanservice."

Being the first Sonic game I ever played, Adventure 2 is tightly knit to my heart. The addictive Chao Gardens, the awesome soundtrack, and Shadow. ...Okay, the Fangirl confesses: it was just Shadow and his story. Still, this was just as fun as its elder brother, even if the gameplay was polarized and split into three styles. These were my good old days...

And thus the bullcrap continues to pile up...

Love to hate it and hate to love it. The only game in this series I have lost all interest to beat. Everything is a humongous pile of "meh." Some cool new characters were thrown in, but severely underused. The gameplay was so repetitive I wanted to throw my controller at my TV. And poor amnesiac Shadow forgot to die. I call bull.

THE "SERIOUS BUSINESS" ATTITUDE IS OVER 9000!!!
That joke's so old...

Say hello to the unkempt black sheep no one will ever stop bitching about. I freaking love Shadow the Hedgehog for the amazing variety in level designs, soundtrack, and storylines (think somewhat-kinda on the lines of Higurashi.) Sadly I cannot defend how the execution was confusing and messy. Even though I now think it would have been fine if Shadow died in SA2, this game gave his story a satisfying resolution. This was the last time a Sonic character ever had decent development though. *sad*

Another hedgehog with a human friend? REALLY?!

Four words: HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN?! Glitchy, stupid, buggy, sloppy, glitchy, insulting, broken, pretentious, glitchy, and depressing. It's pretty damn sad that Sonic is the most useless and incompetent part of this game. He pretty much lets his human-phobic rival and a telekinetic kid be the true heroes! The only good thing? "Dreams of an Absolution."

Did I forget to say this game is glitchy? And Elise? REALLY?! Even Maria wasn't as pointless!

Day + speed - entertainment = BAD.

Sonic Unleashed is yet another hair-and-spike-ball of "meh." Say goodbye to whatever made the 3D games likable. This is the Eat Me, Drink Me of the Sonic games: a degraded, disappointing model of what was decent. The 2D gameplay fails to impress and the Daytime stages are mind-numbingly boring. At least the Nighttime stages gave me the chance to let out my frustration! The Warehog - though a stupid concept - was actually fun!

Yet another adventure to stop Baldy McNosehair...
by saving alien critters!

A much better effort to appeal to the classics, but still missed the mark. The music is a bit too cookie-cutter and repetitive, even for very polished, electronic pop. But... so... pwetty... @o@ The dialogue in the Wii version is so hilarious I cried many times. AND NEW VOICE ACTORS! *waves goodbye to 4Kids cast*

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Now that you're all tired out from this topic...

SOMETHING UNRELATED!!!

You're welcome.

"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!

'Shadow the Hedgehog'

Looks like I'll review anything... inconsistent me...

(CREDIT: due to SEGA and Sonic Team...)

RANK: 3 out of 5 <-- Underwhelming, Easy, but Entertaining

Alongside the various other franchises and series I invest in, Sonic the Hedgehog is definitely one of them... kinda. I confess that I only have played four games thanks to the Nintendo Wii and have watched Sonic X. Yeah... I'm watching it in Japanese right now instead of the English dub... my cool points are severely plummeting... Besides that, I barely dived into half of what the franchise has offered. Well, there's watching people play the games on Youtube for that...

This was the last Sonic game in the main series I played, and it's unfortunate that my experience ended as it did. It's not just because every other game was for the latest generation of game systems; this game was just a really awesomely designed bag full of mixed candy with a flimsy string to tie it shut. Shadow the Hedgehog looks good, but the quality of its content is all over the map and the final package is not very satisfying.

First, the visuals are generally good, depending on what you're looking at. As someone who generally likes darker art styles, Shadow the Hedgehog has a beautifully set tone of dark reds and blues with black. Yet the game is as colorful as every other game in the series, except Shadow held Sonic Team at gunpoint and demanded a darker color scheme to suit his game better.

Another praise goes to the six or seven, highly detailed cutscenes. Sadly, most of the cutscenes in Sonic games tend to be in-game graphics, and everything is generally shiny and simple. But at random times, some really great,-barely-realistic animation will play in a mini-movie, mostly for the "wow!" factor. And it's really beyond "wow." These cutscenes are the times when the character design is absolutely amazing, especially the humans, who generally look awful in-game. It's unfortunate that better care was not done to the design of the human characters. Poor Maria... in that one cutscene I was almost convinced that her design would be better than that in Sonic Adventure 2...

Gameplay is simply a "meh" in my book. Unlike most people, I had no issue with the guns and the vehicles (for the whiners about the motorcycle, it only appears in ONE STAGE) and I found them quite useful most times. The multiple paths and endings aspect of the game was a very interesting add-in, and I enjoyed it very much since I would not get bored too quickly. The only flaw in this is that some paths don't tell a decent story. In a way, it could have been better if the game was more like Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, where the player's focus on certain aspects can change cutscenes, character behavior, and endings. With that approach, Shadow the Hedgehog's plot could have been a deeper analysis of Shadow rediscovering his identity and lost memories as the Black Arms, Dr. Eggman, the military, or Sonic affect his mindset. But maybe I've been into far too many psychological stories to expect much from a game series about hedgehogs running fast and obtaining power to destroy the bad guy.

As for the music... catchy, fun, dark, badass. Fangirl likes the hard and industrial rock. Voice acting? Only two things must be said:
    1. 4Kids
    2. no, the VAs don't suck as bad as in Sonic X. They're... tolerable... unless Shadow is laughing manically.
And, the cursing? Shadow saying "damn" and "hell" is so conservative and lame; Sonic says "shit" all the time in Sonic X!

The biggest problem I had with this game was how EASY it was. As a really amateur gamer, it took me a year to beat Sonic Adventure and my friend and I spent over five to beat Sonic Adventure 2. Heck, I still haven't beaten Sonic Heroes (that's a mixed bag of turd for another day...) If a really slow, skittish gamer like myself beat this is less than a month and in the morning before I headed off to school, that shows your game is too easy. The biggest drawback from the multi-path option is not the potential inconsistent behavior Shadow will show, but how easy it is to avoid the hard levels. Yeah, I beat the game without even touching the Central City level, unlike previous games when you had to slave for hours to regather lives so you have over twenty chances to beat the level.

Might I also add that the ring system is laughable? Remember the days when you get hit once and you lose everything? In this, you get hit and lose TEN RINGS. At the end of playing, I would have all these lives to kill because it's impossible to die!

To be honest, when I look back on the game now, I see that it had more potential than the previous games. From my limited experience, Shadow was the character with an ongoing story, overlapping on each game in the main series since his debut in Adventure 2. This game could have been the chance to put more of an emphasis on telling a story and making the character very complex and developed as he has to find the answer to many questions fans had since the beginning. If it went on that route, this game might had to have been a spinoff, but I wouldn't care. Sadly, my favorite character got a more Sonic-ly generic gameplay with guns, cursing, and easy levels. Sadness...

This review is long enough, so I'll swiftly rate 3 out of 5 for a fun game with some underwhelming content. Play this for entertainment only; this would not be the first Sonic game to try out. But at least this isn't Sonic Free Riders or Sonic Unleashed... or '06. Their horrible reputations are worse...