I grade based on feeling and enjoyment. Meaning these are obviously subjective. I tend to find so-called "objective" views of things to be boring because I think one's enjoyment of something is based on a lot more than such strict things as the "rules of storytelling." It's how I can still enjoy some things even if they are ripe with many flaws.
I also only went down to "5" because I don't know what to say about anything lower than that. Once again it's based on my feeling and shows with scores lower than 5 are shows that I have no particular feeling about except that I felt they sucked on different levels.
5: These are shows I felt were just plain lame. They don't have much redeeming value and I found very little to enjoy in them. There may have been one or two enjoyable bits in them, but overall I'll just forget about them pretty quickly.
6: I found these shows to be decent...barely. They're a bit below-average and I probably thought the concept had potential but couldn't fully realize it. I didn't feel like I completely wasted my time watching these and might even watch a few of them again years down the road just to see if my opinion had changed (and sometimes it does).
7: These are shows I felt were good but nothing really special. Mostly average, maybe sometimes a bit above. I liked them but don't dwell on them and don't think about them very often.
8: These are the shows that have potential to be a favorite of mine. Not a "top" favorite, but a favorite nonetheless. These shows are often unique, or have very solid writing with great or interesting characters. They're not always the best but I thoroughly enjoyed them and would watch them again without a problem.
9: These shows are great! Many of my 9's find themselves into my list of top favorites. Gripping, interesting or fun storytelling, great characterization, often times the music and animation are top notch which add to the experience. An all-around excellent package that I can really sink my teeth into. These shows are always good to remind me why I became an anime fan.
10: I don't throw around 10's easily. 10's are special to me. Special in many ways. I consider them masterpieces for different reasons. No, they are not perfect. Nothing is perfect. But as I've said before, it's all about feeling. These shows give me a special feeling. I've found myself deeply connected to the characters and the story and just about every other aspect of the show that you can imagine. Some of these may flawed, but I've found myself so gripped that I easily brush them off, or I may even come to like some of said flaws. But that's the power of a 10. It switches me over into a whole new level of enjoyment.
Video of the Moment
Rose of Versailles OP
This show rocks. Ah... Oscar... Oscar!!!
I was so dumbfounded by the hair dude I couldn't even bring it up, lmao. Very disturbing by the way, it'd be like suddenly seeing the Rock with tons of hair... that's hilarious stuff though, more proof that WCW royally kicked themselves in the ass with a lot of things. All they cared about were the oldies and idiot Goldberg. It's just funny how much the WWE took from them, wrestlers, etc, and turned that stuff around completely, they bitch slapped them -several- times I'd say.
Also, holy fuck Xenogears. It's getting ridiculous dude and I'm already at the point where I'm kind of hating it, because... when am I ever going to see an anime or another RPG at this level of storytelling? Man!
Just like Xenosaga, I'm loving just about every villian and side character. Grahf seems really awesome so far... probably still the most mysterious, since I still have no idea if anyone is pulling his strings or not. I just met Id and ... hmmm, yeah. This Krelian guy has popped up and backtalked the SOL-9000 (is that what those guys are called?) yet, I kind of get a sense he "thinks" he's above them... but maybe not. Ramsus is pretty cool, but I'm seeing what my friend said about Miang(?) playing a big role here. I like her usual interactions with Grahf. Above all, I am REALLY wanting to know what's behind Citan and Emperor Cain... especially with that scene when Cain was talking to the SOL-9000, and they kind of seemed to question him a bit. Wiseman is also cool, not sure whom he/she is... also there was that one masked chick talking to Kaiser Sigmund awhile back.
I just can't comprehand how epic it's going to be finally taking some of these characters on, or seeing many of them unmask themselves or learn more about them.
I'm about to go to the Babel Tower. I know my friend hyped this part up a bit and all the stuff before lately has been really cool with the Reapers, Ethos, Billy story, etc. His father is so badass.
I'm about 25 hours in, so it's kind of crazy to know I'm only about halfway through according to most when it sounds like a 50-60 hour game. I admittedly have been using a FAQ here and there and am kind of blasting through (the story , I must know it!), but I can see myself slowing down later on and taking my time a bit more. Is this a game where you can grind and master your characters later on? I hope so, the gameplay is so damn awesome.
Sweet, yeah I'll add you whenever I get back on. I'm actually thinking of maybe buying MW2 via amazon... I've never done that before and it sounds risky, but I'm seeing "Release-Date Delivery" and they've also got a $20 bonus if you buy it which is really nice. I might try that.
Well that's good to hear BC2 comes out later, I was afraid they were coming out close together and it would've been tough to decide which one to play. If I remember right there were just a few things about BC that I had to adjust too and vice versa, so they were slightly different when playing back to back.
Halo games... yeah I'm with you, they're just really overated when it comes to online. I dug 3 for a long time but quickly got over it once I got into CoD4 (not to mention CoD4 made Halo 3 look several years older, when they were just a month or two apart). But I still love the campaigns myself, that's actually the only reason I'm interested in playing ODST sometime since I hear some people say it's even better than 2-3. I hear that one is VERY short though, which is a bummer. But I've been doing Gamefly so I'll just wait for it that way.
PS3? I don't own one, heh. 360 all the way! (multiplayer wise by far I'd say...)
I was never a huge CoD fan and it even took awhile for CoD4 to "click" for me, but fast forward a few years later... it was a game that literally kept me busy for months on end. Especially last year when I wasn't working, it felt like there were months where I'd play a few games every night, lol. I got to the final "Prestige", on the 360 version you can get to level 55 unlocking everything and whatnot (takes maybe a week of playing if you're good), then you can Prestige and reset it back to one for a new emblem, you can do this 10 times. I didn't really care for the Emblems or anything like that, but restarting with no guns and stuff kind of made it fun for me, unlocking stuff again was satisfying, etc. After two years I finally hit the 10th Prestige, it was pretty epic, hehe.
I was actually into Bad Company for a good while too. Wasn't BC2 coming out real soon though? I thought that was the case... I remember thinking it'd be a problem coming out so close to MW2, lol. But maybe I'm thinking of some other release date.
I like how both seem to have more snowy area's this time around, that'll be cool.
Though, I'm not sure how MW2 will exactly be, compared to Bad Company and games like that, MW was a lot more simplistic, smaller maps, faster paced, etc. But I loved both and they were pretty different. I also have decided I like class based FPS's nowadays, instead of shit like Halo where you got obsessed people who memorize where items are on the maps ... screw that, class based games seem way more balanced to an extent. I just like it a lot more. MW and BC definitely seemed similar in that area.
Hehe, well it did start a new arc so perhaps that's epic enough. Of all the shows I've left stalled though DB is the one I think about the most, even if I didn't get that far at all, I just know it's going to be awesome. I still want to clear up my list a bit, but yeah. I'll continue to stick with Dougram/Layzner whenever a new episode pops up though since that isn't too hard and both are still kicking ass.
Hmm, well I was telling Hisoka maybe I'd start Slam Dunk in November with him and his rewatch, but I don't know if that'll happen, lol. Not to mention Modern Warfare 2... haha (another reason why I want to hurry with Xenogears, but nonetheless at this point I don't think MW2 would be that big of a distraction from it since it's so good).
Heh, yeah. The main characters landed on Earth finally and then... they were instantly captured by the Soviet Union or something, it felt like I was watching Dougram all of a sudden. I guess it's building up to the civil war issue or whatever that I think has unpopular parallels to Japan's history.
Almost watched some DB, but I was too tired and just played more Xenogears, lol.
Oh and one thing that's really giving me chills, seeing the name "Abel" get thrown around. Because that was the childs name in Xenosaga III that looked exactly like a young Fei, so ... this could be very interesting. Or it'll just have a deeper meaning.
Oh and these Citan / Emperor scenes are fucking nuts, lol. It's so cool!
Funny, because that part was the first time I died too... I did exactly what you did, figured "Hey I'll fight all these guys and get extra stuff", that and I didn't really know about his 9-hit attack defense thing at first, so I got owned. lol
Now that you mention it... maybe he was in Xenosaga 1 or 2, but I dunno. Maybe not.
Also, now I know who your favorite character was! Hammer, right bro? ;)
(just beat Rico at the Tournament though, think I'll stop there for the night)
The dialogue and style of the game really does remind me a lot of Chrono Cross quite often. The pacing and the game itself is just really diverse, hardly straightforward like Final Fantasy's or whatever, I like that a lot. It's also one of the very few JRPG's that's somehow fun talking to random NPC's, I don't do that too often in most games after awhile.
Oh I also like those guys with Elly a lot. Dunno, they just feel like goofy enemy characters straight out of a Gundam series or something.
-The intro wasn't kidding when it said "alpha and omega." heh-
That just sounds ridiculously awesome.
All those scenes with Bart and the crew after the first time you fight that Val(huge name) guy and that red mech appears... holding up that ship, I seriously can't believe how often I'm getting chills from this game.
Also saw the first scene with all those alien-like guys with that circular thing... I have no idea what the hell is going on with them, but I think I faintly remember them now (more stuff I randomly saw when watching my friend play). If I remember right you end up seeing the huge Zohar statues talking too or something crazy like that (the gold emblems, save points, etc). I could be wrong though, but yeah. Those things played a pretty big role in Saga as well.
I'll keep talking as my adventure goes on, but yeah I imagine this is one of those games where others can't really say much when talking with others about it (you, etc), since it's such a crazy unpredictable story, you probably don't want to throw out hints or anything. Hehe.
Bah, bad timing with me putting it down I guess. I'll finish it someday!
Also, I have a feeling Xenogears is riddled with crazy twists and stuff. I just get this feeling I'm going to be shitting some major bricks quite often... if I can put it that way, lmao.
I stopped tonight at the part where Bart is going to overtake Shakken(?), right after Fei fought Elly after taking 'Drive'. Crazy stuff.
I asked my friend about how "big" Xenogears is physically and he said it all takes place on that planet, so that's something unique Xenosaga has since it's scope is WAY bigger, probably across several galaxies and stuff. I loved that, but Xenogears still feels huge itself so it's not really a complaint.
Yeah dude, after diving into the Xeno games it's making me think about how awesome the supernatural stuff was in Votoms and it makes me wonder how Shining Heresy is, the last unsubbed OVA out there right now. I hear that one is riddled with crazy religious stuff, so I wonder if it's a cool mix of science and religion like the Xeno games!
And yeah... two weeks of no anime for me now, wonder if I'll go a month too, lol.
Ring of Gundam could be cool, sounds like it'll be a movie more than anything else. I hope it gets a good budget (look at those Zeta movies... ugh) though and hopefully Tomino can come up with a good condensed story for two hours or whatever, lol.
