AtaraxiaM's Blog

Thought I should make a list like this before I head off to college.

I am actually by no means a hardcore gamer and am only inclined to play PC strategies or old-school rpgs. Anyway, here's a list of arbitrary categorization.


RPGs
1. Chrono Trigger -- Not just the best rpg. Best game of all time in my estimation. There are so many great things about CT--double and triple techs, diverse and interesting characters, cliche but excellently executed story with some pleasant twists, new game plus for replayability, and occasional comedy (Dalton, woot).
But what really makes CT stand way higher above the rest is this: environment. This includes music, background setting, interaction with NPCs, etc. Whenever I play a game, environment is the most important factor for me; I want to be immersed in the game's world and be drawn to explore every corner, talk to every NPC.
CT, by its nature, needs to be to have a strong environment. Its a time travel game, and that premise alone offers much potential for worlds the player gets sucked into. What CT player, for example, didn't love the world of 600 AD--with its distinctive medieval feel and the song "Wind Song?" Who wasn't amazed by the Floating Continent with its majestic and mysterious theme song "Corridors of Time?" CT definitely hits the mark on environment--and in particular music. Not to mention, CT's ending (the balloon one) was the only video game ending that brought a tear to my eye.

2. Final Fantasy VI -- FFVI is actually the only FF game I've played, though I hope to change that fact soon. FFVI, too, has a solid plot (indeed, a game has to in order to appear on my rpg list). Strong songs as well (Nobuo Uematsu is my 2nd favorite vg music composer), and a very long story to keep you occupied for a week or two.
What makes FFVI distinct is twofold: the antagonist and the playable characters. Kefka is the best bad guy in any vg rpg. Period. Not only does he fit the bill for a bad guy as an effeminate, sick-minded, traitorous sadist, he actually makes good on his promise to destroy the world (unlike so many lesser rpg villains) and turns himself into a god! HE is outrageously funny, too, ("This is sickening. You all sound like chapters out of a self-help book!"), and he grows on you as much as you grow to hate him.
FFVI's other strength is characters. FFVI has a huge cast of playable characters (14, I think), but unlike other games (ahem Chrono Cross), most of the characters are well fleshed out an developed. What I love in particular is that several characters' struggles (all of which are unique) reflect themes that could be found in classic literature. Terra's development reflects the question of what it means to be human. Lock is all about redemption. Sabin and Edgar explore the dichotomy of responsibility and freedom. Shadow hides who he is from everybody, including himself. Cyan overcomes the ghosts of his past. Gau shows how even for a boy who grows up in the wilderness, family is still important. And so and and so forth.
The fact that FFVI could create a cast of characters with each one so well developed is an impressive accomplishment. Ergo, #2 on my list.

3. Chrono Cross -- As successor to CT, CC is rife with disappointments. No character carryover from CT. A cast of 48 playable characters of which only like 4 are well developed. An almost confusingly complex concept & plot, opposed to the simplicity of CT. Fewer double techs. Unsatisfying ending. Disappointment that Guile is not Magus. Etc.
Still, for all its shortcomings, CC is good--worthy enough for #3 on my list, at least. The concept of alternate dimensions is a nice contrast to CT's time travel. Characters are pretty cool, even if their developments suck (e.g. Glenn, Guile, Norris, Orlha, Janice). Fun plot twist (you play as the bad guy, huh?). Light-hearted humor contrasting with serious bouts of depression and confusion. And an excellent score, once again, with world influences (Yasunori Mitsuda is a genius).
CC's defining feature is the combat system. The introduction of elements is brilliant, imo, and that they are recharged after every battle means that you don't have to waste time keeping track of MP like in other rpgs. You can organize elements in an elemental tables with the element's position in the table being key to the element's power. I also think that the attack method is neat...3 attacks of varying strengths and accuracies, with each one charging your elements by a certain level.
CC is a fun play, but I'm not sure I want to call it a worthy successor to CT (can probably say the same about Radical Dreamers, too). For now, at least, we Chrono fans can just hope the team can get together again and produce Chrono Break.

Honorable Mentions: Super Mario RPG, Dungeon Siege, Skies of Arcadia, Pokemon


Strategy
Strategy is a hard call since you can't really compare American Civil War strategies to Roman Republic strategies to sci-fi strategies. Still, here's my best possible list.
1. Rome: Total War (Europa Barbarorum Mod) -- What can I say? I love Roman history, so when I started playing RTW 3 weeks ago, I was in love. Battles are ridiculously realistic, and the campaign map made planning and management so much more key. And then I downloaded the Europa Barbarorum mod, which made RTW more historically accurate. Not only are there more playable factions with a campaign map that expands from Spain to India, the units in battle actually speak in their native tongues. Meaning the Roman units speak in Latin, like "State hic!" or "Expugnate Istos!" Yes! There's also a whole trait system involved for each character, so you have to decide who would be good generals, governors, or mere subordinates....which makes for nice role play. Downside would be slow load times and laggy battles, but it's a small sacrifice for what you get.

2. Sid Meier's Civil War Collection -- Ah, one of my first loves. It's what turned me into an American Civil War buff for a good 3 years of my life, in fact. Gameplay is fairly simple yet fun, and the creation of alternative scenarios to the battles of Gettysburg and Antietam makes for intriguing "What if's" of the Civil War.

3. Shogun: Total War -- The first of the Total War series, STW is basically a downgrade of RTW, except it's Japanese samurai. I loved STW to death when I first started playing, but RTW stole my heart away.

Honorable Mention: Impossible Creatures -- This game was tight, albeit online (the single player story campaign sucked). Combine two creatures together (e.g. "Let's give a snake eagles' wings," or "Let's give a whale baboon arms and legs," or "Let's give a lobster a moose's head.") Create an army of these impossible creatures and match them against other players' unique armies.


Other
1. Super Smash Bros. -- I still think this series' concept--of taking popular video game characters and put them all in one game--is one of the most innovative ideas in recent video game history. It exposes players such as myself to games one might have never known before, but more importantly, it's a smash-load of fun, especially against other players. It's "family friendly" since there's no "killing," and I often find myself practicing before parties so I can demonstrate my predominance over others.

2. Medal of Honor: Allied Assault -- Copied Saving Private Ryan, yes. Doesn't stop it from being a good game, as it immerses you in the world of WWII and requires quite a bit of quick thinking. Theatrical effects, pretty decent AI, and one of the most nostalgic theme songs in games, it definitely is a good play.

3. Soul Calibur II -- Ok, ridic bounciness aside, SCII keeps you satisfied, especially if you are a completionist and need to get every character, stage, weapon, and bonus artwork. Fighting is standard, but I always liked Soul Calibur's story mode. Also this forever endeared Soul Calibur to my heart. And last but not least, Seung Mina.

4. Elite Beat Agents -- Dance to save the world. Classic oldies. This is a fun game to take on long airplane trips or bus rides.



My list is short, but I hope legit. 'Course, there are so many games I want to play--so many classics I'm almost ashamed I haven't gotten to yet. Here's a partial list of games I want to check out sometime or other: Zelda: Ocarina of Time, The World Ends with You, FFIV, FFVII, FFX, and WoW.

Joking about the last one.

Why the Long Hiatus? A few reasons.

1) Simply not much of an anime/manga fan anymore. Ironically, living in Japan for six weeks made me less of an anime fan. I think it's because I always dreamed of living Japanese life, and prior to my six week home stay in Japan, anime and manga was my way of vicariously living it. Now that I've experienced Japanese life by going to school there, helping prep for a festival, etc., there's really no point for me to watch as much anime and such. I only watch Nodame Cantabile and read manga sporadically now. Kinda more of a time killer than a hobby/passion.

2) I've been to Akihabara. Yeah. Bought little figurines of Rin and Saber and everything, AND I ate at a meido cafe. To me, that's the epitome of otakuness. I have nothing left to prove anymore.

3) School. I'm now a senior in high school, and I'm applying to rather competitive colleges. As such, my time has been wasted by college app essays and homework instead of anime.

4) "Seishun." It's my last year of high school, and probably the last year I'll be spending significant time in So Cal for quite a while, so I have been getting out more spending time with irl friends.

5) I've read a lot of shoujo. I now know how girls tick. Time to apply it to the real world. Oh fasho fasho. ;]

Sorry for making you all worry (if you did worry at all).
I don't really plan to be on here as much anymore, though I probably won't disappear entirely. I'll probably be on to talk to good internet friends. I don't care too much for anything else, quite frankly.

So yeah, I had another chance to write a Kino no Tabi fanfic for class, this time for Fourth Gospel (study of the Gospel of John). So you can expect this to be a religious allegory of sorts.
I'll start by saying that I'm not as satisfied with this fanfic as I was with my first one, and I had to rush the last third of the story or so. If you want to read a better (and shorter) fanfic, read this one.

Anyway, I wrote in the 1st person. I had fun getting into the mind of Kino (heh...;D)
Here it is:




He opened our eyes and saved us from death.

“We don’t get many travelers around here.”
A fat man with small eyes, decked in royal apparel, glared suspiciously at me from the tall counter.
I nodded. “Just passing through.”
The man continued to glare at me for a while before he finally turned away into the room behind him. “Very well. What did you want? Two loaves of bread, a canteen of water, and a gallon of gasoline?”
“Yes sir,” I answered promptly. The fat man disappeared into the room behind him, leaving me waiting quietly behind.
Unbuttoning my oversized tan traveler’s jacket a bit and taking off my pilots cap and worn goggles, I looked around the room. It was empty. The wood panels that comprised the floor and walls were extremely well polished, perhaps unnecessarily so. Pictures and certificates featuring portraits of the fat man decorated the wall; these, too, looked well polished. And despite the cleanliness of the room, the air was stuffy and heavy, and a certain despair and loneliness hovered over the room.
There was a small ringing, and the door at the entrance opened. I instinctively put my hand on the holster hidden underneath my jacket, ready to pull out a pistol. In entered a young man with ragged clothes. The man looked and smelled as if he hadn’t taken a bath for days. His hollow eyes were full of sadness. And yet he tried to smile when he saw me, and I relaxed my grip on my pistol.
The fat man re-entered the room and unceremoniously dumped a bag of supplies at my feet. I silently slid a few coins across the counter and picked up the bag to leave. Just before the door to the warehouse closed behind me, however, I caught a bit of the exchange between the fat man and the man in ragged clothes.
“You’re late again!” screeched the fat man.
“Forgive me, my lord. My daughter is sick and—“
“I’ll be canceling your family’s rations today.”
“But my lord! My family…”
I frowned as I let the door behind me slam shut.



It was hot.
I raced down the road smoothly and quickly on my motorcycle, as though I were carried by fleet-footed wings. All around me was a yellow wasteland, an endless sea of dead fields, devoid of any life. There was nothing—no trees, no crops, no animals. The dirt road, indicated by a rotting fence, was dusty and seemed seldom used. Up ahead, the setting sun painted the sky red, as though it were bleeding into the land.
This was the Land of Famine. I remembered citizens from the neighboring country telling me that. It had not rained for fifty years, and crops had been unable to grow for forty. The drought hit this country especially hard. It was a country based entirely on agriculture—families ran self-sufficient farms and paid a small tax to the ruling monarchy. Thus, when the famine struck, the country was left in utter carnage. Farmlands fell into disuse, families starved, and the monarchy fell. A company, which everyone simply called the Company, from a neighboring country eventually came to power. The Company, via connections from its home country, was able to provide the only food for the Land of Famine. And with the sole monopoly over food in a country that was starving, the Company could assert its demands anytime; the Company enslaved citizens who could not pay for food, enriching itself all the while. The common people were hopelessly dependent on the Company, and those who defied the Company simply starved. For the people, it was a pathetic existence.
I was now passing by another large warehouse, similar to the one I had just visited earlier. Around it was a disheveled array of tents that looked like they could do no real good against the elements. And in the midst of the tents, I saw people, though I wasn’t sure if they could be called human anymore. Their eyes were full of despair and sadness; there was no life in them. Men were lifting heavy crates, women were quickly tailoring cheap clothes, and all the while Company members in royal clothes barked orders at them and whipped them. I sighed as I drove on. It really was a pathetic existence.
The tents began to disappear, and the dead fields again dominated my sight. It was getting late; the sun was already halfway down the horizon. I was getting nervous; I didn’t want to sleep outside this night, especially out in this barren wasteland.
And then suddenly, unexpectedly the yellow wasteland turned into green fields. Suddenly there were trees, albeit few and far in between. Then these few trees turned into whole orchards. All around, the fields were no longer empty but full of wheat and corn. And there were houses, houses with their lights on; there were people living here. The sense of hopelessness no longer hung in the air.
Was this still the Land of Famine?
I felt confused but also too tired to think. I decided that I would ask one of the residents for a place to sleep.



I couldn’t believe my luck when I found myself enjoying dinner with a family in a homely farmhouse. After I took a bath, I told the eager children stories of my past travels—of the Land of Prophecies, of the Land of Immortality, and of several other lands. Afterwards, the father prepared a small cot in the kitchen corner for me to sleep. I thanked him, but there was one worry bothering me.
“Excuse me, sir,” I said just as he was about to blow out the candle. “May I ask….Isn’t this the Land of Famine? How are the lands here so fertile?”
The man beamed. “All of us here can only thank old man Inri.”
He saw the confusion on my face.
“Well,” he continued. “You know why our country is called the Land of Famine, correct?”
“Well enough,” I said.
“Before old man Inri came along, I was a slave to the Company just like everyone else. It was a horrible life. And worse yet, all of us accepted it. We passively followed everything the Company the commanded. We had no minds of our own….”
The father paused. “But then Inri came along. He opened our eyes and saved us from death. He made us realize the tyranny of the Company; he helped us step away from our lives of death.
“The Company before required us to purchase its wine. But then Inri told us that we no longer had to do this; he said he could teach us how to find our own water, how to make our own wine.”
The man smiled. “I’ll admit, I was one of his first followers; I believed in him. He taught me how to farm, even in a desolate land like this. I began telling my neighbors about Inri, and soon he became popular.
“And, well,” he shrugged, “we’re here now because of him.”
The man paused again. “You’re lucky you came tonight. Tomorrow is his birthday celebration. You’ll get to meet him.”
“I’ll look forward to it,” I smiled. “Thank you sir. And good night.”
The man blew out the candle, and darkness swallowed the room,



The next day was a festival indeed. There was music, delicious food, games. All the families from the surrounding farms came to celebrate. It immediately became apparent to me how much these people loved Inri, how much they owed to him. And in the course of the festivities, I learned more about the old farmer.
When Inri first began teaching others how to farm, the Company grew to despise him. Many slaves left the Company to follow Inri, but others, out of fear of the Company, decided to remain slaves. Inri helped those who followed him, but he also helped those who were too scared to follow him. One time, Inri gave a starving slave bread, but the slave, after eating the bread, proceeded to report Inri to the Company.



At the end of the day, I finally got to meet Inri. I never met a man radiating such kindness, such love. He thanked me for celebrating the festival with him, and he credited the people who followed him for the now fertile lands. Before we parted, he gave me a small sack of seeds as a gift.



I found myself the next day racing past the same barren wasteland I had seen before meeting Inri. That small land—the only fertile land in all of the Land of Famine—was far behind me now.
I soon was passing by yet another community of tents with people slaving around them. Instead of driving through, however, I stopped in the middle to watch the people. A family was walking by me towards another warehouse, probably to receive their ration of food for the day.
Seeing this family, I remembered the sack of seeds old man Inri had given me. I took the sack out of my pocket and looked at it for a long time. I thought about Inri, and everything he had done.
I threw the sack of seeds to the family and drove off back into the barren wasteland.

stolethisideafromkaruraandeazy let's move on

So. This blog has been long due for me. Ever since getting a last.fm account back in February, I've seen my musical tastes and my love for music grow in leaps and bounds. Music has become one of my primary passions in life, and I'm always looking for new stuff to listen to. Of course, my tastes wouldn't be what they are now if not for a few important people. So here's a shout-out to Vhien, Karura, and eazy.

In terms of favorite genres, my tastes are as eclectic as can be. (Indeed, one week the genres that were represented in my top 10 artists of the week included House, Hip Hop, J-Rock, Classical, Soul, Instrumental Remix, Pinoy Rock, Soundtrack, and 80's.) The only genre I find myself avoiding is death metal or anything of the sort that involves too much screaming. Just doesn't really appeal to me.


Anyway, tl;dr. On to the good stuff. The following artists I list are, of course, my favorites; I also list the general genre with which each artist is associated. The albums and songs, however, are not "favorites" per se, but rather albums or songs that I believe marked important turning points in the development of my musical tastes.

Artists:(kinda in order)
Japanese & Korean
m-flo (Hip Hop)
Crystal Kay (R&B)
Round Table featuring Nino (Pop)
Back-On (Rock)
Dreams Come True (Pop)
Cho PD (Hip Hop)
BoA (Pop)
Uverworld (Rock)
OreSkaBand (Ska)
June (Pop)

English
Rahsaan Patterson (Soul, R&B)
Bone Thugs-N-Harmony (Rap, Hip Hop)
Malcos (Instrumental, Remix)
John Legend (Soul, R&B)
Sugar Ray (Alternative)
Modjo (House)
Kanye West (Hip Hop)
Lupe Fiasco (Hip Hop)
Claude-Michel Schonberg - Les Miserable, Mis Saigon (Musical)
Switchfoot (Rock, Alternative)
Relient K (Punk, Rock)
Joe Jackson (Pop)

Other
Bamboo (Pinoy Rock, Jazz Rock)
Gotan Project (Tango)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Classical)

Anime/Drama/Game Soundtrack
Overclocked Remix
Misawa Yasuhiro - Gakuen Utopia Manabi Straight OST (BGM)
Taku Iwasaki - Gurren Lagann OST (BGM, hip hop, jazz, etc)
Hideki Naganuma - Ollie King OST, Jet Set Radio OST (Funk, Hip Hop, Electronic)
The Pillows - FLCL OST (J-Rock)
Haneoka Kei - Negima!? OST (BGM)
skankfunk - Air Gear OST (Hip Hop, Funk)
Kohei Tanaka - Top wo Nerae 2 (BGM)
Yoshihiro Ike - Nobuta wo Produce OST (BGM)
Toshio Masuda - Mushishi OST(BGM)

Albums(in the order of when I first encountered them)
mmhmm - Relient K
Baby Rock - Back-On
Cosmicolor - m-flo
My Day Needs a Soundtrack - Malcos
Light Peace Love - Bamboo
April - Round Table
And I Love You - Dreams Come True
Stardom in Future Flow - Cho PD
E. 1999 Eternal - Bone Thugs-N-Harmony
Modjo - Modjo
Get Lifted - John Legend
WAO - OreSkaBand
A Song For You - Bizzy Bone

Songs(in the order of when I first encountered them)
Gone - Switchfoot
Who I am Hates Who I've Been - Relient K
Every Morning - Sugar Ray
When It's Over - Sugar Ray
In the Light - DC Talk
Chance - Uverworld
Summer Time Love - Skoop on Somebody
Love Don't Cry - m-flo & Crystal Kay
Candy - Crystal Kay
Bamboo - Truth
Sure Boy - Rahsaan Patterson
Konna Chikaku de... - Cyrstal Kay
Nothing Doing (Lazy Sunday) - Malcos
Nakama - Misawa Yasuhiro
Gun's & Roses - Paradise Lunch
Straighten it Out - Rahsaan Patterson
Seishun to Shite - Manzo
Dancing All Night - Round Table featuring Nino
Flashing Lights - Kanye West
Tha Crossroads - Bone Thugs-N-Harmony
Hoshikuzu Namida - ACKO
Omae no XXX de Ten wo Tsuke! - Taku Iwasaki
Soul Free- Rahsaan Patterson
Resurrection (Paper, Paper) - Bone Thugs-n-Harmony
Password 486 - Younha
It Don't Have to Change - John Legend
Muddy Waters - Bizzy Bone


WOW THIS WAS LONG

I love the picture. x33