Benkyoo, benkyoo, benkyoo...
Not a pleasant week for me. Thursday, demo of my project and a presentation for the prof. Friday, homework assignment due (worth 20 of grade), Sunday research paper due, next Wednesday another research presentation. Blarg.
I found out that an old "rival" of mine got into an Ivy for graduate studies...a few years after coming out of undergrad. I must admit that I'm a tad bit jealous. I know I shouldn't be, but there's a part of me that wants me to never become complacent. To always think that I'm a little worse than someone else, so that I'll be more driven to doing what I feel like will make me a better person. I operate in strange ways, but it works.
I've got a huge headache right now due to the fact that I only got about 4 hours of sleep last night. But I think it's a good thing since I no longer can think and am very tempted to go to sleep before midnight. There hasn't been a night this semester where I've gone to sleep before 3am (regardless of daylight savings).
But my rant is damn apartment hunters and their damn brokers. So I will be moving out of my apartment in about a month and have already told my landlady. So, as the lease states, people are allowed to come in to look at the apartment. Since my landlady also has keys, she gives them to the apartment brokers to come check my domicle out when I'm not around. The problem is, they don't ring the damn doorbell before they open the door! I've seen the ad and it says that there's still someone living in here. They can come in, but try calling first. Well, not only do they not call me, they don't even knock. This morning, I was half asleep when I heard my door open and people come inside. Fuckers. Fortunately, I was sleeping in a "passed out" mode, a la still wearing yesterday's clothing, so at least I was dressed somewhat decently. But what the hell.
In another one of my procratinating fits, I decided to make this little toy to replace my desktop wallpapers. I've aptly named it "Aoi Desktop," where "Aoi" is the Japanese word for blue, although you can infer where I originally got at least some inspiration from.
Download the tiny MPEG video of Aoi Desktop in action!
Currently, it'll track where your mouse moves. You can click to set up "pulsars" which are points on the screen that'll automatically create a pulse to cause more rippling. You can move those pulsars around and remove them too. Rather simple and bland, but it's very hypnotic.
I just had who could be construde as the most embarassing event in my life, had there been other people around to witness it. I will not divulge the details but it involved using lysol for much of my bathroom.
Umm...the weather was nice today! The temp. reading was at a cozy 84 degrees. The strange thing is that it's going to be in the 40s tomorrow, or so says the weather report.
I haven't been doing much recently to warrant writing in 'scribbles. For the most part, I've been withering away in my little abode, almost doing nothing. Motivation to do anything besides reading manga and learning Japanese is at an all time low. I've got a ton of schoolwork to do (but fortunately, not due anytime soon)...however, I really don't care for it that much. Just one more month...
Oh, I think my LCD monitor on Desktop Sakura is failing. There's this vertical line running near the middle of the screen and is very apparent when solid colors are shown such as solid blue or green. Very annoying.
Despite having finished the game two, three days ago, I still can't get it out of my head. Withdrawl is kinda tough... However, I did manage to watch 4 of the 5 endings in FFX-2. Since I have saved games right before the last guy for the two times I played it, I was able to get all the permutations except for the "perfect" game. So here's the layout of all the endings (no spoilers as always):
Ending #1
It's just an extended "Game Over" sequence when the final boss beats you.
Ending #2 (play through game, any story completion percentage, no button press)
You get the normal ending FMV.
Ending #3 (play through game, below a certain percentage, and press button at right time)
A scene and then Ending #2.
Ending #4 (play through game, above certain percentage, and press button at right time and choose correct choice)
You get Ending #2 and then another scene. If you don't choose the correct choice, it becomes just Ending #2.
Ending #5 (play through game, get 100%, and press button at right time and choose correct choice)
You first get Ending #2 and then another scene, followed by another scene.
The first time I played, I got ending #2. Second time I played, I got ending #4. I spent the past few hours playing it to get ending #1, #2 and #4 without correct choice. I'd say that I like ending #4 best (with correct choice), but ending #3 is also meaningful in its own way. Unfortunately, I can't explain why else I'll ruin it.
I really wasn't comfortable with the ending I got last time with FFX-2, so I played it all over again these past few days and just finished it with the "better" ending. I'm type of person that need to have conclusions to things. If I don't finish something, then it'll drive me up the wall until I finish it. So I can finally lay the game to rest and I can get on with life.
Speaking of which, this is the list of what I've accumulated since I start playing the game a week and a half ago.
FIVE (US) DVDs: Rahxephon, Mahoromatic, X, Spring Special, and Fruits Basket.
FOUR (JAP) DVDs: SaiKano, Piano, Eva Test-Type, Someday's Dreams
SEVEN CDs: FFX-2 Vocal Single, FFX-2 BGM Single, FFX-2 OST, Piano OST, Someday's Dreamer Drama CD, Someday's Dreamer Ending Single, and Yui Horie "Ho?"
NINE Books: Nanaka 6/17 Vol. 7-9, Someday's Dreamer Vol. #2, Iro Hina #8, Someday's Dreamer Novel, Ai yori Aoshi Novel, and Azumanga Daioh Artbooks #1 & #2
FIVE Comics: Two issues of Shonen Magazine, two issues of Young Magazine and a Magazine Special.
I guess you can say I have a *tiny* backlog list.
Here's something I posted on a forum (took me a while to write up so I'll use it for a journal entry). NO SPOILERS, of course:
Well, I managed to finish the game yesterday after a nice weekend binging on FF goodness which included pulling the bed out in front of the TV and living like a real game junkie.
Gameplay: I think Square took the opinions from fans who said FFX was too linear and made this game mostly side quests. I don't mind these distractions, but there's just so many of them! At times, I got really fed up with it because I prefer to see plot advancement rather than playing trivial and time consuming games. The "Result Plate" system is unique, although I ended up using just one of them near the end because it got a bit tedious to find the most optimal combination. As mentioned previously, each "Result Plate" holds a certain number of slots for different dresses. Depending on the Result Plate you're wearing, you can change into any of the dresses you assign to it mid-game and each dress gives you a set of different skills. The dress system works pretty well since you don't lose a turn between switching. While the transitions between dresses look spectacular (there are about a dozen and a half dresses, each with its own transition), it's advised to have them turned off as they can get old pretty quickly. The battle system, unlike FFX, is time based rather than turn based. Whereas in FFX where order of action was pre-determined, this time, the enemy can keep attacking while you're thinking. It seemed a bit rushed for a somewhat slow readers of Japanese like me. But even with that, the game wasn't that difficult. There are some side quests where you battle insanely tough enemies (like the Weapons in FF7), but the final boss was a let down.
Graphics: As usual, Square shines through with the graphics. The characters during real-time play are themselves are a lot more detailed than previously and give them more emotions for the characters. One complaint I have though is that on quite a few occations, my PS2 slowed down to a crawl during battles with lots of action. Maybe the limits of the PS2 have been reached? Or just inefficient coding... As expected, the FMVs kick ass, that's all I'm going to say about that.
Story: There is a 15 minute prologue video that was on the "FFX International" version, and hopefully it'll be included in the US release since it sets the premises for this story. Despite all the criticisms about creating a sequel, I felt that there's a sense of nostalgia in visiting places from the previous game. You basically re-explore the world of Spira and see what's happened with the places and people. There are a few more dungeons here and there, but you pretty much travel to the same places as you did in FFX, nothing more. Besides the quasi-obnoxious side quests, the story is along the lines of previous FFs in that there are elements of love, friendship, and world destruction. For me, it went really slow for about the first half of the game, but there's an event that happened about half way through which brought the story together and finally make it a bit more interesting. However, there are multiple endings to the game, and I ended up getting what seemed like the normal ending. In order to get a better ending, you have to play more side quests to increase your "story completion" percentage. On top of that, since the story does branch out and I don't think you can get the "perfect" ending by just playing it once through.
Music: It's not Nobuo Uematsu this time but rather Noriko Matsueda and Takahito Eguchi. Even so, the music is on par with its predecessors. The background music for the different locations in Spira have changed from FFX. I simply love the main theme of the game, and having an acoustic version (see mini-discography below) was a real treat. J-Pop star Kumi Koda sings the two vocal themes to the song, both of which fit the feel of the story and the situation in which they were played during the game. The OST is only 2 CDs, but then again, the game is shorter than its predecessors.
(For those who are interesting in buying the CD: First off, they're all AVEX titles, so copy-protection galore. The recently released OST is LE and includes Rikku phone strap. It only contains the "TV Sized" versions of the two vocal theme songs, but contains an the full orchestral version of "1000 no Kotoba." For the regular length songs, you'd have to get the Kumi Koda "real Emotion" single or her album "Grow Into One." Her album is also a LE, and one of the LE bonuses is an "alternate orchestral version" of "1000 no Kotoba." Finally, there's the other FFX-2 single, "Kuon ~ Hikari no Nami no Kioku (Eternity ~ Memories of Light and Waves)" which contains the main theme of FFX-2 and 2 other BGMs with real instruments rather than the PS2 synthesized stuff on the OST)
So, it took me about 30 some hours to finish the first time, and that's including wandering around a lot and playing side quests. I'm a few hours into playing it the second time around in order to get another ending. Fortunately, you can "continue" your old game and start the new one with all your items, money, and accessories from the previous game. Needless to say that the second time around, the game is a lot simpler, but then again, I have to do more side quests (blarg).
Pending my second completion of the game, I'd have to rate it as above-average. The gameplay itself is fun, and has enough side games to keep anyone busy. The music and graphics are top-notch, as to be expected. However, what's most important is the story. There are very moving points in the story but it just seemed like it wasn't as deep as it could have been.
It's hard to be taken for a prank if you don't leave the house. I spent most of the day indoors playing FFX-2 (what's new...). I also finished the game today and went crazy after it ended because I knew that the ending I got was not the better ending (FFX-2 has multiple endings). I am very disturbed by it. However, on the second time around, you can view all the FMVs from the previous game, so I guess it's okay. If I get the better ending this time, I can keep the file and watch all of them.