star
ocean
the last hope:

+ probably the best looking environments i've seen in a jrpg to date. the graphics are beautiful.
+ battle system is fun. learning abilities and raising attributes are rather simple and not necessarily innovative, but it's still engaging enough to be satisfying.
+ i like dictionary and just the amount of content in this game. from battle trophies to quests. adds depth.

- horrible as fuck camera controls. it's worse than FFXII's camera. it's not a fully rotational camera. you basically get to move the camera left and right, while up and down just zooms in and out of your character. it's pretty annoying since the size and detail of the environments would have better suited a fully rotational cam.
- the dialouge is bad and the english voice acting is worse. it's as bad as you've heard.
- this one is nitpicky, but i'm not a fan of battle introdutions and outros. it's not as bad as FFVIII or IX's lengthy battle intros, but it's pretty long for this day in age.

i'm enjoying the game so far though. it's not outstanding or anything, but it's pretty good.

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 ~Ichimonji's Videogame Collection~

I just beat Resident Evil 5 today, and it's pretty awesome. Here are some short thoughts:

Co-op definitely makes the game. RE5 was basically created for co-op, so don't expect your experience to be that great in single player. But to each his own.

Teamwork is a large factor in this game. I'd recommend either playing with a friend or playing with someone who has mic support. I don't even understand how some of the events in the game would even be fun in single player.

The first half of the game is horror, and the second half is pretty much a shooter once all of the Majini get guns.

RE5 seems to have borrowed quite a bit of material from Gears of War 2, yet oddly feels more like Uncharted in execution.

Why is Jill blonde?

Normal difficultly isn't that tough, we (my friend and I) should have started on veteran.

Not being able to run and gun is suprisingly not annoying. I thought I would be so frustrated by this but it seems to work out for RE5.

Much more fun than RE4 imo. Although, RE4 felt more like resident evil. RE5 doesn't at all feel like resident evil, but it's still fun.

Sheva is a horrible character.

If you've beaten all resident evils up to this point, you probably know what role the rocket launcher will play in this one.

All in all, I thought it was really good. It seems to be confused about what genre of game it wants to be, since it's not quite a shooter and not quite survival horror, but it's amazingly enjoyable playing RE5 in co-op mode so it's all good.

***
 ~Ichimonji's Videogame Collection~

watchmen is amazing. i am in love with this movie. the end.

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 ~Ichimonji's Videogame Collection~

Obtained my first Platinum Trophy by way of Burnout Paradise. I'm happy.



***
 ~Ichimonji's Videogame Collection~

Persona 4 is my drug. It's a lot better than Persona 3, which is a hard game to top. It's pretty amazing; I'm addicted. Dare I say.. I think that I like these last two Persona games better than all five Suikodens. That's quite a bold statement for me to say, as Suikoden is in my top five favourite franchises. But yeah, it's amazing yet not without its flaws. There's about two hours of inactivity at the starting of the game. That's the longest intro for a videogame I've ever seen, and it caught me off guard. Here and there you get to control your protagonist for a few seconds, but you don't get to actually play the game for hours. It goes into usual Persona pacing afterwards (and then some), but man. Longest intro ever. Also, I dont know if I'm blind or not, but where does it show me what floor I'm on?  Because I'm not seeing it anywhere.

I would talk about the good points, but there's too many. They've basically refined the dungeon crawling and battle system into something much better, the story is ten times better, and so are the characters. Junpei will always be in my heart though. The life sim aspect of the game is better too, and there's so much more to do. From part-time jobs to whatever. More attributes, and personas, and everything. It's crazy. I could go on, but it's just better. That's the only word for it. Better.

I'm at June 13th right now. And bosses are fucking tough.


***
 ~Ichimonji's Videogame Collection~

Good job, Obama. Good job.

So, I'm back in good old Canada and I'm all settled in and stuff. There were some obvious complications with the ex that led me into returning eariler than I expected. But I did end up meeting up with Leanne before I left which was really cool. I didn't end up seeing Stu though, so :(. Well, I'm right back into creating reviews and stuff for Climb The Hill, so check those out if you want. It wont hurt to add CtH to your friends list too, right?

I bought Disgaea 3, Silent Hill 5, Sonic Chronicles, Hotel Dusk, Mega Man 9, and Braid upon returning which are all really good. With the exception of Sonic Chronicles. It's fun, but I thought it would be a lot better especially coming from Bioware. I really want LittleBIGplanet, so hopefully I'll pick that up later in the week. As well as like Tales of Vesperia and FFIV and those such games, but I have to take an extreme settle down in game buying though. But I haven't played a single videogame in four months, so what do you expect! :p. I also played Rock Band 2 with a bunch of friends which is really really fun. We had a full band going on. I played Bass, but would occasionally switch to guitar from time to time. We tried a bunch of combinations and ended up sticking with the best formation. Oh, and I played the demo for Valkyria Chronicles for PS3. The cutscenes and dialouge seem to be lacking, but the gameplay is interesting for a Strategy RPG title. Basically you set up your units and have a set amount of turns and etc like a normal SRPG, but you also get to move every unit in real time and actually aim and shoot enemies, so that's pretty cool. However, the characters were way to anime for me to believe that it's a 1930s European setting.

Casey and I recently started up our old save files of Rogue Galaxy the other day. For some reason I just randomly felt like playing Rogue Galaxy. You know, to give it another chance to win me over and whatnot. I also just felt like roaming around massive planets and battling stuff. But yeah, I think I'm pretty into it this time around. I might just end up finishing this game after all. Also, these holidays are going to be good for videogames with titles like Gears of War 2 and Persona 4 and such.

cool beans.

***
 ~Ichimonji's Videogame Collection~

Hey guys. Let me tell you what's happening with me. Well actually I'd like to start off by saying that The Dark Knight was fucking amazing. Heath Ledger rocked my socks off with that performance. The Joker totally stole the show. I'm still blown away by it. I watched it three times in the cinema. I loved it with all my might. My new favourite movie.

Anyway, I've been having a blast over here. I started out in South Yorkshire for training where I met loads of friends and just had an amazing time. Then I travelled over to Loggerheads, Wales for two months where the actual job took place. We basically got kids from all over the world and had to wake them up, go with them to activities and excursions, make sure they're happy, put them to bed and drop them off at the airport/train station when the week or two was up. It was pretty easy and we got to go like everywhere in the UK for extreme activities and shit. I went on the tallest Desender in the world, it was pretty nuts. I also partied like a crazy person for the duration of the time. And yes, I drank. A lot. So that endurance test ended the moment I reached the UK. So after it was all over at the end of august, a few of the guys and I took a trip to fucking SPAIN. That's right, Spain. Valencia. It was fucking amazing man. Spain is like the sweetest country I've ever been too. Everyone is so laid back there.

So where am I now? Well, what I didn't mention before was that during the job in Wales I met a girl who also worked there. Her name is Lauren, she's from Essex. So we hit it off almost immediately and started going out. Half way through the summer she asked me if I wanted to move in with her in Southampton when the job was over, and I agreed. So here I am in Southampton renting out a house with her. It was all perfect for a while, you know, love and starting a new life and shit. But now it's kind of taking its toll on me. I'm still searching for a new job, I havent got any callbacks yet, and I'm currently running on abosolutely no money. I left all my friends from camp, and I have no computer or any of my consoles; all I have is Lauren and this strange new place. I'm going a little crazy now. I need to find a new job so I can find friends and shit. I'm alone in this place. And since we're spending like all this time together we're getting on each other's nerves. And like I also haven't played a videogame since the beginning of july, and to my understanding, awesome games have been released like: Final Fantasy IV DS, Tales of Vesperia, Infinte Undiscovery, and Disgaea 3. Anyway, once I get a job again, everything will be better. However I'm most likely going to go back to Canada this year at some point. Maybe at Christmas holidays or earlier.

But yeah, all in all I've had an amazing time in the UK and in Spain. And it will definitely be an experience I'll never forget. I miss all you guys with a passion. I cant wait to talk to you all regularly again. I hope everyone is alright, and I want to hear all your drama. I'll get in contact soon. Later.

Well, I'm going to the UK on tuesday. I'll be arriving in England and once I'm there I'll be trained for a week. Then it turns out that the actual job will be taking place somewhere in Northern Wales. So I'll be around that area for the rest of the summer. I wish I had like the actual names of the places that I'll be staying for you guys, but I don't. I just know I'll be following around some guy and he's going to show me where I need to go. Anyway, in my recent Climb The Hill entry, I stated that I will not be bringing any of my consoles or my computer. This is because 1) I don't feel safe bringing a shit-load of expensive and heavy equipment with me to journey across the Atlantic Ocean, 2) I'm going to be moving around a lot and I don't know what my housing situation will be like, 3) I don't want anything to get stolen, see 2; and, 4) I probably won't have time for any of it really. However, I'll probably see stopping by some internet cafes or whatever to make sure that my emails don't expire, so there's that. And I want to get a laptop at some point. All is not lost. Oh, and I don't know how long I'll be there for. I know that I'm staying for sure at least until August 31st, but any time after that is up to me. If I like it up there, then I'll stay for the full year.

Anyway, in videogame news. Holy shit, Chrono Trigger is getting ported to the DS. I'm officially more excited for that than I am for FFIV DS. I've only ever played the Chrono Trigger port for the Playstation, and ever since I beat it, I've wanted to play through it again but I couldn't stand how slow the PS port was. So this is like crazy awesome, because I loved that game. Anything extra they throw in is a bonus. Oh and on the FFIV note, I'm not liking how it's looking more and more like FFIII DS down to a tee. I mean, even the font is exactly the same. Oh well, it's 3D and it has voice acting, so that's pretty crazy. I probably would have rathered if they remaked it like they did FF and FFII for the PSP though.

Mega Man 9 is coming out for the Wii Ware. I would have liked it if they created it in the style of Mega Man 8 or progressed upon that, rather than reverting back to 8-bit. So, I'm like yeeeeeeah. But we'll see what happens. I'm sure I'll like it. MMs 1-6 were awesome. Speaking comeback titles, Diablo III is coming out as well. That's actually pretty exciting. This is one game that I'm glad that they didn't tamper with too much to make it more WoWy. Although some would disagree with that ridiculous petition that going on. But I like it! So, cool beans. Also, the PS3 got that mega awesome update for trophies and in-game XMB, but it turned out to be not so awesome. When or if they get their shit together and have regular achievements and up the ante on their online services, I'm sure that I'll like the PS3 better than the 360. Because I already love the XMB a lot more than the Dashboard. I just needs me some achievements. However, the PS3 has MGS4 so that beats all.

I love podcasts. I've been addicted to gaming podcasts. That and Kotaku is how I get all my videogame information. Podcasts are an excellent information dump source. I can just upload them to my iPod and listen to them while I'm running around doing things. My favourite podcast websites are Giant Bomb and 1up. Hands down. Sometimes I'll listen to IGN, but they're formal and droll, so I can only take them in stride. There's probably more stuff to talk about, since a ton of videogame info has been released within the last couple of months, but that's all I can think of for now.

Anyway, yeah. I'll try and get to a computer somewhere up there and get in contact with you guys, and perhaps make an entry of my experiences while I'm there, but nothing's guaranteed. So, later guys. Have fun doing what you're doing. I'll hopefully talk to you soon. Bye!