Ikenai Taiyou
29 September 2007
Success! At long last I've finally completed Chains of Promathia! I've just got to wait until 4pm tomorrow, finish my cut-scenes, and then I'll get the Rajas Ring I've been longing for for over two years. I can't believe we've actually done it. It's been a very long, hard and occasionally frustrating road but we've done it. I didn't even know we were attempting the last mission again tonight. Friday night is usually for Assault but everyone must have agreed to do CoP instead. Probably a good idea since we got everyone through the mission except for one person. We'll redo 8-3 and 8-4 later when they've got time. The fight itself went more smoothly than previous attempts. It still didn't quite go exactly to plan though. Zansho and I had planned on opening the fight with a Darkness skillchain but as luck would have it, I missed my Gekko. Then when Zansho used Hundred Fists, half of it was cancelled out by Promathia's stupid physical damage nullifying shield. I tried to use my Meikyo Shisui to make a Light skillchain but for some reason I didn't connect Yukikaze and Gekko. Ended up with a Fusion skillchain from Gekko to Kasha. Still, everyone did good and we ended up winning with only me dead at the end. It's going to be very nice to pick up my Rajas tomorrow! Yatta!
Posted byHocchan at 5:49 am 0 comments
Anata Ga Watashi Ni Kureta Mono
25 September 2007
I've been feeling absolutely crappy today. I think I've caught a cold from all the wind and rain in the mornings. I've been suffering from a headache, dizzy spells and muscle cramps. It's been rather horrible. I hope it doesn't last too long. I can't stand being ill. It's not all bad though. Since I'm staying home for a couple of days I decided to download a new drama to watch. We're getting on towards the end of the current season of dramas in Japan so now is a good time to start watching one. Most of the fan subs should have been done by now so there's no waiting between episodes. That's good because the drama I've started watching is extremely enjoyable. It's called 'Hanazakari No Kimi-tachi E' and it's about Ashiya Mizuki who pretends to be a boy in order to enter a school that Sano Izumi (a high jumper she admires) attends. The plot is highly improbable and totally unbelievable but it doesn't stop this drama from being superbly entertaining.
It stars Horikita Maki of 'Teppan Shoujo Akane' fame (a series I really should finish watching). Quite amazingly it also features a cameo by Matsuda Seiko as the school principal! In case you didn't know she's only the most famous female idol of the 80s and 90s. She held the record for the most number one singles (25) in Japan until very recently. I didn't realise it was her at first. I only knew that I'd seen that face somewhere before. It wasn't until 40 mins in that it finally clicked /laugh. She doesn't feature much in the plot but it's still a nice surprise. The rest of the cast performs admirably. I still haven't put names to faces yet but there are a few people I recognise. Oguri Shun as Sano Izumi and Ishigaki Yuma as Tennouji Megumi are a couple I can mention. The first episode is an enjoyable affair that introduces everyone and sets up what looks to be an interesting series. It's packed full of funny moments, very much like Proposal Daisakusen and Gokusen. I'm seriously looking forward to the rest of this drama. Perhaps this cold was a blessing in disguise /laugh.
Posted byHocchan at 9:00 pm 0 comments
I'm So Sorry! Please Forgive Me!
23 September 2007
I've only just gone and committed the biggest sin of mankind! I can't believe I was so stupid. Someone should come and slap me around the face with a fish. What mistake did I make? Well, like a typical male I went forgot the birthday of my most favourite person in the whole world. That's right, you guessed it. Horie Yui's 32nd birthday was on the 20th September and it totally slipped my mind. Some fan I am!! I should be ashamed. Gomen nasai Horie Yui-san! Yurushite onegai shimasu! I hope she had a brilliant day and received some nice presents (like maybe a new contract for another five solo albums). I definitely won't be forgetting it next year. I may even attempt to send a card to her via the fan club /laugh. I'm surprised there hasn't been anything about it on her official website though. I think that was the case last year too. Very odd... Still, I can't make excuses. I know it's a few days late but...
HAPPY BIRTHDAY YUI!!! O-TANJOUBI OMEDETOU GOZAIMASHITA!!!
Posted byHocchan at 8:54 pm 1 comments
Jajauma Paradise
A few days ago I received the copy of Magna Carta that I bought from eBay. The delivery was amazingly quick and it was packaged in a proper Jiffy bag. This isn't your average, cheap and tacky padded envelope, no. This thing is built like a tank! An African Lion would have trouble tearing this thing apart. But enough about the envelope. The game that was contained within was in excellent condition. There was hardly a scratch on the case's plastic cover, the manual was as new and the disc was perfect. Now that's what you call mint condition. I've played about an hour of the story so far. At first I wasn't very keen on the game. The graphics are fairly average and the character animations are a little on the amateur side. I was also very displeased with the English voice acting. The opening song was also re-dubbed in English which sounds terrible and doesn't fit with the opening sequence at all. The biggest blasphemy they've committed is removing Horie Yui's voice from Rith (or Reith as they've incorrectly called her in the game). That I will never forgive. However, after playing it a bit more and getting used to the odd battle system, it's starting to grow on me. I'm determined not to pass judgement until I'm at least 10 hours into the story. It might turn out to be a decent game, you never know.
Posted byHocchan at 8:30 pm 0 comments
Ima Sugu Kiss Me
17 September 2007
Gomen gomen! It seems like I've fallen back into the terrible habit of irregular and infrequent updating. It's largely because I haven't had much energy to write any new posts lately. There are various reasons for this but mainly it's to do with Final Fantasy XI. Since the last post I've managed to get my Ochimusha Kote from Mee Deggi. It took me whopping twenty-two attempts in the end. I'm just glad that ordeal is finally over. I even managed to get an Empress Hairpin a few days ago so my Monk is really well equipped now. It's just a shame that I don't really have the time to level it right now /laugh. Been too busy with Chains of Promathia missions. Speaking of those, they're progressing really well. It was really frustrating to try and get past 6-4 (people not honouring their commitments really pissed me off), but we managed it in the end. We even defeated Tenzen with relative ease and was rewarded with access to Lumoria, otherwise known as 'Sea'. This area is really cool and reminds me of Panzer Dragoon a lot. The landscape is largely made up of vast plains of water which you can walk on. We've only got one more chapter to complete before we reach the end of CoP and the legendary Rajas Ring. I never thought I'd ever get chance to receive one of those. It really can't come soon enough.
In other news, I've bought a couple of new games for the Playstation 2. Yes, I know I still have Valkyrie Profile to complete but I couldn't help myself. The first game is the Japanese version of Ar Tonelico. It's a really nice looking RPG that sounds like it'll be a lot of fun to play. It was released in the USA earlier this year. Unfortunately, for some retarded reason, it's out of print already. That's why I've had to buy the Japanese language version. I also bought Magna Carta from eBay. This RPG I had known about for a long time simply because Horie Yui voiced the female lead character in the original release. As luck would have it though, the US and UK versions have some crappy English dubbing (I SERIOUSLY wish they would put both vocal tracks in games) so I won't get to hear Yui. "Come on you bar-stard!". What the hell is with English localisations? The dubbing almost always sucks big piles of crap compared to the original. Listen to me, LEAVE THE DUBBING ALONE!!! Bloody people...
I've been sent on another work placement by Jobcentre Plus, only this time it will be for 13 weeks. Well, they haven't actually sent me anywhere yet. Today was my first day and I largely sat around doing nothing for the whole day. The group I'm in this time is also largely made up of people I really would not like to mix with. I really hope training centre will sort out an employer for me soon. I don't want to be there any longer than is necessary.
Posted byHocchan at 8:33 pm 1 comments
Ai No Fune
06 September 2007
Frustrating and also potentially exciting times right now in Final Fantasy XI. First of all, I've been camping a lot of Notorious Monsters to try and get some good pieces of equipment for my Monk. That's easier said than done, however, as most of the NMs are heavily contested by other people. As a result it's been a lot of hard work and wasted hours spent staring at the screen. It started off with the quest for Brown Belt which I completed a couple of days ago. This involved camping an NM that only spawned once every 21-24 hours in real time. The only way to claim this NM is to either get very lucky and arrive when it's spawning (highly unlikely), or find out when it last died. By finding it's 'Time of Death' you've got a rough idea of when it'll next appear. This is exactly what I did and it worked pretty well. I still lost the claim the first time I was there, but the next day there wasn't any competition so the NM was all mine. Took the items back to the NPC and was awarded with my Brown Belt. It's a nice piece of equipment for Monk, even at level 75. I doubt I'll ever sell it after all the work and time that's gone into getting it. As for the Black Belt... I don't think so! /laugh
Once that had been completed it was onto the next set of NMs at Castle Oztroja. Those being Quu Domi the Gallant (for Sarutobi Kyahan) and Mee Deggi the Punisher (for Ochimusha Kote). Both of these NMs have notoriously bad drop rates (no pun intended). I must have got very lucky with the Kyahan because I only needed to kill the NM twice before they dropped. The Kote, however, I still haven't managed to get after 18 tries. Considering this NM only spawns every 1-2 hours, that's a lot of time wasted. Some of my friends have very kindly offered to help me camp Mee Deggi which has kept my resolve intact. It'll be a very frustrating time until I get those Kote, so I'm hoping it won't be too long until they finally drop.
On 11th September there'll be another FFXI update arriving. This one will introduce 'The Pit' into the game. The premise is very similar to that of Pokemon. You 'catch' various monsters from around Vana'diel and use them to battle other players' in an arena. I'm very excited at the prospect of this. Tuesday can't come soon enough!
Posted byHocchan at 9:38 pm 1 comments
