First Impression: Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories

So last night I was able to get Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories and I will say so far, so good! Though to be honest, I've only put in a total of about 5 hours so far and I've just gotten into Chapter 3. Yes, I know... that is why I put "First Impression" in the title. Blah... there I go forgetting about what I intended to write!

One thing I was definately afraid of was how it would play. I had played several other titles from Nippon Ichi (that came after the first Disgaea) and I just never could get into it. I was pleasently surprised to see that much of the gameplay hasn't changed to the point where it felt entirely new. It is also kind of cool to see how the spells and abilities from the original make a return and have been redone. Much of which looks pretty damn cool so far.

I'm also glad that some of the characters from the first game will at least make an appearance, those guys are just too crazy to forget. Also nice to see that the Prinnies have also come back... those exploding birds never get old...

Story wise, I don't know... it isn't as slap happy as the first game. I mean so far (from the 3 chapters I've seen), the characters have their moments but it doesn't really compair to say, Laharl and Etna's verbal exchanges. Does that make sense? I hope so because I doubt I'll explain this out the way I have it going in my head.

But that isn't to say that the characters in this game are any less interesting then those that appeared in the first game. The 2 pictured above is Adell and Rozalin, thrown together due to a botched attempt at summoning...... whoops.... don't want to spoil anything if (by some off chance) someone comes to read this and is planning on trying this game out.

One interesting change that I wish I knew about was the fact that to unlock a new job class, you have to go through the Dark Assembly. Had I known that, I probably could have saved myself a good hour or so...

Well anyway, that's my first impression on the game that potentially could steal away a many hours of my life. Ok maybe "many hours" isn't a good choice of wording for a matter such as this. I suppose it should be more along the lines of "100+ hours of your life will be drained away while leveling an army of characters).

Ok since that is all squared away... now to get back to playing!

Taking a Break from Vana'diel

I've been playing Final Fantasy XI for just a little over 2 years now. It's been an off and on sort of affair as far as this game is concerned, with this game being my very first experience with an online game. So there was a lot of learning to be done and it was a slow process... (very very slow lol).

My highest jobs is 62 Samurai, 61 White Mage and 57 Black Mage. No level 75 jobs? Yeah, I never quite made it to the end like so many have. Ultimately though, I tried to care to reach that high up in level but never could keep myself convinced that I really needed to get there.

To the right is an old picture of my Samurai, his name is Alexandor. He is an Elvaan from the nation of San d'Oria.

When I first started out, I was so sure that I wanted to change to a different race and nation. But as time went on, I am sure glad I didn't. Sure an Elvaan is blind (hated those fights where it ended up missing on those attacks where the next hit would win the fight for either myself or the monster).

As its been stated in the previous 2 posts on this blog, there are new games on the horizon that I'm meaning to check out. Where does this leave my FFXI character? Well... that leaves 'em in the wayside it would appear. I took a couple months off last year, then came back and played through from September 05 until now (August 06). That is by no means a big deal, but for me that was the longest stretch of play that I've dished out and it took it's toll.

Needless to say, after going though a static group (where you form experience points parties with the same group of people), where there was a long list of issues and just so much trouble, it left me a little burnt out on FFXI. And unlike a lot of people, I can't hop onto World of Warcraft since my PC isn't up to par to handle it and also the fact that I'm a PS2 player. Eh. So there isn't really any alternative for me at this point.

I'm hoping if/when I do return to Vana'diel, this next run will be the one that will be where I finally hit level 75. It isn't something I'm determined to hit at this point, just more like something that I feel like is preventing me from fully leaving this game behind. Unfinished business some would say I guess. So hopefully Disgaea 2 and Final Fantasy XII will prove to be a good alternative, since I cannot take up any different online game.

If not, then it was a fun ride while it lasted and I am grateful to have made the few friends that I did during my time.

Disgaea 2! (and other random thoughts)

I'm fairly excited about the fact that Disgaea 2 is out today! Personally, I've played many of Nippon's games after the original Disgaea and to me they just didn't quite stack up. I'm hoping this sequal will be just as great, if not better then what the original Disgaea was.

What I'm most looking forward to about this new Disgaea would have to be the expanded amount of jobs you can enlist into your army of misfits. I spent over 100+ hours on the original Disgaea just with character level building so... it looks like I'm about to sacrifice much more hours of my life for the sake of a video game.

I also can't wait for Final Fantasy XII, which should at the end of October. Gaming around the holidays is gonna get busy...!

Gonna make a few pro wrestling comments here. Yeah its fake, they know whose gonna win, yadda yadda... anyway...

Its very unfortuate that Kurt Angle was released from the WWE, considering (to me) that he was a fairly strong piece to the up-and-coming ECW show. Hopefully he can get his health issues squared away and maybe come back to the ring someday.

Favorite new wrestler to watch? ECW's CM Punk. Just something about the guy that makes me like watching his matches. I think his style is very different, compaired to many that the WWE has had over recent years.

What the hell has happened to TNA? Not only is Jeff Jarrett still in the main events (as he was a year ago when I started to watch their shows), but now they look like they raided WCW's old locker room and are trying to make good use of their former stars (Sting and Scott Steiner). To be honest, TNA's heavyweights were not what drew me to their "product" in the first place. It was the X-Division that did that.

And where did they all go? I mean besides AJ Styles and Christopher Daniels being active in the tag team scene and Samoa Joe heading off to fight the heavier guys in the company. Oh, thats right... they were fighting against Kevin Nash right? Lame.

I hope TNA doesn't forget what brought them to the dance (X-Division). Then again, whenever I saw a match from that division, it always seemed pretty much just thrown together. Now that I don't understand why. Why do it when people pay to see it? I hope they don't follow WCW's path to the grave by going overkill on outside talents rather then building up their own guys. Please... I don't think I can handle watching a TNA invasion of WWE.....

On a life related note, yesterday I went for yet another job interview at a local grocery store. Dream job? Not exactly, but if it pays the bills then I honestly cannot complain. How well did it go? Well... to me it went a lot better then some of the other interviews I've been to. Then again though, I originally applied for a store that was just down the street from where I live. Where I went for my interview and the store that may hire me is over 15 miles away! So much for walking to work...

Well, that's it... that's all... more typing later (maybe). Who knows now that Disgaea is coming out! Nah, I'll be back....!

RPGs!

The picture to the side here was something I came across the other day while wandering about to various websites. Apparently it is from the PS2 video game called Suikoden III, how true that is I'm not entirely sure. Truthfully I was a fan of the Suikoden series up until the second game in (I've played up until #4). Beyond the second game, it just felt to me like the games had become hollow and were nothing more then mere shells of what they once were.

Granted, that seems to be my attitude for most console RPGs I've gotten into over the past several years. It is as if the game companies feel that the graphics are more important then the story, when (in my own opinion), an RPG is all about the story. Why else would a fan be there for? If a gamer wanted the absolute most cutting edge graphics, I imagine the person would rather take up a PC game.

There was one game that help bring back those RPG good times of old, and that would come in thanks to a game called Dragon Quest 8.

It was the first time that I have ever played a game from this particular series and at first I didn't have any idea just what I was getting myself into. Ok that is a lie, I thought it was going to be another one of those shallow, dull and flat out boring excuses that was being passed off as a "RPG." But I admit if first impressions are everything, then consider me completely blown away. From the characters, to the gameplay and just the overall flow of the story... it was simply amazing to be able to play a game that managed to pull off nice graphics and still hold true to great story telling and gameplay.

But that is old news, old games and I think that makes me sound as though I'm out of touch. Blah. Well, I am presently looking forward to the next installment of the Final Fantasy series (FFXII!), as well as Disgaea 2. Oh and one other worth mentioning would have to be the rumored re-release of Final Fantasy VI, which is a game I've been waiting another shot at for many, many, many years now.

On one more mentioning of a Final Fantasy game, I've hit a bit of a rock bottom as far as Final Fantasy XI is concerned (that would be the only online FF game in the series... so far...). It is a good game when it comes down to it, but you have to be pretty dedicated to be able to lay down the necessary hours to level your character, to farm up materials to craft and/or to sell off in hopes to earn enough to make your character from a wimp to champ. This is my first experience as far as a online game is concerned and consider what I've seen and what I've grown to learn, this may very well be my last for a few years (its mind wrecking! Er... at least it is to me).

Well I think this makes for a fairly decent first post in my new blog. Hopefully I'll be able to get around to writing more. I think I will go beyond just yapping about video games, that should give me something to bitch about for a good long time....

Prologue

While this post is dated for August 26th, 2006, in truth I am writing this on July 21th, 2009.

The purpose of this entry and why I am placing it at the very beginning is simply because I wanted to place a start to all of this. In a lot of ways, beneath the words and pictures of movies and video games, is the truth of who I am. My eventual hope is that I am building a grander picture of who I really am. My thoughts and feelings, my likes and dislikes. The joy in life and the pain in death. Everything that defines me and my life, I'd like to leave a trace of it behind. Because if there is one thing that life has taught me over these years I have been alive, is that life can truly end at any moment.

And I don't mean all of this in a twisted, morbid way either. My fear is that something would happen to me and I would forget everything that has ever happened to me in my life. Granted it isn't a life of fame and fortune, but I am still proud to be who I am and to be where I am today.

For a long while, I had given thought as to the meaning of the name of my blog. "Evanescent Twilight" is fitting, because if you look at the meaning of "Evanescent," it means fading, fleeting. And "Twilight" means the period between dawn and sunrise. The meaning, to me, is fading life. Life is not infinite and day by day we are all slowly walking towards our ends.

Some days I feel as though I am already at the peak of my life. I feel like what I am today is as great or as good as I will ever be. And that thought scares me, because I feel like I am capable of much more then what I am now. I want to do good and I want to be a better person that people like my father ever were. This blog, hopefully, will serve as a means to help remind me of past and how far I've come in life. I hope this will, in turn, help guide me to a better future.

I don't want to be a person driven by greed and anger, like my father succumb to being. I don't want to give up on life and let myself fall into a downward spiral. Regardless of what people think and say about me, be it family or so called "friends," it is my ultimate dream and lifelong goal to one day be able to stand proud and finally being able to look each and everyone of them and say loudly and proudly...

Fuck you!