Finished watching Space Battleship Yamato

Finished watching Space Battleship Yamato (1974, Academy Productions, Group TAC, 26 eps.) on 8/16/2015.

The year is 2199. Earth is faced with a major crisis. After being bombarded by the extraterrestrial Gamilas Empire with radio active meteors for years, Earth has started looking more like Mars, forcing humans to live underground. But they won’t give up without a fight as they revive battleship Yamato as a space battleship to fight against the threat and make their way to planet Iscandar where a technology was promised to cleanse planet Earth of the radiation.

6.5/10 – I had watched the 2012 remake of this series last year without knowing what I was getting into and I freakin' loved it. Then I watched the original one and now I'm sick of anime shows from the 70's. Okay, it wasn't so bad. Amazing for it's time of course. But all the animating mistakes I noticed, all the awkward dialogues that would take place here and there; Analyzer being a drunken, perverted robot; plot holes; ridiculous, out-of-the-blue deus-ex-machina events; characters with a 5 year-old logic... Again, It's not completely bad. I just couldn't deal with so much non-sense and out-dated art techniques. If I had watched it when I was 10 maybe I would’ve given this a much higher rating, just the same way I enjoyed watching Saber Rider or Dogtanian twenty years ago.

Finished watching Persona 4: The Animation

Finished watching Persona 4: The Animation (2011, AIC A.S.T.A., 25 epi.) on 8/16/2015.

Narukami Yu has just transferred to a rural Japanese town where soon enough he gets caught up investigating strange, local murders with his new classmates Yosuke and Chie. The rumor on the street is that victims are seen appearing on a TV channel known as the Midnight Channel before they get murdered. The three friends eventually find a TV screen portal into the strange world of the Midnight Channel where strange creatures known as Shadows attack them. But they’re not defenseless as they discover their power to summon Personas to aid them in their fight.

8/10 – I had listened to my brother play the game everyone now and then as I minded my own business, and the story and dialogues had tickled my fancy. But just like that, Satonaka Chie, the upbeat, kung-fu fighter girl had grown on me enough to plant a seed of "waifu" status in my heart. When I had heard of this 25-episode anime, I had been wanting to jump on it like a cheetah on an antelope. Well, took me a while to get on it, but I finally did. And I enjoyed it very much. I had some really good laughs with it too. The ending though, well... I couldn't really care for it. I really enjoyed just watching the characters trying to figure out the mystery and just living their slice-of-life while fighting baddies inside the TV world. They could've done it endlessly and I still would've watch them. But like I always say, good anime should always stick to 25-episode seasons, cuz otherwise the art quality goes down. Or at least, that’s what I’ve noticed.

Finished playing Final Fantasy III

Finished my second playthrough of Final Fantasy III (2006, Square Enix, Nintendo DS) on 8/16/2015.

Gameplay Hours: ~85

Four youths are entrusted with light from four legendary crystals. With this light they hold the power to defeat the darkness that plagues the land. But is that enough power to fight the darkness?

8/10 – This is a great remake of Final Fantasy III, a game that was not released outside of Japan until this version came out in the US in 2006. Along with drastically improved graphics, the main characters were given actual names and distinguished personalities, along with individual character designs that also reflect in their job changes. The story of the game was also improved upon, especially the dialogue. A lot of detail was also put into the wardrobe of each job. With the exception of a few jobs, not one Black Mage character, for example will look exactly the same as the other. There's always some detail about the clothes that differ from character to character. I really enjoyed that too. And of course, there’s the soundtrack, I wouldn’t consider it a full remake if the soundtrack hadn’t be rearranged *coughocarinaoftime3Dcough* and I’m happy to say that it was and it sounds… well, pretty good. I guess the DS does have its limitations.

Finished playing Kingdom Hearts 2 Final Mix HD Remix

Finished playing Kingdom Hearts 2 Final Mix HD Remix (2014, Square Enix, PlayStation 3, 2014) on 6/26/2015.

Hours: ~100

After defeating Ansem and Marluxia, Sora, Donald and Goofy must now face off against the rest of Organization XIII as they invade countless other worlds. Along the way Sora makes new friends, reunites with old ones and meets someone who might be closer than he thinks.

9/10 – Absolutely amazing game with a colorful cast of characters and a complex, deep storyline that is just deliciously right up my Alley to Between. Sorry...

Although this is the first time I play KH2 Final Mix, it is also technically my second KH2 playthrough. So this time around I noticed something called Bonus Levels. Not sure if it's a Final Mix feature or not, but apparently every time you defeat a boss that level goes up instead of you gaining experience points. An interesting concept. And although I was only able to reach Bonus Level 59, apparently it caps at 60.

Now, having played in Critical Mode however, I found myself struggling to unlock the secret ending known as "Birth by Sleep", as defeating the Organization XIII members' data is quite the challenge. After spending a tiresome amount of time defeating Vexen and Xigbar, Zexion finally managed to deplete any motivation I had left to continue the task. And with Lingering Will breathing on my neck every step of the way, I felt even less motivated. But hey, doing the Mushroom Organization minigames was fun!