Finished playing Final Fantasy IV

Finished playing Final Fantasy IV (2011, Square Enix, PlayStation Portable) on 3/8/2016.
Gameplay Hours: ~60

A mysterious man named Golbez is wreaking havoc throughout the land, trying to obtain all the elemental crystals of the world for power. After having his kingdom fallen to the hands of Golbez, Cecil abandons his position as captain of the Red Wings to search for answers. Along the way he teams up with all sorts of people, also victims of Golbez's deeds and together they fight to bring him down.

7.5/10 – I've played different ports of Final Fantasy IV before and this is my second favorite. But although all the sprites were beautifully updated, I've found it odd that the overworld's sprites didn't match the battle ones or even some of the character's menu pictures, but I guess that's just a pet peeve. I love, love, love the fact that this port lets you play with either the original soundtrack or the arranged Nintendo DS one. And of course, let's not forget the updated translation, always a good thing. The post-game Lunar Ruins were really, quite the challenge with powered-up bosses sporting insane strategies that can be quite difficult to figure out. Thankfully the game gives you save points just before those battles, but I don't think I want to experience dungeon rooms like Edge's Trial ever again. Eesh! This port features some slightly cheap, rather short prerendered cutscenes, which I welcome any day over just the sprite ones, with an honorable mention going to the Giant of Babil one.

Finished watching Gunbuster

Finished watching Gunbuster (1988, Gainax, 6 OVAs) on 3/3/2016.

In the near future gigantic, insectoid, space monsters pose a threat to human kind. Planet Earth's best defense lays in the hands of an army of giant fighter robots called RX-7, piloted by trained professionals. Two of those pilots, namely Noriko and Kazumi have been specially chosen to train for an even larger, more powerful robot, the Gunbuster.

10/10 – Yup, a 10. It's that awesome! This mostly female fronted show puts its two main characters in space, piloting giant fighter robots against giant space monsters and it even tries to be scientifically accurate as possible. Which it is! By a lot! SPACE! SCIENCE! Oh and did I mention this is directed by Evangelion's Hideaki Anno? The characters are well constructed and the soundtrack is pretty awesome. The animation quality, despite experimental on rare occasions, is pretty good. I should mention the boob physics here, they're not exaggerated, they're quite nice. And yes, there is some full nudity from the ladies on occasion as well. Gotta have that hot spring bath episode, yo! But let me tell you something, this show made me aware of Time Dilation, something I should really know about. Some of you know why. This concept is crazy and I'm happy Gunbuster brought it up to me.

Finished watching xxxHolic: A Midsummer Night's Dream

Finished watching xxxHolic: A Midsummer Night's Dream (2005, Production I.G., 60mins) on 2/23/2016.

Yuko, Watanuki and Domeki are invited to a mansion party where they meet a handful of collectors. While staying at the mansion, everyone starts to wonder who the master of the house is as they are guided into different rooms for dining, lounging and sleeping without any maids or butlers. Watanuki even finds himself going though puzzling mazes just to get to a restroom.

8/10 - Although it's a movie, it's a little short for one. But I think it's because this movie double-features with an even shorter movie, Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle the Movie: The Princess in the Birdcage Kingdom. The two are also directly connected. This movie was fun and interesting to watch. Animation quality got... well, a bit too stylized at times, specially with Watanuki flailing around to get spirits off of him. Watanuki reacts to everything very dramatically so this fun-house mansion filled the movie with comical sketches between him and the ever-stoic Doumeki.

Finished watching Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle the Movie: The Princess in the Birdcage Kingdom

Finished watching Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle the Movie: The Princess in the Birdcage Kingdom (2005, Production I.G., 35mins) on 2/23/2016.

Sakura and Syaoran crash land into yet another alternate universe where they must help princess Tomoyo foil her uncle's evil plans to cover his kingdom in darkness, all the while recovering one of Sakura's memory feathers from him.

7/10 – Although it's a movie, it's pretty short. But I think it's because this movie double-features with a longer movie, xxxHolic: A Midsummer Night's Dream. The two are also directly connected. I have to point out that the studio that worked on this movie is not the same that worked on the Tsubasa series and so you can definitely tell the difference in visuals. Specially with Syaoran's David Bowie-like eyes. In the show they don't draw them like they did in the movie so you can't tell that they're actually different. But the show, at least for the first season don't really explain very well this fact. Just that there's something wrong with his eyes. But whatever. This movie was good. Animation quality is good. It uses the same soundtrack as the series. But I wouldn't recommend watching it without being familiar with the plot of Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle.