Finished playing Final Fantasy VII

Finished playing Final Fantasy VII (1997, SquareSoft, PlayStation) for the third time on 03/11/2017.
Hours: 85

The Lifestream. Life energy in its purest form flowing from the planet's core, giving life to all kinds of lifeforms on Gaia and even crystalizing itself into colored orbs that allow the knowledge within them to be used as magical powers. Shinra Inc. A company whose technology syphons the Lifestream, turning it into Mako Energy to fuel human civilization across the globe. And Jenova, a mysterious being of extraterrestrial origins captured and experimented on by Shinra to strengthen its military force. Caught in the middle of this trio of elements is Cloud, an ex-Soldier of Shinra who finds himself spiraling deeper down into the messy maelstrom Shinra has stirred in its hunger for power.

This is SquareSoft's most lucrative title we're talking about here and one of my favorite of the series without a doubt. And look at that! Over 80 hours to complete the game with everything unlocked and all items collected! Heck, I could've easily passed the 100-hour mark just trying to finish a couple of last few things that I sort of left half done, hahahah! Ahem, anyways, I'm sure you don't need me to tell you how popular this game is or how amazing the story and characters are. What I will tell you is that I haven't played this game in a while and playing it again has made me realize how some of the scenes in the game would be a bit awkward to see Cloud in when the recently announced Remake finally makes its way to home consoles around the world. Among some of those funny scenes, I hope they at least keep the cross-dressing chapter and the one where Cloud infiltrates Junon city by jumping on a dolphin. I mean, think about it! A brooding, emo Cloud high jumping on a dolphin as the sun beautifully sets in the horizon. Magical! Hahaha! But there's also other things that don't quite fit the Cloud we're so used to seeing in HD. Like jumping in celebration of his first place victory in a Chocobo race, among other things. But anyways, I've read that the Remake will be a bit inconsistent with the FFVII Compilation so I'm hoping that means that they're polishing up some of the writing to be more consistent with the image Tetsuya has of the characters and other details that didn't quite make sense in the original. But getting back to the actual review, I think the only things that bothered me were the map and the battle controls. Sometimes it was kind of annoying trying to figure out which direction the D-Pad would take you on each different screen and as for the battles, trying to target overlapping enemies or characters got frustrating at times depending on the camera angles and even as characters moved around performing their attacks.

9/10 - Ultimately it's really a deep game in all of its aspects and I can't wait to see what the Remake is going to be like.

Finished reading Dragon Ball

Finished reading Dragon Ball (1984-1995) on 1/23/2017.

Story & Art: Akira Toriyama

Chapters: 519

Son Goku is a super-strong young boy with a mysterious tail on his back. When he meets a boisterous young lady named Bulma he learns that the four-starred orange crystal ball his late grandpa left him is one of the seven legendary Dragon Balls that summon the magnificent Shen-Lon dragon who can fulfill almost any wish. The two depart to travel in search of all seven Dragon Balls and on the way they make countless friends and enemies. As Goku grows older the fate of many worlds are in his hands as incredible foes attempt to misuse the power of the Dragon Balls.

9/10 - Yes, I know. But hear me out. Reading Dragon Ball was a very interesting experience. I've never witnessed a manga go through such drastic storytelling phases. As I was reading Dragon Ball I found myself often laughing at Akira's amazing jokes and slapstick. Sometimes it was just how wrong those jokes were. Some things he wrote and drew would obviously not fly today, hahah! And it just kept on coming and coming. It was so much fun! It was like reading the "funnies" but with plot and character development. But then came the Saiyans, things gradually tensed up but Akira's comedy was still there. Then Freeza tensed things up even more, I found Dragon Ball wasn't making me laugh as much as it used to. Not necessarily a bad thing. Just... interesting. The manga was maturing right in front of my eyes, something I had never witnessed before. But it wasn't until Cell came into the picture that things got really serious. The Cell arc wasn't playing around and things got really serious and even gory at times. But I feel like Akira knew that, otherwise he wouldn't have created Hercule. A character that was supposed to liven things up. However, for me, that didn't work very well. I found Hercule to be a nuisance and a distraction. Finally, I feel like Akira found a good balance of funny and mature with the Buu arc. Not only was Buu fearsome he was also very goofy. But that wasn't the only source of comedy in the arc. Young Goten and Trunks were quite the mischievous duo, and when you put them together (literally) against Buu, well, you get the perfect Dragon Ball recipe. And that's my story, folks.

Finished reading Uwakoi

Finished reading Uwakoi (2011) on 1/17/2017.

Story & Art: Masahiro Itosugi

Chapters: 36

Yukiteru-kun is a college student with many lovers, but he is trapped in a love triangle with the two he is closest to, Yuno and Rena. But as Yukiteru tries to juggle between all his affairs without them knowing, will he come out of it unscathed?

7/10 - Wow... Wow... Y'know, I always try to type up my own synopsis for these reviews and I think this may have been the hardest one yet. I honestly don't know how to put this manga into words without spoiling much. For those of you familiar with Future Diary (Mirai Nikki) you'll notice an uncanny resemble between the two. Not only are the plots somewhat similar but the character's names, Yuki(teru) and Yuno and how they behave as well. Honestly, it was very interesting reading this manga and I really couldn't put it down, however the ending was underwhelming and a bit abrupt for me. If you're just reading this for the light-hentai like I was, you got nothing to lose, m8. And the art style is pretty interesting, I guess... Hahahah!

Finished watching Boku Dake Inai Machi ERASED

Finished watching Boku Dake Inai Machi ERASED (2016, A-1 Pictures, 12 epi.) on 01/16/2015.

Satoru Fujinuma would be your average detached-from-life 29 year-old part-timer if not for a strange little phenomena that sends him back in time several minutes before some sort of tragic event happens in his vicinity. This is something he has lived with his whole life, and knowing its meaning Satoru takes these chances to prevent those tragedies from happening and often saving lives. However, his courage to defy this phenomena is one day put to the test when he is sent back 18 years in the past after being accused of murdering someone close to him. This is his chance to fix everything.

9/10 - Man... this is one of those shows that just messes me up inside. I was at the edge of my seat with my emotions! The story really knows how to attach characters to the audience and make them fear for what’s coming to the characters. At least it did for me. Sometimes I just knew what was coming and when it did it just broke me because I was so not ready to deal with it. And I’m not trying to say that the show is predictable, because if it was it did it in a very good way for me. I have to say the ending was… hmm, I didn’t hate it but I didn’t like it either. I know the show is based on the manga by the same name and I haven’t read it yet. So maybe it’s one of those things where some of the story was changed a bit to fit the studio’s agenda or budget. I mean, it is only 12 episodes and I’m not sure how long the manga is. Overall it’s a really great show with incredible writing and animation.