Finished playing Final Fantasy Tactics War of the Lions

Finished playing Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions (2007, TOSE, Square Enix, PSP) on 3/19/2018 for the second time.

Play Time: +600 hours

After a gruesome conflict known as the Fifty Year War, another grim chapter awaits the land of Ivalice whose political strife and economical instability are now topped with the recent death of its king. And with the only heir to the throne being an infant, the kingdom is split yet again on the decision of a regent between Prince Goltana, represented by a Black Lion, and Prince Larg, symbolized by a White Lion. This comes to be known as the War of the Lions, and in the midst of all its conflicts is a boy named Ramza Beowulve whose major role in the history of this war was covered up by an influential religious institution known as the Church of Glabados.

Man, oh man, oh man! I've never had such a wild ride of ups and downs with a game before. I've also never played a single player campaign for this long!
So, Final Fantasy Tactics takes place in a medieval setting where magical abilities and mystical creatures abound. The game's political plot is complex and mature played by a varied array of characters. While the plot's maturity is welcome, the number of characters might make it a bit hard to follow along. But their Shakespearean dialogue makes it only more interesting to pay close attention to. I believe it wasn't so Shakespearean in the original PlayStation release.
I've never played the original western release of this game, but from what I've heard War of the Lions brought the difficulty level up to the original Japanese release, which sometimes can be very unforgiving to the point of some battles feeling unnecessarily punishing. This is especially frustrating with story battles that can't be skipped, and is only made worse if you decide to overwrite your save file in between battles with multiple fights as you'll find yourself stuck in the character select screen with no option to go back to the overworld map, leaving you with the only option to start the game all over again or keep trying to beat the battle you're stuck on by hoping for a miracle. This sort of happened to me, but not because I overwrote my save file as such, it was because I had to collect and steal certain rare items (not required) before defeating all the enemies. But because the enemies were so powerful compared to mine, I ended up resetting the game an unbelievable amount of times over the period of two of three weeks before I was miraculously able to do it. And it's not like leveling up my team would've mattered as enemy levels grow with you.
And then there's the very limited amount of character units you can recruit. It's about 32, I think, which doesn't leave much room for ordinary recruits when you're trying to obtain every single special and story character there is. This was a struggle for me as I ended up having to sacrifice characters I had spent hours upon hours of training and leveling up, just to make room for folks like Cloud or Balthier to join the party. Had I known how many spots I should have reserved when I started the game, I wouldn't have recruited and trained so many folks. That's really one of the major contributors to my insane playtime. Next time I'll know better, I suppose. But I'm probably not going to play this game again. I wouldn't want to put myself through another round of this sadistic game difficulty. And if I do, it won't be for a long time. Maybe if there's a remake, I don't know.
But I'm not trying to say the game is completely terrible for that. In fact, I very much enjoyed it for its story, characters and battle mechanics. The whole job system and the thinking you have to do on the battlefield is very engaging. And the cutscenes are great too! The cell shaded models combined with the cross-hatching render gives them a very magical storybook kind of feel. I love it! It's really just the punishing difficulty of this game that ruined the experience for me.

8.5/10 - *whine* The game is too haaaard! ( T ^ T)

Finished watching Record of Lodoss War

Finished watching Record of Lodoss War (1993, Madhouse, 13 epi) on 1/11/2018.

Parn is a young man traveling the land of Lodoss with a diverse group of allies such as Deedlit the elf, and Ghim the dwarf. Together they plan to oppose the forces of a witch bent on political chaos between the kingdoms of Lodoss so as to preserve the land by keeping any one faction from taking central control. 

This was a beautiful show based on a series of novels about a land of magic and mystical beings. I'd love to own an HD copy of this show because I'd watch it again in a heartbeat. Seriously, it's got that beauty that good anime shows in the 90's used to have and the animation is pretty awesome too. The story though is a little bit slow at times, despite the small number of episodes, and sometimes it gets a little jumpy. There's only so much character development going on too, but not to say that the character's themselves weren't interesting, because they were fun to follow. And the soundtrack isn't too shabby. It's got some memorable tracks here and there, specially the opening and ending themes. Speaking of which, the opening for this show is a beautiful piece of art all on it's own, the song only makes it an even more memorable experience.

Also, apparently there's a top-view MMORPG by the same name. Here's a Portuguese video by a friend showcasing the gameplay:

8/10 - If you're into Lord of the Rings then there's a good chance you'll enjoy this baby.

Finished watching Outlaw Star

Finished watching Outlaw Star (1998, Sunrise, 24 epi.) on 09/14/2017.

Somewhere out there in outer space is a fabled treasure trove know as the Galactic Leyline. Somewhere out there in space there is also a man lost in the pleasures of alcohol and women, who carries a special firearm with magical attributes known as a Caster. That man, is none other than Gene Starwind. Whom with his crew of few and very diverse characters, are off to find the treasure of the Galactic Leyline. One of his crewmates however, isn't looking for the riches promised in the legends... but is actually in search of herself and her reason of being. That would be Melfina, an android whom Gene made a promise to help find the answers she seeks.

Man! Gene mutherf**kin' Starwind! I'll tell you what! Alright, Outlaw Star is an amazing show, almost on the same level as Cowboy Bebop, just not as classy. More spunky. Half of the show unfortunately are episodes that could be skipped, but some of those do offer a couple of plot hints and pieces that build up for the ending. Fortunately, all these episodes in the show are VERY entertaining and funny and amazing! Not one episode bored me out or necessarily made me feel like it was trying to prolong things. But the pacing is a bit wonky after the first few episodes. But most importantly I think the show knows to not take itself too seriously, maybe that's why it's very entertaining. The animation is really good, but sometimes the character's faces look a bit strange... but that could just be from the art style. The soundtrack is really cool too! Sometimes it really adds to the excitement of the scenes.

8.5/10 - Definitely a great show all around! Definitely worth a rewatch in a couple years.

Finished watching .hack//G.U. Trilogy

Finished watching .hack//G.U. Trilogy (2008, Bandai, 1hr 33min) on 10/28/2016.

After leveling up his virtual character in an MMORPG called The World, Haseo butts heads with Tri-Edge, a powerful virus character who deleted Haseo friend's character effectively putting her in a real coma. Haseo is also defeated and but instead of a coma, all the progress he's made so far in the game disappears. That's when a group called TaN picks him up and promises to awaken a fearsome power within him.

7.5/10 - Trilogy is a CGI movie, and the graphics are appealing and smooth with attractive colors. The only thing that threw me off was the facial animations, specially with characters speaking. Often times the shape of the mouths didn't match the words or would open and only move slightly for each word before closing awkwardly slowly. Although I do have to give it to them for really showing Haseo's emotions with his crazy eyes and stuff. What I did enjoy the most was the fight scenes, they were very powerful!
The story got a bit dull at times though, and I found myself almost falling asleep or my eyes wandering off the screen. Also, I think the movie is an adaptation of the final moments in the games, which is pretty cool. I'd like to try reading the manga adaptation of all the games though.
But overall it was a good movie. Like I said before, the fight scenes I think hold the movie together pretty well and despite it getting dull at times the plot is interesting, albeit a little predictable too. I also liked to see the voice actors reprising their roles from .hack//roots.

Finished watching Guin Saga

Finished watching Guin Saga (2009, Satelight, 26 episodes) on 7/09/2016.

Based on a light novel, this show follows the adventure of two young twins, Rinda and Remus, heirs to the throne of an invaded kingdom, and Guin, a leopard-headed warrior who's origins are unknown even to himself. Along the way the three are captured and team up with two other prisoners, a mercenary named Istovan and a monkey girl named Sunii to make their escape.

What attracted me to this show was the fact that Final Fantasy series' composer, Uematsu Nobuo composed the entirety of the soundtrack for this show.

PLOT - Guin is my favorite character and the sole reason why I kept watching. I wanted to know where he came from, why he is leopard-headed. His character is also very awesome. He's cool and composed and always wins even after getting thrown around like a rag-doll. But the plot seems to take a while to pick up decent speed and eventually towards mid-season it picks up, but for some reason Guin and the twins aren't exactly the main characters anymore as the show ceases to follow their tracks and focuses on more political characters that only mildly interest me. Regardless, all the characters in this show have very interesting personalities, although I did find myself rolling my eyes a lot at those traits, but nonetheless they were interesting and sometimes even made me giggle at how unexpected they became sometimes.

ARTWORK - The animation and art quality for this show are both amazing and beautiful. I loved watching the fight scenes with Guin. They were very exciting.

MUSIC - Like I've mentioned, this soundtrack is composed by Uematsu Nobuo. However, it was nothing like his Final Fantasy compositions. I think he tried to go for something different with this show. Unfortunately the vast majority of the soundtrack didn't quite stick with me. But I'm not saying it was terrible, it just wasn't as catchy as what I've come to expect from his work.

7/10 - It's an interesting show with great quality and interesting characters, but the plot can get so dull sometimes. I admit falling asleep to an episode or two. There is a continuation but as of yet a second season hasn't been announced.

Finished watching xxxHolic Shunmuki

Finished watching xxxHolic: Shunmuki (2009, Production I.G., 2 OVAs) on

Watanuki gets in touch with Doumeki's grandfather who asks him to look for four objects scattered throughout the area of his temple. But as they find each item they are sent to various dream worlds.

8/10 - Although this was produced in conjuction with Tsubasa: Shunraiki in that their plots tie in together, this xxxHolic one was more interesting and made more sense. The ending even left me very intrigued as to how the series would continue from then on. Finally, and also very important, the animation and art quality are good, just like the Shunraiki one, because without good quality animation you end up being taken for filler episodes.

Finished watching Tsubasa: Shunraiki

Finished watching Tsubasa: Shunraiki (2009, Production I.G., 2 OVAs) on

After a gruesome decisive battle to defeat King Ashura in Celes, Syaoran, Fai, Kurogane, Sakura and Mokona are transported to Nihon Country where they meet with Princess Tomoyo who places Sakura resting on the country's oldest cherry blossom tree to heal her after getting her body and soul separated in Celes. Suddenly Seishiro shows up to ask Fai about the Vampire Twins, but just as he is about leave Syaoran challenges him for one of Sakura's feathers. But that is not the only opponent Syaoran must face...

8/10 - Interesting OVAs. It picks up in a later point in the manga series. I haven't read it at all yet, so I was a little lost at first, of course. But I didn't feel like it bothered me. I just took the story as it was and enjoyed it. However, at this point is seems like things are getting really complex and hard to follow. It reminded me of Kingdom Heart's complexity. Anyways, the animation and art quality are very good. But I guess that's to expect of a 2 episode series. The soundtrack used was from the original series, I didn't right away notice any new tracks. Overall it's a pretty nice show that ties in with xxxHolic Shunmuki, but I don't think it compares to Tokyo Revelations, which I think did much better. I think I just really enjoyed seeing Sakura fending for herself in that one.

Finished watching Tsubasa: Tokyo Revelations

Finished watching Tsubasa: Tokyo Revelations (2007, Production I.G., 3 OVAs) on 4/13/2016.

With the services of a dimensional witch named Yuko, a boy named Syaoran and his childhood friend Sakura continue their journey together with a warrior named Kurogane and a magician named Fai in search for Sakura's memories which turned into feathers and scattered throughout various parallel universes. Far into their travels, they reach a dismal land known as Tokyo Country where factions fight eachother for survival and resources while acid rain constantly pours from the sky. Our heroes are taken in by a faction and reluctantly fight bloody battles as secrets are revealed changing their lives forever.

8.5/10 – Wow! Holy Mokona! Y'see what happens when you hand this show over to Production I.G.? Seriously! In just three episodes this OVA mini-series revealed so much more content, and did so much more than two whole seasons of RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE ever did. I honestly don't know what Bee Train was thinking. I mean, this show really kicked it up to 11. There's so much bloody violence, really not for the weak hearted. And then there's Sakura. Wow. She had to pull her own weight this time around, all on her own nonetheless and boy, did she take it like a champ! You really don't need me to keep going here. This show is amazing! I just wish it continued with a few more episodes. But, anyways, go watch it, you won't regret it.

Finished watching Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle's Second Season

Finished watching Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle's Second Season (2006, Bee Train, 26 episodes) on 4/7/2016.

With the services of a dimensional witch named Yuko, a boy named Syaoran and his childhood friend Sakura continue their journey together with a warrior named Kurogane and a magician named Fai in search for Sakura's memories which turned into feathers and scattered throughout various parallel universes.

5/10 – After this season I find myself really disappointed with this show. Like, really disappointed. While the animation and art quality remain mediocre at best, the story leaves much to be desired. Since I haven't read the manga yet, I can't say how it compares, but from other reviews I've read apparently it disgraces the manga. I really wish I had simply read the manga instead of wasting my time on this poor excuse of an adaptation. I'm being way too polite here considering how I'm feeling about it. I mean, I even was able to skip an episode and perfectly predict its outcome. That's how sad it is. One of the things that bothered me the most is how little exposition was shown throughout the series, on the exception of perhaps Kurogane. But what really got on my nerves was the ending. It made no sense, the production value was beyond par and the fact that *SPOILER START* the main characters just sit tight as they watch hundreds of feathers just slowly fly off into other dimensions instead of using their superhuman powers to collect them all. Heck, even Mokona could've sucked a good chunk in if not all of them. Like... seriously! *SPOILER END* The only exciting thing was seeing familiar faces from Chobits. I honestly think Production I.G. would've taken much better care of this series. Bee Train can suck it.

Finished watching Escaflowne

Finished watching Escaflowne (2000, Sunrise, Bones, 98 mins) on 3/8/2016.

Kanzaki Hitomi is magically whisked away from Earth to a planet called Gaea where she is taken in by a group of freedom fighters who believe her to be their fabled Winged Goddess, their only hope in awakening a legendary, weaponized, mechanical armor known as Escaflowne. With Escaflowne piloted by the young Van, they hope to fight and defeat the evil forces of a powerful man named Folken.

8.5/10 – It seems to me that the Escaflowne franchise likes to create parallel universes for each of their different media installments. The manga, anime series and this movie seem to be very different from eachother, yet the same. But the movie is more faithful to the series than the manga is in terms of character design. Just remember that it's a different story. But this movie is good. I especially like the visual aspects. The animation quality is very good, but the style differs a bit from the series, everyone is just so... attractive, gorgeous *coughallencough*. That's because Sunrise hired Bones to do the animation. Explains a lot, doesn't it? The movie has its own soundtracks while some are from the series, and others are based on them. And while the animation is awesome, the soundtrack is good, and even the story is interesting, the plot seems to develop at a slow pace, finally picking up a bit of speed towards the end. And Dilandau is still my favorite character. Just puttin' it out there.

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.

Finished watching The Vision of Escaflowne

Finished watching The Vision of Escaflowne (1996, Sunrise, 26 episodes) on 2/23/2016.

High school student and track runner, Kanzaki Hitomi's life changes when a beam of light shines from the sky teleporting her to another earth-like planet called Gaea. She is thrown between a giant robot war feud between the medieval countries of the planet. But she is not alone as she meets new friends such as young king Van and her high-school crush look-alike, knight Allen.

9/10 - Amazing show! Truly recommend it! The animation quality is great for the majority of the show. The characters and their relationships are all very interesting. Shout out to my favorite character, Dilandau! The giant robots, the Guymelef always have awesome battle scenes. And the soundtrack is also very top notch with some orchestrated, epic a.f. tracks. I just don't get where the animal people came from. But that's not a big deal.

Finished watching Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle First Season

Finished watching Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle First Season (2005, Bee Train, 26 episodes) on 2/22/2016.

With the services of a dimensional witch named Yuko, a boy named Syaoran and his childhood friend Sakura travel together with a warrior named Kurogane and a magician named Fai in search for Sakura's memories which turned into feathers and scattered throughout various alternate universes.

6.5/10 - This show's alright. While the first episode has a lot of things going on, the plot seems to advance at a slowish pace for the rest of the season. It's interesting to see all the different worlds they go to, but sometimes they stay a bit too long in some. Sometimes there are even worlds that don't have any feathers to be found. The very last world they went to I think had the most episodes. But it was actually a bit interesting as they were in an MMORPG without realizing it. The soundtrack doesn't seem very varied with two or three of the tracks being used way too often. The animation quality gets a bit poor at times throughout the middle of the season with even some character's faces looking a bit strange. But I guess that's a common thing with shows with lots of episodes. They leave the quality for the more important episodes, usually the first and last few ones.

Finished playing Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

Finished playing Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (2006, Nintendo EAD, Nintendo Wii) on 2/9/2016.
Gameplay Hours: 54

Link's blissful country life is suddenly interrupted when the village children get kidnapped. In his attempt to chase after them he also gets kidnapped by strange, dark creatures that bring him into their parallel world of darkness that suddenly turns Link into a wolf. To his rescue comes a small imp named Midna who teams up with him in order to save the kidnapped children, but in return Link must aid Midna with her own agenda.

9/10 – I actually played the Gamecube version of this game quite a few years ago, thankfully with time I forgot about some of it. I say thankfully because this made the game sort of a new experience for me, and also because the mirrored aspect of the Wii version didn't bother me as much this way if at all. I should also point out that this is one of the first three games I've played in 2016 and that the timing of me playing this game has nothing to do with the announcement of the Wii U HD one coming out soon. I simply got to the game in my long video game bucket list... Along with Ocarina of Time 3D. This coincidence might've been a blessing to me from the Goddesses, but it provided me with an interesting experience. Since I started playing these two games at the same time and kept playing them at relatively the same pace, I began noticing the similarities or references that TP took from OoT. The temples, the locations, the music and even Skull Kid! I had completely forgotten that Skull Kid was in this game, and that was pretty exciting for me! But let's get to the point. This game, in my opinion is like an immensely improved version of OoT with lots of extra stuff and, of course, a different storyline. The visuals of the game are stunning, and the character design is amazing. Even the NPCs look interesting! I often found myself staring at a character's model for minutes, studying each and every detail *coughtelmacough*. Same goes for the stunning environments in the game. Namely the Temple of Time. One time I spent like ten minutes in there sneakin' up on birds as wolf Link as Midna yawned countless times beggin' me to move on. Oh, and don't get me started on the kitties and their toys. And doggies. The soundtrack is beautiful as well. Not one track I didn't hate. Let me do a little plug-in here for ZREO's Twilight Princess soundtrack. You can download it for free on their website. They did an amazing job at reorchestrating the vast majority of the tracks in this game. But truly, this game is everything a Zelda game should be and more. My only complain is Midna's impatience. She nagged me way too much, specially at times when I need to just sit there and carefully study a puzzle.