Finished Watching Sailor Moon S (1994)

Finished watching Sailor Moon S (1994, Toei Animation, 38 epi) on 11/22/2018.

A new enemy presents itself to the Sailor Guardians in the form of five scientist witches working under the orders of a mad scientist as they search for pure hearts to steal from their unfortunate victims. Not only that but mysterious, rogue Sailor Guardians have shown up also looking for special pure hearts known as the Talismans.

Another alright season. The episodes get a tad bit repetitive with that monster-of-the-week type of writing. This also ends up creating some episodes with absolutely no development whatsoever, or monster designs that had absolutely no effort. I'm looking at you car-tire monster woman. But there was one episode in this season that I found immensely hilarious. The funniest episode in the whole series perhaps, and it's one that focuses on Aino Minako. I'll let you find it out on your own. I don't want to spoil anything.
The animation and writing again both suffer from having different producers and animation teams throughout the different episodes. Watching this season, I'm starting to think that the less important an episode is, the cheaper is production quality becomes, with highly climactic episodes being worked on by experienced teams.
I also noticed some big differences in story compared to the original work. The way the two new Sailor Guardians are introduced for example and less of a focus on the school they attend. I remember there was one plot point involving plants that took place in the school in the manga, but in the show it was actually used in the first season, if I remember correctly.

7/10 - I know I said this before, but I'll say it again. Cut out the unnecessary filler.

Finished watching Sailor Moon R: the Movie (1993)

Finished watching Sailor Moon R the Movie: The Promise of the Rose (1993, Toei Animation, 61 min) on 9/19/2018.

A meteor from space brings with it an alien threat. The Sailor Guardians are on the case and before it even lands they know this is no ordinary comet. This isn't the only problem on their hands, as a friend from Mamoru's childhood returns and he's got a jealous bone to pick with Usagi, and a promise he must fulfill to his old friend. One that might just have to be broken by Sailor Moon and the Sailor Guardians.

Promise of the Rose is actually a pretty good movie. It is loosely based on the filler arc of Sailor Moon R involving characters Ail and An. It took some visual and story elements easily recognizable from that arc to create what is for the most part an original story. And the animation quality is great, with fight sequences that are just great to watch.

8/10 - I would totally watch this one more time.

Finished watching Sailor Moon R (1993)

Finished watching Sailor Moon R (1993, Toei Animation, 43 epi) on 9/14/2018.

   Tsukino Usagi and her friends don't remember their adventures as the Sailor Guardians after their battle against Queen Metalia. But that soon changes when a meteor crash-lands in town, bringing with it two alien beings, siblings Ail and An who's goal is to collect human energy to restore their source of life, the Makaiju Tree they traveled with. But that is the least of the Sailor Guardian's troubles as a deeper darkness lies in their future...

This season starts off with a filler arc that isn't too shabby. The characters Ail and An come from a different planet and their goal is to gather energy so they can live. But they are met with resistance once the Sailor Guardians find out they are using monsters that attack civilians to accomplish their goal. The monsters they call upon each have a theme that is different from one episode to the next. This is pretty much your typical Sailor Moon episode recipe. Then the Dark Kingdom arc comes along with new villains who pretty much do the same thing with different goals in mind. This is an actual arc in the manga where the enemy's plot is to strategically place dark-power imbued statues at certain points in the city surrounding an area where the Crystal Palace will one day stand. A new character is introduced as well. Chibiusa, the future daughter of Usagi and Mamoru who traveled from the future to obtain the Silver Crystal.
Sailor Moon R wasn't too bad of a season but it could've been a little better for a few reasons. The biggest problem I had was with Mizuno being reduced to her bookworm element. All I remember her doing aside from fighting the monsters, was constantly telling the other girls that they should be studying every time she showed up on in an episode. Like, that was all she did. It felt like she wasn't a person anymore. I also noticed that the art style seemed to change from episode to episode. While this itself isn't a problem, some episodes looked really rushed and low quality. When I looked it up, I also learned that the series had multiple directors and art directors for all the different episodes they made. This would also explain how I found some episodes better written than others. Lastly there's Chibiusa's odd relationship with her future parents. And this is something that's been carried over from the original work, but it still bothers me how obsessed she is with Mamoru. It's written in a way that borderlines a romantic relationship. It's very suggestive. And as if that wasn't enough, Usagi gets jealous of her for it. It's all kinds of messed up!
But that's it, really. I didn't think Sailor Moon R was bad, but I didn't find it better than the first season. The new batch of villains were interesting, some not so much. Overall, it was alright!

7/10 - Could've used a little less filler content.

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 Megazone 23 Part II

Finished watching Megazone 23 Part II (1986, Artland, AIC, Tatsunoko, 80 mins.) on 12/05/2017.

Attempting to return to a normal life with "Trash", his bike gang and Yui, his girlfriend, Yahagi Shogo finds himself answering the call for help from EVE, the digital songstress idol programmed to protect the city of Megazone, as the government that rules the people plots to take control over EVE's capabilities.

Well, this was... interesting. And a bit hard to follow. The first thing you'll notice about this second entry in the Megazone 23 series is the drastic change in the visual style. And it's one I'm not very fond of, to be honest. It got a bit distracting. But I can't say I completely hate it either. I think I understand its appeal. It has to do with the age it was produced in, and I have to say it's certainly a style from the 80's. I'm sure they picked it up from some other media, maybe even western media like the Heavy Metal movie. The art style is especially distracting with the scene where human ships get attacked by alien robots and it's really gory, unnecessarily so and they just keep playing it over and over or whatever. And then there's the Captain of the ship who just looks like a Muppet character. It was cringy for sure. But let's move on. The visual style was not the only thing that changed. It was the character's basic design. The girl's hair, for example used to be blue, now it's just brown. Funny enough however, EVE, the digital music idol seems to have retained her original appearance from the previous movie. Other than that, the movie was alright. Animation quality was pretty good and the story wasn't too bad, maybe some plot points were skimmed over.

6.5/10 - It didn't really catch my attention that much, but I still enjoyed it... somewhat.

Finished watching Megazone 23

Finished watching Megazone 23 (1985, AIC, Artland, Tatsunoko, 80mins) on 10/18/2017.

Yahagi Shogo is given ownership of an unusual-looking, red motorcycle from a friend. Immediately after, black suits show up looking for the bike and Shogo drives off with it to later find out that the bike turns into an armed fighting robot. Looking for a place to hide, he then contacts Takanaka Yui, a girl he had just met to help him out. After a series of strange events, the two find themselves in the middle of a government conspiracy hiding secrets that question what's real and what's not, including a popular musical idol named Tokimatsuri Eve.

So first off, this movie was put together by the same staff as the original Macross series. Cool, right? I love their style. There's a lot of similarities with the two IPs. Visual. Thematic. Robots. Idols. Space. 80s. It's great! The music of course is pretty awesome with Eve's songs and the soundtrack just has that typical 80s synth stuff. What I enjoyed about the story was the conspiracy going on with Eve and how she gets the main characters involved in it. It's an interesting concept.

8/10 - But despite all my praise, I think the storytelling suffers from its age. Old anime seem to always have thing that don't quite add up and this one's no different. But it wasn't too bad.

Finished watching The Tale of the Princess Kaguya

The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (2013, Studio Ghibli, 137m) on 07/13/2017.

Miyatsuko is an old man who makes a living as a bamboo cutter. One day he comes across a bamboo shoot that unravels itself to reveal a miniature child. He takes her home to his wife and the two raise the child as their own but notice that her growing rate is much faster than any other child. Miyatsuko and his wife consider the child a blessing from the Heavens and try to raise her to become a respectable princess.

There's a couple of things I should point out about The Tale of the Princess Kaguya. The movie is based on a popular, traditional Japanese folk tale. Also, despite it being a Ghibli production, it is actually directed by Takahata Isao.
Setting this feature apart from other Ghibli movies is its visual style. Backgrounds are lightly hand-drawn and hand-painted in pencil and watercolor respectively to give the audience the impression of watching a children's picture book come to life. The characters and everything that moves is drawn in organic pencil lines and rendered digitally in gentle colors that add even more to the movie's picture book-like aesthetic. And this is all woven together with a narrative that is sure to pull at your heart strings.

8/10 - This was certainly a gem of a movie for me. I felt all sorts of emotions watching the characters go through the many ordeals that came with being part of Kaguya's life. But I also very much enjoyed watching the really interesting art style of the movie in motion. I've always imagined what animating traditional media would be like. But I still wonder if it was an easier task or more difficult than doing regular animation. *SPOILER* I was left with a bitter taste at the end. The movie certainly doesn't leave off on a joyous note, and I felt like it was very unfair to Kaguya's parents. However, that's not necessarily a bad thing as I feel it proves the moral points it's trying to make, and that is that life's too short not to enjoy it for what it is and the things and people we already have in our lives.

Finished watching Macross Plus: Movie Edition

Finished watching Macross Plus: Movie Edition (1995, Studio Nue, Triangle Staff, 115 min.) on 03/20/2017.

Isamu, Guld and Myung, three childhood friends bitterly reunited after a tragic event that separated them for so long. But the wounds of the past have not yet healed and their career paths keep them further apart. While Myung is involved in the creation of a virtual pop idol to inspire the masses, Isamu and Guld compete as select military test pilots for the Super Nova Project.

10/10 - First of all. The movie opens up with music by Akino Arai. I'm already sold. Second of all. This movie is an animation masterpiece of epic proportions. Not only is it a pioneer for the marriage of cel and CG animation, it masterfully combines music and visuals in ways that will leave you hypnotized. The characters are amazing and their relationships are well crafted. The music and soundtrack is really one of its kind. And again, with Akino Arai providing some of the songs for the virtual pop idol what's not to like about this movie? I really want to watch this movie again one day.

Finished watching Macross Do You Remember Love

Finished watching Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Do You Remember Love (1984, Studio Nue, Tatsunoko, 115 min.) on 03/17/2017.

A massive alien spaceship crash lands on Earth and is years later reverse engineered by Earth's UN Spacy who names it SDF-1 Macross. It is then launched into space as part of a ceremony celebrating the project's completion, but the launch attempt is interrupted by an attack from an alien species called the Zentradi and the ship teleports itself to the edge of the Solar System taking an island city along with it. In the midst of the messy launch, Valkyrie pilot Hikaru Ichijo rescues pop idol Lynn Minmay and in doing so they become trapped in an area of the ship for days. The Macross must now return to Earth all the while dealing with various Zentradi attacks.

8/10 - DYRL? is supposedly an alternate retelling of the original Macross series with certain events unfolding differently than the TV show. While the movie itself is pretty good, I still prefer the original story. Specially with how Roy Fokker is handled. But the animation quality is great, specially with Lynn Minmay's shows. And it's always nice to hear her songs as well. I'm not trying to say the story isn't interesting just because it's a different retelling, on the contrary, that's what's interesting about it. Oh, and Kaifun doesn't have much of a presence in this movie. So far as him being replaced as the actor for Shao Pai Long. Ichijo plays the part instead which I thought was great. I can't stand Kaifun...

Finished watching Super Dimension Fortress Macross

Finished watching Super Dimension Fortress Macross (1982, Studio Nue, Tatsunoko, 36 epi.) on 03/14/2017.

A massive alien space ship crash lands on an island on Earth. It is then claimed by a military organization called U.N. Spacy who attempts to rebuild the ship and reverse engineer its technology. Over the years a city begins to grow around the ship. The ship is named SDF-1 Macross and in 2009 an attempt to launch it into space is made. Suddenly an alien race of humanoid giants called the Zentradi attack and the Macross automatically fires its main cannon in response, destroying the alien fleet. Still pressured to launch the ship, the Macross crew attempts the use of the Fold System to teleport themselves out of the Moon's orbit, but in doing so the radial area of the Fold's effect takes the island and its civilians along with them to the edge of the solar system, including a young pilot named Hikaru Ichijo and his new friend, Lynn Minmay who dreams of one day being a music idol. With the Fold system now damaged, the Macross crew salvage the civilians and everything they can from the island city as they try to make their way back to Earth.

8/10 - Yes, not RoboTech. Macross! And yes, wasn't that a long synopsis? Eesh! Oh, but this show is amazing! I mean the art quality is okay, with only a few episodes really going down the toilet. It's like a different studio worked on them or something. But they did have different studios working on this so... I don't know. But the story and the characters are great! Even the characters I hated I feel like I did because they were intended as such. Gaddang that Kaifun, Shao Pai Long faced, good fer nuthin', piece of!!! Sorry... Hahahah! But it's awesome! The show is really well written! It gave me quite a wide range of emotions. You'll enjoy watching the robotic animations too. Just keep in mind it's an early 80's show, though. And naturally the music is pretty good too! The plot is very dependent on Lynn Minmay's musical career so there's quite a couple of songs in the show by her, and I like most of them. The opening and ending are pretty good too. Can't wait for my next karaoke venture.

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.

Finished watching Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kira

Finished watching Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kira (2011, Studio Deen, 4 OVAs) on 01/16/2015.

With the Hinamizawa murder mysteries long gone and out of the way, the show has no other option but to resort to the legendary powers of fan service for the series 10th anniversary! Watch as your favorite Hinamizawa heroes don themselves in controversial magical attire to fight evil syndicates or just for the sole purpose of serving your questionable moe entertainment needs!

8/10 - Hahahah! This show was a f**king ride from start to finish! A friend of mine warned me about some sort of weird concept called "jail bait" if I were to watch this show. But I've no idea what she was talking about, honestly, this show was unbelievable! I recommend it! Now excuse me, some angry men at violently knocking on my door shouting my name for some reason.

Finished watching Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai

Finished watching Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai (2007, Studio Deen, 24 episodes.) on 12/29/2016.

The Hinamizawa mystery murders of 1983 continue to take place over and over again from the same point in time as Furude Rika struggles to break the endless cycle of death that keeps sending her back in time to save the village. But this time, light is shed on the darkness of these events as we and Rika herself learn more about the sinister minds that pull the strings from the shadows. Is this the chance she's been waiting for?

8/10 - I LOVED this series! And I like to think I should've just skipped the original series and just watched this one, but I probably wouldn't have enjoyed this one as much if I hadn't. Either way, it really sheds a lot of light on everything that wasn't explained in the original series, and I really liked that. The animation quality is a lot better with a lot less weirdly distorted facial features and body anatomy. No more stick legs. And the soundtrack is good too with some returning tracks.

Finished watching Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni

Finished watching Higurashi no Naku Koro ni (2006, Studio Deen, 26 episodes.) on 12/08/2016.

Hinamizawa is a secluded little country village with a horrifying mystery on its hands. For the past four years some villagers have died while others have mysteriously disappeared during the town's popular Cotton Drifting Festival held every year to appease Lord Oyashirou, the deity which the locals say cast the curse that killed and spirited-away the recent victims.
But the truth behind Lord Oyashirou's Curse might just lie with the town's youth. Five young girls and an energetic young man named Maebara Keiichi find their friendship tested by the curse of their town's legend.

7/10 - Higurashi has quite the fame within the community. A cute little story about middle and high school friends sharing good times in their after-school club activities that soon turns sour when something snaps and suddenly they're out to murder eachother.
What's really interesting about Higurashi is the order in which the story is told. Nevermind the fact that the first few episodes, if not the whole season itself will leave you mind boggled about what exactly is going on with Keiichi and friends, but the story seems to continue as if following different universes where things happen differently than previous episodes. For first timers like me, we might just have to watch the show a second time paying closer attention to details.
It's really an interesting story but the show's animation quality is not quite as great with character's often drawn with weird proportions or strangely drawn facial features. But the soundtrack is alright with an opening theme that would sure bring vivid memories to fans.

Finished playing Megaman X5

Finished playing Megaman X5 (2001, Capcom, PS) on 12/7/2016.
My second playthrough.
Hours: 42~

Months after the events of Megaman X4, Sigma is resurrected and challenges the Maverick Hunters X and Zero with the intention of losing to spread a Reploid-infecting virus that turns them into Mavericks. Sigma also employs a Reploid mercenary named Dynamo to collide the space-colony Eurasia with Earth. X and Zero must then use the Enigma laser canon to destroy the space-colony before it collides. But will it work?

7/10 - This game is interesting with its couple of alternate endings. I can't remember what ending I got last time I played but I was lucky to get the best ending on my first try this time around. Yes, lucky, because certain timeline deviations are left up to chance more than the player's actions in this game. Not sure if previous X games implemented that same system or not. It's been a while. The game isn't terribly difficult either aside from maybe one of the last few bosses and the final boss himself.
The soundtrack is alright, nothing to write home about expect for maybe one or two good tracks. The main theme and the track for the level where you fight all eight bosses again were my favorite ones.
I also found the Squid Adler level very interesting and amusingly challenging with the bike section. I also like how you can stock up on 1Ups in that level too. But I never did find out what those V blocks were for. Maybe next time.

I have a hate/love relationship with the Megaman series. Why, because even though I've played every main installment before that preceded this one, I never really understood how to play Megaman games. I had actually given up on the series after I first played X5 a few years ago because I couldn't handle the immense frustrations I always experienced with the games. But I've always loved Zero and his own game installments very much, so I decided to give X another chance, even though I don't really find him very agreeable. So this time around I went in with an open mind. Megaman games are very challenging, but not without reason. These are games you're supposed to play over and over until you learn things like level design and enemy patterns. So with that in mind and without getting upset every time I lost, I pressed on over and over and over again until I was breezing through levels and bosses with flying colors... except for maybe Sigma... and Yellow Devil incarnates... ugh. And I think that's how you're supposed to play Megaman games. So here I go, onto the next one.

Finished playing Final Fantasy VI

Finished playing Final Fantasy VI (1994, Square, SNES) on 11/20/2016.
Hours: 85

A mysterious young sorceress named Terra finds herself under the mind-control of an Empire that rules over the land with Magitek, a technology that combines the power of magic and machines. After escaping the Empire's mind-control, Terra is rescued by and joins forces with the Returners, a rebel group seeking to put a stop to the Empire's dictatorship.

Quite possibly the most ambitious game of its time, Final Fantasy VI still stands today as one of the greatest RPGs in history. This being my third time playing this amazing game only reminded me how true that really is.
I really have no complaints about this game. The characters are great, their story is deep and well written and the music is exceptionally beautiful. The game even features an opera show with just as much emotion as the game's own story. Of course the gameplay is just as great as well with so many sidequests and hidden little things that will keep you playing and replaying for hours on end.

10/10 - Ten atta ten! This game is avaialble for dirt cheap on the iTunes store, Google Play store and Steam, so if you ever want to play an old FF game this would be it and there's no reason why you can't get it.

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 .hack//Roots

Finished watching .hack//Roots (2006, Bee Train, 26 episodes) on 10/17/2016.

Haseo is a new player of an MMORPG called The World. But as soon as he starts playing he is attacked by other more experienced players in the game. A mysterious man named Ovan saves him and invites Haseo to join his guild, the Twilight Brigade. This guild and its members seek to find the fabled rare item called the Key of the Twilight. But TaN, another guild stands in their way as they too seek the same item.

Hmmm... this show could've been handled a lot better if there weren't so many episodes, most of which dragged on for too long or felt useless to the advancement of the plot. Even some scenes felt like they were purposely stretched to fill in runtime.

The story itself was... alright, I guess. It's apparently a prequel to the PlayStation 2 games, which I've never played, mind you. I'm sure fans would've enjoyed this show a little better. Anyways, the characters weren't quite that interesting to me, except for maybe Haseo, but even he was a little pathetic. I really feel like the story could've benefited from fewer episodes.

The soundtrack didn't seem that great either. Some tracks were just absurd to me even. Not much really stood out to me.

5.5/10 - What can I say, Bee Train just really doesn't do it for me. I don't know what it is but from the stuff I've watched from them, it seems like they don't really... care? That much? Sorry, but this show was just dull to me.