Online Journal

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Tuesday, January 31, 2006--Because I stayed up a while last night, I wasn't able to wake up in time for

CS186 Lecture... Oh, well. I'll go to it on Thursday.

CS164 Lecture...

EE192 Lecture... I now know what an H-bridge does.


On my way out to the TBP Meeting, I ran into Princess Vivian. Then, I ran into her on the way back in. Therefore, Princess Vivian is awesome!

Dice Roll of the Day: (3, 1) Total: 4

I'm running out of ways to say Good Night!

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Monday, January 30, 2006--Today, I went back to Berkeley, but on my way there, we stopped by in Milpitas at Sheng Kee to eat Chinese food and to buy bread. (Mmm... bread...)

Oh, then I returned to Berkeley.

After doing some work for Tau Beta Pi, I went fencing. It was grueling, but I survived it this time.

Dice Roll of the Day: (2, 5) Total: 7

Also, she talked to me. Actually, I talked to her, but she responded to me. All seems to be well.

Very Good Night!

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Sunday, January 29, 2006--Happy Chinese New Year


Anyways, today, while I was working on Demons Engine Architecture 3, Kellie and her parents came to our place to visit, so Kellie and me played Rise of Nations. (We would have played StarCraft, but we couldn't get the LAN to work for StarCraft for some odd reason.) We played 2v1 against the computer.

Game 1: Apparently, Kellie set the computer to normal difficulty or something I didn't see. All I know is, in the beginning, I was so focused on my economy that I neglected to build a sufficient defensive force, so I got overrun by the computer in half an hour and lost, so Kellie decided to restart.

Game 2: We made set the computer at the easiest difficulty setting (probably too easy). In any case, Kellie outdid me in this game as well. I think my main mistake was that I was so focused on packing as much economic power into each city that I built too few cities. In the end, I had too much Wood and not enough Knowledge and Wealth, and certainly not enough territory.

The Egyptians are good, though, I like rushing Terra Cotta Warriors.

Then, our family and Kellie's family went to dinner at Taste of China. I don't think I've been there since I last went on my 20th birthday. Stupid Jasmine.

Dice Roll of the Day: (4, 4) Total: 8

Today, I'll end with just plain old Good Night!

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Saturday, January 28, 2006--Happy Birthday Stephanie H!


Anyways, after eating Dim Sum at Loon Wah (or whatever that restaurant is called), I worked on The Hyperman Chronicles. Hmm... I wonder if Andrea still reads Dark Fiends. Oh well. Maybe I should ask Lei.

Later, we went to Jasmine's for a Chinese New Years Eve party.

Jasmine's Mom (to me): Vivian [Chu] will be here.
Me: (Okay... why would she tell me that? Stupid Jasmine.)

Other guests included (but not limited to) Deanne, Jeffrey, Connie, and Katherine Pan's parents, but not Katherine herself.

The best part of the party was that they had Truffles.

The second best part of the party was that Viv Chu was there.

The third best part of the party was that Jasmine wasn't.

Anyways, after eating dinner (or actually, during dinner), Willy, Viv Chu, and Deanne go to watch this Korean soap opera dubbed in Chinese. Then, Franklin said he was going to go home and asked if I wanted to go home. So I thought, should I stay here and hit on Viv Chu and be sad when she doesn't like me back? Or should I go home and be sad because there are no humans around for me to talk to but at least I have my computer to keep me entertained?

Well, I picked the second solution. It was clearly the superior of the two.

Dice Roll of the Day: (2, 3) Total: 5

I hate Jasmine.

Join me next time, when I discuss when I bid you Happy Chinese New Years!

Until then, I wish you Good Night!

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Friday, January 27, 2006--Today was the first CS164 Discussion... It was amusing. People were asking questions that they would have already known the answer to had they been listening lecture. It was funny, though. Everyone was arguing over what the right answer was and the poor TA didn't have a chance to speak.

EE192 Checkoff... Also, our group got lucky and got the new chassis with 4-wheel drive. Unfortunately, since we got a new car instead of an old car, we weren't able to salvage parts from old cars. Oh, well. At least we have 4-wheel drive.


Then, I went home. I like home. It's quite homey.

Apparently, I have to teach my brother Java (not the coffee).

Dice Roll of the Day: (2, 4) Total: 6

Good Night, dearest!
Sweet dreams!

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Thursday, January 26, 2006--Happy Birthday Kellie!

CS186 Lecture...

CS164 Lecture...

After lunch at GBC, I went back to the dorm and did my CS164 Written Assignment in the 3rd floor lounge. I finished quickly. It was disappointing.

Dice Roll of the Day: (1, 6) Total: 7

Night Good!

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Wednesday, January 25, 2006--Last night, I dreamt that Vivian P kept calling me on my cell phone. At least I think that was my dream. I don't remember anymore.

Lunch with Abhi and Chris...

EE192 Discussion... Apparently, I forgot to save my work yesterday, so I had to redo it all. Fortunately, I redid it all in just 20 minutes.

CS186 Discussion... I started asking people if they needed a partner for a project. About 5 seconds after I found a dude who needed a project partner, a girl comes up and asks if she knows anyone who needs a partner. Oh, well. She wasn't that cute anyway.

After doing some easy CS186 homework (2Q algorithm, yo), I went to dinner and started watching TV.

Dice Roll of the Day: (6, 2) Total: 8

I like Good Night!

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Tuesday, January 24, 2006--I woke up slightly late, but I still got to class on time. Quote by random girl who was also in my CS188 class: "That can't be North Gate! It's too ugly!"

Oh, did I mention? CS186 is in North Gate Hall now. It's not much of a gate, though. More of an ugly building.

CS164 Lecture...

EE192 Lecture...

Then, me and my group (Wayne and Slava) went to work on our EE192 Checkpoint #1. Basically, it was to be able to get the board just vaguely working. And it did. Now, I know how to program out EE192 board. I still have no idea how to build a racecar, unfortunately.

Speaking of racecars, did you know that racecar backwards is racecar? It's a palindrome!

TBP Meeting... I feel kind of bad. I forgot who most of the new officers are. Except for Frances, but that's only because I added her in Facebook. And because she was candidate of the semester. And probably also because she's a girl. (But then again, I forgot the names of some of the new girl officers, too, so that can't be it.)

Dice Roll of the Day: (4, 1) Total: 5

Also, Dorie called a floor meeting with both the 3rd and 4th floors to reiterate to not break any rules. Because they made her.

It is Night. I must say that it is Good.

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Monday, January 23, 2006--I dunno if I told any of you in the audience, but I don't have class on Mondays. As such, I was still at home when the day began, and after eating at the Super Buffet for lunch (it was super!), I made my triumphant return to Berkeley.

Also, I made my triumphant return to fencing. However, since I hadn't been fencing for 2 months, I found myself very very out of shape and, as a result, couldn't keep up with the conditioning drills. Grr... now I have to rebuild my body.

(Also, I worked on The Hyperman Chronicles.)

Dice Roll of the Day: (6, 5) Total: 11

On my way to fencing, however, just as I was leaving the vicinity of Unit 2, I noticed someone who looked like Princess Vivian (she was wearing her distinctive eskimo jacket), but she had her back turned to me, so I wasn't sure. I would have noticed her earlier, but I was distracted talking to Evan. Oh, well...

And... Good Night!

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Sunday, January 22, 2006--I think I'm feeling better today. I mean, I got through the whole day without resorting to listening to music to calm myself down. Then again, I was distracted by my precious MTG cards. Well, that's what they're there for. People created entertainment to amuse themselves so they could forget about their troubles. Because honestly, who needs troubles?


(Apparently, that was the day I went 2-1-1 with a sub-par deck. Apparently, in sealed deck including the small sets, you end up seriously lacking in removal.)

Today, I decided that, since I had collected a huge pile of Kamigawa cards that I didn't play with anymore (accumulated from drafts and otherwise popping boosters), I should build decks out of them so that they wouldn't go to waste. So if anyone wants to play MTG with sub-par, mono-color, Kamigawa decks, just ask me.

Dice Roll of the Day: (4, 1) Total: 5

Err... uhh... Good Night!

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Saturday, January 21, 2006 - Addendum--I dunno why I posted an addendum. Not much happened besides the prerelease. Although, I guess it was somewhat important to put in "On this day", "Dice Roll of the Day", and "MTG Mood Meter".


Also, after the prerelease, we went to Kellie's. I thought that might be worth mentioning.

Dice Roll of the Day: (4, 2) Total: 6

MTG Mood Meter: One with Nothing

"When nothing remains, everything is equally possible."

Good Night! Don't let the succubi cast Drain Life on you!

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Saturday, January 21, 2006--Guildpact Prerelease! w00t!

It was at the San Jose Convention Center (but in a different building, because there was something going on in the main building). In fact, it was right next to the place where we used to rehearse for SJYS.

Anyways, the tournament didn't go so well. My deck was starving for removal. I think the only cards that could really count as removal were Gaze of the Gorgon, Disembowel, and Pillory of the Sleepless. I had two Orzhov Euthanists, but those can hardly be counted as removal.

Anyways, the two color combinations that supposedly worked in the format were Red-White-Green (Boros-Gruul-Selesnya) and White-Green-Black (Selesnya-Orzhov-Golgari). Some people managed to play Izzet, though. I played the White-Green-Black deck.

Here is my decklist:
5xPlains
4xForest
5xSwamp
Golgari Rot Farm
Orzhov Basilica
Svogthos, the Restless Tomb
Veteran Armorer
Ghost Warden
Shrieking Grotesque
Pollenbright Wings
Dryad Sophisticate
Silhana Ledgewalker
Moldervine Cloak
Civic Wayfinder
Golgari Brownscale
Greater Mossdog
Gruul Scrapper
Gaze of the Gorgon
2xOrzhov Euthanist
Disembowel
Abyssal Nocturnus
Dimir House Guard
Sewerdreg
2xMourning Thrull
Pillory of the Sleepless
Souls of the Faultless
Agent of Masks

Other interesting cards in my pool include: a foil Steamcore Weird (along with a non-foil one), a Leyline of Lightning, Scab-Clan Mauler (if for no reason than because its flavor text says "They inflict pain to forget their own and break foes to feel whole."), Light of Sanction (ugh), Ghosts of the Innocent (half ugh), and Phytohydra.

Anyways, first round, I went up against this dude named Matt. He played a White-Black-Blue deck, and he had Ghost Council of Orzhova. He won game 1 pretty easily. In game 2, I managed to pull off a win. In game 3, he beat me. "It was these fliers that saved my life." Yay fliers...Record: 0-1

After losing, I decided to eat lunch. You see, for once, I decided to make myself a sandwich to bring to the Prerelease so I wouldn't go hungry. It should be obvious what was in my sandwich: turkey, cheddar, mayo, and mustard.

Anyways, in the second round, I went up against this dude who played White-Green-Black, I think (but I don't really remember). Anyways, the first game took a while, mainly because I was down after my first loss, but then, after about 20 minutes, I realized I had the win. MVPs included Souls of the Faultless (which prevented him from attacking, hurray!), Agent of Masks (which drained away his life), and Pillory of the Sleepless (which slowly bled him to death). The funny thing is, I had my Pillory of the Sleepless on his Drooling Groodion, which he could have sacrificed to save himself some life. However, he just kind of sat there and kept taking damage. When he had 2 life left, he finally sacrificed the Drooling Groodion to kill the Souls of the Faultless, but the Agent of Masks killed him anyway. In the second game, I swampwalked him to death with Sewerdreg. Record: 1-1

Okay, now I have to win one more, and I can probably get my round 4 guy to draw, and I can still walk home with prizes.

Unfortunately, it didn't play out like that. In round 3, I went up against this dude named Grant, who played the same deck as I did, except his deck was better. I lost to his Pillories of the Sleepless. Record: 1-2

Knowing that I was guaranteed to not have prizes, I dropped from the tournament and went home early. This was the worst prerelease ever. This was the first prerelease I didn't win any prizes.

Oh well, there are far far worse things in life...

But you know, there's nothing like having something so unimportant like an MTG prerelease to keep your mind off more important things...

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Friday, January 20, 2006 - Addendum--I'm going to post some flavor text from MTG Cards that really reflect my mood. (The Mistforms you've seen before on September 1, 2003.)

"Familiarity, the first myth of reality: What you know the best, you observe the least."--Mistform Mutant

"Devotion, the second myth of reality: The faithful are most hurt by the objects of their faith."--Mistform Dreamer

"Conviction, the third myth of reality: Only those who seek the truth can be deceived."--Mistform Skyreaver

"Fellowship, the fourth myth of reality: As the tides of war shift, so do loyalties."--Mistform Wall

"Trust, the fifth myth of reality: Every truth holds the seed of betrayal."--Mistform Mask

"Love is like a rhino, short-sighted and hasty; if it cannot find a way, it will make a way."--Crash of Rhinos

"Like Day from Night,
I'll live my life apart from you, just glimpsing you across the sky,
because you cannot change, my dear, and nor can I."
--"Love Song of Night and Day", Unfulfilled Desires

I might post more later.

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Friday, January 20, 2006--Since it's the first week of class, CS164 Discussion was cancelled. So then, I went home and basically played the piano and went online and didn't do much in particular.

Dice Roll of the Day: (5, 2) Total: 7

Also, Stephanie Yaung on Physics AP at Leland (over AIM)...
Steph: and our instructor seems to have lost contact with us
Viltris: so basically, woytek was better, huh?
Steph: yes
Steph: i actually learned something in that class
Steph: even from his dr. goodstein videos

Good Night, everyone!

MTG Mood Meter: Unfulfilled Desires (the flavor text is also good, too)

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Thursday, January 19, 2006--A return to non-descript days...

CS186 Lecture... Apparently the lectures will be moved to a different room starting next week. How annoying.

CS164 Lecture... Apparently, we got our first assignment today. It's to write a program in COOL (Classroom Object Oriented Language), the language we'll be compiling. Cool!

After lunch at the GBC, I went back to my room and did homework and other non-amusing stuff.

Dice Roll of the Day: (5, 3) Total: 8

Kupo Night!

MTG Mood Meter: Mistform Dreamer (for the flavor text)

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Wednesday, January 18, 2006--Happy Birthday Joyce L!


Today was the second day of class.

EE192 Discussion... so I found another teammate, some dude named Wayne (how confusing), only to find that EE192 Vivian was leaving our group.

CS186 Discussion... was cancelled, because it's still the first week of class.

Dice Roll of the Day: (3, 4) Total: 7

Also, after class, I finished the Demons Graphics Engine. It's some pretty awesome shit.

Dark Knight!

MTG Mood Meter: Boomerang

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Tuesday, January 17, 2006--First day of class for the Spring Semester... wonderful...

CS186 (Databases)... Since it was the first day of class, today was primarily introductory, so we didn't cover any real material. The only thing that sucks about this class is the 8am Final Exam.

CS164 (Compilers)... Same as above, except without the 8am Final Exam...

EE192 (Mechatronics)... This class is over-loaded. Also, apparently, Abhishek has abandoned me, so I am lab partnerless. Not that it matters, since we are required to work in groups of 3. Fortunately, after the end of lecture, I went hunting for people who need partners and found this one girl named Vivian Chong. (Wonderful, yet another Vivian. How confuddling.) Also, apparently, Tracy is being kicked out of the class to make more room for graduationg seniors. Awesome.

Since I had class from 11am to 3:30pm, I didn't have lunch, so I was starving. So, I decided to go get good old Chicken Strips at the GBC. Then, I made a trip to the Bear Market, so now I'm stocked up on Pop Tarts and Oreos.

Now, I'm watching TV, Because that's what I do. I watch TV. I think I'll go hit up the Den and buy Soda later tonight.

Dice Roll of the Day: (1, 6) Total: 7

Ah, there's nothing like having something so unimportant like the first day of class to distract you from more important things... like her...

God Knight!

MTG Mood Meter: Master Decoy

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Monday, January 16, 2006--I had trouble sleeping last night. I was thinking about her. There were a million thoughts going through my head about a million things that could go wrong. I woke up in the middle of the night all frustrated and upset. So I listened to some music.


Other than that, I started working on Demons Architecture Engine 3 and made a little bit of progress before I discovered that I had pushed my attention span too far and decided I needed to take a break.

Dice Roll of the Day: (3, 2) Total: 5

Good Knight!

Addendum 1/20/2006: While it's still fresh in my mind, I'm going to put a record here...

MTG Mood Meter: Impatience

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Sunday, January 15, 2006 - Addendum--Princess Vivian came back to Berkeley today. That made me happy. (=

But then, she went back home. That makes me sad. )=

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Sunday, January 15, 2006--For some odd reason, today, I had lunch with Christine Wu. Don't ask.

Then, after working on Demons Engine Architecture 3, I had dinner with Lei.

And now, I'm sitting in my room, waiting for the Sunday night cartoons on fox to start. w00t!

Dice Roll of the Day: (6, 5) Total: 11

The Night is somewhat Good.

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Saturday, January 14, 2006--Last night, I had this dream where I got this girl pregnant, and she didn't want to be with me anymore, and she didn't want any money or child support, but for some reason she kept calling me on my cell phone. What a strange dream.

Speaking of dreams...


Anyways, today, I basically spent more time working on Demons Engine Architecture 3.

Also, Nick came back today, so the gang's all re-united. David, Nick, Lindsay, and me all went to dinner at Xroads. Unfortunately, I then ran into Diane Ko. (At least I think it was her, anyway. After seeing her once, I didn't feel too compelled to confirm.)

Dice Roll of the Day: (5, 3) Total: 8

Good Night! May you dream of fairies.

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Friday, January 13, 2006 - Addendum--Here's a sneak preview. Enjoy!



(designed by Kellie)

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Friday, January 13, 2006--Happy Friday the 13th!

Yesterday, April came back. Today, Eric and Timothy came back. Hurray! It's not so desolate here anymore!

I also did work on Demons Engine Architecture 3. It's going well.

Dice Roll of the Day: (2, 4) Total: 6

Heh, so I decided to visit Princess Vivian's roommate Stacy. The first thing she said to me was "Vivian's not back yet." Amusing...

Now, I must do the same thing I do every night. Try to say Good Night!

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Thursday, January 12, 2006--Today, I went back to Berkeley. It's so desolate there. So far, I've only encountered two humans in the halls.

Hmm... maybe I shouldn't have come so early. Speaking of which...

Dice Roll of the Day: (1, 2) Total: 3

Also, I worked on Hyperman Chronicles today and made significant progress. Unlike Dark Fiends, though, I plan to write a few chapters ahead of the posting schedule. That way, I'll have room to make it a little more consistent and fluent. So far, the first few chapters are coming out fantastic. It's probably the new setting and unexplored creative space that's giving me some good stuff to write about. (It also probably means that I'm running out of fresh ideas for Dark Fiends--all the more reason to accelerate the story now.)

Anyways, Dwayne is Good Night!

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Wednesday, January 11, 2006 - Addendum--3 tough breaks in Minesweeper:

1. Minesweeper #1
2. Minesweeper #2
3. Minesweeper #3

Well, on the bright side, it seems I'm getting faster.

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Wednesday, January 11, 2006--I have a story to tell, but first...


Anyways, today, I had planned to go see Chronicles of Narnia with Lei, who apparently also brought her little sister and invited Ke, Ke's little brother, and Albert Yeh. The movie was all right. It's been over a decade since I've read the book, though, so I can't remember if the movie is true to the book, although my gut is to say that it was. I'm surprised they kept the same ending, though. If I were a Hollywood producer, and my job was to make changes to the movie adaption of the book, the first thing I'd change would be the ending, because the ending is just so awkward and lame.

Also, on an impulse, just before the movie, I bought myself a new watch strap and had it installed. Hurray!

Dice Roll of the Day: (5, 2) Total: 7

Also, I ran into Maria.

Since it's winter, the days are shorter. Thus, by the time I got out of the theater, it was already a Good Night!

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Tuesday, January 10, 2006--Why is Soul Calibur 3 so addictive? I spent all of today playing Soul Calibur 3 when I should have been doing something productive.

Ah, well, it's Winter Break. What do you expect?

Dice Roll of the Day: (4, 2) Total: 6

Good Night, y'all!

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Monday, January 9, 2006--Unfortunately, I woke up late today. However, that didn't stop me from playing Soul Calibur 3 and unlocking shit, like the Sword Master class (can use any custom character weapon).

Dice Roll of the Day: (5, 1) Total: 6

Wow, short entry! I guess I have to say Good Night now, huh?

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Sunday, January 8, 2006--Today, after waking up a bit late and cooking and eating dumplings, I continued work on the sound system for Demons Engine Architecture 3.

Dice Roll of the Day: (5, 4) Total: 9

Good Zzz... Huh? What? Oh! Good Night!

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Saturday, January 7, 2006--Today was Vivian P's Miss Little Saigon pageant.

First, I had to pick up one of her friends and then drive her to Vivian's house so that we could congregate and all leave en masse. Also, there was pho. (I dunno how to add the squigglies or whatever they're called.)

Christine: Dwayne, do you want noodles?
Bernie: It's not called noodles. It's called pho.
Christine: Yeah, but Dwayne doesn't speak Vietnamese. Dwayne, do you know what pho is?
Me: Yeah.

Anyways, out of 13 contestants, Vivian got into the finals (top 4) and won 4th place overall (aka, "3rd runner-up", aka "3rd Princess"). So yeah, Vivian P is a Princess now. Henceforth, she shall be referred to as Princess Vivian.

Me: I dunno what those judges were thinking. In my mind, you're the winner.

Afterwards...

Dice Roll of the Day: (5, 1) Total: 6

"Remember, the most important thing is that you have friends. No one can ever take that away from you."

Good Night, my dearest...

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Friday, January 6, 2006--Today, for no reason at all, I decided to play Diablo 2.


Then, I worked on Dark Fiends.

Dice Roll of the Day: (4, 2) Total: 6

I need to say Good Night before I forget to say Good Night.

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Thursday, January 5, 2006--I think I'm going to take a page from the book of Lei and start calling it a bloop.

Anyways, today is much ado about nothing. (I didn't do much today.) Well, I did go eat at King's Buffet. It had the same food as Super Buffet and Crazy Buffet. I know, super crazy, isn't it? Super crazy like a king.

After that, it was me mostly slacking off. All seems to be well.

Dice Roll of the Day: (1, 3) Total: 4

All seems to be Good Night!

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Wednesday, January 4, 2006--Today consists of two parts.

1. I went to Vivian P's place to pick up tickets for her pageant.

2. I watched the Rose Bowl.

USC lost! w00t!

I remember that by the end of the first half, Texas was leading, so I thought they had a pretty good chance of winning. Then, in the 3rd quarter, Texas started falling behind. Then, after Texas missed a key field goal at the beginning of the fourth quarter, I thought they were basically screwed. However, in the last half of the fourth quarter, while USC was leading 38-33, they were able to stifle USC's offense at the 50-yard line. I remember it was a key play. USC's 3rd down just fell short of the first down, and they were 4th and 1 with a little over 2 minutes to go. Anyone who knows anything about football knows that when you're in this position, you want to avoid turning over the ball at all costs, so obviously you go for it. Well, USC did just that, but when they tried to run it, they didn't gain a single yard, so the ball goes over to Texas at midfield with about 2 minutes to go.

Next came the hard part. Texas was needed just one touchdown to win the game, but Pete Carroll sent blitz after blitz after blitz at the Texas QB Vince Young. Finally, Vince scores a touchdown with 19 seconds left on the clock. Longhorns lead 39-38. Longhorns then go for the 2-point conversion and make it to lead 41-38. Leinart is unable to score in the return drive, and as a result, Trojans lose.

USC's Reign of Terror is finally over!

It was one of the best games I've seen in a while, on par with the legendary Cal-USC 2003 game. Incidentally, that was USC's most recent loss before today. Now, I can say I've seen the beginning and the end of the USC winning streak. Now, I can say I've seen the rise and the fall of the Trojans under Matt Leinart.

Another interesting statistic is that Vince Young, Longhorn QB, single-handedly outplayed the entire USC team, which included 2 Heisman winners. Vince Young should have those two Heismans.

Dice Roll of the Day: (5, 2) Total: 7

I end my entries with Good Night!

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Tuesday, January 3, 2006--Today was more FF8.


*8*Anyways, I got bored of playing cards, so I decided to finish the game. Clearing Lunatic Pandora was pretty simple, mainly 'cause I was uber-strong. Fuujin and Raijin? Easy. Mobile Type 8? Easy. Seifer? I was hoping I could draw Aura from him, but since he was at low levels, he didn't have any. He was still easy, though. (I ended up not needing the Auras.)

Then, Time Compression. The series of sorceress battles was easy. Then, Ultimecia's castle. The 8 bosses were easy. (I didn't fight Omega Weapon.) Also, it's hilarious, because when fighting Tiamat, I had 100 Haste junctioned to each speed stat, so I killed Tiamat before he could even give a single letter of "Dark Flare".

Then came the final bosses: Ultimecia was so easy, I just spent the battle trying to organize the ultimate party--well, my party anyway. Griever was easy except for Shockwave Pulsar, but I recovered from that (Quistis had 8000+ HP, so it didn't kill her) and proceeded to kill him off before he could use it again. Ultimecia-Griever was also easy. Final Ultimecia was easy. Hell's Judgement was a minor setback (reducing everyone's HP to 1), but I recovered it without any problems since my characters are so freaking fast.
*8*

For those of you who didn't read the spoiler text, I beat FF8. It was absurdly easy, mainly because this time around, I abused the system. Anyways, here are my thoughts, as posted on Avalanche Online, in spoiler text:

*8*"For those of you who've been on the forum a while, you might remember that I'm the guy who levelled up too much during my first play-through of FF8 and, as a result, was unable to finish the game. (Another result is that I'm the guy who always tells FF8 players to level up as little as possible.)

Anyways, I finally finished my second play-through of FF8. According to my last save file, it took me 54 hours and 53 minutes (not counting the 10 or so minutes it took to kick Ultimecia's ass, also up to 10 of those hours might have been me playing Triple Triad), and my highest character's (namely Squall) level was level 13.

Anyways, here are my thoughts:

STORYLINE

I won't say that FF8 has a bad storyline. It's just that the storyline isn't well presented and that you had to pay attention to the details in order to fully appreciate all the aspects of the FF8 story. In fact, I hadn't noticed the depth of the story until I read a FAQ on GameFAQs that discusses various theories on time travel and Ultimecia's rise to power (the other one, not the absurd one that tries to claim that Rinoa is Ultimecia).

What's most interesting is that while the game's box says the story's main theme is love, the heart of the story is mainly about Garden, SeeD, Squall, Ultimecia, fate, and the twin Time Loops that embraces them all. The whole thing about love (and Squall and Rinoa's relationship) doesn't play a role until disc 3 and really has no depth to it at all (other than the cliche "You never know what you have until you've lost it" thing that Squall goes through in disc 3).

That said, it took a 10+ page plot analysis to get me to notice the meat of the story. Clearly, the story was poorly presented. (Alternatively, if fate and time loops was supposed to be a minor theme and love was the major theme, Square botched up really badly in choosing which plot elements to focus on.)


MUSIC

FF8's music is not very memorable. Aside from the boss battle music, Laguna's battle music, and the Griever battle music, the music was rather subpar, and even then, these songs are particularly memorable only because they remixed by the Black Mages.

Of course, my standards for RPG soundtracks have been set really really high by FF6 and Chrono Trigger.

Honorable Mentions: Eyes On Me (good song, but not as good as most people make it out to be), Sorceress battle music.


GAMEPLAY

FF8's gameplay is fundamentally flawed. Why? The whole "enemies level up with you" thing. It's completely counter-intuitive, makes the game absurdly difficult when misused, and makes the game absurdly easy when abused.

1. It's completely counter-intuitive.
In all the FF RPGs before and in all the FF RPGs afterward (up to FFX, which is the last main series FF to be released as of the writing of this review), enemy levels and stats were more or less fixed. If you were having a hard time beating a certain boss or getting through a certain dungeon, all you had to do was train to get stronger (in most FF's, this entails levelling up). If you were having trouble, you level up, get stronger, and the game gets easier. That's also what's expected in real life: if you have trouble with something (like math homework or driving a car), you practice more and you get better at it, so it becomes easier.

However, in FF8, levelling up is completely backwards. When you level up, the ENEMIES get stronger, and your party's stats barely go up, so as a result, the game gets HARDER.

2. It makes the game absurdly hard when misused.
This is #1 taken to one extreme. As a veteran of other FF's, I was under the impression that levelling up was a good thing. Since I knew that in FF8, enemies level up with you, I expected that at the very least, the enemies' stats and my stats would grow about the same so that the difficulty would remain constant. (I mean, isn't that the whole point of systems where enemies level up with you?)

Not only that, but I enjoy killing monsters. (I mean, if you don't enjoy killing monsters, then why are you playing a game whose gameplay centers on combat? Other than, of course, having to fight endless, easy battles to level up.) So I went around killing monsters as I explored the dungeons.

Imagine my surprise as my level goes up and the bosses start having HP stats in the 10,000+ range and my characters only do 300 damage per hit, and when they start doing 2000 points of damage per attack and I only have 3500 HP per character.

In any other FF RPG, if I were having trouble with bosses, I'd just level up some more, but no, in FF8, that only makes the game HARDER.

In short, I'm at the final boss, who thoroughly kicks my ass effortlessly (and a Griever who takes so long to kill, he actually does Pulsar Shockwave MULTIPLE TIMES during the battle), and my Squall is at level 60 or so, and there's very little I can do to power up my characters to take down Ultimecia and Griever.

In short, I'm screwed. With no cards to make the infamous Holy War that everyone seems to have used to beat the game, with no Auras to get Zell to use his Punch Rush-Booya combo that everyone raves about (a combo which is also very very NOT fun to do; who likes hitting the same four buttons over and over and over again as fast as they can?), and without the strength to fight the monsters I need to fight to power myself up, the game is as good as impossible to beat.

And I'm not the only person to make this mistake. I don't have a lot of friends who play Final Fantasy, and two of those friends have told me things along the lines of "I could only beat the game by using Holy Wars and Selphie's The End", which they both also considered cheating. It just so happens that I never had the patience or the knowledge required to get those Holy Wars.

3. It makes the game absurdly easy when abused.
This is #1 taken to the other extreme. In my second playthrough, seeing the mistakes of my first playthrough, I vowed to level up as little as possible. A little bit of research got me my holy grail: Quezacoatl's Card command ability. Enemies Carded will give you AP, but not experience. As a result, I had almost every useful GF ability learned by the end of the game, and I was still at level 13. (It would have been lower, but I allowed myself a few slipups so as to not have to hit the reset button every time I gained experience.)

Not only that, but being at low levels doesn't prevent you from getting good junction magic. As early as disc 1, you can refine 100 Curagas for each character from tents using Siren's Life Magic Refine ability, which, when junctioned to HP, brings your characters HP stat up to about 3500. And at low levels, enemies rarely do more than 2 digits' worth of damage. Even Edea at the end of disc 1 barely does more than 500 points of damage. (Not like it matters--summoning Carbuncle repeatedly can beat Edea without taking a single point of damage anyway.)

Also, Ultima can be gotten as early as disc 2 from the Shumi Village. Meteor, Holy, Flare, and Triple can be gotten from the Islands Closest to Heaven and Hell. Sure, you had to wait for these draw points to regenerate, but you could always visits these draw points in between dungeons, side-quests, and card playing splurges. Haste (which you can junction to your characters' speed stat for a GODLY advantage) can be drawn by the handful from common enemies.

Needless to say, I breezed my way through the game in my second playthrough. The only setbacks were Ultima Weapon (who killed me once because I decided not to heal when I should have) and Griever's Shockwave Pulsar, which actually DIDN'T kill me since Quistis had her HP stat in the 8000s. Not only that, but my characters were so fast, when fighting Tiamat, the poor dragon never even spat out a single letter of "Dark Flare". (Not that it matters--Dark Flare can be absorbed like all other elemental attacks.) And this was on Zell's Duel set to auto-mode. ('Cause inputting Zell's limit breaks is boring as hell.)

In short, levelling up as little as possible makes the game stupidly easy. And all this is possible with FF8 solely because enemies level up with you.

The only other FF that's this easy is FFX, and that was only because I spent hours upon hours getting each character's Celestial Weapon and training them in the Omega Ruins. In FF8? I skipped most battles, rushed through the game, and spent ZERO time getting rare items (side from items you need to get Doomtrain).

Someone once said to me that monsters levelling up with you in FF8 is supposed to balance out the game so that people who level up their characters like made so that they can breeze the game with over-powered characters. Well, Square certainly succeeded in punishing people who over-level their characters. Not like they weren't already punished enough. Don't they know how painfully tedious it is to level up your characters to high levels? This isn't Diablo 2, where power-levelling is so easy that people can get to level 90+ in less than a week by just standing around, ya know?

On the other hand, players who are too lazy to fight battles get the ultimate reward: the easiest FF ever made!

They way it has worked in all the other main series FFs as of the writing of this review is that if you want a challenge, rush through the game with low levels, and if you want to have an easier game, fight random battles until your strong, but pay the price in extreme boredom. Instead, in FF8, they have it so that if you want an easy, mindless game, you get that for free, and players who endure hours and hours of painful levelling up are rewarded with a game that's nearly impossible to finish.

Fucking idiots. I'm glad Square has abandoned the idea of enemies levelling up with you.

To end ths section on a positive note, FF8's gameplay did have one good point: the Junction system. It wasn't perfect, but it was good idea with a rather good execution.


OVERALL

As you can tell by my paragraph after paragraph of ranting about how horrible enemies levelling up with you (as compared to a single paragraph about the Junction system), it's pretty easy to see that I hated FF8. The enemies levelling up with you was just that bad.

I wouldn't say that FF8 is the worst FF ever made--no, that honor is reserved for FFX-2, but FF8 is pretty close (along with the third FF I hate: FF2).

So why, you say, after playing FF8 through once and discovering it's flaw, why would I spend nearly 60 hours on a second playthrough on a game I absolutely detest?

So I can say that I've beaten all the main series FFs (as well as FFX-2 and FFTactics). It's an honor that few people have."*8*

For those of you who didn't read the long spoiler-text rant about FF8, the gist of it is that FF8 is tied with FF2 for the 2nd-worst FF ever. (FFX-2 claims the honor of being the worst FF ever.) Why did I spend all that time playing such a crappy game, then? So I can say that I've beaten all the main series FFs (as well as FFX-2 and FFTactics). It's an honor that few people have.

Do you like FF8? Post on the forums for enlightenment.

Dice Roll of the Day: (2, 3) Total: 5

May you never have to play a game where doing long hours of tedious work makes it impossible to finish. Good Night!

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Monday, January 2, 2006--Today, I spent a bit of time playing FF8. Actually, I spent a lot of time playing FF8. Perhaps too much time. My eyes hurt from all this FF8'ing.

*8*Anyways, I finished the Chocobo quest and got the Chicobo Card. Then, I did the PuPu quest (PuPu is this weird little alien whose name sounds like shit) and got the PuPu Card. (It's also a pretty shitty card.)

Then, I finally got the Doomtrain GF. Then, I went for Odin and then Tonberry King. NOTE: When you're fighting Tonberries, carding a Tonberry doesn't count as a kill. You have to kill the Tonberries outright. Fortunately, they don't give any experience, so it doesn't matter.

Finally, I played cards and collected a pretty nice collection of cards. Games without the Random Rule are hard. (Mainly because my cards are so good.)*8*

Dice Roll of the Day: (1, 4) Total: 5

Now, I say to you, "Good Night!"

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Sunday, January 1, 2006--
Happy New Year!!!


Anyways, today, I was mostly working on Dark Fiends.

That seems to be all.

Dice Roll of the Day: (1, 4) Total: 5

!tghiN dooG

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