Online Journal

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Monday, July 31, 2006--Today, we drove to Irvine and dropped Frankie off at his orientation thingamabobber. Then, we drove around Irvine for no real reason. And then, we had lunch at a Taco Bell/KFC for some reason. It was funny. I got a fried chicken meal and a bean burrito.


After that, we drove back home, where I failed to update my bloop for some reason.

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

Good Night!

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Sunday, July 30, 2006--Today, I went to Disneyland. Good times. Nostalgia. I remember how the Haunted Mansion used to scare the crap out of me, but now it's like, hey, smokescreen, half-reflective mirrors, optical illusions, and animatronics. I also saw the Jack Sparrow animatronic on the Pirates of the Carribean.

You know what's funny, though? Space Mountain. It's a roller coaster, but it's not as scary as most roller coasters. Mainly because you can't see what's going on, so you don't really anticipate the twists and turns like you would with a roller coaster at Great America. Plus, there are no free falls. I hate free falls. They make me uncomfortable.

Highlight: On Splash Mountain, we made my dad sit at the front. He tried to shield himself from getting splashed by blocking his torso with the Disneyland map. Not only did his plan fail miserably, but the map was ruined. (Fortunately, we had 2 more.) Not only that, but his hat flew off during the ride. Fortunately, it landed in the log, so we were able to just pick it back up.

Fantasmic is an awesome show. It makes me sad that I probably won't see it again for another 10 years.


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

Happiest Place on Earth Night!

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Saturday, July 29, 2006--NOTE: These next few entries were all posted on Sunday, 8/6/2006, because first I went to Disneyland, and then I got addicted to Suikoden 2.

Anyways, so as the story goes, my little bro has an orientation thingamabobber at Irvine on Monday, so my mom was like, what the heck, let's all go to SoCal, and on the way, we can visit Disneyland. So yeah... we spent the whole day today driving to Disneyland.

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

Good Night!

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Friday, July 28, 2006--I don't have a lot of time, so I'll make this quick. I'm going to Disneyland tomorrow, and I won't come back until about August 1st. So yeah. If you don't see me for a while, don't worry, I'm still alive. Probably.

Also, Suikoden 2 arrived today, almost a full week before Amazon said it would arrive. (Actually, it arrived on Wednesday, but since USPS couldn't properly deliver it these last 2 days and since the value of Suikoden 2 is... well... just go search on eBay, I didn't pick it up at the post office until today.) So, yeah... I've been playing Suikoden 2 all day. It's very similar to the first one.

I'll have an On This Day and a Dice Roll of the Day in an addendum when I get back. Anyways, Good Night!

Addendum 8/6/2006: There was no "On this day" today. Here's the dice roll.

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

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Thursday, July 27, 2006--Did a little bit of work on Demons Engine Architecture 3. Distracted.

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

Ah, Good Night!

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Wednesday, July 26, 2006--A new patch (with new content) for Maple Story came out, so I played that for a bit to see what was going on. Apparently, the game just went through a bunch of balance changes. A lot of people in the Maple community are upset, but at some point, they'll realize that the game is better this way. (Or should be, assuming that the people at Wizet are doing their jobs.) Of course, all of this means nothing until PvP comes out.


I also played Rise of Nations. I'm getting better. Yesterday, I was playng a 2v2 with a computer as my ally at the 2nd easiest (aka, "Easy") difficulty level, and after going on the offensive, I was caught in a hopeless stalemate. Basically, I was having trouble rebuilding my forces and applying continual pressure, because I didn't have enough resource production. Today, I played with the same game settings (slightly bigger map, so that it'd be a longer game), and this time, I put more effort into my economy. This time, when I attacked, I was able to maintain my army at full size, and although I got caught at the enemy's capital, after some hard fighting and some micro-managing (as much micromangement as you can in RoN, anyway), I pushed through and took the capital, which brought my team's territory high enough for me to win the game outright.

So yeah. I'm definitely improving in RoN, but since I don't have any humans to play with, I really don't know my own skill level. (Still beginner, for sure, though.)

If only I could get my hands on a copy of StarCraft... don't ask what happened to my last copy. One CD went to Sarah and the other went to Franklin. And Sarah lost hers.

Other than that, I finally decided to set up my LiveJournal. Before, it was just a big, white, blank, ugly thing. Now, it looks like a real blog with a few test posts. Of course, I'm mainly using it to post in other people's LiveJournals, so don't expect me to post in it.

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

Well, I best be going to work on Demons Engine Architecture 3 now. Good Night!

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Tuesday, July 25, 2006--Today, I played some Rise of Nations (still a beginner) and did some work on the Demons Engine Architecture 3. Progess is slow because summer is hot. Summer is hotter than a hot chick. (Okay, that didn't make any sense.)

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

Kupo!

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Monday, July 24, 2006--For some reason, I felt like playing Rise of Nations this morning, so I did.

Then, later today, I went back to Suikoden. So I got the last 11 characters, saw all the special scenes involving some of my random characters, and levelled up the characters that supposedly come back in Suikoden 2. (Supposedly, you can transfer data from your Suikoden 1 file to Suikoden 2.) In the end, my main character went from level 59 to level 61, and my time went from 27:23 to 30:10. So yeah. It took me just under 3 hours to do all that. (Underlevelled characters in Suikoden level up fast.) Dice Roll of the Day: (1, 5) Total: 6

Good Night! Don't let the Stars of Destiny bite!

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Sunday, July 23, 2006--Today was riddled with power outages. Fortunately, I had a laptop, so even during the power outages, I could still do stuff with my computer.


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

Good Night!

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Saturday, July 22, 2006--Today, they had a special double experience event on MapleStory, so I played that for a bit this morning. Then, I did some writing.

Later, Kellie came to my place.

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

Good Night!

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Friday, July 21, 2006--Let's see... Cheesecake Factory... Maple... Dark Fiends Chapter 64 is up! Read it. But not until you've read chapters 1 through 63, or else it won't make much sense to you.


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

Yeah, that is pretty much it. So... Good Night!

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Thursday, July 20, 2006--Heh. I beat Suikoden. It took me all of 4 days. I only have 97 of the 108 characters, though, so I should go back and get those. And then I should level up the characters that I can transfer to Suikoden 2. It's easy, 'cause levelling up underlevelled characters is really really fast.

Anyways, here's my review of Suikoden, as copied from Avalanche Online forums, in spoiler-text, of course:

*S*Anyways, I got Suikoden 1 on Monday, and today (Thursday), I beat the game. The time according to my last save in Gregminster is 27:23. My main character is at level 59 (it's really hard to get anyone any higher than that, unless there's a secret dungeon with stronger monsters).

Anyways, I have 97 characters, although Gremio and Pahn both died, and I'm too lazy to go back to attempt for a perfect game. Gremio isn't that good, anyway. I'll go back for the last 11, though, so that I can at least say that I got all 108 characters, even if 2 of them are dead.

The first thought I have on Suikoden, though, is that it's very very primitive. The graphics are primitive. The gameplay is primitive. The storyline is primitive. Sure, it's an old game (it came out before FF7, for Heaven's sake), but that doesn't change the fact that it's primitive. If I didn't know that Suikoden was a PSX game and if I didn't know when it came out, judging by the gameplay, I'd say that it came around the time of FF4 and FF5. Except that it actually came out 5 years after that. Despite that, Suikoden still managed to entertain me for a few days. It goes to show that an old and primitive game can still be entertaining.


SOUNDTRACK

Soundtrack wasn't very memorable, but on the brightside, at least it wasn't annoying.


GRAPHICS

I like how the characters are fully articulated in battle. I don't like how low resolution everything is. I mean, low resolution is perfectly acceptable for an Super Nintendo game, 'cause that was the limit of their technology pretty much, but I KNOW the PSX is capable of higher resolution than that.


STORYLINE

Primitive. And cliche. Well, mostly cliche.


GAMEPLAY

First of all, the combat system is really really primitive. I mean, this is the same battle system used in FF1. I mean, honestly, if you're using a battle system that's been used since the days of an NES game, you know it's a really primitive battle system. Runes aren't that imaginative, either, since they either grant magic spells or they give you powerful attacks that are uninteresting other than the fact that they do a lot of damage. Unite attacks are probably the best thing Suikoden's combat system has, but remember that Suikoden came AFTER Chrono Trigger, and Chrono Trigger's Combos are already much more sophisticated than this.

A few things I didn't like about Suikoden's gameplay:
-There weren't enough save points in the game, and the ones that were there were poorly placed. I recall in Seek Valley, when you fight the boss, you can see the save point ON THE OTHER SIDE. Thankfully, it was an easy boss, but it would have been helpful if I could have saved before fighting it. Neclord's Castle, on the other hand... there was a save point at the beginning of the castle, and Neclord at the end of the castle was a pretty tough boss. (Although granted, that was before I stopped using Medicines in favor of the Water Rune and a good caster.)
-Not enough bosses in the game. There's nothing more lame than going through a big dungeon or clearing a major quest only to be greeted by... nothing. Boss fights are a big part of RPGs, and Suikoden was severely lacking in bosses. Toward the end, it got better, though, but some of the bosses were just random. A giant clam?!? WTF?
-The most annoying thing was that you couldn't pick your characters for the final battle. I mean, a game that boasts 108 characters should give you a little freedom for the final battle at least, right? I mean, now I can't bring my party of 5 blacksmiths and use blacksmith combo on the final boss. (I dunno why I would want to, but it's nice to know that I can.) It's understandable that they forced the main character to participate in the final battle, 'cause you know, he's the main character. Viktor and Flik, though... Sure, Viktor's good, but Valeria and Ronnie Bell are better. And Flik just plain sucks. (Okay, maybe he doesn't suck per se, but Valeria and Ronnie Bell beat him in the physical attacks category, and Cleo beats Flik in the magical attacks category, so yeah.)

A few things I liked about Suikoden's gameplay:
+I liked how when a character is underlevelled, he gains levels really really fast. No, faster than that. I have never seen levelling up in any game faster than this. On a similar note, I also like how when you're overlevelled, it's really hard to gain levels. And you can tell when you've reached the right level in the game. So yeah. You don't have to spend that much time levelling up. Unless you're a crazy guy and want to hit level 99.

The biggest thing about Suikoden, though, is the whole 108 characters dealie. At first, I was a little skpetical because all the characters seemed to be the same. Every once in a while, you'd get a character with a good Rune (like Valeria, Ronnie Bell, Kasumi, or Pahn) or a character with a good Unite attack (like the main character and Kai), but otherwise, most characters are the same in battle (other than stats, of course).

Later, I began to appreciate the more subtle aspects of the whole 108 character thing, like the shopkeepers you can get, or the guy with the Vault, or (my personal favorite) the guy with the elevator. Sure, a lot of these characters might be the same in battle, but in the Castle, as NPCs, they become a lot more interesting.

That said, there's no shortage of absolutely useless characters in Suikoden. Some of them serve no real purpose as NPCs and still suck in battle (like Krin or Juppo). Even worse are the characters that you can't take into battle with you, but do absolutely nothing as NPCs in your Castle (like Onil or Qlan). I think the developers just ran out of ideas when they were putting in all these characters.

Some of the characters were just pure eye candy. I noticed as a general trend among female characters that the cuter the character was, the more useless she was. There were some exceptions, though.

Lastly, I'd like to touch upon two generally overlooked features of Suikoden: duels and military battles. I thought duels were pretty fun, but then again, there were only THREE of them in the game, and any more than that, it probably would have gotten repetitive. That said, there should have been a character or two (or three) that you could practice your duelling skills on.

Military battles were fun. There should have been a character that allows you to do practice military battles, too. Not only that, but there should have been more characters in the "Other" category, to give otherwise useless characters more use.


IN CONCLUSION

Suikoden isn't a bad game, but it's not a great game either. At the very least, it'll entertain you for about 30 hours until you get all 108 characters. And that's pretty much it. Unless you messed up your first game and also happen to either be a perfectionist or really really like Gremio, in which case it'll entertain you for a good 60 hours as you play it a second time through.

I hear Suikoden 2 is better. Or at the very least, it costs twice as much on the secondary market. I'm looking forward to it.

In conclusion, Suikoden isn't a bad game, but it's not a great game either. At the very least, it'll entertain you for about 30 hours.

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

Dragon Knight!

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Wednesday, July 19, 2006--Today, I played more Suikoden... again.

Then after that, I finally came back online after not having been seen for almost 2 days.

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

Bad Knight!

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Tuesday, July 18, 2006--Today, I played more Suikoden.

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

Good Knight!

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Monday, July 17, 2006--I don't remember what I did this morning. But then, in the afternoon, Suikoden arrived. Hurray! After 5 days of waiting. Hurray! (Wow, that item arrived fast!)


So yeah. I spent the rest of the day playing Suikoden. (Which is why I haven't updated my joural in a while.)

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

Good Night!

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Sunday, July 16, 2006--More Maple, and then more Diablo 2. Hurray!

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

Good Night!

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Saturday, July 15, 2006--Hmm... Maple. And then later, I went to Kellie's place and introduced her to Diablo 2. Awesome, yo!

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

I bid you Good Night!

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Friday, July 14, 2006--Not much.

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

Good Night, ma'am!

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Thursday, July 13, 2006--1 more month...


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

Good Night, sir!

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Wednesday, July 12, 2006--I spent my day finishing up Harvest (the new personnel management system) for Tau Beta Pi. Now, I'm sending it in for feedback. Maybe it'll be the next big thing on the TBP website. Maybe it'll be totally lame. Who knows? At the very least, it was a good exercise to see what I was capable of. (And for the record, it means I'm capable of making my own version of Facebook.)

Dice Roll of the Day: (6, 3) Total: 9

Anyways, Good Night!

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Tuesday, July 11, 2006--Today, I did quite a bit of work on Dark Fiends. Then, when I got tired of that, I played MapleStory and gained 2 levels.


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

Good Night!

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Monday, July 10, 2006--Not much to say. I was working on Dark Fiends. Swordplay is fun, but difficult, to write.

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

Good Night! (=

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Sunday, July 9, 2006--Today, I played with more Kingdom Hearts 2 Gummi Ships. Except now, I've built an uber-powerful ship and I've cleared all the levels, including the "final boss" for Gummi Ship levels.

Anyways, I'm gonna go work on Dark Fiends some more.

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

Good Night!

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Saturday, July 8, 2006--Today, for no reason in particular, I decided to finish up KH2. Yeah, the weird thing is, you can beat the game without completing all the worlds. So I came back and completed all the worlds (there was one left). It was easy. Then, I played with Gummi Ships.


Man, it's too hot to work on Dark Fiends.

Dice Roll of the Day: (3, 3) Total: 6

Good Night, kupo!

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Friday, July 7, 2006--I think I'm fully healed, although I have a lingering cough. That's to be expected, though.


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

Good Night!

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Thursday, July 6, 2006--I think I'm almost recovered now. Yay?

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

I should get started on this month's installment of Dark Fiends.

gOod nIght!

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Wednesday, July 5, 2006--Slightly better.

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

Good Night!

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Tuesday, July 4, 2006--Happy Independence Day!!!

Still suck. Ugh!

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

Good Nights!

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Monday, July 3, 2006--Sick sucks.

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

Good Night!

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Sunday, July 2, 2006--I felt kinda sick today, so I just spent the whole day doing nothing in particular at home.


I also watched the Disgaea anime today. Unfortunately, I could only find 11 out of the 12 episodes, so I haven't seen the last episode yet.

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

Good Night!

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Saturday, July 1, 2006--You know what's awesome about the French? Their food. They have French toast, French fries, croissants, and lots of other good shit. So yeah, today, I made French Toast for breakfast.

Over AIM...
me (to Justin): bbl
me: bbq

Later, we had a BBQ, where we invited some family friends and Chao. After eating lots of meat, we went to play Smash Bros Melee ('cause for some reason, Bomberman didn't work). Hilarity ensued. Accidental suicides included. Apparently, Marth can block projectiles with his sword.

Dice Roll of the Day: (6, 3) Total: 9

Good Night!

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