Please pardon spelling errors and annoying swaps of homonyms.  Somehow I'm becoming dyslexic.

Regarding Bakemonogatari, I just watched the second episode and I can definitely see this turning out very well.  The direction is top notch, the dialogue is great, and the story is engrossing.

So I told my buddy I'd plug this for him, and here goes.  My good friend Joecam is selling a ton of games.  I personally picked up Disgaea and PGR4 at very reasonable prices.  For a list head over here.  He's totally legit and there is probably something on there that you want.

Really impressed with this show.  I started it up and was really impressed with the visuals.  It has a very unique artistic style, as well as direction.  After about a minute in I figured it had to be SHAFT from the angles, and I turned out to be right.  But this goes well beyond everything they've done before, and it's not the parody type series they usually pick up.  Looks to be excellent, but again I'll withhold final judgment till I see another episode or two.

On a somewhat different topic, I'm making preliminary plans to head to Japan for Golden Week next year.  I have the good luck of multiple friends in Tokyo so I don't have to worry about a hotel or anything.  The basic plan is to explore Tokyo, visit Gin and hopefully spend a day in Kyoto.  Depending on circumstances I may be able to extend my visit for a little longer than a week even.

Anyway that's all the news for now.

I will have a Blackberry Tour next week!  Also Otakon is next week.  Ahhh sweet freedom.  Is anyone else tired of hearing about MJ?  Continue my theme of unrelated sentences I need Zan Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei RIGHT NOW.  At least When the Seakitties Mew has started.  Ok bye.

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This might be the greatest thing to come out of Nico this entire decade.

Canaan.  It's hard to judge from one episode how the series will turn out, but the action scenes were pretty awesome.  It definitely started off confusing, though.  Will watch at least the next two eps and see what comes of it.  In any event it has promise.

Happy Independence Day to all the Americans on here.  And to everyone else, well, take a moment to love your own country.  Anyway, despite all the bad news that's always on TV, I'm taking a moment to think of all the selfless things people do that go unnoticed.

Montco started a Nuclear Technology Engineering degree for this fall.  I'm having a difficult time wrapping my head around this.  Once the two year degree is complete, you can apply for positions with an avg starting salary of 50k/yr.  As a result of retirement, demand for these positions is expected to be high...

Ok retyping this.  Time to balance out my previous post by going on about RPGs.

First up, SMT: Devil Survivor for the DS.  First, I recommend this to anyone with a DS and a fondness for GETTING DESTROYED.  This game is fucking hard.  Beyond this, the best way to describe it is a hybridization of your typical tactical RPG such as FF Tactis, Devil Summoner 2 and Persona 3/4.  Basically your characters have turns, and they get to move and/or use abilities based on what they have assigned to them, as well as their 2 demons.  However, once they attack the game transitions to something a little more like P3/4.  Each character and accompanying demons are considered a team, and each enemy is also a team of 3.  Both teams get one round of attacks, but may be granted an extra turn based on various factors (prime example being attacking an enemy's weakness).  After that is over the game returns to the tactical screen.  I suppose I should also go over the non-battle area of the game.  Unlike most of the SMT games, the story isn't quite as intricate or important to this game.  I do know, however, that there are multiple endings as you are limited to saving various characters from an imminent apocalypse.  This limit is imposed by a "Death Clock," essentially you know how long each character has to survive if you don't intervene.  Anyway the hallmarks of the SMT games such as acquiring new demons and fusions are still carried over.  I won't go on any further because this is already a wall of text.

I guess the next ones I can just cover in one quick paragraph.  I'm trying to avoid my habit of not finishing RPGs.  To that end, I'm going back over my progress in FFXII, Persona 4 and Devil Summoner 2.  The latter two I'm near finishing.  I got stuck in DS2 and P4 I needed a break from so I started FFXII up again.  Hopefully by the time I lose interest in FFXII I'll be ready to dive into P4 or DS2 again.  I also have had Jeanne d'Arc on the backburner for my PSP for quite a while.  I also have to restart Valkyria Chronicles again.  I would also like to snag a copy of Vagrant Story off e-bay.  Last, but not least, I have a number of unfinished older FF games which I will perhaps try and finish.

I guess I said I was gonna focus on RPGs but I'll do a quick rundown of other stuff.  I have Little Big Planet which I should give more proper attention.  I never finished HL2, I acquired Empire: Total War and have barely touched it.  I haven't finished The Witcher.  When I look at it, I could dedicate many years of my life to finishing all this crap.  Oh I forgot to mention Fallout 3.  I finished the main game, but not the DLC.  The same goes for Mass Effect.  There is also Assassin's Creed.  Grandia II.  Skies of Arcadia.  This is really outrageous.

Anyway, beyond all those games I will probably never finish (or even give proper attention?) I am REALLY looking forward to FFXIII and XIV.  I don't need another fucking MMO in my life, but FFXI holds a special place in my heart.  I've finally been reading bits about FFXIII and every bit I read makes me more interested.  SE said they're exploring releasing the demo as DLC (since it wasn't included with the rerelease of Advent Children over here) and I'm praying that they FUCKING HURRY UP AND DO IT ALREADY.  The new battle system sounds like great fun, and I really want to get my hands on it even if it is only an early iteration.

Ok. at this point you won't read anymore, so I'll stop.  Actually most of you probably skipped all that and are only reading this.  I pose to you a question: do you find yourself starting a lot of games, getting fairly far in them, and then losing interest and playing something else?

Ugh, haven't made one of these in a while.  For years now I've been very, very guarded.  I've been this way deliberately, and it took me quite a while to become this way.  Anyway, I'm rather distressed to find that my armor has been penetrated.  Is it right, or wrong?  I'm not sure I know.  But I still find it quite distressing.

I used to do that, but man was it emo.  Well I'll start off with something more typical of what I post lately.  I picked up SMT: Devil Survivor and played until my eyes hurt.  Great game, and actually challenging, unlike most DS games.  It has an interesting take on combat which can best be described as a hybrid of tactical RPGs, and the turn based mechanisms of Persona and the demon summoning of Devil Summoner.  I can't say the story is as strong as either of the latter series, but the game certainly wins out in most other areas.

Ok, now I'll be atypical.  My life right now is fairly uninteresting.  Since the beginning of the year I've simply been working.  My birthday was a highpoint as I flew out to Michigan to see two friends married, and attend the Distant Worlds concert in Grand Rapids.  What struck me about Michigan was... the uniformity of the place.  Honestly it made me really appreciate the natural beauty all around me here in good old PA.  This weekend I'll be attending Distant Worlds again, this time in Baltimore. With Otakon coming up as well there will be two high points in The Melancholy of McGarity Jim.

Thanks to a considerable bit of inspiration from someone, I've decided that now is the time to end this stagnation that I'm in.  I won't say I've made any particularly grand plans, but I'm hoping that before next fall rolls around I can change myself and end this complacent lifestyle of mine.

If there is one person or more on your friends list who makes your world a better place just because they exist, and who you would not have met (in real life or not) without the Internet, then post this same sentence in your journal. ❤

There is a new Star Onions CD: "Sanctuary" the link has a bunch of info about it.  I loved the first of their CDs.  Unless you want to pay a bunch of money for it, though, it's best to find it on iTunes.  It's listed under 水田直志 as the artist, (which is even more fun if that looks like blocks to you), so the easiest way to find it is to search one of the track names.  And I did try torrent sites, but couldn't find it anywhere.

OH GUSTABERG I LOVE YOU!!!

Dear Every RPG Designer,

We need to talk. I was putting off this discussion with you for far too long. When you make a game, and you decide to have like 8 or 9 playable characters, but limit the player to a party of 3 or 4... AUTOMATICALLY LEVEL UP THE UNUSED CHARACTERS SO THAT THEY AREN'T FUCKING WORTHLESS LATER IN THE GAME. Why is something so obvious continuously ignored? Did everyone forget FFVII? They did it in FFVII. I don't care how they do it. Hell, if they force me to use different parties at different times that's just fine. Just figure it out already! Why even have that many characters when you essentially force a player to waste hours grinding or just never use half the characters. I'm giving you very stern looks Persona and FFXII. Very stern.

So I believe this was the last episode, and it will be followed by two movies to tie up the plot of the show. If that is the case- what an awesome last episode. Hopefully the supposed movies (or perhaps a second season?) can finish out the rest of the show just as well.

Yes, the title is that long. In any event, I've been playing this compulsively since the replacement PS3 came back, even managing to resist my urge to start up Persona 4 again- a daunting prospect to say the least. Anyway, as far as I'm concerned Devil Summoner 2 probably couldn't have done much of anything better. Granted, it is quite a linear game, but that trade-off comes with an engrossing story that is well worth it. I suppose my only complaint would be that the dialogue sections can get a bit too lengthy at times.

Moving on, the combat is just an incredible amount of fun. Its frenetic and unpredictable, and you're constantly managing your own actions as well as your semi-independent demons. I say semi-independent because they can be ordered to use a default action, and they take care of movement themselves. If you need a specific action, however, you can pop quickly in to a menu and order it up. You can also quickly swap out demons as conditions change in battle. Another minor gripe comes up here- I don't like the fact that only the two demons out when you finish the battle gain experience. This can be addressed with a certain skill, but I feel that experience should simply be doled out according to how long the demon spent in battle.

Having addressed the major aspects of the game, a couple minor things of note. Both the soundtrack and the graphics are fantastic. If you haven't heard anything done by Shoji Meguro before, you're missing out. Graphically, I don't think anything more could be done with the PS2 hardware. Even with current gen systems shining, the game approaches graphics just like the other SMT games recently- with style.

As far as I'm concerned, this could be RPG of the year.