A toil rich guy or a poor guy with love?

This is the question thrown to my students earlier today. The class was made up of 8 girls and 2 of the opposite sex. This had caused quite a controversy among the girls and guess what. 7 of the girls chose Love instead of Wealth, claiming that they rather work hard to build up a family with the man they love, instead of being lonely with all the luxuries.Then there's this special girl who told me that she will first cheat every single peny from that rich guy, dump him, and find her own true love. Of course, she said that in a joking manner.

I asked the boys whether to choose a sexy woman with no love (except bedtime) or an average looking girl whom your mother hates, to be your wife. Without a doubt, both of them chose the second one; claiming that their mom will have to accept whoever they want to marry.

The answers to both questions are quite obvious, verbally. But who knows? They may have chosen the opposite one when the time comes. We will never know the hidden side of men; which makes us, human, an utterly dangerous being; with Love on the other hand.

So, what about you who are reading this? Wealth or Love?

Regards,
Yuna08

P.S.
Oh, Soul Calibur 4 is FANTASTIC!

So this is it. After a good 20 years of living, I'm finally 21 years old

You know what, I have this miserable feel when I wake up on the day before my birthday. I kept asking myself:
"Why am I here?" "After 20 years of life, what've I done?" and "Am I old...?"

Although it's good to be an adult, but come to think of it, those fun-o-teenage life is all gone. Sometimes I do wish I could remain as a kid. Oh well, life goes on~

Oh, here is the good thing. Days ago I received this as a present from one of my best pal

Sweet eh? Well it's still left seale, stored in my closet; waiting for the right day.
Oh, and I would also wish to thank those who greeted me:
Mom and Dad (love ya'll)
Wei, Fedrick and his little brother
tenshi_mkII
the insurance guy
Rin many more...

To my dear subscribers, how did you celebrate your (21) birthday? What did you do and who you felt?

Regards,
Yuna08

Bonjour~

It's been some time since I talked about games or console, but here is some heads-up.

MGS4 tempted me to purchase a PS3, and I did (with my friend). it arrived this afternoon, and so I took some memorable pics. Here they are.

The bundle set: 40GB PS3, MGS4, DS3 and some free gifts.

After unwrapping the console, the glosy console shines through my camera lens.

An extra DS3 controller. (No cables provided =P)

Who needs this anyway? (=P)

After plugging up everything, power's on and the console runs perfectly well.

Updating the console.

Snake...with a cigarette. (Erm...not for kids)

What happens next is reated as confidential as I don't want to spoil it for those who haven't played the game.But I really LOVE the game, totally out of the box. This is somewhat a very good example of what next-gen games should be (well despite it took 4 years to develope). Act 1 spent me almost 3 hours and I hope more from this masterpiece.

I haven't got the time to discover the true features hidden within this monster machine, but it has given me quite good impression so far. The easy-to-navigate XMB interface is a gift to most casual players, which they don't have to spend time clicking on different tabs cuztomize their console, just like its competitors.

So, what about you guys? Have you considered this console? Tell me what you think. Until then.

Yuna08, peace out~

Woo...where should I start?
Few days ago, I received an invitation from my friend to this festival. At first I wasn't too confident about the event as this is the first time we have festivals like this and there might not be much participants, but hey, I was wrong.

Alright, cut the crap. Let' me guide you through to the 2-days festival @ KDU Penang - Ichibanzai 2008.

(please note that the following pictures are taken with a cellphone camera and may not be much of a quality. I deeply apologize for that.)


WELCOME TO ICHIBANZAI 2008

DAY 1


The stage where everything is being pulled off.


and place for booths.

There are approximately 18 booths (including food sellers) that sells everything from plushies, figures, doujinshis, souvenirs, home-made sushi and many more. There are also activities like Soul Calibur 3 competition, Live-RPG competition and Wasabi eating contest.


One of the people's favourite booth.


Kureha-chan :3

While waiting for my friend, I stood beside the changing room. What is so cool about standing there is the cosplayers frantically rushes out from the room and enjoying the moment with they're favourite character. It makes me feel awkward sometimes for seeing a 'cat' or a samurai walked beisde sometimes...


Here are some of the cosplayers, good ones.


now this is the BEST cosplayer ever....KON!!!!!
To be honest I petty the guy in there, always being bullied by his college mates by pulling its off skirt and shaking its head like a toy :S

Alright let's skip this for a while and see what we have on stage.


WASABIIIIIIIIII!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Ready, stead, GO!
Cutie on the right won by finishing that bowl of wasabi in less than 30 seconds...salute...


and the cosplay competition begins...I'd been waiting hours for this...


Costume wise I really think that both of then have done a great job. As for performance wise, I really like the cutie on the right. She's really to imitate how maids in Japan behave, and she did it, really. Thumbs up for her ^^


The dress suits perfectly with her face and strature, love it.


Have you brushed your teeth?

[IMG]http://img413.imageshack.us/my.php?image=13es9.jpg[/IMG]
A sexy character from an online game.


Rinoa Simplicity leads to elegant.


Final BOSS from Rozen Maiden. According to her, the hair was made pink as in the Chibi version.
She's also the winner of DAY 1 Cosplay Competition

Alright, that's everyhing in Day 1. Coming up next, DAY2!

DAY 2

Okay, this ended hours ago so it's kinda like a live feedback =P
Anyway, MORE PICS


Let's start with the Day 2 cosplay competition. This guy won the runner-up price for cosplaying a character in prince of tennis.


Not to forget Vampire Knight, which is a new series. Please check it out if you haven't, fantastic show =)


Ladies and gentleman...THE WINNER of DAY2! GOTHIC FTW!




oops...but don't worry, just part of her performance =P


It's Luffy...


...and his baby =)


more cosplay pictures.




Whooa...calm down guys...


o(^_^)o


To the LEFT~


To the RIGHT~


Some Japanese kids performaing dance on stage



Now, the real show begins here. Everything starts from this haruhi hare hare dance...


アル晴レタ日の事~~~


魔法以上の愉快が~~~


The live band performance.
Best show in my opinion, I really love the vocal and the guitarist, who really brought out the heat!
Songs they sang were Bleach OP/ED, Naruto OP.


Even Kon joins in too (*v*)


I won't forget the feeling...You rock guys. LOVE YA.


All the cosplayeres went crazy and joined the heat when she sang Umbrella.


Lucky star OP dance

Whoo...that's all folks. Sorry for the limited pictures, wish I had a better camera and have taken more.
I really enjoyed myself in this event. Despite this is the first time, they did a very great job to keep things organized.
Thanks to Justin, the preseident and even organizer, you did a great at everything (even the hare hare dance too )
and also thumbs up to the hosts that made the even alive (WASABIIIII). I hope they're reading this, great job guys.

Till then, I'll be waiting for December's Comic Fiesta.

YunaX, reporting from Penang

Peace, out~

I was totally obsessed by Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword when I first saw it at my friend's house. Hence, I borrowed the whole thing and finished the game in 2 days. Incredible game I must say, and I like how they make use of both screens and to make a good story teller.

Oh besides, Trauma Center and Nintendo Dogs is nice, you may want to try it out if you have a NDS someday.

Regards, Yuna08

As I'm writting for my Visual Novel last night, my stomach went buzzing for food. So I head up to the nearest Sushi store and bought some for supper. If you're wondering why sushi....wel....just because its a low-fat food, ideal food after 8

Back to work~~~

Regards, Yuna08

So after the weekends, my buddies decided to have a small barbeque party. So I went to their residence at 4pm yesterday and bought some stuff from the market.

THE CHICKEN

And of course some fruits to keep us refreshed

Setting up the fire

The first Hot Dog

And the party begins !!!

It took us 3 hours to finish everything. Chicken, eggs, sausages, meat balls were all over the stack of charcoals. As a result, I rushed to the toilet twice last night...Guess every good thing comes with a price :S

Regards, Yuna08

Hello there, I know it's been a long time since my last blog post. Maybe I'm just being busy (excuse) and lazy

Here's some heads-up: I'm really hyped with the upcoming GTA4, however my Xbox360, again, dead last 2 weeks. This time it wasn't 3ROD but something even serious... I planned to get a new console but after visiting the PC fair last sunday I changed my mind because...

I've got a new lappy~~~!

The crowd. Even online games came forth, which is rare in my country.

Promotions at the bay~~~

The reason I got myself a laptop is the ongoing visual novel project. It really reduced my burden for not having me to move my home desktop computer to the workshop every once in a while. And believe me, my lappy is far better than my 5 years old desktop

Well, this is all about me so far. Getting a new Xbox360 is still in my to-do list, probably in 2 months or so, which I'll be missing the GTA4 hype

Until then, see ya~

PS: I would also be posting blogs at GameTrailers site. The following address will lead you there:

http://yuna08.gametrailers.com/gamepad/index.php

Peace out~

If you are looking for a good story teller with heart-touching music and traditional gameplay, Lost Odyssey is the answer.

What's good: A variety of beautiful and memorable places to visit; Saccharine soundtrack; Traditional-old-school gameplay takes you back to the good o' days.

And the bad: Frequent and lengthy loading draws you away from the story; noticeable visual glitches and bugs; Limited features.

My Score: 8.5

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Remember back in the days when memorable RPGs are created? So marvelous that makes you want to play it again and again, even it means the 5th time you're playing it and overheat your console. Now you don't have to dig out the gadgets from your storeroom again, because Lost Odyssey will take you back to the past and experience the long forgotten warmth in gaming.

Story:

The invention of magic power has changed the world. Eventually, this power had lead to war between two nations: Uhra and Gohtza. The royal house of Uhra then decided to build a magic engine called Grand Staff. This engine was initially built to unite all magic powers, but during the construction, they came to realize that the Staff requires an amount of magic power so great, which it had lead a meteor down to the world. Ground-zero is battlefield of both nations, and no one survived the crash…except for Kaim Argonar, known as the Immortal.

The royal house of Uhra immediately halted the construction of that magic engine and sent Kaim to investigate. From here, Kaim's journey to solve his 1000 years old mystery begins, and soon, he finds that he is not the only Immortal…but there are 4 others.

Gameplay:

Lost Odyssey's gameplay stand no difference with any other Japanese RPG. You'll mainly take control of Kaim, the Immortal, together with another 8 companions and fight your way to the end. When controlling, you will have three types of movement: Walk, run and sprint. By pressing different button on the controllers will change Kaim's moving speed.

There's a new feature called Zoom added in the gameplay. As you walk, pressing RT will cause your default camera to zoom in closer, roll the Right Stick to navigate. This is useful as it to see clearly what's located on the other side of the bridge before risking your HP.

You'll have some mini games to play with, but they're pretty simple and blend that aren't worth mentioning; such as lighting up torches, escape from the area before time runs out and some other similar ones. However, the Auction game is a good additional feature to spend some time on. It is fun to bid with NPCs for rare items.

Graphics:

A great proof of what Unreal Engine 3 can do. The game has lively colors and crisp character models; they are so good, that will make us engrossed till the end. Focus effect is also introduced here, the thing that make distant ambience blur and turns clearer to where your character stands.

Surprisingly, Lost Odyssey discriminates actual gameplay graphics and movie graphics. Like what you've seen in last generation consoles, when it comes to action scenes, the graphics becomes better and stimulating.

Music:

Nobuo Uematsu never failed us for bringing great music is gaming, at least not this one. There's a wide variety of music composed for each different places, scenes and boss battles; hence, there won't be such thing as repetitive (except for normal battles, which uses the same music for the whole game). If you've read my previous comments, then you'll know just the music itself can cause 'bitter' to the scenario.

The English dubs are recorded pretty well, most of the voice actors have successfully portrayed the character's identity and behavior; which the Japanese dub failed to do so. The game doesn't have the best English translation script, but much better than other JRPG, so it's acceptable.

Battle:

So you walk around mountains and dungeons, and suddenly the screen flashes with couple of magic rings. What you are going to know next, you've engaged a battle with monsters.

As you might already know from all those preview videos out there, the game uses turn-base system, very similar to Blue Dragon. Each character will have 5 battle commands: Attack, skill, magic, item and defend. If you push left, you can change your equipments, rearrange party formation or escape. When commands have been given to all, both sides take turn to attack. Character who selected Item will usually go first; attack comes in second and magic, last.

It's is crucial on how you set up the battle team. A team can only have 5 members, and divided into front and back. The front characters are usually strong ones, who act as a shield to protect those who stand behind. How strong you can stand to protect the weak ones is indicated by your GC-level.

There are four GC-level with its points. When you take damage from enemy, you'll lose GC points, and when its deducted to a certain amount, GC level will drop and weaker the barrier becomes; hence, your characters at the back will suffer more damage when being attacked. For example, you have 10,000 GC points at level 4, you take 2000 damage from enemy, and that deducts to 80,000 GC points and level becomes 3; so now your characters in the back will suffer 1000 damage from enemy instead of 500.

Now, the game is made into such a way that, player must think carefully before they input any command in battle; One careless act will cause your entire team wiped out. This applies specifically in Boss battles. Sometimes Boss battles are so frustrating, that it will make you give up the game instantly. However, with proper formation and tactics, you can easily win the fight even without training.

As for spells, there are only 4 of them: Black Magic for inflicting elemental damage; White Magic for healing and defending; Curse for status change; and Combine Magic for combination of powerful magic.

At the end of every battle you will receive experience, money, item and SP (skill points). SP are needed for Immortals to permanently master a skill, either from a human character or items; which I will explain later.

Unfortunately, there aren't any monsters you can summon. All you can do is to perform a normal attack, magic attack or item attack. Also, don't put your hopes high when character HP is low, as there won't be limit attack (a.k.a. Limit Break, Over Drive) to aid you - thumbs down for this.

Character Growth:

Now this is the part where you will get really disappointed.

Leveling is the heart of RPG. Here, each character will have a maximum of 99 levels, and each level requires 100 experience points to move up to the next. A single battle only allows you to acquire one level, so even if you defeated the toughest enemy, you will still gain a level in the end. On the other hand, you couldn't stick at one place to train, because you will begin to receive a ridiculous experience of 1-5 points. Henceforth, you need to proceed on.

All characters will have only 3 equipments: Weapon, Ring and Accessory. Equipping certain items will benefit that character with new skills and status change. Such as increase attack damage, resist against poison, auto-barrier and many more.

Ring, comes real handy in battle. Each Ring has its own effect; it can either boost attack power, or apply an attribute/effect to your weapon. Performing a normal attack with Ring equipped, you can increase your damage by holding RT when the character is running towards its enemy. This will trigger a ring on the screen to zoom into a second one, when both rings meet, release RT. Doing so will result in either Bad, Good or Perfect; thus the damage will be effected.

Immortal characters won't learn new skill by leveling; only human characters will. So what you can do is to let Immortals learn from human or Accessories. Linking skills to an Immortal doesn't mean you can use it immediately, but you must first fill up Skill Point (SP) gauge to master it. After you've fulfilled the SP required, then you're allowed to equip that skill permanently.

Loading makes your crazy:

The thing that will piss us all is the extremely lengthy load times which makes you wait and wait and…bored. It almost took 20 seconds to load the title screen, 20-30 seconds for battle, and sometimes a minute for just 20 seconds of cinematic movie. So it often causes me to recall what happened back in the last scene to continue watching. However, I've received reports saying that some players can read the disc pretty smooth and takes two times lesser to load. It may also depends on the disc you get and your Xbox 360.

There are some visual glitches but they aren't obvious. But sometimes you'll feel like your character is separated from the ground, like it doesn't blend in really well with the environment - need some fine tuning here.

'Final Fantasy Killer?' & Closing Comments:

There isn't anything else to play with in the game, apart from fighting and doing some repetitive side quests. Things like cards, mini car race, gamble, pet will never appear in the game. They are all replaced with too much cinematic scenes, hence it eaten up most of the space and left peanuts for additional fun.

Reason why it took me so long to write this is because I often find myself comparing Final Fantasy Series to Lost Odyssey. Personally I don't think this is fair. Final Fantasy is a long-running franchise for over 20 years. They came through many obstacles, difficulties, and hold a lot of experience in making RPG. However Mistwalker is a newly born and small game development company that has yet to become independent and have a tilt in RPG game.

However, with such powerful graphics, music and enjoyable battle, I would say they have done a fantastic job. Thumbs up, again.

Yeap, as written in the topic; it's my Xbox 360's birthday
Happy birthday~~~

I would like to thank her for bringing all those good times in gaming.
LoL, I can tell you alot about her. She gets angry so easy, like turning her on for just 3 hours; and after 9 months she couldn't take the pressure and left me for weeks!!! Saying: 'Maybe we need some time to calm down.'

What I did was spend hundreds to get her back into my life. We talked to each other and made an agreement for not pushing her too hard anymore. Guess what, things are great between to both of us now, and I'll be expecting the best from her in the near future.

Woot, I almost forgot DMC4 is coming~

Peace~



Regards,
Yuna08

It's been 10 days since we left 2007 and warm our seats for 2008 to witness what the gaming industry will have to offer. 2007, had been a great year for gamers. With the Play Station 3 just warming up, Wii's Wiifit and Xbox 360's Halo 3 release, shows that the console war is reaching its peak.

There are a few notable events in my personal gaming life, like buying an Xbox360 and Play Station Portable would definitely be the best thing that ever happened. However the Xbox360 got down on its knees real quick with only 9 months of purchase.

So let's hit this: What is your favourite game in 2007? Mine (in catogery) :

Best First Person Shooter: Call of Duty 4. It gave me the 'WOW' on the prologue stage. Truly the best in series.

Best Third Person Shooter: Kane & lynch: Dead Man. Yes, it's buggy and feel incomplete, but the stages are fun, like breaking out of prison and bank with an army of cops waiting outside.

Best Role Playing Game: Eternal Sonata. Never regret buying this game, however this ended up as a 'best game no one played' in IGN...

Best Graphics: Assassin's Creed. Amazingly detailed world and character animation. The mocap team did a great job on Altair's movement, but not the civilians...

Best Soundtrack: Lost Odyssey. Have you ever cried for playing a video game? Well I did, thanks to Inuoe's talent that shed my tears on a touching scene in Lost Odyssey.

Best PSP Game: Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core. The only thing that provokes you to finish the game, is the action-based combat, and the story. You won't feel bored on the near 20 hours ride, just pure fun and excitement.

Best Game in 2007: Call of Duty 4. Bioshock nearly made it into this, but CoD4 stands firm on the first place with its solic storyline and friendly game controls.

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Well, that is a fast list of my favourite games in 2007. So what's yours?

Regards, Yuna08

Hi people, it's been a while.

Let's talk about something good this time. I got back my Xbox360 ^^ And yeah after sending it back twice, it's working now. Finished COD4 and Assassin's Creed...

Also, today...I bought....

LOST ODYSSEY !!!

Hooray! I've been waiting for this game since the day I bought my console. It's in English dub and Japanese menu. The game is so awesome! As usual, I'll write a review soon after I finished the game. If you want to know something about it now, feel free to PM me as I don't wish to spoil it for the others here

Anyway, with the people leaving GS now due to Jeff's incident, I wonder if there's still people left to read my blogs and review...sob

Take care now

Regards, Yuna08

Oh God.....NOOOOO!!!

It's the 3 rings of death! My Xbox is GONE...! Oh my gosh....

I just got my hands on Mass Effect...created a characted...having conversation with the captain and....POOF...3ROD. And guess what, the DVD drive just stuck there when I was trying to eject! Oh God...I can't believe this is happening. I'll miss the release of Lost Odyssey! NOOO! I want to play it so much, and was planning to write a review....Now it's all gone, gone! Aww, I bought the console mainly because of that game....

Now I'll just send it back tomorrow...I hope everything will be done before 6th of Dec...

Wish me luck....

AWW! My Xbox! My Xbox! My Xbox! My Xbox! (cries)

Best regards, yuna08

trick-or-treat!!!

Heh, it's halloween again. Wish you all have fun with the kids tonight

I still remember my last year's blog post on Halloween, lol, time passes REALLY fast! Oh....

Anyway, I wonder how is everyone's life. For me, I've became aa elementary tutor after graduation. Things are a little confusing at first, but i'm adapting to it now. I nearly lost my voice yesterday while teaching English, lol.

Life...

However I haven't gave up in gaming, just got AC6 hours ago. So I hope you guys enjoy yours too

Until next time, and Happy Halloween!

Regards, Yuna08

Unya....nya nya...Have you been enoying your games? Meow~~

Take care, meow

Regards, Yuna's cat

Packed with great gameplay, visuals and music, Eternal Sonata offers a never-forget RPG adventure.

My Score: 9.0

What's Good: Colouful, sharp and detailed visuals; Interesting settings; Gorgeous music; Highly addictive battle gameplay makes you want to customize your characters in every possible way; High replay value.

And what's bad: Short, 20 hours or less makes you want more; Character design may not be everyone's favorite.

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You don't have to be a pianist to know Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin, yes, the greatest piano composer of all time. And Eternal Sonata (known as Trusty Bell Chopin no yume in Japan) is a game powered by his masterpieces. After 6 years in the development, Tri-Cresendo has made a RPG which contains memorable elements and so much replay value, making it one of the best RPG of all time.

The game take players into the dream world of Chopin; the last dream he had 3 hours before his death. Starting at Tenuto village, Chopin meets a girl named Polka, who is suffering from a weird disease. The disease will grant a person magic powers but only allows the victim to live for a short period of time. Still, Polka wanted to help people around the world with the remaining time; and so she started a journey with Chopin.

Polka met up with Allegretto and Beet, two orphans who steals to survive, and a group of resistance against King Waltz. The problem with King Waltz is he wanted to seize a kind of living thing called Shining Agogo in order to make his army unstoppable. So this is where the real journey of the 10 characters begins.

Like all RPGs, you'll take control of a character (mostly Allegretto or Polka and Beet sometimes), walk around leveling and solving puzzles. One of the elements that separate this game from others is the battle system. You'll see enemies lurking around as you explore, to start a fight you must either touch them or being touched. Some aggressive enemies will provoke a battle with you by chasing. However, if you can read its movement, you can evade them. It is good to jump onto enemies when their facing its back on you, but if it works another way then it might be bad.

In battle, you'll take control of three characters; each character is given an amount of time to act per turn. In the early stages of the game, player will be granted 5 seconds. The timer starts when your character moves, attacks or uses item. Before that you'll have Thinking Time, which is a small/unlimited amount of time for you to plan your attack strategies.

There are 6 party levels which you will gain in the game. They work as your party skills in battle. Higher party level doesn't mean its good, as it may limit your movement time; However, you will be able to use more skills. For example, level 3 party level enables you to carry more items into battle and perform different attacks, but it also deducts your thinking time from unlimited to 2 seconds, and your movement time from 5 to 4 seconds.

Every character has two attacks, basic and special. Basic attack boosts your movement time and special attack damage, the more you slash the more damage you will deal. Special Attack damage increases by Echo. There are a total of 6 Echo levels: 4 stars, 8 stars, 16 stars, 24 stars, and 32 stars, showed on the bottom right respectively. In short, if you perform a special attack with 32 stars, the damage may be enough to kill your enemy in one shot. Echo also triggers Harmonic Chain. It is a chain of special attacks your character can perform; it can also cause friendly characters nearby to make a perfect combo. This will only happen when your Echo level is above 24 stars.

There are 2 types of area in the battlefield, Light and Dark. Standing in the bright area or shadowed area will change your character's special attacks. If your character's special attack on Dark is Heal, then you may not want to stand in the shadows before landing your finishing move. Monster evolves in different areas; some may be stronger or weaker in the dark; while some may be strong to both. So lure your enemies to the right place and quickly end the fight.

Evading enemies attack isn't impossible anymore in Eternal Sonata. During enemies turn to attack, you'll have a chance to reduce the damage caused. Simply press 'B' when a sign 'Chance' appears above your character. Pressing it too early or too late and that character will suffer from severe damage. This is important as some enemies can kill your character in a turn. However, defending only works when you're facing where the enemy attacks. There's also a counter-attack where you gain no damage from enemies and given 2 seconds to fight back. This option is available after you gain a higher level of party level.

Abnormal status didn't turn its way out of this game, as poison, stunt still haunts you. Of course there are also effects that keep your character in 'Dark' condition anywhere in the battle field or the opposite attribute. Fortunately, the chances of getting abnormal status aren't that high in Eternal Sonata; unless you're facing a boss or stronger monsters, or you don't have to worry about getting annoyed.

A certain amount of item can be brought into each battle. The game manipulates by using item slot. On the early stages, you will be given only 20p (or slots), and one Potion will cause you 2p and a reviving item is approximately 6p. What will you do if you face a tough boss with such a limited item space?

Customizing characters isn't that variable in Eternal Sonata. A character will have four slots of equipment: Weapon, armor and 2 accessories. Weapons and armors work just like any other RPG game, they carry the same theory: The stronger the weapon is, the higher it cost to own it. Accessories may have effects; it can either strengthen your character or weaken them, sometimes both. Like a ring which boost your defense but also cause that character to stunt for 2 seconds before he can move. Bad isn't it?

There are several side quests in the game, though it is nothing special but unlocking hidden dungeons to obtain stronger weapons; but there's 'Section' side quest which requires you to find music notes and mix them with other NPCs. Literally, its like doing music remix, just what DJs does all the time. Then, you will be graded from A to E. Getting an A or B will get you a item, as for the item value, it depends on which NPC. Music notes are mostly found in treasure boxes, but occasionally, it is rewarded as a gift.

Music is the main concern in this game. If you remember who Motoi Sakuraba is, and what he had achieved as a music composer in Star Ocean, Tales of Fantasia and Valkyrie Profile; then you will not only hear, but feel more of his great music composing skills, and soon you will find yourself blended in as part of the game. Without forgetting Chopin, his piano will be played at the end of certain chapters, and words flowing out on the screen, telling stories of his life. Maybe, that is the best way to skip history course right?

There are two phases in this game. Means you can finish the game once, and come back for a second try. Second phase of the game is giving players a higher difficulty level, additional scenes, boss fights and treasures to unlock. Though you can probably finish the first phase in less than 20 hours, but 30-40 hours plus is what you're looking at for the second round.

Closing Comments:
Remember Xenosaga and Valkyrie profile? If you like either both, then Eternal Sonata is for you, like a combination and improved of both game systems. I understand that cute and childish Japanese RPG aren't going to work in the Western side. But, trust me, Eternal Sonata holds a solid gameplay, and enganging storyline that makes you go on. Although, there are boring and talkative times like what you saw in Xenosaga, but with those beautiful, colorful and detailed visuals, this is a game that you must consider putting into your cart this holiday season.

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Eternal Sonata and Blue Dragon Comparison
When Eternal Sonata was first released in Japan, many forumers brought up with this topic, arguing which better than the other. Personally I find this topic to be interesting, as there aren't many Japanese RPG for the Xbo360, so I tend to write some of my personal comments. Note that game title in Bold means it wins in that category.

Gameplay:
Eternal Sonata: Battle system is a bit slow and bored in Blue Dragon, and with that laggy framerate and occasion screen cracking, it brings the gameplay down, allowing Eternal Sonata to be better in this field.

Graphics:
Blue Dragon: Extremely smooth textures, character expressions and environment makes the whole world a perfect fairy tale setting. However, not everyone can accept children and Dragon Ball characters.

Sound:
Eternal Sonata: Although music composer of Final Fantasy did a great job in Blue Dragon, but with the same o' way makes you want something new. Plus the Boss fight theme in Blue Dragon turns in whole mod down, very annoying and immature rock music if you ask me.

Value:
Eternal Sonata & Blue Dragon: A tie in this one. Blue Dragon has an insanely high interactive world to explore. Even a smallest rock in the map can earn you an item or money, and that is what RPG gamers are looking for. It keeps you busy searching and explore every bit of the area. On the other hand, Eternal Sonata has its value from the fantastic story with music, and the various settings taking player from massive field, to the sea pirates, volcano, and city sewers.

Overall, without a doubt, Eternal Sonata still stands above Blue Dragon, and also among the other JRPG for the Xbox 360. With Lost Odyssey and Cry On coming up, let us hope for more and better quality games for this amazing console.

Hot & spicy food + no sleep for 2 nights + coffee = Sick

Yeah, not until I had my shower and realize the world is spinning infront of my eyes, I'm sick.

Lucky that the doctor said it was something mild, phew~

Anyway I feel better now, time to finish what I've started

take care~

Well, there goes my afternoon classes, but it was worth it.

The show starts out with Halo3 screens flying through a galaxy-like background with some band playing the music on stage. Then someone took the stage and showed some of what Xbox360 and Xbox Live had achieved throughout the whole year. Next, Kim took the stage and showed us some trailers and demos. Two of them did impress me.

Lost Odyssey:

Wondeful graphics, music and gameplay. Just like Final Fantasy. Guess this is what old-school FF fans wanted to see from Sakaguchi.

Call of Duty 4:

This is what I call a next-gen FPS war game. Say Goodbye to World War 2 and say Hi to nuclear war.

Weird, but during the first few seconds of RE4's trailer, I was shocked, thinking as it is MGS4, lol. Anyway, Nintendo just ended and Sony will be taking the stage in just a few minutes. Well, enjoy the show

Regards, Yuna08

P.S. Oh I almost forgot about my Eternal Sonata review

After 3 hours of hard wait (approx. 580MB), I found this game the best RPG in the next-gen console so far.

The graphics are superb, you can merely see glitches on the characters. Music was also a big hit, as it stimulates your senses, making it hard to leave your hands off the controller. Voice acting is nice from the battle conversations, but sad, I can't distinguish Aya Hirano's voice...

The battle is special. There are three usable characters in the demo. Each character is given 5 seconds to walk around the battlefield and slash your foes. Normal attack is triggered by the A button, Y for Special Attack, B for defence and X for item. Pressing the LT button in battle will change viewer's tilt, and LB button changes the item assigned for button X. Hitting the Y button will perform a variety of special attacks, depends on which second and your combo count. Don't underestimate 5 seconds, because one wrong step will wipe your entire party.

The demo has around 1 village and 2 forests for you to explore. The atmosphere are nicely build and the color/lighting are extremely well done.

Trusty Bell-Chopin no yume- will be released in Japan on the 17th of June.
A must buy

 

Regards, Yuna08

After struggling for a week, I finally got my very first PSP! Although the colour may be quite common, but I'm really having fun with it. Currently playing: Valkyire Profile: Lenneth, Gudam Rengoku vs Zaft Portable, 300, Loco Roco and DJ Max Portable

Oh, and guess what, I encoded a movie for the PSP, thinking that it wouldn't play...but it DID! Hehe, everything goes portable now.

Have fun everyone ^^

Ah the XMB.....just love it~

First 'playable' movie in PSP, lol

Regards, Yuna08