The Monochromicon

"A philosopher once asked, “Are we human because we gaze at the stars, or do we gaze at them..."

monochromicon — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 00:38:38 -0700

“A philosopher once asked, “Are we human because we gaze at the stars, or do we gaze at them because we are human?” Pointless, really… “Do the stars gaze back?” Now *that’s* a question.”

- Stardust (2007)

"I’d imagine the whole world was one big machine. Machines never come with any extra parts, you..."

monochromicon — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 15:24:34 -0700

“I’d imagine the whole world was one big machine. Machines never come with any extra parts, you know. They always come with the exact amount they need. So I figured if the entire world was one big machine, I couldn’t be an extra part. I had to be here for some reason. And that means you have to be here for some reason too.”

- Hugo Cabret, Hugo (2011)

my current Do As Infinity obsession…

monochromicon — Wed, 25 May 2011 16:57:00 -0600

my current Do As Infinity obsession…

you like “Rolling In The Deep”?

monochromicon — Mon, 23 May 2011 23:56:49 -0600

you like “Rolling In The Deep”?

seriously; stuck, in, my, head…

monochromicon — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 17:44:20 -0700

seriously; stuck, in, my, head…

… speechless

monochromicon — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 12:26:00 -0700

… speechless

I don’t know why… this MV looks so fun! I just know...

monochromicon — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 23:52:53 -0600

I don’t know why… this MV looks so fun! I just know I want to throw water balloons now!

Catchy remixed song by Australian collaboration (Yolanda Be Cool...

monochromicon — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 01:01:00 -0600

Catchy remixed song by Australian collaboration (Yolanda Be Cool & DCUP), tap-danced by Cleary & Harding… Love it! I dunno how many times I listened to this already.

Project Dark (working title)

monochromicon — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 11:21:47 -0600

Project Dark (working title):

This is basically *cough* Demon’s Souls 2 *cough*! Now if you would excuse me, I am too excited for this… (even though I found out 2 weeks after TGS)

Demon's Souls

monochromicon — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 02:06:00 -0600

—Review Score: 10/10—

Demon’s Souls is the action RPG for the real gamer in you. This game is both a rare gem and a nod to the old-school gaming. You get good in this game, or you get killed, a lot. From Software as always gives us the most difficult of game to tackle upon. However, beneath that steep difficulty lies a superb gameplay mechanism. This game is not your usual hack-and-slash action RPG.

The most noticeable element of Demon’s Souls is its difficulty, in the beginning normal enemy can and will kill you in 2-3 hits. But don’t let that troubles you, once you get the grasp of the control scheme and attack pattern, you will be able to handle the enemy. But no matter how overpowered you are, a group of enemy can easily dispatch you with their simultaneous attack. Unlike most games these days, careful planning is mandatory to survive this game. No more save point before a boss fight, or conveniently placed restore point before a big fight, if you die you will need to restart the whole level again, with the enemies respawned.

The story of the game is almost non-existent, but it is enough to drive you to finish the game. The setting is in the Kingdom of Boletaria, where demons came and swoop the land because of a foolish act by the king. You are the supposed saviour of Boletaria, traveling to defeat the demons infesting the land. There are five different locales to explore, each with its own unique enemies and atmosphere. Connecting these locales is The Nexus, in a way this is the only town in the game. In each of the locales there are several checkpoints that can be unlocked once you defeat the boss of that area.

There are several NPCs to interact with during the game, most of them have important role as your shop, storage, weapon upgrades, skill trainer, or leveling up. Interestingly enough, you can kill any of these NPCs. However, if you kill an NPC their functions (e.g. as a shop) cannot be accessed anymore, not to mention that they will fight back if you attack them. These NPCs appear to be only for gameplay purposes, however if you talk to them they actually have interesting backgrounds and can give you insight on what happened in the world of Boletaria.

On to the best part of the game, the gameplay. It appears in the beginning that this game is plain hard, you can even die in the tutorial stage. However, the difficulty is actually because of the difference of Demon’s Souls gameplay compared to other hack-and-slash action RPG. Each attack swing will drain your stamina, each item use will take time in which you can be hit, each magic has a casting time; so there’s no button-mashing in this game. Add to the mix that different weapon will have different stamina consumption and swing animation then you will have one of the most developed battle system in an action RPG; this game is like playing fighting game where you need to time your attack and keep your distance to score a hit to the enemy. When you die, and you will die a lot, the enemy actually getting stronger and you become a soul form with only half as much health as your body form; and did I mention enemies respawn upon your death and you will need to restart the level from the last checkpoint? And how you get back your body form? Kill the boss, of course. All these differences on gameplay force you to get better at playing this game and you will be extremely satisfied once you complete a level.

Another innovative, yet restrictive, part is how Demon’s Souls handles multiplayer experience. Whenever you are connected to the PSN, the online multiplayer is there. You can leave preset messages (this is the restrictive part) on the floor to give hints on other players on what lies ahead. You can touch a bloodstain to see several seconds of the last moment of another player who died in that area. You can summon up to two other players (which will appear as blue phantoms) to help you tackling a level, consequently the enemies will also be stronger. Last but certainly not least, another player can invade your level (which will appear as a black phantom), with sole purpose of defeating you to obtain their body form back. The invasion mechanism provides a very interesting PvP experience. Later in the game, you can also challenge another player for a duel.

Despite its Japanese origin (From Software is a Japanese game developer), Demon’s Souls atmosphere is pretty much like most western RPGs with its dark colour palette, realistically modeled character (no animé stereotype whatsoever), and player-customized main character. Demon’s Souls by no means is a visually beautiful game, character models are not that detailed and the ragdoll physics is awkward. Background music only appear at boss fights and at The Nexus, with most of the levels filled with ambient noise of demons and the environment. Voice-overs and sound effects are actually pretty good, then again most of the levels depend on these things to give the player a clue of what’s going on around them. In essence, all these graphical and sound bits make Demon’s Souls a highly atmospheric game, which will give you different feeling on each locale.

In conclusion, Demon’s Souls is a really rare game that will appeal old-school gamers more. The difficulty level is not that bad once you learned to play the game how it’s intended to be. This is not a button-mashing hack-and-slash action RPG, but rather a tactical action RPG in which you need to plan your actions carefully. With an interesting multiplayer implementation (also rather restrictive in my opinion) and great battle system, this is the must-have game for PS3 so far.

(Picture Credit: Demon’s Souls Official Site)

for felingpoh, I can sing it, yay!

monochromicon — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 21:58:00 -0600

for felingpoh, I can sing it, yay!

Audio

monochromicon — Tue, 18 May 2010 23:30:00 -0600

Turn Off Your Mac's Display

monochromicon — Wed, 12 May 2010 22:04:23 -0600

onethingwell:

⇧ + ctrl + ⏏

Honestly, this almost made me jump in excitement…...

monochromicon — Mon, 10 May 2010 17:03:00 -0600

Honestly, this almost made me jump in excitement… It’s LittleBigPlanet2!!!

Oh, and if someone wondered what’s the song used (I know I do), it’s Sleepyhead by Passion Pit.

She… may be the love that cannot hope to last,may come to...

monochromicon — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 16:43:44 -0600

She… may be the love that cannot hope to last,
may come to me from shadows of the past that I remember till the day I die…

Somehow this song always made it’s way through my mind lately…

Dear Spring, please come back…

monochromicon — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 13:50:04 -0600

Dear Spring, please come back…

"When prayers turn to promises, not even fate can stand in their way."

monochromicon — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 12:15:00 -0600

“When prayers turn to promises, not even fate can stand in their way.”

- Oerba Yun Fang — Final Fantasy XIII

Final Fantasy XIII

monochromicon — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 01:52:00 -0600

—Review Score: 9/10—

Final Fantasy XIII is a long awaited continuation of the most popular Japanese RPG franchise outside Japan. And dare I say this is nothing like any Final Fantasy you’ve played before. FF XIII breaks away from the mold of Final Fantasy is, with lots of omission of the usual elements. But somehow Square Enix manage to keep the basic elements compelling with both superb gameplay (especially the battle system) and enjoyable story, Final Fantasy XIII is worthy the name of Final Fantasy.

On to the difference of this iteration to the series. Gone are Final Fantasy Theme and Prelude which always prevalent in the series. There are also no proper cities where you can talk to and gather information from the NPCs. As for replenishing supplies normally done via store in the cities, well it’s online shopping altogether in FF XIII, through save points! In other word, FF XIII lose the feeling of traditional J-RPG and replace it with more action-oriented series of events and battles. This might turn off some players since the sense of linearity and on-rail progress is more imminent in this kind of narration. However, this also leads to a more focused storytelling and more action-packed sequence altogether.

Story-wise, FF XIII goes back to the theme of grandiose save-the-world cliché. The protagonists are bound together by an event that leads to the destruction of the world, and they are actually the one to destroy it. But being the protagonists and all, they choose to save the world instead and that’s exactly what the story is about, defying fate. The story is great with lots likable cast and strong character development portion. If there is anything lacking, it’s the lack of true antagonist. Just like FF XII, the antagonists in FF XIII are all have their own reason and belief. It’s just because their wills clashed with the protagonists’ that the story narrates them as the antagonists.

FF XIII features a strong-willed female lead protagonist, Lightning. It’s been a while since Final Fantasy game features a lead female (Final Fantasy VI, if I’m not mistaken is the only other game in the series), and more so that Lightning is a strong-willed and not your usual Japanese female character stereotype. Other characters are also great; there are hero-syndromic Snow, down-to-earth Sazh, despaired Hope, happy-go-lucky Vanille, and hard-headed Fang. All of them have their own story to tell, and all of them underwent a development throughout the game. This the thing that I enjoy most of the game, good story complemented with great character development.

As I said earlier, gameplay in this iteration is great. You’ve got the Paradigm system, where you create a set of roles (behaving like jobs in previous Final Fantasies) for battle. The roles are: Commando, main attacker of the party; Ravager, support attacker, useful to drive the chain gauge (more on this later); Sentinel, defender role to absorb damage; Saboteur, placing various debuffs on the enemies; Synergist, placing various buffs on the party; and finally Medic, your staple healer. You can create up to 6 Paradigm decks (a combination of role for each character) at any given time, and you need to use the Paradigm Shift to change role mid-battle, which is pretty much mandatory on most battles. The battle in FF XIII is complex yet fun, for starters the enemies are considerably have tons of hit points and normal attacks only chip a fraction of it. The key is chain gauge on each enemy, the higher the percentage number is means all the attack will be multiplied by that percentage (it can goes up to 999.9% at which point each attack will do 10X damage). Basically each and every battle is revolving around increasing the chain gauge and deal higher damage as soon as possible. I won’t delve deeper to the battle system in this review though, because it can go into another in-depth analysis. But it’s suffice to say that the battle can be unforgiving if you’re not planning your way through it. There’s no random encounter, instead FF XIII uses a Chrono Trigger system, you touch an enemy on the field map and then it turns into a battle screen. The leveling system is more like FF X with it’s sphere grid (it’s called Crystarium in here, though), but with different grid for each character. In a sense, there’s no normal concept of level as in other J-RPGs.

Now for the graphics quality, being a Final Fantasy game this is one thing all fans should expect (since FF VII anyway). And I’m glad to report that the graphics are gorgeous. From the colourful and modern Cocoon to the lush green and naturey (borrowing Vanille’s Australian accent) Pulse, FF XIII is like nothing you’ve ever seen before. Every cutscene is highly detailed, up to the lips movement of each character following the actual line. They even change the lips movement for the full CG (computer generated) scenes to match the English dialogue. Now that’s what I called an attention to detail. Background music is mostly great, but Final Fantasy fans might not happy with the omission of the Victory Fanfare, Prelude, and Final Fantasy theme. I personally love the battle music, because it’s uplifting yet so unconventional at the same time, and also partially because I heard it so many time during the battle.

All things considered, Final Fantasy XIII might looks unappealing to the fans of the series because of the omission it has. But this also means that FF XIII tried to turn a new leaf on the series. Final Fantasy series have been thought as a J-RPG for the non-Japanese, and this game shows that Square Enix is serious on that by incorporating new elements that might appeal non-Japanese gamers more. In that point of view, I dare say that this is a success. I enjoyed the difference, the way they put all the core story in a cohesive narrative and leave all the side-tracking at the player’s convenience. I enjoyed the punishing and strategic battle system instead of multiple simple battles only to increase your level. And most importantly, I enjoyed the whole game experience. This is truly a Final Fantasy.

(Picture Credit: Final Fantasy XIII Official Site)

"When I couldn’t see a future, and I was afraid… …when the future was clear, and it..."

monochromicon — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 02:24:13 -0600

“When I couldn’t see a future, and I was afraid…
…when the future was clear, and it hurt to see…
…I’d just close my eyes, and lose myself in happier days.”

- Oerba Dia Vanille — Final Fantasy XIII

Fragility

monochromicon — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 00:12:00 -0600

It has been struck me the realization on how fragile life is, human life. We may took it for granted, live our life without any purpose, without any meaning. But it only took a shot from a stranger in an armed robbery; it only took a hit from a drunk driver in a truck on the other direction of the road; hell, it even only took a clog in your heart artery to make it all ends.

Human life is fragile. It is because of this fragility that to me it’s not how long we can live, but how good our life is. That’s why we need to make the most of it. Be grateful for every breath you can take in this very world, for every second your heart beats and your brain thinks. Life is all about making choices, and accepting the consequences. That’s why we need to think before we act, to contemplate before we choose. Never overlook small choices we made every day, for they are the ones which shape the life we lived, and the life we will lead.

Now let me ask you one thing, if you depart this world tomorrow have you lived a good life? I know I haven’t, but I’m trying to do so…