It's time to give Persona 3 and 4 another tongue bath I hate a lot of RPG design ethic in the last ... I'm gonna generalize to fifteen years. That's about when FFVI came out.

A lot of JRPGs in general, but Square is especially guilty of reinventing the wheel. They make a game, it has a system, and when the game is over, that system is thrown out the window so that the next game can operate nigh independently of the old system. It's like brain washing yourself before doing your next project to make sure you can't benefit from any of your prior experience.

I think what I really hate though is that because of this I doubt FFXIII (not that I own a next gen system) will probably not have the Gambit System, which is a shame, because even though I hated the Gambit System, I hated it due to it's poor execution. It had a lot of potential, they just didn't meet it.

But why is it that game designers won't do more often what Square did during the old FFs, where the game mechanics were largely similar, or insert tongue bath here what MegaTen did with Persona 3 and 4? Or what Nippon-Ichi does with Disgaea? All those examples took the system from the existing game, a solid base that worked, then improved upon it, creating a game that was better designed. This is the world of console gaming here; the games don't get radical patches to the mechanics. The only time concrit from the playerbase can be incorporated is in a sequel.

Ah whatever...

I used to love the Harvest Moon games, but I just can't get behind it any more. I don't know why. Maybe it's I have better taste in games now or something, I don't know, it's just... the farming feels mindless any more, like I could replace it with a trained chimp. In the past few years since Harvest Moon has lost its magic, I want my games to require more thought, or be more demanding on my timing; some sense of challenge works well too, though that's a slippery slope since most games don't have a decent concept of scalable difficulty. A good story is nice too, but a good game doesn't exactly need one either.

One of my favorite things to do with the Harvest Moon games though was to name my farmer Kaji, and name my farm Melons, then get all the farming out of the way to go run around and woo the women, often with special focus on the local drunk, but as the title says, Persona 3 and 4 have ruined my Harvest Moon marriages.

All the Harvest Moon love interests do is wander around, forcing you to go seek them out and talk them and give them gifts, hearing them blather the same phrases over and over again, with a handful of little events (like 5) marking points milestones in the relationship, and the milestones, cute and entertaining as before, are so thinly spread it's like finding a rare dixie cup of water in the vast desert.

By comparison, all your social links in Persona 4 have more content and take less time to complete. Also rather than making up the stupid "I like swords/Welcome to Corneria" dialogue, it just admits that you and soandso spent time together, leaving it up to your imagination. Not to mention that the characters are more interesting in the first place.

So that's it I guess. I just can't get behind Harvest Moon any more. Objectively speaking the latest one is really good if you like the HM games still. It's just that I'm not having fun with it.

And I'm checking LJ again.


School started; SFSU.  I have to be in San Francisco every week day.  I like the campus a lot, and the commute isn't so bad, but regarding commutes...

... I don't think I've ever seen so many souless seeming people.  A lot of commuters look miserable or empty, and alone.

Over the summer, too, I might've gone a long time without a lot of human contact, and I think I could go a good while not seeing to or talking to anyone, but just one day of being surrounded by lots of people and yet not having a real conversation witha  single one of them... was sorta lonely seeming.  I'm so glad I met with Trisha the next day.  having a friend there is nice.

I'm also starting to get to know people in my classes.  Admittedly, most of them are people who I think are gyrating towards me because I know the answers in class and they didn't.  I guess Persona 3 is right: giving the right answer does raise your charm.  Just among people I might not consider entirely competent.

My weekend has been pretty good for free time, thank goodness, but during the school week I seriously spent perhaps around 80% of my waking hours studying, and yet, in some Franziska von Karma like workaholic manner (I swear RPing her has increased my discipline), I've been enjoying all the studying I'm doing.  I guess that's a sign that majoring in Japanese was a good idea.

... jeez I am such a weeaboo.

Just now, as I was taking it out of my hair, my precious thing broke... my blue butterfly hair clip that she gave me.  One of the wings just... snapped off.  I have it sitting on my night stand... glued together... hoping the glue will set...  I don't know if I'll really be able to wear it any more.

Maybe I shouldn't have worn it almost every day, but I enjoyed feeling it there.  I suppose it will become more of a special occasion item now, if I can still wear it...?

Mrrew... ._.

I think radio shows were really cool.  Sometimes I want to have some entertainment while I'm doing something, say, chores, and I want something that tells a story, and thusly not all music does that.  Old radio shows are great to put on in the background while you sew or do laundry or clean the house, because all they require is that you listen.

Yeah, I can multitask, but for the most part that's limited to typing something unrelated to watching some anime or something like that (actually, I can listen to one thing, watch a different thing, and type something else entirely, but that's about my limit, and I don't particularly like doing it; it really tires me out after a few hours).  Point in case, I need my eyes when I do a lot of things (like cleaning) and putting some anime on in the background just distracts me, but radio shows are perfect.  I can be entertained while doing less engaging but more pressing matters.


As for chess, my chess game is improving, but I've noticed that the strongest part of my game is the opening, and that I can handle open games very well, but queen pawn openings and the Sicilian Defense throw me for a bit of a loop.  I need to work more studying and playing other kinds of openings, and also work on other parts of the game more than the middle.

Progress has been made, thoughI still feel like an amateur. 

Don't you think for a moment, though, that I'm being down on myself.  I'm very happy lately~

So I have to take this health class as a transfer requirement, and it's the same crap again and again that we've already gotten about practice safe sex, don't do drugs, eat proper, exercise, stuff that for the most part seems like common sense ...

... but studying for this class, I have learned a lot I didn't know about the effects of alcohol.  And, well...

... let me begin with saying this.  I've smoked a little bit socially before.  Not too often, not too many, but I didn't really understand why I did it, and I knew it was bad for me, so I stopped.

And now I've kind of come to that point for alcohol.  I've finally decided that even though I like drinking, I don't need to do it, it's not good for me, I just don't feel like I want to any more.

That said, I understand people wanting to have a few good drinks, so I don't really want all my alcohol to go to waste.  So I guess I'm giving it up to whoever wants it.  I'm going to put a list of my bottles of liquor behind a cut, and if you live close enough to me that I can like see you in person and bring you a bottle, let's get together sometime and you can claim your free alcohol.

My break hadn't really gone how I'd planned it. I mean, on Tuesday I got sick and that stuck with me through Friday, so I was staying in bed being a good little girl in order to ensure my swiftest recovery, except for the portion of Friday I had to help my mother out on errands, which turned into a major bout of mama drama, but that's not what I wanna talk about~~

I had a great day today; it would've easily been the best day of my break if I didn't get sick. We saw Shutter together, and , well, I have to say, I tend not to see horror movies not because I dislike being scared, but because more than most bad movies, I don't want to watch bad horror movies (unless they're really funny). Shutter was a spectacular horror movie though. We really enjoyed it~ <3 I have to go recommend you see it~ -^~-

Oh, and today I was finally taught how to braid hair.  ^^; It's so simple i feel sort of foolish~

She bought me flowers~! <3  ::giggle::  I don't think anyone has ever bought me flowers before~ -^^-  When she gave them to me I'm still downright elated <3 -^^-  Liiiiike... when I opened my eyes, an already wonderful day blossomed before me. <3  I felt light and giddy and.... ::dreamy sigh:: --^^--




Allow me to be a nerd here.  I've been practicing my chess.  I'm getting better.  I won't say I'm good, but I don't think I'm especially bad any more.  My father and I have set up a little table in the hall outside of our rooms, and whenever we pass it, we make a move and write down on the white board what we did.  Thusly, there's all the time in the world to think.  So it's not great at making me think faster, but it's good at developing tactics and strategy, and honestly, I'll focus on faster after I have it down at all.  Learn how to do something well before learning how to do something fast, right?