Let's talk about video games.
First off, I bought, played and beat Princess Debut. Laugh all you want, but it was a fun game in spite of everything. It plays like a dating simulation game (for kids), where you are filling in for the princess of a kingdom because she can't dance. You meet several princes, go on dates, and find a partner to the ball, all in order to make sure the real princess doesn't look bad. The challenge of the game comes in when actually dancing, as it requires some hand-eye coordination. The touch screen gives you various patterns to trace in time with the music, some of which can be a bit tricky to get just right.
I've been playing Muramasa lately, toggling the story between Momohime and Kisuke. I'm a bit surprised that they didn't give an option for English voices (Battle Fantasia didn't have English, either), but that's perfectly fine by me. I leave some games in Japanese anyway. Audio options or not, this is a great game. The visuals are stunning, the music is beautiful, and the story is compelling. You're only given so much information at the beginning, which makes you want to play the game and discover more. I've heard some complaints that it's very repetitive, but the same was said about Assassin's Creed, and in my opinion, it could be said about nearly every game if you're picky enough. In Muramasa, you traverse the countryside defeating ninja, samurai, oni, and various other enemies while leveling up and forging new and stronger swords. In Momohime's story, she has been wounded and her body possessed by the spirit of the great warrior Jinkuro who killed his master and peers in order to make their fighting style his own. Momohime's spirit follows him around in the hopes of regaining her body once Jinkuro gets what he wants, and avenging her family that died when she was wounded. Kisuke's story doesn't exactly overlap (yet...they've met each other in the hot springs a few times and have talked very little) as he's a runaway ninja being pursued for crimes he doesn't remember committing. He is helped by a fox demon who is drawn to his skill and strength and promises him the power to forge demon blades.
I've also had the privilege of playing WET, an action game by Bethesda (known for the Elder Scrolls games). It's a crazy, over-the-top, gun-slinging game full of cheesy dialogue, vulgar catch-phrases, and insane violence. You play as Ruby, a mercenary of sorts, who gets hired to pick up a black market heart for a transplant. From there, events spiral, and she ends up hunting down the people who gave her the job to begin with in a quest for revenge. The graphics aren't spectacular, and the controls take some time getting used to and understanding, but overall, it's so much fun and so frustrating that I sat and shook my head at the screen asking "Really?!" Especially as Ruby dives through the air, blasting heads with a shotgun in slow-motion.
I played a couple of hours of Red Faction: Guerrilla, as well. After liberating the first section of civilized Mars, though, I was done. While it was interesting, they ended up piling too much on you as if you're some sort of super-soldier...You're a miner. When I was granted access into the new area, I was promptly given five different missions, all of which required immediate action. There was a convoy headed to the location I had just freed, there was a truck that needed intercepted because of a letter that it carried, there were people requesting help fighting off the military...It took the fun out of the game. I didn't, however, get a chance to try the multiplayer, but I've heard good things about it.
Prinny: Can I Really Be the Hero? is a great addition to my PSP collection. You play a Prinny (a lesser demon of the netherworld introduced in Disgaea), and it's your mission to make Etna the Ultimate Dessert. Some poor schmuck ate her dessert, which sent her into a rage, and now she's taking it out on every Prinny. To make her happy, you run all over hell and back to get the ingredients needed to make her something else.
I'm excited about several upcoming games, as well. Dragon Age: Origins is going to push the boundaries of RPGs. Magna Carta 2 is going to be full of eye-candy (even though it's the third Magna Carta game...the first never came to the states). Left 4 Dead 2 is going to be as much fun as the first, especially with the addition of melee weapons. Every bit of Assassin's Creed 2 that I see makes me fan-girl squeal. Mass Effect 2 is still a ways away, but I'm looking forward to playing it since I love the first so much.
What I'd really like, is for Final Fantasy XIV to come out next summer like Square claims it will. It looks like such a beautiful game, and I've been trying to keep up on news and information on it so I'll actually be prepared to play it when it does launch. I think I got in over my head with XI and came off as as serious newb when I started.
Art updates will be coming soon. I've been working on things, I've just been neglecting my DA page, and haven't actually finished a non-school drawing in quite some time.
Soon.
