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Thursday, February 14th, 2008
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3:53 am
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Happy Valentine's Day, everyone.
May you spend it with those important to you.
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(comment on this)
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| Monday, February 11th, 2008
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4:36 am - Fic Request/Experiment
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So, I'm here trying to get back into writing and going back to my main fandom, Devil May Cry. Even with some good advice from ![[info]](http://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) kuchehexe and yuuo, I'm finding myself having trouble coming up with a decent plot to start with. The best thing I've come up with so far is disturbingly open-ended and not the least bit interesting in terms of something that I'd want to read.
So, I'm finding myself pondering interesting ways I can get my plot muse in gear. And what I've come up with is this, as stupid or brilliant as it may be.
If my friends list wants to, I'd appreciate it if anyone could come up with some sort of supernatural incident to deal with. Be as detailed or vague as you like. Demons? Vampires? Faeries? Miscellanious? Anything's game. Dante gets calls to deal with just about everything under the sun (or moon, in the case of vamps), so why limit myself to my own plotting? (Especially when it seems to be backfiring on me...)
My trick will be to turn these into business calls for Dante to get. With any luck, I can turn them into a couple of one-shot fics, and if my muse latches onto them especially tightly, maybe turn it into something bigger.
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(6 comments | comment on this)
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| Saturday, February 9th, 2008
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6:09 am - Gratuitous Lyric Post
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I figured that I might as well post the Lyrics for the theme song of DMC 4, since it's a good song. I've really come to like the music in the DMC series from 3 onward. Heck, "Seeds of Love" was a damn good theme too... Anyway.
I'm gonna need to check the bonus DVD and see if this song is on here... Otherwise, I need to track down the MP3...
( 'Never Surrender' )
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(1 comment | comment on this)
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| Friday, February 8th, 2008
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6:21 am - You know, I really wasn't expecting much, but... (A DMC4 Review)
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God DAMMIT!! That was it?!
The DMC4 was decent. Way better than 2, not nearly as good as 3 or 1. If you're not in the mood for Teal Dear, just skip to the last couple sentences.
I can trace my complaints to three things.
1. It seems pretty clear to me that Kobayashi is intent upon forgetting what makes the series good. That's Dante, and the stylish action-packed gameplay that can't be beat. What did this game bring? Nero, overall SLOWER action, and enemies that are harder to combo off of. WTF? When my combo options, enemy-wise, are limited to puppets and blades, what the hell am I looking at in the gameplay? Now, it's not entirely a bad game, as I said. The enemies here are an improvement over the ones in DMC3, but still, when enemies are prone to guarding one in three attacks out of a combo, turning insubstantial and MOVING THROUGH THE WALLS, it tends to limit the fun in fights. Strategy in fights = Good. Tedium? NOT GOOD. You guys almost got it right, but you went back to your old tried-and-true method of stretching out a fight, while only partly addressing complaints about being able to maintain stylish action.
2. Add to that fact that Dante was available for all of seven missions, and it left me seriously disappointed. Seven missions, Kobayashi?! Seven FREAKING missions as the hero of the series? On top of that, you've slowed down Dante to keep pace with Nero, and you gutted his styles to boot?! I couldn't do half the things in this game that I could in 3. I realize you wanted to make a difference between the two games, but differences mean BETTER gameplay options. Not worse. Furthermore, we were promised "More weapons than in all the prior Devil May Cry games combined." Even if you take out the weapons from 2, and even if you lump Rebellion and Force Edge in as the same weapon, that's still SEVEN devil arms, and seven guns. Dante got three devil arms and three guns in this one. That's LESS than in each of the other games, individually, except for DMC2. All of Dante's styles and weapons TOGETHER probably had the same amount of moves available as Nero did. I get it, it's Nero's game. What's worse, though, is that I didn't feel the need to switch out from rebellion, ebony and ivory, and the shotgun. The other weapons? A poor man's Ifrit, and... I don't even know WHAT Lucifer was SUPPOSED to be, but what it WAS was a joke. At least I can take comfort in knowing that the enemies that gave Nero a challenge are a freaking joke as Dante. Oh wait, I LIKE a challenge. (Still, I did enjoy utterly annihilating each of the bosses as Dante. DAMN that was satisfying.)
3. The story. Where do I begin here? How about with the good... It's a beautifully crafted story. It holds together solidly on its own, if it were its own entity. ( SPOILERS UP IN HERE. BIG SPOILERS. IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THE STORY, DO NOT READ THIS NEXT COUPLE OF PARAGRAPHS. SERIOUSLY. )
Now, I'm going to fill up some space with non-spoilerific praise for the game, and the characters especially. This space is mostly here so that commenters aren't going to be forced to read any of the above spoilers, but it's worth reading nonetheless.
Your villains were beautifully crafted, especially Agnus. God, I loved Agnus. Second best cutscene in the GAME goes to Agnus. The poetic speech from a character that otherwise stutters a lot? The banter that read like a play, back and forth between Dante and Agnus, in the opera house just before the fight? I laughed my ass off, in a good way. And oh god, the way he died. That was a thing of beauty. Trying to save his notes after Dante shot them, begging Dante to tell him why demons are inferior to humans, then looking through the bullet hole in the one page he managed to save only to stare right down the barrel of Ivory when Dante tells him to do his homework? Sweet Jesus, I nearly came right then and there. THAT was writing. If the rest of the game's writing had that quality, point 3 above would have been completely moot.
Credo... Well, we didn't see enough of Credo, which is a damn shame. I liked Credo, but the good bad guys are always the first to die. If he had been developed more, he'd probably be my favorite of all the new characters. The guy believed the ideals of the Order and just got suckered into their evil.
Gloria. Without spoiling anything for people who didn't read the LJ cut, I'll just say that I liked Gloria, and I wouldn't mind seeing her again. Mreow!
Berial, Bael, Echidna. The three big demons of the game, in order of my preference. They were beautifully writen, and their personalities really stood out. Poor Bael only seemed to be a fluffer for the Nero wank-a-thon, but he still had a fantastic personality. And as much as I was unimpressed with Echidna (they could have done so much more with her!), she still filled her role as a bit player rather well.
Dante, Trish, Lady. The returning cast. All of them were beautiful, fantastic even. (Aside from one point I brought up behind the LJ cut, but it was required for the game to actually EXIST, so... eh. I'll pretend that there was logic there and blame it on bad plotting.) Dante's interactions with Nero were fan-freaking-tastic, exactly how I'd expect him to act. Trish's interactions with Dante? A thing of pure beauty; those two are partners and there's no question of it whatsoever. (And yet, Kobayashi says that the anime is canon, when the anime says Trish ISN'T Dante's partner. WTF, Kobayashi? Quit fucking up my series.) Lady interacting with Dante and Trish? I wish I could have seen more, the banter was gorgeous.
As for the combat... well... it's a mixed bag. It's a step down from Devil May Cry 3 in complexity and flow, as I said above, but it isn't bad by any means. Nero, unfortunately, has moves that nobody's going to use, which is a damn shame. The moves that do get used are plentiful and smooth, and the exceed system was.... interesting. I don't want to say it was good, and I don't want to say it was bad, but I can't complain about it and I enjoyed using it. It's gonna leave my fingers sore whenever I play, but it's worthwhile overall.
I can't get behind the Proud Soul system. Really, Red Orbs are all that we needed to buy moves and items. Proud Souls just complicated things, and it wasn't needed. The refund mechanic to it was nice, especially after I saw that some of the moves I bought were novelties not worth my time, but... yeah, I don't want to see this again.
Unlockables. ... Please, god, tell me that there's going to be downloadable content, because you didn't give us ANY unlockable costumes or weapons? This isn't like you, Capcom. What did we do to deserve that?
Now then, the Teal Dear.
Better than DMC2 by leaps and bounds, but not nearly as good as the other games in the series. As it stands, unless I see something REALLY different, and soon, I'm gonna chalk this up as a miss for the series, overall. It's not a bad miss, it ALMOST hits the mark, and it's not so bad a game that I'm not going to replay it... BUT... I would not recommend this game for newcomers to the series. At all.
Sigh... two, maybe three years until the next one.
Fix what's wrong, Capcom, please?
current mood: discontent
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(8 comments | comment on this)
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| Wednesday, February 6th, 2008
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1:59 pm
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It's in my hands now. :D Expect me to be horribly distracted. ^_^ And if you don't know what I'm talking about, well, you just don't know me very well at all, do you?
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(4 comments | comment on this)
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| Tuesday, February 5th, 2008
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7:42 am - You know, sometimes having Dante in my head is a disadvantage...
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Especially when reading Paranormal Private Eye Stories.
Every single Dresden Files book I've read thus far, Dante spoiled for me by the time we'd met the whole cast.
Book six? Spoiled. XD Cocky bastard is just smirking and reading his own book in my head now... Ah well, it's a good book.
Sure do wish I was able to get more than two hours of sleep last night, though...
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(comment on this)
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| Sunday, February 3rd, 2008
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9:38 pm
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ARGH! A twelve point spread, with even higher odds for the Giants to win. Why didn't I place a simple twenty buck bet?! I would'a made almost two hundred bucks!
GAH!
-_- This is why I hate being a Las Vegan sometimes. I know the odds, and I know not to gamble, but every so often, something like this happens and I kick myself because it's easy money...
Ah well, it was a pretty good game, as far as football goes.
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(comment on this)
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| Thursday, January 31st, 2008
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1:57 am - Urgh...
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So, looks like I finally caught whatever's going around. I've got a cold, nothing too serious, but it's enough to make me feel its effects. XD;;
I hope I'm better by the weekend, I want to be able to make it to Kyt's art show...
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(3 comments | comment on this)
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| Thursday, January 24th, 2008
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3:14 am
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Well, I can access Insanejournal now, but can't connect to IRC.
Y HAT, internet?
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(comment on this)
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1:05 am
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| Saturday, January 19th, 2008
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2:50 am - Icon Search...
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A while ago, I thought I saved an icon of Ashton, chibi-form, thrown down on the ground and flailing his arms around as if he were throwing a tantrum.
I can't seem to find it now...
Has anyone seen this icon recently, or perhaps has it saved anywhere? I'd really appreciate it. ^_^
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(comment on this)
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| Thursday, January 10th, 2008
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4:49 pm - Pokemon Fans.
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| Friday, January 4th, 2008
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1:24 am
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Does the name "Laina Inverse" mean anything to anyone? It seems familiar to me, but I can't tell if it's a good thing or a bad thing, or if it's just screaming "Mary Sue" to me for no reason...
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(7 comments | comment on this)
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| Tuesday, January 1st, 2008
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10:02 pm
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I just finished the second Dresden book, Fool Moon, today. I'm making good time on these. XD I enjoyed this one too, though I admit that I liked Storm Front a little more. I'm probably going to start the third one tomorrow, or maybe later tonight if I decide that I'd like to read a bit more.
In other news, I've got a Doctor's appointment tomorrow that should take care of a couple of things for me. Thursday I'm going to be looking into a couple of different jobs that I've had my eye on too... A semi-busy week, I suppose.
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(1 comment | comment on this)
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| Saturday, December 29th, 2007
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1:56 pm
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I just finished the first of the Dresden Files books this morning. I have to say, I really enjoyed that, and I'm looking forward to the rest of the books in the series!
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(comment on this)
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| Wednesday, December 26th, 2007
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1:04 pm - Random moment of the day!
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I can't believe I've never listened to Dragonforce before now...
These lyrics are pretty good, but the guitar? ZOMG. I'm seeing why people are saying this is incredible. This is some laws-of-physics-defying guitar-work. (Yes, I know they had to record the song in sections because of the difficulty of it... XD)
( May as well cut for the lyrics of this song if anyone's interested... )
current mood: impressed
current music: Dragonforce - "Through the Fire and the Flames"
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(2 comments | comment on this)
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| Tuesday, December 25th, 2007
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11:13 pm
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Murf... Dead tired, now... I think I'm turning in early.
Merry Christmas, everyone! Hope that it treated you well!
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(comment on this)
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| Thursday, December 20th, 2007
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6:11 pm
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Got back from the Opthamologist today, and my eyes are actually much better than even I thought they'd be. Needless to say, I'm quite happy with how that turned out.
On the other hand, I somehow managed to only get an hour and a half of sleep last night, at best. So I'm going to be laying down here in a little while, and I'll probably wind up sleeping through most of the night. :/ Sigh... At least I'm done with school.
Hope everyone else is doing okay!
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(comment on this)
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| Tuesday, December 18th, 2007
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11:59 am
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You know, almost every day I get reminded that there's no greater void of human intellect as the GameFAQs message boards.
And yet, I keep going to them because, with regards to a couple games at least, they're the best place I've found for centralized information.
Urgh... I can feel my brain leaking out my ears.
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(4 comments | comment on this)
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| Sunday, December 16th, 2007
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2:20 pm
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Heading over to James's again.
You know, I'm really not doing much good in dispelling the thought that he's my gay lover...
SILENCE.
See everyone later, hopefully I got enough sleep last night so that I can actually stay up to an insane hour again.
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(comment on this)
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