clessaileron | Recent Entries

So, another thing that has been getting into my anger. I've just been putting it off for days and I'm just been wanting to talk about this and how it gets to me. It's in regards to social justice.

( So, I'm having to talk social justice )

Crossposts: http://clessaileron.livejournal.com/225871.html

After all the headaches from it being delayed, I finally got the figure of Tales of Vesperia's pink haired princess.

Took long enough for this to get released. It's hectic having to be prepared to cough up the money only for it to be delayed. But now, I have the Estelle figure.

Now, I leave you with a couple of other pics. One before setting up her gear, another after, and where the figure's going to be.

I'm probably going to do some rearranging but she'll be near my Sakura Wars figures (not like she can jump in that Koubu anyway).

Crossposts: http://clessaileron.livejournal.com/225532.html

This is a bit late since I didn't really get much this Christmas but at least it's the big one I got. (No photos for now)

*I got a new PC! It may be Windows 8 but I'll live. Runs pretty well except it's going to need a video card if I'm going to run some of my Steam games. I specifically bought the Devil May Cry reboot game hoping to play it on a PC at 60 frames per second. I actually tried Castlevania: Lords of Shadow only to see the gameplay being more like a slideshow. I'm hoping to buy a video card soon because I'm not going to wait for my birthday in order for me to (hopefully) playing the Devil May Cry reboot. Well, at least I can finally sit down and play Bastion ever since I bought it via Steam.

*A new phone (and a smartphone to boot)! My old phone's charger was a pain to get working to charge my phone. At least now I have a modern phone (and it was because I don't have much interest in phones that I never really upgraded to a smartphone).

*A bunch of shirts. (One's a Batman: Arkham Origins, one of the Injustice shirts where you can pull it up over your face and look like your face is the Joker. Oh, and probably as a joke that I wasn't looking to get any next gen consoles, I ended up getting an Xbox One shirt. But yeah, I still think this is not the time to be buying any next gen consoles. Okay, maybe I might take my chances with Wii-U later on.)

*A hoodie that makes it look like I'm Batman. (Well, it counteracts my, "When's Mahvel?" hoodie with a DC-related one)

*A bag of various snacks.

*$20 Gamestop gift card.

*$20 PSN card.

*$30 gift card to Peter Piper Pizza. (I was telling another friend about wanting to treat him to Peter Piper Pizza and this will end up helping. The card he gave the gift card it definitely had a crude sense of humor).

And that pretty much sums up what I got. Now, I'm just going to worry about getting that graphics card.

Crossposts: http://clessaileron.livejournal.com/225154.html

So, I remember that around this time in September, both Pokémon Red/Blue and Tales of Destiny showed up in North America 15 years ago. Yeah, it's been that long.

I actually remember being 12 and actually going to a Toys R Us on Pokémon Red/Blue's release day and getting the Red version. Usually, back then, you would have to grab a ticket for the game, pay for it, and hand it over to the stock room. Well, not that time, I actually had the game in my hand before needing to pay for it. Pokémon was just starting off at that time and have yet to really explode until some months have passed. It was just some no name at the time and there I was getting the original game on release day.

I wouldn't even know Tales of Destiny was released in North America at the same time as Pokémon Red/Blue until years later. I mean, I would only really had my true first encounter with the Tales series 4 months after that (January 1999) and got myself really addicted to Tales of Destiny at that time. By then Pokémon ended up exploding, while Tales of Destiny would still be some obscure RPG and I wouldn't encounter the series again until 2 years later with Tales of Eternia, while I was still hanging around Pokémon.

Man, it feels like I've been around the block for both of those series.

Crossposts: http://clessaileron.livejournal.com/224530.html

So, I did a second playthrough of Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World and finished it two nights ago.

Just so I say it...no, I still do not think it's the piece of crap people make it out to be. Yes, it has problems but it was still playable and I still enjoyed it. Also, no, I do not hate Emil or Marta and I actually do enjoy the story. I still stand by what I say that I rather play this game than Tales of Legendia. It's been five years since I did a playthrough of the game and my stance hasn't changed.

Now, I do hear that this wasn't a necessary sequel. Then again, was it really necessary for Tales of Symphonia to have vague connections to Tales of Phantasia? Just sayin'. I have heard that just having Symphonia connected to Phantasia has caused some plotholes itself but I'll have to go back and do some research on that again. Probably why I even brought that up. Not only that, if people ended up playing Tales of Destiny 2 after an accessible fan translation comes out, I have to wonder how many people will say that was an unnecessary sequel?

This is just a quickie I did. Yeah, this is not going to look good on me.

(Yes, this is cross-posted with my Tumblr).

Crossposts: http://clessaileron.livejournal.com/224483.html

Man, I never thought the box would be this huge, even knowing there was a figure inside.

I'm an hour in and I will say that I like it (particularly more than Tales of Graces F). I'm not going to act like it's something to write home about (well, at least not yet. I rather not be so swallowed up by the hype).

I guess I should just admit that I do have the equivalent of a complicated relationship with the Tales series. There are times that I can love it (Tales of Phantasia, despite how old it is, Tales of Symphonia, while not my favorite, I can give some props to that game) and there are times I end up having a hard time loving the series (can be uninspired sometimes, its fanbase, and Tales of Legendia).

(No, I don't plan to put Jude in the Cless costume. Besides, I already wore one.)

Crossposts: http://clessaileron.livejournal.com/223937.html

Before I actually left for Las Vegas on July 10, I managed to beat Project X Zone. I've been meaning to write up something about it.

( What I have to say about Project X Zone after I was done with it. )

Crossposts: http://clessaileron.livejournal.com/223552.html

Can't say it was my most eventful Comic Con but I had a good time at least. Didn't get much photos either. I'll say this is going to be a much shorter write up than usual.

( Preview Night )

( Thursday )

( Friday )

( Saturday )

( Sunday )

( Some small amount of cosplay photos )

Like I said, not one of my more eventful year at Comic Con (especially since there weren't much in panel I'm interested in for this year).

Next year, I have two things in mind here.
1. Do some tune ups on the Cless Alvein costume. It'll be another Saturday costume, probably.
2. Get the alternate costume going. Who is it? I'm not going to dance around it. I want to do Shinjiro Taiga in battle uniform from Sakura Wars 5. It'll be a simpler one (it better be). (I had considered Ichiro Ogami's battle uniform but I'm not in the mood to change my haircut.)

Crossposts: http://clessaileron.livejournal.com/223319.html

Just before Comic Con starts kicking around, I figure I should write out my time at EVO 2013.

Things I will say beforehand:
*Since the tournament was being held at the Paris resort, I was trying to resist the temptation to listen to Mihata no Motoni (the theme song of Sakura Wars 3 and the Paris Assault Force) just because of its Paris theme. I failed because I had the theme song stuck in my head on the way to Las Vegas. Then when it came to scouting the resort, I ended up listening to it while doing so.
*Hotel TV ended up winning this time. Yeah, there was a nice TV in the room I was staying in but I couldn't get the PS3 going on it. Note to self, bring a monitor next time. A power surge will certainly be helpful too.
*Streetpasses and I really see a lot of people playing Animal Crossing: New Leaf. Enough that I was checking them while sitting and waiting for the KI panel to start and Ken Lobb asked if I was playing Animal Crossing (and that's the same Ken Lobb that got a gun named after him in Goldeneye on Nintendo 64). Oh, and I did see plenty of people were playing Project X Zone.
*Speaking of Streetpassing, my Streetpass greeting was, "When's Marvel?" Got personal responses like, "When's MH (Monster Hunter)?", text-style thumbs up, and an actual answer of, "Now."
*After EVO was over, something happened with someone but I rather not bring it up.

( Pooling and Exhibit Room )

( Panels )

( Tournament Highlights )

( Stuff I got )

Crossposts: http://clessaileron.livejournal.com/223129.html

If you don't know why I'm here for Project X Zone, I think the pic will make it more obvious. *wink wink*

Okay, I don't have an Estelle figure or an Erica figure, so I couldn't exactly throw those in.

Yeah, and I also have some related pics to get some jokes going.

Crossposts: http://clessaileron.livejournal.com/222772.html

I'm just going to keep this quick.

So yeah, it looks like I will get a PS4...when I'm ready. Yes, we will be able to play our used games, we won't have to connect for authorization. It's looking good for them. Okay, so there's Infamous: Second Son and Knack. That's pretty much it, though. That being said, this does not mean I pledge my allegiance to Playstation. Still, I would like to get myself into PC gaming more.

The most frustrating thing is with Microsoft. Xbox One has that whole draconian DRM with the system where you have to log in online every 24 hours to check the game license. There's also the fear of privacy invasion. It's frustrating that this has to get in the way of two games that's of interest for me on the system. One being Dead Rising 3, being that I am a big fan of the zombie game so I know I would be wanting this one. However, the biggest frustration comes in the form of...the return of Killer Instinct. A cult fighting game that only had two games in the series but was so loved in the 90s and it ends up making its big return...on a system with problems that's going to overshadow this game (and the IP is owned by Microsoft). I feel like the system's problems are going to make Killer Instinct dead on arrival. If it's going to be shown off at EVO, I'm bound to play it but it's going to hurt knowing that if it bombs, it's because of a system that's looking to be a pain in the butt.

(On another note, FilthieRich did leave Namco Bandai recently. Instead of handling Tekken and probably dealing with rabid Tales fans, he's...working on said Killer Instinct revival. Feels like it's going to feel wasted.)

Yeah. That's what I got to say.

Crossposts: http://clessaileron.livejournal.com/222396.html

I'm going to say this right now. Yes, I actually do have a Tumblr account. Outside of having an outlet for people to ask their burning questions to me, I don't know what else I'm using this for. Well, I have been looking at other stuff, like this, where people take real text messages posted on a certain website without any context, and placed them on an appropriate Power Rangers screencap. You probably won't get why I'm amused by this (unless you know some behind the scene stuff in regards to Power Rangers Megaforce). Then again, that's just mild compared to another favorite using a screencap from Dino Thunder. Yeah, I'm just easily amused by it.

Oh, and for the record, I've watched RPM in its entirety recently and I got myself watching the 2001 Power Rangers series, Time Force. Yeah, not sure what else to say about the Power Rangers stuff.

In a weird move, I also bought Mortal Kombat 4. Okay, it's actually Mortal Kombat Gold on Dreamcast but it's pretty much Mortal Kombat 4 DC. Yes, I just did a joke about how it being MK4 on Dreamcast and it's a director's cut of MK4. If it wasn't for the fact that I have a Dreamcast, I probably would have bought MK4 on PS1 just so I can run it on my PS3 but my ownership of a Dreamcast made me grab this one. Well, I do get to play as Cyrax, Kung Lao, Baraka, Mileena, and Kitana (though Kitana is actually dummied out in the PS1 and N64 version of MK4 and is actually playable with a cheat device). I also never realize how hard it is to pull off fatalities here compared to MK9. Anyway, I know MK4 is the installment with mixed reactions but, well, MK tends to fall under guilty pleasure and MK4 is no different, so yeah. That's pretty much what I'll say in regards to MK4 (except Goro is a prick what did I expect?).

While I do intend to playthough Tales of Symphonia, I realized liveblogging is too much for me with something like this and decided I'll just make blog posts about my playthrough when I feel good enough to write about it. I guess that's where I had a false start (and honestly, I probably wanted to gain experience by comboing rather than get double of it). So I'll see about doing it again.

Crossposts: http://clessaileron.livejournal.com/221955.html

So, you know that Project X Zone thing?

Well, it's making me give Namco X Capcom another go, despite what I said about it (It's shallow, novelty wears off quickly, etc). I still have the willpower to go on but what I said about it still stands. I still enjoy seeing Stahn and Rutee but it seems like it's going to take a while before I see more of them (but that's for another entry).

The fan translation...I am cringing over how half-assed it is. The formatting is awful, there are typos here and there. I hear that they released and expected others to give feedback or something but it seems more like a case of just taking the patch, running and just using it.

Yeah, I know. This is something done on someone's spare time. But hey, if people rag on Phantasian Productions for incompetency in regards to releasing a patch for Tales of Phantasia PS1 (and some saying webmaster Cless should have just given up after Absolute Zero released their earlier), why can't I give this fan translation some criticism over how half-assed it is? So, yeah, I still feel I have to do it.

Today, this blog post...is a montage of what I saw.

( Mistakes and nitpickings everywhere! )

Crossposts: http://clessaileron.livejournal.com/221784.html

This here is why I love Akibaranger! Hilarity, especially from the delusions within the show and the references. Rather than the reality that Zyuranger is the source material for the original Power Rangers, these Zyuranger are under the delusion that Super Sentai came from the American TV show, Powerful Rangers. I could be here all day/night just talking about it, so I'll just cut it short and let that split pic say it all.

Speaking of Zyuranger, I managed to finish the series just before subs were available for Akibaranger episode 5. While I will say the formula of kids in distress does get tiring, for the most part, it was very enjoyable. It gets very interesting to get back on Netflix, watching some of those season 1 Power Rangers episodes, then end up seeing some of the footage and know the original context of those footage.

I'm not sure what's next for me and watching another tokusatsu show. Not sure if I'll be looking into another Super Sentai show or what. I have been wanting to watch Kamen Rider: Dragon Knight (an adaptation of Kamen Rider Ryuki) but it looks like that's going to be hard since the adaptation looks to be in legal limbo (i.e. There's no DVD releases in the U.S). Though I am also tempted to watch...the live action Sailor Moon. Though it's going to feel so surreal and feels like it's going to be outside of the normal level of camp that I'm used to (it's why I even linked to its opening).

Yes, I may have an addiction to Japanese tokusatsu shows alongside any adaptations (i.e. Power Rangers).

Crossposts: http://clessaileron.livejournal.com/221621.html

So I watched episode 4 of Akibaranger season 2 and now waiting for the subs for episode 5 to be ready. In my last entry, I mentioned I saw a shot of the Tyrannoranger and Dragonranger from Zyuranger with stars and stripes on their belts and necking, pretty much looking like some Power Rangers jokes are in order.

( Akibaranger Catch Up with minimal spoilers. )

Crossposts: http://clessaileron.livejournal.com/221197.html

Everyone! It's...it's not what it looks like! I'm not watching Power Rangers here! Really! No, honest!

Okay, okay! I already did a gag where I put on a mock insecurity act about watching Power Rangers and I do reference that I watch Power Rangers, sometimes referencing it as that "campy kids show". So it's not like I'm really hiding that fact.

Even with that, I really wasn't watching Power Rangers in that shot.

I was watching the Super Sentai show that would be used to become Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger. I'm sixteen episodes in and about to get into the episodes with the sixth ranger. I have to say it's not too bad.

Also, I got myself watching Akibaranger, an unofficial Sentai show linked to the official Super Sentai series that's also an adult parody. You got one guy and two girls fighting bad guys in their delusions and they believe pain is power. It's really targeted at the otaku crowd (the red ranger's a 29 year old guy who's obsessed with Super Sentai, the blue ranger is a closet otaku, and the yellow ranger is a cosplayer girl who really likes her guy on guy action, if you get what I mean). I won't say anymore due to spoilers but I will say it's hilarious, crazy and great! So hilarious I would so love to see Akibaranger get an unofficial Power Rangers adaptation!

There is a second season of Akibaranger and I am watching it and it's just as crazy. I did see some sort of shot where the Akibaranger sees the Tyrannoranger and Dragonranger from Zyuranger but they have some stars and stripes on their belt and neck that looks to scream, "America." I really hoping that it's hinting that they're going to make some Power Rangers jokes. It's not like they didn't reference Power Rangers before. They had the actor of Dekared/Ban from Dekaranger in the second episode of the first season as himself, saying he was in the SPD uniform because of a Power Rangers SPD event (in reference to the fact that Japan actually got a Japanese dub of Power Rangers SPD featuring the cast of Dekaranger, Power Rangers SPD's Sentai counterpart. It's not like it's the first time Power Rangers got a Japanese dub, despite how ironic that sounds).

So yeah, I think I really got myself into campy kid shows.

Crossposts: http://clessaileron.livejournal.com/221067.html

So, I finished up my not-so-simultaneous playthroughs of Resident Evil Code Veronica. One on Dreamcast and one on PS3 (CVX). While it's not my favorite game in the series, it's still good and I'm actually glad I bought a physical, Dreamcast copy of the game.

With that out of the way, I'm wanting to do a special playthrough of a certain game that was originally released in Japan at the end of August 2003, doing it early for its tenth anniversary. It may fly over your head but honestly, considering this is the most well known game in the series, it shouldn't really be hard to figure out.

Seriously, I'll let the game's intro movie set it up.

( There's a reason I linked to the intro there. )

Crossposts: http://clessaileron.livejournal.com/220871.html

So, I'm pretty much done with my playthrough of Tales of Phantasia PS1 some days ago. I'll say this right now. I still love it! Now, I will say that before this playthrough, I have been struggling with the idea that I'm a Tales vet that never moved on from Tales of Phantasia.

( The things that got me into a mindset before I started. )

( Yet, I really wasn't that cynical. )

Crossposts: http://clessaileron.livejournal.com/219280.html

So yeah, I went to Dave & Buster again for my birthday this year. I had a good time. Getting to play the Mario Kart arcade game again while also playing . Though I spent too much playing the ticket dispensing Super Monkey Ball Ticket Blitz machine (once again, I'm proving to Assist Me Dr. Doom that I'm a nerd because I know who Aiai is).

It's a day late but the small stuff I got for my birthday.

*Kirby's Return to Dream Land (Wii)
*64GB USB Flash Drive
*Avengers Blu-ray
*Resident Evil: Damnation Blu-ray.

I had to pseudo-shop for the Kirby game and the Flash Drive since time was running short. I was originally going to grab a PS3 version of Tekken Tag Tournament 2 but Fry's didn't have it in stock (I was briefly checking for an Xbox 360 version and I think that wasn't in stock either). The Kirby game was another wish list one, so it made up for not having the game I originally wanted.

As for gift cards:
*$40 Best Buy card. This is going to solve my dilemma about getting Tekken Tag Tournament 2 (I do plan to get an Xbox 360 version of it later on but I want to at least make sure I have a PS3 version of it since I'm only bringing the PS3 for EVO).
*$20 Gamestop card. I actually still have the $10 Gamestop card from Christmas. I may end up buying Fire Emblem: Awakening for 3DS with it while paying the remaining amount.

Oh yeah, I should mention that Cyllya gave me $20 worth of Microsoft points like she did in 2011. I used some of that points to buy Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus (Since I wanted to get a modern version of Guilty Gear and now I do). I'll probably throw a $10 into the pile and then get Dust: An Elysian Tail later on. Thanks again, Cyllya. I really appreciate it!

Crossposts: http://clessaileron.livejournal.com/218739.html

*digs into his previous entry talking about his Sakura Nendoroid to find that pic he has with an open ToV manual towards her*

Ah, here it is!

Since I actually did this pic in reference to Sakura and Estelle being in Project X Zone, I'm bringing it out for relevancy. As much as I did not want to get excited for it due to feeling burned by Namco X Capcom, Project X Zone is getting a North America and Europe release. I'm going to end up buying it, no matter what I say. Guess I still got to stick with what I say. Keep my expectations leveled.

I'll leave it at that for now. Maybe it's time to see if Sakura can recruit Estelle into the Imperial Assault Force.