I haven't posted in a while (again), mostly because I didn't feel like I have any energy and time to rant about anything blog worthy. Living alone in Japan has been great, but it made me realize that the me before that wanted to live/work in Japan is very different from the me today (who also wanted to live/work in Japan, don't get me wrong).
I would always think that nothing is going to change. I'm not the kind of person that actively seek change, but it's amazing that despite that, things change not just externally, but also internally. Interests change. Motivations change. Reasons change. So on and so forth.
The most striking example would be fighting games. I wanted to quit fighting games so many times in my life that I have lost count. I started fighting games in 2004-ish I believe and have witnessed the death and incredible rebirth of not just the scene, but also the entire genre as an active member of the scene. I still remember having dreams of going to Japan just to play fighting games with the best. It was one of my many motivations to get better. When I finally got 12 years here however, I no longer has as that much interest anymore. The fact that I had not gone to Takadanobaba's Mikado arcade to play at its peak hours speaks for itself. Even when SFV is releasing, I find it difficult to justify investing time into it, let alone actually purchasing it. There still exists the possibility, but it's bleak as hell.
Well I'm not going to rant on about my fighting game career, but at this point, moreso than before, I'm willing to take a backseat and try to do other stuff.
I don't really know what "other stuff" really is. The problem now is that I have dumbed my goals down to:
- work in a Japanese company
- get a good paying job
- become a programmer
- work in the games industry
All of which I have already achieved.
So now what?
Honestly, I felt that I have already peaked in my programming abilities to the point where I'm more interested in managing and nuturing a team of programmers than improving on my own personal skills. Programming at this level feels very knowledge based. There isn't really any techniques outside of knowing if a method exist or not. It's not like drawing or playing an instrument where you have to train your body to improve. You just find or develop a tool based on other efficient tools to make life better for everyone. Don't get me wrong, it's a wonderful thing, but I felt that I should learn something else. Programming just isn't enough.
So I tried my hand at other things like digital drawing, relearning my piano, trying to relearn music theory to do arrangements, etc. Hopefully once I return from Japan in 2 years, I have a better set of skills.
Hopefully, anyway. It feels like it's time to prepare myself for the next set of goals I want to achieve.
But who knows.
Things might change again.
...
Aaaaaanyway, I officially discovered BL.
It was as eye-opening and somehow inspiring as the time I played an amazing H-game for it's mechanics instead of the H (/cough Sengoku Rance /cough).
I'm still trying to figure out why I like BL. Apparently, I only like a specific kind but then again, I can say the same for every other genre/topic.
It can just be a simple reason as "I just like moe, homoe or not".
I don't know.
Nevermind, I'll let the drunk ME figure it out > <
I'll just enjoy whatever I'm doing ^^
Showing posts with label IRL. Show all posts
Showing posts with label IRL. Show all posts
Monday, December 14, 2015
Sunday, October 18, 2015
October in Japan!
I have finally settled down and have enough space and time to blog a bit.
Well, the pieces are slowly coming together in my stay here. SIM card arrived a week ago, allowing me to freely travel to...places (ie Akiba). Before that, Johnny and I were sharing this Wifi rent thingy. It has caused a lot of inconveniences mainly because we cannot be separated from one another, otherwise we would not be able to contact the rest of the world. Internet is a wonderful thing /sobs.
So how's my stay so far?
Before I left, I already know from a 3rd person point of view that I do not want to move out of my comfort zone, so I created like a bunch of er...barriers? Okay that sounded very 'chuuni' but that's the gist of it. At the same time, obviously I want to work in Japan at least once because it has been a lifelong dream of mine, after many many years of modifications.
So yes, I got homesick for the first week either ways. My colleagues helped a lot in making me feel at home. My crib is slowly shaping up and I'm settling down. Room at the moment is still a mess and lacking some storage space, but with the amazing Japanese amazon services, I can pretty much get anything I want from my house.
It's only a month so far, most of the things they said about Japan is true.
Alcohol is cheap; I already almost done with my small bottles of Bowmore 12 and Glenfiddich 12, and halfway through the 1000-yen huge Suntory bottle.
Japanese colleagues get to know you by asking if you drink or smoke, which it is actually okay if you say 'No' to both (my team has very few people who drink).
Service here is ridiculous. There is an amazing about of pride in being behind counters and making deliveries, etc. I mean, I know it's amazing since I have been to Japan, but to see the same guy doing it every single morning is something to marvel at in my opinion. It's so amazing that when you are feeling down, just buy something at the convenience store; you'll feel slightly happier.
I find it a nice place to stay overall. The weather now is also super good (it's Autumn now), 10 billion times better than the stupid retarded haze we are/were having in Singapore.
What seems kind strange now is that if I were sent to Japan 2 or 3 years ago, I would probably be doing different things, like playing Kancolle and similar games, probably buying card games stuff (that's what I usually go Akiba for) and hitting the arcades. Now I'm like playing Touran because there's this character I really like (actually now it's like a few more of them), and also because the game is much easier to pick up compared to Kancolle.
I think I'm becoming fudanshi?? (or was always one but didn't know?? /thinks)
I mean just yesterday I visited Akiba and it's like "omg kashuu cups" and "omg kenma towels". I just strolled through the entire KinMosa, GochiUsa and Non Non Biyori sections.
....
^^/
Tuesday, September 22, 2015
September 2015 Update!
Umu! Just nice 1 month before last blog post！
This month has been kind of hectic off-work wise. My stay in Japan is confirmed and I will be leaving on the 1st of October, so I was dealing with things like Visa, shipping packages and all the other annoying details. The stay will be for 2 years...it's the kind of duration where people think it's long but it's really not. 2 years of army, then 2 years of university, then 2 years of working in my company, then now...it's just another 2 years.
This is my first time living away from my parents for a long period of time though, so it's kind of wktk. There's so many things I want to do that I hope that I have the energy to do them when I reach. Obviously the first thing I look forward to is the weather. Singapore weather destroys my mood every weekend.
Being free of my responsibilities this month gave me some time to do some recreational stuffs! I have like, this stack of unfulfilled/abandoned hopes of dreams from around 10 years ago. Just random stuff like starting a webcomic. It just did not happen because I was more in love with maths than with arts at that time. Now that my pursuit for mathematical knowledge died down a bit, I guess I defaulted back to wanting to do more creative stuff.
Well, that kinda sounded sad but it really isn't. Think of it as I have reached a satisfactory point in a skillset and moving on to something new. Haha, feels like I waited 10 years for this to happen. It was all part of the plan of getting a stable job I enjoy though. The ideal was to be satisfied in what I enjoy first and during free time do what I enjoy second. Woo!
And in Japan too!
Friday, August 21, 2015
LiSA in Singapore 2015 recount!
I can't believe I forgot about blogging about this, but the truth is, the performance was so great that there really isn't much to say. It's pretty much close to undescribable, like most other concerts I attended.
The concert is what I expected it to be plus a bit more. Lisa is, as usual, energetic, engaging and terrific on stage. The plus side I got was that the VIP seats were extremely close to the stage, closest that I have ever been to a j-rock/pop concert.
Overall a great performance! Her hugging a minion passed to her by her fans and accidentally slipping and falling onto it was one of those once-in-a-lifetime bloopers that will never be released on any media, like how Minorin fell down the stage when I attended her concert 2 years back.
And...that's it! Anything more would be just me describing a regular awesome concert, going about "how awesome the guitar/bass/keyboard/sound system/pacing/etc" was. However, as much as I would like to end it here, there was one part that's quite annoying for me.
There were like 2 girls sitting in front of me who, I assumed, were huge fans of LiSA. There were sections where the crowd is 'not supposed' to sing along but they went ahead and sang anyway, which in some perspective I find it okay because, hey, they paid for their seats right, and from their perspective, they were supporting her.
The two girls kept turning around going "SHHH SHHH!" trying to silence the entire crowd. While I understand why they want to do so, I find that it is extremely annoying and disrespectful. In a sense, it seems as if they do not accept the crowd, who paid for their seats, to be her fans. Seriously they were staring daggers to the crowd behind them, trying their best at failing to shush them. It almost ruined the entire experience for me.
Well I won't talk so much about fans; all of them show their love for the aritste in different ways. I believe that LiSA need more fans that are as passionate as those girls, but it's what they did at the point that felt over the top and uncalled for...almost to the point where it feels un-fan-like.
Oh well I won't rant so much. The concert was great and worth every single penny. I'll definitely attend her concert when I'm in Japan ^^
Saturday, June 28, 2014
SEAM2014 Aftermath
I like how this post is 1 week late, but it has been a really busy and tiring week. Oh well, here we go!
Through some miracle, I was able to make it for South East Asia Major 2014 (SEAM2014). Wow, what a weekend! What an event! Where do I even begin?
Through some miracle, I was able to make it for South East Asia Major 2014 (SEAM2014). Wow, what a weekend! What an event! Where do I even begin?
Shoutouts to all the organizers, marshals, and people who made streaming possible for all the tournaments that were taking place. Kuni, Josh, Yongde, Farp, Don and all the others from the other tournaments who made this event possible.
Shoutouts to all the players who made it all the way down to compete. We had players from USA, Australia, Brunei, Vietnam, Myanmar, The Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan, and more.
Shoutouts to all the people who made commentating BBCP a thrill. Anton for joining me with his calm demeanor of a voice, Dinman's crazy Tager that made it to top 8 WINNERS BRACKET, Ourozama for being the true Hazama of his pools, Rebel2 players of course, and Kirie, Vic, Uncle Joel and Kenzi for the afterparty stream appearances.
And of course, journalists and cameramen (Edz, we really need to UMVC3 again) who take their time to come down and cover the event. Props to all of them.
Now that I’m done with the shoutouts, I can finally talk about my thoughts, although the shoutouts should have mostly expressed my thoughts. This was a hell of an event, possibly the best SEAM to date. It never fails to amaze me how far apart we all are, yet bonded together by fighting games.
Just a few things to rant about. I wished I had joined UMVC3 on Friday but I couldn’t make it. I was curious to see how would my Taskmaster/Spencer/Tatsu team fare now that I know better combos and setups compared to last year’s. I ended up joining BBCP mostly just to represent my character Platinum, though I don’t really had any expectations to win from the beginning because I haven’t been keeping up with the game nor practising for the past maybe 3 months? Winning 3 before being eliminated far surpassed my expectation and I’m still kind of laughing about it.
Commentating was fun. Rewatching the stream, I think I did an okay job. It could definitely be better. My voice sounds hoarse and mellow like a gorilla, which didn’t really please me lol. Man, I really sounded like a Chinese who can’t even enunciate words properly when I’m talking fast. That aside, I’m not really sure how I should improve, considering that I really don’t want to turn my commentary into e-sports mode. At the very least, I should stop sounding like a gorilla with a mouthful of marshmallows I guess.
What else can I say? It was really fun meeting up with everyone after disappearing due to work and other commitments for a couple of months, and seeing the community grow to this point. Kind of makes me a little sad that I’m not born slightly later, training for tournaments when I had all the time in a world pre-National Service. We didn’t had any of that back then. I still find it crazy how Capcom single-handedly revived Singapore’s arcade scene from the brink of death.
Great games. Game on.
(Man I really enjoyed the CVS2 section a hell lot ^_^)
Saturday, June 7, 2014
2014/6/7 先週の日記
最週末ははじめてヴィク姉様の「境界の彼方」のコスプレの撮影を手伝ってあげました！早起きるのはちょっと面倒だけど、楽しかったです。それに同じ興味の新しい友達を作りました！
朝でする予定がありますが、撮影ところに遅く着いてしましましたので、昼の撮影になっちゃった。あとで、色んな大変なことが起こられました。警備員に追われたとか、日光は強すぎるとか、雨が降りました。ですが、皆はあきらめないで続きました。特にヴィク姉様はとても元気ですね、2時間だけの睡眠があったのに！
午後3時でようやく終わりました。疲れたけど、楽しいと思っていました。数日後に撮影者アレークスさんはフォトショップで加工した写真たちをアップロードしました！
じゃん！
一目に見たとき、アレークスはすっごい上手と思ったんだ！ですからあの写真を撮ったとき、日光は無情に耐えないほど強く射しました。この写真は雨が止まったばかり見たいでしょ！それで、写真を見たら、私は止まらないで笑っちゃった。ですから、ヴィク様とアルヴィンさんは複数の写真を撮ったとき、二人の懸命に栗山未来と神原秋人の性格と顔をするのは面白かったです！いろいろチャラじゃない顔と性格を見ちゃった!ww
そんなこんなで！
ええ？同じ会社で働いていますのに（分業が違うけど）、どうして開発を聞いたことないの？遊びたい！
アトリエシリーズのアーランドシリーズは今の会社で仕事したい一つ理由です。ていうか、今まだＰＳＶｉｔａで「真ロロナのアトリエ」をプレーしています！すぐに完了したいけど、時間が持ってないねｗ
仕事の言えば、最近もっと忙しくなりそうですね。けど、それはいいことだと思います。慣れなきゃ。
朝でする予定がありますが、撮影ところに遅く着いてしましましたので、昼の撮影になっちゃった。あとで、色んな大変なことが起こられました。警備員に追われたとか、日光は強すぎるとか、雨が降りました。ですが、皆はあきらめないで続きました。特にヴィク姉様はとても元気ですね、2時間だけの睡眠があったのに！
午後3時でようやく終わりました。疲れたけど、楽しいと思っていました。数日後に撮影者アレークスさんはフォトショップで加工した写真たちをアップロードしました！
じゃん！
一目に見たとき、アレークスはすっごい上手と思ったんだ！ですからあの写真を撮ったとき、日光は無情に耐えないほど強く射しました。この写真は雨が止まったばかり見たいでしょ！それで、写真を見たら、私は止まらないで笑っちゃった。ですから、ヴィク様とアルヴィンさんは複数の写真を撮ったとき、二人の懸命に栗山未来と神原秋人の性格と顔をするのは面白かったです！いろいろチャラじゃない顔と性格を見ちゃった!ww
そんなこんなで！
ええ？同じ会社で働いていますのに（分業が違うけど）、どうして開発を聞いたことないの？遊びたい！
アトリエシリーズのアーランドシリーズは今の会社で仕事したい一つ理由です。ていうか、今まだＰＳＶｉｔａで「真ロロナのアトリエ」をプレーしています！すぐに完了したいけど、時間が持ってないねｗ
仕事の言えば、最近もっと忙しくなりそうですね。けど、それはいいことだと思います。慣れなきゃ。
Sunday, June 1, 2014
Long ass rant mid 2014
In just a couple of days, I would have been working the work life for 1 year. Thinking back, a lot of things happened in the past year. Well, of course a lot of things happened in a year but it's more so compared to other individual years. Also, some people have been asking very adult questions and others have been making some weird (not bad) statements about me. I suspect this is because I'm more exposed to the outside world than ever before. Okay fine I was a NEET, now I'm not (crap I need to change blog name?!). This is gonna be a long ass rant because I'm just gonna speak my mind. Sorry for the profanities.
First things first, I felt my interests took a shift. With my first couple of paychecks, I finally got rid of the stupid stand-up piano which I have to wait for a internal solar eclipse to play, and got a digital piano. The solar eclipse is basically 7-9pm, if I have the mood or not tired from work, if it is not noisy at home, and if I don't feel that playing the same crap over and over will annoy the shit out of my neighbors (yes I'm damn thoughtful that way and it sometimes bother me). The digital piano is lovely. I love it. I can finally play my piano ANYTIME I want, so that allowed that interest to resurface. Not to mention that I have recently joined my company's band which jams most Friday nights. The sessions were usually awesome and I love the variety of our songs; English, Japanese, Chinese and even Filipino.
On the other hand, fighting games took a hit. I have felt like moving on from it for the longest damn time. It's already a decade since I first stepped into Bugis Virtualand to play CVS2. Almost all CVS2 community has moved away from fighting games at this point. Thinking about those days, fighting games truly felt fun. You know it's fun when you lose and still feel happy. Too bad those days are gone. Sometimes it really feels that I am playing just to rediscover those feels, but if I thought about it that way, it's impossible because it's those guys that provided the fun. The entire CVS2 bunch was a really happy bunch. The only other community I really felt was close to that is the Melty Blood community.
The other communities just weren't. There are still great people in there, but there's bad-mouthing, politics, really bad salt, shit-stirring, 'black faces' during play which I couldn't stand. It's upsetting that some newer players I feel do not respect other players enough. I felt that that is the foundation of all the shit that is happening in the FGC. I don't mean e-sport faggotry respect but the FGC respect. I actually couldn't stand it when I beat someone consistently and they start saying things (in a serious tone) along the line of me having more experience in the game...AND when they DO beat me like a couple of times they started laughing and start saying that I lost to someone who don't main the game. The worst kinds are those which I would win against, give me the cold shoulder/black face mid-game. I would usually give some chance (by all fighting game rights I should never give mercy but I don't want to lose a friendship either), lose and said player will give me smug look. There are a lot more situations like this and they seem to occur more and more frequently whenever I drop by. There are ways to induce SALT but those are not it man. For example, you have to have a legit win/lose ratio before you can start saying shit like "I DON'T EVEN MAIN THE GAME!" in their faces.
And that's just in game. Ugly things are also happening outside the game. It makes completely no sense that I feel more fun being AT WORK than playing fighting games. Maybe I'm too nice to stay in the community. I just don't want to say or do anything because it is not my community to run since I don't have much time to commit anymore and the community that I truly wanted to run for is gone. Whatever man. I still play fighting games for leisure but that's about it.
Now we talk about more random stuff.
A cousin has asked me on my birthday if I am going to work until I die. Work meaning my line of industry of course. I suspect that he won't be the last person to ask but here's my full complete long-winded as hell answer.
Firstly I cannot predict what the future Gerald thinks nor can I predict that far into the future as to whether something as volatile the Games Industry will evolve into something I hate. Taking that into consideration, I can only speak for the present me. The simple answer is yes and the simple reason is because I fundamentally love programming and games. At this point, I CANNOT see myself NOT doing games programming at any point in my life. I program at work, I program at home, and if I can frickin' program on my mobile phone I will do it. I love working on games because problems are always interesting.
Then the next question that was asked was if I am willing to leave my loved ones for the sake of my interests. I really think this question is unfair because I personally feel that it depends on the situation. Also, I feel that my loved ones (if they love me) should always respect my decisions and vice versa. If you bo jio me because you jio too many people, or forgot about me, or whatever, I can totally respect that. And once again it boils down to the scenario. If we were to take the extreme case, that I have to leave my loved ones and will NEVER EVER see them again because programming is outlawed here so I have to leave my loved ones to pursue my love of programming, the present me would by a narrow margin. That being said, I have to say that it is a clever disguise of the stupid question they ask you as a child which is the "If your mother and father are drowning in a pool, who would you save?" That question used to implode my brains FOR NO GOOD REASON.
Next thing is statements. Some people say that I don't care, generally. I'm actually ridiculously sentimental; I'm just really bad at showing emotions. If my loved ones were to die the next day I would be incredibly heartbroken but I don't think I will cry over it because some part of my brain accepts that it is part of life. People need to learn to let it go (hmm maybe that's why that song is so popular?). People need to know that things don't always work out their way. Seriously, if I didn't care I would truly be a NEET at this point. Ironically, I feel that other people do not care enough about others. Every little thing people do I care like friends arranging their time to meet with me, allowing me to rant at them, or my mother taking care of me...I appreciate all of that it. I just look like I don't. From an anime perspective, the reason why I watch all those really happy moe animes is so that when I run into a 'feels' anime like Clannad, Angel Beats, Air, Eureka 7, I need that library of moe animes to drown myself in so that I don't feel moody and sad for the rest of the week. Angel Beats, which I thought was not that good and a bit rushed, had me dead for a weekend. Fuck, let's move away from this topic.
Another rather popular statement being said about me is about how lucky I am regarding my path from education to career. Lots of people said it and I don't blame them because it certainly looks that way. In my perspective, it was more of a 'I'm lucky it worked out'. There's a slight difference in the meaning. A ton of things could have gone wrong in my pursue in games programming. Because it's a ton of things, with a ton of feelings involved, I'll probably leave most of it for another rant. There are quite a lot of obstacles I have to overcome and the ride isn't as smooth as people might think it is. People need to realize that I some a tough decisions like deciding to all-in for my GCE 'O' Levels and I had problems like the burn out I had right after my internship at polytechnic. There was even a time I wanted to just change industries.
I was lucky in the sense that I have a chance to ride. The opportunity showed up, I took it with some risks and perseverance, and it luckily it worked out. But it wasn't all rainbows and unicorns.
First things first, I felt my interests took a shift. With my first couple of paychecks, I finally got rid of the stupid stand-up piano which I have to wait for a internal solar eclipse to play, and got a digital piano. The solar eclipse is basically 7-9pm, if I have the mood or not tired from work, if it is not noisy at home, and if I don't feel that playing the same crap over and over will annoy the shit out of my neighbors (yes I'm damn thoughtful that way and it sometimes bother me). The digital piano is lovely. I love it. I can finally play my piano ANYTIME I want, so that allowed that interest to resurface. Not to mention that I have recently joined my company's band which jams most Friday nights. The sessions were usually awesome and I love the variety of our songs; English, Japanese, Chinese and even Filipino.
On the other hand, fighting games took a hit. I have felt like moving on from it for the longest damn time. It's already a decade since I first stepped into Bugis Virtualand to play CVS2. Almost all CVS2 community has moved away from fighting games at this point. Thinking about those days, fighting games truly felt fun. You know it's fun when you lose and still feel happy. Too bad those days are gone. Sometimes it really feels that I am playing just to rediscover those feels, but if I thought about it that way, it's impossible because it's those guys that provided the fun. The entire CVS2 bunch was a really happy bunch. The only other community I really felt was close to that is the Melty Blood community.
The other communities just weren't. There are still great people in there, but there's bad-mouthing, politics, really bad salt, shit-stirring, 'black faces' during play which I couldn't stand. It's upsetting that some newer players I feel do not respect other players enough. I felt that that is the foundation of all the shit that is happening in the FGC. I don't mean e-sport faggotry respect but the FGC respect. I actually couldn't stand it when I beat someone consistently and they start saying things (in a serious tone) along the line of me having more experience in the game...AND when they DO beat me like a couple of times they started laughing and start saying that I lost to someone who don't main the game. The worst kinds are those which I would win against, give me the cold shoulder/black face mid-game. I would usually give some chance (by all fighting game rights I should never give mercy but I don't want to lose a friendship either), lose and said player will give me smug look. There are a lot more situations like this and they seem to occur more and more frequently whenever I drop by. There are ways to induce SALT but those are not it man. For example, you have to have a legit win/lose ratio before you can start saying shit like "I DON'T EVEN MAIN THE GAME!" in their faces.
And that's just in game. Ugly things are also happening outside the game. It makes completely no sense that I feel more fun being AT WORK than playing fighting games. Maybe I'm too nice to stay in the community. I just don't want to say or do anything because it is not my community to run since I don't have much time to commit anymore and the community that I truly wanted to run for is gone. Whatever man. I still play fighting games for leisure but that's about it.
Now we talk about more random stuff.
A cousin has asked me on my birthday if I am going to work until I die. Work meaning my line of industry of course. I suspect that he won't be the last person to ask but here's my full complete long-winded as hell answer.
Firstly I cannot predict what the future Gerald thinks nor can I predict that far into the future as to whether something as volatile the Games Industry will evolve into something I hate. Taking that into consideration, I can only speak for the present me. The simple answer is yes and the simple reason is because I fundamentally love programming and games. At this point, I CANNOT see myself NOT doing games programming at any point in my life. I program at work, I program at home, and if I can frickin' program on my mobile phone I will do it. I love working on games because problems are always interesting.
Then the next question that was asked was if I am willing to leave my loved ones for the sake of my interests. I really think this question is unfair because I personally feel that it depends on the situation. Also, I feel that my loved ones (if they love me) should always respect my decisions and vice versa. If you bo jio me because you jio too many people, or forgot about me, or whatever, I can totally respect that. And once again it boils down to the scenario. If we were to take the extreme case, that I have to leave my loved ones and will NEVER EVER see them again because programming is outlawed here so I have to leave my loved ones to pursue my love of programming, the present me would by a narrow margin. That being said, I have to say that it is a clever disguise of the stupid question they ask you as a child which is the "If your mother and father are drowning in a pool, who would you save?" That question used to implode my brains FOR NO GOOD REASON.
Next thing is statements. Some people say that I don't care, generally. I'm actually ridiculously sentimental; I'm just really bad at showing emotions. If my loved ones were to die the next day I would be incredibly heartbroken but I don't think I will cry over it because some part of my brain accepts that it is part of life. People need to learn to let it go (hmm maybe that's why that song is so popular?). People need to know that things don't always work out their way. Seriously, if I didn't care I would truly be a NEET at this point. Ironically, I feel that other people do not care enough about others. Every little thing people do I care like friends arranging their time to meet with me, allowing me to rant at them, or my mother taking care of me...I appreciate all of that it. I just look like I don't. From an anime perspective, the reason why I watch all those really happy moe animes is so that when I run into a 'feels' anime like Clannad, Angel Beats, Air, Eureka 7, I need that library of moe animes to drown myself in so that I don't feel moody and sad for the rest of the week. Angel Beats, which I thought was not that good and a bit rushed, had me dead for a weekend. Fuck, let's move away from this topic.
Another rather popular statement being said about me is about how lucky I am regarding my path from education to career. Lots of people said it and I don't blame them because it certainly looks that way. In my perspective, it was more of a 'I'm lucky it worked out'. There's a slight difference in the meaning. A ton of things could have gone wrong in my pursue in games programming. Because it's a ton of things, with a ton of feelings involved, I'll probably leave most of it for another rant. There are quite a lot of obstacles I have to overcome and the ride isn't as smooth as people might think it is. People need to realize that I some a tough decisions like deciding to all-in for my GCE 'O' Levels and I had problems like the burn out I had right after my internship at polytechnic. There was even a time I wanted to just change industries.
I was lucky in the sense that I have a chance to ride. The opportunity showed up, I took it with some risks and perseverance, and it luckily it worked out. But it wasn't all rainbows and unicorns.
Tuesday, May 13, 2014
最近の話し
誕生日に過ごしました！
家族と親戚たちは誕生日のために祝ってもらいました。嬉しかったけど、あの日の私は本当に出かけたくなかったね。ですが、私そんなに非常識な人じゃないので、皆さんに感謝しました。
そんなこんなで！
二週前、このブログに日本で書きましたね。実は他のブログは日記のために作って日本で書きましたけど、すぐに諦めてしまいました。それは二つのブログを管理することは大変だと思いました。又は作ったとき、大学生なので時間が持ってないから。
とりあえず、どうして急にまた日本語で書きたいですか？
先ずは、私最初から日本のこと興味があります。日本食べ物とかゲームとかアニメとか文化とか習慣は全部興味があります。さらに、働いている会社は日本会社です。そんな環境で働いたら、耐えられないほど日本語を習いたくなります。それに、日本語に慣れるためです。日本語で書けば書くほど慣れると思います。それで、日本語で書きましょう理由です。
というわけです。
最近、いろんなアニメにはまっちゃったんだね。
「ラブライブ」というのは、実は二年前初めて日本に行った時、秋葉原にアニメの開催お知らせは気づけましたけど、あまり興味がありませんね。先々週の私は、友達が困らせた後で、やっと見ました。見たあとで「ラブライブ」のμ’ｓの皆さんはとっても可愛いと思ったんだw。自分の大好きな部員は勿論小泉花陽です！突然に「ラブライブ」のファンになっちゃった！携帯ゲームもやります！
今季のアニメとして、「ラブライブ」以外、「一週間フレンズ」と「ご注文はウサギですか」です。
「一週間フレンズ」のストーリは自分の期待どおりちょっと悲しいです。このアニメは何か親切な感じを気にしました。絵のスタイルは新鮮で似合います。悲しいから、放送が終わったら一回で見てしまいましょうかな？でも、このアニメのホームページは毎週の放送に関係した内容で更新します。困るね。。。
最後の話は「ご注文はウサギですか」。友人によると、これは今季のヒーリングアニメです。そういうヒーリングアニメは自分の一番大好きなジャンルです！このアニメはすごっっっく可愛い！多分「きんいろモザイク」と「のんのんびより」よりふわふわを感じますかな。それに、自分の好きな飲み物の関係もある！そうだ、それはお茶とコーヒーだ！＞：３
それでは以上です！それじゃ！
「ラブライブ」というのは、実は二年前初めて日本に行った時、秋葉原にアニメの開催お知らせは気づけましたけど、あまり興味がありませんね。先々週の私は、友達が困らせた後で、やっと見ました。見たあとで「ラブライブ」のμ’ｓの皆さんはとっても可愛いと思ったんだw。自分の大好きな部員は勿論小泉花陽です！突然に「ラブライブ」のファンになっちゃった！携帯ゲームもやります！
今季のアニメとして、「ラブライブ」以外、「一週間フレンズ」と「ご注文はウサギですか」です。
「一週間フレンズ」のストーリは自分の期待どおりちょっと悲しいです。このアニメは何か親切な感じを気にしました。絵のスタイルは新鮮で似合います。悲しいから、放送が終わったら一回で見てしまいましょうかな？でも、このアニメのホームページは毎週の放送に関係した内容で更新します。困るね。。。
最後の話は「ご注文はウサギですか」。友人によると、これは今季のヒーリングアニメです。そういうヒーリングアニメは自分の一番大好きなジャンルです！このアニメはすごっっっく可愛い！多分「きんいろモザイク」と「のんのんびより」よりふわふわを感じますかな。それに、自分の好きな飲み物の関係もある！そうだ、それはお茶とコーヒーだ！＞：３
それでは以上です！それじゃ！
Thursday, May 1, 2014
ランダム日本語ポスト
はい、今度のポストは日本語でしてみましょう。
じゃ、只今夜中に過ごして五月になりました。時間は本当に早いですね。私今日までコーエーテクモに働くことはもう１１月でありますね。すぐに１年になります。。。
実際にこの１年は、僕の初めて真面目に働きました。むかしの仕事はいつも３月以下で退屈になちゃった。この会社に入ったとき、僕はこの会社に３月以上で続けて働けるかなと思いました。突然に１年に過ごしましたwｗ
この１年で、本当にたくさんものが起こった。考えれば、過去の例年よりもっとものが起こりました。理由の一つは多分僕の毎日の生活が多く変わりました。例えば、遊ぶ時間が少なくなるとか、お金が持っているになるとか、体は毎日朝から夜まで働くのでいつも疲れるとか、などなどです。この間、会社外の友達に会いたいけど、会う機会は少なくなった。この間、格闘ゲームを時間がないので練習できなくなった。週末以外、毎日この起きて働いて帰って寝る生活を過ごします。そう考えれば、その生活について嬉しいかな？
じゃ、只今夜中に過ごして五月になりました。時間は本当に早いですね。私今日までコーエーテクモに働くことはもう１１月でありますね。すぐに１年になります。。。
実際にこの１年は、僕の初めて真面目に働きました。むかしの仕事はいつも３月以下で退屈になちゃった。この会社に入ったとき、僕はこの会社に３月以上で続けて働けるかなと思いました。突然に１年に過ごしましたwｗ
この１年で、本当にたくさんものが起こった。考えれば、過去の例年よりもっとものが起こりました。理由の一つは多分僕の毎日の生活が多く変わりました。例えば、遊ぶ時間が少なくなるとか、お金が持っているになるとか、体は毎日朝から夜まで働くのでいつも疲れるとか、などなどです。この間、会社外の友達に会いたいけど、会う機会は少なくなった。この間、格闘ゲームを時間がないので練習できなくなった。週末以外、毎日この起きて働いて帰って寝る生活を過ごします。そう考えれば、その生活について嬉しいかな？
嬉しくないと答えれば嘘でしょ！(笑）
今時間がないですが、仕事があるから、自由度が増えました！仕事から、買いたいものは買えます。特に日本に旅行できます！最終の日本旅行はとても楽しかった。みのりんの演奏も参加しました！あの時は泣いたほど嬉しかったですw！仕事がなければ、今まで２６歳で、日本に行かなかったオタクでしょ。
そして、コーエーテクモに働くことは楽しんです。いろんなことを習えるし、同僚は親切し、働くゲームは可愛いですから。疲れても、今まで満足ですよね。
でも、確かに全て持てないね。嬉しくても、もっと時間を持ちたいなｗ。
ま、いいか！今の幸せは間違いません。来年のは楽しみましょう！
Saturday, January 18, 2014
10 video games that impacted me
As a game developer/programmer, at one point I feel that it is worth reviewing what games impact my life, to find out the reasons behind the design decisions I make. This is obviously a difficult list to construct as I have played so many games up to this point. Being born in 1988 and having cousins and friends that grew up playing games means that I have the wonderful exposure to a great variety of games before my time on top of games during my time, and also after my time (i.e. games that I am not supposed to be playing at a certain age).
6. Atelier Rorona
And we are back to JRPGs! Rorona is quite an eye-opener for me because up till 2011, I have been playing RPGs (not just JRPGs) with the usual "follow the storyline, level up, get epic loot and kill the boss" type of gameplay. Rorona, or rather, the Atelier Arland series, did not have that. It was essentially a crafting game. If you are familiar with MMOs and tradeskills, this is a game that revolves around it more than fighting.
Basically in Rorona, you need to craft to save your shop. To craft, you have to adventure to pick materials or fight monsters for them. But you see, unlike other RPGs, fighting monsters (or bosses) are just obstacles and a means of getting better material so that you can craft better objects. I find that I spend most of my time in the game looking at my inventory than figuring out dungeons (as if there is a need to figure them out). It was an eye opener and I figured that there are indeed other ways to run RPGs other than "go to dungeons and save the world".
And the reason to craft isn't the same for its other games. The game after it, Atelier Totori, was not about saving any shops, but about crafting to aid Totori's adventures in search for her long lost mother who was also an adventurer. The crafting mechanics is actually very simple to understand but deep, which makes it beautiful.
7. Nethack
I found Nethack around 2004 I think, and it was the game that introduced me to the world of roguelikes (I haven't played Rogue though). The amount of things you can do is insane to the point where I thank the existence of Google, wikis and the Internet. Nethack made me seek other roguelikes old and new: Rogue, Dwarf Fortress, Civilization, Desktop Dungeon, Faster than Light, etc.
I find Nethack to be a nice, light and free game to carry around to play these days. It constantly amazes me that so much content can be stored in under 5MB AND I am playing the graphical version (the text-based version is waaaay smaller). A floppy disk WAS enough to store a playable game!
How did I find a 1980s game at my time? I have no idea, probably stumbled upon it over the Internet.
8. Disgaea
I think Disgaea is the first game that showed me that hitting the maximum level isn't enough. The amount of hours I threw into this game over the course of a year is retarded, and it pales in comparison to other players who have a lot more time in their hands. This is on top of it's unique storytelling, lovable characters and over the top sprite animations. As the series evolved, Nippon Ichi just went nuts with adding crazier animations and grinding mechanics (as if it wasn't enough).
Words just cannot explain the insane numbers the characters' stats can hit in this game. We are not talking thousands, or ten thousands but millions or even billions (I have no idea what kind of numbers Disgaea D2 has). Honestly, when you start playing the game, you have no idea that it is possible to reach those kind of numbers. You can just imagine the feeling of accomplishment when you manage to hit those numbers and also the despair when the monster you challenged ripped you apart with multiples of the same numbers.
If you are searching for free japanese indie games, you will eventually come across this bag of worms (not in a bad way). This game is more inspirational than anything. It was single-handedly developed by ZUN, one of the few game developers out there I really give my hats off to.
The amount of other indie games, fan-comics (doujins) and even music remixes made by other people based on the characters from this series is incredibly phenomenal. Those who know or went to events like Comiket will understand. It's certainly inspiring that a simple bullet hell game made by ONE person could create such an insane craze in Japan, even today.
I decided that these 10 games are somewhat not listed in any particular order. It's hard enough to come up with a list of 10 games that impacted me. This means that I not only enjoy these games, but they also impacted me with its genius gameplay/music/mechanics/dynamics/aesthetics/art/concept that they made me view games development differently in some ways and also the reason behind some of my game design decisions. Then again, it is highly likely that maybe the top 5 are ranked higher in my opinion to the bottom 5.
Anyway enough words. I can rant about it all day. Here are my top not-listed-in-any-order 10 games that impacted me.
1. Final Fantasy 6
I might be biased with FF6 because it is the first RPG I ever played. However, I can't bring up reasonable reasons to debunk it from my list. FF6's cast of 12 unique characters and 2 secret characters were amazing. They all had their own unique mechanics, most stole a good amount of time explaining their background stories and they were ALL memorable in many ways.
I just find FF6's storytelling very special because there is no real main character. People have debated over who the real main character is. Celes? Locke? Terra? My answer is that they all are main characters. The characters take turns being the driving force behind an arc. Sabin/Mash led an arc. Edgar led an arc. Even Cyan led an arc. It feels like you know the real reason behind every character's motivation to save the world.
Of course, there's the awesome artwork. Since I am trying to create an sprite-based RPG, I realized that what they did to their sprite animations were very creative. Not forgetting the genius music of uncle Nobuo too. Not much to explain here; his music has always been highly regarded.
In my opinion, FF6 is very darn near perfectly developed. Story is great and did not interrupt gameplay pacing, mechanics incorporated made sense in the game environment, almost every of the 12 characters were given the spotlight in the main plot, music was awesome, art was fantastic, the list just goes on. Sometimes it gives me a headache on how the game developers manage to put all those ideas together and not cause the game to implode.
2. Everquest
Seriously, I didn't want to explain my reason behind this because it is difficult. I wanted to go like "You old Evercracks understand why" and leave it at that, but that obviously won't do, right? =)
So here I go.
Everquest was introduced to me by my good friend John. At that time, we were kids at 14 years of age and were really interested in fantasy stuff like DnD unlike other kids. Thinking back, I guess I would've been really into Diablo 2 or Ragnarok Online if not for Everquest and things might have gone differently. Either way, let's talk about Everquest.
Everquest, to me, is like the USA Basketball Dream Team of 1992. Due to its circumstances, luck and what its made of, it became a legend that will never be repeated again. To put it bluntly, it was an accident. At my time of playing (think I missed the vanilla bandwagon and entered at Velious or Luclin when the game was arguably supposedly declining), I think there were like 12-14 races, almost all of them having their own unique starting location. Classes were each remembered for their uniqueness. Raiding, even if it was invented in some other game before, started with this game.
The game was also one of the exemplary "immersive" games. Lighting played a role, along with Dark Vision/Low-light vision. I remembered creating a Human after playing a Wood Elf for so long and was surprised at how I couldn't see in the dark (I had to max out my gamma settings). The games was also mainly played in first person, mainly because the third person camera sucks, adding on to the immersiveness. And yes, those were the days of exploration with maps, following roads hoping that you were walking in the right direction, asking passer-bys to confirm, memorizing the whole of Kelethin and leading lost newbies to their destinations.
Everquest was also extremely brutal, especially now when you consider other MMOs that arise. Experience loss upon death, begging for cleric rez to get your experience points back, respawning naked and needing to travel back to your corpse (like Diablo 1/2, but definitely a lot worse), begging necromancers to summon your corpse because you cannot remember where it was lost, easily more than half the classes cannot solo, the list just goes on. It's not necessarily a good thing, but this post is about games that impacted me which does not necessarily bring up good points (usually it will though). I remember mourning (at myself) for every death that happened in the game.
I had tons of memories in the world of Norath, both good and bad. Wandering in the game felt just as fun as leveling up. Thinking back, the grind was seriously ridiculous though, but hey it's one of the first MMOs to ever be created. Games made back then tend to be harder.
The game was also one of the exemplary "immersive" games. Lighting played a role, along with Dark Vision/Low-light vision. I remembered creating a Human after playing a Wood Elf for so long and was surprised at how I couldn't see in the dark (I had to max out my gamma settings). The games was also mainly played in first person, mainly because the third person camera sucks, adding on to the immersiveness. And yes, those were the days of exploration with maps, following roads hoping that you were walking in the right direction, asking passer-bys to confirm, memorizing the whole of Kelethin and leading lost newbies to their destinations.
Everquest was also extremely brutal, especially now when you consider other MMOs that arise. Experience loss upon death, begging for cleric rez to get your experience points back, respawning naked and needing to travel back to your corpse (like Diablo 1/2, but definitely a lot worse), begging necromancers to summon your corpse because you cannot remember where it was lost, easily more than half the classes cannot solo, the list just goes on. It's not necessarily a good thing, but this post is about games that impacted me which does not necessarily bring up good points (usually it will though). I remember mourning (at myself) for every death that happened in the game.
I had tons of memories in the world of Norath, both good and bad. Wandering in the game felt just as fun as leveling up. Thinking back, the grind was seriously ridiculous though, but hey it's one of the first MMOs to ever be created. Games made back then tend to be harder.
3. Fallout 2
It was hard to decided between this and Fallout Tactics, and much harder to say which comes up on top because both are essentially very different games. I have to give Fallout 2 the lead in the end though. Fallout 2 was the first open-ended world game I have played that has no time limit restrictions (Fallout 1 had). The pacing was great and blends well with the story, giving you a crappy spear (since you start as a tribal), then giving you a really crappy gun and finally when you first get your handgun you fell like a god. Everyone who played Fallout 2 remembers the dumb spear you have to live through the starting part of the game. Also, speech dialogues and dialogue options were so good that it makes you wonder why games nowadays fail to accomplish such depth (probably second only to Planescape: Torment). Did they spend so much time on 3D animations and graphics that they neglect storytelling as a whole? Entirely possible.
The amount of content was immense. There is just so many things to do that you will forget what is the main objective in the first place. It was like the Skyrim of the past, though Skyrim was nowhere as complex mechanically (sorry, I'm not a Skyrim fan so don't hate me). The NPCs that follow you were really memorable, whether they have a bone through their noses or not. You have no idea how shocked I was when I saw what happened to Harold in the later Fallout games. Harold, to me, is the second most memorable non-party NPC in Fallout 2. First, of course, goes to Lynette whom we all love to hate.
4. Baldur's Gate 2
After mentioning Fallout 2, it's only fair to mention Baldur's Gate 2 from Bioware. In my opinion, Baldur's Gate 2 was the best game Bioware ever made; better than Old Republic, better than Mass Effect, better than Neverwinter Night, better than Dragon Age and without debate better than Jade Empire.
Baldur's Gate 2 had very memorable characters, most of them complete with background story and their own OST. Speaking of OST, this game had a pretty decent one. Side quests are epic, involving plane shifting, fighting demi-liches (as if liches were not epic enough!), dragons that lag your computer for no reason, beholders that run a cult, etc. Itemization and loot were done well compared to RPGs of today. Just an example, do you remember what killing dragons yield you in Dragon Age? I don't. Killing dragons in BG2 yields you a whooping +5 Holy Avenger that can be upgraded to +6 later in the game.
Overall, the game has pretty good replay value considering that some party members you obtain don't really get along with each other and considering how many different classes and kits there are in the game. You will replay just to form a different team of characters and try out different classes and their nonsense.
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4. Capcom vs SNK 2
This game got me into the fighting game scene many years back and is still one of my favorite fighting game of all time despite how broken the game is. The ability to select UP TO 3 characters, choose your meter-type (groove), and adjust their power level (ratios) allows for theoretically tons of combinations. The game boasts over 40 characters, very distinct OST that loops in my head even today and a very memorably annoying in-game announcer.
In all, the game is very polished (except for Morrigan and her really badly done sprite sheet) and has been one of the fighting game community's major tournament games back than before Street Fighter 4.
5. Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3
For basically the same reason as CVS2; UMVC3 is a game with tons of possibilities. Because I missed the MVC2 bandwagon back then, competitive fighting games that can have 6 characters on the screen at the same time is totally new to me. On top of that, this game is extremely hype. No matter how much I hate it for its brokeness, just commentating or watching people play the game is fun.
I don't think I have played around in any fighting game's training mode longer than UMVC3's. It's not just to figure out frames, setups and combos, but also to experiment with other teams and making them work decently. It's like forming a deck in trade card games but with your skills coming into play.
It was hard to decided between this and Fallout Tactics, and much harder to say which comes up on top because both are essentially very different games. I have to give Fallout 2 the lead in the end though. Fallout 2 was the first open-ended world game I have played that has no time limit restrictions (Fallout 1 had). The pacing was great and blends well with the story, giving you a crappy spear (since you start as a tribal), then giving you a really crappy gun and finally when you first get your handgun you fell like a god. Everyone who played Fallout 2 remembers the dumb spear you have to live through the starting part of the game. Also, speech dialogues and dialogue options were so good that it makes you wonder why games nowadays fail to accomplish such depth (probably second only to Planescape: Torment). Did they spend so much time on 3D animations and graphics that they neglect storytelling as a whole? Entirely possible.
The amount of content was immense. There is just so many things to do that you will forget what is the main objective in the first place. It was like the Skyrim of the past, though Skyrim was nowhere as complex mechanically (sorry, I'm not a Skyrim fan so don't hate me). The NPCs that follow you were really memorable, whether they have a bone through their noses or not. You have no idea how shocked I was when I saw what happened to Harold in the later Fallout games. Harold, to me, is the second most memorable non-party NPC in Fallout 2. First, of course, goes to Lynette whom we all love to hate.
After mentioning Fallout 2, it's only fair to mention Baldur's Gate 2 from Bioware. In my opinion, Baldur's Gate 2 was the best game Bioware ever made; better than Old Republic, better than Mass Effect, better than Neverwinter Night, better than Dragon Age and without debate better than Jade Empire.
Baldur's Gate 2 had very memorable characters, most of them complete with background story and their own OST. Speaking of OST, this game had a pretty decent one. Side quests are epic, involving plane shifting, fighting demi-liches (as if liches were not epic enough!), dragons that lag your computer for no reason, beholders that run a cult, etc. Itemization and loot were done well compared to RPGs of today. Just an example, do you remember what killing dragons yield you in Dragon Age? I don't. Killing dragons in BG2 yields you a whooping +5 Holy Avenger that can be upgraded to +6 later in the game.
Overall, the game has pretty good replay value considering that some party members you obtain don't really get along with each other and considering how many different classes and kits there are in the game. You will replay just to form a different team of characters and try out different classes and their nonsense.
This game got me into the fighting game scene many years back and is still one of my favorite fighting game of all time despite how broken the game is. The ability to select UP TO 3 characters, choose your meter-type (groove), and adjust their power level (ratios) allows for theoretically tons of combinations. The game boasts over 40 characters, very distinct OST that loops in my head even today and a very memorably annoying in-game announcer.
In all, the game is very polished (except for Morrigan and her really badly done sprite sheet) and has been one of the fighting game community's major tournament games back than before Street Fighter 4.
5. Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3
For basically the same reason as CVS2; UMVC3 is a game with tons of possibilities. Because I missed the MVC2 bandwagon back then, competitive fighting games that can have 6 characters on the screen at the same time is totally new to me. On top of that, this game is extremely hype. No matter how much I hate it for its brokeness, just commentating or watching people play the game is fun.
I don't think I have played around in any fighting game's training mode longer than UMVC3's. It's not just to figure out frames, setups and combos, but also to experiment with other teams and making them work decently. It's like forming a deck in trade card games but with your skills coming into play.
And we are back to JRPGs! Rorona is quite an eye-opener for me because up till 2011, I have been playing RPGs (not just JRPGs) with the usual "follow the storyline, level up, get epic loot and kill the boss" type of gameplay. Rorona, or rather, the Atelier Arland series, did not have that. It was essentially a crafting game. If you are familiar with MMOs and tradeskills, this is a game that revolves around it more than fighting.
Basically in Rorona, you need to craft to save your shop. To craft, you have to adventure to pick materials or fight monsters for them. But you see, unlike other RPGs, fighting monsters (or bosses) are just obstacles and a means of getting better material so that you can craft better objects. I find that I spend most of my time in the game looking at my inventory than figuring out dungeons (as if there is a need to figure them out). It was an eye opener and I figured that there are indeed other ways to run RPGs other than "go to dungeons and save the world".
And the reason to craft isn't the same for its other games. The game after it, Atelier Totori, was not about saving any shops, but about crafting to aid Totori's adventures in search for her long lost mother who was also an adventurer. The crafting mechanics is actually very simple to understand but deep, which makes it beautiful.
I found Nethack around 2004 I think, and it was the game that introduced me to the world of roguelikes (I haven't played Rogue though). The amount of things you can do is insane to the point where I thank the existence of Google, wikis and the Internet. Nethack made me seek other roguelikes old and new: Rogue, Dwarf Fortress, Civilization, Desktop Dungeon, Faster than Light, etc.
I find Nethack to be a nice, light and free game to carry around to play these days. It constantly amazes me that so much content can be stored in under 5MB AND I am playing the graphical version (the text-based version is waaaay smaller). A floppy disk WAS enough to store a playable game!
How did I find a 1980s game at my time? I have no idea, probably stumbled upon it over the Internet.
8. Disgaea
I think Disgaea is the first game that showed me that hitting the maximum level isn't enough. The amount of hours I threw into this game over the course of a year is retarded, and it pales in comparison to other players who have a lot more time in their hands. This is on top of it's unique storytelling, lovable characters and over the top sprite animations. As the series evolved, Nippon Ichi just went nuts with adding crazier animations and grinding mechanics (as if it wasn't enough).
Words just cannot explain the insane numbers the characters' stats can hit in this game. We are not talking thousands, or ten thousands but millions or even billions (I have no idea what kind of numbers Disgaea D2 has). Honestly, when you start playing the game, you have no idea that it is possible to reach those kind of numbers. You can just imagine the feeling of accomplishment when you manage to hit those numbers and also the despair when the monster you challenged ripped you apart with multiples of the same numbers.
9. Touhou: Imperishable Night
If you are searching for free japanese indie games, you will eventually come across this bag of worms (not in a bad way). This game is more inspirational than anything. It was single-handedly developed by ZUN, one of the few game developers out there I really give my hats off to.
The amount of other indie games, fan-comics (doujins) and even music remixes made by other people based on the characters from this series is incredibly phenomenal. Those who know or went to events like Comiket will understand. It's certainly inspiring that a simple bullet hell game made by ONE person could create such an insane craze in Japan, even today.
10. Sengoku Rance
They say leave the best for the last. As if Rorona wasn't eye-opening enough, this game is ridiculous. It's one of the most popular H-game in Japan with incredible amounts of replayability. Sengoku Rance blended RPG with RTK-style games beautifully (supposedly the official genre name of RTK/Civilization games is "Historical War Simulation). It is painful to think that people shun away from this game just because it's a H-game.
Believe it or not, this game has decent storytelling. It is part of Alicesoft's long running Rance RPG series, and has a pretty large English fanbase who are hard at work translating the games for us. Mechanics-wise, this game has much to offer. Equipping characters, recruiting fallen enemies, performing negotiations, multiple endings, different troop types (ninjas, spearmen, foot soldiers, monks, mikos...), conquering enemy countries, dungeoneering for loot, the list just goes on. I think amongst the Rance series, Sengoku Rance is the most popular with the English fanbase and with good reason.
And there's soooooo many unique characters in this game. Again, replayability is the strong point of this game. People have reported to spend 200+ hours just playing this. I obviously have not completed it but I do want to return to playing it.
They say leave the best for the last. As if Rorona wasn't eye-opening enough, this game is ridiculous. It's one of the most popular H-game in Japan with incredible amounts of replayability. Sengoku Rance blended RPG with RTK-style games beautifully (supposedly the official genre name of RTK/Civilization games is "Historical War Simulation). It is painful to think that people shun away from this game just because it's a H-game.
Believe it or not, this game has decent storytelling. It is part of Alicesoft's long running Rance RPG series, and has a pretty large English fanbase who are hard at work translating the games for us. Mechanics-wise, this game has much to offer. Equipping characters, recruiting fallen enemies, performing negotiations, multiple endings, different troop types (ninjas, spearmen, foot soldiers, monks, mikos...), conquering enemy countries, dungeoneering for loot, the list just goes on. I think amongst the Rance series, Sengoku Rance is the most popular with the English fanbase and with good reason.
And there's soooooo many unique characters in this game. Again, replayability is the strong point of this game. People have reported to spend 200+ hours just playing this. I obviously have not completed it but I do want to return to playing it.
Thursday, January 2, 2014
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2014!
Seriously though, I have never done a post like this before, but this year is special. It marks the end of the first Japan trip and my return from studying a semester abroad, my graduation, obtain my first job, finishing a hobby project, starting another hobby project, getting a new computer, my second japan trip which I JUST returned from...I don't think THIS many things happened in a year before. I can just imagine writing a New Year reflection post 2 years back and go "well, studies hurhur" or 5 years back and go "well, NS herpyderpy".
Many great things happened it's gonna be hard to recount them all, but the best part was going to Chihara Minori's concert in Japan. Goddammit I so want to reverse time again and again to see her perform. I loved her latest singles and albums more than the others so in a sense my attendance there was incredibly timely! I cannot thank Weiwei and Yonghan for making this happen enough. It's enough to make be happy for the rest of my 10-day stay in Japan.
Then to recount other great things. AFA2013 Anisong was awesome as I recounted before in a previous post. The 'bo liao' moe-moe animes this year was godlike with Kiniro Mosaic and Non Non Biyori that lightened my day every morning before I go to work. Then we go on to talk about graduation and work...generally it was great despite the ups and downs. Sure I miss my free time and all, but work is still fun. I'm actually happy that I finally managed to achieve my childhood dream of 'doing something I enjoy and get paid' that I yearned for, grind for and studied for many many years. In that sense, thank the Singapore government, NYP, SIT and Digipen for literally what feels like giving me and my friends the red carpet towards our working life. It's insanely coincidental how everything just piece together.
そんなこんなで。。。
Next year will be so busy. Games to play (esp with my spankin' new 3DS LL!), animes to look forward to (Yuki Nagato-chan?!), hobby to work on, etc. Tons of stuff to look forward to!
Oh well, I'll just keep it as short as I can and end it here.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!
Monday, November 11, 2013
Anisong 2013 Aftermath
Wow.
What can I say?
Anisong and AFA has grown so much since the first time it was held in 2008. This is by far possibly the most draining. I only went for Saturday's and Sunday's lineup, but I know friends who were overwhelmed with Friday's lineup.
Friday was Egoist, Hachikoji P, livetune, motsu X DJ Kaya and Valerie. I can't comment much since I wasn't there but if you are a Vocaloid fan, Guilty Crown fan or a motsu fan (he was from the now defunct m.o.v.e group which I MISSED LAST YEAR BECAUSE I WAS OVERSEAS T_T), you are probably missing out on a lot.
Saturday was crazy. LiSA is as cute as ever since she randomly turned me into a fan due to her awesome performance the first time she came over at 2011. And she got better. A lot better. She doesn't seem to tire out easily anymore. Eir Aoi; I was expecting a crazy godlike perf ormance because I know her singing voice is very powerful. I think she just blew everyone's ears and the sound system away, and also the main cause of my ears ringing that night. Then Milky Holmes randomly appeared on stage -_-; and I happen to know some of their songs without watching any of their animes (thanks animelo -_-;). May'n came out last. It was a really emotional moment as she brought us back to remember the first AFA which I still clearly remember because before that concert started back in 2008, there were images of the song "Don't be late" all over the stage and she was late. May'n also improved a lot. There were a couple of her new songs. Finishing the day with Diamond Crevasse was...epic.
But I think everyone knows that Sunday is going to be crazier. Angela, Elisa, TM Revolution and Nana Mizuki (!!!). It was Valvrave night. Now, if anything can be crazier than getting artists together, it's getting them together with a theme or even better and anime (like Macross Night in 2009 Sunday, or Super Robot Night on 2010 Saturday). Angela got off to a fantastic start, ending their performance with their trademark Shangri-la. Elisa came in next and showed us what a power singer she is, hitting all kinds of notes that sent me chills. Her singing 「愛、覚えてますか？」 really threw me off. My mouth was singing along and my mind was wondering where I heard that song (outside of Macross) and if Elisa really was the original singer. Her reactions on stage were funny and cute, like her reaction to the people at the front shouting "Elisa-sama".
Then there was TM Revolution. What a riduculously charismatic performer! He simply brought the roof down, espacially when the FIRST note of Invoke start playing. It felt like te convention hall will collapse.
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
10 months later in America!
I'm finally in America. Just one more semester to go! Seattle's pretty great so far. Everyone here is extremely friendly and nice to me. It's really cold though, and it's just going to get colder.
Yes, this is another revival post. Blogger has change so much since I last left. I hope they opened enough features for me to further customize the layout of this site. Thinking back then, adding pages and allowing users to scroll through years of blog posts is really difficult and annoying to implement. Hopefully all these have changed.
I have been setting my eyes on mobile and web game development recently, on top of trying to work on my portfolio. It's probably why I'm so keen on developing an Android game for my project this semester. The game development scene has really changed as compared to the last 2 years. Flash VS HTML5, Android getting stronger, iOS getting more fans, Steam getting crazier, Kickstarter kicking ass and people slowly getting tired of Farmville (I hope)...it seems as if there is going to be another shift in what people want in games and how they want to access them. Google web store looks incredible attractive the more I look at it, barring the restriction that you must have a chrome for most of their applications.
Ah let's talk about games themselves. As usual, lots of games, no time to play. Torchlight 2 was fun while I played it. I love the Engineer class. Somehow I love playing a zealot build, that is magic shields and beating the crap out of anyone before they can even scratch your hit points. It wasn't always successful though. Some stuff in veteran or elite just go through everything.
Other than that there's Dustforce. Very polished platforming game, really worth getting indie bundle for that. There's also Faster Than Light (FTL), an extremely cool rogue-like game where you control a spaceship and trying to get to one end of the universe to the other. Think of it like Star Trek or navigating the Normady in Mass Effect through space as well as controlling your crew members. It's great fun.
Obviously, there won't be any more posts anytime soon until I am free (I managed to rush out some of my assignments today), but it feels good blogging again.
Friday, June 1, 2012
Resuscitation?
Whoops! Wow. 6 months since last update? Unheard of! Well, I haven't given up yet, but work has been piling up on me especially for the last semester (which IMO is the worst semester of all). This semester, I have been re-prioritizing reorganizing misc stuff like sleeping hours, work, etc...so that I will hopefully breathe more.
Are there things I wish to talk about? Not particularly since there's facebook/twitter available for idle talk and comments. I haven't been thinking about non-school related stuff for quite some time and school-related stuff are definitely not blog-worthy. I still love arguing with myself though, and would love to put some of my thoughts about certain game topics here, but I barely have the time to think of such things.
Anyway, I am officially in my 6th semester now. 2 more semesters to graduation! (assuming all goes well). Take this as a resuscitation post. I'm not dead yet. And I won't forget this blog. But perhaps I should change the layout...I just realized that it might be a little narrow? However, it looks nice on mobile devices. Hmm.
Well, I won't be blogging probably until I reach America. And hopefully get a new phone.
Are there things I wish to talk about? Not particularly since there's facebook/twitter available for idle talk and comments. I haven't been thinking about non-school related stuff for quite some time and school-related stuff are definitely not blog-worthy. I still love arguing with myself though, and would love to put some of my thoughts about certain game topics here, but I barely have the time to think of such things.
Anyway, I am officially in my 6th semester now. 2 more semesters to graduation! (assuming all goes well). Take this as a resuscitation post. I'm not dead yet. And I won't forget this blog. But perhaps I should change the layout...I just realized that it might be a little narrow? However, it looks nice on mobile devices. Hmm.
Well, I won't be blogging probably until I reach America. And hopefully get a new phone.
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Merry Christmas 2011
Feels like some 'forever alone' post, but nonetheless, Merry Christmas to everyone before the day ends =)
It has been a heck of a long and busy year. I haven't been actively playing games nor watching animes. To me, it felt like the "Disappearance of Haruhi" movie came out just recently when it has already been a year old. Time has passed extremely quickly with me already in my 5th semester! Just one more year to go! ^_^
That aside, I have been drowning myself with some animes I've missed out and those that are currently airing like Working 2, Eureka 7, Guilty Crown, Ben-to, Xam'd, Ika Musume 2, Haganai...just to name a few. Currently trying to catch up on Bakemonogatari as we speak. Game-wise I stole Rorona from my friend and have been playing it everyday since. I think I'll end up completing it faster than Skyrim. The Captain America build I wished for was no-go =(
I'm still trying to look for a cheap legal copy of Flash CS5 to work on some stuff. Meanwhile, I'll use the trial to whip something random while I'm not watching anime, playing games, going out with friends. Looks like it's gonna be a nice holiday =)
Monday, October 24, 2011
Wow, time flies!
I can't believe it has been a month since my last post. Everything just got more hectic and with upcoming games lined up, updating this blog regularly with reviews does not seem likely, feasible and even worth the effort considering the hits they are getting and considering how unlikely I am to look back at the reviews. Also, considering my time constraint for now and perhaps the future, I will cease cooking up reviews and talk more about what's going on around me. When I do post otherwise, I will aim them to be useful posts and guides: About game design, guides to certain games (I actually have a newbie 3rd-edition DND guide coming up), and some help regarding different game development problems based on what I have learned.
The help I want to provide is mostly because I see a lack of help for aspiring game devs. Most google searches online results in something technical enough that might be beyond the understanding of newcomers. There is also lack of animation/interactive diagrams, which helped me a lot during trying to understand what is going on (http://www.metanetsoftware.com/ is a nice website with interactive diagrams, for example). This doubles up as a place for me to dump my knowledge in case I forget how to implement them and also helps me better understand them. Teaching a subject is one of the best ways to reinforce your understanding of it.
Ideally, I plan to get out of blogspot and move to a nicer web-host, although I do not know how likely that will be. For now, I will just start here and generate more content like I always do.
So yes, it is time for a change. I am not free as I once was and probably won't be for a long time. It does not help when I enjoy spending my spare time programming stuff. Plus, I think it'd be worth my time and effort to create something interactive that everyone could enjoy reading and playing around with. Besides, it is the same reason why I want to become a game designer: To create something others could enjoy and have fun with.
Don't expect stuff to appear soon though. I'm still rather busy, both playing games and making them =)
Sunday, September 25, 2011
A little jaded
It's Fall, the second Fall I am having since I started school. Have you seen the upcoming games scheduled to release and those that already released recently? Even when I filter them only to games I am actually interested in, the list is still huge. Dead Island. Gears of War 3. Dark Souls. Arkham City. Battlefield 3. Skyrim. Space Marine. UMVC3. KOFXIII. I don't even want to mention the several indie games I want to try.
This is gonna be one heck of an expensive and busy vacation. It's the best time for me to catch up on what I have been left out for...possibly the entire year? I also have to start saving up for a PSPVita for the next year.
Also have you seen the trailer for the upcoming Game of Thrones game? It's called 'A Game of Thrones: Genesis'. Currently, just watching it gives me goosebumps (it's the video above). I hope it's actually good.
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Semester 3 down!
This third semester in Digipen really takes the cake. Words cannot describe how happy I am about the end of it. For the past 4 days I have don't nothing but play my hearts out and enjoy every minute of sleep I can get. This semester has been incredibly hectic and painful; day after day of Pepsi and coffee and tea, and we are still worried about failing modules.
I'm glad that it's all finally over. This video more or less describes what I feel at the end of it. I just hope the next semester won't be as bad. From the looks of it, it's either gonna be just as bad or less, but I can't really say until the semester starts again. You think staying back in school from 9-6 is bad you should try 9 till 11.
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Busy busy busy!
Wow, it has been like, a month since the last post? The workload right now in school was quite incredible and I barely had time to sleep on weekdays, let alone play on weekends. That caused me to push Witcher 2 to one side, much to my dismay. Witcher 2 really looks incredible and will probably be the best RPG this year (thus far).
On a lighter note, I have been spending my spare time playing Terraria, which was released semi-recently. It's a pretty fun game and you can sink in quite deep if you are those explorer/achiever hybrid gamer types... especially those who love to explore. Some say it's a Minecraft clone but I would say they are quite different. However, I won't go into the Mincraft vs Terraria battlegrounds. To me, it's quite pointless to compare them. Hopefully once I have the time, I'll spend some time reviewing it.
On a even better note, board games are just landsliding into my life every couple of weeks. This is make me consider reviewing not only video games and animes, but also board games when time isn't choking me. Thus far I've played Ascension, Resident Evil, Cutthroat Caverns, Nuts, Poo, Falling, Aye Dark Overlord, and more with other schoolmates when we are really tired of working. Saboteur 2 just sitting around the corner for this week :)
And lastly, July is coming. ^_^
Friday, February 18, 2011
Dots and Circles!
Alright, it's finally time!
Here's presenting Yee Howe's and my Digipen's first semester's game project made using ProjectFun! Here's a quick rundown of the game and should explain things better than the website:
1) Control a big circular object
2) Change 'type' by Left Clicking
3) Collect small circular objects that is the same type as you
4) Hit different types of objects and you die
5) 3 lives, aim for high score!
View and download the game HERE!
Comments and feedbacks are much appreciated. We might be considering bringing this further hopefully when we get the time and porting to other devices such as the iPad!
This game is copyrighted by Digipen Institute of Technology Singapore.
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