Yes, that time again. When I finally become not-lazy enough, or rather have enough that I’m in danger of forgetting about, that it’s finally time to write up some thoughts about stuff I’ve been watching or playing.

Anime

Bakemonogatari: I really wanted to wait until the web/DVD/BD-only episodes finish before reviewing, but I think I’ll just treat the initial TV-aired 12 episodes as its own entity. I really wasn’t all that familiar with the works of director Akiyuki Shinbou previously (only series of his I’ve seen was Maria†Holic), but BMG is definitely a showcase of his unique style. Animation is kind of uneven, and there are absolutely massive amounts of text that show up on screen for very short periods of time, making it a pretty hard watch at times (I often had to pause and go back to catch everything – heaven knows how someone watching it as a TV broadcast can possibly see it all). But the story and the characters more than make up for it. Araragi is a high school student who briefly turned into a vampire but has become (mostly) human again, and run into various girls who also have problems with the supernatural that he helps solve by bringing them to Oshino, and each subset/chapter of episodes deal with the ghost/apparition/spirit/what-have-you that’s plaguing a particular girl. What really elevates this series though, is one of those girls – the first heroine introduced, Hitagi Senjougahara. She is honestly one of the most fascinating anime characters in recent memory. From being a tsundere when she first meets Araragi to the cheerful girl who still mercilessly teases him at the end, she’s just a joy to watch anytime she’s on-screen. And the ending to the TV-aired episodes is probably the best of any romance series I’ve seen in the last few year, made all the better by the fantastic ending theme.
Verdict: 9/10.

Darker than BLACK: Waited until BD rips were out to watch this, and kicked myself for waiting so long. Set in a supernatural modern day world where some some people (Contractors) have gained superhuman powers albeit at the price of having to perform some rituals which are often painful or self-mutilating, it follows Hei, one such Contractor who’s working as an assassin known as “The Black Reaper”. There is actually a fairly wide cast of characters of importance, and they’re almost universally well done. Season 1 ends on a spectacular note, and while season 2 is also quite good, it does suffer a bit from it’s shorter length, where new characters (Contractors especially) seem to keep getting introduced for not much reason. Also, there is not nearly enough Yin in season 2. An OVA that bridges the two is still being released, hopefully that will shed more light. But overall, a good to great series. The opening theme to season 2 is also one of the best anime OPs I’ve ever heard.
Verdict: 8/10 for DTB: The Black Contractor, 7/10 for DTB: Gemini of the Meteor.

Kimi no Todoke: Nothing wrong with watching a little Shoujo now and then, is there? The main character is a girl for whom the description of “socially inept” would be generous, who of course is also the kindest girl you could ever meet. She then makes friends with some 2 other girls who are themselves somewhat outcasts, and meets, and captures the eye of, the most popular boy in class. They’re both way too dense to realize their feelings for each other in any reasonable timeframe, and too shy to even think about admitting it to each other, even after 25 episodes. So while it’s certainly got some questionable pacing, but characters and some of the situations that arise are indeed quite fun, and maybe the next season will offer more development (not counting on it though!).
Verdict: 7/10.

Summer Wars: From the director of Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo / The Girl Who Leapt Through Time comes this anime that’s kind of a cross between War Games and .hack. The animation is superb, the setting is quite imaginative, and the (main) characters are very likable. It won Animation of the Year at the Japan Academy Prize for 2010, and I can’t say it’s a bad choice. Very enjoyable.
Verdict: 9/10.

Games

Final Fantasy XIII: From the start on PS2 to the shift to using the “next-gen” Crystal Tools to the shocking news of becoming multi-platform, this game has been years in the making, and this year it finally was unleashed upon the world (outside Japan). The PS3 version is still obviously the superior one, and technically, it’s certainly nothing to sneeze at. The FMVs in 1080p look absolutely amazing, and the cut-scenes rendered in real-time using higher-quality models look so good that sometimes you may question if it’s not in fact pre-rendered CG. The music is excellent, especially the battle themes, even if the whole package isn’t quite up to the levels of the soundtracks of Chrono Cross or Final Fantasy VI (but then, what is?). The characters and story are about par for the JRPG course, though somehow a “token black guy” who has a baby Chocobo in his afro ends up being a well developed character – possibly the best of the protagonists, in fact. And the pacing is an issue that raises most people’s ire – slowly introducing game concepts is something I can get behind, but taking 25 hours to get to the point where you’re finally experiencing the entirety of game mechanics is admittedly pretty patience-wearing. But the battle system is really what makes the game for me. Limiting player control to only one character does feel restrictive at first, especially at the beginning when the deeper mechanics are not utilized, but once all the elements are in place, it’s fast-paced, strategic, and really limits the necessary of grinding… for experience at least. Unfortunately, obtaining gil (money) is pretty difficult, especially when trying to be a completionist in obtaining and upgrading all the weapons/accessories (which also has an associated trophy). And as I am nothing if not obsessive-compulsive when it comes to things like this, 100-some odd hours, 60+ of them after beating the game, passed before I was finally “finished”. Overall… I enjoyed it.
Verdict: 7/10. Definitely isn’t going to surpass FFVI, but I had fun, and when it comes down to it, that’s what matters. Now just to see if I can actually make myself finish any other JRPGs…

Heavy Rain: Touted as “interactive drama”, this has been on my radar for quite a while. Switching between 4 different characters, the story revolves around the search for the “Origami Killer” who targets young boys. At it’s core, the gameplay is movement with RE-style “tank” controls along with series of Quick Time Events. No, that doesn’t sound very promising at all, but surprisingly, it works pretty well. I still had some problems with the movement, especially when camera angle changes, but the QTEs are among the best I’ve ever seen in a game – the locations of the prompts work very well with the flow of game events, and the button actions required “fits” the action on screen. But the most important part of the game/experience is, of course the story and characters. Questionable voice-acting aside, the characters are pretty good, and the plot is gripping even if there are some holes. And in terms of emotional impact, this game features more grimace and shudder inducing scenes than almost any others I can think of, and that’s actually a positive. Those thoroughly uncomfortable events really brings the player/viewer into the story, and makes for some highly memorable moments. So as far as the drama aspects go, I would say it’s a success. Unfortunately, this is also probably the buggiest game I’ve played since the original The Witcher. Despite a 1.01 patch that was pushed out right at launch, freezes and crashes seemed to be quite common. I experienced several freezes, and the last one resulted in my progress being lost when the save file got deleted (which has even further increased my disdain for the most-hated feature of this console generation, locked save files). I was probably 70% through the game at that point, and it made me just put it down completely to play FFXIII instead. I eventually came back to finish HR, but even with the 1.02 patch, I still experienced a few freezes, though thankfully didn’t have the lost save problem again.
Verdict: 6/10. 6.5 is probably more accurate. If it wasn’t for the technical issues, this would probably be a 7, but despite the promise it shows, it’s still too rough in some areas to be considered great.

Mass Effect 2: Continuing on where Mass Effect 1 left off, Commander Shepard is back. New allies to gain (and some old ones), new enemies (and some old ones) to fight. Gone are planet-side missions with the terrible Mako driving segments and cookie-cutter buildings/enemies, along with an inventory management system so obtuse I had to use a spreadsheet to keep track of what I had, and the dialogue system gained more depth due to the new Paragon/Renegade interrupt actions, but not everything is a gain. The weapon and character upgrade system is simple to the point of being annoyingly restrictive, and whoever at BioWare came up with the planet scanning minigame for resources ought to be fired. But the story, characters (Tali and Garrus’ triumphant return are especially fantastic), and a whole lot more information on a wonderfully developed space opera setting makes up for all that. I’m not so sure I can still consider this game a RPG – a third-person cover-based shooter with some RPG-lite elements would probably be a lot more accurate. But either way, it’s still the best released-in-2010 game that I’ve played.
Verdict: 9/10. Absolutely cannot wait for the final installment of the trilogy, and will probably play through all the DLC available before then too.

A new year and decade is upon us. Too lazy to do any sort of looking back, so will just post another short-review update.

Anime

Asura Cryin’: The story is very slow to pick up, but it does become somewhat interesting… right before the first season ends.
Verdict: 6/10. Hopefully the second season will continue building on the story well.

Nyan Koi: Hapless guy in love with cute girl who also likes him but neither can tell each other, surrounded by other hot girls who like the guy. Yes, it’s another generic harem story. But wait, there’s a twist! The guy, unfortunately allergic to cats, is cursed by a cat deity, can understand cats talking, and must solve their problems. It sounds ridiculous (and it is), but the cat-related hijinks elevate this past the standard harem shows that litter the anime landscape. I enjoyed just about every episode, and am glad that a second season has been approved.
Verdict: 7/10.

Kara no Kyoukai: Satsujin Kousatsu (Go): The final installment in what is certainly the best multi-part anime I’ve seen in recent years. A bit on the long side and does feel like it could have been edited to be shorter, but the ending makes up for all of it an more. KnK 5 is still the best of the 7, but this is a close second.
Verdict: 9/10. Now where are the BD releases? I would buy and import those in a heartbeat.

Rosario + Vampire Capu2: Not sure how they managed it, but the sequel manages to be even worse than the first. Awakened Moka still looks good, but the new regular and semi-regular characters are just plain annoying, and it has even less character and plot progression.
Verdict: 5/10, and that’s being generous.

Seitokai no Ichizon: A student council that does absolutely nothing except play up character stereotypes and make 4th-wall-breaking references to other anime/games/manga, with 95% of it set inside the student council room. It’s kind of fun and enjoyable, but 12 episodes is probably enough, so it’s good it ended there.
Verdict: 6/10.

Games

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves: I said that Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time will always be my favorite action-adventure-platformer when I played the first Uncharted. After playing the sequel, I’m no longer quite so sure. Uncharted 2 not only fixes almost all of the little problems that the first game had, it also takes just about everything that Drake’s Fortune did right, and improve upon it. The graphics and animation are probably the best ever seen in a console game, the soundtrack is fantastic, the combat system (both gunplay and melee) are much improved, and the story, characters, and pacing are absolutely stellar. From start to end, the game delivers “holy shit that was awesome” moments like few other, and what few faults it has (the characters’ eyes look slightly weird, final boss fight is not the most inspired, and needs more Sully) never comes close to detracting from the overall experience. Oh, and let’s not forget the multi-player elements. The gameplay mechanics with its focus on verticality translates very well into the MP modes, and the co-op mission modes are a complete blast, even if there’s only 3 of them.
Verdict: 10/10. This is arguably the best game of this generation, and without a doubt the best game I played in 2009.

Dragon Age: Origins: “145.2 hrs on record”. That’s the amount of time Steam shows me as having spent on this game, and I believe that actually excludes time spent playing in offline mode, which would make the actual total well over 150 hours. And that’s the most time I’ve put into a RPG, or, for that matter, any game (that isn’t World of WarCraft) since the PS1 era, encompassing 3 playthroughs of the entire story as well as all the Origin stories. I have somewhat of a love-hate relationship with most fantasy-setting stories, but the “dark fantasy” setting of DA:O worked for me here; yes, it’s supposed to be very similar to the A Song of Ice and Fire series of books, but I haven’t read more than part of the first book (if the series actually had an end in sight, I would!), so it’s fresh to me. And the main characters (companions) also were pretty well done, with Morrigan and Shale (aka HK-47v2) especially great – with her performance as Morrigan here and as Chloe in Uncharted 2, I’ve decided that every game needs a character voiced by Claudia Black. The dropoff in quality for the voice acting for some of the other characters are a bit jarring though – Anora’s is especially bad, and one particular player-character voice was so annoying that I wanted to find a mod to remove it. But overall, it’s a well-written story with some epic battle sequences, and one that I (obviously) enjoyed.
Verdict: 9/10. 8.5 would probably be more accurate, but we’ll round up.

Mass Effect: Finish one BioWare game, start on another. By most indications Mass Effect crafts a very nice setting for the story that will unfold through a trilogy, so I decided to finish the first game in anticipation of the sequel that’s coming out soon. And having finished it… I’m not completely sure what to think, honestly. The game can accurately be described more as a FPS than a RPG, which is unfortunate because it’s not a very good FPS. The game is a precursor to Dragon Age, and it shows. The dialogue system isn’t nearly as good, and the inventory/party management system is just completely terrible. I do think the Paragon/Renegade system is a better idea than the approval rating in DA:O though. The sidequests are also extremely lacking in variety – there’s only so many times you can land on a planet, drive around in a 6-wheel buggy with terrible driving physics, and then go into one of 3 types of buildings to kill every enemy inside before it gets repetitive and boring as hell. But, I’m playing it for the story, and I do tend to be a sucker for these sci-fi space operas, so I enjoyed it and will get Mass Effect 2 when it comes out.
Verdict: 8/10. Would be much lower if it wasn’t for the story and setting, but I have high hopes for the myriad of improvements supposedly in the sequel.

New Super Mario Bros. Wii: It’s a new 2D Mario game on a home console. The stages, the “story”, the secrets… there’s very little that’s new here, especially in the single player mode. Sure, there are a few new power-ups: Ice Flower is a great idea, and Propeller Suit is quite amazingly useful, but it’s still no Super Mario Bros. 3 (Tanooki Suit, Hammer Bros. Suit, Kuribo’s Shoe… will any game ever top it?), wall-jumps are possible (was that in the DS NSMB? I can’t remember), and there are now coins that move with the stage, but this is classic Mario through and through. And, you know, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. It’s amazing platformer fun in a way that seemingly only 2D Mario games can be, and once again reminds why just about nobody else even bothers trying to compete with Nintendo (sorry, LittleBigPlanet, but this is how a platforming game is supposed to control). And lest anyone thinks it being a Wii game means it’s easy… think again. Collecting every Star Coin and every secret exit is definitely no cakewalk. There were many stages where I failed so many times trying to get all the coins that I got angry, but still wanted to try it one more time, because I know that it can be done if only I had timed my jump better. If that isn’t the mark of a great game, I don’t know what is. About the only criticism I can offer is that the Wiimote held sideways is not the most comfortable controller (especially with the “condom”, but even after removing it), and sometimes I do feel like the motion controls are not quite as consistently sensitive as I’d like it to be. But those are nitpicks, and even without having played it multi-player, it’s still a fantastic experience.
Verdict: 9/10. With millions of sales between this and the DS version, Nintendo has to make more 2D Marios, right?

This post has been in draft status for almost 3 months now… guess I might as well publish it. Just some reviews of stuff for myself.

Anime

CANAAN: A sequel of sorts to a Wii (and soon to be PS3) VN that got a surprising 40/40 rating from Famitsu, with story by Nasu of Type-Moon fame. It’s not set in the “Nasuverse” a la Fate/stay night or Tsukihime, but when you learn the namesake character has a special vision that allows her to sense the world in a super-human way named “Synesthesia”, it’s hard not to draw comparisons. Even so, it’s not a plot-heavy series – in fact, with zero prior knowledge from the game, the story would really not make much sense – you get bits and pieces and learn about the major events, but nothing is clear. But the characters are… unique (some more than others, Canaan herself actually being rather a shallow and boring character, albeit one whose potential depth is given a glimpse of but sadly not expanded upon), it looks very nice, and it’s does an amazing job of depicting a foreign locale (Shanghai, in this case) in a realistic manner compared to most anime. Good, not great.
Verdict: 7/10.

Death Note: One of the biggest mainstream anime of recent times, and one that I’d keep meaning to get around to watching but never did for a long time. Anyway, I did find it to be a very intriguing series… until the post-L parts started. After that it just went downhill. I also don’t like Light, at all, but I wonder if that would’ve been different had I not seen Code Geass first – Lelouch has all the brilliance and charisma of Light, but despite him being quite ruthless at times, he never reaches the point of being a complete and utter bastard and asshole like Light did. L, on the other hand, was a fascinating character, and what really made the series tick. His “replacements” are sub-par, at best.
Verdict: 8/10, maybe 9/10, for the first 25 episodes, and a very generous 6/10 for the rest. We’ll call it a 7/10 overall.

Hatsukoi Limited: What’s this, a romantic comedy that’s not a harem? Praise the anime gods! Anyway, I really liked the character designs, as it’s based on a manga from the same author as Ichigo 100% – and I’ve always liked that she tends to draw her characters with smaller eyes than the norm for anime/manga, which makes them kind of unique. The story is light and fun, and the length is spot-on. Both the manga (32 chapters) and anime (13 episodes) are on the short side of norm for this type of thing, and I really think 12/13 episodes is the perfect length for romantic comedies. It never drags on, but is enough to show all the main characters, and with some development for them as well. Oh, and I love the ending theme.
Verdict: 8/10.

Higashi no Eden (Eden of the East): A fun series with an interesting story and a whole lot of “WTF random”-ness, but the ending, which isn’t the ending (two movies on the way), is completely inconclusive.
Verdict: 8/10 so far, subject to change when the movies are released.

K-On: Well, it’s kinda funny, I can definitely see the whole “moe” thing, and this apparently has just further cemented Kyoto Animation’s godhood, what with coming after Suzumiya and Clannad, but… there really isn’t enough substance for my tastes. Inoffensive and also uninspiring is about how I’d describe it. Tsumugi with her eyebrows is very cute though. ^_^
Verdict: 7/10.

Macross: Yes, the original. I’d never watched the whole thing, and I thought I’d start from the original and (eventually, maybe) make my way to Macross Frontier. Anyway, it started off well enough, but it just became a huge drag after the Macross settled back on earth – what had been a space opera turned into a love triangle with a completely unlikeable possible love-interest (I wanted to choke Minmay by the end), a boring, if not outright stupid, male protagonist, and another quasi-love interest with barely any depth. Had to force myself to finish it… ugh.
Verdict: 8/10 for the first 3/5ths or so, 4/10 for the rest. Average out to maybe a 6/10.

Maria†Holic: Cross-dressing always leads to interesting hijinks. Throw in blackmail and a dim-witted hapless girl who’s trying to hide her lesbian tendencies, and you’ve got the making of a lot of laughs. The story… well, it barely gets started and never gets finished, but the series is so funny and random that it doesn’t really matter.
Verdict: 8/10.

Mobile Suit Gundam: Yep, the original here too. Finally got around to watching it, and I have to say that I really wish I hadn’t seen Gundam SEED prior to this. Most of the main characters are interesting, but the majority of the antagonists/Zeon (i.e. everyone except Char and maybe Ramba Ral) lack much depth. Amuro is not a terrible lead, but not one that knocks your socks off either. The supporting cast among the protagonists/Earth Federation are a bit better, but both sides suffer from the issue of having characters killed off way too quickly. But, a lot can be forgiven when remembering that this is a show that aired 3 decades ago, and viewed in that light, it truly is ground-breaking. Even by today’s standards, it’s definitely one of the better Gundam series I’ve seen (though not quite as good as The 08th MS Team).
Verdict: 8/10.

Saki: An anime about Mahjong featuring a lot of cute girls and more than a hint of yuri undertones. It’s completely ridiculous, but in an enjoyable way. Having all my knowledge about mahjong being in Chinese makes it a bit weird, but it’s not like the actual mahjong playing is the real focus anyway. The story is far from resolved, so there’s probably another season coming, which I think I’ll definitely watch.
Verdict: 7/10.

Shikabane Hime: Aka/Shikabane Hime: Kuro: I enjoyed Aka quite a bit, but Kuro rather less so. The fanservice in the latter was just pointless and unnecessary, and I can only assume Fresh is a more purposeful character in the manga, because there was no really no reason for her to be in the anime at all. The story was serviceable, and the “ending”… well, again, it’s one in name only.
Verdict: 8/10 for Aka, 6/10 for Kuro, though we’ll see how the extra DVD special episode turns out.

Toshokan Sensou: The concept of libraries having their own military force to counter a big-brother censorship committee is just ridiculous (the show even lampshades it by having a character mention how outrageous it would be to outsiders), but it’s an entertaining enough series that has some likable characters and humor. There’s also a love story that offers no surprises what-so-ever thrown in, but it’s not the focus. Overall, it’s just a fun little series that benefits from being short (12 episodes, plus 1 DVD special episode).
Verdict: 7/10.

There’s also Bakemonogatari, which has been the best show of the season by far. Unfortunately, there’s 3 more episodes that will be released via the internet, and not until Oct. 28th for the first one. Eagerly anticipating!

Games

BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger: The latest fighter from Arc System Works, the makers of the Guilty Gear series, in glorious high definition 2D. The cast is small by fighting game standards these days (12 characters), but they’re so unique that it’s hard to fault the game for it. And having a robot/cyborg girl who has wings made out of swords? Pure awesome. I’m truly not anywhere near the fighting game fan I used to be, but more than Super Street Fighter II Turbo:HD Remix, Street Fighter IV and even Marvel vs. Capcom 2, this is the one I’ve played the most this generation.
Verdict: 8/10.

Muramasa: The Demon Blade: This is, quite simply, the most beautiful 2D game I have ever seen. But if it wasn’t for the amazing visual style and good music (I absolutely love one of the BGM tracks), it wouldn’t have been a must-have for me. And I can’t help but think that if it retained the visuals, music, and combat system, but had Metroidvania-esque level design, exploration, and upgrading, what an amazing game it would’ve been. As it is, I’d say it’s a good and enjoyable game, but not a great one.
Verdict: 8/10.

Professor Layton and the Curious Village: I started this ages ago, and would do a few puzzles before going to sleep every couple of days (if I remember), but the sequel’s North American release made me finally just suck it up and finish it. It is a simple point-and-click adventure with some interesting characters and a decent if not-terribly-deep plot, but the core is the puzzles. Not all of them are great, but I did have fun going through and solving them all. I’ll definitely want to play Dialobical Box, but who knows how long that will take.
Verdict: 8/10.

Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X: I’ve always had an interest in fighter planes (how many boys didn’t?), and so when this game went on sale for $20, I jumped at picking it up. The single player portion of the game isn’t very long – just 18 missions, with 3 difficulty levels. Playing through it on Normal took maybe 6 or 7 hours, and then maybe that again to beat all of the missions again on Elite. Online multi-player is kinda fun, but the main problem is that the planes and weapon packages available for use depends on the player level, and even after playing through the campaign missions twice and doing a good portion of the challenges, I was still only in the low 20s – reaching level 40 is a huge time commitment, and it just doesn’t always feel like a level playing field online when you don’t have access to the planes/weapons that others have due to level (and that’s not even including the DLC planes). But, the campaign missions are pretty fun, and I definitely enjoyed being able to fly planes like the F-22 (even if I never got any additional weapon packages for it).
Verdict: 7/10. Nowhere near perfect, but pretty fun. Can’t complain, especially for the price.

Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune: The game can best most accurately be described as Tomb Raider with a male lead, a summer blockbuster-esque story, and slightly more interesting gun fight gameplay. But to dismiss it as just that would probably be to do it a disservice. No, neither the characters nor the plot are paragons of depth, but not every game needs a story like that of Xenogears, and it’s enjoyable and a lot of fun. I’ve enjoyed the TR series since Legend, but the combat in those games always felt like the weakest part. And unless just about everything I’ve heard about Underworld in comparison to Uncharted is inaccurate, I would imagine that still holds true. I think Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time will forever remain my favorite game in the “3D action platformer” genre due to the ingenuity of the time rewind mechanic and its fantastic blend of gameplay, characters and storytelling, but Uncharted definitely has the best “action” parts out of the bunch.
Verdict: 9/10. Very much looking forward to Uncharted 2: Among Thieves coming up.

Yep. It snowed a week or so ago. In late-March/early-April. When I’d probably already be outside wearing t-shirts and shorts if I was still in Austin. I don’t recall that happening even when I was in Minnesota, though it’s been a while, and my memory isn’t all that clear.

Still nothing of real major importance happening in my life (working while waiting on, presumably, the summer school term to start), so here’s ever more unimportant things:

As usual, start with games.

Sony PlayStation Portable: Completed my Sony console collection by picking up a used PSP-2001 (slim) and installing CFW (custom firmware) on it. I got it mostly with the intention to play PS1 games on, though I eventually found that the emulation support isn’t quite what I’d hoped for. That said, it’s still the best option available, at least until SCEA stops being completely useless and update the US PSN Store to not be a joke compared to the JP one. On the other hand, there are actually a few nice PSP games, even if they’re mostly ports/remakes (see below).
Verdict: Worth owning.

Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth: Seems like this game has become somewhat rare, but I found it at Wal-Mart for $30, so picked it up to play what is supposed to be one of the best RPGs w/o having to pay exorbitant prices on ebay for one of the PS1 copies or through illegal methods. The English voice acting is atrocious, forcing me to get the undubbed version, but the game definitely is pretty nice so far (about 5 hours into it).
Verdict: TBD, likely good.

Patapon: Interesting, but I’m terrible at these types of games.
Verdict: Pata-Pata-Pata-Pon, Pata-Pata-Pata-Pon, Pon-Pon-Pata-Pon, Pata-Pata-Pata-Pon.

Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-: Decent game, though the FFVII world really doesn’t do all that much for me anymore. Supposed to be short, so maybe I’ll get around to finishing it eventually.
Verdict: Who knows.

Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy II: Picked them up for collection purposes as they were cheap, probably won’t ever get around to playing them.
Verdict: Will never find out.

Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions: One of my favorite games on the original PlayStation. The new localization is definitely superior, though I’m so used to the old class/spell/ability names that I’m still often thrown off by the new ones. The FMVs are lovely (they remind me a lot of Valkyria Chronicles), and the English voices are pretty decent. As I’ve already spent hundreds of hours on the PS1 version, and don’t really have the option of playing the multi-player modes that are required to get certain items, I’m basically just cheating my way through this one using LionEditor. ^_^
Verdict: A+++++++++++++++++++ will play again.

Hot Shots Golf: By now, I’m pretty sure the PS3 version, Hot Shots Golf: Out of Bounds, has surpassed VC as the PS3 game that I’ve spent the most time on. and I’ve spent more money on DLC for it than any other game as well. Not many people seem to appreciate it, but this game is amazingly fun, to the point where everytime I think of playing something on a console, I inevitably end up just playing another round (or 5) of golf in HSG instead. I even ended up getting Hot Shots Golf: Open Tee 2 on the PSP, but stopped playing it half-way through because playing both really messes with my timing due to the difference in play mechanics (OOB introduced the Advanced swing mechanic, which is what I used exclusively, while OT2 uses the Traditional style).
Verdict: While OT2 just merely good, OOB is awesomely fun game full of awesomeness. With an absolutely adorable Jasmine thrown in. ^o^

And anime.

Kara no Kyoukai: Mujun Rasen: Very long (almost 2 hours), and very awesome. Animation is still top-notch like it was in the previous installments. The music is still great, even if sprinter is my least favorite Kalafina ending theme song to date. And there’s an amazing corridor fight scene. Oh, and let’s not forget this:

Verdict: 9 blushing Shiki faces out of 10.

Casshern SINS: Very very slow paced, but I enjoyed it a lot. The main characters are very interesting (and I always seem to have a soft spot for robotic pets). And like most anime, the ending didn’t impress very much – it was depressing, as expected, but also didn’t offer much in action either.
Verdict: 8 decaying robots out of 10.

Gundam 00 Second Season: Great visuals (for the most part), pretty good mecha design (00-Raiser… yay for “wings”!), a few nice songs (Prototype and trust you), and a story that’s meh at best. And let’s not even start on the ending.
Verdict: 7 naked GN particle-induced hallucinations out of 10.

Shakugan no Shana: The series started kind of darkly when I picked it due to expecting a light-hearted show. The cast of characters is fairly interesting, though none of them have a lot of depth. And I didn’t like Shana all that much (I guess I just don’t really care for most Tsundere characters with a few exceptions like Rin). Might eventually watch the sequel series, but that’s dobutful.
Verdict: 7 “urusai!”s out of 10.

Toradora!: Decent enough series. Not a very big fan of any of the characters (see above about Tsundere characters), but entertaining enough, and I did enjoy the ending.
Verdict: 7 Taiga-headbutts out of 10.

Rosario + Vampire: Fan service is the name of the game. Awakened Moka does look pretty good, but the show really offers little else.
Verdict: 6 censor bats out of 10.

Final Approach: I made myself finish watching it because I had started it, and it was short (15 minute episodes). Standard-fare of single-minded-ultra-devoted-girl-trying-to-make-hapless-guy-love-her.
Verdict: 6 lack of witticisms out of 10.

And… that’s about it. Think I’m going to start building a new computer system soon – probably going for a Core i7, even though it’s not all that cost effective yet. That or go all the way to the other end and get a Phenom II X3 – even with a motherboard and RAM, it’s still cheaper than just the i7 CPU…