Online Journal

---

Tuesday, May 26, 2009--

---

Sunday, May 24, 2009--

---

Saturday, May 23, 2009--

---

Friday, May 22, 2009--FNM Booster Draft at Uncle's Games. Not much detail is remembered about this one. There is a decklist recorded.

2xPlains
Island
2xSwamp
5xMountain
6xForest
Fieldmist Borderpost
Wildfield Borderpost
Wild Nacatl
2xNacatl Savage
Celestial Purge
Armillary Sphere
Jund Sojourners
Sacellum Godspeaker
Resounding Thunder
Branching Bolt
Intimidation Bolt
Behemoth Sledge
Godtoucher
Incurable Ogre
Canyon Minotaur
Wild Leotau
Kranioceros
Beacon Behemoth
Giant Ambush Beetle
Bituminous Blast
Sylvan Bounty
Valley Rannet
Empyrial Archangel

I vaguely recall using Empyrial Archangel to great success. I also recall using 5-power creatures to great success as well, as well as Godtoucher. Unfortunately, Empyrial Archangel and Godtoucher don't combo so well together.

---

Wednesday, May 20, 2009--

---

Tuesday, May 19, 2009--gas-watch: $2.61/gal


You know, I kinda miss Infinite Slivers. Maybe I should give that deck another try... naw, it's prolly more fun to build a Sliver Overlord EDH deck and just put the combo pieces in there.

---

Saturday, May 16, 2009--I hate the sun with a fiery passion that burns on my face.

Anyway, I was hanging out with Fred and his fiends in Seattle. We also saw Angels & Demons. Apparently, they changed a large number of details in the movie version of Angels & Demons. (No one cares.)

Oh yeah, the sun burn. That's why I hate the sun with a fiery passion...

---

Tuesday, May 12, 2009--The trip down to San Jose is over. I flew back to Bluemond today. Of the goals I set, I succeeded in 1, 2, and 3. I failed on 4 and 5, though. I blame [censored]. She ruined everything.

The photoshoot was certainly a success. Consider CHOKESLAM!

---

Monday, May 11, 2009--I went to Leland and visited the Math Team today. You'd think there'd be more to it, but there isn't.

Photos on phase book.

---

Sunday, May 10, 2009--I finally beat TWEWY. That is, The World Ends With You. Here's a review:

A Review of TWEWY

For starters, TWEWY is short for "The World Ends With You", but that's quite a mouthful, so most people just abbreviate it as "TWEWY". Some have even attempted to pronounce "TWEWY". Go ahead. Try it. I'll wait.

In any case, when I bought my DS last year, I'd been hearing good things about TWEWY, so I picked that up as well. I only started it a few months later and was only playing it on and off, not really taking it seriously because I assumed that it was "just a silly DS game".

I was wrong. The game's story is secretly very deep and very compelling, and the gameplay is surprisingly fun. I quickly found myself hooked, and rather than playing it on and off as a side distraction, I actually sat down and finished the game in a few, long sittings as a serious game.


Music

The music is certainly unique. A lot of people have praised the soundtrack, particularly for the way they carry the Japanese pop culture feel. It didn't work for me, though. (The fact that I'm not a fan of pop prolly didn't help.)

Personally, I was hoping more for a soundtrack that matched up more tightly with narrative, the world exploration. When a dramatic moment is happening, I'm expecting a relevant dramatic soundtrack, or if a tense battle is happening, I'm expecting a relevant tense battle theme. TWEWY does have a few gems in its soundtrack, but the game's so inundated with pop that you come away from the game feeling like the entire soundtrack is just a medley of pop.

It was a good attempt at something new, but in my not-so-humble opinion, it failed.


Story

At first, I though the story would be a standard DS kiddie game story. And at first, it felt like that. Hero gets tossed into a world where he must fight bad guys, hero fights bad guys, etc. But about a third of the way into the game, they start ramping it up. The plot twists make you think twice, the dramatic moments draw you in, the tension starts building, and you start thinking, wait a minute, what the hell is actually going on here?

There are multiple moments in this game that just completely change your understanding of the game and world in which it takes place. (You know, the one that ends with you.) The plot starts building up, and it doesn't resolve until the very, very end, the climax that could truly be called a climax. And when it finally does resolve, it resolves very neatly without resorting to a plot dump and without leaving any major loose ends.

The characters are very well done, too. Almost all of them are interesting, if not likeable. Every character has his moments that make you remember them, even the minor supporting characters. All of the main characters go through significant character development, especially the main character. Sure, some of it is cliche, but even the cliche parts are well-executed.

And I don't know how they managed to pull it off, but there's even a scene where they manage to give a meaning to "The World Ends With You" that isn't just, you know, apocalyptic. I won't tell you what it is, since you'll appreciate it more when you see it for yourself.

Oh yeah, this might be a minor spoiler, but it's worth mentioning anyway: the game is actually 3 times as long as you think it is. I was pleasantly surprised when I beat what I thought was the final boss only to discover that the game was actually much longer than that. And the latter two thirds is where they start breaking out the heavy stuff.

All in all, TWEWY is a well-crafted story, even by J-RPG standards. It was the plot alone that bumped this game from my "play when I have some free time on the go" to "sit down and play this at home like a serious game".


Gameplay

On the one hand, TWEWY's gameplay is very gimmicky. Combat is split into top-screen and bottom-screen. The bottom-screen is entirely controlled by the stylus, even movement. The top-screen is controlled entirely by D-pad input. (Or X A B Y input for lefties.)

Sure, this seems like a great concept. But in practice splitting up your combat into two separate screens and making both screens play like a full-fledged action RPG is simply information overload. Fortunately, the game designers were smart enough to include an AI to auto-attack for you on the top-screen, leaving you free to focus fully on the bottom screen. The AI, however, is rather simplistic and won't play as effectively as a fully-devoted top-screen player would. That and there are a few game mechanics which rely on their being a certain rhythm between the top screen and the bottom screen, as well as several compulsory battles that require you to manually manage both screens. Fortunately, these sequences are few and far apart and aren't so hectic that this player managed to get by focusing on just one screen at a time.

The bottom-screen combat (the one you'll be focused on 95% of the game) has its own problems as well, the biggest of which is moving your character. To move your character, you have to touch him with the stylus and drag him across the screen, and he will follow your stylus. Sounds easy, right? In practice, merely clicking on your character takes such precision that you'll miss half the time and end up doing something you didn't mean to do. In the heat of battle, this makes dodging attacks all but impossible. I personally feel if would have been much better if they got rid of the whole dual-screen combat concept altogether and just had an AI-controlled character battling on the top screen and allowed you to control your bottom screen character with the D-pad. (Or X A B Y input for lefties.) Or hell, get rid of the top-screen altogether. It was overly gimmicky, anyway.

I'm also convinced that the game designers wanted to make use of every single DS feature, just because they could. For one, I can't stand games that force me to use the microphone, and TWEWY had a compulsory battle that required you to use the microphone. (Even worse, they don't tell you you need to use the microphone. They just give you what appear to be useless pins and expect you to somehow figure out that they are powered by the microphone. I had to pull up GameFAQs.) I also don't like how one of the ways of gaining PP (Pin Points, the game's ability points that level up your skill pins) is by playing in the presence of other people with DS's with the wireless turned on. Yeah, as it turns out, when I'm hanging out with my friends who have DS's, we're prolly not gonna be just sitting their playing single-player games on our DS's.

Don't let all the negativity fool you. Despite everything TWEWY has done wrong, it's also done many things right. The combat, though flawed, is still surprisingly fun. There's just something satisfying at a fundamental level about slashing at an enemy with the stylus over and over again to attack it. There's also something satisfying about using a combinations of pins to continually attack your enemies despite cooldowns and recharge times, especially combos that ultimately lock down enemies. The boss fights are also well-done and satisfying on a visceral level, even if most of them turn out to be slash-fests with little or no real strategy. Many of the later bossfights kick it up a notch (BAM!) and start adding additional rules or tricks, but they never relegate themselves to cheap tricks or gimmicks. In particular, the end-bosses are amazingly well-done and quite the adrenaline rush.

Another thing I liked about TWEWY was that even though the field map was teeming with enemies, most of the fights are completely optional. If you wanted to, you could stay in an area and fight dozens upon dozens of enemies. Or you could just rush past all the enemies and only fight the compulsory battles. Sure, skipping out on battles will ultimately cost you experience, levels, and loot, but the game makes up for it with the ability to change difficulty pretty much at any time. (In the post-game, they also let you replay any level at any difficulty, so you can still challenge yourself if you so choose.) As a result, the game is never a grind-fest, never gets too bogged down, and at the same time, is neither too difficult nor too hard.

The field exploration part of the game was well done, as well. There were many game mechanics in the non-combat part of the game, and none of them seemed too gimmicky or too over-used. Hell, I daresay that every game mechanic was used exactly the right number of times. And while you spend a lot of the non-combat portion of the game running around, thanks to the optional combat, the "fetch quests" never get too tedious. The fact that the story is so compelling changes "boring fetch quests" to "journey to the next sequence of the game where something entertaining is about to happen".

When you first start the game, the game might feel a little restrictive. You start the game with only one or two screens available, and most of the game's areas are blocked off. This is actually a good thing. Allowing the player the entire game world right from the start can be overwhelming. The game actually does a good job at introducing players to the world in small pieces, and eventually opens up the entire game world to them, allowing them to fully explore the world, visit all the shops, etc. The only downside is that by then, there's really no reason to explore (except maybe to buy a specific item at a specific shop), since the game doesn't really have any sidequests (outside of the post-game content).

Sure, TWEWY's gameplay has its flaws. But overall, the gameplay is well done, and the game as a whole is well structured. There are plenty more good things about this game than there are bad things.


Conclusion

At first glance, TWEWY is a game based on a gimmick. But once you get familiar with the game, you don't really see it as a gimmick anymore. At its heart, TWEWY is a solid narrative with gameplay that is compelling and fun at a very basic level. Sure, the game has its flaws, but very few games are perfect. TWEWY is a very well-crafted game, and I'd wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone with a DS and some free time.


Overall Score: 8.5 out of 10

---

Saturday, May 9, 2009--Today, I watched Star Trek (the new movie starring Sylar and Harold) with Justin. It was amusing, but I think only Star Trek fans will fully appreciate it. Too much of the movie was made out of Star Trek references. Metacritic gave it an 84/100, but I think for normal people, it'll only be a 60/100.

Also, I had dinner with Kellie and Connie at Taste of China. Or rather, our families all had dinner at Taste of China. This was followed by hanging out at Connie's place. There are photos on the book of faces.

Kellie: We're going shopping for Mother's Day gifts! We're gonna buy flowers and balloons!
me: Oh.
Kellie: Are you getting anything for your mom?
me: I already got her something that money can't buy.
Connie: What is it? "Love"?
me: No. I wrote her a song.
Connie: Oh... I thought it was gonna be something corny like "love".

---

Friday, May 8, 2009--So I went to Berkeley and had lunch with Stacy, former roommate of Princess. It'll likely be the last time we see each other, since she's graduating this year. Sadness.

Also, TBP Blanket--I mean Banquet. I met a girl named Margaret, who had jumped from the second floor of Bechtel to the first floor to get into Bridget Lounge and as a result broken both her feet and is now confined to a wheelchair. Apparently, being in a wheelchair made her Miss Popular at the Banquet.

So I'm standing in a crowd in a narrow corridor. She rolls up to the crowd and ends up right in front of me.

me: Hi.
her: Hi.
me: As much as I'd love to ask you for a dance, I just volunteered to drive people home, so if you would kindly roll yourself out of my way...

Abhi: Dood, you pretty much told her "get the fuck outta my way!"
me: Not in those exact words.

Dunno if I'll go to Banquet in subsequent years. At this point, we're dealing with people I've never met.

At the very least, this one guy took a kickass awesome photo of me eating a piece of bread.

---

Thursday, May 7, 2009--Today, I flew down to San Jose. My goals were:

1. Attend the TBP Banquet, which I haven't been to in a couple years.
2. Hang out with Kellie and Justin. (Not Clarkson and Timberlake.)
3. Take photos of me, because I'm going through that phase.
4. ????
5. Profit!

Also, thanks to Florence and Justin, Gee by SNSD has infected my brain.

---

Wednesday, May 6, 2009--gas-watch: $2.46/gal


As the story goes, beating Alan Comer apparently used up all of my MTG luck, and after that I lost many, many drafts and tournaments in a row.

[EDIT 12/29/2009] After Justin made the Vampire deck, my luck seems to have turned around.

---

Friday, May 1, 2009--Today was the release day of Alara Reborn, the third set of the Alara block, or something like that. The format was Sealed. We were given 3 packs of Alara, 1 pack of Conflux, and 1 pack of Reborn. And my pool was awful. But then again, Sealed pools tend to be awful. Zane noted that I could build an okay Esper deck. Except that whenever I play blue, I lose, so I vetoed that plan. Then, I noticed that I could, once again, build a decent Naya deck. Except it would be very top-heavy on the mana curve. But given the pool, I felt it was my best option. So I did.

Also, I had an Elspeth. Elspeth wins games. (Not as much as Sarkhan Vol does, though.)

3xPlains
4xMountain
6xForest
Jund Panorama
Arcane Sanctum
Crumbling Necropolis
Rupture Spire
Tukatongue Thallid
Naturalize
Resounding Roar
Dragon Fodder
Goblin Assault
Vithian Stinger
Qasali Ambusher
Dragonsoul Knight
Excommunicate
Dark Temper
Soul's Fire
Intimidation Bolt
Rhox Charger
Sigil Captain
Rhox Brute
Wild Leotau
Elspeth, Knight-Errant
Deadshot Minotaur
Soul's Majesty
Mosstodon
Sigiled Behemoth
Sigil of Distinction
Wargate

MVPs of this deck are Elspeth (obviously), even though her ultimate never went off, and Sigil of Distinction, which turns creatures crazy big. Also, Wargate was incredibly useful, sometimes serving as land fetch, sometimes allowing me to get Elspeth from my library into play. Also, I splashed blue and black to power up my Dragonsoul Knight. (And to get the blue mana for Wargate.)

Amusing plays include pumping a creature up to 8 power and casting Soul's Majesty on it. Unfortunately, my opponent used an Agony Warp to shrink it back down to 5 power, but 5 cards from a Soul's Majesty isn't bad.

This deck didn't win enough, though.

Whoa! I just realized I used all 5 rares in my pool. (Elspeth, Goblin Assault, Sigil of Distinction, Soul's Majesty, Wargate.)

---