What I Played Today: October 15

Rock Band Blitz, Persona 4 Arena

Played a bit of Rock Band Blitz, there was a score war waiting for me that I am not going to win. I am never going to win a score war. I accept that. But yeah, still rocked out a bit, that's what this game is for, rocking out and doing some game stuff. Bathwater is a pretty good song that I haven't heard in a while.

Also played like two pretty short chapters in Elizabeth's story in Persona 4 Arena. In case you were super curious what she had been up to; not a lot, just transporting world-destroying monsters to the moon. Like you do.

What I Played Today: October 14

Guild Wars 2, Persona 4 Arena

I started a new character in Guild Wars 2, because I wanted to see what another class looked like. I started a Norn engineer who wears a ton of purple, and I was not immediately impressed. They can only use two mainhand weapons! Come on! But it turns out their variability comes later, as each of their skills also provides a toolbelt skill (I think), which seems pretty cool. But for some reason, despite the fact that I cannot stop leveling with my main, it was taking forever to get the engineer up to level 3, so I got bored and turned the game off. You'll notice that I end all my gaming sessions with turning the game off. I do not just keep the game running forever, out of spite.

Then I played through a chapter of Persona 4 Arena, Mitsuru's chapter, and the happenings of the events this time around were super interesting. We find out where those shadow students come from (not really that big of deal, but still), and we get a better hint of who the bad guys are. I have a feeling that they are not actually going to tell us who was behind this and force us to buy another game. And I gladly will!

There was also a surprise guest in this version of the story, who I was glad to see and I thought she looked really cute with a pony tail now. Although I just now realized that there is no way that can be her natural hair color. Everyone else in the series has a normal, if exaggerated, color of hair. How does she get away with light blue? (Fuuka shows up. No reason to waltz around it now that I've dropped so many details.)

Anyway, animes. Good night.

What I Played Today: September 24

Super Hexagon, Magic: The Gathering, Rock Band Blitz, Persona 4 Arena

So, Super Hexagon suggests that you wearing headphones when you play. It's not a rhytym game, so I couldn't figure out why. The reason they want you to wear headphones is so the game can drive you insane. It is such an intense trip. So much spinning, and lines, and colors, and oh my god my brain is exploding. I'm at 44 seconds on the easiest section. I can do this.

There's a Magic: The Gathering expansion, based around the guilds from Ravnica. I like Ravnica, so of course I bought it and started playing it. I don't know if there's any of the new cards in this though, and why not? Huh? Guys?

Rock Band Blitz, another score war. I am currently winning. I do not expect to be winning by tomorrow. But it's Bandages, so I can play this song over and over without getting tired of it.

Then I booted up Persona 4 Arena and for some reason jumped into Challenge Mode. I've finally getting the hang of the quarter circles, although I still can't figure out how to make a double-quarter circle trigger consistently. Also, Kanji's specials are kind of hilarious. He just goes goddamn apeshit. One of them has him leaping full on onto his opponent and pummeling him, which is brutal. Just awful. Kanji's great.

What I Played Today: September 16

FTL, Persona 4 Arena

Played so much FTL today. I made it to the last sector and found out that my little ship does not stand a chance against the Rebel flagship. How am I supposed to win here, huh? Also managed to get a different layout for the starting ship, one that comes with four guys and a lot of little lasers, pew pew. I think I like the Engi ship a lot though, since the way you play is significantly different than the starting ship, as it uses drones to fight, with only an ion gun to shut down the shields. Interesting.

I also find boarding really exciting and intense, because I always feel like things can go bad really quickly. I tried to turn situation around on a couple of ships, I bought a teleporter and had a couple of Mantis crew members who can tear stuff up, but then I decided to be a complete idiot and beamed over my fighters onto an unmanned drone. An unmanned drone without life support systems. Yeah, that was superdumb of me, and I lost that game shortly afterwards, which is too bad because I was doing so well.

Also closed out another story in Persona 4 Arena, Chie's story, which involves a lot more fights. Nine fights total, jee that's a lot. Anyway, her story ends hilariously, as Chie decides that she wants to be a true man like Akihiko and starts calling him Master. (Chie's a lady, in case you forgot.) At one point, Akihiko shouts, "Being a true man has nothing to do with one's sex!" It was madcap.

What I Played Today: September 10

Guild Wars 2, Persona 4 Arena

Played a bit of Guild Wars 2, who hasn't? I did a bit of story stuff and got attacked by assassins; like, ten fifteen assassins, they kinda went overboard. But they are all dead, so screw them. I also went to Rata Sum, which is INSANE! It's now this giant cube with multiple levels and a huge hole in the middle that you can fall down and die in over and over again. And there's a bunch of wacky Asura running around and golems and shit. Crazy town.

Then I finished Persona 4 Arena. There wasn't actually much more of Labrys's stupid story; she fought Elizabeth, and there were no answers. Then after the Cliffhanger in Yu's story, you fight Labrys's shadow, and then everyone is just really nice to each other, and there are no goddamn answers to any questions, but it makes you pretty excited about what kind of insanity they can get up to in Persona 5. Although...I would much prefer if they just did a Gaiden for what all these bros are up to, rather than a full-fledged sequel, because one of my favorite parts of a Persona game is the school social life stuff, and I really can't imagine them being able to handle that if they follow the Shadow Operatives in P5. But...it'll be another three years before that happens anyway, so I think by that time I'll just be happy to have another game.

What I Played Today: September 9

Rhythm Heaven Fever, Persona 4 Arena

I wanted to make sure I hooked up my Wii, so I played a few games of Rhythm Heaven Fever. It's still a rhythm game alright, although for some reason one of the levels won't let me pass it because I miss one note. ONE NOTE. Come on, guys!

Then I read a whole lot of Persona 4 Arena. I found out some interesting things about the world of Persona, specifically, that after the misadventures of Persona 3, Mitsuru started a government organization specifically to fight shadows. Which is...holy shit, definitely something worth talking about. Mainly, where the hell were these people during the events of Persona 4? They acknowledge that they knew there was shadow nonsense happening in Inaba during the time, yet they didn't move on it? Were some of the people I ran into actually Shadow Operatives? I have so many questions!

But I can't get any answers until after I play through Labrys's chapter, which is long as hell. It started with Labrys being activated and having her ridiculous accent, and sees her fighting other robots of her call number in a battle arena. She makes a friend with another robot, and you know exactly where it is going (heck, you probably knew when you first met Labrys in Yu's story,) but it makes you sit through the entire thing. Eventually she goes crazy and you learn some more facts about how this particular robot girl works and she gets shut down and yadda yadda, and it was past midnight by the time I got to the point where Labrys has finally caught up to the current timeline, and I just had to stop. Of course, for the whole two hours you are going through Labrys's story, there is no gameplay. Just text after text after text. This is a superweird thing to see in a fighting game. Superweird period. Whose idea was this, and why did I enjoy sitting through this?

What I Played Today: September 6

Dust: An Elysian Tail, Persona 4 Arena, Splice

I remembered I was pretty near the end of Dust, so I tried to play it, and I got...frustrated. The missions they gave me seemed like busy work, easy to do and pretty pointless, and then I had to fight an army, and for some reason I can't hit the soldiers head on, and there are these really out-of-place looking hovercrafts. I don't know, I got distracted.

So I read more of Persona 4 Arena! First I tried to play through the Arcade version of the game, and was doing okay until I ran into Aigis, who kicked me all the way around. Palladium is tough to break through, mainly because it's a huge shield. So I did Kanji's story. Apparently Kanji is an idiot. He falls asleep and just accidentally falls into the TV world, and then thinks he's dreaming for his first three fights. At that point, you can either have him snap out of it, or go full moron and just keep charging forward, in which case he unthinkingly beats the crap out of the final boss quickly and easily, and then expects to wake up and everyone is mad at him for being such a dumdum, while I assume he has a mental breakdown afterwards. It was pretty funny. But I did go back and get to the "To Be Continued" spot, in which Kanji runs into his gay shadow. I went online to find out exactly what I have to do to keep going without giving anything away, and it seems straightforward enough.

Also someone mentioned Splice somewhere, and I downloaded the demo, and thought, "This sure is a puzzle game alright," and then the demo was over, and I did not think I needed to buy it. The end!

What I Played Today: September 5

Persona 4 Arena, Rock Band Blitz

Played more Rock Band Blitz, I got really close to beating a friend in a score war, but missed it by 5,000 points. I'm sure if I had Super Guitar, I could do it, but for some reason that ability is locked for me, because I suck? I don't know.

Also got through three whole chapters in Persona 4 Arena! I started Yukiko's chapter, got a little bit of the way, maybe three fights, then I thought "this is stupid. I'm going to complete Yu's chapter." So I did, and I got to a screen where stuff started actually happening, and then the game throws up "To Be Continued..." Which is nonsense, but it unlocked more stories. So I powered through Chie's and Yukiko's chapters, got to pretty much the same space, although how those chapters left me hanging were distinctly different, which was interesting. So yeah...stories. I bet that's really exciting to hear about.

What I Played Today: September 4

Persona 4 Arena, Rock Band Blitz

Skipping ahead! I was away on holiday, and I didn't play much, so we're just going to skip it. I was sick today, so I spent a lot of time sitting my ass around the house. I did play some Rock Band Blitz, which is a fun game made by Harmonix, which plays a lot like Frequency, which I like, but also requires a lot of strategy to score a lot of points, taking advantage of which lanes have the most scoring potential, while also not neglecting lanes, otherwise your multiplier suffers. It's pretty genius, and I'm kinda mad at myself for selling my copies of Rock Band, because I do not have a lot of songs to play.

Also screwing around with Persona 4 Arena. I got through a few fights in Yu's storyline, then decided I wanted to do everyone's storylines pretty much concurrently, so I did a few fights in Chie's storyline. It's a lot of reading.

What I Played Today: August 13

Persona 4 Arena

Hey I have a TV again, that is kinda great. Now I can play video games! So, I played the video game that I bought because I felt obligated, Persona 4 Arena. I hear the story mode is probably just fine by me (it tells a story about Persona 4 characters), so I started that, and it was mostly reading. It is super weird to have the main character have a, well, character, but I like the kid. He's a bit reserved but is very friendly and sincere, I like that. I am also just kinda disappointed that they couldn't get Chie's original voice actor back, because it is the most noticable change, and that voice acting was really, really good....most of the time. But, I'm sure I'll get over it.

Also walked through the tutorial for the fighting game part; I could not figure out how to do my instant death move, and I do not get the point of the one more system they have in place. It is confusing.