Wow. The Otaku Fridge is going 12 years in May, so I’m crossing my fingers and hoping that this would be a good year, not only for me but also for all my visitors. (The boards are still on weird status but I still haven’t gotten around to figuring out what to do with it.)

First things first, another artist for our muse. The artist is Jedidiah Dumawal, a former student of mine. Very talented. So talented, in fact, that he had been called “Panginoong Jed” (Lord Jed) by the Asia Pacific College’s upperclassmen and lower batches alike. He drew the sleeping neko-chan six months ago, right after his graduation, but it took me this long to post it. Remember that the neko-chan is based on me? Well, I procrastinated for so long that those bangs actually grew out. -_-;;; (My hair is still partially highlighted with reds, though.)

Why a sleeping neko-chan? Hm. 2008 deprived me of sleep. So I want to have more of that in 2009. Hehehe.

I’m sorry that I have been sloooooow to update. There’s always something in my schedule, ne? This time it’s Ph.D studies. And the usual, which is work. I’m training future game developers so I suppose all is not lost. I’m actually loving my work so much that I tend to neglect the other important things. Like partying. Heh. Or watching anime, something I haven’t done since last summer. This is why I’m loving my Nintendo DS and Sony PSP. I don’t have to go home and plug ‘em in so I can play. I bring them with me on trips and when I’m waiting for something at work. If my PSP had bigger memory, maybe then I can watch anime more often.

In any case, I’ll try to update as often as I can. I even started the new year with two reviews. One positive and one negative. Both are Final Fantasy games on portable consoles:

• Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions (Sony PSP)
• Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings (Nintendo DS)

A third review, for another Ivalice Alliance tactics game on the DS, is coming up but I’m enjoying the game so much that I don’t even want to think about getting to the ending. Clocked in over 100 hours during the holidays and I just can’t stop exploring. Of course, now that the holiday is almost over (I start work again tomorrow, darn), the gaming might slow down. Other plans for the Fridge this 2009 include adding a new section for J-Dorama and Live Action. I’m currently watching Galileo.

But I enjoyed Christmas and New Year and I hope everyone did, too. I’m wishing you guys the best that 2009 has to offer.

Again, happy 2009, everyone! Enjoy!

Where do I begin to enumerate how annoying Revenant Wings is? Let’s start with the soundtrack. Why oh why did they have to use the very same music that had me falling asleep in the middle of Final Fantasy XII?

Next, the battle system. As I wrote in my notes from February, 2008: “Wonky dual screen usage. I hate the controls. It’s like the makers couldn’t decide whether to create a tactics game or an RPG. I know there have been games like these…but they have been presented on a BIGGER screen and navigation isn’t such a bitch. If you’re not careful with this one, the battle ground might turn into one big confusing mess.”

It would have been a good idea to have a real-time tactics game…if the screens weren’t so small and if the enemies didn’t spawn like there’s no tomorrow, thereby covering everything and making it so hard to distinguish where your characters are. The fact that everything is animated — walking, jumping up and down, flocking to one area of the screen — isn’t really helpful.

That I made it to the final dungeon was nothing short of miraculous, although it did take quite some time. Nearly a whole year to get there, actually, because I only touch Revenant Wings when I’m desperately bored and in-between good games. I have one last battle to fight and I can’t even finish it because apparently, I need more than one tank. Not being fond of Vaan, I didn’t exactly use him much, making him under leveled. So there. I’m officially stuck.

Where exactly did Revenant Wings fail in terms of gameplay? Aside from its penchant for overpopulating the small screen with sprites, of course. Well, if you’re going to make a real-time strategy game, you could’ve at least made the gambits (automated skills) a bit more intelligent. Like the way it was done in Final Fantasy XII. I know many gamers complained about the gambits making that particular game too easy or boring, as if you’re running bots in a non-MMORPG. I had the same complaint. But Revenant Wings is one that requires quick thinking — not to mention lightning fast reflexes and hand-eye coordination when it comes to the Nintendo DS stylus. FFXII’s gambit system would have worked well with it.

In Revenant Wings, you can only use one gambit, which your characters automatically fire as soon as able. The rest of the skills, you’ll have to manually trigger on your own. When you have 5 to 6 sprites, guarded by their own little bevy of Espers (summoned monsters), running off on their own, even when you specifically commanded them to stay in place (sometimes an enemy comes a little too close and one of your characters, along with his Espers, will start chasing after it), the battle map turns into Bedlam. Manually triggering the skills just won’t cut it. I honestly found myself wishing to have at least 3 gambit commands that I can arrange according to importance so that my characters wouldn’t run around like headless chickens.

My other complaint would be the summoning gates. If you’re going to put rules like monsters should spawn in summoning gates, make them spawn only when the gates are there. Many times, enemies would spawn repeatedly even when those gates are not in a map. It’s the main cause of map overpopulation.

Next peeve: Vaan. We didn’t like him in FFXII. What makes one think that we’d actually like to see him be the protagonist again? Oh, right. He may have been named the hero in FFXII, but those who have finished the game know that it’s actually Princess Ashe’s story. Perhaps this is Square Enix’s way of making it up to the character? Anyway, enough with Vaan already! (Squeenix put him again in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance 2: Grimoire of the Rift, but thankfully, I can ignore him.)

I read somewhere that someone had called this a rehash of the classic Final Fantasy Tactics. Excuse me, but that’s an insult to FF Tactics. I bet you’re thinking, why the heck did I even reach the last dungeon if I hated the game so much? Two things: Balthier and Fran. Probably the game’s only saving graces. I got to see more of Balthier’s come-hither personality and I got a deeper look into his friendship/partnership with Fran. The story is also quite promising, as it introduces some of Ivalice’s unknown races.

Is all that worth finishing the game? Maybe if I got too frustrated, I’ll just go look the ending up in YouTube.

GENRE: Role-Playing Game / Real-Time Strategy
PLATFORM: Nintendo DS
Parental Guidance Recommended
2007 Square Enix Co., Ltd
SCREENSHOTS: Courtesy of Amazon.com, 3D cut scene courtesy of RPGFan

Amazon.Com Product Description:
One year after the events of Final Fantasy XII, Vaan travels the skies of Ivalice with his navigator Penelo at his side. Their treasure hunting adventures take them to the sky continent of Lemures where they meet Llyud, a member of the aegyl race. These winged people have been living on the floating continent for centuries, but a disturbance has allowed treasure-seeking sky pirates to breach their once-hidden territory. It falls to Vaan and his band of young sky pirates to stand up against the trespassers, and defend the sky continent and its people.

Features:

• Use of the touch screen: control armies, unleash special attacks and activate Gambits
• Experience the next installment in the Ivalice Alliance, a series of titles set in the same game world as Final Fantasy XII and Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of The Lions
• CG movies make use of the Nintendo DS hardware displaying cutscenes across both screens
• The Ring of Pacts allows users to pick and choose from over 50 summons such as cactuars and chocobos

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Happy New Year!

Sorry it took me this long (more than a month) to write a review about Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions. The thought of my broken memory card — 80 hours into the game and just about enjoying Balthier’s presence in it — is just too painful. Heh. Gameplay-wise, everything I said about the original Final Fantasy Tactics still stands. FFT is still one of the best tactics games I’ve ever encountered although this installation has a few notable modifications, all of them reason enough to increase replay value.

First, you have new characters. Well, not really new if you’ve been playing Final Fantasy for a while now. Balthier, of Final Fantasy XII, is one. I picked War of the Lions up just for a chance to see him — and hear his sexy accent — again. With the new animated cut scenes, though mostly made of cutesy cell-shaded figures, I found myself squealing into greater heights.

Luso, of Final Fantasy Tactics Advance 2: Grimoire of the Rift, is another. Though an elementary school kid in his own game, Luso is easily one of the most powerful characters you can have in your party. The only downside to having Luso and Balthier in War of the Lions is that they are competition for your old favorites, namely Ramza and Mustadio. You can’t exactly remove Ramza, but Mustadio (who just might be Balthier’s ancestor, if you note their surnames) is rendered nearly useless. Unless you plan to transfer Balthier’s gun to him, which, as you can guess, I was not about to do. I was having trouble planning who to put in my party, considering the fact that, if my memory card hadn’t gone fzzzzzt, I would still be getting awesome Excalibur-wielding Orlandu later in the game.

Second, the AI, which a lot of people complained about in the original, has improved tremendously. This only means that the battles have become challenging, some of them even difficult. I don’t remember any battle being close to moderately difficult back in the day. Then again, it could be me getting addled with age.

I also managed to unearth some new experiences. Like, I didn’t know that Mustadio had a spitting chance at a love life until I stumbled upon a side quest involving him and a certain swordswoman. Hm. If this is the girl that Mustadio ended up with, I wouldn’t wonder why Balthier is so amazing.

Overall, I’m thankful that FFT had been revived and ported to the Sony PSP. It’s probably still one of the best Ivalice Alliance games that Square Enix has come up with. Incidentally, FFT: War of the Lions is the only one among the Ivalice Alliance that doesn’t use that blasted lethargy-inducing Final Fantasy XII soundtrack.

Other Ivalice Alliance games I’m currently playing:

• Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings (Nintendo DS) - Having difficulty defeating the final boss; must level Vaan for second tank. Bleh. I’m only playing it because of Balthier and Fran.
• Final Fantasy Tactics Advance 2: Grimoire of the Rift (Nintendo DS) - So enjoyable, I don’t want to finish it yet.

GENRE: Role-Playing Game / Strategy / Tactics
PLATFORM: Nintendo DS
Parental Guidance Recommended
2007 Square Enix Co., Ltd
SCREENSHOTS: Courtesy of RPGFan

Amazon.Com Product Description:
In days now long past, the War of the Lions rent the land of Ivalice in two. And it is here that two young men of note first stepped onto history’s stage. The first is a man named Delita Heiral, the hero who would draw the curtain on the War of the Lions, this dark act of Ivalice’s history. The other, whose role is now forgotten, is a man by the name of Ramza Beoulve. Peer through the eyes of these two young men, and uncover the secrets that lie hidden within history’s darkened folds. Originally released in 1997, Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions is a portable update on the classic turn-based strategy game that gave birth to the world of Ivalice. New features include all-new CG sequences, all-new jobs, new 16:9 widescreen presentation, new head-to-head multiplayer and new storyline elements that refine the genesis of the Ivalice Alliance.

Features:

1. Witness the origin of the Ivalice Alliance, a series of titles that take place in the same world as Final Fantasy XII and Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings
2. Animated sequences combine hand-drawn style visuals with computer graphics
3. Enhanced widescreen presentation, new jobs and new characters
4. Challenge friends in head-to-head battles with the multiplayer function or team up in the co-operative mode and try to outwit the game’s computer opponents
5. Introduction of the Onion Knight and Dark Knight class

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I can’t believe I skipped this game when it came out on the PSX. Sure, it’s very old school. The graphics aren’t exactly up to par with the rest of the recent games coming out, although the new 3D FMVs look good. The gameplay controls are even clunkier, as it’s actually a side-scroller/RPG. And it even took me a while to realize that I can only move right-left-up-down (no z-axis) because the backgrounds seemed like low poly 3D to me.

Still, Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth (VP) is arguably one of the best games I’ve ever played in this decade. It has that distinct Star Ocean feel despite the difference in the battle system. That could be because they are connected, if we are to speak about development teams. Also, Lenneth makes a cameo in one of the Star Ocean games. Don’t be confused, however, as Lenneth’s battle system is turn-based whereas Star Ocean’s was real-time. And unlike Star Ocean, you get to use combos by way of pressing the triangle, circle, square and X. This gets a bit disorienting at first, as it took me a while to familiarize myself with the controls that change functions when you’re engaged in combat. You press “Select” if you want to switch equipment, use an item, or pass a turn, unlike in regular RPGs where all battle options are laid bare for you to access.

No random encounters for this one. If you want to level up, all you need to do is re-enter a dungeon, memorize it and walk through it as you make your party stronger. There’s one dungeon, in particular, wherein I simply entered and re-entered a room to make the enemies respawn.

VP is based on Norse Mythology and revolves around the wars leading to Ragnarok, the end of the world. As Lenneth, the mysterious Valkyrie, you are sent to Earth to recruit worthy souls — those of warriors that can prove their mettle in Valhalla. There are so many characters to choose from that you might find yourself getting confused as to which ones deserve to be part of Odin’s army. This is the tricky part. As your endings depend on how you play this out, along with other side quests that you must do in a certain order.

You only spend one chapter, on the average, with the characters you recruit but you get to hear their tragedies while you hunt for souls. Later, you get to see how your own tragedy intertwines with theirs, while you work to finally get to the happy ending. (That is, if you get the happy ending.) Enhanced with new FMV graphics, the experience is multiplied three times. This is what makes the game memorable for me. And probably is the reason why I couldn’t stop playing.

Having said all that, I just have to admit that VP brought tears of joy to my eyes. Video game souls aren’t dead, after all. They’re just trapped in old school goodness…

GENRE: Role-Playing Game / Action / Adventure / Drama / Sidescrolling
PLATFORM: Sony PSP
Parental Guidance Recommended
2006 Square Enix Co., Ltd

Amazon.Com Product Description:
Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth brings the classic PlayStation game console title to your PSP — with completely new CG cut scenes that dramatize the epic of a Norse maiden collecting souls for a war between the gods. Lenneth is a Valkyrie, a warrior priestess with the gift of hearing the thoughts of dead and dying men in their final moments. Lenneth’s duty is to travel Midgard, the mortal world, to recruit and train the souls of worthy warriors to join the ranks of the Aesir in the Sacred War.

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Nobody knows exactly why people find Bleach addictive, but it really has become a favorite topic over lunch and coffee breaks. My friends and I usually find ourselves huddled in some remote corner of a café, trying to dissect the inner workings of each of Bleach’s numerous characters.

An older colleague would compare this with Dragon Ball: the battles, the cliffhangers, the ever-shifting sides from good to bad and back, the never-ending power increases, the rocks and mountains and hard places. If I were to over-analyze this anime, I would probably say that it has too many characters, too many fillers (sometimes illogically ordered), very little character development, too predictable and formulaic.

Yet I lose sleep because I keep telling myself that it’ll be the last episode then it’s off to bed…only to violate that promise by plopping the next DVD into the player anyway. The huge circles under my eyes can attest to this fact. Despite all its flaws, the characters are all unique and it’s hard not to relate to at least one or two of them. My personal favorites include Yoruichi the black cat, Rukiya the willful but duty-bound Shinigami (Death God) and Urahara the supernatural shopkeeper.

Besides the characters, the action scenes keep you riveted and glued to your seat. At least, that’s what it felt like to me. Every season gets more intense as they progress, with the exception of the boring Bounto Arc, which is an entire season of fillers and is in no way related to the manga. It’s always exciting to see how Ichigo, the protagonist, would improve. There are so many questions left unanswered, though, which is probably why the anime looks far from over. Since the anime is dealing with death and the transference of souls to Soul Society, one wonders what happens to the souls that die in the other world. Again, another aspect for discussions over coffee.

Fanfiction writers would have a field day over situations, especially when it comes to the cute Omake Scenes. Bleach always provides one after the end credits roll. Sometimes they’d feature the different Shinigami and their shenanigans, sometimes it would be about Urahara’s kiddie squad. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), Bleach is thoroughly shounen, so love angles are up to the viewers to decide.

For me, Spunky Knight was one of those guilty pleasures in manga I loved to indulge in. The art is unique and well detailed while lacking in continuity errors (save for may be one frame in one issue) and the characters, though badly short lived compared to the heroine and her pet dragon are all very well detailed to the point where their skin actually looks soft and warm to the touch.

I think the sole aspect I didn’t like about Spunky Knight however was that it took one issue to sacrifice the main story line for the sake of introducing us to a new character and a unique and surprisingly innovative sexual encounter.

By doing so it allowed the series to fall into the bog standard pain in the butt fatal misogyny that interrupts the sex scenes I’ve forever hated about manga and anime in general, especially when this all happened to my only favorite female character in the entire damn series. It really sucked for me because the build up for the issue was well scripted and as I started reading the dialogue actually started sympathizing with the one-time heroine of issue 5; had they just left the final frame of the last page out and left the ending completely open-ended, I wouldn’t be complaining.

Now I know the series has a very anarchic sense of sexual humor where death and sex sort of intertwine at random moments and for the most part it still manages to be mildly funny until around the fifth issue then the irony and subtle humor inspired nothing but hatred and repulsion because it’s difficult to find sickening cliches of a particular genre funny especially when a series like Spunky Knight successfully avoided them for a long enough period of time.

Despite that nit-pick though, I can’t help but recommend Spunky Knight because the sex scenes are so well drawn and unique that it’s hard not to like it.

Read more Spunky Knight reviews…

Individual Rating: Art/Animation 10; Story 6; Characters 7; Sounds 7; Ecchi Level 9

Genre: Action / Adventure / Comedy / Drama / Supernatural
Parental Guidance Recommended
Credits: 2004 Kubotite, Noriyuki Abe, Dentsu Inc., Studio Pierrot, TV Tokyo

Amazon.com Editorial/Product Description:
For as long as he can remember Ichigo Kurosaki has been able to see ghosts. But when he meets Rukia, a Soul Reaper who battles evil spirits known as Hollows, he finds his life is changed forever. Now with a newfound wealth of spiritual energy, Ichigo discovers his true calling: to protect the living and the dead from evil.

(190 episodes as of this writing. Still ongoing.)

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