So, followers may remember that a couple days ago, I finally found a copy of Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. The Soulless Army and I was jumping for joy all over the place.

But then I actually popped it in.

The disc was not only covered in a fuckton of scratches, but some sort of beverage (coffee is my guess) had been spilled on it and allowed to dry. GameStop guarantees they check the discs before accepting them for trade-ins, but clearly, this disc hadn’t been checked. Hell, the last time I traded in a game, GameStop told me they had to charge me a “refurbishing fee” because there were a couple scratches. Well, they either forgot to check this disc, or they don’t do shit with that refurbishing fee. Either way, I was ticked I received the disc in such terrible condition, but I cleaned it up and tried to play anyway.

The first attempt, the game played normally, but load time for the battles was pretty long and there was some serious stalling in some places. The next day I tried to play it, the game wouldn’t start at all. And then, on my last try, the game started, but the stalling seemed to have gotten worse. After checking the GameStop site again, I found another copy of Devil Summoner about 15 miles away.

Due to traffic, it took the roommate and I approximately an hour to get there, and that is probably the worst GameStop I’ve ever been to. One of the associates was dawdling around while the other was trying to convince a customer not to cancel a pre-order. Then the phone starts ringing. For about ten minutes, I’m standing there as the guy in front of me is just trying to cancel his pre-order while both employees ignore the phone which never stopped ringing. At the same time, a huge line is forming behind me, and the dawdling employee just continues to do nothing. Maybe that guy was getting paid to be the GameStop Greeter rather than an actual associate.

When my turn comes, I ask the guy behind the register if I can exchange my damaged disc for the copy they have. The associate looks the game up on the computer, and spends another five to ten minutes trying to locate it. After showing me Devil Summoner 2, he admits the wrong game was logged into the system and that another copy of Devil Summoner isn’t available for the next 56 miles.

So, another 40 minutes spent in the car to get home. After grocery shopping, I come home and check the GameStop site again.

…And the erroneous listing for Devil Summoner 1 is still there, uncorrected. I really hope they update that in the next day or two, because that’s fucking annoying.

I wish I could do all my game shopping at the GameStop closest to my house, because they have the best damn people there. I continue to be grateful for my local GameStop.

See this boss?

Yeah, this thing a bunch of bullshit.

I spent over 45 minutes chipping away at this damn thing’s HP, and then it destroys me in one hit (while I had FULL HP) with some dark-type attack.

Fuck you, fuck you, FUCK YOU, Mitsuo.

Finally.

I FINALLY FOUND THIS TODAY.

No way in hell was I gonna shell out $95 for this game to get it online. For a loooong while, there was only ONE in the whole of southern California (and it was 55 miles away), but this week, two of them popped up in Gamestops 15 miles away from my house. Hell yes, thank god those Gamestops were on the way to a place the roommate were headed to anyway.

Gonna pop this shit in the PS2 now.

…Does this game get any better? Because chrisity christ, that was the slowest opening to a game I’ve ever experienced. TWO SOLID HOURS OF NOTHING WORTH NOTE. My fellow dorm inhabitant theorized the two hours of high school drama was to get me attached to the characters, but instead, I just found more reasons to intensely dislike the characters due to mediocre/annoying voice acting (really not impressed with the voice work so far) and how cliche the females are. I stopped playing after Yosuke obtained his Persona, and while things are looking up for this game, I’m concerned this is as good as it’s gonna get.

I bought P4 because I’m very fond of the Shin Megami Tensei series, the game had many positive reviews, and I’ve had an interest in the Persona spin-off for several years now. I had the opportunity to get P3 while I was at GameStop this weekend, but ultimately decided to just get P4 because it came with a bonus disc (hurr).

On that note, should I have played Persona 3 first? (I’m also waiting to play another game I bought, SMT: Devil Summoner 2, because the protagonist in in the first and second game, but I figured it’d be OK to skip P3 due to new characters)

So, beat Assassin’s Creed last week (first chance I’ve had to sit down and write about it). Now I’m gonna waste all ya’ll’s time by raving about it.

Some of you might remember I was pretty unimpressed with Altair —Dude had the personality of a dishcloth and kept insisting his honor and rank were forcibly taken rather than lost when his brain suddenly shut off and he royally screwed up what should have been a relatively easy mission.

So, mfw he finally admitted he’d made quite the ass of himself and apologized to Malik.

About goddamn time, but I suppose it was a fitting development to place towards the end of the game. I was very happy he grew a personality over the course of the game.

But the best part of the entire game…

I can’t find on YouTube.

HOW IS THERE NOT A 10-30 SECOND CLIP OF WHAT SORCERY IS THIS?

Anyway.

That was a good fucking game. So good, I just purchased the rest of the main series over the course of the week (bought AC2 and reserved Revelations a few days ago, then got Brotherhood yesterday). There goes a month’s worth of groceries, so how wonderful it is that on my list of priorities, vidya comes before food. I need to lose weight anyway.

The concept of no definite good and evil really made this game spectacular for me. I’m very glad this game established that there is more gray in the world than black and white, since so many games tend to maintain a strict “this is good, this is evil, and you can only be one of the two” philosophy. This particularly bothered me in Kingdom Hearts II, in which Sora adamantly declares Nobodies must return to nothingness, even though they’re sentient beings with a desire to become more than ‘nothing’. Because they were defined as the “evil” of the story, they could only be destroyed, and once the were, everyone celebrates! There goes the big-baddies, the end. While the targets in AC couldn’t be spared, with every target killed, the player/Altair are left to wonder if what they did was really the right thing.

So the moment AC ended, I popped in AC 2 (which seems to be what you’re supposed to do, considering how abruptly AC ended).

[And sorry for the lack of doodles this time. Tired and need schlafen]

And my stepmother and her friend Elizabeth shake their heads at me and start talking about how all this technically is ruining young people like myself. “Can you believe this? She’s playing on the computer and the Gameboy at the same time.” The stepmom mutters to Elizabeth, who gives me this judging stare.

I decide to clarify I’m not playing a game, but taking care of some business for university. Since I’m running out of time to goof off, I explain I’m trying to get as much gaming done as I can before the quarter starts.

“So, you don’t need to double task. You just want to.” Elizabeth didn’t seem too impressed with my plans to do multiple things at once.

“My needs and wants are hardly different.” I’m just trying to get them off my back so I can go back to what I was doing. After all, the art of vidya is a passion of mine, and I’m much happier with it in my life than without. That isn’t to say video games are my oxygen, but they’re still pretty high on my list of priorities.

“So much for your brain.” Elizabeth and Deena roll their eyes.

Oh, great. These are adults who generalize all video games as mindless activities that turn kids into decaying vegetables. “I’d say what I’m playing right now could count as enrichment.”

They just laugh.

I’m about to explain what it is I’m playing exactly, when they go on a tangent that video games and technology lead to social retardation, desensitization, and a complete lack of empathy among my generation. Fucking shit, I have so much empathy, I can feel another person’s emotions before they give any indication of what they’re feeling.

Oh, well. I suppose it really doesn’t affect me any if they think I’m intentionally rotting out my brain. I can only wonder how many other fellow game enthusiasts have to deal with people like this who refuse to believe vidya could possibly be anything positive in one’s life.

Been a while since I’ve played any Assassin’s Creed! Part of that can be attributed to the Stunfisk plush I’m working on (them fins gave me much more trouble than they should have), but when I did have time, AC just didn’t seem enjoyable. Don’t get me wrong; this game’s fun, but I’m beginning to notice it’s actually Altair that’s making this game less appealing. 

I play most video games for the story and characters. L.A. Noire had plenty of flaws, but because I was so enamored with its characters, it’s become one of my favorite games of all time. Deep characters and an intriguing plot make a game phenomenal for me, even if its entertainment level is so-so.

Earlier, I mentioned Altair was merely a cocky bastard, but I was happy that he seemed to be getting more complex. Unfortunately, since then, he hasn’t shown any further development. Beyond his inquisitive nature and inability to accept he deserved to have his position stripped from him (dude, that was all your fucking fault, no doubt about it. You need to man up and admit you fucked up big time), he’s got the personality of a cardboard box. This might be because he’s supposed to be the silent and mysterious Assassin, but I just can’t seem to like him. But, even if he doesn’t evolve at all as a character, the game is still worth it for the refreshingly original storyline.

In other news.

I am one shitty pickpocket.

I must’ve forgotten how to play again, because I accidentally socked the hell out of this dude I’m trying to steal from, and when I wasn’t doing that, my hand’s wandering all over this guy’s body, EXCEPT his satchel. I must’ve given the guy a back massage, caressed the fibers of all of his clothes, and slapped his butt cheek before I retrieved what I needed.

And then the dude’s wondering who could have possibly stolen his letter. Certainly not the hooded man who’d just thoroughly molested him, I’m sure.

I’m not sure if fighting is meant to be an easy thing, but after getting the hang of parrying and counter attacks, I rarely die in combat anymore (and the last time I did, it was because I had a hoard of ninja-esque warriors and every guard in the city on my tail while I’m trying to chase this slave trader). However, that isn’t to say I don’t die all the fucking time.

And it’s almost always my own damn fault.

I’ve become so accustomed to jumping from lookout points, performing a leap of faith is second-nature every time I’m done synchronizing with an area. And I don’t know how I manage to do this every three or four lookout points, but I’ll sometimes jump off a ledge an inch too early.

Altair can scale any fortress, jump into a hay bale from hundreds of feet above ground and come out without a bruise, and win a battle against 20 guards, but the dude cannot swim. I accidentally leap into the water when I’m trying to reach another building all the goddamn time.

And though this doesn’t happen too often, I’ll misjudge distances from time to time and fall to my death.

I’m glad this is only a memory and not Desmond’s reality.

I didn’t realize there would be SO MUCH GREATNESS in this game, holy shit.

So, Altair. After the first five minutes of the game, I’d already categorized him under “arrogant little shitface” in my book, but I didn’t entirely dislike him yet. I’m very impressed that as I’m going through the game, Ubisoft reveals more complexities to his character that make him so much more than a cocky assassin fallen from grace. After stabbing this doctor in the throat, Altair’s like, “Now your ‘patients’ are free from your sadistic experiments.” and the dying doctor’s like, “No, I was actually doing them a favor. I was making them better.” This confuses Altair, and when he confronts his master about the doctor believing he was honestly doing the right thing, he doesn’t much more of an answer than, “Well, that guy had to die. :|” This appears to trouble Altair somewhat, which says to me that he’s just a bit more concerned with the reason for his assassinations than restoring his rank (even though he slaughtered an innocent within the first minute of the game).

And though I’ve seen it a few times already, the disclaimer that explains several people who worked on the game come from a variety of backgrounds and religious beliefs makes me happier the further I progress. With more religions in this universe being portrayed as the antagonists, it’s refreshing that it seems that didn’t get in the way of the developers (who I’m guessing could be anything from Muslim to Catholic) finishing this game. A friend of mine found a question in a writer’s forum that read, “I’m Christian. Is it a sin if I include an atheist in my story?” This person didn’t seem to understand that all fiction you write doesn’t have to reflect your beliefs. I’m glad that whoever worked on this game realized that since this is a work of historical fiction, they didn’t have to worry that gamers who play AC would mistake the game’s content as the developer’s own opinions.

And while this might sound a little ridiculous, this game’s formula reminds me of L.A. Noire. I have to conduct investigations and find clues, I have a, arguable criminal to find, and I get promoted. Of course, instead of accusing a witness of lying or holding back information during an interrogation like Cole, Altair just beats the shit out of them until they spill their guts. Altair also finds clues right out of someone’s pocket.

AND ASSASSIN’S ARE FUCKIN’ STYIN’. LOOK AT THIS.

They must have the rights to fashion or something, because no one else in the land is this well dressed.

It’s also fantastic that I don’t have to be overwhelmingly good at stealth to get by in this game. Until I finished the first mission in Acre, I was constantly mistaking the “B” button for “X”, meaning I was accidentally maiming and clocking people all over the place. This resulted in all of the city’s guards wanting a piece of my ass.

Spoilers, folks.

It’s been about a year since I beat the main story from Pokemon MD: EotS. I’d forgotten to do the special Grovyle episode until yesterday, and finally completed that today.

Oh god.

“Can you see it, Celebi? It’s the morning sun.”

“Being able to see the sun before the end…And being able to see it with you. That I am alive…I’m really glad. Goodbye, Grovyle.”

NOPE. WASN’T ABOUT TO CRY. NO, NO, NO.

BUT THEN…

“From now on, we’re going to combine our strengths and rebuild this world. Above all we…are still alive!”

MANLIEST TEARS.

Not gonna lie, though. That’s a pretty typical Disney ending (in which no one but the mother usually dies), but in my opinion, it’s as equally satisfying as if Grovyle, Dusknoir, and Celebi had remained dead. Though I really took to the idea of those three being absolutely doomed while still pulling through till the end, I’m glad they were rewarded for their efforts anyway.