My apologies for the large number of gaming-related entries lately. Or perhaps I shouldn apologize; it’s likely that the great majority of the people reading this LiveJournal only care about the latest and greatest in the gaming scene in Japan. But yukihime.com is, technically speaking, my personal website. So I will write about personal things from time-to-time.

The problem is that my life is very boring nowadays. It’s spring break here in Japan (in between the school years), so I don’t have any classes to teach. I wish I could regale you with funny and witty stories about my students, but I can’t. Currently, I don’t even have any students. I am still obligated, however, to go in to school and sit around looking busy. That’s a lie. I sit around looking bored out of my mind. Hours, however, are flexible – with no classes, meetings, or bells, there’s no reason to demand a strict 8:20-4:05 schedule. This week I decided to see just how far the schedule could bend. Could it be broken? Here follows a day-by-day breakdown of my experiments:

• Monday – Closing ceremonies were in the morning. Nothing at all was in the afternoon. Nich kept me posted on Oscars progress in real time via keitai email. I translated the major awards as they happened into Japanese and forward them to a cute girl I met who works at a movie theater. Left at the regular time.

• Tuesday – Went into school around 9:00. Studied some Japanese. Read some manga (Blackjack). Surfed around on the web. Was incredibly bored and time passed ridiculously slowly. Left around 3:00 in a fit of pique.
• Wednesday – Went into school around 9:45. Brought my GBA SP and Zelda: Oracle of Seasons.. Hid in a classroom on the second floor and played through the first three dungeons. Left around 2:00 after getting tired of Zelda.
• Thursday – Went into school around 10:00. Played some more Seasons. Got hungry around noon, left to buy lunch. Never returned.
• Friday – Went into school around 10:00. Left around 10:20. Napped til 4:00.

If I were more technically inclined I would draw a graph here. Day of the Week vs. Inclination to Stay at School. The slope would be hella negative.

Anyways, today (Saturday) I actually did some interesting things. I bought a number fun toys for people in the States (like an Ocha-ken that vibrates! and smells like tea!), got some new lenses to replaced my old scratched ones, and sold some games back to Wanpaku. The highlight was definitely selling back Luigi’s Mansion for 1500y – which, considering I bought it new for 980y, is quite the acceptable price. In the end, it’s like Nintendo paid me 500y to play Luigi’s Mansion. Which, given my feelings on the game, is about right.

So, late this afternoon, feeling bored and glum, I keitai-mailed cute movie theater girl (she does have a name – Emi) on a lark, saying, “I’m terribly bored, is anything interesting happening tonight?” and not expecting to hear back. But instead five minutes later she said, “yes, I’m going hanami (flower-viewing) with my friends, you should come too!” and I was like “but it’s already getting dark outside” and she’s like “that’s okay!” And who am I to argue with a Japanese person on matters of hanami?

So Emi picked me up and we went to her friend’s grandmother’s house, where there’s a great old big cherry tree up on the top of the mountain. By the time we got there it was too dark to see any flowers, but that didn’t matter – it’s been unusually cold this year and the cherry tree had yet to bloom. So we had a sort of indoors hanami without any flowers, which is kind of like practicing swimming while sitting in a chair at your desk. But that didn’t matter, in the end. Flower viewing is not really about watching flowers. Flower viewing is about drinking sake! No, that’s not right either. Flower viewing is about sitting outside with friends and seeing the flowers and the sun and drinking a bit and eating good food and laughing a lot and having a good time. The flowers hardly factor in to it, really. It’s more of a state of mind.

I had a fantastic time. It was the birthday of one of Emi’s friends, and another two friends there are getting married tomorrow (legally married, that is; the actual ceremony is in June). I knew a few of the other Japanese people there but didn’t know a lot more – about 12 people in all. Everyone was in a great mood and spirits were high, there was lots of home-cooked Japanese food (and delicious deserts), and it was incredibly contagious.

I’m on a natural high right now because I hung out with Japanese people all evening and actually got along fine. I could understand the topic of conversation at all times – maybe not exactly what was being said always, but usually and for the most part, and I was never totally derailed. I could converse with people, say funny things when appropriate, explain interesting things when necessary (like the politics of rolling out digital projection systems in US theaters). Am I fluent? No, not hardly. I still miss lots of words and sentences when people speak with me, never mind more subtle nuances. Expressing myself in Japanese is still incredibly draining, like playing a four-hour game of Guesstures/Taboo with nothing more than a first-grade vocabulary. “Fluency” is still a long ways off. But tonight, I felt … functional? Comfortable.

Here are some things I learned tonight:

• It is very difficult to say “Krzysztof Kieslowski” in katakana.
• A Japanese proverb says, “In busy times, you want to borrow even the cat.” I guess the English equivalent would be “every little bit helps.” I like this proverb because I picture this harried Japanese housewife trying to get her lazy, sleeping cat to work the vacuum.
• I tried to teach people how to select a dessert pastry using the English “eenie, meenie, miney, moe / catch a tiger by his toe.” This was parroted back to me as “Minnie, Minnie, Minnie Mouse / Dizuneylando wa subarashii.” (Disneyland is super.) I’m not sure what this means.
• A couple with both members stupidly in love with each other can be referred to as a “bakappuru,” a contraction of “baka couple” (stupid couple). This is definitely the best multilingual smash-up since “homodachi.”
• I learned the secret mysteries of the Japanese toothpick!!

People who have not been to Japan may be confused by this excitement. I mean a toothpick is a toothpick, right? Meanwhile, everyone who has spent time in Japan can hardly wait for my explanation. Inquiring minds want to know: why on Earth do Japanese toothpicks look … LIKE THIS!

The pointy end is normal enough, but look at the flat end! Where’s the second point? What’s with that network of grooves? Why so many of them? And, most importantly, why is such a fine level of craftsmanship expended on each and every toothpick? For God’s sake, to what end this excess?! It makes no sense and haunts the nightmares of all who look upon its asymettrical form.

Well, wash your sheets and fluff your pillows as good nights’ sleep are in your future, because I am now going to tell you what real live Japanese people told me today about toothpicks. Which is this: you may, if you wish, cleanly snap off the grooved end of the toothpick, place it on the table, and use it as a toothpick holder for the pointy end. Yes, friends, you heard me correctly: the days of resting a toothpick directly on the unclean table are over! Others have noted as well that the grooves make for a no-slip, easy-grip handle with far less danger of accidental thumb puncture wounds than the simplistic – dare I say backwards? – American model.

This is truly the toothpick of the future, and I am proud to be living in the country whose technology and ingenuity made it possible.

A guy just came to my door to try to sell me a subscription to the Kiryu newspaper. It’s times like this I’m happy I can screw shut my eyelids and convincingly apologize, “Oh, I’m so sorry, but I can’t read Japanese. At all!” No one ever argues with me.

I want to talk about an unusual phenomenon; namely, that vague feeling of confusion and discomboluation that accompanies finishing any big RPG. For the time you’re submerged in the world of the RPG, everything is dandy. Even if it’s not an all-consuming obsession, you’re fairly focused on the game. There’s never any question what game you’re going to play – there may not even be any question what you’re going to do with your free time. You’re going to PLAY THAT RPG until it is done, whether that’s 20, 40, or 60 hrs of your life. So you do.

And then one day, a week or two or three after you start the title, it’s over. You’ve completed the game, seen the ending, mastered as many of its secrets as you care to. It’s been fun, but it’s done. And then you look up from the TV, blink your eyes, and wonder: where have I been? What have I been doing? I played HOW MANY HOURS in HOW MANY DAYS? And then the most important question: what next? You haven’t had to ask that question for so long that the freedom of choice feels strange, like a foreign language. You can play a different game. Hell, you could even not play videogames at all, come to think of it! And then several weeks worth of errands and menial tasks you had put off for “just one day” come creeping back into the forefront of your mind …

I finished FFX-2 yesterday. Before that, I finished Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter – twice. Oh, I’ve gone out, been social, taken care of things I need to take care of, of course. My life’s in far from disarray. Even so, I’ve been submerged in that RPG quasi-fugue state for the better part of March. Today, I didn’t have an RPG to play, and I wasn’t about to start another. Today, I went grocery shopping, picked up my apartment, did laundry, washed dishes, and ironed shirts. I have a LOT of irresponsible karma I need to burn off.

Is this just me? Or do other gamers have this sort of post-game crashback into the real world, too?

I finished Final Fantasy X-2 today. These impressions are spoiler-free, though some excedingly minor background details mentioned in Famitsu will show up here. There are some spoilers regarding Final Fantasy X, however.

So … I finished Final Fantasy X-2. I feel obligated to write up some sort of final impressions – why, I’m not sure. The visceral, negative, hateful reaction this game has received from so many people has gotten me down on gaming culture in general. Gamers don’t want to listen to what other people have to say. They believe only what they want to believe. They cling to things that reinforce their expectations and automatically reject anything that challenges their beliefs. I’m as guilty of this as anyone; I went into FFX-2 determined to ignore the silly bits and to enjoy what was good. Unsurprisingly, I finished the game with a positive impression. And up until this evening, seeing people dismiss the game without even playing it frustrated me to no end.

But now, it just makes me laugh. Because I’m sure that this gut-level reaction is exactly what the developers wanted.

Let me explain: director Kitase is on the record as stating that the theme of Final Fantasy X-2 is “change.” Within the world of the game, two years have passed since the defeat of Sin. Yevon has faded, and two new, feuding factions (Shin Yevon and the Young Person’s Alliance) have risen to take its place. The Aeons have departed, and former Summoners feel useless and unnecessary in this new world. Yuna remembers Tidus fondly, but doesn’t obsess over him; she has more pressing day-to-day concerns as a singer and Sphere Hunter. Time has not stood still in Spira.

The overarching (and subtle) theme of Final Fantasy X-2 is that change is an inevitable and inescapable part of the world. Whether they like it or not, no one can keep this change from happening. All a person can do is choose how they react to this change. Will they stand by and watch as it rolls over them, past them? Will they adapt and change along with circumstances? Or will they cling to the past, fighting desperately to restore things to the way they once were? Change is inevitable, but your reaction to that change is not. That reaction is an important, personal choice that directly impacts your happiness.

Meanwhile, in the real world, two years have passed since the release of Final Fantasy X. The series’ first direct sequel, FFX-2, is drastically different from anything the series has seen before. It’s terrifyingly different. Literally terrifying; fans are scared of these sweeping changes, and nothing breeds strong emotional reactions like fear.

Reaction to the title is sharply divided – to say the least. Some decry the fan-service and girl power as the end of Western civilzation. Others look forward to checking out Yuna’s panties. Still others want to ignore the fan service and just dive into the depths of the job system. Some wanted a quick followup; others an epic, never-ending adventure. A number of fans feel that a sequel is pointless if Tidus doesn’t return. Others just as vocally feel that Tidus’ return would invalidate the first game’s conclusion. Everyone has their own opinion about kind of a game FFX-2 should be.

So who’s right? Well, everyone is.

Final Fantasy X-2 is all of those things and more. It shelters its cheap T&A pandering in fantastic original costume designs. It lets you rush through the story to see the end or wander through countless hours of sidequests. It offers serious bits and lighthearted bits in equal measure. FFX-2 is structured like an all-you-can eat buffet; gamers are expected to have enough discretion to pick and choose what they will enjoy and not just arbitrarily pile everything on their plate. The “percent complete” number is just that: a number. It has no connection to how much fun you’re having.

Final Fantasy X-2 is about how the people of Spira react to change, but it’s also, in another very real sense, about how you choose to react to the changes to the game. In many ways it is a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you go in thinking that the fan service, storyline, and systems are stupid and that Square should be strung up by their collective necks, then you will have great difficulty enjoying the game. This is not surprising. If you want to explore how characters and locations of Final Fantasy X-2 have changed during the intervening two years, you will be satisfied. If you want to go around the world completing as many sidequests as possible, you will be entertained for weeks. If you want to ignore sidequests and tweak out the job system, there are several playthroughs worth of tinkering to be had. If you enjoyed Final Fantasy X just because, you will probably enjoy Final Fantasy X-2 just because. And if you want to see Yuna’s cute butt, well, FFX-2 certainly has that, too.

I want to touch upon the subjects of the main plot and the endings – don’t worry, this part is still spoiler free. The main plot of FFX-2, at first glance, seems like little more than superficial fanfic. The player is likely to be wondering, “What does this have to do with anything? What does this have to do with the events of FFX? And why should I care about it now?” But by the end, the stories of the two games dovetail nicely. What’s initially confusing is is that Square didn’t choose to continue the plot of Final Fantasy X, as might be expected; instead, they chose to continue its themes. The story and choices of the characters in FFX-2 adds another dimension to those of FFX. The main story does nothing to discredit or undermine the emotional resonance of FFX; if anything, it adds another viewpoint and perspective that makes the original even more meaningful.

After completing the game and seeing one ending, I read up on and viewed information on the other endings online. It turns out that the primary basis for assigning one of the multiple endings is not percentage of story completed or the number of secrets found. Instead, endings are assigned through a system similar to Konami’s Silent Hill 2. Throughout the game, the game notes the player’s playstyle, major points of interest and concerns, and selects an ending appopriately. (Don’t worry, FFX-2’s endings are assigned far less arbitrarily than Silent Hill 2’s.) Though the content and nature of the resolution varies widely from ending to ending, I feel that no one ending is more “true” than any of the others.

Final Fantasy X-2 is a litmus test from Square to gamers: how will you, the player, react to great change? Some gamers will reject it outright and refuse to even play the game. Others will embrace it wholeheartedly and unquestioningly. Most gamers will be surprised and confused, stumble a bit, learn to adapt, and ultimately enjoy themselves. All of these are equally acceptable reactions. Even rejecting the game outright is, in a roundabout way, “playing” it – or at least recognizing and reacting to the title’s implicit themes.

In the recent Fellowship of the Ring, Frodo worries, “‘I wish it need not have happened in my time.” Gandalf replies, sagely, “So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.”

Well, many gamers wish Square had given us a different sort of game. But what kind of game Square gives us is not for us to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the game Square has given to us. I decided to enjoy it – therefore I did.

This man is totally crazy, yes. But I can’t help but feel it’s a good kind of crazy.

It has come to my attention that many of you in the States are looking forward to picking up your Game Boy Advance SP this weekend. That’s great! I’m happy that you can purchase it so soon after its Japanese release … okay, honesty time: I’m not happy for you. It used to be that living in Japan meant the latest and greatest toys months and months before the poor saps in the States could enjoy them. Nowadays, we’re lucky to get a few weeks up. Even more egregious is that Japanese and US releases are often day and date with each other, sometimes the US versions is first, even – and for $10-$20 cheaper, to boot! Why am I getting the short end of the stick now, dammit? This is totally unacceptable! So, yes, I am bitter. And I consider it my solemn, sworn duty to undermine your gaming enjoyment at every possible turn. I have to get my licks in where I can. Like thus: TAKE THIS!

Mwahahaha! Try to eke enjoyment out of your 2.8″ front-lit TFTs now! I just dare you.

Gotta run to a mandatory enkai now, but impressions to follow later tonight.

EDIT: Might as well put the impressions in the same update.

Not much to say, but: the GBP is not a tricky Game Boy emulator that employs technical trickery to work its voodoo magic. It is a Game Boy Advance that outputs to your TV instead of a portable screen. Period. It IS a Game Boy Advance, and behaves accordingly and exactly in every pertinent way.

GBA games play as would be expected. There is no special GB and GBC compatbility mode; instead, they play as GB and GBC games being hardware emulated on the GBA. You can even press L and R to change the horizontal aspect ratio of older titles, just like on a real GBA.

The default screen is pixel-exact and takes up about the middle 2/3 of the TV screen. It should be noted that “full” mode does NOT take the full screen; instead, it expands the picture to the maximum size that still preserves the correct aspect ratio.. Also, this means that GB and GBC games are running doubly letterboxed: first vertically (GB->GBA) and then horizontally (GBA->TV). Yes, you can set it to “full” mode and with the horizontal aspect ratio off, but the aspect ratio is shot all to hell. Would have been nice to have special GB/GBC compatibility modes to provide larger versions of the correct aspect ratio for the original Game Boy. The scaled image, though not perfect, is nicely aliased, at least, and lacks the nasty jaggies of the N64 GBC unit or the HK GBA->TV cable. Though I prefer the “perfect” aspect ratio, the scaled version is lovely on the eyes. You can even pick the level and type of aliasing used. You can also select a “frame” to fill up the remainder of the screen, a la Super Game Boy.

What else? Hrms. Music is 100% perfect (as should be expected – it’s a GBA). Japanese and US games both work fine on a Japanese GC with the Japanese boot disc. Yes, there’s a required boot disc for functionality, as originally reported. No big deal. If you want to change games while they power’s on, you have to set it to a “safety” mode, eject the current game, and insert the new one. It’s kind of like parking your hard disc. Also, it’s kind of nostalgic to have a force-based eject button for carts; haven’t had that since the SNES.The new game boots on insertion (no button presses necessary), which is kind of eerie and has me worried about live leads. Well, not really worried, of course, but still – it’s a bit weird, and I’m worried I’m going to wake up to a fried GC one day.

It works with the WaveBird – not that this is surprising, but, the Action Replay has issues with Nintendo’s wireless controller, so I mention it for completion’s sake. Control is intuitive and clean. The analog stick can be used with any game, but feels a bit “loose,” since the games were designed with digital in mind. GBA’s L and R default to the GC controller’s L and R; GBA’s Select defaults to X and Y. You can switch that to L & R -> X & Y and select -> L & R, but that strikes me as a bit odd. It works swell, but I’ll pick up a Hori pad in a few days, since they’re only like 1400y.

Overall, the GBP is exactly as promised. It’s a Game Boy Advance on your TV. It’s cheap, it works, it’s cool. It would be nice to have a larger number of graphic stretching options; though I’m a stickler for aspect ratio and will use the included 1:1, a “stretch to REALLY fill the ENTIRE screen” mode would have been nice.

I look forward to getting back into FFTA on a screen that doesn’t give me a headache; I had to stop 8 hrs into it on the SP just because the large amount of small numbers and text was growing exceedingly irritating. The next Castlevania should also be dreamy on the television.

Pressing the reset button while a cart is loaded quicklky soft resets the cartridge, not the entire GC and boot disc scenario, which is cute.

Questions, if any, are welcome.

My time is 23:18; I’m 36% complete and on Story Lv. 3. As before, these impressions will be spoiler free.

Final Fantasy X-2 is a very unusual game. Duh, you say. But no, it’s more unusual than that. If you approach it as a traditional RPG – level up your characters, advance the story, finish the game – you’re not going to like it very much. I finished Story Lv. 1 within 5 hours and felt a bit let down. I just kind of went here, went there, went to this other place, and it was done. Sure, it was fun, but it felt a bit patched together and incohesive. It wasn’t really inspiring me to keep playing.

With Story Lv. 2, though, I tried things a bit differently. Instead of going straight to the “active link” events to advance the plot, I put those locations off for as long as possible. Instead, I went to everywhere else on the map first. And I do mean everywhere; I decided to be serious about it and started up an Excel spreadsheet to make sure I wasn’t forgetting anywhere. The difference in the gameplay experience was immeasurable. I spent about 14 hours just doing sidequests and puttering around the map, getting keen result plates (and in one case, an optional dress sphere). Everywhere I went had something for me to do. Some places had official “missions” straight from the airship to be completed; others had optional missions that could be uncovered by talking to people and poking around sufficiently. All of them were varied, interesting, and fun. When I had had my fill of retraversing the world map of Final Fantasy X in its entirety, I stopped by the Active Links, completed the few story segments, and finished Story Lv. 2. I’ve played the first few hours of Story Lv. 3 the same way and gotten some nice result plates and another new dress sphere for my troubles.

All of which has led me to an important revelation. The plot of Final Fantasy X-2 does not matter. This isn’t to say it’s bad, cause it’s not. When the game stops goofing around like a wacky bishoujo anime and starts acting serious, it does a good job. But good or bad, it simply doesn’t matter. The plot is there because, well, an RPG has to have a plot, doesn’t it? If Square tried to market a game with no new story elements, but promised over 100 hours of new gameplay set in the world of FFX, well, people would be suspicious, wouldn’t they? So there IS a plot, and it’s there when you pay attention to it but it’s unobtrusive when you’re not. (That’s not to say the sidequests are completely devoid of “plot,” of course, it’s just that they follow their own threads unconnected to the larger story “backbone”.) It’s possible the plot will make some changes for the more important later on, but given the current ratio of sidequesting gameplay to plot-related gameplay — about 6 or 7 to 1 — I think it’s unlikely.

A question I asked in my earlier update was how the game would manage the transition from the goofy, fun-filled romp to the more serious tone of the later segments. The answer, as far as I can tell, is that it doesn’t. There is no transition. The two tones exist simultaneously, with the serious bits in the Active Link segments, and the goofy fun everywhere else in the world. It can be a bit jarring at times to move between them, but overall it works just fine. Some scenes make me go “ooh, neat”; a few have me shaking my head in embarassment and confusion. I have to wonder how some of this stuff will over in America; the game can sometimes be very giggly and silly. To say the least.

What you get out of FFX-2 depends on what you put into it; that’s not meant as a snarky comment implying that some people just won’t “get it,” it’s a very literal and true equation. The more you explore, the more you’ll find to do. The more you want to play, the more you CAN play. I’m at the beginning of Story Lv. 3 at just over 23 hrs, but a friend who has been plowing through active links as quickly as possible just finished story lv. 4 at just over 12. (He is enjoying the game, by the way, he just wants to do side quests the next time over.) I’d imagine that doing and seeing everything (including multiple plot branches on a New Game+) would take well over 100 hours. And that’s actual, doable, enjoyable content, not impossible minigames and lightning bolt dodging.

When describing the game to another friend playing it, I jokingly called it a “maxigame” – a game consisting entirely of minigames and sidequests. Though this is a bit of an exaggeration, it’s still somewhat accurate. What makes the game feel so overwhelming at first is that there’s no “center” to hold it all together. Normally RPGs are clearly deliniated into “main storyline” and “things off the beaten path.” In FFX-2, EVERYTHING is “off the beaten path.” You choose your own path. You go places to see what you can see and are often pleasantly surprised. There’s something to do everywhere you go. The “center” is YOU: what you want to do, what you want to see. FFX-2 is like an amusement park. And what’s the plot of an amusement park?

Eventually, you get used to the unusual style and pacing, and just enjoy the game for what it is. Which is: a heck of a lot of fun.

Questions, as always, are welcome.

I was talking with some Japanese people last night and, while looking at a photo of their ski trip from earlier in the day, noticed some icicles in the background. I asked them the Japanese word for “icicle” (tsurara) and told them the English word in turn. They were having trouble with the pronunciation, until one of them realized that it rhymed with “bicycle.”

“Bicycle! Icicle!” she said, happy to have figured it out at last. Catching the drift, another piped in with “tricycle!” A third, eager to join in the linguistic fun, offered “high school!” in perfectly rhyming katakana English. (aisukuru, baisukuru, toraisukuru, hai sukuuru)

We all glared at her.

I will be discussing the first four hours or so of the game in a non-spoiler manner. There is far less here than has already been covered by Famitsu et al pre-release. Still, be forewarned.

I’ve played 4:18 of the game, and it says I’m 11% Complete. Still on Story Lv. 1.

The Job System is introduced pretty much immediately … after your first three battles, let’s say, and before you enter the airship. You start off with one Result Plate (template for jobs) and four jobs (Gunner, Thief, Idol, and Knight ). In the time I’ve played I’ve gotten one more result plate and two more jobs. You position the jobs in “nodes” on the Result Plate, and during job each turn you can change from your current job to any “adjacent” node on the plate. There’s a bit about modifiers on the plates but they can be safely ignored for now. It’s intuitive and makes a lot of sense.

You will be changing jobs, a LOT. Something that’s taking some getting used to is that jobs are VERY class specific. The magician classes, for example, can NOT attack. They can ONLY use magic on their turns. Same with the idol: it’s Dance or nothing. This is less of a hinderance than it might seem; if you need to, you can always just change to an adjacent job with “attack” and wail away. But it takes some getting used to. Costumes are great and transfering jobs are easy. When you pick to switch the Result Plate pops up, and the battle window scales down to fill half of the screen or so. Of course if you’re just fighting regular battles and have a decent attacking job it’s likely you won’t have to change at all, it’s the magic classes that seem to have more trouble feeding AP to.

Battles unfold very, very quickly. No, faster. I’m on the slowest battle speed setting and it feels just barely right. Job transformation animations can be set to normal, short, or off. Things are fast and furious, and it’s hard to keep track of things sometimes. But in a good, fun way. The revamped battle and job system definitely seems to be the game’s strength. Status ailments and death now persist after battles complete.

I still need to figure out how AP (for jobs) is distributed … if it’s enough to switch in and out of a job to give that job AP, or if you have to kill an enemy (or at least be present when an enemy is killed) for that class to get AP. Also, if a chara uses multiple classes, does each class receive slightly less AP, or is it the same (a la exp distro in FFX). Still not quite clear on all this.

Story so far is quite introductory. You are a Sphere Hunter, you hunt spheres, etc. Graphics are (unsurprisingly) very nice. There’re a LOT of locations reused from FFX. Also, you get the airship immediately, and all the locations from FFX are open immediately. You don’t have to go to them (and the few I tried off of the story-mandatory “active link” path were fairly uneventful) but they are there, and it can be a bit overwhelming to have so much choice from the very start.

The overall tone of the game is very wacky thus far. YuRiPa (as the trio call themselves) are members of the Kamome-dan (Seagull Group), are out for adventure, etc. The opening movie had me literally lol as the main characters were introduced with wacky sitcom-style opening freeze-frames, smiles, and swirling backgrounds. I’m positive the game gets more serious later on, but the big question in my mind now is how it’s going to manage the shift in tone.

The music is. Boy. It’s a bit much. It’s like the theme from Shaft mixed with Japanese R&B. No, I am not kidding. It’s grating sometimes, but actually fits fairly well with the upbeat, self-aware, and silly tone of the game so far. Hopefully as the plot kicks in the music will also take a turn for the more serious. Though the title screen track that plays over the pre-game credits is quite gorgeous and hopefully a harbinger of things to come; it’s a slow, deep, plaintive acoustic piano mixed with a slow synthesized chiptune melody. Very haunting and worth tracking down.

Overall the game has managed to pretty much met my expectations exactly. It is, as Zak put it, the highest-budget fan doujinshi game ever. It is goofy and fun and not concerned (so far, at least) with being a Big, Epic Quest. It’s Yuna and her two friends having adventures. There have been some cute minor surprises so far in seeing how parts of Spira have changed during the intervening two years, but I am hoping for some bigger surprises to come. I’m not expecting another FFX, but I would like a bit more gravitas to the game before all is said and done. Even so, the game is fun and as long as you come to it with the right set of expectations.

More to come. Questions, as always, are welcome.

If anyone has any questions about the game, feel free to ask in the comments.

Let me vent some frustration for a moment. This week is entrance examinations at Kiritaka. That means that Monday and Tuesday the students are taking tests, Tuesday and Wednesday the middle schoolers are being interviewed, and Friday the teachers are conferring to decide whom to admit. So, to recap: this week, I have no classes on Mon, Tue, Wed, and Fri.

Final Fantasy X-2 comes out this Thursday.

I am venting my frustration at having nothing to do this week by being productive. Today, for example, I started my 2002 taxes, xeroxed some old boarding passes to get absent air miles, repaired my broken satellite TV,and started the long … long … long process of applying for a Japanese driver’s license. I am going to be an old man of 23 before the month is through. Here’s what I need just to get started:

1. valid US driver’s license
2. official translation of US license into Japanese
3. official US driving history
4. passport
5. alien registration card
6. driver’s licence application form
7. 3 cm x 2.4 cm photograph
8. application fee

Of course, getting the official translation (2) costs money, and getting the driving history (3) costs money, and the photographs (7) have to be taken at their offices so they get more money there, and (8) is expensive as all get out. All of this is before I pay more money to take the driving test, which I willl fail several times. Not from any lack of effort on my part. The instructors just fail you, on principle.

Most Japanese people, see, never take the test. They go to very expensive (over $1000) driving schools for a few weeks. At the end of the course, they receive an exemption from the prefectural driving school, and the school pays a bit of their tuition money to the test instructors. Funny how that works! I think the instructors are frustrated and upset at having to take time out of their busy schedule of receiving kickbacks to actually sit in the car with someone.

Signup for the test is weekdays only 1:00 PM – 1:30 PM. That is not a typo. You have to sign up in the morning and then wait to take the test in the afternoon. If (ha) you fail the test, you have to wait at least two weeks before you can try again. Most people have to take the test at least three times before they’re passed. You have to pay the application fee each time, of course.

Why must I live in a rural prefecture where a car is a necessity? Why! WHY! My friends in normal cities don’t have to go through this rigmarole.

Oh well. That which does not kill me makes me crazy.

I suppose that part of the point of a Live Journal was that I could update more easily and more often. In practice, though, I find myself waiting just as long, and writing incredibly long Live Journal articles. I’ll see what I can do.

My friend Tomoko just called to see if I would sell her my old model PS2 on the reasonably cheap. (“Don’t you want one of the new colors?” she goaded me.) When I asked her what she wanted with a PS2, she replied that she wanted to “practice the new characters in Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution.” Not play – practice. I had no idea she even liked games beyond the occasional watching, and here she is looking to print out move lists and start counting frames.

She is just full of surprises!