Monthly Archives: January 2011

I got an SoS drop!

Posted on by
Reply

In all my years of playing Silkroad Online I’ve never found an SoS, SoM or SoSun drop. I trained a character to maximum level and never found a single SoX drop. When a friend of mine created a new character to try the game out he got an SoS drop from a Mangyang within about 10 minutes of starting the game. This was on vSRO though if I remember correctly, since at the time iSRO was impossible to get into without a premium ticket.

My theory is that each character has some kind of hidden “luck” statistic that determines how often a player gets equipment drops and maybe even how often mobs drop quest items. Sometimes it seems like the quest items never appear (like that Stolen Sword quest from the Blacksmith in Jangan at Bandits). I got to level 80 without botting even a single time, bought lots of Astral stones and still failed over 9000 times to make a +7 level 72 glaive before getting banned for 100 years for nothing more than using a no DC client. The most infuriating thing about that is I used the no DC client because back then, every time you tried to log in but weren’t able to do so due to the server being full, you were required to close the client, open the launcher program and then start the client again. Each time required a CAPTCHA code and some amount of loading time (especially since I had a slower computer at the time). They’ve since changed the client so that there’s a “waiting list” to log in and not only do you not have to close and reopen the client, but you don’t even have to type your username and password in more than once. After failing to log in, you can relax, whereas in the old days it could literally take hours of typing in your username and password, typing in the CAPTCHA code, failing to log in, closing the client, reopening and repeating ad infinitum.

There was nothing bad about using a no DC client, which merely allowed you to keep on hitting “enter” without closing and reopening the client. You still had to type the CAPTCHA code and wait like everybody else.

Anyway, I digress. I started playing iSRO again a few days ago. They’ve added three new servers located in USA and they’re not very crowded, so it hasn’t been difficult getting on without a premium ticket. This new character seems to have a high “luck” statistic, if such a thing exists. I say that because I’ve already found so many equipment drops that I’m having quite a difficult time of selling them. When doing quests that require the collection of quest items moreover, it seems that mobs drop the quest items with a higher frequency than I was used to.

I think I may have proven my wild theory about the “luck” stat to myself today by getting an SoS drop from either a Gun Powder or Meek Earth Ghost behind Donwhang. I was doing the “Big Win” quest for the alchemy merchant in DW for the third time when I found it.

SoS drop

I’m not sure if it was a Meek Earth Ghost or a Gun Powder that dropped it, since I killed one of each at about the same time. I wish I had taken a screenshot of the box it came in, which is different from the usual reddish-coloured equipment box, but I was so frantically hitting the “g” key to pick it up that I forgot to take the screenshot. This screenshot was taken about one second after picking it up.

I am a full STR glaive user, just like my character that got banned.

Why you do me liek this, Joymax?

I miss my old account. I really was 80, you know. I just can’t find screenies from then.

I’m only level 32 at the moment though. When I get to level 37 and can use a full 5th degree equipment set I’ll switch permanently to garment. At the moment though prot/armour is working best since I’m still very low in level. I’m not sure if I’ll continue playing or not. School will keep me busy I suppose, so if I do keep playing I’ll have to just go ahead and bot. Screw Joymax. They banned my legit character so I have no reason to play legit anymore.

…although I may still have to buy some silk for a PT…

I should just quit watching everything that’s not on noitamina

Posted on by
Reply

But that would be unfair, I suppose. But c’mon, noitamina had Ayakashi, Mononoke, Moyashimon, Kuuchuu Buranko, Tokyo Magnitude 8.0, Eden of the East, Yojouhan Shinwa Taikei, and Kuragehime. That’s a good track record of shows I’ve enjoyed. Other noitamina shows may have been great, but I haven’t seen them, so I can’t comment. That means, however, that I’ve never disliked a noitamina show (although I’ve enjoyed certain of the above shows quite a bit more than others)

I’m not going to go ahead and write extensively about what I liked about these shows, since I’m not introspective or smart enough to pinpoint why I like what I like, but Hourou Musuko and Fractale are probably my favourite shows this season. Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magika or whatever it’s called is also looking pretty good and has succeeded in keeping my attention for the first two episodes with its bizarre artwork and cutesy magical girl protagonist, but outside of that, the only other show that I haven’t dropped yet is Oniichan no Koto Nanka Zenzen Suki Janain Dakara ne, but I may drop it anyway, since I haven’t seen the second episode yet. The first one didn’t have much of any newness to add to the wincest paradigm and barely kept my interest. Everything else is rubbish/boring like Infinite Stratos and Beelzebub or has value only as fap anime, such as 95% of Freezing. If it’s not in either one of those categories, then I either haven’t seen it yet or I concluded it was garbage and dropped it before even watching a single episode.

I may drop Level E and Dragon Crisis, but I will at least wait until I watch the second episodes of these series. Level E had a couple good laughs though, at least.

But everything about Hourou Musuko seemed nice. Cute, meek protagonist, cute shota friend of protagonist with best teddy bear evar, beautiful watercolorish artwork, great character designs and voice acting as well as remarkably fluid animation that makes the viewer feel like he or she is watching real people move about, rather than cartoon characters on a screen. All wonderful. Very gentle treatment of the subject matter, which I can’t really comment on seeing as I don’t read manga or light novels, so I’m experiencing this story for the first time.

As for Fractale, to employ an overused method of succinctly summarizing one’s reactions, at first I was like “wtf?”, then I was like “lol”, then I was like “Fractale FTW!” and then at the end of the first episode I was like “wtf?” again.

Again bearing in mind that I choose which anime to watch based on how much I like the image on the AniDB page for the show, rather than on any knowledge of content matter, all I knew about the show before watching it was that it took place in some kind of futuristic setting. I certainly didn’t think it would take place back in the Old Country! The protagonist, despite his smart lederhosen-inspired getup, lives in what the viewer must be meant to take for none other than the hilly landscapes of Éire.

After establishing that we’re in rural Ireland, the protagonist, Clain, sets off on his bicycle to go to some kind of yard sale, accompanied by his best friend, who appears to be a bottle of Coca-Cola.

There’s a lot to like here, such as Clain’s parents who look like they came right out of that Catherine video game,

And AIRSHIPS! Anything that reminds me of Skies of Arcadia or Final Fantasy IX gets bonus points on my scorecard:

Finally, to put the icing on the metaphorical cake, the final element in the winning combination that is Fractale: rubbing a medicinal salve on a mysterious bishoujo’s back who fell from the sky whilst riding a flying machine,

Don't know if want...

Yes, want...

DO WANT

VERY WANT!


The credit ending sequence gives us another glimpse of that beautiful Irish scenery:

I don’t want to speak too soon, since for all I know the remaining episodes may consist of Vanna White and Fabio as Lear and Cordelia, respectively, but these are the types of shows which, were they to see BD release, would certainly end up on my shelf if I also won the lottery beforehand. It’s not that I don’t have respect for IP; it’s that I only have respect for IP that I like.

Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica: I’m very impressed

Posted on by
Reply

…by the presence of a weasel mascot!
weasel mascot

Unlike that casino show though, I think there’s more to appreciate here than just the weasel, such as Madoka’s fluffy, pink elephant, bunny thing.

I won’t drop this show yet. I will at least watch until I grow bored. This episode was not boring. It reminded me of playing LSD: Dream Emulator for Playstation, complete with mustachioed tumbleweeds.

I just watched “Aoi Hana” and I have one major gripe

Posted on by
Reply

But first some background information.

It’s the day after the New Year so I had all the time in the world to pursue my various recreational interests. I was in a shoujo-ai type of mood today, so I first finished watching Sasameki Koto, which I had began watching again yesterday after stalling on it since I watched the first few episodes when it was initially airing. It was all right. In fact, it was pretty decent.

kazama ushiokazama ushio

When I was a little kid and we had two kittens, I always had this fear that I would kill one or both of them by hugging it too hard and breaking its neck or spine or something. You know the feeling: that one where something is cute to the extent that you need to squeeze it harder than you really ought to and its brains come out through the eye sockets, which are empty because the eyes already popped because of the immense pressure caused by the hug? Well, that’s what’s going on with that Kazama Ushio character. The achievement of that effect on the viewer means the art directors, casting people for voice actors, writers and, of course, Takamoto Megumi, the voice actor herself, did a real bang-up job there. Cheers to pushing the envelope on cutesy, huggable characters. Who knows how far we can go?

I did find myself growing bored occasionally. I liked Akemiya the trap though.

So I went ahead and watched Aoi Hana, expecting more or less a similarly structured deal. That is, a yuri harem type of setting with generic high school girl archetypes (i.e. sporty girl, bungaku girl, miko, etc…). That’s more or less what I got, so I have no complaints there.

The problem, and maybe I’m crazy here, is that I thought that the main voice actor who played Manjoume Fumi could not possibly have been a worse fit for the role.
aoi hanaaoi hanaaoi hanaaoi hana

She sounded more like one of those meek, princessy type characters. The tall partner in these yuri deals are supposed to have a much, much deeper and even-toned voice. Everybody knows that. Like Utena. The short one is supposed to be the more timid one. Granted, the Fumi character was hella meek, but she never once appears like a character with such a high and whiny voice. Tall characters are simply not supposed to sound like that.

There have been plenty of successful meek, tall characters who have not had squeaky, whiny voices in anime history. Just look at Sakaki.

sakaki

Much less do meganekko have voices like that! Every time she spoke I cringed. And not so much because I thought the CV was doing a bad job or anything, it’s just that the voice so completely clashed with the character and the body language assigned to her.

This really ruined my day. Thanks a lot, Mr. Casting Director for stealing away my smile. Now how will I get it back?