Danganronpa: Ultra Despair Girls

That was an utter waste of $40 and about 12 hours.

I loved Danganronpa 1 and 2. Aside from a bit of frustration with some of the mechanics in the second game they were solid games. Interesting if a bit annoying with the constant hammering of the words "despair" and "hope". Seriously, it got to the point that the words got thrown about so much I started to forget wtf they even mean...or honestly, to care.
But, if you asked me right now if I liked Danganronpa 1 and 2 and if I would recommend them, my answer would be a resounding YES!
I can't say the same for this new spinoff.

Let's try to see if I can make this spoiler free, shall we?

The game takes place between the events of games 1 and 2 and begins with Komaru Naegi, sister of annoyingly hopeful Makoto Naegi from Danganronpa 1, explaining how she's been a prisoner in an apartment for a year and a half without knowing why or by who. This is interrupted by a killer Monokuma bear ripping through the door and being rescued by some men in black. One of those men in black is self absorbed rich bitch Byakuya Togami, also from the first game. He gives Komaru a megaphone which is actually a hacking gun that shoots code and blows up Monokuma robots...man that is just fucking stupid...anyways he gives her the gun and sends her on her way. Shit happens, crap blows up, people get killed by bear robots and you meet the most annoying little fuckers in creation.

You get captured and brought before the 5 most obnoxious brats in creation and I just couldn't help but wonder..Why the fuck can't I just punt these 5 runts into some walls and call it a day? Game over!
But oh no, that would mean an end to my suffering...can't have that!
So yada yada...bratty kids..evil plot...kill adults make  children's paradise. Why? because adults are evil poopy demons! that's why! My fucking god this is a stupid game. After 20 minutes of boring tirades in high pitched voices...oh and that one kid who is so fucking slow I wanted to throw the vita. I have no idea wtf his deal was cause I skipped all his shit dialogue...after all that, my crying whiny pale faced protagonist got chucked through a trap door and lands  on top of some building where Toko the crazy bitch is waiting.
Toko..I really hated Toko in the first game, I was so not looking forward to any more of this game at that moment.

Toko and crybaby team up to try and get out of the kiddie murder city and a lot of fuckery ensues...anything more would be spoilers so lets move on to the craptastic gameplay.

As I said, Komaru Nag-y has that stupid hacking gun, it looks ridiculous and it IS ridiculous. the game is a straight up third person shooter made by someone who doesn't know shit about third person shooters. The standard monokumas take about 4-5 shots to take down unless you have good aim and shoot them in their stupid glowy red eye. (and with the shit controls...good luck with that).But throughout the game you'll be introduced to a bunch of different monokuma types, like grenade throwing bears and bears with riot shields, you are also introduced to different kinds of bullets with which to tackle the new challenges. Let me be honest, the different kinds of bullets are more a pain in the ass than anything else.
There's a "dance" bullet which you shoot at an enemy and make him..well yeah, dance, then you can shoot him with a regular bullet...5 times...in order to kill him. oh and once you hit him with a regular bullet once the dance effect wears off...so kinda useless really.There's a "knockback" bullet that doesn't do any damage but makes the bears with shields fall over which makes their shields disappear.
All in all there are I think..8 different type of bullets if memory serves.

On top of that you can purchase upgrades called "Bling Bullets" and as far as I can tell they do jack shit. I made sure to buy the ones that were recommended and put them in "excellent" combinations and...I noticed not one whit of difference in gameplay or attack power.
That's one thing...throughout the game you never feel like you progress. you never feel stronger. Enemies are always the same and even if you get a handle on it, they're constantly introducing new enemies and new bullets that just make shit a pain in the ass.

As you level up you get skill points and as you go around you find new skills to use those points on and they are all useless...aside from the nightmare that is auto lock on. seriously, I had to unequip it. It gave me motion sickness. Every time I readied the gun it would whip me around to face every enemy BUT the one I wanted to shoot.

BUT its not ALL bad... as you go through the game you can switch from Bratzilla to Toko and Toko is fun as hell. Toko is strictly melee and wields a bunch of scissors, she's fast, strong and does a lot of damage. She was the best part of the damn game. Unfortunately, this game doesn't believe in fun and so you can only use her in small bursts. She uses a stun gun to become her "other persona" Genocide Jack in order to fight and you can only fight for as long as the batteries last. When the batteries deplete you're stuck with the whiner again. The good news is you can buy upgrades to make Toko time last longer, the bad news is..it still doesn't last long enough to save this game. Boss fights are ridiculously easy and fairly short and you'll have more trouble dealing with the standard enemies than the bosses.

The game does offer some...puzzles but they're more annoyances than anything else.
The puzzles all pretty much have the same set up. You walk into a room with an arcade machine, the arcade machine shows you the next room and you formulate your plan based on the victory conditions. For example, you'll see a room full of regular enemies and a grenade throwing enemy and you'll need to figure out what to do in order to destroy them all in 1 explosion. No worries though, because if you don't complete the objective, just kill them all yourself and you can still get through it, you're rank at the end of the chapter will be lower but that's about the only penalty.

Once you get to the end of the game and everything is explained, you kinda wish it wasn't. The whole thing is just...weak. Actions, reactions, motivations, histories, its all very half assed, I'd love to give you concrete examples but I don't wanna spoil this monstrosity for you. IF you WANT spoilers, well, drop me a line and I'll go into it.

Bottom line is that as a stand alone game this fails, because they drag so much shit from the previous 2 games that it won't make sense without them. However as a part of the Danganronpa universe it fails as well since honestly it brings NOTHING to the table. Nothing from this game will shed any light on the first or second games. Because this game is shoehorned between the other 2 after the fact, nothing from this game affects the other games either.
Even for someone who loved the first 2 games, I can't recommend this and if you just MUST have it...wait for a sale..preferably 50% off or more because this is NOT worth $40 by any stretch of the imagination.

This game truly did make me despair, I lost all hope and joy and happiness while playing this....maybe that was the point? How Meta,

STOP TELLING ME TO GIVE DRAGON'S CROWN A CHANCE!!

As you all know I HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE The disgusting, repulsive and insulting character model of the Sorceress chick in Dragon's Crown, and to a lesser extent the Amazon Warrior as well. I've refused to purchase or play the game because of it.

A while back the game was free with PS+ and I happened to add it to my account like I do pretty much all the PS+ games because DAMMIT I'm paying for Plus aren't I? However I never played the game.
Now, I've gotten a lot of shit on several sites for my mild boycott of Dragon's Crown due to the character models.
I've been told to "lighten up" because that's just the artist' "style". I've been told that I "don't have to play as those characters if I find them SOOO offensive. there are other characters" I've been told that I "should give the game a chance" before I criticize.

I thought about all that long and hard...and as someone who plays games that are sometimes off the beaten path and not well known I felt that...well...maybe there is truth to that.

After all nothing chaps my ass as much as someone talking shit about Hatoful Boyfriend or Hakuoki when they have no damn clue what they are about and are merely judging them on a few screens and what they perceive the genre to be about.

So I decided to swallow my ire and try the damn game....after all there ARE other characters right? and everyone tells me the game is better than a bathtub full of Nutella so..fine...ok...

I'm here to tell you right now...
FUCK ALL OF YOU AND DON'T EVER TELL ME TO GIVE THIS FUCKING GAME OR ANY GAME A FUCKING CHANCE AGAIN....
EVER.

Let me run down my experience real quick here...

I chose the Magician. Why? Because he didn't have disgusting tits and giant cellulite thighs and ass exposed and he does magic...and I love magic.

I go through all the basic shit and am given a "tour" of the town and all is well til the shop.
More giant tits shoved in my face unnecessarily...Wonderful. But, I soldier on.

I reach a point where I find out that I can add more characters to my party. You get these characters by picking up bone in dungeons and bringing them to the church to be resurrected. You don't know who these bones will be til you get to the cathedral. I picked up 2 sets of bones and when i go to resurrect them...Its 1 pin headed warrior guy and that hamhock thighed she beast Amazon. I opted to just be short people and only chose the pin head until eventually I was able to pick up bones for another wizard and the only sensibly dressed female of the lot, the archer.
So all's well that ends well, right?

Wrong.

When you complete a quest from the guild you unlock a small written story and some art. Well that's kinda cool, isn't it?
Yeah, it was...until the second quest I completed...

Seriously?
For real?

No lie?

You think THIS is what I want as a payoff for completing a fucking quest?
A grotesque looking, mostly naked elf slut?

This is unnecessary. It adds NOTHING to the story or the enjoyment of the story. Its gratuitous bullshit. And the worst part is...there's no escaping it beyond turning the game off.

I gave the game a fair shake. I decided I wouldn't "talk shit" if I hadn't actually given the game a try and decided I would "just play a different character if that one offends" me.
But that didn't stop the game from shoving its juvenile fantasies in my face, did it?
So now, y'all can STFU.
Veni Vidi and think its disgusting pandering crap.

SO DONE!
Oh and for the record, I think the gameplay is pretty shit too...so no great loss to my collection there.

Akiba's Trip...I should have spent my money on bubble gum and cardboard instead

I hurt my wrist beating up 48 idols in a row. Man those bitches were annoying.
48...that really seems like an unfair number.

While i'm still playing the damn thing I've decided Akiba's Trip is a shitty game. No, not just because of the 48 bitches I had to fight in 1 damn fight, though that was really fucking annoying and my wrist really does hurt (it aggravated my carpal tunnel).
Its more because the game is just..meh.

First, loading screens..EVERY FIVE FUCKING SECONDS. While Akihabara might be faithfully reproduced It isn't fluidly reproduced. Every time you walk half a block its a new area and you're hit with a loading screen. Sometimes, you didn't wanna go to another area but you just kinda ran into the barrier between them and so now its gonna be TWO loading screens. One to get you there and one to get you back to where you wanted to be.

Even worse is the pop up. Whenever you go anywhere it takes a few seconds for the people to just appear out of nowhere. So if you're looking for someone...well good fucking luck because you might be standing where they are supposed to pop up and therefore, you won't see them.

Add to this that side missions are timed, and timed in the most annoying manner...
You get a side mission, if you haven't done it after a bit you get an email annoying you, telling you the person is going to cancel their request if you don't fucking hurry up and get it done. If you don't get it done immediately after that email, you will fail it and there isn't a big gap of time between the email and failure...and no it doesn't give you a time limit that you can actually measure or see. Just "hurry up and do this or you fail...oops...not fast enough fission mailed"

Then there's the combat..The whole point of the thing...stripping idiots clothing off...well it really isn't as fun as you would think.
There are different weapons and each one is completely shitty.

Example... Computer Monitor if you choose a low strike, you squat down and bash your own head with the monitor and if you are lucky this causes minor damage to your opponent, if he's standing close enough to you...WHAT?
Combat Gloves....how do you fuck this up? By making the low strike button launch my character into some weird sort of planking move that is useless and leaves me wide open. By making the high strike cause my character to hold his arms up in victory before attempting some slow  drunken lunging swing that ALWAYS misses and ALWAYS gets my ass beat.

combat goes like this... Punch guy a few times in pants...run away and heal...try to punch guy and instead do a stupid useless move that gets me beat down...run away and heal...try to hold down the button to throw a punch and avoid stupid useless animation and instead try to grab clothes that aren't ready to be stripped, play tug of war with the enemy and lose..repeat this over and over and over again for every single enemy you encounter.

Its not fun, its not funny and "Synthisters" is a really fucking stupid name for man made vampires....man made vampires is a stupid thing too...This game is fucking dumb and shitty. Even Conception is better. At least Conception is funny.

What I've been playing

 Wow, its been ages since I've written anything here. I didn't forget this place I just  couldn't think of anything to write.
I've been going through another "internet burnout" period. Took a time out for a while from my facebook page as well and just recently started posting regularly again.

What have I been doing all this time?

Nacho...pure sexy!

Well, life stuff of course. Family, dogs, gaming. My usual stuff.
We got a third dog and his name is Nacho and he's the sexiest Chihuahua ever! He gets along well with Tater,our scruffy mutt but for some reason he just isn't feeling the love with Meatball (probably because Meatball was the original sexy beast and Nacho is stealing his title). So I spend my time breaking up doggie drama and having a dogtourage follow me around the house. Hard not to feel gangsta with a dogtourage behind me.

I've actually been gaming a lot more lately than I used to, mostly on my Vita.
Just so you know, Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate is like crack. CRACK I TELL YOU! but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Lets see, what have I played lately?

I started playing Hakuoki on PS3 but I ended up getting the worst cold/flu in history and set it aside only to get sidetracked with other stuff. I'll get around to it eventually. I was actually really enjoying the additional stories they added to it since I've already played the basic story 3 times over 3 other games. I think I'm a little Hakuoki'd out for the time being. Though I still love it to bits.

After I set that aside I finally got around to finishing Tales of The Abyss...only took me what? 3 years? Man that was a fabulous game.
I tried to get back into SMT Devil Survivor Overclocked and quickly discovered why I had put it down ages ago. I'm stuck at a really shitty battle, (which is the same reason i stopped playing FFX) some day I SHALL be victorious dammit!

When my Flu hit round 2 I decided to go with Tales of Xillia since I bought Tales of Xillia 2 and kinda feel like I should maybe make an effort to try to get through them both. I think I'm about 2/3rds through Xillia and its really great, except for Milla. I cannot stand the character and I cannot stand the voice acting for her. Everything else is absolutely wonderful.

I probably would have continued playing Xillia to the end if Danganronpa 2 hadn't come out. Burned through that one in a few days. That was an experience. It was just as good as the first one and had just as many annoyances. I know this sounds like a weird thing to say about a game but...I wish it had LESS gameplay.

For those not familiar with Danganronpa its like...Persona 4 and Phoenix Wright had a psychopathic baby...I guess I should explain...

The premise is like this:
You and a bunch of other students are locked in a school with no means of escape. Your captor/headmaster is a sadistic stuffed bear named Monokuma. The only way to get out of this place is to murder someone and get away with it. Which is where the actual gameplay comes in.
You spend your days talking to the other students and giving them gifts in order to get to know them better (like a super simplified version of P4 social links). Eventually someone gets killed and you begin the investigation phase of the game. You question people, look for evidence, the usual type of stuff. Once that's done a class trial begins. You must use the evidence you've gathered to find the guilty party. If the killer is discovered he/she will be punished (executed in a horrible way). the twist is, if the killer is NOT discovered they will go free and the rest of the students will be executed.
This is all well and good but the actual trial mechanics can be a bit of a chore and they bring down the awesomeness of the game/story a bit.

The sequel is much the same except that instead of a school its a group of people on a handful of  deserted islands.

Once I got over the mind-fuck that was Danganronpa 2 I dove straight into Dynasty Warriors 8 Extreme Legends because anyone who knows me knows I fucking LOVE THE SHIT outta DW, Sima Yi in particular (I have no idea why, don't judge). For the record DW 8 is definitely worth the price of admission, I'm actually planning on picking up a ps3 copy eventually because Lu Bu deserves a large screen dammit!
I was in the middle of K.O.ing many many identical dudes when I got Conception  2 in the mail...I seriously need to write a whole 'nother entry just for Conception 2...its just too much to go into now..too much weirdness I mean.

Sadly once you get past the "shock value" of "Classmating" and weirdness the game gets pretty tedious and repetitious and I set it aside in order to finish the last 2 DLCs for Muramasa Rebirth. I managed to complete those the same day Warriors Orochi 3 came out and ever since then its been my crack. I think its been like a month or so since it came out and I've been playing it pretty much every day. Still haven't even touched the mountain of DLC I bought for it.

I also recently started playing Hatoful Boyfriend. If you haven't heard of that one either, I don't blame you, its pretty niche.
Its a VN about a girl who is the only human going to an all bird school. So all the boys you make friends with/romance/whatever are actually pigeons. I know, I know, it sounds beyond bizarre. But honestly, once you get past the whole pigeon thing and the horrible bird puns, its pretty good. So far i've gotten 4 out of 14 endings and i'm looking forward to hopefully answering many of the questions I currently have.

I think thats about it...
Oh wait no.. Last night I started Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA f and realized I have zero hand/eye coordination.

Coming up soon....
I'm thinking of picking up Akiba's Trip tonight though I'm not sure when I'll get around to that and I've pre-ordered  Tales of Hearts R and Persona Q which are both coming out next month.

I did pick up Persona 4 Arena Ultimax recently but I haven't played it yet. I still haven't finished the first one though I did make some progress on it a couple weeks ago. As much as I like Persona Arena I really think it should be called something other than a fighting game. Its more like 20 minutes of text/dialogue punctuated by the occasional 20 second fight. I'm not complaining, its a lot of fun and its interesting but, its not really a fighting game.

Speaking of fighting games, I suck at them and I can't say I like any of them besides Soul Calibur but a while back I bought Injustice: Gods Among Us while it was on sale for Vita and its fantastic. Surprisingly good story and really fun. Even for a spaz like me.

What have we learned today?
That's right, I buy and play too many games and I really suck at them and that's why I never finish any of them.

If I can unglue myself from WO3 long enough and slow my brain down enough to get actual coherent thoughts going I'll probably write a bit about Conception 2 soon, I just didn't want to make this post much longer than it already is...plus its lunch time and i'm hungry!

I really don't get it

I want to apologize right at the start if the writing in this post is total shit and super awkward. Its been so long since I've actually sat down to write more than 2 sentences on Facebook that I think I've forgotten how to be coherent and fluid. Bear with me, I'm sure I'll get the hang of it again soon enough.

Today's rant shall be....

What's wrong with Handhelds?

Saturday my Vita copy of Final Fantasy X arrived. Of course I immediately cracked that bitch open and started playing. well, continued playing because cross saves are awesome!

As I was playing the game and putting it on standby every few minutes because...kids...dogs...life...I thought about how damn convenient it was. Every time one of my daughters started bitching or threatening to murder the other i just tapped the button on my Vita and put it down in order to threaten bodily harm to the little monsters. Every time my dog decided that he wanted back on the bed that he can't reach, even though I had put him up there 2 minutes ago and he promptly decided to jump off again, I could just put my Vita on standby and grab the little snot up. Snack break, bathroom break, FB break...whatever. Wake up from a nap, roll over and turn the damn thing on and carry on playing right where I left off.

I love my Vita.
I also love my 3DS, PSPs, DSLites and GBAs. At the moment if you look on my bed you'll find 2 PSPs, a case of memory cards and game cards, my Vita and my 3DS right next to my pillow.
Why the hell do I have all that on my bed?
Because i'm indecisive and have total gaming ADD. I'll bounce around from playing FF9 on my PSP to Danganronpa on my Vita to Fire Emblem on my 3DS (that one never lasts long since i suck at it and fail miserably every time i play) then I drop them all and read a little on my phone for a while (Finally on book 4 of A Song of Ice and Fire!).

When I go out I tend to carry a messenger bag with my girl shit (lipstick, phone, tampons, mints) and my handhelds...because you never know when you have 5 minutes to squeeze in some God of War.

So yes, I adore handhelds. I'm more likely to play a game on a handheld than I am a console, which is exactly why I bought a Vita copy of FFX even though I bought the PS3 version as well. I find the pick up and play nature of handhelds meshes well with my life...and its not even like I'm a person who is always on the go. If you know me you know I am a fucking hermit who hates leaving the house unless it is absolutely necessary. So I tend to play my handhelds at home 98% of the time....just a few feet away from my consoles...and my walls of games...because sometimes the only way I'll get to play something and make progress in it is if I can easily turn it on, turn it off and pause it at will even in the middle of a cutscene or battle.

Not much of a rant is it? I mean, you know me. My rants consist of enough Fbombs to nuke a planet and a lot of yelling and rabid foaming at the mouth. So far I've just verbally jerked off handhelds for a few minutes, haven't I?

You see, my rant isn't about why I think handhelds suck. Its about people constantly saying handhelds suck and their reactions to people who like them.

I bought my Vita for 1 game.
Assassin's Creed Liberation.
I bought the Collector's Edition Vita bundle with AC: Liberation.
I played the shit outta AC: Liberation and I really really enjoyed it. I even finished it...to date its the only AC game I have finished, though I own them all.

I heard THIS a lot when that game came out "It looks really good, too bad its on a handheld." "I'd play that if it was on a console" "why the fuck did they make that a handheld game?"
There was so much shit about it that the game finally got released on PS3.

But, that's just one game in thousands.
I've lost count of how many times that same damn whine has been thrown out there "I'd play it if it weren't on a handheld." "handhelds suck, why isn't X game coming out on consoles?"
How about you shut the fuck up and buy a damn handheld if you wanna play the game so badly?? (before anyone gets on my ass about  how expensive a handheld is and how you have no money..STFU, I'm a broke ass bitch with 3 kids and I managed to save up to buy a Vita and I own a shitload of games and consoles. If gaming is seriously THAT expensive for you then you should get a cheaper hobby)

I've been told before that handheld games don't count as "real" games. Well Persona 4 Golden says "fuck you too"

I swear if I could play my Xbox games on some sort of handheld I'd be the happiest bitch on the planet!
Currently when I'm not playing FFX on my Vita I'm playing FFIX on my PSP...Actually, I have FF1-10 between my PSP, Vita and DS that I play on and off. Its just...more convenient for me to play shit on handhelds and I imagine that if I actually had a life and left the house once in a while I'd find my handhelds even more indispensable. I've re-bought games I have on PC or Console on my Handhelds just for the convenience of it.

What is it that people hate about handhelds?
I've heard complaints of a small screen....Look people, I have astigmatism ffs, if it doesn't bother me then you can fucking live with it.
Then there's the complaint of hand cramps...Honestly, holding anything for a long period of time and doing a repetitive motion is going to cause pain. I get hand cramps from playing xbox too long and the 360 controller is built perfectly for my man hands. So, lets throw that one out too.

Here's the one I've heard the most and it makes me wanna start dick punching everyone around me...The graphics.
If your main concern is how shiny and pretty the games you play are then maybe you aren't really a gamer. Graphics do not equal quality. I'll take ugly with fabulous gameplay and good story over a shiny turd any day. But if you really wanna rag on graphics...Muramasa has a Katana it'd like to shove up your ass.
Then there's the argument that isn't solely reserved for handhelds I know, but its still made so it counts, they have no games.

That argument is again a giant crock of shit. As of right now both the Vita and the 3DS have over 500 games  each in their catalogs. If you don't think 500 games is more than enough games to find SOMETHING you will want to play then there's something seriously wrong with you and you should seek professional help because I'm just some ranty bitch on a PC and I can't help your kind of crazy.

Corpse Party...I freely admit sleeping with the lights on.

So, I've actually been gaming lately instead of just thinking about gaming.
My consoles however are mostly covered in dust since I've been focusing more on handhelds for many many reasons. Mostly because there are some really great games on them.

Contrary to my nature I've found myself playing "horror" games. This is actually beyond contrary because I'm a giant wuss who gets scared quite easily. (I quit Dead Space at chapter 2 cause it was freaking me out too badly)

So I started with Corpse Party. I had heard it was pretty scary but when I started playing it what I saw were cute little chibi sprites. I actually laughed a little. How could this possibly be scary?
Well, not the first time I've been wrong about something. That game scared the bejesus out of me. The main thing that had me freaking out was the sound. Playing this with headphones on and the amazingly done binaural sound...its an experience.
I promise not to spoil the game for y'all but I'll give you a quick summary in case you've never heard of the game.

Corpse Party started off as a PC game made with RPGMaker and has kind of picked up a cult following. There are multiple fan made PC games which you can find here: http://www.memoriesoffear.com/games.html Including a remake of the original game. After finishing Repeated Fear (the PSP remake) I did start Corpse Party Rebuilt on PC but, I kind of missed the newer additions to the game and therefore kinda drifted off to play other things. But, I digress.

This summary will be based on the PSP version of the game that includes a few characters that were non-existent in the original and a slightly different background story.

They have no idea the mind fuck they're about to experience

The premise of the game is that you are a group of students from Kisaragi Academy who have gathered together after a school festival to clean up, tell ghost stories and say your goodbyes to a student who is transferring away. To cement your friendship you all participate in a chant called Sachiko Everafter which is supposed to guarantee your friendship for life and ensure you meet again. Instead it transports the students and a teacher to Heavenly Host Elementary School.

Heavenly Host Elementary school had been shut down and eventually torn down after a gruesome multiple murder had occurred on its grounds and eventually Kisaragi Academy was built on the grounds.

The students quickly find out that they aren't the first to end up there and that no one else has ever made it out. Your job is to find the others and find a way out of the haunted school while piecing together what happened there long ago.

Kishinuma-kun was my personal favorite character
& I spent half the game wanting to slap the hell out of Ayumi

Once I started, I could not put the game down...I also freely admit I slept with the lights on. Its hard to describe...its not that the game is really..scary...I mean it is but...
Ok, see the sprites aren't scary of course, but the cut to some gory CG images, the sounds, the text, the atmosphere...it does get to you and it stays with you long after you turn the game off. I swear I was hearing some creepy ghost bitch saying "SACHI...." for about a week after i stopped playing every time I turned the lights out, lol.

The game is told from the perspective of each of the different characters by jumping back and forth between their situations and so you become emotionally invested in everyone pretty much equally, though I do have my favorites. Seiko, who was not in the original game, is absolutely hysterical. Seriously, I'm gonna be quoting her forever. She adds some much needed levity to the game. I wish I could say the same for her partner Naomi who plays a very big part in the game and who I never really connected with me, but maybe I'm biased due to other things going on in the back story.

If I had to be stuck in a haunted school with someone
she would be my first choice.

While the game is slated as a "Survival Horror Adventure" its more Adventure than anything else. What I mean is if you're looking for action...look somewhere else. There are a few frustrating (well frustrating to me because I tend to panic) chases but thats pretty much as intense as the "gameplay" gets. its mostly dialogue (which is voiced in its original Japanese and incredibly well done) with some light puzzles scattered about.

If I have to say anything negative about the game it would be that some of the "wrong ends" you can get seem out of left field. In a game where exploring everything, looking at everything is crucial it seems unfair that if I look at the wrong thing I can end up dead suddenly. Some puzzles could do with being a bit more intuitive. But other than that, I loved every moment I spent in Heavenly Host elementary...even if I did cry a few times.

But the fun didn't end there....

There's a sequel! Corpse Party Book of Shadows!

Book of Shadows covered is a bit different from its predecessor. Its told in 8 separate vignettes and its also first person. BoS is a weird one...A lot of the chapters are "What If" situations. You replay key moments in the first game but by making different choices you can explore a different outcome. Other Chapters deal with backstories and expanding on the stories of characters you came across briefly in the first game. Should you manage to get through all of the good endings to these chapters you unlock the 8th and final chapter Blood Drive which sets you up for the upcoming sequel of the same name. I wish I could tell you more about it since its an utterly twisted and jaw dropping experience but, I don't wanna spoil it.

How I felt while playing Corpse Party

I enjoyed the story a lot in Book of Shadows but I don't know that I liked the first person thing too much. It felt claustrophobic, which i guess is good for a game of this nature but it also felt a bit limited. There is much less exploration in this game given the first person view and the way the chapters are set up and the overmap you use to navigate your character is a bit...awkward... but its still well worth the time and money and I'm looking forward to Blood Drive impatiently.

This is gonna be all over the place

So, I don't have the brain power to write one coherent post about anything so, I'm just gonna blab about whatever for a bit.

Been playing mostly Vita lately, I really love that damn thing.

So lets see, I stepped away from Persona 4 for a bit, though I love t he hell out of that game. I'd seriously be hard pressed to say who my favorite character is, I love em all...except Rise, she fucking irks me with her cutesy slutty ways.

Tried the demo for Sumioni...its quite pretty but, I feel I need more hands. Way too much shit going on. move with the analog stick or d-pad, X to attack, slash the screen to draw ledges, press the little water symbol on the corner to turn the ink into water to then touch the screen and destroy projectiles, press L to switch to the magic screen and then slash the screen to then hit L again so that the ink becomes fire...Fuck that shit, I'm too damn awkward and spazzy to do all that. so, thinking I'm gonna have to pass on it.

Next I started Uncharted Fight for Fortune, if you've never heard of it, well not surprising. Its a card game. I ain't got no game! I seriously have ZERO strategy at shit like this yet I found myself really enjoying it and playing for a while. Probably play a little more today.

Because PS+ put SC Broken Destiny up free I decided, hey what the hell and downloaded it. Man I had forgotten what utter shit that game is. No actual story mode, just challenges which I suck at because I button mash or quick matches. Not to mention how absolutely hideous the game is. Even the original SC on XBL looks better. Its just one blurry pixelated mess. I actually thought maybe my screen was dirty at first, but no, the game is just fugly. Oh well, I could use the space, my memory card is almost full so, time to hit delete on that.

Also tried playing some AC Liberation. Its a pretty game and the action is good enough but...so far I can't discern any story whatsoever. I also have a big problem with the whole costume change mechanic. On one hand, its pretty cool, different outfits to get you into different places. On the other hand its an utter pain in the ass and feels likes its only there to pad out the game. Do something as the lady and my notoriety goes up, but unlike say AC 2 where I pay heralds and rip down posters to lower it I have to instead run around town shanking witnesses, but not as the lady cause there are ALWAYS witnesses around so I have to do it as the slave, then the slave notoriety goes up, so then I have to run around ripping down posters to lower that. Too much time running around lowering notoriety, not enough time actually forwarding the story, well if I could find a story. Also, I cannot stand the French and Spanish accents. I LOVE playing AC2 cause I love the Italian accents going on but...this game...a "Spanish" Captain was talking to a French Governor and I wanted to stab a pencil in my ears. Thickest Spanish accent I can think of is Antonio Banderas and his accent isn't a third as painful. I mean seriously we do NOT roll our damn Rs THAT hard.

what else...Oh yeah, I got Soul Hackers for DS, haven't played very much of it yet but so far I dig it. While aside from 3D its pretty much a direct port of the game it still looks pretty decent and I'm already interested in knowing wtf is going on with the story so yay. Hopefully I'll get to put a bit more time into that soon. Still haven't gotten back to Mirror of Fate either.

Played some Dynasty Warriors Next as well. I really love all that wholesome DW hack n slash. Just slaughtering a shitload of dudes with a damn fan or whatever. What I DO NOT like is the Duel mechanic on the Vita. So, every so often you run into an important officer and you have to engage in a rubbing match.
you slash the screen this way and that trying to land a hit or break their guard, you hold down a finger on the screen to block and when you beat them down enough you rub the screen furiously back and forth til you fill up the gauge and then lay the smackdown on their candy ass and...it seems there is no rhyme or reason as to what your character will do. Some times I just slash away til their dead, sometimes I can't catch a break and they just smack me 3 times in a row and I'm dead. There's no way to skip the duels or control them any other way beyond furious slashing on the touchscreen. It ruins a perfectly good game. To make matters worse if you play the campaign every so often you'll get a random ass duel challenge from another player and you can't opt out of that shit you have to do it. Really kills my buzz when I'm just trying to get my damn conquest on.
On that note I tried Warriors Orochi 3 finally this weekend, I had forgotten I had bought it a month or so ago. I didn't play much because I was getting bombarded with texts and shit from people (yeah the one day I decide to play a game I become popular. most of the time people don't even know I exist.) I have to say I did not like the bit I played and I love the shit out of the series. I've played 1 &2 both on Xbox and PSP. The whole 3 character switching hacky slashy goodness was there but the very first map I had to fight a Hydra...WHAT? Yeah well I got my ass beat down. Then they added that whole camp/hub thing from Strikeforce. You know the place to go to talk to your officers and to upgrade your weapon and such. I don't know, I'm just not feeling it. I quit right after I got to camp, but I'm sure i'll try again at some point.

I tried to play Assassin's Creed 2 some more but I didn't make much progress, its just too much fun running around finding treasures and doing assassination side missions to bother with the main story yet. I skip the races and shit though cause I fucking suck at them.

After finishing Bioshock I went on over to Gears Judgment just to try and knock that outta the way but...I hate that game so damn much. I just can't get over my dislike of...well everything about it. I don't know, I don't think I'm gonna be able to finish it.

I've also been attempting to get in a bit better shape by playing Dance Central 3. Ok, make fun of Kinect and DC all you want but that shit is FUN. Seriously fun. Its also exhausting, I'm half dead by the time i finish my playlist and damn if I'm not sure as hell the next day. Guess its working.

I'm sure there's a ton of other shit I was gonna say but I'm tired and old and I forget things. If it comes to me I'll post it later.