下手の横好き世界２

Receipt

nobody@vox.com(fetjuel) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 21:12:34 -0800

This is the receipt for our new clothes washer. I recently needed to refer to it for a rebate. Specifically, I was looking for the two most important pieces of information on the document: the thing I bought, and how much it cost. Those two things are the only information that distinguishes this receipt from the equally large and complex receipts for the dryer and refrigerator we bought the same day.

I highlighted that crucial information for you. Can you find it? Guess what it says.

FRONT LOAD MDS 1599.00T

Was this document intended to be read by human beings? I guess FRONT LOAD means this is either the washer or the dryer, but that’s all I can glean. Why in the world couldn’t a piece of paper this large contain this information:

Electrolux Wave-Touch Washer (Turquoise): $1599.00

Of course, I know why: Sears is still running the decrepit green-screen point-of-sale systems they have been using for decades; it has no idea that product names can be longer than 14 characters, or what lowercase letters and punctuation are. Things like the information anti-design of this receipt and Sears’ amateurish web site are artifacts that seem to encapsulate just how wrong things are going at that company.

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Mad Skillz

nobody@vox.com(fetjuel) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 23:28:59 -0700

Playing Xenogears in Japanese is pretty strange. I’ve known and loved the game for 10 years now, but never knew it in its original form. Part of the charm of the original game was its sometimes inspired, sometimes abysmal localization. It was fun to discover that the celebrated line “Master, sir, did you just see my MAD SKILLZ!?” came from the innocuous “Master, master! Didja see my technique!!”

I didn’t get a photo of the infamous “My father? You mean my dad?” line, which made a lot more sense in the original. But I am looking forward to my personal favorite, “The partially rotted thing eventually self-disintegrated.”

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Xenoyears: Nortune

nobody@vox.com(fetjuel) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 17:48:39 -0700

I'm getting into parts of Xenogears that I don't remember at all. Everything past beating Redrum and winning the gear battling tournament in D Block seems new to me. I didn't even remember the existence of Sigmund, for instance. The game is really moving along, though. It being on PSP, I can play a bit here and there whenever I have a few minutes, so I'm already 25 hours in, on the 24th of 61 chapters.

When it's done, Mother 2. Then Persona 1, or I'll just switch to Demon's Souls full-time.

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Ar tonelico 3 will be announced October 15

nobody@vox.com(fetjuel) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 17:38:23 -0700

Cross-posted from A Reyvateil's Melody again.

In the Gust supporters newsletter, they just announced that there will be an Ar tonelico-related announcement at the Akihabara Enta-Matsuri this year. They will reveal the topic on October 15, and the event is October 25. It's got to be At3!

By the way, here's my translation of the 2007 Enta-Matsuri event for Ar tonelico 2. All of the singers appeared, and a bunch of gameplay was revealed. I hope this upcoming event will be of a similar magnitude!

http://heiseidemocracy.com/2007/10/28/bishoujo-game-news-more-on-ar-tonelico-2/

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Xenoyears

nobody@vox.com(fetjuel) — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 23:24:06 -0700

I've gotten past the beginning bits of Xenogears; what I'm playing now is what I haven't seen since first playing it 10 years ago. Being back in these places that I only vaguely remember (like Nisan), but that were very meaningful to me back then, is eerie.

Also, I'm driving the Yggdrasil all around Aveh! Wheeeee!!

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Xenogears 10-year anniversary playthrough go go!

nobody@vox.com(fetjuel) — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 19:00:51 -0700

(I stayed up until 4:00 last Monday and finished Persona 3. The last boss wasn't as bad as I'd expected!)

I have wanted to play through Xenogears again since… well, since I first finished it in Christmas break of 1999. The 10-year anniversary of that first playthrough seemed like a fine opportunity to do so. In those intervening years, I have learned enough to be perfectly comfortable with the Japanese version of the game. So, I downloaded it to my PSP for ¥600 and jumped in.

I've seen the beginning of the game several times, in showing the game to others and in my own dropped attempts to play through again. So the main interesting thing so far has been the differences between the original and localized versions. For some reason, the main difference that stands out to me so far is that Hob-Jerky, one of my favorite items, was originally "Tsuchinoko Meat". The enemy Tsuchinoko is a probably-mythical creature of Japan; localizing it to "Hobgob" was pretty shrewd. (Especially since, based on information revealed later in the game, the enemies are clearly not supposed to actually be creatures from Japanese legend; their names are just names.)

I'm also surprised at how early some of the mysterious characters show up. Less than 4 hours in, I've already seen Grahf, Wiseman, the Emperor, and Id. Well, and Miang, of course, in the intro. I'm also surprised by how quickly it's hinted that Citan is more than he seems; for some reason I remembered thinking for a longer time that he was just an ordinary guy.

The other thing that has struck me is how beautiful everything is. Sometimes I can't believe it's a PSX game. Maybe the crisp screen of the PSP is helping.

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Strong Hints of Ar tonelico 3 in 2010

nobody@vox.com(fetjuel) — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 18:58:42 -0700

(Reposted from my forum thread at A Reyvateil's Melody)

http://ameblo.jp/gameryou/entry-10335137753.html

http://game.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/news/20090903_312813.html

The first link is to a blog post that I stumbled upon; it leads to the article in the second link. It's mainly about a new system called ADAMS, for creating "adaptive music" in games. Basically, this system would change the character of the music based on what's going on in the game; I didn't read into much detail, but it sounds pretty excellent.

What's most interesting, though, is the tantalizing bit where the article refers to an "unannounced game" that Tsuchiya Akira is working on, expected to be released next Spring. Tsuchiya's demonstration images in his presentation used Ar tonelico 2 art, and the series is overdue for another entry, considering that three Atelier games (Mana-Khemia 2, Atelier Rorona, and Atelier Annie) have come out since At2. And what better game to use an advanced music system in than the intensely music-focused Ar tonelico?

This is pretty exciting; if the game is due in Spring, we should hear an announcement very soon!

—

I am pretty confident that Ar tonelico 3 will be a PS3 game. GUST finally committed to the platform with Atelier Rorona. I see that game as a way for them to build up their codebase and development chops on PS3, so that they'll have some experience before tackling the next Ar tonelico, which needs to live up to its legacy as GUST's new (relatively) hit series. GUST relies heavily on shared engine code between their games; moving to a whole new platform is a huge deal for them, and I doubt they're going to look back to PS2 or switch platforms now that they've started their PS3 journey. (That doesn't rule out hiring other development teams to make side-games on other platforms, like the Atelier titles on DS, but they wouldn't do that for a flagship title.)

As for the music system being used in the game, the article says that Tsuchiya and GUST have spent 10 months working with a beta version of ADAMS, in an unannounced title, and that this title will be the first product to use the system. So there doesn't seem to be much doubt that the next GUST game will have the ADAMS system in it. Also, the article is pretty specific in saying that this unreleased title will be announced within this year, and released next Spring.

As for a fan translation, if NISA doesn't take it on for some reason, it would likely have to be a text script to read along with (like the Xenosaga Madness Project or Kayama's Sakura Taisen scripts) rather than a patch. I don't think that PS3 hacking has gotten to the level of patching games yet, has it?

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End Rush

nobody@vox.com(fetjuel) — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 03:40:51 -0700

Julian came over and was all excited to have me finish Persona 3. Until he saw how weak my personas were, and how few minerals I had for buying cards. Now I'm running around lower Tartaros blocks, with enemies fleeing in fear, while I look for rare items to bring to Elizabeth in exchange for cards.

New strategy: go to the arcade every afternoon and every night, to try to get my persona's stats up. Rush through to the end of the game, ignoring any more commus. I hate turning people down, especially Aegis, but I don't think I'm going to fuse any new personas. I will keep a save 2 weeks before the end, though, in case this plan fails.

Hmm, going to the arcade doesn't seem to give me an opportunity to increase my persona's defense. If I want to use Norn in the final battle, I'm going to have to get those cards.

Some people are saying that enemies on Block 2 drop Onyxes, but I'm barely getting any drops at all, let alone that one.

Whoa... I leveled up Norn, and she gained Absorb Lightning. That was the only weakness she had; now she is pretty unstoppable! Her defense is still 42, though... :\

Okay, broke 90 hours, and reached the final day of the game. It feels funny, among all of the foreboding atmosphere, to be spending all of my time in the arcade.

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Escape from spell checking in Mac OS X once and for all

nobody@vox.com(fetjuel) — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 12:12:20 -0700

The condescending dotted red underlines were driving me insane. It seemed like nearly every time I typed anything, the computer was chastising me, “WRONG, WRONG, WRONG!” It’s surprisingly out of line with Apple’s usual hands-off policy for users’ content.

WRONG

So few applications allow you to disable spell checking by default, and some (like Twitterrific) even reenable it every time you enter a text field. Nope, I do not want to teach Mac OS X every proper name, username, technical term, foreign word, and whimsical misspelling I may ever use. I do not want to right-click every text field and navigate a submenu before I start typing.

Despeller is a miracle. I can type in peace again. Thank you.

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254

nobody@vox.com(fetjuel) — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 11:41:04 -0700

So close to the end, and P3 is really starting to feel like P2 did: the menace is working its way through society in the form of rumor and hysteria. Strega's message about Nyx is in secret areas on the internet, on flyers posted around town, and in the doomsday cult. Throughout most of this game, the isolation of the main characters, and the bizarre evil they're dealing with, from the rest of the world, felt too detached. I've already complained about the dungeon feeling too separated from the story, but now I think that's just a symptom of how P3 doesn't give a feeling of something foreboding and alive in society, but instead has its conflict quarantined off in this separate, secret world.

The zombification of people throughout the story was one little clue of what was going on. And now, finally, things are coming out into the open. But I would have enjoyed seeing what the setting and story could have been like with the intrigue of mixing world-ending RPG doom with modern, hyperconnected society. You know, like Persona 2 did!

Floor 254. Level 70. I love that the last floor before the gate to Nyx is populated by ever-replenishing enemies. I can just run back and forth, grinding all I want. Grind grind grind.

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