Rule of Rose / FF12

I just got through a couple games, and I thought I would post my thoughts and reactions to them.

Rule of Rose


I got this game through Gamefly, and I should have returned this earlier. I didn’t even finish the game partially because I was annoyed with it, but that was only a result of the poor execution of this game.

First, I’ll describe some of the aspects which led to the poor execution. First, the game tried to play off the good aspects of current horror games, like Silent Hill. It tried to create a mise en scene of spookiness and horror, but it led me to not be able to play the game at all. The darkness was so much that I could barely see what was going on, even with the game’s contrast set to maximum. In addition, the only other color that was used was a dull brown, but mad everything look gross.

In addition, there was a minimal soundtrack. There was very little use of voice actors, which is something that should be standard for today’s industry. Also, the only music was the sound of a screeching violin (only one of them), which segued to different tracks when enemies were around or when the player went to a different location.

Also, the control scheme inherited some of the same buttons as Silent Hill, but I still found myself yelling at the game because the buttons I expected to work did not work. In addition, the avatar moved slower than a tank, which led me to yell at the game. Also, one of the major features of the game was the use of the avatar’s dog, which would find stuff for you. Unfortunately, with the game’s clue system and level design, this more turned into having the dog be a walkthrough for the player, which I didn’t find fun at all, either. Also, the picture here shows a failure that shouldn’t be present in anything professional – unreadable text, especially text which describes how to use the map!

I sent this game back to Gamefly after playing it for only 2 hours.

FF12


I love playing the Final Fantasy series, and I picked up FF12 again after starting it last year. If you do the math, it took a long time. And believe me, it indeed took forever. Over 120 hours to get to what I consider to be done. The overall story was very linear and was centered around fighting against this evil tyrant who wanted to take over the world. I was technically done with the story around 50 hours, but the rest of the time was spent level grinding to try to see the rest of the content that was put into the game. Most of that 70 hours was fun, until I got to what made me frustrated enough to stop having fun.

The game’s battle system utilizes the ATB (active time battle) system, which makes the game have very fast combat. But the game helps one out by using the Gambit system, which makes the player’s characters act when certain conditions are present. The parts I was fighting at was essentially a fight against dice, as the boss’s attacks always had a chance of killing every player. And with my luck, it happened all the time. And the times which I got the boss down to low health, the game was nice enough to make the boss invulnerable to attacks. When I would try to use magic, the game started to run slow enough that I couldn’t heal nor attack in a fast enough manner to win, so I resolvedto stop the stupidity and finish the game.

And I didn’t even attempt the boss that has > 50 million hit points. It takes a minimum of 2 hours to kill, and I didn’t want to invest that much time into a battle that I would have to invest another 30-40 hours to even attempt. But at least the final fight of the story was easy. I am still left quite angry at this game. Maybe when you played it, you did better, but I put the final screen of the story here to celebrate the fact I am done with it.

And the fact that I didn’t describe the story in full detail shows how good the stories were. And I like to play for the stories.

I am now playing Star Ocean: Till the End of Time, which is so far pretty fun.

A Year’s Worth of Anime (2008-2009)

After being gifted by friends with a whole load of anime from the past year, I would like to update them (and you, the reader) upon what I have watched in the past year, and how I liked them.

  • Gurren Lagaan

    This was a great story and I thoroughly loved the music. Even though I am not a mecha person, I recommend this to everyone for a good watch. Synopsis: people find a mecha while digging and the series is about how this mecha changes their world and how the protagonists save the world with this mecha.
  • Ah! My Goddess!

    This was a fun series which had mostly laughs and lots of “awwwww” moments. Synopsis: guy accidentally calls a phone number for the goddesses who protect the world and unfortunate souls. Guy wishes for lovely goddess to stay with him and the rest of the time follows their adventures. I highly recommend it for the laughs and good feelings you’ll have after watching it.
  • Black Blood Brothers

    I was a little let down by this series, as the story wasn’t so great, but the premise was pretty good. The music and acting in this were only average. Synopsis: vampire gets called in to protect a city from another vampire in his past. Again, decent premise, but the execution wasn’t there. I originally saw this at AnimeNext and was pretty happy to watch it, but I guess the hype didn’t last by the time I got to watch it.
  • Full Metal Panic!

    This was a very enjoyable series that was highly recommended from one of my good friends in my undergrad, and I recommend it to you as well. If you have seen the series Chuck, this anime has the same premise, except the genders of the characters are flipped. Synopsis: girl holds an item the bad guys want, and a male is sent from the army to protect her through good times, funny times, and serious times. Well worth the time to watch it.
  • Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

    I went back to this classic after missing out on its many referneces in other parts of anime and otaku culture. And also it was highly recommended, which I found out for a good reason. I think HCI should watch this, as I think this is where computing is going to go. Quick Synopsis: Section 9 is called in to solve the mystery of the laughing man incident, but they find out this is a much larger puzzle than just an assassination.

I’ll also post more about the series which I watch when I complete them. Right now, I am watching Trinity Blood, and you should see my thoughts about it in a week or so. Keep it tuned.

Becoming More Professional

During the past couple of months, I ended up doing some things that I have never done before, which have helped me to see how much more of an HCI professional I am now than a year ago.

Going to CHI


I went to the conference on Computer-Human Interaction in Boston, USA. The experience there was fantastic. I was able to see how not only how respected our program at IU is, but how the community at large welcomes each other to comment and critique each other’s work. I was also able to meet some wonderful people from the MIT media lab and Cornell, and was very excited to hear about their work and their PhD programs there. It helped to make the possibility of further education even more exciting and tempting. I also got to see the sights of Boston as well. Overall, it was a very exciting and expensive trip, but it was well worth the money and week off from school to go there (even if I had to wake up at 6AM every day to get to all of the festivities).

I will definitely plan on being at next year’s CHI. If you plan on being there, please write a comment here and I would be more than happy to discuss anything on design, technology, HCI, and what is currently going on.

The Capstone

For the past month here at IU, there have been some wonderful capstone presentations. A capstone is a yearlong project that every student gets to complete and then present their work in a public forum. This year, there have been projects on using technology to help the lives of the elderly, to creating new types of interactions, to using technology to help cyclists be seen by motorists. I’ll have to start this journey soon, and if you would like to see a topic, please feel free to suggest something, though I have a couple ideas of where I would like to start.

Keep it tuned here to see the latest in what is going on here!

It’s Half Done

A full year has passed since I graduated from my undergraduate in upstate New York. I have had my first taste of a graduate career, and so far, it is quite the ride. I’ve gotten to experience research, design, learning, failure, and new people all in one quick year. The past two semesters have flown, but I’ve gotten some takeaways.

*Always keep pushing forward. Even if there have been many different failures or roadblocks along the way, and even if no one is smiling around you to keep you moving, one has to keep pressing forward. This is one of the harder lessons, as I am used to getting some feedback about my progress.

* Fending for oneself – the whole rent, utilities, and groceries concept – is a lot tougher than what I originally thought or expected. Even without a car, I have still found a way to get these done, and still talk to some people at the same time.

* My peers are the most critical bunch I have been around. Throughout my schooling, I usually have been around a passive set of people or a group of people that care to a point about certain things. In graduate school, everyone enrolled is quite tough and critical each other, and I have had to step up my game to impress everyone.

* The road ahead is surrounded in fog. I don’t know if I am going to the workforce or towards even higher education. But whichever of the two it ends up being, it’ll be fun and definitely worth it. Also depends on the economy and also if I get accepted into any PhD programs.

And to think that this time last year I graduated and thought graduate school was going to be around the same level of difficulty as my undergrad. Here’s hoping the next year is just as good as this one.