Final Fantasy XIII arrives...

Possibly the best Final Fantasy ever made? Certainly the best since VII...

If you haven't picked your copy up already, you probably need your head looking at... Very definantly the game the ps3 was made for, and a game everyone who has loved the Final Fantasy series, regardless of whichever instalment might happen to be their favourite, should own.

Watch Square Enix redefine the genre, and blow brainless western RPG out of the water yet again ;)

Doodles ahoy...

Deviant Gallery - Strawberry Panic and Abbey Project Concept Art

Valerie Margaret Patchett - April 17th 1957 to February 16th 2010

Valerie Margaret Patchett – April 17th 1957 to February 16th 2010

After a six year fight with terminal cancer, my beloved mother, Valerie Margaret Patchett, passed away peacefully in her sleep yesterday morning. She went having spent the day surrounded by those who love her, and long before her illness had progressed to the debilitating extremes she feared it might have done.

Mum was an amazing woman, not just in the stereotypical way that any child might proudly describe their parent, but also for the unbelievable accomplishments she and her husband achieved both during her life before, and after diagnosis. She leaves behind said husband Roy, myself, and many, many dear and beloved friends, many of whom have already made the pain of her absence resoundingly clear.

An inspiration to me both as a novelist and playwright, I hope perhaps one day I might share her works and life with you in some way. In the mean time, I ask that you take a moment to think of Roy and the many others in mourning.

Japanese class notes

As I'm in the process of rescanning my sensei's teaching notes for her after she lost her laptop HDD, I figured I'd put them up on flickr for everyone else to make use of too. So far this is largely my first term's worth, and I'll do the rest at a later date. Hope this helps for anyone currently studying Japanese, or thinking of studying it.

Heavy Rain demo

So with a little ninja’ing I managed to get my hands on the Heavy Rain demo early this morning. I’d have put this up earlier but I didn’t get to play till this evening. Nonetheless tho, the demo was worth the month long wait since its confirmed announcement.

Whilst I’d struggle to compare the game to, say, 428 or the better Japanese visual novels, this is a promising first attempt on Sony’s part at bringing the genre to the west, carrying with it the most mature of subjects, most probably in an attempt to engage the very different audience I’m sure they’ll find it selling to compared to the traditional western ps3 gamer.

The story, atmosphere and characterisation is excitingly grim, and although some of the lines and encounters in the demo were a little predictable, it all faired and presented itself well enough. The FBI agent’s equipment made for an interesting story mechanic, and the fight sequence was refreshingly fluid compared to older attempts at this kind of game on the PC. It was also rather enlightening to go back and screw things up in a different order to see whether or not it had immediate consequences to the story flow, which reassuring, although not majorly, it did.

I do find myself a little worried that the game, given the film genre it’s following, will perhaps be a little stereotypical of movies of the same theme and feature too many situations we’ve seen elsewhere, but so far there’s no pressing examples of that and it’s probably just my overly abused cynicism kicking in. Let’s face it; there have been more than enough gaming disappointments of late.

That said, all is well so far. Let’s hope the final makes good on the happy promises this demo builds.

"Last Chance"

A nervous Miyuki Rokujo prepares her last ditch attempt to regain her governess's attention...

Another Continuity FanFic illustration. This one was a bit of a challenge, given Miyuki had to undergo a fair transformation from her usual appearance to match the Ballroom scene. The extentions alone were going to make it hard to recognize her from her usual appearance. That said, I have to admit I'm very happy with the finished product. Thoughts guys? Still the Council President we know and love underneath?

Wedding Bells

Shizuma and Nagisa on the verge of a another new beginning...

Lost a lot of the finer detail during the scanning process, but reasonably pleased with the results regardless. Just a shame not everything on paper made it onto the machine. That said, I'm eyeing a Brother A3 inkjet/scanner combo, so it might not stay a problem forever ;)

When common or garden 'awesome' just doesn't get the job done!

The Astrea Coven Sleeps...

There can never be too many threesomes in this world, let alone ones that include our wonderful Minamoto-sama and the delectable Tamao Suzumi. Here we have not just one, but both, alongside our beloved ex-emo Samurai, Hazuki Azuma, courtesy of Suzume CA’s ‘Hand Me Downs’ fanfic.

Enjoy! :p

More illustration...

"No Amane, you can't feed it oats..."

More fanfic illustration fun, post Mnemosyne and Canaan. Kinda loving Kaname's flippancy here, and Amane's dumbstruck expression, even tho the title spawned itself *after* the piece had been completed. Quite apt nonetheless :p

And for anyone brave enough to try translating...

The full 428 'Type Moon' ending scenario that Canaan was based on in raw. No translations I'm afraid, but here if you want to see the animation in the flesh. Note that even back then, it was still Motoko's seiyū :p