Shinmaru

[quote name='Desbreko][color=indigo']And I meant the puzzles while in multiplayer mode, by the way. Most of them are a lot more fun when you have multiple people all working on them at once, as opposed to having to switch between Links yourself in one player mode.[/color][/quote] Yeah, I agree with you there. While many of the game's puzzles are still fun in single-player mode, a few of them that were meant for more team-based play get a bit tedious. If you want to enjoy Four Swords Adventures' puzzles to their greatest extent, then you definitely have to play the game in multiplayer mode. I played some Shadow Battle this morning and it's decent fun. While it's nowhere near as fun as the regular game, I can see myself playing a game of Shadow Battle every once in a while. I've yet to unlock all the games in Tingle's Tower (because my brother and I haven't gotten through the entire game in multiplayer mode yet), so I'll hold off any comments on those until later.

I just finished up my first multiplayer session of Four Swords Adventures, and man, is it ever fun. lol The game is totally different when you're playing multiplayer...not so much with the game itself, but in your interaction with your partner(s); my brother and I kept alternating between flawless teamwork and an "every man for himself" credo. The latter came up mostly when there were extra Force Gems to pick up, haha. My brother and I definitely weren't afraid to be real dicks to each other when it came to gathering up Force Gems and climbing ahead in the rankings. We pulled some really dirty tricks on each other. And that's what makes it fun. Instead of going through it by yourself, Four Swords Adventures becomes a competition and a real fun example of teamwork. Four Swords Adventures is definitely worth it if you can only play it single-player, but the single-player game just can't compare to playing it multiplayer (and, mind you, I only played the two-player game - it's probably even more fun with more players).

[quote name='doukeshi03][b']What makes an RP last?[/b][/quote] There are a lot of things that someone could say for this...for me, I think it's a mix of overall commitment from the RPers, how fresh the RPG stays and how structured the RPG is. Obviously, you need to keep you RPG somewhat fresh throughout or else people will get bored and stop posting. Not everyone has a superhuman level of commitment. Also, the RPG has to have some structure to it, too...if it's all just free-flowing, then the RPG could possibly get stale in the later goings. [quote][b]What makes people want to join an RP?[/b][/quote] What makes me want to join an RPG is a unique and/or interesting premise. For example, I'm more partial to comedic RPGs than anything else, so it doesn't take much to hook me in there, but for a serious RPG to make me want to join it, it has to really catch my eye. Not that I'm such an amazing writer that I'm judging the quality of RPGs all the time, but I think people get what I'm saying lol. [quote][b]What makes for inovative and entertaining involvment?[/b][/QUOTE] Similar to the first question, I think that the abililty to keep things fresh and the overall commitment of each of the RPers is integral to keeping an RPG fresh and entertaining. If people aren't intrigued, they won't be interested in posting, and a quality product won't be made, simple as that.

I'm glad that Nintendo stuck with the Nintendo DS name. I thought that was a pretty good name - nice and to the point. There would have been no real need to change it, I think. Nitro would have been a crappy name, anyway. And I like the new look of the DS, too. Looks more streamlined than the version that was shown at E3. Sort of similar to the evolution of the Game Boy Advance to the GBA SP, except that nobody was suckered into buying some alternate version of the DS first :p

...why does it seem as if every time I post in Anime Lounge, it's always in a thread that's more than a month old? lol Anyway, my sister is an avid fan of the Fruits Basket manga (she has the first three volumes). Her birthday came recently, and since this was the first year that I had a reasonable amount of money at this time, I decided to buy her the first Fruits Basket DVD as a birthday present. She watched it and told me that she loved it, which made me feel good, since it seemed as if I had chosen a good birthday present for her. All was well. Today, since I had nothing to do, my sister wanted me to watch the DVD with her. So, yeah, I sat down and watched the DVD (which has the first six episodes on it), and, lo and behold, I really liked it. In fact, I'm even thinking about buying the second volume for her as an "extra gift" :p I really enjoy the humor of the series...it doesn't go overboard with the "cutesy" look, and instead uses it to get a few laughs out of the viewer. If it's used that way, the stereotypical cutesy look doesn't bother me in the least, heh. Plus, the characters (the ones that have been introduced thus far, anyway) are likable enough. They all have their little quirks, but they're developed enough so that you can take them seriously, as well. So, yeah, I'm becoming a fan of Fruits Basket - I hope to buy that present for my sister fairly soon ;)

I'm suprised that nobody has replied to this already. Anyway, I've already told you this, but I think the theme is awesome, easily your best one yet. I love the gritty look of the images and I think that the animation was pretty well done. My only issue with it is that I think it stays on the black screen at the end for too long, but that could very well be some technical thing that I'm not familiar with lol. Overall, though, it's awesome. Great work.

[quote name='Desbreko][color=indigo']And part of the charm of Zelda games is that the puzzles are deceptively simple, heh. I love stuff like that. (There's some really good examples of things like that in Level 5: Temple of Darkness and Level 8: Palace of Winds, which had me and my brother stumped for a good long while). I think FSA's puzzles are the best in the series so far.[/color][/quote] I wouldn't go as far as to call the puzzles in FSA the best in the series thus far, but they are very good. I was definitely pleasantly surprised with how good the puzzles were in the game. I haven't the opportunity to use the GBA, so I can't comment on that, but I will say that I had absolutely no difficulties with the control stick, outside of a couple of mishaps with the Pegasus Boots. The controls weren't really an issue, for me.

This quiz has been left alone for about four months now, for good reason (and not because nobody could answer Desbreko's question :p). Quiz threads have run their course here...you don't really get any discussion value out of them. So, yeah, I think that I'll close this thread now.

I merged the threads. Next time, do a quick search of the forum before making a thread, thanks.

[url]http://rajah.com/base/2004/1328[/url] Rumors going around about the Summerslam main events on the Raw side of things. According to this, Eugene will face Triple H and Chris Benoit will face Randy Orton, which means that Benoit will be winning the Iron Man Match on Monday (if this is true, anyway). Also according to this, the WWE is heavily considering putting the World Title on Randy Orton. Personally, I don't think Orton is quite ready for the World Title [i]yet[/i], but I'd much rather see him with the title than yet another Triple H title reign. Don't get me wrong, Hunter's been [i]way[/i] more entertaining this year than he was in 2003, but he's held the World Title enough times for now. I'd much rather the title scene stay somewhat fresh. Anyway, all of the matches sound good, except for JBL/Undertaker, which will be terrible. I'm actually rooting for JBL to win, because as horrible as he is, I'd rather see him as champ than The Undertaker at this point. Kurt Angle/Eddy Guerrero is going to rule, though I wish [i]that[/i] were the true title match taking place at Summerslam. Triple H/Eugene should be good enough as long as the WWE actually lets Dinsmore wrestle; I've seen flashes of brilliance from him during his matches, and I'm curious to see how good a full match wrestled by him could truly be. And I know that Chris Benoit is capable of wrestling a great match with Randy Orton, so I have no worries there.

Ah, it's finally started :D Comedy is my specialty (I think so, at least lol), so let's see what I can cook up... [b]Name:[/b] Jessica Hikari. [b]Anime Stereotype:[/b] Depressed, self-loathing introvert/Bubbly, competitive extrovert. [b]Age:[/b] Fifteen. [b]Gender:[/b] Female. [b]Year:[/b] Sophomore. [b]Apperance:[/b] Jessica is fairly tall for a girl, and has a relatively curvy figure. Her jet black hair falls down a bit past her shoulders and she always wears a red hair band above her forehead. She wears a pair of thin, wiry glasses despite the fact that she thinks they make her look like "a total dork". However, nobody ever notices this, because they are too busy being mesmerized by her enchanting green eyes. They're cool looking. Her clothing ranges from dark and moody (torn up fishnet stockings, black shirts, black eyeshadow, etc.) to bright and annoyingly cheerful (short skirts, bright sweaters, disgustingly cute fake braces, etc.). Just like Jessica herself, her taste in clothing is a true mystery. [b]Alignment:[/b] Neutral. Sometimes good, sometimes evil, but it all gets balanced out in the end. [b]Extra Subjects:[/b] - Bishieology - Psychology of the Hero - Counseling - Creative Writing - Villain Ethics [b]Accommodation:[/b] Jessica lives off campus with her roommate, whom she loathes more than anyone else in the universe, and their sexy, yet annoyingly messy and drunk, guardian. Their apartment is regular-sized and not unlike any other apartment that one would find. [b]Bio:[/b] On the outside, Jessica seems like your average, everyday weirdo. However, there is nothing "average" nor "everyday" about Jessica...well, there is everyday stuff, but we'll overlook that for now. Normally, Jessica is extremely shy and introverted, afraid of contact with other human beings. She is so afraid of them, in fact, that she obsessively cleans herself with a special napkin that she brings to school, and she routinely burns all belongings of hers that happen to have been touched by another person. Also, despite the fact that she is a reasonably pretty and intelligent young woman, she is marred by intense self-loathing brought on by the fact that her parents abandoned her at an early age because "she was annoying". Obviously, this traumatized Jessica very much. But there's more! This traumatization (is that a word?) buried her real self deep inside of her psyche...but now it is ready to be unleashed upon the world! Whenever Jessica spends a prolonged amount of time in the sunlight (five minutes or longer), she undergoes an amazing transformation, complete with cheap pyrotechnics and lots of shiny bubbles and a pink, cardboard background. After her transformation (which involves a copious amount of spinning around), Jessica becomes a bubbly, extroverted wondergirl, competitive to a fault and ready to take on the male-dominated world of the Tokyo Academy of Unusual Students! With Jessica's transformation comes a 200% increase in sexiness that's highlighted by a 300% increase in 'schoolgirl fetish'. The downside to this is that there is a 500% increase in 'annoying *****' that comes along with it. Suffice it to say, the transformation isn't really worth it, but it happens anyway. [b]Special Powers/Abilities:[/b] When she is in her first form, Jessica has the ability to whine, mope and wax poetic about the general misfortunes of everyday life. She also has the ability to set fire to the passions of pubescent boys with a fetish for "weird, gothicy chicks". Lastly, Jessica can launch into long monologues at random about her need to find out about herself and the need to understand other people. In her extroverted form, Jessica is incredibly conniving and evil. Her competitive nature takes over almost completely and she's not afraid to do anything to get what she wants. For example, in a previous job she held (because you're never too young to hold a job, in anime), Jessica killed off all of her co-workers in a series of convoluted, overly thought out deaths set to a soundtrack of violins and cellos. And she liked it. EDIT: I should have included this earlier...to change back from her extroverted self, Jessica must be in a somewhat shaded area for the same amount of time it took for her to transform (five minutes or so). [b]Sworn Enemy:[/b] It's pretty much all of humanity in both of her forms lol. EDIT: Added one interpretation of my character XD EDIT2: Decided to add a real pic :p

Awesome. Hopefully, I'll be able to get maybe one post in before I leave for my vacation...I'm just glad that there are more than enough people who made it so that me being gone isn't a very big issue at all.

I'm definitely looking forward to The Bourne Supremacy. I saw the trailer for the movie a couple of months ago, and never having saw The Bourne Identity, I decided to watch the DVD that my parents had bought. I thought the movie was very good, and I agree with Bean's points on it, the point about the action scenes in particular. None of the action scenes in Bourne Identity felt boring or forced, and I'm expecting more of the same from Bourne Supremacy, which is definitely a good thing. Friday shall be a good day, indeed.

[quote name='PNK']Well if FLCL doesn't amuse you then I doubt that Excel Saga would. I just started reading the maga nad its actually very intelligent at times and also extremely random.[/quote] Personally, I found Excel Saga to be far funnier than FLCL. I think that if you could possibly rent Excel Saga somewhere, Dagger, you should try that so that you can get a feel for the series (I'm assuming that you've not seen any episodes, heh). Excel Saga has a lot of witty, well thought out parodies to go along with all the random slapstick humor, and I think that contrasting humor works well in Excel Saga's favor. However, the randomness is taken to an extreme, at times, so if you're wary about Excel Saga, then I'd suggest borrowing one of the DVDs from a friend (if you know anyone who has it) or renting it from somewhere (assuming you can find it anywhere).

[quote name='Charles'] Deathmatch wasn't good for me, mainly because of the aforementioned reasons. The environments were just too large. Shinmaru asked why there weren't bots--and I think that's because the game was originally intended to be online to begin with. It's something they were toying with for quite a while, so when the time came to make the decision to drop the feature, there just wasn't enough time to add bots.[/quote] This is actually a good point, and one that I obviously did not think of earlier. If I remember right, much like the Dreamcast, the XBox was slated to be online-ready from the start, so it makes sense to say that Bungie crafted the levels for online play. And, obviously, it wasn't a smart move by Bungie to put all their eggs in one basket, so to speak, when it came to online play, because it wasn't ready when the XBox was.

Figures that just about any show I watch that I haven't seen before ends up having a thread that's months old lol. But I suppose that this is a perfectly good thread and there's no sense in making a new one and cluttering up things. Anyway, I've wanted to watch Excel Saga for a while now, and I recently bought the boxset. Everything I'd heard about the series suggested that it was bizarre, twisted and hilarious; in other words, right up my alley. I just finished watching the final episode, and I'm just in awe at how insane this whole series was lol. From start to finish, the series was just hilarious. A couple episodes dragged slightly, but there are funny moments in every episode. And I think that this is the only show in which I actually watched a flashback episode (and Excel Saga has two of them lol), since Excel Saga actually presented them in a unique and bizarre fashion. A lot of what happens in the show reminds me of what a Tex Avery cartoon would be like if it were on crack, speed and acid all at once. Excel Saga takes the funny slapstick and bizarre wit present in the old Looney Tunes cartoons and amps it up to the highest degree. Sometimes, it's a bit grating, but most of the time it proves to be a very funny formula. I don't think I could choose a favorite character or episode; there are so many memorable examples of each. Just about every character in the show seemed to fit right in along with the others, and several of the episodes stand out among each other. However, you can't really end an Excel Saga discussion without mention of Episode 26...that was just wild. Half the time I was cracking up with laughter and the other half was spent with me just staring at my computer screen and muttering "Holy mother of god, what did they just do?" lol So, yeah, I like Excel Saga a lot, heh. It's a very funny series and I think that the humor can stand on its own merits enough to appeal to anime and non-anime fans alike.

[quote name='Desbreko][color=indigo']Really, if I play standard FPS games, it's only for multiplayer -- FPS single player modes have never interested me. And if I really wanted that, I'd get Counter-Strike or Unreal Tournament or something and play online. No messing about with linking systems, no X-Box Live fee (in the case of Halo 2 anyway), and I'd be able to use a keyboard and mouse, which I find to be far superior to any controller out there for FPS movement and aiming.[/color][/quote] I just wanted to throw out another opinion...I honestly think that Halo's multiplayer is boring, at least to the extent that I'm able to play it. I only have one XBox available, so the most I've been able to play is four player modes, but Halo's multiplayer levels aren't really suited for such a small number of players (compare that to something like Goldeneye 007, whose levels were ideal for four players). What's really baffling about it is that bots weren't included as an option. When a game like Perfect Dark, which came a couple of years or so before Halo, has superior multiplayer options and levels, then something is definitely wrong. Like Sciros, I think that if anything is the draw to Halo, it's the one-player mode (even though I enjoyed MP's one-player mode more) and its co-op mode. The co-op mode, in particular, is pretty fun. In a way, you can think of it as what multiplayer Halo could've been like if Bungie had included bots as an option (if someone has an official reason as to why Bungie didn't put bots in Halo, then I'd really like to know, heh).

[quote name='Semjaza Azazel]I must be the only person that didn't care [spoiler]Aeris[/spoiler'] died. As far as I'm concerned, there was very little reason to give a crap about her. She was a bit more developed than other characters in the game, but it happens so early on (comparatively), that I never really got all that attached to her.[/quote] Personally, I didn't really give a crap about that, either, except for the fact that the FMV scene looked kind of cool (looks really outdated now, but whatever lol). Everyone always seems to be affected by it, probably because FFVII was the first real mainstream console RPG. Nobody else had played any prior RPGs so they had never had the chance to watch boring characters die before. [quote]I suppose that kind of makes one of my choices seem somewhat ironic or hypocritical. One that stuck with me pretty strongly was the [spoiler]death of Cyan's family in FF6. Between the poisoning of the town by Kefka and Cyan dealing with their spirits on the train, I felt it was very poignant. Cyan perhaps isn't very developed outside of this, but it was really dealt with a very heartfelt manner and it came off really well.[/spoiler] I don't feel that the characters in FF7 were as "human" as those in FF6 for whatever reason. Just my personal opinion.[/QUOTE] The characters in FFVI are probably my favorite characters in the entire series, because they feel very genuine, for the most part. Of course, that particular moment in the game is diminished somewhat by FFVI's goofy American translation, but it's still a moment that sticks out in your mind. Also, [spoiler]I liked the scene with the death of Emperor Gestahl in FFVI, not really because I think it's tragic, but I think, along with the death of Cyan's family, it highlights what Kefka is: A sneaky, backstabbing prick.[/spoiler]

Personally, I'm not a big fan of Kingdom Hearts, but I guess it does deserve some kudos for incorporating the Disney characters in a slightly unique way lol. I agree with Bean - I think the story of MGS is really good (even if some of those cutscenes took [i]forever[/i] to end :rolleyes: ). The way that the story is presented, it's more about Snake and his struggles and interactions with the other characters ("good" and "evil" alike) moreso than the actual mission that Snake is on (though the mission is never fully shunted to a backseat role, which was a smart move on Konami's part). FFVII had a good storyline, but the main problem that I have with it is that so much important stuff is hidden in completely random spots that the game really gives you barely a hint about; it's like you walk into a room with a certain character and boom!You get a flashback sequence. [spoiler]I think the most notable example of this is the whole flashback of Cloud and Zach's backstory that you get if you decide to go back to the basement of the Shin-Ra Mansion with Cloud and Tifa near the end of the game. This flashback is, quite honestly, extremely pivotal to understanding FFVII's story and it's tucked away in a place that you really have no reason to go back to once you ransack it the first time.[/spoiler] To me, that's not really [i]earning[/i] the story, it's more like accidently stumbling upon it. It feels stupid. EDIT: I've heard James talk about differences in the U.S. and PAL versions of FFVII (most notably in the translation department), so I'm not completely sure if it's the same in all versions, but I'm guessing that it is.

Haha, that was definitely an interesting little commercial. Seeing you pop up as an old man sprite was good for a nice laugh, too, as it was fairly unexpected lol. Also, I liked how simple everything was and using the font used in the OtakuBoards banner (along with bolding the Boards part of it) was a nice touch, I think. I liked it :)

I merged the threads. Next time, check to make sure that there isn't already a thread on a game you would like to make a thread about before you go ahead and make the thread. Anyway, I'm very much looking forward to Tales of Symphonia and I'm seriously considering buying it. I'll definitely have enough money to do so come next week, anyway. I've heard some complaints about the cliche story, but eh...even after that, the reviewers usually admit that the gameplay and battle system far and away make up for that slight shortcoming. And I've also heard that the characters are good, as well, so that makes up for the story even more, I suppose.

Heh, I figured that this topic was going to be really old, but I was wrong...glad to see I'm not bringing back something that's months old :p I've admittedly not watched as much anime as other people here. Most of the series I've seen come by way of Cartoon Network or some other network. However, I [i]have[/i] seen some good ones, in fact enough good ones that I really can't choose a clear-cut favorite out of them...I have about three that I love a lot, with some others close behind. [b]Cowboy Bebop:[/b] This show was my true favorite for a long while, and still remains one of my favorites to this day. I think the show's many strong points (which include its amazing dubbing, the impressive visuals, great music and seamless integration of many different genres and styles) make up for its one, true weakness (in my opinion), which is the lack of a really developed storyline. However, when it comes to sheer entertainment value, Cowboy Bebop is definitely up there. [b]Neon Genesis Evangelion:[/b] Coming into my first viewing of this series, I had mile-high expectations for it, considering all of the praise that's been lavished onto it since its inception. I think it speaks for the quality of the show that it managed to meet and surpass my expectations. By now, everyone knows the show's strong points (the multifaceted characters, deep storyline, etc.), and I'm one of those (seemingly few around here lol) people that thinks the original ending for Evangelion fits the series just about perfectly. But that's another tangent for a whole different thread, heh. [b]FLCL:[/b] Even though I felt at times that the show was trying too hard to be over the top with its gags, the show still managed to entertain me and make me laugh quite a bit. It's also not very often that you'll get a really solid story to go along with the great humor (as compared to Excel Saga, which, though I think it's funnier so far, has very little coherent plot). Aesthetically, it's also fantastic, with the great visuals and the awesome music. Chobits, Excel Saga (what I've seen, anyway) and Lupin the 3rd also deserve some mentions for being good series. As for the worst...well, I wouldn't call it the worst, because it's not a bad anime by any means, but [b]Noir[/b] was incredibly disappointing to me. When the show was good, it was good, but you had to sit through some god damned slow pacing in order to get to the good parts, and you're constantly beaten over the head with the same symbolism in the same forms throughout the series. As I said before, Noir is not a bad anime, and I enjoyed the good parts, it just disappointed me quite a bit.

[b][url=http://www.otakuboards.com/showthread.php?t=40235]Inuyasha for PS2?[/url][/b] This is the Inuyasha game thread. If you want to post about the Inuyasha game, post in that thread and that thread only. Remember, before you decide to create a thread, run a quick search of the forum to make sure that there hasn't already been a thread made about the game you want to speak about.

I merged your second post with your first post. Next time, simply use the Edit button rather than double posting. As for my opinion...well, I don't think both of these games can be compared very well, because they two different types of games, despite both being first-person shooters (so to speak, anyway). Halo is the more action and combat oriented of the two (though MP has plenty of action in its own right), while MP is more in line with the previous games in the Metroid series, being more about exploration and such. Personally, I think that Halo is one of the more overrated games out there, and I know that there are people who feel the same about Metroid Prime. When it came down to my personal tastes, I got my money's worth with Metroid Prime, and I can't say the same for Halo. That's about it.

[quote name='Syk3']Anyway, yes. You wouldn't believe all the make up they had me wear just for that quick shoot. Must have taken at least 8 hours. Not to mention the difficulties of being in a relationship with one of the other cast members. :smooch: *winks at Shin* XD[/quote] :D Anyway, I thought it was funny. It was so hard to get into character and want to fight Syk3, but it was for the best, I suppose. The animation quality was good enough and the overall look is as good as you'll get with stick figures, haha. The final product turned out pretty funny ^_^ [quote name='BlueYoshi][color=teal']Heh, Shinmaru looked like Link with out the hat.[/quote][/color] I assure you that this will be the only time I'll [i]ever[/i] hear someone say that :p