Persona 3: FES... Momento Mori

Alright, I finally finished one round of Persona 3: FES. I had actually played Persona 4 first. But since Persona 3 is fresh in my mind, I think it's best to pen down what I have just experienced.


The setting for this RPG is in a Japanese highschool. Ain't it interesting to note that all the cool stuff happens in Japan high schools? hehehe

Basically, special student were born with a gift to control a power called Persona. The English translations in the game say this is a latent psyche ability within an individual. But to awaken the power, the students use a device called an Evoker: a tool shaped like a gun. So guns are used for shooting things, and to use the Evoker, you are supposed to shoot your head.

That's right folks... blow your brains out.

Bang! Bang!

The hero has the ability to control many different Persona, setting him apart from others. You can combine Personas to create new ones, fuse them into weapons and of course, use them to kill monsters. Yes, Japan always has many monsters and no matter how many heroes are born to vanquish them, monsters always come back... so that we can continue making use of them for new RPG stories.

Any key concept is that your Personas get stronger as you develop your social links with friends. Better relationships yield better rewards. Of course some of your friends are girls, so this means... you should start as many girlfriend relationships as you can. Oh... but if you are in the serious level of your relationship with more than one girl... and if the other girl catches you with said girl, all your girlfriends will turn sour. Realistic huh?

Girl 1: "He loves me"

Girl 2: "No, he loves me"

Girl 3: "The boy is mine"

You also have a smart canine companion as part of your team. And this little fella doesn't need to shoot himself to use his powers. Guess the dog is more capable than the human team mates?

Woof woof! No silly guns for me thank you...

There is a running time and calendar concept in this game. Certain events require the calendar date to be triggered. Sundays are non school days. There are even holidays, school trips, etc.

As you fight monsters, you get tired. This affects your accuracy and agility. There will be times your attacks (or adversely, your enemies attacks) take advantage of your inherent weakness, or is just plain lucky strong. These times you get knocked down. Any damage sustained is higher than normal. If you are able to knock down all your enemies, your team can perform All-Out Attacks. They rush in as a group and open a can of whoop ass on your foes.

Yes, the can of whoop ass is like an Adam West Batman rerun

Despite the very low level graphics, the story line is engaging enough. There is almighty supreme evil boss for the final show down... which is later explained to be not really evil. The hero will do a courageous deed in protecting his friend in the end. No spoilers from me though... go play it yourself!

This is one game where FAQs are highly recommended. I didn't realise there are long school holidays in January, and developed my social links poorly. Only 2 girlfriends! There are 3 more girls I could've dated! Also, there are special armor equipment in the game that are in the form of lady swimsuits. There are also stuff like toilet brushes, spiked bras and other eye opening things to discover and play with.

Voice acting is really top notch, and more than compensates the low level graphics. Actually the anime style graphics might charm some of you out there. Dark and slightly ghostly... it suits the heavy atmosphere of the game.

All in all, the final boss is a piece of cake. The tough parts are all the optional goodies in the games. If you'd like the badass equipment, you have to do some farming. If you want perfect relationships, you have to do some reading in the FAQs, as there some subtleties that you won't figure out yourselves because it is REALLY not obvious.

Persona 3 is actually a standalone game, but the Persona 3: FES is an extended edition that has a playable section for the story that happens after the events of the original Persona 3. If you intend to use FAQs, one strong word of advice...

If you are playing Persona 3... read Persona 3 FAQs. If you are playing Persona 3 FES, read Persona 3 FES FAQs. I thought since the front portion is the same, I could use any FAQ. Boy was I wrong, and the mistake is very costly. Ok, ok... you may think I'm dumb and a fool for making the mistake in the first place and I can agree with you.

So congrats to Atlus for making another winner. Reception of this game was really good in Japan, and around the globe. Not hard to see why. There's a lot of charm in the game. Not too much excessive randomness, lots of humour, and if you plan your strategy you are rewarded.

Two thumbs up! Can't wait to get into the FES portion of the game.

Gameplay: *****
Sound and Music: ****
Graphics: ***

Persona 3: Frustrations

Argh!!! I am towards the ending for the game. And there are so many holidays! My remaining undeveloped social links are all my school girl friends! Argh!!! I will never get my 3rd girlfriend at this rate. Why didn't the FAQs recommend you to work on school friendships first! Why why why! I'm wasting so many days!

ARGH...

Yahoo says "I can't talk now, could be under attack?"

It's amusing sometimes to see how friendly and cordial error messages from computer systems are these days. Just now, Yahoo in in "can't talk now" mode

Latest update:

I wonder if the interruption in Yahoo's services was due to the below or not major cyber attack from North Korea just a few hours ago. Sounds really coincidental.

Indian Heritage and Panna Cotta

Went out last weekend for dinner with my folks, and we decided to drop by a Northern Indian place newly opened in Taipan USJ called "Indian Heritage". It is facing the main road, same row as Thai Corner and EON Bank.

I am no expert in Indian cuisine. In fact I will say this is my first time trying Indian fine dining in Malaysia. I did try one similar restaurant in Melbourne Australia.

Indian Heritage had an attractive looking buffet lunch promotion for RM15.90++. Sorry for the blur image... my Sony Ericsson W700i isn't great in dim lighting.



Decor is quite classy I guess... there is a feature chandelier in the middle, the walls have a texturised pattern on them, and the captain is dressed in a formal looking suit. He actually wished my dad "Happy Father's Day to you sir"! Heck, I had forgotten myself... oh, the shame...

The restaurant has a lot of patrons on the weekend dinner time that we were there. A lot of wealthy looking Indians came, and some westerners too.

We went with Fish Methi (very very tasty), Chicken Kadel and a saag (spinach dish). Ordered a briyani and 2 portions of plain naan.

As a testament to the taste, you can see our bowls are scraped quite clean.

The total bill came to about RM75 for 3 people. It is a little on the high side I feel and the meat and fish was a little on the small side for portion size. They do give you tonnes of gravy though.

The service was good. The captain was friendly and the staff do come by occasionally to check if everything is good, is the food alright etc etc.

Definitely a good place to have a meal with family and friends.

On another note, I had bought back a packet of vanilla pods from my earlier trip to Bali, Indonesia. It is so expensive and hard to find it here in normal supermarkets. I tried to make a Panna Cotta with them.

Below are my results...

Panna Cotta is basically cooked cream with some hardening agent like gelatine. The only flavour I added was the vanilla pod and brown sugar. I didn't put enough gelatine so I couldn't get it to slide out of the cup easily. I also used cooking oil to grease the cup beforehand, but I think the gelatine was not making it hard enough.... so the oil didn't help. Plus, I didn't realise it was peanut oil... so it left a weird aftertaste in your mouth after the creamy vanilla custard sat in your tongue.

The recipe recommended tart fruit like strawberry or rasberry, but I substituted for seedless grapes instead. I did find a cool tip in a Jamie Oliver recipe to freeze the grapes to make it more interesting. Don't they look cool below?

When you bite the frozen grape, it's like a popsicle!



My parents loved it. I not so much... I still have quite a few pods left, and maybe I can try again next time, with much more gelatine, and margarine instead of peanut oil!

Bali Hai.... Bali Hai

Some months ago, some of my colleagues invited me to join them on a trip to Bali, Indonesia. Since I love travelling, I said "Count me in".

We didn't count on the Swine Flu now permeating all corners of the globe. Indonesia however has not officially declared that it has any confirmed cases of the disease. Well, whether this is knowingly true or not, only God knows I guess.

So just to be safe, I donned a face mask in KL's LCCT and in the plane going to Bali.



So Bali is known as "the ultimate island". It's got nice beaches and seas, hills and volcanoes, and remains largely rural. The busy tourism business however makes the locals quite globalised: many Balinese are multi lingual, know the value of foreign currency in relation to their own, and lots have satelite tv.

Here is my room mate buddy, Chien Hui with me at Kintomani, a hill area close to the Bali volcano. I am doing a "kawaii" pose. Don't I look charming?



Here's June, our other travelling mate. She thought she looked kawaii enough by herself.


For the most part, Malaysians need to be aware that Bali is more expensive than Malaysia. A simple lunch of rice at a roadside stall can easily cost you US$1.50 (more than RM5.00). Back home, a similar plate of rice costs RM3.50 or RM4.00. To save costs, I highly suggest you stay at Legian or Kuta, which, while being the more touristy area of Bali, is also very centrally located on the island.

We did take a trip up north, to Lovina Beach, which is famous for its dolphins and black sand. However, the statue erected on the beach, is unlike any images of dolphins I am familiar with. They look rather beastly and frightening instead.

I aM tHe FRieNdLY DoLPhiN oF BALI!

No Bali trip will be complete without enjoying some fun on the beach. Here are my two smiley friends on an inflatable raft called "Big Mabel". This raft is dragged across the water by speedboat. We also spent some time snorkelling and diving. All this was done in Nusa Dua, south Bali.

We are lucky June had an underwater casing for her camera. We had some fun taking shots like the ones below.




We also had our first taste of Balinese food, called "bakso". Basically it is pork or beef mixed with flour to form meat balls. We must have been a bit unlucky, because the one we tried was not good at all. But we had other food which was okay, so that's fine... can't be roses all the time right?


One of our visits was to an art factory. In there, there was a piece I absolutely fell in love with: a painting of golden padi fields with some farmers. I am told it is done by a famous artist and is a limited edition piece. The asking price? US$100... which was out of my budget. I do pine for it sometimes... At least I have this digital photo for a keepsake.

So beautifully simple and stunning

We went to other places as well, like Hard Rock in Kuta. This hotel is really pretty. The bar has a raised stage in middle, the pool has an area with sand to simulate a beach, and the hotel walls are lined with electric guitars. Cool, cool, cool.


We spent 5 nights in Bali, blew our spending budget out of the water, two of us had slight fever (gasp!), but all in all, it was a nice trip. I may think of coming back here again in the future.

Bali Hai... Bali Hai...

Grandia III

Another RPG that I had the chance to play some time ago is Grandia III.

Again, although quite a few of the games I've played are long established series, I regret to say I have not played the predecessors. Grandia III is a Square Enix effort, the masterminds behind the phenomenally successful Final Fantasy series, which I love to bits.

Grandia III follows the exploits of young pilot, Yuki. Kinda sounds feminine, but I am no expert in names. In this picture, Yuki tries to 'touch the sky'...


The environments are beautifully drawn, as expected from Square. Some environments look really cool... you can even see hints of northern lights from this snowy landscape area.


On to battle mechanics... RPGs are all about fighting lots of baddies, right? One cool feature in the game is the ability to knock enemies into the air. Then, once they are freefalling back to the ground, you can do some extra moves that are more damaging and look cooler than your normal ones.

4.6 metres high... a new personal best!

The other nice part is the way magic is contolled. Anyone can do any kind of magic. Some are better suited to the job, but to have anyone to be able to do the super insane magic attacks gives you a lot of flexibility. You can even 'hatch' new magic by combining special items called Mana Eggs in a little machine that looks like a robotic chicken with 2 heads. You have to play the game to find out what I mean...



As usual too, all the characters have special moves that have lots of coloured lights and are real flashy. Also, you have to practice these moves to make them more powerful and also to learn new moves. However, the fights are rarely very challenging. Maybe because it gets quite easy to churn out special move after special move towards the end.

One of the key things I was hoping for was an engaging story line. All Final Fantasy games have such gripping story lines, so how did Grandia III fare?

To me, this game had some hits and misses. They reused the tried and true formula of a young upstart male hero protecting the fragile heroine. That's fine... it is a tried and true formula. The dream about Yuki striving to become a top notch pilot is believable. The plot development to bring all the main fighters together was also quite good and flowed naturally.

The final climax fight that leads you to meet the big bad boss was kinda boring. The struggle between Alfina and her brother, which is like the 2nd level big bad boss was also kinda boring. I guess there was not enough plot about character attachment or loss, so it felt like a let down. I guess not every story fantastic.

Also, not too many secrets or in game activities to delve into, and feels too straight forward at times.

I enjoyed the journey getting to the finale more than the finale itself for this game.

Still it is an okay game to while away the hours.

Lest we forget what reality TV really is

Two things really struck a chord with me recently.

Firstly, it's how much we need sensationalism to draw out the tiniest response from our being nowadays.

Recently, a lot of news has been sensationalised on some contestants of Britain's Got Talent year 3 (2009). The most famous name is Susan Boyle.


An elderly lady with a great voice, but did not look polished in appearance. Whether the numerous Youtube clips of the judges frowning and giving cynical smiles actually happened or was edited into the video for sensationalising purposes, the effect was good. It made it look like the odds were against Susan and when a good singing voice was produced from her cheeky grinnng face, the contrast made for good entertainment value. See it here

Society nowadays can be so de-sensitised that something that was considered remarkable not so long ago, is considered common place and mundane today. Is it any wonder that we need something that is presented at such extreme ends of the spectrum to trigger some emotion from us? A lamentable situation in my opinion.


The second thing that really caught me is how much expectation we put on those in the limelight nowadays... It can be really unbelievable sometimes.

I am a fan of reality talent shows. A shameless fan I am. American Idol, Malaysian Idol, Britain's Got Talent, America's Got Talent etc etc. Being a huge music fan, I always love hearing new voices and singers trying to make their mark on what must be an incredibly arduous process of star making.

No disrespect to established and yet to be established artists going the conventional route i.e. doing gigs at clubs, sending audition tapes, going through performing arts courses... But the amount of stress, scrutiny and work that is crammed into that short space of time to make the filming of a show is truly frightening at times. One such casualty is ten year old Hollie Steel, also from the same show as Susan Boyle.



Also doing singing, Hollie did wonderfully in her auditions, just like Susan. Weeks go by, the machinery of reality TV chomps on ahead... and Hollie had a breakdown during the next show. She made some mistakes in her voice control, and after a couple, she couldn't take it anymore and cried. She didn't finish her performance, and requested a second chance. See it here. Susan is also reported to have had a breakdown and required medical care.

Truth be told, the public would have forgiven her mistakes the first time round, but she herself felt she was a disaster. When we see those in the media always performing flawlessly, we lull ourselves into thinking THAT is reality sometimes.

We forget that when movies are captured onto film by cameramen, there's that little black and white board that marks down how many takes it needs to get the scene perfect. We forget musicians practice as many hours as a programmer spends writing code. We forget that masters of their craft still spend just as many hours maintaining their skill level as a beginner tries to hone theirs. We just forget...

Reality TV show, judging scene, Take 70!

Snake Eaterrrrrr!

I give my life Not for honor, but for you (snake eater) In my time there'll be no one else Crime, it's the way i fly to you (snake eater) I'm still in a dream, snake eater

lyrics to MGS3 title song, Snake Eater

Another lovely game I have managed to play and finish is the very cool Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, or MGS3 for short.

I've not tried the Metal Gear series before... I have my reservations. My gaming TV is a tiny 14" CRT with only 1 sound speaker. Yes I finished MGS3 in a mono sound environment with a tiny TV! Thinking back, I am astonished I managed to pull it off.

MGS3 reprises the series' hero, a stealth agent named Snake. Much of the games focus is on sneaking and springing the element of surprise. You can go around like a doofus and try to do away with your enemies with brute force, but there's no fun in that. Close Quarters Combat (CQC) is the main arsenal in this game. With a revolver or knife, you can do so many things to put the hurt on your opponent. Knock him out, choke him, use him as a meat shield, interrogate him...


Another major arsenal is the tranquilizer gun. A lot of times, this is the preferrable weapon. If an enemy is brought down using tranquilizers, they are knocked out quietly and do not raise alerts to their comrades. You can also use this special gun to hunt for food. Animals captured in this way can be stored in cages, which means they will still be alive and kicking when you devour them. If not, the "food" can rot, and if eaten later, will lose its efficacy and cause you a tummy upset.

Another big part of the game is staying healthy. You got to eat right, else you get tired and can't aim your gun properly. You got to treat serious wounds, else you cannot recover to maximum strength. Realism can get stretchy here... I mean, there is one point in the game, that Snake sustains several broken bones and cuts, but is still able to perform stitches and surgery on himself. That's the escapism of games right? Don't be so cynical, Jack. By the way, Snake's real name is Jack! All the cool characters are always named Jack.... yes, yes they are.


Camoflauge can be obtained by defeating enemies, or picking them up whilst in the mission field. Heck, not every camoflauge is actually meant to be worn as clothes. You can even use cardboard boxes to give your enemies to slip! This was really hillarious, and I couldn't help but laugh out loud when trying this out.



A lot of times, enemy bosses can be dealt with in 2 ways: Drain their life with attacks that wound them, or drain their stamina by shooting tranquilizers at them. If you take the time to drain their stamina, you will usually be rewarded with some amazing camoflauge items. Some make you totally invisible, some restore stamina, some make you soundless...

Oh yeah, the other cute feature of this game is that during the cut scenes, you actually are able to take control of the camera view to a certain extent. So there's this one scene with a female agent, Eva, and she's by a campfire, and she's crawling towards Snake, and she's...

Go play the game and find out yourself.

Some dislikes.... Ocelot. Oh man, after the second time watching him twirl his guns, I wanted to smack his head. It just looks too flashy and showy to be stomached.

I am the Ocelot, king of pistols, watch me twirl and twirl and twirl and twirl and twirl and twirl them!



The other major sticking point with me is that, the First Person View (FPV) requires you to remain stationary. You can imagine how much tougher this makes precision shooting during boss fights. Is this part of the challenge mechanism? All I know was this was such a major pain during the final fight with Snake's mentor, The Boss. Not only is her speed more than double of Snake, her CQC skills are higher too. If you do manage to knock her off her feet, you want to capitalise on her down time and pump some lead or tranquilisers into her. A lot of the time, you may not be able to see her due to your viewing angle. Plus you can't take your sweet time... the fight with The Boss is five minutes tops. Else Soviet MIGs will bomb you to kingdom come.

How's that feel Jack? Pain lets you know you're alive baby....

Of course, do take into account my frustration is probably highly due to the small TV and mono sound that I am playing the game with.

Other than the above, I'll say I had a great time with this game.


Verdict:

Gameplay: *****
Music: ****
Graphics: *****

Odin Sphere

Another significant portion of my life is my Playstation (PS) 2. So it's only right that I blog about some games I've finished playing on my trusty unit.


I still remember the generosity of my friend Kah Jun who lent me his PS1 whilst we were back in secondary school to play Final Fantasy VII and VIII. I am forever in your debt my friend! That got me really hooked. The one fine day, I decided to get a PS2 unit for myself.


So in no particular order, here is my 2¢ on Odin Sphere, a beautifully crafted Action RPG from Atlus. I should mention I have a soft spot for fantasy genre RPGs.

It's been a long time since I touched an RPG with a side scrolling platform feel. I thought it may feel dated and obsolete. Odin Sphere overcomes this with some of the most gorgeous 2D artwork I've ever seen. Every environment is lovingly detailed, sometimes I just walk through the maps slowly to take a look at it all.

You take control of several heroes in the game, all of which give you a gameplay of the same storyline from different points of view. There will be times you co-operate and also battle against the other heroes. Another cool feature is the game has a in-game video timeline tool which allows you to play back all the videos you've seen in the game. So Hero B Event 1 may occur just after Hero A's Event 2. And after you've finished playing all heroes, you can watch the events occur in proper time sequence.

Another big part of this game is alchemy. You'll be finding lots of ingredients around the Odin Sphere world. Some popup from the ground (no kidding!), some can be ground, and if you mix the correct combination of ingredients, you can create new ones. This include useful potions, and food. In fact, there are kitchens and cafes in the game you can visit.

You can find little recipe scrolls throughout the game, and if you bring the chef the ingredients, they can make lovely food for you. Food is great to restore your health and gain exeperience. That's right, eating steak tartare and roasted lamb can give you experience points.

I love the ending battles of the games too. It has a grand finality feeling to it. Although a lot of it felt really tragic, in the end... a lot of the complex RPG storylines are like that. It's not all doom and gloom though... there are some happy moments too.

The music can get a little cutesy at times, especially during meal times. The voice acting is quite decent though.

Everyone should give Odin Sphere a try. I enjoyed it immensely and believe that if you're willing to give it a chance, you will be pleasantly surprised and richly rewarded.

Verdict:

Gameplay: ****
Music: *****
Graphics: *****

This is kind a cool!

If you haven't seen Blinkx before, go have a look see. It loads up about a 2 second animated clip into one of many tiny "tv" screens.

Quite cool don't you think?

Chuan Kie, Gotong Jaya

It was a fact I didn't want to admit. It's so much easier to blog about food than anything else.

So here's another entry from me about food. Went out for a family outing today to Genting. First stop was Lim Goh Tong memorial.


Still amazes me when I think what a huge empire Lim manage to build on our Malaysian mountain side area. First World Hotel is a record holder with > 10,000 rooms.


Above the memorial is a pavillion. Wouldn't this make a nice place for a late night get together?


Next was lunch at Gotong Jaya in Chuan Kie restaurant. There are lots of Chinese eating shops in Gotong Jaya's main street. They all look alike. They all serve roughly the same stuff too. Chuan Kie's distinguishing feature is that inside the restaurant, its walls are plastered full of celebrity photos taken with Chuan Kie staff.


Here's Mr Andy Lau Tak Wah. This picture must be really old, the colour has faded.


Here's Sally Yeh and George Lam. There are a lot more... maybe you can go look for Chuan Kie and have some fun identifying who you can recognise.


Food arrived, and is usual Chinese fare. The dish on the bottom left is "ka fah yok", but it tasted like pieces of fried lard, nothing more. Not for the health conscious. The taste was quite normal too. We had another patin fish dish, but it wasn't too fresh either. And the patin was RM90/kg. Word of advice, always ask for price and freshness before ordering!

Tenji Buffet

Made my way to the spanking new Solaris Mont Kiara. A new business area development comprising of office and shop lots, created with paved roads, pretty landscaping... Done in the vein of PJ's Jaya One. I guess the old trend of having lots of shop lots packed together, with inadequate parking is fading away. Taipan USJ comes to mind as one of those old trends.

I was at Solaris today to sample the Tenji buffet for lunch with a colleague. Comparisons with Jogoya at Starhill are inevitable.


Tenji's built up area is huge and can acommodate well over 100 tables with some private rooms too. There is an indoor air conditioned area and seating outdoors as well.


There are large chef stations throughout the interior, each one doing up a different food or drink. There are plenty of food and drink you can pick up off the counters. There are also food options that require on the spot cooking, so you drop in a little metal marker with your table number printed on it in baskets that correspond to that food choice you want. Once its prepared, someone sends the food to your table.


Undoubtedly, the japanese stuff drew the largest crowds. Do take note that lunch prices are cheaper than dinner, and well... I guess food quality is in proportion to the price. My colleague feels the dinner food is much nicer than today's lunch.


Be careful to read the labels carefully... some are not edible ho ho ho...


I did enjoy this grilled fish that my colleague took for us to share. It is small enough to fit nicely on a skewer and in the belly cavity, there was some egg. Very tasty, the sweet egg was great with the grilled fish meat.


Oysters were fresh too. Dinner oysters are supposedly twice this size.


There are the usual roast lamb, chinese stir fried dishes, sashimi, grilled seafood, tempura etc. The tempura is an order you have to use the metal marker. We made an order for octopus tempura, but it arrived quite cold and was not crispy. Sashimi was quite okay some more interesting choices of scallop, silverfish, abolone, and several types of jelly fish. Dessert are the usual cakes and pastries, with Haagen Dazs ice cream (as opposed to Jogoya's Movenpick).

On the whole, Jogoya's food is more enjoyable I think. But Tenji's restaurant is definitely more comfortable. It is also easier to get to. Tenji's afternoon buffet priced at about RM77++ per person. But I had dinner at Jogoya, maybe it's not a fair comparison... I don't know.

After lunch we peeked at Schokolart chocolate bar's menu. The friendly staff explained that this weekend there would be a pole dancing event in the evenings! Also provided was a free flow of chocolate cocktails. RM75 per head.

Solaris has a lot more to offer than Tenji and Schokolart, and I'll need to explore more of it another day to find other gems and treasures.