Hello From The Future

It's 3:18AM Thursday in China. I just finished listening to show number #53. I guess I'll start off first by chiming in on what I've been playing.

I started off my trip by trying to power through some Patapon. I've been stuck, busy, and kind of frustrated so I put it down that week after I got it. I have to say I'm pretty disappointed in the title. I'm finding the missions confusing and the rhythm mechanic quite tedious. Plus those Patapon sounds are just freaking annoying. Playing a music game should make you laugh not cringe, I'll go more into detail the next show I'm back for.

So I put my newly purchased PSP down this week to play another game that I'd been anticipating since last year. Professor Layton and the Curious Village I'm sad to say has also been quite a disappointment. The story seems interesting enough. From starting at an inheritance case and then moving on to the more trivial cat gone missing, it has now moved on towards a murder mystery and kidnapping case. I have no problems with story or how it's presented, but the way the puzzles are incorporated into the gameplay is absolutely horrendous. There is paper-thin relevance between what is going on in the Layton world with that which is going on in the puzzle. On top of that, every corner you turn there's another person who wants to present you with yet another puzzle. What's worse is that it's never much more than "Hey, I have this puzzle, I bet you can't solve it." The puzzles themselves aren't particularly hard either. Some of the ones I'm having problems I'm having trouble with I could just easily pull out a piece of paper, do some basic algebra and come up with the answer. But to each of these there's a trick which will allow you to bypass all this so I refuse to resort to the paper and pencil method. This makes me feel like I'm in SAT class again try to learn the tricks to figure out the problems instead of wasting valuable time calculating out 'n' to the 32nd power to see if the answer will turn out odd or even. Sure I could use the hint system and pay the coins for help, but isn't that just admitting defeat. Plus didn't I pay good money for the DS cartridge. In a game like this, once you figure out the solution, that's it. Replay value goes to absolute zero.

So what have I been playing to pass the time in this foreign land that isn't Japan. I've gone back to playing Phoenix Wright: Trials and Tribulations. It's like a love and hate relationship with this game. I love to hate it and then I hate to love it. It's like the love interest you keep going back to even when it hurts you to do so. So here I am, back at it again. I'm hating the flaws in the gameplay but the characters, story, music, and emotional ties to this game keep me extremely satisfied. The game is currently in the process of going back to tie a bunch of loose ends left from the second game.

That's currently whats going on here,
I enjoyed the show this week and am still bummed that I'm missing out on Fatal Frame 3 and Condemned 2, but can't wait for Brad to play Mario & Sonic at the Olympics.

Shameful Secrets:
Played, Loved, Haven't Beat - Advance Wars 2, Final Fantasy XII
Never Played, Never Beat - Final Fantasy VII
Never Played But Want To - Earthbound
Played and Will Beat - Metal Gear Solid


Take Care,
David

Oh people ask me why I don't listen to Chinese music since I speak Mandarin and could understand it. The answer is "Mostly because I can't stand that a lot of popular C-pop songs are not original." It's sampled or copied from other artists. A majority of popular Chinese Artists have covered at least one or two popular songs. Case in point this song. You'll probably be able to tell immediately where it's from. But for some reason I do really like this song. Maybe it's because the girl is actually kind of cute or because she's singing about not being afraid of roaches or the dark anymore. Maybe this could turn out to be Brad's new theme song?