Finally got around to beating Tales Of Symphonia : Dawn Of The New World the other day. I have to say, I really didn't like it when I started it, but in the end, it turned out to be a welcome addition to the TALES OF... family of games. Even so, the game really felt like a watered-down TALES OF... game. I mean, no costumes with new titles and being forced to have at least one of the two main characters in you party at all times all the while turning the characters you know and loved from the original SYMPHONIA game into mere supporting characters with very limited abilities (no Sheena summoning abilities makes me all angry face).
Add in the unnecessary monster capturing aspect of the game (what is this, Pokemon?) and you have a somewhat confusing mess. The game in and of itself is nothing more than a fan-service frenzy for those who loved the original and just wanted a little more. I doubt all of those fans were pleased at the end, but thankfully, I felt the storyline and the (eventually) likeable new characters (Tenabrae is awesome) won me over in the end. The new voices took a while to get used to (only Collette and Kratos' original voices returned from what I could hear), but they weren't so different that you felt they were a completely different character. Lloyd's voice on the other hand was way different, and I miss his Teen Titans Robin voice (TITANS GO!!!)
With that game behind me, I decided to go back and do a second playthrough of ETERNAL SONATA, or as it's called "The Encore Mode". BIG MISTAKE. When you play in "Encore Mode", the difficulty level is shot straight through the roof. The game was hard enough the first time on normal mode!!! The boss battles are just so unforgiving. Seriously, if you don't spend an un-godly amount of hours just leveling up in "Encore Mode", you won't stand a chance.
After getting very frustrated, I decided I'd had enough and went back to the bread and butter of the TALES OF... series to give another playthrough of TALES OF THE ABYSS. Without question, one of the most popular games in the series, so much so, it's the only TALES OF... game to receive a full 26 episode TV series (others have gotten short OVA series or one shot movies). The gameplay is very much like the original SYMPHONIA game, only much, much better and easier to grasp in my opinion. Add in the easier OVER LIMIT abilities and you make a huge improvement over previous games in the series. I think it's also one of the longer games in the series, as in I clocked in my first playthrough at around 50 hours (!!!!). That's mostly because I went through a lot of the sidequests available in the first playthrough (there's apparently even more in the second playthrough). Add in some of the most likeable characters in a game I've ever played (Jade is still a jerk), another solid soundtrack by Motoi Sakuraba and a great storyline, and you've got one of my personal favorites. Here's to another 50 hours.
Oh and no, I won't even think of giving TALES OF LEGENDIA another chance. I'd rather torture myself with "Encore Mode" in ETERNAL SONATA.
| + UPDATE : 2/4/2010 : Make-believe's reborn... |
I know I'm in the minority when it comes to being a fan of the 3D Sonic The Hedgehog games of the past decade, but even I'll admit I'm hyped about the news of the upcoming new Sonic The Hedgehog game. It appears the levels have the look of the old-school 2D games with a 3D facelift (Sonic included), which could be a very good thing. As I said, I have liked the 3D games, so I hope those aren't going to be totally scrapped, but I get the feeling that the Wii will have exclusive rights to those games with the storybook series.
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| + UPDATE : 1/29/2010 : VOLUME 10 PART 3 |
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WWE Volume 10 has been released and I have to say it is easily one of the best WWE CD releases ever. Almost every track is a winner in my eyes (Sorry, Primo) and I'll be listening to this one for a while. Sheamus' theme is absolutely awesome, by the way.
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Still looking for just the right job for me, but at least I'm getting some more hours as of late at my current job, so that's getting me by for the moment.
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Finally getting around to watching the rest of Gurren Lagann. I just love it so much. It's so over the top on every level that you look past any negatives about the show with no problem. You know it's a good show when I can get my friend Joe to like it. His words exactly..., "It's just so stupid but I can't stop watching it!" Yeah, that seems about right.
| + UPDATE : 1/15/2010 : VOLUME 10 PART 2 |
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Final tracklist for WWE THE MUSIC VOLUME 10 "A NEW DAY":
01. It's A New Day - The Legacy
02. I Am Perfection - Dolph Ziggler
03. I Came To Play - The Miz
04. Just Close Your Eyes - Christian
05. Return The Hitman - Bret Hart
06. Written In My Face - Sheamus
07. Insatiable - Tiffany
08. Domination - Ezekial Jackson
09. Born To Win - Evan Bourne
10. Oh Puerto Rico - Primo Colon
11. Radio - Zack Ryder
12. New Foundation - The Hart Dynasty
13. You Can Look (But You Can't Touch) - The Bella Twins
14. Crank The Walls Down - The Big Show & Chris Jericho
I was pretty close with my predictions, but I am a little surprised that both Bret Hart's new theme and The Hart Dynasty's theme are on there, seeing how similar the two themes are. Oh well, I'm happy to get both. I particularly can't wait for Sheamus' theme, though... "these words are true and I'll make you belieeeeeeeve..."
+ UPDATE : 1/14/2010 : I like sing with the radio CD(?)... |
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WWE is releasing WWE The Music Volume 10 "A New Day" in about two weeks. Glad to see the release date isn't that far off from the announcement. The tracklist will be announced tomorrow, but here's what I'm expecting it to be:
Legacy (obviously, since their theme is called "It's A New Day")
Sheamus
Zack Ryder
Evan Bourne
Dolph Ziggler
Christian
Ezekial Jackson
Bella Twins
Jeri-Show
Katie Lea Burchill
The Miz
Tiffany
Hart Dynasty
DX (one of the unreleased versions)
A lot of that has been released in some form, but quite a few not in full, so it looks like a solid release to me.
EDIT:
---""WWE The Music – A New Day" will be released exclusively for download at @AmazonMP3 Jan. 28 for just $3.99 for a limited time!"
I hope that doesn't mean there won't be a CD release, like they did for VOLUME 7 on iTunes.
EDIT #2:
Supposedly, there will be a CD release in some form or another through Amazon. Good to hear.
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After getting NARUTO SHIPPUDEN CLASH OF NINJA REVOLUTION III (whew, that's still a long name to type), I've been going back and playing other games in the CLASH OF NINJA series, trying to finally unlock everything. I have to say, that's the one thing I don't like about this series. The requirements to unlock everything take FOREVER. Still, it's a fun series in the long run, even if it's the MADDEN of anime games, in which it really doesn't change all that much with each installment.
| + UPDATE : 1/6/2010 : Let's move along, shall we? |
A new year is here and it's already a good year, because there's no way it can be as bad as last year. Let's hear it for 2010!!! 
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Got NARUTO SHIPPUDEN CLASH OF NINJA REVOLUTION III (try saying that three times fast) and RESIDENT EVIL UMBRELLA CHRONICLES (both for the Wii) for Xmas. While the Naruto game is more of the same (albeit still improved) for the series, REUC is a completely different take on the series, it being a 1st-Person shooter and all. It takes some liberties with the storylines of the original RE games it covers, but that's not an entirely bad thing. All in all, it's great to have another fun shooter game.
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Still contemplating whether or not to buy BAYONETTA (360) now or try and save some money by getting it used somewhere down the line. The demo is so amazing, it's hard to hold off from buying it.
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Although I know it won't come anytime soon, I'm still hoping for a phone call from a certain company I applied to a few months ago.
Click here for the updates archive.
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Welcome to my website, JustinAaron.com. I'm Justin and this is basically my little corner on the net for all my websites and projects. Hope you'll stick around for a while, because I've got quite a lot coming in the near future (hopefully). Whether it's videogames, music, anime, sports or anything else that interests me, you better believe I'll be covering it here or on one of my sites.
