The World Ends With You

I've blogged about two PSP games so far, but I'm really a Nintendo DS guy. Recently however, it seems like my DS Lite is screaming for retirement. The top screen's colors are a little off, and the D-pad is not working. This means that I'm stuck with the touch screen games, but I'm not missing out much. I still have the Ace Attorney series, Trauma Center, Elite Beat Agents, and thankfully, The World Ends With You (TWEWY for short). I love it so much I named this blog after it.

The reason why I love it so much is because everything about it is great. Here:

Gameplay:

The gameplay is really unique. There are no random battles. You can see enemies on the screen, and you just click on them to activate the battle. The battle itself is confusing. You will fight on the top screen using the D-pad, and the touchscreen below simultaneously. But it's not that hard. Your abilities and money come in dozens of button pins, with each pin artwork having a unique ability. You get your stats from the clothes you wear to the food you eat, all of which can be bought from shops around the city.

Graphics and Music:

The graphics are in 2D with characters in sprites. The backgrounds and the overall artwork are just plain cool. The music is purely J-pop. So you have these songs with pretty cool beats, and the not-so-cool lyrics. Here's the game's trailer to show you everything I just mentioned:

Story:

TWEWY is a Role-Playing Game (RPG), set on the Shibuya district in Tokyo, Japan. It's about a boy named Neku, who woke up in the middle of the street, with amnesia, and everybody else can't see, hear, or feel him. He met a girl named Shiki, who told him that both of them are players in a game. Here's how the game works:

1. You can only become a player when you meet a certain condition.

2. You should give up the most important thing in your life as entry fee to the game.

3. You find and team up with a partner. If you can't, you get erased. (You Lose.)

4. With your parter, you do seven missions in seven days, given by the game master.

5. Finish a mission and the mission is accomplished for all the players.

6. If nobody finished the mission, everyone will be erased.

7. Noise (monsters) and Reapers (in-game characters) may fight the players and erase them.

8. After all the missions are completed, the game master chooses the winner who gets the prize.

Players on the foreground, Reapers on the background

Now I need to tell the spoilers to show how the story goes, but trust me, there are lot more great twists, plots, and sub-stories that I won't mention here. If you don't want any, then my post ends here.

Neku has amnesia, so it's pretty obvious that his memory was the most important thing that he gave up to enter the game. The certain condition to become a player? Death. All the players that enter the game are dead. And the prize? You guessed it! Another chance in life.

Neku gets to finish the game, but because of certain interferences that happened within the game, he gets to play it again, and then one more time, each with a different partner and a different game master. In the end, if everything turns out right (or wrong depending on how you see it), the world does end with him. Oh, and he finds out everything about his death.

Pretty nice story huh? That's the thing I love the most about the game. I play games like I read books, I'm all about the story.

Sugarfree @ SM Marilao

Last November 22, Sugarfree performed at SM City Marilao. Though I badly wanted to go and see them, I couldn't. Luckily, my sister was there to take some videos and posters, and have our Sugarfree LIVE and Mornings & Airpots signed.

Along with our younger brother, all three of us love Sugarfree so when Ebe asked my sister her name so he could sign with it, she told him not to write it anyway because it's all for the three of us. Awww... Hahahaha! Thanks Ate! Anyway, their next single, Feels Like, is their first single in English. However, the best track of their latest album, at least for me, is Hay Buhay. So here's a clip of them performing the song last Sunday:

New Overprints on Philippine Banknotes

I got this from my Dad. He used to collect specially released coins when he was younger. When the printing of the five peso bill stopped, my sister and I kept some, as we did to the ten peso bills (na may isa at dalawang ulo).

Ten years ago, we saw this:

A special overprint for the 50 years of Central Banking in the Philippines.

I thought that I should keep one.

Five years ago:

A special overprint for the UN Year of Microcredit.

Last year:

The University of the Philippines Centennial overprint.

Yesterday, I got this:

60 years of Central Banking in the Philippines.

I realized that it was already ten years since I kept that 50 peso bill and I just thought about blogging it. I know that the bank notes are supposed to be kept in circulation, but keeping a copy or two wouldn't hurt the number of bank notes being circulated, right? Hehe. I wonder when and for what the next overprinted banknotes would be.

I found this blog that's all about Philippine money and found out that all six of our current banknotes from 20 to 1000 pesos have the current overprint. Now I would have to look out for the other five. Haha.

Dissidia Final Fantasy. Finally!

After more than a year of waiting, I finally have a copy of Dissidia Final Fantasy. It was released last August 25 and I got mine on the 28th. I have talked about this game on at least two of my previous posts. It is the reason why I re-played and finished FF VII 12 years after it's release and the sole reason why I bought a Sony PSP, being the Nintendo fanboy that I am. Having played the first nine final fantasies, it's a must for me to get this game.

Story:
It's basically the good versus evil plot between the protagonists and antagonists of the game. Of course, the story focuses on the good guys. They team up with each other to find their own respective crystals, which are their last hope to win the war. Interestingly enough, the individual stories of the characters in the game reflects to the character's story on the original game. Terra suffers from her amnesia, Squall wants to be left alone, and Bartz, the wanderer that he is, ended up in the enemy's base camp.

Voice Acting:
Some voices we've heard before like Cecil, Golbez, Cloud, and Sephiroth. Some voices fit their characters like Kefka and Kuja; but Terra and Zidane, not so much. There are also a lot of times where the dialogue doesn't match the mouth movement.

Gameplay:
I consider the game as an RPG-ized fighting game. You choose your character, level them up, buy equipment, collect summons, and play through the character's story. The fighting is done in 3D environments. One set of attacks increases your bravery, and another set deals damage to your enemy's HP. The more bravery you have, the higher your damage on the enemy's HP.

Battle:
Some characters use the classic Final Fantasy magic: Fire, Thunder, and Blizzard. Many characters use their attack from their original game: Squall's Fated Circle and Rough Divide, Cloud's Cross Slash, and Zidane's Solution 9, for example.

EX Mode (Limit Break):
Terra, Zidane, and Kuja enter Trance. Cloud, Tidus, Squall, and Firion obtain their game's ultimate weapon. The Onion Knight and Bartz's job class change. Squall's EX Burst: Lionheart = FFVIII nostalgia.

You can even save videos and take screenshots.

So far, my favorite character is Zidane, because he's fast, can jump high, can evade attacks relatively well, and can attack from long distances; and I have to admit, FFIX is my first RPG and my favorite game ever.

I find this game worth every centavo that I spent, not only on the UMD, but also on the PSP itself.

Paying respect to President Aquino

This is just one side of the story of the thousands of people who waited in line for hours to pay respect to President Aquino.

Yesterday, I asked my mom if she wants to go to President Cory's wake. She asked me if it's okay with me and we went there that afternoon.

We parked near Letran in Intramuros, went to the Manila Cathedral, followed and got to the end of the line, which circled the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila block, at around 3:20pm. We met college students from Laguna, High School students from Manila, a woman from Bulacan, and a mother with her child from Cavite. We were thankful that PLM opened its restrooms and clinic to the public, and it took us two and a half hours to circle 3/4 of its block. Then my brother came and my mom sat down on the side of the street.

Suddenly, there was a collective scream from behind us and everybody turned their heads. We saw everyone opening their umbrellas and rain started to fall. A strong gust of wind upturned my umbrella, and then the rain was gone. It was around this time that the line became two, and there were frustrating moments when the newly formed line (of newcomers) started to cut in with us when they realized that our line was "the" line. People from our group were so frustrated that we were shouting "BAWAL SUMINGIT!"

The line got so long that we caught up with another part of it along the way, and it was much more in chaos than ours. We did not move much for at least two hours while the necrological service was conducted. There were occasional cheers every time the line moved a bit. Street food dinner for everyone. It rained and stopped occasionally, then there was a downpour. Many umbrellas like ours are grouped together forming a huge shell. It went on for a while and when it stopped, we were still nailed on the same spot, feet wet and hurting.

Then the line moved, and there were policemen and people from the cathedral facilitating the lines, which they should have done five hours earlier all throughout the line!!! People are cutting in line, people!!! But since then, the line merged into one and it got a lot more orderly.

Then the line split into two again, this time, it was facilitated. And the lined moved quite fast. Then there were girls screaming in front of us, then James Yap was there, then there was a woman being rushed in a stretcher, then we were inside.

It took us seven hours. We were able to see and pay respect to President Aquino and her family in less than 30 seconds. Then we were heading out the cathedral.

Then people were giving out pandesals and energy drinks. There was food here? We were hungry three hours ago! But it was still helpful, people were getting their hands on it. Then we got back to the car and drove back home to Bulacan on a downpour of rain.

7 hours in line. Somehow, it was worth it.

On my phones: Mornings and Airports

Earlier today I got my much awaited copy of Sugarfree's latest album, Mornings and Airports. I've been waiting for its release since I heard their latest single, "Hay Buhay," on the radio weeks ago. We played the whole album in the car on the way back home. I'm still familiarizing myself to most of the songs, but it's clear to me that "Hay Buhay" is my favorite by a mile.

Unfortunately, I didn't like as much as I have expected but it was still good, being a Sugarfree fan that I am. Haha. Many songs are in english, which makes this album from the previous ones very different, but it still has the Sugarfree feel to it. Kinda hard to explain but you'll know it when you're a fan. At least a couple of songs were sung by Jal, whose voice I recognized from when he sang "Batang-bata ka pa" alongside Ebe on their Apo tribute a while back.

So far, the songs that I like are Hay Buhay, Mornings and Airports, and Patawad. More songs will most probably be added to that once I listen to it more. Hehe.

Edit: I'll add Mamang Driver, Heto na Naman Tayo, and Form Factor to the songs that I like.

My new PSP and Crisis Core: FFVII

A week ago, I finally bought my own PSP 3006 for what I think is a really great price. All thanks to my ninong. Hehe. Salamat!

The main reason why I bought one is because of Dissidia Final Fantasy which would be out by next month. Before then, I thought I'd go play Crisis Core: FFVII, having finished the original game a few weeks back. Earlier today, I finished the game.

The game is very short, has impressive graphics and voice acting, an easy gameplay, and quite a nice story. Zack's back story with Angeal and Genisis is nice, but his relationship with the characters from the original game and the events that intertwined with it made his story very interesting.

Having played FFVII, I know how Zack's story would end. I never expected that watching it would actually be heart wrenching. His final thoughts of Cissnei, Tseng, and Sephiroth then that of Angeal, Cloud, and Aeris while battling for his life made my lungs inflate and my eyes burn. Specially that of Aeris (I still feel uncomfortable calling her Aerith) who actually felt him go to the lifestream, being an Ancient that she is. The ending is a tearjerker - not a happy ending, unlike all of the Final Fantasies that I played (haven't played X yet but I'm familiar with its story.) But it was still really satisfying.

Pugad Baboy 21

When I went to Glorietta today (technically yesterday, it was just 7 hours ago) to meet with my friends, I came earlier than expected so I wandered a bit inside the National Bookstore. When I passed a counter, I saw a guy buying 2 books: a Polgas Comics 2 and a red book with Dobermaxx on it. I immediately looked around for the comicbook shelf and saw this:

It's the 21st Pugad Baboy! It was just a week ago when I blogged about completing the series and now the latest one is here! Happiness! Wahaha! I just had to buy it.

I haven't actually read it yet, I just opened it right now and scanned it. By looking at the cover, it seems like it's going to have a major story arc, the last one being "Benigno Ramos: Bounty Hunter" on the Sunday Comics, but looking at the table of contents, I don't think there is one. The last major story arc on the main series would be "Aso" way back on Kinse. I hope Pol Medina Jr. would make more of those but really, every new addition to the series is good enough.

Edit: I stand corrected. There is a major story arc! Bodyguard, which features a returning character from a previous story arc.

Finally Finished Final Fantasy VII

Now I can finally say that I have completed the first nine Final Fantasies. We never had a PS2 so I never had the chance to play the others that followed.

I was first introduced to the Final Fantasy series by a High School friend in 2000. He brought a copy of Final Fantasy IX when I invited him to my house. Since then, I've played VIII then VII on the Playstation, then VI on the Gameboy Advance, then III and IV on the Nintendo DS, and finally I&II and V on the GBA. I managed to finish all of them, except for VII; though I did watch my cousin, Joshua, play through the whole game.

Anyway, after 12 years since it was released, I finally finished VII. There are a number of reasons why I didn't finish it the first time:

• My impression of the overall game system (the Materia System) is as bad as VIII's (Junction System).
• Joshua was playing it faster and better than me that I already knew what would happen if I continue my save file.
• I didn't got hooked by the characters and storyline immediately.
  
• It was very, very, very overrated, which made me hate it since I am an FFIX fanboy. Hehe.
  

After finishing it, I realized that it was in fact a really great game. The Materia System is way better than the stupid system in VIII. I liked the storyline. I actually forgot a lot of moments in the game that I was eager to play it to know what happens next. I liked RED XIII's subplot, I finally appreciated Cait Sith because of Reeve, and I absolutely loved Aeris's part in the story (I've always seen her as just the girl who died). But I still think it's overrated. Cloud and Sephiroth are SO NOT the best FF hero/villain/character ever. It's still a great game though, I'd put it third just below VI and IX as my favorite FF.

Dissidia Final Fantasy is coming this August. It is a fighting game consisting of the main protagonists and main antagonists of the first ten Final Fantasies, and a couple of characters further up the series. That's my main reason why I needed to complete the game myself, and the only reason why I'm going to buy a PSP soon. I've always been a Nintendo handheld gamer, until Dissidia was created.

Our Pugad Baboy Comic Book Collection is Officially Complete

Yep. After looking for a copy on a number of bookstores in Metro Manila for the past 2 weeks, I finally found a Pugad Baboy X, the last missing book to complete our collection, when we went to the province last thursday. Where? At the National Bookstore in Walter Mart, Gapan City. Haha!

The Pugad Baboy series of comic books by Pol Medina Jr. are the kind that people borrow every time. Not just the 20 comic books of the main series, but also the 2 Polgas comics, the graphic novel, Pirata; and the Pugad Baboy Sunday Comics. The only PMJr books that we don't have are the 3 Inks and POLitics editorial cartoons. The thing is, those who borrow them tend to lend them to others. That's why there's a good chance that it wouldn't be returned.

We had copies of each comic book PMJr released, but we didn't have all of them completed at a time because there's always at least one gone missing. It all started when our aunt and uncle gave us PB5 and Pugad Baboy 6 as Christmas gifts some time in the late 90's. But unfortunately, we need to re-buy at least six of the comic books that were either lost or were never returned. And for the first time ever, we now have every book in our collection. Yay!

My First Entry Made it on The Morning Rush Daily Top 10

I don't really listen to the radio. I was kinda forced by my sister to listen to the Morning Rush. The only time that I tune in is when I drive my sister to her work, and we're automatically locked in on RX93.1. Usually, we only hear The Top Ten around 9am and 9:30. By 10am, I would already have dropped my sister to work because she times in at this time. I just text her the top 5.

This morning, my dad had to go to POEA and we did drop my sister to work. This time, it was The Top Ten Beach Movie Titles (or something to that effect.) We all laughed in the car when we heard the entry: Mean Girls-type movie titled: "Whatever... beach." And then I thought that I would try to come up with something to send in. And I did.

I keyed in "RX [My entry] from: buen" and sent it to 2299.

Then when we were around Cubao, this happened:

Edit: imeem's pretty much history now so the clip is gone.

Anyway, here's my entry: "Aahon ako't lulunurin kita."

I can't believe it got in! Top 3 pa. Hehe. Not bad for a first entry. My dad said: "Uy! Buen daw. Kapangalan mo." I said: "Ako po yun." I immediately texted my sister about it. I think she was kinda surprised that I texted an entry. Both she and my dad said "Galing a." Well, it was.

I'd like to thank Blue Ritz for the audio clip. Thank God for your podcasts. If you want to download the day's morning rush, you can do so on his blog.

Visita Iglesia 2009, Pampanga

Last Holy Thursday, our family decided to try something new for the Holy week. We tried to have a visita iglesia, where we would visit and pray on a number of churches. Since we were staying on Gapan, Nueva Ecija that week, we decided to visit churches there and on Pampanga.

We passed a number of churches along the way but they were all closed. We took a turn to the national park of Arayat but didn't got out of the car, we just wanted to see what's up there and it turns out to be a public resort. When we were around Mexico, Pampanga, I told my dad that I wanted to go to the church half-buried by lahar that can be seen from the highway going to Bataan. We did. It was called San Guillermo Parish Church in Bacolor and it was our first stop for the day. After some prayers, we looked around the church, and overheard a woman saying that it was the church where they shoot the teleserye, May Bukas Pa. After taking more pictures, we went to San Fernando, Pampanga.

My dad wants to visit the San Fernando Catherdral so it was our next stop. There were a lot of people and cars around the cathedral's parking area. We made some prayers and took some pictures and tried to figure out where to go next.

We did not know any other churches near the area and if we go further to Bataan, it would be a very long trip so we decided to head back to Gapan. On the way back, we stopped at Razon's on Mexico which was thankfully open. We had some of their sisig, palabok, and of course, their famous halo-halo. It was a very hot day so that stop was very refreshing.

It was a very long trip back even though we were traveling rather fast on a straight highway. And that's pretty much it.

Eraserheads Reunion Concert - Final Set

I've been too lazy updating this blog. That's pretty much the reason why this post came out well after the event. Here's my story that night:

We arrived late. There's a very, very, heavy traffic around SM Mall of Asia when we got there, and we managed to park beside SMX. When I saw that the concert had started, I split up with my sister to find my friends, Maruel and Tibs (with Alex). The cellphone reception was so bad that I wasn't able to contact them. I decided to go back and join my sister, but I can't contact her either.

I ended up watching it alone feeling sadly stupid. The good thing is that I got a very nice spot at the back of the silver area, with a nice view of the stage (but I can't see the Marcus from there), and five projectors. There were a very few people in that area so I was watching with the nice breeze from the Manila bay instead of a crowd.

I'm not going to make a blow-by-blow post about what happened. Here are some points that I just want to share:

1. Marcus's Hello Kitty guitar and reggae rendition of "Huwag mo nang Itanong" were brilliant.
2. I wish that other people knew "Alkohol" and "Insomnia" so that the crowd would have sang along with Raimund.
3. The aucustic set was really, really nice.
4. When Anne Curtis saw herself at the projector, she tried to sing the lyrics ending up with "burger, fries, tapsilog, at SIAPAO" on the song, "Overdrive."
   
5. The fake ending was kinda lame. Everyone knew that it wasn't over until "Ang Huling El Bimbo" was played.
6. Near the end of "Superproxy," a girl next to me said: "Oh my God, he did Francis M's rap." Hindi kaya. Sa original kaya yun.
   
7. I thought "Ako ngayo'y lumilipad at nasa langit na" was a tribute to Kiko, but it was immediately followed by "Gusto mo bang sumama?" making me say aloud, "Ay, hindi."
   
8. Best. Alapaap. Version. EVER.
9. Kaleidoscope World chorus feels very short for a Francis M tribute...
10. but hearing El Bimbo right after made me forget everything. Nostalgia.
11. Sticker Happy piano (looks like it, without most of the stickers) was burned. Sad.
12. Hoping for a miracle that was answered: an encore.
13. Another girl beside me asked her friend what the title of "Ligaya" was. He answered: "Ilang ulit pa ba ang uulitin." Uhhh... Okay.
    
14. Ely skipped a part on "Sembreak."
15. Tim Yap attempted to sing "Toyang." The "BOOOOOOO!!!" he got from everybody was enough humiliation for a lifetime.

Overall, the concert was well worth it. Long live Eheads.

I got my Folie a Deux signed!

On my last post, I said that that if Fall Out Boy would have an autograph signing this time, I'll be there when when the mall opens. I can't believe I had this great a day.

My mom was doing a lot of errands today and I did the driving for her. At about 2pm, we were at the McArthur Highway at Marilao on the way to a bank. Then I heard two DJs on RX 93.1 saying that FOB will have an autograph signing later on 6pm at the SM Mall of Asia. We were supposed to pick up my brother from school and go to SM Manila to buy him new shoes for his JS Prom (the reason why I won't be able to watch the concert in the first place), but I convinced my mom to do it on MoA instead.

I was really desperate to be there (read the previous post why) and I got there from Marilao in 1 hour. Good thing that my Folie is in the car. I bought their Live in Phoenix CD as I already have "Folie" and "Infinity." I was lucky number 89.

Two hours later, FOB was there. They got there on time, posed a bit for some picture-taking, signed some autographs, and got out as fast as they came in. It was a long wait for such a short event but it was all worth it. Patrick and Pete offered to shake their hand so I did. I can't really understand it, but it felt like they were just some other foreigner tourists that you see every time. It didn't really feel that they were famous because I managed to be there standing in front of them, but they ARE famous, and I'm there, and I was just happy.

Ansayasaya.

Eraserheads and Fall Out Boy

My all time favorite OPM band and my favorite band today. Both are having their concerts soon, FOB on Feb 13, and E-heads on March 7. I really want to watch both but I can't stop thinking about the P3,000 pesos that I would spend for each. I have the money now but thinking about how I managed to save that much makes me not want to spend it for just a night's experience. Never in my life have I wanted to watch a concert so badly, except that of FOB's on 2007 and that of E-head's last year.

I wasn't able to watch both for different reasons. When Fall Out Boy came, I learned that they would have an autograph signing at the SM Mall of Asia so I decided to go there instead. I thought that meeting them personally and keeping an autographed "Infinity on High" would be a million times better than paying 3,000 pesos only to see them as big as ants performing their songs. I cut my 3-hour class and got there an hour before the scheduled time only to find out that only the first 200 people will be allowed to have a SINGLE FREAKING ITEM autographed. I did manage to see the band personally but there's too many people and I was so far away that the pictures that I took with my low-res phone were too blurry. Didn't even got a souvenir. I don't even want to talk about why I wasn't able to watch the E-heads reunion concert.

Anyway, this time, it seems that I wouldn't be able to watch Fall Out Boy again. My brother will have his JS Prom on the same date and I'm the only one who can drive him there and back home. I'm here hoping that they'll have another autograph signing. If they would have one, I'll be at the entrance before it opens. I'm really looking forward to the E-heads concert though. So far, everything is going well so that I can watch it, but I'm still waiting for my sister to buy the tickets.

My first entry for the year...

...and it's all about keeping this blog alive.

I'm really really satisfied on how this blog turned out so erasing it is not an option. It's been a long while since I posted another entry. I need something to motivate me to keep this blog running. I've been thinking of possible entries to add up to my blog. I go out and see movies with my family and friends from time to time but I just don't feel reviewing them. I'm not into music this year as I was about a year ago. I've been a fan of Mitch Albom and J.K. Rowling but I don't really read books. And I'm not the type of person who goes out every time.

I thought that to keep this blog updated, I should post something that I am really interested in. I thought about video games and said, why not? Who doesn't like them anyway? I've been a fan of Role Playing Games since my childhood. I specially love those of Square Enix's. I'm a different kind of gamer. I don't play games because of it's popularity, graphics, and gameplay, but they sure help. I play video games much like watching a movie or reading a novel. I like them for their stories. If you play RPGs, I'm sure you'll understand. So I've decided to include video game entries from time to time.