Naglevel-up na ko!

I won a pizza! Hey, I rarely win anything so this Thick Family Ultimate Hawaiian Overload from Greenwich and The Morning Rush is very much appreciated:

Today was the first time that I was tuned in to The Morning Rush from start to end. I was to take my brother to school and pick-up my parents at the airport from Bohol so I was in the car the whole morning, locked in on RX93.1.

Today's top ten was the signs that you won't be a good parent. I sent in an entry while parked at the airport. I was hoping, but not expecting, for my entry to be picked. I only had one other entry that was picked before so imagine the excitement I had when I heard my entry land on the top of the hour. The pizza that I won was just the icing on the cake.

Here's my pizza-winning entry: "...if you love playing with your pets but you leave the feeding, the bathing, the cleaning up, all the unpleasant stuff, to somebody else."

When my parents arrived, I asked them if they want some free pizza and that I won one, so we went to Ortigas. It's a good thing that my sister pointed out where RX's office a couple of times we passed Emerald Avenue before. I got there, got my gift certificate, and we went home. This really made my day.

Antipolo Trip

We have been planning for a car blessing for our Nissan Navara for a long while and my Dad decided to have it blessed one Sunday after hearing mass with the whole family. What he did not tell us until the night before was that we'll be hearing that mass in Antipolo. That's what I like about my Dad.

I was too young to remember the last time I've been there and I was wondering why in the world my Dad decided to go there. It turns out that the Antipolo Cathedral is the shrine of Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage. It's like the perfect place to have a car blessing.

I must say that I was impressed with the Church. Not just by the cathedral, but the community itself. There were people were guiding vehicles to a parking space near the cathedral, some were greeting and welcoming people as they enter the church, there was one organized line to the shrine behind the church after the mass, and they have brothers ready to bless vehicles of the travelers. It's easily the most organized church I've ever been.

After Navara's binyag, we ate lunch at Padi's Point Antipolo. Just like any other establishments there, it has a really, really great view of the Metro Manila. The food was okay and it really looked good so we took a picture. Haha!

After that, a quick trip to TriNoMa, then we went home. It's always the unplanned trips to unfamiliar places that are the most enjoyable and exciting trips you'll ever be in.

Pugad Baboy Sunday Comics 2

It's always the best part of the day when I go to a bookstore and find out a new Pugad Baboy was released. This time, it's the second Sunday Comics.

Just like the first one, every page of this book has a short, colored, and enlarged comic strip with the antics of the Pugad Baboy residents. Each comic strip goes on its own and are not categorized under a title, unlike those on the normal Pugad Baboy comics.

This one doesn't have a story arc unlike the first one, but it does feature what seem to be two of Pol Medina Jr.'s projects outside Pugad Baboy, titled "Bukayo" and "Torque Chops."

Lastly, being quite a big book with colored pages, you shouldn't be surprised that its price is higher than the regular comic books. I got my copy for P400 in the National Bookstore near DLSU.

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.