Gremio Stew Maestro

I've just begun the game and I instantly liked Gremio. He's so cute when he fusses about "young master" Tir's well being. He's so kind and his profile picture looks so gentle yet sad. The atmosphere in Tir's home when he returns at the beginning of the game is so heart warming.
 (1) Gremio rushing out to meet "young master" and going back to making his STEW
 (2) Teo being excited about Tir's experience in the castle
 (3) Cleo reprimanding of Tir not to come into a girl's room without knocking, and
 (4) Pahn sleeping like a log and going back to sleep again after being woken up by Tir.

All these while the "Main Theme" music is being played is just epic! It's so touching and it reminds me of a lot of 2D old school RPG games with mellow moments (eg. FF6, Chrono Trigger, etc). I'm feeling good about Suikoden I, I think I'm going to like this game a lot. I'm really pissed I came upon a big big spoiler simply after entering "Suikoden Gremio" on the google search bar though... (Hmmm, after the spoiler, I'm beginning to see a common trend among all the Suikoden games I've played.. and I think I'm liking that trend..)

I've got to say though, the Gremio spoiler made me even like him more. I think he may be up there among one of my fav Suikoden characters of all time. Something about the sad expression in his eyes made me really like this character. Moreover, he's so funny when he worries (w/c is all the time) and he has a gentle personality :).

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Suikoden III

Finally got to play Suikoden III and finished the game in about two weeks. I like it; it really exceeded my initial expectation of the game. Several months ago, I tried playing the game but immediately lost my appetite to play the game when I saw the first cut scene where Chris parades around with her knights. Because of the boxy figures, and because I have Persona 4 and haven't played it yet at that time, I opted to forgo Suikoden III. Recently, having nothing else to play after Sengoku Basara 2 Heroes, I finally tried Suikoden III again and I'm so glad now that I decided to really try playing the game.

This time around I started with Hugo's chapter instead of Chris'. For the first chapter, I think Hugo's is the most exciting and I think starting with Hugo's first chapter would build up more suspense before playing Chris and Geddoe's chapter 1. Ironically, Hugo's my least favorite among the three main characters, and I think his 2nd and 3rd chapters are the most boring compared to Chris and Geddoe's. My favorite among the three is Geddoe; although he probably speaks the least among the three, his chapters are really good because of the interaction among his crew (esp Ace-Joker banters and Jacques' quirks) and Geddoe's mysterious aura.

Really though, my most fav character in this game has got to be Yuber. Actually, in this game, Geddoe's totally cooler than Yuber, but the real initial motivator of me playing this game was the prospect of recruiting Yuber. At first I thought he was recruitable because he's listed in a lot of sites as one of the 108 stars. Tough luck though, he's not recruitable in the "main" game (he'll be available in Luc's chapter which only takes an hour or so to finish...).  Errr.., I like Yuber because he is EVIL :), but mostly because he looks mysterious yet charming with his black outfit, black hat, and long blonde braided hair. I love how he gets mad all the time when you beat him and he always refer to the good guys as "worms" or "maggots" and the like. I love his mismatched colored eyes as well, his crimson red and cerulean blue eyes definitely go well with his evil smirk!

Annnnyway..., I think the best thing about Suikoden III is the trinity sight system, the roaster of likable characters, the suspense and mysteries in the game's plot, the runes and skill leveling up system, the "sympathizable" main villain, and Yuber :). Ah, and the music's good too (fav is the Iksay village theme)! I'm currently playing Suikoden V and I think the music sucks so bad I had to adjust the BGM to the lowest level. I'm currently playing Suikoden I along with V, and so far I can say that V is the least exciting and least captivating, and therefore is my least fav among the Suiko that I've played (II, III, Tierkreis) and am playing (I and V), while Suiko III is definitely among my top three fav Suikoden game.

Final Suiko III team: Geddoe, Queen, Roland, Sasarai, Nash, Salome

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NHK Taiga "Tenchijin" 天地人

天地人 (Tenchijin).. My initial thought was, "what a strange title.." Well, so far I'm not as drawn to this series as I was with 2004 NHK's Shinsengumi. I didn't care for most of the main characters in Tenchijin (Naoe Kagetsugu and Uesugi Kagekatsu). I watched this series mainly because I really like Uesugi Kenshin, but I'm kind of disappointed with how the series portrays him to be; I don't know if that is how Kenshin really was, but I felt that he was less grand in Tenchijin than how I imagine/ idolize him to be. In contrast to the main characters, I thought Oda Nobunaga is the most interesting character in the show. He has a commanding presence every time he appears in the show, and I found his determination and confidence in unifying Japan very admirable. One of the most memorable scenes of the series so far was how Nobunaga explained to Hideyoshi (Nobunaga calls him "saru" aka. monkey) the phrase Ten-chi-jin. Where he explains that "'ten' stands for heaven's time, 'chi' stands for profit, and 'jin' stands for harmony of the people" and that "only the general who has these three is able to conquer the country". My favorite scene though, so far in the series, is the part where Kagetsugu was finally able to speak with Nobunaga for the first time and they talk of their differing philosophy in view of attacking Hongan-ji and justice.

thanks to Koala Fansubs for the ENG translations

Nobunaga: "Justice is merely an excuse to engage in battle."
Nobunaga: "Hoisting the flag of justice and being obsessed with it won't bring peace to the lands."
Kagetsugu: "Without justice, human beings would be mere beasts in the wilderness."
Nobunaga: "Then let us be beasts."
Nobunaga: "I'll put an end to this warring era."
Nobunaga: "If it is for the sake of creating a new world,"
Nobunaga: "I will give my soul to the demon"

I never especially liked Oda Nobunaga before, but I'm starting to grow on him because of this series' portrayal of Nobunaga. Hmmm, can't wait to see Akechi Mitsuhide's appearance in the series! Mitsuhide's always been interesting to me, and I've always wondered about why Mitsuhide did what he did to Nobunaga. Aww, I wan't to watch 明智光秀 - 神に愛されなかった男!!!!!! I've read on boards that it's a tear jerker!!!

[turns out 天地人合is a Chinese (and Japanese?) proverb that means the right ingredient/mixture of coincidences that makes someone or something so great, and things would not have been as great if it weren't for those mixture being present at the right place and time.]

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