Reuenthal & Pride

What is this intense desire to write about my feeling towards the admiral from Legend of Galactic Heroes, Oskar von Reuentahl? I am not sure why I have the urgent need to write down my thoughts of Reuenthal, but I think it may be because I look up to him a lot and I know from my history that I tend to forget or take for granted the values and admirations I used to felt for other beings whom I previously admired a great deal but of which my admiration had waned. It’s sad that my admiration for Reuentahl may most likely diminish gradually, but I want to try my best to value him continuously as much as I do now. This brings me to write down my feelings as I believe writing my thoughts down will help me remember as well as remind me of why I immensely admire Oskar von Reuentahl.

The most defining traits of Reuentahl are his dualistic nature of bordering between loyalty and ambitiousness, his self-assuredness, and finally his self-destructive tendencies. Reuentahl is also characterized by his usually calm, calculating nature, and his dark humor. Reuentahl is one of the most clever and formidable commanders in the LOGH galaxy, and he claims it himself that there are only few in the world who can manage to beat him in the battlefield, namely – Reinhard, Yang, Merkatz, and his closest friend Mittermier. Despite his talent and intelligence, Reuentahl is a flawed character. First, he is a player and never holds a lasting relationship with women. Second, he likes to play around with circumstances simply for challenge and curiosity’s sake. Third, he seems to like to play with risks during some of the crucial instances involving his life; it’s like he is mentally prepared for his worst whether the situation is favorable or unfavorable to him. To put it simply, the common denominator and the greatest flaw of Reuentahl is his self-destructive behavior. In episode 46, he admitted to himself that he should not have been born, but “since I am living anyway, I might as well...”, his phrase led me to believe that he does not think he deserved to be born, but since he was born anyway, he might as well prove himself and achieve something grand. I think that phrase provides a credible explanation to his self-destructive tendencies. Reuentahl may have hated his own existence, but wanted to see how far he could get with his life; that explains many of his personal decisions which indicated the pursuit of risk for excitement or testing himself like ignoring his intuition of Yang’s possible setup in Iserlohn, keeping Elfriede with him despite her wanting to kill him, and his rebellion against Reinhard in spite of knowing that he will be at a great disadvantage against his emperor. For someone who seems to accept death, the remaining issue would naturally be reduced to the manner of death. Reuentahl told Mittermier not to worry about Elfriede, for Reuentahl will not allow himself to be killed by a woman, as he would only “die by the sword”. To summarize, Reuentahl does not think he deserves to be born so he accepts, or even borders on desiring, his own death, but his desire to prove himself while he lived would not allow him to accept an insignificant death.

 I think I may be similar to Reuenthal in that I’ve got some self-destructive tendencies from time to time, and I believe in myself too much, I get conceited and get too sure of myself a lot.  I do believe that whatever happens to me, it is no one’s fault but mine. I have a recklessness of wanting to test myself and see how far I can go. I like to procrastinate because I know that I can handle the tasks even if I procrastinate; I do end up being able to handle the task on time, but I often wonder if I could have done even better in terms of efficiency and time management had I not procrastinate. I don’t know, I just enjoy the thrill of the risk, and success is sweeter if the success is not a sure success in the first place. I feel that this is a really bad mentality, and is one of my worst traits. As they say, “pride before the fall”, and sometimes I think there might come a time when I can’t handle my own undoing. However, I think if that happens, I’d still pride myself in that I was the cause of my own downfall and that my downfall was not a result of losing to someone else. And I strongly believe that each person has the right to choose their own way of living. As long as they are prepared to face the consequences, to each their own; I personally hate being told what to do and what not to do. A lot of times, I know what I am doing is not the necessarily the best alternative, but I would still pursue it anyway. Once I’ve decided on something, it’s hard to change my mind, unless the very foundation on which my decision was based upon was factually wrong, or if the foundation’s situation has changed.

Reuenthal’s idea of heroism is very romantic. [The following all caps in quotations are some of the translated episode titles in LOGH] He ‘LIVES BY THE SWORD’ and ‘DIES BY THE SWORD. He’d rather die proud than live shamefully. It’s not a very practical mentality, but I would like to ‘die by the sword’ just as I’d ‘live by the sword’. The sword in that sense would mean anything I strongly value. I think there is no belief or value that are correct or true; people simply believe in what they want to believe, or what they found to be more convenient to believe in. It may be foolish to fight for an idea when there isn’t even any way to know if it’s right or wrong. Nevertheless, what I value or believe in shapes the essence of my entire being; I don’t care if I am right or wrong, my actions are nobody else’s but my own, and my reality is nobody else’s but my own; to each their own! Reuenthal is in a position of power, and “REBELLION IS A HERO’S PRIVILEGE”. It made me think that, when one is powerful, one can defy a rule or any belief or system, and would be a celebrated figure. However, if one is powerless, one would simply be branded a traitor or whatever else of the belittling nature. That is why I want to my share of the pie. I want power like Reuenthal or Reinhard. As a common saying goes, “If it has been done before, I can also do it; if it hasn’t been done before, there must be a way!” I want to be powerful, so that like Reuenthal, I can have the hero’s privilege of rebelling, and then I’d gladly die by the sword just as I’d live by the sword. It’s such a romantic notation, but I want to remain to think that way in spite of the practical reality.

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Life as an RPG Video Game

If I would think of my life as a RPG computer game, the straightforward way to win is to follow the steps I usually do in order to come out successful at the end of any RPG game.

(1)   Check the possible max potential (in terms of skills, weapons, level I can attain) within the game, and find out how to obtain them as soon as possible.

(2)   Only retreat from battles if it is currently impossible to win.

(3)   If I lose any battle in a row, I stop, look, and listen to what gamefaqs has to say.

I always get the coolest weapons, max my levels, and completely overpower the last boss in every RPG game I play. So how do I apply my RPG strategy to my real life? Converting the ones above, I’d say:

(1)   Check what max potential I could most likely attain; know what I’d want my future to be, and find out how to obtain them. I shouldn’t expect to obtain them as soon as possible, but I should act upon them as soon as possible.

(2)   It would be nice if I could try out anything, and retreat anytime if I thought I am losing. However, this is probably not applicable in real life. Backing out in the middle of any engagement or commitment would ruin my reputation, and there is no ‘continue?’ option for ‘game over’s in real life either.

(3)   In life, it’s probably wiser to read gamefaqs prior to playing the game, rather than checking gamefaqs out only after I am stuck in the game.

After some contemplation, my revised strategy guide for life is:

(1)   Know what I want for my future, prioritize those that I have higher chance of attaining, but habitually spend some time to improve myself in the other fields I am interested in.

(2)   Know the ‘rules of the game’ in any field or ‘battle’ I might engage in before ‘challenging’ anything.

(3)   Actually there is the ‘continue?’ option after every ‘game over’, but there is no ‘save/load file’ in real life. It is better to continue rather than giving up, that is, only if I know I would succeed the next time around.

Okay, whatever goes. Starting today, I’ll put my real-life strategy guide to test and see how I do.

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Kuroshitsuji II

To be honest, the only reason I watched Kuroshitsuji II was because of Claude. From the official art and posters of Kuroshitsuji, I can already feel that Kuroshitsuji is full of female fan service and yaoi-implications. I don't really like Sebastian, his smile is too creepy for me.. Claude on the other hand... is definitely my kind of bishie. I don't like characters associated with spiders or any insects, but Claude is an exception. It's probably the nonchalant stare, evil eyeglasses flash, or whatever devilish expression he makes when he sticks his tongue out. I did not watch Kuroshitsuji's first season because of the absence of Claude, but I like Lau and Ranmao in Kuroshitsuji II so maybe I'll watch the first season next time. Still, I think Kuroshitsuji II is not that spectacular, I believe that if it wasn't for the bishies and fan service, there really won't be much hype over the series; nonetheless, the Victorian overtones and Faustian themes in the series is pretty nice, besides, my fondness of Claude, and possibly of Lau for season 1 is enough to make me like Kuroshitsuji. P.S. Nendoroid Ciel and Sebastian (even though I dislike this guy I still bought him to partner him up with Ciel) are so cute!

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Soul Nomad

 
Soul Nomad is a SRPG I was reluctant to try before because I thought it looked complicated and difficult. I finally got to play the game mostly because I don't have any other games in English that I wanted to play on the PS2. Interesting playable characters are big factors in driving me to continue or complete a game; for Soul Nomad, most playable characters are not really that interesting, but I quite like the characters which are only playable after the first playthrough; therefore, for me, the real fun in Soul Nomad starts only after the first playthrough. After finishing the first cycle (after having seen any of the games ending), the "demon path" will be available.



This "demon path" is very interesting because the previous opponents the player faced in the "normal path" will join your party while your party in the "normal path" will be your opponents. For someone like me who likes to have the baddies join my party, I find the "demon path" to be so much fun. There are lots of screwed up mentality (in an uncool way) among recruited members in the "demon path", but that is fine, since the ones that I really wanted to use are only Dio, Gestahl, and Cuthbert anyway.

I like Dio best in this game (as a character and not really because of abilities), and it's a bit funny that he's not really evil in the "demon path". I'm only disappointed in Dio with his thunder-something field spell because the generic playable version of him (dracomage or something) has a multiple panel attack version of the thunder spell while Dio's only hits one panel. On the other hand, I'm quite surprised but pleased to see Dio's INT reach 9999 as early as lvl2000+ without the help of any INT enhancing room decors. Gestahl, I think is better than Median (Median is possibly the one with the most difficult stage & the strongest opponent in the whole game) simply because Gestahl has the very convinient Demon Force field tactic. Cuthbert is really just like the generic cleric with enhanced stats, he is much like Vitali, but I like Cuthbert and his fondness of laughing. There are crossover playable characters from Phantom Brave (Endorph/Walnut) and Grim Grimoire (Lujei). I don't like Endorph, but I love Lujei!

The most unique aspect in the game is the room and decor customization. The player can arrange one's squads in "rooms" with the unit leader of the room primarily deciding a squad's field tactics and overall stats of the squad (the other units in the room contribute stats increase to the leader). There are different available rooms that are generally unlocked by doing story map battles, and the rooms each have their own inherent abilities like increasing ATK for every panel moved. Room abilities can be added with "room decors", but the room decors can only be used once in story map battles (they can be used indefinitely in "inspection" battles).

The battle system employs the rock-paper-scissors style where the melee units are strong against ranged units, ranged units strong against mage units, and mage units strong against melee units. Anyway, about the game looking difficult and complicated, it is actually far from the truth. After getting the hang of the game (about the time one gets to the second or third map), I find that Soul Nomad is probably the easiest Nippon Ichi SRPG (that is, compared to the only other NIS SRPGs I've played: Disgaea 1 and 2), leveling up is easy thanks to some room decors and the convenience of Demon Force; the game even gets easier after having played the game in many cycles and obtaining the Cat's Paw room. Nevertheless, Soul Nomad is pretty fun game because of the customization of rooms, and the variety of possible playable characters.

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Baccano! & Durarara!!

While watching Durarara!!, I can't help but compare it to Baccano! Having the same creator, the storytelling and the opening styles of both series are very similar. Both series have a huge cast and both employs non-linear story telling that are told from the different perspectives of the characters. Mysteries, exaggerated and quirky personalities also abound in both series.

I especially liked that part in first episode of Baccano where St. Germain and Carol discuss the starting point of the story and candidate main characters, their conversation hints that a story can begin at any point in time - that the beginning might not be the beginning, and that there is no single "main character" in a story. I think that is a common storytelling style seen both in Baccano and Durarara. Btw, I think the way St. Germain says Carol's name is kind of cool though as it sounds so villainous (seiyuu is the legendary Norio Wakamoto!). St. Germain is probably one of the most enigmatic characters in Baccano, even more so than the "devil" in the series.

I just like animes with lots of interesting characters, and I adore a lot of the character in Baccano! - Luck, St. Germain, and Claire. The main characters in Durarara!! were not so much my type, though still pretty much interesting. Shinra's dad and the crazy red-scarfed police are my favorites, they're so weird and funny! Too bad they only appear in about two episodes.

I like both series, but I like Baccano! a bit more because Durarara!! ending is not really an ending; there just isn't enough closure on what happens to the most of the characters. Moroever, immortals and gangsters are more interesting than internet and street gangs. However, I like Durarara!!'s soundtrack a lot better than Baccano!'s (the track Akogare No Hi Nichijou is especially good!). 

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Tales of..!

It has been a while since I've played Namco's Tales games. The last Tales games I played more than five years ago were Tales of Eternia and Tales of Destiny in Playstation. I didn't really like or dislike both games, I think they were pretty fun yet quite mediocre. Just recently, I finally played Tales of the Abyss, and it proved to be a lot better than the older Tales games I've played; in fact, it reignited my interest on the whole Tales of series.

Reminiscing the older Tales games I've played, I noticed two qualities of Tales games I liked best. First off, one of the prominent features of all Tales games is the heavily anime-esque characters and stories. It's also one of the reasons that I got into the Tales series. Another thing I really like about the series is its heavy character interactions. Tales of Destiny, as I remember, had interesting enough character interactions. I've recently replayed Tales of Eternia on PSP after playing Tales of the Abyss, but I thought the playable characters and their interactions with each other were a bit dull. Reid, Farah, and Keele are okay individually, but their interactions with each other were not particularly interesting. In terms of game play, I thought both games' battle system were so-so (not too much fan of 2D left/right running & attacking), and as far as I can recall, I thought that Tales of Eternia was quite difficult while Tales of Destiny was too easy.

The most noteworthy thing about Tales of the Abyss, like other Tales games, is its character interactions, but unlike Tales of Destiny or Eternia, I really really enjoyed Tales of the Abyss and mentally labeled the game as one of my top five PS2 games. I have to say though, Jade Cutriss is a huge factor that made me had tons of fun with this game. Jade Jade Jade Jade, the skits and dialogues in the game with Jade in them are all very funny and amusing, and his voice actor Kirk Thornton was so good at voicing Jade and making his sarcasm even funnier (his Japanese v.a. is quite good too!). I think Jade's up there among my favorite video game characters of ALL time. Anise is pretty funny and cute too. I like that she's realistically flawed and can be mature yet acts childish at the same time. Mieu is pretty fun to watch too when he's being mistreated :D.

The battle system in Tales of the Abyss is no longer the linear left-right path, instead, it has the free-run system where it functions like Star Ocean battles. Encounters in Tales of the Abyss never got boring because of the F.O.F., it basically allows skills to change base on which element was left on the field by the previous attacks. Finally, I love that Tales of the Abyss allows changes to the character sprite's appearance! I love the alternative costumes in this game. Anise's Cat Cat Kitty Cat, Jade's Doctor Mambo, and Luke's Vagabond Son are my personal favorites.

I think Tales of the Abyss have the same team that worked on Tales of the Symphonia, so I'll probably check that out soon. I've started playing Tales of Legendia (same team as Eternia?), but I'm not very motivated to continue it so far (boxy 3d graphics, Senel and his sister complex is kind of off-putting). 

PSP titles Tales of Radiant Mythology and Tales of VS are pretty fun. I like the concept of brining together characters from different Tales games, especially since there are lots of Tales characters I like even from other Tales games I haven't played. So far my favorite Tales of characters are Jade (but of course), Anise, Yuri, Kohak, Reala, Richter, Garr, Mao, Luca, and maybe Zelos.

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Shin Megami Tensei (part 3)

And I thought Nocturne was the best SMT game.

Digital Devil Saga 1 & 2 were the last SMT/ SMT spin-off games I played in PS2. I only decided to play DDS mainly because they were the only remaining SMT PS2 games I haven't played yet, and I'm just curious how different they are from the rest of the SMT games I played. DDS doesn't seem to be as popular as the Persona series or Nocturne, so I was not really expecting anything big out of DDS. However, I was immediately impressed with DDS1 right after the first cut scene. It did not take long before I got to control the main character Serph, and the very first music that plays (Muladhara) is already one of the best game-scores I've heard. The story of DDS is pure excitement and mystery for 1 and philosophical for 2; either way, the story of DDS 1 & 2 combined is the best among the rest of SMT games I've played. Of course, it also goes that the characters are memorable and adequately developed. Game-play is similar to Nocturne in that they both utilize the remarkable press-turn system.


DDS is probably my favorite PS2 game now. I can't choose between DDS1 and DDS2; I think they are essentially the same game that was split as sequels. My only problem with DDS1&2 is the lack of customization, few side-quests and the relative shortness of each DDS game. It took me more than 60 to 70+ hours to finish each of P4, Nocturne, and Devil Summoner, but I finished DDS1&2 with 40+ hours each. Therefore, Nocturne may still be the best SMT game-play wise since it offers so much more customizations and side-quests than DDS, but I like DDS a bit more because of its memorable story, characters, and the music.

Story - the story is so good that it really should warrant an anime adaptation. Morality, karma, cycle, Hinduism, tragedy, mystery, betrayal, angst, twists, these are some of the main elements that make up the excellent plot of DDS. I like the story mainly because it's sad :P

Characters - although not every detail are revealed of the characters, one would get a fairly good idea of each characters conflicts, emotions, and beliefs (okay, maybe excluding the silent protagonist, but i think his facial expression is quite something). I like Serph, I adore Gale, I admire Argilla, I find Cielo funny, I exceedingly love Roland, and I sympathize with Heat. The only major character I dislike is Sera. 

Music - DDS 1&2's OST: Integral is the best Shoji Meguro OST in my humble opinion. Some of the best tracks in the album include Muladhara, Sahasrara, Manipura, Aurora, Spider's String Second Movement, Hunting, Lava Flow, Watercrown, The Rain Stopped, Underground City, Inherent Will, Karma, and Battle for Survival. I really could go on and on.

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Shin Megami Tensei (part 2)

 As I am about to ramble on about Nocturne, I realized that there is a great divide between Nocturne and all other SMT games I've played before Nocturne. Overall, Nocturne is superior to P4, P3P, and Devil Summoner2 because of (1) gameplay: press-turn system (2) better dungeon layout (3) darker atmosphere (4) more philosophical themes (5) lots of things to do aside from the main quest.

One of the best things about Nocturne is the "press-turn system". Having played Persona 4 before Nocturne, I was initially overwhelmed by how my turns can easily be wasted when my attacks have missed the opponents or have been nulled/drained, and it was especially annoying when enemies kept using some multi-target and high-critical attacks, causing them to gain more and more press turns! I noticed that knowing your opponents moves and their weaknesses are essential in defeating enemies. It becomes very inefficient and sometimes impossible to beat enemies if one does not know how to exploit enemies' weaknesses. Furthermore, knowing when to pass turns to other party members are sometimes key to efficiently eliminating enemies. As I played along, it gives me great satisfaction to have defeated enemies with the least number of press turns or casualties. The press-turn system is so much fun because it's likely to be more advantageous to the player than to the enemies as long as the player knows what he or she should be doing. That said, I still died in five boss battles (Matador, Mizuchi, Fiend in Asakusa, Trumpeter, Beelzebub) and also in random encounters! It's so easy to die in this game especially during the first half of the game, and I'm not even playing in hard mode. Random encounters are a joke after having Trumpeter learn Evil Melody though :). I can't say enough of how much I like Trumpeter in this game. Fiends are the best "demon race" in this game because a lot of them null several ailments and expel/death spells (and i love skeletons!).

Some of my favorite demons in this game include: Matador, Daisoujou, Red Rider, The Harlot, Trumpeter, Beelzebub, Lilith, and Vishnu. No Metatron this time, because he only has around three open skill slots with a lot of default hama-related skills which sucks big time compared to Trumpeter's Evil Melody... Fires of Sinai is not particularly special either especially considering it costs lots of MP to cast. Metatron's best skills are support skills, but other mid-game demons have them too; considering that Metatron is expensive and is a pain to fuse, he's not that worthy. Can't deny that I'll always love his metallic face and wings though.

In terms of Nocturne's setting, the dungeon layout is definitely better than P3P and P4's, the towns of Devil Summoner 2 are superior to Nocturne's though. On another note, I like the darker atmosphere and story of Nocturne; the graphics is so well suited for the apocalyptic world it portrays. Nocturne's story telling is not particularly special or better than P3P, P4, and Devil Summoner2 but Nocturne's story itself is quite interesting and philosophical. Basically the world is ending and there are three main ideals that aim to shape the new world and the player can choose which of the three to align with, and from which, the game's ending is subsequently dependent upon the player's alignment (alignment choices have always been a SMT tradition). Personally, among the three, I'd go with Hikawa and Nihilo's Buddhist ideology. There is also a very long optional quest associated with the fiends and the Amala dungeon, which can totally alter the ending of the game if completed before the final dungeon. Missing this optional quest/s would almost mean cutting hours played by 50% or so.. but i think this optional quest is another factor that makes Nocturne so good since there is so much that the player can do and discover outside of the main storyline.

Even though this game is older (and probably less well known) compared to Persona 3 and 4, I thoroughly enjoyed Nocturne more than any Megaten games I've played before I played Nocturne.

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