Update time! I know, I know. I’m a slacker.

First, big news! Atelier Iris: Grand Fantasm is finally getting a US release in May. Although I haven’t finished 2 yet, I’m really looking forward to this one. One question though: Does Fantasm bring back the character interaction between the vendors you synthesize with and your party like 1? I guess it seems doubtful, but that’s what I miss most while playing 2. In any case, it seems like it has funny, cute characters (which sometimes is all I ever need to get through a game) – not to mention Iris! Anyways…

Aside from World of Warcraft, I’ve been playing Rogue Galaxy and Ar Tonelico. Not as frequently as WoW, though. I’m only about half way through Galaxy, but I’ve got to say it is pretty disappointing after all this time it took to get localized.In the recent months there were games like Final Fantasy 12 and Tales of the Abyss. Both great games, with quality AI and a bunch of options to customize it as you please.

Then… there’s Rogue Galaxy – crap for AI, and little to no customization options. There’s really too much to list thats wrong with it. Battles are only boring or very annoying, no in-between. They’re boring because I usually just spam the moves that hit all monsters, saving me time, effort, and healing items. They’re very annoying when the battle involves monsters that can’t be taken down with spamming so easily, whether they’re barrier monsters or jump-to-hit monsters. Jump-to-hit monsters, fine, there isn’t many of them when they do appear. Barrier monsters can go to hell, though. When I play, I prefer to control Kisala since her alternate attacks make her a girl version of Sanji from One Piece, which is awesome. That leaves me with Jaster only shooting down one barrier at a time since I’m not controlling him. I really don’t need this kind of hassle from monsters when the AI is already crap. It’s not challenging nor fun. There’s still a couple more problems I’d like to rant about – like the lack of a story, etc. Reading what I wrote so far, however, irritates me too much to continue talking about it.

There’s not too much for me to say about Ar Tonelico. If you have ever played a Gust game before, you know what to expect and will probably be pleased. For others, it may end up to be boring and tedious. I like to think of it as “space-Atelier.” I’m not very far into the game but there’s one problem I’d like to address. The English voice acting is terrible. These aren’t the days of Valkyrie Profile “This was… this was… UNFORGIVABLE!!!” anymore, find some decent voice actors. Other than that, it’s all good so far. The whole thing with Reyvateils and Diving is a pretty nice replacement for Atelier Iris 1′s “shopkeeper synthesis conversation.” The game is chock-full of sexual innuendo as well, which is always a plus in my book.

In random news, we’ve got two of my favorite things to talk about. First off is Otogi Matsuri, a manga by one of my favorite artists, Junya Inoue. I won’t go into detail about it but volume 9 was released very recently in Japan, which is great because 8 left with some crazy cliffhangers.

Last but certainly not least, Angela Aki‘s new single Sakurairo will be released March 7th in Japan. I love it!

-adding pictures for stuff and maybe more ranting later because I’m lazy-