Can you survive me?

• 6Feb 10

  Final Blog

  So we're finally here. The last blog I make until I create a form of media worthy of hitting shelves. But we all know we're talking years here. I made a thank you blog already, but it must be said that for everyone reading this, I am truly grateful to you all for showing support one way or the other. It's not often a blog brings many amazing individuals together as well as them communicating with each other like a mini-forum. So thank you for all the support and for all the knowledge and wisdom a lot of you taught me throughout my blogging experience here. As promised, this blog is a graduation blog that won't be long.

  From here on out, blog tricks, bansythes, banjudges, and long blogs from Symphonycometh are finally over. The only reason this blog is here today is to officially allow you to spam this blog with whatever. As my farewell gift to you all. Seeing that I can't set up a party for all of you throuhout the world. Though naturally, since I love music, if you all have amazing/beautiful songs to share, feel free to link them prior to your comments. Thanks Hazelnutman, for the idea!

  Farewell Song (Massive spoilers in the comments in this link)

  

  • Posted Feb 6, 2010 11:15 pm GMT
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• 1Feb 10

  Words of Farewell

  Just as promised, we're reaching the 10th and final blog to my countdown, ending my entire series of blogs. This one being number #9. And instead of being nice and saving the good stuff for the final blog, I'm going to throw just about all of it down here in this blog. Because the last blog will serve as a "graduation" of sorts where you don't have to read much of anything besides knowing you're done with me, I'm going to make sure all the ones who stuck by me all this time enjoys their reads on this blog instead.

  As usual I'd like to thank everyone here who had pretty much endured my opinions, which by now, everyone reading this has disagreed with me about something. As you all can tell from my overall decrease of comments, I've lost quite a bit of readers, so it's genuinely appreciated for those who have stuck by. From over 50 to a humble 12-20 readers/commenters in fact. No doubt every last one of us have things to do, and more so, better things to do than to read long blogs that are usually read out of gesture of kindness than anything else. And yet you all stuck by. Some of you for years.

  Of course, I am one of those who believe in giving special shoutouts, so I'll be making several brief ones here. Special thanks to Hazelnutman. Clearly a quality blogger and commenter himself, it's always great hearing his own opinions. It makes my blog look good. =p I'll be looking forward to keeping track of his blogs for as long as I can. TTDog for just about always being more than willing to stand up against my opinions. He's missed very very very few blogs and considering I've been blogging for years, it's something I am forever grateful for. I'll be keeping track of his blogs as well. Someone over there needs to continually argue with him on his blogs. lol

  Misfit, wherever you are, you've been awesome over the years and it was always great seeing your rants. Seeing you haven't blogged in forever, you probably won't see this, but thanks anyhows. The Tombo, dude, you've been here since nearly the beginning as well, haven't you? Special thanks for sticking around. Your unique attitude is much appreciated. lol Orlandun, we just had several moments of getting along, haven't we? I'll be missing that. So you better make more blogs for me to keep up with. =p And Soldjango. Dudeman, we need to get back to storywriting soon. That is, as soon as school stops sucking the life out of us all. I expect you to blog often, so I can spa-I mean inform you on such updates. lol And quite naturally, Tomas_Crown. Didn't think I'd forget someone so staple to my series of blogs, did you? We've always argued or agreed strongly with one another and it's great to know that regardless of what is said, the next conversation is fresh. I'll be keeping track of you.

  Flip, now that I think about it, I have quite a few shoutouts. lol

  N-Real, John_Connor, 1NoteShort, Colmillios, Sokol4ever, Ejstrup, Game_Masta, KH-MixerX, Raahjnaav (loltypo), Raven_Squad, david_lck and Sciantix. You all came in a bit later from the original cast of blogging characters. (Unless Thomas, TTDog, Tombo, Soldjango, Orlandun, Misfit, and Hazelnutman tells me otherwise. lol) But you've all pretty much stuck with me from your initial comment to now. Which is still quite a while. And for the most part, you all have stayed with me and provided excellent flavors to my blogs.

  I'm certain when I started blogging, I wouldn't have done so many if I had kept getting a maximum of 5 comments, some from myself. But thanks to you all, I went from 5 comments to over 80 and back down to at least 15, depending on the topic. I owe not only all the original cast, but the new commenters that helped me end the final set of blogs. Some of you had amazing entry comments and others...well...it was apparent you skimmed. Regardless, I'll be trying to keep track of every new commenter that gave me a (real) time of day and support their blogs. As a token of thanks.

  To keep the blog happy, I won't call out anyone that I think is a heavy skimmer of my blogs, but from here, I think it's time to finally say my closing statements:

  Thanks to everyone for taking the time to support me and remind us all that Gamespot isn't filled with trolling idiots. It's been fun reading every last comment and answering most of your comments. Some of you will miss my blogs, and some of you will be relieved that I'm no longer creating huge rants after this blog. As for if I'll ever make any new blogs after #10 is released, I wouldn't count on it unless I have huge news to reveal about myself. Like I'm in charge of making a dream PS3 game or something. My Media works such as musical compositions, novels, and my RPGs will be on my alternative account, ProjectTrinity. I'll be updating that far more often now that I don't have to take care of blogging and tidying here. Contacting me off this site is possible. symphonyiscoming@yahoo.com is my email and instant messenger for right now. I'll add/respond to anyone as soon as possible.

  And I think that's everything. This is my last long blog. Congrats everyone! You got through it! Next blog, we celebrate! Ideas are welcome.

  • Posted Feb 1, 2010 4:47 pm GMT
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• 31Jan 10

  Emotional Blows in Entertainment #1 (Persona 4 Spoilers instantly)

  If you unintentionally missed #3 or #2 and don't mind the spoilers on the last two animes listed on those blogs, pleaes hop to those! If you didn't read it, lets just hope your past resume with me is shiny. (Or at least I know you didn't read it because of spoilers)

  This can cover TV shows or video games. So make sure if you've been meaning to watch or play said title, skip this blog in its entirety so you don't get spoilers. Pictures are being included.

  Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4: 50 Hours of Gameplay

  Yes, a video game topped all of my anime experiences. Though having 50 hours, it's hardly a thing to blame. This emotional blow took place as the game's single biggest twist of events. To be honest, it would be hard to explain exactly how and why this has had such a huge impact on me, but I'll try and do the game justice anyways. Especially since I'm sure some of you thought it would be Final Fantasy X or Shadows of the Colossus. =p

  

  Unless you include the Persona series, you're probably going to be inclined to think that there is always a whiney little kid and a crappy annoying mascot. That's not my fault, because by now, you should know Persona scoffs at being too cliche. Right off the bat really, you notice the youngest character, Nanako Dojima (Pictured above) is questionably the most mature character in the game. And the mascot known as Teddy is quite literally the best mascot character in a JRPG yet. Hence his huge fanbase. Anyways, you meet Nanako after about 5 minutes into the game. Not even an hour from your first meet with her, you learn that she's very humble, modest, accepting, and a very good daughter to your uncle, which who you'll be staying with for a year.

  Every day you come home from school, dates, training, ect, Nanako will welcome you home. The plot quickly reveals that she's usually home by herself since her father is always out working and she's taking it almost too well. And being honest here, it's like this almost all year. Now, the point of this JRPG is to figure out who's been throwing people into an alternative world and killing said people. (Transfer method is a TV.) As a main character, you too can go into the alternative world and try and save them before they die. The police, which Nanako's father works for, can't do a thing since the bodies found have not a lick of evidence. But since you and your party can walk around the alternative world and gather clues on your own, it's pretty much up to Scooby-doo - I mean you and your gang of awesome characters to solve the mystery on your own.

  45 Hours of gathering clues, and a lot of heart warming moments with Nanako passed by. (45 Hours, duh! xD) The moment you find enough clues to figure out where the kidnapper will strike next, it's literally minutes too late. Nanako is kidnapped.

  Naturally, Nanako's father chased behind the kidnapper's van where he placed Nanako in. One anime chase scene later, and the van makes a horrible crash. Big heart scare. It's almost a good thing that the kidnapper had already thrown her into the TV into the alternative world before the crash. (Something the game was more than willing to neglect telling you until the moment of truth.) And if your party doesn't go in there after her, she is pretty much scheduled to die just like everyone else who stays in that world too long.

  So we went ahead as a party and went inside the TV in order to save her, and we managed to eventually get her out after a plot boss fight. The cost of her going into the TV world however put too much of a strain on her body. (Long story. Play the bloody game) She had to be hospitalized along with her father (He crashed his car chasing the kidnapper) and for around a month, you had to live all by yourself for the first time in 50 hours. And every day, the silence reminded you that you almost lost the best little girl character in the history of gaming. (Debate it!) Anyways, ignore my comment on the comment section saying that there's a trick comment. There isn't. That in itself was the trick. Persona 4 snailed along and every day you wished to check on Nanako, she remained in critical condition. It was one shopping day in an attempt to cheer each other up that things took a turn for the worst.

  A phone call bought the party to the hospital and Nanako's health suddenly became worse. Hearing her in the hospital having difficulties even breathing seemed to tear at mine, and thousands of others' hearts. As the party was taken out of Nanako's hospital room, the party gradually became irritated at how helpless they were. That's when Johnny Young Bosch, aka Adachi told everyone that the kidnapper the party spent 50 freaking hours to catch will most likely be able to walk free. Lack of evidence. After all, even in that world, the thought of alternative worlds and throwing people into TVs seemed silly and unrealistic. So, our kidnapper will walk free right after he's feeling better from the boss battle we beat him in. Forget the fact he kidnapped Nanako and put her into that condition.

  A nurse quickly came to the main character after busting out of Nanako's room and begged him to go see Nanako right after Adachi told us the bad news. It was then every player pretty much had to helplessly listen to Nanako say a few words in utter and complete pain, and even with your ability to pick your responses, it didn't make us feel any more influential or good. You pretty much just felt like trash watching someone so young, desperately trying to live. And without even bothering trying to make us feel any better, Nanako flat-lined in the hospital. With her father coming into the room right after.

  Linky to vid

  As for the reason this was actually the biggest blow to me. It doesn't stop there. The story leads you to the kidnapper's room, where you and the party are conveniently there with a mighty big TV. What you have with you right now are your clues from playing the game for 50 hours, your theories, and your own emotions from what just happened to Nanako. One of your party members, Yosuke, seems to represent your feelings perfectly. The kidnapper just caused Nanako to die, and he's about to get off on murder charges. You're given the choice to throw him inside the TV and kill him yourself the same way others have died, leave him alone, or think that something is "off" about the entire thing. And it's not easy either. Branch upon branch, you have several branching combinations on how things could go terribly wrong. To top things off, the television randomly turned itself on and had an image of the kidnapper basically bragging that he was going to get away with what he did and pretty much dared you to do something about it.

  And in my eyes, all I saw was that the guy we were searching for 50 hours was caught, killed my favorite character in the franchise, and was about to walk free. So, I threw him in the TV, not even seriously considering that not everything matched up. Therefore, I killed him. I think you all know that I usually am against murder and/or killing innocent people. But I was so angry that the possibility that he was innocent didn't strike my mind until I calmed down and loaded up the game again after receiving the bad ending. Comes out, after figuring out that something was off, the kidnapper was set up....very elaborately. And my emotions were completely tooled in sake of great plot. I bet your favorite RPG doesn't do that. =p

  The whole complex setup of using your own emotions to further a plot of mystery is brand spanking new to the genre and it's an embarrassing shame that some really do not want to try the game out. Or more to the point, JRPG fans that don't want to try this game out. But hey, that's one more thing I have experienced that they themselves hinder themselves on. With that said, here ends my series of emotional blows. 'Till next time!

  

  • Posted Jan 31, 2010 3:16 am GMT
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