Fire Emblem: Fates is offended that you thought Awakening was easy

As I said before, Awakening is a pretty easy game. Even hard mode is no big deal as long as you pick casual mode (and what adult with a job and limited time wouldn't?). Beat the first couple of chapters, rack up supports, and join characters so their important stats basically double. I can only imagine that someone at Intelligent System didn't like the watering down, and thus came up with new ways to screw with players, even those who picked casual mode, in Fates. 

The first major change is to the Pair Up mechanic, which essentially rendered Awakening into a "press A to win" joke in everything but the highest difficulties. Enemies can now pair up as well, meaning that it's not a good idea to just pair up a Swordmaster with a General and place them at the center of the map so enemy units can rush in for suicide. In that light, it's probably for the best that paired units can now either defend or attack together. I'm not sure I'd want to deal with a paired up set of tanks that not only blocks attacks, but also dishes them back out.

Dragon Veins, which seemed fun in the beginning, serve to further complicate the hell out of some maps. I believe the internet hates Takumi because of that water-draining incident in Conquest chapter ten. There was also a late Hoshido chapter that had the Dragon Veins appear and disappear, which trapped me in some booby-trapped floor with no healing items or healers while the games spammed Faceless units at me.

And then there's the RNG, which delights in screwing with players. More than usual. I hear this was common in the older games, but I started playing way back in high school, and I don't remember stuff like this happening:

Thanks to my friend Jean for capping these.

For those of you not playing this, that 4% on the right is the chances that "Ragnarok" would hit the your unit. I don't know if my friend was playing Classic mode at the time (permadeath mode), but let's hope not.

But that's just a one-time thing, right? Apparently not, because:

Ryoma is literally the strongest character in the game.

Why does music in English rarely sound good?

I don't mean to sound like a hipster here, but the English language just doesn't lend itself to music very well. Spanish lyrics just sound so much better. It's not just for music that's translated from another language to English either. I've noticed that new Spanish music just has . . . deeper meaning than English music.

All my life, I assumed it's because English is not my first language so it never sounds quite as soothing and welcoming to my ear as Spanish. That's a strange feeling since I'm way more eloquent in English by this point (like ninety percent of my formal education as been in Spanish).

To be specific, I think Shakira sounds about a hundred times better in Spanish (I think this is the point where I lose any pseudo-sophistication points I might have gained above). If you happen to be bilingual, or just bored, go listen to "Suerte", then "Whatever, whenever" on youtube. Hell, even if you don't speak Spanish, I think you'll notice that "Suerte" is just a better song.

Also, listen to "Que Me Quedes Tu", my favorite Shakira song ever ("That you are left to me", can't think of a less literal translation that makes more sense . . . perhaps "That I'm left with you", but it doesn't sound right either).

Glory in Death: Roake is a Nice Guy and Eve Dallas takes lesson from a telenovela villana

On Amazon.

This one took me way longer to get through than the first one. And it's because the main characters spent the entire book, to put it very bluntly, acting like anal sphincters.

The plot is once again standard thriller stuff: an unknown subject is killing successful women in NYC. He (or she) slashes their throat and leaves them in a pool of blood. As any self-respecting fictional serial killer would, they take an item from the scene as a trophy. 

To make matters worse, Eve herself is now a high profile NYC woman, not necessarily because she solved a high profile case involving a sitting US senator last book, but because she is dating mega-gajillionaire Roarke. During the murder investigation, Eve has to utilize her newly found "fame" to bait the killer. 

Nadine Furst, one of the supporting characters that appears almost every book, is introduced this installment. Her introduction consists of Eve calling an off-planet penal colony, where Nadine is presumably doing an exposé regarding future USA's deplorable treatment of criminals. Nadine is career-driven and ambitious, but she isn't willing to take shortcuts to achieve glory. She considers it her duty to report on the truth, and she also admits that not every story needs to be told. (In other words, she's a foil for the killer).

That being said, this is not a book I would recommend. Because Eve and Roarke's relationship troubles makes them behave, as I said above, like entitled children.

Dawn of Justice: I don't know what I expected

My friend got food poisoning this Wednesday and I wanted to take him to this movie after leaving observation to distract him from any remaining stomach discomfort. This movie had one job: distraction for a couple of hours. Instead, I get distraction for mainly one hour. It was better than Man of Steel, but since I considered Man of Steel a hostage situation, that's not saying much.

There was a teaser for the Batman: Lego movie, which might have been the best part of the whole thing.

The teaser was different than the one above, but this one is still good.

Anyway, SPOILERS beneath the cut.

Theatrhythm: Curtain Call; a shot to the limbic system

As I discussed recently, SquareEnix and I have broken up. At the moment, I'm bracing myself for hating that FFVII remake they have in the works, dreading the time I will purchase the necessary consoles to play it like a good little consumer. This post it not about that. This post about something that SquareEnix actually got right: Theathrythm: Final Fantasy.

Buy on Amazon. At once.

If you like Final Fantasy music, and I'm pretty sure that anyone who's ever played the games does, then this game is distilled nostalgia. Like the introvert that I am, I've spent most of the day playing tracks on this rhythm game (the battle themes for FFIV, in case anyone is curious). Well, I also wrote some, went running, and practiced Portuguese, but most of my time has been at my 3DS.

This is the only thing that has tempted me to play Final Fantasy games in a long time. Whatever else about the newer games sucks, the music remains superb. My current favorite is FFXI's Opening Theme (hey, there's Spanish in this video):

The gameplay itself is . . . I don't actually care. This game kills my ADHD (meaning I suck at it because I keep missing targets, especially the hold triggers). To be honest, I should probably be just buying the soundtracks, though I suppose I wouldn't be as engaged if I wasn't trying to get things perfect despite my suckitude.

If you're a completist gamer, I would suggest you stay away from this game. There's always three levels to each song (Basic, Expert, and a third level I haven't bothered to try). There's grading for each track, the highest being SSS. There's getting perfect chains for each track. There's getting all criticals in for each track. There's unlocking all the characters via that crystal thingie at the end of each track. There's something called CollectaCards, which resemble Pokemon but more pointless (still want all of them).

By the way, there are at least a hundred tracks on this thing, plus God only knows how many I haven't unlocked.

Good news: I have a job!!!

Yesterday, I found out which hospital I'll be working in this coming July. Without giving up too much personal information, I can only say that I'm very happy. Pathology is a challenging field, and I have an opportunity to go into academic medicine. Four years of hard work, nine if you count undergrad, and I'm almost where I always wanted to be. And I cannot describe how good it feels to budget with a paycheck in mind rather than student loans.

I went to celebrate with my family and one of my closest friends to one of my favorite restaurants. One I used to visit since childhood, though much less often back then since I had no money at all. When my brother and I got our first jobs, we used to visit the place often. (Well, first real jobs. When we were much younger and got some money for shores, we used to buy Yu-Gi-Oh trading cards).

Hot brownie sundae; my favorite in the world

The only complaint I have about this restaurant is that their servings are too big and too difficult to resist, meaning we have little room left for dessert. Out of all the food in this restaurant, their hot brownie sundae stands out. The presentation on the right makes it look like any random brownie under vanilla ice cream, and the vanilla ice cream might be nothing special, but the brownie. The brownie is incomparable.

My brother says that this brownie sundae is what he missed most when he left for the military. He says he's tried multiple times to recreate it, both by baking and by buying brownies at fancy bakeries, but he's never quite managed. Nothing, from the texture to the taste, was ever the same.

Last night, our dessert came on a plate rather than a cup (as seen on the picture), and my brother confirmed that the secret is in the brownie itself, not in the ice cream or the hot fudge. I've been telling him as much for years, but he's the type that likes to see things for himself.

Accessible adult coloring books: what a time to be alive

Buy on Amazon.

A few months back, I witnessed a . . . heated discussion about the fall of our civilization. Someone noticed that adult coloring books are outselling "real books" on Amazon, which caused them deep discomfort. Coloring books, after all, are for children. 

I must admit that I thought as much, though learning about "adult" coloring books didn't cause me any pain. In fact, I went to Amazon immediately to locate one of these books, then despaired at the price tag on the things. Though I wanted to try them, I couldn't justify spending more than ten bucks on one. Or more than five bucks. I am, and will be until July, a broke student.

This weekend, I went to Costco with my brother to get some cheap running shoes and was thwarted by "blue laws" (the Costco is in some town that won't sell anything but food on "the Sabbath", which I thought was on Saturday . . .?) Anyway, I couldn't get the running shoes, but my brother got me Millie Marotta's Tropical World. Which is an adult coloring book. Behold my artistic vision:

Eh . . . imagine it's rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise.

I've been using my favorite pens for it: G2 pilot gel pens. They are expensive and probably murdering the environment in some way, but they're so pretty! When I need to study, I use them to make my notes happy and colorful. The colors are sharp and the book pages are of high enough quality that the ink does not bleed through.

Coloring this little beak has been very relaxing. I can't color within the lines even as an adult, but it still so relaxing. If these books are ending civilization, then I'm happy to contribute. I highly recommend them.