Eidolons of Gran Pulse: Shiva

By the grace of Etro, twin rulers arise from your icy thrones.
Come forth, sisters of Winter wastes.
In you, our trusts are placed.
Let not your presence remain unknown,
Lest your enemies’, you do condone.
Stiria, heal comrades with haste,
As Nix destroys those in frost encased,
And soon shall the tyrant be dethroned.

Two tires screech against the cement,
Knowing their speed will suffice.
A wall of ice, your weapon wielding.
Diamond Dust, freeze those of hot temperament.
A name in blood, a pact of ice.
Shiva shall rise, her bond eternal and unyielding.

The Death of Creative Writing in Schools

One of the things I’ve noticed since beginning my blog is just how hard it is to really write. The ability to put words on paper in an attractive manner is difficult in and of itself, but when you are writing creatively, writing stories and novels, it becomes infinitely more complicated. I consider myself a fairly decent writer, doing my best to write my own novel in my spare time, but I find myself hitting blocks far more often than I should, doing far more research than actual writing. I was sitting alone the other day, looking at a blank sheet of paper, willing the story to materialize on the paper, when I think I may have stumbled upon the reason for my difficulty. Public school English courses.

Maniacal Monday: Darth Tyranus, from Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones

While all villains terrify us, not every villain is of the sort that haunts the deepest, darkest corner of your nightmares. Some bad guys are more refined, possessing elegance about them, a certain presence that changes who they are. More often than not, these villains are of noble background, corrupted by the world around them into doing evil things in order to fix what they see as flaws in society. Sometimes they are aware of their Evilness, sometimes they aren’t, but the way they act about their actions, one would think that they were playing nothing more than a game, where the pieces are people, and the rules are undetermined. It is into this niche of villain that this week’s character, Darth Tyranus, finds himself.

Friday Night Retro: Pokémon: The First Movie

The Pokémon game franchise has been one of the most successful of our generation. Go up to any early-20s, late teenager and say the word Pokémon, and it will be recognized. (If they don’t recognize it, pity them, for they had no childhood) Whether they grew up with 151 Pokémon or 649, few are the children who don’t recall the adorable game about enslaving… I mean, catching… various monsters that exist in the Pokémon world, from the adorable Togepi to the terrifying Onix. So popular is the series, that it has spawned not only an abundance of videogame spinoffs and sequels, but also highly successful anime and movie franchises, both of which center around the eternally youthful Ash Ketchum, whose dream is to become a Pokémon Master. So secure was the company in the longevity of their franchise, they actually entitled the first movie Pokémon: The First Movie, so without further ado, let’s jump right into the wonderful world of Pokémon.

Summer to Autumn

Summer
Warm, sunny days
The disgusting smell of sunblock
The sun beating down from overhead
Fun-filled days spent in the surf at the beach
Frolicking endlessly with friends and family, old and new
But soon, the weather grows colder and less bright
The trees and plants lose their vibrant colors
The skies turn gray and dull
As the season pass
Autumn

Music Review: NiGHTS: Lucid Dreaming

Video games seem to have it all. Even from their early arcade days, when the game had a singular, simplistic objective, video games had the populace enamoured. As time progressed, they expanded, evolving into interactive complex stories with surprise twists, with a variety of increasingly spectacular gameplay, not to mention the inevitable increase in graphic quality. One of the things that has always been at the core of great gaming, however, has been the soundtracks. To keep the sound of a game fresh and interesting when you have hours upon hours of playing ahead of you is a feat in and of itself, but audio directors always find new ways to go above and beyond when it comes to catchy game music. But for some of the older video games, from the 64-bit era and beyond, their soundtracks find themselves being lost to the ravages of time despite their superior quality because the sound has become outdated in these High Definition times. Thankfully, a website called OverClocked Remix has made it their mission to remix popular video game soundtracks, bringing a whole new dimension to the catchy tunes that filled our childhood. One of their most recent collaborations is entitled “NiGHTS: Lucid Dreaming,” an album comprised entirely of remixes from the Sega Saturn game “NiGHTS into Dreams.”

Maniacal Monday: The Overlord, from the Overlord game series

We all love villains. Whether they are a sleazy, nasty slimeball or a sophisticated supervillain, everyone secretly adores bad guys because we somehow find a way to feel for whatever plight has led them to become evil, and their initiative in trying to make the world a better place, even if their methods and ultimate goal are not what we would consider “better.” And while many books exist that examine events from the viewpoint of villains, coming across a tale where you ARE the villain is very rare. Enter the Overlord, the stereotypical fairy-tale villain, and protagonist of the Overlord game series.

Friday Night Retro: Bomberman 64

The transition from the old 2-dimensional games of the arcade days to the new 3-dimensional game systems in the ‘90s was rough on a lot of game franchises. While some series, like Final Fantasy, adapted without sacrificing its identity, not every game was so lucky, and this led to quite a few game franchises to fail. The Bomberman series was of the few that managed to hang on through the transition, and though the games have recently become nothing more than a throwback to its 2-d days of fame, it managed to churn out two rather decent games for the Nintendo 64 game system, the first of which was Bomberman 64. It was a game I spent endless hours trying to beat, but never managed to finish, due to some fatal flaws in the gameplay mechanisms, but more on that later.