The Final Countdown - 8

Hi everyone! Time is ticking on and on...

But I'm not really rushing, as I don't have to take the bus. I'm going to the dentist today, something I'm not exactly looking forward to, but I might as well go and get it over with. It's just a regular check-up, though. Nothing serious. I don't really know why I'm even worrying about it. Instinct, I guess...

Well, here's a song from Tales of the Abyss to set the mood, enjoy!

"Finish the Promise"

Ah, the epicness... Anyway, until next time! Have a good day, everyone! 8

The Final Countdown - 9

Hi everyone! Oh snap, we're down to single digits!
Today I'm going to do the laundry and start planning my packing more seriously. I also need to calculate how much money I need to bring initially. Busy, busy, busy! (Well, not that busy, but still...)

So, in the meantime, here's some more music from Okami. Enjoy!

"Ushiwaka's Appearance"

I think I'm going to play this game today, too. Until next time, everyone! Have a good day! 9

The Final Countdown - 10

Hi everyone!
I woke up this morning and looked at my hands. That's when it hit me like a nine-pound hammer: Today it is only ten days left until I leave for Japan! After settling down from this overwhelming realisation, I got up and had breakfast.

Once again, I found myself pondering the mystery of time. Last year, after returning home, the day I would once again go to Japan felt so very distant. It felt almost as if it would never come. And now it is only ten days away!
Time sure moves a lot quicker than you might think.

That's not to say everything has felt fast. Looking back on the year 2011 so far, a heck of a lot has happened, really. Thinking like that kinda puts my mind at ease. It ensures me that my life, and my time, are real.

So, with only ten days left before departure, I think I'm going to start counting down. 10.

(Okay, I just couldn't resist. Sorry :P)

Until next time, everyone, have a good day!

A Brief Recollection

Hi everyone!
Last night, I had my the first lucid dream I've had in a long time. However, since I haven't been actively writing in my dream journal for over a month, my recall is quite low at the moment. I can remember flying through the sky. It was very cloudy, and I thought I'd fly above the clouds just for the fun of it. I also seem to remember something about a convenience store, where I was chasing a child on a toy car, but that was probably unrelated to the LD.

As frustrating as it is not being able to remember a lucid dream, especially after a dry spell like this, I'm actually glad. At least I remembered that I had the dream, and could recall at least a few details of it. Now I just need to improve my dream recall and put a little effort into it, and I just know I can have lots of new exciting LD's!

Well, that's all for now. Until next time, have a good day!

Game Music - Final Fantasy II

Hi everyone! It's time to get old-school today, with some good old Final Fantasy music! Well, maybe not THAT old-school, considering this is a rearrangement of a theme, taken from a remake of the original game, but still.

Final Fantasy II is often looked upon as one of the worst games in the series. This is mostly because the game abandoned the standard "kill enemies, get exp., level up" kind of leveling system, and instead developed the characters' stats depending on what actions you had them carry out in combat. This system wasn't necessarily bad, but it made it hard to gauge how well you were progressing, and I would usually end up being too weak to handle the tougher enemies.

But the music, now that's a different story altogether. The soundtrack for FF2 is one of the best in the series, and here is a tune which has been stuck in my head for some time.

"Castle Pandemonium"

Dramatic, epic, and just plain awesome. Just the way I like it!
I hope you've enjoyed it. Until next time, everyone! Have a good day!

Got It!

Hi everyone! Today I woke up feeling almost fine again. If not at 100%, then at least 85. Good enough. After my usual breakfast in town, I went to the university to study for a while, or at least study a few minutes and then play games on my PSP for about an hour. Anyway, when I came home, I noticed a, well, notice on the doormat.
I immediately knew what it was.

My visa had arrived from the embassy. About four days early. Pic related.

So, wrapped in an aura of joy and excitement, I skipped my way down to the local postal service (We get our packages delivered to the nearest supermarket here in Sweden.), and bought a bag of celebratory chips for good measure. Today is yet another fine day.

I hope you all are having a fine day, too. Until next time, everyone!

Cold

Hi everyone! I'm not feeling too well today, got a bit of a cold going on. So I'm just going to take it easy for the rest of the day, playing some games, reading, and probably go to sleep early.

Hope you all are alright. Have a good day!

Game Music - Tenchu: Wrath of Heaven

Hi everyone! Just fyi, I got the business at the embassy taken care of properly yesterday, so now I just have to wait a few days to get my visa in the mail. Hurray!
Upon returning home, I decided to celebrate with some gaming, and started up some Tenchu: Wrath of Heaven. It's a stealth action game, pretty similar to Metal Gear Solid or Splinter Cell, but with ninjas. (Thus automatically making it slightly more awesome.) The music is also very good.

In your face, Ninja Gaiden.
Well, that's it for today. Until next time, have a good day!

Unlucky, or maybe not?

Hi everyone. Yesterday, I was on my way to the Japanese embassy in Copenhagen when I realised that I had forgotten my passport at home. No passport = No visa. The following picture sums it all up. (Contains some swearing, be warned)

Needless to say, I was quite annoyed. However, when I came home, I discovered that I had made some mistakes when filling in the application form the night before. I also remembered that I had to send an arrival notice to the university in Kyoto before the 24th of August. Had I not forgotten my passport, I probably wouldn't have remembered this at all. So it all turned out okay in the end. Now I have double-checked all of my documents and made sure I have everything in order. Today, I WILL apply for my visa, right and proper.

Oh, and I got Thief 2 to work on my computer last night, too. I'm on a roll, baby! Until next time, have a good day!

Old Games, New Problems

Hi everyone! Today, after some of the usual swearing and wall-punching, and some investigation on the internet, I managed to get Thief: The Dark Project working on my computer. This game is notorious for being a hassle to install and run on modern operative systems, and let me tell you, it wasn't a picnic.

In the end, I managed to get it working, however, and I'm really stoked to try out this game. I've heard a lot of good things about it. Installing it got me thinking, though. What will become of all these classic old games that simply won't run on modern computers, or take a titanic amount of efforts to install? Will they simply fade away and vanish as people get tired of trying to get them to work and don't feel like it's worth it?

A lot of game developers are currently working on HD remakes of some classic console game series, such as Silent Hill and Metal Gear Solid. Since modern computers can't handle many old computer games, why not do the same with them? It shouldn't be too hard to update the source code/graphics engine/whatever (I am far from an expert in this field, fyi), in order to make them work. Right?

Well, for the moment I am happy. I got the game working, and after I've been to the embassy to get my student visa, I'm going to try it out (And see if I can get the sequel to work as well...). Until next time, everyone! Have a good day!

Game Music - God Hand

Hi everyone! I got some sleep last night and am back to my usual, cheerful self. So what could be better now than some upbeat surfer music?
God Hand is a beat 'em up game from Clover studios, about a guy called Gene, whose right arm has been replaced by the "God Hand," a mysterious and immensely powerful arm. Together with a young woman called Olivia, Gene travels a barren Wild West wasteland, beating up outlaws and demons wherever he goes. This is one of the wackier games out there, it doesn't take itself seriously at all. It's all about silly enemies, over-the-top special attacks and insane boss fights against completely mental demonic creatures. And it is awesome. The game is accompanied by a really upbeat soundtrack that sets the tounge-in-cheek mood. Have a listen.

"Gene's Rock-a-bye"

This song plays whenever you activate the God Hand, making you faster, better, harder, and invincible.

Well, I hope you've enjoyed it. Until next time, have a good day!

Tired

Hi everyone! I'm a little tired today. I pulled an all-nighter last night, something I usually don't do. I was at a friend's house for a small LAN party. When I got home, it was 6.30 am, and I just needed to sleep.
I intended to sleep until about 10.30, but ended up snoozing until 13.30 instead. I hate the feeling of sleeping away so much of a day like that, but at least I felt well rested.

I'm just going to take it easy today, chill out, prepare my visa application and go to sleep early. I'll just leave you with a little lullaby. Oh man, now I feel sleepy again...

Until next time, everyone! Have a good day!

Game Music - Persona 3

Hi everyone! I honestly don't have much to write about right now, but I thought I'd share some game music for the heck of it.
Today's piece is from Persona 3, more precisely the special version called FES. It's one of my 3 favourite games of all time, and the soundtrack, being composed by demi-god Shouji Meguro, is nothing short of amazing. So let's give this one a listen! (There will be some pretty heavy spoilers underneath the video, be warned) Well, until next time, have a good day!

"Heartful Cry"

This song plays during a special set of boss battles that take place near the end of the epilogue of the game.
Your team-mates are in turmoil, disagreeing about the right thing to do in the extreme situation you are all in. Ultimately, it results in a battle between friends, to determine which path to choose, and alter their grim fate. These battles are some of the most emotional and challenging fights in any JRPG, and I love them.

At the Time of Farewell

Hi everyone.
It's been a long time. My girlfriend has gone back home to Japan now, and I'm feeling quite lonely. She was only here for about two weeks, but it still feels so empty, like something is missing that was always there. I don't know if I'll get much sleep tonight...
It's a sad feeling, but it is somewhat softened by the fact that it won't be long until we see each other again now. All that is left for me to do is get my student visa taken care of, and then it's off to Japan with me! Only three weeks left...
I haven't been very active at all with the blog during this time. I hope you all can understand, and I hope that you will stick with it despite this long silence. Once I arrive in Japan, you can expect a few tidbits of my daily adventures there. And if I get in the swing of lucid dreaming again, I'll be sure to share whatever wild, wacky dreams I have.
Well, just wanted to tell you all that I'm back, and hope that you've all been good. Until next time, have a good day!

Time is weird

Hi everyone!

I've been thinking a lot about time today. Until today, time seemed to pass both very quickly and terribly slowly at the same time. A day seemed to drag on forever, yet the week ended before you knew it. On the whole, it felt like time went by at a brisk pace. That is, until today.

I woke up early in the morning, and it is now noon. It feels like I've been up for days already. It's only been an hour since I last looked at the clock, and I feel like I've done a ton of things in that short span of time. Sometimes I wonder if this day will ever end, or if I am eternally trapped in an endless half-light (It's cloudy out today), just passing time that never truly passes until I slowly go insane.

But this is probably just my mind messing with me. Good things come to those who wait, as the saying goes.

So for now, I think I'll wait just a little while longer.

Have a good day, everyone!

A long wait is over

Hi everyone!
Tomorrow is going to be awesome, at least for me. Why? Because, tomorrow is the day my girlfriend arrives in Sweden, and we can finally be together again after four months of being apart. Long-distance relationships can be a real pain sometimes, but when you finally meet again, it just feels that much better! I'm talking pure ecstasy here, people!

So, I might not have a lot of time to keep this blog updated for a while now. I hope you're not going to miss me too much. (Though, truth be told, it's okay if you miss me a little ;)
I'm just going to leave you with this happy song, and wish you all a good day!

Studying Abroad - Housing

Hi everyone! Today, I opened my e-mail account and saw a mail from Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto.

I got the housing I wanted. Hell yeah!

I applied for a room in one of the university dorms, mostly because it's a bit cheaper than an apartment, and also because I'll surely meet a lot of new friends and interesting people living there. What's more, I get my own personal balcony and refrigerator. Pretty fancy, if I may say so myself!

So, now all that's left to do is apply for a student visa at the Japanese embassy here in Sweden, and then I'm all set! Really stoked for this! Banzai!

(Video related, it's what I heard inside my head when I saw the mail)

Well, that's all I wanted to say right now. Until next time, have a good day!

Game Music - Eternal Sonata

Hi everyone! Today's music comes from the RPG Eternal Sonata, available for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.
It tells the story of the last days of Frederic Chopin, the famous composer, who is on his deathbed. And he is having a most peculiar dream... The whole game takes place in Frederic's lucid dream, where a bright and joyful world opens up, full of different people who have started to live lives of their own.
Though some might find the game a little too sugary sweet for their taste, I really like it. It takes a while before the story gets really interesting, but toward the end, it gets really good. It brings up some pretty interesting questions about what is real or not, and how reality might not be more than what each of us perceive.
And the music is wonderful. It mixes an original soundtrack with some pieces composed by Chopin himself, and it comes together brilliantly. Let's give it a listen!

"Remember Me"

It's a really good game, and what's more, you can even play three-player co-op if you want to. I used to play this with my younger brother and sister a few years ago. Good times...

The Region Barrier

Hi everyone. For those of you who play a lot of video games, the words "region lock" ought to ring a few bells. For those who don't know, let me give a short explanation. Basically, different parts of the world are divided into different "regions," for example America is one region and Europe is a different one. For many game consoles and handheld gaming devices, a game produced in one region can not be used on a console of a different region, hence the expression "region lock."

This phenomenon could be very annoying for an avid gamer if a game that you really wanted to play wasn't available in your region. Even importing the game wouldn't help, unless you wanted to modify your console to play games of any region. I have done this myself, and while it wasn't too much of a hassle, it still felt so unnecessary to have to mess around with your console to make it do something it should have been able to do in the first place: Play some damn games! Luckily for me, however, the Playstation 3 and the Playstation Portable are not region-locked, which means you can put a game from anywhere in the world into your console, and play it without any problems. No more longing for games you can never have, just import and play! Lovely.

This got me thinking, now that regions aren't an obstacle any more (at least not for the consoles mentioned above), and with all consoles now having easy access to the internet, wouldn't it be possible to remove the annoyance of delayed game releases by simply releasing translation patches for foreign games online? Living in Europe teaches you early on to wait longer than most for a new game release. The biggest reason for this used to be the publishers having to reformat the game to suit the 50hz TV's of the EU region, and of course to translate the game content. But with most people owning a more modern TV that supports the refresh rates used in America and Japan, that reformatting is no longer necessary, so all that is needed is basically a translation. And if that can be released online, then everything would be that much smoother!

This is mostly just wishful thinking on my part, and I doubt it's ever going to happen. It doesn't bother me, though. If I may be smug for a few seconds, I must say that knowing Japanese sure opens up new possibilities when it comes to video games. A lot of really fun and interesting games are never released outside of Japan, and that's a darn shame. The region barrier may be gone, but the language barrier remains.

Until next time, have a good day!