Now Playing: Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner 2

I'm currently playing Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner 2 for the PS2. While Atlus titles tend to be a niche market, the Shin Megami Tensei and Persona series have become quite popular lately. Here's what I think so far.

First Impressions: Once you start playing you know right away you're playing an Atlus game. The game engine, character designs--even the names of the spells and items are the same throughout the Shin Megami Tensei(SMT) series. There is something comfortably familiar with it, yet you begin to wonder if they use the same assets out of a poor budget. Thankfully it's uniqueness is what sets it apart from other games in the series. The basic story surrounds a "devil summoner" who happens to be a detective in Tokyo, circa 1920. The setting alone is worthy of my attention.

Love at First Sight: You don't fight alone. You're able to summon "demons", up to two at a time, in order to win battles. What really stands out though is the manner in which you gain demons. Instead of battle, you have the option to "negotiate" with a demon. It'll ask you a series of questions, and depending on your answers, it'll either join your side or attack. What's great is if the negotiations are going poorly, a demon you already possess with chime in and attempt to sway the conversation in your favor. Sometimes it works, often times not. But this feature is definitely unique, and adds a charm to the game.

Warning signs: Objectives aren't always clear. If you're not sure where to go, you can spend most of your time traveling from one location to another only to have to turn around and go back from where you came. It's annoying and detracts from the overall experience. My time is valuable. I want to play a game, not wander around aimlessly.

Second Date? Absolutely. I'm currently 5 hours into it, and I'll definitely be coming back for more.

Till Death Do Us Part? SMT games are known for being extremely long. 80-90 hours of playtime is not unheard of. I've never actually finished an SMT game, so that might tell you something. I'm hoping this game will buck that trend though. Guess we'll see.

Recently Played: Bayonetta

Just finished playing Bayonetta tonight for the PS3. Hyper-stylized, Hyper-sexual and completely over-the-top. If you're familiar with the Devil May Cry series, you'll immediately recognize the gameplay--it's created by the same man behind DMC, Kamiya-san. It's a excellent game in showcasing Kamiya-sans absolute ridiculousness when it comes to game-play and story-telling. Well, whatever story there is here is not much, and even if there is something substantial here I certainly don't understand it. Something about witches and the balance of light and dark; but that's not what's important. It's the gameplay that truly shines here. Whatever action games come out this year, it's going to be tough to follow Bayonetta.

Hyperbole aside, it's a fun game, bottom line. Graphics are excellent, although not quite as sharp as it's 360 cousin. Load times have been improved now that Sega released a patch. It took me about 10 hours to complete Bayonetta, over a span of about 4 days.It's definitely a game worth keeping in your collection. Re-playability is high; as there are plenty of trophies to unlock. Although I finished with a 35% completion rate. Quite low. On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the highest, I'd give it a 8.5.

From now on, I'd like to make two different posts: One on games I've recently finished, and one on games I'm currently playing. I'd like to have a template for each post, but I'm not sure on how to go about it, so hopefully by the time I write my next post I'll have something more solid to go by. I'm not much for writing reviews. Honestly, I find them boring and often times useless. So I"m thinking of a way to just give some bullet points on certain aspects of the game that some people might find useful. How long is the game? Re-playability, etc. Sorta like what I just wrote, but not such a cluster-fuck. Any comments or suggestions, feel free to leave below.

Hatsune Miku

Normally I'm not a big fan of Vocaloid, but I can't help but be mesmerized by this song. Really awesome stuff.

What the..?

So at least a few times a week I'll be digging around the internet looking for interesting articles or blog entries from various Japanese related sites. I might post some more serious translations; things like some of the literature I'm working on. But I think I've done enough literature over the past couple of years that I'm just getting a bit burnt out.

One of the greatest frustrations I had at university was the lack of recognition of anything outside of academia. Being in this continuous bubble of only reading and translating literature and academic reports became quite mind numbing after a while. Did it help me? Absolutely. And for anyone studying a language knows, immersion is important. But I think that means much more than just becoming an exchange student. Being able to immerse yourself in current issues about life in Japan, current trends, popular media--the very essence of Japanese life as it is in the present--is equally as important.

I can count on one hand the amount of assignments we had pertaining to a news broadcast, or a newspaper article. But they always were limited in their scope; often just dealing with issues related to school in Japan. Although we were treated to Ponyo and Robocon (thankfully!). But this was all from one professor, mind you. The only other time exploring different avenues was allowed was through an independent study, and unfortunately not very many students do this as an undergrad, or even know they can.

So what's the problem?

Well, for all the early 20th century literature I can now translate effectively (Akutagawa, your the man!), and for articles　pertaining to 学習集指導要領改定　(I won't even translate that into English, because it still won't make any sense) I really have no firm grasp on how to effectively translate a normal newspaper article, at least in a manner that is acceptable to me. Reading blogs and manga,or watch modern movies or TV shows which use your everyday colloquialisms or different dialects outside from your normal Tokyo-ben can be challenging. Basically, I'm out of touch with true Japanese reality. I am a walking textbook. My God, I can translate Akutagawa but not "Cowboy Beebop"? There is something wrong with that.

Now I'm probably overreacting just a tad. And I'm not suggesting that I'm unable to understand these sorts of media. It's just that my comfort level is much lower than what I'd like it to be.

Of course, now that I have all the free time in the world, I'm like a kid at a candy store who's been deprived of sweets for the last 4 years. I'm devouring everything I can.

I think that there needs to be balance when learning a language. Offering students not just literature but some random newspaper about baseball, or watching some current popular TV show can give that balance, and help students get a better grasp of the language they are studying. Especially if a student wants to get into something like media translation(like myself). And while these activities can always be done during a students leisure time, having some sort of classroom representation can make all the difference.

So with that being said, I'd like to make some good use of this site. I'm hoping I can put up a bunch of translations and get some feedback from everybody on the general ebb and flow of the piece.

This won't be the only site you'll be able to see some of my translations. I've already signed up to do some Japanese news reporting for a UK based video game website, and another website based here in the States. Of course, all for the fun of it. I'll post those links in a future post once those projects get rolling.

以上

Galactic Center of Milky Way Rises over Texas Star Party from William Castleman on Vimeo.

I'll take three, please.

Someday, I will pilot my very own Gundam. I'm sure of it.

Grand Turismo 5

Kazunori Yamauchi has finally shown us the next Grand Turismo 5, and man does it look incredible. There is a reason these games are considered the pinnacle of the racing genre. What's important to note is this is all in-game footage. Also of note is his admission that it's actually completed, yet no release date has been set. All eyes are on the games publisher Sony right now, so hopefully they'll be kind and get this game out to us as soon as possible. Kazunori-san said that in the meantime, he'll continue to polish a game that already seems perfected.

These games are always a huge time-sink for me, but I can't wait. Hopefully we'll see it soon.