I HAVEN'T USED SPARKLETEXT IN LIKE, YEARS

[rainbowarch]

PIMP MY CANON

Levi, what is this?

This is PIMP MY CANON, a meme for doing exactly what it says on the tin. Here, you are going to sell your canon to your fellow bubble players!

Fellow bubble players, peruse the selection and maybe find a new canon to check out!

Okay how?

HOWEVER YOU HAVE TO. Post reasons why your canon is awesome! Post summaries, post pages, post gifs, post links to videos, post screenshots, post links to playthroughs, WHATEVER YOU HAVE TO.

Just uh, be mindful. Don't insert put too many images in your post (especially if they're big! Link to big things!) and link to videos rather than embed them. We want to make this accessible to everyone and go easy on connections.

Feel free to add to other people's posts with information of your own, or ask questions about a canon that's caught your eye! The idea here is to spread the love, after all!

Try to keep your spoilers to a minimum, too. If you think something might be spoilery, be sure to mark it!

(also be sure to hit preview before posting, broken codes cramping your style sucks)

Comments

[bufudine]

SO I HEARD YOU LIKE GORE? TOO BAD you only get less than 1 minute of actual blood and hours of this:



Digital Devil Saga is a story about how a small group of humans turned demons learn what it is to feel emotions and try to find meaning to their life by slaughtering their way through their enemies and falling down holes to talk to skeletons who love puns. "Tired of falling yet? Aww, I'm just ribbin' ya."

Being an Atlus game, there's plenty of soul crushing tears followed by heartwarming. The characters are colourful (literally!) and even the NPCs are a major source of hilarity and sadness. As you progress through the game, the NPCs grow and change with the party. These are the most adorable cannibals you will ever meet and they get a happy ending. How often can you say that happens in an Atlus game? YEAH.

Also you can get your face punched in repeatedly by the protagonist of Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne, the Demi-Fiend. The battle has the reputation of being the hardest (optional) boss fight in existence, for good reason. Also ignore the LPer's lies CIELO IS AWESOME and I could go into great detail about why >:T

[rainbowarch]

Not gonna lie, DDS1 would probably have taken me a lot longer to finish if I didn't have Cielo to make up for my failure in planning effective party members.

lol no -dyne skills until Karma Temple

ALSO YOU ALL NEED TO HEAR CIELO'S GLORIOUS ACCENT AND WATCH HIM COME UP WITH BRILLIANT ESCAPE PLANS BECAUSE YES.

(Atlus those subtitles are terrible.)

[bufudine]

ALSO BECAUSE I AM THE BEST LEADER--

Digital Devil Saga a JRPG with whose story spans across two PS2 games that can unfortunately be a bit hard to find unless you order them online! If you live in Australia/New Zealand, you can snag the very last copy. The good news is that apparently the games will be coming to PSN for Europe, which will hopefully mean they will also come to NA PSN, so fingers crossed! I'd really love to do a comprehensive LP of the games some day (but I lack the equipment); there aren't any decent LPs that span both games, so I highly recommend actually getting a copy and playing them!

I can't hold all the Hinduism in these games, guys.

[rainbowarch]

ALSO IF SOMEONE WANTS A BETTER SUMMARY OF DDS' PREMISE OR SOMETHING I'LL WRITE ONE UP

BECAUSE TEN IS BAD AT THIS

Oddparents Fairly Oddparents, Wands and Wings, Floating Crowny thing

[crackpotcrocker]

Theme Song

Fairly Oddparents is set in a fictionist town of Dimmsdale, hinted to be in Southen California, mainly from the tip off in Emotion Commotion, when Timmy is high board diving and the high dive is about 20,000 feet in the atmosphere. There's a lot of stereotyping on characters and sexism jokes.

Song here

The main character has a horrible life of being annoyed by his parents and abused by his babysitter. His life is deemed so bad, that Jorgen assigns Cosmo and Wanda to Timmy. According to Hartman, the idea was to have a Cinderella type story, with the lead character being male.
The humor revolves around literal aspects, such as that high dive example, along with the stereotyping and fancy foot work that Timmy does in almost every epsiode to avoid the exposure of his Godparents.
*Magically attains nice things. Parents notice nice things*
Timmy's Dad: *to Mom* "Where did Timmy get all of those nice things? I don't remember buying him nice things." Timmy's Dad: *to Timmy* "And where did you get these nice things?" Timmy: "Ummmmm... Internet?"
As well as lots and lots of Ho Yay.
Timmy's Dad: *on Mr. Crocker* "Those eyes. That hair. That figure. Oh, my gosh! It's worse then I thought. HE'S GORGEOUS!"
Which is also a running gag.
Not to mention the main character is a boy wearing pink with magical fairies.
Timmy must never let anyone else find out he has Fairy Godparents, or admit he has them, because according to Da Rules a Godchild will lose their Fairies if they reveal the truth. Now, what is the 'truth' in this universe is highly debateable. By 99 .9% of the characters viewpoints 'the truth' is logic and science. However, by the .1 %, 'the truth' is that this world has magic. Enter the Truth Seeker, Mr. Crocker, who holds the unpopular belief that magic is the cause of all of the odd things that go on. If a horrible, cruel and victorious babysitter wasn't bad enough, now Turner has the constant watch of his teacher, Mr. Crocker on his every move looking for an opportunity to expose his - FAIRY GODPARENTS!
Not to mention the school bully and trying to get the most popular girl in school to even look at you. What's a kid to do?

Fan Wiki

Oh, and Hartman does seem to love Star Wars, the show spoof everything but Star Wars seems to be a main one.

Super Hero Spoofing Video

Mun recommends watching this show between Season 1 and Season 5. Seasons 6,7 and 8 are very highly flanderization with the characters and the writing in season 6,7 and 8 is just bad in generel.

The Live Action movie, where it's not great as some of other TV specials, like Channel Chasers, it's not horrible for being a cartoon to live action and plot line wise and better writing that's been done for a couple of seasons. Oh, and characters aren't flanderized.

Have a clip ~

FOP is available for download on Itunes and also runs on Nick Toons and NET FLIXS

Oh, and the creator of Danny Phantom also is the creator of FOP.

[ex_diplomacy861]

Arc Rise Fantasia is marginally like Tales of Symphonia with a more visual novel-esque feel (as Fantasia's director was part of Symphonia's development team) and party switching trends. No, really. You switch party members like laundry in this game.

Fantasia is pretty much everything you'd expect in a retro JRPG, and it isn't afraid to pull out all the stops to please its fans. You have a jerk with the heart of gold, a clueless priestess, a selflessly selfish prince, a little girl who punches grown men into the air, said grown man who talk about flowers, a pretty woman with dominatrix vibes, and a thief who confronts the hero about his attitude because hey, he knows puberty is a rough time and all, but be nicer!

And more, like the most badarse crown prince. Dragons and summons, too, as well as Luminous Arc cameos.

Story-wise, Fantasia revolves around a government-employed mercenary who meets a naive priestess (and I mean naive, she takes "my butt fell asleep" literally) when a douchechanter parades in and starts killing everything, and it pulls plot twists/ballsy moves left and right. It might start off rather slow, but give it a chance to pick up and you might not want to stop playing like I hadn't. You want a love triangle -- no, a love square? Political drama? Exploding dragons? Singing priestesses? Canonical crossdressing? I am your father? -- okay, no, but you can see what I mean.

It also has nice music, and the battle system is fantastic, arguably one of the best features Fantasia has to offer. It uses a mix of turn-based and time sensitive, and the magic system is fun to exploit. Fantasia keeps you on your toes with challenging boss fights, so this definitely won't disappoint in terms of difficulty.

If you want a preview, here's my LP of the very first segment of the prologue! It's for the Wii and cheap now -- around 20 bucks -- if that helps.

. . . and I should point out that many dislike the English voice acting, but I promise you that they grow endearing with time.

[gun_symphony]

She's right, it's actually a very enjoyable game and the voice acting is something you get used to.

Shame I never finished it, but I couldn't get past one of the bosses (screw Clyde and his cheapness).

Final Fantasy VIII: Rinoa is the most broken party member

[rainbowarch]

So you're a parent.

You're a parent pondering your child's future.

Sending your kid to school sounds like a good idea?

So why not send them to Balamb Garden? It's a respected and highly regarded establishment that prepares children for their future lives as mercenaries.

Wait, what?

Final Fantasy VIII, the eighth installment of the JRPG series with the misleading name, is for the original Playstation and follows the story of Squall Leonhart, one of the best students at Balamb Garden, a school that teaches its students to become guns for hire and then offers the services of its graduates to clients. Not one for playing well with others, Squall has little interest in friends and socializing (hey, it might be a military school, but it still has dances and festivals!) and doesn't seem to be interested in very much other than doing what's required of him as first a student, then as a mercenary. He uses a weapon called a Gunblade. Which also has a misleading name.

Squall's life is changed when he's obligated by contract to work for Rinoa Heartilly, a young girl running a resistance group rebelling against the government. What was supposed to be a routine job quickly turns into a world spanning adventure filled with surprises, time shenanigans, forgotten memories, and some dumbass named Laguna Loire.

Final Fantasy VIII stands out a lot from other entries in the Final Fantasy series in many ways, which has caused a division between people who love it and people who hate it. (It also has the unfortunate position of being the game that comes after Final Fantasy VII.) Narrative wise, the game is very big on letting us see Squall's thoughts, and he always has some sort of remark regarding his situation or his companions. Which are more often than not negative. The story is...admittedly very jumbled and not too well thought out, but the game is mostly about Squall learning to open up and accept people in his life.

Gameplay wise, it does away with the importance of levels - enemies level up with the party, what's important is how you adjust your stats. Characters can't cast magic normally, they must draw magic from their surroundings or enemies to use. (Magic, for the record, is also a major plot point.) When storing this magic, they can use it to augment their stats by "junctioning" magic, and that will be a major factor in character growth and what directions you want to take them. It's a lot to take in at first and difficult to describe in words, but it's not as complex as I'm making it sound, promise. Final Fantasy VIII is a very easy game to break due to the Junction system. If you know what you're doing, you can breeze through the game easily.

UH I CAN'T THINK OF ANYTHING COOL TO LINK OFF THE TOP OF MY HEAD SO here's the scene where Irvine gets pushed down the stairs.

/adds

[cinnaponpuppy]

This is Squall. Squall is hot, but aloof.
In Final Fantasy VIII, you can make fun of an ugly train, make him babble nonsense(prison torture scene), and impress a motherfucking dragon.

TALES OF HEARTS

[spiria]

HI EVERYBODY. I dunno if anyone else is gonna pimp out Vesperia, so I'm gonna wait a little while before starting a thread for that.

HOWEVER, THIS COMMENT THREAD IS ABOUT TALES OF HEARTS.

( cue opening video )

Now, before we get into the story and characters and everything, I want to explain something kinda nifty about this game. Most of us who know the Tales Of series know that it's primarily an anime-styled cutscene sort of game. Tales of Hearts halfway broke that tradition by releasing two different versions of the game: The anime version, and the CG version. Yes, you read that right. There is CG in your Tales Of series.

Obviously, the fanbase enjoyed the anime cutscenes more. As pretty as the CG is, it just doesn't really feel like Tales Of to me, and from what I see, a lot of the fanbase felt the same way. Still, it's pretty awesome, and it's something totally unique to this game. c:

NOW, ONTO THE STORY.

There are two parts to this game, really.

Part 1: While on the run from the Sorceress Incarose, Hisui and Kohaku Hearts find themselves washed up on the shores of a small town called Seable, where they are then found and rescued by Shing Meteoryte. The two of them need weapons called 'Soma' in order to defend themselves, and, long story short, Shing takes them to his mother's grave to retrieve her Soma (Elrond - this becomes Kohaku's soma), Incarose finds them, and in addition to wounding Kohaku's Spiria to a point where she won't wake up, also kills Zex, Shing's grandfather. Shing makes a decision to use his grandfather's Soma, Asteria, to jump into Kohaku's spirune and try to save her, and ends up meeting a woman named Richea inside her spirune. After that meeting Kohaku's spirune shatters, sending shards of it all over the world and causing Kohaku herself to wake up, but to be virtually emotionless save for the emotion of kindness, which stayed with her. Thus, the plot for the first part of the game is pretty much Hisui and Shing traveling around the world in search of shards of Kohaku's spirune, which leads to meeting the rest of the party members and lots of interesting interactions with other people.

Part 2: Once Kohaku's spirune is completed, we get into more plot things, and we finally learn more about Richea! Also, a few really surprising things happen, and I'm not going to talk too much about this second part because it is littered with spoilery things, but take my word for it, it's amazing. c:

So now that we have story down, I'll introduce the characters a little more. Also, their names will include a link to an arte exhibition for all of them, so you get to see their battle styles. c:

* Shing Meteoryte - Awww, lookit him, isn't he cute? This is our derpy main hero, Shing. He's a fairly naive boy, and he hasn't really been outside of his hometown at all in his entire life, but is finally getting his chance to do so with what happened to Kohaku. His mother passed away when he was young, and for most of his life, he was raised by his grandfather, who is a Soma User (not that Shing knew this until shortly before the game starts), and has been training his grandson to have a strong spiria. We find out later why his grandfather wanted him to have such a strong Spiria, but that's getting into spoiler territory. He has a strong sense of right and wrong, and is very pure-hearted and has a strong sense of making up for his mistakes as well. Also, he helps out pretty girls. Especially if they have big chests. BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT GRANDPA TAUGHT HIM. No, really, Grandpa taught him that.

* Kohaku Hearts - The official spelling of her name is 'Kohak,' but many people tend to romanize it to 'Kohaku,' since that's how it's pronounced in the game. Either way is correct. I tend to use Kohaku because it makes more sense to me. BUT ANYWAY, I could TLDR forever about this character. And I have before. I mean, really, look at dat personality section. The point here is that Kohaku herself is a very complex and interesting character, and even moreso because she is a case where you get a bit of her full personality at first, and then you're forced to learn many aspects of her personality very slowly. She's got an interesting fighting style, too; she's very well-balanced, being able to do offensive techniques and defensive ones as well.

* Hisui Hearts - Big Brotherrrrrrr 8Db Hisui himself is actually really loud and rude. And he's very overprotective of his little sister. When you learn the history of the Hearts siblings, it becomes really understandable as to why, but yes, Hisui is the siscon of the game who takes his overprotectiveness to all the extremes. He's actually not a bad guy. He just has a hard time really putting on the dere, because he is tough manly man forever. He's so loveable, though, despite how much of an overprotective jerk he can be. c: And his sister knows how to keep him in line ~ ♥

* Beryl Benito - She's our token mage of the game! And our token loli. Though, surpriiiiise, she's actually older than both Shing and Kohaku. 8Db Anyhoot, this is Beryl. Cute, isn't she? She's a soma user (x2, even! her hat and her brush are both Soma), who has dreams of becoming an imperial painter. And apparently, she's pretty damn good at what she does. We meet Beryl when we find that she has a shard of Kohaku's spirune within her, which causes her to act really abnormal. Of course, we fix her and she joins us shortly after that whole thing.

* Innes Lorenz - We actually meet Innes before Beryl, but Beryl joins our party first. Innes is a merchant and the owner of a shop called 'Every Day is a Peaceful Day', and also a soma user herself. She deals in selling soma, actually, and this is how Hisui got his. We also find out later that she's part of the military, and there are a lot of heartbreaking spoilers concerning that as well, but I won't mention those. Innes overall is kind of the token troll/big-boobed chick of the game, and she's actually a really fun character. c: She and Beryl often get into little arguments that end up resulting in mass hilarity.

* Kunzite - GUESS WHAT GUYS, IT'S AN ANDROID. The last member to join the party, Kunzite is nothing short of badass. He's also laden with spoilers himself, because his mistress is Richea, who is ... spoilers. And I don't want to spoil too much. But yes, he's pretty badass.

This is our Main Party! Richea Spodune ends up joining us later on, but she doesn't fight. She's a plot-pivotal character, and a lot of the second half's plot revolves around her. We find out why she was in Kohaku's spirune, how she got there, what her mission is, and how it involves everyone else in the party, and even how it involves people in the past! Specifically, Kohaku, Hisui, and Shing's mamas and Shing's grandpa. 8Db

There are also other characters in this game who are just as amazing; some of them are temporary enemies, some of them are full-fledged enemies, and some are recurring NPCs who are amazing and wonderful. Seriously, I can't say the words 'amazing' and 'wonderful' enough about this game.

I realize this thing must be a monster by now, so I'll try to hurry up with the rest of this.

Tales of Hearts was, unfortunately, never localized. There are ways to play the game and understand what is being said despite that, however: vesperia did an actual full-on script translation of the main game (no skits, just the main game), which can still be found on the internet (I will be linking to it, by the by). There is also playing the game via emulator or buying it yourself, though I'm pretty sure it's region locked, so you'd need a Japanese DS to play it if you buy it. However, R4s are a wonderful invention for the DS, so as much as I don't want to advocate piracy in such a beautiful game, unfortunately, those who are short on cash may want to look into emulations or R4s. If anybody wants the nds file for the game, I will be happy to hand it over, but it's really pretty easy to find.

Also of note, there is a Translation Patch in the works for this game! It might not seem like it because the guy heading the project tends to do a lot of trolling (I really don't blame him, his trolling is pretty hilarious), but yes, it is happening!

There have also been rumors about a remake of the game for the PSVita being in the works. I sincerely hope it is true. :B

My last point of note before I end this monstrosity here is more of a pimpage for my baby girl, Kohaku. She's going to be a cameo battle in Tales of Graces f, which is coming to America for the PS3 in about a week. And I need to say it.

She is going to kick my ass and I am going to be so proud of her for it.

Especially if that name change is a thing. AUGH. So irrationally upset over it.

RELEVANT LINKS:
* Vesperia's LJ post regarding the ToH script (links are down now because megaupload)
* But not to worry, I have the script uploaded here for those of you who want to read it.
* Translation Patch Progress Site
* Tales of Hearts @ Aselia Wiki
* Tales of Hearts: Hard Mode Playthrough (Bosses Only)

Unfortunately I can't find an actual completed playthrough. :( Any questions, please feel free to ask me! I don't claim to be an expert on the game, but I've done my best to make sure I know as much as I can to be able to play Kohaku as best as I can.

[spiria]

OH, IT'S BEEN BROUGHT TO MY ATTENTION THAT DS GAMES ARE NOT REGION LOCKED.

SO.

* Tales of Hearts: Anime Edition @ Play Asia
* Tales of Hearts: CG Edition @ Play Asia

Re: TALES OF HEARTS

[spiria]

Also, I messed up on one of my links.

Anime Opening

PERSONA 3

[tsundyne]

TEN: all you need to know is that you shoot yourself in the head to summon figments of yourself to punch people
LEVI: That is seriously why Ten started playing P3

[tsundyne]

also this because it's just cool

play the Answer people, god

[contemptibility]

The Legend of the Legendary Heroes (aka Densetsu no Yuusha no Densetsu/DenYuuDen/That Series With a Dorky Name)

... Despite the ridiculous title, the basic premise of "SEARCHING FOR ~HERO RELICS~", and the fairly easygoing first episode, it is not a gag anime. In fact, it happens to be very fond of its mood whiplash, going from light-hearted and comedic to WHOOPS SOMEONE'S TRAGIC PAST and/or LOOK PEOPLE BEING BRUTALLY SLAUGHTERED, usually within the same episode.

It's essentially about a Crapsack World that runs on Gray and Grey Morality where War is Hell, Fantastic Racism is rampant, Aristocracy is Evil, everyone has had a Dark and Troubled Past (meaning that yes, the cast is a Dysfunction Junction), Well-Intentioned Extremists are generally the only people to get things done, Cruel and Unusual Deaths are the usual, Infant Immortality is ruthlessly averted, the Powers That Be aren't very nice, Sacrificial Lions are everywhere, and others that are spoilers or that I can't think of at the top of my head.

... Aka the world sucks and people are weird. Hilarity/angst/wtf is going on ensues. Considering how large and versatile the cast is, you're bound to find at least one character you like. |D The main ones include a lazy mage who pretends to be weaker than he really is, a badass snarky heroine/Cloud Cuckoo Lander, a ~charming~ troll/manipulative bastard, aka the trio in the center.

It has lots of eye candy on both sides (and those are hardly the only examples) and so much Ho Yay between the two male leads that it's practically canon. It also has some very lovely openings and endings. C:

... Oh, and crazy laughter. I still hate you, Jae.

You can find all the episodes subbed by Funimation on Youtube. o/

Note: The anime is adapted from a light novel series and covers the prequel, so be warned that it ends on a cliffhanger and wraps up little, sales mean a second season is unlikely, and that the novels may never be fully translated sob. /)_(\ So, uh, if you want a series that wraps everything up and don't want to have to do a lot of reading and research, then LOLHeroes might not be for you—

[ex_diplomacy861]

Lots of eye candy.

Stay away from the manga, guys.

You'll cry like me.

Vassalord

[not_heavens_adam]

Better Than It Sounds summary: "Just how much UST can there be between two male vampires? Let's find out."

Yep, that pretty much sums it up.


In one corner you've got a gay, sassy, flirtatious, pimp of a vampire who is, secretly, chalk-full of self-worth issues. And, in the other corner, you've got the most-likely-gay (at least for Johnny), catholic, would-be-priest. 'Would-be' because he's a vampire too...with cybernetic parts. So that he can hunt vampires better.

They also live together.

Which results in scenes like:



Early and often.

Vassalord has everything: deep plot, violence, sexual tension, a sassy, gay, vampire, mystery, romance, action, and girly manly crying. Mostly provided by Charley.

Did I forget to mention the near constant eye-candy/fan-service?



Yep. Go, read it. It's only at 5 volumes right now. :|a

[ex_fintastic398]

Yes, everyone... please read Vassalord, for your own good... u_u

YnM Representin~

[cinnaponpuppy]

Yami no Matsuei

This show is basically about everyone being gay for Tsuzuki with a side order of supernatural mystery and a dash of Japanese mythology.

The shinigami are tasked with solving the supernatural that disrupts the natural order of life. If someone's life is prolonged when it shouldn't be, the shinigami are employed to figure what is going down and fix it. Tsuzuki is in it for the food reasons beyond his own control. He is being punished for some crime he has committed, and is put through this hell of taking others lives to benefit his own (how he views the job). Hisoka, Tsuzuki's new boyfriend partner, took the job in order to find out who killed him.

The manga is still on going (after a long hiatus), but the anime has only thirteen episodes. The differences between the anime and manga is that the anime skips over the silly arcs, nothing is really finished, and the chicks are close to nonexistent.

Potential trigger warning~
There is blood, violence, mention of suicide, and sexual assault/rape.

Intro theme.
English Voice Actor for Tsuzuki is DAN GREEN.
It counts as Shoujo, but it has all the homo.

[bakegarasu]

Do you like fancy armor? Do you like adorable snail demon children? Do you like crazy-ass villains voiced by the guy who played Shaggy in the Scooby Doo live action movies?

Then Karas might be right for you!

Karas is a six-episode OVA released for Tatsunoko's 40th anniversary. This shortened format leaves out a lot of things that a longer series might have been able to expand on, but what you do get for the main storyline is fantastic.

It has CGI! It has giant monsters! It has blood! It has a 'hero' whose backstory could probably be the one for a villain but he doesn't really angst over it.

The whole thing is up on Youtube in English if you are in America. If you are not in America, or prefer subtitles, let me know and I can fetch you the links. /o/

[bufudine]

I HEARD BLOOD AND I SAID "OKAY."

I don't live in America and I'd prefer subtitled links (some noise problems over here), if it's not too much trouble :3c

MOVE TO THE COUNTRY, JUMP IN A TV

[yellowglasses]

WELCOME TO PERSONA 4
WHERE BODIES MYSTERIOUSLY APPEAR HANGING FROM ROOFS IN THE FOG AND THE POLICE CAN'T DO SHIT

Play as a boy who barely talks yet somehow forms strong bonds with the people he meets, and manages to date any girl he pleases along the way!

Basically, the game is about these above-mentioned murders taking place, and only you and your friends can stop it by jumping into televisions and wearing glasses. You also save people from dying when the murderer throws them into the television, causing the Midnight Channel- only visible on tvs on rainy nights at exactly Midnight. The people who show up on this 'show' are the people who mysteriously get found after it rains for a couple days straight.

These people are faced by their Shadows. Beings that take on their appearance and reveal the victim's deepest secrets they keep from everyone else and are in denial about.
EVERY SINGLE PERSON YOU HAVE TO SAVE SAYS

AND THEN YOU HAVE TO FIGHT THEIR BOSS SHADOW


Eventually everyone you save works together to solve the case of WHO IS THE MURDERER???


Along the way you also....
...
..

Fight weird looking shit



Do stuff for people so they'll like you


Eavesdrop on your schoolmates


Become obsessed with checking the weather


Accidentally accuse the wrong people of being the killer



Date people maybe??? Also rank social links with everyone.


YEP THAT'S PERSONA 4.

TALES OF VESPERIA

[radiantwingedone]

this will probably never be as large as Taco's blurb about Hearts. I ALSO HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I'M DOING WITH HTML ... STUFF. SO. and may be somewhat silly...

... anyway.

TALES OF VESPERIA

Which is special because in both Japanese and English, it has the same opening song! A MIRACLE. No Starry Heavens -> Instrumental -> Soshite boku ne dekiru koto for Vesperia! The singer they got sings in both english and japanese, so the songs are the same! just.. different language. of the localized ones, at least. Ah, so Graces F will be the same.

ANYWAY. Vesperia, according to TV Trope's "Better than it sounds" is boy goes to get stolen item back, ends up fixing everyone elses troubles. His best friend disapproves.

... Only Yuri Lowell isn't really a "boy", as the oldest Tales Hero he's solidly at 21, and there's a bit more than that to the plot But really, that's pretty much it...

The game is divided into three parts;

Part one! Catch thief. Yuri sets out to go get... what more or less is the bucket for his slums well back. No, no other bucket will do. It's a very special bucket. He gets thrown in jail for b&e, his dog(Repede) runs off with money, and he helps a princess(Estelle) break out of her castle... so she can warn his best friend(Flynn) about something... that's.. never explained..., and gains himself a rabid fanboy who loves Yuri so much he wants to cut him up stalker with a bloodlust problem(Zagi). They collect a little boy who looks a lot like Lloyd in terms of hairstyle(Karol), a prickly mage-girl who really likes her fireballs(Rita), and run into the corruption that comes from being in an Empire where the emperor's been dead for a decade and the country's ruled by knights / a council of old nobles. Yuri spends most of this time more or less keeping the party all running in the same direction, while helping Karol commit more b&e when they can't use the front door. They meet this shady old guy in a purple coat(Raven) who helps them, then nearly gets them caught, then teases them, and turns into Rita's punching bag for later parts of the game. They also finally find Flynn, only to argue with him and not get him to join the party. All of the sads. Zagi shows up again, and they kick him off a boat.

No, even though he's gotten from the center of the main continent to the edge, something people don't really do due to MONSTERS, he hasn't found his bucket, or his thief. So they head to the next one!

And get arrested. Apparently, there's a really flamboyantly gay noble knight who really doesn't like Yuri, and so he thinks he should try to kill him. But then again, Yuri does do a lot of minor crimes. All over the place. which another knight tells us when he arrests them. Then they get pardoned by Estelle, because she's a princess and can do that, the commandant of the knights(Alexei) tries to take her home; things explode, the party reforms, and they head on to the next town! Well. City. Still haven't found that thief.

They don't get arrested this time, because now they're not in the Empire! They try to talk to the head of the Guilds, only monsters attack and the guy leaves town to kill them. So they head into the forest to look for the monster nest, meet up with a fishy old Raven The smell was kinda coming off him in ~waves~, and go to defeat monsters. Only there's too many, and a weirdo with way too much white hair and a funny glowing sword saves them(Duke). He tells them to just go away already, more or less, and heads off without explaining anything useful. So they head out of the forest, end up meeting with that Guild Leader - and Flynn gets arrested.

No, they still haven't found that thief. Yuri swaps places, and they go to kill off a guildmaster who was causing trouble, and meet a really pretty elf lady who fights in a bikini(Judith). THEY GET YURI'S BUCKET BACK, but Yuri isn't happy that some guy said he'd go to hell. Raven and Judith head off, because they're special like that.

Everyone can go home now, right? RIGHT?! Rita decides she's not waiting for the answer and heads out.

Wrong!

Back at the Guild City, a giant fiery chicken tells Estelle that she's a poison to the world. So now she wants to chase it to find out why.

Oh. And then Yuri murders someone in the middle of the night and dumps them off the bridge . BEST HERO EVER, RIGHT?

Part Two: Chase down Phaeroh and get answers. Also known as "Estelle is a princess and wants to do ALL THE THINGS". Judith rejoins the party, and they make a Guild of their own! the SUPER ULTRA COURAGEOUS BRAVES Brave Vesperia, because fortunately Estelle has better taste in names than Karol. Even if she's not part of the guild. They head to the next city, regain Rita, try to beat up the creeper knight and deal with a guy with a german accent instead. Who wields the most awesome thing ever, a crossbow-rifle-scythe. They run to the next town chasing creeper knight, and Raven joins!

Now to take a boat to the desert continent /o/ On the way there they get a box from a ghost ship. There, they take part in a coliseum fight, because some other Guildmaster says someone evil is trying to take it over, only it's Flynn, and he's lawful stupid so someone is lying. Zagi proclaims that Yuri should know he hates waiting, and gets beat up for his trouble. They get their box stolen by said guildmaster, then book it after him! Into caves! A big dragon shows up to scare them by eating red light, the guild master turns out to be Mr German Accent, and they fight a giant bird-Ghastly that turns into a lot of little bats.

Then they're at the desert. Judith knows the place, so she more or less guides them to an oppressed little town with knights standing about everywhere. Estelle tries to lose them by dropping their quest to her, but they say they can't do that. Into the desert to find some kids parents! And the giant flame chicken named Phaeroh.

Turns out they aren't good at desert travel, and after beating a sky mantaray, pass out. Only to wake up in a village from a thousand years ago! And Duke's in one of the houses! He breaks the shiny they got out of the box, then tells them that Estelle is a Child of the Full Moon, and Entelexeia - which Phaeroh is - don't like Children of the Full Moon. See? He can be helpful...

They go back to the other desert town, Yuri scares a guy into walking into a sandpit, and Flynn calls him out on murder! Estelle isn't scared of him though! Even if he kills people in the middle of the night! they were assholes anyway. And now she wants to find out more about Children of the Full Moon, but since Phaeroh would want to eat her, they go to deliver Raven's letter. Turns out someone else is an Entelexeia, and Estelle gets some answers, only she heals the Entelexeia and the party is forced to kill her. Yuri convinces her she's not a poison by nearly cutting his arm off. YAY TALES HEROES. Yuri gives Flynn a death-threat if he does something stupid, Judith breaks a boats engine and leaves, and they sail back to Guild city.

No, we're not at half way yet. The Guild-master guy runs off to beat up the german one, but ends up committing suicide because the Entelexeia in the coliseum city was a guildmaster and his grandkid was the one that causes it. Karol gets depressed. Yuri tells him to grow a pair, they're going to go find Judith. Karol does, and Raven rejoins once again!

They go find the destroyed mountain range where most of the Great War took place. Craters everywhere. Judith explains why she broke the engine, and they get to witness spacewhale evolution! Now the spacewhale carries their boat through the sky~

And then the really bad stuff starts happening~

because I don't remember what happens directly after this I'm just going to stop no- oh, wait, I do. Still stopping.

YEAH. IT'S NOT ACTUALLY THAT LONG, if you don't hit up all the sidequests. I just like to TL;DR. and there is a severe lack of backstory.

[radiantwingedone]

You people can go to the Aselia Wikia on your own for more character information, i went BLAAAARRRG about plot. |D

FFV

[seablaze]

Final Fantasy V

This is about a boy and his chocobo...

However, the boy, Bartz, ditches his bird to sneak on board of a pirate ship with some old coot and a princess. Their mission is to figure out why the hell are meteors are crashing, where has the King vanished to, and why the hell is everyone doki doki over a male pirate Captain.
That's okay though. Because the chocobo eventually falls in love and makes chocobo babies when he's off screen.

Oh. I guess I do better than that, huh?

The game is from the early 90's and there are two different translations available in the States. The gist is that there are four crystals which summons Captain Planet were used as a way to seal a big baddie away. They start to shatter, and the world is threatened. Four Warriors come together to triumph over evil using the shattered bits of the Crystal to switch job classes(they are magical girls!)

Kingdom Butts

[seablaze]

Kingdom Hearts

Pretty much, the whole game is a crazy cross over between Disney and Final Fantasy. Every one is actually Sora, or some how connected to Sora. And it started thanks to an old dude who wants to recreate the world as both light and dark.

HERE. The basic summary~

LOST

[corks]

OKAY BEFORE I SAY ANYTHING JUST....watch this. Just watch it. (And don't spoil yourself with the comments, it will ruin the surprise and awesomeness. >:I)

Now, if that scene made you go WHAT THE HECK JUST HAPPENED? and OH MY GOD THAT WAS ACTUALLY KIND OF BADASS BUT WHAT WAS GOING ON???, then congratulations, you've been exposed to the cult TV show which every other show and it's mom references, LOST. And this is only one of hundreds of scenes that will make your jaw drop to the floor. What you had was a perfectly normal reaction, now come over here so I can give you a quick explanation of why you should go out and watch this show right now.

So, what is LOST about? Well, technically, it's about a bunch of people on a plane that crashes on an island in the middle of nowhere. And basically, they all have to get along and survive and find a way back home! Sounds like a pretty simple premise, right?

Well, that's only the tip of the iceberg. For as time goes on, the survivors realize that the island they've landed on isn't exactly normal. They discover the Others, who are a band of mysterious people who seemingly have lived on the island for years and are extremely hostile to the survivors. Then there's the fact that there are polar bears living on the island, as well as a terrible monster that kills anyone who comes in contact with it. There are also time-travelling bunnies, a strange organization called Dharma Initiative that may have been working with said bunnies (among other things), and a sequence of numbers, that will show up in the oddest places during the entire series. And yes, those numbers do mean something...

And I haven't even started to begin looking at the people. For, while the first rule of LOST is that WEIRD STUFF HAPPENS, the second is NO ONE IS WHAT THEY SEEM. Because every single survivor on the island have mysterious pasts that will be explored throughout the show in flashbacks, and what might seem like the kindest person in the world will be suddenly realized as having the worst possible past in the world, too. Basically, not only does the island have mysteries to solve anywhere you look, you also have the mystery of the people living on said island to solve, too.

Basically, LOST has everything you could want in a show. It has drama. It has action. It has love and romance and some of the most heartwarming relationships on television. It has death (yes, a lot of characters die, just to warn you). It has tragic moments. It has laugh-out-loud moments. It has moments that will make you sit in the corner of your room for days and wonder what life is and what it really means. It has good people. It has bad people. And boy, does it have every morally grey person in between. Basically, there is a reason why LOST became such a monumental event in television- it set the standard of what a television show should be. Instead of just focusing on a simple premise like "people crash on island, people band together to get off said island", it has so many layers that you will never see coming.

Basically, watch LOST. And I promise you, you won't be disappointed. Yes, all the mysteries might not be solved in the first season, and yes, there are too many moments that will make your head hurt, but at the same time, it's a brilliant show that everyone should have in their lives.

NOW GO AND WATCH IT OR I WILL THROW A HOT POCKET AT YOU

Tales of Symphonia

[redcladidealist]

Oh no, not another typical kids-go-out-and-save-the-world-game.

Oh, wait, no it's not. There's an actual age range in the playable cast! From twelve years old to should-have-been-in-the-grave-years-old, you've got a total of three non-adults, five fully-fledged adults, and one who's kind of both. /o/

You like derp? We've got derp! Quite a bit of it. The main hero is a dorky idealist, and he makes sure all his comrades have their moments, too. You like serious business? We've got some of that, too. Humans robbed of their lives to support one man's twisted vision, a religion being used to control the fate of two worlds, a fight against racism and injustice spanning four millenia, worlds that are dying while a callous man plays god...

...and daddy issues. Yes, I consider that a hook.

The game may seem a little too innocent and idealistic while you're first playing it, but let me tell you, this is a lie. This game is seriously deep, with some pretty significant moral quandaries. It doesn't ever completely lose that child-like innocent shine, and there's plenty of humor to be found along the way, but man, neither does it treat itself too lightly.

It really is an awesome game, with plot and side quests and treasure hunting, different variations on the ending, replayability, and a pretty good battle system that I feel is neither too simple nor too difficult to master. You can easily sink 50 or 60 hours on it with your first playthrough, so it IS a fairly long game - something I feel is a plus, since you get more playtime for your buck.

I don't think I can recommend this game enough. I really, really love it.

[chosen_gigolo]

My name is Zelos Wilder, and I approve this message❤