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OZ Poll |
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Version 2.08
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Thursday, March 11th, 2010
MNT Gaiden Chapter 17 pages 104 and 105 are now up.
...cheap MNT chibis for everybody!
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MNT Gaiden Chapter 17
Click icon to read latest pages (p.104).
MNT Gaiden Bakabashii #68
Click to read the lastest archived short comics.
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Monday, March 8th, 2010
MNT Gaiden Chapter 17 pages 102 and 103 are now up.
My PC hasn't given me a blue screen of death since Thursday... and incidentally, I haven't played any 3D PC game since then too. :(
At least my PC is still reliable for all things related to art, excluding the internet browsers, which freeze after visiting about 30 pages.
At times like this, I'm glad I bought Macbook. Sure, macs tend to take the users by the hand a lot more often than PCs, but at least it seems a lot more stable. If things do not get an better for my PC, I think I will start using my Macbook for art as well, since it can pretty much do everything I used to on PC.
This weekend, I decided to finish an old RPG that I forgot for the last few years: Grandia Xtreme.
The story is horrible and cliché, the characters are boring, the music is nothing memorable, but at least the battle system is very fun to play.
I was stuck at the last boss so I thought about grinding a bit more - I went hunting for rare monsters that give hundreds of thousands of EXP points, but ended up wasting my time, not encountering a single one.
I wanted to give the boss another shot, so I stocked up on items, ran away from all battles and tackled the last boss once again. This time, I took the time to buff up my characters' stats during the last battle and it was a joke.
There was a cutscene which I didn't care about after the boss, followed by credits (with the music of the first Grandia game, even if it doesn't deserve to be related to it!!) and then I'm prompted to save the game in case I want to do post-game dungeons... yeah, right.
I'm moving on to Tales of Destiny Director's Cut on PS2. Now THAT'S a fun RPG.
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Thursday, March 4th, 2010
MNT Gaiden Chapter 17 page 101 is now up.
More Nobody and Renoir character development.
BTW, just as a reminder, you can follow MNT Gaiden updates as well as some other progress reports of my other fan arts via Twitter (on your left).
For those who don't want to visit my site everyday to check for updates, this is the next best thing after RSS feeds... because I don't think I'll ever integrate RSS to my site. T_T
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Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010
MNT Gaiden Chapter 17 page 100 is now up.
I still have some problems with Windows 7.
I haven't started applying solutions that some friends gave me because I don't have enough time to do it in one evening. Plus, having no PC to work with sucks. :(
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Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010
MNT Gaiden Chapter 17 pages 98 and 99 are now up.
I. HATE. WINDOWS. 7.
I'm going to save and upload this update quickly before Win7 gives me the blue screen of death again.
More details to come in another update.
For now, feel free to follow the updates of MNT Gaiden via my Twitter.
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Wednesday, February 10th, 2010
MNT Gaiden Chapter 17 pages 96 and 97 are now up.
My first real update since I upgraded to Windows 7!
I've decided to learn Objective-C in order try and create something like an iPhone app.
Even if the iPhone and the iPad one day become obsolete, it's a coding language that can still be useful when doing anything mac-related.
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Thursday, February 4th, 2010
MNT Gaiden Bakabakashii 68 is now up.
I noticed that I haven't uploaded some Bakabakashii that were already done, so I did so, and created a new one in the process.
My PC is not 100% Gaiden-ready, so I won't be able to put up any more pages of the main story until I sort out a very minor technical problem.
By this weekend, it should be fixed. In the meantime... I'll just work on the story on paper and have some pages ready for digital processing.
The thing is, I upgraded to Windows 7.
Quite frankly, I think it's overrated.
I usually hear people say it's miles better than Vista, but as far as I'm concerned, nothing's changed. Perhaps the compatibility with programs have been improved, but so far, it's just been headaches after headaches, since I couldn't upgrade from Vista - I had to reinstall everything from scratch.
I recently finished Silent Hill Shattered Memories. Fans, be reassured, the game is actually really good storywise. It's ironic that it's only once the new devs decided to detract from the main Silent Hill story that things improve dramatically.
It's short though. I finished it in one afternoon, in one sitting. However, there are multiple endings and many, many details in the game that change depending on your psychic profile. Yes, the game analyzes you as you go and changes elements in the environment.
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Tuesday, January 26th, 2010
MNT Gaiden chapter 17 pages 93, 94 and 95 are now up.
Does anyone remember Galaxy Express 999?
It's an extremely popular anime from the 70's in Japan and probably a classic for old anime fans here.
Leiji Matsumoto is the artist behind that series, as well as Captain Harlock.
The first time I watched Galaxy Express 999 was when the OVA version was broadcasted on a sci-fi channel many years ago.
At first, I was taken aback by the very... unique style, but after I got used to it, I was able to focus on the story and the characters.
It's nothing revolutionary compared to many animes we see nowadays. It has a very young boy as the protagonist (ergh) and he's as energetic as they come these days.
However, the themes in GE999 and the way they are very shown were very well executed and it's no wonder that series became popular back then.
I rewatched the OAV on youtube as well as some episodes of the super old anime (113 episodes total!).
And now, I'm a Leiji Matsumoto fan. :)
By the way, the character I drew up there is the conductor of the Galaxy Express 999.
He looks like a black mage from Final Fantasy, doesn't he? I bet SquareSoft brought him up back when they were still at the drawing board for Final Fantasy and just decided to replace his cap with a pointy mage cap.
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Monday, January 18th, 2010
MNT Gaiden chapter 17 pages 91 and 92 are now up.
I'll confess, I never watched any "Invasion of the Body Snatchers", but I did watch the ending of the version with Sutherland. And it's SCARY... much better done than most horror movies nowadays. It had momentum.
I must start playing more adventure games. Unlike other genres which tend to overruse the same themes over and over again (Lord of the Rings ripoffs for WRPGs, war themes for FPS, spikey haired hyperactive but righteous teens in JRPGS), adventure games use a broad variety of themes.
Right now, I should be finishing Sam and Max Season 1 on PC. When I'm done with that, I'll play "The Longest Journey" to have a taste of surreal european inspired universes. Then, it's Sanitarium and Blade Runner for darker themes and cyberpunk.
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Friday, January 15th, 2010
MNT Gaiden chapter 17 page 90 is now up.
That's all I can give for now. I have several other overdue projects, so the updates will not be done in a huge burst like I did before.
If it does, it's would be because I feel really impulsive (which is the way I work most of the time).
I finished Final Fantasy XIII, after deserting the game at the last boss for the last two weeks.
The final boss was easy, the ending was satisfying, but the whole experience was not something I'd call memorable.
The plot twists were not as well executed as FFX's and I thought the ending was not as good as FFX's either.
Snow was annoying from beginning to end. -_-
I listened to his English voice in the new trailer and he sounds so much more bearable! Or perhaps it's because the Japanese version's script was a bit sub-par. Repeating the word "protect" (mamoru) a hundred times is not my idea of a good script.
The English version's script will most likely be changed for the better and the English voices, from what I heard in the new trailer, are amazing!
But this doesn't warrant another purchase for me. I'll just stay with my JP version and watch streams of the US version online.
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Wednesday, January 6th, 2010
Happy new year, everybody!
I'll repeat that for Chinese new year too...
I've accumulated 11 sketched pages so far. This means I'll start inking soon.
Since we're talking about this, I've always wondered what kind of updates is preferred by you readers:
-infrequent, but huge chunks of pages at once
or
-frequent, but one page at a time
I've implemented a poll on the left side.
Please feel free to express yourself.
Depending on which pace is preferred, I'll try to readjust myself - it's one of my resolutions for this year.
My other one is, of course, to be more serious about drawing. Draw more, draw anything, draw what I FEEL like drawing. Right now, I feel like drawing the protagonists of that old PC game, Gobliiins. :)
I rarely buy games at full price, but I decided to make an exception for Final Fantasy XIII. I imported the Japanese version. After 50 hours of gameplay spread throughout my holidays, here are my thoughts about the game:
Pros:
-Fast paced and very fun battle system
-Stunning graphics
-Great cast, minus one (read the cons)
-Perfect presentation, very little loading time, ability to restart any battle, any time.
-Story's pace is always fast, never a boring moment.
Cons:
-Snow. Most annoying character ever, personality-wise. The fact that he's important makes it worse.
-Some lines exchanged between characters are more than cringe worthy. Not very well written dialogue for some of the characters, by RPG standards.
-Music not as memorable as other FFs (Hamauzu < Uematsu).
-Game feels like it's missing something - inability to explore any of the awesome urban settings you see in cutscenes.
-Not enough customization for the characters's abilities, stats and equipments.
Don't get me wrong, I like FFXIII. It's just not as memorable as FFX. With the exception of Snow, I actually enjoy FFXIII's cast more than FFX's, but I don't feel like the story's building up for a huge climax, unlike FFX. Even the plot twist wasn't that impressive.
I'm now at the last boss and I'll probably finish the game one of these days, but right now, I'm totally burnt out on it.
The English version will be released in March on both PS3 and XBOX360... from what I saw when I compared both the Japanese and English trailers, the script has been rewritten a bit, so chances are some characters' lines will be less repetitive and will sound more natural than what I heard in the Japanese version (again, especially Snow's lines).
Also, the voice acting sounds decent in the English version, even the kid's voice (Hope) sounds great! And you won't have that dorky Silver the Hedgehog in mind when you hear Snow's English voice.
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Friday, December 25th, 2009
Merry Christmas everybody! ^_^
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Tuesday, December 15th, 2009
I found the source of my sickness: my stupidity.
It was actually very simple. My coat was not fit to protect me against canadian winter... d'oh!
So I went and bought a new winter coat, black and emo. :)
It makes a whole world of difference: I don't shiver anymore and I feel like I'm at 100% functional everyday!
I know what I said seems obvious, but this goes to show that sometimes, we're so busy that we forget even the simplest things.
These days, I'm watching Futurama.
I used to be a fan, but with the series getting a new season, with all voice actors, I impulsively bought the whole collection contained in a Bender head.
Long live Futurama! ^____^
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Thursday, December 3rd, 2009
I am starting to believe that my sickness as of late was due to H1N1. It has to be. I have never been sick continuously during a whole month.
The other plausible explanation is that it was a simple cold that kept coming back because I neglected my health.
Strangely, I put an end to this by eating breakfasts made of 20 baby carrots, an apple, a banana, a yogurt and an orange juice.
My mother suggested that it was due to a lack of vitamins (not bad karma like I thought) that I constantly remained sick, so I took her advice and stuffed my face with veggies and fruits.
Just as I recovered from my illness, my parents booked the whole household for a flu shot. :\
Now my arm hurts a bit and I'm feeling more tired than usual... but it's nothing compared to feeling like crap during the last month.
This being said, whether or not you should get a flu shot is up to you.
If you're skeptical about it, you should get informed from as many sources as you can.
If it can be any consolation, if you get a bit sick from the flu shot, tell yourself that all the doctors who made that flu shot probably got sick themselves since medical staff are required to get the shot.
Needless to say, I didn't draw much due to feeling sick and everything (and a drawing table that won't stay put).
However, I did a small interview with the nice folks at "The XCentrikz" about MNT Gaiden!
There are no spoilers, so don't worry.
You can read it here.
I'll link to their site soon enough...
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Saturday, November 21st, 2009
MNT Gaiden is not appropriate reading material for people under 15 due to violent content!
I feel like saying this once in a while or when I upload pages that are not really "nice".
MNT Gaiden Chapter 17 pages 76 to 89 are now up.
And on other news, I mixed up milk with orange juice this morning, so I had a breakfast made of cereals that taste sweet, tangy and weird. Yum! (Actually, yuck. I ate it so I wouldn't waste food)
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