.....Or Not.

Something way down inside me wants to post something today, problem is I have no idea what the fuck to talk about.

I could talk about my love life, but that's such a boring ass topic.  It always boils down to, I'm fat, girls don't like fat; and I have an odd personality.  Girls don't like odd either.

I could talk about the secret lusts bubbling at the back of my brain, but nobody wants to stomach such nonsense.

I could talk about why my house creeps me the fuck out sometimes, but that's old hat and might aggravate whatever wants to kill me in these walls.

I could bitch about my current line of life, how I don't really want to spend my entire summer taking care of my brothers for 8 hours a day, but everyone has their problems, why read about mine?

I could do something about games, but that just plays to my nerdy side and no one really cares about that junk.

I could go on a rant and tell people to grow a pair; life won't make every endeavor you attempt work out like a dream!  But again, who needs that, it's all over TV.

I could discuss how I think the world will end, spinning a wild tale about aliens from Jupiter and a zombie apocalypse consisting only of lunch meat, but that would just be helping Scientologists out.

I could discuss what I would do after I won it big in the lottery, but that'd be boring and just show how greedy and dorky I am.

I could talk about my internal struggle of  what my dreams are telling me, but that's depressing.

I could talk about how P!nk's recent songs have really spoken to me, but that might give you all the Gay.

I could tell you a manly tale about how I conquered the Pacifists of the Ghandi Nebula, but of course, you already know that one.  Also you're reading this in my sweet seductive voice.

All in all,  have no idea what I want to talk about.  Maybe next time...

Castlevania: The Whys of 3D-vanias. MASSIVE SPOILERS~~

To date, Konami has attempted 4 times to make Castlevania a 3D game.

First came Castlevania 64, a Classicvania in 1999.  It followed the story of Reinhardt Schneider and Carrie Fernandez, partners and descendants of Belmont family friends.  You can play as either, though the story is mostly the same, save one branching path. It's got a very basic storyline, the same the all Classicvanias share: Dracula is back, kill him.  Each character had a main weapon and a side weapon, as well as the ability to grab subweapons and use them via expenditure of Red Gems.  Reinhardt has a whip for a main weapon, which gained power by grabbing Power Ups, like older games.  He also totes a short sword for a side weapon.  Carrie shoots Magic bursts that track opponents, which also gain power via Power Ups.  She sports a single Chakram as a side weapon.  The subweapons functioned the same for both characters: Knife, Axe, Cross and Holy Water.  The game took you through various areas of Dracula's castle, and branched after the Duel Tower.  Reinhardt has to climb a certain tower and confront Death over the death of a vampire girl named Rosa, whom he meets earlier.  Flashback:  Rosa tried to commit suicide, but Reinhardt stops her.  She attacks him, only to be killed when he tries to defend himself.  He loves her, somehow, so he's kinda ticked when Death comes to take her.  Carrie has to climb a different tower and fight one of her vampirized ancestors, and a vampire named Actrise.
If you get the good ending, you find out that the dude you thought was Dracula is actually just his servant, and some kid you rescued earlier is really Dracula.  You have to fight Dracula and some weirdo Dragon-Centipede final form.

Second came Lament of Innocence, which hit the PS2 in 2003.  This game finally unveiled the origins of Dracula and the Belmont Clan, in the Castlevania universe at least.  It centered around Leon Belmont, a lord knight during the crusades, and his journey in 1094.  Leon and his friend Mathias Cronqvist were leaders during the crusades, and best friends.  Mathias fell extremely ill when he was told that his wife had died.  Leon kept going, until his fiance Sara disappears.  Monsters start showing up around populated areas, so Leon comes back to find her and kick some monster ass.  The Church denies his plan  to counter attack, so he ditches the Church.  Mathias get his sick ass up, and tells Leon that this is all because of a vampire, and that the vampire took Sara to his castle in the middle of a cursed forest.  Leon goes to save her, and he's given a whip made with alchemy by a man named Rinaldo.  The game essentially follows him going throughout the castle, kicking ass and trying to find Sara. Eventually you come to find that Walter, the vampire that took Sara, has infected her with vampirism, though she's not quite a vampire yet.  Leon takes Sara to Rinaldo, and of course there's no way to save her.  Though Rinaldo reveals that the whip can be "completed" by pouring Sara's tainted soul into the whip via a blood pact.  Sara sacrifices herself to give Leon the ability to kill Walter, Leon promises to school him.  This is the birth of the famous Castlevania weapon: the Vampire Killer. Eventually you kill Walter, only to have it revealed that this was all a ruse set up by your friend Mathias.  Mathias used the power of a special stone to harness the power of Walter's soul, all in an attempt to get revenge against God for stealing his wife away.  Mathias offers to make Leon an immortal vampire like himself. Leon refuses because of the promise he made to Sara.  You have to defeat Death, and the epilogue reveals that Mathias is Dracula.

After that, in 2005, Konami releases Castlevania Curse of Darkness on the PS2 and ye olde Xbox. The story was also adapted into a Manga, which tells a bit more of Hector's past.  Curse of Darkness took the Alucard / Soma Cruz route and had their protagonist wield a fuckton of weapons rather than be limited to just a whip.  Hector's adventure takes place 1479, 3 years after Castlevania III (on the NES).  Hector used to be a high ranking general, known as a Devil Forgemaster, under Dracula's regime during one of his resurrections.  His rival and fellow general, Isaac, is the only other Devil Forgemaster out there.  Both served under Dracula, though Hector leaves once Dracula started killing humans without rhyme or reason.  Isaac served until Dracula was killed by Trevor Belmont at the end of Castlevania III, and even after for some time.  Isaac wanted revenge on Hector, so he kills Hector's lover: Rosaly.  Hector, gets a little pissed and goes to fuck up Isaac's shit.  So, the object of the game is to track Isaac down and beat the living hell out of him.  This game kinda broke the mold a bit, you plow your way through more of Wallachia's terrain, but the game ends within Dracula's Castle, as always. As Hector makes his way towards Isaac, he meets a plethora of characters, all trying to stop Dracula's Curse from ravaging Wallachia.  Dracula's Curse refers to the final acts of Dracula before his death in CVIII, in which he curses humanity to fester in their uncertainty until the obliterate themselves.  Hector comes across: Zead, a monk who seemingly wants to be rid of Dracula's Curse.  Julia, a witch that acts as your shop for the game.  Trevor Belmont, nuff said. And St. Germain, a time traveling man sporting a top hat, a british accent, and a poisoned blade.  He attempts to discourage Hector from his quest, later we find out it's so Hector doesn't bring about Dracula's resurrection.  You come to find that Zead is actually Death (gasp), and plotted to use you and Isaac's impending duel to release a ton of dark power, and upon Isaac killing you, use your body as Dracula's vessel for his resurrection.  It still happens, but the fact is that Hector kills Isaac, so Isaac becomes the new vessel.  The end of the game culminates with Hector's fight against Dracula, and Hector using his powers to turn back Dracula's Curse.

Ugh.  Then came Lords of Shadow in 2010.  As you can tell, I hate this game.  I refuse to dignify it with the surtitle of Castlevania.  Not to say the game is bad in and of itself, it's alright; but no way in Hell is it a Castlevania game.  Lords of Shadow is not part of the series canon, it's supposed to be a reboot, but it's not.  It takes place in 1047; Gabriel Belmont is a member of the Brotherhood of Light, which has received wind that the Lords of Shadow will rise and bring about the World's End.  They send Gabriel for some reason, I assume because he's a good warrior.  It plays like God of War, to the T, I'm not even kidding.  You want a good reveiw: watch Zero Punctuation's review of it, it's spot on.  Gabriel is one of those newfangled and incredibly chic "Dark Protagonists", you know: the ones that are inherently good, but go about being good in the most violent and almost comically mean ways conceivable.  I think the slogan for the game even says: "Dark times call for a Dark Hero!".  My biggest gripe is that this game didn't feel like a Castlevania game, it just lacked the gothic flare and...just everything.  Anyways, you spend most of the game running around fighting werewolves and trolls with a weak ass whip for a weapon.  You're also being creeper stalked by Patrick Stewart, your ally and the game's narrator.  It has the cheesiest after-credits ending I've ever seen.  Not even kidding.  There's also a Portal reference.  Whoo.

Castlevania newbs will say the Lament of Innocence and Curse of Darkness suck because they're boring and there's no "epicness" to them.  Conversely they'll also say Lords of Shadow was amazing because there were all these actions scenes and epic bloody kills.

Veterans of the series will say all three suck, and that's what mystifies me, with the exception of Lords of Shadow.  I personally love Lament of Innocence and Curse of Darkness, and I'm here to say why.

Castlevania 64
The Pros:
It was the first of it's kind.  It was pretty revolutionary considering that it was on the Nintendo 64.  The story was pretty decent, given how basic the skeleton is.  It pioneered the item system, as well as the money system.

The Cons:
The platforming was pretty choppy at times, and frustrating when you were far away from a save.  Some of the enemies are hard to hit due to the limited range of Reinhardt's whip or the awkward tracking effect of Carrie's magic. This game can be pretty rough the first time around, as far as difficulty goes.

Castlevania Lament of Innocence
The Pros:
The game has that gothic feel to it, complete with sexually ambiguous artstyle and completely orchestrated music, mostly.  Leon wields nothing but a whip, and the classic subweapons from older Castlevanias.  They added the Crystal as a new subweapon because they couldn't find a way to implement the Stopwatch without being cheap.  They also have a new mechanic, in which you gain and Orb after killing a boss.  Adding an Orb to your subweapons changes the effect, but also increases the cost of the Hearts you use.  Example: Holy Water.  Normally you generate a small half circle of blue flame in front of you on the ground.  Simple, costs 4 <3's.  However, adding the effect of the blue orb gives you Energy Gazer, which fires repeated pillars of energy in front of you, a la Magneto's Magnetic Shockwave in Marvel vs Capcom 2. 
The whip in this game functioned a lot better.  There's combos to unlock, and the range is greatly improved.  The addition of a Guard command, as well as a dodge, really helps you get a leg up on some enemies.  The layout, while confusing at times, is expansive and very pretty actually.  I find myself using the Map a lot, to see where I'm going, but I find that good because  I never seem to use it in any other games. Memorial and Magical Tickets come about in this game, which teleport you back to your previously used Save room and Rinaldo's cabin, respectively. 

The Cons:
Some of the dialogue is incredibly cheesy, but that's a Castlevania staple really.  The camera has a fixed position, which can get annoying at times, but it's easy to get used to.  The layout can be a real pain, sometimes there's a chunky of backtracking, but that can be circumvented (sort of) by Memorial Tickets.  The storyline is a little cliche, but it's still implemented well, despite it all.

Castlevania Curse of Darkness
The Pros:
The ability to use multiple weapons gives a sense of freedom that the other Castlevanias don't.  The weapon fusion systems adds a sense of grinding for people who like it.  The storyline is pretty interesting actually, despite it's aged roots.  The new system of familiars, known as Innocent Devils in this game, is really cool!  I dub this game Poke'vania because of the way it works.  When one finds the basic form of an ID, you can view a tree spread of its different evolutions.  ID's evolve by Hector using certain weapons and gathering Evo Crystals from slain enemies.  Depending on the ones absorbed, the ID's evolve differently.  After a while, your ID will also drop an Egg, which can be used to hatch a new ID, and evolve it differently.  Depending on the current ID, they can learn different attacks and be used for certain purposes.  This provides a new level of customization, and it can be kinda addicting.  Any unused ID's are kept in Julia's care.  There's a fair chunk of secrets to find too, and challenges.

The Cons:
The plotline can be a little confusing at times, what with masquerading characters.  The layout for this game makes Lament of Innocence's look like a punk.  This game is huge, and takes time to fully explore.  As such, it can be really confusing, and sometimes a little boring.  I found some backtracking to be really tiresome at times, and some of the bosses are tough the first time off.

Lords of Shadow
The Pros:
It's very pretty, the devs really took their time.  The whip combos are also very flashy.  Some of the stages were pretty cool, and the creature control was nifty.  PATRICK STEWART! Also, there's some pretty nifty puzzle solving.

The Cons:
Oh God this game is bland as Hell.  VERY cookie cutter, and the similarities to God of War are almost offensive.  Buggy camera angles really piss you off during combat.  No matter how much want, your whip doesn't get ANY stronger.  Enemies that take a while to kill in the beginning still take a while later on, and you don't feel like you're really progressing. Half the time you just want to scream at Gabriel "THAT'S NOT A GOOD IDEA!!!" but he won't listen.  The Shadow of the Colossus fights are incredibly boring and take too long.  You can skip puzzles.....no, just no.  Logic puzzles....also no.  WTF, WHY IS SATAN THE FINAL BOSS??!?!  The After-Credits scene took the whole game and made it the creation of a seven year old child.  This game doesn't feel like a Castlevania.  The soundtrack is also very bland, and very generic "Epic" kind of stuff.  It sounds like Batman Dark Knight, Spider-Man and Lord of the Rings had a baby.


All in all, this is just my personal opinion of these games.  My verdict: just try them, especially if you actually like Castlevania.  They're not hard to find, and can usually be found for pretty cheap.

GOOD LORD MAN!! (Post VGL)

Ok, first off, Video Games Live was so FUCKING AMAZINGLY COOL!  They played a hell of a lot of our home grown music: World of Warcraft, Lair, Heroes of Might and Magic, lots of stuff.  There was a lot of guest composers; a lot of which I'm ashamed to say I didn't know...but still!  I was close to going comatose plenty of times during the show!

I gained a newfound respect for World of Warcraft music, I suppose what I've heard until last night was from earlier times?  My favorite entries?  #1 Wind of Madness, Wesker's theme from Resident Evil 5. #2 The Castlevania medley, not my favorite songs, but they were good.  Dreams of Triumph, the Castlevania 64 theme and Vampire Killer, I believe. #3 The Chrono medley: Earlier Times, Frog's Theme, and Time's Scar.

I've come to realize there's a stark difference in hearing a song via one's Apple product and hearing it live.  It's amazing to hear it live, the phrase "Feeling the music" applies tenfold. 

Besides the show, the trip was fun too.  The roadcrew was as follows:  Ryan Uyematsu, Mike Groom, Chris Nichols (AKA Tall Justin.), David Casas and myself.  We stopped as Roscoe's for food at first!  They have some damn good Chicken and Waffles. Akin to how good food USED to be.  ^_^

Afterwards we stopped at In-N-Out and reminisced about life and the concert.  Good times, haha.  I finally got my ass home at 1 AM and decided to jump on the Xbox, I was too pumped for bed, haha. 

Can't wait til next year!!

Don't You Worry About Video Games Live; Let Me Worry About Blank.

Well, we're here, VGL.  I went a few shows ago, it was really fun actually.  My only gripe with the show is their music choice.  Personally, I don't think War games or World of Warcraft have very inspiring sound tracks, mainly just generic "Epic" themes.  But, unfortunately, they cater to the masses, and nothing is more mainstream than Call of Duty and Wow...

Yes, you read the bitterness there.  Despite my friends efforts, I think the only thing close to an MMO I'd play is Castlevania HD; and that only has some loose ties at best.  Anyways, VGL, right!  We're here to talk about that, not my ABSOLUTE DISDAIN FOR ALL THINGS MAINSTREAM, BRRRARRRRRRGH!!!

It should be quite the experience, but my hopes are at a low.  Probably because I know better, hahaha.  I'd have to say my series favorites as far as music goes are: Castlevania, Kingdom Hearts, Chrono Trigger/Cross, Final Fantasy and SMT: Persona Series.  Yes, I know they're all RPGs, big whoop, wanna fight about it? Castlevania isn't!

If I had to pick 5 songs from each group here (omitting Persona because it'll never happen, and Final Fantasy because it's ALWAYS THE SAME SONGS!!), it'd be:

Castlevania:
Vampire Killer
Dance of Illusions
Festival of Servants
Aquarius
Clockwork Mansion

Kingdom Hearts:
Lord of the Castle
Unbreakable Chains
Vim and Vigor
The Encounter
The Other Promise ~Drammatica Arrange~

Chrono Trigger / Cross:
Time's Scar
Victory ~A Cry in Summer~
Battle With Magus
World Revolution
Boss Battle 2

I doubt I'll here any of this, but a guy can dream, right??

Keep watch for my Post VGL blog!

All I'm askin', ooh, is for a little respect!

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

I noticed this little fact due to my own experiences, and stories from friends.  When a young adult hits somewhere between 18 and 20, things take a sudden turn.  Those of you with younger siblings know exactly what I'm talking about.

In most aspects, you become something a little more equal with your parents.  You have car, so now you can do what you like.  With freedom of movement comes a bevvy of other things you can do, it's pretty badass I'll say.  But, with this freedom comes an attitude change with your parents.  Now that you're not a child anymore, the respect you get from your parents takes a major nosedive.  I'll say this now before we get in too far, this is mainly just me blathering on here, I'm sure this doesn't go for everyone.

Parents get this notion that, while you're now an adult and can do whatever you please, you're still subject to anything and everything in their lives.  Hey, you're not doing anything important right?  Head to the store while I sit my ass down on the couch.  Parents get lazy, and while I do understand that parents have a busy life, I don't think it's fair.  I believe relationships are all about give and take.  Take too much without giving anything back, and things get unpleasant.  I know I'm not the best at fulfilling that doctrine, I do my best with what I can.  I just think that if we're going to be at your beck and call since we're in your house, you can at least allow us something, right?

Wrong.  Parents will constantly play the Bread Winner card.  Again, I get it parents, you're providing for us.  But come on, you can't keep a promise, or a date?  You can't remember when we've got plans, and we've told you, and you make plans for us anyways?  Why is it that no matter where we are, it always funnels down to what you need, and your instant gratification.  Why is it that when you're with your friends, you are not to be bothered; but when we're out with our friends, we're fair game to be bothered with stuff?  If you say you're going to do something with or for us, DON'T blow it off because "We can handle it like adults."

When you have younger siblings, this really begins to press your buttons, in both effects no less.  You see your younger siblings get ignored too, and you get pissed because you know how that feels.  On the same token, you get ignored because your younger siblings have precedence over you, and that pisses you off too.  I understand that the younger kids need to be babied a bit more, but honestly, it's just incredibly uncool to drop one sibling for another. 

On to borrowing stuff from us.  As with anyone else, and more especially because you're an adult, I expect anything you borrow from me to be returned in the same or better condition than when it was given.  I would also expect that if you're going to borrow money from us, and you say you're going to pay us back, that it get paid back as soon as you can do so.  It ticks us off a bit when you walk in with a shiny new toy that costs more than what you owe us.  Now, I dunno if anyone else's parents borrow their car, but we only have two cars to split between three people.  What ticks me off here, is when I fill my tank, then my parents use it, and suddenly I'm down by 1/4 tank.  Or worse, when the use it, I have something to do, and they leave me with no gas. Or when they leave their stuff in my car, or their garbage.  It's my car, it's in my name, so why the hell do you treat it like it's yours?  Would you borrow a friends car and drain the gas / leave your garbage in it?  Then why the fuck would you in your own son's car?

This last one is purely of my own volition here.  See, my parents when their in the mood, have special days for each of the kids.  Each of us gets to spend a day, just us, Mom and Dad.  Or rather I should say, each of them gets a day.  Now, I may be different than a lot of 20-something's these days, because I love my parents and am not ashamed of them.  Matter of fact, anytime someone gets uppity with their parents, it makes me want to smack them and tell them to show a little respect.  I was actually kind of depressed that I was left out of this deal.  The baby went with Mom and Dad to run some errands and play at the park, simple, but he is 2.  Garren went with Mom and Dad to Golf N' Stuff.  They played some mini-golf and what not.  Collin went with Dad to shooting range, my grandpa took over Mom's place because she wasn't feeling well.  But me?  Nothin'.  I dunno, maybe they didn't expect me to want something like that, but they could've asked. 

If you're TL;DR'ing this:  Parents, get your shit together with your oldest.  Oldest: make sure you're not being a dick to your parents.

Also:
Onyxia Wipe
My favorite Castlevania Scene
and Look at you Go!

With a Knife.

Yeah, with a knife.

Not much to say today.  So here, enjoy this video instead.

I'm a Bounty Hunter, HUNTER!

"Ladies, put on your no entry signs!"

This is what the title is from, sort of.

I'm beginning to notice a lot of lady friends are having guy problems.  Not to say this is unusual, Guys are simplistic, yet frustratingly predictable.  First off though, allow me to note that the term "Guys" is different from men, males, and boys.  "Boys" will be boys, "men" have their shit straight, and "males" have a penis. 

Ladies, to the more evolved of our gender, you're a puzzle. A puzzle that if solved, comes with the greatest rewards, but at the same time a ton of risk.  If we can solve the puzzle that is a woman, she becomes the part of our life we're missing.  Amongst the harsh chaos in our world, there's you: the brilliant, shining, soft and calm part of our world.  While our existence is fraught with barbed wire, you are our feathers.  But, to fail the puzzle means that the barbed wire in our life suddenly gets coated in salt.  We lose you, and suddenly you  become cold, aloof and brash.  This of course, implies that you're a part of our life to begin with.

To some men, the reward is not worth the risk.  We don't want to lose you, so we freeze, unable to pursue whatever feeling we might have.  Others feel like we're not worth it to the fairer species.  We look in the mirror and wonder who could ever love the beast we see, even if you think we're fine the way we are.  A woman is to us, our greatest source of joy and woe.  We love when you praise us, we adore every facet of your body and mind, we love keeping you happy because we see that twinkle in your eyes. And when we do something wrong, it hurts because we care, not because we were wrong.

But of course, that's only half the story.  Women can seem like a daunting foe, but that's not always the case:

Sadly, the former is not the case with a lot of males.  Guys are the much more common of our gender, and while ladies have the unfortunate task of staving them off, we are tainted with the image and doubt they present.  Guys are governed by four forces in their life: their dick, their stomach, their image, and their money.  They want to fuck anything that moves, and they need to convey a classy image. They need money to do that, and food to keep them going.  Simple, and annoying. 

Guys will do or say anything if it means getting in a woman's pants.  They'll go to ludicrous lengths in pursuit of flesh, then vanish in an instant once they get it.  You'll find they like a lot of the same things you do, you have a lot of things in common, he'll seem REALLY sincere, and be confident to the point of possible cockiness.  It's a good front, but that's all it is, a front. 

Moral of the story my ladies, is just to be smart about things.  And I mean it when I say this, trust your instincts.  Intuition is a powerful tool when it comes to avoiding trouble.  If it doesn't feel or seem right, abandon ship.  If a male really cares, he'll do his damnedest to try and get you back.  "But Matt, what if it's just a Guy trying to get me back and seduce me?" The words of a man who cares will feel a little more desperate or pleading, while those of a Guy will feel more like pressure or have a condescending tone. 

If you want to find a decent guy, try searching the background once in a while.  Don't be surprised if you find that Diamond in the Rough you've been looking for.  And no, I'm not just saying that because I'm a backgrounder.  Let's just say I know how it feels to watch the douchebag run off with the girl you'd die for.  It's not fair, it's not fun, and probably one of the most mentally destructive things out there.

*huff*  Well, there you have it.  I really don't know what made me feeling like ranting about this tonight. Old habits, perhaps.

Well, I'm off!

"Pip pip, cheerio!  Yellow teeth and all that."

War Were Declared.

It may have just been friendly banter Whitey, but I see through your little ruse!  You're challenging me to keep up with you!  Well I got news for you!!!!!!

Eh, I'll do what I can.

Anyways, today wasn't really anything new, or really insightful.  I woke up at 7:30 AM, and ended up being able to sleep in.  I had a weird dream as I slept for another couple hours.  It wasn't really coherent, or at least the parts I remember aren't, but I remember how I felt.  I dreamed that I lived in a house that was essentially a copy of my grandparent's house here in town.  But this house had an entity inside it, a vengeful spirit hell-bent on making my life miserable.  I remember feeling claws on my arm, and I ran into the street screaming like a banshee.  I was suddenly accosted by the police, and I could tell by their eyes that they assumed I was batshit crazy.  


Upon entering my house, nothing greeted them.  No shade, no spirit, no ill will.  I awoke after demanding my house show them what was really going on.  I felt a little woozy, and came to notice three curious scratches on my right arm.  Creepy?  Perhaps. I have a habit of developing odd nicks and scratches during the night. 


Nothing really eventful happened.  I spent my morning doing laundry and playing Castlevania.  Made myself some scrambled eggs and toast, with a little cherry juice.  Hung out later with some friends: Ryan, Mike, and Whitey.  Had fun!  I introduced them to a nifty and rather annoying site, www.akinator.com.  It's a site that basically plays something like 20 Questions with you.  You think of a character or person, anybody, and after some questions, the Genie will reveal to you who you were thinking of.  The charm definitely lies within the fact it determines your EXACT character with seemingly generic questions.


The first time I toyed with the site, I assumed it was a rather limited scope of information, so I chose someone I thought was too obscure for this Djinn to figure out.  So, I answered my questions as best I could and was completely caught off guard when it said: "I think of....Akihiko Sanada (Persona 3)"  No fucking way, right?  Nope, I kept trying and trying, it got every single person right before it gave up. If the Genie fails to guess your person three times, it concedes victory to you.  I thought I had it one time, I attempted to dupe it by using a character that was essentially the same as another, but wasn't completely.  First time he said it was some girl from an anime I didn't know of.  Second, it got the character that wasn't quite right (Elizabeth from Persona 3).  But that frickin' third time, it pulled out Margaret from Persona 4.  Stupid thing.  So far I've only been able to stump Akinator one time, by choosing the NDN Bullet from Roger Rabbit.  It freaked me out though, because it guess that I was thinking of the Singing Sword from Roger Rabbit.

On a lighter note, I managed to get the Healing Mail I was looking for on Castlevania.  I scored it while farming Ch 11 Normal with a German guy and a brit.  I have all rare armors in my possession now, so it's satisfying.  I'm still playing Mortal Kombat like a fiend. MK was really my first fighting game ever.  I used to play it with my Dad and Uncle on ye olde Super Nintendo.  So, for me, this is a radical step forward from the Soul Calibur style Mortal Kombats being pumped out.  Right now I'm working with Reptile as my main and Sektor as my secondary.  I use them both in Tag teams. 


I've really not much else to say right now.  I'm excited for VGL and E3.  I'm still hoping really bad that we get whiff of a new Castlevania.  I'm itching for another 2.5 D Castlevania, one that has fully rendered 3D enemies, bosses and Belmont. OK, you know what, fine, here's my dream Castlevania.  A game released on a triple platform spread, either via disc or download.  It'd look like Castlevania Dracula X Chronicles: 3D enemies, bosses, and a Belmont on a 2D plane.  Full 3D backgrounds, the works.  But, unlike DXC, this one would be a Metroidvania.  Not that I don't enjoy a good Classicvania, but I'm just more into the Metroidvanias.  


Alright, besides my ludicrously sexual comments that no one wants to hear, I'm done here for real. 


Remember, it's all part of the plan.