Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner seems to show some promise. Had been trying out Dragon Quest 8 and Disgaea 2, but both of them weren't suitable for me.
Disgaea 2 is a pretty good game, for a turn-based strategy rpg, or "tactics" game, or whatever. It is, in fact, the best of all games I've ever tried in this genre. Too bad I'm not interested in it. Too much thinking is necessary, and I have enough to think about as things are right now.
Dragon Quest 8 is a classic turn-based rpg, and still uses sprites(think SNES, and the way the ppl look in the games, compared to FF7) in the field (aka towns, world, dungeons and anywhere outside combat). It features all sorts of cute monsters and cute sounds that makes the game look so bright and fun. Too bad the game doesn't feature anything exciting. Gets really monotonous after a while because the combat difficulty and style remain the same throughout, as long as you run around enough to fight enough monsters.
Devil summoner is a refreshing experience because like all the games I've played in this series, the difficulty is always high, but manageable. This time, instead of having the "press-turn" combat system( a special sort of turn-based system), the combats are in real-time mode. It does make the game faster, less tiring on the mind, and adds some excitement to the overall experience.
But the combat is rather simple( not easy) though, since I'm already used to the "weakness-exploiting" feature of this series, with which the player can stun the enemy for a while if he uses an element the enemy is weak against.
By summoning the right monsters, you can do that fairly easily. In addition, I've played 3 games in this series and I can sometimes remember what the weaknesses are for many of the re-used monsters. The drawback of this system is that the enemies can do the same to you and your monster.
This game like most of the Shin Megami Tensei( SHT) games, requires the player to capture enemy monsters, train them, use them in combat and combine them into more powerful monsters. Too bad the player is allowed only 1 monster in combat, though I'm sure it's because the PS2 system can't handle more than that.
The graphics are slightly better than that of SHT: Digital Devil Saga 1 and 2, which is to say, good.
The music, like in SHT:DDS 1 and 2, is mainly rock. So far, I've only reached Episode 2, or part 2 if you want, and I've not heard any music that doesn't seem suitable to the situation yet. I can tell that the composer is the same guy though, and I like his style.
It is always so easy to find fault in everyday life. Take, for example, the recent GST hikes here. I shall not use compare ourselves with the EU, where the minimum for most goods and services is 15%. If we compare Singapore with one very popular standard, the U.S., where the sales tax can be 0-8.8% depending on the area, the 7% is not unreasonable. Furthermore, the income tax is much lower here than in the U.S for the lower-income groups.
All the unrest is really a result of social inertia. This also reminds me of the time when this guy in my unit got reprimanded for a mistake, and he was telling everyone about it as they( the superiors) had wronged him. In fact, I thought it was totally reasonable, and being the bored guy I was in camp, I talked to him about it.
With a few minutes of discussion, I got him cornered(metaphorically and verbally), and it was at this point that he admitted that they were right, but he just had to vent the frustration somewhere.
I realised that I had forgotten about it. I used to think that way too, but some time ago I had discarded this way of thinking. How, one may ask. By getting punished/reprimanded unreasonably, I'll answer. After going through a few months of that, I had learnt to accept any punishment I deem reasonable, without being unhappy.
Since then, I have noticed that there are many circles in which people are reprimanded/punished to an unreasonable degree, one of which being the journalists in Taiwan.
My Spanish teacher refuses to teach us Spanish expletives. I am disappointed.
I really wonder why my neighbours upstairs are shouting so happily upstairs now. Here I am trying to rant in peace, and up there they are trying to raise the dead or something.
I really want to move to Canada, after I get a degree. Just look at this line from Wikipedia: Canada is unusual in that the government pays for almost 100% of hospital and physician care, but contributes very little in areas such as prescription drug costs, dental care and Emergency Medical Services.
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