peffy

Yes, that is certainly a confirmation that he's very ill.

 

I do stand by my original interpretation of the facebook post, though. They probably did not know or did not want to say how serious it was.

 

I don't have any attachment to PATA but I hope he gets well.

 

I have a general rule, but it might only concern me as I am quite the film nerd:

 

Always start at the begining!

 

 

And why didn't you want to watch Star Wars? I thought it was excellent, and while not on the same level as the original trilogy it's still superb and a must-watch IMO. Space opera done right.

 

Yeah, well as I said before, I don't watch a lot of movies, so I'm very much not a film nerd . I still enjoyed Ip Man 3, though there were some characters that probably had more back story in the previous films. I may eventually watch the first 2 films, but anyway I mostly watched it for cool action scenes and I was satisfied.

 

As for Star Wars.. I'm pretty sure I've never watched an entire one. I've definitely seen large chunks of the original trilogy, and chunks of ep 1..  I'm not really interested in sci-fi, so Star Wars isn't a series I'm into.. I actually looked up spoilers for ep 7 because I kept seeing people whining about getting spoiled, so I had to know.

But still, mate. You don't start on the third of a film. It's not allowed as you'll miss out on so much fun.

 

What was the other options?

 

Star Wars (no interest)

The Revenant (too long)

Daddy's Home

Dirty Grandpa

Ride Along 2 

.. a few others I'd never heard of

 

Both of us were in the mood for some kung fu action, and thought it would be fun to see a Cantonese movie in a theatre (both of us speak/understand it on some level) and besides I was already familiar with the basics of Ip Man's real life story. .. Comparing it to something like Lord of the Rings is a bit much, obviously LOTR is a gigantic epic story, and in a case like that I wouldn't start from the middle.

I would say SNES had the best JRPGs. I played a lot of them with emulators & fan translations when I was young.

PS1 and PS2 are also highly regarded in this area, but I never owned either of those consoles (kind of stopped playing games during those eras). PS3 is generally considered a dead zone for JRPGs, especially compared to its predecessors, but it still has some good ones.

.. I have no opinion on later Nintendo consoles, I briefly used a DS Lite, never owned a Wii or 3DS.

 

I am really interested in Sony bringing slightly-upgraded PS2 games to PS4. They have already released a few well-regarded JRPGs - Rogue Galaxy, Dark Cloud, Dark Chronicle & Arc the Lad.

 

I would kill for them to release Dragon Quest 8 on PS4. 

D'espairsRay - my first male VK obsession.. HIZUMI was amazing, so sad he is not singing anymore.

 

CindyKate - Yui was so fun to listen to, so sad he is not singing anymore.

 

AYABIE (Yumehito vocal era) - I actually really liked Yumehito's voice (I did not like Aoi), so sad he is not singing anymore.

 

Dolly - actually they are "on hiatus" but it's been over 3 years and I feel like they will never come back. DOPPEL is good for my Mitsu fix and the songs are Dolly-like, but they don't release enough material.

 

amber gris - well, I felt like they ran out of steam towards the end, but I miss Temari & Koto.

 

lolita23q & DELACROIX - Both disbanded right after I started to like them.

 

ALDEBARAN & UnRealistic - disbanded way too soon.

You forgot a number of other games...

 

Dragon Quest Builders (in Japan) <-- I downloaded the demo but haven't had a chance to try it yet

Dragon Quest Heroes 2 (in Japan)

Star Ocean 5

Kingdom Hearts 2.8 whatever the fuck it's called

World of Final Fantasy (aka "that chibi FF shit")

 

maybe Dragon Quest XI (seems likely it will be a 2017 game)

 

I very much doubt KH3 will come out this year.
and Just Cause 3 came out in Dec. 2015... ?

 

 

anyhow, I'm very happy the Japanese side of Square Enix has gone nuts with the console games, for a while I was afraid they'd just pour their money into mobile games..

Now, I just need these games to be good.

Why would you start on Ip Man 3 and not watch the two first films? Such a weird decision.

 

 

My friend got 2 free movie tickets that we had to use fast. There was literally no other movie we wanted to watch.

 

Ip Man 3

 

I don't watch a lot of movies, and I haven't even seen the first 2 movies in this series. This is a Hong Kong series based loosely on the life of Ip Man, who was Bruce Lee's master. I figured it would be a light kung fu action movie, but nooo it spent considerable time on a very sad moment in Ip Man's life and my tears came out. Other than that, there were a lot of cool fights, and guest star Mike Tyson (yes, the boxer) was hilarious when he tried to speak Cantonese. (I suppose that's only hilarious to people who know what Cantonese is supposed to sound like)

 

The latest FFXV gameplay footage

- The stealth is optional, you can skip the sneaking around and just barge in and fight everything normally. Warp-kill seems cool though.

- The music is nice

- The UI is a bit busy, hopefully it will be adjusted for the final version

- Hellooooooo sexy dragoon lady <3

The Sailor Moon SNES RPG "Another Story" deserves a mention. Some of the boss battles are a pain, and it's a fairly straightforward RPG story and gameplay-wise, but it's Sailor Moon, so if you don't choose the jewellery you equip really carefully, you die. And the special attacks have glorious voice acting.

 

Plus at one point you go to Canada, and it's one of the most hilarious interpretations of my country I've ever seen.

 

 

Oh my god, I played this many many many years ago, totally loved it, don't remember much about it. How did I forget Jupiter goes to Canada??

 

 

...I put a lot of thought into this and it was really freaking hard to get my list down to 9.

I've tried to pull from a wider variety of times and genres.. but this still skews heavily towards Japanese & rock.

 

Click the spoiler for a short description and sample song!

 

In chronological order....

 

1. Matthew Good Band - Beautiful Midnight [1999]

Spoiler

This Canadian band was basically the soundtrack of my high school years. They are, for me, the pinnacle of late 90's alt-rock. Frontman Matt Good wrote interesting cryptic lyrics, and had a great rock voice capable of sounding beautiful when needed. He was endlessly amusing outside of music for being a vocal cynic.. and his cynicism rubbed off on me.

 

 

 

2. fra-foa - 宙の淵 (Chuu no fuchi) [2001]

Spoiler

This band was shamefully short-lived and maybe under-appreciated. Mikami Chisako has very emotional raw vocals, ranging from weak/vulnerable to pained/powerful. I loved how she was not afraid to go off key.

 

3. 周杰倫 (Jay Chou) - 范特西 (Fantasy) [2001]

Spoiler

The only Chinese artist to make the list, Jay Chou stands out amongst the hordes of minimally-talented boring C-pop stars (or at least, he used to). He's perfectly capable of singing, rapping, and songwriting, and often puts out interesting stuff, such as this gothic horror-themed song (pls enjoy/ignore the hilariously low budget PV): 

 

4. 椎名林檎 (Shiina Ringo) - 加爾基 精液 栗ノ花 (Karuki, zaamen, kuri no hana) [2003]

Spoiler

The lady needs no introduction. This is her least accessible album, and it was an important moment for me when I learned to love it. The final track 葬列 (Souretsu) is particularly creepy and powerful. Couldn't find the album version on Youtube, so this Tokyo Jihen live version will suffice.

 

5. D'espairsRay - MIRROR [2007]

Spoiler

I waffled between MIRROR and [Coll:set] for a while. I loved some songs from [Coll:set] really REALLY hard, but as a whole album I liked MIRROR more. This band is THE VK band that made me obsessed with VK. Can't complain about this album, I loved every single song, and was really impressed with HIZUMI's vocal performance, especially in "Angeldust".

 

6. 安室奈美恵 (Amuro Namie) - PAST < FUTURE [2009]

Spoiler

Gorgeous voice, gorgeous style. This particular album, which has a lot of lavishly-produced catchy tunes, also contains a few "avant-garde" tracks that make it stand out from typical pop/R&B fare. ("WILD" is not my first choice for a sample song, but stuff from this album is really hard to find on Youtube.)

 

 

7. R指定 (R-Shitei) - 人間失格 (Ningen shikkaku) [2010]

Spoiler

Maybe the first album I fell in love with DESPITE the vocalist. Mamo doesn't have a great voice but I give him a pass because the songs are so strong. This is the first band I noticed using a Japanese military theme, and I really liked it. Of course, I am assuming they are critical of Japan's role in WW2, not glorifying it. I have interpreted "Gyokusai Melancholy" as being about the sad story of Kamikaze pilots going off to kill themselves, which gives this song a ton of weight. (maybe I'm wrong, don't tell me if I'm wrong)

 

8. Dolly - CAPSULE [2010]

Spoiler

Vocalist Mitsu has a beautiful voice and wrote beautiful lyrics that went along beautifully with beautiful songs. This is the pinnacle of pretty (re: no growl) VK music, with gorgeous ballads and catchy upbeat rock songs.

 

9. Crimson Shiva - PANDORA [2014]

Spoiler

Tokiya is a fascinating vocalist. (I mean, just listen to the first 30 seconds of 孤独二残ル,儚キ声…, which I sadly couldn't find on Youtube). I frequently feel like he's drunk/high when he sings, I'm really not sure why. He might be my favourite combination singer/growler. Anyhow, lots of great tracks on this album, some of which feel like old school VK to me. I don't even like old school VK, but I like the way this band does it.

 

 

 

 

WOW I PUT WAY TOO MUCH EFFORT INTO THIS. but it was an interesting mental exercise.

 

 

Have they mentioned what platform/s they are releasing it on?

 

According to the end of the trailer.... PC PS4 PS3 XONE X360

Oh man this shit looks so good! For Fuck's sake bring this shit over here Sega please! This is one of your only IP's that still has weight and popularity, don't wait forever to localize it.

 

If Yakuza 5 & 0 sell well enough, I'd say it's a given that they'll bring over 6. Will be interesting to see if they bring over Kiwami.

 

I feel guilty not buying 5 because I imported/played the Japanese version 2 years ago.. but I think I will wait for the English version of 0.

 

It's a shame they are skipping Ishin. That one might actually be my favourite, I really loved the sword combat and the setting. Omg the vegetable garden and the cooking minigame and the pet cats/dogs.. gnsdonsdiogoidsfhgaijginep so good. That game could've done decent sales if it came out in early 2014, since there weren't so many PS4 exclusive games at the time.

It greatly amuses me to see men have to dress up and put on tons of makeup, in the way that normally only female performers have to...

(even if they have to be super photoshopped to look decent)

 

But most of all, I like how the music can be so different from typical western pop music you'd hear on the radio. I'm sooooo sooooo sick of neutered mass-market easy-on-the-ears songs with pitch perfect singers. I like flawed vocals, painful screams, dissonance.. the contrast between growls & pretty melodies that some bands do very well. I also love the.. aesthetics of the Japanese language when sung, and it's always a special treat when it's contrasted with the occasional bad Engrish line.

I personally found most of their material to be mediocre, especially the more recent stuff. I see this disbandment as a positive thing. Ryoga is a good vocalist and I will be interested in seeing what he does next.

Yeah because it's episodic so they can release episode 1 in 2017, although I haven't heard any concrete release window yet... where did you hear that it was coming out in 2017? rumor? source please?

 

 

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/2016-is-a-year-of-preparations-for-final-fantasy-v/1100-6433477/

 

Kitase said 2016 is a "year of preparations", which would imply that nothing will get released in 2016. It seems reasonable to assume that the first chunk will release next year.

also why isnt meto in the wheel chair?

 

 

Clearly because Tatsuya is a jerk. That's why Meto's on the couch, chewing on his bear's ear in frustration.

It would be AWESOME to see more bands in the vein of early exist†trace. I don't even care if the full band is female, having mixed-gender bands would be a cool thing to see. And you could have weird things like a female member dressing as a male, and a male member dressing as a female, just to fuck with people. Alas, I feel like that "bangyaru" thing mentioned earlier probably prevents this from happening.  (actually, I think DISACODE was exactly what I'm talking about? but that's just one band.)

 

 

I'm not entirely down on the frequent disbandings & member departures. It can be a positive thing. I think, if a band has reached their limit creatively, it's better for them to disband than just stubbornly stick together and rehash the same old ideas over and over. As long as the members go on to join/create new bands, I'm OK with it. For instance, I was sad when AND disbanded, but now that I think about it, their last album wasn't all that great. And now we have REIGN and Liraizo to enjoy.

To me, it just looks like a standard "cancelled due to illness" announcement. They are cancelling the show and will reschedule later because PATA is sick or injured.

It does not look like he's dying, probably nothing to worry about.

They really wear their influences on their sleeves.

 

By the way, I'm looking at the CD Japan listing and the title for track 12 is "七月三十一日 " there.

... and also I just checked the blog post and it says 七月三十一日 as well. So  七月七日 was probably a mistake. ..

 

 

..and I've now said the word "shichi" in my head so many times that my brain itches. shichishichishichi ... nichinichi

I might pick this up since I can stick it in my My Dragon order.

 

I must have been the only person in the world who appreciated that. My Inquisitor was a warrior, not a Disney princess, so I was happy they didn't force her into some frilly dress. (Well, eventually she ended up in a dress anyway for the wedding scene in Trespasser.)

 

Haha, I understand what you mean. I still feel like they could've changed the design a little to make it more... feminine?.. somehow. Or provided an option. As it is, it looks like they designed it with male characters in mind, then couldn't bother to change it for females. (Also it was weird that every party member wore the same outfit. I'm the Inquisitor, I should look more special!!) When combined with the masculine animation problem, they had me feeling like I was playing "wrong" for choosing a female character. It bothered me for the entire game.

 

Anyway, I kind of understand why they did it like that. Budget/time restrictions. Still sucks. 

Can't comment on DLC as I haven't played any.

Oh my god, my biggest problem with Dragon Age Inquisition was the crappy animation of my character. I played as a very slender female elf, yet she was walking around with her arms and legs out at 45 degree angles (mostly noticed this in cutscenes). Also, every scene where she was sitting on the throne, she'd sit like a man with giant balls. It was like they made animations for a big beefcake dude and didn't bother to make different ones for a female.

 

And holy crap, why didn't they let us change the outfit inside the castle. I'm practically the goddamn queen, why am I always wearing an ugly skintight brown shirt and ugly skintight brown pants?? (oh wait, just googled this and apparently they patched it to let you choose from some other colours/outfits now... which are all kind of ugly. It would be an improvement to just let us wear our armor.. not that the armor sets in this game were particularly good looking)

 

And holy crap, for the "Formal attire", why didn't they design a formal dress for female characters? It felt really weird to be wearing something resembling a king/prince's military attire.

 

Gah, the more I think about it, the less I like that game.

Nice look!

I suppose I will pick this up. I'm very new to this band.. only heard (and bought) GIGA BEST and Itadaking, I generally like what they do.

For me, "Oni to kage" was god-tier, "Shuuen" was meh-tier, and mostly everything they released after "Shuuen" was good-tier. High hopes for this new album, but it's gonna be damn hard to surpass the first one.