peffy

It's telling that you wrote this 13 hours ago and I have no way of knowing which scandal or idiotic policy decision is being referred to.
 
I've stopped visiting & posting on MH partly because reading about the latest daily American political travesty has consumed most of my at-work procrastination time.

Can the US just make smart decisions for once.... please?

...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]
 
2. fra-foa - 宙の淵 (Chuu no fuchi) [2001]
 
3. 周杰倫 (Jay Chou) - 范特西 (Fantasy) [2001]
 
4. 椎名林檎 (Shiina Ringo) - 加爾基 精液 栗ノ花 (Karuki, zaamen, kuri no hana) [2003]
 
5. D'espairsRay - MIRROR [2007]
 
6. 安室奈美恵 (Amuro Namie) - PAST < FUTURE [2009]
 
7. R指定 (R-Shitei) - 人間失格 (Ningen shikkaku) [2010]
 
8. Dolly - CAPSULE [2010]
 
9. Crimson Shiva - PANDORA [2014]
 
 
 
 
WOW I PUT WAY TOO MUCH EFFORT INTO THIS. but it was an interesting mental exercise.

...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]
 
2. fra-foa - 宙の淵 (Chuu no fuchi) [2001]
 
3. 周杰倫 (Jay Chou) - 范特西 (Fantasy) [2001]
 
4. 椎名林檎 (Shiina Ringo) - 加爾基 精液 栗ノ花 (Karuki, zaamen, kuri no hana) [2003]
 
5. D'espairsRay - MIRROR [2007]
 
6. 安室奈美恵 (Amuro Namie) - PAST < FUTURE [2009]
 
7. R指定 (R-Shitei) - 人間失格 (Ningen shikkaku) [2010]
 
8. Dolly - CAPSULE [2010]
 
9. Crimson Shiva - PANDORA [2014]
 
 
 
 
WOW I PUT WAY TOO MUCH EFFORT INTO THIS. but it was an interesting mental exercise.

I just got my copy of Ryu ga gotoku 6 (aka Yakuza 6)yesterday and played for about 2 hours before I reeeeally had to go to sleep. I also had a migraine while playing.
 
After about 45 minutes of non-stop intro cutscenes (seriously...) I finally got to walk around some of Kamurochou.
 
Holy hell, the changes & improvements in the graphics and menus are immediately stunning. Especially after being stuck with the same engine and similar-looking menus for the SIX previous games in the series I've played. (3, 4, 5, Ishin, 0, Kiwami).
- They FINALLY added auto-saving. It's quick and seamless. No more running to phone booths (which, by the way, no longer exist), no more watching that save progress bar fill up TWICE every time you save.
- There is literally zero load time going into battles. When you run into random thugs, the screen gets tinted blue for a half-second (to tell you you're entering a battle), and the punches start flying immediately. There is also zero load time when walking into restaurants and stores, it is all completely seamless.
- They have re-arranged some places on the map, which is a shock since 3, 4, and 5 basically had the exact same Kamurochou map.
- The main menu/pause menu is literally a Sony Xperia phone (looks exactly like my phone). If you get a text message (used for tutorial tips so far), you can read it and continue walking around at the same time. (Kiryu will look at his phone while walking)
- You can now purchase drinks from pretty much every vending machine (these drinks will give temporary stat boosts). Kiryu will walk around holding the can, and if you hold down Circle he will drink it. You can also partially drink it and continue walking around with it because why not.
- Apparently everything is voiced now. No more reading text boxes, or weird transitions between text-only and voiced dialogue.
 
AMAZING THINGS THAT HAPPENED IN MY 1 HOUR OF FOOLING AROUND IN KAMUROCHOU
- Some idiot wanted to fight me. I lured him INTO a nearby convenience store and proceeded to beat his ass INSIDE THE CONVENIENCE STORE. I knocked over some shelves (oops) and bashed his face into the checkout counter. Then I bought cup noodles from the poor employee who'll have to clean up that mess.
- Kiryu will BREAK SHIT that's sitting on the streets, just by walking/running into them. Including bicycles, motorbikes, signs, trash cans... pretty amazing for a series that never let you touch anything if you weren't in combat. I spent a few minutes totally wrecking a side street just for the hell of it.
-  I walked into a cafe and discovered that Kiryu will also BREAK SHIT indoors, including tables and chairs. I destroyed this cafe and terrified the customers. Oops. I passed by this cafe a bit later only to find it "closed for repairs". Lol. I came back later to find it open for business as usual. Then I wrecked it again. Lol.
- It seems like it's more common for thugs to attack you with weapons. It also seems easier to make them drop the weapons. Some fool came at me with a sledgehammer. I got him to drop it, then I picked it up and used it to destroy his buddies.
 
BAD THINGS I NOTICED
- Strangely, the default walking speed is just walking. Hold down X to dash, but stamina is limited. There's no default "jogging" speed.
- I walked into one cabaret club, and was impressed that they gave me FIVE girls to choose from. However they weren't all that attractive.. in fact I would call a couple of them straight-up ugly. But that was just a still image, maybe they look better in motion?
- I couldn't find the UFO catcher mini-game in the Sega arcades ?!?!?! Maybe it's somewhere else.
- I haven't been able to knock over pedestrians yet. It's VERY IMPORTANT TO ME to knock over pedestrians. I hope it's still in the game.
- Once again, Sega has blocked me from taking screenshots/videos. Sega pls.
- This is "Kiryu's final chapter", but I really hope they keep making these games with another protagonist. Or more samurai-era games. I need this new engine to be used in more games. NEED.
 
~
 
tl;dr I want to take vacation from work just to play more of this. English-only Yakuza fans will likely be in for a treat when this comes out in English next year.
 

I just got my copy of Ryu ga gotoku 6 (aka Yakuza 6)yesterday and played for about 2 hours before I reeeeally had to go to sleep. I also had a migraine while playing.
 
After about 45 minutes of non-stop intro cutscenes (seriously...) I finally got to walk around some of Kamurochou.
 
Holy hell, the changes & improvements in the graphics and menus are immediately stunning. Especially after being stuck with the same engine and similar-looking menus for the SIX previous games in the series I've played. (3, 4, 5, Ishin, 0, Kiwami).
- They FINALLY added auto-saving. It's quick and seamless. No more running to phone booths (which, by the way, no longer exist), no more watching that save progress bar fill up TWICE every time you save.
- There is literally zero load time going into battles. When you run into random thugs, the screen gets tinted blue for a half-second (to tell you you're entering a battle), and the punches start flying immediately. There is also zero load time when walking into restaurants and stores, it is all completely seamless.
- They have re-arranged some places on the map, which is a shock since 3, 4, and 5 basically had the exact same Kamurochou map.
- The main menu/pause menu is literally a Sony Xperia phone (looks exactly like my phone). If you get a text message (used for tutorial tips so far), you can read it and continue walking around at the same time. (Kiryu will look at his phone while walking)
- You can now purchase drinks from pretty much every vending machine (these drinks will give temporary stat boosts). Kiryu will walk around holding the can, and if you hold down Circle he will drink it. You can also partially drink it and continue walking around with it because why not.
- Apparently everything is voiced now. No more reading text boxes, or weird transitions between text-only and voiced dialogue.
 
AMAZING THINGS THAT HAPPENED IN MY 1 HOUR OF FOOLING AROUND IN KAMUROCHOU
- Some idiot wanted to fight me. I lured him INTO a nearby convenience store and proceeded to beat his ass INSIDE THE CONVENIENCE STORE. I knocked over some shelves (oops) and bashed his face into the checkout counter. Then I bought cup noodles from the poor employee who'll have to clean up that mess.
- Kiryu will BREAK SHIT that's sitting on the streets, just by walking/running into them. Including bicycles, motorbikes, signs, trash cans... pretty amazing for a series that never let you touch anything if you weren't in combat. I spent a few minutes totally wrecking a side street just for the hell of it.
-  I walked into a cafe and discovered that Kiryu will also BREAK SHIT indoors, including tables and chairs. I destroyed this cafe and terrified the customers. Oops. I passed by this cafe a bit later only to find it "closed for repairs". Lol. I came back later to find it open for business as usual. Then I wrecked it again. Lol.
- It seems like it's more common for thugs to attack you with weapons. It also seems easier to make them drop the weapons. Some fool came at me with a sledgehammer. I got him to drop it, then I picked it up and used it to destroy his buddies.
 
BAD THINGS I NOTICED
- Strangely, the default walking speed is just walking. Hold down X to dash, but stamina is limited. There's no default "jogging" speed.
- I walked into one cabaret club, and was impressed that they gave me FIVE girls to choose from. However they weren't all that attractive.. in fact I would call a couple of them straight-up ugly. But that was just a still image, maybe they look better in motion?
- I couldn't find the UFO catcher mini-game in the Sega arcades ?!?!?! Maybe it's somewhere else.
- I haven't been able to knock over pedestrians yet. It's VERY IMPORTANT TO ME to knock over pedestrians. I hope it's still in the game.
- Once again, Sega has blocked me from taking screenshots/videos. Sega pls.
- This is "Kiryu's final chapter", but I really hope they keep making these games with another protagonist. Or more samurai-era games. I need this new engine to be used in more games. NEED.
 
~
 
tl;dr I want to take vacation from work just to play more of this. English-only Yakuza fans will likely be in for a treat when this comes out in English next year.
 

I just got my copy of Ryu ga gotoku 6 (aka Yakuza 6)yesterday and played for about 2 hours before I reeeeally had to go to sleep. I also had a migraine while playing.
 
After about 45 minutes of non-stop intro cutscenes (seriously...) I finally got to walk around some of Kamurochou.
 
Holy hell, the changes & improvements in the graphics and menus are immediately stunning. Especially after being stuck with the same engine and similar-looking menus for the SIX previous games in the series I've played. (3, 4, 5, Ishin, 0, Kiwami).
- They FINALLY added auto-saving. It's quick and seamless. No more running to phone booths (which, by the way, no longer exist), no more watching that save progress bar fill up TWICE every time you save.
- There is literally zero load time going into battles. When you run into random thugs, the screen gets tinted blue for a half-second (to tell you you're entering a battle), and the punches start flying immediately. There is also zero load time when walking into restaurants and stores, it is all completely seamless.
- They have re-arranged some places on the map, which is a shock since 3, 4, and 5 basically had the exact same Kamurochou map.
- The main menu/pause menu is literally a Sony Xperia phone (looks exactly like my phone). If you get a text message (used for tutorial tips so far), you can read it and continue walking around at the same time. (Kiryu will look at his phone while walking)
- You can now purchase drinks from pretty much every vending machine (these drinks will give temporary stat boosts). Kiryu will walk around holding the can, and if you hold down Circle he will drink it. You can also partially drink it and continue walking around with it because why not.
- Apparently everything is voiced now. No more reading text boxes, or weird transitions between text-only and voiced dialogue.
 
AMAZING THINGS THAT HAPPENED IN MY 1 HOUR OF FOOLING AROUND IN KAMUROCHOU
- Some idiot wanted to fight me. I lured him INTO a nearby convenience store and proceeded to beat his ass INSIDE THE CONVENIENCE STORE. I knocked over some shelves (oops) and bashed his face into the checkout counter. Then I bought cup noodles from the poor employee who'll have to clean up that mess.
- Kiryu will BREAK SHIT that's sitting on the streets, just by walking/running into them. Including bicycles, motorbikes, signs, trash cans... pretty amazing for a series that never let you touch anything if you weren't in combat. I spent a few minutes totally wrecking a side street just for the hell of it.
-  I walked into a cafe and discovered that Kiryu will also BREAK SHIT indoors, including tables and chairs. I destroyed this cafe and terrified the customers. Oops. I passed by this cafe a bit later only to find it "closed for repairs". Lol. I came back later to find it open for business as usual. Then I wrecked it again. Lol.
- It seems like it's more common for thugs to attack you with weapons. It also seems easier to make them drop the weapons. Some fool came at me with a sledgehammer. I got him to drop it, then I picked it up and used it to destroy his buddies.
 
BAD THINGS I NOTICED
- Strangely, the default walking speed is just walking. Hold down X to dash, but stamina is limited. There's no default "jogging" speed.
- I walked into one cabaret club, and was impressed that they gave me FIVE girls to choose from. However they weren't all that attractive.. in fact I would call a couple of them straight-up ugly. But that was just a still image, maybe they look better in motion?
- I couldn't find the UFO catcher mini-game in the Sega arcades ?!?!?! Maybe it's somewhere else.
- I haven't been able to knock over pedestrians yet. It's VERY IMPORTANT TO ME to knock over pedestrians. I hope it's still in the game.
- Once again, Sega has blocked me from taking screenshots/videos. Sega pls.
- This is "Kiryu's final chapter", but I really hope they keep making these games with another protagonist. Or more samurai-era games. I need this new engine to be used in more games. NEED.
 
~
 
tl;dr I want to take vacation from work just to play more of this. English-only Yakuza fans will likely be in for a treat when this comes out in English next year.
 

Let's just say that that is what keeps me attached to the films he stars in.
 
I feel he portrays John Wick perfectly.
I killing machine with no consciousness or empathy, until he experiences that ray of happiness, and performs an impossible task in order to preserve it.
When it is all taken away from him in a cruel twist of fate, he is left back to being an empty husk, being consumed once again by the underground world and demons he thought he could escape.
I love the Wick Series Peffs lol.

Keanu Reeves is no good actor. Good actors can do different roles, portray different types of humans/machines/monsters and whatnot. A good actor is versatile, and Keanu Reeves is not. But he can do certain roles, and roles that does not demand him to show much emotion or versatility fits him a lot, much like many other actors. Sylvester Stallone, a fuckinggod,bit is amother example of that. That is something shown throughout his time as ann actor. John Wick is his masterpiece. It's a role he handled perfectly. He was excellent in the film. Not a grat actor, but a brilliant performance!

Finally saw John Wick 2 this weekend. Very good sequel.
Glad to see the man can still perform his own stunts. Hard to do in your 50's.
 
My thought were as follows.
 

tbh Shiki's vocals are something I just tolerate, I wouldn't mind seeing the band continue with a slightly better vocalist. 
But they're going on "hiatus" so they might just never come back.
*sigh* I'm a big fan of their stripped-down garage band party rock style, which is unique in my limited stable of VK bands I like.

I had put 9000 yen into my Japanese PSN account in preparation to buy Ryu ga gotoku 6 (which is listed at 8800 yen or so)... only to randomly click on my Play Asia bookmark and find out they were selling it for $40 US as part of their weekly special sale.. so I jumped on that.. Then I got upset because I had no idea what to use that 9000 yen on.. most worthwhile Japanese games are being localized into English relatively quickly.. 
 
BUT! Today I was reminded of the existence of Dragon Quest XI. It's supposed to come out this year and I'm pretty sure the Western version hasn't been announced yet. Prime candidate for buying on Japanese PSN. 
 


I'm not sure I'll ever get used to the brown-haired dude being the hero, and not the way-cooler-looking spiky-blue-haired dude. Please share your hair gel with the hero, his hair is flat af.
Also, not sure about the somewhat-jarring dissonance between the cartoony characters and the approaching-realistic-looking environment. Some of the ladies/kids especially look weird, with their huge Toriyama anime eyes. But look at those cute kitty monsters!!! And that attractive purple-haired lady!  I hope she joins the party.. Anyway, regardless of artstyle issues, still really pumped for a real mainline turn-based Dragon Quest game on PS4.
 
.. I just hope the price is 9000 yen or lower..... FFXV is 9500 yen on PSN.. stupid non-standard Japanese pricing... I'll be PISSED if I have to get another PSN card.
 
(interesting side note.. the official site still makes zero mention of the already-confirmed Nintendo Switch version.. only shows PS4 and 3DS.. weird. maybe it will come much later)

I had put 9000 yen into my Japanese PSN account in preparation to buy Ryu ga gotoku 6 (which is listed at 8800 yen or so)... only to randomly click on my Play Asia bookmark and find out they were selling it for $40 US as part of their weekly special sale.. so I jumped on that.. Then I got upset because I had no idea what to use that 9000 yen on.. most worthwhile Japanese games are being localized into English relatively quickly.. 
 
BUT! Today I was reminded of the existence of Dragon Quest XI. It's supposed to come out this year and I'm pretty sure the Western version hasn't been announced yet. Prime candidate for buying on Japanese PSN. 
 


I'm not sure I'll ever get used to the brown-haired dude being the hero, and not the way-cooler-looking spiky-blue-haired dude. Please share your hair gel with the hero, his hair is flat af.
Also, not sure about the somewhat-jarring dissonance between the cartoony characters and the approaching-realistic-looking environment. Some of the ladies/kids especially look weird, with their huge Toriyama anime eyes. But look at those cute kitty monsters!!! And that attractive purple-haired lady!  I hope she joins the party.. Anyway, regardless of artstyle issues, still really pumped for a real mainline turn-based Dragon Quest game on PS4.
 
.. I just hope the price is 9000 yen or lower..... FFXV is 9500 yen on PSN.. stupid non-standard Japanese pricing... I'll be PISSED if I have to get another PSN card.
 
(interesting side note.. the official site still makes zero mention of the already-confirmed Nintendo Switch version.. only shows PS4 and 3DS.. weird. maybe it will come much later)

Psycho le Cemu - Roman Hikou (2003)
First "VK" song I actually liked (PV is great too), and was sort of into the album FRONTIERS. However I pretty much hated any other VK I tried at that time... stuff like Luna Sea, X Japan, Dir en Grey.. 
(actually, if you consider Janne Da Arc/Gackt/L'arc~en~Ciel circa 2003 to be VK, they'd probably be first, but I would call them J-rock at that point..)
 
So, aside from Psycho le Cemu, I continued to ignore all VK until 2009 when I chanced upon exist†trace's VANGUARD. They helped me get over my aversion to growling/screaming. I listened to them extensively for nearly a year until I discovered D'espairsRay's LOVE IS DEAD, which I paid attention to mostly because I thought the "You Spin Me Round" similarities were hilarious. Thus began my VK obsession.

a friend just made me watch babymetal
 
fuck babymetal

a friend just made me watch babymetal
 
fuck babymetal

I like any holiday that
1. gives me a day off from work
2. does not require me to say holiday greetings
3. does not require me to buy/receive gifts & cards
4. does not require me to attend parties or gatherings
 
So that's like.. Labour Day, Victoria Day, Civic Holiday, Family Day, Canada Day. Most of those are Canada-specific work holidays, but you get my point.
 
The WORST holiday, by far, is Christmas. As someone who's worked in retail before, there are very few things I hate more than Christmas carols and having to say/hear "Merry Christmas" 500 times during every day of the "holiday season".
 

I like any holiday that
1. gives me a day off from work
2. does not require me to say holiday greetings
3. does not require me to buy/receive gifts & cards
4. does not require me to attend parties or gatherings
 
So that's like.. Labour Day, Victoria Day, Civic Holiday, Family Day, Canada Day. Most of those are Canada-specific work holidays, but you get my point.
 
The WORST holiday, by far, is Christmas. As someone who's worked in retail before, there are very few things I hate more than Christmas carols and having to say/hear "Merry Christmas" 500 times during every day of the "holiday season".
 

Hi folks, I have decide to post my best list which was builded during the year.
It was a bit more difficult this time because there was a lot of more enjoyable releases and songs. There are some songs that I really appreciate that aren't on the list.
The list consist in vk only, not that my favorite JRock artists haven't done good music, but as I said before some haven't make it.
At the same time the year had a lot of good releases, it was the saddest year for disbands to me.
This list features a "top 50" for songs and two "top 5" for releases.
Please enjoy the list and feel free to give comments about it. Thank you.

Develop one's faculties, for example:
 

defspiral new single "AFTERGLOW" will be released at 2017/02/22 (2 types)
 
TYPE A (1944 yens) will include CD+DVD
TYPE B (1620 yens) will include CD only

How? Well, many of their songs sound like copies of their other songs. Quantity > quality. 
(I do really like ~10-15% of their songs)
 
Also it would not surprise me if most bands had ghostwriters writing at least some of their music.
 
Kiryu's pace is not as high as I expected. Surprise.
 
...
 
 
Here's some new-ish bands that I cared enough to think about.  Obviously these are "young" bands and I'd expect the average to drop as they age. Or they could pull a Mejibray, who knows.
I might have missed some live dists in the song count.. dunno, I don't really follow that stuff closely
 
Liraizo
years: 2 years (debut Oct 2014)
songs: 22, plus 12 monthly 1-song live dist singles which I'm assuming are new full songs, so 34
avg: 17
 
 
Arlequin
years: 3 years (debut Oct 2013)
songs: 50  ?
avg: 16.7 
 
Pentagon
years: 2 years (debut Feb 2015... or a few months earlier if you count their time as "Call Me"?)
songs: 36 ?  35 if you don't want to count "FRONT"
avg: 18
 
Avanchick
years: 2.5 years (debut June 2014)
songs: 30 ?
avg: 12  ... wow that's much lower than I thought. Probably because their album only had 4 new songs. yeah i'm still mad.
 

ゴシップ(Gossip) new mini album "百舌(mozu)" will be released on 2017/03/29 (2,700yen, limited 2000), and their official fan-club will open in 2017 spring.
 
[track list]
01.狭震症
02.メアリー
03.赫い交差点
04.BLACK SUGAR & CIGARETTE
05.卍
06.木漏れ日
 
They will hold their one-man live at TSUTAYA O-West on 2017/05/12.

tbh Shiki's vocals are something I just tolerate, I wouldn't mind seeing the band continue with a slightly better vocalist. 
But they're going on "hiatus" so they might just never come back.
*sigh* I'm a big fan of their stripped-down garage band party rock style, which is unique in my limited stable of VK bands I like.

tbh Shiki's vocals are something I just tolerate, I wouldn't mind seeing the band continue with a slightly better vocalist. 
But they're going on "hiatus" so they might just never come back.
*sigh* I'm a big fan of their stripped-down garage band party rock style, which is unique in my limited stable of VK bands I like.