Christmas music

[petronia]

It's a little late for it, but if you're still looking to get in the festive spirit:

[folder removed]

There's a playlist called "christmas2005" in the folder that doesn't correspond exactly to the list of songs uploaded, but is (I realised this year) probably one of the better CDs I've put together in my mixtape career. The folder also contains a Yo La Tengo Christmas single and a Lisa Ono Christmas album [1] luxetumbra upped last year.

In other news, I spent the entire day yesterday playing videogames - logged 7.5 hours in FFXII, not counting the couple of times I got killed hunting marks, or the several hours dicking around with Katamari Damacy beforehand (the FFXII camera controls are excellent, but make for uhh avant-garde cinematography when one's trained oneself to move forward by pushing with both thumbs >_>). No spoilers - I'm not advanced enough for spoilers - but basically it's like Vagrant Story with sunlight. Or as sororial unit says, Star Wars grafted onto Rome-the-TV-series. I thought I'd have difficulty with the lack of battle transitions but instead I have difficulty with the fact that X opens the menu and does not simply bonk the nearest monster on the head. It is more immediate, I think, or at least I noticed I was getting the shakes a lot, and I haven't been in anything resembling a boss fight yet. XD Then again I have a very low tolerance for violent participactory excitement, as you can deduce from the fact that I get adrenalin shakes from playing Final Fantasy. Anything scarier than a turn-based RPG leaves me shaking too hard to open the brandy bottle. I don't know that it's wussiness so much as an apparent inability to divorce myself from the proceedings on the screen - if I were attacked by a giant wolf out in the desert it would be pretty scary, even if I had a sword and knew how to use it.

angrybabble just posted Christmas music as well. :D


[1] Who didn't see that one coming. orz

Comments

[one-if-by-land.livejournal.com]

I... I finally understand the term orz. I CAN SEE IT

[sparklingai.livejournal.com]

Yay! The koibito Santa Claus song! Thank you~ <3

[sesame-seed.livejournal.com]

The new system does take some getting used to, but IMO once you have, it's fantastic. I hate anything resembling suspense, myself -- I still hate going into Final Fantasy dungeons, because it's so much prettier above ground and HELLO MR. SUNSHINE -- but, err, power-leveling beforehand does a lot to resolve that, since, with properly tweaked gambits, you don't even have to do anything when enemies appear; you just guide your characters through the map while they make mincemeat of anything that appears. It is very rewarding! :D

[corneredangel.livejournal.com]

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<ibut, err, power-leveling beforehand does a lot to resolve that, since, with properly tweaked gambits, you don't even have to do anything when enemies appear;</i>

Dunno; to this day, I feel that if a game ever requires you to power-level, it's basically just wasting your time. Which, frankly, is why, *eight bloody hours in*, I'm both kinda bored with XII...and actually rather angry at it for taking up so much of my time while giving me so little. But I guess this *is* what happens when you just beat Xenosaga III a couple of weeks before diving in...

(...I still think the single most brilliant thing the Xeno series ever did was making XP upgrades actual *items*, gettable plenty of times after just completing puzzles, rather than winning battles.)

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Eight hours or eighty? XD I think sesame_seed (being an MMORPGer) is more of a dedicated power gamer than you or me, though you also game more than I do. But now that I have gambits set up it does cut down on a lot of the pain...

...Actually it feels sort of like the turn-based RPG analog to web 2.0, whereby instead of tweaking the system in one direction or another they took a hard look at what people actually did, as opposed to what they thought they were doing. And realised that when you're running around trying to complete a puzzle / gather treasure chests / get to the exits, random encounters are always an irritation. But unlike Xeno series where your only choice is to go through or around and the setup rewards you killing everything on the map anyway, in FFXII they just made the whole process very fast, and plenty of times you-the-player can be consciously scanning for the exit at the same time as your party is taking down those skeletons or whatever.

[corneredangel.livejournal.com]

Gah, eighty, of course. Eight hours in, I was really still just *barely* getting the hang of how everything worked.

and plenty of times you-the-player can be consciously scanning for the exit at the same time as your party is taking down those skeletons or whatever.

...except only, like one of the reviews - I can't really remember which one - argued, *if* you are now making random encounters be almost automatic, why not just take them out altogether! In a way, the game almost makes a step in that direction with the hunts and rare enemies, so could have used that kind of mechanic for levelling up and items and whatever, and the straight-story bosses for, uh, story advancement/character development.

I guess, what it comes down to is that I don't want to be 'me the player', I really do not mind being 'me the audience'. Which also is why almost any battle, I try to switch around who my *active* character is...

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Well, there is still a strategic value to the gambits? XD And it's not like you're sleeping through it, you're constantly thinking stuff like "shit there are three more of these guys up ahead, I'll just duck around the corner and take care of this one where they can't see me." More action-game-ish, IOW.

Besides most people do want to be "me the player". XD But this dichotomy is actually something I've been thinking a lot about, w/r/t this game and in general (relating to issues like plot tapes and paid farming, say). I would say gambits were a definite step toward "watch" versus "play", except I think the idea is actually it's a step toward "strategy" versus "tactics", and toward "action" versus "wait".

[ayabai.livejournal.com]

well its more that if you set up the gambits correctly you CAN sleep through it. TRUST ME I HAVE LITERALLY DONE SO BEFORE. XDDDDDD i dont think i will ever finish ff12? well, perhaps someday. it's never really made it past my interest threshold to 'fascination' or 'hey, i like this game!' but has stayed steadily at the meter of 'eh, it's aight, kinda pritty'. ive had the game since it came out in japan and pretty much play a bit, forget about it for about 4 months, pick it up again, forget about it for another couple of months, lather rinse repeat XD

[akatonbo.livejournal.com]

I was in fact doing this last night! Also have let the game run while cleaning the kitchen. There is only one place I know of where this works well, though, since otherwise they run out of things to fight.

We are, um, a bit obsessed around these parts, but then, Andrea and I met for the first time in Vagrant Story fandom. And we both love Basch.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Your icon makes me laugh because I have Basch totally tanked up and am all like, "Hey enemies, why don't you hit that guy over there? He has high HP and defense!"

And then I feel bad. :P

[akatonbo.livejournal.com]

Oh, I do too -- there was a while where my strategy in tough areas or for some bosses was to stick my Bubble Belt on him and then set up a gambit for someone to keep him Decoyed. ;)

[sesame-seed.livejournal.com]

To each his/her own? *g* Like Sabina said, I play MMORPGs from time to time, and after Lineage 2, FFXII is like kindergarten recess in terms of leveling/farming frustration (though that is somewhat offset by the I CAN'T GET THROUGH THIS STUPID BUTTON-MASHING TEST SOMEONE KILL THE GUY WHO DESIGNED IT frustration of the fishing minigame.) And, well, from the posts I've been seeing on the flist, it's perfectly possible to get through the game without power-leveling; it just involves more risk and dying than I enjoy while gaming (or doing anything in life, really.) But some people say that that's the only way it's fun.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

I don't level in order to level, I level in order that I might shop. XD STORY OF MY LIFE IN A NUTSHELL. But I find that trawling the dungeons and deserts for marks gives me pretty much all the levelling I need, and helpfully designates a goal that's not purely running around.

The first eight hours or so are boring? But for some reason I'm in love with Larsa now. orz

[corneredangel.livejournal.com]

...and again, here am I, who is almost *obsessive* about everyone in my party staying at around the same level. Even when the character (Chu^2, Quena...) is designed almost *specifically* to make you want to ignore them!

[corneredangel.livejournal.com]

it's perfectly possible to get through the game without power-leveling; it just involves more risk and dying than I enjoy while gaming (or doing anything in life, really.)

What it invovles, IMHO, is basically *completely* shutting off everything the game is making you think, and instead, *again* treating it as FFVII-X. I.e., trying to predict every enemy move five turns ahead...and knowing *exactly* what every single one of your magics/techniques does, and how...and how fast.

(...you know, I'd have almost *killed* for a proper CT stat on every action, instead of just the relative bar!)

[petronia.livejournal.com]

What it invovles, IMHO, is basically *completely* shutting off everything the game is making you think, and instead, *again* treating it as FFVII-X. I.e., trying to predict every enemy move five turns ahead...and knowing *exactly* what every single one of your magics/techniques does, and how...and how fast.

Damned if that's the way I ever played FFVII-X, though. XD I'm more of a 1) seek elemental damage 2) top up HP 3) whale on it with the most shiny weapon available type. I actually find that I'm using time/status/techniques way more in XII than I've done in any other FF game, because I can put stuff like Steal on gambit and forget about it (and also the Tactics/VS lineage of the thing, i.e. MP recovers with each step so why not auto-buff).

[pantswarrior]

it's perfectly possible to get through the game without power-leveling

I can vouch for this, because I was the one in our household (which consists of me and akatonbo) who has actually beat the game with my own save file, and I haven't power-levelled AT ALL. I had accidentally levelled up further than I meant to in a couple early areas, and then wound up breezing through some areas that were supposed to be challenging... but that was because I was having fun exploring places I wasn't supposed to be in at such a low level. ;) As far as I'm concerned, power-levelling slows things down and makes it less fun...

Okay, I will spare the long discourse about the two primary kinds of gamers I've seen on my friends list. -_- But earlier I was horrified to find a post on my friends list from a fellow long-time gamer who saw my post about akatonbo literally levelling in FFXII in her sleep. This guy was like "Who wants a game you can sleep through? It must totally suck." I had to explain that no, this is entirely optional, and only if you WANT to make the game ridiculously easy and boring. You don't have to do it if you don't want to, just like I found it absurd when people thought you had to draw 100 of every spell in FFVIII.

However, although I don't do this kind of thing, and don't understand why anyone would want to, it's nice that it's there for people who do want to game that way. That I can completely appreciate.

[naanima.livejournal.com]

I -love- the FFXII battle system (and leveling system) to the point that I after I finished palying FFXII I couldn't play more than 2 hours of Suikoden V because while the plot is beautiful, the fecking system itself feels clumbsy.

The FFXII takes a bit getting use to but once you unlock the gambit system and start filling out the slots in the best strategic ways you can walk into a combat while using your toes to control the pad, and not do anything else, because the gamit system will TAKE CARE of IT! Battles are EASY, FAST, and if everything is set out right, it- it is like poetry in motion.

Also, playing FFXII in Japanese was a bitch. I had about 200 pages of walkthrough to help me set up the gambit slots, and the script, but man I haven't finished playing a game this fast in a very long time.