152 insights into my soul

So the DW/SW popularity poll I posted about yesterday inspired me to make some lists of my own. I don't think I could end up doing a top 10 DW characters list, because it would end up being mostly Wei, so to be fair, I'll do a top 5 in each faction:

Wei
1) Xu Huang- I've always loved his character design, I guess its the hood, and he's a bad-ass to boot.
2)Xiahou Dun- he just oozes bad-assedness. I've always been a fan of his character design, but I especially love the move to the long coat in DW6/7.
3) Wang Yi- by far the baddest ass chick in the DW series.
4) Zhang Liao- Another bad-ass. Am I sensing a theme here? Anyhoo, his halberd moveset in the previous games was great, but he really shines with the twin axes now.
5) Cao Pi- by far the most awesome of the "leaders". I love his arrogant attitude, and I've always loved his twin sword move set.

(Actually I just like the Wei too much, so I'll do top 10)

6) Jia Xu- He's just such a great character design, I like the Arabian/Ninja look and the assassin feel to him. (I especially love his Assassin's Creed DLC costume in DW7 as well)
7) Zhang He- He's got speed and style, and I love his desire to add a tinge of grace and beauty to the slaughter of opponents.
8) Dian Wei- This guy is just a beast!
9) Zhen Ji- Cao Pi's better half, making them the best couple in both series. She's hot and I love her attitude, she and Cao Pi suit each other.
10) Cao Ren- I just love his dwarven warrior feel.

Wu:
1) Zhou Tai- Its a dude in black and red armor who uses a katana in the iai-jutsu style, you would expect someone else as number one?
2) Gan Ning- If there was no Zhou Tai, he'd obviously be the baddest ass of the Wu. He just has an awesome look and personality.
3) Lu Xun- He's young, but I've always like his character design and his moveset. Especially what they did with it in WO3.
4) Ling Tong- Gan Ning's frenemy/partner in crime. Both are great warriors in their own right, but together they're even more awesome.
5) Ding Feng- I love his look, his mix of wrestling and throwing bombs moveset is fun as hell, and he warrior poet personality is great.

Shu:
1) (tie) Ma Chao and Zhao Yun- I struggled over which one to put over the other, but I like them both too much. They both have great designs and movesets, and by far my favorite Shu to play.
2) Guan Ping- The epitome of the young warrior seeking to prove himself and live up to the lofty standards set up by his dad. Alas, his DW7 moveset isn't as great as his original one.
3) Wei Yan- I love the whole beastman thing and his almost berserker fighting style is great!
4) Yue Ying- I'm not a fan of the changes they've made with her since DW6. But thankfully, her old armored costume is available, and she's back to using her scythe in WO3.
5) Xing Cai- Great character design, and I always like her and Guan Ping as the children of two of Shu's previous bad-assses, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei.

Jin/Other:- (There just weren't enough in either faction to make a decent top 5, so I combined them)
1) Lu Bu- The baddest of the bad.
2) Zhong Hui- I just love his design and totally arrogant personality.
3) Wang Yuanji- The hottest of the DW girls, and a bad-ass with the throwing knives.
4) Xiahou Ba- The armored knight thing he has going is great. And his special in WO3, the super speed boost is just too awesome.
5) Diao Chan- The hottest DW girl until Wang Yuanji showed up.

Samurai Warriors:

1) Kojiro Sasaki- I love everything about this guy, his character design, his moves, his personality. He's the best swordsman after Musashi, but revels in the killing.
2) Mitsuhide Akechi- He's just the epitome of the traditional bad-ass samurai. Again, great looking design, and his moveset is phenomenal.
3) Muneshige Tachibana- the best addition from SW3. I love the heroic knight thing he has going, and his moveset is great!
4) Ginchiyo Tachibana- Muneshige's wife, and the baddest ass chick in SW, and the baddest in either series until Wang Yi came along. Like her husband, she has a great all-around moveset.
5) Keiji Maeda- The wild warrior of SW, he just oozes bad-assedness.
6) Kotaro Fuma- I just love his look, its so demonic and sinister.
7) Tadakatsu Honda- The baddest of the bad in Japan.
8) Toshiie Maeda- He uses two short spears and a serrated katana, his moveset looks awesome. Like Guan Ping, he's the epitome of the young warrior seeking to make a name for himself.
9) Kiyomasa Kato- He just looks cool, and he uses a giant scythe!
10) Masamune Date- Great design, and his personality is hilariously awesome. Plus, he uses dual pistols!

As long as I'm making lists, here's my top 5 hottest chyx from the series, in my favorite outfits of theirs: ( under the cut )

So I was quite disappointed that Samurai Warriors 3 was exclusively for the Wii, since I don't have one. I mean, I can understand the decline in popularity, as people are always "same old same old" about these video games. Thus, I don't think there was a motivation to develop the game for the other systems. While people may have complained each iteration is a rehash that changes very little (hey, how much do those sports games really change from year to year?), sometimes you don't want something all that complex, sometimes you just want to feel the power of cutting through hundreds of enemies like a hot knife through butter.

In any case, the other franchise covering those characters, Sengoku Basara (the first of which was released as Devil Kings in the US), is on the ps3 in addition to the Wii (but not the 360), though unfortunately only in Japan. So, I was watching the trailer for this, and while some of the characters have always been recognizable between the two (Date and Sanada), others have totally different designs. Like there were several characters in the trailer I was trying to figure out, "Who the frick are they?" Like the main two featured in this trailer- a young guy in yellow who fights with his fists, and a femme looking samurai dude in black and silver armor with a white vest with purple trim. So I looked it up here, and apparently yellow guy is Tokugawa, and the femme samurai is Mitsunari! I mean, Mitsunari's also quite effeminate in SW3. But I'm used to Ieyasu being a squat fat dude with a ridiculously big hat, not a character from friggin Tekken or Virtua Fighter.

But yeah, while Yoshihiro and Honda look like giant bad-asses in both games, the rest of the sengoku basara characters seem like bishi versions of their SW counterparts. Though the chyx in the SW games look like jail bait, whereas the sengoku basara versions are all sexified. (and they made Magoichi a chick!) I do like their version of Oichi though, because they do make her a little more darker and you can tell the connection with Oda. In the SW series, you wouldn't know the two were brother and sister without being told.

One thing I've always found curious, people who don't remember their dreams. Is it that they know they dreamed something, but it escapes them as soon as they wake up, or is it when they go to sleep, its just nothingness until they wake up? I guess its easier for me to remember my dreams because they're somewhat coherent, albiet a little fantastical. ( Dreams )

When did youtube start doing the whole personalized "recommended videos" thing? Ha, I find it hysterical that most of the videos they recommend for me are "ship" videos of couplings from various teen dramas. I guess that makes sense given my youtube viewing habits and favorited videos.

Monday night TV commentary:

( HIMYM )

( OTH )

I've finally played everyone in SW2 at least once, so I know all the new stuff they have. I didn't realize they beefed up some characters' musou attacks so they have a bigger area of affect. Like Yoshihiro's musou includes ground explosions (I didn't think they used to) so people all around get hit, not just near where his hammer pounds the ground. Some character comments:

Magoichi- his new c5 makes him much more playable. He didn't really have any good anti-officer moves in plain old sw2, his c3 is easy to miss with, and his c4 has that big pause before the final spread hit. But his c5 works well against officers.

Ina- her new c5 is way useful. Its much quicker than doing r1+triangle three times to get every attack afterwards to have ice element. So just start off with c5, then do whatever combo you like, since every hit will have ice element attached.

Date- I like his alternate costume color, its a snazzy light icy blue. I also just got his 5th weapon, Hell's Dragons. They're cool because they kinda look like Colt Peacemakers with a sort of dragon head looking shroud over the barrel. Yeah, its a huge anachronism, but at least using those, it makes more sense for him to be able to fire multiple shots without reloading compared to the matchlock pistols he normally uses.

Yoshimoto- interesting, apparently his play dead manuever does have a use. When doing his musou attack, playing dead right before your bar depletes, the musou will go on even after the bar is empty, for the duration of "play dead". So he does have some tricks up his sleeve!

I originally started this post at 1, but then there was an incident that I had to look into. I thought it was nothing, but it actually turned out to be something, so I had to spend the next couple of hours dealing with it. Anyways, on to our originally scheduled programming:

Hmm, one of the new vids on gametrailers is a GT special on the new Nissan GT_R. That is one sweet machine. (frakkin 0-60 in 3.2 seconds, that's unsane! That's like Porsche 911 Turbo performance!) And I didn't realize it would have a semi-automatic transmission. Righteous! I'm glad more of these performance sport cars are having such set ups. Mebbe its because I can't drive stick, but even if I did, it seems better to not have to worry about a pesky clutch pedal. I dunno, mebbe some people like that sort of thing, but I just wanna go fast and not have to deal with all that manual crap during stop and go traffic!

Started playing Yoshimoto in SW2, since he's the only character I have yet to play. Eh, even though he sucks, I feel the need to play him for completeness' sake. (And I felt bad for him, since his l1 title is "lonely buffoon". Truthfully, his moveset isn't horrible. But his special attack is to frickin' play dead! You do r1+tr, and he just collapses on the ground! What use is that?!

Owel, because of the aforementioned incident, I missed the 1am showing of this week's Riches. Yeah, it shows three times between 10pm and 2am, but I missed the first two showings for other reasons. I caught the first ten minutes, though all I recall was DiDi's plaid skirt was of the proper short length!

Heh, I'm getting old. ( I'm such a square )

A few more BSG comments. ( cut for spoilers )

Saturday TV commentary:

( Torchwood )

Obtuse comment of the day: Went to a thing today that had a few available cuties, some with luscious melons. (Ha, just trying to get a rise out of certain people!).

In SW2 stuff, going from merc mode to normal mode can be confusing at times, because in merc mode, characters have special merc skills that only apply to merc mode. Kojiro has a good one, acceleration, where his running speed is faster than even Matsukaze. Since only certain people can call for their horse in this game, its a useful skill since I don't have to go back for the horse. But going back to normal mode, I have to remember the characters aren't gonna run that fast so I need to keep track of the horse.

Tuesday night TV commentary:

( The Riches )

SW2 geekery: ( under the cut )

Went to Fatburger for dinner with the roomie, clevemire, and phatjoe. Alas, its closer to getting blacklisted since the GMA had crappy service. But that's prolly because he didn't give a "fat tip". For some reason the cashier was calling out if you put a tip in their "fat tip" jar. I don't know how I feel about that, that's kinda intimidating. I mean, do you get crappier service if the food crew doesn't hear "Fat tip!"? Because that's total BS!

Had two power outages within the past 24 hours. The first was 2am Sunday morning. Which sucks when you're on a night schedule. Its like, okay, what the frick am I supposed to do in the dark in the middle of the night? I can't really go to sleep, as that would mess up my sleep schedule. It came up at 4am, thankfully. Then when we got back from Fatburger, the power was out again. We were going to watch BSG: Razor, but since we had no power, went to watch at Joe's instead. Though something's flaky with the power grid here. I mean, power was out in the neighborhood from Terrell Mill to the house, but the houses behind us had power. And the Powers Ferry/Terrel Mill intersection, the BP on the corner had no power, but the traffic light was working. But as we drove to Joe's the lights on Windy Hill were out, but the houses around had power. Its so sporadic! Owel, thankfully the power was back on when the roomie and I got back. Hopefully they have whatever is causing this resolved.

( SW2 stuff )

Youtube wandering of the day: watching videos of suppressed and unsuppressed M4s being fired to hear the difference the sound suppressor makes.

Since I maxed out gracia, toshiie, and kojiro, started working on some older characters. Ooh, which reminds me, Once I get everyone to 70 I can update this table of everyone's max stats that I had made. But since you can change the stats on their 4th and 5th weapons by collecting orbs (well you can change the stats on any weapon, but why would you waste orbs on the weaker ones, particularly since they're somewhat of a chore to get?), the table showing their stats with either of those weapons equipped is defunct.

Haven't played Keiji yet so I don't know what his c5 is like, but Honda's new c5 makes him monstrous! He does a wide Sauron-like wide swing in front of him, which also unleashes three fireballs. What makes it especially broken is not only is it easy to hit with, its unblockable! So basically no enemy officer can really stand up to you, because even when they turtle, that last hit of his c5 still creams them.

Alas, while Honda has been made more powerful, Musashi has been nerfed. Well, its less him being nerfed and more the death element being nerfed. In SW2, it did a crapload of extra damage w/ a chance for insta kill on non-officers. Now though, it still does the insta-kill on peons, but for officers, it just automagically knocks off a percentage of health depending on their lifebar rather than "massive extra damage"- the higher their lifebar, the more life they lose. The problem is, once you get them down to really low health, the percentage they lose from the death effect is minimal. So, their health goes down fast initially, but then they never actually hit 0 until you hit them with some non-element hits because its just continually fractioning their health rather than killing them. Musashi used to be the reaper. Well, he still sorta is, its just that his attack will quickly get them down to a sliver of health instead of outright killing them, and you'll just have to tag them one more time.

Owel, the change in how death element works also ruins Akechi's r1+sq move, that quick iai-jutsu slash that had death element on it. Which sucks, because it was a cool way to finish off enemies! His c9 is pretty cool looking though.

Obligatory SW2 post of the day. Started playing Gracia. She starts out incredibly weak- you're liable to give up on her and proclaim her the suckiest character ever when you first play her. But I implore you to give her a chance. Once you level her up, she's one of the best characters out there. So, you'll have to hammer through some easy one star levels in the beginning. Her mounted attack is ridiculously powerful (she shoots frickin' fireballs, which are relatively strong), so that'll help you survive until you get her to about level 10, which is when she gets her self skill, letting her constantly be gaining musou. Which is important since she is a special-type character. But unlike the other special-type characters who just drop mines, she gets magical attacks.

Unlike "mage" type characters in the games before her, her magical attacks are actually useful and something you'll want to do often (not exclusively, as you don't regain musou that fast!). Her "weakest" magical attack, she fires three huge fireballs in an arc in front of her. They'll cause significant amounts of damage on officers when hit and most likely wipe out the peons with him. Her next magical attack, which I think is her most useful one, is an ice storm that hits all around her and sometimes freezes enemies. Her most powerful attack, which is good, but hard to hit with, is her "super magical Gracia beam", which will kill weaker officers and cause massive damage on stronger ones. She also has defensive spells, though I'm not exactly sure the bonuses they're providing. The second one is a shield, but the first and third are buffs, though I am unsure as to what kind of buffs. I'm worried what she'll be like in Warriors Orochi 2 or whatever the hell they're calling the new one that includes the SW2:XL characters plus Fu Xi, Nu Wa, and some others. Since "special-type" SW2 characters lose access to a lot of their moves (since they can't do R1+sq or tr) and particularly since there's no "self-skills", meaning Gracia doesn't have her "constantly regain musou" thing as always on, it seems like she'll work totally different. I mean, I think there's a skill that lets you constantly regain musou in WO, but that means she (and the rest of her group) have to give up a slot for that.

But I digress. I wanna say her fighting style is kinda mage-monk, as her normal attacks are all punches and kicks. Once you get her c5 though, then she really hits her groove. c5 is her meat and potatoes, as it ends with a 360 hit shockwave all around her. You basically just spam that along with her fireball and ice storm attacks and you'll be reaping through the enemy like a sickle through wheat. c2 and c4 are pretty good against single opponents as well.

Haven't played her story mode yet, but since Anegawa and Osaka Bay are on my normal level up routine and there's a lot of conversations that take place between her and Mago (as she calls him) as well as with her pops, Akechi, I assume that those are in her story mode. It seems like she's trying to be his sidekick, though people keep joking she's his girlfriend, even though she's like a teen and he's a grown man. Perverts! And it looks like she initially hides the fact that she's Akechi's daughter from Magoichi. Hmm, given the way the game has Honnoji go, with Akechi dueling Oda, but refusing to finish him off, but then Magoichi sniping Oda, I wonder how that all plays out. It seems like after that, Magoichi and Akechi were after each other, so that would put Gracia in the middle.

Oh, and had Big Bang Theory on while eating dinner. That show is just not funny! Though they did have a debate on why Skynet would build a hot teen chick terminator. ojv('Man, its obvious!') Who are people more likely to let their guard down in front of? The big hulking scary looking brute, or the sluttily dressed teen hottie-hot?!

Saturday night TV commentary:

( Torchwood )


And now for the possibly gheyist list I've ever posted, top 5 (well, 4 cause I can't think of a fifth right now) favorite poignant musical scenes from movies, in no particular order:

1) Mandy Moore singing "Only Hope" at the school play in A Walk to Remember:



Beautiful girl singing a beautiful song. slv('Nuff said!')

2) The end scene of Across the Universe, when Jude starts singing "All You Need is Love":



My favorite part? When Jude and Lucy see each other across the rooftops, and the background chorus is all "She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah!"

3) Tom Collins doing the reprise of "I'll Cover You" at Angel's funeral:



When Det. Green starts belting it out, and everyone joins in doing a kinda rendition of "Seasons of Love" for the background chorus? Awesome!

4) The "So Close" Enchanted ballroom scene:



What really sells it? The looks on Giselle's face as they dance, all conflicted emotions, particularly when Robert starts singing along to the song (and he never sings or dances!)

And now onto some SW2 talk. Started on Kojiro Sasaki's story mode, once I beat that, I can get his 4th weapon, which I'm hoping is ice element, since ice suits his move set well. His storyline is all about his rivalry with Musashi, and its interesting to play Sekigahara from his point of view. Storywise, he's like the evil psycho ultimate bad-ass working for the Tokugawa simply because Musashi aligned himself with the other side.

After playing Sasaki and Toshiee, gonna go with Gracia next. Her normal attacks are nothing to write home about, but her special attacks are ungodly, or so I here. I hear Katsuie is pretty good as well, they changed him to twin axes from the spear. I'm curious if his moveset is similar to Pang De's from DW5? Twin picks, twin axes, same diff. I'm not looking forwarded to playing that painted queen Yoshimoto. Damn me and wanting to get everything complete!