Starza's Fandom Blog

And now since the game is out of beta, it's time for a full review! Also, my guild is composed of a lot of Star Wars fanboys and Bioware fanboys, so if they ever saw this review... I am much harsher beyond impressions because the game is officially launched and I really can't believe how unpolished it is.

Also, I played a Sith Inquistor that leans toward the Light side, so this is based on that.

Title: Star Wars: The Old Republic
Rating: T, rating changes in game
Genre: MMORPG

Graphics: 6/10 - Like I said before, the same problems exist, every race is a humanoid, the UI is still crappy (And if you tweak the settings, you can get a UI that looks similiar to WoW), not too many customazations, etc etc.

The big problem is the settings now. I can barely run this game with 20 fps on low, which is WORSE than in the beta, and after some research, I found the game doesn't really like AMD/ATI cards, so I had to tweak something outside the game. Besides, putting everything on low/medium/high didn't seem to do much, if anything at all. I could put textures on high and get the same fps than if I put them on low, even though it says in game lowering this option will improve preformance. If I lower settings in WoW and Rift, I get better performance. Try it in Star Wars, nothing happens. The only thing that matters is shadows and 'bloom'. Also, no AA for those who were waiting for it.

It's funny, because Rift's graphics are so much better than both SW and WoW, and yet, I can get better framerate in Rift on high resolution than on SW with the lowest possible settings.

No excuse for this.

The graphics themselves outside of cutscenes, which is what we will see 75% of the time, are kinda crappy. The environment is lifeless and dull, it lacks a real spark of life in some areas. It's also too dark in a lot of the places. Half the time when I want to take a picture of my character, I can barely see her cause it's too dark. I was more impressed with Rift's graphics than Star War's. Some areas lighten up, like Nar Shaddaa, but the world itself is lifeless and npcs just walk around and... nothing.

Also, no day and night cycles and no weather. Come on, it's 2012 now....

Plot: 6/10 - Not gonna lie, I was falling asleep when it came to quests and character quest. Character quest is just me running around fetching artifacts for my master who is obviously going to betray me sometime down the line. Oh, and I'm a desendant of a powerful sith. And what eventually happens... is exactly how I was warned about. And now, I apparently am one of those 'rare' souls that can communicate with ghosts well and I'm so 'talented', that I can absorb those ghost's power as my own. So in essence, my character is now a Mary Sue. /facepalm It does get interesting as time moves on, but the conclusion is pretty cliche and furthers me being a Mary Sue. Also that Sith Inquistor standing next to me? Same conclusion to his story.

Every other quest is basically the same you can find in any genric MMORPG nowadays. If you've done questing in one, you've done it in all. But this time, the quests just seem... boring, even with the VAing. Too many times I just found myself hitting spacebar when I was done reading the subs instead of watching it play out. Most of the characters save my own companions I could really care less about.

Most of the plotlines to the planets is that Republic is trying to get a foothold or already has a foothold, and you have to prevent it or increase the gain for the Empire on the foothold. Or there's a war going on and you have to stop it. That's the basic plotline of every planet I visited, and it's... really boring. You'll sometimes get a side plot and sometimes you'll get a reaccuring character appearing (Thana on Taris appears in many of the quests), but other than that, it's just stop the Republic from getting strength.

Not to mention, most of your decisions have no real impact on the world around you. There's a choice to keep Thana alive or kill her, and no matter what you choose, you NEVER see her again. So what's the point of keeping her alive now? Oh yeah, I want those light points...

Also, when you finally complete your story line, you're basically done with the plot. You can do like the 'final battle' on Ilum, but after that, it's basically 'The End' till Bioware adds in more content.

The only interesting things are your companions. I really love companions, even though their AI is questionable. Companions will give you quests if their affection is high enough. And so far out of the 5 minus the droid (*stabs it to death*), all of them are likable, even Khem, the poor bastard. :D Xalek sadly does not get enough development, but he's such a badass, it doesn't matter.

You can also romance certain companions, which is very similiar to DA. If they like you enough, it unlocks more quests. Of course, you have to progress into your character questline in order to get certain options.

Music/sound: 9/10 - Music is still awesome, but not played enough or repeats in areas when it shouldn't. Like it's kinda weird on the ears to hear the shooter rail music in a combat situation. We need some music in cities and the main hangout (Imperial Fleet). The tunes you do hear are really good and give an epic feeling to whatever you're fighting. You'll also hear some familiar themes if you watched the movies so many years ago. Also, the Voice Acting is very good for the most part, very rarely I cringed when I heard someone speak, and that one time, it was a pig-like creature making weird oinking noises at me. Also, fuck the droid.

Gameplay: This is divided into 6 sub-categories since MMOs are different.

Combat 5/10 - Combat is still clunky and clumsy here, but what pisses me off the most is healing delays. I will cast my heal, the bar hitting 2.5/2.5 and then... nothing, 1-2 seconds pass, and my character finally gets her heal off. This means I have to basically predict when damage will happen and cast spells early, which could cost me much needed force power that I would later need in the fight. It's really annoying, and it only happens in combat, outside of combat, there is no delay. Instant heals have no delays either from what I've seen.

From what I've read on forums, this is an animation problem. Star Wars favors realistic animation over smooth combat. Games like WoW sacrifice realistic animation in favor of a smoother combat system, which is why you sometimes find yourself running forward after mounting up but no mount on for a second or two. And really, I'd rather have a smooth combat than 'realistic animations' fucking up my rotations.

I've also had a few problems laying down my AoE spell a few times, from where the circle disappears to where it says I'm moving when I lay it when I clearly am not.

There's also WAY too many abilities to keep track of. This goes back to old style WoW, but the problem is setting up a good rotation to use them. Healing wise, it's disappointing, because over 50% of those abilities are useless, which surprises me as I thought I would've had more heals to work with. A knockback could be useful, but it also could be a double edge sword, as a guildmate and I were doing quests, and he would constantly use overload just as I laid my AoE down.

Also, companion AI isn't too well done. I'll CC a pat that came to me, and stupidly, my companion will shoot it and break it. Too bad my only CC is on a freaking 1 minute cooldown. That's going to be a big problem come later, when it's pretty common in flashpoints for people to break CC.

Crafting 7/10 - Same old here, cept there seems to be one profession that really ranks in money over others (Slicing). This will probably be changed in the future.

One big problem will be the fact that your companions make the stuff. At first, it's not too bad, but when you're waiting close to a hour for one of your characters to make you stuff when in normal games, you can do it instantly, it could piss you off. And not to mention, this is most likely going to be your credit and time sink. I guess the sacrifice to this was you don't have to do a damn thing when it comes to crafting if you don't want to farm nodes. But you still need to send companions out, because they can get things you cannot, like cloth and metals for blue/epic recipes.

Also, in order to learn blue and epic patterns, you have to craft the green or blue below it and pray that you get lucky when you reverse engineer it and get the pattern. I must've blown a lot of mats already on trying to discover epic patterns. You could conversely get recipes through 'gathering' professions as well. I've receieved a few recipes through Underground trading.

Other than that, there's no problems with crafting.

PvE (Questing, exploring, dungeons) 6/10 - Questing is boring. I'm sorry, but even with the story, I can't seem to get into the game like I did when WoW came out. Maybe it's because I've been playing MMOs with this formula for so long, but Star Wars has really failed to engage me. The quests are the same quests you've always done, get these items, loot these items from these mobs, kill x enemies. It also doesn't help that bad plot-twists could ruin quests, aka Sith Inquistor storyplot.

The biggest problem though is that you don't feel like you're playing a MMO at all. Save for flashpoints and heroics I did with my guildmates, I feel like I'm playing a single player RPG with coop rather than a MMO. Maybe it's because I leveled way too fast, but I rarely see anyone on the planet I'm on, and I'm on a full server. Sometimes I forget until I see someone in chat speak and I'm like 'Oh yeah...' You know a game isn't worth a sub fee if it takes general/guild chat to wake you up out of it.

People can argue about they don't see people in WoW, but the majority of people in WoW are at the level cap. Very few are at the level cap in SW when I was leveling, isn't it like impossible not to come across several players while on one planet???

There are phased quests and phased parts of the map too, so if you're doing certain quests, you don't have to worry about someone stealing your kills. Too bad I rarely, if ever, see people where I'm questing...

Flashpoints are basically the same, except for one problem. Remember how I said how epic Black Talon is? Well, the next flashpoints are really dull with little to no story. You do the flashpoint, there's one light/dark side choice, and that's it. The Black Talon sets it up like that's how the other instances are. I was sadly mistaken. Highly disappointed. I've done most of the flashpoints (Skipped foundry and Directive 7 though), and have yet to be impressed by any of the flashpoints like I was with Black Talon. False Emperor was somewhat interesting, but the time to complete it reminded me of doing BlackRock Depths back in vanilla wow. It took us 2 hours, no joke.

Hardmode flashpoints are composed of bosses doing the SAME things except they have very tight enrage timers. Like 1-2 minutes into the fight, the boss will enrage. Otherwise, bosses don't do anything different. It's boring and once you outgear the hardmode, the enrage timers don't become a problem. Tight enrage timers =! hard boss. I did Black Talon on Heroic and beyond the tight enrage timers, it's pathetically easy.

Companions also give their own quests much like Dragon Age and Dragon Age 2, and besides them, they are really the only characters I care about. That random NPC on Taris? Don't know, don't care. Your decisions don't really impact the world around you when they should. The NPCs are dull and lifeless, the entire world feels lifeless. Ocassionally, I'll see NPCs conversing via the VAing, but other than that rare occassion, the environment itself is dull. You think with all that VAing they dumped into this game, they could at least voice some NPC if you click on them at the very least. Or fucking give VAing for emotes...

Like I said, you can romance your companions, but there's one big problem I have with it. You only have ONE option out of your 5 to romance. Don't like the romance companion for your class? Too bad, you're stuck with them. I mean, really? That stinks....

PvP 5/10 - This game's pvp is horrid. Honestly, I thought Rift was the worst pvp I played, but I was wrong.

A big problem is that level 10's can fight with level 50's, there's no bracket, which I understand why they wanted to do this, but it also backfires hardcore. And while they got giving everyone a buff correct, the big problem is a level 10 won't have the abilities a level 50 has, and stuns, cooldowns, and certain abilities are going to be a huge advantage over someone of much lower level. Rift came close to doing it right, buffing low levels in x0-x9 warfronts, but giving a bracket so people with the talents won't have an unfair advantage over another.

I also mentioned all the other problems like stuns/knockbacks/interrupts and all. Since every class has one, it can be a nightmare for casters, especially healers. Nothing like being knocked around, stunned, and then dead before you can get a castable heal off. Also, no dimishing returns. Yeah.... Resolve bar, which is a bar next to your portrait, is supposed to make you immune for a few seconds from being stunned, but from my experience, it either doesn't work, or it'll work whenever it wants to.

Also, world pvp? I decided to check out Ilum and went to the area. All you're doing is going to a point on your map and blowing up Republic carriers, and if you're lucky, kill any republic you see. I didn't see a single republic and couldn't even do my daily because the republic didn't fight back. Not to mention, those big walkers roaming around? Are only decoration. I litterally stood on a spot where the opposing faction fires in and guess what? Took 0 damage. You think an area that has all these walkers around would actually be used for maybe battle? Nope.

After about a day, I came back again and guess what? Republic and Empire people were just trading off nodes so they could get their daily/weekly done. Yeah, epic pvp...

I also went back to Tatoonie to check out it's pvp area too and same issue, no republic. All I did in these areas was farm nodes. Yeah great world pvp, this'll be a problem on an unbalanced server for sure.

End game (50 only content) 4/10 - This gets a lower score because of one reason. HALF the heroic flashpoints are bugged in some shape or form or not even avaiable (As of right now, only 6 are functioning), some of them bugged to the point in making the run impossible to finish or complete. Really? Because when WoW came out with cata, all the heroics were working.

Didn't people on the forums say that Bioware had 15 flashpoints in the game, way more than WoW had? So why the bloody hell are only SIX of them on hardmode??? WoW cata launched with more heroics than that!

Not to mention, there's no LFD group, so getting a group, if you're not a tank or healer, takes forever to do. And that's the staple at 50, farm heroic dungeons. When you don't have a server LFD system, it becomes a problem.

Also, some of the flashpoints are very unforgiving, not because of new and amazing mechanics, but because bosses have 2 minute enrage timers. That means your dps has to be really good, otherwise you're dead. So if people were bitching about Dragon Soul in WoW being a massive gear check, hope you're ready for SW gear check.

If you think SW is going to be any different end game from WoW, think again. End game is the same wine and dine, farm dailies, farm heroics/hardmode dungeons for gear to set yourself up for raiding or farm pvp gear. The dailies are going to get old after doing them non-stop for like 2 weeks.

A big problem is that like Rift, pvp gear is about the same as pve gear. Which should NOT be the case, and this is where WoW does it right, it seperates pvp gear from pve, and you obviously won't be doing nearly as much dps or heals in your pvp gear than if you had pve gear. So lemme ask a perfect question: If pvp gear is no different from pve gear and there's a queue system for pvp, why in the holy mother of fuck would I farm normal dungeons for blue gear so I can do the hardmodes when I can get insta win epics eventually through pvp????

I also heard the normal raids are actually EASIER than the 5 man hardmode dungeons. What were they thinking!? I have yet to do any of these raids since my guild doesn't even know what it will do, so may update this section later.

Misc (Latency. bugs, configuration, community) 5/10 - This game seems really unpolished. I've come across bugs that I experienced in beta and there were quite a few times where mobs would 'evade bug' on us, making them unkillable. There's been issues from graphic issues (From purple flashing rocks to a bunch of white dots running across the floor of a cave), gameplay issues (Healing delays), light/dark points not taking effect even though they were supposed to occur (Had this happen on Hoth for me), sound randomly going out and in (More frequent when traveling indoors), coming across invisable walls when I shouldn't (doing /stuck, however, helped me get out), and a whole bunch of random things that should've been caught and fixed in beta (Cutscenes being blacked out, characters jittering a bit in cutscenes, characters turning their heads at odd angles in cutscenes, etc). I even fell through the world once on Ilum and I fell to my death on my Taxi. And in Alderaan, my companion fell over dead a few times too when I took a taxi in a character quest area.

I also don't like the fact that I get stuck in a 100 queue and when I finally get in, unless I'm on Dromund Kaas or Imperial Fleet, I'm really lucky to encounter someone. I mean, the first time I saw a republic, I was in my 40's (50 is the highest level). And I rarely see anyone else questing around me too, if I see a single soul where I am, I gasp in surprise. Where is everyone?? I thought the servers could hold thousands of people, but it seems like a lot less. The most I've seen was 150 people on the Imperial fleet according to the chat channel. Today though, I noticed my server is 'standard' most of the time, so either they upped the amount of people per server or people quit.

Community is about the same as WoW and if you honestly think that the community here will be any different than WoW, I have a bridge in NY I'd like to sell you. I really like the logic my fellow guild mates told me that it's okay to be an asshole since we're Sith and if I didn't like someone ninjaing my chest (Had this happen, gotta love when you're killing an elite, someone decides to take the chest where you were trying to clear, and no, you can't open it in combat), I should roll Jedi. Yeah, perfect example of what the community MAY be. Not to mention, anyone who critizes this game will get basically called a troll, no matter how weak or strong their arguements are.

Also, load times in general are horrid, and becomes really noticable on Alderaan, and from what people told me, it's because the game has to load 'a lot of flora life'. I could litterally get up and go to the bathroom, come back, and find the game still loading. I think the worst load times I had outside this game was a minute in WoW and that's cause I had so much going on in the background and got d/ced in a populated area. I turned off a lot of stuff hoping the load times would stop, no go.

Final Score 5.3/10 - Lot of features lack polish and the game offers nothing if you're a veteran player of WoW or other mmos like it.

Overall: 6.6/10 - A game that's not as solid as it could be and lacking features that should have been implimented at launch. If you're a Star Wars fan and are a hardcore fan of Bioware games in general, you'll enjoy the game, despite the flaws. But if you're a mmo veteran or someone who is tired of WoW and is looking for something different, I would not recommend ToR. ToR will not make you quit the game you're currently playing unless you're just sick of the environment itself and not the current mmo formula.

Remember what I said to the last fic? Yeah, this is why you sometimes don't need a sequel. Or maybe write the whole story instead of half the story!

Series: Star Ocean 3
Title: Time After
Author: ErrantFeather
Genre: Drama/Romance
Rating: M
Warnings: Minor Sophia and Maria bashing, lots of OCs, NSFW stuff, confusing plot
Couple (if applicable): Albel/Fayt, one sided Fayt/Sophia, Albel/Alternate(!?) Fayt

Plot: 4/10 - I gave this a low score because of one thing: This story feels like half of a story. The author made a huge mistake and wrote this entire story from Albel's PoV when it would've really benefitted from third person or Fayt's PoV in every other chapter. He gets one part in one chapter, but it's short and Fayt's PoV is not spoken about again and Fayt doesn't even appear till near the end of the story.

Again, the gang is going after the rest of the Programmers, but because of ebil!Sophia, she makes a deal with one of them to get rid of Albel. However, it backfires and Albel gets stuck in 4D space. The only way for Albel to get back is to cooperate with the Incantarix and find an alternate universe and try to find someone with the connection gene to send Albel back.

Yeah, I probably lost people there. In the alternate universe, Albel comes across alternate Fayt and things proceed to get confusing from there.

And this is the story's problem. Maybe the author was trying to explain the 'alternate dimension' that you see in the Lava Caves, but it's not pulled off well. Not to mention, the story is already confusing enough with the genetic part of it and all these programmers and OCs and now we have to deal with an alternate universe that basically is a parallel of the Eternal Sphere?

Meanwhile, something is taking place in the Eternal Sphere and we're left in the dark about it. Which is why this story should've either been third person or have interludes featuring Fayt. When I finished the story, I felt like I missed half the story and went back chapters to see if I missed anything.

Also, the ending is kinda cheesy.

Writing: 9/10 - Again, nothing is wrong with the writing. Except the lack of paragraphs. But it has a lot of dialogue, so it doesn't matter too much.

Characterization: 2/10 - Okay, I know Sophia can be immature and sometimes a bit of a bitch. But I don't believe for one minute she would try to send Albel to 4D space out of jealousy. I believe that Fayt and Sophia were close childhood friends. But that's all I think they were, just friends. Believe it or not, male and female friendships do exist. I don't think Sophia might be too happy with Fayt's choice, but to go as far as destroying his happiness? I don't think so.

Albel just doesn't seem like Albel and neither does Fayt. Just like the last story, they seem to suffer from the 'love starved' sydrome. Especially Albel, but then again, this is from his PoV. The author just doesn't do a good job of keeping Albel in character, I don't feel like this is the Albel from the game or a very sedated Albel from who we know. He also seems very 'emo', which I don't doubt Albel is, but I see him as more of a snarky guy trying to hide being emo from others.

Negativities: Indirect Sophia bashing, OCC Albel and Fayt, feels half told
Summary: The quest to restore peace from Luther's programmers continues. Only there's a snag along the way...
Overall: 5/10 - Good writing cannot save a story, sadly. Probably best not to bother with the sequel unless you really want to know what happens from the first fic on how they deal with the enemy. That is, if you can manage to follow the plot from both stories.

Joy... :( This author seems to be popular and she streams out stories pretty fast. She's written a LOT of SO3 fics and Death Note fics. The problem? They're pretty much ALL bad. Or horrid AUs. I started with her supposed first fanfic because it's like one of the only fics on the actual game timeline, but... urgh

Series: Star Ocean 3
Title: Death and Destruction
Author: crematosis
Genre: Angst/Humor(?)
Rating: T
Warnings: Sophia bashing, massive amounts of OOCness, PwP
Couple (if applicable): Albel/Fayt, one sided Fayt/Sophia

Plot: 2/10 - Seriously, what plot? There's like... nothing to work with here. I'm assuming it's before the game ends, but even I can't exactly tell. Basically, it's a bunch of Albel and Fayt bonding moments, alongside the other main cast acting like a bunch of crazed Yaoi fanbrats. And lots of Sophia bashing. Reading this fic makes me WANT to write a Sophia based fic.

The only interesting concept is how Fayt wants someone to look at him 'normally' instead of a weapon, but Albel's stubbornness tries to get to the bottom of it. In fact, in my fanfic, that's how Fayt feels. The problem is if the characters weren't a mangled mess, it could work.

Writing: 2/10 - There are a lot of spelling errors here that a simple spell checker could pick up. There's no excuse for this. Open Office is free and does the same thing Microsoft Word can do, it also has a spelling checker in it. There's even grammar errors like forgetting to put the quotation marks at the beginning or ending the dialogue, commas missing or being misplaced. The Author even mispells canon names wrong.

It's a mess, to put it simply.

Characterization: 1/10 - Without a doubt, every character is completely OCC. A perfect example:

Albel jammed his claw back on and slumped back into his seat. "My father dove in to save me from a worse fate. Because of me, a pathetic weakling like me is allowed to live and my father died."

"That sucks," Fayt said with a bitter laugh.

Do I even need to say what's wrong with this one part? Fayt can be a douche sometimes, but here, he's a total dickwad. Albel pours his heart out and all Fayt can say is 'sux2bu'????

Not to mention, when Fayt goes to Arias, he's beaten up and spit on. Um, after I got Maria in my group, when I went to Arias, no one said anything nasty or punched Fayt in the balls.

Let's not forget that everyone in the group is like a yaoi fanbrat from Cliff to Nel to even freaking Maria. And Sophia bashing of course.

I don't like Sophia myself, she's a very bland and boring character that never really gets developed too well (I believe she was just added in SO3 because it lacked a total Symbology user. In the original, Mirage and Adray were not playable characters, and considering Sophia isn't obtained till Disk 2 and if your mana hits 0, you die... Yeah, you don't really need a Symbology user). But good fucking lord, she's practically Fayt's BEST FRIEND. She would not treat him like dog poo if he developed feelings for someone, wheither it's Albel or someone else. She isn't THAT flat of a character and she was never truely bitchy unless Fayt was an insensative jerk first.

Negativities: OCCness to the max, lots of spelling/grammar issues, no real plot.
Summary: Fayt is angsting about the terrible powers he wields. Too bad a certain swordsman won't leave him alone.
Overall: 1.6/10 - Probably one of the worst Albel/Fayt fics I've read outside of this fic. It had an interesting idea, but the author cripples it completely.

Today I return with Star Ocean 3 fic. One good one and one bad one. First, the bad.

Series: Star Ocean 3
Title: Subjective or Ideal
Author: DeadKidRising
Genre: Drama/Romance
Rating: M
Warnings: NSFW, wangst, angst, indirect Sophia bashing
Couple (if applicable): Fayt/Albel, hints of Cliff/Nel, one sided Fayt/Sophia

Plot: 4/10 - You know those stories that start off with a good idea, but then decend into horrible fic? This is it. The fic starts out with a really good idea, what if one of the characters just didn't want to come back from *spoilers*, but Fayt forced them to come back anyways? I loved that idea, and though Sophia wasn't really the ideal choice, I could accept it.

How horribly the fic decends from there.

The fic then tries to incooperate the famous Romero from Albel's ending, along with the Federation knowing about Fayt, Sophia, and Maria. It has some other interesting concepts like going to the world of the dead and having certain characters helping them out. But the plot is so beyond bizarre and the characters are so OOC, you forget it's a SO3 fic if Cliff didn't call Fayt 'kid' or Albel spew 'fool' and 'maggot' every so often.

Has a few good ideas, but executed horribly beyond belief.

Writing: 5/10 - The writing itself doesn't have any problems besides the spelling and grammar mistakes you see from time to time. The biggest problem with this story is constantly switching from first person to third person. KEEP the PoV in one or the other, don't flip-flop through the story. Sometimes, I got confused at who's PoV I'm looking at.

Characterization: 1/10 - Everyone is pretty much OOC here. Fayt going uber uke and Albel just... not being Albel. I mean, Albel is a really hard character to grasp and having feelings for Fayt wouldn't just all of a sudden give him a 180 in personality change. Fayt is very weepy and whiny here, and while he had his whiny moments in SO3, it's been multiplied by about hundred to the third power.

Their 'romance' scenes are your typical scenes you see in every clean cut seme/uke yaoi fic out there, which demeans Fayt and Albel's relationship. I don't think their relationship can be defined your typical seme/uke roles, more so than Tsuzuki and Hisoka from YnM. Fayt is strong in his own right, and I don't see Albel submitting to anyone unless there is a clean cut trust between them. I see them as more equals than anything, which pretty much goes against your typical seme/uke setup. Putting either of them in this setup and you either have Fayt being too emo or whiny or you have Albel being way too lenient and open than how he is.

Negativities: OCCness up the asshole, confusing PoV switches
Summary: After a certain someone's demise, the group doesn't want to split up just yet. Also, Fayt has something he's been keeping from everyone. And other weird stuff happens...
Overall: 3.3/10 - A perfect example of a story that has good ideas but horribly executed. This could've been a good fic that explores ideas and concepts that aren't explored, but is wasted.

The overall conclusion to the trilogy! I'd really like to say that this story got better at the end from the last two parts, but... it fell backwards on itself. Not as much emo!angst as the first two parts, but the same mangle characterizations, the same fanpoodle-ness, and this time, not such a nicely neat plot.

Series: Yami no Matsuei
Title: Falling Is Like This
Author: Kouri Arashi
Genre: Drama/Romance
Rating: R
Warnings: NCS hints, wangst, angst, more angst
Couple (if applicable): Basically all the pairings as the previous fanfics, but mostly Tsuzuki/Hisoka and some hinted Muraki/Oriya

Plot: 6/10 - Okay, unfortuantely, the plot isn't nearly as good as the other one. The first part to this story is stupid. Basically, Hisoka is losing his powers that he gained as a Shinigami, but he doesn't know why. Tsuzuki and all the 'older' Shinigami know, so basically, Hisoka and Akimiya are in the dark. Later, it turns out that Hisoka purposely lost his powers (Control over his Empathy, Jitsu powers, healing powers) due to a test. So basically, Hisoka has to fight possible demons and psycho magic dealing humans with NO powers but what he was born with.

It really makes no sense. Shinigami got those powers in the first place so they have a CHANCE to deal with powers that no normal humans could. Why TAKE them away and leave them defenseless? And what about Shinigami that may not have had 'natural powers' when they were alive? Yeah, they are so totally fucked...

So Muraki comes in and messes up the test, because Tsuzuki won't have Muraki touching his man! As it turns out, Tsuzuki wasn't supposed to interfer whatsoever, causing Hisoka to fail his test. When Shinigami fail the tests, they are 'sent on'. Of course, Tsuzuki and Hisoka don't want that, and they run away. First they go to Hijiri, which was pointless, then off to Oriya's place where they find Muraki and ask him how to 'hide' themselves from the rest of the Shinigami, which makes sense because the Shinigami can't track Muraki for some reason. But it doesn't make sense cause it's MURAKI!

While trying to deal with Muraki's molesting and spell casting, a man appears. And at first guess, Hisoka knows that the man is Tsuzuki's father.

Well, as it turns out, Hisoka's guess is right on the money. But more importantly, Tsuzuki's father is not only a demon (Surprise!), but is the Prince of Hell who broke out of his imprisonment. And he's come back to get his son and merge Hell with the living world. Of course, Hisoka can't have that, and when fans really say that Hisoka would go to Hell and back for Tsuzuki... Well!

Add in a little bargain with Muraki (Who has an actual believable reason to go besides wanting to be in Tsuzuki's pants) to tag along with him. Yep, Muraki and Hisoka working together after what happened in the previous two parts. Urgh, but it works.

I won't spoil the rest of the story though, because there's some things that work and other things that really don't mesh at all.

Okay, I will give points to the author for trying to put in Tsuzuki's hertiage and trying to explain why he became a Shinigami and the like (Plus going through the levels of hell were interesting). Because, let's face it, I can think of maybe 1 other fic that does this that's finished. So it's not a theme that's commonly written about. But the first part of the story makes no sense.

Another thing wrong is Tatsumi's description, which I hope was just Tsuzuki trying to throw his father off, because it's so totally wrong. Besides 1-2 people, no one in the division is above the age of 30 when they died.

Also, the levels of Hell and how to get past them are really well written. That's about the only thing I liked though.

Writing: 7/10 - Fanpoodle japanese is STILL present in this story, though it's not nearly as bad as the last. But most of the phrases yet again can be translated into perfect english. There's still no excuse for this though. The only thing I can say is that it's gotten less frequent than in the previous one where there was a lot in a chapter.

Other than that, the writing pretty much stays the same as the first two stories.

Characterization: 4/10 - Okay, I don't know what series everyone else was watching, but when did Hijiri ever BLATENTLY flirt with Tsuzuki? I mean, I haven't watched the anime 20 times, but I don't remember Hijiri ever coming onto Tsuzuki, period. I don't even remember that in the manga.

Oh wait, it's your typical stereotypical fanon thing. It doesn't often appear since Hijiri rarely if ever shows back up, even in fanfiction. But in a lot of them, especially the 'love triangle' ones, people assume that all those worried moments Hijiri has about Tsuzuki was his way of 'flirting'. And that is where I seriously get out my /facepalm emote. Being worried about someone who doesn't know you but risking their neck for you and flirting are TWO different things.

And you know, I really like a sarcastic Hisoka. Face it, if you read the manga or watched the anime, Hisoka has a snarky side. But I have to admit now, it's overboard. He's just WAY too snarky and sometimes, I don't feel like it's him. Most of what comes out of his mouth are either emo moments or snark. And his snark does get him into trouble too, and I don't think Hisoka would embrace his snarky side if he knew that it would get him hurt or even worse others and moreso Tsuzuki. He is also emo, but I think Hell would make just about anyone emo.

Plus snarky!Muraki, while amusing, doesn't quite fit his character. Could I see Muraki being snarky a few times? Yeah. But could I see him being about as snarky as Hisoka in this fic? I really don't think so.

What is kinda sad is Akimiya isn't really present in this story much, considering how much of a role he played in the two previous stories. Also Oriya is in this story briefly and feels sort of off on his character, might be because he caught some of the 'snark virus', but it's not nearly the level as it is to Muraki and Hisoka.

The one interesting thing is Tsuzuki fooling his dad in one scene, but from Tsuzuki to go to one extreme to the next (He is still ubberly wussy, I'm sorry) doesn't feel right at all. I don't mind Tsuzuki even being uke, but here, he's so ubber uke that it makes me weep. I really can't decide what's worse, uber!snark Hisoka or uber!weak Tsuzuki. Both are a big mess...

Negativities: Snark up the bumhole, emo angst
Summary: Hisoka starts losing his powers and doesn't know why. Neither does Akimiya. The other Shinigami do, but they're not saying anything. When a case comes in soon after, Hisoka has to solve it only using his wits and his empathy. Easy enough? Too bad life isn't that easy...
Overall: 5.6/10 - Probably the weakest of the trilogy, which is a shame, since this should've been the strongest story of them all. The ideas were there, but they weren't pulled off well. Honestly, if you're looking for a story that covers Tsuzuki's background, this is a so-so job. If you're looking for this series to go out with a bang, you're probably better off skipping this part all together. Part two concludes in such a way that this series really didn't need another part save to prolong it's lifespan.

I was rereading old entries in my LJ and decided to touch on some fics that I wanted to review but with a less 'fanpoodle' mind and more of a 'neutral' mind. The fact that I picked YnM fic after I swore off the series is... wtf am I thinking!?

If you read my Zelda review, Sehnsucht, I said at one point, I loved said fic, but years later, I was like 'wtf was I thinking!?' I was also visited by the author randomly too. :X I kinda hope he's working on something because his writing was really well done, but his melodrama story failed.

Well, this fic sadly falls into that category. And the funny thing is that I reviewed it years ago with gushing praise, only years later, I should've really known better. For the record, yes, I reviewed this author before. Yes, I know she's popular, but really, her characterizations for both X/1999 and YnM fics are a big mixed bag.

This series is a trilogy that I'll eventually cover in three seperate reviews.

Series: Yami no Matsuei
Title: Live Through
Author: Kouri Arashi
Genre: Drama/Romance
Rating: R
Warnings: Violence, NCS, wangst
Couple (if applicable): Tsuzuki/Hisoka, slight Tatsumi+Tsuzuki

Plot: 8/10 - You know, I skipped this story for a long time in the past because of it's summary. I really hate saying it, but a summary is what draws a reader in, not your name. Sometimes, you can't sum up everything but I seriously think you can say more than 'My summaries suck, just read'.

Basically, the story is Hisoka trying to sort out his issues about himself, his feelings for Tsuzuki, and Muraki while trying to deal with his 'afterlife'. Add in a lot of emo shit (Hell, a lot of it crosses into melodrama, but we'll save that for later) plus a pretty well thought out plot, whacky dreams, and you got this story.

If it wasn't for the overly dramatic moments that are constantly displayed in the story, it'd actually be a really good read.

The only real striking problems are:

1. Emo!Hisoka + Emo!Tsuzuki = PAIN!
2. An OC that only really serves to bring Tsuzuki and Hisoka together. Basically, he's just there for filler and to keep the plot going.

But overall, it's interesting enough to keep you reading.

Writing: 7/10 - Fanpoodle japanese really needs to die in a fire. But I guess I can be somewhat okay since it's old. But STILL, you can EASILY translate stuff like 'Baka' and 'Sugoi' into perfect english.

It's not cool, it's not going to make you cool, it's distracting, especially to someone who may not watch a lot of subbed anime. Then they have to either pick it up by context or go look it up.

If it's prefixes or words like 'Senpai', that's different, since they don't translate well. But when you leave in OBVIOUS words, there's so much rage in me that I can take...

When you're writing a story in english, WRITE IT IN ENGLISH!

Other than the littered fanpoodle japanese at the beginning (Which is gone in the middle of the story, thank god, but picks up again near the end, urgh), the story is well written. It's First Person, but it really adds to the story. Although, the run on sentences may make you go crazy and there's so many of them that you may end up screaming at Hisoka. However, it really adds to the atmosphere more than it takes away.

Characterization: 4/10 - Okay, let the word be known: 'Muraki is not a one-dimensional villian, for the love of cheese!' This is a big problem in nearly every single Tsuzuki/Hisoka stories that I've read, and it's no exception to this one. This isn't so bad in the first story since Muraki doesn't really appear in this story much. But the same, 'Muraki wants to fuck with Tsuzuki and Hisoka' plots are really old by now that you've seen them all. The saving grace is that the plot-twist used is unique to this story.

The problem isn't even the OC, who is somewhat interesting and I was loving his snark through the story. The only problem with him is that he doesn't serve much of a purpose at least in this part of the story.

The big problem is Tsuzuki AND Hisoka are turned into big piles of freaking angst monkey balls. And this is REALLY a first story where both are so emo to the point where I want to shoot both of them.

( Some spoilers )

Negativities: Melodramatic Tsuzuki and Hisoka, littered fanpoodle japanese, emo after emo, boo-hoo sobs
Summary: Post Kyoto Arc, Hisoka has to overcome his feelings on his after life and his feelings for Tsuzuki. The path is anything but easy, especially when a certain psychic doctor is around the corner...
Overall: 6.3/10 - Despite the wangst and melodrama, it's still worth a reading because the plot and writing save it. If you like melodramatic angst, this would be the story to read. As for me, I think I'll pass on a third reading...

Okay, we're going to take a step away from fanfiction for a moment to cover something else I've been getting myself into lately.

Why the question mark? Because really, the next few reviews aren't really 'games' to me. They're classified as 'Visual Novels', but they require the player to make choices, so hence why it's still a 'video game'.

And don't classify 'Visual Novels' to only hentai games, while they do have some hentai scenes in them, the focus is the plot itself, and it saddens me that these games aren't liscensed over the crappy hentai games that get published out there.

These games are going to be a bit hard to score, since the focus is the plot and not really 'gameplay'.

Genre is going to be more in-tune with fanfiction/book genre rather than 'shooter', 'Adventure-ala-Zelda', etc.

Graphics are judged on the artwork and pictures that are found throughout the story.

Also note, all these VNs I'm about to review have anime counterparts. I've seen 2 out of the 3 as I'm revieiwing this VN, and I will say, the anime pales in comparision to the VNs.

Title: Tsukihime
Company: TYPE-MOON
Translation done by: Mirror Moon
Rating: R/17+
Genre: Action/Horror/Romance

Graphics: 7/10 - Honestly, I'm kinda so-so on the artstyle for this game. The artwork for all the girls is good enough and is pleasing on the eyes for the most part. The only problem is the backgrounds are designed with more of a 'real life' feel and it doesn't really mesh too well with the anime artwork. It's really hard to explain this, but it looks oddish to the eye.

The few times you see the main character, Shiki, he looks very out of place, and I think that's mainly due to the fact that when you see his face, his eyes are completely covered by his bangs. If you look at him in the anime or the bonus 'sequel' of the game, his bangs aren't nearly as long (And actually, I like how he looks in the 'sequel').

Plot: 10/10 - This is where the most important part to a Visual Novel takes place, and let me tell you, I found myself wanting to read this over some of the books I have on my shelf. And the ironic part is that I prefer fantasy/medieval like stories over sci-fi and horror stories, and I'd pick reading this again.

The plot involves a boy named Shiki Tohno. Due to a strange near-death accident when he was a kid, his eyes can see the 'lines' on objects and people. He then discovers if he traces those lines, he can 'kill' them. The only way for him to not see these lines is a pair of glasses that were given to him when he was young. Because of his accident, his body has become frail and he is sent away from the Tohno house. Years later, near the end of his Junior year, Shiki discovers that his father is dead and his little sister, Akiha, who is now the head of the house, has ordered him to return to the mansion...

From this point on, depending on your choices, you can play the 'Far Side of the Moon' which revolves around a woman named Arcueid and the mysterious upperclassman, Ciel. Or you can play the 'Near Side of the Moon' scenario which revolves more around the Tohno family and the two maids, Hisui and Kohaku.

I won't spoil the paths, because I'd be typing this review forever if I did, but both paths are completely different from one another and while Arcueid and Ciel's paths do have some similiarities (A certain guy you fight no matter what happens for example), there are plot points that you could never discover unless you played the other. The Near side is completely different from the Far side and while there are some similiarities (You end up confronting a certain classmate in each path), there are some important points you wouldn't be able to find in the other scenarios.

Five times reading through this may seem like a daunting task. But the intensive plot keeps you glued to your seat and you'll just find yourself going through the game again.

I will add, save 2 endings, all the characters have a 'true' and 'good' ending. One character has a 'true' and 'normal' ending while one has a 'true' ending. And you can die a lot if you make the wrong choices, so be sure to save a lot.

The only real complaint I have is the hentai scenes, they aren't written too well. But they don't distract from the plot and you can get rid of them all together via a patch if you're really don't want to see them.

Music/sound: N/A - For some reason, I couldn't get the music to function properly, so I'm going to skip this section all together.

Gameplay: N/A - It's a text novel?

Overall: 8.5/10 - Definitely worth at least one read. I would say complete the game if you want to learn everything there is about all the characters themselves.

Title: Mirror Image
Rating: PG-13
Paring: Tir/Riou
Genre: Angst
Warnings: Spoilers for both 'bad' endings to both Suikoden 1 and 2, angst/dark themes, mild lime hints, under aged drinking
Summary: 'We are destined to watch everyone and everything fall... Friends, family, loved ones, whether by sword or by time, we can only sit back and watch them die... And yet, we will still live on, bound by our cruel fate...'
Comments: Written for 2006 yaoi_challenge. I realized I never put this story anywhere, so might as well here. The writing isn't too bad, but the story should've been fleshed out a lot more. Again, was too pre-occupied with WoW to really notice. :/

Castle name = Dynasty, since I could not find a default name for it, for the life of me.

( We are a lot alike, you and I... )

Note: All Sims stories have been removed due to lack of interest on my part and that I can't host pictures for them anymore.

Title: Routine
Rating: PG
Pairing: Albel/Fayt
Genre: General
Warning: End game spoilers
Summary: Sometimes, the answer is right in front of you...
Prompt: Post-game day-in-the-life type story, with characterization over smut
Author's Notes: For yaoi_challenge 2007. Not really one of my better works. It was rushed since some things in life came up but I still wanted to make the deadline. Sorry, no smut. :(

Not archieved anywhere else cause the writing is beyond poor, since I was more into WoW even though I had several months in advance to write this story. Not beta-read either.

( Daily... )

I've returned! This time around, the fandom is one I've only seeped my toes in on and off, but been a big lurker since the Prodigy boards back 15 odd years ago.

Unfortuantely, most fic I find is trash, and since Zelda is a huge fandom (Spamming over 10 games and a few cartoon series), it's not surprising you find a lot of bad fic.

The irony of this fic is that I liked it when I read it when it was still on FF.net, but when I read it today, I wanted to smack myself for EVER liking it.

Series: The Legend of Zelda: OoT
Title: Sehnsucht
Author: The Unnamed Author
Genre: waahmublance drama Angst/Romance
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: Angst, violence, suicide, more angst, explict sex, more angst, more suicide...
Couple (if applicable): Link/Zelda, past Link/Malon, some hinted Link/Saria
Plot: 4/10 - Honestly, there really isn't a big plot to this, just side stuff which is all waahngst from a character in the story. Really, it's just a big 'cwymoren00b!' feast that just went WAY past melodrama and into 'wtfbbq' land. If I thought the last story I reviewed was too dramatic, this story manages to make the SO3 fic seem very tame with angst.

Okay, we start off with Link boo hoo crying and trying to kill himself. Yep, sadly, in MANY fanfics, Link turns from this courageous hero to a whining self-pity ball of mess, which makes me want to vomit in my trash can. How the hell does a hero who looked death in the eye go to being a whiny emo brat??? But lo and behold, by a stroke of luck, the King and Princess of Hyrule manage to ride by and save Link at the last minute! Link manages to recover from his angst under the 'divine healing' powers of Zelda. Urgh...

The Ruto side story is stupid, pointless, and could've been cut out completely. But we can't have our angst without more suicidal moments, can we?

Then there's the batshit insane psycho prince storyline. Urgh, just urgh, another pointless angsty rollercoaster just to throw Zelda and Link into.

In the end, Zelda and Link elope, run off to the forest for their 'truluv' affair, abandoning the kingdom they tried to save from Ganondorf. Meanwhile, said King dies, cue political drama. Pretty much, Hyrule ends up imploding on itself.

Okay, so Zelda and Link save Hyrule from Ganondorf, only to have it destroyed on the inside because they felt giving the finger to it was better since they got treated by shit. Give me a fucking break, and I don't mean a kitkat bar either.

Basically, the story is a big drama angst feast, one after the other. Be prepared to drown in angst.

Writing: 8/10 - What baffles me is the writing itself is actually pretty good. If the format of the site doesn't kill you, that is. But otherwise, the story is fairly well written, despite the angst ridden crap that's in it. It's a shame, this author has talent in this department, but not in the plot or characterization department.

Characterization: 2/10 - All of the characters suffer from the 'omgANGST' sydrome. It's hard to characterize Link, because, face it, Nintendo made it so you sort of become Link in the game. He has a core personality, like fighting to protect something, he's courageous (Which is a duh!), he's kind to most people he meets, expert swordsman, etc. That's about it you can tell canonly unless you go by the cartoon timeline, which this story doesn't.

But in this story, Link sort of loses his core personality traits and instead turns into a 'woeisME!' angst monkey.

Zelda suffers from the angst too, her hatred for her father mainly, and her 'ohsoROUGH' life as a princess. While she has her tough moments, she's more there as a symbol to save Link from his 'ohsoangstpast', losing what flare she had.

Negativities: Too much angst to fill an ocean, OOCness, no really existant plotline

Summary: Link tries to commit suicide, he's saved by Zelda, and both try to cope with their 'omgANGST!'

Overall - 4.6/10 - The angst really destroys this story, big time. The author definitely has talent in the writing department, but the angst after angst waahmbulance destroys what could be a good piece. Stay away unless you really honest to god like melodramatic stories.