( Cut for massive fail )

Current Mood: aggravated

Goddammit, Nippon Ichi.

Current Mood: annoyed

( With allies like these... )

Current Mood: disgusted

From the January/February 2010 Met Opera broadcast listings:


Vanessa - Archive Broadcast from February 1, 1958
January 23, 2010 / 1:00 pm ET
Dimitri Mitropoulos; Eleanor Steber, Nicolai Gedda, Rosalind Elias, Regina Resnik, Giorgio Tozzi, George Cehanovsky


Also looking forward to hearing Eleanor Steber and Regina Resnik in particular. But geez - you practically never hear Mitropoulos performances on the radio, at least not around here.

Current Mood: tired

Etrian Odyssey III!

Current Mood: sleepy

Right. Back to the recap.

( Spoilers are still not feeling witty. )

So that's that. I'm working on finishing up a "true" Chaos alignment run, after which I'll start a New Game Plus in hopes of unlocking Atavaka and one other demon - well, actually two. And then I get to pick another game from the backlog - not sure which yet.

Current Mood: hungry

Well, I finished the game yesterday.

( Spoilers have no witty comment here. )

Current Mood: rushed

Well, I've reached Stupid Flora Plot Twist #2. It is indeed very stupid. And Professor Layton is still an asshole.

Current Mood: sleepy

Muppet Bohemian Rhapsody

Current Mood: sleepy

You know, Professor Layton really is kind of an asshole.

Current Mood: hungry

You know, on re-reading The Enigma of Amigara Fault, it occurs to me that the main character's silhouette looks a lot like that of Suou Tatsuya from the Persona 2 games. DRRRRR-DRRRRR-DRRRRR-VROOOOOOOOM.

In unrelated news, while reading the High Octane Nightmare Fuel page on TV Tropes, I randomly decided to watch a linked cutscene from Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth. I now suspect that I will never be able to actually play Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth, because I'm not sure I can handle that cutscene a second time. Gyargh.

This post really has no point.

Current Mood: tired

Okay, this is kind of adorable. As is this, if for nothing else than Raidou's thoroughly ticked-off expression. And then there is this, although damned if I can figure out how Raidou would have gotten a Prinny.

Also: this, which sums up the Tower of Kagutsuchi experience really, really well. What is it with Megaten and towers.

(Note: To see the pictures at full size, you do need an account.)

Current Mood: sleepy

Just a couple of things:

Atlus USA apparently announced Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey's localization today. (I only say "apparently" because I can't get to Atlus' site at the moment.)

Hideo Kojima and Yoshiyuki Sadamoto are helping to judge a Twilight art contest, along with Ryuji Gotsubo (who, among other things, illustrated the Japanese editions of the Twilight books). You can probably guess how various Metal Gear Solid and/or Evangelion fans (but probably not all of them) are reacting to this.

Current Mood: sleepy

...I really don't know why this surprises me.

(And then there are Mitsuru's new outfit and weapon(s), which can be seen here. I like the pool cue.)

Also, wow is that an unfortunate shade of green to use with that shade of pink for FemMeC's user interface. On the other hand, Neko Shogun! And it looks like they added Tam Lin, too.

Current Mood: hungry

Okay, I have finally given up and downloaded GIMP, even though the name makes me twitch about as much as Insanejournal's, because I'm sick of wrestling with Photoshop 5. This may yet prove to be a bad idea.

In other news, it probably says something that the closest thing I can find to pass as an icon of hatless Raidou is the illustration of the female protagonist on the cover of Usurper of the Sun. I mean, there are pictures of Raidou hatless, but they're fanart and I don't really want to use fanart for icons without asking and I can't write or speak Japanese. So.

Meanwhile, I have finally started Persona PSP. And then spent a ridiculous amount of time wandering around the first dungeon in the game, Mikage Hospital, to see how high I could get everyone's persona's rank (as opposed to their levels). I had everyone's personae up to Rank 7 before I accidentally walked through the wrong door and advanced the plot. Whoops.

(And then I attempted to contact a group of Jack Frosts and accidentally made them happy instead of eager, which meant I couldn't negotiate with them further. WAY TO GO, ME.)

I am having fun with Persona, although placing your character just so in order to talk to NPCs is a bit fiddly. I wound up giving my MC the nickname "Noodle" in honor of SMT's noodledogs inugami. (I'm... not very good at coming up with nicknames. This is how my protagonist in Devil Survivor wound up with the nickname "IDEK.") The voice acting is... okay; Mark sounds a lot like Axel/Akutare from Disgaea 2, but that may just be me. I am a bit annoyed with the main character's in-battle vocalizations, though. Also annoying: the fact that Naoya's persona is weak to physical attacks. Blargh.

Still, despite my complaints I'm enjoying the game. It's very old-school, but that's not really something that bothers me all that much.

And now to go install GIMP.

Current Mood: accomplished

Ooh - new icon fodder!

(sob why haven't I gone to bed yet)

Current Mood: sleepy

This is just for easy reference later on.

Stealing Formulae

For Thieves:

ITEMS: % Chance of success = Thief Level * (Direction + 2 * Lover / 100) + 25 + Hit Stat of Hand - Enemy Level - (Item Rank * 3) - Rarity

Notes:
Direction = Value assigned to direction from which steal attempt is made: Front = 1, Side = 1.1, Back = 1.2
Lover = Thief Lover specialist level, should thief have Thief Lover specialists on her equipment.
Rarity value: Normal rarity = 0, Rare = 10, Legendary = 30, 0 Rarity = 100

STATS: % Chance of success = (Thief Level * 2) + Hit stat of Hand - Enemy Level

Notes:
Value of stat to be stolen cannot exceed Thief's base stat.

EXPERIENCE: EXP Stolen = (Next * (5 / Class Exp) * 0.02 * YP + 6) / 2

Notes:
Next = Enemy's Experience to Next Level Value
Class Exp = Target's value from Class Exp table
YP = Target's Yield parameter value from Yield Table

HL: HL Stolen = (((Enemy Level + 2) ^ 2 + Enemy Level + 2) * YP / 10) /2

Notes:
YP = Target's Yield parameter value from Yield Table

For Non-Thieves:
ITEMS: % Chance of success = Character Level * Direction + Hit Stat of Hand / 2 - Enemy Level - Item Rank*3 - Rarity

Notes:
Direction = Value assigned to direction from which steal attempt is made: Front = 1, Side = 1.1, Back = 1.2
Rarity value: Normal rarity = 0, Rare = 10, Legendary = 30, 0 Rarity = 100

Current Mood: tired

Meanwhile, in moments of UTTER, UTTER FAIL... [Note: Possibly severe triggers.]

Because kidnapping, domestic violence, Stockholm syndrome, and murder are knee-slappingly hilarious.

I didn't watch the video; the transcript was more than enough. How is this supposed to be funny?

Current Mood: angry

Governor Declares 09.09.09 Video Game Innovation Day in Massachusetts

(Via Shakesville's blogaround.)

Current Mood: sleepy

Dear Livejournal,

Is there any reason the login banner at the top of the screen is hawking the XBox360? Besides money, I mean.

Thanks,
Me

Current Mood: exhausted