Now, This is How You Make a Good Film

Recently at a Friday night (okay, late), I've been to watch Pan's Labyrinth with my sisters and yes, I must say, I should give the Hellboy and Sin City director lots of credit for making this incredibly excellent film. Basically, this is a fantasy/period drama (taking place in the middle of a WWII-Spanish mill) film about a young girl named Ofelia, who is the reincarnation of the Underworld's Princess, Moanna, and she has to do three tasks in order to return to her Underworld, as she is the rightful heir to the throne. Yeah, despite the somewhat cliched description that I've made, the storyline is really good; with really good actors and actresses, including the main herorine, portraying their role convincingly. Even that Captain Bastard as I dubbed him, is really convincing to play as the arsehole character. I just love the herorine, because A) she's pretty a strong-willed lass, despite her age and looks and B) she's not afraid to die, even it means it's going to cost her life.

Storyline-wise, I just love it; really good fairytale, with none of that cheesy Hollywood-crap that was in the film and the ending is what I should describe it a bittersweet story, even though that there are scenes that would be really scary/gross for non-horror fans. If you want to know what really happens, then go buy/rent/borrow or your friend's/sibling's/family member's DVD and check it out. This is one film that you should NOT avoid and a MUST-SEE for all you Del Toro fans.

Quote of the Moment - "Damn bleach" - Me, after applying the spray to the laptop monitor. I swear, I'm never going to use that thing again. It stinks. >_<

Who Needs Heroes when you have Villains as the Main Characters?

After recently finished reading the children novel, H.I.V.E. - Higher Intsitution of Villainious Education - via my younger sister's permission as she bought the book; I can now say a few things about this book:

- Finally, a book about the villains being in the spotlight, instead of heroes who have the destiny to fight against them.

- Otto Malpense, the main character and anti-hero of the story, kinda reminds me of that short white-haired boy, whose name escapes me, from BLEACH, only he's not a high ranking Shinigami/Soul Reaper captain or something and that he uses his wit.

- It's really funny. No seriously, by the time you're going to read this book, you will forget that this is a Harry Potter-a-like story with emo characters in it. Well, okay, there is one in H.I.V.E, but he doesn't act all emo later on.

- Lots of twists and turns and better writing than HP book 7. Plus likable characters, even though they ARE villains. And you will sympathise Dr Nero, the headmaster of H.I.V.E. later on. I'm not going to spoil the storyline.

All in all, I'm definitely going to buy the second book, just for my younger sister's late birthday present. And oh yes, if young/old teenage girls and young female adults are going to pick H.I.V.E up, I'll bet there's going to be lots of yaoi fanfiction/fanart of Otto Malpense and Wing Fanchu (the second main male character) doing some 'inappropriate' stuff to each other. What?

Quote of the Moment - "I'm on the verge of breaking my pencil." - Me on that life-drawing teacher telling me that I drew the naked woman's head to small.

The Force is TOO Strong!

After finish playing the original Shadow Hearts, my mind now wants me to play Shadow Hearts II. And now, I can't stop it. It makes me want to go down memory lane, like Terranigma a few years ago.

So much for replaying From the New World just to get that Bad ending, which I couldn't be bothered as the storyline and characters didn't have enough 'spark' and substance on what makes the Shadow Hearts series so good.

Come back Sancoth/Nautilus! All is forgiven! Please don't end up dissolving like Clover Studios (team that did Okami)!

Quote of the Moment - "He acts like a dog." My younger sister talking about that robot from Crimson Sea 2 in my memory card or something.

And Why I Thought Yuri was Better than Johnny

Just been finishing playing on the original Shadow Hearts recently and I must say, I actually like the first two games better than From the New World than I've just finished. And I could tell you why...

1. Characters - Yuri is the best male main character in the whole of the PS2 RPG range. You can forget about Vaan from FFXII or Cloud from VII. He's the anti-hero and does everything opposite to what the main male typical RPG characters should do. He's sarcastic, a bit of a pervert (oh come on, when he picked up that 'Erotic Book' from the first game, he refuses to exchange with Roger Bacon, because 'it was more valuable than the Pulse Tract' XD), has really got a dark sense of humour and above all else, he's a total badass. Reminds me of Tendou from Kamen Rider Kabuto, only without the 'Path to Heaven' crap and less arrogance. Plus, I found ALL of the SH1-2 characters have greater and more charming personalities than FTNW.

2. Storyline - I didn't particularly like FTNW's storyline, because it felt more like a tragic love story between Killer and Lady (two main villains) than really focusing on Johnny and Co. Plus it felt a little short on the story than I've realised when I played the game. The first one was short too, but that didn't stop me playing further as it was more interesting than FTNW, but it's the second game that actually nails on how should a sequel be. Lots of twists and turns, funny, scary and sad at the same time. No, I'm not giving you the in-depth stoyline, just go to Wiki or something.

3. Voice acting - Okay, Shadow Hearts 1 was a bit of a mixed bag (I couldn't stand Sea Mother's 'SHLOOP' sound effects and some of the voice acting are either a bit of a hit and miss occasionally) and so did FTNW (I'm lookinng at Frank here, along with Roger Bacon, but Ricardo's Spanish-accent voice just blew me away as it actually fits his personality); but neither of these can topple SHII's for really good reasons: A) All of the voice-acting really fits in the character that they're supposed to sound like and thus, enhancing them really more to make them even more likable. And I definitely love Yuri's voice. His sarcastic nature really fits his somewhat rough voice and Joachim is full of lolz. And Alice's voice is definitely an improvement and so does Albert Simon (I hated his voice as he reminds of a typical villain in the first game, but in the second, he's a bit more likable now, with his voice becoming more mature and gentle) and B) no matter how many years has it been since I last played SHII, it's always been the spoken dialogue that I still remember (I just can't get 'Yuri tricking Lenny' bit out and made me laugh, even now). Forget about Kingdom Hearts - the 'other' Hearts or any other Square Enix games, not every RPG, including FFXII and FFVII, can topple the best voice acting in the game that I've been listening.

And finally...

4. Humour - The first Shadow Hearts that I've played, surprisingly has so much more humour than FTNW, but it only came second place, being SHII being the funniest out of the three. There's so many scenes in that game that I had no choice, but to laugh out loud...and I mean really LOUD. FTNW has humour too, though for some strange reasons, it wasn't that 'LOL' when I saw the scenes; more like 'WTF' to me. Yeah, I know SH and SHII were very dark in terms of its storyline and atmosphere, but there was so many funny scenes that are scattered in many places and even some of them even in unexpected places. Like the time in SHII as I was fighting Garan for the last time in the main storyline and while he was too busy talking some 'YOU WILL DIE' stuff, the Kurando, Lucia and Anatasia were looking at his pillow he was sitting and Yuri and the rest of the party were discussing about the same thing and when Garan ask for his final request, this is what Yuri said...

"That pillow...where can I get one?"

...and at the end of the boss battle, Yuri was still wondering about Garan's pillow and felt disappointed he doesn't know where to get one. XD And don't get me started about the Man Festival and the 'other' alternative ending to both the bad and the good, but in the Man Festival sidequest, it was all Fourth-Wall breaking chaos that I found it hilarous and at the end, let's just say this wasn't the gift that I has hoping for. XD

And the conclusion is...if you want the characters, storyline, gameplay and humour all rolled into one, try going for the first two Shadow Hearts games (good luck finding the first one; I had trouble finding that game, until my younger sis bought the game for my birthday, albeit without the instruction manual); FTNW is great too, but you'll be disappointed by the lack of things of what made the first two so great.

Aw man, I feel like I should play the second game again, after playing the original and third game. So, should I play II again?

Quote of the Moment - "You can't be serious...Not in such a pure, clean, Mega-hit RPG as this...!" - Yuri Hyuga from Shadow Hearts II commenting about the Man Festival. God, I can't stop laughing, even though I haven't played it since 2005.