V for Victory


A nameless hero searches for his destiny in Suikoden V.

Of all the RPGs I've played, there's one series that just makes my ears perk up when I hear it. No, not Final Fantasy. It's Suikoden. I just love this series like no other. To be truthful though, my favorite will always be Suikoden II, which ranks as one of my favorite RPGs of all time. I regretfully wasn't able to finish Suikoden III, which is a big injustice... but I am collecting the manga version and so will finish it by reading that. As for the fourth game, which many refer to as 'Suck-koden' since it really was the low point in the series, I just passed it by like a ship in the night.

But now, Suikoden V is here, and it looks pretty good. In fact, reviews of the game have been remarking that the fifth installment of this fan favorite franchise is a return to form for the title. That means a long, involving story, tons of likeable and enthralling characters, big battles and personal duels, mystic runes of power and... funny minigames.

Suikoden V puts you in the sandals of a young prince of a powerful matriarchal empire. I don't have many details of the story but it seems you eventually have to lead some sort of rebellion against the ruling regime if past games are to be followed. This will most likely entail lots of plots and subplots, conspiracies and counter-conspiracies, tragedies and betrayals and the stuff that grand fantasy drama is made of. Of course, there will be the usual 108 Stars of Destiny to track down and enlist to join your army, and up to ten of this motley crew will be able to join you on journeys and adventures throughout the vast land.
Graphically, the game looks pretty slick, with 3D graphics and pretty detailed character models making for a very beautiful-looking PS2 game. According to reviews, a lot of emphasis was placed on story and characters, things that were badly neglected in the previous game. Suikoden V is also said to be the longest of the games, so I hope that I'll be able to finish this despite that.

I already got a copy over the weekend, but it turned out to be a lemon- I'll have to get a working copy asap, perhaps along with the newly-released Kingdom Hearts II as well. Lots of great stuff to play over the Holy Week break (if I can pry myself away from the babes of Rumble Roses XX if I am fortunate to get a copy).

PLDT really SUCKS.

I thought I'd take back my previous PLDT Sucks comments last week, when they called up our house and asked for info. They promised that they'd send their linemen to install my DSL within the week.

Well whaddaya know? It's Next Week already and NADA. No DSL yet!

PLDT REALLY SUCKS!!!

And they'll keep sucking in my opinion until I get my DSL and am happy with it. BAH.

Better Memory

Yesterday I went off to Greenhills with my bud Pot for our usual Sunday lakwatsa. My particular goal on this day was to fish for the value of my O2 XDA II Mini and perhaps trade it in and upgrade to an XDA IIi.

Okay, the techies out there may ask, why would I go back to the bigger IIi when I already upgraded from my previous XDA II to the smaller, more portable and pocketable Mini? Well, to be honest it will be a bit of a jar to go back to a bigger PDA Phone after spending almost a year with my Mini. However, I've been eyeing the increased memory capability, faster processor and bigger screen of the IIi for a while.
The thing is, I haven't been able to find a 2 GB SD Card that works with my Mini- the available Ridata 150x speed cards don't work, and the Sandisk cards I've been waiting for have never arrived. And so, I was set for upgrading.

Well, it turns out that my loveable Mini, complete with all accessories, box and manual, fetches a grand 12k in the Greenhills market. WOT DA FOK? Twelve is a cheap Nokia or Sony Ericsson. Twelve is NOT a full-powered PPC Phone. I resolved to NOT sell or trade in my phone anymore. Cheap bastards.

The good news is, as I wandered elsewhere a bit after that disappointment, I found a new 2GB 120x speed SD Card in Infomax at Theater Mall... and the guy behind the counter was nice enough to let me try if the card worked on my Mini (I'd have to buy it though). And what do you know? It worked!

Now my O2 Mini is a 2 gig-monster. I've got the whole 3rd Season of Justice League Unlimited plus episodes of the super cool Avatar: The Last Airbender loaded as well as a ton of other stuff. Coolness.

Looks like I'll be hanging onto my little powerhouse for the forseeable future. Which suits me just fine. WOOHOO!!!

April Cool

The night of April 1 was no Fool's Day for us. The gang got together to congratulate Dean on the launch of his first published novel, Salamanca. The event was held at Fully Booked at the Promenade Mall in Greenhills. While there were tons of people, there were only a smattering of the usual suspects- the crowd seemed to consist more of the serious reading crowd as opposed to comic and grafiction enthusiasts.
Afterwards, Me and El and the Two Cams (Camy and Cams) headed off to the spankin' new V-Mall to shop around. Later, the gang had an extended dinner at Dampa in Libis, and then coffee at Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf in Timog.
To close the night, the gang just gathered around and updated everyone on comics, life developments and work. We all promised to continue working on comics and fun stuff through the year.

Keep cool, everyone. Later!