Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays everyone! I hope you all are enjoying them to the fullest. I plan on putting up a Skyward Sword Review tomorrow. Also, Jake and I were supposed to do a Halloween episode. I still want to do that, but....might have to wait till next year. If not Jake, I'll get one of my other friends to do an end of the year podcast. Tomorrow, Skyward Sword review, I have no other obligations than this.

Catherine podcast is up!!!

I have just posted Jake and I's Catherine podcast.

http://thevelvetroom.hipcast.com/rss/the_velvet_room_podcast.xml

listen and enjoy!

Persona 4 Anime and PA Japan

The Persona 4 anime is now on Hulu to watch! I believe this is going to be another deal with Funimation that they'll have the episode subbed shortly after it has aired in Japan!! So far, so good. The animation is really top notch and effectively captures the style of the game's artwork. While some things are shortened (they fight in the Midnight Channel in the first visit) due to that there will be limited episodes, I hope it stays true to the main story of the game. I do wonder if we will be seeing some of the new story elements for the PSVita version here. I'm not sure how I feel about that, but would be interesting. I don't want the adaptation to be completely loyal to the source, I find that rather boring. So far, is way more interesting to the non-canon Trinity series they did awhile ago.

I'm just going to give a brief opinion on Paranormal Activity 2: Tokyo Nights. I don't want to rewatch this movie just to say that it is the equivalent of when we remake their horror films, with the exception of The Ring and Ju-on 1 & 2. As a note: I understood everything they were saying and could comprehend what was happening. After Calling, I got tired of people saying I hated that game because my Japanese was admittedly weak, but I still knew what was going on. Also, it has been awhile since I watched this, so some details will probably be off.

The movie will even copy shot-for-shot the original PA, it opens with a douchey guy recording his reflection. This time, it revolves around a brother and sister, not a couple. Incest, alright. Not really because his sister has returned from America and both of her legs are in casts, unsexy casts at that. The minute she gets back, he sets up a camera in her room and records the entire night. I want to say that this might be after a few nights of restless sleep, but I literally do not recall previous mentions of hauntings. In the original PA and what we learn in PA2, there was at least three weeks of strange occurrences prior to when Micah bought the camera. In the Japanese version, it lacks any real reason for the camera other than just cuz.

The first night is just noises. Noises that I could barely hear until the dude was playing it on his computer. The Japanese are quite superstitious (ghosts > zombies according to some yosakoi club members during my study abroad) and they go rather quickly into the powder test (it's like night two). There is also the obligatory psychic friend who freaks out in the house.

Eventually, we learn that the sister ran over Katie from the original film. This caused the curse to transfer onto her and that is what is behind all this. Apparently, Japan forgot that PA took place in 2006. This remake takes place in 2010. While it may be possible that she ran over Possessed!Katie four years later, it is too much of a stretch for me. There is also PA2 that lets us know that the curse is "genetic" and should have ended when Hunter was captured, in 2006. Maybe, I haven't seen PA3 yet. The demon also apparently resembles a dog. Go figure.

The movie ends a bit differently than the original PA, as in it's boring. The sister's body is brought to the morgue and she drags her brother off screen (or into the shadows to be more accurate). A cut back and she's just smiling on the floor. It is way more predictable than Micah being thrown at the camera, despite that scene was in every trailer! And it still made me jump!!

The film was made to capture on the success of PA, which did well in Japan. I actually saw the first PA in Japan and the audience I was with was quite interesting. A lot of Japanese schoolgirls. One of them right next to me was clinging onto her boyfriend for 98% of the film. I think she cried towards the end. Despite that it is a lackluster remake, the film tries to place itself into the canon. Yet the connections with the original PA are weak and the scares are the same as in that movie. The same complaint could be said with PA2, but that film at least expanded on the mythology in a rather interesting way.

The same can be said about foreign remakes anywhere. Rarely, does it ever translate. The Ring is one of those rare ones that work. I personally found the Japanese original, Ringu, quite boring compared to the Verbenski remake. Some comments I've seen seems to fall under the pretentious thought that Japan does horror better than the US and this is a good example of that. No, no it really isn't. PA is one of my new favorite horror franchises and I genuinely find them quite heart-pounding as any good survival horror game. PA2:TN was quite boring and is too similar to PA, without any original thought or new scares. If you're curious, you should be able to find it on Youtube. Note: When I watched it, there were no videos with subtitles. I don't know if there are ones now, but take that into consideration.

Sorry for the long wait! Jake and I did record our opinions on Catherine about a month ago and I really need to get that uploaded onto hipcast. Jake and I are extremely busy. Jake has a full-time job and I have school and work at a party store during the Halloween season :shudders: It also doesn't help that we live what can take up to an hour to get to each others places, hence why we use Skype. Skype is nice, but I do want to record with him in person, so I can work on my voice not echoing.

I am starting to save up for a new computer so not only can I play The Secret World (so wanna!!), but it is also to record certain gameplay. Remember Amnesia? I still am where I left off and I have an idea on how to record Amnesia. I will also try and get some equipment to video capture to my Mac since our current PC is garbage that can only play me some Higurashi! I really cannot stand the video quality of Amnesia, I'm almost thinking of just replaying it when I get better equipment. It will be awhile though, but I do plan on finishing it!!! I also plan on playing another J-horror title for the Wii, woopee.

I'll let you guys know when the podcast is up for you to hear and I plan on doing a review of Japan's Paranormal Activity knock-off.

First Episode!

I finally published our first episode!!! I decided on the name The Velvet Room Podcast. If you want to let us know what you think send it to the.velvet.room.podcast@gmail.com Please be kind, it is our first show! I told Jake I'd like to another one this week once we know our schedules.

Fuck Apple

Well, Jake and I recorded the podcast, but since Apple is converting MobileMe to iCloud, it's essentially screwed me over a bit. I can't publish through iWeb and so I'll have to find a real webhost who will allow this. We're calling our podcast "The Velvet Room" because we both love the Persona series, so now something I wanted to do for so long might never see the light of day. Thanks to the Cloud.

Podcast

LiberiFatali (Jake) and I are meeting up this Thursday to do the podcast. We will probably be discussing the new X-Men film, some upcoming titles we're looking forward to play. I'm not sure what Jake wants to talk about, but probably Ip Man and I Saw the Devil will come up. We're having lunch on Thursday to discuss our first show and probably recording it later. I'll make a post here and a video on my channel when the podcast is ready. If you have ideas on making the show better, I'll be setting up an e-mail account for this blog specifically.

Upcoming reviews

I'll soon upload a review on X-Men: First Class and Miike's adaptation of "Ryu ga Gotoku" aka Yakuza. Also, will let you know what my latest obsession is that will be ruling my wallet for the summer.

My Thoughts on the PSN Outage

I don't think Anonymous is behind this, but I do blame GeoHot. I wasn't on his side when he was being confronted with a suit. Just because you bought the hardware does not mean you can screw around with the software. When it comes to data, we are technically just buying a lease. You know those people on Youtube who watermark clips from films they don't own because they don't want it stolen? It's on that level of obnoxiousness for me. Except I can see a picture of GeoHot and wish I had the power to curse his future sex life. I did not like how he was representing gamers and it made me ashamed to be in a group that he was at the time speaking for.

Eventually he learned how pointless going against Sony was and ended up in some kind of settlement, but "Anonymous" decided to fight Sony and caused a small crash of the server in early April. Their other attacks were releasing personal info on Sony Execs and I believe just wearing their V for Vendetta masks at their buildings, I think. Shortly after Portal 2 comes out (which I will discuss in another post), Sony decides to shutdown the PSN as they've learned they have been breached. I honestly thought my problems with the PSN were related to my wireless crapping out all the time (because it does), so I thought that was why I couldn't get online. And now I'm hearing about possible credit card theft and SOE is in major trouble as well. I'm really worried about the future of Sony, especially their Playstation brand.

Luckily, my credit card number wasn't attached to my account, but they still have other kinds of information on me. And even so, I hope these hackers would look up who I am and go, "bah, college kid." But I'm really worried about the Playstation brand. I won't deny it, I'm a Sony fangirl. PS3 has so many good exclusives that cater to my tastes. I'm terrified of that ending and I really do love my Playstation 3.

I believe Sony will get out of this and that their apologies are sincere. I'd really love free store credit so I can get the Heavy Rain DLC.

Also to any 360fanboys, I do like the 360. There are games for it I enjoy such as Deadly Premonition and quite possibly Mass Effect (I sold my old 360 and plan on getting the new one with wifi built in). But this could have easily happened to you and I believe it did awhile ago. I expect more maturity from some of you. Some people have possibly had their identity stolen and you're just laughing at them because they bought a PS3.

I'm going to hope Sony will recover and to find whoever did this and bring them to justice

The Girl Next Door

Ah, another movie review.

The Girl Next Door is based on a fictional book by Jack Ketchum that is based on the real life crime of Sylvia Likens. Sylvia was a young sixteen year old girl left in the care of Gertrude Baniszewski who ended up torturing the girl leading to her death. This was a huge crime in Indianapolis, so it's a close story to me. I even read the true crime book on this for a school project. I haven't read Ketchum's book, but after getting a Netflix account, I just had to watch this film.

I'm not going to go into too much depth on the movie. If you're familiar with Sylvia's torture than this film plays out a bit of the same. However, they altered the events heavily in order to make it more "shocking". It wasn't really necessary as what Sylvia went through was already horrible. In fact, the movie makes the whole thing worse that I was offended by it.

One of the changes is that they made the girls based off of Sylvia and Jenny, her sister who had polio, orphans. In real life, their parents were carnies who left them in Gertrude's care. The film also makes the children who Gertrude convinced to abuse Sylvia mostly male. Paula, Gertrude's oldest daughter, was one of the biggest aggressors in the case along with other females. They also sexualized the torture way more than what actually happened. The worse thing that happened to Sylvia was Gertrude forced her to strip in front of the kids and shove a Pepsi bottle in her vagina. Twice. And yet this film actually shows the boys raping the girl which never did happen in real life. I found going to this extreme too much. Sylvia faced true suffering and I wish if they were going to retell the story, they wouldn't sensationalize it even more than it has been.

The acting is rather subpar as well. The girl playing Susan, Jenny's fictional counterpart, has literally no expression and emotion. She is just there. Also, the mother I found her sadism a bit too forced. Even though Gertrude was just as mental, Gertrude made way more sense in her ability to convince the kids to abuse Sylvia.

As I had a personal investment in the real crime of Sylvia Likens, this movie offended me on how they had to "spice" it up. I get it's a fictional story based on real events, but it's too exploitative in my opinion. For a much more accurate movie I recommend An American Crime starring Ellen Page. This was closer to the actual events, but I hated how they made Gertrude a sympathetic character.

Small Update

When your mom gets a Facebook account, it's expected. You know eventually your out of date parents will try what all the kids are doing. But when you're grandparents get one, then Facebook's days are numbered.

Finals are happening next week and that means mostly nothing. Mostly since I haven't updated my Youtube in weeks. The last update was about my new cat and I really need to get back with Amnesia. Yet, I hate recording it with Quicktime as the top and right hand side just come out wrong. Recently something dawned on me. I could record my computer gameplay via a TV!! I remembered one of my old friends connected his Mac to his TV to make movies easier to watch. Tons of people do that and I figured, "Why not do the same with a game?" Unfortunately, I don't have the item that will require me to do that. Good news, I get paid at the end of this week and as long as new Monster High dolls don't come out, I could get it!! Then there is actually recording it. The last time I used Pinnacle it refused to allow me to save my video, so I don't really have a way at this point in time to record.

I was going to see if I could get a Dazzle and then hi-jack my sister's Mac, but she's moving to a different part of the state, so that's out. My Windows laptop is utter crap as well and I'm not going to use it. So....nothing. It's disappointing, agreed. I'd really would like to finish Amnesia and just do other walkthroughs, but I really just can't afford it and don't have the time. These are put off indefinitely at the time. I'm not saying I'm done or going to stop, just that I cannot at all do it.

Insidious Review

Every time a horror film comes out, I feel the need to go and see it. I hadn't heard anything about this movie, but decided to spend the money on it. Was it worth it? Hmm, maybe not what I paid, but it's still worth going to see.

A couple moves into an old house with their two sons and baby daughter. The wife is stressed that her husband has to stay late at work, trying to write new songs, and left to handle her kids. It doesn't help that her daughter is constantly crying. When their oldest son, Dalton, falls off a ladder and ends up in a coma. The doctors can find no real medical reason why Dalton is in a coma and so he stays for three months. The wife begins to see a man in the house and something keeps opening the front door, triggering the alarm. Tired of all this, they move to a different house, but this solves nothing. It turns out that the hauntings are following them because their son has astral projected himself into The Further and they must bring his spirit back before his spirit fades away.

The movie is better than I was expecting from James Wan. Everyone will recognize him as being the director behind the first Saw movie. He also directed Deadly Silence which I found to be rather boring and tripe. When you see the title for Insidious, it looks like one of those old '60-'70 films, so I started thinking I was going to see something rather campy like those films. The movie isn't like that at all. And it isn't really another possession story as well, unlike the movie poster and trailers have implied.

Some of the spirits are genuinely terrifying, for awhile. The first one we are introduced to, this man in an overcoat, was at first quite disturbing. I jumped big time when we first see him. There is even this entity that was at first reminiscent of spirits you see given form in African and Native American paintings. A very primal fear of the otherworld. When we first see him, I didn't see it coming and it scared me. I was seriously hoping they wouldn't show him again, but when they do, it's in a jokey manner.

The movie takes on a humorous manner when we are introduced to these ghost hunters. Both of them are trying to compete with each other in their own fields, one is the engineer the other is the sketch artist, it's funny. But the rest of the film suffers after this and it stops being scary.

Overall, I have mixed feelings. The first half of the movie is truly a good way to start off a horror film, so it's sad to see it fall apart somewhat in the end. My recommendation is that if you do plan on seeing this, a rental or just waiting until it's a $5 movie or it's at the cheap theater. It's not bad, but the second half doesn't justify the price of a full price ticket.

Spring Break and Tsunamis

Despite it is officially Spring Break, I'm still busy. Due to the rush of midterms, I still have to do a speech for Speech Class since I took the option to do it after Spring Break and have to finish reading soon so I can get started on a paper. I have more time to play video games, but primarily focusing on P3P. I do plan on playing a small amount of Amnesia, which I still have not finished!!! I just haven't had time to play any games. I was surprised to find out the last time I played P3P was in December! So part of why I haven't done Amnesia at all is because it's not one of my priorities. Also, it does indeed scare me.

As I'm sure you all know, a devastating earthquake hit Japan last week. This caused destructive tsunamis, power outages, and problems with nuclear plants. I believe most of them instantly shutdown, but Fukushima IV exploded recently. I hope in regards to radiation and meltdowns Japan will be okay. They say to stay indoors and try to prevent air from coming in. While that sounds like waiting for death, if you were to go outside to run, you're exposing yourself even more to radiation. Many other horrible things are happening all over Japan. Fortunately, it appears my Japanese hometown, Oyama, Tochigi, seems to be alright. One of the staff at Hakuoh uploaded a picture of the library after the earthquake and books were all over the floor! He also uploaded pictures from his grocery store. The shelves have barely any food left and the lines are extremely long. It's nice to hear that people in Japan are acting much more civilized than we would in America in such an incident. We would have started looting and rioting, but everyone in Japan has been acting civilly. I don't expect this to last much longer. People will grow restless in the more damaged areas.

Most of the other students from the same program have returned about a week before the quake. One of my friends is still living in Japan, but he seems to be okay. Most of the people I met and got to know are alright. One of them is planning on volunteering to help out with the crisis. I plan on donating some items since I don't have money to give. I'm sure some old clothing and blankets would be much appreciated.

Top Couples in VideoGames

I learned today that Mirror's Edge 2 was cancelled. I honestly loved the first game and I was hoping for the sequel. Now I'll never know if the story could ever clean itself up.

As it is Valentine's Day I would like to list some of my favorite video game couples. These are entirely of my opinion and you are welcome to disagree. Also, these are in no particular order, I'm just typing them down as I recall them.

1. Tidus and Yuna - Final Fantasy X: One of the best romances in Final Fantasy imo. I happen to be a total sucker for those romances that just cannot be. Why can't they be together? They love each other!! This is one of those couples to me. Want to know how much of a nerd I am, my friend finished this game and played the ending to me over the phone. I was bawling like a baby despite I didn't watch it!! True story. Luckily, Final Fantasy X-2 allows you to choose to reunite with Tidus. Awww... Yes I did tear up many times throughout the game.

2. Nathan and Elena - Uncharted: These two are just so cute together. Nathan is a lovable rogue. Elena is a sweet, no-nonsense girl. I loved the ending of these two together at the end of Uncharted 2. I haven't followed up much on Uncharted 3 on purpose, but I hope that this romance will live on there.

3. Hiro and Lucia - Lunar 2: Eternal Blue: This is one of the early couples for me. I played the Complete version on the PS1 before I played Silver. It's kind of a cheesy, animu couple that largely relies on nostalgia, but I still love it.

4. The Wanderer and Mono - Shadows of the Colossus: Much like #1, this is a total unrequited romance. More so than the earlier choices as we don't really know much about the relationship. Mono could possibly not know The Wanderer, he could be some weird stalker for all we know! I don't think that. His damned quest to retrieve her soul is a truly powerful tale. The ending makes me cry as well. The Wanderer being attacked by the clergy (?) yet still focused on Mono waking up makes me tear up.

5. Kayako and YOU - Ju-On - She just won't leave me alone.

6. U-1 and Kirah - Gitaroo Man - The ultimate love song!

7. Eileen Galvin and Walter Sulivan - This is more of a fan thing. D-don't ask too much about it.

8. Vyse and Aika and Fina - Skies of Arcadia - This is my favorite game of all time. Unlike your FFVII, this game completely avoids the love triangle. The game neither supports or rejects Vyse ending up with either girl. While I am more partial to Fina, I do believe a Sister Wives relationship is likely to happen.

Are these the greatest romances that games have to offer? Probably not. I'm sure there are a few many can agree with, but it is a rather unconventional list. I'm not even sure if I agree with it (what?). I do like more couples, but I really wanted to avoid just fan choice and go with canon. #7 is somewhat canon and #5 is a joke, don't take it seriously. Sorry if it feels spur of the moment. It is. I do find these wonderful couples in games though. Feel free to share your favorites!

Lost in Shadow Review

NOTE: I have not finished this game. I have played enough that I feel like I can give an opinion on. If you are curious, I stopped playing at the part of the third floor in the shadow of the tower.

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Sorry for being so slow

I know I haven't kept up on doing what I've said I would do (like The Last Exorcism review. I'll sum up my thoughts: The entire premise to question the supernatural and psychological aspects of possession is quite interesting and I love the mockumentary style as we watch a preacher who has questioned his faith expose the dirty tricks he has performed as an exorcism. The ending pretty much ruins this film, but the rest is quite well done and keeps you interested as you want to know if this young girl is truly possessed or just crazy).

In regards to Amnesia, I haven't had time to really play it. I started school again and changed majors, still have my job, and wanted to finish Lost in Shadow to do a review (I PROMISE I'll do that very soon. I'm not done with the game, but I've played enough to give an honest review). I will finish Amnesia, do not worry. I just do not have the time to do so. Also, what I like about leaving the videos out for a little while is I get more comments later on. I love receiving comments still for Ju-On and Calling.

The pace right now is one blog post per month which I'm not proud of. I will try and work on reviews of anything (tv shows, movies, games etc.) to keep it up, but I do want it be mostly a videogame blog. I have so many games I need to finish, maybe spicing it up with other things won't be so bad inbetween.