I finally beaten Digimon World 2 - A history of me and Digimon games

You must be thinking 'Aren't you suppose to be studying Sun? Your exam is next week.' Well, don't blame me. I need something non-science related to make me rest my brain from all that studying - and that is by playing some video games.

So, I suddenly thought of my Digimon World 2 game, and how I have not beaten it after all these years. So I played it, continuing from where I left of, and beat the game.

In Digimon World 2, you are a young protagonist who just completed training and is becoming a licensed tamer. Then, you join something like a guild in the city, with each guild specializing in different types of Digimon - one Vaccine, Data, and Virus. From there, you get a partner, complete missions given by your superiors, and make your way up the ranks and becoming so strong that your leaders send you - a preteen - to defeat an enemy so strong that all the guild leaders couldn't defeat with their powers combined.

This game was my first Digimon game. And while it's not the best of games, I kinda like it. It's a dungeon crawler game, with Digimons. And each dungeon, or Domains, there are plenty of Digimons to fight and befriend.

There is however, a lot of level grinding needed in this game. Once the maximum level of a Digimon is reached, you'll have to 'DNA-Digivolve', where you take two Digimons with their max level reached, combine them and they are 1 stage lower than the lowest stage of the two Digimons (meaning a DNA DV of an Ultimate and Champion, will result in a Rookie), and then you have to train the Digimon from the ground up.

So, in order to get the moves you want for the final battle, you'll need a lot of level grinding, and some befriending of Digimon. Yeah, this game can be very tedious. But once your team of three Digimons have all the moves you want, you can curbstomp ANYONE, EVEN THE FINAL BOSS (when I mean curbstomp, I mean defeat him so badly that you can have a team of full health Digimon with him defeated, and you didn't use any healing items).

And that's what happened to the final boss. My team wasn't even in it's maximum potential (there's still some moves they haven't learn) and yet it got it's ass handed to him.

So yeah, this game was fun, and I completed it. Was it worth it? Yes. Will I recommend this game to you? No, unless you're really hardcore and willing to spend almost a hundred hours or more in the game.

Instead, go try the other Digimon RPG that I've beaten a few years earlier - Digimon World 3.

It's about you and a bunch of friends who're going to play Digimon Online. You select which starter team you want and off you go. You fight bosses, tamers, leaders of cities to give you badges (or something), play cards, until *SPOILERS* terrorists capture tamers and turn them to pigs (or Oinkmon), and you have to stop their evil plan. Then, the Digimon that the evil bad guy is trying to use to take over the world betrayed him. And now you have to face this Digimon, who has merged with a satellite and battle him in space, or else he'll merge with earth and become one of the largest and most dangerous Digimon ever existed *SPOILERS END*

While they are some level grinding involved in this game, it's much faster and doesn't feel that repetitive at all. Each Digimon has multiple evolutions that branches out depending on whether the requirement is met. You don't have to grind on each evolution you have, just for those that you want. If you want super powerful Digimons like Diaboromon, Omnimon or even Imperialdramon, then you'll need to level grind like hell. On the plus side, when you do reach to the point when you have these Digimons, the final boss is cakewalk.

Still, there are better RPGs out there. But this is the best RPG Digimon game in my opinion. Tons of things to do. Heck, even the Trading Card Game side quests were fun to play. I would recommend this game to people since it's less tedious than the previous game.

Now for some fighting games (I swear I'll stop typing soon. This is the last Digimon game I've played).
There are only two Digimon Fighting game series - the Rumble Arena series for the console, and the Battle Spirit series for the handheld. I rarely play Battle Spirit. What's the fun of a fighting game if you have no one to play with? For Rumble Arena and Rumble Arena 2? I've played tons of it.

Digimon Rumble Arena 1/2 is a Super Smashed Bros. style fighting game with a Digimon twist. In DRA1, your characters have 2 special attacks and some normal attacks. You build meter to Digivolve to the highest form if you're a pre-evolve. Then you have a time limit till you're back to the previous form. In your evolved form, you can perform a super attack, but once you do it, you go straight to pre-evolve.

When you beat the game, you unlock the evolved form of the Digimon you beaten the game with. An evolved Digimon stays evolved the whole battle, but can only perform the super attack when the meter is filled. Beating the game certain characters unlocks more characters.

In DRA1, I figured out who is the best character in the game - Gatomon. The combos you can do with it is insane, and 3 combos later, you'll stun the opponent. Best part is, once you completed a combo, you can quickly Digivolve and immediately perform the finisher to deal tons of damage.

DRA 2 plays a lot different than DRA1, but its still fun to play. It now could have 4 players max in a stage, stages were bigger and is more like Smash Bros. than the first game.

Throws are now a separate button and could potentially KO an opponent depending on where you throw them. There are 3 special moves depending on how you press the D-Pad. All Digimons that aren't boss Digimons can evolve twice, and have Ultra attacks on their final form if they have max meter. Some Digimons can triple jump, glide, and even super jump. Some Digimons have unique normal attacks by pressing the D-Pad at different directions. Also, there are multiple boss characters, some secret characters, and you can't unlock a Digimon's evolved form. Also, when a Digimon gets KOed, they're revived and are 1 stage lower than before.

This game was fun and chaotic as hell. Lots more moves that a Digimon can use. Stages were even more interactive than before. And finally I can use Tentomon, one of my favourite Digimon!

In this game, it's harder to find the best character in the game, since each of them have flaws. But if I were to say whose the best, it would be Veemon, followed by Guilmon, their final forms are beastly. But Digimons like Tentomon and BlackGabumon are dangerous too. Tentomon has is powerful in his first form and BlackGabumon is threatening even in its normal form depending on the stage.

So yeah. This is one heck of a long post, so I'll just end it here.

Final exams are coming soon, so is my summer break

Yes, my final exams are coming soon.

In less than 2 weeks time, I will have the most intense 4 days of the semester.

On 2nd November, I have my Biology Paper.
On the 5th, I have Biotech.
I have Chemistry on the 6th.
And finally Statistical Reasoning on the 7th.

I know that the toughest paper for this semester is most likely gonna be the Chemistry paper, I should be putting more attention into that.

The Biology paper is a multiple choice paper which marks accounts for 40% of the total grade in the subject as compared to the other 3 subjects' 60% of the total grade. So, it shouldn't be hard to handle. But I'll still need to do well for it

Biotech has a mix of multiple choice and short answers. Needless to say, revising the tutorial questions should help a lot. It's useful to have this subject as studying it, along with Bio and sometimes Chem will help each other one way or another since there are some similarities in the things that are taught.

And statistics, a paper which I think is as tough as if not slightly easier the chemistry paper, which is not much. But it's math (sorta), and remembering the formula is key (or at least, the method of answering the questions since it is quite direct).

So once I get pass this 4 day gauntlet then I all set for a summer holiday. I do hope that I did not screw up any of my subjects. But when it's holiday, it's holiday, and I have some plans line up for the summer break.

I'm gonna get a 3DS. I could have gotten it earlier, but I fear it may interfere with me and my studies so I didn't get it so soon.
I'm gonna celebrate 2 decades of my existence on earth. Yes, I'm growing older now, but I still feel young so that is a good thing.
I've made a promise to take my Mauritian friend for a drive around town, and I have to keep my promise.
I'm also gonna visit my Singaporean friend, and stay there for a week or longer.

So, yeah. Now I just hope that I will prepare myself enough for the four papers that I'm about to face.

Pokemon Black 2 and White 2, and a brief history of my experience in Pokemon games

I've been a fan of Pokemon since the anime came out. But I've never played a Pokemon game from start to finish until I was 13-14. My first game was a Gen III Pokemon game called Pokemon Leaf Green, which is a remake of Pokemon Red and Blue of the first generation. 

It was fun, but I was lacking in skills as a trainer. Everyone except Blastoise and Mr. Mime was severely underleveled, and Mr. Mime is overleveled. 

Then I played Pokemon Emerald, it remains till today as one of my most frequently played Pokemon game as I played it with all three starters at least once, get all the silver symbols in battle frontier at least once, and also beat it in a Nuzlocke challenge at least once. 

I also played Fire Red, and I beat Gary with a team that is 10 levels lower than him.

Then I played Platinum (yeah, I skipped Diamond and Pearl), and it was awesome (even though I never replay it till now). One of the most awesome moments I ever had in a video game came from Platinum. My friend was having a hard time catching Giratina, so he asked for my help. I recalled a walkthrough by Youtuber Marriland (an awesome guy who just finished his Pokemon White 2 Walkthrough) and initially had a strategy of using his Staraptor (due to his immunity to Ghost attacks), but for some reason I decided to lead with his Vaporeon at the last minute. 

Turn 1, Giratina used Dragon Claw. Okay, decent damage, but Vaporeon could take a hit. I decided to weaken it with Ice Beam, and it got frozen. 

Turn 2, throw a Dusk Ball, it broke free, still frozen.

Turn 3, weaken it with Aurora Beam, still frozen.

Turn 4-9, throw Dusk Ball, it broke free, still frozen (yeah, notice how long it got frozen?)

Turn 10, caught it with a Dusk Ball.

When we were catching Giratina, me and my friend were both surprised on how lucky it was to catch it so easily. 

Then Generation V came. It was da bomb. Serperior was awesome, Excadrill was awesome too, Haxorus is badass as well. Yeah, I like some of the Pokemon design for the Gen V Pokemon. Deal with it, Poke-Nostalgiafags. It had a plot twist towards the end, which was pretty sweet, For the first time in Pokemon history, you do not defeat the champion to beat the main campaign. 

Then we have 3 epic battles in a row. The first with the legendary on the cover. 

The second with N, leader of Team Plasma (the bad guys), who has a LEGENDARY Pokemon and an EVENT ONLY Pokemon. 

The final battle, with N's adoptive father, Ghetsis, oh that asshole of a father. Calling N a freak and his true intentions of (you guessed it) take over the world. He must have took some advice on raising dragon Pokemon from Lance as his Hydreigon is underleveled by 10 LEVELS. It's an intense battle, but defeating him is satisfying as hell.

Oh, and I played Soul Silver and beat both Lance and Red at their best with a team 3 Pokemon with their level at their early 60's and 3 HM Slaves. 

Then N bids farewell, and cue the credits. This game has the BEST credit song in all Pokemon games so far. It's awesome sounding as hell. The credits is sleek, without animations or any pictures, just scrolling credits with an epic music, and I'm fine with that. I think there will never be a credit song as great as this one. Black and White is fun to play, with all new Pokemon to use.

Now, old Pokemon and new Pokemon meet in Black 2 and White 2 with the ability to catch previous gen's Pokemon. Also, this is the first time where a Pokemon title is a numbered sequel and not a remake. I can't wait to play challenge mode when I beat the game. Yes, you can adjust the difficulty setting in this game with some 'keys' that are can be traded via infrared. 

Now that I'm a more experienced trainer, I always plan my team before I even play the game. Since I never used Oshawott before, so I use it in my playthrough of Black 2. 

I got a male Oshawott, so I named it Kenshi (yeah, I like naming my Pokemon). I named it after the main character of Ruroni Kenshin.

The second Pokemon I got is a male Mareep I called Rossi (I also got a male Ampharos called Rossi in my Soul Silver playthrough). I caught it at Floccesy Ranch. I named it Rossi after the last syllable in Ampharos' name since it's a guy.

Then I got a male Growlithe in Virbank Complex. I named it Missile, after the Pomeranian in Ghost Trick (which is a great DS game by the way).

I got my fourth Pokemon at the Castelia Sewers. It's a female Zubat called Tabitha (I also got a female Crobat named Tabitha in my Soul Silver Playthrough). 'Bat' spelled backwards is 'Tab', and 'Bit' is a past tense of 'Bite', which is why I think the name suits the Zubat.

I got my fifth Pokemon at the Castelia Gardens (I think that's what it is called), it's an Eevee who is now an Espeon called Psynx. A psychic Pokemon that looks like a Lynx, so Psynx.

I do not have a sixth Pokemon yet, but I know what I will get - N's Zoroa. Yup, I'm doing this for N (lol).

Anyway, that's the end of this long post. 

Got Green Day's New Album!

Yes, I've been a fan of Green Day for a while now.

It all started during the release of American Idiot. Then my Uncle (who lives in Australia and is an avid concert goer who loves alternative bands) found out that I like Green Day from my mom, and he bought me some of Green Day's older albums like Dookie, Nimrod, Insomniac and Warning, and I like their songs even more.

So this album is a trilogy, with and is the first of the three (which is pretty obvious as all the albums are titled after numbers.

What I've notice in this album is that now Jason White is part of the band! That's pretty awesome, considering that he's been with Green Day as a touring member back then, and also appeared in some of Green Day's music videos like 'When I Come Around', 'Wake Me Up When September Ends' and '21 Guns'.

The album is pretty expensive here in Malaysia (around RM 45 or 15 USD), but I found the album in a local bookstore which sold it cheaper by a few bucks and I could use the membership card to get a further 10% off. So I paid only RM 37.35 which is around 12 USD, almost the same price as the one sold in the US if I remember correctly.

Overall, the whole album is good, not great. But it's too early to tell how great is the trilogy gonna be as you need all 3 albums in order to piece out the story and concept behind the album.

Also, when I heard Billie Joe was in The Voice as a guest mentor, it was pretty awesome news to me since now I feel like The Voice could be the next singing competition US needs (American Idol was dead to me for long time, even before the realisation of the WGWG trend in winners).

Another thing I found out a while ago was Billie Joe's 'meltdown' at the iHeartRadio festival. I wouldn't consider it a breakdown. I think what he did was pretty awesome, even if people think that he's taking drugs or something. Of course he's pissed, and I think he has the right to be pissed.

Now for one last thing I found out. One of Green Day's track from the albums coming out soon will be in the soundtrack of Breaking Dawn Part 2. Seeing the word 'Green Day' and 'soundtrack' and 'Breaking Dawn' together made me die a little inside.

Anyway, that's all for now.

Obligatory rant on music

Yeah, you read the title, and this rant is long overdue.

It is true that many have consider mainstream music in recent years to.... you know, suck. This is still true after a few years later. Only difference is it's getting worse.

So yeah, this is a rant, and these are my opinions.

I dunno about you people around the world, but I think that most of the music being played on the mainstream media (ie radio and tv) are really crappy. I just dunno why. Every year I hope that mainstream music will get better next year and I just see it gets shittier than the stuff coming out of my ass from my most recent and rather horrible food poisoning incident.

The first question to ask about me is what kind of music do I listen to and what genre do I like the most?

I mostly listen to pop and rock and most things that the radio spews out but my favourite genre is punk rock and video game music (if that counts). I used to like a lot of songs the radio plays, but now I'm stuck with my video game tracks. With the exception of Gotye's 'Somebody that I used to know', nothing has really hit me as an awesome song in recent months.

Now listening to the radio makes me feel like Simon Cowell as I listen and criticize the song that is playing. Though, there are some songs that I truly can't stand, and they'll most likely be rated less than average in my rating scale of 1-10. So what type of songs are they?

1. Songs with repetitive lyrics with the exclusion of dance-type songs. Songs like Grouplove's 'Tongue Tied' (I rate it 4/10), where most of the part of the songs are repeated lyrics.
2. Anything to do with K-Pop. I don't understand what's the big fuss of the craze. So I do not rate any K-Pop songs, not that they're bad, I just don't. Only exception of this rule for now is Oppa Gangnam Style, a dance song which seems to be the latest craze and being the new 'Party Rock Anthem'. As catchy as it is, I still do not get it. It gets a 6 from me. This doesn't mean it's good since I can't and will not listen to K-Pop unless the mainstream english radio station forces me to, it's just slightly above average to me as a dance track.
3. Anything that has an annoying tone to it, whether the singer sounds annoying, or the theme and lyrics of the song. Things like Nicki Minaj's song which I do not get why is it so popular, or the lyrics to Cher Lloyd's 'I want u back' (3/10) and her singing that annoys the shit out of me. 
4. Excessive autotune that is noticable. Like Lil' Wayne in his songs and mostly T-Pain. I know that autotune is a hell spawn of a device that can make a person with a shitastic voice to a person with a voice of a saint, and I know that some singers use it. Usually if I can't detect it then I won't be bugged by it, but if I do, it pisses me off. 
5. Any rapper who can't have a hit song without featuring someone else. It's not a major gripe of mine, but I feel like a rapper is a great rapper if he could at least have one hit song without having to collaborate with someone else. I know most rappers can't sing, but it's good to have one out there, just to show that they can rely on their own. Eminem's 'Without me' is a great song without any collaborations, and it gets an 8. I also liked Flo Rida's later hit 'Whistle'. Last time I thought he couldn't come up with a hit without collaborating, but I was wrong. This is a pretty good track (8/10).
6. Not something common but still annoys me. I dunno how to explain this so I'll go straight to the example - Alexandra Stan's 'Mr Saxobeat'. So my local radio station played a song which is claimed to be the acoustic version of this mentioned song, I got appalled by it. The singing is exactly the same as the original, only changes being the background music and instruments used. This really pissed me off as it's as though no effort was put into singing this version of  the song, just changing the instruments. I gave it a shitty 2/10.

Anyways, rant over. If there's anything extra, I'll add on to my next music rant. But for now, let's just pray for good music.