Noted ♪

Awhile ago, I was TL;DRing about this artist who owed me commission work for a bajillion years and was... actively doing other art/commissions. Again, I get that art blocks happen, etc. etc., but I sort of felt I was being ignored or something, and it kind of sucked. Anyway, I messaged her about this, trying to be polite and understanding, and...

...and she powered through the whole picture in one night because she felt bad. Wow. Wow. I'm pretty impressed, actually. Also, she offered me a freebie in addition for waiting for so long. I am appeased.

Additionally, I'm almost always totally broke in Tales of Graces F because, early on, I developed an immense addiction to dualizing items. I've made pretty much everything I can make at this point, too. The only thing stopping me from doing more is the fact that I'm not all the way through the game and haven't gained access to some of the drop items yet. Aaaaah, it's really fun.

I suppose I could use the dualizing addiction to be super rich because of the great selling prices, but I like to have one of everything in case I need it for an inn request. (This has turned out to be a highly prudent strategy.) BUT HEY WHATEVER FLOATS MY BOAT AM I RIGHT

Also, update: all my predictions so far have come true, even the one I was slightly iffy on. Let's see if my ending prediction happens, too, haha. At this point, though, I find that I've become endeared to the characters, so I'm sort of okay with it. Some things about Tales Of predictability have a nice familiarity to them, a little like crystals in Final Fantasy. It's sometimes kind of eye-roll worthy, but at the same time, it's like, you sort of smile as you do it?

I don't know. Some things they could stand to stop doing, for sure, but other things are kind of nice to repeat for nostalgia's sake. (The "withhold very important helpful information for basically no reason" thing definitely fits into the former category, though.)

TL;DR: Tales of Graces F, I love you anyway. The gameplay, content, replayability, item collecting, good localization (= good character dialogue, interaction) etc. balances out the shortcomings of the story.

Just a heads up to anyone who wants to play Xenoblade: the game is only being released through GameStop stores and Nintendo's online shop, and will be limited! The game is also supposedly a pretty phenomenal "evolution" step for JRPGs, so if you want it, I've been warned a few times that it's in your best interests to preorder.

Do it do it do it.

I did, and I'm pretty sure it will be absolutely worth it!

Tales of Graces F is supposed to be out tomorrow. I'm going scouting for it, but am unsure if my store will actually have it on its release date or not.

Oh, and as other things go:

Little Big Planet (PSP): I finally started my copy of this around Christmas and have been dutifully doing little bits of stuff on it when I can. It's pretty interesting, even if you suck at platformers as much as I do. The visual style is really well-maintained, and there are good play mechanics that encourage you to explore and grab and jump and retry as much as you want. On top of all this, it has a really super English narrator fellow who makes the game even more charming.

Final Fantasy XIII-2 (PS3): Still pluggin' away. The random battles are a little bothersome in Augusta Tower (where I am), but I'm still motivated to finish the game and go back for completion purposes. I still wish you got a proper party of three characters, but the monster thing does work decently (and better than in the similar Tales of Symphonia 2). A bunch of DLC came out recently, some of which I will probably cave and buy. I'll tell you about it if I do! :>

Final Fantasy IX (PS1): I restarted this recently (fourth time, I think!), but I think I only mentioned it on Tumblr. It's worth its own posts, so I'll probably TL;DR about it sometime soon. It makes me happy.