It tells you the game is pretty!

I agree, though, if I hadn't seen the long gameplay preview earlier I wouldn't be nearly as excited about this game.  The official trailer is just the frosting on the cake.

Wow.

I've been looking at the Spring 2014 anime chart.  Here are my impressions:

Crap
Meh
Crap
Meh
Crap
Meh
Meh
Meh
Crap
Meh
Crap
Crap
Meh
Meh
Crap
Crap
Oooh, Baby Steps
Crap
Crap
OK, I'm curious what Mekaku City Actors is all about...
Crap
Crap
Crap
Crap
Meh
Crap
Meh
Meh
Meh
Crap
Meh
Crap
Crap
Crap
Crap
Crap
Mahouka Koukou fucking Rettousei!!!!!!
Crap
Crap
Crap
Oooh, another season of Mushishi
Crap
Meh
Crap
Meh
Crap
Meh
Crap
Crap
Crap
Crap
Crap but I'll probably watch it anyway...
Meh
Meh
Crap
Crap

(Yes, I actually went through the whole chart doing that, though I can't guarantee I didn't make any mistakes...)

Guess what show I'm excited for?

Maybe I'll just quote myself since it seems more relevant now:

I've been browsing a lot of job postings lately, seeing how I finished my PhD in December and am currently unemployed...

I remember seeing one posting for an internship that claimed you needed a PhD and 5 years of work experience.  Let me repeat that: for an internship.  I think that may have just been a mistake (like it was copied and pasted from somewhere else and not edited properly...) but the fact that I'm not even entirely sure about that says something...

But hey, speaking of job searching I had a phone interview with Google today.  Seemed to go OK.

I also got contacted by a national lab asking of I was interested in national defense work.  Would have to submit to a background check and stuff.  Not entirely sure that's really what I want to do, but it's an option...

There are some things I want to play just to see how horrible they are so I can kind of understand that feeling...but this isn't one of them.  I think the problem is that everything about it is just overflowing with complete genericness.  That's not the good kind of horrible.  It lacks even the tiniest smidgen of inspiration.  It's the kind of thing you look at and think, "why did they even make that?"

Day 1 purchase.

Lack of grammatical errors is the benchmark for good writing now?

Loved the puzzles in the whole Xenosaga series.  Those games always had a good puzzle/combat balance.

FFXII had some pretty good puzzles too, though mainly in the later parts of the game.  But I can't think of anything from this gen where I would praise the puzzles...it's really a shame.  I don't think a good dungeon crawl is complete without puzzles.

Needs more corgis ;)

Because I clearly have too much time on my hands...

I went and stuck my translation in an actual video.  My first time doing that.  So...there it is.

In case you can't tell I'm psyched for this game ;)

So I noticed that Crunchyroll added a couple motion comics by Manga 2.5 to their lineup.  I had heard of these guys before and seen tidbits but never actually sat down and watched their stuff.  They take panels straight out of the original mangas, color them, and add basic animations and of course voice acting.  I suppose if you're expecting a full-blown anime the results might be disappointing, but I think they're pretty good for what they are.  It helps that the series they've done this for aren't exactly heavy on the action.

Anyway, I watched Hadi Girl because I was already a fan of the manga (in fact if you look here you might see volume 5--the final volume--that I picked up in Akiba..).  It's not particularly deep or anything but darn if it isn't one of the most adorable things I've ever read.  The motion comic does a good job of capturing that feeling and I quite enjoyed it.  But, it ends rather abruptly after ten 10-minute episodes and it doesn't look like the Manga 2.5 people are planning on making any more.  I can live with that having already read the original manga, but seeing how the manga hasn't been translated even though the motion comic is that does make it seem like a bit of a tease for English speakers...

If their painters are the same ones who did the FFVI phone port then maybe they shouldn't...

Jesus Christ, will this ever end...

How the hell did we get here?  I just went and reread the thread in question to make sure I wasn't remembering incorrectly, but no it went down exactly how I thought.  Somebody mentioned Metroid Other M and then Ikusagami jumps in and claims the criticisms of the game must be wrong simply because they come from feminists, even though by his own admission he's never even played the game.  Then Dice said no, that's BS, the game's story has serious issues and gave a very detailed criticism of exactly what some of those issues are.  Ikusagami failed to respond to a single point Dice made about the game itself.  Literally not even once in the entire drawn-out discussion does he talk about the fucking game.  How could he, after all?  He hasn't even played it.  (Perhaps the most amazing thing in this whole discussion is that he apparently doesn't think that's even important...)  Instead he keeps redirecting the conversation towards feminism, and how he dislikes feminism so since feminists dislike the game clearly they must be wrong because reasons.  Even when other people try to talk about the game Ikusagami keeps steering the conversation towards feminism and his caricature of it.  Even though it's a friggin game discussion forum...

Then for some bizarre reason he started trying to play the victim card started crying about being called a misogynist even though nobody actually called him a misogynist (hint, Ikusagami: saying a particular statement is misogynistic is not the same thing as saying you're a misogynist).  While simultaneously--amazingly completely missing the irony--criticizing other people's "reading comprehension".  Wow.

So no, Ikusagami, I don't think you're necessarily a misogynist (though I don't know you well enough to say you're not...) and I don't fucking care.  But I do think you are an arrogant, pretentious, self-righteous asshole hypocrite who has some bizarre compulsion to preach about shit he knows literally nothing about.

Battle system trailer

And since I went and posted this on Gematsu I might as well put it here too.  I translated the info in that trailer:

0:24
When the battle starts choose one kind of song magic to start with. There are cases in which you can't use a song again for a while after using it once. The kinds of songs vary in terms of their "effect" and "power".

0:40
Battle Skills
Attack by pressing the (triangle)(circle)(square)(x) buttons
You can only use each attack the number of times indicated
The (circle) button powers up the (triangle)(square)(x) attacks

0:53
Press the (circle) button in time with the enemy attacks to defend
The number of times you are able to guard is limited just like your attacks

1:03
Heroine's endurance level
There is a 4 level barrier that decreases every time they receive an attack.
If all of the barriers are destroyed then it's game over.

1:13
Harmonics
Actions during combat increase the gauge.
You can use powerful skills that consume the gauge.

1:24
Harmonics
When the gauge has gone up a certain amount the level increases,
and there are various benefits.

1:40
Enemy break
When enemies are attacked their break gauge increases
When it reaches its maximum the enemy is unable to act

1:51
Enemy break
When all enemies with a "!" symbol are defeated or broken there is a "break bonus" and the player gets another action turn.

2:05
Wave Window
This indicates all of the enemies that exist in the field.
The red part indicates the range of effect of song magic.
If all waves are defeated there are no more encounters.

Wave
The right-most part indicates the enemies on the screen.
When they are defeated the next enemies are waiting to appear.

2:27
Burst Level
"Song magic" charge quantity.
The higher it is the more enemy waves you can annihilate.

2:40
Burst Level
The burst level is increased in response to the actions of the protagonist during combat.

2:57
Support by Heroines
As the harmonics level increases the heroines will back you up via "song magic".

3:07
Support by Heroines
The type of support attack will differ according to the kind of "song magic".

3:19
Friend Skills
Comrades in the game whose trust you've earned can also support you.