. . . it's because I'm working on a novel. Don't worry, though, I don't intend to completely abandon the site. I'll try to fit in some updates wherever I can.

So in the end, Chapter 3 turned out to be almost twice as long as the first two chapters. Not sure if this is how things'll be from now on or if it's an isolated incident. I'm of the mind that a chapter ought to be however long it takes to give it a rounded feel, so contrary to how this paragraph makes it seem, I don't care too much about the length.

Been playing MGS. Not 4, as you might think (I don't have a PS3, nor do I intend to have one anytime in the near future), but rather I bought the recently released essential collection with the original PS1 game and the two PS2 games. I'd played the original a number of times back in the day, so it's not really anything new. It still holds up, though, if you ask me. The graphics are alarmingly low res when you first start playing, but you adjust pretty quick, I'd say. It's actually kind of refreshing to play a more primitive version of Metal Gear Solid games. The game mechanics are bare bones, which is kind of nice to be honest, given that I find more recent iterations are cluttered with gameplay elements that are flashy and interesting, but tend to be only used once or twice in frankly unimaginative ways.

Also there's the story, which yes, has the regular tropes of the codec and in depth cutscenes, but these aren't used to the excess that they are in later installments. Some people might still find that they're too frequent, but I think there's literally a perfect balance in this game. I'm not sure if Kojima had a less spineless editor back then or if he was simply more concise, but plotpoints aren't driven down your throat quite so often or repetitively. And for some strange reason, despite the presence of stealth camouflage, a cybernetic ninja, mind control, a man who can be hit with multiple stinger missiles and still not die, and a giant walking robot that shoots nuclear warheads from its back, the whole presentation just seem a lot more down to earth than later games. It's more believable, somehow, although I can't quite put my finger on why.

Anyway, I've started on MGS2 now, which is renowned as the one that is Kojima's very meta "F-You" to his fans and I can very much see why. The tanker section at the beginning is everything you'd ever want out of a sequel to the PS1 game, but just as things are getting good, the rug is ripped out from underneath you and suddenly we're in Raiden-ville. Population: one girly, whiny loser, a.k.a. you. I'm still having fun with it, though.

Anyway, I made another short animation. This one might give you a better idea of how Burning Soul Tempest works. Enjoy!

You know, I always try to write CRB when I happen to find myself in the mood for writing, but I guess dedication to a specific facet of something can easily make you neglect other important ones. Like posting here, for example.

Like the rest of the internet, I've got to mention GTAIV. I've been playing a lot of it recently. To be perfectly honest, this is the first GTA game I've bought and, subsequently, played this much. Initially, the freedom offered by the game is staggering. You feel as though there's so much to do that it's hard to decide exactly where to start. Because of this, most people's first impressions of the game (and really, any sandbox-style game) is that it offers a tremendous amount of freedom, far more than most other games. Gradually, though, as I became bored with a lot of the smaller details and had seen just about everything at least once, I began to forge through the main story.

It was soon after that I started to feel something I never expected to feel in a sandbox game, let alone one as expansive and genre-defining as GTA. It was the feeling of restrictiveness. Sure the game lets you go anywhere you want any time you want, but in order to move through the actual story, you have to be led through a fairly narrow sequence of events. It's true that at most points you're given a multitude of possible missions to attack, but eventually, there are some that the game is going to make you complete if you want to get to the finish line. Maybe this stands out more to me because of the sheer freedom of other aspects of the game, but all the same, the point is that it stands out.

But this is by no means a bad thing. The vast majority of videogames out there (well, big budget non-casual games, anyway) are linear in the same way. The reason it nags at my mind while I'm playing is because of the hype surrounding the game. After reading pages upon pages of critics pontificating on how incredible and open the game is, I just can't help but hold it up to a standard. The true irony, though, is that I felt a great deal more freedom when I was playing Mario Galaxy a month ago. Galaxy is a game whose structure is based on levels. Levels! That means that you go onto a playing field, accomplish x, and repeat in various other playing fields. What made it feel open and free was exactly what makes GTAIV feel linear to me. While I was playing Mario Galaxy, I always knew that if I didn't like a given level, I didn't have to do it. The way it works is that in order to progress from one world to another, all you need is a given number of stars (which are awarded for beating levels). Even though this was the case, however, I tried to beat every level as it became available, moving on only when there were no levels remaining in the world I was in (purely because the level design in this game is so darn enjoyable that I didn't want to miss out on any of them). This meant that before long I could clear a given world without beating many levels at all. Therefore, if I ever felt that a level was too hard or even simply not fun, I could skip it with very little penalty. Compare this light and breezy play flow to my problem with GTAIV and it's clear which one seems like it's offering more freedom, despite what initial impressions you may have of the two games. But really, I'm comparing apples and oranges, so maybe I shouldn't give GTAIV as hard of a time as I am.

All in all, I am really enjoying the game. If I ever get frustrated with a mission, it still has enough to do in it that I can just walk away for a while and do something else. And the world really is impressive. But like anything, the more impressive it is, the easier it is to see the faults.

Oh! Also, I made a flash animation featuring characters from CRB! It's the first one I've ever made, so it's a bit simplistic. Enjoy!

Hey, everyone! Sorry about the severely inconsistent updates over the past few weeks. I'm going to try to make up for it this week with some extra pages. As for Chapter 3, it's certainly shaping up to be longer than the other two chapters, but it's a conclusion of sorts to the opening sequence of events of CRB, so I'm not concerning myself with it's precise length.

Anyway, That's about it for now. If I think of something to actually talk in depth about, I may post again later. Thanks for sticking it out, readers!

It appears I've finally stepped out of my selfish, unscheduled, 6 day-long hiatus to grace you once more with the presence of my mediocre webcomic! I won't try to justify myself with excuses like working late at the office or illness. The fact of the matter is that I was playing a lot of videogames. All within a week I got my 360 back from Microsoft (and could therefore resume Lost Odyssey), finally got on live long enough to download some Live Arcade games (namely Ikaruga, Castlevania Symphony of the Night, and Rez HD), the GF and I finally bought a Wii (and subsequently had to also buy Smash Brothers Brawl and Mario Galaxy, two games I've been itching to play for some time), and a friend of mine (props, Tom) lent me his PSP so I could give Final Fantasy VII Crisis Core a try (a "try" being something like 10 hours of gameplay and counting). This is all on top of being smack dab in the middle of a case in Apollo Justice. So that's what I've been up to. As a matter of fact, the reason I finally pulled myself away from the games and dragged my sorry self back to drawing had less to do with a sense of guilt and more to do with the fact that I sat down to watch the first episode of Code Geass R2 and was struck by inspiration.

This inspiration, however, came along with a sense of frustration with my own story, as watching a well-executed, but highly different story from your own is wont to do. Mainly, this was because of how Lelouch Lamperouge can be such an interesting and dynamic protagonist. Compared to our own Kanzaki Kei whose chief conflict (at the moment) is with his own wishy-washiness, Lelouch is driven. He's got his eyes on the proverbial prize. He's also highly intelligent and self-confident, where Kei is a bit of a goof and an amateur. Yes, I'm sure you're thinking, we get it, they're different characters. But what does that matter? And besides that, you invented this character that you're complaining about, so it's your own fault and if you don't like it, then tough cookies. Fair enough. It's not that I'm particularly disappointed in Kei as a character, but sometimes being tied down to a particular character and story can feel restrictive. And an introverted character like Kei who tends to prefer thinking over acting can make it feel like nothing ever happens fast enough. The reason I bring this up isn't because I'm planning on doing anything drastic like killing CRB and starting over with something else. But rather that I wanted to mention that I have other ideas bouncing around in my head and that they'll at some point (hopefully) become sister-projects to CRB. Why do you need to know? Well, you don't really. I just felt like if I mentioned it here, it might get me to think about it some more and maybe even start working on it.

I may write something about Crisis Core when I've finished it.

Hey! It's evening comic week! Comics in the evenings! Hurray! Seriously, though, apologies for the update mishaps as of late. This whole "full-time job" thing is really putting a damper on my creative efforts. I'm quite determined to keep pushing forward, though.

This would usually be where I blather on and on about something maybe one or two of you find the slightest bit interesting (if I'm lucky!) but I'm drawing a bit of a blank. Finding myself with little time to watch anime or play videogames, I really don't have much of anything to say.

But yeah! Check back later for real updates!

Hey, guys, sorry about the lack of updates in the past few days. I did intend to post new pages on Friday, Monday and today, but the long weekend (and a renewed love for Odin Sphere) sort of messed up my groove and I didn't manage to. But there'll definitely be a new page tomorrow (or rather tonight, as they tend to go up the evening before, lately).

Just thought I'd mention something, though, because it struck me as interesting and it's one of the main reasons I've become re-enamoured with Odin Sphere. Item systems in videogames are tricky terrain. Too simple and people will complain about a lack of depth. Too complicated and you'll have people exasperated and wondering why they're bothering even playing. A tip in either direction can easily spoil an otherwise splendid title. But if a developer manages to find that perfect balance it can really make a game shine.

A speal like that makes it seem like I'm going to complain about specific issues I find in item systems, but actually, I'm just going to talk about a few of the things Odin Sphere does right. Now I'm not that far in yet, but it's really made me enjoy fiddling with my inventory, which is particularly impressive because I'm usually not too fond of that kind of stuff. There are two main reasons for this that I can think of at the moment.

For one, many of the items (almost all if I'm not mistaken) have multiple purposes and uses (and I'm not saying that other games don't do this, they just usually don't do it enough). Obviously, there's the usual main use and the possibility to sell for some quick cash if you're in need, but I'm talking beyond that. Seeds, for instance, are something I thought were pretty useful when I first started the game. You can plant them in a stage and phozons (read: shiny glowy things dropped by enemies) will automatically ripen the seed, cause it to germinate and in turn drop useful healing items. I thought this was great until I started feeling like I had way more seeds than I'd ever be able to use, especially since certain seeds produce seed-bearing fruit in what can only be described as an unholy doom cycle of seed production, continuously taking up valuable inventory space with perpetuates of the problem. Some people may also know this phenomenon as "agriculture". Anyway, just as I was feeling as though the seeds were getting on top of me, I found a new item: the egg. So when you use an egg, it hatches into a chick, which you can feed your extra seeds! Brilliant! So now that we've got a new use for that abundance of seeds, what about the chick? Well, the chick will become a full-grown chicken after 3 seeds and can lay more eggs if you give it even more seeds. "That's great!" I said, "No more extra seeds in my inventory! But now what do I do with these chickens?" That should have been pretty obvious. You can turn a full grown chicken into food, which counts as yet another healing item. So at this point I've only really mentioned seeds and chickens here, but already we've discovered two possible uses for each of them. And this isn't taking into account the other possibilities, which include selling the items, refining them into various potions and even taking them to a restaurant to have them made into a meal for you. So there's a real sense that each and every item is valuable and you're never just collecting miscellaneous garbage you find on the ground.

The other thing is that you've got a limited inventory space (divided into "pouches" that your character theoretically carries around), which is a concept that's usually an exercise in frustration if you ask me, but here it actually improves the game. For one, it prevents hoarding of items and makes you use what you've got continuously in order to make room. This has allowed to developer to essentially force you to take advantage of the stuff they've put into their game, without it really seeming that way. Again this plays into the idea that every item is valuable, because as you play, you know you're going to have to use them all, just to make space for the ones you get next. The other brilliant thing they've done is allowed you to upgrade your inventory space. Again, I'm not saying no other game has ever done this, but it's really well-executed here. For instance, when you upgrade your inventory capacity, you don't just get a bigger pouch and throw away the old one. You get a bigger pouch on top of your old one. So you really feel like it's an improvement. As I did this, I realised that it's the same feeling I get when I level up my characters in RPGs (especially those in which one level is substantially different from the last). This is undoubtedly a good and rewarding feeling and I believe that it is one of the biggest reasons people play RPGs. There's a real sense of improvement in that feeling (even if it is kind of artificial).

And on top of all this, the "ring" interface is friendly, simple and wrought with oodles of precious nostalgia. So yeah, I just thought I'd mention that.