Well… it’s my fault, technically. More under the cut, because this is long (but there’s pretty pictures!).

Continue reading: How I Screwed Myself in Legend of Mana

Okay, now that that’s out of the way… hi!

Sky has had a hankering to run something new. We’ve been going at Dragon Quest: Voyages for two years, and while I’m still enamoured of it, I can understand why he’d want a change.

Back when he did NaNoWriMo 2010, Sky wrote a short story called Dream of Mana. It’s no secret that we’re both in love with the Mana series. Anyways, the premise of Dream of Mana freaked me out a bit at the time (I don’t really remember why, and I hesitate to re-read the story), because it seemed like a complete mindscrew to me. I kinda grew interested in playing another Mana campaign, though, and he REALLY wanted to run one, so here we are.

My character is named Liam, and I rolled him up as a Skald (from the Heroes of the Feywild 4e book). I’m having him use an instrument instead of voice to trigger his aura changes, though (yet I still feel silly and self-conscious because lolBard). I’m having the same problem playing him as I do with Mark in that he’s entirely too good and unassuming to be protagonist material, so I’m having a hard time getting into his personality, but I’m having fun so far.

Then sometime around we started playing, I decided that I’d play Legend of Mana to get in the mood.

Ho boy.

For those who don’t know, Legend of Mana is an old-ass PS1 game that came out in 2000. It was the black sheep of the Mana family as it seems NO ONE liked it because it wasn’t like Secret of Mana or Seiken Densetsu 3. It has a limited world building system (you decide where to put areas on the map, and it affects elemental balance and such), and it has 68 quests, most of which are obscure and easily missed.

I’d say I played the game to death in 2000, but that wouldn’t be true. I actually never personally finished one of the main storylines (though I’d watched Sky do it). No, I was very fond of the tempering system (synthesis on crack), and I was very proud to have made a 567 damage Dragon Scales Knife with close to 8 essences for each element. (The recipe I’d used has been long superseded with better, however.)

Legend of Mana is what inspired my character for Reflection of Mana. Keith was basically an expy (warning, TV Tropes) of the male character from the game, but I think I made him different enough that in the end, he really was my character. I did keep his overly long curly hair, though, and he had a red bandanna (they make it obvious that it’s a hat in the official art, but I was going off the sprite so bleh). I’m still really fond of that character, and despite differences with people, I can still read the logs and remind myself how much of a delightful bastard he was. I’m seriously thinking getting a commish of him…

More under the cut, to spare your poor RSS feeds.

Continue reading: Nostalgic Song

All of my LJ stuff is on this blog anyways (though a great deal of it is hidden), but… yeah, just so you know.

Current Mood: Loved

Speaking of next year, I was using the calendar that came with Ys: The Oath in Felghana for the last year, and now that it’s almost January, I was going to be calendarless, like an animal. That calendar was but six double-sided 4 x 6″ postcards of art with a teeny calendar on it, so I figured, “Why not make my own?”

So I did. And I’m high on photo ink. Click through to see what I came up with.

Continue reading: Happy New Year!

Post about the ring coming separately. It’s too important to be lumped into a mashup.

Health and Exercise

I was actually really good until last week for working out at least three times a week (though I was working out five times a week in October). I’m down to 162 lbs and I know I lost at least one size. I’m wondering if part of the reason I feel so bleh and tired is because I didn’t work out last week at all, due to BS that I’ll elaborate upon later…

I have my gym clothes here so I’ll try to work out after work, but I expect that very shortly I won’t want to stay any longer than I have to, so I’m in the market for an elliptical.

Food-wise, I was okay until about last week (same reasons). I love cooking, so I have no idea why I don’t do that more often.

More under the cut, because I like keeping your RSS readers sane.

Continue reading: I need to blog more than once per month…

French, then loose English translation below.

Continue reading: French is HARD. *sarcasm*

Summary: In order to help his friends, Jenis realises that he must swallow his pride and accept something he’d rejected a long time ago.

Notes: Wrote this as a warm up… didn’t think it’d get this long. Completely unedited, so grammar’s probably butt-tastic.

This is my take on “Ul’dahn Conjury”. Jenis isn’t from Gridania, so I expect Conjury to be quite different in a desert clime.

To see why Conjury’s an issue for Jenis, see his profile here.

Continue reading: Acceptance (FFXIV)

This probably won’t include editing, so I’m not sure if I want to post any of this stuff here, but I might because the train-wreck effect would be interesting.

Because I hate myself, I’ve taken a look at what needs to be done:

NaNoWriMo 2008 – Chronicles of a Sleepy Rabite Volume 2

How Epics Are Born (Ys: Rebirth)
The entire thing needs to be re-written. I’d gotten desperate at the end of 2008 and included a bunch of copypastaed drinking songs. The game fell apart, too, so it’s going to be hard to get back into this one.

Ebb and Flow (Original story loosely based on SaGa III)
This one daunts me. According to my storyline, I only have 1/4 of the story written. I may cut it short and leave it as a “to be continued” thing… it’d actually make a very good RP setting.

Over My Head (World of Warcraft)
This one’s done, but it also has a drinking song in it that I want to change.

NaNoWriMo 2009 – Exodus

Exodus (Final Fantasy XI)
Dear God, where do I begin? First of all, this is a 50,000-word Scholar fanfic. Yes, you heard me. (Sui, shush.)

I’d say that I’m about 80% done the story, but I have a few places where I wrote notes to completely re-write from a different point of view. I’m confident I can finish this one if I actually sit down and do it.

NaNoWriMo 2010 – Chronicles of a Sleepy Rabite Volume 3

I actually don’t have my report card from last year here, so I’m going to have to wing this.

Turning Tides (Final Fantasy XIV)
60% done the story, and what’s left is a doozy. At least two very intense fight scenes and a complete re-write of the ending… and I suck with fight scenes, to the point where I have point-form outlines for each of the scenes.

Logbook of an Artificer [New Title Pending] (Mare Infinitum)
Holy crap, I have NO notes on this. Hold me. Anyways, 50% done the story. I actually flat-out gave up half-way through because I’d told what I wanted to tell… and I really want to finish this one.

The Legend of the Great Dragon (Ys: Rebirth)
Very tempted to drop this one. It’s all over the place, and it’s only 10% done. Most of what’s there is outline, and even now, I’m completely not feeling it.

“X” Marks the Spot (Dragon Quest: Voyages)
Hurr hurr pun. *smek’ed*. 40% done… Will be easy to finish once I figure out what the treasure in question is.

Misc. Stories from 2011

Playing the Fool (Unbound)
I really want to finish this one. I have a pretty good idea of what to do, but if I follow that train of thought, I’m 25% done. Ouch.

A Place to Call Home (Final Fantasy XI)
50% done… will be easy to finish if can sit down and write without any interruptions, because I know what to do for this one.

Sweet Nothings (Spirit of Mana)
I’d like to finish this, but I have no idea where to go with this.

Very daunting. But I seriously can’t bring myself to do NaNoWriMo this year and leave all this unfinished… so… here I go.

Current Mood: Distressed

Order of blogging goes from least geeky (renos) to ultra-geeky (video games), for those of you who like to filter through my meager content.

Continue reading: State of the Cas Part 749726480 (Not Really)

Continue reading: Things I need to do in FFXI with Ithan-Yuran: Update