The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks

Aaaah, the standard save the pretty princess story. Wait, why's she so translucent?

Hooray! A new post! (fangirlism is POWERFUL, I tell you!)

So, as per the title, I’ve just completed Spirit Tracks after almost a whole year of drama that included infatuation with little elf boys in green, maddening train chases, the demise (and resurrection) of my DS microphone and lots of rolling in bed while giggling at a handheld console. Obviously, this entry is going to be a string of grammatical-correct-yet-semantically-confusing sentences, so you have been warned :D

So, let’s start, shall we? As per all Zelda games, you start off as Link, a midget of an elf boy (that I love throwing off cliffs to hear him scream!) who through trope-worthy circumstances ends up having to save Princess Zelda’s sorry ass. Thing is, in this installment, you don’t actually start off wearing that garish Santa-esque green outfit, since you’re a train engineer (at this rate of technological advancement in the Zelda games, I won’t be surprised if the next title is LoZ: Air Force One). Still, since the fashionably-inept Link obviously dons that trademark outfit in the promo art, sooner or later he gets his tiny hands on the god-forsaken tunic (noooooo) and turns into.. DUN DUN DUN the caretaker of Zelda’s soul. And so the pair runs off to retrieve said princess’ body from the evil Demon King, with Link stabbing any mice on sight and Zelda possessing giant suits of armour that can walk in lava, wreck boulders, teleport, block laser attacks and so forth.

..Wait, what?

Yes, we are equally surprised, Link. And delighted.

By unintentionally forsaking her body, our damsel-in-distress here has transcended all previous heroines and turned about 100% more awesome than the hero himself (other than her fear for mice.. which leads to amusing sights of a huge phantom cowering in a corner). Sayonara Link, for once, The Legend of Zelda IS The Legend of ZELDA. Writing this made me realise that I completely blew it by playing this as my first Zelda game, as there never was and never will be another game like this where Zelda actually mattered, besides being kidnapped/amnesiac/plain useless. How the hell am I going to enjoy other games after this, when the Link/Zelda chemistry has been burnt into my mind?

The spirits don't give a damn if sitting idly waiting for rescue is a family tradition, get your ass movin', princess! XD

All that ranting aside, the game was pretty awesome, if not ASDFGHJKL AWESOME! The mechanics were simple and those weapons Link picked up along the way were bloody fun to use (I’M IN UR BACKYARD, SWINGING IN UR TREES WITH MA WHIP!). Surprisingly, even the train was a hoot (pun not intended) to drive, especially once you acquired a cannon TO SHOOT THOSE DAMNED SNOWMEN THAT HURL THEIR HEADS AT YOU. The awesomest part of the train was that last battle where you BLOODY HURLED YOURSELF AT THOSE GODDARN DEMON TRAINS THAT ALWAYS DECIMATED YOU, this time OBLITERATING THEM WITH YOUR AWESOMENESS, MANLINESS AND SHEER SPEED POWAH!! Anyone would’ve assumed me bonkers while I screamed “BANZAAAAAAIII” every time I floored the gas and pancake-d those pesky buggers.

Makes you wanna ride a train, no? XD

A notable mention in the game would be the music and sound. I could sit all day and listen to Link and his little shrieks while stabbing thin air (as already mentioned, one of my favourite pastimes was hurling him into random abysses to hear him scream). Zelda herself deserves praise, delighting me whenever I watch a giant pink suit of armour freeze and yelp when a mouse appeared. The music, whimsical and mystical at times, complemented everything very well, especially the Spirit Flute theme. Also, the duet pieces Link plays with the guardians of each temple are little gems worth pointing out.

It’s already 5am and at this length, the article’s tl;dr anyway, so I might as well stop the incomprehensible spewing of English words here. I guess I MIGHT pick up Phantom Hourglass to try next, but no playable Zelda = no happy Cheryl :(

My Deepest Concerns with the Plague Affecting UTAR..

Greetings to whom it may concern,

I am a regular student at UTAR Kampar, not affiliated with any major societies nor advocate of any student movements, but I write this to tell the university how disappointed I am that EMPOWER, a group vying for the SRC posts, has been allowed to continue on with their campaign.

When I first read the news on J-on, my reaction was to find a wastepaper basket and throw up immediately. According to EMPOWER's Chairman candidate, Oh Chin Eng, "Facebook and blogs are not media and therefore should be allowed for campaigning." Imagine my utmost horror that a JOURNALISM STUDENT does not even understand what in the world is a mass media.

While suppressing my urge to bludgeon him to death with my Introduction to Mass Communication book, I realised that I've read another article from J-on that mentioned of how EMPOWER's manifesto was rejected because they printed their Blogspot address on it, meaning they already KNEW that their online campaigning was illegal, yet they continued with it. I am appalled at the prospect of electing a Chairman who flamboyantly flaunts the Election Campaign rules while not admitting to his mistakes.

To end this long-winded expression of rage and disbelief, I would like to reaffirm that it is my belief that EMPOWER does not deserve to compete for a post representing the student population of UTAR Kampar when they have no disregard of breaking simple rules to upstage their opponents.

UTAR Boleh!

Failure

Inspired by a comment I saw on Ryanne's blog..

Avatar so deserved to lose at the Oscars

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA~ But seriously, it earned a few technical Oscars, and that's really what it deserves. When I watched it in that packed cinema, I could only concentrate on "Ooooooh those plants look pretty" and "Oooooh those explosions are cool". What innovative storyline? I could pull the plot out of my ass and James Cameron wouldn't even have to pay me.

Special dude goes to new planet. Special dude makes stupid mistake and lands with native aliens. Special dude blends in and falls in love with alien dudette. Evil humans want to take over new planet. Special dude gets epiphany and sides with aliens to save new planet. Special dude becomes alien. Good end.

It was so.. typical. Nothing surprised me at all in the story. Jake would become the famed "Toruk Makto"? When I first saw that thing and heard the "legend", it was already cemented that it was bound to happen. In order to make an "epic masterpiece", James Cameron threw away all plot creativity and went for the usual hero's tale and what a disappointment. Story-wise, there was no innovation and it made me feel numb while watching the whole 3 hour fest. The characters were decent enough with solid acting; you liked the good guys and hated the bad guys. No one was in some "gray area" where you could go on and debate for hours after the movie ended. Seriously, just look at the reviews online. I feel as if Cameron bribed them or something, they all harp on "technological and CG innovations", "beautiful and interesting new world" while carefully avoiding anything about the lacklustre plot. I would have been more forgiving, but all this hype about Avatar being the next coming of Jesus or something is complete bullshit IMHO. I left the movie with such befuddled feelings until I realised it was actually a load of over-hyped flashy stuff.

So yeah, the Oscars did not shun big-budgeted movies, they shunned overpriced mediocre ones this year, and I feel that the only reason James Cameron had a shot for Best Director was because he could contain all that run-of-the-mill material into one flashy comprehensible pudding that ultimately didn't suck, but is undeserving of any praise other than for ground-breaking graphics. It almost feels as if he did that 10-year wait because he knew Avatar would be nothing without beautiful visuals.

Amen =P

Perils of a Photographer

Ever since my Canon S90 arrived on my doorstep, I've lugged it around for almost everything I do, thus learning the joys of snapping weird stuff whenever I feel like it. Of course, even a DSLR wouldn't churn out good photos if the photographer didn't go the extra length to obtain the results themselves, so I've gotten into a few prickly situations with my subjects, most notably..

These damn buggers crawling around a tree between Block C and Block D >_> I was waiting for Puey Ru to finish her Wushu practice and Yao Jia pointed out this bloody ant-infested tree XD Since it's a pain to focus with full zoom and I was too lazy to do it manually, I had to get really close to the buggers and use the flash. After the first few shots, I felt a stinging pain on my left middle finger and found one of the blasted creatures sinking its teeth into my flesh =__=;; Seems that my wrist strap was in contact with the ground and those ants used it as a bridge to my fat meat. I still have a huge lump on my middle finger of all places. Of course, my course of action after being bitten was to flip off the ants with said injured digit LOL

Also, it's quite saddening when the best photo in the album currently is one taken by my friend, not myself D: Oh the humiliation..

Yeah this doesn't sound like a proper post. I blame my deflated writing skills on the crappy time I've been having since returning to university. With so many administrative problems, timetable clashes and clueless lecturers, it hardly feels like I've actually learned something these past few weeks *hangs self*

Today

Today, I was told to update my blog. FML.

P/S OK OK XD I'm panicking like hell because the busy OMFG-IT'S-CLOSE-TO-CHINESE-NEW-YEAR period is here and I got dragged all around the city. And the internet had not been working for the better half of the weekend. I still have a few art samples to complete for the English Language Society fundraising and a 20,000-word play to read for my Literature assignment by tomorrow. SOMEBODY KILL ME.

FML

XD