Square Enix Party DKΣ3713 2008

This event was a private party exclusively for Square Enix Online Members only (http://member.square-enix.com). Of course, I'm one of the members too since long time ago. haha...

This event was held beginning of last month (August). And this event was just meant for around few thousands members for just 2 days at Shibuya. What do I mean by "meant for few thousands members"? It means, we, members have to apply online and within one month, they had a lucky draw and those members who are luckily picked will be allowed to attend the private party. And guess what!! I DID apply online in July and eventually DIDN'T get the lucky pick. Super SAD! I hate lucky-draw! I always have no fate in that thing ever since I was a kid... That is so unfair! (T-T)

Anyway, after reading recent game magazines reporting what had happened in the private party, I felt excited and feel like sharing here with you all, especially those Square Enix's gamers or supporters, who of course haven't found out about this.

I've captured some pictures from the magazines that I bought, but sorry for the bad quality if it doesnt turn well to everyone. I snapped with my mobile camera which only 2MegaPix. hhahaa... And I also dug some videos from the youtube and compiled them here together for your viewing pleasure. Well, the quality may not be as good as original (that is most definitely..haha), but I still want to thank them for uploading online for everyone to view. THanks! =)

Well, whether or not I could get the first-hand view of the stunning trailers, I just hope I could get the first-hands-on on the game during their release dates respectively. hehe...

Oh by the way, I'm really looking forward the coming Tokyo Game Show next month! Hope to see more stuff coming up. Yesshh !!! Can't wait!!






























For those who are interested to know about their release dates (in Japan):

「FABULA NOVA CRYSTALLIS FINAL FANTASY XIII」Series

* ・FINAL FANTASY XIII (PLAYSTATION 3) [release 2009]
* ・FINAL FANTASY Agito XIII (PSP) [To Be Announced]
* ・FINAL FANTASY Versus XIII (PLAYSTATION 3) [To Be Announced]

「KINGDOM HEARTS」Series

* ・KINGDOM HEARTS Coded (Mobile) [Coming Winter]
* ・KINGDOM HEARTS 358/2 Days (Nintendo DS) [Coming Winter]
* ・KINGDOM HEARTS Birth by Sleep (PSP) [release 2009]

DISSIDIA FINAL FANTASY (PSP) [release Dec 2008]
PARASITE EVE - The 3rd Birthday (Mobile) [release 2009]
SIGMA HARMONICA (Nintendo DS) [Already Released]
FINAL FANTASY VII ADVENT CHILDREN COMPLETE (Blu-ray) [release Mar 2009]

Square Enix Party DKΣ3713 2008 (IGN Report)


Square Enix Party DKΣ3713 2008 (Some Fan's Photography Compilation)


Dissidia Final Fantasy (PSP) Latest Trailer


Dissidia Final Fantasy (PSP) In-Game Demo


p/s: Ever wonder what Party DKΣ3713 stands for? hehe.. ;)

Stop Motion Animations - Animal Planet

Seen this some time ago, but still refreshing to watch it again and again.
Plus, every simple message from the animation is meaningful to everyone. So why not share it here? Enjoy. =)

http://animalssavetheplanet.com/?page=home

~End~

New WarHammer Online Cinematic

http://mythicmktg.fileburst.com/war/us/home/flash/WAR_cinematic_08.html

Rotten Tomatos Review: Star Wars - The Clone Wars

Lesson Learned: As a professional CG creator, don't ever give yourself an excuse that the movie is just for kids. If Pixar can attract almost every heart of young and old, so can you, so can we.

~End~

"最後一面" - Wonderfully Meaningful Song Written by 徐佳瑩 & 李伯恩

I was so touched by the lyrics and the tunes and every bits of the compositions. Perfect written song! I was so touched and goose bumps all over me no matter how many times I listen to it. I can't wait for Xu Jia Ying to release her first album! And this song is a MUST!

Oh, by the way, this song is about saying sorry and goodbye to the Earth we love yet polluted at the same time. Therefore it's meaningful and hope everyone will do their parts to keep our Earth safe for everyone's sake.

Save the Earth, before we say sorry to the Earth.



-End-

Wall-E BluRay/DVD Disc Releasing November??

What the !!! It will not be shown in Japan till December , and they are releasing DVD/BluRay coming November??!!! Arrgghh!!! I cant believe it! (angry)

http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=1665

I need to fly to HK and watch this before they release in DVD!!! No money, need to hi-ja_k a pl_ne.

Upcoming Stop-Motion Animation - Coraline

3D Maps on Google Map

When my colleague showed me this in the office last week I was totally shocked. I can't believe Google Map has been developed till this level, well, when you check it out, you may see some goods and bads. So far it's good and brilliant, but bad point is, your action everyday is being watched and recorded from outer space every minute every second, ever day. Kinda scary.

Well, put aside the bad points for a minute, and lets check out the cool points of this new feature.



Below are some sample 3D view maps i attached to my blog here. Feel free to click and drag on the pictures below to view all 360 degrees. And also can move forward and backward. Have fun.

My Apartment (1st floor, far last one near the open field)


大きな地図で見る

My Working Place - Production I.G(fx)


大きな地図で見る

p/s: I believe so far only few countries are updated with these features. For example Japan and the U.S. , haven't tried other countries yet, but definitely not yet for my own country - Malaysia. Was wondering if I ever able to see my mum watering the plants at the garage. hahaha...

Although it may seem safe that Google just showed the streets only in 3D views, but in their database, I bet they definitely keep more detailed photos and records of our daily lives inside our house area far from the outer streets. Scary huh... imagine you were watched everyday. You are in the Truman Show!!! Except that your pictures and records are yet to be exposed to publics. So, make sure you pee in a "satellite-proof" toilet next time.

Dreamworks' KungFu Panda Rocks!

Ever since Shrek 1 and 2, I hadn't been impressed by any Dreamworks Animations until today I watched Kung Fu Panda, and it finally changed my view on their production which almost always happen to focus on effects and voice casts instead of story plotting.
Kungfu Panda is so far is the best among other Dreamworks movies, even much better than Shrek overall. This Kungfu Panda movie is a serious-bring-fun movie, at least not like some stupid "unlaughable" gags from Madasgascar or Shark Tales which disgusted me so much...oh ~ and don't get me started on that...



The movie is touching, is well-plot, good story-telling, not so much focusing on famous voice cast anymore (for example, Jackie Chan, Lucy Liu's dialogue was awfully little BUT I LIKE IT~!! Initially I thought Dreamworks would force gags and boring dialogues to every single characters in order to "show the existence" of their famous voices on the screen, but i was so GLAD that they didn't! And all the gags throughout the movie was just nice and not too over, except the beginning part when Panda was trying so many tricks in order to get into the castle. (I thought that was overly done and very old type of gag and don't so well anymore.)
However, other than that, I never thought the whole movie would have worked so well! Good job to the production team for this project! Finally some good quality stuff was baked and served to everyone who have been craving for good dishes. The ticket for this show was really worth it, I must say. Good job Good job! haha..



After talking about the most important thing of a movie, lets move on talking about technical stuff and designs. And I really impressed by their animation styles and character's personality and almost all good poses and staging throughout the movie. The turtle was wise and touched my heart as if I feel that it's like my father talking to me. There was no unnecessary gag for the turtle, (which dangerously Dreamworks could have put that in, luckily they didn't.) I was so glad and I really like the character of the Turtle and also the Shifu!



The only one negative comment I could think of, is that there were TOO many effort-less passer-by (villagers) which turned out to be PIGs. Too many of them and designs does look like effortless. Well, i could think of an excuse or rather reason for them to do that, is that they want to make those main characters to stand out from the crowd. However, it just doesn't look so fun or comfortable just to see so many PIGs (of course also surprisingly a lot of Rabbits) just to bring out the attention of the main characters. hehe...

Anyway, the negative parts are just very minor, most importantly the story and animation have served all viewers with satisfied vision. Good job again, KungFu Panda Production teams! I don't mind to watch Panda 2, but please please.. cancel Panda 3 if you guys are starting work on it.. coz .. u know what i mean... i don't want to get disappointed like Shrek 3, which almost coming out Shrek 4... I can't believe it and I have no total interest on the next instalment anymore.. Please please! Go for new ideas and surprise all of us! Don't dig in the same hole... coz not all the Golds will be found in the same place! Dig somewhere else! ok?! Pleaseee .... Digging the same hole will only disgust a lot of people...

~End~

崖の上のポンヨ Ponyo on the Cliff

I just watched the latest Miyazaki's new film - Ponyo last night. Last night was the first release day.



To be honest, I can't say it was a total disappointment but I have to tell the truth that, I wasn't impressed by the movie, compared to his all previous marvellous works.
No doubt, technical animation wise, was good. Drawings and backgrounds are still as stunning. Background wise, some parts may look unmatched, but overall looks great. I've been knowing Miyazaki style, but this time, it generally has some little difference compared with his previous ones.

This Ponyo movie reminds me of 2 animations. One, clearly, reminds me of Little Mermaid. Two, reminds me of one of the Miyazaki's 10-min short films shown in Ghibili Museum, which regarding few kids who had their own wonderful ocean imaginations in their kindergarten school.

After I watched finish the full movie, I felt that I would rather appreciate it more if it happens to be just a short film named Ponyo. Looking at the full-length movie point of view, I don't think I can accept totally what I saw on the screen. I mean, the story didn't actually touch me in some way or rather in other words, there was no climax nor important obvious messages to be conveyed. I always liked Miyazaki works. His creativity, his innovative of thinking, his fantasy world, his wild imaginations had always been locking my heart and brought me to his world, and also touched by his messages. But..... I have no idea why, this time, and for the first time, I felt I have lost touch of his great story-telling world.

For the first time, I didn't say WOW after seeing his movie, and for the first time, I felt "flat" and "emotionless" after the movie. There were gags and fun scenes around here and there of course to keep my face smiling, but I don't think this is what I was looking for from his movie. I was kinda expecting something big and heartwarming, some ups and downs, some great and strong story telling...... However.. sigh... sadly to say, the editing of the whole movie and the story telling and also the progress towards the ending, was .... was... kinda disappointing...... or may be it was too abstract? =(

I'm just telling what my heart feels. Ultimately, I really really didn't feel anything strong after watching Ponyo. And I still dont know what better words to describe the "emptiness" within this story. It looks like a short film to me, a funny character designs with great animation drawing skills, coloring and stuff.

The movie itself has not much complicated conversations. Mostly are kids talk and simple conversations to make the story pretty easy to understand even though you don't understand japanese so well, but of cors you also need some basic japanese skills to understand some basic conversations in order to understand what is going on during the important part when the adults talked. I may not able to master Japanese skill fully yet, but the movie conversations were simple enough for me to understand, so I am pretty sure that I didnt miss anything or misunderstood anything before I wrote all these comments.

However, despite of all the negative comments I wrote above, if you treat it as a cute fun animated short film, I guess it is still worth to watch in the theater. I was kinda studying his animation drawings during the movie too. The details, smooth animations, beautiful color sense, are all still there to be appreciated. Especially all the water animations! Undersea creatures! All of them are incredibly well-drawn and well-animated! No doubt for that!

But. The only thing that made my heart slipped away is just the story-telling. And this is the most important thing in a movie, and yet it was indeed weaker than his previous works, in my humble opinion, again.

To add on, when I talked to my friend this afternoon who happened to know a director who knows Miyazaki well, she told me that this Ponyo story was some kind of reflection of Miyazaki's own personal life and the ideal world which he thought his family could have been to. After hearing this, I kinda understand now what he was trying to tell and his intentions. However, watching from a total idiotic audience's view, the story somehow just couldn't work for some people, unfortunately. It is not just about the story intentions, but also the story-progressing and plots. It was just ....somehow...somewhere something is missing, and the progressing was weird too. Well, may be when you guys watch it for yourself, you may understand what I was trying to say.

Of course, different people may have different point of view in everything. Nothing is wrong or right. Children may like it, some adults may like it too. It just happened that it didn't work for me that well, as compared to his previous great story-telling. And hereby, I'm just leaving some of my words of honesty from the bottom of my heart, which means no harm to anyone or anything intentionally. So please don't get mad ya! Coz I'm Miyazaki's work fan too. Just that this time it doesnt work for me so well.

Despite of all the above negative words, honestly I still appreciate his great effort of this Ponyo film and still respect him as a great model artist in this 2D animation industry. He is still great! He is still a talented person. Again, my respect to him will still remain and never fades. Arigatou! Miyazaki san!



~End~