Weekend of Fun.

[leene_chan]

Lauren's Cure For Food-Poisoning Induced Nausea:

Wash and peel a one inch piece of fresh ginger root. Pour two cups of water into a small saucepan, add ginger root and one tablespoon of turbinado sugar and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for five minutes. Remove ginger root and pour ginger tea into two eight ounce mugs. Recipe may be halved if only one person feels like they're going to puke. Or the patient can drink both cups if he/she likes, or share it with a friend.

WARNING: This stuff tastes good, but don't overdo it and drink more than two cups a day. It'll cure your nausea but give you the runs!

Kristen has been suffering from a mild but annoying case of food poisoning for the past few days. We made beef stew on Thursday with anchovies that had been in the fridge for three days, and apparently that is a big no-no. Canned anchovies, even in a separate bowl under refrigeration, need to be completely submerged in oil and used ASAP or else they can give you what's known as schombroid food poisoning. It's caused by a build-up of histamine in the fish. I don't think it's as bad as something as salmonella or e coli, but it's been a lousy experience just the same. I got some stomach problems as well. I don't know why Kristen got it so much worse. She didn't throw up but she came close a few times. :O We've been living off ginger tea and Rhodes White Dinner Rolls (which are excellent, even though you have to rise them for several hours).

Did I mention that too much ginger tea can give you the runs?

For some reason, vanilla ice cream, particularly Brighams Vanilla in a sugar cone, is the ideal food for a weak stomach. XD

I haven't tried taking Lucas out in the stroller again, for obvious reasons. I have managed to get him to hop in to eat treats and a few bites of canned food. I know it seems that I'm pushing the issue just because I want to take him out for walks in a cute pram, but the idea of squeezing him into his old carrier seems ludicrous at this point. It's like he's become Godzilla overnight. Ragdolls are usually done growing by age 4, and Lucas turns 3 at the end of the month. I think the carrier was designed for terrier-type dogs. I think BooBoo could gobble a terrier at this point, and he isn't even overweight.

Because I'm at the beginning of Year Three in Atelier Rorona, and am not enjoying the game very much any more. In Elie,Lilie and Violet they only saw fit to "challenge" the player once a year with an exam, a contest and an auction, giving you plenty of time to get to know characters, explore and goof off with alchemy. Why, why, why in Atelier Rorona do they feel the need to give you a "challenge" three times a year? And it's not just a matter of passing a test or making one special item. You have to make multiple high-quality versions of several items in order to pass the test. You literally have no time to do anything else. This game is seriously not fun.

So I decided to have some fun and replay Atelier Lilie. I first played the game last year and ended up finishing way too early because I gave Dornie the money to build the academy too quickly. That gave me the "normal" ending.

This time, I'm going to try to stretch it out the full seven years. I never even got a chance to do my love-love thing or save Irma's grandmother last time because the game freaking ended right after I beat the boss at Airfolk Tower!

Atelier Lilie does have its bad points. For someone who has played the series from the beginning, it seems like shovelware. The graphics aren't very good and the hit detection is AWFUL. You spend a lot of time sliding around the screen just trying to talk to NPCs! The art isn't that great, either. It's not Rorona level, where all the female characters are badly drawn apart from their boobs. It's more like Angelique (or Zetsuai, if you want to be really mean), where the characters are angular and sketchy with small irises that make them look like they're crazy.

You have the option of dating several male characters, and none of them are very appealing, or "hot" in the fangirl sense, though I consider myself way too old (and intelligent, if I have to get nasty about it) to turn my nose up at that. You have the bratty, whiny, adventurer wanna-be (Theo) who calls Lilie "Nee-san" (why not Mommy?), the creep in the item shop who does nothing but bitch all day (Werner), some guy with a pony tail who isn't attractive, is obsessed with apple pie, opening a weapon shop and occasionally experiences alcoholic blackouts (Gerhard), and the blond knight guy who haunts outside the castle and won't let you go in, who looks like he belongs in an Ozaki doujinshi and delivers every single spoken line in the same breathy voice (Ulrich).

At the same time, none of these dating prospects seem like bad people, and as you get to know them throughout the game you come to think of them as friends. The female characters are much more tolerable than the ones in Rorona. The characters in general seem more mature and mellow, and when they act like jerks they usually apologize and give you stuff.

I think that someone who entered the series with Rorona might think Rorona a good game, but compared to Lilie it's pretty bad. The older games have a lot more content. When you screw up the characters can be mean to you, but the heroine genuinely seems like she has a mind of her own and the ability to succeed. She's a grown-up, unlike squealing moe-Lolita Rorona.

I swear, I'm not touching Totori with a ten-foot-pole.

Comments

[cortarr.livejournal.com]

Oh wow you changed your layout while I was gone, that is too cool to someone like me who can't code their way out a paper bag! I realize how some games are compared to the old better ones at times. I try not to judge things based with how much they fare against the previous entries, it is so hard not to at times!

I don't have a favorite series, but I do see how many people are let down with Unlimited Saga, it is so much unlike other SaGa games, they can't help but assume they have been played against their expectations. I really love that game despite!

[leene-chan.livejournal.com]

Heh heh heh...to tell you the truth, I can't code my way out of a paper bag, either! This is one of LJ's free custom layouts. XD

I don't mind when a game deviates from the feel of the original series, but it seems that with recent games, once you get over the whole "woo hoo, this is a PS3 game!!" you realize that it has no more content or gameplay than a Nintendo DS game. :O Maybe when the developers were dealing with limited technology they had to do more to keep the players interested?