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arcplaysgames · 2 years ago

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The Persona 5 Post-Mortem, Part One: What I Didn't Like 8C

I have reread my entire P5 liveblog to refresh my memory of everything that happened in the game, and I've been trying to think about how I feel about P5R and, frankly, whether I like the game. Which is a very basic question, I think, but one I am deeply struggling with, so obviously it's not actually that simple, huh.

The answer I am tentatively settling on is: I think the third semester saves P5R from being an Actually Bad game.

I think that Persona 5 Vanilla is actually… a 5 out of 10 at best, and in my heart it's lower than that. But Royal does so much intense heavy lifting, it alone, separate from the rest of the game and the original campaign, is an 8 out of 10.

That is an enormous discrepancy that I've really never dealt with in a video game before. I think the last game I played that I truly disliked to my bones was Fallout 4. FO4 remains the only game I've ever played were I genuinely and truly wanted a refund of not just my money but my time, the hours I spent in that meaningless, vapid fucking world. Even FO3 gave me some joy of exploration, for fuck's sake.

P5R is not as bad as FO4, but the main campaign is to me an enormous disappointment that…. if I had not been in the throes of a depressive slump and thus needing something to hyperfocus on, I don't know if I would have finished the game. My frequent references to Yusuke saving me from turning off the game were not exaggeration in the least.

So, I think there are two major problems with this game. And I understand that when I did my post-mortem on P4G, I started with my likes and then went to dislikes, but I think for P5R it's correct to reverse that, because my negative feelings far outweigh the positive.

I guess point one is obvious: I think the cast of this game is bad.

I refuse to sugar-coat it. The cast of P5 is just bad, with a few mild exceptions. Even the characters that I like, I enjoy them comparatively to the ones I hate. And I have never hated someone in a Persona game before, not even Joker Mode Yosuke.

The entire cast of this game is much, much flatter than you would expect from a game that is trying so desperately to be stylish and loud and garish. P5R is maximalist to its fucking core. The fusions are executions, item creation is an electric chair, the menus are nightmares of high contrast and bouncing shapes, everything is LOUD LOUD LOUD 24/7 in this game to the point that I, a person I think is fairly skilled at video games and played P4G on Normal and breezed through it, had to lower the difficulty of the game to fucking have fun, because I felt so inundated with stimulus, I was struggling to play the fucking game.

That maximalist spirit just vanishes in the characters, and it's so fucking jarring. All style, no substance.

When I was trying to figure out my thoughts on the characters, the thing I kept coming back to was that P5 has too many main characters in the party. And weirdly, I think I'm right! P3 has seven party members (excluding beloved Koromaru, eight if you count Shinjiro who is in the party for a month). P4 only has seven.

Persona 5 Royal has nine, and I think part of the problem is that to fit all of these characters into the party and the story and to keep the MSQ scene moving at a decent pace, everyone suffers for it and gets flattened. Even the vibrancy of Yusuke vanishes from the game in the final third, where all his interesting tics and quirks are phased out until he's just a guy here to say his lines to move things along. Almost everyone suffers from this, where they are focal points during their introduction arc, and then they just lose all their shine as the story moves on.

This didn't happen in P3 and P4. That's not rose-tinted glasses talking; I JUST played both of those games starting in December. P3 is my true love but P4 is a tremendous example of how the characters continued to be themselves in every scene, even after their introductory chapters ended.

So the poison at the heart of P5R is that the characters are both not as three-dimensional to start with (and there are only a few I would even consider three-dimensional), and from the moment their respective Palaces end, they're on a half life.

This literally might be why I like Haru best, because she's introduced so late in the game that she didn't lose her voice yet by the endgame.

This is all of course at odds with the fact that only a few characters are really good. Futaba probably deserves the most accolades for being clear and present in every scene and always maintaining her uniqueness. Morgana as well, seeing as his arc lasts the entire game and is one of the central mysteries. And Akechi, without whom I think the entire game might have actually failed? Without the complexity and unnerving energy from Akechi, this cast could not sustain the runtime of the game.

AND ON TOP OF ALL OF THAT, it does not help that I actively disliked two of my party members. Makoto has by far the worse introduction of any character in any game I have played and the way the game just did not understand or contend with what she did, the stalking and blackmail and endangering everyone, soured her so completely for me that she never once got party time. I never used her.

But even she was a relief next to fucking Ryuji. Ryuji, the token best friend character who turned into The Teammate Everyone Hates for me. He was a mean, emotionally dense, disrespectful and dehumanizing asshole for the entire fucking game. And I am used to the Best Friend Guy who messes up and grows over the course of the game (see: Junpei and Yosuke) but with Ryuji there is no growth, there is barely acknowledgement of how cruel he is. And the fact he never actually apologized to Morgana for his bullshit in the middle of the game lost me completely on him. Ryuji made me as the player on the other side of the screen uncomfortable. That's…. wild, tbh.

So we have a cast where I can barely stand two characters, I'm ambivalent on three, one I regularly forgot she existed, and three I liked a lot.

That's a fucking mess, y'all. For a Persona game, which is a premium Hangout Game, where so much of the point is the characters? That's a huge problem.

The other games in this franchise like Shin Megami Tensei tend to have characters that are flatter and more allegorical in nature, but that's okay because the focus is on the themes and the writing of the world.

Which leads directly to the other problem with Persona 5.

The writing. On several metrics, the writing is Bad.

On the first point, the fact that this game has an 80 hour runtime if you are lucky, and that's just the vanilla MSQ. It feels like an 80 hour runtime. I felt every goddamn minute of how long this game is.

Structure is the problem here, in my opinion, and it goes hand in hand with the character issue. Just as this game has too many characters, it has too many set-pieces and arcs. To justify Makoto's presence in the game, there is a long, superfluous arc with Kaneshiro that should have just been cut entirely. Kaneshiro is about 10 hours that could just be snipped out of the game with nothing lost thematically or narratively.

And even more that P4 and DEFINITELY more than P3, the game will essentially…. repeat scenes.

As someone who did this entire liveblog with screencaps, I cannot tell you how many times I thought I missed capping a specific line or moment only to find out that it was in a nearly-identical scene a little bit earlier. Sometimes there were three different scenes that conveyed no new information, just restated what the characters knew, and that's just ridiculous. That's truly just too much.

On top of that, this game just gives the player way too much time. I didn't fill out every SLink in this game, but that's because I actively chose not to out of disinterest in a few of them. If I wanted to, I think I could have done every one without a guide. I spun my wheels for OVER TWENTY IN-GAME DAYS MULTIPLE TIMES. The pacing is a nightmare.

Another point I mentioned a lot was the technical quality of the writing.

This game is so over-produced, so maximalist, has so many small details, but the actual script as written for the game feels like it was done under crunch. Like, extreme crunch. Original FF7-style crunch.

It's hard to explain what this means, but in P4G, the script was lovingly crafted word by word and everything was incredibly naturalistic and conversational. There was never a moment when I had to refer to the log and reread anything, no point where a conversation lost me.

In P5R, this happened regularly. Awkward phrasings, responses that didn't make sense, repetitive sentence structure, and weird conversational pivots that did actually force me to go back and reread to understand what was being said.

Localizing a game of this scope and budget is a herculean task, and I know the game's English release was delayed. It just was not enough time. I would guess that this game needed at least another month or two to cook, but more than anything, the localization process should have been started a year before it was. The localization needed to be happening concurrently with the final year of development for a text this fucking dense.

It is so weird to see the extreme polish of the presentation of this game and then to just read the text aloud and go "wait, what" numerous times in a single playthrough.

(also this barely feels like its worth mentioning with the other issues but the lack of translation of the textures was unacceptably bad. I had to get a JPN-speaking friend to translate some things for me, and I really genuinely feel like missing out on some of this shit diminished the context of the game. Maruki's place is the most egregious offender but its everywhere.)

And finally, the last writing complaint is that until the Third Semester, this game has nothing to say. The Persona 5 Vanilla version of this game is……. meaningless but masquerading as thoughtful and rebellious.

Which is frankly hugely disappointing because this game does start strong with Joker and the repeated motif of imprisonment and betrayal. In just the first hour, Joker is beat up in an interrogation room, he's falsely accused of assault, his probation officer tells him he deserved it for stepping out of line, and every figure of authority from the principal to the teachers to his fellow students treat him like a murderer. It was a potent start to a game.

And in the end, Yaldaboath is just repeating the same fucking shit that Izanami did in P4G. People? More like SHEEPLE, amiright? People care more about being entertained than the TRUTH, and they want to be shadows/imprisoned.

Blah blah fucking blah. Persona needs to come up with something new to say because this was NOT it, chief, and was just disappointing given the strong start with Joker. I think this game's Big Theme can confidently be boiled down to "phones are like prisons," and its infuriating.

So much superfluous text and so little to say.

Until the Third Semester, anyway.

Next post will be about the things I liked, I promise.

#p5 #persona liveblog #post mortem #LONG post #warning this post is VERY negative

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roseofcards90 · 8 months ago

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Haiiiii, continuing the ask game of random top5s

Top 5 videogame characters

Omg I didn’t know this was going around 😭

(Not counting characters from VNs because otherwise the whole list would just be Higurashi and Umineko characters djdjdkdkdk)

1. Mae Borowski (Night in the Woods)

Ah. Yeah KJFDNJFDKKNJD cat girl blinded and chained by nostalgia that she doesn't want to leave behind, while also being weighed down by her past mistakes as she still struggles with the guilt and the mental illness of it all. Reconnecting with old friends, only to find that they've changed and they're becoming farther and farther away for you to reach out to. Finding a way to cope with all of that and simply leaving with "I'll just continue to live" in the end — AUGH. Night in the Woods my beloved, Mae Borowski my beloved...

2. Akane Kurashiki (Zero Escape)

I remember playing 999 on the ds and just being shocked, and I remember playing vlr on the 3ds also being pretty shocked. And I didn't quite understand Akane as a character at the time because I was like 14 and I couldn't comprehend shit. But when I revisit her character now and I read a bunch of analysis stuff regarding her, I now realize just how well she's written to be in Zero Escape's narrative. For a girl to sacrifice the normality and life she had left for the sake of the world, forsaking timelines again and again so she can find the right outcome, but leaving the one she loved most behind — it's heartbreaking. It's cruel and tragic, because Akane had her life tragically ripped away too soon, so she never got to truly live at all. But to see her at the same time be cold-hearted and leave behind Junpei and the others also hurts to see. She's very well written and complex and I love her for it

3. Yosuke Hanamura (Persona 4)

I don't talk much about Yosuke, but he's a character I have a lot of beef with personally. He's a character that I look at and go "Shit, I can't help but see my teenage self in you" and it's like damn 💀 I struggled with the same goddamn things this guy did and I was shitty just like he is, and I'm looking at a mirror every time I see content about him I swear. Persona 4 was a game that got me through my teenage years, so it checks out tbh. I appreciate the growth that Yosuke himself goes through, but I do think the game does him dirty development wise 😭

4. Mizuki Okiura/Date (Ai: The Somnium Files)

I think this goes in hand with my personal experiences, but I relate to Mizuki a lot tbh. I relate to her loneliness as a child, but it was also so happy and fulfilling to see this girl get the family she deserved in the end and to see her grow up into a better version of herself, who's come to terms with her grief. I have more complicated feelings with how they handled some of her character aspects in aini, but I still appreciate how we got to see Mizuki older and see how much she's grown as a person from her 12 yr old self in aitsf

5. Ryunosuke Naruhodo (Ace Attorney/The Great Ace Attorney)

Keeping this one brief and without spoilers since I have a moot who's going through tgaa rn, but I love Ryunosuke as a protag much more than Phoenix tbh, his development throughout the duology is so good! He's silly, he's grieving, he finds a passion in something he didn't think he would excel in. His character arc overall is just very satisfying to see, and he's one of the more enjoyable protags I've played in any video game ngl

#honorable mentions go to Sunny from Omori and Kaveh from genshin because I relate to them a bit too much lmao #thank u Zerk!!!#asks #Zerk

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teddiecircus · 2 years ago

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Yu and Rise for the character bingo!

YU NARUKAMI THE MOST BELOVED EVER so normal abt him. The way he's written and developed in the other adaptations of p4 are so so good I love overanalyzing him. Manga Yu/Souji is so insanely good and was given a backstory as well Shuji Sogabe wrote him so +#-_+01!! But yeah I love his dynamic w/ everyone in the IT and with Nanako he's literally the protagonist ever

My main issue w/ fanon Yu though is mainly the way he's portrayed in the souyo dynamic (the same applies to Yosuke) I like souyo but most of the fandom has really?? Stained my opinion on it?? If that makes sense

Rise

RISE KUJIKAWA THE WORLD she's so everything ever. Her slink is in my top 5 favs in the whole series her development in it is insane. She's so supportive of her friends and I love her role in p4d as well. I could talk about how spectacular her development in arena was for SO LONG. Arena ultimax side p4 was actually peak Rise Kujikawa media and she grows so much

I love her dynamic w/ Kanji and Naoto (IT first year trio reigns supreme) and Teddie as well

Her dynamic w/ Teddie is one of my favorites in the whole game one of the reasons being that she's one of the first, if not the first character to take Teddie's search for who he truly is seriously since she struggled with something similar?? Also she worries sm abt Teddie when he disappears in december?? They're besties

The way some of the fandom treats rise drives me insane though I hate it. When they reduce her entire character to just the idol girl or just having a crush on Yu and other stuff

#asks #i could have phrased some things better here but my brain died halfway into writing this anyways love these two a normal amount #blorbos ever

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operationrainfall · 5 years ago

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Title Persona 4 Golden Developer Atlus Publisher SEGA Release Date June 13th, 2020 Genre RPG Platform PC (Steam) Age Rating N/A Official Website

A few years back, when I was convinced to buy a Vita, there was one game everybody said I had to own. Despite chafing at being told what to play on my consoles, I eventually took the advice to heart. That game was none other than Persona 4 Golden, and it astounded me. Prior to playing it, I hadn’t been patient enough to play through Persona or SMT games, and got especially frustrated with the difficulty of Persona 3. But after P4G, I learned what to expect from the series, and with that knowledge came a greater appreciation for these games. The grind was just part of the experience, and it complemented a wonderful and twisty story. So when I discovered that Persona 4 Golden was coming to Steam, I jumped at the chance to cover it for oprainfall.

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After I started playing Persona 4 Golden on Steam, the weather fittingly took a turn for the worse, and it began raining hard for several days. There were intermittent breaks of sun, but the wet weather kept coming back. Which is my way of saying there’s a chance you’ll see my bearded face on the Midnight Channel not long after you finish reading this review. In the meantime, let me tell you what to expect from the game. After all, even many years later, I acknowledge not everyone is intimately familiar with the adventure. And since I’ve already beaten the game a couple times on my Vita, this review will mostly be focusing on the differences between the versions, as well as giving a synopsis of the plot and characters.

The story takes place in the rural town of Inaba. You’re the unnamed hero, a young man with strikingly gray hair moving in with your uncle and his daughter. While the purpose of your visit is primarily to attend Yasogami High, things quickly take a turn for the strange. Bodies start piling up, and suddenly Inaba is known more for murder than the local Junes store. And since this is a Persona game, you quickly discover you have a special knack for summoning your inner self to battle monsters as well as jumping inside a hidden world within TV screens. Thus starts Persona 4 Golden, and I promise you it’s a wild ride with many delightful twists and turns. While I won’t spoil any of them, I will focus next on a key component of any Persona game – the characters.

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The fabric of the game universe is woven tightly by the bonds established between this eclectic cast of characters. And while you could certainly make the same claim for any title in the beloved Atlus series, I have a special fondness for this cast of characters. Even years later, they still make me laugh, groan and cry at their antics. Whether it’s the spunky carnivore and lover of Kung Fu Chie, or the fiery diva with an odd sense of humor Yukiko, or even the awkward goofball Yosuke, it’s a really fantastic group. There’s more main characters than those I just mentioned, but I probably should let you discover the rest. I will say, they’re all well developed and quite distinct. One of my favorites is a certain bad ass who wields desks and chairs as weapons and is much more nuanced than you’d imagine, but there’s no duds here. Even the NPCs you encounter wandering the streets of Inaba add something to the mix. And the side characters bring a lot to the table, such as your adorable cousin Nanako or your gruff uncle Dojima. Your connection to the cast is important, since the bonds you cultivate between your hero and others not only expands your understanding of them, but it empowers you via Social Links.

I’m not sure if the folks at Atlus are fans of Freud, but the Persona games definitely focus on concepts of identity. This game in particular also confronts many gender issues, but in such a way that it’s up to the player how much attention they devote to that. As the game progresses, your characters confront those sides of themselves they repress, and only by accepting them, ugly bits and all, can they truly grow. In the process, your team slowly earns their own Personas, one for every main character. The only exception is your hero, who can utilize any Persona at your disposal, those encountered while dungeon crawling or fused in the Velvet Room. Another way the game addresses these concepts is via the Social Link system. As you spend time with others, you learn their hopes, dreams and fears. As those friendships grow, your rank in their corresponding Arcana increases, based around Tarot cards. For your teammates, that lets them learn new abilities and grow stronger. An example is acquiring follow up or team attacks, surviving critical damage once per battle, or even helping downed allies recover. For side characters, you’ll just gain bonuses when you fuse Personas of their Arcana, such as Hierophant, Empress or Star. Depending on their rank, you’ll garner more or less of added benefits. It’s complex, but also very well streamlined. Every Persona in the game belongs to a particular Arcana, so you actually have a lot of control over your team’s growth.

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Besides the bonds you forge, you can also improve your hero’s attributes such as Courage or Understanding. Your level of growth will determine certain choices you can make during dialogue, such as courageously telling that special someone you’re attracted to them, or explaining death to a child with compassion. Attributes are improved through a variety of methods, such as reading books, doing well in class, attending clubs and even taking on part time jobs. The longer you play, the more options open up, and it all makes for a very dynamic and addictive loop. Your time is pretty much yours to use as you see fit, though you’d do well to spend it constructively. Keep in mind that once you encounter the next major story arc, it’s best not to wait too long. Because if you don’t save victims of the mysterious culprit fast enough, it’s game over. But that’s only if you’re really dillydallying. Just remember, if you get a forecast of rainy weather for several days, you’d better be ready to save the day. As a result, I often would go dungeon crawling on sunny days just to get my feet wet and level up my characters a bit.

More P4G on Page 2 ->

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Speaking of leveling up, one of my favorite elements of Persona 4 Golden is the combat. It was definitely an inspiration for later games I’ve enjoyed such as Tokyo Mirage Sessions and Persona Q. Essentially, each dungeon is procedurally generated every time you enter it. That means the overall layout will be slightly different, though key events will occur at predetermined floors. For example, mini bosses have to be slain or keys to locked doors must be found. As you explore the dungeons, you might find something handy like a treasure chest, but more frequently you’ll encounter roving Shadows. Many appear like angry puddles of oil with grasping hands and theater masks, though on occasion you’ll find rare ones that look like scurrying hand monsters with comical faces. If you hit Shadows from behind, you’ll get advantage in battle and be able to attack first, but if they catch you off guard, they’ll instead get an uninterrupted turn to wallop you. Once battle is initiated, you select attacks for characters, at least if you like to directly command your team. I love controlling every aspect of my strategy, so I quickly turned off the auto battle tactics. Though if you’re feeling lazy, you can always let the game auto battle.

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Your goal is to hit foes with an attack they’re weak to. This could be a physical attack, status effect, or more frequently an elemental attack. Once you’ve discovered their weakness, it will be displayed via the Analyze command. When you hit a foe with their weakness, they’ll become downed. If you down every foe, then your team of heroic ruffians will rush them, doing significant damage. You might also trigger optional attacks from your allies if you’re friendly enough with them, even ones not in your immediate party. It’s really fun and dynamic, and the tides of battle can turn rapidly. Whenever you see red Shadows, get ready to run or muster your courage, cause those are the extra hard monsters. Perhaps not as hard as FOEs from Etrian Odyssey games, but no pushover either. If you do especially well in battle, you’ll get to play a mini game with Tarot cards to acquire various benefits, such as increased experience, money, ability cards and even new Persona. If you manage to grab every card, you’ll get a Sweep Bonus, which lets you pick more cards the next time. I love the combat, and the Tarot mini game made even the hardest battles a real treat. Simply because you know that if you went into battle with the right tactics and equipment, you’d be able to beat anything. Even the incredibly challenging bosses you’ll face in the game.

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Now, most of you are probably familiar with Persona 4 Golden already. As such, I want to spend a little time talking about how it plays on Steam. First things first, it’s really nice to play the game on a bigger screen. Everything just bursts with color, especially the animated sequences. I actually noticed minute details in the background that I completely missed the first time around. The music is also fantastic, and the voice acting has never been clearer. While you have your choice of Japanese or English audio, I am really happy with the talent from the English VA team. It’s great how they spur you on during battle, as well as bringing the story to life through their energetic conversations. Though I will say, it’s important to check your display settings. I’m far from experienced modifying settings for PC games, so it took me some time to tinker and get it where I wanted. Initially the display was set to 1280 x 720, while my screen is 1920 x 1080. As a result, the character models were deformed initially. Thankfully, once I adjusted it accordingly, the models had the normal proportions I remembered. Funny enough, the squash effect only applied to in-game models, not the animation or static art for character heads.

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As for the controls, you have a couple options for playing Persona 4 Golden on Steam. If you have an Xbox controller, you’re more than welcome to use one. I purchased a new one right after I received this version of the game, and it worked pretty effortlessly, with one proviso. I don’t like how the camera controls were set to airplane mode, AKA inverted. Though if you want, you can use the bumpers instead of the right joystick to slowly pan the camera. But, if you’re a dedicated PC gamer, you can also play Persona 4 Golden with keyboard and mouse. At first I was worried about this setup, but I actually really grew to appreciate it. Though the game doesn’t explain all the controls for keyboard / mouse, they’re pretty intuitive. You can use WASD to move, F to access shortcuts, Z for map, C to return, click to select options, press spacebar or enter to investigate things, and Tab to go to the menu and adjust settings. And quick note, though I didn’t rely on the shortcuts feature much on Vita, it was invaluable this time around. While gamepad is probably the best way to play, I often was too lazy to dig it out. In the 30 something hours I played the game, more than half was spent playing with keyboard and mouse.

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While I like a lot of how Persona 4 Golden played on Steam, there were some small hiccups. One is that the graphics blur a bit during character movement. Whenever they’re running or gesturing, it’s very noticeable. I checked, and that’s also the case on the Vita. It’s just much more noticeable on a bigger screen. Even though I tweaked the V Sync and other settings, I couldn’t get the blurriness to completely go away. Thankfully it was something I was able to ignore for the most part. Something I’m less forgiving about is a small glitch I encountered multiple times. I would load up the game after hours of playing it, and suddenly the display wasn’t how I had set it. I managed to fix it by quitting and restarting, but I’m a bit surprised it persisted. Hopefully that will be addressed soon. The biggest surprise for me was that there wasn’t any new content in this version of the game. Granted, it’s hard to improve near perfection, but I half hoped there was a new dungeon or something. Or even just a graphically improved port. But, it’s hard to complain when I’ve been having so much fun.

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Visually, the game holds up really well. Especially considering it’s a Vita port of a PS2 game. Though the character models are a little rough, I love the design of all the characters, Shadows and assorted NPCs. Take the creepy flair of “The Nose”, or the eye catching design of Teddie. Everything looks great, and that goes double for the animated sequences. On the topic of audio, it actually held up even better. The voice acting is sharp and clear, and the music is outstanding. Every track fits the action perfectly, and the dungeon music is especially entertaining. It keeps you motivated to keep playing and playing, which is good considering how long it’ll take to get the best ending.

It’s always hard improving on something like Persona 4 Golden. And while you can debate if this port succeeds, it’s still a joy to play Persona 4 Golden on Steam. Especially if you’ve always been interested but didn’t want to buy a Vita to play it. You can own the game for only $19.99 for the standard edition, or $24.99 for the deluxe with digital artbook and soundtrack, either of which is a bargain for 50+ hours of content. Put simply, the must own title for Vita owners is now a must own title for PC gamers. It’s a treat to cover this release, and I hold out hope there’s more on the way soon from the fine folks at Atlus and SEGA.

[easyreview cat1title=”Overall” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”4.5″]

Review Copy Provided by Publisher

REVIEW: Persona 4 Golden on Steam Title Persona 4 Golden

#Atlus #Persona 4 Golden #Sega #Steam

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miss-becca · 8 years ago

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exactly one year ago, my feet stepped on osakan soil for the first time.

so here we go. the final chapter of my exchange as documented on this blog. i’ve been procrastinating this for 24 days. i’ll do my best to pick up where i left off and limit my overly nostalgic feelings haha.

mid-january marked my first japanese snow experience. strolling out of a store with そうき, we spotted white-capped cars, and with great excitement (on my part, at least), we drove out of the parking complex into a snow-sprinkled wonderland.

i think i spent a good fifteen minutes iterating variations of すごい and きれい

vince stayed with me for most of the rest of the month, and we alternated between going to sightseeing hotspots and just hanging around in warm places. basically all the photos i have of this month are food, but that pretty accurately describes how we spent those days. (for extra captions, hover your cursor over the photos!)

double birthday party bowling! ビンスと陽介誕生日おめでとう！楽しかったよ！

the lead-up to v day could be seen everywhere <3 <3

special trip to kobe just to eat some of this glorious beef

and then dessert and the hardest i’ve laughed in a quiet public place ever

guess who’s is who’s! ;)

最後のご飯うううう

dessert became an integral meal

more special beef for our last lunch

we also had the pleasure of touristing around osaka and the surrounding regions with all our fellow australians who were holiday traveling :D somehow, i have no photos of the big group trip to usj though…

sorry for taking the only gudetama with a visible butt!

hello kitty cafe with cute cakes

and cute drinks (and the most ear-destroying song played on repeat for the whole 45 minute duration that we were there)

tempura after a day traveling kyoto!

saying bye to vince was pretty tough, but そうき made it better with a lovely evening spent playing with his dachshund アンディ (andy <3), homemade food and then an annual mountain burning night in nara. そうきありがとう！その日はめっちゃ楽しかったよ！（ううう）

めっちゃ美味しかった！そうきありがとう！！

奈良の若草山焼き (wakakusa yamayaki – the burning of wakakusa mountain)

shiga february 3: 大学の授業全部終わった後、そうきと陽介とあいかと一緒に雪山に行った！天気めっちゃ良くて皆んなベックにボードの方法を教えたし、楽しかったよ！皆んなと一緒に遊んだの時間、いつも覚えてる！ありがとう！<3 <3 <3

after my classes finished, soki, yosuke and aika took me to the snow! the weather was fantastic and everyone patiently taught me how to manage myself on a snowboard, and the day was spectacular! plus, yay for onsen at the end to ease us out of the cold. ^_^

めっちゃ天気よかった <3 this weather though

the top of my first slope T_T (みんななんでこれは最初の…）

あいか〜コーヒーありがとう！

nagoya february 10-14: my very last trip inside of japan, spent with the very best company and i couldn’t have loved this city more. we spent our days roaming around, enjoying the vibrant atmosphere, オシャレ cafes and pretty shopping streets. at nagoya castle, i had my first voluntary guided tour from a lovely man called sho, who gave us (in english!!) the history and stories of the structure as he walked with us through the grounds. on our way out, we caught the castle ninja (sora-san~) and he pointed us to visit the world’s largest planetarium, somehow hidden away in humble nagoya. added to the magic of city lights and stumbling across fairy-light heaven, i fell far more in love than i could have ever expected <3

味噌カツ！the must-have nagoya specialty: miso katsu!

pretty city

making fake meals at an art expo

goodnightmare bear

cake #1

cake #2

nagoya castle

the only one with a dry moat

reconstructions

world’s largest planetarium (though we arrived a few minutes after closing time…)

味噌カツ#2

stumbling upon pretty lights is love

didn’t find cindy but…

cake #3 (of many)

i discovered a weakness for city lights

nagoya tower <3

my first omikase sushi!

dessert at pablo’s

i chose to stay in osaka for the remainder of my time in japan, hoping that everyone would have a little time to catch up on more time. i’m forever thankful to everyone who accommodated my unorganised schedule so that we could meet again, and to everyone who did their best even if it didn’t work out in the end like we planned. here’s a photographic (food-centric) ode to those days. ;) (bonus points if you can identify which photo is from our date based on the food i ate! and sorry if i forgot to take a picture of my food and our date isn’t represented here..)

just had to add this brutalised guitar in

and the creepiest coat hangers we found in a dingy cafe

speaking of last times, there were a lot of inwardly teary moments as i realised the year was truly wrapping up.

1. my very last day of undergraduate uni (if credit transfers go okay…)

from my favourite on-campus cafeteria

past the gym

the front gate (took me a solid 5 minutes to get this panaroma without butchering people’s passing cars)

the top of my morning struggle hill

my least favourite red light to wait at

i’ve run through this ground so many times on late mornings (also, the skyyy)

ただいま！tadaima!

and walking home for the last time from suita campus

2. my final (and fifteenth) visit to usj

and somehow we scored a day which was simultaneously stunning (that evening sky..) and empty. for a moment, it felt like we were the only ones there. also, hooray for parfaits.

3. my final wall mural

which was built up over the year, inspired by the desire to cover my overly yellow door. taking this down was probably one of the hardest things i had to do over the year.

4. my final glimpse of osaka

and then i found myself in my beloved hong kong; surrounded by family and family-cooked food. <3

my favourite restaurant in this whole country is my uncle’s house

the feast that mum and my aunty cooked for me <3

mum’s special dish <3 <3

i never truly appreciated the beauty of hong kong before, but this time the skyscrapers somehow had me speechless. and of course, the dimsims.

here again, i was thankful to the people who met me in my few free days for quick catch ups!

earl grey waffle with my cousin

green tea lava cake also with my cousin

super spicy fish with paul! ^_^

round two

a walk along the harbour to digest the food

before round three ^_^

not the usual view from victoria peak

pretty walk near cuhk

the view from cuhk

some cute streets nearby

then, my final travel spot: taiwan!

かおりちゃん、ありがとう！

goose! <3

of course, taiwanese night market is a must

not-too stinky tofu

pretty rock structures at yehliu

waterfall near jiufen

this place smelt like very rotten eggs

but it was pretty!

my first volcano visit!

beautiful kaohsiung

愛河！the love river <3 <3

cijin island with my bby!

accidentally finding this place

kaohsiung railway museum

pier 2

snoopy exhibition

if you look carefully, it’s actually the leaves that are pink!

lotus lake and the famous dragon tiger pagodas

after one more night in hong kong, spent not packing my bags (to my mother’s dismay), i boarded my plane back to the homeland.

this made me look forward to being home more

and australia really did give me a heartwarming welcome me back. <3

chicken skewers

chicken salt potato on a stick

custard bun

projected portraits on the back of the australian national portrait gallery

cloud of fairy lights and lightbulbs

on my first weekend here, canberra’s annual enlightened festival was finishing up. i was reminded of how wonderful my friends are when three phone flashlights backed me up so i could take that photo of the chicken skewers (please take a moment to appreciate it). <3 thanks guys <3 :3 i am happy here. so to end this joyously, here are some of my happysnaps of my week and a half back in one of the places i’m glad to call home.

sticky rice mango with mum

tacos with my dizz

pretty new university buildings!

oh the beautiful sky

day 346 (and then another 24): さようならではないとしってるけど、悲しいで〜 from home to home exactly one year ago, my feet stepped on osakan soil for the first time. so here we go.

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