shinigami’s blog

I’ve been away from t3h Internets for a long time, watching old(er) anime series. And then when I got back online the closed beta invitations started dropping in my inbox. Sweet, but very time consuming. So time consuming that right now I’m only watching anime series that I know to be good based on the manga… i.e. Bamboo Blade, Shion no Ou, and Blue Drop.

PART 1:
DOMO aka Dream of Mirror Online, a Chinese MMORPG with cell shaded graphics and the ambition to promote social interactions. These and the fact that you can practically start over if you are unhappy with your character (change class) without losing the progress you made (you can still use the skills) are some aspects that I think make DOMO appealing for an anime fan, even if s/he is not a MMORPG player.
DOMO has 2 English versions: GameTribe i.e. European version that doesn’t even have a proper site for DOMO yet (US IPs blocked), Closed Beta recently over, and Aeria, still in CB. GameTribe’s Open Beta will probably start earlier, but I’m not going to be on it. The rant about Aeria being preferable is at the end of the post.
UPDATE: Aeria was forced to block (some) Europeans ID.

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2 moons is a free MMORPG, released by Acclaim, originally the Korean game Dekaron. Acclaim advertised it as a 17+ game, “totally brutal”, “extreme violence” - the mobs will die in different ways, depending on the damage you inflict - and “heart-pumping action” - read: open PvP.

The open beta started out promising enough (July 30th) with the server working fine by the time I downloaded the game and logged in. There was and still is some lag, but not more so than expected. No complaints here.

I have several complaints, however. (Duh. Why else would I rant here?)
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For reasons that I never bothered to think over, I was less than impressed with .hack//roots (though I did keep watching it, which is more than I can say about .hack//Legend of Twilight Bracelet). Now, I am a Bee Train fan, and a .hack//sign fan. One of the reasons I bought a PS2 was that maybe the .hack games will include some stuff on the Sign characters after all.

Even as I’m typing this I’m listening to the .hack//liminality OST.
But my lack of Wow-ness at Roots was not (all) about music, as I like ALI Project.

No, when I started on Roots, what was wrong was the characters. I’m not saying I outright disliked them, but compared to Sign, they had no charm, no charisma, no mystery. Haseo’s attitude did nothing to draw me in, the random ex-members saying “let’s meet to talk” and then saying nothing was not mysterious, but annoying, and Ovan was too much of a “Kick ass cryptic character with a big gun” to be compelling. Oh, and Tabby The Silly Busty Catgirl sucked.

Had it been anything but the .hack franchise I wouldn’t have endured through all that for the story to kick in. But kick in it did, and though, again, it was no Sign, I decided to pick up .hack//G.U (Ok, and because I was sick for a long time and I wanted something to cheer me up XD).

.hack//G.U. Rebirth:

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