There's a new special bonus comic up, this one features Opal who won both the Nicest Poster award and a Special Achievement award in the 2007 PV Forum Awards, so please vote and take a look. There's a new ROM too. Oh, and don't forget the guest comic contest. Today is your last day to submit entries... Well, I might also accept any guest comics I get tomorrow as well but nothing after that. Remember, tomorrow is PV's 4th anniversary! I'll talk more about that on monday.

Can't believe I'm flying to Japan on tuesday... Even harder to believe that I'll most likely be staying there for 8 months... Anyway, monday's update will be normal. There will be no update on wednesday since I probably won't have internet access. Assuming that I get into my apartment and get internet access without any problems, the first of the guest comic contest winners should be posted on friday. At least assuming that everything goes according to plan, there's always a chance that something will go wrong and I won't have internet for a while. But let's hope not.

Now, time for one last review. Well, actually there's one more game I want to review after this one but it'll probably be quite a while before I have time. Anyway, I'm running kinda late already so I'm gonna have to make this quick.

God of War is an action game for the PS2. It isn't the type of thing I usually play but I've been trying to play big games in a variety of genres to broaden my scope a bit. For the younger players out there, keep in mind that it's rated M for a reason (lots of blood and violence and a few topless women).
Graphics: God of War features some fairly good looking models that animate very smoothly. The environments are pretty nice too. Everything is in 3D and it's a mix of realtime and prerendered stuff. Since God of War is a bit old (after all, GoWII is already out) it's certainly not one of the most impressive looking games on the PS2 but it still manages to hold its own.
Sound: There's some good but not particularily memorable music and the sound effects are spot on. The whole game is voiced. There aren't a whole lot of voice actors (since there aren't a lot of talking characters) but they all sound pretty much perfect.
Story: GoW's plot is based on Greek mythology although there's a lot of liberties taken. The game starts with a narrator telling how the main character, Kratos, cast himself into the sea, hoping that death would finally free him from his madness. The plot then jumps three weeks into the past. This is where the bulk of the game takes place and you play through the events leading to the prologue. Kratos, the Ghost of Sparta, is a loyal servant of the gods. The opening area, which has a bit of tutorial mixed in, has Kratos on a quest to destory the hydra. After that the main plot begins as he is sent to Athens to try and save the city from destruction at the hand of Ares, the god of war. But defeating a god is no easy task. Along the way Kratos's own dark past will be revealed. It's a dark and violent story but a pretty good one.
Gameplay: GoW is an action game. You'll spend the majority of your time fighting off hordes of monsters but there's also a decent amount of platforming (some of which can get rather frustrating *cough*spinning blade areas*cough*) and the occasional puzzle. Kratos can run, jump, perform a very useful dodge roll, and, of course, fight. When it comes to fighting Kratos uses the Blades of Chaos, two short swords that are attached to his arms by chains, allowing him to do some fancy swining combos. You've got your basic and strong attacks and a grab (all of which can be chained together into a variety of combos), a block (that magically protects against attacks from all directions no matter which way Kratos is facing), and several magic spells which you'll learn over the course of the game. Aside from all these moves, Kratos can also perform enemy specific special attacks (most of which are finishing moves) by performing some little button pushing mini-games. The combat is fast, fluid, bloody, and a lot of fun. There's a pretty decent amount of enemies in the game. A lot of them are just stronger versions of guys you've already fought but they've usually got enough new moves to keep things interesting.
As previously mentioned, the platforming can get rather annoying at times but it's usually decent. Your path is usually pretty linear but you'll have to do some exploring if you want to find all the hidden chests (some of which are really well hidden) to upgrade Kratos's stuff. He can get several upgrades to his health and magic guages by finding the right hiddens items scattered throughout the game. He can also upgrade his weapons and spells (to make them stronger and get new special moves) by using red orbs which are found in chests and dropped by monsters.
The main game will probably take you 8-15 hours (keep in mind that doesn't count the time you spend dieing and replaying areas) but there's several difficulty settings (which range from pretty easy to extremely hard), a bunch of unlockable stuff (mostly making of movies and the like), and an unlockable challenge mode where you can try to complete 10 special challenges to unlock alternate costumes for Kratos (which change more than just his appearance), so you can probably get two or three playthroughs out of it if you want to.
Overall: If you don't mind the violence and dark plot, God of War is a mostly fun game filled with lots challenging battles and an interesting story. While it's not for everyone, if what I've said so far sounds intriguing you might want to give it a try.

Josiah

Water World was awesome (as always) and it actually didn't rain. It was cloudy most of the day but after getting rained out the last two times I went to big outdoor attractions that I was really looking forward to, clouds weren't so bad.

And now I gotta run. See you friday!

Josiah

Friday's bonus comic is a special one featuring Artemis, one of the winners of the 2007 Pebble Version Forum Awards, so check it out when you get the chance. Meanwhile, I'm finally starting to get a bunch of good entries for the guest comic contest. If you still want to enter, this is the last week to do so so you'll have to hurry.

I'll be heading to Denver today and should be back on wednesday night. My dad and brother are going there to go to baseball games, which I'm not too interested in, but I'm using it as an opportunity to go to Water World, which is supposedly the largest water park in the country. It's probably true considering how big it is. Anyway, it's a lot of fun and I haven't been there in years. I just hope the weather is decent. Not sure exactly what my internet access will be like but wednesday's update shouldn't be affected.

I redid the Old News page a bit. Now the main Old News page only has the current year's worth of news and you can use the links near the top of the page to get to new Old News pages, one for each year (with years starting at Pebble Version's anniversaries). Speaking of Pebble Version's anniversary, it's actually this saturday. If it was a different day I'd consider doing a bonus update for the anniversary but saturday just won't work so I'll talk about the anniversary on monday instead.

See you later!

Josiah

The newest bonus comic is up and it's a special since this week begins a series of several bonus comics featuring the winners of the 2007 Pebble Version Forum Awards so go check it ou! There's a new ROM too.

I've gotten a couple more guest comics but I could still use a lot more for this contest. If you want to see old guest comics they can be found on the Extras page. Here are the rules again.
The due date is August 10th, all guest comics must be submitted on or before then.
Comics must be rated PG or G.
Comics can be on any subject but should have something to do with Pebble Version and/or Pokémon.
Comics can be hand drawn, sprites, CG, or pretty much any art style and should be submitted to me as png, jpg, or gif files.
Comics should be no more than 800 pixels wide 1200 pixels high, there are no minimum size limits.
Try and keep your file sizes at 200kb or less although if you're having trouble with that I can probably reduce the file size a bit on my own.

The next few weeks are going to be really busy for me. Updates this coming week should be normal although wednesday's might be a little late or early. The following monday should be a normal update as well (although possibly a bit late or early). After that I'll be heading to Japan so regular updates will be replaced with guest comics for a while. I can't say exactly how long the guest comics will run (probably between one and two weeks) and there's a pretty decent chance that I'll miss an update or two (that wednesday's is almost certainly going to be skipped). And to top it all off, since Japan is in a much different time zone, update times for the comic in general will probably change a bit, even after the guest comics are finished. I can't say exactly what the new update times will be until I'm actually in Japan and have my schedule figured out but chances are that all updates will end up taking place about half a day or so earlier than they do now. But yeah, more on that later. I'll be sure to keep you all up to date in these news posts.

Josiah

Gee, I've never had so much trouble getting entries for a GUEST COMIC CONTEST. Usually I get flooded with strips, this time not so much... But there's still a week and a half left to get your entries in! Remember, the winning strips get put on the main page. You can read the rules in the last news post so make some comics and e-mail them to me, ok?
Now, I've still got three more games I want to review so I might as well get to it.

Elite Beat Agents for the DS is an English sequel of sorts to the Japanese Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan!, a rythem game with a wacky sense of humor. Keep in mind that EBA isn't Ouendan in English but a full on sequel with completely new songs (American stuff as opposed to JPop) and some new features. Of course, if you haven't played Ouendan then that really doesn't matter too much.
Graphics: In Elite Beat Agents you've got a mix of 2D animated movies that play on the top screen. These are the story scenes, introducing your missions, showing what's going on with the person you're helping, and finally the ending. This are bright colorful anime style and look really good. On the bottom screen you've got your 3D in the forum of the agents. They're pretty good looking for being on the DS and they animate really well. In the end, the graphics won't take your breath away but they provide a solid and enjoyable visual experience.
Sound: Being a rythem game, the music is easily the most important element of the game. There are 19 songs (3 are hidden and have to be unlocked) and, while they certainly aren't CD quality, they sound quite good, especially with a nice pair of headphones. The music is a big mix with some classic rock like Jumping Jack Flash, ABC, and YMCA, newest music like La, La, and Without a Fight, and stuff in between. With such a diverse collection you're pretty much guarenteed to find some songs you like, although there's also a decent chance of running into some ones you don't like much. In the end, it's a solid but not quite spectacular set. The sound effects and handful of voice acting are a bit goofy but work well.
Story: What, a rythem game with a story? Yep, and it's a pretty funny story at that. Have you ever been in a really tough situation (say driving a pregnant lady to the hospital in record time, getting stranded on a deserted island, or trying to fight off a bunch of goofy bandits), the kind where things are so bad that you want to just put your head back and yell "HELP!"? From their hightech control center the EBA monitors the world for those calls for help and dispatches agents who arrive on the scene moment later. Then, instead of actually helping the person, (like giving the people stranded on the island a ride to the mainland) they strike up a song and dance routing to help the person in trouble do their best. There isn't much of an overarching plot but each mission has its own story which is told through an intro, several story scenes throughout the song (that change depending on your performance) and an ending, which is also performance based. They're generally corny but amusing.
Gameplay: Now you might not think a music game would work all that well on a portable system, not with the likes of DDR and Guitar Heo requiring large special controllers. But ignore those thoughts and give EBA a try. The action takes place on the touch screen where the agents are dancing to help the person in the top screen. There's three basic actions you need to perform. The first, and most important, is tapping. Numbered circles will appear on the screen with larger circles surrounding them that shrink, you need to tap the circle when the larger one is the same size as the main circle (or at least as close as you can get). Then there's sliding, where you need to slide the stylus along a path at the correct speed. And finally the spinner, where you use the stylus to spin a wheel around as fast as you can. Now that might seem simply enough (and it is at first) but later in the game you can easily have over ten things on the screen at once, all of which you need to do at the proper time and in the proper order. It can get incredibly hectic, and rather hard to follow, in the harder levels. The goal of all this is to keep your beat meter from running out. It drains constantly over time and drops even more if you miss something you're supposed to hit. Correctly timing your taps and getting your slides and spins right fills the guage a bit and gives you points (the better your timing, the more life and points you get).
The game is divided into missions (typically you'll have the choice of three or so missions at a time and once you clear them all more will open up). Each mission opens with a little story scene showing the person you need to help (they're skippable too if you've already seen them too many times). Then the dancing starts. The songs are typically divided into four sections (broken up by story scenes that change depending on how well you're doing) with a final ending scene at the end (duh) before you've giving your final score and rank. There are 16 regular songs and 3 unlockable bonus songs and four difficulty levels so the game will keep you busy for a while (especially if you keep going back for a higher rank score).
Overall: Elite Beat Agents is a surprisingly fun and engaging rythem game despite being on a portable system. The game starts out simple and graduatlly ramps up to really hard as you progress through the various difficulty levels and with four difficulty levels there's enough to keep you busy for quite a while. The music selection, while not perfect, isn't bad and you're sure to find at least some songs that you really like. If you like rythem games, or if you just like the unique, fun, and quirky, and have decent reflexes this is one DS game you don't want to miss.

Josiah

Attention Diamond/Pearl players, I'd like to get one of those official Darkrai they gave away in Japan at the 10th Pokémon movie premere (the ones that know Special Roar and Rend of Time). If you've got one and are interested in trading drop me an e-mail. I can trade anything from the first 386 pokémon (all legit) (including some level 100s and some shinies).

Friday's bonus comic is there for all to see (or at least everyone who votes for Pebble Version on Top Web Comics). More importantly, I still need lots of guest comics for that guest comic contest I'm holding. There's only two weeks left to get your entries to me. Here's the rules in case you forgot.
The due date is August 10th, all guest comics must be submitted on or before then.
Comics must be rated PG or G.
Comics can be on any subject but should have something to do with Pebble Version and/or Pokémon.
Comics can be hand drawn, sprites, CG, or pretty much any art style and should be submitted to me as png, jpg, or gif files.
Comics should be no more than 800 pixels wide 1200 pixels high, there are no minimum size limits.
Try and keep your file sizes at 200kb or less although if you're having trouble with that I can probably reduce the file size a bit on my own.

Now for another review. Pokémon Battle Revolution isn't so more like the N64 Stadium games than the GC Colisseum games (there's no story mode, just lots and lots of battles). If you want to battle pokémon in 3D or get extra copies of some rare items it's not bad but, considering what you get, it's a bit overpriced.
Graphics: If you've played the Coliseeum games, you've got an idea of what to expect. All 493 pokémon are there in full 3D and looking better than ever. Of course, some things just look plain odd like how flying type pokémon aren't effected by ground moves even when they're standing on the ground during the attack, some hovering pokémon are effected by ground attacks, lots of pokémon hover for no apparant reason (fish for example), and if freeze a flying pokémon or put it to sleep it stays in the air despite not being able to flap its wings... Anyway, all the pokémon look a bit better than before and the male/female differences are visable. The attack effects look a bit better to and now you can actually see the pokémon hit each other with some of the attacks (a nice change from past games) but not all of them... The stadiums look a lot nicer this time around as do the trainers, and they've got a lot more animation this time around. Speaking of trainers, you trainer is customizable. Although the trainer making system is a bit limited you can still make a pretty good looking and unique trainer...after you buy all the different clothes, features, etc (this takes time so you're gonna spend quite a while with a pretty generic trainer)...
Sound: The music is decent but rather repititious and the sound effects are decent but nothing particularily great either. There's also an announcer this time around who gives a play by play during the battles. Like most computer announcers, some of his comments are right on, others not so much... Plus, while it's kinda neat at first, it does tend to get repititious fairly quickly.
Story: There really isn't any plot to Battle Revolution. You're a pokémon trainer who is visiting the island of Pokétopia, a resort that specializes in all types of pokémon battles. There's no story, no NPCs to talk to, areas to explore, or anything like that. You just look at a map of the island and choose which colisseum you want to go to. More colisseums unlock as you beat the ones you already have and there is a final one and but that's about it.
Gameplay: I'm going to assume that everyone reading this knows how pokémon battles work (if you don't you have no reason to buy Battle Revolution, it's not a great intro to the series, go pick up Pokémon Diamond or Pearl instead). You'll start out making a profile (you can make your own battle pass (thing trainer card), trainer, catch phrases, etc) and copying your pokémon team over from a Diamond or Pearl cartridge (if you don't have Diamond or Pearl you use a rental pass which have their own set of borrowed pokémon but those teams aren't all that good and if you don't have Diamond or Pearl you really shouldn't buy Battle Revolution). Copying your party is a pretty quick and easy process. You wirlessly link your DS and Wii and your BR save we get a copy of all the pokémon in your D/P party and PC (yep, all your PC boxes). You can't change anything about your pokémon once their in BR but since they stay in your D/P game you can make any changes on there and then resync it with BR.
Most of the colisseums are pretty basic single or double battles. Some have special rules (randomly giving you pokémon, playing a round robin tournament, etc) but only the ones that mess with your pokémon party make much of a difference (and are a pain in the neck since a lot of the computer pokémon aren't fully evolved and have pretty lousy movesets). If you're an experienced trainer then your first time through the game will probably be pretty easy (and rather boring) aside from when you're forced to use computer picked pokémon. Fortunately, after you complete the game once a lot of the colisseums get upgraded with new rules and tougher opponents.
So what's the point of playing through all these colisseums? Beating them lets you buy more items at the store. There's a lot of stuff to modify your trainer's appearance but you can also buy stuff to take back into Diamond/Pearl (rare berries, evolution stones, TMs, hold items, and the like). You can also get a surfing pikachu.
Finally, there's the online play. Like D/P you can set up online battles with people you've traded friend codes with (note that these friend codes aren't the same as your D/P friend codes or your Wii friend codes). You've got some choices of rules and all that but battles aren't completely customizable. The main addition to online battling is random battle which pits you against a random opponent. But you have no say about who your random opponent is so you could get someone a whole lot better, or worse, than you are. You might also get someone who uses all legendaries or even hacked pokémon (although Nintendo put filters in that block some of those).
Overall: Battle Revolution lets you battle pokémon in 3D and fight random opponents online (something you can't do in D/P). Some of the colisseum battles aren't bad either. It's also a good way to get extra copies of rare items to take back into D/P. If you want the fancy battles or the spare items BR isn't a bad game but if you don't care about that stuff or don't have D/P there's no reason at all to get this game. And there's also no getting around the fact that you're paying $50 for what should have probably been a $30 game. Still, for die hard fans Battle Revolution certainly has its good points.

Josiah

There's a new voters' bonus comic and a new ROM today.

How do I keep getting behind on Pebble Version strips? Well, this time I think I just never quite got caught up. Hopefully I can get totally caught up over the weekend. So yeah, that's it for now. Look for another review or two next week.

Josiah

Only a few days left if you want to get donations in for this month. There's already a couple bucks on the guage so there's a little bit of a head start there. Now for that review.

Final Fantasy III, originally on the NES, wasn't released in the US when it first came out and got left out when the other old FF games got rereleased on the Playstation and Gameboy Advance so some people called it the lost Final Fantasy. Now it's finally gotten a US release on the DS, but this isn't just a port or even an prettied up 2D version. They remade the entire game in 3D complete with a redone script and other new content.
Graphics: For a 3D DS game, FFIII looks really good. Compared to regular consules though, it's about on the level of some of the older Playstation games. In all in 3D and, except for the couple of nice looking FMVs, there's nothing prerendered. Character are a cutesy deformed style and a little on the blocky side. Like I said though, for the DS it's pretty impressive.
Sound: Naboo Uematsu redid all the old music for this remake and it sounds great. Not my favorite FF soundtrack and you hear some tunes way too often but it's still very good music. The sound effects are kinda typical of old RPGs, which is to say adequet but kinda lame.
Story: The story has been improved since the original NES game, for example the main characters are have names and personalities now. The overall plot is fairly typical of older RPGs. Don't expect a huge epic tale full of twists and turns. There are a few twists but nothing amazing. In a nutshell, darkness is covering the land. To stop it, the crystals of light choose 4 heroes to regain their power and save the world from the darkness. Actually, if you've played Final Fantasy V you'll notice quite a lot of similarities between the stories...
Gameplay: FFIII is very much a classic old style RPG. Naturally you do the whole traveling across the overworld and stop by various towns and dungeons while fighting off random encounters thing. This was before the ATB (active time battle system) was created so it's all turn based (you tell all your characters what to do then watch and they and the monsters take their turns). Characters gain EXP from battle and level up to get better stats. The game uses a job system. As you gain the power of the crystals you'll be able to switch between more and more jobs. There's all your standard ones (White Mage, Black Mage, Knight, etc) and some more exotic ones (Viking, Geomancer, etc). Your job determins some of your stats, your special abilities, what magic you can use, and what equipment you can use. There's a pretty good selection of jobs although some of them lose their usefullness after a while. The game is fairly difficult so you'll probably have to do some leveling from time to time if you want to beat the bosses. Speaking of the difficultly, there's no save points. You can only save on the world map. Well, you can quick save any time outside of battle but since quicksave data gets deleted once you load it, it's only useful if you need to stop playing in the middle of a dungeon, not if you get killed. So yeah, leveling is a good thing if you don't want to have to redo a lot of areas.
You can control the entire game with a stylus or just use the d-pad and buttons, the second screen is typically used for menus, maps, and the like. You can also send e-mail to various NPCs (who may reply with useful or not so useful info) other FFIII players via local wireless or Wi-Fi, which is rather useless...except that you can only unlock the new sub-quests and stuff by sending a bunch of e-mails to real people so you kinda have to if you want to get the last job class, get the ultimate weapons, and fight a ridiculously powerful optional boss (as in, you need to be strong enough to beat the final boss and then gain another 30 levels or so).
Overall: Final Fantasy III is a pretty cool remake of a classic NES RPG. However, since it's a classic NES RPG be prepared for an old style battle system, lack of save points, difficult battles, and lots of leveling. And don't expect a story on the level of the newer FFs either. Still, if you like (or at least don't mind) old school gameplay Final Fantasy III is probably the best RPG on the DS.

Josiah

As usual, you can vote any time to see Friday's bonus comic. And remember that there's a guest comic contest going on! I'd really like enough good guest comics to last for a week or two so please give it a shot. Here's the rules in case you forgot or missed them the first time.
The due date is August 10th, all guest comics must be submitted before then.
Comics must be rated PG or G.
Comics can be on any subject but should have something to do with Pebble Version and/or Pokémon.
Comics can be hand drawn, sprites, CG, or pretty much any art style and should be submitted to me as png, jpg, or gif files.
Comics should be no more than 800 pixels wide 1200 pixels high, there are no minimum size limits.
Try and keep your file sizes at 200kb or less although if you're having trouble with that I can probably reduce the file size a bit on my own.

So, that trip I mentioned on Friday, there was a last minute change of plans and I ended up staying home so updates this weeks should be totally normal. I don't really mind. I probably could have insisted on going if I really wanted to but I was rather indifferent about it so I left the choice up to someone else.

A lot happened this weekends. The two main things being a good friend of mine getting married (gee, that's the second friend of mine to get married, makes me feel old...) and the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Harry Potter has been my favorite series for years and, after book 6, I was dying to find out how things would end. Following my usual tradition, I started reading saturday night (couldn't do it on friday night or saturday during the day because it was shabbat (aka the sabbath)), read until I really late, got a few hours of sleep, then got up and kept reading until I finished it. I can't really say much of anything about the plot without spoilers and I shouldn't have to say this but if you've never read a Harry Potter book Deathly Hallows is not the place to start. If you don't read the series in order you miss out on a lot and will have serious trouble understanding what's going on in the later books. Anyway, if any of you were worried that the ending wouldn't live up to the rest of the series, you don't have to. Deathly Hallows is dark (far more dark and mature than any of the previous books) and often sad but it's a great story and brings the tale of Harry and his friends to a fitting close while tieing up all the loose ends, answering all of the big questions left from the previous books, and (as Rowling promised) revealing pretty much all the backstory you could want.
As nice as it is to finally know the end of the story, I'm sad to see it end. Like I said before, Harry Potter has been my favorite series since not long after I read the first book and few things could get me as excited as a new HP book. It's kinda said to think that there there won't be any new stories of Harry and Hogwarts for me to look forward to. I hope Rowling keeps writing though, she mentioned wanting to try her hand as a mystery novel, I'm sure she'd be good at it.
You know, quite a lot of my favorite series (books, movies, and games) have either ended recently or are going to end pretty soon. Sigh... I hope I can find some great new series , if not then in another year or there won't be many good stories for me to look forward to (since the vast majority of the stuff I've been following will be over). Of course I can always go back and re read/watch/play my old favorites over again, which I love doing, but it's not quite the same as something new and unexpected.

That's all for now. Look for a new review on wednesday.

Josiah

There's a new voters' bonus comic and a new ROM today. And, if you still haven't read monday's update, there's a guest comic contest going on so you might want to read the rules and give it a go. The more entries the better!

And I'm going on a trip again... I'll be leaving early sunday morning and won't be back till monday or tuesday of the following week. My family is driving to Chicago for a conference. Not exactly something I'm looking forward to. The conference might be intersting, or it might just get on my nerves (these type of things are usually a mixed bag for me) and that's a whole lot of driving. I mean, sure I can read Harry Potter 7 since I won't have time to read much of it on saturday (can't wait though!) and I can play games on my DS and all that. But...I could also do that stuff at home where it'd be a lot more comfortable. At least a friend of mine is going, maybe we can hang out or something.
Anyway I have absolutely no idea what my internet access is going to be like on this trip (especially since I'll be staying in several different hotels). I'll do my best to update PV just like normal but depending on how the whole internet situation goes some or all of the updates may end up being posted a littler earlier or later than usual or even skipped entirely (although I'll try to avoid that). Also, it'll probably take me a bit longer than usual to answer e-mail, post on the forums, and the like.

Well, I'll see you monday, I hope. Enjoy Harry Potter 7!

Josiah

If you missed monday's news post you really should scroll down the page a little bit and read it since it contains a bit announcement about me (which will have some, but hopefully not too much, impact on Pebble Version). There also information about the upcoming guest comic contest. You only have till August 10th to get your submissions in so you'd better get started. Now for a review.

Phoenix Wright Justice for All is the second game in the Phoenix Wright series. Like PW Ace Attorney, it started out as a Japanese GBA game and was later remade for the DS. While you could play JFA first without too much, you'll get more out of the story if you play the games in order.
Graphics: Justice for All looks pretty much exactly like Ace Attorney. In fact, quite a lot of areas and character art was pulled straight from AA (especially the courtroom stuff). Nothing wrong with that though, the graphics are really about as good as you can get with that art style and they look great. The backgrounds are nice and detailed and the characters are lively with tons of animations.
Sound: Like the graphics, some of the music and sound effects were pulled straight from AA. But that keeps things consistant and they sound good. There's some new music too, it's not bad but it's nothing incredible either. The series is still screaming for voice acting but I suppose that just isn't practicle on the DS.
Story: JFA picks up a year after the end of AA (well, actually the first case takes place a bit later than that but then the second case jumps back to 1 year after AA and the others continue from there). You still play the roll of Phoenix Wright, a defense attorney with a knack for picking apart witnesses' testimonies. There are 4 cases this time around, one short intro case (although it's longer than the intro case in AA) and three full cases. Each case has its story as you work to find the truth behind a murder and clear your client but there's also the main story running through the whole game. Not to give much away but Phoenix and his partner Maya (a spirit channeler in training) reunite and are forced to face off against a new prosecuter, the daughter of their old enemy Von Karma. There's lots of interesting new characters and returning characters as well. Like AA, JFL features some very engaging cases that of full of strange twists, memorable characters, and hillarious dialogue.
Gameplay: If you've played AA, you'll be able to dive right into JFA. Like in the past games, cases span multiple days. You'll spend half the day investigating the crime scene and various other areas, searching for clues, and interviewing people. The rest of the day is spent in court grilling witnesses and trying to find the mistake and lies in their testimonies. If you want a full rundown of how this works read my review of Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney.
JFA only has two major changes from AA. First off, you can now present not only evidence but people's profiles as well. Second, and most important, is the psyche lock system. During the second case Phoenix will gain an item that lets him tell when people are hiding something (this only works during investigations, not trails). To find out what secrets are hidden behind their psyche locks, you'll needs to challenge them and correctly answer questions and present evidence to force them to talk. It's not a huge change but it's nice to be able to force some of the uncooperative people give up their secrets. The other changes are minor and there are vey few of them (for example, the life guage is done differently, which can make thing a bit more difficult at times).
Overall: If you didn't like Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney, Justice for All won't change your mind. It's still a fairly slow moving heavily text based game. On the other hand, if you liked the first game, JFL features more puzzling cases complete with some great new characters (and many old favorites), an excellent plot, and plenty of laugh out loud dialogue. In a nutshell, if you liked the first game, JFL won't disapoint.

Josiah

Friday's bonus comic is up if you haven't seen it yet.

Now, I promised a lot of reviews and some big announcements after I get back from PA. We'll start out with the biggest piece of news. I got a job! And it's no ordinary job either. I'm going to be an assistant English teacher in Japan! Assuming that my visa application goes through (which it should) I'll be leaving in mid August (the semester starts the beginning of September but I have a couple weeks for training and to learn my way around first) and teaching at an elementary school in Nogi (a town in Tochigi Prefecture around 80 minutes from Tokyo). My contract goes until the end of March and assuming that I don't renew it (which might happen but, for now, I'm not planning on it) I'll probably spend a few weeks after that touring a bit before heading back home to look for a game job (since I really want to make my career in game design and/or writing).
So that's my big news, I'm kinda excited and kinda nervous but it's only around 8 months, not all that long when you think about it... Plus it'll be a really intersting experience and should really improve my Japanese. Now some of you may be wondering how this is going to affect Pebble Version. The short answer is, hopefully not much. I've been promised an apartment with broadband and I plan to keep updating PV three times a week if at all possible. Update times, however, might change a bit. Japan is something like 15 hours difference from where I am now so the update schedule will likely change a bit. But I won't really be able to figure that out until I'm there so I'll talk about it more later.

That said, I'll probably be pretty busy when I first go to Japan (really long plane flight, moving in, trying to get learn my way around, adjust, and all that) so there's a decent chance that I'll miss an update or two. Plus, since I'll probably be pretty busy for the first week or two that I'm there, I'm holding a GUEST COMIC CONTEST so there'll be plenty of stuff for your guys to read until I have time to make new comics. Now for the rules.
The due date is August 10th, all guest comics must be submitted before then.
Comics must be rated PG or G.
Comics can be on any subject but should have something to do with Pebble Version and/or Pokémon.
Comics can be hand drawn, sprites, CG, or pretty much any art style and should be submitted to me as png, jpg, or gif files.
Comics should be no more than 800 pixels wide 1200 pixels high, there are no minimum size limits.
Try and keep your file sizes at 200kb or less although if you're having trouble with that I can probably reduce the file size a bit on my own.

And that's all for today. I'll talk more about this in the future. And expect plenty of photos and comments on Japan while I'm over there.

Josiah

There's a new bonus comic up and a new ROM.

I'm back in CO but I'm still catching up on things (particularily Pebble Version related stuff) so the announcements, reviews, and the like, will have to wait until next week when I'll hopefully be caught up again.

See you then!

Josiah

I'm not in a great mood right now and on top of that I have to wake up before 5AM and then spend most of the day flying back home. Long story short, either the weather hates me or my luck is getting worse. I mean really, it had to rain on the two worst days... Heck it could have rained every other day of my vacation and I wouldn't have cared as long as those two days where good... Anyway, between the whole dial-up thing, vacation stuff, and some other random things I wasn't able to get a comic done for today so instead here's on of my favorite guest comics from a while back. Remember, you can read all the old guest comics on the Extras page.

See you friday.

Josiah

Please remember to vote and see friday's bonus comic!

I'm still on vacation and still stuck with dial-up. Won't be back home till wednesday evening. But there's lots of big stuff coming up shortly after I get back including several reviews, a big announcement, and an not quite so big announcement about some PV related stuff.

Josiah

The new bonus comic up is so please click on the TWC banner or button to vote then just confirm your vote to see the bonus comic. There's a new ROM too. And that's it for now. Dial-up is still as much "fun" as ever. See you monday.

Josiah

Well, maybe not joys... The only good thing I can say about dial-up is that, as a last resort, it works. So yeah, don't expect me to say a whole lot until I get back to CO and my broadband connection.

Josiah

Top Web Comics hasn't always been working this weekend but the new bonus comic is there if you can get a vote in.

As previously mentioned, I'm heading to PA to visit my grandparents. I'll be back a week from wednesday. PV should update normally while I'm on vacation although updates may end up being a few hours earlier or later than normal. I probably won't be able to spend a whole lot of time online though so it might take me a bit longer than usual to respond to e-mails, post on the forums, and the like.

I was hoping to finish Twilight Princess before I left but I didn't quite make it. See, I was trying to do pretty much everything in the game. And it was going pretty well. Did the optional dungeon, got all the pieces of heart, finished most of the mini-games, etc... But I ran into a couple snags. The main one being the Poe quest. See, there's 60 poes in the game that you have to hunt down to finish the quest. I got stuck at 59. I checked some guides but they didn't seem to help since I could swear that I killed all 60 poes that are listed in the guides...but my in game counter says otherwise. I checked the ones I was a little iffy on but they were already dead. So, that leaves me with the option of abandoning the quest or taking a guide and visiting all 60 locations until I find the one I missed (a huge pain). And, thanks to all the time I wasted trying to find that last poe, I didn't have time to finish the game. So the last little bit will have to wait till I get back. Which isn't that big of a deal but it is kinda annoying. Well, guess I'll have plenty of time to decide if I really want to track down that last poe or not...

Josiah

The weekly bonus comic is up! And there's a new ROM too.

I'll be heading to PA next week to visit my grandparents. I'll be leaving on monday and I should be back sometime on wednesday. I'll have internet access (although probably not very good internet access) so Pebble Version should update normally although updates may be a few hours earlier or later than usual. And, not to promise anything, but there should be a couple of pieces of big news not too long after I get back.

In other news, I'm nearly done with Zelda Twilight Princess. Just need to do a little more fishing and find a handful of pieces of heart and some poes before I head for the final dungeon. I'm hoping to finish it before I go to PA so look for a review soon. Despite that, I did play a little more Battle Revolution. Not enough to say much more about the game though, other than that the trainer AI isn't all that smart. Not that it ever really was but Diamond/Pearl seemed to take it up a couple notches, BR not so much. I mean when the enemy pokémon infatuates mine then uses the same move for the next two rounds (despite the fact that I'm already infatuated and all) you can tell they're not very smart. Kinda annoying but maybe it'll improve when I get to the harder coliseums.

Well, that's about all I want to talk about right now. See you monday!

Josiah

There's a new ROM. Plus I added a couple more comics to the Links page that I didn't get around to last time.

I picked up Pokémon Battle Revolution yesterday. But since I got it rather late in the day I only had time to play for about half an hour so I can't say a whole lot about it yet, but I'll talk about what I can. If you've played Coliseum or XD, BR is kinda like those but it has more in common with the Stadium games on the N64. First off, I have to say that, for what you get, the game seems a little overpriced. $30 would have probably been about right but $50... Although, Circuit City is currently selling it for $40 (but just for a few days I think) so you might want to look there if you want a copy.
Anyway, let's start with what you can do in BR. First off, you can battle in 3D using teams of pokémon rented from the game or copyed from Diamond or Pearl. The graphics are a nice improvement over the Gamecube games (especially the environments) and some of the graphical highlites include pokémon that actually hit each other, trainers that do more than just stand there, and customizable trainers. Sounds have been improved too, well, the music and effects aren't much different but now you've got an announcer calling the play by play during battles, which I find rather neat. There's a lot of different ways to battle to. The game sports a variety of Coliseums where you battle a series of AI trainers. You unlock new Coliseums as you complete others and some of them even have special rules (haven't had much experience with them yet myself but I've heard about them). Winning the Coliseums also earns you points you use to buy hold items, TMs, and rare berries which can then be transfered to D/P. Aside from fighting the computer, you can also battle your friends online (via yet another set of friend codes) and also battle random people (something you can't do in D/P). Haven't tried the random online battles yet myself but it sounds like fun (although I've heard that, despite some filters put in by Nintendo, there's a lot of people on there using hacked pokémon (although the filters are supposed to block at least the worst hacks)).
Now for what you can't do in BR. There's no story to play through, the single player mode is just a series of Coliseums. Your pokémon also don't earn experience. Basically you're playing for points to trade for items to take back into D/P. There's nothing amazing on the list but if you need extra copies of some of the rarer hold items, TMs, or berries it's not a bad deal. Plus you can get Magmorter, Electvire, and a Surfing Pikachu. You can set various rules for Wi-Fi and other non AI battles but there probably aren't as many options as you'd like.
So, what all did I do? I started off by making a new game and copying my pokémon from Diamond (it literally copies so they're still in your DS game, unfortunately you can't change your pokémon from BR iteself but you can change them in your DS game then recopy them easily enough since it only takes a couple minutes and copies all the pokémon both in your party and your PC boxes). Then I made a trainer. Which was rather disapointing. There's supposed to be a lot of customization options but you need to buy them with points you win so you have to start out with one of several generic trainers. Anyway, I spent most of the time typing in custom phrases for my trainer to say in battle (which takes a while without a keyboard) then did a few easy rounds in one of the first Coliseums. And that was all I had time for. I'll talk more later once I've had time to put in a few hours.
Anyway, BR probably isn't for everyone. If you want to battle random people online or are dying to see your pokémon in 3D you might want to take a look. Plus it's not a bad deal if you want a whole bunch of good AI trainers to fight or need to get your hands on Electvire and Magmorter (a pain to get in the main game), a legit surfing Pikachu, and some spare items. Still, unless some of those things seriously interest you of you're a major Pokémon fan, $50 is a little steep for what you get.

Josiah

Friday's bonus comic is there for everyone to see (well everyone who votes anyway) and there's a new ROM. Plus I added several new comics to the Links page. I've been reading most of them for quite some time but just kept forgetting to add them but a couple I only discovered recently. So if you're looking for something new to read check out the links page and see what sounds interesting, I highly recommend everything there (wouldn't read them myself if I didn't like them).

I finally completed my Nationaldex in Pokémon Diamond. Yep, all 490. And it's not just the dex entries. I actually have all 490 stored in my boxes, unevolved forms and everything, plus all 28 unowns, all three types of burmy, all three types of wormadon, both types of shellos and gastradon, and all four types of Deoxys (not to mention my shiny pokémon). Still need Darkrai, Shaymin, and Arceus but there haven't been any official giveaways yet so right now there's no way to get official ones. So, since that's done and my battle team is done I'm really just trying to get some trainer card upgrades. Already got the one for beating the Elite 4 and the one for completing the Nationaldex so that leaves winning all the contests (I'll do that before too long, just need to sit down and make a contest team), capturing 50 flags in the underground (which I can't do right now since none of my friends who own the game live anywhere near here), and getting a 100 win streak in the Battle Tower. Now the battle tower is something I can kinda do while I'm working on other stuff (I've fought so many pokémon battles that I could do it in my sleep) so I've been trying, and trying, and trying... Now I have a solid battle team (although admitedly, it was made with human opponents in mind, not battle tower guys) but every time I get a half decent streak going I lose because of bad luck. On one hand, at least it's not like the Ruby/Sapphire battle tower where every other pokémon did nothing but spam one hit KO moves and AI was non-existant. In Diamond/Pearl the enemies are smart enough to use the most effective moves they have and even employee some combos and strategies. Now that's not the thing I have a problem with, I'm all for smarther enemies, makes things more interesting. What I don't like is enemies that cheat and the battle tower cheats, a lot. For starters, someone who hacked the game discovered the at least a lot of the battle tower pokémon have max EVs in all their stats (if you don't know, EVs are an invisible stat that help determin a pokémon's max stats (it's a lot more complicated than that but I don't want to type out a whole explantion so if you want to know more do a little research online)) which is impossible for regular non-hacked pokémon. So basically all the guys you're fighting have unnatural ATK, SATK, DEF, SDEF, and SPD. Somtimes it's not all that noticable, other times it's a huge pain. Then there's the luck factor. There's lots of things in a pokémon battle that involve luck (whether or not attacks hit, critical hits, and how often some hold items activate) and the battle tower likes to tweak those things to its advantage (the more battles you win the worse it gets) so it's in no way unusual to see enemies getting multiple critical hits in a row, repeatedly hitting with unaccurate moves, repeatedly avoiding your attacks (even ones with 100% accuracy), getting saved several times in a row by a Focus Band (while I've yet to see mine do anything), and the like. So yeah, I must have done at least 10 seperate attempts at the Battle Tower so far (probably more) and have yet to get anywhere near 100 wins. Well, maybe I'll have more luck in Double Battles or Team Battles... Or maybe I should just look online, find a team made specifically for the battle tower, and give that a try.

See you wednesday!

Josiah

The new bonus comic is up! Unfortunately, due to some unforseen circumstances Shauni was unable to finish a new ROM comic in time for today.

So, I was planning on updating the Links page today but I ended up doing some site maintenence instead. Hopefully it's nothing you guys will notice (cause if you do notice that means something went wrong), just organization stuff to make things easier for me. But, if you see any broken images please let me know. In the meantime, I did add a new site to the Link Exchange. The rest of the new links will come next week.

See you monday!

Josiah

There's a new ROM today.

I'm just not in the mood to write much of anything right now. Well, I wasn't really in the mood to start with so I decided to check my Pebble Version e-mail... And saw that I had over 1600 messages (and that was in about half a day's time). Now I know I asked you guys to e-mail me about PV merchandise and I get fan mail and all that but it looked liked around 99% of that was either spam or bounced mail from spam that tried to spoof my e-mail address. I manged to create some e-mail filters that got rid of about 75% of it but that still left a heck of a lot of junk for me to go through and delete manually. Ugh... I've never gotten that much spam in such a short time before. Fortunately, my other e-mail accounts pretty much remain spam free but that's partly because I make sure they don't get out. Can't really do that with my PV e-mail though. Ugh, between this new flood of spam e-mails and all the spam bots that keep trying to make accounts on the forums (which now require me and the other mods to personally activate every new account, which stops the bots from spamming the forums but doesn't stop them from making user accounts) it's becoming a huge pain. To all the spammers out there... GET A LIFE! You're wasting people's time, productivity, and a whole lot of bandwidth trying to sell stuff that no one in their right mind would buy. I mean seriously, get a real job. And hope no one finds out what you really do cause I'm sure that quite a lot of people would love to beat up a spammer. Also, to anyone out there who actually buys stuff from spam... HOW STUPID CAN YOU GET? I mean really, aside from the fact that most of that stuff is either fake or doesn't work and you'll probably get majorly ripped off, you're supporting spammers which in turn gives them a reason to keep spamming.

So yeah, if you e-mailed my over the last day or two there's a chance I accidently deleted it while trying to get rid of all that spam so you should probably resend it. Please put Pebble Version or ROM in the subject and whatever you do don't put the word Spam in the subject. It'll help my filters seperate the real e-mails from the junk. Ugh... I. Hate. Spam. Enough said.

Josiah

This is a great time to vote and see friday's bonus comic, or even to donate to Pebble Version (see donation info below this news post). Also, if you didn't read friday's news post, please do so and send me your thoughts on PV merchandise.

So, today marks the 600th Pebble Version strip. That's a lot of comics... And, at the speed the story is progessing, it'll probably be at least three times that before Brendan and May actually finish their adventures in Hoenn. Then again, the pacing might speed up a bit, or it might not. We'll just see what happens. Anyway, I hope you've enjoyed the first 600 strips and I hope you'll enjoy the next 600 just as much. I usually save the "big speeches" for the anniversaries so that's really all I have to say about reaching 600 strips. Following tradition, every 100 strips the comic focuses on some characters besides Brendan and May for a few strips. This time, instead of checking in on the Black Suit Guys (although they'll be back before too long) or one of the groups of mystery characters, I decided it was time to see how Xain and Cali were doing. So enjoy! (On a side note, I'd be surprised if at least a few of you didn't guess that this would happen to them.)

I mentioned a couple weeks back that Illumitoon had redone the first Bobobo DVD and was offering a replacement program. While the first DVD had unedited episodes and both the original Japanese and awesome English dubs, it also had lots of problems, some minor and some pretty significant. I mean, they actually got so many complaints that they redid the DVD and replaced the old ones for free, that's saying something. Although I have to say, the fact that they did redo and offer free replacements is pretty great of them.
Anyway, I got my replacement DVD recently so I thought I'd comment on the improvements (you can see my review of the original DVD in the Old News). First off, they ditched the unskippable intro movie that used to play before the menu loaded. Now that movie was essentually a trailer for the show and not a bad one at that (although it seems a little pointless to advertise a show that you already bought the DVD of), but the unskippable part was pretty annoying after you saw it once or twice. In my opinion having anything unskippable at the beginning of a DVD (except for the FBI warning) is a bad idea. On top of that, the menus have been improved (although the audio options screen tended to act a little weird when I changed the settings, the changes worked but the menu was still kinda screwy). They also changed it so the video during the ending song isn't squashed anymore and they added versions of the opening and ending with the original Japanese text as extras.
Now, the biggest problem with the old DVD by far was the subtitles. Fortunately, they've improved significantly. First off, there's actually a proper Japanese translation this time around (the old subtitles were just the English closed captioning track). As much as I love the English dub (I think I like it better than the Japanese), it is pretty heavy localized so it's nice to be able to watch both versions. Overall, it's a decent translation. It could be a little better but there's nothing really wrong it so I can't complain. Plus, this time around the subtitles usually stay on the screen long enough for you to read them (Note: usually). The subtitles are also centered now, which makes them easier to read. Unfortunately, there's still a few problems. At a few points they can't seem to decide if they want the have the subtitles on the bottom or top of the screen, which is annoying. Plus their choice of font (well, not such much the font itself as the colot and size of the text) occasionally make it kinda hard to read against the background. Also, for some reason they decided to subtitle the sound effects (maybe their subtitler used to do closed captioning or something), which is a little annoying, and at times it's hard to tell who is saying which line. And, as one last minor annoyance, there's no subtitles for the opening or ending themes (well, actually there are but only if you watch them in the Extras section, not during the actual episodes). Still, in the end all of those problems aren't all that hard to ignore (not that they shouldn't be fixed though) but that still leaves one major problem with the subtitles, the timing. Often the subtitles don't quite sync up with the dialogue. Most of the time it's really minor (they just appear a fraction of a second early or late) so it's not that bad (though not good either). However, occasionally it will be a whole second or two off *cough*episode 2*cough* which can really make it hard to tell who is talking and what's going on (especially in such a fast moving and random show). Didn't anyone check the timing before the shipped it?
So, overall the new version of Bobobo disc 1 is a huge improvement over the old one but there's still a lot of things that Illumitoon needs to work on before they're on the same level as, well, nearly any other company that releases anime DVDs in the US. At very least they need to clean up the subtitles a bit more. Plus, while they're at it, I'd recommend firing their screener (if they even have one), any screener who can't tell if the subtitles are in sync with the audio or not isn't doing his job. And hey, if they want to go all the way I'd recommend getting a new graphic designer too. I mean the Bobobo DVD case looks really amaturish. Any half decent graphic designer (professional or not) could make something better looking than that. Personally, I'm betting they tried to save some money by not hiring a real graphic designer and just gave one of their employees a copy of Photoshop to play with.... I mean, I suppose it's ok for an amature design but it's just not good for a product that going to be sitting on store shelves along with a whole bunch of other DVDs. Ok, ok, enough about the cover... It's just that, being a semi professional graphic designer myself (my internship was as a graphic designer plus I do this comic and do a bunch of graphic images for websites and even some product lables) it's kinda hard not to notice.

Well, that's enough for today. See you wednesday!

Josiah

The new bonus comic is up, just vote to see it! And there's a new ROM too.

Ok, time for some important questions. We've been discussing this on the forums for a few days (feel free to join the discussion there if you'd like) and now it's time to pose the question to all of you. Would you be interested in buying some Pebble Version and/or ROM related stuff? T-shirts would probably come first although mouse pads and stuff like that would also be possible.
Now you're probably wondering what would be on those shirts. Well, Nintendo owns the rights to Brendan, May, and Pokémon stuff in general so I'd need their permission to sell stuff with any of that on it (which I currently don't have, maybe someday though). However, there are plenty of other things. Shirts would probably include a character (or characters), a qoute, and the new PV Logo (the one on the linking banners) Xain and Cali could be on shirts and lots of people on the forums want a shirt with the Grass Kid, there's some other ideas floating around too. You can find all the current suggestions in this forum thread.
As for ROM shirts, there's some suggestions in that same thread and Shauni is currently coming up with some potential designs.
So, are you interested? E-mail me with your thoughts. If I get a positive response Shauni and I may give it a test run and see what happens.

And that's all for now! Tune in monday for the 600th strip!

Josiah

There's a new ROM today.

I updated the Links and Link Exchange pages. Basically I went through, updated the links to sites that have moved, and deleted the links to sites that no longer exist. Actually, there still might be one dead link in there but it was working not too long ago so I decided to give it the benefit of the doubt and see if it goes back up soon. I did leave links to sites that are no longer updating but still work. Even if there aren't any new strips you can still read the archives and who knows, some of them might start updating again, it's happened before. There's also some new stuff I'd like to add to the Links page but that'll have to wait a little while.

Josiah

<Insert usual reminder to vote and see Friday's bonus comic here.> So, one more week until strip 600. And Brendan and May still haven't reached the third gym... Oh well, they'll get their eventually.
Hmm... Been a while since I plugg donations hasn't it? So, got a couple dollars to spare? If so why not donate to Pebble Version? You can find the full info below this news post but in a nutshell you can donate by Paypal (there's a button to the left and below with the donation info) or mail cash, checks, or money orders (contact me for more info if you'd like to mail a donation). Your donations help support Pebble Version by paying for hosting fees and the like plus donations lead to really cool stuff. See the donationg uage below? If it reaches at least $25 in any given month I'll write a new chapter of ROM The Novel and write commentary on 20 old strips. If the guage reaches at least $50 you get that stuff plus PV will update 5 times a week for an entire month! If it reaches $75 then you also get a new full page Zelda Comic. At $100 you get all that previously mentioned stuff and a special mystery bonus.
Even if the doantion guage doesn't get high enough to get any of that stuff, your donation won't go to waste. For every $50 worth of donations received (no matter how many months it takes) you get a new issue of Josiah's Sprite Comic Guide. And, once all the guides are done, I have a pretty cool new donation incentive planned...

If anyone out there with Pokémon Diamond/Pearl wants to trade with me, I'm looking for Magmotar, Electivire, and Manaphy. I don't care about the gender, level, or nature but they have to be legit, I don't want any hacked pokémon. If you're interested, e-mail me with which pokémon you have, your friend code, and what you'd like in return. For trade, I'll offer any of the first 386 pokémon (including Mew, Celebi, and Deoxys, but no Diamond/Pearl stuff). They're all legit. Plus I've got a few shinies (Nidoran Male, Nidorhino, and Loudred), tons of items (inclduing Master Balls, PP Maxs, and Rare Candies), and I can even trade pokémon with pokérus.

See you wednesday!

Josiah

As usual, there's a new bonus comic up.

So, not a whole lot to say right now. Still playing Pokémon Diamond. I finished all the post Elite 4 stuff ages ago but I'm not quite done filling my pokédex yet and I still need some trainer card upgrades. Playing Zelda Twilight Princess too, although I'm not that far yet (middle of the third dungeon) since I've been keeping busy with some graphic and web design work and various other stuff. Keep meaning to do some serious Guild Wars playing but it seems there's always something else to do, I'm sure I'll get to it soon though.

Other than that... I got the box set of the second season of DBZ to watch while I work on stuff. Like the first season set, Funimation did a really good job with it (improved video, sound, dual language, Japanese and US background music), as long as you're not one of the handful of people who goes into histerics when they hear that Funimation decided to redo the show in wide screen mode for some reason. I also picked up part 2 of the Prima Pokémon D/P guide. It basically includes all the stuff that was left out of part 1 including a complete pokédex, walkthroughs for the post Elite 4 stuff, complete move and item lists, full info on how to obtain all the pokémon, etc. It's actually pretty nice, although it would have been even nicer if they included it in the first guide instead of making everyone wait a month and pay another $20. Nintendo did the exact same thing with their guide. Speaking of which, their pokédex guide came out the same time as Prima's and costs about the same. While part 1 of the Nintendo and Prima guides were pretty much equivalent (it was just a matter of personal preference), I think Prima's pokédex guide is the better of the two. At very least it seems to have a decent amount of info that Nintendo's doesn't (nothing extremely important but it's still nice to have).

Have a good weekend!

Josiah

Unfortunately, there's no new ROM today but there is a new rant and monday's ROM accidently didn't end up on the main page (though it is in the archives) but it's up now if you missed it. Now for a review...

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney is a game for the Nintendo DS that has you investigating crimes and interrogating witnesses on the stand. It's actually a remake of a Gameboy Advance game that was never released in the US.
Graphics: Being a graphic adventure game, Phoenix Wright looks really good. Just keep in mind that you'll be looking at a lot of nice static backgrounds and some very nice (but only partially animated) characters. It's great looking stuff, just don't expect a lot of movement or fancy effects. Plus keep in mind that you'll be revisiting some areas quite a lot of times.
Sound: This game is just screaming for some good voice acting. Unfortunately, I doubt DS cartidges can hold anywhere near enough to do that. Anyway, the sound effects are fine and the music is nice, which is good since you'll be hearing them over and over again. A little more diversity would be nice but it works as is.
Story: Phoenix Wright is just starting his career as a defense attorney. Although he's lacking in experience, with the help of his mentor Mia Fey he quickly develops quite a knack for spotting the contradictions in people's testimonies. There are five seperate cases, each with its own story and resolution although they all go in order and feature a recurring cast of characters. The characters are entertaining and well developed and the cases are interesting and engaging. Add a whole lot of sharp and often humorous dialogue, and you've got a great story. And, considering that the game is practically an interactive novel, that's a really good thing. One thing to keep in mind, although the game is set in the US, it was originally set in Japan so the court system has more in common with Japan's than the US (although it also takes place in the future after some changes have taken place so it's not too much of a stretch either way).
Gameplay: There are five cases which you'll be playing through in order. With the exception of the first case, which is tutorial of sorts and is comprised of only one day in court, the cases span 2-3 days (well technically 3-4 but the trials themselves can't last more than three days) with all the days divided into two halfs.
First off you spend some time investigating. This involves visiting crime scene and other related areas, looking around carefully for clues, and talking to the people involved. Although you control where you go and what you say, the game is pretty linear and won't acvance until you'll trigger the current requirement be it saying the right thing to someone, finding a certain item, or showing someone that item. While this can be a little annoying ig you get stuck, it's usually not that hard to advnace if you make sure to explore thuroughly and talk to everyone. Plus the game often drops hints to help you figure out what to do next. The nice thing about this is that you literally can't miss anything important so you don't have to worry about completely missing something critical and dooming your game.
After you're done investigating it's time for the trial. During the trial you'll cross-examine various witnesses, using your wits, interrogation skills, and the information and evidence you've gathered to find the contradictions in the witnesses's testimony. The goal of this varies but you might be trying to discredit a witness, show that there's another possible way the murder could have happened (yes, you're defending people from murder charges), or possibly even trying to show the witness is the real criminal. Some of the witness's statements are easy to pick apart, others require careful thought as you try and figure out which of their statements you should object to and what evidence you should use to disprove them. Once again, it's rather linear and the game does drop hints occasionally but it can still be tricky. Still, tricky or not, you can get a lot of satisfaction from seeing a previously smug witness break down after you pick apart their testimony. Of course, while you're doing this the prosecutor will be doing everything he can to get in your way and through a wrench in things just when you thought you had the case won. Plus you need to be carefull. If you make baseless accusations or present the wrong evidence you might be penalized and if you get too many penalties you'll lose the case.
The game can be controlled with either the buttons and d-pad, the touchpad, or any combination of the two both work well so you can play around and pick whichever you like better (or even switch back and forth depending on what you're doing at the time). The only exception is the 5th case which introduces a bunch of touch screen only stuff. In general, the top screen shows the characters and dialogue while the bottom screen is used to show touch screen controls, investigate areas, and display your collection of evidence. Each case is divided into chapters (except the first case since it's really short) and you're prompted to save after each one. The chapters are nice since the longer cases can take hours to go through your first time (they also served as continue points if you lose without have saved) but you can also save at nearly any time (good since some of the chapters are kinda long plus you can save in case you're in danger of losing a trial so you don't have to replay the whole chapter).
Overall: If you only like fast paced games or dislike lots of reading, Phoenix Wright isn't for you. However, if the thought of a text heavy game with a great story and memorable characters excites you, PW is worth getting. Although the replay value is more or less the same as a novel (the game is really linear), like a good novel you're sure to get absorbed into this excellent interactive tale of murder, investigation, and truth and justice for all.

Josiah

Pebble Version isn't off to a bad start on Top Web Comics this month so let's all vote and keep it up! Besides, you get to see friday's bonus comic. And, of course, don't forget to check out the new ROM comic.

You know, some people don't really understand the difference between reviewers and critics. Not that there isn't some overlap (plus some reviewers and critics don't even seem to grasp the difference) but they're really two very different approaches. The basic goal of either group is to inform their readers/listeners about something be it a a movie, game, home appliance, or whatever. It's the way they go about it that's the key difference. A true reviewer tries to take a fairly neutral position. He typically talks a little about the thing he's reviewing (relavant history, competing stuff, etc) then goes over the good points and the bad points and all other parts, features, etc that are important for the type of thing beind reviewed. Finally he gives an opinion based on the previously listed things and possibly his personal experience on who, if anyone, would be interested in the thing being reviewed and whether they should get it instead of competing products. Also, it's important to note that while reviewers often inject their own preferences into their reviews they generally point out that people with different interests/perferences may like or dislike the thing in question more.
Then there's critics. Critics tend to take an elitest approach. They tend to think that their opinions are definitive and everyone should agree with them. Those that don't aren't smart enough or refined enough to understand the critic's brilliance. This rather egotistical take on things leads to critics being overally, well, crtical. They tend to pick apart everything, making a big deal out of everthing that they consider a problem (whether it is one or not). As such, they only like the very best stuff (although their opinion of what constitutes the very best may not match up with the average person) and consider everything else a waste of time. They also tend to disregard the fact that people with different likes/dislikes may not agree with their opinions.
Not I'm not saying all reviews and all critics are like this but, in my experience, this seems to hold true most of the time. Personally, I'm not a fan of critics. They're just too picky and don't get that just because they didn't like something doesn't mean that other people won't like it. Just to point out a couple of examples... First odd, did anyone see the Simpsons episode where Homer became a food critic for the local newspaper (ok so this example is fictional but it sums up the whole critic mindset rather nicely)? Of course, Homer loves food and starts off be giving all the restaurtants his visits great reviews because he really enjoyed them. But then all the other critics show up and get on him, pointing out that, as a critic, he shouldn't be giving out so many positive ratings. Now for a real example. There was a new movie out that I wanted to see and I ended up reading some reviews online, one of which was by a rather famous movie critic. He started out by saying how great the movie's director was but then stated that it wasn't one of the director's better movies. Switching gears again, he said that even bad movies by said director were better than most movies from other directors. In the end he gave the moving a B rating (using the whole F - A scale) but then said that no one should bother to go see it. There's that 'everything but the very best is a waste of time' attitude. Here we have a movie that is supposed to be better than most of the movies out there (even if it's not the best one the director has ever made, which is naturally debatable) but the critic is saying that since it isn't the very best movie there's no reason to watch it no matter how good, enjoyable, etc, it is. How stupid is that? If everyone took that attitude we sure wouldn't watch many movies.
Despite my general dislike of the ciritic mindset, I suppose there is room out there for both reviewers and critics. The problem is that critics elitest attitude has led some people to think of them as really being elite and that they're on a much higher level than an ordinary reviewer. Which has caused some reviews to try and take a more critic like approaching to reviewing, which, in my opinion, is a very bad thing.

And that's all I have to say on that subject. See you wednesday!

Josiah

The new bonus comic is up and, since it's a new month, and all, please vote so Pebble Version gets off to a good start on Top Web Comics. There's also a new ROM comic. Plus the promised ROM The Novel chapter is done! I also edited the previous chapters a little while I was at it.

So, I have jury duty on monday (uh, yay). Of course, there's a chance that the trial will be settled before that. I've got no idea what kind of trial it is although I doubt it'll be anything interesting if I do end up having to sit through it. Never know though. I'll probably post something about it later on (assuming that I'm allowed to).

See you monday!

Josiah

There's a new ROM comic today. I really wanted to have the new ROM The Novel chapter done today, unfortunatley I was only able to finish writing about half of it so it'll be up on friday. Sorry about that.

See you then!

Josiah

If you didn't see friday's news post, Josiah's Sprite Comic Guide Part 5: Script Writing 101 is up. Also, Top Web Comics was down for a large part of the weekend so there was no new bonus comic on friday. But it is up now so hurry and vote if you want to see it.

I saw Shrek 3 yesterday. In a nutshell, after the death of Fiona's father, Shrek, Donkey, and Puss head off to find Arthur, the new heir to the throne. However, he doesn't exactly want to be king. Meanwhile, Prince Charming recruits an army of fairytale villians to try and take over Far Far Away. On top of all that, Shrek and Fiona are preparing to become parents. Overall, I found the movie to be a little disapointing. I mean, it wasn't bad but it just wasn't as funny as the first two. There were a few really funny parts (like when Pinnocio tries to answer Charming's questions with lying) but for the most part it just took iteself too seriously (an easy thing to do when trying to smash a lot of potentially heavy themes like responsibility, parenthood, standing up for yourself, and choosing your own destiny into one movie). Oh well, I'll hopefully be seeing Pirates 3 later this week and I can't wait for that.

Meanwhile, I've been watching a bunch of anime too. First off, I should mention that if anyone bought volume 1 of any anime done by Illumitoon Entertainment a while back, they're running a DVD replacement program right now to replace the DVDs that lacked proper subtitles (see my review of the first Bobobo DVD on the Old New page, basically the subtitles matched the heavily localized English dub, not the original Japanese track). There's only a couple days left though so if you're gonna do it go here and do it ASAP. It's really awesome of them to do that although from what I've heard they didn't fix any of the other problems with the subtitles (they disapear too fast, they have subtitles for sound effects, occasional syncing problems between the subtitles and the video, and occasional lines get skipped). Oh well, at least this is a good first step. Still, considering how easy it is to get subtitles right (pretty much every other anime company does it), it's surprising and disapointing that an anime group with so many experienced people working there can screw them up so badly.

Recently I've been watching through several anime box sets I got. I first picked up some stuff when leaving Phoenix since I had a bunch of credit at Bookman's (a really awesome chain of used book, game, movie, and music stores in the Phoenix area) so I figured I might as well spend it all. I got Ninja Cadets (an ok 2 episode OAV that annoyingly ends right in the middle of things), Magic Knight Rayearth Season 1 (a pretty straight up adaption of the manga), and Generator Gawl (a fairly good action comedy series that goes plot twist crazy towards the end). Then there was the last ADV sale when I picked up Angelic Layer (which I've been wanting to watch for a while) and the Slayers Movie set (Slayers is my favorite series but most of my DVDs are imports of varying quality so I'm upgrading. Now I just need Slayers Excellent to complete my set of official US movies and OAVs and then Funimation is going to be releasing remastered versions of the three Slayers TV series starting in July (which I'm really looking forward to).

Plus I've got some new stuff torrented too but that'll wait till after I finish Angelic Layer. You know, speaking of Slayers (which is an utterly awesome mix of fantasy, action, story, and comedy so everyone should buy the Funimation DVD sets when they're released), I really wish they'd do a fourth TV series. They were originally going to since the Slayers anime is based on a series of books (a few of which are out in the US; they were made into a manga too) in which the story continues past the end of the third anime series. Unfortunately, there were some scheduling problems that resulted in the project being delayed and eventually canceled. Considering how long it's been since then, a new series seems rather unlikely but they recently make a new OAV (albiet an extremely short one) as a special bonus for people in Japan who buy all three Slayers series on DVD so maybe, just maybe, they'll decide to make a new series. Well, I can certainly hope anyway.

Wow, that was a lot longer than I planned. Later!

Josiah

There's a new ROM today! Unfortunately, Top Web Comics is down right now so I can't put up the new bonus comic. Hopefully monday. But I'm pleased to announce that Josiah's Sprite Comic Guide Part 5: Script Writing 101 is done! Now I just need to get that ROM the Novel chapter done to get caught up on bonus content.

And that's it for now. See you monday!

Josiah

Please vote and see friday's bonus comic if you haven't already (if you have already done it, please do it again). Shauni is sorry for the lack of the promised ROM update today. She let me know that the comic is actually done but, due to computer problems, she can't seem to get the file to me so I can add it to the site. It would go up on wednesday except that I just realized that I can't update on wednesday (see the following paragraph). Sorry about that. Would have announced it earlier but I totally forgot.

As the title says, this is a really busy week for me. Since the whole family is home, my parents wanted to go on a little weekend hiking trip yesterday and today so right now I'm actually in a hotel up in the mountains (they don't like camping so we do mid length hikes every day and stay in a hotel). Then tomorrow I've got lunch with a friend (plus trying to get a bunch of work and job applications done since I won't have a ton of time later in the week), wednesday is Shavuot (a Jewish holiday), thursday I'm doing some computer work for a person I know, and then friday I have to clean the house, cook some stuff, and do whatever else I wasn't able to finish on tuesday and thursday. So yeah, I'll be busy.

Well, I'll see you all on friday. Sorry about having to skip a day.

Josiah

There's a new bonus comic up so hurry and vote! Speaking of which, David, if you're reading this, I think you'll really like this week's bonus comic. No ROM today, Shauni said there should be one on monday instead. Now for that Pokémon review...

It's been many years since the first set of Pokémon games (Red/Blue) were released in the US. There have been numerous side games but the DS set, Diamond/Pearl, is only the fourth set of main series games (or fifth if you count Fire Red/Leaf Green, which were remakes of Red/Blue). Each new set, Red/Blue, Gold/Silver, and Ruby/Sapphire added new elements to the series but in the end, Pokémon still feels more or less the same, not that that's a bad thing.
Graphics: Pokémon Diamond/Pearl are the first of the main games (as in, not counting the N64 or Gamecube spin offs) to use 3D graphics. Although the vast majority of the game is still sprited, some of the environments are 3D, although it doesn't make much of a difference in the appearance. The 3D is mainly used to add depth or height to certain areas or make some nifty looking multi-level areas (some of the gyms in particular make good use of it). 3D aside, the sprites have gotten a bit of an upgrade as well, although it's not a huge change. Still the sprites look good, though pretty similiar to the GBA Pokémon games, which makes sense since some of them were actually taken directly from said GBA games.
Sounds: The music is really nice. There's some familiar tunes and some new ones too but they're all catchy and, thanks to the DS's vastly superior sound system, sound really good. Most of the sound effects are pretty familiar but have been improved a bit and they all sound great...except for the Pokémon voices. The voices for the new pokémon aren't that bad (although they still sound nothing like they should, ideally they'd probably sound something like they do in the anime) but the voices for all the old pokémon were pulled straight from the old games. So, in other words, old pokémon, geodude for example, sound exactly like they did on the original Gameboy. Really, would it kill them to record some new ones? Maybe even grab some sound clips from the anime and use those?
Story: The story is the typically Pokémon plot, this time set in the Sinnoh region. You are a boy or a girl who lives in a small town along with your hyper active childhood friend, who later becomes your rival. While exploring a nearby lake, you and your rival end up using some of Professor Rowan's pokémon to defend yourself. He later gives you the pokémon you used and sends to off to fill up the newest model pokédex. Naturally this involves traveling around a lot, challenging 8 gym leaders, and eventually the Elite 4. Along the way you'll also have to fight off Team Galactic, an evil group that had plans to use an ancient legendary pokémon for evil, etc... It works fine but there's no real twists or surprises either.
Gameplay: Surprise, surprise, Pokémon D/P plays pretty much just like all the other main Pokémon games. Pokémon can be a single type or a combination of types, each type has strengths and weaknesses, pokémon level up, evolve, can know up to four moves at once, each have some sort of ability, etc, etc, etc... Chances are, if you're reading Pebble Version you're at least somewhat familiar with the basic mechanics of the series so I'm not going to explain the whole thing here, just what's new. And, mechanicwise, there isn't much new. There's a bunch of new pokémon, upping the total number to 493, some new attacks, new abilities, new hold items, and some new ways to evolve pokémon, but nothing major (although, if you're really into the mechanics of the battle system you'll notice that now individual moves are classified as normal or special instead of just types).
No big changes to your main quest (collect 8 gym badges, beat the evil team, beat the Elite 4). There's some new HMs and Flash has been demoted to a TM but other than that you and your running shoes and bike travel around the map just like in the past games. You can also surf, fish, and plant berries. The week and day/night cycles from Gold and Silver are back (which is nice) so you can catch different pokémon at different times of the day and special things will happen on different days of the week. You can now slather certain trees with honey to lure out pokémon (although it takes a good half a day of real time before they appear).
Aside from the main quest, contests are back, although there's been some changes in how they work, and pokéblocks have been replace by poffins, which really aren't much different. You can also spend a lot of time in the Sinnoh Underground, building a secret base, digging up fossiles, and playing capture the flag with friends over a local wireless conntection.
So what does the DS itself add to the mix? Well, you can control a lot of things in the game with the stylus (but not all of them) and the stylus is used to make poffins and compete in contests. Plus, the second screen is used to display the pokétech, a nifty watch that you collect a variety of different programs for throughout the game. Some are really useful (like the one that tracks where ripe berries are and the item finder), others are just for fun (like the drawing program). Then there's the online stuff. With a local wirless connection you can make poffins together, play in underground, battle, trade, and do some other stuff. Over Wi-Fi you can battle and trade with people around the globe, both friends and random. There's room to store lots of friend codes too, which is really nice. Another nifty touch is that in battles with certain level requirements (say a level 50 only battle) your pokémon will automatically be leveled up or down to the correct level just for the battle (although they won't evolve, gain EV points, or learn new moves) but it helps keep things on a more even playing fiend and saves you from having to do so much leveling (or keep seperate battles teams for level 50 and level 100 fights).
As a final note, there's also tons of stuff to do after beating the Elite 4 including lots of new areas to explore, the full National Dex to fill out, and the ability to import pokémon from R/S/E and FR/LG.
Overall: Pokémon Diamond/Pearl is the best set of games so far, surpassing even my previous favorites Gold/Silver. Although the number of pokémon required to 'catch 'em all' is getting rather ridiculous, the basic forumula still doesn't get old and with a huge world, the return of day/night and weekly cycles, and tons of optional stuff to do, it'll be a long time before you've seen everything the games have to offer. Plus the inclusion of online play is great (although allowing players to play some of the local wireless stuff over Wi-Fi would have been nice) and the ability to bring in pokémon from the previous games (something the GBA games were sorely lacking) is awesome, despite the slightly annoying regulations that go along with it.
If you're not a Pokémon fan D/P probably won't change your mind, but for everyone who has ever enjoyed Pokémon, D/P offer a deep, lengthy, and totally enjoyable adventure.

Josiah

There's a new ROM today. The rest of the bonus content isn't done yet but I did update the Cast page with new characters.

I was planning to have that Pokémon review up today but stuff happened and it didn't get done so look for it on friday. Unfortunately, thanks to said stuff I don't really have time to write any more here either.

Later!

Josiah

If you didn't see the announcement on friday, the commentary for strips 61-80 is done (you can see it in the archives). Now I just need to finish the next Sprite Comic Guide and ROM the Novel chapter... And, of course, Friday's bonus comic is just waiting for people to vote and check it out. Unfortunately, I haven't heard from Shauni at all for the last few days so there's no new ROM. I'm guessing her new internet service isn't working out quite as well as she hoped...

The Pokémon Diamond/Pearl review will be done later this week. In the mean time, now that I'm back in CO I've been messing around with the online stuff a little. Unfortunately, some of the cooler multiplayer stuff like capture the flag battles in the Sinnoh Underground and group poffin mixing are only playable over a local wireless connection. Wouldn't be much of a problem if I were back at UAT since there'd be plenty of people I know with a copy of the game. Unfortunately, most of my friends in CO aren't very serious gamers so I guess I'll have to stick with the things I can do over Wi-Fi like trading and battling my friends and competing in the global Battle Tower (actually I haven't started that yet, I want to finish up my current normal Battle Tower run first, trying to get a 100 win streak). There's also the global trading system where you drop off a pokémon, enter what you want in exchange for it, and wait for someone to accept your offer. It's a convenient way to trade things, as long as your requests are reasonable. Speaking of playing online... Steven, if you're reading this, you need to send me your friend code.

Oh, looks like I forgot to mention that I saw Spiderman 3. Overall, it was pretty good. Out of the three Spiderman movies, 3 has the best battles. I mean, you've got Spiderman, Sandman, Green Goblin 2, and Venom all fighting at the same time, how cool is that? Spiderman 2 had better character development though, all 3 isn't bad in that regard either. There's a lot crammed into the movie, first you have Harry trying to get his revenge on Peter (Spiderman) who is having some problems of his own with MJ. Then things start really going down hill for Spidy as his Uncle's real killer becomes Sandman and an upstart photographer tries to take Peter's place at the paper. Then Peter's Spiderman suit gets infested by a black ooze from space that seriously screws up his personality. Said ooze eventually leads to Venom as things gear up for the big climax which does a good job of wrapping up the entire trilogy. It's even better if you get to see it on an IMAX like I did.

Well, I should get some work done on next week's strips. Later!

Josiah

It's friday and you know what that means, there's a new bonus comic for everyone who votes for Pebble Version on TWC. There's also a new ROM comic. Finally, the commentary on strips 61-80 is complete! You can check it out in the archives.

I made it back to CO. No idea how long I'll be staying here though. Might be a while, might not (you can read more about that in wednesday's post). I don't have a lot of time to talk right now but I will say that I beat the Elite 4 in Pokémon Diamond (review coming sometime next week) and started on the end game stuff (and there's a ton of it). I'm looking forward to finally getting online now that I have a good network. Too bad the TV here is a little screwy, but that's a different matter entirely.

See you monday!

Josiah

Nothing much to say today. I'll be flying back to AZ later today but I won't be staying long since tomorrow I'll be driving back home to CO. And this time it's not just for another two week break between semesters. I'll be there until I get a job. No idea how long that will take. I'm guessing anywhere from a couple of weeks to a few months. I could have spent more time sending in applications before graduating but with finals and everything it would have been a pain. Plus, considering that my longest break for the last 3 1/2 or 4 years was 2 1/2 weeks, I wouldn't mind a bit of a break for a little while. It's not like I won't be doing anything though. I got a collection of part time and commision work to. Chances are I'll be a little busy but not too busy so I can relax a bit while still making some money and looking for a full time job.

That's about all I have to say right now except that I've been working on this month's bonus content a bit so some of it should be done pretty soon.

Josiah

Friday's bonus comic is sitting there waiting for everyone who votes and there's a new ROM up.

On the Pebble Version forums we've been battling spam bots for quite a while now but lately there's been so many that I was finally forced to take drastic measures and require admin activation of all new user accounts before they can post. I hated to do it but there didn't seem to be any other way to keep all the drug and porn spam off the forums. So, if you sign up for the forums it may take anywhere from a couple hours to a day or two for your account to be activated, sorry. Blame the ******* spam bot programmers. Also, to help ensure that your account gets activated, please add some personal info to your profile when you sign up (avatar, signature, etc) so we can make sure that your account is legit and not just another spam bot with a blank profile. Accounts with blank profiles probably won't be activated. Finally, if you really want to make things easy, send me an e-mail with the name of your new account and a couple sentences about yourself. That's the best wasy to ensure that your account is activated as quickly as possible.

And that's really all I have to say for now. Just not in a very talkitive mood today. See you wednesday!

Josiah

There's a new Blooper Reel bonus comic up so click on the TWC button or banner and confirm your vote to see it. Don't forget to check out the new ROM either. BTW, I might have some of that bonus content (commentary, ROM the Novel chapter, and Sprite Comic Guide) done sooner than I thought so keep an eye out for it. I plan to update a couple other things on the site that are a little out of date as well...

If anyone wants to see, here's a picture from my graduation ceremony.

I still have a long way to go in Pokémon Diamond (just got my fifth gym badge, current pokédex is 100 seen, 70 owned) but I'm still making progress so here's some more thoughts. Fishing is easier than in R/S, you still have to push the A button at the right time to catch the pokémon but at least you only have to push it once, not several times per fish. Pokéblocks are gone but there's Poffins, which are practically the same thing (except that their cookies this time around), you make them out of berries and feed them to your pokémon to boost their condition so they'll do better in contests. Instead of blender, you've got a mixing bowl this time around and you have to use the stylus to stir the batter in the correct direction (which keeps changing). Stir too slow and it burns, stir too fast and it'll overflow. Like the blender, you can do it with multiple people at the same time. Seems easier than the blender to me, with only a couple of tries I was able to consistantly mix poffins without any burns or spills. Actually, the game itself seems a touch easier, I haven't lost a battle yet. Then again, I'm not sure if I ever lost in Fire Red either, could be I just have so much experience with the games by now that I keep my teams balanced and make sure I level them up enough to take on everything. There's no "Safari Zone" this time but there's the Pastoria Marsh which is basically the Safari Zone with a simplified layout, a tram to speed up traveling to different sections of it, and lots and lots of mud (which makes walking around a pain). At least you get unlimited bait this time around (in R/S you had to use your own pokéblocks). Fortunately, there aren't as many pokémon that can only be caught there as there were in previous games and even the rare ones seem to be a lot more common than in past Safari Zones. Although it was annoying, I managed to catch everything in a relatively short amount of time.

See you monday!

Josiah

Since it's a new month please vote on Top Web Comics to give PV a good start this month. You should also know that there's a new ROM today.

Although PV didn't quite get $25 in donations last month (the guage stopped at $20), I think I'll just pretend it hit $25. So, later this month look forward to commentary on the next batch of old strips and a new chapter of ROM the Novel. Josiah's Sprite Comic Guide Part 5 is in the works as well. However, all that cool stuff might have to wait a week or two because of the next thing I need to mention.

So, before going back to my parents' place in CO (where I'll be staying while looking for a job), I'm going to the east coast to visit my grandparents for a week (I leave tomorrow, fly back to AZ next wednesday, and then drive to CO). As usual, I'll have my laptop (well, one of them) so updates shouldn't be interrupted (although they may be a little early or a little late), probably. I'm not really sure what my internet connection is going to be like while I'm at my grandparents' (they recently moved into a new place). Like I said, I should be able to update at least but I might not be able to get online much so I probably won't be on the forums as often as I'd like and it might take me a bit longer to reply to e-mails.

Later!

Josiah

Keep in mind that you can vote and see friday's bonus comic. This is also your last day to get in any donations for April. There's no new ROM today either but I did hear from Shauni and, as I thought, she's having internet trouble. Fortunately, she's going to be getting much better inernet service soon and she says that ROM will return on wednesday.

Well, I did it, I graduated with a Bachelor of the Arts in Multimedia (with a focus on Game Design). The ceremony was nice, although most of my friends won't be graduating for a while yet so I was on my own for part of it until some people I knew showed up. It's finally starting to sink in that my time at UAT and even here AZ is over (chance I'll come back at some point for one of a few different reasons but that's pretty iffy). I have to say, I'm gonna miss it down here. Phoenix has its problems but there's some pretty cool stuff about living here as well and UAT is a great school, I'm actually going to miss my teachers and classes (not to mention my friends and the general atmosphere).

Other than that, some of my family members are here (they came for the graduation) so I've been doing stuff with them. However, that hasn't left me with a lot of time to work on PV stuff so I'm still behind on the strips. I don't think I'll miss any updates (despite being behind and some upcoming traveling) but I'll probably keep these news posts short and do some fairly simple strips until I get caught up again.

Josiah

There's a new bonus comic so please vote! Also, remember that there's only a few days left if you want to get in any donations this month. Not sure why there isn't a new ROM today. I know Shauni was planning one but I never get it and she hasn't been online for the last couple of days either. Maybe her internet died.

So, I've had time to play a lot more on my copy of Pokémon Diamond, although my friends on the forums, who had a couple of days head start, are still way a head of me. And now that some relatives have come down for my graduation I'll be doing things with them so they'll probably get even further ahead... Anyway, for those of you who are also playing, I have two gym badges and just got the Good Rod. Anyway, about the games themselves... I mentioned the graphics last time but I can go into more detail now. A lot of the game is still done with sprites, which look pretty similiar to those in Fire Red/Leaf Green. Some of the stuff (like the buildings) is done in 3D, it looks nice and there's some nifty effects here and there but overall it's not a huge graphical upgrade. It's nice to see the pokémon having more animation, although some of the sprites look liked they were pulled reused from the GBA games.
The music is really good and there's a lot of different tunes. The new pokémon cries sound decent, although they don't really sound like the pokémon's name. Unfortunately, the cries of all 386 of the old pokémon were pulled straight out of the old games (that's right, those crappy cries from the original R/B are still there). Really, would it be that hard for them to take a couple of days, hire some voice actors and record some high quality cries (or even pull them from the anime)? DS carts should have enough space for that.
There's a lot to do in the game. Aside from the main story, leveling, and catching everything, there's a new and completely redesigned set of contests, and the huge underground area where you can dig for usefull stuff and do lots of multiplayer things. Unfortunately, I haven't got to try any of the multiplyer or Wi-Fi stuff yet. Since school is out none of my friends are around with another cartridge and for Wi-Fi the internet at my brother's apartment isn't all that great so I can't get on. Maybe while I'm visiting my grandparents but chances are I'll have to wait till I get back to CO in like a week and a half.
The pokétech is useful, it fills the bottom screen while you're walking around and as you go through the game you can collect a lot of different programs for it. My favorites so far are the one that can find hidden items, and one that shows pokémon effection, and the one that shows where ripe berries are.
The story seems fairly typical so far, kid helps professor, gets first pokémon, goes off to beat the gyms, and ends up getting on the wrong side of an evil team trying to do something or other... I have to say, the new team seems to be rather lacking in the intelligence department. They have some funny dialogue though (although whether it was actually meant to be funny, I'm not sure).
Anyway, I'm liking it so far. Too early to say for sure but it's probably the best pokémon game yet. Although it's also very similiar to all the other main Pokémon games, a bit of variation in the story and presentation wouldn't hurt. But, repetitive or not, it's still a fun formula even after playing through all the other games.
Oh yeah, I caught pokérus! Well, my team did anyway. That's the first time I've had it happen (odds of one of your pokémon catching it are 2 in 65535). Fortunately, once one pokémon on your team has it, it spreads easily so I stuck several infected pokémon in my PC so they wouldn't get healed (it goes away after a day or two) and I can use them to infect more pokémon later. It is kinda odd though that after all the time I spent playing the various pokémon games I didn't catch pokérus until now (heck, I didn't even get my first shiny till Leaf Green). Well, I never was all that lucky when it comes to chance related stuff. Although I do tend to be more lucky in video games than in real games (my luck with cards and dice tends to be pretty bad).

Well, that's all for now. Graduation is saturday. I don't think it's really sunk in yet that I'm actually finished with college (well, there is a chance I'll go back for a masters or maybe a degree in Japanese if I have a lot of trouble finding a job). Anyway, see you monday!

Josiah

As Shauni said on monday, there's no new ROM today. Remember, there's only a few days left to get in donations for this month. The guage is already at $20 so it wouldn't take too much to push it pretty high and get some cool stuff next month... Speaking of donation incentives, Josiah's Sprite Comic Guide Part 5 will be finished sometime over the next week or two so look forward to that. Now for that review of Final Fantasy XII.

Final Fantasy XII is the latest entry is Square-Enix's popular RPG series and the last one to appear on the PS2. It arrived after an extremely long gap between games (especially if you don't count Final Fantasy XI) and made a lot of changes to the traditional formula.
Graphics: No question about it, Final Fantasy XII looks great. It does away entirely with prerended environments. Everything is now in fully rotatable 3D. As a result, some of the areas don't have quite as much detail as in past games but they look good enough that you won't mind. And it's great to be able to rotate and fully explore the areas. The areas are large and expansive and the cities in particular are really impressive. Aside from the awesome architecture, there's a lot more NPCs this time around and they'll walk around, talk to others, and the like. It makes the cities look and feel much more alive than in just about any other game I've played. Finally, the FMVs are awesome as always.
Sound: The usual FF composer Naboo Uematsu did hardly any work on FFXII. Although the lack of Uematsu's work is disapointing, the music (done by one of the composers from FF Tactics) is still great. My only real complaint about the music is that there's a handful of themes that you hear a bit too often. Sounds effects are pretty much perfect. Voice acting is excellent and the voices perfectly fit the characters.
Story: The story is typically the best part of any FF game and is full of twists, turns, and dark secrets. While FFXII's plot is in no way bad, it doesn't quite stack up