Gaia Character Entry: Shamu Leonson

Name: Shamu Leonson
Gender: Female
Race: Human
Clan: Berserkers
Age: 18
Class: Dragon Knight
Height: 5' 1"
Weight: 122 lbs
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Long, blue
Build: Slim and trim
Complexion: Fair

Clothes and Appearance: *Image below is 4 years prior to her current age.*

*note that .gif files are seriously hopeless when it comes to doing tween animation*
*click the picture to view it with a white background*

Personality: (4 years prior)
Her outwardly cheerful and happy nature hid the horror she faced during the massacre of her family and clan. Wide-eyed and charming with a little touch of girlish innocence. Also a little ditzy.

Personality: (current)
A changed girl during the 4 years of wandering the lands with Mugen (both thought to be dead). Her cheerful and happy nature now a thing of the past. Her eyes are as cold as steel and rarely opens up to anyone but her dragon pact-beast, Spes Eradlyn; the first-name meaning "Hope" as translated from the ancient Myrkridian tongue.

History:
Being the only female to ever join the Berserker's Dragonian Sect. was indeed something to be proud off. As a result, she was highly respected even if she was a mere 14 year old girl. The Dragon Knights were bound to their pact-beast; both sharing each other's fate. During the Tarnkappe Crusade, against her father's wishes, she abandoned her stationed post at the shrine in Egil and headed towards Myrkridia in search of her brother, Raviel, and her Myrkridian friend, Flaire. As the war pushed towards the Egil Archipelago, Shamu was nowhere to be seen and was feared to be dead. Four years later, with the company of fellow Berserker-exile, Mugen who was also thought to be killed during the initial onslaught of the Crusade, she ventures to the Eastern Lands in search of her friend and brother and to warn them of the incoming danger that they are to be facing. However, both she and Mugen were separated during the journey.

Other Traits/Notes:
Her pact-beast; a female dragon, is called Eradlyn. A name she chose for her hatchling upon her initiation into the Dragonian Sect. As the fate of a pact-beast is tied to that of its master, the fact that she has survived the four years means that her dragon also survived as she did. Months after her apparent escape from the Crusade in the Westfold, she adopted the first-name Spes for her pact-beast which meant "Hope" in ancient Myrkridian. Over the past four years of her travelling, Eradlyn has grown from a hatchling to a strider and finally, a young drake. Now with her wings fully grown, she can finally fly.

Shamu's fighting stance is based on the Six-Sword Disciplines made famous by the first Avatar of Gaia, Hugel Calientes and his master Grake Randgrid during the War of Ascension. They are now recognized as the six main disciplines of sword-fighting. They are:

• Terminatio Vultus (Determination Form) - Known as a basic balance stance. A root stance that may be followed-up by any of the other five.
  
• Litis Vultus (Contention Form) - An evolution of Terminatio. A favourite for Shamu as it heavily emphasizes blade manipulation, quick thrusts and cuts as in fencing.
• Occuro Vultus (Resilience Form) - A defensive evolution of Terminatio. Utilizes a slow approach when in battle; waiting for a chance to counter and disarm the opponent, gaining the upper hand in combat situations.
• Infestus Vultus (Aggression Form) - An assault evolution of Terminatio. Utilizing acrobatic moves fused with swordplay.
• Perseverantia Vultus (Perseverance Form) - A fusion of Occuro and Infestus. Also known as an advanced balance stance.
• Temperantia Vultus (Moderation Form) - A "jack-of-all-trades" kind of stance and focuses on a more "unorthadox" style of fighting. Has been labeled as a "dirty way of fighting" throughout the years. However most practioners confirmed that this is the easiest stance to adapt to in any given situation.

Shamu's current weapon is a rapier (Espada) given to her by her father and a ranseur (Albion) which is the standard weapon used by all Dragon Knights. She has been known to improvise her battle-stances when fighting with her spear.

Old Memories of Gaia

It's been a good and long 2 years since I stopped forum role-playing and with that abandoned my then fantasy fiction (called Chronicles of Gaia) which was inspired by the roleplay itself. I was roleplaying as a female Myrkridian wizard named Flaire Reverie. And below was a poem I wrote which Flaire recited during the time where she was in the tavern with her friends:

My heart is sealed.
Enveloped in darkness.
Never searching for the light nor try.
I am a Heartless.
A Heartless, yes...

Shadows overwhelm me.
The brighter the light, the greater my shadow.
The shadow of darkness...
I am a sould in the dark.
My life have I left behind.

Cheerful memories, sad events.
They mean nothing to me now.
My freedom taken away by someone of royalty.
One chance to step into the light.
One chance to step out of darkness.

In a blink of an eye, in a split second; everything disappears.
Called to suffer in darkness once again.
My eyes always looking to the sky.
My ancestors, gone.
Never coming back.

I am a Myrkridian last of my kind.
Only someone as stupid knows no fear.
I walk ahead.
Slowly but surely I will.
These people, discriminated and thrown out.
Why is this so?

We are the same are we not?
We share this home do we not?
Why are we pushed aside just because we're different?
Why? Why? Why?

The castle standing high.
It will fall, it will crumble.
What have we done to deserve this?
Someone of royal blood, a dictator, a man of no virtue...

My mind now cloded by the darkness of revenge.
I can only blame one person.
The one who forced us to suffer.
His reign will not last, his life the same.
As his kingdom the same.

We will gain independance.
Enough of discrimination, enough of suffering.
This torture will end.
The people will be free.
No longer third-class citizens.
Then will I be introduced to the light.

I am in darkness and so are my people.
The one they call the King.
He blocks us from the light itself.
And I have blocked my heart from him.
Nothing is stronger than my will itself.

Thou shall fell the wrath.
By one of the last.
The survivor of the Myrkridian race...
I will fight till death becomes me.

- Original post: March 4th, 2006 @ 3:38pm

With that said, I'm more than happy to say that I'll be reviving the abandoned Gaia project that went on a 2 year hiatus. Not much will be revealed as there are still some old stuff to be sorted out and lots of revising to be done. I'll be posting more on Gaia soon.

Guli-Guli @ MSC-APICTA 2008

Yesterday was the final judging of the shortlisted nominees for the MSC Malaysia APICTA (Asia Pacific ICT Awards) 2008. Yep, you guessed it. I was one of the shortlisted nominees. It was a project I've been working with a friend for months now: A flash game for the PSP.

It started like more than 5 months ago when I needed to come up with a flash game for my final project. The concept was supposed to be experimental gameplay. So I thought like why not let's have some fun while we watch how some people fuck up in doing some tactile coordination. The game was originally designed to be played on the PC. So the controls involved using the WASD keys and the arrow keys. Below is the alpha prototype that I submitted for my final project. The graphics is less than eye pleasing, mind you. It WAS a prototype.

After like two weeks into my semester holidays (which was like mid-June), I received a call from my Flash lecturer saying that he liked my game concept and wants to enter it into for the MSC Malaysia APICTA. The only problem is, it has to be redesigned. Only the gameplay concept was to be retained. He said that I'll need to form a group to get the project started. So I was, "Why not?" since it'll be great to finally have a chance to work with a programmer from the IT school.

Porting the whole thing to the PSP was seriously not a walk in the park. Hardware limitations. Period. Utilizing only a 2MB cache of processing memory, the original game that was meant to be played on the PSP had to be tuned down and optimized fully. And for some fucked up reason, the PSP is only using Flash Player 6 as opposed to the PC which was using the latest Flash Player 9. Now just what the fuck is Sony thinking?

Anyway, fixing the problem took like a month. Truth be told I didn't expect it to take so damn long. Well, that's for not having the SDK for it. So anyway, the whole scripting process had to be redone and also precalculated for the PSP since real-time calculation is seriously gonna kill because of the lack of processing power in the PSP. Graphics-wise, it was inspired by a 1980's comic strip that was done by Tan Sri Dato' Lim Kok Wing called Guli Guli. Being an LUCT (Limkokwing University of Creative Technology) student, what better way a tribute to a work done by the Tan Sri years ago?

After months of ups and downs and a whole lot of stress, we managed to finish it thanks to a whole lot of support from friends and lecturers. The judges were pretty impressed as well. So I hope we make it as the winners!

The final work is as seen below. It may be slow and stuff but heck, it was designed to be played on the PSP. This was just the PC port. Anyway, enjoy!

PSP Musou Madness!

As what was said at E3 2008, this year was indeed the year for for Sony. What's more is that all Musou fans (that owns a PSP) will be in for a real damn treat. Two of Koei's musou games will be ported over to the PSP.

First off, Warriors Orochi 2 (Musou Orochi: Maou Sairin for you impatient bastards who has already played the Jap version) will be ported over to the PSP as what was done with the first game. PC owners get ready. Looking at where this is headed, I'm pretty sure the PC version will be released soon after as well. The game will be set for a November 27th release this year. View the magazine scan below.


Next up, another DW6 port titled Shin Sangokumusou Multi Raid. This time it's for the PSP. So far any info regarding this game is still a little scratchy. What that's known is that there'll be a somewhat similar feature to DW5's Musou Rage; turning your character into something similar to Onimusha's Oni Mode. The rest of the game will just like the PS3/360/PC version. The game is set for a release late this year. Could be around late November or early December. Around the same time for Gundam Musou 2's release. Magazine scan below.

My New Logitech ChillStream!

A long awaited promise has been fulfilled! Two months ago, a friend promised either an art tablet, a Razer Tarantula or a Logitech Rumblepad 2 for my birthday. Days went by and I began to think that idiot took it for a joke. For he's a guy who's known for making tons of excuses. Day in, day out, 24/7 round the clock, he'll find something as an excuse. Without fail, guarenteed.

As usual, this afternoon was just as any Friday afternoon (minus the hectic project discussion) I would normally have. Back from campus, have a nice nap till dinner time. Just as I was about to turn off my monitor and hit the sack, there came a message on Steam.

"Eh Lex, you later free?"
"Apasal?"
"Wanna pass to you some stuff..."

At the word stuff, I was thinking that this guy was gonna pass to me a game he owed like a year ago. Apparently he said he'll be at my place in an hour with the stuff. So what the heck, I was thinking. Since it'll be 6 soon, I'd rather wait him out than take a nap that I'll never be able to enjoy. So there he was, walked into my room with a Software Boutique bag in his hand all wrapped up nice and clean.

"Oh? This fella bought original game? Babi... Banyak duit rupa nyer..."

That thought was running through my head as he placed the bag on my bed and stared at me clicking like an idiot to some ass-crap flash game. Finally, after awhile... He told me that he's gotten me a gamepad that he owed like a couple of months back. In he put his hand and out he took out a Logitech ChillStream?! Wow, present upgrade! He smirked like how he'd always did when he's somehow pleased of himself. Looks just like a perverted old man. Geez...

After popping the driver disc in and got everything installed, first up was Shin Sangokumusou 5! Somehow somewhere, the controller seemed to fuck the game nicely. the X-Axis on the Right Analog flew to the Left and Right Trigger buttons (which were originally used for maximizing the minimap and activating special) and the Y-Axis wasn't working. As a result, the minimap kept flashing non-stop, alternating between minimized and maximized version in like half a second throughout the whole level.

Thinking something was wrong I went and test it out with Gears of War instead. It worked beautifully. Just as how it felt when I was plying the game on the 360. So the controller's not the problem. It's just the dumb game. To prove this yet again, I tested the controller with Clive Barker's Jericho. It worked as how the control configuration said it would work.

Game problem: ChillStream 2 - Musou 0.

Then, nostalgia hit me dead on. ePSXe. Sound familiar? Yep, it's the emulator for Sony's PSX. Feeling a little bored, I extracted a couple of my PSP EBOOT of PSX games from my collection. My first configuration was a little screwed so the analog sticks didn't work. Kinda got it right after the second try. So yeah, kinda happy. Although I'm still bloody looking for my Ragnarok Battle Offline CDs though... Original game and all three scenario add-ons. Either I misplaced it (which is impossible as my CD folder is with me and should be in there if the game's with me) or it's with a certain someone who has a shitload of crap in his brain that's already fogged out his memory...

Oh yeah, before I go... Kinda forgot to say thanks to Mr. Mad for the ChillStream. Thanks, dude! Really appreciate it.

Yue Ying for SSM5S and Gundam Musou 2!

Yup! As the title says, here's more musou updates that was meant to be posted last week. Again, I was feeling lazy. With my assignments starting to get even more intense, blog updates has been coming slowly. Sad...

Anyway, back to the PS2 port for Shin Sangokumusou 5 (Dynasty Warriors 6) which will be called Shin Sangokumusou 5: Special (Dynasty Warriors 6: Special). An English has been announced for the 18th of November this year, a month after the Japanese release! Adding to the cast of revamped characters will be Yue Ying; trading her bow in for a crossbow that'll be equipped on her arm. Something like Rinoa's weapon from Final Fantasy VIII. Plus, just like the other revamped characters, she'll be also getting a Musou Mode. Aside from that, there'll be 5 new stages for the PS2 port. The Special Edition will be on 2 discs due to it being a downgraded next-gen game. I, however, can't seem to understand why the downgrade for Gundam Musou was able to be on a single disc.

Speaking of Gundam Musou, a second game has already been announced. It'll be released simultaneously on the PS2, PS3 and 360 on the 4th of December this year. This however will be a Japanese release. New Gundams will include Amuro's RX-93 ν-Gundam (Nu Gundam) and Char's MSN-04 Sazabi. Magazine scans are below.

In an earlier post, the European boxart for Orochi 2 was posted. It sucks. True. So here's the US boxart which looks alot better! Just a reminder: Warriors Orochi 2 will be released on the 19th of September for Europe and the 28th of September for North America.

Babylon A.D. is B.A.D. (Seriously!)

Watched Babylon A.D. this morning. My first impression of this movie was kinda good. Well, that was the only good thing. Everything was so-so until the movie shifts back to the "present" and well... It get's from bad to worse from there. Ahh, heck. If I feel like explaining I'd do that. Somehow I think that you should just watch the movie for yourself. You'd go "What the fuck?" as well and everything will be explained...or not?