The Star Ocean Universe

Right now, the weekly schedule is out the window EXCEPT for Ask the Star Ocean Character. I'm going to do some flipping for the week so . . . next week will be better. I promise.

Ask the Star Ocean Character - Roger S. Huxley

I'm now taking questions for Roger S. Huxley from Star Ocean: Till the End of Time. Questions can be submitted between now and midnight, December 11, 2012. Limit three questions per character per person, and keep the questions clean of vulgarity and sex talk. I will not use any questions submitted if the person is swearing at the character. Yes, I do realize that this is a fictional universe. There is swearing and sexual situations implied, but I do not tag very many things as containing adult content for this journal. It means anyone of any age can read it. I hate to sound mean about this, but I want to keep this as clean and inoffensive for everyone as much as possible. I don't care if you dislike the character and the question reflects that, but I do care if you use foul language to demonstrate it. I want this to be fun for everyone, not a select few. I realize that I'm a tad bit behind on making this announcement, but better late than never, right?

Also, please let me know if you wish for me to use a specific user ID or wish to remain anonymous. If you don't, I'll use whatever ID I know you by when posing the questions to the character. Questions can be submitted to me via comments, PM, or email (luthersfayt@gmail.com)

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Okay, so yesterday was a bust on getting the conversation topic and the next segment of Destinies Intertwined by Fate up, but that's just how it goes sometimes. I'm not too entirely thrilled by it, but it's my own fault for not getting everything done, but then it isn't like I won't have ample opportunity to post the next sections throughout the month. I will get the next segments posted! I will finish the story! I promise.

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Ask the Star Ocean Character - Roger S. Huxley

I'm now taking questions for Roger S. Huxley from Star Ocean: Till the End of Time. Questions can be submitted between now and midnight, December 11, 2012. Limit three questions per character per person, and keep the questions clean of vulgarity and sex talk. I will not use any questions submitted if the person is swearing at the character. Yes, I do realize that this is a fictional universe. There is swearing and sexual situations implied, but I do not tag very many things as containing adult content for this journal. It means anyone of any age can read it. I hate to sound mean about this, but I want to keep this as clean and inoffensive for everyone as much as possible. I don't care if you dislike the character and the question reflects that, but I do care if you use foul language to demonstrate it. I want this to be fun for everyone, not a select few. I realize that I'm a tad bit behind on making this announcement, but better late than never, right?

Also, please let me know if you wish for me to use a specific user ID or wish to remain anonymous. If you don't, I'll use whatever ID I know you by when posing the questions to the character. Questions can be submitted to me via comments, PM, or email (luthersfayt@gmail.com)

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Conversation Topic - Bonus Board Comparison: Till the End of Time vs. The Last Hope

The other night, I turned on my PlayStation 2 with the first disk of Till the End of Time in the console. I recruited Roger (which took away affinity points for Fayt from Albel but you get some really nice goodies by recruiting Roger that you wouldn't otherwise), and I switched Cliff out for him. Because of my high levels (in the twenties range for Fayt, Cliff and Nel not too far behind him), bringing Roger out enabled for me to fill up my bonus board that I wouldn't be able to do with Cliff, Nel, and Fayt.

This, naturally, got me to thinking about the similarities and differences between Till the End of Time's and The Last Hope's bonus boards. Both boards have three things in common: increase in experience, increase in gold, and an increase rate of recovery at the end of the battle.  One key difference in what the boards dole out for bonuses is Till the End of Time has an increased chance for an item whereas The Last Hope increases the group's skill points for item creation (and can only be obtained by being ambushed in battle). Players of both games know that, in Till the End of Time, to get all four battle bonuses, the board has to remain intact for up to twenty battles and then some afterwards. In The Last Hope, it's based on whether the player is ambushed (green; increase skill points), lands a critical finish on an enemy (blue; 10% extra experience at the end of the battle), uses skills or magic only on an enemy (pink; 10% hit and magic points recovery at the end of the battle), and killing multiple enemies at once (yellow; 10% fol increase at the end of each battle).

I like how The Last Hope has set up the battle bonus board. I like that, as the controller of whichever character, I can find the ways to build the battle bonus board up without having to worry if my levels are too high. I also like that, if an enemy lands a critical hit on the controlled character, it doesn't take out the entire board. However, I also dislike it. I don't like that it can be filled up rather easily with the same color tiles.  That's where I like Till the End of Time's bonus board better. The amount of additional experience, fol, and recovery earned are set. You just have to keep the board in one piece.

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Game Talk, Part Seven -  Five to Ten Years After Till the End of Time

Yes, I'm skirting around the sequel I want to see with Fayt, Luther, Albel, and the rest of the original Till the End of Time cast. I'm doing it on purpose. This will follow what I want to see for a direct sequel and is actually sparked from a fan fiction piece I started to read on fanfiction.net. I liked the concept behind this story, but I didn't like the handling of some of the OCs, grammatically issues, and the author's OTP. (That's something that just goes without saying.) I also want to remind people that these Game Talks are nothing more than just wishful thinking on my part. They are not anything official from tri-Ace or Square Enix so please don't get all excited for these "new" games. It's what I'm wishing for; nothing more and nothing less.

For the fan fiction piece itself - it takes place within a year or so of Luther's defeat. The author's OTP is that of Fayt and Maria, but the author included the descendants of the Kenny, Maverick, and Saionji families. (How the Saionji family name lived on directly through Reimi is something I question, but I have a few ideas as to how it can work.) Fayt and Maria are planning a wedding (and Maria wants a fancy affair to remember, something I feel is slightly out of character for her, but that's also my interpretation of her from what I've observed about her) and they're also intergalactic peacekeepers. Quark no longer exists, and they're of high rank on a ship with soldiers. On the ship with them are Albel, Nel, Cliff, and Mirage, and, of course, the descendants of the Kenny family, Edge Maverick, and Reimi Saionji. War is brewing, and Luther has his fingers in the pie, so to speak, still bent on destroying the anamolies.

I like this particular concept. I like that, in the wake of the Creator's defeat, there is chaos and rebuilding. Nothing is stable, nothing is safe. I like that the descendants are struggling to live up to their families' reputations, and I like that Edge and Reimi didn't make it as a viable couple. It adds tension between the crew members and adds to the headache for the leaders on the ship.

Because I like this concept very well, I'd like to see it be applied to a potential Star Ocean game. This is the sequel to my sequel. Pairings could be established through the use of a code, i.e. if you get Fayt/Mirage, Fayt/Cliff, etc . . . in the first sequel, the game would give you a code you enter before starting and playing the next sequel. That way the player can enjoy the pairing s/he worked for in the sequel (and in Till the End of Time). I'd like to see the descendants of Edge and Reimi as separate entities, and the Kenny family having to earn their wings, so to speak, under seasoned fighters like Albel and Fayt in the nitty gritty of battle on various planets, some with technology, others underdeveloped.

Personally, I don't want to see Luther as the main/final boss. It would be too easy to have all of the problems in the Eternal Sphere be blamed on Luther. I think this would actually be a great time to see a resurgence in the Grigori, which I firmly maintain are the reasons why Luther ends going insane in Till the End of Time. As for the Creator's role in this game, I feel that if he and Fayt could establish some kind of an agreement and way to work together, it would give the game play an interesting balance.

No deviations from the kinds of fields for the characters or in the post game dungeons. The tried and true symbologists, swordsmen, martial artists, and archers would be great.

As the subject line says, the month of November is officially over, and, with it, with NaNoWriMo over, I can resume my Star Ocean duties for this blog. I don't like how my time management for last month turned out - because I wanted to post more often than what I did - for the month, but I can't change how things turned out. I can hope try and do better next November

With that said, I'm glad that the month of November is over. It was quite hectic with the writing and the holidays. (I did reach the goal for NaNo but on an original instead of Destinies - time just wasn't on my side last month and with that blow in losing what I had written on Destinies before the thumb drive . . . note on that, kids. If you're writing, BACK YOUR WORK UP. Hard lesson learned. I'm passing it on to everyone else.) For those of you who participated in NaNo, I hope you made your goal. If you didn't, just keep going. You started something amazing. It's worth continuing.

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Ask the Star Ocean Character - Roger S. Huxley

I'm now taking questions for Roger S. Huxley from Star Ocean: Till the End of Time. Questions can be submitted between now and midnight, December 11, 2012. Limit three questions per character per person, and keep the questions clean of vulgarity and sex talk. I will not use any questions submitted if the person is swearing at the character. Yes, I do realize that this is a fictional universe. There is swearing and sexual situations implied, but I do not tag very many things as containing adult content for this journal. It means anyone of any age can read it. I hate to sound mean about this, but I want to keep this as clean and inoffensive for everyone as much as possible. I don't care if you dislike the character and the question reflects that, but I do care if you use foul language to demonstrate it. I want this to be fun for everyone, not a select few. I realize that I'm a tad bit behind on making this announcement, but better late than never, right?

Also, please let me know if you wish for me to use a specific user ID or wish to remain anonymous. If you don't, I'll use whatever ID I know you by when posing the questions to the character. Questions can be submitted to me via comments, PM, or email (luthersfayt@gmail.com)

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CALL OUT FOR CHRISTMAS/UPCOMING HOLIDAY SEASON

Okay, this is going to very much flow in the same vein as Halloween. For the upcoming holiday season in December, I am seeking out the following:

photos - cosplay, figures, etc . . .
fan art
fan fiction

There are quite a few holidays in December so Star Ocean fans have their pick. There is Hanukkah, Kwanza, Christmas Eve, Christmas, Yule/the winter solstice, New Year's Eve, and New Year's. If I'm missing anything, please let me know, and I will gladly add it to the list. I would very much like to celebrate Star Ocean style. If anyone has or would like to do anything for the holidays in the month of December in terms of cosplay photography, figure/toy photography, fan art, and fan fiction, I will gladly post it to the journals. Credit will be given to the people who submit something. Please keep stories to one-shots. I'll accept chaptered fiction as long as it's complete. When submitting stories (and poetry - I'll accept poetry, too), please include the following:

Title:
World:
Character/s:
Pairing/s, if applicable:
Rating:
Warnings:
Disclaimer:
Claimer on any OCs:
Summary:
Author's Note/s, if applicable:

Please email all submissions to me at luthersfayt@gmail.com, and they can be sent to me at any time until midnight of the day before the holiday of choice (Christmas isn't the only holiday next month, and I will be all inclusive for the holidays celebrated). Stories, artwork, and photography do not need to be and will not exclusive to the journals so if you want to post them to other sites like fanfiction.net, dA, tumblr, etc . . ., you can. As far as I'm concerned, such works are not mine to say where they can and can't go on the web. I can only say that for my works.

As far as the artwork and stories go, NO EXPLICIT MATERIAL. Please keep the profanity to an acceptable level. My journal entries are public so that means anyone and everyone of all ages can read them so please use discretion should you decide to write something for the blogs.

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Weekly Schedule for the Week of December 3 through December 9, 2012

Monday:
Fanfiction Writing Tip
Conversation Topic
Convention Talk/Cosplay Talk - Going Solo or Find a Group?

Tuesday:
Conversation Topic
Fanfiction Entry - one shot (holiday)
Fanfiction Entry - One shot (holiday)
Ask the Star Ocean Character - Roger S. Huxley; Reminder

Wednesday:
Fanfiction Entry: Part Two of Destinies Intertwined by Fayt, Chapter 3
Conversation Topic

Thursday:
Game Talk, Part Seven
Conversation Topic
Ask the Star Ocean Character Reminder

Friday:
(Three separate entries)
Ask the Star Ocean Character - Deputy Director Shimada
Ask the Star Ocean Character - Bacchus D-79
Ask the Star Ocean Character - Peppita Rosetti
Character Facts - Deputy Director Shimada
Character Facts - Bacchus D-79
Character Facts - Peppita Rosetti
Character Study - Deputy Director Shimada
Character Study - Bacchus D-79
Character Study - Peppita Rosetti
Dream Houses - Deputy Director Shimda
Dream Houses - Bacchus D-79
Dream Houses - Peppita Rosetti

Sunday:
Game Tip
Conversation Topic
Legos

Sunday:
Weekly Schedule
Ask the Star Ocean Character Reminder
Impromptu December Birthday List

Please note that I will try to add more to each day where possible, with the exception of Friday. It's already going to have three different entries thanks to the number of Ask the Star Ocean Character segments due for that day.

And that's it for today! Here's to catching up and all that wonderful jazz!