We meet again, BYOND.

'Tis I: the incredible, the fantastical, the ingenius, the ingenuous, and the virtually unknown... Gathin!

Sometimes I honestly wonder how I came up with that key name. For non-rpg online games I'll usually use blank, or Blank Blade. For roleplaying games I'll name a character 'Flaerian', in honor of two fencing teachers I've had who were both, coincidentally, named Florian (despite living on opposite sides of the continent).

Anywho, for some odd reason I decided I wanted something different for my BYOND name. So I came up with Gathin. People have seperated into two words frequently enough (Gay Thing; har har har), but it actually comes from 'That Thing'. Thathing or Thathin wasn't agreeable to my eye at the time.

Yesterday I went to see Batman: Begins. I had the lowest expectations I've had going into a movie for a looong time. At first I thought that they were justified; they throw the character of Bruce Wayne at you, put him in a fight, and then send him on a journey. Who cares? I didn't, because they didn't give you anything about the character. Then there were a few flashbacks. They didn't tell me anything I didn't know about Bruce Wayne, but they connected it to what they had shown you in the first rather hero-stale 10 minutes soooo well that it worked.

The movie was uphill for the next hour or so, developing the beginnings of Batman wonderfully. The first action sequence with 'Batman' was ~awesome~, and it really felt like the sequences in the comics (although I didn't read them extensively).

In my opinion it went downhill from there. Although it was still a very enjoyable movie, some of the later action sequences dragged a bit. I'm VERY critical on that kind of stuff, though, so bear that in mind.

Anyway, go see Batman: Begins if you like the movies. Its a good watch.

Marching forward with the tangential theme, I've been playing Chrono Cross. Chrono Trigger is one of my favourite RPGs of all time. At first I found CC kind of dull. I didn't find that the story picked up very well, and the battle system seemed a little blocky at first. As the game has been going on, however, I'm beginning to really enjoy it. I'm about halfway through, and its getting more difficult. Its not impossible, but its getting to the point where I need to actually make full use of the 'Element' magic system.

Each character has an innate color (red, yellow, blue, green, black, or white). As you go through the game you aquire individual elements, essentially spells that can be allocated to a character. As you progress, each character's element grid expands, allowing for more and higher level elements to be allocated. It doesn't have influence on a character's stats as in FF7's materia system, but there are more ways to set up team combos and stuff.

The story is also really picking up quickly now, and the huge character variety makes things interesting. I think I've recruited at least 20 or 30 characters at this point (although currently I only have access to about 10 or 15), and most have them have some really cool in-game events associated with them.

Annyway, if you've got a PS2 or an old PSX lieing around and haven't played Chrono Cross, go pick it up if you're an RPG buff.


Its been pointed out on BYOND before, but I rediscovered the Wayback Machine earlier today. Check it out; http://www.archive.org/ -- do a search for a favourite website and go waaayback.

Good fun.

Anyway, on my next post I might talk about the BYOND game I've had in a state of slow development for quite awhile. There's not much to do in it currently, but I've got some interesting features built in that could make for some fun Star Trek gameplay if I ever get it finished. I'll have some screens for my next post.

~G,
That Thing