Last night, I unexpectedly finished Eternal Sonata. I really didn’t think I was close to the end. I thought I was about halfway through, and that the rubbish final dungeon with the ridiculously easy bosses was some kind of transition. And then, abruptly, ‘Final Stage’. Another easy boss (though I have to admit it was a surprise who he was), and the ending. Which was very, very strange. 45 minutes of being directly lectured by pretty RPG characters, some incoherent story, and then after the credits, some weird allegorical tale about a snail and a caterpillar – that they had forgotten to subtitle!

I want to play it again with a guide (and in English), to see if there are any significant chunks I have missed, any hidden worlds, so I will reserve judgement until then, but I have to say, judging from my overall experience thus far, I’m very disappointed that such a beautiful game, with such potential to be epic and such great designs, was so lacking in substance. Everything about it was limited, except the visual feast – but in an RPG, that simply isn’t enough.

Anyway, I realised that I’ll have band practice on Thursday, so I can’t go out after all. Eskrima will have to wait: let’s have my meal on Wednesday after work, at some Zizzi either on the Strand or in Covent Garden. Puri-Kura too, and all the usual pleasures. It’d be nice if we had a few people there. I have loads of half-price vouchers that otherwise aren’t gonna get used up. Can always give them away I suppose!

Work is much more relaxed this morning: I’ve actually had very little to do other than alter lots of letterhead paper. I think Andrea was so eager to get everything done after his holiday that we squeezed in far more work than we needed to. Oh well, it’s nice, not having much to do. I think I’ll just kill time before lunch, and then will probably regret not having done any writing, but hopefully the afternoon won’t be that busy either.

Mini Quiz

(This bit was the only interesting part)

----------------• × • H A V E | Y O U | E V E R • × •-------------

- Given anyone a bath?: Yes. Given someone a shower, too. And had a bath and a shower with someone.
- Smoked?: Until I was very ill. The things I'll do for a student film. It's horrible, though.
- Bungee jumped?: Really should try and do that soon.
- Made yourself throw up?: Yes.
- Skinny dipped?: Actually, no. Never seen the appeal.
- Made yourself cry to get out of trouble?: Hmm, no, but once I was red-faced from being drunk at boarding school and the matron gave me a big hug because she thought I was crying.
- Cried when someone died?: No. There's been very little death in my life.
- Lied: Yeah, though of late only in a purposely obvious way.
- Fallen for your best friend?: No, though George in primary school was very cute!
- Rejected someone?: Hmm...has anyone ever actually plucked up the courage to ask me outright so that I've needed to turn them down? Only by text, I think!
- Used someone?: Only in a way that they'd obviously notice, for amusement's sake.
- Done something you regret?: But then again, too few to mention.

Also, 'Family of Blood' almost made up for the whole of the Doctor Who revival. Of course, it was based on a pre-revival novel. They should plunder more of those stories.