Even though E3 was like 6 months ago, I’ve been reliving it a little bit each day for the past couple weeks.  It was my official first day of work as a Frag Doll so everything was new and glamorous.  I was behind the scenes, demoing unreleased games, privy to classified information… practically a spy.  Like this little tidbit of info: if you were to press the 360 controller’s right bumper it would completely freeze the Enchanted Arms demo and force you to reboot the Xbox and reload the game!  (# of times pressed: a ba-google)

Enchanted Arms was what I mostly demoed at E3 ’06.  We played that tiny sliver of the game to pieces.  The demo consisted of two sections; the carnival, and a battle sequence.  I usually ran the main character, Atsuma, around the carnival first, showing onlookers the interaction you can have with all the people roaming the city.  Everyone in the city has funny names, like “Brave Child,” or “Women Who Lost Her Way;” kind of like Indian Native American names.  I’d break some wooden boxes, mentioning that sometimes they contained valuable items, but all the boxes in our demo contained nothing but shiny glitter (“Glitter!”).  Then we’d move on to the battle sequence and watch as Atsuma, accompanied by his Golems, fight against evil Golems.  The bright colors and powerful attacks were very impressive.

But as turn-based, import RPGs are not my favoritest of genres, I had no intention of putting much time into Enchanted Arms after E3.  Though, every once in a while, mostly when I was eating pizza, the Pizza Golem would pop into my head.  He was the best part of the demo because the audience always laughed when I introduced him.  *See Pizza Golem, cue laughter.* Anyhow, I happened to obtain a copy (special edition with the graphic novel [which you have to read back to front, right to left {deliberate misuse of parentheses!}]), and, boy, have I been playing it!

I was a little annoyed during the first part of the game, but my irritation melted away as I continued the story and progressed past the tutorial section.  Now, I can hardly keep my mind on anything else.  As I work from home during the day there is the constant temptation to sneak downstairs and play for a little bit.  I gave into it once and my promise to only play for 30 minutes, turned into five and a half hours.  You (I) get so sucked in!  “Just one more battle,” becomes “until I level up,” and turns into “I only need another 11,498 SP, 4 speed gems and a shop nearby, then I can synthesize my Raiko Golem and up my all my Parameters!”

So, anyway, this blog is really just the long way to say sorry for not playing GRAW much recently.  We just moved, got a new non-compatible router and Enchanted Arms is holding on to me tight (how appropriate, eh!).  And now I’m hungry; I’m going to go ask “Loafing Husband” to order me a Pizza Golem, extra cheese. Mmmmmmm…