Lots of roleplaying, Ni No Kuni and other bits and pieces

[lathany]

I have spent the last week resting and also dealing with various little bits and pieces that I had been putting off. Such as contacting the tax office, writing a character for bateleur's 100 Secrets game and ordering a new sofa for the lounge. On Friday, I took Bea shopping in Oxford Street and out for lunch. I don't spend much time with Bea in general (as I am parent who commutes to work in London), so it was a day out for the two of us and it went very well.

The resting part of my week included finishing Ni No Kuni. I've written a long review for GameFAQs, but the shortish version is that it's gorgeous with a decent story and interesting gameplay. However, it's a bit too grindy for my liking. Definitely one of the best JRPGs around though. I particularly liked the plot advancement as you move from one goal to another across the game and understand a great deal about the world in the process. I also liked the side-quests and hunts - they made the grinding less arduous.

I have finished the fourth and fifth Le Carré books and I am now waiting for the sixth to arrive.

• The Looking Glass War - This was a spy story in, what I suspect is, Le Carré's normal style. I didn't enjoy it very much. It's depressing from start to finish and there is very little Smiley.
• A Small Town In Germany - This was much better. Still about spies, but much more mystery and "thriller" to it. Still no Smiley, but the protagonist - Alan Turner - was very interesting and relentless.

We have seen a couple of films since Gone - both were recommendations and based in history.

• A Royal Affair - A Danish film set in the 18th century, at the court of the mentally ill King Christian VII of Denmark. This was a fairly accurate retelling (as far as I can judge) and was well-acted, interesting, unsurprisingly tragic and had some wonderful lines (such as a quotation from Hamlet). I'd recommend it for anyone unless they loathe subtitles. Actually the worst thing about it was the subtitles as there were some white on white moments.
• Ip Man - This film was much more loosely based on events and is about Ip Man, a Chinese martial artist whose students included Bruce Lee. It's fun and the story is fairly traditional, although in a twentieth century setting. There's no Bruce Lee, though, so don't watch it for him (it's set too early).

There's been a fair amount of roleplaying since I last posted:

• Folded Edge - Again, there's been a fair amount already said, mainly by lanfykins (here). We had something of a law-abiding session. We arranged for my would-be assassin to be arrested, took a trip to Danté during which Maravian had some bad piloting draws (although Hex eventually took over and so we didn't fly into the sun) and then went on to Ariel (I think) where we rescued the two remaining hostages of ten from an incredibly grim situation. There are hints that we may eventually be bound for Khepri (the prison planet), but Reagan still has hopes of avoiding this.
• Lost Souls - As the re-runs are over, I can now talk about this. However, I suspect it's not as funny to read about as it was to play. It was supposed to be - and mostly was - a somewhat dark and depressing tale about the afterlife. We (wildrogue, bateleur, Alistair and I - leathellin bailed at the eleventh hour, possibly wisely) played characters who had died in a train crash and found themselves on The Plains, hoping eventually to be worthy of Heaven. However, when wandering we met an Angel who sent us back to Earth to recover a being that should not be there. Easier said than done. We were ghosting about in 1999, a few days before the solar eclipse, wondering how we were going to find and catch the bad guy given that possessing people was considered A Really Bad Thing (which only bad guys would do). The answer appeared to be given to us when we spotted a possessed seagull above us. We reckoned that (a) this was our bad guy and (b) this solved our problems. Four more seagulls were quickly obtained and possessed, flying was a doddle and so we just needed to make contact - thus we managed a four seagull pileup and a show-down in the seagull brain as we plummeted towards the sea. Of course, the seagull turned out to be possessed by a mere follower and the actual bad guy was in a pregnant woman elsewhere. However, we eventually caught the bad guy - a major sinner/magician from Hell - and three of us returned (we hope that the fourth one gets back eventually). We had made an important step towards redemption. Oh, and in case anyone cares, we did regain control of the seagull and stopped it from drowning.
• Star Wars - Session three involved light sabers. And a(nother) space battle. Not to mention an unfortunate critical fail and lots of bad rolls from me.

Next week I plan to see at least two museums. And do more lazing about.