Phoenix Wright: Dual Destinies

The Ace Attorney series was always an interesting concept for me. And I had zero plans of taking up law to understand it better. But the thought of playing as a lawyer and doing some investigations to uncover the truth was pretty fantastic.

Now that I'm working in the game development industry, it puts things in a better perspective on how the game comes to be. Since this is mostly text-based, I can already picture the huge web that it has to pass through when a player selects a certain evidence or choice. One big mucho headache.

That being said, I sometimes plague my keen eyes for picking up on things I would usually ignore while playing. Or that's just the grammar Nazi embedded in me when I spot grammatical flaws in the English translations.

The latest game, Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies is an eShop exclusive game (at least the localized English version anyway) that continues the story of Phoenix Wright and his return to the courtoom after the events of Apollo Justice. We see a slew of old characters that bring back just the right level of nostalgia, as well as a bunch of new ones to appreciate.

The universe created by Shu Takumi is where Kai and I enjoy writing stories in. And this latest installment could not contribute any better. Of the new bunch of characters, there is one I wanted to flesh out on and study for better development. His name? Prosecutor Simon Blackquill.

He's the Prosecutor for 4 and a half cases in the game, but what's so intriguing about him is his back story. I won't point it out here 'cause it'll spoil the plot, but all I will say is that he's definitely a character that needs a second look at. Plus there's plenty to go on beyond the courtroom.

Christmas

It's a few days past Christmas, and find myself inkling to do a quick post on some of the stuff I got and put them in a better light.

Let's start with this one! At the office, we still managed to have ourselves a simpler celebration of the season, and that included the Christmas Exchange Gift which was done through Elfster. So it was a simple matter of making our wishlists.

The one who drew my name (Lee), anonymously told me through the site that he couldn't find it, so I had to point him in the right direction to get the book I wanted. Happy to see that he found the 9th Doctor Who book, and even threw in a Lego figure of Loki. :) Thanks Lee! That was a little Christmas celebration well spent.

Next we have a little room improvement with my parents' gifts for both my birthday and Christmas. This actually started out when my mom and I cleaned out my closets together the day before my birthday. I voiced out that it was time to find another shelf to accommodate the books that I had in my room, and it was high time to replace the bedside table I had been using for the longest time.

So we sought out a nice compact shelf (the one on the left), with a plastic shoe rack shelf (not seen in the photo) and a new table lamp too. What followed sometime later was the garment stand for all my stray jackets and hats. Funnily enough, every time I come into the room, I jump thinking that its someone hiding in the shadows. I got to get used to that.

Finally we come our family Christmas Eve celebrations! Let's start things off from the top right and work our way around clockwise.

• Power Bank from my parents. It's funny how they can think up of the most opportune time to get us one of these! Since we often need to charge our phones while we're out, this will easily come in handy when there isn't an outlet in sight.
• Bench Socks from my Auntie Shiony. Quite the irony how I'm slowly shifting my undergarments in the direction of this brand. It's a definite sign!
• Boxes from my mom. I actually picked these out from Saizen when we were doing some last minute shopping earlier that day to help keep my stuff more organized. 
• Books!
• Warp by Eoin Colfer and Seriously...I'm Kidding by Ellen DeGeneres were from my aunt.
• Festival of Death, Fear of the Dark and Players (books 4-6) of the Doctor Who series from the exchange gift from Uncle Cesar. Adding that to my current collection below, here's where we stand! 

Just 3 more to go before I have all 11 books. Then I can start reading this properly. :)

Snape's Wand

It's been quite some time since I've come across shops selling Harry Potter Wands. The first time I believe was when I was on one of my family trips abroad (San Francisco I believe) when I stumbled across some wands on sale at Barnes and Noble. The flame re-ignited itself when they were encountered again while Kai and I were browsing GreatToysOnline's Annapolis branch, which was selling for around P2000 or thereabouts.

Yesterday, my mom and my sister picked me up after I stayed the night with Kai at the hospital before she was discharged, and we headed straight to TriNoma. While I was taking my time walking around, I decided to drop by the stall for The Perfect White Shirt, and to my surprise, I saw them selling wands! I doubled back after passing by National Book Store and Fully Booked and inquired. They were selling them for P500! I literally looked through all their products since the wands were all different, and searched the net to try and find the reference codes. For the longest time, I've wanted Severus Snape's wand, so you would believe me inner Potterhead squealing when I found a box that had that exact reference number! I bought it without a second thought.

An early Christmas gift to myself, because wands are so cool and I've always dreamed of owning my own. :3