Patapon 2

This game is like drugs.

I fucking hate you Sony.

I was doing pretty good in Monster Hunter.

I was doing pretty good in FFXI.

Then I bought Patapon 2 off the Sony Store and LOOK AT ME!

Ok, if you liked Patapon, or if you like music games, or if you like strategy games, or if you like games where you have to repeat shit so that you can loot whore and upgrade your troops rinse/repeat, then Patapon is a game for you.

If you are rhythm-impaired, it's not going to be fun.

Some things I noticed

Easy Mode is FRIGGIN EASY
Take advantage of it. You can switch difficulty at any part of the game. It's easier to get your hero into HERO MODE and makes it easier to pwn the faces of things

Setting your Hero as a Dekapon is CHEAP
If you keep getting Hero Mode, your Hero Patapon will keep doing their "Hero Attack". I've only seen this with Robopon, Dekapon, and Kibapon, but the Hero will never stop attacking as long as you keep the attack song up.

Having your Hero as a Dekapon is INSANE, because you never stop attacking the boss, and it has monstrous HP, also, Dekapons can't be knocked back. Most of the time, the rest of my army is dodging, but my Dekapon Hero is attacking, stun locking the boss.

It's not for the faint of heart, but the only boss I don't think it'll work on are the Birds and the Transforming Dog/Bird shit.

No Longer Stuck with a class
If you played the last game, you had static units, and if you wanted to upgrade to a stronger/different patapon, you had to dismiss the unit and recreated. Now, they have a Class tree where you can level up the different classes and switch before any mission.

This is good because each class has it's own positives and negatives, and the missions are so varied. Some times, you might need to stock up on Ice resistant Patapons, other times you'll need to do all Fire resist, or Super Critical to stun bosses.

It added a new dimension to the game, but makes it so that farming/grinding plays a bigger role than before.

More rewards from minigames
But they do this because you have to grind a LOT more. Also, the minigames can "upgrade", giving you access to better rewards and higher-tier items.

Hero Patapon makes the game too easy sometimes
Seriously, this guy can easily change the tide of battle.

--------------------------------
All in all, I love Patapon 2. Best part was that I didn't even need to go to the store to buy it!

This Blog Is Alive, AND SO IS MY PSP!!!

So another winter passed, and another PSP broken. I think I should keep these in my front pocket where they'll stay warm.

So anyway, this time, I decided to fix the screen myself. Dropped $60 on a replacement and it came in from Asia. THEN THE FUN BEGINS!


DISCLAIMER: THE MEMBERS OF SONY REPORT ARE PROFICIENT TINKERERS AND DO NOT CONDONE DOING THE SAME THING TO YOUR PSP UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES. IT IS BEST TO EITHER HAVE YOUR PSP REPLACED, OR TO TAKE IT TO A TRAINED MECHANIC. THE PROCESS REQUIRES A FUNCTIONAL KNOWLEDGE OF ELECTRONICS, HARDWARE AND THE CONCURRENT SYSTEMS ATTACHED TO THEM NECESSARY TO MAKE PARTS REPLACEMENT FLAWLESS. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO DO THIS UNLESS YOU ARE 100% SURE OF YOURSELF, BECAUSE SONY REPORT WILL NOT REPLACE YOUR PSP, NOR WILL THEY OFFER ANY MECHANICAL ASSISTANCE WARRANTING FAILURE, BREAKAGE, LOST SCREWS, LOST PARTS, OR DAMAGED REPLACEMENT SCREENS.

DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK

So when the damn screen was on, this is what the little bastard was showing me.



How nice of him, no? Well there are 6 screws that need to be taken off of the PSP before you can crack the face. I don't feel like taking a jillion pics, so their locations are:
- 2 at the top of the PSP
- 1 at the bottom of the PSP
- 2 to the right of the UMD case
- 1 underneath the battery (below the sticker)

For this project, all I used were:
- "Eyeglass" Screwdrivers
--1.8M/m Phillips
--1.2m/m Flathead)
- Can of Compressed air to remove dust

Anyway, take the face off the PSP, and this is what your PSP's Skeleton will show up as!



Not too pretty, right?

Next thing to do is to CAREFULLY remove the bottom green strip.



And with a slight twisting motion (you'll need to do this on both sides), it'll snap off very easily.



Then it's time to CAREFULLY take off the old LCD screen. There are notches in the screen that "connect" it to a metallic frame.


These "pop" out with little effort, and are on both sides of the screen.

On the Chassis of the PSP, there are two connections to remove.



This is the data conenction to the LCD screen. This can be accomplished by sliding a small flathead under the black flaps and slightly twisting the flap up. Very simple.

The next connection can be removed the same way, and is the Backlight connection



OPTIONAL. To remove the connection for the "home bar", remove this.



Makes it easier to replace screen, but isn't really necessary.

Reverse the directions, taking great care, and TAKING YOUR TIME. It's annoying to put those connections back in, and there is metal framing that Sony Engineers decided to put at the top of the PSP to annoy me. I completely screwed in my PSP before I realized I moved a piece the wrong way.

But if you're comfortable doing hobbies like this, then little hiccups shouldn't be a problem. It makes the ordeal very fun, and makes you value your PSP more!

And Sony didn't do a bad job of engineering this piece of metal and plastic.