Recent game purchases

Those are the games that I purchased (and finished) recently (and by "recently" I mean the past 3 months...):

Ace Attorney Investigations for the NDS and Marvel vs. Capcom 3 for the PS3.

Ace Attorney Investigations is a spin-off of the Ace Attorney series starring the prosecutor Edgeworth, and taking place outside the court.

Is more in the vein of the Ace Attorney series than Apollo Justice, the fourth installment, and the cases are quite good. Despite that, I disliked the "friendly rival" Shi-Long Lang, and the main sidekick Kay Faraday was kinda boring and irritating. In fact, for me Edgeworth's best partner was Franziska von Karma, specially in her 13 year old appearance:

Cute young Franziska

Is not not the best game in the Ace Attorney series, but unlike Apollo Justice, is a worth sequel. Too bad that the second game starring Edgeworth is not coming to Occident...

And for Marvel vs. Capcom 3... I don't like it at all.
My brother and I play a lot of fighting games, mostly Capcom ones, and he was quite hyped for this one so at the end I purchased it, but it never was appealing for me for several reasons.
The first one is that, except for a very few exceptions, I don't like 3D visuals in fighting games. The second is that I dislike about a third of the cast represented. I don't like the recent Resident Evil games (the last one I liked was RE2) , Devil May Cry or the new Bionic Commando, so from the start I dislike 6 characters from the Capcom side (not counting the characters that "I can tolerate but I don't really like" like Zero or Crimsom Viper), and my knowledge of Marvel characters is mostly from the late 80's to mid 90's, so "new" characters like x-23 and Deadpool are pretty much unknown to me (and seemingly quite fan-service characters) and some old-school characters like Thor, MODOK or Dormammu are quite uninteresting... To compare, in Marvel vs. Capcom 2, with a bigger roster than MVC3, the only character that I disliked was Marrow.
And the 3rd reason is that I dislike the game mechanics, very different from the previous games from the series and with unnecesary gimmicks like the X-factor.
Worst of all is that a couple of weeks after I bought it, Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 was announced Orz

Megami Magazine September '11

And yet another magazine that I bought only for the extra, Megami Magazine September '11 issue.

This time I bought it because of a Weiß Schwarz promo card (and to a lesser degree, a iDOLM@STER drama cd included):

Angel's swimsuit! 765Pro

The rest of the magazine is not really very interesting.

A few iDOLM@STER pages covering the anime.

The upcoming THE iDOLM@STER 2 for PS3.

The Gravure4You! mini game included in the limited version and the seiyuu in their last live concert.

The cover and a few pages are dedicated to the anime of Steins;Gate. I played the trial version of it in the Xbox and I'm quite interested in it, but I didn't watch the anime.

The only TYPE-MOON related stuff in the whole magazine is this Carnival Phantasm mini poster.

Like last time I purchased this magazine, a Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica reversible long poster was included.

Swimsuit Sayaka in one side...

...and swimsuit Ryoko in the other.

Comptiq September '11

Comptiq September '11 issue was released in August, and featured a very nice cover with Saber, Saber Alter and Saber Extra in swimsuits.

Over two years had passed since I bought a Comptiq issue. As I said in previous entries, I don't buy magazines issues unless it includes some juicy extra. In this case, it includes a super deformed figure of Saber from Fate/EXTRA.

The figure is part of the figure line niitengo by Toy's Works, and is clearly an attempt to emulate Good Smile Company's nendoroid puchi line.

Compared side to side with a nendoroid petit, the proportions are a bit different; niitengo's head is smaller and the body is a bit bigger.
Quality wise, the nendoroid have a much better paint job and sculpt and personally I find the nendoroid line cuter than the niitengo.

This issue was supposed to contain lots of TYPE-MOON related news because of it's 10th anniversary, but the actual contents are not really that much:

The already on sale first season of Carnival Phantasm. I expect my copy soon...

Fate/Zero TV series will begin on October.

And that's it.
The serialized manga includes:

Fate/Extra manga by Robina

HibiChika Time by Oomori Hayashi

Koha Ace by Keikenchi.

I knew this author for quite a while (his drawings are pretty unique) but this is the first time I read something by him.
In order to conmemorate the 10th anniversary of TYPE-MOON, Kohaku and Akiha leap back in time to the year 2003 and find the T-M characters of that time... In the picture, 2003 Satsuki is waiting for her route.
This is the 4th chapter and I missed the previous 3, so I hope they'll release a tankoubon of it.

EDIT: I have some pins designed by Keikenchi:

Those where extras included in some Kotobukiya's garage kits that I bought in 2003, that are among the very first TYPE-MOON items that I purchased. I'm quite an old time fan, aren't I?

1/10 Amami Haruka & Miura Azusa by Wave

1/10 Amami Haruka and Miura Azusa by Wave were released in May and July respectively, but since both are from the same figure line (Beach Queens series) and both share the same origin (THE iDOLM@STER), I'll review them together.

Haruka is sculpted by Abira, who also did Takane figure. Includes a detachable swim tube and two interchangeable faces:

Normal face.

Winking face.

The overall figure is rather nice, and I like Abira's face sculpts with iM@S characters.
There's only a major flaw in the sculpt; the pose is leaning way too much to the front making it a likely candidate to bend the PVC and be a leaning figure.

Also this pose is not very photogenic outside the strictly front angle.

Rear shot.

Azusa sculpt is by Clumsy Zero, based in an official illustration by Annin Doufu:


It includes two faces, a normal one and a smiling with the eyes shut one. Perhaps the forehead and cheeks are a bit too wide in my opinion...

Normal face

Smiling face

The pareo is made of transparent rubber and can be detached.

And true to the character, she have a really nice body.

Rear shot.

Figma Ayanami Rei Plugsuit Ver. by Max Factory

Received two months ago but unopened until today, figma Ayanami Rei Plugsuit Ver. by Max Factory.

Unlike the terrible disappointment that was figma Asuka, Rei doesn't have any fault in the sculpt, albeit as a figma is rather plain.

The accessories consist in three faces (neutral, angry and smiling), 11 hands (one of them holding Shinji's S-DAT player) and an Eva cockpit like the ones included with figma Asuka and figma Mari

Neutral face.

Unlike Mari and specially Asuka, the breast part have no problem this time.

Smiling face holding the S-DAT. Not really visible in the photo, but I received my copy with a profound scratch across her right eye.

Angry face.

And the cockpit.

And finally a rear shot. Her buttocks is not as nice as Asuka's or Mari's.

Fate/EXTRA Visual Fanbook

Slowly filling the review list. I still have 8 figures unopened and 6 artbooks/guidebooks to do... In order of purchase the next is Fate/Extra Visual Fanbook, released back in February.

Unlike the disappointment that was Fate/EXTRA Perfect Guide, this artbook contains all the stuff I wanted, specially an extensive gallery section and early design and sketches for the characters.

The first part is the gallery section, filled with pictures from promotional material (mostly telecards). Most of them are by Wada Rco, with a few by Takeuchi.

Yuri overtoned picture of Saber and Rin.

Cute Caster and Rin.

The character bios section includes not only their stats but also the in-game character cuts:

Bio page for Saber.

It includes an extensive part filled with Takeuchi's initial designs. Most of them already appeared here.

Gawain and Lu Bu designs by Takeuchi

The info for the huke designed weapons. In the picture Lancer's Gae Bolg, Gawain's Excalibur Gallatin and Berserker's God Force.

The following part are a bunch of interviews, that I didn't take pictures of it because was mostly a wall of text.

Next is a gallery made by guest artists. Unlike the official art that most of the times includes either Saber, Caster or Rin, the characters here are pretty diverse:

Saber by AkaRingo

Caster & Alice by Fruit Punch

Leo and Gawain by Sumihei

The last part part includes a couple of short manga by Wada Rco (one of them already appeared in Type-Moon Ace 5) and a short novel called "Seven's feel".

Random page from the short manga.