I'm back

Well, after an over a year long hiatus I'm finally back.

I was planning to make a comeback in May 11th, to make it exactly one year break, but I'm quite busy and didn't have the time until now.

To tell the truth, my otaku culture motivation is still a lot less compared when I first began this blog, and nowhere as much as it was in my consumerism peak (in the early to mid 2000's). Compared with myself 10 years ago, now I hardly watch anime (one series per season at most), almost stopped to purchase manga at all (when once I was following over 20 titles monthly), and the time I spent in videogames became less than 10 hour per week. The global economical situation doesn't help either, and the time when an euro was 170 yen was long ago...

Perhaps I must be growing too old for this, but that doesn't means that I no longer have stuff to show in this blog! In fact, the list is too large that I'm sure I'll be missing things.

I'll try to sort it by genres, the fist being:

VIDEOGAMES

The games I purchased since my last update, 15 in total.

For PC, the English version of  Saya no Uta published by Jast USA. Is my favorite VN and I was planning my purchase back when I was living in Japan but was too expensive for such a short game. I decided to buy it in English when was first announced to support western publishers when they release quality titles... they only took 2 years for an already translated and short VN...

For PS2, the regular edition of Melty Blood Actress Again. I purchased the limited edition years ago, but because the regular edition had another cover it was on my wishlist for a while.

For XBox 360, Muv-Luv Twin Pack. I was planning to purchase the PS3 release of Muv-Luv and Muv-Luv Alternative, but then I found the XBox pack with the same price for ONE of the PS3 games and includes a Figma Kagami Sumika as well. And since my XBox is my most underused console ever (purchased only to play iM@S) is a nice way to add value to it.

For the PSP, the limited box of Fate/EXTRA CCC. The game is still unwrapped, so I can't say much...

For the PS3: 428 Fuusa Sareta Shibuya de, Aquapazza, Dream C Club Complete Edipyon! and Dream C Club ZERO Special Edipyon!.
I already bought 428 for the Wii several years ago, but I was unable to play it with my unmoded PAL Wii. I was interested because of the bonus scenario written by Nasu and drawn by Takeuchi that surprisingly was the weakest scenario of the game. I really wanted to do an extensive review + summary when I just finished it (a year ago), so maybe I'll decide to do it sometime now that I'm back.
Aquapazza is a fighting game featuring Leaf/Aquaplus characters, so is like the official version of The Queen of Hearts doujin games by Watanabe Seikakusho (now French Bread). I used to like Leaf a lot and I like fighting games, so it was a no-brainer purchase.
I was interested in Dream C Club games back when was announced for the XBox, and the games where way better than I expected, if you put aside the somewhat creepy setting of a hostess club simulator. Maybe I will do a review as well...

For the PS Vita, Fate/stay night Realta Nua. With this I bought Fate/stay night for the 6th time (3 for PC: limited, regular and DVD versions and 2 for PS2: limited and budget versions) despite not having a Vita nor planing to buy one anytime soon. At least I was able to play the extra game included as a bonus, Tobitate! Chojikuu Toraburu Hanafuda Daisakusen, in the PSP.

For the PSP, the 3 versions of The Idolm@ster Shinny Festa.To tell the truth I didn't play any of them that much and the only interesting bit besides the OVAs included (that act as an opening for each game) is the brief appearance of the iM@S Cinderella Girls idols as a collectible boosts.

And finally for the NDS two games; 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors and Love Plus +.
I was interested in 999 mainly because the designs of Nishimura Kinu and because the writer was Uchikoshi Kotaro (writer of the excellent Ever17). I ordered it when the sequel was announced (fearing that it will became hard to find) and I ended with a reprint version. I liked a lot the whole premise and some of the fictional themes of the game, but for me the ending was a bit lacking and the "plot twist" was too similar to the Ever17 one...
And Love Plus +, that caught my attention before the release date. I've been playing this every day a bit for almost one year and it became the permanent cartridge in my NDS. My girl of choice was Manaka.

And to finalize my videogame review, last September Kubooka Toshiyuki visited Spain. He is one of my favorite character designer (I talked a bit about him in this post).

I was struggling what to bring to get it signed, and finally I decided on the first iDOLM@STER for the XBox (the cover for the second one was not made by him):

BLU-RAY & DVD

Not really that much I bought this last year, and most of it is still unopened.

-Fate Zero Blu-ray Disc Box II. Still unopened.

-TYPE MOON Fes. Blu-ray Disc Box. Also still unopened.

-Gurren Lagann Movies DVD's. Spanish edition, unopened.

-Evangelion 1.11 Blu-ray. I already bought it in DVD, but since now I have 2.22 and 3.33 in Blu-ray I bought this one in Blu-ray as well)

-Evangelion 3.33 Blu-ray. After the hype I had with the previous movie, I'm not sure if I liked this one. I need to see the last one to properly judge.

-Zettai Junpaku: Mahou Shoujo Blu-ray Disc. RAITA's self published short movie based in his original doujinshi series. Too bad is so short (less than 6 minutes), because the voice cast and the animation is great. PV below.


And that's all for today. I'll keep posting more as soon as I can.

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

Ghost Trick

Last weekend I bought Ghost Trick for NDS, and a couple of days ago I finished it.

In summary, Ghost Trick is a visual novel with a puzzle segment in each of the 18 chapters, but the puzzle is mostly cosmetic since the story is the main focus.

You play as Sissel, an amnesic ghost with a special power to manipulate small objects and go back in time 4 minutes before the dead of any recently deceased person besides himself. With that power he must find who is and why was killed, and he have time until dawn before disappears from this world.

Is hard to not compare it with the Ace Attorney games, not only because the developer of both series is Takumi Shuu, but also because like the AA games, the main charm of the game is the quite unique characters, each with distinctive quirks and behaviors, and see how interact with each other in a seemingly unconnected way, until you see the full picture in the last episode.

The story is pretty good, with several plots twist. Some of them are pretty evident (I figured Sissel identity at the end of the chapter six, and is one of the last revelations in the game) but some of them are totally unexpected (like the identity of the ghost that explains your powers at the beginning).

When a characters speaks, like most of the visual novels, a 2D image of the character is shown, but when appearing "on screen" they are modeled in 3D with astonishingly fluid animations. This aspect and the stylish character designs gives a really edgy feel to the game.

The puzzles consists most of the time to save a character from his/her death, manipulating the objects that you can possess. Even if you fail, you can go back in time 4 minutes and redo the situation, but the puzzles are fairly obvious, with only one way of solving them and usually you can do it with the first attempt. As usual with this kind of games, it rather short (about 10 hours) and have zero to none replayability value.

Since most of the fun is to know the truth at the same time as the main character, I won't spoil all the characters, only the ones you'll find early in the game.

Sissel

The main character. He regains consciousness and find himself as a ghost, dead and without any memory of who is he or how was killed. Despite his looks, he's not as sarcastic as Phoenix Wright and usually is pretty naive.

Lynne

The main heroine is this vivacious detective that have a more than passing resemblance to Gurren Lagann's Yoko. Seems to be the the only witness of Sissel murder, and is the first person that you need to help to literally escape from the death in hand of a hitman.

Kamile

Known as Kanon in Japan, she's a little girl living with Lynne. She's pretty smart for her age and is the second character that you need to save.

Missile

Kamile and Lynne little dog. In order to help his masters, he becomes one of the main characters later in game.

My videogame collection II: Nintendo DS

I purchased a black Nintendo DS Lite in late 2006. At first it wasn't a handheld console that I wanted to purchase (the gimmick of the touch screen is not really necessary in the kind of games I usually play on handhelds), and was very tempted to buy a PSP instead, until a fellow student from my university showed me Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan... 10 days after that, I purchased the NDS and imported that game...


Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan (2005) A rhythm video game that made me decide to purchase the console. Is about a manly cheer squad cheering for various troubled people, that sounds really weird (and, in fact, it is) . The crazy story mode, the overall setting and the 15 songs featured are really good. Since it uses fully the touch screen, is really hard to do a similar game in another platform (but Hatsune Miku Project DIVA was similar enough...)

Moero! Nekketsu Rhythm Damashii Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan 2 (2007) The sequel to the former. Includes a playable "rival" cheer squad, and a bit of improvement in the gameplay (now you can skip the cut scenes until the very beginning of the song, for example), but the 19 songs included are in overall weaker compared to the prequel.

Elite Beat Agents (2006) The spiritual sequel to Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan for the western markets. The ones cheering in this game are agents from a secret government agency, and the 19 musical themes are all of western origin, but the overall gameplay is the same. Not as good as the Japanese counterparts...

THE iDOLM@STER Dearly Stars (2009) Really not as good as I expected. The original iM@S games are hard to tag (musical raising simulation game?) and the DS version manages to butcher almost all the aspects: the stats of your idol means nothing, the auditions are just a mini-game between chapters... The story and the characters are not bad, so is not a complete waste, but is not really iM@S game.


Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (2005) Is the port of a Capcom's visual novel for the GBA, released in 2001 only in Japan. You play as the defense attorney Phoenix Wright and you objective is to win in a wacky courtroom. I don't like the localization that much (I hate when people try to "westernize" names and places), but despite that is really an enjoyable game.

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Justice for All (2006) The second installment of the series, introducing more memorable characters like Franziska von Karma.

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trials and Tribulations (2007) The third one and the last that was originally released in the GBA. Possibly the most well rounded one.

Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney (2007) The first one that is not a remake. Maybe because almost all the old characters were dejected in order to begin a new era with brand new characters, but I didn't enjoyed the game as much as the first ones. Still is a nice game per se.

Another Code: Two Memories (2005) Known in North America as Trace Memory, is a little adventure game that creatively uses the unique features of the NDS to solve the different puzzles. A bit too short.

Hotel Dusk: Room 215 (2007) Another adventure game by the makers of the previous one. Longer than Another Code, is more oriented towards an older audience (after all Kyle Hyde, the main character, is a thirty-something years old ex-detective, while the main character of Another Code, Ashley, was thirteen.)


Nintendogs: Chihuahua & Friends (2005) The extremely popular pet simulator. It was bundled with the NDS when I purchased it. I only played with a Yorkshire Terrier puppy (the same breed as my real life one) for a week or so, and never again touched the game. Now the poor puppy must hate me...

Big Brain Academy (2005) The other game bundled with the console was this one. A Brain Training/Age wannabe more focused in mini-games. I kinda dislike this kind of "casual games".

Trauma Center: Under the Knife (2005) A "medical simulation game", is really a series of mini-games driven by a visual novel styled plot. Is enjoyable to play (except the X-missions) and I must admit that one of the motives that made me buy the game was the visuals of the nurse Angie Thompson (the blond in the cover).

Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales (2006) A series of Final Fantasy themed minigames. Way too childish, I bought it only because was only 9 euro.


Final Fantasy III (2006) An enhanced remake of the original Famicom/NES game. I highly prefer the stylized character designs by Yoshida Akihiko over the ones that appears in the CG movies. The similar Final Fantasy IV is in my wishlist.

Chrono Trigger (2008) A port of the original 1995 SNES version with added contents like the movies that comes from the 1999 PSX version. As I said in the entry when I purchased it, this is probably the best RPG from the 16 bit era.

The World Ends with You (2007) I think this is the best Square game released in the last 10 years or so (no including the remakes and ports). Visually similar to Kingdom Hearts, is truly a completely original RPG, taking place in the modern Shibuya instead of a fantasy world.
I think this game is the only RPG that takes full use of the touch screen (normally the lower screen is used to display maps and buttons) : you must touch, scratch, drag and blow to the mic to use some of the in-game attacks, and both screens are used during the battles.

Etrian Odyssey (2007) An RPG with old-school flavor. Very difficult, even with a max level party and the best equipment you can get easily owned in a mere random encounter. One of the features of the game is that it doesn't have an auto-map, and you must draw one in the lower screen. Also remarkable are the cute character designs by Himukai Yuuji.

Yahoo! Auction winnings

Just received the stuff I have been winning in Yahoo! Auctions since I left Japan.

THE iDOLM@STER Dearly Stars for Nintendo DS.
I played just a bit, but it feels weird not play as the producer but as the idols... Also the graphics are good for a Nintendo DS game, but awful to be an Idolm@ster game...
The first edition release came with ViDaVo! magazine and a Weiß Schwarz promo card.

ViDaVo! is a 20 pages booklet that resembles an idol magazine, with stuff like interviews to the new characters Ai, Eri and Ryo and support messages from the original cast of iM@S...

Utagau Koto Wo Shiranai Hito, the first original doujinshi by Kikuta of circle King Revolver. He also have a nun fetish...

Valkyrie's Desire, a Selvaria (Valkyria Chronicles) fan-book by circle Kanten Jigen Ryuu and Kokushoku Suisei Teikoku. I bought it only for the collaboration by Kikuta.

And Shameimaru Amabunjou, the lastest work by Tsukiwani from Circle Nurumaya, this time featuring Aya, Inubashiri Momiji and Nitori from Touhou.

A clear folder, shitajiki and telephone card set drawn by Takeuchi Takashi for the Comiket 60 (held in 2001). The character is Qrowbet from his old doujinshi Valkyria 2.

Qrowbet

Chrono Trigger

Really nothing new to write about.

Yesterday I bought Chrono Trigger for the Nintendo DS.


It's been a long time since I played the original, but I still remember it as one of the best RPG ever.