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.

iDOLM@STER 2 over

I'm completely over with iDOLM@STER 2, I cleared all the 9 girls with the true endings and I got all the items available.

The stories are not as bad as I expected after finishing my first play-through, but overall I prefered the ones in the first game. And unlike the SP version that had an extra epilogue once you finished all the girls, in this game you only receive an e-mail from Takagi saying that you are a true idol master.

I redid Yukiho and Haruka parts to get the true endings. The true end addition to Haruka story, is that once you return everybody is talking how great Haruka is as a leader, and once you meet with her, she and the Producer almost do a love confession each other.
In the addition to Yukiho ending, her self composed song becomes a hit and sings all of it for you. Before going to Hollywood, she said that once you return she will reveal a secret and the Producer jokingly says "maybe is that you're in love with me?". Yukiho replies that that is not a secret, and the secret is that when she first sang half of the song was because it was unfinished.

In Mami story, she and Ami became different idols in order to see who becomes a top idol and get a boyfriend first. Since Mami was nominated in the IU Awards and Ami not, she lies and says she got a boyfriend, causing Mami to almost leave the idol business. At the end they get in good terms again and forget about boyfriends for now.

In the true ending part, they won an audition and will debut in a Hollywood movie, dragging the just arrived Producer with them.

Makoto wants to be even more cute and femenine, and trains everyday for it. At the end, she feels somewhat empty, and with the encouragement of the Producer she realizes that she wants to become not only cute but also stronger.

At the true end she attacks the Producer for helping a foreign blonde and apologizes for it. She became stronger, but still wants the Producer at her side to "protect" her.

Hibiki reason for keep so many animals is because she feels lonely. She was determined to not to keep in touch with her family or her Okinawan friends until she becomes a top idol, but at the end realizes that she needs her family and friends to become a better idol.

At the true end, Hibiki returned to Okinawa and is helping some neighbours with the touristic business, and since the idol unit is on hold until her return, the Producer goes to help as well.

Yayoi is optimist and doing her best despite the extra stress of being the unit leader and to be in charge of her little brothers and sister. When Iori, her rival but also her best friend, loses the nomination to the IA Awards she becomes kinda depressed, but with the help of the Producer (that becomes her "older brother") she return to her good spirits mood again.

In her true ending, she is competently self producing the unit, adding all the girls from 765Pro to her unit as well, but is glad that all the members of her "family" are at last together.

Results and stats:

In my last play with Yayoi I got all S rank.

The status page. I'm around the 300th place in the total fan ranking and in the 33th place in the hi-score ranking for the song "Megare!"

All the girls evenly produced.

Now the only think to do is to play with the Stage 4 You! mode. Some of the photos that I took:

"Kyun! Vampire girl" is the only song that I purchased so far, along with the vampire costume.

As can be seen in a previous post, I like the Candy Lady extended dress, that gives a very Sakura Taisen feeling to Takane.

Azusa and Takane in the Angel Swuimsuit extended outfit. Almost all the photos that I have stored in the game have Takane on it...

IDOLM@STER stuff

And yet more iDOLM@STER stuff.

I finished iDOLM@STER 2 with Miki. Her story is so-so; she takes Producer's words as a proposal and becomes all lovey-dovey with you. I don't really like her that much.

In her true end she follows you to Hollywood and wants to live together.

I also re-did Takane story to get her true ending. The addition to her good ending is that she is waiting for you at the airport. Is a good addition to her ending.
Now I'm missing the stories of Mami, Yayoi, Makoto and Hibiki.

At eBay I bought THE iDOLM@STER and THE iDOLM@STER Live For You!

I bought non-Platinum ones (yep, I care for those kind of things).

I only played L4U! for a day and I already obtained all the achievements. Compared with IM@S 2 the visuals are somewhat ugly because is not in HD...

And I bought some IM@S Weiß Schwarz cards: Mami, Iori, Miki, Takane, Yayoi and Haruka SP cards.

Now I'm missing 6 (not counting Kotori card, that I don't want because it have the same picture than the normal one).

And I also bought the first promo card for the upcoming IM@S 2 booster:

The blank spaces are already reserved for the upcoming cards from the IM@S 2 Trial Deck, that I have reserved.

For WS cards sales and trades, please visit this post!

More iDOLM@STER 2

I finished THE iDOLM@STER 2 three more times since my previous post.


My second playthrough was with Yukiho. Unlike Takane, her story is pretty good. She overcomes her fears and becomes more confident. At the end, she sings a self composed song called "First Step".

Since I got her good ending and not the true one, she only sang half of the song and she will finish it when the Producer returns from Hollywood.

Third playthrough with Chihaya. Her story was also good, taking aside the miraculous recovery of her throat injury thanks to the spirit of her deceased little brother that appears in form of a swallow (??).

I managed to get the true ending, that ends with the Producer going to the brother's gravestone, thanking him and asking permission to take Chihaya to Hollywood.

The third playthrough was with Haruka. She screws an audition versus Jupiter team due overwork, but at the end she becomes a great leader. Somewhat boring story...

I did a serious scheduling mistake and was unable to win one of the special festivals, so I got the good ending, when you promises her that you'll return and become her Producer again.

I got an A rank with Yukiho and S rank with Haruka and Chihaya.

So far, my best results with Chihaya.

Most likely I'll do one more entry about the game once I completely finish it.

iDOLM@STER 2 clear

Just finished my first play-through of THE iDOLM@STER 2.

My unit after winning the IA Grand Prix.

The story sections are way too few. There are only 5 story related events with your group leader, only two festivals against Ryuugu Komachi team and Jupiter rival unit doesn't appear until very late in game, completely centered in Touma and forgetting the other two.

The event parts barely develops the characters. In the first game you need to do several communications to get enough memories to do the memory appeal in the auditions. This time it was completely changed; now the events raises the overall number of appeals you can do in the auditions, and those are automatically refilled. This makes the events less necessary and since the the gameplay is now focused in the auditions, the story part is now secondary and actually worse than the first game.

Takane's story was a bit disappointing, mostly being Takane being flirted by a rich middle aged man. Her personality was changed a bit, too. She is unable to understand casual speak or foreign words, and easily gets offended due to this. I got the good ending but it wasn't as heartwarming as I expected... I hope the other girls have better stories.

Lovely swimsuit Takane.

Since until now I played the PSP version, I find the visuals incredible, and there are a pretty nice added things, like the girls able to send you pictures via the mobile phone.

Chihaya send me only 5 e-mails, and 3 of them had pictures attached (Takane send 37, and only 2 with pictures).

There's also the nice effect that now the girls wears winter and summer clothing, and changes the outfits pretty often for the events.

Takane in kimono! This sure is a future DLC.

And my status post game:

I managed to get the first position in the sales chart, but my hi-score was rather low and I ended with a B rank.

Now I'll begin my second play-through with Yukiho as the leader. Her new voice by Asakura Azumi is very similar to Hase Yurina's one, and only sounds weird in certain songs, like "Kosmos, Cosmos"

And for those curious, this is my Xbox gamertag:

iDOLM@STER 2

After a long struggle with myself, I purchased an Xbox 360 to play THE iDOLM@STER 2. I purchased it in the release date (late February) but received it today after a really long delay in customs.

The limited version of the game comes with a numbered ID card, 4 "photos" of the idols, 2 Weiss Schwarz cards and the download code for the song "Little Match Girl".

The Xbox bundle extra is a little box with a 8 GB USB memory with all the iM@S2 promo videos and a download code for iDOLM@STER: Live For You! that seems unavailable to download outside Japan T_T

And since I bought it at AmiAmi, the shop exclusive is a playing card set:

Too bad that all the suits have the same pictures...

It also includes paper money to play the game Yayoi no u'uh! Daifugou.

I'm only in week 3, producing Takane (leader), Yukiho and Chihaya:

At last I'm playing an HD iM@S game!

Don't expect new entries for at least a week...

IDOLM@STER 2 announced

At last, the sequel to the original iM@S was announced: THE iDOLM@STER 2, will be a (for now) an Xbox 360 exclusive, to be released release in the spring of 2011.

All the characters are now one year older, so some of them are now significantly taller and/or have different hairstyles:

Makoto now have a rather feminine hairstyle, Miki, Iori, Azusa and Ritsuko also changed their hairstyles and Ami & Mami are now pretty tall and not a mirror image of each other anymore, so they act as two independent idols. The rest seems pretty much the same.

The gameplay is now focused in manage a 3 girls unit, with special emphasis on the trio leader. The details are pretty vague for now, but it seems that 5 girls units are also possible:


And finally, perhaps the most shocking new is that Hase Yurina aka Yurishii (formerly Ochiai Yurika), the voice actress of Yukiho, left the project and the new seiyuu will be a fairly unknown Asakura Azumi.
Yurishii left by her own, and considering all the unlucky events that happened before, is understandable.

As said, for now is an Xbox 360 exclusive, but considering that another Bandai-Namco game, Tales of Vesperia, was also an Xbox 360 exclusive and was ported to PS3 a year later with additional contents, there's still hope for the non-owners of Xbox.