Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Sister Sister

Finally, the order that i had made over a year ago has finally arrived!! Sux though cuz i got charged shiipping on the spot :-(. One who's been following my blog knows that i had preordered the queen's blade book Reina/Leina for ages. So yeah, that's how far back this order went. Throughout the year, i made many changes to it by adding and canceling a bunch of items. So as you can see, i had preordered the late great Horibe's Yours artbook almost half a year ago (which i've mentioned about) and added the ZHiME Zwei LE OVA a couple months ago to the order. On the topic of Zwei LE, sorta disappointed about the artwork in the illustration book. was hoping for at least 1 or 2 new artworks or some promo art for Zwei. Sadly, all are old artworks that I have either already seen; already own on print; or downloaded ages ago. Nothing new for me here :(, though it's good to have the ones i've downloaded on print albeit small. Anyways, the pic below contains stuff i got recently in November. Since I got a Wii now, i decided go for some semi-rare (and very awesome) gamecube games i've been wanting to own for years. These are the Silicon Knights games w/ Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem and Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes (cuz i'm a pretty big MGS fan and MGS1 has always been my fave). Got Street Fighter II #5 last week and Street Fighter Legends #3 some weeks ago. I just realized i forgot to take a pic of Victorious Boxers 2 US version...oh well whatev (not like ppl care i guess). Enjoy.

"Reunited and it feels so good"


Nov. 29 9:00 AM edit: just want to add famitsu scores this week due to certain games i've been interested ;)
Latest Famitsu Scores
Blue Dragon (Xbox 360, Microsoft): 9 / 9 / 9 / 10 - (37/40) - OH YEAH BABY!! That's what i'm saying! I luv you Toriyama...and you too Zola ^^!
Yakuza 2 [Ryu ga Gotoku 2] (PS2, Sega): 9 / 10 / 9 / 10 - (38/40) - SICK GUY SICK
Wii Sports (Wii, Nintendo): 7 / 7 / 8 / 8 - (30/40)
Hajimete no Wii (Wii, Nintendo): 7 / 7 / 6 / 8 - (28/40) - aww man, whatev since it's a 'demo' game like WS, but I SO WANTED this for NA launch!
Madden NFL 07 (PS2, EA): 6 / 8 / 6 / 7 - (27/40)
Momotarou Dentetsu 16 (PS2, Hudson): 9 / 7 / 7 / 8 - (31/40)
Yoake Yori Ruriiro na: Brighter than Dawning Blue (PS2, Aria): 6 / 7 / 6 / 5 - (24/40)
Kidou Senshi Gundam SEED Destiny: Rengou vs. Z.A.F.T. II Plus (PS2, Bandai Namco): 8 / 9 / 9 / 9 - (35/40) - That's surprisingly good for a gundam game
Zegapain NOT (Xbox 360, Bandai Namco): 6 / 6 / 7 / 7 - (26/40)
Jump Ultimate Stars (NDS, Nintendo): 7 / 7 / 8 / 8 - (30/40) - hmmm, slightly inferior to JSS, probably not much new...meh, whatev
Otogi Juushi Akazukin (NDS, Nintendo): 7 / 8 / 6 / 5 - (26/40) Saru Get You: Pipo Saru Racer (PSP, Sony): 7 / 7 / 7 / 7 - (28/40)
Power Pro Kun Pocket 9 (PSP, Konami): 8 / 8 / 8 / 8 - (32/40)
Simple DS Series Vol. 12: The Party Right Brain Quiz (NDS, D3): 7 / 5 / 7 / 6 - (25/40)
Chao Dream Touch! Happy Anniversary (NDS, Marvelous): 7 / 6 / 5 / 6 - (24/40)

Thursday, November 23, 2006

A Voyage to Conquer Battle Festival

tired and stressed. hope fellow americans are having a good turkey day. anyways, here's some quick pics of the latest stuff i got. i actually got this on monday but since i posted pics of the wii, i decided to hold off on these purchases till now. So, the pack includes My-ZHiME Butoh Shi LE (as usual, only reason i'm posting a JPN PS2 or PSP game is cuz it's HiME related), Fullmetal Alchemist Movie LE and Tenamonya Voyagers (cuz i wanted some mindless fanservice...and it was cheap). If ya want to check out more pics of the Otome PS2 LE, moy's got ya covered ;).

oh yes, the superb LE and the disappointing Otome Album which i had hoped there would be more original art (sadly no)

i also want to note that the PS3 isn't very hard to find as places have been getting their second shipment already. I went to a Microplay that i hardly frequent and they got in 5 PS3s today (3 60 GB and 2 20 GB). I could've easily bought one if i wanted to. those who still want a wii, expect a shipment today, tomorrow or saturday.

finally, i watched the My-ZHiME OVA and it's FRIGGIN' AWWWEEESOOME! great production values (though art wasn't all too different from the TV show and could've used some improvements in certain scenes i noticed). Anyways, amazing fanservice for me, the biggest natsuki fan (HHAWWWT, the tv series didn't show her in that bathing suit long enough). Action was superb and i'm reminded of Evangelion (though you can never top Unit 00's toss), Macross, Gundam (no brainer here) and Dragon Ball Z all at once. Arika's surely developed over the past year as she's got more bounce now (heehee...i feel dirty now). she's also mastered mommy's bolt from the blue sky from the ps2 game (it's an exact rip one could ALMOST say but w/ arika's brunette hair, and the bouncing boobs for this move are intact as well ^^). So yeah, I just loved it. Can't wait to get the DVD and listen to it in full 5.1 on my system. However, i think AJ fucked up my order as they gave me a waybill # and i can't track it. it's an old # too cuz it says it was delivered to some guy in the States back in Oct.2005 o_O. A possible reason for this is cuz my order # is REALLY OLD (it's over a year which i've done a lot adding and cancelling of items :P). I emailed AJ and hopefully they'll sort it out or i'll be filled w/ RAGE.

and a reminder that TBS has got some new HiME/ZHiME art up...Nao looks amazing!!! ;)

november 25 edit: made a short appearance at AoD today cuz I heard that they switched forums. i just took a look at it and some ppl may have noticed me online ^^. it looks sorta confusing but much improved. oh well, i won't be experiencing it much. cool to have the post #s again (though i noticed i've fallen greatly :P LOL). custom titles seems to be gone now for some reason. oh well, i'll be forever known as lord of hime/zhimes :-D.

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Nozomi can Healing Touch me ANYWHERE!

Nov. 21 7:05 PM edit: Derek (aka Kousuke), don't fuckin' touch me :P. so, looks like i won't be doing a 'real' update afterall (too lazee today). i'll just show some more walls of Caduceus Z: futasu no chou shittou/Trauma Center: Second Opinion.

the walls can be found on the official JPN site which updated today. These walls are currently on rotation my desktop ;)....yesh...mira...umm, nozomi...yesh

One Piece Wii scans - nami-swan's looking uber hawt here in her outfit. where's my robin-chwaaan?!!
Bleach Wii scans that went up 2 days ago thx to me peeps @ SS (rangiku in school outfit me 2x wuv).

Dawn of Mana scans
Sweet! one more Narutimate game for the PS2, Naruto Narutimate Accel for Spring 2k7

also want to note that the report of the freeloader working on the Wii @ gamefaqs varies. not many ppl have had success. it may mess up your system. be warned.

Original post:
just some game news for now, maybe a real update later.

Some Blue Dragon news:
A series is planned w/ the title now as Sakaguchi thinks the game will be a success (i hope so too). The manga was announced sometime ago (not by Toriyama unfortunately, though it was my wishful thinking), so it's getting a good publicity. The game is expected to be 40-50 hours w/ free downloadable content in the future. Anyways, i'm all for it. Just continue w/ the same team of Toriyama, Uematsu and Sakaguchi and this game will forever rock. I could always go for more Zola (me wuv). All details at Jeux France. Some scans posted up on Xboxyde some days ago.

Impress covered Shinjuku no Okami yesterday (can't remember if shots are new, cel-shaded looks still makes me go meh)
JPN PSP firmware update 3.0

Though the My-ZHiME Butoh Shi PS2 game site went up almost a week ago w/ 5 vids (w/ the same format as RtI 3 before it officially opened). The official site opened yesterday w/ the real look of the site. Only the gallery section is up (w/ the same 5 vids before it officially opened) and don't expect the 'topic' and 'system' section to updated cuz Sunrise Interactive is terrible at updating and has hardly ever updates opened the rest of the other sections for their games.

DOA 5 was announced recently...meh
The 10th anniversary Festa can be seen at famitsu (who's also got the daily DOAX 2 fanservice pics

Some CDN Wii news for Zanza - don't fret, you'll get one soon.
Wii to support higher res in the future?

I'd just thought this would be amusing - don't by the George Foreman Grill, get the 500-700 PS3 Grill instead ^^

Latest Famitsu Scores (a lot of wii):

Zelda The Twilight Princess (Wii, Nintendo): 9 / 10 / 9 / 10 - (38/40) - aww...no perfect? FAIL! in comparison to Ocarina :P (jk)
Zelda The Twilight Princess (GC, Nintendo): 10 / 10 / 9 / 9 - (38/40)
Final Fantasy VI Advance (GBA, Square Enix): 8 / 8 / 7 / 8 - (31/40)
Necro-Nesia (Wii, Spike): 8 / 7 / 6 / 7 - (28/40)
Wing Island (Wii, Hudwon): 5 / 6 / 6 / 5 - (22/40)
Kororinpa (Wii, Hudson): 6 / 6 / 6 / 6 - (24/40)
SD Gundam: Scad Hammers (Wii, Hudson): 8 / 8 / 9 / 8 - (33/40)
Ennichi no Tatsujin (Wii, Bandai Namco): 7 / 7 / 7 / 6 - (27/40)
Tamagotchi no Pika Pika Daitouryou (Wii, Bandao Namco): 7 / 7 / 7 / 5 - (26/40)
Red Steel (Wii, Ubisoft): 8 / 9 / 9 / 8 - (34/40) - OH! THE DECEPTION!
Caduceus Z: 2-tsu no Chou Shittou (Wii, Atlus): 8 / 9 / 8 / 7 - (32/40) - not bad not bad
Elebits (Wii, Konami): 8 / 8 / 8 / 8 - (32/40) - not bad not bad, though i expected higher
Swing Golf Pangya (Wii, Tecmo): 8 / 7 / 7 / 7 - (29/40)
Odoru Made in Wario (Wii, Nintendo): 8 / 9 / 8 / 9 - (34/40) - sweet, can't wait for this whenever it comes out in NA
Crayon Shin-Chan: Saikyou Kazoku Kasukabe King Wii (Wii, Banpresto): 7 / 8 / 7 / 6 - (28/40)
REC * DokiDoki Seiyuu Paradise (PS2, Idea Factory): 6 / 6 / 6 / 6 - (24/40)
Kamen Rider Kabuto (PS2, Bandai Namco): 8 / 6 / 6 / 6 - (26/40)
Digimon Savers: Another Mission (PS2, Bandai Namco): 8 / 6 / 6 / 5 - (25/40)
Summon Night 4 (PS2, Banpresto): 8 / 8 / 8 / 8 - (32/40)
Hokenshitsu e Youkoso (PS2, Princess Soft): 7 / 5 / 7 / 4 - (23/40)
Super Robot Taisen XO (Xbox 360, Banpresto): 8 / 8 / 8 / 7 - (31/40)
Nippon Curling Kyoukai Kounin: Minna no Curling DS (NDS, Rocket Company): 7 / 8 / 6 / 8 - (29/40)
Akudaikan Manyuuki (PSP, Global A): 6 / 7 / 5 / 6 - (24/40)
Power Stone Portable (PSP, Capcom): 7 / 7 / 7 / 8 - (29/40)
Ore no Dungeon (PSP, Climax): 6 / 6 / 7 / 7 - (26/40)
Tokyo Friend Pack II DS (NDS, Rocket Company): 6 / 6 / 4 / 6 - (22/40)
Zoids Battle Colosseum (NDS, Takara Tomy): 7 / 6 / 6 / 8 - (27/40)
Futari wa PreCure: Splash Star Panpaka Game de Zekkouchou! (NDS, Bandai Namco): 6 / 5 / 7 / 8 - (26/40)
Tank Beat (NDS, Milestone): 7 / 7 / 7 / 7 - (28/40)

Sunday, November 19, 2006

Wii-lcome to the Twilight Zone


OH YEAH BABY! IT'S HERE! Just had to walk in front of all the ppl waiting/camping at EB this morning (the store got in quite a few cuz it's not hard to find one as Nintendo provided more than enough just as promised). So, got the system, extra nunchuk, extra wiimote, Trauma Center: Second Opinon (FUCKIN' A) and Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. EBgames was also offering special promos, one of 'em being a free Gamecube game. Had the choice between Geist and Viewtiful Joe 2. Went w/ Viewtiful obviously. However, i already have the game on PS2 but i plan on givin' this one to a bud since he doesn't have it. Anyways, juss tons of pics of the system which may be boring for some. Enjoy the pic at the end though (hot sketch). Oh well, shall wii play now?




Saturday, November 18, 2006

W11 More Day!!

Another quickie again due to the weekend. Just want to mention IGN and Gamespot put up their reviews for Zelda Twilight Princess Wii. Anyways, today's elf is uber hawtie, Pirotess...U SO KNEW THAT WAS COMING!!!

Friday, November 17, 2006

PS3 day? no! NEW James Bond day!

yeah, fuckin' right! it looks stupid IMO and Daniel Craig seems more like a bad guy than anything else (though the movie is getting awesome reviews, i'll probably rent it or be forced into watching cuz my g/f sorta wants to). anyways, a quickie post since i don't usually update on weekends (cuz i have shite to do...glug glug ^^). So here's some quick shit aside from robbings of gunmen and beatings of ppl lining up for the PS3 in the States o_O and ppl smashing the PS3 for fun ^_^. In Canada, nothing much, ppl arguing and paying the homeless to line up for them ;).

Shinjuku no Okami/Shinjuku Wolf official site up

Devil May Cry 4 updates w/ new movie
Impress covers Bleach Wii - nothing special or new really
Heroes of Mana scans

as you can see already, today's elf theme is Deedlit (also my main reason for posting). So here's another one w/ the last one being at bit more 18+ rated (been a while since i did one):


Deedlit for the 18+ ;)

Thursday, November 16, 2006

The Elves say "Wii're Here!"

Well, nothin' much happening. Still waiting on some orders. Purchased Victorious Boxers 2 - Fighting Spirit (AKA Hajime no Ippo All Stars) today, though it's been out JPN for a long time and about a month old in EU. It's been a long time since I played it and it is damn fun. This game doesn't have HnI 2 Victorious Road's mega in-depth Boxer's Road mode where you can train and build up your created boxer from scratch and start a career to be number 1. It's quite awesome really. Plus, it only cost me 10 bucks CDN (@ EB) and is damn steal cuz the States are selling it for 10 bucks as well. If you look at some other CDN retailers, it ranges from 16-20 bucks.

Anyways, the main purpose of post is cuz I got my confirmation call today. My EBgames has my Wii RIGHT NOW alongside Zelda TP!! No TC:SO they say, maybe Monday (the fuck? as ppl in the States already have 'em). Meh, i also ordered TC:SO online cuz it was 15 bucks cheaper than the price EB is selling it for (59.99 compared to 44.99). So the plan was to get TC:SO right away, wait for the online order and return it to EB :P. Thus, I"M HYPED!!! and so want to break into the store and claim my Wii!!! To celebrate this, i'm gonna have some Elvish fanservice from today to Sunday. Link is for the girls (if there is any...highly doubt...though u gotta admit...he IS one sexy elf).

Just want to mention that Black Lagoon vol.6 JPN tank finally comes out tomorrow. I'll have to wait 3-4 months for the HK version ;_;. If you're collecting BL manga, be sure to check out Dec.'s Sunday GX w/ Roberta on cover...awesome.

Oh yeah, that other system called the PS3 streets tomorrow. So hopefully those who wanted to get one tomorrow do indeed get one. My CDN friends, we're only getting 40K of the 300-400k of PS3s (which is, of course, headed for the US). Not in da mood for news in general, keepin' it short and sweet.

Gotta start off w/ the stars of the show
the 'Wii Version' ;)

So is she a lefty or righty (this is not a mirrored image)? Latest Famitsu scans points to what is Right, and past games have reinforced that ;)

Hawt damn! If only Zelda would turn to the dark side XD.

Sunday, November 12, 2006

Otome Butou Shi Deluxe Nekodamashi Review

couldn't wait, my friend tempted me w/ the download of the game on Wed. had a chance to play it before i went on my road trip. finished the little part i needed this morning. So in total, this game took me about 3 1/2 hours i'd say, maybe a bit less. i was speeding thru the game trying to unlock everything after playing it the first time w/ full 3 rounds. lemme say that the famitsu review stands correct again and all expectations of this being a crap game came true ^^...yay!

The game is short and very easy. even on it's hightest difficulty, it's still rather easy. the game is button masher and plays more like psychic force cuz you're always floating and your main attack button varies depending on your distance from your opponent. So for those who've never played psychic force or X or destrega, when you get in close to your opponent, the attack button becomes melee moves, when you're far from the opponent, that same attack button becomes projectile moves. I mix my buttons around but iirc, the O button is your main attack which you'll be mashing on (i didn't want to ruin it since i need 'confirm' w/ my JPN games :P), the X is your guard, the [] is your guard break attack (which also varies between melee/rush attack/projectile depending on chara) and the triangle is your Super move which you must postion yourself in in order to perform. L1 dashes in and L2 dashes back. So yeah, it's very similar to psychic force but not as deep (though PF wasn't never deep either but it still had more depth than this). Your digipad and analog moves your chara in 4 directions (up, down, foreground, background) and it's very clunky and slow. i hardly used the analog/digipad since all you had to do was mash on O (in my case, []). All the super moves in the game are taken from the anime w/ the exception of Akane (who reuses her tonfa element from MH, redesigned of course), Nao and Shiho (though Shiho's is somewhat based on the move she used at the end of otome, but w/ added effect). Lena uses a bigger version of bolt from the blue. Akane's and Nao's aren't really that special as it's the same motion as her MH attack and Nao's is nearly the same as her attack in ep.7 (i think it's 7) where she saves nina, erstin and shiho. these attacks are done in 3D and look faithful to the anime counterparts.

The graphics are a decent cel shade and captures the anime look of the characters very well. It's not the best but it gets the job done. The backgrounds were taken from locations of the show, they are bland w/ nothing going on and there isn't much to choose from. The sound is one of the high points as you get kajiura's music from the show and of course the seiyuus reprise their respective roles.

the modes included are Festival (the 'story' mode), Duel (2-player), Free Battle (vs.CPU), Music Bar, Album, Database (chara profiles) and Option. Survival (which you'll need to play thru to unlock the rest of the pics in Album) and Challenge open up after you beat the game w/ 2 specific charas. In festival mode, you choose your chara and then proceed to choose your opponent in any order. An on-screen dialog sequence happens between the two (some are very intersting) and then a materialise sequence is shown afterwards (miyu and nao don't really get one). on the topic of the materialise sequence, they skimped out on Akane, Nao and Shiho's who were among the ones not animated in the tv show. There's only a bit of animation w/ most of it being a silhouette. Mai's and Lena's transformation are fully animated though and are HAWT! When challenge mode opens, you go thru a series of battle w/ restrictions, they're very easy and when you beat each one, you get points as well as unlocking another level of challenge which offers more points. the challenges are basically finish the chara w/ your 'dance'/super move, beat the chara w/in time limit, peform grace guard (basically a faultless defense from GGX)/ Reflect a certain # of times, defeat the chara using only reflect etc. they're all easy if you know which character(s) to use. so lemme tell you that Haruka rules in this game followed by Lena, Arika (in full Lena Robe) and Natsuki (natsuki's only good for combos IMO, i get between 30-60 hits w/ her but her attack power is weak). you'll fly thru challenge mode in no time as well as their respective parts in festival and survival. The points used in challenge mode allows you to unlock the last hidden character (neko) as well as other goodies. You can get voice sets (that also includes the dance/mai/supers movies in 2D anime, so Akane, Nao and Lena's are new, w/ the latter being too awesome and fanservicey ^^), storyboard sketches of the supers, a erstin letter movie etc.

So basically that's the game. It's definitely not worth the money if you're a casual fan and i know it's a waste of money for such a crap game (when i could spend on 2 GRADE A quality games), but what can i do, this franchise ownz me :P. I'll have pics of the LE whenever that arrives. NCSX mentions some details on the LE bonus as well as giving basic info that i mostly covered but some aspects in which i didn't (ie. no practice mode...like you really need one after...and crap camera). Anyways, 1 WEEK from today for the Wii and that PS3 launch in JPN...meh...same w/ Friday's launch over here ;).

Nov.13 edit: aside from other wii stuff (ie. dvd playback on future wii), i only want to mention that the Atlus USA put up the official site for Trauma Center: SO, which is virtually identical to the JPN site. The JPN site also updated today, opening the download section and adding 4 new movies ;). Can't wait.
On that note IGN just put up 2 Wii reviews w/ one of them being Trauma Center: SO! It got an 8.0 and an Editor's Choice award! not bad. The other game is Wii Sports which netted a 7.5.
Since i've been sorta covering DOAX2, i want to note that it's been getting horrible reviews in comparison to the first game. About 57%. You can read them horrid softcore porn game @ IGN, Team Xbox, 1up, Gamebrink. So yeah, do yourself a favour and NOT buy this game unless you're REALLY lonely and desperate for a g/f (but i would definitely suggest porn instead ;)). AHAHA! I laugh at you Itagaki, you ugly fuckin' sad perv!

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

totemo isogashii desu

But never too busy for the ladies, in my case, it's my lady friend. That's the main reason for my lack of updates (aside from FFXII and some schooling). Been prepping up for her upcoming BDay. Doing something based on a Bon Jovi song and movie. Hopefully you'll get the hint ;). I'm also taking her and some friends on a little road trip, so this'll be the only update this week.

on some personal buying news:
  • SF2 issue 5 doesn't/didn't come out this week but next week as i found out late last week.
  • Mai-Kinoto Hime/My-ZHiME PS2 game will ship this week but i'm not expecting it till next week (the earliest) or the week after as NCSX varies for me. edit: juss found out that ncsx is shipping this late for its customers...nov 13...WTF?! though i see it available for download...tempting.
  • still waitin' for YesAsia to give the 'go ahead' for my manga order as one manga is holding it up for the LONGEST time, "searching for suppliers".
  • Pushed FMP! TSR starter set back to JAN, so i can get vol.2 and Gun x Sword/Gun Sword vol.5 (awesome art from the R2 but WTF?! ugly colour for BG and damn logo plastered all over my Carmen99's b(.)(.)bs!) together.Thinkin' about pushing it back to Feb. alongside the much anticipated Gunbuster...yum. A few more weeks until the Wii and My-ZHiME Zwei v.1, i'm crapping my pants in anticipation.
I'll finally end this short & quick post on the weekly Famitsu & Dengeki PS reviews as i'm lazy to post today's (and whatever personal interesting) game news (ie. arcana heart and battle fantasia test reports which i'm sure my visitors have never heard of before until NOW).

Famitsu

Akumajou Dracula: Gallery of Labyrinth [Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin] (NDS, Konami): 7 / 8 / 8 / 8 - (31/40)
Sengoku Musou 2 Empires (PS2, Koei): 8 / 8 / 8 / 8 - (32/40)
Naruto: Konoha Spirits (PS2, Bandai Namco): 7 / 6 / 6 / 7 - (26/40)
Vulcanus (PSP, Compile Heart): 6 / 7 / 6 / 7 - (26/40)

Dengeki PS
Ridge Racer 7 (PS3, Bandai Namco): 100 / 95 / 90 / 100
Mobile Suit Gundam: Target in Sight (PS3, Bandai Namco): 90 / 90 / 85 / 80
Sega Golfclub Featuring Miyazato Family (PS3, Sega): 70 / 75 / 80 / 80
Genji: Kamui Souran (PS3, Sony): 75 / 60 / 70 / 80
Resistance: Jinrui Botsuraku no Hi (PS3, Sony): 90 / 90 / 100 / 100
Mahjong Kakutou Club (PS3, Konami): 80 / 80 / 85 / 75
Sengoku Musou 2 Empires (PS2, Koei): 95 / 95 / 80 / 80
J-League Winning Eleven 10 + Europa League 06-07 (PS2, Konami): 90 / 85 / 75 / 90
Tales of Destiny (PS2, Bandai Namco): 80 / 90 / 75 / 85
Jeanne D'Arc (PSP, Konami): 90 / 90 / 85 / 75
Riviera: Yakusoku no Chi (PSP, Sting): 75 / 75 / 80 / 60

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

A Limited Guide to Fantasy Bunnies

So here's the Limited Edition guide of FFXII by Bradygames. I didn't get Rival Schools today as i have test tomorrow and didn't have time to drop by the comic store. I'll pick it up somtime during the weekend or next week when SF2 should be arriving. On w/ the show.

The packaging of the LE is basically a full spread of the Jugdes doing their infamous walk. For the unaware, the LE sports 1 of 6 different covers of the main characters. Who you get is totally random. It also includes an artbook which isn't that worthy if you're getting/have the Collector's Edition of the game. More details on that later. As i mentioned before, i don't usually don't use strategy guides for my RPGs, unless i'm stuck or i'm playing a JRPG. And cuz you get get help easily at Gamefaqs, so why waste 20+ bucks on a information/aid you can get for free. The reason was for the lame BG artbook. The strategy guide itself is useful though, as it contains a chock full of info on the battle system and has the license board layout showing you everything. There's also the usual bestiary guide and secrets/side quests section. The book is 350 pages and thus, the walkthrough is quite long and thorough. So i'd say this is definitely a worthy purchase compared to the other BG strategy guides. Also, as you can see, the FF gods were with me as i lucked out and was blessed with my ever favourite FRAN!!!!!! I SOOO wanted her. I wouldn't have mind Ashe either as she was my second pick. so booyah!

The artbook is almost 50 pages (only...-_-) and like i mentioned isn't worth it if you got the CE. Why? Cuz all of it is on the bonus DVD and the book contains less art sadly. There's no concept art which was what i was mostly hoping for
(though it's on DVD). So you get the usual CG character illustration of the main characters (alongside the CG promo/event illustration which can be found everywhere on the net), the secondary characters in full CG illustration (the strategy guide only showed these CG pics in 'half'), the judges, races, the Espers, the weapons, airships and environments. I took shots of the same samples i used on the DVD yesterday. My camera ran out of battery before i could take any shots of the Espers (mateus and ultima ;)) and environments. But hey, it's nothing special as you can find 'em easily on the net. I'll end off the note w/ my fave viera hottie.

just some quick game news while i'm in between breaks @ school and dicking around on m laptop.

Some very exciting news is the announcement of Hajime no Ippo the fighting Revolution on the Wii in 2007!! I love the show and the games on PS2 and GBA. Check out the first one for a sweet demo vid (1 2).

After announcing the US virtual console games yesterday the JPN virtual wii games are announced today as well as EU.

'guinea pigs' playing twilight princess (click on the right hand side to see another JPN player, then UK and US as shown by the flags)
Twilight Princess Opening & trailer (2nd movie on the right)!!! Awesome.

undressing to see your wii-wii ;)

Jump Ultimate Stars site - sweeet
SNK vs. Capcom Cardfighters DS site now open - Fuckin' A, i'm all over this

Be sure to check various game sites as there's gonna be a lot of Nintendo coverage on the weekend with the Nintendo World Event going on. ;)

more sony colours for ps2 and psp...mmmm...bluuue
anohter hands on video w/ the PS3

some 360 news,
ign got lost odyssey demo impressions and vids
gamespot got 3 new lost planet vids. here's the bundle from famitsu.

xboxyde got idolm@ster famitsu scans and tgs trailer in nice resolution (for streaming & download) which is also available at the marketplace.
Halo 3 famitsu scans
and D3's other 360 game, Earth Defense Force X trailer which is actually from the official site.

One of the more crazee news today since it's a fighter
fatal fury/garou densetsu & fighter's history dynamite collaboration!!! A possible versus like game. While i must admit that i'm not huge fan of FHD since it was a total ripoff of SF (resulting in Data East going to court for that), i did enjoy it in the arcades back in the day as it was a pretty solid fighting game (i wonder why), character's spoke in their native language (ie. 2 CHN character speaking chinese, feilin shouting her moves in mandarin while lee shouts his moves in cantonese) so no CHN speaking JPN (ie. SF2, VF etc.) or French guy speaking english. But most important of all KARNOV in a fighting game!!!! So yeah, hopefully this'll be good but still rather strange collab as i'd prefer a FF x GG or any Capcom fighting collab.

While i'm on fighting game news, i want to make note that youtube has crappy vids of the new battle fantasia fighting game that was on its 1st test location in JPN last weekend. For you noobs who don't know :P ^^, the game is running on Taito's Type X2 (like KOF XII and the next SS) and is developed by Arc System Works (GG series). The artwork (so far just of Els) is pretty sweet. There's 12 charas so far in the test location game. There's like 8 or so vids @ youtube so far. Check 'em out, though you may get nauseous by the crap quality.

Nov.2 9:10 AM edit: Just of note since it's sorta Hisayuki-related and cuz i've been following Queen's Blade WAY WAY back (due to hisayuki's involvement), i want to indulge you in the news of the next wave of characters to be released on Dec. 23. While yumil wasn announced a long time ago, 2 new charas were announced today...Airi by the artist known as 'dance' (the art looks sorta familiar, gimme a link to his/her site if ya know) and a 3D version of Hirokazu Hisayuki's Reina/Leina!!!! Actually i'm not that excited cuz the 3D version doesn't look that great IMO. This 3D version is done by the infamous M-RS from incise soul (not all pics are work safe iirc) whose work you may remember seeing here a WHILE ago (as i used one of his Tifa pics for one of my FF7-releated posts) or elsewhere on the web. So it follows his style of CG rendering. While his CG art is usually good of other famous characters, i'm not clicking w/ this one. anyways that's it.

Nov.5 9:32 AM edit: hope you peeps had a great weekend (i sure did) and haven't just been playing FFXII :P. I actually haven't touched the game since Tues. (and still only 2 hours or so in). Been catching up on Nintendo World news (which has been awesome) and i must present this news that was unveiled today cuz i'm personally interested in it and have been a longtime fan of the source. Naruto: Gekitou Ninja Taisen EX (Wii) will be released sometime in Feb/March 2K7 and it will not be developed by Eighting (NOOOOO), but instead by Dream Factory (NOOOOO!), who hasn't made a good game since '97 (w/ Tobal No.1 and Tobal 2). Though Eighting is not a great company at making fighting games in general, they're good at keeping true to the source and satisfying the fans w/ it's presentation but weak gameplay. Whereas, DF has just been disappointing on the whole. I own Wulong and that was crap presentation and gameplay-wise. The gameplay was like a downgrade Bouncer (which had shitty gameplay as well, but ppl didn't seem to think so at the time cuz of "ouu...Square EA and Nomura". So yeah, i don't have high hopes for this game anymore and hopefully DF will prove me wrong by adapting Eighting's style (not something totally new aside from controls) and finally develop a good game. Though i sorta see this game being successful cuz after all, it's based from a popular franchise. Speaking of Naruto, the DS game, shinobi retsuden has been scheduled for Dec.14 (old news from a couple of days ago). The game plays sorta slow from the videos but looks to be really pushing the DS cuz of the 3D models. Also, latest scans and screenshots haven't been great cuz they only show the characters in the Forest stage which has me wondering (i wanna not the game does have at least 3-4 stages from the video if you haven't seen). anyways be sure to check it out if you're a fan.