Author: Anne Lee

Let’s celebrate Theatrhythm’s impending localization with some merchandise

I suppose we all knew it’d happen eventually, but if you haven’t heard, Theatrhythm Final Fantasy will be coming out in the US and Europe sometime this summer! How’s that for great news? To celebrate, hit the play button on your favorite Final Fantasy track and take a look at some of this awesome merchandise I managed to wrangle up!

First of all,  I have to say I’ve been warming up to the cutesy art style used in the game. It first appeared in a Kingdom Hearts cell phone game in Japan, and I never found myself very partial to it… But the more I see, the more I find myself starting to like it. I mean, who can resist drinking their favorite beverage of choice out of one of these Theatrhythm mugs?
You can purchase it online here!
Or how about a tumbler, for when you’d rather your drink available on the go?
source

I personally like the color on the tumbler, but prefer the simplistic design of the mug. But it’s hard to pass up chocobos!

But better yet, perhaps you already have a trusty water bottle you’d like to spruce up a bit? In Japan they have bottle cases like these all over the place:

source

Love the addition of the plush music note!

There is certainly a lot of drink-related Theatrhythm Final Fantasy merchandise, isn’t there? But never fear, the usual cute keychains have also made an appearance:

I’ll be honest – that’s not my favorite Final Fantasy moogle design (I’m actually partial to the more rabbit-like moogles from the Ivalice Alliance titles, but don’t tell anyone I said so), but the chocobo is pretty darn adorable. I particularly like the contrast of the yellow and blue.

And last but not least, we have a special item that I could only find on Kuma’s Mad Dog Blog, a Square Enix blog dedicated to their merchandise (the previous two photos were also taken from there):

A tote bag?? Better yet, an unreleased tote bag?? It’s a little known fact on the internet that I am actually obsessed with tote bags. They’re good for groceries, books… everything, really! Ok, I’m a little obsessed. But I do love something that’s both cute and functional, and tote bags really do fit the bill. According to Kuma’s Mad Dog Blog, where this image was posted on March 15th, it’s a brand new item, and currently no more information is available, so we’ll have to wait and see when and where this is released. Admittedly, it is a little on the plain side, but I think owning a Theatrhythm Final Fantasy tote bag trumps all. I think I’m going to make it my personal mission to make sure I get my hands on this lovely thing.

Do any of these items catch your fancy? What would be your ultimate Theatrhythm merchandise? I wouldn’t mind some stickers…

Why I’m both intrigued and annoyed by Code of Princess

Before today, I hadn’t paid any attention to the upcoming Japanese 3DS title, Code of Princess, but as soon as this box art appeared, it immediately went on my radar.

Is that not a gorgeous illustration? Generally I don’t like very busy box art, but I love the colors and attention to detail in this one. Above all, the character designs have me very intrigued – though I am decidedly not in favor of the surprised female knight with bikini armor (more on that later). 
It’s always a little thrilling to learn about a game for the first time from its box art. There’s nothing more fun than browsing though a game store and coming across a title that looks interesting but you’ve never heard of, then rushing home to Google it as soon as possible. … What’s that? Yes, I am still living in 1999 and do not have internet on my phone. 
Of course, finding new boxart when you’re already browsing the internet is a different thing altogether, but no less fun. I’ve learned that Kinu Nishimura, the woman behind the illustrations of 9 Hours, 8 Persons, 9 Doors and the more recent Virtue’s Last Reward, was in charge of this gorgeous cover as well as the character designs for Code of Princess. No wonder I like them! 
I particularly like the pink haired lady in the middle.
Nothing quite like a swashbuckling guy with big pants and feathers in his hair.
But even with all these exciting character designs, I still manage to find something to gripe about. Brace yourself for my biggest beef with Code of Princess:

Where on earth do I start? Well, admittedly, her sword and cloak are both pretty amazing and display the kind of detail that I love, but my positive comments end there. Not only is she wearing less clothing than is physically possible, but Kinu decided her only armor would be in the form of gauntlets, which is pretty much worthless considering how little else she’s wearing. And, though the box art for the game features this lady, who is the main character Code of Princess, in a relatively active fighting stance, this official art, which has already been made into a resin figurine in Japan and is the most popular result when searching Google for Code of Princess images, is about as passive as it gets. She’s not only holding her sword in a pathetic excuse for a defensive pose, but she also has a frightened expression on her face, with her arm extended backward in a way that sexualizes her more by rendering her powerless, if that’s even possible. I hate to dwell on issues such as these, and of course I know Kinu Nishimura has done her fair share of “sexy” illustrations (999‘s Lotus, anyone?), but this image takes the cake for portraying a female main character in the worst possible light.

Well, now that I’ve gotten that off my chest… Is there anything else good I can say about this game? For those who aren’t familiar with it, Code of Princess is a 2D brawler that shares many similarities with Guardian Heroes. It also touts an extensive 4-player multiplayer mode, and I’ve got to say, even the gameplay looks pretty interesting:

Mark that one down in the books, folks: I said even the gameplay looks interesting!

Datable Monsters in Rune Factory 4

I haven’t blogged about it yet, for the past 2 weeks or so I’ve been playing Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility every spare minute I’ve had. I can’t get enough! And it was only $5!

I’ll elaborate more in a future post, but suffice it to say I’m hopelessly enamored with these Japanese “life sim” games, as we’ve already seen with my recent infatuation with Atelier Rorona. Sure, Harvest Moon and Atelier Rorona aren’t exactly the same, as Rorona has both very specific time restraints, alchemy, and battle elements, but fundamentally they’re both hopelessly cute time sinks that are about as innocuous as games can get (aside from some creepy undertones in Atelier Rorona…).

I’m a bit of a sucker for this kind of art.
And that dragon in the background??

As such, I’ve always had my eye on the Rune Factory series, but never really delved into them for two main reasons: 1. they didn’t have playable female characters like many of the Harvest Moon titles, and 2. I just couldn’t figure out what installment to start with. #2 is actually a reason why I also hadn’t tried Harvest Moon until now… Do you know just how many there are? But thankfully a super sale and some good timing made the decision for me.

But now that I know more about Rune Factory 4, I’m almost positive this is going to be the entry that gets me into the series whenever it comes out in English. As Natsume has been very diligent about localizing Rune Factory titles, I’m sure we’ll be seeing it on North American 3DSs somewhere between 6 months to a year after the Japanese release in July (a bold prediction – let’s see if I’m right!).

So what’s got me so hyped for Rune Factory 4, when I’ve never even played a Rune Factory game? As the title suggests, I’ve got two words for you: datable monsters. Actual monsters you fight in the game will morph into humans for you to date and eventually marry, if you so choose. Pretty cool, huh? I know, I’ve got some weird interests…

So far, only one female and one male monster character have been revealed. Here they are in their duel forms:

In all honestly, I’m not particularly impressed by their character designs, aside from the fact that the male character, Dylas, looks like a punk rock unicorn in his monster form (which is all kinds of awesome). His human form isn’t much to look at, unfortunately, and I find it odd that they decided to keep his ears and tail but have Kohaku, the girl, appear 100% human. Dylas looks like he’ll be the token fisherman, while Kohaku will probably be a quiet girl who enjoys spending her time tending to flowers… Not like we haven’t seen that before. Of course, you’ll have to find them in the wild and beat their monster forms before they’ll be datable as humans.

Aside from the datable monsters, which pretty much sold me from the get-go, Rune Factory 4 will finally offer the series’ first fully-playable female character. Unlike Rune Factory: Tides of Destiny, which only let you play as a girl after beating the main story as a man, Rune Factory 4 will allow you to choose your gender right at the beginning. Hopefully this means that there will be just as many datable bachelors available to players who choose to be a girl as there are bachelorettes for players who opt to be a guy. Of course I’m perfectly happy to play as a male character in a game, but as I’m a sucker for otome titles, any game that has some sort of romantic element added with women in mind gets extra points in my book.

Other interesting additions for this installment include the ability to date someone you’re interested in before marrying them… Very realistic, no? Not so realistic is the reported ability to communicate with dragons. But really, there isn’t anything you need to know either than the fact that monsters are datable in Rune Factory 4. Right?

Chic Pixel is One Year Old!

Boy, how time flies! I’m not really keeping track, but I happened to notice just today that I’ve already passed the one year mark of blogging here at Chic Pixel! How about that?

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all of you who have ever taken the time to read my words. Better yet, if you’ve ever left a comment or (gasp!) actually come back to read more… Well, it really is you who keeps this little space going! If it weren’t for all of you, I probably would’ve thrown in the towel long ago (well, maybe not entirely, but this place would be pretty sad if I were here rambling to myself for a whole year).

Look who I met at a local convention this weekend! If it weren’t for
Sailor Moon, this blog probably wouldn’t exist!

I’d like to take this opportunity to get some feedback from you, readers. Are there certain types of posts of mine you enjoy more than others? Games or anime/manga (though I’m already pretty skewed in one direction there…)? Japan Envy? Anything you’d like to see me tackle this year that I haven’t written about yet? If you’d feel more comfortable dropping me an email rather than commenting here, you can do so at apricotsushi(at)gmail(dot)com.

As for personal goals, I hope to write much more frequently this year. I’m going to strive to do 3 posts a week, and hopefully work my way up to a whole 5 a week, with some perhaps being short “round-up” posts of things I’m currently interested in or news that I find particularly exciting.
Your feedback is very much appreciated – I will most certainly take it into consideration when planning my posts in the upcoming months! 

The Vita Post

The things the King of All Cosmos says will never get old.

As you may be aware, a certain beefy little handheld finally made its way overseas on the 23rd (22nd if you live pretty much anywhere but Australia) of February. What do we call it? The PS Vita? Playstation Vita? PSV? Or simply… Vita?

Well, regardless of how you prefer to refer to it (I’ll be calling it the “PS Vita”), it is definitely one fine piece of hardware. You may already know where this post is leading, but to cut to the chase: Yes, I bought one. Not only bought, but Shaun and I preordered an Australian one, making it the first console I’ve ever preordered, let alone picked up on launch day.

My reasoning for this was twofold: My colleagues over at VGW were heckling me to get one, mostly due to the fact that they needed someone with my area of gaming expertise (read: someone who’ll play all those weird Japanese games) who could pick up a few of the titles in the console’s mighty launch lineup. Not only that, but I’ll begrudgingly admit that I only just bought my first PSP last year, and it was used. Shaun and I absolutely love the PSP, and if the PS Vita turns out to be half as good as that system was, I want to give Sony my support (read: cold, hard cash).

Factoring in some exciting titles to look forward to and the fact that Shaun unblinkingly responded with a simple “yes” when I told him I was thinking of getting one meant that come 10 am on Thursday the 23rd, a beautiful new PS Vita was all ours for the unboxing.

Title-wise, I got hard copies of Touch My Katamari and Shinobido 2, along with a download voucher for BlazBlue: Continuum Shift Extend, all for reviews. As Touch My Katamari was the main launch title I was interested in, I haven’t felt the need to purchase any of my own games yet.

By the way, have you seen how small these cartridges are?

Teeny tiny!
The cases are extremely small and thin, too. Makes sense, considering that
they don’t contain a manual as a rule (anyone who is interested in holding a
funeral to commemorate the death of the physical game manual is more than
welcome to join me).

I tried to get a few pictures of the system itself, but unfortunately it’s a bit too glossy for me to get a proper photo of. But you all have seen it already, right?

I was told many times before I actually had the PS Vita in my own grubby hands that the system really shines when you get some hands-on time with it. I have to say, I wholeheartedly agree. Though the system looks a little bulky, and it does have some weight to it, it feels great to hold and even better to play with. The directional and command buttons have a real weight when you press them, and the dual analog sticks feel great, albeit a little small. Touch screen functionality is integrated seamlessly into the system’s control panel, and I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the in-built camera.

Basically, the PS Vita is my equivalent of hardware porn. I was still waiting for my games to come in on launch day, but I’ll be darned if I didn’t just pick up the Vita and turn it on 10 times over the course of the afternoon, just so I could hold it. Yes, my husband thinks I’m crazy.

But what about the launch lineup?

The built-in screenshot function is amazing, if a little hard to execute in some games.
In this screen I’m playing as the pink girl, Platinum, my new favorite BlazBlue character. 

Of course, you won’t find me commenting on such AAA releases as Uncharted: Golden Abyss or the latest shiny Wipeout racing game, but I can tell you about the few Japanese titles I’ll be reviewing.

Touch My Katamari – This was, without a doubt, the title I was most looking forward to. Touch My Katamari is very standard Katamari fare, so if you’re a fan of the series, there’s a lot to like here. I don’t want to spoil my review, so click the link to check it out if you’re interested. Needless to say, I really enjoyed my time with the game, but it was much too short. I beat every single level the game had to offer (and there were a number of repeats from past Katamari titles) in just about 3 hours. Disappointing, but boy, does it look great on the Vita!

BlazBlue: Continuum Shift Extend – A beautiful portable version of BlazBlue: Contiuum Shift. It not only contains the DLC characters from the PS3/Xbox 360 versions, but another new character and dozens of modes to sink time into. The only problem I’ve had with it so far are the load times, and a nasty bug that causes the screen to freeze randomly when a battle is loading while playing in arcade mode (this has happened to me every time I’ve played arcade mode). I’m not sure if this problem is something wrong with my download or not, but I did find someone with a similar issue over in the GameFAQs forums. I’ve contacted Aksys PR to see what’s up. Review forthcoming.

Shinobido 2: Revenge of Zen – I honestly don’t know if there’s anything good I can say about this one. It looks and feels like a PS2 title, and the controls are finicky and annoying. The ninja gameplay mechanic is fun, but this title doesn’t do anything that the original Shinobido or the Tenchu titles didn’t do better. In fact, Shaun played Shinobido on the PS2, and agrees that Shinobido 2 feels like more of a glorified port than a sequel. Review forthcoming.

All in all, I’m more than happy with my Vita. The possibility of playing PSP titles downloaded from the PSN with enhanced graphics is another great bonus – I even purchased a copy of Half-Minute Hero just so I could see how great it would look. Though the battery life is nowhere near good enough and there isn’t an amazing new must-have JRPG for the system yet, I do not in any way regret purchasing the system on launch.

Did any of you grab a PS Vita, or are you thinking of getting one? If you’re on the fence and want to ask me some questions, feel free to leave them in the comments!

“Poison has a Stick” may be the best idea for a joystick mod ever

Let me profess that I literally know next to nothing about joystick modification. In fact, I’m not much of a fighting game fan in general, though I am known to rock a pretty solid Lee in Tekken and Arc Systems Works is always on my radar for their sleek titles (I’m looking at you, BlazBlue Continuum Shift Extend Vita). In fact, I can honestly say that I’ve never played more than 5 minutes of a Street Fighter game (or Final Fight, for that matter), and as such I know next to nothing about the intriguing, pink-haired character known as Poison who will be making an appearance in the roster of Street Fighter X Tekken… Except for the fact that she is famous for being a transgendered female character. Which I think is thoroughly awesome, if you had any doubts.

Long-time games writer shidoshi (who you may know as @pikoeri) echoes my sentiments – he even got the chance to interview Yoshinori Ono about Poison, and he refrained from any of the usual snide remarks that most so-called games “journalists” make when talking about her. I highly suggest checking the interview out if you haven’t seen it already.

But now you must allow me to get right into the meat of this post: the beautiful Poison-themed joystick mod shidoshi has created, aptly named “Poison has a Stick”:

Beautiful, is it not? I’d play a fighter with that joystick any day of the week. For clarification on the little innuendo you may have picked up on regarding the interesting placement of the joystick, here are shidoshi’s thoughts in his own words:

“[…] This stick wasn’t made with the intention of making fun of the character Poison or her “is or isn’t she transgender” status, nor was it done simple for some sort of cheap “it’s a trap” connection. I mean, of course—the design was absolutely done in good fun and with a lot of humor—but it was done in celebration of the character of Poison, not in mocking her or what she is.” (source)

Now excuse me while I go brush up on my fighting skills so I can justify a snazzy joystick purchase – it’s just too bad this one’s one of a kind!

UPDATE: shidoshi posted over on his Twitter this amazing picture of none other than Yoshinori Ono holding the aforementioned joystick at a Street Fighter X Tekken event! How awesome is that?

Manga Impressions: The Legend of Sakura Hime

I don’t post about manga nearly enough on this blog, and that needs to be rectified! What better way to do so then by writing up some thoughts on a recent title I’ve read? I’ve always been a fan of Arina Tanemura’s iconic style, but have never gone the extra step and picked up a copy of one of her titles. Lucky for me the local library had volumes one through four of her latest series, The Legend of Sakura Hime!

The Legend of Sakura Hime is an ongoing shōjo manga currently being serialized in the monthly manga anthology Ribon in Japan. The story follows Sakura, a teenage girl who’s been engaged to the prince Oura ever since she was a child. Trouble is, it turns out she’s also a descendant of the demon Princess Kaguya. It’s up to her to fulfill her role by wielding the mythical sword Chizakura and destroying all demons that threaten to harm the world she knows and loves. Upon learning her true identity, however, certain forces, including Prince Oura, would rather see her killed!

Lots of awesome action shots, including blood and even death, which is pushing the
envelope for a girls’ anthology like Ribon! 

If you can’t tell, I am rubbish when it comes to writing plot summaries. The Legend of Sakura Hime is pretty standard shōjo fare, but with gorgeous illustrations, more action and darker themes than usually seen in manga aimed at teenage girls, and ample romance, I definitely recommend it to anyone who has a penchant for shōjo. That said, I’m happy I didn’t purchase it – it’s great for a light-hearted read and had a number of cute scenes that reminded me of that giddy feeling I get when a kiss or embrace is drawn both beautifully and evocatively, but in the end the whole thing feels a tad shallow and run-of-the-mill plot-wise, which probably won’t do much to impress more discerning eyes.

Prince Oura’s brother? Cousin? So memorable I’ve already forgotten.
He hides his true feelings for Sakura under an easy-going facade.
Let it be known that I have a weakness for playboy male characters. 

I’m not trying to knock the series – The Legend of Sakura Hime is chock-full of romance, intrigue, and action, and is a great way to spend an afternoon for fans of shōjo and magical girls. I wouldn’t place it on any top ten lists, and I probably won’t remember much about it in 3 years, but there’s no harm in that.