Author: Anne Lee

Judging a Game by its Box: Harvest Moon 3D: A New Beginning

The other day, I happened to be browsing the shelves of my local game store (as one does), and I happened upon a curious sight. See, when you’re as obsessive about stopping by the game store every time you go out as I am, you generally know what to expect, so a box that looks out of the ordinary usually jumps out right away. Well, in this case, I was blown away by how appealing a certain game cover looked…

Why, it’s Harvest Moon 3D: A New Beginning! But instead of the ugly anime boy and girl on the Japanese and North American covers, this one’s covered in an adorable farm animal pattern! I must admit, I’m a little disappointed at the fact that I already own the North American version, as I totally would buy this one for the cover alone! Yes, the Harvest Moon logo itself is still garish and horrible, but I definitely think the European cover of Harveset Moon 3D: A New Beginning is a major step up. Here’s the North American version:

Oh look, some farmers and animals. Something really irks me about this illustration style! The animals themselves are cute and all, but their pastel shading style (which I prefer, actually) totally clashes with the darker colors used on the boy and girl in the foreground. Though the Japanese cover uses much of the same assets, it’s a definite improvement:

The logo still isn’t the greatest game logo I’ve ever seen, but it’s still a huge step up from the English Harvest Moon logo. The characters also look like they fit into the overall image more, which has me convinced that they decided to amp up the saturation for the North American cover for whatever reason. My favorite part about the Japanese cover, though, is that the logo is located at the bottom and is surrounded by all sorts of lovely flowers and vegetables!

It’s not usually the case, but I think this time the European cover steals the show for having the best design, with the Japanese cover coming in at a close second. I have a feeling I may be in the minority, though, especially since there are definitely some weird things about it, but basically it comes down to the fact that I just adore patterns and cute animals. Now, this reminds me that I should finally dig into my copy of the game…

Taste Test: Funghi Chiroru and Cola Gummies

It’s been many a moon (a year and a half, to be exact) since I last did a Taste Test post, and since I have a massive haul of nifty treats from my trip to Japan back in June, it’s high time I started writing about them! Today I figured I’d focus on some of the Nameko (Funghi)*-related candies I picked up.

On the left we have cola-flavored Nameko gummies, and on the right are Nameko and Strawberry Nameko Chiroru. While the gummies themselves are pretty self-explanatory, Chiroru Choco (proper name Tirol) are basically small square chocolates that are actually rather popular in Japan though I’ve managed to go nearly 26 years without ever having tried one.

As always, the packaging adorable. I’d ask you to excuse all the gratuitous packaging shots, but hopefully you’re reading this because you like this sort of thing, too!

I love the attention to detail – what a neat design along the bottom of the bag!

The back of the bag has a Nameko assuring you that the Chiroru are delicious.

The packaging on the individually-wrapped chocolates is appropriately cute, as well. The yellow package contains mitarashi dango-flavored Chiroru, which is a type of traditional Japanese sweet, while the red is a basic strawberry. Upon biting into the strawberry Chiroru, however, I was surprised to find a small biscuit in the middle! The mitarashi dango ones, however, had an interesting gooey consistency inside.

Not very exciting, but here’s what the strawberry Chiroru look like. Too bad they couldn’t have printed a Nameko picture on the actual Chiroru themselves! The mitarashi dango has the exact same design, except the chocolate is more of a tannish color. Both were tasty, but I prefer the mitarashi dango flavor just because it’s a tad more “exotic.” It doesn’t really have a strong chocolatey flavor, and the gooey consistency inside makes it resemble the actual candy it’s made to taste like, making it quite the experience! Unfortunately I probably wouldn’t say it tastes a whole lot like actual mitarashi dango, but I don’t eat them very often…

Now the Nameko gummies aren’t something I would normally go after since they’re cola favored… “nfu nfu namekola” flavored, to be exact. Basically I love a good pun and the fact that the gummies were actually shaped like various types of Nameko, so I figured I’d give it a shot even though soda candy is usually not my thing.

If you’re lucky, you might get a rare type of Nameko gummy! (there are six shapes total)

Gotta love the different Nameko on the sides of the bag. I would’ve thought they’d show all the possible gummy shapes, but I only see three different Nameko there…

As for the contents of the bag, I was sorely disappointed! They only give you eight measly gummies! Granted it wasn’t that expensive, but it was a bit of a shock to open a bag the size of my hand only to find it not even a third full.

It’s a bit hard to tell, but it looks like I’ve got three different Nameko gummy variations – the “normal” Nameko, creepy toothy smile Nameko, and the cat Nameko. Isn’t it odd that that’s exactly the types of Nameko pictured on the side of the bag?! I wonder what the other three gummy types are? I guess they went and only put the most common variations on the actual packaging, but I can’t believe anyone would buy more just to see all the different shapes.

The gummies themselves were surprisingly tasty, as the cola flavor wasn’t all that pronounced. I don’t think I’d buy them again, though, as the consistency was a bit harder than I like in a gummy. In the end, I definitely prefer the flavor of the Chiroru, but the actual gummy candies themselves are more interesting to look at. Because clearly candy is meant to be looked at, not eaten…

Stay tuned for more weird Chic Pixel food logic in more upcoming Taste Test posts!

*Every time I write a post about Nameko/Funghi, I can’t decide whether I should use its Japanese name or English name. Funghi may be more well known to English-speaking folks, but I think Nameko sounds better!

Sapporo Snow Festival and Snow Miku 2014

For the past few years, I’ve been vaguely aware of the virtual Vocaloid idol sensation Hatsune Miku, but never thought much of her or her music. After recently starting Hatsune Miku Project Diva F and buying a Nendoroid of another Vocaloid singer, Gakupoid, I can finally say that I have more than a passing interest Miku and her Vocaloid friends. 

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Since the northern hemisphere is entering winter, it’s the perfect time for the annual Snow Miku unveiling! For four years, Snow Miku has been a fixture and unofficial mascot of sorts for the Sapporo Snow Festival held in February, with her adorable face adorning everything from tram cars to snow sculptures in the city in northern Japan. After fans grew frustrated with the “recycled” designs that were the first three Snow Mikus, they decided to leave her design up to the fans themselves. 
For Snow Miku’s 5th anniversary, the theme was “magical girl,” and fans ultimately decided on the witch-like design featured above. Interestingly, the Miku and animal familiar designs were created by different artists and selected separately, but I think they look lovely together! But I’m a sucker for magical girls and rabbits, it’s true. 
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Trams with this year’s Snow Miku design will be running through Sapporo now through March in honor of the festival. The recorded announcements on the tram were even done by the Hatsune Miku voice actress, Saki Fujita, herself! 
There will also be “live” Hatsune Miku performances in February featuring the 3D design pictured above. I’m not sure I quite understand the appeal of watching a projection of an anime girl singing and dancing, but it’s interesting, none the less. 
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Of course, the big draw for me is the exclusive Snow Miku Nendoriod that Good Smile Company will be releasing in conjunction with the Snow Festival in February. Isn’t she adorable?! 
Usually Nendoroids come with a variety of facial expressions, posing options, and accessories. Here it looks like Miku is performing some kind of magical attack. I love the detail put into the base! 
Of course, it’s not all about Hatsune Miku. Her other Vocaloid friends have gotten some festive designs, as well… 
The free texting app LINE has even released some new Vocaloid stickers, though they’re not in celebration of the Sapporo Snow Festival in particular. They’re not only available for the Japanese version of the app, but the North American version, too, so if this post has made you just a little Miku crazy (like me), they may be able to satiate you! 

Final Fantasy XIV Lightning Strikes Chapters 2 + 3 Tutorial and Impressions

Leave it to the lady writing the tutorials to forget the actual dates the new chapters of the Lightning Strikes Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn event started! It feels like just as I was posting my impressions of chapter one, chapter two was going up, and before I knew it, chapter three was out, too! But since the formula of each chapter is pretty predictable, it makes sense to combine these two middle chapters into one. Yeah, that’s it, I was planning it all along…

Vega Knuckles 

First, here’s a shot of the Pugilist weapon that I got from chapter one of the event. They look pretty neat/massive, but as I mentioned in the last post, they’re too low level to be useful.

To participate in chapter two, players must complete the chapter one quest “For the Winsome” and be level 26 or above. The quest NPC for chapter two, “Seeking the Scoop,” is Dural Thural and can be found in Uldah, Steps of Nald (X:11, Y:8).

Looks like news of Lightning is spreading across Eorzea like a wildfire, and all the reporters want the best story! After accepting the quest, it’s off to Little Ala Mhigo in Southern Thanalan (X:21, Y:11) or Highbridge, Eastern Thanalan (X:28, Y:26). In both cases, the Lightning FATEs are unique to the event and will be titled “Lightning Strikes – Armored Beast.” 

I had the wonderful luck of forgetting that my inventory was full when I did the FATE, so I wasn’t able to receive the item the first time I completed it (for the record, the very first time the FATE spawned I was too busy trying to get screenshots to even participate). Since it takes a good 30 minutes for the FATEs to appear, I was rather grumpy at this revelation.

Luckily Mog had my back once again and got a really great screenshot of the beast in this FATE! But “Armored Beast,” really? Can’t we think of a cooler name? Anyway, I’m glad they brought in an enemy from the Final Fantasy XIII universe, as it makes things a bit more interesting.

After I went and got rid of some items in my inventory, I decided to hop over to Little Ala Mihgo to try the FATE there. The beast you fight is the same, but I love this shot I got of my baby imp minon with Lightning! It was fun to see people follow her as she waked away after the FATE was completed.

This time around, you only need the one Strange Otherworldly Parcel to complete the quest. Unfortunately, the chapter two parcels can not be redeemed for the weapons with the NPC who stands next to the chapter one quest-giver, which means folks who were hoping to accumulate parcels to trade for weapons over the course of the four event chapters will be out of luck. You can only get them from the chapter one FATE! 
And there’s my reward… Snow’s pants. 
As for chapter three, “The Knight’s Passage,” I ended up completing it in an extremely roundabout way. Since the level required is 38, and I was only 37 (after much grinding) when it started, I actually did the FATEs before accepting the quest itself! If you find yourself in the same position, I’m happy to report that you still obtain the required item from the completing the FATE even if you haven’t accepted the quest, so you can always go back and do the quest when you’ve reached level 38. 
For the folks who want to go about it the conventional way, you first need to speak with Kipih Jakka in Old Gridania (X:10, Y:8) to obtain the quest. As always, you’ll need to have completed all previous chapters before you can proceed. The FATEs themselves are located in the snowy land of Coerthas, near Whitebrim (X:15, Y:20 ) and The Weeping Saint (X:31, Y:7).
Chive and Lightning battling side by side! 
Here you’ll be faced with another boss battle with Lightning fighting by your side. I’m starting to sense a theme… This time, however, the enemy is a Clockwork Dreadnought in a FATE called “Lightning Strikes – Dead on Arrival.” As before, it’s the same FATE in both locations, and right now they’re going down extremely quick as everyone rushes to complete the quest, so it may be worth waiting near where they spawn so you can make sure you get a gold medal. 
This time around, you’ll be trading in a Simple Otherworldly Parcel in exchange for a pair of boots, meaning chapter four’s reward will (appropriately) be the final touch to your outfit, a dramatic Lightning or Snow coat. As I mentioned before, I ended up doing the FATE before accepting the quest, so all I had to do was talk to Kipih to accept the quest and then immediately talk to her again to turn in the item. After you do so, you’re treated to a short cutscene where Lightning shows up. Fully voiced, too! I gotta say, though, it looks like she’s lost a lot of weight… 
After his hard work was done, I took Chive to a resort to celebrate: 
Now, the fourth and final chapter of Lightning Strikes will start on the 20th, but there’s no way I’ll be at the required level 45 by then. If I’m lucky, I’ll make it with time to spare before the December 9th deadline! Here’s hoping the finale is a little more exciting, as sitting around waiting for the Lightning FATEs to spawn hasn’t been the best time I’ve spent with Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn so far. I did luck out with chapter three, though, since I was able to complete the FATEs while I was leveling.  
If you don’t manage to hit 45 before the 9th, there will be a chance to complete the chapter when the event relaunches in February to celebrate the western release of Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII. I gotta say, though, I’d like to be one of the cool kids who completes it early… Wouldn’t you? 

Final Fantasy XIV Lightning Strikes Chapter 1 Tutorial and Impressions

It’s high time I went back to my Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn coverage, wouldn’t you agree? Last I spoke of the game was on episode six of Chic Pixel Plus, and though I was loving the experience, I wasn’t sure if I’d go all in for the full three month subscription. Well, I’m happy to report that I did (my wallet is less happy), and I play it nearly every day! As a first-timer when it comes to MMOs, I find the allure of seasonal/special events very strong, regardless of how cheesy they might be. Luckily for me, FFXIV is already on its 3rd special event since its official launch, this time commemorating the impending Japanese release of Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII.

The special event, called Lightning Strikes (I see what you did there, Square Enix), finds Final Fantasy XIII‘s Lightning spirited away to the world of Eorzea for reasons unknown. The first chapter, For the Winsome, released on Thursday, November 14th, and rewards those who complete it with a set of gloves modeled after either Lightning’s or Snow’s, depending on the gender of your character. That means Chive wound up with the Bohemian’s Gloves, even though Snow himself doesn’t actually appear anywhere.

To initiate the quest, players must make their way to an NPC named Petyr Winsome, located at the Lower Decks of Limsa Limonsa (X:9, Y:12). Luckily, for the first chapter, players only need to be level 12, but subsequent quests will have increasing level requirements, culminating in level 45 for chapter four.

So, who’s this Winsome fellow? Let’s take a closer look…

Apparently he’s a reporter looking to gather information about a mysterious traveller from another world (Lightning, of course). Your task, if you choose to accept it, is to… find and observe her, really.

As an added touch, the “quest accepted” font is actually the font from Final Fantasy XIII! I didn’t get a screenshot of that, but we’ll see it again later on.

After accepting the quest, you need to go find Lightning in a FATE (Full Active Time Event). She appears in two: Sister Crustacean (Middle La Noscea, X:16, Y:12) and Tender Buttons (Western La Noscea, X:32, Y: 28). Both of these FATEs already appeared in the game before the Lightning Strikes event, and Lightning only shows up every other time the FATEs spawn, which averages out to be approximately once every 30 minutes. I ended up going for the Tender Buttons FATE because you get to fight a giant Dodo (Sister Crustacean is a giant crab battle, so whatever floats your boat).

As you can see, there were a lot of folks eager to participate in the event! It’s clear when Lightning is present, as the music will change to the Final Fantasy XIII battle theme (very cool), and she’ll say a few lines of dialogue. Many thanks to Mog for taking these screenshots, as I wasn’t able to actually see Lightning on the PS3 with so many other players running around.

Dead Dodo!
Completing the quest with a silver medal will net you one Other Worldly Parcel, while a gold medal will reward you with two. If you want to collect all the different event weapons, you’ll need to stick around and do the FATE a few times to collect more Other Worldly Parcels, as one will be given to Petyr Winsome to complete the quest and any extras can be used to purchase the weapons. To complete the quest and get all the weapons, you’ll need 9 Other Worldly Parcels total. 
The Final Fantasy XIII font lets you know you’ve done the right FATE

Lightning will stick around to exchange a few words after the FATE is completed. If you’re lucky, you’ll be able to see her – unfortunately for me, things were so crazy I never got to actually see her in my game! I’m sure it’s just unusually crowded since it’s the first couple days of the event.

After heading back to Petyr in Limsa Limonsa and handing him an Other Worldly Parcel, you’ll be gifted with either the Guardian Corps Gauntlets or the Bohemian’s Gloves. You’ve just completed the first step towards a full Lightning or Snow cosplay! Unfortunately, if you’re a higher level, the gloves themselves are pretty useless since they’re only level 13. In fact, all of the subsequent items in the event are level 13, which is a bit of a shame.

Now, if you have any extra Other Worldly Parcels, you can head over to… er… Syngiwyb to exchange them for whichever weapons you want (she’s standing right next to Petyr, you can’t miss her). You won’t be able to move these out of your inventory, so unless you’re a big collector you may not want to go for every single weapon.

Interestingly, the official website states that by completing Chapter 1, players will gain access to a new hairstyle (presumably Lightning or Snows’s) in patch 2.1. This isn’t actually mentioned anywhere in the quest, though… Here’s a shot of the full outfits obtainable in the event, including the hairstyles:

And there you have it! That’s the end of chapter one of Lightning Strikes. Chapter 2 will be available from Saturday, November 16th at 12:00 am PST in Uldah, and you’ll need to be level 26 or above to participate. All of the chapters will be available until the event ends on December 9th, and the whole event will occur again in February alongside the English release of Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII. You can find the full details on the official website.

All in all, this event so far has been rather tedious. I couldn’t stand to just get one of the weapons, so I waited around for the FATE to respawn so I could get at least 5 packages… and it takes quite a while! It seems like rather poor planning on Square Enix’s part to have Lightning appear every other time. And why couldn’t they make a unique FATE just for the event? I imagine we’ll see that as the event goes on, though, especially with that Final Fantasy XIII-esque beastie pictured in the promotional screenshot at the top of this post. My other nitpick is it’s odd to have items designed after Snow be the reward for male characters, but he doesn’t seem to actually appear anywhere in the event. Hopefully he’ll show up to fight alongside Lightning later on…

If I’d been smart, I’d have taken shots of Chive with some of the weapons from the event! I’ll add those to the Chapter 2 post on Sunday if anyone is interested. Even though it’s tedious, there’s no way I won’t try to get every item available! Now let’s see if I can get to level 45 before December 9th…

Thanks to Sailor Moon, I’m now obsessed with figurines

Way back in May, I preordered my first figurine. Sure, I’ve picked up the odd gatchapon or two over the years, and even had a sort stint where I bought a number of Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy Play-Arts figures back in high school (I believe I wound up with Vincent, Sephiroth, and Axel but ended up selling them when I moved to Australia), but this was the first time I’d been so interested in getting my hands on a figurine that I preordered it. Now that my S.H Figuarts Sailor Moon is finally safe in my grubby hands, I think it’s safe to say that I’m officially a converted figure lover.*

I won’t take just any figurines, though. I believe the reason I could never get into the “scene” before (if you can even call it that) was because I assumed all Japanese anime/video game figures were $100+ affairs that were lovingly sculpted and painted but end up doing nothing more than sitting in the same position on people’s shelves for all eternity. Imagine my surprise when I gradually found out that there were many equally nice (from my not-very-discerning perspective) figurines available at a fraction of the cost (between $30-$50) that were actually posable and came with accessories! Now here was my true calling.

Even still, I couldn’t allow myself to go out and buy just any figurines. Thus, I proposed a very strict rule: I would only buy figures of characters from my absolute favorite series, and only if they were characters I actually had a personal emotional investment in. So, when it came down to it, there weren’t ever really that many figurines that met my criteria. That is… until now.

I have to say, there is something surprisingly satisfying about being able to take my very own Sailor Moon figurine and put her in almost every iconic pose from the series imaginable. The S.H Figuarts Sailor Moon may appeal to the little girl who liked to reenact epic dinosaur battles with her plastic toys inside me (I was never really one for dolls), but it certainly doesn’t feel like a cheap child’s toy! It comes with a number of different faces and hands, making it really fun to try all sorts of different setups. Unfortunately, the one nitpick I have is that her hair is quite hard to pull off when going to change faces, and I’m always worried I’ll break something or nick the paint, but I imagine it would be hard to make it more durable while still keeping it cheap and maintaining the posing options.

Also, I’ll readily admit that I’m not really all that creative when it comes to attempting to put my beloved Sailor Moon figure in new poses. Whenever I open the box to take out a new hand or go to adjust her legs into a different position, I’m sudden zapped of all my creative vision and ultimately end up just putting her in one of the generic poses found on the back of the box. I’m happy enough with that, but hopefully I’ll shake this “figure block” soon so I can start creating some neat new scenes with her! I’m constantly amazed by how creative and fun the photos fans post on the internet are. I guess for now I’ll just stick with this cute generic peace sign pose:

Now, this wouldn’t be a post about how I’m newly obsessed with figurines if I didn’t go into detail about what I’m currently drooling over. With Sailor Moon acting as a “gateway drug” of sorts, I’ve now amassed quite the purchase history and wishlist…

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Who wouldn’t want an adorable Shizue/Isabelle figurine to keep them on task? This Nendoroid took the internet by storm after it was announced, and though I hesitated to preorder it, I decided to bite the bullet and order one of myself now that it’s officially released. One of the big reasons I went for this and not, say, some other Animal Crossing: New Leaf merchandise is because, well, a lot of it is actually rather creepy… (it’s the mouths, I tell you!) I really hope they don’t release a Brewster Nendoroid, because that’d probably be the end of me.

The only thing that’s kept me from preordering one of these Digimon Adventures figurines is the fact that it looks like only their faces are interchangeable. My wallet’s thanking whoever designed them for not making them fully posable…

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Now this gorgeous Monster Hunter 4 Nendoroid has two things going for it: 1. the girl is wearing Lagombi armor, which is all kinds of adorable (not to mention Lagombis are basically mean oversized rabbits) and 2. she comes with a Felyne. I suppose it’s pretty obvious that I’ve already preordered it! The only thing I wish is that it came with a smiling face, rather than the upset face in the corner and the weird open-mouthed wonder face featured in the other two shots. Oh, and a BBQ spit accessory, but I guess I can’t have everything…

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Finally, the impending new Sailor Moon anime means that I’ll probably find myself dying to buy figures like the ones above for months to come. Unlike the Nendoroids or the S.H Figuarts Sailor Moon, however, they are not posable or alterable in any way, which means I should be able to resist adding them to my collection. Each character comes in two variations and boxes give no indication as to what figure you’ll be getting, so it could potentially be quite the money sink trying to get the one you want! I’ll need to be very careful in protecting my wallet if this figure obsession persists…

*I’m using “figure” and “figurine” interchangeably because I’m not really sure what the difference is!

Hana Doki Kira Kickstarter: An Art Anthology by and for Shōjo Manga Fans

If there was ever a Kickstarter with my name on it, it would be Hana Doki Kira, an original art anthology featuring 107 illustrations and comics all inspired by my very favorite type of comics: shōjo manga!

From the book’s title, which takes three essential themes of shōjo, flowers, or hana, the pounding of a beating heart, or doki, and sparkling beauty, or kira, to the “about” section, where the creators refer to themselves as the Year 85 Group (hearkening back to the Year 24 Group, an influential group of female artists all born in the same year who helped make shōjo manga what it is today), it’s clear that the folks behind this project know and love shōjo manga.

Of course, it also helps that one of my favorite artists, Sarah O’Donnell (fun fact: she designed the new Chic Pixel and Chic Pixel Plus logos!) has contributed a short comic, along with 25 other talented artists! Check out this teaser of her submission:

One thing I didn’t realize until I had read the Kickstarter description carefully is the fact that the entire book will be printed in a black, white, and seafoam green color palette! That gets major bonus points from me, as I’ve been completely obsessed with seafoam green/pale mint recently, and I love how the different artists showcased so far have employed the limited palette. The Kickstarter teases future volumes focused around different colors if this one is successful, which I think is a brilliant idea! Imagine having a row of gorgeous color-coded art anthologies celebrating shōjo manga on your shelf!

Even if you don’t have a lot of spare cash on hand with the holiday season coming up, or a lack of shelf space has you weary of adding another big book to your collection, the Kickstarter has a very reasonable $5 reward tier that nets you a PDF copy of the book. So, if you’re a shōjo fan at heart, what are you waiting for? I know the only reason I haven’t donated yet is I can’t decide what reward I want! While shōjo manga has certainly risen in popularity internationally in the last 10 or so years, there are very few projects that celebrate international shōjo art, so even if you don’t want to donate, please do these amazing artists a favor and spread the word!