Author: Anne

I’ve found my missing artistic half, and her name is patty

I’m pretty sure the Pixiv artist who goes by the name patty and I are sisters separated at birth, because her work just about covers all of my favorite things (for the purposes of this post I’m going to assume she’s female). Retro-inspired color palettes? Check? Pokémon gijinka? Check. Girls with glasses, big hats, and frilly clothes? Check. Viera-esque bunny people? Check. She’s even done Princess Tutu, Odin Sphere, and Freya (of Final Fantasy IX fame) fanart! My heart be still!

Since I’ve been burying my nose in Pokémon Black Version 2 since I got it on Friday, I’ll just dedicate this post to showing off some of patty’s gorgeous illustrations. I absolutely adore her fairytale-like style! In honor of the new Pokémon games, I’ll start off with some of my favorite of her Pokémon gijinka (humans characters designed to look like certain  Pokémon) works:

What an adorable Ho-oh! I love how she’s taken its feathers and used their design in her hair as well as her sleeves. And none of that “pretty girl sitting around doing nothing” business – this Ho-oh gijinka’s a fencer!

Let it be known that I am actually quite partial to Shinx and its evolutions, so that may be part of the reason why I love this Luxray design. Some may think it looks nothing like the Pokémon it’s meant to be designed after, but I love the small details like the star on her parasol and her spiky blue hair. Regardless of whether she looks like Luxray or not, her costume is adorable, and the color palette used in the image is amazing, in my opinion!

Now Arceus is a Pokémon that I’ve never liked, but patty has managed to make it look so appealing! Again, the gijinka doesn’t look all that like the Pokémon aside from the color scheme and the gold spikes near her tail, but the Greek inspiration makes it a really interesting image.

Last but not least, we have a Leavanny gijinka. Leavanny just so happens to be the evolution of one of my favorite ‘mon, Sewaddle, and I’m thrilled with how patty has interpreted its design in this image. That’s actually an outfit I’d love to wear! And see how she represented its feelers with the feathers on her hat? I’m melting from sheer bliss!

She has plenty more gijinka illustrations and other Pokémon-related art that are just as amazing over at her Pixiv page, which I highly recommend checking out! Before I go, I’ll just share a couple more pieces that caught my eye:

I absolutely adore these rabbit-people that appear frequently in patty’s portfolio. Apparently they’re from something called Toto no Mura (Toto’s Village) which, as far as I can tell, is a series or world of characters created specifically for a Pixiv event called Pixiv Fantasia, where artists registered on the site are encouraged to submit pieces that fit the theme. The Toto no Mura theme seems to be from the fifth Pixiv Fantasia, as you can find many other pieces featuring the same characters under the Toto no Mura tag. I wish I knew exactly what Toto no Mura is, so if you know more, please do let me know in the comments!

And finally, I couldn’t help but include her rendition of the Mad Hatter… I blame my Alice in Wonderland obsession!

Wolf Children Impressions

A few weeks ago I was treated to a big-screen showing of Wolf Children (おおかみこども雨と雪), the latest film by Mamoru Hosoda, director of Summer Wars and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, at a local cinema. I must say, I’m very glad I went! The screening was part of an anime festival here in Australia, and as such was only available for a limited time, so I actually made the executive decision to see this over Studio Ghibli’s From Up on Poppy Hill.

Wolf Children tells the story of Hana, a 19-year-old woman who falls in love with a mysterious man who, after a whirlwind romance, reveals himself to be the last descendant of Japanese wolves. She accepts him for what he is, and the two begin to cultivate a life together, starting with the birth of two children, a girl named Yuki and younger brother Ame. Both children have a mixture of human and wolf qualities, and have the ability to change from being 100% human to 100% wolf (or any mixture of the two) at will, but their emotions often get the better of them, causing them to change into wolves at inappropriate times, making things tough for young mother Hana. When the father dies unexpectedly, Hana is forced to raise the children alone, without any help from the outside world, and she makes the decision to move to the countryside so Yuki and Ame can grow up without the constant prying eyes of outsiders.

First and foremost, Wolf Children is a beautiful film, both in animation and its seamless integration of the fantastic with the real. Some reviewers have compared the film to the works of Studio Ghibli, and I have to say I agree, as they both feature an exquisite attention to detail. Though the story is never quite as grabbing, nor the music quite as memorable, as some of the more iconic Studio Ghibli films, fans of My Neighbor Totoro will find a lot to like in Wolf Children.

It’s hard to talk about the plot of the film without revealing the finer points of the narrative that best be left for the viewer to experience themselves, but I must say that though the overall story ran a relatively predictable course, the narrative, which chronicled the hardships and joys Hana faced raising her two wolf children, was at its best when depicting the “mundane” aspects of life. One of my favorite scenes is when Hana brings her two children out to their garden to harvest potatoes, something that I did with my own parents when I was young. Of course, all of these “normal” activities include a fantastical element, that of the wolf children, but the way they are portrayed is surprisingly believable.

The Wolf Children‘s ending ultimately left me unsatisfied, but I enjoyed the rest of the film enough that it didn’t end up leaving a sour taste in my mouth as I left the theater. The film excels in depicting everyday moments that are punctuated with the fantastic, and offers more than a handful of memorable scenes and thought-provoking themes to keep you engaged in the film even after the credits have rolled.

… Of course, this wouldn’t be a Chic Pixel post without at least one reference to merchandise! How about Ame and Yuki-inspired brainwave-controlled ears?

official website

Or how about Ame and Yuki tail keychains? Isn’t that a little morbid?

Well, regardless of the weird merchandise, I highly recommend watching Wolf Children if you get a chance. Wikipedia has it listed for a October 17th release date in the US, but I haven’t found any other information about showtimes or what cities it’ll be in. If it comes to your area, I definitely suggest seeing it on the big screen! 

Thoughts on three recent and radically different game demos

What do fashion shows, deranged nurses, and a talking rabbit have in common? They just so happen to feature in the three game demos I played over the last week! The first week of October was surprisingly busy for game demos, and though I don’t usually jump at the sight of a new demo, all of these happened to be titles I’m interested in enough to give them a shot. I know you’re dying to see what titles I’m talking about (or have you guessed already?), so I’ll cut right to the chase.

Silent Hill: Book of Memories (PS Vita)
It probably won’t surprise any of you to hear that I’ve never properly played a Silent Hill title before. I’ve played and watched various segments of Silent Hill 2 (mostly the beginning, along with the infamous pyramid head scene), and though I know a good deal about the series in general, I don’t particularly have a huge investment in it, nor do I know enough about the games to have a discussion on them. Taking that into account, I was still surprised when I heard that Book of Memories was going to be an RPG. “A Silent Hill RPG? Now that’s something I’ve got to see!” accurately sums up my reaction to the news that the demo was finally up on the North American PSN.
As you can see from the image above (have I ever mentioned how much I love the PS Vita’s screen capture function?), I wasn’t horribly creative with my character, choosing to go for the gothic lolita look and generic goth gal name Alice. Did you know my parents almost named me Alice? Well there’s your random Chic Pixel trivia for the day! 

So, how does it play? I came out pleasantly surprised and satisfied with my time with the Silent Hill: Book of Memories demo. I didn’t find the areas and overall graphical style very appealing, but the gameplay was interesting and made great use of the PS Vita’s touch screen to pick up/use items and weapons. I’d go so far as to say that this game has the best mixture of traditional and touch screen controls I’ve seen on the PS Vita since launch! 
Gameplay consists of exploring various rooms in a randomly-generated zone, battling classic Silent Hill enemies, and collecting puzzle pieces to unlock the door to the next area. All traditional RPG elements are present, including experience points and artifacts that can be equipped for a range of stat boosts. There’s also a heavy multiplayer element that is apparently included in the demo, but honestly I couldn’t figure out how to get a multiplayer sessions going! Will I pick it up on launch? Probably not, as I’m generally more interested in more story-driven RPGS, but this demo has definitely convinced me that Silent Hill: Book of Memories is not some throwaway spinoff. 
Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward (PS Vita)
The second PS Vita demo I sank my teeth into (figuratively, of course) was for the upcoming sequel to 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors, the graphic adventure/visual novel for the Nintendo DS which has subsequently been rebranded as Zero Escape: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors. For the record, I have played 999, and I definitely consider it one of the standout titles on the DS. The mixture of interesting puzzle segments, a gripping and surprisingly mature story, and gorgeous character designs quickly earned it a special place in my heart, and I’ve been looking forward to the sequel’s English release ever since. 

Like 999, Virtue’s Last Reward features a deadly game that forces its participants to use their wits and make some difficult choices in order to escape from the compound they’ve inexplicably found themselves in. This time around, the game is known as the Nonary Game: Ambidex Edition (for reference, 999‘s game was just the Nonary Game) that requires its participants to either betray or cooperate with the other players in an effort to obtain the necessary 9 BP (“bangle points”) needed to escape. In all honestly, I still don’t quite understand how this system works, but in my defense it didn’t really factor into the demo, which only featured a short visual novel segment that introduced the story and an escape portion that focused entirely on escaping from a certain area. 
As always, Aksys’ translation is quite humorous, and I regularly found myself chuckling at the quirky dialogue. The gameplay also remains true to its roots: Virtue’s Last Reward requires you to work out a series of puzzles that involve investigating the world around you, and since this is the PS Vita version (it’s also coming to the 3DS, but the demo is PS Vita-only at this time), there are a lot of touch screen controls. I’ll admit that after playing the Book of Shadows demo I felt like the touch controls here were a little more difficult to get used to, and I often found myself doing actions I didn’t intend to. 

The visual novel section features a quick introduction to the game’s story that, in all honesty, didn’t really grab me, which was unfortunate, but I’m still (perhaps naively) confident that the actual story will end up being just as engrossing as 999‘s was. One final quibble: I wish the game retained the 2D character illustrations of its predecessor rather than making the jump to 3D models, but I can understand why they made that decision. But can you just imagine how lovely Kinu Nishimura’s gorgeous art would be on the PS Vita’s screen? I know I can! 
Honestly, it sounds like I was rather underwhelmed by this demo, and I suppose I untimately was, but that’s only due to the fact that I have such high hopes for this sequel. It’s still something I’m planning on playing –– I just hope the story delivers. 

Style Savvy: Trendsetters (3DS)
Of course, I’ve saved the best for last! Yes, I’m not kidding, and yes, I can just imagine you all side-eyeing me very hard right now. If a game titled Style Savvy: Trendsetters doesn’t sound like something that will appeal to you from the get-go, I certainly won’t try to convince you otherwise, but I’m happy to report that the demo has proven itself to be a competent fashion game and not just another shovelware title destined for bargain bins and 5-year-olds. 
The first notable thing about this demo is that it only gives you a measly five tries, rather than the full 30 that usually come with 3DS demos. Funnily enough, though I never use more than one or two of my alloted demo plays, this is the one title that I think I’ll actually run out of tries for. The reason for this is that though Trendsetters only gives a sample of one portion of the game, the fashion contest, there are at least two different themes you can compete in, each with different clothing choices, and a wide range of randomly-selected models to choose from. At the time of this post, I’ve played through the demo four times (all on one “use” since I didn’t exit out of the demo itself), and have tried both the “pop” theme and the “bold” theme (for the record, I got pop three times and bold once, which leads me to believe these are the only options). 
I guess I must not be very style savvy (pun intended), since it took me all four tries to get first in the competition. The fashion contest pits you against three other stylists, and it’s your goal to select and dress a model according to the theme with the goal of being the best representation of that theme on the catwalk. I’m really not sure how the game determines what’s fashionable and what’s not, but there are certain clothing brands that it indicates as fitting better with certain themes. The above two images are my winning coordinate for “pop,” and I thought I was just phoning it in, so who knows. 
Regardless, if you have any interest in fashion, Style Savvy: Trendsetters should definitely keep you happy. The full game has you managing your own store, among other things, and I must admit it’s a title that I’m extremely looking forward to picking up. Also, it gets major props for featuring lolita fashion and allowing you to dress men as well as women! 
So, did you play any of these demos, or are any of these titles on your radar? I’d love to hear your thoughts! 

Japan Envy: Animal Crossing 3DS LL

source

I realize this is old news now, but I can’t help but share my thoughts on the recently-revealed Animal Crossing 3DS LL. Just look at it! I’ve heard some say it looks too much like a polka-dot underwear pattern, and though I suppose I can see where they’re coming from, I think the small repeating pattern on the white system is actually very classy. The red x black Mario 3DS isn’t too shabby either, but let’s face it, I only have room in my heart for Animal Crossing.

Now some of you may recall that I started pondering the possiblity of buying a Japanese 3DS LL (or XL for us westerners, but I’ll continue to call it an LL since I’m talking about the Japanese version) back when the Pikachu yellow version was announced, and I have to admit that even though I didn’t manage to snag one of those (believe me, I tried, and you can hear the gritty details in the upcoming Nichiest Podcast Ever), the whole ordeal has subsequently found me comitted to buying a 3DS LL sooner rather than later. Hell, I’ve even started contemplating what Japanese game I’ll get with it!

I was nearly charmed into buying that gorgeous little pink x white 3DS LL, so this Animal Crossing limited edition came at just the right time. Releasing on November 11th and coming with a digital copy of Animal Crossing preloaded onto the SD card, this system is basically a sign from Nintendo that I am meant to purchase a 3DS LL before the end of the year. And purchase I shall, as long as there aren’t crazy day one shortages like there were with the Pikachu 3DS LL!

But enough about me… what do you think of the Animal Crossing 3DS LL? Prefer the Mario one? Think they’re both rubbish? I’m curious to know!

[UPDATE] And now that lovely Pikachu 3DS XL is coming out in Europe… Way to throw a wrench in my plans, Nintendo!!

Call for Participation: Vampire Manga Movable Feast

Ghosts, ghouls, witches on brooms, and children of the night… Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, and I’m extremely excited to announce that this month I’ll be hosting a vampire Manga Movable Feast in its honor! Each month, manga bloggers hold a week-long community event devoted to the discussion of a specific series, artist, or genre, and with this month’s theme open to anything and everything vampire-related, there’s certainly a lot of ground to cover!

Even though Japan has no native vampire folklore outside of an odd little tale featuring a vampire-like cat, the increasing influence of western culture after WWII has ensured that the iconic blood-sucker has had more than its share of media appearances. Of course, manga has been no exception! Vampires appear in everything from shōjo romances such as Vampire Knight to dramatic horror titles like Hellsing, meaning there’s certain to be something for everyone.

The vampire MMF will run from October 21st – 27th, and during that time participants are encouraged to submit essays, reviews, podcasts, etc. on any titles featuring vampires that are currently available in English (titles that have not been published in English or are currently out of print should be labeled as such). Below you will find a brief list of manga featuring vampires (please note that some out-of-print titles have been included). I’ve provided links to official product pages where available for easy searching.

  • Vampire Knight (14 volumes, ongoing)*
  • Blood+ (5 volumes; see also Blood+: Adagio, 2 vol., and Blood+:Kowloon Nights)*
  • Descendants of Darkness (11 volumes)
  • Vampire Hunter D (6 volumes, ongoing)*
  • Hellsing (10 volumes)*
  • Chibi Vampire (14 volumes, out of print)
  • Rosario + Vampire (10 volumes)
  • Millennium Snow (2 volumes)*
  • Blood Alone (6 volumes, ongoing)*
  • Bloody Kiss (2 volumes, out of print)
  • Dance in the Vampire Bund (12 volumes, ongoing)*
  • My Boyfriend is a Vampire (manhwa, 6 volumes, ongoing)*
  • Trinity Blood (12 volumes, ongoing, out of print)
  • COWA! (1 volume)
  • The Record of a Fallen Vampire (9 volumes)
  • Lament of the Lamb (7 volumes, out of print)
  • NEW: Princess Resurrection has been re-released by JManga. All 7 volumes can be purchased digitally here
*Titles with this mark have free online previews available at the links provided
If you have already written something on vampire manga that you would like to have included in the archive, please send it to me via email. Those who do not have a blog but want to participate can also email me submissions to be hosted here on Chic Pixel. Be sure to check out the archive of past Manga Movable Feasts for some ideas of what is acceptable to submit!
During the week, participants are encouraged to email me links to their submissions as they are posted so that I may include them in my daily roundup posts. If you have a Twitter account, be sure to spread the word by tagging any related content with the #vampiremmf hashtag and my user name, @apricotsushi.

Be sure to keep an eye out for my shōjo-centric introduction to vampire manga (what can I say, shōjo is my specialty!) and call for localization posts during the week. I look forward to reading your submissions! And to get the ball rolling, sound off on your favorite vampire manga in the comments! 

Angelique (GBA) Gameplay and Impressions

After taking a walk down nostalgia lane with Angelique‘s packaging and manual in my last post, I sat down with the game so that I could report back on its gameplay systems and how it stacks up against modern otome games.

The game begins with your character, your rival Roselia, and nine guardians at an audience with the Queen of the Cosmos and her assistant, Dia. You’ve been selected to take part in an exam to compete to be the next Queen, and it’s your job to shape your country into whatever kind of land you choose – as long as you end up with a higher population than Roselia at the end! 
In order to make your land prosper, you’ll need to request the aid of the nine guardians, each with their own unique powers. You can do things the “clean” way and use them to make your people happy, or fight dirty by having them sabotage Roselia’s land. 
Before you jump in, you need to choose your star sign and blood type. This influences what guardians have a higher compatibility with you from the start. 
Angelique uses an energy system to dictate how many actions you can do each day. You begin in your brilliantly pink room with four energy hearts at the start of the game, but achieving certain goals will reward you with more hearts. When I finished my first playthrough, I had a total of six hearts. 
This is what you’ll see when you leave your room. Selecting a destination doesn’t use any energy, which is great if you get sidetracked like me and find yourself somewhere you didn’t mean to go. At the top left is how many energy hearts I currently have, and above that is the number of people in my country. As you can see, I’ve just started, so I don’t have anyone yet! The center tells you what day it is, and at the far right is Roselia’s stats. 
The bulk of the game is spent going around to each of the nine guardians to ask for their aid. Here I’m asking Olivie to give me lots of power. This uses four hearts, which means I’m done for the day. Alternatively, I could’ve picked the left option, which means he would only use a little power. This only consumes two hearts and means I would still have two left to go ask another guardian for a little power, if I wanted. 
Once you’re out of energy, it’s back to your room for a good night’s rest. While you’re sleeping, any guardians you’ve contacted will do their thing, which brings me to the most tedious part of the game… watching each guardian’s animation every single day. There’s no way to fast forward this, and especially later on in the game when you have multiple guardians bestowing their powers on your land at the end of the day, it feels like it takes forever for the cutesy guardian-specific animations to finish. As you can see above, Olivie’s power involves throwing hearts all over everything. 
If you’re really popular, you might have a guardian visitor when you wake up in the morning. You can either let them in or ignore them, but according to this guide, it’s actually better to let them in and then turn them down rather than ignoring them entirely. Don’t worry, I’d never turn down a guest! Hanging out with guardians is one of the quicker ways to raise their affinity level. Not only is this important for building a relationship with them (if you want), but guardians with a high affinity level will randomly bestow their powers on your land at the end of the day, even without you asking! 
You’ll be seeing a lot of that waterfall, as it’s only one of two date spots in the game… 
Every six days, you’ll go down to check on your country. The game encourages you to talk to the people, but your only real connection to the “people” is this super-cute representative with the stylin’ cap who grows older as you progress through the game. It’s helpful to listen to what he says, as he’ll usually indicate which guardian’s power would be best for the next week, but I’m not sure that it really matters whether you listen to him or not (though I generally did). 
Of course, this wouldn’t be an otome game without some way to gauge how you’re doing with the wide variety of male characters, which is where this fortune teller comes in. Remember, the goal is to end up with one of them in the end, after all. Well technically, in Angelique you can also become Queen, which puts a nice spin on the traditional formula, actually. It’s great to see an otome game that doesn’t treat being alone at the end as a “bad” ending! 
This is what an individual guardian’s stat screen will look like at the beginning of the game. The top gives their name, power, star sign, blood type, and a brief description. At the bottom left is Roselia and your affection levels with the guardian, and below that is your compatibility. I’m not sure what computability has to do with anything, but it may influence how easy it is to raise their affection. 
And that about sums it up! There’s just one more thing: you have one day of the week off, which you can use to spend time with whichever guardian you choose. These dates help raise your affection level, and sometimes you’ll be treated with special scenes with the characters. Then it’s just rinse and repeat… 
Playing Angelique was a great learning experience, but I have to admit that it got very repetitive very quickly. There are few dialogue options, so you’ll quickly be seeing the same things over and over again, and the inability to fast-forward through the guardian animations at the end of the day is downright infuriating! I honestly found it difficult to play through all the way to the end because of it. But I did, and I managed to raise my affinity with one of the characters to 200, confess to him, and… Voila!
I definitely recommend at least giving a rom of Angelique a shot, especially if you’re a fan of otome games. Because it’s so repetitive, it should be very easy for non-Japanese speakers to play, as well! It may not be the best game I’ve ever played, but I’m certainly glad I can say I’ve played it. 

Help me raise money for charity! (update)

This year I’ll be doing something I’ve never done before, and I’m extremely excited to share it with you all! Video Game Writers is taking part in the Extra Life gaming marathon to raise money for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals around the United States and Canada, and I’ve jumped on board! On October 20th, myself and a number of the VGW staff and readers will play games in our backlogs for 24 hours straight, and many of us will be streaming our gaming sessions online for your viewing pleasure. You can view the official VGW event listing on Facebook here.

If you could take a few seconds to check out my personal fundraising page and perhaps donate a dollar two, it would be greatly appreciated. All donations will be going directly to the Vermont Children’s Miracle Network Hospital, as that’s where I was born and raised, and I would love to give back to my home state. And for those of you who are interested in my gaming streams, I have a couple of neat incentives planned.

I’ll probably have at least one of each of these
over the 24 hours! 

UPDATE: It looks like the amazing folks at Corel Corp. will be providing me with a review unit of the game capturing hardware, so I will able to stream PC, Wii, and PlayStation games! This changes my incentives slightly –– instead of having two separate goals, I’m just going to work towards my original target of $300. If I reach that by October 10th, I’ll open up what games I’ll be playing to a community poll! There may also be some special giveaways for those who donate in the form of game codes, so keep an eye out for those!

First, if I reach my target of $300 by October 5th, I’ll purchase a Roxio Game Capture HD Pro so I can stream PlayStation 3 and Wii games to my Twitch channel in addition to PC games. Currently I do not have any game capturing software, so I am limited to streaming PC games only, which severely limits the number and type of games I can play. Currently, the only games in my PC backlog are Amnesia: The Dark Descent, LIMBO, Bastion, Lone Survivor, Psychonauts, Sword and Sorcery EP, VVVVVV, and Chantelise. Come to think of it, that would probably keep me busy for a while, but wouldn’t you rather see me play more Japanese games?

If I open my backlog up to include Wii and PlayStation titles, things get a lot more interesting. A quick sampling of games I own but have yet to play includes: Nier, Alice: Madness Returns, Disaster: Day of Crisis, Little King’s Story, Sin & Punishment: Star Successor, Monster Hunter Tri, Pikmin 2 (Wii control enhanced version), Sakura Wars ~ So Long, My Love ~, Saints Row 3, Um Jammer Lammy, and many more! Helping me reach my goal early will ensure that I can play a wide variety of games!

I won’t be tackling any 40 hour RPGs in an attempt to power through as many
games as possible. How many do you think I can beat?

And finally, if I reach my stretch goal of $400 by October 15th, I’ll leave the decision of what games I play to all of you! I’ll compile all of the above selections into a poll (plus a few others) where anyone can vote, whether they’ve donated or not. So if you really want to make sure to see me suffer through the entirety of Amnesia: The Dark Descent while hyped up on caffeine and only semi-lucid, don’t forget to donate!

Thanks for taking the time to read this post, and in closing, I’d just like to remind everyone that reads this blog that there is no pressure for you to donate whatsoever, so please, only donate if it’s something you feel comfortable with doing. I am not making any profit out of this, and am simply doing what I can to help a Vermont children’s hospital and play some fun games in the process. Finally, everyone is free to watch my game streams on the day at my Twitch channel, whether you’ve donated or not! I hope to see you all there!