Category Archives: games

Japan Envy: Monster Hunter Diary G Orange Juice

This may or may not turn into an ongoing thing, but I know a lot of bloggers out there have themed posts, so I’m going to try my hand with a series called “Japan Envy” to compile all the things that make me wish I was living in Japan. Otherwise this would just be a “hey look at this cute orange juice bottle” post (which it basically is, but I can get away with it now that I say I’m going to do it as a regular series).

Monster Hunter Diary G, aka Monhon Nikki Poka Poka Airuu Mori G, is an adorable Animal Crossing-esque Monster Hunter spin-off game featuring chibi versions of the game’s mascot, Felyne (known as Airuu in Japanese). Now, I’ve never played a Monster Hunter game, nor have I played the original Monster Hunter Diary, but I am super-duper excited about Monster Hunter Diary G‘s August release. Seeing this gets me even more excited:

source

That, my friends, is Felyne orange juice. Feast your eyes on that adorable packaging! What I wouldn’t give to be in Japan right now so I could drink cold orange juice out of a Felyne-adorned can. Now, I don’t know anything about this brand Bireley’s, but from the looks of things it appears to be regular old orange juice to me.

So, in all honesty, I could care less whether Monster Hunter Diary G is a quality game or not. I mean, I’m sure I’ll get much enjoyment out of it so long as it’s not horribly misguided. But regardless of gameplay, if it inspires adorable orange juice bottles and does crossovers with My Melody, well then by golly, it deserves my attention!

Introduction to Boys’ Love Games

 

I could spend a whole entry (or entries, even) explaining what boys’ love, or BL, is, but for the purpose of keeping things short I’ll provide a simple explanation: BL/yaoi/shonen-ai is a sub-genre of Japanese manga, written by women for women, that focuses on the romantic and often sexual relationships between men. The genre has expanded to games, and since I feel in the mood to talk about BL games (thanks to The Gay Gamer, who inspires many of my posts these days), that’s what I’ll be covering today. This is by no means a definitive guide or anything, I’m just getting things started.

Have you ever heard of the genre of games called “dating simulation”? If you haven’t, it’s because they are virtually non-existent in the west, due to presumed lack of interest, I would believe. They’re very popular in Japan, though, with names like Love Plus for the DS garnering all sorts of international news coverage for spurring some men to do various amusing public proclamations of their love for the game such as marrying their virtual girlfriends.

Well, just as there are dating sims for heterosexual men, so are there dating sims for women (bet you didn’t know that). Not only are there games for girls where you control a female avatar as you try to win over the love of the man of your choice, but there are also games where the main character is male. These are BL games.

Most BL characters could easily be mistaken for girls.

Most BL games are relatively explicit in nature, and are thus limited to PC-only releases due to the strict ratings system for game consoles. Nevertheless, there are a few tame BL games available for consoles, mostly the PS2 and PSP (yes, they still make plenty of PS2 games in Japan).

Perhaps the most popular BL game developer is Nitro+chiral, with titles like Lamento and Togainu no Chi garnering tons of fans in Japan. You can find censored versions of Togainu no Chi on the PSP and PS2, but Lamento (see first image) is too explicit to port, so it remains PC-only.

But never fear! There are, well, two English BL games (I was convinced there were more but as of writing this I did a 30 minute Google search and couldn’t find anything else). Absolute Obedience for the PC is one, and in my opinion, the better-looking of the two. JAST USA, the company behind the localization, is also behind the first BL game commercially available in English, Enzai. Sadly, though the company has since localized quite a number of male-oriented eroge (“erotic games”), these two titles remain the only BL they’ve released so far.

BL games are, on the whole, visual-novel style, meaning you’ll mostly be reading through dialogue and textual descriptions, occasionally being prompted to make a choice, and then for all your efforts you’ll be treated to a number of lovely CGs along the way. Characters are, on the whole, fully-voiced, and voice actors play a significant part in the popularity of the games themselves in Japan. Each game features numerous potential partners for you to choose from, some varying in difficulty as to how tough they’ll be to “get.”

In closing, I’ll confess that I’ve never really played a BL game. Sure, I know a lot about them, and I own the PS2 version of Togainu no Chi, but I haven’t played a significant amount of it. I have played the heterosexual, or otome, counterpart to BL games, where you play a female avatar who is out to find herself a male partner, simply because I quickly tire of visual novels. When I play a game, there is only so much reading I want to do! Otome games are much more interactive, for whatever reason, and offer various stat-maxing options and mini-games to keep you interested enough to play them through until the end. But I’ll save that for another post! Here, have some Togainu no Chi! Let me know who you’d go for if you were to give it a play.

Who would you pick? (image courtesy of NCSX)

Slow Monday

Today literally was slow! I made my first stew, an Irish lamb stew from Frankie magazine, which was quite simple, took 3+ hours to cook, and tastes pretty good! Not that I have many stews in my repertoire to compare it to, but it’s a start. Ok, now that I’ve got that bad pun out of the way…

In gaming news, I finally updated the eShop and downloaded my free copy of Excitebike as well as the 3D Pokedex. I’ll admit, I wasn’t that excited for Pokedex 3D (I’d rather play an actual Pokemon game then just look at 3D models of them), but I’m all for free things, so I couldn’t pass it up without checking it out. Excitebike, on the other hand, was exciting and new for me (ok, I couldn’t help it), as I’ve never played the original before. And after fooling around with it for a few minutes, I’ve gotta say, it’s quite difficult! I don’t really understand the mechanics yet, so I either go horribly slow and get bored or try to go too fast and just end up crashing and then cursing at myself for having to wait to go again.

Have you heard about the lack of a save file delete/reset option in Resident Evil: Mercenaries 3D? This is another shameless plug, but just today I wrote a pretty in-depth post at VGW if you’d like to read more about it. Basically, though, as a way to combat used-game sales, Capcom decided to give players only one save file, which cannot be erased or reset, so you can only play through the game from scratch once. I personally think this is a horrible decision and will definitely deter me from buying the game in the future (though I admit I wasn’t particularly leaning towards a purchase in the first place), but what do you all think? I know used game sales can hurt the developers and publishers, but you shouldn’t punish consumers, and rather reward them to provide incentives to buy new games, such as exclusive DLC, etc.

In other news, Shaun and I saw Kung Fu Panda 2 over the weekend. I enjoyed the original well enough, but wasn’t going to see the sequel except I kept hearing rave reviews right and left that assured me it was actually better than the original. Story-wise, I’m not so sure I’m convinced it was better, but the animation was so beautiful I didn’t really care. Give me fuzzy computer animals and a peacock villain voiced by Gary Oldman and I will go home a happy woman. The fight scenes with Lord Shen, the aforementioned main villain, were mesmerizing. If you want to see some gorgeous animation, then definitely consider seeing this on the big screen (I didn’t see it in 3D so I can’t comment on that), but otherwise you may want to wait for a rental or skip it altogether.

Recent Articles on Women in Games: Female Characters, Feminism in FF, and the Lara Croft Reboot

It’s funny, when I first started this blog I really thought I’d have a hard time coming up with things to write about, but now I’m finding the exact opposite to be true! I have so much I want to write about that it’s actually quite hard for me to decide what I want to cover from post to post. I guess that’s a good thing!

Before I get started on the “meat” of this post, I’d like to mention that my most recent article is up at Total Retro Gaming (formerly Norwich Retro Gaming) and is on the PS1 2D shooter, Einhander. Take a look and let me know what you think! (Note: Unfortunately the site isn’t working correctly for me at the moment, so for the time being I’ll have to direct you to the main page and ask that you click on “news” in order to see my Einhander piece)

So, as many of you who already know me are well aware, I often contemplate the role of women in the gaming community and representations of female characters in the games we play. I’ll also be the first to tell you that I consider myself a feminist, even though that term seems to have so many negative connotations these days (no, I am not a femi-nazi, I do not hate men, and yes I changed my last name when I got married). I consider myself to be a reasonable human being who doesn’t advocate for the advancement of women over men, but equality for men and women in all facets of life. On that note, I believe overly sexist or stereotyped portrayals of both men and women in any type of media, be it video games, film, or literature, to be worth considering. Ok, no more ranting, I just wanted you all to have your facts straight before I dive in.

Yes, I would buy this

To get things started, Jen over at Video Game Writers has just published a very interesting piece titled “Where have all the strong female character gone?” that I strongly suggest giving a read. Here are a couple of excerpts:

“As of late, there has been an emergence of what I call ‘Brittany Spears Feminism.’ This is the idea that states ‘I dress like a stripper because I’m empowered!’ Because of this, there is now a turn to justify latex costumes and triple-D bust lines by claiming they are empowering. I draw your attention to Bayonetta. Large tits? Check. Skin tight outfit? Check. Sexy attitude on par with a soft core porn star? Double check. But wait! She has intellectual glasses! She’s empowering to female gamers! No, she is a vamped up tart who you are trying to market to me as a strong female figure, when in reality she is little more than eye candy for boys. I’m just not buying it — that is not how it works.” [emphasis by the author]

“Now is the time to make a very important point: wielding a giant sword, and reminding all the chauvinistic males in the game that the character is a woman, and will totally kick some dude’s ass, does not a strong female make. It makes for an angry girl stereotype.”

I find myself agreeing with many of the points Jen makes, but at times her article suggests that rather than having physically strong female characters, she would prefer to see weaker women who are physically agile. I think that the idea that women can’t be as strong as men is also a stereotype, and I personally have no problems with a strong female character who can wield a giant sword and kick ass, as long as she has emotional depth. Let me think of an example… Hm, well, I don’t think I can, but if you do, leave it in the comments!

Rydia from Final Fantasy IV

I don’t want to spend too much time on any one thing, since I have a couple of other pieces I’d like to cover, so I’ll move on to the next article for now. I recently was informed by the awesome blog What can I do with a BA in Japanese Studies? (which covers all sorts of things related to scholarship on Japan and is definitely worth a look if you’re interested in studying the language or literature) of another blog by a current graduate student in the East Asian Languages and Civilizations Department at the University of Pennsylvania who focuses on contemporary Japanese literature and culture. She has done a lovely 5 part piece on Feminism in Final Fantasy and I highly suggest giving it a read, as it is really well written. I’d love to say more on the topic, but I’ll let the article speak for itself and move on to the last piece I would like to draw your attention to today.

Brad over at Drinking CoffeeCola mentioned an  article in his most recent post that discusses the Lara Croft reboot and the possible implications of focusing on a young, more anatomically correct Lara who has so far only been shown as a beat-up, bloody mess. I definitely agree with him that this portrayal of her is sightly disturbing, and though it may be too early to tell how this will play out in the game as a whole. For now I think it’s safe to say that I am not very happy how, in an attempt to make Lara more “real,” the advertising team feel it is necessary to focus so heavily on her weakened state in the promotional images.

From this…

To this?

Really, that second image is just disturbing. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see how the game plays out, though I’m not much of a Tomb Raider fan as it is, so I probably won’t be picking it up regardless.

So, to wrap things up, feel free to let me know what you think of these various articles (if you decide to check them out) in the comments! For those of you who have had enough just reading through my post, how about sharing your favorite female video game characters? My husband and I are quite fond of Beatrix from Final Fantasy IX, and I’m partial to Freya from FFIX, as well.

My next post will be something a little different: A book review!

Can the new Ace Attorney film compete with the Takarazuka musicals?

So, big news if you haven’t yet heard–rumors that the famed Japanese director Takashi Miike is working on an Ace Attorney film adaptation have now been official confirmed by Capcom! Exciting, eh? I have to say the thought of Takashi Miike of Ichi the Killer fame doing a rendition of Nintendo DS game about goofy fictional court dramas is a little perplexing, but he did recently do a film adaptation of the anime Yatterman, so there is proof that he is capable of directing a film that isn’t all blood and gore.

The role of Phoenix Wright will be played by Japanese heartthrob Hiroki Narimiya, while Takumi Saito will be playing his rival Miles Edgeworth.

Hiroki Narimiya will play Ace Attorney… Can’t say I’m complaining! (source)

Takumi Saito will play Miles Edgeworth

Did you know that Ace Attorney has already been adapted, not for film, but for the stage? In 2009 the all-female Takarazuka revue did their own version of the popular video game series, which had a month-long run on stage and was popular enough to merit a sequel.

Poster for the original Takarazuka production
Poster for the 2nd production

 I have yet to see either of theses shows, but I absolutely adore Takarazuka, and I’m sure these productions wouldn’t disappoint. Of course Takashi Miike’s film will probably get a lot of positive mainstream reception, but really, there’s not much better than this (seriously, you need to watch this):

Recipe for a Very Nerdy Weekend: StreetPassing at the Mana Bar and More!

I don’t often do weekend recaps, but this time I think it was sufficiently nerdy enough to merit this post. That, and I wanted to do write-ups on both the Mana Bar StreetPass event I attended as well as the CG animated film Resident Evil: Degeneration, so I figured why not do one big weekend review?

On Saturday, Shaun and I headed into the city for some major window shopping and general bumming around; I, of course, had my 3DS in tow so I could collect some StreetPass hits. For lunch we swung by our favorite Japanese restaurant, Kadoya, where I had their delicious mackerel bento set. We made sure to play a few rounds of Animal Kaiser while we were in the area and had high hopes of scoring a rare card for our efforts, too. Sadly, we did not (and are beginning to think we need to take a break from the whole thing, it’s quite the money sink and we haven’t gotten any good cards in a while), but Shaun did get a funny picture of me in action:

I think I was captured mid-exclamation

 We spent Saturday evening at home with a family-sized chicken (2 kilos! What can I say, it was on special) and Resident Evil: Degeneration (2008). Both Shaun and I were pleasantly surprised that the CG movie, which takes place between Resident Evil 4 and 5, was actually quite a bit better than we had anticipated. I’d say that if you’re a fan of the video game series, you should definitely check this movie out, if you haven’t already! Neither of us are huge RE fans, as we’ve only actually played Resident Evil 5, but the movie was fun and I think it’s at least worth a rental.

Expect to see the sequel, Resident Evil: Damnation, sometime in 2012!

 The graphics didn’t strike me as particularly impressive, like they did when I first saw FFVII: Advent Children back in 2005, but a couple times during the movie I did notice some pretty well-done effects, especially in the water. The plot was intriguing and pretty well-paced, though I had a hard time understanding what was going on at a couple of points during the movie (I think that’s because I’m slow on the uptake sometimes; Shaun didn’t have any problems). It definitely is a good fix for anyone waiting for the next Resident Evil game to come along.

There are plenty of shots of Leon being super-cool

Next, we have the StreetPass event at the Mana Bar, an awesome video game-themed bar located right here in Brisbane! Though the event was planned for the slightly-unfortunate time of Sunday evening, Shaun and I decided it was worth checking out, so we hopped on the train to Fortitude Valley and arrived sometime around 4:30 pm. I thought this would be a nice opportunity to spread the word about StreetPass Brisbane and check out this funky venue!

Loved their decor! The Mana Potion was a novel drink, but I’ll probably give it a skip next time

Unfortunately, I only got 5 StreetPass hits altogether during the hour and a half we were there, but that may have been due to the fact that we arrived so early. 2 of those were from members of StreetPass Brisbane that attended our event last Saturday, so it was great to see their Mii’s level up! Mana Bar also has their own 3DS for StreetPassing, so if you attend the bar regularly, that would be a great way to get a higher level Mii for StreetPass Quest.

The bar itself was smaller than I had expected, but it was pretty cool to see all the TVs with games set up and ready to go (I believe there were 5 in total). Shaun and I played some Mario Kart Wii, watched a bit of Marvel Vs. Capcom 3, and Shaun did a couple of songs on Guitar Hero. Later on we picked up this intriguing XBox 360 game called Raskulls and did a 3 player race with Natasha, who we know from StreetPass Brisbane. That game was fun for multiplayer, and I would definitely check it out again if it’s on the next time I’m at the Mana Bar. Little Big Planet was also available to play, but I’m not a huge fan of that so we didn’t bother giving it a go.

All in all, it was a great weekend! Albeit a little more eventful than usual, so things might be a little more low-key next weekend to make up for it. Though I’m chafing at the bit to see the new Pirates movie, so hopefully we’ll be able to fit that in! 

What about you all? Do anything fun over the weekend?

BlazBlue Continuum Shift II Box Art Censored in US

Since this has been nagging me for a while now, I figured I might as well post about it. Back when I heard BlazBlue Continuum Shift II was coming out for the 3DS, contrary to some skeptics (aka my husband), I was actually quite excited about it. See, we played the original BlazBlue Calamity Trigger together in the arcades when we were living in Japan, and the series brings back lots of fond memories for me, even though we never ended up purchasing Continuum Shift for the PS3 when it came out. With Continuum Shift II coming out for the 3DS, I figure it’d be killing two birds with one stone since I don’t have any particularly enjoyable games for my 3DS yet and I’m long overdue for a new BlazBlue game.

Honestly, I haven’t really been keeping track of BlazBlue. I know they added a couple of characters for Continuum Shift, and figured they’d probably add one or two more for this release. Now that I’ve seen the Japanese box art for the game, I dare say I’ve seen a little too much of the game’s new characters.

Japanese box art with a lovely sleek black logo bar and…

Hm, well, I guess that’s cute? I think she’s supposed to be a squirrel. I really am not impressed with her clothing design and whoever decided to make her breasts larger than the other characters on the cover. I’d like to see more of the old guy with the seriously pointy beard–I seem to remember he was a vampire buddy of Rachel’s in the first game. I have a feeling he’ll probably be similar to Guilty Gear’s Slayer.

It seems as though I wasn’t the only one who was a little displeased by the Japanese cover choice, as the US box art is much more covered up (hah, I can’t help it, the bad puns just make themselves).

US box art is a little more tasteful

I have to admit, though I do like the positioning of the characters so that the one girl’s barely covered breasts are no longer a focal point of the image, but I actually dislike the American cover as a whole because it seems too cluttered (and I’ve gotta say, that black 3DS logo is nice). I think I also preferred the BlazBlue logo in the center, rather than to the side. But we can’t have everything, right? Which one do you prefer?

BlazBlue Continuum Shift II is coming to the 3DS and PSP on May 31st (pushed back from the 24th) in both Japan and North America