Category Archives: thoughts

Baby’s got a brand new Game Boy micro

Funny how I was just mentioning the enticing allure of all the interesting things I find on the internet in my last post and here I am but a few days later with an item that wasn’t even on my radar until I saw The Gay Gamer‘s gorgeous images of his hot pink Game Boy micro. As you can see, I had to have one! And I think I’m in love.

Is it not the most amazing handheld you’ve ever seen? After a little over a week scouring eBay for the best deal, I managed to find a like new, in-box console (albeit missing the flimsy black carry pouch it originally came with) for a relatively reasonable price considering every other listing I saw was in the triple digits. Now that it’s finally in my grubby little hands, I have to say I couldn’t be happier.

But how small is it really? Here’s a little size comparison for you:

It’s amazing to think we even consider the PS Vita a handheld! Just look at the size of that thing! Granted, the screen is gorgeous in its own right, but the micro holds its own in portability, nostalgia, and absolute adorableness.

Next up, I’ve fired up Mr. Driller A so we can see this puppy in action:

But wait, what’s this? While I was snapping away, the game kept reverting to the opening animation after being idle for a few seconds… and upon pressing start again, I couldn’t help but get this odd feeling that the menu screen was different:

I’m embarrassed to say in all the years I’ve owned my copy of Mr. Driller A, I never noticed that there were two different menu images!

Though the micro is almost uncomfortably small, in all honestly I get a big enough kick out of playing it that I don’t mind having to put it much closer to my face than I do with any other handheld. Well, I admit extended periods of play may not be as comfortable with this as they would be playing GBA games on, say, a DS lite, but so far I haven’t put enough time in to notice.

Now all I need to do is start beefing up my meager GBA game collection!

The Secret Art of Otome Games

Before Hakuoki: Demon of the Fleeting Blossom was released in English this past Valentine’s Day, otome games remained largely off the radar of the vast majority of western gamers. Unfortunately, as far as I can tell, Hakuoki hasn’t caused a huge surge of interest in otome games. Still, it’s been nice to see some people who wouldn’t normally pick up an otome game review Hakuoki or purchase it on a whim.

But reading about my friends’ and others’ first steps into the world of female-oriented visual novels and dating sims has reminded me how difficult the world of otome games can be for newcomers. I don’t by any means claim to be an authority, but there is one very important piece of advice that most fans of the genre often neglect to mention to inexperienced players that I’d like to make very clear:

In order to get a “good” end in an otome game, one must always select options with the character who’s ending they wish to obtain in mind. 

This may seem so obvious that it’s not even necessary to state, but I’ll be the first to admit that I didn’t realize that was how I needed to play when I picked up my very first otome game. Ah, Christopher of Tokimeki Memorial Girl’s Side 2nd Season, we just weren’t meant to be…

My first failed prospect

When presented with a game like a visual novel that allows one to choose from multiple options in order to advance the story through various “paths,” you’d first think to choose answers would be based on what you would do in real life, no? Or, at the very least, a player might fashion a new persona for the sake of playing the game and choose options based on what kind of character they were role-playing as.

How would this strategy fit into an otome game, then? Under normal logic you would think that based on the various options you choose, a male prospect would be selected by the game for you. Otome games, however, are not so advanced, and in an effort to create some kind of difficulty, have a very strict, structured way that they must be played in order to obtain the best endings.

Otome games are based around the idea that the player is going into the experience with a favorite character already in mind, first and foremost. Whether visual novel-style or featuring more sim-based elements, otome games leave little to no room for changing one’s mind, meaning that from the second the “start” button is pressed, all energy must be focused on obtaining one, and only one, “datable” character. This is because set parameters must be met and/or extremely specific options selected in order to advance to the “right”path. Make one wrong decision and it’s a “normal” end, or worse, game over.

It’s going to take a lot of trial and error to see scenes like these

With so many paths and endings to obtain and sometimes seemingly arbitrary decisions that must be made in order to reach them, many players of otome games read walkthroughs before or during play. Though this may seem like it takes all the fun out of getting the right ending through trial and error, saving and reloading a game file every time you make a bad decision (and you often won’t know what was a bad decision until the end of the game) can get extremely frustrating. No one plays otome games for the difficulty, anyway, so the easiest and fastest way to see the whole story unfold is often the most preferable. Luckily, many titles such as Hakuoki offer visual cues to indicate when correct answers have been chosen, and relationship meters that can be viewed at any time to see how well you’re doing with the game’s various characters.

So, next time you want to jump in to Hakuoki: Demon of the Fleeting Blossom or other such otome game, take a moment to consider which male prospect you would like to pursue before loading up the game. Character-specific endings are always so much more fulfilling than the generic ones, and you may even find yourself drawn to a character you wouldn’t have found appealing otherwise!

But, I’ve gotta admit: it’s a little depressing when you first realize what your mother always told you about just being yourself won’t get you any guys. Hah!

The “animefication” of Little King’s Story

I don’t believe I’m the only one who noticed that the new art direction for the sequel to Little King’s Story, titled The King, The Demon King and the 7 Princesses: New King Story (now that’s a mouthful), differs significantly from the original. Case in point:

King Corobo from Little King’s Story
“New and improved” King Corobo

I would be lying if I said I didn’t like his new character design at all, as I actually quite like the illustration above, but the fact of the matter is the original had such a unique, quirky art style that has been completely thrown out the window. I assume the majority of the reasoning behind the vast change in art style stems from the fact that anime/manga style art appeals to a much wider audience. With developer Cing dissolved, Marvelous Entertainment probably has free reign to do what they wish with the intellectual property rights. As such, we get this:

Who put thighs and ass in my Little King’s Story? Granted, shots like these are stills from event scenes and probably make up a small percentage of the game, but it’s clear that the series has a new, much more mainstream, direction. With early reports from Famitsu stating that the game will even have “love elements,” it sounds like New King Story is very much trying to catch the attention of a certain crowd. 
In-game screenshot from Little King’s Story 
New King’s Story. As you can see, the in-game graphics are ever-so-slightly more realistic. 
It’s sad to see such an original-looking title changed so drastically for what I can only assume to be an attempt to garner better sales. Though I don’t mind the new art direction, it looks too much like so many other games out there already. Little King’s Story‘s King Corobo was so iconic, but the Corobo from the new title? Not so much. 
Regardless, I’ll still be picking this one up when it’s released in the west (it’s already out for the PS Vita in Japan). And that’s even without having played Little King’s Story. I own it, I just haven’t gotten around to it, okay? Oh, the shame! 

Sumioni initial impressions… and pizza!

Basically what I look like when I try to play video games

I debated calling this article “why I suck at video games” but that would be defeatist, now wouldn’t it? But let me take a moment to me recall a recent scenario for you:

I’m playing Sumioni, a PS Vita downloadable title, for review. Being the good, timely reviewer I am, I dive right into it, playing whenever I have a free moment. Enter the first boss of the game: A glowing, floating eyeball thing with pointy projectiles, that also happens to be the final boss for the game’s first ending (yes, ending – I’ll clarify momentarily). You know, the first and second tries don’t really count, since you have to get used to the enemy’s patterns, right? Well, yours truly probably clocked in at about 10 tries before throwing in the towel and handing the shiny black handheld over to my husband, who hadn’t touched the game before that moment. I throw him into the deep end and have him restart the level I’m currently on – why waste time replaying earlier levels just so he can learn the ropes? 
Shaun beat that boss in two tries. That’s once to figure out all of the game’s controls and the boss’s attack patterns, and a second time to get ‘er done, as they say. I knew my husband was a fiend when it comes to games (you should see him play DotA…), but I was not prepared for immense gap in our skill levels. Does that mean that Sumioni is disgustingly hard, or even more difficult than your average platformer? Well… probably not, because I already knew I was pretty bad at gaming. But it makes for a good story, eh? 
That said, I’ve only gone through the first two endings of the game so far (with help from Shaun, of course). You get a rating at the end of each level (which so far have only taken about 2-4 minutes to complete) which will dictate how you will progress on the level “tree.” There are a total of six endings, the first being the easiest to obtain and that last, which I assume is the “best,” being the hardest. You’ll need to get a lot of 2 and 3 star level ratings to follow the tree down to the better endings, which means replaying the initial levels a lot of times. The fact that the game doesn’t really tell you how it scores you at the end of each level is a little confusing, but from what I gather it’s based on the usual stuff: how much damage you’ve incurred and how long it took you to clear the level. 
Graphically, I’m quite fond of the game. Many have compared it to Okami, and it’s true that they’re both based on the Japanese art form known as sumi-e, but Okami was so much more colorful and vibrant than Sumioni, so I think in the end the comparison is pretty arbitrary. The backgrounds are rather sparse, much like sumi-e paintings, but so far have been pretty varied between levels. I’ve been seeing a lot of the same enemies, though… Let’s hope that changes as I progress further. 
And what self-respecting Japanese game
would be complete without a cute princess?
Sumioni utilizes the front and back touch pads in a continuation of the sumi-e theme by allowing you to draw platforms and execute spells by swiping the screen as if your fingertip were a paintbrush. At the same time, you’ll be controlling your demon’s movements with the analog stick or directional buttons, and jumping and attacking with x and square, respectively (I find I prefer using up on the analog stick to jump, though). When your ink meter runs out, and it will run out, you’ll need to rub the back touch pad in order to recover ink. Let tell you, this happens a lot. I don’t know if it’s the way I play, but in boss battles in particular, my pattern of actions goes something like this: thunder magic, fire magic, swipe swipe swipe rear touch pad. Rinse and repeat. You’ll need to be fast, and regaining your ink feels so painfully slow… It’s a fun mechanic but I’m finding it a little hard to get used to. For one, it gets tiring swiping so furiously after a while! Drawing platforms on the screen to evade enemies and position yourself for optimal attacks never gets old, though. 
From what I’m hearing the game doesn’t take more than 6-8 hours to complete, so I should be able to finish my playthrough and have my review up before the week is out. Until then, feel free to ask any questions if you’re at all interested in this title and I’ll do my best to answer them!
Oh, wait. Did someone say… pizza?
Yup, that’s right! And not any pizza. Sumioni pizza. The few blogs I read that covered this interesting collaboration seemed rather disgusted by the prospect, but I have to say, if I lived in Japan, I would’ve ordered that pizza the day it was released. As it stands, it the promotion was just concluded yesterday, unfortunately.
This awesome pizza not only has squid ink sauce to make it look like it was splattered with ink, but also those funny looking pointed crust pieces that are meant to look like demon’s horns, or so the advertisement says. Other toppings include cheese (of course), basil, tomatoes, tomato sauce, and actual squid. 
So, the big question is: Would YOU eat it? I’m personally salivating at the very thought. 

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!