Category Archives: thoughts

The Vita Post

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

But what about the launch lineup?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Chatting with Lijakaca about Hakuoki: Demon of the Fleeting Blossom

Hello friends! I’m sure you didn’t actually think the Hakuoki release would come and go without me having something to say about it, right? Of course not! I was lucky enough to snag a review copy of the game for the ever-awesome Game Critics, but unfortunately it hasn’t gone up on the site yet. But never fear – I have plenty of things to say about the game in the meantime.

First off, I had the fabulous oppertunity to ramble about Hakuoki and all things otome with the lovely Lijakaca of Lijakaca’s Otome Gaming Blog. She is a mecca of otome gaming knowledge (her blog is a must follow for fans of otome games), so if you thought I knew what I was talking about, just you wait! (hint: I don’t, usually) We had a great discussion about the game itself and also delved into otome game topics in general, so if any of that catches your fancy, I heartily suggest you check it out! Click on the handsome Hakuoki men below to give it a listen! Please be sure to tell me what you think in the comments… I’m still very new to podcasting, so any tips you may have that I can keep in mind for future endeavors would be greatly appreciated.

So what did I think of Hakuoki in the end? I’d like to save my final evaluation for the review when it goes up, but I do have some points in particular I can share:
  • As if you couldn’t tell from the screenshots floating around the internet and the art above, the game looks gorgeous. Though I didn’t find the music particularly memorable, it wasn’t grating, either.
  • The story is engaging, and surprisingly in-depth, particularly for a game where many assume the main goal would be to hook up with the guy of your dreams. That incentive is there, but the romance aspect of the game is actually not quite as prevalent as I would have thought – a bit to my dismay, but will probably make the game more palatable to those who are not as interested in drooling over 2D hunks as I am. All in all, I think Aksys found a nice middle ground by choosing this as their first otome game. And yes, there is swearing!
  • Speaking of swearing, I was a bit iffy on the localization at times. Though it is undoubtedly written well, I couldn’t help but feel that Hijikata swore a bit too much and some of the written dialogue just didn’t match up with the spoken Japanese in a way that sat well with me. That said, it’s throughly enjoyable and immersive for an English-speaking audience, and I get that that is what Aksys is going for. Kudos to their awesome editor and translators for not botching it up.
  • So far, I’ve only “gotten” two of the six obtainable guys. I’ve done Heisuke’s good and bad endings, and Hijikata’s good ending. Though I liked Heisuke notably more than I liked Hijikata (he’s a real jerk), I didn’t find either of them to be particularly great. I hear Souji’s where it’s at, so I plan on making him my next conquest. For those of you wondering how much gameplay there is – one playthrough probably takes anywhere from 5-8 hours depending on who you choose, with Hijitaka’s story being the longest. Once you’ve played through the 1st four chapters for one character, you’ll probably want to skip through most of the dialogue during subsequent playthroughs, which cuts down on your play time significantly.
All in all, I enjoyed my time with Hakuoki. I definitely suggest anyone who wants to try an otome game to pick it up, and would even recommend it to those who don’t if they like a good story set in feudal Japan. My only wish was that it had more romance! And, in all honestly, a supernatural story mixed with historical fact isn’t exactly my kind of thing, so I probably wouldn’t have picked this up if it weren’t for the fact that it was the first big name otome game to be released in English.
But wait! Before you go, Video Game Writers is doing a giveaway where the prize is the game of your choice! So you could very well win a copy of Hakuoki, if you want! All you have to do is sign up for VGW on Google Currents for your iDevice or Android phone. An added bonus is you’ll get to read news and reviews written by me (and some other people) in the palm of your hand! Neat, eh?
Have any of you had a chance to play Hakuoki yet? If so, let me know what you thought!

Arrietty Impressions

First of all, I have to apologize once again for the huge gap between posts! My husband and I flew down to Sydney for Chinese New Year and instead of catching up on things I needed to do, I completely zoned out and didn’t do anything but eat and play through Rayman Origins a second time with Shaun and his sister (I think I’ve had enough now).

This is a long time coming, but a couple of weeks ago Shaun and I made the 5 minute trek to the movie theater (one of the many perks of our new apartment) to see Studio Ghibli’s Arrietty (Japanese title: 借りぐらしのアリエッティ, also known as The Secret World of Arrietty in the US) over opening weekend. As always, the rest of the world is a bit behind Japan – Arrietty originally aired in its home country back in July 2010, and the most recent Studio Ghibli film, From Up on Poppy Hill, aired this past summer in Japan. For once, Australia was ahead of the game, with the film releasing here a whole month before it debuts in the US on February 17th.

Arrietty (I will refer to it by the Australian title since that’s the version I saw) is based on Mary Norton’s classic novel The Borrowers, about a family of extremely tiny people who live beneath a normal-sized family’s house. They survive by scavenging what they can from their surroundings and “borrowing” things from regular humans, only taking what they are sure will not be missed such as an extra tissue or a safety pin that has been lost and forgotten beneath a dresser. Interestingly, this film marks the directorial debut of Hiromasa Yonebashi, a key animator of a number of Studio Ghibli films and the youngest director of a Studio Ghibli production to date. He also was the key animator of Serial Experiments Lain, one of my favorite anime!

Since the subtitled version wasn’t shown anywhere in our area, we had to settle with the British dubbed version. The film has been licensed separately for the US and Europe/Australia, the so English voice actors are completely different for the two regions. Honestly, given the film’s beginnings as a British novel, I found it quite refreshing to hear the characters speak with non-American accents. There were a handful of times where the localization felt odd to me, but that could have been due to the British influence. I look forward to hearing the original Japanese language track when the film comes out on DVD.

Can I have a room that looks like this?

Unfortunately I haven’t read The Borrowers, so I can’t comment on how it compares to the book, but if it’s anything like Howl’s Moving Castle, you can expect a pretty liberal interpretation. Fans of My Neighbor Totoro will be right at home in the lush, green environments and relatively slow pacing, where those who prefer the unique locations and higher level of action in Spirited Away or Princess Mononoke may find this Studio Ghibli offering a little too “mundane.” I found myself highly appreciative of the attention to detail put in to making the world look believable from the eyes of a Borrower. From stamps serving as paintings in the tiny house to the variety of insects Arrietty interacts with over the course of the film, everything felt fresh and different and was a joy to see come to life with Ghibli’s signature flair.

One of my favorite scenes in the film had to be when Arrietty meets Sho, a sick boy sent to rest at the house about Arrietty’s home, up close for the first time. Arrietty is on her first borrowing excursion with her father, and one of her tasks is to grab a tissue out of a tissue box on Sho’s bedside table. The moment of confrontation – Arrietty looking up to see Sho’s wide, bright eyes staring directly at her, was startling for both her and me as a viewer. Watching Arrietty try in vain to hide behind the tissue (a background light illuminates her body quite clearly) was both endearing and heartbreaking – she knows she is never supposed to be seen by a human, and she is disappointed by her failure during her first trip out with her father.

The music in the film was not done by regular Ghibli composer Joe Hisaishi, but newcomer Cécile Corbel, a French musician who is reportedly a big fan of Studio Ghibli. Apparently, she sent them a CD of her songs as a fan, and the company was intrigued by her work and subsequently invited her to do the soundtrack for Arrietty. Sounds like a fairy tale story, eh? She did both the theme, titled simply “Arrietty’s Song,” as well as the rest of the background music. The Celtic themes really mesh well with the general feel of the film, and though I was a little miffed by the silly English lyrics of Arrietty’s Song (“I am fourteen years old, I am pretty”? Did a fourteen-year-old write it?), I still found it very enjoyable. The full English version is what accompanied the version of the film I saw, but the majority of the song was in Japanese for the original film.

All in all, I really enjoyed Arrietty. I’ve heard criticisms that it was too slow, or simply not as amazing as previous Studio Ghibli films, but frankly, if you are at all interested in Ghibli, you definitely need to see Arrietty on the big screen and decide for yourself. Some have compared it to My Neighbor Totoro, and while I don’t think it quite surpasses the caliber of some of my favorite Ghibli films, it is definitely now up there at the top of my list. The animation and music were both gorgeous, and I found the story bittersweet and touching. If the company can churn out films this good without Miyazaki at the helm, I’m confident that even when he’s gone they’ll continue to make some of the best animated features the world has ever seen.

The Great 2011 Holiday Haul

I get my jollies from finding games marked down like this. I actually scored this one for $14
Before I begin, I must clarify that by “holiday” I am referring from the month period between mid-December and mid-January. Truth be told, there was only one game waiting for me under the tree Christmas morning (Mario Kart 7), but I did acquire quite a number of titles with Christmas/birthday money and the after holiday sales. But enough of that, on to the games!
That’s a lot of Wii games…

Amazingly enough, all of the games I purchased are not included in the above picture. Not pictured are Alice: Madness Returns, Shadows of the Damned, Rayman Origins (all three received from a sweet Twitter friend who works at EA Australia), Cursed Mountain (which I bought today), and Fatal Frame II, which is currently en route (an online order). Oh, and it’s also worth noting that Sakura Wars~So Long, My Love~ was also given to me by another awesome Twitter friend who happened to have an extra copy. I cannot wait to try it out!

Out of all my purchases, I’m most excited for Little King’s Story and The Legend of Starfy. I have been waiting to find a copy of Starfy new for $20 or less for ages now, and I got mine for $14! Oh, do I love a good deal. Little King’s Story is quite hard to find in Australia these days, and I scored it for $13 used at an EB Games, but since I traded in the copy of Mario Kart Wii I got with my Wii console (sad, I know, but I don’t think I’ll play it now that I have MK7. Anyone want an extra Wii wheel, feel free to ask in the comments), I got it for free!
Endless Ocean 2, Cursed Mountain, and Rayman Origins are the only games I’ve played so far, and Rayman Origins is really the only one I’ve spent a significant amount of time with. I won’t go into too much detail, but as I mentioned in a previous post, it’s definitely one of my favorite games that came out in 2011!! As for Endless Ocean 2 and Cursed Mountain, I’ve only played about 1 hour of each, so I can’t really give my impressions of those yet. With Endless Ocean 2 I have to say I was a bit disappointed by the above water sequences, and some of the goofy tasks it has you do, like fend off sharks with a signature Wiimote waggle. The scuba diving (which is the meat of the game, of course) is great fun, though. Cursed Mountain has a really great atmosphere so far, and I’m really digging the icy mountain setting. I’m a chicken when it comes to horror games, though, so I don’t want to play it by myself, or in the dark! Way to ruin the mood, I know…

How come no one told me there was a Princess Apricot in Little King’s Story?
Clearly she is going to be my new favorite character
So, I know it’s a bit late, but did any of you get any games over the holidays, or make any game purchases that you’ve been enjoying lately? January’s a good month to catch up on one’s backlog, I think. So, what have you been spending your time with?

4 games I’m looking forward to in 2012

This post is coming a tad bit late, but who said I had to follow the herd, eh? As the title suggests, I’ve wrangled up a few games that I’m particularly looking forward to in this hopefully epic year of the dragon. It should come to no surprise to any of you that all of these are Japanese games. I am very predictable.

Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance


Or Kingdom Hearts 3D, as it is also known… Get it?? Ahaha… Anyways, pretty much anyone save die-hard fans will tell you that Kingdom Hearts has been on a downward spiral littered with obsolete and downright unnecessary plot threads with still no true Kinghdom Hearts 3 (that 3D may be as close as we’re ever going to get). But I’ve been playing some Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep over the holidays and I have to say, its rekindled my Kingdom Hearts spark. And besides… The World Ends with You character appearances? A Hunchback of Notre Dame world? I was in before Disney could utter “Frollo.”

Hakuoki: Demon of the Fleeting Blossom


Why look, it’s another predictable title on Anne’s list. I think all that needs to be said here is “first major English otome game.” If you want to read more about otome games, I’ve written plenty about it. Here’s a sample of what I’m looking forward to:

Theatrhythm Final Fantasy


Dream Drop Distance, Theatrhythm… Japan will never get over its absurd use of English in game titles. If you’re wondering, the official Japanese site states that “theatrhythm” is a combination of “theater” and “rhythm.” Well, it helped me remember exactly how to spell the title, at least.

As a fan of both rhythm games and Final Fantasy, this one is yet again another no-brainer for me. I am decidedly not a big fan of the cutesy art style used in the game’s character art, but I’d be willing to overlook that if the game plays as well as I’m hoping. And with three different modes to play all of my favorite Final Fantasy songs in, it should provide many hours of fun.

Pokémon x Nobunaga’s Ambition

Admittedly, I’m a bit of a shameless Pokémon fan. Okay, there’s not much shame in that, as most of my video game loves are based on silly reasoning, but here’s one to take the cake: After I saw these two character designs from Pokémon x Nobunaga’s Ambition, I was sold. Also, Pokémon combined with feudal Japan? A fresh take on the old Pokémon formula? Sign me up!

 

Of course, there are plenty of other great looking titles that I am very much looking forward to this year, including, but not limited to: Atelier Meruru: Apprentice of Arland, Final Fantasy Type-0, Rhythm Heaven Fever, and Rhythm Thief and the Emperor’s Treasure. 2012 is looking to be a great year indeed!

Some thoughts on electing a game of the year

Source
First of all, happy new year everyone! I hope the year of the dragon has been treating you all well so far. If you’re wondering, my husband and I spent New Year’s Eve watching Mad Men and drinking peach vodka.

Like many game writers, I contemplated drafting up a list of my favorite games of 2011, and (gasp) even thought a moment of selecting my own personal Game of the Year. But those thoughts were quickly pushed aside as I remembered how much I dislike the whole idea of choosing a one game to represent the year. Not that I didn’t have a grand time hearing the debates and adding in my two cents over at VGW (head over there to see the team’s GotY pick) and on other game media outlets, but I realize the whole endeavor to whittle a year’s worth of great games down to a choice few is not really my thing. Honestly, even if the Dali Lama were to elect a GotY, I probably still could care less. But I can most certainly name a couple of games that I particularly enjoyed from 2011 that actually came out in 2011 (rather than the large number of games from previous years I played).

You won’t find Uncharted 3, Portal 2, Deus Ex Human Revolution or any such AAA titles here, but if you’re interested in hearing what I had the most fun with in 2011, feel free to read on.



Corpse Party
For those of you who have been following me on Twitter or reading this blog, you are probably already well aware of my love for Corpse Party. When XSEED announced that they were localizing this title, I honestly had never even heard of it. I’m also not a big horror fan, but I am just in love with the atmosphere in Corpse Party. Head over to this post to read more about my experiences with the game. You can also find my official review here.

One of my characters getting hit with something. A common occurrence. 

ClaDun X2
I stumbled onto ClaDun X2 a bit randomly – NIS America sent Video Game Writers a review code for the game, and my editor passed it on to me, saying that I was the lady for the job (that and no one else seems to be using their PSP these days). I had read Bryan over at The Gay Gamer talking about the first game and this sequel and was ready to have some fun with it, but I didn’t really expect it to be my thing. To my pleasant surprise, I loved it! I didn’t get at all tired of going back to the randomly generated dungeons to nab the best loot… In fact, that was my favorite part of the game! Though I clocked in at about 20 hours for my review, I definitely think I will come back to this one in the future.

Rayman Origins
A choice few had mentioned how great Rayman Origins was when it launched back in November, but I kind of pushed any thoughts of playing it aside what with all the other games I had on my plate at the time. A good friend acquired a copy for me, however, and my husband and I spent the whole holiday break playing. I believe I can say that hands down Rayman Origins was the most fun I’ve had playing a single game all year. The platforming is classic and beautifully presented, and the music is absolutely amazing. If you like platformers, I can’t recommend this game enough. I’m actually working on a review of this one for VGW, as we never got anyone to cover it back when it came out. There is one tiny little thing that bothers me about the game, but I’m going to leave you in suspense for a future post I’m planning on the very subject.

I dearly wish I had the source for this still, but I couldn’t help but include it.
Let me know if you know where it’s from! 

Pokémon Black/White
I’d be lying if I said I didn’t pour hours upon hours of my life into Pokémon White. Though initially apprehensive of some of the changes in this generation, I found myself quite enjoying the latest installment in the ever-growing Pokémon series. I even went to my first tournament this year, come to think of it (but didn’t participate)! I don’t think my love for Pokémon will ever die, so this one deserves a mention even though I’d struggle to put it on a GotY list due to the fact that most of the content isn’t all that new, apart from the Pokémon themselves. But there’s nothing wrong with that!

Honestly, I could go on… What about Atelier Totori or Okamiden? Ico & Shadow of the Colossus Collection? (hey, HD rereleases still count!) Needless to say, 2011 had some great games, many of which I did not get a chance to play. And many others that were not from 2011 that I finally did get a chance to spend some time with! But that’s for another post.

What were your personal favorite games from 2011? Share them in the comments!

Happy Holidays from Chic Pixel!

Merry Christmas and happy holidays to you all! Thank you so much for reading my ramblings and giving me a reason to post this horribly cute card that I’ve been hanging onto for years.

I probably won’t be posting anything for a day or two, but I would love to hear how you all are going to spend your time off! What games will you be playing, and what are you hoping might be waiting for you  under the Christmas tree tomorrow morning?

I know for a fact that I’ve got Mario Kart 7 waiting for me, and I’m itching to play! As soon as I get it going I’m going to make an official Chic Pixel community, so I hope some of you can play with me!

I’ve got a huuuuge backlog I would love to get started in on, but I’m at the point where I have so many games I’d like to play that I literally feel stuck and don’t know where to start! Since I just got the Wii, I’d like to dig in to Skyward Sword… But honestly, some comments I’ve been hearing about the 5 hour tutorial and frustrating motion controls have given me slight cold feet. Surprisingly, I’ve been playing a lot of Just Dance 2, which came free with my Wii. Er… Yeah.