I’ve been meaning to do a post about these ever since a friend of mine brought me a pack back from Japan, but the truth is, I’m not really sure what to say for a Kit Kat taste test. I know, have some matcha flavored Kit Kats!

What exactly is matcha flavor? Basically it’s a fancy name for the fine green tea powder that is traditionally used in tea ceremonies. In recent years, however, it’s also come to be used in all manner of sweet treats, including those delicious green tea lattes you know from your local Starbucks!

These matcha Kit Kats are a little special in that they feature Kyoto-specific packaging. Each major city in Japan has their own regional Kit Kat flavor, and sometimes even multiple flavors, depending on the season. Why don’t other countries do that?!

Now the box may be fine and dandy, but what about what’s inside?

Individually-wrapped Kit Kats, of course! Though you can find bars on store shelves in Japan, boxes containing multiple “snack” sizes are generally more popular.

Artist Kuitsuku has a series of illustrations featuring Disney characters with Pokémon that are bound to put a smile on your face, and in honor of Kingdom Hearts 3D (Disney/video game crossovers! Get it?!)   I’d thought I’d share some of my favorites. I’m surprised I’ve never seen a Disney/Pokémon crossover before!

the full set can be viewed here

The Scraggy/Peter Pan combo is definitely my favorite! I love that the illustrator took a scene from the film itself, rather than having the characters in the more generic poses shown above.

I definitely hope she continues with this series, perhaps with Mulan with a dragon Pokémon? Or perhaps Alice with Buneary in place of the white rabbit?

Are there any Disney/Pokémon character pairings you’d like to see? How about the other way around – animals from Disney films paired with Pokémon trainers? So many possibilities!

A while back, the Game Critics podcast featured a segment dubbed “The One that Got Away” that was all about the games we start but never finish for whatever reason. Okay, it might have been more along the lines of “games we wished we played but never did” but seeing as I can’t remember the finer details, I’m going to go with the former interpretation of said segment for the purposes of this post.

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m really terrible when it comes to completing games. One minute I’m head-over-heels for a certain title, but then something new comes out or I get a good deal on an old title I’ve been looking forward to picking up, and inevitably whatever I’m currently playing gets thrown to the side to make way for whatever new and shiny thing I got my hands on.

For someone who is particularly fond of JRPGs, that’s the worst kind of curse. I’m notorious for not finishing RPGs I start, and as such I have a shameful pile of games that I just never got around to finishing. Today, I’ve picked five Japanese games that may or may not be RPGs that I’ve just never gotten around to finishing for your reading pleasure.

Odin Sphere

It probably wouldn’t surprise anyone that the main reason Odin Sphere caught my eye back when it was released for the PlayStation was its gorgeous visuals. When I started playing it, I was pleasantly surprised by the deep storyline and action-oriented gameplay that, admittedly, I’m not very good at. But my favorite part of the game was mixing different ingredients into all kinds of tasty-looking food! Those illustrations were part of the reason why Odin Sphere was so hard to play –– one boss in particular lagged so badly due to everything on the screen that it was almost impossible to get through. I got a good 25 hours into this one, so I definitely want to return and finish it someday.

Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne


I’m embarrassed to admit that the above picture is exactly why I gave up on SMT: Nocturne. Even more embarrassing is the fact that anyone who’s played the game probably knows that he is literally the first major boss in the game… but he’s so brutally hard! For a teenager with little patience and next to no RPG experience, the choice was simple: move on to another game. I know Nocturne is supposed to be a great game, though, so I fully intend to restart from the beginning and actually play it the whole way through one of these days!

999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors


Now this one might not exactly count, as I’ve actually completed one playthrough of the game. The thing about 999 is that, as a visual novel with puzzle elements, it has multiple endings, and only one is canon (from what I understand). The ending I got was certainly not the “good” ending, so I’d really like to go back and see the full story! Unfortunately, I played through 999 about a year about now and my memory of the finer plot points is pretty hazy… But I need to make this one a priority to complete before the sequel, Virtue’s Last Reward, comes out for PS Vita and 3DS later this year.

Shadow Hearts: Covenant


In many ways, Shadow Hearts: Covenant for the PS2 is a pretty average JRPG, but it’s also got some of the funniest dialogue and best supporting characters in any RPG I’ve played. There’s a vampire wrestler who makes a weapon out of whatever large, heavy objects he finds in the environment (see screenshot above), the best gay duo to feature in any video game ever, and a snarky white wolf! What more could be better, right? Well, you also get to collect stud cards for said gay duo in order to upgrade a certain character’s ability, along with all other manner of weird and whacky stuff. I’m really ashamed to admit I haven’t finished this one, as it’s one of my favorite PS2-era JRPGs, and I don’t even have a good reason as to why I never bit the bullet and got ‘er done, as they say. I know I’m actually quite far in the game… Looks like I know what should be next on my list.

Chrono Cross


Ah, that screenshot brings back memories… I think I’ve played the first 5 or so hours of Chrono Cross at least three times. For whatever reason, I’d always get to a point where I’d get stuck/bored and come back to the game after a long stint of playing something else, only to feel I’d forgotten enough to merit starting over from scratch. The last time I played, I got around the 15-hour mark… and got stuck again. Have I ever mentioned that I sucked at video games during the PSone/PS2 era? (whether or not I still suck is up for debate) I really need to knock Chrono Cross off of my list one of these days, and maybe actually get more than 2 hours into Chrono Trigger… But that’s for another post!

So what’s on your “one that got away” list? Don’t leave me alone out here! Share your shame in the comments!

If you don’t know who Jake Lawrence (aka The Time Cowboy) is, you’re in for a real treat. I recently commissioned him to provide a snazzy new logo for Chic Pixel, and look what he came up with! I love it to pieces and I’m so happy to finally have a cohesive look for this blog. Perhaps it’ll inspire me to write more? We’ll see about that…

Well, in honor of this awesome fellow, I wanted to take a minute and post some of my favorite pieces of his. If you’re interested in having him draw you whatever your heart desires, he’s still open for commissions! Check out his art blog here or go directly to his commission page here. Now, on to the art!

I should mention that if you follow Jake on Twitter he’ll often ask his followers for sketch/pixel art suggestions. He drew this after I asked for a picture of Swadloon. It’s pretty much my favorite Swadloon picture ever.

He also drew a pixelated kappa upon my suggestion! I’m clearly sucking up all his creativity and hoarding it to myself, so you better follow him and get your ideas out there, quick!

Jake is probably most famous for his Animal Crossing comics. I’ll let them speak for themselves:

Equally funny is his caption: “Seabass, the disappointements of the sea.”

He does all sorts of things, though, really. Here are some more of my favorites:

So thanks again, Jake, for the awesome banner! I’ll cherish it as long as this blog still stands. But enough about me –– how do you all like the new look?

As a follow up to my previous post, I thought I’d take the opportunity to look at the game’s box art more in-depth, considering that’s probably one of the most interesting aspects of the game. Not all games have completely different covers in all three regions (Japan, North America, and Europe), but Pop’n Music (aka Pop’n Rhythm in Europe) does! Though they have similarities, I think the marked differences really give each cover a very different feel.

First, we have the original Japanese cover:

I’ve noticed an interesting trend with Japanese game covers – they tend to feature more characters than the NA/EU counterparts, making them feel more “cluttered” in comparison. I wonder why that is?

Next up is the North American cover:

As our plane gently glided onto the runway of the international airport in an uncharacteristically rainy Brisbane earlier this week, a package was simultaneously delivered to our doorstep.

Okay, I’m embellishing a little, but the gist of things is I’m back and blogging (Hello! I’ve missed you all!) and I’m extremely excited to share pictures of my contributer’s copy of Shojo Manga Wonderland!

When I said in my original post on the book that my portion in it is small, I meant it. The book stacks up to be a total of 174 pages of shojo writing goodness, but my words only appear on a tiny portion of five of them. Regardless, it’s an amazing feeling to see yourself in print. And with a picture, no less!

That’s right, yours truly is going on vacation! Shaun and I are headed to Penang, Malaysia, to visit his extended family, whom I have never met before. Cue the nervous anxiety! The approximately week and a half we’re going to be there will be jam-packed, so I doubt we’ll have much time to visit such idyllic beaches as the one posted above.

If you’re lucky, I might come back with pictures of me doing this:

source

Yup, that’s a traditional Chinese tea ceremony. Basically, it’s an event held the morning before a couple is schedule to married (usually in the afternoon), which acts as a formal “introduction” of the bride and groom to the couples respective parents. Since my parents won’t be able to attend, it’ll just be Shaun introducing me to his family… Well, I’m not very up on Chinese wedding traditions, so check out that source link to learn more if you’re interested. We’ll also be having a banquet while we’re there, but it’s more of an after party rather than an actual wedding ceremony. And thank goodness for that, as this will be the third time Shaun and I have celebrated our union since that fateful day in November 2010.

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get off my lazy butt and schedule any posts to go up while I’m gone, so things might get a little quiet around here. Don’t worry, I won’t be gone too long. I expect you all to be here when I get back!