Why am I still playing The Legendary Starfy?

Last I checked it was nearing the end of February, but for some reason I’m still playing my January Beat the Backlog Club pick, The Legendary Starfy! If you read my initial impressions, they weren’t all that positive, so you’d be forgiven if you were skeptical of my choice to continue with the game. Well, it all comes down to one very important detail: I’m extremely stubborn.

Wish I could say I was having as much fun as these
gals are! (source)

That’s not to say the game isn’t fun – the environments have become exponentially more interesting as I’ve progressed through the game, and the characters and dialogue continue to be an adorable treat. Actually playing it doesn’t quite live up to the idea of playing it, but I’ve gotten to the point where I just won’t feel satisfied until I can say “yeah, I beat it.”

Does this mean my February BBC pick, Harvest Moon: A New Beginning, will suffer? I have to admit, it already has. What little time I’ve spent away from Animal Crossing: New Leaf and Ni no Kuni has generally gone to The Legendary Starfy, mostly because it’s much easier to get through a quick level of that than trudge through more boring tutorials Harvest Moon: A New Beginning (that should make it glaringly obvious how early in the game I still am…). I’m not sure what this will mean for my Beat the Backlog Club project, but I’m not ready to give up now!

Anyway, let’s get back to The Legendary Starfy. Here are a few reasons why I just can’t stop playing it:

absurdly adorable takoyaki minigame 
collectable Starfy costumes
everything just keeps getting cuter…

… Correct me if I’m wrong, but Starfy is starting to sound eerily like a significant other you really don’t have anything in common with but can’t leave because they’re just too good looking (or heart-meltingly cute, in this case). Regardless of the moral implications of my sojourn with Starfy, I’m content to see the game through to the end, but I won’t be sticking around for any sidequests or 100% completion nonsense. Will I finish it before the end of February? Time will tell…

Bonus photos:

Starfy’s idle animation is him whipping out a sleeping bag and going to bed right in the middle of the level!

Pretty much what the screen looks like 100% of the time I’m playing the takoyaki minigame.

I’ve got me an Animal Crossing: New Leaf bible

I’ve been hinting in my recent Animal Crossing: New Leaf posts that a number of factors brought me “back” to the game after a bit of a hiatus over the winter holidays, but I’ve been keeping one very important influence tightly under wraps. In the interest of not spamming everyone with too many Animal Crossing: New Leaf posts all at once, I decided to hold back on revealing my wild card, but with the wonderful news that the game will be hitting North America on June 9th, I thought it high time I share what’s got me so excited!

What’s that you’ve got there, Goldie? Hold on…

It’s an Animal Crossing: New Leaf guide book! Would you believe my friend Nel gave me one of hers What a wonderful present! I can honestly say it’s one of the most adorable books I own, and now I don’t have any excuse not to do research on in-game items or how to build snowmen properly.

Would you believe me if I told you that it’s literally bible-sized? (not that I’ve held many bibles…) Well, take a look at how it stacks up to my other Japanese game guide books:

There you have it – it’s larger than the Final Fantasy 20th Anniversary Ultimania File 3: Battle and totally dwarfs the Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town guide!

Though there are a number of Animal Crossing: New Leaf guide books on the market, this one is well-known for its intuitive cataloging system. For one, it displays all of the villagers by species on the first pages:

Ack! Why are they all so cute?!

It also has a great section where it tells you all about what you can do over the course of a year, month by month! Holidays, fishing, bug catching… they all have their own specific sections, but I love how I can turn to the current month and quickly see what’s in store for me:

Each individual section is neatly – and adorably, I might add – organized. Here’s just one example from the first page of the segment on Brewster’s CafΓ©:

Oh, and the book also comes with special exclusive QR codes! My favorites are the Shizue outfit and the various Nintendo-related designs:

The book even has a section on holidays that it claims will be exclusive to other regions! It specifically says players may need to trade with people from other regions, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that that’ll be possible come June 9th (I want you all to come visit my town!).

More items from international holidays:

Of course, you could spend hours looking at the pages and pages of unique furniture to be found in the game: 

The guide book also comes with a mini book that you can carry around for added convenience  It’s much smaller and just lists all of the furniture, bugs, fish, fossils, etc. in the game. Check out this adorable cover:

And here’s a sample page. So many items!

And last but not least… swimsuits!

That red and white striped one will be mine someday… 

And there you have it! I couldn’t be happier with this book, and it never even crossed my mind to purchase one for myself. Many thanks again to Nel for the wonderful present, and if anyone wants additional photos or has any questions, feel free to ask!

Beat the Backlog Club: Introducing February’s Pick + First Impressions

So, we’re nearly two weeks into February and I’m only just now getting around to announcing what game from my backlog I’ll be tackling over the course of the month… My efforts for the Beat the Backlog Club are off to a great start, eh? In fact, I’m still hard at work on my January pick, The Legendary Starfy! (more on that in a future post… I’m determined to finish it!)

But the show must go on, and it’s my hope that as the months go by I’ll eventually start adhering to some semblance of a schedule and complete my target of 12 games by January 1, 2014. So, what lucky game will be the focus of my attention this month? It’s actually a relatively recent addition to my backlog… Harvest Moon: A New Beginning!

I was very much looking for a low-key game for the month, as I’ve also been tasked with reviewing Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch, so I did an informal poll on Twitter to see what people would like to see more: Harvest Moon: A New Beginning or Fishing Resort. I honestly wasn’t very surprised to see Harvest Moon smash Fishing Resort out of the water, so I happily picked it up and began farming away on my pink x white 3DS XL (by the way, I’ll still be doing Fishing Resort later this year, so the three of you who voted for it have something to look forward to).

In all honesty, I haven’t gotten much farther than creating my character and going through the initial tutorials, but I do have a few initial impressions to share:

βœ„ It’s very satisfying to finally be able to make your own customized character! This is the first time players have been able to choose what their character looks like in a Harvest Moon game, and I have to say I’ll be disappointed if the option doesn’t return in future titles.

βœ„ I know this is a very individual thing, but I’m not very fond of the game’s art style. Not only do I not really like any of the character designs (okay, some of them, especially the animals, are pretty cute), but the 3D models of both the characters and the scenery look very blah, in my opinion. Perhaps it’s because I’ve been playing too much Animal Crossing: New Leaf, but the color scheme doesn’t gel with me very well, and I keep wishing the whole thing just, well, looked nicer.

βœ„ Gameplay-wise, it’s very standard Harvest Moon fare, so I know I will enjoy that aspect. I can’t wait to be able to customize my character’s clothing and house and get an adorable llama!

The llama’s the one with the pompador! 

For the curious, I’m playing as a girl named Appi with a very trendy cropped pink haircut who owns Yumyum Farm. As for my bachelor of choice (because we all know marriage is the most important thing in Harvest Moon), I might go for Amir or Soseki… Depending on how I go I might even swing for that jerk Allen, just because the things he says are so hilariously awful!

Stay tuned for another update in approximately a week’s time, and let me know what game you’re playing from your backlog in the comments!

Animal Crossing: New Leaf QR Code Extravaganza

I mentioned in my last Memos from Mamemura post that I’d rekindled my love for Animal Crossing: New Leaf after a bit of a slump over the holidays, and let me tell you, I am 100% back down the rabbit hole. What could be responsible? Well, for one, I’ve discovered the realm of “My Design” blogs!

An old-school Dragon Quest-themed town!?
They even have tiles for towns and castles! (source)

My Design, of course, refers to the ability to make custom patterns for everything from shirts to sign posts in Animal Crossing: New Leaf and share them via QR codes. There are literally hundreds of talented people all over the internet creating all manner of amazing and adorable things! It’s hard not to be impressed by the sheer talent these people possess. Here are a few of my favorites so far:

Adorable, and very pink! (source)
Look at the detail they’ve put into the scarf and camera! (source)
This is just perfect for Valentine’s Day (source)
So many gorgeous dress designs! (source)
The creator of this one did both the lace pattern and dress! (source)
These Ghibli-inspired designs go wonderfully with the mushroom furniture (source)

There really are so many amazing blogs and sites; it would be impossible to list all of them here. But, for the curious, I highly advise going to this page that catalogs the highest-ranked Animal Crossing: New Leaf My Design blogs and check out some of the top hits! Alternatively, this site is chock-full of links to anime/game-related My Designs.

Unfortunately, it’s hard to say whether or not these  will be compatible with the English release of Animal Crossing: New Leaf. The Gay Gamer tells me Denpa Men QR codes made in Japan were not compatible with other regions, which is a little disheartening, but hopefully Nintendo realizes the importance of players being able to share their creations and doesn’t restrict QR code recognition to copies of the game from the same region. But, even if they aren’t compatible, I have no doubt an ample English QR community will arise with just as much talent as the Japanese one! We’ll just have to wait and see…


Note: I have not posted any QR codes here because most Japanese bloggers specifically request that their QR codes not be shared on other sites. If you’re interested in getting the QR codes for use in your copy of Animal Crossing: New Leaf, please go to the source links under the images! 

No, Thank You!!!: A BL game with bears?!

While I was doing some research for my thesis (yes, really), I stumbled onto a rather interesting upcoming boys love game called No, Thank you!!!. Why is it so interesting, you ask? Behold:

Whoa, there! Who got chest hair and massive pecks in my BL game?! 

Now, please feel free to correct me if I’m wrong, but the above photo is probably the closest I’ve ever seen any from of BL media come to depicting a bear. And the man in the above image isn’t the only bear-like character in No, Thank You!!!:

These burly manly men are far from what you normally see in BL media, which generally feature lanky, often effeminate “pretty boys,” so who exactly is this game being marketed towards? Well, the official website explicitly states that it is a “boys love adventure game,” and it has been featured in a number of magazines aimed at BL game fans, so we can rule out the possibility of it being an advent-guarde bara game (bara being a term used for media with homosexual characters that is aimed at a male homosexual audience). The men above certainly look like they could’ve been pulled straight out of a bara magazine, though!

Of course, not all of the characters are bears –– the two pictured above are pretty standard BL fare, in my opinion (main protagonist is the one with the black hair), but the game’s’ premise is that all of the characters are actually semes (tops), which are generally considered to be the masculine/dominant men in a BL romantic pairing. This leaves me to wonder if the creators decided to inject a little bara into their BL game, as there are a small number of BL/yaoi fans that like bara, as well. Or, you could argue that perhaps they’re trying to hook in the regular bara-loving crowd. Either way, I love to see different types of characters portrayed in these kind of games!

A funny result of the addition of muscly men into a BL setting is that some more “traditional” fans will likely balk at the sight of body hair. No, Thank You!!! has covered its bases, offering a special “body hair on/off” button that allows players to change the on-screen hair levels instantaneously! How cool (and totally weird) is that? I guess everyone wins… except for some of the men:

source

You can probably tell what’s going on in the above mini-manga (aka 4-koma) without a translation, but in case you’re interested:
Panel one: CUT! “Okay, good job guys!”
Panel two: “Next we’ll do the without-body hair version!” “Okay!”
Panel four: “It––” “It––” “It––” “…was just a dream!”
Bottom: The body hair is up to you.

I’d be really interested hear from both bear/bara fans and BL fans about what they think abou this game! It’s scheduled for a Japanese PC release sometime this spring. If you’re interested in seeing more images/learning more about the game, head to the official site here (be warned, some content on the site is NSFW!).

Note: It’s come to my attention that my first example might be more appropriately be described as a “muscle bear.” I hope no one is offended by how I’ve used the term – I just wanted to point out that these are the most bear-like characters I’ve ever seen in a BL game, whereas bara media depicts characters that could easily be labeled as “bears” all the time.

Memos from Mamemura: Week 10

Things may have ended on a sad note last week with my favorite villager Frill moving out, but this week saw some new excitement in the form of a new villager and some multiplayer antics with a friend! And so, my Animal Crossing: New Leaf saga continues…

Whoever this new guy is, he sure has a lot of nerve to build his house so close to the station…

I’m always happy to get different species of animals in my village, so Bunjirou (aka Lobo) came as a pleasant surprise! It’s nice to see a familiar Animal Crossing villager face, too, and a cranky one at that! There’s something charming about the cranky personality. 
I finally saved up enough money to open up the dream center/massage parlor! Let’s take a look inside… 
Yumemi (which is actually the Japanese word for “to dream” or “dreaming”) the aardvark has the ability to take you to visit other people’s towns or have others come to your town through your dreams. I didn’t get around to setting up the new feature yet (lazy, I know), but look forward to next week when I’ll report back on my findings after visiting a couple of villages! The difference between this and normal online play is that you can visit anyone’s town, even if you’re not friends, as long as you have the code for their village. People are sharing codes for spiffy towns all over the internet, so I should be able to find a couple of good ones! Maybe I’ll even go to the official Nintendo town! 
Did you know that if a villager invites you over to their house and you talk to them enough times, they’ll ask if you want to buy any of their items? Well, Arthur wanted to pawn off his Chinese table on me… The very one I gave him as a present! And for 1,920 bells? That’s highway robbery!

 Low and behold, I go to the recycle shop the next day and find Arthur’s put his Chinese table up for sale! Talk about rude!

Moving on from that drama, I met up with my friend Nel and visited her town over local wireless! It was a lot of fun, and I definitely got tons of inspiration for my own town (it’s quite evident that she plays much more than I do…). The above image is one of her, er, most disconcerting rooms, as its covered in her favorite character Manbe-kun‘s likeness.

She’s got the full mermaid series… 

And the full snowman series! How adorable!

She also has a number of themed rooms, such as this Japanese one… 

 And this creepy basement room! Eek!

Sumi lives in both our towns, so I wondered what it would be like to have a conversation with another town’s Sumi… She just acted like she didn’t know me! 
Nel’s even unlocked the cafe! Here I am drinking the Penguin (her town’s name) original blend. 

I didn’t even know there was bamboo in Animal Crossing: New Leaf! Clearly I need to read more up on this game, or I’m going to miss out. I love how she fashioned this area into a little hot spring getaway. Too bad you can’t jump in the water!
Finally, we sat and watched the “end credits” together by her town’s tree… For some reason it lost all its leaves! I don’t even think I’ve played enough to see the credits in my game… It’s fun to see all the names of the villagers who’ve lived there scroll by. The music that plays is quite soothing, as well!
I must say, visiting Nel’s town has really rekindled my interest in the game… There very well may be another reason for that, but I’m going to save that for an upcoming post! Thanks for reading, and remember that you can ask any questions you may have in the comments! 

Beat the Backlog Club: The Legendary Starfy Diary 1

As I mentioned in my Beat the Backlog Club announcement post, I’m cheating a little this month since I didn’t get the ball rolling for the BBC project until mid-January. As such, I’m plaything through The Legendary Starfy, a quirky platformer for the Nintendo DS that, admittedly, I started in December. Given that I only played a level or two in 2012, I figured it would serve as a good title to ease me into the idea of playing a game a month.

The Legendary Starfy is a relatively basic platformer, albiet a little easier than the likes of Mario or Rayman, as apparently it’s intended for a slightly younger audince. In addition, much of the gameplay takes place under water, which is generally a source of much frustration in other platformers. Gameplay is relatively straightforward, however, with Starfy using his star powers to glide effortlessly through the water and companion Bunston occassionally lending costumes that serve as power-ups.

While Starfy‘s cuteness hooked me from the start, the rest of the game has been a bit of a mixed bag. I don’t play many platformers and as such don’t think I can really articulate what I think makes some better over others, but something about Starfy‘s level design leaves much to be desired. Simply playing through them becomes a bit of a chore, especially since it’s all quite easy and the game makes it extremely clear where it wants you to go and how you should go about getting there. The kind of fun and excitement I had playing through Rayman Origins is, unfortunately, not to be found here.

Almost everything can be forgiven in a game this adorable.

In addition, the music is mind-numbingly awful. You can tell the developers wanted to go the “super-cute” route here, too, but it just comes off as being too sugary-sweet and overdone. As a result, I’ve been playing the game on mute virtually the whole time.

That’s not to say Starfy is horrible and that it shouldn’t be experienced, but I don’t think its charm lies in what traditionally makes platformers fun to play. So far, my favorite aspects of Starfy have actually been in the game’s characters and dialogue! We’ll see if that’s what gets me through the game, or if the gameplay actually gets better later on…

Are you playing a game from your backlog this month? Feel free to share what title you picked and chat about your progress in the comments!