The Esoteric Gamer!

Woo it's sure been awhile since I've posted. Here anyway! I've been more active on facebook D: D:

Anyway this finally arrived at my doorstep today. Which doesn't matter too much but it's still neat that I got it. My free copy of Muramasa from Ignition! (Thing is, I got the game already @ launch)


The fine print:


Ended up winning it during the live stream they did on Justin.TV. They had a trivia contest and I managed to get one of the answers correct. The question was: "What was Vanillaware's very first game and what platform was it for?". Everyone instantly answered Odin Sphere PS2. On the other hand, I answered Princess Crown, Sega Saturn. I almost thought I failed though. But it turns out I was the first person to get it right. In terms of technicalities though, I would have lost. Thing is, Vanillaware didn't exist when they made Princess Crown. Kamitani was still under Atlus' wing. But I'm not complaining. I actually won something! <3 Kamitani and Vanillaware for life and more.

And just to show that as I've done in the past....

2 copies of this month's play magazine with another awesome exclusive cover drawn by George Kamitani himself. And actually this time it's a full exclusive for Play. The last cover he did for Odin Sphere was also shown as a promo art piece in the preorder artbook. This piece he drew exclusively for Play and actually spent a good month or two working on it. It's a work of art I say. But many folks, and especially the ladies, were up in arms like prudes and puritans when they saw it. To go as far as even to boycott the purchasing of "Muramasa: The Demon Blade". In any case, it's pretty tame compared to what he based it off of. It's actually a tribute to Hokusai's "The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife". Which depicts a woman in a sexual act with an octopus. In comparison, this is simply the female heroine, Momohime, duking it out with the Octopus. Maybe some suggestion, but no actual sex is portrayed. To quote Kamitani himself though, his wife was a bit surprised to see what he was working on in his studio for the last couple of weeks.

BlazBlue in it's full limited edition glory


D: But the back of the artbook has a few tears during to handling. Damn you GameStop!


This is what shinryu_nanashi wouldn't show you. The questionable content in the artbook! Very tame otherwise.

June pickups!

Knights in the Nightmare as shown previously, 1st volume of Haruhi in hardback, Blu-rays of Stranger, Sky Crawlers, and finally Arc Rise Fantasia.



And a closer look @ Arc Rise Fantasia, the first new JRPG this spring, or is that summer?

Woo. Knights in the Nightmare! The 4th episode in STING's "Dept Heaven" saga. Got it today as a birthday gift :D That Old Navy card is also a gift. I must say, most of my list was actually fulfilled. That does make me happy.

Ah, so I finally got around to starting my re watch of Kimi ga Nozomu Eien a few days ago and currently at it now. Goddammit, this show is extremely painful to watch. I already know how it ends, but the ride there is extremely rough. That said, I can't believe it's been 6 years since it first aired. (October 2003-January 2004) Really in the end, it's such a good show. Most definitely in my top 10.

I must say Gwen must be the most beautiful figure I've owned, and have seen. The pose, grace and detail that they managed to display is simply outstanding. It must be the wings honestly. Alter has once again outdone themselves.




On the other hand, hopefully this is the final release of a KOSMOS figure. Although I am missing the BOME one, it was ugly anyway. Behold! A 1/6 scale of V4 KOSMOS in a swimsuit. She's probably biggest figure I have standing. Although I never noticed my Kasumi was actually 1/5.5 scale, but she's bent over so you can't tell how big she really is. Alter = Gods.





Lit. notes: Der Ring des Nibelungen also known as Wagner's Ring Cycle was the title Odin Sphere was based on, which Gwendolyn originates from. Meanwhile, Also sprach Zarathustra is Strauss's naming of Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathrustra. The subtitle to Xenosaga Episode III was Also sprach Zarathrustra and that's where KOSMOS comes from.

Just yesterday, I had the pleasure of starting a marathon on "Toradora!". Which I just finished earlier today. I did episodes 1-24 until 9am this morning haha. Left the final episode for when I was more awake (Which was 4pm today), since it'd be the most important one to be well aware of on. That said, "Toradora!" is one of those drama/romantic comedy shows. In fact, you could basically say it's just another moe show. Which isn't too far from the truth. I almost wrote it off since it came off as that. As always with my stubbornness, I'm glad I didn't.

So, the premise behind "Toradora!" involves this delinquent looking guy named Ryuuji Takasu (the dragon!), who's not really a delinquent. But the fact that he looks the way he does, makes it really hard for him to make friends or ever getting a girlfriend. Well, fast forward to his first day in high school. He ends up running into the school's most vicious animal, Taiga Aisaka. (the tiger, taiga=tiger, get it? Also voiced by renown tsundere queen Rie Kugimiya) Antics ensue and eventually it turns out that they live next to each other, and they like the others best friend. So they end up helping each other get their respective loves.

What a perfect setup, but that's the gist of it. I admit I'm missing a lot of details too, but I'm not here to completely summarize the show. That said, this premise definitely lends itself to silly comedic moe antics. Such as Taiga being such a ill tempered person, and absolutely dominates Ryuuji in a master/servant fashion. However, there's more to the show than meets the eye. Sure, it still falls along the lines of a shounen romance in the end, but it's one of those shows that actually succeeds at the formula. Rarely does a show of this type ever really have actual progress or evolve the characters in a good manner. Although I say this now, I never really felt much fluff from "Toradora!". It always felt like a really concise viewing experience. The serious dramatic moments really outweighed any of the light comedic moe moments. Don't get me wrong though, there's also good laughs to be had, but when the relationships and drama start, it's full steam ahead. A lot of episodes end with a bang you'd never expect. The talent involved with this really help deliver it too. Although, only three that were really renown. That being Kugimiya Rie, Tanaka Rie (a minor role in Toradora!, but nonetheless a notable actress) and Horie Yui. (who plays Taiga's best friend/Ryuuji's love interst, Minori Kushieda). On Horie's character, she definitely has her serious moments, with Horie's range and acting managing to portray that extremely well. It always fascinates me how far she's come since her role as Love Hina's "Narusegawa Naru". She's often in major roles, and even sings a lot of the theme songs. In fact, she's the lead singer for both of the opening and endings in Toradora!. I somehow like to think of her as today's Megumi Hayahsibara.

Moving back to the show itself, besides having a great cast to work with, JC Staff also handled it in a very good manner. Toradora! was actually directed by the guy that worked on Honey and Clover. (Worked a bit on first season, fully directed second season) So if you did your research, you were going into romantic comedic moe hijinks done by a competent director. So it wasn't going to be your average moe show. Also unlike other JC Staff productions (Zero no Tsukaima, Shakugan no Shana), Toradora! actually ended and won't be milked to death like the forementioned. It was often a big concern if they were going to ruin the show by keeping it going endlessly, since it seemed they were doing an excellent job thus far. Aside from those doubts, one of the other shining key points was how they handled the sound. They crafted a score that was used in a manner that worked really well for the key moments. Which alone added more to the impact the show had in those moments. They also had insert songs/ending themes appropriate for the big moments. Something that KyoAni managed to absolutely fail on in their 2nd season of Clannad. You don't know how much of a mood killer it was to hear something super hyperactive after a really depressing scene. I guess it's more of a complaint to the current season, as both shows were actually airing next to each other as part of the fall 2008->spring 2009 lineup.

That should cover everything, but what can I say? Toradora! was a really pleasant surprise. It turned out a lot more mature than I had ever expected it to be. I mean if you looked at the premise, it really did seem generic. Now you'd probably would have known the outcome since the show started, but it was the ride there that really made it worthwhile. It's filled with many comedic, warm, and serious moments to enjoy. Every episode really felt like it covered a lot of stuff for just being in a span of 24 minutes. Which in actuality, it did cover a ton of the actual material from the light novel. Like a ton of chapters at a time. People were sort of worried they were rushing thru it too fast. But it turned out fantastic thankfully. Now I was originally going to rewatch Kimi ga Nozomu Eien (The eternity you desire/Rumbling Hearts) for some masochistic reason, but Toradora! managed to fill that gap pretty well. (Although, I'm probably still going to rewatch Kiminozo soon) It's definitely up there somewhere on my list of favorites and I'd definitely invest on it domestically when it gets licensed. It's always nice that there's still something really good amongst all the generic moe crap that gets released every season. Although it did look like every other show at first. Now I know I haven't read a book in a long time, but I'm most likely going to be reading the light novel the show was based off of. That is, after I finish re skimming the show itself for more thoughts and details I might have missed.


On random note, I've finally decided to use my flickr and post my adventures that I do end up taking via the camera on my cellphone. (hopefully from my actual camera some day) For those that are interested, you can find them here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/7752368@N02/

Some think I'm posting this too late! I dunno. Also considering my current employment situation, I guess it's a lot easier to list them now. Haha! Here goes!

Birthday gift list


1 - 1/8 scale Gwendolyn PVC. $79.80 http://www.hlj.com/product/ALT20198

2 - 1/6 scale KOS-MOS Swimwear Ver. PVC On sale! $63.02 http://www.hlj.com/product/ALT20165

3 - Vocaloid 2: Hatsune Miku Action Figure Figma. $25 and up. Amazon has'em for 40$ Look around! But here's a convenient link if you don't want to.
http://www.amazon.com/Vocaloid-Hatsune-Action-Figure-Figma/dp/B001EQ6A80/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=toys-and-games&qid=1240643676&sr=8-3

4 - 6 Green Sanwa OBSF-30 Buttons. @ $2.95 a piece. http://www.akihabarashop.jp/ (When they're open. They open up again on May 8th! Act quick if you want to get this for me!) Taken by Lace

5 - TE Stick Plexiglass and Art Print/Cut $18 + $8. http://www.tek-innovations.com/arthobbies/?loc=products (See me for the art if you're interested) Taken by Matt

6 - Shen Yun Performing Arts Tickets $55 15% off if you get'em @ the Alderwood Mall Kiosk! Taken by David

7 - Dance Lessons. Yup serious! Preferably ball, common, or swing.

8 - Lucky Star Limited Editions Volume 5 and/or 6.

9 - Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner 2: Raidou Kuzunoha versus King Abaddon $39.99 Comes out May 12th! Must be first pressing with awesome packaging! See here! --> http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51-qchOxoeL._AA280_.jpg Taken by Mike

10 - Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor $29.99 Comes out in June

11 - Knights in the Nightmare - $34.99 Comes out in June

edit- Wow, no one wants to feed my figure addiction! Har har. Of course, it'd be super nice if someone would get my arcade parts too :D

Championship Mode is here.

Standard Edition and Tournament Edition sticks now with 100% more Moe and Vocaloid!

So, I spent all weekend modifying my sticks finally. Talk about a long experience! Stayed up until almost 5-6AM since Saturday working on this. Made at least 3 trips to Kinkos amidst all the trial and errors too. Here's the pic by pic play!


Starting off: The 2 sticks, 1 Sanwa JLF stick w/ black ball top, pearl blue PS-14-P. 2 pearl white PS-14-P, 1 Semitsu clear gumball top, a hobby knife, and Mio/Miku templates.


Inside the Standard Edition stick.


One messed over mount plate, which I'm reusing for my new stick.


A bad shot, but that shiny silver thing in the middle there is one major stripped screw. Apparently the screws on the mount plate are extremely soft, so you can very easily strip them. Which I ended up doing :/ But thankfully brute force worked out. I had my uncle bend the plate enough so I could take it off. Of course, if you look at the previous pick, you can see how badly scratched up it is from the struggle.


One dismantled Standard Edition Fight Stick with original art off. Let me tell you, trying to take off the wiring was an extreme pain. The quick disconnects weren't as easy as folks said it'd be. I eventually had to use pliers and accidentally killed one of the buttons. (Which is no real loss since they're the crap mad catz stock buttons) Then, there's the connectors that are have glue around them as a protective measure. Cripes.


One fully cut template of Mio, now on the metal plate itself. This took me 4 tries before I got anything relatively good out of it. And by that I mean 4 different templates. I messed up the previous 3 times with bad cuts and various other misfortunes. I still messed up the cut a bit here, but it's not so bad as the previous. Not to mention that the 4th template had the best lamination job and I wasn't about to give that up. I had a lot of fun @ Kinkos trying to get a good laminate on the templates. Most of the time, they wouldn't be laminated completely. So there would be some bubbles that were really apparently in the darker colors of the print. Cutting the prints weren't fun either. As I had a ton of trial and error with how to approach it. The guide I followed had a really fatal flaw that involved you removing the label again later so you can replace some screws. Doing this would often cause damage to the label and it doesn't come off very easily either.


Complete! But urgh, those semitsu buttons are a GIANT pain to get into the casing.

Also here's the original design at the same angle for a compare/contrast




One more time but from the top.



Yes, screw you horrible mad catz parts for the misery you've caused. And for absolutely sucking.



Moving on and straight to the point, this would be the innards of the Tournament Edition Stick.
Only issue I ran into while taking it apart were with 2 of the hex screws. Thankfully I didn't strip them.



Miku Fight Stick V1! I literally had no zero issues cutting out this template, nor any with replacing the buttons. Sanwas are so much nicer.



Again, compare and contrast! Only different this time would be the black balltop and Miku design...


And one final shot but at a more interesting angle


Yes, I did say V1 for my Miku stick there. I got bigger plans for a V2. Lettering and ink blots that'll say "Miku Fight Stick" with some cheesy tagline for a more awesome touch. 6 Green sanwa OBSFs to really match the color scheme. A plexiglass cover. And finally, probably going to dye the bezel green. My TE stick gets absolute love. It's going to be even more personalized when I'm done with it. But for now, Mission accomplished!

Absolute Fail.



Tomorrow: Another trip to Kinkos, replacement hobby knife blades.

Woo. Marathoning Xamdou now :D The above lyric is from Kylee's "Vacancy" ED theme to Xamdou.

In any case. I found out this morning Akihabarashop shipped my parts. But low and behold. They're actually already here!



I really want to go at it now, but I'm going to wait until a friend finishes the art designs I plan to replace the stock artwork with. Then it's all out! Although.. I'd like to replace the buttons on the TE stick after the art change so that they'll match the new design. But unfortunately I can't place said order right now. Akihabarashop's closed until May. I was even lucky to get my order in! I'll post some pics of the work in progress and finished product when I'm done. Yeah, it's a simple job, but it's always fun to try doing things yourself.

Spring cleaning!





And actually, the "Don't say "Lazy" " is the new awesome ED theme to Kyoto Animation's "K-On" for this season. Which is successor to "Lucky Star", except it's about 4 girls trying to start up a band. Absolutely in love with it. Got Mio on my desktop and planning to put her on my standard arcade stick. It's pretty curious, the 4 girls don't have much credentials to them, but they sure can sing. I think KyoAni purposely casted them for this. Anyway... Check it out!



Caps!

I can't believe it. This was my 7th one and it's once again over. I'm not sure where to rate it of the 7, but it was definitely one of the more fun ones I've been to. Even if I didn't spend nearly a grand this year.

My biggest and most valued purchase from this year's convention, a Hatsune Miku music box that plays "Hoshi no Kakera"



Tho on side note, I was really happy how much vocaloid love there was this year. In '08, I found like at most, 3 Mikus. This year it was at least 10x that and it wasn't just Mikus. They had the twins, Meiko, Kaito and even gender benders. Actually the weird thing was the female cross dressing as Kaito seemed more like Chihaya(Idolm@ster)/Kaito. I totally didn't catch that until my friend pointed it out.

Now a little something for my monitor



And with zoom-in, it's Tsuruya from Haruhi! I originally really wanted to get a Miku figma to sit atop my monitor but that wasn't happening and it had to be a figma. So I ended up settling on lol-tan.



Finally, got my copy of Persona 4 signed my Kappei Yamaguchi. It was so cool, he gave me a litte impression of Kuma and slightly personalized the signature with a little Kuma impression.



Ah. I miss it already, but it's been a super long week and it's still not over yet.

BoA finally debuts in America with an english album! I was never a big fan of her, but maybe it's the music lull I've been in or it's actually decent. Regardless, I think it's pretty decent dance music for what it is. "I did it for love", "Energetic", "Eat you up", "Touched", "Scream", "Girls on Top"... Well hell I might as well just say that I like the entire album. At first I wasn't actually feeling it, but over time it really grew on me.

Besides her though, Utada released her 2nd English album as well. But won't hit this side of the ocean until later this month digitally and in May physically. Although it's not as adventurous as "Exodus" was, the lyrics still remain extremely unique. (Stuff like "during my 9 to 5/I'm thinkin' 6 and 9s" couplets") But I definitely enjoyed it more than her previous attempt. Anyway, as shown above, I ended up getting a copy of BoA's album at a local Best Buy. Unfortunately Kinonuiya didn't have Utada's album or BoA's Best + USA. I settled for Bennie K's Best of the Bestest though.

Without a doubt, it's probably been the best winter I've ever had so far.

Taken via my G1 at the Campbell Basin. Elevation 6240 ft.

Pretty neat that it included a move list that resembles the ones seen on arcade cabinets.



Mad Catz Standard Arcade Fight Stick for PlayStation 3

So, I ended up with the Standard Edition SFIV stick as well after striking a deal with a friend. Traded my Hori FightStick 3 + some extra cash for it. (Current expenses on SFIV nearing 300 and not done yet...) I was a bit wary at first, due to the big loose washer scare that was on the SE sticks that'd grind the PCB. But after hearing about how easy it was to mod it compared to the FS3, I went for it. Not to mention if I did run into the washer problem, it was a pretty easy fix too. Thankfully there wasn't any problems after taking it apart myself. That said, my expenses aren't over yet as I plan to replace the stick and buttons in the SE and make it on par with the TE stick. If not a bit more fancier! I can't wait to getting around to ordering the parts and doing it myself. It might be a short and easy mod, but I've always found it fun doing things like this. Heck, I might even change up the buttons in the TE too for a better look. Currently planning to go with some semitsu buttons for the SE. Nice and clear probably, although the pearl ones are tempting too.

Violence as an art.

(Above quote is from the SFIV announcer)

I'm seriously in love with the Tournament Edition stick, has to be the best domestic stick I've ever used. I spent a ton, but man I think it really was worth it.

Pics from "Prinny: Can I really be the hero?"

Awesome platformer based off the Disgaea's Prinnies.

And what are Prinnies you ask?

"A prinny is a small, usually blue, pouch-wearing penguin-like creature with disproportionately small bat wings and two peg legs where feet would normally be. When thrown, they explode on impact.[1] A common trait of prinnies is their upbeat attitude and frequent use of the word "dood" as an interjection."

Now back to our regular programming.

Now be damned if it isn't punishing. You do get 1000 lives though :D That said, I realized the PSP's offered me more platforming satisfaction than the DS. Go figure.

In other news, I finally finished Ar Tonelico 2 (Luca side) earlier this week. 60 hours was around the final figure, but not completely done still. I have more loose ends to tie up, but at that point I just had to drive the point home. Of course, I stayed up pretty late doing so. Now I wonder if I'll ever get to a Chroche or Jaquli playthru. Heck, I want all 4 endings!

What's been going on?

-Weekly routine: 24 Season 7, Maria-sama ga Miteru Season 4, Hajime no Ippo: New Challenger
-Gaming: Ar Tonelico 2, Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology 2
-Life and friends!

I was meaning to eventually make some giant post catching up on my recent goodies, but I keep just putting it off. Not to mention some riveting impressions on Ar Tonelico 2. For now, I'll just leave an image of Yumi's expression in the latest episode of Maria-sama. Her various expressions are a key point of her character.



Actually, after my normal viewings of 24 and Marimite, I was planning to pull an allnighter to finish up my first playthru of Ar Tonelico 2. But I ended up getting sidetracked as usual. Finally decided to pick up one of the more recent episodes of Clannad in it's 2nd season. I might start watching it from that point. The funny thing is, the point I picked it up from is a major climatic point... Haha.