So as of the 27th of October (yeah, last week) Fly Systems has transferred development works for Magical Battle Arena to a new circle called Ryouiki Zero. Whether this new circle is a direct subsidiary to Fly-Systems, a totally different group, or Fly-Systems themselves disguised under another name is not known. It sure does seem to have close affiliations to Souwer Cherry and Pandadanpa though; both are close partners with Fly-Systems. In that light, guess says Ryouiki Zero at the very least aren’t strangers to Fly-Systems.

Along with the transfer, news for the next major release of Magical Battle Arena were also spilled, named Magical Battle Arena Complete Form. This one sounds more like a bundled release of Magical Battle Arena with Lyrical Pack along with all the patches and the 5 extra download characters included rather than being a major expansion release, but alas it wasn’t without any updates at all. It is revealed that Complete Form will include one new character; StrikerS Fate. Aside from that, it also includes several new moves for the returning characters and uses a new network system for its multiplayer mode. No further words about whether the character list is finalized or would there be more new characters to expect other then the non-loli Fate.

Here are some images of the grown Fate T. Harlaown in MBA Complete Form.

Magical Battle Arena Complete Form is scheduled for this coming Winter Comiket in December.

Uploaded this last week. Was too busy then so there wasn’t any entry at that time but anyway.

This promotion video was originally shown during Entamatsuri2009.

You will feel it when, with you, you have

Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker beta trial

Phantasy Star Portable 2 special beta trial

Valkyria Chronicles 2 trial

and upon your attempt to savour the goodness, you run into

THIS BLOODY SPOILSPORT

and upon some (noobish) attempt to hack things (like param.sfo and stuff) into working order, you still get

THIS

I feel like tearing my heart out…

P.S. I’ve finally made a Twitter account today. I’ve been thinking about making one since quite long ago but, well, I just never actually did. Here’s my page.

lol forgot to publish this earlier, meh whatever.

So last Thursday was the final presentation for one of my subjects this semester and next Friday would be the final exam for another subject of mine. Coming up after that would be my year end semester break which I plan to fill with some part-time job or something as I really need some moolah right now. Due mainly to my desire for a Nintendo Wii and a HP TouchSmart TX2Z tablet PC. The tablet PC was a result of a semi-whimsical web search I did several days ago lol.

I’ve been thinking about getting a laptop ever since I went to my current college as everything here from notes to reservations are done with a computer. On a separate case, I have also been thinking about getting a touch pad for design drafts and actual drawings since I was still doing design back in my previous college, additionally I’ve been having a preference of being able look at my hand work directly at what I’m drawing rather than look away so I really actually didn’t like the idea of a USB touch pad too much. So the answer is a tablet PC~ only that they cost at least about RM5000 here. That’s 5 PS3 if you want to compare by value. Then I ran into this ridiculously good offer by HP that sells a TX2Z for 900USD! That’s only about RM3000! Down by 2 bloody PS3s! (I don’t know if it’s that much of a bargain for people actually living in the US but blah, forex is an ass so for the foreigner me it’s the mother lode) The offer is only available in the US but I spoke with a friend of mine currently in the USA and he agreed to help (if I send the money to him prior) so accessibility is covered. Only problem now is that I don’t have any money orz. Not to mention that since it’s an offer it’ll inevitable end eventually; not knowing when is also another source for pressure. Hence the determination to work~

Oh, then there is the Wii to… aaaaaarrrrgggghhh!!! >______>

YUM

Here are some stuff from Salburg’s member’s resources. Same thing as from Atelier Rorona except there’s much less text and with all the in-game shots included. I’m cutting off this post here as it gets quite long with all the images. Meh screw that.

28th January 2010

lol, I knew it! I so bloody knew it!!! And it’s on the PS3! Just as expected!

But then again, who ever actually finished Ar Tonelico 2 would have already saw this coming, given the events during its ending. However, the tower in Ar Tonelico 3 is called Sol Cluster instead of Tyria, does that suggests something? One of the two heroines also resembles Cocona but her name isn’t Cocona. Plot twist?

Sounds like AT3 is having a lot more revamps than AT2 had from AT1, actually going full 3D for one, along with some other awesome things like custom magic and stuff.  This is so awesome that my vocabulary fails to do it justice. I’m so going to get the limited edition release once it’s out! My other two PS3 comrades might kill me for buying a game in Japanese though lol. Hmm, ok, maybe not since neither of them were interested in any of the previous ATs anyway. w00t, limited edition for me~~~

Here are some scans(?) not by me.

Also, I’ll be leaving to Melaka for a single day trip tomorrow so… uh… yeah.

Haven’t been making any updates lately, and these are the culprits:

Also, today I got this:

Haven’t tried it though, maybe tomorrow.

Just went to check Yamadaya’s site for any Soul Saber 2 updates and then there’s this at the front page.

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Another game already? Before Soul Saber 2’s even completed? Yamadaya sure is hardworking. Not that I’m complaining~

This thing has been eating my life for the past two days. Despite my stupid ISP messing up the multiplayer mode brilliantly, it’s still one hell of a fun game.

Reusing this image as I don't have another at hand. Maybe later...

Like I once mentioned, the freeware trial (this) was released sometime during the latter half of the last September (getit here! Click on ダウンロード, I’ll add a tutorial about how to setup the thing later if I feel like it) and I’ve forgotten about it until two days ago and the rest was history.

Soul Saber 2, unlike Soul Saber, aren’t a fighting game. By spirit, Soul Saber 2 feels like Kinryu VS Xentex with zero character customizability but with a lot more players per battle (KvX was 2 vs 2, SS2 could go up to 6 vs 6 and it is hinted that the full version might even be able to go up to 8 vs 8). Here’s a crude way of explaining it, Soul Saber 2 is a 3D brawler; you enter battles as one of the two factions as a ‘robot’ (well, ‘characters’, but canonically they really are actually androids and gynoids or whatever anyway therefore ‘robots’, lol). Each faction has a meter that represents their available credits and each ‘robot’ costs money so each time one dies, money will be spent for each respawn and the bar indicates how much of it is remaining. The first faction to run out of cash loses. Simple as that :D (also, each character costs differently, stronger ones costs more of course so if you use one that’s super strong but your skills suck ass you’d still lose in no time, maybe even faster compared to if you would have used a weaker character lol). However unlike Kinryu VS Xentex, Soul Saber 2 also works with a keyboard instead of being gamepad only as how KvX was..

In place of character customizability, Yamadaya has introduced a new concept into the original Kinryu VS Xentex gameplay. Here, there a lot of characters and they are separated into four classes: Melee, Close-range, Defence and Bomber (these categories does not mean the characters of a certain category can only do a certain action in the game, a character of the Melee type has range attacks too, only that their ranged attacks are weaker compared to the other classes, things like that). I’ll explain each of them later on. There’s a rock-paper-scissors thing going on between the four in which the Melee and Close-range class are strong against the Defence class, the Defence class is strong against the Bombers, and the Bomber class is strong against the Melee and Close-range class. This also effects the cost inflicted on the opponent’s credit bar; a Melee class dispatching a Defence class will result in a greater reduction to the opponent’s bar compared to a Defence class killing a Defence class or a Bomber class killing a Defence class, or at least that’s what the tutorial says, I have never really noticed the bar, was always too busy chasing and killing~ There are 3 to 4 characters in each type to choose from and each of them has their own specialities and weaknesses. Ok, now I’ll explain the individual classes lol: Close-range class are the interceptors, they have an exceptionally high agility and they can zip through the whole place in seconds, mainly because they are equipped with jetpacks. They have average defence and are also generally weaker in strength compared to the other classes but both their melee and range attacks are balanced. Defence class on the other hand are the slowest group of sloths in the whole game rivalling dead snails with their speed but in-trade of that they are very strong in both attack and defence where they can jump in the middle of a pack of enemies and practically massacre all of them, also, two of the characters in the Defence class also have a force field perk that can  make them invulnerable to range attacks. It’s not to the point of being pervertedly imbalanced though, since Bombers can still easily kill a Defence because they are too slow to move away from their bombardment. As for the Bomber class, well, they are bombers. They play the support fire role where all of their strength go to their range attacks, and they are usually super long ranged with a minimum effective range and they explode on impact dealing splash damage to a small area. They are the contributors to the beautiful overhead flying lasers/missiles throughout the battle lol, better when there are lots of bombers shooting all over the place together. They have the weakest armour in the entire game and their close quarter attacks are mostly limited. They are also the safest to play, one can stay at the backline and still get to kill things~ haha. Lastly, the Melee class, I placed it last because it’s the last class to be unlocked (in a new game there are only three characters available, one of each classes except for Melee, I’ll get to that later) and it is also the strongest class in the game imo. They have the highest attack and defence value in the entire game but they also have the shortest sight, radar range and lock-on range in the game. It’s so short that it’s almost pitiful, seriously. But once they lock-on on something, it won’t survive for long… unless they run of range lol.

There are only 3 characters available on a fresh install: one from Close-range, one of Defence and one from Bomber. The others are unlocked as you gain points from playing on multiplayer mode against the host server and/or used certain characters in multiplayer mode some certain amount of time (I think). Aside from points there is also a ‘military ranking title’ thingy and level value thing next to it. It’ll rank up according to the points earned from play against the host server in multiplayer mode. It unlocked the Melee class once it reaches Lieutenant Commander for me but I’m not too sure about the rest. The level value next to it was never explained in the manual but I think it’s a gauge kind of thing for the current ranking. It goes up mostly when playing online but down while playing offline and once it drops under lvl1 your ranking title will drop by one. I’m not sure how that part works, maybe there are more factors involved into the calculation for that than just wins and loses, whatever they are.

Then there’s the multiplayer mode. Yamadaya has setup a beta testing server for online play so that’s where I have been playing but being with a stupid ISP and all, the experience is quite frustrating at times, ok, most of the time actually; I can die for no reason and my kills would sometime not register and the one I killed suddenly gets back to life and shoots me from behind, sometimes something goes wrong and the controls go crazy like I was overlapped with a computer player or something, I could leave my controller and it’d play itself. Another annoying thing is while its smooth when I’m far from the other players, it’d get jerky once I get into the middle of the action and the consequence is obvious. Not only that, sometimes when I ‘die’, I can get into this ‘half-dead’ state where I really did die but my weapons ammunition are various other stuff was not reset. Seeing all these problems, I still can’t confidently say they are the glitches of the game itself, being a trial and all since all of them seem very likely to be caused by my ISP alone, I dunno. Meanwhile, I’d play in freeplay mode but my ranking would go down…

Oh, also, since the trial has no BGMs yet so I just use my foobar and play my own stuff while I play. I think you can make your own BGM with the game too since there is an MP3 folder in the game folder but I’m not sure how that works.

P.S. damn it! I just wrote a 1435 word long blog post instead of doing my 1000 word essay assignment >____>

I’m doing this while juggling with my assignments (oh the urgency lol) so I’m not going to type too much. I’ll just let the video do the speaking, I don’t think I’d need to say much else after you’ve watched them anyway.

Those two basically summed up most of what I’m looking forward to the next season (though because of my hdd space I’d probably would end up watching only a handful of them, or none of them, just like the two previous seasons), minus a few here and there.

And here are more videos just for the heck of it or of those not listed in there that will also be coming about next season or pretty soon in the future, in no particular order:

The Book of Bantorra

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Kiddy Girl-and

This is the Kiddy Grade II that was oh so long awaited by the whole world. ‘Girland’ kind of suggest lots of yuri action, not like that’s alien from the original Kiddy Grade but I’m thinking more of the Strawberry Panic kind of yuri… I dunno, probably just me and my imaginations. And this block of text is here because there are no videos for it that I could find go figure.

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Shin-Koihime Musou

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11eyes

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Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu

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Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu Purezza

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Ookami Kakushi

It’s a visual novel for the PSP that was released just recently but then again I never played it so I don’t really know in detail what is it about (I can never really play visual novels on the PSP as the tiny text, repetitive BGM and the strain on my eyes always put me to sleep pretty effectively). Also since I can’t find a video for the anime, I’ll just put the PSP opening here.

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Kobato

Never read the manga but it piqued my interest ever since Clamp in Wonderland 2. More convenient with it now turning into an anime.

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Dance in the Vampire Bund

This shit is epic, watch it.

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Omamori Himari

Well, it’s getting an anime. I can’t remember if I mentioned it in here several months back when it was first announced but anyway, yeah, anime Omamori Himari. And yeah, no video. tehe.

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BLACK★ROCK SHOOTER

No words can describe how awesome this is. Something tells me Insane BRS will be the final form for BRS or something in this lol, I’d like to see that.

This I actually discovered the night before I left for my hometown last week but since I wasn’t around during the weekends so I didn’t get to post about it then.

Apparently, there will be a Nanoha game coming out for the PSP! An official Nanoha game, FINALLY!!! And it won’t be some boring cheap sim exploit like what happened to the PS2 Night Wizard game (damn that series had potential for a game but they just had to screw it)! It looks kind of like Magical Battle Arena (aka Nanoha done right) with more solid graphics and some really neat effects, I particularly like how they made the smoke look opaque and the laser beams look fancier. It is based on Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha A’s, the second season of the series and it’ll feature a list of characters from that particular timeline (meaning no kungfu rollerskater or twintail gunner or loli dragon summoner or WMD loli or eye patch loli or what not) including such like Signum, Shamal, Zafira, and some other still yet undisclosed but the silhouette in the trailer suggests Hayate, Chrono, original Reinforce, and some other that I can’t seem to recall will be in there as well. This will be awesome~

It’ll be out on the 21st of January next year… oh the wait… u_u

But then again, A’s is something from 4 years ago. I understand that it is probably a marketing stint for the upcoming Nanoha silver screen debut (which opens two days after this game is released), even A’s will be having a rerun in Japan on October. Oh marketing.

They better make a game for StrikerS and Soundstage X after this or I’ll RRRRRRAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGEEEEEEEEEE

One thing I like about my home town nowadays is that its serene, calm environment and generally simple lifestyle compared to the city standards kind of gives this ‘otherworldly’ feel to it in contrast to what I go through everyday. That plus with the fact that most of my assignments requires a dedicated computer and internet connection also gives me the excuse to be removed from the assignment rush that I would otherwise be subjected to endure at home, effectively allowing me to relax and unwind without interruptions. This was the case for today as I just got back from my home town just a few hours ago and how I wished I could have stayed just a few days longer there, just so I won’t have to begin worrying about the assignments that I have to complete within this week long holiday. But alas here I am, well and worried…

Just two months after Atelier Rorona was released and now we already have news on the next Atelier title, Atelier Lina for the Nintendo DS! Its official website opened today. Atelier Lina will be the third Atelier title to be released on the Nintendo DS following Atelier Annie and Atelier Lise. This time I am able to jump on the anticipation bandwagon as I now own a DSi unlike last time when that other two was released, it was all just orz in those days. Atelier Lina will be released on the 22nd of December this year.

On another note, I’ll be away for the weekend to attend a cousin’s wedding so there will be no entries then… though there probably won’t be any even if I were around judging from the frequency of my update nowadays lol.

It’s been 15 days since the last time I’ve posted an update here eh. Same reason as all the other times I’ve randomly disappeared; due to laziness and/or because I just had nothing to talk about. Well, I’m lazy when I do have something to talk about and I’ve nothing to talk about when I felt like posting something, those kind of circumstances. Not to mention that we’ve already gotten a whole bunch of assignments within only three weeks into college. Anyway, since I’m also quite lazy now so I’ll just list out everything of interest that has happened between now and the 1st of September.

• Went back to Ipoh
• Helped my cousin to decide on a new pseudo-DSLR (lol) camera for his wedding
• Finally cleared off Avalon Code in Ipoh.
• Started Tales of Hearts right after that as the next game to be occupied with on the NDSi.
• College started.
• Got a timetable with two days with 4 hours break between classes, wtf
• Got sick after only two days of college (some weird unknown stomach problem. The cause was never found).
• Got better in a week or so but probably not completely, I still feel a little uncomfortable at times even now.
• Got lots of assignments.
• Went to watch Gamers with the usual group of friends (I’d review on this if it was in its own entry but oh well).
• Actually started playing Armored Core: For Answer.
• Never made any progress in Armored Core: For Answer ever since (heck I haven’t even turned on the PS3 ever since).
• Went to FTZ with the usual group of friends during one of those 4 hours break.
• Japanese class resumed after a looooong break… and the exam is just right around the corner… >__>
• Finally got my hands on Touhou Violin Rock!!! That shit is freaking awesome!!!
• Cleared two endings in Mystical Chain.
• Almost cleared Scarlet Symphony, until my friend went and screwed up the save data. Now I have to bloody start all over again… bitch. It’s not the easiest game in the world too for crying out loud.

And these are stuff that should be happening very soon

• My cousin getting married back in Ipoh so I’ll be heading back there for the coming weekend.
• My friend will be heading back to the USA this Sunday. Won’t be seeing him in person again for another several years.
• I’d try to get my PS2 back from him before he leaves so chances are I’ll be heading to his place this Thursday or Friday.
• I’d be busy with the assignments so until I’m done, there probably won’t be any entries, well maybe.
• Hari Raya Aidilfitri is a week away~ week long holiday w00t! Not that it’s anything special though since I was NEETing until recently.
• Some other stuff.

Been a while since my last ‘class’ if you exclude my weekly Japanese classes. From today onwards, I’m a student in Business Administration; a totally different dimension from my previous Multimedia Design lol. Anyway, nothing much special for the first day of college, just… uneventful… and it was only half an hour long.

That aside, here’s something good

A very well made video by a very skillful fan that was completed recently on nico. There’s another epic video for this song too but I’ll keep that for another day.

And then suddenly I am not a NEET anymore by next Tuesday.

I’m getting back into college and class starts next Tuesday lol. The thought of having my super free days ending abruptly sure makes me feel a little melancholic but it’s a change for the best. But before that, I will be leaving for Ipoh again from this coming Saturday till Monday.

• Fix the salvaged fossil of a computer
• Get the final clarification for my college prospects
• Register into a college
• Watch all the unwatched anime on my HDD and get rid of them for space
• Find whatever other way I can to reclaim more HDD space
• Sort out all the other data in the HDD
• Read the second volume of Oreimo
• Carry the PS3 back into my room
• Finish off Ninja Gaiden Sigma
• Finish off Tenshinranman
• Finish off Dawn of War 2
• Finish off Avalon Code
• Finish off Armored Core: For Answer
• Fix the other ear of my pedobear papercraft
• Make a new header banner for this place
• Making the icon thingy I was thinking about doing some time back
• Actually working on any one of these items instead of listing them out

Also, things have been weird with my computer ever since after being reformatted the other day. The latest quirk being the header name in my WLM chat windows being truncated to one character instead of its default twelve. Not that it’s killing me but I reckon ignoring it for too long may lead to something uglier in the future, it’s Microsoft after all. hmm…

Just felt like doing this…

Touhou Seirensen: Undefined Fantastic Object (PC)

It’s Touhou 12, nuff said. For those who know not about Touhou, though seriously, I don’t know how you ended up here without knowing about Touhou but here’s a wiki link for you because I’m such a kind person~ (lol). It’s already out during C76 last week.

Touhou Hisoutensoku (PC)

And this is Touhou 12.3 lol. It’s technically an ‘expansion’ for Touhou Hisouten with 5 new characters, a truck load of new spell cards, and all sorts of other goodies. Story wise, it wouldn’t take a genius to guess that it takes place after Touhou 12. It’s fun and all but I find a certain nuclear bird to be a tad overpowered compared to the other characters. But then again it’s all fine for the challenge I guess, it’s Touhou anyway. This was also out during C76 last week.

Inochi Mijikashi Tatakae! Otome ~Alice kara no Shoutaijou~ (PC)

The third installation of the moe RTS after the Tomato war or as they call it, version 3. It adds at least 2 new factions (hinted 4 but I’m not sure) to the brawl with some other things. Along with a new storyline, a new co-op mode (yay!), etc. As you may be able to guess, I have not been able to get my hands on this one yet. This was also one of the things out during C76.

Elemental Battle Academy (PC)

It’s the next project by Fly-system (the guys who did Magical Battle Arena) which’s trial edition was originally planned for release during C76 but ultimately did not happen due to some reason or another. As of now, there are barely any information about the game other than the handful of screenshots in the official development blog and whatever little disclosed in the official site. One thing for sure is it’s going to be a 3D action game. No idea when it’ll be released, definitely not anytime soon.

Soul Saber 2 (PC)

The trial will be released to the public as freeware later this month! From the way it seems, the gameplay very much resembles their previous game, Combat Kinryu vs Xentex DX9. This will be good.

God Eater (PSP)

Looks good. I like the general theme too, kind of reminds me of the original reason why I first got hook to Nanoha. Look says it plays like Monster Hunter but who knows, we might be surprised when it’s released.

Undead Knights (PSP)

This one’s epic. You play as one of the three vengeful survivors of a massacre exacting your revenge by turning the enemies into your army of zombies! Then you can order them to do all sorts of fun stuff like ganging up on enemies, overrunning fortresses, bringing down towers, become a throwing object, etc. Total zombie carnage except you’re on the zombie’s side, you can’t go wrong with that!

Antiphona no Seikahime ~Tenshi no Gakufu Op A~ (PSP)

Another RPG by Nipponichi. This one is themed heavily on music. Your aim is to make up a ensemble of different musicians and ultimately hold some MTV stuff, so one can expect lots of singing in here. Being an RPG and all, it’ll have battles, of course, and it looks very much like the kind you’d find in one of those Atelier RPGs. In a nutshell; Atelier + Ar Tonelico + Eternal Sonata = Antiphona.

Higurashi Daybreak Portable Mega Edition (PSP)

It’s yet another expansion to Tasogare Frontier’s ex-doujin game Higurashi Daybreak. This time with three new characters (Satoshi, loli Miyo and Okonogi), all sorts of new equipments for all the other characters, new storyline for the new characters and some stat balancing; things one would expect from an expansion. I just hope they are genuinely new material rather than just skin swap like most of the new weapons in the previous Higurashi Daybreak Portable. On another note about that, I wonder if Tasogare Frontier is even still involved with Daybreak anymore… I wonder if any of these updates would get an equivalent update on the PC version of Daybreak… probably not, just like how Melty Blood never got one.

Sengoku Basara 3 (PS3)

IT’S FREAKING BASARA 3!!! Only two new characters were revealed, and it is hinted that those two might be the only new characters this time around, which I hope is not true… =__= And as one would expect, an update from the PS2 to the PS3 would also automatically demands an expectation for far better graphics, and true enough the graphics are appropriately improved to accommodate with the new generation console. It’ll also be released for the Wii, no idea what’s up with that. Maybe you can do all the crazy acrobatic moves yourself or wield 3 Wiimotes on each hand while playing as Date Masamune lol. War Dance baby! It’ll be out in 2010.

Two days ago, my computer died just after I tried Touhou Hisouten Soku.While my guess is it might have something to do with me reinstalling, uninstalling and reinstalling a lot of thing one after another prior to that but the real cause was never discovered. Took out the harddrive and got the data backed up yesterday and today I did another reformat to my computer, the second in around two months, and the machine’s running again… with quite some initial problems too but most of those were ironed out… or so I think they were but they are probably just hidden back in their hole. For the last two days I have been surfing the net with the DSi and/or the PSP so I wasn’t really completely disconnected from the internet. I’m sensing another major problem for my PC ahead… veeery soon… These machines sure are fragile.

The cover for the US BlazBlue artbook

Just thought I’d share this. It’s the English version of the artbook that came with the US limited edition BlazBlue (mine’s in Korean if you remember from an earlier post). There aren’t much difference between the Korean and the American version of the book other than the US one had a page for Hakumen and V-13 respectively while the Korean one doesn’t but instead has three extra pages of more random concept art stuff (which some were epic, like the yukkuri Carl and Nirvana).

Anyway, here’s the download link. Credit goes to the original scanner and uploader, which obviously isn’t me, and I don’t know who scanned and uploaded it so yeah.

Got a throat infection some 3 days or so ago, been sick since, and also has been playing BlazBlue all day everyday since. I think i’m getting better now. The internet connection is getting worse too, meh.

Also, I might start college next Monday.

and it came with a fanbook and mini OST! Goody goody~

Been thinking about getting this since about a week ago ever since the thought that I need a game with good replay value came through me. While I’m a big fan of Guilty Gear, it never occured to me to get this one when it first came out before for some reason but that’s all in the past now. Also, it’s Korean…

Effortless entry title, yes~

I’ve completed Cross of Venus yesterday and the reason why I didn’t make an entry yesterday was because I was too busy fighting against all the optional bosses unlocked after clearing the game, which by now I’ve successfully beaten 3 out of 4 (the last one wasn’t impossible to defeat, just that I got tired so I went to bed).

And nothing happened today so here are some (lots) videos that I’ve seen through the anime I’ve watched, games I’ve played and my visits to Nico Nico these past two days. Proceed if you are sure your PC can handle the load.

If the battery in my DS didn’t die out a moment ago I would have completed Cross of Venus by now; I was so close to the final boss… but that wasn’t what I was planning to talk about in today’s entry but since that happened unexpectedly so I’m giving it a mention.

Ok, back to the point; I was browsing through Famitsu, Vector and the likes today and found some really nice news, among them are these two that stands out the most:

Senjou no Valkyria 2 (Valkyria Chronicles 2)

Yep, a sequel to that SLG+FPS that recently had an anime service. And oddly this time, they are moving from the PS3 over to the PSP (someone’s not going to be happy about this lol). It sets in Gallia 2 years after the events from the first Valkyria Chronicles, in a military academy. So this time the characters will be mostly young(?) students rather than buffed veterans like Largo in tune with the school setting. The overall gameplay will not have much of a change despite the lower resource pool of the PSP apparently. Well, I guess pictures speak better than words.

The Japanese release is slated for this Winter. Here’s the main page.

Macross Ultimate Frontier

Similar in spirit to Macross Ace Frontier from last year, this is the next Macross game that will be out some time within this year, also for the PSP. Like Macross Ace Frontier, the player can play the storyline of all the Macross timeline ever existed. New feature present are the missile alert feature where a heads-up will be shown on the HUD when an enemy missile has locked on to the player and they can then be shot down, a support character feature with the non-combatant singer characters (Sheryl, Ranka, Lynn Minmay, etc) probably granting temporary stats increase or something along that line, a new character (an operator named Pinon), and some other stuff.

Here are some pictures. Here’s the main page.

It’s a friend of mines birthday today so we had a celebration of sorts with him at the end of the day, which was basically a moment ago from now. There were initially some complications here and there at the beginning of the day due to some faulty planning and miscommunication but the plan was pulled through anyway so it’s all good in the end. Went to 1Utama for some pizza, got him a present, then we head to another friend’s house for some cake and wine, etc. Good stuff.

Also, it’s the third day I’m reading this and it’s also the day I’m done reading it! (the first book at least, now I’m onto the second)

Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii wake ga nai 1

It’s also probably the only novel (light novel or not, it’s still a novel~) I’ve ever finished reading since the past several years or so; pretty impressive for it to have had held my interest through all the way. Truth be said, it’s probably because the storytelling and sentence arrangement styles aren’t like the typical wall-of-text one would expect from novels, this one’s pretty simple and spread out. But then again, I’m comparing a Japanese novel with English novels here so yeah. There are many other factors to think about if an objective conclusion is to be drawn but that’s not what the entry today is supposed to be about so I’m not getting any further into that. Anyway, basically it’s about these two siblings who hates each other to their guts; the brother is a normal guy (literally normal in every sense of his being) while the younger sister is the popular and fashion conscious kind of person. Then one day after some happenings and stuff the brother finds out that his sister is secretly a hardcore otaku and a siscon in addition to that (well, sister complex if you’re not familiar with the term. The sister herself is a siscon. Try wrapping your head around that lol) along with several other things. So yeah, then things get interesting from there. It was a fun read… learned some new kanji and phrases too so that’s good.

Onto other news, some friends of mine succeeded at making me do something I really never thought I would ever have done. More like I actually wanted nothing to do with it… EVER. But it’s done now so meh. That’s peer pressure for you right there. I’m not saying what it is, I don’t want to link that place with this place. But as time goes by it wouldn’t be hard for one to find out on their own anyway if it matters enough for them to actually try to. That’s the sad part about technology…

P.S. new category omg! Well, it might come in handy since I think I’m really getting in to this thing.

Hell yeah!

I didn’t notice that the demo was out 4 days ago until I read about it today. Hell yeah!

P.S. If you notice the time on the upper right corner of the monitor in that screen shot, it says 3:23am. Haha, yes, it’s already the morning of 17th of July when I’m typing this so I adjusted the time a little since this entry is suppose to represent the 16th of July. tl;dr: ヽ（◕ヮ◕）ノ

I’ve been leaving my home quite a lot these past week or two. I guess I’m slowly slipping out of the almost hikikomori-like lifestyle I’ve been stuck in ever since I got out of college earlier this year; equaly that my wallet slowly gets lighter by each trip.

Ugh, that reminds me… I still have tonnes of manga to order including the new volume of Mirai Nikki >__>

EDIT: agh, and I just remembered that I have yet to finish Tenshinranman too. Damn, I should get to that soon.

It’s one of my friend’s birthday today so we had this surprise celebration of sorts for him over at Bukit Tinggi, Klang. We chat, took pictures, ate, played some cards, wagered through the cards, the usual stuff one would expect I guess. That was late in the day a moment ago; the rest of the earlier part of the day was just generic.

Today also was supposed to be another friend of mine’s birthday but I was already booked for this other one first when she reminded me so… difficult stuff.

Great Alstroemeria stuff~

More videos from youtube because today was eventless~ this one’s pretty good.

Spent much of yesterday and today watching random video streams through out both Youtube and Nico Nico Douga; particularly those revolving the parody of one certain Yandere drama CD series. Here’s a parody of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kizuna – Tatari’s opening with the characters from the Yandere CD series plus several other more better known characters, if you can recognise them:

I have also finally completed a papercraft project I have been stalling since forever a few days back since I was too bored anyway. I didn’t make an entry about it that day itself because I was too sleepy. I was originally planning to however.

Picture taken using the DSi; complete with the effects of its image manipulation capabilities.

No prize for guessing what it is. And I know it’s missing one ear… I lost it while I was gluing the parts together. It probably fell off somewhere behind the computer or something. Will fix it when I run into the other ear in the future, hopefully still in one piece.

I was walking around the mall to survey the price of an internal data card reader for my computer when I though I would just drop by the book store to see if there are any new interesting books. Several glance through the shelves and I was kind of convinced that it was the same as several days ago when I last checked so I was about to leave when I suddenly felt like using the electronic search kiosk to see if there are anything hidden that I might be interested in, oh whadaya know~

!

Helios Eclipse Epilogue, the final book in the looong running series and also my final connection with the local comics scene. It showed there was 40 stocks available on the screen but I can’t see any on the shelves. So I asked the customer service desk and they promptly went into the store room behind and got one out for me… It wasn’t even placed out yet lol! I haven’t looked it up online before leaving for the mall but a check a moment ago showed the official site haven’t even updated to show this new book too. Now I’m thinking maybe I got it before its planned release…

Well anyway, as for the contents, it ends the series pretty well. Several clues posed in the past are finally pulled together and explained; some I didn’t even remember until it was mentioned. But <spoilers ahead, highlight to read>I can’t help but feel that Soileh’s change of heart in the end feels kind of forced… I mean, he was bent on destroying all of existence from sheer vengence for the past 7 books. What’s Helios saving him once is going to make him turn a new leaf instantly? But other than that, the final climax was pretty cool. Also with how the story had been developing from the past volumes, it had been very likely that the series would have ended with a sad ending so the sudden plot twist in this one that resulted in a happy one was kind of interesting. I do like plot twists after all :P</spoiler> And now with this series over I have finally lost all my ties to the local comic scene… again… until Kaoru release another book that is, or if something else interesting catches my attention.

So I finally got myself together and assembled all the documents required for my next college today. And as an extra bonus that I didn’t expect: I also got my diploma certificate for my previous multimedia design today.

Quite a huge step forward this is. All that is left now is to just submit these to the college and I’m back in the classroom.

oh boy oh boy

The lastest update in Tasogare Frontier’s official site released one very interesting picture. If it says anything, it’s definitely telling that Tasogare Frontier are working up on something new; either a whole new Touhou fighting game or an expansion to SWR. Either way is still awesome!

Got off bed at 12pm and left my room at 2pm. Left for ‘breakfast’ at 2:30pm and got home again at 4pm. No, I did not spend 90 minutes on my ‘breakfast’ but 60 minutes walking around Sunway Pyramid before going home. 4pm onwards was just routine.

I did play a little Project Diva though… very little compared to how I would usually play a game.

"Because it's Yowane Haku"; the best excuse to use when losing

The more I play, the more familiar stuff pops up. I’m really hoping to see Kasane Teto (I blame Touko for reviving the drill spirit in me with the recent Marimite 4 >__>) in here but from a legality point of view it might very well be impossible… oh well.

worth blogging about today.

First is about Hatsune Miku -Project Diva-. It has been floating around for a few days now but I never tried it before because of the CFW version issue, which was solved soon after although it also brought other new problems but that’s a story for another day.

Loads of unlockables, just as one would expect

Starting up Miku and I was greeted with almost half of ryo’s Supercell album at the very top of the song list, which pretty much made me felt like I was playing Beats all over again since I used to always play those songs in Beats. Not to mention the gameplay was about the same save for Project Diva having a 3D PV-esque thingy going on in the background, the end-point for the notes are all over the place rather than stationery, and in Project Diva you don’t have to worry about multiple stream of notes like in Beats since there isn’t. One thing I’ll commend about the game is the ingenuity of the ‘note-ends that goes all over the screen’ thing I just mentioned earlier; with this, the player’s eye would not have to be fixated on just a single corner of the screen through out the entire gameplay but also give the player a chance to actually look at the things that are going on in the background (a 3D PV of the song featuring Hatsune Miku, oh yeah). There are also many familiar songs in there; familiar if you have been following the Vocaloid scene in Nico Nico Douga of course.

Second is that I’ve finally gotten my own Nintendo DSi today!

Sleek stuff, looks almost like my screwdriver set

This is the first time I’ve bought a console early during its production life cycle. I also still owe my friend RM100 since I wasn’t able to make it to the bank in time to get my own. I haven’t tried any games on it though, because of the simple reason that I don’t have any games yet. It’s pretty entertaining by itself I suppose; taking and editing random pictures, scribbling non-sense with its stylus, time well spent amirite? Another thing I feel like mentioning: Seems like some people noted the removal of the glossy finish in the DSi compared to the DSlite as a minus but I say I prefer it this way. Glossy stuff are finger print magnets as far as I’m concerned… another reason why I went for a silver PSP rather than the piano black one. Not sure if I ever mention that before in here.

Haven’t been making any entries lately partly because I was lazy, and partly because I was too absorbed into wasting my time in whatever else I was doing to make a blog entry instead but lets put that aside. July is nearly upon us and here I feel compelled to write another entry for June before July truly arrives, for July may possibly be the most hectic month I may encounter in the immediate future, or at least the first week of July may be. This is because I have to really rush my college applications before the intake on the 10th of July. I still have a lot of things to deal with before that and I hope I can make it, lest I may have to wait till 2010 for my next chance.

Slow progress is recorded on Tenshinranman

Anyway, I’m progressing pretty well in Tenshinranman and I might complete it within the week or so. Just the other day, I have installed Gouen no Soliel -Chaos Region- but I will not start on it until I’m done with Tenshinranman. Through all my experience with eroge, one thing I learnt is to never play several eroges at once for I will never finish neither. I have also installed World in Conflict: Soviet Assault yesterday. I’ve played it a little and I find it a little troublesome that the new Soviet missions being intertwined between the old USA missions. I’ve completed the original World in Conflict so being forced to play all the old missions all over again was a little… unpleasant… not that the game was bad though, very much the opposite actually. I just prefer to replay a game by choice.

Also, I have partially decided on getting one certain black DSi very soon for it was not priced at the ridiculous RM1000 that every other store in the whole damn country seem to prefer charging people for. I have the just enough for this (not RM1000, definitely not), I’m just reluctant to spend them. If the cosmos allows, I’ll be a proud owner of a DSi within the week… though thinking about it logically, it doesn’t seem to likely as I would be too busy with the college thing. And who knows what my parents would say this time if I brought home yet another game console, and at this very bad timing when I’m struggling for college.

Finally completed this one after leaving it for a week or two. So I thought I might as well just give my overall impression of the game while I’m at it.

As an RPG, it’s simple and refreshing during the earlier portions of the game. Only problem then is the extremely high enemy encounter rate. However, that is fine during early-game as you can just escape the battle if you don’t feel like participating in them… but come past a certain part of the game and the enemy level curve will suddenly get really steep and one would start finding the enemy level up rate between dungeons increasing so much that power levelling is no longer avoidable. Not to mention that it gets much more time consuming to level up later on. There is also only a limited number of abilities the characters could learn thoughout the game but that’s still fine as the abilities are somewhat customisable with the “skill line” thing. You can perform permanent upgrades on the ability to improve certain properties like power, area of effect, etc, but of course, each upgrades are reflected on the MP/HP consumption of the said ability. One interesting thing about the “skill line” system in that for once it makes ‘maxed out attributes’ unfavourable as it render the MP/HP cost for each usage too much, making the ability extremely difficult to be used during a tight battle, not to mention upgrades are permanent so you can’t undo your mistakes if you did not save your data beforehand. So that part needed some brain activity so that’s good. Also, the graphics are ok in general. The character models look very good actually but the environment are inconsistent; some dungeons look decent while others look crude. So… great + decent + bad = ok. lol. Also, instead of being generated in real time, many special effects (like spell effects and such) are actually prerendered videos layered onto the 3D scenes so… well, those are fine too I guess.

As an eroge however it fairs pretty fine. The story is really good, actually, reeeaaally good (imo at least lol). I guess the lack of multiple endings might not hold too well with some people however. The single route storyline is still understandable though since I don’t expect them to create a multiple full path 3D RPG; that would mean a whole different set of dungeons, storyline and possible NPCs to meet for each different heroine route! That’ll almost be like several separate RPGs stuck together already lol. The single storyline had a pretty good impact with it so it’s good if you ask me.

And after completing it, I get the option to preview all the CGs from the game (and since ther is only one route available, I got all the CGs in a single playthrough, haha), replay H-scenes, and access to the bgm player. A new Devil difficulty is also unlocked in the New Game, which is basically hard difficulty where the player gets 25% extra damage from enemies and also gets to encounter one extra optional boss not present in the other difficulties.

That’s about it I guess…

Ninja Gaiden is next! One down, one to go~

I’ve also started playing Dawn of War 2 a few days ago so that might be soon as well.

P.S lol it took me exactly a month to finish Megido!

Today, I’m emphasizing again on how dangerous it is to put me behind the wheels.

Shoooouuriiiii!

This was supposedly for yesterday but whatever. I’ve finally completed all the missions for all the factions in Red Alert 3 yesterday! It’s not really a very great feat though since it was quite easy imo.

I didn’t really did much during the rest of the day. Maybe spent about an hour on Fate/Unlimited Codes on the PSP but that’s about it. Most of the other time I was just sleeping or something.

Alright, next is either Megido or Ninja Gaiden! Probably Megido. One down, two to go~

1080p, oh my

Been playing this quite a lot since yesterday. Also, I may finish Red Alert 3, Megido and Ninja Gaiden within the week… probably.

Other than that, I also tried the PSP port of Fate/Unlimited Codes today. On a superficial level, I don’t see any difference other than the graphics. There are probably some character balancing tweaks or something else further up ahead into the game but I don’t know, never really did read too deep about it before anyway.

Was wandering around the net when I came across more new games that will be out soon.

I’m too lazy to post up pictures or whatever since… well, I’m lazy. Another reason is that the ISP screwed up the post again and what you’re reading right now is just a hastily reconstructed one with a lot less enthusiasm than I started with.

Reia just screams Hatsune Miku doesn't she

First is Nuga-Cel, it’s a part AVG, part RPG, part SLG game. Also, Kei is responsible for the artwork. You may recognise him from Vocaloid2.

The other is Trinity Universe, another crossover kind of game between Idea Factory, Gust and Nippon Ichi (just like Cross Edge, only without Capcom). So far they have only unveiled a handful of characters and there are no characters from Idea Factory yet so far. The art style reminds me of Summon Night.

…ok, I can’t remember what else I wrote before so I’ll end it here.

I was away from home for longer than I initially anticipated today so I didn’t get to finish Megido like I was expecting to. Also, I did try to mention this before my ISP screwed the post two days ago but I was just done with Zelda: Link’s Awakening that day and yesterday and in its place, I’ve started Seiken Densetsu 3 (aka Secret of Mana 2). You can say I’m doing some retro-gaming along side all the other games as well these days lol. My childhood’s pretty deprived you see~ I’ve never really gotten to play many of the good stuff before. Well, at least not in peace I haven’t.

So anyway, since I wasn’t within proximity with my computer for most of the day, I was playing Seiken Densetsu 3 instead… lots of it. Great stuff.

Also, it’s interesting how almost all of the search results returned for “seiken_densetsu_3 rating:safe” in both Danbooru and Gelbooru are of Riesz (or Liese, or Lise, whichever romanization you prefer). Removing “rating:safe” will definitely yield even more results if you’re interested but be sure you know what you’re doing and where you are when you’re doing it lol.

Mmmm Riesz~~

Coincidently (*ahem*), Riesz is also the character that I have chosen as the main character in the game~

It was a sleepy day today. If I wasn’t playing Megido or watching some random anime, I was sleeping. And although I slept during the day today, I still am feeling quite sleepy right now, and this is a lot earlier than usual in fact. Whatever that is supposed to mean.

Hmm, I think I might be able to finish Megido by tomorrow. Then I’ll be moving on to the next game. Haha~~

The crossroad in life I'm facing right now, visualized.

<entry body is deleted by the Interweb because your ISP was too busy being an ass and not giving you any bandwidth despite receiving their monthly payment>

As I said two days ago, I was supposed to visit the remaining two colleges for enquiry today but that didn’t really happen. Well, it almost did, then one of my father’s former employee turned up and apparently he had an appointment with him before and forgot about it so… the enquiry is postponed to tomorrow.

Also, I finally got myself to tag the new Mizuki Nana album from last week so I finally got to listen to it today. Good stuff~

Here’s a music video of one of the song that was in the album:

I didn’t do much today. I did however catch up on 5 weeks of the anime Saki. Well, that wasn’t the only thing I watched but it was the one with the most episodes unwatched. Aside from that, I did play a little of Red Alert 3 but it keeps hard resetting my computer automatically for some unknown reason.

and now~ lets see if you can handle this all the way.

Went around the ‘college ring’ in Subang and  enquired about college stuff today. That’s one step forward from my several months long NEET life I guess.

I didn’t manage to stop by the last two colleges because it was getting late along with several other unforeseen circumstances so I’m planning to continue it this Thursday.

Also, I catched up on all the animes that I haven’t watched for the past 3 weeks or so… I have no idea why I didn’t watch them before…

FFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

Today I realize that I might be a very very veeeery dangerous driver. I won’t say how so but yeah… haha. Not that I mind.

So I’m back from the two day stay in Ipoh. As I expected, nothing out of the ordinary happened during those two days. Spent my first day there (yesterday) playing Pangya on my PSP (yeah, still), same for today. Oh, and I finally managed to complete the story mode for Pangya today. It’s only a two day (1.5 to be exact) effort so that shows how much earlier this could have been done if only I wasn’t being distracted by anything else on the PC or the PS3. I will still be playing it since I have yet to complete the other modes and there are still tonnes of stuff to be unlocked.

Also, this video is relevant.