Kari's Blog

Review: Ar tonelico III

2010-02-27T13:25:00.005-05:00

Ar tonelico III: Sekai Shuuen no Hikigane wa Shoujo no Uta ga Hiku
Platform: PS3
Genre: RPG
Playtime: 35:35 on True End path, add on ~3 hours for Bad/Normal ends
Blew through this in just over a week...

Gameplay: 7/10 Even though it's the same rating, I feel as if it's a step down from AT2's system. Jumping has returned, but field magic is still gone. Well, lots of things are gone. Each RT only has one spell per personality, and those personalities also replace the costumes that up stats. Hymma are added to the songs to give buffs to the vanguard, but aren't as special as the IPDs from 2. Item creation is like AT1's system, but costs DP to do, which gets annoying early on when you're short on DP (endgame it's fine because you have too much AGAIN).
Battle is a step down -- it's mostly mashing square until you can purge your RT to level up her magic. Vanguards do pathetic damage -- I was just breaking 300 a hit on weaker enemies at endgame, so get used to seeing the magic casting spells over and over and over again. And enemies themselves...weren't that interesting. Poms are only at the start of the game very briefly, and then it's generic robots and other plant things. Each area doesn't really have it's own set of enemies, once you're in phase 4 you'll be seeing the same pear-vine and robot things in every area.
Dunno where else to put this, but the world felt really small compared to the other games.

Story: null No rating due to me not being fluent in Japanese. It's not the same if I rated it based on other people's opinions/writings of what happens anyway.

Characters: 9/10 Even though the party was dropped from 8 people to 6, this gives every character a chance to have plot based around them. The most useless character seemed to be Hikari Gojyou, but only really because Aoto is the main character, and Cocona is special already. We finally get a playable Origin back in Tilia, and I have to say, she has the most personality out of the three Origins. Saki and Finnel hold their own in the end, but by the end game, it's mostly about helping Tilia with her project (at least, from what I could get)

Graphics: 7.5/10 Well...they LOOK nice, but they could do so much more. The "2D images over a background while people talk with textboxes" from pretty much every other Gust game is back, but falls flat here due to the background images not changing when characters leave, enter, or move in the scene. There could've been so much more done with the 3D models, and some parts scream laziness (like when Aoto is thinking to himself at the end of Phase 2, his mouth loops through an animation over and over) Also, lots of clipping with sleeves and heads into shoulders.
Song magic and EX attacks, which are usually nice to watch, get boring fast because each girl only has one, and each level is just a slight variation on the animation. The Flipsphere attacks are also boring to see because EVERY girl has the same forumla -- small things drop, girl poses, larger thing drops.

Music: 9/10 As usual, Gust delivers with a stellar OST and vocal songs. Favorites are Z, Cosmoflips, and Harmonics Tilia. As for OST songs, the world map theme, the menu/dive shop theme, and a couple of the town themes were good (not Clusternia town theme argh)

Overall Rating: 8/10
Recommendation: If you know Japanese well or are a big enough fan of the series to play through without understanding, go ahead and import this. Otherwise, wait a year and see if we get an English version.

Early Opinions on Ar tonelico III

2010-02-17T16:52:00.002-05:00

9 hours in and at the end of Phase 1, let's go!

-Since it's in moonspeak I've pretty much been skipping the text...there have been some funny scenes, though
-Okay, purging was a nice gimmick at first, but I'm tired of seeing the scenes and fake boobs now.
-The battle system is mash buttan, die anyway. I'm only on normal and I'm still having trouble with things
-Don't like how item synthing uses precious DP
-The first song you hear after starting the game is Cutypump. The next is Ep=Nova. It's like they want your ears to be raw and bleeding before you get to the good shit
-Hearing Tatsumi use "boku" makes me laugh
-Some dungons have an overhead camera that zooms in and out and makes me dizzy

Review: Valkyria Chronicles

2010-02-01T16:21:00.005-05:00

Valkyria Chronicles
Platform: PS3
Genre: SRPG
Playtime: 32:31
Stupid January class made me take forever on this, but it still lasted only a month.

Gameplay: 8/10 Like most SRPGs, there's no fancy world map. What we do have is a book as a framing device, and you pick scenes/battles from the book. It gets annoying at times as not all scenes are linked together, and you have to always confirm before you play the scene.
Battle wise, it combines a lot of different views together. Top down map view to choose a unit, third person view to run around with a unit, and then a closer, near first person view when you're shooting things. The camera gets screwy sometimes, which blows when you're trying to move a unit as best as possible with the limited AP (basically running power) that they have.
It gets points knocked off for some tough enemy AI early on, especially with snipers, and endgame, when a scout rush is the solution to nearly every battle.

Story: 9/10 Hoo boy, I'm a sucker for this story. It's very much an anime plot (not like the anime got it right though), but I loved it. Love, hatred, wins, losses...yeah, okay. Son of a hero Welkin, his sister Isara, and their new friend Alicia end up drafted into the Gallian militia to fight in the Second Europan War against the Empire. Mix in some magical girls and you've got the basic plot of the game. The story is pretty well paced, with each chapter in the book being a major event. It gives you a couple plot twists in the middle, leaving enough time for it all to be resolved in the end.

Characters: 9/10 There's two "types" of characters in this game, the important playable characters the story revolves around, and the LPCs, or lesser playable characters. The LPCs are the units that join your squad who can permadie. Now, in most SRPGs, you take a blank slate and use them and they stay a blank slate. VC is different because each unit has their own backstory and personality. You really get attached to the characters and end up using favorites, sometimes even if their skills are bad. I personally got real attached to Lynn and Nadine (and of course cameo characters Vyse and Aika!)
As for the main characters, they're all quite unique with strengths and flaws. I'd go into more detail but going into TOO much detail would be major spoilers for a good number of characters. My favorite overall turned out to be Isara >>

Graphics: 9/10 Sega's first use of the CANVAS engine is a good one, giving semi-realistic graphics, but still able to keep a sketchy anime-style look. Shame that the sequel is more styled after the anime, but eh.

Music: 8/10 The first OST by Hitoshi Sakimoto that I've heard, and it was enjoyable. Some of the tracks sound alike, especially the battle themes, though. Also, you'll pretty much hear the same few tracks throughout the game, since you spend more time in certain places than in others. I'd comment about the OP/ED song "No Matter The Distance" but it was cut for the US version...

Localization: 10/10 Probably one of the strongest localizations I've played in a while (though that's not saying much). The JP voice track is included, though the subtitles for scenes match the English track which throws off some lines at points, but I played with English voices so I don't really care that much.

Overall Rating: 8.8 rounded up to a 9/10
Recommendation: One of the PS3 must-buy games, I highly recommend this to any SRPG or JRPG fan, or even someone wanting to try something new. It's only $20 now if you can find it, so why not?

Early Opinions on Valkyria Chronicles

2009-12-30T21:33:00.003-05:00

Can you call it early when I'm halfway through the game? Oh well.

-This is proving how much I suck at strategy. I just can't see ahead as to what I should do turns from now sometimes.
-Also, objectives can be a little unclear, and the maps hard to read.
-Isara is mai waifu!
-Rosie is mai other waifu! And Aika, Lynn, Nadine, Cherry, Ramona, Alicia, Ellet, Varrot...
-Hans is still cute, mooink.
-Everything is less moe than the anime.
-Just because they were in the anime doesn't mean they're a good character to use.
-Orders are broken.
-Selvie's PEW PEW PEW noise scares me ;A;
-I'm on chapter 11. NOT LOOKING FORWARD TO THE END OF THIS ONE ;AAAA;

Stuff from the last post until now

2009-11-15T23:35:00.002-05:00

Beaten:
Disgaea DS
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team
Knights in the Nightmare
Um Jammer Lammy
Elite Beat Agents

So yeah, I've been busy with portables. On the console front...lol.
I got Skies of Arcadia Legends, got to the first save point.
Ar tonelico III was announced, I'm getting that.
Valkyria Chronicles II was announced and isn't a console game, getting that too.
Mom bought my PS3 but I can't play it until Christmas :(
Still on that topic, the Valkyria Chronicles anime finished and I gave it a 6/10. Now watching Tatakau Shisho and Tales of the Abyss...the former is a really confusing show, maybe a 7/10 right now, and the latter is awesome, probably a 8/10 now.

School sucks.

Review: Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al-Revis

2009-08-20T10:36:00.002-04:00

Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al-Revis
Platform: PS2
Genre: RPG
Playtime: 42:12
Beat it exactly one week before MK2's release. Let's go.

Gameplay: 6/10 Do you remember Atelier Iris 3? Well, the controls are exactly the same. Jump button, slashing button, dungeons that you run through multiple times to get into deeper areas that gets annoying FAST.
Instead of a quest based system, there's a class based system...which is about the same thing. You take a class, you get the assignment, you do it, and time marches on. In Free Time (if you got enoug units), you can take Jobs -- fetch quests or beat-up-monster quests -- which is the best way to get money in the game. And you'll need a lot of money to do alchemy.
Alchemy hasn't changed much either. Expect to do a lot of running back and forth between your workshop and the athanor (equipment making place) to get all the items. You get recipes from the field and boss fights, but can also do derivation to make new items (like using a different type of stone to get a different colored steel). The difference from AI3 is with the element wheel that determines the level and added effects of the item. It's easy to get down, though, even though you don't always want the level at 100. Character's stats are completely determined by alchemy by way of the Grow Book -- think of the Sphere Grid from FFX and you've got the same idea.
The battle system is 95% identical to Atelier Iris 3, save for the Finishing Bursts, Variable Strikes, and attack/defense support from the backline characters. Enemies are also on screen in the same types of blobs as AI3, and yes, I still avoided them too often.

Story: 6/10 Vayne and his mana, Sulpher, get to go to Al-Revis Academy for alchemy, and they meet lots of weird people there as they go through their three years of school. That's about it until you get about 35 hours in and learn that Vayne isn't really normal. The story is VERY slow moving, and there's no real bigbad until the very end of the game. They hide the plot points from you, trying to add mystery, but it ended up annoying me more than anything. JUST TELL ME ALREADY, ISOLDE.

Characters: 8/10 Unlike AI3, there's a lot of characters with their own personality quirks. Jess is a girl that blows up things with a sad past, Nikki is a hyperactive catgirl who wants lots of babies, Flay thinks he's a superhero and he also flunks all his classes, Roxis is the random rival, Anna is the loli with a crazy imagination, Pamela is a ghost, and Muppy is an alien. The NPCs don't get much backstory except for Isolde, so there's no problem like AI3 had with that. During free time you can also do character quests -- completing one person's is necessary for the good ending, but if you get As in every class, you'll have enough free time to have every ending available at endgame. These character quests add more personality to the characters, though there's sometimes a bit of an AT1 problem where things that happen in the character quests are never mentioned in the main story.
Voices were good all around. Hello Liam O'Brien doing someone who isn't evil and bishy, for once. Stephanie Sheh returns as Nikki, and she's not annoying and crazy high pitched! Anna's voice, whoever it was, is a bit too low for a 12-year-old...not like Anna really LOOKS 12 anyway.

Graphics: 7.5/10 2D Gust RPG, blah blah blah. I knocked off a half-point because it reuses a lot of stuff from AI3 :B

Music: 8/10 Lots of catchy songs and good battle themes. Each character even has their own theme!

Localization: 7/10 As a pre-AT2 NISA localization, it's good. There's a few awkward lines (Orgasmic bomb property?), and sometimes the text boxes get one word looking lonely on a line. I don't remember many spelling/grammar errors. The worst part is that only 60% or so of the game is voiced in English. The character quests aren't voiced at all, and many of the shopkeepers don't have voices. At least important story scenes kept their voices.

Overall Rating: 7/10
Recommendation: If you like Gust's RPGs, but want something a bit different. This is still more on the side of a typical JRPG, but the fact that alchemy/item crafting determines your stats pushes it more towards what an older Atelier game is probably like. It's also the longest out of the four Atelier games currently released in the US (though MK2 is out next week and is longer...)

Early Opinions on Mana Khemia

2009-07-26T19:41:00.003-04:00

-Oh god dammit they reused sound effects and sprites from Atelier Iris 3. I'm sick of that enemy and sound set.
-Hooray they reused the Atelier Iris 3 battle system and "random" encounter system!
-Still running around to synth items. Buy something from the store to synth an item in the workshop to synth a weapon in the...weapon-synth-place.
-Grow Book reminds me of the Sphere Grid from FF10. Interesting system.
-I thought Vayne would be less of a pussy. At least he can JUMP.
-Vayne is also mysterious. I'M SURE THIS WON'T COME INTO PLAY LATER.

E3 2009: Microsoft vs Nintendo vs Sony

2009-06-03T12:29:00.003-04:00

After not caring about E3 for a few years, I decided to watch the three big press conferences this year. Well, I'm quite glad I did! Here's what I thought:

Microsoft: I'm a bit biased against them because I don't and never have owned any of their consoles. But the games they showed off were quite pretty, even if they seemed to be all sequels (but that was a running trend in all three conferences, I think). So I really didn't care about the games since I won't buy any. Now, Project Natal, on the other hand, was pretty damn amazing. It'll be interesting to see if it does anything to the younger/older crowd when it's released, which I don't think it will be before next E3. This one kept me pretty interested the whole time, though I'd look away during the games

Nintendo: Oooooo, Nintendo. I love Nintendo. Mostly. LOTS of stuff about Wii Fit, Wii Sports Resort...the casual things that I'm meh about. My mom likes this kind of stuff though, even though she doesn't want to spend $90 on Wii Fit. Now THEY had games I cared about! New Super Mario Bros. Wii looks fun (I've never played the DS version), especially with multiplayer available. And the Koopalings are back AND apparently the Yoshi's make SMW-style Yoshi noises :3 Super Mario Galaxy 2 is a maybe, considering that it's only 90% new levels and looks like a SMG expansion pack. Metroid: Other M looks BEAUTIFUL, and I've only played one Metroid game (Zero Mission) DS games...well, Golden Sun DS is an INSTANT preorder for me. I swore they were talking about Dragon Quest until they said "6 years" and then I was like "hmmm". ... >> << EEEEEEE YES SO EXCITED. Uh...lol vitality thing, my mom found that a bit scary, and...that's about it.

Sony: To be honest, I was falling asleep at this point (haven't been feeling well recently) and I had to leave before the end to deliever some meds to my friend. They started with boring numbers, but I was happy that they acknowledged the PS2's existence :) PSP Go wasn't anything new, but LOL $250 PRICE TAG. It's the new "five-hundred ninety-nine US dollars"! Feeling sorry for the Yerps that have to pay 250 Euros, too. Final Fantasy XIII and The Last Guardian look DAMN pretty, and I want them because it's so pretty. Final Fantasy XIV was out of left field and actually looks like a fantasy game...but it's Online. And that sucks. Wonder what'll happen to FF11 when that's released? Sony also had some new motion controller thing that I didn't catch much of, apparently it looks like a dildo? I guess motion controls are the new big thing that every company wants to do, since the Wii did it and the Wii prints money.

Overall? Tech-wise it's Microsoft > Nintendo > Sony. Game-wise it's Nintendo > Sony > Microsoft.

REALLY?!?!

2009-05-31T13:27:00.003-04:00

HOW DID I MISS THIS. Aw man, it's already a good E3 for me with THIS announcement holy shit Lunar remake coming over by XSEED YES.
Also, Fragile. Apparently it's pretty good, and we do need more Wii RPGs.

BACK TO LUNAR. I'm already wondering about the voice actors, of course, since they'll have to redo them all. And the boat song is gonna be redone, probably. I wonder if the game's getting a new opening? And the translation! They say in the interview that they'll try to strike a balance between Working Designs' humor and correct translations, which is nice. As long as it's not like Lunar Legend or that OTHER GAME it'll be fine by me.

... >> << *waits for Lunar 2 remake*

Really?!

2009-05-13T09:59:00.002-04:00

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3174199
http://www.imagebam.com/image/d232e035607845

Really!

(Japan only, but maybe someone will bring it over...)

NISA Press Event

2009-05-08T11:24:00.001-04:00

I'll just direct you over here: http://nisamerica.com/pressevent/2009/
And over here: http://nisamerica.com/games/mk2/

Maybe there's some hope left? I'm getting optimistic, but considering their track record...it seems like they have a few too many games on their plate for Fall releases, and something's gonna get pushed back.

hnnnnnnnnnng

2009-04-30T16:03:00.001-04:00

Every visual novel player/fan out there should go download the demo for Katawa Shoujo, because it is awesome.

That is all.

Slow week.5

2009-04-05T13:55:00.003-04:00

It's been about a week.5 since I last posted, right? Okay, it hasn't been slow in all meanings of the word, but in my gaming it has. I played Pokemon Platinum a lot. My Dragon team is kicking ass 6 ways to next week, even in the Ice gym.

Cross Edge site keeps getting updates, all the characters are there. I'm not following it as closely as AT2 since I don't plan on buying it. Rosenqueen's getting a new site, and that's when preorders should go up.

Other news...well. The world ended on 4/1, and that's all I'll say on that.

Time to go to the store. I really need food.

Cross Edge boxart and trailer

2009-03-26T01:14:00.006-04:00

Seriously, NISA, stop releasing so much info about this game so quickly! You're making me WANT it.

Boxart popped up at Amazon. It's essentially the same as the JP boxart but Miko(to) was moved and someone was taken off to make room for her. I like it, though.

Watch the trailer here. Yes, I'm pretty sure that Yuri Lowenthal is voicing three characters. Miko(to) is a bit high, the AT1 girls don't have their old voices, and Etna and Prinny are the same as usual.

Um...that's about it. I'll have to hear more of course to get a better judgment of what they'll be like. But it seems...tolerable? Also, the font they're using for text seems to be the same used in AT1 and 2. Random observation.

Next thing you'll know is Rosenqueen will put up preorders with epic swag and I'll drop $70 (since swag costs extra) on a game I don't have the system for. Then I'll drop over $400 for a 60GB PS3, and then money for Eternal Sonata and Valkyria Chronicles :X

Cross Edge interview

2009-03-24T12:35:00.004-04:00

Sure a lot of info coming out about this game recently.

An interview with Nao Zook...

Is there going to be lots of voice acting in Cross Edge? If you need someone to voice a Southerner, I do a mean Hank Hill impression. You could fly me out and I'll record some lines for free. What I'm really trying to ask is will there be Japanese and English language options?
Nao: Haha, I wish you would've told me that before! I am sure you'd do a great job on it. But unfortunately, all the voice recording is done, and there is quite a lot of it in this game. All of the original Japanese voices are included, and we also recorded over half of the total voiced lines into English.

From that last sentence, I wonder if they meant "all the dialogue" when they said "all the voices" or if "all the voices" just means that everyone who had a voice in the JP version has at least one voiced line? Confusing. I hope that they really had enough localization and debugging time. Debugging time, mostly.

Also, at the end of the interview, they essentially announced that we're getting Atelier Annie, which is the newest Atelier game released on DS. It just came out this month, in fact. That'd make it the first traditional Atelier game to come over to the US! I wonder if we'll be getting Rorona too?

Cross Edge site launched

2009-03-21T23:32:00.002-04:00

http://nisamerica.com/games/crossedge/

I have nothing to say on name changes for Mana Khemia 2, as long as they carry over into that game if/when it's localized. Marie (Atelier Marie) didn't get changed, for some reason I was afraid they'd screw up on her. Same with the other characters that have established names (Darkstalkers and AT girls)

My only beef is with "Reyvatail". Come ON guys, you at least got that right in your mess you called Ar tonelico II. Don't let that get in the game. Besides, your rep is SERIOUSLY hanging on this game, NISA. If it sucks, that's three in a row (1 is Rhapsody, 2 is AT2).

Raki Battle Video and Early Opinions on Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World

2009-03-17T17:42:00.002-04:00

First off, here's my battle with Raki from AT2 on the retail NA version of the game. So no patching to make it go past Defense Phase 3. Apologies for the blocking, I had massive lag from my setup, I'm really a TON better, especially with Raki.

Now, for some Early Opinions!
-Emil, please grow a pair.
-Marta, please stop being so tsundere/cliche clingy girl.
-Tenebrae and Colette? DON'T CHANGE I LOVE YOU BOTH.
-I'm not used to 90% of scenes being voiced! Also, getting tired of Laura Bailey...
-The waggle shortcuts for techs are FUN. Though I set the most useful one to Down on the D-pad cause it's easier...

Review: Ar tonelico II: Melody of Metafalica

2009-03-15T14:06:00.004-04:00

Ar tonelico II: Melody of Metafalica
Platform: PS2
Genre: RPG
Playtime: 65:07
This only took a month longer than it should have.

Gameplay: 7/10 Still very much like the first AT game, minus some mechanics like Green field magic and jumping. Maps are also the same select an area that you can run through type of thing. Diving is also the same, though you can only go all the way (heh) with one girl, which makes it a lot more realistic.
Dualstall is an interesting level up system, even if in the end it makes your Reyvateils very overpowered (mine were level 96). It can be annoying redoing it to get the effects you want, since the movement in the bath is random.
Battles were changed too, of course, to a more action-oriented style like Valkyrie Profile. It kept me awake during those long IPD hunting sections, but again, it gets too easy by end game when you have Guard ++++ equipped and are firing off dual magic.
I probably forgot something here that's not important XD

Story: 8/10 Taking a break from the typical "save the world from a bad guy" plot, this time we're saving the world by trying to make new land. Of course there's a zillion obstacles in the way. The story isn't about Croix, the player character, but Cloche and Luca, two of the girls that travel with him. More and more RPGs seem to be doing this recently, FF12 being one that sticks out in memory. Even the final bosses are very different, following in the footsteps of AT1.

Characters: 8/10 Speaking of following AT1, Jakuri is THE best character in the game, nearly as complex, if not more so than Cloche and Luca. Croix is there as your main guy and the guy who holds up the girls. Cloche is stuck up and tsundere, Luca is the childhood dorodere friend, and Cocona is the cute little sister. Add in the cool Jakuri and we've got every cliche covered. The other playables, Amarie, Leglius, and Shun fall to the wayside, though they've got more story than Krusche, Jack, and Radolf from AT1.
As for NPCs, the shopkeepers are all very funny, especially Spica and Skycat. For a goddess, Frelia is pretty useless, but freaking adorable. Everyone else is pretty typical...except Reisha. Poor Reisha.
Relationships between characters run quite deep. There's the clusterwtf between Reisha, Cloche, and Luca, Croix's protection of Cocona, Amarie's relationship with Sonia and Chester...it's all good, and everyone gets some sort of development.
And voices! For what little there are, they're all pretty decent. Jakuri, Luca, and Infel are probably my favorites, with the weakest being Targana, Alfman, and sometimes Croix and Reisha (but Reisha's VA pulled off the end of Phase 4 VERY well).

Graphics: 8/10 Typical pretty Gust 2D graphics, with more anime scenes thrown into the mix this time.

Music: 9.5/10 The strongest point of the series, the background music is a bit weaker than AT1, but the Hymmnos is stronger. EXEC_over.METHOD_SUBLIMATION/. is one of the best final boss themes ever. I like Phantasmagoria more than EXEC_with.METHOD_METAFALICA/., but both are beautiful.

Localization: 2/10 It sucks. It's horrible. It's on the same level as Suikoden I or II, so it's like it pushed localization back 10 years by existing. It's not as bad as Chaos Wars or anything, but skipping translations, confusing homonyns, bad typos, and ADDING A GLITCH TO A BOSS is just...horrible. This is why I'm not preordering any NISA games now.

Overall rating: 7/10 (The JP version is easily a 9/10, btw)
Recommendation: If you've played the first Ar tonelico, play this, even if you didn't really like it. It's improved enough over AT1 that it's worth a shot. If you've played any other Gust game, play this. If you're offended by innuendo, skip.

Ugh...

2009-03-07T22:48:00.001-05:00

I'm sooooo unmotivated. Don't feel like doing anything.

Ignoring the blog again...

2009-02-27T13:49:00.002-05:00

Been a week already? Whoops.

I would do a review of the recently-beaten Final Fantasy VI Advance, but I've got bad rose-colored goggles when it comes to that game, and I didn't even bother with the new additions. It's a good RPG if you like the old-style, pre-FF7 types, and if you've played it before and like longhard dungeons, the Dragon's Den is perfect. I don't feel like getting the items and equips needed to go through all those bosses, since I cheesed the final dungeon with Ultima...

Also, I showed great restraint at the mall today after dropping off my laptop (screen broke). Went in the GameStop and they had Star Ocean 1 2, Yggdra Union PSP, Tales of the Abyss, Odin Sphere, and some other things that I would've snatched up, but I didn't buy a single thing.

Review: Prinny: Can I Really Be the Hero?

2009-02-21T14:11:00.003-05:00

(May contain spoilers, dood)

Prinny: Can I Really Be the Hero?
Platform: PSP
Genre: Action/Platformer
Playtime: 10:31
Mode: Standard

Gameplay: 7/10 I'm not much of a platforman gamer, so this was a bit of a refreshing game to play. It's standard go from left to right while dodging/defeating enemies, and not falling to your death in the multiple bottomless pits. The gimmick this game has is the time system. You can do levels in any order, but the later you wait in the day to do them, the harder they get. For example, one level had a jumping section with floating carpets. When I went back an hour later, there were no carpets, and you had to hip-pound your way up statues.
Prinny has one attack -- his swords. He can do some rapid slashing on the ground, or a rapid air slash when you jump. You get another attack if you lose all 1000 lives on a playthrough, but I didn't do that. Get used to button mashing in this game.

Control: 5/10 The worst thing about this game is the jump mechanics. You can't change direction after you jump, if you went straight up, you're staying straight up. You have a double jump, which can give a change in direction, but you can't change after that. Expect to launch yourself into pits often. The hip-pound can be a bit tough to use and aim, and there's a bit of a pause after you land, so if you barely miss an enemy, expect to get hit. The sword moves speed depends on how fast you can mash Square, which leads to lots of wrist and arm pain. After the final boss (who can't be stunned for more damage!), my entire body was in pain from button mashing. Also, I never used the dash, but I'm a careful platformer.

Graphics: 8/10 Very pretty 2D graphics, the usual from Nippon Ichi. There's some bits of 3D in there, and it looks smooth. The characters all have great expressions as well.

Music: 7/10 Also pretty good, though you'll be sick of hearing the same songs over and over as you keep dying. The voice acting is also good, I'm used to Michelle Ruff as Etna now, and the Prinnies are adorable. There is no Japanese voice option, so if you're one of them purists, go import. However, some of the enemies (the flying dolls and archers come to mind) have Japanese voices, so I guess they weren't dubbed.

Localization: 9/10 What you say? Nine out of ten on a NISA localization? Well, it's Disgaea, and they never screw up Disgaea. I'm sure there's some missed grammar bit or something in the game, but everything I saw looked fine. I didn't check who the translator was, though. I was curious too...

Overall: 7.2/10
Recommendation: If you grew up on NES platformers, this'll be familiar to you. It's difficult even on Standard mode, I lost over 400 lives. But I had a blast playing it after getting used to the unwieldy controls and memorization of stages and boss patterns. Play this if you'd like a challenging non-RPG.

Early Opinions on Prinny: Can I Really Be the Hero?

2009-02-17T22:07:00.002-05:00

-Holy hell is this game hard! I didn't have an NES growing up, so I don't really have the concept of "Nintendo Hard" in my head, but I think this is close.
-I've lost 93 Prinnies so far on Standard difficulty. I spent an hour on the last stage...
-Speaking of stages I've beaten four out of the six available, but I think a seventh stage opens up. Maybe I can beat it this week if I keep at it...then it's just completion stuff (finding secret items, etc.)

Anime cons 2009!

2009-02-14T18:18:00.001-05:00

So I totally made plans with my mom today to not only go to Otakon, but also hit up Anime Expo and Anime Festival Orlando.

Anime Expo: July 2-5, Los Angeles, CA
Otakon: July 17-19, Baltimore, MD
Anime Festival Orlando: July 31-August 2, Orlando, FL

Yeah, all in one month, and we're also visiting family/friends in CA between those two cons. I think I counted 10 total flights, including going back to PA for spring break in April, and my mom coming to my graduation in June.

To celebrate, I'm putting together a new cosplay :3

NISA vs Atlus USA vs Time

2009-02-05T22:31:00.003-05:00

Bet you can't guess who's winning right now.

Why...

2009-02-05T00:04:00.001-05:00

I live in Florida.

Why is it 37F with a wind chill of 28F?

I NEED UR HALP

2009-01-29T12:02:00.001-05:00

[/Persona 3]

I need information about localization changes made in both Ar tonelico games. What information? Anything. Grammar, spelling, cut voices, inconsistencies, changed names, glitches...I need it all.

Post what you've got here.

Early Opinions on Ar tonelico 2

2009-01-24T10:18:00.003-05:00

Might be spoilers if you haven't started the game yet. I'm 5 hours in, at the Ironplate Desert.

-Voices: So far the English track is quite enjoyable! I was surprised to find out that Amarie's VA is the same VA who did Margaret in Persona 4, one of the weaker links in a very good track. She's better doing Amarie's higher voice. Also, Infel is love.
-The cut voices aren't affecting me as much as I thought they would. I have a few moments of "Was this voiced? This should've been voiced. I wanna hear [character]'s voice, when is there a scene with them voiced?"
-Laura Bailey + voiced hymmnos = oh yesssss
-What IS bugging me are the grammar mistakes, mistranslations, and missed translations. Is it Pombleton, Bomberton, or Bon Beltan?! Those corrupted lines of text where they forgot to take out kana is annoying, too.
-"But...doing it with the Holy Maiden...I just can't believe it." "If you hurt me...I'll never forgive you. Slide it in, slowly...carefully." "You came again? You really like it, don't you..." If you can't tell, I love the innuendo. A lot. Even if it's not really innuendo, but just taking lines out of context. I've been laughing a lot so far.
-Also text related, I'm glad I'm able to play it in English, since I'm picking up on little side notes that I missed out just reading about the main plot. Example: Amarie saying that the lullaby Reisha sings is the same song that Sonya would sing

Overall, I'm still enjoying the game, despite all the flaws. The flaws were a bit...I dunno, I can't think of a word. I won't be preordering NISA games from now on because of them. There's an undub floating out there, I'm downloading it just because I can. If I feel like playing through one of the routes with the Japanese track on, I might use it, but right now I'm pretty much content with the official NA version.

And finally...Ar tonelico 2!

2009-01-23T18:03:00.001-05:00

Finally.

Let's see how far I get tonight!

Cost to repair my laptop?

2009-01-22T23:34:00.002-05:00

$1341.85!

If I didn't need it for school, I wouldn't have gotten it repaired. They needed to replace the outer case, the LCD screen, and the video card, and because it ended up classified as "user-created damages", warranty didn't cover it.

Thank goodness for a backlog, I guess? This is one reason why I won't be buying many games from now on. I said that I would buy Prinny, Mana Khemia 2, and Cross Edge. Prinny was preordered last week, but I plan to wait for post-release reactions for MK2 and CE now.

Maybe I'll get Suikoden Tierkreis instead? Or that DS Valkyrie Profile game, though it's an SRPG. Not going for the Star Ocean remakes right now, going to wait for used copies of those to pop up...

AT2 get!

2009-01-20T16:54:00.002-05:00

Well, mom got it. She told me she's not even going to open it XD Just going to stick another address label on it and ship it to me tomorrow. I think I begged enough to send it next-day shipping...

So I should have it Thursday! Shame that the mail comes so late here, around 5:00 PM, and I have class early on Friday, and on Saturday.

January is trolling me

2009-01-19T16:32:00.001-05:00

(I usually don't post about real life stuff in here, but I need to rant)

-Started off the month with food poisoning.

-Lots of projects, leaving little free time. Persona 4 pushed to the side

-My laptop decides to have its video card crap out the week a project is due. Luckily I have my desktop, luckily there are trials for Illustrator and InDesign, and luckily my logo design is on the school server. I get to take a trip to the Apple Store to drop off poor Miakis (and buy an external HD and firewire cable to back her up once I get her back).

-Internet was down all afternoon, making me freak out even more.

I'm really freaking overwhelmed, and I hate it.

Wasting Time

2009-01-16T23:32:00.001-05:00

I have discovered Touhou.

Worst weekend to do so, since I've got a project due soon.

Bullet hell is fun, the game is pretty, and the music is awesome.

Early Opinions on Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth and Rune Factory 2

2009-01-13T18:10:00.004-05:00

Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth
-The graphics are a bit blurrier than I'm used to, but still beautiful.
-I keep getting bored when I have to sit through 30+ minutes of recruitment every chapter. I just wanna do the dungeons~
-I plan to do the Seraphic Gate this time. Hooboy.

Rune Factory 2
-The days seem to be longer than a normal HM game, longer than the first RF even. I'm only in Summer!
-However, raising people's FP and LP is a lot easier. I've got 4 girls ready to marry me. Granted, this is Generation 1 that I'm talking about, and I'm sure it's harder in the longer Generation 2 section.
-Speaking of Gen2, I want to get there quickly, but really want to get all the girls to 10 FP/LP first...especially Rosalind, since she gives 50k Gold for one of her late quest rewards!

Busy morning of sorts?

2009-01-10T11:31:00.003-05:00

Preorders for Prinny PSP went up today, so I got this version because I need a PSP case, I like plushies, and I already have the Disgaea manga. Of course, this all came after waffling over ordering before I decided to, since I bought the PSP FOR this game.

(please let it not suck, the last time I bought a system for a game, the game was downright horrible)

Why I waffled? NISA pulled the carpet out from under my feet with Jaclyn. Yeah. I'm taking this calmly because I know I'll get used to it as I did with Jacqli, and it's no use screaming over something that won't be changed. The game's probably gone gold by now, anyway.

Oh, and if I had $300 to throw away, I'd totally get this.

Poll! What figure should I buy?

2009-01-09T22:24:00.003-05:00

In a bit of a spending cash mood, so maybe I should treat myself to something? I have a pretty long list of figures I want, so I picked five from that list that were available from online stores (none from eBay). Of course, I can't decide which one to aim for, so I'll leave that up to you.

1: Louise Fallsmeyer (Growlanser) - I'm a pretty big Growlanser fan, but the only "fan" thing I have is a (beat up) artbook and the feelies from the US game releases. I should get something more.

2: Rozalin (Disgaea 2) - I haven't played this game yet, but I think the figure is kinda pretty. And hot.

3: Miku (Vocaloid) - I entered a contest for this but didn't win. I think Miku is adorable :3

4: Blanc Neige (Shining series) - I haven't touched this series either, but it's a girl with white hair, and that's one of my weaknesses.

5: Urutorii (Utawarerumono) - I got the Kamyu figure for Christmas, so having her sister would make a nice pair.

My Game Collection - January 2009

2009-01-04T16:13:00.001-05:00

Um.

Whoops. No more room.

Mitsuru!

2008-12-29T22:10:00.001-05:00

I got a PSP yesterday! And named it Mitsuru to follow in line with Yuka-tan (DS Lite) and Fuuka (GBA SP). I've added Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth, Monster Hunter Freedom, and Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters to my collection.

That last game came free with the system. Luckily it's pretty fun.

Oh, and because GameStop had their buy 2 get one free sale going on, I picked up Tales of Legendia for free.

And before that I picked up volumes 1 and 2 of the Disgaea 2 manga.

Also! I'm going to stop buying video games for real this time! I have 101 that I need to beat, which is exactly 50% of my beatable collection. Though that 101 doesn't count AT2, Prinny, or Cross Edge...

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-25T15:54:00.002-05:00

Here's what all those gifts were! Persona 4 was in the second largest box...the odd-shaped one was Harvest Moon Wii + cow plushie XD

And here's a picture of a cat in a sweater :3

Kari's Guide to Present Guessing

2008-12-23T14:03:00.000-05:00

Because simply shaking them is old hat (though I do that anyway), and I already know 90% of what I'm getting, I line them up and carefully study them...

...because even if you know what you're getting, it's fun to guess what's wrapped where.

Every present that I'm getting, not counting the stuff in the stocking. And one of those red ones I found out wasn't mine, but was for my cat...oh well. It's not in any other pics. And I got to open one last night, obviously.

DS-sized gifts are easy because the case square, is thicker than a CD case, and has an indentation on one side. Other than FF4, this should be Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness, Rune Factory 2, and Chrono Trigger DS.

PS2/PS3/Wii/Xbox/360/DVD sized gifts are a crapshoot because you don't know which one of the above it'll be, especially if you own every single one of those systems. The far right one is lighter than the others, so I'm guessing that as Fate/Stay Night DVD 5. The other two...Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness? Persona 4? Tales of Symphonia 2? Something I don't know that I'm getting?!

Books are easy to spot because they have three sides indented and one flat. Also, paperbacks are bendable, and hardcovers have a specific sound to them when you knock on 'em. The top-middle green one is two manga, probably Venus Versus Virus 3 and 5. One of the white ones is a Japanese lesson book, but I was able to read through the wrapping...should be a how to draw book in there, the Daily Coyote book, and a cookbook.

The dreated nondescript box. Usually you get these when the gift giver is too lazy to unpack things they've ordered online. DVD boxsets also look like these. You never know what you'll get form these. Anything I listed above could be in these boxes instead of separately wrapped...However, if you get the chance to open a present early, I'd go for a box, because you might get more than one thing :3

Finally, the weird shaped ones can be anything from two things put together, to a really weird shaped package, like a figure in a blister pack. The top part of this is squishy and the bottom is hard, so it has to be two things put together...It has to be a plushie and a PS2/Wii game.

NISA Interview @ RPGamer

2008-12-18T11:53:00.003-05:00

Click here to read. I'll just be pulling out what I'm excited about...

-More over-the-top Innuendo (it deserves the capital I) in AT2...I can see where it would happen, there's a good scene early on.

-Cross Edge in MARCH?! I've got three months to save up...about $325. And I wanted to grab a PSP for Prinny, too...

-Also, Mana Khemia 2 looks like it'll make its way across the pond. Hopefully they fix that game-breaking glitch I've read about that makes you not able to get all endings or something.

-I do hope 2009 is a better year for them than 2008 was. Sure, Disgaea 3 and Mana Khemia were nice, and Disgaea DS is good for PSP-less me, but they really killed themselves with the Rhapsody fiasco.

Oh happy day~

2008-12-12T18:18:00.002-05:00

...no text or scene omissions were made for Ar tonelico II. The only possible difference is that while the Japanese game may have some 10,000 odd spoken audio, the American version has around 9,000. This was done partly because of the dubbing schedule.

Which I don't mind about at all! The last thing I wanted was dual audio, and here it is.

Also, looks like good news for Cross Edge!

Early Opinions on Disgaea DS

2008-12-06T17:56:00.003-05:00

-I'm getting used to Michelle Ruff as Etna, though I miss her original voice
-The music quality did suffer, but I haven't noticed if the graphics have like some people say.
-I miss the voice acting, but honestly if I hadn't played the PS2 version already, I don't think I would've noticed.
-I'm 7 hours in, and I'm only at the START of Episode 2! Been grinding in item world. I already have a level 40-some Statistician.
-Pleinair is GOD. She's my highest leveled at 13, and NOTHING hits her. Laharl is 11, Etna is 8. Whoops.

Review: Atelier Iris 3: Grand Phantasm

2008-12-01T21:59:00.007-05:00

(This review contains blacked-out spoilers and possibly traces of nuts)

Atelier Iris 3: Grand Phantasm
Platform: PS2
Genre: RPG
Playtime: 32:53
So this game wraps up my runthrough of the three Atelier Iris games, which I got through in about six months. This one took me about three weeks to beat, which surprised me.

Gameplay: 6/10 Nothing special about controlling Edge than in other RPGs, except that he can jump and slash things on the field. I'd talk about a world map, but there is none--there's one main hub, and five dungeons that are accessed through this one town. The dungeons range from the typical forest to the typical haunted castle. The worst part about them is that you'll have to go through the beginning parts every time you want to access deeper areas, and you'll be doing this a lot because of the quest system. It would've been nice to have teleporters that lead you in deeper (like Persona 3), or a random spawn point in the dungeon each time you entered to cut down on all the travel time.
The quest system. To move the story along, you have to do quests to get guild points. When you get a certain number of points (it changes every chapter), you're sent on that chapter's mission. There are three types of quests: Guild/Help quests that give points, Fetch quests (delivering items to people) that give you money/items, and Combat quests (fighting monsters) that also give you money/items. Money isn't too useful in this game, items are ten times more useful. So you really can't just do guild quests to move the game along, you'll run out of things to do alchemy with.
Ah yes, alchemy. You learn new recipes from recipes gotten from quests, but also from idea markers in the field. The more stuff you make, the higher your alchemy level is, and the more ideas you get/can find. Your best weapons, armor, and items are gotten through alchemy, and Iris' stats raise along with the alchemy levels. Item crafting is fun, but I miss being able to use elements like in the other two AI games. And you're going to spend a lot of time in front of that cauldron making items and fiddling with recipes to get better skills, so get used to it.
Battles are like AI2: Turn based, with a skill gauge that you build up with normal attacks, then you use skills that deplete this meter. There's also a "burst" meter at the bottom--the more hits you give enemies, the more this builds up, with points given/taken away for hitting enemy weaknesses/strengths. When this maxes out, you go into "burst mode" which gives extra exp and money, and you do a ton more damage. The ACCB bar at the top shows who will go next. You and the enemies can add on timed attacks to the cards. Even with all this, it's nothing special, just another turned based battle system. Bursts are fun to get, though, because you can do obscene damage...
Enemies are on screen instead of random encounters (think Chrono Trigger, Lunar, Persona 3). Blue ones you can slash and be done with, white ones are around your level, red ones are a bit stronger, big red ones are a lot stronger, and giant red ones are bosses. You can slash enemies for an advantage, or just run into them to start the fight, but I'm sure you want an advantage. I always have trouble with levelling in games like this, because I end up jumping over all the enemies, but I know people prefer this to the sudden random encounters out of nowhere.

Story: 5/10 Edge and Iris are Raiders, people who go into Alterworlds to do quests for the guild and people of the town. Iris has this book which turns out to be the Escalario, a book that can supposedly grant any wish. Of course, stuff happens, and you gotta go save the world now. The major problem I had with the story was how spaced out actual story events were. You have to get guild points to get to the story missions, so if you've been doing lots of minor quests, you might forget what's going on, and be confused with the story events that don't take up much time at all. I'm sure if they took out all of the padding the quests give, this game would be around 10 hours long. It's not fleshed out too well either. What exactly happened to Crowley to make him go evil? Did Yula and Alvero really want that power just to kick your ass (especially Yula!). Why was Ash SO against you? Heck, I think who Ash is was mentioned once (strongest Raider or something). Also, how did the extra Shadow Gem quest make Iris able to come back to life? A lot of parts just needed more explanation, that's all...

Characters: 6.5/10 Edge is a seemingly cold-hearted stick-in-the-mud, and that's all you learn about him. Iris is the alchemist in this game, a bit of an action girl. She's what the MacGuffin in the story revolves around, so she gets a bit of backstory in terms of what the alchemists did in the past. Nell is annoying and wants to rebuild her family fortune...and that's all her backstory. Once she joins your party, it's never really brought up again. Some NPCs like Meyna and Rufina get more backstory than the main characters do! So again, my favorite characters ended up being NPCs instead of the main set (Anna and Phenyl, if you're wondering.) Yes, there's only three playable characters, I would've liked one or two more, but if they didn't get backstory, maybe it was for the better.
Voices were nothing special. We get to hear Michelle Ruff as the lead girl yet again (she was Viese in AI2). Vic Mignogna does a good Edge, rough but not too low. Nell...sorry Stephanie Sheh, I liked you as Metis and Silmeria, but here you're WAY too high and squeaky, and it got annoying. Nell, Phenyl, and some of the high-pitched enemies are the weak voices of this game.

Graphics: 8/10 As with the rest of the series, and Ar tonelico, the 2D graphics are beautiful and detailed. Some of the backgrounds, like the entrance to Grimoire Castle, are almost breathtaking when you first see them. My worst problem with the graphics was when I had to do some platform jumping (platforming? In my RPG?!). It's a bit hard to tell exactly where in the psuedo-3D space where some platforms are...or if you can even jump on them *fistshake at Valtessa forest*

Music: 8.5/10 Beautiful, but I love all of Gust's music. Ken Nakagawa was the sole composer for this OST, I believe. The battle themes are my favorite, with Rain of Blossoms at the top. I also love Grand Phantasm, shame it only plays on the file loading screen! After a while you'll probably get sick of hearing the same dungeon and town themes over and over, though.

Overall rating: 6.8/10
Recommendation: If you're a Gust fan or have played the other Atelier Iris games, pick this up. If you haven't played any of the AI series, go play Atelier Iris 2 and skip this one and AI1. Especially AI1.

Ar tonelico II English Trailer is LIVE

2008-11-25T08:08:00.005-05:00

Talk about a nice thing to wake up to in the morning! Caught it through a topic on GameFAQs that I almost read before watching the trailer for myself. Now, about the voices in general...I LIKE THEM. They're GOOD. Not horrible in the least. I'm judging them on the short lines given in the trailer, but still. GOOD. Detailed comments in spoilers:

Croix: Hearing this first made me squee almost, because it fits near perfectly. I like it a lot, I will be able to stand hearing him the whole game. Definitely not Yuri Lowenthal, but I'm hearing a twang of Derek Stephen Prince in him.

Luca: 95% sure she's Karen Strassman, making my guess correct. Misha! Hehe. I like it, it fits her fine. I want to take her path again!

Cloche: In the trailer, she really sounds near exactly like Luca...with a bit of an accent. It's not Mela Lee, for sure.

Cocona: Only one line, but I like it. I had Sandy Fox as a guess, but I couldn't tell you what her voice sounds like. Sounds young enough for a cute loli like Cocona.

Leglius: 80% sure that he's Steven Jay Blum, I can hear the Arlin (Atelier Iris) in him, making my guess correct. A bit higher than I expected, but it's rough and manly, hee.

Amarie: Only one line, can't tell who it is at all. It's fine.

Of course I'm going to need to listen to them a LOT more when playing the game. These are just my first impressions. At least they're good first impressions, right?
General notes about the trailer, also in spoilers:

Cloche is one syllable, something I didn't expect. That's the way I was saying it in my head and I thought it was wrong, but it was right.
Also...Jakuri is totally revealed in that trailer. In the Japanese trailer, she's in shadow with the name ???. She's SUPPOSED to be a secret character, the special third RT! So they just ruined the surprise...
The one cutscene they showed, the one after the characters...Luca's voice was a bit off there, and the line was translated from "Don't destroy this world" to "No!" A bit of emotional impact lost, but I didn't know because I didn't know the translation of the Japanese line.

I'm all hyped again for the game now...

My Ar tonelico Collection Part 2

2008-11-22T19:23:00.002-05:00

Just got some new stuff today :3 I'm really surprised at how BIG the AT2 artbook is! So much stuff in there, and I can't read a word of it. The perfect guide is also nice - I wish more games in the US got guides that detailed. As usual, click on the thumbnails for a larger view:

Because I love making lists

2008-11-21T22:43:00.001-05:00

Before I posted about the games I own on the Backloggery. Now I've got a list of the anime/manga I've seen/own/want to watch/etc.

Check it out.

Early Opinions on Atelier Iris 3

2008-11-17T10:52:00.003-05:00

-This quest system is going to get annoying fast.
-Nell is going to get annoying faster. Edge is a stick in the mud, and Yula is PMSing.
-Loving the battle system for some reason, maybe because I can avoid enemies when I want to, auto-win battles by slashing low-level enemies, and the Burst system is really cool.
-I understand why Iris has to get "ideas" to learn new recipes, but it means even more dungeon backtracking...
-Yay Pamela!

Hoping to beat this before January so I can have all three AI games beaten this year :3

Ar tonelico speedrun!

2008-11-13T21:12:00.007-05:00

First save- 0:04
After learning how to Grathmeld- ~~0:12~~ 0:11
Tenba Labs- 0:24
Terraced Fields- ~~0:42~~ 0:41
Taking Aurica's path to avoid an evil boss in Misha's.

Am I insane? Probably, but I've been thinking about this for a while now.
Problems/list of stuff:
-Lag. Ohhhh the lag.
-When to Dive, who to Dive into, how far to go? (Probably Aurica, though Misha has a mandatory Lv1)
-What items to get/make? Definitely Peeka (RC Pig), but what about attack or healing items?
-If/when to levelgrind?
-How possible IS a low level game, because a speedrun is that, just with the added "bonus" of having to rush through everywhere. Usually with LLGs you still get all the items, so you're equipped fine, but low level...
-Lots of other things that I can't remember right now.

Wish me luck?

Ar tonelico II is going to kill me

2008-11-10T20:22:00.003-05:00

I don't think I've anticipated a game this much since Golden Sun: The Lost Age. That was even the last one where I played the Japanese version before the English release and got rather far. I'm not even looking that forward to playing it, I've done that already, I just want to have it on my shelf and hear the voices.

And I pretty much kept forgetting about Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World and Chrono Trigger DS. Both games snuck up on me, and I didn't preorder either since I don't expect any shortages.

I've got to stop thinking about AT2 so much. I've got a massive backlog of other games to keep my attention, and Persona 4 is due in a month (I'm getting it for Christmas, so it's more like 1.5 months for me). And there's other things, like school projects and Thanksgiving break, and...and...I'll be insane by January. Or have a few ulcers. Or just keel over.

My Game Collection

2008-11-08T19:05:00.005-05:00

Well, most of it anyway. I don't have my SNES, N64, or majority of my GB games with me in FL. You can view my full list of games at my Backloggery page. As usual, click on the thumbnails to see the full pic:

My Ar tonelico Collection

2008-11-06T23:41:00.005-05:00

Tomorrow I think I’ll start posting pictures of my other collections, but I’ll start off small with my Ar tonelico stuff. Click on the thumbnails to see the pics

AT2 Comments - Character Names

2008-11-06T23:28:00.007-05:00

Disclaimer: I’m not bitching about this, just commenting. I accept any changes NISA has decided to make when it comes to English translations of names written in Japanese. The only thing I don’t agree with is changing of hymmnos. Put in a spoiler block in case you don't want to spoil yourself on the characters.
Number of names kept the same: 5

Chroah Vatel - Croix Bartel: Like the La Pucelle character? I really don’t know how to pronounce this one, but people say it’s kinda close. It was the first name to come out, way back in July, so I’m used to it now. Has a bit of…flair to it. I’m perfectly fine with the last name.

Chroche Latel Pastalie - Cloche Leythal Pastalia: I read Cloche and I think it’s pronounced “closh”, which makes me think of galoshes (y’know, those boots you wear in the rain). It’s just a case of crazy Japanese R/L-ness, and besides, two characters starting with “Chro” might get confusing (though now I wonder what Sasha’s nicknames will be). Leythal is the same thing, but Pastalia is wrong. Quoted from aquagon: Pastalie is the name of the Metafalss lineage of Priestesses (of which Cloche is part of), and of the Hymnos dialect employed by the IPD Reyvateils for the casting of their songs (the New Testament of Pastalie).

Luca Truelywaath - Luca Truelyworth: Boo. I went over the whole Trulywaath thing in my other post, but tl;dr is that it’s hymmnos and shouldn’t be changed.

Cocona Vatel - Cocona Bartel: No problem here.

Legris Branchesca - Leglius Branchesca: I keep seeing (and saying!) this as Legilus, which makes me think of Legolas. Another case of crazy Japanese R/L-ness, it’ll just take some getting used to.

Amarie Jerhad - Amarie: No problem here…yet. Who knows what they'll do to her last name?

Shun - Shun: WE HAVE A CHARACTER WITH A MATCHING NAME WHOO!

Jakuri - Jacqli: Sorry, but this one was just revealed, and because Jakuri is my favorite character, I’m going through a bit of a Zoey Reaction right now. I’ll come back later.
*comes back* It...it's kinda...pretty. And pronounced the almost-same. There, I said it!!

Reisha Truelywaath - Reisha Trulyworth: Same as Luca.

Batz Truelywaath - Batz Trulyworth: Same as Luca and Reisha.

Soup - Soope: Ehhh. I knew this was going to change. I keep saying it as “soopy”, though.

Gengorou - Goro: Goro is a masculine Japanese name, or so I hear, and Gengorou is a cute pink haired girl (ish). But I’ve actually gotten used to this one, so…yeah.

Infel - Infel: WE HAVE ANOTHER MATCHING NAME!

Alfman Uranous - Alfman Uranus: Close enough for me!

Dr. Roudness - Dr. Laude: Actually, I think they treated this one well, because he has a bit of a weird name when brought into English.

Targana - Targana: THIS MAKES THREE!

Chestar Lu Whinoah - Chester Lou Winoah: Close enough here too.

Reionsetsu Rakura - Lakra And apparently Lakra is a naughty word in Spanish, but an NISA staffer admitted that they can’t always cross check between languages. So it’s another L/R thing.

Sincere - Cynthia: Most of the importers were calling her Cynthia anyway, so it’s perfectly fine.

Sasha - Sasha: AND THIS IS FOUR!

Soraneko/Rerena - Skycat/Lelina: Okay, so…“sora” and “neko”, which translates directly to “sky” and “cat”, so they just did a direct translation here. I actually wish they changed this, because it’s a weird name. Lelina is very pretty, though most people were expecting Relena.

Rhaki - Raki: Perfectly fine.

Pepen - Pippen: You mean like the LoTR guy, that was his name, right? It’s growing on me, though.

Reika - Leyka: Another L/R thing, and I actually think this fits better because they went with Luca instead of Ruka (reasons are spoilers)

Spica - Spica: THANK GOODNESS THEY KEPT THIS ONE (makes it five!). Heads would've flown if they hadn't.

Frelia - Frelia: SIX NAMES! Also thank goodness, because at this point I was expecting a Fleria or something. Keeps consistency with AT1, too.

Massive Post of Ar tonelico II Localization Changes

2008-11-06T23:16:00.007-05:00

Alternate title:
Me Being an Ar tonelitard

Link to NISA’s official AT2 site
Spoilers might be floating about, so tread carefully. Last updated 11/25.

Characters
Chroah Vatel - Croix Bartel
Chroche Latel Pastalie - Cloche Leythal Pastalia
Luca Truelywaath - Luca Truelyworth
Cocona Vatel - Cocona Bartel
Legris Branchesca - Leglius Branchesca
Amarie Jerhad - Amarie Gelade
Shun - Shun
Jakuri - Jacqli
Reisha Truelywaath - Reisha Trulyworth
Batz Truelywaath - Batz Trulyworth
Soup - Soope
Gengorou - Goro
Infel - Infel
Nenesha -
Alfman Uranous - Alfman
Dr. Roudness - Dr. Laude
Targana - Targana
Chestar Lu Whinoah - Chester Lou Winoah
Reionsetsu Rakura - Lakra
Sincere - Cynthia
Sasha - Sasha
Soraneko (Rerena) - Skycat (Lelina)
Rhaki - Raki
Rheki -
Pepen - Pippen
Reika - Leyka
Frelia - Frelia
Tyria - Tyria
Spica - Spica
Nono -
Asche - Arshe

Locations
Pastalia - Pastalia
Rakshak - Rakshek
Ena - Enna
Mint Ward - Mint Block
Forest of Mikuri - Mikry Forest
Yumemino - Dreamy Fields
Kanakana (not sure what this was called, really) - Kanakana Pier

Other
Infel Phira - Infel Pira
Replekia - Replakia
Musume Power - Hymn Code
Funbuns - Funboons
Grathnode Inferia - Grasno Inferia

My VA guess list
Chroah: ~~Yuri Lowenthal~~
Chroche: Mela Lee
Luca: ~~Karen Strassman~~
Cocona: Sandy Fox
Amarie: Jessica Straus
Legris: Steven Jay Blum~~/Kirk Thornton (so what if I put two names?)~~
Shun: Dave Wittenberg
Jakuri: Mary Elizabeth McGlynn
Frelia: Michelle Ruff
Infel: Stephanie Sheh
Gengorou: Mona Marshall
Reisha: Mary Elizabeth McGlynn (yeah I put her twice, so what?)
Alfman: Jamieson Price
Spica: whoever voiced her in the first game
Sasha: Lara Jill Miller

General Comments
Whew, okay. First I guess a speech about how I usually am with translations? I really don’t care most of the time. Persona 4 and changing Kuma to Teddie and adding in bear puns…I’m fine with that, it makes the game make sense to use English speaking people. Different translations from katakana are fine too (see Reika to Leyka for an example).

The major beef I and others have? The hymmnos. One of the original things about the game is this language. The hymmnos changes are near unacceptable to me, even if the katakana makes sense.

Take Truelywaath for an example. The katakana is トゥルーリーワース (Turūrīwāsu). So Trulyworth makes sense since worth would be written as wāsu anyway. BUT! “waath” means “revive/rebirth” in hymmnos, so her name translates to “true revival/rebirth” which really fits in with the fact that she’s one of the priestesses who sing Metafalica, the song of rebirth. Also, Infel Phira means “love seed”. There is no “pira” in hymmnos. And there’s no “replakia” either.

There’s the “hymn code” issue. Why call it that when the hymn code is what you use to install into a Reyvateil? The Musume Power (Girl Power) isn’t a code or anything, it’s just an IPD equipped to you. Plus on the site I believe they say hymn codes were used to augment weapons in AT1. That was called Grathmelding…

I’m sure someone out there understands all of this stuff about translations, right? Right? D: On a Sliding Scale of Game Translation Bitching, with the right side being the “If they change anything it sucks” and the left side being the “I don’t give a damn if they name Tomoyo Madison”…I’m kinda between the center and right, drifing to the right.

And it worries me.