Taking it easy with the 3DS

So I get a phone call from my mother earlier today asking me if there's any 3DS game I'm interested in. I told her the 3DS has no games at the moment, but she just got Street Fighter since she knows I play SSFIV. I'm still pretty spoiled despite being my age, it's kinda why I enjoyed the NEET life for as long as I did after I finished high school. I didn't ask for the 3DS, I was planning on buying it for myself later when some good games actually come out for it, but my family loves buying me electronics.
 

I've previously posted on how I lost my original DS (phat model, even though my mother really wanted to upgrade it for me but I insisted it'd be pointless because I prefer my phat). I've still yet to find it, so I guess this works out for me. It's probable I dropped it outside that day when my hands were numb and I placed it in my pocket. Perhaps I didn't quite place it in securely, but couldn't tell since my hands had no feeling. In any case, I'm here with my 3DS now. I have a new flash card since my old one was in my DS when it got lost, unfortunately I didn't realize that my other 2GB MicroSD card is lost somewhere in the black hole of my house. So I have a 250-ish MB MicroSD and a 520-ish one to pick from instead. Well the larger one is enough for me to throw the cart's firmware and Pokemon along with another game, so I fire that one up. I decide to go with Kumatanchi since I've wanted to play it for a long time but never got around to it (the English translation project for it dying did boost my Japanese motivation at the time by the way). I mean, it's not like it's an amazing game, but it's cute as hell and has character designs from Shigatake, the dude that did the Habanero-tan comics!

I'm also looking for some more DS games to throw on for when I get a larger MicroSD. I may throw in Japanese Chrono Trigger as a game to replay while practicing with. Coropata seems like a really cute puzzle game with, I'll probably throw that in. I've actually never played the Hotel Dusk games either, and I've been meaning to for a while. Might be a bit hard with my Japanese at its current level though, so I'll give it a try and hope I don't get stuck on something. Witch's Wish seems like another cute game I'll be adding. And Okamiden will be one of the first ones I place on as well. If anyone has any recommendations, feel free to post them. Since I'm only playing the Japanese versions of my games, untranslated ones work fine as recommendations as well.

But what am I doing talking about DS games when I have the 3DS, right? Well as I said, there aren't any real games for it out yet. SSFIV3D edition is pretty much the only real game out, rest really seem like tech demos. Rayman too, maybe, but I haven't liked a Rayman game since its 2D platforming days.

The 3D effect is nice. Nothing mind blowing, but I don't think anyone should be expecting that. Does it bother the eyes? Hmm, not really. I played for about 2 hours on Street Fighter and didn't really feel any effects from the 3D wearing my eyes. At some points I did see the 3D a bit fuzzy, but if I just adjusted myself a bit it was perfectly fine.

I'd like to get some of the Japanese 3DS games, since they have a much better lineup at this point. I'd probably get Layton and Blazblue Continuum Shift II, but the 3DS is region locked. So I guess I'll just sit back and wait for those wonderful people online to create dump tools so that roms can be uploaded. But that'll probably take quite some time, so until then I'll most likely be enjoying my normal DS games.

Ah, before I wrap this up I have to say there's one thing I'm disappointed in. I was glad to hear that the 3DS actually lets you use wireless protection other that WEP for its wifi. Funny thing is, for DS games you still need to use WEP. Even though your 3DS can connect with everything, it has to be using WEP if you're going online with a DS game. In the settings menu there are actually 2 wifi settings, one where you set up your 3DS and one where you set your 3DS to use for when it's playing DS games.

Why? Why Nintendo? What the hell?  I'm going to assume that it's not as easy as just making the DS games use the connection settings on the 3DS, but couldn't they have at least made it so that the 3DS emulated the correct settings for DS games to connect through it? Like when going to the DS wifi settings in game and searching for an access point, having "3DS connection" always show up as one, and sort of tunneling the connection? I dunno, it's just a pretty big annoyance for me. I'm sure they could have made it work, but they probably figured nobody will care about DS games a year from no so there's no point in putting extra work in DS functionality. They almost make me want to pay for their stupid USB wifi adapter. Almost.

~ Kirari ミ★

Spring break so far

All Spring break I've just been kicking it back, taking it easy as always. Kanji grinding's still going smooth, at 438 right now. Though, I guess it helps that I've already bumped into quite a few of them with my previous studies, helps make the path a bit more smooth. But there are some oddballs in there that I don't recall ever seeing and have some pretty odd keywords (who the hell knows what a brocade is off the top of their head?)

Today I decided I'd take something from my backlog that's been sitting there for a while. Decided I'd try Koumajou Densetsu II, which is better known as Touhouvania II. I only planned on playing for an hour or two but pretty much used my whole day on it. It's amazing I even managed to get in my 25 kanji today with all the time I used up on this game. I made it up to the last stage, but I keep getting my ass handed to me. I eventually decided I'd just stop before I really eat my whole day up on it.

I might do a review on it sometime this week. I would do one today since I'm already at the final boss, but I'd like to get more snapshots of more stages and don't want to erase my continued data right now. I have to try a 1CC playtrhrough sometime anyway so I can do the extra stages (though I doubt I'll be able to do that without practicing boss patterns like crazy). Tomorrow I'll think of something to post here.

Spring break's going by too fast, it's already almost over. I guess it can't be helped though. On the bright side I can say that another day that passes is another day of experience gained with my Japanese.

Now I'll do some Anki reps and then take a nap.

~ Kirari ミ★

Inactivity

 Expect some inactivity because Marvel vs Capcom 3 is taking up all of my time. At least a week of no posts.
 Here's a cute image from Siro (Symphonic Rain artist) for coming.

~ Kirari ミ★

999 Review

Visual novels tend to be too niche of a market to be successful in the west. So, obviously, there are rarely any translated VNs, and certainly not ones that are on game systems. Well, Aksys loves bringing over stuff from Japan, so they took a shot at bringing some over. 999: 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors is for the Nintendo DS, and it's actually part puzzle and part VN. Now, when I say that, I don't mean the puzzles seem like they were tacked in as an after thought, or it just has a puzzle minigame or something on the main menu. The whole game does revolve around you solving these puzzles in order to progress, and the story is centered around these puzzles.

The puzzles aren't anything depressingly difficult though, so they won't really prevent you from moving on with the story. Some of them may get you stuck for a while trying to solve them, but you should be able to get them eventually when looking at all the clues presented to you. Before I explain how the puzzles are set up, it'd probably be better if I talked about the general story.

Small bombs.

9 people are kidnapped by a mysterious person that goes by the pseudonym of  "Zero," and are placed in a sinking ship with 9 hours to escape before it completely goes under, and given strange bracelets with an assigned number on them, all for some experiment with human guinea pigs. Obviously it's not as easy as just finding a map of the ship and running to the lifeboats. Most of the doors are locked, and can only be opened by solving puzzles within the rooms, such as finding the key by gathering clues and combining them, or finding out the password for the door by looking around the room and such. So to solve puzzles you need to investigate the rooms thoroughly for clues and use them to find a way out. Some of the puzzles are really well thought out, and it's always satisfying when you find the answer.

But what really shines in this game is the story and characters. The 9 kidnapped people have to work together in order to escape the ship, and almost every one of them has something likable about their character. The story itself is actually written by one of the writers of a popular VN, Ever17. Some parts of the story really do have that Ever17 feel to it as well, so it shows. Like Ever17, there's plenty of pseudoscience themes going around, and tons of bricks to be shat in the final path. The multiple endings will give you clues to the truth of what's really going on, and I enjoyed trying to put together the pieces before getting the full explanation.

The endings are determined, of course, by the choices you make throughout the story. However, the major plot changing choices would have to be deciding what door you want to go through. You see, there are 9 doors with different numbers painted on them. The doors are locked, and can only be opened when combining the numbers different characters have on their bracelets. Only those that opened the door may enter, meaning the groups have to split up every now and then. This is one thing I'm a bit nitpicky on. It makes it so that the most important choices in the game are decided on a gamble. There's no real way to tell where the doors will lead, and there's no hints that a certain door may lead to a BAD END. You simply go through doors until the very end. But it's just a slight annoyance, I like having the ability to prevent bad ends based on logically thinking through the choices presented to me, rather than having to rely on luck. Though it's understandable why they did this. After all, you play as one of the people trapped in this boat, and the person running the experiment obviously doesn't want to leave huge signs around hinting to what doors are the correct ones to enter. It's made for you to go through it using trail and error. The true ending can't even be unlocked without doing at least one other ending first.

It's still a really enjoyable game, with some interesting puzzles and a nice plot. It's not even that long either, it can easily be finished in a week or less. If you don't have a DS, or just don't want to spend money, there are other ways of playing this if you catch my drift. So if you're looking for something new to read, you might want to pick this title up.

~ Kirari ミ★

Hsien-ko and Sentinel images leaked (Updated with videos)

  

Update: They were officially revealed this morning. You can find their videos and images here.

Just talking about various unconnected things I thought about making blog posts about before but figured they wouldn't make long enough or interesting enough entries alone. I had several things in mind before writing this, but it figures I'd forget most of them the second I open Blogger.

First I'll start up with a bit of news. I saw this early in the morning when it was first leaked, but I was too busy to post it and thought it wouldn't make too long of a post. Plus, I plan on making a post when the official videos come out for them, since that's what I'm really waiting for. There were leaked images of Sentinel and Hsien-ko in Marvel vs Capcom 3 from some German game magazine that was supposed to come out on the 28th. I assume Capcom planned on revealing the two tomorrow, but planning a release on the day before a printed magazine that covers them is set to be on shelves isn't very smart planning. They should have known that the magazine would be in the hands of people a few days prior to the actual release date.

Galactus shown as the final boss, along with Sentinel's portrait.

Hsien-ko ♡

Full character select screen. Hsien-ko on the bottom left.

The first leaked image to show up.

Just one of the many fake photoshops to appear yesterday.

 It's funny mostly because these leaks came after a flood of shops, so when it actually came on the net people thought they were just another shop like the other ones. The first image to show up was Sentinel using his assist, and really if someone can photoshop something like that then they really deserve praise. There are no 3D models of Capcom's version of Sentinel, therefore they'd have to create a 3D model from scratch, and they'd have to do their homework to find out how to make Sentinel clip with Arthur without making it look awkward. I've already blogged before that because of Lupinko's leaks I was already expecting them, but I really want to see Hsien-ko in 3D and see her in action in this game. 

   

~ Kirari ミ★

Phoenix and Mike Haggar confirmed for MvC3, Lupinko leaks proven true!

This isn't even posted on Shoryuken yet. Mike Haggar and Phoenix were confirmed today for Marvel vs. Capcom 3. That's interesting and all; but Haggar was already known beforehand and Phoenix was someone many people wanted in. The most interesting part about the reveals is that it proves Lupinko's leaked information to indeed be true.

 

If you look at the video for Phoenix, you'll see she does indeed turn into Dark Phoenix when her team goes down while she has a full 5 bars of special. This is the final nail in the coffin. There's no way Lupinko could make so many lucky guesses correctly. He's told us about this specific mechanic about Phoenix, about C.Viper having her EX and Focus moves (and the combination to execute them), specifically stated Shuma and Jill will be DLC, and a few other bits of information. In other words, he does have his source, and he was indeed leaking real information. This means the characters left to be unrevealed are Akuma, Taskmaster, Sentinel, and Hsien-ko.

Dunno how many of you read my previous Marvel vs Capcom post, but Hsien-ko is my favorite Darkstalker character, and I'm very excited that her inclusion has pretty much been confirmed along with Phoenix. I'm checking up on how Neogaf is reacting to Lupinko's final piece needed to prove his information is real, I may edit this post if there are any interesting tidbits in the thread.

~ Kirari ミ★

Thoughts on Ougon Musou Kyoku

Yeah, been sitting through my backlog for a while, and by the end of the day being too lazy to make any posts. I thought I'd just break back into blogging again with something simple. One game from C79 I've been investing a lot of time into is the new Umineko fighter, Ougon Musou Kyoku. I've blogged about it before its release, because I was excited about it. Figured I'd give some of my impressions about the game and such.

Me playing online with someone, we disconnected at this scene.

First thing I want to say is the animation and overall quality of the game seems really nice. The art style of the sprites reminds me a lot of Blazblue. I've seen a lot of people saying how characters are too similar, but I don't see this at all. Speaking of characters, this game has a rather small selection of them.

There has been a sprite of Bernkastel found in the game data, but nobody knows if she was a tossed concept, or if they plan on adding her later. The cast is small, but this is a fully voiced doujin game (the same seiyuu for the anime were used for the characters). I'd imagine sometime like this took a lot of time, and they wanted it out by C79, so they had to make do with this small list for now. I'm sure they'll have updates along the way. Melty Blood was missing a lot on its first release as well, and look how far it's gone.

Matches are fought kinds like Versus games. You pick a pair of characters, and you hold one in reserve while one fights. You're also able to switch between your two characters every now and then. However, unlike the Versus series, you can't use assist attacks, and every character has their own individual special bars.

The matches aren't composed in rounds, rather it's one long round (you have 3 health bars) to determine the winner. It kinda reminds me of Darkstalkers. One unique mechanic this game has is the "meta world" activation. Every character has a passive ability while the meta world is activated, and every character has a specific special that can only be used while meta world is active. You activate it by pressing all 3 attack buttons at the same time while having a full meta meter. Your opponent can cancel yours out if they're not stunned and also have a full meta meter. It's interesting, because you not only gain a bonus from your main character, but your partner character as well. This means you can mix and match characters to have nice bonuses, like extra damage plus lowered amount of hits needed to break the opponent's guard; you'll be dealing out some decent damage even if they block, and their block will break faster than normal.

Other than that, the game doesn't seem to have too much depth. Most characters have fairly simple combo strings, but dash canceling seems like it'll be a big part of this game (I just recently learned when to dash cancel on Eva Beatrice to make her combos long and keep pressure). But it's fun, and I doubt it's near completion yet, with revisions along the horizon. 

The music is great, as to be expected from an Umineko game. It has well known tracks from the game such as Goldenslaughter, which goes really well with the fighting. As for game modes, there's not much. There's a story mode, where you get different scenes and endings depending on what pair you decide to use. Some of the stories are funny, and a lot of the stuff isn't even hard to understand with some basic Japanese. Some of the stuff is just dialogue pulled from the VN with a few altered parts here and there.

This is canon

 There's practice mode, and then there's versus. Of course, everyone wants to play online, right? When you play a fighting game, you usually don't want to spend your whole time fighting the CPU, right? Most of the time they get too predictable in their patterns and such. This is where the game falls. The netplay in this game is really bad. I mean, it's obvious they only tested their netcode on Japanese internet (which is a lot faster and has superior infrastructure to American connections), but it's simply horrible. The Japanese seem to be having some issues with it as well, from what I've read on their forums. Sometimes lag isn't even the problem, the game goes completely smooth, but the connection simply drops. When playing online, my connection is sometimes good enough with people to get 1 full match after 3 disconnects, but with others it's 1 full match after 10+ disconnections or so. 

I really hope they fix the netplay in this soon. It's a fun game, but it's no fun having to attempt for 20 minutes of failed matches before getting one full match with someone. If you'll excuse me, I'll get back to disconnecting with more people.

~ Kirari ミ★

Marvel vs Capcom EP 3 trailer released

Dunno if you guys have seen EP1 or EP2 yet, so I'll just leave those links there just in case.

The trailer is nice, but a bit on the short side. Also, we already got Viper revealed before the video, so she wasn't too surprising. I was expecting EP3 to be released this weekend, along with some new characters. Oh well, I guess we'll see what they have planned when the time comes. One interesting thing to note is that it says "US Version" on it, meaning that there's most likely a Japanese version of the trailer that's different. It's probably because they have Felecia in it, and the ESRB has stupid rules about not being able to advertise what's in your game, so I'll dig around for that later to see if I find anything.

On another note, there's been quite some interesting rumors lately. I usually don't like listening to those, as I've pointed out before. Most of them are seen as false until proven otherwise for me, and it seems there's actually one leak that's been gradually proven to be true lately. First of all, the leaker goes by the name of "Lupinko" and seems to be the only leaker that actually has information on the game, aside from Kensk, who hasn't revealed much this time due to him ruining the SSFIV list so early and feeling bad about it. The post in question can be found here. It's important to note that this post was made before Jill and Shuma-Gorath were revealed as DLC characters. In a later post (I'll try to find citation later) on the same forums, Lupinko also said that C.Viper would keep her focus and EX moves from SSFIV. And, now that Viper is revealed, this has been proven true. So, it seems this Lupinko really does have some inside source for his information. He's stated that Phoenix will be in the game, and that if her whole team goes down while having 5 special bars, she'll revive as Dark Phoenix. That may be the crazy and "broken" character Seth Killian has been talking about. Seth said it wasn't surprising that they were in the game, but how they were implemented.

Take it with a grain of salt. It's entirely possible some of the information is real while the rest is pulled from his ass. It's also possible he made lucky guesses, but I find that really unlikely. I am excited at the thought that Hsien-ko might be in the game though, since she's my favorite Darkstalker.

 

~ Kirari ミ★

MMO addiction

Why? Maplestory is the only MMO I've ever played. Why is that? Because I'm afraid to try something else and get addicted. Maplestory has given me a fear of MMOs. I will never pick up another one because of it. This game has gotten me to come back to it so many times. Why can't I just quit it? I'm always in a cycle of leaving the game for a few months and then joining back the next time there's a big update, and I always get sucked in to the point where I waste a majority of my day on it.

It's not like the game is particularly amazing or anything. In fact, I wouldn't say it's too great at all, and there's better things I could be doing with my time. And yet, I always find myself coming back to it and I always find myself playing again every few months. For years I've been like this, on and off this game. What is it exactly that's keeping me hooked on it? I know I'm not the only one that came back recently though. A lot of quit players are coming back due to the largest update Maple has ever received being released this week. Still, I can't help but feel I'm some sort of druggie. No matter how hard I try to quit, I always "accidentally" check up on some Maplestory news, and if I see something interesting it may be enough to pull me back in. How am I supposed to finish my backlog when I'm busy grindan my characters all day? How am I supposed to make room for my Japanese studies when I'm too busy killing cute possessed teddy bears? I mean, I could download the Japanese version and play with Japanese players, at least then I'd be able to study Japanese while I play. But I already have too many characters established in the Global version (AKA North American) version of the game. I don't want to start from scratch.

The customer service is crap, the gameplay ins't exactly innovative or spectacular, it takes up way too much time, there's so many negative points about it. I just keep coming back. Once I log in, I already know that there's no turning back, because I'm going to want to check out the new features added into the game and get stuck again.

;_;

~ Kirari ミ★

Sanae Challenge! Fusion

Alright, so here's a game most people seemed to have overlooked in the C78 rush. This won't really be a review, since I just started it myself so haven't gotten the feel for it. It's a sequel to Sanae Challenge, but I've never played the original! 

Moving on, the premise of this game is that you're Sanae and you're defeating Kedama and sealing up the places they're coming from. Sanae has two forms of attacks: shooting stars, and creative a vacuum to suck everything up (her most useful attack). Sanae can also walk and float in the air, which is a bit awkward to control at first but not too hard when you're used to it.

Okuu comes along mid-level and decided to help Sanae out. She mostly kicks on her own, but I can't get her to do much more. I know there's a way to activate her nuclear blasts and such, but I'm not sure how. I'll read the manual for it later, I guess. The in game dailogue goes too fast and there's too much for me to actually read.

That big percentage thing that's near the top of the display bar is actually your health. It's constantly going down, like a timer, and also goes down when you get hit. You refill it every time you seal one of those dark hole thingies that these little critters are coming out of. When you reach 1505, you can press attack and jump at the same time to activate God Mode, which increases Sanae's attack, gives her more range, can kill the fuzzies rather than knocking them out, and also gives her invincibility.  

And, of course, there's boss fights at the end of each stage.

Unfortunately, I stuck too much right now to beat Nitori ;_;

The music in this game is pretty cute too. Just like the artwork. Did I mention the artwork? Look at those cute sprites, just look at em. This game has so much cuteness in it, I'm about to look for the spritesheet so I can make icons out of their cuteness. 

But back to the music, it has some pretty cutesey mixes of Touhou themes you'd expect. I haven't heard much since I'm not past the 1st stage yet, and I'm too stubborn to look at other playthroughs and such, so I'm only going by the handful of tracks I've already heard.

Oh, and the game also has extras. I'm sure you get coins from...whatever, completing stages? Well, you use these coins to buy stuff in the extras menu. Since I have no coins yet, I can't really show you guys much, but here's how the menu looks!

I might translate the options later if I'm not too lazy. The above screenshot shows the menu to buy desktop wallpapers, so that's pretty cool.

Overall, it's a pretty addictive game. I'm getting better as I play along. I said in the beginning this won't really be a review, but after finishing it, I'd say it'd pass as a half-assed review. I don't think there are any other English reviews on this game yet anyway. The only ones I find on Google are too brief, but maybe I just didn't look hard enough. Give it a try if you're looking to kill time, it's pretty simple and surprisingly addictive.

~ Kirari ミ★

Video of the week #5

This week I'm showing off some gameplay of the new Umineko game:

I love how the game has a character switch system, like the Capcom vs series. Also, Siesta 410 (or should I say CHIESTER) seems like my kind of character. I'm very hyped for this game. I hope /jp/ has a few netplay threads for it that are more frequent than meltan threads, but maybe less frequent than TH12.3 threads.

~ Kirari ミ★

Making a list and checking it twice

Still tacking my backlog, so more filler. Right now I'm also in the process of making my list for Christmas (or rather, my birthday, I think my family wouldn't get Christmas gifts for me anymore, but since it's my birthday they still do).

I'm actually a bit stuck on what I want. I have some figures, a new hard drive, a few games...but it's so much more empty than when I was a kid. What's up with that? Do I really not have much need for more stuff? Then again, I'm holding out on putting the really expensive stuff on my list, like this gloriously overpriced Reimu.

On another note, Akiba-Pop! posted this really cool entry about an upcoming Umineko fighting game that I'm 100% hyped for. Felt like mentioning that, because that post really made my night.

~ Kirari ミ★

Marvel vs Capcom 3 available for pre-order, 2 DLC characters announced already.

Here is a link to the special edition of the game. As you can see, Capcom already has DLC  planned out. Jill and Shuma Gorath are returning characters available only through DLC. Now, I was planning on buying the collector's edition anyway, because there's no way I've been waiting a decade for this game to pick up the regular copy. 

Shuma-Gorath (Deal with it)

Jill Valentine

I'm happy that Shuma got back in, it used him a lot in the past (even though he apparently was low tier in MvC2, but I don't care about that stuff, and certainly didn't care about it 10 years ago when playing this at my local pizza shop). But, DLC already on the way before the game even comes out. I've already said in an older post how I feel about DLC abuse. It doesn't particularly affect me in this case, but I still find it kind of a douchey move to make on Capcom's part. Characters that obviously weren't too influenced by character requests, meaning they were probably planned quite a bit in advance, meaning they didn't have any reason to make it as normal characters into the full roster of the game on release. At least the characters apparently only come out a month after the game's release, rather than as soon as it's out.

Oh well, guess it shows that more and more games will eventually lead into this direction. 

According to Gamestop, the special edition comes with:

•Steelbook case featuring exclusive art work.
• Comic/Art book- A 12-page prologue comic, written by Marvel writer Frank Tieri, plus campaign art and a curated selection of fan art.
• 1-month Subscription to Marvel Digital Comics, providing unlimited online access to Marvel content.
• People who pre-order through GameStop will receive MvC3 console decals created by Fathead. Also, character cards with a move list and descriptions.

In other news, I don't really like following rumors much, but Kensk is the most reliable person when it comes to this stuff. He's announced all the characters for SSFIV before its release, including the newcomers we've shouldn't have known the names to at that point, he's told us MvC3 was going to be announced soon, as it really was announced a few weeks after, and all of his other information has been pretty spot on. In other words, he's proven he's either damn lucky, or actually does know someone inside to get leaks from. Getting to my point, he insinuated in this post that those 3 characters might possibly be in the game. Lei-lei(Hsien-ko) is my favorite Darkstalker. I really hope he doesn't pick now of all times to throw a lie out, because I'd love for her to be in this.

The game is set to be released Feb. 15 2011 in the US, and Feb. 18 in Europe.

~ Kirari ミ★

Etna Panty Givaway!

I already applied for this and thought you guys may like it. NIS is holding a contest right now for the upcoming Prinny sequel. You can send in designs to be used on Etna's panties, and some winners get a replica pair sent to them. It's a shame that you don't actually get to design the pair of panties, because there are quite a few designs I can think of. Instead, you just design a logo, and you can't change the color scheme either. 

You don't have to submit a design to enter, which is good since I suck at designing anyway. Not that I actually expect to win this, but worth a shot anyway for a pair of Etna's panties collector's item.

~ Kirari ミ★

Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright

Meant to make a post on this way earlier, but I apparently never published it. It was kinda just sitting in a tab waiting for me to submit. Anyway, as some of you have probably already heard, there's a crossover being made of the Phoenix Wright and Professor Layton series for the 3DS. I'm very excited for this title, being that I love both of these games, and can see them working together quite nicely.

Of course, there's not much detail about the game, since it was just announced. All we have to work with is what was officially said:

- Capcom and Level-5 collaboration
- Shu Takumi is writing the scenario
- Fully animated movie sequences
- Puzzle + Trial Adventure
- Takes place in some mysterious witch trial setting

More details on story stuff:
# Hershel Layton and Phoenix Wright finds themselves in a different world
# The city is called Labyrinth City, where illusions and reality cross. Magic and witches are real, but hidden from view.
# Villian is known as the Story Teller. He controls the city and literally writes the future.
# Layton will find himself solving new puzzles. Wright will be defending someone accused of witchcraft.
# The trial that takes place in this world is "Majo Saiban," or "Witch Trial."

~ Kirari ミ★
(And for anyone who cares, I'm better now)

Spencer, Arthur, M.O.D.O.K., and Magneto confirmed for MvC3

This news isn't so new as it's already been posted everywhere that matters while I was eating dinner, but in case any of you are interested in the game but don't actively check up on the news, I thought I'd let you in on today's reveals.

Arthur from Ghosts 'n Goblins, Spencer from Bionic Commando (the 2009 one), Magneto, and M.O.D.O.K. have been announced. Well, actually, Magneto and M.O.D.O.K. haven't really been announced yet, but their information was kinda leaked. Tomorrow they receive a formal release announcement.

As of right now, there aren't videos of the Marvel characters, but the Capcom side does have one for Spencer and Arthur.

Personally, I'm looking forward to playing Arthur. Loving his play style, love that they kept his original game movements, and loving that remixed theme they made for him. He's a very welcomed addition for me. I never played Bionic Commando, so dunno about Spencer. He seems like he's a bit odd to play with.

Now I'm wondering if M.O.D.O.K. is that "almost broken" character Seth was talking about before. Also, the addition of M.O.D.O.K. is further proof that the "leaked" list was never real. I blogged about that before though.

~ Kirari ミ★

Irisu Syndrome

Didn't blog yesterday because /jp/ got me hooked on this freaking puzzle game. At first I was thinking it wasn't anything too special, and that it was too hard for me to get good at. But I kept trying, I got better, and got too addicted to stop. It's just a puzzle game where you shoot these colored shapes that are falling, trying to match colors to delete blocks. If you let the blogs pile up too much, it's game over, but you're also being timed, so you don't have much time to sit there and think your moves through. You're constantly on your feet, and have to continue hoping your reactions are quick enough, the trajectory of the shapes are leading where you want them to go, and you're lucky enough to get colors close to each other.

The music for this is also pretty nice (and depressing). I like every track in this, even though there are really only about 3 or so. You can change the tracks on the start menu though, by clicking the game logo.

This game also has a pretty nice (and untranslated) story to go with it as well. You usually just see this cute bunny witch girl pop up on the screen when you get a game over. Sometimes she's looking cute, sometimes she's crying, sometimes she's...

I'm sure someone posted a quick translation of the backstory that goes with this game on /jp/ somewhere, but it'd probably be best if you actually played the game a bit first to get a feel for it before reading it.

This game is really freaking addictive, and unforgivably difficult as well. If you want to try it out, it's freeware. You can download it here. That's the link to the updated version of the game that has slightly different art, a few additional scenes, and the expansion. There's actually a sequel being worked on as well. 

So yeah, I think I'm going to get back to playing this and trying to get a high enough score to unlock some of the extras. Maybe I'll post another blog entry later when Capcom reveals the new characters or something, then I'll check up on the blog posts I missed out on yesterday.On another note, Irisu could totally pass for a Touhou.

~ Kirari ミ★