My new European Luigi 3DS XL arrived!

Look what arrived in the post today!

It's the special edition Year of Luigi 3DS XL, European version!

I bought it from the UK Nintendo Store. It says the release date is 1st Nov 2013, which means they've broken their own street date by a whole week!

I like Luigi. He's funny and reminds me of my fondness of my own little brother. ^_^

Some Doujin Indie Game Bundles

The Groupees Doujin Bundle 2: http://groupees.com/doujin2

This bundle includes a bunch of shoot-em-ups, and the VNs "Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni" (it's the Manga Gamer version DRM-free), and "Hatoful Boyfriend" - the pigeon dating sim.

Fan patching means that there is a more complete version of Higurashi out there, with the images and voice work from the PS2 version if you like. Also, this is just Higurashi, so - just the start of the story. But the price is very good.

Hatoful Boyfriend... try it, it may surprise you.

If you really like doujin shmups and want even more than offered in the Groupees bundle, take a look at the Indie Gala October bundle: http://www.indiegala.com/october

It contains some of the Nyu Media lineup, and if you have one spare US dollar, they're worth a look.

So many European special editions!

It's like... special edition season!

Nintendo are releasing two special 3DS XL consoles:

A Year Of Luigi 3DS XL and a Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds 3DS XL.

I've had my eye on the Luigi one since it came out in Japan, and I've been enjoying my DSi XL far too much recently to be satisfied with my regular sized 3DS, so I pre-ordered it as soon as I saw it the other day. Even though it's due out on November 1st, I got an email earlier saying "Okey-dokey! Your order is on it's way!", so it looks like Nintendo are breaking their own street date!

There's a special edition of the upcoming Legend of Zelda game "A Link Between Worlds", which is the sequel to Link To The Past. It comes with a download code for "Link's Awakening DX" (for some reason...) and as demonstrated by Aonuma and Iwata comes with a little chest that goes "da da da daaa~" when you open it. It was priced at £59.99 the other day, the preorder button has been taken down now. Visiting the page earlier today caused the entire website to break, I wrote to them and they told me that preorders are breaking stuff and that's why the "buy" button is missing at the moment. I'm not sure it's worth it anyway. Not to say it's a bad game; I played a bit of it at the Play Expo and it seems like it will be a fun game, I mean that it's way more expensive than the £32.99 people are pricing the regular edition at.

This Tales Of Symphonia Chronicles Collector's Edition looks amazing, it's a remake that's dual language, and has content from both the PS2 and Gamecube versions of the original game. This collector's edition comes with a novel, soundtrack, and 5 cute figures. It comes out at the end of February, so I've suggested to my boyfriend that it would make an excellent birthday present for someone like me. :)

This Bravely Default Deluxe Collector's Edition comes with a figurine, soundtrack CD, artbook and AR cards. It says it's exclusive to shopto.net, which I did not expect.

The Nintendo shop was the only one to have preorders open at this stage! It's like no-one wants to take my money! XD

Oh well, I shouldn't spend much money on myself this time of year, it's coming up to Christmas present shopping time, and I did just spend most of my money on a pinball table. Also, Guided Fate Paradox and the new Ace Attorney games are out this week, I've been looking forward to both of those. :D

My Scared Stiff Pinball table

I really love pinball.

I love old pinball tables through the ages that were more like bagatelle with flippers for a bit of a 2nd chance. I love new pinball with ramps, video screens, speech, missions, maybe even holograms. I love video pinball where the ball gets sliced in half or temporarily defies gravity or gets up and walks away.

Video pinball has been what I mostly rely on. I think Zen make the best current pinball games - raptr says I've played 114 hours of Pinball FX2 and that doesn't seem nearly enough. Silverball Studios (formerly Fuse Games) are also really good, the "Crush Pinball" series, Pokemon Pinball (they should make a new one of these!) and I really like Kirby's Pinball on Gameboy.

On the rare occasions I visit an amusement arcade (seaside resorts, shopping malls), the first thing I look for is pinball. Then arcade machines. It's very rare I can see a pinball machine and not decide to play it.

I never really thought I would own a pinball table. It was just one of those things that you think "ah, maybe one day I will own".

And yet...

This is sitting in my house. It's mine! It's mine! There were 4028 of these tables made in the entire world, and this one is mine. And it plays beautifully.

For years now I have thought "if I was going to own a pinball machine, it would be that Elvira one". I had vague fond memories of having played an Elvira table with googly rubber monsters and a spinning feature at the back. I think it was while holidaying at Hemsby, near the back of an arcade called "The Dunes". It's not even called that anymore. It was years later when I could identify this table by name. "Scared Stiff".

This machine has everything I'd want. It is fairly easy to play and do well. It has various missions to complete, so there's progression in the gameplay. The playfield is nice and varied, and the spinner in the back box is a cool feature, and really beautifully executed with 3 layers of artwork surrounding it. It has a sexy / funny theme, doesn't take itself seriously at all, and features full voicing by Elvira. It's got little cheesy monster finger puppets and plastic frogs. All the replacement parts for this machine are still obtainable. It's a good one to own.

Read the story of how we got it by following this "Read More" link:

Jeff Minter demoed his new game TxK at Play-Expo

We went to Play Expo in Manchester on 12th/13th Oct 2013. A big gaming event, full of new games, old games, tournaments and cosplayers. And pinball and pinball and pinball. =D

There demoing a new game was Jeff Minter, the legendary creator of a lot of my favourite old games. :) So as soon as I entered the hall, I made a beeline towards his stand and tried his new game! (it wasn't crowded; he was competing with the PS4, Nintendo, and Oculus Rift after all)

It's called TxK, and is a Tempest-type game for the Playstation Vita.

Despite not being a finished game, it plays pretty solidly; you move along the rim of the field (which may be crazy shaped), shooting forward at the enemies who are coming towards you and firing in various patterns. Sometimes they drop power-ups (always in the same order), and they give you various abilities, one of which is the ability to jump, which is super-handy because it lets you get out of the way and shoot enemies that have made it to the rim.

For this reason, it gets very hard if you miss a power up. My reaction to that is "get better at the game", but I don't know if that makes for a good game mechanic for other players. It's a problem I have with a lot of the old Taito shoot-em-up arcade games from the 80s (Darius? Gradius? I forget...) where you are doing great, but lose a life and since you also lost your power-ups, you're very vulnerable and lose all your other lives very quickly. At least with TxK, the levels are short - it makes it not so hard to recover from a mistake.

There are also (a very limited number of) smart bombs that kill all the enemies at once, which you can activate by touching the screen.

Sometimes, I'm not sure what causes it, but you get a triangle awarded. They appear at the top right of the screen. I eventually collected enough of them (four, I think) and was treated to a bonus stage. In the bonus stage, you had to fly through rings, but I didn't immediately work out the controls so I missed and it ended the bonus stage early.

In this photo, my boyfriend Rich is on the left, Jeff is in the centre and I'm on the right. Jeff's co-programmer Giles very kindly took the photo.

Rich was pouring praise upon Jeff and talking about arcade controls for iPads because they had Gridrunner in a mini iPad arcade running. But at the same time, Rich said that he was afraid to try this new game because Space Giraffe had scared him off, because he's no good at it. Jeff said that TxK's a lot more straightforward and less "out of your head", which it is. So he had a go.

When I eventually got a word in, I let Jeff know that I think Space Giraffe is the best game he ever made. He agreed with me. I told him why; because it's completely different and new kind of shoot-em-up, that you play it with your ears, instead of just your eyes. And he was delighted to meet someone who gets it.

I also told him that TxK might be the game that makes me buy a Vita, that I've been playing his games since I was very young (I found a scorebook in my parents house that documents me beating them at Gridrunner when I was pre-school!), and that his games are probably the reason my boyfriend is convinced I was dropped in a large vat of drugs as a baby. :)

I also told him he should make the 1-ups in TxK look less threatening, because I avoided them twice, thinking they were projectiles. They're pink and say "1-up", but they look like bullets!

Meeting Jeff Minter and playing his new game, that's a super awesome day. But connecting on Space Giraffe, and letting him know what a great game I think it is, I felt like I had just done something to fix the world. Just a little bit. :)

Super-not-an-otaku Shopping Guide part 2 - digital purchases

Buying software or music digitally is a good way to import things, because you get your goods quickly, don't have to worry about bootlegs, and don't have to worry about shipping costs and customs charges.

Music

For music, all I know about as services are iTunes (which I've never used), I've bought a few Japanese MP3 tracks on Amazon UK, but the selection is very limited, same goes for music.google.com. But if you find what you're looking for, go for it!

Of course, there are other things to consider - sometimes CDs come with a DVD, or there's a first press edition that comes with extra bonus items (e.g. a poster, bonus tracks), so don't forget to look out for those.

Console Gaming

First of all - console region restrictions. Work out which you can still use, which you need to buy import consoles in order to play import games.

Nintendo: Wii U, 3DS and a DSi-enhanced DS games are all region restricted. DS wasn't, GBA wasn't. I don't have any modern import Japanese Nintendo consoles, so I don't know whether if you try to connect to the eshop with a Japanese Wii U or 3DS from outside Japan, you get to the Japanese eshop.

Microsoft: About half of all Xbox 360 games are not region restricted, and many people are unaware of this. The shop Play-Asia handily note on the page for each game they sell which games work in which region. You don't have to buy there, use their site for research. Notably, most arcade shmups by Cave are region free specifically because they know they have a worldwide cult following, but not necessarily one big enough to localise for each region. You can create different region accounts for Xbox 360 for the different content, with an American 360 account, we managed to download and play Aegis Wing, which is not available in the European store.

The original Xbox was region restricted. The Xbox One won't be, but don't expect to be importing Japanese Xbox One games.

Sony: This company used to be awful. The PS1 and PS2 were region restricted, then the PSP and PS3 weren't but instead they forced retailers to stop selling goods from Asia to the EU because they wanted to keep prices high. Nowadays, they like having customers. The nuances are going to take a while to explain, so that's why I left this for last.

The PS3, PSP and Vita are all region-free, there is one game I know to be an exception, which is Persona 4 Arena. You can set up one Playstation Network (PSN) account per region - please google how to do this because it's changed since I did it. With different region accounts, you can use the Playstation Store for the corresponding region, and get access to buy games you wouldn't ordinarily see. The PS3 will let you gather together and play all the games you have installed for all regions without any hassle.

The PSP and Vita however... If you are playing games from physical media, they work immediately. For digital games, because each handheld can only be attached to one account at a time, things are more complicated. Unless you own several PSPs/Vitas and dedicate one handheld to each account, you're going to have to do some account switching and memory-stick-switching to go from one game to another.

Another thing to look out for - the PS3 will play PS1 games, but the region restriction of the PS1 applies to physical discs - but oddly enough, not to downloadable games. So for example you can play Japanese PS3 games on a European PS3, that's simple enough. If you have a physical copy of [Tokimeki Memorial] for Japanese PS1 and put it into your European PS3, it won't work. But if you create a Japanese account on your European PS3, and use the Playstation Store with your Japanese account to buy a digital copy of [Tokimeki Memorial] for PS1, you can play that on the European PS3.

Lastly, your DLC must match the version of the game you bought. For example, if you buy an American copy of a game which is also available in Europe (e.g. Disgaea 3), and you want to buy DLC, you must log into an American account and buy the DLC. European DLC will not work on an American copy of the game on a European console.

Weird restrictions, huh?

To top this off, as far as I am aware, if you want to pay by credit card on a PSN account, it has to match the region. I don't care about this, because I don't like to give video games companies my credit card details anyway. The day after the Playstation Network accounts first got hacked, I received a phone call at work from my credit card company asking whether I'd just spent some money in a supermarket in Japan, and we cancelled the card.

I buy PSN wallet top up cards to fund my PSN accounts. I buy US and Japanese ones from Play-Asia because they have the best prices and the redeem codes are instant. I buy UK ones from GAME because I'm collecting loyalty points which eventually add up to free stuff.

The same goes for Nintendo eshop cards - I buy my UK ones from GAME for eventual money off.

For Microsoft points, I'd usually buy UK redemption codes from Amazon or Play.com because you'd get a much better deal there than just buying from Microsoft directly. e.g. 2100 points would cost £16.87 on Amazon whereas it would be £17.99 from Microsoft in the Xbox 360 interface. Now that Microsoft have stopped using points and gone to paying with money... pre-existing points cards are said to still work, but I haven't bought any.

Computer Gaming

Steam is the big platform if you are a PC gamer in "the West". If all you want to do is play ports of console games which are already released in English, install Steam, browse and search for the games you want, add them to your wishlist, and wait for Steam to have a big sale so you can scoop them all up for very little money. They usually have a big sale in mid-summer, a big sale in mid-winter, and smaller sales in between. As well as ports of console games, there are also some Ys games, some doujin shmups, and Recettear - the item-shop haggling / debt-repaying / dungeon crawling game which I've played over and over and would like to once again recommend to everyone.

Steam is nothing in Japan. There's no Japanese interface, they don't sell the big name games in Japanese, as far as I'm aware there are no games on Steam that cross the boundary into pornography, etc etc.

When you say Japanese PC games, I think visual novels, those kind of adventure games. I also think "things they don't allow on consoles (especially since Sega stopped making them)", "touhou", and "small team experimental indie projects".

When it comes to visual novels - there are the official licensed English versions of games, there are the fan-translation patches that you can run against an original Japanese copy of the game to patch it into English, and there are the pre-patched English fan-translations, often of doujin projects where the original author has been asked and doesn't mind a translation.

Official licensed English VN sales:

Jast USA have been selling ero games since... well, since it became possible, back in the mid-1990s, and the focus of the games was pornography with a flimsy story on top. It's probably their fault that we started to call these things "hentai games" rather than "eroge". Nowadays, they also sell VNs that are mostly a good story (they have a lot of Nitroplus licenses), and sell digital copies - but it seems that their internal processes are stuck back in the 1990s, and turnaround between buying a digital copy from them and receiving a link to download from can take a week!

Manga Gamer sell VNs, have a strange way of categorising things whereby "Higurashi no naku koro ni ~ When They Cry" is designated "All Ages" because it doesn't contain sex scenes, though the torture, murder and so on would not make me want to categorise it in the same way. When they started up, I heard that their DRM was intrusive and the quality of their translations very variable, so I haven't bought anything from them.

Desura is a good site for buying downloads of indie games, it has a small selection of non-pornographic MangaGamer VNs and a larger selection of English-language-original VNs too. Eve Burst Error is there through MangaGamer, I'm glad that game is being "kept alive" this way.

DLSite contains tons of doujin material, including English versions of Hatoful Boyfriend (the pigeon dating sim) and other things. Prices are very good - cheap and swift. There's a lot of dodgy material on there, watch out and have fun.

For information about visual novel I might be interested in, I go to vndb.org, look at the tags to see if there's any material in the game which I'd find objectionable, look at the user ratings, and find out where it's available. If it's a game that needs fan patches, it'll be listed under tlwiki.org and there may be a page dedicated to it. Additional information if there are problems is sometimes available at fuwanovel.org.

My handy dandy online shopping guide for Japan-friendly geeks

I thought I would write a shopping guide. I'm very good at shopping. :)

Research

1. It's a good idea to research what's available, and what you're trying to buy. e.g. Will it work with what I have? Are there different versions? How do they differ? Will I need anything extra?
2. When researching a specific item you want to buy, take a note of the catalogue number if there's one available. With differing transliterations and spelling, search by catalogue number can be especially useful.
3. Despite most of the shops I list in my document below being entirely in English, it's a good idea to learn to read enough Japanese for you to navigate through things, and find the Japanese names of what you want to buy. At least katakana (because you will be able to recognise English words), and hiragana for basic Japanese. At least はい meaning "yes" and いいえ meaning "no". I found http://lrnj.com/ useful, a little RPG game where you defend yourself from things by typing the right thing to match the character on screen.

Stuff you should know

1. It's a bad idea to call yourself an otaku.
2. For exchange rates, use http://www.xe.com/
3. Custom rates are harsh. Here in the UK, if they spot it, they will tax everything valued £16 and above, and the customs fee is £8 handling plus the amount taxable. And they will sometimes kick the box around a bit for fun.
4. Read up on region restrictions for media - some basics - for DVD, UK is in the same region as Japan and not US, for Blu-Ray US is in the same region as Japan. Video game region territories - depends on the system but usually Japan and Asia are one, Europe and Australasia is one, North America is one.
5. The price difference between anime bought from the UK/US and from Japan is incredible. Japanese prices are much much higher. Bandai try and sell in the US at Japanese prices and I don't think anyone is biting. Some Japanese anime fans "reverse import" from America because it's cheaper than buying the Japanese version. However, when it comes to DVDs, if there are 2 episodes per disc for the Japanese version and 7 episodes for the US version, the Japanese version is likely to have better video quality because the US version is compressed down to fit.
6. Places like www.crunchyroll.com/, www.viki.com/, www.daisuki.net/ and www.crackle.com/ let you legally watch anime streamed, some free of charge, which is the best price of all. If you're in North America, you can use animesols.com/ too.
7. When it comes to shipping from Japan, your options are often: SAL / registered SAL, Air Mail / registered Air Mail, Fed Ex, EMS. Now, SAL is surface; your package will come to you upon the oceans and seas. This is cheap but takes ages and things go missing, so registered is good. Air Mail is faster. Fed Ex and EMS are fastest of all, most reliable, are most expensive, and are almost certainly going to get caught by customs. In the case of Fed Ex, they will pay the customs fee for you to get the package to you faster, but you have to then pay Fed Ex the customs fee, which might have a mark-up.
8. Before you think "an art book would be nice", or "some manga would be nice", or "poster-sized calendars would be nice" - watch out, they cost a lot in shipping due to weight, and bulk. But they are so worth it!
9. If shopping from ebay, Amazon 3rd party or other small seller hiding behind a big name, research how to spot bootlegs before you commit to buy (especially concerning CDs, GBA and DS games).
10. Obey your local laws. Don't try to import anything that's illegal in your country!

Shops

See:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AqwQHfPogTpcdE4wOGVlOGpoOVJMNHNicnJBdUg1bGc#gid=0

Rule of thumb

If I wanted to watch an anime series, I would look for a streaming site. If I wanted to buy an anime series to keep on DVD / Blu-ray, with English dub/sub options, I'd have a look on Amazon, or RightStuf (especially if it was in a Rightstuf sale). 

If it hadn't been released in English and I really really liked it, or there was some other reason I'd rather buy the Japanese version, I would go to Anime Jungle to see if I could get the DVD / Blu-rays 2nd hand but in top condition with possible first-press extras.

If I wanted a brand new regular edition CD / DVD / Blu-ray / console game from Japan or Asia, I would go to Play-Asia.

If I wanted to buy a brand new Blu-ray, DVD or CD direct from Japan, or pre-order, and have a chance of getting bonus first-press items, or a limited edition copy, I would go to CD Japan. I would also go there for calendars and regular editions, if the pricing is good or I have loyalty points to spend. 

If I wanted to buy brand new import console games, I would go to Play-Asia. I don't mind Asia-edition games, they are often slightly cheaper and come with a quick start sheet in English for Hong Kong players. 

If I wanted to buy a second-hand console game or brand new doujin game, I would go to Palet Web. I might also try Japanese Retro Video Games for second hand video games.

IMPORTANT EDIT 11th February 2014: I recently discovered a new favourite importing shop, which I thoroughly recommend. It's Nin Nin Game, they sell games and figures, and a small selection of CDs etc. The reason I like them is because they will ship goods through Amazon France, which guarantees no custom fees. So far I've bought one item from them (an Ika Musume Figma!), and it took a little while to arrive it was worth it.

Pokemon Rumble U - first impressions

Pokemon Rumble U just came out here in Europe, so I bought a copy, on a spur of the moment thing. 

It's a downloadable Wii U action game where you control a little Pokemon figure, to go into an arena with 3 other Pokemon figures on your side, and fight dozens of enemy Pokemon figures. Sometimes enemies turn into coins when they are beaten, sometimes they turn into capsules containing new toys to add to your army.

The new toys are more and more powerful as you progress.

You can theoretically collect all 649 Pokemon in this game.

There's also a feature where you can use special real-life Pokemon figures in the game, using data transferred by NFC. Unlike the ones you win in battle, these can be powered up, and can be taught new moves. You can also take your Pokemon with you to a friend's house, and use it there. I think this is like the Skylanders games, and the upcoming Disney Infinity.

The special edition I got comes with 2 Pokemon gacha figures - one Black or White Kyurem legendary, and one normal Pokemon. I also bought 2 gachas separately. So I have a White Kyurem, Pikachu, Litwick, and Lucario. Kyurem is 10 times more powerful than the others, starting out. It also comes with a fold out poster which I haven't bothered to fold out. It's a very big box for a downloadable game!

Pokemon Rumble U appears to be exclusive to GAME here in the U.K. - the normal edition is £13.49, the special edition is £19.99 and the gacha figures are £3.99 each.

My thoughts so far - 

1. Pokemon Rumble U NFC figures are super cute, they are all low-polygon and adorable.
2. The game looks very pretty
3. It's very repetitive. Each level is a circular arena with hordes of enemies to beat. Not like the 3DS game where there were different terrains to explore.
4. Not much of a story really. I mean, there is one, but it's very shallow.
5. Not sure whether this is a complaint about the game or the Wii U in general - the gamepad's power ran out far too quickly. Perhaps it's all the NFC stuff, maybe it's just that the gamepad battery doesn't last very long anyway.
6. I don't think there's anything to spend your in-game coins on if you aren't playing with NFCs.
7. Using NFC figures gives the game an unnatural progression in terms of balance. Without them, you are limited to using a Pokemon which is at most as powerful as the toughest thing you beat. You'll swap around from level to level, and collecting 'em all will benefit you. With NFC figures, you are limited to whatever power you could buy - which may well be far beyond the toughest thing you've beaten (making the game super easy), and you will probably want to stick with just your NFC Pokemon as you power them up (switching them depending on type), which I think will make collecting less interesting. But I suppose that depends on the player.
8. The game is very sparse on instructions. It doesn't, for example, let you know how to actually use the NFC figures in battle. There's an option in the main menu to scan them in, and power them up, but when you exit out of that and go into the game, looking at your army of Pokemon, the ones you scanned in aren't there. There are no instructions to say how to add them, either. You have to re-scan them on the character select screen in order to choose them.

On one hand I feel like I've barely scratched the surface, because I'm slowly seeing new features as I progress. On the other hand, I feel like I'm already doing the same thing over and over, possibly because the urge to redo levels to "catch 'em all" is great.

There will be passwords for this game published in Official Nintendo Magazine, and on twitter. The first is 87818558 for a Samurott: http://www.officialnintendomagazine.co.uk/53425/first-pokemon-rumble-u-password-revealed-unlock-samurott-now/

Groupees doujin bundle

I bought this earlier: http://groupees.com/doujin

It's a bundle of games, including some VNs, arcade shmups, and a 2D fighter made by some ex-SNK devs. Oh and Cherry Tree Comedy Club, which I started once and is seems like a dating sim without the dating. :) The games require $0.50 each, you can pick and choose not to include some of them but must pay at least $1.50. All the bonuses unlocked within the first night of release. So I got ten games plus a soundtrack for $5.

Currently reading Jisei, which is the first of the Jisei murder mysteries. Only started it, but it seems pretty well written.

Dead Rising, insect bites, and feeling bad.

Dead Rising has been making me feel bad since I first played it, which is probably at least 5 years ago, but I still find myself thinking about it. It's a game where you are a photojournalist (Frank West) dropped into a mall full of zombies and you need to find out what happened, survive, and you can rescue people too. Mostly, you pick up whatever you find, and smash your way through hordes of zombies, or drive through them, or whatever. A lot like one of Koei's musou (Dynasty Warriors) games, but featuring zombies, having multiple outcomes, and made by Capcom.

I started playing it, but eventually gave up because it made me feel bad to play it. The zombies in the shopping mall were obviously just normal people until very recently, killing so many of them so easily and gleefully feels bad. The protagonist is an amoral jerk - taking sexy photos of female zombies in low-cut tops before slaughtering them to help level up is the kind of thing he does. No respect for the dead. But the thing which made me feel worst is that I was supposed to be rescuing someone, they ran too close to me while I was wielding a sledgehammer, and... well, they didn't need rescuing anymore.

Meanwhile, my boyfriend - who doesn't normally like musou games - really enjoyed it. He especially liked it when he could get Frank to pick up a bowling ball, and smash a zombie's head with it. The sound.

"I thought you were a nice person!" :(

But the reason I am thinking of the game again? Read after the break. Warning, minor spoilers and a picture of a freaky insect-bitten hand.

One Piece Romance Dawn (3DS RPG) is coming to Europe!

I just spotted this earlier today, on the European Bandai-Namco website:

ONE PIECE: ROMANCE DAWN

It's a One Piece RPG, I haven't seen nearly far enough in the story - all I can say is it's set pre-New World. It comes out in November 2013, and I can't find any pre-orders open yet...

If my heart had wings

"If my heart had wings" is a visual novel on PC, and it's supposed to be really good. A translation is out in English, and Play Asia have been advertising it to me for months. Today I notice it's also made its way to Desura, which to me means it's almost mainstream.

Things hop from Desura -> Steam Greenlight, and as it's got modern, high definition graphics, it could do well.

However.

I found out that it's been heavily censored. Excerpt from: http://visualnovelaer.fuwanovel.org/2013/07/why-i-wont-be-buying-if-my-heart-had-wings/

To put the scope of the cuts in perspective:

• H-content: The original game had 17 H-scenes: 3-4 per heroine. Obviously these were cut entirely.
• Written content: The localized release has 12% fewer lines, reflecting a considerable content gap that was not filled.
• Art: An estimated 50% of the CGs were discarded or modified. This is based on a breakdown of ero / non-ero CG in the original, and includes small variations on the same CG. Take it with a grain of salt.

Now, censored images leave the story intact, but missing 12% of the text... well, that's a large chunk missing when you think you're going to get a full game.

I also read this page with someone complaining about the translation: http://imgur.com/a/pA57s/noscript#0

And it does contain some typos, but mostly this came across as an American reader outraged by the fact that the localisation is not from Japanese into American, but Japanese into English. As spoken in England.

Here, it is normal for someone to say they are moving house, or that they are in two minds about something. Normal, everyday speech. Many of the screenshots highlighted as bad grammar seem perfectly natural to me.

It made me wonder, "does this person complain about the grammar used in Fable games? Do they complain about Stephen Fry's poor grammar when he's narrating Little Big Planet?"

But it makes me want it. So badly. To have a game localised from Japanese into my flavoursome and colourful native language rather than American dialect.

In the page complaining about translation, the writer says they would have translated "in two minds" to "torn between". To me, there is a distinction - "in two minds" means you could go one way or the other and logically they are both equally good/bad outcomes. "Torn between" means you have a emotional conflict between two outcomes, and that's why it's difficult to make a decision.

I'm torn between wanting to buy a critically praised visual novel that's been localised into English for non-American people, and choosing not to support a localisation company that would cut 12% of all lines out of a VN.

Perhaps I should download the demo.

The Guided Fate Paradox vocal album is my favourite so far this year

I am so looking forward to The Guided Fate Paradox (Kamisama to Unmei Kakumei no Paradox) coming out in English this September. It's on PS3, it's got artwork by Noizi Ito (Shakugan no Shana, Haruhi and others), it's developed by Nippon Ichi and it's described as a "spiritual sequel" to Z.H.P. Unlosing Ranger Vs. Darkdeath Evilman (wiki), which I imagine must also mean "gameplay-mechanic-sequel". I really like ZHP, I really like endless dungeon crawling - lots of structured random is my perfect environment. :)

The biggest reason of all for my excitement is that I already bought myself the vocal album. It's six tracks by Yousei Teikoku, only about half an hour long, but it's my favourite album this year. :) (if you want a listen, search for videos on youtube)

Tracklist:

1. Kami, Nozomu Sekai to Hakinowa Gensou
2. Kenran Tenge, Kokuu ni Kiyu
3. Genwaku Kochou
4. Kanzen Houkai Paradox
5. Gisou Sekai Agarta
6. ending note

If you want to know where you can buy the album, there's CD Japan for 2476yen, or Play-Asia for US$ 31.49 (GBP~21.14). I got my copy from play-asia. Might seem a lot but bear in mind, it is the best album released this year~! :D

The game's out in the UK on the 27th of September 2013, here's a pre-order link on Amazon, where it's currently £35.87: The Guided Fate Paradox (PS3)