We don't always like being nonplussed

Saturday, June 11, 2011

Final Fantasy VI - Day 27 (In which Strago dances)

Well when we last left off, I was teaching Shadow magic, and now that he's no longer in the back of the class, with that, it's time to find something to do. Now someone said something about Locke ages ago, but my comprehension of the prompt is impaired by my innate inability to progress cognacious katakana. So in the absence of the hint, I'm going to poke around. There was a town a while back with a giant house that let me play with the light... maybe that actually did something... Maybe it'll let me fight more paintings now. And it does! A picture of a woman results in this:

They removed the smoke, but NOT the pipe for the US version.
Apparently I'm attacked by Asian flappers. They're not much to write home about, but after beating their faces in, a door appears. Well it's starting to look awfully dungeon-ie in here. Time to get to work. I'm in a dark basement... this doesn't bode well for any of my characters that are not plucky young high school virgins... which is all of them. My sense of impending doom is reinforced by the fact that walking too close to a painting gets me sucked into it, and someone appears behind me IN the painting. Creepy. It turns out to be the crazy cat lady:

DAHHEHYAGLGHBGLRDGAH
She looks a little young though... oh well, time to murder her face off.

Friday, June 10, 2011

Romancing Saga 2: Timeskip! Again!

His name is Bokuohn. He gets the special boss music. He has the row-hitting slash, so next time I'm going to change my formation. Amazingly Jeanne learns the evade for it though, and it takes him about ten turns to kill her, alternating between row-slash and "Marionette," a technique better described as "Stop Hitting Yourself!" ...actually, if you have more than one person alive what it does is substitute one party member for whatever target you originally wanted. Annoying.

Not E3: Gundam AGE co-developed by Level 5!?

I am a Gundam fan from way back- well, 2000 or so, which in terms of a 32-year franchise isn't really "way back." But anyway, there've been a lot of Gundam series, some good, some astonishingly bad, some meh. But what there has never been before is a Gundam anime co-developed by a maker of video games.

But this is precisely what the new series, Gundam AGE, is going to be. It's being worked on "at all levels" by Level-5, creators of the Professor Layton series and programmers of the wonderful Dragon Quest VIII and IX. With VIII they were the ones who finally made DQ look as good as it deserved, and I've had a soft spot for them ever since. Gundam does from time to time have a little problem with stagnation, and I'm hoping that they'll bring something new to the series.

That something new may even be legitimately good licensed games, hopefully! Capcom's Vs. Series is probably the closest we've gotten so far- I'd count Dynasty Warriors Gundam, but if you don't like one of those two things already it's probably not going to convince you otherwise. Bandai, the legend goes, has a habit of hiring programmers fresh out of school to make Gundam games. The Japanese public buys them because they say Gundam on the box, the green programmers get a hit game on their resumes, everybody's happy! Except, y'know, the people who bought Gundam: Crossfire, universally panned as the very worst PS3 launch game. So, I'm hopeful that this will be something new and good for Gundam on all fronts!

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Romancing Saga 2: Behind Enemy Lines

There we go: everyone has some Unarmed techs to fall back on, Luna now knows Galaxy as well, and we've picked out some nice gear and techs for using in normal conditions as well. Now back to Miles! I believe we were about to be (re-)abducted and put to work on some jerk's landship.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Romancing Saga 2: Miles Away from Home

I come to in a room full of gargoyles, and take the first answer in another prompt, which seems to mean I'm about to fight my way out, with a party of only four (I recruited a Salamander and a Mu Farmer) completely unprepared.

...and, upon further examination, COMPLETELY DEVOID OF EQUIPMENT.

E3: Itadaki Street in the US? Seriously?

Ah, the end of a platform's lifespan. The time when licensing fees and standards both relax and we get the weird stuff. The oddball games that would not otherwise escape Japan. For both DS and Wii, it's that time. (Which is probably the only reason we're getting DQ Monsters, frankly...)

For those who don't know- I'm betting that's a larger percentage than those who do -Itadaki Street is a Monopoly-like boardgame-like video game... thing, created by Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii. It's one of those long-running Japanese series that has never come to the US. Until now! Redubbed Fortune Street, it's been announced for Wii later this year, though one source suggests the DS version might also be coming. Both of those versions have both Mario and Dragon Quest characters; an earlier PS2 game had DQ and Final Fantasy characters and man would I love to have a game with all three.

Thanks to Dragon's Den for breaking the news on the Facetweets!

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Romancing Saga 2: Avalon, 2222 AD

Judging from the save file that was on the cart when we got it, I thought this would be the final generation. But in fact, we've got a new crop of successors to pick from:

 

From the top: Toshi, an East Guard; Shirley, a Liza-type; Ruby, an Amethyst-type Magic User; and Deianira, a Medea-style Free Fighter.



I don't want to use two East Guards in a row- I just like to have a little variety in my main characters. So since Medea was one of my more successful rulers, Deianira it is!

E3: Dragon Quest Monsters Joker 2 coming to the US!

Siliconera reports that DQ Monsters Joker 2 is coming out in North America on August 28th. Hooray! I'm hoping it'll be the Professional rerelease with about 100 new monsters included, because I find it highly doubtful we'll get both. But hey, I didn't think it'd make it at all, so it's a good start! Now I just need to get the original...

Shocking Secret behind the Wii U name REVEALED!

So Nintendo just announced their new console at E3: it will be called the Wii U. At least they didn't go with Wii 2, the most boring name possible, right?

...wait a minute. The English word "Two" is pronounced "Tsu-" in Japanese. The hiragana for Tsu looks like this:


...and if we turn it sideways...





COINCIDENCE!?

(probably; Tsu would be written with katakana being a foreign word as it is, and there's basically no way to make a 2 out of that, as you can see here. But this is how my mind works. Sad, huh?)

Monday, June 6, 2011

Dragon Quest V marked down on Amazon!

The Cheap Ass Gamer forums inform me that Dragon Quest V is now down to $20 through Amazon! The game was out of print for a long time and recently came back in stock, but now that it's $20, if you have a DS and like Dragon Quest, there is really no good reason not to get it. It looks pretty, the translation is one of those glorious translations that actually reads like it was written by and for native speakers of English (albeit ones who enjoy comical accents), and it has those awesome board-game tracks that first showed up in the Dragon Quest/Warrior III remakes. Go get it!

Romancing Saga 2: Killed with Kindness, Repeatedly

I finally figure out that the path around the back is the correct one, and am led to a choice of three snakes. I am absolutely certain that choosing the wrong snake will dump my ass back in Dragon Country. And I'm right.

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Final Fantasy VI - Day 26 (In which Shadow's drunk again)

Alright, so when we last left off, I said that I'd go follow that pigeon... well I LIED MWAHAHAHAHA!

No, not really, I'm following the pigeon.