This is supposed to be a game diary blog

(tags game)

This is supposed to be a game diary blog... I've been playing games but not reporting it.

Let's start with Izuna: The Unemployed Ninja for the Nintendo DS. I found this game for cheep and in English. This is an easy Rogue-like that shackled me for a week or two. Rogue-like games generally penalize you hard if you die, but I really like the fact that I keep my experience points in this game. I often lost my phat lootz but I did not get mad because I felt that it was my greed taking me down. I beat all but the last dungeon, which is really hard because it's long. Also, experience points in this last dungeon start from scratch and it is not retained when I die. I got to floor 20-ish before my greed killed me, yet again. I think I know what to do but it's too much work and not enough fun to play this last part.

I personally like the cute girl ninja (kunoichi?) and the anime flavor, but the story is lackluster and unrewarding. The translation into English doesn't seem too bad, though it is helpful to know the Japanese. Some of it is left without translation, such as sticking a talisman onto your weapon/armor, it is shown as kanji with no contextual help in English after you have decided.

I am down for the sequel though.

I got Death Smiles, the regular version for Xbox 360. I'm just playing Arrange mode, rank 1, but the difficulty on the last stage is making me gasp in anger. I still don't understand the game system.

Also, for some reason I wanted to play Ikaruga, so I did some of that recently. Got an A rank on stage 1, which unlocked an Achievement. I hate the D-pad on this controller. Also I watched the replay data from fellow Xbox members, and the replay data from the top 2 player normal version is amazing. I'm pretty sure that it is not a doubleplay (one person, two controllers), but a real-deal 2 person play.

Oh yeah, I was playing Killzone 2 at the shop, which put me into a FPS mode. Consequently, I am picking up where I left off on Half-Life 2: Episode 1. Now I'm onto Episode 2, but it's barely keeping my attention.

I still not have finished with Chrono Trigger or Trusty Bell. I need to play those again arrgh.

The Matrix has me

(tags movie, DVD region 2)

I just watched The Matrix again on DVD. I still like it. Maybe I'm a kid that needs to watch the same DVD over and over again, every day. Okay, no.

The price of cross compatibility

(tags game, hardware, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)

I really want to play my Xbox 360 with a decent D-pad controller. Here's something that looks nice, reported by Engadget, called the Cross Fire Adapter for Xbox 360. I don't regularly buy stuff from overseas, so the shipping rates are always a bummer for me.

Eeek.

Leveling up while searching for some nostalgia

(tags Chrono Trigger, Dual Screen, NES)

I'm walking around with my DS open. You see I'm leveling up my Chrono Trigger, and it's totally brainless. I've been leveling up eating junk food, playing the Cube, walking up a hill to my house. According to my save points, it has taken me 3 or 4 hours to go up 10 experience levels. I am now within striking distance of "lvl 99".

And today I went to Nipponbashi Osaka Den Den Town. I had in mind to get a copy of the original Famicom release of Megaman 2, if it was findable and cheap. Actually for me, looking for old console games in Nipponbashi feels nostalgic, because I've been going there for more modern games, and also anime and manga stuffs. So today I finally stepped into Retro Game Revival and Super Potato and Big Tiger for 90s and 80s games after a long while. W00t.

As an aside, RGR had a game demo of Warashi's 90's shmup Shienryu, which I think was the PS1 version because it had lots of slowdown. Warashi's back in limelight with the moe-madness that is Trigger Heart Excelica. Anyway, I got to the third stage, just playing on reflex and really slow bullets. It was fun! I gotta dig this game out of my stash, I think I have it for the PS2 (or maybe not).

So yes, I did not see a copy of Megaman 2 anywhere, either for the Famicom or the Playstation 1. I know it's call Rockman (ロックマン) in Japanese, because I was finding copies of MM5 and MM3 going for mid-tier pricing at 1300 yen. I also saw a copy of Megaman 1 for 3500 yen, ohkay. A-Too has some selection, but that's because the prices are higher than even auction rates. 14800 yen for Dancing Sword for the GBA?!

So, to de-motivate myself from paying many monies for an old game, I kept saying to myself, when I get home, I will pull out the emulator and ROM and play it on my PC.

Then again, I bought some more used games, like Izuna (in English for 1980 yen!) and Kirby (needs no translation) for the Dual Screen. So, emulation evil averted! Also I was going to buy Pokemon Platnum, but the only Pocket Monster I want is Pikachu.

Last PS2... Jak and Daxter The Lost Frontier

(tags PlayStation 2, Jak, PlayStation Portable)

The reason I'm sitting in front of this computer and blogging right now is that stupendous news came out and I need to link to it. Well, stupendous to me anyway. Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier for PS2 and PSP. W00t! (Thanks Joystiq and Kotaku).

Now I must be behind the curve because some commenters on the blog complained that Naughty Dog's and Playstation 2's signature series hasn't yet graced the PlayStation 3. You know, welcome to 2007? I don't really mind though. It seems that Naughty Dog is preoccupied with the new IP that is Uncharted. That's another Naughty Dog series I wanna sink my teeth into. And the voice actor for the lead is the same guy as the "protagonist" in Prince of Persia 2008. (why haven't I blogged about PoP, that is my favorite 2008 game...)

I know that my 4th Playstation 2, which is US region, is just waiting for me to play something, something like Jak X Combat Driving, hahaha. I'm ready to buy Jak's last outing, so bring it.

Feeling a little JRPG

(tags Chrono Trigger, Dual Screen, Trusty Bell, Xbox 360, RPG)

Acutally I haven't been playing much of Trusty Bell (Eternal Sonata). It's not that it's not fun, only that I rather not sit in front of my computer/Xbox 360 monitors. And, I have been playing some DS, just a little bit. I finally opened Rhythm Tengoku Gold, and it was kinda novel but I only finished the first two sets. I rather press buttons than flick the variable friction screen. Also I tried out Nanostray in English which I bought for 1800 yen a couple of weeks back, and I find it hard to get into. It's as if danmaku never existed.

Speaking of which, Zun's Shanghai Alice "Touhou" CDs are slowly disappearing from the shelves at Tora no Ana. I need to pick some of the soundtrack only releases. Lucky me I have all the games. At Melon Books they bundled the whole stack of Zun audio CDs and games and the total came out to 23500 yen. Nice.

So yes, Chrono Trigger. I decided to FAQ it. Well I did beat the game and got two endings. I was just wondering if I should go do the New Game+ or just continue levelling up? Right now I'm just levelling up doing the cheapest method possible that doesn't take much brain power. It requires the berserker rings, so that the AI takes over.

I read the GameFaqs forum, and there are some pretty hardcore acronyms there: LLG (Low Level Game) In other words, play the game intentionally at a low experience level for extra challenge. Ugh? Naw, I'm just going to have fun my normal way, complete all the items, endings and let the game go.

Actually it's funny, there was an guest essay in Weekly Famitsu this week by some pro-wrestler writing about Chrono Trigger. He didn't say much at all, just that CT was one of his favorites and he played it back in the day and now he's reliving it on the DS, just before jumping into the ring. I wonder why the editors chose to run that essay now, since the game came out four months ago.

Finally, (this is just thoughts scrambled) I did a rare combing through the DS used softs for the Final Fantasy JRPGs. On the DS, I found III and IV. There were no GBA stuffs. Actually I wanna try my hand at Final Fantasy VI (3US) again. That stupid software glitch back in the day killed my save data and my FF fandom. Then again maybe I should just pick up Pokemon Platnum somewhere, since I still haven't experienced it.

I should just get back to Trusty Bell. Really, it's cheaper that way.

Thought I lost my Rubik's Cube

(tags Rubik's Cube)

I thought I lost my Rubik's Cube on the bus a week back. I placed it on the window sill and immediately in the back of my mind the voice that makes me keep things said "You're going to lose that." I got back home, emptied my bag of Ichigo Mashimaro OVA 2 DVD 2, slept, then went back to work. I noticed only then that my Rubik's Cube was gone. All that day I was going through Rubik's Cube withdrawal pains. At work I kept thinking about that bus seat. I was reading that Doki Doki Tama Tan in Nakayoshi issue 2009/04 during that bus ride and it was just... not much of an improvement. I also kept thinking that I had to break out my spare Cube and lube it and get it all nice and loose like.

In the end, I got home and noticed the Cube was where I dumped my OVA DVD. Oh. Carry on.

I'm feeling pretty fast with the Cube today. Usually it takes me a complete escalator ride at the Kobe Subway Harborland Station (watch the train come in) to solve one, but today I solved it 75% of the way. I credit the feeling of looking ahead one combo move. I'm not going to bother with a measurement though.

In other news, I keep reminding myself that I need to learn some new moves. I have been experimenting with just some moves at random, to see if they stick in my brain. I like the moves that are cyclic, e.g. I do the same move three times and it brings me back to the same position, like L2 U2 L U L' U L. Ah, I had to bust my Cube out to write the sequence. Learning it by feeling, not by sheet music.