I forgot about 2-19: many game pre-orders

(tags game, pre-order, Idolm@ster, Shining Wind, Dodonpachi, Shooting Love, Star Ocean, Halo, Prince of Persia)

I forgot about February 19th, which is a Thursday. I mean, the Thursday when a bunch of swell gaming stuff comes out, stuff I thought was so killer I needed to pre-order it. Um, that's why I forgot that date. So this is what is waiting for me at Sofmap Kobe.

• Idolm@ster for PSP all 3 versions
• Shining Wind Fan Festa PC disc
• DoDonPachi for the Xbox 360
• Shooting Love for the Xbox 360

I am so SOL on the PSP front. Gotta buy me a PSP-2000 somehow, because I still refuse to update my legal firmware PSPs.

I wanted to get Star Ocean 4 for the Xbox 360 (which comes out on the same day as well) for some reason. Perhaps it's because the director said he wanted to make ecchi games (but of course was refused). I downloaded the demo movies so I can be frightened.

Plus I figured that I might wanna get Halo Wars, luckily that will come out only one week after. Gotta pre-order that, in Japanese, huh. And yet I still haven't played the demo. Do it.

Oh yeah, I picked up Prince of Persia today at A-Too Nipponbashi. It was 3500 yen used, and it seems to be the English version even though the region NTSC-JP. Hopefully this will make me feel good about non-difficult gaming. Except I was supposed to start playing this now but I got caught up on bragging on my blog and ripping the CDs I bought today. And tomorrow I'm still going out, since it's another telephone card day at Gamers. Wee.

While I'm on the subject of A-Too... I still check the price of Halo 3. It's slowly dropping, now at 4980 yen. Yes I have the Japanese version. Yes I wanna hear the Chief's clipped dialogue in English. Also I saw the English version of DJ Max Portable, want want (but! have have). Gears of War 2 is still 4000 yen+, not a must buy just yet. Top Spin 3 is also.

Um, I have 65 games for my Xbox 360 (including Arcade ones). I really gotta do something about the unopened ones. (Like Naruto: Rise of a Ninja) Aaarrrrgggh!!!

Books Lashinbang Kobe Sannomiya opens

(tags failure, telephone card, ecsite, doujin, Kobe, anime, manga, character goods, 200803, Shining Wind, Estrian Odyessy, CD)

On Saturday I woke up early but played the FFTA. Then I remembered Books Lashinbang Kobe was opening today. I need to put these things on my calendar. And I need to review my calendar every day. :-/

Anyways I got there 5 minutes before, and the line was somewhat okay, probably about 100 people in front of me. I was able to get in around 10:30 AM. I headed straight for the telephone card (TC) cases which were in the back. It goes without saying that it was packed. I couldn't see over the other people lining up there. I didn't see anything I really wanted, and I started to peruse the rest of the store, bouncing off fellow otaku. Still I didn't want to exit just yet so I headed back to the TC cases again. I then decided to get the two TCs pictured here.

The bottom right TC is that PlayStation 2 game Shining Wind related illustration with beautiful, lovely Kureha in a miko dress. WIN. I've seen it before at Books Lashinbang Osaka and K-Books Osaka and the price is the same over there. Might as well commemorate the shop opening with something special.

The second TC at the middle left is a DS game Etrian Odyssey II (世界樹の迷宮II 諸王の聖杯) which was an exclusive to Akihabara-based game store Messe Sanoh. The game itself was release just two weeks back, and according to the description, it's a "classic RPG" with manual mapping (whoa). Emulate the grid paper on yer DS. I don't care about the game, but I love the illustrations and wallpaper. The illustration theme is receiving a belated Valentine chocolate from the (tsundere?) blond hair gunner (job class) chick. What a cute "Jack Frost" badge. I don't even think she has a name. I scoped this same card at the Telecard Paradise Osaka store for like 4500 yen, so maybe its a deal. Also, the game comes with a soundtrack with that Insert Credit sound artist favorite Yuzo Koshiro (古代 祐三) and others. The cover illustration is again the blond hair gunner. Nice nice maybe I'll get the game nice nice. No.

I also bought some cheep manga: Kyoushiro to Towa no Sora volume 1, and CDs: the Loco Roco single and Angela Aki's "Kiss Me Goodbye" single for Final Fantasy XII. I have the over-sexy Kyoshiro to Towa no Sora CD case holding my Xbox 360 discs, but I never explored the story until now. Also this is the first time I've seen a store selling Quo Card plastic sleeves. Quo cards are a different size than TCs so you can't reuse the TC plastic sleeves for them.

It's too bad I decided to get the stuff late, because I was only able to get the exclusive clear file pictured above. If I was perhaps 10 minutes earlier, I could have got the exclusive TC (with slightly more horndog illustration, rawr). Doh. I really wanted something related to Kobe because heck I live here. The illustrator is 憂姫はぐれ先生（サークル：WIRE FRAME）. I suppose this link is NSFW, but it's not up now.

There seems to be some other specials, centering on telephone cards. Goodie. Take for example this one, a Card Captor Sakura TC set "celebrating" the re-release of the manga a year or two ago. I did check the price. Each card is 3_5000 yen +. A little steep, don'cha think?!?

I went to the store again this Monday evening and there's a healthy crowd of people there looking and buying. I was hoping that the Kobe-only exclusive card was available, because net auctions rip hard. No luck.

Here begins another store relationship. This location does seem to have a lot of interesting things and good selection, for now. I do hope they expand their TC selections. I want more stuff with daishi (台紙, lit. card backing) and more all ages stuff like Di Gi Charat. I am not interesting in the eroge TCs even though they are rawr.