Diadra Empty... what is going on?

(tags game, Windows, doujin, shmup)

Just today at Tora no Ana I bought this doujin shmup game called Diadra Empty (ディアドラエンプティ). It's made by a circle called frozenorb (ふろーずんおーぶ) and released back in 2008-06 in time for Comic Market 74. The package had some nice colorful graphics like this cover art. (this is not in game)

The back also showed some really cool danmaku bullets. Check out the sample game play video. There's an easy to read web page at doujinshop.com. For 1800 yen I gave it a spin. 

My old Sega Saturn style USB pad was ready from the get go. First off, this game plays like a modern style Defender, complete with a radar sub view and push button to lock shooting direction. Except there seems to be millions of bullets on the field. I don't understand what will kill my avatar though, because I seem to be able to bump through the whole danmaku barrage without a scratch. This has very lenient shields, which even regenerate automatically.

The background gradients are very pretty, but the foreground sprites don't make much sense. The enemy bullets are really colorful though. Lock on slow lasers chasing you around the screen, millions of dumb bullets flying around. The background scrolls independent from your avatar's movement, so I get confused easily. Frames per second isn't rock solid, at first with 60 FPS, but when the storm comes in, I barely get 15 FPS.

There is an RPG element to it, where you have to power up. Sadly the actually power up only occurs between stages. You have to collect coins, which means getting in close to the enemies to suck up their death release. I was able to collect 4 Gradius chase style Options.

I got up to level 8 which seems to be the last level because it was crazy long with crazy bosses. I couldn't beat the "emerald orb" which shot out some screen covering homing lasers. Crazy.

The music is really good though. It kinda reminds me of RayStorm.

Unfortunately it's really buggy. The game freezes without saving my progress. I am irate, because part of the game's powerups are unlocked as I proceed, supposedly. I checked out the web page and it seems I have to apply a patch. It's not very clear. Plus the patch adds two more EXE files, also unclear. The patch was password protected, wut.

I'll give it another try, because the patch finally allows me to go to the config screen without crashing (!). Perhaps it will unlock some more of the game's powerups. Heck I want to lend it to a friend so that I can compare experiences.

critical, light damage

(tags anime, doujin, Sugar)

This weekend I was cleaning out my room, tossing Mai-Hime posters away (oh wait that was last weekend) and I came across this. These are half-B3 sized pop stand posters of Sugar from A Little Snow Fairy Sugar (ちっちゃな雪使いシュガー). Actually it's a doujin work that I got at the Comic Market five years ago. I don't remember buying the first one, but I do remember going back to the same booth later in the afternoon to buy one more. It was probably less that 1000 yen each. Too bad I can't recall the circle name so I can credit them (or find their digital works, argh).

Kawaii. The one on the left is the one I keep for show, while the other one is my "storage" copy which I unearthed after massive digging. I don't have a third copy for "worship" :-( .

So this is what five years of light damage will do. It wasn't direct sunlight either.

This reminds me, I have all this Comic Market stuff including my routes maps of the floor and catalogs. I should just toss the paper ones, they're as thick as a phone book and probably just as dusty and yellow. What am I going to do with a trail map of the Comic Market floors, marked with my target booths? Probably indulge in a 10 second fit of nostalgia before shaking my head in shame... or a writing a blog post.

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.

Tora No Ana expansion as well

(tags ECsite, doujin, Kobe)

I wasn't paying attention, but the doujin shop Tora no Ana Sannomiya (Kobe) closed its doors for a week to prep for a big renewal. They are expanding their space by incorporating the truly massive adjoining room. It opens today. I thought I could get more information from a web page, so I didn't snap any pictures. But here's a map:

image originally from Center Plaza West Building 3rd floor

The previous configuration was pretty much male-oriented (or in the parlance of the new meme now, MAXIMUM RISKY, which is great re-purposed Japlish BTW). I'd see some women try to enter the store, probably from the overflow of the more women-friendly Animate, but pretty much leave without anything in hand. The new space will hopefully hold more all-ages goods (yeah right) and dedicate some space to fujoshi (that's more like it).

I can't recall what the space was before. Perhaps it was a blood donation center or an anime trade school? Hm.

This expansion and similiarly the recent Melonbooks Sannomiya expansion recent and Books Lashinbang new store, already strengthens Kobe-Sannomiya Center shopping area as the otaku epicenter for the Hyogo prefecture. Of course we've had Hobby Base Yellow Submarine, Animate, Gamers, and even a maid cafe. Now all we need is Mandarake and K-Books and there'll be no stopping the funk. Eew.

Second floor is for otaku too: Books Lashinbang Sannomiya

(tags ecsite, doujin, Kobe, anime, manga, goods)

Passing through Animate, I got my copy of Comic Blade and I'm going to read Fairial Garden as soon as I log off. Oh wait how do I segue into the main theme of this blog post. Uh:

My stroll from Animate on the third floor of the adjacent building goes through the second story of Sun Center Plaza. Of course I'm heading for Melon Books on the way to my bus stop. But the new store right next door caught my eye. Books Lashinbang will be opening a Sannomiya branch. I was so enthusiastic that I took pictures with my own camera. Melon Books in Sannomiya is strictly retail and new doujin stuff, and Books Lashinbang is pre-owned reselling of character goods, doujin and stuff, in other words, used sales, so I don't think they'll be stepping on each other's toes.

image originally from Center Plaza 2nd floor

Lashinbang is more interesting to me. I always go to the Osaka branch to check out the "premium" telephone cards. I hope they carry some here. Oh yeah they will. The only place to buy collectable telephone cards is at a store beneath Animate on the second floor, but they have some skanky ones. 840 yen for a card? Where has it been? :-)

Frankly I need to sell off some doujinshi that I just don't need. I didn't have a good place to do it in Kobe, but now with Lashinbang I don't have to haul it all to Osaka. Guess who's going to be there on opening day? (2008-03-01 Saturday) :^)

edit: added map. I like maps and editting with Paint.NET.

Save a princess: Comic Party's Asahi Sakurai (completed)

(tags anime, doujin, gal-game, game, PlayStation Portable)

I did complete the "Asahi" scenario on Wednesday.

Spoiler mode.

I was pretty satisfied with this ending. But it was pretty unrealistic that a seiyuu idol on firing on all cylinders would forget that she's an image machine. She could have both. Nevertheless it was a good ending.

So who is next? I already made a portable cheat sheet for clearing Eimi Ooba and Tachikawa on my iPod's Notes (4KB means 2000 kanji characters) but I'm already taken with the Minna no Chizu 2 + GPS. The other scenarios such as Minami Makimura and cos-player and art-store girl just don't seem interesting enough.

Asahi power: Comic Party's Asahi Sakurai (in progress)

(tags game, PlayStation Portable, gal-game, anime, doujin)

Asahi power! (桜井あさひ)

Two great genres mixed together, idols and figures.

Worship the goddess, my doushi (マイ同志).

I need this voice sample.

And evidently when it comes to images: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

Asahi, can you work my doujinshi booth again as an seller (売りっ子)? I need to make a killing on otaku with my high price (price stat: 0) and bad story (story stat: 1).

Downbeat girl: Comic Party's Mizuki (completed)

(tags game, PlayStation Portable, gal-game, anime, doujin)

I finally slogged through the "Mizuki" scenario in Comic Party Portable. Unfortunately she becomes really insecure in the end game. By the time she receives assurances from the guy she's back to her happy chipper self. I didn't like this scenario because she was insecure so long. But that doesn't detract from the fact that she has the best cosplay costume: Peach. Rawr.

When I tried to complete the scenario, I used the artist cap item to boost my doujin drawing speed, but unfortunately that gave me a bad end. I was like WTF. I only had to restart the last month's save and forgo the artist cap and I got the proper ending. Still I only have 95% complete CG but its good enough.

Dream fight

(tags video, fan-made, doujin, game, Nintendo, Microsoft, CG)

I can't use the videos on PSP Fanboy Theatre on my PSP, but I couldn't ignore this picture:

because it reminds me of that Metroid Mission Zero GBA commercial. Rawr.

The video where this picture is from is way better: Haloid by Monty Oum, Monty Oum, Monty Oum... There's CG, impossible fighting movements that will leave you wondering which video games it came from (do I detect Soul Calibur-chanelling?), crazy weapons, Matrix-reused slow-mo and music, and of course, nice player models. Rawr.