Sakuracon 2015 Plans

It's almost Easter, with that said more importantly for me, it's almost Sakura-con time. I've attended a few anime cons both big (like Anime Expo) and smaller ones as well, but I've always liked Sakura-con the best. I feel as if it's always getting better each year, and varies out what it does and focuses on each year.

This year I'm excited for quite a few guests, events and the concert.

First off the concert is both going to have Kanako Ito and GARNiDELiA. If you have no idea who either of these people are Kanako Ito does a lot of vocal music for Nitro+ games including Steins;Gate while GARNiDELiA has done music for various animes including Kill la Kill.

I'm very excited because I've never seen either live but I've watched a live of Kanako Ito doing Skyclad Observer and I really enjoy how her voice sounds just as lovely as it does in recordings. Also Kill la Kill's second opening is vastly superior, in my opinion.

There will also be both a BlazBlue and Guilty Gear Xrd tournament as well. Though I won't participate, I will be watching the tournament going on if I have nothing to do or if there aren't any events that I will be going to.

I'm also really excited for the Good Smile Company guys as well as h.NAOTO coming to the US. My friend told me the Good Smile guys are going to do a live sculpting event, and if that's true... It's going to be amazing. I went last year to the Magi/Sword Art Online live drawing and it was super fun.

I've got a little bit of money saved for the con so if I see something I like I'll make sure to get it. For sure I will be going to the Good Smile Company booth first to see what they're all selling, which is my main thing as I buy multiples of a lot of toys (for modding), but usually isn't much I buy because you know, online shopping.

I will make sure to post everyday of the con hopefully or at least have a huge megapost at the end of the con.

I have 22 more days before 3 days of con fun. I cannot wait!

Year End Review-Visual Novels

Visual novels have always been a part of my life for a very long time,but oddly enough it seemed like this year was the year that I bought a ton of them, and oddly enough almost all of them were translated into English.

I initially just preordered Steins;Gate the limited edition because JAST USA made it sound like the only people who were going to get a physical copy of the game (at the time when this was in golden master) were the people who jumped in and bought limited editions. So of course I went ahead and preordered a copy of the limited edition, though now there is Steins;Gate coming out for almost everything and that a standard edition of the game exists as well. Though I don't regret getting the limited edition, it looks really nice and everything. I wish that they made more of them like this, I really like the way the box looks.

Honestly though, if you haven't picked up Steins;Gate for the PC yet, or if you don't want to play VNs on your PC, there is going to be a few releases next year of the game on IOS, PS Vita, and PS3. So in 2015 no one will have an excuse to not have played a piece of otaku history.

When I was at Sakuracon in the spring I ended up buying Kara no Shoujo for the PC as well. It only happened by chance because I was just walking through the dealers hall at the convention and ended up finding the Mangagamer booth. The only thing I was kind of interested in was Kara no Shoujo so I picked it up for $50 for the limited edition of it as well. Though it was a limited edition, it's not as good looking as the Steins;Gate one. And to be honest, it was much of an impulse buy than anything else because I want more VNs to come to the US and international, I knew enough about it that it's an eroge but nothing else.

Of course after that I bought another Hakuoki game, this time for the PS3 just for the fact that I love this game series even though we end up getting the same game over and over with just added content.

I'll buy it because not only do I like the story of it being taken a part in an alternate history in Japan. There's freaking Oni and pseudo-oni people in it. And if that wasn't enough fun, then I don't know what is. But to be honest it is an Otome game and there aren't many of those existing in general; even in Japan. So I feel like I got to buy this game to boost up the numbers. But it actually is a good story, so it's a win-win situation.

Though with how niche the PS Vita is, I don't see why AKSYS hasn't gotten the copyright to release an English version of the Sweet School Life version of Hakuoki. Because who doesn't like an alternate reality where everyone in the Shinsengumi is in high school, or teaches in high school. Are you kidding that would print instant money. Seriously, every fangirl would get to live out their dream of being surrounded with cute boys doing stuff.

The last thing I have bought this year in regards to VNs was another impulse buy it was Littlewitch Romanesque released by JAST USA released on the 23rd of December. The only reason why I think I bought it was because I was on JAST USA's page and saw it was getting released this month. And to my honest surprise it was. I have the game downloaded right now on my computer but I am still waiting for my physical copy, though I just looked it up on J-list itself and saw they have addressed the problem. I don't know when I will be getting the physical one but I hope it is soon, because I want to see how the case is and I hope it is akin to the one they did for Steins;Gate.

I did get past the intro to actually save the game and I came across this cute little thing.

I really have no idea what it is, but doesn't it kind of look like a Moomin? A Moomin that looks like he's made out of chocolate...

From what I've seen so far, I like how the story is shown, with it going more for a living manga style where speech bubbles appear than just a box with text. And the voices are great so far. I am especially glad that the main male lead has a voice, as that is the number one deal breaker for me. If I play a game and the main male has no voice... It just stops me in my tracks and then makes me want to mute all the characters. Because if I hear someone talking and the response to it is just a wall of text that I am suppose to read, and then goes back to voices. It just breaks immersion. There is an all-ages version though coming to Steam via their Greenlight system, so if you're interested in the story without the eroge contents there's that for you.

I am excited for 2015 since there will be a lot more VNs on their way, including Clannad from Sekai project, and not to mention (hopefully) the release of Hanachirasu from JAST USA. Also more Steins;Gate which is good too. But most of all I am excited to see what will get the potential go from either kickstarter or from independent small groups making their own VNs.  It seems as if VNs have found their way into the hearts of people outside of Japan. And I'd like for it to keep growing years down the line.

I Love the PS Vita

So around the 24th of November I finally received my PS Vita and I have been messing around with it ever since.

For one thing the PS Vita is rather light since it's the newer version and not only that it feels a bit more natural in my hands than the 3DS does. Now that doesn't mean that I dislike my 3DS but the two are aimed at very different people and tastes.

As of right now I don't have many games for the Vita I have three which includes a cross platform game and two actual Vita games. But, as for the selection in titles in the USA, it does make it look more like if you enjoy playing import localized games (i.e. J-RPGs) you are going to have a lot more fun.

So the actual PS Vita games I got were Muramasa Rebirth from the wonderful company Vanillaware and published by Aksys games and Persona 4 Golden from Atlus. Right now I am playing Muramasa Rebirth because I do like side scrolling action a lot. And I do mean A LOT.

Though I do like the Shin Megami Tensei series, to be honest Persona is my least favorite; and I'll admit it's mainly because of what I saw of Persona 3 and Persona 4. I haven't played either, but you know I finally will suck up my cynicism and actually play it. And I will get to it eventually and give my personal views of both when I get to completing the games.

Hopefully I will get more games for the Vita soon, because I need more of it.

BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger- Taokaka:Innocent Heart

During the summer sale I bought quite a few games on Steam, and one of the ones that I did buy was BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger. I don't exactly know why since I already had the game but it was probably for the reason of me wanting to support Aksys and wanting more Japanese based games on Steam.

So I got bored of playing Skullgirls at the moment, so I finally downloaded Blazblue. The first thing I did was started to play in arcade mode. And I got to say that I don't quite like the feel of the game on the computer as much as I do on console. I can't exactly explain why, but it feels it's lagging at parts but not because of my computer, but because of the game port itself.

Anyway I started eventually playing the story and I forgot how much I like Taokaka. Her story and her character herself is so innocent.

Taokaka is honestly very sweet and takes things to heart. Also she may be quick to action but she is the type to remember the people who do good things for her and the other Kaka clan. Oddly enough equating Lychee to "Boobie Lady" (she does call her this in Japanese she refers to her as "chichi no hito") due to her huge boobs, though Lychee feeds and teaches the children of the Kaka clan when she can. But in her story, the main one she goes out to find Ragna the Bloodedge but ends up getting so hungry and eating/trying to eat his food in Orient town, that he ends up feeding you because he feels bad.

After that she calls him a good guy and will never forget the kindness shown to her. Which I find adorable, even though it is a basic cat/animal instinct to favor those whom feed you. And in another divergence she ends up living with Bang because he says that he'll feed her (and ends on adopting her in some way as he dotes on her) and then takes Taokaka as his apprentice, which is really cute.

Besides Taokaka's actual cute storyline, I do greatly enjoy all the Kaka clan. The children and even the elder are adorable. In the Japanese version (I can't play with the English voices) I enjoy the little children's voices and the way they have them positioned in scenes.

They're just as adorable in their giant coats and their kaomoji faces. But I enjoy even though that the Kaka clan lives in the lower levels and aren't suppose to really be seen by society. Well they're still happy and don't mind living their lives. Even in the bad times, the Kaka clan does persevere. Which is a great thing.

If you haven't gotten BlazBlue on Steam, wait for a sale and pick it up. Yeah it's not Guilty Gear (which a lot of people prefer) I still believe that BlazBlue's story is great and intertwines with each character greatly. Also as a fighting game, it's not bad just kind of Guilty Gear like but that's ok. It's made by the same company. But it is a good game if you just want to add more to your fighting game library. 

Hakuoki: Stories of the Shinsengumi, A story, and a review

Now I am not a person new to the whole doujin soft/VN scene. I have been playing these games since about when Melty Blood came out in fact I just recently found my copy of it in my room. But that is not what this is all about.

Toshizo Hijikata and his fury form on the front cover

When Hakuoki:Stories of the Shinsengumi came out my friends were ecstatic for it, since not many Otome games get published for probably one of two reasons 1.Otome games are an even bigger niche in a niche market or 2. Too damn cliche for anyone's taste (seriously why is every man an extreme tsundere or yandere in womens works?)

Well for whatever reason Aksys released it for the PS3 even though the game has been released on the 3DS and the PSP before, each game with slightly more material or options which means for a VN collector, you're going to get all of them for the material not found in the other games.

Well going back to my friends, one has sort of experience playing these before but she's an odd typical fujoshi as every VN she's ever played has been a BL/yaoi game and the other has never had played these games before. This second friend, talks to me and asks how to get Souji Okita's ending because she keeps having trouble as she only gets either the bad ending with Okita or the regular ending where you just follow around Kazama. The first question I asked her was she saving or quick saving at every flag and she just looks at me blank...

My reaction to her expression

...I then realized how much my love of VNs are that what seemed like common sense to me just didn't make sense to her. After explaining what flags were in a VN context, I then began to ask her if she tried different combinations of options, even though I knew it was the last flag that pretty much determined if you were going to get a good ending or not. I just didn't want to straight out tell her.

Eventually I just gave up and gave her a guide on what to do to get Okita's ending. Oddly or rather typical friend that she is...She hasn't looked at the guide or finished it yet, instead just complains about the endings she did get.

As for the review...

It's a Otome game so you have a lot of men that you can fall in love with, and as with everything you should find the guy that makes you heart bump and try to please him. For me that was Hijikata.

Commander of the Shinsengumi

Yeah he does look like that typical tsun-pretty boy that all the girls clamour for but I actually enjoy his depth a lot and how you see that cold side melt or rather gradually fall apart. Also Hijikata's route is the longest out of all the routes since he's actually our "main male" as far as Otomate is concerned.

There isn't much to the gameplay as it's just a VN and it's a little bit interesting playing them on the PS3 but I can see why this is a good way to market the game to a bigger audience than just a computer, where even less of a female market is there.

Story wise, Hakuoki is expanded on again in this version with the Stories of the Shinsengumi added in with also the fandisk SSL stuff (Sweet School Life). For me these little bit of extras were the main reason for me to purchase the PS3 version of the game even though I have the PSP version (which was the first one to come out in the US).

I can honestly say this isn't for everyone, but if you like VNs Hakuoki's story isn't a bad one on its own, without the romance, and the actual romance itself paces at a realistic rate (as far as anime things go) and more supplemental information is added with the Stories of the Shinsengumi extras which leads to even more realistic feelings of the male characters and the lead female as well.

It's an interesting story that is vastly superior in VN form than its anime counterpart. If you're going to chose one or the other, I suggest the VN if anything.