Odin Sphere HD release for Playstation Family

Odin Sphere:Leifdrasir

Odin Sphere is getting a new HD remake called Odin Sphere: Leifdrasir, which is going to be amazing. The reason why it is going to be amazing is because it's a remake of a vastly beloved game from a small developer, but every game this company has pumped out has been amazing as a whole and when you look at each part. 

Vanillaware, founded by former Atlus employees and spearheaded by George Kamitani have created a very niche visual artscape and game design that isn't very much dealt with in Japanese games now a days. George Kamitani from the games he has produced takes a love of fantasy and a love of food; which only increases the visual punch the games have. Though eating in his games serve a purpose not many games will have you do the physical act of consuming or making food; which is odd since food is necessary to our survival.

But back to the remake at hand, an HD remake is going to be a good thing for this game as it lets more people play this game, or for people like me; have a physical copy with a modern console. Also Vanillaware is still including the standard PS2 version in the remake if you want to play the original game, which is a very stellar and stand up thing that they did regarding their own IP.

Main Characters and their voice actors

The game is being released in Japan and North America for sure. For Japan it's being released in January 14, 2016 and is going to be on the whole current Playstation family; PS3. PS4, and PS Vita. Japan also has an accessory pack for the game as well that includes a pouch. I'm not exactly sure what the images are going to be but it's a standard accessory pack that Japan releases.

I reserved the Japanese version for the PS Vita and the accessory pack as I really enjoy buying my games on the PS Vita and having physical copies. Once the English version gets released I will make sure to buy the English version for the PS3 and most likely the PS Vita again. My only hope is that Atlus doesn't force an English only dialogue on the game, as they have a nasty habit of not giving Japanese language dialogue on games.

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.

Steins;Gate coming to Playstation 3 and PS Vita in 2015

Stiens;Gate is coming, be prepared Sony

Well if you haven't heard the news yet, Steins;Gate is going to have a release in 2015 for PS3 and Vita. Now even though the game is already out in English on the PC thanks to JASTUSA there is going to be a release for Europe and North America.

I am really excited by this. Even though I have a copy of the PC game already, I hope what has had happened recently with the growing trend of visual novels coming out, that Japan does see that there is a market out here for it, and that yes, people do buy them. While I do have a few gripes of how visual novels are handled (I'll make a post about it eventually) in the USA with certain distributors. I've got to say overall that I am glad that people can enjoy these games.

Now I am just waiting to see if they'll actually start translating otome or yaoi games.

I know what I'll be doing on December 9th-Playing Suikoden 2

I was just reading the newest news and I saw something that made me smile Suikoden II on the PSN and it is going to be AMAZING! Also I will be able to finally play the original Suikoden as well. This makes me honestly so happy. Suikoden was one of those games you sank hours into to get all the stars, and made doing tons of sidequests not so boring, and you could play lots of various characters.

Also I am glad that I will be able to play this game on the Vita, I'm going to get super comfy every night and just play till I get sleepy. I can't wait.

If Sony ports games that I grew up playing and enjoy even now, I have no problem with buying them. I've forever have qualms about not having physical copies of games, but I am getting over that problem slowly since I started playing PC games more often.

Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax-Three Support Characters Added

Well it's not exactly new characters to play with, but we are getting three new support characters for the game. Though there's already twenty for the game and only twelve playable characters so far... It seems a little bit weird but I won't complain as I do like the characters that are coming.

I am glad that Toaru and DRRR are getting more supports as they are two very beloved franchises, especially the Toaru series since Railgun and Index are currently still going and DRRR just finished this year and will be having another series set a few years in the future.

Accelerator from Toaru Majutsu no Index

Gotta say I super love Accelerator, and I am more surprised that Sega and Dengeki Bunko chose this version of Accelerator but then I remember... Black angel wings and how badass Accelerator got even more so now that he's kind of mellowed out and has stopped being a jerk.

Dokuro-chan from Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-chan

Dokuro-chan does look cute, and the fact that she's a bludgeoning angel just makes her perfect for a fighting game. If you've never heard of Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-chan go ahead and read the wiki on it, the premise for the the light novel and series is quite ridiculous, but I don't want to talk about it. I just want you to go read it and shake your head about its absurdity.

Orihara Izaya from Durarara

And then the person everyone seems to want, Orihara Izaya. And Sega/Dengeki Bunko know that they are popular, especially together as they showed in the new added part in the trailer a little section of them talking and Izaya asking if "Shizu-chan would like some help" to the answer of getting kicked and quickly moving out of the way.

I hope though, that we'll actually get an announcement for some playable characters, but I do enjoy the new assists as I love Accelerator and will actually probably use him along with Boogiepop as my assists.

Game launches in November for both the PS Vita and the PS3. No announcement or plans for a US/international version, but there is a lot of extra content including parts of the novel. But there is a story mode that could be translated.

Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax-PS3/PS Vita

It's time for the light novels characters to duke it out!

If you don't know who Dengeki Bunko is, they publish light novels primarily targeted for men. Though as most light novels aren't published in English (as of right now the only ones that Dengeki Bunko has published in English is Sword Art Online and Boogiepop; at least to my knowledge) we have have gotten most of the anime that the light novels are based off of.

While there is no English release, and probably won't be; we can be glad that the platforms that the game is going to be available on aren't region locked. The PS3 and the PS Vita. I have no idea if there is a storyline or not, but we all know that fighting games aren't well known for their plots, so even if there is some sort of semblance of a story it probably won't matter anyway.

Honestly what I am looking forward to the most is the assist character Boogiepop and Heiwajima Shizuo tossing crap at people.

Shizuo about to toss that vending machine

While the arcade version is out right now in Japan; the rest of us have to wait till Nov.13.

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.