02.27.06
Posted in Online gaming, Reviews, UK at 5:09 pm by yuka
As first impressions go, it’s not a bad game. Those Ticket Agents are way too cute. I sat staring at them for a good five minutes…
Done in the style of a Japanese anime, I thought. Lo and behold, it’s by Koreans – ‘manhwa’ then. So obviously, cute characters, rather than sexy or macho or anything in between. I am still a bit put out though that you can’t have a female Accretian (robot people). After being used to WoW and Guild Wars, it does feel a bit tame – lots of killing monsters, not much in the way of plots: runs along the line of ‘as long as you kill lots, you’ll get the xp and level easily’. Still, money is easy enough to come by, by going to the vendors, so no one there is asking ‘Plz giv me sum money’ like in SW or IF, thankfully. Plus, if you can get through the tutorial without the whole thing crashing (it kept on crashing for me), it’s fairly easy to play.
But… as ever, there is a huge ‘But’…there can be some stuff that’s fairly irritating. If you think you can ignore them, play by all means.
1) What happened to the translation process?! It’s not so much bad translation as bad organisation, actually. Words are chopped randomly because there isn’t enough space on the line – and that’s without using hyphens. It does make reading the channels a chore. (I can appreciate how that happened, but I’m sure the game translators aren’t that blind as to think Roman Alphabet works the same way as one of our Oriental scripts!)
2) The chat itself… well, depending on the servers as much as what race you quest with, they can be somewhat trying. ‘W00t’, ‘lol’, ‘leet’, ‘noob’ – none of these terms should be used in excess. Anywhere. I mean for fuck’s sake, if someone’s new to the game and asks a simple question (like where a particular item may be bought), it’s only fair to answer them rather than taunt them with repeated cries of ‘noob’ and ‘I’m so glad I was never a noob’… how inane is that? So far, the most helpful of the races to play with has been Accretians, though admittedly the range of names made me laugh – c’mon, Gundam-related ones?
3) Don’t play as Rangers… until the game makers fix that bug where none of the purple items can be used (affects all guns and bows). That just sucks.
I’ll have to see if this is a game that I can really get into though. Got a 30day free pass, so might as well. Community is just as important as plots et al, I believe, so if that’s going to be letting me down every time I log on, well, needless to say, I’ll be looking out for better communities in other games.
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02.26.06
Posted in Japanese, Links, News at 6:35 pm by yuka
Valkyrie Profile (and that’s both versions) have had an update on their site. For Lenneth, go check out their TV ad movie (Outlines, then the second one down). For Silmeria, they’ve added a new character.
More DS-related Mana wallpapers in the Downloads section (from left, the three new ones): Package art, Rabi, and Rabi 2. Oh, and the DS site itself sports another character info… I’m sure they’ve misspelt this though – Mysteries Man… it says. But what it says in Japanese suggests it should have been Mysterious Man. Ah well :)
For DQ VIII Boy Yangus, new Promotion Video for shops can be seen… third tab from top is the one for Movies, by the way.
Puyo Puyo fans can indulge in some free online play apparently if you register at the Sega main site and then go to this site. It’s due to open early March, or so they say.
Meanwhile, Nintendo has apologised to their many customers – DS Lite Ice Blue and Enamel Navy, due to some complications during production, will only be out from 11th March. And it’s not all bad news for them as the highly anticipated Tales of the Tempest (one of the ‘Tales of’ series from Namco) is due out on 13th April on the DS. For screenshots of the characters, see here. It comes with the proper ‘cooking’ procedures, so much a part of the game, and it utilises the DS touch screen completely through the cooking process, as seen here.
I will try writing a bit more over the next few days… Who am I kidding? Don’t count on it – just got RF Online, so I have a feeling, I won’t be of much use for a few days :)
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02.22.06
Posted in Japanese, Site news, UK at 9:09 pm by yuka
Just a word of reminder to people who have sent me stuff to apparently translate…
1) Please don’t assume I’ve played the game you want me to ‘translate’ in whole. I simply don’t have the time for that, so please ask your nearest Japanese bilingual mate to do that for you. (Of course, if you send me the game cartridge/disc, wait two weeks, and pay me a bit, I might consider the job.)
2) As I’ve mentioned above, I don’t play every game I write about – I live in the UK so unless I really want the game, I won’t have it shipped over before the UK release date. So, instead of telling me the title of the game you’re interested in, please send me a screenshot (if you post your screenshot here, for example) or script of some kind. I need the actual excerpt for translation.
That’s all for now. Obviously, if you keep sending me titles… or something from hentai games… well, it’s not within my terms, so they’ll be ignored. Cheers.
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02.21.06
Posted in Japanese, News at 5:48 pm by yuka
My dreams last night featured the ‘Zoodoku’ game again, but coupled with a Zelda-esque dungeon. So in true Link-style, there I was in a dungeon, only able to go on to the next area after solving a ‘Zoodoku’ game. Brilliant? Laughable? It was quite interesting anyway, what with WoW involvement too…
Talking of Sudoku though, those of us addicted are in luck. Hudson has announced that on the DS, they’re releasing a set of three puzzle-oriented games – Vol.1: Jigsaw Puzzle, Vol.2: Crossword, and Vol.3: Sudoku (数独). That’s all very well, but 300 questions? Only? Whether they’re going to amend that to include more or not will surely determine how many they will sell. Oh, they are out on 23rd March apparently, and will cost approx. £14.70.
Nintendo-Inside’s been going on about a rumour – DS Lite, according to this, is set to be released in Europe on 16th August for around 130Euros. But as it is, it’s still a rumour, and no confirmation as of yet. In any case, the official Nintendo sites hasn’t said anything about it, so it’s open to speculation. If you want it that badly, just import it :) (The British Pound is still stronger than the Japanese Yen – about 205-210 Yen per £1, for your info.)
As of today, Nintendo is celebrating the 20th birthday of the Zelda series. From the ‘86 Famicon installment to the much-talked about Tingle RPG that’s supposedly coming out sometime this year (never mind, they don’t talk much about the Twilight Princess – only that it’s also coming out sometime this year)… well, it’s been quite a succession of great games. To celebrate, King of Games site has pre-order on some Zelda related items.
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02.20.06
Posted in Japanese, News at 2:40 pm by yuka
Anyone else have a racking cough that plagues you day and night? That’s my excuse for abandoning this blog for a week. Even in my feverish state last week however, I was haunted by ‘Zoodoku’ (think Sudoku but with Zookeeper animals instead of numbers) – a game I apparently made up. This is what gaming does to you.
Mana site has more wallpapers – both for the DS version. First one titled ‘Tree of Mana and the four’, the other is of another character, Tiss. Click on the ‘Goods’ tab, and you’ll see pics of collectable cards and Rabi in both cuddly (left) and cushion (right) formats. The cuddly set has two ickle ones both measuring about 12cm costing around £8.50, while the cushion version’s about 45cm and costs approx. £14.50. Click on the link directly below to get hold of some :)
Valkyrie Profile Lenneth has updates on Characters, and also added two new wallpapers – right hand corner as you enter site.
In other news, disturbingly, but fast becoming a reality, a Pokemon theme park is set to open its doors on 23rd June this year in Taipei. Fortunately, it does have an end-date of 24th September (imagine having a ‘PokePark’ in your city all the time… when in Japan, I live near the Tokyo Disneyland so believe me, I know the hardships involved!). Tickets are set to cost 860yuan (700 in advance) for adults, and 650yuan (520 advance) for kids. For the whole season, 2,500yuan for adults and 1,800yuan for kids. And Taiwanese McDonald chains will be distributing little booklets for the park from today, titled ‘Pokemon Scoop’.
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02.13.06
Posted in Japanese, Links, News at 1:47 pm by yuka
World of Mana site has had another of those periodic updates. In the Download section, you’ll now be able to download four character wallpapers (from left: Flick, Tumble, Pop and Wanderer) as well as the previously mentioned little Rabi (that hops around your desktop). In the Trailers section, five promotional videos (from left): Mana DS TV ad anime version A, Mana DS TV ad anime version B, Mana DS Jump Festa 2006 movie, Mana 4 Jump Festa 2006 movie, Mana Project E3 movie.
For those of you who want to ogle and drool over the new DS Lite models, click here. Available in three colours for now, they are Crystal White, Ice Blue and Enamel Navy.
Dragon Quest fans can, whilst waiting for the new Boy Yangus game to come out (20th April), browse and find a wallpaper download on their site. I know, sadly, it’s all in Japanese. See on the left hand side there’re those ‘wooden’ tabs? Second up from the bottom is the download one. Click on the size you want, and hey, you’ve got it.
Nintendo has announced a few titles that will be released as of April… as follows:
13th – Starfy 4 (DS), Tales of the Tempest (DS); 20th – Zoo Tycoon (DS), Mother 3 (GBA); 27th – Konami, the Best of series (GBA). Not much then… and no doubt, not much of that will come abroad…
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02.08.06
Posted in News, Online gaming, UK at 5:00 pm by yuka
As of today, new patch has come in for WoW. The details are as follows, and good news all round…
Love is in the Air!
Are you looking for love? All of Azeroth soon will be! As winter
draws to a close the races are starting to seek that special someone.
Be on the lookout for amorous individuals! Put on that special
perfume or cologne, express your love, and receive gifts in return!
Prepare yourself… love will soon be in the air!
Mac
- Added native support for Intel-powered Macs such as the iMac (Core
Duo) and MacBook Pro. World of Warcraft is now a Universal
Application. Be advised that the minimum supported MacOS X version
has been changed to 10.3.9; World of Warcraft version 1.9.3 and later
will not launch on older revisions of MacOS X.
Battlegrounds
- The default graveyards in Alterac Valley for each side were moved
further up the tunnels away from the battlegroud exit. This should
prevent accidentally leaving the battleground.
Paladin
- Eye for an Eye – This talent will now still do damage when the
paladin is stunned. In addition, if the critical hit kills the
paladin, damage will still be dealt to the spellcaster.
- Greater Blessing of Sanctuary – Paladins with Righteous Fury will now
generate extra threat correctly when this Blessing procs.
Rogue
- Deadly Poison V – The charges were inadvertently not increased with
the new rank of the ability. Increased from 105 to 120 charges.
- Slice and Dice – This ability should no longer miss.
Warrior
- Shield Block – This aura will now correctly be removed when the
charges are all consumed. However, it is still possible when fighting
multiple opponents to get extra blocks due to technical restrictions.
Items
- Arcanist Gloves were not receiving the intended spell damage bonus;
this has been corrected.
- The Stamina and Intellect on Kezan’s Unstoppable Taint were
inadvertently flipped; this has been corrected.
- The Enigma’s Answer and Stormcaller’s Wrath effects now have tooltips.
- The mana regeneration effect from food no longer causes threat.
- Quicksand Waders are now Bind on Pickup.
- The Slime-coated Leggings now have their proper nature resistance.
- Prophetic Aura, Mageblood Potion, Wizard Oils, and the Mana
Regeneration bracer enchant no longer generate threat for the wearer,
and should also provide the increased mana regeneration on normal
ticks instead of every 5 seconds.
- The Ancient Hakkari Manslayer has the proper icon again.
Professions
- The Engineering schematic for the Tranquil Mechanical Yeti now
requires a Cured Rugged Hide rather than Ice Thistle E’ko so that
both Horde and Alliance Engineers can make the recipe.
- Stormshroud Gloves are now Bind on Equip.
Quests & Reputation
- Grammar fixed for gossip associated with the quest “Trial of the Sea
Lion” in Moonglade.
- Fixed a bug with the quest “Glyphed Oaken Branch” that was having the
quest become available sooner than it should have.
- The reputation modifier of Squire Leoren Mal’derath has been reduced.
- Zandalar Tribe reputation rewards for killing mobs in Zul’Gurub have
been increased.
- Winterfall Spirit Beads and Deadwood Headdress Feathers now stack in
quantities of 250.
Raid & Dungeons
- Various bugs have been rectified in the Ahn’Qiraj dungeons.
Molten Core
* It should now be very difficult to remain out of combat while
fighting the bosses in Molten Core.
Zul’Gurub
* A small number of spawns have been removed from Zul’Gurub to allow
for a slightly faster clearing time.
* Increased cooldown on Poison Bolt Volley of High Priestess Mar’li.
* Slightly reduced the melee damage of High Priestess Mar’li.
* The vengance effect gained by the death of the raptor Ohgan during
the Bloodlord Mandokir fight has been increased in power.
* Reduced the overall damage of High Priest Thekal.
* Slowed the rate at which the panthers spawn during the High
Priestess Arlokk fight.
* Hakkar:
Melee damage reduced.
Cause Insanity should now correctly target Hakkar’s current target,
rather than closest.
Cause Insanity will no longer remove all threat gained.
Reduced the damage dealt by Poisonous Blood Siphon.
Increased cooldown on Blood Siphon.
Gained an Enrage ability after 10 minutes in combat.
No longer has the Slow ability.
Corrupted Blood now deals direct damage with a following damage
over time effect and no longer spreads to others in the raid.
Fixed a bug that was causing Corrupted Blood to target the current
target rather than the intended random target.
* Increased duration of Poisonous Cloud emitted by Sons of Hakkar.
* Shades of Jin’do are now considered Undead.
- Slightly increased the movement of Lethon’s Spirit Shades.
- Reduced the duration of Lethon’s Draw Spirit from 7 seconds to 5
seconds.
- Fixed a bug that would cause Lethon’s Draw Spirit to spawn two
spirits per person instead of one.
- King Gordok can no longer be seperated from Cho’Rush the Observer in
Dire Maul.
World Environment
- Royal Dreadguards, Undercity Guardians, and Ironforge Guards will now
detect enemy players at the same distance as the other cities’ guards.
- Fixed a bug that would cause you to dismount in certain areas within
the Undercity.
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02.07.06
Posted in Japanese, News at 1:35 pm by yuka
From 23rd this month, AQ Interactive has come up with a little adventure game that’s definitely out of the ordinary, for the PSP. It’s no saving damsels in distress, no saving the world either. So, what’s it about? You’re the newly wed. Nothing special, you say? Must be the cultural differences veiling the obvious (to us Japs) then. As a newly wed spouse, you are expected to do this that and the other, but with approval from your respective families. Yuk. Sometimes, the situation with the spouse’s family gets a bit too tense… so what should you do as the obedient housewife/husband, eh? Then there’s the problem of getting used to living with your spouse for the first time… trust me, in Japan, even when betrothed etc., couples are expected to live away from each other, and under their respective parents’ roof. (For the full interview… in Japanese, of course:
interview with the makers.)
Apparently, the game concept came from one of the creators’ blogs, which became quite popular for its frankness… and yeah, it’s amusing. Then it became a book… and now a game title 実録鬼嫁日記 (jitsuroku oniyome nikki – roughly translates to An Ogre-wife Diary). Looks good. It’ll be interesting to see how well it does as a game though, seeing this’ll be the first game to have origins in a blog.
Oh, and if anyone’s interested at what Bill Gates and Peter Moore had to say about Nintendo, check out this article. How very revealing…
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02.06.06
Posted in Japanese, News at 12:14 pm by yuka
.hack//G.U. (click for screenshots) will be released soon. On PS2, in installments of three volumes: 1st – May, 2nd – September, and 3rd – December, and will be under the Bandai name, as opposed to the Bandai/Namco one. As with the previous game .hack game, there will be other media involved in enriching the game – even a radio drama is planned. Their site has info on the world it’s set in – click “Legend of the World” tag to see movies (12 in all). Typically, in Engrish style however, they have misspelt ‘information’.
From the Keys Factory, as of the end of March, there will be a few new additions to the DS accesory line-up. Silicone Jacket DS (to protect your DS from dust and scratches), DS Touch Pen Pure (transparent version), Docking Pouch (attachable pouch for the active: attachable to waist and shoulder), and ‘Lovely Boston’ (for girls, apparently… something about a fashionable and cute bag for other oddities that girls customary carry too).
Phantasy Star Universe is due out on 30th March for approx. £34 for the PS2 only, and the familiar super-cat Doraemon will be out in game format on the DS from 2nd March for approx. £24. On the DS also, Tetris DS will be out first in America from 20th March, so no doubt the UK release date won’t be too far away. Playable by up to ten players? This is an old classic revamped to look out for. (Screeshots)
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02.01.06
Posted in Japanese, News at 2:00 pm by yuka
One of Japan’s top sellers is finally making it abroad (to the US). It’ll be re-titled Brain Age, and will be available from 17th April. It’ll also have Sudoku amongst other brain teasers. (For more info, similar article can be found here.) Another bit of news – Zelda fast approaches it’s 20th birthday since inception, so some form of celebration is under way… in the form of limited edition T-shirts and dot’s. The article doesn’t notify us where it’ll be sold, but it does tell us they’ll be available from 21st Feb.
And good news for those who easily get lost down random alleyways in Tokyo and elsewhere. For the PSP exclusively, Sony’s made a map for cities and towns in Japan which will be sold from 20th April at approx. £20. It’s supposed to work in conjunction with the Sony download service, so wherever you are, just look up what you want to find, and hey presto, you know. The download bit has currently 150 titles (from “Tourism”, “Restaurants/Cafes” to “Seasonal Attractions” and “Maid Cafe Special”) costing £0.50 each, and Sony claims they hope to have 200-300 titles by the time they’re finished. Obviously updates are to be available too every year. (Pics, and this is where the download service will become available from.)
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