This week's loot (14th September 2012)

Milky Holmes PSP (3)

Figured I'd elaborate more about the game.

It's split up into five chapters, each about half an hour long. No route splits or even individual endings- The choices you make only affect a couple of events (excluding the game overs from failing to solve the cases).

Yeah.

The game itself is decent. Investigating is somewhat linear- You're presented with a map of the area with icons of the characters on it. Select one to talk with her and if it's a member of G4 they'll probably tell you something important, and if it's a member of MH they'll ask you to check out the place at which point you're presented with a CG and supposed to select something suspicious which is usually pretty obvious. Each case has only four such clues, one for each MH member.

It's pretty linear but I personally feel that that's not too bad a thing- I have way too many memories of wandering wondering what the hell I'm supposed to do next in stuff like Gyakuten Saiban and Mikagura Shoujo Tanteidan. But even so, there's just not enough volume here. The mysteries aren't even in scale to the number of clues needed to solve them- They're simpler. Most of the time you'll know precisely what's going on and what's going to happen before you're even halfway done with the investigation. This is even though they sometimes discover things and don't even tell you what it is they found.

The ADV parts are nice, because it's fully voiced (thoughts too) and you can advance or turn on auto mode even with the text box hidden, like in GA2. The backlog's there too; People take that for granted these days but there's still way too many games without logs. Only complain I have is the lack of an option to make skip work only for unread text.

Action sequences are the coolest thing in here. They're a throwback to good old FMV QTEs, but executed better than most. Direction buttons are used to pursue the culprit and dodge attacks, simple enough. The cool part is when other stuff happens and you need to use the girls' powers; Instead of the typical "press X" stuff, each girl is assigned a particular button that's used for her throughout the game, so even before the countdown starts you can start guessing what power to use. I liked that, and it sure beats the typical "press up press X press O press X wiggle the stick mash X" stuff you get most of the time.

The Arsene fight was nutty, though, and I was playing on difficulty 2.

So yeah, the game was pretty good, with the only flaw being that it was too short. Unfortunately, that's a critical flaw. As a result it's hard to bond with the characters, or even see how the characters could be bonding among themselves. The episodic format is emulating a TV show (you even get the OP and ED for each chapter, in fact) but if this were an actual show people would be complaining about the horrible pacing. Also, there's literally nothing depicted outside of the investigations which is also pretty bad for a character game.

All in all it just feels rushed, and worse, incomplete.

Ah well, apparently a sequel's already been announced. I'll be getting it, the sucker that I am. It was better than GA2, at least.

Also, Kobayashi's personality changes wayyyyy too much whenever he starts solving stuff.

Milky Holmes PSP (2)

Cleared the game.

...What.

The.

FUCK.

Was that?

Seriously what the fuck?

There's nothing wrong with the game, it's just... short.

Really short.

REALLY. FUCKING. SHORT.

Milky Holmes PSP

ktkr

By the way, I'll be in Japan again early January which is why I haven't gotten Graces and Gundamusou 3 and Suparobo L and so on yet.

Edit (17th December): It arrived today.

Yay.

The Weiss Schwarz cards.





>v<

And just for the hell of it, my other Nendoroids.





Up till about a month ago, all I had was Exelica. And then all of a sudden three more. Yay.

Unrelated- Nendoro is nice but god I hate the collectors. Bunch of fucking scalpers and scum who buy games they've never heard of just to get the fucking things, leaving people who actually care about the series dry. Fuck you assholes, seriously.

Edit:

とりあえずこれ置いておきますね

Day 2 loot

>>Weiss Schwarz Idolmaster DS expansion booster boxes
Been looking for those for ages.

>>Weiss Schwarz Milky Holmes trial deck
Eh, whim.
Don't know why I keep buying trial decks, it's not like I have anyone to play the game with. Or even really know the rules, for that matter.

>>Figuarts Accel
Been meaning to get it for some time.

>>SIC Wild Chalice
To go with King Blade.

>>Ys VS Sora no Kiseki playmat
Exchanged for one of those gold things.

>>Milky Holmes OP single CDs
Not new but I got Kitta's autograph on them.

Got Kokoro's sign card in the trial deck.

Sort of completed the Idolmaster DS set. 36/36 normal, 20/36 parallel (holo) That's enough for me.

Day 1 loot

Not too bad.

>>Kiwamidamashii King Blade, Figuarts Faiz
Been meaning to get these for some time. Changed my mind about Accel at the last minute for some reason, may get it him tomorrow.

>>WS Idolmaster boosters
Only got stuff I already had. Bah

>>Ruitomo FD
Ruitomo is awesome.

>>Milky Holmes singles
I've said it before, but I've been watching it lately and like it. Kitta (Cordelia) wasn't there when I was hence the lack of her autograph, maybe tomorrow.

Oh, and one of the WS cards that came with the PSP OP single had an Hercule printed autograph. Yay.

>>Tooko Nendoroid 遠子先輩は俺の嫁
Love Bungakushoujo. Really ought to get round to reading... well, pretty much everything after Souwashuu #1, actually.

>>Demonbane complete works
It's Demonbane. What other reason do I need?

>>Clear Qan[T]
Whim and instincts which render me weak to anything limited. Or clear.
After watching the movie I think this thing will look really nice if I manage to get an appropriately light green light to light it up (wow that sentence looks weird).

>>Figma Nozomi
Favourite character in se・kirara, also was pretty cheap.

Also had my photo taken with the Milky Holmes VAs and Aniki (taking my photo with him has pretty much become an annual event now, really).

JAM had to catch an early flight (they were on the plane before Aniki's part in the concert ended) and I didn't get a chance to take my photo with them. Was planning to have them autograph one of my Suparobo albums too. Bah.

Day 1 (1)

First day of the actual event (yesterday was just the conference and a concert).

First thing on the main stage was a talk with Nakanishi and the airing of Marduk Scramble. The movie was alright, I guess.

Nice ending.

Place got really crowded for the 00 movie. I'd heard lots of bad things about it and was prepared for the worst, but actually found it pretty good.

The lack of a real major enemy was disappointing, though. I was expecting an assimilated monster Gaderaza to show up as the final boss.

Milky Holmes.

Short talk with JAM and Aniki.

こっちは何時間前からここに座ってんだよ、何勝手に前に立ってんだ、最低限のマナーすら守れないのか屑が　

Hanazawa Kana talk and afureko session. Afureko was done for Angel Beats (the scene were Kanade parts with Yuzuru from the final episode) and Black Rock Shooter.


Hall being prepared for the concert.


Miku PVs.

ミク厨きめぇ、座ってろよデブ

Some people seemed to really enjoy the Miku stuff.

No pictures of JAM Project's part of the concert, but let me just say it was really fucking good.
Not like photos would be able to express the sheer awesome that was there anyway.


The grand finale of the concert (I left the seats and went backstage before the final encore, hence why I'm on the other side of the barrier here).


Backstage, post-concert.