This week's loot (13th September 2015)

Also cleared my first playthrough of Suparobo BX. It was eh.

Loot (5th January 2014)

This week's loot (2nd August 2013)

I'd forgotten to pre-order Grimgarden and went to Akihabara searching for it but it was sold out everywhere so bah. Ended up just ordering it off Sofmap.

Almost done with Gyakuten Saiban 5, and I started a new game of XCOM: Enemy Unknown for no real reason in particular (aside from feeling like killing some alien scum).

Edit (7th August): Stuff that arrived in my mail over the weekend (I was away)

 Namori artbook and Idolmaster Visa card book cover.

So yeah! I cleared Gyakuten Saiban 5. It was okay. Better than 4. 1-3 were still better. Kenji 1-2 too. But it was nice seeing Naruhodo again.

Edit (9th August): Figured I might as well squeeze this in here too.

 

Akabee fanclub stuff and I watched Pacific Rim which opened in Japan today.

I was very, very disappointed.

The film was just so... empty. Shallow. The designs were horrid but I figured they might be cool in motion. Nope. The action was just horrible clusterfuck after horrible clusterfuck.

I could see that they were trying to do a thing about survivor's guilt but it was just so hamfisted that I couldn't force myself to give a shit about any of the characters.

In the end it was just... I don't know. Pointless? There was nothing to it aside from ugly robot punching ugly monster non-stop. Nothing at all.

Usually after a movie I'm all "whoa that was great" or "what the fuck is this bullshit" or "what the fuck did I just watch" or whatever. This time though, nothing at all. I just didn't care. Oh it's over, time to go home.

It was bad.

Giant robots. I love giant robots. Giant monsters. I fucking love giant monsters too. In the same movie? Even better! I wanted to like this film. I really did. But I couldn't. It was just too bad a film for me to be able to like.

And so I'm just disappointed.

Princess Maker 4 (2)

I enjoyed the PSP version so much I went and bought the DS version which has more events. No prizes for guessing the first ending I got on it:

But yeah it's only partially voiced and the sound quality is terrible and the graphics are terrible and despite being on two screens the widescreen PSP version is easier to use so I went back to that instead. Cleared it once more, doing stuff I usually don't for a change:

That combination of weight, stamina and martial arts suggest that that's a lot of muscle.

Princess Maker 4

Haven't played... well, cleared any games in the series for ages (I have a tendency to start playing, get bored halfway through, and never clear that playthrough). Last time I cleared a game was 5 IIRC where my daughter became an unpopular voice actress.

Anyway I grabbed 4 off the PSN store back when I first got my Vita because I didn't have any games for it yet. And then proceeded to not play it until a few days ago. This sort of game is bloody meant for portables, and I ended up clearing it in 2-3 days just chipping away a bit while surfing the interwebs at night in bed.

Anyway yeah, 4. Sent her mostly to art class at first, then to dance class later on after mastering it (she came in second in the first art competition and then was first in every single one from then on, and I survived mostly off that prize money for the first half of the game). Started to let her work at a maid cafe later on. Low stamina meant a week off every month. Results:

Best ending!

This week's loot (8th September 2012)

Was overseas for the first half of the week, had time to play Fire Emblem: Kakusei and totally loved the shit out of it. As a result I went and grabbed the DS Fire Emblem games as soon as I got back to Japan... and have since then still been playing Kakusei. It's that good. My shitty shitty Tsutaya as usual didn't have anything I was looking for so I ended up heading over to Akihabara to get them and ended up with more eroge because I'm me. Ah well.

Oh and WHAT THE FUCK NEXT OREIMO IS THE LAST VOLUME!?

Edit: Oh right, I also got a laptop off an acquaintance for real cheap (about $300; The guy's four-person family already has like seven computers among them and they didn't need this one which they got free from buying some new appliance)  so I can now surf the internet, watch DVDs and play games in bed. Hooray!

I really need to recall my fucking Steam password.

Idolmaster 2 (9)

Cleared my third playthrough.

Makoto, Chihaya and Yukiho.
Unit name: Saishuujigoku
(Inspired by the my gamertag's origin's origin's source's thing's strongest attack)

Jupiter is really kind of a joke by this point.

I'd gotten into the top ten by my third song so their stuff was kind of pathetic.
Their very last song DID manage to get past Relations for a bit but then I just got a break and that was that. The break came kind of late, though, week 54 was only its second.

All awards.

The usual stats.

Results.

Got promoted two ranks as a result of the S. Yay me.

Not sure if I should start on someone new next, or go back to getting the true endings for Chihaya and Hibiki, or start on Disgaea 4.

Maybe Disgaea 4.

やっべぇ響可愛過ぎてマジやべぇてかナデナデしてえええええ

Idolmaster 2 (8)

Cleared my second playthrough.
Unit was Hibiki, Makoto and Chihaya.

Regular loadout.

Fes loadout.




Me versus Jupiter.

Got Relations to #1 with a break.

Numbers.

Results.

Rankings.

Forgot to mention this before, but the ending has P heading for Hollywood to study for a year.

Considering how a year is the time period each game takes place in, I'm guessing that the next game will take place in America where he raises a new idol unit (the characters from 1 and 2 will have cameos). In 4 he returns to Japan and the characters from 3 show up too for the grand finale.

Idolmaster 4?
(え、真美？亜美と真美は二人で一人の仮面らいｄアイドルだから)

Anyway, Makoto will be my next leader. Going to try aiming for all the awards this time.

Not sure what to name my next unit. Top candidates are Alpha Numbers, Magnate X (because having ten in the name of a three-person unit is silly), and Blue Swear (will probably be saving that for a future unit with Chihaya as leader, though).

Idolmaster 2 (7)

Cleared my first playthrough.

Wut.

Defeated Jupiter with Little Match Girl.

Got i to #2.

Numbers, post-Jupiter.

Finished off with My Song at IA.

Results.

Numbers, post-game.

As you can see, I was going with Vo > Da >>>>>>> Vi. Had an amulet equipped which slowed down the loss of interest in Vo and Da a lot and ended up just spamming Vo non-stop (by the end, Vo at 1-1.10 was still getting more points for me than Da at 1.50).

Judging from that D on my results for high score, though, looks like my levels were too low. That or not enough memories.

Probably both, actually.

So anyway, yeah, that was pretty good. The story (and writing in general, really) felt pretty odd, though. And there was way too little of it, too.

What the hell was Jupiter there for, anyway? They barely do anything and hell, the two guys besides Touma don't even show up until like week 40 and even after that don't do anything at all until the showdown, where they lose to you and disband Jupiter and don't show up again.

Cameo from an upcoming Idolmaster GS or something?

Ryuuguukomachi though... Gah.

I can see why they wanted to cut down on characters, it's the whole "unity" theme.

Previously, even when you had a duo/trio unit it was exactly the same as having someone solo, just that you could choose one of the members whenever there's something to do. The members themselves wouldn't interact with each other at all.

In 2, the members interact with each other. A lot. Sure, plenty of it is purposefully written so that it can be used on anyone, but there ARE a couple of conversations and stuff where the characters really talk to each other.

This of course means way too much work if there are too many characters. Hell, it's a feat even with 9.

But.

From what I've seen so far (and I've cleared the game once!), the story sequences for your leader (the character-specific ones, not the Ryuuguukomachi, then Jupiter stuff which is so thin it might as well not even be there)? They involve just her. The other two members don't show up at all.

Now, what's the fucking point of having multiple characters when all but one aren't involved in the story at all?

This is just stupid. They might as well have just kept it as it was, seriously.

If it ain't broke, don't fucking fix it.

Oh, and Chihaya's story is a bit silly when you consider the old ending.

Will be starting on my second playthrough soon, not sure if I should go with Makoto or Hibiki next. Disgaea 4? Er, maybe later.

Idolmaster 2 (6)

Second song was My Song, third was Relations.

Fourth was i.

That was really close, though. I only managed to get it into the top 20 on the very last week of the deadline.

Final song is Me ga Au Toki.

Doing pretty well right now. Only 7 weeks left to IA.