| Dragon Quest V and the End of a 17-Year Journey |
[19 Feb 2009|12:49am] |
(Fleshing out an old story here, so apologies if you've heard parts of it before. Some of it is new, though.)
Dragon Quest V is out in English this week, and I feel like I have to blog about it. (Yes, I know I haven't properly blogged in months, but thankfully it's because work has been keeping me very busy. More on that later.) Apologies for the forthcoming self-indulgent blog post, but self-indulgence is ultimately what blogs are about, right? :)
As some of you probably know, I've been a huge Dragon Quest fan (or Dragon Warrior, back in the day) for many years. I played the four NES games religiously (I maxed my entire party to level 99 in both III and IV -- I have no idea what I was thinking back then), and when it came time for part V on the Super NES, I just couldn't wait for the US release -- I had to get my hands on the Japanese version now. So I somehow scrounged up around $100 (that was a lot for a 17-year old back then!), called up the Die Hard Game Club (yes, that Die Hard Game Club), and ordered myself a copy. This was in November 1992. I had played import games before -- fate determined that I had a local video store that rented out Famicom games with Honeybee adapters when I was like 13, so I was already familiar with the import "scene" -- but Dragon Quest V was the first import I'd actually purchased and made my own. Needless to say, I was excited! But I was also fearful, because the only Japanese I knew at the time was quite literally the katakana character "su" (ス). (It's the first and last character of the Japanese name for "Super Mario Bros.", so I figured it must have something to do with the letter "s". Haha.)
Anyway, I went to the bookstore and picked up a little Webster's Japanese-English pocket dictionary, and I came back determined to get through this game come hell or high water. I ripped out the little hiragana and katakana charts (the two simple forms of the Japanese alphabet) from the back of the dictionary and taped them to the desk in front of me, busted out a notepad so I could write down anything and everything I wanted to remember, and went to work on the game. Somewhere back home I still have dozens of pages of notes -- shop lists in every town, lists of all the equipment, items, spells, monsters and such I encountered, a transcription of Papas (now Pankraz)'s letter to the hero so I could figure out what the heck he was saying, and so on. It was pretty crazy. :)
I played the game regularly for a few months (it was a slow process, what with all that writing). At one point I'd gotten stuck trying to figure out what to do next, so I called Enix's hint line at the time hoping they might have actually played the game and could offer help. To my surprise, the game counselor there -- Rob Jerauld -- was playing too, and helped me through it. We ended up talking a few times over the ensuing weeks, and at one point he actually called *me* for help when I'd surpassed him (definitely a highlight of my kid gaming career -- having a game counselor call me for help, haha). Eventually I finished the game and figured I'd sit back and wait for the English version to come out. Little did I know I'd be waiting 17 years...
(Funny side note: a couple of times when I'd called Enix back then, another counselor named Jake would answer the phone instead. Seemed like a cool guy, always enthusiastic and helpful. Eight years later, I would meet this guy randomly at a gaming meet-up in a bar in Tokyo, and he's now one of my closest friends in the world. Life is so bizarre.)
So, getting back to my little DQV love-in, the point of all this is that something really fortunate happened while I was playing the game: My fandom for the series led to me learning how to read and write hiragana and katakana -- almost by accident -- during the course of my playthrough. I never set out to learn Japanese -- I just wanted to play the game. :) But what happened was, my eyes were opened to the concept of learning a foreign language (I'd never really considered it before -- I snoozed my way through six years of Spanish in school and don't remember much more than a couple of greetings and a stupid song about donkeys and toothaches), and I began to take interest in the Japanese language and Japanese culture. I eventually got a job in the game industry, and...well, there's a whole lot of detail I could blabber on about between that point and today, but the point of all this is that basically, playing Dragon Quest V in Japanese ultimately led me to where I am now -- living and working in Japan (for eight years now), co-running a Japanese game localization company (ahem, go buy Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon or preorder Star Ocean: The Last Hope today!), and basically living out that little 17-year-old game nerd's dream. If I had to trace it all back to one defining point in my life, I'd say it was probably the day I decided to import Dragon Quest V. :)
I guess this post is my way of saying thanks. I've written about my love affair with DQV before in past blogs (last one was in 2004, I think), but never in this much detail. And now that the game is finally available in English, it just seemed like a good time to celebrate. Much like the kid protagonist in DQV whose entire life unfolds throughout the course of the game, I feel like one chapter of my own journey can finally be put to bed now, and it's a really great feeling. :)
Ah, but first, I guess I should complete the game in English, huh?
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| Backlog Woes |
[05 Jan 2009|03:00am] |
My game backlog is stressing me out. How pathetic is this? I need to do something about it, but I'm not sure what. I probably have over 100 games on my shelf that I've never even touched; I tried making a list of just the ones I'd really like to play through someday, and even that turned out to be 34 games deep. Too many! Who has time for this crap?
I feel like I -should- play a lot of these for research purposes (for example, to check out other companies' localizations, or just to see what kinds of innovations have been taking place in game design as of late), but frankly, I'm just not that interested in playing half this stuff, and to be honest, I don't really have the time, anyway. Lately I find myself enjoying simple stuff like Lumines and PixelJunk Monsters way more than the kinds of games I used to live for. For example, I'm not that excited to play MGS4 -- I just want to know what happens. A far cry from seven years ago when I literally paid like $100 to FedEx MGS2 to Japan the day it came out so I could play it ASAP. And the stuff everyone else is talking about lately -- Dead Space, Mirror's Edge, Little Big Planet, etc. -- none of this stuff interests me much at all. (Okay, Left 4 Dead was tons of fun, but that's largely because it was so simple and focused. Maybe that's what most games are lacking these days? Crackdown was awesome for the same reasons. Hmm...)
(Note: Please do NOT spoil MGS4 for me. I'm going to play it soon in spite of the above comments.)
RPGs are still my favorite genre, but I don't have 30 or 40 hours to spend on a single game these days, so that rules out most of those, and to be honest, there haven't been that many really good ones lately anyway. I really enjoyed Tales of Vesperia, but it took me almost five weeks to finish. I do not want to spend five weeks on a single game at this stage of my life. :) I do love playing games as a means of unwinding and escaping, but when it starts to feel like work, well, no thanks.
Anyway, I'm not sure where I'm going with this, but venting about it has helped a bit. I'm still not sure the best way to fix the problem, though. Try every game for an hour or so and then permanently shelve the ones that don't completely grab me? Stick them all in a closet and forget they ever existed? Sell off everything except the super AAA stuff and just focus on those? Stop playing games entirely? :)
Any suggestions, anyone?
Happy New Year, BTW!
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| Once Again to Zelda |
[04 Jul 2008|09:10am] |
After three long, looooong months in Shanghai on business, I'm finally back! I landed in Tokyo this past Saturday night, spent a couple of days at home with my friends, then hopped on a plane to the US for a two-week break.
Whenever I come back here, I always stock up on books, magazines and games. The one thing I miss the most about the US is hitting the big book stores every week to see what's new. You can find most of this stuff in Tokyo if you know where to look, but the import prices are usually just high enough to push things out of impulse-buy territory.
Anyway, here's a sampling of what I've picked up so far this trip:
Random stuff, for the most part. Front Mission 2089 was an airport purchase at Narita, but I wound up liking it enough that I decided to track down the US version of the original Front Mission when I got back. Phantom Hourglass I already own in Japanese, but I wanted to check out the localization so I picked that up as well. Otherwise, not a whole lot on the games front so far. That's okay, though, because I brought a few games with me to play on the break, most notably two huge ones that I really should've finished by now: Metal Gear Solid 3 (yes, three), and Zelda: Twilight Princess.
Mark has been giving me crap for nearly eight months now for not playing TP yet, but the truth is, I just wasn't ready for it last year. I played up to the second dungeon when it first came out, but I wasn't feeling it, so I decided to shelve it for a while. Recently, though, I've been kind of in the mood for some Zelda, so I threw it in my bag and figured I'd give it another shot if I had the time.
Then a little inspiration struck. When I got to the airport, I noticed one of my favorite books -- The Great Gatsby -- at the magazine stand. I opened it up, and look what page I landed on:
Yeeeah, I get the message. That pretty much sealed the deal for me. :)
So...I'm about to start over from scratch with the GameCube version. I realized that the Wiimote is what was turning me off to the game before; I couldn't get fully immersed in the experience because of how imprecise that thing is. I'll miss having widescreen for sure, but otherwise, I think I can deal.
In other news...how about that Rockman 9? I am STOKED.
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| Tales of the Awesome |
[13 Mar 2008|01:59am] |
Hells yes. This is my copy of Tales of the Abyss, signed by none other than Yoshito Higuchi, director of Tales of Symphonia and chief director of Tales of the Abyss and the upcoming Tales of Vesperia:
My incredibly awesome partner Hiroko was coordinating some interviews with the Tales guys earlier today, and she graciously pulled Higuchi-san aside and asked him to sign it for me, knowing how much of a fan I am of the game. Abyss is my favorite of all the Tales games released thus far (it's Higuchi-san's favorite, too), and was one of the first major titles Hiroko and I worked on after we started up our localization company 8-4 back in 2005. That summer was a total nightmare for us (we worked on Tales of the Abyss, Rogue Galaxy, and Baten Kaitos Origins...at the same time), but in the end, all three games turned out well, and I look back on those days fondly.
I'm pretty confident Tales of Vesperia is gonna be fantastic, but in the meantime, if you like RPGs and haven't played Tales of the Abyss yet, try it out! If you can deal with slightly excessive load times (I usually can't, but Abyss was so good I kept at it all the way through), I think you'll find it's easily one of the best RPGs on PS2.
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| Soma Bringer |
[27 Feb 2008|10:22pm] |
Something tells me this is going to be hot:
Soma Bringer, developed by Monolith Soft and published by Nintendo. It's out tomorrow here in Japan. It's a three-player action/RPG that looks to be inspired by the likes of Diablo II and Secret of Mana. You can get a bunch more info on the game at the official NeoGAF thread: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=245778 (props to duckroll for putting that together)
Having worked on four Monolith games over the years (Xenosaga Episodes I-III and Baten Kaitos Origins), I'm intimately familiar with the kind of care and attention to detail they put into their work, and needless to say, I've become a big fan. Tetsuya Takahashi, brainchild behind Xenogears and the Xenosaga series and an (IMO) incredibly talented and ambitious guy, produced this game, and Yasunori Mitsuda, one of the best game musicians on the planet, did the entire soundtrack. Soraya Saga, another key member of the Xenosaga team, penned the scenario. What more needs to be said? All signs point to awesome.
I'm extremely busy at work right now on some pretty exciting projects for 2008, but I know the very moment I get a minute to breathe I'll be digging into this baby full-force. Any of you with any interest in seeing it get released in the US, please be sure to drop NOA a line and let them know you want it! If they're too busy to localize it, tell 'em 8-4 would be happy to lend a hand... ;)
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| View to a Kill |
[29 Jan 2008|02:14am] |
I recently moved to a new apartment. This is the view from my bedroom. After serving four years in my prison-esque former home, I am finally living large, and I'm loving every minute of it.
Today I purchased a 52" Bravia KDL-52X5000B for the living room. It arrives this Thursday -- the morning Smash Bros. Brawl releases, one day before LOST season 4 begins, and three days before Super Bowl XLII (go Giants). It's gonna be an amazing weekend. :)
Work is good, too. We're working on some pretty exciting stuff for 2008. I wish I could say more about that, but as always, lips must remain sealed until games are in stores...
How are you all doing?
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| Dragon Quest IV: Completely Destroyed |
[04 Jan 2008|01:30am] |
I spent most of my free gaming time these past six weeks playing through the new DS remake of Dragon Quest IV, and late last night, I finally completed it. I mean, really completed it. As in:
- Finished the post-game bonus chapter and got the "happy ending"
- Found every monster in the game and completed the monster picture book
- Got all of the small medal prizes in the game (found 69 small medals in all)
- Got all of the casino prizes I actually cared about
- Brought the immigrant town to its final form and completed all related sub-quests
- Got the two bonus immigrant town citizens from Jump Festa 2008 (Hassan from DQ6 and Setia from DQ Swords)
- Got all of (new party member)'s best equipment in chapter 6
- Defeated the bonus dungeon bosses in under 10 turns to get the final immigrant town citizen
In short, I went nuts with this game. And I loved every minute of it. :)
My final stats (translations below the photos):
1. After completing the game once and getting the normal ending:
Clear time: 31:43
Total battles: 1,127
Defeated enemies: 3,010
Total gold: 140,636
Battles won: 1,096
Battles lost: 7
Battles fled: 22
Biggest hit: 332
Hero's level: 35
Rank: "Celestial Wielder"
2. After completing chapter 6 and getting the happy ending:
Clear time: 43:17
Total battles: 1,897
Defeated enemies: 4,814
Total gold: 334,485
Battles won: 1,861
Battles lost: 8
Battles fled: 26
Biggest hit: 395
Hero's level: 51
Rank: "Thanks for playing to the end!"
3. My final stats, just before powering off for good:
Total playtime: 43:54
Total battles: 1,901
Defeated enemies: 4,824
Total gold: 336,987
Battles won: 1,865
Battles lost: 8
Battles fled: 26
Biggest hit: 395
Undiscovered monsters: 0
Rank: "Grand Monster King"
It's been a while since I've really sunk my teeth into a game like this, but Dragon Quest gets me every time. It's by far my favorite RPG series -- I can only pray they never make an MMO version, or I'm going to be in real trouble...
BTW, Happy New Year everyone!
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| Radiohead Discbox... |
[12 Dec 2007|04:41pm] |
...Arrived today. It's very, very nice. I haven't held vinyl in years -- makes me wish I still had a record player. :)
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| Seven Years |
[04 Dec 2007|11:32pm] |
Today (December 4), marks seven years since I moved to Japan. Seven years. That's a long time! When I moved here I figured I'd stay for a year or two and then move back, but that plan didn't exactly pan out, did it. At this point, I'm not sure I'll ever move back, but if I do, it certainly won't be anytime soon. I like it here quite a bit, if you haven't figured that out already. :)
In the process of confirming this today (I had to check my passport to be sure), I decided to make a record of every trip I've ever taken in the 10 years I've had this passport. Some random facts:
- First trip ever to Japan: Sept. 3, 1997
Flew out here to cover Fall TGS '97 for EGM. Met Hideo Kojima for the first time, met Koji Igarashi for the first time, went drinking in Osaka with the guy who made Contra (forget his name now), and hung out with some of the old #vidgames crew, including the dearly departed Dan Granett (RIP). My next trip was two months later in Nov. 1997 with none other than Ed Semrad, former editor-in-chief of EGM and storied world traveler. I think we spoke like three times the entire trip (bit of a generation gap there), but it was fun.
- # of times to Japan before moving here: 12
Most of these trips were for event coverage. TGS used to take place twice a year, plus every now and then the big pubs would have press events here. A couple of visits were girlfriend-related. Akihabara was raided more times than I can count.
- # of times to the US since moving to Japan: 22
Wow, more than I realized. E3 shows, GDC shows, visits to family and friends, and so on. I also flew home last year to be in NYC for the launches of both the PS3 and Wii. Yes, I was at both the Japanese and US launches for those two. How many psychos can say that? Not many.
- # of other countries visited since moving to Japan: 2
Went to Phuket (Thailand) once and went to Singapore once. Not much, but both trips were cool. Planning to hit a variety of places in 2008, including (hopefully) Europe and Korea.
My passport is beat to hell but it's got a lot of great memories attached to it. Here's to another seven years!
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| Mamma Mia! Christmas in October! |
[31 Oct 2007|06:58pm] |
You guys get most of the good stuff first, but every now and then it pays to live here in Tokyo. :D
Mmmmm, how do I focus on the last few hours of work today when I have this sitting next to me...
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| Smash Bros. Brawl: Alternate Reality Nintendo? |
[30 Oct 2007|01:35am] |
Have you guys been following Super Smash Bros. Brawl lately? The official site has been revealing new info about the game every day since May, and lately some of the stuff they've been showing off has been pretty frickin' insane. Online multiplayer and co-op play? Saved films? A stage editor? Buh? This is a Nintendo game, right?
Seriously though, on one hand it's super exciting to see stuff like this appearing on a Nintendo platform, but on the other hand it's almost painful knowing that this is probably one of the only games we're ever going to see on Wii that's actually up-to-date, feature-wise, with stuff on competing systems. Can you imagine if they put this much effort into every franchise game they released?
What they need to do is get Masahiro Sakurai working in-house overseeing all of the stuff that doesn't fall under the Touch Generations/Alpha Moms umbrella. The man obviously knows how to excite hardcore gamers. :)
Speaking of exciting...Super Mario Galaxy is out here in 56 hours, 28 minutes, and 17 seconds. Not that I'm counting!
Yeah...it's gonna be another good weekend. :D
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| In Rainbows |
[10 Oct 2007|11:37pm] |
So the new Radiohead album came out today. I considered writing all kinds of LJ-esque thoughts and insights about what Radiohead has meant to me over the years (in short: a lot), but instead I'll just say this -- if you haven't yet bought this record, you really should. It's very good.
I'm not posting this elsewhere because it really has zero to do with games, but I did want to say that I'm enjoying the new music very much; 2007 brought with it a lot of tough times for me, but lately things have been on the upswing, and music like this gives me cause to celebrate life. So yeah -- cheers, everyone. :)
PS -- Back to school from Friday. OMG.
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| "Touch Me" |
[05 Oct 2007|04:50pm] |
...is what the little iPod said to me in the Apple Store today, and who am I to argue? So I came home with my third iPod this year (yikes), a shiny new 16GB iPod touch. They just came out in Japan today, and I couldn't resist. I bought a slim PSP a couple of weeks ago, too, even though I already own an original PSP (okay, two). Yes...I have a problem. I cannot resist sexy new hardware. Sigh.
In other news, Halo 3 was fantastic, BioShock was a trip, and I'm still addicted to Jeanne d'Arc (though that addiction will likely switch to Final Fantasy Tactics next week). I'm gearing up to finally (yes, finally) play through Resident Evil 4 on Wii, and I'm starting to get excited for Super Mario Galaxy. Good times.
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| Still Alive |
[20 Aug 2007|12:45am] |
Greetings! It's been a while, hasn't it? Sorry for not updating -- it's been a hectic year thus far. Was ridiculously busy from January to June, and then spent most of July detoxing and enjoying the summer before work insanity picked up again earlier this month. I don't often talk about my work here on this blog, but I did want to make a quick plug to you PSP RPG fans out there, since three PSP games we helped localize all hit retail within a span of four short weeks, the last of which hits stores this Wednesday:
They are: Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology, from Namco Bandai, Brave Story: New Traveler, from XSEED, and Jeanne d'Arc, from SCEA. Definitely let me know what you think if you have a chance to try any of 'em! We have a couple of other games coming out in the next few weeks, too, but I'll save those for another day. :)
In other news...
Every so often, when life starts to feel too complicated, I get into this mode where I basically want to go through all of my material possessions (a huge chunk of which is games, of course) and get rid of all the stuff I don't want or need. I own so many games I'm never going to get around to playing, so why let them sit there on the shelf taking up space and collecting dust? I'm starting to realize that just having them there stresses me out -- it's like knowing that they're waiting for me makes me feel obligated to someday try them out. :p
Needless to say, I think there's going to be a fire sale here real soon.
That said, there are a few games on the way I definitely DO want to play, so I decided to put together a shopping list for the rest of the year (kind of like last year's, only not nearly as huge -- from now on I'm only buying stuff I know I'll play right away). Here's what I've got so far:
August
BioShock (X360) -- Already bought and en route from the US
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (Wii)
September
Halo 3 (X360)
October
Front Mission (DS)
Castlevania: Dracula X Chronicles (PSP)
November
Mass Effect (X360)
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (X360)
Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker (DS)
Contra 4 (DS)
Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)
Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles (Wii)
December
Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii)
Professor Layton and the Curious Village (DS)
I haven't really thought about Japanese releases much, but off the top of my head, nothing really major springs to mind. If Tales of Innocence makes it out this year, I'll get it, and I think I'll probably pick up Gran Turismo 5 Prologue if it actually comes out, but that might be it. Oh, and I'm a hardware sucker so I'll buy the new PSP in September, even though I really don't need it. :p
What's new with you all?
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| Tools of the Trade |
[13 Jun 2007|06:56pm] |
Tonight we're gonna party like it's 1989! Which is, I think, the last time I've had enough free time to sit down with a new game and play uninterrupted for hours. Good times!
(Disclaimer: In 1989, the can was filled with Coke, I promise.)
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| Singin' in the Rain |
[06 May 2007|09:57pm] |
It rained like crazy today, but I'm not complaining. A fitting end to an otherwise excellent Golden Week -- fitting because it gave me time to finally settle down and relax a bit before getting back to work tomorrow. I went out and bought an 8GB iPod nano today to use when working out so I don't have to lug the iPod video around when I just want to listen to music. Sometimes I spoil myself, but whatever -- when you work as often as I do, you gotta splurge now and then. :)
(Apologies for the quality of the above pic; I didn't have my real camera on me today so I had to settle for a cell phone grab.)
This week is gonna be party central, thanks to the impending arrival of my good pals Christian and Shane for the 42nd time this year, not to mention other, less frequent visitors such as Chris K and Billy B. Apparently I also have a birthday to forget about in less than 24 hours (I'm looking to go in reverse this year if possible), so we'll see what that brings.
I haven't had a lot of time for gaming lately, but I did manage to *finally* pop in Oblivion last night. I've only played about 90 minutes so far, but so far it's been surprisingly compelling. I say 'surprisingly' because I honestly wasn't sure I would like it, what with it being the polar opposite of the kinds of RPGs I've traditionally enjoyed (Japanese ones). So far, so good, though. Love the atmosphere, love the music, digging the dungeon-crawling. I'll try to play some more tonight if I can.
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| Golden Week |
[01 May 2007|12:16am] |
Apologies for the long bit of silence (longest since I've relaunched this blog, actually). Life has just been too darn busy and exciting lately to keep up with posting. But I'm still trying!
Golden Week just kicked off in Japan today, and I'm absolutely thrilled to be here, not having to worry about E3 arrangements or demo deadlines or anything like that. I've got no interest in hitting the "new" E3 in July, so this'll be the first time in years I spent my entire summer in Japan. No visits to LA, no visits home...just good old Tokyo.
It's been three months since my last post, so let's see...besides work and my personal life (both of which have been going well, thanks for asking), I spent most of my free time on two things:
1. LOST
and
2. Crackdown (aka Riot Act)
My brother's been a big fan of LOST since its debut back in 2004, but I never got around to finally watching it until a couple of months ago. All I can say is...WOW. I'm sorry I waited! I gobbled up the first two seasons in like three weeks, and then I bought a Season Pass on iTunes for season 3, and it's been totally fantastic the whole way through. Easily the best television drama I've ever watched. There's only four episodes left this season, and the way things have been going, I can't imagine they're going to be anything but phenomenal. If you haven't watched it yet, I highly recommend you drop everything and get to it ASAP. :)
As for Crackdown, it's definitely my favorite game so far this year. Yeah, there's a few things they could've done better, but on the whole it's just incredibly fun and rewarding. I must've spent at least 30 hours with it over the past couple of months, maxing out all of my abilities, collecting around 460 agility orbs, and racking up 650 achievement points. I think I'm about done with it now, but I'll probably pick it up again when the new downloadable content hits, assuming it's worth checking out.
Not much else to report on at the moment, but here's a quick rundown on my thoughts on next-gen so far (a report card, if you will):
Nintendo DS: A
Not a whole lot to say about the DS that hasn't already been said. It's got a killer library of games, the Wi-Fi stuff has been excellent so far (Panel de Pon DS is owning me right now), and I mean, Dragon Quest IX is coming later this year. Need I say more? :)
Xbox 360: B+
Xbox Live is the best thing to happen to games in years, IMO, and achievements are a godsend. If I've got to choose between a 360 game and a non-360 game from my backlog, nine times out of ten the 360 game gets the nod because in the end, love it or hate it, I'll have something to show for the time I spent with it (achievement points). The hardware is built like garbage (red ring FTL) and the damn thing sounds like a lawn mower, but I'm really, really enjoying it so far.
Wii: C+
Super Paper Mario doesn't interest me all that much, and apart from that, what else has there been to play since Zelda? I hate the fact that I find myself replacing Wiimote batteries every two weeks, too. I'm kinda bummed right now about Wii because I love the concept and I love what they've done for bringing new gamers into the fold, but really the only thing I enjoy playing on it is Wii Sports and Virtual Console. VC is great, but it would've been 100 times better if they enhanced the games somehow like on Xbox Live Arcade (online play, some kind of achievements, etc.). Oh well.
PlayStation 3: D-
Apart from some folding here and there, I've barely touched the thing since I bought it. And I can't really think of anything I'm super excited for in the future that's not also coming to Xbox 360. Can anyone sell me on this system?
PSP: F
Frankly, it's been crap. But the coming months look promising, with all the RPGs that are coming over (a few of which my company worked on, BTW: Jeanne d'Arc, Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology and Brave Story: New Traveler are all 8-4). I'd be stoked if Sony brought out an upgraded PSP that added a second analog stick and ditched the UMD format entirely, but we'll see, I guess.
Anyway, that's that. Life is going well, birthday's comin' up, friends are visiting soon, and summer is on the way. What more can you ask for? :)
What's new with you all?
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| Too Many Games...Again |
[14 Jan 2007|02:43am] |
A little over a year ago I was complaining about there being too many games to play, but now it's about 10 times worse. I have stacks of unplayed games sitting here but no time to play them. Between playing games for work (which are usually long, involving RPGs) and trying to do everything else I want to in life (study, read, exercise, learn, socialize, etc.), I feel like I'm never going to get caught up. I've barely touched Gears of War or Twilight Princess, I haven't even popped in Okami or Final Fantasy XII yet, and I've -still- not played through Resident Evil 4 or Metal Gear Solid 3. Hell, I'm still only 20 hours into Dragon Quest VIII, and I'm the biggest DQ fan I know. :p I don't know why I buy so many games when I rarely ever get around to playing them; I could easily spend a year doing nothing but gaming every waking hour of every day and still not get through my whole backlog. Sad, isn't it?
I've already decided this year is going to be a year of many changes for me, and I guess one of them is going to have to be figuring out ways to A) spend less money on games, and B) do a better job of balancing my time with all the things I want to do.
In any case, Happy New Year everyone! What are you guys looking forward to playing this year? For me, I think the big ones are probably Dragon Quest IX, Lost Odyssey, Halo 3, Shirokishi Monogatari (if it makes 2007), Phantom Hourglass and Metal Gear Solid 4. I'm sure I'm forgetting a few, but those are the ones that immediately come to mind. How about you?
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| Virtual Christmas |
[26 Dec 2006|09:21am] |
I brought my Japanese Wii home for the holidays, mainly to show off Hajimete no Wii (good family fun) and to indulge in a little holiday Mii making, but I wound up spending most of my time playing Virtual Console games. Yesterday we had the family over for Christmas Eve, and my brother and I decided to download Ice Hockey for a quick Old Timers match (we used to play this game religiously back in 1988). I was surprised to find the Japanese version's music is different from the US one (it's not nearly as good), but the game itself is every bit as fun as it used to be. In the end, CAN (me) took down USA (him) 4-3 in an OT shootout. It's a shame you can't play VC games online, because if you could, I'm sure we'd be spending a lot more time with this one in the future.
I also downloaded my favorite NES game of all--the original Legend of Zelda. According to the Wii, it took me approximately four hours and 30 minutes to clear the first quest from start to finish. Even after all these years, it's still a fantastic, magical game. If you've never played it for some reason, you owe it to yourself to download it and play it ASAP. But don't cheat! It's much more rewarding if you figure out all its secrets on your own.
Finally, we nabbed Gradius earlier today, as Hiroko was feeling nostalgic for an old-school Famicom shooter that we could take turns playing together. I spent countless hours with Gradius back in the day, and just hearing the music again brought back tons of great memories. I'd kill for a VC release of Life Force or some of the other co-op Konami classics (Jackal anyone?).
In short, Virtual Console rocks and I can tell I'm gonna have lots and lots of fun with this thing in the coming months. :) Merry Christmas everyone!
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| Blue Dragon |
[08 Dec 2006|08:23pm] |
In honor of Mistwalker's first major RPG release, Hiroko and I decided to make the game's creator, Mr. Hironobu Sakaguchi, to keep the Wii warm while we're off playing his game on Xbox 360:
Not a whole lot to say yet on Blue Dragon, except that it got me hooked enough to take the Japanese 360 home for the weekend so I can keep playing. At about 6 hours in, I would say it's a very solid RPG; it's not Final Fantasy and it's not Dragon Quest, but it still shows a lot of promise. Great battle system, good character customization, beautiful visuals (especially if you're a fan of Akira Toriyama), and solid music. I'll try to chime in with more thoughts after I've played some more, but for the time being, I'm digging it. And the BD faceplate they packed in with the limited edition Premium Pack in Japan is possibly the hottest freebie I've ever seen:
I couldn't bring myself to buy another Xbox 360 just to get this faceplate, but I've got other plans in the works, and hopefully one of them will lead to that thing being on my 360 very soon...
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| The Secret to Happiness |
[03 Dec 2006|09:29am] |
This:
Plus this:
Equals this:
I finally got my hands on some Wii component cables yesterday. How sad is it that I had to wait for Japanese launch before I could experience Zelda the way it was meant to be played? Nintendo's done a -lot- of things right as of late, but the component cable debacle is definitely not one of them.
Anyway, I'm off to Hyrule. See you in a few.
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| PS3 Early Thoughts |
[17 Nov 2006|05:22am] |
It's been about a week since I got my Japanese PS3, and so far, I'd say I'm...marginally satisfied. Tomorrow I'll have my US system as well, but I'm not buying any new games with it, because frankly, Ridge Racer 7 and Resistance (the two games I got at Japanese launch) are the only games I'm interested in right now. I don't mind the lack of interesting PS3 games at the moment, as my wallet is already hurting from all the other stuff I need to buy, but I hope it's not another 12 months before anything decent shows up like it was back when the PS2 launched.
A year ago, I wrote some initial thoughts on the Xbox 360, and I'm sad to report that I was right when I said Sony wouldn't have anything as cool or complete as Xbox Live with PS3. Granted, "never" may have been a strong word, but at this point, they've already fumbled several really obvious aspects of their online infrastructure. Not offering players a complete service like Xbox Live is a big mistake IMO. Why can't you voice chat with other players at any time? Why don't they have any kind of alternative to Achievement points? And worst of all, why do you get message notifications during gameplay if the only way to check them is to exit the game and go back into the XMB? How pointless is that? Their online service is very disappointing right now, but I'm hopeful they'll fix a lot of this stuff with future firmware updates. At least the PlayStation Store seems easier to navigate than Xbox Marketplace (which is horribly designed IMO), but there's not much content available yet, so it's hard to really compare.
On the plus side, the system is extremely quiet (much moreso than the 360) and the UI is surprisingly nice. I've had no problem having it detect my SD cards and USB devices, though I haven't tried out Wi-Fi yet. I also haven't messed with backwards compatibility much, though I'm hearing a lot of games have display issues, which is weird considering the PS2 hardware is built-in (i.e. it's not being emulated). And lastly, being able to install games to the HDD rocks. Microsoft needs to do this ASAP (and offer a larger hard drive, too).
(Oh, one thing I forgot to mention: don't believe the hype--not having rumble in the controller sucks. Sony can and should fix this ASAP.)
It'll be interesting to see how things improve over the coming weeks as new firmware upgrades become available. Personally I don't care too much about being able to play PS1 games on PSP (supposedly coming in the next update), but I am excited to be able to purchase and download older games for play on PS3. Convenience is everything. I've bought 13 games on Xbox Live Arcade in the past year, and I can guarantee you I wouldn't have bought half of them if I were in a real store with time to actually think about the purchases. That's not to say I regret buying them, because I don't--I just prefer the instant gratification of being able to click a button and start playing within minutes.
So yeah, like I said--marginally satisfied. But I knew what I was getting myself into, so I'm not surprised at all. If I were giving advice to a friend, I'd definitely tell them to wait; there's really no need to own a PS3 right now unless, like me, you're A) a crazy game nut, and B) one of those people who has to be the first to own everything. Even as I bought it, I knew I wouldn't be getting a ton of use out of it in the first six months. Will it eventually be the Best Thing Ever? It very well may be! But for the next few weeks at least, I think most of my time will be spent playing elsewhere. Especially with Gears of War and Zelda: Twilight Princess to keep me busy...
I'm in America right now to pick up my US PS3 and Wii this weekend, so I should be back with more updates on that end soon. Three more days until Zelda!!
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| SEGA: WTF? |
[01 Nov 2006|08:13pm] |
Why is it that SEGA Genesis titles on the Wii are going to cost 800 Wii Points (sorry, "start at" 800 points) in North America ($8 USD), whereas the same titles in Japan are going to cost 600 Wii Points ($5.12 USD by today's exchange rate)?
And more importantly, where does SEGA get off charging $8 per title when consumers can get 6 out of the 10 currently-announced Virtual Console games along with 22 OTHER Genesis games and a bunch of bonus content (unlockable arcade games and interviews with the original developers) on PlayStation 2 for $19.99?
Is there something special about these Wii versions we don't know about? Online multiplayer, maybe? New levels?
I know there are some SEGA folks who read my blog -- I'd love to hear your thoughts on this matter. Between this and the PSU pricing fiasco ($10 per month for a game that's barely evolved over six years and has non-working voice chat seems a bit unfair to me), I'm starting to lose what little faith I had left in your company.
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| The Impossible Shopping List |
[25 Oct 2006|12:04am] |
Man. Today I decided to make a list of all the games (and game systems) I need to buy between now and Dec. 31, and the results are -not- pretty. Between PS3 and Wii and everything else, this is easily going to be the most expensive holiday season ever.
Here's the list as it stands now:
10/25: Phantasy Star Universe (X360/US)
10/26: Tales of the Tempest (DS/JP)
10/31: Final Fantasy XII (PS2/US)
11/2: Every Extend Extra (PSP/US)
11/2: Lumines II (PSP/US)
11/6: Final Fantasy V Advance (GBA/US)
11/7: Gears of War (X360/US)
11/7: Sega Genesis Collection (PS2/US)
11/11: PlayStation 3 (JP)
11/11: Ridge Racer 7 (PS3/JP)
11/14: Final Fantasy III (DS/US)
11/14: Gunpey (DS/US)
11/14: Gunpey (PSP/US)
11/16: Akumajyou Dracula: Gallery of Labyrinth (DS/JP)
11/17: PlayStation 3 (US)
11/17: Resistance: Fall of Man (PS3/US)
11/19: Wii (US)
11/19: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Wii/US)
11/19: Excite Truck (Wii/US)
11/19: Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz (Wii/US)
11/22: Bokura no Taiyou: Django & Sabata (DS/JP)
11/22: Culdcept Saga (X360/JP)
11/22: Jeanne d'Arc (PSP/JP)
11/22: Tales of Destiny (PS2/JP)
12/1: Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops (PSP/US)
12/2: Wii (JP)
12/2: Odoru Made in Wario (Wii/JP)
12/2: Hajimete no Wii (Wii/JP)
12/7: Blue Dragon (X360/JP)
12/7: Motor Storm (PS3/JP)
12/14: Fushigi no Dungeon: Furai no Shiren DS (DS/JP)
12/21: Ys Origin (PC/JP)
12/21: Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology (PSP/JP)
12/21: Lost Planet: Extreme Condition (X360/JP)
Ugh! And that doesn't even include the stuff I'm on the fence about (Yoshi's Island DS, Elite Beat Agents, Gyakuten Saiban 2, Ryuusei no Rockman, .hack//G.U., Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker, etc. etc.)
There's no way I can afford all this stuff. I've got to trim it down somehow! Help!
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| Back Soon |
[23 Oct 2006|02:34am] |
Just a little note to let you know that I'm still alive and updates will be resuming shortly! I've got a couple of things in the works:
1. I'm moving this blog over to WordPress and bringing back comments (yay). Many of you comment on the LJ and 1UP versions of my site, but this blog's true home is at www.nokonoko.net, and it's been without comments for a long time because of all the problems with Movable Type spam. Soon those problems will be no more.
2. The blog will once again be known as Super Deluxe. Photos will be making a return appearance as well, though I'm not yet sure if I'll be incorporating it into the main blog or as a separate section.
3. I have loads and loads to talk about. Like the fact that I'm insane and flying to New York to take part in the American PS3 and Wii launches (yes, despite being in Japan, I've managed to lock down both a Wii and a PS3 preorder in the US).
Lots of rants on my mind, too. Stay tuned! The next few months are gonna be a blast.
What are you guys playing lately? And what are you looking forward to?
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| Summer Haul |
[01 Aug 2006|10:21pm] |
After a grueling seven months of what seemed like non-stop work, I'm finally free! Well, almost. Work never REALLY ends when you have your own company, as I've come to learn, but I've at least been able to sneak out of Tokyo for a couple of weeks to chill out back at the home base in sunny New Jersey. We're in the midst of one of the worst heat waves in years here (and now they're saying a hurricane may be on the way -- nice), but alas, it feels good to be home.
Whenever I'm back on break like this, I tend to spend a lot of money on certain types of media--namely games, books, magazines, and manga. I've been here a little under a week so far, and I've already bought quite a bit, as you can see above. Here's a quick breakdown:
PSP games: I brought Loco Roco and Tales of Eternia with me, so I've already got plenty to keep me occupied on my PSP, but I decided to pick up a few others while I was here. Exit, because it looks cool and unique but costs way too much in Japan (Taito doesn't seem to understand the worth of their products, sadly; the Ys series remakes they did on PS2 were worth about 1800 yen each, yet they had the nerve to charge 5800 to 6800 yen a pop!), Metal Gear Solid: Digital Graphic Novel, because I'm interested in the concept of putting digital comics on handhelds, Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth, because I've been hearing good things about it for years but never actually got around to playing it on PS1, and Lumines, because I was curious how the US version turned out. Speaking of Lumines, apparently Every Extend Extra just showed up at the office the other day, so I'm looking forward to getting back and giving it a whirl. I might just import a copy for myself here, since I don't feel like waiting two more weeks to get my hands on it!
DS and GBA games: At the airport on the way over last week, I caught a lucky break when I found the second round of Bit Generations games being sold a day early at that rinky-dink little toy shop in Narita. I picked up Digidrive and Sound Voyager-- Digidrive is interesting and kinda fun, but I haven't played enough to really get immersed yet; Sound Voyager, on the other hand, I don't understand at all yet. I haven't really played much, but the 10 minutes or so I played, I had no idea what I was supposed to be doing. After I arrived in the US, I had Drill Dozer and Big Brain Academy waiting for me (the former ordered for $10 from bestbuy.com, the latter picked up by a friend when it first came out), and then today I finally tracked down a copy of Summon Night: Swordcraft Story after a few days of fruitless searching. I couldn't find it at any of the major retailers like Best Buy or GameStop; does this mean Atlus has poor distribution, or does it mean the big guys aren't interested in GBA anymore? What happened to the third pillar?
Guitar Hero: 18 months ago, Taiko: Drum Master was a big hit during my visit home. This time, it'll be Guitar Hero. With so many of my good friends over at 1UP raving over this one over the past nine months, it was just a matter of time before I picked up my own. Lugging it back to Tokyo isn't going to be fun, but...what can you do!
Books and mags: Not shown here are two books by Haruki Murakami; Birthday Stories, a collection of birthday-related short stories compiled by Murakami himself, and Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman, his latest short story collection. I also picked up the first (?) Penny-Arcade book, Attack of the Bacon Robots (gotta support those guys in any way possible), as well as the Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King Official Strategy Guide, because, well, I'm a Dragon Quest dork. On the magazine front, I picked up the latest EGM (my alma mater, if you will), last month's Nintendo Power (believe it or not, it's been really good ever since they redesigned a year or two ago), the new Play (I've always enjoyed Casey Loe's stuff), and last month's Edge (nice interviews, but their E3 news story made me feel like they were at a different show than I was). Oh, and I like to read "normal" magazines too, so I nabbed the new issues of Time and Entertainment Weekly. Just 'cause I'm a game geek doesn't mean I can't read about the latest advancements in stem cell research!
Manga: And finally, my secret love: manga. I don't read a whole lot of it, but what I do read, I tend to get really into. I picked up the third volume of Dr. Slump, one of my favorites (Akira Toriyama before he went all spiky-haired fireball-crazy on us), as well as the latest Vagabond (#21 -- I really wish Viz would hurry up with these; we're already up to #23 in Japan and have been for a few weeks now). And then there's my newest addiction--Death Note, by Tsugumi Ohba. I started reading it in Japanese after my friend Chrissy went gaga over it on her blog, and it was really good. But then my girlfriend got hooked on it, and that was the last I saw of it. :) SO, I decided to check it out in English, instead. I picked up the first six volumes; unfortunately they're only up to volume 6 in America, so I'll probably have to tackle the second half in Japanese, because I don't feel like waiting months to get the rest of the story.
Anyway, this is just the first week--I'm sure I'll pick up some other stuff while I'm here. I'm especially interested in Yoshitaka Amano's new (well, old in Japan) Tale of Genji book, but if I can't find it while I'm here, I may just scout out the Japanese version when I get back. I also want Rhythm Tengoku, the new rhythm action game from the Made in Wario team, which is out tomorrow in Japan. Maybe I'll import it along with Every Extend Extra so I have something to play on the flight home. :)
BTW, I know I've been really bad about updating, but I'm hoping to change that soon, so don't give up on me just yet! I just got a new camera, too, so I'm thinking about possibly reviving super deluxe so I can start posting some of my random photos again. Stay tuned!
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| New Super Mario Bros. |
[24 May 2006|09:02pm] |
On the eve of the release of New Super Mario Bros. here in Japan, I present to you visual proof that I am a certified Mario dork:
That's three stars, baby. All the star coins, all the exits, all the everything. I managed to get an early copy of the US version back on May 6 thanks to a superfriend at NOA (my new Favorite Person in the World), and I've been playing through ever since. Finally, tonight, I found the last missing bit I was looking for, and that was that.
In the end, I'd say it's about a 9 out of 10 on the EGM scale. For better or for worse, it doesn't really mess with the formula of the original SMB--which is understandable, given producer Takashi Tezuka's recent comments about wanting to keep things simple and appeal to a wide range of consumers. My only real complaint is that the new power-ups are disappointing; the Mega Mushroom is actually pretty cool, but the Mini Mushroom and the Blue Shell both pale in comparison to old-school favorites like the Tanuki Suit (Super Mario Bros. 3) and the Cape (Super Mario World). The old Mario games got about 100 times better as soon as diagonally-scrolling stages entered the fray (i.e. as soon as Mario got the ability to fly), so it's kind of a bummer that the exploration in New SMB is (mostly) limited to the ground.
That said, it's still an absolute blast to play and definitely one of the best DS games yet. Let's hope we don't have to wait another 16 years for the next one. :)
In other news...E3 rocked. I'll try to have more on that soon. How 'bout that PS3 price announcement, eh? I'm gonna go apply at Yoshinoya tomorrow for that second job Kutaragi warned me about.
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| Back from the Dead |
[29 Apr 2006|06:45pm] |
I live! It's been almost two months since my last update, but to me, it feels more like two years. What a ride it's been. Work has been exceptionally busy, to the point that I found myself working around 16 hours per day, every single day, for nearly a month straight last month (including weekends). It was like one long blur of non-stop work. There were times when I wasn't sure if I was going to make it through, but fortunately, I did (thanks to a certain someone's neverending support and my awesome friends here in Tokyo), and now that I've emerged from the fire (mostly) unscathed, I feel like I'm ready to conquer anything. Not that it's over; I've actually still got another month or two of madness to deal with before I can truly rest, but with E3 right around the corner and everybody's demos and such out of the way, the very worst of it is finally behind me. Next stop: Los Angeles.
This year's E3 is the first one in a while where I'm actually excited about grabbing the controller and playing some games. If the Revolution actually works the way it's supposed to, it's going to flip the industry on its side and forge an entirely new path for gaming, not unlike what the DS has been doing for handhelds. Of course I'm excited for PS3 (who wouldn't be?), but my expectations for what kinds of experiences I'm going to gain from it are pretty straightforward. It's going to be a lot like what we're already seeing now with PS2 and Xbox 360, only on a grander scale. Bigger, better, prettier, online. Whatever, really. There's a certain need for those kinds of experiences, and I look forward to having PS3 as my main outlet for them. (Not to bag on Xbox 360 or anything, but I have very little faith in MS right now. It's becoming more and more clear with each passing week that they're going to get blindsided like a squirrel on a freeway when PS3 arrives on the scene, and for that I am very sad, because the 360 had so much potential when it first launched.)
With Revolution, though, we're looking at something entirely new and different. As I said, it kind of depends on whether or not the controller works the way they say it does -- but let's say it really does offer true 3D control without any weird drawbacks (like calibration issues). If so, it's going to be operating on a totally different level (a higher one, IMO) than the other machines. It's like gaming suddenly evolved and grew wings after years of being stranded on the ground. How can anyone not be excited about that? It truly will be a Revolution (and an evolution), and for something like that, I don't think I'll mind waiting in line for 40 minutes at a time just to get a five-minute crack at giving it a try during E3.
Of course, you build up all this excitement and confidence for the thing over the course of a year, and then they come out and decide to call it "Wii" and everything gets shot to hell. But whatever. If the games deliver like I'm hoping they will, they can call it whatever they like. Deep down it'll always be Revolution to me, and if a revolution is what it provides, I'll be a happy man.
In other news:
- Loco Roco rocks; I bought a new PSP (white version) so I wouldn't have to upgrade my old one (how else am I going to play Earthbound Zero on the go in English?), and I've been enjoying the Loco Roco demo ever since. It's a really great game, and I'm really happy (and proud) that it's being made by one of my closest friends here in Tokyo, the amazingly talented GMAN.
- New! Super Mario Bros. is only two weeks away, and I'm having difficulty containing my excitement. I am an old-school Mario FREAK, and I am going to tear that game apart like it's nobody's business the moment it arrives in my grubby little hands. I'm hoping to have my own copy before E3 (cough, cough), but we'll see how that goes...
- Have you checked out GameVideos.com yet? It's actually down right now as I write this (they're changing servers), but it should be back up within the next day or so. It's the latest labor of love from my pals over at ZD, in particular my fellow game nerd/soul brother Mark MacDonald, who, besides being nice enough to give me a floor to crash on every year in LA, happens to be one of the most talented people I know in this industry. Once it's back up, please visit the site and let them know what you think of it! Mark's one of the "good ones," so your support and feedback will definitely not go to waste.
That's all for now. See you guys again soon!
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| HP UP |
[07 Mar 2006|02:20am] |
What'll they think of next?
To be honest, it tastes like cough medicine, but what can you do? I'm looking forward to purchasing Medical Herbs at 7-11 when the next Dragon Quest comes out.
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