Now that we have covered that, let’s go over some game terms that will be useful to learn.

– ニューゲーム New Game
– コンティニュー Continue
– ロード Load
セーブ Save
アイテム Item
レベル Level

はい (Hai) Yes
いいえ (Iie) No
設定 せってい (seetei) Option
終了 しゅうりょう (shuuryou) Quit
消す けす (kesu) Delete
始める はじめる (hajimeru) Start
写す うつす (utsusu) Copy
魔法 まほう (mahou) Magic
命中 めいちゅう(meichuu) A Hit
防御 ぼうぎょ (bougyo) Defense
攻撃 こうげき (kougeki) An Attack
力 ちから (chikara) Power
経験値 けいけんち(keikenchi) Experience Point
使う つかう (tsukau) To Use
捨てる すてる (suteru) To Throw Away
話す はなす (hanasu) To Talk
手に入れる てにいれる (teniireru) To Obtain
する (suru) To Do

El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron is a 3rd person fantasy action title inspired by events in the Old Testament, in particular the apocryphal ‘Book of Enoch’. Enoch, a brave and just human, is caught up in a pivotal battle raging between Heaven and the Fallen Angels. Though lacking their monstrous powers, he must overcome the Fallen Angels in order to save humankind from a great flood ordered by Heaven to wash away their twisted empire on Earth. In order to succeed, he must use his natural combat skills and master a range of powerful Heavenly weapons under the guidance of four watchful Archangels. Heaven’s true wild card is Lucifel, the enigmatic red-eyed angel, who is always in Enoch’s ear with a word of advice and a line in dry wit. The tale combines adventure, humor, and horror, along with breathtaking beauty and heart-tugging emotion. SOURCE UTV Ignition Entertainment

I went to Catholic prep school, I know how bad ass the Old Testament can be. I may actually be picking this game up next year. In the meantime stick here, as I’m sure we’ll be learning more about this title at E3 next week.

Post-SBO what else is there to do in Japan?  After we caught SBO day 2 (we didn’t do day 3), we were left with about 4 days before Beast had to come back stateside.  Besides shopping and arcade crawling, we also went to check out the giant Gundam at Odaiba.  That thing is really impressive and it makes you wonder whether or not the Japanese are in true possession of an actual working Gundam.

The closest I will get to my own Gundam is the arcade game which has been going strong for about 2-3 years now.  I make a trip to this arcade every time I go to Japan and it is one of the few locales to have that honor.  How does it play?  It’s one part Armored Core, another part Virtua On, and a tiny bit of Steel Battalion.  The controls are 2 pedals and two levers.  The pedals are used for forward boost and upwards boost and are positioned like the gas and brake pedals in a car, respectively.  The two levers controls movement.  Pushing both levers forward will move you forward, back moves you back, and left and right allow you to side step.  Turning is a bit tricky but once you get used to it you’ll be a pro in no time.  Turning to the right involves moving the right lever back while moving the left lever forward.  To turn to the left, simply make the opposite motions.  There is also preset text chat, and there are is a headset in most of the pods.  The triggers control different weapons, each Gundam has its own unique weapon set.  The lock-on is automatic but it is possible to force the lock to remain on one target.  There are four weapons depending on the Gundam, but I haven’t figured out how to use the other two.

The  factions in the game are simple, either the Earth Federation (boo) or the Zeon (hail Zeon!).  I’m pretty sure you can tell which side I picked.  The side you pick determines your Gundam type.  You start out with a basic MS-05 Zaku if you choose Zeon.

I believe you get an RGM-79-GM if you choose the Earth Federation.  I wouldn’t know because I hate those Feddie bastards.

I do know that the Earth Federation does get RX-78-2′s and they have shields (that are  so cheap).

There are different maps, each with its own layout and strategic points.  Different events are organized for the Gundam arcades.  As of my last play they had organized eastern Japan vs western Japan depending on where the arcade was located.  I was in Tokyo most of this trip so I’ll leave it up to you to figure it out.  They also update the game with new Gundams you can use after you acquire the appropriate number of points.  You can save your points with a “pilot card” that costs 3 bucks.  It’s a pretty cool system that keeps track of your  kills and points.  I initially lost my first pilot card (the one that I had in 08), but here’s my newest one.

Combat is in real time and it operates on a basic mission, defeat the enemy.

What will we do in the days after Gundam?

First off, the plot is “meh” at best. The best way I can describe the story is that it’s like a porno, where you know there’s a plot but you don’t pay too much to it and just focus on the action. Bayonetta’s story starts with you waking up after a 20 year nap and you’re more or less fighting the forces of good (she’s a witch, you see). Since you have forgotten everything except the fact you’re a witch, you slowly regain your memory as you play through each chapter and the story unfolds from there on out. The source material has a history that isn’t explained via cut scenes or dialogue, and there isn’t a lot of character development so at some point Hollywood can turn this into a movie and it’ll be successful. The dialogue between characters is mildly humorous at best though, filled with a ton of sexual innuendo and the F-bomb (read FUCK ) is dropped often.

The visuals are also well done, the only downside being that there are some visual hiccups throughout the game. Some weapons when equipped make Bayonetta look funny or she is having a sexual act performed on her, and the ‘climax’ summons are really impressive as are the weapon effects. The enemies are mainly bird/human hybrids (they are angels) so there’s a lot of feather imagery on screen leading to nice particle effects. The special effects on Bayonetta herself are done well too. As far as negatives, there is some slow down, and I had a problem with the cutscenes. The cut scenes are a mainly in-game graphics with some CG, which is fine, but some of the character models aren’t as well detailed as others. In some scenes it’s not so noticeable, in others it’s embarrassing.

The gameplay is much deeper than I had expected though. They do have a 1 button mash-friendly mode (on Easy/Very Easy you are provided with an item that make your combos come out automatically) while Normal mode and beyond actually provide a challenge. Controls are broken down into six major functions: Jump, dodge, shoot, punch, kick and taunt. There’s no blocking but there are parries, counter hits and ‘Witch Time’ which is activated on a perfectly timed dodge. Combo inputs in normal modes leave the fighting open ended. You can slice someone to bits, then decide whether you want to shoot them with the guns on your feet, or you can just summon a ‘spirit limb’ (called the Wicked Weave, basically hair transformed into giant hands or feet) to finish off the combo. You also have the option to customize two separate load outs on Bayonetta which you can switch to on the fly (mine was four shotguns and then a katana with two claw weapons on my feet) and use to further extend your combos. The platforming elements in this game can be frustrating at times, especially the ‘witch-run’ segments. Other times there is a blue orb underneath you to let you know where you are going to land which does cut down on the falling deaths. *Spoiler alert* Be warned that flying is similar to gliding, you will never be able to go upwards.

Overall this game is definitely worth a playthrough. For casual players it should be worth a weekend rental. If you do see it at a lower price point then it’s a fun game to have in your collection. The game has limited replay value outside of unlocking costumes and weapons. If you are an achievement hunter, this game has fairly easy achievements (as of this review I’ve unlocked 32 out of 50 achievements in only 1 and half of a play through.) For the more Hardcore players, Bayonetta is one of those games that some will love and some will hate because of its presentation and execution. Those who want a serious femme-fatale like Rubi (Wet)will be sorely disappointed with Bayonetta. This game feels like the Gun Grave/Viewtiful Joe of this current generation of consoles.

In 1582, the mighty warlord Nobunaga was betrayed by his retainer, Mitsuhide. The cruel Hideyoshi subjugated Mitsuhide’s warriors and took over as Ruler of the Kingdom of Japan.

Master thief Goemon – the Japanese Robin Hood – steals a wooden box once owned by Mitsuhide. Hideyoshi’s men, including Lord Mitsunari and his legendary ninja Saizo, are after the box and Goemon finds himself fighting for his life. He discovers evidence inside the box of the secret pact between Mitsuhide and Hideyoshi to assassinate Nobunaga. This revelation would tear Japan apart. Moreover Nobunaga was like a father to Goemon – the betrayal could not be more personal.

Goemon enters Osaka Castle, intent on killing Hideyoshi, and finds the beautiful Princess Chacha. Hideyoshi’s guards attack, and it is only through the surprise intervention of Saizo that Goemon is saved.

As youths, Saizo and Goemon trained together under Nobunaga. Goemon was assigned as Princess Chacha’s bodyguard and fell in love. After their master’s death, Saizo chose duty and went to work for Mitsunari. Goemon chose freedom.

When Hideyoshi announces his plans to invade Korea and China, making clear his intention to drag Japan into decades of brutal warfare, Lord Ieyasu convinces Princess Chacha to become Hideyoshi’s concubine so that she can betray him – a painful decision as her heart belongs to Goemon. Hungry for power, Mitsunari orders Saizo to kill Hideyoshi.

Goemon and Saizo mount an incendiary attack on Hideyoshi’s ships, but Saizo is captured and later put to death. Goemon storms Osaka Castle, single-handedly killing most of Hideyoshi’s men in a breathtaking display of martial prowess, before slaying Hideyoshi and escaping with Chacha. But with Hideyoshi dead, the armies of Mitsunari and Ieyasu face off to determine the new ruler of Japan by force. Goemon must return to the battlefield one last time if he is to bring peace to his country…

To be perfectly honest I was worried that it would be a boring history movie. Upon arriving at the theater I was fully prepared to pass out for the full length of the movie. However, when I was told that it was historical fiction my curiosity was piqued. I looked up the director, KAZUAKI KIRIYA

Born in Kumamoto, Japan in 1968. Kiriya is a visionary director with works in photography, screen play and directing films and music videos. Kiriya’s highly stylized debut film Casshern is well regarded with it’s impressive execution. He has also directed Utada Hikaru music videos as well. Kiriya has taken a diverse role in GOEMON as the Director, Screenplay, DP, Editor, Producer, and Production credit.

Wait, Casshern, you mean this Casshern?

This movie was in Japanese with English subtitles and the problem that presented itself was that the subtitles were in white. Am I racist against white subtitles?  No, the problem was that there were many scenes where there was bright imagery on the screen such as glowing white robes or something bright yellow. So some of the dialogue was lost but it wasn’t too important. My limited Japanese was able to pick up some of the dialogue.

The plot was semi-predictable but there were some twists in it.  It did have its dull story moments and I feel there were some wasted scenes. However, there was no romantic triangle or side story that fleshed out a character. This movie is an action movie and it did deliver. I couldn’t take my eyes off the screen for fear that I’d miss a ninja or some activation of some sort of subtle ninja power.

I would recommend this movie for the following people:

When: Sunday, August 23rd

If you’re in to Japan then you’d be missing out if you didn’t attend this festival. NYC will be host to a day long fair celebrating all things Japanese. 40+ booths will offer a variety of things including food, merchandise, performances and activities. Food will include; okonomiyaki, miso-marinated beef, and roasted mochi. Attraction & goods include; Tenugui the versatile Japanese towl, manga, J-pop, goldfish scooping, Ikebana and calligraphy lessons, martial arts performances and much more.

Japanese brands Kikkoman, Otafuku Foods, Hisamitsu America Inc, Ajinomoto, will be participating, as well as NYC local restaurants including; Cafe Zaiya and Washoku Cafe. Book-Off will also be participating. Book-Off’s NYC location is 12 E 41st ST and they sell great quality 2nd hand anime & manga at amazingly low prices.

Sadly I will not be able to attend as I’ll still be in Seattle, but you guys definitely should! Who can turn down great food anyway?

Article summarized from (also can be followed for news & updates): http://nycjapanfair.blogspot.com/

So last night, the question popped into my head again, and to tell the truth, I don’t have one game in my mind that stands out as the most ridiculous. However, I have quite a few fighting for first place, so I figured I’d post about them.

Keep in mind, I’ve played a good many strange games. Not all of them are bad, but a lot of them are far from good. Some I can’t go in depth here since they were in arcades and I can’t travel back in time to take a picture for you, gentle readers.

I’ve played Brave Firefighters, the arcade game where you were *pause for dramatic effect* firefighters. We played the living hell out of that game simply because we mentally substituted the flames for ghosts and it became the best Ghostbusters game, until possibly now.

I’ve played Emergency Ambulance, which is like Crazy Taxi but far more stressful. Getting your patient, a wounded cop, to the hospital on time, without getting hit too often, during a massive city-wide car chase is, as far as I can tell, impossible.

I’ve SEEN Boonga-Boonga, the game where you… oh Japan… put an electronic finger in a fake person’s digital butt. I’m not sure if it actually constitutes as a game, but whatever.

My point is that it takes a special something for me to think a game is particularly strange. So here we go:

I’d like to believe that the general populace is fairly well learned, and, if not, are more than willing to educate themselves. So if you really don’t know what Les Miserables is about, give yourself a quick Wiki-education:

Les Miserables

(No, I don’t know how to make the accented ‘e’, leave me alone.)

It’s a beautifully sad tale about a handful of individuals during the Paris Uprising of 1832 (a fictional event, believed to be an analogue for the French Revolution). It speaks on morality, justice, religion, love, and what the human spirit is capable of under extreme duress. What would be the best way to experience this story? Novel? Stage show? One man from Japan thought the answer was “Punch the crap out of people!” and so he made his game: Arm Joe.

Apparently the name is derived from the fact that in Japan, Les Miserables is named “Ah, Mujou”. ‘Mujou’ means hardness, cruelty, heartlessness. ‘Arm Joe’ seems to be a hilariously tragic fault in the romanization of the Japanese name.

The thing that amazed me is that I played this game many years ago, and it allegedly came out in the late nineties. Observant people will notice the “2006″ in the bottom corner. This guy has been updating his game for almost ten years!

The game feels, well, clunky. It’s a doujin fighting game. It’s better than most of the Mugen dredge I’ve played. That’s not saying a lot.  It has a decent move-selection for each character, and sports eleven different fighters to choose from. It does have supers, a mild combo system, but is prone to glitchy weirdness.

That aside, what makes this game thoroughly confusing is that, not only is it a fighting game based on a novel/musical, it is weirdly faithful to the subject matter.

Enjolras, leader of the resistance, has a move where he shoots upwards out of the screen, and drops a dead policeman on his opponent.

Jean Valjean has a move where Cosette stands protectively in front of him, which seems sort of mean…

…but I guess it’s fair since Cosette uses Valjean as a Stand,

… and bodily hurls him as a projectile…

… at… um… Robo-Jean, who must’ve been a minor character, because I sure don’t remember him.

Oh, and Enjolras has one of the best supers I’ve ever seen in a fighting game. Rather than simply defending the barricades from the soldiers…

He drops them on you.

It seems I’m not the only person who wholly enjoys this game, as it took me all of five minutes to locate online. It’s freeware, and, if you wish to brave the Japanese pages it’s located on, you can download the game right here:

Arm Joe: One of the… uh… greatest?… games you’ll ever play.

I most commonly associate Lia with Key/Visual Arts songs. She did Tori no Uta, the theme song for AIR, and a few other titles. New Moon has a sound that is similar to those songs. Aside from that style, she’s also done happy hardcore songs.

• 01 – Introduction
• 02 – Enter
• 03 – SANDSTORM
• 04 – Soldiers
• 05 – doll
• 06 – human
• 07 – Believe
• 08 – Boku no Ai no Katachi
• 09 – Love of Destiny
• 10 – Yakusoku
• 11 – Kimi wo Nosete
• 12 – new moon
• 13 – Last Present

Couldn’t find any PVs of her album, but this song is on it. She did some stuff for Clannad: Tomoyo After.

Eiko Shimamiya – O (2006)

Probably best known for doing the OPs for the Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni series. Her album reflects that style.

• 01 – O
• 02 – Egao wo Misete
• 03 – Canarian no Kanaderu Yume
• 04 – Mune no Cross
• 05 – Kouudou no Hito ~Remix~
• 06 – Taiyou
• 07 – I Need You
• 08 – Sora no Mahoroba
• 09 – Ginga no Ko
• 10 – Recovery
• 11 – Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni
• 12 – Doko ni Mo Nai Michi

I’d have to say Kyuudou no Hito is my fav out of them all, of course besides Higurashi.

Asobi Seksu – Hush (2009)

I noticed them on the list after hearing their song off the Kanon AMV in my last post. Asobi Seksu means “Fun Sex” (Lit. Asobu- to play, Seksu- Sex) They are a Japanese indie pop band based out of our own New York City. They sound a lot like Eisley and Camera Obscura, but with more instrumental sounds. A lot of songs are in English, some are in Japanese.

• 01 – Layers
• 02 – Familiar Light
• 03 – Sing Tomorrow’s Praise
• 04 – Gliss
• 05 – Sunshower
• 06 – Risky and Pretty
• 07 – In the Sky
• 08 – Mehnomae
• 09 – Glacially
• 10 – I Can’t See
• 11 – Me & Mary
• 12 – Blind Little Rain

This is Me & Mary, I like Glacially though. A lot of the songs on the CD sound similar.

Utada Hikaru – HEART STATION (2008)

I’ve always been a fan of Utada Hikaru. Another local, she was born in New York City, then moved to Tokyo in 1998. HEART STATION reflects her past work a lot. She has a unique style. Flavor of life is probably my favorite because it was featured in the live action Hana Yori Dango series, which is awesome and I recommend it. Seconded by Nijiiro Bus.

• 01 – Fight The Blues
• 02 – HEART STATION
• 03 – Beautiful World
• 04 – Flavor Of Life ~Ballad Version~
• 05 – Stay Gold
• 06 – Kiss & Cry
• 07 – Gentle Beast Interlude
• 08 – Celebrate
• 09 – Prisoner Of Love
• 10 – Take 5
• 11 – Boku wa Kuma
• 12 – Nijiiro Bus
• 13 – Flavor Of Life

That’s about it for now, I’ll be bringing you more reviews on CDs however, and expect to see very extensive coverage of the band Buck-Tick at some point.

Her newest album “Shinshoku Dolce” released 2 days ago on the 28th, so you Otakon goers will probably be some of the first to hear her new songs live. Defiantly don’t miss out on this, because it should be a real treat!

The video above is Suna no Oshiro. Still Doll also has a PV which can be found on youtube.

For those who don’t know Final Fantasy VII(7) has to be arguably one of the most popular role playing games (rpg) of all time. There were previous installments of the Final Fantasy series however 7 was one of the ones that brought this genre into the limelight. The game featured multiple side quests,mini games and boasted over 90+ hours of game play. The game had many spin offs video game wise and there have been a couple stories written/produced about the events after the game and movie (Advent children).

If you are wondering if you need to play the actual game to understand this movie, my answer would be yes and no. Yes if you want to full understand and know who people are.No because you could watch this movie by itself and still understand a good chunk of it. They explain a fair portion of the games events via flashbacks so people who haven’t played are totally clueless.

The run down of the plot is really simple. Two years after Sephiroth’s attempts at mass genocide, a strange disease threatens mankind. With many falling ill and the ruins of Midgar standing as a reminder of the sacrifices of the past, old enemies rise from the ashes to seek revenge. Riddled with guilt and haunted by his past, ex-soldier Cloud Strife must emerge from seclusion to again defeat evil and save the planet from certain destruction. Easy right?

This is an upgrade from the previous versions we’ve seen and it’s on blu-ray. I was pretty excited to see this on a theater screen with surround sound to see how it looks and sounds.They’ve also managed to cram in some extra scenes and shots,this extends the movie time a bit. If you’ve seen this already(this movie has been out for quite some time) you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how much better it looks now.(My eyesight is bad but even then this movie land the subs were practically crystal clear). We watched the opening few minutes in English before switching to Nihongo(Japanese). The English dub wasn’t that bad. It’s not the worst dub job I’ve heard but it wasn’t the best. The only issue I had was with Barret. The should have gotten the guy who did Sagats voice in English or at least Balrog (these are all Street Fighter references,sorry I have it on the brain).

The fight scenes benefited from the extra content. Some of the more popular scenes were longer and the music reflected this. So during the ‘Chase on the Highway’ scene you were treated to an extra few minutes of the Rude and Reno conversation along with that bad-ass rendition of the Turk’s theme.

The DVD included a trailer of Final Fantasy XIII(13) that we didn’t’ get to see. I was really pumped to check out that chocobo living in that black guy’s afro first hand. For now I’ll just have to use my imagination. The dvd also had: Legacy of Final Fantasy VII a new documentary featurette on the successful history of Final Fantasy VII. The original anime short film On The Way To A Smile – Episode: Denzel a 25-minute original anime short film, telling the story of the character Denzel before the events before the movie (Advent Children),Reminiscence of Final Fantasy VII compilation, a storyline digest which incorporates related footage from the video games. Also it contained the trailers for the movie.

My question is when are they going to make the remake. They’ve started already on the Nintendo DS and they kept the games true to the originals for the most part. Here’s hoping they get it done.