The thoughts, reviews and analysis of Comedy, Romance, Drama and Slice of Life Anime of a College Student
Since I finally obtained a PlayStation Vita in 2012, it was my console of choice. It had a great library of Japanese role-playing games and anime themed games released throughout the Heisei Era. While the console did poorly in the west, it sold well in Japan. This is not too surprising since Japan vastly prefer portable consoles opposed to home consoles.
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I have to admit that idol anime can be fun to watch. While it’s obvious that I like The Idolmaster a lot more, Love Live is enjoyable as well despite the music is not my cup of tea. When Dingo, who developed the Project Diva games on the PlayStation Portable, announced Love Live School Idol Paradise, it interests me. While it faced a few delays, does it live up to expectations? Maybe not and I will explain why you should probably skip this game and keep playing Love Live School Idol Festival instead.
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In November 2015, Gust made a new franchise called Yoru no Nai Kuni (also known as Night of Azure outside of Japan). It focused on a half-demon girl named Arnice (アーナス) with her quest to protect Lilysse (リュリーティス) and stop the Nightlord
The sequel, Yoru no Nai Kuni 2: Shingetsu no Hanayome (よるのないくに２；新月の花嫁, lit: Land without Darkness: Bride of the New Moon) starts where the first game left off with a new cast with more refinements to the battle system and a new story. Of course, this game suffered development hell with it delayed several times. It’s not until August 31st it finally made it past development and released to the public in Japan. With that, this makes you wonder, is the sequel worth the wait?
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In recent years, there has been a shift to open-world type games such as Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild with the advancements in graphics power to handle them. While Gust made improvements to the gameplay aspects in the Atelier series, Atelier Firis: The Alchemist and the Mysterious Journey (フィリスのアトリエ〜不思議な旅の錬金術士〜) is perhaps the most ambitious game they made in the franchise. It features a large world to explore while bringing new mechanics. How well did they execute this? Let’s find out.
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With the Dusk/Twilight trilogy complete, Gust finally make their first entry to the Playstation 4. Atelier Sophie: Alchimist of the Mysterious Book (ソフィーのアトリー〜不思議な本の錬金術士〜) is Gust’s first entry to the new system with ports on the Vita and Playstation 3. While introducing new mechanics, Gust also brought back some old as well. How well is Gust’s first entry to the Playstation 4? Let’s find out.
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As you know, I record footage with a Vita TV since it’s a cheap way to capture footage. While it’s tricky to record footage since the Vita TV use HDCP, it has some downfalls, namely compatibility. It’s basically a hit or miss. Sure, it will work perfectly with most roleplaying games, but games that uses the touch screen such as Kancolle Kai will not work. It will just give you an error message saying it’s not compatible. Considering that I have a number of games that do not work on the Vita TV, it was a disappointment.
Since the Vita TV killed off by Sony earlier this year, it’s expected that the compatibility will get worse. In short, I pulled the trigger to mod my older Vita and here are my thoughts.
Note: It’s not possible to obtain a Playstation Vita with a capture mod since the company behind it, Katsukity went out of business. This review will remain for historical purposes. No, the capture kit is not for sale.
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For a while now, Gust has specialized in turn-based role-playing games, namely for the Atelier and Ar tonelico franchise. Yoru nai Kuni (よるのないくに, lit: Land without Darkness) also known as Nights of Azure in the west is Gust’s first attempt at an action role-playing game. With that in mind, how will their first action role-playing game will fare?
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Back in 2011, Madoka Magica took the magical girl genre by storm as they deconstructed the whole genre by making it dark and filled with drama. As expected, the show received so much critical acclaim that it eventually received three featured length movies, a bunch of manga spinoffs and even a licensed video game, both were made by Bandai Namco. Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica The Battle Pentagram is a sequel to the first portable game, which swaps the rogue-like dungeon crawling for a hack and slash gameplay on the PlayStation Vita.
Warning: Contains some spoilers from the Anime and movies.
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In the past, I have been wary towards licensed video games for the fact that most of them produced in the west are notoriously bad. However, I have never played any licensed Anime games before. In the next few months, I am going to cover three Anime licensed video games over the course of several months. With that, I will share my first impressions thoughts on Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica The Battle Pentagram.
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Back in 2013, Compile Heart and Idea Factory started remaking Neptune games for the PlayStation Vita starting with the first game, Neptune Re;birth 1. Neptune Re;birth 2 Sister’s Generation in comparison to the prequel feels more like an enhanced port rather than a remake since Mk2 did not have as many problems in comparison to the first game in the franchise. If so, what improvements did Compile Heart and Felistella made in this enhanced port?
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Back in 2012, Gust who is known for their work on the Atelier franchise decided to make another series that is set in the same world as the Ar tonelico series. Since the Playstation Vita came out in February of 2012, they decided to experiment with this new handheld by creating a communication dating sim called Ciel nosurge (シェルノサージュ〜失われた星捧ぐ詩〜 lit. Ciel nosurge ~Song offered to the Lost Star~ ), which is played in real-time over the internet. This game can be described as Animal Crossing meets Love Plus with social elements thrown into it. They recently released an Offline version that removed the online requirements with all the DLC content included, thus making it possible for the player to play at his/her own pace.
While two versions of the game got released after the original (Re:Incarnation and Offline), they also created a sequel titled Ar nosurge, which came out this year in Japan and later got localized to English. I find it odd that they would release that game first considering that the sequel requires the player to finish most of Ciel nosurge in order to fully understand the story. Considering that this game is a niche title, not a role-playing game and is very text heavy, I can understand why Gust and Koei Tecmo aren’t willing to localize it. Even so, it seems that people are interested in this game. With that, I will share my initial impressions of the gameplay from the Offline version.
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With the success of the Neptune franchise, Idea Factory and Compile Heart has been expanding the franchise by making various spinoff games for the Playstation Vita. While I was disappointed with Neptune Idol PP, I had high hopes for Chou Megami Shinkoku Noire Gekishin Black Heart since it was a full-featured strategy RPG with Noire as the main heroine. Does it live up to expectations? Let’s find out.
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In the past year, Compile Heart and Idea Factory has been expanding the Neptune franchise by making various spinoffs in order to reach a wider audience. Last year, they made an idol simulator, which left a disappointing taste in my mouth. This year, they released a strategy RPG featuring Noire (Chou Megami Shinkoku Noire Gekishin, 超女神信仰ノワール激神) and planning to release an action game, which is developed by Tamsoft, the makers of Senran Kagura at the end of this month. While I’m not interested in the latter, I decided to get this game since I enjoy Noire/White Heart’s personality. Since I’m close to half way done with this game (currently on Chapter 4), it’s time to reveal what I think about the game first hand.
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Koei-Tecmo’s acquisition of Gust has left a bad taste in most fans’ mouths when they decided that they are not going to include dual audio in Atelier Ayesha (I shared my thoughts on this issue in an editorial about localization issues I wrote early last year). Not to mention, there has been reports that they poorly handled Escha and Logy localization. Eventually, I ended up just importing the Japanese copies of the game since I knew enough Japanese to understand most of the game.
Although I considered getting a Japanese copy of the game for the Playstation 3, I decided to wait since Gust in December announced a Plus version for the Vita. Since I finally finished the game, it’s time to share my overall thoughts about the game.
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Just a few months ago, I shared my final impressions of the first Rebirth game and I thought Compile Heart and Felistelia did a great job fixing all of the flaws from the original game such as having all the goddesses join throughout the story, using battle system from Victory and having improved graphics.
Just a few weeks ago, Neptune Rebirth 2 Sister’s Generation got released, which is a remake of Mk2. This is odd considering that the second game wasn’t nearly as flawed compared to the first. Despite this, since I played 14 hours, it’s time to share my initial thoughts of the game. (Image Source)
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As mentioned a while back when I wrote my first impressions of the remake, Atelier Rorona was the weakest out of the Arland trilogy mostly for the fact that the graphics was the weakest aspect of the game. I didn’t play the original mostly because there was a good possibility that Gust would be remade it and I was right.
New Atelier Rorona pretty much took all the good aspects of Atelier Meruru (and some aspects from Atelier Escha and Logy) in terms of gameplay and graphics while adding cross-play compatibly with the PS3 and the Vita and combined them together with the original story. Since I have finished most of the game, it’s time to take an overall look at the game.
Note: Like with all the Arland games, the Plus versions were rereleased on the PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch as DX on September 20, 2018. As with the Plus version, the review will cover the DX versions as well.
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Back in 2009, Gust finally transitioned from the Playstation 2 to the Playstation 3 when they released Atelier Rorona. While the gameplay went back to the premise of the original games and focused more on item crafting and such, the graphics were pretty lackluster. While Totori and Meruru had better graphics and gameplay, it seems that first game in the Arland trilogy felt really out-of-place in comparison. I can’t really blame them since the Playstation 3 had a rough start when it comes to role-playing games.
Four years later, Gust finally made a full remake of the original game for the Playstation 3 and the Vita complete with a full graphics overhaul. How well does it stack up with the original? Let’s find out! (Image Source)
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Back in 2010, Compile Heart and Idea Factory made a game personifying video game consoles as cute girls with the plot based on the console wars. While it was an interesting idea for a story, the first game unfortunately had a lot of problems ranging from game-breaking bugs to mediocre graphics.
Just little over three years later after the franchise got two well received games, Compile Heart decided to make a complete remake and reboot of the first game for the Playstation Vita, Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;birth1.
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To me, I felt that 2013 is the year of remakes in Japan since Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;birth1, New Atelier Rorona, and Tales of Hearts R got released this year for the Playstation Vita. With that, I decided to pick up my first Tales game that never made it out of Japan, which received a remake. That game is Tales of Hearts R. (Image Source)
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Back in 2010, Compile Heart created a roleplaying game based on the console wars with video game consoles personified as cute girls in a game called Hyperdimension Neptunia (超次元ゲイムネプチューヌ). While it was an interesting concept, Idea Factory managed to mess it up. The first game shows this with obvious gamebreaking bugs, poor graphics for a PS3 game, difficulties trying to heal your characters among other things. They eventually realized how unfinished the first game was, so they remade it for the Vita. Since I received the game three weeks ago, I want to share my first impressions. (Image Source)
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You might be asking, “if you have the English version of Atelier Meruru, why would you buy it again on the Vita, but in Japanese?” The answer is that I find the game addictive, but I want to play it on the go. This is where the Plus version comes in as it brings the full game with the DLC included, costumes and extra scenes. Since I use my Vita mainly to practice my Japanese skills, it’s one of the main reasons I bought this game. (Image Source)
Note: Like with all the Arland games, the Plus versions were rereleased on the PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch as DX on September 20, 2018. As with the Plus version, the review will cover the DX versions as well.
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As released back in 2010, Atelier Totori made numerous improvements to the gameplay from Rorona after Gust made their first entry to the Playstation 3 such as the art style and game mechanics. Now, that is now made into a Playstation Vita game that only got a release in Japan. (Image Source)
Note: Like with all the Arland games, the Plus versions were rereleased on the PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch as DX on September 20, 2018. As with the Plus version, the review will cover the DX versions as well.
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