Advent of Super Smash Bros. on Wii U and the shrinking Monster Hunter Tri Ultimate community

With the new Super Smash Bros out on the Wii U, a lot of Wii U players are playing that game. Unfortunately, it's very clear that there's not as much people playing Monster Hunter Tri Ultimate anymore. It's sad to see but also inevitable. Since a lot of my friends on the Wii U are busy playing other games, it's gotten a lot harder to complete my weapon collection in the game. It's not impossible soloing but it would be easier if I had help.

At least there's still a few months before Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate is coming out so hopefully I can finish it up before then.

On the PS Vita side, I've been plucking away at Muramasa Rebirth and slowly making progress in Fury mode. One hit and die mode has been very tough but I've gotten up to the second ending for both characters. I'm right now contemplating on whether I should try to finish the Cave called the "Night of Absolute Chaos". It's not required to finish the game nor is it required to get any trophies as long as you've completed that cave once on the normal difficulty. But the perfectionist in me is tempted on trying to finish it. If I do manage to complete it, I'll definitely be taking a screenshot of it and posting it here.

For the PS3, I've been playing the Battride War 2. It's pretty cool to see each of the riders moves being replicated in the game. My favorite rider unfortunately is a bit quirky and hard to use compared to some other ones but that could change depending on the skills I could get as I progress.

Unfortunately, I couldn't get the next part of my SRW3 Alpha video out before the end of November but I am working on it and slowly making progress. I won't make any promises on when it'll be done but I am pretty sure it'll be done before the holidays. Hope you guys are looking forward to it.

Back from Japan with a lot of Videogame Loot

I'm back from vacation and man was it a blast. Definitely had a lot of fun.

Wanted to show off some of the wonderful loot I got from my venture. It's not all of it but there's quite a bit.

First off, monster hunter:

Monster Hunter 4 G just got released so there was a lot of promotion for it. It was quite tempting to get the game but the problem is the region lock on the 3DS. I could of gotten one of those "New" 3DS but I knew I'd be getting an North American version when it comes out so suppressed my urge. The little card like things are actually coasters I got from the Capcom Bar. The books are manga's and the big meat is a comfy little pillow.

I actually also got a T-Shirt. It's a T-shirt to protect me from the desire sensor. It doesn't look anything special but I liked the idea. Too bad only people who can read Japanese will really get the joke. I tried it on and played some Monster hunter but looks like it didn't help...but then again, despite not getting the non-rare item I was looking for, I still got a lot of gems instead. So maybe it does work?

There's also some small little collectible statues from the game too. I got two monsters and 3 of the Felyne ones. I'll probably take pictures of it some time in the future.

The next ones is the Blazblue loot. The artbook for Chrono Phantasma and the PS3 game; Xblaze for the Vita which has some connection to the Blazblue world; and the shopping bag is something I got free for buying the artbook. The reason I got Chrono Phantasma in Japan is due to the fact that they removed the Glossary from the North American release.

I also had a chance to play Guilty Gear Xrd and man did it look good. I was terrible at the game but it played so smoothly and the 3D sprites were beautiful. Can't wait to get the North American release.

The 3rd picture is Super Robot Wars related. First two games from the left is the first of the Z series game and the 3rd Z game Jigoku chapter. The 3rd game is the OG Infinite Battle plus Dark Prison game. I only got this to get the Dark Prison. It was in the bargain bin. I don't even know if I'll ever play the game as it doesn't look very fun or good. The 4th is the DS game, OG saga Endless Frontier Exceed. I wanted to get it as it seems to have some actual connection to the whole OG series.

The next picture is Persona 3 FES, Persona 3 Portable, Person 4 Golden and Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remake. I've been interested in the Persona series but never played them before. I prefer Japanese text so I was waiting to get the game in Japan. Same goes for FFX as it's one of my Favorite FF series.

The last one are some other games I got in Japan. Masked Rider Battleride Wars 2, One Piece Pirate Warriors 2, Megaman Zero Collection, Danganronpa Reload 1 & 2, and Zettai Zetsubou Shoujo.

I grew up watching Masked Rider Black RX, so the Masked Rider series still has a kind of special place in my heart. I kinda wish there was a good Garo game but I haven't really seen one. I haven't been really following all the new Rider series but a few that I watched were fun so I figured I'd get it. It's actually a limited edition disc that has actual songs from the TV or movie series.

One Piece Pirate Warriors 2 did come out in North America but was only available as a downloadable only game.

Megaman Zero is probably one of my all time favorite Megaman series. I couldn't find the North American release of the game so I was on the look out of one in Japan. Thankfully I found one.

Danganronpa was just release in North America too but as separate games. I knew the Japanese version actually came out together as one package instead. Zettai Zetsubou Shoujo wasn't actually something I was really all that interested in getting...until I found out it actually happens after the two Danganronpa games.

That pretty much is all my gaming loot. I also got a small adapter for the 3DS that let's me charge it using a USB cell phone charger. Definitely useful for travelling as I won't need to rely on the actual AC adapter for charging my 3DS. I also got a 64 GB memory card for the Vita. Not sure why it's only available in Japan but I got one since my 32 GB was already getting full.

I'm hoping to resume my Lightning Round project and get a video out before the end of this month. I'm sure many of you are looking forward to it. The next update will probably be about the other loot from Japan. Stuff that aren't exactly Videogame related but related to mechs and anime.

Human error sucks when it happens to you!

Unfortunately, there's some bad news. Due to my stupid mistake, I have lost 2 stages worth of translations. This obviously has delayed my project.

In terms of the project, it just means I'll have to restart translating the Stage 11 gameplay again. I might end up re-translating some battle dialogue that I might have done already in stage 9 and 10 since I was keeping track of it within the project file. I need to make sure I start backing up my files too.

What really pisses me off is that effort I put into cutting and editing the stage 10 gameplay is all gone. I only have the final rendered video and if I needed to go back to edit something, I'd have to redo the whole thing. Sometimes I wish I'd be able to use some ability to turn back time so I can stop myself from making that stupid mistake.

The good news is that I'm no longer sick and I did manage to finish Zero Escape completely. One more title to add to my list of completed games.

The story was really engaging and I loved every part of it. I can't wait to see what the next game will be like and hope it'll be release on the vita as well.

Anyway, hope you guys enjoyed your Canada Day or Independance Day depending on where you live.

Memento Mori

I'm sad to say that this has been a horrible week for myself.

Half of the week was spent with myself in the bed. I seemed to have caught a cold or flu. I had at least recorded the gameplay of stage 11 and enjoyed playing the stage.

At least the one good thing that came from this was my chance to play a lot of my handheld. Obviously, I've been playing a lot of Monster Hunter Tri Ultimate. But recently, Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward was a free game for Playstation Plus members so I went ahead and downloaded the game. I had heard a lot of good things about the game so I figured it would be worth a try.

I have to say that I'm completely hooked! It's an awesome puzzle/novel game and I haven't been able to put it down since I started. I hadn't played a novel game in ages and this was a nice change of pace to my usual collection of games I've been playing.

Here's a few screenshots from the game I took while playing:

The screenshot above is probably one of my favourite scenes in the game so far.

As for the project, I'm hoping I'll get better soon and hopefully post a video next week.

Back from a long vacation and ready to rumble!

I'm back! Actually, I was back for over a week now. Unfortunately, I had caught a cold on the way back from my travel and that put me out for another week.

But fear not, I've recorded Stage 9 for the project and will begin working on it this week.

In the mean time, I'd like to report my progress with my collection of games. This year has started off pretty good for my gaming accomplishments. Here's a list of games that I've been able to complete so far. Again, note that I generally stay away from multiplayer modes of most games and concentrate entirely on single player mode for most games.

Transformers: Fall of Cybertron
Assassin's Creed: Revelations
Gravity Rush
Assassin's Creed III: Liberation
Uncharted: Golden Abyss

I'm a fan of G1 transformers as I grew up with it and the two games by High-noon have generally been very good games. The only issue I have with the second game is that it felt shorter compared to the first one. This might be because you only get one playable character for each chapter unlike the first which let you choose one out of the three available in each chapter. Despite that, I love the subtle references to the G1 universe as well as some references to the comic book series.

Revelations was a short game but I still enjoyed it. There wasn't much progress in terms on the story which was kind of disappointing.

I had a lot of fun with Gravity Rush. It used the vita's controls very well and I had fun exploring the world in it. I just wish the story actually finished. There's still a lot that is not explained and they're definitely going to need to tie up all those loose ends in the sequel...

Liberation was a game I actually didn't really enjoy playing very much. The economic game was an interesting way of making money but there's only one place you can access it. This made money making very arduous. I actually ended up finishing the entire game with just the default equipment. As for the story, I was disappointed with it as it didn't really explain anything on who was using the Animus and what that person is thinking. Maybe it will get revealed in a sequel or something but I wish they had some reveal within the game. Thankfully, I wasn't plagued with too many glitches though.

Golden abyss was a fun game. It was definitely an uncharted game and they generally did a good job with implementing the vita controls. I did hate one thing in the game which was the swipe boss battles. There's only two in the game but the last one in the game especially would sometimes register a correct swipe as wrong. Despite that, I did enjoy finding all the treasures and doing the simple puzzles in the game.

I have one function I hope that never gets used in any other vita games. It was used in Liberation and Golden abyss. The stupid "point the camera towards a bright light" to reveal the hidden writing in the game. Golden abyss thankfully did it just once, although you'd have to repeat it each time you play that chapter (even though all other puzzles can be skipped once solved). Liberation had several and it was extremely annoying. Sometimes I'd be playing it in a place where there is no bright light. On other times, even when i have the camera pointed directly at a light source, it wouldn't detect it. If there's a game that has a puzzle which needs a light source to reveal hidden messages, I hope the light source is already provided in the game and you just need to move the object using the vita's motion sensor or touch screens.

I'm quite happy that I've been able to finish 5 games with only 2 months into this year. It's a big accomplishment for myself as I tend to have a hard time finishing even 1 game each month. I'm currently working on Metal Gear Rising as my next game to complete. I've already finish one play through on normal and trying to get all the collectibles right now. The hard part is probably getting S rank on everything however. We'll see how far I can get...