No updates for another couple of days

harutoki 3 hakuryuu

Toothless affection.

Why? Because I’m busy conquering bishies in Harukanaru Toki no Naka de 3. For the past week it’s been like “Okay I’ll just do this guy’s route and then I’m done.” “Oh, and this guy too.” “Okay, and this guy too.” and on and on and on. Right now I’ve done almost everyone’s main route except Saku’s and Tomomori’s (‘cos you’ve gotta save the best for last) but once I’m done with the main routes I’ve also got to get the Izayoiki bonus endings for everyone, which will take some more time. I’m not starting anything new until that is done, so I’ll be busy for a while longer. Don’t expect me to write a long post about it once I’m done though. I’m kind of burnt out, but I just can’t stop.

I’m also playing Shiren DS 1 and 2, but ‘playing’ just consists of finding inventive ways to die every day, so there’s nothing to write about. I had an interesting death yesterday, when I was OHKO’ed by a shopkeeper. It was like this: I walked into the store and for some reason or another my companion was standing in front of the doorway, so when I picked up an item the storekeeper couldn’t block the door. Then I pressed B, switched through my companion and stepped out of the store. And the storekeeper went “Thief!” Welp, so far so good, I could have tried to run away or hit him with a staff of postpone or something, but I wanted to see how strong he was… bad idea. Don’t waste your time going toe-to-toe with a storekeeper, just run. I’m learning all kinds of stuff from these games!

Once I’m done with HTND3, my PS2 is back from them hospital so maybe I’ll work on maybe Dragon Shadow Spell? But I’m not in the mood for an SRPG, for once. Maybe I’ll continue Wild Arms 5. I recently downloaded several free Japanese indie/doujin games and trials only for my desktop PC to go caput. For some reason most of those games don’t work right on my Windows 7 laptop, preferring my WinXP desktop, so I’m going to have to delay playing them for a while. If it’s not one thing, it’s the other.

So anyway that’s what I’ve been getting up to. See you guys in a bit!

Fuurai no Shiren DS 2 – Finished!

shiren ds 2And it only took 2 years, 3 months and 17 days from the day I first quit. Congratulations, me! ^_^ Everybody stop round for champagne and cookies later, on the house.

Actually story mode in Fuurai no Shiren 2 was really easy… Actually I should be calling it Shiren DS 2, because it’s not actually Fuurai no Shiren 2. I learned recently that Shiren DS 2 is a remake of a Shiren gaiden game and not a remake of the original Shiren 2, which is a different game altogether.

To clarify: there’s a main series of Shiren games, Shiren 1, 2, 3, 4  and 5. Then there are at least four Shiren gaiden games, including ones called Shiren GB and Shiren GB2 (named thus because they were first released on the Gameboy and Gameboy Color). When Chunsoft and Sega released DS remakes, they made Shiren 1 (SNES original) into Shiren DS 1 (remake). But instead of making Shiren 2 (N64 original) into Shiren DS 2 (remake), they skipped over it and chose Shiren GB2 to be remade as Shiren DS 2. There is no remake of the original N64 Shiren 2 yet. All clear now? Do please go on, this is most interesting →

Differences between Shiren DS 1 and Shiren DS 2

shiren the wandererI’m still playing Shiren the Wanderer, on and off, since I’m planning to go on 100 adventures before I quit and I’m only in my 50s. I have long since lost all the equipment I talked about in my last post, but still, a luta continua. One time I made it all the way to the boss of Table Mountain with what I thought was a foolproof strategy -> I had the Bufu staff from completing Naoto’s sidequest. My plan was to turn one of the enemies in the final stage into meat, throw that meat at the last boss and then kill everyone at leisure, making liberal use of my two Staffs of Postpone.

Well, as Mike Tyson said, “Everybody has a plan till they get punched in the face.” I arrived at the boss floor all right. To my left was a Skull Mage, accursed creature. To my right was one of those Tiger Uho thingies. The boss was right in front of me. I reached into my bag and took my Buff Staff out. It was here that I made a fatal mistake. Instead of swinging it at the Skull Mage, I swung it at the Tiger. Folks, always, always get rid of the Skull Mage first! Always! There’s no telling what it’ll do to you if it gets the chance, but I can tell you what it did to me: turned me into a rice ball, argh! I tried my best to escape, hopping along pitifully, but I was cornered in two moves and that was all she wrote. *sigh* Do please go on, this is most interesting →

Sakura Taisen 2 – Kanna GET again!

"Reni! I command you by the power of this wreath, jump into my arms in 3...2...1..."

“Reni! I command you by the power of this wreath, jump into my arms in 3…2…1…”

I spent a little more time after the last post deciding who to pair Ichiro “Ladykiller” Ogami with in Sakura Taisen 2. Ultimately I decided not to encourage his philandering ways and paired him up with Kanna again. It’s unfortunate that Sakura Taisen 3 features a harem of new girls in Paris (the city of l’amour) but if I ever play ST4 you can be darned sure Ogami will be teaming up with Kanna yet again. Just because you’re the only guy in a group of girls doesn’t mean you can have your way with whomever you please. All in-game evidence to the contrary, that is.

Actually the one thing I learned from coupling Ogami x Kanna in both this game and the first one is that Ogami just isn’t into Kanna. At. All. They’re on very friendly terms and he clearly sees her as “one of the guys,” but romantic feelings? Zero on his part. The most blatant crush he had was on Ayame in game one, but this time he seems to keep most of the girls at arms’ length, including Ayame’s inferior younger sister Kaede. Do please go on, this is most interesting →

Sakura Taisen 2 – Hmm, who to pick this time

I got full love points for doing this. Obviously.

I got full love points for doing this. Obviously.

I played the PSP port of Sega’s Sakura Taisen right around this time in 2012 and had a great time. I was looking forward to Sakura Taisen 2, which I hoped would fix a few tiny issues I had with the first game:

1. Add a fast-forward/scene skip option.
2. Add a quick-save/quick-load option.
3. Don’t drag the story out so long and don’t make the second half so nonsensical.

They haven’t done a thing about #1, alas. I don’t mind #2 any more because I realize quick-saving/loading would make nonsense of the timed choices the Sakura Taisen series is famous for, so it’s just a matter of learning to cope. Re: #3 it’s too soon to tell because I’m only… uhh, let me see… where’s my PSP… 7 hours, 33 minutes and 51 seconds into the game, so there’s plenty more to come. Do please go on, this is most interesting →