I’ve been trying out tumblr for the past few days, seems pretty handy for microblogging (although well knowing me and my longwindedness it usually ends up pretty long for a micropost anyway).

They have pretty themes, and it’s convenient to use since all I have to do is click that tiny bookmark in my bookmarks bar, and the popup lets me share (post) audio, links, videos, etc.

Anyway, mine’s over here for now.

I reckon I’ll be blogging more over there, so if you’re bored, as in extremely bored, you know where to go.

(tsl: Miss Gloomy and the Internet)

Phew! finally finished translating this toughie. I expected it to be somewhat easier considering how manga oneshots aren’t supposed to be very long (this is 20 pages) and the art looked uh rather simple so I thought ‘the words can’t be all that difficult right?’ but what took lots of time and effort to translate on my part were the numerous references to Japanese net culture. And mind you, although I know a little more than the average bumbling English-speaking passerby, I wouldn’t say that I’m totally familiar with all the various 2ch or niconico terms.

I actually learnt a lot more than I knew just from translating Nekura Musume, because usually I would never bother to read the Japanese 2ch Wiki pages and find out more about the weird (but amusing) NicoNico things around the site. For example, no one seems to have talked about dat落ち before even for the 2ch-copy 4chan.

The whole thing’s actually really hilarious even if you aren’t that familiar with Japanese internet subculture, as long as you know a little about things like 2ch… or just the more mainstream, well-known things like Densha Otoko (tsl: Train Man).

I’m looking forward to more stuff by Shinobi now ;u; Apparently he/she has a serialisation called ‘Yandere Girlfriend’ about some yankee girl who fell in love with a normal guy (I feel sorry for him already), but I’m still looking for chapters that I can read properly (and not the irritating digital reader…)

By the way, if you can read Japanese, you can read Nekura Musume over here with a digital reader at GanGan Online, a Square Enix online comic magazine of sorts. If possible, please rate the story after reading to support the artist and make GanGan more inclined to serialise more series by Shinobi. ;D

SDS will probably (hopefully) be releasing Nekura, fully scanlated, in a week… or two… The translation took me a total of approx. 11 pages in Word orz. Although, of course, quite a bit of that space was probably taken up by my random ramblings and the various references I used (in case my hardworking proofer uhm doesn’t happen to understand the Japanese when checking for accuracy). Check the flow properly too, okay? And I’m sorry if the typesetting is hell, I can uh try and do the typesetting in future if it looks manageable for an amateur like me orz.

Scanlation groups I am a part of, fyi:

Spica Scans (Uh… Feel free to leec–I mean download, but please support the Arcana artists!)
Sakana Desu Scans (LJ Comm, read the rules and join to see releases and download)

They are both tiny and relatively new(? for Spica) scanlation groups (I wonder why, really), but Spica Scans mainly works on Arcana oneshots (orz has not been translating much lately although yes, Arcana is win) and Sakana Desu Scans works on anything from random short manga oneshots to uh doujins. (In fact, Hetalia doujins are the only things that have been uploaded so far even though we plan to do more than that…)

Meanwhile, this also means the things I want/have to do just increased tenfold in a short span of time. :c But then again translating is fun to a certain extent. But it is also difficult, as in very difficult, sometimes. But then again. Typesetting sounds so much harder, and therefore I am glad that, noobish as I am, I am not in charge of that in both groups. In fact, I am the lowly translator, making tonnes of grammatical errors in the script. |DD Not on purpose, I swear, I do try to check through um. Most of the time. Or something like that. But the proofers need a job to do anyway, so!

Uh since nearly 500 people have joined SDS I feel a lot of pressure whenever any posting on the comm is required. I understand that it’s mostly because of the Hetalia doujins that they joined, but nevertheless, or possibly precisely because of that, it’s quite awkward having to post about important but non-Hetalia-fandom-only things.

Anyway. This is the important part. Just so we can check that these have not been scanlated yet, and ensure that no one can say ‘But we wanted to do it first!’ and thus indirectly cause a waste of our efforts, Sakana Desu Scans is planning to work on the following (I have enabled Google searches partly for this):

- Nekura Musume to Internet (tsl: Miss Gloomy and the Internet) by Shinobi

- Cadenza, a (thankfully sfw) Hetalia doujinshi by Giongo

- REC, (nsfw) Hetalia doujinshi by Kaiten Mokugyo

- Unfair, Hetalia doujinshi by Kaiten Mokugyo

- !Viva!, sfw Hetalia doujinshi by Osova

- Sougiya Riddle (tsl: Undertaker Riddle) oneshot version by Higasa Akai

- Fujimura-kun Meitsu oneshot version by Shiki Seiichi

- Gintama fan doujin anthologies Soutennenshokuzu 1 and Ginzamurai! (various artists) if we find that no one else has worked on them yet

- Adabana by Shirasaya

- ToraDora! Special Book comic anthology (various artists), mostly 4komas and shorts with some novel-like text at the back.

- Shanghai Youma Kikai (tsl: Demons of Shanghai) oneshot version by Arakawa Hiromu

…Something like this so far, anyway. Most of the oneshots can be found on GanGan Online, while the doujins were found randomly online. If anyone’s scanlated/planning to scanlate them though, I think we might consider dropping it. We will most likely be alternating between doujinshi and oneshot releases.

As the title implies, I have loads of free time on my hands now, although I am still required to go to school (it’s weird like that :\) I remember wanting to do a lot of things once I had some free time, but it kind of feels like I suddenly don’t know where to start at all. Therefore the need for this post, I guess…

Firstly, something I will need to do at some point in time is clear the extremely long list of raw doujins, comic and magazine scans I have managed to gather over the past few weeks, i.e. delete the not-so-well-drawn-or-interesting ones, take a good look at those that look promising and maybe upload them to mangahelpers if necessary/possible, and maybe organise my folder so everything’s divided into oneshots, complete series, NSFW and SFW (although I mostly don’t prefer NSFW works unless the rest of it is really awesomely drawn or it’s just an awesome series like that), BL and non-BL (the same is true here).

So far I’m glad I’ve found some oneshots and doujins by Kouga Yun, Kawashita Mizuki and Yasuhiro Kanou. I also found some awesome works from  on MangaHelpers (wasn’t aware they had them before this), although some series aren’t completely uploaded.

Furthermore, I would like to complete Cave Story (Doukutsu Monogatari) sometime soon. I really love the graphics and music and gameplay isn’t too hard. I now know it’s been quite popular for a while, with various fan translations and even a fansite in addition to the fact that it’s going on WiiWare soon, but even I am amazed that I didn’t hear of it before I tried looking for random, non-shmup(I’m horrible at these) sfw doujin games.

Now in addition to Cave Story, there are several other doujin games that I managed to find. And there are also the otome/non-rated games which I have not tried yet. I’ll probably give myself more time to try those out…

I might try and scan my volumes 7 and 8 of Otomen sometime soon, unless someone else decides to post it up somewhere before I do. I don’t find the series as epicly hilarious as I used to, but well… it’s funny. :\ And since I do own the volumes I might as well share them, right? Not like VIZ seems to be translating it, last I saw of the English volumes was 3 or 4. If I have time, I might scan some volumes of Arcana and try to clean them so shu doesn’t have to |D But then again she owns more volumes than I do (In fact, all of the latest ones), so. :|

More importantly I will also have to work on some translating :d Lots of Arcana oneshots haven’t been translated, especially the um less interesting ones. But I think it’s important to release anthologies as a set instead of loose releases here and there, and when it’s not in a set you don’t really see the theme being coming through very strongly… Also, oneshots which may not be so well drawn and instead have an interesting story won’t ever see the light in the English community. It’s also true that you’ll never see the really bad, but most of the stories in Arcana are decent, although only a few are excellent or great. And hey, you need to know the bad before you can appreciate the good, right?

Smint is also bugging me to translate Hetalia doujins recently, even if I’m really not part of the fandom. I like the art for most of those which she sends me, and the very concept of Hetalia is interesting (although vaguely disturbing), but that plus fujoshis = …. and even worse when it’s nsfw…. And it is weird seeing characters with names of countries, anyway. They use those since they’re much shorter than their full name usually.

I may also consider translating a few oneshots I’ve found (as mentioned earlier) if I don’t find any online yet, and since most of the raws are clean, I might only have to do typesetting (my first time!). Or if I get lazy I know I can surely count on Smint. |D

Hm I have been thinking about creating an original website too, but finding proper webhosting seems to be a b*tch, and I am totally unfamiliar to the ways of web designing. As to what the website would be about… Hm. I was thinking maybe for that manga viewing idea I had aeons ago, but maybe just making one for fun would be easier and less… risky. Some free webhosting sites seem to be pretty cautious about letting anime/manga stuff get onto sites they host. Copyright laws are a b*tch too.

Oh! And my Wii has been untouched since I got Rune Factory Frontier and played it for a few weeks. My PSP has been kidnapped by my brother for use in camp, and I only last used the PS3 in a long time the day before yesterday to play Guitar Hero 5. Yes, it is awesome. But that alt-up-down strumming is so hard orz. And I still can’t master Hard mode yet :\ Stupid orange button.

See what I mean by too many things I want to do? And that’s not all, I’m not sure how much work the school will be giving us even though we only have two examinations left. (I guess I should be brushing up on my Chinese before national exams knee me in the face, but…)

Speaking of which, I should be reading more English books in general…e-books maybe…

Ahwell no use just talking about it, it has to be followed up by actual action. I shall try and select oneshots I want to work on tomorrow or something. And maybe start scanning Otomen. And in the free time in between, read some more doujins or at least clear out those I know I won’t bother reading anytime soon.

It seems I really haven’t been posting ehehe. I don’t feel like studying for my upcoming -Chinese- exam tomorrow (I mean, it is Chinese we’re talking about here orz) so um here I am rambling about the PSP game I was distracted with like the whole of yesterday. orz. Even if there was NDP on TV. Double orz.

It’s called Lair Land Story/ Rare Land Story (Ranshima Monogatari). Frankly I prefer the latter but it’s the former on the official Cantonese website. The price of the music CD was in NT though, so maybe it was a Taiwanese site? Ah heck, well it was originally made by a Cantonese company and illustrated by a Cantonese guy, at the very least, then translated into Japanese. I was quite surprised when I saw the credits for the first time, those were definitely not Japanese names |D The game only just came out in Japan on the 23rd of July and I had not heard of it at all before it was being released, nor have I been hearing much about it after its release, so I wouldn’t really imagine that there would be an international release. And no one bothered to translate any of the PM series after PM2 D: Well in a sense this is kind of an international release for the original Cantonese/Chinese PC game already, I guess. And what’s more, it was published by EA, apparently, or at least the PC version.

It’s almost impossible to play the game without comparing it even a little to any of the Princess Maker series. Granted, they’re awfully similar, but in this case, you so happen to take the role of the young hero (aptly named Hiro and obviously male– a female as the epic hero? No way! |D) of the era who defeated some epicly evil villainy (monsters) and saved the world around two months ago, thereby earning yourself the title of baron. In other words, you’re nobility! -clapclapclap- Oh and to top it off you’re apparently really popular with girls because you’re really cool and stuff. But I don’t see the harem of girls falling head over heels so I guess the poor guy’s not quite so popular.

But the catch here is that you found a young girl (with default pink hair, no less) after you defeated the big boss, two months ago. She incidentally woke up from her sleep when you stepped into the room (thank goodness, no Sleeping Beauty rubbish) and looked out into the distance, then somehow she did something that vanquished the evil in the world. (Or the town. Whatever.) Then she fainted and you decided to carry her home and take care of her and protect her by taking her into your home, because she’s pretty. Then you discover that she just so happens to have no recollection whatsoever of her past, except her name – Chiria/ Chilia. (Dang this r/l thing gets even more horrid with foreignish Cantonese/Chinese to Japanese names.)

And so starts your 4-year long life of the caretaker/protector/father-figure/friend/lover(…You sick b/tard.) of pretty little Chiria, with the main aim being to find out more about her past and raise her well, I guess… Okay that’s not quite right, she’s around your age. No lolis to hit on here. (PM4 pisses me off) So the main difference with the PM series is that you don’t raise a daughter, you don’t talk to gods and you don’t go on actual battle-adventure journeys (sadly). But on the bright side (??) you have a main harem of girls for you, Hiro, to hit on, and a main harem of guys (not bad in terms of looks either thanks to the great illustrations |D) to try and hook Chiria up with. 4 of each, actually, if you include Hiro in the harem of guys. Um so yes, you can choose to focus on your own romance in addition to Chiria’s. Yes. So it’s kind of a mix between a proper dating sim and PM.

The game system’s quite easy to understand, especially if you’ve played any of the PM series before. You plan the schedule for Chiria for each fortnight of her life, in other words 15 days at a time. You have 3 slots to work with for each schedule, so each slot takes up 5 days. Be it Studies, Work, CIP or Others (*incl. Rest, Adventure, Travel and Prayer), it’s entirely up to you to decide what you want to let her do for that fortnight. You observe her daily progress with the help of cute chibi scenes and a list of related parameters for each activity, and after every fortnight, you get to go out to town and visit various places to talk to people etc. Oh right, there is also the concept of seasons, there are 6 fortnights for every season (obviously) and the background changes quite visibly when the season changes. At festivals, one per season at the town square, you have the option of participating in competitions. But apart from that seasons also mark the time limit for goals you will want to reach in order to gain bonuses in various forms, be it MP, Eve (the name of the currency used) or Bonus Points (more later). Attaining these goals are especially important since uh you’re almost always short on money if you don’t manage it wisely T_T Note that you are the one who chooses from a list of goals somehow generated by the game system, so you can only blame yourself if you don’t fulfill them. Time management, eh?

You might have noticed, but I did mention the Adventure option for her schedule. It should be noted that it’s not like in PM where you go on RPG-like adventures; rather, it’s more like passive adventuring, or like how events pass when you observe her daily progress. That said, it makes you feel like you’re always in town even if you adventure a lot. Of course, based on your Luck parameter, you may or may not get some money and/or items from adventuring.

Well you have much fewer slots in her schedule to work with as compared to Princess Maker 5, and while I wouldn’t say that the adventuring system in PM5 was awfully interesting what with no map and her just walking and walking and walking…, I remember how the adventuring in PM2 was rather fun and RPG-ish. In this sense Ranshima may seem like a cop-out or something, but I assure you that the art is very pretty (both characters and backgrounds) and more importantly, the game makes up for it in other ways such as the lab system and the overall characterisation. The voicing is also not bad for most of them, it even features Ishida Akira. (Here I was thinking a low-profile game like this wouldn’t have any familiar voices at all…) Moreover, the replayability is there because the bonus point system just makes you want to unlock every damn thing in that list, even if you don’t care too much about unlocking the 20 or so endings and uh however many CGs. And note that bonus points can only be used after you play through the game once, and you can’t cheat by replaying endings from save points. It… just doesn’t work that way. You need to work for it.

Whoops, it’s over 1000 words now |D I should really get to studying, actually. There’s really a bit more about the game system that I could talk about like the environment system and how a lot of things affect your stat parameters, and I haven’t gotten to introducing characters properly apart from the main 2 yet, but I should stop here especially since I don’t have any original pictures atm and I can’t be bothered to google. Go forth and train your googlefu, all ye interested parties! I guarantee +30 Interest parameter points.

…It seems the Gintama RPG theme is getting to me. I can’t help it, all the DQ parodies are really entertaining. Go, Leukocyte King!

P.S. Official Site (Traditional Chinese) here and Official Site (Japanese) here.

P.P.S. If you happen to be interested in playing the game and have a cracked PSP, the game is also of course available via DDL/torrenting online. Train your googlefu.

My goodness, I have not posted since the start of July/end of June.

Anyway, yesterday and today at Downtown East was the local animanga convention Cosfest. I hear they deliberately made sure to clash the dates with Daicon which is held in our fellow ‘rivaling’ country M Sia. (I was uh kidding. Do not want the MDA or any other Spore net authority after me.)

Anyway, so here are the pictures I got after the cut. I didn’t take a lot as usual, but I guess it’s still picspam.

I apologise for my camera’s lack of quality. It’s a compact meant for taking pictures of normal still life or still people etc. under good lighting. And I also apologise for the lack of quantity which I present. |D

In any case, if you wish to have your own picture taken down, just leave a comment or something. :D

Moony (note:semi-pseudonym) as Greece from Hetalia

Whatshername the cockblocker (I kid, really!) from Full Moon wo Sagashite. I watched it ages ago and kinda liked it, but thinking back the songs were okay, not entirely great or anything. It was a cute series but not my favourite, that's all.

The yuri pair from Strawberry Panic...? -shudders- But nice costumes and hair anyway yay! :D

Shoot forgot to crop. And it's a little blurry sorry D: US and UK from Hetalia which a certain Smint (*pseudonym) ships.

Madam Red from Kuroshitsuji - Really pretty dress!

JY in Gothloli. It's really nice but really expensive. Yay cute pose.

The main girl (? I do not watch/read this series anymore) from Vampire Knight

Hikaru and Kaoru, twins from Ouran (who doesn't know this series?)

Kuroshitsuji trio... There were way too many from this series (incl. repeats) at Cosfest.

More Vampire Knight, but the whole group here. People cos-ed this series before it even became popular....

Zoom. Uh just focused on the centre few randomly. If you notice, they actually have fangs! O: Uwo.

Pacman = WIN

Uh. Not sure what series/game this is? >_>

Yuna! From FFsomething, I didn't play a lot of the games honestly. And it's hard to keep track of all the characters geez!

Awesome Canti-samas! What exactly are their costumes made out of?! In any case, they are win. I loved FLCL so much :D

Not sure which series this is, but they look awfully familiar.

Smint. Anyway, this was a semi-sneak shot. Random, really.

JY and MQ. Yay lace parasol! and nearly Zettai Ryouiki. The true true ZR requires a frickin short skirt. And perfect legs.

Uh Kuroshitsuji again. But with the Chinese guy this time.

Someone has invaded the vital regions of Pacman. /I kid but anyway. Pacman is adorable win.

Korea and China from Hetalia. Rather cute really. Where did they get the flags from? I saw a few other flags about...

Epic-funny and charismatic Armstrong (FMA) and Krauser or some guy from DMC (Correct me if I am wrong, for I am not a fan of the latter series.)

The Miku who sang Koi wa Sensou (Love is War) on Sunday.

FLCL team! Love their costumes. But where on earth is the Vespa?! |D Sorry Red Canti-sama. I took this picture from the side D:

Gintama team. D: Why aren't there more epic Gintama cosplayers every year?

More USUK. (... funny how it sounds pronounced |D) --Ahem. Anyway, that's not the point. I'm sorry it's blurry again D:

The epic regular Gundam cosplayer.

Zoom.

Tsuntsun Taiga, from Toradora! Sigh the series kinda went downhill for me especially nearing the end. Sigh. But GJ anyway, cosplayer!

Happy indeed it was.

:D This was the nicest part of the wall on Sunday imo. And yesterday the nicest part was also by him/her. (Her?)

PEWPEWPEW!

Poor mushroom. It's not dead, is it? Is it?!

The adorable Moogle-kun. What exactly is that costume made of?

Silent Hill nurse-people. I haven't played the game before but those are some creepy-cool character designs.

Oh, did I mention that those are some really cool bloodstains, too? Hm but doesn

"Can I haz a picture of you hazzing a picture of her?" "Sure."

Moony and Jazzu as Greece and Austria respectively. No idea what is with the cat ears though. Smint said bring a cat, not BE a cat!

This time with Jazzu on the left. Moony looks like srs bznz.

What puzzles me is why there was another TV-guy at Cosfest apart from the Canti-samas. But well TV-guys are cool in general |DD

Kuroshitsuji again... btw that recent chapter was really blatant fujoshi fanservice. I do not actually follow it though, my friend gave me the link.

Really really cute gijinka Timcampy :D

Nicely posed and dressed Saber. Zettai Ryouiki Perfect! Or nearly.

Persona! Love those character designs. Orz taken from the side...

Miku! With leek! The one with the hair I liked better |D A pity she didn't have lighter complexion to match her hair better, but in general it's really pretty already.

Well, ’sall since I didn’t take that many. The Karaoke had its share of good and so-so singers, but I don’t get why the Kalafina song was so popular this year…. (not eufonius right? I keep mixing up the two >_<) And gee no one tried to sing a Miku song. Some are singable, although most are pretty high. Just don’t sing Last Night, Good Night in the original key. That is crazy, except Choucho (in hiragana), one of the pro NicoNico users, resang it really well. In the original key. With no hiccups along the way whatsoever.

Sigh I would try and go to Daicon if I had time and money -has never been to an overseas con and feels deprived not having gone to Comiket before- but that won’t be happening too soon.

:\ Not really eagerly looking forward to any particular titles I see for the summer…

Well what’s definitely on my watchlist is ZSZS, Hetalia (…Just because it’s short and a certain someone I know will without fail come to me ranting on about things that I wouldn’t understand unless I watched it), and I’m interested in Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 (will give it up if Bones fails me again though D:). I am willing to try Umineko no Naku Koro ni although I see kl-chan has already started uploading creepy fanart on pixiv. Since it’s part of the Naku Koro ni franchise, I expect it to be as creepy or even creepier than Higurashi, which I did find a little… disturbing, but… I-I will… I must….  -tremble-

I’m going to try Canaan just because. And Bakemonogatari… for SHAFT’s sake.

…And that’s all I’m going to watch. But those remade oldschool titles like that white lion… My Ghibli marathon is making me want to watch those :D

Well but I do still have a whole lot of other shows that I’m watching right now. Sadly Eden of the East has ended, and I really really can’t wait for the movies. I am also waiting for the live-action dramas (and/or anime adaptations) of Otomen and Kimi ni Todoke (aka Reaching You) 8D And another unrelated thing which I am waiting for is the release of the English version of Oboro Muramasa. It looks like it’s a pretty good Wii game. Oh, and Hakuouki Portable for the PSP. -recently converted Otomate fan-

Scanlations are coming along fine, I hope, SS hasn’t released any since I’ve joined because they are understaffed with most of their already tiny force kept back by exams. I tried my best for the translations so I don’t think anything too bad could go wrong… I suspect some of the scans I did for Arcana Vol 6 and 9 might not be quite up to standard though D:

I spent quite a bit of time today watching old Ghibli classics, like Totoro, Nausicaa and Kiki’s Delivery Service. I have also watched Laputa, Umi ga Kikoeru (its English title is Ocean Waves) and Princess Mononoke over the past few days.

While I wouldn’t say that Ghibli is my favourite studio in the whole world (KyoAni comes close to that though |DDDD) I can say that they do a great job bringing characters to life every time. I’m not too clear about the history of Ghibli (I’d like to visit the museum someday D: ) but it just struck me how Ghibli’s been around for so long! And it’s definitely become an irreplaceable part of my childhood. Even if I forget the storylines, the music from movies like Totoro bring back the nostalgic feelings from when I was a child.

Some of the Ghibli titles are quite fun, but a little more nonsensical, like (more recently) Ponyo, Howl’s Moving Castle (hm I watched this quite a while back though), Totoro and Kiki’s Delivery Service. Laputa was, to me, a mix of a little bit of serious and more fun (I accredit it to that super-optimistic little kid, haha), in addition to Umi ga Kikoeru (well, kinda…). Others like Princess Mononoke and Nausicaa were quite serious all throughout, which I do prefer. I notice some similarities when they have the same theme of protecting the environment and promoting peace and harmony amongst humans…. “What a wonderful tree!” in both Mononoke-hime and Nausicaa haha. And most of the time, the stories involve little girls somehow O: In any case, Spirited Away strikes me as kind of being somewhere I can’t really put my finger on for now, but I plan to rewatch it sometime soon. Spirited Away and Mononoke-hime are by far my favourite Ghibli movies. I also plan to watch Grave of the Fireflies, but I hear it’s really really really depressing.

Of course, I notice the people never really look that much different, but it doesn’t bother me too much. It’s quite a distinct style that tells me it’s Ghibli, anyway. The proportions are also just right :9 Meanwhile, the backgrounds really do vary quite a bit, since they’re telling a story for a different world sometimes. For Ponyo, I remember how everything was bright and pretty, but in Nausicaa, everything is dark and even when it’s a pretty sight, there is some sense of sadness, maybe even a little bit of fear (Ohms and the decaying world D: ) accompanied with it and the colours are more mellow. Whatever it is, you can bet most of the time that it’ll turn out more or less a good match for the storytelling. Some of the scenes of the aftermath of war and destruction really do strike some feeling of anguish in me, while the pretty ones just make me smile. Hm…. Just how much outsourcing do they have to do to get backgrounds this pretty? O:

Oh my, it’s already this late… And I haven’t bathed ack. Well well, I guess it’s time to end my post. Till next time!

PS. Hm, I’m beginning to think that this habit of mine of using emoticons is proving to be rather hard to get rid of…

*I’m too lazy to add pictures. Google (shall I spell it Googol?) is your very best friend.

I’d heard about this game a while back, but never really got around to playing it until recently. It’s great.

So a few days ago, I recalled this game that I’d wanted to play before it was even released yet – Crimson Gem Saga. It’s actually Korean, then translated into 2 English versions (Asian, then Atlus which is duh from USA) and Japanese (known as the Garnet Chronicle). Apparently, it’s the sequel to Astonishia Story, but I haven’t played that, so. |D I would play that just to see how the characters which also appear in Crimson Gem Saga are like there, but from the screenshots I see around the web, the concept art and graphics aren’t that pretty :c

I haven’t played the Asian version, but apparently the translation wasn’t quite as good, probably because er. We aren’t all native speakers, you know. (It’s somewhat more difficult to localise the whole tone of the translation too, I’d reckon.) So I started playing the Atlus version first, then I wondered how the voice acting for the Japanese version would be… I got sick of Spinel’s voice from the very start. Typical whiny American bimbo voice is do not want D: And that elf guy! I just can’t stand those kinds of voices D: But the rest were fine… I think.

I don’t think I’m even halfway through the game, but I believe this is the funniest PSP game I’ve come across so far. Or at least, for the Atlus version. It might be my lazy eye or my lack of mastery of Japanese, but apart from better voice-acting, I didn’t quite feel funny vibes which were quite as strong. Maybe it’s just because it’s in English… |D Oh yeah, the Atlus version also has more voiced parts! That’s a definite plus :DD

Well the humour is actually pretty Korean to me, because I’ve seen this kind of thing in one or two online Korean MMOs before (albeit badly translated since I’ve only played beta games). The characters sometimes break the fourth wall and make fun of RPG elements in the game, and at other times they’re just made out to be… tragic (this reminds me a little of Korean dramas, too). For example, once, I opened a treasure box and there were 50 potions which restore your HP and MP. But off went Killian (the main character) who got too excited about it, and he then proceeded to break 47 of them, leaving only 3 potions. At other times, there was a treasure box right next to a guest bed in an inn. Inside was a bomb, and the guy just had to go ‘What the heck’s a bomb doing here?!’ |DDDwwww

Speaking of treasure, you can find treasure almost anywhere, just like in Golden Sun, RPG-style. This saves you a lot of Gelder (read: $$$). You can find money (sometimes in abundanceww) and stuff not just in jars and chests, and while some are in actual treasure boxes, others might just be hidden in the background. See, you can even pick up clocks from … clocks, which cure you of sleep. There are also lots of little secrets (kinda like easter eggs) hidden here and there, which are pretty fun to discover on your own and this ups the replayability slightly if you aren’t the type that checks every little nook and cranny the first time you play a game. Or if you just want to go see how much of a challenge it is playing the game without all that free stuff :D

The gameplay seems a little more MMO-like to me than RPG-like, although the two mean around (pretty much exactly) the same thing. what I mean is, you actually have to stealth around in order to gain the upper hand in all your battles. Ambushing your enemies is actually very freaking important, because if you’re discovered, you will start to be chased in a matter of seconds. They run faster than you do, and them ambushing you hurts. A lot. A damn freaking lot if you’re of a lower level than they are. And characters like Henson have super low max HP, so if you didn’t heal them up before the battle you may just die. Of course, with this whole ambushing/stealth system, all battles are not random. That also means that you have to revisit the same maps to grind if you need to level up. It also means that you have to stealth around everywhere outside of villages and towns D:

Obviously, being a stealth noob like me means that half the time you fail at ambushing, and there is some frustration (agh that stupid thing turned around the millisecond right before I was going to ambush it. Again! ARGH). I do assure you though, it’s part of the challenge, and it’s not too bad after… a while. Yeah. Also, the pretty concept art and graphics make up for it by a lot! Story too, of course. And humour. Definitely humour.

When it comes to the art, I’m not sure who drew the concept art (yet), but it’s so pretty! It’s got some Kim Hyung Tae colouring going on, with 1000% fewer saggy boobs and ugh other stuff. At least for the few chicks you find in the game… And the faces are perfectly oval, while the ossans are macho as they always are, Kim Hyung Tae style! (Actually, who cares about those ossans geez why are they even in my party?! DD: ) The concept art pops up every time the respective characters speak (oh but the art’s only from the waist up), and in the Status pages. Not only is the concept art pretty, but the backgrounds and sprites are pretty darned detailed too! I’m actually quite impressed by quite a few of the maps.

Oops, I forgot to mention about the skills system. I actually went through the first little bit of the game without leveling my skills at all |D But anyway, the skills system is slightly unique as well. You’re given this whole map of skills, but apart from the first few that have been revealed, you’ve got to use up SP both to reveal them AND to obtain them. This is irritating, but I keep reminding myself, it’s part of the challenge… orz. Thankfully you can save and load at any point in time and space apart from battles (battles are turn-based btw c: ), so you can save some SP. You can unlock passive skills, (active) skills and combo skills. Combo skills can only be used when both characters have the skill and have consecutive turns (argh).

Crimson Gem Saga also has a somewhat tricky slots system for equipment. There are only three slots for each piece of equipment, and you can slot in different cards and gems which modify the elemental affinity/resistance or the actual stats it has. Although you can’t unslot these from what I know at least, it’s not too bad since you get plenty of cards and gems through battles anyway. Potions too. Which you need a lot.

Quests are pretty straightforward and RPG-styled, and there are random optional subquests at different points of the game. The subquests really do remind me of MMOs, i.e. ‘Go fetch _ of this and that!’ ‘Thanks! Here, have a ___ as a reward!’ while the actual quests are pretty much just checkpoints for the actual RPG-like plot. There are quite a few enemies I’ve met so far that are unbeatable (really unbeatable, unlike Lavos) till later, another traditional RPG thing. They never tell you before you meet them :C

Hmm… I guess that’s pretty much all I wanted to introduce about the game :D The characters have interesting personalities, but it’s more fun to discover them on your own through actually playing the game :D And I’m trying my best to level all the characters equally, although I do like using some of the characters over others.

May you have fun playing the game! :DDDD I’m still less than halfway through it though D:

Extra: These links may interest those who want to know more about the game :D For the first link, the last bit which Atlus commented on elves in bikinis (referring to Spinel) is especially amusing.

Edit: Hm, yeah the game gets a lot harder later on in the game, and grinding gets to be a pain. I see what those reviews meant now. Ho hum. Mana Khemia now kinda strikes me as a cross between Class of Heroes and Crimson Gem Saga actually, except you don’t roam the world in perpetual dungeon-mode or anything.

Ah, it’s been such a long time since I last watched any episodes of this! The last time being random episodes screened on AXN 2? 3? years ago. It’s so nostalgic wwww

I was kinda surprised that there were a few not so sfw scenes (i.e. frontal top nud.) in the first few eps, but now that I think about it that’s so Takahashi Rumiko anyway.

What I really love about Ranma is really the humour. The tension is pretty much excellent. The premise for the entire series is ridiculous and tragic, but allows for so many possibilities! And the super cheesy parts are totally hilarious too |D Characters are also very very interesting of course, which + the premise is win because of all the character dynamics. Martial arts is also pretty much a focus, so there’s never a dull moment… 

Of course, I don’t expect it to be funny throughout all 3204891067 seasons, but the first season was love.

Gee, but now that I think about it Fruits Basket kinda seems to have used a premise similar to that of Ranma ½. Easily changing form and all.

In any case, the voicers weren’t too bad, Yamaguchi Kappei and Hayashibara Megumi as Ranma :DD they’re still alive and kicking in the seiyuu industry, you know! Conan’s voicer also played Akane’s sister Nabiki :3 (she’s so sly it’s amazing o: )

Art is by Takahashi Rumiko so of course no problem unless you hated Inuyasha and everything else by her/in her style, which is quite unbelievable to me. Of course, there’s also the oldschool appeal in her artstyle. It can be super shoujo sometimes, which is funny because the characters get ultra-dramatic and cheesy or something along those lines.

Since I am currently being deprived of my Ranma due to the fact that my brother has his friends over at the moment and my computer’s in the frigging living room, and Ranma made me high yesterday night and not today, I don’t really have much more to say…

-Ranma himself is so tragic and confused most of the time (kissed by a creep in his girl form yuck!) but so lovable :D

-I want to read the manga D:

-If you must ask, the fanfics are obvious do not want, since I can almost but never quite imagine just how far they can take the whole thing, given its popularity and gender bender premise. o__o;