Flailthroughs: We Play Games in Japanese. We Can't Read Japanese.

Gundam Battle Operation 2 Is Live! This Week: The Basics

noreply@blogger.com (Rob Clay) — Mon, 24 Sep 2018 19:16:00 +0000

Sorry to have missed... well, a lot of everything on this blog. But in case you don't follow me elsewhere, I have some great news: Gundam Battle Operation 2 is out, and it's pretty good as gacha-based free-to-play games go!

It's been a couple months since the game launched, and over on YouTube I've been posting a lot of gameplay videos and I've been getting a lot of questions about the game. Which I'm hoping I can answer now in one handy place: The Gundam Battle Operation 2 BASICS series! Every day between now and Thursday, 9/27/18, I'll try to explain and translate (loosely, as always) most of the major aspects of the game menus and gameplay. Check it out!

The Joke Is That I Remembered To Update

noreply@blogger.com (Rob Clay) — Sun, 01 Apr 2018 15:59:00 +0000

This is not an April Fool's joke! (And remember: anyone who makes an April Fool's joke after declaring "this is not an April Fool's joke" loses all their points. Except for the ones you might wish to drive into them, because April Fool's jokes tend to be annoying after a while.)

Good things are happening in the world of Gundam gaming. First up, Gundam Battle Operation has a direct sequel due out this year! Gundam Battle Operation 2 is currently only scheduled for release in Asia, but it not for nothing that I have a Japanese PSN account. The open beta is on, uh, 4/20 (again, swearing this is not a joke) and 4/21 at 6-9AM US Eastern Time. Go here and add it to your cart to reserve the download (signed into your JP-PSN) if you want to try it!

So if that's what Japan gets, what does North America get? In terms of GBO2... we don't know. Probably nothing again! But we do get New Gundam Breaker, on PS4 and Steam, on June 22nd.

Which brings me to my last announcement! I've had a lot of fun covering the Gundam Breaker series, but I'm never able to get them at the time of release due to financial commitments. So this seemed like the best possible time to launch my Patreon so as to hopefully get a jump on the first US release for the series. The first order of business for this will be to fund a copy of New Breaker to play. Thanks to everybody who has already pledged!

So, that's the current state of Flailthroughs, except to add that Mobile Suit Gundam Side Stories continues on YouTube along with the occasional round of Monster Hunter World and whatever Gundam Battle Operation Classic rounds I still have stocked. Thanks, everybody!

Merry Christmas 2017!

noreply@blogger.com (Rob Clay) — Mon, 25 Dec 2017 16:24:00 +0000

Merry Happy to one and all! As always, thanks to everyone who keeps watching our YouTube channel which is updated pretty regularly with Gundam-related material. Isstvan82 still updates sporadically as well! And as I tend to like to do, I leave you with my favorite passage from Sir Terry Pratchett's Hogfather:

“All right," said Susan. "I'm not stupid. You're saying humans need... fantasies to make life bearable."

REALLY? AS IF IT WAS SOME KIND OF PINK PILL? NO. HUMANS NEED FANTASY TO BE HUMAN. TO BE THE PLACE WHERE THE FALLING ANGEL MEETS THE RISING APE.

"Tooth fairies? Hogfathers? Little—"

YES. AS PRACTICE. YOU HAVE TO START OUT LEARNING TO BELIEVE THE LITTLE LIES.

"So we can believe the big ones?"

YES. JUSTICE. MERCY. DUTY. THAT SORT OF THING.

"They're not the same at all!"

YOU THINK SO? THEN TAKE THE UNIVERSE AND GRIND IT DOWN TO THE FINEST POWDER AND SIEVE IT THROUGH THE FINEST SIEVE AND THEN SHOW ME ONE ATOM OF JUSTICE, ONE MOLECULE OF MERCY. AND YET—Death waved a hand. AND YET YOU ACT AS IF THERE IS SOME IDEAL ORDER IN THE WORLD, AS IF THERE IS SOME...SOME RIGHTNESS IN THE UNIVERSE BY WHICH IT MAY BE JUDGED.

"Yes, but people have got to believe that, or what's the point—"

MY POINT EXACTLY.”

So I Kind Of Missed My Own Site's Anniversary By A Week, But Good News!

noreply@blogger.com (Rob Clay) — Mon, 21 Aug 2017 15:35:00 +0000

Thanks to the kindness of viewer theangelofdeth, we start a new series on YouTube today: Gundam Breaker 3! And not just the English-Asian release, noooo. This is a proper Flailthrough, all in Japanese. Let's smash some model kits together!

Review A Bad Game Day! Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam: Hot Scramble

noreply@blogger.com (Rob Clay) — Tue, 08 Aug 2017 14:36:00 +0000

Review A Bad Game Day is the gaming day created by my old friend Eric "Nintendo Legend" Bailey to spotlight reviews of really awful games. This one... it's not awful, but it's a product of its time. It's repetitive and not really possessed of the depth we'd come to associate with Famicom/NES games. But it's not as immediately unfair as Transformers: Mystery of Convoy or a poorly implemented good-ish idea like Mobile Suit Gundam: Crossfire. It's just... mediocre and doesn't make great use of the Zeta Gundam license.

Horrible People Play Dream Daddy, Starring Isstvan & Angel!

noreply@blogger.com (Rob Clay) — Sat, 05 Aug 2017 21:02:00 +0000

It's Isstvan82 and AngeliqueDaemon! It's Horrible People Play! It's Dream Daddy! Assume NSFW Language!

Dead Cells! Part 14 - Recovered!

noreply@blogger.com (Rob Clay) — Sat, 10 Jun 2017 21:27:00 +0000

Dead Cells! Part 15: 14 Got Corrupted, See You After The Patch!

noreply@blogger.com (Rob Clay) — Fri, 09 Jun 2017 17:27:00 +0000

Dead Cells! Part 13 - A Solid Warmup

noreply@blogger.com (Rob Clay) — Wed, 07 Jun 2017 21:05:00 +0000

Dead Cells! Part 12: Into the Graveyard!

noreply@blogger.com (Rob Clay) — Wed, 07 Jun 2017 03:05:00 +0000

Dead Cells! Part 11: A Short Life, But A Smelly One

noreply@blogger.com (Rob Clay) — Mon, 05 Jun 2017 17:33:00 +0000

Dead Cells! Part 10 - New Patch Soon...

noreply@blogger.com (Rob Clay) — Fri, 02 Jun 2017 21:30:00 +0000

Dead Cells! Part 9 - A Couple Of Short Ones

noreply@blogger.com (Rob Clay) — Fri, 02 Jun 2017 02:23:00 +0000

Dead Cells! Part 8 - The Incomplete One Goes Down, Plus Pirates!

noreply@blogger.com (Rob Clay) — Wed, 31 May 2017 21:37:00 +0000

CATCHUP POST: Dead Cells! Part 6 - Boss Battle With The Incomplete One

noreply@blogger.com (Rob Clay) — Tue, 30 May 2017 21:23:00 +0000

Dead Cells! Part 7 - Back Into The Sewers

noreply@blogger.com (Rob Clay) — Tue, 30 May 2017 21:22:00 +0000

Dead Cells! Part 5 - The Ramparts Are Pretty

noreply@blogger.com (Rob Clay) — Fri, 26 May 2017 18:36:00 +0000

The Ramparts are GORGEOUS. And with a game with a lot of greens and browns and blues and such, they really stand out. More On Monday!

Dead Cells! Part 4 - Sewers And Curses

noreply@blogger.com (Rob Clay) — Fri, 26 May 2017 11:58:00 +0000

Curses give you a target goal of X many kills to make while completely vulnerable: one hit and you're dead. But you can kill 10-40 enemies without taking a single hit, right?

Dead Cells! Part 3 - Actual Progress: The Vine Rune!

noreply@blogger.com (Rob Clay) — Wed, 24 May 2017 17:17:00 +0000

Dead Cells currently only has two items which give new exploratory abilities. Today, I get one of them!

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Dead Cells! Part 2 - First Elite Fight!

noreply@blogger.com (Rob Clay) — Tue, 23 May 2017 21:03:00 +0000

Elites are beefed-up versions of the standard mobs. Stronger, faster, harder to predict... and they teleport to you if you try to run away once you've depleted 50% of their HP.

Dead Cells! Part 1: Welcome To Dead Cells

noreply@blogger.com (Rob Clay) — Mon, 22 May 2017 21:09:00 +0000

Rob plays Dead Cells, the Rogue-Lite Metroidvania with elements of Dark Souls! It's gorgeous, fun to play, and only forty percent complete. Wow!

Fun With Hong Kong Bootlegs: Ah! My Goddess (AKA Oh My Goddess!) Part 10 - END

noreply@blogger.com (Rob Clay) — Fri, 14 Apr 2017 16:32:00 +0000

Last round! Let's go!

You are in the wrong show, Ball of Snakes.

Biology 101, courtesy of the Ultimately Destructive Program.

Heavy, man.

Quick, dissolve to scene 5!

Fenrir and Midgard yes, but Valkyrie no? Okay.

Have you spoken with Tony Stark?

This can be translated as "Ten-dimensional Axe" or, properly, "Ten Dimensional Scythe." No oxen were harmed in the making of this divine cutting device.

Hope the belt in that Famicom Disk System is still working.

Overwhelmed By The Joys Of Production, you mean?

T/L Notes from a T/L who is not speaking in their native language.

Beats me, dude. I don't pick your clothes. Oh wait, devils did.

And everything comes out okay. Subs-wise we end with a fizzle, but it's a pretty nice ending.

And they all lived happily ever after.

Is there more coming? Not of Ah My Goddess, unless I find more HK DVDs of it. But let's see what else I can dig up...

Fun With Hong Kong Bootlegs: Ah! My Goddess (AKA Oh My Goddess!) Part 9

noreply@blogger.com (Rob Clay) — Thu, 13 Apr 2017 16:06:00 +0000

Almost done. Let's see what's up with our goddess friends!

I mean, understanding is one thing, but how groovy is the battle plan for you?

That's Lind or Rind in most translations. I guess Rindr is a Valkyrie-dating app on Yggdrasil.

Okay, sure.

The HK Subs way of saying "you just think about what you've done, missy!"

Yeah, the end of the world would just be a bummer. I don't dig this plan at all.

I love that name. It's not a program that destroys everything, it just does something destructive... eventually.

Unless we have a Brain Problem Situation on our hands.

Always read the manual.

I don't know if this is accurate or not, but it'd make a great metaphor.

Uh.

Heaven is a really groovy place, seems like. Battle plans you can dig, and pure, pure tunes from Level-1 Goddesses.

And now it's Dragonball!

All the things they've gotten wrong, and Fenrir comes out right.

Well, I'm glad her forehead mark will walk again.

And Midgard they get right!

Belldandy has just said "Let's all go home together," and Keiichi has responded with "Un," which is more or less the Japanese equivalent of "Uh-huh."

Please hold until your nightmare is finished processing.

Last episode tomorrow to round out the week!

Fun With Hong Kong Bootlegs: Ah! My Goddess (AKA Oh My Goddess!) Part 8

noreply@blogger.com (Rob Clay) — Wed, 12 Apr 2017 16:26:00 +0000

Here goes!

Context: Urd came bolting back from heaven to cure Belldandy of Flu's Syndrome last episode, and hence her godding license has been suspended.

I am not qualified to make any sort of joke to go with this caption.

Guess who's back!

Ah! My Goddess presents: Reefer Madness!

That's more or less accurate. The demon's name was something like "Hapshon," which is the Japanese onomatopoeia for sneezing.

All of them. Maybe some of the comedies too, but the important thing is you're in for some Shakespeare.

Have you met them?

Again, not touching this one.

Belldandy has the best license. Of course.

Wizard, all your powers will be lost...

Maybe we can find some speedier dirt?

Urd has run out of patience. The waitress getup didn't really suit her anyway.

Oh no! She turned into Skuld!

Wait, wasn't she Mahler last time?

If I offer enough wrong suggestions we'll figure out the right thing eventually. That's how that works, right?

It'll get around to being destructive.

Uh, it's Keiichi. He has one speed.

No, that's Belldandy's gig. Besides, he doesn't get down.

All of them. At once.

Until next time!

Fun With Hong Kong Bootlegs: Ah! My Goddess (AKA Oh My Goddess!) Part 7

noreply@blogger.com (Rob Clay) — Tue, 11 Apr 2017 16:53:00 +0000

Let's go!

Beach episode incoming! Yet another clash between Urd's JFA attitude and Skuld's obnoxious levels of Skuld.

The eternal question.

The answer to the eternal question.

And the result. How's he gonna get down if he can't even holding hands?

Theme developing.

Totally, dude.

Sure!

Lot of euphemisms for getting down in this one.

Euphemisms all around, as "The Misery" is clearly Skuld.

All creation gets laid more than Keiichi.

Skuld is Skulding pretty hard today.

I don't think he conquered Skuld.

Chicken shit.

She means "Cockatrice."

Yeah, that'll work.

...we still doing euphemisms?

Okay...

Uh. Skuld's fucking around with Urd's chemistry set.

But it wins some too!

How terrible!

You are the antagonistic.

Again, "active" is presented constantly as a negative trait.

YES.

"Shh! You want to get sued?"

Fu... sion... Ha!

Maybe just use the Potara instead?

No, no it is not. Enough of this "indirect kiss" nonsense. Enough I say!

We noticed.

You Goddamned idiot.

But he tells her that he likes her the way she normally is, not so "active," just as the Antagonistic takes effect or the potion wears off or whatever.

Didn't do Belldandy any good, that's for sure.

"Don't show me the crabs" is the highlight of this experience for me.

Oh, that's what Keiichi's damage is! He thinks that's intimacy! I'd be afraid of that too.

Judgmental fuck though, isn't he?

This is either romantic or uncomfortably dysfunctional.

Okay that didn't work.

It's the so-called "Getting Sick"!

This sounds like a line from an `80s power ballad.

Freudian translation. But they fix Keiichi and stuff and so on.

Hitting the home stretch now! Continued!