It has been 10 months since my last update! I’ve been busy with real life, had so many things going on. one good news tho, I’m now engaged, and going to get married sometime next year

It’s been buying a lot less figurine in these recent months, so I think I’m less otaku than I used to be haha (who would have thought!), but I still love taking photos (and play games). I’ve built another blog for my photography hobby located at ronvoto.com (You can see my fiancee there )

I took this Saber Lily photo just now to test my DIY studio light, using the lamps that I usually use for figurine photos

Click image for bigger photo

Camera Info

Nikon D700, Nikkor AF-D 50mm F1.4 Lens

Figurine Info

Maker

Good Smile Company

Size

1/7

Release date

September 2009

Saw this when I was looking around one of the treasure shop in akihabara… figurine set with 198000 yen (US$2200) price tag…

Apparently this figurine is a very limited figurine from ichiban kuji series (you get the figurine by buying lottery tickets), I only saw 1 shop is selling this figurine in Akihabara..

Can’t believe my luck I got this figurine just by buying 2 lottery tickets! hahahaha

Here are the list of the Macross x Lucky Star lottery prizes www.1kuji.com/lucky_star each lottery ticket is 800 yen.

my 1st try I got F (the jet planes), I chose the one with tsukasa picture, since they don’t have kagami’s anymore…, then second try suddenly the shop keeper said omedetou, and gave me the tsukasa figurine (can’t stop smiling at that time) hahaha!

Some of the shops (the treasure shops) are selling this tsukasa figurine for 6k yen now, but expect the price to increase, since the tsukasa version is the one with the most demand.. (second is miyuki x sheryl)

That place up to yesterday was the XBox 360 Demo area, with big screen.

Surprising isn’t?

especially because Today is the 1st day of Tokyo Game Show opened for public visitor, and most tourist (local and international) came to Akihabara after visiting TGS.

Seems like Yodobashi think the chogokin is more important…

ps: If you don’t know what Yodobashi is, go here.

Been a while since my last post here, almost 3 months!

Anyway, I’m going to Japan tomorrow for holiday. Going to visit Tokyo Game Show on the 26th and 27th, so expect more news about that event

Just got my twitter set few days ago, and it think it’s quite neat for small news

my twitter id is ronaldhw let me know if you guys have twitter, so I can follow you all

I’ve been planning to do second post on game reviews since few months ago, but just got the chance now this should be the continuation of my first quick review that I did last year.

I give the score mostly based on my enjoyment of playing the game, so it should be rather biased

I changed my scoring system, it uses star ratings now from 1-5. with current definition:
Rating: 1 out of 5 stars: score 0-50
Rating: 1.5 out of 5 stars: score 50-59
Rating: 2 out of 5 stars: score 60-69
Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars: score 70-79
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars: score 80-84
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars: score 85-89
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars: score 90-94
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars: score 95-99
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars: score 100

so games with rating of 2 stars is not equivalent with score 40, it’s actually somewhere between 60-69

Here goes the quick reviews, sorted by time played (chronological order)

Megazone 23 / メガゾーン23 青いガーランド

Bought this game because it was very cheap from Play-Asia, I think I paid around US$15 shipped. This game story is dry, the voice is kinda stiff too.. I’ll give this game lower score if I paid normal price.. I didnt actually finish this game, only played around 6-7 hours, cant stand it ><

Rating: 1.5 out of 5 stars

.

Soul Calibur 4

I love this game, the gameplay, characters, customisation, but a bit lacking on the story part, and the online is laggy even when I play someone from the same city. I would give this game full score if only the online is good… (but I’ve always been a fan of SC series, so it’s kinda biased lol)

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

.

Tears to Tiara / ティアーズ トゥ ティアラ 花冠の大地

I had high hope for this game before, was expecting this game to be good… The 2D CGs and voices are done beautifuly, but The 3D models for this game looks so stiff and ugly, and the battle system in this game is kinda boring I haven’t touched this game after playing it for around 16 hours.. (which explains my half done guide haha)

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

.

Fallout 3

One thing to say: the 3rd person view mode in this game sucks. I hate playing in first person mode, so I changed it to third person view, but it made the combat barely playable.. Minus points for this game is crap 3D models (I have never been a fan of bethesda 3D models, all the characters look ugly), and has some slowdown issues.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

.

Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm

Kinda fun game, but ugh jaggies everywhere… I don’t mind with no online for this game, but the jaggies in this game really distracts me (not that visible for smaller screen but I play in 40″) Plenty of characters in this game, the fighting is also simple and easy (way too simple I say..), You can also running around konoha village and grab missions. However, most of the missions are generic missions without voice acts.. Another good point is the amount of free DLC for this game for side characters (help you in battle)

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

.

Little Big Planet

Nice platformer game, it’s fun to play this game online or offline with friends. the single player is kinda boring tho, but there are plenty of awesome user made contents Nothing bad I can say about this game, I dont give this game high score just because I’m not really into this kind of game

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

.

Eternal Sonata

This game is pretty. One of the prettiest game visual I’ve seen so far, bright color, cute characters, and nice voice acts (Japanese voice). This game has mediocre story, cute characters, and the battle system for this game is different than the standard RPG, need some time to get used to it, but it makes the grinding more fun. Also this game is not easy My only complain is that this game is short, you can finish it under 40 hours (short for RPG). I still consider this game as the best JRPG for PS3. (well untill ToV is released, ToV should be a 5 stars RPG. well I only give the 360 version 4.5 since there’s no Japanese voice..)

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

.

Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune

Nice visuals, but for me this game is kinda boring =\ and the story is also mediocre.. I’m sure you’ll get less biased review out there hehe, since I don’t usually play this kind of game

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

.

Street Fighter 4

I’m sure you’ve read many reviews for this game this game is perfect, offline play, trophy, online (not laggy!), everything! a very recommended game if you like fighting games I can sit like 4 hours just playing this game online need to use arcade stick btw, reduce the score by 1 if you play with the controller… Add my PSN (ronaldhw) if you want to fight me, my main is Chun Li I’m trying to learn Sakura now

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

.

Resident Evil 5

Survival horror game.. not! this game is not scary at all haha, maybe because you always have your partner around with you and help you all the time. This game is kinda short tho, I finished this game around 13-14 hours. But there are so many things to unlock in this game. So you will want to replay the chapters and get every chapter rated SS. The online part is also decent. And also Sheva is cute

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

.

Metal Gear Solid 4

Heh This game is more like and interactive movie. The story is good tho, and the gameplay is also fun. But kinda short for a Japanese game.. I finished the game in 19 hours, but I’m sure it will be halved if I skipped all the events/CGs haha. Minus point for some ocassional slow downs.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

.

Tomb Raider: Underworld

Can’t say much about this game, since I haven’t put much time on this game. So far I played around 4 hours, and seems okay tho. the starting story is kinda week IMO.., and also there’s a few frame rate dips in the game as well…

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

.

Cross Edge / クロスエッジ

Bought this game (Japanese ver) around October last year but didn’t touch it till early of this month lol… This game menus and interface are similar with agarest senki, including shops, upgrades, synthesis and converting items. The best part for this game is the battle system (oh and also Etna haha), eventho it’s kinda frustating at first.. the story for this game is very mediocre, and the soul searching system is very annoying.. it’s bearable if you have guide with you, so you don’t have to do soul search every few steps.. I’m still playing this game, on my 2nd playthru now, got the bad end at first play since I didn’t use guide.. I’m on 5-1 now with all the true-end requirements met

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

.

Top 5 (All time)

1. Minna no Golf 5 / みんなのGOLF5

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

.

2. Street Fighter 4

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

.

3. Soul Calibur 4

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

.

4. Agarest Senki / アガレストと戦記

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

.

5. Disgaea 3 / 魔界戦記ディスガイア３

This game score got slight bump because of the Raspberyl DLC

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

.

Honorable Mentions:
Valkyria Chronicles / 戦場のヴぁルキュリア
Eternal Sonata

Upcoming games that I’m currently waiting are: Agarest Senki Zero, Atelier Rorona, Blaz Blue, White Knight Chronicle, and Tekken 6.

my PSN ID is ronaldhw, feel free to add me

Woah been a while since I did my last post, was very busy and hectic recently anyway I just read this from my RSS reader that Atelier Rorona is selling out like hot cake at Akihabara.

This game just got released yesterday (25th) in Japan together with Blaz Blue and Agarest Senki Zero. Never imagined that this game will be sold out :O

I want to see how many units sold for Agarest Senki Zero and Rorona, can’t wait for next week sales number

I haven’t bought this game yet, going to finish Agarest Zero first hehe.

More information can be read from here

For you that collects figurines, I’m sure you’ve heard this company name before, however there won’t be anymore figurine from them; Jun Planning has suspended their Japan operation since 30th April and files for bankruptcy.

Never had any Jun Planning figurine photo in my site, since I only have 1 of Jun Planning figurine, which is Sanzenin Nagi. But I actually have a photo set of Jun Planning Ryuk figurine for a local anime magazine that I took more than a year ago. So as a tribute I will post it here; One of the best figurine ever created by Jun Planning, Ryuk from Death Note

*blurred part is promotional words for the company that supplied the figurine

If you were wondering which magazine, it’s Australia anime magazine, called Animaverick, I’ve been doing their figurine review column for more than a year now.

news via Anime News Network

Just helping to spread the news. HLJ is having Birthday Sale, some of their figurines are on Sale.

Haruhi Nendo Petite 40% off to 3427yen
GSC Unity May 40% off to 3905yen
Kotobukiya Asa 40% off to 4080yen
Alter Teanna 30% off to 4760yen
Alter Signum 30% off to 6160yen
Max Factory Seena 30% off to 4829yen
Alter Louise School Uniform 30% off to 4760yen

and many more

Hurry up, some of the items discount were removed already, because their status changed to low stock (for example this Saber was 2600 yen before)

Just ordered Teanna, Pixie Hyrorie, and Saber Gift, may order more later this afternoon!

Thanks Blowfish for letting me know!