The image seen above is a teaser for the new look and feel of the Fool. As it is based of this current settings some things will change from it. Stories will be removed. Other than that I have not decided yet if a restart is needed or if I should just keep everything as it is.

But it would be lovely to move on to a fresh start, bringing some of the old posts over and then just restarting with a new setting and a new theme.

The question is what to do with all these old posts. Making a sub domain for archive.otoboku.se with all these posts for people to look at would be quite fun and it would make things simpler for me as well. So I´m tempted to do it like this.

This is just a short heads up post. I´m working and thinking about this all the time when I have free time so if you go here one day and it says maintainence mode then hopefully it´s because I´m working my magic behind the scenes.

Now you know what is going to happen soon. Look forward to it! I know I am

I was one of those people that bought the console on its release date (well, the day after), and I’m still not sure if that was a good idea or not. The price hasn’t changed, but there are a couple of extra games available now, that weren’t at launch. That’s not really a big enough reason to not buy the console back then though, as the market is still, well, small. The only big difference in my opinion is that Skype is now available and that a few messy bugs have been fixed since then.

I suppose the best thing to do at the moment though, is be honest. I can’t recommend buying the PS Vita (at the moment). As a said above, the games market is very small on it. You have the original launch games (Wipeout 2048, Fifa 2012, Formula 2011, Uncharted, etc), and then a couple of new games, like Disgaea 3 (which is obviously a relaunch) and Unit 13. This is obviously a huge downer for the console at the moment, but as it’s new, I can’t fault it in it’s entirety for not being able to sell itself due to lack of content.

Another problem, or that at least I have found, is that the console does seem to crash… a lot. Just the other day it crashed on me 4 times, which lost me about 4 hours of gameplay overall, due to not getting to a save point. A major patch for the PS Vita did stop some of these crashes, but obviously they’re still out there. I stopped playing Dynasty Warrior Next because I kept getting booted out of the game mid battle. Seeing as some of those battles can last an hour, this really put me off recommending the console at the time.

Good points next I suppose? Well, I own the 3G version and the facility on that is something I definitely can’t moan about. In the UK the service is provided by Vodafone, and they’ve done a great job of providing a fast internet connection. I can’t say a lot for their CS support, but that’s not the PS Vita’s fault, that Vodafone’s.  The ability to have access to the internet browser, Twitter, Skype, PS Store, etc, all by 3G is a great feature. You can’t download anything from the PS Store bigger than 20Mb while on the mobile web, but doesn’t mean you can’t buy it there and then and then when you get home and connect to the wireless, away it goes.

The graphics are awesome amazing. The screenshots I’m going to include (which I have taken from my own PS Vita, as you can hold the PS and Start buttons to take one, another great feature) really don’t do it justice, as the jpeg coding seems a little sloppy. So sorry, they’re a bit grainy and there’s nothing I can do about it. Wipeout is probably the best example of graphics on this console that I own at the moment. Even if you don’t read all of this, I suggest scrolling down and having a look. It really does feel like you’ve got a PS3 portable with you.

The standard PS button layout is also back (apart from the L2/R2 triggers). Two analogue sticks means you can once again move around in an FPS (not that I own any at the moment), like you really would on a current gen console. No move of that horrid one stick movement, and the D-pad to change the camera angle *cringe*. The sticks are a little small at first, but I’ve got used to them, the only problem I have now is that the stick are maybe a little  too close to the D-Pad and input buttons. It’s something I can get around, but I don’t know how well people with big thumbs will do.

One of the big selling points of the console was the extra input features it has, the touchscreen, rear touchpad, and 6 axis compass. I’m not sure if these were all really necessary, but they kind of work. I hate touchscreens, so unfortunately I am biased but it’s not actually too bad. The fact that everything has to be done by the touchscreen does frustrate me though. On the Live Screen (Main Menu), you can only navigate with the touchscreen. In the web browser, you can only navigate with the touchscreen. If you’re saving a game that’s doesn’t normally use the touchscreen, you have to use it to select the file… These aren’t features I like, as I don’t want to be forced to use a mechanic which should be an option.

The touchpad and 6-axis I expect won’t be used much. The PS3 never made much use of the 6-axis feature and the touchpad seems to be there, just to be there. All the games I have make use of it, but for silly things. In Disgaea you can use it to turn the map instead of with the L/R buttons (it even recommends you turn it off in the tutorial), Wipeout it uses it so that you can play with the background on the menus (like that’s necessary), and Dynasty Warriors Next for some Musou moves. All of this is purely synthetic or could be done by over means. It’s not needed.

So, onto the games I think. I currently own 4, although I really only count myself as owning 3 (you’ll see why as you read). I’ll be reviewing all 4 of them, so if there’s a particular one you’re looking for that I’ve mentioned, just scroll down.

Disgaea 3: Absence of Detention

NIS America is without a doubt my favourite game distributor at the moment. I own a lot of their titles, my PS3 collection is practically made up of them, and I enjoy almost every single minute of playing them. I don’t own Disgaea 3 on the PS3 as I got my console way after launch, so the only way I could buy it was pre-owned (which I dislike doing). This game was therefore an obvious buy for me.

Gameplay

Just like every other Disgaea, this is a strategy style RPG game. The player and enemies each have a turn to fulfill their actions. The player completes the level by defeating all hostile enemies on the map, by reaching a certain pre-defined objection, or in random dungeons getting to the portal to the next area. If 10, or all, of the players characters are defeated, it’s Game Over. If you’ve played Disgaea before, this combat system will be all too familiar to you, and you’ll know it works very well.

Unique to Disgaea 3 is that you can combine special moves. If two characters are both using a Special of the same enemy, then they may combine the move to do additional damage. Not all moves can be combined, but you’ll learn as you play through what can be. it’s great way for leveling low level characters, as you can combine their move with a high level, and so they still get plenty of exp. The only disadvantage is that you don’t combo between combined moves, but I doubt this actually causes you to do less damage overall.

As well as Special moves, you also have some of the weird and wacky stuff, like lifting and throwing, magichange and geopanels. This all add a lot of variants into how you progress through the game, and through dungeons. Geopanals allow you to chose if you want leave the environment as it is, and use it to your advantage, or clear it out and have a straight fight.  Magichanging allows you to wield your monster characters as weapons for a short time, often resulting in cool and destruction firepower. All of it adds a unique twist to the way the game plays out.

Graphics

Disgaea isn’t known for it’s amazing in game graphics, not when you’re in a battle anyway. This game is no different, not that I mind it though. I’m used to the kinda older looking style of the game, and it makes a nice change in some ways. The game isn’t about how good the pixels on the character is, it’s what the game plays like. The graphics out for the conversations I do like though. They’ve added in that the characters are now animated as they talk, to a certain extent, which just makes it a little bit nicer to read/listen to. It’s not like a cutscene, but more like a good Visual Novel, which works well with the game. You can see an image of the cutscenes at the top of the post.

I you are looking for a game which amazes you with graphics, this is not the game for you, but if you don’t mind what you see above, then you should still keep considering it.

Storyline

I enjoyed the storyline for Disgaea 3 a lot. As normal, it’s rather silly, seems to make no sense, and the every character is wacky, but that’s the whole fun of it. Raspberyl has got to be my favourite character, with her constant “delinquency” and that I think she’s pretty cute. Without giving a lot away, you the start of the story shows that you are off to defeat the Overlord, which so happens to be your Father. Mao, the protagonist thinks that by gaining the power of a Hero, he’ll be able to conquer the Netherworld, which he “gains” by stealing the title “Hero” from Almaz, our second protagonist.

You following Mao and Almaz on their journey to defeat to Overlord, meeting the rest of the gang as you go along, Raspberyl, Sapphire, Mr. Champloo, etc and discover the real story behind Mao’s Father. In total there are 8 Act’s, and the playtime is quite long, especially if you are reincarnating your characters as you unlock their higher stages, and so Item Worlding to get them back up to speed.

You also have a several additional storylines after the game is completed, including unlocking two new characters. I’ve only just started the final one (after 60 hours gameplay), but they are very enjoyable, and Rutile is probably even more cuter that Raspberyl <3 ^_^

If you own Disgaea 3, and have a PS Vita, then I’m almost tempted to say pick it up again. If you don’t have the DLC’s, then defiantly do. It’s a great game, and the additional content is well worth it. If you don’t have it, and enjoy strategy RPG games, why have you not picked it up yet!? Go to the shop now and buy it, I command you.

Other Games

This post is actually a lot longer than I planned to make it, and with the problems I’m having with my internet at the moment, I wanted to get at least something up before it dies again. I’ll be covering Wipeout 2048 and Dynasty Warriors Next in my next post, so look forward to it.

He will be streaming at least 12h a day during these 4 days. That or untill he drops. When he has dropped other people will take over to continue the stream. So it´s going to be good fun.

Sunday is a pre-starter with some nice stuff like showing how everything is set up.

There will be bidding wars when they are playing the current game there will be a bidding war between two games as to which game the viewers want to be played next. So it´s going to be a lot of viewer generated content since we decide what they play.

The one big problem is that I do not have any exact time for when all of this starts on Sunday or Monday. So for the best and freshest information you can follow trihex on twitter:
@trihexx

So we are in for a big treat next week. I´m looking forward to it. I hope you are as well.

The stream will be done on http://www.twitch.tv/trihex

With a backstory like this

Nitta Shin finds himself saddled with a sudden, crushing debt. His loan agent tells him he can escape repayment if he keeps a particular woman company. He gradually learns that this arrangement might not be as easy as he once thought.

One do not think there would be any good impressions or character relations. But how wrong I was. This manga is great and each and every one of you that are above 18 years of age should support and buy this book. It´s that good.

Where can you get it? Preorders are open at

Amazon
Fakku Store

To name two stores that I know of now. Haven´t been checking things out that much. But with a manga this good I imagine that more will start having preorders. I need to check if any Swedish stores will bring this in to Sweden.

So now you know, preorder this and show your support!!

in the US Aksys Games marketed the first game pretty boldly with trailers that had content like this in them

Europe on the other hand actually got it before the US, but here it is called Agarest: Generations of War and the EU release was the “first” edition as Aksys Games went for the updated Record of Agarest War: Re-appearance as opposed to Ghostlight.

For the sequel Agarest Zero both companies did bring out the same edition but their LE editions were a bit apart with Ghostlight having the most stuff(t-shirts FTW if preordered from the Ghostlight store) but at the ground they were pretty similar.

Now Agarest 2 is around the corner. Both Aksys Games and Ghostlight are releasing it and once again Aksys Games are doing a “naughty version” while Ghostlight is packing their “Deluxe Collectors edition that will ruin your wallet“.

Here is Aksys Games CE edition

And Ghostlight´s ditto

There are some differences as you can see. Now what should a fan like me do? I want to support both publishers and all these extra godies from both editions are tempting as hell.

.
..
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As you probably guessed after that last line, yes I have preordered both editions of the game. I need me some cute baseball caps and bags and inflatable dolls along with a nice hand towel that won´t be used but rather will be placed safely far far away from anything harmfull.

I wonder how big the bag is? Can´t really get any good reading from the image. Would be lovely if it were big enough to hold a laptop. Nerd alert where ever I go

And no, I do not think I will grab a “move” controller just to get another kind of play for the “mini-games” even though I hope that these minigames are not “move” exclusive. Would make things terrible.

So will you guys be doing the same as me and getting both versions or do you only spend money on one of the editions? In that case which one are you getting?

p.s No I haven´t grabbed the Agarest Zero CE yet. It has sold out so I can´t get the really nice version. Will have to settle for a version without the t-shirt in that case.

Thank you Peter for answering.

The bold words are our questions and the rest are Peter´s answers.

When did you decide that starting the company JastUSA was a good idea? How did you come up with the name JastUSA?

Back in 1998 we were working with JAST, the now-defunct eroge company that created our first three games (DOS era, woo!). That’s where we got the name for our company. Unlike Japan, there aren’t distribution companies carrying these titles in the U.S., so part of our plan was to also fulfill that role, which is why we carry games by other companies (like the new package versions of MangaGamer’s titles we’ve got on the site, http://www.jlist.com/category/185)

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Why did you choose visual novels/eroge/dating sim games as your product?

Back when the Internet started to get big I was casting around with a friend of mine to see what interesting things we could do with this new thing. Visual novels were something that fans had latched onto through the early web, and it seemed like an appealing idea. Looking back, I’m happy we did something wonky but sustainable unlike so many companies that broke themselves licensing mainstream anime.

———————-

Could you tell us a bit on how you decide what game you try to localize?

We try to make good decisions about what games to tackle based on user feedback, and we also try to do games that there’s demand for that’s not being met (hence our big yuri game last year, http://www.jlist.com/p/p020). That being said, there’s a lot that has to happen for a given company to give us games to translate. They have to be the kind of company that wants to see foreigners playing their titles, they have to be open about doing business with the world, and so on.

It often comes down to the personality of the president of that company — if he likes foreigners and wants to know that his games are being played all over the world, cool. Often the reverse is true — they fear any possible downside. Other factors also come into play, like which companies are in financial trouble (sometimes we are asked to license a game so the company can complete it, as we did with Raidy II).

———————-

Visual Novels, Eroge, Dating simulators. There are a load of different names for this type of game. Why do you think this is?

Back in the day, 1996 or so, we had to decide what to call these games. Visual novel hadn’t come along as a term yet, and a few other names (bishoujo game, gal game, galge) were too confusing for potential new customers, who naturally don’t know the terms of fandom. We locked onto “dating-sim game” because it communicates the core idea almost immediately, even though it’s not totally accurate as dating isn’t always a specific part of the story. We also like to make sure the “game” aspect of these products is emphasized, since that’s easier for customers to become fans of. One term we avoid vehemently is anything resembling “choose your own adventure” since that seems like a book you buy for 99 cents rather than a serious genre of artistic entertainment from Japan that deserves the support of fans.

Currently we use terms like “eroge” and “visual novel” interchangeably for the most part.

———————-

Have your point of interest for visual novel games changed?
In the beginning you seemd to choose only games that had a lot of erotic content. Now you seem to bring in more text focused games that while they still have erotic content this is less than before and overall the games themselves are much longer. Is this because there is a bigger demand for more text and less sex type of visual novels or is it because you want to show that there are more than one type of visual novel?

We’ve always wanted to get a better grade of game, moving from what we can get because that’s all that was available to us, like Gibo or Little My Maid, to more famous titles like the Nitroplus ones. Us having been around for so long, and bringing these games out in a profitable way, has helped more companies come around to working with us.

We’re actually looking for some more “nukige” titles to bring out in the future, titles that are light and fun and not so serious (or hard to translate). Basically if we can mirror all that Japan’s eroge industry has to offer we’ll be happy.

———————-

Are more companies becoming interested in releasing their titles outside of Japan?

A little, mainly because they see that MangaGamer and JAST USA are selling products normally with nothing happening other than happy fans buying games. There’s also increased interest in the market outside Japan because the Japanese industry isn’t very healthy these days, with fewer and fewer package games being made each month and a lot of companies fading away.

———————-

Do you as a company find that the interest in visual novels have grown during these last years? Have the westeners view on the genre changed during these last years?

Definitely, there’s a lot more interest in what the games are, and a lot fewer fans who need us to explain what a “visual novel” is. A lot of that comes from anime series that put visual novel elements in for fun, like Genshiken or Excel Saga or I Have Few Friends.

———————-

As myself is a Xuse fan and I ́ve been waiting for news about Seinarukana, is there anything you can provide us with so we can make the fellow followers of the series happy? Like a possible release date in 2012 or anything?

We’re hard at work on the game. Unfortunately RPGs take like 3x as much work or more, since there are graphic elements to translate in addition to the huge game text. Unfortunately it will probably not come out this year, though Yumina (not made by Xuse but done by the same team) should. We just posted the official Yumina site, at http://www.jastusa.com/yumina by the way.

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Will we be seeing more products from Xuse? Other than Seinarukana I mean.

Quite possibly, it depends on sales frankly. The more famous the company we work with, the more they are likely to want to know how many units we can sell, and they compare these numbers to the Japan side. Some companies say, “Well, we sold 40,000 copies at $90 per copy in Japan, and the U.S. population is three times the size of Japan, so we can sell triple this amount!”

I jest, but as we get better games, being able to break, say, 5000 copies the first year and 15,000 copies within 3-4 years becomes the target we need to aim for, or else we likely won’t be able to continue with these companies.

This basically means that fans who have played awesome games like Demonbane need to make sure they’re purchasing them so the company knows that future releases are important to you too. Obviously we know piracy is a problem, and an even larger issue for a company that has to make a profit from only a few thousand games sold. Bottom line, all fans of these games really need to make sure they’re supporting the industry, as it’s tiny and fragile. Thanks ^_^;;

(We always offer preorders of our games with free shipping/half price shipping for international customers, so fans who want to show their support can preorder at http://www.jlist.com/category/808 )

———————-

When did the idea grow that grabbing Demonbane and more of Nitro+´s games would be a good idea? Looking at the original release date for Demonbane it took it ́s sweet time to get localized.

We’ve had our eye on Nitroplus a while, and were happy to reach an agreement with them three years ago. A lot of the time it depends on where that company is currently, whether they’re in a position to consider localized sales or if they just want to focus on Japan. Happily Nitroplus has been thinking more and more about the wider anime-related industry.

All games are hellish to translate, as there’s 1+ megabytes of text to translate. Demonbane was a special case because it was a Cthulhu mythos game, which means that every bit of text had to cross-referenced with the original Lovecraft books. Nitroplus had the original writer Haganeya Jin (who speaks English very well) check the translation and he gave it a glowing review.

———————-

Could you tell us some spicy new info on what games you are planning to bring in next? As Majikoi have gotten quite the reception with the anime it might be a good title to bring over next? Or do you have something else in mind?

We announced a ton of titles at AX last year, pretty much our whole 2012 lineup, and we’re chipping away at that. School Days, Saya no Uta, Hanachirasu, and more, are moving along nicely. We hope to have some additional titles to announce around AX, but there’s nothing we’ve got firm news on just yet.

I have decided to keep all the old posts here so you can see and laugh at them. I´ve also decided that since this is now a multi-author blog I will not keep my personal stories here any longer. They will be removed in the nick of time when I find it. I will post more info about that later.

As the images will be basically the same width I can start posting again and still work on the new look as things will be very much the same in that regard

After April I will have a nice interview for you to read. It´s a secret with it´s contents and alas, the reason for not posting it before May is confidential. But look forward to a nice interview. If things go well I might have more of that planned for the future.

Just wanted to let you guys know about this so that you are not stunned by the thought of us starting to post again unannounced

Untill next time, try searching for “zerg rush” on google. Quite the coding done there.

This is to make The Fool better in the number of posts every week and hopefully to gain some momentum and have more people start commenting and visiting us. We do not want to be a one-hit wonder with a certain image. We want to be visited because of what we write and what we do. Therefore more people should increase site views and make everything better.

So let´s start by mentioning what people we would like to add.

Episodic writers

We write about anime. We like anime. So why not try to find people with more time than myself that can write about a series once a week? It is fun times to read and comment about the current episodes as you watch them yourself.

Reviewer

Got a good game in your collection that you want to review and let the world read and comment on? Then by all means give me a shout of interest. It doesn´t have to be mainstream, the fewer people that know of the title the better basically. It can be any format and even eroge, as long as the images choosen are nice and not to gory/sexual.

The same applies to anything related to anime, manga, video games or visual novels.

Multi-people

People that can handle multiple types of writing. Be it a review, a short post about a episode or just any type of post. That can be mixed in together with the others.

That is all for the moment for people we are looking for.

What we want from you

I am quite easy to please.

I just want you to write decently in English.
Post regularly in your set theme of choice.
Answer comments when you get one unless it´s from a troll.

That is basically all.

What we can give you

We are not able to give you much more than experience and readership. We are not the biggest blog but we have about 30-80 visitors a day so we are still growing.

If you have a idea we can all come together and brain storm about it. If you have a hard time getting a nice post title or image we can help you with that. You are not alone and that is biggest gift we can give you. Experience and a bit of help when needed.

That is just about it.

How to apply

It´s simple, write down some stuff about yourself, your interests and what you would like to write about. I´d also like to receive a short like 250 word long essay showing of how you write. This essay I want in any readable format.

By essay I simply mean a review, a episodic review or just whatever the type of post you want to continue making on the Fool. Make it in about 250 words and when you are done, use the contact form on the Contact Page and you´re done.

Easy right?

So I had to grab the next best thing. A 2600K that is gives basically the same results in most areas as the more expensive 2011 socket or in simple terms: It´s good value for the money it costs to only be after a completely new socket in multi threading when the new CPU can use all of it´s cores.

Now I´ve ordered everything except for the GPU. For that I will wait untill AMD releases their new 7000-series and hope that those cards as cost effective as their current 6900 series is. If they are to expensive I´ll probably get a XFX 6950 card. Probably!

For the other parts? Just check below

• CPU: Intel Core i7 2600K 3,4GHz
• Motherboard: MSI Z68A-GD65 G3 REV B3
• Memory: Corsair 8GB (2x4096MB) CL9 1600Mhz VENGEANCE LP VIT x2
• Power Supply: Cooler Master Silent Pro M 700W
• OS drive: OCZ SSD Vertex3 120GB MAX IOPS
• Case: Corsair Carbide 500R Svart

To this list I´ll add 2 Samsung F4 2TB drives with serves as storage for my work and a LG bluray burner/reader.

It should be enough power for me as I am a beginner in just about all fields there is at the moment. I tend to have a good eye for design though so I need some power for using Photoshop or Premiere. I´m starting out in so many fields it just ain´t funny. But it´s good times. Really good times.

This is what my christmas present to myself is as well. Nothing beats grabbing the specs you want for yourself.

And no, I won´t change the name. My computer will always be named Holo. I just wish I could decorate the computer case with her.

Food, presents, different dates for celebrating this special day. I will be thinking and wondering about how to redesign the Fool for V2. I have loads of idea and I have decided on what theme to use as the “backbone” to this new design. Now I just have to wait for it to be released.

Since we have been a tiny bit updated I also want to ask a question. Do you wish to see a reboot of the Fool and only fresh posts alternative a reboot of the content which means I will sit and select what posts/pages to keep and then not keep the older posts at all.

As I do not drive this blog myself anymore it feels weird to have reviews and stories at pages. Reviews are to be moved into ordinary posts and the stories will be moved to my personal blog which I might link to. I just haven´t decided yet.

So let´s celebrate this day of joy by drinking, eating and just enjoying ourselves like it´s some nice year