30 posts tagged “gust”
After five weeks and five days, my order finally came in at Kinokuniya. The reviewers on Amazon were right: this book is thick. It's almost approaching a Xenogears Perfect Works amount of information. It even includes an I.P.D. Reyvateil card game, which makes me wish I could buy another copy for popping the cards out and playing.
If I spend too long in Kinokuniya or at game sites, I actually get anxious about this stuff. Reminders to myself:
1. You don’t have to follow forever.
For a couple of years, I was actually pretty up to speed with Japanese console gaming (and comics, and popular music). I lived in Japan, I had lots of free time and curiosity and spendable money. So I walked around game shops all the time. I saw what was getting attention, I bought a lot of the stuff that interested me, and I participated in the culture: Sakura Taisen, Xenosaga, Shenmue, various shooting and fighting games, the post-death Dreamcast, and weird stuff like The Chikyuuboueigun. When I got back to the USA, I spent a lot of my time keeping up with what I’d left behind, and a lot of my income importing stuff I’d missed: visual novels (Kita e, some Yokota Mamoru games, even Sentimental Graffiti on Saturn), Cave games, Nippon Ichi games, and so much more. But not a lot of people can indefinitely prolong that phase of their life, where they’ve got the circumstances and resources available to sustain such hobbies at such an intense level.
So when I get worried that I’m not keeping up with all of the goings-on in the console gaming world, I need to remember that I already put a huge amount of attention and money into that system, and I got out a lot of enjoyment, memories, and hooks for future enjoyment. Now instead of voraciously seeking out everything new, I can branch out from what I already have. As new Sakura Taisen games come out, I play them. If a company or an individual I like works on a new project, I check it out. If something gets praise from people whose opinions I trust because of our gaming connections (like Sendai Tom or Julian), then I look into it. These things appear in front of me without very much effort on my part at all, and they are more than enough to fill all of my free time with gaming enjoyment. So I shouldn’t feel like I have to try so hard to keep up with everything that come out. Even if I’m missing some things, I wouldn’t be able to play it all anyway.
2. You don’t have to follow everything.
I am actually quite deeply absorbed in the game company Gust. I could probably pay attention to nothing but Gust games for the remainder of that company’s career, and never lack for gaming enjoyment. I buy everything they make, I am a member of their special online fan club, I read their newsletters, I participate in their intricate online promotions, and I’m ready to buy whichever next-generation system they decide to develop for. So in a way, I am still following the hobby very closely; it’s just a tiny subset of the whole hobby.
So when I get worried that I’m not keeping up with all of the goings-on in the console gaming world, I need to remember that I still put a large amount of attention and money into a small part of that system, and I’m still getting out a lot of enjoyment, memories, and hooks for future enjoyment. Even if I were to keep up with everything that comes out, and find another place to put this amount of devotion, I’d have to give up my devotion to Gust in order to afford it in time and money. I should be glad that I have Gust, and lots of side dishes from other companies, to keep me satisfied.
3. You aren’t the only one following.
I actually get a vague worry that if I don’t seek out and support all the great stuff that suits my taste, nobody will. As if I’m the key member of these creators’ target audience (even though I’m not even from the right country!) and their success and happiness depend on my commitment. Of course, that’s preposterous. As I said in items 1 and 2, I can’t follow everything forever. I paid tribute to lots of creators in the past, and I’m still paying tribute to a few creators now. Right now there are millions of people at the stage of life I was at in 2002 in Japan, and they are keeping up with everything, and supporting lots of creators. When their discovery phase is over, they’ll probably settle on a few creators (different from the ones I’ve settled on) and continue to offer their support like I’m doing now. Oh yeah, and there are also millions of people (most of them actually born and raised in the country where all of this is going on) who never do leave that stage. The whole system isn’t resting on my shoulders. I have done, and am still doing, my part. I have a steady stream of new things to try from my friends and my connections and my news sources, and I can continue to enjoy this hobby indefinitely. It’s even okay to go back and play old, old games that I missed when they were the hot new thing, even years after the game’s inital gambit in the market, when my support is not going to be apparent to the people who created it anymore, and my posting about the game on the web isn’t going to help it succeed.
This is all so obvious, but I have to remind myself of it sometimes.
At long last, I have posted my first column to Heisei Democracy. Be warned that while the column itself is pretty innocent, the site is pretty far on the other side of safe-for-workness. :D
So I'm on my second loop through Ar tonelico 2, because I want to see the Cosmosphere and ending for a different character. This time I'm turbo-buttoning through the story bits and concentrating on leveling up, so that I can get past the stuff I've already seen as quickly as possible. Surprisingly, this second pass through the game is still quite fun, now that I'm learning the secrets of powering up my characters for battle. If I didn't think I'd already missed some stuff that I can't go back for, I might be tempted to try for yarikomi — the level of extreme game completion that would take at least 150 hours for a game like this. I'd see every conversation, craft every item, rescue every I.P.D. Reyvateil, explore every level of every Cosmosphere, and power everyone up to the max.
Usually I am pretty rushed to get to the end of a game, so that I can move on to the next game in my queue. I couldn't really understand people like my roommate in college who went around beating all the Weapons in Final Fantasy VII just for the sake of having done it. Or the mythical players who left their level 99 dudes on the battery backup of RPGs I rented or bought used. But now I'm starting to see the appeal of approaching each new game as a miniature hobby in its own right, something you play and play until you've exhausted everything it has to offer.
Maybe, in this new land of buying fewer games, I should find the few games that I really want to get deep into, and go for yarikomi. The GUST, Nippon Ichi, Flight-Plan, Intelligent Systems, Sting, and Atlus games I'm interested in these days certainly support that approach, or even specifically encourage it.
Dear GUST, please hold off on the video games for a while. I still haven't finished the last four games you released. Really, just cut it out for a sec.
Background: So, some of the old games I played on the Mac Plus as a kid had a "boss key": some key combo you could hit to make it look like you were working instead of playing around. At a job I had in Chicago, one of my coworkers made a wallpaper image called BUSYBEE.BMP, a screenshot of a bunch of Excel windows, which he'd expose with the handy Windows 2000 "Desktop" button when someone important walked by.
This is a (rather amateurish) translation of Dengeki Online's report of the Ar tonelico 2 event in Akihabara last week. I have included only the images which are unique to the article; screenshots and other such official materials have been left out.
"Enta-matsuri" — Popular Divas Brought Together!
PS2 Ar tonelico 2 Premium Event Exhibition
On a special stage at the currently-running "Akihabara Enta-Matsuri" festival, a premium event was held on October 21 for the PS2 RPG Ar tonelico 2: Sekai ni Hibiku Shoujotachi no Metafalica (hereafter Ar tonelico 2).
On sale from Banpresto starting today, October 25, Ar tonelico 2 is the continuation of January 2006's Ar tonelico: Sekai no Owari de Utaitsudzukeru Shoujo. Set in a harsh world without solid ground, the story of those who travel around a verdant utopia "Metafalica" and battle with gods is told on a grand scale. Its unique system is that of singing in the emotive language "Hymmnos" in order to invoke magic.
Ar tonelico 2 cover (left) and limited preorder item "Official Visual Book" cover (right).
Today's event was divided into two sections: Section 1 "World Part" and Section 2 "System Part". Part 1 was presented as a talk show with members of the development team and the female artists, while Part 2 was an explanation of the system while playing the game itself.
Part 1
In Part 1, the female artists who worked on the musical compositions appeared: Shimotsuki Haruka-san, Shikata Akiko-san, Ishibashi Yuuko-san, and Mitose Noriko-san. In addition to these four, the director of Ar tonelico 2, GUST's Tsuchiya Akira-shi, the producer, Banpresto's Kawachi Atsunori-shi, and Banpresto's public relations manager T-san, presented a talk.
Members of today's event. From the left, director Tsuchiya Akira, Ishibashi Yuuko-san, Shikata Akiko-san, Shimotsuki Haruka-san, Mitose Noriko-san, producer Kawachi Atsunori.
In this work, as director Tsuchiya "wanted to involve the singers deeply in the worldview," there is an artist responsible for each of the main characters. Songs for the heroine "Ruka Trulyworth[?]" are by Shimotsuki-san, those for the other heroine "Kurôshe Rêteru Pastarie" are by Shikata-san, those for Ruka's mother "Reisha Trulyworth" are by Ishibashi-san, and those for the secret character are by Mitose-san.
Ishibashi-san divulged a little-known episode in which it took her four days to record just one song, and she thought her heart would break in the middle of recording. Also, Mitose-san related the story of how she recorded in a booth for hours in midsummer heat of over 40 degrees Celsius, then ended up dreaming in the Hymmnos language.
From there, Shimotsuki-san revealed the story of a request from the director Tsuchiya, "This song is a really apathetic song, so I want you to sing apathetically." Director Tsuchiya engaged the crowd strongly, saying "It really did turn out apathetic! Look forward to it!"
Part 2
In Part 2, the development staff actually played Ar tonelico 2 while explaining the battle system. In the demo, they focused on powering up "song magic", and presented the powerful "Replekia" system which combined item collection and Powered... Or they were supposed to, but failed twice. On the third try it finally went well, and the staff were visibly relieved.
At this point director Tsuchiya called out to the audience, "Let's have someone in the crowd try actually playing. If you want to play, raise your hand~." For some reason, Shimotsuki-san raised her hand and said "Yes, yes, I would like to play!" Shimotsuki-san apparently started wanting to play while watching the demonstration, so director Tsuchiya gave her instructions while she challenged the battle part.
Shimotsuki-san immediately activated "Replekia", but before she could benefit from its effect, she crossed swords with the enemy and won in melee combat. "I won by throwing myself at the enemy. I kind of feel like I lost..." she said, seeming unsatisfied.
Next was the explanation of "Dualstall", sometimes called the "Bath System". Dualstall is a system by which you submerge a Dualisno crystal into a bathtub, then the heroines bathe together, warming up their bodies and gaining power. When the sexy image of Ruka and Kurôshe wrapped in bath towels appeared on the giant screen above the stage, voices around the grounds rose up, "Ohhhh."
After that was the question & answer session with the development staff. Those on stage received various questions such as, "What song of Ar tonelico 2 is in the highest key?", and "Has a miracle ever occured while you were singing?" Such contentious questions as, "Is there a character in this game even more annoying than Lyner was in the previous game?" were also asked. Director Tsuchiya responded to that question with a grimace.
At the end, producer Kawachi ended the event by strongly imploring, "This game is certainly even more fun than the previous one. We hope to go on to make part 3, part 4 and more, so please lend us your support!"
GUST has posted the Ar tonelico 2 trailer. I can totally feel myself outside a game store in West Shinjuku, stopping to watch the trailer loop 2 or 3 times. It's got character voices, four Reyvateils including a secret one voiced by Mitose Noriko, new Hymmnos tracks, and yes, a very special technique for dual-Reyvateil song magic. ~_~;;;
I love GUST. Whenever a new game comes out, they offer enough ways to buy the game that explaining all the different combinations of stuff (in this case, the game, the three separate soundtracks, the previous game, the bonus artbook, the soundtrack companion book, the soundtrack case, and two different soundtrack bonus items) requires a big chart. Later, of course, they'll also offer the regular artbook and the player's bible and a mountain of other merchandise.
- I love the character art. It's more detaily than the cel-shaded style of Grand Fantasm, and there's a strong downward trend in the number of exposed midriffs. With Grand Fantasm, Iris joined Shion Uzuki in the club of heroines who went from reserved to lurid; Mana-Khemia's heroine Philo is much more tastefully cute.
- The characters are way more likable, in the Atelier tradition. Philo is endearingly clumsy, Gunnar is outrageously manly, Vain (unlike Edge) actually shows human emotions, and so on. I even like Nike, contrary to my normal anti-cat-ears stance.
- Missions feel more fun because they are presented as field assignments at the alchemy school. There are also part-time jobs that work like the quest board in GF. Now, instead of the frustrating time-limit mist, if you stay out too long it just becomes night-time and monsters get tougher.
- Between the assignment episodes, you have free time to pursue quests of your own choosing or play character-based side-quests. The character quests feel a little bit like Ar tonelico, in that you can spend more quality time with the party members you like best.
- The alchemy-based level-up system is cool. On a big FFX sphere-grid-like field, locations open up as you synthesize new items. You can use AP gained in battles to unlock the power-ups at each location; there are no traditional levels or automatic stat advancement. Tying advancement to the alchemy system makes for a fun positive-feedback loop: the more you synthesize, the stronger you get, and the more ambitious you can be in dungeons, so the more recipes and ingredients you earn, so the more you synthesize...
