[Xbox 360] ストパン白銀の翼秘密実績リスト

After completing Neptune ReBirth1, I was at a loss as to what I should play next.  It's back to the usual cycle of limbo where I sort my backlogs and half-tried stuff to find the next game I'll be losing time (and sleep) over.

Since the ol' box (360) has been gathering a bit of dust (both from minimal use and the stuff I stir up moving things around), I decided to give it a bit of love. Strike Witches: Hakugin No Tsubasa became my main focus on account of having watched the movie again only recently.

During one round of gameplay I popped a secret achievement from a randomly assembled team in arcade mode, I then took it upon myself to find the rest. There were 8 in all, requiring specific character combinations that were only possible there.

[Xbox360] ファントムブレイカー:BG 全キャラカンスト、そして実績 100%!!!

Though I'm not too hung up on Trophies and Achievements anymore, there was one game that I at least wanted to fully complete for the 360, none other than Phantom Breaker Battlegrounds.

Thanks to a rare free Gold Weekend, I was able to get the ones for Online Co-op and Vs early on. Since then a solitary Achievement has totally eluded me for the longest time.

[SS] 伝説の糞ゲー紹介01：デスクリムゾン

Before getting quite a number of Rail Shooters for the PS3, I mainly just do it in the arcades and some older systems (until the age of LCD TV came around which essentially made the old light guns useless). My aim isn't really good enough to pass for those FPS games (who have a ton of exploit-users in online matches), so these will have to do.

Among those I've played, the most memorable one that comes to mind (though not in the positive sense) was Death Crimson. Created for the Sega Saturn in 1996 by a company called Ecole Software, this rail shooter had the distinction of being the best of the worst;. so much so that it earned a place among 2chan users as one of those considered "Kusoge of Lore" 

 Seeing that there aren't that many people outside of Japan who know it (let alone understand it) well enough to make a detailed analysis, I'm taking upon myself to do just that.

Beware, this is gonna be quite long. People who aren't really interested in Japanese Kusoge history need not apply.

[その他] 成年限定のキャットフード？

Just something random to cap off the month, since I've been playing nothing but gun shooting games for a long while. Plus Blogger's being slow as hell lately so even minor feature updates take ages to do.

Saw this ad cap in an old Nico news article roughly around July. (and found it in my Images folder just now while I was doing some file housekeeping) 

This Amazon Japan ad categorized a certain "Cat Food for Adults" as an R-18 product. That means kiddies who want their grown furbabies to experience this exotic treat either have to get their parents to buy it or just look for something else.

The product specs might have been fixed by now, but it's just so funny that the usage of "adult" can be misinterpreted in that sense. Looking at it from a different perspective, the mistake might be attributed to the fact that as a loanword in Japanese, it consistently gravitates towards things you never want the young'ins to see.

[VITA] ルミネス エレクトロニック シンフォニー

Aside from galges and RPGs, I also fancy diving into puzzle games from time to time. Tetris was an enduring companion from my elementary school days and later in life I fell in love with another block-dropper going by the name of Lumines.

After getting a Vita, Lumines Electronic Symphony became a part of my initial to-buy list... or at least it was until I saw that Ubisoft handled the publishing (went through quite a few poorly-made games by said outfit). The critics sang praises for it being impressive from a gameplay and graphical standpoint, but few of them even noted that the key part of the game is also the music.

The first Lumines for the PSP had a unique sonic vibe to it that made every screen a joy to play despite it's simple presentation. I eventually abstained from getting Electronic Symphony upon finding out that the Daft Punk project didn't go through and that it did not feature even a single track by Takayuki Nakamura.

Got to try the download version for free later on via PS Plus. In my opinion, it's a mixed bag. I appreciated it as a fan of the franchise but there were a lot of things in the game that left much to be desired.

[その他] ういす！ また生きとるやで！ （その２だったっけ？）

Here we are again with another sign of life post.

With all the funky stuff that life just throws everyday, it's always a problem of motivation. When I'm done with all the necessary evils, I usually just hit up Nico to watch some game commentary vids, drown myself in gaming and occasionally hassle a certain someone else's blog.

I started reviewing for the sake of my self-satisfaction, though nowadays the satisfaction doesn't come up. Even so, I'm not abandoning my solitary spot on the web just because of that pathetic excuse. This may be far from be my usual fare, but for the sake of finally getting another update in, I'm gonna post a little "gaming progress report" of my own.

[Xbox360/XBLA] ファントムブレイカー：バトルグラウンド

 As I mentioned before, halfway decent Japanese games unique to the 360 are few and verrrrry far between. Aside from Love Tore, Otomedius and Onechanbara Z (the third of which will soon have a PS3 port this coming June), I'm at a loss as to what game to get that isn't a Cave Shooter or a galge.

MAGES/5pb recently released Phantom Breaker Battlegrounds for the XBLA, and being a fan of side-scrolling beat-em-ups, I jumped into it right away.The 16-bit vibe (though MAGES insists that it's supposed to be a homage to 8-bit for some reason), cute characters and funky combat system (which mirrors it's 2D fighting game predecessor) made it particularly appealing.

[PSP] 武装神姫 Battle Masters Mk.2

Before I got exposed to Busou Shinki, I was hard-pressed to see what some people find moe about mecha musume. The concept of humanoid female robots with equipment that some armies only dream of using was lost to me. Now I'm pretty much all about it. Given, I'm no total authority in MMS, but I know more than enough to carry on a decent conversation with a like-minded individual.

As the name implies, Busou Shinki Battle Masters Mk2 serves as a revamp of the first game as well as a sequel. If you have existing BSBM data, you can choose to start from the very beginning or continue from the point where you become the F1 Champion. For the latter, another major event that tops even the Applet Crisis Arc will occur, and the Busou Shinki battling world will be forever changed.

[Xbox 360] 黒歴史の始まり？

So I've finally managed to put down Neptune V for the time being...

My first agenda is getting the now hopelessly outdated "My Precious" section up to speed. After all, it won't be exclusively about handhelds anymore...

Anyway, one of the systems I never thought I'd get to own is the Xbox 360, known amongst the paltry Japanese folks who have them as "hako" (whether the context is affecionate or sarcastic is anyone's guess). It's king in the good ol' US of A despite being backwards in so many different aspects, but it's reception is mixed elsewhere.

Naturally, in keeping with my usual theme, this system is NTSC-J, pure Japan region. It wasn't hard to obtain given the dismal sales numbers in said area and most importantly, The price I got it for was a practical steal.

So if you care enough to read about the history, hit the break link. Otherwise, just feel free to drool over Kobato.

楽園よ！ 私は帰てきたーーっ！！

I've neglected this place for more than a year.

Life has just been life as usual, plus I usually don't find the time nor motivation to compose something good.

First off, there's the possibility of the entries being significantly altered, since I have more systems now than I can shake a pair of chopsticks at. Full scale reviews are no longer feasible given my current circumstances, but I'll do my best to put something out.

Anyway, just for personal convienice, a list of the games I've either finished, spent a good chunk of time on, or still currently playing. Depending on how I can pull myself away from one, I might do a spotlight thing on any of these.