I’m late since the game came out in March, but I left it with my Chinese relatives until my dad went back to visit in order to save on shipping costs. This is one of the many different Chinese limited editions, priced at 299 Yuan (~$50 CAD). It’s slightly smaller than the Ys Seven box length*width-wise, but also thicker (as thick as a DS game case is tall).
I managed to spend a lot less money this year, which means more money for importing games. I severely cut back on the impulse purchases, and that’s not due to an increased self-control level either. I think my main interests have been getting more and more niche each year, and I’ve been doing more importing/online shopping so I own almost all the existing English 7th-gen games I really want. Nevertheless, I did buy some goods:
Sora no Kiseki FC & SC Special Collection Book
That’s not very impressive for a blog that’s been on the interwebs for 2+ years, but I’ve always been kind of a forever alone so time to celebrate! I wanted to draw a nice Christmas picture and a separate nice 100k picture, but my hands couldn’t hold a tablet pen for long before reverting to mouse or controller, so have a Christmas Estelle (from TitS/Sora no Kiseki) sketch.
Following up Falcom’s popular story-heavy RPG trilogy Sora no Kiseki is Legend of Heroes VII, which comprises Zero no Kiseki and Ao no Kiseki. After the events in Liberl, the focus is shifted in Zero and Ao to Crossbell, located between the Erebonian Empire and the Calvard Republic. Its central city, Crossbell City, is a wealthy, technologically-advance place where crime runs rampant and the idea of justice is warped. Citizens have a rather low opinion of the city’s police force, and prefer to rely on the Bracer Guild for their problems. The game stars Lloyd Bannings, a graduate of the city’s police academy, as he joins the Crossbell State Police Department into a sector established to accept requests and problems from citizens similar to the Bracer Guild (I have no idea how to translate or romanize 特務支援課, its one of those phrases that I can understand and not know how to read, thanks to Chinese understanding). Together with Lloyd are the honour student-like ojou-sama Elie MacDowell, kuudere technology wiz Tio Plato sent by the Epstein company, and the flirtatious and chill (and the ultimate bro) Randy Orlando.
It’s here! SAL is slow as heck to my place, but whatever. I ordered from AmiAmi. This is the box before unwrapping.
My wallet is not so fabulous and AmiAmi + everywhere with decent pricing sold out. I’d rather not pay $60 a book to Play-Asia, when I can buy Nayuta no Kiseki for $75. I’m still debating whether to attempt to buy the artbooks somewhere or just skipping ahead to Nayuta (combining Ys-style fast-paced action and Kiseki-style world detail and story is like a dream game). Dammit, I need to hurry up and become legal so I can use my bank account for Paypal and not have to go through so much trouble buying prepaid credit cards and such.
Also Ao no Kiseki Chinese PC version needs to hurry up and update the site. The official site hasn’t been updated when it comes to pre-orders or limited edition content. Only the “world” and “characters” sections are even available to click. With Ys Seven dated for June 20, I don’t imagine we’d be seeing the Ao no Kiseki Chinese version until next year though. Either way, they’re getting my money. The Ys Seven PC version looks pretty good from the screens I’ve seen so far, graphics-wise.
On a side note, people complaining about XSeed not putting Trails in the Sky SC in top priority for translation are seriously getting annoying. I can tolerate it in the Trails in the Sky boards in small amounts because I can see how bad the wait for a small company to localize a gigantic game is, but when every piece of Falcom and XSeed news on Siliconera has people whining about SC…just no. XSeed’s localization was wonderfully done and opened me and a bunch of other people to a high quality RPG series, they do NOT deserve to be the victim of such whining and “I LOST ALL FAITH IN THEM BECAUSE GOD FORBID THEM TRY TO MAKE MONEY BY LOCALIZING OTHER GAMES” speeches.
It’s here! My Falcom Chronicle! I haven’t look into it in-depth yet, but it’s divided into 6 sections: interviews/30th anniversary comments, illustrations, past Ads gallery, spoilers + screenshots for A LOT of their games, character database, and key term index. The illustration has art from throughout the years, including some really old ones =D
Not the Nendoroid Petite for the 30th anniversary, but a full-sized one. WANT SO HARD. Apparently it’s getting a summer release. I pray the store I bought Madoka from will have it.
It was a fun year, actually. I played quite a few games that were enjoyable, and finally managed to play eroge in Japanese. I also got a sexy new PS3, opening up my library to even more games. Dad got me a 3DS as a surprise gift, so I’ll be looking in the horizon for games for that. I’m pretty much broke now, and my trip to the US increased my backlog. What a great way to prepare for new handhelds, me. I guess the Vita can wait. I don’t really give a shit about processing power or online features or touch panel or whatever they stick in there, I just want to follow Atlus, NIS and Falcom and play their games.
Zero no Kiseki Vita version with FULL VOICE? There’s hope for XSeed in localizing this, since Vita won’t be a dying system like the PSP in North America (at least for a while)! Well, maybe the full voice will provide troublesome, but there’s always the option of leaving in the Japanese (its not like that hasn’t been done before).
Besides, I do prefer handheld gaming over PC gaming. By a lot. And chances are, Ao no Kiseki will probably follow and glimmer of hope remains in North American fans’ eyes. I hope.
カレーまみれ勇者の冒険 Curry Chronicles 