The general impression that I got when I heard about this game from the various places I look around for Comiket games is that this is hard.

After playing this, I concur. And it’s only the trial! The actual game itself is not finished!

RefRain ~prism memories~ is from RebRank. From my limited knowledge of Japanese and skill of observation, they are a doujin group focused on STGs.

Due to the lack of trailers from RebRank, I present a gameplay video instead (stolen from here).

Please note: this guy makes it look easy -.-. However, it provides one thing that people should note when playing STGs: use your bombs!

Pretty awesome techno-based soundtrack as well. In any case, I think I will need to try out their previous game 五月雨 ~samidare~ while anticipating the complete game. Good luck for me finding it though; finding games from previous Comikets is near impossible, unless they are extremely popular like the 東方 games.

At first, I did not know what to make of this game. After getting it and playing around for a bit, I only need to say these three words.

So. Much. Fun.

Twilight Frontier presents ぱちゅコン! Defend the Library! These guys are apparently well known for their derivative works of other games, such as the very awesome 東方 (Touhou) series, which is what Defend the Library! is based off of.

If you need an idea of what this game is, think of one of those tower defense games out there. Now instead of towers, you are training one of five different units to defend a bookcase of 20 books. These units can be upgraded just like a typical TD game, except when you upgrade, you upgrade all the units of that type. Also, since your units can move around, they can also be attacked and killed; however, they are respawned after a short while.

There are six teams available, with only one that you can use at first. You can easily unlock them just by playing and beating the game at any difficulty with any team. Once you unlock all six, you can create your own custom team (and unlock two extra characters you can use for the team).

If you enjoy playing tower defense in its various forms, this game is for you.

So for those of you out there who watched Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha and wondered just how fun it would be to befriend people with all-out maximum power, here’s your chance.

fly-system presents Magical Battle Arena, a 3D fighting game featuring magical girls from various series.

So far, they have announced four characters:

• Fate Testarossa from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A’s
• Kinomoto Sakura (木之本さくら) from Cardcaptor Sakura
• Lina Inverse from Slayers
• Takamichi Nanoha (高町なのは) from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A’s

The C73 release is just a demo and the game itself is still not finished. However, you can play as either Nanoha or Lina and from the looks of it, their move sets are complete.

In my opinion, the attacks and all are kind of simple, which may or may not be a good thing. I am not much of a fighting game person, so I cannot say too much about fighting game mechanics without embarrassing myself. But Nanoha pretty much gets all her attacks from A’s. Her special moves are the following:

• Accel Shooter
• Divine Buster
• Round Shield
• Starlight Breaker (ranged super)
• Excellion Buster ACS (melee super)

From what I can read, Fate is only missing her supers and voice actress. Her move set so far is the following (correct me if I’m wrong as well):

• Plasma Lancer (ブラズマランサー)
• Thunder Blade (サンダーブレイド)
• Haken Saber (ハーケンサイバー)

They need to get Fate ready for the next demo just so we can see (and possibly repeat) the epic Nanoha VS Fate battles from the original series, except this time, they’re more powerful.

Just for the record, I think that Fate’s supers would involve Bardiche Assault in Zamber form.. perhaps Plasma Zamber Breaker for the ranged super and Jet Zamber for the melee super?

It’s that time of year (well, the second time of the year) when Comiket rolls around and that means scouring the Internets for Japanese doujin game torrents (otherwise known as indie games).

If you remember one of my two posts on C72, you would have noticed that Ether Vapor was still in production. Well, it’s officially released now and it’s still awesome. If you have no idea just what Ether Vapor is, just watch the YouTube video below and all questions will be answered.

Haven’t seen anything else on the shmup front yet, but when they do, I’ll be posting.

Having had The Orange Box for around a week or two now, I pretty much played two things on that set (see my Steam profile for more details):

1. Portal
2. Team Fortress 2

Unfortunately, my machine kind of lags when playing both games. They are playable, but I’ve had to tone down the graphics a bit, although I was half-expecting that since I can manage playing Half-Life 2 on high graphics settings, then this should not be a problem.

Despite that, I really enjoyed both games that I have played so far. Half-Life 2: Episode 1 and 2 can wait, especially since I have not actually beaten Half-Life 2 yet (lost my save file the last time I played and I was at Nova Prospekt).

Portal

So what did I think of Portal? Well, I started playing the unofficial Flash version of the game first, so pretty much, by the time I started playing the actual game, I kind of understood the game mechanics. But the game itself was quite entertaining, especially with the whole plot (yes, there’s a plot in Portal, surprisingly enough) of the game. I would not want to spoil things for people who have not played the game yet, so I will not say too much, except I miss my Weighted Companion Cube.

Team Fortress 2

A fairly entertaining game, touching up on Team Fortress Classic by quite a bit. The cartoony graphics just makes the game fun. It really is a nice change from all the serious games popping up all over the place. Sure, it is a recycled idea (class-based, get the objective teamplay), but it is a lot lighter and quite fun compared to various other things. I must admit though, the “Meet the …” trailers set the environment for fun nicely.

Like most team-based games however, finding teams that do not exactly suck, or getting yourself better at the game so you do not get owned so quickly by your opponents, is one of the things that would affect the fun factor. Hence, the Steam Community implementation makes things so much better, although more people on that list of mine need to get Team Fortress 2.

Hopefully, I can find myself playing some other games that are included in the Orange Box and finish Half-Life 2 and move onto the two trilogies. Too bad I am super busy with a bunch of other stuff.

Well, where to begin?

Co-op has been going quite nicely. I’ve certainly found myself getting better with things I suck at (ie. public speaking), so that’s quite fun. We’ve visited several schools so far, including University Hill and Maple Ridge Secondary. More schools are on the way though, which is good since we can promote the really nice program we have.

I got my first ever co-op site visit today. It was quite interesting because we went over the things I’ve done so far and looked at just what my future goals are. I also saw the importance of doing the whole learning objectives thing. Two really nice things that came out of it: 1) I was given permission to do another co-op term after taking a break over summer (generally, I am supposed to do one school term at least between work terms) and 2) Harriet will vouch for me to take part in co-op Japan when the time comes (probably either late next year or 2009).

As for Scouts, as you may know, I have been promoted to Troop Scouter this year, which pretty much means I’m head honcho for an entire section. A bit intimidating for someone who would rather prefer to be in the sidelines doing the whole supporting effort thing like myself, but a good challenge nonetheless. We’ve been doing some new things, like selecting our PLs and APLs with scenarios to observe their leadership skills, amongst other types of skills. For those who aren’t familiar with Scouts, we divide up the Scouts into patrols, who are led by a PL (patrol leaders) and assisted by the APL (assistant patrol leader). I have also been taking a somewhat relaxed approach to working with my leaders, making things more in their hands and allowing them to take on new initiatives. Would it work out in the long run? Who knows, but I guess I’ll find out!

I’ve also been tasked to do Group Camp for a second year in a row. Now admittedly, last year’s planning, along with various responsibilities at school and such, got me so stressed out that I did terrible with school. Ideally, things do not go into that area this year, but I did learn over the year and I will probably start delegating things off soon to capable people.

Speaking of Scouts, October 13 is Apple Day, which means Scouts selling apples on the streets by donation. My group will be out in the Chinatown area, so if you see kids in white and yellow neckerchiefs, buy an apple from them.

As for my part-time job that I got before starting co-op through Marcel, I’ve been pretty much given the reins on the project I worked on when I started there. Unfortunately, I know I will not have much free time to do it, so I will be working on it in the various pockets of time that I have when I actually am well-rested enough.

And for those who are looking for part-time work and are capable of doing PHP/MySQL web applications, the company that I am part-timing for is hiring full-time employees. Just go to Appnovation’s website for more information on available careers.

On the gaming side of things, The Orange Box just came out and I am seriously thinking of buying it. I already have Half-Life 2 though, so that means if I do actually end up buying it, I will have one gift-able copy of Half-Life 2 available. Any takers?

Some other things have attracted my attention in the set of releases

Gundemonium Recollection

Link: http://www20.cds.ne.jp/~murasame/games/re_gundemonium.htm

This is a horizontal shooter (think R-Type or Zero Wing of “All Your Base” fame to get an idea of what that is) in the 弾幕 (danmaku) style, which means a small hit box for you and quite a lot of projectiles. You control girls with guns that can fly and have magic to a degree.

Depending on who you use (you can choose between the main character Eryth (from what I can tell she is the main character) or create a custom character out of the four Earl Types (you can customize their primary weapon, their special ability, and their bomb attack).

東方風神録 ~ Mountain of Faith

Link: http://www16.big.or.jp/~zun/html/th10dl.html

This is the tenth game in the 東方 (Touhou) series. I haven’t ever played anything in the series before, but it looks like a very intense 弾幕 (danmaku) game. And damn straight it is. The music goes well with it nicely, the boss attack patterns are complex and make for a challenging game.

You choose between two characters and for each character, one out of three styles, which dictates your weapon evolution path and your bomb attack (I think; I don’t really use the bomb ability because it costs you in firepower), called a Spell Card. In reality however, your weapon does not evolve, but you get these satellites around your character which shoot extra shots, dependent on your style. Focusing will make you move slower, reveals your hitbox (for better dodging ability), and changes your support shots into its secondary mode, which is quite useful.

The game is challenging, but very fun and enjoyable. Try it if you can.

So Comiket 72 happened a few days ago and as a result, a flood of torrents of games released were posted. (just search for C72; games are usually categorized under “Other”).

As some may know, I really really like shooting games. And they’re quite popular over in Japan. So of course, after coming across some postings about some games to expect from C72, I went off and got myself some games and while I’m at it, some reviews of sorts.

So here we go!

Ether Vapor

Link: http://edelweiss.sakura.ne.jp/works/works.html (Ether Vapor is in the first section; the links there from top to bottom are “Introduction”, “Screenshots”, “Download”, “Development Log” (an educated guess; can’t translate that…), “Staff List”)

Download Link: http://edelwiss.sakura.ne.jp/works/ethervapor/download.html (note that the demo they released, v1.08, at C72 isn’t posted there)

One’s first impressions on this game is probably going to be “ooo.. pretty graphics“. And yes, Edelwiss’s Ether Vapor has that. But it’s also quite fun. Your ship has three different weapons mounted on: a vulcan gun (Gatling), a multi-directional weapon (Winder), and a homing laser weapon (Lock On).

Each of the weapons also has a charge up attack. So for Gatling, charging it up would get you a powerful shot (Gatling: Pierce). Charging up Winder will give you an explosive radius around your ship (Winder: Radiate) that damages nearby enemies as well as taking out nearby enemy projectiles, which is quite handy when you’re in a bind. Somehow, I haven’t been able to charge up Lock On, but from the look of the screenshot (can’t read the Japanese, too much kanji), Lock On: Cascade seems to either do something like Winder: Radiate or perhaps stronger shots.

The most memorable part of this game so far was probably the bonus section in the first mission where you had to shoot down enemy missiles with the lock on weapon. The game moves the camera and switches the controls a bit to allow you to do so efficiently.

Magical Cannon Girl

Link: http://www.kit-station.com/mcg/index.html

A shmup game that involves a magical girl who can attack with regular shots as well as a charge up magical cannon attack. What are her opponents? Pink and blue blobs that remind me of the Porings in the Ragnarok Online universe, except they have wings (yes, I know Angelring has wings, but your typical Poring doesn’t).

Of course, there are other enemies out and about too, but I’ll leave those for you to figure out. It’s quite a challenging game, like most Japanese games. And of course, you have your boss battles at the end of a stage.

Basically, you control レベッカ (Rebecca), a magical girl. My Japanese isn’t that great, so I don’t really know the story, but somewhere in the middle of the first mission, you encounter some mythical beast of some kind named ラファ (Rafa) who helps you.

Speaking of magical girls, and ones with destructive powers similar to Magical Cannon Girl..

Nanoha Taiken -Lyrical Nanoha- 2nd Chu

Download Link: http://www5b.biglobe.ne.jp/~aoi_pg/download/dl.htm (click the last link in Internet Explorer; it doesn’t work properly with Firefox)

魔法少女リリカルなのは (Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha) fans rejoice! This is a shooting game based off of the Nanoha universe. If you’ve played the first game, which is based on the A’s storyline and involves the player selecting either Nanoha or Fate and fighting all the Wolkenritter, including the original Reinforce.

This newer version introduces tag team play into the mix. The demo appears to let you only play with the Nanoha/Vita pairing, but I could be wrong and Fate/Signum and Hayate/Reinforce II might be unlockables. But then again, it’s a demo, so maybe they aren’t unlockable. Anyone care to find out and let me know?

As for the story, no freaking clue. But you end up fighting Arf and Signum as bosses in the two stages that are part of the demo.

That’s all I’ve grabbed and played so far. Hopefully more stuff shows up on Tokyo Toshokan over time.

I have an idea and a general idea, but I probably do not have enough time to work on it. So if you are interested in working on a WarCraft III map, let me know.

As for genre, it would be an open RPG type.

I have mostly given up on material goods, keeping an attitude of “I should only buy something if I really need it, not because I want it or it would be cool to have”. It certainly has helped me keep my finances in line, that’s for sure.

So when Boxing Day slowly approached, I told my dad that maybe we should get a new printer now. Our old black and white laser printer, the long-lasting NEC Silentwriter 95 that isn’t really all that silent, finally broke down after a good 10-15 years of use. Attempts to revive an old Epson Stylus Color 800 that we did not use for at least four years failed due to us avoiding to buy new ink cartridges instead of refilling them. Turns out old used catridges would have its ink solidify.

I’ve also managed to pursuade my dad to avoid the stupid irrational consumerism that happens when big sales go on, buying things that are just cool to have but aren’t actually all that necessary, such as LCD TVs and all those other fun, nice to have, but not all that necessary gizmos. He still got some stuff from NCIX nonetheless, but at least those had some good reasons as to why he wanted them, namely hard drives and a keyboard/mouse combo for one machine (my server) that doesn’t have any input devices on it. Yes, I can ssh onto the box and all, but when I restart, it needs a keyboard attached and there’s no BIOS option to disable that check.

So we woke up at around 10 in the morning, long after the initial rushes of Boxing Day that my dad and I had gone out for during Boxing Days past and went to Future Shop to get ourselves a new printer. We ended up getting a Minolta PagePro 1400W, which I have been spending some good amount of time trying to get working with the network via CUPS and samba. Still working on it now, but I think I’m almost good on getting it working.

Of course, I did not end up empty-handed without getting something for myself.

If you are thinking that I bought myself a DS Lite, you’re wrong. Yes, it is one of those things that I would like to have. However, at the same time, I know that if I got one, I would be failing everything because I’m one of those obsessive types when it comes to playing games – and when a portable system comes into play, I’ll be screwing myself over big time.

Besides, they were all sold out at the Future Shop I was at. They were selling at $129.99 after all.

Rather, I found myself deciding between two strategy game collections, both selling for $49.99 and both extremely epic games in their own way.

• Sid Meier’s Civilization Chronicles, which consists of Civilization I through IV with all the expansions except for Civilization IV: Warlords, as well as a Civilization card game and various other things.
• Total War: Eras, which consists of every single Total War Game and their expansions. Also came along with the Limited Edition of the recently released Medieval II: Total War.

A tough call really.

I ended up getting the Total War collection. The battles of the series are absolutely impressive.