Fire Emblem Fates: A fresh start

From my experience, chaos theory applies quite adequately to videogames. Minor uninspired decisions made at the beginning of a playthrough can pretty much expand into massive hurdles as said playthrough unfolds, totally ruining the whole experience in their wake. However, tinkering with the offending parameters can work miracles and make way for a much more pleasant playthrough. I've been copiously using that trick to great effect, from Dragon Quest IX to Animal Crossing, and I decided to let it work its magic once again on Fates.

I came to realise in the last hours that despite my best efforts, my run couldn't be salvaged. I had made too many bad decisions, taken too many wrong turns and wasted too much time on endeavours that turned out to be unproductive, ruining my whole playthrough beyond repair in the process. I needed to wipe the slate clean and start anew, and that's exactly what I did by erasing my save and restarting the game from the so-called "branch of fates" where paths diverge, choosing Hoshido once again.

My first change was to opt for a female Corrin instead of a male one. My reasoning was that the moe-ladden behaviour of my male units would be easier to swallow if it were directed towards a female character, because it would then pass as chivalry or galantry rather than boy's love innuendos. I was also secretly hoping than the bonding scenes would be toned-down for male mates and that I would escape embarrassing kissing simulations. To my utter delight, my assumptions and estimates proved quite accurate, and that fresh new start with "Lady Corrin", as she's respectfully called by my force, totally feels like the right decision. There is also something more intangible at work there: for some unfathomable reason, I do feel that the whole story works better with a female Corrin. Granted, this may be a personal impression only; but on the other hand, I never experienced this kind of feeling with Pokemon or Avalon Code, whose stories flow just as naturally with characters of both sexes. I'd be curious to know if other players feel the same—because sometimes, stories do indeed work better with a character of a given sex for a myriad of intangible reasons—or if this is really just an idiosyncrasy of mine.

Then there was the Kaze issue, which needed to be resolved at all costs. Kaze was my absolute favourite unit by a very long shot—heck, I liked him considerably more than my Corrin—and to lose him was quite a blow to my morale. I knew I had to save him during that second playthrough; and since this can be achieved through gaining A support rank with Corrin (kudos to Elisa for letting me know about this), I figured that I could as well go all the way and pair my stoic, aloof, noble-looking female Corrin with equally stoic, aloof and noble-looking Kaze. As I'm a total sucker for stoic, aloof, noble-looking characters, this was absolutely a match made in heaven; and it certainly helps that the support conversations between these two were both intense and full of restraint and thus quite fascinating to watch. This riveting dynamic is maintained during the bonding sessions, which are a glorious mix of reserve, formality, frankness and forwardness on Kaze's part. If the Corrin/Azura bonding sessions were often reminiscent of dates between teenage lovers, Corrin and Kaze's brand of bonding is much more genuinely akin to intimacy between adult spouses, which suits my tastes better. At any rate, that matter is now solved, and I can relax and indulge in the joy of fighting with my favourite unit throughout the whole game without fearing that he'll be removed from my force. Life is sweet!

Matchmaking aside, my main goal with that second playthrough is to keep things tight and streamlined in order to preserve the game's pacing and to avoid ending quagmired in boredom like the first time around. This implies focusing solely on a limited number of units and ditching the rest without mercy; and this is actually a much-needed relief, given how much of a hassle it had proven to maintain an evenly leveled-up force during my first playthrough. As a consequence, I will spare myself the trouble of clearing the Paralogues—except if I have a really, really massive crush on the involved kid. None of the units recruited during these Paralogues were stellar anyway, and some of them were giant walking liabilities. (I'm looking at you, Mozu. Oh, the hours I wasted leveling-you up to no avail, because you were always so bloody weak.) And while I'm at it, I will also skip Invasions, which means that I can avoid wasting my food on Lilith and use it to power up my units instead thanks to the Mess Hall. Two birds with one stone! This time around, I will also play matchmaker more actively and let love bloom between units, for the sake of increased performances on the battlefield—and also a little bit for the sake of entertainment: I've gotten used to the feature and I have to admit that it's both cute and amusing to see units growing closer and finally tying the knot.

I've been following these new guidelines for a couple of chapters now and I'm having quite a blast. Battles are much more interesting and thrilling now that there are less of them and that my crew is tighter and not overleveled anymore, and I love catering to my favourite units and molding them into ultimate soldiers. This revamped run of Fates/Birthright is the absolute treat and proves yet again that every game deserves a second chance. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a fiery battle/matchmaking session to attend. More news of my exciting brand-new run soon! Thanks for reading, and be my guest anytime!

Fire Emblem Fates: Now we're toiling

17 hours into Fates, and ennui is slowly but surely creeping in.

I'd like to keep my initial warm feelings for Fates intact, but the game is not exactly accommodating me. The story is just as nonsensical and asinine as in the early stages, if not more; at that point, I've been force-fed a couple of "plot twists" that could be foreseen from miles and only served to increase my foul disposition towards that mediocre mess of a storyline. The whole narrative is so simplistic and predictable that I'm seriously starting to believe that it was written with 14-years-old players in mind. To make matters worse, I fought so many free battles that I actually forgot what my force was supposed to achieve in the first place. We're now marching towards Nohr, but I don't have the slightest idea of why, which is deeply embarrassing. I feel like a kid who's been drifting out during class and is anxiously waiting for the teacher to find out—except that there is no teacher, and the only punishment I face is to be at a loss regarding the goals of my force until the end of the game. I can live with that, especially since I didn't care that much about the story in the first place.

Then there is the moe overdose, which is getting worse by the chapter. I'm now married to Azura and I have to endure some moe antics of the worst sort, such as needing to blow in the mic to refresh her face, to wake her up with the stylus and, last but *shudder* not least, witnessing her mimicking a kiss to me—and I mean the real-life me, not Corrin. Although I knew this kind of thing existed in romance games, I had never been confronted to it myself and I found the whole scene deeply cringing. As though lovestruck Azura were not enough, my whole force is behaving like giggling schoolgirls and begging me to give them accessories. Accessories! Erm, do you people realise we're supposed to be at war? And don't even get me started on the bath house, because I could become vulgar. I swear a piece of my soul died when I saw that this optional building was nothing more than a way to squeeze your obligatory piece of bath fan-service into what's supposed to be a serious and mature game. But maybe FEF is not supposed to be mature and serious after all, but rather yet another fan-servicy game pandering to teenagers with inferiority complexes: that would certainly explain why every damn unit in this army is so smitten with Corrin, asking him for gifts and visiting him all day long to tell him how great he is with coy blushes.

The huge number of characters to manage at that point in the game is also unfortunately spoiling my pleasure. I cannot keep track of them all, let alone use them all in battle and keep them all properly leveled-up; and to my dismay, I have to ditch a good number of them on the side of the road as I march on. I also noticed a modicum of planned obsolescence, with older units being considerably weaker and less efficient than newly recruited ones. Maybe these are FE staples, for all I know: maybe I'm supposed to toss overpowered units without mercy as I progress, and maybe I'm supposed to cherry-pick my favourite characters like I would choose dishes from a buffet. If this is the case, I won't bother keeping everyone evenly leveled-up during my next FE playthrough, thank you very much. Oh, and maybe that will allow me to actually see romance blossom between my units; because so far, love has not exactly been in the air. Apart from Azura and Corrin, my only other couple are Setsuna and Hayato, and no one else is making much progress towards marriage. I have to admit that I have other fish to fry on the battlefield than pairing units according to matchmaking plans, so I decided to leave the whole marriage matter to chance; however, since I've been switching so much between units, relationships are not exactly blooming. Kaze and Rinkah ended up married a couple of battles ago, only to be separated as (SPOILERS) Kaze fell to his doom saving Corrin. (I wouldn't be surprised if he turned out to be still alive and the resident traitor to boot, though.) (END OF SPOILERS) This kind of event doesn't quite encourage me to put some work into raising my units' support ranks, let me tell you that. Also, I wonder what was the point of all the fuss about homosexual relationships being possible in Fates; because as far as I've seen, it's not the case at all. A bit of research seemed to indicate that the gigantic number of two characters were potentially bisexual; that, in my book, amounts to an Easter Egg and certainly didn't deserve any mention, let alone a full-blown announcement by Nintendo.

I could list plenty of other minor gripes, such as the fact that ever-hungry Lilith is virtually useless since there are nearly no invasions, the fact that the gameplay of the headquarters sessions is too reminiscent of a browser game for my taste, or the fact that the support conversations are totally uninspired and certainly don't feel like the first steps of a solid friendship, let alone an intense love; but let's admit it, that would be boring and disheartening. I think I took a bit of a wrong turn when starting the game: by playing too many free battles, spending too much time toiling in the base camp and wanting to lavish an equal amount of TLC on each unit, I diluted the intensity of the whole experience and drove myself into a slog. But I'll steer my quagmired playthrough back on track by focusing more on story battles and on my favourite characters from now on, and hopefully the second half of the game will be more thrilling than this uneventful first half. Thanks for reading, and be my guest anytime!

Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth 2-Sisters Generation: All's well that ends well

After 30 hours of non-stop grinding, I'm finally done with Re;Birth 2. I'm sated and elated and I enjoyed that playthrough from beginning to end. I wanted a heavy-duty bout of grinding and that's exactly what I got—trust HN games to scratch vigorously any grinding itch a gamer may have. I also wanted a gaming experience similar to my playthrough of Re;Birth 1; and in that regard, I got much more than I bargained for, because Re;Birth 2 is virtually a clone of Re;Birth 1. Apart from a couple of extra characters and dungeons, this is basically the exact same game with the exact same gameplay, the exact same cast of characters and the exact same overall feeling. It's certainly a treat if you enjoy the series as much as I do, but it comes across as a complete rip-off if you're anything less than a die-hard HN aficionado.

 

The last stages of my playthrough were a tad anticlimatic, if I have to be totally honest. I level-ground so dutifully throughout the whole game that my party was actually a trifle over-levelled by the time I reached the final boss. Polishing off that ultimate showdown was a mere formality and a matter of a couple of turns, with no major casualties except from Falcom fainting once. For the record, my winning party was made of Nepgear at Lv. 53, Compa at Lv. 51, Cave at Lv. 49 and Falcom at Lv. 47, and I'm immensely glad the game didn't force down my throat a final boss so hard that only a full team of CPUs could have beaten it. And talking about CPUs, I was a bit bummed that the CPU quartet from Re;Birth 1 joined my party in the late stages of the game. Not only did it make my force a bit too crowded for my taste, but it stole the resident CPUs' thunder in a way that was not to my liking. Neptune, Noir, Blanc and Vert were the undisputed heroes and main attractions of Re;Birth 1; couldn't Nepgear, Uni, Rom and Ram have been granted the same honour in Re;Birth 2? At any rate, there was no way I would let the big sister brigade steal the show in my own playthrough, and thus I dutifully stuck with Nepgear, Compa, Cave and Falcom until the very end. These fab four did a stellar job in boss fights, with Nepgear and Cave as the main damage dealers, Compa as the skilled healer and Falcom as the EXE drive gauge refiller/minor damage dealer. I didn't feel like using Uni, Rom and Ram on the long run because their attack ranges, which favoured a healthy distance from foes, made for a tricky positioning that was more a chore than a joy. Sorry, girls—but fret not: I adore the real-life, physical versions of you.

I incidentally learnt that Re;Birth 2 offers as many as six different endings, some of them boasting insanely arcane requirements. I find the whole thing a little bit pointless, to be honest, because the storyline is clearly not Re;Birth 2's strongest suit. I unearthed the so-called Normal Ending, which is deemed the easiest of the bunch, and I'm perfectly happy with that outcome. There's no way I'm going to replay the game and try to uncover the five other endings all by myself, be it with an FAQ in hand; I'm playing HN games solely for the grinding, and I'll get plenty of it no matter which ending I get. Not to mention that trying to tinker with each nation's shares in order to reach the desired requirements for the hardest endings feels like a complete micromanaging nightmare, and I loathe micromanagement in games.

All in all, this was a gloriously fun playthrough of a game that managed to feel both pleasantly familiar and refreshingly new. It was certainly not innovative by any means when compared to Re;Birth 1; but that's not what I was looking for in the first place, so this is perfectly fine by me. As a matter of fact, I was so eager to bask again in the glorious feelings elicited by my first encounter with the series that I initially planned to replay Re;Birth 1 itself; however, I'm glad I changed my mind and picked up Re;Birth 2 instead, because it treated me to the exact same delightful experience while still bringing something new to the table. Now I can only hope that Re;Birth 3 will follow suit—although there is little doubt it will, given how hell-bent on recycling the HN series is. Thanks for reading, and be my guest anytime!

Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth 2-Sisters Generation: Grinding reigns supreme

Let's get straight to the point: I absolutely adore the Hyperdimension Neptunia series. If I had to establish a top ten of my favourite Vita games, the first two HN instalments would undoubtedly be part of it; and if I had to pick up my three favourite Vita series, HN would absolutely be one of them.

This may come as a surprise, given that I hardly ever mentioned the series on this blog and never reviewed any Hyperdimension entry. What happened is that I played HN Re;Birth 1 last summer, right before holidaying abroad; as a result, the planned review of that game was lost forever as holiday laziness and newer playthroughs pushed it out of the scene before it could even make an entrance. However, I absolutely adored that game and have the fondest memories of that playthrough; and one year later, I decided to treat myself again to a healthy dose of HN goodness by playing HN Re;Birth 2.

To my utter delight, I was reunited with all the HN staples I had come to know and love over the course of my HN Re;Birth 1: the adorable zesty characters, the witty story poking fun at the videogame industry, the pint-sized dungeons that are really more akin to grinding patches than genuine dungeons, the hardcore boss battles every two steps, the side quests by the truckload, the exhilarating special attacks and their over-the-top animations and, last but not least, the metric tons of grinding.

HN is nothing if not a series that strives on grinding and wears its grindy quality like a badge of honour. Dungeons may be pint-sized, colourful and bristling with hilarious-looking foes, but each one of them is a difficulty spike per se that requires a healthy amount of grinding to be navigated safely. And let's not even talk about the boss battles, which are ruthless engagements that can prove challenging even with a conveniently levelled up party—and utterly impossible to win with an underlevelled party. HN reprises the old-school trope of the Boss that's unbeatable unless you boast a Certain Level, and I fell pray to it during my playthrough of Re;Birth 1: due to a lack of regular level-grinding on my part, I totally failed to beat the final boss. Said final boss had a regenerating ability, and the combined attacks of my underlevelled party were not dealing enough damage to counter its automatic healing. (The amount of grinding that would have been needed to overcome that hurdle of a final boss would have been staggering, so I wisely—or cowardly—decided to give up.) I was determined not to end up in the same kind of bind again during my playthrough of Re;Birth 2, and I started grinding dutifully and regularly from the get-go. That was a most inspired decision, because Re;Birth 2 is harder than Re;Birth 1, if that's even possible. So far, my playthrough can be divided as such: 85% grinding, 10% boss battles and 5% story-related cutscenes and inventory management. You've been warned, fellow gamers.

Of course, I absolutely lap up this heavy grinding, and this is due to a sole reason that is none other than the fighting system. To put it simply, HN's fighting system is my favourite RPG fighting system ever, all subgenres combined. It clicked with me like no other fighting system ever did, because it combines everything I love from the three main RPG fighting systems. It sports all at once the exhilarating button-mashing of real-time fighting, the relaxing deliberation of turn-based combat and the fine-tuned positioning of strategic/tactical fighting—all sprinkled with sharp, glorious animations that make even the meanest fight a feast for the eyes. I'll spare you a boring technical explanation of how the whole thing plays out; any video will do a much better job at this than me. This fighting system is the ultimate RPG fighting system hybrid, and it's so sleek and utterly brilliant that I wonder why no developper ever thought of mixing these elements together before HN. Maybe is was not technically possible, or maybe it was too cutting-edge for most audiences; and given how little praise is lavished upon HN's fighting system and how mixed are the reviews of these games, I suspect that the latter might be the truth.

Although I adore it, I have to admit that HN is pretty much a hit-or-miss series. If you love grinding and click with the fighting system, then you're in for a treat; if not, then you can forget about the series altogether, before there is really nothing more than grinding to be found there. Exploration is totally absent because of the tiny dungeons and the fact that the next objective in line is always highlighted; and the story, although excellent, is too minor to justify playing the game solely for it. Seeing cute personifications of the Game Gear, the PSP and the DS as well as luminaries such as Compile Heart, Idea Factory and Nihon Falcom in RE;Birth 2 is certainly a delight—and I enjoyed it all the more as a portable gamer at heart, obviously—just like discovering all the clever puns about the gaming industry hidden in the game; however, it certainly won't help a player allergic to grinding to stomach the vast amount of it present in the HN series. Grinding is the meat and potatoes of HN, and all the rest is but accompaniments.

I'm currently 25 hours into Re;Birth 2, and I can feel that the end is drawing near. My current party comprises Nepgear, Compa, Cave and newly recruited Falcom and I'm pretty satisfied with that line-up—heck, Cave's Black Label supermove alone can terminate boss fights in a couple of turns. I'm starting to suspect that I may need a party made solely of CPUs to beat the final boss; but that shouldn't be too much of an issue thanks to the awesome inclusive levelling-up system, which gives experience even to the characters who are not in the party. At any rate, I'm planning to undertake a massive level-grinding marathon before the final boss, because said final boss will surely turn out to be an Everest-sized difficulty spike. See you in a few hours of grinding, dear fellow gamers! Thanks for reading, and be my guest anytime!

Fire Emblem Fates: Rocky beginnings

A couple of hours into FEF, and I'm hooked for good—confirming in the process that I can indeed enjoy SRPGs just as much as any other RPG subgenre. I'm deeply relieved, all the more so as I own a considerable number of SRPGs that I yet have to play. One may call me air-headed for having bought so many games without even knowing if I could enjoy the genre they belong to in the first place, but you know how I am—collection is me passion! But I digress. Let's go back to my young FEF run, which happens to take place on the Hoshido side—i.e. Birthright—and to follow the lenient setting combination of Casual mode and Normal difficulty. Hey, I am an SRPG and Fire Emblem beginner, after all.

I may be totally captivated by FEF right now, but that love didn't bloom immediately. Far from enthralling me, the very early stages of the game left me cold, annoyed and ultimately deeply unsatisfied. I was bothered by a multitude of details that spoilt my pleasure, and here are those joykillers in their unholy glory:

—Much to my dismay, the story comes across as quite asinine. The overall premise is both silly and ludicrous, and main character Corrin accepts the cataclysmic change in his life and takes his new situation in stride a bit too fast and willingly for my taste. Shouldn't he feel at least a bit conflicted about the whole thing? Shouldn't he have legitimate doubts about the truth of the matter? And what's with the cliché of the oppressive kingdom ruled by a crazy tyrant living in an cold stone castle devoid of furniture vs. the oppressed kingdom that favours diversity and is ruled by a kind royal family all decked up in silk? I honestly expected more from a series that's always been hailed as deeper and more mature than most of its peers. Alas, the narrative content I've seen so far is really no different from your average J-RPG story—there's even a reference to Corrin's supposed amnesia, for crying it out loud!—and as a result, FEF's narrative left me thoroughly unimpressed.

—The amount of moe injected in the game really disturbs me. I've always envisioned Fire Emblem as a venerable, serious and austere SRPG series that relied more on gameplay quality than on flashy looks; and somehow, the presence of moe doesn't quite square with that solemn picture. I wanted a mature-looking Corrin, yet the character creation interface is so soaked with kawaisa that I really struggled to create a character that didn't look like a 15-years-old cosplayer in full convention mode. (And I still feel like I failed for the most part.) As for the "private" conversations taking place in Corrin's abode, they are absolutely cringeworthy. To see your teammates utter lame and cheesy sentences with a coy, please-be-gentle expression is deeply embarrassing, and I'm immensely grateful that Nintendo removed the Petting minigame for the Western release, because I don't think I could have stomached it. These people are my fellow soldiers, damnit, not cute and fluffy pokemons begging to be stroked!

—The battle animations are painfully long and so frequent that they totally disrupt the flow of the gameplay. Never before in any game have I been confronted to battle animations so shamelessly intrusive; I'm pretty sure that if I were to count the amount of time devoted respectively to gameplay and to battle animations in any given battle, the latter would win by many a minute. Combine these ubiquitous battle animations with the omnipresent story-related cutscenes and you're left with the feeling of playing an interactive movie that requires player input solely to trigger cutscenes.

—The menus are ridiculously confusing and sorely lack ergonomy. Actions as simple as changing a character's equipment or browsing the available selection in shops are much more complicated than they should be, and the amount of character data displayed on the lower screen is so abundant that it nearly comes across as a parody. What's the "rating" of a character supposed to refer to, for instance? Heck, this is the one game that would absolutely require an detailed, paper-based instruction manual to refer to at all times.

All these hurdles made the game such an absolute pain to play that I seriously considered giving up after a couple of battles. Fortunately, my messy young run was salvaged by the discovery of the Options menu and the fantastic possibilities it harboured. I cranked up the game speed to Fast and totally shut off the combat animations, and a totally different game appeared before my grateful eyes: a brisk, fast-paced, no-frills game with deliciously retro low-fi looks. Then I discovered the possibility of grinding senselessly through subsidiary battles, and there was no turning back. (I unfortunately couldn't alleviate the moe-soaked conversations and the complicated menus, but I'm getting used to the latter and looking elsewhere during the former.)

I've been playing for roughly seven hours now and I'm loving FEF more by the hour. I'm pleasantly surprised by how portable-friendly the game is: it's incredibly easy to play it in short bursts thanks to the Battle Save feature, which makes it the perfect game for commuting. Of course, it also accommodates long playing sessions just as well, and my own sessions often stretch far beyond their planned boundaries—as a matter of fact, I was so engrossed by the game once that I nearly arrived late at work. I can sense a glorious playthrough ahead, and FEF will probably end up being my main Summer 2016 game. It's not as light-hearted as my usual summer picks, granted; but after the massive Pokemon rampage of these last weeks, a change of tone is most welcome. To a Fire Emblem summer! Thanks for reading, and be my guest anytime!

Collector's delight: Crystalline beauties

Despite the fact that the DS Lite was the most popular, emblematic and recognizable model in the DS line-up, I was never too fond of it. I always thought the DSi was the superior console, be it in terms of size screen and resolution, ergonomy and looks; and as a result, I concentrated solely on DSi models and never bothered to hunt for DS Lites. That is, until now.

What made me change my mind and consider DS Lites as valuable backup systems is the existence of an awesome feature that was (unfortunately) removed from the DSi. You guessed it, fellow gamers: I'm obviously talking about the GBA cartridge slot. Since I've been accumulating a pretty decent collection of GBA games in the last years, this feature now greatly interests me. The prospect of playing GBA games on a bright and colourful DS Lite screen rather than on a crappy GBA screen is an appetizing one indeed, and that's what prompted me to start hunting for DS Lites. My plan was to purchase two brand-new consoles and then to play GBA games exclusively on them, using my collection of second-hand GBAs solely to play Gameboy and Gameboy Colour games.

I was lucky enough to unearth an online seller that offered two brand-new DS Lites for very fair prices, and in gorgeous crystalline colours to boot. These two colours are simply my favourite of the whole DS Lite line-up and I could definitely have elected them even if all colours had been available. These two DS Lites are splendid and look like appetizing pieces of hard candy, and here they are in all their crystalline glory:

I'm quite delighted and proud to have managed to snatch these two beauties, and they will get a place of honour in my collection of backup systems. I've work really hard these last two years to put together said collection of backup systems, and I feel now that my work is nearly done. I may purchase a Pokemon Sun or Moon New 3DS bundle this fall, and that will be the end of my backup accumulation crusade. My console hoarding work is done! Thanks for reading, and be my guest anytime!

Pokemon X: The female Meowstic solo run

Yet another Pokemon solo run for your delight, Poke aficionados! Jeez, the Pokemon fever that struck me of late has been of unseen intensity—not that it bothers me, mind you: I actually lap up these irrepressible gaming frenzies. That being said, this particular run shouldn't have existed at all. I was initially planning to tackle a solo run of Omega Ruby and pondering my choice of 'Mon for said run when I happened to watch a video about gender dismorphism in Pokemons. (Jeez, those weird topics on Youtube.) The first 'Mon introduced in this video was Meowstic, and... I'm sure you can easily guess what happened next. Heck, I had an instant crush on that 'Mon—that's what happened. I immediately started gathering data about these lovely cats; and upon learning that the pair roamed the Kalos grasses only, I ditched my planned run of Omega Ruby on the spot and dug up my cartridge of Pokemon X instead. And the rest, dear fellow gamers, is history—history that is now going to unfold under your very eyes.

The first step was obviously to get my hands on an Espurr, the pre-evolution form of Meowstic. These adorable kittens can solely be found on Route 6, which involved cruising around with one of the starters until I reached the desired spot. I chose Fennekin and was surprised to get yet again a female Fennekin, just like during my first run of X. Given the low probability of getting a female version of that starter, I'm wondering if my cartridge is bugged or if I'm just extremely lucky. And talking about gender, I had to decide before capturing one of these adorable Espurr kittens if I wanted to cruise Kalos with a male or a female Meowstic. I was initially fonder of the male's colour palette and overall design, but his defensive and supportive move pool made him considerably more unfit for a solo run than his female counterpart, who boasted a more offensive move pool. My decision was thus made, and with a female Meowstic would I climb all the way to the Elite Four.

The (deeply satisfying) playthrough that ensued could totally have been dubbed the "I take back everything I ever thought about Psychic Pokemons" run. See, since I started indulging in Pokemon solo runs, I always operated under the assumption that Psychic 'Mons were no solo run material. I envisioned them as crappy fighters centering mostly on supportive and defensive abilities and able to dish out little damage beyond easily curable status effects. Oh boy, how utterly wrong I was. But I finally saw the light thanks to my lovely and highly talented Meowstic, and I now laugh at my own former misconceptions while rubbing my hands and licking my chops at the though of the new soloing avenues that opened to me now that I saw the errors of my ways.

To put it simply, the female version of Meowstic is an awesome fighter. That aloof cat with Chanel-ish elegance treated me to one of the most thrilling and enjoyable Pokemon solo run I've ever had, period. Not only does she have pretty decent stats—especially when it comes to Sp.Attack and Sp.Defense—but her move pool is absolutely staggering. Never before have I cruised with a 'Mon that can learn so many different types of special moves: on top of her trademark Psychic moves—which are beautifully destructive, en passant—my Meowstic could learn some Ghost moves, Bug moves, Electric moves and Grass moves as well as some Dark and Normal moves. Talk about a wide array of abilities! And since her Sp.Attack is quite high, lady Meowstic hits like a beast despite her delicate and gracious looks. Never judge a book by its cover indeed, and never assess a 'Mon's solo run abilities just by checking its type. The stats and move pool are what matters; and when it comes to the latter, the more moves, the merrier the solo run. By making my Meowstic learn moves belonging to four different types, I ensured that I would never struggle against any 'Mon—on top of keeping my run highly entertaining.

Technical considerations aside, cruising Kalos again was immensely pleasant. I enjoyed it even more than the first time around, because I knew what to expect and was not bothered anymore by things that annoyed me during my first X run—such as the bunch of kids following me, the mass of coffee houses and hotels and the tipping. Heck, even Lumiose became enjoyable once I figured out safe ways to navigate it! I also managed to wrap my head around the Pokemon-Amie feature and to use it to great effect, effectively making my Meowstic and I become "best friends forever"—to quote the game's own words. On top of being enjoyable, the Pokemon-Amie petting-heavy and treat-laden brand of pampering produced stellar performances in battles, with my Meowstic routinely landing critical hits and avoiding attacks and status effects. Cherry on the cake—indeed—the Pokepuffs looked like choux à la crème, a fluffy and delicious French pastry. Miam! Apart from that, it was business as usual: I cruised around, took down every single Trainer and Gym Leader standing in my way, beat the Elite Four, shed a tear when AZ was reunited with his beloved 'Mon Floette, and enjoyed the whole trip immensely.

In a nutshell, my Meowstic solo run of Pokemon X gloriously exceeded all my expectations. I had reservations regarding the possibility of tackling a solo run with a Psychic 'Mon, expecially one encountered after the first Gym rather than immediately at the start of the adventure; but my awesome lady Meowstic removed all these doubts with mighty punches of her cute little paws and taught me in the most glorious fashion that Psychic 'Mons can very much be solo run material. This was an wonderful solo run, and I look forward to tackling more solo runs with niche 'Mons—starting maybe with a male Meowstic, if only for the challenge of attempting a solo run with a mainly defensive 'Mon. Thanks for reading, and be my guest anytime! 

Bits and Tidbits: Localization heaven

This will be a short yet sweet post, as it's going to focus entirely on localization announcements that can only be described as mouth-watering. Without further ado, here are the happy winners that will be granted a Western release in the months to come!

Tidbit#1: XSEED is planning to bring Akiba's Beat, Fate/Extella and Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns to North-America—and they are promising releases by the end of 2016, no less. There are no news yet about a European release of that trio, but that's not a problem as far as I'm concerned, because I will get my paws on these games no matter what. I'm particularly hyped up about Fate/Extella, which is a game I really didn't expect to see localized. Great job, XSEED!

Tidbit#2: NIS America apparently teased a future Western release of Criminal Girls 2 at the end of their annual press event a couple of months ago—something I was totally unaware of. In the meantime, a release date has been confirmed as well as the presence of a healthy dose of censorship in the final product. Censorship or not, I'm certainly not going to miss that game after I enjoyed the first entry so much. I was just a bit confused by the fact that the game seemed to be available solely on NIS America's website and wondered anxiously if things would remain that way; however, a quick visit on Play-Asia revealed listings for both the North-American and European versions of the game, which considerably reassured me. Trust Play-Asia for providing us with the nichest of games!  

Tidbit#3: While I'm talking about NIS, I fortuitously learnt that NIS' Europe Online Store sells a special edition of Grand Kingdom for the Vita. I was rather surprised to encounter that Special, because I had fully integrated the idea that there would be no special edition for the Vita version of Grand Kingdom. Well, apparently there is one, and it has started popping up on other merchant sites' listings as well. Now that's quite a late appearance, isn't it? At any rate, I already preordered the game alone, so this Special won't be mine.

Tidbit#4: A physical release of Yomawari: Nights Alone for the Vita is planned this fall for both Europe and North-America. The interesting part is that it will come bundled with Hotaru no Nikki, with both games safely tucked on the same cartridge. I've been toying with the idea of giving the latter a try but never actually purchased it; and upon learning about that planned dual release, I'm immensely glad that I waited. Once again, a gorgeous special edition is available, but I'm going to pass on this one and concentrate rather on the game alone.

That's it for the exciting gaming tidbits of the moment, dear fellow gamers. A lot of thrilling releases await us, and the gaming fall ahead promises to be bright indeed. Thanks for reading, and be my guest anytime!

Collector's delight: Fate is on my side

Indeed, it is—courtesy of Play-Asia and of my lightning fast change of heart. I still have trouble believing that I managed to snatch that much-coveted Special, to be honest. But enough self-patting on the back; we're not here to dwell on how lucky I am, but rather to discover that gorgeous all-included special edition of Fire Emblem Fates.

As you may have noticed, this is the Australian PAL edition. From what I've seen—or not seen in that case—the European edition of that Special is excruciatingly rare and nearly impossible to find, with only a couple of selected retailers stocking the thing and very little possibility to import it if you're not lucky enough to live in a country that hosts such retailers.

Here's the full package in all its glory:

The box contains a single cartridge with all three games safely tucked on it, yet unfortunately no booklet. I'm sad, I really am. The poster sports the exact same picture that's displayed on the box cover; as for the "steelbook", as it was called in the package's description, it is actually an extra metal case that can host the cartridge just as readily as its more mundane plastic counterpart. I still can't really fathom what's the point of including an extra case, but said case is undeniably pretty:

Last but not least comes the 74-pages artbook, which turned out to be quite a nice surprise. It features a nice variety of illustrations sporting various graphical styles as well as unexpected inclusions such as an illustrated chronology of the series or a gallery of pixelated sprites. I didn't expect much out of that art book in the first place, but it ended up delighting me in earnest and is very much a valuable addition to that special edition.

After having gazed amorously at that Special and taken pictures of it for this post, I'm going to indulge in something quite unusual for me: instead of squirreling that game away in my collection vault, I'm going to play it immediately. That will make it my first ever Fire Emblem game, and I can't wait to discover both the series and Fates. Thanks for reading, and be my guest anytime!

New Nintendo 3DS: Pet peeves

After having played exclusively on a regular Nintendo 3DS for a couple of months, I decided to give a try to that shiny New 3DS I purchased last year. I had used it solely to play an (horrendous) hour of Xenoblade Chronicles 3D, which was definitely not enough to get a good grasp of that new iteration's pros and cons. The time had come to get a closer look, and thus I woke that New 3DS from its peaceful slumber and started playing it in earnest.

I have to admit that I'm pretty satisfied by this iteration of the 3DS, which I deem the best of the whole 3DS line-up. (For the record, I own the regular New 3DS.) It is both considerably lighter than the 3DS XL and pleasantly rounder than the regular 3DS, which makes it quite comfortable to play. The screen is sharper and crisper than ever and easily beats the display of all the other 3DS models, with colours being especially bright and vivid. The size of the screen is also quite perfect: it's notably larger than in the regular 3DS while not being large to the point of generating pixelisation. In a nutshell, it's a great console; and should I purchase more backups for the 3DS line, they will definitely be New 3DS.

Alas, as the title of this post hints, not everything is perfect. The New 3DS may be an excellent system overall, yet it suffers from a couple of hardly accountable design flaws that spoil the pleasure one can take in playing that ultimate 3DS iteration. I'm quite surprised that Nintendo gave the green light to the New 3DS without addressing these aggravating details:

—The Power button is ridiculously tiny and hard to press. I understand Nintendo wanted to preserve players from switching off the system by mistake, but they went a tad too far in their quest for safety. That button is painfully uncomfortable to reach and press, and I've already grown sick of it after just a couple of days playing the console.

—The stylus is not ergonomic enough. It's much too short and can thus quickly become uncomfortable to hold, and I really regret the retractable stylus of the regular 3DS. The tip is also too hard and too thin, which makes interactions with the touch screen rather unpleasant—not to mention that I'm constantly afraid of scratching it, something that didn't even cross my mind when wielding the DS stylus and its comfily soft tip.

—The left analog stick manages to be both slippery and stiff, a deadly combination that can transform extended playing sessions in bouts of exquisite physical torture faster than you can say "ouch, my poor thumb!" As a matter of fact, I've developped some persistent thumb pain after playing the system for a few days, so I'm trying to avoid using that cursed analog stick and to make do with the D-pad instead. Such symptoms never occurred with my Vita or even with the regular 3DS model, so I'm pretty confident that the New 3DS is to blame and suffers from a bad case of crappy analog stick.

—Last but not least, the battery life is pitifully short. I was playing the DS a short time ago and the differences between the two machines in that regard are staggering. Even with the 3D feature totally disabled, I hardly manage to squeeze more than 4-or-so hours of play out of my New 3DS before it begs to be recharged yet again. This is a really poor performance, especially for a console that's supposed to be portable. Dealing with the pathetic battery life of that thing is already galling enough when playing exclusively at home, but it must be ten times more of a hassle when playing on the go. Which I'm glad I never do.

Maybe I'm the only New 3DS owner bothered by these defects—but then again, maybe not. It find quite troubling that Nintendo managed to nail near-perfect designs with the DS Lite and the DSi yet somehow failed to reproduce that feat with the 3DS line-up. All 3DS iterations suffer from blatant flaws, from the excessive weight of the 3DS XL to the low-quality screen of the 2DS to the uncomfortable angular shape and propension to screen-scratching of the regular 3DS—and the New 3DS, which should have been the ultimate and most perfect incarnation of the console, is just as rife with shortcomings as its elders. I'm not going to scream doom&decadence and prophesy the upcoming death of Ninty, but I can honestly say that their newfound unability to come up with stellar designs douses my already very moderate enthusiam for the NX. Thanks for reading, and be my guest anytime!

Coveted games: Summer '16

My collecting days may be numbered, but that doesn't mean that they won't be epic and memorable. I firmly intend to retire from collecting fully sated after a glorious final string of gaming purchases; and luckily for me, the summer '16 release schedule seems more than willing to indulge me and accommodate my magnificent plans. Without further ado, here's my wishlist for what may be my last summer of collecting! Enjoy, and don't hesitate to share your own coveted games in the comment section!

Shiren the Wanderer: The Tower of Fortune and the Dice of Fate (Vita): A Shiren game on the Vita, of all things! To say that I'm overjoyed with that release is pretty much an understatement. As the interminable title doesn't say, this is the fifth instalment in the Shiren series and the last one so far. Since it was initially released in 2010 for the DS in Japan only, this makes me wonder if the series has come to a halt. I sure hope it's not the case, and I'll keep my fingers crossed for a sixth entry on the Vita.

7th Dragon III Code: VFD (3DS): That game with a cryptic title will be the first 7th Dragon instalment ever released in the West; and since it's a dungeon crawler, I must get it absolutely. In fact, I already did so by purchasing the Japanese version a mere couple of days before the western release was announced—that certainly taught me a thing or two regarding the value of patience in all things collecting, thank you very much—but that won't prevent me from snatching the North-American version as well.

MeiQ: Labyrinth of Death (Vita): Yet another first-person dungeon crawler is gracing the Vita. *heavy breathing* What more can I say? Joy and glory! One can never own too many dungeon crawlers, oh no precious. Giddiness at the prospect of expanding my already massive dungeon crawler collection aside, I'm pleasantly surprised by the fact that MeiQ is going to be granted a physical release. Idea Factory, I do love you. Gaming love declarations aside, MeiQ is part of the so-called "Makai Ichiban Kan" project, a Dept. Heaven-like gaming venture orchestrated by Compile Heart that comprises two games so far—MeiQ and Trillion God of Destruction. The project looks fairly promising and I'm really curious to see which games will come next.

The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel 2 (Vita): I got the first half, so I must get the second. Not much to add, really. Next!

Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse (3DS): Let's face it, this game will not be physically released in Europe, and the digital version will very likely come to our shores a full year after the North-American boxed version. If it comes to our shores at all, that is. I say, let's save ourselves the trouble of waiting for a blotched European release and purchase the shiny physical North-American version instead, shall we? Well, that's what I'll be doing, at least. I just wish this game had been given a title that fully showcases the fact that it's a brand-new Shin Megami Tensei entry and not yet another one of these enhanced remakes that plague the 3DS library.

That's only five games, which is quite reasonable. My collecting, like all things, will benefit from a refreshing summer break; and hopefully I will emerge from the summer with my collecting zest replenished and fully ready to tackle the epic collecting autumn that awaits us. Thanks for reading, and be my guest anytime!