Playtest: Pokemon Soul Silver

And the Pokemon game I've been squeeing about has been finally released in Japanese. Of course, I got the chance to play it. Well, a good first half hour of it. Here's the rundown:

-The opening sequence now features a nicely rounded 3D Lugia or a Ho-Oh, depending on your version.
-The opening sequence also includes that guy who was chasing after Suicine in the Crystal version. Could Heart Gold and Soul Silver mean a combination of Silver/Gold and Crystal?
-I'm still not too happy with the female sprite design so I went with the male. The character of the opposite gender you choose from the start appears in game though. I'm not too sure if they play the same role as the opposite gender in Pearl/Diamond/Platinum.
-Yes, your pokemon DO walk beside you ala Pokemon Yellow. You can turn around and talk to them, too! When you do, you get little emoticons that tell you its mood.
-The biggest change would be with the menu. The menu can be activated by the X button but always remains on screen on the touchscreen part of the DS. As shown in said screenshot below:



So far, everything feels the same apart from the obvious changes. Makes me even more excited to get my hands on the English version!
Pokewalkeeeeeeeer~~ I WANT IT.

Playtest: Loving Love Plus?

And as usual, yours truly just HAD to check out another niche Japanese game which seems to be making waves.

So anyway, just WHAT is Love Plus and what sets it apart from the usual Dating Sim? Love Plus is what I would term as a smart dating sim.
You are (as usual) placed in the role of a lonely young man in highschool in search of his lady love. You have three options: the sisterly-ish Nene, the tomboy tsundere Rinko and the ojousama named Manaka.
It goes like any other dating sim: you spend time getting to know the girls and eventually, one of them confesses their love to you and you ride off into the sunset together.
Of course, this is where the game REALLY begins.

Remember what I said about Love Plus being a SMART dating sim?
Here's why.

After you snag yourself a girlfriend, the game starts to run with the DS' clock, prompting real time events. Visit her during different times of the day and different things can happen. During the first half of the game, you can see the RTC in effect already. I just started my game last night and it's September. The girls are in their winter uniforms and the calendar tells me it's fall.
Another thing is most of the girls' lines are fully voiced. Yes, even your name. This is pretty cool if you name is a common Japanese name. Thankfully, I knew how to spell my name right so... the girls are calling me Shin-kun, much to my amusement. When you input your name, you start off selecting the hiragana for it... which brings up a sub menu with Kanji.
Already I was greatly amused.
Also, eventually, the girls will start sending you text messages which you can reply to. You can also text them and they will text back. Messages are limited to pre-set messages tho so... no chance of sending them anything lewd in hopes of them getting blustered.

You schedule your day from morning to evening and certain activities give you certain stats. Minimal Japanese vocab aside, I can see stats for athletics and intelligence. The other two, I'm not so sure about. Of course, the girls have certain standards concerning your stats...



As you can see, the graphics are pretty good for a static picture. Of course, when you're talking to a girl, you are greeted by a pretty good 3D model. The girls move pretty good. They even have the little ticks some females have (IE, playing with their hair, swinging a bit).

If anything, this is an interesting enough game for those who are... lonely. XD;
It needs Japanese reading skills but if you don't have those, you can rely on audio cues. It's worth a look if for the experience alone.

Okamiden Chiisaki Taiyou first footage

So by now, you guys have probably heard that an Okami sequel has been announced for the DS. I've heard a lot of people complaining and saying that it won't be as good as the original or it's gonna look shitty... But come ON, guys. Give the little guy a chance. You can't really compare a handheld game to a console game. Treat em like two separate animals, sequel or no.
Personally, I'm happy that the DS is getting an Okami game. I've long wanted to play it seeing as I'm fond of legends and anything remotely mythical in origin. I always thought the touch screen would make for a great Celestial Brush.
My prayers have been answered!
For Okamiden, it seems you play as Amaterasu's... son? Chibiterasu. And he is ADORABLE. Two seconds into seeing the picture, I squeed in joy. And you can take along other characters who ride on your back and help you in battle.

Anyway, here's the first footage of the game! No sound yet... I gotta say... it does look pretty good. I'm excited!



No, there is no audio for this video.

First Impressions: Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days

Well, it's finally out and I've gotten myself a first taste of it. Mm.. My first Kingdom Hearts game.
Anyway, we all know how big the KH franchise has been and if you guys know me, I'm actually quite skeptical about it. I thought the first game was innovative and the second was nothing more than pure fanservice without a point.
Let's see if this edition will change my mind, shall we?

I can't really comment on the plot for now as I can't read Japanese for the life of me and there aren't any audio cues for me to pick up so... we'll have to wait until the English edition for me to judge the plot.
For now, I'll tell you what I think of the game in terms of graphics and gameplay.

You play as Roxas, a member of Organization XIII and as a member of said Organization, you get to be Xemnas' (At least I think it was Xenmas and not Saix) errand boy and go on different missions with the rest of the Org members. Most of these missions as far as I've noticed involve taking out a certain enemy.

Graphics wise, this is a very impressive DS game. If I didn't know better, I'd say I was looking at a PSX game. Yes, PSX. Not PS2. FMVs are slightly rare after the first day and these are done with full voiceover. Said FMVs are also skippable with the start button. GOOOOD Squeenix. You learned.
During game story sequences, you find yourself with moving characters that have static faces. I still find it slightly strange when you're talking to a guy whose mouth isn't moving.

I have a slight tick with the camera though. It keeps moving around and at times, I've had Roxas slashing right at me in the heat of battle. It gets to be a bit annoying at times but at least it hasn't caused any fatalities yet.
Action happens on the top screen while on the bottom screen, you have your map, a picture of the world you're in (Or your target for the mission) and the mission gauge which tells you if you've done enough carnage for a silver or gold ranking. Also, you can swing the camera around by swiping on the touch screen. Not for the squeamish as the camera swings around REALLY FAST.

The panel system... can't really comment on it since I don't really know the extent of the items. The things you get are segregated into consumables, equips and magic making things easy enough to find when you need to do some sorting.
You're only allowed to access the menu when you're at the Castle Oblivion. Once you're on the field and on a mission, you're pretty much on your own so make sure you're done equipping those panels before leaving.
In the field, your magic is selected by pressing the X button and choosing it from the menu on the corner left. The number of times you can cast a spell depends on how many you have equipped in those panels. You can assign a shortcut to these spells and to your consumables which makes things handy in a pinch.

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So far, it looks like a pretty solid time killer but I can't really enjoy it much without knowing what the hell this is all about so I'll have to wait til the English release to give my final verdict on the matter.
It's shaping up to be a pretty fun ride though!