If Suikoden I and II had a movie this should be it!

Yes it is just a amalgamation of scenes from many different Anime. That aside, it is amazing. Makes me wish I could watch it right now. Be sure to turn it up to 1080 HD and full screen that bitch!

幻想水滸伝 紡がれし百年の時 プロモーションムービー Gensou Suikoden "The weaving of hundred years time" for PsVITA

A new trailer for the new Suikoden game for Playstation Vita.  Much more of the story and action can be seen. I can't wait!
プレイステーション・ヴィータの新しい水滸伝のトレーラ。　最もの話とアクションが現れる。超楽しそう！発売を待てないよ！

[映画『ドットハック セカイの向こうに』予告編 ]は凄い！

ドットハックの新い映面白そう！

The new .hack movie seems pretty interesting.

Final Fantasy XIII-2 Great reviews, but too much space.

It appears Final Fantasy XII-2 is great according to most Japanese players and reviewers (though the Japanese didn't much have a problem with the first game begin with...........) However it also appears that it will be hell on your disc space. Anyone owning a PS3 with just 30gb watch out! This game is said to take 14gbs on the PS3 and 7gbs on the Xbox! 

Source: http://jin115.com/archives/51833334.html

New Metal Gear Rising Trailer

New Metal Gear Rising Trailer.

Get More: GameTrailers.com, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance - VGA 2011: Japanese Exclusive Trailer HD, PC Games, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360

The development team of Bayonetta have been revealed as having stepped in to make this a bit more action packed, and it shows.

ファイナルファンタジーXIII-2 フィールド&ヒストリアクロス Final Fantasy XIII-2 Field and Historia Crux Trailer

Here is a new trailer of Final Fantasy XIII-2. This trailer features some rather indepth exploration of what appears to be an "open world" and the usage of the Historia Crux time travel function. Interesting things to notice is the actual amount of travel, the usage of chocobos, a shop and lastly the jumping mechanics. However besides all that, what sticks with me the most is the music. This sound track sounds beautiful. If the game is really anything like this trailer then it is bound to be great! Of course that is my opinion.

 下の動画は新ファイナルファンタジーXIII-2のトレーラーだ。このトレーラーの中でOPENーWORLD的（自由に探検出来る）の フィールドと時空を操る機能が見える。特に面白い事は旅の時間やチョコボを使う事や店で買える事と跳べる事などが入っています（前のゲーム比べると無かった）。でもね、それぞれ以外に僕を感動させる事は美しい音楽だ。そのゲームのOSTは本当に素晴らしい！　出る実物はこの動画の優秀なレベルを保てると本当に神ゲーになりそう。

Also　AWESOME BLADE RUNNER CITY!
それより　超魅力的なブレードランナーのような町！

Satellaview

Here is what their saying:
Big beard guy: Even those the packaging gives you this kind of feeling (I guess he is meaning the cartoon) its real! (experience, stuff)
Girl Beneath: I wonder if I can become a Bass Pro also...
Green Shirted boy: Its more fun because we have a Satellaview right!?
http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellaview
(A satellite modem for the Super Famicom.)
Squirrel: Get ride of your trash okay?
Fisherman: I have had 30 years experience fishing and even I'm satisfied with this.
Baby being held by fisherman: I haven't ever fished before but this is interesting (fun)!
Duck: Be careful with the birds in the water!

I thought you might find my translation interesting.

Xenoblade US release trailer

All I have to say is Awesome sauce! It seems that North America is getting Xenoblade this coming April. As long as it isn't on April 1st I believe them. Gamestop has pre-orders and apparently you can get the game from Nintendo.com's store. Whether you believe me or not is up to you. Either way you can still feast your eyes on the North American trailer below.

もう一回日本語能力試験！ Once more JLPT

Hey guys, I'm going to be taking the Japanese Language Proficiency Test again this weekend. Trying to pass N2. Wish me luck!
よ皆！今週の週末、俺はもうー一回日本語能力試験新二級を受験する。合格してみるね。辛いけど頑張る！

Final Fantasy XIII-2 Battle Trailer ファイナルファンタジーXIII-2 戦い

Here is a pretty awesome trailer of an expedition of Final Fantasy XIII-2 's battle system. Though it is mostly flash it does give a taste of what gamers might have to look forward too. I for one am excited.

Final Fantasy XIII-2 Assassin's Creed Costume DLC

Apperenlty Square hasn't sold their soul enough by claiming that were "focusing" on western gamers tastes with Final Fantasy XII and its linearity they have to go as far as to add DLC that is completely tailored to a western game. A costume will be purchase/downloadable for Noel the hero of Final Fantasy XIII-2. This costume will be the same as the Assassin's Creed character Ezio. I suppose some people may love this. I feel that it is a bit of a sell out. At least it is optional. You have to wonder though, will Ubisoft return the same love?

Phone Dating

According to Famitsu.com Dating Sims are coming to the Android Phone OS. Of course this will probably be Japan only. But it is still interesting...now people can get arouse anywhere they are at.
They list popular titles like Kanon, CLANNAD, and AIR.



source: http://www.famitsu.com/news/201111/30006183.html

Eye on Japan 24: Final Fantasy XIII-2 game play

Here is a very shaky CAM taken video with around twelve minutes of gameplay footage of Final Fantasy XIII-2. I'm my opinion, it doesn't look half bad.

Star Ocean: The Last Hope International

昨日、TRI-ACE社が作られたPS3版のSTAROCEAN４を買ってちょっと暇をつぶしやりました。最初からこんなに難しいのは正しい？態とこの難しさで作った？この文句は本気だぞ！俺は初めての戦艦を降りるとゲームは続けない程難しくなった。やっと最初の洞窟をクリアーした。本当に辛かった。でもGraphicsは美しいから大丈夫よ、我慢出来る！

Yesterday I bought Tri-ace's Star Ocean 4 (Star Ocean: The last Hope Insternational) and wasted some time playing it. Is it suppose to be this difficult from the start!? Did they make it this hard on purpose? This is a serious complaint! I barely step off the first battleship and the game becomes so hard it's almost impossible to continue. I finally beat the first cave though, it was freaking hard! The grahpics, however, are amazing so....I think I can bare through it.

Wikipedia's Creator is pissed that Japan doesn't give enough

Apparently Japan is listed as the lowest in giving ratio when compared to other countries. At least according to Wikipedia. Wait....I though giving to Wikipedia was a personal decision not a national one. I'm starting to rethink my button in the corner up there.


source: http://jin115.com/archives/51829056.html

Your Guru

Hello Readers and Disciples. I am the Otaku Guru. I meditate and practice on the Dharma (Dao) of everything Otaku. I do this so that my Otaku Karma may flow to all other nerds/geeks and Enlighten them. I use the term Otaku in the loose sense as my articles usually pertain to Geek culture in general. Moreover, as I am currently trying to improve my Japanese language skills I might type Bilingual posts from time to time. My goal for this page is to create a place where people can come and enjoy reading about Japanese gaming/anime culture as well as current events. I hope you all enjoy.

Eye on Japan: Dragon Quest Collection Wii

Here is an awesome trailer for the new Dragon Quest 25 Anniversary Collection game. Comes with the first three games in both their Famicom and Super Famicom versions plus an Anime opening and Omake. Seems pretty interesting. I want to give it a try! これはドラゴンクエストの二十五年の記念のためのシーリスの特集ゲーム。このゲームはファミコン版の最初の三のドラゴンクエストとスーパーファミコン版の両方が入っています。それより、新アニメの場面も追加さらた！本当に面白いと思う。僕はやりたい！

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKKNKe-G36o

Was everything from 1997-2000 cooler?

Don't get me wrong. I'm a 80s kid. I have played all the games since way back when and watched anime from the 70s and beyond. But seriously it just feels to me that 1997 was a sweet spot in gaming, anime, manga ect.
Game examples: FFVII, FFVIII,FFIX FFX,
Suikoden II
Chrono Cross
Xenogears
Legend of Mana
Panzer Dragoon Saga
Arc the Lad II and III
Dew Prism (Threads of fate)
Dragon Quest VII
Anime:
Trigun
Cowboy Bebop
Outlaw Star
Orphen
Gundam Wing
Berserk
Thats just to name of a few of my favorite ones.
Its sad. It seems like during that small window of three to four years we were at an all time high. A peak of creative juices from Japan. Now it feels that Japan might be experiencing the same thing the US is. Where in the U.S everyone keeps remaking 80s and 90s movies because no one either has the budget, wants to take the risk, or has the creative mindset to make something new, original and breath taking. I really wish we could change that. I'm into retro gaming. But retro-ing everything isn't what I'm all about. I love the old stuff. the only reason I revel in the old is because only a bit of the new has touched me. Sadly, the bit of the new that hits that sweet spot is trying hard to emulate the old...but not always in an original way. That is why I like to give new things a fair try. Sure Catherine wasn't a typical Shinmegaten game but it was amazing for what it was. Final Fantasy XIII gets a lot of crap from FF fans, but despite the lack of towns and the linearity of it all it was still original and thinking forward, and I like that.

Eye on Japan 23: Devil May Cry HD Collection

It seems that Capcom realize that they could possibly have severely hurt a fan base for one of their best selling products by allowing Ninja-Theory to Euro-trash Devil May Cry. I suppose they also realized they could cash in on by making HD versions of their older games. My ranting aside this looks to be the best way to play the three wonderful games from last gen (yes I'm including DMC2 in that statement, bite me!).

Either way here is a new trailer in case your are as Gungho as I am for this.

Eye On Japan Special RPG Talk: North Americans say SCREW YOU NINTENDO!

Many people have been supporting the efforts of Operation Rainfall (a group who has been actively pursuing answers and attempting to persuade Nintendo of America into action on Xenoblade, Pandora’s tower and Last Story localization.) there link can be found here http://oprainfall.blogspot.com/ .

However despite all our efforts Nintendo of America has chosen the casual Iphone app on your big screen loving gamers over the people who made Nintendo what it was today. Yeah sure Nintendo is doing great in Europe but you know what Nintendo? Europe used to not even have a market for games especially JRPGS, almost none were sent there. If it weren’t for North Americans also supporting these games Nintendo wouldn’t be as big as it is world wide it would have stayed in Japan and small areas of Asia. So Screw you Nintendo for Screwing us. I know this is probably a ploy to get Ninendo of Europe to do all your hard translation work so you can just port it to North America but outright denying us Xenoblade while releasing Last Story is SICK! I hope the developers Mistwalker never work with you again since your holding their amazing product back. If these games are never released here I might as well boycott Nintendo. Sure we get amazing RPGs on the DS but those are usually published by other companies and only have to get hardware rights from Nintendo. This message is Nintendo our right slapping us RPG gamers in the face. SCREW YOU NINTENDO! ------------------RANT OVER.

Source: http://www.nintendo.co.uk/NOE/en_GB/news/2011/nintendo_announces_packed_2011_line-up_of_upcoming_games_44323.html

Whew, after taking a breather from that I’m back. That wasn’t the only news I had today but it was something I had to get off my chest. Anyways, in other news Final Fantasy XI is not only alive and kicking but is getting new content and new spells all the time. I’m starting to wonder why Square-Enix doesn’t just release an HD patch for this and market it seriously again. This spell looks pretty serious though. I might have to keep an eye out on this game again. Not that I would betray the perfect Final Fantasy XIV that is!

So for those of you interested in the new tales game on the horizon (Tales of Xillia), there has been some news lately about it. DLC has been announced for the game which will consist of swimwear costume packs of the characters. It was originally thought that these costumes would be unlockable in the game just like they have been in past games but it appears that NamcoBandai is a profit organization after all….man I miss the 90s. Furthermore, where this game was thought to be a PS3 exclusive an Xbox 360 version will now be released, and there is a chance that the 360 one will have the DLC included (Rumor). Lastly it has been noted that the main character of this game says things that are very embarrassing in Japanese. I’m not quite sure how this will translate into English but it should be interesting.

If you understand Japanese any check the dialogue out for yourself. If not then enjoy the good voice acting.

Eye on Japan 7: End of Zone of the Enders? NEVER!

Hey guys. Taking a break from just talking about RPGs to give general Japanese gaming news.

Hideo Kojima uploaded a few pictures today. A few pictures that show that Z.O.E is still on his mind. One of these pictures is a large Anubis statue. We aren't sure about the price. But unveiling this might mean a bit more. Especially since he also had a note with something mentioning an HD version (maybe meaning the figure as a joke). No price tag or sale date for the figure has been announced but I'm sure it will be expensive.

Source:http://yfrog.com/kg69799455j

In other news Namco Bandai released a new trailer for Soul Caliber V. I'm sure all the rest of you Soul Caliber fans will be doing the same as I and comparing this to the previous game. It looks good though. Every time a Soul Caliber is released I long for the Dreamcast .......SIGH!

The Action RPG for the hardcore only Darksouls comes out this next month, and if the newest trailer has anything to say about it, it will be an awesome game!

Lastly for all of you who want to get your action fix here is some gameplay videos from Capcoms new DMC (Devil May Cry reboot). Though I have my doubts about this game because of the whitewashing the series is undergoing. It could have some potential.

Thanks again guys. As always I'll keep posting news as I see it with my Eye on Japan.

-Otaku Guru Zaciroth

Eye on Japan 8: Lets change it up

Hey guys welcome to Eye on Japan for the lovely day of Wednesday 17th August 2011. Don't have alot of awesome news today but I do have three things.

First Capcom's designers are changing how Dante will look in the new Devil May Cry game. This is of course Japanese Designers input based on the reaction of fans to the young and extremely ugly twilight wanna be Dante that Ninja Theory had designed for the game originally. Capcom decided to make Dante look a bit cooler and in turn give hope to fans that long for this game to still be connected to the real Dante from the REAL Devil May Cry!!!!!!! somehow. (Sorry fan boy rant there).

Here are the picture comparisons.

The previous Dante

The new and improved Dante.

A bit of an improvement lets hope the rest of the game holds up.

In other news Final Fantasy XIV is said to be releasing a patch for the PS3 version (also on the PC at the same time) that will have a new race for players to roll. Don't have my fingers crossed but who knows.

Lastly while on Reddit I had asked people what they thought of Phantasy Star. I got a reply that was on of the most touching gamer stories I have heard in a long time.

Here is the post

zersch:

My parents paid 100 dollars for Phantasy Star IV at a Toys 'R' Us when it first came out.

It was worth it. My best friend and I played it endlessly, obsessing over it enough that I mailed away for a strategy guide from Sega just to have a list of the complete magic combination you could do. Eventually we got around to trying out one of the others. I believe the subtitle was Generations of Doom and it had a Rappy on the cover.

Anyway, we missed that you had to grab some equipment from the cellar of one of the houses and spent maybe fifteen minutes dying in random battles before shunning it forever. But even 10+ years later that same friend and I would get Phantasy Star IV running on our laptops and sit around playing it. God damn I miss that guy. RIP ABH.

Our thoughts go out to you Zersch.

スクウェア・エニックス分解！？ Square-Enix to split up?

スクウェア・エニックス分解！？

スクウェア・エニックス社が分解するか？二つに戻るか？確かにこの噂は重いけど、噂はただ噂だ。でもね若しこの噂は本当だったらRPGのファンの将来に関してどの意味ですか？それは俺が知りたい。九十次代のスクウェアとエニックスに成れば九十次代のRPG天国にも戻れるか？九十次代のゲームは最高だった。　今でも最高だ。　スクウェア・エニックス過去に戻れ！俺たちは懐かしい感じさせるゲームをやりたい。

Eye on Japan Special: GURU'S: RPG TALK #3

RPG TALK #3

Rumor has it Square-Enix are to split back into Square and Enix. Though I think competition is always for the best, lack of competition might be what is giving fans a hard time and lack luster products (In many public opinions that is), however this does bring up a question. What’s going on?!! I, being a fan of both companies before and after the merger, certainly miss the nineties when both company had a feel of their own and worked hard to out due one another. However, I thought the merger was more of a buy out that a partnership. Overwhelmed with the confusion of thinking about potentials and possibilities all I have to say is lets home this turns out better for fans in the end and the competition causes them to strive to improve themselves. I just hope that Enix can operate without the powerhouse of Square. Also, who gets the tri-ace contracts?

Source: http://jin115.com/archives/51802430.html

Japan’s Favorite Game Music

Here is an awesome list that originated from Yahoo Answers Japan about everyone’s favorite game music. There are quite a few RPGs on here as well as other great games.

http://jin115.com/archives/51802206.html

Elder Scrolls V Skyrim

In other none JRPG news, I might actually enjoy Skyrim as it seems Bethseda is finally making their characters look decent enough for me to not have to turn my head while interacting with them. Behold! A comparison to Oblivion.

Source: http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/jh9tp/oblivion_vs_skyrim_so_far/

Eye on Japan Special: GURU'S: RPG TALK #2

Aerith (Aeris) Gainsborough fans and Cloud X Aerith fans can go jump off a bridge! Today it has been announced that the voice actress Sakamoto Maaya and voice actor Suzumura Kenichi have gotten married. In short this means Zack Fair and Aerith Gainsborough are now married! Fight over it all you want but it is a befitting ending for the two fallen characters. Us at DBVG wish them the best!

Source:http://jin115.com/archives/51801697.html

Tetsuya Nomura (Final Fantasy Artist and Director) this week made a cover for Dengeki Magazine which was the first time he has done freelance promotional art using the characters outside of work since the year 2007. Its rather hi-quality artwork showing all the main characters from each of the Fabula Nova Crystallis Final Fantasy games. Its nice to see that his style can still give the feeling that FFVII, VIII, 10, ect do. (see pic below)

Source: http://gematsu.com/2011/08/tetsuya-nomuras-dengeki-playstation-cover

Recently I asked my fellow RPG gamers what they thought of one of my favorite games Nier. It seems over all everyone enjoyed the underdog title. Its a shame this enjoyment wasn't shared by the reviewers who hurt its sales so bad by giving it poor reviews. if you want to voice your own opinion about the game see link below.

http://www.reddit.com/r/JRPG/comments/jg1di/what_is_rjrpgs_thoughts_on_nier_also_my_reivew_on/

Thats it for RPG talk today. See you on the flip side

Have a great gaming weekend.

Thanks for all the good times Miyaji-san

Apparently today it has been reported that on Friday, July 29 Miyaji Takeshi who worked for Gamearts and was the creator and director of the Grandia series passed away. He was only 45 years old...He was well known for his works on Grandia I and II and Alisa Dragoon as well as helping out with the Lunar series. Those of us who have played and loved the first two Grandia games all feel a sense of grief. We hope his family does well in coping with their grief, as we as gamers will mourn too.

Miyaji-san you will be missed.

Here is a dirge for him.

Song: A Deus

Game: Grandia II

Artist: Noriyuki Iwadare

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYIDqzTt0w4&feature=player_embedded

Tekken Blood Vengeance Review

Tekken Blood Vengeance Review





今鉄拳 ブラッド・ベンジェンスの開発際から帰ったところだ。　俺は意外に超満足出来た。　最初鉄拳のCGI映画が出る事を聞いたら、楽しみにする気が有ったけどちょっと不安な気持ちも有った。大体ゲームの映画は本当にゴミだ。特に実写でやった映画は駄目だけど実写に限らずアニメ版でも 悪い/良くない。 　でもさあ、俺は鉄拳の大ファンので勇気持って俺と家族（妻と娘）は３D鉄拳映画に行った。　びっくりした！素晴らしかった。　俺はあまり３D映画が好きじゃないけど３Dでも鉄拳は良質な映画だぞ！鉄拳のゲームの気持ち伝えられた。この映画のおかげで俺の鉄拳ファン魂が燃えて、後で鉄拳のゲームやりたくなってきた。　しかし、弱点は風間 仁 は主人公じゃないから出番が少ない。。。。他の弱点は映画の目標は殆ど新たなゲームを宣伝する。　結局にこの映画は今年の出た映画なら俺の一番好きな映画だ！


I came back from seeing Tekken Blood Vengeance's debut movie. I surprisingly found myself very satisfied, When I first heard that Tekken was coming out as a CGI movie I felt that it could have potential to be awesome, but at the same time I also had an uneasy feeling. This is because most game based movies are utter crap. Especially movies shot in live action, but its not limited to just these even anime films based off of games usually are terrible. But because I am such a huge Tekken I mustered up the courage and took my family (my wife and daughter) with my to see the the 3d Tekken feature. I was extremely surprised. The film was amazing! I don't usually like 3D movies but the quality of detail in this film was very good. They did a good job convincing the feeling of the Tekken games. Thanks to this movie I found my fan boy soul burning with the desire to play the games. However, if there was a weak point to the movie it would have to be that the main character of the games, Kazama Jin, didn't appear all that much. If there was another complaint to be made it would be that the movie was mostly a large advertisement for the new Tekken tag 2 game. In the end the movie was a hit and probably my favorite movie so far this year.

8.5/10

それより全てのデビルの変身の身体が代わった！！！
ほら！！！











今回でビルデビルマン に似ているじゃない？

Zaciroth
Otakuguru

Guru Reviews: Final Fantasy XIII

I’m a little late to the game. I have quite a few games that I have bought and many that I want to play. It’s hard to juggle them, especially with Final Fantasy XIII being one of the longest games out there! However, with the sequel to it coming out this winter (2011) I figure that it’s high time I give my opinion on the game, now that I have actually cleared it.

I just want to start of by saying that Final Fantasy XIII isn’t the worst Final Fantasy game in the series. As a Final Fantasy fan I am writing this review from two perspectives. On one side I will be defending it from the new slander of everything Square (even old games that were some of the best ever) that seems to be in fashion here lately. The other side I’m going to show some places where I do agree about faults that this game has, but only when compared to other games in the series.

Graphics 9.5

I don’t know what to say here exactly. Even haters (we’ll most of them) will agree on one thing about FFXIII and that is that it has some of if not the best graphics on the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. I mean I could just present you with some screen shots, which I am going to do, but that alone doesn’t present to you a proper description of this game’s graphics. I have a hard time giving anything a score of a perfect 10, however FFXIII’s graphics are probably the closest to perfect I have ever seen. The only thing keeping it from being a complete 10 is the camera limitations. The Camera is quite a bit more controllable that other games but unlike FFXII which allowed you nearly fully camera control FFXIII limits you to certain angles that you are allowed to view from and it is pretty linear keeping you from exploring everything. The bottom line on graphics is that every little detail, character design, spell, weapon, and monster, are all amazing to look at. There were more than a few times that I couldn’t tell the gameplay from the amazing CGI FMVs. Though it is suppose to be a science-fiction setting the world and its cities are more magical and fantasy than any Sci-Fi has ever been. Everything is breathtaking.

Did I mention that this game can be very beautiful at times.

Sound 8.0

The sound track in this game is one of the best soundtracks for not having Nobuo Uematsu at its helm. That said there are three things that mar the soundtrack. First there is t he pop style theme song by Leona Luis in the English version. This song is bad per se but is extremely out of place in the theme of the game and is only played for a few brief times. When compared to previous Final Fantasy themes its lack luster and down right insulting. Not that the Japanese theme song is any better but I suppose not every song can be “Why” by Ayaka (Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core). The inclusion of the “My Hands” song by Luis is rather strange as the main theme of the game is a wonderful piano theme that plays at the title screen and in story segments throughout. Even the ending credits have a song that is much better than “My Hands.”. Now I know I may sound like I am hating on this song, but like the song or not, its inclusion was entirely unnecessary. All this aside the actual sound track is an extremely beautiful orchestral masterpiece with its only flaw being the repetition of the battle theme. I loved many of the tracks, having all most all of them pass my soundtrack test as there were songs that stuck in my head and were hummable even after I was done playing. This is especially true with the main boss’ theme song as it rivals that of Sephiroth’s from Final Fantasy VII in being epic. Despite all of my praise FFXIII’s sound track commits possible the worst offense that any Final Fantasy soundtrack can commit. That is the exclusion of the Fanfare theme at the end of battle. Not only is this theme not present anywhere (at least in FFXII it was played at the end of boss battles) the characters do not even give a real pose once they have defeated the enemy. Yes, they do give a quick sheathing of their weapon and a ready stance but this is not any FF fan’s way to end a battle. I know they were trying to make the game play a bit more fast paced and streamlined however though I understand that, it feels like it comes at the cost of staples such as the Fanfare song and towns which I will explain in the gameplay section.

The despite the colorful pallet the game often has a gritty and dark scifi look to it.

Gameplay 7.5

Gameplay is where FFXIII really takes a beating. It makes an attempt to do something new in order to break into the mainstream crowd. This isn't necessarily bad as from this we get very streamlined gameplay and a lightning quick battle system as a result. The truth is that this part of the article is the last part I am writing. It just took that long for me to figure out how to explain the gameplay and convey my opinion properly. First I really want to say that the games system is a hit or miss. As most RPG fans know the many systems that make up the gameplay are the core of the experience (aside from the story, presentation ect). Final Fantasy XIII is broken up into two main systems the support the function of the core gameplay. One is the Crystarium system. This is much like FFX and less like FFXII. The Crystarium is the complete character leveling up and job class system. All skills additional moves to the ATB (Active Time Battle system) and stat increases are allocated through this system. Unlike games Final Fantasy before it FFXIII does not have a traditional Experience Point system, instead the EXP is set aside for a weapon upgrade and synthesis system but more on that later. Instead the characters earn Crystarium Points after battle otherwise known as CP (yeah I know what your thinking hold your pedobear thoughts till later). CP is gained and spent on the Crystarium which is used to travel a line of energy up to a set of crystals which are broken into job classes. Each character has their own strength and weakness but in the end they can all master each job class. The major downfall of this system is that its hard to choose which character to choose for your party. This is amplified by the system's FFVI like style of characters to where there is no main character and your party's assembly is completely up to you. The other downfall of the system is that there is a level cap per-area. This cap posed no problem for me as it gave me enough freedom to become just strong enough to reduce the challenge (and there is a lot of challenge to some areas of the game.) but not enough to allow me to become overpowered. However in the last part of the game the Crystarium became completely open. This was beneficial in case I wanted to go back and do the many side missions and level myself up to a godlike level. If you are familiar with FFX's Sphere Grid system then the Crystarium will not only feel like treaded ground but extremely easy to get use to. I welcomed this with open arms, as not only did I love FFX's system I like the License Board from FFXII. I enjoy how Square-Enix is always creating new and innovative ways to keep a constant but always changing leveling up and job class system in every game. You may be reading this and wondering where the major complaints lay. Will tell you that if I could rate the gameplay on the Crystarium and battle systems action alone this section would get a 9.0., but sadly there is the weapon component system for upgrading and synthesis and the shopping plus the lack of limit breaks. Now gameplay wise most people's first complaints are that there are no real towns to explore or loiter around. This does give to the games linearity, however it make complete sense in the context of the game as fugitives wouldn't have time to stop and dilly dally in towns. However this doesn't make up for the fact that all stores have been reduced into a holographic terminal that is accessible at every save point. In the end the biggest atrocity is that weapon system. No longer does the player look forward to picking up a new weapon and reveling in its states, now each weapon has a base level which has to have it's growth and evolution compared with currently held and soon to be earned weapons in order to decide it its worth leveling up. That brings me to the leveling, biological items (loot from monsters) are mixed to give experience boosts then combined with mechanical components to level up the weapon. Once the weapon is leveled up to it's top level it can be compounded with an crystal (ala' a few Pokemon) where it evolves to a LEVEL ONE of a new weapon, which may or may not be weaker than the previous stage of evolution. All money in the game is gained by selling items such as credit chips from soldiers or rarities which in turn give you Gil which more than 90% of the time will be invested into this weapon system. There were a few times I caught myself having fun with this system, that is until I got another weapon that I either couldn't use or that I wish I had from the beginning because once leveled up it would be godly. I found myself spending more time on upgrading the weapons on this tedious system than leveling up my characters or going on side quests. Did I mention that this system is also the same for all accessories!!! Unforgivable! Oh also the battle system is amazing, fast paced and fun, if you can get over the party leader having to remain alive throughout the battle and being the only person who can utilize their summon unless leaders are changed outside of battle. Also no limit breaks...but I digress.

Wonderful Crystarium

Battle system glory

Story 8.0

Let me start by saying that this game does not, I repeat, does not, have the best story in comparison to other Final Fantasy games. It also does not have the worst story. I judge a story in a game, especially in an RPG, by a proper balance of world lore and character development. FFXIII is strong on one and weak on the other. Lore wise this game as probably the most fleshed out mythology, history and society of any Final Fantasy besides FFXII. That is if you want to read a lot. The story and most of the direct interactions within the game does nothing to present you with this rich lore to level that actually honors it. Instead at every loading point you get a small review and explanation of the story thus far, and as the story progresses you gain access to more documents in a compendium of people, places and legends like a large encyclopedia of everything you need to know. If one actually does read this compendium they will discover a deep well planned lore and personal background information about the characters. The bad part about this is that it is necessary to read these documents if you want to feel attached to the characters and actually understand the story. This is a shame because if feels that if they would have given the characters a bit more downtime to delve into their actual personalities instead of quick emotional bursts about how they feel about the current mission or each other. These outbursts and moments are good, and do a bit to further the development of the characters’ individual personalities but after a while they seem a bit rinse and repeat. This is especially grueling with each character’s Eidolon as in a monster of the week fashion each character has a mental break down, then face and tames their own fears as they manifest themselves in the form of an Eidolon. The story as well as the linear gameplay has two peaks. The start of the game is amazing and action adventure filled with mystery and well done drama. The end of the game is just as good as or better than the start of the game. The in-between moments become a blur going from one boss battle to the next with everything feeling like one large never ending dungeon.

The story can get confusing at times and if you take any time off from the game and come back you will have to read up to even understand the plot. That being said the game’s story if most comparable to Final Fantasy VI.

*Slight Spoiler’s Ahead*

Final Fantasy XIII has many references to other Final Fantasy games that only a keep eyed and eared player will catch. There are statues of three Goddesses, who are the keys to the lore of the world much like the three Goddesses in FFVI. You have the Eidolon Ragnarok playing a key role in the game (this relates to Final Fantasy VIII as well). The last boss mentions something about the creation of a new Crystal Legend which harkens back to the first five games, IX and XII. Also like FFVI, though the presentation makes Lightning the main character (much like Tina/Terra), there is no central man character in the game’s plot or gameplay.

Overall the story is good. The ending is touching and makes you wish you had more time with these characters. I suppose this is why they are making a sequel but can’t help but feeling that they could have worked in some more character development time within this game first.

The cast of characters

Overall 8.3

Gameplay wise FFXIII is no FFXII or FFVII but it definitely also isn’t Mystic Quest or FFII. Instead it is a happy medium being more comparable to FFX and especially FFVI. For some people this may make or break their experience of the game. For me it made it, with a interesting combination of elements from previous titles and an awesome story with a beautiful world, not to mention the quick paced and all around bad-ass battles. The characters may not be everyone’s cup of tea but your bound to find one that you will welcome into your party. If you get past its quirks it is at least a game worth of the name Final Fantasy.

- Zaciroth: The Otaku Guru

Operation Rainfall

Nintendo has three big action RPG titles under its casual gaming casualty the WII. Games that could possibly work wonders on making Nintendo seem hardcore again. These games are Xenoblade by Monolith Soft, Last Story by Mistwalker and Pandora's Tower by Ganbarion, being published for and by Nintendo! It's a matter of course that all of these games are either out or coming out in Japan. And now Europe is getting them! But no North America?!?! All citizens of the US and Canada (especially if you like RPGs) should be outraged. If we get passed up for some of the best RPGs Nintendo has to offer then how long will it be before no one but Square releases any RPGs in NA at all!?

It is for this exact reason that Operation Rainfall exists. Operation Rainfall is a petition project to convince Nintendo to bring these games to North America. Nintendo treated us (RPG fans) like crap during the early Nintendo with censored Final Fantasies and Dragon Quests and delayed releases....HELL the denial of the MOTHER SERIES!! YEAH NINTENDO WE ARE STILL ANGRY ABOUT THAT!

So if you agree with me that we don't deserve to be treated like this then go to the link below and join up! There are plenty of cool banners and campaign pictures to be downloaded too.

http://oprainfall.blogspot.com/

The online petition.

http://www.petitiononline.com/OpRain01/petition.html

Never Bet on the Duke

As you may well know Duke Nukem Forever came out this month. Many of us have been waiting up to ten years or more for this release. Being a giant fan of niche games am not one to tell you to trust corporate site reviews ,as many of the games I like get mediocre reviews. However when a game that just came out, a FPS to boot which always get bloated reviews, has the low averages as Duke does on Metacritic and Gamerankings then you have to take a step back and with it a long hard look. Your nostalgic past is great, believe me I revel in it. Yet, this may be one of those times where nostalgia should stay just that, in the past. So before you go out to purchase this game you might want to ask yourself, should you be betting on Duke? Especially when Duke is betting on Laura Croft?

Eye on Japan Special: Monster Hunter 3 Special Fan Program / Trailer

As you may know the ever popular, or at least in Japan, Monster Hunter (Monhun) is getting an HD remake of its PSP game Monster Hunter 3rd. This looks to be a rather decent remake as you can tell from this in depth video.

Vow to become the True GURU!

(Picture is an unrelated GameShark-like set filled with 2500 game saves from PSone games written in Cyrillic (most likely Russian but I can't tell).)

Sometimes as a gamer I get overwhelmed with too many games and not enough time to play them. It is possible that I may have gamer OCD which might attribute to the fact that I can’t STOP BUYING GAMES! Sometimes this is depressing, especially when I look back at the many games I have played half way through or to nearly the end but haven’t beaten. Many of the games I play are heavy story based games and are comparable to novels. It's like having thousands of whole novel series that you have started but not finished, but you keep buying more and more books until you're swamped and don't even have time to start your new ones, much less finish your old ones.

For a gamer like me who is the self (and follower) proclaimed Otaku Guru, with immense knowledge on Japanese gaming, anime and comics, it’s a crying shame to look at my game collection and see that I haven’t even beaten classics like Legend of Dragoon.

I know there are many of you out there who feel the same. So this message is to you too.

Lets stop just buying new games and start beating our old games. I often tell myself that I keep my gaming collection around for the memories of my childhood and for each game’s special worth to me. Sometimes it's just the nostalgic feeling that pulls me in.

Well when it boils down to it if I want to experience this nostalgia the best, I should quit pining over these games and break down and beat them. This applies to anime too as there are whole series that I have bought (and or *cough * downloaded *cough*) but have not finished, nor have I finished their predecessors.

That is my vow this year. As the Guru of Otaku, I vow not to reach Otaku Nirvana until I have cleared my karmic slate of old games and anime. Sort of like an Otak-sattva (a play on the word "Bodhisattva", I’m trying to smile while making a semi blasphemous statement.). I am going to follow the Otaku Dharma until I can claim to be your True GURU!

Otaku Guru: Zaciroth

Game Covers Over Time: Dragon Quest V

Hey guys, Otaku Guru here, this is a new series of articles I call "Game Covers Over Time". In these articles I will show the covers and sometimes graphics of a video game over multiple remakes and reprints. Today's is probably one of the most popular Japanese games of all time (don't argue with me) and definitely one of the most popular Dragon quest games ever: Dragon Quest V.

Super Famicom:

PlayStation 2 Remake:

Japanese DS Remake:

Last but not least, the only release the U.S. or Europe ever got, which also was a DS remake.

I would do a review of this game, however I plan to do a whole video about the Dragon Quest series. It's hard though, where I love every Final Fantasy but a few stand out from the rest, Dragon Quest is a series in which I can't say that one game was that much better than the others because they're all so good.

I hope you all enjoy and have some great gaming!

EYE ON JAPAN # 3

EYE ON JAPAN # 3

As many gamers know Japan has had a few financial problems due to many earthquakes, a large tsunami, and a nuclear reactor that has been on the peak of melt down for the past month. This however has not stopped the gaming industry from soldiering on. Many new games ,of which I am excited for, are in planning and on the horizon for release. I’ll mention a few of them here.

No More Heroes Red Zone Edition

Those of you who have played No More Heroes are more than familiar with its risqué events, many innuendos, Pulp Fiction style attitude and a much blood as perverted jokes. These first two games pushed the boundary of what many thought Nintendo would allow to be published on the wii (of course there was Madworld to further push this envelope).

The Red Zone Edition introduces even more content as it will be rated CERO Z in Japan which is possibly in many cases near what would be an AO rating by the ESRB. This is mainly due to the addition of the Forbidden View mode which at this time I do not have a lot of information about, but judging by the screen shots it most likely will consists of a adult oriented photo shoot mini game much like that of Rumble Roses XX. This game will be coming out for PS3 and will have updated graphics, more bosses and will support PS3 move controls (for those who are interested).

Phantasy Star Online 2

Many people complain about World of Warcraft, EverQuest and other MMOs and how they take are addictive and have ruined some people’s lives. When it comes to MMOs, my friends and I were all either playing one of two games. One game was Final Fantasy XI and the other was Phantasy Star Online. Phantasy Star online was an action MMO for the Dreamcast and Gamecube systems and was based off a series of single player RPGs on sega consoles in the late eighties and early ninties for Sega consoles and created by Sonic Team. Phantasy Star online has experienced a long life with free servers still up today. After PSO (Phantasy Star Online) Sega had created a few spin off games for handheld consoles and expansions to PSO. One game (Phantasy Star Universe) came out a few years ago on the PS2 and 360 and was intended to be a Sqeuel but wasn’t well received . Fans of this series have been screaming for a true and decent Sequel to this game for years and it seems that their prayers are finally going to be answered. Sega has just announced Phantasy Star Online 2 and I will admit I am excited! This time Sega is making the right choice first and creating the game for PC in order to take advantage of the strong MMO community on the PC, the ability for better server support, and the best way to insure that gamers can play wether they own a PS3 or 360 (not that it wont also be released on those to as PSU was). The game looks to be rather decent (at least in the graphics department). No release date has been announced yet.

Trailer doesn't look that bad if I say so myself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxqukE7UfLk

Tri-Ace Tech Demo

Tri-Ace (the company responsible for the Star Ocean and Valkyrie Profile series, as well as a few others, has released a technical demo for graphics rendering using the PS3 and 360 to the best of their and the companies abilities. This tech demo has resulted in a feast for the eyes which has thrown fans into a frenzy, as though it a franchise name hasn’t been associated yet with the demo there are more than a few hints (Elven girl, Space aged world, ect) that point to the possibility of this being Star Ocean 5. I’ll keep you posted as I learn more but until then enjoy the video yourself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cuXgRVMvZ0&feature=player_embedded

Final Fantasy Type-0 (Reishiki)

Finally along with new screen shots Square-Enix has announced a release date for the amazing looking PSP game Final Fantasy Type-0. That release date is summer 2011! I know that I, being the Final Fantasy Addict that I am, will be at the game store day one to purchase.

And lastly....

ChouJigen Game Neptune Mk-II [Hyper Dimension Neptunia MK-II]

I have no idea why they are making a sequel to this game but apparently the first one has sold enough copies to warrant a more risque sequel which has been promised to have better graphics and possibly a decent battle system this time.