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Suspicious Characters in Pokemon Games (First Generation, Part 2)

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Well now, here’s Part 2 of the Suspicious Pokemon Characters series! I’m glad that I kept everything for this even though my old blog was deleted. Here we go! The Pokemon Club Owner This guy loves his Pokemon, and in this world, there’s nothing wrong with that. What DOES matter is how pointless his speech …

Suspicious Characters in Pokemon Games (First Generation, Conclusion)

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We reach the conclusion of the Suspicious Pokemon Characters! It’s been one hell of a scary ride, and who knows? Maybe you’ll spot something else when you play the games again. No time to think about that though, here we go! Nurse Hostage Silph Company is under the control of Team Rocket, and there are …

The Basics of Riichi Mahjong

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You might have run across the game of Mahjong one way or another in your life. The ancient game of strategy has gone through many different variations of play, but the Japanese version of stacking hands known as “Riichi” or “Reach” Mahjong is one of the most complicated yet entertaining renditions available today. Be forewarned …

The Basics of Koi-Koi and the Hanafuda Cards

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So, got a kick out of Riichi Mahjong? I certainly hope you did, because we’re dipping our toes into the exciting world of Japanese mind games once more with a look at Hanafuda cards and one of the games you can play with them, Koi-Koi. Hanafuda cards are big in Japan. Did you know that before …

Rhythm Heaven Fever (Wii): Earn All Perfect Rankings + Extra Games!

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There hasn’t been a video game guide (or a video, for that matter) linked to Hiroi Sekai for a long time, so how about we go crazy? This is a guide (and an overview) of a charming little game known as Rhythm Heaven Fever for the Nintendo Wii, and we’re going to look at how to score perfect …

The New Leaf of Gumdrop

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So my first quarter of art school is coming to an end, and of course as finals come up, Nintendo would release THE best version of Animal Crossing to date, taking one toe-length past the original on GameCube. With rainbow-coloured sweets on my mind, I stepped onto the iconic train and told Rover the Cat …

Spread The Love! Hiroi Sekai’s First Summer 2013 Season Impressions!

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Hello again, my friends! As always, school and work picks up and I grab too many series to ensure I have as little time in between to go socialize with the outside world. Just kidding, but I really did pick up a ton of series. Ready for some first impressions? Choujigen Game Neptune: The Animation …

Suspicious Characters in Pokemon Games (First Generation, Part 2)

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Well now, here’s Part 2 of the Suspicious Pokemon Characters series! I’m glad that I kept everything for this even though my old blog was deleted. Here we go! The Pokemon Club Owner This guy loves his Pokemon, and in this world, there’s nothing wrong with that. What DOES matter is how pointless his speech […]

THE iDOLM@STER: Cinderella Girls

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A new iDOLM@STER game has been announced, this time for the Mobage social gaming platform for
mobile phones. The game promises over 100 girls to produce, and quite a few nice little details have
already been released to the public via Crunchyroll and various other mediums. If you’re still interested,
let’s go over what we know, shall we?

As the title of this article reads, the game is entitled The iDOLM@STER: Cinderella Girls, and the
game will feature a mixture of original and new idols to mass a total of over 100 playable idols to produce-
that’s one heck of a replay value right there. If you consider the previous idols that this series has produced
to date, we’re looking at around 60-80 new idols to produce! That’s one crazy lineup, I have to admit.

Moving on to the gameplay, the majority of the formula is untouched, but little details change from
within. You select an idol and their personality type, and you begin to produce them and allow them to
grow in popularity. The main game this time around? You face off directly with other units in what appears
to be a “card battle” system of gameplay, with some of the famous iDOLM@STER tracks available, of
course. Emerging victorious nets you more fans, and maybe even the costume of the idol you triumphed
over. <— How this process of stealing clothing would work in real life, I don’t eve-

The information screen.

It’s quite possible that you won’t have all 100+ idols from the very beginning to work with. With a select
few, you’ll most likely build up through the game, meeting and unlocking the costumes and idols. Not only
will this encourage replaying the game over and over again, but it’ll hopefully encourage players to indulge
in every type of idol instead of just their personal favourites. With over a hundred of them to choose from,
we can only hope that there aren’t an overabundance of cookie cut-out characters that repeat over and
over.

As for the song list? It’s unknown as of yet, it seems. My guess is that it will be limited to about 10-20
songs, due to the limits of processing speeds and physical space for mobile phones. The slight worry arises
that if a player has to play the same 10 songs over and over again with just one idol, they will probably
drive anyone insane by the time you’ve gone through the 5th or 6th playthrough. Sure, the singers
themselves will be different each time, but the song remains the same. We’ll have to see how Namco
Bandai Japan will deal with this. Also, with over 100 different idols, are we looking at no voice acting
aside from the songs, or are Namco Bandai Japan really putting in the effort and hiring over 100
different voices for the project? We can only hope for the latter.

Finally, let’s take a look at the best concept so far for this game. That right, I said at the beginning that this
is going to be released on a “social” gaming platform. Step aside and let the co-operative mode through!
This mode allows and encourages players to produce idols together, and will most likely allow other little
features like idol information sharing and leaderboards. To this point, it’s uncertain just how players will
be able to cooperate with each other, but it sounds like the gameplay will incorporate this feature and
that’s already fantastic. Perhaps there will be a feature that doesn’t allow two of the same idols to perform
at once though, as that would look and sound quite strange. Talking about the setting of the game itself, it
doesn’t appear to be in the same as previous titles, as we have a new assistant and quite a few new
characters involved. Still, nothing is certain as of yet, and we might just be wandering the halls of good ol’
765 Pro once again.

So, where does that leave us? As of yet, not much else is known about the game itself and how much has
been developed. Stay tuned for more information on the subject, and for now, here’s a pile of all the
characters I could find images for! Enjoy.

Hyperdimension Neptunia (PS3) – First Thoughts

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It seems like I’ve been focusing a little too much on anime to even think about looking into another
form of entertainment I enjoy- video games. More specifically, we’ll definitely look more into
Japan-related games, but there might be some Western stuff here and there, who knows. Let’s start
things off in the land of the sun though, with NIS and Hyperdimension Neptunia, a Japanese RPG game.

Now before we begin, this is just a first impressions article. I plan to write a full review for
this later on, but only after I’ve completely gone through the game and have a fair impression
before judging it. Hopefully this article will help you in deciding if you’re interested in
purchasing the game for yourself or not.

So, let’s get right into it. The premise of the game is based around the goddesses of the
makeshift world Gameindustri, who each reside over a different region that resembles a popular
gaming company (Planeptune=SEGA Neptune, Lowee=Nintendo Wii, Leanbox=Microsoft XBOX,
Lastation=Sony Playstation). The story begins with the goddesses fighting each other in something
called the Console Wars, but the conflict goes nowhere. In order to avoid a stalemate, the
goddesses team up against the Goddess of Planeptune, Neptune (or Purple Heart) and take her out.
While unconscious, a voice that calls herself Histoire contacts Neptune and pleads for her help
in freeing her from her imprisonment. Neptune awakens in the house of a young girl named Compa
(Compile Heart, the game’s developers) who claims Neptune has shot to the ground like a meteorite
and she had been taken in for treatment of her wounds. When Compa offers to come along on the
quest to free Histoire (who only Neptune can hear), Neptune agrees and the quest begins.

Just as you’d expect, it’s a wacky story straight from the creative minds of Japan. It’s a fun
little plot that is obviously not supposed to be taken too seriously, and it plays on the concept
of the console wars and the competition between the biggest gaming companies of recent generations,
which is fantastic. You’ll notice little things here and there that portray a character’s connection
to their company, like Neptune’s D-Pad hairclips, for instance.

"Heya, Neptune here! Check out my awesome D-pad hairclips!"

There are other cute characters who each have their own unique personalities and equipment lineup.
At this early point in my playthrough, my party only consists of Neptune, Compa, and another girl
by the name of IF (Idea Factory, Compile Heart’s parent company). Whilst Neptune and Compa share a
bright and peppy personality, IF has a somewhat tougher exterior that matches well with the other
two characters. As for each character’s abilities, they play around with some interesting
parameters that I’ll touch upon in the next portion that will involve the gameplay itself.

So yeah, the gameplay. At the base, it’s just like your run-of-the-mill RPG like Final Fantasy
XIII where you stack abilities on top of each other to create combos. However, you’ve got quite a
few innovations in play here as well. For instance, you are given the option to customize your own
button combinations and give them names as well, as long as you have enough action points to
complete the combo in battle. Hyperdimension Neptunia also utilizes a strangely unique healing
system that is very hit and miss, but more on that in the later portions. There is no open world
exploration system, but instead you select dungeons and scenarios to hit up and the game takes you
there. Enemy encounters are random and the game in itself is nothing difficult, once you get over
the initial bumps.

IF dishes out the pain.

So what are the misses, you’re asking yourself. Let’s begin with that healing system I talked
about above. Instead of being allowed to heal at any time outside and inside of battle, you set
points to certain item abilities that auto-activate according to their requirements in battle.
For instance, Neptune has an ability called Nep Bull that auto-heals her by 30% of her health
whenever it drops below half. However, let’s say you set 50 points into this skill, it would
only activate 50% of the time. As you can see, this can cause some problems in the deeper
dungeons where you’re getting desperate for health and have no ability to heal. My advice for any
of you who pick up this game, pump all of your item ability points into your first ability that
heals you at 50% of your health. If you can get 100 points into those abilities, you’ll heal
every time, easy as that. Aside from that, the equipment system is nice and simple- you buy
better gear as you go and you replace your older stuff. You can’t sell anything back, so you’re
dependent on revisiting older dungeons to rack up experience and money.

In conclusion, it’s been a fun ride so far. The characters are colourful and there are a TON of
fun references if you don’t try and take it too seriously. Hyperdimension Neptunia can be purchased
by clicking on the link; from what I’ve seen it’s got a better shipping deal than buying directly
from NISA’s site, so save yourself some money if you can.

Suspicious Characters in Pokemon Games (First Generation, Part 1)

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Well now, what’s this? This is a series I started on an older blog of mine, and luckily I kept the script
and images so it can be revived here now. Be forewarned that this isn’t going to be a “segment”, but I may
do one more set of these someday with the Gold/Silver era, since that was the last Pokemon game that
actually piqued my interest. For now, let’s take a look at some of the suspicious characters from the
Red/Blue/Yellow games!

Now growing up, Pokemon was one of our biggest pastimes. I recall losing about 100 hours of my life
trying to fully beat Pokemon Blue, and I can’t forget all the additional time I spent playing Pokemon
Pinball and Pokemon Trading Card Game on Game Boy. And let’s not forget about the real life trading
card game that everyone was into back then. Sure, these games were fantastic, but nowadays,
Pokemon doesn’t stand up so well for me anymore. We’ve now reached the Black & White games, which
brings the Pokemon count to a staggering 646, which is ridiculous, in my opinion. Of course, you don’t
have to face all 646 Pokemon in one game, but they’re starting to get less and less creative with them.
Pokemon Gold/Silver were the last amazing Pokemon games in my opinion, and I also should give a
special mention to the Heart Gold/Soul Silver remakes. Anyways, that’s not the focus of this article.
Let’s look at the crazies in the Pokemon world!

Nurse Joy

Ah, Nurse Joy. Who knows if that was her actual name in the games themselves, but she was Joy in the
TV show and that was all that mattered. She was sweet and caring on TV, but did anything ever strike you
as odd about what she says in the game? We hope to see you again! That one line that was missed by
everyone. Why did we go to Pokemon Centres? The answer is: because some jerk who was better than you
mopped the floor with you and your precious Pokemon were on the brink of death. After cheerfully
healing your Pokemon to full vitality, she says those cursed words. She WANTS to see you holding those
bruised Pokemon again. I always knew she was too sweet to be true!

Coffee-Loving Old Man

Professor Oak asks you to retrieve his parcel from Viridian City, and even offers you a rare Pokemon
to keep for yourself. You happily comply and after grabbing the parcel, you try to run off into the upper
parts of the city – into Viridian Forest. However, an old man blocks your path. It seems he hasn’t had his
coffee yet, which is why he’s lying on the ground (?) and proclaiming that you can’t go through – it’s
private property. Suspicious, but there’s nothing you can do. Return Oak’s Parcel, and receive the
Pokedex from him, and return. Oh joy, the old man has had his coffee! Now he’s up and about, allows
you to pass, and even uses one of his Pokeballs (which cost $200 each?!) to demonstrate how to catch
a Pokemon. The great thing that this teaches children is that coffee is the ultimate wake-up drug.
(Personally, I dislike coffee.)

Professor Oak

“Okay Gramps, I’ll fulfill your crazy dream of catching all 151 Pokemon for you!” Professor Oak’s reason
for giving you and Gary a Pokemon/Pokedex was because his old ass couldn’t get up and research them
himself. If you think about it, what happened when you tried to walk into the tall grass without a
Pokemon? Oak sprinted his apparently old body over and dragged you back. Had he said something like:
“I’m busy with laboratory research.” then I might have bought it, but “I’m too old for this.” was his final
answer. Think back to the TV series (if you even saw it); Oak was fricking everywhere: cheering at
tournaments, visiting at random faraway cities, and running around with Pokemon at his lab. Bottom line
was: this excuse was mighty suspicious, and Oak should just be glad that his request involved an epic
quest.

Magikarp Salesman

Just before you hit Mt. Moon, there’s a convenient Pokemon Centre set up for tired trainers, exhausted
Pokemon, and apparently, sleazy businessmen as well. By this point you’ve probably picked up a good
selection of Pokemon on your team, and leveled them up as well. Then a fat, balding man offers you a level
5 Magikarp that can only Splash about for $500. It was a clever placement, as many of us were probably
either unsure what a Magikarp was, or just was excited over the fact that we’d have another awesome
Pokemon on our team. Even more suspicious was when we received the Old Rod from the fisher, and
went fishing for the first time. And the second time. And the third. What did you keep pulling up? Level 5
Magikarps. That’s right, this dirty jerk probably fishes up Magikarp, stuffs them in Pokeballs, and sells
them for much more than what they’re actually worth. (As a note, do fish up a Magikarp later, because
his evolved form Gyarados, is awesome. Just don’t spend $500 on this hack.)

Fossil Nerd

You trek through the confusing Mt. Moon and finally, you reach the end. Blocking your path is a Super
Nerd that claims he found two fossils and that they’re both his. There are so many suspicious things about
this guy: first off, why didn’t he grab the fossils after finding them, and head to the exit (which is a few steps
from his location)? He also stands there, leaving his fossils on the floor. This is not a man who just found
the fossils and you happened to run by at that time. He’s been waiting there for you; and after complaining
to no extent that the fossils were his, you beat him in one fight and he easily gives up one. These fossils
even fascinate the genius minds at Cinnabar Laboratories, and this nerd happened to find two of them. It’s
a good thing he’s weak, retarded and a failure.

Random Lass

You escape Mt. Moon and head for Cerulean City. This path is really odd, because once you hop the
giant edges, there’s no way to return (until much later). Even more odd is the one lass who stands on the
top of these edges. You can stand there all day and wait for her, but she’ll stand there indefinitely. Later
on when you can Surf, you can go to her and challenge her in a battle, but what confused everyone was
why she was in such an inaccessible location. The funny thing is that she’ll wait there for you until you
grab Surf, which doesn’t happen until much later in the game.

Nugget Bridge Rocket

Recruiting takes on a whole new meaning when you beat the 5 trainers of Nugget Bridge. The guy at the
end looks normal enough, but then he starts going on about joining Team Rocket, and says (and I quote):
“Dedicated to evil using Pokemon!”. That’s damn freaky, and any trainer who beat the Nugget Bridge
weaklings all probably got this same message. What’s weirder is his on-screen sprite looks nothing like
his battle screen sprite. I deduced that it was to hide his identity as a Rocket, but once the battle is over,
his sprite doesn’t change either! And if he’s going to just shout “Join us, we’re Team Rocket!” anyways,
then what’s the point of a disguise? This guy makes me laugh every time I pass him.

Shady Bike Shop Owner

Wow, this guy takes the word “evil” to a whole new level. You enter Cerulean City after walking slowly
the entire game, and finally! A BIKE SHOP! So how much do I have to sa…and then it hits you. The crazy
ass shop owner is selling his bicycles for a ludicrous $1 million. And that’s great too, isn’t it, because your
fricking wallet only holds up to $999,999! Luckily, there are people with bigger wallets in this world it
seems, and you can get a bike voucher later on. But wow, seeing all those people who ride bikes in this
world; you’ll always wonder how they afforded such a valuable bike. There’s no other bicycle stores in
the game either, just so you know.

So wow, those are some suspicious people. And this is only Part 1 of the first games! Come back soon for
another article of Suspicious Pokemon Characters.

Nintendo Rocks! New Smash Bros. Nintendo Direct!

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Welcome, Smash Bros. fans! If you’re like me, you have enjoyed duking it out with your friends through
the ages, but have been somewhat disappointed at the lack of innovation when it came to the actual engine
itself.

No matter who you are, you have to admit that the items, character movesets and overall mechanics
never really took any risks during transition. I always liked how the development team added new
bits like assist trophies and final smashes, but never has the series taken such big leaps as this one will.

Available below is the very recent Nintendo Direct update featuring Masahiro Sakurai himself!

As you can see, there’s a ton of new content to be explored. A plethora of new items with actually innovative
methods of changing the tides of battle, tweaks to the movesets that will make the old characters feel new,
and an absolute mess of new stages that seems to vary between the Wii U and 3DS versions.

Dark outlines give the 3DS version a definitive look.

Let’s start with the 3DS version. Immediately upon laying eyes on gameplay videos, you’ll notice a
strangely harsh black outline around the characters; probably set to make it easier to see them during
clustered brawls on such a smaller screen. It’s to be noted that players will be able to turn off this outlining.

Sakurai states in the video that the 3DS version will actually run at an impressive 60 FPS. After the
devastation of framerate even without 3D on the recent Pokemon games, I do question how this will
hold up once players turn up the 3D slider. To accommodate for the complex animations of assist
trophies, characters from the trophies are animated at 30 FPS.

For the last piece of 3DS exclusive news, there’s a brand new mode in the works called Smash Run.
This appears to be a creative idea where four players spend a set period of time traversing through a large
map and accumulate stat boosters through defeating enemies, opening chests, finding secrets, etc.

When the timer runs out, it’s time to receive your updated stats and head into the ring! It seems like this
mode will be the gateway to those who want the more chaotic and unpredictable side of Smash fighting.
This mode will be 3DS exclusive, as mentioned.

I'm glad they added Rosalina/Luma to the roster; what a colourful and unique pair.

So what about the Wii U version, then? Needless to say, it instantly looks a LOT better with the much
stronger hardware. Textures from Nintendo have rarely looked so polished, and the details have not
been brushed off. Character emotions are so clearly visible during gameplay that it adds a layer of depth
to that of whom you control.

Online play seems to have been a big focus, and thank god for that. Recent Nintendo games have been
lacking online multiplayer where you’d think it would feature without a second thought. Seriously, why
did the 3DS Mario Party not allow for online play?

Anyways, we probably all remember the awful connectivity issues with online Brawl play. You’d either
have been on a ridiculous early-release Google Fiber connection or just straight out lying if you said the
game ran smoothly online. With Nintendo’s recent leaps in a better online system, I strongly believe we
have what it takes to make a well-functioning online feature.

So hey! What’s what the 3DS buyers getting an exclusive mode to themselves? That’s unfair!
Worry not, for the Wii U hasn’t been left out. When you are not specifically tethered to online
multiplayer with your specific friends, there will be a new mode that allows you to select between
“For Fun” or “For Glory”.

For Fun only keeps track of your winning stats, shuffles about the maps randomly (excluding Final
Destination), and some other nifty random bits.

For Glory removes all items, shows both winning and losing stats, and focuses entirely on Final Destination.

Now, we all love our Final Destination for intense battles of actual skill, but an entire mode just playing
on that one map? I know, it sounds tedious and non-expansive. Wrong! According to Sakurai, most of the
existing maps have been doubled to include a “Final Destination-like” alternative. Picture the Hyrule
Temple stage without all of the crevasses and contours. This will allow the same intensive matches to
play out, but will actually theme and vary the stages enough to keep things fresh.

So with all that said, you’ll have to watch the video to see the rest of the new details yourself!

All I can say is…Zero Suit Samus has a new design, and it is seriously badass. She looks less like the
weaker and more emotional portrayal in Other M and has a defining look in her eye that could kill.

Oh, and check out all of the awesome new characters as well. I will be getting the 3DS version (as I don’t
have a Wii U), but which will you choose? Seems the integration between the two systems will be
announced at a later date.

Yomigaeru Gyakuten (Ace Attorney)

Layton-Kyouju to Fushigi na Machi (Professor Layton and the Curious Village)

The Basics of Koi-Koi and the Hanafuda Cards

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[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css_animation=”left-to-right”]So, got a kick out of Riichi Mahjong? I certainly hope you did, because we’re dipping our toes into the exciting world of Japanese mind games once more with a look at Hanafuda cards and one of the games you can play with them, Koi-Koi.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css_animation=”left-to-right”]Hanafuda cards are big in Japan. Did you know that before hitting it big with […]

The post The Basics of Koi-Koi and the Hanafuda Cards appeared first on Hiroi Sekai.


Rhythm Heaven Fever (Wii): Earn All Perfect Rankings + Extra Games!

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There hasn’t been a video game guide (or a video, for that matter) linked to Hiroi Sekai for a long time, so how about we go crazy? This is a guide (and an overview) of a charming little game known as Rhythm Heaven Fever for the Nintendo Wii, and we’re going to look at how to score perfect rankings on all the games! […]

The post Rhythm Heaven Fever (Wii): Earn All Perfect Rankings + Extra Games! appeared first on Hiroi Sekai.

Nintendo Rocks! New Smash Bros. Nintendo Direct!

9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors – The Review

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