Links

Blast it all, who said you could leave?! Oh, okay, check out these scrumtrilescent sites that will make you feel tingly in funny ways. They're really great too!

tri-Ace Related Sites

tri-Ace's official site! With Square Enix taking over on both the traditionally Enix and Squaresoft sides of the company, tri-Ace's site has been altered too to match the main Square Enix site (though they are still an independent third party). This is the third major revision I've seen made to the site in all the years I've been checking it. While the layout is cleaner and slicker, we unfortunately lose a large percent of the content that was there previously. Honestly, there's not much to find here now, besides a listing of all their games, nearly all of the albums related to the games, and links over to Amazon and Square Enix. Well, whatever changes the site may go through, I gotta give credit where credit is due. And, hey, I'm sort of a museum curator of old tri-Ace site content, so their stuff lives on here. :)

My favorite unofficial tri-Ace related site. It's a great source for getting stuff on the first Star Ocean game, and it also covers Star Ocean 2, Star Ocean: Blue Sphere Valkyrie Profile, and even the Tales series. It's pretty nifty all around. The original owner abandoned it for some time and the Digimon fangirl temporarily running it didn't ever update, but recently the original owner took back the reigns. However, he appears to have lost his passion for tri-Ace, so we may not see much of any new content. Even if nothing new ever gets added, though, it still is worth visiting due to the wealth of content it already has.

Simoom.net has been around just about as long as I can remember, as far as Star Ocean sites go. It's one of the oldest and biggest Japanese sites related to the series, so you could probably call it the quintessential Japanese Star Ocean site. Unfortunately, like most Japanese fan sites, its layout is kind of bare and very text-heavy, so unless you know a little Japanese, the huge amount of information will probably be lost on you. However, there is some nice fan art and custom sprites to appreciate, even if you have no clue what the word "nihongo" means. :P

Sure, the site design is straight out of 1999 (not like I'm one to talk), but Realm of Stars has three big factors going for it - it's an American Star Ocean fan site that has actually survived several years, unlike most, it's been updated within the past year, and it's got some unique content. As a hodgepodge of material, you'll find character profiles, random images, including the rarely seen Minato Koio-designed trading cards, and other stuff, but the most interesting is the complete list of Private Actions and Endings in Star Ocean 2. While the former could be found in, say, the Prima strategy guide, you'll be hard-pressed to find many other resources that list, describe, and even provide some pictures for all 86 endings. Neat, useful stuff.

I normally don't like linking to sites that hand over every bit of an official product since I want people to support the creators of the goods we enjoy, but Eternal Manga Scanlations has their heart in the right place. They encourage people to buy the manga they scan and translate, and I would recommend the same as it was a joy to go through my comics while glancing over to their scans. Also, what really impresses me with Eternal Manga is the quality of their work. With too many scanlation groups, the translators don't speak English as their first or even second language, and without skilled proofreaders to clean up their work, you're left with translations that are sometimes just as hard to decipher as attempting to read the Japanese dialogue. No such worries here, though, Eternal Manga has the highest of standards in both image quality and translation, which is exactly what series like Star Ocean: Blue Sphere and Star Ocean: Second Evolution deserve. Sure, most of their work is for Tales manga, but do check out what they have, if only to get a taste of what the series are like in English, and then browse the rest in Japanese in your own copies in the meantime.

Divine Seal is a Valkyrie Profile-dedicated fan site, and I'd go so far as to say it's the best one I've ever come across. Rather than present you with dry, instruction manual info, this site creator dives deep into the mythology of the Valkyrie Profile universe and provides insight on the characters and locations that you'd never gather by simply playing through the game. She's poured over the Material Collection and other sources to gather all sorts of various bits of interesting trivia (and some thought-provoking speculation as well). Add to that voice clips and some sample songs from the soundtracks (like me, she believes in offering a sample and encouraging a purchase to support our favorite developer rather than dishing up everything there is to offer) along with fan art, fiction, and wallpapers, and you have the makings of a wonderful site. And it gets updated about as regularly as my site, hehe. :P But hey, it's way better than being dead, like most tri-Ace fan sites!

Okay, okay, I'll admit it. I'm not linking to Mondo Maniacs because of the Valkyrie Profile stuff. What interests me the most about the site is all the fabulous Castlevania: Symphony of the Night fan art and original art. So if you visit Mondo Maniacs be sure to check that out along with the Valkyrie Profile stuff, alright? And just so you know, this is yet another Japanese site.

From the artist that brought us Vocalise and Without Sun, easily two of the nicest looking Valkyrie Profile doujinshi, comes the web site Anything Goes, which is about as good as a Valkyrie Profile fan art site can get. The sketching, the colors, the artistic vision, it's all just stunning, and the style is very unique and captivating as well. I bet you can scour the web for Valkyrie Profile art and not find anything that looks quite like this. You'll see a lot of the three Valkyries and Brahms, so the lack of variety may be viewed as a flaw but you'll probably be too busy drooling to care. A couple of my favorites are oddly of Meltina, who has never been a favorite character of mine, but the pieces of her are so striking. In one she looks up from a book with a menancing stare that could turn a man to stone, and the coloring is just so alive and fluid like mercury. The second is a heavenly bust that almost doesn't seem appropriate for Meltina, but I'm not complaining. It's so ethereal and soft that it looks like a Renaissance portrait of an angel. Anything Goes has my highest recommendations.

Apple Sower is your typical Japanese fan art site at first glance, but it's heavy on tri-Ace and the quality of the art is a step above the rest. It's got a nice variety of stuff related to all of tri-Ace's games, and the styles range from cute to lovely. From the looks of it, the site creator appears to be a doujinshi artist as well, so that's definitely something to look into. Best of all, the site is very easy to navigate even if you don't know Japanese, so that's definitely a plus for us English speakers. I also have to plug the Zelda section, which contains some awesome stuff, especially the pieces based on the older games.

While I can't say I'm a big fan of the huge head, massive watery eyes, and tiny mouth/nose art style prevalent on Scramble Office, I can't deny the artist's skill, and the sheer quantity of art available, even if you're only going there for the tri-Ace stuff, is plain astounding. Heck, the artist drew portraits of Fate and Sophia with *50* different facial expressions. You gotta respect that kind of insane obsession and devotion to tri-Ace. :) You can spend a good long time going through all of the pictures, and thankfully this Japanese site is easy to navigate as well.

J-BACK is quite similar to Scramble Office in that the style of art isn't too thrilling since it's just your typical generic anime style, even if it's quite well done, but there's such a huge assortment of pictures that the quantity alone demands a link. In this case, the artist is absolutely nuts about the Nel x Albel coupling, and I'm making a very safe guess that there's at least 100 different pictures of them. It can get a little wearisome looking at picture after picture of the same characters, but if you're a big fan of the coupling, it's a dream come true. J-BACK also does the 50 different facial expressions like Scramble Office, but this time it's Nel and Albel instead of Fate and Sophia. My favorite section is the 30 different outfits where Nel and Albel are dressed up like all these different professions and in traditional garb of different places and eras. Make sure you check out the "Mix" group in the "Other" section as well where every single tri-Ace game is represented with mixed up jumbles of characters.

Sweetpea no Koi may not be as tri-Ace heavy as many of the other Japanese fan art sites I have linked to, but the artist is so exceptionally talented that I recommend that you look at ALL the art on the site. My favorite thing about Sweetpea no Koi is that in a world where nearly every fan artist online uses fancy programs to color in and add effects to their drawings, the production values of this art has to be seen to be believed. It's so refreshing to see people still using the traditional methods, and all the beautiful watercolors to be seen on this site are just wonderful. There's even one piece in the tri-Ace section (labeled as "AAA", as is the case on many Japanese sites) where you are shown not only all the materials that the artist used but also the step-by-step process of how the picture of Jack Russell was completed.

I may be butchering the site's title, but Candling is another nice Japanese fan art site with some really excellent art based on just about every tri-Ace game. There's even a cool Star Ocean: Blue Sphere piece, and a lot of pictures feature some of the more obscure characters, which is pleasant to see after going through so many sites focusing only on the main characters of each game. This site also has some cute fan sprites, and be sure to check the "MEMO" section for more random art.

The art style on UWTB is definitely unusual - more realistic than typical anime but still fluffy and surreal like a storybook, so it may turn off some viewers but I do urge you to give it a chance. Even though the section is labeled as "so2", the art is often based on the Star Ocean: Blue Sphere, which you all know is right up my alley, as is the heavy focus on Bowman. If the art isn't your cup of tea, don't leave without checking out the fan sprite section as well. They look nice enough to have been pulled straight from a remake of Star Ocean: The Second Story.

tri-Ace Stores

While I try to keep my options here limited to American stores since I know some people may not be into importing, I just gotta recommend Play-Asia. The problem with most American online stores is that they have a pretty piddly selection, so even though Play-Asia isn't in Japan (they're located in Hong Kong), they still have a much larger assortment. If you're looking for a game, strategy guide, soundtrack, or the occasional oddball item, Play-Asia should have what you're seeking, unless it's really old. I mostly use Play-Asia to get stuff at launch. Nearly all my pre-orders for new tri-Ace games are through them. And, heck, if you use my affiliation link here, I get a slight percentage, so you can consider it an unofficial way to contribute to this site, hehe.

Of all the American online stores I've bought tri-Ace merchandise from, Animebooks is the best. It's a perfectly smooth flawless experience. Before you even place an order, the site tells you if the item is in stock, so you can avoid those painful backorders. They use Priority Mail (which is so much better than UPS), so your stuff arrives right away. Unfortunately, they've always had a small selection of tri-Ace merchandise, which has appeared to dry up even further in recent years.

I consider Animenation the sort of "mid point" between Animebooks and Sasuga. They're not quite as convenient and speedy as Animebooks, but their backorders don't last a lifetime like Sasuga. Probably the best thing about Animenation is that they carry OFFICIAL soundtracks. Not that bootleg crap on eBay. Like Animebooks, Animenation has really gone downhill in recent years for tri-Ace collectors. They don't have the wide selection that they used to, but you can generally find a handful of the more common and recently released goods.

I have a love/hate relationship with eBay. I hate how ridiculous prices can sometimes get and how the Star Ocean listing is always flooded with bootleg garbage and unrelated junk, but I love finding a good deal, the thrill of bidding at the last minute, and knowing that the seller actually has the item with them. No neverending backorders here. Sometimes even hard to find items pop up on eBay. Buy It Now and PayPal have also made eBay much more convenient than it used to be.

Sasuga used to have loads of Star Ocean and Valkyrie Profile items, but now most all they have is manga. But maybe it's a reflection of what they truly have in stock. When I placed my one and only order with Sasuga, I only received one out of my four items, and ultimately had to get a refund on the others over a year later because it appeared that they were NEVER going to get the items and were perfectly happy sitting on my money for all eternity. So if you're willing to take the risk of a long wait and possibly having to cancel an order, give Sasuga a shot as a last hope.

Miscellaneous

Okay, some may view it as a self-plug that I'm linking to the video game magazine that I've be writing for, but, honestly, I would strongly urge any fan of video games to pick up Video Game Collector even if I had never written a single word for it. My closest friends know that I have often had harsh words about various video game publications, but Video Game Collector is one of the very few that is truly respectable and offers something you can't get anywhere else. First, the price guide - there are some excellent video game price guides out there, but you'll be hard-pressed to find any others that are completely updated four times a year and cover even the very most recent games. Then there's the caliber of the writing. Heck, forget me, these other guys are great. The writers are all exceptionally talented, witty, and know enough about games to be official video game historians. Do yourself a favor and sign up for a subscription or look for it at your local comic book store or Game Rush (located inside Blockbuster Video stores).

I don't care what anyone says, GameFAQs is a fun site. I love submitting reviews and FAQs and goofing around on the message boards, and if I need a code or FAQ, GameFAQs is more likely to have what I want than anywhere else (and I don't have to resort to using Google for information and visiting sites with viruses and spyware). GameFAQs has pretty strong communities at most of the tri-Ace boards, and there's a buttload of FAQs on nearly every tri-Ace game.

Anyone who has browsed my site would likely come to the conclusion that my tastes in games gravitate towards the obscure... if not the downright odd. That's the fun of gaming. It doesn't have to make sense. Gyrating pandas and sticky balls that roll up anything in existence into a giant clump? Sign me up. Sadly, many gamers, especially those from America, just can't tolerate any weirdness in their gaming - instead opting for generic first-person shooters in a war setting or such. Oh well, their loss. For us, we should be thankful for guys like Kurt Kalata because, in addition to an excellent Castlevania shrine, he has brought to us an entire web site dedicated to games that are too Japanese, too old, or too strange for the general populace to give a hoot about. It's amazing just how many of my favorite games are covered on Hardcore Gaming 101, and I'm not lying when I say that this is the BEST resource of information in English on many of these titles and series. In addition to great information, you'll find pictures galore and insightful, witty writing. Hardcore Gaming 101 has my highest recommendations.

This is the main site of my host. It's mostly a goofy outlook on the Castlevania series (by people who don't even play Castlevania much anymore, haha). You can find a couple of my reviews hosted there as well. The creator of the Inverted Dungeon is a really cool, nice guy, and he was so kind as to give me and many others free web site hosting. There are a bunch of great sites hosted here, so do check them out in addition to the main site. I've known many of these fellas for years and years, and the community we share is still strong. What we all have in common is a crazy sense of humor that doesn't know where to draw the line, and the result is a bunch of sites that will make you laugh your ass off. It goes without saying that the vast majority are video game related, but that's what you're looking for, isn't it? ;)

Didn't find anything of interest? Well... good! Go back to my page: Got a site you want me to link to? Email me.