| March 3, 2010: While I am done with school and still not employed, I can't say I have much for you guys today. I've been keeping myself plenty occupied, though. My Hanafuda obsession temporarily revived as I wrote my second FAQ on the subject for AV Hanafuda Club for Famicom, a late, semi-joke Christmas present, which has been added to the Video Game Collection page. It's a slice and dice of my previous Hanafuda FAQ, but it was still plenty of work. Check it out on GameFAQs and give me hits. :P It feels good to be getting back into FAQ writing to a minor degree, and now I'm officially a part of the NES/Famicom FAQ completion project. In other big news, I FINALLY finished Infinite Undiscovery. Phew, what a struggle! I know I could've polished it off fast if I wanted to, but being the tri-Ace Super Fan means I need to read every last bit of text, even if it takes countless hours of tedious connecting, haha. No Seraphic Gate just yet, but that's par for the course for me in recent years. I guess I beat it just in time to be two games behind once again now that Resonance of Fate is almost out, doh. Darn you, tri-Ace, take a vacation or something! I really should be starting Star Ocean 4 now, but I'm putting it off because I desperately need some breezy, no long commitment, instant gratification action games to wash the taste of Infinite Undiscovery out of my mouth. It may not be a horrible game, but it's certainly not one of tri-Ace's finer moments. Oh well, even the greats slip up sometimes! |
| January 19, 2010: What a crazy last few weeks it's been. Between my last set of finals ever, Christmas, Magfest, and having a friend stay over for nearly a week, it's been pretty nutty. Plus we're still in the thick of getting Contra 4: Rocked 'n' Loaded manufactured and shipped (if you haven't already, read the previous update and buy, buy, BUY!). Things are finally starting to settle down, and soon it will be time to start a serious job hunt. Until the next semester starts up at least (not like that's of any real significance to me), I'm going to take a little bit of "me time" to tidy up my room and other stuff I want to get done. But given everything I've just written, it's obvious that I don't have a significant update for you guys at this time. For Christmas, I got mostly practical things, which is very good, but I did get a fancy deck of Napoleon Nintendo Hanafuda cards and a bunch of games from my Secret Santa. Those and a couple other purchases have been added to the Video Game Collection page. I also bought a box of the Star Ocean: The Last Hope Trading Arts figures, which I added to the tri-Ace Collection page. No, I still haven't played the game. :P The figures are kind of disappointing too compared to previous tri-Ace related sets. Well, time to make room for all of this junk! |
| December 5, 2009: It's been awhile since the last update, but honestly there hasn't been much to add. Other than an increased obsession with Japanese-exclusive Nintendo 64 imports which has resulted in a few additions to the Video Game Collection page, I haven't been buying much. I haven't been playing much either (I still haven't finished Infinite Undiscovery nor even started Star Ocean 4; I'm pathetic), but I did develop an obsession for Hanafuda cards. As a result of that, I wrote my first FAQ in 6 years, which is for Idol Hanafuda Fan Club, and do take a look on GameFAQs. That experience helped invigorate me, so I did some work on my Star Ocean: Blue Sphere FAQ for once. I was getting into a really good groove on it, but that fell apart when school started to get more demanding. Hopefully I can pick it up soon rather than abandoning it for another year. I was really feeling like I could realistically finish the section that's been holding me up for years within the near future, but now I'm depressed about it again because I haven't touched it in a few weeks. Anyway, in happier news, SnappleMan's Contra 4: Rocked 'n' Loaded metal remix project is finally coming to an end after all the years of blood, sweat, and tears, and it's well worth your while to place a pre-order: http://www.rockednloaded.com. Of course, I'm being forced to help with processing the orders. :P So if you want some absolutely awesome, rock your balls off music, check it out! |
| October 10, 2009: Here's another small update to add a few imported goods to the Video Game Collection page and the tri-Ace Collection page. In depressing news, I'm feeling rather heartbroken because the amazing fan art site Anything Goes has closed down, apparently just a few days before I last went, which was the first time in months. And being the absolute idiot that I am, I never bothered to save any of the images to my hard drive, not even my favorites. I, of course, wouldn't go hosting other people's work without their permission, but it kills me that I don't have them just for my own personal viewing. I've backed up a couple entire sites in the past, so I don't know why I was so stupid to take Anything Goes for granted. You generally wouldn't see this kind of reaction out of me over a simple fan art site, but Anything Goes was seriously the best of the best. If anyone reading this has ANYTHING they've saved from the site, I'd be eternally grateful if you shared the images with me. In the meantime, let's just keep our fingers crossed that maybe someday it will return. |
| October 3, 2009: Another couple months have slipped by, but not so much because of school this time. Instead, computer problems have been hindering me, causing me to use a borrowed laptop for over a month. That's fine and dandy for checking a few little things, but it's not exactly conducive to getting back to business. I'm just now finally situated on my own computer again, which has allowed me to update the Video Game Collection page and the tri-Ace Collection page with a few additions to each. In other news, this should be the last time you ever have to read about me starting a new semester, as I'm FINALLY applying for graduation. And for another "finally", Video Game Collector #11 is out after a long wait, and even though I don't have it in my hands yet, everything I've seen and heard indicates that it was well-worth it. I did my most work ever for that issue, contributing two huge articles, one being a King of Fighters retrospective covering every game prior to XII and another about all the obscure Neo Geo fighters (that is, everything that wasn't a part of KOF, Art of Fighting, Fatal Fury, or Samurai Shodown). I highly recommend you check it out, not to mention everybody else's awesome work. I also just finished a lengthy piece for issue #12, so hopefully we'll see a fast turn-around on that one, which is the publisher's goal. |
| August 6, 2009: Sorry about the lack of updates, guys, but for once I'm not going to make an excuse about being too busy or something. I just haven't had anything to put up, to be honest. The main merchandise pages are all whipped into pretty good shape from Spring, and even if there is content out there that I could put up, I wouldn't know because I haven't even been looking. This is actually be a surprisingly tri-Ace-less summer, but I don't mind since I've been having tons of fun focusing on other things. I have a tiny update to the Video Game Collection page today, but even that hasn't needed much attention. I haven't been finding much worth buying this summer, but I'm not complaining. I got a lifetime's worth of stuff to play already, and that's exactly what I've been getting to. The finds I have been making have just about all been really good stuff, though, so almost no "+1" games. I even found a Master System, so I can finally play those games I've been sitting on (and it almost makes up for getting ripped off by that lying eBay crook bytebackjrd). But I haven't been finding many used games on my hunts, so I've bought just as many new games on clearance. Who knows what I'll find in this last bit of summer. I'm already getting bummed out over how little time I have left. I'm heading back home earlier this year, so in about a week and a half, it'll be business as usual. But at least I'll have some time off over there too for once, and then I'll finally get back to tri-Ace. :) |
| July 3, 2009: Dang, it's been awhile. Despite that I haven't put up any updates on this page in months, there actually has been a lot of updating going on with the site, but the powers that be have prevented me from putting up a notice until now. First off, my schoolwork had me insanely busy practically right up until my flight, and then I had a big wedding to worry about (not my own just yet, hehe). But I worked like mad in those couple days before taking off to bring a bounty of new information and pictures to the Valkyrie Profile doujinshi page, which includes a whopping five new mini-reviews. They still look lonely among the sea of listed comics, but at least I can say I actually own several normal Valkyrie Profile doujinshi now. I actually got many other doujinshi too, including four awesome comics related to Star Ocean 2 and Blue Sphere created by one of the artists for the official 4-koma books (and some others recruited to contribute as well). So in a way it's almost like finding more official comics that I never knew existed. The only bummer is that I missed out on getting a few more doujinshi for cheap like an idiot. :( But I did finally land the third party Star Ocean guide book, which now has full information and a review on the Star Ocean Merchandise page. That was definitely sorely missing, and now my collection should only be lacking one commercially released product, which appears to be a game novel (so not THAT thrilling). It's kind of exciting to think I'm so close to essentially having a complete subset within my general tri-Ace collection. And, of course, the tri-Ace Collection page has all the new items. So after I threw all that work together, I had no time to put a message here, and once I got settled in on my summer vacation, I soon lost access to my site for a few weeks due to a system-wide password reset. But now I'm back in, I got the Video Game Collection page updated with my summer huntings finds so far, and I can finally share with you guys all the activity that has taken place. :) |
| April 28, 2009: I've been pretty swamped with school as of late, but we're pulling into the home stretch now and the spring break gave me a nice opportunity to get myself back on track. Since I have a fairly good hold on things, I figured an update was in order, so check out the Valkyrie Profile doujinshi pages for a couple new comics and lots of new pictures. I've also done some small updates to the tri-Ace Collection page and the Video Game Collection page. I'll have much more to add to the tri-Ace collection soon, though, as I just hit a windfall of doujinshi, and this time it isn't even all naughty, haha. Of the ten I currently have coming to me, four are normal Valkyrie Profile doujinshi, which is great because that page is looking pretty sad with only one little mini-review. That should make for a fun update, but until then, I'm off! |
| March 8, 2009: Another small update to the Valkyrie Profile doujinshi page, this time to add some new pictures to Kougen Tenjouraku and to add a brand new doujinshi called Shine. While I was at it, I also kicked the 2007 updates off to the old updates page. |
| March 7, 2009: Just a tiny, insignificant update to the tri-Ace Collection page today to add my newly acquired Lenneth guide. |
| March 6, 2009: If you've been following the last few updates, you've probably noticed a pattern, and now that I'm done, it's time to make it official: I've fully updated the Star Ocean: Blue Sphere Merchandise page to have mini-reviews for every product I own and to include every bit of information I can provide for said items. It's probably been at least a couple years that I've been meaning to do this, and now I'm prouder of the page than ever. I own the vast majority of the items related to Blue Sphere at this point and since I don't imagine there is much of anything that I haven't discovered yet, updates to the page beyond this point will be few and far between. It's about as close to a 100% complete resource for Blue Sphere merchandise as you're gonna find. :) In other minor news, I added my new Nel figure to the tri-Ace Collection page (only need Roger now!) and the first game added to the Video Game Collection page in over a month (I'd say I've been a good girl, but all the tri-Ace shopping kinda cancels out my abstaining on games, hehe). And if you're wondering why I'm not gushing about Star Ocean 4 yet, I still haven't bothered to pick it up. Almost did at GameStop, but I didn't want their one and only crappy, creased guide. I'll probably wait for Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume to come out first, and pick up that game's guide with the Star Ocean stuff. I've learned my lesson having seen how expensive all the other Valkyrie Profile guides have become. |
| February 28, 2009: Another tiny random update for you guys, this time to add a couple new pictures to the Seraphic Knight doujinshi on the Valkyrie Profile doujinshi page. |
| February 27, 2009: Man, I'm such a bad tri-Ace (super) fan lately. Star Ocean 4 has been out in the US for a few days now (slightly longer in Japan), and I haven't even bothered to buy it yet. And I'm still sitting at the beginning of disc 2 in Infinite Undiscovery. Instead of wanting to tear into those games, I'm more interested in reading comics and thinking about the old games. Maybe I'm a little burnt out on new releases. Sure, teenagers could keep up with tri-Ace and half a dozen other RPG developers, but school has me worn pretty thin lately. I'm still slowly working on updates, though, but I don't have a "real" one for ya today, sadly. Just updating the tri-Ace Collection page with my first ever doujin album. |
| February 22, 2009: Unlike the last couple of updates, this one was rather spur-of-the-moment and unplanned, but when an opportunity presents itself, I may as well take advantage. So on both Valkyrie Profile doujinshi pages you'll find plenty of new pictures and information, along with a few newly listed comics. It's become quite a challenge determining what doujinshi to add these days. With Valkyrie Profile 2 (and even Toga o Seoumono to some extent) featuring many of the same characters as in the original Valkyrie Profile, it's becoming almost impossible to determine which game a comic is based on. Take, for example, Lenneth and Lezard doujinshi. How do I determine which game each comic is related to? Well, the first tip-off is the date. If a doujinshi came out long before Valkyrie Profile 2, then it's pretty obvious, but considering the lasting popularity of the original and the Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth port for PSP, there are still circles producing comics based on the first Valkyrie Profile. So I find myself having to pay attention to little details I never thought much about before. Like what do Lezard's clothes look like? Since he wore a different outfit in Valkyrie Profile 2, there's an easy way to get my answer. But if I don't own the comic myself (and the vast majority I don't), pictures can be deceiving. I may only see characters and outfits from the original, but different sections of the book may cover the sequel. And my policy is that products covering more than one game have to get their own page for multi-game products. So there's a lot of room for error, and you may notice one here and there. Never hesitate to point out a mistake to me if you see one. So why I am talking about all this? Well, I guess just to give you guys some insight into what goes into the updates I bring you. :) |
| February 20, 2009: What do you mean "there's more"? ... */Star Fox 64 promo video* That's right, Bob, one week later and I got another update, as promised (tooting my own horn a little, I know, hehe). There's more new stuff on the Star Ocean: Blue Sphere Merchandise page in the form of a mini-review for the second Premium Stories manga. And I'm finally giving some love to the Star Ocean Merchandise page. Not that I don't want to give more attention to the page; it's just that there are so few products and the ones I'm missing have been quite elusive. After all these years I finally nabbed a decent-priced copy of the official guide book, so you'll find a mini-review on that as well as freshened up text for everything else (man, my writing sucked back then). And, of course, I had to update the tri-Ace Collection page. I also did some cleaning up around here by bumping the 2006 updates off to the old updates page. More to come in the future, so stay tuned! |
| February 13, 2009: Well, if you've been taking notes, you remember that I've been on a manga kick and promising a big update in the near future, and while it took me a couple weeks to polish it off, you can now see the fruits of my labor on the Star Ocean: Blue Sphere Merchandise page. Yep, that's right, I've read and reviewed the entire Star Ocean: Blue Sphere series now, and, man, why didn't I do this earlier? I was actually left with the same melancholy I have after beating a game of something like Wonder Project J2. I had no idea that the series would end up becoming THAT good, and that emotionally moving. I loved the Star Ocean: Second Story series, but it just doesn't compare. And if you need any more convincing to pick up the series if you haven't already, check out Eternal Manga Scanlations on the links page, where you can enjoy a few chapters of the series in English, just as I did. And even better news, don't expect this to be the end of it; I got more up my sleeves. tri-Ace has really been on my mind a lot lately (as if it ever isn't), and I've also added several more items to the tri-Ace Collection page. But not everything can be good news. Last time I was complaining about the localization of Star Ocean: Second Evolution, but apparently Star Ocean 4 is getting it even worse. Apparently, Square Enix thinks it's 1995 again, and that Americans are "scared" of anime. The US release of Star Ocean 4 received a complete interface overhaul, with all the hand-drawn portraits replaced with CG and the menu redesigned, in a sad attempt to "Westernize" the game. Apparently someone forgot that the Star Ocean series has ALWAYS had anime portraits and that even if you take out the drawings the models themselves still look like anime in 3D. Argh. So, so stupid. And since the regional lockout on the 360 is annoying as all hell, I may be forced to play the US version, even though I haven't played through a Star Ocean in English since Star Ocean: The Second Story (which is coincidental, but it resulted in me avoiding the recent bad localizations). Between some of the flaws in tri-Ace's recent games, the difficulty I've had in obtaining some as I want them, and the localization annoyances, it almost makes me want to stop keeping up with each new release and just enjoy the older titles more, or their related products as I've been doing. I guess I'm just being grumpy as tri-Ace still owns my soul (or at least my bank account), but basking in some nostalgia never hurts. |
| January 26, 2009: While I had a setback in the form of a week's worth of hair-pulling computer problems, I've been working hard all month to bring some satisfactory updates before the semester squeezes me dry. I've really been in a manga frame of mind as of late, largely due to the fact that I keep finding great deals, for some reason. If you check out my tri-Ace Collection page, you'll see I've really increased my number of Supercomics as well as my number of SO3-related manga. I actually started a Word file list of Supercomics just on a whim. Knowing the history of the Supercomic series isn't really important from the perspective of tri-Ace collecting, but when you see all those random numbers on your shelf, you start to wonder what comics fell in between. Through looking at the preview sections at the end of the one's I own, I was actually able to create a pretty comprehensive list, and then I filled in some gaps with Amazon Japan. If I ever get a full list, maybe I'll throw it on my site, for those who may be interested in collecting comics related to other RPG franchises. The most depressing thing I learned in my research, however, was that the line was canceled just a few years ago. I had no idea; I thought it was still going to this day. :( That's a pretty big loss to game-related manga history. I learned that Radiata Stories was able to get one Supercomic before it ended, but that was it. Oh well, moving on to happier talk, I haven't been solely buying and focusing on official manga, so I have a nice update to the "hidden" Valkyrie Profile doujinshi page. I got two new hefty mini-reviews for you, and some added info and photos, so do check it out. One of the comics is really worth adding to your collection too. And I have the usual update to the Video Game Collection page. In general tri-Ace news, I finished Valkyrie Profile: Toga o Seoumono, and now I'm on disc 2 of Infinite Undiscovery. I hope I can finish it fast because I had no idea Star Ocean 4 was coming so soon. Boy, just compare it to Star Ocean 3. That development period was so long that I was waiting years, and it was no sweat keeping up with the slow trickle of news. Second Evolution also just came out in the US, and the needless name changes are just as frustrating as ever. Why, oh why, can't the Star Ocean series get the proper respect it deserves with a good localization team and not these arrogant hacks? Anyway, this update is just a taste of what's to come, and even though school starts up tomorrow, I got enough already done that I should have an even bigger update ready for you before I get overloaded. |
| January 7, 2009: Wow, school sure caught me off guard. While it's not unusual for a heavy semester to keep me too busy to update for months, everything was going so smoothly this semester for a couple months and then *boom*, totally swamped until the end, despite that I wasn't even full time. I swear, I'll be happy if I never have to look at linear algebra ever again. Now that Christmas and MAGfest are over with, I can enjoy what's left of my vacation just relaxing at home. I got a nice little update to the Valkyrie Profile doujinshi page, with some new pictures, info, and even a couple new comics (which, believe it or not, aren't even recent creations; where are these things hiding all these years?). Expect another update in the near future as I have a couple doujinshi on their way to me, so time to whip up more reviews. I've also been updating the Video Game Collection page. Looks like I totally missed out on talking about Valkyrie Profile: Toga o Seoumono at release. I put that and Infinite Undiscovery on hold for much of the second half of the semester. I still haven't gotten back to Infinite Undiscovery, and I've only recently cracked back into Valkyrie Profile. I'm in the final chapter now. Honestly, I really don't know what to make of the game. I want to say it's great, and it does have many excellent qualities, but much of my time with it has been dreading the idea of playing. It's as if tri-Ace included every dirty design idea they could think of to purposely annoy and frustrate the player. The game is just incredibly cheap and unfair at times. And you guys know I like a good challenge; I just want it to be a well-balanced, fair challenge, where I only have myself to blame for any difficulties I'm having. Thankfully, having passed the horrid Chapter 3, I've been finding making progress much more pleasant lately, but I think I'd still have to rank this among tri-Ace's lower efforts, even if it still is a very good game overall. It's just a shame they can't reach the greatness of the original Valkyrie Profile or their previous handheld outing, Star Ocean: Blue Sphere. |
| October 26, 2008: Another small update to add some imports to the Video Game Collection page and a manga to the tri-Ace Collection page. Although, this update is a bit special because after all these years, I have finally hit 1000 games! I don't know if I should be proud or not, haha. It's crazy that I have so many, but I always welcome more and there's tons of classics I still don't even have. I think I've cut back in recent years, though, both to hold onto more of my money and because I know I'm going to move, quite possibly cross-country, someday. I don't want to have a really massive collection until we're at least situated in our lives with our own home and careers. In other news, I haven't been able to play Infinite Undiscovery much the last week since I had to give back the 360 for the time being. Now I'm starting to get really excited about the new Valkyrie Profile coming out in just a few days. :) |
| October 15, 2008: Just a dinky update to add one game to the Video Game Collection page today, but I did also update the foreword at the top. In other news, I'm a few hours into Infinite Undiscovery. :) The intro sequences were pretty frustrating, but now that I'm finally into the normal game, I'm starting to really enjoy myself. Hopefully it'll be even more fun when I really start to understand all the details of the game. |
| October 12, 2008: Hurray, I finally have Infinite Undiscovery! We said a big "F-U" to GameStop (not literally, but we did argue with their incompetent customer service for quite some time and told them that their handling of the matter had been completely unacceptable), and Amazon.com pulled through where GameStop should have. The only bummer, besides the massive hassle, over a month wait, and losing a few dollars on handling that GameStop refuses to refund, is that we bought the promo foil print off of eBay, yet Amazon is so cool that it came with the game unbeknownst to us, so it was a waste of money buying that extra one. I haven't played the game yet since I'm still working out my playing arrangement (I don't own a 360; maybe I'll bother by the time Star Ocean 4 comes out), but I have read the manual cover to cover, which is the first time I've done so with a tri-Ace game since... what, Valkyrie Profile? You know, importing the Japanese games and all. I'm really excited about the prospect of playing a tri-Ace game in English for a change. While I have no regrets playing them in Japanese, especially after seeing the shoddy localizations a couple of them have received, it'll definitely be a nice change of pace to be able to read everything. I fully expect some cringe-worthy dubbing, though. :P Getting down to business, I have the expected updates to the Video Game Collection page and the tri-Ace Collection page. |
| October 10, 2008: You know, when I first created my links page, I never knew it would need such constant maintenance. No, it's not because people are requesting links, which, in fact, has never happened in the history of this site, haha. It's that I'm in a neverending battle to keep up-to-date on dead sites. I swear, tri-Ace related fan sites drop like flies. Thankfully, the Japanese sites seem to stick around longer, but I do feel an obligation to link to at least a few English sites, so as soon as a couple disappear, I gotta go hunting for replacements, which then go down themselves in due time. Plus, I apply standards to what I personally choose to add to the links page (I'd be a bit more lenient if someone actually had a request), so it can be tough to find a site that has something that I feel is truly worth your time. I also have to keep the text up-to-date because if I said a site gets frequent updates and then a few years pass with nothing, I gotta fix that. Or if I say a store has a great selection of tri-Ace merchandise and it's got jack squat these days, I gotta update that. And because it was starting to drive me nuts, I finally made some cosmetic improvements to the page. Yeah, there's no saving my site in terms of design, but I can at least show some effort. I replaced the awful solid blue with a color that actually somewhat matches the background, changed the text from that crappy Courier that I mysteriously used everywhere to Arial, and toyed with the sizing and spacing of the tables. Maybe it still looks like poo, but it's slightly less stinky poo, at least. The great irony of all this is that probably no one gives a flying flip about the links page. :P Oh well, at least I accomplished something, hah. |
| September 30, 2008: Now did I say the last update was a good sign or what? Not only do I have another update for you guys already, but it's the most substantial update I've made in a LONG time. I've been working my butt off to write lengthy product reviews for four different comics on the "hidden" Valkyrie Profile doujinshi page. Like I've said in the past, if you don't know what I'm talking about and don't know where it is by now, I'm not telling you. :P Two of the comics weren't listed on the page at all prior to this update, and I actually took my own photos of them which is a first. Now you should have an idea of at least a few comics worth buying and some that you should possibly avoid. Happy reading, and good luck collecting! |
| September 28, 2008: Even though it's been over a month since my last one, it's probably a very good sign that I'm a month into the current semester, and I'm actually making an update. It's absolutely amazing to go back to a 2-days-a-week schedule, even if those two days are pretty long. Just the time I'm saving on commuting alone makes a big difference. So with this additional time I have at home, I'm able to relax more and bring you guys a small update to the Valkyrie Profile doujinshi pages. No new comics, but there are some new pictures and info. I've also done my usual updating to the Video Game Collection page and the tri-Ace Collection page. If you wondering why I'm not even mentioning Infinite Undiscovery, it's because GameStop.com screwed up my order and their online customer service consists of copying and pasting information that not only doesn't answer my questions but actually repeats the things that I told them in my emails. Argh. Hopefully acquiring the new Valkyrie Profile for DS will go a lot quicker and more smoothly. I know a lot of things about the game are turning off some people, which seems to be the case with all handheld side stories, but I'm super excited. tri-Ace is trying a lot of new things, and if it's anything like Blue Sphere, it should be amazing. |
| August 23, 2008: Aaaah, it's almost over! I can really feel the stress starting to set in now, trying to organize everything in my head of what I need/want to do before I leave. In addition to the usual stress of travel and school starting, I also have my birthday, a huge weekend gathering, and a trip to PAX to represent Video Game Collector. I've never done anything like that before, so it's making me a little nervous. I'll finally be meeting the publisher in person too, so lots of exciting things happening. If you're in the area, feel free to stop by and say "hi", and if you get a magazine, I can sign it and demonstrate my utter incompetence at the art of cursive handwriting. And then you can wonder why I'm so damn quiet when I write massive walls of text online. I'm actually very shy and quiet when it comes to speaking, so I guess it's only natural that I prefer writing as my method of communication. Anyway, I DO have an update to make it here, believe it or not, so check out the Valkyrie Profile doujinshi page for one new comic and some additional pictures and the usual additions to the Video Game Collection page. Like last summer, I've been exploring a lot of new gaming territory. I finally got a 3DO game for the system I found last summer and I tried out my Power Pad, but now I have a 32X with no games and Intellivision games with no system. Oh well, there's always next summer. :P |
| August 13, 2008: Eep, just a couple weeks of summer left! Did I say last summer flew by? Man, if my summer was in the Olympics, it would have the world record. I'm just making a dinky update to the tri-Ace Collection page and the Video Game Collection page. It's pretty depressing that I have so little time left, but I can't complain too much since I have done a lot of gaming, thrift store hunting, writing, and all my usual stuff. Now if only I could get myself cracking on my FAQ like I've been telling myself to do for the last several YEARS. Ugh. |
| July 19, 2008: So... yeah. A whole school year has passed by without a single update, not to mention half of the summer. You guys must've thought I definitely abandoned the site this time. That was sure a busy year for me, and it's even been a busy summer up to now. Winter vacation flew by too between catching the stomach flu (yuck) and going to MAGFest. Two issues of Video Game Collector have come out since the last update - the 10th just a couple weeks ago. I've been writing bigger and bigger articles, so I guess I can at least use that as an excuse for what's been eating up my free time. But since it's a quarterly magazine, maybe not, haha. As usual, be sure to visit www.vgcollector.com if you can't find it locally. Lots of other exciting things going on this past year, especially with tri-Ace. Two PSP releases of the first two Star Ocean games, one with its own PSP design, the upcoming worldwide release of Infinite Undiscovery (which marks the first time I'll be playing a tri-Ace game in English since Valkyrie Profile, besides testing out my US versions at least), and the announcement of Star Ocean 4 and the even more shocking revelation that it'll be on 360. Even I wouldn't have predicted this news. As for me, I'm still just trying to catch up on the old stuff, so if you've kept a real close eye on the site, you'd have noticed that I have been making continuous updates to the tri-Ace Collection page and the Video Game Collection page. And since I didn't want a lame update only to showcase that, I've done some work on the Valkyrie Profile doujinshi pages, adding several new comics, pictures, and info. I also made an extremely small change on the Star Ocean Merchandise page. If you're wondering why I'm not throwing all the First Departure stuff on the page, it's because the remake will be treated as its own game and receive its own merchandise page... probably when pigs fly. :P So there's the past year in a nutshell. Hopefully this next school year, which should be my last full year of school, will be a little less taxing on me (since I should have fewer credits), so I won't disappear off the face of the earth for nearly an entire year. Especially considering I have a lot of products to write mini-reviews on, and I don't have access to them during the summer, unfortunately. |