| 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. |
| September 3, 2007: That's it, and that's all. Summer vacation is over, and I'm back in school. I wish I had more vacation time, but thems the breaks. At least I got back to NY to find some nice tri-Ace goodness waiting for me in the form of two Star Ocean EX pencil boards and *ahem* the Valkyrie Profile Limited Box. Yes, another tri-Ace "holy grail" is now mine. :D The pocket watch is actually not quite as ritzy as it looks in pictures, but it's still pretty darn slick nonetheless. I possibly paid slightly more than I should have, but it was worth it to finally get it, plus the game was still sealed. Anyway, you can see these new additions on the Video Game Collection page and the tri-Ace Collection page. In other news, the 8th issue of Video Game Collector has been out for a little while now, and it was definitely worth the wait. Be sure to check out the site at www.vgcollector.com if you don't already have a subscription to order it or to find the nearest store that carries it. |
| August 13, 2007: Small updates to a couple different pages for you today. I added more info and pictures to one comic on the "secret" Valkyrie Profile doujinshi page. (If you don't know how to get there, don't ask.) I also added two more games to the Video Game Collection page. |
| August 9, 2007: Boy, this summer is blowing by fast. It's almost kind of depressing make each update because it makes me realize what the date is and the fact that there are things I wanted to do this summer that I STILL haven't gotten around to. I can't complain too much, though, because I have been having a lot of fun and doing things for myself. Anyway, this summer sure has been weird for game hunting. First the ColecoVision, then the CD-i game, and now I've added a third new system to the Video Game Collection page - the Sega Master System. New gaming experiences abound this summer, and if that wasn't enough, I've also been getting new game experiences from all these accessories I've been picking up like the Super Scope and Power Pad. Overall, though, I'd say this summer has been dominated by Sega. I've been finding Genesis games more than anything, and I have a huge Genesis lot coming my way with a Power Base Converter to play those aforementioned Master System games on. Good stuff. I also bought a couple interesting tri-Ace items that I'll definitely be talking about later. Well, I'm off to organize my crap before even more shows up! |
| July 28, 2007: This update is about as tiny as they get. I have one game added to the Video Game Collection page, but I actually added a whole new system in the process. Yes, you'll now find the CD-i on my list. :P No, I don't own the system (yet, and it'll probably stay a "yet" for a long, long time), but when I found a CD-i game sitting at the Goodwill among Hanson CDs, how could I possibly resist? I mean, the cover of an iguana-man in a spaceship wearing a head set alone is pure gold. |
| July 24, 2007: Today I just have an update to the Video Game Collection page to add a whole bunch of games I've picked up in the last few days. I still have no idea how I racked up so many PS2 games. O_o |
| July 19, 2007: I've been working on the site like crazy this past week, and to show for it I have a nice meaty update to the Valkyrie Profile doujinshi pages. You'll finds loads of new comics and tons of changes and additions made to the photos and info of previously listed doujinshi. It's amazing that I'm still finding so many new comics to add after all these years, although these days I'm finding ones that have been made in the last few years in addition to the typical 2000-2001 releases. I guess it's proven fact now that the PSP release of Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth and the sequel Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria have inspired artists to pick up their pens and return to these captivating characters. Don't worry, I haven't forgotten Star Ocean either, so I did some routine updating to the Star Ocean Merchandise page. I don't have any new products to add to it, of course, but you will find some photos replaced, some new ones added, and a bit of additional info here and there. I was doing the same for the Star Ocean: Blue Sphere Merchandise page, but I surprisingly came across two new minor items to add as well - a post card and a telephone card. Not too thrilling, I know, but it does raise the question that, if after the page had seemed so complete there were still some missing items, what else might possibly be out there? It's kind of exciting to think about, but, honestly, I don't think there's much of anything left. However, since there's no way to truly know that the list is ever complete, it'll always be a mystery. Finally, I have the usual update to the Video Game Collection page just to keep myself organized. Now hurry and go enjoy, or I'll kick ya in the bum for not appreciating all my hard work! :P |
| July 8, 2007: Well, here we are in July, over a month into my summer vacation, and about half a year since my last update. I'm not gonna go back and check all the old updates (I'll leave that to my bitter visitors), but I think this might be the longest time ever between updates and the only time I wasn't able to make a single update during the entire duration of a school semester. I know I sound like a broken record, but I gotta apologize for that. No, my outlook on this site hasn't changed any, it's still as important to me as ever; I just had a brutal semester. It was the toughest one yet, and everything was made all the worse when in the middle of it my grandma, who I loved dearly, passed away. Summer vacation has been pretty good so far, though, and I'm more than ready to let go of all my worries and just try to have a good time. So, of course, that means getting back to this site. In case anybody has noticed, I have actually been updating the site all these months, but only to add more stuff to the Video Game Collection page and the tri-Ace Collection page. Now I'm back in action for real, and to get the ball rolling, I made some additions and slight changes to the Valkyrie Profile doujinshi pages. The most significant change was finally identifying that comic listed as "unknown" and also getting more pictures and information for it. Seeing it sit at the bottom of the page was really annoying me. :P That's it for now, but I promise I'll update again before it's 2008, hehe! |
| January 26, 2007: Yikes, school is about to start soon! Then off I go back to classes and work, freezing my butt off in this bitter cold that has finally hit NYC, and free time will be a luxury. Don't worry, though, I still have my mind on this site. Today all I've done is add one single game to the Video Game Collection page, but I do want to talk about things to come. As you may remember, I ordered a big box of manga several months, and I'm just now finally about done reading through them. All I have left are two Star Ocean: Blue Sphere comics, which I purposely saved for last. I also just ordered three more Blue Sphere comics off of eBay (which obviously weren't for the cheapest prices ever, but I need them promptly). Now I will be able to write mini-reviews and fill in almost all of the gaps for the manga. The Star Ocean: Blue Sphere Merchandise page is already looking great as far as I'm concerned, but this will get it even more complete. As I said some time ago, I don't foresee any new products being added (besides possibly some unlicensed stuff like doujinshi), so now it's just a matter of acquiring these products myself and writing those mini-reviews. :) |
| January 12, 2007: Since I forgot to mention it in previous updates, I wanted to make an update basically just to bring it to everyone's attention that Video Game Collector Issue #7 is out in stores and available for order online, and it's by far the best and biggest issue yet. I'm proud of my own work since instead of my typical half-page review I did a full 3-page article called "NES A-Z" as well as a small sidebar for the Castlevania article, but you gotta check out the other content too. There's a whopping *16 PAGE* photo checklist of EVERY NES game ever made - simply unbelievable, and the articles are only getting better and better. Check out the updated links page to head over to the magazine's site and get information if you don't already know how to get a copy in your hands. :) And since one thing leads to another, I ended up finding three more great Japanese fan art sites that I had to link to while getting the page updated with the Video Game Collector link, so do give those a look too. Finally, I updated the tri-Ace Collection page with a Star Ocean EX DVD I got for Christmas that slipped my mind up until now. |
| January 6, 2007: I've been a busy little beaver the last couple days, although I can't claim to have much to show for it as far as my online projects go. I've been cleaning like a mofo today, but with all this time off and alone, I also squeezed in time to update the links page. I fixed a few things here and there, and I added several new Japanese fan art sites that everybody should definitely check out. The page was lacking in sites related to Radiata Stories and Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria, so hopefully these new ones will help fill in the gap. |
| January 4, 2007: Happy New Year! It's hard to believe it's 2007 already, but hopefully it'll be a great year, even if it didn't get off to a very good start for me and Andreas. We both caught a cold right before New Years, so we were feeling like poop. I'm feeling a lot better now, though, and he ran off to that MAGFest convention in Virginia. Hopefully I can make the best use of this time to be productive and get some things done, whether it be working on the site, my FAQs, or even just organizing my room. For now I just got a small update to the Video Game Collection page since I can't resist after-Christmas GameCube liquidation. I also finally cleaned up this page a bit by moving the 2004 and 2005 updates to the old updates page. |
| December 28, 2006: Merry Christmas, everyone! Even though my classes have been over for a couple weeks, I've only just now started to relax since first I had finals to worry about and then I was rushing to take care of all my Christmas preparations. Now I just need to finish up registration for the next semester, and I'll be in the clear. As for this update, additions to the Video Game Collection page and Christmas go hand-in-hand, although I did get to remove a couple duplicates thanks to some pre-Christmas eBay sales I made. Believe it or not I didn't receive any games or systems as presents this year. The additions are mostly what I got for Andy and some stuff I picked up for myself. This year he gave me Pete & Pete Season 2 on DVD (rock on), and a brand new 30GB video iPod. I mentioned that I kind of wanted my own iPod, but I wasn't thinking it would actually happen considering how expensive they are. I was thinking maybe I could get a small, ratty used one on eBay for relatively cheap some day. Andy just had to go all out, though, and even though I still think he spent too much money on me, it is definitely a thing of beauty. Now to just fill it with all of my game soundtracks and use it all next semester. :) But for the real kicker, he got a personal engravement on the back of it for me, which says: "People say, the universe is a Star Ocean." I so freakin' win. |
| December 16, 2006: Even though I can hardly relax or think about anything due to stress from school, I managed to remove a game and add five more to the Video Game Collection page. I'm so close yet so far right now, with only day of finals left but a bunch of work left to do. Even when I'm done with that, I still have to worry about registration for the Spring and taking care of all my Christmas crap. Oh well, that sweet, sweet vacation will come soon, and I can't wait to play some games (to FINALLY finish off Valkyrie Profile 2) and work on this site. :) |
| November 26, 2006: A few more days and a few more games. Other than some random imports, these are some pretty unusual additions to the Video Game Collection page. I just couldn't resist getting all three of the freakin' hilarious Burger King games, despite that I have no Xbox or 360. It kind of presented a dilemma of where to list them since each disc has a version for each system, but I figured I'd chuck them under the Xbox section I already had. I'm also the proud owner of a new Wii, and let me say, I went through hell to get it. It wasn't even my decision either since if it was up to me I wouldn't bother getting one until later on. However, my boyfriend just had to get Zelda, as well as his brother and his buddy. They had the bright idea of going to the Nintendo World store in Manhattan on Black Friday morning of all days, and since only two of them could go, they forced me to come along in order to buy the third. :P We stayed up the entire night in order to leave the house at 5:30 in the morning (it was either that or get like... 3 hours or sleep), and we found a huge line down the block when we arrived at 6:30 or so. The store opened at 7, and with roughly around 50 people in front of us (which wasn't even half of the entire line), they ran out of Wiis. Turns out they only had 100 measly systems, which is beyond illogical and incompetent to me considering of all days a store should be well-stocked and ready to sell tons should be Black Friday, yet they couldn't even get through the line waiting before opening let alone anyone else. They told us that they MIGHT get a shipment in later that day, but they didn't know when or how many. We decided to wait, and all day they fed us lies. They were just about as unorganized as any store could possibly be, and they even refused to give out any sort of ticket in order to assure that the people waiting the longest would be the first to get Wiis if they did indeed come in that day. After several hours, my boyfriend and his brother walking all over the area to check other stores, eating some really shitty pizza across the street and using a bathroom that I swear was in Silent Hill, and being kicked outside to stand in a line yet again, we FINALLY got our Wiis. We got home at 3:30 PM, so the entire outing took about 10 hours. Then I fell asleep around 6 PM and slept for 18 hours straight. o_o The moral of the story? Never, ever, EVER go shopping on Black Friday. |
| November 18, 2006: Man, calculus is a pain in the ass. This very well may be the craziest semester yet for me. And if you think I'm just making excuses for why I haven't updated in so long, you remember me talking about playing Valkyrie Profile 2 months ago? Yeah, well, I'm still playing it. o_O And I haven't been putting it off for any other game either; I just have that little time for gaming. I'm pretty close to the end now, though. As for this update, I got some a few items added to the tri-Ace Collection page as well as some games to the Video Game Collection page. Sorry, but that's it. :( But if you want to see some new writing from me, please do get Issue #6 of Video Game Collector magazine, if you haven't already. You can go to www.vgcollector.com or your local Blockbuster Game Rush location should have it. |
| September 24, 2006: Sometimes I wish I could just write short little updates, but there always seems to be something interesting to report on that happens between each update. :P First off, my big box of 13 tri-Ace comics arrived, and I've been enjoying them immensely. I got all of them added to the tri-Ace Collection page, and now the Valkyrie Profile doujinshi page has its first mini-review! Now it's somewhat respectable for me to have a Valkyrie Profile doujinshi page now that I actually own one of them. :P Also, if you notice what I added to my collection, you'll see that there are a couple other products that should be getting mini-reviews relatively soon. I also updated the Video Game Collection page with one more game since Atlus.com had a very limited number of new copies of Disgaea to sell for $50, and since that's way better than what they're going for on eBay, I figured what the heck. But in more exciting news, it's Tokyo Game Show time, and you know what that means. Big announcements about tri-Ace projects always come around this time of the year, and 2006 is no exception since that mystery XBox 360 game has been given a name - Infinite Undiscovery, and two screen shots have been released. There's also more info out there on it, most of it coming from the Famitsu article feating an interview with Yoshiharu Gotanda. While it's not a whole lot, they're still some tantalizing tidbits indeed. |
| September 6, 2006: I'm back to school and work, and things are kind of crazy now, but mostly in good ways. When we arrived back in NY, not only was practically all the furniture in our room brand new, but I also had a nice big pile of tri-Ace goodies waiting for me. I got those added to the tri-Ace Collection page. Among that tasty stuff was my Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria Artifact Box, and boy, is it good to finally have my hands on it. Even though I've been back for a couple weeks now, I've only put about 2 hours into the game so far. It's a terrific game, so don't think I'm not that impressed. It's actually because 1) I've been nuts getting things in order with school, work, and home, and 2) because Andy has been totally monopolizing the game! Normally, I'd kick his butt clear to the moon for keeping me from a new tri-Ace game, but this is a special scenario because, while I am the "tri-Ace Super Fan", he is deserving of the title "Valkyrie Profile Super Fan." He's played the original a million times over (yes, I'm exaggerating), way more than I have, and he played the game years before I ever took my first serious plunge at it (I must shamefully admit that I owned the game for years before I ever played through it, and this was AFTER I had already become obsessed with tri-Ace). So... there ya go; he's got well over 20 hours into the game, but I've been so busy that I haven't even seen all that much or been spoiled. In other tri-Ace news, I made a big order for a whopping 13 comics, which include my first Star Ocean 3 comics and my first normal Valkyrie Profile doujinshi. Speaking of Valkyrie Profile doujinshi, I've seen even more newly made comics, so now it's confirmed that the PSP port has cause a resurgence in Valkyrie Profile doujinshi. However, here's a depressing bit of news for myself. I've discovered that some people actually mistakingly assume my doujinshi pages are a store listing! Sheesh, I'm trying to entertain and educate, not hawk goods. :( I wouldn't mind having a buying/sell/trade area on my site someday, maybe if I ever get a forum, but that's definitely not what the main pages are for. I guess people aren't happy unless you serve up every damn page in a comic. :/ Next I'll have people thinking I'm selling games too. Speaking of my game collection, I've updated the Video Game Collection page with a bunch of new games, most of which were birthday presents from Andy. If you noticed, I had to add TWO new sections to the page because Andy went out of his way to buy the weirdest, most obscure stuff he could think of, hehe. Now I got to figure out how I'm going to play my Mega CD games, and I can't play my Virtual Boy game either because, while he did buy me the system, the scumbag seller sent a broken one. Now I'm just waiting for him to get refunded so I can pick out a new one on eBay. |
| August 16, 2006: While it's no surprise to anyone, I'm sure, I've been so busy doing stuff on my vacation that I haven't had much time for updates (and there was a week or so when I couldn't log into the server), and now my vacation is just about at an end. :( I'm actually kinda looking forward to going back to work, but I could use a longer break from classes and all the stress that they entail. For some reason, this vacation felt like the shortest vacation I've ever had. In some ways, it feels like it still hasn't even really started. Oh well, that's life. I have managed to visit quite a few stores, though, so I've added several games to the Video Game Collection page. Technically, I added them a few days ago, but I didn't get a chance to update this page till now. While I'll be back into my normal grind soon, I'll try to my hardest to make some good updates now and then! |
| July 20, 2006: I'm about a week into my vacation now, and I just finally got around to installing Smart FTP. So far I haven't done too much, just relaxing, but I did buy a few games which I added to the Video Game Collection page. I don't foresee doing quite as much crazy game hunting as in past summers, though, especially considering my favorite stores are dropping like flies. Anyway, two of the games I bought are PS2 games, which nudges me even closer to the reality that I need to get a US PS2. Ah well, maybe in the next few months. Speaking of the fact that I can only play Japanese PS2 games, I did finally land myself a copy of the Valkyrie Profile 2 Artifact Box, but I did end up paying over 40 bucks more than I would have had I stayed with Play-Asia (and I'm getting it so much later too). :/ I got about a month until I'll be able to play it. Valkyrie Profile has sure been a lot of trouble for me lately; the Trading Arts are a pain too since I found out that you don't get a complete set with a manufacturer's box like you would in the past. Here's to hoping I won't get many duplicates. Maybe I can find someone to trade with. I have been playing some Valkyrie Profile on PlayStation lately, though, trying to finish up the file I started way back in the winter. Well, enough silly blog-style personal updates, this room is too damn hot! |
| July 4, 2006: Happy 4th of July, my fellow Americans. And for those of you who aren't Americans, well, I wish you a happy Independence Day too whenever it may be, assuming your country has an Independence Day. :P Anyway, now that the big update is out of the way, I can get back to maintaining the small things, like adding a couple more games to the Video Game Collection page. Oh, and since I didn't bring it up yesterday, you may have noticed that the release of Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria has come and gone and I haven't said a peep about it (nor will you find it in this recent update to the collection listing). Well... let's just say I got royally screwed over. I had a pre-order on the Artifact Box for three months, but after two of those months, I switched from Play-Asia to NCS thinking the game might get to me faster and quicker (seeing as it wouldn't have to ship to Hong Kong, and I live in the same city as NCS's warehouse). Boy, what a bad decision that was (although, my logic was sound and it's really not my fault). Because NCS isn't responsible enough to deal with reliable, honest sellers, they're at the mercy of price gougers, which wouldn't be so bad if you just come along on the game's release date and see how much it's going to cost, but it's a frickin' royal bitch if you've had a pre-order for a month and have been promised that your order will be filled at so-and-so price. Since I'm a stubborn person that refuses to let myself get completely ripped off, I refused to buy it at nearly double the price. However, it was also too late to get it from any other stores (including Play-Asia, the source of my original pre-order). So yeah... major disappointment... major anger... major suck. I WILL get an Artifact Box, no question about that, but I likely won't be playing it until after I get back from my yearly vacation in Washington, which means no Valkyrie Profile 2 for me or Andy until late August. :( If Square Enix of America is actually going to stick to the rumored September release date for the US version, I won't even be able to play it much of any earlier than US gamers. But I view it unlikely that they'll make September, anyway. Ah well, until then, I'm just trying to block Valkyrie Profile 2 out of my thoughts, besides the hunt in getting my own copy, that is. On a related note, I'm NEVER going to use NCS to pre-order any high-value, limited edition item ever again, and I advise my visitors to do the same (they have a history of problems with these items). And even though I've had some good experiences with them in the past, this burns me so bad that I'm going to try to avoid buying from them at all in the future, unless they're absolutely the cheapest option available for an item I know they have in stock at the given price (unlikely, since sales tax for me always makes them more expensive than other online import stores). |
| July 3, 2006: While my rate of updates kind of dropped off recently, I've actually been doing a ton of site work, more than in early June even. After literally MONTHS of plugging away at it during any free chance I got, I have FINALLY updated the Star Ocean: Blue Sphere Merchandise page. And this ain't no piddly update, this is a BIG one. Tons of new products, tons of new pictures, lots of new info, and a whole bunch of my little mini-reviews. Normally, I like to just make small, continuous updates, but the page was so far behind that I needed to just gather everything together at once before it could go up. While I'm hesitant to call the page "complete", I do feel this is about as close to finished as it's going to get, short of making tiny improvements here and there. I don't foresee adding much of any new products in the future, since, 5 years after the game's release, merchandise production has died off, and, to the best of my recollection, this is EVERYTHING that I have ever seen or heard of related to Star Ocean: Blue Sphere. While there may be some doujinshi I'm still not aware of, I can't imagine there are any official products I'm still missing. If, however, any of you visitors are aware of a product that's not listed, please do let me know. Other than that, enjoy the huge update! Hopefully I've done justice to the brilliant game that Star Ocean: Blue Sphere is, and hopefully I've also created a one-stop resource where anyone interested in Star Ocean: Blue Sphere merchandise can get all the information they're seeking. :) |
| June 16, 2006: I got those aforementioned Star Ocean 2 doujinshi in the mail today, so I added those to the tri-Ace Collection page. Unfortunately, one of the three wasn't about Star Ocean at all; it's a Tales of Destiny doujinshi. I guess it's my own dumb fault for not recognizing it from the cover or asking some questions, even if it was advertised incorrectly (the tough thing about doujinshi is that sometimes they cover more than one subject, so not recognizing the characters on the cover isn't always a bad sign). I don't even know what to do with it now since I don't think there's much of a Tales of Destiny collecting fanbase out there, so I don't know if I could even sell it for 99 cents on eBay (especially considering it's a very low budget doujinshi even if it does have some cute art). Oh well. Also, of the two that are Star Ocean related, one isn't even really a doujinshi, at least in the traditional sense. It's size A5, which means it's small and about the size of official manga (as opposed to doujinshi which are normally the size of loose leaf paper). It contains no stories, mostly just little squares of text and a drawing (no, these are definitely not 4-koma strips). Since a lot of the text seems to have phone numbers and other such info, it seems like the book actually serves as some kind of advertising for doujinshi, artists, and/or circles. Or maybe some sort of classifieds looking people to work on doujinshi or offering service. I dunno, it's rather bizarre. I've never seen a "doujinshi" like this. Makes me wonder where and why it originated. Maybe something given out at a doujinshi convention? Who knows. As a collectible, it's not too thrilling since, like the other two books, it's very low budget and the art isn't all that good for the most part (and there's little of it). I guess my purchase was kinda a bust, eh? Oh well, I never expected much in the first place (especially for 3 books for around $6 shipped). :P |
| June 9, 2006: I've been getting pretty good about updates the last week or so, haven't I? :) Too bad they're all so small. Today I added a few new pictures to the Valkyrie Profile doujinshi page. |
| June 6, 2006: Kinda creepy date, isn't it? Anyway, I just have a tiny update today in order to add a couple more items to the tri-Ace Collection page. I finally got the EB Games promotional poster for Star Ocean 3, and now I have it 17 times over. o_O I got a whole box of them from a fellow member from Digital Press (although the transaction was through eBay), and it's actually the original box that was shipped from the manufacturer (maybe straight from Square Enix?) to some particular EB Games store. Obviously, they had more posters than pre-orders. I doubt they were shipped in boxes of 17 (it's such an odd number, afterall), so I'm guessing they were slowly picking at the box as pre-orders came in. It would be interesting to know how many the box originally had, though. Since I can't call it a "complete" box, like with my manufacturer's box of Wonder Project J2, I might just end up selling off most of them eventually. Of course, I'll save at least one and the box. :) What's actually even cooler than the posters I think is that the box also had an unused little countertop standee to advertise the freebie. It was a very nice surprise since I had no idea I'd be getting it with the posters. I assembled it, and now it sits quite nicely next to my Radiata Stories countertop standee. :) In other news, I just bought a few Star Ocean 2 doujinshi for very cheap, and I have been doing some other site work but it can't go up just yet. ;) |
| June 5, 2006: The links page was looking a little bare, so I decided to give it an update. I added a couple new sites, and I genuinely like them very much so do give them a visit. I also altered and fixed up the descriptions of some of the old ones. I'm not quite sure what's up with Malik. It looks closed down, which is a damn shame if that's the case, but I'll leave it up a bit longer just in case it's only a move or something. I'll keep my fingers crossed, but it honestly doesn't look too hopeful. :( Looks like I may have to try to find another Radiata Stories fan site worth linking to in the near future. |
| June 4, 2006: I've added several more doujinshi to the Valkyrie Profile doujinshi page as well as some new photos and info for a few of the older ones. What's interesting is that these days when I add "new" doujinshi to the page they're pretty much always doujinshi that have just slipped through the cracks over the years since we're long past the golden days of Valkyrie Profile doujinshi creation. However, I was very surprised to see that one of these new additions was actually created just last year in 2005. Makes me wonder if it has to do anything with the release of Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth on PSP, even though the game wasn't released until early 2006. I've long wondered if the port would cause a resurgence in doujinshi creation, but so far, I can't really say I've seen that happen. Time will tell, though. Either way, it is possible that the budget re-release Valkyrie Profile got on PlayStation could've inspired that particular comic (and oddly enough, I believe I heard that Square Enix is planning on doing yet ANOTHER re-release of Valkyrie Profile on PS1, even with the PS3 looming in the horizon). No matter how you slice it, though, Valkyrie Profile is hot right now. There are way more pages of goods on Japan Yahoo auctions now than there was months ago, but a large part of this is people offering pre-orders for the Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria Artifact Box at ludicrous sums. Ah well, everybody wants to make a quick buck. Thank goodness I already have mine on hold. :) |
| June 3, 2006: Another tiny update to get more games added to the Video Game Collection page. That's it! |
| May 27, 2006: As I predicted, here is the next update, and my semester of school just finished up. :) Nice to be on break, but I still have several things to take care of before I can really relax and get into my site work and such. For now, I just updated the tri-Ace Collection page and the Video Game Collection page. In other news, E3 has come and gone, and I was very surprised to see things revealed about Japanese-developed games that haven't even been revealed in Japan yet. The nature of the industry sure is changing. A REALLY nice trailer of Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria was shown, and the game was even playable! O_O Oh, what I would've given for that opportunity... (get your mind out of the gutter!) Some gameplay videos have also been revealed recently. As for that 360 game, no new information just yet, BUT the PS3 was revealed to cost $600 (or $500 for the crappy package), so yeah... I think I'd rather pay $400 for a 360. o_O |
| April 13, 2006: Heh, looking back at the last update, it's funny to notice that it was just a few days before my winter vacation ended. Guess what time it is now. Spring break, of course. :P Ah, that's the life of this site, always falling into the same pattern of being updated fairly regularly during vacations, and then I just disappear when school gets going. School and work has been especially heavy lately, as it always is around mid-terms and thereafter. Don't be suprised if I disappear after this break until the semester gets out, but at least I have this little bit of time to catch up on things and relax. I've had purchases dating back to January kicking around, so I finally got the chance to add a ton of stuff to the tri-Ace Collection page and the Video Game Collection page. Even harder was getting everything cleaned up and put away (that I'm STILL working on). I'm just a few games shy of hitting 700, so that's pretty exciting. :) The release of Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth has come and gone, but I haven't played it more than an hour or two since I don't want to be a jerk borrowing my bro-in-law's PSP all the time. Besides, I've yet to even finish that game in the PlayStation version I was working on. Sadly, not much has changed since months ago. I just had to drop everything to focus on my responsibilities, but maybe I'll finally get the chance to play Valkyrie Profile again during this break. I never did get that pre-order bonus with the PSP version either, so that was disappointing. But I'm trying to make up for it by pre-ordering the big Limited Edition version of Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria, which is supposed to come out in June. Unfortunately, due to the timing of it, it may arrive at a time in which I won't be able to get to it or play it for some time. Ah well, games are forever, but summer vacation is not. ;) Let's see, what else... Well, I'm a published writer now. :) Video Game Collector Issue # 5 finally came out, and I'm very proud to have written for the magazine and hope to do more in the future. I wrote a review for Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure in that issue, so please do take a look if you can. It's a great magazine/price guide, so I highly recommend that you guys look for it at retail or, better yet, get a subscription at vgcollector.com. And the weirdest tidbit of news of them all... Microsoft recently had a briefing about the XBox 360 in Japan (right now you should probably be wondering why I would even be bringing this up), and according to Famitsu and other reliable news sources, tri-Ace is working on a brand new game for the 360! O_O Holy crap-balls, Batman. I personally am definitely not eager to fork out a mountain of dough for a 360, but considering how expensive the PS3 may be, it might actually end up being cheaper this way, who knows. All I know is that I am very eager for more news. |
| January 21, 2006: Maintenance is a neverending process, so I got a new comic and other stuff added to the Valkyrie Profile doujinshi page and some additional content added to the products of the Star Ocean Merchandise page. Still working on that aforementioned hefty update. :) |
| January 16, 2006: It's funny, I've been so consumed by Valkyrie Profile lately, both playing the original and eagerly awaiting the new releases, that I can hardly get myself interested in anything Star Ocean lately. o_O Ah well, I'm sure it's just a phase. :P I neglect Valkyrie Profile far too often, so it's about time that the tables have turned. Oh, one thing interesting, though, is that I just discovered that a few months ago a new Star Ocean 4-koma manga was released, which in and of itself isn't too special, but this one is related to ALL the Star Ocean games. Very cool. I can't wait to see a new take on the cast of the first Star Ocean. Anyway, my mild Star Ocean interest lately hasn't stopped me from putting several hours into searching through my sources for new information and pictures, and the result is an update to the Star Ocean Merchandise page. No new products, but that's to be expected at this point. I also made small updates to the Valkyrie Profile doujinshi page and the tri-Ace Collection page. Hopefully the next shall be a nice beefy update! |
| January 5, 2006: 2006 has started with a real big Valkyrie Profile obsession for me. With the PSP port not long off (with its amazing new FMV), Silmeria in the future, and new information pouring out left and right (the terrific trailer released just recently, in particular), I'm one happy girl, but since I've never been one to only focus on what's brand new, I've been enjoying replaying the original Valkyrie Profile, doing the things I've yet to complete in the game. Unfortunately, I've yet to get the opportunity to work on my Blue Sphere FAQ on this break, but I was able to carry over my Valkyrie Profile obsession into my site work and do a long overdue update to the Valkyrie Profile doujinshi pages. It's funny how no matter how much time passes and how many I find, I ALWAYS seem to discover more doujinshi related to the game, so there are several new ones to check out (most related to Arngrim) along with some additional/altered information here and there. It's small and I wish I had the time to do more, but I hope you enjoy nonetheless! |