Recent Updates Page 2

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  maegamisama 2:27 am on July 29, 2023 Permalink
  Tags: Sakura no Toki (サクラノ刻) ( 2 )   
  Categories: visual novels ( 4 )

  I finished Sakura no Toki yesterday (7/28/2023)

  

  If you’re looking for general impressions, I think the first 4 chapters are really solid. I also really think they did a better job with the heroine routes than in Uta (It actually feels like solid romance for Naoya) I only wish that they would have considered doing another route or two (it’s quite weird to have only two)

  The fifth chapter was a bit hard to swallow, and is what caused me to stall the game for a while. While I did end up enjoying it by the end of it. It still felt the weakest part of the overall package. Chapter 6 brought a tear to my eye and a smile to my face, and probably improved the overall games score to being close to Uta (Not that I rate VNs to begin with)

  I do hope SCA-DI makes a fan-disc someday that explores some of the other female characters. Not sure if they should be what-if stories with Naoya (considering some plot stuff in toki), but then again I can’t think of any male characters I’d rather see them with.

  If anyone wants me to, I can write up more in-depth thoughts later.

   
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  maegamisama 2:18 am on July 29, 2023 Permalink
  Tags: Suikoden IV ( 4 )   
  Categories: video games ( 8 )

  Yeah, I’m making slow progress in Suikoden 4, but the game has not been doing a stellar job at really making it engaging. There’s literally a segment where you wash up on a deserted island and have to spend 3 days doing chores that made me want to drop the game right there. I pray that there’s some good characters to liven up the story soon, or I’m not going to be happy

   
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  maegamisama 12:27 am on July 28, 2023 Permalink
  Tags: Suikoden IV ( 4 )   
  Categories: video games ( 8 )

  I think I’m starting to remember some of my distaste for Suikoden IV. Everything at the start has felt really low budget (big empty areas) and the controls are just really bad (the triangle is cancel and you need to hold r1 to move fast)

  What gets my the most is the story though. It’s not uncommon for the MC to go through betrayal early on, but I feel like it’s this game that takes the cake for you feeling absolutely no sympathy towards the person who betrays you. I wont spoil who that is, but I imagine anyone who starts playing the game will immediately be able to tell who it is.

   
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  maegamisama 4:44 pm on July 24, 2023 Permalink
  Tags: Suikoden IV ( 4 )   
  Categories: video games ( 8 )

  When it comes to Suikoden, I’m a fanatic. Played most of the games multiple times and will shill the hell out of 1,2, and 5 to whoever will listen to me. Yet for a decade plus there’s been one major blemish on my Suikoden experience. Something that might be forgivable by other Suikoden fans, but to an outsiders perspective probably looks a bit weird.

  I have never finished Suikoden IV. I bought it on release and played a good deal of it, but I found myself feeling frustrated with the experience and quitting. Never to touch the game again.

  Aside from terrible boat controls, I can’t, at this point, remember what it was I disliked about the game. I do know that in the years afterward fans weren’t too kind to the game as a whole either, and that is why I think they would forgive me not playing it. It’s not a game that most people must play.

  However, I’m not most people. I’m a fanatic. Since Konami isn’t making any more of them (hopefully the remaster changes that) I think I owe it to the franchise to check out both IV and Tactics (I never played Tactics either but that’s due to it being connected to IV) I need to finish it before I consider playing Suikoden 1 and 2 again for the bajillionth time in the remaster (considering doing them in Japanese too) Otherwise, how can I call myself an expert of Suikoden?

  One positive thing I can say is Suikoden IV has the best intro music imo (III is better for the anime cinematics)

  Biggest complaint in the first hour is that the camera controls are dog shit. You can’t do anything to change them either :/

   
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  maegamisama 3:45 pm on July 23, 2023 Permalink
  Tags: Yakitate!! Japan ( 2 )   
  Categories: anime ( 3 )

  On a whim, the other day I checked out the various anime channels available on free streaming platforms (roku, Plutotv, etc) I forget where, but I came across this anime called Yakitate Japan!! Despite it already being on episode 40 something, I found myself watching two episodes

  I liked it so much I ended up hunting down the original series and watched the first five episodes yesterday. My initial thoughts:

  It’s anime about baking bread. On paper that probably sounds pretty dull to people, but in reality it’s actually a fairly funny show. Maybe not on the levels of say Gintama or Konosuba, but it does get me to laugh out loud which is a feat

  It’s weird watching from the beginning when I’ve already seen two of the episodes in the 40s. Particularly because I didn’t know who a lot of the characters were then, and finding out retrospectively is a strange feeling.

  It’s also 69 episodes, which I have to obligatorily say “Nice” to.

   
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  maegamisama 3:01 am on July 23, 2023 Permalink
  Tags: Monthly posts ( 8 )   
  Categories: blog ( 15 )

  07:End of the line 

  This is my last monthly post for the forseeable future. From here on out I plan to do more frequent micro-blogging that talks about things I’ve been doing

  The decision to start micro-blogging was something I’ve been thinking about for weeks, but the decision to stop the monthly posts was more recent. Not going to go into it other than I feel like I lost my reason for posting them to begin with. I’d also like to avoid anyone misunderstanding things from dumping my emotional baggage here.

  Yeah, that’s all I really have to say about that.

   
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  maegamisama 5:59 pm on July 15, 2023 Permalink
  Tags: Sakura no Toki (サクラノ刻) ( 2 ), spoilers   
  Categories: visual novels ( 4 )

  Sakura no Toki was my most anticipated release this year, and when it came out at the end of Feburary, I half expected myself to devote all my time to it until it was done. Unfortunately, that didn’t end up happening.

  I was on something of a good clip until I reached Chapter 5, and from here we’re going to get into spoilers so don’t read if you have interest in ever playing this game

  Spoiler title

  So I really enjoyed chapters 1-3. Chapter 1 I especially really liked the dynamic between Shizuru and Reika. Chapter 2 was mostly Naoya and his students hijinx (Suzuna is my favorite of that bunch) Chapter 3 being the routes much like Uta

  I was surprised to find that the only routes were Misuzu and Makoto. They’re both great (with Misuzu being the better of the two) but compared to Uta, it was pretty lacking. Though I’m guessing they didn’t want a bunch of high school heroines given Naoya’s position (as the only other females are mostly his students at this point)

  Chapter 4 was excellent. It made me appreciate Kei a whole lot more than what the first game did.

  Then chapter 5 happened and I started to lose some of my interest.

  A main contributor to that is Naoya’s relationship to Ai in this chapter. While Ai was my favorite character in Uta, something about it doesn’t feel right. Maybe it’s the situation in which they find themselves in that makes it feel wrong? I don’t know. I just feel like her h-scenes could have been a route in itself.

  This being the part where Rin shows up again also doesn’t help this chapter. For those not aware, Rin is my least favorite character. In the beginning of Uta she comes off as being too dumb, and then later on she comes off as being kind of a bitch? I might have read more into some things (or misread stuff) but I just didn’t like the tonal shift she went under once she gets her painting skills back.

  I don’t know. Not much was doing it for me this chapter until Nagayama Kana showed up.

  Maybe it was my dislike of Rin, but despite Kana bullying her, I never felt really that negatively towards her as Naoya did. I also wasn’t upset with what she tried to do with the mural with her performance art group (even though I hate Thomas with the heat of a thousand suns) I gathered there was something more to her

  Though I didn’t really put together everything until Naoya meets her again twice in Toki. Once looking at the mural and again at the bar. It’s there I started getting annoyed at Naoya’s suspicious/thickheaded nature

  Her presence in this route has been part of what’s kept me reading. I actually just got done reading the part where she faces Naoya in the semifinals.. Man I hope if there’s ever a third game (or a fan-disc) that she gets a route, because I honestly think she’s perfect for Naoya. Even moreso than Misuzu (as much as I love her)

  

  Though now that the semifinal match is over, I’m a bit worried that my enthusiasm is going to die back down a bit. I’d really like to finish this game so I can move onto something else for a bit..

  It’d be nice if I knew how much was left of 5 and how long 6 will be.. I used a Youtube playthrough when I played Uta to gauge how far I was, but there doesn’t seem to be any existing ones for toki sadly

   
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  maegamisama 8:18 pm on July 13, 2023 Permalink
  Tags: subbed rewatch, Yu Yu Haksuho   
  Categories: anime ( 3 )

  For those who don’t know, I’ve been rewatching a lot of anime I’ve only seen dubbed in English in Japanese (with English subs) I’ve done it with Tenchi Universe, Outlaw Star, Trigun, and Cowboy Bebop. This time I set my sights on what was probably my favorite anime (post high school/early college) Yu Yu Hakusho

  I just finished rewatching the entire series, and here are some of my impressions. Note that in the future, I plan to post my reactions to voices as smaller status updates rather than a longer form post like this one.

  (More …)

   
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  maegamisama 11:50 pm on July 9, 2023 Permalink
  Tags: update ( 3 )   
  Categories: blog ( 15 )

  Haha, okay so I think I’ve gotten most things to work like I want them. If you’re curious about the particulars, I’ll be making a more proper post later. I’d make one right now, but I’ve spent practically all day messing with this. Plus I need to still get some more pictures for the random image thingy

  Until then, if you notice anything wonky, please contact me on discord at maegamisama. Thanks!

   
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  maegamisama 3:45 am on July 8, 2023 Permalink
  Tags: update ( 3 )   
  Categories: blog ( 15 )

  Got spoilers working properly

  Spoiler title

  as you can see

  Next thing I need to do is start work on tags showing up in a nice organizable fashion.

  Once I get that done, I’ll probably look for a few more pictures to add to the random image (near the べつに) and call it good for updates. I’ll then do a more proper update explaining just how my blog will work from now on (if it wasn’t clear already)