Played MMORPGs

• Star Trek Online
  Star Trek Online is a good game overall, I don’t see why companies like GameSpot and the like rate it so bad (5.5). However, it does feel incomplete but that’s to be expected of most MMOs when they’re just starting up. Give it a year and your opinion may change. I don’t plan to be playing 24/7, but every once so often as things change and when I have some time to go where no man has gone before.
• EVE Online
  I tried playing it again in the summer last year, and found that it was still as boring as ever, or took up too much time to justify keeping the ISK intake in and buying PLEXes. If I can’t be bothered to make ISK and buy PLEXes, why should I continue to play the game? I’m not even paying for it (only paid the initial $5 re-entry cost), so oh well.
• Mabinogi
  I notice Nexon has reached some of the new content Mabinogi has in Korea, though whether I will come back to take a look at it is another story. It’s nice to see that there are a few changes in Nexon policy for the better, but whether that will translate to having a company that can properly support players and provide quality customer support is another thing altogether.

Recent Purchases

I’ve recently made some orders online, for ESPGaluda II and a Hori Fighting Stick EX 2. Now you may say, why the FSEX2? It’s because right now it’s $39.99 CAD from Amazon.ca and it’s not an offer I’m going to easily throw away. The thing is supposed to be some $60-70, so it’s definitely a bargain. Compared to the $150+ price range that tournament-level sticks have, with a bit of tinkering (I know the process already, and I have the tools and people with expertise for it), I may one day have something that can compete with those sticks.

Upcoming Releases

• Mobile Suit Gundam UC – March 12
  Yes, I already watched it, but I am getting the Blu-ray. If you’re not, I don’t know what you’re doing.
• Chaos;Head Love Chu Chu – March 25
  Not exactly a game I’m looking forward to. The fandisc, shall we call it, appears to have a lot of service for those who are fans of Chaos;Head, but I’m more in love with the Steins;Gate aspect of the world. If there’s anything interesting about the game that I will miss out on, such as Steins;Gate related stuff, then I might give it a shot. Otherwise, this is going on the backburner… until maybe it goes cheap?
• Ketsui: Kizuna jigoku tachi – April 22
  The legendary shmup of shmups, shall we say. This is a must-buy. Though it’ll be 360 only, that’s what the FSEX2 is for.
• Angel Beats – April 22
  This is an anime I will be keeping tabs on, it being written by Jun Maeda. I notice he’s taken a step away from visual novels, but that doesn’t mean he’s done with writing stories.
• Lost Planet 2 – May 18
  Already pre-ordered this one for the 360, really looking forward to it.
• Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker – May 25
  I haven’t pre-ordered this because I’m waiting for it to come out on PSN, so I can buy it. Screw the UMD format, because flash memory access times are where it’s at. MGS4 was a total disappointment, but Peace Walker is turning out to be the game that MGS4 should have been, and then some. In fact, MGS4 should never have happened.

Current Anime

As a final note, I noticed that the plethora of current anime is all just total garbage. It’s all full of moeblobs and focusing on girls but very little on good storytelling. There are a few exceptions out there, but sadly they are a minority in the sea of anime where everything is all about what’s under a girl’s clothing. Sadly, because of how stupid the otaku in Japan are, this will only continue to worsen until I don’t know what kind of bubble pops. I will pray that those who know how to continue writing good anime will continue in the industry doing what they love.

P.S. Mizushima may be high from all that love he has for the Middle East, but he did make Gundam 00. Great times.

So it looks like SEGA can afford allowing extra collaborations beyond the UMD space. Might I make a couple of suggestions (though not wholly inclusive):

CHAOS;HEAD

• All the Di-Swords as swords, except for Rimi’s which would be a Twin Dagger
• Suimei Academy uniforms for men and women. Women would have more variations, particularly in choices like stocking colors, etc.
• Seira-tan’s outfit, pre and post-awakening versions
• Possibly Rimi’s “Final Attack” as a Photon Mirage? Doubtful
• Hair styles covered from CHAOS;HEAD not already covered by PSP2

.hack

• Kite’s Twin Daggers, Haseo’s X-Form Twin Daggers
• Data Drain Bracelet as a Photon Mirage
• All 8 Epitaphs as MAGs
• Hair styles covered from .hack not already covered by PSP2

Sadly, I cannot think of anything for Steins;Gate. Despite it having a story x1000 that of CHAOS;HEAD, it unfortunately would not fit…

Feel free to visit the site; character profiles don’t have spoilers, but the summaries will. Read at your own risk.

The page can be updated at any time, and chapters won’t all be up at once as I’m going over them to make sure they’re good to go.

The summaries are more intended for people who wish to play through the game, but don’t have a good grasp of Japanese. If you’re playing the demo, you can go through the Prologue and Chapter 1 summaries.

P.S. If anyone knows where I can get a text of the Steins;Gate story in the November issue of Nitroplus Complete, please let me know. Willing to translate!

P.S.S. Please leave comments about Steins;Gate summaries here!

Only hours later does he bump into Makise Kurisu, who was supposed to have been killed…

Review:
The game makes use of three systems, all of which should have been outlined on the official website.

First is the Phone Trigger; depending on when and where you receive mails or phone calls, and when you send mails, you can affect what events Rintarou will encounter in the present. So instead of answering a phone call, he could end up talking to someone else, and you could piss someone off by reading (or not reading) mails while talking to them.

The second mechanic is “Delorean Mails”, or “D-Mails”. The microwave that’s in the laboratory is used to create miniature black holes, and by adjusting where the black holes go to, D-Mails can be sent to change events in the past, depending on the content.

The third mechanic is the Time Leap Machine. Later when the microwave is upgraded, Rintarou is capable of copying his memory and overwriting it onto himself in the past. Essentially the same as time travel, the only limitations are that memory data can only be sent as far as 48 hours into the past, and the person who uses it must send it to themselves in the past, and not someone else (who knows what might happen in that scenario).

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The storyline is actually quite engaging. There are six character routes in all, and you don’t have to go very much out of your way to get to them. In fact, they’re quite easy to get to if you follow the main storyline, but you only get 85% of their storylines as you run through them. At a certain point, you’ll be faced with a decision whether to finish the rest of their storylines, resulting in their specific endings. The way this is worked in makes it possible to enjoy the character scenarios without having to be a parallel canon to the existing main storyline, so it felt as if all the characters had a role to play.

In CHAOS;HEAD, this was not the case for the majority of characters, and sometimes you’d wonder why they were around in the first place. The problem is further compounded with the Xbox 360 version, CHAOS;HEAD NOAH, where some routes just don’t seem to add up in terms of the build-up to the final ending of the CHAOS;HEAD NOAH game, or they just go off on a totally different tangent, completely oblivious of the events in the main storyline.

Most stories about time travel discuss a lot of intellectual stuff, and there’s quite a bit in the first couple of chapters. Stuff like wormholes, theories for how time travel works, etc. is all in here for the nerds interested in time travel. Of course, I found it a bit much, and most of it I only managed to keep up with simply because I had read up on the content beforehand. It would be nicer if things were explained more quickly and simply, though in some cases characters explained it in a “2ch” way so that other characters could understand (^^;). Speaking of which, there’s quite a bit of 2ch slang here and there, so players should watch out for these terms. The infamous, “However, I refuse” (だが断る) is also still around (though Nishijou Takumi isn’t around for this game to say it), for those who are curious.

Beyond the explanations though, the storyline becomes more intense. When crap starts hitting the fan, there’s a lot of character drama and interaction involved, as well as a lot of time traveling going on. The foreshadowing from the beginning of the game also has meaning for the final ending of the game, which players should be attentive about to understand the meaning behind everything. Of course, I won’t say what the final ending of the game is.

Music has actually gotten a bit of an “upgrade” in terms of style and easy listening compared to CHAOS;HEAD NOAH. Instead of the random techno or beats, the soundtrack for the game actually boasts stuff you could listen to in the background. Among the songs, a couple of them are sung by none other than FES–Kishimoto Ayase, from CHAOS;HEAD. Voice acting work is also up there, but that’s to be expected from a Nitro+/5pb collaboration. Though Miyano Mamoru as Okabe Rintarou feels a bit odd; sometimes he sounds like Lelouch from Geass, but who knows. I can’t get his “I AM GUNDAM” (俺がガンダム) line out of my head so it’s actually amusing when he spouts a bunch of crap every now and then.

huke may be an odd choice for an artist, particularly considering the style used for the CG. However, that shouldn’t put you off, as the art still works out quite well, and doesn’t reek of anything like misaligned eyes or out-of-proportion characters, etc. The game will take you about 27 hours to get all character routes and the final ending of the game; going for all achievements may take you a bit longer, but that’s dependent on whether you’re following a guide, or if you’re actually checking through the Phone Triggers for potential hits. 27 hours is without using a guide for the most part.

You don’t need to have played CHAOS;HEAD to play Steins;Gate; if you want to play it, go for it. I’d recommend the title to any visual novel fan or those who like stories about time travel. Of course, as the game is Japanese-only, I would hope you have a good grasp of the language before you try it. Also, as it’s on the Xbox 360, you’ll need a Japanese region Xbox 360 (damn regional locks). Besides that, it’s a great visual novel.

If I have time, I’ll post more on the game, but it will likely be a full review or something similar.