And I couldn’t agree more D:

-

I’m sorry I made it sound like I was going to do anime coverage because I THOUGHT I WAS GOING TO TOO.

But then Mass Effect 3 happened.

@TheFuzzy: I’LL DO COVERAGE OF THE FIRST 5 EPISODES, WILL THAT WORK ;W;

Also, the Miku Live Party @ Tokyo Dome was great.

And I apologise for all the outrage I caused for portraying BRS in the darkest of your secret fetish fantasies.

You can start now. It gets a bit painful to watch at times, but by this episode a lot of the questions are cleared.

EDIT: Okay, I admit that I didn’t make it clear. SPOILER ALERT, people.

Also, I.BRS and BGS squaring off.

I always thought the engine was some sort of turbo boost, or just for Rule of Cool. Never thought it’d shoot bullets.

Pray tell, how do you destroy a formless world? I.BRS seemed more bent on taking it over.

Uh, yeah. A bit too late for us to sympathise with you there, Saya-chan.

So Yu’s where it all started? And the current Yu used to be Strength? Or was Yu trapped before she-uh, STR, even met Saya? ( *A*)

Also, STR (the current one) finally got some action, and she proved her worth fighting I.BRS in her own lair. Fuck yeah.

Mato seemed to be getting “enlightened” at the end of the episode. I can only predict she’ll get out of her BSoD and do something about the world that’ll stop the fighting once and for all…other than destroying it that is.

Whelp! 7 more days to the penultimate episode! I also predict it’ll be Mato + B★RS versus everyone else.

PS: I’m sorry if the images don’t load. Imageshack started to be a bitch about the hosting, so I’m trying another hosting service. Hopefully it works.

It’s like, so meta.

Because if I don't post this, I'm not Nano

Also, does anyone even come here anymore?

Hello if you do.

That is a LOT of stuff up there.

And guess what; it’s not everything.

This is what’s in the picture:

• Rocket-punching Chogokin Hatsune Miku – $220
• AFA T-shirt MikuPa ver. – $35
• 2x MikuPa 2011 T-shirt – $50 each
• 2x MikuPa lanyard – $18 each
• MikuPa sling bag – $72
• Vocaloid pin badge kit – $35

There is also another MikuPa T-shirt not in the picture; the design consists of the official illustration by Osamu. You might remember him as the character designer of Rin/Len Append.

That also cost $50. That means everything bought on the night of the concert (that is, everything listed so far except the figure) amounted to nearly $300. Cripes.

We did manage to acquire a set of 3 ZANEEDS posters from their booth in the convention itself, which consisted of Miku, Rin and Luka in sexy outfits, the same characters in a burger, and Miku imitating our national animal, the merlion.

Sadly though, we couldn’t fit everything into one photo, and I’m actually rushing this post too, so you’ll have to use your imagination from our photo of the ZANEEDS booth. ^_^;

While Fariz was more than satisfied with all of this, I wasn’t, so I picked up this little box from the Artists’ Alley.

This box is actually a fanart set from Alice Overture in the theme of Black Rock Shooter. It doesn’t just contain an artbook though.

It comes with a pin badge, a card sticker, a bookmark and a printed microfiber cloth. The pin badge, card sticker and bookmark may have one of 3 designs each, and while they should be random, the booth was kind enough to build an entire set from scratch for me, letting me pick the designs I want. ( *A*)

The artbook contains a series of illustrations from several artists, ranging from pretty to downright gorgeous, or as Feidamu puts it, “fap-able”.

This one is a rendition of BRS by 礫音(Neptune).

Each illustration is accompanied with a piece of prose, be it a poem or a short passage. Now, I will be perfectly honest here: the grammar needs a little work. Other than that though, it’s a good attempt at showing a bit of “story” behind the picture.

One of the main reasons I bought this in the first place is that the circle actually focuses on all known aspects of BRS, including the game, the “Innocent Soul” manga and other “official” creations aside from the usual BRS vs Dead Master anime material. Here’s a rendition of BRS Beast by rosene.

Here’s a closer look at the pin badge, card sticker and bookmark. The design of the pin badge is BRS by 雪桜々, the one on the card sticker is BRS & Dead Master by Linsert.D, and the design of the bookmark is XNFE by 究.

I promise not to dirty you too much, Grey~

Finally, we have the printed microfiber cloth, which has an beautiful illustration of Grey by 雪桜々. I’m liking her art more and more. =3

Here are links to all the artists listed in the book, in order of appearance:

• 木shiyo
• feifei
• 礫音(Neptune)
• 雪桜々
• rosene (also the President of Alice Overture)
• 暴力社長の猫@主婦
• Linsert.D
• 究 (doesn’t seem to have any illustrations posted as of time of writing)
• centimetre

FYI, the set costs $40 in all. It may be a little exorbitant to the casual buyer, but I know true fandom and effort when I see it, and I think the price fits the product.

Not to mention that nearly everything MikuPa-exclusive is even more expensive.

Warning! The following post only contains thoughts of the author, and not much of actual coverage.

If you’re looking for proper coverage, you could head over to Fabrice Requin’s blog. He’s done several great posts on the convention. Otherwise, read on.

The reason I’m not going to do a proper event coverage post myself is because I’ve already attended 3 times. Say what you wish, but anything gets old after you’ve done it for a while.

(also laziness)

Now for my 2 cents.

First off, I’m not too sure how it happened, but they managed to screw up the infamous first-day queue. Again.

It may have been due to Suntec organizing 2 other major events on the same day, though, but you’d think Sozo would’ve worked out something by now. Or maybe they can’t. Maybe it’s a staple habit of Singaporeans, or events in general. Someone do enlighten me.

Other than that, AFA’11 was pretty awesome. They managed to rope in Nico Nico Douga of all things, offering streams of the convention and parts of the concert on both the English and Japanese versions of the site.

Crypton also had a presence there, though they were restricted to the Cool Japan Forum and a tiny booth in the Cool Japan Pavilion, in the back of the hall. They were promoting MIKUBOOK like no tomorrow, what with the itasha on display nearby.

Even ODEX (of all things) got into the fun, expanding their movie selection from 2 to 5, though you have to buy $10 tickets for each and watch in a separate theatre. And I’ll bet most old-timers burn the posters once they see the ODEX logo on them. ^_^;

To their credit, they did still air the 2nd Mardock Scramble movie and the 4th Gundam Unicorn for free. Only watched the latter though, but it was awesome.

Chiwa Saito came to answer questions, and also did live dubbing of Homura. Great stuff, especially when she dubbed that Kyubey shooting scene. People who haven’t watched the show got spoiler-ed lol.

It seemed that the technical issues haunting the MikuPa concert on Friday night were also present during the concerts on Saturday and Sunday, as well as some of the daytime stage events. While I didn’t attend the Saturday concert, I thought that there was way too much bass and reverb during the Kalafina portion.

Performance-wise, though, May’n actually turned out to be disappointing; she ended up singing only a few of her newer singles. Milky Holmes was meh (given since I’m not exactly a fan of the show), though I did get to see true Japanese fanboys in the act.

I think I became an angela fan after their portion though. They had the most enthusiasm and audience interaction among all the performances, and they even threw in Cruel Angel’s Thesis for good measure. Fuck yeah.

All in all, I think AFA’s really improved over the years in that they keep bringing things to the table, though I think the management needs to iron out the problems that have been hanging around since the previous conventions.

Up next, the obligatory swag post.

Also, thanks for some of the images, Subarashinki! Check out his AFA album here!

What a rush! Man, my arms are cramped now from all the frantic waving. T_T

If you look closely enough, you might be able to see me and Fariz waving our extra-long leek lightsticks in the front row. If you’re having difficulty, though:

Anyway, here are my thoughts on the concert.

The Fail:

While I was nearly deafened by the music, I can hand-wave it away with my inexperience with concerts and the fact that I was sitting in the front row (and didn’t have earplugs).

I thought the bass was way too deep and the VOCALOIDs’ voices could barely be heard over the accompanying band music. I guess out of all the things they tested, they goofed in the aural portion. Thankfully I was familiar with most of the songs so I could make out the words very easily.

Len sang Migikata no Chou. Alone. In fact, Rin and Len had no duet together. What the hell is this blasphemy.

Also, the concert could’ve used a little more hardcore fanboyism/fangirlism, IMO.

The Great:

I attended the concert expecting really great covers by the band, and I wasn’t disappointed. I’m not too sure who they are (couldn’t hear Miku introducing them), but they sure know how to rock out, especially the lead electric guitarist on the left. Thankfully, I sat near him so his guitar solos were more prominent throughout their performances.

The song selection was quite good, though I believe fans who have followed the past MikuPa concerts will find most of the songs and dance sequences very familiar.  I managed to predict a few after watching the free test stream (like Yellow and ARiA) but Miku Miku ni Shite Ageru as the first encore was a pleasant surprise (though Melt was a given). I totally didn’t see it coming, and man, did I cheer the loudest.

The projection and special effects were impressive, too! I was afraid we couldn’t see the VOCALOIDs clearly since we were sitting at a wide angle relative to the stage, and especially because we were sitting so close to the stage. Thankfully, we got to watch them dance in all of their virtual glory.

Afterword:

Although the concert lasted a full 2 hours, it didn’t feel very long when the time came for Miku to perform her encore songs. I was satisfied otherwise though, and I hope they’ll be able to pull off a concert again next year. And they probably will.

And hopefully even better than before.

P.S. To the stranger who snagged Project DIVA Extend from me: I actually thought you were my brother’s/friend’s friend LOL. Ah well, have fun with the game anyways.

And now for the first day of AFA itself.

I finished the game (or at least the first and “good” ending) rather recently, and as a fanboy, I am pleased with how it’s turned out.

However, I’ll be reviewing this game strictly from a gamer’s point of view (except when the plot itself comes into play), so the score may be lower than you expect.

I’ll try to keep it as spoiler-free as possible. But first, a short outline! =D

The Outline

The game puts you in the shoes of the titular character, Black★Rock Shooter, who shoots her way through enemies to get to her nemesis, White Rock Shooter. But I’m sure you already know that.

The game is split into stages AKA levels, and each level is split into several missions, which use parts of the stage as needed (to advance the plot, or for a side quest). Whole stages will be later accessible through Free Hunting missions, though there won’t be any save points between you and the boss. But more on that later.

Once you enter a mission, you can run around in the stage towards your objective, and when you get in contact with a mob or boss, you enter battle.

In battle, you kill enemies by shooting them with your Rock Cannon. Enemies will either approach you (slowly or quickly, depending) to hit you in the face, or dance around and shoot you. Most of the attacks in the game have very clear tells, so you should be able to dodge them, or block them just in time.

You can’t just dodge-spam or Rambo it out though; you’ll raise your Overheat bar. As your body heats up, you shoot less bullets per button press, and when you OVERHEAT, you’re a sitting duck while your body cools down.

Alternatively, you can use active skills and items, which don’t heat up your gun at all. Instead, active skills have their own cool-down timers, and items are in limited quantity.

Passive skills also come into play, though you unlock them over time through the course of the story (and then some). You can choose to turn them on and off any time before a battle, but unless you’re willing to give yourself a challenge, don’t bother.

Now that I’ve pretty much addressed the bread and butter of the game (you can find the rest out for yourself), it’s time for

The Review

While repeatedly returning to the mission menu while taking on the story feels a little jarring, it does allow you to “go back in time” in the game, essentially allowing another full playthrough once you’ve finished the game.

Most expected the game to be a real-time hack & slash game, and while it avoided being the latter, it managed to retain the qualities of a former, borrowing some elements from STGs (shooting-games) like constant bullet-dodging (though not to danmaku levels). Well done, ImageEpoch.

The Overheat system in battle forces you to “ration” your actions and delay them to let your body cool down a little. That means instead of going in guns blazing, you’ll have to work out a strategy to, well, survive.

Enemies don’t all act the same either; over the course of the story, enemies get trickier to take down, and the bosses really take the cake. The button-spam events at the end of each boss are totally unnecessary, since you will never lose, and feel like an excuse to watch B★RS engage her enemies DBZ-style.

The game does try to get imaginative, ranging from saving your bike from being eaten by mooks to rescuing a target within a time limit. Sadly, though, the most they do to your “head from start to finish while killing everything in the way” routine is to change one or two factors (e.g. you’re better off avoiding enemies, you have to deal lots of damage while killing enemies within a time limit, etc).

Thankfully, little in the game is vague though (barring the language barrier), what with all your objectives clearly marked on the stage map and field.

The bike mini-game feels like a breath of fresh air, but after dying a couple of times (or more), you’ll feel thankful it only lasts for a single stage.

Grind…is nearly non-existent if you’re just aiming to complete the story. The stages are made such that you’ll be able to go through all the story missions in order without too much difficulty.

In fact, I’d say levelling is almost too easy. You might miss out on a few useful skills if you don’t manage to unlock them along the way, though unlocking them is a simple matter of killing enough of X in a certain stage (sometimes with weapon Y only).

If anything, ImageEpoch succeeded in creating a traditional JRPG, but without the level-grinding.

For a JRPG (and marketed as part of ImageEpoch’s line of “true JRPGs”), it is amazingly…short. It takes approximately 12 hours (or 2 days of guard duty) to complete the storyline, after which the post-story content begins to unlock.

While the post-story content continues to feature fully-voiced cutscenes (even some hilarious ones) and even goes so far as to reveal a “true” end to the game, it takes only 5-10 hours to finish all that. I’ve yet to complete this part though, but my estimate is from hearing about the end-game content from other chaps online who have already achieved 100% completion.

And by 100% completion, I mean getting every single achievement, unlocking every single gallery item, and bludgeoning that true last boss into submission.

Whether the game’s length (or lack thereof) is because of the writing or vice versa, the plot leaves a lot to be desired. Unexplained origins (other than B★RS’, at least), unjustified motives (except maybe due to insanity or pure boredom), and an unsatisfying ending which doesn’t even leave any room for a Sequel Hook (unless you count the need for a proper ending as one).

Like most PSP games, the textures in the game aren’t exactly crisp; even the star on B★RS’ back (which you’ll be looking at most of the time) looks a little blurred. Some parts really take the cake though, such as the forest stage, where the ground looks like splotches of differing shades of grey and green up close. Not to mention the fact that nearly every path in the forest looks the same.

Effects in the game are decent; they portray what they need to just fine, and nothing more. There is a constant bloom effect going on in-game though, probably to disguise the aliasing. Protip: it doesn’t help much, guys.

While the visuals aren’t much to admire, there is a plus point: loading times are blazing fast. If you’ve downloaded the game (legally or not) or used the data install option, nothing in the game takes longer than 3 seconds to load. The game runs pretty smoothly on my old PSP 1000, too.

The cutscenes in the game are well-animated, or at the very least, much better than God Eater’s stiff movement. The most important plot-heavy ones feature smooth, realistic movement, camera angles, and lip-syncing.

I have only one thing to say about the character and prop design: if you have a heavy metal or gun fetish, this game is for you. Huke definitely made his mark here.

While I’m happy they roped in Manabu Namiki for the music, ImageEpoch seemed to have forgotten something important. With all the skull, star and death metal themes in the game, where did all the rock go? Instead all we get is a lot of synth.

EDIT: Kudos to PAPAEDMUND for uploading the entire OST.

While the music doesn’t exactly live up to the expectations of the song that this game is based on (and it should IMHO), it does give a very “retro” feel to the game.

Which is actually kind of jarring, if you think about it.

Nonetheless though, the music ranges from the calm “safe zone” music to the fast-paced boss battle themes, and does sound good overall. If the game took a little longer than a couple of days to finish though, I think I’d actually be able to reminisce every time I hear the music outside the game.

The voice acting in this game is excellent, but that’s a given since it has an all-star cast. Given titular main character’s personality, Maaya doesn’t get as many chances to act out her role (at least, not as much as Miyuki’s role as Grey), but she makes up for it with her double role as WRS.

I will be honest: I cannot tell that they’re being spoken by the same voice actress.

I’m not going to talk about the limited edition content as part of this review, the main reason being that they don’t really contribute to the game itself. In any case though, tl;dr, here’s a quick summary:

Game-play: 7/10 – Decent and level-grind independent. The creative use of mini-games does liven up the gameplay a little more, though it does get a little repetitive after a while.

Visual: 7/10 – Graphics and effects are decent, though texture quality is low, and the use of bloom feels like an unneeded gimmick.

Aural: 7/10 – The good use of synth complements the game’s atmosphere, though it clashes with its death metal themes.

End-game Appeal: 5/10 – The game is way too short for a JRPG. Even the unlockables (which are there only to lengthen your play-time) aren’t all that hard to obtain.

Overall: 6.5/10

If I had anything else to say, it’d be that B★RS The Game was probably rushed. Greater emphasis was placed on the character design rather than the game itself, though the decent in-battle gameplay became its saving grace.

I am happy, though, that the gaming industry’s first attempt to turn a popular franchise into a game didn’t turn out to be a boring, turn-based dungeon adventure. To be honest, if it did, I wouldn’t have even bothered playing it, let alone reviewing it.

If you’re still considering getting the game, only get it if:

• you love Black★Rock Shooter.
• you’re bored and looking for a quick RPG to clear.
• you’re into tech porn.

Otherwise, look elsewhere.

While the magazine scan doesn’t reveal anything about the terms and availability, the figma looks smexy. I had a feeling this was bound to show up sometime though, what with WRS’ lack of a fighting partner in action-figure form. Totally dig the new hairstyle, not to mention THE WINGS.

My guess is that it’ll probably be out near the end of August, that is, around the time the game’s released.

Source: Futaba Channel via 萌え豚NEWS

Also, kudos to xs27 for the heads up!

Neither of these videos actually have any real gameplay (save for a mini-game), but we’re getting there!

First up is the titular character, Black★Rock Shooter herself:

Maaya Sakamoto actually sounds more high-pitched and emotional than I expected. In fact, it doesn’t seem to fit the cold “air” she built up in B★RS’ deep voice at the end of every trailer (including this one, yes) and the “awakening” event. The difference is jarring enough to make me cringe a little. Eek.

Also, a Blacktrike dodging mini-game at the 20-second mark? Looks pretty…meh. I expected some drive-by shooting at least. =(

Second in line is the prototype, Grey:

While I didn’t know what to expect of Grey, Miyuki Sawashiro actually takes on her persona pretty well, coming across as a cold warrior, emotions dulled by the constant battles. Or so I think, since I can’t actually understand what she’s saying.

Also, if the B★RS x Grey ship wasn’t confirmed yet, consider it engraved in stone now. Pomf!

These videos were revealed over the past couple of weeks, and WRS’ character movie should be coming up next. Let’s hope the voice director doesn’t make Maaya screw up this time. >_<

Sources:

• Siliconera
• JRPG News

FUCK YES.

I know ufotable’s pretty talented, but I’ve only personally seen their work in God Eater Burst. This…this just takes it to a whole new level. d(^v^ d)

We see that there are multiple City Eaters at work here, and a total of 5 out of the 8 Apostles are revealed. The new faces consist of 3 guys (there goes that all-girl harem fantasy), and so far, only the details for the red one have been revealed.

His name is Azuma (アズマ), and he’s the 2nd Apostle. His outfit is very asymmetrical, and his left eye is covered by a metal “scar”. Herald of meridian calls it a “spine”. He also wields a blade, and appears to be able to perform fire-based attacks.

Here are some more screenshots released alongside Azuma’s reveal. So it’s mission-based…I expected as much from a PSP title.

Famitsu also launched a special page detailing all information they released before Azuma’s reveal. The game’s website got updated too, obviously.

If the OP is anything to go by though, it seems this’ll be one epic title, at least before the release of the PSVita. Gah, my patience draws thin.

Sources:

• Famitsu
• 2channel (somewhere >_>)
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