Recent Non-Figure Acquisitions

Most of my discretionary spending budget is allocated to figure purchases but every now and then I buy other stuff. Here’s a few things that I’ve picked up in the past month or two.

I bought some DVDs from RightStuf; I’m not quite sure when I’ll get around to watching them, though, as I’m trying to keep up with a few ongoing series (notably Seikon no Qwaser, the greatest anime of all time).

I got this dakimakura depicting Natsuru Senou, the genderbending protagonist of Kampfer. This makes dakimakura #6, but I’m not done yet, as I recently won one off of Yahoo Japan. I’ll probably review Natsuru sometime this week.

I got this Total Eclipse artbook at the same time as I got the Mahou Shoujo Ai book. I will freely admit that I bought it in the hope of seeing pictures of cute girls in tight piloting suits, but the book is mostly mecha art (and text, natch). I guess I don’t mind that too much – the art, that is – since I like mecha. I wish I could read all the words in the book, though, since there’s a lot of them.

H-manga! The Nanoha doujinshi is by Cyclone, who have put out quite a few good Nanoha books, and the other two books are from Kill Time Communication. The Lightning Warrior Raidy book seems to be an anthology of stories from different artists and series, as Raidy’s sequence only takes up maybe fifteen pages, but the other book is all about Beat Blades Haruka. It’s a great book with great artwork (although I could’ve done without futanari Narika, I guess) and I’m hoping that KTC chucks out a sequel, since it ends at about the point where Haruka encounters Subaru in the modern age.

I saw a review of Yamato’s VMF50 Risa doll on Akibahobby a few weeks ago and I liked how it looked so I picked it up. Why did I like it? For one, it wasn’t too expensive for such a large doll and for two, I’m insane. And for three, she’s pretty realistic. You know what I mean. I ordered some gym clothes and underpants for her but they aren’t here yet. A friend of mine suggested that “Simone” sounds a bit like a name for a porn actress, so that’s what I named her.

This is perhaps the strangest impulse purchase I’ve ever made.

I bought a new camera cuz, you know, more expensive camera means better pictures. Everybody knows that, it’s a scientifically proven fact.

I also recently picked up Resonance of Fate and Sakura Taisen, but I figure everybody knows what those look like so I don’t need to put pictures of them up here. Actually, I completely forgot to take pictures of them and while I’m trying to actually complete Resonance of Fate (it’s a great game but I don’t have a good track record of beating games), my list of RPGs that I’ve bought in the last six months or so and not even played for more than five minutes is impressive: Mass Effect 2, Valkyria Chronicles, Shin Megami Tensei Digital Devil Saga 1 and 2, Dragon Age (technically, I played far enough to name my dog), Fallout 3, and Ar Tonelico II are in that list and I’m sure there are more that I’ve forgotten about.

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39 Responses to Recent Non-Figure Acquisitions

  1. Shashin says:

    I just picked up some DVDs from RightStuf myself. Some of their bargain bin deals are just too good to pass up. I tried watching Black Lagoon the “right” way about a year ago, but I went through 3-4 replacement DVDs with Netflix over 3 episode DVDs. They didn’t have a back up for the final one, and it was too damaged to play, so I dropped the series there. Obviously, it’s one of the DVDs I picked up on the cheap, as well as some hentai DVDs (finally replacing my bootleg Ai collection) and some other box collections.

    I know how it is for video games. I’m here playing Sengoku Rance again, when I still have about 30 PS2 RPGs that I’ve picked up over the years that I’ve never bothered to even open. As well as a list of games I haven’t completed, such as Valkyria Chronicles (good game, by the way.)

  2. Aka says:

    Nice, pantsu anime, violent anime, camera, naked doll and a genderswapped Natsuru. Good haul.

    Feel like buying me a new camera?

    So did Simone only come with thighighs and running shoes? that’s interesting attire to ship in.

  3. Chag says:

    Initially I was a little underwhelmed by the photo of your new doll, but the doll in the Akibahobby review looks pretty good! I think the combination of her giant hair and outfit makes her look like one of those girls from those 80’s exercise videos. Man, those doll clothes are ridiculously pricey… hope you’re ready for a very, very pricey hobby.

    Then again, I doubt money is too big of an issue for you, seeing that you bought a new CAMERA on impulse =P

  4. Fabrice says:

    Natsuru Senou….trap D:
    beware she might turn back to he XD

    nice loot =)

    and the camera… D: i feel bad now having the old stupid eos 1000 lol

  5. Ashlotte says:

    Northern Virginia was it Tier……….yea maybe I should move back home so I can come harass….errr I mean borrow stuff from you…yes thats it… >_>

    And what the hell I didn’t know you collected poseables? Takes more shots of em you lazy bum! (Yea a guy who hasn’t done a review in 3 months calling others lazy… *cough*).

    Haha I see we have our priorities flipped though….I’ve been gaming lately and ignoring reviews unlike you…Ya gotta atleast play the Bioware ones eh? Well and Fallout 3. :p

  6. Tier says:

    >> Shashin
    I’m thinking I might be buying more stuff from RightStuf since I see they heavily discounted a bunch of older DVDs recently. I might pick up Beck (would’ve been one of my favorite series had they ended it at episode 12) and complete my Battle Athletes Victory collection.

    I’m about a third of the way through Magna Carta 2 and right at the end of Persona 4 and Mass Effect (I want to beat that game before I play the sequel). I’ve still got Lost Odyssey sitting here. I’ve got some games in my collection that I don’t even know I own.

    I really want to play Valkyria Chronicles but I don’t actually own a PS3 yet. I bought it since it was cheap and I had the feeling it might become hard to find; I remember seeing Panzer Dragoon Saga at EB years and years ago and passing on it, and then I had to spend a lot of money to get it off of eBay later on.

    >> Aka
    You bet! What would you like, a 5D Mark II? How about a D3x? Tell Uncle Tier what you want, he will make it happen.

    The doll actually came naked and bald, which is sorta hot in its own way. I had to get the sneakers, socks, swimsuit, and hair separately (incidentally, if anybody is planning on buying a vmf50 doll, Parabox recommends a 7″ wig for the 50cm Obitsu body [which I understand the vmf50 body is a modified version of] but Yamato’s store sells 8″ wigs and I found out the hard way that the 7″ straight hair wigs that Parabox sells will not fit). I also got her some rather fetching hooker boots which – somewhat hilariously – cost more than real life shoes, which sorta shows how misplaced my priorities are, as I’m wearing a shoe that has a huge-ass hole in the sole right now.

    >> Chag
    Yeah, I really like those shots on Akibahobby XD I need a straight hair wig, I think it’d be much easier to comb. Well, it’d also be easier to comb if I owned a comb in the first place.

    Yeah, I don’t think I’m going to go too nuts on doll clothes right now but I think everyone says that at first. I actually own a bunch of 1/6 scale dolls from Takara/BBI’s Cool Girls/CyGirls line (got hmm, Jet, Electra, Revenger, Bloody Rose, Sky, some girl from Gatchaman whose name eludes me right now, and a few Perfect Bodies). Oh, and the president, of course. President Obama seems to be popular with the figure manufacturers, looking at Hot Toys’s upcoming male figure bodies.

    >> Fabrice
    Indeed! I feel sorta weird knowing that I’ve got a dakimakura of a dude. Sort of, anyway.

    Don’t feel bad! The 1000D/Rebel XS/Kiss-whatever is a great camera. I’m not really under any illusion that having a sexier camera is going to improve my photographs by any noticeable measure.

    >> Ashlotte
    That location is correct. I’ve only got a couple of Figmas, though I’m thinking about getting Yomi Isayama and I’m kinda hoping that Rider goes up for sale somewhere since every store shut down preorders with the quickness. And then I’ve got the dolls I mentioned. Most of them sorta look like hookers, which I guess is not really surprising.

    I’ve been playing more games recently after having gone a few months without turning on my Xbox. I really wish Resonance of Fate didn’t have such an outdated save system; I wound up getting my team wiped out after depleting the, uhh, hero gauge I guess it’s called and I haven’t played it since. Yeah, I need to play the Bioware ones, it feels really weird not to be playing them right away after having beaten every Bioware RPG up to Mass Effect (haven’t beaten Planescape Torment or Icewind Dale II but those were Black Isle games, I think).

  7. Aka says:

    I’d be quite happy with a Nikon D300S, but I suppose since you’re buying, I’ll ask for the D3X, yes.

    lol naked and bald, that doesn’t sound so hot to me. I wish they could make dolls without visible joints and crappy rolly skin when the joints are covered. All the Dollfies and the like that i tend to like have the joints covered by thighhighs and long sleeve shirts. Anytime they’re visible I’m generally thrown off and find them unattractive overall.

    As for the clothes, yes I don’t get it. Why are they so expensive for such tiny clothes? I’ve seen outfits for Dollfies that cost more than many of the clothes I wear. Not cool, they cost way too much, but I still want a Tohsaka Rin, Saber and Saber Alter.

  8. Shashin says:

    Pretty funny you mention Persona 4, actually. That’s another game I’m playing through, though I didn’t mention it because it’s my second play-through. I only have a few dungeons left, but I’ve been busy as of late, so I put it on the shelf until I can donate the time to play it in a sitting or two.

  9. super rats says:

    Complete that BAV collection! I rewatch that show every couple of years. It’s kind of a dumb show, but it’s always been something I enjoy…I think it’s for the chocolate.

  10. Tier says:

    >> Aka
    You got it! I’ll just need an address and whatever the Canadian equivalent of a Social Security number is. Do you guys have identification numbers up there?

    Yeah, I’m not a big fan of the ball joints. I considered getting the Mai Shiranui Dollfie a while back but the exposed ball joints really didn’t look too appealing to me. Nor did her face, come to think of it.

    I dunno why that is, either. I guess the vmf50 clothing isn’t too expensive compared to some of Volks’s prices. A quick glance through Yamato’s doll clothing line indicates that they aren’t going for nearly the same level of complexity that Volks does, which probably explains the discrepancy.

    I ran across this picture of one of Yamato’s displays. I guess at one point they planned to do 50 centimeter tall dolls of the Beat Blades Haruka girls. It would’ve been cool if they had gone through with that (it’s an old picture and I vaguely remember hearing that they dropped the idea), since I’d love a 1/3 scale Haruka and Narika doll. Though on the other hand, they do have a vmf50 version of Kanu Unchou and I don’t think it came out all that well.

    >> Shashin
    I think I’m right at the end, I’m somewhere in December, if I remember correctly. I got through this big long story sequence, answered a couple of questions incorrectly, and promptly got a bad end. That annoyed the hell out of me.

    That reminds me, I guess I’m going to have to get a PSP soon for P3P. So many expenses these days.

    >> super rats
    I think I shall! I’ve been on this nostalgic kick recently, I ought to find my Iria and Gunsmith Cats DVDs and spend some time watching mid-90s anime.

  11. Shashin says:

    The PSP pisses me off. I bought one launch day, with Metal Gear Acid, and Wipeout: Pure (I think it was.) Two good games, but hardly enough to last me the year or two it took to get even one or two decent games past that. I eventually sold it to my friend on the cheap, and sure enough, RPGs I actually wanted to play were being released on the system. Honestly, I’m not exaggerating one bit. Nothing at all appealed to me in their lineup for the length I had it, and as soon as I sell it off, I see previews for the games I’d actually play.

    Needless to say, I want one again. P3P is definitely a big part of the reason; I played Persona 4 first and absolutely loved every bit of it. I eventually picked up FES and enjoyed it, but quit about half way through. The story was good and the general game play components were all winners, but the thing that I hate more than anything in an RPG (even more than random battles) is not being able to directly control all of your party members. So while the story and general game play otherwise were able to keep me on board with the game for awhile, it didn’t last long enough to see me through until the end; P3P should fix that, and I can’t wait.

  12. Tier says:

    I’ve had a few portable systems: the original Game Boy, a Game Gear, a Gameboy Advance, but I never buy many games for them and they usually end up being a big waste of money. Nonetheless, I’m going to get a PSP anyway just for P3P. I’m a moron like that. I guess it’ll be a nice bonus if there are other PSP games that I want (I’m thinking about getting Ikkitousen, uhh, Xross Impact I guess it’s called) but I’m not really expecting to end up with more than a few PSP games.

    P3 FES is one of my top five favorite RPGs now (I guess the others would be Phantasy Star II, Wasteland, Star Wars KOTOR, and hmm … maybe Panzer Dragoon Saga. Or Baldur’s Gate or Bard’s Tale III, I guess). But yeah, not being able to direct your party members sorta sucks, especially since I always had Mitsuru in my party (with the high cut armor) and I wanted to throttle her every time she busted out Marin Karin. It did make the game quite a bit harder, though; I remember thinking that P4 seemed really easy compared to its predecessor.

    You know what else really bugs me about RPGs? Not being able to save anywhere. I’m old now. I’ve got an early bedtime. I can’t be playing games all night just to try to find the next save point.

  13. Shashin says:

    It’s similar for me; I just end up buying the games I absolutely have to own. I’ve seen the Ikkitousen game on Amiami, but I’m not too familiar with the series (I’ve watched a few episodes of the annoying English dub) nor do I know how the game will play out. It does look interesting, though, and since I’m buying a decent amount of figures related to the series, I don’t see the harm in picking up the game, either. Haven’t preordered it yet mainly because I don’t own a PSP.

    Yeah, Persona 4 is definitely easier, if only because of that, but I like having control, and while I thoroughly enjoyed what I did play of FES, I just couldn’t continue with it. Speaking of Mitsuru, I won a couple of auctions for several Persona doujinshi that I hadn’t acquired previously. About four of them feature Mitsuru, so I’m quite happy.

    Yeah, the save point feature is a bit annoying, I’ll admit, but it’s something I’ve always been able to accept to an extent. As long as the points aren’t spread out too far apart.

  14. Tier says:

    Collecting obscure or rare RPGs is a hobby of mine, and that compels me to buy games that I know I’m never going to play (such as Operation Darkness and Xenosaga II). I’m not expecting much from Ikki Tousen if I do buy it; I’d mainly get it since I like several of the characters and I’d like to play them, but it wouldn’t surprise me at all if the game turns out to be horrible.

    Yeah, I liked P4’s gameplay better, regardless of the difficulty. I played on normal difficulty anyway so I could just bump it up to hard on my next playthrough.

    Anything featuring Mitsuru would bring happiness XD I did not like her battle AI but I think she was my favorite NPC in P3 anyway.

    There’s a few doujinshi I’ve seen on Mandarake and eBay that I’m interested in, I think I might be picking up some myself soon (since payday is this week).

    Star Ocean 4 is a game I forgot to put in that list but it had really awful save point distribution. Basically there was one at the start of a dungeon and another at the end. That game sucked so bad and I’m not sure I’m ever going to be able to bring myself to complete it.

  15. Shashin says:

    Ah, I like collecting things to an extent, but as far as games go, if I purchased it I would have at least some intent to play it. A lot of the games that I haven’t touched yet I picked up on the cheap.

    P4 is one of my all time favorite games. I’m playing on Extreme right now, and it honestly isn’t all that hard, yet anyway. I still have about three dungeons to go, and while on the first play through some of the earlier bosses can be quite difficult, the later bosses are harder for the most part. The earlier dungeons are a cakewalk because you can use all of persona you registered on the first play through.

    I was finally able to get a Yukiko doujinshi that I had been looking to acquire for ages. It was on YHJ with a few other Persona doujinshi, and I ended up picking up all of them for about 2000 yen, so I was more than a little happy, as I probably would have paid that for the doujinshi alone.

    That’s a terrible save system; thanks for saving me the money should I ever see the game cheap and can’t resist passing it up.

  16. Tier says:

    I’ve got way too many games that I have no intention to play. I even have a few Japanese Xbox games that I can’t play, like Shin Megami Tensei NINE and Psyvariar 2. When I kicked off this blog, I meant to write a lot more about video games, particularly obscure RPGs, but that plan never went anywhere.

    I really need to get back to P4, I guess it’d be silly to pick up P3P before beating P4. That’s not a bad price for doujinshi, I’ve seen some on eBay going for fifteen or twenty bucks a book, which is nuts even factoring overseas shipping into the equation.

    The save system in Star Ocean 4 blows but that’s not even the worst of that game’s problems. I had this one Youtube video bookmarked but unfortunately its uploader seems to have deleted it; it included the protagonist screaming “EVERYTHING EVERYTHING EVERYTHING!” in a painful manner. Anyone who’s played this game is probably grimacing at the memory of that cutscene. Right now, I don’t think Square Enix knows beans about making video games.

  17. Shashin says:

    That’s pretty awesome. I’ll admit, I’d collect some Dreamcast games, even if I never had any intention of playing them, though if I got some of the rarer shooters, I’m pretty sure I would. Have a back-up copy of Border Down and Ikaruga (one of my favorite games), but it’s obviously not as wonderful as owning the real thing.

    I’d highly recommend it, though just be careful with your options. Not sure if you’ve read any guides/spoilers pertaining to the endings, so I won’t say anything more.

    I happily paid $24 for my first doujinshi, and would do it again. I absolutely love Okaz. Pretty sure I’ve mentioned this, but I’ll go into a bit more detail. When I was ordering from Mamdarake, my order would average to around $10-15 per item. Obviously to get a price point that low, I’d need to get quite a few 200-600 yen items, but I also ordered a good amount above that, with some reaching 3000. Might have spent a bit more on one or two, but the most expensive doujinshi I can think of off the top of my head were 3000. So it wasn’t bad at all.

    However, I got absolutely reamed on the 50 book deal I mentioned a few weeks ago. Probably never going to order printed material again, unless it’s only a few items, or from Mandarake/Amazon.jp. Basically I won three auctions, the 50 books and two for Hot Milk comic (around 45ish total). I don’t regret the Hot Milk order, as it probably cost me ~$280 total, for a great amount of hentai. But the shipping for the 50 books was just shy of $300, making the total close to $370, and all the books are from the 90s/early 00s, I’m guessing.

    Gotta love bad voice acting. I remember that Shenmue was my favorite game for the longest damn time. It just absolutely mesmerized me (and I still want them to finish the damn story!), but when I look back and play some clips from the game, it’s just so laughable. I still love the game, and will probably play through it again eventually, but damn was it bad. As for Square Enix, while I’ve heard Finaly Fantasy XIII is a lot of fun, I have zero interest in playing it. Absolutely linear, one party member control in my RPG? No thanks.

  18. Tier says:

    Man, I don’t even know what Dreamcast games I have. I bought a bunch that I’ve never put into my console just because they were classic games that I thought I ought to own, like Jet Grind Radio, Resident Evil Code Veronica … I did get Ikaruga, thought it was annoying to have to use a boot disc so that I could play region 2 games. Man I suck at that game. I swear I was better at those sorts of games when I was 11. I’m really bad at Mushihime-sama Futari, too (it probably doesn’t help that I can’t read the instruction manual …)

    Unfortunately, I already have some idea of the ending; I got the artbook from preordering the game, and it has a picture of a particular bad guy character with the caption giving his name. I didn’t think about it at all at first, but then I played through part of the game and realized who that was. Then I was like, “Oh that’s just freaking wonderful.”

    I think I paid about that much for my first doujinshi; it was either a Guilty Gear X book with Millia Rage, or EN. I paid, uhh, around $200 for a doujinshi later on (Range Murata’s Spheres and Spheres+) … in retrospect that probably wasn’t very smart since I think it’s a lot cheaper than that now, but I was on a big Last Exile kick back then.

    Holy crap. Uhh, yeah, man, I don’t really know what to say but holy crap. That’s quite a bit for shipping. Even 1/4 scale Kenshin didn’t cost nearly that much for her plane ticket.

    Haha, yeah, I remember some of the games that I played around when games transitioned from floppy disks and cartridges to CD-ROM. Like Silpheed, Rebel Assault II, Lunar … they were amazing when I played them but if I showed them to someone younger who didn’t play games back in the era of DOS and 16-bit consoles, they’d probably laugh their asses off. It’s pretty amazing how far games have come in such a short period of time in terms of production values.

    I watched a friend play FFXIII and I can’t say that it grabbed me. Looking back at Square Enix’s home console lineup for the current console generation, they’ve made stellar winners like Infinite Undiscovery, The Last Remnant, Star Ocean 4, and FFXIII … someone’s gonna need to remind me why people think their games are any good since it’s pretty hard to be impressed by those games.

  19. Shashin says:

    My backed-up copy of Ikaruga doesn’t require a boot disk, while my Border down does. It’s a bit strange. It’s a shame the site I picked them up from went out. Granted this was before torrents really caught on, and thus was the best available option, but I’d still probably pick a few games up as I’m sure torrents would be hard to find. They had a few hundred JP/Euro/US games for $2 a disk. Allowed me to pick up Guilty Gear X, Segagaga, Rez, and a few other games I probably would have never been able to find back then.

    Yeah, got to hate preorder pack-ins like that, even if it is a nice extra. The ending is a bit tricky, as you’ve obviously already experienced a bit of it. There’s a bit more to it than that, so just make sure you’re on the look up for extra options.

    Wow, that’s quite high; not sure I’d pay that even if it’s something I really wanted. I almost bought a collection of the Rei doujinshi by Mogudan, but I didn’t like them enough for shell out about $20-25 a piece per. Whereas I willingly would have done so for, say, Udon-ya’s Monster Hunter works. Luckily I think I have all 8 of those now (might be missing 1) for 500-1500 yen a piece.

    Pretty much. My wallet was crying. Then again, I’m an impatient bastard and had to get them shipped EMS. Not that they would have been that much cheaper had I gone with SAL (doubt I’d ever go with Sea, honestly), but it still added to the costs I’m sure. I would have been fine with it had I actually gotten some recent material, but nope. 🙁

    I tried to play Lunar SSSC a few months back, but it looked absolutely terrible on a 46″ tv. I remember it being a bit corny, but it was definitely one of the better RPGs I’ve played. I’m happy that it was re-re-released on PSP, so I have yet another reason to pick one up (again) eventually.

    Everyone who has played it has told me it’s great, but if I couldn’t get through a game of a series I love due to the stupid mechanics (Persona 3), there’s no way and hell I’m going to make it through a Final Fantasy game. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed both VII and X, but I just don’t love the series as much as nearly everyone else does.

  20. Tier says:

    Yeah, I was sorta annoyed by having a big spoiler like that right in the book. Other than that, though, it’s a pretty nice artbook.

    I’m not really great at controlling spending impulses; hopefully it’s something I’ll grow out of someday, maybe when I get older. Ha! Yeah right. I was told that it was a fairly rare set of books but I suppose books aren’t really difficult to print at any time.

    I remember really liking Lunar, but I think I’ve only played it once since its saved games took up such a large amount of the memory of a Sega CD and I didn’t have a supplemental memory cartridge. I don’t really remember much of it, other than the intro theme song, which I liked a lot at first but in retrospect, is really corny as hell (like a lot of games around that time). I do remember not liking Eternal Blue nearly as much due to that damnable flying pink cat/dragon thing. I hate sidekicks like that.

    Yeah, I’m not really a big FF fan due to me coming to the series late; the first one I played is VIII, which I liked a lot, but isn’t what I’d call a classic or genre-defining game (I wouldn’t call X that, either). Generally, I find the games to be hugely overrated because they rely on flashy CG cutscenes and vocal theme songs to impress, but that sort of thing is passe these days, and once you get past that, the gameplay isn’t anything that couldn’t have been done on an 8-bit Nintendo console.

  21. Shashin says:

    Yeah, I’m still young, so my impulses are pretty bad. However, I am able to save to an extent, so I have something going for me, even if I spend more than I should.

    I’ve only ever played the first, as I’ve never seen Eternal Blue available, and never bothered to pick up a copy on eBay or the like.

    I started out with some of the SNES games, and had fun of them, but VII was the first one I really played all the way through; I could never get into VIII. For a strange reason, actually. VII’s graphics never bothered me, blocky as they were, but VIII’s graphics, while most would consider an improvement, were just a massive eyesore for me. I literally couldn’t play it because it was too much strain on my eyes, everything was far too blurry. It’s very similar to playing the hell out of SSB, moving up to SSBM, and then attempting to play SSB again; it’s just too tough on the eyes.

    So far, I’ve been pretty happy with Right Stuf; they’ve had good prices and their free shipping is really fast. However, I just got an order today and was a little less than satisfied. I ordered the Kite/Mezzo Forte pack that they had one special a few days ago, and was a little disappointed with the result. I honestly don’t care too much about having the truly uncut version (though of course I ordered the supposedly uncut version of the cut version), but they’re flat out mislabeling the product.

    For one, Kitty Media shouldn’t be saying the item is entirely uncut right on the packaging, but I realize they’re probably basing those claims off the International Edition Japan released that was slightly cut. So while I don’t agree with the practice, I guess it’s a sly way of misleading their customers. But Right Stuf on the other hand completely screwed up. On the item page they’re listing the set as including the Special Edition, which is the uncut version. I opened it up today, and sure enough, it included the Directors Cut. Now, as I said, I don’t care too much about the scenes removed, however, I doubt I would have purchased the set if I had known it was the Directors Cut over the Special Edition.

  22. Tier says:

    Yeah, as long as my emergency fund is in decent shape, I’m not hugely concerned about running out of skrills.

    I recall Eternal Blue was a fun game that had at least one or two truly annoying characters, which I suppose is par for the course for JRPGs. Back at that time though, there were barely any RPGs with voice acting so that one sidekick character really stood out as being one I disliked. I really don’t remember it well at all, though; I think I only played it through once. Good music, though, if I remember that right.

    I had a Genesis and I never got a SNES, so I never really played the cartridge FFs (I did try out VI on an emulator once but I never got into it much). I didn’t have a PlayStation either so I got VIII on PC, and it was okay. Mainly I liked Quistis, I guess. Squall was okay. I really didn’t like Rinoa, Zell, Selphie, that one cowboy dude … gee, I guess I didn’t really like many of the characters at all. I didn’t mind the spell drawing system (though I can certainly understand why a lot of people don’t care for it) and I liked the statistical powergaming you could do with GF junctioning and I liked the atmosphere of the setting. I didn’t get into VII until after I got a PS2, so I didn’t get to experience it in the proper context. I’m sure it was an amazing game when it first came out, though.

    That’s disappointing to hear; I’d expect that sort of mistake to be made by Amazon or some other non-specialist retailer, but RightStuf ought to know better than to make an error like that. Though admittedly, I recall that Kite has had a ridiculously confusing release history.

  23. Shashin says:

    I had both a SNES and a Genesis. I preferred the Genesis truthfully, but I’m glad I had a chance to play with the SNES too. I went from that generation straight to Dreamcast, and then picked up a PSone and N64 along the way.

    I didn’t get far in VIII at all. I couldn’t have spent more than two hours on the damn game. It just hurt my eyes so much. I was definitely playing Dreamcast level games at the time, and possibly even Xbox/GameCube, so that could also be why it was so hard for me. Which is why I found it odd that I was perfectly fine with FFVII’s graphics (and still am to this day.) Maybe it was because of the uber deformed blockyness versus the attempting to be lifelike but making everything so blurry thing that did it for me.

    Yeah, I sent them an email. Doubt they’ll do anything for me, but they should at least fix the error so no one else buys the product expecting something and not getting it. I think there’s four releases in the US. The porn free version, the first release that was horribly censored (those two could be the same, but I’m not positive), the Directors Cut which has all the potentially loli material removed, and the Special Edition which is finally uncut.

  24. Tier says:

    The Saturn was the only 32-bit console I had (ignoring the technicality that the Xbox is a 32-bit console); I liked it a lot and it had a ton of great games, and I’m sad to see that Sega’s been relegated to the sidelines as far as notable video game companies go. I stopped playing console games after the Saturn failed and didn’t buy another console until I got a PS2 to play FFX.

    Hopefully they’ll make it right; I’ve gotta imagine that anime retail stores can’t be doing well given the state of the R1 anime industry in general, and I don’t think they can afford to make many errors like that.

  25. Shashin says:

    I’ve always wanted a Saturn, but short of turning to eBay, it was always so damn hard to find. I managed to find it in a store I frequented years ago, for $25. I didn’t quite have that on me, so I ran home, got the money, and by the time I came back it was sold. It pissed me off a bit too, because the guy working there was a friend of mine, and I told him to hold onto it for me. Even though I know it will never happen, nothing would please me more than Sega coming out with a new console that does well.

    True enough. Hopefully they’ll be able to do something for me, but if not, I don’t really care. I just want them to fix the error so others don’t get suckered in. If they don’t, I’ll still probably order from them, but I’ll be much less inclined to.

  26. Tier says:

    I wound up having to get one off of eBay; my sister had my family’s console but I’m not sure what she did with it.

    Haha, that’s kinda screwed up. Especially after you told him to hold it for you (and I presume he agreed to do that). Lots of fun games for that system if you do get one, but I don’t think a lot of those 32-bit era games have aged all that well. I mean, I’ll still play Sega Rally every now and then, but when I do I’ll wonder why I’m not playing Forza 3 instead.

    It’d be great if Sega made another console … heck, I’m just hoping they bring back some of their old franchises. I was ecstatic to see After Burner Climax come to Xbox Live (although that happiness was sorta short-lived when I found out how poorly it controls on the 360 analog pad), and I’m looking forward to Sonic 4. I’m really hoping that they also bring back Streets of Rage and Shining Force – the real Shining Force, not those wacky action RPGs with anime tie-ins.

  27. Shashin says:

    I just checked Right Stuf today, and they fixed the error. Honestly, they didn’t handle it as well as they should have, but hopefully the change will deter people from ordering thinking they’re getting the special edition, or to ask before they order.

    Basically they emailed me a few days ago saying they’d forward it to someone who could help. Not that I was looking for any freebies or even a refund, but I wasn’t offered any (if I wanted to push the issue, I’d feel it would be within my right to get a full refund despite the item being opened.) It has been updated now, but instead of saying Directors Cut, it just says Uncut. While technically correct (even if entirely wrong), it’s not as clear as it should be, and could still possibly mislead people. Still, I’m just glad they changed it at all, and at least no one will blatantly be sold something they didn’t purchase.

    As for the Saturn, it wasn’t cool at all. I think the employee may have purchased it himself, but I can’t really blame him; anyone who doesn’t want a Saturn is crazy. I know the feeling; I get it too when I’m playing old games. I find that there are certain games that are just infinitely better than their successors, even if the graphics/mechanics may be a bit outdated. Hell, whenever I feel the need to play some football, I boot up NFL 2k5 (fuck you, EA) and I’m sure there’s quite a few other examples of me doing something similar, when I have a newer game of a similar type available.

    Streets of Rage was great. I spent many days playing through the first two games with my friends on my Genesis. I still have most of my Genesis games, taking up a good drawer space (have boxes for most.) I should dust it off sometime. As I said previously, I just really wanted Sega to finish Shenmue. I’ve always been a Sega fanboy, and will continue to helplessly pray that they get back in the console business, but I want them to finish that damn series more than anything.

  28. Tier says:

    Oh well, I suppose that’s how customer service goes these days. I had a somewhat funny experience with a product that wasn’t what it was suppoed to be myself, recently. Back in December I ordered a CD by Ohmega Watts off of Amazon. I got the CD, stuck it into my computer to rip it, and then loaded up Winamp (yeah, I still use Winamp). You can guess what sort of artist this guy is by his stage name, but instead, I heard easy-listening relaxation music, followed by the sounds of chirping birds, followed by a woman’s voice chanting meditative instructions. I took the CD out and confirmed that it said “Ohmega Watts” on it, but instead of the rap CD I had bought, I somehow got some sort of yoga CD. I dunno what the hell was up with that.

    I think my sister sold all the Genesis cartridges we had. Funny, now that I think about it … I (legally) own copies of all three Streets of Rage games, but I never got the cartridge versions; I got the first game with the Sega CD, which had a pack-in CD with four old Genesis games (Columns, Golden Axe, and something else … might’ve been Revenge of Shinobi), I got the Xbox Live Arcade version of the second game, and I got the third game with the Sonic Mega Collection compilation for the 360.

    I’ve never played any of the Shenmue games … maybe I ought to try them out, I know I’ve seen them fairly cheap in the past. I’ve been really hoping for a new Panzer Dragoon RPG for a while now. Or a new Phantasy Star game, as that was my favorite RPG series growing up, but it looks like they’re just making multiplayer games and I don’t think they can resume the story of the old Genesis games now.

  29. Shashin says:

    Hey, you don’t have to defend Winamp around me; it’s probably still one of the better music programs around. If I listened to more music at the computer, I’d be sure to use it. And I’m sure it’s still infinitely better than the trash that is iTunes. That’s a pretty great story, though. Either someone seriously fucked the production up there, or there’s an easy listening group that chose a name no where near the music they were trying to produce.

    I still have most of them, unfortunately I don’t think I have some of the better games anymore, like Kid Chameleon, but I still have all the Mike Tyson’s boxing and such! I do have some good ones like Streets of Rage, the sonic games, some action RPG I’ve always loved but have never seen anything else on it, and such.

    It’s probably really dated right now, though I’d highly recommend you try to play through it. Expect to move a lot of boxes, see the first instance of the heavily overused QTE and laugh at horribly bad dialog. Still, the game has a lot of charm and I’m sure I’ll play it several more times in my life span.

  30. Tier says:

    When I got my new computer a few months ago, I figured I ought to upgrade from Winamp 2.9 to something a bit more modern. I tried out foobar but didn’t really like the interface much, and while I know it’s highly customizable, I don’t really want to spend more time than I need to fiddling around with music playback software. Then I tried Songbird and realized it was basically an iTunes clone and uninstalled it with the quickness.

    I’ve never had a CD mixup like that, so I wonder what happened. I e-mailed the record label (which I am pretty sure doesn’t make meditative yoga CDs) but never got a response, which was pretty annoying since the jewelcase label said that I could return the CD if dissatisfied in any way (and I was quite dissatisfied indeed). I wound up just buying the MP3s off of Amazon … the CD was a two-disc set with an extra instrumental CD (which was fine), so that wasn’t entirely a wasted purchase.

    Ahh, crate moving … you know, I haven’t played too many games that involved pushing crates. Besides Sokoban, I mean. Maybe I’ll look for it at the local Gamestop the next time I’m there … I’ve got a feeling that it’s one of those quintessentially Sega games and I like those sorts of games a lot.

  31. Shashin says:

    I find that WMP or even VLC suits my needs. I don’t listen to a lot of music on the computer, and when I do, I’m not the biggest audiophile, so I don’t need all sorts of options. I liked Winamp back in the day, as it was quite easy to make and edit a playlist, but with the amount of music I have on my machine, WMP works fine. Basically, as long as it isn’t iTunes, or anything like it, I’m okay with it.

    It is pretty strange, and it’s a shame they never got back to you. Probably could have taken it back to the store you purchased it at without too much trouble, but every place is different so I’m assuming you tried that without any luck.

    It’s not the biggest part of the game, but you have to do it for a few weeks in game time. It’s not action packed or anything, so I could imagine a lot of people putting the game down after the third day of forklifting crates; I personally never had much of a problem with it, and even strove to shave seconds off meeting my quota. If you find a copy, I still recommend it. Does your GameStop still sell DC games? I know mine stopped selling them years ago, before we even hit this generation of gaming. It’s a shame, as I’d still pick up quite a few DC titles given the chance to browse them.

  32. Tier says:

    I’m sure I could have; I’ve never returned an item to Amazon but I’ve heard that they’re pretty accommodating with returns. It was around Christmas time though and it seemed like a hassle for a something that didn’t cost a whole lot so I just kept it. Who knows, maybe one of these days I’ll want to listen to a stress-relief meditative yoga sermon.

    Unfortunately they do not; none of them do, that is (I’ve got three Gamestops near where I live, all clustered within about 2000 feet of each other). They stopped selling those a while ago, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they phase out Xbox and PS2 games soon. I usually have to resort to eBay if I want something unusual, but fortunately it doesn’t seem like many of the good Dreamcast games are all that expensive (whereas a lot of the best Saturn games easily go for over a hundred bucks).

  33. Shashin says:

    If it’s shipping by Amazon themselves, they usually include a return shipping label with the package. I can understand not wanting to go through the hassle, though. And who knows, if you ever get around to the music, maybe it will do you some good.

    Yeah, it’s a shame. It sucks that GameCrazy went out (and not just because they had better prices AND trade prices than GameStop) because they still carried a good selection of DC games, even if they were all in a bin instead of taking up shelf space. I think it will be awhile before they phase out PS2 games, though GameStop stores are always retardedly (can you tell I don’t like GameStop?) cramped, so I guess they might start it sooner than later.

    Yeah, unless you want an imported game, you can get most DC games for less than $30, with quite a few under $10. There are a lot of crappy games though, so you’ll probably play more for the good ones. I remember when I picked up a ton of awesome games back when GameCrazy did their 5 for $20 sales on all “old generation” games. Picked up Power Stone, MVC (sadly they didn’t have 2), and a whole bunch of good PS RPGs. I also remember having a friend who collected Neo Geo games, and that put a real hurting on his wallet.

  34. Tier says:

    Two of the three stores around me are small as hell; the newest one is pretty large, I’d guess it’s as large as the two other stores put together. Most of it’s just empty space though. I usually get my games online now since every time I buy something at the store, they always ask if I want to preorder Modern Warfare or Resident Evil or some other game that I care nothing about. The Gamestops down where I went to school were pretty good though; I remember chatting with some of the clerks about Final Fantasy VIII and Daisenryaku VII. I’ve never been to GameCrazy though, I don’t remember ever seeing any Virginia.

    I got MVC2 for the Dreamcast (and the Xbox later on) and I remember killing my thumbs on that game since the Dreamcast pad was sorta uncomfortable for fighting games. I gotta get back to Skies of Arcadia too … I recall it was highly regarded and I’m always good for a Sega RPG.

    I’d imagine it did; I wanted a Neo Geo really badly when I was a kid but even I knew better than to ask my parents for one (and I was a really dumb kid). I never did get one but I did get a 3DO just to play Star Control 2.

  35. Shashin says:

    All of the Gamestops here are either a small little square, or a long but very narrow rectangle. The ones that have a bit more space are lined with racks on the floor, so it’s always cramped. I don’t mind some of the stores, and have even been able to talk to a few of the employees (though I’ve found that 80% of GameStop employees know nothing about games), but that still doesn’t change the fact that they’re vastly overprices and have some shitty policies.

    I wish I could have found it on Dreamcast. I loved that game, and I loved my Dreamcast. I did pick it up on Xbox the day it released and kept it for a good while, and then managed to sell it for $60. Skies of Arcadia is another one I never managed to pick up on Dreamcast, but have on GameCube. I never finished it, but it was pretty good.

  36. Blowfish says:

    I am more shocked about the fact that you bought a doll than that you bought a new camera out of a whim and a dakimakura of a dude ^^;;;;;;;;;;

    So let me get straight to the point: Realistic means Nipples and Pussy aye?

  37. Tier says:

    >> Shashin
    That pretty much describes the two smaller stores here, plus the store up near where I work.

    Man I’ve got this desire to play some old RPGs now. Maybe I’ll have to look for my Dreamcast cords and hook it up.

    >> Blowfish
    I’ve got a ton of dolls! Probably at least a dozen, most of which I bought like seven or eight years ago. I’ll take pictures of them one of these days.

    You understand my meaning. Here is an example which sorta shows the detail.

  38. Blowfish says:

    Oh really? I knew that you were into 1/6 Action Figures but I didnt know you were into dolls before it became fashionable.
    Truth be told you nearly got me with that picture but when I booted up HLJ and saw the price tag of 33.333 Yen those bad thoughts immediately left my head.

    Even if she would have been cheaper they luckily didnt have her in stock anymore

  39. Tier says:

    I think I got the last one from HLJ … it showed up as discontinued a couple of days after I put in my order. Here’s her gym clothes outfit, which I have to wait until the end of the month for. -_-

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