It didn’t take long for Atlus’s Catherine to generate enormous hype among gamers.  It boasted two qualities we see rarely these days: originality and a desire to show the player something new.  Not an alien at the barrel of a gun, not even a litany of number-saturated menus.  Catherine looked fresh, and alluded to topics generally reserved only for more mature media: sex, commitment, relationships, and the future.  Yours truly became quite swept up in the hype as well, covering its development closely and writing my own speculations at length.  After months of anticipation, I have finally experienced Catherine.  The only matter left to discuss is whether or not it lived up to my expectations.

Story — On The Edge, Edge, Edge Of My Seat

Catherine is about a guy named Vincent Brooks.  He is on the cusp of adulthood: just starting the 9-5 life, still drinking and reminiscing with his friends, all the while in a somewhat serious relationship.  He is content to let things stay the way they are.  But his girlfriend, Katherine, is not.  She knows she is at the age where important life decisions need to be made.  Is this the person she wants to marry?  Does Vincent want to marry her?  What about children?  And so Vincent’s life of complacency is thrown upside down.

The stress from being forced to make these decisions causes Vincent to look for an escape.  He finds it at the bottom of a glass; staying out late drinking with friends.  One night he stays until all his friends head home, leaving him to wrestle with his problems alone.  To his surprise, a girl in white presumptuously takes a seat next to him and begins to chat.  Her name is Catherine.  The hours and drinks melt away.  Catherine seems easygoing and makes it clear she just wants to have fun.  This resonates with Vincent and the next morning he is rudely awoken with Catherine in bed next to him.  In looking for an escape from his problems, he has done the unthinkable: cheated on his girlfriend.

Soon he begins having horrifying dreams in which he and hoards of sheep are forced to climb an elaborate tower or face death.  In the real world, young men begin dying mysteriously in their sleep, their faces contorted in fear.  Vincent begins to wonder if his mysterious dreams have a connection.  If that weren’t enough, he must also navigate the treacherous terrain of maintaining relationships with two women.

If this synopsis doesn’t make you squirm, then you are a stronger person than myself.  And this uneasiness is where Catherine’s story succeeds: it presents the player with real life stresses — ones that most people can surely relate to on some level.  Possibly the biggest factor in the game’s realism is its cast of developed characters.  I couldn’t help but see a bit of myself in Vincent especially.  Am I the same cowardly, complacent, lazy, indecisive mess?  At times it sure feels that way.  Even his current place in life was all too familiar.  I work the 9-5, drink with my old friends from high school when I can find the time, and still don’t have a clue what to make of my future.  It’s strange seeing the flaws of real individuals in video game characters.  But I like it.  In this way Vincent is the ultimate anti-hero in that, despite (or perhaps because of) his numerous vices, you can see yourself in him.

Catherine’s story may be a bit of a boys club, however.  I found myself very much invested in the protagonist and his friends.  Their conversations were so real — I even found myself thinking about them during real life late night chats with my friends.  ”It’s just like in Catherine“, I thought.  But this feeling I fear may not be one that female gamers will share, for women are little more than a decision to be made in Catherine — and a relatively black and white decision at that.  I would love to have seen this game with an option to play as Katherine in a similar situation as Vincent to round out the genders.  If the same level of realism could be captured in her… that would have been a real breakthrough for the medium.

Gameplay — Here Lies Some Dualshock Controllers, Goddammit

The player advances in Catherine’s story through a series of days in the life of Vincent.  The passage of time follows a daily pattern :

First is the story sequence.  This generally takes place during the day and consists of cutscenes which are either animated:

or in stylized CG:

Both feature great art direction, color, and style. The duration of these scenes never became so heavy-handed that I felt like I was bogged down in cinematics; rather, they advance the story at a decent pace.

Next is the bar sequence at Stray Sheep.  This is how Vincent ends his waking hours: drinking and talking with friends.  This part is my favorite due to the variety of activities, and relatively laid-back atmosphere.  You can order drinks and knock ‘em back which earns you fascinating cocktail trivia.  I’m not exaggerating, either: some of these facts will change the way you think about booze (if you think about it at all).  You can converse with your friends, fellow bar patrons, or Stray Sheep employees.  The more you do so, the more involved you become in their lives and ultimately their future.  Some of these characters have really interesting and sordid backstories which inspired me to chat with them whenever possible.  You can also play an arcade mini-game which mimics the puzzle portion of Catherine, but in a retro style.  As time passes, patrons will come and go and you will also receive texts which you can either ignore or carefully populate a response to.

Replying to texts from the game’s leading ladies (among other actions) alters Vincent’s alignment.  This will cause a gauge to appear on screen to show his current standing.  You won’t find out what the gauge means until after finishing the game, which kind of defeats the purpose of having a gauge at all.  Your alignment is used to help generate one of 8 possible endings.  Depending on your alignment at certain points in the story, Vincent will behave differently.  This feature felt a little tacked on; just a way to encourage replays for a relatively short game.  However, I admit to having only played through once — perhaps on multiple playthroughs this system’s value becomes more apparent.  i doubt it.

Last is the action portion of Catherine, which takes place in Vincent’s nightmares.  Here you will begin by tackling a map consisting entirely of blocks which you must climb quicker than the rate at which they are collapsing below you.  Some blocks can be moved to eek out a foothold allowing you to advance.  As you progress up the tower, new layers of complexity are added to this simplistic formula.  Soon there will be blocks that explode, impale you, ones that propel you, etc.  Not paying attention to a single step could mean certain death (requiring you to start over entirely unless you reached a checkpoint).  Upon clearing a level, Vincent will arrive at a hub where we may interact with other sheep, some of whom the player may recognize from the real world.  Finally, you will answer a rather personal question (not recommended in front of a loved one) before being rocketed to the next level.  On each night, the last floor will also include a boss who can either kill Vincent or manipulate the map — or both.  Yay.

This is a good time to discuss Catherine’s difficulty.  I completed the game on normal, and I am darn proud of that.  More than once the devil on my shoulder suggested bumping it down to easy.  ”Just clear the story, what do you care!?” But my resolve remained stalwart.  That should be an indication that this game… is hard.  Old school hard.  Various NPCs help out by providing techniques, and there are checkpoints scattered throughout levels allowing you to maintain a bit of a foothold.  Still, what it really boils down to is cold memorization of levels.  By the end-game, luck starts to become more important with blocks that randomly generate requiring lightning fast decisions and no small amount of frustration.  I turned this game off out of anger at least once, and I am normally a pretty laid back dude.  So if you have a spot in your backyard where you bury the shattered remains of Dualshock controllers, you may want to buy some Valium before sliding Catherine into your disc tray.

Presentation — TCHAIKOVSKY: Symphony No. 5… R-R-R-R-R-REMIX!

Catherine is the first HD game by Atlus, and it feels like an HD game.  They did a great job capturing the anime aesthetic with modern graphics — surely a difficult task to accomplish.  The art direction and character design is cohesive and reminiscent of a modern day fusion of Eastern and Western pop cultures.  The score (bundled with the game if you pre-ordered — thanks Atlus!), a blend of famous classical works remixed by Shoji Meguro, serves as perhaps the best symbol for a game breaking into new technology while maintaining old school roots.  This is one tidy, well put-together package.

Conclusions

I thought Catherine would change gaming in a big way — I was fairly convinced of it, in fact.  But the story became shaky by the end — I suspect this was when the faulty alignment system began deciding my ending.  And the difficulty drove me to longing for an end out of frustration rather than a genuine desire to witness my ending.  In some ways, however, it did trailblaze.  I can honestly say that never before have I played a game with conversations and characters as identifiable as those in Catherine (if you’re a dude, bro).  Also, the game is dripping with style, from its simple UI to its sweeping soundtrack.  But isn’t this something we’ve just come to expect from Atlus rather than something new?  Catherine may not have been the revolution in gaming I had hoped, but it was still one memorable climb.

Several pages from this week’s Famitsu have appeared on the web a day early, bringing with them exciting news concerning Atlus’s Persona series.  Two titles were detailed — one of which was recently hinted — the other, a total surprise.  Let’s get right into it, then.

Persona 4: The Golden for PS Vita (more screens at Famitsu)

The updated title doesn’t make a lick of sense (Golden Theater?) but hey, I can live with an enhanced port of Persona 4 for the Vita.  Here are the changes to the Vita version noted in Famitsu:

• Will feature a new opening movie with new music by Shoji Meguro (who else?)
• Compared to the PS2 version, there is approximately 1.5 times the voice acting
• Players may use the Vita’s online functionality to request aid when in trouble in a dungeon
• Like Persona 3: FES or P3P, this update will also feature new scenarios

Atlus has stated that they have listened to those who played the original and will be implementing changes that those players requested.  We can expect more information on this soon.  The game is scheduled to be released next summer in Japan.

The biggest known addition at this time is a new character named Marie:

I am not sure whether Marie is an S-Link character or one who will join the cast on their dungeon exploits. All we can do now is marvel at her character design and wait for more info.

Naturally, I am excited for this.  Persona 4 was a fantastic game (I would go so far to say I prefer it to Persona 3).  An updated version on a new system is a classy way to execute a port, and for that I applaud Atlus.  As it stands, this title will make its way onto my growing list of PS Vita must-haves.  I would like to tell you that I am being a discerning consumer — saving my money until I know the full extent of the game’s updates… but that would just be lying to both of us.

Next up is the move from Atlus that no one foresaw, except maybe whoever drew this:

Persona 4 The Ultimate in Mayonaka Arena (more at Famitsu)

That’s right: a fighting game featuring characters from Persona.  I am honestly shocked this wasn’t even so much as a rumor until now.  Atlus kept this secret very well — and so did Arc System Works, who will be helping when it comes to development.  You may be familiar with Arc System Works if you are a fan of BlazBlue and/or Guilty Gear — both excellent 2D fighters in their own right.  It has been confirmed that the same team who worked on BlazBlue will be working on this project as well.

The game will be released initially for arcade in Japan next spring, then trickle onto both the PS3 and Xbox 360 for the summer.  Confirmed characters at this time include:

• Narukami Yuu (Persona 4’s protagonist) with Izanagai
• Chie Satonaka with Tomoe
• Yousuke Hanamura with Jirae
• Aegis with Athena

Character can be seen attacking both with their personae and with weapons.  The protagonist wields a katana.

Here are some basic shots (click here for the whole thing):

The game’s story takes place 2 months after the events of Persona 4.  Apparently Kuma (or Teddie) sponsors or organizes the “P-1 Grand Prix” television show.  I would assume this all occurs in the mayonaka TV or midnight channel.  How or why he gets them to agree is beyond me, but I generally don’t look too hard for a story from my fighting games.  Here is Kuma’s updated appearance:

If this weren’t enough, Atlus has confirmed that the Persona team (formally working on Catherine) is now being organized for Persona 5.  This isn’t really worth getting too excited for — I wouldn’t count on anything concerning Persona 5 for a while.

So, there you have it.  Two exciting new titles on the horizon from Atlus.  I want them both.  I want them yesterday.  I will even settle for tomorrow if I absolutely must.

But in all seriousness, this is some impressive ingenuity from a company who has proven that even during tough times for the industry, they can continue to innovate and do it right.

Yesterday Atlus launched a mysterious teaser site featuring only the above logo. The colors, font choice, and foreshortening effect all conjure up memories of Persona 4.  It doesn’t even seem like Atlus really wants to cover up this fact.  That could be because (assuming this teaser is in fact for Persona 4) the big question remains: what system?

Look familiar?  Oh, but the case is capitalized…

Here are the obvious theories, all of which are completely based on personal opinions and nothing else:

• Persona 4 PSP port: While totally possible this seems late in the game considering Vita on the horizon.  P3P rocked my world, but it doesn’t seem like Atlus to give both games the same treatment with all the more advanced hardware out there.
• Persona 4 Vita port: NIS has announced a port of Disgaea 3, so perhaps Atlus is following suit.  The processing power and graphics capabilities of the Vita could definitely handle a straight port, possibly with some decent enhancements or new features.  I can has female MC option? With Tokyo Game Show on the horizon, this seems like the kind of game that would attract some attention…
• Persona 4 HD for PS3: Definitely a possibility.  Slap some trophies on there, plus some FES-ish features and I am confident most fans would be willing to double dip.  But something tells me the game is destined for the portable world…
• Persona 4 3DS port: This is certainly the wild card of the bunch, but it’s not altogether impossible.  Imagine Persona 4’s stylized interface coming at you in stereoscopic 3D…  And while the Persona series has been faithful to Sony, Atlus has proven they aren’t afraid to get into bed with Nintendo with the Devil Survivor franchise.

So there you have it.  All the most realistic possibilities under the assumption that this teaser site is in fact for a Persona 4 port.  Personally I would be up for any of these options, I just want to know what Atlus has in store for us in terms of enhancements for the port.  As polished as Persona 4 was, it’s hard to imagine where they can improve it.  Expect more information as we get closer to Tokyo Game Show!

Atlus is continuing to create new “game characters collections” via MegaHouse.  The next title to have its characters forever immortalized in adorable phone strap figures is Persona 2.  This is especially relevant with the release of Persona 2 Innocent Sin scheduled for early next month.

There are 8 characters in total (1 of which is secret).  They include (from left to right):

• Jun Kurosu
• Ekichi Mishina
• Lisa Silverman
• Tatsuya Suou
• Trish
• Maya Amano
• Yukino Mayuzumi

I am a huge fan of these little figures, mostly because they are relatively affordable and cute.  However, they aren’t very durable: the body of my Aegis figure broke off from her head recently.  Now I just have a robot head chained to my PSP Go since I am too lazy to track down a glue strong enough to re-adhere it.

For the Persona 2 set, a box of 9 blind boxes can be pre-ordered at Ami-ami for around $42.00 USD.  As shipping goes by weight, you can hopefully get away without paying too much.  You can check out more detailed images of each figure here.  According to MegaHouse, this set is scheduled to be released sometime in November, giving you plenty of time to start Persona 2 Innocent Sin and learn who all these  characters actually are.

Related Entries:
All OMG Toys posts can be found here.

The Western release of Catherine is less than a week away and the positive reviews are already rolling in.  Despite this fact and my watchful eye regarding the title’s development, I still had some burning questions bouncing around in my head.  Aram Jabbari (Manager of PR and Sales at Atlus) was kind enough to team up with the studio handling Catherine’s localization to field my questions:

1. Does Catherine include the original Japanese voice acting? If not, what limitations prevented this?

Aram Jabbari, Manager of PR and Sales: Catherine does not include a Japanese voice track. While we can’t discuss any specific limitations in this case, we can say that a number of factors play into whether or not a Japanese language track can be included. Sometimes it’s capacity, sometimes it’s cost, sometimes it’s complications in licensing… We’re not saying it was any of these factors necessarily, just that it isn’t as cut and dry as many would hope. We know there are plenty of disappointed fans, and to them we can only give our most sincere assurance that we always explore the option when we can. Some will understand, some won’t, and alas, there isn’t much we can do to convince them otherwise, sadly.

2. Catherine is definitely an adult game; did it need to be toned down at all for Western audiences? If so, can you give any examples of how the game may have been tweaked?

Mike Meeker, Localization Editor: The words “adult” and “mature” are pretty loaded when it comes to video games; to most people it just implies graphic sex or violence. Catherine’s maturity stems from its narrative themes involving loyalty, temptation, and life choices. The occasional bit of skin doesn’t hurt, either. The parts that would cause any uproar are rather tame in comparison. To directly answer your question, no, we didn’t have to “tone it down” in order to make it more appropriate to Western audiences.

Clayton S. Chan, Localization Editor: Basically we didn’t tone down anything. There wasn’t anything in the Japanese release that would have gotten Catherine anything higher than an M rating. Absolutely nothing was censored in Catherine. The story sequences are exactly the same as they were in the Japanese version.

3. What were the biggest challenges in localizing Catherine? What was the most enjoyable aspect?

Mike Meeker, Localization Editor: I’d say the biggest challenge was probably the detail you’ll all overlook: the loading screen quotes! We were given a huge text file in Japanese and told they were all famous quotes, but none of them were attributed and most of them were fairly poorly translated into Japanese, to boot (apparently the developers had gotten them from a huge book of quotations in Japanese). After days of hair-pulling over these things, we decided to chuck the lot of ‘em and dig up new ones on our own. Now Douglas Adams, George Carlin, and Rodney Dangerfield get to be in the game! As to the most enjoyable parts, I like the very natural dialogue in the bar between Vincent and the guys. It’s a lot of fun to write characters who talk like real people, with casual cursing and fooling around. It goes without saying that the most fun part of localization is the voice recording. The actors and staff are all great people, and it’s always a pleasure to get a chance to oversee the recording.

Clayton S. Chan, Localization Editor: Voice recording for this project was massive. For the in-game engine sequences we had to match timing of the gestures and the exact length of lines… I’m talking +/- .2 seconds. We spent nearly a month at the studio that was just recording a line, checking it and sometimes retaking it. Let me tell you, this is one of the reasons why these people in the booth get to be in the booth. (If you feel like being a voice actor sometime, write out a line. Get your perfect take down with someone else timing you. Then try and replicate that, but .2 seconds faster.) So we had to go through the entire script and make a column just for line length. Then we “acted” the lines at the office to make sure that you could roughly get all the text and vocal affectations for those lines within the time limit. Then we’d get to see the actors in the booth make mockeries of our rough estimates and we’d have to rewrite lines again. Lastly, once the actors started to make the roles their own, they would change the script ever so slightly, and we’d have to document all of those tiny changes and update the files to make sure the subtitles matched. (And then QA would catch the thousands of instances we missed during their debug.)

If you want a specific localization answer, though, here’s the one off the top of my head. There’s a point in the game where Vincent demands an amount of money from someone. He holds up 5 fingers to illustrate what he wants. In Japanese he’s asking for “5万”, which is five 10,000s. Well, that particular phrasing doesn’t work in English. Mike suggested a Dr. Evil style “Five myriad dollars.” I wanted “FIVE-ty Thousand Dollars”, but we went with something else entirely. Play the game and find out what it was!

As far as the most enjoyable part, it was when we all went out for kaiten sushi when we completed the production part of the project! Just kidding. I have to say it was really a nice change of pace to actually work on a game that features characters that were my age in situations (relationships or lack thereof, running out of money, purpose in life) that I could relate to. Most games just don’t have a whole lot of major scenarios where you’ll actually know what a believable reaction would sound like. (So, you’re just about to avenge your father, but this guy summons the demon that consumed your village! What would you say? In 3 lines of 24 characters.) It was nice to get a chance to stretch
my writing legs a bit.

Scott Williams, Lead QA: Catherine has a ton of great dialogue – all of it voiced. Ensuring that all of that dialogue and accompanying subtitles made their way correctly into the game was not an easy task, but we had an outstanding team who got the job done. The most enjoyable part is yet to come when we get to see our hard work translate into hearing about how people enjoy the game. The kaiten sushi at the end was pretty awesome as well.

4. Which character do you feel you relate most to and why?

Aram Jabbari, Manager of PR and Sales: I think I’d be a blend of Katherine and Orlando. A strange mix, but I mean it in the sense that I’m a fairly straight-forward, serious relationship kind of guy (Katherine), although I also believe that people need to experience variety and have fun along the way as well (Orlando). I’m romantic, but I’m jaded and cynical as well (also Orlando). I can’t relate too much to Vincent because he really does just make a mess of things, stumbling from one complicated situation to another, despite wanting nothing more than to keep things simple. Then there’s Catherine, with whom I have virtually nothing in common with.

Mike Meeker, Localization Editor: The sheep you find climbing with the tower alongside Vincent. I bet you killed them all, didn’t you, you heartless bastards? They’re all just troubled guys having their own problems, and here you come along and kick them to their doom. Way to go, hero. Have you ever tried letting one of those sheep reach the end of a stage? Oh, and Erica. She’s awesome.

Clayton S. Chan, Localization Editor: Mike’s lying. The character he feels the most special connection with is his doppelganger, the journalist sitting at the bar in Stray Sheep! (I’m not making this up.) As far as who I connect with, I’d say the door-to-door internet salesman. I feel a special sort of connection with him. As far as the leads, though, I’m a little bit Boss, I’m a little bit Jonny and I’m a little bit Orlando. (I’ve even got his hat!)

Scott Williams, Lead QA: Clayton and Mike are both off the mark seeing as they are clearly each represented by one of the old twins in the Stray Sheep, Martha and Lindsay. I would elaborate, but I don’t want to spoil anything. Since we are combining characters, I would say I was a cross between Vincent and Toby – affable and enthusiastic, but dreading what tomorrow is going to bring when things suddenly change.

Charles Chaikaew, QA Tester: I’m a lot like the sheep in the game. Half the time I have no idea what I’m doing, I feel like there’s someone behind me all the time (mostly my boss), and despite all this I keep climbing to get to the next night. Also, I don’t sleep much because of work and school.

Allie Doyon, QA Tester: I wish I could say I was like the Midnight Venus, so I could bask in the glory of my magnificent red afro, but that would be giving myself too much credit. I’m really more like Toby… I’m blissfully oblivious most of the time, and my friends really like to fling things at my eye.

Jonathon Reinhold, QA Tester: I think I relate most to Toby, because nobody respects my opinion and I am only tolerated out of necessity. I’m also so desperate and lonely…

Kourtnie McKenzie, QA Tester: I relate to the red sheep, because he’s so fuzzy and awesome.

I am bummed that I won’t be able to play the game with its original voice track, but after hearing all the work that went into the English track, I have a new found respect for the process.  In fact, this interview really offered a window into localization as a whole.  It’s not a clear path, and there are challenges along the way that we as consumers would probably never think of.  Again, thanks to Aram and everyone at Atlus who took the time to shine some light on one of this year’s most talked-about titles.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Today my suspicions concerning Atlus’s retro e-mail from last week have been confirmed: Persona 2: Innocent Sin is coming to the west this fall.  Anything I can say about this title has already been said in a post about the Japanese announcement of the port.  For that reason, I wish to draw your attention to this post.

Basically everything you need to know is mentioned there, with the exception of the toggle-able soundtrack which I was unaware of.  Basically, the player has the option of choosing if they prefer to play the game with its original score or with Meguro’s updated soundtrack.  That is a nifty feature and shows how seriously Atlus takes their jams.  Pre-orders are not yet up on Amazon (unless you live in Canada), but should be soon.

This is exciting news for Persona and Atlus fans: over a decade of waiting (and at least a little complaining) has finally yielded an enhanced version of Persona 2: Innocent Sin available outside of Japan.  I can’t wait to finally close the book on this chapter of the Persona universe.

The clever PR crew at Atlus USA sent out this unusual e-mail to its Atlus Faithful subscribers.  You’ll notice it has a retro theme, harking back to the days of 1999.  There are a few articles within concerning issues of the times such as the Y2K scare and Star Wars Episode One (which the staff apparently loved — it was a simpler time).

So what is Atlus trying to say? Why waste our time telling us that it “looks like there really isn’t anything new out in Japan this week to talk about…”? Well, dear reader, I believe the answer is in the date of this e-mail, which is June 23, 1999. Once I recieved the e-mail, Mikey and I instantly set about wracking our brains to unlock this mystery. By “wracking our brains”, I, of course, mean Googling like mad men.

And what did we happen to stumble upon? Only the release date of a certain Playstation title which never saw the light of day in the west. That’s right: Persona 2: Innocent Sin, which was released June 24, 1999 in Japan. you may recall that said game has recently been ported to PSP in Japan, meaning it looks like the port is headed our way.  This is, of course, a guess on my part — nothing officially announced by Atlus, but the evidence is pretty damning.  Look forward to an official announcement from Atlus as E3 draws closer!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Do you remember the 5th promotional video for Catherine in Japan?  Sure, it was the one where they interviewed various passersby asking their thoughts on marriage.  Atlus US mirrored this formula but invited fans to submit their own clips. The result is pretty interesting, with topics ranging from gay marriage to independence and life goals.  Otherwise the two trailers are essentially identical.

For the first time, however, we get to hear the voice talent behind the game’s Western release.  I have to say I was blown away by Laura Bailey’s performance as Catherine.  She captures the character and mood very well, and her voice is also eerily similar to Miyuki Sawashiro, who does the Japanese acting for the same character.  The others, I woefully admit, pale in comparison.  With any luck, Atlus will keep the Japanese dialog on the disc.  If not, I will either a.) deal or b.) import.

In the initial post on the Japanese version of this trailer, I poked fun at one individual who was unusually giddy about marriage:

After having watched the Western trailer I see that this poor salary man is not the one deserving of ridicule — this guy is:

Look at him. Look at his dumb hat and ridiculous shirt. He must have made the decision to put those on and publicly blast the holy sanctity of marriage.  Well, unknown Atlus fan, I hope you and your Ed Hardy v-neck t-shirt are very happy for your long, alcohol-soaked life together.

Do you even understand the film Akira?  Do the underlying themes of corruption, greed, and the dangers of a society obsessed with consumption even register in that cleft chin you call a brain?

P.S., Vinny from the Jersey Shore called, he wants his everything back.

Wow, it’s been a while since there was a toy I felt compelled to write about! This set of 6 mini strap figures comes from MegaHouse, the same team which brought us the equally exaggerated Persona and Etrian Odyssey III figures.

The most recent collection is made in honor of Vanillaware, one of the greatest developers and designers of the past few generations.  The top three figures are from Princess Crown, a game which sadly has yet to grace the West.  The bottom three may be more recognizable: Gwendolyn, Velvet, and Mercedes from Odin Sphere.

After having recently acquired Aegis from the Persona set, I can confirm that I love MegaHouse’s Game Characters Collection.  They somehow pack a lot of quality into such a cute and tiny size.  Any fan of Odin Sphere who is interested can buy a box of 12 random blind boxes over at Ami Ami for 4,300 yen, or around $53 USD.

Related Entries:
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This past Saturday was Free Comic Book Day, and I spent the day alone, indoors, playing video games.  Hey, we all have different ways to celebrate, right?  And besides, taking free comic books feels wrong to me.  It’s a medium which already doesn’t see the money it deserves, unless it’s in the form of a shitty Hollywood film. (Oh, Thor is good, you say?  Don’t care.)

Anyway, Sarah took a trip to Massachusetts with some friends for a convention of sorts.  Massachusetts is easily my most hated of the lower 48.  I would sooner carve a life for myself on the streets of Detroit than spend a day in the bosom of New England’s infected shank wound.  Thus, I repeat, I spent the day alone playing video games.

Somehow, among the constant construction efforts, numerous chain eateries, and the worst drivers you will ever meet in your life, Sarah stumbled upon a decent comic store by the name of Outer Limits.  There she got a very old but free comic of some nature (it’s not important), and within it was an ad that will probably make you sad.  It made me sad, at least:

That’s right, an ad from a simpler time. A time when the “Enix” in Square Enix was spelled S-O-F-T.  Look at that lineup…

• Parasite Eve
• Xenogears
• Bushido Blade 2
• Brave Fencer Musashi
• Final Fantasy Tactics
• SaGa Frontier
• Einhänder

Just typing that out brought waves of nostalgia.  Seeing this, one can’t help but consider where Square Enix is today.  Namely, the recent announcement that the company experienced “extraordinary losses” in the last fiscal year.  I can’t claim to be able to outline what is currently plaguing the company, but it certainly has fallen far from grace, and the above ad was a big reminder of that.

Sarah also got me a souvenir from a shop called AniMadness, one which is certainly less thought provoking but much more awesome.  That’s right, a Persona mini strap figure:

Click to see which character I got

This figure actually had me consider planning a trip to Massachusetts to buy any and all remaining boxes.  I would, of course, wear a full suit of lead dental gear, make my car airtight with duct tape, and bring my own supply of drinking water.  Expect a post on my adventure if I decide to do so — just know that it may be my last.