I have updated my previous post concerning Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots passwords to include two new passwords. They are for the guns Thor and the Patriot. The Patriot is the award granted to players who beat the game in Big Boss Extreme mode without healing, being seen, dying, and doing it all in under 5 hours.

I wasn’t even going to attempt it, and now I don’t have to. Props and respect to all who did, and if you didn’t, enjoy the passwords.

As more passwords for the game are released I will add them in the same fashion and post an update.

August is a damn good month for toy enthusiasts apparently.  Hope you guys didn’t spend all your money on the last list of toys. 

	Valkyria Chronicles Figure Collection Gashapon  Price: $3.49 I wrote a lengthy post about this game a while back, and I am still looking forward to playing it. The set includes Alicia, Isara, Rosie, Eleanor plus one secret!  Oh, how I miss gachapon…
	Real Action Heroes–Raiden  Price: $XX.XX This figure is produced by Medicom, and is extremely detailed.  Raiden comes fully equipped with shoulder and face guards, his signature katana, dagger and SOCOM pistol.  All listed weapons also include removable fabric holsters.  The Price for Raiden had not yet been released.
	Final Fantasy Miniature Trading Figures Vol. 3  Price: $5.49 Volume three of the set includes Aerith, Tidus, Rikku, Balthier, and Fran.  Sorry I couldn’t get a better picture!  I searched everywhere, but nothing.  If a better picture pops up I will change it for sure.  I would kill for both Balthier and Fran, they are total BFFs.

All of these figures will probably move pretty quickly, so if you’ve got the cash you might want to reserve them now.  

Valkyria Chronicles is still pretty popular in Japan, it would suck if these are all sold out by the time we actually get the game.  It is very likely though.

The Raiden figure is possibly the pinnacle of action figure technology, and I am sure he will have a price tag which reflects that.  I doubt this will stop some hardcore fans of the series though.  Although, do people still hate Raiden after Metal Gear Solid 2?  I never had a problem with him.

Lastly, Final Fantasy merch doesn’t linger, especially when it’s so cheap!  Also, this set doesn’t have any rejects, so I would be happy with anyone.

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Atlus announced a pretty cool contest which will give North American fans a chance at winning a Persona 4 T-shirt. There are no images of the shirt yet, so I cannot verify if it’s the same that was included in the Japanese Konami-Style Special Edition.

The contest is held in collaboration with the gaming site Joystiq. Why didn’t they pick me, you ask? I have been wondering the same thing all day. I am hurt, Atlus!

The contest is pretty simple, think up your own Persona and post in the comments of the Joystiq entry located here. Three winners will be chosen at random who meet the qualifying rules. In addition to the T-shirt, winners will also get a Persona 3 art book signed by Shigenori Soejima. Pretty sweet deal, huh?

Contestents may enter once per calender day until the contest deadline, which is August 22nd at 7:00 pm. Also, members of Atlus Faithful will be entered automatically.

I have already done a bit of thinking on my choices for new Persona, but I took it a step further and decided to make it specific to each character of Persona 4:

		Protagonist Persona: Eddy Murphy dressed as all the Personas Element: N/A Weakness: N/A Reason: Hilarity
		Yousuke Persona: Prinny Element: Light Weakness: Dark Reason: They both wield 2 daggers
		Chie Persona: Chuck Norris Element: ALL Weakness: NONE Reason: Chuck Norris does not need a reason
		Kuma Persona: Kool-aid Man Element: Ice Weakness: Fire Reason: Humorous physical similarities

Chie may be a bit unbalanced versus the other characters huh… I couldn’t think of Personas for the other characters, you guys have any suggestions?

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All other Kotowari entries on Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 can be found here

Your eyes do not deceive you. That is indeed a North American copy of Disgaea 3 for the Playstation of the same number. How did I get it? I had to do some… things. I don’t wanna talk about it.* All I know is I will be devoting all of my free time to it.

Expect an IN-DEPTH hands-on-review/preview in about a week.

Since Disgaea 3’s release date is getting close fast, I figured I would go over the posts I have made thus far with a fine-toothed comb. Tedious? You better believe it.

Most of the changes are simply differences in my translation and what NIS decided to go with. Here is a breakdown of whats new:

• Gender specific jobclasses: Many both-sex jobs feature different names for the male and female. This wasn’t the case in the Japanese game, so I couldn’t really have anticipated it.
  • Female Samurai = Lady Samurai
  • Male Archer = Ranger
  • Male Cleric = Clergy
  • Female Warrior = Valkyrie
  • Brawler Male = Martial Artist
  • Brawler Female = Fight Mistress
  • Female Gunner = Gunslinger
  • Female Mage = Witch
  • Male Mage = Magician (I like Skull better)
• Miscellaneous jobclass differences: More translation differences.
  • Berserker = Brute Warrior
  • Shaman = Sorcerer
  • Shinigami = Death
  • Ifrit = Flame Demon
• System related names: Terms having to do with the game’s battle system or mechanics.
  • Ma-change = Magichange
  • Ma-bility = Evility

That’s pretty much it. If you wanna take a look at the revised articles you can of course check them out here.

*On a serious note, I would like to formally thank NIS for allowing me to preview such an amazing game. Their support is more than I could have ever expected to gain from my humble blog.

So Famitsu has slowly been releasing passwords for Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. In case you don’t already know, you can enter passwords by going to Extras, and then to Password. This week the password for the Altair costume was finally revealed. You no longer have to slit all those throats to playkotowari 「理」 › Edit — WordPress Assassin’s Solid.

If you’re not great with guns, which hopefully you aren’t, you can check out this list of weapons from MGS4. Just about every gun listed above has some significance to the series.

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Yesterday I received my Doublejump Books Disgaea 3 strategy guide in the mail. It’s a bit ahead of schedule, at least according to the publisher’s website, but I’m not asking any questions. I don’t buy guides for most games, and NIS games are certainly not most games. They are literally filled to the brim with hours upon hours of ways to make tiny sprites bash enormous numbers out of each other. This may not sound like much fun to most people, but I daresay it is what I live for. Making awesome guides is what the guys at DJB live for. Luckily, they happen to have the same taste in games as me. Great minds… or so they say.

When I play a game, I love knowing how things work behind the scenes. This usually means a breakdown of everything numerically, the language of the gods. The guide includes the numbers behind such important features as stealing, weapon mastery, team attacks, maxing out a character, etc. Knowing how to make the numbers work in your favor can be a huge time-saver.

The second thing I love to have handy when playing a game as massive as Disgaea 3 is lists. If I could, I would lie in an aromatic field of lists all damn day. This is probably one of the most space consuming elements of the guide. Yet with so much data, the lists are extremely organized to help the reader find whatever they want as easy as possible.

The last thing (which I already mentioned) that is important to me, is organization. Especially when it comes to a guide for a game I haven’t even played yet. Spoiling anything for myself would surely result in an attempt to locate and terminate any brain cells affected. The layout of the guide makes it clear what sections to avoid in a case like mine. To get a better idea of the guide’s organization i recommend taking a look at a .PDF preview of it here.

As always, DJB puts their own special touches into their guide. This guide in particular contains some fanart as well as a cute comic. I was a tad disappointed that there wasn’t an interview with NIS America. The Disgaea 2, Phantom Brave, and even Makai Kingdom guides all included interviews with the games creators, which was one of my favorite features. I’ll let it slide since it’s obvious the game sucked up a lot of time.

As I wrote earlier, the pre-order bonus was that the guide’s publisher, djpubba, would sign the cover of each and every guide. If that doesn’t show appreciation, then goddamn, just pay someone to beat the game for you.

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A large majority of video games are localized from Japan. In the process, a lot of blatant and frustrating mistakes can cause the end product to be well… incomplete. These changes are usually based on the localization team’s opinions on what is acceptable to Western audiences.

These changes can range from story and character overhauls, to the deletion of unique cultural aspects.  In the latter case the reasoning is slightly understandable since an explanation of such aspects may require further programming which can become costly.

One aspect of games that almost always undergoes a dramatic change is the cover art of video games.  This topic was first brought to my attention while wasting some time on 4chan’s /v/ message board.  At first I didn’t think much of it, but then it really began to bug me.

Why do video game companies fear that which is Eastern in origin?  Do they really think that we as consumers are incapable of accepting a foreign culture?

Here are 3 covers that were brought to my attention by 4channers and by my own digging:

Suikoden
Publisher: Konami
US release date: 1996

The left cover is the original Japanese cover, and the right is the North American cover.  The 90’s are marked by a high level of xenophobia when it comes to localizing games.  You can plainly see that the anime style art has been replaced by hideous art western in nature.  The localizers may have been trying to pass the game off as a WRPG rather than a JRPG.

Ico
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment America
US release date: September 24, 2001

It is important to note here that everywhere but North America received the left cover art.  Everywhere.  The left cover art puts the emphasis on the castle, the game’s setting, and arguably the most important element of Ico’s story.

Making people the focus of art has long been a western tradition, whereas making people’s surroundings the focus (with little to no emphasis on people) is a common element in Eastern art–especially brush painting and sumie.

The Japanese cover was painted by Fumito Ueda, the creator of both Ico and Shadows of the Colossus.  His inspiration for the piece was the surrealist works of Giorgio de Chirico.  As for the other piece, I can only think that SCEA wanted to show off the graphics of the game, so they decided to go with CG.

Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wnderer
Publisher: Chunsoft, localized by Sega
US release date: March 4, 2008

Here is a game near and dear to my heart.  It is the most recent of the 3, possibly making it the most relevant.  The Japanese cover art features smooth anime style art complete with tranquil looking characters.

The North American cover art is quite different.  All three featured characters (I am including Koppa the weasel) look angry.  Even the reddish background suggests rage.  Also, the art looks much more western.  Even Shiren’s sword doesn’t look like a katana–it appears straight.

The only reasoning I can conclude for these covers to differ so dramatically from their originals is that the localizers fear the game will not be received well, and they won’t make money.

Such a fear today seems ludicrous.  Gamers do not purchase a game based on the box art.  Speaking for myself, purchasing a game is based on brand loyalty, research, and genre.

Many Western gamers seem to appreciate the influx of Japanese or Eastern culture in their games.  Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 for example brings the player into the shoes of an (almost) average Japanese  school student.  All cultural references to Japanese food, religion, etc. were retained, and yet the game was immensely popular.

So c’mon, America!  Give gamers some credit.  We can’t stand anymore garish cover art!

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A lot of people would argue that rogue-like games are boring. About the same percentage of people would argue that Ninja are superior to Pirates. What do these figures mean? I have no idea.

Anyway, I picked up Izuna 2 with memories fresh in my mind of how poorly the first game was received. But alas, my faith in Atlus and female Ninja were strong. Plus the game is about $10 cheaper than most DS games, which is always nice.

Visually, the second installment only features slight improvements. The dialog-art and sprite quality is a bit better, but dungeon appearance, backgrounds and UI are virtually identical.

The story once again revolves around our misfit group of comically unemployed ninja:

• Izuna: The young, stubborn Ninja who often acts before she thinks.
• Shino: Izuna’s level-headed friend whom she considers to be like a sister.
• Gen-An: The group’s wise old leader.
• Mitsumoto: The member of the group taken least seriously. He loves women, but they all pretty much ignore him.

The group is still wandering ancient Japan after their last adventure. They stumble upon a tea house in the mountains and proceed to eat their fill. Izuna, of course, goes overboard and soon they are penniless again.

Lucky for them, a friend in a nearby town is holding a wedding, and they are all invited to the festivities–that means more food! During the celebration, Shino eats some tamagoyaki which she distinctly recalls eating during her childhood. She inquires as to who catered the wedding.

She learns from the townspeople that it was a girl dressed in foreign clothing. Shino is positive the girl is her long-lost sister, Shizune, so during the night she sets out alone to try and find her. By the time Izuna catches up to Shino, Shizune is nowhere to be found.

Izuna can see that this is important to Shino, and doesn’t want her to go off on her own again, so she decides to help Shino trace Shizune’s trail. Thus the game begins.

The largest improvement to the game, without a doubt, is the battle system. The last game received a bunch of negative press over this feature, and even left fans of the game wanting just a bit more.

Tag System Devistation

The name of this improvement is the Tag System. This system allows the player to enter a dungeon with 2 characters. You don’t even need to bring Izuna if you don’t want to. If one player is knocked unconscious, the other one takes over where he or she left off. If both characters are alive, they may perform a team attack that affects a large area–great when you are surrounded. There are some restrictions, though. You can only swap 3 times, and there is a gauge that must be full in order to perform a team attack. The gauge and the number of swap tokens regenerate as you perform actions. I believe it is about 10-20 actions for the team attack gauge to fill up.

I won’t go into detail over who can be recruited for Izuna’s team, but I’ll just let you know that less than 10 hours in, I already had about 8 characters to choose from.

The weapon system remains about the same although there are several new weapon types added. Different characters excel at different weapons, or in some cases, can’t equip them at all.

Dying makes you lose all held equips and money, but character level is retained. It’s not hard to find new weapons by simply going back into a dungeon and picking some up. However, weapons that you use in battle and repair frequently generate LUV, which increases critical hits, damage etc. If losing everything sounds scary there is a nice storage system which makes socking away cash and extra items easy.

I was happy to see that the localizers kept the Japanese voice-overs, which probably cost them a lot less. All in all I am enjoying just about every aspect of Izuna 2. The game is fun, the story is enjoyable, and I love the character design and setting. If a gamer had never taken on a roguelike title before, I would recommend this one in a heartbeat. If you are a veteran of roguelike or dungeon crawlers, then Izuna 2 should still provide a decent challenge and show you some cool new features to the genre.

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I managed to find this video on Famitsu’s website and upload it onto YouTube just for you guys.  Aren’t I great?  The video is pretty cool, and brings even more questions into my mind about the game’s story.

It appears that some catastrophic events occur in the Old Capital.  Is this why Raidou and the gang are forced to travel to the mysterious isolated village?  Wow, that sounded like a Scooby-Doo reference…

Also, there is a scene where one of the black-masked men is running along the rooftops of the city. Does Raidou trace him back to the village?

The video also gives us a look at some of Raidou’s new abilities.  There was one pretty cool technique in which Raidou does a flip and performs what looks like a wind elemental slash.  I am not sure if these techniques are dependent on summoned demons, taking advantage of a weakness, or if they are inherant to the sword he weilds.

I will be keeping an eye out for new info on the story and battle system, and update accordingly.

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So Play-Asia is getting a nice line of toys in stock this month, and I feel the need to tell my loyal readers so they can get as excited as me. Be forewarned, these figures are not for those who have little discipline when it comes to spending their money. With that said, I should also mention that when these toys are in stock, it may only be for a short period of time. That’s the price we pay for getting toys from across one damn big ocean.

	Asuka from Furai No Shiren 3 Price: $79.90 The female member of the trinity that makes up Furai No Shiren 3 has been immortalized into a pretty cool figure. She stands about 20 cm tall, and is more of a statue, so were talking no poseabilty. Her high price tag will probably only attract the most hardcore mystery dungeon fans.
	Rozalin from Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories Price: $59.90 My main reason for posting this Rozalin figure (aside from the fact that it’s cool) is that this price is actually $10.00 cheaper than at NIS’s Rosenqueen store. If you are going to buy it , might as well save some money.
	Kingdom Hearts Formation Arts Vol.3 Price: $XX.XX Volume 3 of the Kingdom Hearts Formation Arts series includes Jack Sparrow, Axel, Minnie Mouse, Ursula, Pete and Sora. If you’re wondering what the deal is with the price, it isn’t currently listed since the figures won’t be in stock until some point later this month.

Personally, I can’t decide which figure I want the most. Asuka is the most expensive, the rarest, and the highest quality.
Rozalin is being released a bit late considering Disgaea 3 is already a few weeks away, but she is still one of the coolest characters in the game (IMO).
…And I can only image how pissed people will be who want to get Jack Sparrow or Axel and get stuck with Ursula or Minnie Mouse.