Fun with Localization: Animal Crossing: New Leaf’s Club 101

Posted on April 24 2013 by Roy

Today Nintendo tweeted a new trailer for Animal Crossing: New Leaf.  I loaded it up while farming Monster Essence in Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate and heard something that made me stop in my tracks.

At around 0:36: “…and then boogie over to Club 101 (pronounced LOL) to dance the night away with your friends…”  Club LOL?  I knew that couldn’t be the name of KK Slider’s after-hours hangout in the Japanese version of the game…

A quick Googling confirmed my suspicions.  In the Japanese version of Animal Crossing: New Leaf, Club 101 is in fact called Club 444.  Japan is notorious for doing some zany things with numbers.  For instance, 888 is another way of saying “hahaha” in Internet slang, as the number 8 is pronounced “hachi”.  Abbreviate each number 8 to just “ha”, and you have “ha-ha-ha”.  Cool, right?

So what is the significance of 444?  Well, 4 can be pronounced both “yon” (or just yo) and “shi”.  Even with this in mind, no possible combination equated to yucking it up.  I dug deeper.   I had to… for KK Slider’s honor.

Shrunkkk

It turns out the owner of Club 444 is none other than Animal Crossing‘s own amateur comedian Dr. Shrunk.  In Japanese, Dr. Shrunk is named ししょー (pronounced Shisho).  Remember what sounds the number 4 makes?  Shi-Shi-Yo.  Put ‘em together and you get Shisho.  So Dr. Shrunk actually just found a clever way to name his comedy club/dance hall after himself!

Back in the West, the thought behind Club 101 appears to be leet speak for the most widely recognized Internet acronym for laughing it up.  Not nearly as clever as the original club’s name, but it more or less captures the original essence.  So there you have it: the logic behind Club 444 and its western localization as Club 101.  Can you tell I’m excited for Animal Crossing: New Leaf? LOL.

Friday Link Roundup 4/14-4/19

Posted on April 19 2013 by Roy

feature-friday

Every Friday I make a post containing links to interesting articles I have found throughout the week. If you already follow me on Twitter, then you will have probably seen most of the following links. Don’t forget to like the Kotowari Facebook page as well. Enjoy!

feature-look

feature-save

feature-watch

Michael Biehn doesn’t like video games. Thanks to Leonardo for sharing!

New Psy video. What can I say, this dude makes me laugh, even without understanding the deeper critique of Korean culture.

Do your thing, cat. Do your thing.

[Guest Post] Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate — Mining for Shards, Charms, and Armor Spheres by Myla

Posted on April 19 2013 by Roy

Image by @everydayfoxlife

Myla is a Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate addict, Hunting Horn expert, and real life friend of Roy.

Introduction
At some point in the game you’re going to have put down your weapons, stop fighting
huge monsters, and pull those Mega Pickaxes out of your shed. Mining can be a
tedious and frustrating process but there are ways to make this process a little less
daunting.

The goal of this guide is to help you obtain the best possible resources with the least
amount of time and effort. Sometimes it can even be relaxing to take a break from trying
not to get killed by the huge monster and just run around hitting rocks and hoping to get
a few rare items.

This guide is going to focus on mining at the Volcano. There are obviously certain
resources you can only mine in other zones. For example, you can only mine
Purecrystals in the Tundra. The Volcano has the most mining points with the highest
likelihood of yielding rare items like Rust/Ancient Shards, Timeworn/Enduring Charms,
and high-level Armor Spheres.

Rare Items at the Volcano

I’m not going to list every single item you can possibly mine (or gather) from the
Volcano. Below, I listed the more important ones along with at which rank you can
obtain them.

Low Rank
Armor Sphere
Armor Sphere+
Dragonite Ore
Firestone
Mystery Charm
Shining Charm
Rustshard

High Rank
Adv Armor Sphere
Hrd Armor Sphere
Firecell Stone
Carbalite Ore
Fucium Ore
Timeworn Charm

G Rank
Hvy Armor Sphere
Tru Armor Sphere
Meldspar Ore
Allfire Stone
Eltalite Ore
Ancient Shard

In my opinion, it is not worth doing major mining operations until you are, at least, High
Rank. At Low Rank, the charms you can mine will yield mediocre talismans, armor
spheres, and shards at best. At High Rank you will have access to Timeworn Charms
which are more likely to be evaluated as higher quality talismans, with better skills.
In addition, you then have access to the more valuable Adv and Hrd Armor Spheres.
Feel free to mine at Low Rank but there’s no reason to spend a lot of time seeking rare items.

At G Rank you will be after Tru Armor Spheres, Enduring charms, and probably some
Ancient Shards. You will need TONS of Tru armor spheres to fully upgrade a set of G
Rank armor. Enduring Charms can yield the best Talismans in the game with rare and
valuable skills such as Edgemaster, KO, and Handicraft. Finding an Ancient shard is
hard enough, the chances of it being a rare weapon are even lower, and the odds of it
being the type of weapon you want is 1 in 12.

So what’s the best way to get the rarest items? Don’t worry, I’ll get to that.

What Items Should I Bring on Mining Runs?

You should try to carry as little as possible. You want to maximize the amount of space
in your inventory so you can bring back as many different goodies as possible. Believe
me, there are few things more annoying than sitting there deciding which item to discard
when an Uroktor decides to be a ******* and knock you over. Makes me mad enough
to ****! (That’s kill, btw).

When I go mining, I typically bring a Cool Drink, some Mega Potions (you never know
what’s going to pop!), 5 Mega Pickaxes, 5 Iron Pickaxes, sometimes, a VE Ticket to
trade the little red guy, and possibly a stamina item or two.

What Kind of Gear Should I Wear?

You don’t need to have a special set of equipment to do a mining run but some armors
and talismans have skills that can help.

Whim (Spirits Whim/Divine Whim)
This skill keeps you from breaking pickaxes (and bug nets). If money is tight, this will
make those expensive Mega Pickaxes last longer. It will also allow you to stop bringing
Iron Pickaxes so you can get the most out of your inventory space.

Gathering (Gathering +1/Gathering +2)
Unfortunately, this skill won’t increase your chances of mining a point multiple times. However, if you are in the secret area (you can only access with the Explorer food skill) it may be possible to gather more than three times (although this has not happened for me yet).

Charm (Charm Chaser)
This is a new skill in MH3U that gives you a chance of obtaining two charms at once. It doesn’t happen very often but it’s great when it works. The only problem is this can be a tough skill to obtain.  The Azuros X armor set has three pieces that give two Charm each.  You will most likely need to be lucky enough to find a charm that also gives Charm (which is probably some type of charmception).

Speed Gather (Speed Gatherer)
Speed Gatherer is a skill you really have to try to realize how useful it is. It allows you to mine almost twice as fast. Saving seconds on each swing adds up and decreases your total time spent on each run. Once you have it, you’ll never want to mine without it ever again.

Other than that, you can pretty much just wear the armor and weapon you would
typically take to the Volcano.

 

Roy: Here is a look at Myla’s mining set, which is the G-Rank Arzuros X armor, specced for mining with Gathering +2, Speed Gatherer, and Charm Chaser.

Harvest Tour: Volcano

This is the best and fastest way to accumulate resources.

For a Harvest Tour quest I would go from Zone 1 to Zone 3.
In Zone 3 there are four possible mining points but there might be zero that have
spawned yet.
Now, pop a Cool Drink and head into Zone 5. Zone 5 has five possible mining points
and at least one of them is always available.
Next, travel north to Zone 8 which has a single mining point that is always active.
Now head northwest, to Zone 9, where three mining points will be ready to mine. You
can also trade with the Veggie Elder if you remembered to bring a VE ticket.
Zone 10 has two of the best mining spots on the map which are (fortunately) always
there.
Jump off the cliff, back to Zone 5, to see if any new spots have spawned. Lastly, pass
through Zone 3 on your way back to base camp. If you get lucky, there might be one or
two last mining points there.

This is the fastest way to hit the most mining spots. Just lather, rinse, and repeat until
you’re sick of mining. However, keep in mind, not all mining spots are created equal. If
you are looking for the rarest items, sometimes it is better to go for quality over quantity.

The Explorer Method

With the Explorer food skill you can access a secret area that has best mining point on
the map, a gathering spot which can yield charms, shards, and armor spheres, and a
bug catching spot where you can obviously…catch bugs.

So how can you get this Explorer skill? First, you need to buy a meal from the cat at the
counter. Check the skills available before you eat for a combination that can give
Explorer. You can always combine a Seafood and a Drink into a meal to have a good
chance of getting Explorer as the fixed skill. Use ingredients marked “Fresh” to give
yourself a better chance of activating it. If you don’t get Explorer, don’t worry, just
depart on any Harvest Tour quest and immediately abandon it in order to remove your
food skills. Then you can try again.

Once you have Explorer you should just depart on the Volcano Harvest Tour, right?
Wrong! The secret area is not accessible on harvest tours because you always start
at the base camp. You can choose any other quest that takes place at the Volcano.
I often base this choice on which monster I want to kill me. Oh, that’s right, I forgot to
mention: after you’re done mining you’re going to have to die a few times.
If you simply abandoned the quest your item inventory would go back to however it was
prior to the quest. When you die you get to keep the items you obtained during the
quest. The game will even allow you to evaluate charms and shards after your lose. I
guess they feel bad for you and want you to get some items as a consolation.

Personally, I like to choose the Rathalos or Brachydios quest. These monsters are
likely to drop a Shiny after they kill you or one of your companions. If you are going with
a few friends, in multiplayer, I like to bring a Long Sword and some Flashbombs and try
to cut off the monster’s tail before dying. You can sometimes carve a rare item from the
tails of certain monsters.

After mining and gathering from the secret area you should stop and check what
items you ended up with. If you didn’t get anything you wanted, I recommend you
just abandon the quest and start over. The whole point of doing this is to abuse the
lucrative spots in the secret area to get the best chances of obtaining rare items. If you
didn’t get anything good, there’s really not much point in completing the run.

If you did get something worth keeping, jump off into Zone 8. Then proceed 8 > 9 > 10
> 5 and finally to 3. Now it’s time to die. If you chose the Rathalos quest he is usually
waiting for you in Zone 2 or 4. Here’s a tip, if you can’t find a monster to kill you, you
can always stand next to the lava and melt your feet off.

Dying three times by yourself can take a while. Bring a few friends to help get killed and
fail the quest even faster!

Conclusion

Hopefully this guide will help make mining a little less painful. Remember, it takes a lot
of luck to get the talismans and ancient weapons you want. If you do get a high level

charm or ancient weapon, and you’re not sure if it’s good, send it to your box anyways.
There are many ways to make money in MH3U but finding a rare charm or weapon may
only happen once in a blue moon. You can always sell the item later if you find out it’s
useless. Good luck and happy hunting!

Monster Hunter Mayhem 2013

Posted on April 16 2013 by Roy

Last Saturday was the Monster Hunter Mayhem event at the Nintendo World Store in New York City.  I had to wake up at the crack of dawn to be in the city by noon, but luckily that’s the same time a duo of hungry cats wake me up each morning.  Thanks, you dumb cats.

I took the New Haven Metro North with Sarah, Shepard from Teamworkcast, and his wife.  We hunted the whole way up thanks to new train cars equipped with wall outlets at each seat — my taxpayer dollars hard at work!  Oh, and I even managed to snag two Deviljho gems:

After a bacon-filled brunch we arrived at the Nintendo World Store.  It was packed.  My first thought was that something else must have drawn a crowd this epic, surely not my humble Monster Hunter…

No time to worry about that! My brain went into swag acquisition mode.  There was a table right on the way in handing out goodies, so we pushed our way up to it.

We were given a poster, a lanyard, and a scavenger hunt checklist:

IMG_1469Funny thing about the scavenger hunt: there were pictures of each monster hidden all over the store, and everyone was supposed to track them down to figure out each monster’s name. Well, I’d say about 80% of the folks I saw simply filled the names in from memory (as did I).

Upon handing in my scavenger hunt sheet, I was given a raffle ticket and told I could get another one by participating in an event on the second floor.  The event entailed fighting the Lagombi in the arena, and the best times earned an additional ticket.  Yeah, raffle tickets were definitely THE motivating force, even though I wasn’t entirely clear on what could be won.  We made our way downstairs to check out the prizes after putting our names in for the arena challenge:

There were Cha-Cha masks, Kayamba masks, and 3DS covers all signed by Monster Hunter producer Ryozo Tsujimoto.  Oh, and some t-shirts and blind box monster figures.

Raffles were every hour, so it was in our best interest to stick around.  That meant killing time with some Monster Hunter!  The first thing I did was check to see how many guild cards I’d acquired via Street Pass.  Ho boy, I got a ton.  My poor Felyne Courier became increasingly worn down throughout the day:

If you’re not familiar with the Guild Card Street Pass system in Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, here’s how it works:

  • When your 3DS Street Passes with another 3DS that…
    • has Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate in it/downloaded on it, and…
    • has Street Pass functionality turned on IN GAME…
  • Each player will receive the other’s Guild Card, which will be placed in the Felyne Courier’s bag.
  • By talking to the Felyne Courier you may examine the Guild Cards you’ve earned and choose to register any that you’d like.

If this sounds like something that would happen often, you must live in Japan…  Up until now, I hadn’t had this happen once.  But at this event…

The fact that my courier could barely “meowve” his bag says it all.  I ended up with over 100 Guild Cards, which just so happens to be the maximum.

While I was standing around in line (can’t recall which — there were a few), some Capcom staff told us that we could download exclusive DLC early by connecting to a specific access point.  There were 3 quests:

  • Gathering of Songbirds: Hunt 2 Crimson Qurupecos, and 2 regular Qurupecos — both incredibly, comically small.  This quest also earns a new mask set that both Cha-Cha and Kayamba can wear.  High Rank only.
  • Gigginox Buffet: Hunt at least 2 Gigginox.  A total of 10 can show up, with a new one spawning after each kill/capture.  This quest earns tickets which allow you to forge the Lion’s Bane Great Sword.  High Rank only.
  • Hard Hitting Lineup: Hunt a Diablos, an Uragaan, a Black Diablos, and a Steel Uragaan.  Yeeeeessh, this quest is only available to G-Rankers, which is a status I have yet to attain, so I’m not sure what rewards this reaps.

Shortly after getting my DLC, it was time for another raffle.  And I was feeling lucky… We went downstairs to listen to Capcom/Nintendo employees coarsely shout out numbers when… they called mine!

I won this blind box figure, which I decided to open when I got home several hours later —  there was just too much excitement at the time.  Anyway, I ended up pulling an Azure Rathalos — not too shabby!

At this point we’d actually been recognized by a few followers of the podcast/our Monster Hunter Beginner’s Guide.  One of them thanked us repeatedly, explaining that the guide helped get his wife into the game and now they play together.  This warmed the cockles, man.  Warmed ‘em good.

Monster Hunter is a social game, but the social aspect is still taking shape here in the West.  So many players only ever play with others online, separated by hundreds of miles and multiple time zones.  Others will be forced to solo the entire game since their other gamer friends are only interested in fragging terrorists in one FPS after another.  This creates passionate players all over the country who have few opportunities to get together and well, be passionate together.  To hear that our guide is helping to change that in some small way is just awesome!

We even met a guy who had won a Stygian Zinogre Ichiban Kuji raffle bust:

IMG_1585

There are only 100 of these in existence, so they’re SUPER rare.  Thankfully no one shanked this lucky individual… at least I don’t think they did.

Things became really interesting when we met up with some Capcom staff.  It was kinda like meeting the man behind the curtain… There was a lot of talking shop initially, explaining our process, discussing the series’ challenges in the west.

Yuri (AKA Dubindoh) from Capcom-Unity spent a lot of time chatting with us and we even went on a hunt together:

Yuri was a genuine dude, who genuinely enjoys Monster Hunter.  He told us a story about how he and a few other Capcomers have been playing MH3U in the lunchroom nearly everyday.  Rather than go out and eat, they just grab whatever’s fast and easy to maximize their hunting time.  Others coming in and out of the break room became intrigued by their boisterous enjoyment and have since taken up arms with them.  Cool, huh?

Yuri made a memorable analogy, comparing their enjoyment to a bright candle that attracted others.  This is what Capcom wants to create more of in regards to Monster Hunter through events just like this one.  Deep stuff…

After five hours walking around the Nintendo World Store, it was time to go.  My feet ached as much as my Felyne Courier’s back.  What better way to cap off any trip to Manhattan than with some ramen?  This time we went to Totto Ramen, a small but bustling shop with the best miso ramen on the east coast — and amazing noodles to boot:

It was almost too much — a whole day of talking Monster Hunter with strangers who became instant friends — finally getting to meet the people at Capcom who made it all possible — and now a delicious bowl of ramen, some kimchi, and a cold beer to wash it all down.  Monster Hunter Mayhem was a success — it was amazing — and knowing that it introduced some new hunters to a gaming culture I love so much made it even better.

PSA: If you weren’t able to attend Monster Hunter Mayhem, but still live in or near New York City, the Nintendo World Store will be holding Monster Hunter Meetups every Friday for the remainder of April.  This event is run by Nintendo Store employees who just so happen to be big fans of the series.  Definitely check it out if you can!