Yesterday Aksys announced what was going to be in their limited edition version of Hakuoki: Demon of the Fleeting Blossom. Soundtracks and artbooks are always appreciated but I'm crazy about this cover! I don't know if the standard edition will have the same art gracing it, but no doubt the LE box will be a little larger. Therefore, I must make it mine.
If you'd like to play an otome (dating sim "for girls") game on your PSP soon, then maybe you should check it out too. Unfortunately, it's mostly rated M for blood and violence.
Persona 2: Innocent Sin is coming to North America!
I'm a big fan of the Persona series and my life continuously intersects with the game as time goes on. I never had a PS1 so ended up missing out entirely on the first titles. However, as the 3rd game was set to come out in Japan I found myself really enthralled by it. My interest was intense enough that I almost bought the Japanese Konamistyle Special Edition. Instead, I waited around until the game came to our shores.
I fell in love with the damn game instantly and played it to completion over a couple weeks. This is rare for me. I usually lose interest in a game only days after starting it up. Persona 4 came around and I toyed with the idea of picking up the Social Link pack. Figuring it was boring and would be produced in massive quantities. Unfortunately I was wrong and even the Teddie toy that came with it goes for a fair amount on its own these days. Not like I'd sell my stuff, but it bothers me that I always seem to screw up "predicting" what special edition items will be rare and which will be everywhere.
Anyways, back to Persona. I bought Persona 2: Eternal Punishment on eBay about a month before Atlus announced they would be reprinting the game. It was an almost exact reprint too, still including the soundtrack CD which came with the original. I no longer have that game, and the prices have since returned to about the same price it was before since the reprints have long since been snapped up. They sold out on Amazon the first day.
Innocent Sin never came out in America, which is why the game is special. Atlus has never said why exactly the game didn't come out here, although they may say something about it now. However, most people who worked on it those 12 years ago are no longer involved with Atlus at least that's what I heard. Apparently there were some gay undertones along with Satanic things... Hitler. I assume the latter is the bigger reason why the game didn't see light over here. Either that, or I'm confusing my Shin Megami Tensei games.
So, I'm really excited to get this version. Unlike the original Persona which is weirdly clunky and slow (even on PSP) both Persona 2s are pretty "modern" games. I'll pre-order it soon and hope the game comes with some nice freebie. If nothing else, Atlus knows how to treat its customers.
Genre: JRPG Rating: T Developer: Falcom Publisher: Xseed Games Platform: PSP Release date: 2011
Never before in my life have I played a Ys game. For one, they were never as in my face as the likes of Final Fantasy, Phantasy Star, and others. To be fair, I was never a huge JRPG player anyway so it makes sense they weren't really in front of my face much. However, from time to time they would get mentioned and I would wonder why the hell they called it Ys.
Apparently you sound it out more like Es but what the hell does that even mean? Playing through the game didn't really help me much to decrypt the meaning. However, I found out that the Ys in question were some sort of magical tome scattered around in dangerous places. Lovely.
What really was too bad about this game was that I died so damn fast. The health bar is very small and very unobtrusive. So much so in fact that I didn't realize I was losing life at all until it was too late. Upon discovering that I made sure to check it out when ramming headfirst into enemies but still ended up dying a lot. Apparently, there is some strategy to this although at first it appears there is none. You see, your character auto attacks so it seems like it would be a game of chance. After spending enough time with it though I realized hitting the enemies from certain angles was the way to do it. Then I stopped dying so much.
The game was pretty charming and had some pretty hilarious text. Whoever was at work at localization did a fantastic job. However, these types of games just aren't my thing. They're also pretty short which seems weird considering RPGs of any variety typically take dozens, if not hundreds of hours. I'm not complaining though. I barely could muster up enough interest to beat these.
Would I play again? Nah.
Feel free to look at my more serious review of Ys I & II Chronicleshere.
