September 2011

Luckigrrl, a player of Ether Saga Online, commissioned me to draw her character! ^o^ We bonded instantly over having played a common game. <3

I’m super happy that folks are commissioning me to illustrate their characters in MMOs! Yes, people! I WANT TO DRAW ALL OF YOUR AVATARS! @<@

Ether Saga Online belongs to Perfect World Entertainment – Character belongs to Luckigrrl
Please respect the artist and do not use this image for any purposes (forum avatar, signature, Web graphics, banners, any personal use or commercial gain). (Exceptions?)
Do not trace, copy, or alter in any way. Do not remove signatures or watermarks.
Do not save and/or upload elsewhere (Photobucket, Flickr, Tumblr, etc.).

September 2011

My entry of Popuri for the Harvest Moon Collaboration Project.

Popuri, yeah! The cutest Harvest Moon character for sure! n_n She was really what drew me into the series back in the day, with that awesome pink poofy hair! Now she’s off to her super important job of watering the sidewalk outside the Florist’s Shop.

Popuri & Harvest Moon belong to Marvelous and Natsume
Please respect the artist and do not use this image for any purposes (forum avatar, signature, Web graphics, banners, any personal use or commercial gain). (Exceptions?)
Do not trace, copy, or alter in any way. Do not remove signatures or watermarks.
Do not save and/or upload elsewhere (Photobucket, Flickr, Tumblr, etc.).

September 16, 2011

Read Part 1 Here
Read Part 2 Here

Did anyone not see this one coming?? :O

Okay, I have something to admit.

I know basically nothing about Skyward Sword. ;_;

I have been a very poor Zelda fan in these passing months and have not been following any news concerning it at all. The only trailer I’ve seen for it was the video I posted back in my E3 post. In fact, I had to go back to that post and re-watch that video because I didn’t remember what was in it.

But I think this will actually be a good thing. My experience with Skyward Sword will be entirely new and exciting. c:

Amazon has a spectacular deal going on where you get a bundle that includes the game, a music CD, and a super slick golden Wii Remote +, detailed with the Hylian emblem. This bundle is extremely enticing to me because I don’t have any remotes with Motion +, and it’s necessary to have it in order to play Skyward Sword.

Plus, Zelda games are known for producing limited edition golden cartridges and other bonuses, and I’ve always tried to get my hands on those in the past. That remote just looks fine.

Here are your links, for both the bundle and just the game itself (still includes the music CD though!):

Thanks for reading! This will probably conclude my Games to Preorder This Fall series, unless I find a couple others being released for the holidays! 😀

September 12, 2011

Read Part 1 Here

Whoops, I was a little later than promised in delivering this post! Anyway, like I said the other day, there are some pretty bodacious games on the very near horizon, due for release pretty soon, so pay attention and quick!

This post is part 2 of three-ish.

Rune Factory will stay a niche title for probably ever, since Harvest Moon is a niche game to begin with and incorporating adventure RPG elements just went and made it a niche of its niche. Not all Harvest Moon players like the Rune Factory series – but then again, there’s some overlap that perhaps makes up for it. There are definitely a good chunk of non-Harvest Moon players that play Rune Factory, and I saw a significant increase of that after Rune Factory 3’s release, which provided for the first time an excellently-executed and well-polished gameplay experience for the series.

(Which doesn’t mean that I didn’t like the previous games, because I sure did, but even a fan has to recognize when a game doesn’t have polish, and the RF series lacked it until 3.)

Let’s hope that Rune Factory: Tides of Destiny continues that trend of exponentially increasing the enjoyment level of the series. It’ll be sent to stores on September 27 and available on September 28 (if Natsume continues their past habit of their games being available the day after the announced date).

There are a lot of things that make Tides of Destiny different from previous titles in the series. For one, players finally have the option of playing as a male or female protagonist, although even that’s been given a plot-driven twist! Second – and this makes me think that ToD may draw in even more non-Harvest Moon fans than RF3 did – the actual farming and harvesting systems are much less emphasized now. You don’t even have your own field to plant on, really, as planting spots are created with a magic rod! And you don’t interact much with the crops themselves – their growth is seen to by the monster companions you’ve befriended.

Fighting and combat seems to be much improved. Weapons have some pretty impressive animations (and anyone already familiar with RF is already aware that there are tons of different weapons), and the ability to jump and attack from the air has been implemented.

Another change is that character portraits are no longer displayed as art work during dialogue, instead replaced with the characters’ polygonal models. This allows for animations and such during conversations, plus, these characters just look pretty.

Oh, I’m glad I could get a screenshot like that last one – a large part of this game is centered around getting quests from townsfolk, most of which are going to involve traveling to islands across the sea.

Care to take a guess as to what method of nautical navigation is used?

If you answered giant robot that looks like a walking island, you’re correct! And, naturally, we can’t have a game with giant robots that doesn’t also include battles against giant sea monsters! WHAT DOESN’T THIS GAME HAVE?!

In addition to everything covered here, some other plusses Tides of Destiny can boast are nicely animated anime cut scenes, and a varied selection of bachelorettes (and a few bachelors for the female protagonist) to woo. If RF3 was any indicator of how unique (and insane) the town NPCs can be, the lineup for this one is sure to provide a lot of entertainment.

Alrighty! Now for those shopping links.

PlayAsia:

Amazon:

Part three will be along in the next day or so~ (I’ve learned not to promise next-day posts any more! XD) It’s a much more widely recognized title than my darling little niche games parts 1 and 2 consisted of. Also, it’s being sold in this really rad bundle that is making fans of the series nearly foam at the mouth in anticipation to get their hands on it. It’s gold and shiny. Okay, I am really bad at giving hints without totally giving away what it is I’m hinting at.

Update: Was it too obvious? Part 3 is here!

September 9, 2011

Longest post title ever or longest post title ever??

There’s some pretty rad games on the horizon, and they’re all due for release just before the holiday season, which is nice.

This post is part 1 of three-ish.

As for this first one and the one I’ll talk about tomorrow, I’m pretty excited about them, although they’re niche titles so you won’t hear much hype about them elsewhere. They’re also coming out really soon, like, before September is over. So if you want in on an incredibly adorable preorder bonus, you’ve got to get in on this soon.

Game to Look Forward to #1 is Harvest Moon: The Tale of Two Towns, the DS version of which will be sent to stores September 20 (which, common to publisher Natsume, usually means it’ll be available to buy on the 21st). No date for the 3DS version has been announced yet, besides Natsume’s comment that it will be in October. Place your preorder through either Natsume’s Online Store or Gamestop in order to get the bonus, which is DRUMROLL PLEASE…

…an aplaca plush. Yes. Yes.

(Btdubs, those links are for the DS game… no links are available for the 3DS one yet, although Natsume promises alpacas will be available when you order the 3DS one as well.)

Anyway, Tale of Two Towns sounds like a pretty sweet addition to the Harvest Moon lineup. There’s a lot more emphasis placed on exploring, as in between the titular two towns (European-themed Bluebell and Eastern-themed Konohana) is a massive mountainous map. On the mountain’s paths, you can interact with various environmental elements, climbing and jumping your way through the terrain to fish, catch bugs, and forage around for items. The environment is gorgeous. I think some pretty major graphical enhancements have happened in this installment.

Here’s a five-minute video of gameplay in which both towns are explored a little, we’ll see some of the mountain path’s interactivity, and a bit of animal care:

In addition to the prettier scenery, the colorful folks inhabiting the towns definitely don’t look half bad, either. This game boasts a wide variety of marriageable candidates, and I love that the artwork is juuuust a tad more grown-up and anime-looking rather than the short, ‘chibi’ style characters Harvest Moon usually goes for – not that I don’t love HM’s previous art and character designs, but it’s just refreshing to see an updated art style. c:

Okay, so here’s the places you can purchase this one, and it’s very important to note that the Gamestop and Natsume Store links are only for the DS game, and are the only ones that offer the alpaca plush bonus.

Natsume Inc’s Store:

GameStop:

PlayAsia:

Amazon:

Alright! There’s one game down! The next part of this series will be up tomorrow (disclaimer: maybe actually the day after, if I get lazy), and I’ll give you three hints as to what upcoming game that will be: 1.) It’s also published by Natsume; 2.) You probably already know what game it is because I never shut up about it; and 3.) There’s a screenshot from it on the homepage. Yup. YOU’LL NEVER GUESS.

Update: Here’s Part 2
Update Again!: Part 3 is here!