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Japan Pickups: Games

Wednesday, January 15th, 2025

I’m using ‘games’ here to describe video games and ‘TRPGs’ (as tabletop games are called in Japan). This is the category in which I’m always hunting for items on my trips and this time I was very happy with my finds…

It’s been a while since I’ve found a new Japanese Fighting Fantasy book for my collection, so I was pleased to see this JP version of ‘Out Of The Pit‘, the FF Monster Manual. Unlike the western version, it’s published at the same size as a normal FF book and is therefore a chunky little volume. The cover is a little tattered, but it’s in otherwise excellent condition and included its obi and even an advertisement for the Japanese Warlock magazine.

Speaking of which, I bought ten more issues of Warlock, which I found once again at Mandarake in Akihabara (where do they keep getting these from?). These weren’t cheap, but with this addition I now have 75% of the entire run of this magazine, including the first and last (#63) issues.

Moving onto one of my other collections, I found the above three Wizardry games. The leftmost had eluded me for years and was surprisingly inexpensive (about $30) but I didn’t even know Summoner had a PS2 version and didn’t hesitate to pay through the nose for it (~$100) when I found it in Nagano on Christmas Day. The last is the JP physical edition of the recent Wizardry 1 remake. Alas I was unable to find the special edition of this release, which comes with a lot of bonuses. One day I will…

This is a remarkable guidebook for all three Game Boy Color remakes of Wizardry 1 – 3. I’ve got many Japanese Wizardry game guides in my collection now, but this may be the best I’ve yet seen.

It starts with some lovely colour pages detailing the history of each game…

And then goes into detail about the specifics of the GBC versions of each title, including monsters, items and maps. Most of the book is in colour as well.

Each game gets its own section and as a result the book is fairly lengthy. The GBC versions of these games are rare and (very) expensive these days, so this book would have a limited audience. But I have all three games and will one day play them again and when I do this ‘bible’ will be extremely useful!

The above is the 1991 revised edition of the Wizardry TRPG rules for the tabletop game based on the video game series. I have read that the Wizardry TRPG was immensely popular back in Japan back in the day – competing even with D&D – but this is the first time I’d found a basic rule book for sale.

It’s got all the usual sections common to RPG rulebooks, and I like that the character sheet resembles those in the video games. I wonder what this game is like to play?

Speaking of the TRPG, I also bought the above. The two on the left are adventures, and on the right is a gamesmasters screen! These date to a few years before the rulebook above, which suggest they were intended for the first edition rules (which I’ve never seen). These were expensive, and only a maniac would buy them if he couldn’t even read them…

The above was an incredible find, not only because I’d never heard of it but also because I have since read it is ‘extremely rare’! It’s a Wizardry card game named after the ultimate wizard spell ‘Tiltowait’!

The description said it was ‘opened but never played’ and while the flimsy cardboard box had seen better days the cards themselves don’t show any evidence of use so I’m guessing the description was accurate.

Amusingly this is a reskin of Uno using monsters and spells from Wizardry as card art. From the included rules it seems ‘Tiltowait’ is the Draw 4 equivalent and other spells (‘Haman’ etc.) correspond to the other effect cards in Uno, with a few additions such as counter and discard spells.

The last game pickups from the trip were the above Switch titles. All of these are compilations of arcade games – mostly shooters. Taito Milestones 3 was purchased not just because it includes Cadash but also all three Rastan games and both Bubble Bobble and Rainbow Islands. It’s one of the very best arcade compilations I’ve seen! The game on the right is the special edition of Mushihimesama, the insect-themed Cave shooter.

Lots of treasures here, but alas my grails once again eluded me. The hunt will continue in future trips…

Posted in Blog, Books, Collecting, Gamebooks, Japan, Otaku, Retro | No Comments »

Japan Pickups: Crane Games

Sunday, January 12th, 2025

As with any Japan trip, we visited many game centers and were tempted by countless crane game prizes. These run the gamut from figures to toys to housewares to clothing to food to…

To a box of ziplock containers! Sometimes I wonder if the operators just put anything in a machine to see what people will try to win?

An attempt usually costs ¥100 (about 65 US cents) although some newer or more desirable prizes can cost ¥200 a go. There’s a lot of randomness and frustration involved with the machines, and one of the announcements periodically piped over the AV at one Akiba game center is on the nail when it simply says “You are unlikely to win”! The fun is in the trying though, and winning is icing on the cake.

I won two ‘prize figures’ (the term used to describe figures primarily available via crane games) this past trip. The first – Marin from Dress-Up Darling – cost me ¥4600 which is a ridiculous amount (that’s 46 tries!) but the character is a current favourite of mine. Here’s a better look:

I like this because it’s small! I didn’t know when I won her, but it’s also a very high demand prize figure right now, and we rarely saw it in the resellers (shops which sell prize figures) and the few times we did it was ¥5000 or more.

A few days after I won the above, a new figure of the same character came out and literally overnight was featured in many machines in every game center we visited:

That’s four machines at Gigo in Akiba.

And four others at an Ikebukuro arcade. If you look closely you’ll see they show off the figure in the machine, to tempt you further:

I got very lucky with this one, winning it in only four attempts (¥400). With so many in machines it was readily available at the resellers, but even then she was ¥2500 or more. Here’s mine:

She’s a lot bigger than the other Marin, and once I open her she’ll probably go in one of my curios.

In addition I bought the above two from resellers. They were each inexpensive (¥1500, or about $10) and the boxes were lightweight and not too big. I bought Shalltear (on the right) because I’d watched some episodes of Overlord the night before and I found her character funny! I don’t know anything about the character on the left but I like that one of her pupils is a clock 🙂

Buying figures at resellers can be challenging due to the abundance of choice. Many new prize figures appear in crane games weekly and the better resellers have hundreds to choose from! You may desire a particular character only to find five or more to choose from, some with multiple colour variants! Most prize figures are inexpensive, but occasionally older or very desirable/rare figures can be over $100.

On the last morning, during my Akiba ‘speedrun’ before we left for the airport, I was determined to win KLS a cute stuffed frog from a machine at Hirose in Akiba. I’d put a few yen in it the day before without luck, but money was to be no object this morning.

I was alone in the arcade except for an employee who I could tell was watching me repeatedly failing. After about ¥1500 in attempts I asked him if he had any suggestions and he obviously took pity on me by opening the machine and putting the frog right on the precipice (as you can see above)! Even then victory wasn’t certain but when I failed he did it again and I suspected he was going to ensure my victory. What a nice guy! The next go, the frog was mine.

Kristin was very happy with the frog, who will now live happily on a shelf.

Posted in Blog, Japan, Otaku, Toys | No Comments »

2024 In Games (Part 2)

Tuesday, December 10th, 2024

Once again I kept track of all the games I played this year, and here they all are. Virtually every one was on the Switch, and for those I played more than a single session, the duration played is listed after my comments.

Etrian Odyssey 1 (HD Remaster): I’ve beaten this game thrice before (on DS and 3DS) and had fun replaying this remake on easiest difficulty. Interesting to see how simple the systems were for this first game in an iconic series. (13 hours)

Star Ocean R: An immensely fun retro remake game with lovely graphics and a charming story, although it clearly rushes the ending. In typical Tri-Ace style, the postgame dungeon was great. (38)

Mon-Yu: Defeat Monsters And Gain Strong Weapons And Armor. You May Be Defeated, But Don’t Give Up. Become Stronger. I Believe There Will Be A Day When The Heroes Defeat The Devil King: A dungeon crawler in the Wizardry style with cute graphics and a lot of repeated assets. Initially seemed for a younger audience, but the brutal difficulty quickly changed my mind. A solid game, and fun while it lasted. (30)

Final Fantasy IV (Pixel Remaster): This was the first Final Fantasy game I ever played (over 30 years ago) and I’ve replayed it many times since. This version is wonderful, and another reason the pixel remasters are fantastic value. (16)

Dead Cells: Return To Castlevania: I ploughed through this DLC expansion and moved on since I’d played the hell out of the base game years ago. A top tier 2d action/platform roguelike. (8)

Undead Darlings: This visual novel / dungeon crawl hybrid had a decent story but the gameplay was slow and ponderous and it needed a few more design passes before release. I gave up after the second dungeon. (5)

Etrian Odyssey 2 (HD Remaster): A wonderful game with lots of depth, fun classes, expansive dungeons but a fiddly quest system. The remake graphics could have been prettier, but I enjoyed this wholeheartedly. (27)

SD Shin Kamen Rider Rumble: A roguelike beat-em-up with popcorn enemies and unsatisfying fights. Should have been much better. (3)

Knight Witch: Some excellent ideas in this Metroidvania bullet hell game, but it needed another playability pass before release, since missing basics like fast travel make parts of it tedious. Bosses are overturned as well. (28)

Final Fantasy V (Pixel Remaster): Another iconic game in the series, and one I have dim memories of since it was never originally released in the USA. I loved the job system and the challenging and varied boss fights. Absolute enjoyment from start to end. (30)

Diofield Chronicle: The production qualities are top-notch, but excessive length exposes weakness of a fundamentally simple gameplay loop. Worth a play if you like tactical RPGs with insane and unpredictable stories. (35)

Wheel Of Fortune: A solid version of the TV quiz show, and fun in multiplayer.

Jeopardy: Another good version of the TV show, albeit potentially unfun since there’s little penalty for buzzing in instantly. The questions may also be a little easy. Wheel Of Fortune is the better game.

Demon Gaze Extra: Fun dungeon crawler with a charming story and even though I beat it on Vita years back I had fun replaying it. Drags a bit a couple of dozen hours in and balancing issues on a few RNG bosses should have been fixed in this remake. (35)

Bloodstained: Ritual Of The Night: A top-tier Metroidvania, which ran surprisingly well on the Switch (considering a choppy launch). This was my second time playing it through, although I didn’t go insane for 100% this time. (21)

No Man’s Sky: The third – and best – of my playthroughs. Once again I just explored the universe randomly until I maxed out my ship and gear and even after 70 hours felt like I’d only dipped my toe into an ocean of content. A fantastic game. (70)

Unicorn Overlord: A masterpiece of design in every area, with beautiful graphics and sound, wonderful and immersive tactical gameplay, and the sort of story and characters Vanillaware has rightfully become famous for. A contender for one of the best strategy RPGs of all time. (45)

Dredge: Fascinating fishing game with a compelling Lovecraftian story. Wonderful setting with moody and effective graphics. I had loads of fun exploring the world, and the game was exactly the right length. Highly recommended. (10)

Fate/Extella Link: A bland musou game with unappealing character designs and combat very much in the shadow of betters in the genre (like the Zelda or Fire Emblem games). One for fans I suppose. (5)

Legends of Amberland: Loving homage to old school Might & Magic games that hit more than it missed. A fun, cozy rpg that didn’t outstay its welcome. (13)

Starsand: Atrocius controls, execrable story and no fun in the gameplay make this weird survival game one for the trash. (1)

Puzzle Bobble Everybubble!: A new version of Puzzle Bobble with an emphasis on multiplayer. Tight controls and simplistic but satisfying gameplay, but look elsewhere if you’re after a good single player mode. (2)

Titan Quest: A competent but unremarkable Diablo clone. Movement is a bit floaty and character development and gear seem to favor the late game which made normal mode a bit boring. Nice graphics in the switch and got better as it continued. I enjoyed it enough to eye the DLC… (35)

The Legend of Steel Empire: I beat this remake of a 1990s shooter on one credit on normal mode on my first play, obtaining 90% of the achievements. (0.5)

Ninja Jajamaru: The Great Yokai Battle: A fun challenge based platform game, with a few other modes on the cart as extras. Took me half an afternoon to beat everything, but I had a lot of fun, (3)

Puzzle & Dragons Super Mario Bros: I took this 3DS game with me when I traveled mid year and got hooked on it again. The systems are archaic compared to the phone version but it still has a lot of appeal! (10)

Legacy of Ys Books I & II: Another replay, this time on the DS. Ys is always a fun retro RPG, albeit a bit frustrating in certain areas. (5)

Ring Fit Adventure: I returned for some more time with this exercise game and gained about 50 more levels and have almost beat the second loop through and yet there’s still more than half the items still to be found?!? A great rpg! (+15)

Fire Shark (Toaplan Arcade Garage): A dated but fun shooter, here perfectly emulated on the Switch. I bought this for the bonus game – Wardner – which I fondly remembered from my youth. (4)

ZeroFire (Toaplan Arcade Garage): Both games in this package are very dated and the default difficulties are insane, but it was fun playing through each in easy mode. Demons World, the extra game, seems almost impossible! As with the previous game there’s an incredible amount of bonus versions and extra content included. (3)

Talisman: A too-slow version of the board game, made worse with choice due to packing in every expansion. The real version is more fun. (1)

Metroid Prime Remastered: Engrossing and labyrinthine with good boss fights and wonderful exploration. I remembered nothing from playing two decades ago and enjoyed it as if it were my first time. (12)

Tiger Heli (Toaplan Arcade Garage): The weaker of the three ‘Arcade Garage’ complications I bought, since neither game on the cart really holds up. That said the nostalgia level was high. (1)

Phantasy Star 4: I’d been wanting to replay this for years, and found it was more vanilla than remembered. Combat is a bit bland compared to FF games, but the music and cutscenes are great. The translation is very dated, but I still enjoyed it to the end. (20)

Risen: Janky Elder Scrolls wannabe hampered by poor controls, lousy graphics and terrible combat. The quest/world design is oppressive and I played this one for longer than I should have. (5)

The Dragoness: Command Of The Flame: A competent Heroes of Might & Magic clone. I liked the challenges on each map, but not the time limits. It plays well and balance is good but it weakens in the endgame and ends up outstaying its welcome. (30)

Sol Cresta: A very late sequel to retro shooters Moon/Terra Cresta that adds all sorts of systems and features but doesn’t quite ‘click’ as I feel it could have. I beat it and moved on. (1)

Etrian Odyssey 3 (HD Remaster): The best of the three remakes with an incredible amount of content. Once again I enjoyed this as if I hadn’t already beaten it twice! (22)

Bloodstained Curse Of The Moon 2: A fun retro platform game spun off the game mentioned above. This was notably easier than the first one (I played last year) and I beat in under 90 minutes! (1.5)

Shining Force: Fun to replay this tactical RPG after 30+ years. Both deeper and more difficult than I remembered, especially in the final battles. This was the game I named my fanzine after! (20)

Nintendo World Championship NES Edition: A ridiculously addictive set of microgames built around speed running NES classics. I beat/unlocked everything and for one mission was ranked #1 in the world! (7)

Darksiders 3: A mostly successful God of War / Souls hybrid. Some wonky controls but the core gameplay was fun enough to overlook. (25)

Brigandine: A repetitive tactical fantasy war game with poor AI and mundane graphics (aside from extraordinary character portraits). No threat to fire emblem. (15)

Touhou Luna Nights: Short and sweet bullet-hell Metroidvania. Fun, but very linear and not as good as it’s made out to be. (5)

Vagante: Harder, uglier and less fun than Spelunky. An overly punishing roguelike that needed more playability and a better reward system. (1)

Class of Heroes: This Wizardry-like is almost a system without a game, and yet strangely compelling in its dastardly way. I got distracted and never returned. (5)

Tevi: Metroidvania with wonderful control and response, but a little linear and the map design is boring. Combat is fun but bosses were tedious damage sponges. I wish they’d license their engine to another studio to make an even better game! (25)

Metal Slug Attack Reloaded: Insanely addictive tower defense game (of sorts) that I played nonstop for days then had to delete to stop playing. In the end I beat every stage with an S rank and was happy to move on. Amazing value for $10. (20)

Into The Breach: Fun roguelike tactical game with small maps and interesting combat. It’s a bit unrewarding though, and I found it too repetitive after a while. (6)

Burnout Paradise Remastered: The same game I enjoyed 10+ years ago, but this remaster gives you the very best cars immediately which strips away all the challenge. I didn’t put much time into this one. (2)

DoDonPachi Dai Fakkatsu: Bullet hell majesty now on Switch. This is a perfect emulation of a punishing arcade classic. Came in a nice box set with a soundtrack and art book. (3)

DoDonPachi Dai Ou Jo Re:Incarnation: This installment of the series was released (in the arcades) before the above, but seems to be much more difficult. One day I’m going to dedicate myself to becoming an expert at this game! (3)

Fight Crab: The answer to the question “What if QWOP was a 3D fighting game about crustaceans?”. Humorously insane, but ultimately a near-unplayable joke game. (3)

Atelier Sophie 2: The Alchemist Of The Mysterious Dream: A charming RPG with a well written story and very likeable characters. Kept me interested until the very end. One of my most enjoyed games of the year. (55)

Legend of Grimrock: KLS and I played this one together and had a wonderful time exploring every part of the dungeon and ultimately defeating the game after finding every secret. A loving homage to Eye Of The Beholder. (18)

Diablo 2: I couldn’t guess how many hundreds of hours I’ve spent on this game over the last two decades, but this year I racked up another six dozen beating hell with a lightning amazon. One of the best games of all time! (70)

Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince: I had fun with this series years back on Game Boy, and was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this new version. It’s Pokémon meets Dragon Quest, and while a bit simple was never boring. (35)

Castlevania: Circle Of The Moon: I’ve always loved this oft-maligned GBA installment in the series, and despite having beaten it ten times in the past, bought the Switch collection and beat it again five more this year! Unlocking all five classes was as much fun as ever. (19)

The Mummy Demastered: Short and sweet Metroidvania weirdly based on that Mummy film from a few years back. Beat it in two sittings! (6)

Pretty Girls Game Collection 2: Probably objectively trashy collection of minigames but I enjoyed unlocking all the art and the mahjong solitaire game was genuinely well done! (15)

Titan Quest Atlantis and Ragnarok: Both DLCs went on sale around Thanksgiving, so I got them and played through again using a new character! This time I enjoyed the game even more than before, and maybe I’ll return again one day. (30)

Ys X: Nordics: I’m still playing this one, but so far I’m enjoying it quite a lot. Ten hours in and the story, combat and exploration have hooked me.

Puzzle & Dragons: As of this post, I’m at 4207 cumulative login days, which is 11.5 years. I’ve beaten every dungeon (and in fact usually do so the day they’re released) and have far more resources and characters than I’ll ever use, but I still play daily. This seems to be the game of my life. (Too much!)

This is a long list: 65 games played in 2024 totaling more 980+ hours (much more if you include Puzzdra). I was asked my favourite hobby the other day and I answered “I don’t know”. I wasn’t being evasive, it’s just that gaming is such a part of my life I often don’t even think of it as a hobby 🙂

Posted in Blog, Games | Comments Closed

My Superpowers

Tuesday, November 26th, 2024

Flying? Super speed or strength? Invisibility? Teleportation? These are the sort of superpowers everyone always picks. But I’ve always had a very particular list of desired powers, and here they are.

The Punch Through Time would allow me to punch the writer of any letter sent to a newspaper of magazine, regardless of the time that has passed since they initially wrote the missive. This one was devised years ago after reading some of the insane letters printed by Dragon magazine back in the early 1980s. It’s a mysterious and uncharacteristically (for me) violent power that I probably never would have actually used.

With the near-death of print this power could be updated to include online comments, which could certainly keep a wielder busy considering the toxic ‘discussion’ so prevalent online these days. Writers of such comments may think again if a superhero with this power existed.

The Telestrator Of The Devil is a power that would give me the ability to draw on a TV screen so every viewer could view your creations. At the least you could send funny messages to millions, and at best you could strike a blow against untruth, deception and propaganda. While this one was developed after watching too much shopping TV back in the 1990s, it would certainly be more relevant and useful today.

Given that TV is also essentially dead, and that no-one under 50 seems to even know what a telestrator is, this one has also upgraded over the years to the reality-warping ability to change the words on any signs or billboards in the real world. Imagine the fun!

The last power – Franchise Teleportation – is the one I’d most like to have in real life. It’s a simple one: I could teleport between franchise locations. Walk into Maccas in the USA and walk out in Australia or Japan or anywhere else I’d been. This cosmic power had an important restriction: I would need had to have visited the target first. So I couldn’t teleport to any McDonald’s (or Starbucks, or KFC, or Walmart), only between the ones I’d ever visited. If I had this power I’d probably use it almost every day 🙂

Alas I’m no superhero. I can’t bend reality or punch through time or take daily trips to arcades in Japan. But wouldn’t the world be more interesting if I could?

Posted in Blog | 2 Comments »

Halloween Decorations

Tuesday, October 29th, 2024

Halloween decorations seem to have increased both in frequency and size this year. We went for a walk the other day to admire some of them. Here’s some photos.

Many houses that decorate will have pumpkins on their porch, perhaps a few little ghosts hanging from a tree, and maybe a skeletons or skull in their window. This house went all-in with a full-sized skeleton and a gigantic spider web that spans their entire front yard. This isn’t even the biggest web near us: another house covered almost the entire front of the house with a massive web!

This one is a bit low effort but made us laugh: (rubber) body parts scattered on the lawn. On a dark night I think this could be quite scary for a young child, which I feel is in the ‘true’ spirit of Halloween

Just down the street from us they built a small graveyard in their yard which looks great amongst the fallen leaves. As you can see the dead are escaping and climbing a nearby tree. This is illuminated with spooky red lights at night and looks great.

The place around the corner has two massive inflatables (one is Hogwarts!), a looming skeleton with animated eyes and dozens of smaller statues all throughout the yard. Trick-or-treaters will walk through the purple house on their way to the front door. All this is lit at night and accompanied by spooky music.

The place down the road that did tennis playing skeletons years ago now have an incredible Ghostbusters scene. The backpacks and ‘slimer’ ghost are all homemade from cardboard and styrofoam and (we think) the beams light up at night. This is amazingly well done and the sort of display that could win a Halloween decoration contest!

A few blocks away, in front of a house that looks like it could legitimately be haunted, are the biggest decorations we’ve ever seen. Jack Skellington here is 13 feet tall (I checked!) and animated, and only one of five different enormous statues they have in their front yard.

This demon has light-up eyes and towers over me. It’s legitimately creepy and I imagine kids will love it.

And as you can see this headless horseman is almost life-sized as well. I checked online to find a price and there seems to be a few different similar models but even the cheapest is almost $400. And this is just one of five in this houses front yard!

Inflatables remain common, but perhaps not as much as they used to be. Here’s the display in front of our fire station, which as usual will have a haunted house installation this year for parents to take their kids to on Halloween. I like the sausage dog, with a sign (‘Happy Halloweiner‘) that seems removable so he can remain out with his pilgrim hat on as a thanksgiving ornament.

And what of us? It’s been several years since we out any non-pumpkin decorations out, but we splurged this year on our first ever set of lawn flamingos! Of the zombie kind…

Here they are installed next to the creepy face on the tree in our front yard. They’re black with blood red eyes and long sharp teeth, and probably should have been marketed as vampires and not zombies!

And here they are at night, basking in the glow from that demonic face. We won’t be home on Halloween night, but I hope at least one young trick-or-treater sees this and is momentarily spooked 🙂

Posted in Blog, Holiday | 1 Comment »

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