Private: [RPG] Kiseki series – a bit about the Zemlyan continent

Before I get to the main point of this post, I’d like to write something that refers to this blog as a whole. It’s been a really long time since I posted here. I feel kind of sad, but also feel that it can’t be helped. Both me and biscuit are pretty busy with our lives, and when it comes to me I was never really good at writing regularly to begin with. Despite that, we still decided to keep this blog (well, it was mainly me because I just can’t bring myself to getting rid of what was written here, and I’m still hoping that one day we will come back to writing about otome games and related things). Also I’m sorry to anyone who was waiting (and maybe is still waiting) for more Sugita corners, as most likely I won’t write any more of them (at least not in the near future). While Sugita is still among my most favourite seiyuus ever, I have come to like a few other seiyuus since then, and it’s hard for me to focus on only one of them right now. I’m also trying to use most of my free time to play RPGs and – not nearly as often – otome games.

Now, even though this blog has seen no activity for a long time, I don’t want this post to look like it’s completely out of nowhere, so here’s some explanation. What’s written here is some additional information about the world of the Kiseki series of games, created by Nihon Falcom. I’m doing this for my friend who has recently started playing Sen no Kiseki. Since she haven’t played any of the other games in the series, I thought that it’d be nice to give her some background info about the world it takes place in, because it’s vast and there’s a lot of connections throughout all games and some things may be confusing for someone who started from Sen. I love this series with all my heart, as it is as close to my ideal RPG as it can get, and since yukiru is also interested in its setting, I thought I may as well write about it for her (also because it’s a lot of fun to do xD). So, once again, this is mainly a personal post written for a friend. If you somehow stumble upon it, feel free to read it if you’re interested, but please don’t expect any insights or very in-depth info about the games. It is also neither a review nor a summary. It may be useful to someone who started playing Kiseki games from Sen and would like to know a bit more without having to play previous games or looking at the Japanese wiki, but not really to those who have followed it since the beginning (or even since Zero).

Long absence & new obsessions

Whoa! My apologies for the long absence!

I know we haven’t updated in over a year, I have been away since my graduation and Silvra has been working hard in her studies. I don’t want to say I was depressed but when I have difficulties I just find it very hard to talk and as a result I could not blog or even tweet anymore. I even wanted to just close this blog and have Silvra move her translations to a different place since it would be a waste to completely delete them, but she really wanted to keep this and I’m glad I just left it alone. I feel better when I talk to her and I hope we could start blogging again like we used to. My apologies to blog-rollers as well! I have been really out of the loop so please excuse me for any awkwardness.

I stopped playing otome games because there weren’t many I was interested in and there are also tons of news and reviews on these now. I have some otome games on my to-play list, but I bought a 3DS a few months ago to play Fire Emblem, then got caught up in Animal Crossing…Pokemon X also arrived in the mail today, so there’s not much time left for otome games! Silvra and I are long-time fans of Pokemon, though I never played competitively and just enjoyed the storyline. I want to play more seriously this time and would love to get tips from other people!

While I’m still learning the new gameplay tactics of Pokemon, I want to share a bit about my Animal Crossing town. I put a lot of effort into it and would love to make more friends who play this game! I’m trying to get Silvra to play it with me, but she needs to save up for a 3DS first. XD

a gloomy day

My town is called Soratama. As you may know I’m a big fan of Gintama, so I tried to include these influences into my town with a mix of zen and modern architecture, as well as sweets in honor of my sweet-toothed hero. I’m still working on landscaping and public works projects, so will post screenshots when I’ve made progress!

[Otome Game] Black Wolves Saga: My thoughts about Fiona in the twin’s route

Since I’ve been talking so much about Sugita lately, let’s talk about Black Wolves Saga’s heroine for a change 8D Yay. This post is a result of a discussion between me and biscuit after I played through the twins’ routes, as well as me thinking way too much about the games I play (and everything in general). It focuses mainly on that one choice that takes Fiona back to the castle, so you can see the “exciting” routes the creators prepared for the cats, lol. Naturally, it will have lots of spoilers and, also naturally, it requires previous knowledge about the game, and preferably having gone through the twins’ routes (one or both). If you want a good and to-the-point overview of the game, biscuit made a post about it here.

From what I saw/heard, some people seemed to either say that Fiona’s choice to go back to the castle was stupid and completely lacking common sense or they labeled the choice as a plot device; or some tried to explain Fiona’s actions by saying that she tried to have hope in the midst of all the despair. Let’s see how all these fair from the game’s perspective.

Ultimately, what I’m trying to do here is show that Fiona’s character is well thought-out and that she isn’t just your standard “stupid and lame” otome game heroine. Also, I think the game’s plot is good enough to explain itself without resulting to some convoluted and make-believe explanations. Once again, and I cannot stress this enough, this is my own interpretation of things.

So, once again, there will be SPOILERS. Don’t read past this point unless you have played the game or don’t mind spoilers (although this may be a bit hard to understand without knowing what happened, because I don’t go into details).

[Seiyuu] Sasuga Sugita no Corner 4

Hello everyone! I hope you’re all doing fine! It’s this time of the month (???) already, so here’s another Sasuga Sugita no Corner! *fanfares* I can’t believe it’s already the 4th one xD Sure, it’s not much, but I’m amazed at myself that I managed to keep this up long enough to get to nr 4, however long it took. I have a tendency to get distracted easily, and my interests change drastically. I’m that type of person who can only 100% concentrate on one thing at a time… ;w; That said, my interest in Sugita somehow manages to resist this personality trait of mine, and he’s regularly coming back to remind me about himself xD
I’m slowly catching up with Anigera, so I hope I can write these posts more often now (as long as I won’t forget to take notes, lol). I could write a book using excerpts from Anigera alone, seriously. This radio is so full of references and random talk, it’s an absolute must for a Sugita fan. After all, it’s a radio where Sugita is free to talk about anything he wants xD I’m really glad it became so popular it can continue to this day without problems~

[Otome Game] Starry Sky short story: Before the next Spring comes…

This is another thing I started working on long ago (last year I think), but then a lot of things happened and I forgot about it. Since I was in the mood for translation, I decided to go back to it and finally get it done xD
It’s a short story that was published in Dengeki Girl’s Style, written from Kanata’s point of view, and when I read it I thought it’s cute. It had a double appeal for me, since I’m also a Kanata fan xD

I couldn’t help thinking about Neo Armstrong Cannon whenever I wrote the word “snowball” haha ^^;; *shot* Way to spoil the mood lol (Gintama messed up my brain)

Despite it being short, it actually took effort and time, so please don’t post it anywhere without my permission first, thank you. I’m also sorry for all the possible awkward-sounding phrases m(__)m

Cast:
Nanami Kanata
Touzuki Suzuya
Miyaji Ryuunosuke
Aozora Hayato

[Merchandise] Spring loot desu

GPOY of the day: I can’t resist the charm that is “limited edition” either ww.

These are some merchandise I collected over this spring! Gintama Chibi-kyun figures, Elkrone no Atelier ~Dear for Otomate~, Black Wolves Saga –Bloody Nightmare-, and Tokimeki Memorial Girl’s Side Art Galleries.

My goal is to eventually collect all the Banpresto chibi-kyun figures for Gintama, since the quality is great (maybe even better than Petit Chara Land??) and I love how each figure will remind you of a certain moment. I definitely wanted the Gintoki ones from the arcade prize set, but I didn’t really want the lottery ones until I saw that the secret was Madao!! ;o; Doesn’t he look so adorable in his sweet home ww? I’m super looking forward to the lottery prizes for summer season!!

Well, the rest of the loot is obviously otome stuff. I am not really good at taking pictures, so please excuse the quality too. If you see blurry spots, they are due to my inability to focus the camera. \o/

[Otome Game Log] Fashion in Tokimeki Memorial GS3

One of the features that I love to explore in TMGS3 is the dress-up part because they made a lot of cute items that can be mixed and matched to create different styles. Each main guy has a style that they love and a style that they hate, but it is NOT true that you have to wear only what they like! In fact, it is possible to get them to love a different style besides their favorite one.