Journey into Mystery

What? It IS.

Remember my nerdgasm over the Zelda-themed 3DS pack? I BOUGHT IT. It arrived yesterday morning and fdhjsgfssdfg.

I also bought Tales of the Abyss whose European release date, incidentally, was also November 25th. So now I have the pretty console and a very nice 25th Anniversary of Zelda golden poster with several Links, Ocarina of Time, and this one, which makes the early Christmas present well justified.

U MAD, AMERICA? |D *puts sunglasses and trollface on*

It's a little sad that the only things I really needed to buy this otherwise useless gadget were ports of favorite games of mine. Nintendo needs to hurry up with the good new games.

So, the software that comes with the Wii-- I mean 3DS, is interesting but a one trick puppy. Once I played the AR games twice, I kinda lost interest. I've never watched a movie in 3D, but I like the 3D mode in this thing... as long as it's in a very soft setting, just enough to make the objects and characters pop. To the max it's just a fucking blur to me. But one milimeter is cool.

The battery is as dreadful as I was told. I remembered last night, when it died on me, that one of the reasons I was waiting for a lite version was a better battery life. Nothing I can do, I guess.

I'm in the middle of Lord Jabu Jabu so I'm finishing with young Link soon. In Abyss I'm in the Cheagle Woods. It really makes me happy to be able to play again these games that meant so much to me, in new ways. Hell, I'm just glad I can actually PAY for Abyss as I had to play a pirated NTSC PS2 copy (this statement probably makes me a bad Latina). Of course Spaniards are whining and not buying it because it's in English, which is no surprise at all.

But yeah, Ocarina is fun and even pretty in 3D. There's still not much of a point for Abyss being 3(DS) yet, but then again I still can't set shortcuts on the touch screen. But fuck that, I love both games.

Hey, you know, I like ports of old games! I've bought/gotten my fair amount of games I really enjoyed but never finished, or I'm too lazy to replay, or I don't have the original console anymore. Most of them are Zeldas, but dudes, I feel a sort of homely comfort knowing I can replay Ocarina in at least two (soon three) consoles other than NINTENDOSIXTYFOUUUR.

True, when they add new shit or remove old shit beyond improves to gameplay it's a bit YMMV for me, depending on the game, but then I watch a gif of a dog putting on sunglasses and I deal with it.

But yeah, like them ports. Even better, I love ports to handhelds! I discovered I'm more consistent playing on a GBA/NDS than a control/keyboard. I can play tiny chunks on bed or while I wait for something. This is several kinds of useful when it's a JRPG and it boosts my productivity, to the point I can actually reach the ending. I rarely finish games in consoles, I have to love it too dearly to give it dedication. But handhelds are magical like that for RPGs. And I honestly don't care about equal/loss of quality: I want to (RE)PLAY IT!

So when I hear that those bastards at NAMCO are porting Abyss to 3DS, my thought is "and how many lambs do I have to sacrifice to which pagan god for this to come to the West?"

I'd LOVE to own this one legally. I couldn't find it in a fair price at eBay and, since I had to mod my PS2 to play it either way, I shrugged and went pirate. Undubbed for extra fangirling. But really, this game and canon has given me so much joy, I'd happily sink my money on it. Even if it's the same game with the same graphics. But you have to translate it, NAMCO! I'm not even counting for it to get to Europe because it's you, but at least bring it to USA. Hopefully Nintendo doesn't decide to region-lock like those Sony wankers.

So when I hear that the fandom is whining about being trolled, my thought is "...you guys wouldn't survive a day in an ATLUS or Squeenix fandom, wouldn't you? lol wait, the Tales series is already portalicious, what the hell guys."

Haters to the left. PORTS ARE NORMAL BUSINESS. NO ONE ASKS YOU TO BUY A 3DS. IGNORE IT. Unless they do a Vesperia, then any wank is more than justified (and frankly, unless it's metacanon about the Keterburg gang or mindless sidequests, I'd prefer they don't add anything beyond new costumes), but we still don't know that so CHILL, OH MY GOD.

Oh, okay. Hi to everyone from the F!S meme! *waves*

Now a couple of notes:

i. This article on the similarities of the Japanese legal system and the one in Ace Attorney/Gyakuten Saiban is both interesting and quite creepy. There are even further notes on the comments. Perhaps I feel they're being a bit harsh on the game's prosecutors, but that might be me and my gut reaction to point out Gavin. Don't mind me.

ii. With 107 eating our brains, I didn't notice that scanlations of Tsuioku no Jade 4 were out! ♥♥ Finally I know what it says! I wasn't expecting that Peony was actually moving to Grand Chokmah (it might be because Peony here looks younger than in the Gaiden when he moved out, but it's the drawing style because he's *counts* 21-22, so yeah). In the end the experiment is what I thought it was. Oh, and Miyajima does say the manga is made out of rejected game events, so I guess that officially makes it an official AU.

LOL at the notes on Jasper's design. He looks nothing like a worn out Brad Pitt XD I did find it funny that she sort of added that he looks old because Jade and Peony don't look their age so in comparison... XDDD And of course Saphir would open his uniform neck, haha.

Complaining works! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaay! My Tsuioku no Jade volumes arrived yesterday! ♥

Man, why is this an AU? Because yes, it is an AU. I can go and take metacanon as personal canon (i.e, Tales of Fandom) if they don't interfere with the original canon. This, however, completely rewrites the Nebilim sidequest. It's a pity because the flashbacks are really spiffy.

I won't comment on chapters 1-3 since they're already scanned and translated. And I can't read Japanese beyond katakana so I don't get the dialog :(

( What's in the rest of volume 1? )

I'll make a summary of volume 2 later. It's not bad, but it is rather different.

WHAT'S UP WITH THAT. IN THE LAST 24 HOURS I'VE HAD SEVEN BOT ACCOUNTS, ALL FROM RUSSIA, FRIENDING ME. GET AWAY FROM MY USERNAME.

Anyway. I'm doing belate memes. Here are some words for that "I'll give you 5 words I associate you with" one I've been collecting. Explanations come now:

( Apollo Justice, IJ RP's, Spain, Xing, tsundere, Jade Curtiss, rain, video games and gamming, web design, smart sparkly blonds, Fullmetal Alchemist )

You might notice I skipped ONE COMMON WORD I got from everyone. I get tl;dr about my love of Okami, so I'll try something new in a different post for that.

Sooooooo, real life was sucktacular like always, but fandom was awesome this new year's. Let us count the ways:

• Raw of Tsuioku no Jade #5. NEBILIM'S BACKSTORY HELL YEAH. And my God, is she hot in her Order of Lorelei uniform. I feel like doing a picspam of this chapter sometime this weekend.


• For those interested, there are scans of that storybook in okamigame. It's so cute! It's so pretty! Great timing, since I much needed an icon with Waka drinking sake for RP. Him and the imps stole the show.


• hiimdaisy does P3's December 31st 2009 and it's hilarious. Her Ryoji is comedy gold.

That's about it for my spazzing. Ah, I forgot to tell last month some bad news. I let my first domain, hiiragizawa.net, to expire. It's not so much for my issues with CLAMP, like what happened with kimihiro.net. The real reason is that two domains were a little too much for me. I'm planning to host all my sites on mercury retrograde from now on. However, I'm still deciding which of my old websites in H.net I'll re-upload.

Incidentally, many of my oldest icons are now broken images because they weren't with the others and I didn't notice. I guess I'll have to change the URLs, sigh.

Wait, wait. Isn't this Nebilim in her Locrian Colonel uniform?! *_*

Incidentally, Asuka has a new website and TnJ has a minipage, which is pretty much a list of characters (ffff, the Jaspar dude is there and Saphir|Dist isn't). But the interesting part is that they have the first ten or so pages of the current chapter. Hey, it's better than a complete lack of raws. I do wish I knew what happened with that flashback in the academy.

Title: Cartagra
Circle: Yagibe
Fandom: Tales of the Abyss
Genre: Gen, bittersweet
Rating: PG-ish
Characters: Jade-centric, heavy on Nebilim and Peony. Saphir|Dist, young Nephry, Luke.
Notes: This is the first time I scan a full doujinshi, my scanner is not so good, and I'm bad at cleaning scans. I'm sorry if it looks crappy around the edges.

download (10.8 MB)

(x-posted: @ abyss_doujin)

Maaaan, why am I so sporadic in my posting lately?

I've been at my mom's performing some lame catsitting while the rest of my family is on holidays. The plus side about this is that I've been able to play in my brothers' 360 and watch some cable channels I don't have back home. Also, I'm all alone except for the nightmare with fangs and claws -ask how my legs are!- so I can do and eat almost whatever I please.

Incidentally, I own Tales of Vesperia now! Guess what I've been playing for the last few days.

(I strongly suspect Raven will end up being my favorite character, just by the fact he's the annoying mysterious older guy who pops in and out, so only one more trait I like to yell bingo.)

Oh, and I also got the pretty Abyss doujinshi I was expecting. I bought this pack of eight Keterburg-centric doujin (which I now affectionately call 'the keterburgers') on eBay for 30€, which was ridiculously cheap. I'll scan them one day. I'll post pictures when I get back home because I forgot the camera USB cable.

Anyway, I've just skimmed my flist for the last past days. If I missed something important, please poke me? I'm too scared to read pages and pages back.

I... don't even remember what I've been doing for the past days. I've been mostly exhausted and lethargic and depressed and I have no idea what else. I did play a good amount of video games after I returned home.

→ I spent a whole day on Tales of the Abyss, going from the second visit to the Tower of Rem to Eldrant. I attempted to fight Nebilim in very hard and failed extraordinarily. THE SHAME.

→ Finished Void Quest in Persona 4 a couple of days back. The same day I went to spoil myself about a character's s.links in youtube. Yes, feel free to gasp at me and call me things for spoiling myself a SMT game. But I regret nothing. And he broke my heart a lot.

→ Oh, and I found a place where I could download Tales of Fandom vol. 2! Yeah, the Phantasia/Symphonia/Abyss crossover with tons of minigames and extra stories, also a goldmine for my Tales OTP (really!).

Ah, and I bought Tales of Vesperia online in a British store, 8 euros cheaper than it would be here. No, I still don't own a 360, but if it arrives soon I can take the chance and play at my brothers' while I'm catsitting next week. I'll probably get a second hand console because they're cheaper.

And now I must ponder on whether to bid this extremely cheap doujinshi auction at ebay or not!