Well, That Was Short-Lived

I would like to start off by saying that I'm sorry.  Kind of.  I'm sorry if, after my faint praise of the game and its low, low sale price were enticing enough for you to have bought the game, then I apologize.  Not because Touch My Katamari eventually turns into a game that lives and breathes on punching you in the dick and laughing at your torment or anything, no.  In fact, it's very fair and when you unlock the Eternal Modes for the levels, it's quite enjoyable indeed.  Fundamentally, there's not a whole lot wrong with the game part of the game if you don't count the fact that it's kind of short.  There is something, however, that is one of those naturally terrible things that just grate on me because it screams of design that you should never ever ever incorporate into a game.  Ever.

The currency of the game world in Touch My Katamari is Candy.  You get candies for finishing requests (based on your performance), for buying things for the King (never as many as you spent) and for playing every day.  That last one is the key - playing a few days in a row will only get you a couple to a handful of candies, whereas a full ten days in a row and thereafter will get you 256 candies simply for loading up the game.  That seems like a lot, right?  It does.  Until you learn that everything costs thousands of candies.  Some of it is the low thousands so it's not -bad-, since you're earning a couple hundred easy from requests anyway (so long as you're not getting really low scores, which you -won't- in Eternal because you'll be rolling all of the things), but it's still a bit of a slog to buy everything.  Even utilizing Candy Tickets, which multiply your candies earned in a request by 2, then 4, then 8 (if you use three at a time) won't get you a -lot-, but it'll get you a good amount towards buying things.

And if you want all the dozen trophies that Touch My Katamari has to offer, then you're going to have to buy all the things.  Specifically all of the music (you'll want to anyway, the music is more or less pretty good) and all the King's clothes, which is where the issue is.  You see, the upper echelon of outfits for the King's wardrobe will cost in the high thousands per piece meaning you're kind of stuck playing the levels over and over and over and over again...which is fine in theory.  Either that or, if you're going for the mega secret ultimate hidden item, which is literally a golden poop soft-serve that costs a grand 76,500 Candies which is...far more than the rest of the items in the game combined.  By quite a wide margin.  Given that your biggest get for a single level using three candy tickets if you finish off all the bonus things in the same level (which are one-time-only affairs) is probably somewhere around 1,000-1,400 candies.  Maybe.  For about 15-20 minutes playtime.  You....can see how this will end up being a sort of a problem.

This is where that bit about the 256 candies per day comes into play.  See, the silly thing about Touch My Katamari is that, even though there's something that clearly checks an external source for the date and time (the rank/title vendor, basically - you title will upgrade as you continue to play the game which eventually gives you candy multiplier bonuses that do not stack with tickets) you can go into a menu (guides suggest the curio menu) switch to settings, advance the day by one, go back into the game, exit the menu and get handed 256 candies.  You can repeat this process over and over and over again and it will take you a long time, but it will be far, far faster than getting the candies legitimately.  And by far, far faster, I mean it will take hours of your life and cause you to advance the clock manually, day-by-day, to June 22nd, 2014 if you started today with a no-streak (meaning the first ten days were building up to the 256).  Like I did.  Today.  Right before I bought the golden poop soft-serve and got the trophy for getting the golden poop soft-serve, uploaded my save data to online storage and deleted that shit.

That is really my main issue with the game other than it being short, but it's a pretty damn serious issue if you have terrible not-actually-OCD-but-let's-call-it-that-anyway like I do, and as a design philosophy, it's abhorrent.  You might think, with Namco and the way they treat Katamari games, that it was a trick to get you to -buy- candy with real money, but no, that's not even an option.  You can by Fan Damacies (that are otherwise completely random spawns) which you trade for Candy Tickets (and also unlock the free DLC missions with) and that's basically the gist of the whole....real-money aspect to it.  Aside from maybe buying more music or something, I didn't really look into it.  And it's not that I was going to buy candy, it's just that I was assured that that's what Namco wanted me to do.  But no....no it was not.  Which makes the decision even more baffling.  Still, for $3.75 and Eternal Modes, it was a rather fun, enjoyable game that would've been easily "alright" if it wasn't for that whole glaring issue.  As it stands, I just can't continue to recommend it unless you just...don't care about trophies at all.  Which is probably the healthy move.

it burns usssss, needs the trophies precious

Valkyria Chronicles 3 Characters See a Western Release This Summer

So that means Valkyria Chronicles 3 is getting localized, right?

No, of course not.  That would be silly.

Instead, Project X Zone, the very Japanese collaborative 3DS project between Namco, Capcom and Sega is going to see a release everywhere outside of Japan this summer under Namco's publishing.  This is only marginally less silly, but less silly is less silly regardless.  Of course, given Nintendo's unfriendliness to importers, this is basically the only way we would be able to play this game over here outside of buying a Japanese 3DS, so it's a victory all around.  I admit, prior to tonight I really didn't pay any attention whatsoever to news of the game since I had imagined its chances for a release outside of Japan were quite low, especially with Sega's involvement and especially especially because of Sega's characters from games which will never be officially released outside of Japan, but Namco apparently wants to make a splash in the whole publishing scene, I suppose.  A PR splash, that is, because let's face it - Project X Zone is going to be a niche title at best.  Best to accept that up front.

So what -is- Project X Zone aside from a really weird title that will hopefully(?) be updated for the localized release?  I...am not quite sure, really.  It's very much one of those games that I suppose you are just supposed to know about since nobody really seems to want to explain what it is.  After some digging, however, I did suss up a bit of a clue to its nature.  Apparently it is a sort of Strategy RPG game with Action RPG elements for the times where you initiate battle on the board tiles.  And when I say it is a sort of Strategy RPG with Action RPG elements, I think I am supposed to switch that, saying that it is an Action RPG with Strategy RPG elements, since it seems fairly light on that and really focuses on the times where you actually fight, as pictured above.  It seems to be an ultra-damage, get your ridiculous number blinders on type of affair if I'm hearing right, so that's certainly a thing.

Oh, it's also a cross-over game, which is probably worth mentioning even though you have probably figured that out by now.  Characters from a multitude of Sega, Namco and Capcom franchises are going to be involved in all sorts of ways, totaling to over 200 characters from all involved, including a few original characters here and there.  The bulk of the rosters will be featured on the field as playable characters, most of them in the battling pairs that you navigate around the map for that portion of the gameplay, though some of them are single combatants, some are simply support characters (or NPCs, I imagine) and some, actually, are probably enemy characters that are in the world solely for you to have someone to fight other than 'original' things.  Probably.  I mean, I cheated a bit and looked at the Wiki Page for the game because I really want some goddamn information now, but I'm not sure what to think.

Notably, the game will see characters from both Valkyria Chronicles 3 in Kurt, Riela and Imca, and the first one in Selvaria Bles, as well as all three protagonists from Resonance of Fate to rep Sega's franchises.  (Yes, there's plenty of others, but I only really care about those ones.)  Capcom brings the usual suspects in Mega Man X (who they still trot out every now and then, see?) and Zero, Dante from Devil May Cry (classic Dante, though it really doesn't matter) and a handful of Street Fighter characters, not to mention some Darkstalkers and Ghosts N' Goblins characters to remind everyone of the older stuff.  Namco, not to be outdone, is throwing in a few Tekken characters, not to mention characters from .Hack, Tales of Vesperia and friggin' Xenosaga, which takes the third place of 'series from which there are characters that I care about' after perusing the whole list of the confirmed cast.  I loves me some Xenosaga...as long as it's the first and third episode.  Jenseits von Gut und Böse never happened as far as I'm concerned, throwing it into a surprisingly large category of 'series where the second game is utter shit'.

Speaking of bad games, we should be careful not to get ahead of ourselves in the whole excitement department here.  Opinions opinions and all that, but in my digging, I did not find super glowing remarks about the game....or even kind of sparkly remarks about it.  It should be noted that the game was worked on by a developer named Banpresto who you probably have not heard of since their main claim to fame is the Super Robot Wars franchise....which has seen precisely three releases in Not-Japan (under the banner of Super Robot Taisen) thanks to Atlus.  Monolith Soft, who had their hands in the Xeno- games (including Xenoblade Chronicles) has also been attached to the title, but I'm not sure it's Monolith Soft proper (possibly like a B team) and I doubt their involvement was very major.  It seems like a Banpresto project through and through which...might not be the best thing one could say about it.

Still, perhaps I'm wrong.  There really isn't a whole lot of chatter about the game on the internet, which is slightly worrisome in terms of how well it will actually do, so it's entirely possible that the people yelling about it are the vocal minority that comes out of the woodwork to complain about everything and anything.  We'll all have a chance to find out the truth behind the quality of the game come this Summer, and, if only because Sega is attached, I do genuinely hope that it does at least decently.  I know there's no real way to tell any one single of the three companies "I am buying this because of you," which is a little unfortunate, because if we could I would consider it just to tell Sega that I want VC3 -that badly-.  Even though they don't care about that.  And they don't care that I've been playing Binary Domain and I absolutely goddamn love it and I will sing its praises from the rooftops one of these nights like I have done with the Yakuza games so many nights here.  So there you have it - a story that doesn't even have that much to do with Sega, and yet I still find a reason to say it.

Goddamnit Sega.

The Rest of Sony's TGS

Quite a few things of import were announced at TGS where Sony is concerned, but for my part, I've only talked about one thing in particular because it is special.  Still, the rest of the news is good as well and it's something that I want to cover, since the bulk of it might be things that I partake in myself, or at the very least, is somewhat cool on its own merits.  While there's no real megaton big news here (TGS is never the place for 'giant' announcements) what is here is substantial in its own right, really, and I would be remiss if I looked towards anything else to talk about tonight since it seems the after-conference stuff has all been more or less sorted out as well.  As in, the stuff that doesn't get spoken of specifically during the conference, but is still out there at TGS and doesn't generally get much mention for whatever reason.  Like Earth Defense Force 3 Portable for Vita that got announced sometime after E3 if I'm remembering correctly.

First up is the above-pictured new PS3 Model which I am taking to calling the "Super Slim" because that's kind of a pretty neat name for it.  Which is appropriate because it's a neat-looking system.  Or, rather, I think it's a downright sexy-looking system, being at least much, much more sexy than the actual PS3 Slim that looks kind of terrible when put next to this or even (especially?) when put next to the original PS3.  But it was all about functionality at that point, and not-so-much form factor, and now that that's all pretty sorted, they can focus on the form factor, which they have certainly done.  There's only so many ways in my own vocabulary that I know of how to convey that the aesthetics of this model are pretty pleasing.  And that is kind of the only real thing to point out with this particular design since, aside from being sexy and lighter/smaller than the Slim, even, it's kind of fundamentally the same from what we know about it.

The main difference, at least from what I can think of, is the actual method with which the discs are loaded into the system.  You might notice that the area on the right of the system top, the ridged area, is higher than that on the left, and that's for the very simple reason of being the disk tray.  From what I can tell, instead of popping up, the tray slides to the side and then slides back.  Whether it's automated or not, I can't tell, nor can I surmise just how good of an idea it is in theory.  It's....different to think of, certainly, as disks have either slid in or were popped into a tray that popped open (PS1/2 era design), so having a sliding opening is something different entirely I think.  Again, I don't know just how practical it is, but it's...unique, and for the form factor of the device, so long as it's not an inherently bad idea, it'll work just fine.  I know that if I'm in the market for a new PS3, I'd probably shoot for one of these rather than the regular Slims.

Speaking of reveals, there were some note-worthy ones aside from Muramasa:  The Demon Blade getting a Vita port.  The important things are not necessarily all the game reveals, however, as Soul Sacrifice revealed a new launch window of Spring 2013 that I honestly thought it had anyway, so I wasn't too disappointed by it.  Of course, the launch window is purely Japan-only as, even though it's confirmed that it's going to launch in North America, the specifics with that are more up in the air than the Japanese launch, clearly.  The game seems like it's shaping up rather nicely which is good, since it is definitely going to be a game that everybody wants you to be hyped up for.  For my part, I don't generally get into Monster Hunter type games (Including Monster Hunter), but with Ragnarok Odyssey on the horizon in my pre-order cache, I will see if that type of game does fit with me when it's not as...er....'heavy' as Monster Hunter itself.

Also revealed were a few offerings from Namco Bandai and Tecmo KOEI, throwing some new and old the Vita's way.  Namco Bandai's offerings include God Eater 2 which will be a PSP/Vita release in Japan (likely just a Vita release in everywhere else) and a Gundam game that apparently has an embargo on it because it is a rather new approach.  From what I could tell via the Joystiq liveblog, the Gundam game is based around the actual Gundam Models themselves, rather than 'actual' Gundams, and there was a lot of explosions and such.  When I say Gundam Models, I mean the type that you can assemble, so I really have no idea what to anticipate in terms of story and design around that.  Still, it's interesting nonetheless and the fact that I can't get information for it is a bit intriguing since it suggests that it will be a very new attempt, instead of a rehash or a version of a Gundam game already out there.  Maybe.

Tecmo KOEI's offerings also incorporate a little new and old as 'Toukiden' seems to be a pretty good merger of that in itself.  Billed as a new thing, Toukiden doesn't really have any screenshots floating around there, but it's going to be a good old hack-and-slash title with fantasy elements that takes place in a Feudal Japan setting.  A fictional one, of course, because the trailer (forgive the quality) features the female protagonist(? or just one of the characters perhaps) slicing up a rather gigantic spider that I'm...just going out on a limb here and suggesting isn't historically accurate.  You know, just a hunch here.  Seeing as Omega Force (the Dynasty/Samurai Warriors crew) knows how to make some action-packed trailers, I'm not going to take it as an indication of how the game is played aside from the idea that there will be slicing and possibly giant spiders, but for what it's worth, I think they have a pretty good grip on the whole hack-and-slash thing so this one's on my radar.

Tecmo KOEI also announced that Ninja Gaiden 2, like Ninja Gaiden Sigma before it, will be getting ported to the Vita as Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 Plus.  There's literally nothing else said about it and being as I didn't play the Vita port of Sigma, I don't know what to expect.  Buuuuut, while we're on the subject of Ninja Gaiden, there was a little something else revealed at TGS.  Remember Yaiba?  The game that promised Ninjas, Zombies and giant mechs?  Well...it's still promising that, but under its new title - Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z.  It's kind of brilliant, actually, in that the main character, Yaiba, is all three of the promised things in one.  As a Ninja, he was killed by Ryu Hayabusa and then brought back to something resembling life with the assistance of some cybernetic implants which he hopes will help him get vengeance on everybody's favorite Ninja.  Like an entire arm and half a head have been replaced.  So Yaiba is literally a Cyber-Zombie Ninja.  That....is probably the coolest goddamn thing I have typed all night.

There's no way I can top that, so I'm not even going to try.  I will mention that Playstation Plus is coming to the Vita in November, featuring its own(?) Instant Game Collection, the usual fare from PS Plus, and an additional (read:  Separate from PS3) Gig of Online Storage which will be real nice for folks running out of Memory stick room.  Or cards with which to place bubbles upon.  Also coming to Vita is Playstation Mobile when it launches on October 3rd.  Neither of those are as awesome as a Cyber-Zombie Ninja (even though I am partial to PS Plus and just resubbed for a year), so I will not stay on them for any longer than this.  Because come on.  I just have to say it one more time as I close out this post, just to get it out of my system and make sure it ends on a high note.

Cyber.  Zombie.  Ninja.

Touch My Katamari is a Thing, Hilarious

So, today Namco Bandai announced three of their Vita titles that will launch alongside the Vita when it comes out on February 22nd, 2012.  Those three titles are, Ridge Racer(rrrrrrr), Shinobido 2:  Revenge of Zen (Which....is certainly a sub-title), and the above-mentioned Touch My Katamari.  So named because it's going to fully implement usage of the touch panels on the Vita for you to be able to stretch your Katamari to go places that would be inaccessible otherwise, such as between cracks and...possibly under cracks?  I don't know.  I haven't really thought about it a lot; just that it's named that and that it has any bearing whatsoever on the gameplay itself seems valid enough to point out.  The article says that it's also so your Katamari can gather more things at once, which makes sense, as if your Katamari is stretched wide, he'll be able to reach more things.  I would assume (hope, even) that the downside to this would be a slower gait.

While I've never actually played a Katamari game, it's not for a lack of desire or interest, just that I've always felt I've had 'other' things to play than a game where you roll a ball around and pick up things with it to make it bigger.  While I'm not going to suggest it's not a great game, because I don't know, the premise has always seemed just a little too simple for me to give more than a passing thought to.  ....Which sounds wholly negative of me to say and not what I was going for at all.  It's sort of like Nobi Nobi Boy (for good reason) in that, the game, the premise of it is quite simple and it's a blast to play, but when you're not playing it, you can only wonder why you would play it, if that makes sense.

The simple answer would be, basically, "Because it's fun", of course.  But a lot of things are fun; shooting dudes in Uncharted 2 is fun, Punching guys in Yakuza 4 is fun, creating Murder Engines in Final Fantasy Tactics is fun.  They're all -fun-, it's just that the latter examples offer something a little more engaging, whereas the former would be something you play when you just don't feel like playing anything else.  That's when I loaded up Nobi Nobi Boy anyways; I didn't feel like playing anything else, but I wanted to play something, so I had Nobi Nobi Boy, stretched around a bit, wrecked some days and just generally chilled out.  I guess they're chill games you turn to when The Sims, Harvest Moon and the like prove to be a little too 'hectic', even.

Anyway, the point to all this was me leading into surmising that I might check out Touch My Katamari when it comes out or shortly thereafter.  I would hope, along with the policy that every game must have a digital version, every game would then be at least "Suggested" to put out a demo as well, when the Vita comes out, because if there is, I'd definitely check it out.  As I said, I've always kind of wanted to check out the series, but just never have, so hopefully the portability of this one will also add in a little more accessibility, as this type of game (one to have around for times when you don't want to play anything else) seems just a fit for a handheld.  Especially this one, since I'll likely never go anywhere without mine.