Sparkling Zone

Back to back GBR!? PSU Nov 20th Update

Ana — 2009-11-20T00:41:07+09:00

I'm honestly kinda surprised at this update. The change of scenery will be nice, but two GBRs in a row? I dunno about that... XD Well, at least it's Nuedaiz this time. The missions to run are Forest Infiltration, Rainbow Beast, The Eastern Peril, and Moonlight Beast. All of them are also receiving the S3 difficulty rank. Yay! This GBR ends on December 11th. The side story mission, The Magashi Plan, is coming back too and will be available to play at the mission counter on the Colony's 5th floor. There's also some lobby changes, which you can read on to check out.

Pangya USA 4.513.02 Update

Ana — 2009-11-19T23:59:20+09:00

I should have put this post together right when I woke up. Oh well. XD This Pangya update changes the previous Gacha set to the remainder of the fantasy outfits, for Kooh, Kaz, Lucia, Ceclia, and Azer. The Eon Ring is still there too, which was added to the previous set on the 12th, but I figured that wasn't worth its own post. =P Kaz's motion item is finally available too, and the Thanksgiving event is now underway. Read on for more details about it.

Phantasy Star to return to consoles next year?

Ana — 2009-11-19T17:07:05+09:00

I'm sure a certain someone will be happy to hear this... =P Game Reactor had an interview with Satoshi Sakai concerning Phantasy Star 0, but at the very last question, he was asked about the future of the series. Skip ahead to 5:49 for this bit, or just read my cruddy transcription.

Bengt Lemne: How do you see the future of the Phantasy Star franchise?

Satoshi Sakai: So next year is the 10th anniversary of Phantasy Star Online, so with that in mind as well we're definitely wanting to kind of spread the franchise out and have more and more people enjoy it. We think that we've done a lot recently on portable systems, the DS, and we have Phantasy Star Portable 2 coming out on the PSP later in Japan as well. We think we've done some good things in the portable area, and I'm most looking forward to... I'm hoping people would like to see it coming back to the consoles, the non-portable. That's something I'm really looking forward to.

Bengt Lemne: Me too. Thank you very much for your time.

Instead of going on about the various possibilities, I'll just say this: Get it right. That is all. XD Also, so sorry about lack of Pangya and PSU update posts, been kinda busy today, and I'll be gone tomorrow and onwards. Will get those up later today. See yas.

Play with Sega! PS0 Event Report

Ana — 2009-11-17T21:50:49+09:00

I managed to get into Sega's first Phantasy Star 0 event! As you know my horrible habit of taking photos of handheld screens, I snapped a couple of pictures to share. I was in Party #3 along with Azier and GldSonic, led by Edward, one of the PSU GMs. No, I didn't bombard the guy with questions. XD Figured it'd just be more fun to kick back and play normally, and not interrogate him about PSU, haha. It went pretty well! Read on for more.

Let's Survive!

Ana — 2009-11-17T17:48:11+09:00

I sure picked a bad time to start playing Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor. It was all fine and dandy earlier this month, but then Phantasy Star 0 came out and... yeah. Figured I'd do a short post about it before I start flooding this place with more PS0 junk, haha. I really do regret not starting this game earlier, as I probably would have had more time to devote to it. For now I've just been taking it slow, and am towards the end of day 2. I was having trouble during the first boss fight because I was thinking a little too straightforwardly, but I've gotten the hang of it now. The battle system is like SRPG movement combined with 3 on 3 turn based battles. My downfall then was not making use of skills during the movement phase, and just using it as a way to charge right towards the enemies.

The Devil Auction fills me with much glee. A few people know I can get pretty crazy on eBay. Now I can snipe auctions in a video game! I just... wow. I'd probably go nuts if I played an MMO with an auction house. But yeah, simple things like that and the e-mail function on the COMP (the DS look-a-likes you and your teammates use) really make the experience all the more enjoyable. Guess I'll ramble more when I have a full play through under my belt. Laters!

Phantasy Star 0 GET! and Event Details

Ana — 2009-11-11T20:01:08+09:00

11 months later and it's finally out in English. Just got back from picking up my copy. I'll try to power my way through story mode during the next few days. ~~There's something I want to check, haha.~~ Random note: The title screen music after the opening is new. oO At least, I'm pretty sure it is. I don't remember hearing this track on the OST. Interesting! Anyways, updated my friend codes file with my second PS0 code. I sure wish I had two DS units right about now, I'd like to trade some stuff over to look at it... XD; I could just ask a friend to be an in-between for me, but I hate bothering people with such trivial stuff, haha.

Moving on! Sega will be holding a little event where you can play with some of their staff. Keep your eyes on their blog on the 16th for a post where you can comment with your friend code. If you're among the first 30~ish to post, you'll be able to play with them on the 17th, from 4 to 6PM Pacific time. Keep your eyes peeled for various Rappy t-shirt giveaways too! Welp, I'm off to mess with the game some more. Laters!

[EDIT] I guess I'm in no rush to see the credits now. Nob Ogasawara did indeed have a hand in translating PS0. I really should check SA more often, he posted this way back on October 27th. Woops! I became curious about it a few months back, when he asked about the release date in #pokegoons. God forbid the guy was just curious out of personal interest. I'm terrible, I know. ^^; Who is this Nob guy and why do I care? He's been the translator for the Pokemon games ever since Red and Blue. He was sadly laid off, and now anything past Platinum will be translated by Nintendo's internal team, Treehouse. Well, my curiosity is now satiated. Nice to know he's still finding work, and it's pretty cool that he's part of another one of my favorite games.

Colony GBR Happenings

Ana — 2009-11-09T18:59:34+09:00

Figured it's about time I make a post about the stupid stuff we've been doing ever since the most recent update. I'm not hunting for anything during this GBR, but it's always nice playing with the usual crew. There's also some screenshots that Ghoat e-mailed me towards the end of this post, in a segmet I'm sure he would call 'Why Sega shouldn't skip maintenance'.