In Memory of Mr. Iwata

This evening I learned that Satoru Iwata had died. I never new Iwata, or even some of the great things that people have been talking about all of the amazing things he has done both as a programmer, but also as a person. I've learned a lot about him in the last few hours. It has been trending on Tumblr and if you're interested Kotaku has some things that he has done, one of the most noble is of him accepting a 50% pay cut so those that were lower in Nintendo didn't have to get layed off.

I never really knew of his influence, but I do know how he impacted my life. Without Pokemon, a game that without him wouldn't have existed, I'm not sure how I'd be able to cope during my darkest days.It gave me friendships I thought I'd never have and most importantly, fun. Pokemon served a critical role throughout my life, and so, without me knowing, he influenced me. Thank you Mr. Iwata, for everything.

The Elder Scrolls Online - We Can MMO Too | Zero Punctuation Video Gallery | The Escapist

The Elder Scrolls Online - We Can MMO Too | Zero Punctuation Video Gallery | The Escapist:



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Harvest Moon

So Harvest Moon has been a part of my gaming experience since my first real console. For me, its one of the franchises that along with Pokemon, I hope I never grow out of. But that being said, some are better than others. So I'll do the ones I love to the ones I love to the ones I'm not so thrilled. So let's go and start with my loves

Harvest Moon: More Friends of Mineral Town

This was my first Harvest Moon game. And it's one of those that will always be dear to my heart. It's not one that's that innovative and that's okay. It was just the female version of Friends of Mineral Town, that was just the GBA version of Harvest Moon 64. It was true to its core, it had good characters, and it was fun to piss off the shipping guy when you didn't have anything in the shipping bin

So basically the opposite of this

There's no real plot past you got bored of the city and decided to start fresh in the country. But it's a simple plot's okay when it's done well, and it is. And there's a drinking competition that you get to judge. 

Best evening ever. 

Magical Melody 

My absolute favorite GameCube game to date. The graphics are adorable, the animals not so time consuming and a goal simple. The Harvest Goddess feels the town is failing, and in sadness turns herself to stone. But it just so happens that you move in at just the right time and are the chosen one to collect notes that turn themselves into instruments that can make a song and free her. So the other person that can see sprites the androgynous Jamie is mad that you got the chosen one part and not her/him. Then you do things to get the notes.

Honestly its a lot of fun and the first game to do a lot of elements that appear in later games and do them well. Fatigue is done better and you can move around your buildings as much as you'd like, and I think this is the only one with a two story house. I think it has some weak points, the baby never grows to a kid, and crop quality is erratic, but its a lot of fun and the style is incredibly cute.

That and yet again the bar is a great place.

 I would definitely recommend it if you like the Harvest Moon series and hope for a reboot with a couple of things touched up for the 3DS.

DS Cute

This was game was a marriage between MFoMT and A Wonderful Life. And that's partially why its down here and not up with More Friends of Mineral Town. It doesn't have the same amount of bachelors as there were bachelorettes  in just DS. And honestly I feel that For-get-me-not Valley has weaker bachelors than almost any of the other games, but its fun and I'd play it again, if it wasn't about $40 now.

Sunshine Islands 

This one also has some great bachelors and its a lot of fun, but the problem is that its has a lot of micro managing that you need to have a piece of paper for, otherwise you'll be wondering if you got some of the stones or not. There are like 110 or something of the damn things and there are a lot of very similar ones. But its a lot of fun and has some of the best original sets of bachelors and bachelorettes since Magical Melody.

And this doesn't count the special ones.

Tale of Two Towns (DS)

So the plot is you come to the mountain between the town and hit your head. When you come to your senses, the mayors from both towns are near you. They worry about you, then start arguing about how you should live in their town. And it depends if you want to focus on crops or on animals at first. Then you learn the towns used to be friends, but then they got way too serious about their cooking competitions.

*Inset Hunger games pun here*

It's fun, just the cooking competitions are every week, and it starts to get old really fast. Especially in the beginning when you know barely any recipes. And the marriage candidates are all just meh. 

A New Beginning

You go to the farm that you inherited from your family and like a lot of the other ones, bring the town new life. But this time you build everything, which sometimes surprises me, like when they request a mansion to be built. Which it seems weird that they get the farmer to do this

More realistic version of how it would turn out

But overall the characters are interesting, the events are fun and everything plays well. Just seriously, why am I doing all the building?

Tale of Two Towns (3DS)
Tale of Two Towns came out in that awkward time when the DS wasn't quite phased out, but the 3DS was starting to kick into full gear. So its the only dual game. And that's why this one is down here. Unless you want to play in 3D, it doesn't add much, in fact, unless you have the 3D on, the text is sometimes a little blurry. And it bothers me to the point that it gets bumped down here.

Tree of Tranquility 

This game, for me was just kind of weird. I love some of the extra animals that were introduced, like goats, ostriches, and even the silk worms, but that was about as far as I got in liking it. I didn't like the characters too much, I didn't like the art style, and the handling felt weird. I tried to get to the end, but just couldn't.
A Wonderful Life

It just didn't feel like it had too much going on, and was a little weird in areas. Like the hermit stealing your food, or the Harvest sprites that don't really do anything. And one of my biggest pet peeves was you could only ship dairy products, you couldn't ship any of your crops, you had to sell them. Overall, I just found it pretty boring, maybe because I was just a kid, but I think mainly because there wasn't much to do. But I think it does have one of the funniest glitches in any game yet. 

You spin me right round baby right round~

Grand Bazaar

This is the only game I don't feel I gave a fair chance. And that's mainly because I thought I was buying Tale of Two Towns, not Grand Bazaar. So I was annoyed that I bought the wrong game. I'm actually going to try it again, now that I have a different state of mind with it.
Anyways, the idea is that this town used to be the biggest Bazaar in the world, but it has fallen in its greatness. So you must help them bring it back to life. Its slow and a little awkward if I remember correctly.


Any others I left off were, again, because I haven't played them and with exceptions to possibly ones that are on Nintendo's virtule console, here's why

1. I don't own the console and don't plan on buying one anytime soon.
2. The games are iterations of some mentioned here, (different console but same game, boy/girl versions, basically the same concept and same area, but slightly different)
3. Some of them are hard to find at a decent price. 

Dear Anonymous(es)

First off I'd like to thank the people thathave been so nice on their comments on my Elder Scroll speculation post. And I'm here to address your criticism with criticism of your criticism.

1. Show yourself

If you're going to say what I've spent a lot of my own time working on and researching is essentially faulty, show your face.

Being anonymous doesn't make you safe, in this case it makes you a coward. I can't even take you seriously. And the person that agreed with the first anon, how do I know you're not doing the equivalent of liking your own facebook comment? I have no way of knowing.

What you think you look like

What you actually look like

   2. Cite it!

If you're going to make a claim, back it up with your source. And your memories don't count. A screenshot or a link in this case would work. Don't say shit if you can't back it up.

South Park
Get More: Comedy Central

Basically this

Present them. Prove it.

Okay, glad to get that off my chest. Now I can blog again

Stuff that has happened

So I've been working, going to school, and trying to have a social life, so I haven't been able to do much posting and for that I apologize. Hopefully with this new year, I'll be able to start blogging more again, depending on my schedule.

Elder Trolls - Cheezburger

Pretty much my thoughts
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Getting stoked for Animal Crossing: A New Leaf

So I've got back into the habit of playing Animal Crossing because a friend started and Animal Crossing is like a drug.

Yeah, pretty much. 

And like all older games that have sequels, we started talking about New Leaf. And past one of the early videos, there wasn't much else to say. But apparently as of Valentines Day, they released as Japanese Nintendo Direct video about the 3DS game.  So here's what we already knew for a little while:

• Most shops and such are not in the town itself 
• You are the mayor of the town
• You now have a choice of pants and shoes
• There is more than just the 6 personalities that have existed since the original
• Public projects for the town

So that's what we had to go on before Valentines Day. Now that that's that's been almost a month ago, let's look at the new stuff.

Nostalgia

So one thing that they did that was like the original was the opening. 

And apparently they can't hold a 3DS straight at IGN

So you're on a train with Rover and the monkey that controls the train and Rover talks to you, asking questions that determine your name, gender, and I guess the town map which is new, and they took from Wild World and later the "you can all share a card and live in the town" which I'm not too big of a fan of.

My face when  my boyfriend donated some of the fish to the museum before I could. 

It just feels a bit like a family with divorced parents in that you have to share custody of town being your child. Although you can pay off your house quicker, you miss out on doing certain things like possibly completing the museum exhibits, or getting the bragging rights of paying off the debt. Which I know this analogy falls apart after "pay off the house quicker" it still feels awkward.

Brand New Stuff That We Didn't Already know

Happy Home and Dream Suite: Street Pass

So Animal Crossing did a good job for street pass. They didn't make too much of a fuss if you can't find people with the game. It gives you small items and you get to see them, their house, and their town. Happy home is where you see who you've met and depending on how many times you've seen each other, they'll give you different small items. 

Then there are about 48 houses you can have in this area at any one time, and see how much care, or lack of care, they put into their house. 

And sometimes you can have that awkward moment when the person has the same hat as you

The little sign next to the house, that's their Dream Address. You can use this address and go to the dream suite to go to a dream version of this person's town. Why a dream version? So you don't destroy some one's town when they've spent hours on it. 

Go ahead, run through the flowers, chop down trees, plant pitfalls (if you can), it won't effect the town. 

Although you can still invite people over, and they can be mean, but that's a horse of another color. 

New Shops

Re-Tail 

So this is a second hand store by a couple of alpacas

They're so fluffy! 

And you can sell to them. It's basically a second hand store. And you can encourage people to buy your old stuff if you want. One thing that they also do on top of buy your old crap is that they can reupholster your furniture with new wood and new patterns. So if you wanted more things to match that can be done easier. 

Although this is a little much for me.

 And the pattern is possible because the the designs no longer require a fixed pallet. Meaning you can use whatever colors you want. And you can zoom in on the pattern, being able to get more precise. Another cool thing about the patterns is that you can save them as QR codes and share them with friends to give them to use in their villages. 

Nook-

So Nook no longer runs his own shop, his nephews/apprentices run it, and they take turns doing so. 

Why? No one really knows. 

But anyways, you think you're free from Tom Nook's debt? Think again. 

Real Estate

He's just decided to focus on just putting you in debt for the rest of your life. He runs the real estate agency with Lyle. 

I'd like to think Lyle's moved up to living in the model home in the picture. 

So the one advantage of Nook still doing real estate, you have more customization. You can change the roof style, the doors, if you want a chimney, and when you want to expand certain things. You don't have to expand rooms in an order, you want a basement before you get side rooms? If you can afford it, sure. 

Club 101

So there are two functions of Club 101. One is to learn emotions from Dr. Shrunk, who teaches it to you in exchange for fruit.

I don't think Dr. Shrunk is doing well if his business plan is to pay him in fruit. Which he eats immediately

So he tells a joke and it teaches you an emotion. Which makes me think that you are not human, but a robot since you have to be taught anger, happiness, and such. The second part happens at night where KK Slider preforms every night. Yes, every night. Although almost everyday he doesn't take requests, he's a DJ remixing his stuff. 

So you can dance and hangout with your friends. You can also see Shrunk dance, but that's terrifying. So the one night he's not a DJ is the same night he's been doing his thing for years, on Saturday. It's the same as ever but with some new songs. 

Shoe Shank 

Yes, that is the legitimate name, Shoe Shank, because Shawshank Redemption references are great in Animal Crossing. So its a store with shoes and shoe accessories, so socks. 

Annnnd that's about it with the shoe shop. 

There's also rumors about The Cafe and I have heard nothing about the post office or the hair salon, but we've got three months. This leaves us with the little scraps they've showed us of multi-player. 

The Island

So you can go to an island with friends or alone in which it's summer all year long. You can get fish and bugs that normally only appear in the summer. and you can get things during your stay at the island from a gift shop. 

But don't worry about bells, they don't charge in bells here, you have to earn medals by winning mini-games called tours. Which are run by Tortimer, the old mayor. The one thing I've got to say that's good with the mini-games is that they encourage cooperation,, not competition. The faster you all finish, the more medals for all. With a maze mini-game they encourage those to help the others that have yet to find their items. 

All in all, I'm ridiculously excited for this. Next paycheck, I'm pre-ordering just for that guarantee. And I got my information from IGN, I own nothing, I just wanted to pass the news and geek out about it. Here's the video I got the pictures and information from if you're interested.