Top 5 Games I’m most hoping to hear about in 2016

Finally, to end out our lovely top 5 lists today (and with the New Year ringing in not too long now), I want to finish off with my list of games I really hope to hear more about or am hoping for a release announcement for. Games that I really want, but came out ages ago and have received no news to the contrary, will be excluded (Such as Magician’s Quest: Town of Magic and the update for Style Savvy 2).

1. Style Savvy 3
stylesavvy3omg

I don’t care that we haven’t gotten the update for Style Savvy 2 (okay, that is a lie, but at this point, there isn’t really much of a reason to get it), but it kills me that we haven’t heard anything about Style Savvy 3. Even Europe got a release date and it came out before we’ve heard anything. While a direct copy from Europe’s localization is unlikely (after all, certain clothing terms vary quite a bit), I find myself constantly wondering why we haven’t heard anything. We’ve always gotten the games before the PAL version as well which makes it even stranger. I just really hope we here something next year and very soon because if not, I’m not sure when we’ll ever get it.

I also hope there isn’t as much “localization” (please give us all the stores and outfits) and “region locking” like certain other games have gotten with their online systems. But I just really want the game. I just want to hear it’s coming. I want a release date. Something. The silence is just becoming more and more depressing and even just some kind of confirmation that it’s coming soon or being worked on would do wonders.

2. Pokemon GO

Yep, it’s back on this list too :P We haven’t heard anything since the announcement and while I do feel pretty sure it will make it’s release this year (It is the 20th anniversary afterall), I’d love to hear more about it. Especially as I think it’d be a lot of fun to have at Pokemon Worlds (which I will be going to for my very first time).

3. Phantasy Star Online 2

Another repeat from the list–but this time for the official English version. If you asked me this question a few days ago, this game would not be on this list, but with the announcement of the animation based on the game officially coming over, I’m hoping it may give an opportunity for something about the English version of PSO2 getting a chance. I know it’s unlikely and honestly, even if announced I’m not sure I’d go over without some kind of transfer system (it’s been too long at this point), but I still can’t help and hope.

4. Disney Magical World 2

This shouldn’t be surprising at all :P I loved the first game so much and the second game looks to take a lot of the first game and make it even better. I just hope the first game did well enough that we can get the second (and all the awesome DLC) as well. My biggest hope for it though is that there isn’t region locking between StreetPass and friends (and hopefully you can actually meet eachother online).

5. Dreams
dreams

I really loved Little Big Planet 1 and 2 and so I couldn’t help but be intrigued when Dreams, Media Molecule’s latest project, was shown. We still know so little about it though and I’m really hoping more will be revealed in the coming year.

(also, bonus shout out to Ace Attorney 6 which I also hope we will hear about as well for a chance of it to come over)

Top 5 upcoming games I’m most looking forward to playing in 2016

I want to start out with saying that as I am going on dates that have currently been announced, there is a chance games below may actually be pushed back until 2017. That happens sometimes. But this is a disclaimer before any “that game didn’t come out in 2016” messages. On a similar note, I am simply specifying games that are coming out in 2016 in North America as I happen to be in North America and play a North American system and region locking is a thing :P

But yes, let’s get onto the next list!

1. The Witness
thewitness

I’ve been looking forward to this puzzle game since it was announced and am glad that it has finally gotten a concrete release date. I still haven’t decided what system I will be getting it on, but it hasn’t made the excitement any less.

2. Unravel
yarny

Yarny. I don’t need to say anything more. Just look at Yarny. Look at him. Look how cute he is. This game looks beautiful and puzzles and I am so excited for it. I also want my own Yarny so badly ;~; ♥

3. Legend of Zelda
lozwiiu

Despite the lack of details, how can I not be excited for the next Legend of Zelda game? Skyward Sword and Ocarina of Time are my two favorite Zelda games personally and the setting really reminds me of them so I can’t help, but already have my excitement up for it.

4. Final Fantasy Explorers

One of my favorite games of 2014 was Fantasy Life. Fantasy Life 2, despite being the same in name, isn’t very similar to Fantasy Life itself. Final Fantasy Explorers, however, reminds me a lot of what I did enjoy in Fantasy Life and while there’s a vast amount of differences, I still find myself excited for the game and am looking forward to playing it with friends.

5. Pokemon GO

I love Pokemon, a lot. I also love traveling. The idea of being able to travel while catching Pokemon in “real life” so to speak is really really cool and I just can’t wait for it. And I hope it won’t be too hard to get a mega stone for obvious reasons :P

Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon Review

psmdboxart Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon is the newest title in the Mystery Dungeon franchise and after the… disappointment with Gates to Infinity, I was really hoping for this game to be good. I will say it is easily much better than Gates to Infinity, but the one thing a lot of people have been asking is if it’s on par with Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky. To be honest, I don’t know if I would say it is or not.

Saying not to compare the games would be silly, after all, they are part of the same series and Super Mystery Dungeon contains references to all of the past games. Some parts of Super Mystery Dungeon I do feel are on par with the second games in the series–others I would say are not. That said, I don’t feel it’s disappointing, but I think whether it’s as good or better than Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky will vary from person to person. With that said, I’ll go ahead into the main review. Please keep in mind this review will contain spoilers.

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Top 5 games I’m most looking forward to getting back to in 2016

Happy New Year’s Eve everyone! As a bit of a special, and also because I really just want to write more, I have a few top 5 lists coming today. Originally it was going to be one top 10 list but then I thought of another and figured two top 5’s would be good as that equals 10, but then I thought of a third and well, even though nobody counts down from 15, that’s what you’re getting anyway!

If you guys read my twitter or even my post from two weeks ago, you will know I’ve had a lot going on this year. Wedding planning takes up a lot and once it’s over, it’s still a pretty busy time. I still have a few things to do relating to all that, but things are finally starting to relax and I’m really looking forward to getting back to various games and feeling like I have a lot more time to put into them.

Games like Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival, Pokemon: Super Mystery Dungeon, Captain Toad, and LBX where I will still be playing from time to time to finish some end game things aren’t included.

1. Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer

Despite the amount of hate it gets, I really do adore Happy Home Designer and I’ve hated how little time I’ve had to put into it lately. I really do want to get every single villager house done and with the second series of Amiibo Cards (and more AC Amiibo in general) coming out on January 22nd, I’m really hoping I will have more time to put towards them. I will also be doing another unboxing video for two boxes of series 2 Animal Crossing Amiibo cards which I am looking forward to.

Moving back to the game itself, I’ve been doing my best to keep up with the DLC and Challenges, but I just really want to spend several hours just playing it and I hope to get to do that soon. And also get the skirt I want already.

2. Animal Crossing: New Leaf

Even though this kind of fits in with the games I excluded from the list, I’m putting it here anyway as of the three, it’s the only one with online play and it’s that reason is a large part of why it made it on this list. I still have a few gold badges left that I just… really want to earn, but when it comes to grind-based things, it’s incredibly hard for me to stay motivated with them and as most people I know had stopped playing, it was hard to keep trying to move forward. Medal earning is especially tedious by yourself, even more so knowing you get less medals when playing by yourself.

But lately a lot of people I know have started playing again and it’s gotten me more motivated that maybe I can finish off the badges I still need gold versions of. Plus, I really do want to go back and do Dream Suite entries–I really do love the Dream Suite and think it is an awesome thing. I’m sad I lost my list of ones I wanted to visit though, but I’m still looking forward to getting back to it at some point.

3. Yoshi’s Woolly World
yoshiswoollyworld

This game is super cute and it makes me sad my husband and I haven’t had more time to put towards it. We still have so much to do in the game and so it’s definitely one of the big multiplayer games I just really want us both to get back to. I’d love to finish the game so much. We haven’t even reached the halfway point yet which is all kinds of awful. Also, I need to play every level with Poochy. That’s just a rule now.

4. Phantasy Star Online 2

I love this game a lot and have been playing it on and off with the English patch around for it. It’s a game I wish I had more people to play with though, but with all the upcoming new things in Episode 4, I’m hoping I can get certain people back into playing it with me.

5. YO-KAI Watch
ywkatie
I’ve only just really started the game and I can’t wait to really delve more into it. I don’t know when specifically I will focus on it, but I hope when I do, I will be able to play it to completion.

There’s a few other games I am also looking to playing more as well of course, but those are definitely the ones I am most excited to be putting more time in :)

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!

Or if you don’t celebrate it, a nice day overall :) My Christmas and Christmas Eve were fairly busy–we celebrate the Feast of the Seven Fishes which meant… a lot of cooking. And because some members of my family argue on whether shellfish count towards the seven or not, we had quite a lot of fish.

I ended up making Salmon, Halibut, Red Snapper, Catfish, Flounder, Mahi-mahi, Chilean Sea Bass, Tuna Steaks, Scallops, and shrimp while my mother made some baked clams and sole stuffed with crab meat. We are going to be eating fish for quite a while.

If that wasn’t enough, I also baked some chocolate chip cookies and some white chocolate cranberry cookies (Santa needs his cookies afterall) and I still have two things left to bake (which I will most likely be doing later today)–Toffee Pudding Cake and Hot Chocolate Brownies. I’m actually not doing too great health-wise in the sense that I’m supposed to be taking it easy/destressing, yet I still constantly end up giving myself stuff to do and just need to lay down and relax more. With Christmas over and just two things left to bake, hopefully I actually will start to relax a bit finally, but if updates are a bit slow, that’s why! As it is, grinding is still a huge pain in SMD unfortunately as I’d love to get that finished.

Moving onto Christmas Day, I did get a few games for Christmas–two DS games I’ve wanted for a long time, a PS4 game, and a 3DS game. I’ll start with the DS ones. First up is Cookie Shop which has both a misleading name and misleading boxart:
cookie_shop_esrb
I actually knew something about it was misleading, but it was still cute and you owned a bakery so I left it on. I just didn’t realize how much. For one, you do not play as a human–there aren’t even humans in the game. You see that cute pink character next to her? This one?:
rose
Yeah, that’s the main character–her name is Rose and that is who you play as. She wants to own the best Cake Shop (yes, cake shop–you do make all kinds of things, though, it is a bakery, but the emphasis is on cake) in the department store.

It’s a cute game and my biggest issue with it is mostly that it’s very slow. You can do very little per day (and I can’t think of any game where I felt I did so little–the closest is the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games due to one dungeon per day, but I can at least go and talk to everyone and dungeons aren’t always quick) and it makes it kind of boring which is really disappointing as it’s adorable and I do want to play it more.

Besides that, I finally got the first game that has been on the backlog for ages–Crafting Mama. I really adore the Cooking Mama series for the most part. It’s one of the few motion control focused/stylus-focused games I play (though, it still hurts after a while) and I just always have a good time with them. The only one I didn’t enjoy too much was Gardening Mama (gardening isn’t really my thing). I can’t say much about Babysitting Mama or Camping Mama though as I never tried either personally. I’d be interested in possibly getting the latter though.

I love arts and crafts and making things and it’s something I really wish I could do in real life. Unfortunately, Home Economics ended when I entered high school and nobody in my family happens to be rather crafty which has kind of left me out of luck. I don’t really learn well from images or videos and really need to learn things in person which makes it hard, but I’d like to get better with things at some point. Unfortunately, Crafting Mama also isn’t a great learning experience as while it does show some things, it’s definitely not completely realistic :P And so it still wouldn’t help much.

Going onto the non-DS games, I got the Gravity Falls 3DS game (Legend of the GNOME GEMULETS) which I am pretty excited to play soon and Tearaway for the PS4. I actually have Tearaway for the PS Vita but I… am not very fond of the Vita. I have a lot of issues playing it and so I never managed to finish Tearaway which made me sad as the game is very cute so I’m pretty happy that it is available for the PS4 and of the new games I received, it’s probably the one that will most likely get a full series up on my Youtube account.

Moving on to non-game gifts, besides some clothes, I got the cute Sphero BB-8 which I adore. It’s a bit smaller than I expected, but it’s still super adorable. I just wish there was a “Come home” option so it could go back to the bluetooth source rather than having to search for it while it’s off patrolling :P

I also received a pretty cool sorbet/fruit soft-serve maker, a mini cupcake maker, a box of chocolates, and a cute Snowman Squishable so it was a nice Christmas–especially considering I was expecting like 2 things. It made some of the frustrating drama that has happened these last few days a bit less existent.

But yes, it’s pretty late so I should probably head off to bed–if I don’t make another entry before January, I hope everyone has a good rest of December and a Happy New Year (and New Year’s Eve)! :)

I’m back :) (+ Neko Atsume and Upcoming things!)

I mean, you may have already guessed as much from my last entry, but still :P If you don’t keep up with my twitter, you may have been wondering where I’ve been this month… In short, I got married!
My lovely wedding dress:
weddingdress
And my wedding ring set:
weddingringyay

We headed to our honeymoon 2 days later to Disney’s resort in Hawaii–Aulani. It was pretty hard to decide where we wanted to go. Both my now husband and I really enjoying traveling and two of our highest wanted to go places are Japan (which I’ve been to twice) and Germany (which I’ve been to once). The Bahamas or another Caribbean island was another choice for something more relaxing. In the end though, Hawaii was the best choice as it was somewhere neither of us hadn’t been to, was still relaxing, and plus Disney had a resort there and having been proposed to in Disney, it felt appropriate to have the honeymoon in a Disney-related place too.

We didn’t really know how much we’d enjoy Hawaii (I’m often the victim of heat stroke and he burns easily), but it was actually really nice. The temperature was fine, the pools and beach were perfect. There were barely any bugs.
beach
I mean, this was the view from one of the restaurants. Really can’t complain :P

My parents actually surprised us a lot with several goodies while we were there such as these two cakes:
cake minicake
Other goodies were a plate of truffles and a fruit and cheese plate. I think the truffles were my favorite, but everything was really good.

And on top of that, every restaurant gave us special desserts as well:
redvelvettiramisu
sorbet
It was just a really nice time.

I’d love to go back and stay longer–we only really went out of the hotel area twice–once on a really cool Catamaran Cruise:
boat
boat2
boat3

We even got to see whales and dolphins:
whalewhale2
dolphin
And I got to go Snorkeling :D Which was actually really hard as I hurt my foot before the trip, but I’m glad I tried my best anyway.

The Sunset from our room:
sunset

The Lei I got when we arrived:
lei

Yokai really are everywhere (It was for a campaign in Japan about going to Hawaii apparently :P)
yokai

While I didn’t have time to play too many games (or get too many streetpasses T___T), I did spend some time in a mobile game–Neko Atsume. It recently was officially translated into English so I decided to give it a shot. I managed to get a photo of each one at least once:
neko1neko2neko3neko4neko5neko6neko7neko8neko9neko10neko11neko12
My next goal is for mementos and buying everything :D But for now, I’m pretty excited to get stuff done. I hope more themes come out though as I am tempted to switch it up, but I’m not 100% happy with any of the theme options.

But yes, moving onto upcoming things…
Finishing Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon is my #1 goal right now. As always, it will be uploaded to my Youtube channel. Once that is done, I do want to work harder on Happy Home Designer and also put some more time into Yo-Kai Watch.

Still crossing my fingers for Style Savvy 3 and Disney Magical World 2. I’ve seen release dates listed some places for the latter, but have yet to find a source so I’m not going to believe it just yet.

The Smash Brothers’ Direct is in an hour so looking forward to that! While I haven’t really played Smash much nowadays, I am keeping hopeful for some interesting things. If I have a lot to say, I’ll try and mention something here, but if not, I may just keep it to my twitter (though, you can see it on the sidebar as well!).

As for upcoming trips, current plans are to possibly attend Otakon (for the first time in ages) this upcoming year and also attend Pokemon Worlds for the first time ever. I also hope to go to Japan again either this year or next year so keeping my fingers crossed for that too :) And I will be going to Disney World (the one in Florida) two more times this year so hopefully I’ll get better at these travel entries.

I really do love traveling, but I get too caught up to talk about it very often :P But I promise more of these entries soon!

Review: Barbie & Her Sisters’ Puppy Rescue

When I was younger, despite playing a lot of different console games I also enjoyed a lot of PC games–whether they’d be the ones during our computer class at school or various games back at home that had me using the Printer quite a bit. Many of those games were Barbie games and one of my personal favorites was Barbie Pet Rescue where you got to find/rescue various animals through different puzzles and mechanics and then take care of them. Having a love for animals, and especially dogs, I was excited to see another Rescue title coming out and it was one of the games I even got to try while at E3. Unfortunately, while the game does have some improvements, I think the original Pet Rescue game has a charm this one didn’t quite capture, but let’s go ahead to the full review for that.

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Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival Initial Thoughts

Now, while Amiibo Festival wasn’t Happy Home Designer levels of excitement for me, I still as looking forward to it quite a bit. So, when it arrived today I decided to play two months–I originally wanted to start with January and go through the year, but you are forced to start with the month you’re currently in so I did November and December (and well end with our monthly choices in October I guess). I found it kind of frustrating you couldn’t unlock the plaza until you played two board games as I was really looking forward to seeing some of the Minigames sooner too.

Minigame areas get unlocked from getting Happy Tickets which are unlocked from doing the board game. And while the board game is pretty nice and refreshing, I just… wish it had minigames. It kind of reminds me of Fortune Street crossed with Mario Party in a way (I find the happiness and bells is closing to stars and coins, even if your bells get traded in at the end rather than to a specific NPC for happiness versus trading them along the map).

I do think it’s a cute game in its own way though–I like how the events are worked in but, I do kind of wish they lasted more than one turn–each day being one turn does technically make sense, but when AC is technically a real time game, I’m not used to having one chance and one bad roll can miss it. I was super disappointed when we missed both birthday events in December for example.

And all the messages are pretty charming, but what it comes down to is a lot of luck and I feel like minigames would have helped with it–we had them in New Leaf, we have some outside the main mode… I don’t feel adding more minigames would have been too out there.

But I think what annoys me the most is the same thing as with the Amiibo in Mario Party 10–having to touch it every. single. turn. I also would really like to use a Villager and since an Amiibo is required to play, it kind of stinks that the Villager Amiibo can not be used to play as a Villager. Someone HAS to use one of the Amiibo even if everyone else can be a Villager, but this means if I choose to play by myself… I have to use an Amiibo. I do love the Animal Crossing Amiibo, but I wish there was a choice to be able to just use a Villager.

Similarly, it stinks that you’re forced to play with three Computer players if playing by yourself. You can just do two if it’s two players, but if it’s one player, they force you into a four player game and I just… do not understand why.

Overall though, I do still really love the game. I just wish I could play as a Villager and didn’t have to place the Amiibo every turn :( Looking forward to do the other maps too~
And on the bright side, you only need one Amiibo to play–everyone else can just be a Villager so you won’t have to buy more than one at least if you don’t want to.

I do wish Turnips were less of an overall win though–even with the luck factor, I feel unless you get crashing, the prices are pretty good. We had prices as high as 700+ when Jingle visited in December and in that map, one of the computer players actually earned over 100K and thus, got over 100 Happy Points at the end which won them the game. And that was… a bit disappointing honestly.