Splatoon: The First Splatfest – Adventures of Team Dog!

7 / 4 / 157 / 5 / 15

So, today was the very first North American Splatfest! In the usual battle of Dogs vs Cats, I chose Dogs (though, I do also like cats) and battled my way to victory. I expected to be playing a long time, but managed to hit top rank after about 4 hours. I would say 4-5 hours is probably the average time most would need to play, ignoring things like disconnects.

Overall, I had a lot of fun with Splatfest. The Plaza looks amazing, the music is great, and it’s just generally a fun environment. Most of my issues with it were more of the inner mechanics such as:
1. No map switching. Even though you have three maps instead of the usual two, I missed the map switching. :( If Callie and Marie can pause from dancing and singing to give you announcements when you first load up, they could for new ones too! I’m not really sure why maps weren’t changing.

2. Wait times. It wasn’t the end of the world, but considering the delay/push-back of Splatfest was BECAUSE of wait times, the fact that I had waits more often than not of 40 seconds up to 2 minutes or so was kind of annoying.

3. But I’d honestly have rather waited over getting Same Team matches. I still haven’t heard of anyone having Cat vs Cat matches so it seems it may have just been an issue with the Dog team, but these were kind of disappointing as while you could still earn points towards your title and level experience, it still doesn’t add to your team which is the biggest point of Splatfest.

4. Many matches ended up just sorting in 1, 2, or 3 people instead of a full team of four. Those matches never ended well for the other team, although, I did win one match when I only had three.

5. Weird lag issues. I was disconnected from maps twice (once near the beginning and another right after they showed the results while I was waiting for the “Play again” option to come up) and had a lot of the inking but no ink is being placed. Or late kills which involve you somehow also getting killed and just it was really weird.

Despite these issues though, I really did have fun. And thus, I will end this with a lovely Team Dog commemorative picture:

(Inkling!me by Apheros & you can find the original screenshot I took on Miiverse!)

You can also watch below (or go to my Youtube channel) for recordings of the the stream I did on my journey to become the Dog Queen!:

I hope to try and play a bit more later (though, I don’t think I’ll stream) to help support Team Dog some more! I’m very happy that I was also able to hit level 20 while getting to Dog Queen Rank and even had enough money to upgrade my usual attire to all have 3 slots! :) I think I’ll upgrade the School Girl Uniform next once we have some Sea Snails!

Edit for July 5th: The results are in! Team Dog has won! :D Yay! I’ve seen a lot of people upset with how the results went and made a post over on our site’s Tumblr talking about it and why there’s no reason to be this upset (except about the date). You can check out below for a video showing the results and getting our Super Sea Snails (I want a plushie of them)!

The GEM series Mimi Tachikawa Figure & the Sakura Figma/Figuart Comparison!

7 / 4 / 157 / 4 / 15

So, I had some fun things that I preordered ages ago arrive today which was pretty exciting. Firstly, the GEM series Mimi Tachikawa & Palmon figure arrived!:

Back view:

She comes with a stand, an extra face (not pictured, but it honestly looks just like the official photos as shown below):

And a ponytail:

Which was replaced for her hat in the first two pictures. I honestly had a bit of a hard time setting her up and they are only about 3 inches and aren’t poseable any other way.

Mimi is my favorite Digimon character, but the product itself is honestly a bit overpriced considering. :( I do like it, but I’m not entirely sure why it ended up costing about 6,000 Yen (and that doesn’t even count overseas shipping and buying service fees).

Moving onto the Sakura figma, you may recall my post on the Sakura Figuart. I will say that both figures are great. I think I prefer the face of the Figuart more, but there is a lot I like more about the Figma.

To start, a good way to explain them is the Figma has a bit more accessories while the Figuart seems to have more poseability (though, the Figma also feels a lot more sturdy than the Figuart because of this). The Figuart has an extra face and set of hands while the Figma has 2 extra cards (A Clow Card, a card being summoned/caught, and a Sakura Card), both wands, two sets of wings (The smaller ones that are part of the costume and the big ones for if you have Sakura using the Fly card). While the Figuart’s Clow Card is blank, all three of the Figma ones are of the Fly card.

While I may prefer the Sakura Figuart appearance/face-wise, I easily prefer the Kero that comes with the Figma:

He’s much more dynamic, comes with a stand, and even if his tail isn’t bendable, I just really like this Kero.

As for Sakura herself out of the box:

As you can see, there are several minor differences. As I have the Figuart with the Sealing Wand and a Clow Card, I gave the Figma the Star Wand and Sakura Card. I also just want to point out the stands–Figma stand is much sturdier, but the Figuart stand is much nicer looking and I still love the detail of it.

Here is a front and back comparison of the Figma (Left) and Figuart (right) side by side:

Both are great and pretty similar so it’s really just which you’d rather go with/like more personally :) I’m not sure if I’d have been able to decide if I waited and just picked up one.

And both are cheaper than the GEM Series Mimi and Palmon XP

My Biggest Issues with Splatoon

6 / 30 / 156 / 30 / 15

Splatoon has been out for about a month now and while I covered this a bit in my review, I wanted to talk about it in more detail–especially considering my frustration with the fact that the date chosen for Splatfest is July 4th which is a pretty big day in the USA. While I know the USA isn’t the only country in North America, it does have the most sales of the game and was just an incredibly poor choice.

Before I get to the biggest part of the rant, I do want to say I have a lot of issues with the fact that Splatfest is only one day (If it was 2-3 days, the fact that it’s date is poor wouldn’t matter as you’d still have two other options). You literally have 24 hours to try and get enough points which can take nearly half the day of playing straight to earn them. Also, we still only have one outfit with a skirt. :( And the new Cat vs Dog artwork still stinks.

With these out of the way, it is now on to the thing that inspired this entry: I really hate everything involving the customization and skills in the game. Despite talking about how “fashion focused” the Inklings are, the fact that it’s all preset-skills is really stupid. Even more so with the ones you unlock being random. Even though there’s mixed opinions on how much skills help, due to my poor aim I generally find them really helpful. Some skills aren’t great though and other skills just won’t work well with certain weapons.

It just feels so silly to me. I can understand them being random at first, but at least let people actually be able to select them if they pay snails. Let them pay more snails to do so–even more so if it’s for a main ability. I just feel that can add so much more to the game with customization and skill sets versus it being random and stuck with certain things.

I still wish weapons also let you pick their abilities over being pre-set, but I do feel they do have pretty good sets at least and knowing what you will be getting ahead of time is nice.

It’s just so hard for me to fully enjoy any of Nintendo’s games with customization lately because it’s almost always tied to stats and it’s just really disheartening.

Frustrations with Nintendo’s Regions

6 / 30 / 15

There is a reason region locking can be frustrating and part of it has to do with how much release dates can vary. While some are a bit more understandable (Such as games with a lot of dialogue or ones that may need to be censored quite a bit–something that also has mixed opinions), others are just… incredibly odd. One big example is with the recently released Woolly World in PAL regions. Considering those games are in English, the fact that the US isn’t also getting it is rather odd.

And the fact that Japan is getting it 2-3 weeks after the PAL regions stands out a bit in itself. There’s no explanations as to why and the fact that North America isn’t receiving it for nearly 3 months after Japan is really odd.

A smaller example is what happened with the Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright game–there was one explanation in the fact that they could have been redubbing Luke as his voice varies between PAL and North American regions (although, everyone else is the same)… except Luke kept his voice from those games so it’s another 3 month discrepancy. A smaller delay was with Fantasy Life where we received it a month later–several terms were changed which could be why, but it’s still a question of why that was needed to.

But in general, as long as we get the games eventually, it isn’t really the end of the world as disappointing as it can be when you know most of the world is playing a game you’re super excited for. What I think really gets me though is when it comes to physical goods. Both Japan and PAL regions tend to get such amazing preorders. I mean, seriously:

We only got the scarf and that wasn’t even through preorders. And generally, it feels if we do somehow get something, it’s either exclusive to Gamestop (which after several bad experiences, I just don’t feel comfortable using) or Nintendo World. I live in NYC and this is still so frustrating. In general, if you want to go to a Nintendo World Event, you need to get there the early hours of a day or late the night before–possibly even earlier depending on what. With the Amiibo craze, it’s gotten even worse.

And just… I can’t help but wonder why. Why North America seems to constantly be left out of the loop with physical stuff? Even with Club Nintendo closing, PAL Regions and Japan received so many great things that were never shown here. And I mean, look at the most recent item that as appeared on the PAL region Club Nintendo:

On one hand, even if this showed up on the North America site, I wouldn’t be able to afford it as I already used my coins, today is the last day, and you can no longer register things.

It’s just disappointing and frustrating to see so many amazing things and knowing the only way to get them is if you know someone who’d be willing to grab one for you or buying them overpriced on Ebay. I just wish I understood why. It’s bad enough when so many games are stuck being region specific (STILL WAITING FOR A LOCALIZATION ANNOUNCEMENT ON GIRLS MODE 3), but there’s an extra heartbreaking punch when you see beautiful things for a series you love and know that it’s constantly out of your reach.

Last Day of E3: Trying Little Orbit’s Line-up

6 / 22 / 156 / 22 / 15

So, this is the final post I’ll be doing that is related to E3! After this, it’ll just be updating the game list :P But yes, one of the cool things we did get to do was try Little Orbit‘s E3 Line-up one-on-one. I’m going to go through all four games we were shown and give my opinion on each. Zero will also be putting up his opinions on the first two games over on his website soon too.

The first game up was Kung Fu Panda: Showdown of Legendary Legends which was essentially a brawler game similar to Smash Brothers.

The game is coming out due to the upcoming movie and all roles will be reprised in the game. 20 characters will be available at launch along with 4 DLC characters coming. Not all were available for us to be picked (as some can’t be announced yet), but there was still a good amount there already.

I ended up choosing Tigress while Zero chose Tai Lung. All the stages were lovely and certain objects and areas of the stage could be used to damage your opponents. I would say the hardest part is I never really felt I had gotten the controls down–I feel like I mostly just ended up jumping/floating around regardless of what I pressed and rarely actually did any damage.

Characters also had a special attack that pretty much guarantees knocking out an opponent that can only be used when your “Awesome meter” fills up. Tigress’ unfortunately was not working, but Tai Lung’s special was pretty cool. While the modes, different characters, and mechanics seemed interesting enough, there was just something off about the controls the entire time.

The next game was probably the game we enjoyed the most (and also the one that felt the most “done”). I will start by saying I’m not really an Adventure Time fan–I’ve only seen a few episodes, I know a good amount due to friends, but it’s never been my thing. That said, this game made me want to watch the show and I actually really want to get it regardless.

Adventure Time: Finn & Jake Investigations caught my eye just due to my love of mysteries. The characters are all voiced by the same people in the show and you’re essentially trying to find out what happened. You also can find/earn treasure to fill up a familiar now-empty room.

Despite the fact that the game is in 3D over the usual 2D of the show, it actually works quite nicely.

You can find various clues/interact with many objects (usually shown by a sparkling animation) and hear the characters comment on it. There’s also fight scenes that are done both creatively and fit well into the game’s story.

It’s just a really fun game–my only “complaint” is I’d have loved to see more of it, but if it looks as good as it was when we saw it, I expect the game to do really well.

The employee we spoke to also mentioned that the game is really good on the Wii U so I’m guessing the mystery function works quite well on the GamePad. They didn’t have a WiiU set-up for us to see, but it made me excited regardless.

The next two games are still in Alpha so I won’t have as much to say, but we did get to see both so I want to at least mention them.

Monster High: New Ghoul in School. While it’s not the only Monster High game that introduces the “Design your own Monster and Enroll in Monster High” gameplay, I feel it’s done much better than Ghoul Spirit. There are tons more options, lots of customization things, and much better gameplay. The school is huge, there’s all kinds of cool jump puzzles and puzzles in general, and the writing fits the characters well. While I only have a few Monster High Dolls and you could tell it was still in Alpha, I’m pretty excited to see what they may do with it.

No idea on if you’ll be able to customize your room in the game as well, but I’m hoping!

In an even earlier Alpha Phase than the above, we have the final game we were shown:

Barbie & Her Sisters Puppy Rescue. The game features Barbie, Skipper, Stacie, and ~~Kelly~~ Chelsea (why, Mattel T__T) rescuing adorable Puppies around town. After you clean/heal/take care of the puppy, you can find their owner! Some Puppies may have an owner already that you will be reuniting them with while those without an owner you can find a good home from a list or even keep yourself and have your own puppy army. I will be doing the latter for many puppies.

The game’s main focus is really to teach kids how much work having a dog is as you will have to do things like cut their nails or brush their teeth. The game was still in very early Alpha so most of it wasn’t done yet, but it’s being made in honor of the upcoming movie and will have the same voice cast. There are currently 6 different dog breeds each with 3 different colors/patterns. I’m hoping they will add a lot more than that as even counting color patterns, 18 doesn’t seem like that much (For reference, Nintendogs plus Cats has 19 different dogs before you even go into color/pattern variations).

Reasons to be excited for Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer

6 / 21 / 157 / 24 / 15

There’s been so much hate over Happy Home Designer–“why is it a price of a full game”, “we don’t want spin-off games”, “what is the point” and while I can understand some frustration on the Wii U game (although, I personally still think it looks fun), I don’t feel Happy Home Designer deserves it. I feel like if it’s successful, it could bring a lot of really awesome things to the Animal Crossing series. Because I really want to get people looking at a bigger picture (and maybe I’m the only AC fan who didn’t expect to hear about a new AC game just yet), I wanted to list some of the reasons that not only makes me excited for Happy Home Designer, but makes me excited thinking of what this could mean for the next Animal Crossing game.

You’re in charge of people’s houses. Maybe it’s just me, but there was something super disheartening about setting up an area and then having someone plop their house in the center of it. Finally getting to decide where people go is such a relief. And if this is in this game and the Mayor Function continues, what’s to say this kind of thing won’t be in the next “main” Animal Crossing game?
You can still do a lot of things from normal Animal Crossing games. The big things that are gone are fishing & bug catching along with a “smaller” area, but you still build the town up.

You still help villagers.

You still decorate houses (even if it may not be for you).

And you still make friends as you fill up the town. While it may be a bit lessened in some ways, the fun is still there in a lot of areas. And maybe it’s just me, but the home decorating was always my favorite part too.
You have a company car.

Just imagine being the Mayor of multiple villages nearby and being able to use some kind of travel to help out in each one. You can have your own Animal Crossing World and not just a town.
You can place Villager’s Houses.

As mentioned above, this is a beautiful feature and I hope it makes it in the new game.
You can decorate the exterior of various buildings…

…around your Villager’s houses….

and pick various environments to place it in.

While the latter will probably never make it into the main game, so much more exterior customization in various areas can really help make a town more unique.
The new character!

Lottie is adorable.
You can set up houses for the NPCs!

Wouldn’t it be nice to have an area where the NPCs live?
You can finally decorate houses how you want–no more needing to send furniture and hope they use it and don’t replace something you wanted them to keep.
You can help out all your favorite villagers. Have more than 10-12 favorites? No worries about needing to send one away for another as they can all come and get their house decorated. And even come party:
New furniture items:
Plus the ability to place things on the ceiling!:
You no longer need a full space in front–you can squeeze through and place chairs and couches at appropriate lengths away from a table:
Furniture items can be placed outside like Public Works. Furniture is not exclusively for interiors:
And vice versa, things that may have only been able to go outside can be inside too:
Villagers can have jobs! They can be students, they can be a cook, they can be a doctor. No longer will they just bum around and ask you for things.
Villagers can have bigger houses.
Villagers houses in general have much more customization with the ability to pick the style and color:

And even decorate their fences:

And switch things near their houses like bridges:
There are separate carpets and floors:

And you can even choose what size you want them to be:
Easy rotating without having to be up against the object.
Items can be moved in bulk:
There’s different room sizes–they aren’t all perfectly square/cubes. Some can be rectangular.
You can select Nature sounds if you don’t want music.
Villagers can wear head accessories/hats.

In short: Besides so many of these features being great in themselves, many (obviously, not all) of these same things could be previews of what’s to come (and what could happen) with a newer Animal Crossing game as well. And maybe it’s just me, but if I can be the Mayor and work at various places with the NPCs, I think that’d be pretty amazing. And when it comes to your character, they can still dress-up too and change their appearance! And you have more character customizations in general too.

Give the game a try–while it’s still missing some features of a “normal” Animal Crossing game, it brings so many amazing things that could make the next full Animal Crossing game phenomenal. Happy Home Designer is so much more than just interior decorating–you just need to take the time to look.

The Showfloor: Everything else

6 / 21 / 15

We pretty much got a mixed bag of everything else and other than a bit of stuff at Sony’s, it’s pretty varied. I’ll start with Sony’s though as it is the biggest and there’s adorable Mascot Parades (that we took lots of photos of).

Like my last entry, due to all the photos please click below to continue reading!

The Show Floor: Nintendo & Amiibo

6 / 20 / 156 / 20 / 15

So, as we spent a lot of time in Nintendo’s booth (it was one of the biggest areas and most other booths did not actually have too much we wanted to wait in line for 2+ hours to try) and took tons of pictures including two videos so I figured this would be a good place to start. I will say that I was disappointed by one thing though… No Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer on the showfloor! I was looking forward to playing it so much and was heart broken to see it nowhere to be found. Regardless, enjoy these pictures of the showfloor of Nintendo’s Area along with other fun Nintendo things such as some cool stands and controllers by PDP! Due to the amount of pictures, please click the Read More to see them all!

Last Day of Press Conferences

6 / 17 / 156 / 20 / 15

So, today was the last day of press conferences and before I get to Nintendo, I want to say I sadly don’t have much to say about Square Enix or PC Gaming. In general, anything that interested me had already been shown at another press conference. Just Cause 3 from Square Enix looked okay and it was nice seeing more footage of Beyond Eyes during the PC Gaming conference, but I wish there was more that really grabbed my attention (though, I’ll admit my attention/hopes for the latter were drained once we saw how they started with all the gore).

Nintendo, despite what a lot of people seem to saying, I feel did a good job for the most part. I really enjoyed it, I’m hyped up, and while I think some concerns are completely valid, I think throwing a fit because “omgthisgamewasn’tsaidanditshouldhavebeen” is incredibly silly. I’m disappointed Style Savvy 3 was not mentioned at all (and at this point, probably won’t be until shortly before the game comes out like Girls Mode 3 did in Japan where it was announced only about a month and a half prior), but that doesn’t make Nintendo any worse. Unravel does remain my “new game announced hype”, but Nintendo easily continues to have the most games I’m truly excited about.

I will say my one big issue with Nintendo though is just… it’s a digital event. There’s no reason they need to be as short as they are with several games only being tossed onto the Youtube channel as trailers. I know some eventually get brought up on the Treehouse, but I’d love to see the Treehouse used more just for gameplay and questions and showing features of things versus announcements and even then, some never get mentioned at all. I’m guessing the main thing is because these things didn’t work with the Digital Presentation’s “theme” this year, but I honestly think they still could’ve pulled it off in a good way. And as much as I enjoyed the silliness of both last year’s and this year’s Nintendo conferences, if it’d be easier for them to have more time and show off more without doing things like that, I’d probably prefer it. I do love dancing Miyamoto, Iwata, and Reggie muppets though:

This will never cease to be amusing to me.

Getting on to the actual games, rather than going in order I’m actually going to go by system. This is because a lot of games, despite being playable at E3, were only sent to trailers and I feel this will be a better way to get them organized. Some games will easily have more comments than others. I also quickly want to bring up the LetsSuperMario–It’s such a neat way to celebrate the anniversary and even helps a great charity so I think it was a really nice feature of the stream, even if the transition felt a bit sudden. I think it was a nice finisher in a way though. Now, onto the games! Or well, the ones that grabbed my attention enough for me to say anything :P

Wii U

Super Mario Maker: This is a game I thought looked okay originally and just figured it’d be fun, so why not? But as newer and newer things are shown and more crazy levels are made and features grow, I just get more and more excited by it. Knowing this kind of formula is actually how some of the original stages were made is pretty unbelieveable in itself. I generally have felt I wouldn’t be able to make anything interesting, but knowing that makes me feel like maybe I can make something cool. Or at least something much happier and peaceful in comparison to the terrifying levels we’ve seen the Treehouse employees make. I also adore how they did the Amiibo feature. First of all, these old-styled Mario Amiibo look amazing:

I honestly want both. I hope they won’t be too hard to get. Maybe one will be sold solo and the other will only be sold with the game? I just hope the supply is much higher when they come out. As for the other Amiibo feature, I’m not sure what character I will play as in Mario Maker–it’ll be hard to decide! But knowing that using other Amiibo can make it so you can play levels as Link or Isabelle is just really amazing. I mean, look how cute they look:
Yoshi’s Woolly World: In a similar boat, Yoshi’s Woolly World also gets me more excited as I see more of it. The Amiibo for it look adorable, all the Amiibo are great, and I’m just very excited for it. My biggest issue is the fact that Europe & Australia get the game in June, Japan gets it in July, and we do not get it until October… This just makes no sense for me? It’s done. The Amiibo are ready. It’s in English… so why the delay? :( This is like the delay with Professor Layton vs Ace Attorney–there were no dub or line changes or puzzle changes and they didn’t even redo Luke’s voice so the delay made no sense.
Star Fox: Zero: I will admit I’m not a big Star Fox fan–it’s not that I dislike it, but it’s a game that while I enjoyed, I never felt the need to play any additional games. My first and only Star Fox game was the one for the Nintendo 64. While I still feel kind of similar for this game, I really love the transforming Arwing:

I can’t decide if it’s more cute or cool.
Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival: This game seems to have angered a lot of people and for the most part, I’m not entirely sure why. I do think the start of it was a bit of a tease (though, the fact that they only showed NPCs and not a Villager meant it wasn’t as bad as it could have been in my opinion), but as someone who really enjoys Mario Party (and preferred it when there wasn’t a car), the fact that they are doing an Animal Crossing party type of game actually has me really excited. Plus, the Amiibo are adorable:

I need them all. I really hope the Villager Amiibo will be useable as well and let you pick a Villager or something. That said, I do think it’s messed up that an Amiibo is required to play the game. Part of why I didn’t get into Skylanders and Disney Infinity is because so much of the game is locked unless you get these figures. I liked how Amiibo were bonuses if anything versus the main core of the gameplay so seeing a game that requires them is really disheartening–especially as the supply hasn’t been great either.
Genei Ibun Roku #FE: I’ll be honest, I don’t really have much interest in the game. However, this intrigues me and I’m really curious about it:
Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash: Mario Tennis is actually my favorite Mario Sports title. That said, I’ve felt the Mario sport titles just haven’t been as good as new iterations are made so I’m not sure how to feel about it just yet.

3DS

Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes: In a similar reign to Star Fox, while I liked Four Swords, it was never one of my top favorites so this game doesn’t jump out at me either. Besides my concerns about what happened to purple!Link, I think the main way to sum up my feelings right now is intrigued. I have mixed feelings on the outfits due to my usual issues with tying skills/stats to outfits, but as I see them more as power-ups in this game, I find it doesn’t take as much away from it. Also, Link can wear Zelda’s dress:

It makes me wonder what other outfits they may give him too (if there is a Cucco outfit, Link better be able to control an army of them.)
Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer: When it comes to games I’ve already been excited about, Happy Home Designer is still #1. The more I hear about it, the more excited I get. I just love so much about it. So many people are criticizing it and the thing is, this shows so many opportunities for when we do get the next Animal Crossing game. We can place houses. We can set up exteriors. We can do so much more with interiors (and there are some new items in there and not to mention the new character that was shown). For all we know, we may be able to make the next town from the ground up. I feel people are focusing so much on the “but this isn’t a real Animal Crossing game” and not enough on what it could mean for a full Animal Crossing game. And personally, I have nothing against the spin-off. It focuses on my favorite parts of Animal Crossing and I couldn’t be more excited for it. I will say I am very worried about the cards though. There are 100 in the first set, it’s already been confirmed more sets are planned, and there are already over 330 different characters in Animal Crossing: New Leaf alone. Collecting them is going to be hard and I really hope there will be a large supply of them and I can find people to trade with. And also places to buy boxes of cards because I will need them. The card packs are also adorable:
YO-KAI WATCH: This is one of those games where I’m just not sure how I will like it or not, but it looks cute and seems like a combination of Pokemon and Puzzles/Quests and those are two things I enjoy very much so I am looking forward to playing it at some point.
Fire Emblem Fates: As long as Casual mode is back, I’m positive I will be getting this. I really enjoyed Awakening and it reminds me of Awakening a lot. I’m guessing there is no marriage in the game due to the fact that half the cast is your family or step-family, but I still find the characters interesting. I just wish I could decide which side to go with. Still super excited about the StreetPass feature too.
Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam: I wish I could be excited about this game, but I mostly feel apprehensive. I’ve never been too big on the Mario & Luigi RPG series and the Paper Mario stuff in the game looks like it is more out of Sticker Star which I really didn’t enjoy. I think it would’ve been better throwing normal Mario & Luigi into the Paper Mario World instead if they wanted to do a crossover.
Hyrule Warriors Legends: I’m still not fully bought over when it comes to Hyrule Warriors (though, I still love Zelda’s attire), but the ocarina at the end makes me hopeful Saria and the other sages will end up making an appearance in the game too at some point. I do hope they will let people buy the new characters as DLC if they have the Wii U version though.
Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon: It has all the Pokemon and the personality quiz back so I’m pretty excited. I’m still sad that they didn’t add a few more options beyond the starters (Riolu is the only one and I don’t really count Pikachu)–I think adding other Pokemon who could Mega Evolve along with old PMD classics like Skitty, Meowth, and Eevee would’ve been nice.

Misc.

Skylanders Amiibo: Honestly, the fact that they can be used for both games is really really cool. I also love the stands. But besides being official, they just feel like customs–they’re nearly the same Amiibo with some armor and a different base. I am curious if they will do more though. Maybe Skylanders can at least help with the stock problem. I do wonder what aisle they will be in though.
I’ve already spoke about the other Amiibo in my last post so I won’t go over them again.

And finally, while technically mentioned over in Japan and not really part of all this:

I AM SO EXCITED THIS IS GETTING A SEQUEL AND I REALLY HOPE IT COMES OVER HERE!

And that’s it for Nintendo! Like I said, I really did enjoy a lot of their presentation and I feel most of the complaints were either because people assumed they’d talk about something they already said they wouldn’t or due to thinking too far ahead about rumors.

Anyway, expect show floor pictures sometime soon! I haven’t decided yet if I want to do them in parts or all at once–I think it’ll depend on just how many pictures there are. I am leaning towards putting them all together though.

The Second Day of Press Conferences

6 / 16 / 156 / 20 / 15

So, it is the second day of press conferences! Before I start, I did want to mention that I officially got my E3 Pass today!:

I absolutely adore the lanyard. We also took quite a few photos of of the Los Angeles Convention Center’s exterior all set up.

I look forward to taking lots of photos inside tomorrow!

Getting back to the main subject, I know I didn’t say anything about Bethesda yesterday, but there really wasn’t anything more for me to say beyond what I said on Twitter. I’ll admit, I wasn’t expecting to have much to say for Microsoft either, but I was still pretty hopeful as my Xbox One is kind of lonely when the only gave we have is Sunset Overdrive.

While only a few games caught my eye, I think the biggest thing was with the features announced such as backwards compatibility (although, it seems to only be a certain amount of digital games right now–really hoping this increases), EA Access, and the new controller that will work for both Xbox One and PCs/Windows 10. As for the previously mentioned games, it was mostly a mixed bag for me. Halo has gone downhill for me for a long time–I’m still a bit intrigued, but not enough to really give it another shot so I didn’t really think much about Halo 5. Maybe one day though. The plot does seem interesting in itself, but at the same time I just feel kind of mixed overall.

Recore came up next and the main highlight for me was cute Robot dog:

Look how cute it is. I was really upset what happened as it went (please stop doing that to dogs, games. Seriously, these three things need to stop: Post Apocolyptic settings (it’s one thing if it’s just a brief history lesson–it’s another if it is essentially the entire basis of the game), Zombies, and hurting innocent animals/people/things), but was happy to see it “revive” into a Bigger Cute Robot Dog:

You live on, cute Robot Dog. From the ending/title shot, it looks like you’ll get many Robot friends (including little Robot dog back) which seems pretty neat:

But it’s hard to tell how I’ll feel about the game without truly knowing what it’s about. I will, however, take an actual little robot dog. Just saying.

Forza always manages to look fancy, but Forza has just never been my car/racing game of choice. It does look nice though, but I’d really have to see more before I decided anything–graphics are generally the last thing on my list unless something genuinely freaks me out. Cuphead is another example of a game that does a great job fitting its style, but I’m not sure how much I’d enjoy actually playing it. Tomb Raider was shown next which I AM excited for, but was disappointed that they focused much more on a lot of Ice Climbing and Running over puzzles and actual Tomb Raiding:

I also really want to know what happened to her friend? Please stop making Lara lose more friends and family. She’s been hurt enough.

Anyway, this brings us to the next game that ended up getting a good amount of my attention, Beyond Eyes:

It looks very pretty and I’m interested in how the game plays. And the last game that caught my attention during Microsoft’s –Sea of Thieves:

It looks pretty and interesting so I’m looking to see more of it. Rare Replay also looks pretty cool, but as someone who still has all her consoles and old games, I just don’t have a need for it. But yes, that finishes up my interests with Microsoft’s conference!

Next up was EA’s. I didn’t really know what to expect nor did I have high hopes, but EA actually had the game that excited me most today–we’ll get to it though. The new Need for Speed looks interesting–I feel the last couple have kind of depended on various gimmicks so it’s nice to see one that may have finally let those go. SWTOR’s next expansion was shown next and I always end up feeling a bit sad when it comes to that MMO–I actually really enjoyed it before it went Free to Play and it makes me sad that the Free to Play was handled as poorly as it was. Supposedly it’s gotten “better”, but I don’t think most of my issues will ever be fixed. For now, please enjoy this lovely artwork of mine and Zero’s SWTOR characters before we stopped playing:

(Beautiful Artwork by sakonma)

Following the bittersweetness of the above, the game I spoke to at the beginning started–Unravel:

An adorable game that follows the adventures of Yarny. Look at him:

Look how cute he is. I need a Yarny Doll so badly. The game reminds me of both LittleBigPlanet and Yoshi’s Woolly World and I just already love it to pieces. If no new games are shown by Nintendo and Square Enix tomorrow, this definitely wins the game I am most excited for out of new games I’ve heard (and even high up there overall). And even if they do show new games, Unravel will easily still have a top spot, if not tied with another game to first.

EA didn’t get anymore of my attention after that, but it was okay. Yarny’s awesomeness in Unravel was enough.

Ubisoft’s started next and I’ll be honest, Ubisoft is probably going to be my least favorite panel of the year. That isn’t to say it had nothing I was interested in (though, it didn’t have much), but I just am… tired of Ubisoft’s atmosphere at E3 lately. I don’t like the random concerts for Just Dance, I don’t find their host funny, I feel like the vulgarity goes up during their conferences (along with rather gory/awkward trailers), and I just find it rather uncomfortable and disappointing. It feels like I’m watching a Frat Party. As for the only thing that did catch my attention fully with Ubisoft, it was Trackmania Turbo:

I never played the original but it looks pretty fun. I also was a bit intrigued by Ghost Recon Wildlands. I think the idea of a Black Ops-kind of team taking down bad guys is pretty interesting, but I don’t think I’ll end up getting it–the game just looks way too gory for my tastes.

And while I have no interest in the game itself, this was still kind of cool:

Finally, this brings us over to Sony. Sony had quite a few bombshell announcements, but nothing that was really enough to get me too excited. While I think Trico (the cute Puppy-Gryffindor) is adorable, I never had much interest in The Last Guardian. Horizon: Zero Dawn seemed a bit interesting, but most likely isn’t my kind of game. Media Molecule’s game was next though and it’s something I’m still debating on. It’s hard to describe so if you haven’t seen it, I’d recommend watching it yourself. These were probably my favorite parts:

I loved the remix of Row Row Row Your Boat during the Bear-Zombie fight too though. The game almost sounds like a more free form of LittleBigPlanet. Unfortunately, I just don’t know if I’d ever be able to create much of anything, but maybe it’d still be fun just to explore others’ creations. And I would love to have plushies that looked like that little Polar Bear and the cute Teddy Bear on the Piano at the end.

We then moved onto Firewatch which is apparently a pretty cool mystery game and I am quite excited! Plus you can hold a cute turtle:

That is awesome in itself. I hope the turtle plays a part somehow. It’s too cute not to. Next was a very cute Final Fantasy game called World of Final Fantasy. I really love the chibi graphics they used and actually think it looks better than when they switch them off:

I mean, look at them. Look how cute they are.

This was then followed by the announcement of an HD Remake of Final Fantasy VII which is a very special game to me. However, I don’t see myself picking up the HD remake. Aerith is my favorite character and considering what happens to her (and that it’s likely never going to change), I’d rather not see that in HD. I do hope there will be lots of videos of Chocobo Races. That was really the main focuses for me, but I do want to bring up Shenmue III and the next Arkham game. I don’t recall ever playing Shenmue, but the characters seemed familiar to me. I’m not entirely sure how I feel about Sony essentially advertising the game’s Kickstarter like that. Not that they shouldn’t advertise, but I feel they could’ve easily covered the game itself over showing a Kickstarter for it and telling everyone to go pledge. It was just kind of surprising to me and I wonder how that could effect things for other games in the future. Going back to the game itself, it does look nice, but I’ll need to see more and look up a bit of the past games before I make up my mind on it. As for the Arkham series, that trailer was incredibly creepy. Kind of like the Dead Rising 2 trailer from last year, it was just incredibly unsettling and I wish I didn’t see it.

The last two things to catch my attention were Disney Infinity and Uncharted. Despite my love of Disney, I just can not seem to get into Disney Infinity and I’m not sure I ever will–so many exclusives between consoles honestly doesn’t help. As for Uncharted, I’ve never actually played one, but they just make me more and more curious. Maybe one day.

Anyway, I am looking forward to the press conferences tomorrow and my first day on the Show Floor! ^__^

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