April 28th 2024

It’s strange times for me when a game like Stellar Blade is considered mainstream! I’m not complaining about it much, other than the fact that it’s currently a PS5 exclusive. So, PC bros like me are going to have to wait a while before I see what all hype is about, and hopefully by then I’ll get some DLC tacked onto the game for “free”. It appears Sony might have strong armed Shift Up to censoring the game post-launch, which is highly unacceptable per my many previous rants about retroactive changes versus conceptual changes. For those who need a refresher, retroactive censorship means you censor something that already has been released to the public. Conceptual censorship is when something is in a non-released state which is then altered upon release. I’m ok with the latter, but not the former by any means. Details in the audio portion if you’re interested.

I’m doing something fun this week. Let’s look at a few bonified Kusoge games. First one is called Soul Ark Teleport. Those of you who have been around gacha for any amount of time in the last 5 years; the name might sound familiar. That’s because Soul Ark (as an IP) has been shut down and revived multiple times only to shut down again soon after. And like a strange zombie phoenix, it keeps reviving in a new (but different) state of existence. And that’s the thing with this franchise… it’s uniquely enjoyable for what it is whenever it comes back. You’ll never hear folks really complain about the game (whenever it returns) other than it eventually shutting down. So, I wanted to share with all of you its current zombie state and invite you to download and play it as a complete F2P time waster.

Second Kusoge game is called Otherworld Mercenary Corps. The video speaks for itself; a completely self-play idle game. As with most “dodgy” game IP’s; I highly recommend you play the game on emulator and using a guest account if possible. We never know what’s going on behind the scenes anymore with certain games and software nowadays, but at least this game is officially on the Google Play store which provides (some) layer of security. Don’t bother joining the Discord for either game, there’s nothing useful there. More nuance in the audio portion of the update.

Artist is Simmsy

Artist of the week is Simmsy and his lovely goblin waifu with a (seemingly) southern drawl. Monthly update coming soon on Wednesday so be sure to check that out. Hope you’re all well wherever you are in the world, and take care as always.

April 21st 2024

EvoJapan is here! The tournament launches at the end of the week, and you can visit the official YouTube channel for VODs if you miss out on the live events. Make sure to adjust your schedule accordingly if you want to watch the event live, as it is in JST. For example, I’m located in California and the time difference is 16 hours ahead, which means things kick off Friday night on 04/26/2024 for me. The Savvytime site can do the conversion for your easily, and you may want to bookmark it in case you need it again for other events happening in the world.

A fantastic little mini-documentary on Domo-kun by Jack the Artisan is the highlight recommendation of the week. It’s a cozy 1 hour plus deep dive into a pop-culture mascot most of us Gen-X boomers are familiar with, and Millennials grew up along. There’s not much else to say than watch the video on a lazy afternoon and learn some “true nerd” history.

My weekly reminder right now that anime figures are quite affordable if you happen to be dealing in a favorable exchange rate against the yen. Although prices have gone up over time as a whole, comparatively it’s still cheaper in context with inflation. In other words, if you can afford something that is reasonable, that means someone else (living in Japan) might find the price barely tolerable. A 30,800 JPY MSRP for this figure means it’s approximately $200 for someone in the United States. If you live in California and work at a fast-food restaurant right now, that’s literally 2 days’ worth of work at $20 minimum wage. Back when I was in college working minimum wage ($7), I would have to eat half a paycheck to buy something like this. Spicy cultural commentary is in the audio blog as always!

Artist is Fumio

In honor of EvoJapan and the FGC, we end off the weekly update with some lovely Hsien-Ko from Darkstalkers courtesy of Fumio! Hope you all enjoy the tournament and see you next week.

April 14th 2024

Hope everyone is having a good April so far. Weather’s been clearing up in my neighborhood and I hope your area hasn’t gone underwater yet via snow or rain! As someone politely pointed out, I’m an unfortunate citizen paying California prices for Seattle weather as of late. In any case, the Fallout TV series recently launched, and I thought it relevant to briefly talk about it. I don’t consider myself a fan of many franchises (Fallout is not on the list), but that’s because I feel being a fan of something means you accept the good and the bad of it. So, with a rather level head I jumped into the Fallout TV series not expecting anything and left pleasantly surprised how good it was. I can recommend it as a good show if you just like sci-fi post-apocalyptic stuff and roll with the punches. Devils in the details and slight spoilers in the audio blog, so be forewarned! (Skip to 9:13 in the audio blog if you want to avoid)

Continuing my tradition of suggesting spooky Halloween stuff early in the year for no reason, our good friend Wendigoon dropped a recent video talking about the works of Junji Ito. If you’re a fan of anime / manga stuff in general, there’s a chance you’ve come across something strange and disturbing. There’s a higher chance it was a direct copy of or reference to something Junji Ito produced. Similar to works of H.R. Giger that would forever influence monster / alien designs in pop culture, Junji would be the influence of all the extremely strange stuff down the road for Japan in pop culture. It’s a long video and worth a watch if you need to go down a rabbit hole you probably didn’t know existed.

Another video from Stix for gacha gaming news, and as I’ve said before - he’s really good at it. I like tier list videos not for the ranking aspect (subjectivity is extreme in them), but for the fact that they let you know what is out there on the market currently. So take this video with a huge grain of salt in terms of what is good or bad, but appreciate the fact that it’s an excellent source of information on what you can play right now.

Artist is ZinFyu

Artist of the week is ZinFyu for all your Pokémon turned waifu designs! As always comments and questions welcome in the comments below, and I’ll see you next week.

April 7th 2024

Gently easing into April here, with the first “official” weekly update for the month. Wuthering Waves has announced a release date of May 22 2024 and will be available on multiple platforms. You can watch a first impressions video above from the perspective of an CBT2 player.

A few weeks back I reminded everyone that the current US dollar is extremely strong against the Yen right now. The financial instability of Asian markets means increasingly lower prices for luxury goods (non-essential products) and thus a good time for newbies to start on their figurine collections. If you live in the US for example, you can order a few “starter” figures from the FuRyu BiCute line for typically under $35 shipped to your door. Some ladies are also on the slightly larger size, measuring about 11 inches / 279mm tall!

Artist is koisuke51 / コイスケ

Tons of nonsense out there this week involving the usual suspects criticizing Stellar Blade, as well as internal issues within the Nikke fanbase. Since this is a drama free website, I’ll just calm everyone down with some wholesome Mikamo Neru artwork from Koisuke51. As always if you have anything remotely interesting to talk about or just want to shoot the breeze, feel free to leave it in the comments down below and I’ll get around to it in future updates. Take care!

March 31st 2024

We’re going to be going over the recent trailer + news for Azur Promilia and the discussion around the rumor mill. Audio portion of the update has all the details since there’s a ton of nuance to the conversation that needs to be said and not written for spicy takes I rather not have bite me in the butt down the road!

For the record, AFK Journey is a game that is entirely not my cup of tea (art direction wise); but damn am I not impressed by its presentation and gameplay loop. Even though I will probably never be in the deep end for something like this, I hope you all find it interesting as a demonstration of “what is possible” in the gacha gaming world. I would love nothing more of a dupe of the game in an entirely different setting as I could probably find myself sinking into it for sure.

Site regular NoidsEdstrom brought up a question for this week dealing with loss of a long term gacha gaming account. He just wanted to know how I react to such situations and my personal take on the whole thing. If you’re interested in the response (and I promise I’ll make it worth your while) please listen to the audio portion of the blog to get a full picture. The above video linking to Atelophobia is related in my answer.

Artist is Pochincoff

You want to talk turkey about under representation? How about robot waifus? Pochincoff has been fighting the good fight bringing them to the world’s attention. So do your part in supporting a just cause and joining their Patreon to support these marginalized robotic souls.

March 24th 2024

It’s been a while since I linked anything to do with fighting game tournaments, and there’s a reason for that. Don’t worry however, it’s nothing negative. As I’ve gotten older and have more perspective on things, I realized I just don’t have that much free time anymore to focus on a single task. Often times nowadays I find myself doing something I enjoy alongside something I have to take care of. When I was younger, watching tournaments live and with friends or family was “the only way” of being able to enjoy them. Anything else might as well be considered missing it entirely. But in the past couple of years, I’m slowly gravitating toward the VOD tournament because it’s just so much quicker to bypass all the padding in-between matches. And at the end of the day, I realize the hype of watching skilled players is really what I’m here for in the first place, and the atmosphere is just a bonus. Of course, if you’re able to attend an event in person (even a local), I highly suggest you do so. The energy and atmosphere is entirely different! But if you’ve enjoyed a tournament from the comfort of your own home, maybe send some of that saved travel fare to the tournament organizers or pot for the players you’ve watched competing. A little goes a long way, and nothing is non-appreciated - especially FGC communities who live and die on pennies compared to the rest of the “e-sport” scene. Check out Liquidpedia for upcoming events.

A tangentially related topic but Dragon’s Dogma II was recently released, and I thought I would mention it here. My history with Dragon’s Dogma (which I’ll refer to as DD from now on) is a weird one because I remember DD being so strange (but enjoyable) the first time I played it. I never experienced any game that combined Monster Hunter style combat with an open world system kind of similar to Skyrim. I know some folks compare DD to Soulslike games, but I do personally feel they’re quite different enough to be separate. Although I think the game is worth checking out on its own merits, I’m saddened by the fact that Capcom has taken a weird stance on modding any of their games past and present. I understand this is necessary for online competitive games, but largely single player experiences suffer from this restriction dramatically. Let’s hope it’s not too hard in the future to see expanded modding for DD.

Artist is NEZ-BOX

Closing out the update with the talented NEZ-BOX Shermie artwork above! Next week’s update is probably dropping a bit early and brief since I also have a monthly update to release right afterward. In any case, hope you’re all well and don’t be shy leaving a comment or question down below.

March 17th 2024

Staring off with some monster waifus and a thanks to NoidsEdstrom for the reminder / suggestion! The game is called Guardians of Eden and can be found on Steam (login to view). Literally after I bought the game, I played through it and got all the achievements in 2 days. That’s not due to some innate gift of being a god gamer or anything, but more to the point that my thirst levels for any monster waifus in ANYTHING as of late has been desperate. As much time as I dedicate to testing, discovering, and playing gacha games, the sad reality is that the industry is moving toward mainstream quicker than I would like. And that means collateral damage to waifu diversity in recent titles. At least the elven archer and cat girl maid enjoyers are happy I guess.

Slow news weeks means I’m going to remind folks that I’ve had a lot of stuff in the archives to bring back up. So for this week’s reminder, Qxir is really good at bringing up obscure strange history in a very fun and cartoon format.

Artist is j5daigada

Goblin waifu from j5daigada felt fitting for this week’s very short (HA!) update. As always leave questions or comments below. See you later!

INCEPTION update. Future Box here, I recorded the original audio blog before the above update went live so I didn’t talk about it. For the 5 English people who actually play Haze Reverb, they’re finally releasing a thirst trap skin for Mizo. Maybe the rumors of a just and loving god exist?

MMD video above if you have a YouTube account. Enjoy the jiggle!

March 10th 2024

Aeons Echo (Aeon Fantasy Global) has finally launched on March 4th 2024. You can find the game over on Nutaku (can’t link it directly, just search for it on Google) and play it via browser or mobile platforms. I’m currently testing the game and have played it for about a week now by the time this update has been released. I’ll save my judgement for next week’s update (which will be about 2 weeks of playing by then) but initial impressions are a bit mixed. I do advise you check it out for yourself if you are looking for a new lewd gacha game and to make your own conclusions about it.

I came across this video recently that talked about everyone’s “favorite” developer Blizzard. As someone who grew up alongside the company in its early years, it’s both nostalgic and terrifying to see what happened to it over the years. The mini presentation showcases the history of the company and its current state in a lighthearted fashion, enough to keep people unfamiliar with the company interested to learn more. I found it good enough to share as both a comedy bit and stark reminder that all great things come to an end.

Theme parks (and Disney by extension) were a large part of my upbringing. Although I have little in common (or interest) with the company as a whole, I do still follow news regarding the theme park division and what they’re up to. The above video by Grief (awesome horror YouTuber by the way) summarizes all the craziness that’s happened over the years at the parks. Hopefully you find it fascinating even if you have never visited one yourself.

Artist is Merunyaa

Considering all the theme of the weekly update, might as well post a demon waifu by Merunyaa! Don’t forget to leave any random questions or comments for me down below, and have a good one until next time!

March 3rd 2024

Once in a while I have to visit the gacha gaming reddit (careful it’s a silly place) for random news and updates, and like clockwork I see a lot of strange posts making the rounds. I think I’ve come to the conclusion that healthy people who truly enjoy stuff just do it because they like it, and don’t necessarily need to justify or rationalize it. At least that’s the conclusion over the years I’ve come to myself. The older I get, the less I need to explain any of my interests to anyone. It just feels so natural not to. Maybe I’m being obtuse about it, but perhaps escapism has become the number one reason people do… well anything anymore; gaming or not. I’m not a fan of nihilism philosophy, but it appears quite popular amongst the users over there on reddit.

Just a quick note that my YouTube channel is now out of jail and back on “probation”. My probation status won’t expire for good long while, but at least it’s making progress again… until YouTube randomly decides to strike me down with another arbitrary infraction I did for something I posted 3 years ago. I swear YouTube is the poster child for doublethink in the modern era. The lovely “lady” by the way you see in the last image is actually a bot account, and many like it still plague the platform today. Glad to see YouTube has its priorities straight getting rid of the guy who talks about Anime booba in games as the clear threat to society, its platform and the world. So, starting in April any links I post in the community section over on YouTube will not be clickable and you have to copy and paste the links manually. Such is life.

Once again, I need to repeat the emphasis on Anime Figures right now going on sale for great prices! The hardcore folks will always complain about things being expensive (since they buy everything every month lol) but for the rest of us it’s actually good times. Entertainment Earth (not a sponsor) is a retailer in the United States that has a lot of good deals on figures that people actually like. And they’ve been cutting down inventory as well due to the market. Check them out and you might find something you like! By the way I’m happy I got my Lelouch figure above and she’s arriving sometime this week. Now I need to make room for her somehow on my massively crowded desktop! If you’re new to the hobby, do a search for “1:4 scale” on the site and apply the “in stock” filter. There should be a lot of good “outlet deals” for you to look over! Be careful with that scale though, as the ladies are quite large and will need some dedicated real estate in your house.

Artist is Aranee

The one saving grace of this week’s update is Aranee and their absolutely awesome artwork. Please check them out and visit their official website for merchandise to go with your new anime figure addiction!

February 25th 2024

This is basically the NoidsEdstrom update, so a sincere thanks to Noids for bringing in all this week’s topics to talk about! One particular topic is “spicy” and will only be addressed in the audio portion, so make sure to listen to it if you want that particular content. Otherwise, onward with the update.

The developers of Scarlet Maiden are working on a new project called Spirit Valley. The game has been announced but little news other than that is being worked on and should look to release (hopefully) sometime this year. If you haven’t checked out Scarlet Maiden yet, you can often find it on sale nowadays since it’s been out for a while now. These particular games are diamonds in the rough, generally focusing on gameplay and mechanics first while adding an extremely large dose of fanservice on top of things.

Another random waifu gacha game in the form of Starseed Asnia Trigger. Not much information other than on the website I’ve linked and the gameplay you see above was from a very early closed beta back in 2022. Considering it’s been in development this long, hopefully they will bring the heat and make something worthwhile to check out.

I wanted to give NoidsEdstrom a proper response to his comment regarding last week’s news about a particular Vtuber incident. I think what is often frustrating with content creators from a western perspective is that they forget the strong cultural influence on decisions that seem alien to us. More importantly, I’m not saying that this is the correct way of doing things. I’m just saying that missing this piece of the puzzle (and not addressing it at all) will lead to folks wondering what the heck is going on. I’ll dive into detail more in the audio portion, but for anyone who just wants the summation of the talk; cultural norms are extremely important in Asia. If you do business over there, you have to understand the framework if you want to succeed and prosper in that environment.

Artist is Edemevas

A little bit under the weather right now so next week’s update may be very brief. Hopefully the lovely art from Edemevas will allow me to recover faster!

February 18th 2024

Nothing major going on this week, so sit back and chill a bit while I spin you tale on some awkward topics. The above video is largely about recent Vtuber drama, and you don’t have to watch it in detail if you don’t want to. I largely go over in my audio blog the parallels of the Vtuber industry with any other talent related industry and really the entire thing is just growing pains. Keep in mind I don’t watch Vtubers at all, but these stories always bleed into my daily information feed since so many content creators in the gaming space apparently share the same hobbies.

Artist is れむ / Ikemenium114514

Two weeks ago I mentioned the launch of Kyonyuu Fantasy Burst over on Erolabs. After testing the game for that same amount of time now, I can happily say that it’s actually quite a cozy experience all things considered. Keep in mind the game feels like it was made in 2012, but it has 2024 levels of QOL that make it more modern and palatable. As someone who has been completely F2P while testing it, I think I can give it a mild recommendation for those incredibly bored looking for something to pass the time or need a side game to fill in some type of gap. More details in the audio blog, but all in all it’s been surprisingly decent, and at worse not offensive.

Artist is Jewel Milk / Jewel The Black Canvas

That’s it for this week. Don’t forget to leave any comments or questions about anything down below!

February 11th 2024

Slow news week this time around other than the obvious Lunar new years stuff. I was asked whether or not I tried out Echocalypse Scarlet Covenant in last week’s update, and I guess I would quickly go over why the game didn’t really jive with me after testing it out. Feel free to watch the video above for another person’s take on it and their rationale. Specifically, at the 6:50 mark in the video is something I really agree with and their breakdown of things. At the end of the day, I felt the game just didn’t really bring to the table anything I was looking for in particular, so I just part ways with it. Hopefully others find enjoyment with it where I didn’t.

It’s important to engage with me whenever possible so I can talk about things you may all be more interested in. In last week’s update, long time amigo of the site NoidsEdstrom mused about finding inspiration for new games and the difficulty of finding the one that resonates with him. It’s a problem all of us face, but for me specifically (and those who have the same tastes), it’s increasingly difficult to find games that focus on gameplay first and fan-service second. The upcoming AFK Journey for example looks to be a very polished mainstream title that shows innovation in the Gacha industry isn’t completely stagnated. In order to rake in the big bucks however, they only sprinkle a few fan service notes sparingly for us degenerate hard core folks. Like Scarlet Covenant, I hope folks find the game interesting and get something out of it. Folks like me wait another day, week, month, year, and decade in purgatory waiting for the unholy union of addicting innovated gameplay combined with over-the-top fan-service. I fear flying cars may be out before that realization.

Artist is Michi

Obviously by the time you read this, it will be officially 2024 the world over both in Gregorian and Lunar. Just a heads up if you’re buying anything overseas (Asia), there’s going to be a significant downtime in shipping speed since most folks are off for holiday celebrations.

February 4th 2024

Kyonyuu (“khan-you”) Fantasy Burst CN recently released on Erolabs. This is significant because this game has been region locked by DMM / Fanza in the past and was not playable unless you were willing to use a VPN and (hopefully) get through the restriction. Pay attention that it’s available on a lot of platforms, but the “PC” version is really just a download of an Android emulator. I still use Bluestacks by the way, just make sure to uninstall their obnoxious NOW GG Wallet (Bluestacks Services under Windows 11) thing every update. You can play on browser apparently, but those are always a bit janky in my opinion. There’s a Google Doc here to help new English players. Apparently there’s also an English Discord, but it’s so under populated right now you might not get a lot of help there but it’s better than nothing.

In last week’s update I forgot to mention a little thing about online stores. Generally speaking, if you’re not in Asia your choices in reliable stores that sell in English (and ship reliably) are a bit limited. You can use proxy services if you wish, but some stores are just easier to order from even if they’re a bit more expensive and take a bit longer to arrive. You can always get more information via the Anime Figures reddit with this link here. If you’re a first timer, I would recommend playing it safe using AmiAmi or SolarisJapan. Always remember that security + ease of use + good reputation = increased cost. I don’t mind paying a little extra for peace of mind, but you can find much better deals if you choose to buy from less reputable sites.

Finishing off with a fun one. Watch the video above and then come back for the extra commentary in the audio blog. Long story short, I’ve dealt with similar people in the past. It’s absolutely strange how business is done in Asia when it comes to influencers. Apparently over there (especially in China), there’s a lot of popular folks with an internet prescence. So they play REAL HARD ball with creators. Unfortunately, this doesn’t translate well overseas (especially English-speaking demographics) but it still happens quite often. I would write out my quick story, but even then it’s a bit long to type out. So listen to the audio blog for the details back in the day when I head to deal with PR folks from South Korea!

Artist is Surin / すうりん

Still looking for this particular “Virgin Killer” sweater for my wife. Hook me up via the comments below if you know! (There’s open back sweaters out there aplenty, but they’re not the same!)

February 1st 2024

Let’s kick things off by getting in your questions or comments about…anything really. Please use the comment box below (it’s at the bottom of the page) and engage with me how you see fit. Have a recommendation? Have a burning question you always wanted to ask? Just want to leave a comment about anything? Do so and leave it below. If it’s awesome, I’ll give special attention to it. If it sucks and not worth mentioning, that’s all on you. The most important thing is that you left something at least. Quick answers will be given in the form of text. Longer answers will have a dedicated audio response to it.

Anime figure prices have stabilized against an increasingly volatile Asian economy. In other words, the pandemic sent prices soaring into the sky at nose bleed prices, and now things are starting to settle back to 2019-ish territory. Make no mistake, it’s still an expensive as hell hobby, but at least it’s worth getting back into or starting up now unlike 2 years ago at the height of highway robbery. The above 1/4 scale (that’s huge by the way) figure is going for $350 shipped. 2 years ago you could have easily expected that to be $500 for example - and sold out immediately.

Speaking of which, I want you all to welcome my new waifu statue to my collection! Been looking at owning this one for a very long time now, and thankfully with the recent reduction in prices across the board in Asia, I was finally able to snag her. If you like what you see, head on over to KikaGoods. Maybe one day they’ll sponsor me… probably not through all things considering.

Artist is Lugar00

Never had the time (or money) to fully integrate myself into the Warhammer 40K universe. But believe me when I say I have had my fair share of watching content related to the franchise in the form of tournaments (mostly games) and just general lore stuff. Just wanted to get this out there as it’s not a huge part of my life but might as well throw it out there just in case some of you never heard of it and might want to look into it yourself. Also, me being me this link here is highly relevant for obvious reasons.

You’re here for the good stuff right? Well here it is… at least news wise. Aeon Fantasy has been out for quite some time now; however the game is not natively in English. So a fully uncensored English release has finally been confirmed in the form of Aeon’s Echo, and is going to be available on the Nutaku platform. Obviously I can’t direct link you over to the page, but just search for the publisher’s name (Nutaku) and you should find the pre-registration page.