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.

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.

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!

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.