More reasons to buy a GBA. A little while ago, I mentioned Namco's new GBA version of Tales of Phantasia. Not wanting to be left behind, Square Enix released Shinyaku Seiken Densetsu for the GBA on Friday.

Anyone who has played any of the Seiken Densetsu series before will immediately feel at home. The game feels just like the SFC games, only on a smaller screen. This incarnation, like those that came before it, is great fun to play, adopting exactly the same style of action RPG gameplay and even interface layouts as earlier games in the series. The graphics are excellent and don't seem to have suffered during the transition from a TV screen to the GBA's LCD; the colours are vivid and the game fields well drawn and varied. I haven't seen enough of the game to be able to give any information about the story, but if this is, as it appears, a fully fledged episode of the Seiken Densetsu saga, it is certain not to disappoint. Shinyaku Seiken Densetsu is out now for the GBA, priced at 5800 Yen.

I finally plucked up the courage to watch episode 5 ("Onsen") of Popotan the other day. While it was mostly, as I had feared, an excuse to have the characters wandering around naked for more time than was really necessary, it was also the first episode in which the story really got going. After watching five episodes now (the 6th is awaiting viewing and I've yet to find anyone with a copy of the 7th), I have to admit that this isn't a particularly great series. If it weren't for the cute and the waffy stories so far, I probably wouldn't be watching it. It certainly can't compare with the other series I'm following at the moment, Narutaru. However, Popotan IS cute and the stories ARE waffy, so I will see it through to the end.

BBI is 6 months old today! Doesn't time fly?

A quick update on SoZ. I'm still very busy at the moment. The Japan trip took up most of this weekend due to changes made to the original itinerary. I sent off reservations for the hostels in Osaka and Kyoto yesterday, so I'll hopefully hear back from them soon.

And now on to more interesting things. ^_^ Recently, I've been bringing you information about upcoming games with illustrations by some of my favourite artists. Today, it is the turn of popular illustrator CO2A. He is the lead illustrator for F&C's new game, Majokko A-la-mode. The story takes place in the magical land of Mint Kingdom. You play a student in his second year at National Twinkle Academy, the top institution in the country for education in the magical arts. The story sounds quite cute and the art, as to be expected of CO2A, looks even cuter. ^^ The opening (title: Nostalgia) and ending (title: Adolescence) themes for the game are both performed by Under17. Unfortunately, F&C don't have a playable demo of the game available to download, although there is a very cute demo movie available here (28.4MB, LZH archive containing one MPEG movie). The game will be released this friday (August 29th) under F&C's FC01 label.

Another game I've added to the List of Needage is Meguri, Hitohira, an upcoming title from Caramel Box. I had not heard about this particular game before and just stumbled across it while browsing the web. I'm rather glad I did. The game is a visual novel and first impressions are pretty good. The story is quite involving, the character CG and environments are superbly illustrated and everything blends together so well that playing the game is a really enjoyable experience. Unlike most full-screen visual novels which overlay the text over the entire screen, the text of the novel in Meguri, Hitohira only takes up two-thirds of the screen width and is positioned off to one side. The character currently speaking is shown in the remaining space. In a scene where two characters are conversing, this can result in the novel text overlay flying from one side to the other with each sentence. However, this isn't as distracting as it sounds and is actually one of the more appealing visual novel presentation systems I have used. I should also mention the background music in the game which fits the story perfectly and enhances the feel of the game no end. These are mostly piano/synth tracks, some of which remind me of Kanon - although my mind could be affected by the nice snowy scenes. If you're eager to try out the game, Caramel Box have a nice surprise for you in the form of a downloadable demo version (119MB). Actually, it's not so much a demo as a sizable chunk of the game. It's huge - the biggest demo I've ever seen for a renai sim or visual novel - and will likely take you a few hours to complete. The demo version doesn't include the character voice data though which will be in the full game. Meguri, Hitohara will be released on the 26th of September.

I've now heard a few comments from people who've played the GBA version of Tales of Phantasia, my all time favourite RPG (on the SFC). I had long wanted a good portable version of ToP, but was worried Namco might cut too much away from the game and reduce it to a miserable shell of it's former self, giving us another Narikiri Dungeon. However, this time around, the verdict appears favourable. Everyone I have spoken to has praised the game as everything they could hope a portable edition would be. The GBA at last gives Namco developers the hardware they need to do the game justice. I am a little worried about a couple of aspects of the game though. Firstly, the music. I was very disappointed at Nintendo's choice of audio hardware for the GBA when the console was first announced - I , along with a lot of other people, was really expecting hardware SPC emulation after Nintendo had touted the GBA as a portable SFC. I am unsure quite how well the GBA will reproduce all those well-loved ToP themes. Secondly, there is ToP's famous real-time Linear Motion Battle System, which was an instant hit with RPG gamers when it appeared on the SFC all those years ago. From the screenshots I've seen, the battles on the GBA screen seem too cramped, limiting the movement of your characters and your ability to see over the far side of the battle area. Still, these are only minor niggles. I look forward to getting the opportunity to play the GBA port in the future.

Namco have been keeping busy though. When Tales fans have finished their pocket-sized game of ToP, they have even more to look forward to. The release date for Tales of Symphonia (August 29th) on the GameCube is edging ever closer. Everything points to this being one of the best RPGs released for the Cube so far, perhaps only topped by Crystal Chronicles. The game is a 3D cel-shaded affair which, from the screenshots, looks very pretty. The cute factor in this game seems greater than usual for the Tales series, with all the characters appearing slightly chibi and extra cute-looking. ^^ The battle system is similar to previous Tales games and is an upgraded form of the Linear Motion Battle System, known as the Multi-Line Linear Motion Battle System (or ML-LMBS) - essentially the old LMBS translated to a 3D environment. Quite how 3D targetting will work, I have no idea. Other classic Tales touches are making a return too, such as the character emoticons. This should definitely be a fun game to play. I never intended to buy a Cube, but I may just have to consider changing my mind. I'll wait a few months anyway - perhaps by then Nintendo will have lowered the price so much that Kellogg's will be able to give them away in cereal boxes. ;)

In addition to the new Tales game, there is also the ToP OVA to look forward to. Information on it seems hard to come by though. I don't even know which studio will be responsible for the animation. Production I.G. is a possibility due to their strong ties to Namco projects in the past. However, I'm not sure if Namco could afford to commission a full-length OVA from the likes of I.G. Gonzo and Madhouse are another two strong possibilities as they would be able to make the animation for a lot less and also both seem receptive to new series proposals at the moment. Whatever happens, hopefully the OVA will be worthy of the Tales name.

Finally, some iRO news. After a long wait, the Comodo patch will at long last be implemented on iRO Sakray during the scheduled maintenance period later today. I probably won't have enough time to explore it before leaving for Japan, but it's something to look forward to when I return. ^^

The other day, I mentioned a forthcoming game based on the works of one of my favoutite illustrators, Kunihiko Tanaka. Today, it is the turn of Takamichi, another illustrator, some of the works of which SoZ quite likes. Takamichi, illustrator for such games as Hateshinaku Aoi, Kono Sora no Shita de (or Dokomademo Aoku as the PSX port was called), Hoshigami and Mizu no Kakera, has a new game in the works. Tenshi no Kakera, another game to be produced by Io. As with Mizu no Kakera, the game will be a Flash-driven, browser-based affair. Initial impressions are good - the game is a visual novel with what appears to be a good story, considered character development and, of course, lots of Takamichi eye-candy. ^_^ It should be in stores on the 3rd of October.

Today has been quite busy - I have numerous bits of paperwork that must be processed before the end of the week (so that gives me one more day then... >_>). Then there's the Japan trip - we leave three weeks today so planning is currently quite frantic. If any of the Japan trip travellers are reading this, I hope to get an email out tonight regarding the Osaka/Kyoto accommodation. Don't think I've forgotten about it. Trust me, I haven't. In fact, I think I might be balding as a result of this. I'll blame Swaff again since Swaff is the always the root cause of any Japan-related problems I may have. ^_-

I had a short respite from work this afternoon in the form of a trip to the House of Pain (although I believe they like to call themselves a dental surgery). After spending half an hour with the hand of an unknown man wedged in my mouth (unknown since the old Lord of Paingiving left last month so a new recruit has taken his place), I wandered around town while waiting for the feeling to come back into the right side of my mouth. And face. And right arm. Deciding that I needed something to lift my spirits as a way of temporarily combating the tiredness I had felt over the last few days, I went to have a look in an expensive hi-fi shop towards the bottom of the High Street, with the secondary aim of procuring a new pair of headphones. My current pair, just about visible through all the stickytape that prevents them from falling apart, have definitely seen better days. I thought it was about time I treated myself to a new pair, perhaps one of a slightly sturdier build. I have not really spent much time in a "hi-fi" shop; I presumed they were just like a normal high street electrical retailer, only one specialising in all things audio.

High fidelity, it turns out, is an artform of sorts. And a very expensive one at that. The cheapest pair of headphones they stocked were something called Sennheiser HD 580s. These, I was assured, were the budget-conscious audiophile's headphones of choice, and a bargain at only £99.99 (apparently recently reduced from a figure nearer the £200 mark). Ideally, I was looking for something I could buy with a twenty Pound note and still have change left over for a deli sandwich, but the salesman looked like he was enjoying himself so much that I didn't have the heart to stop him. After an hour, in which I sampled the aformentioned headphones (they were indeed very nice), talked about amplifiers and gawked at a £300 1m phono cable (made with expensive materials that haven't been discovered yet), I left clutching a small slip of paper with a list of the albums the salesman had recently been listening to in his car and which he had politely noted down for me. A bewildering yet fascinating experience.

After an uneventful walk back home, I arrived to discover that the hot water supply to the bathroom was no longer... supplying. The hot water tank appears to be empty and the inlet valve working fine - there's just no water coming into it. The only thing I can think of is that the boiler decided to perform a limescale flush and that there is currently a wad-o-limescale somewhere in the pipe. Investigations are continuing... The only other thing of note I can talk about today is the spider that landed on my keyboard a few minutes ago and which is currently lying in a rather deceased state next to the scanner. It was truly odd. Having descended on a length of thread from the ceiling, the arachnid scuttled across the keyboard and onto the desk. As I moved to intercept it with a plastic cup, it wheeled around to stare at me. Although out-eyed, I returned the stare. This had the effect of causing the spider to flip onto its back and die, right there and then. It's not sleeping or playing dead as a method of protection. It is absolutely dead. I'm trying not to read into this too much...

Well, I had a nice weekend back in Yorkshire for a friend's wedding - the first wedding I've been to for a good few years. Much to the delight of everyone, the day went perfectly from start to finish. It was also a mini reunion of sorts as I had a chance to meet up with a number of other friends, some of whom I had not seen in over a year.

But that's quite enough about me. There are far more important things to talk about, like Hoihoi-san on the PS2!!! (Please forgive me if I sound rather hyper for the remainder of this paragraph - it's probably because I am.) If you've read the FAQ, then you may already be aware of how much I love Kunihiko Tanaka's character art. Ichigeki Sacchhuu Hoihoi-san is Tanaka-Sensei's own series featuring the petit, gun-toting, bug-bashing Hoihoi-san (left) and which runs in Dengeki Daiou, that great magazine available from all good Japanese magazine stockists outside the UK... My apologies if I point out the availability issues every time I mention a Mediaworks publication, but it's an issue I'm rather annoyed about. Anyway, back to the game. It's a fun little action adventure in which you play Hoihoi-san taking on the bugs. Between each bug-blasting mission, the game reverts to a story mode in which events are played out in either the standard simulation game manner (character stills) or an anime cutscene. While it doesn't immediately look like something that will take the gaming world by storm, it's a Hoihoi-san game so it doesn't matter! Any Hoihoi-san is good. Maybe if this serves to raise awareness of the series, we might even see a Hoihoi-san anime! *gurgle-gurgle*

[[[ Re-engaging sanity filters ]]]

I didn't have much time for anime/manga/gaming last week, so I don't have much to talk about on that front. I watched episode 4 of Popotan and a couple more episodes of Narutaru, but that's about it. Popotan is still okay at the moment, although last week's episode (ep. 5, which I have not yet seen) was titled "Onsen", which should probabably serve as a warning although I shall no doubt watch it anyway. I hope it's not going to go downhill from here but I have this nasty feeling it just might. Meanwhile, Narutaru is shaping up to be a nice series. Nice in a cute-yet-dark-and-sinister kind of way. I have not yet read the manga properly, but the TV series still seems quite tame (so far) in comparison. I was put off the manga originally by its generally warped, hard-to-followness, but if I'm still enjoying the anime by the end of the series, I may give the manga a chance, lolicon/demon rape/mutilation and all...

The web is slowly returning to normal after another successful Comiket. Shortly before heading off to the con, Leaf announced the release of a Tasogare design works book. 144 full colour pages in a protective slipcase. *drool* It should be out at the weekend and has already been added to my list of things I "need". ^_^

——— Update ———
I should really spell-check these things before posting them...

And so the heatwave continues. Kotoko is holding out, but today it was Navi's turn to fall victim to the ridiculous temperatures (38°C) upstairs. Navi refused to work until relocated to the relative coolness of the hallway. I later discovered that the cause of Navi's refusal to do anything was that the CPU socket on the motherboard had expanded just enough so that the pins on the outside of the CPU weren't contacting properly - a problem I had experienced several years ago when Navi ran for long periods of time with the old heatsink.

If I had to choose between the two extremes in temperature, I would rather be cold than hot. I've never liked hot weather - you feel worn out and lethargic, annoying children come out to play in the street, food goes off far more rapidly (milk seems to go off in the time it takes me to walk from the milk hatch to the fridge), etc. No, I for one would be more than happy if the normal British summer weather were to return. Unfortunately, looking at the weather forecast for the week ahead, it's unlikely that will happen.

Featured series of the day: Ultra Maniac. I've finally managed to catch an episode of the TV series and I'm pleased to say it's a worthy animated adaptation of the manga. The image on the right is a cute picture of Ayu and Nina taken from the ending credits. If I can find the time, I'll try and watch a little more of the series to see how it follows/diverges from the manga; currently, it's following the original story quite closely. If you haven't seen the anime or read the manga, I highly recommend them both (obviously I can't really comment on the anime after episode 1, but if the level of quality remains the same and it continues to follow the plot of the manga, it should turn out to be a great TV series).

I've now seen episode 3 of Popotan and am still reasonably satisfied with how the series is turning out. It's hardly an epic series, but it is cute and certainly does the Popotan brand (and Petit Ferret) no harm. I've seen the final release version of the opening movie for Popotan Po! (the DVD version of Popotan) and it looks quite smart - certainly an improvement on the preview version they had on the website. And the music is still far more catchy than the TV OP. Speaking of the TV themes, the Popotan TV OP/ED single, Popotan e.p. came out a few days ago. I've fallen in love with the third track - Gem Stone, the image song performed by both Under17 and Funta. It's so cute... and bouncy... ^_^

I'll have to add some of Poyoyon Rokku's doujinshi to my list of things to look for while in Japan. The trouble is, they're so rare now that when they do turn up, you have to pay through the nose for them - a bit like Yoshitoshi Abe's doujinshi. The price of fame weighs heavily on the fans too it would seem. Nevertheless, I will keep my eye out. Perhaps I can afford one Poyoyon doujinshi; I just love the cute character designs. There is apparently a book coming out on the 27th of this month from Kadokawa - Rokku-chan no Himitsu no Ehon - but I can't find out anything about it besides the basic release information. A Popotan illustration book perhaps? Softbank already have the Visual Fan Book out, so it seems strange to have another very similar book from a different publisher. If anyone knows anything about this particular book, please let me know.

——— Update ———
I just noticed that Kadokawa finally have some information up about Rokku-chan no Himitsu no Ehon. Poyoyon Rock's character designs and original illustrations! It sounds great! ^_^ Also, I typed this post on Penpen since the room Kotoko is located in is currently uninhabitable due to the big, round, glowy fusion reactor passing overhead. Penpen's keyboard has a problem in that the 'M' key doesn't work unless you jump up and down on it. Therefore, if you spot a missing 'M' in the text, just pretend there's one there.

Before I do anything else, I just want to say thanks to everyone who attended the PLACICACDASCP at the weekend. I had great fun and it was good to see everyone again - probably the last time for a while. (Although for all those reading this who are also going on the Japan trip, I think one more future meeting, either in the physical or virtual world, might be an idea before we depart.) Thanks to a persuasive influence, I also picked up Kuroboshi Kouhaku's Kino no Tabi artbook which is a very nice artbook indeed.

I've finally managed to catch the first two episodes of the Popotan TV series... and I'm actually fairly happy with the way it turned out. Due to the nature of the series (think Sliders with cute), each episode is a completely independent story. For the moment at least; whether a much greater overriding story will establish itself later on remains to be seen. The TV series isn't really ecchi, although there are moments (usually for the purpose of humour)... and bath scenes seem to get more screen time than is necessary. However, the primary theme is one of cute. The first two stories are both nice and waffy which pleases SoZ muchly. ^^ The only thing that disappointed me was the opening which seemed rather unoriginal and ungenki after the DVD version of the game opening... Which reminds me - Petit Ferret released the aforementioned DVD version of Popotan on August 1st. Sorry, I meant to point the release out sooner but I forgot. -_-

I've also been reading some more of Toshihiko Kobayashi's Pastel, volume 3 of which I bought on Saturday. Since then, I've come to the conclusion (or rather reconfirmed my earlier suspicions) that the series is I''s, only with different characters drawn by a different mangaka. Once I've finished this volume, I'll move onto .hack//Udeden vol. 2 and then Taruto vol. 3 (which amazingly Asahiya had in stock, despite it only being released barely two weeks ago). So many things to look forward to. ^_^