We don't always like being nonplussed

Saturday, August 27, 2011

Naruto Shippuden: Nultimate Impact. Demo.. AKA Dynasty Warriors: Nult

And I'm back again... and more to the point it's really me, AngeliqueDaemon. Why am I back again? Because I was told this game is essentially Dynasty Warriors: Naruto. I cannot stress how AWESOME this could possibly be. I mean THINK about it... you could play your favorite character, and just run around and CRUSH other ninjas! I mean, I know that this isn't an official Dynasty Warriors game, but it could be soooooooo cool... running around... as Hinata... being all shy and underrated and shit... and then KICKING UNHOLY AMOUNTS OF ASS!!!!

Honestly I'm trying to keep my expectations down, because there's a good chance that reality won't be able to live up to the amazingness dwelling in my head, and I'm having a hell of a time not saying something stupid like 'There's no way they could mess this up' because there really, REALLY is... Shit, does that count as saying it? Anyway, on with Dynasty Nult!

Friday, August 26, 2011

Dragon Quest VI/6 - Day 36 (In which the Spice must flow)

And we're back for the big Friday update, which might turn into the Friday Video update, if we get a consensus on the matter. It stands at one vote for yes, so I guess that could be a consensus. Remember to vote yea or nay, depending on your opinion.

So, we were going to go to the new town to see what we can find, and then do our best to figure out where to go from there.

This might be one of the other seven hundred places excitable amateur archaeologists have mistaken for Atlantis.
Not at all what I pictured Atlantis looking like, but I guess you have to take what you're given.

This place certainly does seem festive, if nothing else. There are pretty sparkling colors in the air, so there are either some really wacky fire flies around here, or it's something to do with magic.

Thursday, August 25, 2011

New Poll: How about more video?

On Wednesday, That Guy celebrated our first anniversary (+/- 10 days) with his first video! Which you can see at the end of this post- just click here!

So our question is: want more? Vote to the right, and the poll lasts for one week, until the end of September 1st. If you've got any other comments or suggestions, put them here or email me at flailthroughs@gmail.com!

Dragon Quest VI/6 - Day 35 (Apparently in Dragon Quest it's NOT hard to find jobs...)

And we're back for Thursday, and I for once don't know what to do first! It's so exciting to have too many ideas where to go! Do we speak with King Spongebob, or do we head to the other world and check out that island/ town that came up out of the water? I think the first thing to do is going to be speaking with the king, to see if we get a reward.

Actually no, I think the first thing I'm going to do is switch out my two magic users for the other two, and get them some job levels. I figured out how to do this totally by accident, and I figured it was time to level them up.

Ok, on second thought that might not be the best idea, because they're both about 10 levels behind the rest of us, and neither of them have healing magic. I settled on this configuration, for the sake of not dying.

So, George/Carver/Hassan, Elf/Milly/Mireille, Casper/Ashlynn/Barbara, and uh... Hero/Hero/Hero.
So we settle on having Casper in the group for a while, so we can get her some job levels.

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Our First Anniversary! (...was Sunday a week ago. Of course!)

Flailthroughs went live on August 14th, 2010. Which means we've been at this for a little over a year now! Our goal from the beginning has been a simple one: we wanted to share the entertaining confusion we've always felt playing import games without anything close to a working knowledge of Japanese. I think we've managed that so far, and learned some valuable lessons along the way. (First and foremost: never, ever play Saga games in Japanese.)

Over the past year, we've done in-"depth" playthroughs of seven going-on eight games, including one of the first and least helpful complete runthroughs of Pokemon Black to appear online! More than that, we've provided some potentially legitimately valuable help with some of the weird ways that the Japanese language handles loanwords, as well as demo reviews, quick overviews of obscure import titles, and even reviews of even more obscure RPG Maker games (on those occasions when homebrew games in foreign languages and my PC decide to get along).

Most importantly I'd like to thank AngeliqueDaemon and That Guy for supporting me in this madness, and putting far more time and effort into powering through the games they've reviewed than any sane person would, or should. Thanks, guys! I'd also like to thank everyone who's supported us and linked to the site, especially Eric Bailey of Nintendo Legend fame who's been a booster of ours from very early on. Thanks! And of course, my thanks to everybody who supports us just by reading us- if nobody did, what would be the point?

We've worked some of the kinks out of the operation and discovered even more new ones as we've expanded and tried new approaches. All a part of not really knowing what we're doing, which- whether anyone wants to admit it or not -is a big part of life. The trick is to laugh about it, and fix it where you can.

Dragon Quest VI/6 - Day 34 (In which I can't make the DAMN AUDIO MATCH!!!)

And welcome to the belated one year anniversary flail. This is going to start out pretty straight forward, but should get better at the ending, so bear with me.

We take the first set of stairs down, grabbing a few chests on the way, one of which has a Tiny Medal, which is good... I still don't know where to take them, but at least I've got a good amount of them by now... I think.

I can tell right away that I'm going to absolutely hate this place:

Very mazeish.
Yep, I'm going to hate it here.

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Dragon Quest VI/6 - Day 33 (Witty Title Goes Here)

And back on Tuesday, I still haven't managed to get my email back, so I'm going to be doing this from AngeliqueDaemon's account again. It's odd to think that while this is posted, I have a vagina. [Ed note: It's only on loan.]

Now, I don't know where I'm going, but I'm still going to guess that it's underwater, since the king of sponges was too. I'm going to keep my eyes open for unusual formations under the sea, and hope for the best.

If houses and whole kingdoms are fine underwater, what do we need this bubble for?
That is most definitely an unusual underwater formation, but only because the singles clash so much with the color scheme. Also, it's a house, under water. That's pretty goddamn unusual, so I'm going to step in and see if I don't have to battle... a drowned person, or something.

Monday, August 22, 2011

Dragon Quest VI/6 - Day 32 (I WILL LEARN YOUR SECRETS OF KRABBY PATTIES!!!!)

[Foreword: Thanks to some douche rocket in Taiwan, That Guy's Google account has been locked down, so he can't post this under his own. Until we get all that mess sorted out, we'll be posting these under my account, though I assure you it's still him writing and not me. Sorry for the confusion.]

After a long weekend of helping a friend clean out his basement, we're back and smell vaguely of cat pee. I didn't have a time to do anything over the weekend, which would have been the best place for power leveling, but friends is friends, and you help where you can.

I did at least spend a good amount of time wandering around the map, and so I've found somewhere that looks like a good starting point for our magical mystery tour of insanity.

That looks promising.
Ok, in reality I was teleporting around randomly, hoping to find where I go next, and saw this cave from outside of the castle where we met George. It still counts, though!

I love this part of JRPGs. Seriously, I do. -Ed.
I'm not supposed to be here! I am NOT supposed to be here! Run away! Run away fast!

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Demo Review: Carnage Heart EXA (PSP) Conclusion!

And in the time between Part 1 and now, I caught That Guy's cold. Hooray! Unlike That Guy who gets comically incoherent when set upon by plague germs, I get cranky and judgmental. Just so you know. Punch it, Chewie:

Yesterday, a young, possibly-disabled creep named Kairu (me, the player. Hooray.) has hired a girl named Chirin to tutor him in the ways of programming robots (Overkill Engines or OKEs, if you want to keep up on the jargon). When they met, he was struck dumb by Chirin's enchanting unremarkable mousiness. I mean, seriously, she's plain. Not even "plain" in that teen drama "Oh my god I pulled her glasses off and she's a freaking goddess" kind of way. She's average. In the real world she might be on the high side of average, since the real world allows fat people like myself in capacities other than comic relief. But for a world where impossible anatomy and hair colors exist and body fat does not? She is double average.

What followed was what felt like several decades' worth of dating sim-style conversation and dull-but-actually-helpful (even to a non-speaker of Japanese) tutorials administered by Chirin, and later by Partita, Kairu's "assistant." Exactly what she assists him with is up for debate, as she's a robot designed to look like a young woman wearing a maid costume. To reiterate: Japan. Kairu is a bit scruffy but I don't see why he'd have a problem meeting women... he doesn't seem to type to suddenly exclaim "Hoyvin Glavin!" (Or, en Espanol, "Hoibin Maibin") He'd do okay, provided he left the robot maid home. And women in Carnage Heart-verse seem pretty forgiving, as Chirin was merely surprised by the fact that he lived alone with an animate Real Doll, and not utterly repulsed as I'd think any self-respecting woman would be. Maybe there's no stigma attached to this in this world. Perhaps she's got one at home, and she's hoping she can set him up on a date with Partita. I don't know how these fictional people think, man.