minna ni naisho dayo

New Game: Famicom Wars DS (JP)

Title: Famicom Wars DS
Platform: Nintendo DS (JP)
Publisher: Nintendo

Where: Dreamland
When: June 20
How Much: 4,480 yen (4,572 yen w/tax)

I'm alive! And despite being broker than J.J. from Good Times, I still went and blew $40 on Famicom Wars DS this past Monday, a game I really don't need right now, and one I'll probably wind up playing in English anyway. Why did I do this? Because I'm a sucker for new stuff - especially when I can get it before anyone else. I have to find a way to break this evil, evil habit.

I'll probably wind up selling it back soon-ish, as most stores in Japan offer pretty good buy-back prices if you offload within a week or two of release. But in the meantime, it -has- served its purpose; it got me to break out the original Advance Wars again so I could take another shot at it. I never finished it the first time around, so I decided to start over and see how far I can go this time before the inevitable sidetracking occurs. I'll keep you posted.

BTW, apologies to those of you who prefer to read this blog from its original URL (http://www.nokonoko.net/). I've been having trouble with Movable Type lately, so I haven't been able to update over there in a while. I'll try to take care of it once work lets up a bit (2015, maybe?).

Looking Ahead: June 2005

Time for a quick look at what's coming down the pipes for the month of June. Yeah, I'm a few days late (blame work), but better late than never, right?

Believe it or not, I hardly bought anything in May. I got Bomberman from EGM for review, and I bought Fire Emblem, but otherwise that's pretty much it. Oh, I also got that DS Brain Training game from Nintendo, which seems pretty fun. I'm still planning on checking out several of the other May games, but I'll probably wait until they drop in price a bit. As for June, here's what I'm looking at right now:

Eiyuu Densetsu: Gagharv Trilogy: A Tear of Vermilion (Bandai, PSP, June 2, Japan)

This one's out already, but seeing as how I've yet to finish the previous Eiyuu Densetsu on PSP, I'm going to wait a bit before I pick it up. But I will buy it eventually, as I love Falcom RPGs and this one looks to be a lot better than the last one.

Killer 7 (Capcom, GC/PS2, June 9, Japan)

I'm actually pretty sure I'm NOT going to buy this, but I am a bit curious about it, at least. From day one it never looked like it was going to be focused on actual gameplay, so it seems kind of pointless to me, but the art style is unique enough that I'd like to see it in action.

Drag-On Dragoon 2 (Square Enix, PS2, June 16, Japan)

If anything, I think I'll wait for the US version of this (Drakengard 2) before bothering with it. The first one had a unique atmosphere, but the actual game was pretty dull and repetitive, and the story was beyond stupid. They got a really talented set of voice actors for the Japanese version, though, so it might be worth checking out in Japanese.

Famicom Wars DS (Nintendo, DS, June 23, Japan)

I'd rather play this in English, but seeing as how it won't be out in America until the end of August, I'm going to have to bite the bullet and get this version instead. This is the first DS game I really can't wait for, and if it's anything like the two GBA iterations, it's gonna be hot!

Riviera: The Promised Land (Atlus, GBA, June 28, USA)

I'm looking to build up a collection of GBA games I'd like to play so I can justify my inevitable purchase of a Game Boy Micro later this year. This is one of them. I've been curious about it ever since its days as a WonderSwan game, but I never got around to checking it out. Now that it's finally coming out in English, I guess I'll give it a shot.

Genji (SCEJ, PS2, June 30, Japan)

My girlfriend's family are direct descendents of the Genji clan, so if I don't check this one out, she might go all samurai on my ass and cut me to pieces. That wouldn't be very fun. But in all seriousness, Okamoto's first game since leaving Capcom looks very promising, and I'm eager to find out if it can stand on its own without getting stuck within the shadow of the Onimusha series from which it was obviously inspired. I'm definitely buying this one, so we'll see soon enough.

Ys: The Oath in Felghana (Falcom, PC, June 30, Japan)

Oh yeah. I preordered this the moment they started taking orders, and I seriously can't wait to get my hands on it. It's essentially a full-3D remake of Ys III done in a modified version of the Ys VI engine, though I hope they add some new content to the scenario (the original Ys III was really short). The preorder bonus was ridiculous: eight full audio CDs of music from Ys III -- seven from the older games and one from Felghana -- all for free! It's no wonder Falcom fans are so loyal out here.

And that's it for June. Seems like another loaded month, huh? If I can find time to play even half of this stuff, I think I'll be pretty happy. How about you guys? What are you looking forward to in June?