Theatrical Version Puella Magi Madoka Magica The Battle Pentagram ~ listed

The soon to be released Sony Vita game for Mahou Shoujo Madoka is now listed on CDJapan.  This is the second Mahou Shoujo Madoka game on the vita and it's scheduled for a mid-Dec release.

Now, I'm quite keen to get it, since in an effort to improve my Japanese, I've started playing mostly Japanese video games.  My Japanese is still weak, in my opinion, and I have very little time to do my homework so I have to fine ways that I find enjoyable and do-able for me to try and at least keep at it.  Since I have to travel for approximately 1 hour to and from work everyday, this is the perfect window of opportunity to play handhelds

My loving parents gave me a very early birthday gift of an 3DS earlier this year and I have been playing Animal Crossing and Youkai Watch and a tiny bit of Time Travelers.  Animal Crossing uses a lot of keigo and some strange Japanese and a lot of katakana, so at times, I do find it a little trying.  Youkai Watch is much easier for me and quite fun too.  My only real problem is my weak vocabulary which means quite a bit of dictionary work.

Okay, enough of that aside. :)  I did play parts of the first Mahou Shoujo Madoka game on the vita and even have an unboxing post of the LE set.  Check this post. :)  But there is a lot of story in the Madoka game which I would like to understand better... so I put it aside for when I get better at Japanese.

Still, I intend to but this 2nd Madoka game on the vita.  I am a big Madoka fan and this particular LE release is also suppose to come pack with a soundtrack CD which I am hoping will be more Kajiura Yuki music... but the lack of any actual information makes me wonder if it could be something else all together.  Still, I want to play this game and even though I am certain it will not have any furigana, I would still like to try.  I'll most likely pre-order this and when I do get it, I'll unbox it. :)

For those who are keen on getting this game too... you can click here for the CDJapan product page for:

Limited Edition  (this is what you'll get with the LE click me)
Regular Edition

cheers

New Madoka game for Vita, LE w/OST CD (Kajiura Yuki?)

I don't remember having a busier year at work.  It's been a little bit mad. :(  Even now, I still have work on my mind and after I write this short post, I will be switching to my work station to try and figure out if there is a way to solve a specific prep problem faster.  So here goes, as short and as fast as possible for long-winded me. :)

I was reading something on animenewsnetwork.com when I came across a post regarding the December release of the new Mahou Shoujo Madoka Vita game.  Aside from the fact that it is related to my 2nd fav mahou shoujo anime of all time, the other thing that interested me was that the game will be using Kajiura Yuki's music from the anime.  While there is no mention if there will be any new music written, the entry does say that the Limited Edition release of this vita game also comes with an OST CD.  I really don't know if that means that a Kajiura Yuki OST CD will be packaged with this release or it means some other music will be on this CD but if it is indeed Kajiura Yuki's music, I would be very happy.  I do intend to purchase this game at some point.  So the LE edition is very much on the cards if the OST CD includes her music.

Anyway... it's mostly hopeful speculation on my part.  :) Now... I am off to do some testing.

cheers :)

Mahou Shoujo Madoka ~ Portable - huge discount

I've been meaning to write this for a while (thanks shangyou) but have been too busy.... CDJapan has been selling the Limited Edition Mahou Shoujo Madoka Portable set at a 60% discount for a while.  There are currently only 24 sets left.

Fans of the series may want to consider this set even if you don't read / understand Japanese.  The set does come with several freebies as well as the limited edition figma of Madoka in her school uniform.  To my knowledge, this figure is only available if you buy the set.

The game itself, is very talkie.  I played just the beginning portion but didn't have time to play through because I really have too many things to do.  I thought it was okay but then I am partly using these games to improve my Japanese and because I really am a huge fan of the series... so I think my views may be slightly coloured by that.

For those who are interested, you can view my unboxing post ... click me.

And for those who would like to purchase it at CDJapan... click me.

K.... I have to go... have Chinese New Year things I must do today.  :)

Mahou Shoujo Madoka portable - unboxing

Here's my picture heavy unboxing post for the Mahou Shoujo Madoka Portable Limited Edition Set w/Figma figure.  I got lucky and got this set at almost 50% off and it even came with the pre-order bonus even though when I ordered it, it had already been released.

Anyway, as usual, I am blogging pretty late at night again.  So will try and keep my comments to a minimum so that I can speed through this.

This is what the exterior of the specially designed box from Shaft looks like.



If you manage to get the set with the pre-order bonus, you'll get a piece of flim strip, a special custom theme set and a Weiss Schwarz special card..  The film is attached to a card that features Kyubey's face on the cover.



The password for the special custom theme set can be found printed on the inner face of the card.  I have mosaic-ed the password out.  You will find the piece of film on the opposite side of the card..  My piece of film is quite a nice piece.  I got a closeup of Madoka's face. :)


After you open the box, you find the following.



The contents are nice and snugly packed.  You find a little white box that will contain the Homu Homu handkerchief, the Kyubey pouch and the special clear card.  I'm not sure if everyone gets the same card or if they differ from box to box.

And the highlight of this boxset, at least for me, is the Figma figure of Madoka in her school uniform.  This version of Madoka can only be obtained if you buy this boxset and this is the biggest reason why I wanted this boxset.

Here is the link to the Good Smile Company's page with nice detailed photos of this particular figma.  Click me.

The following are the photos of the Blu-ray Disc with special footage and the PSP game.



I haven't had a chance to watch the Blu-ray disc yet.  Here is the link to the wiki page with more information on the game and the contents of the Blu-ray.  Click me.

The above video is a video of the game running on my first generation PSP.  It is a 2 to 3 min clip of the first section of the game and it doesn't show the battle gameplay, I didn't get that far.  The opening is exactly like the opening of the anime and the text reminded me of excerpts from the novel version of the anime.

You have to upgrade your firmware to the latest firmware to play it.  I haven't touched my PSP for a while, and it was on some ancient firmware and I had to upgrade it before it'll run the game.

There is a lot of story-telling in this game.  Loads of it will resemble a visual novel, which is typical of these kinds of games.  The Mai-Hime game was also like this.  What I do like about this game is that it is fully voiced and it has subtitles that you can turn on and off.  That's really helpful and useful for someone learning Japanese like me.

The quality of the video that I shot isn't fantastic unfortunately.  I used my phone to shoot it and there wasn't exactly tons of light when I shot the video too.  I shot it mostly because I wanted to show the extent of the voice acting, the subtitles and that they can be turned on and off. 

I fully intend to play this game.  So it looks like I may be leaving my Vita and NDS at home for a while. :)

Oh... if you want to get this set, you can try CDJapan or Amazon Japan.  They still have these limited boxsets.  Here is the direct link to the product page on CDJapan. Click me.

Alrighty, that's it from me for today.  Off to bed. :)

mahou shoujo madoka portable - tease :P

I've finally have some time to try the game out.  I played it for a while on the train ride to the studio. :)

Am at work now and should really get serious and get started.

Hmmm... will try and write my unboxing post tonight and talk a little about the game.

The limited box set is still available at some places for those who want it. Some places are sold out of the limited box sets but the game itself is still available.

CDJapan lists this limited edition at 30% off which isn't a bad discount if you can't find it cheaper elsewhere.

K.. Gotta go... Will write a proper post on it later. :)

Posting from my vita 3

almond jelly kit kat, a photo by kiasukid2000 on Flickr.

i am still busy playing with the vita and trying to figure out how i can best get it to work to cater to my specific needs. Now i am testing posting photos to the blog using flickr. i wasnt v successful using picasa.

This is a photo shot using the vita's back camera. it is a photo of an almond jelly flavoured kit kat... just one of the many funky and fun flavours to come out of japan. :)

Posting from my vita 2

I have now successfully posted a photo to blogspot via the vita's browser. But in order to do that i had to use the html tab instead of the compose tab to upload the photo. This pulls up one of the older interfaces used to upload photos to blogspot and uploading using a wifi connection was quick and simple. After that, you can go to the compose tab to work further on the post if you like. The photo will show up like they usually do and you will be able to select thumbnail size and add captions etc. Unfortunately there is no copy and paste function yet and i hope they will add that in the future as it is a pretty important function to have for emailing and blogging etc. The left and right trigger buttons on the shoulder of the ps vita will move your cursor left or right. I really like that. It is much easier than stabbing at the left and right trianges on the left and right of the spacebar. K.... Am going to take a shower soon. Btw the photo above is a screenshot from uncharted from my vita while i was playing it this afternoon. :) ta ta. :)

posting from my vita

this is a test post from the sony vita to see how well it works with blogspot. actually, i rather like typing with the vita. i just set it down flat on the table and type with two fingers and  typing is quite fast. i think i may use this to do most of my mobile blogging when i go on my trip later this month.

so far, i have played uncharted on the vita and it is quite fun. i am really bad at the game since i am mostly a traditional rpg gamer and i prefer 2d platform games and racing games in general.  i haven't had the need to use the back touch pad yet so i m not sure how well that works.

i have used the front and back cameras which are ok and relatively easy to use.  the quality isnt great though and i really prefer the quality of the photos from the samsung galaxy s II. i had to do a system update to get two additional functions on the vita.  now i can shoot video which is once again not as good as the samsung galaxy s II but is adequate enough for simple blogging etc.  there may be quality settings for the camera that i dont know about... i have not explored that yet.

what i do like is the screen capture function which can be activated even while i am playing a game. The screen is beautiful too and touchscreen is responsive. It is a little heavy for a handheld and the it doesn't play the latest flash on he web. also, i haven't figured out how to upload photos to the blog yet which may be a bit of a bummer for mobile blogging.  and also need to figure out how the vita's web browser works as it doesn't seem to understand frames v well.

k will update with photos later.  now to post this test how well blogspot works with the vita browser.

 but so far i am loving this machine. :)