Nintendo’s New ‘Fire Emblem Heroes’ on Mobile

 

Today, I will be writing a personal review on a new game app that was just released (free) on the 2nd February 2017 by Nintendo on the Fire Emblem series. Ever since the released of Fire Emblem: Awakening and Fire Emblem Fates, the Fire Emblem series fans have grown a lot and received more wold-wide attention then ever before. I was 1 of the many million people out there who have grown to love the gameplay, art style, and the story of Fire Emblem. So when Nintendo released a new Fire Emblem Heroes for the phone this February, I was extremely excited and had to try this game no matter what. I downloaded the game from the Android play store and voila! I couldn’t stop playing it.

Since Fire Emblem Heroes was just released, many free orbs (used for summoning) are being given out daily. This game consists of a 9 chapters story (so far), with 3 modes (normal, hard, lunatic), an arena for pvp battles, a training tower and a special maps area. The game offers very smooth gameplay, battle system, old and new characters, and beautifully drawn graphics with decent English dubbing. Unlike many other apps out there, I personally didn’t feel the need to spend real money to get rare and powerful characters. The rare summoning rates are not as bad as other games and almost every player I have battled so far have got at least 1 rare character (even though the app just released).

There are only 2 bad points about this game. The 1st bad point is the length of the story. All 9 chapters can be completed rather quickly (I completed all 9 chapters in normal mode in 1-2 days) – so the story content is definitely lacking as of now, but I am sure there will be more story content in the near future. The 2nd bad point would be the fact that you have to constantly be online in order to play the game, although this isn’t really a huge problem.

Anyways, if you are looking for a new game to play on your phone, or a Fire Emblem/Nintendo fan, give this game a go! Nintendo has definitely done a great work on this app (despite what a few critics might say) and I can’t wait for the next Fire Emblem game remake coming out on the 3DS later this year!

Kuroshitsuji 黒執事 – Book of the Atlantic

Kuroshitsuji has been a long time favourite anime and manga series written by Japanese author Toboso Yana  (枢 やな). It is an anime with extremely detailed and beautiful illustrations set in Victorian England; about a devilishly handsome butler and a young earl solving mysteries. Having aired Season 1, Season 2, Book of Murder and Book of Circus, I am pleased to tell every Kuroshitsuji fan out there that the new movie Book of the Atlantic was aired in theaters (Japan Nationwide) a few weeks ago on the 21st January 2017!  Of course, I had to watch it! And even though there were no English subtitles whatsoever, i have to say that I’m proud that I understood the movie. The movie – as with the anime series, displayed beautiful graphics illustrations, exciting fighting scenes (more than the anime TV series), and revealed some surprising facts you did not know before about the characters *Liz . It was thoroughly enjoyable!

Watching the movie in Japan theatres gave me an extra edge as the company Square Enix gave out limited weekly gifts on weeks 1, 2 and 3 to those who purchased the film ticket. Week 1 gave out autographed posters (what I got), week 2 gave out fan art drawings and week 3 (this week) will be giving out coasters. Certain theatres also had shop booths dedicated solely to Kuroshitsuji and sold many merchandises such as mugs, socks, towels, tote bags, files, figures and many more (many of which sold out really quickly after the date of airing). Even though they were all really quite expensive, i can’t NOT spend a single dime on anything – and so just after the movie aired, I went on a splurge and bought many goods including a mug, several files, a mini towel and a Sebastian plush which I got from the UFO catcher in game arcades. I know this was impulsive and excessive of me, but if this is what it takes to support this series, then I will lick the grounds for it  will gladly pay so.

So if you are in Japan right now, be sure to watch the movie in theatres! And to people overseas, be patient xD I’m sure it will get subbed soon. And be sure to continue supporting the anime/manga series and thank the wonderful voice actors Daisuke Ono, Junichi Suwabe, Sakamoto Maya etc for making the characters as lovable as they are~

Coming of Age Ceremony in Japan – 成人式

The coming of age ceremony is one of Japan’s traditional custom  that I got to experience this year on 9th January 2017, in the outskirts of Tokyo – Saitama. This ceremony is held annually  nationwide in order to celebrate ‘girls’ and ‘boys’ who have reached the adult age of 20. In Japan, becoming 20 years old is quite a big deal as the legal age for many things here is 20 – for example, drinking alcohol, going to pubs, signing contracts etc. For many foreigners who come to Japan under the legal age, it is rather difficult to do many things that you would normally be able to do back home at age 18. I felt this struggle as I had to get parental consent in order to sign a phone contract – which was difficult to get considering that I came to Japan on my own. Therefore, becoming 20 in Japan gave me a slight breeze of freedom.

Moving on to the ceremony itself. Having lived here in Japan for over a year, its safe to say I’ve established some sort of student residency status, hence, i got invited to this ceremony by my local municiple office. The letter that was sent to me was full of Japanese and as I am still learning the language, I could only read the main points which highlighted the event details. There was no indication as to what to wear or bring. So being the clueless person that i am, i had to do my own research on to what to wear and bring – that is the beautiful but extremely expensive and excruciating to wear Furisode (The Furisode is a Kimono with very long ‘swinging’ sleeves worn on very formal occasions and is often made of expensive fabric material) that ranges from between JPY¥25,000~100,000+ (about USD$250~1000+) just for a 1 day rent.

I also realised that Furisodes are normally booked in advance of up to 1 year prior to the event itself – and as i did not know or think that i would be attending this ceremony, i had not made any bookings in advance. But luckily, after days of searching, i found a cheap kimono rental place that allowed me to reserve just 4 days before the ceremony for the lower end price of ¥35,000. Of course, the fabric colour wasn’t as vibrant as high end kimonos – but it was the experience that counted.

As I am living in a rather countryside Saitama prefecture – 30mins away from Tokyo,  the ceremony i attended may not be as extravagant and grand as central Tokyo, but the crowd was still there. During the ceremony,  a bunch of speeches took place – half the time i was too busy concentrating on the pain and weight of the tight Furisode Obi belt, so i had not listened to the whole thing, but it was basically congratulating everyone and everything. We were also given a congratulatory gift to bring home, and when i went home to open it – it was a digital clock. Yes, a digital clock… Probably to let us realise the importance of time?? But as i said, it was held in the countryside, so the gifts in central tokyo might’ve been much better.

This was an experience that everybody only gets to go through once ( as we all age), so  even though i spent a bomb on just renting a Furisode for 4 hours, I was glad to have went through this ordeal of being a typical bankrupt student.  :’)

”Real Neat Blog Award”

Having been on hiatus for a while….due to my exceedingly hard exams (esp. Chemistry) which i finished, i have been neglecting my blog for some socially fun things – mainly hiding in the corner of my bed till 5am with a sweaty 3DS. Nevertheless, i had decided to stop my blog posts for a while since there wasn’t really anything interesting going on in my life that anyone would find interesting…apart from packing suitcases to prepare my flight for Japan. So, when i found out that i got nominated for this ‘Real Neat Blog Award’, i was incredibly surprised as i don’t feel i actually deserve it. Truth be said, i actually got a hint of excitement seeing this pop up in my email.

I would very much like to thank Takuto’s Anime Cafe for nominating me for this award! Believe it or not, this nomination really means a lot to me – even though it is not tangible, the thought really counts that someone does actually read my posts. It has encouraged me to write more regularly, though i can’t keep my word that anything interesting would come up since i’m pretty much house-bound at the moment babysitting my little brother.

Takuto’s Anime Cafe asked me 7 questions to accept this award!

1. Are you absolutely content with your blog? Do you plan to add any new segments or features soon? 

Well….having said that i pretty much neglected this blog for a short while, i cant say i’m satisfied with where this is going. So no, i am not absolutely content with my blog. The few posts that i have wrote so far are pretty much fillers for the next segment i plan on doing which will be pretty much on Japan since i will be starting University next year. I am sure that my blog posts will be more interesting in a months’ time considering that going to University would be an exciting and life-changing event for everyone. So, i really do look forward to sharing with everyone my adventures to come.

2. Have you ever considered creating a YouTube channel?

Actually, i do have a Youtube channel with surprisingly over 400,000+ views. But i am not going to link it up here since its a gaming channel that has probably no relevance whatsoever to my blog. (Puh-lease, like anyone wants to watch me game) I have also considered doing a vlogging/cooking channel on Youtube but I have absolutely no confidence to let the world see my face..plus, there are already many channels out there so it would likely be a waste of human’s time.

3.Do you find yourself reading more manga, playing more games, or watching more anime?

Anime? I started doing these things since i was pretty young. I remember my first anime being ‘Pretty Cure’ or ‘Sakura Card Captor’.. At that time, i thought it was just cartoons since i thought all animations with english voices are ‘cartoons’. But at around 12 years old, my friend introduced me to this thing called ‘Anime’, highly recommending the anime ‘Special A’. My first reaction was ‘Erhhhhh….what are they speaking? This sounds so alien to me’ etc… but i started liking it and watch the whole series withing 3 days. I basically clicked on random links on the anime website my friend recommended to me and boom! here i am now watching more anime than i ever did before. [For the record, i love spoilers and i hate endings, so if the spoiler said something about someone dying at the end, sayonara anime~ hate me all you want but just know that i’m not one of those people who calls themselves ‘Anonymous’ and post spoilers on the comment section in anime websites]

As for manga, i am not a fan of un-coloured artwork plus the illustrations on anime are usually much nicer. As much as anyone would convince me to pick up a manga and read it, i will only read it if i am really really into the anime and if i really really want to see what happens next. Also, i don’t know about you but sometimes i find the artwork in the manga pretty confusing for me to understand. I have a highly imaginative mind, but i definitely do not like it when a flying fireball stays stagnant on a piece of paper. With me, its all about the moving picture! We need it to come to live – not literally but you know what i mean.

Lastly, games… ahhh….games….GAMES! This is what i have been doing and probably what everyone has been doing earlier than watching anime or reading manga. Games are a sort of getaway from reality kindof thing. It allows you to be who you want and experience the fleeting moments of fantasy as much as you want. That’s why i’m super excited about virtual/augmented reality like the Occulus rift and so on so forth. As much as i want to say i have a good life…no i don’t and had always have what i considered the worst life possible. Living in an orphanage for many years with so many bad influences and mentally ill people, games were the only thing that kept me sane and pretty much alive. Although these were cheap games and toys that everyone shared, it still entertained me when all we had were brooms and mops to do chores for at least half a day. Games were and are very important to me – it might sound like an over exaggeration, but if games are alive, i would thank them thousands of times just to let them now how grateful i am for giving me that little bit of light at the end of the tunnel and optimism in my life when the tunnel was dark and when i was lost.

4.What is the first anime that you recommend to a new person, considering that they are cool with any genre and episode length

Gintama! I wrote in my first few posts that Gintama is a must watch anime because it really helps a person to lighten their mood and make them smile and laugh. It really is a powerful anime in a sense that even after quarreling with your parents (for example), you would be able to smile and laugh and talk to them like you normally do after an episode or 2. Considering how it takes a LOT to make me laugh or smile – to the point where my friends would ask me if i’m okay everytime we meet, Gintama is probably the ONLY anime which made me laugh or at least made me laugh GENUINELY. So please watch it and support them if you haven’t already!

5.Do you prefer to buy anime limited or standard edition, if any?

I actually hardly buy any anime merchandises since most of my money goes to games or new gaming consoles which can get pretty costly. I did get some figurines on Ebay or Amazon but they are really cheap ones that still look decent as they are shipped from China. The only other thing i bought that is anime related is Hakuouki which is also a PSP/3DS game and i got the limited edition one because the artwork was really beautiful! plus it came with the OST. Oh oh oh! and i definitely supported Gintama by buying ALL 250+ episodes they have! It was definitely expensive but that just goes to show how much i love this anime!

6.Borrowing this one from JekoJeko, which show do you wish your life was more like?

I wished my life was like any anime. Honestly, almost every anime ends with a happy ending and the protagonist always have exciting adventures! I would be very very happy to live in a cottage and have my house invaded with monsters or get teleported to some random world or die in vain for some crappy person…. okay probably not the last one…

But if i have to be very very very honest, i have to say everyone (those who watch anime at least) wants to be in some sort of Harem.(probably bouncing their heads on some gigantic boobs or hugging some ikemen)

7.What is one anime that you will defend to your death, if any, regardless of its understandable flaws?

Again, Gintama! flaws…lets see, it has none. It may have lots of filler episodes but each and every one of them are enjoyable and the ups and downs of emotions always ends with a happy one. Frankly, i actually like those fillers better than the serious arcs. Because i like the comedy aspect of Gintama more than anything else. If there is one anime, or at least one mangaka i would defend to my death, it would definitely be the ingenius writer, Hideaki Sorachi , and of course the members and producers of Gintama which made everything much better.

I hope you guys enjoyed my babbling time! and once again thank you for reading my blog, and thank you to Takuto for the nomination and the questions. Thank you everything and everybody for reading this till the end! Even you there, my computer screen and keyboard!

Capcom: ‘Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate Free DLC line-up for June’

NintendObserver

“The Tetsuya Nomura collaboration was made specifically for the Western version of Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate.”

Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate Free DLC line-up for June

JUN 5

We’re now officially in June, and as promised, here’s another batch of FREE DLC for Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate! This time, we’re featuring the Animal Crossing and Devil May Cry collaborations as well as a brand new set of gear designed by renowned Square Enix designer Tetsuya Nomura! Watch the full DLC trailer below as you download this pack. 😀

It’s worth noting that the Tetsuya Nomura collaboration was made specifically for the Western version Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate. And here are some renders of what it looks like up close:

UPDATE:

Fashion hunting apparently isn’t enough for some of you, so here are the stats for the armor designed by Tetsuya Nomura:

Blademaster

Gunner

As usual, here are some numbers…

View original post 217 more words

How to make super simplified Shoyu Ramen for Lazy people

Being a rather lazy person who still likes cooking, i always go for the easiest way to make something taste and look nice. This is by no means the best tasting ramen you will ever eat in your life, but if you dont particularly need a grand tasting food but still crave for it, this is the perfect cooking for you! It is not only cheap, easy but also quick to make! Plus, you will probably have all the ingredients in your fridge!

All you need is a pack of instant noodles/ramen-any one will do, the one i used below is a brand by Nissin in Shoyu flavour – it comes with a small pack of seaweed. This brand is probably one of the most popular instant noodles since its even selling here in the UK !

Nissin Demae ramen Shoyu flavour

Suitable for:

• People in a rush
• People who are poor
• People who are just pure lazy
• People who suck at cooking
• People who want to show off their cooking

Level:

• Beginner

Time:

• Under 10 mins

Ingredients:

• Instant noodles/Ramen
• 1 Egg
• 1 or more slices of ham

Method:

1. Boil the noodles as packet instructs or in one of my ways- i usually do this in one of 3 ways:

Super Lazy Method-Boil a kettle of hot water and pour in the noodles inside a bowl with seasonings covering it till it reaches the top of the noodles, cover with a lid/plate and then wait for about 5 minutes. Finish. (what i usually do)

Taste:Noodles are soft and easy to eat, looks like there are more noodles  than the other 2 – Caution: if left too long noodles may turn soggy and ewwwee

Lazy Method-Put both water and noodles + seasonings in a microwavable bowl and microwave it for about 5 mins at around 800+walts. Finish.

Taste:Noodles has a springy and bouncy texture – like al dente – taste a bit ‘artificial’ to me

Traditional Method-Boil water in a pot, put in the noodles, seasonings, wait for noodles to be cook-about 7 mins or so depending on how long it takes for the water to boil. Finish.

Taste:Noodles will taste best without a doubt.

I am Very Free Method–For a Healthier option, boil the noodles (traditional method) for 1min and pour away the water, then boil noodles again till cooked. For a healthier broth, discard the seasonings and add in your own chicken broth/dashi (fish) broth etc which can be bought in the supermarket.

2. If you are doing the traditional method, wash an egg and boil it together with the noodles

Any other method, if you only have a big pot, boil about 4 eggs in a pot (to not waste any gas etc). You only need one egg in this dish, so save the other 3 for something else like making egg-mayonnaise sandwich for the next day!

3. Once egg is boiled, wait till its cool, or if your in a rush, run it with cold water and peel then cut it in half. Take a slice of ham – which you will probably have otherwise too bad

4. Assemble together by putting all ingredients on top of cooked noodles!

Voila!

This Ramen took me less than 10 mins to prepare! *the top of my egg broke 😦

*Optional Step*

5. Challenge yourself to finish in 5 mins then rush off to your appointment/meeting/school/TV show to catch up etc…

p.s. i guess if you are super busy, you won’t even bother to follow this lol. just dump it all in plate and we have a cavemen meal!

WORD OF WARNING: DO NOT EAT THIS EVERYDAY. Instant noodles contain MSG which is bad for you health!

Enjoy =D

2.

A game (IOS/Android), Anime-lovers should definitely try!

Today, i will be sharing a game i recently got pretty addicted to, (to the point where i will ditch my studies) – i admit that i am not a big fan of games on IOS/Android/any sought of phone game, so it is pretty much a big deal when i do find a game i like..but then again, it all depends on the person’s ‘taste’

Soccer Spirits Home Page

‘Soccer Spirits’ is a game by Com2us Corp. that can be downloaded for free in the app store or the google play store. I highly recommend it to people who loves Anime – the beautiful illustrations, the anime-like voice etc… I got this game a couple of weeks ago due to pure boredom and just wanted to introduce this game to those who are looking for something fun and addicting to play!
The moment you start this game, you will see an anime-like women (upon touching her, she will speak; e.g. ‘ow’) of course, all the characters speak in Korean (the words are in english if you choose global server instead of korea server) as the company is Korea based. For those who thinks ‘English Dub’ sucks, then you wont be disappointed because in one way or another, Korean and Japanese sounds pretty similar and the Voice acting is definitely on the high-end.
The general game is really about collecting cards (either through summon/scout/gift/battle etc) and with those cards, you then ‘battle’ pve or pvp style, evolve characters (to get better stats and more image ‘exposure’-i’ll get to that soon).
If you have played a game such as ‘brave frontier’ or ‘ayakashi ghost guild’ before, the gameplay is similar in a way that you fuse characters to get to a higher level etc; except, this is on soccer, it isn’t like real soccer (because characters health gets lost and there are special attacks-duh) but the idea is there. So even if you aren’t a fan of soccer, you will like it.

Gender-wise, i have to say that this game was probably aimed more at males than females (and also because males play more games i suppose). As with some anime, this game provides TONS of ‘service’-female characters wear lesser and lesser clothes every time you ‘evolve’ them (i guess it is an incentive to let people get so addicted to it and spend more and more money out of their real wallets, hence the $99.9 promotion i see every time i play this game-YES, people do spend $99.9).
Although i said that it is aimed towards the male audience, females get their fair share as well-with much less exposure of course!

Anyways, if you do have the time and if you do love your daily dose of games combined with a touch of anime, do try it out!

An example of a male character on Soccer Spirits

I am really pretty excited when i got this card – 6 stars are legendary players which you can get at a 2-3% chance and being a women, it really DOES NOT hurt to look at beautiful male characters xP especially because this character first ‘caught my eye’ at the very start of the game

An example of a female character in the game

Yeah…her boobs look like they are about to burst…this is only one such example of what i meant by ‘exposing’ – there are plenty more in the game, so if your interested-feel free to give it a try

P.s. my ID is ‘YuukixD’ just in case u do play this game and want some free stuff from referral ID [lol, i am totally not bribing]

Guess who?

duh…this woman is crazy about this show

Best Anime to make you laugh & other ‘de-stress purposes’

First things first!

As I said before, i am in the midst of exams but one of the best things to do during exams is to watch something funny to de-stress yourself. I mean, why not – your just losing several hours of your time wasting your life and probably failing your exams – absolutely nothing can go wrong. (On a serious note, ”DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME”)

If your still reading and anticipating what the name of the anime is, please scroll to the part where it says ‘How awkwardness starts…’ Yes, the name is indeed ‘Gintama’.

In Japanese, it really means ‘Silver Soul’ but ‘tama’ is really a pun which also means ‘balls’ if you know what i mean… Apparently, the anime staff/author and what not were not allowed to name it ‘Kintama’ as it happens to mean ‘Gold Soul/Balls’ Therefore, the protagonist of the show is silver-haired instead of gold-haired.

If you do decide to start watching this incredibly awesome show! Please beware that the *’Gorilla’ author uses a LOT of dirty? jokes.

And for those who have watched, you have become my best friend.

*the true meaning of ‘Gorilla’ in this context will become clear to you once you start watching the show…Yes, it is over 200 episodes long-on the mark to 300!