Do you like fighting game? Play a fighting game!

[xyzzysqrl]

First off: If you can set a Windows PC's "Language for Non-Unicode Regions" to Japanese in the Control Panel, or if you can find Applocale via Google, this is playable. If not, it isn't. I apologize to the Mac user reading my journal.

That said:

Do you enjoy...

...Anime girls?
...Anime girls punching each other?
...Large guns, dual-wielded, with ridiculously complex Gunkata flippery inherent in wielding them?
...Enormous pilebunkers, worn on the arm?
...Staff-wielding Psylocke-esqe psycho-magical girls with stupendous beam assaults?
...Mashing buttons like a crazed chimpanzee?
...Really really -good- 2D sprites?

If so, I might encourage you to look into Vanguard Princess. Use the link that says "Vector Download".

Here is a Youtube Link. Youtube makes this game look half as pretty as it actually is.

I'm not sure quite how to sell this thing. It's fanservice, okay? Big heaping wads of it. There's a lot of half-dressed chickage going on here. But as the person who pointed me at this (the always-sharp fandomgreen) points out, "Once you start playing, the game's so awesome you forget to feel dirty!"

Not that I had the least lick of shame anyway, having played Metal and Lace in my past. But.

It's shiny, pretty, glossy, quick-moving, and fun. Hurts my thumb though!

Comments

[glashund.livejournal.com]

This looks pretty keen, and I'd never heard a word about it before, so thank you kindly! I may not get around to noodling with it for a while...just started Demon's Souls, heaven help me...but it will definitely be slotted into the queue.

[xyzzysqrl]

Oh, heavens. Demon's Souls is one of those rare games that I desperately crave a PS3 for. Is it as uphill-yet-satisfying as I've heard?

[glashund.livejournal.com]

Worse-and-moreso. It is, simply put, the single most difficult non-broken console game in my retrievable memory. I've played harder games, but the only ones I can think of either had some fundamental Problem...controls, technical issues, whatever...that made it the bad kind of difficulty, or else they were PC games from the ungodly Might & Magic, Bard's Tale, Wizardry &c days. Demon's Souls screams "GOD HANDS IS FOR KIDDY-WINKIES" and kicks sand in your face from square one, but it is a magnificently made game, and yes, beating a boss and clearing a section is one of the purest shots of accomplishgasm in the medium.

So yeah, I died more times getting to the first boss than I die in most games' entireties, but fortunately death's sting is highly variable, and the early game kinda subtly trains you in how to die educationally and mitigate the punishment factor.

[xyzzysqrl]

Excellent. So far my hypothetical "I have fallen into a hole full of moneys and can buy a PS3" list is:

Demon's Souls
Disgaea 3
Valkyria Chronicles
Cross Edge

You have made me look forward to this hypothetical pit of profit much more.

[glashund.livejournal.com]

I'm a bit surprised about Cross Edge; word of mouth on that one seems to have come down almost universally on the side of "absolute pants". That said, I haven't played it myself, and sometimes word of mouth can be pretty misguided/stupid. Valkyria, on the other hand, very yes.

Should you ever fall into a particularly deep hole full of moneys, other exclusives I have loved dearly are Flower, LBP, MGS4 (though if you don't like Metal Gear Anything Else, that's a safe cross-off), and Ratchet & Clank F:TOD. Well, also Aquanaut's Holiday: Hidden Memories, but I think that may be a very glashund-specific flavor of brain damage.

[xyzzysqrl]

Ooooh, there's an Aquanaut's Holiday for the PS3? Excellent. I love that sort of "wander, find stuff" game.

But, no. Cross Edge is, I understand, total crap... but I -love- Idea Factory games in spite of their terribleness (Spectral Force 3 is my favorite 360 RPG), I want me some Felicia in Tactical Environment, and... frankly, while I realize the game is likely very bad, it's fanservice in the way that I am likely to enjoy.

As you say, it is a sqrl-specific flavor of brain parasite that enables me to enjoy games like this. I gleefully accept this love of terrible and I use it only for good.

[glashund.livejournal.com]

Yup! No US version and none planned, but disc-based PS3 games have no region lock, and the HK/Asia version has a full-English option. OK, more of a full-Chinglish option, but it's thoroughly comprehensible.

I never did get around to the previous two Aquanauts, so I don't know if this is typical for the series, but what really impressed me about Hidden Memories is that it has a surprisingly compelling story mode in addition to the general "tool around looking at fish" concept. I was genuinely moved a few times, Chinglish notwithstanding.

[seawasp]

You didn't apologize to me enough.

[xyzzysqrl]

I just don't understand your plight. You should start a fundraiser for that.

[relee.livejournal.com]

A friend reccomended that game, and I saw it on Kotaku. I tried to download it then, but I couldn't find an executable file. o.o;;