見たmorphosis

Am currently playing:

• Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core – bought it while in Japan in January, and have been horribly distracted by the missions, enough so that I haven’t progressed in the main plot for a month or so. Yeah, I’m lazy. Really enjoying what I have been playing though; the cut scenes are pretty and the gameplay is comfortable. It’s that and Lumines II which are really making my PSP worth it, currently.
• Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction for PS3. It’s the first Ratchet and Clank game I’ve played actually, but I was a big fan of the Insomniac Spyro games so I wanted to see how it would go. It’s great fun so far. I’m really enjoying level design that plays nicely between “too big and confusing, where the fuck am I going next” and “stop making me go that way, I want to go the other way”. The graphics and design aesthetic are great too, and I can’t wait to go back to playing it.
• Ikariam – an online browser-based MMO I found via Kotaku. Basically just Civilization with an online element, but it’s fairly easy to pick up and doesn’t take too much of your time, so I’ve been playing around with it in recent days. It helps that I got my RTS playing friend addicted to it so I have friends to make alliances with, and stuff.
• PMOG, also seen on Kotaku. To be honest, I’m not so sure it’s a good idea to voluntarily let anyone track your browsing history, particularly when their Privacy Policy includes this:

GameLayers may disclose player data in limited circumstances if we believe in good faith that doing so would: comply with legal process, prevent fraud or imminent harm, and/or help ensure the integrity of PMOG.

But so far it’s been reasonably fun, in a sort of RPG del.icio.us kind of way. I’ve found some interesting sites through it already, and it certainly adds a bit of spice to visiting places like 4chan, Kotaku or xkcd. Plus I get to do stuff like this:



All in good fun. I understand it’s still in beta, so if you want an invite just hit the “Contact” button up the top and I can sort you out.

I still have a whole bunch of games waiting for me, like Oblivion, Assassin’s Creed, God of War: Chains of Olympus and so on, so I’m going to be a bit busy with all that in upcoming weeks I guess. Busy in the best way possible though. Good thing I don’t care about GTA IV.

Tags: MMO, Playstation 3, PSP, Sony

So it turns out that now the Japanese social networking site Mixi (it’s like a Japanese equivalent of Facebook, I guess, so it’s kind of a big deal) have made a Japanese cellphone email address compulsory for all new registrations (this is on top of already requiring an invite from an existing member). This new measure effectively limits it to people resident in Japan only. It makes me rather relieved I already have an account, because as far as I can tell, they’re not enforcing it retroactively.

Maybe I’m just being a bit optimistic about their intentions, but it looks to me like a slightly shortsighted and misguided way for them to cut down on spam accounts, rather than any particular hate for foreigners – like a more extreme version of how US sites occasionally ask for a zip code (12345 and 90210 is how I roll). Still, the end result is that it prevents anyone outside of Japan from registering, and that sucks. Go whore yourself on Stickam instead.

via Tofugu

Tags: internet, Japan, sucks to be you

It’s been a while since I’ve written this review – two years ago to be precise. Taro Aso became foreign minister and started pushing anime tourism so there’s a hell of a lot more information available now. When I first started seriously buying up on anime stuff in Tokyo, there was only really the Cheap Bastard’s Tokyo Anime Shopping Guide. I knew nothing of Patrick Macias before writing this review, though I’m a bit more knowledgeable about the scene and the fandom and so on now (admittedly one of the things that makes Randall appropriate as a host is his slight Macias aversion).

I’ve updated and rewritten this review as appropriate – some of the links were dead, for starters. I’m planning to start offering shopping tips in future entries, so don’t fret that this entry doesn’t give you any help – the idea is that it will be forthcoming.

Anyway, here it goes.

Read more »

Tags: books, merchandise, shopping, tokyo, travel

Welcome to 見たmorphosis. The name… well, I think that’s a post for another time, heh.

I’ll be writing whatever takes my fancy, focusing on anime, gaming, Japan and… general stuff. I have a few ideas regarding what to chuck in here (I have a few orphaned anime-related things scattered sad and lonely across the intertrons that need homes). Theme and layout and stuff might change (the very name suggests it, after all), but then again I’m lazy I suck at designing things I like simplicity so I might just leave it like this.

And… that’s it for now! Wow, that was weak.

Tags: boring