New Acquisitions

Second blog incoming! I'm just here to discuss my latest purchases, which isn't truly my latest, but for specific reasons of content within the game, I'll have to skip the true latest purchase. I'll leave it up to your imagination as to what this true latest purchase is :]

So! I'm running out of coffee for this weekend blog, but I've already had two coffees this morning so I'll skip having a third one and instead I'll fetch myself a bottle of water. In my latest acquisitions, I have two things: A music collection and a game. The game is, as some would of guessed, a doujin shoot 'em up, while the music collection is something I normally wouldn't scream in the streets because people are quick to judge.. well, once you get past the "screaming it" part. Let's begin with the music collection.

K-ON! Music History's Box

Yep.. I admit it, I'm one of these who really enjoyed this show to the point where I even bought this collection box. There's nothing like a cute and fun slice of life Anime. While most of the things that people look for in an Anime is missing in this one, like action or big stunts, and while I enjoy these things too, there's nothing as refreshing as a small, lovely slice of life title. Something to just sit back and relax, watch and enjoy the everyday lives of a group of friends.

For those who don't know (which could happen if you're not into anime, otherwise you definitely know and love or hate K-ON!, but you likely know it), it follows the life of a group of schoolgirls who eventually form a school band. That's pretty much all there is to it, honestly. This show probably holds the top spot as most loved AND most hated Anime at the same time. People who enjoy slice of life enjoy it, those who hate the recent "moe-blob", as they call it, absolutely hate it. I guess you could say it's like in video games: If it's popular, you will always have a huge mass of people hating it for being popular, bringing up older titles to say "we don't have games like this anymore".

Anyway, more to the point, this collection includes every single song by the band K-ON!, as well as the complete soundtracks to both seasons, the movie, and the game released on PlayStation®Portable. It also includes songs by the band their teacher formed back in the days, which I forgot the name of. In short, it is the ultimate music collection of K-ON!. Before this was released, they were a dozen albums, or singles for that matter, which included only a few songs each. While expensive, this box set comes back as much more affordable than purchasing every single CD released.

Contents of K-ON! Music History's Box

The box contains a total of 12 discs, which includes a mighty 258 tracks exactly. It also comes with a big art book and another containing the lyrics to every songs, albeit in Japanese so I can't read any of it. For those who wonder what kind of music it is, well it's mostly pop-rock, I would say. Then again, I've never been the good person to ask what genre of music something is, especially since I listen to everything and sometimes, I wonder how people can make a difference between two specific genres. I'll drop a video of one of the songs below, though it doesn't come from my own Channel. I learned through experience that the company who owns K-ON! doesn't like it when people uploads such content, which is why I received a strike on my account last year (it has been 6 months this week, so the strike was finally removed).

K-ON!: Don't Say "Lazy"

On to my second acquisition! This time it's a game, a doujin shmup that was quick to be known throughout the community. I actually purchased it a little while ago, but since the game doesn't exist in physical form and is only available digitally through Japanese websites, it took me quite a while to finally get my hands on it.

STELLAVANITY -Prelude To The Destined Calamity-

STELLAVANITY fits the danmaku (bullet hell) sub-genre of the shoot 'em ups perfectly. It's filled with bullets, filled with enemies, and extremely colorful. It was released a long time ago, but I was able to get my hands on it only recently. Here's why I couldn't get it earlier:

The game was only available in physical form for a limited time during a convention, and even then it was one of the early versions. The actual, full version of the game is only available digitally through DLsite. While the store has an English version, not every games are available on it as it is at the discretion of the publisher whether to make them available or not on the English side of the store. Therefore, I had to create myself an account on the Japanese DLsite.

Gameplay screenshot

Once that was done, which took a while in itself since I had to write all of my details in Japanese, comes the payment method: They don't accept Paypal. Out of my time dwelling on such sites, I noticed that Paypal isn't really popular outside of North America and Europe. The only Japanese store I know that uses it is Game Liner. No problem though, I have a credit card nonetheless. But even that caused me troubles.. While they don't use Paypal, they do use the security systems attached to your credit card's manufacturer, in this case, SecureCode by Mastercard. Why did this cause a problem? Because long ago, I managed to get my SecureCode locked out. After years of simply avoiding it, I finally had to call my bank and work around to get my SecureCode unlocked, beginning my account with it anew. Now that this was all fixed, I finally was able to purchase STELLAVANITY, after years of trying to find it through other means (legal and legit means, that is).

The character status screen

Contrary to most shmups, in STELLAVANITY, you can upgrade your characters. Throughout the game, you collect money and points which are used to level up. As you level up, your stats will obviously get higher. With the money, you can purchase additional stats enhancer and other things, which I unfortunately have no idea what they are. I've had @Amaya try and help me out a little by translating the name of the enhancer, but their names alone isn't all that helpful and I didn't want to bother her into translating the description of every items in the game. That would take a long time, and I would feel bad about it anyway. That's why she needs to live closer so she can come over and translate it on the go :p just kidding lol.

Either way, it makes for an extremely fun shmup, a beautiful one at that, and while it is more complex than most, it isn't as complex as say.. Hellsinker or ∀kashicverse -Malicious Wake-, both of which I'm not even able to play because of how complicated they are. I haven't had the time to record any footage of the game yet, mainly because I spend my time doing other things and because I haven't 1CCed (1 continue clear) the game yet. I only record my playthroughs of these games when I 1CC them now, but it is planned to be my next 1CC, alongside Another Apocalypse II Dual Pagan, so I don't have a video to post. I could post a video from someone else, but I can't find anything satisfying, so I'll just leave one more screenshot instead.

Gameplay screenshot

Well.. this ended up much longer than I anticipated! While I myself may have changed a little since the last years I was here (or did I really? Maybe I only hid it), my old habits haven't died :p