Tsukihime: Original vs. Remake

Before the Fate series made Type-Moon a household name in the anime community, there was Tsukihime, a prequel of sorts to Fate/stay night. Released in 2000, Tsukihime was a doujin (fan-made) game created by two college students. Made primarily for fun and sold in small quantities at the Comiket, the legendary convention that served as a central hub for the early Japanese anime fan community and to some extent still does. 

A remake was released in 2021 and recently ported to Nintendo Switch with the name: Tsukihime: A Piece of Blue Glass Moon. So anyone interested in Tsukihime now has a choice between two versions of the game. 

The remake of Tsukihime might be the best-looking visual novel I have read. With HD artwork, cinematic presentation, voice acting, and a remade soundtrack, it’s a very high-production experience. The original 2000 version, on the other hand, is a doujin game created by just two people, with sparse illustrations accompanying the text. But for those interested in the Japanese otaku scene of 25 years ago and the history of Type-Moon, it’s a fascinating read.

The remake is significantly longer and greatly expands on character development and world-building. However, it only covers the first half of the original game. Specifically the routes for Arcueid and Ciel. So while it’s richer in detail, it’s still an incomplete experience. The routes for Akiha, Hisui, and Kohaku will have to wait for a second remake, which could take years to release.

The original was also an eroge, meaning it contained explicit sexual content that was typical of many visual novels of its time. The remake removes these scenes, aiming for a broader, more mainstream audience. Depending on your preferences, this could influence which version you gravitate toward.

There is no official English release of the original doujin version, but a high quality fan translation is available, just use Google to find a copy. The remake, however, does have an official English translation, making it slightly more accessible. It’s even out for consoles, with the Switch version being a convenient choice.

New critters to catch in May

Tomorrow is a new month which means new fish and insects to catch in Animal Crossing. If you are like me and have already caught every fish and insect that has been available so far I bet you are eagerly awaiting the turn of the month and the chance to fill out your critterpedia.

Fish 

Let’s start with the fish in the northern hemisphere since that’s where my cozy little island is located. First off we have the Angelfish, this small tropical fish will start showing up in rivers between 4pm and 9am giving you a reason to stay up late. Then in the morning, it will instead be possible to catch another small river fish, the Betta, which will be available from 9am to 4 pm. In ponds starting in May you will be able to catch a Catfish, this medium size fish will be catchable between 4pm and 9am. Also showing up in ponds we now have Frogs, these cute things which we all know are not technically fish will be around all day. If you want to add a large hard to catch fish to the museum, there is now the Mahi-mahi, catchable at all hours but only when fishing from a pier. Also, catchable 24 hours a day when fishing from a pier is the Gigant Trevally. When fishing in a river there is now the small Nibble Fish, which will be showing up between 9am and 4pm. Finally, we have another small river fish that’s obtainable between 9am and 4pm, the Rainbowfish. If my memory serves me right this is one of the fish I had in my aquarium growing up.

In the southern hemisphere, we now have the Bitterling showing up, one of those fish we northerners have grown tired of catching over and over again. This little fellow can be caught in rivers all day long. Then more excitingly we have two large rare fish that can only be caught from a pier. The Blue Marlin and the Tuna, both can be caught at all hours. I have a lot of fun fishing for these two, hopefully, you will too.

Insects 

Starting off with the northern hemisphere we have the Banded Dragonfly starting to show up in May. This one is supposedly quite rare but if you are lucky they can be found near the water between the 8am and 5pm. Next up we have the Diving Beetle, this one of more common and can found hanging out on the water between the hours of 8am and 7pm. We have the Great Purple Emperor, this rare butterfly is supposedly found near flowers between 4am and 7pm. A more common critter is the Pondskater, which as its name implies can be found on the water between 8am and 7pm. We have another rare butterfly showing up in May, the worlds largest butterfly the Queen Alexandra’s Birdwing. Some say this is the rarest of all butterflies in the Animal Crossing series. It likes flowers and can be caught between 8am and 4pm. Next is the Rosalias Batesi Beetle, make sure to leave some tree stumps if you want to catch this fellow. It can be found at all hours starting in May. If the Tarantula scared the bejesus out of you, I have good news, it’s leaving the game in May. Unfortunately, it is being replaced by an equally scary night time critter, the Scorpion will now terrorize your island from seven in the evening to four in the morning. The last new addition to New Horizon is the Violin Beetle, like the Rosalias Batesi Beetle this critter can be found hanging out on tree stumps 24/7.

In the southern hemisphere the Damselfly is showing up in May. It can be found near water at all hours. Joining it is the Mole Cricket, I personally had a hard time catching it since I tend to listen to podcasts while playing Animal Crossing. The trick is to listen for an unusual chirping sound, when you hear it start digging all over the place. Listen for it all day and night, Just as we northerners are saying goodbye to the horrifying Tarantula it is showing up in the southern hemisphere. You don’t have to look for it, it will find and terrorize you if you play between 7pm and 4am.

Animal Crossing New Horizon – What’s new in April?

With April just being a day away, I thought it would be a good idea to put together an overview of what new things we can expect from the month in New Horizon. Nintendo’s popular title being just a bit shy of two weeks old, this will be the first turn of the month for honest non time traveling players.

Fish

I personally have gotten tired of catching the same fish over and over again, so let’s start off with the new fish showing up in April in the northern hemisphere. If you are a fan of Pixar’s Finding Nemo you will be happy to be able to reel in the colourful Clownfish, this little guy can be caught in the sea all day. We also have a favourite delicacy of mine the Crawfish showing up in April. This tasty shellfish can now be caught in ponds all day long. Next is the Guppy, this popular aquarium fish can be caught in rivers between 9am and 4pm. Another common aquarium fish and a childhood favourite of mine is making an appearance, the Neon Tetra can now be caught in rivers between 4am and 4pm. Then we have the Seahorse, starting in April this exciting new fish can be found in the sea all day. Joining the Clownfish, we have another fan favourite from Finding Nemo, the Surgeonfish, which now can be caught all day in the sea. Then there is the striped Zebra Turkeyfish, this guy can also be found in the ocean all day long starting in April. Last but not least we have the Butterfly Fish which can be caught at all hours in the sea, thanks FrostyPotpourri on Reddit for sharing this last fish with me.

In the southern hemisphere there is a lot less changing fish-wise. We have the Dab and the Yellow Perch showing up. Two fish that we in the northern hemisphere have been catching since launch. Both can be caught all day long, the Dab in the sea and the Yellow Perch in rivers.

Bugs

Starting April 1st I’m ready to grab my trusty net and resume work on my Critterpedia. Like with the fish we’ll start by looking at the new bugs showing up on my half of the globe, that is the northern hemisphere. Here we have a number of new bugs to sneak up on. We now have the Agris Butterfly fluttering around the island between 8am and 5pm. Also between 8am and 5pm the Darner Dragonfly can be spotted flying around. A less appealing bug is the Flea, which staring in April can be found crawling on your less hygienic fellow villagers at all hours. Another creepy bug is the Long Locust which can be found crawling on the ground between 8am and 7pm. The Madagascan Sunset Moth can now be found doing whatever moths do between the 8am and 4pm. Then there is another moth, the disturbingly large Atlas Moth which can be found on trees between 8pm and 4am.

In the southern hemisphere there is even less happening when we look at the insect side of things. In April there is no change in the bug population.

Events and holidays

Starting off April we have April Fools on April 1. I can’t say for sure what will happen but if previous titles in the series can serve as a guide we can expect some trickery from your fellow villagers. In New Leaf we had the special event character Blanca visiting, maybe this odd looking cat will be making a reappearance.

Nintendo being famous for shying away from everything religious since the NES era, won’t have your village celebrate Easter. Instead April 1 to April 12 will be Bunny Day, given that your copy of the game has been properly updated that is. A big deal was made about Bunny Day in the most recent Nintendo Direct Mini, so my expectations for this celebration are quite high. If you watched the Direct you know some of what to expect so I will avoid spoiling it here. Starting with New Horizon Bunny Day is now a twelve day long celebration that overlaps with April Fools, hopefully this doesn’t mean the removal of April Fools as an in game event, we’ll find out soon.

Visual novels and time travel

If you were to travel back in time to change the future, what would happen to the now obsolete future you left behind? There are various ways of thinking of time related to tome travel. Time can be imagined as a continues line, in which case the future you left behind would simple cease to exist once the past is changed. Or we can imagine time taking the form of a tree, rather then a continues line. In which case both futures would exist simultaneously. Your decision to travel back in time would create a sort of branching path. This would be true for all decision, not only those related to time travel. All decisions made by you and everyone else would in this thought experiment generate additional branches. In effect we would have an infinite amount of alternative worlds, some varying only in the most trivial details, others completely different from our own.

These types of questions are explored in the visual novel Steins Gate, telling the story of a time traveling, self declared mad scientist. The medium of choice, the visual novel is interesting. Since visual novels with their branching paths and multiple endings, are in themselves dealing with time travel. Once the player finishes one path, he is encouraged to load an earlier save file and explore the consequences of changing the decisions made during the game. No time machine is needed, the game itself is the means of traversing time.

How about a third 64-bit Zelda?

Now when the developer Grezzo has done such a good job porting Ocarina of time to the Nintendo 3DS, and by the looks of it, an equally good job porting over Majora’s Mask, I wonder if Nintendo will let them take their engine and produce an original Nintendo 64 style Zelda game? They have the engine and the assets already, and Nintendo has outsourced their portable Zelda games before. They famously let Capcom develop their Zelda game for the Game Boy Advance.

Being a huge fan of the Nintendo 64 era of Zelda games I would love for something like this to happen. Maybe they could do a new take on Ocarina of Time, creating something similar to A Link Between Worlds with its basis in A Link to the Past. That way Grezzo could build on a version of Hyrule they are already familiar with and it would be the ultimate form of fan service for those Nintendo fans like myself who still consider Ocarina of Time to be the best game ever made.

3D trophies

Like many 3DS owners I have gradually gone from playing with the 3D slider at max, to now only using the stereoscopic 3D sparingly. I find Smash Bros to be one of those many games that are best enjoyed with the 3D turned off, there is simply too much going on in that game. There is however one aspect of this game that is greatly enhanced by the systems 3D capabilities, that is the trophy collecting. Or more specifically the enjoyment that comes from looking over the status various angles while reading the short and often clever descriptions that accompanies the digital collectibles. This is the sort of thing the stereoscopic 3D is great for, taking an individual object and making it pop out of the screen. Since I will have to wait another month to fill up my shelfs with actual Amiibo figurines, until then these 3D models will have to do. 

I've missed the monkey

The third Monkey Island game, Curse of Monkey Island is one of my all-time favorite games. There is just something about the pirate-themed world Lucasart created for that game, that made me want to move to their imaginary version of the Caribbean and like Guybrush Threepwood become a mighty pirate. So when I discovered that a special edition of the first Monkey Island had come out for iOS, I had to give it a try. Especially now when I have this new phone with its large screen. 

Old computer games can often be a bit hard to get in to, more so then old console games. When it comes to old point and click adventure games, this barrier to entry consists of cheap deaths and bizarre and illogical puzzles. Monkey Island has no cheap deaths, actually you can't die at all in this game. It even makes fun of how easy it can be to get killed in other adventure games. There is this cliff which Guybrush can fall to his death from, but before the player has time to click the 'reload from last save' button that shows up, Guybrush bounces back up, saying something about a rubber tree. 

The other issue preventing modern gamers from picking up old adventure games, the seemingly illogical puzzles are not as bad in Monkey Island as in many other adventure games. The puzzles in the latest Monkey Island game from Telltale, Tales of Monkey Island are more adjusted to the patience of modern gamers. Still the puzzles here in the original mostly make sense, especially in the first half of the game. There are a few puzzles that likely would have driven me mad if it wasn't for the built in hint system and as a last resort: gamefaq. It does wound my pride a bit have to resort to such things but I have to realize that my time is in limited supply these days, unlike when I played the Curse of Monkey Island as a kid. Also there really is no fun in desperately trying every item on everything, just hoping to get lucky. 

Second chances

I picked up Mass Effect 2 back when it came out. As a huge fan of the first Mass Effect I was definitely looking forward to it. Still I put it away after only a few hours. I remember thinking it played too much like Gears of War, with its new cover system and more action focused gameplay. Last night I decided to give Mass Effect 2 another chance and this time I didn't have the same issues.

Sure it plays a bit more like a shooter, but Mass Effect 1 had some serious issues in the combat department, so a reworked combat system might not have been such a bad idea. It is easy to forget towards the end of Mass Effect 1, that for the first half of that game your gun is constantly overheating and your weapons skill isn't high enough so your shots are flying all over the place. By replacing the heat mechanic with ammo and making the aiming less dependent on your stats, the combat is actually enjoyable right from the beginning. I'm less certain about the benefits of the cover system, but at least it doesn't ruin the combat. They could probably have cut the number of enemies in half and refocused the game more towards the story and the conversation trees, which is what Bioware does best. But I understand that modern gamers get bored if they don't get to shoot something every five minutes and I think I have gotten more accepting of this since I last gave Mass Effect 2 a try.

Ideas for Amiibo implementation in Yoshi’s Woolly World

When Nintendo at E3 announced its lineup up games supporting the company’s new Amiibo figurines, Yoshi’s Woolly World was one of the games on the list. This left me very curious about how they plan to implement this.

Our current conception of how figurines are integrated in to video games is based on the two games on the market today, Skylanders and Disney Infinity. Both have chosen to integrate their figurines as playable characters, but as Nintendo has shown with Smash Bros, this doesn’t have to be the case. In Nintendo’s upcoming all-stars fighting game the figurine will instead be connected to an NPC, who the player can then fight and level up. Of course neither of these solutions seems to fit Yoshi’s Woolly World. Seeing how the game clearly wasn’t conceived with the Amiibo figurines in mind, I’m thinking they will likely have a minor effect on gameplay. My guess is that the figurines will probably be limited to altering the background and maybe the music somehow. For example loading the Starfox figurine could have Fox McCloud come flying by, not in any way affecting the gameplay, more as a piece of Nintendo fan service. For the Mario figurine I thought it could similarly trigger Mario themed fireworks, seeing how there have been fireworks in pretty much every Mario games since Super Mario Bros. Or if Nintendo really wanted to mess with their fans, they could have the Mario figurine set off the hated Baby Mario sound effect from earlier Yoshi games. The figurines could also be limited to just altering the music, for example the Animal Crossing Villager could change the music to some nice Animal Crossing tunes. I could actually imagine the Animal Crossing music being a good fit for a Yoshi game.

Personally I would be satisfied with such a relaxed approached to Amiibo integration in games like Yoshi’s Woolly World and have Nintendo put more effort in the integrating Amiibos in games like Smash Bros. and Mario Kart, which seem a more obvious fit.

A gorgeous co-op experience

Child of Light is a truly beautiful 2D experience. I’m amazed by how good 2D graphics are getting. Muramasa and Wario Land looked amazing last gen and now when all the home consoles offer high definition graphics, these new 2D games are just blowing me away with their visuals. Rayman Legends looked fantastic but I would say Child of Light beats it, it’s absolutely stunning. Apart from the visuals the gameplay is fairly generic (altho with some twists), it’s mostly something to do while taking in the beautiful hand drawn graphics.

The game also has an excellent “girlfriend mode”. So if your significant other is attracted to the games visuals (who wouldn't be?) but maybe isn't the most skilled gamer, Child of Light might be a good fit. The second player controls a Navi-like blue ball of light called Igniculus, which can do things such as pull switches and slow down enemies in battle. The look of the game was enough to get my Ghibli loving girlfriend interested in some co-op play, the second player experience seemed to offer enough depth to keep her interested without being so complex that she got frustrated. The second player is mostly active  during the battles, where it is easy to contribute by keeping the Navi lookalike on an enemy and slowing him down. But if the second player really wants to maximize his or her impact on the battle it takes some real tactical thinking and timing.