Where have I been?

Not where I wanted to be, for certain.

With a lot of things going on in my life at the moment, the little time I have left is hardly spent doing other smaller things like updating this blog. My purchases have not been as intense as before. I basically stopped buying retro games and press kits. Hopefully, better days will come in the future and I will be able to get what I'm missing now.

One of my latest purchases came from NISA Europe. Being very short on money basically means I have to make some harsh decisions and I usually end up buying the things I want the most, either because of their rarity or simply because I really like and wish to play them. That's precisely what happened with RPG Maker FES Limited Edition.

Now, I know that the best RPG maker games still come from PC and they're mostly for free, but having this little tool for the 3DS is something unique that I like the most. As such, I immediately had to buy this game when preorders became available and that's exactly what I did. I usually do not open these editions unless I truly want to play them, but I couldn't leave this one sealed.

 I've spent a lot of time making a game already that is far from completion, but I now realize what people look for in these types of games are simple things. And that's exactly what I'm doing. I don't know when it will be finished, but one day it will.

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Shooting girls... not literally though...

Just.. wow. Japanese developers can come up with such incredible and perverted ideas. A rail shooter game where the objective is to aim at girls with some weird pheromone shots that drive them crazy. Weird and innovative at the same time. And this limited version of the game, named Gal*Gun Double Peace Mr. Happiness Edition, will certain increase in value in the future. It comes in a huge box with several items, including some panties that are, in fact, a screen cleaning wipe... Too bad the items are all bundled together without any insert, which is nothing but bad design :(

I am amazed games like this are being released by European publishers with limited editions. I know I have already talked about this before, but I truly am amazed!

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Nerdgasm!

I usually don't have the habit of buying both PAL and NTSC versions of the same game. I usually just stick with PAL versions unless the NTSC one is very exclusive and important, but those are just a few exceptions I have in my collection.

However, I was forced to open another exception this time. Xenoblade Chronicles is by far my most favourite JRPG in recent years and I just couldn't resist getting the US version of the newest game.

I can easily tell the game has several flaws, including a few major ones, but even with all those flaws it's still am amazing game and I had a blast playing it. Nowadays, despite still buying a lot of stuff, it's not normal for me to spend over 100 hours in a single videogame. Knowing that I already spent about 170 hours playing this game and plan on returning to it some day again, you can probably tell how much I've liked this game. Too bad the ending sucks though...

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And another!

And here's another one from NISA Europe, this time Stella Glow for the Nintendo 3DS. I love these guys, I love these editions and I hope to somehow get the ones I've missed in the future!

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NISA Europe Rules!

When I've lost my hopes in getting this edition because I missed the preorders, NISA Europe contacted me to warn about its availability. Those guys from that store are absolutely amazing. It's not every day that you can find such a great costumer service. I am glad they started selling these editions in Europe! The Witch and the Hundred Knight Revival Edition Limited Edition!

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Always hard to let things like this to pass by...

I'm at that point again when it's impossible to keep up with so much stuff being released at the same time, so I have to make decisions and just get what's really important.

Sometimes, however, some unexpected things pop up and it just isn't possible to let those things pass by. Some time ago, I've heard about an extremely limited edition of the videogame Superbeat Xonic in the United States. Sadly, costumers from around the world were not allowed to buy that. The good thing about something you definitely shouldn't be able to get is... you save the money to spend on something else. But then, limited editions and some underground games are always popping up to make you waste your money unexpectedly. That's true for those who have a weak spirit, like me...

And this suddenly appeared in Europe. Superbeat Xonic Limited Edition, individually numbered and limited to 500 pieces only. How could I let this one pass by? I couldn't. Just not possible.

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Rodea

Well this took some time to come out, but it eventually did. Too bad it didn't exactly match the expectations, considering the guy behind this is a respectable name behind some older games. Couldn't miss on preordering it due to the fact that it includes the physical version of the original Wii game.

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People at home can do a better job than huge companies sometimes.

I'm pretty sure I've talked about this before. One of the many factors killing this awesome hobby of collecting videogames is the fact that many great games are coming out as digital versions only. Even big games come to our markets unfinished and you have to pay for the missing pieces that most people call DLC. I'm also pretty sure I've stated the cons and pros of digital games in a previous text.

Companies, mostly the BIG ones, are not that interested in anything else but profit. There are several exceptions to this rule, but most just want to fill in more money. They don't really care about collectors who do not appreciate digital goods. They don't care if half the civilized world doesn't get their awesome exclusive editions due to country exclusivities. Not too long ago, even Square Enix and Ubisoft would release certain limited editions exclusive to EMEA territories in their websites but they wouldn't ship to Portugal and they still don't ship to a ton of areas located in EMEA territory, which is just ridiculous: "hey, we have this exclusive edition in our website available to your country, but you cannot buy it because we don't ship to you." Yes, it's just as dumb as it sounds, but they don't care. Business, business, business, that's all that matters. Let's not forget there are always exceptions to this rule, but I'm generalizing and I don't mind if it sounds bad.

Thankfully, there are some people out there who completely understand the perspective of those like me who still like to collect physical games. Not only they understand but they also have the balls to start their own project of actually releasing region free, limited retail copies of games that otherwise would just be available in digital format. This time, I'm particularly referring to Limited Run Games. Multimillionaire companies never have the same concerns as these guys who already started doing their awesome job. 

I was lucky enough to hear about them shortly before the first game was produced and released. I usually miss these things, but I was just lucky this time. Ladies and gentlemen, I present you the very first game called Breach & Clear, by Mighty Rabbit Studios, Inc, released in a limited number of region free physical copies by Limited Run Games. This first successful launch was obviously targeted by some scalpers but this is an indie team we're talking about and I know they'll take all necessary measures to prevent this cancerous behaviour from spreading across their games. I will get all their physical releases while I can. It's my duty as a collector to support a company that's doing something as awesome as these guys.

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Before the 3rd one comes out...

I spend a long time searching for deals and looking for information on upcoming editions just to make sure I do not miss any of the really special stuff. Suddenly, sh!t happens and, as a result, I only get there too late.

It's been a long time since I've heard of those exclusive HMV covers and slipcases. They had quite a few of these some years ago. And there I was, randomly searching the internet when I suddenly come across this limited, numbered cover for Dark Souls II. Sometimes I'm not in a rush to get one limited item and there are several reasons for that: price, quality of the game, unpopular series, whatsoever. But... damn, this was Dark Souls II. I hardly collect NTSC versions but I even bought the deluxe edition of the first title because I thought it would never be released in Europe. As soon as I learned that HMV released this limited edition cover, I had an urge to get it. At first, I thought that it was already too late and most were gone to collector's hands who would either not sell it at all or ask a ton of money for it. Thankfully, I was wrong.

It seems that not too many people know about the existence of this cover. This even includes those casual buyers who bought it back at release date, which means they appear for sale every now and then without ridiculous prices. After knowing this existed, it took me a few minutes to find one copy on auction and a couple of days to finally win the bid. Unfortunately, it's not factory sealed. Still, I'm more than glad to have it. I know I mentioned above how special and important the Demon's Souls or Dark Souls series is but, to be honest, I never really bothered playing it. I know how hard it is. Since this limited edition was not sealed, I decided to give it a try. After one hour I gave up. I gave up playing it even before knowing how hard it is. The first enemies were easy but I forgot how many times I died by falling off ledges because I couldn't figure out the way or the camera got messed up. What a noob! *spit*. 

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Time flies...

Several years ago, when I originally started to become a fan of Japanese games, anime and all that stuff that produces weebos all over the world, I had all sorts of reasons to complain about the treatment Europe and specially this country received with most releases. Europe was and still is a complicated place for international companies to deal with. Unlike the US, Europe is divided in many different countries that greatly vary in sizes, cultures, languages, rules and markets. This obviously makes it harder to localize media in general. To make things worse, some of those countries don't really accept foreign languages very well in their products and almost require them to be translated. As a result, the hassle of localizing videogames in so many languages was a big enough problem that pushed them away from being released here. At that time, even some of the most popular and successful titles from big companies never saw a PAL release in their original format. Other titles that eventually made it here would arrive several months (sometimes years...) later. I believe I have been complaining about these things since I was about 13 or 14 years old.

Nowadays, things are completely different. So different that it's hard to think they were so bad in the past. In just a few years, the videogaming market in Europe suffered some drastic changes. At the moment there is an insane number of  Japanese titles being released for several platforms to the point that it's almost impossible to keep up with them all. The number of limited editions for both western and Japanese games is also insanely high, with certain countries receiving their own exclusive PAL versions. Even small, independent companies are opening stores and releasing limited editions and other exclusive Japanese stuff in their PAL format.

Senran Kagura Burst 2 Shinobi Edition is one of the greatest examples of Europe's current status when it comes to limited editions and exclusive items. 15 years ago, it was absolutely unthinkable to see such an "odd" title being released in PAL format, let alone a limited edition of this caliber. It's quite amazing and it makes me happy to see that the gap between Europe and Japan/US is much, much shorter.

I really don't have anything against NTSC versions. I prefer PAL versons simply because I grew up with them and became attached to them. I didn't have access to NTSC exclusive titles and my tiny childhood collection was made of PAL games only. At a certain point, when buying things online started to become a trend and I finally had access to an enormous amount of items that were previously near impossible to get, I would still be focused on just getting PAL stuff. My monetary limitations wouldn't allow me to collect everything from every region as you can imagine, so focusing on PAL games was a way to narrow down my already extensive whishlists. Sadly, this basically meant that I was leaving many masterpieces out of my collection. I just couldn't buy everything from every region as you can imagine. 

As my collection started to grow over the years, I slowly started to buy a few NTSC exclusive titles and there are still many others I expect to buy in the future. However, with so much stuff being released in Europe like I never imagined before, I have some very strong, brand new reasons to continue to focus my attention on PAL releases. 

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Jones must be jealous

Now that this series needs to be coming to its end with the release of the 4th title next year, Sony brought us back yet another HD compilation. I obviously had to buy it...

For those who already played the games on the PS3, this really isn't anything new. It might be the HD version but I'm sure the gaming experience with those gorgeous PS3 graphics can't be improved by much. However, if you have not played the games before, this is a complete MUST. Seriously, go buy it. I really want to play the 4th title and that will be a nuisance because I don't want to open my CE box. Thankfully I might have some friends who wont mind to lend me their used copies shortly after the game is released :P

In case you're wandering what the box on the right is, it's just a preorder box for the regular game. Yep. Still a good collectible though. Even  though I preordered the game, nobody gave me this box so I had to buy it separately.

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Everything is Amiibo

Now that I've lost even more readers by bashing Splatoon a tiny bit (but I still bought the game... -_-), it's time to talk about the newly released Yoshi game. I like this game, even though it's not exactly top stuff like Tropical Freeze. And the Amiibo that comes with it is pretty cute. So cute even my mother bought one for herself and took it out of its box. Taking an Amiibo out if its box is something so ordinary that I almost feel like a weirdo for keeping them all sealed. I am tempted to open them all though, who knows what's going to happen in the future... They certainly look nicer out of their boxes.

My only complaint is that Nintendo is taking this Amiibo business too far... way too far. It's enough of Amiibo already. In a little over half a year, there's about 60 or more already on sale or soon to be available. Most of them were a nightmare to get, not to mention those Skylanders Superchargers pack that are getting ready to hit stores soon enough. Damn Nintendo, please just take a break!

Fortunately, now there's enough stock for almost every Amiibo released so far - except Yarn Yoshis and Inkling Squids. ON YOUR FACE, SCALPERS! But on my face too because I've bought some doubles to trade in the future and now I don't need any -_-

Poor Yoshi was so badly framed in this picture that I will probably update it some time later...

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Limited Edition Zelda Wind Waker Slipcase ('cause this title will get me more views than any other)

This is another one of those things that took me a pretty long time to get. Basically, this is a limited edition copy of the Wind Waker for the Gamecube that comes with this unique slipcase. I assume this is a HMV thingy, I'm not too sure. I've known this for many years now but, for some reason, I never really felt like buying it. Once in a while I still remembered I was missing this in my collection. Too bad its price was nearly twice as much as it was worth some years ago, but with so much stuff to buy all the time it's pretty hard to guess what to leave behind. Now that the Majora's Mask came out for the 3DS, I suddenly had the urge to get this slipcase. I'm sure many people can relate to this feeling because whenever a new game for an old franchise gets released, the general interest in other things related to that particular franchise seems to receive a small boost, even when it's Zelda.Yeah, because Zelda stuff never gets unsold-

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Do you have an invitation, sir?

There are some really weird games out there, and this one I'm now posting is probably one of them. I'm not sure what type of game this is... a hentai-ish JRPG with turn-based system and very limited animations that don't really make justice to Vita's capabilities is probably just one attempt at describing what this game is like. Again, this wasn't something I planned to buy on day one, but I had two good reasons to preorder it. First, it was nearly sold out. Second, it comes from an awesome company called NISA Europe that recently opened an European website and is finally selling limited editions and bonuses from all sorts of Japanese games that otherwise would never see a release date. And these are the companies I like to support. These are the companies that break the rules for the European videogaming market and they have my full support. Yes, I am still traumatized with the fact that I couldn't play so many JRPGs because the big companies didn't even bother releasing them in Europe. That fact will never go away. Some of those games were meant to be played at the time they were released, when they had that really amazing impact on players. Those who missed that right moment to play might still enjoy them a lot but it's never the same thing. Yeah, I'm pointing the finger at you, Squaresoft. 

These are the games that you need to watch out for if you're trully a collector because these things will become nasty to find in the future. The only bad part about the website is how much they actually charge for these editions and especially for shipping. However, considering how outrageously expensive Royal Mail international deliveries became in the last few years, it's only natural smaller companies can't do much but charge some impressive shipping costs. That's a shame though.

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No comments...

I was one of the first persons to complain about this new model when it was announced, and now I have both the regular console and the Limited Edition Majora's Mask XL model (that one will be posted later). I'm such a weirdo, I know. All I'm missing now is the Spirit Tracks model of the DS lite console in order to have all the Zelda-related models released in Europe (or so I think...). This is bothering me a bit, but the truth is that model is out of my price range and it's particularly rare. It's not something I can buy just like that, unfortunately. And since I'm complaining about Nintendo models I'd like to get, I'd love to find the Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire Limited Edition Paks too...

This move from Nintendo was unnecessary to be honest. They could wait to release a brand new, better console instead of adding just a couple of improvements that don't really affect the gaming experience. At least that's what I think, but then I'm stupid enough to actually support their decisions by buying two of these models as soon as they become available. What's pictured here is the Ambassador Edition, the model that's only available to a few selected Nintendo Ambassadors. Just in case you're clueless about what these Nintendo Ambassadors are, they're the people that bought a 3DS console in the early dates before the major price drop. In order to compensate those who paid a lot more cash for the console before the price drop, Nintendo created the Ambassador program, giving some bonuses such as free games and exclusive news. In order to enter the Ambassador program, all you had to do was access the internet with a 3DS model during a certain date before the price drop. The original compensation consisted of 20 Virtual Console games from NES and GBA I believe. It's been years since that happened and I thought that the Ambassador program was now useless, but I guess it was not. A few randomly selected ambassadors were  given the early chance to buy this exclusive New 3DS Ambassador Edition a few weeks before the official release date. I was not one those persons though, but someone gave me his chance to get this and I took it.

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Not that easy to get...

I was amazed at how fast this one sold out even though it was quite pricey... Kingdom Hearts was a game I played and loved back in the days, but the second title didn't catch my attention as easily as the first one did. I never managed to finish the second game because I eventually grew bored of it. True story...

Considering the price, I don't know why they made such a fragile box. It's a shame some big companies simply try to catch the attention of consumers and collectors in general without really caring for them at the same time...

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Missed it.

Yeah, missed it and had to pay 100 euros to get it, which isn't that bad considering how much this is currently selling on eBay. This is definitely the rarest physical copy of a game released so far for the PlayStation 4. It would be nice if I knew about it. By the time I learned about its existence, it was sold out. As expected, a ton of copies ended up on the hands of resellers and popped on eBay from all sorts of different countries. I am glad I have one, but I'm kinda upset for missing the original orders. I mailed the guys from the website but I received no response. It's a shame some companies don't give a crap about consumers in general.

I don't know much about the game because I never got to play it. Retro City Rampage DX. I really want to play this thing... Unfortunately my life right now is no good to be playing games, but once I sort my problems I will spend a few weeks without doing anything else but sleeping, eating and playing. Yup. I need to rest my mind. Being unemployed doesn't help my mind, but neither does all the crap that happened in the last 6 months. 

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Seems unfair...

I just realized that, after all this talk, I still haven't posted a picture of my PS4 20th Anniversary model. I mean, it's nothing THAT impressive considering this is just a picture of sealed box... But still, so much tantrum over this thing and no pic? Nah, this needs to be posted. Ladies and gentlemen, this is what you'll be buying off eBay for exorbitant prices from now on... because you don't know what you'll be getting until you actually open it. 

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Please sign and share this petition to stop Ditto's sexual exploitation!

Ah... the memories... This brings me back in time...

Just kidding. I've only actually played Ruby Version for 4 hours or so. I bought the game but I found out that after spending so many hours playing the previous titles I finally got badly tired of Pokémon. I never touched another Pokémon game until Y came out. A break that lasted over 10 years.

I still had to preorder these two editions, which are kinda lame. They only come with steelbooks and I don't like steelbooks. Oh! I'm pretty sure I didn't mention this 100 times in this blog!

Unfortunately, they rust in countries with usually high humidity levels in the atmosphere and coastal areas, unless they are sealed. "Derrp we live in a hot, sunny country and we don't need thermal isolation and all that crap, so we can save money on materials and still ask a hundred thousand euros for shitty apartments". And nobody lives in the capital because houses  are old, very expensive or both. Not to mention we have some visitors from countries with much lower temperatures and snow that complain this country is cold during winter. No sh!t Sherlock!

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I was brave enough to pay more than the default price for this...

Bravely Default Collector's Edition...
*Didn't preorder because I thought it wasn't worth 100 euros.*
*Still think it's not over 100 euros but had to pay more.*
Looking at this description, I'm not sure if it classifies me as a serious collector or simply a dumb person...

Not cool... The game's awesome though.

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