Our heroes continue on their search for Kandori in this strange alternate world. With finding the expel mirror and getting pass the subway, we make our way to the black market district, only to find out we can never leave! The only hopes of getting out, is to make negotiations with the person behind this binding force, the Harem Queen... Part 5 of the Persona 1 playthrough streams at noon. :3

https://www.twitch.tv/carlychannel

After trying to stop the Deva System from destroying Kandori, our chosen heroes are then suddenly sent to an alternate version of their world. The only person giving clues on what's going on, is the mysterious little girl in the black dress. Will we find some answers? Part 4 of the Persona 1 playthrough streams at noon. :3

https://www.twitch.tv/carlychannel

Now I know I said that the next overview was gonna be Fire Emblem Fates, but this was a little something I did before that Twitter poll in April got the final verdict.

If you ever got familiar with some of Sega’s franchises, other than just Sonic and Yakuza, you would also be familiar with their under-appreciated titles, mainly within their RPG catalog. Valkyria Chronicles was a franchise I never thought I’d come to enjoy at first. What started in development as a simple dramatic war story idea, became something in of itself; with fun tactical gameplay while also having real time actionbattles, and the freedom to plan out your army team and strategies accordingly. I played the first game for the PS3 back in 2013, and fell in love with not just its visual and gameplay presentation, but the story, setting, and its characters really kept me invested as well. I might actually put together a review video at some point detailing everything about my experience, but moving on to the subject of this overview.

I had my copy of one of the second game sitting in my library for a while, and figured if I was ever gonna do videos or streams (so much for the latter after the glitchy Xenoblade X stream incident lol) related to the series, I might as well get the time to see how the sequels play out. So while I waited for the Twitter poll to close, I grabbed my PSP and started my first play through. After three in a half months of playingthrough the story, I can say that it does make some slight improvements gameplay-wise, but the direction felt off in some cases. Here are my thoughts on why that is.

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Starting with its visuals and gameplay, its pretty much plays the same as it does with first game, only with a significant down-grade. Taken how this was made for the PSP, the presentation had to cut down a budget due to limitations. In the first game, when characters are speaking via cutscenes, they’re usually presented with a headshot of their 3D models and are fully animated. In 2 however, they decided to go for portraits and still images that move around, making it something akin to a visual novel. Many of these cutscenes aren’t fully voice acted, except for important moments within the story, and major ones would even include fully fledge 2D animation. This can make the experience somewhat jarring if you’re more familiar with the 3D style, than this one.

Gameplay’s just the same with its use of the AP meter (points that allow you to move your units btw), and strategic gameplay, but the maps you play on also got doubled down. Instead of one singular open area, the maps would instead support different sections you can traverse to via your camps. When you capture one of the enemy’s camps, you would gain more control and access to certain areas that you can use to your advantage. The amount of units you can send out on missions, are limited to six(the first game would let you control 12, including your tanks), so you’d have to be smart on which members you want to take out or put in for certain situations.

All the classes your units can play as from the previous VC game do make a return, with some various tweaks here and there. Big major examples would include the engineer and sniper classes. In the first game, engineers are responsible for making sure your tank and teammates stay alive in battle, they also had the ability to disarm mines and fix barriers. In this game, they pretty much nerfed the latter by giving it to a new class, the armored tech, who are also pretty much your melee fighters. Snipers in the first game were also a class that you can choose to have at the start, now they’re just an upgrade class that you give to your scouts. Speaking of which, many of the upgrade classes that you can get, do have their nice perks; such as the commandos who support the use of flamethrowers, the mortarers who shoot powerful grenades, the medics who are able to fully revive fallen units, and the anthem corps who are pretty much your bards. While I did enjoy the freedom to customizing my teammates however I please, part of me did wish for some of those classes to be there from the start.

Weapon and tank customization are also still a thing, with many of the upgrades requiring you to go back to certain levels for materials, which leads to another point I’mma bring up. This game definitely encourages you to grind your levels a lot. During the courses to get through the story mode; you are greeted by a selection of missions for the month you’re currently on, and you have to pass a certain amount of marked missions in order to get to the next month and progress the plot. There are also missions you can buy via the store and DLC (which are no longer available at the time of this post, thanks Sony…), that you can play optionally. Then there are character missions that show up, depending on which unit you play the most, you’ll get to see a cutscene to learn more about them, and after a certain amount, you then eventually do a special mission to unlock their hidden potentials, some of them would even replace one of their bad perks. This was a somewhat nice feature, as it does help you to get closer to finding your favorite units, which was something the first game did somewhat lack (minus-ing the Edy Detachment DLC).

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The story itself seems to take a bit of a strange turn in direction. At one point, its suppose to be war story, while at the same time focuses on school themes. During the first half, when you attend the academy, you are greeted with a tournament arcof some sorts, where you’d have to prove you’re the best class out of everyone. After that, it immediately shifts back to the serious war story, as you later find out the school was an experiment ground for creating artificial valkyria. Part of me really wants to believe, because the Persona series was hitting big on PSP at the time, Sega wanted to take a slice of the cake with their own turn of the “kids in high school” genre (which is kinda ironic since they own Atlus now lol), only for it turn out not as strong as they hoped for.

The characters are also not nearly as memorable or original as the first game’s, with many of them being defined by cliche anime stereotypes. You got your hot headed shonen protagonist, your cool and stoic bookworm, your cute and clumsy main girl, etc. Not to say you can’t make characters around those stereotypes, but had they been given more depth, it would have benefited the narrative a bit more. There are some recognizable VAs which sorta ease them to an extent, as many of them did a great performance, while there were some moments where some deliveries felt a little off, it didn’t take away the impact of the important parts of the story. (Plus the main boy is voiced by Jason Spisak, who I kinda have a childhood soft spot for. Which is a little bonus point for me. lol)

So overall, while this game lacks a lot of the charm from the first, it sorta makes up for it with the amount of missions you can take on, as well as the replay value. I can definitely say it’s a bit harder than the first, due to the gameplay limitations. In fact, it probably made me experience a lot more mission failures than the first, with certain enemies being able to one shot your tank, gratefully dodging your gunfire, and finding smart ways to steal your base camp without you knowing. Thankfully its a little forgiving by not including permadeath, otherwise it’d just be just cruel to get through. Despite all that, it eventually sold 94,000 copies during its release, it even got high praise from reviewers that it eventually made it to be the second highest rated PSP title after Persona 3 Portable.

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With that taken care of, before I go into Fire Emblem Fates, I have been recommended to play through some other FE games beforehand. Starting with Awakening first, followed by Echoes, and then all of the 3 Fates games last. Might do overviews on both Awakening and Echoes when I feel it’s necessary.

Part 3 of the Persona 1 play through stream will start around noon. As we make our way to track down Kandori, and put a stop to SEBEC's Deva System from causing more havoc. Hope to see you there. :3

https://www.twitch.tv/carlychannel

Gonna continue where I left off in Persona 1, stream will start at around noon.

https://www.twitch.tv/carlychannel

Around noon, I'll be streaming Persona 1. Will be playing the PSP version, as it is considered the definitive version, with both routes and original sprites from the OG PS1 in english. Hope to see you there. :3

Character stills have become the hot thing that’s been selling with me lately, so I'd figured I get to share the prices for them now. I’ll make a proper sheet for them, as well as prices for comic and video related commissions eventually, but for now: character avatar/stills can be made as half or full bodied, and can be either flat colored or simple shaded. (which makes the start up prices around $27- $47, like regular commissions) A full set of three expressions will cost $5 extra, so depending on how many you have listed out, will determine the charge rate. I do work hard on making these, so it’s only fair. 

More content such as videos will come out on a timely notice, as I work in between sets and what not. There are also a couple of game overviews I will make at some point before hand, but I’ll keep ’em as a surprise for much later. I’ll be sure to give those updates when they’re ready. 

Here are some Friday Night Funkin’ doodles to end this post off, hope you all have a nice summer :3

Thought I'd give you guys an update on stuff that's going on. Been working on a bunch of character still commissions lately.

Here is a single set of character stills for a YouTuber named Scrawn, so far he’s only use them for an opening intro and thumbnails on upcoming videos he’s planning to make. Chances are he might ask for more if needed.

More stills for Justinfinity are currently in the works, as preparation for his upcoming review on Rising of the Shield Hero. Might occasionally redo any of the older ones I did for the sake of anatomy reasons, but I’ll be trying my best in not over working myself lol. I will actually get to making a commission sheet to showcase the prices of stills and comics, when I get to finishing the first chapter of Tales of Fear. If anyone wants their own character drawn by me, just DM for details for now.

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Thought I’d also get a chance to remind you all that I will be going on vacation by the end of this week. I’ll be spending time with some family in Texas and won’t be back ’till the 29th. Any commissions and such that were asked, will be put on hold until then. Just like I did with the trip to Maui, I’ll also be posting some images and videos of my experience on my Instagram.

In the meantime, new videos have been uploaded to my own Youtube channel. Hopefully those vids will keep all of you busy while I’m away, until then keep staying cool and eat healthy. :3

Ever since I did my retrospective on both Persona 1 & 2 last year, I've been thinking on maybe doing more journals where I cover some of the games that I'd play. These kind of things will not only help change the pace for the accounts I post on, but also give you guys more insights on how much of a geek I am, lol.

Ever since this came out this July, I knew I had to get it. The Xeno franchise has been a major impact in my life ever since I heard about its existence in my teens. So to hear that Xenoblade 1 was getting a definitive remaster for the Switch, not only did it excite me and other Xeno fans, but it also was a great move on Monolith’s part, for it helps people who don’t have a Wii or “new” 3DS get a chance to experience this wonderful game.

As someone who has played the original version on Wii, there were obviously a lot of big changes they did to make it more appealing. The new models and art style of the characters, look very well done, and the animations breath pure life into them. They look more way more expressive, and it really makes you feel for them in a new light. Some of the environments really shine out as well; with the HD improvements, places like Satoral Marsh and Eryth Sea, completely stand out with uniqueness to them. Giving new players something to remember by on their first playthroughs.

The menus are also a big improvement in terms of visuals; certain sections were easier to navigate through, and items and equipment are not as cluttered with each other when searching. In the original Wii version, depending on what you have the characters equipped with, that type of clothing would stay that way throughout the play through, leading to some hilarious looks in certain cutscenes making the story not to be taking seriously. Taking hints from Xenoblade X, Definitive now has a section to where you can select certain clothing styles you like, so if you’d ever want them to look geared up for big battles or be ridiculous as much as possible; you can switch them up to your choosing. This feature was something I obviously enjoyed, that it’d made me feel like I was playing those old school dress up games I use to play as a kid.

Side quests had become way more easier to complete than ever. When it comes to certain quests that involve finding certain collectables, they’d usually be by random chance, leaving you with countless hours of grinding and searching for finding that certain item. Now with Definitive, when searching for those items, they’ll immediately be marked on the map; which saves a whole bunch of time and fast EXP gain. Granted there are still those rare “hard to find” collectables out in the wild, that can be difficult to complete for things such as the Collectopedia; but there are plenty of guides that can help can help you find them, such as Chuggaconroy’s play through and the Xenoblade wiki.

Combat is still just as fun as ever, with putting together combos, and assembling arts that would benefit each member of the party to your liking. In fact, there will be moments where if vision has been made, the game would give you a special mark on a certain art that could help you; which obviously really helps you in getting out of tight situations. They also added a feature to were if the game is getting too hard for you to handle, you can switch the difficulty to a more casual mode anytime you need it. Granted I only used that mode, whenever I had trouble with a swarm full of enemies or super strong monsters, but it’s a convenient feature to have when feeling stuck.

Voice acting is pretty much the same as it was in the previous versions, which in most cases holds well for some people; but if you’re a massive weeb that prefers a more “accurate” performance, there is an option to change the language to Japanese and such. There’s even an option to where you can switch off the battle dialogue during combat, if you find annoyance in hearing characters saying certain lines over and over again; but again these options are there if ever want to change it up, I’d still prefer having the english dub, but you can play it in however you please.

The music still holds up as well, with some tracks that have even been remixed for the cause. There were some cases where the remix tracks have made certain scenes and environments look more impactful, such as Engage the Enemy and Mechonis Field; but both the original and remix OSTs have their strong perks in terms of sound design. Some examples being the remix night track for Satorl Marsh, with the latin vocals now having a more higher pitch than the original; and the OG tracks for You Will Know Our Names and Visions of the Future, where their electric guitar rifts having a more epic distinct sound to ’em compared to their remix counterparts. One can go either or both, but its still just as enjoyable regardless of preference.

Now onto the story segment; I won’t go into the main story, for I believe it’s definitely something you must go through blind for a better experience. I am however gonna go over my overall thoughts on what I think about the extra story Future Connections, if you don’t wish to be somewhat spoiled on what this segment has to offer, you’d be more and free to skip reading this part.

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Taking place a year after the events of the main story, the people of Bionis and Mechonis are now taking a step forward into fixing humanity; all that’s left is to cover things up on the Bionis’ shoulder, which now remains as a floating island in the sky, along with Alcamoth, the once big capital of the High Entia race, now nearly forgotten temple. Shulk and Melia are on a mission to reclaim the capital to start anew, until their ship gets shot down by a mysterious beam of light from the building. Crashing into the island, they are met with Nene and Kino, two of Riki’s kids who snuck on board with them (much to their mother’s unknowing dismay), and together they find many refugees on the island, all who are struggling for survival in fear of a mysterious beast that now resides inside the capital, known as the Fog King.

This extra chapter, had been way more fun than I expected it to be. Off the bat, features such as skill trees, burst affinity, chain attacks, and visions are removed; making the experience a bit more challenging; So you would need to have strong attention to visual cues, in order to avoid heavy damage from enemies. The meter for chain attacks is still up for reviving fallen comrades. “But exactly is it used for, if chain attacks are not there anymore?” you may ask? As you go around the Bionis’ shoulder, you encounter the Ponspecters, a team of exploring nopon, who are on a quest to finding hidden treasure, to pay off the debt of Frontier Village’s archeology centre. They can join your party as supporting units, with each ’em bringing special perks that would benefit you in battle. By finding a certain amount, you’d unlock union attacks. At the cost of a full meter, you are given three options, one for major damage, one for healing, and one for enemy daze and debuffs. It’s really recommended to find these guys early, in order to give you more of an advantage against the big enemies the story has to offer.

The overall story for this chapter, while not as long; it does bring a happy and satisfying ending for the character Melia, who had suffered so much tragedy in the main story. This chapter really brought more light and growth to her as a character, with taking up the role as the last High Entia ruler, and showing pure determination to reclaim Alcamoth once again. We even get to see her make friendly ties with her step-sister Tyrea (at least that’s what I think she is imo). It’s a really nice conclusion for fans who have played the original, and wanted to know of what else happened after the defeat of Zanza.

Overall, it was great to experience this game again, and I’d obviously recommend this version out of the three equivalents. Better yet, it’s a game I’d easily recommend for those that are looking to get into the Xeno franchise in general. The gameplay is fun, characters are memorable, and the story relatively simple for most part. It still remains as one of my absolute favorites to this day, and I hope with this version, it did the same with everyone else.

Well that was fun to type; if you guys would like more of these kind of things, feel free to tell in the comments below what you think. I’ll be posting stuff for the next game I might cover on my Twitter, so if you would like to see my silly butt squee at gaming antics, you can follow me on there to see my progress. Other than that, more art stuff will be made soon.

Doing a little something different and giving a special shout out to artist WENshark for making this cute chibi headshot of my blue avatar. I do recommend checking them out, for their artwork is really well drawn. I really wanna do more journals like this where I give features to anyone who does art of my OCs, it's just so wonderful and enjoyable to see how they would look in different styles. Everyone is welcome to draw and gift me their fan art, and if they, do I'll shout out to them in another artist feature journal.

WENShark's Carrd

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Now a small update concerning the horror anthology series I mentioned back in the start of this year, reference sheets and scripts are now currently in the works, and is on the search in looking for more ideas. Which I’ll leave with a following question: What are some of the things that you find creepy and disturbing? Just anything that comes to your mind, whether it’d be related to everyday lives or something so mundane. Leave your thoughts in the comments below; until then, here’s a sneak preview on what you’ll soon expect.