I spent all day walking around Akihabara, and now both my body and my wallet are in agony. Nah, actually the wallet’s in pretty good shape — I came hoping to buy a Sega Saturn, which turned out to be about fifty bucks cheaper than anticipated. So I picked up Dracula X too. Visual degradation not present in the PlayStation version ahoy! Maybe Igarashi and I can make fun of it when we chat Saturday.
Last night also contributed to my general state of exhaustion; the 1UP and Gamevideos homeboys attended the unofficial official party of TGS courtesy of Tokyopia, and I was once again reminded of what a lifetime of near-total abstinence will do to your ability to metabolize alcohol. Namely, destroy it.
Despite the fact that a single small glass of liquor trashed my equilibrium, the party was pretty great. I met the top dogs at iNis, aka the awesome people who created Ouendan/Elite Beat Agents, and got to enjoy hero-of-the-day status in their eyes thanks to the completely excellent feature we published on the company last week. (If you haven’t read it, please do — I can say without reservations or hyperbole it’s one of the best features 1UP has ever presented; it’s rare to get such an intimate glimpse of the inner workings of a Japanese developer.) I also met Alex O. Smith of Vagrant Story/FFXII localization fame, which was nice since his work was what really opened my eyes to the potential and importance of a well-crafted localization. Sadly, the only reason that jerk Kohler introduced us was for the sight gag, since Smith was hands-down the tallest man in the room and I was one of the shorter ones. Even with a large Japanese presence, yeah. Ha ha.
Equally entertaining was meeting a real-life NeoGAF mod, who visibly cringed as he introduced himself to me. I think he was surprised that I didn’t punch him or something, but of course a moderator can’t be held accountable for the Internet jackasses in his care. Besides, a general rule of thumb is that anyone who runs a message board eventually comes to detest their site’s patrons. And for good reason! The secret is to kill all message boards; I did it, and now I can love you all again.
Anyway, my body is completely broken after all the walking, standing and lugging I did today so I guess I’m going to collapse in a heap now and possibly die. The good news is if I survive the night, the Akihabara episode of Retronauts will be damn fresh.
27 thoughts on “I hurt”
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I’m really suprised you bought a copy of the Saturn version of Dracula X: Nocturne in the Moonlight(again?) after all the stuff you’ve said about it recently. Didn’t you say it was like “the most dissapointing $50 I ever spent” awhile back?
You’re trading slightly higher visual fidelity for a lack of transparencies and uglier 3d elements. The only really worthwhile difference is playable Maria.
I’ve administrated and moderated Adult Swim’s message board for 3 years, and I don’t hate everyone there. Just…99.67%.
What’s boppin’ in the Akihabara arcades these days? When I was there in aught-four, SNK vs Capcom Chaos was all the rage. Then I got my ass handed to me by a Q player in 3rd Strike :-(
wait… I think it was aught-three… What year is it again?
And if you don’t survive the night, we can expect another weepy-eyed retrospective sendoff on the next 1up show?
Just kidding. We love ya too, in a strictly platonic, uni-directional, non-threaded kind of way.
(These comments would be funnier if you were still drunk).
Hey this is a cool but is the Saturn all you got. After all the wet dreams of Akihabara shopping sprees Ive had. O yea and the iNis piece is really killer as in I liked it a lot.
This is a happy surprise. Would I be presumptuous in thinking it was our disagreement in this column several weeks ago that motivated you to have another look at Saturn SotN?
Classic tries to be funny and punchy!
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You’re trading slightly higher visual fidelity for a lack of transparencies and uglier 3d elements. The only really worthwhile difference is playable Maria.
Oktober (email) (link) – 21 09 06 | 08:17
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To be honest, when I first read this, I thought he was making a carefully prepared joke about the photoblogging that had been done. I can only assume this is both intentional and awesome.
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I’ve administrated and moderated Adult Swim’s message board for 3 years, and I don’t hate everyone there. Just…99.67%.
SwimOdin – 21 09 06 | 08:33
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I can’t help but imagine that the remaining 1/300th of the population very seldom comes from the majority of an actual person but, intstead, their sublime and dreamy eyes. Or perhaps a particularly dainty set of ankles, attractive voice, or even an exceptionally well groomed pair of fingernails.
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Every other post on the 1UP blog where someone writes LOL! Parish is funny!
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The benevolent part of me knows they’ve never seen this site and wishes they will visit.
The malevolent part of me wishes they have seen this site and knows that saying it shoots a barb right through Toasty’s poor heart.
… On that note. I think you’re good at this “website” thing Parish. I’m just kind of an awful person.
Parish, as long as you’ve got a Saturn you ought to pick up a copy of Panzer Dragoon Saga if you can help it. It’s one of the few games that didn’t make me feel an everpresent hollowness for investing in the system.
Re: Locit
That’s about the only game I’m missing that I’d like for the Saturn, I just can’t justify spending $200+ on a used game.
Are you that short? I don’t remember thinking you seemed especially short when I met you.
I grabbed Dracula X not because it is good (it’s crap!) but because it was cheap ($32) and because I love Symphony in the Night so much I will happily own it in every possible form I can find. If I could find the game.com version, I would buy that.
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I did buy some other stuff in Aki, yes, but it seems crass to enumerate every single purchase I make. Street Fighter II Turbo for Super Famicom at 30 yen was probably the best value of the trip, though.
“Street Fighter II Turbo for Super Famicom at 30 yen was probably the best value of the trip, though.”
30 … yen? Those are approximately pennies, right? Nice!
stop it, you’re making me cry.
btw, if you go to mandarake in shibuya, can you pick me up the Hikaru Ichigo veritech? it’s about 3500 yen.
Hey, use email for that kind of thing.
Wasn’t the game.com version cancelled?
Yes, the game.com version was cancelled.
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Assuming this is an interview you’re doing with him, can you ask him about which versions of Castlevania games he would like to be made available on the Virtual Console? I’d like to be able to d/l the ’93 Famicom cart rerelease of Castlevania/Akumajou Dracula 1 that included the Easy mode. It’s quite possibly even rarer than Drac X: Rondo of Blood. And speaking of which, assuming no one has gotten a straight answer out of him, can you ask if he has any intentions of doing any new old-school 2d Castlevanias? Sorry for the pestering about that. I would have asked him myself if only I hadn’t missed him at Comic-Con.
I’ve already interviewed Igarashi and I decided to talk about, you know, Portrait of Ruin. But at E3 I did ask him if he’ll ever make a new old-school kind of game, to which he said probably not.
Gotcha. I can only hope he changes his mind.
oooh, which neogaf mod was it that you met?
“at E3 I did ask him if he’ll ever make a new old-school kind of game, to which he said probably not.” jparish
“Gotcha. I can only hope he changes his mind.” cartman414
Now why would he kill the goose that lays the golden game boy * eggs?
By “old-school kind of game” I think they might have meant level-based instead of Metroidvania. Not sure, though.
TheSL is right. I meant level-based Castlevania.
Oh, hey. You can actually HEAR the Draconian spamfilters slide back into place.
“I spent all day walking around Akihabara”
I believe that if you’re able to start a blog with that sentence, there should follow a period of no less than two weeks in which you’re not allowed to complain about anything.