#it’s just so hard for me to navigate the app since i don’t speak japanese at all

[padparadschaaa]

i want to give elbert a little kiss on the forehead so bad he deserves to be cherished and loved properly

[adventure-hearts]

some thoughts after reading the Kizuna novelisation...

[ Obviously, spoilers below. ]

Please do not repost my text elsewhere! This is a review, not a translation.

After a considerable amount of trying — geez, stop making it hard for international fans to give you money by all that geoblocking! —, I managed to buy the Kindle version of the Kizuna novelisation, which is available on Amazon JP at a very cheap price. I don’t speak a word of Japanese, but it’s a very short and simple book and Google Translator and the translation feature of the Kindle app are remarkably easy and effective — resulting in a readable, if surely not completely accurate, translation. I’d recommend it, even if you don’t have the language skills to read it without help! I went through it in a few hours and now I’m slowly re-reading some key scenes and comparing it to the summary made by someone who’s actually linguistically competent, to figure out what I missed or misunderstood.

(onkei-kun is currently summarizing the novel on Twitter, so I’d recommend following her for more concrete information. I don’t feel confident enough to post any dialogue or concrete details lest I misunderstood something. The last thing I want is to spread misinformation!)

The novel is pretty good.  I don’t know to what extent it will deviate from the film in terms of structure / dialogue, but I didn’t identify many “cut scenes” (except two that seem to come directly from the short films). The most interesting and “novelty” part is that you get some insight into the characters thoughts / feelings at any given time, and that’s it.

As for spoilers: they were all true, folks!  Moreover, the plot setting / premise that was officially revealed in trailers and synopsis released before the film holds until you’re 40% into the book. Only then do you start to get some actual development / surprises. I wasn’t wrong when I thought this movie wouldn’t have a very complicated plot… but boy, was I wrong about the ending! Now that I know more context I’m still digesting things...

Some thoughts:

It’s very action-oriented. There are at least three big battles in this. 

This is Taichi and Yamato’s story. The real surprise to me was that Yamato seemed to have an independent storyline, that is, he wasn’t just reacting to things Taichi was doing. I loved seeing him investigating stuff on his own (foreshadowing for a future career?).  We really get to see how Taichi and Yamato are doing and feeling before, during, and after. And they don’t really have a fight! The other kids, however, barely register — everyone has a few lines and they participate in the battles and are involved in the plot, but they are clearly secondary characters. Sora is absent from virtually the entire book, except for the scene based the first short film. She’s the only one who isn’t taken to Menoa’s Neverland. She loses her partner in the end, as well, but we don’t get see their reactions. Gennai also has a brief cameo, and Meiko is mentioned by name.

They make up for the absence of 02 kids in tri. Not only are they very active and involved in the plot, but they arguably get more screen time than some of the Adventure cast. I loved them in this. Although (and this is not explained) it seems implied that Takeru and Hikari are not considered part of this close-knit team anymore? Something tri. suggested and that us 02 fans have to make sense of.

The ending felt really weird. On the one hand, it’s very emotional because it’s the most definitive goodbye we’ve seen so far. Agumon and Gabumon essentially die, the digivices turn to stone, and they find no cure for the inevitability that, as chosen children grow, the bond with their partners is dissolved and they die. So it doesn’t really feel like a victory. But, at the same time, everyone is full of hope things will change in the future… and since the Epilogue exists and all, we know it will change. So, it’s an unsatisfying ending — we’re in this strange place where this necessitates a sequel to make things right and, more than ever, we now do need to know how and why things are they way they are in 2028! If this is indeed The End, then they’re leaving with a bittersweet cliffhanger that creates more questions about the Epilogue than the previous sequels ever did. And it doesn’t even really go deep into developing the aspects of the Epilogue we really know about, except through what feels more like winks and Easter eggs. Would it kill them to verbalize Yamato’s decision to be an astronaut? Or acknowledge / develop the end game couples in any way, even if you don’t show them as being together at this stage? Meh.

(I should stay that the exact details aren’t very clear to me, regarding who actually lost the partners, besides Taichi, Yamato, and Sora.)

I think my favorite scene was just Taichi and Yamato having dinner and commiserating about their uncertain future and how lonely they feel as young adults, when all their friends are so busy and so sure about their careers. That’s what I’d like to see more of — actually show us all the kids’ lives and feelings, their relationships with each other, as they navigate adulthood.

Also, am I the only one who feels this was a bit of a rehash of some of tri.’s plot points, but with less time and ambition to develop the same ideas? The antagonist is an older Chosen Child dealing with the loss of her partner. Dumb chosen children trust the wrong person. Some of the older kids are over the fighting and want to lead normal lives. There’s a “permanent” separation with the Digimon. Taichi and Yamato are still figuring out their future jobs. The kids struggle because they are growing up while the Digimon stay kids and have trouble relating to them. Digimon cause problems in the real world. The only big difference is that now the Digimon are well-known in society and people know the Chosen Children are famous... I couldn’t help but feel this was a bit “been there, done that”.

So yeah, excited for the film! I’m sure this story will work better visually. But I’d like to see more. This felt… incomplete.

(Oh, and case you’re wondering: yes, the scene when Agumon finds Taichi's "adult magazines" is real.)

[leafinthewindlanguages]

My personal thoughts on LanguagePod 101 series

*Backstory: this is not my first time dabbling with these guys. the first time was around 2013 14? using it for both korean and japanese*

*Personal History: i hate and despise learning vocabulary it’s so incredibly hard for me, and love doing grammar. also i have auditory processing issues that i didn’t realize were so bad until i started doing spoken foreign languages. also didn’t realize how much i rely on lip reading to help me until doing other languages lamo *

My first experience with the program: i hated it and it was a waste of my time lol. i did the free week they offered and both my language levels were way above what they were offering me to do. now i don’t know if that’s because i couldn’t figure out how to navigate the website or not lol, but now or maybe because of the quarantine i was able to access any level for vietnamese i wanted to do for a week. 

My experience now: Again personal history: learning korean and japanese was very easy to me as are the other languages i’ve dabbled in. vietnamese is not that way. for every language i always have to tweak and change how i study it because every language is different, as is my experience/contact with the language. but nothing i was doing was working for vietnamese a wild and depressing time. Then i started using the guided learning on language pod 101 and it has helped tremendously. i read somewhere that if you don’t listen to the language you can’t learn it. and idk if that’s 100% true, but i do know i couldn’t learn this language and i had like 0 listening experience besides occassionaly when i go to the pho restaurants i might hear the people speaking vietnamese and i listened to one song i really liked in vietnamese  Vì Anh Là Vậy (VALV) by Trọng Hiếu a great song also if anyone has anyother song recommendations let me know being able to listen to the dialogue, read the dialogue, and slow it down if i need to has been so helpful.

Is it worth it: This program is expensive. i hate spending money when there’s so many free things out there at the beginner level but i was offered a 65% discount also i was super depressed and buying things makes me feel better so i decided since i’m quarantined i’ll give it a try. I will admit, it’s been super beneficial to me and i really like the ability to slow down the dialogue and they have a flashcard system on their website you can choose words to put in and learn or they have a most common 2000 words deck you can learn with. now even though i said how much i like it, if i didn’t have that discount i would never have bought it and if i wasn’t in quarantine i probably wouldn’t have done it either. they have lots of free resources like their tumblr and youtube pages where you can get vocab and hear native speakers. a huge downside for me though is that is really doesn’t focus that much on grammar like i like. now that may be a personal fault, but i think this program is more for listening and vocab. also if you do the free week during quarantine and you really dedicate yourself, you could go through and take notes on the most important stuff you want to focus on and go back and review after your week is over. plus if you keep making emails you can keep getting extra free weeks

in summary

the good: lots of resources like pdfs(have to make an account), youtube channels (free), tumblr pages (free); great for vocab; great for listening practice; have a phone app that connects with your account; ability to slow down dialogue and individual words

the bad: expensive; if you want grammar i’m not sure this is for you

recommend?: kind of. if you like listening to native speakers definitely do the free week to see if it works for you. otherwise it’s too expensive in my opinion. and if you do decide to buy wait a little bit after your free account is over and they will send you various discounts (however i’m not sure if that’s a regular thing or just becuase of this quarantine) the highest discount (and the one i went with) was 65% off which equalled to 84$ for a two year subscription.

i hope this helped and was mostly cohesive/comprehensive

if anyone has any other questions, or something doesn’t make sense, you can message me if you’d like and i’ll do my best to answer/clarify things

[jokerrenwriting]

Old Friend - One-Shot

I hopped off the train near Shibuya. I hadn’t been to Tokyo since I was pretty young. The first time I lived in Japan, my family had lived in a smaller town outside the big city, but would go into the city to shop or go to the theatre or just sight-see.

It was almost odd to be back. I spent three young years in Japan before moving back to America, where I was born and mostly raised, but I’d definitely missed Japan. A lot had changed since I was a kid. Tokyo seemed simultaneously bigger and yet smaller at the same time. I knew it seemed smaller because I was taller now that I wasn’t a child, but it was also bigger because I was traversing it alone. No parents guiding me.

I looked down at my phone, looking for places to get some dinner before looking for my hotel. It was getting late and I’d need to eat quickly.

LeBlanc Café, read the navigation app on my phone. It had good reviews and wasn’t far. Something about curry and coffee. I wasn’t a huge fan of coffee and my spice tolerance was questionable at best, but I figured they’d have more on the menu than just that.

“Here I come,” I muttered, reading the walking directions to get there and trying to memorize it.

I headed away from the train platform toward the rest of the city.

I got more surprised looks from passersby that I was reading signs effortlessly than I did from people who realized I was a white American in the middle of Tokyo---tourists weren’t uncommon I was sure, but I doubted most of them could read Japanese fluently.

“Now remember,” I heard my dad’s voice murmur in my mind from when I was living in Japan as a kid. “Turn your English voice off while we’re here.”

I couldn’t help but smile. Even switching the language of my phone to Japanese again. It had been a while since I did so in order to practice and keep my skills up.

I followed street signs and my phone’s navigation app to LeBlanc Café.

It was late in Japan but that meant it was probably early-morning back home. Dinner here was really more like breakfast for me.

I ducked into the café and looked around. It was quaint and somewhat small, but pleasant. The air smelled like coffee with the underlying spice of curry. An older gentleman was standing behind the counter. “Welcome to LeBlanc,” he greeted in English, sounding somewhat tired, upon noticing my distinctly-tourist appearance.

“Thank you. This is a lovely café,” I replied. In Japanese.

He perked up. “You know Japanese?” he asked.

I nodded with a smile. “Yes. I spent several years living here with my parents when I was a kid. We’re American but we speak Japanese at our house even now just to keep our skills up.” I sat at the counter, reading the menu. “That pastry looks delicious. As does some cocoa.”

“Coming right up.” He started putting together my order while I rifled through my bag for my money. I’d exchanged my dollars for yen back in America in the airport and was all ready for my trip.

“So how come you spent several years here?” the boss asked.

“My father’s work brought him here. And he brought his family with him.”

“I see. Your Japanese is quite good.”

“Thanks. I’m a little rusty but I think I’m doing okay.”

“You are.”

“Thank you.”

Footsteps on stairs caught my ears. I glanced off to the left.

A boy about my age was coming down the stairs with an apron over his jeans-and-a-V-neck outfit.

“Ooh. A tourist,” he said, pushing his glasses up his nose, stealing a glance at me.

The manager glanced at me, like he was waiting for me to reveal I understood Japanese, with a hint of amusement wrinkling his forehead. I smirked at the counter.

I shrugged. “I mean, sorta. It’s been a while since I visited Tokyo, but my mom used to bring me shopping downtown,” I said.

The boy whirled to stare at me in surprise.

My eyes widened. “Wait... Ren?!” I demanded.

The boy was familiar. He’d aged but he looked the same as he had when we were kids in that town outside the city. Except the glasses. Those happened sometime between the last time I saw him and this time.

He nodded. “Ye... Yeah,” he said. “I... never thought I’d see you again.”

The manager started laughing. “Kid, you flew across an ocean and ran into someone you know?” he joked.

I laughed. “Yeah. This dork and I were friends back in the town my parents moved me to. We fell out of contact for... how long’s it been now? Seven years? Ten? How old were we when I moved back to America?” I pushed a hand through my hair to get it out of my way. “I’m so glad I found you again. Never thought I would but... we gotta exchange emails at least so we can stay in touch. I missed you!”

“Yeah me too.” He handed me the cocoa I ordered and leaned against the other side of the counter. “Tell me about America. How’s it been?”

“It’s been America. Big and loud and American. But I miss Japan and my friends here a lot too.”

“Well, I’m glad you’re back.”

“Me too.” I took a sip of my cocoa. “Of course, I’m not here for long. I have a couple weeks here to see about transferring to high school before flying back. But if I get accepted to high school here, I might move to some dorms here for my last few years of high school.”

“If you do, you’ll have to let me know,” Ren said.

“I will. No way am I letting you out of my life permanently ever again now that I found you.”

Ren smirked. “Think it’s fate?” he teased. “Finding me in a city where neither of us lived before we knew each other. I mean, we shouldn’t have ever found one another ever again. And yet here we are.”

I snickered. “I don’t believe in fate, Ren. I never did. You knew that.”

He laughed. “Me neither. We’re free to choose our own paths.”

“Agreed.” I kicked my feet on the stool that was way too tall for even a tall person and smiled. “I don’t think it was fate that we found each other, but I don’t think it was luck or coincidence either. I think it was just... a happy accident.”

“Fair enough.” He glanced at the clock. “Hey, once I’m done with my shift here we should exchange information.”

“Yeah. Definitely. I wanna stay in touch this time.”

“Me too. I missed you.”

I scrawled the address of my hotel on the café serviette and passed it to him. “For when you’re done with your shift.”

“Thanks.” He put the serviette in his pocket. 

*^*^*^*^*

The phone in my hotel room rang. Figuring I knew who would be on the other line, I scooped it up. “Hello?”

“Hello. Your date has arrived,” the receptionist’s voice said.

I blinked. Date? I thought. Geez, Ren. Couldn’t you have just said “friend?”

“Uh, thank you. Tell him I’ll be right down,” I said.

Sighing, I pulled on my leather jacket and glanced in the mirror. I didn’t look like I was ready to go on a date but if I’d known that was Ren’s intention I would have spruced up my appearance. Too late now.

Maybe he wasn’t intending on making it a date though. Maybe he just said that to the receptionist as an explanation to get her to call my room.

Wouldn’t know till I got downstairs.

The jet lag was seriously getting to me. It was already late enough at night as it was. I’d gone to LeBlanc for dinner several hours before and now the nightlife scene was cropping up out the window. The neon of the signs and billboards beginning to stand out against the dark backdrop of the sky.

Down at the front desk, Ren was standing with his hands in his pockets, looking around vaguely. “Ren!” I called when I caught sight of him. He turned to me with a smile and met me in the middle. I wrapped my arms around him. “Glad you found this place.”

“Wasn’t hard. I’m getting used to the city,” he replied. He pulled out of the hug to look at me. “Wow. You look exhausted. How about we go back upstairs, exchange email addresses and so on, and I tuck you into bed?”

“Ren,” I sighed in sarcastic complaint. “We’re sixteen. I don’t need you to tuck me in. But I wouldn’t say no to going back upstairs and getting some rest.”

“Okay good. Let’s go then.”

I snickered and led him back up to my hotel room. It was a small single queen but I didn’t anticipate hosting anyone. I handed Ren my phone and flopped facedown on one side of the bed. He perched carefully on the other side, holding my phone in one hand and his in the other.

I assume he exchanged our contact information, because I had his the next morning when I woke up, but I fell asleep within moments of handing him the phone. I’d been overwhelmed and overtaken by jet lag.

There was a note in the hotel stationary on the bedside next to me. You were tired so after I exchanged our information I tucked you in just as I said I would and went home. I’m living above LeBlanc. If you get another chance to stop by, I’ll see you there. -Ren

I couldn’t help but chuckle and shake my head. He’d removed my shoes and socks but otherwise just put me under the covers fully-clothed. My suitcase was sitting where I left it in the corner, unopened.

At the very least he respected my modesty. That was nice.

I pulled my phone out and made a chatroom with him. Sorry I passed out last night.

Don’t be. You were exhausted. You looked ready to topple in the lobby.

... Thanks.

No problem.

And thanks for tucking me in.

Just trying to be nice.

You always were and are. You’ll have to tell me what’s up and why you’re living above LeBlanc later, okay? I’m gonna get some stuff done and I’ll get back to you ASAP, promise.

Yeah definitely. Talk later.

Bye. :-)

See ya. :-D

I threw the covers off and moved to get ready for the day.

I’d told Ren that I didn’t believe in fate and I wasn’t lying. But I really couldn’t come up with any other plausible reason for he and I to find each other again after all these years somewhere different from where we knew each other in the past.

Maybe sometimes people were just meant to meet. Over and over.

[mistyandmatt]

Goodbye America, Hello Japan!

Things are about to get real for me. We’re leaving the comforts and securities of the motherland to venture out to a place of complete vulnerability on our part. We don’t speak Japanese and we can’t read Japanese (despite Matt being half Japanese),so we are really starting out far behind the curve here folks. As we got on the plane in Hawaii, I loaded my newly purchased Catnapple bag with as many diet cokes as I could possibly carry on because Japan is Diet Coke free. You heard me right, it’s a real bad deal. These folks have a thing against aspartame for some reason. I mean, don’t mind the fact that it’s probably terrible for you, so they just aren’t having any of it here. Smuggling in as much as I could to get me through as much of this leg of the trip as I could is my plan. Once I run out, I’m going straight to beer, as that seems like the next safest option. Don’t be fooled, the Japanese do not judge day drinking, in fact, they seem to support it. It’s 8:20 am and we are currently boarding the bullet train to go to Kyoto for a few days and I noticed many people packing in beers for breakfast. Now that’s a new take on “eating your wheaties” if you ask me.

Quickly, it became clear that I was definitely the minority on the plane as we took our seats. My fair skin and blonde hair aren’t a discrete feature on an Asian airliner. I knew then, that everywhere in Japan was going to be just like this experience. I suppose the positive is that with my bright purple coat and my very distinguishable blonde hair, I won’t get lost in the crowds of people. Matt was right, the seats and entertainment on the plane were stellar, the service top notch, and the food, well a bit odd, but I committed to trying everything once (who knew that concept from childhood would re-emerge again) on this trip. I’ll either come out of Japan loving the food or I will have lost 10 pounds (either wouldn’t be a bad thing). We’ll see what happens. If the rest of Japan is going to be like our experience on the plane, then I’ll take it, otherwise, I’m just going to stay right here on the plane.

After just over eight hours on the flight, we arrived in the airport where Matt’s aunt and uncle picked us up. Matt’s mom and her sister immediately started talking in Japanese and it hasn’t stopped since! One 70 year old Asian lady is hard enough to wrangle, so you can only imagine two of them! I think they were super excited to see each other since it’s been around 15 years since Matt’s mom has been back to Japan. I mean, you’d think with FaceTime and Skype these ladies would “see” each other regularly, but no, the only thing Matt’s mom has learned to use the internet for is shopping on Amazon and binge watching Turkish soap operas on YouTube. While they were immediately starting to catch up, Matt secured us a pocket WiFi for the days we will be here, because I’m willing to take daily shots of my smuggled Diet Coke to make it last, I just can’t make it without the internet, it’s like the one last thing keeping me connected to the inside and outside world.

The thing I am most excited about throughout this entire journey is for Matt to be able to meet his extended family (his aunts/uncles and cousins) and to be able to see where his mom and her family grew up, as the family still owns and maintains their childhood home. About two years ago, Matt and I had discussed how we would like to get to Japan with his mom before she is unable to travel comfortably (it’s a 14 hour flight from OKC). Six months ago Matt’s mom found out that his cousin was going to be getting married in January and the entire family was coming. So, just like that, we started planning this adventure with our resident interpreter, Kinuko Jorgensen in tow.

Matt filled you in on all the fun things we have explored the last few days, which has been a unique experience to say the least. I’ll be honest, Japan is one of the cleanest, safest, most advanced places we’ve ever been (these toilets guys, I’m ordering one the minute we get home), but it’s been somewhat hard for us as Americans, as there is just not a lot of things in English anywhere and the public transportation, although abundant, is extremely confusing to navigate, even more so with such a significant language barrier between us and them. Thank goodness for the itranslate app on the IPhone, as we’ve been able to navigate our way around (if that’s what you want to call it, more like barely making it, but it’s worked) when Matt’s mom isn’t with us. I highly recommend it for anyone traveling where interpretation services will be needed. You just speak slowly into it in English and it gives both a written and spoken response translated in to whatever language you need it in. So, you can show it to someone or they can listen and usually between those two things, you can get what you want or need from the conversation.

As mentioned before, the whole reason we came to Japan now is because Matt’s cousin is getting married. We’ve been to a lot of weddings, but this was a real fancy wedding that clearly did not include a rehearsal because everyone (in the wedding party) has a personal escort who tells them what to do when, on que. This is a western style wedding (this seems to be popular here) that is held in a real elaborate hotel. What was different was that since there is not a rehearsal, the customary approach is that the bride and grooms families get together about 30 minutes before the wedding and introduce each person one by one to the other’s family. Once again, we can’t understand a thing going on, but we follow along and attempt to do what the others are doing. The wedding and reception last from 1:30 p.m. to about 8:30 p.m. and included two formal wear changes for the bride and groom, a six-course dinner (with different drinks at each course), and lots of meeting people from both sides many times throughout the night. I can now see why everyone needs a personal escort, it’s really a lot to keep straight. Not much is different in the wedding ceremony, nor all the other hub-hub that goes on with weddings, but thankfully we’ve attended a few in our time to know at least what is approximately going on since again all of this is in Japanese. So, as you will see from some of the photos, these additional people are Matt’s aunts, uncles (their spouses) and one set of his cousins. Matt’s mom is one of 6 kids. Her oldest brother is deceased, the next big brother unfortunately couldn’t make the wedding because he is in the hospital (he’s 77 and just had surgery), and then you see her next biggest brother (gray/white hair-he’s 73). I can’t pronounce or even try to type his name, but I can totally see where Matt gets his happy personality from, as this guy is a hoot! Matt’s mom is child number 4 and then her younger brother (dark hair) who she reports is very serious and her younger sister (in the kimono-her son is the one getting married) is the one that tries to keep everyone in the family in line. It’s been great getting to see all of them together. There are more family events scheduled for later in the week, but for now we’ll leave it at that. The wedding was beautiful and we all had a great time.

On Monday we went out and explored the Ginza area of Tokyo. This area is made up of high-end designer shops all put into these large multi-level malls. So imagine a Dillards store, but instead of different departments in one store (the different areas, men’s, women’s, etc. are all on different floors), it’s different designers in little booth spaces on each floor of the store, so more like a trade show set up if you will. We did some shopping and then headed over to the Canon store, so that Matt could get all of his camera equipment cleaned and serviced (as it is about half price to do it here then at home). Matt’s mom went along with us (you all should know she likes real fancy things-must be where Matt gets it from), as her interpretation skills were likely going to be needed at the camera store. We had a fabulous day, walked about 10 miles total, so I’m hoping that off sets all the sweet treats we keep picking up on every corner from these great little vendors.

Since we’ve been here, we’ve eaten just about every type of Japanese food. We’ve had sushi, ramen, soba, tonkatsu, yakatori, etc. We really wanted to go to one of the authentic yakiniku restaurants where you grill the beef there at your table over hot coals. About 8:00 pm we ventured out to find this place we found on the internet (mind you we can’t read any of it, but we were just taking a gamble hoping it was good), as it was about a mile walk from the house. We show up, they are very confused as to our lack of Japanese skills, but don’t fret the itranslate app came to the rescue once again! This place (which is down a dark alley with nothing else around it with nothing in English anywhere in sight, so we knew this place was going to be good) is apparently famous for feeding sumo wrestlers, so yes, we are definitely in the right place! We made it through this amazing meal with lots of patience from the owner and wait staff who were just so very accommodating to us. They sent us home with some little gifts from the restaurant and I think thoroughly enjoyed the experience with us just as much as we did. We even got them to take a picture with us! Follow up to this experience with Matt’s mom translating: we found out this place truly is one of the best places to go, so despite the little language barrier, Matt and I still were able to navigate our way to great food! Who knew?

Just a few photos for you all to enjoy from the past few days. Off to Kyoto and Nara for our next Japanese experience!

[momobage]

Band Yarouze Review: It’s a battle of the bands!... and I love a fish man

Band Yarouze (バンドやろうぜ！) is a Japanese card collecting rhythm game made by Aniplex and Sony Music. The goal of the game is to collect cards through gachas and events by playing various songs performed by the four main bands: BLAST, OSIRIS, Fairy4pril, and Cure2tron. Unlike the other games, the player’s character isn’t really in the story; you are more like a bystander or “god-like” being who just observes and sometimes speaks to the members. Therefore, all you do is play the songs and unlock cards, events, characters, and band stories. 

I started playing Band Yarouze around March 2016 because the same friend who recommended Ensemble Stars wanted me to suffer more… I’m not even kidding. Even though I like rhythm games, I wasn’t too interested in playing this one at the time. A few characters caught my eye, but not enough to invest into the game. However right now, it is my second favourite game and brings me just as much suffering as Ensemble Stars does. 

Main gameplay: 5/5 ♥♥♥♥♥

The gameplay for Band Yarouze is extremely simple: tap, hold, hold-slide, and swipe (left and right) notes when they slide down towards the bottom of the screen. The notes follow the beat of the song, so it’s easy once you understand the flow. Rhythm games are very popular in Japan, but each of the mechanics are slightly different. I think out of the ones I have tried, Band Yarouze is the most forgiving. For example, some other rhythm games need hold and release notes at a specific time or they won’t count. This makes it difficult to play songs  with a full combo, especially if you’re on expert mode with a max note speed. However, in Band Yarouze, if you press a hold note a little longer than indicated, it won’t penalize you unless you miss the next note.

Another interesting point of the game is the event function. Almost all Japanese games have some type of event aspect. In typical games like Ensemble Stars, during the event time you play through and complete lives to gain points and rank up to collect event cards. But in Band Yarouze, you complete the song to gain points and objects (like keys, buns or chips) to either collect points, rank, or exchange items for event cards.

For example, during an event called, “Stand by Me GIGS: Nice Dream, Journey Mood,” (photo above) you try to collect points and rank up to get special cards and items such as stones and gacha tickets. You can also win steamed buns after clearing the event song and use them to play the time-limited event songs. However, in the current event, “Advent of the Quattro Virtuoso GIGS: Dante of the Purgatory,” (photo below) you go through the story challenges and play special lives. If you clear the Live, you win chips and exchange them for limited Super Rare (SR) and Rare (R) level cards. I find collecting points and ranking events easier and more fun than just exchanging items, even though it is easier and less stressful. I like that Band Yarouze changes the rules and mechanics for events because it keeps the game interesting. Even if you play the same song repeatedly, it is still challenging to collect or complete the event. I kind of wish other games would also change their event rules from time to time.

(Left: unbroken card, Right: Broken card. P.S. This is a boy, all of Cure2tron are crossdressing boys)

Unfortunately, Band Yarouze is only available via the Japanese app store and Google play store. As I mentioned in the Ensemble Stars post, you can download a separate Android Game Platform or create a Japanese iTunes account to access these games. There aren’t too many tutorials for Band Yarouze but gyrotalon from Reddit made a basic English guide to the game. This helped me understand the navigational system and how to BREAK and level up cards. You can also check out Banyaro English Tumblr and Banyaro English Twitter for translated event announcements, basic character information, and replies to questions from other Band Yarouze players.  

As always, it is free to play and has in-game currency called “medals.” I didn’t use to care about the gacha in this game before since it is kind of expensive (it costs 500 medals for a ten card pull). However, one of my favourite characters got a pretty card and it all went downhill from there. So far, I’ve spent a bit more than $350 on Band Yarouze, which I’m not even surprised. Honestly, since the past few events have been featuring my favourite band or characters, I’m surprised the number isn’t much higher. I spent a lot a few weeks ago, trying to get a SR of Shin. He came home after four or five 10-character rolls… but at least he came home… unlike a certain someone [Cough Koga Cough].

Overall, Band Yarouze is really fun and addictive. Even if you aren’t good at playing music games, you can still have fun trying to beat your score. You also probably don’t need to buy medals unless you want a certain card, but the game gives you many rewards along the way. I’d recommend this game to any beginners who don’t have much experience playing rhythm games. The songs are well composed, the characters are quite unique, and the game is easy to play.

Characters: 4/5 ♥♥♥♥♡

When I started playing Band Yarouze, there weren’t any characters that immediately caught my eye. My friend pointed out some characters that were my type and sadly, I completely agreed and my obsession began. Each band includes one vocalist, guitarist, bassist, and drummer. They each also all play a different type of rock music adapted with modern Japanese elements: BLAST is classic/aggressive rock, OSIRIS is emotional/punk rock, Fairly4pril is alternative/indie rock, and Cure2tron is electronic/pop rock. I have members I like within each band but OSIRIS is by far my absolute favourite.

Their music and appearances are cool and edgy but their lyrics and sound are still so expressive. I love all their songs! My top three are “Darkness,” “Voice,” and “Heavenly Breeze.” Although there is only one vocalist, I love each member’s voice for its unique sound and way of speaking.

(My favourite Kyo cards. He is a beautiful angel with a beautiful voice who should never feel alone.)

Takara Kyo (Kobayashi Masanori) has a quiet but strong voice. His shy personality easily shows through his looks and attitude. But when he performs, it is breathtaking. Especially in “Heavenly Breeze,” Kobayashi’s vocal range and consistent control create a passionate and memorable performance. I’m sure I have cried listening to him sing; it was just so beautiful. Kyo struggles with his thoughts and problems internally but can relieve his stress through his singing. I can’t wait to hear more songs from him that are absolutely ethereal. 

(My favourite Ray cards. He is a silly and stubborn dork who should always dream big.)

Ray Cephart (Hanae Natsuki) has a confident and silvery voice. His voice reflects his energetic and playful side, as well as his serious and bossy side. Ray’s overall tone is quite high but leaves a ringing that isn’t necessarily bad. Although, within OSIRIS, I like his voice the least I still find him very charming and sweet. He may act like an idiot sometimes but it’s because he is a big dreamer who wants OSIRIS to become the best band in the world.

(My favourite Makoto cards. He is a strict realist who should continue to follow what he believes is right.)

Kurusu Makoto (Uchida Yuuma) uses a lower and quiet stern voice compared to Kyo and Ray. As an active medical student, his personality is always serious and blunt which easily reflects in his voice. He has this mix of sexual attractiveness and mysteriousness in the way his sentences flow. It’s hard to describe but I’d want to hear his voice if was a tutor explaining math I don’t understand. Even though he can be cold and harsh, he still dedicates himself to practice bass and help the other members of OSIRIS realistically achieve their goals.

(My favourite Shin cards. He is a mature, fish-loving old man who should always smile and help others.)

Finally, Koganei Shin (Umehara Yuuchirou) has a low and husky voice. I’m simply in love with everything about him. His voice is so calming and reassuring, it makes me smile easily. I really wish he had a singing part since he voices Hasumi Keito from Ensemble Stars and other popular idol characters from different games. He has a beautiful singing voice! Let my drummer boy sing! [Internally weeping]. 

As the leader of OSIRIS, Shin’s reliable personality easily reflects in his voice but so does his silliness and extreme love for fish, especially Hachibiki Sashimi (he works at his parent’s fish shop). Though I hope he always helps cheer people up, either with his music or simply his personality. I must say out of all my favourite characters from the mobile games I’ve reviewed so far, realistically, Shin is the closest to my idea type. He is handsome, cool, friendly, reliable, strong, smart, and responsible; what’s not to like? I know he’s only a 2D character and will never really exist, but if he did, I think I would just cry forever.

Story: 3/5 ♥♥♥♡♡

The main story in Band Yarouze is about the characters’ struggles and difficulties about debuting as a band. There are sometimes choices during a character’s story, but whatever you choose does not really change the outcome. There is no additional gain if you answer “correctly” except to see the characters’ different reactions. Event stories are usually really weird. Sometimes they have impossible storylines like the band members turn into eggs on Easter, or they get transported to the Underworld on Halloween. It could never happen, even in the game’s universe, but it kind of happens anyway and fans still love it. Sadly, there are very few English translations of the story. Even Banyaro English Tumblr doesn’t have full translations of every chapter, only the prologues and some event chapters. I think the game is either not popular enough to have full translations or the game doesn’t have a large international fandom: both are likely. I’ll wait for the day someone translates them all so I can enjoy my silly boys being silly.

Overall: 4/5 ♥♥♥♥♡

Band Yarouze is an amazingly fun, simple and addicting game for anyone to begin playing. The songs are catchy, the artwork is beautiful, the characters are unique, and the story is wild. I don’t completely regret spending money on this game. But I think would be little kinder to my wallet if OSIRIS and Shin were not involved. I would recommend this game to beginners who like great quality music and art. This would be your best option to learn how rhythm games work differently than puzzle, RPG, or other card collecting games. It can teach you to appreciate music and help you diversify in the types of games and music you may play or listen to. I think it will also make you feel like a music genius even if you’re musically challenged like me!

[bossagirl]

#BikerxBossainTaiwan - Day 1: Taichung

Last week, Joey had to fly to Taiwan for meetings and to attend the Taipei Cycle Show (for more meetings, hihi). He would have been away for six days total, so of course I had to come along! (I still find it very hard to sleep without him. Thanking God for miles that allow us to travel without minding the fare.)

I’ve never been to Taiwan. Joey says there’s nothing there and the food’s not that good. His sentiment is quite understandable because every time he goes, it’s just hotel to meetings for him; he’s never really ventured outside of this. His brother Jami wouldn’t go there if not for work either. Still, it was a place I’ve never been to, and if only for that novelty, I was extremely excited. (So much that I forgot it’s primarily a business trip, hehehe. More of that thought in another entry.)

And so, research I did. And I found that there was actually a LOT you can do in this country that’s only a two hour-flight from Manila, which primarily consisted of night markets to sample and mountains / trails to hike! Two of my most favorite activities! I set about making a flexible itinerary - though sadly, it was only for myself, for Joey would be expectedly held up the entire time.

And true enough, he was. Work-wise, it was like we were still in Manila but just in Taiwan. From Monday to Friday morning, Joey had a full schedule of meeting principals, product training, a factory visit, and socials with other distributors. He would be so tired at the end of each day that we would just stay in, order room service (he has this fetish of trying the spaghetti bolognese in every hotel we check into), and watch The Voice clips on YouTube before retiring for the night (Taiwan has high-speed wifi; a lament for how poor it is in our country).

So really, I didn’t expect for him to go around with me, which is really fine because to be honest, I like discovering and making my way around new places alone. Figuring out how to get from point A to point B with just a map and street signs give me a high. My current trusty navigational apps are google maps and rome2rio, though. Together, we three go on many adventures.

We arrived in Taoyuan International Airport at around 9:30am. Immigration wasn’t that long, probably took 30 minutes’ queuing time. After picking up our luggage and getting some money exchanged, we headed straight to the high speed rail (HSR) station via bus to catch a train to Taichung, central Taiwan. The trip took about an hour.

My first impression of this mountainous country? Everything was so clean and orderly. The locals were so neat and courteous. Transportation is so easy; people fall in line when embarking on trains and purchasing tickets is a breeze. For me, Taiwan is very much like Singapore and Hongkong but with cooler climate and less frenzied people. I very much liked what I saw.

There was a 711 in the station so while waiting for our train, Joey and I browsed the store. (Well, mostly me. I thoroughly enjoy checking out the contents of every 711 I chance upon in every country I visit, hehe.) Joey being a pizza guy, saw pizza bread and immediately pointed it out to me. I got some nuts, corn, and an apple juice that tasted yucky, hihi. But what was unique about this 711 is, it had a street food section! My tummy wasn’t ready to sample that so I just took a picture while thinking, ‘you can tell a lot about a country by what its 711 serves. We are definitely, in street food territory’.

All the cakes I will try when we go back. :)

My pizza guy with his pizza bread. <3

We took a cab from the train station to the hotel. First tip when traveling to a Chinese country: be sure to have the Chinese addresses for all your destinations. Most taxi drivers cannot understand English; you will save yourself a lot of time and ease if a Chinese address is the first thing you show them. I forgot to save the Chinese address for our hotel but luckily saved a map of it in my phone. I showed this to the driver and thank goodness he knew the area. We arrived in our hotel in no time at all.

Room service for late lunch! Joey just had to order spaghetti bolognese - it’s his thing!

But since the flight was early and I was running on two hours’ of sleep, having come from a mall show in Cebu and flying back to Manila very late at night (no thanks to all the delays), Joey and I just rested the whole afternoon. We only went out for late dinner. Obtaining a vicinity map of our hotel from the concierge, we wanted to try a certain Mr. Chan’s Noodles about a block away. Unfortunately it was closing time when we got there, so Joey and I just took a chance at another unassuming soup and noodle place just across from the hotel.

Taichung at night.

After rounding the block from Mr. Chan’s Noodles.. “This looks okay. Dito nlng.” Because we both didn’t want to walk further anymore hehe.

There were about five other people dining in the small, no frills restaurant, slurping methodically from their bowls. Joey and I went to the main counter and met our first non-English speaking waitress. I wasn’t able to take a picture of the menu, but I remember being stumped by the seeming lack of choice for my tastebuds, hihi. Joey got a noodle something something and I got mixed vegetable soup with a side serving of rice.

I hear tofu is a big thing in this country!

We were both rather unhappy with how our meals tasted, haha! Something about how they boil their water.. we don’t know exactly. We did try to finish as much of it as we can so as not to waste. Their rice is very good though, like Japanese rice. I think we spent about NT$300 (~Php500); food is rather expensive in Taiwan compared to Manila.

All in all, still a good day. With tummies filled with healthy stuff, it was time for la la land. The next day was gonna be packed for Joey. As for me, I haven't decided yet then what I wanted to do on my second day in Taiwan / Taichung. There was no pressure, anyway. :)

Thanks for reading! Will share stories from the rest of our trip in succeeding posts. :)

Bossa love,

Sitti

[symbianosgames]

Localisation 101 - How we can use language to make our games more inclusive.

The following blog post, unless otherwise noted, was written by a member of Gamasutra’s community. The thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not Gamasutra or its parent company.

Hey Folks! This article will be putting forward the case for more localisation in games, but also how to do it on a budget. Hope you enjoy!

In the game industry, we often discuss how to deal with the various barriers to entry in games - What platforms the game is available on, complexity of controls, difficulty curves, pay models and technical requirements. Particularly in mobile, care and attention is taken to craft the perfect icons, pacing of gameplay to retain interest and pixel perfect UI button positioning to improve the player experience, as any barriers or obstructions can lose the player. One area that can severely hamper player experience that is less discussed is the integration of different languages in games. 

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Last week I released Narcissus on the App Store. Upon launch, the game featured 14 different languages, including the following:

English  French  Spanish Portuguese German Swedish Dutch Polish Italian Russian Arabic Chinese (T) Chinese (S) Japanese

I managed to get this done for my app for free and with around 2 weeks of work.

So why localise in the first place? For one, it increases your audience, but in particular it makes them feel included and accommodated for. Would you feel less inclined to play a game if you couldn't read the instructions or the narrative to give context to the actions of characters? Having to watch films such as Akira or The Illusionist without translations - whilst the mood of the setting and emotions of the characters is recognisable, so much essential information is lost without subtitles/dubbing. 

Here's an example of the complications that can occur across language barriers in the real world; I remember buying a friend a gift in Sweden as a gift for organising the trip, and I spotted a shelf of cheap bottles of vodka that looked like a bargain bucket version of a famous brand. After presenting it to him, he informed me that I'd actually purchased a one litre bottle of vinegar.

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Many people were able to explore this feeling of confusion when playing a previous game of mine, Morse. In the game, your main interactions are via a series of dots and dashes. It is possible to do, but is an awkward process of trial and error. One publisher I approached the game with even suggested the game would be too difficult to sell, as learning a language to play the game would be a too high of a barrier for audiences. Yet, when we put out games without local translations, this is what we expect a number of non-English speaking countries to do. 

So what can we do to help with this? My answer was to translate Narcissus to a bunch of different languages, but you could just stick with a couple to begin with. The first game that I localised, Flotate, I only translated to French and the game itself only needed a handful of words and this meant the festivals it was exhibited at could be enjoyed by its attendees in the local language. 

For sourcing my translations for Narcissus, the major element that enabled me to do this came from being connected with friends from countries throughout the world (From Sweden all the way to Saudi Arabia!). I would personally suggest if you can get at least 2 people for each language; one to translate and the other to check. 

There are other ways of doing this - If you have a forum or thread for your game, putting out a request for translations is an easy trick. I got Russian and German translated for Narcissus via this method. I've often seen on Steam pages threads and workshops to translate the game content. If a fan is willing to take the time to translate your game to their language, it's not a far conclusion to reach that there are others out there who wish for the same.

Even using paid sites are cheaper than you think - I initially looked into the cost of translation and for all of the text in my game 14 languages of localisation it averaged around £50. 

One to absolutely not do (Yet) is translations via automated systems E.g. Google Translate. Whilst they have fantastic capability in translating content (I used it for reading a lot of reviews in international regions), it doesn't factor in elements such as context, such as translations specifically for games or sometimes order of words. It does usually do a good job with singular words, but can make mistakes and in a commercial work that can do more bad than good. If you go down this route, try and find a local speaker to check them with (But if you have that available, why bother with the automated system?)

### The speed bumps of localisation Translating comes with its own collection of issues - One in particular is making sure you have all the words necessary for your game before you localise. I found near the back end of development on Narcissus as I added the third party features I needed extra words (settings, redeem purchase, buy ads). This was followed by the realisation I'd need to reach out to the translators and go through the same checks again for each of the new words in all 14 languages. Not having these extra translations constrained my workflow and I had to create very specific symbols to compensate and avoid the hassle. 

There's also the issue of UI layout - whilst one word may be short in one language, it can be very long in another! This can make designing menus quite difficult - Just look at the variation below!

Regarding the option of icons or symbols instead of words, there's a risk that if your icon is illegible, rather than making it universally compatible for all languages, your interface becomes incompatible with every one of them. Check your menu icon sheet with at least 5-15 people, any that bring up a number of inaccurate answers, replace with more easy to understand alternatives. 

I'll admit that translation can be near impossible with certain types of game without a budget or dedicated team, for example narrative heavy games require expert checking for context, flow and structure. But if you're building an app with just a few select words, it's worth the effort.

One of the advantages of localisation is once you've done it once, you don't need to do the bulk of it again - common phrases like "push button to start" and "level select" are common throughout many games so the most part can be reused, saving future development costs/time. 

Have your translations? Excellent. Now you need a method of putting them in your game. Even if you have the translations you need, localised fonts can be expensive and creating your own for a language you can't read is very hard! Thankfully Google has you covered: Google Noto Fonts. This is a collection of free fonts for all languages as well as variations of each for varying regional styles. This saved a huge amount of cost for the project and is well worth considering. For Narcissus, I had to manually create these as images rather than as type files/fonts, so for other software or game engines this process might be easier.

Super important tip with Arabic - If you're doing Arabic as a language for your game, you need to change the language settings under Preferences -> Type -> Choose Text Engine Options. Switch from East Asian to Middle Eastern and South Asian. This will make sure your text is added in the correct manner; since Arabic copied via the clipboard reverses when pasted (Since Arabic is read from right to left). I cannot describe the frustration for having translated the entire game to Arabic only to find all of it was written backwards (E.g. OLLEH DLROW). Do a sample piece, such as the title of your game or a quick word like Menu and test this with your translator. Games developer Rami Ismail has done some excellent documentation of sloppy translation mistakes in games; even I have some typos to go back over in Narcissus despite my efforts. Remember, an easy way to spot if your text is backwards is if the letters in the word are all disconnected (Most Arabic text flows from one letter to the next). 

**List of most spoken languages worldwide: Estimates via Ethnologue**  Chinese: 1,213 Million Spanish: 329 Million English: 328 Million Arabic: 221 Million Hindi: 182 Million

If you look at the list of the most spoken languages worldwide, English lists third in the tables. If you think about how many people excluded or have the barrier of using a non-native language to interact with your game, it's quite a lot. Even catering for Spanish alone is doubling your app accessibility.

Another thing to consider is 3 of the top 5 languages spoken have an alphabet that is completely different to the English language not only in content but also presentation. Imagine trying to not only translate a language but also decipher the text it's written in, that is a high barrier to entry for many. People might be able to figure out how to navigate your game without understanding the individual words, but the experience of not understanding how to operate an interface is never a comfortable one. 

Inevitably there was a limit to what I could do in the time constraints that I had to submit the App on time, so whilst the game is translated, the App description/storefronts were not (To avoid delays on the final release from submission issues). In future updates, I will be going back through and adding the respective translations. Another thing I'll be looking into for future releases is a method of changing the language based on region downloaded automatically, so rather than having to navigate to the main menu it'll either be instantaneous or an intial screen the pops up on the first playthrough.

For me, localising does appear to have been appreciated, with local press in various languages mentioning the benefit of translated versions in their articles. Narcissus received features on the Apple Store around the world and in turn the extra effort to translate may have influenced more prominent features in countries such as Japan, where it got a front page banner feature. Unfortunately there isn't way to determine its effect outside of comments and reviews mentioning its impact. 

An interesting factor to consider is curators of regional storefronts or press may highlight or promote games that make the extra effort to match their language. There has been an international exhibition that I've submitted games to in the past that have welcomed and even helped translate the game to multiple languages.

On a personal level, localising the game has been incredibly useful as well to my own development, learning a lot of the similarities between different languages, getting the workflow down for future projects and building a database of words for future projects.

By localising our games, we can grow the audiences of our industry even further and lower one more barrier for entry to the realm of games. As with visiting other countries and learning the local dialect, people appreciate the effort to connect and adapt. I urge you to do the same with your own games.

#localisation #language #narcissus #translation #gamedev 

[momobage]

Ensemble Stars Review: Pretty idols, pretty cards. There’s no going back.

Ensemble Stars (あんさんぶるスターズ!) is a Japanese card collecting mobile game made by Happy Elements. The goal of the game is very simple: collect the cards of your favourite characters through events and gachas. As the only producer student at Yumenosaki Private Academy, you try to complete lessons by choosing the right responses and unlock stories that reveal the humorous and dramatic relationships between each idol unit and members.

I started playing Ensemble Stars in late December 2016 because a friend recommended it to me. I didn’t know much about the game except two characters’ names (Adonis and Izumi). It was an idol game with no rhythm game aspect, and they did a crossover with Yume100 (which I played). Other than that, I was going in blindly; I didn’t even know how to play properly. But right now, I can confidently say that this game really changed my life. I’m not sure if it is for the better… but it greatly increased my addiction for mobile games.

Main gameplay: 4/5 ♥♥♥♥♡  

The gameplay for Ensemble Stars is simple, straightforward, and very addictive. Although it is only available in Japanese, it is quite easy to navigate through when you get the hang of it. You train the characters by tapping on the coloured squares to collect gems, which increase their skills: Dance (red), Vocals (blue), and Performance (yellow). Each lesson and event have different missions you need to complete. For example, you may need to get ‘High Luck’ throughout the lesson, collect a hundred of each coloured gem, or get a double ‘Fever’. After you accomplish each mission and unlock each story, you win a diamond.

As I mentioned before, you must choose responses to complete lessons and events. None of the answers are right or wrong, they just trigger a different reaction from the character (image above). So, if Adonis says, “So transfer student and the others in the middle of training... I am too. I like music. I find singing very fun. What about transfer student?” You can either reply or “singing by myself is…” or “I like music too.” Depending on which you choose, the Adonis will either respond positively and raise your ‘fever’ or give you a small red gem. Or he will respond negatively and lower your luck. The outcome is random, which can be frustrating but the challenge makes it fun. I usually pick randomly since I can’t read Japanese very well, but I still feel accomplished when I get a 100% complete. Although, these responses aren’t critical in unlocking the stories, they are important when completing lesson missions and collecting gems. With the gems, you can complete the idol road to bloom characters to make them stronger, and collect special outfits and background images (image below).

Sadly, Ensemble Stars is only available via the Japanese app store and Google play store. However, if you are really dedicated, there are many tutorials on signing up for a Japanese iTunes account or downloading a separate Android Game Platform that provides easy access to many popular Asian games. I would recommend looking at Ensemble Stars! Wiki since they also provide other tutorials for beginners and offer basic information about each character, idol unit, and event/gacha details and translations. Enstars Tumblr is also a great place to find helpful tutorials, beautiful fan art, and information on events, updates, and notifications. I use to really struggle with completing the beginner lessons since I couldn’t read what the missions were or where to press to get a reward. So, these tutorials and other people in the Ensemble Stars community really helped me feel welcome and understand the best and most effective way to play and have fun.

However, once I started understanding how to play, I became obsessed. It’s no surprise that the game is free to play and has in-game currency. By now, it’s also not surprising that I have no self-control and spent even more money on Ensemble Stars than I did on Yume100 and Mystic Messenger… combined. I’ve spent a little over $1,300 on in-game purchases and official merchandise and visual books… trust me, I am not proud. Most of my money went to gachas, which I explained before are randomized, lottery-like functions that are in most Japanese mobile games.

(This card ruined my life…I’ll never forgive you Koga…just kidding I still love you)

Most recently, the five star gacha card was Koga (my favourite character) and I tried so hard to get him (above image). I just kept buying more and more diamonds until I could at least get one copy of him… but sadly he didn’t show up at all. I think I spent $300 on that one gacha alone. I pulled a ten character gacha fifteen times and still he didn’t show up! Now, I feel forever haunted by that card and that I will never get it. But, for now, I really hope that next time it doesn’t happen again.

Overall, the gameplay for Ensemble Stars is quite simple and straightforward. Other aspects of the game include special events and gachas, revival events, and Lives. Luckily, there are plenty of tutorials and helpful people in the community on Twitter, Tumblr, and Reddit that can explain those in detail and give fantastic advice. I think the only bad thing about this game is the special events and gachas because they can be difficult, especially if your cards aren’t high ranking or strong enough. However, that doesn’t make the game less fun, just a bit frustrating and nerve wracking. I don’t regret any purchases I made… yet. I just really hope my luck is better in future events and gachas.

Characters: 5/5 ♥♥♥♥♥

There are a total of thirty-nine male characters in Ensemble Stars, including teachers, who each have unique personalities and qualities that make them loveable and relatable. As I began playing and getting to know the characters more, I started to feel emotionally attached to some of them based on their appearance and profiles alone. Like Shinobu (the right photo above), he is like a little brother who cries a lot but works hard to become a hero and a ninja. He is quite silly and weird but I think he is extremely precious because of his innocence and smile. At first, I didn’t like some of the characters because I thought they were annoying or not my cup-of-tea. But after getting to know them, I realized that they were quite cute and just a bit eccentric. I can’t hate any of the characters, they’re all so sweet.

Like any mobile game, I am immediately drawn to the artwork and characters. The artwork for Ensemble Stars is really cute but still shows a lot of details. The style is clean and simple but still very pretty. Since the cards are ranked by number of stars, the four-star and five-star cards have the most detail especially after blooming. You can tell the difference even in terms of how dynamic the poses are and accessories they’re wearing (photos below).

(Left: Unbloomed card, Right: Bloomed card)

Besides the design, I love the characters’ unique personalities and voices. Each voice actor brings a unique sound that matches the character’s personality and is easily recognizable. Many of the voice actors are famous in other mobile games or animes such as Eguchi Takuya (Hibiki Wataru), Kaji Yuki (Isara Mao), and Hosoya Yoshimasa (Hokuto Hidaka). As for my favourites, most of them have deeper voices that are smooth and comforting or have medium/higher voices that are more bubbly and happy. Kakihara Tetsuya (Akehoshi Subaru), Oosuka Jun (Kagehira Mika), and Nitta Anjyu (Sengoku Shinobu) have cute and energetic voices. The characters are also usually very cheerful and want to get along with everyone. Within the fandom, it is popular to call certain characters your “son” because you feel like a proud mom watching them grow up. It’s quite odd but that’s generally how I feel with these characters. When I listen to these voices, I feel more encouraged to smile and not worry about troublesome things in my life.

In contrast, Hatano Wataru (Otogari Adonis) and Kamio Shinichiro (Kiryu Kuro) have lower romantic voices. I feel warm and comforted listening to their calm and husky voices. If I was scared or stressed, I think their voices would reassure me that things were going to be okay. Similarly, Ono Yuki (Oogami Koga) and Hosogai Kei (Hakaze Kaoru) can have relatively low soothing voices when they speak seriously. But due to their personalities Koga usually speaks with a very rough and informal tone, while Kaoru speaks with a flirtatious and mischievous tone. I like these voices because of the range the voice actors have. Although, I really like when Koga speaks like a delinquent, his voice changes to a shyer voice when he’s embarrassed. While Kaoru is the opposite. His voice is normally light and silvery, but when he speaks slowly in a lower romantic tone it makes me feel a bit embarrassed.

Although Ensemble Stars doesn’t have a lot of fully voiced story chapters in the game, they do have character voice clips and idol unit songs. The unit songs are very well produced and catchy. Each suit the style of music that each idol group represents: punk rock, traditional Japanese, cute pop, etc. My favourite songs are: Knight’s “Fight for Judge” and “Silent Oath”, UNDEAD’s “DESTRUCTION ROAD” and “Melody in the Dark”, and Akatsuki’s “百花繚乱、紅月夜 (Wild Blooming Flowers, Crimson Coloured Moon’s Night)” and “花燈の恋文 (Love Letter of the Brilliance of Cherry Blossoms).” I like listening to these songs when I do design work to keep me motivated and awake.

Story: 4/5 ♥♥♥♥♡

The overall story for Ensemble Stars is quite complicated and dramatic. As the player, you are a transfer student so you do not know much about the history and rivalry with each idol unit and members. The game heavily relies on the story and continues to build it through events and gachas. Usually, relationships between characters, backstories, or explanations slowly reveal themselves in event and gacha stories. For example, recently a new character named Madara entered the game. Since he is new and the only solo idol, his event explained his past relationship with some of the members of Ryuuseitai. Although the event didn’t explain too much about the other characters’ backstories like fans were hoping for, it did reveal some facts that we could debate and speculate about within the fandom. As I mentioned before, the Ensemble Stars! Wiki provides all the translations of the main, sub story, and past events and gachas. I haven’t read all the translations yet since there are quite a lot, but I’m sure when I do, I will create an even stronger emotional connection towards the characters I love.

Overall: 4.33/5 ♥♥♥♥♡

Ensemble Stars is an easy, fun, and addicting game that has easily become my newest obsession. The artwork is amazing, the characters are interesting and the storyline is worth reading. Although, it can be difficult to collect gems and cards since it is all based on luck and how often you play, I would still recommend it to beginners if they want a challenge and are determined enough to get their favourite character’s cards. Again, I don’t regret starting this game or throwing my money at it because it is an experience and an adventure I’m willing to make sacrifices for. I’ve created such a strong emotional connection with the characters that I wouldn’t want to just stop and throw it away.