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« Last post by MJ4ever on January 12, 2026, 07:39:30 am »
Found this gif in e-hentai, seems like Jota's head photoshoped with an unknown body. Anyone knows the original picture or the original serie?  
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« Last post by JG on December 31, 2025, 07:50:29 pm »
The annual games recap. I would have sworn I played fewer games this year than last year, especially after using up much of the year playing games from 2023 or 2024 that I'd started but never completed because of my move (SMB Wonder, Princess Peach Showtime.) In fact, I played ten games for the first this year, compared to only nine last year. (Or as few as eight depending whether two should really count or not.) 10. Mario Kart World (Switch 2): D+ It just doesn't click with me. It feels like "yet another Mario Kart" I played very little of it when it came out because it didn't have the map features or anything to know where I've been to complete p-switches and whatnot. And I just never got back to it. 9. Disney Illusion Island (Switch): D+ Its fine, if quite basic. It was designed for kids though so it was remarkably easy for the time I put into it during the NSO Game Trial. It looks like a great co-op game for parents and children though. Just not enough happening for a more experienced gamer like me. 8. Super Mario Galaxy (Switch 2): C Perfectly fine. But after the third trip with this game, and second this decade, it just didn't excite me as much. I was playing ProController too, and it's not as good as the original Wiimote or dual joycons. It does look very sharp in the new 4K graphics though. I did not start Galaxy 2. 7. Bravely Default Flying Fairy HD Remaster (Switch 2): C+ My actual launch title I spent the first several weeks playing. I loved Bravely Default so much on 3DS. Its the perfect RPG for the system. But the Switch 2 remaster is so basic - the necessary HUD changes to reduce to one screen, upscaling to 1080p window, new textures, a few lousy mouse minigames, some shop redesigns, and a few QOL changes. It looks and plays better compared to the 3DS version, but it also looks quite bad for a Switch 2 title. Even bad were it Switch 1. I still highly recommend the experience as its such a fantastic RPG but its a bummer it wasn't given polish to bring it up a standard closer to 2001's Bravely Default 2. 6. Metroid Prime 4 Beyond (Switch 2): C+ I'm liking it and maybe halfway done, but its not pulling me into very long play sessions like earlier Metroid Primes. The more linear nature and vast desert both eliminates a lot of backtracking and then makes the backtracking you do need to do take too long. The recent developer interview indicates this is leftover design elements from the Bandai Namco project and Retro didn't really have the freedom to craft it like a proper Metroid Prime experience, and that explains a lot. 5. The Plucky Squire (Switch): B- An indie title I'd had my eye on for a while, its priced dropped tremendously by mid-year and I jumped on it. This is a fun little adventure mixing a cartoonish hand-drawn 2D world and 3D experience within a child's bedroom, somewhat of a weird cross between top-down Zelda and 3D Pikmin. Its short, but very nice for what it offers. I really appreciate the ability to skip through boss fights that are too tough, because I was not good enough to complete the rhythm beat/matching fight late in the game. 4. Xenoblade Chronicles X (Switch): B- I had a lot of fun since there's so much to do in this game (hugely sidequest heavy) but the story kind of falls part int he second half and falls well short of the Xenoblade numbered series games. This was a game I played for about 15 minutes on Wii U and never got back around to picking up, so very happy to have had the opportunity to pick it up again and give it a fairer chance. Most people better off with one of the numbered games if looking to enter the Xenoblade series. 3. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment (Switch): B Very good, and canonized this time, though I didn't enjoy it as much as Age of Imprisonment. For one thing its far easier on default difficultly than AoI was. On the bright side, there's no characters I really absolutely despised playing like the two Rito were in AoI. 2. Donkey Kong Bananza (Switch 2): A- Really fantastic, but can be gamed a bit by continually going into Kong mode, smashing up terrain to find treasure chests with maps, and then obtaining those bananas to power yourself up further than the game really needs you to be to present the appropriate challenge. I didn't think it was Game of the Year quality, but it was certainly the best thing Nintendo's put out since at least SMB Wonder. 1. Pikmin 4 (Switch), A+ What joy. A strong contender for my game of the decade because its just perfect. I didn't even realize how adding the dog would make such a difference over the first three Pikmin that I ignored this game for two years and sorely regret it. It is beautiful, presents just the right challenge, and executed perfectly. And since I played it, they've added some new features like the decorated Pikmin to make the exploring even more fun so I'll probably have to replay it someday just for that. So wonderful and I can't wait to see how much more gorgeous Pikmin 5 will be on Switch 2. Most looking forward to in 2026: Probably burning down a lot of my backlog. I haven't seen anything about any publisher yet that makes me a day one buyer. Astro Bot, the DQ HD-2Ds, Visions of Mana, Galaxy 2, and all those Kingdom Hearts games just to name a few. I haven't really dropped anything off the list this year as my availability to clear backlog looks much more open in 2026. Rumors/Things we did not see come true in 2025:- New 3D Mario is still MIA. And not just MIA for 2025, its shaping up that he doesn't pop out of the warp pipe until 2027. Oof.
- Still not Dragon Quest Builders 3. In fact, still no DQ spinoff, except the mobile Smash/Grow game coming up. After 25 years of having an all-new game in the series, whether mainline or spinoff, they've now gone two years without.
- Still no Dragon Quest XII appearance either and I was also wrong about it being MMORPG as a few weeks ago Square Enix finally committed to a Dragon Quest X 8.0
- We didn't see the NSO Playtest Program game show up as finished product either.
- No Kid Icarus Uprising remaster. Sakurai did show up with a non-Smash game like I hoped he would, but not the one I wanted.
- Metroid Prime 4 was not a launch title.
Rumors/Things we got to see come true in 2025:- Metroid Prime 4 is Switch 2-enhanced. And it looks great. Its just a shame the gameplay mechanics and game structure are lacking.
- Bravely Default gets remastered. I nailed this assessment, but I would not have bet it would be Switch 2 exclusive. It clearly looks more like a Switch 1 title, if not cross-platform, and would have sold much better if it were.
- Nintendo News and E-shop apps redesigned to reduce clutter and shovelware. Overdue, but relief finally came.
Rumors/Things I want to see come true in 2026:
- Something worth buying day one.
- Pokemon Pokepia has significant free building activities similar to DQ Builders 2. Looks like they might be there, but haven't seen enough to know how what kinds of restrictions are in place. I"m not a Pokemon or Animal Crossing fan and I need to see these to know if its something I might take a chance on.
- Dragon Quest XII is revealed. I'm tired of putting this on the list every year. Its the 40th anniversary year and its time to show up.
The Annual "Let's Not Do This Again" Award:Continued objection to Game Key Card technology, particularly proposals for solutions that end up with all-digital environments. Data on card is great, but its expensive. Gamers don't want to pay $70 or $80 for most games, especially ports of stuff from other platforms. They sure as hell don't want to pay $145 when publisher is willing to offer it for just $40 (the difference between a prospective 128GB ROM cartridge and the GKC for Final Fantasy VII Remake.) Publishers want to make more money on each sale, and buyers want to pay less for each purchase. Can either shave the costs by providing cheaper technology (GKC) or by eliminating the retail cut and going all-digital. There's no winnable battle here with $80 ROM games - players don't want to pay that much except for the most premium of games. And no winnable battle at $60 ROM either as publishers aren't keen to have to pay more money than they make in the sale. Even at $70, there's very little room for discounts which means unsold product costs publishers a fortune to buy back, meaning they'll hedge their bets toward much smaller runs, and that forces more people toward a digital purchase. Game Key Cards at least ensure most of the physical properties, and leaves open the possibility of fully data on card limited editions for some games as there's still a cartridge slot on the device. You go all-digital and that slot is going to disappear in the next iteration and then no game gets even limited-edition cartridges. And can't simply sell expensive cartridges at retail and much cheaper digital versions either. That causes a rush toward the digital format and retail market collapses, taking the primary mechanism to sell either GKCs or data on card games away. (Along with a lot of free marketing for the larger publishers that provide product to the retail stores.) The "preservationist" community needs to come to terms with GKCs being a thing, and that its doing more to protect the chance for data on card than eliminating them will. They need to be less anti-GKC, and push for publishers to offer choice: limited editions that feature data on card for those who want to pay more for it, but still allow a cheaper, more widely available GKC model for the majority. Its the only way it works, and anyone's who has sat down to think through all the possibilities and isn't so selfish to assume everyone else in the world is willing to pay the premium prices for every single game they are should arrive at this conclusion. Payoff of the Year:The Pokemon Company sitting on Pokemon Legends Z-A for a year to improve polish. I don't know if its perfect, but its certainly less buggy than Scarlet/Violet were thanks to extra time to get things right. The delay also allowed them to form a bundle with Switch 2 for the holidays. I thought it was a mistake to try to land this in year 1 and then try to followup with Generation 10 games in year 2, but it looks like they're going to pull it off. Backfire of the Year:Two, and both for Nintendo. Besides some really bad marketing all year long (see above post), Nintendo also overcommitted their development teams toward the Switch 2 Editions and upgrades, leaving he 2025 and 2026 slate woefully underpowered compared to the 2017 Switch 1 launch year. Third parties are picking up most of the slack for Nintendo's first parties and it should be the other way around the first year. NIntendos made no secret what the five big franchises they control are, and representation in first twelve months of Switch 2 is weak. Mario has Kart World and another Tennis game to his name, but no mainline. Zelda has Age of Imprisonment rather than either a 2D or 3D Zelda experience. Animal Crossing and Pikmin are getting upgrades for Switch 1 versions so they don't have new games in first year. Leaving Splatoon as having a very tiny chance to arrive June 4, the very last day of the first twelve months. One solid Mario spinoff, one Mario sports game spinoff, and a Zelda spinoff isn't strong compared to new mainlines for Mario, Zelda, and Splatoon in 2017. Maybe years 2 and 3 are better for Switch 2 than Switch 1, but year 1 isn't a contest. Honorable mention for a third dumb Nintendo plan: two major racing games to highlight the Switch 2 slate. I thought two Donkey Kongs was dumb, but this was risky and dumb. However, both games may sell well enough to suggest wasn't a disaster, though it leaves that already weak Switch 2 lineup too racing heavy (especially with additions of third party entrants Fast Fusion and Sonic Crossworlds in 2025) Moment of the Year:March 27 Nintendo Direct - Dragon Quest I+II HD-2D trailer: The Princess of Cannock walks out of her room, spins and salutes, then fades into the game's title box art as it zooms out while the fanfare plays, revealing her to be a new playable character. While the casual fan may not have thought much of it, this was a master class demonstration of mic dropping to hardcore Dragon Quest fans who thought they knew what they were getting for the first sixty seconds of that trailer. Besides key releases, what will gaming in 2025 most be remembered for?:- Switch 2 launch
- Switch 2 fumbles
- Price increases due to tariffs, RAM supply market constraints, or ever-more expensive hardware or software development
- The dominance of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 in awards shows. The bar has been set so high its unlikely another title has this kind of success without many new categories being added in each show.
Despite the launch of Switch 2, 2025 was mostly another bad year for gaming. Neither Playstation of Xbox had much sustained success, and Nintendo didn't execute as well as they should have. Unless you were Monster Hunter Wilds, Donkey Kong Bananza, Pokemon Legends Z-A, Kirby Air Riders, Battlefield 6, Hollow Knight Silksong, or Clair Obscur, you probably didn't have the year you'd hoped for, whether beause of problems with your game, poor sales, or just not meeting awards expectations. And for the first time in a long time, I'm going into a new year not really expecting it to be any better.
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« Last post by JG on December 29, 2025, 09:28:18 pm »
The last two are not VIPER. I think the auctions had titles that indicated the seller didn't know which series it was from and had also listed Macross as a possibility.
The Asuka+Miki looked like a photocopy to me, not original. The blackmark on the upper right gives it away, and there is a slight difference in lighting between the upper and lower parts of the image, which would be if two original cels were taped together and then photocopied and one cel sheet overlapping the other caused the difference in lighting. I think it, and the Takashi, were part of a larger set of reference images for the animators. I've got a couple of these proof sets (for Animahjong X and GTB) and these look similar.
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« Last post by 黒い灯影 on December 28, 2025, 02:34:40 pm »
another small batch of Viper CTR drawings went up for auction.
but i am not so sure for 2 of them, unless they were discarded designs.
the unknown guy does look like katsura's style though, matches the style of Takeshi.
the Asuka and Miki photocopy went for 40,109 YEN.
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Cover arts mixed in with todays auction. Had a feeling they would go for high prices XD.
All won by RinRin.
Viper f40 671,000 yen
Viper gts set 390,666 yen
Christmas cel 203,008 yen
I think there was also the ctr cover too, but I didn't check how high it went before it sold and don't know where previously sold is on yahoo auction
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« Last post by JG on December 05, 2025, 10:01:25 am »
okay, so I spent some time on implementing the i18n feature in Viper RSR's WIN script files.
I just grabbed the TEXT.US from Viper-V16 I, and stuck it beside Viper RSR, and renamed it TEXT.JP
I also replaced all the Print text opcodes in EV01 with Print i18n opcodes, so the EV01 makes the SGS engine grab the text from english TEXT.JP file.
I did make an editor for the TEXT.* files, which i kind of regret now considering I doubt going this route is viable as of right now, unless the offset text is solved.
which I am guessing having to reverse engineer SGS, and finding where it handles the text wrap.
The issue with this is the new line starts with an offset, and where it cuts text for a new line. I dont know if this method can be used.
Would've been great to get this working properly, if anyone ever wanted to throw in a translation.
The method I am using is just injecting english text where the japanese text was.
I had been making a tool to strip out the text to replace with TEXT.xx files to allow for easier translations, but never quite got around to finishing it, as I got distracted by trying to make an SGS.EXE that covered all the opcodes (including the late model codes used in RSR as well as the international edition stuff.) It would certainly have simplified some of the things you did.
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« Last post by 黒い灯影 on December 03, 2025, 01:44:41 am »
okay, so I spent some time on implementing the i18n feature in Viper RSR's WIN script files.
I just grabbed the TEXT.US from Viper-V16 I, and stuck it beside Viper RSR, and renamed it TEXT.JP
I also replaced all the Print text opcodes in EV01 with Print i18n opcodes, so the EV01 makes the SGS engine grab the text from english TEXT.JP file.
I did make an editor for the TEXT.* files, which i kind of regret now considering I doubt going this route is viable as of right now, unless the offset text is solved.
which I am guessing having to reverse engineer SGS, and finding where it handles the text wrap.
The issue with this is the new line starts with an offset, and where it cuts text for a new line. I dont know if this method can be used.
Would've been great to get this working properly, if anyone ever wanted to throw in a translation.
The method I am using is just injecting english text where the japanese text was.
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« Last post by 黒い灯影 on December 03, 2025, 01:19:25 am »
GROK seems to offer uncensored translations, if you're looking for this. It produces adult content no problem, text wise.
Image/Video generation is still moderated.
Also, ChatGPT is supposed to offer adult content some time this December, we'll see how that goes.
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« Last post by JG on November 11, 2025, 11:01:58 am »
Last year I really hit Nintendo's marketing wing hard for a number of missteps, such as bumbling through the month of October. (Continuing into 2025, stomping all over the DK Country Returns launch with a very unimpressive Switch 2 reveal trailer, then forgetting they never covered Xenoblade Chronicles X in a Direct or Twitter videos until review embargoes lifted and places like IGN started properly covering it.)
This Metroid Prime 4 deal really takes the cake, though. If you asked me on January 1 what known 2025 game needed a Nintendo Direct the most (choices being DK Country Returns HD, Xenoblade Chronicles X, Pokemon Legends Z-A, and Metroid Prime 4), then Metroid Prime 4 would certainly be the one to cover. Its been 18 years since the last Prime game, which is far longer absence than the other series, is probably Nintendo's most expensive game ever, is a series that has soft appeal in Japan and needs more advertising there, and its (re-)introducing a major antagonist that only the hardcore-ist of fans know anything about in Sylux. If you then told me we'd have NINE Nintendo Directs in 2025, and not one of them was for Metroid Prime 4, I'd have through you crazy and Nintendo insane. Jury is still out on you, but Nintendo... hard to debate it.
In the west, its been bad. Very bad. Almost but not quite terrible, thanks to last week's recent trailer which actually started to make the game look as good as we expect. We saw too much of the Federation research base and the forest level of Viewros, and not enough other biomes, and every second of Samus footage made her look slow, as if constantly walking under water. And despite being a 4K/60fps and 1080p/120fps game, which is raw power Nintendo should promote, all they did was a small text caption for a mere 2 seconds in the April 2 show and didn't mention it again until the latest trailer. Got about 40 minutes of Treehouse coverage in April, but the Nintendo-employee assigned to do the game had no idea what to do and terribly struggled using the mouse controls - they spent nearly half an hour fruitlessly battling the game's first boss and couldn't hit the weak points, which only served to make the game look unplayable. Nintendo needed to correct the Treehouse debacle with new video and just wouldn't do it. And until the recent trailer, everything looked like it was in slow-motion: Samus was moving like she was walking underwater and the psychic beams took several seconds to make their way through enemies. Add in the London Underground ad snafu and you can tell this was badly handled on multiple fronts.
In Japan, the market where Metroid needed the most advertising to overcome disinterest, its been even worse. All they've ever seen are the three bad trailers. They still haven't even got the good trailer the west got last week or the new Power Up Your Play campaign video that shows some Metroid Prime4 gameplay in it. neither are on Nintendo's Japanese Twitter or Youtube page and I'm not even sure if they get them. At some point, Nintendo's marketing department just completely gave up on the game in Japan, despite it being the most important market to advertise in. Failing without trying is not the Nintendo way. (Japan also never got the retrospective art book, which Nintendo had known about for well over a year and could have easily found a Japanese publisher to print.)
Then there's what Nintendo did do this year instead. The Mario Kart World Direct is widely viewed as the worst game-focused Direct they've ever made. It showed nothing that the April 2 show didn't except a few P-switch puzzles: it wasn't remotely needed, especially a mere two weeks after the April 2 show covered the same stuff and still seven weeks to launch. (Had it been done in May, it might have landed with more success.) After DK Bananza's Direct, I think just about every Nintendo fan expected one for Metroid Prime 4, but it never arrived. Once we got the December release date, we all knew a Direct would likely occur in October, as game-focused Directs are usually around 7-10 weeks lead time. With only Pokemon Z-A mid-month, there was plenty of time to work in Metroid Prime 4 coverage. Instead, we got that Pikmin Close to You video in early October, which could have been done at any other time, so a week of advertising was sacrificed there that did nothing to help game sales. We got an unprecedented second Air Riders Direct when one was enough and the over hour and forty minutes combined of the two could have easily been condensed to a single hour with better editing, so they lost the third week of October for just doing something that hadn't ever been done before and didn't need to be done at all. Then in the final week of October, they do the Animal Crossing DLC promotion. ACNH sold well, nearly up to 50 million copies. But with DLC at only $5 a pop, and even a best-case scenario of 20% attach rate for a five-year old game, Nintendo's going to pull down $50 million USD at most. Metroid Prime 4 will clear that in about a million sales. Is Nintendo really trying to tell fans that MP4's sales potential is less than a million copies!? If its that bad, why spend a small fortune to make the game? They made the game, now they have to do the job to sell it - and just aren't trying. Now, here, in the last possible week to advertise, we're getting the Super Mario Galaxy movie trailer that we should have seen as part of the September 12 year-long celebration kick-off. This whole arrangement through October and November was planned, and planned to ensure Metroid Prime 4 never got any advertising window after September 12. Shame on Nintendo.
Not to mention the lack of a Metroid Prime 2 and 3 game to fill out the Metroid slate on Switch, something they have done similar sized series like Pikmin and Luigi's Mansion. They had eight years to prepare for the launch of this game, and eighteen months from announcement last summer to launch in a few weeks. Only two Nintendo-published games have gotten 18 months of lead time in the last ten years: Advance Wars 1+2 Reboot Camp, delayed for external reasons, and Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Nintendo's previously most expensive title. More than enough time to do it right; embarrassing to get it so wrong. Nintendo just simply failed Retro Studios and the fans.
I really hope the sales are there and it's in the Metroid Dread sales level despite Nintendo's poor coverage of the game. It really looks like the desire to not advertise the game is a backdoor method to ensure the game sales are less, and this would give Nintendo an opportunity to close their most expensive studio and use the money elsewhere on cheaper-to-make games. It'll be very disheartening if Nintendo closes the studio because of lower than expected sales, when it wasn't Retro's fault.
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« Last post by JG on November 09, 2025, 10:49:32 pm »
None of them look familiar, but I'd have tried to bid on the marked up Raika one. (And given up well before 128K)
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