You know, working on 91.8 The Fan has really made my free-time pretty sparse. I think that’s clearly abundant based on the ample amount of posts here in-between opening the site to this day. Despite that, there’s little things that come about now and again that make me cherish my passions and career more so than before. This is one of those things.

For those who don’t keep up with the site itself, January was our first year birthday and it was quite a celebration. After having a pretty hefty break from late September to the end of the year it was almost like an explosion of adrenaline in our opening week. The interviews I’ve come to love have started happening again, the show I adore conducting has once again aired, and the community has exploded in activity like it did last January. It’s unfair to call it work during these times because I do enjoy it so much. Despite the drama, regardless of any bumps in the road, or ignoring any hissy fits from disgruntled employees the joy of actually knowing what you’re doing is making someone else happy is still worth it even after a year.

The reason I mention this aspect is because I got a nice package today from an older member of our community. It’s always nice when people stick around—much less feel the need to send the site things—and so I somewhat didn’t expect a gift to impact me so much. It’s sort of odd, but I suppose the personal touch of the contents helped in this endeavor. Inside was a handwritten letter and I was in the car with my mom, who is still sort of doubtful concerning anything involving what I’m doing, so I got to read it out loud to her. Not only do these things mean a lot to me, but I also believe it shows my mom a little that what I do isn’t just sitting on the computer. She’s very computer illiterate so when she sees me sit on one day after day it sort of translates to me not doing anything (obviously she can’t tell what I’m doing since it’s all Greek to her).

I knew this package was coming since the sender had offered to get their hands on a CD for the station. Though I think that this letter will be placed in the same place as my letter from Sawa ¹. I’d like to keep all these mementos whether 91.8 The Fan lasts forever or not. I feel very lucky and indebted to anyone who likes the work I’ve, and my staff have put their heart into. So to those who have sent handwritten letters to me, thank you for the kind words and lovely thoughts.

As a side bonus, I also received a Japanese snack. As of yet I haven’t opened it to figure out what it is… After figuring I should probably try one of these by now I have to say I like them whatever they are. They’re shaped like little fishes, but I assume they could be shaped as anything. It’s like sweet bread around chocolate filling assuming I’m right. It’s a nice light taste which I wouldn’t necessarily pass up again. I’m a picky eater so I was surprised I even liked it, haha!

The real meat of this package though was the CD, which came in a DVD like case. The CD itself is entitled Crimson Princess by Iruma Rioka. I was especially fond of the cover art used, and as I listen to the tracks while I type I can say confidently I’m sort of addicted to the unique sound. The booklet inside was wonderfully signed by those involved, which I felt was an extra surprise. For someone who only has one signed CD this is a nice addition to my collection. I know Iruma from her previous self-titled CD since I was introduced by this member who sent the package. I wish I could find more artists sporting the Lolita² style more often (honestly the only two I know are Iruma and Kanon Wakeshima). Obviously, you can expect this new music on the station soon for those of you wondering.

All in all, looking back on the past year and what the future has to bring, I’m happy that things like this can be a part of my memories.

Ironically, I have about three posts in my drafts, and yet there they sit until I’m able to give them the attention and time they deserve. I can easily shift the blame onto three individuals for making my life a living hell, was going to do a whole big rant about it as well full of anger and hate, but instead decided to find out my legal standings. If anything needs to be done it’ll be in a court of law, I suppose. Until then, it has at least gotten the whole 91.8 The Fan team to work like maniacs on crack.

Our biggest announcement is that the radio station will be launching on January 3rd. We’ve also acquired advertising with ScrewAttack and Sankaku Complex. Now, we’re just really grabbing people from the industry for interviews when the station is up. The whole thing will be a massive win, so make sure to stay tuned for that.

Things have been stressful between my job, 91.8 The Fan, taking care of my mom, and now Christmas shopping (I’m lucky I’m a lonely loser that only has to shop for two people). There was a lot in preparation to the site launch, this included a multitude of things that I’m pretty confident no one is aware about.

• The layout itself took six weeks to do, four to design the whole thing, and two to test it by breaking everything in sight or pushing it under server strain.
• Attempting to re-code, make new summaries, etc for our Anime Database. Initially I was going to go with a Wikia-like design, but found the system too much to learn in such a short time. Then an old friend came from the heavens who is now working on it, and he has the skills to utterly beat any other directory into the dust. When it is ready, both Kibs and I will be at the graphic helm, which essentially just means it will rock. I can’t wait to reveal this thing for the utter shock (or perhaps dismay?) of a few people.
• The forums were made and skinned in pretty much a week, mostly thanks to Kibs while I sat back and watched. Even now we’re under some minor edits that you should see within the next few days.
• iStalk, our news show, got an entirely new format. Whooo!
• Our server, which stores all of our music, had to be tested extensively (mostly done by Sandy). There’s a lot of intricate things I can’t really talk about here. Despite that, the system is really top of the line when it comes to protecting the company and giving a kickass radio show.
• Our own DJs are going through test broadcasting as we speak, which is humorous at best, but for now it’s all about work.

Out of all the things I’m proud of the site, despite the fact I’m sick of the functionality at this point. Deciding on all the music was also a lot of fun, specifically since I made sure we had all genres, anime, and video games under the sun. There’s still so much to add! On top of that, coding the web integration and request system. Arrrg!

Oh well, I’m not so much drained as I am stressed. I’m remotely driven by those Chinese knock-offs you see, if you don’t know what I mean, then don’t think too deeply about it. Between the beginning of November to now, I’ve gone through so many emotions concerning the site. There was a lot of anger, frustration, and absolute depression (relating to a shit storm of constantly being blamed and realizing people I thought were my friends were actually just dicks in disguise). On the plus side, I’ve also felt accomplished and determined in many ways. There’s a sense of fulfillment when you see a project your apart of listed on two major sites, or the fact everyone is working so hard. 2010 is going to be huge for us, epically so considering what we have still hidden under our belts.

I can at least give one hint that our Volunteer/Internship page will be launching Saturday or so. It’ll be great if you want some extra college credits. Also, if you want a sneak peek of any of the music to appear in the database then watch my Last.FM status. I promise I covered your favorites, or you’ll see them popping up soon.

Obviously, if you haven’t been to 91.8 The Fan then check it out. If you have, well look at it again because it looks frickin’ sweet. Make sure your friends know about it and all that jazz.

Anyway, expect more posts in January or maybe before. I’ve got at least one I want up before the end of the year, but we’ll see.

Announced back in July it was reported that Konami was porting the cult classic, Shadow Of Memories (or more commonly known as Shadow Of Destiny in the US), onto the PSP. Strangely enough, I had just bought the Playstation 2 version about a month or so beforehand. I was a little late when it came to experiencing this game, but was happy I took the time to nonetheless. I was also quite worried that this wouldn’t make it back to American shores a second time around considering how mediocre sales were.

The game wasn’t insanely popular, but if I recall it had a good deal of the Silent Hill team working on it. It is a very unique game where you’re trying to prevent your own death, and to do so you must constantly time travel. The graphics, sadly, have not been upgraded for the port; however, there is a new vocal cast in the Japanese release. Konami announced today that America’s will also be able to delight in the port, which is very exciting. It’ll be good to see a new batch of people try out this game, but at the same time I am interested in who they might cast.

I suppose we’ll just have to wait and see…

Ugh, the last two weeks have been remarkably hellish for me. Between my boss and I, we are the only two people actually manning a game store. This isn’t so bad besides the fact I haven’t had a day off in two straight weeks. We’re waiting for our assistant manager to get back since he’s getting married (congratulations!). Earlier this week however, I got whatever it is that goes around this season. That’s pretty much why updates have been pretty sparse, and I also have a story about how idiotic Nevada doctors can be.

I originally went to Quick Care day one. All I was requesting was a shot, I didn’t care if they poked it in my ass (the nurse usually does that anyway). I just knew I had to get better because there’s no one else to work. The doctor I got was a total dip shit who refused to give me a shot—fair enough—though they then didn’t listen when I asked for liquid medicine. I don’t know what it is, but I throw up all pills. I’ve had a history of getting lethally sick, so I’ve had practice attempting to take them. Even if I pop them in the back of my throat, swallow, and don’t taste a thing. I still expect to see that same pill in a different form in about two seconds. Yay… gag reflex.

So anyway, I try to down some of these pills to get better, call my boss and tell him I’m sick as a dog. I sadly had to miss a day, though thankfully he wasn’t a jerk about it. I wake up on day two and I’m bleeding. Not normal, oh lookie, I cut my finger. No, more like blood is coming out of my ears, nose, and mouth for no reason. I’m freaking out understandably so I jump in the shower hoping it’ll just go away. It calms after my shower which is all fine and dandy, but I end up reading my medicine prescription. I had already read the side effects, which was vomiting and other pretty standard stuff. What I didn’t notice the first time is that bastard doctor gave me medicine for swine flu.

I did not have swine flu, I had a normal regular flu. Generally if you have a case of swine flu you’re taken into quarantine. I was pretty pissed at this point, but I just laid down while I waited for my mom to come home to take me to the hospital. I was pretty positive I could hold out till then as it was. So a trip to the hospital where I finally had suffered enough to get my stupid shot plus an IV and some tests.

Now I’m feeling better at least and I start work back up tomorrow. I’m not sure when I’m going to get a day off next, I’m just going to flat out assume it’s next Friday (oh joy). So updates have been rare due to this hectic schedule.

I also don’t know how I’m going to pull off all the work I have for 91.8 The Fan as well. Non-awesomely enough we have very big plans including donation content, forums, and I’ve got some ideas about directory upgrades… and pretty much a team of just one or two people assigned to the workload, I’m not looking forward to all of that work…

• New Site Design: This needs to be tested, tweaked, and have spare graphics made for it.
• Donation Area: We’re adding a specialty donation area that needs to be tested thoroughly before launch.
• Music Database: Make a whole database on my own that includes Korean, Japanese, Taiwanese, Chinese music. We’re looking at anywhere between two hundred to five hundred GBs.
• Forum Design & Management: Kibs is helping me here and he will be in charge of the overall forums, but it also needs a lot of testing before launch.
• Database: I want to add pics and descriptions of all of the anime, which is going to be a lot of work.

Originally I was expected to do all of this in two weeks. This is obviously unrealistic… though hopefully I can buckle down and work on it when I get off of work. That’s all I can hope for—as well as not getting sick at important times (RAWR D<).

Anyway, I’ll probably finish the Playstation 2 Game List portion soon enough. I took a stand still as I occupied with other things. I’ll see you guys later, and thanks for being patient.

I plan to do these after I’ve received a platinum for a game, and there are plenty of other ones on the net, but I’d like to do my own take. These won’t appear immediately after a game is out, though in return for the wait I hope they are a little bit more expansive. I’m starting off with Infamous because I pretty much had to get a 100% for this game three times. By now I’m pretty sure I could do it blindfolded.

It should be noted the following will contain spoilers, but I will try to stray away from them as much as possible besides secret trophy names.

Before we even get to the trophy list, let’s go over the very bare basics involved in this game. Infamous’ most apparent aspect is that the player can either be good or evil, their choices affect their karma, and thus affect the type of trophies they will receive. That means on a minimum the player will have to play twice! Luckily, since each karma offers their own additions to the story, the game itself won’t be too painstaking after one play through. Also, for this sort of game it’s much better to play both sides of the story to better understand the other.

There is much debate as to what is easier, starting on good or evil. This is up to your own style of play really, it depends if you excel in the defensive or more so in utter destruction. I found personally, despite preferring good’s play overall, that it was easier to start on that in normal. Once I had one play through out of the way and knew what to expect, I played evil on hard. This choice made many of the more combat heavy parts, that I pretty much failed at, a lot easier. Once again, this is your determination, but the guide will be acting more so in accordance to good first versus evil second.

The trophy list itself I’m going to split between good and evil play throughs. This is to assure that you’re getting the easy stuff done on the hard play through and vice verse.

Since we’re starting with good, let’s list off all the story choice trophies that will come to you naturally. There are certain events during the game where you’re given a choice on whether to act in a good or evil manner, during these scenes you will unlock the trophy for it. Since you’re applying yourself as good on your first play, there is no reason you should miss any of these. If you happen to, you’re just being stupid and your mom hates you. Anyway, the trophies listed below are technically unmissable following my strategy (you can choose to expand the name of the trophy for more detailed instructions, but I promise they will contain spoilers):

• Good Eats
  This is your first karma choice in the game, and it’s relatively easy to understand what a good guy would do as opposed to a bad one. Simply stand still after the lengthy thought process Cole goes through, and whatever you do don’t shoot. Once you stand still enough, you’ll be awarded the positive karma as well as the trophy.
  
• Good Riot
  Ironically, a lot of people screw this one up, but it’s not that hard. When attempting to escape the island with Zeke, you’re faced with a blockade of policemen. Run up to the policemen and start punching them to assure you’ll get the good karma for this. Do not use lightning bolts until you get the box indicating you’ve received positive karma.
  
• Good Train
  This one is easy. Have you been following my advice so far? Good, then this is yours. All you have to do is end the train mission with positive karma to unlock this trophy.
  
• Good Exposure
  While on the second island, The Warren, you’ll take on one mission from Zeke where you’ll follow the ghost of some spider thing (Cole describes it as a dog at first). During the middle of it, you will run past a man who is a big fan and is making art to promote you. Pick the blue poster, which is adequately described as making sure the people love you.
  
• Back With Trish
  Shortly after discovering The Warren district, you’ll have a mission entitled Anything For Trish. The mission itself is a little difficult, where you’re forced to protect a bus where she and a bunch of injured people are riding in. Once you’ve helped them to the hospital, without the bus exploding, you’ll still have to save Trish from a new enemy named Alden. Simply climb up the side of the building, after clearing some of the enemies, and destroy the two patrols guarding her. Make sure to act fast since as soon as they see you, they’ll attempt to kill Trish. After wards, she’ll finally forgive you and you two can enjoy a nice romance for a little bit.
  
• Good Intentions
  In the last district, The Historic, you’ll have to disarm a group of bombs. During the very end of this mission, you’re given a choice from Kessler as to whether to save a group of doctors or Trish. Save the doctors as heartbreaking as it is. During the cutscene make sure to be aware of which building is which, what’s obnoxious is that there is no indication on your map. So it’s very possible to confuse which building the doctors are with the one Trish is hanging from. Even worse, you have a time limit, so be prepared to not make any mistakes.
  
• Good Sphere
  Destroy the Ray Sphere. This is pretty much the most essential choice anyway as many of the people in the game drill you to do this throughout.
  
• Good Finish
  This is actually very easy if you’ve done all of the events before this. Simply reach the Hero title, which is the highest positive karma you can have, and you’ll receive this trophy at the end of the game.
  

It should be noted that you will receive two other trophies no matter what play through you choose first. They are absolutely unmissable, and are listed below.

• Clean Up Your Act
  Defeat Sasha who will be your first boss at the end of the Neon District. The boss fights in the game are not hard what so ever, and this one is actually relatively easy. My usual strategy is to climb on top of a pole located on the left side of the field. From here, Sasha cannot hit me with her wave of red/black sludge, so I can continuously jam bolts of lightning into her face.

  Her two other attacks consist of making giant Reapers, which will die after a shot or two from a lightning bolt.

  Her last attack looks like weird tentacles coming out of the water, and they charge up a ball to throw at you. Simply shoot them before they attack, and you’ll never have to worry.

  Once Sasha falls onto all fours, run up to her and start to melee. The screen will change somewhat, and you’ll notice two circles. One happens to be where Cole’s hand is and the other is where it needs to be. Start jamming on the X button and leaning towards the opposite circle with the left analog. This is relatively easy, it just requires one or two trial and errors. After the battle, you’ll receive this trophy.
  

• Taking Out The Trash
  Defeat Alden who will be your second boss near the end of your time in the Historic District. Personally, I believe this to be the hardest boss fight in the game, though there are only three in total so don’t be too scared off. The trick with this fight is ducking and sucking energy at the right times, so you have to be patient instead of reckless.

  Alden will consistently start the battle throwing wads of junk at you, simply use your Shockwave and attempt to aim them back towards Alden. If you’re good enough at that, you’re free to send lightning bolts his way in between. Since you’re playing as good, lightning bolts become your best here since they give you a little bit of energy back. Thus making it a lot easier to use your Shockwave excessively as well as various other moves.

  He will also send spiders to attack you, as soon as you see them, get rid of them! If you let them stay around too long, Alden will start another attack and you’ll be faced with a lot of opposition.

  His last attack, the most dangerous, is one by this point you would have had experience with. He shoots a blast of nuts and bolts at you, this can be easily dodged by sitting behind one of the dividers conveniently placed.

  Just make sure to send either Megawatts or regular lightning bolts whenever you get the free chance. Make sure as well to conserve what energy you can, and heal regularly. You only have two spots on either side of the field, and they don’t have a constant flow of electricity, so you have to be cautious. Once you’ve beaten Alden, you’ll receive this trophy.
  

As you can see getting the above isn’t very hard, since they’re all story related you’re bound to get them naturally for the most part. There are certain side trophies that you have to go out of your way to suggest, I’ll go over these more thoroughly, but first I’d like to suggest we split these up. The key to only playing twice during Infamous is to manage your trophies properly. Doing all the extras in one play through will leave you getting frustrated far too quickly, or missing one small thing that could make your life a living hell to redo over (Blast Shards anyone?). On the plus side, if you miss some of these you can actually continue playing after beating the final boss of the game. As such, for some of these it IS possible, but not recommended.

Let’s continue to focus on a good play through. So remember, this is still your first one! I would recommend working on the following side trophies during this play through:

• Junior Geologist, Member of the Mineral Club, & Rockhound
  Worst. Trophy. Of. The. Game. The best advice I can give you is to go by district. Basically once you’ve cleared the Neon District, or have moved past it to the Warren, go back and start collecting. Do not collect any Blast Shards besides the very first one you see (which is actually rather hard to miss). Once you’ve gone back, print this out, and mark each one you find with an X.

  But wait, you say, I can press L3 and they appear as little blue dots. You’re right, they do. However, the biggest problem most people have is the fact that they get to the Historic District, and they’re missing anywhere from one to ten shards. Now they have to search three whole areas, and at this point that little mini-map isn’t very helpful anymore. I personally was missing about four Blast Shards at the end of the game, only to recheck each and every spot on the map I just linked to.

  MARK THEM DOWN ON THE MAP OR FACE COUNTLESS HOURS OF RESEARCHING FOR THEM! I MEAN IT!

  In total there are three hundred and fifty Blast Shards, you can check your process by hovering over your save data for the game on your Playstation 3 menu. There is no indication how many you have in-game until you reach three hundred. On the plus side, the more of these you collect, the more energy you will have to unleash your more taxing powers.

  I recommend this one during the normal difficulty only because you don’t have to worry about too many enemies while you’re climbing a building to get that one shard that’s in that awkward as all hell place. A few players will more then likely argue that the extra energy is necessary when playing on the harder difficulty, though personally I believe that being evil actually makes up for this considering how destructive your powers are. This is one task you can do on either karma, but if you decide to do the Blast Shards on one run-through, then do the Dead Drops during the same run through to get it out of the way.
  

• Just Scratched The Surface, Further Down The Rabbit Hole, & You're So Sly
  Unlike collecting the Blast Shards, the Dead Drops are so much easier. Each of these is rewarded once you find all the Dead Drops in a certain district. If you press L3, you’ll get a little indication on your mini-map where the closest Dead Drop is (it will be the gray circle that sparks up). There’s only thirty so this doesn’t take that long at all.
• AC/DC
  You can get this trophy very early on if you’re impatient. This is one you can get through normal gameplay, but if not I recommend waiting until you get into the sewer for the very first time. Once you have, there will be a small generator that has an infinite amount of electricity. Just continuously drain this generator until you receive the trophy, this should take a few minutes at the most. There are one of these in every sewer level, so you’re free to wait.
  
• Doctor Cole
  This isn’t difficult, for whatever reason I hear a lot of complaints about how painstaking this is. The jest of it is that you need to heal two hundred and fifty people. You’ll receive this power your second or third time in the sewers, and after wards all you need to do is be watchful. People collapse all the time randomly in the city, all you need to do is walk up to them and heal them. It’s not taxing, you just have to stop what you’re doing from time to time. It’s also good to look after major battles since many people will be in the same area injured. If you do get annoyed then remember: Not only is this a trophy, but it’s free EXP, so you can’t go wrong.
  
• Electric Hobo
  This is a great put your controller down and do nothing trophy. Basically, about two to three hours into the game, you will have a mission in the Neon District where you have to save a train full of hostages. After this, the trains will begin to run. Simply plop Cole on top of a train, let it run around the tracks about three times, and BLING! Trophy time~!
  
• Hotfoot
  This vaguely sucks unlike the trophy above. The annoying thing here is the fact that the railings for the train tracks aren’t electrified until you’ve gotten the trains to run again. Considering this, you have to ride the train tracks for twenty-five kilometers and dodge the trains. You can also wait until you can grind power lines since that counts as well, and some people have done that so much they have received this trophy. However, if you still have yet to receive this and you’re in the Historic District, then I would attempt to do this via the train system. You can usually get two runs around the whole track before a train will catch up with you, just be mindful of when you hear one so you don’t die. About fifteen times around will get you this trophy.
  
• Frequent Flyer
  This is such an easy trophy, you’ll more then likely get this without thinking. To do this all you need is the Static Thrusters, which is during the beginning of the Warren District. Once you’ve gotten them just use them all the time. There is no way to track your progress since you need to travel twenty five kilometers to complete this feat, but it’s very easy as you will find yourself using the ability quite often.
  
• Drop Everything
  This is one of those trophies I recommend waiting for as you can get this literally in one jump instead of consecutive ones. In the Historic District, there is a ridiculously tall tower and believe me when I say you won’t miss it. It’s right near Ground Zero, which is a barren wasteland of sorts where you initially start the game. Simply climb this tower to the very top, make sure to pick a good side to jump off, and then Thunderdrop the whole way down. I got this on my first try off of this building, if the trophy doesn’t appear then simply try one more time. There’s no reason it shouldn’t after a fall like that!
  
• Goody Two Shoes
  If you’ve gotten either True Potential or True Hero then you should have already receive this trophy. All that’s required of you is to reach full positive karma. This can be done around the Warren district on a good play through.
  
• True Potential
  You’ll do this no matter what unless you’re a brain dead goldfish. Pretty much upgrade one power to its fullest. I recommend you get either the regular old lightning bolt or the grenades out of the way. Either of these do you wonders under most circumstances.
  
• True Hero
  You just have to buy all the positive upgrades. This actually isn’t difficult, mostly on normal or easy. If you’re doing all of the side missions, collecting the Blast Shards, and doing the trophies I listed then you’re well on your way. Make sure to note for sure whether or not you’ve got enough EXP before your final boss fight at the end of the game. It is ridiculously hard to grind after the main story has ended! So don’t forget or you risk another play through.
  

Guess what? You’re done with your first play through! You’ve collected about twenty out of the fifty trophies so far, but I’m going to guess that if you were a good player (or just generally enjoyed the game, you also got a little more).

If you were smart then you’ve gotten the Blast Shards out of the way, if this is the case the only difficult trophy you have left is Stunt Master. I leave this trophy to the harder difficulty because there are more enemies, and they don’t die as quickly so it’s easier to pull off some of the more irksome stunts. Though before we get to that, let’s go over the obvious story choices you’ll be getting while evil.

• Evil Eats
  Once again, this is your first karma choice. As soon as Cole stops his thoughtful monologue, just start shooting blindly. Almost immediately, everyone will run away in terror and the message awarding you negative karma will appear.
  
• Evil Riot
  This is a little bit easier to understand then the Good Riot. Just shoot a bolt towards one of the cops, sit back, and wait for the riot to charge. As the police and group of rioters begin to attack each other you’ll receive the negative karma and the trophy.
  
• Evil Train
  This one is easy. Have you been following my advice so far? Good, then this is yours. All you have to do is end the train mission with negative karma to unlock this trophy.
  
• Evil Exposure
  While on the second island, The Warren, you’ll take on one mission from Zeke where you’ll follow the ghost of some spider thing (Cole describes it as a dog at first). During the middle of it, you will run past a man who is a big fan and is making art to promote you. Pick the red poster, which is adequately described as making sure the people fear you.
  
• Confirmed Bachelor
  Shortly after discovering The Warren district, you’ll have a mission entitled Anything For Trish. As soon as you finish this mission, if you are evil, you’ll receive this trophy. Trish will want nothing to do with you because you’re a ruthless scumbag, go you!
  
• Evil Intentions
  Like before, this is during the bomb mission, where you’ll be given the choice to save either a group of six doctors and Trish. Go for Trish this time, and as you climb up, the woman will scream, “Who’s Trish?!” Kessler pulls a fast one, and basically put Trish with the doctors. She dies telling you how much of a bastard you are… go you?

  Since you’ve played both versions of this mission, I’d like to stress that there is no way to actually save Trish sadly.

• Evil Sphere
  Activate the Ray Sphere. You’re a badass… so obviously you want more power. After choosing this option, you’ll receive a crap load of extra energy cores, which is great for the final boss if you haven’t been collecting Blast Shards.

  Since you’ve played both good and evil at this point, I’d like to point out there is no way to save John.

• Evil Finish
  This is actually very easy if you’ve done all of the events before this. Simply reach the Infamous title, which is the highest negative karma you can have, and you’ll receive this trophy at the end of the game.
  

Much like before I’d like to say no matter what play through you decide on first, you’ll receive Clean Up Your Act & Taking Out The Trash. There is no way to miss boss battles in this game.

I cannot stress how important grinding becomes during the hard difficulty. I will suggest some good points to gain EXP, but beforehand you have to know how to set the game to hard. A lot of players get confused here somehow. As you already know from playing the game, you go through about thirty minutes to an hour of game-play before discovering your first Blast Shard. You must go to the main menu, options, and then change the difficulty before this. If you change it after wards, it will not count as a hard play through, and you’ll be forced to play the game again. Depending on how well you play in the first portion of the game, the game itself will set you to the harder difficulty. If this is the case then don’t touch it! It will still count towards the trophy. It’s also a nice self-confidence boost that the game thought you were that good.

Grinding becomes essential for a lot of remaining trophies, and if you’ve noticed I’ve saved all the combat ones for the second play through because of it. You receive less EXP when on hard, and thus killing mobs and mobs of baddies doesn’t add up like it used to. You’ll also be going for full upgrades on all negative karma which becomes a lot more strenuous. I suggest grinding in the following places:

• Warren, Train Mission: I can’t recall the actual mission name, but I certainly suggest that you grind during the train mission in the second area. At one point during the mission you will come to a tunnel, simply chuck Shock Grenades and Megawatts at anything that moves. Once everything is dead you must kill yourself to restart right before the tunnel. Rinse and repeat anywhere from an hour to three.
• Anything For Trish: Once again a mission located in the second area. This is when you’re on top of a bus attempting to get from the Neon District to the Warren. At one point, you will be trying to go across the bridge. SPAM Shock Grenades like no tomorrow, and then die before the bus reaches the other side. Rinse and repeat for a good two to three hours.
• The Arrest: You and the police are attempting to capture Alden, by doing so you’ll have to go through a hoard of bad guys (as well as meet a new enemy). I highly suggest at any point to simply die and grind.
• Alden In Chains: This is an awesome spot to grind due to the sheer number of enemies. What’s even better is the fact you have an electric power source underneath you for the beginning part of the mission. Just shoot off Shock Grenades and Megawatts like normal, killing yourself as you see fit.

Also, since your main focus this play through is EXP, you will more then likely do every side mission on the board. By doing so you will receive the following trophies with little problem:

• Community Organizer
  Simply clear the Neon District. You should notice after every mission an area on the map will be marked off, and you’ll be shown a percentage of how much of the entire island you have cleared. You need to get a 100% which isn’t hard, but mildly time consuming. Make sure to do every side mission, and most areas will be cleared on their completion. If you have a blank area with no side mission, you must visit said area and kill a specific enemy. Doing so will suddenly unlock one of the Hidden Package missions. After your first play through, you should have no problem with this.
  
• Civic Leader
  Get a 100% of the Warren District. This is the same concept as Community Organizer.
  
• Urban Designer
  Get a 100% of the Historic District. This is the same concept as Community Organizer.
  

You should also keep in mind that you want to work to get your remaining trophies. As I stated before most of which are merely attempting to do certain combat challenges. We have both Stunt Master and most of the other challenges, which is merely killing enemies a certain way. I’ll get to the stunts, which I will state is about up there with finding the Blast Shards in difficulty.

• Casey Jones
  You must kill a total of twenty-five enemies on a moving train to acquire this trophy. If you’ve read my small section on grinding, I recommend the Warren Subway mission. Since you’ll be lodging Megawatts and Shock Grenades into your enemies, you’ll naturally get this trophy. On the plus side, it will make you feel better spending so much time grinding at least.
  
• Roadkill
  You must kill twenty-five enemies on a moving car to receive this trophy. Once more I shall refer you to the tiny section on grinding. The mission Anything For Trish is perfect for this one solely because you’ll be spamming Shock Grenades on top of a bus. Just wait until the part where you’re at the bridge and chuck them like there’s no tomorrow! If you don’t get the trophy, simply die and you’ll respawn right before the bridge.
  
• Get Off My Cloud
  This is one trophy you might get without trying as all you need to do is kill a hundred enemies by High Fall. There is no easy way to do this per se, but often times you’ll end up either using a Shockwave or a Thunderdrop on an enemy that’s on a building. When they fall off, they’ll die from the impact, and you’ll receive a bonus of sorts called High Fall. The plus side to all of this is that it awards a little bit more EXP then a normal kill.
• Red Baron
  I’ll be honest, I don’t like this one at all. The goal is to kill a hundred enemies while they are airborne. You’ll get some sort of indication if you’ve done this right entitled Blast & Bolt, Flying Melee, Air Sticky Bomb, Flying Headshot, and Suspended Sentence. Much like Get Off My Cloud, you’ll receive a bit more EXP then normal. This is time consuming, though in retrospect it is also fairly easy to do.
• Fish In A Barrel
  I love me some easy trophies! Whenever you’re in the sewer you’ll notice that some enemies will actually climb into the water (this seems like a retarded move considering you have lighting powers…). Simply shock the area right next to them to kill them. You must do this a hundred times, believe me when I say this isn’t hard.
• Oh, You've Done This Before
  This is a lot easier being evil considering the fact that your upgrades for the Shock Grenades are monstrous. You must sticky fifty different enemies with the Shock Grenades. Remember all those places I told you to grind? Every one of them is perfect for this. Throw grenade, kill enemy, die, rinse, and repeat.
• The Hunger
  Pretty much the polar opposite of Doctor Cole. Simply Bio-Leech a hundred enemies to receive this trophy. You’ll end up doing this quite a lot for a quick fix on energy, mostly on the harder difficulty.
• Evil To The Core
  This. This is why you need to grind so much when playing on hard. You have to purchase every negative power to get this trophy. Since on hard most enemies will give you less EXP, you’ll find this is a lot more taxing then it needs to be. If you feel you’re not where you should be power wise, then grind until you can’t grind anymore. I highly suggest that if you don’t have every power up by mid-Historic District to just kill things. Stop doing missions, side missions, and just kill whatever you find.
• Truly Infamous
  If you’ve gotten Evil To The Core, then you’ve also receive this. Reach the Infamous karma status, which is the highest (or perhaps lowest) karma point you can get being evil.

You’re almost there, I saved one of the most frustrating bits (yes, besides collecting the Blast Shards) till now. The trophies involved are Stunt Man, Stunt Coordinator, and Stunt Master. For the game to grant you any of these you essentially have to complete the twenty-one stunts in the game, which can either be laughably easy or painstakingly hard. Some of these you’ll have to observe for a good chance to do so through the whole game, while others have to wait until you’ve received a specific ability. Either way, this can be done by still keeping the play throughs down to two, you just need to pay attention.

Below I have listed every stunt and the best way to get them. The game reminds you every time you go to the start menu that you should do a certain stunt. Once you have done all of them Stunt Man, Stunt Coordinator, and Stunt Master are yours for the taking.

• Air Strike
  To do this, you must climb up a building or other sort of structure and jump off. While in the air, continuously shoot an enemy until they die.
• Crush
  Simply use your Shockwave and aim it at a car an enemy is standing behind. The enemy will be crushed to death by the car.
• Sticky Bomb
  If you’ve already acquired or attempted to get the Oh, You’ve Done This Before trophy, then you pretty much have the jest of this (and already have this stunt). Throw a Shock Grenade at an enemy, if you’ve aimed right then the grenade will stick. Boom goes the baddie!
• High Fall
  This works in conjunction with Get Off Of My Cloud. Use a Shockwave or a melee attack to throw an enemy off a building or high area.
• Enviro Take Down
  With an enemy hiding behind a car, shoot the car until it explodes. You can also explode gas tanks and other various parts of the environment to complete this.
• Blast And Bolt
  Shockwave an enemy and then kill them while they are mid-air. This might take a few tries, but can easily be done.
• Melee Finisher
  I highly recommend doing this before you upgrade your melee skills. Run up to an enemy and start punching them, you must hit them at least five times to pull this off. If you’ve upgraded too much then you will kill them before finishing your combo.
• Unquenchable Thirst
  The best place to do this is any railway track, but make sure to watch for trains. Jump from railing to railing consecutively at least four times. This just takes some careful aiming.
• Ride The Lightning
  I would strongly wait until you can grind actual lines strung out across the various buildings. This makes this so much easier. Press up on the directional button to go into Precision aiming (assuming you have this ability), and kill an enemy while you grind.
• Flying Melee
  I generally do this by finding a single enemy on a rooftop, and if he’s close to the edge I punch him until he follows. I continuously melee him, thus falling with him, and killing him in the air.
• Air Sticky Bomb
  This is a bit harder then some of the other stunts. I highly recommend upgrading your Shock Grenades to their fullest to ensure you’re not spending all day on this one. Once you have, Shockwave an enemy into the air and spam grenades like crazy. This is mostly luck, but if you’ve been using your grenades by now faithfully then this won’t be too strenuous.
• Flying Headshot
  Ironically, not as bad as it sounds. The goal here is to somehow get a head shot while an enemy is airborne. If you’ve played the game for a decent amount of time then your aiming should be top notch, and you realistically won’t have to fret over this so much. If you really need help, then Shockwave an enemy and use Precision to get an accurate head shot.
• Whack-A-Mole
  This is more difficult then it needs to be. I got this after dying, and realized now was the perfect time. This is one of those stunts you should just watch out for. Originally what I was doing was fixing one of the trains power, I believe in the Warren. At one point the train stops and you’ll be attacked by a lot of Reapers. There will also be two Conduits and very often they will teleport onto the tracks. You must kill a Conduit with a Thunderdrop. What’s nice about doing it in this area is the fact you can simply climb back onto the train to do another. You might have to wear them down with Lightning Bolts first, but you’ll be satisfied once you’ve gotten this out of the way.
• Premature Detonation
  I have a hunch you’ll end up doing this without meaning to. Basically shoot a Kamikaze, forcing them to explode, and kill one of their friends nearby. This can be done in several areas through the game, and it isn’t very hard at all.
• Up Close And Personal
  I remember this one well because I got it in a fit of anger! I was pretty much raging at an area I kept meeting my untimely demise, and starting punching whatever I could. I ended up killing three enemies back to back via melee. Just rage a little, and ironically this will be yours.
• Insult To Injury
  This is one where you have to be careful. If you’ve upgraded your Shock Grenades at all then this is going to be tough. Throw a grenade and make sure it sticks to an enemy, now throw Megawatts or Lightning Bolts at their face. What you’re attempting to do is kill them before the grenade has gone off. Best of luck!
• Crowd Control
  You must kill five enemies at once, this is easiest done with the small spiders that will come out in the second district. Give them a quick one-two punch and they’ll be gone. Good job!
• Suspended Sentence
  You need the last ability to be able to do this. The power itself is called Thunder Storm, and this can be done relatively easily. In the last district, the Historic, there is one mission where you need to destroy some satellites. There will be hordes of enemies attempting to attack you, naturally just whip this out and many of them will make it into the air on their own.
• Splash And Crash
  This is actually kind of hard since you need to shock an enemy while in the air, and then kill said enemy with a Thunderdrop. If you can, I suggest finding a lone enemy and getting their attention. Jump into the air and hit them once or twice with a Lightning Bolt before executing the Thunderdrop. They should die, mostly if it is later or earlier in the game.
• Right Back At Ya
  This can be done in multiple levels where you’re being attacked by a large group of enemies. At major points in the same they will more then likely throw a grenade at you. Preform a Shockwave to throw the grenade back, thus killing them. This takes a little luck, but can be done easily.
• Have A Nice Fall
  I’ll go on record and state that not only do I hate this stunt, but it is the hardest of them all. To do this you must kill three enemies with a High Fall at the same time. The best method is a Shockwave and to just be alert. Whenever there are a lot of enemies on the rooftop, take the chance to line them up, pray, and try your best. I was finally able to get this during the section where you have to destroy the water pumps as much of the area had an ample amount of baddies on the top of the buildings. All I can say is keep trying and best of luck.

Now your only problem is beating the game. I’m serious, that’s it! Make sure to kill Kessler and you will receive Hard Finish for beating it on hard and the Platinum trophy for getting all the trophies before it.

Also, if anyone tries to steal this and post it elsewhere, please know I took about a week and a half to write this. You touch it without crediting me, you die in a fire with your entire family in the room next door choking on the smoke. Hope you enjoyed~!

]]> http://www.kanashimi-network.com/2009/infamous-trophy-guide/feed/ 2 http://www.kanashimi-network.com/2009/the-great-ban-of-visual-novel-games/ http://www.kanashimi-network.com/2009/the-great-ban-of-visual-novel-games/#comments Thu, 01 Oct 2009 11:56:26 +0000 Kanashimi http://www.kanashimi-network.com/?p=98

I believe the following type of posts will pop up rarely, but I think as a female I should at least speak up a little concerning this issue. For those not in the know, you might have to do a little research, but I will try and sum it up for you as best I can. Equality Now, a group that states outright their purpose is to protect human rights of woman, called for a ban previously on Japanese hentai/eroge games.

One sole game caused all this commotion entitled RapeLay. The game appeared on Amazon Japan, as well as the publishers site (as it should), and was ultimately back-lashed due to the fact that there is rape involved in the plot of the game. For a small while, all Japanese games that had sex in it at all were banned for about a month’s time due to this little rebellion from the group (and others who put their hands in the melting pot). As of now, the gaming industry has gone back to the way it was by using loopholes, and many publishers of these games have banned all foreign IP from their websites in an attempt to offend as little people as possible. It should also be noted that loli, which refers to as a girl with younger characteristics, was also banned to a degree before the ban itself was fully rejected.

Equality Now is not only attempting to ban all hentai in general at this time (whether animated or in the guise of a visual novel), but is also trying to do so in a deceitful way. Sankaku Complex, a popular anime blog, has been reporting what has been occurring between the ban, Equality Now, and the Japanese gaming industry. Their last article had a few troll-like comments which is quite common on sites of such fame, and Equality Now is listing said comments as actual bloggers of the gaming and anime community! This is a complete lie and falsehood, if you would like to learn more about this then please proceed here.



The fact that this whole thing actually started with RapeLay is rather amusing to me personally. As someone who has played the game, I am actually rather surprised of the notorious publicity it has received in comparison to some of the other games available. The game itself does have a bad premise as the idea of RapeLay is to rape a mother and her two daughters. The whole basis of the game is to get them to enjoy the actual sex part, which in a sense is rather demeaning; however, the only possible endings to the game are actually bad. This seems to be something constantly overlooked that the endings themselves might be a sort of justice against rape itself. RapeLay ends one of two ways: you are either stabbed by one of the daughters and killed, or you happen to get one of the women pregnant and they push you into a subway train.

Both of these endings actually give the main hero, which is the player, what they deserve per se. They have been faced with their just desserts, despite the fact there is no court involved. So why is this constantly over looked? Instead people are continuously examining the fact that there is actual rape, but has anyone even gazed at the American porn industry in the past ten minutes? The other face of the argument is that one of the daughters appears about fourteen or fifteen, but when one looks at the anime industry there is a lot of loli type characters. Is it so unnatural to find this type of character in a game that aims towards a specific fetish as is?



Honestly, RapeLay isn’t as bad as everyone has stated it was. While I wouldn’t recommend it, since the gameplay gets boring really quickly and it has a rather jumbled storyline, I would certainly say it’s not something that’s going to send you to hell considering all the terrible things people see on TV.

The only reason I actually care about this—is not just because I enjoy this genre myself—but because I feel like this is asking Japan to give up their freedom. The biggest thing that Equality Now can’t seem to grasp is the fact that many of these games have a wonderful story. Obviously, eroge games can be just porn that seek to satisfy a certain fetish. Though it should be noted a good deal of the time these games also seek to tell a story. Sex as an act is very powerful emotionally, but by disregarding sexual relations from any type of media is limiting. Video games such as Mass Effect faced such claims that it was a sex simulation, but instead such scenes strengthened the story, character development, and emotion felt while playing said game. Many classic stories, even myths of origin, involve sex and childbirth in their telling since they are a necessary part of what the author envisions. Sex is also referred to as love making, and many of these stories involve getting close to a girl that the main character loves. Why something like love is so terrible… is actually increasingly frightening.

Supposedly, Equality Now is worried that these games will make people act upon them and thus strengthen female stereotypes as well as sexual crimes. This is strange when one considers that many of these games involve falling in love, first crushes, dates, etc. Why is it so terrible to teach someone how to treat their significant other in a positive light? Many people are nervous, especially teenagers, and are curious as to what these real moments might be like. It is sort of practice in a way, and can actually be looked at as a valuable thing. For the older audience it can be reminiscing, comfort, and any other emotion out there. These stories are powerful. It’s the same argument that all video games do is turn children into crazed killers despite the fact that many video games are thought-provoking, improve hand-eye coordination, and allow the player a hobby that gets them to think.



Not only that, it is widely known that Japan itself has one of the lowest sexual crime rates. There has to be some sort of reason for this. In my personal opinion, I believe these games are like a safe escape of sorts, much akin to a journal someone writes in when they are sad. It’s very much like a fictional escape, that allows the player to sink into things they never thought possible, which fulfills any sudden urges they might have in public. All forms of media technically offer this, so there is no reason one huge batch of it should be banned. If this did occur, I’m going to bet that the crime rate will gradually go up in time.

One other thing I’d like to mention is how many females play these sort of games as well as girls who work on said games. There’s actually a genre specifically aimed at women called otome. Why has this also been something that Equality Now (and others) neglect to mention? Many of both genres, eroge and otome, can be wonderfully sweet and romantic. I’d actually like to point to my header picture which is from Nanatsuiro Drops. It’s an adorable story, that is actually filled with a magically aspect, hope, and love. There are many examples of this as well such as ef ~ A Tale Of Memories/ef ~ A Tale Of Melodies, Clannad, Kanon, etc. Some of these made me cry because I was so emotionally attached to the characters and seeing them get together as a couple. As to strengthen my argument concerning the actual innocence and purity found in some of these games, my entry is littered with other sweet pictures from said games.

I quite love these style of games, and I’m disappointed constantly how few make it to the States. If you are in support of keeping these sort of games available to the public, then I would suggest avoiding the Equality Now website, but instead make your own blog posts concerning the issue. Even if you don’t have a website, try on your Twitter, LiveJournal, whatever your little corner of the net is. If you’re feeling very brave, then you can attempt to message the group Equality Now, but I cannot promise that they won’t brand such e-mails as hate mail.

I would also like to note that there are other places also available widely on the net already attempting to support this cause, this is one for example and feel free to list the others you know in the comment section.

On a side note, sorry for the messiness of this post, it happens to be 3:00 AM in the morning.

]]> http://www.kanashimi-network.com/2009/the-great-ban-of-visual-novel-games/feed/ 2 http://www.kanashimi-network.com/2009/site-update-about/ http://www.kanashimi-network.com/2009/site-update-about/#comments Sun, 27 Sep 2009 00:00:43 +0000 Kanashimi http://www.kanashimi-network.com/?p=93

Basically this post is to tell you, last night I finally sat down and got the About section up. As well as to claim my blog on Technorati: 5yu37wv68k.

It’s not much to celebrate over, but at least it’s something. I’ve been working on my Playstation 2 section of my game list for awhile now actually. That’s taking a lot longer then I thought it would considering it’s a make-up of games I would like as well as games I own and/or have sold. It makes the whole thing quite expansive. After the Playstation 2 portion, the other game lists should follow shortly after with no problem (the only other remotely big one will be Playstation 3).

My plans after that are pretty much to get a cosplay area up, which is something I’ve wanted to do for awhile. That also shouldn’t take too long in terms of getting everything together. So hopefully everything will be up and running soon, I’m taking my time of course. Either way, expect about a month or so before everything is finished. Thanks for the patience~!

]]> http://www.kanashimi-network.com/2009/site-update-about/feed/ 0 http://www.kanashimi-network.com/2009/lauren-landa-interview/ http://www.kanashimi-network.com/2009/lauren-landa-interview/#comments Fri, 25 Sep 2009 18:51:45 +0000 Kanashimi http://www.kanashimi-network.com/?p=85

91.8 The Fan has been updated with a new article.

During my visit to AnimeVegas, I was able to interview the English voice actoress of Litchi Faye-Ling from BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger, or better yet known as Lauren Landa. We attempt not to be utter fans at these sort of events, but since day one Litchi is the only character from the game I play, and I will boost that I make a mean Litchi. The character’s are funny and dynamic, so to interview one of my favorites was quite pleasant. Thank you for the time, it was awesome, Lauren~!

Click here to read the full story.

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