ponyoponyo

Let’s get ready for August

Jason — Sun, 13 May 2012 00:38:02 +0000

I almost didn’t have time to come back from my last vacation before my late summer vacation was approved.
So why not start to plan for it? ^^
Because Konomi will be working every day I was thinking of doing some more videos with my Nikon D5100.
Is there anything special you would like to see?
Destination is of course Fukuoka, Japan. Two weeks from the end of August.

Gallery update from my last trip to Japan

Jason — Wed, 09 May 2012 21:57:18 +0000

Though only a week it was an awesome trip. Next time I’ll stay longer.
Anyway, enjoy the photos

It’s time for -you know it. JAPAN!

Jason — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 19:38:32 +0000

Starting from today; one week of awesome vacation in Japan. Well, actually from when I get there on Sunday ^^.
This time the flight route will be Stockholm-Frankfurt-Tokyo-Fukuoka. A long way to get to closest airport in Japan, I know.
Could the Japanese allow Swedish planes to land in Fukuoka anytime soon?

The double-deck flight leaves soon and I got a reservation for the best seat.
Time to pack the last things before the flight tomorrow morning ^^

Mini Review: Uncharted: Golden Abyss

Jason — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 06:15:25 +0000

There’s not many game reviews out there for the PSVITA so I thought I’d contribute with my impression of Uncharted: Golden Abbys.
I’ve finished about 40% of the game and if it wasn’t for a huge game design mistake I would have been able to play it a lot more on my flight from Japan.
There was a “puzzle” demanding a bright external light source. Don’t they know we like to play in the dark?
I haven’t played the game a lot and already at 40%. So far it’s been like a tutorial where the game always hold your hand and is extremely linear. Though the series always been linear it hasn’t felt like it before.

Gameplay

There isn’t much of challenges in this game. Where should you go? Follow another character.
How do you get there? Press shiny objects on the screen and Drake will auto jump between obstacles.
Shoot enemies. OK. A nice touch when aiming is that you can also tilt your PSVITA for that extra precision.
So what do you do then? Not much, but looking at the PSVITAS pretty screen.
Sometimes you also get an auto triggered “puzzle” just there to extend the playtime with some boring things the game forces you to do before you can continue. Half of the time I didn’t even get the context.
You can also photograph certain objects to get some bonus.. I don’t know. But you already have a photographed template for it doesn’t make sense you want to photograph it again.

Graphics

Looks like a pretty PS2 game that could have been on a iOS device, not near the PS3 series. Everything feels very down scaled and the characters rigid.
Though it’s nothing wrong with the graphic it would been nice to see something new on a new piece of hardware.

Sound

The music feels a bit reused and sometimes misplaced. Like when you get an awesome chase soundtrack when nothing is going on in the game.
The voice acting is good and fits their characters. Drake feels humanly and you want to help him. On the Japanese version you can also choose Japanese voices with English subtitles which is great for practicing your Japanese. If you can stand the characters then. They felt unfitted and I just wanted to shoot them.

Conclusion

To wrap it up it so far feels aimed to someone who haven’t been playing Uncharted before and is mentally handicapped. It’s nothing wrong with doing games for mentally handicapped, but I hope Naughty Dog does the the next entry.
What are your impressions of the PSVITA games so far?

Back after quick trip to Japan

Jason — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 03:09:51 +0000

After 27 hours something, door to door, I’m welcomed back by my dark and snowy homeland.
Sometimes people say they dream about going to Japan. What? Dream? I say GO!
Or on second thought, please don’t go. It’s an amazing genuine country that doesn’t need to be invaded any more by foreigners.

PSVITA crashed

Jason — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 14:41:47 +0000

One and a half hour after turning on my new PSVITA it crashed and died.
After getting multiple javascript errors in the browser (on Facebook) it froze and after going into standby (somehow it could still do that) it wouldn’t start again.

After a long discussion with the store clerk at Tsutaya and they had a talk with Sony’s support I could finally replace my broken PSPVITA. Thanks to Konomi. There is no way I could have done it myself.
The reason why I couldn’t just return it was that I created a PSN account on it, therefore it would normally had to be sent to Sony to remove it first. Because I had to leave Japan they made an exception.

After getting my PSPVITA replaced I found out through a Japanese friend that more users in Japan also had the same problem with frozen units.
Because it looked like a software failure I’m still holding my breath. Anyone know a solution in case of a new crash?

PSVITA -Living the Japanese dream

Jason — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 05:51:51 +0000

I locked myself away in a booth at a netcafe. Surrounded by youngsters in other booths watching porn.
Maybe it went unnoticed, but I actually left Japan before, went to Malaysia for two weeks and then back to Sweden for about a month. Anyhow, I’m now back since a few days and will stay 3 more days.

Today all the hotels where full due to some band playing here and Konomi is busy the whole day. But it was also the launch day of the PSVITA, or maybe it’s PSV. Anyway it’s not portable anymore. I tried it out yesterday but didn’t get impressed at all, but couldn’t miss the opportunity to buy it here on launch day. I also bought Uncharted, Ridge racer and the expensive mandatory memory card.

Uncharted seemed poor when I tried the demo, but maybe it gets better past what I tried. Because it’s in Japanese I decided to buy it anyway. It can’t be that bad if you look at it as a way to learn Japanese.

Ridge racer has already received a lot of criticism due to lack of content -only 5 cars and 3 tracks. I can see why. But as long as it’s as good as the PSP version I’m happy.

Now, unboxing! Then some sleep on the floor before going to meet some friends for what has become a tradition when I come to Fukuoka -gyouza and beer!

Arakawa under the bridge

Jason — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 02:21:40 +0000

Arkawa under the bridge (J-drama) is the most creative, weirdest, cutest and funniest thing I’ve seen in a long time.
It was on TV when I was in Japan and now that the show finally has finished it somehow ended up on my computer.
I highly recommend you seeing it!
It’s based on an Anime which is based on a Manga. I haven’t seen the Anime and I don’t read manga, but with the amazing costumes they are wearing in this version I believe it must be the better one.

Shibuya scramble crossing, Tokyo

Jason — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 02:48:40 +0000

Or: A 3 min video about a crossing, some more crossings, and some glimpses of the latest Japanese girl fashion.

Yes, another late entry finally found its way here. This postcard is from the huge street crossing in Shibuya, Tokyo. Well worth a visit.
Wait. Wait. Okey, you may watch the video!

Kaminarimon,”Thunder Gate”, Tokyo

Jason — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 11:40:14 +0000

Long time no see! I’ll explain why in my next post. Until then enjoy this clip shot in Tokyo the 30th October.
It’s from a part located in Asakusa that’s like Japan in Japan, with a lot of tourists. We didn’t intend to ride the touristic rickshaw, but when asked we could bargain down the price a lot and got double the time. We also got to know alot about the area from the guide who pulled the rickshaw (all forgotten now), so well worth a ride if you’re going here.