15 liberation maiden - finding that small 1% to finish stage 3 on hard

Dear Readers,

I passed stage 3 on hard mode finally!

I believe what it took was a mixture of using the laser and missiles and a good bit of practice. Lasers are really good for whittling down Spike bars quickly but missiles are still good for general aiming and making sure you don't run out of juice too soon.

In the part where there are search lasers coming up from the ground I got caught and had to back off for a small while before going back to attack. The enemy put up shields and really strong weapons.

It took ages to get 100% and I was stuck on 99% for quite a while before I realised I missed a tiny bit where the Greater Spike was. Gah.

This time I paid attention to the little assistant robot thing the Greater Spike had. On my failed attempts I tried to ignore and bypass it. I was able to break out of its constricting nets just in time to avoid its lasers.

Also this time I went back to using my thumbnail to aim. It was a little easier on my hands though I was still tired after it.

14 liberation maiden - no credits left on stage 3 of hard setting

Dear Readers,

I continued the hard mode in the story from stage 3.

I had two really big long attempts at stage 3, trying to get 100% and everything on it, but I just kept getting destroyed by the boss. I didn't have any credits left so I wasn't able to continue either. I had to start the stage from the very start again.

What took me so long was trying to find those elusive purple tinted buildings because they're sometimes not centred around the Lesser or Greater Spikes. Walkers kept appearing and coming back to life too and it's almost impossible to target them without getting hit.

My first attempt was with missiles and my second was with the laser. It seems to work quickly enough but doesn't have the benefit of target lock on.

Also the sub mission was to defeat 10 walkers, which is different from the normal mode where it's to destroy a certain big clump of buildings near the walkers.

The purple buildings I keep missing then are usually around the bottom of the map between two of the targets.

At the end of these two attempts my hands were numb and exhausted because of the way I have to control the game. Time to stop for today!

13 liberation maiden - really feeling the hard mode

Dear Readers,

Now to play the hard mode. I'll unlock the stages in the Stage Attack mode under this difficulty. I'll also get more time in and enemies destroyed to unlock other gallery entries.

I really felt this harder difficulty when it came time to take on the boss. Its attacks came at me faster and I had to keep up. I even died twice to it before I was able to defeat it. The hard difficulty also has only 3 credits.

I lost my last credit against the stage 2 boss and got dumped back to the title screen after Kira shouted "Shoko!"

With that I unlocked the submarine entry in the gallery but I had to start from the beginning of stage 2. The boss was hard here as well and it felt like the rocks were harder to break and were coming at me faster. I switched from the missile to the laser weapon and I felt like I got on much better in breaking the rocks and whittling down its health. I eventually beat it and went on to the third level.

I also noticed that some enemy missiles are more resilient and split into smaller missiles. It takes a while when tangling with them.

12 liberation maiden - 100% purification on stage 4 and normal mode complete

Dear Readers,

Now to continue the normal difficulty story mode, trying to get 100% purification in stage 4.

The sub mission on this stage was pretty amusing. It was a hidden weapon and when I found it, this image of a slice of cake came up. Not sure what was going on but it was kinda funny. It did feel like finding a fun treasure.

Earning 100% purification was easy enough. Just had to target the purple tinted groups of buildings that were around tracks and enemy placements.

I continued right on to stage 5. The Guardian Spirit was harder this time and I died 3 times to it! I continued and frantically aimed and shot at everything I could while avoiding the big wave attacks and eventually I defeated it, clearing normal difficulty.

On the score screen I got 84% public approval, which was kinda confusing. Does that have anything to do with purification? It appears on the score screen after stage 5 and getting 100% unlocks the 30th gallery entry but I have no idea how to maximise it. Even the one who wrote the walkthrough on GameFAQs wasn't totally sure how it worked.

11 liberation maiden - taking ages to get 100% purification on stage 3

Dear Readers,

I resumed the story mode from stage 3, while also going for 100% purification.

This time the stage too ages! I ended up stalling and failing the sub mission too. Things just wouldn't die for some reason and that was before I got to the boss, which also took forever to beat. I was only able to get 86% purification this time.

I did manage to unlock the entry in the gallery that required two hours of play though. Woo! Also one of the enemy quota totals.

I chose stage 3 again in Stage Attack mode and made sure to comb the area for buildings to purify and to complete the sub mission on time. This stage takes a long long time to clear all the enemies out of it... I'm not sure if I even need to take out the non-building structure ones. 

Anyway I took so much time that I started asking Kira how I was doing on time and showed more concern for time I had left. I was in time for a Sacrifice Drive, though I had only twenty something seconds left. Sometimes the timer goes up and sometimes it goes down for missions so I don't have a full grasp on it.

I covered the entire area and got 100% purification before I engaged with the Greater Spike, so I was pretty happy with that. I had about 89% before I started engaging with the structures within the Greater Spike's perimeter. I unlocked another enemy quota in the gallery and another character profile. I'll have a read up on them later.

10 liberation maiden - 100% purification in stage 1

Dear Readers,

Now that I knew how to get 100% purification on levels, I took on the first stage, this time in Stage Attack mode.

There was still dialogue but at least I could turn the tutorial off this time. To get 100% I hung around and received a sub mission to take out the bridges. I also had to hover around outside the perimeter of the Greater Spike to take out the skyscrapers first. That added a lot to the percentage.

I was close to completing the level without taking damage but I didn't manage it this time. At least I achieved 100% purification in the first level though! Not only is the percentage displayed in the pause menu, Kira also announces it when you achieve it. Loving the voice samples in this game. I also got to listen to the rockin' first stage tune and vocals again, which is always nice!

9 liberation maiden - my first 100% purification stage score!

Dear Readers,

I decided to play more of normal mode, resuming from stage 2 in the story on normal setting.

I adjusted my approach. This time I placed the Nintendo 3DS on a table, using the fingers on my left hand to control movement and the stylus in my right hand to carry out aiming. This was a much more comfortable way to play the game. Up until now I had been using both hands to hold the 3DS and my right thumbnail for aiming. It was okay but not great. Moving the Liberator doesn't requite fast twitchy movement like a 2D shmup does. It's heavier and more deliberate in movement like a tank.

I got into the level and tried to go for 100% purification. There were submarines and ships and cities and other structures I had to seek out and destroy. There was also a sub mission I didn't do last time. I made sure to check the menu for any missions to complete before facing the Greater Spike.

Many submarines and ships I didn't have to attack in order to expose Lesser Spikes so Kira never told me about them for missions, but I made sure to fly around and try and find them. Many submarines dived out of sight and I had to actually wait for them to resurface before I could attack.

When I couldn't find more and with just the Greater Spike to go in missions, I looked at the menu which told me I had 100% purification achieved! I was happy with this so I took out the boss.

100% purification earns big points but there's a time cost in getting it. In the gallery, I unlocked a character profile. There's more to unlock for getting 100% in the other levels so I'll try that next!

8 liberation maiden - exploring the world history lore in the gallery

Dear Readers,

I decided to check out the world history entries in the gallery to explore the lore in more detail.

[1] World History 1: Has an image of Shoko in uniform, with her long flowing hair and shiny round behind. The text explains what happened and how New Japan came about with the role of President.

[2] World History 2: Has an image of a logo. I assume it's of New Japan's flag since it has that red circle, which is accompanied by a minimalist bird-like image, probably the Guardian Spirit. I'm not 100% sure as I haven't paid that much attention to logos. A very brief account of the environmental crisis as a result of the enemy takeover is here and it says that New Japan raised these Guardian Spirits for the environment's benefit. This makes it more probable that this is New Japan's flag, or at least the logo of a government agency.

[3] World History 3: This has the flag of the Dominion, the warmongering enemy nation in the game. It speaks of "The Chairman" and his ambitions to wage war against the entire world. The text goes a bit fast, but it briefly summarises how this Dominion is structured and how it handles its affairs to stay in power without going into too much detail.

[4] World History 4: This has a picture of the Conduit Spikes, the lesser ones on the left and right, the greater one in the centre. It tells how the Dominion created and planted them in order to annex the Guardian Spirits, draining them of their power and forcing Japan into ruin.

[5] World History 5: This has an image of the spikes along with these vein-like energy trails along the ground. It talks about Dominion weaponry, how it was lacking in air force technology and aesthetics, instead having a focus on destructive power. New Japan was able to develop the Liberator and the Battleship Nagata whereas Dominion was only able to develop destructive laser weaponry and non-airborne forces. New Japan was better at harnessing spiritual energy.

[6] World History 6: The image is of the Guardian Spirit in the game with stormy clouds below. It has a Dominion Spike driven into its body. This was all about the Guardian Spirits and how Japan thrived harmoniously on their spiritual energy, which was now being sapped by the Dominion in favour of destructive power.

I think I have a better handle on the lore now. It was presented in a very roller coaster way throughout the game's cutscenes, ending in the dramatic reveal of the Guardian Spirit. I now know the purification scoring is how much of the leeching enemy you destroy before the land is restored back to normal.

7 liberation maiden - reviewing the liberator's blade controls to unlock the lore

Dear Readers,

I wanted to look at all the world history lore in the gallery, but the fourth part was locked with the condition of using the Liberator's blade. I used this move several times but maybe not in the way the game wanted me to, so I decided to review the controls. I picked normal mode so I could maybe unlock more stuff.

I watched the anime cutscene again where I got on board my mech Kamui the Liberator. I have something to relate to now that I see the usage of shielding and attacking of the Spikes after playing through the game. I think Shoko is a really cool game and anime protagonist! I think she has lots of appeal. I took on Kira's tutorial again so I could get better at this.

I cleared the first stage again. It was pretty fun and the music here is pretty good so it is fun to replay. I managed to achieve the fourth gallery entry condition, but I have no idea what I did different. I just used the sword more than once at targets. I feel like I unlocked it out of luck.

6 liberation maiden - pursuit of the guardian spirit and ending

Dear Readers,

The giant bird thing that emerged from stage 4's boss became the objective for stage 5. It was called the Guardian Spirit and it was in a rage. My mission was to pursue it.

I chased after the Guardian Sprit, dodging and shooting at the pink ball things it was emitting behind it.

When I caught up, Kira told me about volcanic activity taking place on Mount Fuji, which had been dormant for years. He said that must be where it was heading. I asked why and he said it was a kind of nest for the creature and the Energy Veins had a central hub there. It was believed the creature was heading home after sustaining injury.

I chased it to Mount Fuji where I had to fight it. Kira said it destroyed part of Sagami Bay. The music came in with lyrics, getting even more dramatic. The Guardian Spirit had these 5 circles on its body when it faced me to attack. Kira said it was impaled with several conduit spikes so I had to aim for those. He added sadly that we may not be able to save it from itself.

The Guardian Spirit attacked with these pulsating waves and I had to weave between the beams coming at me. It also put up these obstructive shields I had to take out constantly.

I got my first game over here! Screen went all white and I fell upside-down from my mech. 

I had 9 credits so I continued. The game resumed as if I hadn't lost any progress! I continued the fight against the Guardian Spirit and eventually took out all the target spikes on its body, beating the game. Woo!

What followed was an anime cutscene where the Guardian Spirit turned into energy and blasted out waves across the country, spawning a huge tree and turning everything else into lush greenery. I had a moment with Kira where we admired all the beauty of what was our country once again.

Suddenly, the enemy country showed up in a huge aircraft. I made a dramatic and heartfelt anime vow dedicated to my father and my country, pulled out my sword and readied myself for battle!

Then the credits rolled. Nice cliffhanger ending :)

I had a look and it turns out SUDA51 wrote the lyrics for the songs! The vocalist is someone named "marina". I looked her up and her full name came up as Marina Nakamura. After the credits, some stuff unlocked in the gallery but not everything I wanted like the sword one. I don't know what gives. I'll check out the gallery more later.

Will I play the game more though? Hmm... I don't know. I'm not the biggest fan of using the touch screen so much I might damage or mark it. I'll see.

5 liberation maiden - blasting trains in the snowy mountains

Dear Readers,

Stage 4 took place in a dark, snowy, mountainous stage. Despite the weather, the targets weren't too difficult to find, as they glowed.

Eventually I uncovered a Lesser Spike and took care of it.

The next Lesser Spike was in some cliffs. I had to pass by the Greater Spike's shielded area to get to it. I took it out as well.

I like the voice fx like "What a rush!" and "Think you can win?" from my character's voice actor. Adds some enjoyment to the game.

The next mission was quite different. I had to take out the trains at several places. There were also some bigger missiles going after me this time! I just had to take them out and follow the tracks and map to get to the trains.

Kira then told me of a priority mission, which was to check around and under the bridge for hostiles. I didn't really know what was different about this one... just a lot of missiles that I was intercepting anyway? Ah well, I completed it.

I continued blowing up the trains. I was worried they would escape in tunnels or whatever but they seemed to be just going back and forth.

When I took out all the trains, a Lesser Spike appeared. I took that out with help from using the sword thingy. I remembered to use it a few times in this level.

After all that, the Greater Spike's shields went down and the atmospheric winter music got more exciting with a faster beat. It was time to go after it.

On engagement, Kira told me there was no recon on this thing. The music got even more dramatic too. This big spike thing shot out these glass like panels that hovered around it but still showed its weak spot. I attacked away until it went through the various stages. At one point it put up this red shielding that deflected my attacks so I had to cease fire briefly. Other than that I kept up the attack until it was time to carry out the screen scrawling sacrifice drive again.

I defeated this monster but then another monster came out of it. It was this huge weird bird thing. I guess that's gonna be stage 5!

4 liberation maiden - clearing the smog in nighttime stage 3

Dear Readers,

Now for stage 3. This takes place at sunset and begins with a stealth section! Gives a nice different feel to the overall game.

Getting past undetected was easy enough. There were these surveillance thingies that scanned in circles and I just had to slip past them. I made my way to the centre and destroyed the target there. It was their Walker production base.

A Lesser Spike popped up along with smaller targets that shot at me. I had to destroy them too in this confined space.

When I took them out, the evening turned into night. I had to destroy all the radar station thingies that made up their anti-air sensor net. All while trying to keep from being detected as well by the tall red laser column thingies.

When I destroyed them, up popped another Lesser Spike. I had to take that out too, earning some nice praise from Kira.

Another Lesser Spike popped up in the industrial zone. It was covered in blinding smog so I had to destroy the source of the smog first.

Then up popped a priority mission where there was an enemy missile plant with a roof that makes it stand out. I headed toward this M on the map and took a good beating trying to clear it out but I managed it. After this another Lesser Spike popped up.

I smashed it up and got more praise from Kira. He said the shield around the Greater Spike was now down and I had to go there next. The music changed slightly too which gave a nice feeling of progression.

The Greater Spike and big boss of this level put out this big walker mech thingy that liked to shoot at me and generally get in the way. It also had this big wall attack that closed in on me. On top of that there were these big flying disc thingies it was throwing out at me. It attacked with the usual missiles and lasers too. I just had to keep at it and when the decisive moment came I did another screen scrawling Sacrifice Drive to deal a dramatic defeat.

I like the way it says the gallery has been liberated whenever I unlock something. I checked it out and I still didn't get the one for using the Liberator's blade. I'm not sure why that is though because I made sure to use it a couple of times...

3 liberation maiden - checking out the unlockables

Dear Readers,

I hung out on the menus for a little while after booting up the game. The music gives it the feeling of being in a cathedral. The button icons look like the linework on a stained glass window. It makes the menu feel like something to cherish. Some stuff unlocked like Stage Attack, which had scores for each stage on the different difficulties I had unlocked so far.

Some entries in the gallery unlocked as well so I had a look. It was mostly lore and there was the introduction anime cutscene as well. I'll read them in more detail later.

The first one talks about how the president got to be the one to carry out the missions and how the world got to this point. I think this is pretty cool. I'll read more later. Nice 3D effect where the text pops from the art too.

The other entries in the gallery tell you how to unlock them. They are unlocked by beating levels, playing the game for certain lengths of time and defeating so many hundreds of smaller targets. Some other ones like getting so many chains, getting 100% purification in stages and playing the harder modes a certain number of times. A lot makes you focus on repeat play and playing certain ways. It's good to get an awareness of this now.

For my first playthrough I'll just beat the main 5 stages with their cutscenes and all.

2 liberation maiden - stage 2, destroying ships and submarines

Dear Readers,

I went straight on to stage 2, which told of another target on another island. Kira said there was another weapon waiting for me.

This weapon was like some kind of laser thing I could toggle between that and the missiles, again I had to use the touch screen for it.

I had to deal with a Lesser Spike that was hidden so I had to take out surrounding targets before it was revealed, so I could then destroy that.

Next I had some ships to destroy. When I got them, another Lesser Spike showed up so I had to fly around and destroy that, all while deflecting incoming missiles.

Next up was a similar story, except I had to destroy submarines before that Lesser Spike showed up.

By the way I like when the news headline marquee scrolls announcing whenever I destroy Lesser Spike targets, glorifying my presidential achievements. That's cool :)

Next up was the Greater Spike, which was full of spikes and shot out rings of rocks at me. Some molten, some ordinary. I just kept flying around until I could see the weak spot, then attacked it. Eventually I had to use the Sacrifice Drive again and I still hated using it. I can see marks on my touch screen now :(

Most of the buttons aren't used at all in this game and it annoys me. I like the game and it has nicely produced graphics, music and voice acting, but I just don't want to scrawl the life out of my touch screen.

If I could use buttons to activate the cursor or the Circle Pad Pro or a Wii Remote or something I'd like it a lot more, but scrawling the touch screen is something I've never liked. 

1 liberation maiden - cool anime sci fi 3d shooter with challenging controls

Dear Readers,

Now to try SUDA51's 3D shooting game he created for the Guild series! I watched the trailer where he presented the game. It's got an anime aesthetic and futuristic mech style story. I admit I bought this to unlock the extras in the other Guild games, but I'm a fan of his and I might as well give it a go!

I looked at the manual as well and it's pretty small. Not much nonsense to it. The 3DS icon features the main character's face wearing a visor and the top screen image kinda looks like a box with official poster art on it. Imagine if this game had a physical release, this image would be like a limited edition.

The title screen has that atmosphere of a shmup's title screen with the main character proudly saying the title with an echo. The logo itself shows English and Japanese. There's a score attack mode and a gallery with about 30 images to unlock. I'm picking the easy difficulty.

I am Shoko Ozora, second President of New Japan! A fully animated and voiced cutscene plays out with me getting elected, suiting up and piloting my mech, flying towards the enemy to destroy it in a very dramatic action scene with lots of missiles and jump cuts.

I have assistance from Kira who offers to teach me the controls. People address me as Madame President. The dialogue boxes are voiced as well! I say yes because I'm gonna need help getting used to the controls.

Ugh... I have to use the touch screen to aim and lock on to things. Not thrilled about having to do this and I'm worried I might damage it. I'll try and work around and see if I can get used to it. I take out a few tanks below.

Next I have to take out targets strategically before taking out a big target. Kira gets very technical and I feel thrown in at the deep end. This all takes place in the Old City on an island and it's all over the water with windmills and highways all around.

After attacking successfully, the island turns green with nature returning to it. Then I have to head for the next target.

I get a tutorial on how to use the sword thing, a powerful weapon that I can use when the gauge is charged. I have to slide the touch screen, so it's more of this kind of control. Yikes.

There are some cool bits like shooting homing missiles out of the air that are heading for me. The music is fast, rockin and quite fun and fitting for a game like this!

I get schooled on the L strafe which is intuitive enough. I destroy some more sizeable targets and unlock the way to a bigger target, or Greater Spike as they call it.

Locking on to targets and building up combos feels like playing as Tails or Dr. Robotnik in Sonic Adventure 2, or Gamma in the first Sonic Adventure. It's familiar. I still I wish I didn't have to do it with the touch screen though.

This Greater Spike was like the boss and it had some cool attacks like shooting lasers and energy hoops at me. I didn't really know how to avoid everything while I was attacking parts of it and I went into this weird counterattack mode, where I had to go up close and slash at attackers up close. The screen went all red and black and it looked very dramatic.

Lyrics came in with the music while I was fighting with the boss too. It was really cool! Very dramatic as well :) I'll have to look up the vocalist and band.

Next up was the decisive moment. Kira told me about the Sacrifice Drive, which is the worst move yet. I have to draw fast circles on the touch screen while my mech drills into the boss' weak spot. I hate this move and I'm worried it's going to damage my touch screen :(

I carried out the move anyway when I got a prompt for it and beat the level. I like how I issued this as an Executive Order and made for a very dramatic decisive anime moment!

When I finish a stage I get bonuses for time and purity. I don't know if I'll go score chasing with these controls... I might just enjoy the rollercoaster of the story but we'll see.

48 attack of the friday monsters! a tokyo tale - my commentary on the fully unlocked art gallery

Dear Readers,

Now that I had the game completed 100%, it was time to check out the bonus gallery!

This was accompanied with the sound of being on a moving train with a Japanese announcer voice mentioning the Fuji no Hana stop. I had the link bonus from the other Guild games as well so everything here was unlocked.

Front Cover: This gallery was presented as a spiral notebook style. The cover was titled "Space Defense Department Junior Member Notebook" and it had the logo and all on it. Nice textured yellow/orange colour.

Junior Member Code of Conduct: Some nice guidelines both in Japanese and English.

Character Illustrations 1: Designs for Sohta, his dad, his mom and S-chan. All lovely designs with rosy cheeks.

Character Illustrations 2: Designs for Ramen, Akebi, Nanafushi, Billboard and A Plus. All pleasant characters with good colours for their different shirts and tops. Helps with their identifier markers on the map I suppose! It was also nice to see them labelled with their full names.

Character Illustrations 3: Designs for Frank, Megami, the police officer, Emily, Ramen's dad and Akebi's dad. All very nice designs, again with distinctive colours. That reminds me, we don't know anything about Emily's love interest.

Secrets! For Your Eyes Only!: Designs for that little airplane, Cleaner Man and Cleaner Man Junior. Wow. These were designed by Tetsuro Kasahara, whereas the people were designed by Shunsuke Honma. The designs are kinda cool. We never met Cleaner Man Junior incarnation. He's wearing yellow with red stars, just like Sohta's shirt.

More Secrets For Your Eyes Only!: Designs for the U.F.O. and Frankasaurus. Very cool red, black and purple colours.

Image Boards: The title screen scene with traffic from the title screen, designed by Hiromichi Ito aka Kusanagi. Nice town traffic scene with an interesting three wheel car there.

Concept Art 1: Building designs by Asako Kumura. Looks like a densely built yet small town. Is this the level crossing that is always closed off? Is that the police station and Ramen's Diner?

Concept Art 2: The dry cleaner storefront! Nice delivery motorcycle.

Backdrop Concept 1: The lovely greenery around the path near the well. I like the foreground flora and the way it has an outline. Specially designed for the 3D effect, which isn't available here. Layout by Kaz Ayabe, Asako Kumura.

Backdrop Concept 2: The path near the empty lot. Nice colours and building designs.

Backdrop Concept 3: Inside the Dry Cleaners. Again the outline around the foreground clothes makes it look like they're outlined specifically for the 3D effect. Love the foreground stuff.

Backdrop Concept 4: The podium at the TV station. Nice place to have a Space Defense Department ceremony!

TV Show Poster: Long rotated portrait of one of the monsters along with captions in Japanese and English, the latter being "DON'T MISS IT! THIS FRIDAY!" and it has some cool painting. This was done by Kenichi Kato of Laugh Creation.

Back Cover: The back cover of the notebook with pictures of male and female members in  uniform along with the logo. This is a nice notebook!

I can imagine if there was a special physical version of this it would have a physical recreation of this notebook. A nice companion piece to the experience. It might be nice to look up some of these illustrators as well to check out their other works!

47 attack of the friday monsters! a tokyo tale - 100% completion with the frankasaurus card!

Dear Readers,

With all the conversation topics explored and exhausted, all I had left to do was to collect card #14 by obtaining all the Space Monster glims.

I finally consulted a walkthrough and found that you can only win these glims from S-chan, so I challenged her to Monster Cards.

I lost and kept a losing streak for ages and ages. The walkthrough said I could only win glims if I was the boss, which meant I now had to win at least twice in a row.

After many many card battles with S-chan, I eventually won a finale with a lovely 5-nil, obtaining the glim I needed for the Frankasaurus card!

I was absolutely thrilled and cheered at the top of my voice when I completed my Monster Card collection! Then I remembered my errand.

I went to Emily and told her I had forgotten the errand due to collecting Monster Cards. She said she forgot too, so we were even. She thanked me for delivering the laundry and that was the last episode I had to finish! Everything was complete now!

I got some glims and a new conversation topic, that being I collected all the Monster Cards!

Emily said I could taste all her cakes if I had the money to pay for them of course!

Mom, Dad and S-chan all congratulated me. The other kids were amazed too but Nanafushi accused me of cheating. Whatever.

A-Plus changed the topic and I didn't know how to get the Monster Card complete topic again so I reloaded the save I made just before I talked to him. Gotta be careful...

Ramen's dad said the same as Emily, but he offered a discount!

Akebi's dad said he was sure the people who wrote the text and drew the art were happy too!

I took a look at the Frankasaurus card. Very cool picture of him in plate mail and it gives an extra hint in battles. Quite nice, though I won't be doing much more battling.

Billboard was impressed enough to want my autograph!

Megami-chan said to look out for season two!

The police officer said I must've went through quite a bit to get them all. I sure did!

Frank asked what a Monster Card was and if it was a better way to store monsters than in those little round capsules. Nice Pokémon reference :)

46 attack of the friday monsters! a tokyo tale - nanafushi the next big thing

Dear Readers,

The last topic was Nanafushi's about him being the next big thing.

A-Plus said he had a "b" and an "i" and a "g", finishing by saying he was halfway to bingo.

Yeah this was kinda why I left this topic until last. What an ego...

Ramen was predictably unimpressed, not believing Nanafushi was the next "big king" haha.

Akebi said he was probably trying to fit into his old pants, which was pretty funny.

Ramen's dad didn't know what it meant and then he changed the topic. Gah.

S-chan said it meant he was going to be larger than average in the future couldn't compute why that was important. She speaks like a computer from outer space sometimes. It's fun.

Dad wondered if he was talking about his growth spurt.

Mom said maybe he was going to oust the current big thing.

Emily just wanted to say she was still bigger haha.

Akebi's dad didn't know what he could mean apart from him being taller than the rest of us.

Billboard said Nanafushi just liked saying that and it meant he was always asking for the next big serving of food. He's a good friend to him :)

Megami-chan said since "Nana" meant the number seven, he was probably counting on his natural luck to take him to new heights.

The police officer just wanted to say he himself was even bigger.

That's it for Nanafushi and all the conversation topics I could find.

45 attack of the friday monsters! a tokyo tale - everyone's favourite food

Dear Readers,

Ramen's dad asked me for new menu ideas. I went around to ask everyone.

Akebi said her dad liked yakisoba with ramen noodles instead of yakisoba noodles.

A-Plus wanted more meat in the diner's meals.

Nanafushi said I couldn't just ask everyone that or else they'd just talk about what gross stuff they eat and it would be chaos. Whatever!

Mom said curry that sits in the fridge for three days was pretty good.

Dad said rice and red bean paste together would taste like sweet mochi.

S-chan said she liked the jelly-ears they used in the fried vegetables so she wanted more. She said it was a type of mushroom.

Emily recommended putting whipped cream on an okonomiyaki, which made it come out like a French pastry.

Billboard recommended against putting chocolate on warm rice to make choco-rice. Not what I asked but oh well!

Megami-chan recommended thickening up a sauce with a little starch for pouring over instant noodles, which made it taste like you pan-fried them.

The police officer recommended putting rice into the leftover broth from instant noodles.

That's everyone. Not that I was able to feed this back to Ramen's Dad. The new things people had to say were interesting though.

44 attack of the friday monsters! a tokyo tale - our dangerous town

Dear Readers,

I decided to address the topic of living in such a dangerous place. This was Ramen's topic.

Akebi thought it was strange alright, but couldn't bear the thought of living anywhere else.

A-Plus thought about moving but said Akebi would be sad without him.

Ramen's dad said the area around his shop was always safe for some reason, so if more people came to watch it from there they'd be making good money.

S-chan liked the idea of having an exciting life to look back at.

Dad said it was hard to say as we just moved here.

Mom reckoned everyone just loved this town.

Billboard loved monsters so he was happy.

Megami-chan liked living on the edge.

The police officer said laundry gets dirty when monsters show up, so my family made a smart business decision.

43 attack of the friday monsters! a tokyo tale - the new tv show!

Dear Readers,

I decided to hype everyone up about Megami-chan's new show starring Cleaner Man. I referred to her as "old lady" and she was not thrilled! I got the topic from her.

Emily was half thinking of auditioning if it was going to be as fun as I said it was gonna be.

Dad liked the idea but then changed the topic. Gah. I had to reset it.

Billboard liked the idea as well but he was just as happy with the other show.

Akebi's dad said that information wasn't public yet!

Mom said we kids shouldn't watch so much TV all the time.

S-chan said she was hoping it'll be a quiz show and she'd love to go on it.

Nanafushi said he'd like to audition.

A-Plus said he was tired of the commotion it causes in town.

Akebi was excited and said her dad already told her.

Ramen was jealous he hadn't heard about it first, since he stays up to date with the TV station's shows.

Ramen's dad thought about having them run an ad for his diner.

42 attack of the friday monsters! a tokyo tale - is akebi changing schools?

Dear Readers,

I decided to talk to everyone about Akebi changing schools. I got the topic from Mom.

I told Dad and since she was our neighbour he wondered if she was moving.

S-chan said it was okay as I could take the train to go see her at her new home.

Akebi's dad said it was news to him. So it wasn't true?

Akebi herself said she wasn't transferring and Ramen got "changing schools" and "changing rules" mixed up. Oops! Also, she changed the topic. Gah.

I kept the topic going, even though I know now it's a mistaken rumour. A Plus didn't believe it and Ramen said it was said. Nanafushi said Ramen was in shock. Ramen's dad even said it was tragic as his son had a little crush on her. Aw :)

Emily said if that family moved it would affect her sales. The police officer said that was sad and Megami-chan hoped her father wasn't taking an offer from another station. Billboard said it sounded like a rumour.

Not going to spread the rumour anymore. Time to change topic.

41 attack of the friday monsters! a tokyo tale - the mysterious glims

Dear Readers,

I'm interested in glims, so let's talk to everyone about glims! I got the topic from Billboard after speaking to Frank.

I asked Megami-chan and she had no idea, but she was told they made them from a light source discovered in the mountains 10 years ago and it was called the K-10 Site.

Emily said they were so pretty and she loved having them on her nightstand at night.

Dad said they were probably just rays of interstellar light energy fusing together, but that was between him and me.

Mom told me to ask Dad and she changed the topic. Gah. I had to reset it again.

S-chan told me it was a technology our planet hadn't discovered yet and she'd tell me when I become older.

Ramen's dad said you can't eat them. Ramen himself thought they ran on batteries.

Akebi said she asked her dad but he used really big words. I already asked him and he just found them mysterious.

Nanafushi thought it was some kind of wind up mechanism but there wasn't one at all. I obtained another Jumbogon card from battling with him and getting so many glims.

40 attack of the friday monsters! a tokyo tale - the dangers of frankasaurus

Dear Readers,

I decided to talk to everyone about the Frankasaurus monster. I got this by talking to Akebi's dad after speaking to Frank.

Billboard said the monster would be asked to get out of the way if it went to see Tokyo Tower.

Megami-chan said it would pull in a lot of ratings on a rival show, but she'd never forgive the breach of contract.

The police officer pieced together Frank and Frankasaurus, thinking like a mystery solver. He also changed the topic so I had to reset it.

Dad didn't like the monster making the laundry dirty.

Mom didn't like the monster either as it sounded like it wouldn't eat everything on its plate.

Ramen's dad found the monster's potential appetite to be fearful and said he'd suspend his free refills on rice policy with him around.

I obtained another Qube card with all the battles and glims that resulted from these interactions as well.

Akebi said no one got hurt when Frankasaurus showed up so she reckoned it wouldn't be so bad.

Ramen said it would be the kind of monster that would dine and ditch.

A-Plus said the monster wouldn't be bad and Nanafushi said the same thing, adding that assuming it would do bad things was an old way of thinking.

Emily said the monster would probably try to eat the cakes in her shop. Instead of the cookie monster, he would be the cake monster!

39 attack of the friday monsters! a tokyo tale - talking to everyone about frank being from outer space

Dear Readers,

I decided to talk to everyone about Frank being from outer space. I talked to Frank to get his topic and then to the police officer to get this topic.

I talked to a few people about this already so I won't mention them if I can remember.

Akebi's dad said it did sound like something Frank would say. Mom said our planet was from outer space too if you think about it. Dad just found it amusing.

Emily found it fishy since space was really dark.

Ramen's dad reckons Frank just orders ramen because the swirl on the narutomaki was like a space nebula.

Akebi and Ramen thought it was cool and they were a little jealous as they wanted to go to space someday. Nanafushi said anything like that made sense these days.

38 attack of the friday monsters! a tokyo tale - who is cleaner man?

Dear Readers,

I decided I wanted to learn more about Cleaner Man. This was S-chan's topic.

I talked to Nanafushi and A-Plus about it and they liked him. After winning some Monster Card games I obtained enough glims for another Gidron card.

I forget who, but one of them changed the topic and I had to fight several losing battles against S-chan to obtain the topic again. It took ages.

Ramen's dad said he was the hero, joking in the same way Dad did. He called himself Ramen Papa as his superhero identity! 

I asked Ramen and he didn't believe when Mom said the hero was Dad, but he thought he was cool. Akebi loved the hero too.

Emily didn't know the hero at all as she was passed out when the fight was going on!

The police officer said this incident was full of things that would never be resolved, including the hero's identity.

Billboard said he had no idea about Cleaner Man as he was more interested in the monsters.

Akebi's dad said he had his suspicions and was close to solving the mystery and asked if I had figured it out myself.

That was all I could learn about Cleaner Man. I checked my glims and cards and I only had one glim to go to obtain the only card I hadn't gotten yet!

37 attack of the friday monsters! a tokyo tale - dad's conversation topics about billboard and feedback

Dear Readers,

I was curious about what everyone had to say about Billboard's whereabouts, so I talked to Dad. I thought that was his topic but it wasn't. His topic was actually about asking people for feedback on our dry cleaning.

I reviewed the last few posts and it turned out that Billboard's whereabouts was one of his topics! But it was only in response to the topic about being handsome and popular! So people have more than one topic? That's going to get very confusing...

I obtained an Islador card after being challenged to Monster Cards by Billboard, winning and filling my monstrous monster glims. His reaction to his missing person topic was to say he wasn't lost, then changing the topic to glims.

By the way, the paths in this game make a loop similar to the shape of the number 8 and it gets confusing when I'm looking for his position, which is in the centre. The path intersects here but not on the same level and it mixes me up a lot!

Also, Frank said in response to the dry cleaner survey that he'd be willing to have his suit cleaned if our reputation was good.

I decided to change the topic to Dad's other topic, feedback on the dry cleaners. The only episode I had left was The Errant Errand so I was hoping it was related. I spoke to Emily since I had an errand to do with her. She said we were doing great and if I didn't believe her, to take it from the cake because her cakes didn't lie. I feel good about that!

I then asked her dad the police officer and he apologised and said he couldn't show favouritism as a government official.

I asked Ramen's Dad and he said we had a great reputation, as the only one who ever complained was him! Nice answer :)

I asked Ramen himself and he said his dad had nothing but praise for us. That's nice! Also, he challenged me to Monster Cards and I won, winning an Asteroid Alien card and obtaining an Octarian card, which showed an alien with a helmet and squid-like tentacles. It was kind of cool though it was unfortunate it was weak against Earth illnesses.

Akebi and A-Plus had nice things to say about us, but Nanafushi changed the topic to himself again. Yeesh.

S-chan said the satisfaction level of our shop was 78%, so that's cool :)

36 attack of the friday monsters! a tokyo tale - matching spells and talking about ramen/somen confusion

Dear Readers,

I adopted A Plus' topic of conversation about having the same spell and went around chatting to people. I spoke to most people about this topic already.

The other kids said they'd go easy on me if I spoke to them with their spell and something interesting might happen too. Emily told us to be nice to each other in any case. She also changed the topic! Not sure why that happens or why it doesn't.

I decided to change my spell to match whoever I was speaking to. I referred back to my notes in previous posts and changed it depending on this.

I didn't notice any change when I spoke to Akebi, but I won a Penguidon card from glims when I defended my title against her and won.

Nothing really happened when I changed my spell to Ramen's or Nanafushi's. I did fill my mystery glims when I beat S-chan at Monster Cards and obtained a New Hero Cleaner Man card! His cry was some kid of robotic speech. He just looked like a big muscular dude and it talked about his powerful Sparkle Punch. He can also triumph over draws.

I then got caught in another card battle and this card lost in a draw? This was kinda weird. It said infinite as his value but I guess it's just random?

Nothing happened when I talked to Billboard with his spell either. Not sure what's going on.

I changed the topic to Akebi's Ramen/Somen confusion. Ended up having conversations about other similar sounding Japanese food. Ramen's dad said they had both kinds, so I had that choice at least.

35 attack of the friday monsters! a tokyo tale - gathering more conversation topics

Dear Readers,

I went to talk to Billboard about Frank but instead my topic was about my U.F.O. card I just obtained! Gah! On top of that he challenged me to Monster Cards!

With my UFO card I was able to see how many of rock, scissors or paper he had. Also I could now see that my UFO card was paper. This allowed me to see what the opponent's one was if I was winning or losing.

When I beat Billboard, I still had the Frank topic thank goodness. He said Frank liked ramen more than sausage anyway. He then talked about his art on the bridge, which was of the glims. This changed the topic to glims. I wondered what they were and he said they were weird and some of them even had batteries. I'm just thankful I'm not paying for them like with real life trading cards!

I talked to Frank about glims and he was about to tell me what they were but stopped himself in case he'd get in trouble for disclosing secret tech.

I reset the topic to Frank and talked to Mom. She asked if I wanted hot dogs for dinner as I seemed to be interested in sausages. She then said she was talking to Ramen and asked me if it was true that Akebi was changing schools? This was her conversation topic and it changed to that.

I went back to Frank and told him about Akebi's change of school. He asked if she was going to a different planet that Earth controlled before remembering that we didn't do things on that big a scale. Not yet at least.

I talked to Nanafushi about Frank and he said he'd rather talk about himself as the next big thing! That was his conversation topic he changed it to. I went back to Frank to reset it, after having to play Nanafushi in Monster Cards again.

I talked to Ramen about Frank and he had no idea he wasn't named after a sausage. He then changed the topic to it being dangerous to live here with the monsters around. I talked to Frank about this and he said it was because of the hero that it was dangerous. He would say that since he had the Frankasaurus.

I talked to Akebi about Frank and she said it must've been Ramen's noodle brain family that messed up his name. She then made a mistake saying "Somen" instead of "Ramen". This was her change to the conversation topic and I adopted it as my own word mistake! I talked to Frank about this and he was fine with it, as he loved the ginger ramen. I like ginger too, although I didn't always. There's a place I like to go that has chili ginger fried rice. It's so good :) 

With that, I had everybody's conversation topics. It's a pity I can't just pick them from a list and I have to reset the topic every time I want to keep using it and it changes. Oh well!

34 attack of the friday monsters! a tokyo tale - talking to people about frank

Dear Readers,

The last one to speak with on the topic of being handsome and popular was A Plus, so I had to beat him at Monster Cards again. He said I was old news compared to him, but he was only joking!

I decided to change the topic of conversation to Frank, so I went back to him. I then talked to the police officer who changed the topic to Frank being from outer space. He humoured the idea and said maybe he meant out of town.

I told Megami and she said she had a hunch.

I told Billboard and he thought it was cool and he'd like to be like that too.

I told Akebi's dad and he said Frank would say something like that alright.

I told S-chan and she changed the topic of conversation to the hero! Gah! I had to go back to Frank. He told me what he knew about the hero already. I talked to him again with the update about him being from outer space I got from the police officer. He talked about wanting to go home but he couldn't finish his job. He said his planet was located inside the great Magellanic Cloud. He said you can't see it here in the Northern Hemisphere.

With this, his episode was now complete and I got a few glims. I wanted to continue the topic with other people though.

I told Ramen's dad and he changed the topic to new menu ideas! He thought Frank was short for Frankfurter. I'll come back to this, but I wanted to continue with the topic of Frank.

I told Frank about menu ideas and he said he was unhappy with having a type of sausage named after him. He was willing to forgive this if someone sent him a year's supply of sausages. Just be sure not to get them all at once Frank!

I told Megami about Frank, the non updated version and she told me about a new show she was excited about making. The topic changed to this. She did not like being called an old lady though! Yikes! Her episode was now complete so I got a few glims, completed the Space Saucer and obtained a U.F.O. card! This card said I could see an opponent's type totals. It didn't have any rock, scissors or paper thing. Wow... It also played that U.F.O. sound as its cry.

I went back to Frank to reset the topic. He was surprised to hear about a new show being developed and no one even asked him if he wanted a role.

I told Akebi's dad about Frank and he changed the topic to Frankasaurus!

I went back to Frank. He said it cost 2,400,000 a year to lease Frankasaurus, which was the really bad thing it could do.

It seems that Frank resets the conversation and I can change the topic whenever I have his topic, so I keep going back to him to reset when everyone tells me their topic. I think that's how it goes anyway. I'm still learning this strange system.

33 attack of the friday monsters! a tokyo tale - popularity topic with everyone else

Dear Readers,

I wanted to talk to the others on the topic of being handsome and popular, but I had to challenge them all again to Monster Cards.

I told S-chan and she asked if I won some kind of charisma contest. Took ages to beat her.

I told Nanafushi and he said he was jealous. Didn't take long to beat him thankfully.

I told Ramen and he didn't believe me, saying he was better.

I told Akebi and she asked who told me I was handsome and she asked herself why did she care.

I told Billboard and he said I could keep both handsomeness and popularity! He said people just expect more of you when you're either of those. Wise words!

That's it for this conversation topic!