Hunters-Guild.org - Update - KO Beast 4/17

Rarer then a MissingNo, there was a .org update! Check it out over at 

http://www.hunters-guild.org/ko/index.html

If you've never heard of the series, you are the 99%!

One Piece: Pirate Warriors OFFICALLY CONFIRMED FOR THE WEST!

Along with announcement of Dragon Ball Z: Kinect coming to the US, Namco-Bandai has also confirmed that we'll be seeing Luffy and his crew in the west  as well. Not much more information is given, other then we will have in our PS3s before the end of 2012.

I can swiftly guess we'll see this game on store shelves in September, or October at the latest. If September is the release, It may be playable at the Namco-Bandai booths at Anime Eexpo & Comic Con this year. Thanks to GameSpot.com for the heads up.

UPDATE: WRONG! November 2012 will be the release date. I didn't want to wait that long, but that's ok..
Keep in mind this game sold 655,774 copies in it's first week in Japan. Also keep in mind that the series isn't as popular in the US as it is in Japan. Either way, I look forward to it!

FFXIII-2: Gilgamesh Arrives

Final Fantasy's Answer to Deadpool?

You may know him from FFV or VIII. Gilgamesh finally makes his appearance on a console FF game after what seems to be forever. Another DLC Character like Ultros, who you'll have to beat in the Colosseum before he'll join your side. This time he seems to be able to speak outside the third wall. He also uses guns as well as swords..

"Tomorrow expect clear skies with a chance of Pineapple Surprise."

$4 for adding him. Worth it for someone, right? I'd like to see some Free DLC once in a while too, Squeenix.

Takeshi Aono Passes Away 4/10/12

June 19, 1936 - April 10, 2012

You may not know him by name but you will know his voice. Takeshi Aono has been in the anime and seiyuu industry sense 1965. Some of his most famous roles where Kami-Sama/King Piccolo from Dragon Ball, Mihawk from One Piece, and Gambling King from Ramna 1/2.

 He also provided the Japanese voices for famous American characters such as Doc Brown from Back to the Future, Joker from Batman: The Animated Series, and Freddy Krueger.

Back in May of 2010, Aono ended his voice actor career after he was checked into a hospital for an aortic dissection. He suffered a stroke shortly thereafter. His death was announced on 4/10 via Eiko Hisamura's Twitter.

For more information, please check out his Wiki page at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takeshi_Aono

You will be missed. I plan to hold a original DB Piccolo Saga marathon in his memory soon.  

Soul of Chogokin Elenor RAcaseal

If you didn't think the other Elenor figure wasn't good enough or expensive enough, Bandai's Soul of Chogokin line will be released a figure of our Mag-loving RAcaseal from PSO. Here are some screen shots. Credit goes to TomoPop.

"Your wallet seems lighter sense we met.."



Don't get too excited kids. That red box is probably just a DB's Saber.



FFXI: SMN/WHM Soloing in Abyssea - La Theine! 4/9

Before I get into the details, here is some info on my SMN gear. I use HQ Elemental Staffs for all pets except Diabolos & Fenrir. They get the completed magian trail weapon for Dark Magic. As for gear, I use +1 Empy on everything except my legs where I currently use the base Caller's Spats until I get my last few SMN leg seals. With that in mind, I headed to Abyssea - La Theine to see what I could do.

Atma used are MM for MP, DC and Mount. Champion for pet tanking powers. I use MC for the Regen and Emnity- down. This allows me to either melee with my pet or keep spells like Dia and Flash on the mob while the fight.

First on my To-Do list was to attain a tier 3 VNM pop item for a future endeavor. Meditator was found with the Giant Wasps and was an easy kill. 1 hit from Garuda's Predator Claws too it down to 30%. Got Key Item upgrade first try so I headed east near the Psychopumps for the next fight. Brooder took longer to kill, but gave Garuda no issues. Occasionally had to have her heal herself, but it was cake. Once it was dead I luckily obtained the upgraded tier 3 pop. Lucky!

Onto another weak NM, Mangy-tailed Marvin. The only thing I saw value in was his Orison Cape, a WHM back piece that would give me 3%+ in my Cure potency. I used Ramuh for stunning Wild Carrot. I can tell you Wild Carrot heals Marvin for anywhere between 2800-3200 HP + adds a triple attack to the mob. The reason I know that is because I only stunned it 2/6 times. He was another easy kill. I could of set Ramuh on him and went to bed.

With 70 min left, I look through the tougher NMs of the zone I could get to easily. I decided on Ovni, who was near Conflux 7.

A little spoiler: I lost at 40%, but I strongly feel I could of won. Allow me to explain:

I prepared the usual way; Reraise, Stoneskin, and Blink. Summoned Shiva and ran under him for aggro. Once he dropped down, I realized something about my FFXI lifespan. After almost 9 years of playing, I never fought this family of mobs. In Sea, they were always avoided by my groups. Shiva's Heavenly Strikes (5/5) hit for about 900+ damage but the poor girl was almost dead by the time the mob was 95%. I made a little jog back to conflux 7 and summoned Garuda. I check my time and I was down to 45 min left in the zone and the mob was at 50% of life. Time went on as I used Pred. Claws (Wind Blade when mob's 2h was active.) and Healing Breeze. Eventually my time in zone was 30min and the mob was at about 35%. I knew if I didn't start increasing my damage output that I would time-out before I could kill. I decided I needed to switch to Ramuh and try to increase my damage output.

Ramuh has always been a good Tank/DamageDealer for Abyssea NMs. I often use him to tank Iron Giants and hold zone bosses for recoveries. He did the same here. With the added damage of his spikes and enthunder abilities, I knew we could take this thing down quicker. Unfortunately, Ovni here has enhanced movement speed and also goes back into the sky when being kited. Having Stoneskin/Blink up, I can usually handle an attack or two before pet regains hate. In this case it seems like he saved a TP move for me. Primal Drill hit me hard enough that every Tarutaru on the server probably felt it.

I do plan for a round 2, no doubt. Even though this mob doesn't have anything I really want, I want to kill it for the sake of doing so. For my round two:

1.) Go in with full time. I need to beat him one hour, but having that extra time will help with preparation.
2.) I'll try Leviathan. Being able to heal himself and super tank may help. If I need to make some distance between avatars, I will use the cliffs in La Theine to assist me.
3.) I'll grab some temp items such as Fool's Drink. They should help in case I get into a pickle!
I'll post how it turns out. See you online, Adventurers!

Anime Expo 2012: First Guest Annoucements

With only about 11 weeks left until Anime Expo 2012 and now we're starting to see what Guest of Honors will be appearing. First up is..

U.S. debute of Japanese Music Artist LiSA. There will be the usual meet & greet, panel, autograph signing, and of course a concert. LiSA burst onto the Japanese music scene with her roll in the anime "Angel Beasts!" and one of the vocolist for the in-show band "Girls Dead Monster." She also sings the current anime opening for the new "Fate/Zero." AniPlex also plans to bring some of LiSA's releases for your buying needs.



Next up is the first announced voice actor for Anime Expo:

Steve Blum, a.k.a. Spike from Cowboy Bepop, Roger from Big O.. Do I really need to keep name them all off? This man has been a staple for the American Anime Industry playing numerious key characters as well as voicing some well-known characters in American Cartoons. He will be holding a discussion panel, meet & greet, and autograph session. This may be the first year I try to get someone's autograph! (Ok, second year.. but I didn't get to keep that autograph as it was on my good friend Meghan's arm.)

Something also tells me that he'll be announcing something about Toonami at Anime Expo, if we don't hear anything before then. >.>

 

Stay tuned as more guests and events will be announced soon!