What did you RECEIVE today? PHOTOS EDITION!

Hooray! After a very loooong wait of 353 days - just 12 days short of a full year from the day I ordered them, and 2 days shy of the start of this year's 12 Days of Christmas sale - I finally received my last 3 pre-order items from the 2022 AlltheAnime Christmas sale!

Nadia Secret of Blue Water Ultimate Edition with A4 Art Book
Tower of God Ultimate Edition in A4 Packaging
Ascendance of a Bookworm Seasons 1 & 2 Collector's Edition


The shipping box arrived a good bit damaged:

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But fortunately, everything inside was completely undamaged. Each item had been wrapped separately in bubblewrap and padded with about 10 air pillows inside the Fedex box:

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So finally, I received the majority of my 10-title order from the RS Summer Sale I made back on 21/7; there is one more title currently in transit that will arrive early next week, leaving only two pre-orders remaining that are not due out until next month:

Reincarnated as a Sword
My Isekai Life
Triage X
Immoral Guild
Re:Zero Starting Life in Another World Season 2 Limited Edition
Chivalry of a Failed Knight Steelbook
Shinobi no Ittoki


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Hiya,
Have you watched My Isekai Life yet?
I'm trying to add a title to Rocket Girls for a 25% off allyourmusic purchase but struggling to make up my mind.
 
And the rest of the black firday purchases. Gungrave and Forza 3 were just regular deal's but decent ones. There's one game still missing though because it was suppose to arrive with Harvest Moon, but that package got ripped and the game was missing. It's surprising that Harvest Moon didn't get any damage because the package had been retaped and didn't look too good. What was bit disturbing was that it also had blood on it. Don't know whether the game got (Trinity Trigger) stolen or whether several packages got damaged on a depo and thing's got mixed up. Most likely it got stolen though.

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And the rest of the black firday purchases. Gungrave and Forza 3 were just regular deal's but decent ones. There's one game still missing though because it was suppose to arrive with Harvest Moon, but that package got ripped and the game was missing. It's surprising that Harvest Moon didn't get any damage because the package had been retaped and didn't look too good. What was bit disturbing was that it also had blood on it. Don't know whether the game got (Trinity Trigger) stolen or whether several packages got damaged on a depo and thing's got mixed up. Most likely it got stolen though.

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Blimey, sounds like that package went thru the wars! I have so many questions about it that I know you don't have answers to either XP
 
2023 HAUL VER 11.6
(note: images are hosted via AUKN for the meantime)


Final few packages for the month of November. I was expecting another one to appear today from Eureka Entertainment but it looks like it didn't arrive so that's probably tomorrow instead.


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Over the past weekend was NIS America's Black Friday sale which is not particularly amazing by all means, but the three PlayStation 5 games that I picked up each have their own reputation to which they tend to sell out due to NISA's format. The games I purchased were Monochrome Mobius: Rights and Wrongs Forgotten, which is a Utawarerumono spin-off presented in turn-based RPG format than the mainline tactical RPG design, as well as Ys VIII: Lacrimosa Of DANA & Ys IX: Monstrum Nox, two upgrades from the PS4 versions that I own.

In addition, I also made use of their Deal of the Week offer which was for Rhapsody: Marl Kingdom Chronicles on the Nintendo Switch. This 'unofficial NIS Classics Volume 4' collection consists of two Japan-only games now available in English for the first time (and with English audio for those who like dubs); the 1999 PlayStation game Rhapsody II: Ballad of the Little Princess and 2000 PlayStation 2 game Rhapsody III: Memories of Marl Kingdom. Whilst Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure is a tactical RPG, the sequels changed the battle system into a traditional turn-based RPG. This collection is also available on PS5 but I decided its better suited for Switch (especially given the first game is only on Switch) as I didn't see any notes on why the PS5 version is the better format.


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The final batch of items for this month's haul is an order that I placed way back in August which was held up as it required all of the items to be available altogether. The hold-up is because they're all pre-orders from Third Window Films for their new Director's Company line-up.

The first three films were released across September, October & November. First we have Kiyoshi Kurosawa's 1992 film The Guard from Underground (地獄の警備員), followed by Banmei Takahashi's 1988 film DOOR (ドア) & 1991 film DOOR II: Tokyo Diary (ドア2:東京日記), and Shinji Sōmai's 1985 film Typhoon Club (台風クラブ).

In terms of what's incoming next, Shinji Sōmai's Luminous Woman was rated recently for a UK release, and there's also Evil Dead Trap but the film will be distributed by 88 Films as part of their Japanarchy line-up in early 2024.



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And here's an added bonus. I bought a $50 PSN card to get some more classic PlayStation games from the PSN stores. The ones I went for were Grandia, Jet Moto, Kurushi Final, Twisted Metal and Twisted Metal 2.

Now I'll recap why I use the USD approach here. If a PS1 game was released on PS3 or Vita, you are entitled to a free download of the PS4/PS5 versions. I buy from the US PSN store on PS3 to get the NTSC versions and it's also cheaper at $5.99 (compared to PS5's $9.99). Sometime later, Sony did update their EU PAL releases to include US NTSC versions but not every game has this feature. Kurushi Final was never released in the US so it's PAL 50Hz anyway. The point is that, from the image you see above, with the exception of Ape Escape, Everybody's Golf 1, Kurushi, Kurushi Final, Twisted Metal and Twisted Metal 2 (latter two I'll explain in a bit), every other game I have picked up was bought on PS3 for $5.99, saving myself a lot of funds in return.

I did encounter a problem in relation to Twisted Metal 1 & 2. Ever since the games were added to PS Plus last Summer, the PS3 store broke for them both. This doesn't affect those who bought the games beforehand, but if you buy them on PS3 post-PS Plus launch, it would accept the purchase & payment but it won't recognise that you own it, won't let you download it, and prevents you from buying it on PS5. Essentially you're robbed of a digital purchase.

The only solution that I saw from reading online was basically request a refund via support. Thankfully I got it sorted and was able to buy them on PS5. In addition, Twisted Metal 2 is no longer available to buy on PS3 and whilst the first game still is I don't recommend it. Don't worry about the other games as they are unaffected (as seen with Grandia & Jet Moto).
 
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I received my order from the Sentai Cyber Monday sale today. These were mainly lesser-interest ecchi titles that I got only because they were on sale for low prices. Canaan was a double-dip on the original Sentai release I have, specifically for any improvements on the discs with the newer release.

My Girlfriend is Shob1tch
The Qwaser of Stigmata
Rocket Girls SDBD
Canaan
Kandagawa Jet Girls


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