Capitalism Ho!

Although Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale came out awhile ago, I only got my hands on it now and I wish I started earlier.

The RPG element of Recettear

The story in Recettear is quite simply. Your dad apparently had a huge loan and ran off, leaving you behind to repay the debt. You, being Recette, is just a little girl and has no idea what to do. Tear, a fairy with the finance company comes up with the idea of opening an item shop and profit form it to repay the debt.

Throughout the game, you'll be playing two roles, one as a shopkeeper and one as an adventurer.As a shopkeeper, you're able to purchase items for resale, interact with other characters and negotiate with customers.

Capitalism indeed

A way to acquire goods is to simply explore dungeons by hiring adventurers. When you do hire someone, you'll play that role for the time being. Loot and items found during your adventure can be easily sold for high profits.


When I first started this game, I felt awkward because it kind of felt like a visual novel (this game was originally Japanese and has a bit of Japanese voice overs) but then we see many aspects of this unique game. Each character also develops throughout the game and it's really hilarious at times to see the naive yet honest personality of Recette. The RPG element of the game seems to be fairly balanced. It offers the player to use multiple characters while equipping a variety of equipment. Overall, I love this game and have yet to finish it and look forward to how it comes to a close.

I do not own or take credit for all of the above images, if you would like them to be taken down, please message me.

 

Have you played Recette? Gone through any visual novels?

Competitive Gaming

Well for those that know me on steam, you probably noticed that I've been going into the direction of competitive gaming.

Can you find me in here?

My first amatuer taste of this type of gaming dates back to the days of L4D1. As some of you may have read in my blog post about L4D, it's mainly based on 4 person teams and that was exactly the size of a clan that I joined. The clan tag we played under was -A.D- in case you're wondering and along our journey, we picked up a few more members, bringing up member to about 8 or 9. But this was a major inconvenience though as a team only consisted of 4 members. Anyhow, we weren't competitive to the point of joining ESEA but we entered in a few ladders and played a few skrims.

Not long after, our clan leader's attendance started dropping dramatically and we lost a few members. Fast forward to L4D2, we do not play under any clan tag anymore but rather a group of close knit friends. Our circle now consists of about 5 people and we just play mostly against clans or other groups of friends. It was a good change of pace as we don't always have that tense feeling as if we were actually a clan but we enjoy thinking up unique tactics while having fun throughout each game.

Now in the present day, I've been more caught up in TF2  scene (also refer to a previous blog post if you want to know more about it, it's also a free game now). So far, I'm on a 6 person team and we play mostly skrims, looking to get into more competitive play in the future.

Just as a quick intro, there are two types of competitive teams in TF2, a 9 person team and a 6 person team.

A 9 person team is called a highlander team, which consists of 1 person playing 1 of the 9 classes where no person can play the same class. This offers more variety but less co-ordination because of such a large team.

A 6 person team usually consists of 2 scouts, 2 soldiers, 1 demoman and 1 medic. This type of arrangement is traditional but you may find people who "off-class" which is playing a class that does not belong to any of the above classes mentioned (such as engie, sniper, spy...).

So far, I'm loving the teamwork and communication aspect of TF2 (something I've never experienced because I've only played pub since).

I do not own or take credit for all of the above images, if you would like them to be taken down, please message me.

 

What is your experience of online gaming? Do you play competitively?

Night it Up

As some of you may know, my friends and I attended "Night it Up" a few days back. For us, the event was a flop.

If you live within the city, there are many similar events that showcase Asian foods. Sadly, it is always the same vendors, so to my friends and I, this was nothing new. To someone new to town, this can be an amazing experience.

The event also featured various games, make-shift carnival games that is, such as throwing balls into a bucket and throwing darts into a target held by duct tape.

A festival game

Long line-ups for stinky tofu

From left to right, Spicy Salmon Pizza, Salmon and  Butterfish Sashimi and Beef Teriyaki.

At the very least, dinner was decent. An AYCE at a Japanese restaurant.







 How's everyone else's summer holidays going?

Summer Holiday Events

As with every year, I so yearned for the summer holidays, during school, but when it finally arrived, I'm simply bored out of my mind.

Pics of the event,"Night it Up"

Every year, my summer seems to be wasted one way or another. For the past few years, they've always been spent at home (or nearby it) but this year I've decided to catch up with some of my childhood friends before we depart to different post-secondary instituions. I've also started a bit of competitive TF2 play, but I still have too much time to kill.

Tonight though, I plan to go to an event called 'Night it Up" with my friends. "Night it Up" is an event that features Asian food and local performers.

I'll post my pictures or comments on it in the near future.

I do not own or take credit for all of the above images , if you would like them to be taken down, please message me.
So what are you guys doing for you summer holidays?

University Course Selection

Over the course of the week, I've been stressing over possible elective courses I can take for my first year in university. With course selection starting tomorrow, I'm stressing even more than ever!

UTSC (University of Toronto Scarborough Campus)

The way my university does course selection is through an online program called ROSI (Repository of Student Information). Students are allowed to start their course selection on a certain date at a certain time, and these times and dates will differ for every student by years (1st year, 2nd year...).

When I went for an event called "Get Started" they stressed that students must immediately finalize and choose their courses right at their allotted time, but they didn't elaborate why. So I decided to converse with some current UTSC students. Well first off, if you don't take advantage of your allotted time, you risk the chance of not getting the courses and times you prefer, but most importantly, ROSI is notorious for being down due to an overload on its servers.

Okay, so I basically have to be really prompt for my scheduled time, but now for the courses themselves, albeit I only get 2 electives for my first year. The reason I'm stressing over these two courses is because of bell curving, something all University of Toronto campuses are infamous for, so I really want to take courses that wouldn't put a dent in my GPA while at the same time, hold my interest.

Right now, I have a few courses picked out such as EESA06 (Introduction to Planet Earth), GGRA02 (The Geography of Global Processes),  GGRA03 (Cities and Environments)

I do not own or take credit for all of the above images , if you would like them to be taken down, please message me.

Any suggestions?
How was your first year's studies for post-secondary institutions? What kind of courses did you take?