My concentration isn't working well at the moment.

First of all I'd like to say that much of this post was written last week, but I stopped during the middle of it. Then I never got back to it for a full week. Yeaaaah. I... I was on Spring Break. That's my excuse.

Second, I got a new kitten. His name is Mr. Darcy, and he's adorable! He also climbs bird cages.
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Fashion trends. I'm sure some people follow them very closely, and if that's their thing then I say go for it. For the people of Shibuya, fashion is definitely their thing (at least it is in TWEWY). There's comes a point rather early in the game where Shiki reveals to Neku that she is, in fact, a seamstress capable of creating her own clothes (including the outfit she wears in the game). As a hopeful clothing designer-to-be, Shiki makes it a point to keep up with fashion trends. Neku does not. Hilarity ensues.

After Shiki basically tells Neku that he looks dumb, she gives an explanation of how fashion trends work. This little tutorial isn't just there for the sake of Shiki's character development; it's part of the gameplay. Each area of Shibuya has a list displaying which clothing brands are in style and which brands are not. Various stores throughout Shibuya sell different brands of items, and ideally you're supposed to build up a stock of them (Neku and co. can't be seen on the streets, but they're perfectly visible in stores). When you enter a new screen in Shibuya you can check the trends and then dress your characters according to which brands rank the highest (using different brands of pins works too). If you use a brand that's in style you get some nice boosts in battle, otherwise you're just average. Allow me to note that the game is playable without worrying about trends. I typically dressed my characters according to what offered the best stats, and I used the pins that I could fight best with. Fashion trends held little importance to me.

Sticking with the trends will require a bit more than just buying everything you see in a store though. Some clothing items require the character to have a certain level of bravery before they don their new apparel. If I remember correctly, bravery can be increased by feeding your characters. Food items raise different stats on your characters, one of them being bravery. However, you can't just force food down your character's throats as if it's an eating contest. You have to wait until food digests (or whatever) before you can hand out more food. Different food items require you to wait longer. Honestly, this is another game aspect I conveniently forgot about until much, much later in the game. Therefore, I know little about it.

Haha, don't you all love my terrible stopping points? Due to the one week lapse in the writing of this entry, my thoughts aren't flowing well in terms of TWEWY. Don't worry though, I'm adding some extra stuff at the end to kinda sorta make up for no post last week.
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I had started writing about the game Persona 4 in this space, until I realized it was even more sporadic than my other entries. Instead, I'm going to briefly (I hope) talk about Tatsunoko vs. Capcom. I can actually play this game. This is important because it's a fighting game, and I normally just mash buttons and use cheap attacks to try and get somewhere in fighting games... Wait, that's what I'm doing in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom... Ummm, this is different though because when I play it's less like grasping at straws and more like educated guessing! I'm mashing buttons, but at least I know how to use some special moves!

Seriously though. I've managed to complete arcade mode runs, even though the final boss requires me to revert back to cheap long range shots. This game pits various Capcom characters such as Ryu from Street Fighter and Viewtiful Joe from... Viewtiful Joe, against Tatsunoko character like Ken the Eagle and Yatterman-1. I'd never really heard of Tatsunoko before, but now I kind of want to watch the Yatterman anime.

Like other fighting games, various control stick/pad and button combinations activate certain skills. With Zero from Megaman X for example, his strongest attack (Dark Hold) is activated by moving the control stick forward, down, foward and pressing two attack buttons (on the GCN controller). Other attacks require you to roll the control from the bottom to the right while pressing one attack button. Yeah, I'm not explaining this well. It probably makes more sense when you're actually playing.

I tend to mess up control stick movements and get the wrong attack, leading me to announce "That was unintentional!"

There's not really much plot, but some of the characters have humorous arcade mode endings. Otherwise, it's pretty much straight up fighting. That sounds bad, but it's nothing terribly graphic.

My thoughts aren't piecing together well right now, and I wanted to keep this "brief" so I'm gonna stop. Have a good week folks!

Next time on I've Been Playing for 40 Hours: I haven't planned that far ahead yet.