I apologize for my absence; I've been quite busy working and studying so I haven't had much of a weekend lately. However, those bits have come to fruition. And with one paycheck comes happiness.
I think pictures speak a little louder than words, so here you have it. If you are here for Albatross18 only please scroll beyond the Miku-age.
Ani Rice: Miku Hatsune Madness
Above pictured: Miku Hatsune Figma (2nd Run), Hatsune Miku "MIX BOX" (CD, Artbook, and YUJIN Chibi Miku figure), and Miku Hatsune's first CD RE:Package.
Miku Madness 1: Re:package Music CD
First is the CD, and what a CD it is. Some of the best Miku Hatsune tracks you will listen too, along with a nice and shiny box, collected from a handful of great users. Besides the cover art being tasteful and wonderful, the general mix of tracks has a variety to them; from the easygoing pulse of Track 1: "
Anthem", to the bright track 9 (Which was featured in
Hatsune Miku: Project Diva Demo for PSP), and the heartfelt "
Our Music", the whole CD is just so dang catchy you'll be listening to it every single week and not be tired of it. In fact, I have it on right now. I highly recommend fans of Miku to grab this when you first see it; for me it was Spiritsnare's influence at a Kinokuniya, and that worked out real well.
Price: Approx 30$Verdict: Must BuyMiku Madness 2: Hatsune Miku Mixing Box ~ Miku Hatsune Special Fan Book
I came across this box when I was again in a Kinokuniya.
J-List sells this product for about the same price as when I picked it up. The above pictured is all that is in the box; a small fanbook with stats and random factoid checks about their designs, a Yujin figure that's way too cute for words, and a Premium DVD. The DVD, when placed into your laptop an autorun prompts for an internet window. After clicking such you are presented with four boxes with content. A track soon comes on in its fancy window. it contains music tracks mixed by the fan community (Playable only in-window), fanart from different regions of Japan (Viewed by clicking on the map presented), three not-as-impressive PVs in comparison to NicoNico top hitters that you've probably never seen before, and finally some character data. Overall, I was really hoping for something a bit more sustainable like some wallpaper goods and a Miku Hatsune desktop theme; I'm honestly dissapointed in how lacking it was.
Price: J-List $42
Verdict: Okay, but not for the casual Vocaloid fan.
Miku Madness 3: Miku Hatsune Figma from MAX FACTORY
This figma in its first print was rumored to have been sold out on pre-orders in a single 12 hour timeframe when it was first released. For good reason; this is good stuff. Though I can really speak too much about it as I don't really collect figmas, the paintwork is great and the overall accessories that you have make the grade. A good buy for sure.
Price: $40 from KidNemoVerdict: A nice collector's item and an even better fan good.
That's all for Miku goods. Back on Albatross 18...
Pang Rice: A18 "WHAT IS THAT?!"
I'll be honest here. When I first saw these items in Season 3, I really couldn't believe it. These items are the gamebreaker items, the items that turn any old game into a walk in the park for a seasoned player, AND were only released in Season 4 for other servers. For those of you that haven't logged on in ages here's a quick rundown:
Safety: The blue pin shaped item. Essentially, neutralizes your lie of the ball so that your shot is just like a tee shot; it won't curve a little because you're on a steep incline when you hit pangya, and gives you back all of your power penalty. In other words, use one of these and it's like you landed on the flat fairway.
Auto Caliper: Also known as "I can't cut my power accurately enough so this will set maximum for me" or "I don't know what 225yds is out of 250yds on my pangya bar". These look decievingly useless, but you're able to see exactly how much distance you'll be aiming with. Once you've memorized how far a pin is, there's easy pin distances without much resistance. For advanced players this item is essential to aiming for a high score.
Power Potion: The answer to chugging a power milk and double tomahawking, this item gives just enough distance that a regular old red potion couldn't do. Can't get any more straightforward than that.
My Thoughts
I recently was talking with Tomato (Season 1 and 2's top player) about playstyles and he told me that on Korean data-based play, these items are essential. I'm not going to deviate into what is "hacking" and "calcing", but essentially once you find the pattern of how the ball behaves, works in wind, knowing your aim, auto calipers are really useful for a beam impact chip-in. The same can be said with the Safety, also known as "Portable Tee". Same height? Perfect, let's chip it from this near-unplayable bunker at 70%! Power potions are, in my opinion, not necessary. Rank up and you won't suffer penalties to your distance.
These items bring up two hotly debated points: The price of these items and the future of Season 4.
Item Pricing: A point was brought up by rurichan (another high level player) that the Korean and Japanese servers price the items considerably lower (10 times lower) than the A18 list price. Though it sounds preposterous, my speculation is that perhaps the extra work needed to port them to be compatible with the season 3 client may have required a good amount of royalties from the main branch. It is not OGPlanet that does the main programming for faults and fixups; it is sent by the Ntreev company in Korea to OGP. Also, this high price may discourage heavy purchase of this item, as they are highly abusable. I honestly still cannot believe they are here.
Future of Season 4: This new item port has lead to rumors that OGP may not be re-licensing Pangya and instead OGP may stop at Season 3 for development and transfer data to another company (Possibly Tecmo with Super Swing Golf and Ntreev relations) or just end the client. Ending the client is highly unlikely as there is much interest from many other countries, but the relicensing may not be altogether false.
However, this is all conjecture; please do not take these statements too seriously!In the end, I would not be worried too much for the future of Pangya, despite its recent rough hacking history and current difficulties in community; the outlook is still optimistic with OGP's recent upgrade to retail game cards and interface change.
And there's your update, sorry again for the absence, and I leave with this:
Kooh Check!
I personally use a 25 Power, 23 Control, 9 Spin configuration. This outfit is composed of Kat Mittens (Season 1 first Kooh release, Cookies), Blue Top and Hot Pants (Season 3, Astros), Ribbon Shoes (Season 3, Pang), Victoria Mask (A rare Black Papel item, Pang), Devil Wings (Recent Season 3, Astros), Kooh's trademark ribbons (First release, Pang), and the Cutlass (A rare Black Papel item, Pang). I think it really brings out the "Piratey tough" look in Kooh, what with the ominous tattoo and such. Though maybe the gloves could be altered a bit more... and I need better shoes that do the same stat.
So until next time, please leave a comment and happy pangya!
~Chun
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