I Want To Take an Anime and Manga Tour in Japan

OMG… I want to do this. (Maybe Next Year – I don’t have Vacation Time left this year since I will be going to Peru this summer) Their next tour is in just a few weeks, and seems to only happen once a year, in March coinciding with the International Anime Festival AnimeJapan.

https://japandeluxetours.com/japan/group/anime-japan-tours#anime3

Visiting Japan is my life long dream. (sadly, mostly just so I can go shopping for anime, game, and doll stuff lol. Although I do want to do the museums and cherry blossoms and hot springs and other cultural things too – though mostly, I’m just a big geeky nerd who loves anime and wants to go shopping – which is what this whole tour is designed for <3)

Animate - The World's Largest Anime Store

Animate – The World’s Largest Anime Store

It’s not that much money (well OK it is, but it’s cheaper than I expected honestly). Guided 6 Day Anime Tour in Japan which includes hotels and Guides through all the “anime” spots in Japan (since I can’t speak Japanese a Guide would be helpful…)

Cat Heavy Breathing GIF

Only $1,500 a person, includes hotels for each day. I’d just have to have airfare, and LOTTTTTTTTSSSSS of money for food and shopping. Like seriously I’d probably want to have another $1,000 with me just for shopping lol. If I buy a dollfie dream or custom volks doll or something that’d eat half that budget right there. Then there’s all kinds of cheap (but cute) dolls / toys / figurines, etc.

idea intensifies GIF

I wouldn’t want to go by myself either – I would hope my boyfriend would go with me but if not then I’m pretty sure that I could find a friend or family member to take… If I had to pay for both of us that’s $3,000… The tour includes several meals but I’d need money for more meals (Let’s say $100 a day food budget X 5 days $500) Airfaire is probably close to $1,000 a person too So not counting shopping expenses I’d need $5,500… I want to mainly go shopping so I’d want at least $1,000 for shopping for myself that’s $6,500…. which still… isn’t that bad because of all the things this tour includes.

Studio Ghibli Museum

Studio Ghibli Museum

This tour includes all of the Ghibli and other museums, the largest anime stores, and even admission to an anime convention for one day. OMG and an anime theme park another day… OMG it includes real life mario kart racing too…. omg…

Anime GIF

The number 1 place I want to visit actually isn’t on this tour – that place is Doll Point Akihabara – Volks store where you can buy Dollfie Dreams and Asian Balljointed Dolls and Accessories – including some items available only in the store and not sold online.  But that’s OK because the tour gives you free time in the evening and one free day where you’re on your own without a guide.

Doll Point Akihabara

Doll Point Akihabara

My dream / life goal / bucket list… lol…

Now that I have my passport I can actually do stuff like this O_O!!! Now I just need money (lots of money) (and to wait for my vacation time again lol).

https://japandeluxetours.com/group/tour/anime-japan-tour-6-days-a

Tour Includes

  • 6 DAYS
  • 5 nights accommodation
  • 7 MEALS
  • 5 breakfasts
    2 lunches
  • TRANSPORT
  • All transport shown
Anime Stores

Anime Stores

Details:

  • 4 nights Western hotel
  • Daily Breakfast-Buffets and 2 Lunches included
  • All ground transportation in Japan during the tour
  • Complimentary Airport Transfers (see details)
  • Admission Fees, Tax & Gratuities at all included Destinations
  • Full time service of licensed English speaking tour guide & separate bus driver
  • Japan Deluxe Tours Handbook and Tour Goods Package
  • Free Wi-Fi in Bus & Most hotels
Doll Stores

Doll Stores

Travel Highlights

  • A day at the AnimeJapan Festival in Tokyo
  • A walk through the busy Shibuya Crossing
  • Tokyo’s lively Harajuku and Takeshita Dori
  • The electronics and anime town of Akihabara
  • 20+ Anime stores at Tokyo Character Street
  • Admission to J-World Jump Theme Park
  • The well known Ghibli Museum
  • Souvenir shopping at Harajuku Kiddy Land
  • Shopping and trading time at the Pokemon Center
  • The Gundam Base Tokyo and Lifesize Unicorn Gundam

Not Included
– Airfare
– Travel Insurance
– Optional Excursions

Animate Japan - World's Largest Anime Store

Animate Japan – World’s Largest Anime Store


Itinerary:

Day 1

Tokyo Arrival
Arrival* Narita Int’l Airport (NRT) Haneda Int’l Airport (HND)
Arrival Transfer
Welcome to Japan! We will have transportation services to take you to your hotel. Please refer to your tour handbook for more information.
Rest at the hotel and be ready to start your exciting tour tomorrow.

Mirai Store

Mirai Store

**INFORMATION**
From Narita Airport to downtown hotel in Tokyo – about 90 mins(Bus)
From Haneda Airport to downtown hotel in Tokyo – about 30 mins(Bus)

Hearton Hotel Higashi Shinagawa or similar


Day 2
Tokyo | Sushi & Akihabara
Morning [ Tokyo ] Asakusa Sensoji Temple Pokemon Center J-World
Afternoon Tsukiji Fish Market (Lunch) ( Lunch – Sushi )
Tokyo Character Street [ Akihabara ]
Animate
Evening Return to the Hotel

Tokyo International Anime Fair Anime Japan

Tokyo International Anime Fair Anime Japan By Max TimchenkoOwn work, GFDL, Link

Before our big day at the International Anime Fair – AnimeJapan tomorrow, our Anime tour will visit some of the best anime sites Tokyo has to offer. We first start with some traditional Japanese culture and shopping at Asakusa. Enjoy shopping at the Nakamise area and the stunning red temple that is Sensoji. We then make our way to Sunshine City to check out the Pokemon Mega Center, a must-go for all Pokemon lovers. Besides all the Pokemon goods they sell, they also have a battling and trading room for customers to interact with other Pokemon fans.

pokemon center

pokemon center

After browsing through exclusive products, we will head over to J-World, the Shonen Jump theme-park in Tokyo! Play games and win prizes based on all your favorite characters, including Goku from Dragonball, Luffy and Co from One Piece, Naruto and Sasuke, Kuroko and the rest of the Generation of Miracles, and Hinata and his team of volleyball hopefuls! Win prizes and shop to your hearts content at the J-World store before our next stop. For lunch, enjoy sushi with fish provided by the Tsukiji Fish Market, the famous fish market that provides freshest ingredients for thousands of families and businesses alike.

J-world

J-world

Following our time at the market, the tour will visit the lively Tokyo Character Street in Tokyo Central Station. The area is lined with various anime-themed shops, including a Jump Store, Pokemon Center, Hello Kitty shop, Ghibli store, and more! There’s also Tokyo Ramen Street, Okashi Land, and Gachapon Street, perfect for someone who wants some lunch and to do a little more gift shopping for friends or for themselves! After our adventures at Character Street, we will head to Akihabara, the town of anime. While there, enjoy shopping ad sightseeing for the rest of the day at some of the most popular otaku destinations, including Animate. Animate carries all kinds of character goods, electronics, and games from current and popular anime/manga series.

Tokyo Character Street

Tokyo Character Street


Hearton Hotel Higashi Shinagawa or similar Breakfast Lunch
Day 3
Tokyo | AnimeJapan Festival
Morning AnimeJapan
Optional Shibuya Scrumble Crossing Gundam Base Tokyo (Optional) VR ZONE SHINJUKU (Optional) Ninja Trick House (Optional) CAPCOM BAR (Optional) Mario Kart (Optional)
Evening Return to the Hotel
*Evening Capsule Hotels (Optional)

Gundam Base Tokyo Japan Life Size Gundam Unicorn

Gundam Base Tokyo Japan Life Size Gundam Unicorn

Today’s the big day of the International Anime Fair – AnimeJapan! Join the many cosplayers, otaku, and anime lovers of all degrees in the biggest Anime event in the world. Anime, manga, doujinshi, guest speakers, figurines, rare items, video games, limited and exclusive covers are all accessible at this large event. Enjoy your day exploring the grounds and meeting people with the same passion as you! If the fair isn’t enough, you also have the option to join an optional tour at 3pm to explore the famous Shibuya Crossing and Gundam Base Tokyo to see the awesome life-size RX-0 Unicorn Gundam model (72 ft). The Gundam Base is an expansive store, museum, and features a cafe for guests to enjoy everything Gundam.

Real Life Mario Kart Experience at Maricar Japan

Real Life Mario Kart Experience at Maricar Japan

Feel free to enjoy the night at your leisure, or you have the option to enjoy the night as you wish, or sign up for a few optional excursions. We have the new VR Zone Shinjuku, an incredible VR-focused arcade, the Ninja Trick House where guests can enjoy learning how to throw ninja-stars and also learn the ways of the ninja, or a meal at the CAPCOM BAR, a themed-restaurant showcasing the best of CAPCOM, including games and themed-meals, or sign up for a MarioKart experience and drive go-karts around Tokyo dressed as some of your favorite characters!

You also have the option of staying a night in a capsule hotel for one night (additional fees may apply for capsule hotel and/or additional excursions)

(Err no thank you to the capsule hotel… Too claustrophobic for me – like sleeping in a coffin or morgue lol)

Japanese Capsule Hotels

Japanese Capsule Hotels


Hearton Hotel Higashi Shinagawa or similar Breakfast
Day 4
Tokyo | J-Pop, Ghibli, & Robots
Morning Harajuku Harajuku Crepes (JDT Recommends)
Harajuku Kiddy Land (Optional)
Omotesando (Optional)
Sailor Moon Store (Optional)
Tokyo One Piece Tower
Afternoon Ghibli Museum Robot Restaurant
Evening Return to the Hotel

Japanese Crepes

Japanese Crepes

We will start our morning heading to Harajuku for shopping and snacks along Takeshita Dori. This shopping area is the perfect place to get in touch with Japan’s pop culture trends, and to sample some of the best crepes in Japan. After our time in Harajuku, we head to Tokyo Tower, Japan’s iconic tower. Tokyo Tower has been taken over by One Piece, resulting in Tokyo One Piece Tower. Known as Tongari Island, this event is filled with attractions, wonderful restaurants, and a live-action show designed to wow fans of all ages.

Japanese Crepes

Japanese Crepes

Following our time at the tower, we head east to visit the famed Ghibli Museum. This animation and art museum exhibits works of Miyazaki Hayao, creator of world famous films such as My Neighbor Totoro, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, and Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea. Ghibli Film fans will definitely enjoy the artistic museum, which not only exhibits the history and techniques of animation but also plays short movies in a theater room, produced exclusively for the museum.

Tokyo Tower

Tokyo Tower

After the museum, it’s time for dinner at the Robot Restaurant in Shinjuku for those interested! Enjoy a show like none before, fusing classic Japanese elements with the dreams and fantasies of the future. The restaurant has a wild vibe and a unique experience you are sure to find entertaining.

Robot Restaurant

Robot Restaurant


Hearton Hotel Higashi Shinagawa or similar Breakfast Lunch
Day 5
Tokyo | Leisure-Free
All Day Free at your leisure
Optional Excursion Fees not included.
Opt 1 Tokyo Disneyland (Optional)
Opt 2 Tokyo Disney Sea (Optional)
Opt 3 Kamakura (Optional) -or- Nikko (Optional)
Opt 4 Mario Kart (Optional)
Opt 5 Sanrio Puroland (Optional)
Opt 6 Fuji-Q Highland (Optional)
Evening Return to the Hotel
We have cleared up the day for you to explore and enjoy Japan as you wish. You can either
1) enjoy the entire day as you wish
2) visit Tokyo Disney Land, Fuji Q Amusement Park, or Tokyo DisneySea or another theme-park
3) Join a Mario Kart day tour*
4) go on a private-guided tour through Nikko or Kamakura

Tokyo Disney Resort

Tokyo Disney Resort

For those who wish to visit Tokyo Disney Land, Fuji Q Amusement Park, or Sanrio Puroland, your tour guide will be happy to explain directions.
(additional fees may apply for additional tour options. Please contact us in advanced for this service)

*The Mario Kart experience requires an International Driving Permit. Please contact us for more information if you would like to participate.


Hearton Hotel Higashi Shinagawa or similar Breakfast
Day 6
Tokyo Departure
Departure Transfer
Departure* Narita Int’l Airport (NRT) or Haneda Int’l Airport (HND)
Your pleasant and memorable Japan tour ends today. The tour will disband after breakfast.
Fly home with cherished memories or enjoy your extended stay in Japan.

https://japandeluxetours.com/help/frequently-asked-questions/


Mirai Store

Mirai Store

5. Anime Japan Tour | Tokyo
Departure Date(s)
6 Days
2018 Tokyo Tokyo 03/22
5 Nights 6 Days From : USD 1,878 USD 1,784 pp

Destinations:

  • Akihabara Animate
  • Ghibli Museum
  • J-World
  • Pokemon Center
  • Asakusa – Sensoji Temple
  • Shibuya Crossing
  • Nakano Broadway
  • Tokyo Character Street
  • Tokyo One Piece Tower

Experiences

  • AnimeJapan
  • Robot Restaurant
  • Tsukiji Fish Market Lunch
  • Optional – Capsule Hotel

Take on Tokyo during our AnimeJapan Tour | Tokyo package! This fully escorted Japan tour focuses on all of the major anime & manga spots in Tokyo, and enjoy admission to the AnimeJapan festival! We’ve also included a day of leisure in the city, with plenty of suggested itineraries we can set up at your convenience (additional fees may apply).

Animate Japan - World's Largest Anime Store

Animate Japan – World’s Largest Anime Store

During this Anime Japan tour, we have selected the integral destinations that showcase Japan’s unique pop culture. Akihabara, the mecca of anime and electronics, is just one of the many destinations we will be visiting during this tour. Among the shops of Akihabara, we recommend a visit to the Animate store. One of the largest anime and manga store chains, you’re bound to find the latest anime posters, figurines, and goods.

There’s also J-World, the indoor theme park featuring Dragon Ball, One Piece, and Naruto, Tokyo Character Street, the shopping arcade in Tokyo Central Station perfect for souvineer shopping, and the Ghibli Museum where the works of Hayao Miyazaki come to life. We’ll also be swinging by the long-standing Nakano Broadway and Tokyo One Piece Tower, just in case you were worried we didn’t have enough anime spots on the menu. This anime tour will also covers the Gundam Base Tokyo, where the massive 72 foot Unicorn Gundam stands over Odaiba!

animation copic markers

animation copic markers

With so many incredible anime shopping destinations, don’t forget this tour includes admission to the AnimeJapan exhibition at Odaiba’s Big Sight Convention Center! There are over 100 exhibitors participating, capturing the spirit of anime and manga from fans all over the world. The exhibition not only features displays and performances, but also charity auctions, cosplayers events, meeting animators and manga artists, limited edition goods, and more. We’ve also arranged for an optional walking tour along Shibuya after the convention! You can also extend your vacation before / after this Anime Japan Tour in Tokyo.

Cat Heavy Breathing GIF

Come Join the LARGEST Anime Expo & See all the hottest anime and Manga spots in Tokyo!

Tokyo – AnimeJapan


OMG!!!! They have a different tour to the Tokyo Game Show and Video Games / Arcades in Japan too. A shorter one, only 3 nights.

And another one which is 8 nights and includes things like the deer park (deer just roam the streets, they’re tame you can pet and feed them, etc). And includes more museums and things too.

idea intensifies GIF

Of course the best one is 15 days long – but it’s also the most expensive.

So many awesome tours. I’m definitely doing this (probably the 6 day one) – Hopefully next year once I save up the money.

My life long dream ❤

I Want To Take an Anime and Manga Tour in Japan was originally published on GeekySweetie.com – Geeky & Kawaii Anime, Tech, Toys, & Game Reviews & News

Top 2018 PS4 Games For Girls

I did a lot of research for this list. So the 40 2018 PS4 Games below are not ranked in any particular order.

If I had to pick a few favorites it’d be Detroit Become Human, Kingdom Hearts 3, Shenmue 3, Stein’s Gate Elite, Atelier Lydie & Suelle, Yakuza 6, Your Four Knights Princess Training Story, Shining Resonance Refrain, A Way Out, FF7, and Ni No Kuni 2.

This is not a full release list for the PS4 in 2018, but instead a collection of games I thought would appeal to other gamers such as myself based either on story, anime graphics, cuteness, or gameplay mechanics.

Leave me a comment below and let me know what games you’re looking forward to on PS4 this year!

40+ PS4 Games for Girls Releasing in 2018

1.) Moss

A virtual reality game that features a mouse who knows sign language. The environment is beautiful and the characters are adorable.

2.) Ni No Kuni 2 Revenant Kingdom

Ni No Kuni Wrath of the White Witch is one of my favorite PS3 games. So it’s no surprise that I’m eagerly awaiting the sequel from Studio Ghibli and Level 5 on the PS4 in 2018.

3.) Red Dead Redemption 2

It’s not often that I enjoy a shooting game; however, I am quite fond of the original back on the 360. I enjoy the open world environment, myriad of quests, and choice and consequence system. The horseback riding was also fun.

4.) Detroit: Become Human

I think above any other title on my list, I’m most excited about this PS4 Exclusive from the makers of Heavy Rain and Beyond Two Souls. It’s a story driven game where the player must make choices at various points which will fork the story down different branches resulting in different endings.

5.) Shenmue 3

Shenmue 3 broke records when it debuted on kickstarter 2 years ago. Finally the wait is over as the title will launch in mid 2018. In case you missed the first two games, rumors abound about an HD remaster that will include both Shenmue 1 and 2 also arriving on PS4 in 2018.

6.) Knights and Bikes

This quirky cute co-op game aims to recapture the feelings of childhood innocence and fun. You can explore a colorful island, fight baddies with water balloons or race your friends on your bicycles.

7.) Bloodstained Ritual of the Night

This is basically a Castlevania game, except since Kojima left Konami, he’s not allowed to use the name Castlevania anymore. I’m also digging the anime style characters as opposed to the more photo realistic characters the series has been using recently.

8.) Final Fantasy 7 Remake

The wait is almost over for the Final Fantasy Remake with new stories, new visuals, and new combat systems. This is more than just an “HD Port” this is a reworking of the game from scratch, using the same characters, world, and story, but improving upon it in many ways.

9.) The Last Of Us Part 2

This story driven post-apocalyptic action game is finally getting a sequel.

10.) Death Stranding

Kojima’s answer to Konami cancelling his Silent Hills game. It looks creepy AF. So if horror is your thing, check this one out. I’ll be picking it up but I know I won’t be able to play it alone in the dark.

11.) Beyond Good and Evil 2

Fans have been begging for this sequel for years, and now finally, the wait is almost over. This quirky series is best known for its anthropomorphic animals and charming worlds.

12.) Kingdom Hearts 3

I am currently preparing for Kingdom Hearts 3 by playing the Kingdom Hearts 1.5 and 2.5 HD Remix which combines like 8 of the Kingdom Hearts games. I was a big fan of Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2 when it first came out on PS2, and am excited to revisit the worlds of Kingdom Hearts again in KH3.

13.) Monster Hunter World

Open world RPG adventure game with huge monsters and a variety of weapons and equipment.

14.) Concrete Genie

Your graffiti creations come to life in this PS4 exclusive.

15.) Anamorphine

Another PS4 VR game. This virtual reality game puts you in the role of a young man trying to recover his memories and make sense of the world around him. The story is about his relationship and his wife’s depression.

16.) Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth: Hacker’s Memory

This prequel will reveal the events leading up to Digimon Cyber Sleuth as you play as Keisuke, a young man accused of a crime he didn’t commit. He must join a team of hackers to uncover the truth. Over 320 Digimon to discover.

17.) Iconoclasts

This game is full of intricate puzzles and a deeply moving story about faith, purpose, and the challenge of helping people.

18.) Dissidia: Final Fantasy NT

The characters from various final fantasy games return for this fun crossover fighting game.

19.) Past Cure

This story driven stealth game will let players use a variety of skills that blend dreams and reality as they try to help the main character master his new found powers while escaping from frightening horrors.

20.) Shadow of the Colossus

A story of a boy trying to find his lost love. Armed with only a bow and arrow you must battle fearsome giants.

21.) The Seven Deadly Sins: Knights of Britannia

Based on the hit Netflix anime, this beautiful looking brawler features all of your favorite characters in a brand new storyline.

22.) Under Night In-Birth EXE:Late[ST]

This new fighting game from the creators of Melty Blood and Tsukihime features not only great anime artwork, but an excellent story in campaign mode as well. The game blends story and fighting sequences in a similar fashion as Blazblue

23.) Crossing Souls

This colorful adventure game takes place in the 1980s in California. It features puzzle solving and fighting.

24.) Kingdom Come Deliverance

Kingdom Come Deliverance is an open world first person action RPG with non-linear story and stunning graphics.

25.) Secret of Mana

This gorgeous remake of the SNES classic will launch in February 2018.

26.) Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet

Based on the popular Sword Art Online Anime. This new title features gun-based combat and 4 player co-op or vs modes.

27.) Frantics

Cute animal characters star in this 4 player party game where you must bluff, battle, or negotiate your way to victory.

28.) Yakuza 6: The Song of Life

Yakuza is a spin off of the Shenmue Series. It features a deep lengthy storyline, intriguing characters, and of course crazy, fun, zany minigames, all in an open world. New to Yakuza 6 is the cat cafe and spear fishing just to name a few.

29.) A Way Out

A narrative game that can only be played with 2 players. Don’t worry if you don’t have any friends, you can play online as well as local co-op. The story revolves around 2 men trying to break out of prison. To do so you must make decisions in the story that will help build trust and friendship between the two inmates.

30.) Dollhouse

An interesting game that lets you create your own maps and stories. It seems to be about artificial intelligence. The multiplayer mode says you are fighting for control to be the “dominant mind”.

31.) The Lost Child

The Lost Child is an anime RPG in which you are able to collect over 50 different gods from various mythologies and train over 250 different skills.  It includes both English and Japanese voice overs.

32.) The Witch and The Hundred Knight 2

This cute anime RPG lets you craft new weapons and items as well as recruit minions to fight for you.

33.) Gintama Rumble

This fighting game is based on the hit anime and manga. It will launch in January 2018.

34.) Fist of the North Star

From the developer of Yakuza, this action brawler is based on the hit retro anime and manga by the same name.

35.) Stein’s Gate Elite

This is a remastered version of the original Stein’s Gate game using animation taken directly from the anime based on the first game plus new animation created for this game. The goal was to create a fully animated visual novel (as opposed to still images). The developers are said to have been inspired from Yarudora, a series of fully animated visual novels from the 90s. I would also compare it to School Days HQ which is also fully animated. (and that animation style is why it ranks among our top 10 games for girls). I reviewed the original Stein’s Gate here. I highly recommend it. And since the first and second Stein’s Gate games have both been released in North America, I’d say there’s a good chance we will see an English release for Stein’s Gate Elite as well.

36.) Your Four Knights Princess Training Story

A “Raising Sim” similar to games such as Princess Maker and Graduation 95. Gematsu has an excellent article detailing how you will train your princess. Basically it involves scolding or praising your princess at various times, for example during conversations or while exploring dungeons. The story and characters change based on your decisions and how you raise your princess. The princesses each have various parameters that you can train to unlock new skills or increase their stats to help them in battle.

37.) Atelier Lydie & Suelle: The Alchemists & the Mysterious Paintings

Atelier games focus on gathering ingredients and crafting new items. As you can see from the trailer, they feature beautiful anime graphics, and deep stories. Their gameplay is often long, and at times it can get tedious, however, for those who love crafting and exploring, Atelier offers the ultimate crafting system.

38.) Super Robot Wars X

Gematsu indicates that there will be a southeast asian version of this game with English subtitles. For fans wanting to play these games in English you should be able to import the game from Play Asia. It appears to be a compilation of many different retro Super Robot War titles, better known as Gundamn in North America.

39.) OK K.O. Let’s Play Heroes

This colorful brawler game from Cartoon Network arrives in early 2018.

40.) Shining Resonance Refrain

This is a remaster of the PS3 Shining Resonance Game, part of Sega’s Shining Force/Shining Wisdom game series. The PS3 version was never released in North America. Perhaps the new PS4 remake will find its way overseas. In addition to new graphics, this version includes new story scenarios and gameplay modes.

Top 2018 PS4 Games For Girls was originally published on GeekySweetie.com – Geeky & Kawaii Anime, Tech, Toys, & Game Reviews & News

The Best Upcoming & New Release 2018 PC Games for Girls

Back in the 90s I barely played PC Games, because so few existed that appealed to my tastes. There were exceptions of course, Torment, Fallout 1 and 2, Baulder’s Gate, Icewind Dale, King’s Quest (and other Sierra titles), Ever 17 (and anything else by Hirameki International), Petz, Black and White, Creatures, Graduation 95, and a handful of other gems that weren’t available on my consoles.

But largely, console gaming was the highlight of my childhood. That’s where all the anime games or JRPGs or story rich games were, especially in the 16 and 32 bit eras, which still remain my favorite gaming period of all time. Genesis, Sega CD, SNES, Saturn, PS1, PS2, and Dreamcast, the majority of my favorite games, still to this day, lived on one of those great consoles.

But nowadays, I barely play console games anymore. Occasionally there may be an exclusive that catches my eye, such as Persona 5 on PS4, or Tokyo Mirage Sessions on the Wii U. I even bought a Wii U just for that game in fact.

But now, so many games are cross platform, and so many people like me, who grew up in the 16 and 32 bit eras are making their own indie games now such as To the Moon, Always Sometimes Monsters, Rakuten, Undertale, etc. This completely changes the gaming landscape. Now PC is by and far my preferred gaming “platform” of choice.

And where once, JRPGs reigned on Consoles, they now thrive on the PC or even on mobile devices, and in the past 5 years we’ve seen a huge explosion of visual novels and Otome games as well on both PC and mobile – and barely any of those have been released (at least in English) on consoles.

Where once the PC had almost no games that appealed to my tastes, now suddenly, more and more each year, I find the PC to offer so many games I want to play that I don’t have the time, nor money, to possibly play them all! I have over 700 steam games already (and a handful on Origin, and about 50 more on GOG, and then of course my old CDs from the 90s which have yet to get released digitally.) And that’s not taking into account the PC’s ability to emulate the console games I own (probably around 300+ games there too). And emulation is perfectly legal as long as you own the original games, which I still do.

This puts the number of games I can play on my PC right now today, without buying a single thing, at well over 1,000 games! — How many of those games I’ve actually played, is probably around 25%, and how many I’ve beaten to completion / all endings etc, is probably like 5%. lol. But the point is, there has never been a better time to play girl games on your PC. If you’re a girl, there’s plenty of games that you should check out on PC. This wasn’t the case 20 years ago; my how the landscape has changed!

Here is a list of games due out in 2018 that are on my radar! I’ve selected these games for one of the following reasons: Decisions Matter, Branching Plot, Multiple Endings, Cute/Kawaii Graphics, Excellent Story, Innovating (or at least really fun) Gameplay, and Customization. If you look for the same qualities in your games, check out the list below. Warning, it’s long.

This list is not in any order – largely it’s sorted by release date, because that’s how I was browsing the games while researching this post.


Sea Dogs

Our first recommendation reminds me of Horizons New Dawn, one of my all time favorite super nintendo games.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/764670/


Sorcery Jokers

This visual Novel Has Some Beautiful Graphics

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/703730/


Til the Dawn, Waiting

This looks sad, and also features animals, a powerful combination to tug at any heart strings

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/761760/


Franky the Bumwalker

Super cute and colorful adventure game that probably doesn’t take itself too seriously.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/761310/


Dragon Cliff

This indie RPG features an extesnive crafting system and city building aspects as well as cute retro graphics.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/758190/


Stunt Corgi VR

If you’re lucky enough to have a VR headset you might like this title that lets you create obstacle courses and watch a cute corgi try to navigate the courses you create.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/665080/


Project Bits

If you like rhythm games, you might like this one with cute anime artwork. Plus it’s free to play.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/581150/


The Mind Hero

An anime visual novel where you help 8 different characters overcome their trauma. It aims to teach psychology inside a video game. It’s also free and features a comic book style.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/502050/


Katyusha

This looks to be a very emotionally engaging and beautiful pixel retro style RPG. The developers have said that the game uses real-life world war 2 letters that were written by soldiers to their families.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/749160/


Battletech

The ability to customize everything about your mechs and the appeal of mecha genres from decades of anime such as macross, robotech, go lion, voltron, evangelion, gundamn, etc, make this appeal to me, despite the more dark realistic graphics. The gameplay looks fantastic. And who doesn’t love giant robots?

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/637090/


In The Valley of Gods

Explore pyramids in this narrative adventure.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/687440/


Villages

This game aims to balance the skills and economy of its players so that they are forced to work together. Sounds promising. Let’s see how that works once the game releases.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/749820/


Grow Bot

This just looks so utterly adorable!

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/661680/


Boyfriend Dungeon

With a name like Boyfriend Dungeon, how could this not make our list? It’s an otome dating sim and hack n slash RPG adventure, where the boys are weapons.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/674930/


The Iron Oath

I am beyond excited for this game! True, it doesn’t have the visual aesthetic that I like, but nearly everything about the gameplay appeals to me greatly! Decisions matter, the guild management sounds fun, every character has a back story. Characters die / perma death, you recruit new characters, I’m ready to play this awesome looking tactical RPG.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/699330/


Living the Deal

Business Management and Life Simulation Game. This one is high on my wishlist (despite how hideously ugly the characters look lol).

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/647550/


Wolf Gang

Play as cute wolves chasing cute sheep in a game which promises unlockable content and character customization.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/761040/


Freedom Planet 2

Furrie fans and fans of old school Sonic games still love the original Freedom Planet, and soon the wait is over for the much anticipated sequel.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/595500/


The Forgettable Dungeon

Co-op Action RPG that you can play with up to 15 friends.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/375810/


Next Up Hero

This MMORPG has some unique gameplay features, such as no healing, except for when you die. When you die, you come back as an “avenger” and can heal other players, until you decide to take over one of their corpses and rejoin the fray. When you die, someone can also take over your character. So don’t get too attached.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/613280/


Leilani’s Island

This super colorful platformer looks like a lot of fun and has a great brightly colored retro style.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/664640/


Sentou Gakuen: Revival

This is an MMORPG Visual Novel. All of the characters in the novel are other players just like you. Not sure how that will work out, but it’s innovative and different – that’s for sure. And that alone makes me curious enough to want to play this one.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/405680/


Dungeon of Zaar

Dungeon of Zaar has a great style, and some fun looking gameplay mechanics including pvp and local multiplayer.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/613590/


Wytchwood

Wytchwood looks absolutely beautiful and the crafting and exploration gameplay mechanics really appeal to me as well.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/729000/


Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire

They promise that choices will truly matter in this RPG inspired by D&D and featuring pirates on the high seas.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/560130/


Cyberdimension Neptunia 4

A new Neptunia game, because why not? I love the cute graphics and silly nonsense storylines of these games.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/632350/


Jenny LeClue

I love the handdrawn artstyle here. But what I love even more is that decisions and choices matter and “permanently” influence other “characters” (by that I think the Devs mean in sequels or episodic content that will be created.) The Devs also say that “The goal is for everything to be interactive, to reward players who poke and prod at every last item and object with insight, secrets, and humor.” Which fits my playstyle anyways. Exploration is often my favorite part of gameplay.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/319870/


Tunic

They don’t have much information available. But you play as a fox in a colorful world.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/553420/


Transference

This is a VR game although it’s not listed as requiring a VR headset to play so that remains to be seen. If I’m able to play without a VR Headset (because I don’t own one yet), I’m going to be all over this game. It has a deep “psychological” story. Your choices matter. The Devs say “The choices you make from every angle ripple through time and space, as you learn their story.” – I’m extremely interested in this game – maybe even enough to break down and buy a VR headset if it requires one.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/647570/


Skull & Bones

This must be the year of pirate games. This is the 3rd such game to make my list. You start out very low, and then recruit your own gang of pirates and customize everything about your ship, as you grow your infamousy and riches. You can play alone or with up to 5 players.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/370010/


Donut Country

This somehow reminds me of Katamari, except instead of rolling things up, you’re a hole and you swallow things, and the more things you swallow the bigger your hole gets, allowing you to swallow even larger things. I love Katamari, so I suspect I’ll love this game too. The cute colorful graphics also appeal to me.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/702670/


Wattam

Speaking of Katamari, here is a new game from Katamari’s creator. In this game you explode everywhere. The bigger your explosion, the more friends who come to play. The graphics are super cute, things like frying pans, bacons, eggs, poo, etc all with cute little anime faces drawn on. It’s very colorful. And there’s nothing else like it.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/702680/


Darksiders III

If you’re a fan of the first 2 Darksiders games, the 3rd installment is due out in 2018.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/606280/


Lost in Harmony

They’re hailing this as the first musical runner – but I don’t think it is, because I distinctly remember a game on PC a few years ago that let you run to any MP3 on your PC. But well regardless of if it’s first or not, it looks fun. You can create your own levels, as well as customize your characters.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/509400/


Just Us

Animal breeding, farming, crafting, fishing, foraging, and probably a pretty deep philosophical story about a couple questioning if they’re the only people left in the world after a catastrophic event.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/612660/


Lost in Bardo

Pretty looking pixel game with a philosophical story and puzzle solving gameplay.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/741730/


Jengo

A gorgeous looking point n click adventure paying hommage to many 90s retro games.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/671430/


Chiffa 2

Play as a cute little fox trying to save his best friend, a chicken, from a big bad wolf.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/563600/


OSM Old School Musical

The crazy looking chaotic gameplay and colorful retro graphics make this rhythm game stand out from the rest

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/398030/


Orcish Inn

Very cute survival game in which you farm, build, and manage a tavern.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/533800/


College Days

Visual Novel with some very pretty artwork.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/467700/


Astrologaster

Interesting concept for a game, you cast and interpret astrology charts as a doctor to answer your patient’s questions. I’m kinda interested in astrology (especially numerology (not necessarily related to this game just as an aside)) so my interest in this title is piqued by sheer curiosity. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a game about astrology before.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/742520/


Village Monsters

Animal Crossing clone, looks cute, fun, and relaxing.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/679830/


Where Cards Fall

This looks fun, and seems to have a fairly decent story about childhood memories shaping our perspectives as adults.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/589450/


Alone Without Her

A story where your choices matter about a man who survives while his wife dies in an experiment that would freeze them for 1,000 years. The concept sounds similar to Passengers, which I saw last year and rather liked, so I’ll probably enjoy this story too.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/527560/


Miracle Mia

This game looks very colorful and cute.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/608670/


Cursed Lands

For the first time in any Winter Wolves game you can sleep with more than one love interest. The devs say – However, they also caution you to be ready to deal with the consequences of that decision. You can bluff and intimidate enemies in this RPG / Dating sim hybrid.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/758320/


Fault Silence the Pendant

Takes place 5 years before the events in Fault Milestone One

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/487500/


Xaiga Wars

Visual Novel with Very Cute Graphics

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/727960/


A Near Dawn

A Psychological Visual Novel / Point n Click adventure with full voice acting and multiple endings.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/728170/


Unto The End

This game looks both beautiful and challenging, and it also features choices and consequences that change the story of the game.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/600080/


Once Upon a Coma

I love the art style of this game. I’m betting the truth at the end of the story is also pretty sad.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/733210/


Broken Reality

Colorful Adventure Game which is set in a parody world based on the 1990s internet. Cut ads with your katana, collect likes to upgrade your social media accounts to reach new worlds, purchase upgrades, and make new friends. The Devs promise a game with no violence as well.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/757480/


We the Revolution

Fun looking political simulator based on the French revolution.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/736850/


Dodgeball Rising

Cute looking anime style multiplayer dogeball game

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/687580/


Riverbond

Gorgeous looking little voxel game with lots to explore and collect

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/459370/


Kitten Super Adventure

I actually promoted this game awhile back I’m excited because it looks to combine Spyro with Adorable kittens.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/347530/


Mineko’s Night Market

Play as a cute girl, in a cute Japanese inspired world, full of cats! Extensive crafting system, fun mini games, and a market where you can sell anything you make or find. I’m definitely picking this game up!

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/762940/


Indivisible

From the dev team that brought you Skullgirls comes a new 2D adventure, with music provided by the composer of Secret of Mana.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/421170/


The Eldritch Zookeeper

Raise horrible monsters in this simulation game inspired by Themepark World and Dungeon Keeper

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/654960/


Battle of the Bands

Another visual novel game. This one doesn’t look terribly good to me, but I will play it before passing judgement.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/467710/


Spoxel

Looks quite similar to Terraria. I love Terraria… but I wonder what this game has that will differ enough from Terraria to make me want to purchase yet another minecraft clone.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/746880/


Jimmy and the Pulsating Mass

Colorful little RPG with an Adult Story

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/706560/


The Gardens Between

Beautiful puzzle game with time travel and nostalgia.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/600990/


Knights and Bikes

This charming adventure game is full of nostalgia and looks fun, especially in multiplayer. It’s from the creator of Little Big Planet and Tearaway Unfolded which I loved both of those games, so I have pretty high hopes for this one as well.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/592480/


Rainswept

Love, Relationships, and unresolved trauma? Sign me up for that. 🙂 This looks to have a fairly deep and depressing story.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/772290/


Booth

I have a feeling this game will play like Papers Please or Beholder. You work in a food inspection booth, how you react to NPCs determines your fate and changes the story and endings.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/761350/


Futurust

A hand-drawn point n click adventure game about robots.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/745980/


My Girlfriend

A visual novel in a highschool setting with cute girls.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/467690/


Ciel Fledge

Basically Princess Maker – Which I have reviewed here. I need more Princess Maker in my life, so heck yeah, I’ll be buying this.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/738270/


The Luckless Seven

Visual Novel that differentiates itself from the rest with an innovative card game system.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/433370/


The Last Night

Absolutely beautiful looking scifi game.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/612400/


Echo Tokyo

Dark Visual Novel set in a dystopian Tokyo

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/506640/


Tiny Thor

Colorful looking retro platformer where you throw Thor’s hammer to attack your foes.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/541310/


City Game Studio

Manage your own gaming company

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/726840/


Prehistoric Kingdom

Jurassic Park simulator anyone?

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/666150/


The Adventure Pals

Cute Comical and Colorful little platformer

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/396710/


Deiland

Anime sandbox game with farming and quest mechanics similar to Stardew Valley and Harvest Moon

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/760620/


Warped Reality

Cyberpunk Visual Novel with truly lovely anime inspired artwork

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/604030/


Ooblets

OMG I almost forgot about this game. I remember when it was first announced, and now, the wait is almost over, as it will launch some time in 2018

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/593150/


Reality Raiders

Perhaps inspired by Secret of Evermore and Chrono Trigger, this little indie RPG lets you travel through different periods in the past to understand your present and shape your future.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/671770/


Mystic Destinies Echoes

This visual novel has a somewhat realistic painterly style and takes place in Atlantis.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/721550/


Snares of Ruin

6 Romanceable Ladies. You can form platonic or romantic relationships. How you interact with them determines the flow of the story.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/766940/


Detective Case and Clown Bot: The Express Killer

This point n click has cartoon-network or simpsons esque animation. It probably doesn’t take itself too seriously either.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/711920/


Beavers Be Damned

Cute 2 player Co-Op game where you play as cute beavers avoiding crazy obstacles as you try to build your dam.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/764570/


GNOG

Adorable colorful puzzle game that takes place inside monsters’ heads. Seems to have an emphasis on exploration and puzzle solving. My only concern is it may be quite short as it only has 9 levels.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/290510/


I Saw Her Standing There

Colorful kinda abstract looking action/puzzle game with over 300 levels to explore. The devs say that their game is “about love, death, and pancakes”.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/453910/


Wonder Wickets

Colorful and Cute Miniature Golf game.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/598640/


Dab on Em Haters

Celebrity Vlogger Simulation with cute pixel graphics – Caution this one has explicit insults and hate speech, but that’s kinda the point of the game. Pick which topics to vlog about, then respond to your comments. The goal is to like positive comments while “dabbing” negative comments. (Do you know how old this game makes me feel? I thought dabbing was a thing kids do with their arms for selfie pics, that some football player started. Since when did Dabbing become a negative word? lol. I’m too old for this game. lol.)

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/769060/


CasinoRPG

I actually mentioned this game in a roundup of Casino Simulation Games – It used to be a web browser based game, and now it’s coming to Steam. I don’t know what if any improvements or changes have been made between versions. It’s a city building simulation that lets you build, run, and play in your own casino.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/658970/


Midnight Quest

Very cute looking point n click adventure game.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/698450/


Heroes of Arzar

Cute, free anime collectible card game

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/628190/


Meanwhile

Well, I had never heard of this comic or the author, Jason Shiga, until just now. The art style kinda reminds me of the Oatmeal. Apparently this comic creator incorporates puzzles and choose your own adventure elements into his comic books (maybe similar to the goosebump novels I read as a kid back in the 90s? lol). I’m curious to check this game, and some of his comics, out now.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/714980/


Love Story: The Beach Cottage

I usually don’t play hidden object games – I know a lot of girls love them, it’s just never been my cup of tea. But this one sounds intrigueing because of the sad story. A woman very late in her life (50+) returns to a beach home to execute her deceased father’s final will. She hasn’t been back in this house for over 40 years, and she will relive memories of her first lost love and become stronger in the process.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/770880/


Survived By

This is an MMO Bullet Hell Game with Permadeath. After you die, you come back a little bit stronger as one of your descendants. It says there are different descendants to collect. Might be interesting, although probably also very frustrating too.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/606140/


I Love My Brother

While many readers will be put off by the nature of this story being such a taboo subject, I’ve included it in the list anyways for a few different reasons. 1.) It’s a visual novel. 2.) You play as Beth (a girl) 3.) This makes it an Otome Game. 4.) It’s a game told by reading entries in Beth’s Journal 5.) The journal is full of cute colorful stickers, beautiful handwriting, and other charming graphics. 6.) The story doesn’t bother me that much. Some of my favorite Korean Dramas have that incest component, such as 90 Days Time to Love and Autumn in my Heart. 7.) Little Sister Kana is one of the greatest visual novels of all time. 8.) If the game handles the story tastefully, and doesn’t make it just a raunchy taboo fantasy, there’s potential here for a very sweet and sad love story (such as in the games and Kdramas I’ve mentioned above). 9.) For all of those reasons I will give this game a shot.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/769210/


Sister’s Love

I can’t tell if this game is the same as the one above or not. It also is about a brother and sister in love. Different names though. It’s also told through a journal, although the stickers and graphics in the journal look different. In this one they have a more mature/romantic look, and in the other a more bright colorful cheery innocent look. Anyways it’s included for the same reasons as the above.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/771520/


Maze of Adventures

The retro style colorful graphics in this puzzle game look quite cute.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/766740/


Lunch Truck Tycoon 2

Open World Simulation Game that lets you manage a food truck. I want some street tacos now lol.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/660120/


Nantucket

I don’t really approve of hunting whales and dolphins (IRL), but the game sounds fun anyways. Loosely based on Moby Dick, this game allows you to customize your ship and crew as you sail around the world to hunt Moby Dick, in what they call a whaling strategy game.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/621220/


Ascendant Hearts

Humorous Parody Visual Novel with some lovely graphics that pokes fun at itself as well as the genre.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/595730/


Dude, Stop

I don’t really know if there’s any point to this game lol. People seem to think it’s funny. At least the developer thinks he is funny. Maybe it is, maybe it’s not. But it’s strange, and dares to be different, so it earned a spot on our list anyways. The point of the game is to do the opposite of whatever the developer (narrator) tells you to do, or not, it’s up to you. His narration changes as you play depending on your choices. Make him angry and he will yell at you.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/574560/


Cicadas

I really love the artwork in this visual novel. Cicadas are annoying though. I distinctly remember hating that sound effect in other visual novels (I think Tsukihime used them? I can’t recall which novel it was now, but it talked about it being hot in the summer and the cicadas hissing. And it had this horrible cicada sound effect and no background music at this part, and it drove me crazy.) — Anyways here’s another visual novel with probably more equally annoying cicada buzzing sound effects. PS: I always thought Cicadas were a Japanese thing – until last summer when I heard them in real life, here in Western Pennsylvania. They apparently only come up from their burrows once every 17 years – Thank god because they are annoying AF. And I have a phobia about insects. — I’ll still play this beautiful visual novel, despite my fear and loathing of Cicadas (or insects in general lol).

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/710840/


My Big Sister

I kinda feel like this game is trying too hard to be dark and edgy and “cool”. The character you play as is a 12 year old girl (although the devs can’t seem to decide if she’s 8 or 12 as they make reference to her being 8 as well). She tries to rescue her 19 year old sister after they are both kidnapped. The graphics are cute, but the writing looks like trash. How many 12 year olds cuss like sailors? They say she has a sarcastic playful attitude and that she’s not as scared as her big sister – but still, that seems too much. This game’s script looks terrible and that’s just from the screenshots and trailer. Random explicit words for no reason at all do not make your game more “adult” or “dark” or “edgy” or “cool”. In fact, it kinda makes your game the opposite of those things. Of course, occasionally well timed explicit words can add to the feelings/emotions of a story. But when there’s 3 or 4 expletives used within a 6 sentence paragraph, that’s way too many. Which is a shame, because the graphics and actual gameplay look very nice.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/733300/


Spring Breeze

Chinese Visual Novel (with English subtitles) where you date twin sisters and experience university life in China. I feel this translation and writing may be subpar, but the graphics are really pretty, so depending on the price, it may still be worth checking out. Sounds short. 10 scenes, and only 2 endings.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/692790/


Tale of Toast

Very cute looking free-to-play MMORPG. It promises to not be pay-to-win as the only micro-transactional items will be things like transferring to another server or buying cosmetic only items such as pets and costumes (that do not grant stat bonuses). It has optional PVP and procedurely generated dungeons. It uses a classless system and includes crafting and exploration.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/640150/


FEN: Prologue

Survival game that has you dumpster diving for resources. Cute pixel graphics and a procedurely generated world.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/736830/

As an aside, there’s another game, simply called FEN that will release at the end of the month as well.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/771170/


Foxus

Beautiful game where you play as a fox, doing things foxes do, hunting rabbits, exploring the forests, etc. It reminds me a lot of Shelter 1 and 2 (dunno if it’s by the same dev team, or just inspired by such games though).

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/644130/


Skelattack

Play as an adorable skeleton and his best friend, a cute little bat in this rogue like, where monsters in the dungeons are friendly and human invaders are the enemy.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/605800/


Talk to Saki

An idle visual novel game, where time passes in real time. You type questions to Saki using keywords, and check in on her every day. New conversations happen each day.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/771100/

(as an aside, there’s also a game called Talk to Aya that came out about 2 months ago and is $1.99 on steam. Aya is more “my type” because she reminds me of myself. While Saki is very athletic and outdoorsy, Aya is an indoors type who loves manga.)

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/731930/


The Pirate’s Fate

Over 300 choices that matter with 45 different romances in this gorgeously animated furrie game.
http://store.steampowered.com/widget/553480/


Stage Fright

This game meshes together 2 very different genres, rhythm and horror game. The better you play, the harder the game tries to scare you and the more difficult the game becomes.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/771470/


MatchyGotchy

Adorable Colorful Virtual Pet Game

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/772700/


The Red Strings Club

Interact with customers as a bartender with a story presenting moral dilemmas and decisions about happiness and the means to obtain it.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/589780/


The Scent of Summer

Virtual Reality Game (VR Headset Required) where you walk home with a cute anime girl.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/778260/


Iconoclasts

Cute platformer with a heart wrenching story.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/393520/


Staxel

Adorable anime voxel farming game, similar to Harvest Moon and Stardew Valley

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/405710/


Lost Sphear

From the creators of I am Setsuna

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/525240/


OK K.O.! Let’s Play Heroes

Super cute and colorful game based on the cartoon network show of the same name.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/680700/


My Time at Portia

Seems to pay hommage to Rune Factory, Harvest Moon, Stardew Valley, Atelier, Mana Khemia, and other similar gaming series

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/666140/


Wildlife Park Remastered Gold

Includes remastered versions of Wildlife Park and Wildlife Creatures. You can train, breed, research, and catch various animal species.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/664120/


Zweii The Arges Adventure

Beautiful looking humorous JRPG from XSEED with tons of minigames and a leveling system that involves eating or hoarding and trading food for better food.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/427680/


Legrand Legacy: Tale of the Fatebounds

This beautiful looking indie RPG pays homage to many great 90s and early 2k RPGs. It includes minigames, crafting, and city building aspects as well as traditional turn based RPG combat.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/556740/


Luvocious

3 games in one. The first is a dating sim/visual novel. The second is more of a traditional JRPG/Dungeon Crawler. The final one is a scifi setting with gun based gameplay. Each with an anime and retro feeling.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/714730/


Dead in Vinland

I’m already sold just by this feature right here “Build your community of up to 14 playable characters. Meaningful choices will alter the relationships in your team and the story. Expect romances, hatred and betrayals!” – But in addition to that, it has a huge world with over 150 maps to explore and more than 150 items to craft as well.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/573120/


Onmyoji

Very colorful and beautiful strategy game set around the characters and stories within Japanese folklore.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/551170/


Dust and Salt

Decisions matter in this narrative adventure game

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/766630/


Egypt Old Kingdom

City Building and Political Simulation in Ancient Egypt.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/646500/


Celeste

Beautiful little platformer with plenty of secrets and mysteries to unravel.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/504230/


Grisaia Phantom Trigger 4

The story that began with Fruit of Grisaia continues in this new installment

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/761670/


Timber Tennis

Cute and colorful pixelart in an online or local multiplayer tennis game.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/321160/


My Life as a Maiden

Cute looking visual novel where you play as the only boy (disguised as a girl) at an all girl’s school. (This theme is done to death in these games, but the nice artwork may be enough to make this one worth picking up as well.)

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/754840/


Melancholy Republic

Decisions matter as you take the role of a young heroine trying to run the country after her father’s assassination in this JRPG inspired indie game with an excellent soundtrack performed by a live orchestra.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/436240/


Ultimate Arena: Showdown

The graphics look a bit crude, but the game seems wacky and different, and fun, and does feature large amounts of character customization.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/757160/


Clumsy Knights

Very cute little indie RPG with an extensive crafting system

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/765360/


YumeCore

This looks cute and colorful, although a bit nonsensical and crazy.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/771240/


Make Sail

Build Sailboats, sail to other islands to gather materials to make better sailboats, and rinse and repeat.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/417200/


Slave Story

Cute anime style game where you play an indie game maker and interact with a cute anime girl.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/736520/


Where the Water Tastes Like Wine

A collection of short stories from authors all over North America

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/447120/


Minotaur

Point n click game with nice anime style artwork and dark story.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/680590/


Soul Saga

Gorgeous looking indie game inspired by classic JRPGs

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/251590/


Mhakna Gramura and Fairy Bells

This is by the same author as Fault Milestone One and apparently, at one point, these visual novels were all books? Hundreds of years ago? Like in real life? I was not aware of that. This is a kinetic novel meaning there are no choices, no branching plots, and only 1 ending. However it is beautiful and part of a very popular series of visual novels. The story is mentioned in several of the games, but only recently has the full text been discovered because the book is hundreds of years old. This makes it kind of an interesting way to preserve history.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/753220/


Fatal Twelve

Another very beautiful looking visual novel with female protagonist.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/620210/


Bacon May Die

Very colorful brawler game with cute little pigs. Customize your pig and fight off hoards of bacon hungry zombies. It looks cute and has a good sense of humor as well.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/646240/


Serment – Contract with a devil

Indie tactical RPG and Dating Sim hybrid with lots of cute anime girls.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/632900/


Final Fantasy 12 Zodiac Age

A remake of FFXII with a few new gameplay mechanics.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/595520/


Foto Flash

This may be similar to Sonicomi which I reviewed here.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/778610/


CHUCHEL

Cute funny little puzzle adventure game with adorable characters.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/711660/


Startup Freak

This game lets you simulate many aspects of building a startup conmpany, from designing your office, hiring team members, researching and developing new products

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/722660/


Into the Breach

Interesting looking strategy/simulation game with mechs and time travel.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/590380/


Mulaka

Action RPG with gameplay similar to Zelda and based on ancient Mexican lore.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/623640/


Scythe

Boardgame with strong focus on faction choice and strategy.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/718560/


RPG in a Box

If you’re looking to create your own games, RPG in a Box may be an alternative to the popular RPG Maker series.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/498310/


Guardians of Arcadia

A very cute anime indie game inspired by classic JRPGs

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/456140/


Shots Fired

Explore with your cellphone, take photos for buzzfeed (fuzzbeed), and avenge your wife and daughter (and reclaim your tv) in this pixel based action adventure game.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/650120/


Episicava

Anime styled episodic visual novel

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/618430/


Toe Jam & Earl: Back in the Groove

The original games on Sega Genesis are some of my favorite childhood memories. Days and weeks on end spent playing with my best friend.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/516110/


Griftlands

It seems decisions matter quite a bit in this cartoon style indie RPG

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/601840/


Omina Mortis

I like the concept of this game, which is basically a visual novel in story book format; however, it is clear English is not their first language. Their steam store description needs help, and if that’s any indication as to the quality of the writing within the actual game, this game may be nearly unplayable. For example the description says: “In Omnia Mortis you will be confused by a tangle on the edge of mystic and action detective that will be fully solved only after multiple passing the game.” – I’m already confused just by reading this description LOL. I get that they meant to indicate it has multiple endings, or “only after passing the game multiple times” or “only after multiple play throughs” but “only after multiple passing the game” sounds really awkward and incorrect as a native English speaker… and I’m still not sure what they’re trying to say with “on the edge of mystic and action detective” – What does that even mean? — Concept seems good – but they really need to hire some English language play testers and proofreaders. Hopefully with enough proofreading and playtesting, this will end up to be a nice game.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/644340/


A Song in the Void

This seems far too short, clocking in around 6 hours of gameplay, but it seems innovative by the fact that every aspect found within the game reacts and grows with the music.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/746900/


Earthlock

Inspired by Retro RPGs of the late 90s, Earthlock looks like a great upcoming indie game. You can also grow trees to bring kittens into the world which sounds pretty cute.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/761030/


Moonlighter

Cute pixel RPG with procedurely generated dungeons and shop keeping elements

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/606150/


Rain or Shine

Very cute looking VR game that requires a VR headset

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/714610/


DragonFangz

A challenging rogue-like dungeon crawler with adorable anime graphics

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/749850/


Love Bites

Visual novel about vampires. Appears to have 2 playable characters (1 male and 1 female) and 4 romance options (2 male and 2 female)

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/617970/


Into Oblivion

A drinking simulator where you mix and drink virtual drinks with other players and bet who will get sick first to earn coins to get new items from the shops to customize your characters.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/618990/


Prisma and the Masquerade

Absolutely gorgeous looking platformer with a female protagonist and orchestra soundtrack.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/544470/


Long Gone Days

Awesome looking visual novel with shooter elements and gorgeous anime artwork.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/510540/


Samurai Forge

A collectible card game with an interactive story that changes according to players’ decisions

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/617350/


Swordart Online Fatal Bullet

A Multiplayer game based on the famous Swordart Online anime.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/626690/


Marie’s Room

Seems to have an interesting story about childhood friendship, perhaps with a few twists and some drama. A bit of mystery too.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/648390/


Movie Studio Tycoon

Select a genre, choose your script, hire and train directors and actors, compete with other studios to win awards.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/630440/


Orwell Ignorance is Strength

This political thriller aims to warn us about how we give and how others use our private and personal information and how such information can be misinterpreted and to what lengths people or our governments will go to to protect us from perceived threats within this information.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/633060/


Parkasaurus

Colorful Cute Dinosaur “Jurrasic Park” Simulation game where you travel back in time to collect dinosaur eggs, and switch to first person to handle dinosaur rampages.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/591460/


The Swords of Ditto

I love the graphical style of this cute little indie Co-op RPG.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/619780/


One Helluva Day

Another interactive fiction game where English is clearly not their native language. Hopefully the game will be proofread and play tested sufficiently because judging from the steam description, the creators struggle with English grammar. Aside from questionable writing and formating, the concept of the game looks promising. You play as a business owner trying to save his failing company, as well as trying to save the world. There are multiple endings, and you can either work together to help other characters, or take advantage of them to achieve your goals. How you work with others, determines which endings you receive.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/603680/


Monmusu

Adorable anime graphics in this free to play game.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/533540/


Secret of Mana

Remake of one of the best SNES games of my childhood.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/637670/


Detective Gallo

Humorous point n click adventure game with a cartoon duck as the hero.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/556060/


Austen Translation

This solo or multiplayer rogue like marriage simulation borrows heavily from various visual novel mechanics

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/706880/


Speed Dating for Ghosts

Cute looking dating simulator by a former Bioware developer.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/746400/


Roguemance

A roguelike pixel game that pokes fun at relationship drama

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/742530/


Kingdom Come: Deliverance

Story heavy open world historical RPG with player choices and consequences.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/379430/


The Longest Five Minutes

Humorous pixel RPG where the main character has amnesia right before the final boss fight.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/504110/


Wandersong

Colorful cute indie game where you play as a traveling bard.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/530320/


Crossing Souls

Colorful retro inspired game set in 1980s California

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/331690/


The Seven Districts of Sin

Short cute visual novel with some nice anime artwork and 9 different endings to discover.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/782190/


A Case of Distrust

Play as a female detective in this 1920s visual novel.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/717610/


Catmaze

Cute indie anime pixel sidescrolling adventure game.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/620220/


Monster Garden

Cute, very short (1 hour per play through) game with multiple paths and multiple endings with over 15 monsters to meet. You can’t meet them all on a single play through which adds some replay value, despite still being a short experience.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/719660/


The Painter’s Playground

Create or collect 2D artwork and trade it in an online marketplace with other players

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/722330/


Card Crawl

Dungeon Crawler played with a deck of cards. Solitaire like gameplay with deckbuilding mechanics.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/745000/


Opus Rocket of Whispers

Indie hand-drawn painterly styled game with an emotional post-apocalyptic storyline.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/742250/


Feudal Alloy

Cute looking indie action RPG with robots.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/699670/


The Forbidden Arts

Anime style action platform adventure game.

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/735060/


We Were Here Too

Emotionally charged Co-Op adventure game

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/677160/


Minion Forest

Adorable monster raising game

http://store.steampowered.com/widget/767340/


The Best Upcoming & New Release 2018 PC Games for Girls was originally published on GeekySweetie.com – Geeky & Kawaii Anime, Tech, Toys, & Game Reviews & News

Countdown to Black Friday with New Deals Every Day on Amazon

Amazon just launched their Black Friday Pre-sale event. You can check back every day for new items at http://amazon.com/Black-Friday/…

Already they are offering up some pretty sweet deals for geeks and gamers. I recommend bookmarking and checking back as often as possible. I’m hoping for a PS4 Bundle or Console to go on sale. I have enough already to purchase, but since it is that time of year, saving some money never hurts, and I’ve waited this long already to get myself the newest consoles, so might as well hang in there a few more weeks and see what happens!

Last year, amazon had amazing black friday and cyber monday exclusive gaming bundles for all three major game systems including Xbone, PS4, and WiiU. This year the savings should be even greater since the technology continues to age and the market gets even more competitive with new consoles such as the Xbox Scorpio, PS4 Pro, and (soon to be released) Nintendo Switch, which means the standard Xbox One, PS4 Slim, and possibly Wii U will need to discount their inventory to see a strong finish this year.

PC Gamers are not to be forgotten, RIGHT NOW amazon has awesome Black Friday deals on headsets, lightup keyboards, game controllers, gaming mice, and more. There are some great deals such as headsets for 65% off, hot new release games for both console and pc at up to 75% off and many more.

Amazon even has a page set up specifically for gaming deals here: http://amzn.to/2evLcYi

or a general one for Electronics here: http://amzn.to/2evMYZH

I’m also needing a new gaming laptop, and Amazon has a page for PC and Laptop deals here: http://amzn.to/2elLmON

Video Games not your thing? Maybe you want some boardgames, legos, cute plushies, dolls, or figures? If so amazon also has a page for you here: http://amzn.to/2fp9ssJ

And the sales will continue into cyber monday as well and Cyber Monday has it’s own page for deals which will be located at http://amzn.to/2fk9JB3 once it goes live later this month.

 

//widget.dealspotr.com/widget.js

Per Amazon’s site:

“Black Friday Deals–The Party Is Just Getting Started!

Black Friday 2016 will be here soon, but we didn’t want you to wait until the day after Thanksgiving to save on Black Friday deals, so we are counting down to Black Friday 2016 with exciting deals today, and tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day, and…you get the picture. Stop by each day through November 24 for early Black Friday deals, including sales on electronics, low prices on DVDs, magazine subscription specials, toy bargains, and fashionable deals for women, men, kids & baby, and more. You’ll find our best Black Friday deals, and Deal of the Day bargains you won’t want to resist for holiday gifts.

Something else to be excited about–at Amazon, Black Friday 2016 isn’t just a day to us–it’s a whole week! We’ll kick off Black Friday Deals Week early with Black Friday deals and sales all day every day that week, including Black Friday, with those big after-Thanksgiving sales you’ve been waiting for. Trust us, if you love a good deal, you won’t want to miss it!

To continue the excitement, we have made Cyber Monday 2016 a whole week too! We’ll be kicking off Cyber Monday with a week’s worth of cyber deals, just in time for you to get back to work after Thanksgiving … and shop online. Shhh … we won’t tell your boss! You’ll find more great deals every day during Cyber Monday Deals Week.
So stop by any day, or better yet, every day. We’ll be here with great deals!”

 

Countdown to Black Friday with New Deals Every Day on Amazon was originally published on

Boxychan Anime Box – June Unboxing Photos and Review – Monthly Subscription Box for Anime and Manga Fans

I just finished my review for Betoyo Bento here. In this review I mentioned how I just had a birthday a few weeks ago and my best friend gifted me with 2 subscription boxes. Here is the 2nd of those subscriptions – Boxychan Anime Box. I liked this box so well that I subscribed myself after opening this awesome box. I’m also going to update my top ten list of subscription boxes for geeky girls to reflect my love of Boxychan. What makes Boxychan so great in my opinion are two things – 1.) It has stuff you’ll actually use. I don’t know if “every” box is like this, but I’m assuming each box contains one manga and one dvd. – that’s actually stuff I want! stuff I’m already buying. Yes, little figures and posters and candy and other things are good – but this is stuff that’s expensive, manga is usually around $10-$15 a pop, Dvds around $15-20 a pop. Speaking of the word “Pop” that brings me to point 2.) This box is full of officially licensed products! Including the VERY popular “Funko Pops” YES! 🙂

When signing up for Boxychan you can choose many different “themes” – anime is just one of MANY geeky themes, they have comics, gamer, toys, geek, themes and more!! — I stuck with the anime theme, because I loved almost everything in this box!! I loved it so much I signed up for the longest subscription, the 9 month option. This is not a paid post or sponsored post. My friend bought me the one month box as a birthday gift, with her own money. I then used my own money to subscribe to the 9 month option – I just want to be very CLEAR that I GENUINELY love Boxychan. It is my favorite box. Oh by the way, interesting little tidbit for you – the 9 month option, only takes your first month’s payment of $28 up front – unlike MANY of these boxes where if you want the year subscription you’re paying hundreds of dollars – but I assume if you try to cancel before the 9 months are up they “clip you” for the remaining months then. But I like that they don’t want the whole fees up front – very kind! You also get discounts for longer subscriptions (I believe, but can’t remember for sure, that a single box is $35 a month), so it was a no brainer to me to sign up for the full deal.

The other things you do when signing up are indicate your gender, and your “age” (child, teen, or adult) – I think they may customize the box to fit this demographic info! I say this, because the manga I received was VERY girly (GOOD Just what I like!! SHOUJO!! It’s very hard to find Shoujo stuff in these monthly boxes because most of them just focus on “mainstream” shounen stuff.) It also had sailor moon! (another “girly” shoujo item). And Totoro – which appeals to both male and female, but probably more towards girls for the kawaii factor. It had Tokyo Ghoul too which I think is more popular with boys, but probably one of the most popular anime series in recent years.

Lastly, when you sign up, you are asked your shirt and shoe sizes. The June box did not have any wearable items, but it’s good to know they have from Extra Small up to 2XL.

You can learn more about Boxychan over here: http://www.boxychan.com/products/anime-mystery-box

They call themselves the “original” themed mystery box – I’m not sure if that’s accurate. I’d not heard of them before – but to me they’re “claiming” to be the first anime subscription box available on the net. Which if it’s true, gives them some “street kred” and reliability.

Anyways I know what all you lovely people want to see, the box opening photos! So let’s get to it!

The outside box is rather plain compared to some of the competitors, for example, Doki Doki, which I reviewed here, uses a flashy bright pink attractive box. While Pusheen Box uses a box that looks like a cat on all 4 sides, which I’ve reviewed here. However, Boxychan keeps it very simple, with just a smile on one side of the box, and their logo on another side. Similar almost to amazon’s familiar packaging. The paint was also rubbing off of the outside of the box. – Not a big deal, but seeing it didn’t leave me with high expectations for the opening lol.

Boxychan Monthly Anime Subscription Box - Box Opening - Photos - Review
Boxychan Monthly Anime Subscription Box – Box Opening – Photos – Review
Boxychan Monthly Anime Subscription Box - Box Opening - Photos - Review
Boxychan Monthly Anime Subscription Box – Box Opening – Photos – Review

However, once cut open, this little box is just crammed full all the way with awesomeness. Also pink wrapping paper – which again to me seems to indicate that they probably select the items based on your gender and age group. The beautiful wrapping paper and seeing how FULL the box was started to lift my spirits and I started feeling excited.

Boxychan Monthly Anime Subscription Box - Box Opening - Photos - Review
Boxychan Monthly Anime Subscription Box – Box Opening – Photos – Review
Boxychan Monthly Anime Subscription Box - Box Opening - Photos - Review
Boxychan Monthly Anime Subscription Box – Box Opening – Photos – Review
Boxychan Monthly Anime Subscription Box - Box Opening - Photos - Review
Boxychan Monthly Anime Subscription Box – Box Opening – Photos – Review

OMG SAILOR MOON!!!!!!! I was even more excited removing the wrapping paper to see the Sailor Moon Blind Box Figure. 🙂 So let’s start the review with that item. My only “complaint” is Damn that’s a big ass box for a tiny fingertip sized lil guy! LOL. The packaging of the figure was exciting though! Although it also sort of defeated the purpose of it being a “blind” box. The figure itself is painted well although it does have rough “edges” – I am used to this though since I collect “Asian balljointed dolls” which often have unfinished seams and I’m not bothered by this, but for some people who are unacustomed to seeing a figure or doll with rough seams showing, it may look cheap but this is actually quite common for toys from asian countries. Either way, tiny lil Artemis is so kawaii (bonus points for me since I love cats lol) and the base is engraved with the moon rod and beautiful scrollwork. Once again, this item says “For Girls” on it, which is another indicator that Boxychan may select items taking your gender and age group into account – I cannot prove this, but am impressed by how many “girly” items were in the June box which leads me to wonder if it is in fact shipping out different items tailored to your demographics which it requests upon signing up. – I would be interested to hear from any men out there if they also received the same items in their June Boxychan box in the comments below.

Pics:

Boxychan Anime Subscription Box - June Boxychan Unboxing Photos - Sailor Moon Blind Box Figure - Sailor Moon Figurine - Sailor Moon Blind Box - Artemis - Artemis Blind Box Figure
Boxychan Anime Subscription Box – June Boxychan Unboxing Photos – Sailor Moon Blind Box Figure – Sailor Moon Figurine – Sailor Moon Blind Box – Artemis – Artemis Blind Box Figure
Boxychan Anime Subscription Box - June Boxychan Unboxing Photos - Sailor Moon Blind Box Figure - Sailor Moon Figurine - Sailor Moon Blind Box - Artemis - Artemis Blind Box Figure
Boxychan Anime Subscription Box – June Boxychan Unboxing Photos – Sailor Moon Blind Box Figure – Sailor Moon Figurine – Sailor Moon Blind Box – Artemis – Artemis Blind Box Figure
Boxychan Anime Subscription Box - June Boxychan Unboxing Photos - Sailor Moon Blind Box Figure - Sailor Moon Figurine - Sailor Moon Blind Box - Artemis - Artemis Blind Box Figure
Boxychan Anime Subscription Box – June Boxychan Unboxing Photos – Sailor Moon Blind Box Figure – Sailor Moon Figurine – Sailor Moon Blind Box – Artemis – Artemis Blind Box Figure
Boxychan Anime Subscription Box - June Boxychan Unboxing Photos - Sailor Moon Blind Box Figure - Sailor Moon Figurine - Sailor Moon Blind Box - Artemis - Artemis Blind Box Figure
Boxychan Anime Subscription Box – June Boxychan Unboxing Photos – Sailor Moon Blind Box Figure – Sailor Moon Figurine – Sailor Moon Blind Box – Artemis – Artemis Blind Box Figure
Boxychan Anime Subscription Box - June Boxychan Unboxing Photos - Sailor Moon Blind Box Figure - Sailor Moon Figurine - Sailor Moon Blind Box - Artemis - Artemis Blind Box Figure
Boxychan Anime Subscription Box – June Boxychan Unboxing Photos – Sailor Moon Blind Box Figure – Sailor Moon Figurine – Sailor Moon Blind Box – Artemis – Artemis Blind Box Figure
Boxychan Anime Subscription Box - June Boxychan Unboxing Photos - Sailor Moon Blind Box Figure - Sailor Moon Figurine - Sailor Moon Blind Box - Artemis - Artemis Blind Box Figure
Boxychan Anime Subscription Box – June Boxychan Unboxing Photos – Sailor Moon Blind Box Figure – Sailor Moon Figurine – Sailor Moon Blind Box – Artemis – Artemis Blind Box Figure
Boxychan Anime Subscription Box - June Boxychan Unboxing Photos - Sailor Moon Blind Box Figure - Sailor Moon Figurine - Sailor Moon Blind Box - Artemis - Artemis Blind Box Figure
Boxychan Anime Subscription Box – June Boxychan Unboxing Photos – Sailor Moon Blind Box Figure – Sailor Moon Figurine – Sailor Moon Blind Box – Artemis – Artemis Blind Box Figure
Boxychan Anime Subscription Box - June Boxychan Unboxing Photos - Sailor Moon Blind Box Figure - Sailor Moon Figurine - Sailor Moon Blind Box - Artemis - Artemis Blind Box Figure
Boxychan Anime Subscription Box – June Boxychan Unboxing Photos – Sailor Moon Blind Box Figure – Sailor Moon Figurine – Sailor Moon Blind Box – Artemis – Artemis Blind Box Figure

Next up, we have the Totoro lanyard from Studio Ghibli. It’s cute and bright blue. You’ll probably see it in several other photos in this review since I slipped it on to take pictures and then didn’t take it off until after the review.

Totoro Studio Ghibli Lanyard in June Boxychan Anime Mystery Box
Totoro Studio Ghibli Lanyard in June Boxychan Anime Mystery Box
Totoro Studio Ghibli Lanyard in June Boxychan Anime Mystery Box
Totoro Studio Ghibli Lanyard in June Boxychan Anime Mystery Box
Totoro Studio Ghibli Lanyard in June Boxychan Anime Mystery Box
Totoro Studio Ghibli Lanyard in June Boxychan Anime Mystery Box

The anime that I received is Kirameki Project – I have not seen it or heard of it before — and I haven’t watched it yet, because my cats broke my TV and my laptop has no dvd player… 🙁 orz. I’m saving up (and waiting hopefully for a sale) to replace my TV. I need to mount it on my wall because my cats are so naughty.

Anyways though, it looks cute? It also looks like it has huge amounts of fan service though which is a bit of a put off – There’s a pretty prominent “Panty Shot” on the back of the packaging.

It’s a “giant robo” or “mecha” anime however, one of the mecha looks like a “doll” (from wikipedia). Wikipedia also says it’s a quirky and cute show, although they are also quick to point out that it has a huge amount of fanservice – most of which comes from said doll-like robot. They also note that it has a lot of drama (which to me is a plus as that’s my preferred genre for anime).

Kirameki Anime DVD inside June Boxychan Anime Subscription Service
Kirameki Anime DVD inside June Boxychan Anime Subscription Service
Kirameki Anime DVD inside June Boxychan Anime Subscription Service
Kirameki Anime DVD inside June Boxychan Anime Subscription Service
Kirameki Anime DVD inside June Boxychan Anime Subscription Service
Kirameki Anime DVD inside June Boxychan Anime Subscription Service

The manga, “Nui!”, on the other hand, that I received is ADORABLE – I would recommend it to anyone who is a fan of Fruits Basket or well a fan of Shoujo in general. It’s about a girl who loves her stuffed animals so much that they become human. Sometimes they can’t always control when or where this transformation will happen, and of course, all of them are in love with their owner. I really loved this manga – and once again had never heard of it before. Which is a pretty impressive feat since I’m usually “in the know” when it comes to all things shoujo.

Note that despite the pics below, the manga is in black and white (as most manga are), it just had a few colored pages inside.

Nui Manga by Broccoli Books inside June Boxychan Anime Mystery Box. I love this manga about a girl who loves her stuffed animals so much that they come to life.
Nui Manga by Broccoli Books inside June Boxychan Anime Mystery Box. I love this manga about a girl who loves her stuffed animals so much that they come to life.
Nui Manga by Broccoli Books inside June Boxychan Anime Mystery Box. I love this manga about a girl who loves her stuffed animals so much that they come to life.
Nui Manga by Broccoli Books inside June Boxychan Anime Mystery Box. I love this manga about a girl who loves her stuffed animals so much that they come to life.
Nui Manga by Broccoli Books inside June Boxychan Anime Mystery Box. I love this manga about a girl who loves her stuffed animals so much that they come to life.
Nui Manga by Broccoli Books inside June Boxychan Anime Mystery Box. I love this manga about a girl who loves her stuffed animals so much that they come to life.
Nui Manga by Broccoli Books inside June Boxychan Anime Mystery Box. I love this manga about a girl who loves her stuffed animals so much that they come to life.
Nui Manga by Broccoli Books inside June Boxychan Anime Mystery Box. I love this manga about a girl who loves her stuffed animals so much that they come to life.
Nui Manga by Broccoli Books inside June Boxychan Anime Mystery Box. I love this manga about a girl who loves her stuffed animals so much that they come to life.
Nui Manga by Broccoli Books inside June Boxychan Anime Mystery Box. I love this manga about a girl who loves her stuffed animals so much that they come to life.
Nui Manga by Broccoli Books inside June Boxychan Anime Mystery Box. I love this manga about a girl who loves her stuffed animals so much that they come to life.
Nui Manga by Broccoli Books inside June Boxychan Anime Mystery Box. I love this manga about a girl who loves her stuffed animals so much that they come to life.
Nui Manga by Broccoli Books inside June Boxychan Anime Mystery Box. I love this manga about a girl who loves her stuffed animals so much that they come to life.
Nui Manga by Broccoli Books inside June Boxychan Anime Mystery Box. I love this manga about a girl who loves her stuffed animals so much that they come to life.

There was also this weird (but kinda cute in it’s own way) “Pin” you know the kind you place on a hat, purse, backpack, jacket, etc – Of a baindaid (a popular “fashion” item in “Decora Fashion” which is a fashion trend in Japan where you wear as many accessories as humanly possible. This lil baindaid has a face and greenish blush on it’s “cheeks”. There was also a rubber, black Tokyo Ghoul bracelet (not pictured).

Decora Japanese Fashion Pin in June's Boxychan crate.
Decora Japanese Fashion Pin in June’s Boxychan crate.

And last, but certainly not least, the Funko Pop Tokyo Ghoul figure. It’s Funko Pop, and Tokyo Ghoul, two of the hottest, most popular things in geek culture. There’s 2 versions, a girl, and a guy (forgive me, I’ve actually not yet watched Tokyo Ghoul so not real familiar with the characters) in this series. I received the girl figure. It’s cute, and I love Funko Pops! – Secretly wish it would have been one of the sailor moon funko pops instead – but still happy with this lol.

Tokyo Ghoul Funko Pop Vinyl Figure inside June's Anime Boxychan Subscription Crate
Tokyo Ghoul Funko Pop Vinyl Figure inside June’s Anime Boxychan Subscription Crate
Tokyo Ghoul Funko Pop Vinyl Figure inside June's Anime Boxychan Subscription Crate
Tokyo Ghoul Funko Pop Vinyl Figure inside June’s Anime Boxychan Subscription Crate
Tokyo Ghoul Funko Pop Vinyl Figure inside June's Anime Boxychan Subscription Crate
Tokyo Ghoul Funko Pop Vinyl Figure inside June’s Anime Boxychan Subscription Crate

Once again, I can’t tell you just how impressed I am with this box – for $28 (for the 9 month plan) every month, I will get manga, anime dvds, funko pops and officially licensed anime goods! This stuff would probably easily cost over $65 if buying everything separately.

Hands down, Boxychan gets my vote for best anime subscription box – WAY better than Doki Doki – and slightly better than Betoyo.

I still also really like Pusheen Box because it’s so damn kawaii — but Boxychan has more “universal appeal” — even if you don’t like anime, they have other themes too – seriously, go check them out :). http://www.boxychan.com

PS: I signed up and my box has already been sent – which means I MAY get another June Box – if that is the case I may end up giving away a few duplicate items in a future blog post(s) – stay tuned :).

Boxychan Anime Box – June Unboxing Photos and Review – Monthly Subscription Box for Anime and Manga Fans was originally published on Geeky Sweetie

Ript Apparel – $11 Tshirts For Geeks and Gamers – New Designs Every Day

I just discovered a great new website for Geeky Tees. The prices start at just $11 – although they do charge more for some designs, or for plus sized clothing. They offer both men and womens, and even youth clothing. They also have hoodies and lots of other goodies. Here are a few of my favorite designs. You can click on any of the pictures to go to the Ript Apparel website where you can see how the shirts look on an actual live model.

They have a really cool Exclusive Deadpool X The Walking Dead T-shirt. Deadpool is so hot right now.

Deadpool Tshirt from Ript Apparel
Deadpool Tshirt from Ript Apparel

The one thing I noticed is that their selection of sizes could use some improvement. If you’re a man – they’ve got you covered with sizes going all the way to 5XL. However, if you’re a woman, the sizes only go to 2XL. I’ve seen other sites that go to Women’s 3x or even 4x. And on the opposite end of the body diversity scale – they do not offer Extra Small which many of their competitors have. Luckily I can fit within the range of sizes they offer – but if you’re larger – or smaller – you might have better luck else where.

Despite that one small snaffu – the site has a lot of appeal. Their prices are far more competitive than similar sites, and they have new designs every day.

Today they have an awesome Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Tee. Which also happens to be exclusive. (Among a lot of other awesome designs – but being born in the 80s, I found this design the most appealing myself.)

Exclusive Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Tee from Ript Apparel

Some of their other designs totally speak to 90s kids (like myself). They have cool Mashups like DBZ (or Deadpool) and Fresh Prince of Bellaire or Minions and Dr Who. They also have childhood favorites such as AH! Real Monsters.

Ah Real Monsters Tee from Ript Apparel

I think my favorite one though is this ADORABLE (KAWAII!!!) Lego Deadpool Chimichunga Tshirt!! I’m totally buying this one when I get paid. I Love, love, love the color and how cute it is! OMG!.

Kawaii Lego Deadpool Exclusive Tee from Ript Apparel

While going through their site – I also noticed they have completely different designs for Women and Men’s tees – including their Exclusive line up. Both of the Deadpool shirts featured in my blog post here are available only in Women’s. – I kinda like this fact 🙂 I feel like they’re aiming designs and characters directly to us geeky girls. I haven’t seen this approach used on other graphic tee sites so it’s just an extra layer of awesome. Of course though it’s a double edged sword as some of the men’s designs I wish were also available as women’s and there may be men who want the designs on the women’s tee, like the first Deadpool X The Walking Dead shirt in my post – or heck – even the Lego one. Who says Men can’t be Kawaii? LOL. And men definitely love Legos and Deadpool and chimichungas.

Still, the neat, exclusivity of their tshirt designs is really awesome. Some designs only stay available for one day. This makes me want to buy more! It’s definitely worth checking out each day to see what their new designs are. You can jump to any of the shirts pictured here by clicking on their picture, or browse their whole collection at www.riptapparel.com

Ript Apparel – $11 Tshirts For Geeks and Gamers – New Designs Every Day was originally published on Geeky Sweetie

Xenogears – Retro JRPG Game Review

Xenogears is easily in my top 10 favorite games of all time. I also enjoy Xenosaga and Xenoblade as well which are spinoffs of this series (and involved most of the same staff). Xenogears was revolutionary for its time because of the extremely dark storyline and incredibly strong religious overtones which were considered to be almost “too mature” for a video game, especially in North America.

It had both scifi and fantasy elements; by that I mean, it really went into depth in some areas explaining the scientific theories and concepts behind certain things – but then other things have a more “magical” feeling that require suspension of belief. It also blended high tech (mecha, A.I., and space travel) with primitive “fantasy” style settings and characters.

Xenogears had some stellar production values and featured beautiful cutscenes, along with possibly the best soundtrack on Playstation One. Not only that, but it had 65+ hours of gameplay. Its storyline was not cookie cutter – it was very different from most other JRPG – and even its combat system was different from the traditional menu-based systems used by most other RPGs of the 90s.

To this day, Xenogears remains quite possibly one of the best JRPGs of all time. It has aged extremely well and is a game that really any JRPG fan should consider a must-play.

Title: Xenogears

Platform: Playstation One

Genre: JRPG

Publisher: SquareSoft

Release Date: 1998

Where to Buy: Your best choice if you have a PSP, PSVita, PS3, or PS4, is to pick it up on the PSN store. At time of writing it is priced at $9.99 – which is such an incredible buy for such an incredible game. https://store.playstation.com/… – However, if like some gamers out there, you are a Retro Game Collector, you may want the physical edition. At time of this review, Amazon has quite a few copies in stock ranging from $29.99 to $115 depending on the condition of the game disc, case, manuals, etc. You can see what they have available right here: http://www.amazon.com/Xenogears…

Geeky: 5/5 geekygeekygeekygeekygeeky

Sweetie: 5/5 sweetiesweetiesweetiesweetiesweetie

Overall: 60/70 86% B “Very Good Game For Girls”

Gameplay: 10/10 The game world is huge and rich in lore and history for those who love to explore and talk to NPCs or search through books and hidden objects. But even if completionism and immersion aren’t your thing – fear not – this little RPG actually has a pretty fun combat system. The combat system is two fold – in some battles you will be controlling human characters, and using martial arts like abilities as well as items to aid you in battle. This part of the combat relies on a slightly modified version of the “ATB” “Active Time Battle” system used in Chrono Trigger. – The second aspect of combat is with the introduction of large mechs known as Gears. While piloting a gear, you have much more powerful attacks and secret abilities for each character. Either way, when battling, things are sped up a great deal over other primarily menu-driven 90s JRPG – In Xenogears, you have various different levels of attacks, strong, moderate, weak, etc, and each are accessed via a simple button press. The trick is learning which orders of these presses will activate new special abilities and combo attacks. This made the large amount of random encounters (too many in my opinion lol) more enjoyable since combat felt more fluid.

Story: 9/10 I’m not going to really go into too much detail on what the story is about, because I feel, the main point in playing the game is to enjoy the story. As a brief overview, the story initially takes place aboard a spaceship but quickly jumps to present day in a tiny village where a child has lived with no memories of his past. Circumstances happen which drive the child (now a man) out of the village. He seems to go berserk when in the presence of mechanical weapons known as “gears” – As more is revealed we learn how the seemingly unconnected spaceship from the prologue has lead to the events in the present day. But that’s all I will say because to say anything more would definitely spoil the surprise.

So instead I will critique the technical writing and setting of the story. To achieve a more mature “scifi” story, they use a lot of technical details in how the mechs or vehicles, or space technologies or artificial intelligence, etc all work. They borrow from real world theories and terminology which if you look into these theories, you will find more details which helps create the impression that the world/story is very real and quite fascinating.

There really are very few games which rival the “scifi” nature of this title – keeping in mind the difference between scifi and fantasy – scifi is something which could in theory at some point become a reality – and in fact many things that authors have written about in the mid 1900s’ have come to pass as reality today – it’s something that although it seems “unbelievable” could in theory work (example Star Trek goes into explicit detail about the way their ships work – to the point where NASA has even tried to borrow ideas from this series) – Where as with fantasy – it’s more of a magical element, where you’re just expected to take it as “faith” that this is how something works (example, Harry Potter, etc.).

There are few games therefore, with very realistic (all be it, futuristic) technology (such as that found in Star Trek, or in this case, such as that found in Xenogears). – However, Xenogears also blends that Scifi with its own sense of Fantasy and Charm found in your typical JRPG. Not everything is “Scientific” but compared to just about any other JRPG – Xenogears does a pretty good job staying “Scifi” as opposed to dripping into Fantasy when it comes to describing the tech found within the world – Of course, the exception to this is the glaring point that Xenogears deals with Religion as the MAIN focus of the game – the technical stuff is just a backdrop to the story. It creates a believable lore and setting for the game, but ultimately, in the end, due to the focus being on Religion which is in direct “conflict” with science, it creates an interesting dynamic and blend of these two very opposing viewpoints.

Some similarly written games (which rely on real world theories and science to tell their stories) include Stein’s Gate, Ever 17, 999, Never 7, and Remember 11. If you’ve played any of those, that gives you a clue as to the level of detail that really went into creating the story of Xenogears.

However, much like the similar in concept, Evangelion (an anime about mechs and religion), the concepts of Xenogears are sometimes hard to understand. I don’t think Xenogears is quite as philosophical and heavy as Evangelion which can be really “out there” at times – but the subject matter and technical and religious topics dealt with in the story definitely require some critical thinking to fully understand and appreciate.

Also, we never got to see the entire story the way the developers had intended. Xenogears was supposed to be part of a nine part game series however, the studio largely responsible for developing this game (Monolith), broke away from their parent company (Squaresoft) which left fans without a sequel for many years. It’s widely believed that Xenoblade is a “prequel” to Xenogears, however the developers prefer to think of it as taking place in the same universe, but ultimately, an unrelated and separate entry. Of course there’s also a multitude of Xenosaga games as well which also deal with the same themes of space, mechas, war, and artificial intelligence.

Characters: 8/10 – For me, I didn’t find the characters as likable as in Xenosaga. Out of Gears, Blade, or Saga, in my opinion, Saga had the best and most memorable characters. That said, the characters in Xenogears are far from bad – in fact, they are very unique and unlike most other JRPG characters of the 90s. The story begins with a crew aboard a spaceship, which then transcends to a small village and meeting our “hero” Fei Wong. Fei is an orphan with no memories of his past. Things quickly escalate as the village is under attack. Fei goes into some kind of rage which leads to him accidentally destroying most of the village and being banished. He is joined by a village doctor who has extensive knowledge of technology and history. Together they begin to search for clues to Fei’s past. They meet up many other memorable characters including a desert pirate, a prisoner, a religious zealot, and even a cute, fat pink rodent, and of course, a lady love for our hero.

Character Development is really high in this game. The story is told primarily through character interactions and the characters themselves evolve and shift motives and change deeply as the story progresses.

What I really enjoyed was all the mystery in this game. Things, and people, are not at all what they seem at first. From our hero, to the doctor, to the king, to even god, – what you think of the characters and their roles initially will be turned completely on its head by the final quarter of the game. It’s a long game (65+ hours for a single play through) – and the way the story slowly unfolds and learning the true pasts and identities of our “heroes” is very interesting. In fact, I’d say that solving these mysteries is what makes Xenogears such a well-written and fun, and memorable video game.

Graphics: 8/10 – I love the blend of hand-drawn anime cut scenes as well as stunning 3D cut-scenes to help tell the story. However, I feel some of the graphics outside of these cutscenes don’t use the PS1 to its fullest capabilities. The textures have a distinctively grainy feel to them – even for a ps1 game, and the battle animations were not as flashy as I had hoped. Overall though, it is a very detailed game with a high variety in both enemy design as well as environments.

Music: 10/10 – This was the first Squaresoft game to use vocal tracks (something that is super common now among their titles) – and it is a freaking FANTASTIC vocal track too: “Small Two of Pieces”. The piano pieces throughout the game are also just simply beautiful. Small Two of Pieces is maybe my favorite single song from videogame history. Of course there are numerous more up-tempo tracks for battles and when the suspense and action of a scene calls for it.  But what I really enjoyed were the serene and melodic tracks that made up a majority of the album. The music also stands out from any other game with a distinctive Celtic influence.

Replay Value: 5/10 – This is a super long linear game. It is interesting to replay however, as you go into it with a different perspective and knowledge that you didn’t know on your first play through. There may be things that make more sense now, or new things that you notice in the story now that you have all parts of the puzzle. However the 65+ hour long time and huge number of random battles can make multiple replays a bit of a chore.

Overall: 60/70 86% B “Very Good Game For Girls”

Xenogears – Retro JRPG Game Review was originally published on