Nayu's Gaming Time #10 Exciting rhythm games! #Deresute #Aikatsu #BanGDream

Yo! No idea who this cute girl is - if you do please let me know!

So the past however many days I've been mostly quiet online I've been resting up - family had a cold, then my body wanted to have a tantrum, and then I just took a few days to unwind. I mostly did normal things, and will be scheduling up some reviews tomorrow (I ran out of energy for today), but there's some major gaming excitement going on! 

I won't keep you hanging (I need this post written pronto), but for those who don't follow me on Twitter I play a lot of Love Live School Idol Festival (both Japanese & Worldwide version) and also the Disney Tsum Tsum game. I've tried another idol game Cinderella Girls Starlight Stage but my tablet was too old for it so it wouldn't play after a few software updates. It refused to play Aikatsu Photo On Stage, which is a major Aikatsu!  fan was more than annoying. 

Mizuki is one of my favourite Aikatsu! characters!

This year through the SIF Reddit group I knew there was a new Love Live game coming, Puchiguru, which is a bit like the Tsumtsum game, plus the much awaited All Stars which will involve 3D models of the girls singing. My tablets are too old to play them but thankfully my family have older (but still quite new) tablets they no longer use so I've been waiting months for the chance to have one of said tablets for myself. Yesterday was that day, and I'm super happy to be playing all the games I couldn't! 

Swap this for a tablet with games & this was me yesterday!

So far I've only played 2 games of Puchiguru Love Live, which is super cute and not too brain taxing. I've been reading guides about it so I know what to do. 

It's an incredible thing to play a game almost from the time it launches!

The girls from both Muse and Aqours have Nesos (Love Live equivalent of Tsum Tsums) that have to be matched up for points

 Aikatsu! Photo On Stage actually works and is awesome! Although I need a lot of practice, tried to do an event song, managed a few but they got hard really quick. I have only normal cards and a few rares so my teams aren't great at all. 

I hope I can get cute cards like this one (at least I don't think it's fan art...) Adore Mahiru from Aikatsu Stars!

Cinderella Girls Starlight Stage and another game Bandori/Bang Dream will be downloaded after lunch today. I only plan to do log-ins and a little playing on them each week, which in itself is fun.

Will try to recover my account but unsure it will happen.

Another idol game - yay! Love

I'll do more indepth posts for the games I play soon, for now wanted to give you a taster of the delights I'm getting used to!

Leaving you with my dream Deresute (Cindrella Girls) card! Hope to get her one day!

Nayu's Gaming Time #6 From RPG to Rhythm games

My love for Yuna in Final Fantasy X & X2 lead to my online name being created! Here she is about to start the ceremony for those who died in Sin's attack.

Today's post is all about gaming! When I first started gaming I was initially a platform gamer girl: think Super Mario, Sonic, and Rayman. I liked a few driving games too. This changed when I was introduced to Final Fantasy 7, a series which I adore (only #7-12. Before they are too long winded #13 onwards is a bit dark, gritty, and I have yet to complete them), thus sending me into a good decade of Role Playing Game heaven. 

Fanart of a chocobo (big yellow bird) & a moogle, who are present in all Final Fantasy games that I've played with distinct style and sounds. I love them both!!!

Probably 18 months ago, or whenever I first discovered Aikatsu anime I became interested in rhythm games. These are games where you press buttons/tap on the screen in time with the markers on screen. Last year I was able to get a Japanese Nintendo 3DS, which meant I could play the games of the characters I adore, namely Aikatsu and Hatsune Miku. I can play a song any time, making it an easier genre to play in short bursts (or longer ones) unlike RPGs where you usually need at least an hour free if you can't constantly save your progress. 

Example of Aikatsu My Number 1 Stage - there's an arcade game like this too for the Aikatsu STars (the newest title in the franchise, and also Love Live SIF but sadly these are only in Japan/Indonesia)

Those of you following me on Twitter know how obsessed I am with Love Live School Idol Festival game. This is the game for the anime about 9 girls who become school idols who sing and dance to save their school from closure, and do a whole load more. There are lots of catching songs, and the characters are highly entertaining. I love the show a lot, so imagine my delight when I could play a rhythm game version of it! The downside was that my devices were too old/crammed with audiobooks to be able to play it. 

Sample screen of LLSIF song

For a while I borrowed my family's device on a daily basis, but this wasn't always convenient for them, so when someone upgraded their Fruit device I got their old one and voila, I was able to play LLSIF any time I liked! Which is every single day unless I'm not well enough for it. I strongly dislike Fruit devices, as they are not user friendly in my experience, but I'm grateful to be able to play LLSIIF so I do make an exception. It's awesome listening to the songs, getting pretty cards, and generally having fun. When LP runs out/I want a break I hop on over to Aikatsu and Miku's songs, which are equally bubbly with more pretty outfits. 

My Animal Crossing New Leaf House last July, shortly after I started it.

I love gaming!!! Pusheen says it best when she describes her kind of weekend. I'm mostly definitely a Rhythm Game gamer now, with some RPG gaming too - yikes I missed out a category! Life simulation games like Animal Crossing and Disney Magic Castle also feature fairly heavily in my gaming life - both are awesome! I'll be doing more posts about these and other games, so stayed tuned! Let me know what games you enjoy ^o^

Nayu's News #233 Cat company, reading and gaming lots!

Nyan!!! (Japanese word for mew)

First off hi if you've come over from my craft blog, Nayu's Crochet Dreams. When I do catch up posts I try to alternate where I post the original, and which blog I direct people to from the other blog. There is sense in that sentence somewhere...

My baby girl! (not a baby, but definitely a girl with Attitude!

The last few days I've seen a lot of my cat - I haven't been well and my cat often stays with me until I'm better. I'm on the mend from Wednesday afternoon's completely random & horrid being ill episode (sort of like flu but for a few hours only - my body is known to be weird), managed to tackle all emails today and hope to do some blog work in a few days. I need to go grocery shopping tomorrow and I've family over on Sunday so nothing will happen before Tuesday (Monday will be a rest day).

I switch to audiobooks when I'm tired.

I've been reading quite a bit lately, and almost finished all my review books! Since I'm reviewing less these days that's not as big of an achievement as it sounds, but it's nice to be on top o things. 

As usual if you want updates on how I'm doing I'm most active on Twitter under the name Nayuleska (with the @ in front of it). Those of you who follow me know I'm making steady progress on my current crochet project (I'm so used to speaking about it on Twitter I almost automatically adding a hashtag to the word crochet just now!) I don't know how big it will be, depends when I run out of yarn. It won't be huge, so more of a baby/lap blanket size. I love the colours and it's rather soft to the touch. 

Who could this be? Hint: it's a certain vocaloid I love...

Gaming wise I've been playing a lot of Love Live School Idol Festival - all updates are pretty much on hold until Ramadan is over as my focus in the day is less on how gorgeous the cards are and more on listening to the Quran/appropriate audibooks while I play with the sound on the game off (none of the songs are appropriate for Ramadan) & cute pop ups during the game turned off. I've yet to see any cute pictures where artists have given the girls hijab (headscarfs) & more modest clothing, like this one of Hatsune Miku which is so cute! Miku's on hiatus until after Ramadan (songs definitely not appropriate!) too. However, there are quite a few Aikatsu songs I can listen to, not that I have gamed much on it. Animal Crossing New Leaf has featured a lot in my gaming time - little beats shaking trees for fruit to be sold! 

There will be a Ramadan post next week (albeit copy and paste from previous years...), and several book reviews too. Thank you for being patient with my lack of posts - have a super weekend! 

No donuts for me but there will be cheesecake!!

Nayu's News #226 Back to normal

I'm happy like Eli from the anime & game Love Live!

After spending most of the week gaming & resting while I got over my mega strong meds, I am almost back to what counts as normality for me. I've managed to answer urgent emails (the rest can wait until the weekend), done a little blogging, and, more importantly, have done something to help reduce the amount of online work I do. I've joined...

...Hootsuite! Okay so I joined a while back, but I sat down and added my blogs (this one & Nayu's Crochet Dreams) to the app so whenever I put up a post it should automatically post across my Twitter and Facebook accounts. I've tried out sending a message to all social media accounts within the app and it works like a charm. This will seriously save me having to manually go to each page, add the text & find the people. It doesn't backdate post scheduling, so over this weekend I hope to get caught up manually with previous posts, and also get new posts out. 

What will I read today?

I'm still catching up with reading so that it will be 1 arc review a week, so don't be surprised to see a whole load of posts come up next week, it's called me catching up with reviews. Today I'm not doing a full morning's blog work as it's my first day back and I don't want to push my body too hard. After this post I've got a few errands to do locally then it's a quiet afternoon with reading, anime, and hopefully a bit of writing later.I'll definitely be gaming! Whatever you're up to this Friday I hope you have a good one! 

It feels like Winter now!

Nayu's News #224 Gaming week & stupid technology

It was one of those mornings.

I don't really mean the title - technology is extremely clever, rather than stupid. I was just a bit annoyed that on a day when I don't have much energy to blog, I turn on my laptop and it decides to update itself without giving me an option to reschedule to a more convenient time, e.g. after I've done my blog work. 

Thankfully I didn't get to this stage of hating my laptop!

1 hour and 15 whole minutes later I can finally get on my laptop...and I'm now rapidly running out of energy. So I've enough time to quickly post this, then hurry off to check emails. I checked most on my tablet, but there's only so much I can do on it, so I need my laptop for the rest.

Pretty colours, apologies for the lousy picture but didn't have time to keep retaking it.

Yesterday I visited an allotment for the first time - a post will be up this weekend about it over on my other blog Nayu's Crochet Dreams, where today's post shows a pretty friendship bracelet that was made for me. Tomorrow I'm sleeping over a friend's house, the one who is moving to Devon in November so won't be a mere 15 minute drive away, so will be packing & resting up for that tomorrow morning (not going until mid afternoon).

For some reason my laptop didn't process the single card pics I'd sent it from my tablet...so will post the other pics on the dedicated Love Live post. This is the card I  wanted to tier for (get to a certain rank) - I did it! Is't Nico super cute with the bunny??!!!

Seeing as I've spent most of the week gaming on Love Live School Idol Festival in an attempt to tier and gets 2 fabulous cards, I now need to do some reading. Must resist the gaming!!! (Yes I did tier & will explain all another day). 

I don't have time to post anything tomorrow, but I do hope to post something on Sunday, so have a good one and see you soon! 

Anime Round-up #1 Love Live School Idol Project, Kobato, Clannad

I love anime more than Madoka loves doing special appeals in Aikatsu!

For ages I've wanted to do an extended version of the Watching section of my weekly What AreYou Reading meme, which includes all categories of activities that I've done in the past week, but it's only now I figure out what to do. These posts will include why I'm watching certain anime (if there is a reason...) what I love about it and what I'm looking forward to. At least that's my current aim-anything can happen! Please note there will be some spoilers so that I can chat openly about the anime.

I think of the moon whenever I think of Ramadan because the month is a lunar month!

At the moment I'm trying to finish some anime by June, because Ramadan starts early June, and that's a time where I try and eliminate reading and watching stuff with romance in and anything that is slightly mature in content, and which has themes that are a bit dark. This is my personal choice, and it means I get to watch some anime which I specifically ignore until Ramadan. Naturally I can watch what I like after dusk, and I will be getting my Aikatsu dose before bed, but generally I find it easier not to watch certain shows for the entire month.

Love Live is a current favourite, and one I'm finishing  before June. Originally Honoka sets up an school idol unit to save her school from closing by encouraging more students to apply. The first season of 12 episodes focuses on that goal, with the group expanding to 9 very different girls. Once the group take off in popularity they strive to enter the music competition Love Live, but unfortunately events occur which stop them from competing. 

Happy Honoka!

I remember seeing this for the first time and being utterly devastated the girls couldn't achieve their goal. However, the second season of 13 episodes sees Honoka not only as student president (an unimaginable scenario given how different she is to the former student president Eli who is conscientious and dedicated) 

Eli serious before she joins up

A relaxed Eli!

but she reforms the group Muse as there is a 2nd Love Live show! There are laughs and tears as the girls go through various life events while reaching for their dreams. I adore the costumes for being cute, and the music of the songs (not always keen on the lyrics), and for Honoka's bubbly go get them personality, as well as so much else which I'll speak about another time. I'm starting the 2nd season very soon!  

Arise, the top school idol group who Honoka & friends compete against

Not sure if this scene is from the anime or just artwork, but I adore Kobato's frilly dress & matching parasol!

Another anime I'm hoping to finish is Kobato. Full & accurate summary is here from Wikipedia.

 Kobato is a sweet, perky, cute yet naïve girl who has a contract: to go to a certain place, she must fill a mysterious bottle with people's "healed hearts" to do so. However, the restriction is that she must finish before the four seasons end. As Kobato attempts to fulfill her mission, she is accompanied by Ioryogi, a spirit in the form of a dog plushie. Because Ioryogi is responsible for a punishment that has been applied to him and his friends from the spiritual world, he must guide Kobato and ensure that she succeeds her mission, so that he and his friends might return to their true forms.

Kobato with the other main characters

I absolutely adore the cute style of this anime-I'm hoping to start collecting the manga in a few months too! While there are many light moments as sweet, often naive Kobato does her best to help others with their problems, there is a dark undertone that explores the less happy side of life. 

Sometimes I can only watch 1 episode in a day because I get so emotionally caught up in the story that there is only so much darkness that I can handle. I hope this anime has a happy ending!!! 

Kobato is best when she is happy!

The main girls in Clannad

The other anime I'm talking about today is Clannad (including season 2 Clannad After Story). I am addicted to this 24 episode (each season) anime which pulls all my heart strings. It is full of mega cute lovable moe characters with gorgeous hair and such compassionate personalities (some are well hidden). It is a love story, but the sweetest one ever. 

Nagisa getting a dango toy present from Tomoya

Nagisa and Tomoya go from being at school to being married. They never kiss! Their romance is sweet because thy are so shy. They eventually hold hands, and anything else is off screen. 

This is once they are married - they don't share the same room to sleep before then (yay!)

There is nothing inappropriate, there is no innuendo, it is a clean romance. It is so sweet because all the characters go through insanely tough times. Nagisa has a mysterious long term illness which is nice to see in anime because it's something I can relate too all too easily. 

She doesn't complain, pushes herself to her absolute limit and then collapse. Not a good pacing strategy, Nagisa!

You get to see her frustration when not being able to graduate, and the kindness of her friends who prepare a special graduation just for her. Be warned here is lots of heartbreak which makes me cry my heart out, that's despite knowing what happens at the end of the second season!

I get teary whenever she is sick and has to rest in bed.

I love how much Nagisa's parents make me smile, with continuous events that are funny becaude they are done so often (such as Akio forcing down Sinai's terrible bread creations that noone else can or will willingly eat). 

I love the link to Kanon, an anime by the same company with similar cute characters and complex plot, as is is explained as being in another town. I was going to read the manga this month, but being the Japanese version it will take a while, and I'm fangirling over Nagisa and her passion for the super cute Dangos, so I'm going to watch both seasons by the end of the month somehow. This has fast become an anime I have to watch regularly, and alongside Aikatsu (more on that in another post) is my top anime of all time! 

Nagisa's dango family!

I hope you enjoyed learning about the anime I'm currently watching! I hope to do the next one very soon! 

Nagisa and Tamoya with their little girl Ushio