I bought some games…that I won’t play (and one that I WILL)

Yes, you read that title correctly: I’ve bought some games that I have no intention of playing. None at all. Zero, zilch etc. That’s not to say that I’m not interested in playing them (because I am) but my primary intention behind these quick online purchases was something a little different.

Some sealed PS4 goodness. Likely to stay that way.

So here we have Star Ocean: Integrity & Faithlessness, Root Letter and Akiba’s Beat. Three sealed PS4 games that fall under the JRPG umbrella or – in the case of Root Letter – the ‘Visual Novel’ category. Now it’s important to quickly mention that these ARE my sorts of games and usually I’d be very much looking forward to playing them. However, my gaming time – especially for large RPGs – has shrunk drastically in recent years so considering I already possess a terrible backlog of games, it’s unlikely that I will be getting around to these any time soon.

What these games represent is the beginning of a bit of a speculative experiment centred on the black art of investing in sealed games. It’s a side of gaming that I’d traditionally roll my eyes at or leave to those with too much money on their hands but recently I have been looking at ways to make my money work for itself over the medium-term since the 9-5 grind simply isn’t enough. I looked to sealed collecting because gaming (as well as trading cards) is something that I know about so I feel quietly confident about what I will choose to put money into.

The biggest reason however is because I believe it to be incredibly foolish not to look back at past trends and see what the pattern is. JRPG’s and niche titles with small print runs have ALWAYS shot up in value over time due to a relative low supply versus your mainstream FIFAs, Call of Dutys and Halos. Look back at similar titles for the original Playstation or have a glance at the PS2’s JRPG’s library. How many times have you looked at a shocking going rate for a used ten year-old title and thought “man, I remember when these were everywhere for a fraction of the price. I wish I’d bought loads of these when I had the chance!”. This is the past trend that I’m talking about.

Look back even further at SNES games like Terranigma. Never exactly peanuts to pick up but once upon a time, very easy to find at carboot sales, second-hand stores etc.

Now I’m not going to go mental and spend megabucks on loads of sealed games. What I plan to do is (whenever I have a bit of spare money) search for cheap deals and offers on mainstream sites such as Amazon because today’s £10.99 clearance game is tomorrow’s £30 hot property on the likes of ebay. As another collector once stated on a gaming forum I used to frequent…

Always keep an eye on the here and now.

He was spot-on too and this mantra goes for any sort of calculated investing. Money is easy to make on past investments because there are more people desperate to get their hands on something they missed than people looking to predict which of today’s available products are worth buying and putting to one side.

The cheapest of these games was Star Ocean which set me back £7.99 including shipping to my door. On that level of investment, you can’t lose. Star Ocean is a cult JRPG franchise (living in the shadow of the likes of Final Fantasy) and so it is a known name among followers of the genre. Even if there IS no future interest in this game, it will still be saleable (in sealed condition) for not much less than £7.99 in the worst case scenario. The other two games were between £10-£13 apiece so represent a slightly riskier investment but this price for sealed current generation software direct to your front door is still a bargain and there are many more like it to be bagged now while they are still dropping in value.

And if I do manage to get rid of that pesky backlog or come across a reason strong enough to make me desperate to play one of the games I’ve put aside as an investment? Well I’ll have the games in my possession and would probably be perfectly willing to rip the plastic off one or two of them since I am first and foremost still a gamer.

Either way, I enjoy playing around with investing into physical product so this for me is a fun little experiment that I may post updates for whenever I’ve accumulated a few more bits.

But I did say in the title that I also bought a game that I WILL play didn’t I?

Denied to us in the West but English subs and menus save the day.

I’ve been after this for a long time now because while I do own the PS4 version of the game, I’ve been doing a lot more handheld gaming of late and since I’ve not gotten around to even starting its bigger, home console sister, I couldn’t resist grabbing this Asian-English copy of Dead Or Alive Xtreme 3 from ebay. A childish part of me also felt like rebelling against the recent announcement that Dead Or Alive 6 would be growing up somewhat…

For anybody not in the know, PSVita (and PS4 for that matter) games are region-free and these Asian-English editions of the games come with English menu text and subtitles so are perfectly playable without any sort of language barrier-induced confusion. The DLC I’m not sure about but I don’t intend to look too hard at that side of things as I know that there will be masses of it for a game like this! In any case, I have played DOAX3 a little bit and will post my thoughts in a dedicated piece sometime soon. I’ll close my showing off the two editions together in one picture…

Kotobukiya Rainbow Mika Figure Review (possible NSFW)

Guilty admission number one: today was supposed to be some sort of game review or write-up. I have a few in mind that I’d like to bash out for Darkstalker90 Gaming but due to being so damned busy, I’ve simply not had the time nor found that magical, sweet place that I like my brain to be in if I’m to feel anything like a semi-decent passable wordsmith.

Guilty admission number two: I have a weakness for PVC figures and statues, especially those that depict my favourite female fighting game characters. It’s the height of pervy nerdism (is that even a word?) but hey, it is what it is. I’ve never really owned more than five figures at a time so I can’t say that this particular collection has ever been excessive compared to those of others’ that I have seen (although some might fairly point out that even owning a single ‘sexy’ figure like these is one too many…). I always sell some in order to create space/funds for others but it has certainly been a while since my last acquisition and I was quite proud of that fact…until I happened across this dynamite Rainbow Mika figure from Kotobukiya’s “Bishijou” line.

It really was one of those “gotta have it” moments and I was hitting up ebay a few days later and slamming an order in. I’ve already got the Cammy figurine from this same Bishijou line and both are sculpted from the reference of an illustration by legendary artist Shunya Yamashita who is famous for drawing the ladies. One of the main draws of this particular figure is that it depicts Mika in her updated Street Fighter V costume. In general, there aren’t really any other worthy Rainbow Mika figures with exception to the Capcom Maniax version by Megahouse which is getting on a bit now but still a looker (I have that one too) and worth having as it is the character’s original Alpha 3 outfit.

Rainbow Mika is all about the outrageous curves and mega booty, two things that this figurine really nailed. I actually think that it is much better than the original illustration by Mr Yamashita so kudos to the sculpter. The downsides are pretty much the same for any figurine of this sub-£100 price point and relate to it being a “cheap” PVC job as opposed to a high-end ceramic or resin model but let me say from experience that this figure is very good in the flesh (or plastic as the case may be) and I have no complaints about the quality. There is an upcoming Mika figure from Pop Culture Shock which will be very high quality as usual but set you back hundreds and hundreds of dollars as well as being very limited if previous PCS figures are anything to by. Obviously your budget and standards will ultimately decide whether you want one of these Kotobukiya versions but I will just leave a few more snaps here to help you decide…

Bad-ass Cammy art print by Artgerm

Videogame artwork or any sort of art from artists with something to do with gaming is one of my favourite things about the hobby. I’m pretty big into art in general outside of gaming so the two things tend to go really well together and you will definitely be seeing a lot more art-related content here on Darkstalker90 Gaming in the future. Today however is just a quick one to show off this awesome signed A3 print of everybody’s favourite British special agent with the killer booty.

(To see the raw image without my utterly amateurish flash glare reflecting off the plastic frame frontage, click HERE)

The artist behind this stunning work is Stanley Lau a.k.a “Artgerm”, a pretty prolific artist who has produced countless fantastic pieces based on videogame and comic book characters over the years. Cammy is one of my favourite characters so when I saw this, I had to have it. I really love how the image is colourless save for the red of her gloves and beret. The fact that this is hand-signed is a nice bonus too. All I have done is mount it inside a simple edge-less frame with a perspex front, ready for hanging (hence the nasty flash glare ruining one of the print’s focal points!)

Very happy with it.

You can visit Artgerm’s store here to purchase a print of this image amongst other lovely things.