A Streetpass test

I started Streetpassing this year. For those who don't know, Streetpass is this nifty little feature the 3DS has that allows you to "tag" people who are also carrying their 3DS and unlocks some nice little features if you get enough tags. I've been bringing my 3DS around when I remember to charge it just to see what happens. Interesting results. My Streetpass progress so far:

Tags: 1639
Plaza Population: 1060

Map progress:
US: 26 regions
Netherlands: 1 region
Haiti: 1 region
Canada: 1 region
Argentina: 1 region
Japan: 2 regions
Virgin Islands: 1 region

Keep in mind I've currently been to two cons and one big gaming event just this year, so the numbers are a tad high due to this.

Tomorrow I will be going to a small two-day event for anime lovers. How many tags can I get this time? We shall see...

UPDATE: Current tags: 1677, total population: 1092. A total of 38 new tags and 32 new people. 3 new regions also discovered. Turnout was about 250-350. Won't be going tomorrow since there's usually a smaller turnout the next day and I have other obligations to fulfill, but this was certainly enlightening to some extent.

Just a few Disgaea 4 Vita pics

 

This was the time it took me to beat the main story.

The infamous Meowkin Pirates

Owning Zetta. I think I fought him around the 22-24 hour mark.

Prinny Kurtis encounter

A new soon-to-be ally

Boss of the Netherbattle Tournament

The new best armor in the game. Trapezohedron wut?

All Pirate Ship parts trophy.

Baal in LoC. Doesn't get any stronger than this.

The aftermath

And the reward

And he's back.

All skills trophy. Grave Eternity is from Baal. Yes, his skills are required.

All Items trophy. Was missing an orb to finish it, so I got one from the Hospital

The platinum trophy

This is how long it took to get the platinum, minus resetting times

Disgaea 4: PS3 to PSVita changes

Okay, I've seen a lot of confusion about the new changes to this game, and just outright misinformation, hence the reason for this post. Having seen virtually all the content in the Vita version, I feel I should put an end to this confusion once and for all.

Please note that I've never patched my Disgaea 4 PS3 game, so I've never seen any of the DLC for it save Hi-Res Asagi. Let me know if any changes listed are not really changes, and I will amend it.

The Changes
- ALL DLC from the original game is now in the Vita version. This includes pirate ships, characters, classes, items, and modes.
- A cheat code that allows you to immediately access all the content that wasn't in the original game can be done at the start. Highlight continue then press Triangle, []. O, Triangle, [], O, X, (should hear a voice if done correctly) and load your save to access the new content.
- A new "Time Leap" scenario, spanning 16 levels, which awards two characters, Nagi Clockwork and Sister Artina, upon completion. Yes, you can use both Sister Artina and regular Artina at once.
- New Rank 40-2 items have been added for weapons and armor. These are the new strongest items in the game and have 2 MOV and 30 JMP naturally. Very useful! To get them, just go through the old rank 40s and steal from the Item God 2 in floor 100. All weapons have these new R40-2s, plus a new R40-2 armor (Invincible Armor).
- Cheat Shop from Disgaea D2 has been added. Replaces the Stronger/Weaker Enemy bills and allows you to manipulate EXP/Mana/HL percentages that enemies give.
- Frequency of the Old Combat Master in Chara World drastically increased (Seem to get him about 50% of the time now.)
- To expand Evil Symbols/learn tier 7 or 8 skills, you need to clear all Geo Blocks from any floor in floors 1-8, as opposed to floor 10 in the PS3 version
- Peta level spells have been added, replacing Tera spells as the most powerful spell version.
- At least two special level spheres always appear during reverse pirating, making it possible to get 25 levels per reverse pirating attempt, provided you capture them all. This means you only need to get 75 extra levels outside of reverse pirating to max a legendary item.
- You can now re-select where a character moves for that turn, as long as it's within the character's movement range. This means you no longer have to use O to move a unit back if you mess up moving them for that turn.
- As a consequence of the above change, once a character has executed an action for their turn, they can no longer cancel where they move after doing so.
- Meowkin Pirates start appearing from floor 25+ onwards, as opposed to floor 90+.
- Trophy list is different, which now requires things like defeating the new (kinda) superboss Baal in LoC, and completing all the extra scenarios.
- HL costs for things like BGMs and Character colors have been drastically reduced.
- CP costs for Objects and Geo Effects have been drastically reduced.
- Item World NPC now offers an Innocent Storage option, which allows you to store up to 256 Innocents. A very useful feature from Disgaea 3 Vita.
- You can now bribe the Senate with HL if a bill is rejected. VERY VERY useful.
- You can now buy Mr. Gency Exits from the Specialty Shop for a hefty 999,999,999,999 HL after defeating Baal.
- The Scalper (Cu Sith NPC) found in Mystery rooms who sells X-Dimension tickets now sells ALL 63 tickets every time you encounter him.
- Stella and Rutile from Disgaea 3 Vita can now join your party at the start of the game provided you have a Disgaea 3 Vita save. You'll need to approve a bill to recruit them however.
- New unique skills are added for generic humanoids.
- As a result of the above change, a new duping method is now available, which involves equipping your own Battlesuit units with the items you want duped, then having them use their Run Wild skill to turn neutral, then killing them with a unit equipped with the Puppy Paw Stick.
- You can now choose to weaken a character's skill if you so desire.
- Frequency of events like Old Combat Master, level spheres, and mystery room events like the Scalper, seem to have increased.
- An event viewer NPC can be found at the base. She allows you to view scenes that you've already seen.
- Some skills like Adell's Vulcan Blaze, had their power levels changed.
- Some evilities, most notably No Life King from Tyrant Valvatorez, can now be inherited through Chara World.
- Any skill whose animation hasn't been seen before will always show the animation the first time it's used, regardless of settings.
- Fenrich can now follow Lord Val around the base.You can get rid of him through a bill.
- Upon getting a Game Over you're given the option to Retry, Return to map select, or Return to title screen. You can also access this feature when choosing Quit. Very handy feature indeed. It's worth noting that your progress is reset to what it was before you started the map, however, if you stole let's say, a legendary Satan's Force for the first time and reset, the data for the legendary Satan's Force will still be recorded in your item collection. You just won't get to keep it.
- New voiced lines, although regular Valvatorez has a different VA for his new lines for some reason -.-
- You can now promote a generic to the next tier without reincarnating, provided you've unlocked the next tier and have the mana to do so. This does not reset the unit's levels. Very useful to jumpstart the whole capturing/disciplining process.
- Item Gods can be infinitely killed to raise any item's stats to the maximum, although it will only provide levels the first time it's killed. This feature is in the patched version of Disgaea 4, but I thought it worth mentioning for those who only played the game unpatched.

Potential Bugs
- Some English voice clips (primarily Baciel) will crash the game. Playing with JP voices is recommended until patched, if ever.
- Noticeable frame rate drop in some maps, particularly 10th floors in the Item World.

Mini-review of Disgaea 4 Vita

Pros:
+ Portability! Who doesn't want to play this game in between classes, or in the bathroom?
+ Less tediousness. Several changes make grinding less tedious, such as the Cheat Shop, frequency of rare events, and new duping method.
+ Still the same awesome game that it was 3 years ago, and better!
+ All DLC from the PS3 version included. That's over $100 worth of DLC content in this $40 package.
+ New storyline exclusive to this version that ensures this isn't exactly the same game as the PS3 version.
+ Did I mention you can now play this in the bathroom? :O

Cons:
- Inconsistent English voice actors.
- Frame rate drops in certain areas
- New changes made the game a little TOO easy, if you ask me.

Overall: 9.5/10

If you loved the original game and didn't get to experience all the DLC content due to the hefty prices, this is definitely a must buy. If you haven't played the original game due to the large grind it has, and have a Vita, this one's a great addition to your Vita library. Despite all the new content, this version is a lot more user-friendly and thus, easier compared to its console counterpart. There's also a lot of online features that will keep veterans and casuals busy for a while, like map creator and pirate duels. Of course, the staple Item World is still here and can still eat up plenty of hours. The frame rate drops may be a bit off-putting to some, but I find that didn't deter from the overall experience.

Metrico World 6 walkthrough

For this area, you'll need to have a red, blue, and green color source near you. Here's a masterfully crafted work that took all of 30 seconds to make which should address this need.

Trophies to be earned:
Optimized mind - Complete the world in one session without using Triangle to reset a puzzle.

Thoughts on trophy: There are 5 sections where you can't mess up, otherwise you're forced to use Triangle to reset. None of them require any godlike platforming skills however, just perfect execution. Four of these sections are located at the very end, so if you mess up, just play through the rest of the world so you're more familiar with the puzzles before attempting it again.

Glitch warning: There a certain puzzle where the objects might not respond properly even if you do the correct actions. If this happens, there's nothing you can do but exit the current play session and replay up to that point and hope it doesn't happen again. As of now it's unknown what exactly causes it, but just be aware that it exists. I'll note which puzzle it is when you come to it. As a precautionary measure, you may want to turn off and restart your PSVita system once you reach this world, as it's said that this can help avoid the glitch, although it's not 100% guaranteed to work.

This time, you get the ability to summon an orb of light above your head by holding Square.

Start by pressing Square for a bit to summon a platform.

Get on it, and place your finger over the Vita's camera and press Square to lower the platforms, then hold Square while pointing your Vita at something white to raise them.

Raise and lower the platforms as needed and advance to the next area.

For this area,

do a CW, then slide down the ramp, and kill the enemy below. CCW to lower the pillar, get on it, then CW again to raise it. Repeat the process of sliding down the ramp, then going back up and sliding down again until the rightmost pillar is at 0%. Once it's at 0%, CCW and keep shooting until the horizontal platform extends fully.

Cover the camera with your finger and hold Square to lower the remaining pillar, and move on.

For the next area, get on the Y= platform, then jump in place and shoot while in mid-air.

Keep doing this until the platform is around Y=250.

Should be okay to jump off at this point.

Once that's done, jump off and you should be able to jump on the platform to the right and advance.

Move to the rightmost ring, activate it, and press O.

Get on the different colored floor,

and jump on it 3 times to make a platform rise. Go activate the ring to the left and press O. Head to the left and drop down and you should be able to progress.

WARNING: Be careful on this puzzle, as screwing up requires the use of Triangle to reset.

For this you'll need to have your red, blue, and green color sources with you. Start by holding Square while on red (I'll refer to this process as scanning from now on) to lower the platform, then jump on it. Now, scan blue and activate the ring when the platform reaches it,

then scan green until the platform reaches the very left. Kill all the enemies while still on the platform; then scan red until the platform reaches the bottom, then walk off and activate the ring below.

Finally, get back on the platform and scan blue till it reaches the ring again.

Activate the ring, then scan red until the platform is at its lowest level,

then walk all the way right, jump over a pillar, and you're done with this one.

There's a collectible here. Unlock it, then press O to reset the puzzle. Start scanning red until the leftmost pillar is around 79%, then jump on it. Now, scan green until the 2nd pillar from the left is around 28%, then scan blue until the 3rd pillar from the left is around 40%, and jump onto the rightmost pillar. The setup should look like the picture below.

Once on the rightmost pillar, scan either red or green to raise it to 100%.

For this one, jump all the way to the right and land on the blue pillar.

Scan any color to lower the red pillar.

Keep shooting to raise the blue pillar, then drop down all the way to the bottom (Don't land in the middle area or you'll need to restart). Kill the enemy below

 then start firing like mad to raise the tall blue pillar again. Jump on the blue pillar to the very right, then kill the enemies as they drop down.

Once the green platform has fully retracted, start jumping in place to raise the pillar you're on and proceed further,

Jump right all the way down to the bottom,

then scan red until the pillar you land on is around 40%.

After that, do a CW to let the red platform crush you,

then jump back on the green pillar, scan red all the way to the top, and move on.

For this one, jump until the lowest platform is at 100%,

then do a small CCW motion until the blue platform is around 75-90%.

Keep firing until the red platform is at 0%. You should now be able to get to the other side.
Activate the ring to the right, then go back to the left end, activate that ring, then right again to activate the ring, which should raise the pillar high enough to let you pass.

WARNING: From this point on, screwing up any of the puzzles will require the use of Triangle to reset, so try not to mess up ;)

Potential glitch warning: The upcoming puzzle can possibly glitch on you. Test it by firing a shot. If nothing moves, then unfortunately, the puzzle has glitched and you can't complete it in that state. This also means you need to restart the world for the trophy ;/

There's a collectible here. Skip it for now, as getting it will require Triangle to completely reset the puzzle.

Start by dropping down, and activating the ring beside the platform as you fall. Press O to summon an enemy and kill it. Start shooting until the horizontal platform says 6/6, then press O.

Jump to the ring on the right and activate it. Press O 3 times to summon three more enemies. Jump to the tall pillar on the left

and shoot two enemies once (but don't kill them) from up there to raise a pillar, which will allow you access to the next area.

Only 3 more to go after this!

Start by pressing O to reset. Jump to the right, and activate the second ring while in mid-air and while still in mid-air, quickly press O again to warp to the top.

You should be able to jump over the pillar at the bottom and proceed to the next puzzle once you land.

Interesting one. Walk back and forth between the two rings, and keep activating them to draw the triangle platform in.

Walk on the platform, then start jumping until it reaches the upper right area. Jump on the red pad twice,

and press O to warp back to the left.

Keep activating the rings again to bring the red platform to you. Now, activate the ring on that platform,

then, while still staying on the left area, kill the two enemies to lower the platform,

then press O to warp to the platform. Be careful not to stay too close to the rings when doing this.

Jump on the pad at the bottom until the blockade is fully lowered

 then press O to warp again and head to the final puzzle.

The final collectible is here. Skip it for now. Press O 4 times to completely lower the pillar before you

then jump down to the ground where the other pillars are located.

Make sure NOT to land on the platform in the middle!

Kill the enemy that appears to your left. Now, stand in the area shown below, fire two shots to the left, and quickly jump on one of the pillars.

Fire 2 shots from this position, then quickly jump to the 2/4 pillar.

After that, fire 4 shots anywhere and you've done it!

Note that the next part can be completely skipped if you just care about trophies. The ending isn't anything special.

To get the doors open, you need to... do nothing! Just place your Vita anywhere and don't touch it. Watch the spastic lightshow or go make a sandwich, take a bathroom break or whatever and come back to it. There should be 3 new doors. Take the yellow door to exit. Strangely enough, this is the only time in the game where your character can move up :O

For your reward, you get... an unskippable credits scene!

Well, that's Metrico for you. I hope you had fun playing and only came here as a last resort ;)