Suite Pretty Cure

Suite Pretty Cure♪ (スイートプリキュア♪, Suīto Purikyua♪; also known as Suite PreCure) is the my most favorite Pretty Cure series by Toei Animation, premiered on February 6, 2011. This series' theme is related to music.

Plot

Mephisto, the ruler of Minor Land, threatens the world by spreading the Melody of  Sorrow throughout the human world. He is also after a powerful item called the Legendary Score, in which the Melody of Happiness is written. The Fairy of Songs, Hummy is sent to the human world to search for the new Pretty Cures to stand up against Mephisto and collect the scattered notes of the Melody of Happiness. 

The two chosen Pretty Cures are Hibiki Houjou and Kanade Minamino, two friends who grew up together in Kanon Town. Very different in their personalities, they share one thing in common: A connection to music. No matter how different they are or how much their differences cause them to quarrel, they both continue to share loving hearts. One day they meet Hummy, who comes from Major Land. They have to instantly transform into Pretty Cures to resist the threats and evil music from Mephisto. Can they stop the Melody of Sorrow from disrupting their peaceful town, and can their warped friendship measure up to the bonds of Pretty Cure?

Characters

Pretty Cures

Hibiki Houjou (北条 響 Hōjō Hibiki)

Seiyuu: Ami Koshimizu

Family: Dan Houjou (father), Maria Houjou (mother)

A sporty girl who has a cheerful personality. She excels at sports, an expert on soccer, but is very bad at studying. She also loves to eat sweet things, in particular the cakes from Kanade's family's shop. Her catchphrase is, "If I don't finish now, girls like me will be obsolete! (ここで決めなきゃ女がすたる！Koko de kimenakya onna ga sutaru!)"

Her alter ego is Cure Melody (キュアメロディ Kyua Merodi). She use Dory to transform and Miry to summon Miracle Belltier. She introduces herself as "Playing the wild tune, Cure Melody!" (爪弾くは荒ぶる調！ キュアメロディ！ Tsumabiku wa araburu shirabe, Kyua Merodi!)

 

Kanade Minamino (南野　奏 Minamino Kanade)

Birthday: May 25

Seiyuu: Fumiko Orikasa

Family: Sousuke Minamino (father), Misora Minamino (mother), Souta Minamino (younger brother)

Hibiki's childhood friend. Kanade is a excellent student, but she is not really good at sports. Her excellent grades and personality make her sort of a celebrity in her school. She dreams of being a pastry chef and take over her parents' shop, the Lucky Spoon. She also has a strong love for cats (including Hummy), and is an unequaled "paw fanatic." Her catchphrase is, "I'll show you my awesome recipe! (気合のレシピみせてあげるわ！Kiai no reshipi misete ageru wa!)"

Her alter ego is Cure Rhythm (キュアリズム Kyua Rizumu). She use Rery to transform and Fary to summon Fantasic Belltier. She introduces herself as "Playing the tranquil tune, Cure Rhythm!" (爪弾くはたおやかな調！キュアリズム！ Tsumabiku wa taoyaka na shirabe, Kyua Rizumu!)

Siren (セ イレーン Seirēn) / Ellen Kurokawa (黒川エレン Kurokawa Eren) / Cure Beat (キュアビート Kyua Bīto)

Seiyuu: Megumi Toyoguchi

Seiren is a female Cat-like "Fairy of Songs" and Mephisto's assistant. Although she was born in Major Land and is friends with Hummy, when her title of the annual singer of the "Melody of Happiness" was given to Hummy instead, she got jealous and asked to be Mephisto's right-hand. But in truth, she was manipulated by Mephisto so he could get the Legendary Score in the first place. As Siren, she has powerful abilities and can create Negatones using her dark powers. She can also use her powers to disguise herself into any being she wishes. As Ellen, she has shown to be a strong fighter and is able to materialize notes and use them as projectiles. Currently she is now lives alone in the flat and fears with crab and ghosts. Her catchphrase is "The heart's beat will never stop! (心のビートはもう止められないわ！ Kokoro no bīto wa mou tomerarenai wa!)"

Her potential of being a Pretty Cure was awakened when she realizes her true friendship for Hummy, as it breaks away the mind control Mephisto did to her and saved Hummy. This triggers her transformation into the Pretty Cure of Miracles, Cure Beat. But as exchange, her necklaces shatters and trapping her in human form.

Her alter ego is Cure Beat, she use Lary to transform and Solry to summon Love Guitar Rod. She introduces herself as "Playing the Soulful Tune, Cure Beat!" (爪弾く魂の調！キュアビート！ Tsumabiku wa Tamashī no Shirabe, Kyua Bīto!)

Ako Shirabe (調辺 アコ, Shirabe Ako) / Cure Muse (キュアミューズ, Kyua Myūzu)

Seiyuu: Rumi Ōkubo

Ako is a student in Public Kanon Elementary, who is in the same class as Kanade's little brother, Souta. She is very mature for her age, but also very cold and not above handing out lectures to her elders, particularly towards Hibiki and Kanade. Unbeknownst to the Pretty Cures, she had masked herself as a mysterious fighter named Cure Muse who aids them using colorful piano keys to form barriers and restraints. She often assists the Pretty Cures if they are trapped, but leaves them to finish off the Negatones. She hid her status under the mask and didn't speak, as her Fairy Tone partner, Dodory, did all the talking. She often declared that she won't partner herself with the Cures until the time was right.

During Episode 35, she reveals herself to be Major Land's princess, the daughter of Aphrodite and Mephisto. After her father went missing, she came to Kanon Town and lives with her grandfather, Otokichi to investigate the truth, and her potential of Pretty Cure was awakend in the same time. 


Her alter ego is Cure Muse. In her masked form, her theme color is black, and in her true form, her theme color is yellow, and her Fairy Tone is Dodory. She use Tiry and Cure Module to attack instead of using Belltier like previous Cure. She introduces herself as "Playing the goddess' tune, Cure Muse!" (爪弾くは女神の調べ！キュアミューズ！ Tsumabiku wa megami no shirabe, Kyua Myūzu!)

Trivia

Before the real designs of Cure Beat and true form of Cure Muse appears, in the leaked scans they have previous designs. I think Toei want to make fun on this trivia. Here we are:

• Cure Beat (キュアビートKyua Bīto) - Having dark and light blue as her theme color. From her hair style, her real identity is Waon Nishijima, Hibiki's sport teammate. But, Toei confirmed that she is Siren/ Ellen Kurokawa (see below, due for 2011 earthquake in Japan?).
• Cure Symphony (キュアシンフォニー Kyua Shinfonī) -   Having dark and light purple as her theme color. From the info I got, her real identity was Seika Higashiyama, the Queen of Sweets. But the strong candidates are Cure Muse, because her Fairy Tone, Dodory, is purple in color, but the fourth Cure name is officially confirms Cure Muse instead of Symphony (see above).

Mascots

Hummy (ハ ミィ Hamyi)

Seiyuu: Kotono Mitsuishi / REMI (young Hummy)

Female cat-like Fairy of Songs, and the partner of both Hibiki and Kanade. She is the annual singer of the Melody of Happiness. Hummy is sent to the human world to search and collect the scattered notes of the Melody of Happiness until she met both Hibiki and Kanade. Has an ability to summon seven Fairy Tones (excluding Dodory), detecting Pretty Cure's hearts, also she is able to purify the scattered note when Cure Melody, Cure Rhythm or Cure Beat use Belltier attack, and received the lost items by clapping. She ends up her sentence with "Meow (ニャ Nya)".

Minor Land

Mephisto (メフィスト Mefisuto)

Seiyuu: Kenyu Horiuchi

The former King of the nation Minor Land. He attempts to make the Melody of Happiness into the Melody of Sorrow to turn all worlds tragic, and to fulfill his taste of music. Mephisto has the power to brainwash others into doing his bidding using headphones that sound the Noise of Evil, but later it turns out that Mephisto is a victim of the Noise of Evil himself, who was Aphrodite's husband, the prince consort of Major Land, but after being ambushed and controlled by Noise when he went to retrieve the Hearing Chest in the cursed forest, he established Minor Land. In Episode 36, Ako manages to defeat the evil in his heart and return him back to normal. Mephisto tends to gush about Ako.

Bassdrum (バスドラ Basudora) (green), Baritone (バ リトン Bariton) (blue), and Falsetto (ファ ルセット Farusetto)  (pink)

Seiyuu: Atsushi Ono (Bassdrum), Yohei Obayashi (Baritone), Tooru Nara (Falsetto)

The ministers of Mephisto and the chorus Trio the Minor (トリオ・ザ・マイナー Torio za Mainā), who work with Siren. They always together and sing in unison rather than speak individually. Sometimes they can separately and one of them can make the scattered notes into Negatone. Later in Episode 11, Bassdrum becomes the leader after Siren fired from her position as a leader. They always collect a lot of Notes in order to become a leader. In Episode 26, they received powerups by using earphones with evil noise to receive upgraded forms (bottom) to find notes easier before Pretty Cure does and powerup the Negatone.

Starting from the end of Episode 36, Falsetto becomes the leader because Mephisto turns good and powerup Bassdrum and Baritone again into beast in beginning of Episode 37.

Negatone (ネガトーン Negatōn)

The Negatones are the series' monsters of the week. These are created from a scattered note inside an item through Siren's or one of Trio the Minor powers. Only Pretty Cure can purified and makes Negatone to sleep and return to scattered note, while the items is keep in a good condition.

Noise (ノイーズ Noīzu) / Little P (ピーちゃん Pī-chan)
Noise is a powerful evil demon and the main antagonist of the series. He is the one responsible for turning Mephisto evil as his powers can brainwash everyone who hears his song. Otokichi was once able to seal it away inside a fossil, however, Falsetto is trying to revive him by playing the Melody of Sorrow to draw energy from those who fall into sorrow listening to it. He is sort of like a dragon. After it breaks free from the seal upon hearing an incomplete Melody of Sorrow, it assumes a weird bird form, which Ako named Pii-chan, and used this form to get close to the Cures and steal their Notes. However, he was soon discovered to be Noise after he attempted to attack Otokichi and it's proven true thanks to Hibiki.

Others

Aphrodite (アフロディテ Afurodite)

Seiyuu: Noriko Hidaka

The queen of the nation "Major Land" and Ako's mother. She is also Otokichi's daughter who hosts the anniversary of the Melody of Happiness to pray for the peace of all worlds but is forced to scatter the Notes to protect them from Mephisto. She asked Hummy to go to the human world in search of people who can become Pretty Cures to collect the scattered notes.

Fairy Tones (フェアリートーン, Fearī Tōn)

Seiyuu: Mayu Kudou (8 Fairy Tones), Kumiko Nishihara (Cresendo)

This eight special jewel-like creatures lend their powers to Pretty Cure in different ways by inserting them into their Brooches. They are also in charge of collecting the scattered notes of the Melody of Happiness. The Fairy Tone's names are based on the Solfège scale. Can produce any sound and all addressing themselves as  Boku (僕 I; the common pronouns for young boys, tomboyish girl,or children) except Crescendo who use Watashi (わたし I; the more feminine word). 

 

Hummy can only summon seven of them, the eighth Fairy Tone is held by a Cure Muse. This table below shows you what color, what their name comes from, and the ability they have.

Name	Color	Ability
Dory (ドリー, Dorī)	Pink	Transformation into Cure Melody.  Its name comes to Dream (In Japanese, Dream reads as ドリーム Dorīmu). Hummy explains its power after Hibiki plays Ocarina with Cure Module and heals Hibiki's heart in Episode 5. When its inserted in Miracle Belltier with Miry, Cure Melody can cast an attack Miracle Heart Arpeggio and Music Rondo Super Quartet.
Rery (レリー, Rerī)	White	Transformation into Cure Rhythm.  The name comes to Legend (In Japanese, Legend reads as レジェンドRegendo) When it's inserted in Cure Module, it gives the player the willpower to get on. When its inserted in Fantastic Belltier with Fary, Cure Rhythm can cast Fantasic Piachere and Music Rondo Super Quartet.
Miry (ミリー, Mirī)	Orange	Gives Cure Melody the Miracle Belltier, which she can cast Music Rondo.  Its name comes from Miracle (ミラクル Mirakuru in Japanese reading)
Fary (ファリー, Farī)	Yellow	Gives Cure Rhythm the Fantastic Belltier, which she can cast Music Rondo.  Its name comes from Fantastic (ファンタスティックFantasikku in Japanese reading) In Episode 16, its arm are shorter than other Fairy Tones. Naive, likes to show his pride.
Solry (ソリー Sorī)	Green	Gives Cure Beat Love Guitar Rod, which she can use Heartful Beat Rock in Soul Rod. When it's inserted in Cure Module, it gives the player boost of power. Its name comes from Soul (ソウル Souru in Japanese reading)
Lary (ラリー Rarī)	Aqua	Transformation into Cure Beat. Its name comes from Love (ラブ Rabu in Japanese reading)  When it's inserted to Love Guitar Rod, Cure Beat can use Beat Sonic and Beat Barrier.
Sily/Tiry (シリー Shirī)	Blue	It's name comes from Shine (シャイン Shain in Japanese reading) When it's blowed in Cure Module, Cure Muse can use Shining Circle and Sparkling Shower.
Dodory (ドドリー Dodorī)	Purple	Held by Cure Muse. Speaks what Cure Muse wants and tell her real feeling. Like Dodory, its name also comes to Dream (In Japanese, Dream reads as ドリーム Dorīmu). Transformation into Cure Muse. Its eye pupil have the star-like shape than regular circles.
Cresendo (クレッシェンド Kureshendo)	Gold	The Fairy of All Sounds, a creator of the other Fairy Tones. Can be summoned by scanning the hand into the Hearing Chest. Has an ability to heal the weakened Fairy Tones. Starts communicating telepathically with Hibiki following an incident where the Fairy Tones' Notes get stolen in Episode 26. Enables Cure Melody into her upgraded form in the movie, Crescendo Cure Melody. Can be used to perform Suite Session Ensemble (Crescendo with Cure Muse).

Thanks to Pretty Cure Wikia and Wikipedia for this info! And thanks again for livejournal for the picture!

Harvest Moon Grand Bazaar

Harvest Moon Grand Bazaar is a Harvest Moon game realesed in Japan December 18 2008 by Marvelous, in US August 24 2011 by Natsume, and Europe will release it later on September 30 2011 by Rising Star. This game, which is also named as Ranch Story: Welcome! to Wind's Bazaar (牧場物語　ようこそ！風のバザールへ Bokujō Monogatari: Yōkoso! Kaze no Bazaar he) in Japan, is the nineteenth game in the Harvest Moon series and the fifth game in the Harvest Moon DS series for the Nintendo DS.

(source: fogu.com)
Zephyr Town once had a world famous bazaar, where shoppers from distant lands would gather to purchase goods from the town's bazaar stands. Unfortunately the bazaar from yesteryear has now fallen into despair, and very few visitors now a days come to the weekly gathering. You have recently moved to Zephyr Town to take over the run down farm on the outskirts of town, and hopefully with your hard work and efforts, the town's bazaar can be revitalized and become grand once again.

This game features a drastic change. Here we go to the features:

 

First the crops. You can buy seeds from Raul's shop in Zephyr Town and at Chen's, Felix's, Sherry's and Raul's bazaar booths, but it's all random. In this game, this will features fertilizer, which can raise the star quality of the crops and fruit. But watch out! If you step the crops in Run Mode, it will decrease the star quality! New in here too, every 10 hours you water your crops, it will dry out, so you can water it again to fasten the growth rate (except trees, you don't need to water it).

Next, the bazaar. Every Saturday or Sunday (if on Saturday has a festival or someone's birthday), there is a bazaar hold by Felix, the mayor. You can participate in the bazaar if you want to, whether you go to purchase items from other vendors or you go to sell your own items. The bazaar opens at 10:00 am and closes at 7:00 pm. Then, in next morning, you will given a choice to go to the bazaar result, where Felix announce the top 3 profit winners who met (or exceeded) the bazaar's profit goal and the bazaar stands had the highest reputation; this is earned by selecting the appropriate answer when you talk with question-customers.

Then, the animals. You can buy the cows, sheeps, and chickens by Enrique's stall. You can buy baby chickens, baby cows, and baby sheep from Enrique at the bazaar. Once you buy the baby-version, the adult sized animal will be unlocked at the next bazaar. But, you cannot sell them back to Enrique. Starting Year 3, Enrique will start to have updated version. Jersey Cow, Sullfolk Sheep, and Silkie Chicken will produce different produce. Unlike animals, pets (dogs and cats) will take the animals outside. Now you can have 5 dogs and 5 cats. You will able to buy dogs if you have 4 Cows and Sheep, while you can buy cats if you have 4 Chickens. Horse is the pet that you can get on summer of the second year. You can choose one of the 4 types of horse! Oh, and one last thing, you must feed all of them or your friendship will drop!

 

Next is a windmill. The windmills are used for making various items but they are not functioning correctly when you begin your game. Isaac and Wilbur will work on repairing the windmills. When each one is complete, Isaac will stop by your house in the morning and let you know.Windmill 1 is on your farm which it is used for fermenting items and you can use it starting on Spring 23 of your first year. Next, Windmill 2 is next to the hotel which it is used for manufacturing jewelry, balls of wool, and upgrading your tools, you can used in Summer 17 of your first year. Lastly, Windmill 3 is west of Lloyd's house in the Waterfall area, which is used for grinding crops back into seeds, flowers into perfume, making flour, and so on, its unlocked on Fall 20 of your first year. You can choose the items you want to make if you have enough ingredients. Once you ready, you can blow on your MIC to fasten the time. You can also put the Wonderful Stones bought by Diego which have different abilities for windmill.

 

Lastly for my review is festival. There are many festivals and the new ones are Flower Festival, Tea Party, Wine Festival and Snowboard Contest. Cooking Festival was break off into Main Course and Desert. Horse Race is back since FoMT. Animal and Pet Festival are changed into races. Flower Festival is a festival where you must give flowers to villagers as much as you can. Tea Party and Wine Festival is the same, the only difference is you must give a tea to Felix in Tea Party while you must give a wine in Wine Festival, and the rewards are different too. In Snowboard Contest, you must get the fastest than the specified time.

There are more features and you can get more info on this website:

http://www.fogu.com/hm9/

Okay, see you on my next review!

Rune Factory 3

The third installment of Rune Factory for DS. This game was released in Japan on October 22 2009, and the US version in November 9, 2010. This game will give you new features, like weapons, quests, and much more.

Story

Now comes to the story. This game start in the stormy night, the Golden Wooly (JP: Mokomoko) falls in the sky. Then a girl named Shara (JP: Sia) comes to save the Wooly and take care of it. Next day, the Wooly has just transformed into its human form. The man named Micah (マイス Maisu; Maisu in JP) gets amnesia and only gets one way: Escape from the house! At the way Micah escape, he was meet by the mysterious girl named Raven (トゥーナ Tōna; Toona in JP), then Shara, which they are townsfolk in Sharance. Shara then takes Micah to a large tree, shows you around the interior and the farmland in front of it, and gives you advice on farming, and some tools. But suddenly, a monster appears. After defeating it with your hoe, two more come. Gaius (ガジ Gaji; Gadzhi in JP), the blacksmith, appears, and lets you choose between a shortsword, a longsword, an axe, a hammer, a spear, a stave (a type of staff) or a dual blade (a new weapon in this game). Then, Micah finally defeats it.

However, there are some problems in this peaceful town. The residents of Sharance despise the horned-residents of Univir. The difference between humans and monsters fuels this hatred. Then, Micah must united that two residents before the unseen evil sweeps both of them!

Features
Now the features. You can explore the 5 dungeons and like Rune Factory 2, excluding final dungeon, since the beginning of game you can explore all the dungeons. There are: Privera Forest (Spring), Sol Terrano Dessert (Summer), Oddward Valley (Fall), and Vale River (Winter). The final dungeon, Dragon Cave can only be access once one of your bachelorettes is missing, near the end of the game. Unlike other Rune Factory games, you can invite the villagers to join battle by pressing L or R when talking, though you can invited tamed monsters and also Magic Seeds!

The most things to look out is Time. The time flows very fast than previous Rune Factory games! And the very important, the times flows even in indoors and outdoors! So, it's important to look the time in top screen.

If you like, you can visit Yue and Mei where they arrive randomly in Miyako Inn in 2nd floor. Mei can change your name or your farm if you like (but its useless for me since I dislike changing the default name of the hero...), and you can buy random thing from Yue (nah, she's useful for me)! The cons, they can't be married neither have a face icon.

Shop is more unique! You can buy some Crops you shipped or random Weapons. The shopkeeper was changed depending of the day (ex: Raven was in charge at Monday, Wednesday, and Friday when Gaius was in charge on Tuesday and Thursday).

Quest was changed too! There are 3 locations where you can take quest. There are Bulletin Board, Mail Box and Owl. But unfortunately, you can only take one quest per day and location (ow, darn...). There are 3 types of quest, General Request, Simple Request, and Battle Request. General requests have the greatest amount of variety and tend to be related to how well the main character has gotten to know the individual villagers. These sort of quests are also unique and are not repeatable. Simple requests are usually small tasks that can be repeated many times, the reward is random. Battle requests typically involve the eradication of problematic monster mobs and can also be repeated multiple times. 

There are 11 marriage bachelorettes you can marry on. But, first you must united Sharance and Univir first, also you must complete 9 requests from her. There are:

• Carmen (イオン Ion; Ion in JP): Loves fishing and her brother. Helps out the family fishing resort. Full of energy and easily excited.

• Collette (ショコラ Shokora; Chocola in JP): Works at the diner. She'll out-eat anyone in town...unless she's distracted by food.

• Daria (ダリア Daria): An excitable and eccentric artist of many mediums. She LOVES rainbows.

• Karina (カリン Karin; Karin in JP): Unbelievably lazy girl who works at the general store. She's napping on the job.

• Kuruna (クルルファ Kururufa; Clurufa in JP) : The proud elder of the Univir settlement. She has an intense hatred of humans, but cares deeply for her monster brethren.

• Marian (マリオン Marion; Marion in JP): Outgoing girl who is training to become a doctor. However, her treatments don't always go as planned...
• Pia (ペルシャ Perusha; Persia in JP): The bathhouse assistant. Ditzy girl with a bit of a fishy secret...

• Raven (トゥーナ Tōna; Toona in JP):  Likes to keep to herself, and doesn't interact much with other people. Has a warm side to her.

• Sakuya (さくや   Sakuya): An inn attendant who loves to travel. Sells items she finds in dungeons. Not a fan of monsters.

• Shara (シア Shia; Sia in JP):  A kind and generous girl who raises flowers with love and care, she's the one who saves Micah in Wooly form.

• Sofia (ソフィア  Sofia): Sherman's Spoiled, haughty daughter. Takes his habit of speaking in opposites.

More coming soon!