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Thursday, December 31, 2009

seraph's personal 2009 anime categories

The year of 2009 close its curtain with a lot of anime being aired, some which are great, while others are average or might be terrible, depending one's view. Before listing out my best and worst 2009 anime, I would like to list out what I find the best in my book for each categories;

Best Winter 2009 anime: Maria†Holic
others: Minamike -Okaeri-

Best Spring 2009 anime: Fullmetal Alchemist:Brotherhood
others: Phantom -Requiem of Phantom-, Valkyria Chronicles

Best Summer 2009 anime: Spice&Wolf II
others: Bakemonogatari

Best Fall 2009 anime: Tegami Bachi -Letter Bee-
others: Kimi ni Todoke, Nyankoi!

Best Mecha Anime: -

Best Comedy Anime: Minamike: Okaeri
others: Maria†Holic, Taisho Yakyuu Musume

Best OVA series: Denpateki na Kanojo
others: Shakugan no Shana S, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Rei

Best Movie (based on DVD release and fansubs): -

Best Sequels: Spice & Wolf II
others: Darker than Black: Ryuusei no Gemini

Best Male characters of 2009: Ushiromiya Battler (Umineko no Naku Koro ni)
others: Zwei/Reiji (Phantom Requiem)

Best Female Characters of 2009: Horo (Spice and Wolf)
others: Senjogahara Hitagi (Bakemonogatari)

Most Overrated 2008 anime: K-ON!, Hayate no Gotoku!!, Saki

Most Underrated 2008 anime: Valkyria Chronicle, Sengoku Basara

Best OST: 11eyes, Umineko no Naku Koro ni, Guin Saga, Kurokami

Best OP song: Katayoku no Tori by Shikata Akiko (Umineko no Naku Koro ni)
others: Kanashimi Rensa (Valkyria Chronicles), Only my Railgun (To Aru kagaku no Railgun), Arrrival of Tears (11eyes)

Best ED song: Sequentia by Asriel (11eyes)
others: Don't Say Lazy (K-ON!), Maze (Pandora Hearts)

Best insert song: Destrudo by Yousei Teikoku (Kurokami)


to be honest I find it hard to list some of the categories, because in my opinion, many of the show aired this year are simply too average, emphasizing too much on generic moe/harem character design with uninspiring story and fanservices, compared to series aired in 2008 and 2007.

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Episode 5: End of Golden Witch

SEAGULL

Umineko no Naku Koro ni Chiru (うみねこのく頃に散, When Seagulls Cry Dispersal) tell the second half of the story and start to delve into the core of the mystery. These games are not simply solutions to the first four arcs, but also continue the story, shifting it into new terrain. However, as the core of the series is approached, several clues to the first four arcs are revealed along the way. Each arc in this series contains all of the previous Chiru arcs.
The first of Chiru series, Episode 5: End of Golden Witch was released in the last C76 and it was not until Boxing Day that translation by the Witch Hunt was finally completed. I'll treat this as my Umineko Christmas present :) It took me roughly 3 days to finish this episode, and in short, I would say that I'm pretty satisfied with End of Golden Witch although at some point I thought the plot is fcuked up.


Umineko no Naku Koro ni Chiru: End of Golden Witch

bitch
Furudo Erika...heh see this name coming miles away. I feel disgusted for having to use the picture of this self-proclaimed intellectual rapist


*may contain spoiler*

As a result of her showdown with Battler in episode 4, Beato lost her heart and turned into a motionless living doll, unable to do anything. Lambdadelta and Bern, full of their own agenda and troll face as seen in previus episode took over Beato's position as the Game Master and started their own 5th game. This put Battler is at a crossroad because as promised last time, he need to end Beato's suffering but at the same time he also need to return to Ange. He can only return by winning this game, and by prolonging the game, he would only more cause pain to Beato as her status as witch would be denied gradually. Sweet but touching scene of Battler trying to comfort the motionless Beato, giving her a hand to sip tea, questioning times and times again over beato's real motives of dragging him into her game...

Lambdadelta and Bern's interception to this game explains why there are many irregularities in episode 5 compared to the Question Arcs:
  • The rule of character limit on Rokkenjima as claimed by Beatrice (that is, no more 17 people can exist on the island at the start of the game) is bypassed with the introduction of new character Furudo Erika (what an obvious name), claimed to be Bern's new piece for this game.
  • The murders were not carried out fully according to the twilight of the epitaph, and only the first and partially second twilight are carried out. Or it might be best not to call it followed the twilight, because only 5 corpse was discovered while 1 was missing, and only one death occured in second twilight.
  • The involvement of something from outside the game board "directly" with the game, as shown with the mysterious phone call to Natsuhi. But I interpret this as part of Braun's tube because nobody knows about the call apart from Natsuhi and a servant who was killed later.
  • The golden witch epitaph was revisited again, and was solved before the first twilight even begin. Guess who's the victor? Much of hints was given for reader to solve the puzzles, like the description of the epitaph as a form of wordplay/anagram. Almost impossible to solve for someone with no japanese kanji knowledge like me I guess.
Outside the game board, it was all about Bern and Lambdadelta enjoying Beato's hijacked game for their lulz while Battler watched from afar, staying by Beato's side. On the game board, it was a one-on-two situation where piece Beato and her underlings need to fight Lambdadelta and Bern's force, consisting of piece Erika, piece Dlanor&her assistants Gertrude/Cornelia (all 3 are new characters) and piece Siesta Sisters. Basically from my understanding, the 3 worlds in episode 5 are similar to the previous arcs - the Purgatorio where (former) player Beato, Battler, Virgilia, Bern and Lambdadelta reside and play their game; a real time rokkenjima where human lives and murders take place; and a mystical setting of Rokkenjima where piece Kinzo, piece healthy Beato and other magical element exist.

There are slight and interesting alterations to this world however, where mystic and reality Rokkenjima do not mixed directly but what's happening on reality is described into mystic world. That is, whatever argument was thrown in real world turned into something magical in the mystic world. One example is Eva's receipt paper slip at the door which become the magic that try to disprove Kinzo's existence in reality world, and hence destroy piece Kinzo/Beato's existence in the magic world. Should Erika manage to prove that Kinzo never existed in the room in the first place, with those paper seal, the Kinzo in magic world will be destroyed and in the real world, Natsuhi would not be able to hide Kinzo's death anymore.

This episode is probably the game where you would want to side with the witches rather than the human side, merely because of that whore Furudo Erika, who definitely give me a false impression. At first I thought she was kinda cute and weird girl who claimed herself to be interested only in solving riddles, but as the story progress, she became a totally annoying bitch who cares only about her role as "assigned detectives" and finding the culprit based on sheer observation without considering any alternatives or whether the her claim is true or false. Her losing and embarrassed face when Battler proves the flaw in her theory is really priceless, she was so desperate to win and trying hard to impress her master Bern.

Knox's rule was used extensively in Episode 5 to prevent the interference of element of uncertainty in the mysteries. And rightly so, because we as the reader would be aggravated should we, for example, found that the culprit is actually a new character which only appear late in the game (Knox's rule #1), or if Erika is the culprit (Knox rule #7). In a sense, this was such a cruel game where Beato+Battler have to face many, and i mean many enemies at once. Bern. Lambda. Erika. Dlanor. Siesta Sisters. All at once, and at the same time unable to use red to prove their argument due to Knox's rule. Poor natsuhi for being accused have no way to fight back. As usual, extensive red and blue truth was repeatedly used to deny each others claim, and best one thus far is Battler's bravery of denying Erika's theory in Kinzo's room, although those are just farce by Lambdadelta and Bern to play their script, because player Battler has yet to join the game at that point of time. Nevertheless it's still a wonderful scenery, making Battler looked like some kind of knight coming to save Beato.

Maybe it's just me, but looking back at the murder case, I found a flaw in which the murder was presented, or especially on how the death timeframe is justified. 5 persons were murdered in the guesthouse, all which could only happens from 12.00 to 1.00am as "claimed" by Erika, and later confirmed by Red. But one of the victim (name shall not be revealed here) returned to the guesthouse at 1AM from the mansion! See the flaw here?

Overall the main story of Umineko no Naku Koro ni: End of Golden Witch is nothing short of pain and despair for me because of Lambdadelta and Bern's ruthlessness in forcing a false truth to Natsuhi, with the help of Erika. Seeing how one sided the Trial went, I can't help but getting rage over the main story. The Tea party is screwed up too and just as I'm about to fall into despair, the Extra saves the day. And probably the reason what made episode 5 worth even more than Episode 4's Tea Party. Battler finally learned what "truth" really is, and with the help of Beato, he inherits her power and become the new "Endless Witch". That's not all. With this, he was also granted the power of "Gold Truth" with a golden sword, an absolute power that far superior than Erika, Dlanor, Bern or whoever's Red Truth. With his new power, he took over Beato's position as the game master, protecting Beato's illusion from being tainted by Erika's delusional and arrogant truth and use his authority to present a new truth that enable Natsuhi escape from being suspected as culprit. From Erika's truth, she has all the evidence she need to accuse Natsuhi as culprit, while in Battler's truth, he can present equally creditable evidence that prove natsuhi's innocence (and make a certain someone as the real culprit). A truly spectacular Extras show, umineko never failed to surprise me. One thing for sure, Beato x Battler is closer than ever <3

As the game ends, we now know what's awaiting us in future episodes. Battler took over as the Game master, and future episode will be the fight between him and Erika to prove who is the real culprit in Rokkenjima's murder case. So I guess this means we won't see any case which one would claim it was done by the witches or magic, but rather who's the actual culprit. Erika with her own truth and interpretation, while Battler with his. In the end of the day, no absolute truth can be proven in Braun's tube. More questions remained as this episode folded, like Battler's real identity and the correlation with Natsuhi's case 19 years ago, as well as Beato's claim about 6 years ago and something that Rudolf never manage to tell Battler. Definitely looking forward to Episode 6: Dawn of Golden Witch!



Thank you...
liar...
goodbye
and...
...I'm sorry

Monday, December 28, 2009

Denkare music collection


Denkishiki Karen Ongaku Shuudan (or Denkare) is a band (I think) created on the year 2001, which is formed by the next members:

- Denki (Lyricist, Composer)
- Karen (Vocalist, Lyricist)
- Shiki (Guitarrist)
- Dang (Chorus, I think)

They aren't very known in the musical world, except by some performance made for H-games, for example, MinD DeaD BlooD, GUN-KATANA, and others.

Their musical style is a blend of Heavy Metal (a la X Japan, HIZAKI, and others) and Electronic, with some gothic elements. I think that is the best form to describe their musical style.

Simply. Karen, the vocalist of Denkare sounds like Fairy Yui because she's Fairy Yui (or Yui Itsuki, their real name) from Yousei Teikoku, or this seems to be, because in the Yui's official site doesn't appear the information about their musical performances on both bands, but there are other additional date, and is the birth date of Yui Itsuki. The birth date of her is October 25 (the year is unknown), which is the same birth date of Yui from Yousei Teikoku and Karen from Denkare. With this date, I can conclude that Fairy Yui and Karen are the Yui Itsuki's alias on their musical projects.


Songs included:

Gun Katana Sound Archives [Download: MU/RS/HF]
info: vgmdb
1. Raison D'etre
2. Chain
3. Nemuri no mayu
4. Mugen no Nemuri

MinDeaDBlood~支配者の為の狂詩曲~ [Download: MU/RS/HF]
info: -
1. Vampire
2. Sakuramai
3. Sakura Child
4. Yuketsu
5. Vampire -Head Backing Version-
6. Sakuramai (karaoke)
7. Sakura Child -Unplugged Version-
8. Vampire (game version)
9. Yuketsu (game version)


ゴアスクリーミングショウ/Gore Screaming Show [Download: MU/RS]
info: vgmdb
1. Distorted Pain
2. Toki Hate Tsuru Yume

doko he iku no ano hi themes.denkare remixes [Download: MU/RS]
1. きっと微笑むから (Remix)
2. 光の地図 (Remix)
3. 追憶の破片 (Remix)

full metal box special maxi single [Download: MU/RS]
info: vgmdb
1. Sudden Death R99
2. Sudden Death R99 -Short Ver.-

Crystal Circus Vocal collection [Download: MU/RS]
1. Memini [Orchestronica mix version]
2. 一片の雫
3. 月夜の旋律

other songs: [Download - MU part 1/RS part 1 ||||| MU part 2/RS part 2]
Click me to view


-01 (Denkare) erase
-02 (Denkare) Yozora ni Sakuhana
-03 (Denkare) Absolute Blue
-Getover_short
-Hikari no Chizu
-hiziri
-Kikai Ningyou
-Kitto Hohoemu Kara
-Komorebi
-Konomama de Ii to Tsutaetai
-Last Message
-Mirage Lullaby - Denki's Psycho Frame Mix -
-Never Ending White
-Osanpo
-Sweet Trap
-Tsuioku no Kakera
-もも
-小聖女の歌
-斬撃よ 唸れ 咆哮の如く
-縺セ縺励y縺代y縺」縺。繧
-縺翫&繧薙⊇繧
-縺薙・縺セ縺セ縺ヲ繧吶>縺・→莨昴∴縺溘>
-繝ッ繧ソ繧キ繧ウ繧吶さ繝ュ
-繝槭・繧吶Ο繧キ繝九ヤ繝・・繝ャ繝
-繧ケ繝ュ繝シ繝倥z繝シ繧ケ縺ェ蟷ク縺
-遨コ縺ォ蜥イ縺剰庄
-閨・・槭・縺励y繧奇ス
-『Endless Corridor』
-『瞑想に堕ちる闇』Full・Ver.
-Endless ripples【夢幻廻廊2】


*Sorry for using RS, as mediafire and megaupload hate me for some reason.*
Do tell if you want a mirror.


::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Remember the very old post I made about Karen aka Denshiki Karen Ongaku Shuudan and their Gun Katana Sound Archives? I've been a huge fan of her since the first time I heard the song Raison D'etre and had uploaded their songs in this post. Recently I went through their collections again and found even more delicious songs in my archives, some of which I don't even remember where I got those from. I used to tag all their song with "Karen" as their artist name, but I thought this could cause some misunderstanding with another Karen, as shown in Last.Fm page. Hence I started retagging all my Denkare songs in my archives with proper artist name (Denkare rather than Karen). Unfortunately there's too many song which their kanji are too hard for me to romanize, so I leave some as they are. And some of the album information might have been messed up too :/

Aside from my long favorite song Raison D'etre, Sakuramai and Sakura Child, discovered songs that I loves includes Erase, Absolute Blue and Yuketsu, and Sudden Death R99 and a few Mugen Kairou songs :3

Fairy Yui's songs back then as Denkare is pretty dark-themed, but I guess it fits with the eroge it affiliated with (anyone played Gun Katana, Mugen Kairou and Mindead Blood would probably understand). Yousei Teikoku ftw \o/

Saturday, December 26, 2009

1000G for TLR \o/



finally finished The Last Remnant today for a complete 1000G \(^0^)/

That's my first ever "complete" game for 360, discounting Magna Carta 2's DLC achievement. Going into yesterday, I only had 2 achievements left for TLR, that is Monster Dismantler for 20G and beating Absolute Conquerer for 200G grand gamerpoints. Monster Dismantler is quite a pain in the ass because I need to split a total of 500 friggin monsters to get this achievement. Capturing monsters alone is not easy (max I ever got is 7 per battle by linking monsters), and to accumulate 500 of them is even more tedious. So I spent like 4 hours yesterday to link the Armorshells in Fornstrands continuously until I got the achievement, counting EACH and EVERY monsters I manage to capture and split to see how many would be needed to get the achievement. Turn out that I got the achievement when I hit past 200+ splits, which means I've been doing quite a bit of monsters spliting (close to 300, ~150 which I got when I skill grind in Robelia Castle) throughout the game.



Then the final achievement, which share the same name as the game, The Last Remnant. Can be achieved by beating the Absolute Conquerer in Sacred Land. At first I was quite nervous to face him because it is said that he is THE strongest boss in the game, even more ferocious than The Fallen or Lost Remnant. But in the end, he disappoint me by much = = Absolute Conqueror is surprisingly... pathetically weak and never intimidate me as I would expect. Maybe because I'm just lucky, or my strategy against him is too perfect, or just that my characters are too overpowered.

I went for 2 super unions strategy (formation - Battle Crown) with 3 leaders and 2 combat soldiers. Leaders that I use are Rush, Caedmon and Glenys in one union, and Emmy, Baulson and Torgal in another. This means each would have a Heaven's Door, unique Remnant Arts (Omnislash, Hundred Flowers and Lugh's Revenge and a bunch of Weapon Arts. My Rush went for heavy katana route with Enchanted Demonblade weapon and Demonsblow Weapon Art. Oh yeah, I'm going into the final battle at BR119.

His minion Castanea and Roeas were pathetic. Then come the Conquerer himself. The only thing he did that manage to hurt me considerably is Fatal Eclipse, but it was mainly because I'm using battle Crown formation (zero mystic/mystic defence). Other than that, he is the same with his minions, failed to hurt me by much even with his Masterblow, Deep Impact blablabla. Although to some extent I was lucky that he never use the likes of Photon Field and Animacule and I manage to beat him before he enters overdrive state (5 turns I think). I guess my relatively low BR played some part in this battle, because I think if I fight him at, say BR 130+ his HP and power would rack up as hell.

And the ending....BAAAAAWWWWWW :( Kinda touching and sad ending, but it seriously lacks originality as there are just too many jrpg that use that kind of ending these days.

3 weeks well spent on this game I'd say.


/end of rant


*TLR review soon*

Friday, December 25, 2009

Summer Christmas ;_;

uminekochristmas


Just want to wish Merry Christmas to all who celebrate it. Not me for sure, but celebrating it in Southern Hemisphere country like Australia sure feel much different due to the summer heat rather than winter cold/snow :3

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

TLR = The "Troubled" Remnant

Finally beat The Fallen for 140G achievement \o/



After Magna Carta 2 and Lost Odyssey, I spent the last few days (weeks, maybe) on The Last Remnant, a game I used to hate due to it's so-called innovative combat system. Thinking back, the reason I distance myself from the game is probably because of my old SDTV, which made it virtually impossible for me to read anything written on the screen. I guess having a HD monitor really helps bringing me back to this game.


Hand of God...wait it does not heal all my allies and creeps! wtf?

Seriously for all the hype I heard about the Fallen, this guy isn't that hard in my opinion. Some of his attacks are quite lethal, but he is squishy (Just over 400,000 hp) and can be taken down quickly. Each of my Union deals 30k+ damage to him and we could have finished the fight within 5 turns if not because I spent the next 3 turns reviving and healing (finished the battle at the 8th turn)

Currently still on disk 2, just before entering Mt. Vackel and Undelwalt. Since the Six-Base mission and the followed-up Koenigsdorf and Darken Forest, I have spent more than 2 days entirely on raising my leader's skill (via Rush's solo skill-grind method at Robelia Castle), as well as grinding my Battle Rank by pwning the Ancbolders in Ancient Ruins. Seriously I can't believe that for all the hard work need to be done to beat the Holy Servant and gain access to Metopen Tier of the Ancient Ruin, the Ancbolders that awaits me were unbelievably weak. Their Hammerspin is laughable, and the only threat they pose is their normal attacks which can cause instant KO..but that has never been a problem with Vivication, Kiss of Life and Second Chance (although the latter two are too extreme for such trivial KO).

Next prey: The Absolute Conquerer for 200G achievement. But probably not until I get more Weapon Arts and maxed my gear.

Friday, December 18, 2009

[XBOX 360] Lost Odyssey - a tale of the Immortals

I spent roughly a week after finishing Magna Carta 2 to complete this game. The last time I touch Last Odyssey was a few months ago (probably back then since the last semester break) reaching quite a lengthy bit of the game until mid-disk 3. With the help of several walkthroughs and guides, I finally manage to finish the game at 900/1000G achievements (minus the 100 extra DLC achievements). The last 100G can still eb attained by searching for 3 final Seeds that I missed to get the Pipot last Accessories, then fight the stupid bandit monster leader in Great Ancient Ruins for accessory with another learnable skill, proceed to learn the skills for all my Immortals; and finally go back to all dungeons and places to look for any unopened Treasure Chest. But it's too troublesome, I'd better give this game a rest for now...


Lost Odyssey (ロストオデッセイ) is a console role-playing game developed by Mistwalker and feelplus and published by Microsoft Game Studios for the Xbox 360. The player takes control of Kaim, a man who has lived for a thousand years and who has no memory of his past. The game is set in a world nearing a "magical industrial revolution." Kaim, who has forgotten his past, struggles with the return of his memories and the pain they bring.

Lost Odyssey was produced by Hironobu Sakaguchi, the creator of the famed Final Fantasy series. This is his third project outside of Square Enix, following ASH: Archaic Sealed Heat and Blue Dragon.
Lost Odyssey on Wikipedia
Lost Odyssey official website
Lost Odyssey on xbox.com


Gameplay - 6/10 (okay, but not that bad)
Lost Odyssey incorporate classical rpg-style turn-based gameplay. Think of classic turn-based Final Fantasy series plus the Judgement Ring system in Shadow hearts series, and you basically got Lost Odyssey. Why I rate it as a mere 6 is because at this age, I prefer a real time action gameplay like those in Star Ocean and Tales series than the boring "select-action-on-menu" type of gameplay, although the presence of Trigger Ring does made up a bit for the lameness of the gameplay. One more thing, I hate the transition animation from field to battle, showing the background (as in pre-FFX battles) alone took more than 10 seconds. And lastly is the usage of random encounter for battle, which can be pretty annoying at times when you want to explore the field, as you have no choice to evade battles. The game wasn't even that old to adapt this kind of gameplay (released early 2008), but then maybe I am among the minority that does not prefer this kind of gameplay.
On the plus side, the game offer various kind of abilities, skills and magic for player to experiment with. From the normal Black and White magic to the Spirit magic (sorta like the Blue Magic in FF9, with lots of support and non-elemental magic). And up to 5 people can be used in battle, divided into front and back row. Great feature as we doesn't often see an rpg game able to accommodate this much character in a battle.




There are 2 type of characters in Lost Odyssey - mortal and immortal. As a general rule, the immortals (Kaim, Seth, Sarah and Ming) are much stronger than the mortal simply because they can equip up to 30 abilities whilst the mortals (Jansen, Mick, Cooke, Toltem and Sed) are stuck with specific skills assigned to them, unless they equip other accessories to give extra abilities. Which is why I never leave my immortals out of my party although the stupid, incompetent guide that I follow hate Ming very much (and I can't understand why either). Late in the game, the immortals are, as their rank implies- immortal, overpowered because of the amount of awesome skills that they can equip - auto-shield/barrier, absorb attack/magic, total immunity, nullify element; everything that made even the strongest monsters in the game looks like a tiny rat.

In term of character personality though, I don't quite like most of the characters, they are awfully designed for my taste. Gangora has to be one of the retarded antagonist I ever encountered, along with his ideal of "rule the World". Kaim kinda fail as a main hero, trying hard to be a silent character like Squall did in FF8. Jansen tried to be a joker of the party but most of the time he failed to amuse me. Sarah, Ming and Seth is okay I suppose, but I really dislike their appearance. Regardless of that, I can't argue about their battle capabilities though (just like how I hate Sarah in SO4 but can't get her out of my Wonder Dungeon party due to her battle prowess). Seth and Kaim can tank attacks and magic np, Sarah and Ming can decimate the whole enemies mob easily with their magic. Sed and Toltem are really "useful" because of their skills.




Looking at the good aspect of this game, I would actually praise Lost Odyssey for its graphic and music. The field, town and dungeons were designed spectacularly, and the special effects in battle were nice. Speaking of music...hey it's composed by Nobuo Uematsu, need I say any more? Great music composition (I absolutely love Battle Condition and Dark Saint) although I find them less memorable than the one he did for Final Fantasy series. Nevertheless, Lost Odyssey is still a product from Hinorobu Sakaguchi and worth playing if you are jrpg fan, and can still cope with old-school turn-based combat and fresh yet uninspiring storyline.

overal game value - 6/10

Saturday, December 05, 2009

Winter 09/10 anime list - V2 update

A few more series, OVA and Movies have been added to the list since the last update, which hopefully would make this winter more happening. Added to the previous original list includes:

TV

OVA

MOVIE/FILM

.........................................................................................

what caught my attention in the update is the obvious Haruhi and FSN film, which have long been announced and awaited before. Haruhi's film is set to be aired in early February, hopefully should I manage to get green light for my Honors, I would still be able to spend some time on the film.

by the way...Denpateki na Kanojo vol 2 and Tales of Vesperia film sub WHERE???

Friday, December 04, 2009

Magna Carta 2 - Overcoming the DLC content

So thank's to the peoples in gamefaqs/Xbox360Achievements board, I was finally able to solve the issue beneath the DLC problems faced by peoples who played NTSC Asia version of Magna Carta 2.

Before downloading the DLC, with my current SG/AU account, the Achievement bar on 360:

1000

this contradict with the score on MGC which shows a total achievement of 1240G
mgc1240

Even when I download the DLC from XBL with AU account, for some reason the DLC does not appear in my game. While when I switch my region to SG, the DLC does not appear at all. From this I came to a conclusion that the DLC that I download is not compatible with my current MC2 disc...what a shame.

anyway it's all solved now and I manage to get the DLC to appear in my game. How:
1. Create a US XBL account
2. Buy the DLC with the US account (press "Y" on "Play MagnaCarta2" on Dashboard and go to Download tab). Note that the DLC does NOT appear when I use AU/SG account, but for some reason it present in US account.
3. Switch to AU/SG account
4. Load the game
5. ????
6. profit
*credit to zhiyung for the how-to*

and as a result, the DLCs were properly added to the game, including the extra Live Dramas and the uber weapons. I have to say, the Live Dramas were very funny, it made me laugh very hard especially the first 2, involving Zephie's split personality and her awesome cooking (man, Salt-pickled Apple Pie with chili sauce and Steamed Chicken stuffed with chocolate, yuzu pepper sauce and habaneros topped with squid ink sauce... what the hell are those?).

Unfortunately, after checking back to claim the weapons achievements, it appears that I'm missing Crocell's and Argo's weapon achievements, which is probably due to
not buying some of their weapons early in Cota Mare. I guess this means a second playthrough to me, but I'll probably do that after I finish Lost Odyssey first. Although I have already got the Skill tree achievements, I still want to farm the 18 Seekers I farmed so hard in my first playthrough and do all the quests, just for the sake of a single playthrough completion..

MC2 review coming soon, hopefully.