A Piffle Princess Story

KASHIWA BARA

Although I love video games, but I was never the gamer type, and back then was never convinced to buy a gaming console for myself. The only gaming device I own is a Nintendo Family Computer, which we've had since I was like 5(?) years old, and which I'm proud to say, still works perfectly even as of this time of writing. My sister was the one who loves to play, and when she was still a kid, she'd spend the whole day at our neighbor's house watching and playing with their SEGA Dreamcast, and eventually their Playstation1. Then when my sister was in high school, she borrowed her classmate's Game Boy, and she lets me play Pokemon Yellow on it sometimes. Later on, my sister brought home a PS1 console (borrowed from her then boyfriend, now her ex), but I was more contented in watching her play, rather than me at the controller. The reason perhaps is that she hogs the controller  I'm not very skillful at any kinds of games, have a bad sense of direction, and have poor motor coordination. I really envy gamers who have very fast reflexes and can deliver multiple combo techniques. I can never seem to understand how to do all those stuffs! <(◎o◎)>

So eventually when my sister started working, and earning her own money, she got involved in playing Monster Hunter 2nd Generation with her officemates, which prompted her to buy her own PSP. When she comes home for the holidays, she lets me play with it, though I could hardly slay a velociprey back then (I'm such a loser TAT). She was telling me to buy my own unit, so that we could play together, but I wasn't that interested and thought it was useless for me.

Later on, I met another friend who also owns a PSP. Curiosity prompted me to ask her why she bought a PSP when she's hardly the gamer type, and she said it was a gift from her grandmother. I pressed further and asked her the game titles she plays, and she laughed and said, "Oh I don't have any games here. This is just 8GB worth of manga scanlations!"

Wait...whut!?!? You can read manga with the PSP!?!?! It was then that I got REALLY INTERESTED and started keeping an eye out to buy one for myself.

It wasn't until the last quarter of 2009 when I finally got the chance to purchase a PSP. My sister was staying in Japan for three months, and she was telling me that they were selling second hand PSPs in Akihabara for almost half the usual price. Although they were allegedly used, but they looked like they've never been taken out of the box! So I told her to get me one. Well, actually two, since my boyfriend also wanted to get one for himself. Suoh and I were so excited we decided to name our (couple) PSPs Akiha and Bara. Sadly, due to firmware problems, my sister only brought home one unit for me, and since she bought it from Kashiwa, I changed my PSP's name to Kashiwa Bara. Suoh bought his unit from Greenhills instead, and his silver PSP is aptly named Akiha Greenhills. >__<

Bara-chan!!!  @>-->--

My unit is the PSP-2000 version, and the color is purple. My favorite color is yellow, so my sister threw in a yellow handstrap from Japan (which I've never washed x__x). My boyfriend's dad gave me a set of PSP accessories that Christmas of 2009, and ever since, my PSP's been housed in a crystal case. Well, up until around last week that is. It was kinda broken already so I decided to remove it (That was also the first time, after more than 2 years, that I cleaned the external part of my PSP, ehehe~ ^^;).

Bara-chan and I have made many beautiful memories together. As my original goal, I have used her to read manga scanlations, most unforgettable of which were Koukou Debut, Penguin Revolution and Strobe Edge. There was also a time that I used it to play my mp3s whenever I travel by bus to work. I also store lovely anime images in it which I use as references whenever I feel like drawing. And yes, I use it to play my animes! It's so much lighter to carry around in my travels, and also a lot less conspicuous when I'm watching videos while at work. (^_~)-☆

And though not much of a gamer, but I do play games with it! The first game I tried was of course, Monster Hunter Freedom Unite. Sadly, even with Suoh helping me out whenever he has the chance, I am terrible in it and have resorted to become a mushroom hunter instead.（￣□￣；） I've tried many other games, but the ones that I really enjoy are turn-based RPGs like Mana Khemia. Another game that I really love is Gods Eater Burst, and what's so memorable about this is that I have already spent more than 50 hours on this game when my file was suddenly corrupted! But because I love it so much, I played it all over again! (Talk about stubborn determination!) Recently, I've tried my hand in Corpse Party, Uta no Prince-sama Music and Hakuoki: Demon of the Fleeting Blossom. I'll most probably write more about these last two games later on.

Bara-chan has been a most wonderful companion for the last two years. And even with the PSVita out now in the market, I won't be trading her for any other consoles in the world. （*´▽｀*）