Famitsu

98 files

1. 

   Famitsu Issue 1316 (March 6, 2014) (supplement included)

   By kitsunebi

   The mag itself is 262 pages, and there's a 44 page PS4 supplement included for a grand total of 306 pages.
   

   33 downloads

   0 comments

   Submitted Friday at 02:37 AM

2. 

   Famitsu Issue 1394 (September 3, 2015)

   By kitsunebi

   236 pgs
   Supplement included
   This is (I believe) the most recent of any mag I've ever owned.  It goes without saying that I've never played any of the games within.  For some people, this mag is 10 years old.  For me, it's 20 years too new.
   

   53 downloads

   0 comments

   Updated Monday at 06:51 AM

3. 

   Famitsu Issue 1392/1393 (August 20/27, 2015)

   By kitsunebi

   268 pgs
   Fun fact: Although I scanned and edited this file in 2020 (couldn't upload it here due to the cutoff date), this was actually the very first magazine I ever (test) scanned with my first ADF scanner, way back in 2016.
   Debinding mags is a step that deters MANY a potential scanner.  People just have a hard time wrapping their brains around the concept that "to preserve you must destroy."  I eased my way in by debinding THIS mag to break in my (then) brand new ADF scanner, since I had two copies of it, so destroying one still left me with one intact.  I didn't scan the entire issue at the time, just the first 10 pages or so, and I later scanned the entire thing from scratch, which is what you'll get if you download this file.  But this mag popped my debinding cherry.  
   Now, of course, I'll debind anything that moves without batting an eye LOL.  And that extra copy I had of this issue?  Yeah, once this scan was complete, I just tossed that extra mag into the recycling as well.  Who needs it?  Isn't that the whole point of making a scan?
   What I'm saying is, becoming a scanner will change you.
        
   

   52 downloads

   1 comment

   Updated March 20

4. 

   Famitsu Issue 1390 (August 6, 2015)

   By kitsunebi

   I don't know much about Minecraft other than that it seems to function as the Oregon Trail of the current generation of kids in Japan (i.e. it's the most entertaining game you're allowed to play at school - granted we only got to see if we could avoid getting dysentery back in the day on the rare occasions when we had a class in the computer lab, while kids today get to whip out their school-provided tablets and play Education Edition Minecraft whenever they've got a free minute between classes.)
   But it must be a pretty decent game if kids are still playing it all these years later.  This issue, from 2015, previews a Minecraft clone...but it's Dragon Quest themed.  And yet here we are 10 years later, and the kids are still playing Minecraft, while Dragon Quest Builders is all but forgotten.  If a Dragon Quest Minecraft clone can't compete with the original in Japan, you know it's got something.
   

   52 downloads

   0 comments

   Submitted March 14

5. 

   Famitsu Issue 1389 (July 30, 2015)

   By kitsunebi

   268 pgs
   A rare case of a Western game making the cover of Famitsu.  Minecraft, Witcher 3, and GTA V even crack the top 30 sales that week.  That's 10 percent!!  Western games on the rise?
   

   61 downloads

   0 comments

   Submitted March 9

6. 

   Famitsu Issue 1373 (April 9, 2015)

   By kitsunebi

   285 pgs
   I've always wondered just what type of game Senran Kagura is.  So I looked it up on Wikipedia, but after reading the entire description and not seeing the word "boobs" even once, I realized that the Wikipedia page must have been talking about some other game.
   

   86 downloads

   2 comments

   Submitted March 5

7. 

   Famitsu Issue 1372 (April 2/9, 2015)

   By kitsunebi

   298 pgs
   I'll be honest, I've never played any games made after 2008 or so.  So I can't offer any anecdotes about anything in this mag, and there would be no point in trying to look up info on any of the games in it since most people visiting this site probably already know whatever I could turn up.
   So I thought about talking about the Jpop group given a 4 page feature, Country Girls, but...sigh...I hate Jpop. Here's the single they were promoting this issue. Maybe you share my opinion or maybe you think this tune slaps 🤨:
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1tj7Q1UxXY
    
   So instead I'll talk about Yuusha Yoshihiko (The Hero Yoshihiko), a 3 season TV series from 2011-2016.  It has nothing to do with this issue, but you may find it interesting, nonetheless.  It's a parody of JRPGs, Dragon Quest in particular, and they even got approval from Square Enix to utilize a lot of Dragon Quest monsters and the like.  Of course, the show proudly proclaims its "no budget" status, so the monsters are mostly paper mache and guys in leotards and masks (they rarely show up for more than cameo appearances, anyway).
   I haven't finished watching the whole series, but so far the second season is not as good as the first.  The whole thing is ostensibly terrible, of course, but it's silly enough to have made me LOL several times.  Fair warning: it can be very politically incorrect sometimes.
   The good news is, you can watch the entire thing subtitled in English on the Internet Archive HERE.  
   If anyone gives it a watch, I'd like to hear your take on it.
    
   

   82 downloads

   0 comments

   Submitted March 1

8. 

   Famitsu Issue 1370 (March 19, 2015)

   By kitsunebi

   So here's a fun PS3/PS4 game.  Take photos of girls in compromising positions - up skirts and down shirts. If the girls aren't posing in a way convenient for your photos?  No problem - just do a slide or lay down on the ground and you'll have those panty shots in no time.  OH NOES!  HERE COMES THE PERVERT POLICE!!  Run away to be a sexual predator another day!  Wheee!!!
   Did you all know that there's an actual law in Japan that makes it illegal to sell any camera (including those on mobile devices) that doesn't make a loud "click" shutter noise when a photo is taken?  This noise cannot be disabled, and finding a workaround is illegal.  That's because of shit like this game happening in real life.  But I guess you aren't allowed to murder people in real life, either, and we've got thousands of games where that's the goal, so...yay, lets take photos of underage high school girls' panties without their consent. 🙄
   
   

   58 downloads

   0 comments

   Updated February 26

9. 

   Famitsu Issue 1369 (March 12, 2015)

   By kitsunebi

   246 pgs.
   Another edit finished, another magazine tossed into the recycling bin.  And yet the pile of mags waiting to be scanned never gets any smaller.  Indeed, just when you think you're making progress clearing out the mags cluttering your home by the box-load, you "accidentally" buy some more.  In your head, you know what you're doing is abhorrently wrong, but just like this duck, your body has a mind of its own and your finger clicks the "buy it now" button before your brain has a chance to stop it.  You hang your head in shame.  This is the scanner's own private hell.
   
   

   69 downloads

   3 comments

   Submitted February 17

10. 

    Famitsu Issue 1367 (February 26, 2015)

    By kitsunebi

    So it seems the editors of Famitsu thought that people would like to see Persona 5 on the cover.  I mean, sure - on a NORMAL day, that might be the case.  But how they decided to go with Persona 5 when they had this in the same issue, will forever be a mystery:
    
    This is Tsuri Bit.  Which means "fishing bit."  Note the fishing rods?  Wikipedia tells me that this jpop idol group formed out of a desire to sing, dance...and fish.
    Their concept:
    You can't even make this stuff up.
    Based on views, this seems to be their biggest hit, from around the time this magazine came out (the song's title is "I'm going to dance, fish" presumably meaning "I'm going to dance and fish," or maybe "I'm going to dance, then fish" and not someone addressing a fish and telling it that they're going to dance.  Though I suppose it could be that...)
     
    

    79 downloads

    1 comment

    Updated February 14

11. 

    Famitsu Issue 1365 (February 12, 2015)

    By kitsunebi

    I had a certain song playing through my head while flipping through this mag, looking for my random "about this file" comment.  The version on Youtube is from an older version of the 5th grade elementary school English textbooks, and has been updated for the newer ones with new music and lyrics (same refrain and melody, though), but the newer version isn't on Youtube, so far as I know.  But it's ironic? fitting? that the song (Yokoso! Welcome to Japan) was stuck in my head when I came across a page featuring this toy:
     
    
    A twin-barrel battleship gun emplacement...that couldn't be more Japanese if it tried.  I think foreigners who have never been to Japan watch some anime or some wacky Japanese commercials or whatever and think that Japan must be some zany place fully of quirky people doing quirky things like they saw once on a game show or in a video of an idol concert in Akihabara or something.  But it's actually a really quiet, ordinary place.
    Except for the cuteness.  Everywhere you look, CUTE CUTE CUTE.  The kawaii aesthetic is everywhere.  Please observe exhibit A, a collection of roadside construction barriers.
    
    So why not make cute anthropomorphic guns?  If you absolutely positively HAD to be shot out of the sky, wouldn't you prefer it be by something adorable?
    

    72 downloads

    1 comment

    Updated February 10

12. 

    Famitsu Issue 1364 (February 5, 2015)

    By kitsunebi

    276 pages.  Includes a review catalogue reprinting all 123 cross-reviews (the 4-person review format which EGM copied from Famitsu) which appeared in the second half of 2014.
    

    92 downloads

    0 comments

    Submitted February 1

13. 

    Famitsu Issue 1363 (January 29, 2015)

    By kitsunebi

    Flipping through this issue, I noticed a baseball game and wondered if...yep, there he is.  3 years before heading to America and entering the MLB, look who it is - the currently-highest-paid (best?) player in the game, Mr. Shohei Ohtani:
    
    I realize most of you are nerds who stay inside all day, hating sports and sports games alike.  I happen to be a nerd who stays inside all day hating sports, but has been known to enjoy a sports game or two (back when I played games, that is.)  This guy goes beyond sports star, though.  He's a national hero here in Japan, and by far the biggest celebrity.  Basically, he's the Japanese Taylor Swift.  They let the kids here watch the final game of the World Series (which Ohtani's Dodgers won) in school like it was the moon landing or something.
    In this game, he's still playing for the Nippon Ham Fighters.  Did I ever mention that Japanese sports teams have stupid names?  Actually, the team name is "Fighters," but rather than name teams after the city they're in, they name them after whatever giant corporation owns the team.  It's super-lame.  So rather than the Sapporo Fighters, allowing people in Sapporo/Hokkaido to wear their hometown team's merch with pride, they have to basically be wearing an advertisement for Nippon Ham, a giant meat/food corporation.  Plus, when you say it out loud, it sounds like they fight ham.
    

    80 downloads

    4 comments

    Submitted January 26

14. 

    Famitsu Issue 1362 (January 22, 2015)

    By kitsunebi

    This magazine is 212 pages, which is fairly reasonable for Famitsu.  They're usually a bit longer, though issues exceeding 300 pages aren't common.  Considering they put this thing out on a weekly basis, it's still a remarkable amount of pages per month, sometimes entering quadruple digits. 
    But this issue also has an ad for a Monster Hunter strategy guide, which weighs in at 1,568 pages.  That's more pages than an entire year's worth of any Western game mag published contemporaneously with this issue.   That's pretty impressive, I'll give you that. 
    I'll also give you a slap on the face if you ever ask me to scan it. 🙂
    

    78 downloads

    4 comments

    Submitted January 22

15. 

    Famitsu Issue 1359/1360 (January 1/8/15, 2015)

    By kitsunebi

    It's been a while since we've had one of these double-number issues of Famitsu, so for anyone out there who's confused, here's a brief explanation.  This is a single issue that is counted as two.  The preceding issue is numbered 1358 (December 25, 2014), and the following issue is numbered 1361 (January 15, 2015), making this issue #1359/1360.  This sort of thing happens 3 or 4 times per year.  It doesn't mean that the double issues are double length.  Sometimes they're longer than average, sometimes not (this issue is 280 pages, which isn't unusually long for Famitsu.) 
    What it DOES mean is that the staff took a vacation.  As you can imagine, turning out over 1000 pages of magazine per month is nothing to sneeze at (especially when you consider that Western mags were typically producing less than 100 pages of content per month), so a few times per year, the staff would be...ALLOWED TO SLEEP!!!  This particular mag came out around New Years, which is the biggest holiday in Japan.  Everything shuts down for 5 days or so while everyone stays home to celebrate with their families (its closest Western equivalent would be Christmas.)  So every year around this time, Famitsu releases a "double issue" so that its staff can enjoy the holiday like the rest of the country.
    But since this is Famitsu WEEKLY, I guess they don't want to break the illusion by having less than 52 issues per year, so whenever they skip a week, they just add an extra issue number to make up for it.  So since this issue was on newsstands for two weeks, it gets two issue numbers.  Kind of dumb, and definitely a pain in the ass when I was first putting together the database, but that's the way it is.  Now you know, and yadayadayadaYOJOE.
    

    66 downloads

    0 comments

    Submitted January 2

16. 

    Famitsu Issue 1317 (March 13, 2014)

    By kitsunebi

    There's a report on the PS4 release complete with lots of pictures of people waiting overnight in the cold and proudly holding their newly purchased goods like they're some sort of hero showing off the head of the beast they vanquished.  I've never bought anything at a midnight release event and never will, but if I DID, I think I'd rather not have my picture taken and printed in a magazine.  Who could you ever show it to?
    "Oh, you waited in a line for 24 hours to buy a video game system the moment it was released?  Wow, uh...cool story.  --NNERRRRRD!!!!!"
    

    75 downloads

    7 comments

    Submitted December 31, 2024

17. 

    Famitsu Issue 1318 (March 20, 2014)

    By kitsunebi

    This issue hit around the time of the PS4 launch, making the weekly sales chart look a little lopsided:
    
    That's the PS4 standing alone on top with 322,083 units sold, with the next best selling system being the 3DS with 30,284 units sold.  Congrats to the Xbox360, which managed to outsell the last-gen Wii with a whopping 239 units sold.  It's not often you see a Microsoft system anywhere but dead last in Japan, so thank goodness 148 people bought a 7 1/2-year-old Wii that week, giving the poor 360 a chance to have an edge over something.
    As an aside, I just flipped through an issue of the UK's GamesTM mag lately, and it had the results of a reader poll where the 360 was voted the best console OF ALL TIME.
    Cultural differences make the world interesting.
    

    79 downloads

    2 comments

    Submitted November 30, 2024

18. 

    Famitsu Issue 1319 (March 27, 2014) (supplement included)

    By kitsunebi

    This issue includes a Dark Souls II supplement book, which I've appended to the end of the archive.
    Ah, supplements...I've been guilty of it myself once or twice in the past, but releasing supplements separately from the magazines they belong to is a practice I'll no longer be a part of, unless of course, I have a supplement but for some reason DON'T have the mag it came from (as was the case with many of the supplements I scanned, which were thrown in as part of a donation years ago.)  I like to adhere to the primary definition of the word.
    supplement /sŭp′lə-mənt/ noun Something added to complete a thing, make up for a deficiency, or extend or strengthen the whole. So please enjoy this magazine, complete with supplement. 🙂
    260pgs
    

    95 downloads

    0 comments

    Submitted November 25, 2024

19. 

    Famitsu Issue 1320 (April 3, 2014)

    By kitsunebi

    The highest rated game this issue is a tie between girlfriend simulator Love Plus + and the latest Hatsune Miku game (she who is also known as The Vocaloid Who Married A Real Boy™), both of which got the exceptional Platinum scores of 10 9 9 9.  But don't worry, there are also a few romance games aimed at women in their teens and twenties which are well reviewed, so digital romancing is an equal opportunity endeavor.  And for the older gentleman who just doesn't give a $%^# about trying to please the opposite sex anymore, there's the latest game in the Winning Post horse racing sim series, which also nabbed a Platinum score and allows you to focus on romance of the equine variety, playing matchmaker in order to breed a champion money-maker.  Anyone looking for a game with guns 'n' 'splosions is reading the wrong mag - Famitsu only covers games released in Japan, and those types of game are few and far between.
     
    Confessions of love, Japanese style
    
    They're all proposing to the rich old man who breeds the champion race horses, of course.
    

    77 downloads

    2 comments

    Submitted November 15, 2024

20. 

    Famitsu Issue 1321 (April 10, 2014) (supplements included)

    By kitsunebi

    Complete with both supplements.  First being a Kantai Collection (KanKore) manga, and the second being a double-sided B3 poster for Hatsune Miku: Project Diva F 2nd.  If you don't know who Hatsune Miku is, she's the vocaloid software/singer on the cover of this issue, star of many Sega video games, and the happily married for 6-years wife of this completely normal and well-adjusted Japanese man:
    
    https://tribune.com.pk/story/2508555/japanese-man-celebrates-six-years-with-cartoon-bride
    What is this place I live in...
    

    89 downloads

    6 comments

    Submitted November 12, 2024

21. 

    Famitsu Issue 1328 (May 29, 2014)

    By kitsunebi

    This issue's cover is by Tony Taka, a famous artist and character designer known just as well for his work in mainstream games like Sega's Shining series as he is for numerous adult manga and eroge.  In stark contrast to America, Japan is more like Europe in this way - having some of their most famous and successful comics artists known for producing adult material. 
    This cover features Kirika Towa Alma, one of Taka's characters from Shining Resonance for the PS3.  According to the Shining Wiki, "she is an elf who learns the song of magic which allows her to freely change the power of nature. However, she is a better healer than a damage dealer. She may seem withdrawn at first, but she is generally known to be a kind person."
    
     
    But more importantly,
    
    Tony Taka, ladies and gentlemen.👏
    

    96 downloads

    0 comments

    Updated November 9, 2024

22. 

    Famitsu Issue 1329 (June 5, 2014)

    By kitsunebi

    It's been a couple of days since the Dodgers won the World Series and Japan couldn't be happier.  We even got to watch the end of game 5 during lunch at school.  You know, kind of like how we got to watch space shuttle launches in American schools.  It's that important, what with Shohei Ohtani being a national hero, and all.  A lot of people may think he's so beloved because he's such a great baseball player.  Others may think he's respected because he's so successful - the highest paid baseball player, EVER.
    They're wrong, of course.  The reason Ohtani is a hero is because he's somehow managed to overcome the crippling clumsiness that normally afflicts all Japanese males from puberty onward.  The entire nation beams with pride as they watch him walk in a straight line without even once tripping and falling onto a female in a compromising position
    
    or stumbling face first into the crotch of the nearest female wearing a short skirt
    
    or accidentally taking a tumble and saving himself from falling by reaching out and grabbing two handfulls of boobs and clinging on for all he's worth BUT HE TOTALLY DIDN'T MEAN TO THO.
    
    Yeah, he knows what I'm talking about.
                       
    

    86 downloads

    0 comments

    Updated November 2, 2024

23. 

    Famitsu Issue 1332 (June 26, 2014)

    By kitsunebi

    Interesting how the cover article on Bloodborne starts immediately on page 2 (the inside front cover.)  That space is usually reserved for what I assume are the most expensive ads (in addition to the cover, the first several pages of Famitsu are printed on thicker, glossier paper than the rest of the mag), so I'm guessing Sony paid a %#$!load of cash to get Famitsu to give that space up for the feature on Bloodborne.
    214 pages
    

    133 downloads

    5 comments

    Submitted October 18, 2024

24. 

    Famitsu Issue 1333 (July 3/10, 2014)

    By kitsunebi

    256 pages
    Don't get too excited about the included supplement.  Despite being trumpeted on the cover, it's just an "illustration card."  What's that?  Good question.  It's basically a regular-page-sized poster printed on cardstock.  What purpose it serves is a mystery.  But hey, you're still getting a mag two and a half times the length and several bucks cheaper than any of the English-language mags published at the time, so what are you complaining about?
    

    103 downloads

    3 comments

    Submitted October 14, 2024

25. 

    Famitsu Issue 1335 (July 17, 2014)

    By kitsunebi

    In what is probably a first for Famitsu, only a single game is reviewed this issue: Yokai Watch 2.  I don't think Yokai Watch ever made much of a splash overseas, but I remember how intensely popular it was here for a time, so I wouldn't be surprised if all the other publishers shied away from releasing anything else that same week, since nothing would have been able to compete.
    And speaking of things whose popularity ain't what it used to be, if you were wondering who those garishly dressed girls on the cover were, good luck figuring out how THIS got 17 million views:
     
    

    115 downloads

    0 comments

    Submitted October 12, 2024