a trip to a local video game store!

a few weeks ago, i went to a secondhand video game store (which, looking back, probably wasn't the smartest move given that i was saving up for something else...). there were a couple of times in the past where i'd gone in and regretted not taking my phone, since their selection is always really good, so i made sure to do it this time!

first off, they had Final Fantasy 3 and Megaman ZX Advent for sale! i think they also had the Megaman Zero collection there as well, but i don't remember if it was on another shelf, or what.

also, i had no clue there was an Assassin's Creed game on the DS. i wonder how it plays.

they also had Bravely Default and Bravely Second on the 3DS there, but i didn't take pictures of those.

next up, their PlayStation selection!

i don't think i've ever seen copies of FF7 (and FF8, but that's not in this shot) in person before, so seeing how they fit multiple discs into those jewel cases was educational for me.

i...don't know how to feel about seeing games like Persona and Atelier here. like, it's cool to see them in person and <i>fantasize about buying them, good god those prices</i> but i can't imagine anyone actually, like, buying them and playing them. is that weird? i'm a hipster at heart. only people with enough CULTURE should have the PRIVILEGE of buying these games! not UNCULTURED PHILISTINES!

...if you have a keen eye, you may notice how some of these prices are completely insane. i don't know why Persona 1 and 2 are over $300, and i also can't imagine paying that much for Marvel VS Capcom. you'd expect the games with more than one disc to be more expensive, maybe it's in correlation with how rare the game is.

one of my friends was very happy to see the Metal Gear Solid games there!

check out all the Nintendo stuff!

i'm happy that my goal of being able to attain Billy Hatcher, Kirby Air Ride, and Killer7 isn't totally dead, i didn't think i'd ever see any of those games in person again.

on a previous visit, they had The Thousand Year Door, but it was missing its proper case, so i'm happy they finally got it!

also, very reasonable prices for all of them, as you can see! Crazy Taxi was actually reasonably priced, i probably could get it sooner or later.

i also really need to get a GBA SP one day. i've meant to get one for years now, but just never had the chance.

i also wanted to share this copy of Kirby Super Star that they had. this is also the first time i've seen the Super Nintendo version in person.

they had a Dreamcast! i don't think they had a lot of the really good games for it there, like Space Channel 5, or ChuChu Rocket, or Jet Set Radio, but Bangai-O and Sonic Adventure 1 are good enough. i really would like to actually get a Dreamcast one day, some of my favorite games ever were originally released on the thing, but i've never actually played one in person.

also, i don't remember the Sega CD or Sega Saturn selection being particularly interesting, so there aren't any pictures of those.

they had a couple of kiosks for the older consoles there as well. on a later visit, i saw a younger kid playing on one of them. there's something to be said about how it doesn't matter how "old" a game is or if it's "aged well" as long as it's fun, but the words aren't forming properly for me at the moment.

the last stop for me was the PS Vita selection, since i actually went there to buy that copy of Mary Skelter. it's one of my favorite game series ever, so snagging that copy was really important to me, even if it meant dealing mortal damage to my wallet.

this isn't related, but i'm pretty sure that the Vita version of Skullgirls is the preferred version of that game now among fans, isn't it?

while writing this blog, i noticed that i almost exclusively took pictures of a lot of the older game selections, but i feel like i should note that it's not exclusively stuff from the 7th-gen and earlier here, they had a lot of PS4, Xbox One, and Switch games there. i probably should've taken at least a few pictures of the Switch selection, since that shelf had some good games, like Cereza and the Lost Demon and Atelier Ryza and stuff like that (and the first party Switch games go without saying), but it just didn't occur to me to do that lol. i imagine it'd be less interesting anyway, since a lot of those games are just easier to get compared to everything else.

also the xbox selection wasn't interesting at all, it was just shooters and sportsball games.

i hope everyone enjoys the pictures! i just really like looking at the boxart for games, and a lot of these i was genuinely really surprised to see, so i tried to get everything i thought was interesting.