Wanting to travel to Japan as a Singaporean with the new "non-guided tour" guidelines starting 7th Sept 2022

What I am doing here is consolidating what I have found out from researching online and talking to the JTB (Japan Tourist Board tour agency - https://sg.jtbtrip.com/) 

Firstly, even today (05 Sept 2022), JTB has not officially received on the full guidelines on how the "Non-guided tour" is suppose to be. What I have is guidelines from the Japan Tourism Agency (https://www.mlit.go.jp/kankocho/) which is only in Japanese listed here https://www.mlit.go.jp/kankocho/content/001510151.pdf. I am not going to fully go into the guidelines as the travel agencies might have a different set of them or there might be changes.

 

What I am going to do here is ignore the guidelines first and let you know the process assuming:

1.  you need to book your hotel and flight through the agency

2. you have time to actually plan your trip

The reason for point 2 will be clear once I start explaining. 

 

First, you need go to the travel agency to whatever flight/hotel bookings. Once that is done, the agency will provide you with all the documents you need to apply for the visa needed to travel in Japan. You will also need to get your printed vaccination certificate (https://www.notarise.gov.sg/) ready.

Now with the documents go to https://www.sg.emb-japan.go.jp/itpr_ja/11_000001_00505.html and make an appointment to apply for your visa. Now that you are advised not to book the appointment earlier than 6 weeks before your travel date.

After applying for your visa, you need to wait at least 5 working days before your will know if your visa is approved.

As you noticed, you need spare time to prepare and do all this. Hence point 2 needing spare time to actually plan your trip. I also like to note from the kind staff from JTB travel agency letting me know that they are unable apply for visa on your behalf. So more time needs to be arranged to visit the JP embassy. 

Also you notice very quickly the visa issue is a chicken and egg problem being its a bet whether you can actually get a visa to Japan even if you booked and got your all documents ready.

All I can really say, the whole process is going to be an abundance of problems and you need to plan at least a month in advance for any Japan trips coming end of the year. Good Luck.

Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth - the game

If you follow my twitter and came here you will know that I am separating my opinion about the game itself and the my opinion about the series. If not, yes this is part 1.

Record of Lodoss War - Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth is a game by team Ladybug. Currently they are known for their 2 earlier games Megami Tensei Synchronicity prologue and Touhou Luna Nights.

If you played either of the mentioned games then the easiest summary for you in regards to Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth is very very smooth and well animated pixel art, very interesting and fun mechanics, great boss fights and a good soundtrack to go along with the game.

For this game, you play as Deedlit from the Record of Lodoss War and she has awoken in a place she cannot recognise. You navigate the labyrinth to figure out where she is and what is happening. 

The game in general is very thin in story and well the characters are cryptic. There is the assumption that you already know who Deedlit is and who are the characters you are meeting. So if you did not have all that prior knowledge, the whole premise will be lost on you. 

In regards to the back story of Record of Lodoss War I would recommend to at least read the summary online as I won't be doing it here. There are far better people who can explain the premise of Lodoss War lore better than what I can write here. 

The Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth like team Ladybug's 2 earlier games, they fall under the genre Metroidvania. Though the exploration part is on the lighter side and the focus is more on its combat. Exploration do net you some spells / gear that makes the upcoming boss fight easier. 

Speaking of gear and spells, the game resolves around 2 main mechanics. First is the 2 elemenal spirits which you get very early in the game. 

The fire and wind spirit switching mechanic is the main mechanic you will be using to solve puzzles, traversing the Labyrinth and boss fights. Each spirit changes some of your attacks and movement option. E.g.wind spirit allows you to float downward a jump, fire spirit allows your sliding to move further and gain invincibility.

Not taking time to understand the mechanic will make your whole experience of the game terrible as bosses often come with moves that cover the whole screen until you switch to the right spirit if not you are going down fast. 

The other mechanic is your spells / weapons. When I said weapons, it is actually mostly your bow. Almost no puzzle require the use of spells but there are several now puzzles that are interesting and fun once you figure out how the bow works. Again the game punishes you for not having a good grasp of bow usage. So keep that in mind.

Your other weapon is mostly just swords and it is close to what you get in Castlevania Symophony of the Night which is weapon attack speed / damage dealt or weapon attack animation.

The game is very pretty. You will be awe by how Deedlit moves (very Alucard like), the bosses, the backgrounds. 

I would say the weaker side of the game is exploration being very linear. You will quickly figure out most of the stuff except 1 hint which is probably not well worded.

Game is what most people would call short. 4-6 hours. Though people tend to forget Metroidvania are not very long games. Game is also not padded which is fine for me.

Like to note I am not fully explaining some of the mechanics as they are part of certain puzzles.

I hope that is enough information for you to figure out if you want to buy the game.