Go Granzella on a Budget
by Kassadee Marie, HSM team writer
When Irem went out of the video game business back in April 2011 due to the Tohoku earthquake and subsequent tsunami in March of that year, they were sadly and ironically working on a game called “Disaster Report” — about the same set of occurrences. At that point, some of the former employees, such as Director Kazuma Kujo, formed a new company. If you think Granzella’s style seems familiar, this may be why.
Many of us miss Irem’s public spaces on Home, but this new company is doing their best to fill the gap left by them. You could say that they’ve chosen to replace Irem’s Seaside of Memories with Southern Island Hideaway or Glittering Sands Beach, and Irem Square with Great Edo of Nippon, but they are expanding and changing these spaces periodically in exciting ways. In Japan they have added a space, called Neon Downtown, that is an entirely new idea. I look forward very much to this space’s arrival in North America.
Granzella’s least expensive personal estate is the Edo Row Houses for the old standard price of $4.99 — which is becoming rarer and less standard, as personal spaces offer more and more to us. This space is “attached” to that public space in the same way the private estate, “My Private Hideaway” is attached to the Southern Island Hideaway public space and the private estate “Glittering Sands Secluded Retreat” is attached to the Glittering Sands Beach public space. If you’re a fan of the games at Great Edo of Nippon, you’ll want to pick up this space for one really important reason. This estate can be used as a healing spot during Mononoke Hunting Mission game play. As we all know, healing spots can extend game play and can be vital to accomplishing goals and receiving rewards. You’ll also enjoy finally being able to climb those stairs to the roof and enjoy the view as the time of day changes from day to night and back.
This estate comes partially furnished, but you may enjoy decorating it further. Granzella makes a little Edo four-piece “kitchen” pack for $1.99 that’s perfect for it. Included in this pack are these items: an earthen oven with flames; a bizen water jar with drinking ladle attached; a cutting board and its knife; and a large wood basin, which I believe is an old fashioned bath tub. You may want to add a few other period pieces, such as tatami mats or folded floss silk, linen and cotton futons for $.99 each. The hibachi is also only $.99 and would look great there.
Granzella has recently started selling more furniture items in bundles and I’m glad to find items discounted. They now offer a five-piece barbecue set of the barbecue grill and four food items for $1.99; a nine-piece Chinese banquet set for $2.99, which includes seven food items and a table and chair; and the Natural interior set of three items for $.99, which includes two chests and a table lamp. They sell three different active beach items that take 15 furniture slots of a beach mat (yellow), two beach chairs, in plain wood and blue padded styles. These items allow you to have the same poses as those offered at Glittering Sands. They also offer unique “installable” items, which are weather vanes that fit into the personal spaces without taking any furniture slots. Presently they offer three styles for $.99, of a rooster, sail boat or tropical island and sun.
Obviously, Granzella is the place to go for some unique Japanese clothing items, such as ninja and samurai outfits, but they also offer some Chinese clothing for females also. By the way, their kimono or yukata bottoms come in a wide variety of colors and patterns and can be used as long skirts with other tops. They also offer a broad selection of swim suits in both male and female styles. The best of these may be a personal choice, but I’m very fond of the leaf green packs of five items for $1.49 for males and eight items for $2.49 for females. They also offer a wide variety of hairdo’s from $.99 to $1.49 (many in Japanese styles and mostly for females); the “Beautiful Eyes” packs for $2.99 in sets of five; sun visor sets of two sizes for $.99; and patrol uniform packs for males, Summer school uniform packs for females, and school bag sets for both genders for $1.99 each set.
Granzella presently offers four companions; two of these are a Round, Flightless Bird and a Loyal Shiba dog for $2.99 each. There are also two sets for sale and each has the companion and an extra item for both males and females. One is the Seaside Coconut crab, with a face hugging crab for $2.99 and the other is a Cheerful Yellow Monkey Set for $3.99 for three pieces, also. If you like the unusual, either of these sets might appeal to you and you will be noticed.
Games are important to the Granzella crew, and this is obviously reflected in both their public spaces and their private spaces. They are wonderful at little details and how they attach personal spaces to their public ones is interesting and fun. This is a company that believes in making changes – updates and additions – to their spaces and that’s a big plus on Home. It’s natural that Granzella brings out their new products, clothing and spaces (personal and public) in Japan first, but I wish we could see them arrive here in North American sooner. It’s so hard to wait for these great things.
October 15th, 2012 by Kassadee Marie | 3 comments
Home is endlessly entertaining to this California girl. Kassadee has been in Home for about four years, and loves almost everything about it (with a few notable exceptions). She spends way too much money there, and perhaps too much time... Someday she will travel the world and write about the people she meets and the places she sees.
I love Granzella’s Neon Downtown in Japan and I hope they bring it here eventually. It will be very popular when they do.A lot of my friends are glad to see the beach return, and it looks so much like the old one with a lot more functionality that they are very happy with it.
Nice read as always Kass.
Neon downtown is superb but is set up very Japanese and not like say glittering sands which you could tell was set up with the world wide market in mind. I dont think it will ever get released in EU region due to the drinking aspect of the game as the EU has several dry countries due to they beliefs system, under its region. I also presume that NA region could have problems with age limit as im sure some do gooder will say virtual drinking is same as real drinking so it would have to be 21 and over
The Mandarin Cheongsam Dresses have been, and will always be, my favorite apparel from Granzella on Playstation Home. It’s pretty hard to cheaply price any content from the Developers, as a slew of their content comes with a hefty price tag. This article is just a touch of a good example on how to find good items on a budget.
A great article, indeed Kass.