Melty Blood: Type Lumina Limited Edition

Limited editions of videogames often don't interest me much. More often than not they're made with the purpose of making an easy extra buck in mind. Cheap boxes, ugly plastic figures that feel like toys and break in transit are way overused for these editions. Just as bad are preview soundtracks and artbooks. Like, seriously? As someone who actively purchases artbooks and soundtracks those come off as serious rip offs to me. Why would I want to spend money on previews when I'm likely to eventually purchase the uncut retail versions anyways?

Still every once in a while there's a limited release even I find myself interested in. Like the Rockman 11 limited a few years back, that one was pretty neat with its wall cloth. Anyways, I feel a bit silly for posting what is essentially a product placement but the general state of videogame special editions has always been something I've felt like ranting about. Although I admit that I did feel like showing this one off.

The Melty Blood Type Lumina special edition came with a full original soundtrack featuring 50 tracks - compare that to other limited releases boasting with their special offerings of crippled selections of maybe a dozen songs. The included booklet isn't printed on toilet paper and features an original interview with Kinoko Nasu and Takashi Takeuchi. Basically it's stuff that would be worth buying separately. Type-Moon didn't cheap out on the box either. The boxart is printed on thick cardboard paper, the title and logos are printed on a spine card, which also serves as a nostalgic goodie because all Playstation and Saturn games in japan used to come with these.

Surprisingly the edition came with a resealable plastic wrapper to protect the box. Looking back I think the Tsuikihime remake also came with one of these and I wish I had kept it. These boxes look great on the shelf and are worth taking care of unlike the cheap and flimsy stuff other companies tend to present.

But maybe this kind of quality is common for special editions these days. I honestly haven't bought one in years. Even the Shin Megami Tensei V limited couldn't interest me although I'm a pretty big fan of the franchise.

tl;dr I spent a lot of money getting a special edition off a scalper and it was well worth it (it was sold out by the time I heard the news of its release). This is what every special edition should be like.
On the other hand, I'm glad that isn't the case because I'd be poor and would be living in a pile of boxes.

There'll be a review of the game and maybe translations of the interviews in the booklets much later. Still got to finish the Tsukihime remake in the meantime.