#Very good VN imo.

[satoshi-mochida]

Raging Loop coming to PS5, Xbox Series, and Xbox One on August 30 - Gematsu

Kemco will release mystery visual novel Raging Loop for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and Xbox One on August 30, the company announced. Microsoft Store pre-orders will begin on August 23.

Raging Loop is currently available for PlayStation 4, Switch, PC via Steam, and Android worldwide, as well as iOS in Japan.

The PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series versions will feature 4K resolution support.

Here is an overview of the game, via Kemco:

About

Immerse yourself in a thrilling psychological horror story taking place in the secluded Japanese village of Yasumizu. A heavy mist surrounds the place, preventing everyone from ever leaving. Ancient gods have come back to hunt the villagers down one by one. The feast has begun, can you escape the village alive?

Key Features

A Tribute to Japanese Folklore – Haruaki Fusaishi is a young man freshly arrived to Yasumizu, a remote settlement in a mountainous region of Japan. He will become involved in an ominous local tradition known as the feast. Among the villagers lurks the werewolf, an entity who has sworn to take revenge on everyone.

A Visual Novel With a Complex Branching Story – Keep track of all your choices thanks to a comprehensible flowchart. Rewind the story and select other actions to see different outcomes and learn about the characters’ motivation. A death may be rewarded with a new piece of information, a Key that will give you access to new paths and bring you closer to the identity of the killer.

An Extensive New Game Plus – Clear the game to unlock the Revelation Mode and discover the story in a new light. You will see the inner thoughts of the characters and unlock new scenes that will give you more insight about their motivation.

An Endless Spiral of Deaths – Haruaki Fusaishi will find himself stuck in inextricable loop from which he cannot escape. Conscious of his own fate, he will take advantage of all the knowledge acquired before his tragic deaths.

[blacktabbygames]

hi there! i've been considering getting slay the princess for a looooong time now. with the pristine cut coming out tho, i wanted to ask if you would recommend waiting until then to get the game? i dont want to get it and play it and then find out that, like, the basic route i just played got updated/changed significantly, for example. is it just new content in the form of new routes or is there updated dialogue?

(also because of the scarlet hollow train happening rn lol i am very excited to hear more about it!! horror vn in appalachia???? i live here that sounds like it fucks severely imo)

thank you for your time and have a good day/night!! :)

Thank you so much ^^ I'd wait for the Pristine Cut!

[struggling-jpg]

Some Things About Ma Feima (Yanqing) I Learned

And it matters to HSR Yanqing only because some people have had what they heard about Ma Feima affect their views of him even though it really SHOULDN'T imo.

The underlying point I'm trying to get at is that when we hear about parts of a story or characters we aren't familiar with, it'd be fairer to at least try to look into it more before making final judgments, especially if we only hear see memes and short summaries from a person over the internet.

If you're also interested in this topic then this will be very long, so thank you for bearing with me.

And if not, especially because you don't care or don't want to read about 7S/HI3 Yanqing then that's also fair, Ma Feima and Yanqing are different characters, and I hope you have a good day!

(NOTE: CW for the mention/discussion of a notable age gap between characters in the story. There are details surrounding that but I'd rather place this here for convenience. Look out for yourselves and stay safe!)

It's wild how many different versions of what happened in the Seven Swords visual novel, which is understandable due to its lack of official translation + not being complete (as far as I know? I am open to corrections overall). But the amount of details that go missing or are incorrect is notably large and I find this situation interesting. As mentioned, anyone who knows better (content, translation-wise, etc.), please correct me on anything if needed.

I will use some screenshots from the videos that translated the available chapters (1-2 and part of the beginning/prologue of 3, I believe). The translations are not entirely accurate so heck, I might be wrong on stuff too.

From personal experience, there were two things I heard about Ma Feima from HI3 players:

He killed his master, Fu Hua.

He cheated on his wife.

Legit, the first time I encountered these points, it was as simple as that. And I took it at face value because it understandably takes effort to look into this stuff and a lot of players from HI3 were saying it. But over time, curiosity got to me and I wanted to see the context surrounding it, and here's what I found.

However, here are some things to know about Seven Swords and Fu Hua's disciples:

The Seven in order are: Lin Zhaoyu, Su Mei, Jiang Wanxi, Jiang Wanru, Cheng Lingshuang, Ma Feima, and Qin Suyi

The present of the VN is set in 1496 while the assassination of Fu Hua was twenty years prior in 1476.

Ma Feima, despite being the 6th disciple, is the youngest.

Ma Feima's original name was Yanqing but changed it to Feima when he got older.

Qin Suyi, the 7th disciple, is Sushang's mother in both HI3 and HSR.

Lin Zhaoyu, the 1st disciple, and Ma Feima are married.

Onto the points:

He killed his master, Fu Hua.

Yes, he was involved but some attribute the plan to him. BUT he wasn't. The person who formed this plan was Su Mei, the 2nd disciple.

Supposedly, all seven disciples participated though most, if not all of them, were reluctant to do so.

They were all bothered by Fu Hua's, effective but cruel way of dealing with Honkai-infected people (She would wipe out whole villages if even ONE person was infected).

The last straw for the disciples was when Jiang Wanru, the 4th disciple, got infected.

It was in that battle that Ma Feima got the scar on his face.

Also to note, Cheng Lingshuang, the 5th disciple, was the one to get the last hit on Fu Hua.

This is a straightforward point, a lot of people know this stuff, and is probably the point that's more elaborated on. But I still wanted to mention it because, oftentimes, a lot of the credit for the plan, and sometimes the last hit is given to Ma Feima. It erases the actions of other pretty interesting characters and is simply incorrect.

Onto the second point, because this is where things get really interesting and a lot is going on.

2. Ma Feima cheated on his wife.

This has given the idea that he had an affair, cheating on his wife, Lin Zhaoyu

No, he didn't.

It is true that he was in love with Su Mei but she never loved him back and was very clear about it so in a literal-traditional sense, he didn't have an affair.

Emotionally, yeah.

It seems that he had been attached to her since he was a child.

Lin Zhaoyu seems to have always been aware of that and still pursued to marry him.

BIG NOTE: This is where I'm going to cover the age gap stuff.

One thing that I have rarely seen anyone mention is the large gap between Lin Zhaoyu and Ma Feima in age.

It's said that Lin Zhaoyu is 15 years older than Su Mei.

Supposedly, Qin Suyi was around eight years old when Fu Hua found her.

Remember, Ma Feima is the youngest of the disciples.

I wouldn't have harped as hard about the age gap if they met/didn't know each other in Ma Feima's childhood, but the disciples technically grew up together so I found it to be questionable.

For reference:

In order, that's Lin Zhaoyu, Su Mei, and Ma Feima when they were younger.

At minimum and based on all the searching and math, at minimum, Su Mei would be thirteen there, and by the 15-year age gap, Zhaoyu would have been 28 years old.

Now, based on the writing, Zhaoyu and Feima most likely got married in the twenty years between the assassination of Fu Hua and the present of Seven Swords.

The youngest Feima would've been at the assassination was seventeen years old at that point.

For the present of the story, Zhaoyu, and Su Mei are 56 years old and 41 years old respectively. Feima is likely in his thirties.

Like I said, I'm making a big point to this because, like, what the heck. That's MAJORLY concerning even if you tried to reason your way around it. Besides any potential "normal in the era" type stuff and that they got married when they were both adults, it's still a huge yikes, isn't it? Also, I've seen barely anyone mention that, and the ones I did see it from, it was when I was looking into the visual novel.

It's mostly because Yanqing is the one in HSR, he's the character that gets the most eyes. And when people only know him as a "master-killing wife cheater" without any of the context surrounding it, it's a huge shame, albeit fair if people don't want to actively look into it themselves. But because a notable chunk of players have let those perceptions have weight over an unrelated by anything but appearance, old name, and the parallel of (potentially) killing a master.

The circumstances surrounding the two are very different.

HSR Yanqing has Jing Yuan to raise and guide him safely through his early life. He's still very young and while stubborn, has a good head on his shoulders, and has a lot of potential to grow into someone strong and stable.

7S/HI3 Ma Feima on the other hand, is shown to have grown very differently from his younger self.

He is far from enjoying life, and don't get me wrong, he isn't completely innocent.

But he's completely aware and is miserable.

There's a lot more I could cover in terms of Ma Feima, his circumstances, and the things about the characters around them, but my brain is so fried lol. All-in-all, his story alongside the seven, is very...complicated.

My main thing is that, hey, maybe we should be a bit more vigilant when we learn things about characters. Beyond fiction, misinformation spreads very easily because we, understandably, take things at face value. In terms of media literacy, we see it time and time again when characters get reduced to a singular trait or a ship or get heavily misunderstood by the audience because a simplified summary will never do the context justice.

[meo-eiru]

I saw your post about your course in university and your words really resonated with me :') imo, I think that with you having good characterization and wording of your characters and works, you'd make some good VNs! I wanted to know how your experience was studying in game design, bc I wanted to get into it too but I had that fear of not being good enough to pursue the course :P Good luck, and thank you! <3

Thank you so much, I don't want to share much but there are some projects I'm working on👀

Studying game design is fun! We have a bit less workload from other courses from what I've seen but it's very project and group work heavy. If you're someone who prefers working alone it can be really hard because you'll straight up have to work with the same people for an entire semester for certain lessons. You'll also have to socialize with as many people as you can asap so that you won't end up grouping with people you dislike.

You also end up joining a lot of game jams which can get very exhausting but they are fun if you're working with people you like.

I was really conflicted between choosing animation or game design because on one I've never taken art lessons so taking them in the animation course would be fun and animation is just something I'm very passionate about. On the other hand if I went to game design I could get some new skills besides just drawing, like coding or 3d modelling. In the end I'm glad I went with it and if you ever decide to try it out I would recommend!

[mithrifer]

My thoughts on Flipside

Class of 09 Flipside was hilarious, but I don't think it approaches the original or reup in quality.

I don't think it's because the main character is Jecka, or anything. Honestly, Jecka is the best part of the game, she's consistently good whether it be in jokes or likeability. The side characters just don't... live up to her though. Aside from her it's just Nicole, Jeffery, her dad and Kelly. I don't think Nicole is very good in this game, Jeffery and her dad are rather one note as expected and Kelly... unfortunately stars in the weakest route by far and does not much even there. Barely any Emily and Ari, no Kylar, no Karen. No Kyle. Jecka's great and carries herself quite well throughout the game, but she feels really alone narratively. This could be a conscious choice, as she goes through most of her troubles as a lonely girl without anyone to rely on, but I think they could've made that point without sacrificing the interest that comes with everyone surrounding her. Most of her interactions either use the other characters as jokes or to elevate her story, which wasn't how 09 or reup felt. Nicole got to try out new things thanks to all the weirdos she was surrounded with giving her new ways to have fun, whereas Jecka only really has Jeffery and her dad in that way, and she feels trapped no matter what she does. She didn't seem that way in the first twk games, but I suppose you could say those were not about her. I think the fact that you can't see her mom even on the school routes speaks volumes though.

Every ending is there just to shock you, and I'm not saying this because there's no happy endings or anything, the first two barely had those. It's more like... the endings feel like they barely have anything to do with the routes they come from? Why does the foot route end with... that? It's just out of nowhere. Not to mention the deal with the whole FYE route. I don't think there's anything redeeming about that one, it doesn't even feel like it belongs to the same world. And the way the game cheapens one of the best endings in the original by just, inserting Jecka. Which is something people have wanted for a while now, but I don't think the idea was done justice. It feels like a cheap "here you go" moment to me. It's really upsetting because I feel like the game could have gone in a ton of great places, but there's barely any choices or routes and the abrupt, weird endings just feel like a slap on the face even to the ones that were given. I think the best route was the one about drinking because it felt honest to Jecka's character and the ending was something I could've actually foreseen in one of the earlier games. After that it's the one with Jeffery, but I'm kind of iffy on that because I don't think Nicole would do that. Not for any moral reasons but more due overall disgust. Feels inconsistent with her presently given character.

The writing feels overall different imo. It's hard to put a finger on it, because it definitely relies on the same formula it had in the previous entries, but nothing in Flipside packs the same emotional punch. The humor is fairly good, but it's not spectacular like the first two games were for me. I still laughed out a few times though, since this is right up my alley.

I'm still happy I saw it, because it was quite fun... But it wasn't really more than that. It just felt like a humor piece. I don't know what spoke out to me in the first two VN's, but I don't think Flipside has it. And honestly, considering it true to these two (canon, ig?) lessens their value for me due to the shift in the thematics and I guess writing, so I think I'll ignore it when I think about the series in general. Which is such a shame, because I want to love it, it's just... not there.

It's definitely worth the time to check it out either way though. Again, pretty funny. This is what I felt about it, and I wanted to get my thoughts out. Since it's so early in its release, I've tried to avoid putting any spoilers in the post. Maybe someone will read it and appreciate, idk. Drunk driving rules.

[lo-sulci]

What are heaven will be mine & coquette dragoon?

oh my goodness, thank you for asking!! the short answer: they are incredibly good visual novels that I highly recommend, especially if you're a fan of mecha, sci-fi, great world building, yuri, and generally just amazing art created by transfems

long answer:

heaven will be mine (aside from being where I got my url) is the second VN made by worst girls games, best known for their first outing, we know the devil (also an absolutely amazing game). hwbm tends to ask a bit more from the reader than its predecessor- while wktd almost exclusively featured three characters and dealt with rather plainly stated themes of alienation, loneliness, and religious trauma, hwbm presents a setting cloaked in metaphor where human will literally shapes the universe and psychic mech pilots read spacetime like a narrative.

the cast is bigger, with the three routes allowing insight into each of the three main girls in addition to members of the factions they belong to, all in service of a beautiful story about queer people connecting with each other and finding/making their place in a world that would want to deny them their happiness (and a lot of other things, but I'm simplifying some here). begging to be replayed over and over, i've had different characters and details stick out every time ive played through the game, while also gaining a deeper understanding of and appreciation for hwbm's characters and setting. I've loved hwbm and wktd for years and expect I will for years and years to come, which, incidentally, is why I got a pair of tattoos based on these games LMAO. in other words: they're fucking fantastic and hit like few other things out there, imo

coquette dragoon is one of those other things, because holy shit does it excel at hitting incredibly specific and relatable emotional beats that are liable to absolutely tear you apart. created by ivy burgeroise, who (by her own fantastic description) makes art for sad perverts, coquette takes place during a seemingly endless war between the lilac fleet and the duchy of lucia, two spacefaring societies inhabited by animal people who have very differing opinions on magic.

focusing (so far) on xiomara rosales of the lilac and lady honey rose of the duchy, coquette explores painfully human stories from both sides of the war. (to that point, I'd be remiss if I didn't advise you to look out for the content warnings- coquette gets into some very heavy stuff and speaks about it very frankly and honestly, which is to its credit imo but i also understand that that is not something that everyone is in a space to deal with.) more than anything else, I feel, coquette is a work that puts words to feelings that you'd never before been able to describe, and, through the vulnerability of its author in making something so emotionally honest, makes me want to be more openly and happily myself. all of this in a story that examines war, exploitation, and the societal structures that prop them up, among many, many, many other things. I could keep talking in circles gushing about it, because I am so so obsessed with what's been released so far and so indescribably excited to see how it progresses in the future, but to keep myself from going on for too too long i'll cap this off with a tweet about coquette that i frequently think of and is one of the best recommendations I can offer:

OH and also coquette has wibbleburger, which, as we all know, is your favorite

[shiraoyagi]

godddd as a DDLC fan the quality of mods is *so frustrating*

So many of them have, like, the seed of a fantastic idea in there, it's set up beautifully, and then it just trips and falls into the mud either because there's a blatant mischaracterization, or nonsensical storytelling presentation, or what have you.

There's one, maybe two, really good (extended length) mods, and I still have gripes with them.

Salvation Remake is ALMOST PERFECT but the Monika B plot is so much better than the SayorixMC A plot that I want to skip every single scene of it.

Also ironically re: your post, the FNF/DDLC mod is also very good lmao.

YEAH literally like yesterday, my friend and i were looking at this mod where it was about mc like... gradually realizing that he's in a game and him being self aware, and the set up was slow (paced properly) and looked somewhat promising at the start only for the characters to start jumping to conclusions WAY too fast and then there being a really mishandled scene about sayori's depression and then we stopped reading it 😭 it really read like the writer wanted to get to the "fun" part already at the cost of the pacing, and it was just a gradual decline in quality until it just became... not good. at all.

in general, i do really like the idea of mc having existentialism over being well.. a main character (and unsurprisingly, one of my favorite toby fox characters is kris deltarune, so that checks out)

and sorry for going on a tangent, i feel like he just does not have any fan content that expands on his character in a meaningful way? like he has a defined personality that also shows his supposed lack of personality since he's supposed to be nothing more than a vn mc, and i feel like there's a lot of potential to make stuff with out of that.

i tried dissecting a lot of his lines in act 1 (i haven't gotten around to going through the whole game again for this purpose), and i think it's interesting how he has underlying insecurities and also a definite sense of apathy ... which i think hints towards his "genericness" since he's supposed to be a blank slate for us to project onto (and therefore he would have no major goals, thus resulting in him seeming apathetic), but it's also interesting how this is warped in act 2 (and i haven't seen anyone talk about it?)

ignoring ddlc plus lore because i don't know how it would factor in here; mc in act 2 is interesting because i think, like the girls, something about him was modified by monika. i don't think you can chalk up his change in personality just to the absence of sayori in his life, because sure yeah while there is things like him feeling bitter when seeing groups of friends (due to not having any himself), his other actions suggest it's something else imo.

most prominently is his lack of reaction to situations, as in act 1, mc is always describing his feelings to us and remarking on how the other characters do things vividly. in act 2, his descriptions gradually become duller and duller, until he gets to the point of when natsuki sees yuri's dead body, all he has to say about it was "natsuki ran away."

additionally, he never interferes in situations where i think he would've in act 1, such as yuri's confession scene, for example, especially with how quickly he was to try and reassure sayori about her depression in act 1 (despite his conflicted feelings about the situation).

also we know the exact moment mc was fully gone, which is interesting. he thinks of some garble text right before natsuki shows up to walk in on seeing yuri's dead body, meaning that mc was probably conscious that whole weekend 😭 and just had to stare at yuri's dead body. which is. something. but besides that, the exact moment is at the end of act 2 when monika deletes natsuki and yuri and tells the player to hold on for a second, only for the interface to glitch out ... which might be part of why mc doesn't have a chr file, dan salvato not seeing him as a character otherwise . I don't know. help

[allcirclesvanish]

thoughts on higurashi so far:

1.) the pacing is a bit slow compared to other VNs i've played. i think this actually works to its favor, but it took some getting used to. by setting different scenes and making space for more character interactions, a slow build gives plenty of time to reflect on clues and really soak in each character's personality.

2.) the voice acting is REALLY good. like, really really good. the sound design in general is some of the best i've encountered. my one complaint might be that the background music can get a little repetitive during longer scenes. in other games i tend to read very quickly to get more of the story, and skip over spoken lines. i don't do that with higurashi because the voice acting is just that good.

3.) normally i don't like child characters very much, but satoko and rika are charming

4.) i wish keiichi were a more likeable protagonist lol but. he kind of sucks. at first i thought satoko went too far with the thumbtacks, but now i see that she was right to try it.

5.) some of the humor is really good but some of it... well... can i say it was a product of its time...? given that a lot of the other dialogue is used to establish certain expectations that can either be expanded on or subverted later, i wonder whether there's a bigger point to some of the uncomfortable jokes.

6.) pretty good mystery imo. i'm always on edge because i've got no idea what to expect next. i'm maybe a third of the way through watanagashi i thnk. very curious to find out what connection there is to onikakushi... time loop fuckery maybe??

[manonamora-if]

Retrospective 2023 (2)

See Part 1 for the Retrospective Infographic

2023 has been a rollercoaster of stuff, with some very high-highs, and some pretty low-lows. Things have been pretty busy this year, then got busier and weirder. I didn't manage to do things I wanted to do, ending up doing a lot of different things instead. This year was kinda the perfect storm to do all those new stuff and experimentation I've published.

It's been good, it's been bad, it's been ugly, and it's been cool. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Long post ahead - breaking here.

Goals for 2023

Last year, I made big-ass post about what I hoped to achieved during those next 12 months. The main one being: Get things off my desk and shelf it for good! The goal was to finish WIPs and remasters of "completed" projects.

And I... somewhat did that? But also... did whatever. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Taking the list of the "plan":

Goncharov Escapes! was: re-written, re-coded, and translated (to French). The new version also now includes music!

La Petite Mort was: re-written, added content, and translated (to English) for this year's Ectocomp. It just need one more or two things tho

The demo of P-Rix - Space Trucker is now playable on mobile! (and the template based on the game is out too)

The Trials and Tribulations of Edward Harcourt didn't get just one but TWO updates last year!

A bunch of templates! 5 to be exact: 3 focused more on visuals (Sci-Fi, VN, Title), and the other 2 more on code (Setting, Charac Creator).

So... what's extra? Well... a lot. Maybe too much...

A lot of new titles under my name: DOL-OS, The Rye in the Dark City (wip), The Roads not Taken, À la Campagne, Entre-d'oeuf coquilles/An Eggcellent Preparation, Collision, Intersigne, Clarence Street 14, The Dinner, In the Blink of an Eye, Tower of Sleep, and Dévoiement. From bite-size to full large game, that makes TWELVE new thing this year! I... may have gone a bit overboard with this...

Aside from the template, I've also worked on the SugarCube Guide, a guide that covers all markup, macros, functions, methods, and APIs of the SugarCube format. From the basics to the very advanced code ~ Which will receive another update when the 2.37 comes out for real.

After the @seedcomp-if, I continued to organised more IF events: Neo-Twiny Jam, Single Choice Jam, Orifice Jam, Bring Out Your Ghost, Bare-Bones Jam, ShuffleComp... and helped out other events (the IFComp, y'all!).

I've been a tad less active on the Tumblr front lately, mainly because I've hung out more on the Forum or the @neointeractives Discord. But I've been plenty active reviewing games, especially since last May (@manonamora-if-reviews). The count is over 300 now...

I made a zine?????

So yeah... A LOT this year. (and there would have been more had I not gotten sick...)

2023 Achievements and Milestones

There were probably a bunch of itch/analytics milestones this year, but... I've tried to stay away from numbers as much as I could, because I realised it was a source of anxiety. I want to make games for fun, not worry that I haven't achieved a certain play level by a certain date. So I've even edited my itch's dashboard to hide it all. (I'm still updating the analytics sheet once in a while tho) And anyway... nothing will ever be as popular as CRWL, even when I'm trying to push other - and much better imo - games down everyone's throats.

Some other stats on itch:

22 [total] games on itch (incl. the experiments & demos) we're getting closer to my goal of 1 game/birthdays

9 free-to-use prompts

7 free-to-use templates

3 coding guides

1 zine

I also participated in 22 different jams and comps, almost always using one game for multiple jams at once (I'm crazy, but not that crazy). I ranked pretty high on multiple jams, which I am really happy about, and got some amazing reviews and lovely comments. A bunch of my games from 2022 were nominated for the IFDB Awards (and two were mentioned in the Top50 IF too)! (maybe next time I'll get a spot too !)

But the major thing coming out of it all was winning a big competition too, with DOL-OS at the start of the year. Holy shit, did that make my year. I really wasn't expecting it because so many of the games that year were incredible! This was such a confidence booster! I think that's my biggest achievement this year. (I just finished the puzzle I won too, and that was loads of fun) I am so so so proud of that game, especially after releasing the remaster.

Some non-numerical achievements I'm happy about:

I continued experimenting this year, with non-linear stories (DOL-OS), shorter and more kinetic content (Neo-Interactive jam entries), and... well... a thing. The experimentation included trying out other programs to make game too!

Speaking of the thing... I've made a monster of a Twine, creating a bad (oh so bad in convention) parser... which I still haven't finished fixing. I talked at length about here.

I've made an actual proper parser game, following the conventions of the medium... and enjoyed it a lot. From creating puzzles to solving the puzzle that was coding it. It didn't rank super high, but it got some good reactions! Making a parser strangely helped me playing them, and appreciate them more.

Has it been a lot of stuff? Yeah... it feels a bit like a lot...

Some 2023 personal things

Like last year, I've continued to struggle with feeling like I was not doing enough during the year (or the month, before doing the monthly dev logs). Not enough words written or progress made. It was a pervasive thing last year, and I've been working on myself to feel less so, especially with all I've been doing anyway this year. But it's still there.

I think I recently found one of the reasons I've been feeling this way: not working on or finishing the WIPs I started with back in 2021 and in 2022, not making substantial progress that would warrant an update... It's been especially hard when seeing other authors churn out updates left and right and I have little to nothing to show for. Maybe that's why I've been compensating with all the new little projects and jam entries throughout the year (and half-way through 2022). I mean... there hasn't been a month where I didn't publish something new, whether it was an update, or a new game, or a template/guide, or brought out a whole-ass remaster of a game.

And by working on those other little things, I think I found myself in some sort of cycle, where the time spent on those new things is not spent on the WIPs, and I start feeling bad about it. But when I open the file, with all that pressure I put myself, nothing gets written or fixed. So I distract myself with a different thing... and I end up not making any progress on the WIP. It sucks, because I want to see those WIPs done. I want to finish those stories. But it's been hard. Who'd have thunk it??? I'm a stupid human being after all ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I know breaking that cycle will happen... when I work on those darn WIPs. I just need to push myself to get there... But I also want to enjoy what I am writing too, because the quality of the writing really sucks when I force it... So silliness has been happening in the meantime.

Will it continue like this? In the near future, most likely. Hopefully not to the extend of the past year and a half. At best, I'd want to have 1-2 updates on a bit WIP, 1-2 new medium-sized games, and a handful small silly experiments, during a year.

Not that I owe anyone an explanation, but anons being nasty about the whole no-progress thing - essentially why @crimsonroseandwhitelily was offline for a whole while, or why I haven't answered many questions lately.

Also gonna take this moment to not address the very personal stuff that happened IRL, even with the very insisting messages I got. I was tempted to go on a whole tangent about what's been going on, but I'm a bit paranoid about my privacy on the internet (and with the anons wilding lately, I've become more careful), and I don't really want IRL to flood this space either (more than it has anyway - considered leaving a few times tbh). I like this specific corner to not be about IRL, to have it as an escape and spend some time just not having to think about it. So yea... you can ask all you want, I'm not going to answer. But it's been a time... I'm coping by being here damnit. Maybe you'll get an(other) autobio game about it one day xD

Here's to a more peaceful state of mind (and inbox) next year...

2023 is OVER officially

And what a fucking year this was. It's made me even more excited to see what 2024 has in store for me.

I want to learn more, for sure. I think I reached a bit of a plateau with SugarCube, where the only thing I feel I haven't tried yet is some sort of RPG adventure/combat system. Or diving further in JavaScript/jQuery (it's inevitable...). Or have less of a spaghetti code... Though it didn't really start as a conscious effort, I'm glad I tried different IF programs and Twine formats this year. It helped me think more about IF game structure and coding. It really pushed me to grow and appreciate the variety there is in IF outside of Tumblr. It did reinforce my love for Twine, especially SugarCube xD

I know I've complained about having done a lot but also not feeling I did enough, but strangely this year has also been pretty fulfilling. Having achieved things I didn't think I could, mess around and create unmentionable bits of code that should not have seen the light of day, learned how to handle new formats, met and talked with a bunch of cool and knowledgeable IF peeps, and just tried to do some good for the community.

I would love to be as fulfilled in this new year too!

I was shocked with all the good things I got in 2022, but I didn't imagine it would be even better this year. How much I got out of this year. How much I got done. How much I learned. How much I grew as a person and a creator. I'm glad I stuck around another year.

I'm really lucky I was able to have the year I had, to be surrounded by such lovely people, to get such positive return on stuff, to be in this community, to have the friends I have, to still be here.

So, thanks for sticking around too, and partake in my silliness :)

[veeranger]

Vee’s Steam Summer Sale 2023 Recommendations

as always these are just personal opinions etc etc please look up some real reviews before buying a game if you aren’t sure and remember that steam will give you a full refund if you have less than 2 hours played in under 2 weeks.

im going to try to recc stuff i havent shilled every 6 months for the last 5 years but the VNs are going to be the same as always honestly

Fighting Games

Guilty Gear -Strive- Ultimate Edition 2022 ($55.99)

yes im specifically saying buy ultimate edition because it has all the dlc as of this writing. buy the base version if you want but i hate playing fighting games with incomplete rosters.

anyway this is my favorite fighting game, bar none. this is the game that after years of screwing around on a bunch of other games finally got me to really want to get better and actually play against other people. there’s a super active playerbase and at least another year of support from arcsys on the way. the best time to start playing strive was a year ago but the second best time is right now.

Idol Showdown (Free)

yes im shilling a free game here. idol showdown is a good fighting game and the result of like three years of hard work from a small team. try it out and give them some love

Nitroplus Blasterz: Heroines Infinite Duel ($4.99)

this is not a good game but it is a funny game. saber is in it.

Narrative Games

AI: The Somnium Files - $7.99

one of the finest mystery games you can play imo. maybe uchikoshi’s best work. a perfect blend of mystery, character, and style. every character and conversation is compelling in its own way and every little thing builds up to the huge moments which makes them all feel totally earned. as always uchikoshi is a genius in the way he blends his signature branching timeline style with the themes and core concepts of the game. the twists and turns this game goes down are so crazy that weeks later you’ll still be realizing how all the little things you thought were just quirks were actually foreshadowing. cannot recc this enough tbh.

Zero Escape: The Nonary Games - $11.99

another uchikoshi joint, also extremely good. ive only finished 999, the first game in this collection, but i can recc it just based on the strength of that alone. whereas somnium is a murder mystery, 999 is a visual novel about being trapped in a murder game interspliced with escape room segments. whatever you think you know you dont, 999 will take you down so many twists and turns you’ll be fucking dizzy when you’re done with it. big recc.

VA-11 HALL-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action - $10.04

i could probably talk about this game for as long as the others, even though its way way less complex. va-11 hall-a doesnt have a huge sweeping story with insane twists and massive reveals, but what it does have is an extremely personal narrative about loss, healing, and just living your life the best way you can in a horrible dystopian world. the cast of characters feel utterly real and you learn about the world they inhabit through interactions with them, rather than being infodumped by exposition. everyone has their own story and everyone is just trying to get by, including you. one of the best small scale personal narrative games ive ever played.

Night In The Woods - $9.99

another vn i would consider “small scale” but equally as impactful. nitw is a story about a disillusioned and struggling college drop out returning to her economically declining home town. nobody is secure, nobody is happy, everyone is suffering through their daily lives. you follow mae as she struggled to readjust to her childhood home and the people she left behind. until something happens that changes her priorities radically. all ill say. despite how i just made it sound, nitw is not all depressing. theres lighthearted moments and wacky days to cut through the bleak fog, as well as genuinely heartfelt moments that feel very earned. nitw is a game i think that everyone struggling through their 20s should play.

Grim Fandango Remastered ($3.79)

i know this is an old school adventure game and you might yell at me for sort of grouping it in with the VNs but i dont care. its a classic, its a beautiful game, everyone should play it. its old, it controls like shit, the puzzles are obtuse, but the experience is wonderful and memorable. its cheap as hell just go for it.

Action

Assault Spy ($4.99)

this goofy ass game is fun as hell. its a very dmc style character action with upgrades and moves to buy, and it actually has a pretty goddamn good mechanical system in place. the gameplay loop rules. only warning is this is not well optimized so watch your computer doesnt explode.

Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered ($40.19)

i shouldn’t even have to shill. a must play for any spider-man fan. one the best spider-man stories ever hands down. such an incredible experience seriously. i cant even say enough here, if you haven’t played this yet you should do it asap.

Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales ($33.49)

everything i just said for the first game goes here too. a MUST play for miles morales fans. the combat is even better than the first too. you won’t regret playing this trust me.

Marvel’s Avengers - The Definitive Edition ($5.99)

no i’m not joking. ok well i kind of am but this game is getting delisted in september. it is an unforgivably mid piece of shit but if you have an interest in game preservation or playing something so bad they’re killing it forever, well here it is. they made all the microtransactions free btw.

Others

Tinykin ($13.75)

its like pikmin but its legally distinct! i like this game a lot, it has a very cute art style and its got easy to enjoy gameplay. i find it very relaxing. there’s a demo.

System Shock 2 ($2.49)

i will never stop shilling this game. fucking play it. its a cornerstone of video games. one of the most influential pieces ever put to pixel. you owe it to yourself to experience this if you feel any interest in it. maybe read a guide though its unforgiving if you screw around with your build.

Dead Space [2023] ($41.99)

exceptionally good. i dont have to shill the old shitty pc port of the original anymore. an A+ remake, i think it improves on the original in every conceivable way.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night ($11.99)

such a goddamn good metroidvania. its almost like the platonic ideal of a castlevania game. a true spiritual successor to SOTN. this isnt your dime a dozen soulslike vania, this is a true vania game in the best original style made by basically one of the core founders of the genre.

STAR WARS™ Knights of the Old Republic™ II - The Sith Lords™ ($3.49)

its a fuckin classic rpg. one of the best of the era. get it on pc so you can get that extended content mod they promised to import to the console version and then cancelled.

Save Room - Organization Puzzle ($2.09)

this is just a cute puzzle game. i like it.

[satanfemme]

hello you are really funny and have good takes and I have a puppy crush on you??? can you please tell me more about your visual novel :) what is your favorite page you've drawn so far?

hehe thank u :3c this is so flattering!

since u didn't specify what u want to hear about my visual novel, I'm just gonna ramble about what's on my mind with it if that's ok :-) (and I'll share my fav pages at the end ofc)

first random thought: the novel presents the character Case as the narrator/protagonist, but I think the secret real protagonist is Dane. case is in charge for the first chapter & most of the second chapter, but in the second chapter there's a turning point where dane becomes the center of the narrative (even as the story is still told from case's POV). I think this is fun. dane is the best character, and that's an objective fact.

second random thought: this is subject to change as I continue working and drawing from different sources, but right now some of the media that's inspiring my vn are: psycholonials, echo vn, the last house on dead end street, nekromantik, interview with the vampire (tv), hardcoded, midori, homestuck, fight club (book), and hellraiser.

third random thought: I think a big thing I'm worried about is the story (once it's finished) being misinterpreted. if it gets downloaded by Anyone who isn't one of my immediate friends/followers, I think there's a good chance someone's gonna miss the point or get "the wrong thing" out of it, as is the inherent nature of art. and I try to find peace with this, especially since it'll still be many months At Least before it'll be ready for release (if not longer considering I keep bouncing between different projects). but it's a story about a violent and unhealthy sexual lesbian relationship. + it deals with themes of kink, depression/mental health, transphobia, misogyny, and people living on the fringes of society. these are all themes that interest me, especially in horror, but they're also very prone to sparking backlash especially when coming from a smaller creator. or if not backlash, then the themes being flattened by the force of fandom culture. I spend a lot of time thinking about hypothetical outcomes like "what if I get called out for romanticizing transphobia, because I depict a character experiencing it" or "what if people ship case and dane (<-something that would be fine on it's own fwiw) so hard that they ignore the messier and more thematically relevant aspects of their relationship". or omg I Especially worry about "what if people see a depiction of a realistically messy kink relationship, decide it's wholly bad and evil, and therefor determine the story must be anti-kink or bad kink representation or something".

it's funny that these are the things I worry about actually, because irl I'm always watching horror that's way less sensitive or good-intentioned than my work is, and I'm always finding things to enjoy about it anyway (or often Because of the way it is - sorry for finding the horror genre interesting, flaws and all! as if it's my fault). like really and truly the internet is just a moral OCD generator. and it's my awareness of that that's pushing me to keep working on my visual novel despite my fears <3

also the most realistic outcome continues to be "like 5-10 people download it, only half of them finish it, and they just think it's like.... weird but alright".

as for my favorite page so far, it'd be one of these:

(cw for a guro image under the cut!!)

---

(the second image is censored for tumblr. & I'm hoping what's still visible doesn't get me in trouble.)

this first image is my fav cause case is both scary and kinda hot... and I'm into that. I'm not a masochist but I'd let her tie me up and beat me with her crowbar at least once. whatever. this drawing isn't technically done yet but I just need to add more filters/effects to it basically.

this second image is my fav cause it's just really pretty to look at imo. I did a more painterly style with it (different pages have completely different art styles & I don't care) and In My Humble Opinion I think it captures a really nice balance between horror/disgust and eroticism, which is what I need it to do for the scene it's in. idk what other people see in it, especially in this post where it's removed from context lol oops, but whenever I look at it I simultaneously feel the emotions "wow this is so beautiful" and dread. which is great, that's such a good combo of emotions. I love dread!! give it up for dread!

[otome-crow]

So I finally beat Corpse Factory. Despite me reviewing it here, it’s definitely not an otome. It is, in fact, one of the more fucked up VN’s I’ve ever played. Psychological horror done (almost) exactly right. (Mostly) terrible people doing (completely) terrible things.

Basic plot: Cool website, Corpse Girl. Send in someone’s photo and phone number, and they’ll get texted a picture of their own corpse…hours/days before they die. And they will die. There’s Noriko, a bored, stoic goth girl who runs the site. Tomoe, a walking “blonde slut” stereotype (even if she kind of isn’t) who has no problem playing messenger with dead bodies. Kojiro, a morgue attendant a little too obsessed with corpses. And Aoi, the girl Noriko’s in love with, who can’t seem to take control of her life.

TW: If any of this intrigues you, PLEASE BE AWARE that this is psychological horror for reasons that go WAY beyond mere corpses and death. There’s very (VERY) frank discussions of mental health issues, anorexia, body dysmorphia, depression, suicide, self-hatred, child abuse and neglect, and more.

That being said….all of it is treated with a shocking amount of sensitivity. And I mean that in a good way. You watch the characters spiral, but for some of them, you also watch them build themselves back up again. (The good ending made me cry in a good way at one part.) They’re all motivated by their mental illness, following the current of their lying brains, and that’s why they do what they do. Reason, not excuse. As some of them start to regain pieces of themselves, they’re horrified by the things they’ve done.

You’re watching someone trying to manipulate people into killing themselves, and you still somehow feel bad for her as she believes that three bites of food a day and a few cans of coffee is enough to live on. That’s some good writing, IMO.

Also, I can’t say enough about the art and CGs. Each character has a significant number of sprites to show a variety of emotions. The art on the CGs is great, and there’s a LOT of them.

And the voice acting OMG the VOICE ACTING. Normally I speed through VN’s and listen only to important lines. Once I have the character’s voice in my head, I read far far quicker than they speak. But in this game, I wound up listening to a large majority of it because I just couldn’t get enough of everyone’s voices!

Pros: Excellent writing, characters who are sympathetic even as you hate them, AMAZING art, CGs, and voices!

Cons: Can be triggering, dragged in some places, and one particular part of the true ending came out of NOWHERE with very little foreshadowing. It’s something I guessed, but only because I’ve been obsessed with horror for 30 years now. And it was a guess - it was kind of a random “oops, we need to tie up all the loose ends and fixing this one will take another 1-2 hours until we do it this way” ending.

Overall, definitely worth playing if this is your thing and your mental health will stand for it!!

[darksaiyangoku]

My wishlist for a Fate Route remake

I love what ufotable have done with the Fate/Stay Night Saga. They have given us incredbile adaptations of the Unlimited Blade Works and Heaven's Feel Routes, as well as blessing with beautiful tragedy that is Fate/Zero. However, if there's one criticism I have for it, it's that it's incomplete. 17 years later and we're still missing the one that started it all; the Fate Route.

Despite being the face of the franchise, Saber/Artoria hasn't managed to have her moment to shine properly since Fate/Zero and even then, it's very bittersweet. The Fate Route also gave us the lovely Shirou x Artoria romance, which many consider as the definitive ship of the saga. I do think we are way overdue for a Fate Route remake and I think it's best if it happens sooner rather than later. Not only will it give Artoria her much needed spotlight again, but it's also a good jumping on point for newcomers to get into the series. However, what I want isn't a simple retelling of the VN or the 2006 anime with better animation, I want a full remake that actually changes and fixes the issues of both. These include:

Expanding Saber's character more- with the remake, Saber's character development should be a major focus here and that includes her past as King Artoria. One way that can help flesh her out is to add in flashbacks that adapt Garden of Avalon. Not only that, but it would also give some much needed expansion on the knights too.

Expanding on Shirou and Saber's romance- we all know why Shirou loves Artoria so much, but we need to see why she loves him so much. Just like how UBW showed Rin falling for him and HF showed Sakura falling for him, Fate needs to do the same. More scenes should be shown where Artoria starts to question if her relationahip to Shirou is simply Master/Servant or if she truly likes him. A few more date scenes should be added too.

Changing Shirou's characterisation- UBW and HF really did a lot with Shirou's character and they're his best depiction, imo. The Fate Route, however, doesn't really do that. There are times when he comes across as kind of an idiot and he doesn't have as much of proactive role as he did in the later routes. Give those moments to Fate-Shirou, show him getting better at fighting and show his arc about him becoming that great hero he aspired to be.

More Archer moments- I know Archer essentially had his time to shine in UBW, but I think he was severely underused in Fate. Even HF, where he did still die early, had him more of a presence. Maybe we can even see a rematch between him and Saber right before the battle with Berserker.

Caster fight- for all its flaws, Deen's Fate/Stay Night did give a very good fight scene with Caster. This should be implemented in the remake as well and it gives both Caster and Kuzuki a proper send off.

Shirou vs Gilgamesh- since Shirou isn't fully realised yet, he can't have the exact same battle with Gil as he did in UBW. But they should still fight at least once, maybe have Gil overwhelm him before Artoria takes over.

Shirou vs Kieri- have this one be a similar fight to the one from Fate/Zero between Kirei and Kiritsugu. Have him utilise his martial arts skills more and Shirou makes use of his improved projection magic.

A new ending- the Fate true ending is something that fans do want and I think it would be a beautiful way to wrap up the saga. But honestly? I want a happily ever after ending instead and to have Artoria become a human and marry Shirou. I know it's controversial but after everything Artoria had been through, she deserves a happy ending and a chance to finally be selfish for once.

And that's my wishlist for the Fate Route remake.

[miyakuli]

Harmony: The Fall of Reverie

Harmony is a visual novel set in a dystopian future where MK, a mega corporation, fully controls the small island of Atina. A young woman named Polly will suddenly be granted powers of precognition while becoming the link between our world and the world of deities, called "Aspirations".

If this VN brings very good ideas in terms of mechanics and shows a very neat artistic direction, some details make it miss the title of essential imo.

❤ An original gameplay in the VN world; the power of precognition is visualized in the form of a flowchart called "Augural" where you can see almost all the branches in advance and the resolutions of the chapters. As a result, we can very well try to unlock the choices to reach the conclusion that we want. We could then believe that the game fails to surprise us but it's not so because seeing the future is one thing, but directing it is another; it is not always so simple as that to achieve our ends because the Augural has its own rules despite everything. As a result, I really found this mechanism ambitious and singular. ❤ Very well written characters all different from each other (the Aspirations are however much more endearing than the humans I think) and excellently dubbed! ❤ A magnificent artistic direction; the cinematics are incredible, the animation of the sprites is dynamic, the backgrounds are colorful and lively etc… ❤ A very good replayability given the many branches and several endings to unlock.

+/- The story is nice overall with its share of strong moments, but far too Manichean: the wicked, inhuman mega-corporation that is "thirsty for blood" even if it means sacrificing the population? I would have preferred a little more complexity in there. +/- The musical atmosphere is good but no more, not striking enough in my opinion.

✖ The last chapter is disappointing; we suddenly move away from the main characters to have a more global vision of the world, but suddenly it makes everything too impersonal and removes almost all the dramatic and emotional tension has built up so far. Also, the last scene I had before the credits seemed super abrupt, leaving me wanting more. ✖ If the idea of the Augural is excellent, the scenes that result from our choices are often very short, which makes us constantly come back to it, and that chops the story too much for my taste. I might have preferred less routes with longer scenes. ✖ At present, there are no "skip" options for scenes already played, which can be a bit of a pain to restart a game for the time being.

Harmony brings a little freshness to the Visual Novel landscape with its distinctive gameplay, but lacks just a little more maturity and fluidity in its storytelling. Still, it's a good game that I could easily get into again, like a good dream :)

➡ My personal VN ranking (in french) ➡ My Steam page

[lunar-fey]

9 people you want to know better

tagged by: @celia-the-pikachu

last song I listened to: uhhh technically probably something on the bg3 ost. but i don't know any of the names and i feel like it kinda doesn't count anyway. the actual last song i listened to was @/dootnoot7125's mashup of the concept of love from jet set radio future and twister from twewy linked there for your convenience

currently watching: i actually watch a lot of anime every season LMAO its kind of My Hobby. like. i'm watching 10 shows rn. 7 of which are currently airing. uhhh but top few for the season: bleach thousand year blade war, bungo stray dogs s5, link click s2, & undead girl murder farce which is like. i feel like it has a very specific audience in mind. and i am that audience. the jokes hit perfectly. to me <3 but im not actually sure if its like. Good. also honorable mention for jujutsu kaisen s2 and zom100 which i actually haven't started yet bc i'm gonna watch them with skerples but they both look really good 👍

currently reading: .......... ..... I think the last thing i read was the mononoke manga...? probably over a year ago now? unless you count video game dialogue bg3 i GUESS. uhhh actually visual novels should count imo. i haven't started it yet but i have downloaded the vn mamiya and i'll be reading that....soon ish? but also i'm going in blind and don't really know anything about it

current obsession: baldur's gate 3. in case you couldn't tell. ouhhhhh its sooo much fun for me i love it sooo much . not really much to say there just having a classic Good Time. also really happy seeing like Everyone getting into baldur's gate as someone who played the games on like. ps2 as a small kid with his dad. its awesome :)

as per usual i'm not actually going to directly tag anyone but if you see this and want to do it feel free to say i sent you!! and tag me so i can see your answers :3

[specterthief]

also more to the original point i was making on that post, imo a good way to get started with visual novels is just find something short and affordable on itch.io that seems like a story you'd enjoy if it were in another format and see how you like the medium, just staying away from anything that's trying to parody japanese VNs/"dating sims" or is otherwise talking down VNs/"dating sims" as a whole (any genuinely thoughtful parody is better played if you're more familiar with the genres, most stuff like that is not thoughtful parody and is just cynically made by people who don't really know or like the genre)

Getting Into Visual Novels in the sense of classics/staples of the genre can be daunting on several levels and i think starting with short OELVNs with subject matter that already speaks to you can be a great way to get a feel for if it's a presentation style you even enjoy, and it is always very cool and sexy to support indie game devs making their passion projects