FLCL: Revisiting An Old Fave I kinda regret not keeping notes while watching, but the show is so chaotic that I would have to frequently pause to catch everything. Or rewatch a few times. I'm going by memory, having finished the show yesterday. This is an anime I first saw on Adult Swim at thirteen. And...wow. I unintentionally rewatched on the anniversary. I forgot it aired in August. Looking…
Tea Time With Demons And I'll Never Leave — Another game by one of my fave devs, Sun Labyrinth! It's set in the world of Aeser, with a unique magic system and blood sucking demons. A minor character, Mishel, interviews a lost Earth girl he found wandering about. It's a very short game, made for a past Jam. I think I finished it in under ten minutes, including all the endings. It was a pleasant…
Obsession I don't usually edit my notes before sharing, but did flesh out some of my thoughts at the bottom. Looking back now after letting the movie sit with me for a few days, there are a few things I noticed in retrospect. I also took far less notes than usual but it's a very straightforward story. How tf did the cat get into your grandma's pills?? Using the One Wish Willow to make myself a…
Boogiepop Phantom As usual, expect spoilers and a stream of thoughts. Vol 1: Why are the girls worried about Nagi? Is she also a man eater? “The spider in your chest is gonna eat you up. Allow me to feel you up.” Vol 2: This nigga eating grubs. Hold up. The doc is talking about Death wanting strong souls over weak ones. She's a demon. A month ago, this giant beam of energy shot from the ground and…
Tsukihime -A piece of blue glass moon- Unfortunately, I did not enjoy this as much as I hoped. Which sucks cause I love vampires. Arc is alright, but I did not enjoy being in Shiki's head. He was so incurious, and the way he stalked and killed Arc was super uncomfortable. I appreciated the gore, but goddamn. That and the slow pace of Arc's route did neither any favors. So. Much. Exposition that…
“Tomorrow will be a good day”: The Oddly Hopeful Thriller, Monster I just finished what most people have called a masterpiece. Started a month ago and paced myself, watching 2-3 episodes a day, before scrambling to binge the last bit of the manga because I could read faster than I could watch at that point. I would have preferred to read the manga, but aside from some scans I found online, there…
Short and Bittersweet I played a lot of short games this month, games that could be beaten in under and hour. And I also played much longer games, like Persona and Tsukihime. I had much to say about the latter, and almost included them in this post. But they deserve their own. A Hint of Purple — I remember picking this one up due to the similar structure to another game I love: Disco Elysium. But…
Demons and Vampires Oh wow. It feels like I haven't touched this in a while. Well, I've been playing in the background. I've also been busy with mental health issues (had a really bad depression flare ups), trying to stay afloat financially, and writing. But I have been playing games. SMT 5: Vengeance — I bought SMT 5: Vengeance on sale a year or so ago, because I wasn't having fun with the…
Serial Experiments: Lain Another stream of notes. I will say that I didn't fully understand what happened to the sister until I looked it up. Or that the MIB were hired by the "dad"? Something like that, anyway. It's fun looking back and seeing what I missed. Ep 3: Sister: Mentions an imaginary friend First(?) ep: Lain is telling someone on the train to shut up Third ep Lain: Reacting to what I…
Why I Love Persona 3 I thought I already had a post on this, but that was merely a snippet in this post. And yes, there will be heavy spoilers for the ending. This whole post came about as I completed my recent playthrough of Reload, a remake which excels in most areas, but kinda lags in others. Nothing major if you're new to the series or only played the later Persona games, but us P3 fans? We…
Last Thoughts On LoveChoice Note: There will be spoilers. If you'd rather play the game yourself, do so. Finishing up LoveChoice, a game I started last month and enjoyed...the first story, at least. There are three stories in total, with the second tackling a long distance relationship. Something I am very familiar with; all my relationships have been long distance, started and often ending…
What I'm Playing Now & Later I talk a lot about my backlog, but not enough about the games I've played and loved (or didn't). I talk about them more frequently on Mastodon, but get very little, if any, feedback. So I figured: may as well save that energy for blog posts, as I end up writing blog length posts over there (5000 character count on my instance). I've written some killer posts, but…
Insert Freud Joke Here FLIES FLIES FLIES — An episodic VN about a guy who wakes up as a fly, and has to enlist the help of his ex-boyfriend and dads. There are three out of six episodes right now. It's a fun(ny) queer game, and a welcome distraction from the ongoing horrors of the world. Fostering Apocalypse — I watched Manlybadasshero's gameplay a few years ago, when it first came out, and got it…
Depression and Death Games In The Afterlife I intended to play more games in February, but I'll aim for more this month. Room of Depression — Doesn’t really match my experience with depression, but it’s not a one size fit all. Now, would I recommend it? Ehh…maybe when it’s on sale. Most recently, it was 60% off on Steam. I do appreciate the amount of detail put into the game, but some things…
A New Kind of Blindness The Blind Of The New World — Woah! Sleek art, sleek graphics, and a killer premise! This is a sci-fi VN where everyone gets a special eye transplant, allowing them to see vibrant holograms in an otherwise barren and bland world. The MC is not one of those people, unfortunately. This is a new form of blindness. It’s a very interesting concept, one I can kinda relate to. Not…
These Kids Need Therapy I was hoping to post this last month, but got distracted and needed time to collect my thoughts. My next post will feature more romance themed VNs, but I'd like to include other genres. It's a big "we'll see" moment. Chaos;Head: Noah — I finished this just before the new year, and while I have so many feelings and things I could say about Chaos;Head, but I wanna keep this…
Condo Living Short one this month! I've been super busy with work, but I found time to beat one game. I was hoping to talk about Chaos;Head Noah, but I'm still chipping away at that one. 😅 I'm really loving it so far, but the first chapter was so difficult to get through. The MC is…frustrating, to say the least. I think I’m halfway through my first playthrough, currently on chapter four. Anyway.…
Camps, Cults, and Trans Allegories Ascension: Transition and Silver — I haven’t read Roadside Picnic, which I’ve seen other reviewers insist this game was partially inspired by, so I can’t comment on that. But I will say it’s a wonderful trans allegory. Short, too. It can be finished in an hour and a half, though it took me nearly four cause I wanted all the endings, especially the one where they…
YOU and ME and HER: A Love Story This game. Where do I even start?! I've heard it compared to DDLC (a crime tbh; this came first and is better executed), so I kinda went in expecting a psychological horror. What I got was a rather sweet and sincere VN, with the goofy side character with a heart of gold, a more levelheaded but just as kind protagonist, and two very different love interests: the…
Diving Back Into The Game Backlog I’ll be going through my backlog in alphabetical order for now, so some titles may be more recent than others. These first few games for sure are. There are a few VNs up ahead that I may skip for now, especially for the sake of reading order in series (looking at you, SciADV), but I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it. Anywho, here’s the short lot I played as a…
Dressed To Kill My unfettered notes of the 1980 neo noir psych thriller. Would I recommend it? Yes and no. It's a movie about a trans woman (played by a cis man) going on a killing spree. The transphobia aside, it's actually pretty good. There are a lot of teachable moments and trans people aren't treated as a joke in the film. I owe some of that to the director himself, who put quite a bit of…
Clearing My Gaming Backlog This is a series I started on my main blog a few years ago, but have since deleted. I kinda regret that, but at the same time...the posts themselves weren't as memorable. Except for The House of Fata Morgana and one or two others I can't recall right now. I'm more annoyed at losing the number of games I had in the backlog, and how many I cleared that year. My best guest…
Relearning How To Sneeze I'm writing this when I could be finishing a chapter of my web serial, due tomorrow. But it's still a good writing exercise to get me going, so...this is also a post I've been wanting to write for a while now, but other things kept getting in the way. Now, to explain the title... After my septoplasty and turbinate reduction, I was given advice on aftercare. One of the…
Now The Real Healing Process Begins My nose is finally free! Not fully healed of course, but give it another three or four months. The process to remove my splints was pretty straightforward. I'd read many comments on the septoplasty subreddit, with mixed results. Some said it was painful, others said they barely noticed a thing. But there was this commonality: the relief that immediately came…
Day 4 — Look Ma, No Hands! Things in fact have gotten better! Though there were some rough patches, particularly with my meds. I stopped taking oxycodone last night because I realized it was the root cause for much of my troubles. With oxy, I noticed I had vision problems (particularly doubling and lack of focus), experienced fatigue and constipation. I had my first bowel movement after three…