There’s so much hype for GTA 6 that when everyone was talking about being excited for the pre-load date I mistook it as early access. That’s an extra 9 days of waiting to play the game. Annoyed.

Kinda 😅

Well Dweller is a Metroidvania that caters to what I enjoy most about that genre, exploring a map and uncovering its secrets, unlike the new Castlevania, which is about punishing challenges and bosses that require meticulous memorization of patterns.

I have completed Kara no Shoujo part 1. I have never played a game that required a walk-through almost as much as Angel Beats: 1st Beat. This is one of the few visual novels I played blind, trying to beat it before using a walk-through to get all the endings, and I couldn’t get to the halfway point.

Finally deleted castlevania Belmont’s curse. Didn’t feel great but felt better than playing it. If you enjoy punishing obtuse games this is for you. Otherwise, go play the old games… post SotN.

Castlevania Belmont’s Curse suffers from the same design flaws as Crimson Desert. The puzzle logic is inconsistent. Use a weapon to open most doors, but some doors you have to hit R1. You’re welcome.

Jun Maeda, one of the Mt. Rushmore heads of the visual novel genre, is in his final days of life. 51 is far too young. Heaven Burns Red will most likely be his final work, a visual novel hiding itself as a very casual gacha game.

Control Resonant complete. I was surprised by the kind of lack of ending. Always dangerous when a company as slow as Remedy leaves an open ending. I really like how the series inverts gender roles in these games. Jesse the more masculine male presence, Dylan the more feminine.

I desperately need to finish Control Resonance before GTA 6 comes out and destroys my free time.

For the first time I have abandoned a visual novel with no plans to return. A Sky Full of Stars is a slice of life romance about an astronomy club obsessive and the four girls he wants to be a paternal figure to.

Continuing with unintentionally reading all of Key’s visual novels, I have now completed “Angel Beats: First Beat”. There’s not much to this one, being incomplete, however the insane amount of dialogue options that subtlety alter the story are fascinating.

Reading the remake of “Never7” and the original is clearly from an era before the ability to remove the textbox was popularized. The story is not about aliens invading earth to seduce our women. 😭

UuultraC has been completed. 1970s Showa Japan: What if “kaiju” was a sexually transmitted disease? Plays like a short film where there’s one concept taken to its furthest extent. A bit dream-like/Lynchian I really enjoyed this super gay story. And dear god is it beautiful.

Wow it’s almost been 10 years since the last mainline Mario game.

Sometimes a game understands what it is.

If I never hear “sailing to Cuba” again I’ll be a happy man. I swear my crew put that song on repeat.

@danielquantz.bsky.social @alisonrosen.bsky.social Is the jersey shore a lake?

Z.A.T.O. has been beaten. This may be my new recommendation for starting visual novels. It’s free. It’s about 6 hours long. What starts out as a slice of life mystery slowly turns into sci-fi existential horror. Unlike Song of Saya there’s no sexual horror crap to get in the way of a good story.

I downloaded every start up movie for steam deck. Most of them are terrible, even more of them have no title to the game it’s referencing. So it makes it really easy to pretend they’re like those fake ads you used to see in old video games. Makes me chuckle more often than not.

L♾️pers completed. I didn’t know Ryukishi07 had a bad visual novel. Now I do. Reads like an outline to an idea of maybe an okay visual novel. But the execution is pretty darn boring. It’s pretty at least, high Key production value, but a waste of the talent involved.

Tsukihime (2000) Review - You don’t need to read the original. The translation is bad, there is a total of about 5 minutes of music that loops constantly. The story is not very fleshed out (possibly an issue with the translation), and is very repetative even for Nasu.

I don’t just read visual novels.

Example of the stellar Tsukihime 2000 translation.

Man, I’m kind of shocked by how well regarded the original Tsukihime is regarded. The translation is straight up trash. Been a struggle to push through it.

Completed 9-Nine: Episode 1 Weirdly my first visual novel where it’s way more of a girlfriend simulator despite the plot being about runaway super powers. Did not like how… submissive the female lead was. “You’re so much cleverer than me I could never figure this out on my own.”

Mixtape was done in two sittings. Should have done it in one, it all flows together really well. Once you get over the fact that the main character is a teenager, she becomes a lot more likable. Brought me close to tears a couple times. Lots of laughs. Definitely targeting people my age.

I’ve never seen an uncanny valley on something not human until I saw the Star Fox 64 remake footage.

I’ve been too focused on visual novels to give Eurovision the attention it needs. I’m going in semi-blind this year having only watched each music video once, listened to the Spotify playlist and couple times, and only taken very cursory notes on each song.

Finished Steins;Gate. Most of my complaints are with the many dangling threads in the story. Seems to be resolved by the sequel and expanded universe. Not sure if that’s intentional or if enough people pointed them out that they fixed the holes. This one was overhyped but fun.

Tomodachi Life may get me to dust off the old Switch for the first time in years.