Connecting the Feminist Messages in Totono & Summer Pockets

Posted on June 16, 2020 by BishounenP

Full spoilers ahead for both YOU and ME and HER: A Love Story (Kimi to Kanojo to Kanojo no Koi/Totono) and Summer Pockets.

I recently played two VNs, that on the surface level, seemingly have almost nothing in common. First we have Totono, which is a bizarre meta experience that explores what it means to play a visual novel and make choices that influence lives of heroines. Then, we have Summer Pockets, which is a more generally wholesome Key experience that explores the importance of summer vacation and how you choose to spend your youth. After finishing Summer Pockets, I began connecting the dots between these two different VNs, and exploring the feminist themes and messages shared by them.

Early on in Totono, you can allow (and must to progress the game) Aoi to patch the game so that you can be propelled towards getting a good ending. She states that, by doing this, you can no longer be cucked. Much, much later, we discover in more explicit terms that this means that Miyuki can never enter a relationship with anyone other than you, and even if she did, she wouldn’t be truly happy.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/709563766056157244/710044438017343498/SPOILER_unknown.png

The crux of this culminates in your final choice of the game, that you must lock into permanently. Aoi or Miyuki? Who do you choose? By choosing Miyuki, you are giving into the future that you had chosen very early on in the game, therefore disallowing the option of her finding happiness any other way. It’s you and Miyuki forever now, baby. Of course she is pressuring you into choosing this option now, she’s experienced the future without happiness so many times at this point. She feels like she’s earned it. And maybe she has, maybe your actions up til now made her feel like she had no other choice.

Choosing Aoi, however, allows you to free Miyuki from this curse. You cannot be with Miyuki, but Miyuki is now free to choose her own future without the pressure of needing to make you love her. After all, if you play any more VNs after Totono, you’ll find Aoi again, and again, and again. She’s everywhere. She’s the embodiment of VN heroine.

If you can’t tell by the way I’m talking about it, I chose Aoi. Not only was I irritated being forced into an unskippable H scene where Miyuki never acknowledged the thought that maybe I wasn’t a guy, or maybe I didn’t have a penis, I also wanted to let Miyuki be free to make her own choices. I’ve found that several women have chosen Aoi as well. Now, I’m not judging you for choosing Miyuki, if you did. I think allowing her the choice was important.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/709563766056157244/710003240460222474/SPOILER_unknown.png

Onto Summer Pockets. I expected the VN to be similar to most VNs, where the heroine’s happiness tends to be truly tied to loving the protagonist. However, while playing through various heroine routes, I never felt like their character seemed to be missing the love of the protagonist. They seemed to be perfectly happy in their own right, to various degrees (at least, when they appeared in other routes.)

At the very end of the game, in the Pocket route, Umi/Nanami shows Shiroha her potential futures. While only a short moment in this long game, this was one of the most important scenes of the entire game for me. I immediately noticed that Umi was showing Shiroha potential futures from the different endings that Hairi had experienced, clearly showcasing that Shiroha was happy in every one. She had friends. She had people that cared about her. Shiroha was happy, regardless of whether she fell in love with Hairi.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/717601938044223518/720441339849998396/unknown.png

While it’s bittersweet that Shiroha can be happy without the existence of Umi in the future, I do feel like this was the point she was making. Umi was making the ultimate sacrifice for her mother. She was allowing her mother to make her own choices, to pursue her own happiness.

And so, the themes of allowing these women to make their own choices in the pursuit of happiness prevailed in both Totono and Summer Pockets. Two different curses that result in very similar outcomes. Miyuki’s patch-curse to force her to end up with you, whether you reciprocate or not. Shiroha’s premonition-curse that guilts her into avoiding others. They tie in together in a very lovely way, and I wanted to showcase that a bit here.

Thanks for reading.

TL;DR: choosing aoi is choosing feminism

Spoilerific Afterthoughts on Summer Pockets

Posted on June 11, 2020 by BishounenP

I went into Summer Pockets having basically no experience with Key. Previously, I’d seen the anime for Clannad, Angel Beats!, Charlotte, played Planetarian, and read a good chunk of the Angel Beats common route. I did have a general idea of what made a Key game a Key game, but hadn’t properly experienced it myself. So, for all intents and purposes, this was truly my first Key game.

I’ve read a variety of VNs, from 20 minute long EVNs to 50+ hour JVNs, from murder mystery to nakige to moege, so you can say I’ve been around. I’ve always found myself particularly interested in the “mysterious island” setting; it never gets old for me. Going into Summer Pockets, I didn’t really know what was waiting for me, aside from my general idea of what a Key game was.

So, with all that aside, here we go. Full spoilers ahead!

Right off the bat, I was charmed by the opening narration with the immediate choice of who Hairi metaphorically was. I thought it was a one-off choice, but soon learned that everyone would be referring to it. Who was this mysterious old lady that was going around gossipping to everyone? I remember scrolling back to see if he had actually said it out loud, and convinced myself that she had heard his thoughts somehow. After completing the game, it’s possible she did, but I’m not sure. I’ll file that in my ‘headcanon’ folder.

Soon after, I met The Boys. I wasn’t particularly into Ryouichi immediately, but he grew on me the next scene I saw him in. Tenzen was basically love at first sight. I remember from Charlotte (which overall I think is pretty bad but had good moments) that there was a male side character that was probably a similar character, maybe more of a mixture of Ryouichi and Tenzen together than anything else. That being said, I love when VN protag’s male friends are more than just a throwaway character, when they have their own goals and aspirations, when they exist to do more than just Help Protag Get Girl. Tenzen and Ryouichi’s motivations throughout the game always felt natural, and the friendship between the three never felt artificial.

Summary of my whole experience with Summer Pockets

Misc

The table tennis minigame charmed me immediately, especially once I noticed that Hairi’s special skills were based on your first choice in the game. I never got sick of collecting titles for table tennis, as it meant I got to spend more time with Tenzen. I can’t wait for Reflection Blue and table tennis doubles!

I’ve only spent a little time playing Islamon, and while I do think it’s cute and a little fun, collecting all the Islamon and going through the battles without a “skip to next day” button is starting to grate on me.

I love Hairi as a protagonist, I never found him bland or uninteresting. What I will say, however, is that the jokes sexualizing Umi fell very flat with me. Once I obtained Umi’s panties in Islamon, I was a little creeped out, which turned into disgust upon Hairi having a dream where he was “going at it” with her. That’s your daughter (I know he doesn’t know that at that point in time, but the writer knows it), don’t be gross Hairi.

Onto the heroines. The order I played was Shiroha -> Ao -> Kamome -> Mugi so I will talk about them in this order.

Shiroha

I never got the impression that this VN had a main heroine, though in retrospect, it was more obvious. I tend to dislike main heroines in VNs, but I must say that I quite like Shiroha. Her route itself (pre-Alka) was nothing special overall, good but not great. However, it was fun as hell to play through. When I say that I didn’t think her route was special, I moreso mean the actual ‘plot’ involved in it. What I enjoyed in particular was the slow, natural-feeling development of her relationship with Hairi, and how everyone in The Gang came together to help prevent Shiroha from dying. I also liked learning more about Ryouichi in this route, and how he came to accept Hairi’s feelings for Shiroha in a way that felt real.

The underwater battle with Kobato in this route was a golden moment. I really hope Hairi is voiced during this in Reflection Blue. My favorite part of this route was at the very end, when Hairi yells on the boat that he loves Shiroha, and they proceed to have a dramatic parting of ways with their feelings for each other acknowledged only to be cut short by the boat turning around.

As for the true routes, seeing Shiroha naturally (I keep saying this word) fall into the role of mother for Umi would have probably annoyed me in any other VN, but in this, it just felt right.

Though I will say that I expected something along these lines, due to a friend asking me beforehand if I wanted to be a mother and how I felt about children in general. So maybe it didn’t hit me as hard as it would have otherwise.

Ahhhhh, Ao. I was ready to move straight into her route after Shiroha’s due to the lack of Mugi & Kamome appearing in Shiroha’s route at all, so I wanted to go onto the heroine I already knew a little bit. When looking at this game initially, I thought Ao had the prettiest design, probably because it looked the most different from the other heroines. I read a lot of reviews before that said Ao was best girl, her route was best by far, so my expectations were higher.

What is probably an emotional moment for many did not quite hit me the same way.

Unfortunately, I think due to my expectations being so high, something here didn’t click with me. I enjoyed this route the most during the butterfly-hunting segments. The lore in this route is absolutely phenomenal. Everything else… Meh. I didn’t have much to say during the “sad parts” because I just wasn’t particularly hooked. Oh, I would be remiss to mention as well that seeing Hairi go faceless greatly irritated. It took me out of the moment on more than one occasion, especially since this isn’t an eroge, and Hairi usually has a face.

Kamome

My girl! Upon meeting her in the game, I was enamored. GOTH WAIFU! GOTH WAIFU! I struggled choosing between doing her or Mugi third, as I could already tell I would love Kamome’s route and it is my natural instinct to save best for last. I went with her anyway due to my friend insisting that Mugi’s route felt good as a finale, and I agree.

Kamome’s route was filled with twists and turns, and I loved all of them. I don’t really know what I can say here, but as someone who has always loved to read, the twist of their adventure being based on a book was awesome and meaningful to me. I loved meeting her mother and convincing her to let Hairi assist in making the adventure a reality, and the wholesome bit at the end with all the kids coming on the adventure with him.

Also, thanks to Alka/Pocket, #kamomelives go team

Mugi

Mugyu~ Mugi, as a heroine, is okay. I liked her a lot at first, but I personally never really felt like her chemistry with Hairi was anything special. What was special was the dynamic between Hairi, Shizuku, and Mugi. I assume Key would never actually do this, and this might feel controversial tbh, but it almost felt like a poly relationship. At times, it also felt like Shizuku and Hairi were Mugi’s parents.

My girlfriend, her girlfriend, and me (not pictured)

The reveal of Mugi’s photo was an incredible moment. The intensity that Hairi felt when he saw it, and immediately knew that he needed to hide it. Man, what a good way to do a plot reveal. Hairi getting spirited away into the lighthouse with Tsumugi-chan and their whole conversation… I can’t really put into words how much I loved this segment other than saying it was a golden 10/10 scene for me.

Alka/Pocket

I already touched a bit on this previously, so I’ll only say a little bit here. I loved everyone coming together to make Umi’s summer special. I appreciate that Nanami was left open for interpretation, and I appreciate everyone’s own personal interpretations here, but my personal idea and the explanation that feels right for me personally is that Nanami, like Mugi, is some kind of spirit that Umi was able to project herself back into.

One of the most important and key (lol) parts of this route to me were when Umi was showing baby Shiroha her future memories, and showing all the different possibilities from each route. It felt so good to finally see the idea that a heroine of a VN can be happy even if she doesn’t end up with the protagonist. Too often in VNs, it feels like a woman’s happiness is tied to being with the right man. I know that Shiroha can be happy even without being with Hairi, and I am personally so grateful to Key for showcasing this.

y u shuould play pizza game.

Posted on March 16, 2020 by BishounenP

https://store.steampowered.com/app/710710/Pizza_Game/

^^^^^^ buy this its the lowest hitstorical price (moer on that l8r)

warning boiz this is about to get real perssonnel, heh, kids…….

pizza game is about friendSHIP and in reality its mostly about boys. kiane is our loverly protag and she has a bachelors degree in boyS! watch our girl kiane (pronounced like the pepepr) meet several HOT BOYS (except sensie) and hot girls but only two girls is really romanceable and one of them is a furry but shes actually great i love u roobit whilest tryin to investigate a murdER mystery (spoilers it’s mr. arminaes)

(haha you thought i spoiled it but its not a real spoiler haha)

graphic design…… is his pashion. <333333

wacha out for dis one. its got GOLDEN CHICKEN NUGGETS buried deep within.

[ozza game is goDO content. thers lots of typos and feels like someones stream of conscious/conscience???? but really its actuaolly well written and theres a canon reason for the typos its grate. all routes are diverse from each other and every ending is asmazing.

yes there is a ztd spoiler at the very end if you go a certain rotue but honestly????? its the biggest meme. tbh dont think its too big of deal unless u were already playing it. if ur worried just pla y zero escape series first.

the best character is kiane’s inner self obviosuly shes very expressive and calls kiane out on her bullshit. but my other favorite character is SAV even tho he doesnt have a route sob ;;;;;

onet hing thats colo about this game is that u can do all this dumb bulshit like just take pictures of ppl randomly (and it saves screenshot) and they will call u out for taking pictures of them. also theres this one part wher u can just jumP from one route to another….and then go back to the original if u want and its totally kanon-chan

so if i had to list numberic rfeasons to play this game it wuld be:
1. if u ever were on tumbler its very haha funny
2. its not in HIGH SCHOOL (but kiane does goto drivered college.)
3. its on sale right now for 0% off!!!!!!!!!!! (a historical low)
4. boys AND murder mystery u cant gowrong.
5. u can feed????? snacks??????? to roobit????????
6. mr. naes has a sick rap track from his soundcloud. only found in PIZZA GAME
7. pizza.

anywasy i dint xpect to like thisgame so much but itwas pretty good thx bye

My Top 51 Games Ever

Posted on December 20, 2019 by BishounenP

Hi there! I keep seeing people talking about their top 50 games on Twitter, and I wanted to contribute. I’ve never been able to narrow down my favorite games to just 10, but 50 is much more doable. I’m changing it to 51, though!

I can’t even begin to try sort and sort these by how much I like them so I’ll go alphabetical. For the most part, I’ve tried to keep it unique series wise, so save for the different Mario games, anything that I generally love the whole series of will just be bundled together.

Here we go!

100% Orange Juice
I’ve purchased this game more than any other. It’s my most-played game on Steam. I love joining random online games as a losing NPC and somehow coming out on top. I always buy the DLC when it comes out, regardless of how long it’s been since I last played. Whether I’m playing Kyoko and slowly gathering stars while everyone else kills each other, or my whole friend group is playing as the chicken, I’m always having a fun time.

A Hat in Time
Man… This game is pure fun. The movement always felt so slick, and there were so many options to recover from mistakes. I love platformers, and this one is just so damn cute. I can’t tell you how much I enjoy the jump combos, either.

Ace Attorney
Specifically, Trials and Tribulations is my favorite. It’s the perfect culmination of the original trilogy. I won’t say much to avoid spoilers, but certain songs in that game get to me every time. I do enjoy the series as a whole, but this one is absolutely the winner.

ATV Offroad Fury
While finishing off my list, this game was something that came to mind. I don’t play games like this anymore, and haven’t played this game in probably 15 years, but I have wonderful and vivid memories of playing this with my dad and brother. We used to just roam around the open world, typically chasing after the trains and trying to climb onto them. It just feels right to include this on my list.

Candy Box 1 & 2
This is the game that made me change this from a top 50 to a top 51. How could I forget the games on this list with the best graphics? If you don’t recognize the above ASCII image, you should go check out this series.

Cave Story
You know, a decade or so ago, I had some sort of bizarre midnight binge where I snuck onto the computer after bedtime, and I discovered this game. For years after that, I had this vague memory of playing a game with these cute rabbit creatures that I always assumed was something I made up in a dream. When I rediscovered this game for real, I was simply astounded. I still jam to the soundtrack.

Celeste
Playing these sorts of difficult platformers always makes me feel like I’m good at video games. I love zooming through spikes and then watching my friend play and die to simple challenges. What makes Celeste special, gameplay-wise… do I even have to say it? The dash! Such a simple addition will always make this stand out in my memory.

Danganronpa Series
This series is very near and dear to me for all sorts of reasons. I’d also like to give a special shout-out to Ultra Despair Girls, which stars my girl Komaru Naegi. I love every game in the series (not any of the anime, though) and whether they make more games or not, it will always have a place on this list.

Devil Survivor: Overclocked
While I do hold the opinion that the sequel is better in pretty much every way, there’s just something about this game that I always want to go back to, whereas I only played the sequel once.

Digimon World / Next Order
To be clear, I want to include both the original and the PS4 sequel. I feel like, looking at these games, I shouldn’t love them so much. They’re grindy, repetitive, and a little disjointed. But I, for some reason, enjoy grinding my Digimon’s stats for hours. I love going into new areas and wondering what Digimon I’ll meet, what they’ll want me to do, digivolving my own digimon… It goes on and on.

Donkey Kong Country Trilogy
If I had to pick just one, I’d probably say DKC2? But I love Expresso the Ostrich from DKC1, and the unique overworld in DKC3… But the overall experience of DKC2… The level secrets in all of them… I can’t pick! I love them all!

Earthbound
It almost didn’t feel right to put this classic masterpiece on my list, because I only played it within the past few years. Had I earned the right to claim this as one of my top 50? Then I realized, it doesn’t matter, because everyone loves Earthbound. It’s that good.

Eternal Senia
What am I doing, putting a poorly translated game on my list? I found this the day it was released on Steam, and decided to just give it a whirl. It’s so much fun to 100%, and the unique style of combat also turns it into a puzzle/exploration game as well. I love to replay this one every few years, and it never gets old.

Evoland II
Evoland is a weird series for me. I got the first game in a Humble Bundle waaaay back in the day, and always sort of thought it was a well-renowned, extremely popular indie game. Recently, after buying both games on Switch and looking more into it… I found out that, while not a hidden, niche game, it certainly isn’t the big hit I thought it was. Evoland II was a fantastic adventure that has stayed in my mind, and I feel like it will continue to do so.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Uh, this is my whole Twitter feed. Blue Lions for life.

Foto Flash
I don’t know how I found this game, but I do know that I love fetch-quests and the fun artstyle. Foto Flash 3, when?

Gal*Gun
My friends always teased me about this game. Not that I was playing it, because I waited too long to actually try it out, just, that, I would probably like this game, because it’s horny. While this game is certainly horny as HELL, it’s also really funny and self-aware, and I kept replaying to get different endings.

Ghost Trick
Everyone that plays Ghost Trick inevitably declares it as one of their favorite games, and that’s because it’s one of the best games ever made.

Golf Story
I don’t like sports, like, pretty much at all. But something has always drawn me to cartoony golf and tennis games, such as the Hot Shots series. Golf Story is something more. The sequel was recently announced and I am on the edge of my seat waiting for it.

Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons AKA Bokujou Monogatari Series
I don’t even want to get into the Natsume drama on this one. The Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons series, AKA Bokujou Monogatari, is one of my all-time favorite series. I’ve been playing since I was a little girl, starting with A Wonderful Life. If I had to pick the standout game here, I’d have to go with Animal Parade. But they’re all special to me.

Hero & Daughter
A masterful waifu collectathon that just keeps going. I spoke more about this in my “Maybe Lesser Known Games” list, and I still love it!

Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land
The Kirby series is always a delightful joy to play, but picking just one from the series was easy for me. Between the way they handled a little overworld and all of the secret doors in levels, I’ll always be hoping for another Kirby game just like this.

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Midna??? Is in this??? Game??? I love her??? But for real though, I had to choose between A Link to the Past, the first game I ever played, and this one. I decided to go with this one because I have more fond memories playing this with my dad in my most formative years.

LISA
The love letter to Earthbound before Undertale. I discovered this in my queue on Steam, and knew it was for me when I watched the trailer. There was a level towards the end of the game that didn’t run on my old, crappy laptop, and yet I played through that whole section frame-by-frame. I beat this on the hardest mode with no Joy and got the true end, and it was all worth it.

Mario Party Advance
Far from being the first Mario Party game I ever played, I simply adore the campaign in this game. Rolling around the map and completing tasks and quests while playing minigames is what makes this game special.

Paper Mario
Specifically, of course, Paper Mario 64 and Thousand Year Door. We all know about the tragedy that has befallen the Paper Mario series, but the original games are still absolutely fantastic.

Papers, Please
Is Papers, Please a fun game? I don’t know, I really don’t. Is it a depressing adventure with meaningful choices? Yes.

Peggle Series
Man, I love Peggle. I even suffered through the entire mobile Peggle game, like, three times, because I love this series so much.

Persona 3, Persona 5
Persona 3 was a fucked up adventure that I couldn’t stop playing. I hate the final boss that lasts for an hour before you inevitably get charmed and have to start all over, but everything else? The story, the characters, the social links… I wasn’t sure my favorite Persona could be topped. But then Persona 5 came around, and I loved it even more. I still don’t feel right taking Persona 3 off this list, so here they both are. Oh, and if you’re wondering about Persona 4… Well… It’s not that I don’t like it, it just didn’t click with me the way these two did. Sorry!

Picross Series
I’ve never been much into number puzzles, but Picross is addicting. My first Picross game, Picross e, was an instant classic that I couldn’t stop playing.

Pokémon Black 2
Pokémon is Pokémon, and this is the best one.

Project Diva Series
Y’all know I love me some Vocaloids, and this is a rhythm game with Vocaloids. Why do you think I fell in love with Len so hard? It’s all thanks to this series.

Rakuen
This game has a beautiful setting and a tear-jerking story to boot. I 100% this game and loved to explore and solve all of its little puzzles. If you enjoyed To the Moon, this is a next step for sure.

Ratchet & Clank Original Trilogy
Guns? Shooting? Bish, this doesn’t sound like a game you like. Well, it’s goofy and alien enough that sure enough, I do! You better believe I love the Morph-o-Ray.

Rune Factory 3
Hey, I already said I loved Harvest Moon, so this is no surprise. Rune Factory 3 will always be my favorite of the series, as it was the first that really drew me into the world. I love the wide variety of bachelorettes, and it would be a dream to have a remake where you could marry the boys as well. Also, Karina best girl.

Rusty Lake: Roots
The Rusty Lake series tells an elaborate tale of a fucked up family, and Roots is without a doubt the best one of all three. Don’t skip the others, and do play them in order, but look forward to this one.

Shantae Series
The music, the art, the gameplay, the characters, the everything??? Killing baddies by whipping your ponytail and then turn into a monkey and scurry away??? Shantae good. Shantae so good.

Sly Cooper 2: Band of Thieves
I’ve always felt like Sly Cooper never really got the recognition he deserved. We did get a sequel a few years back that decided to make a few, uh, creative decisions art and storywise, at least… Anyway, Sly 2 is the best of the best, with the miniature openish worlds and clever heist plans.

Spyro: Ripto’s Rage!
This is one of my absolute favorite games to 100%. The bonus world at the end upon completion is simply the icing on a very delicious cake.

Starbound
It’s Terraria in space! Wait, isn’t Terraria that 2D Minecraft? Oh, we aren’t making those jokes anymore? I’m not funny? Sorry! Anyway, you can’t go wrong with Starbound. The campaign is fun, and exploring all the different biomes and seeing how each race interacts with the world is a treasure.

Stardew Valley
I watched this game go through development and waited for it to come out for years. I genuinely thought it would end up in dev hell and never release. I was wrong! I’m so happy I was wrong. All aboard the Shane train.

Super Mario Odyssey
This game sold the Switch to me. It was everything I wanted and more. Luncheon Kingdom stan.

Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars
As a child, I spent countless hours running around this game even though my dad already beat it. I didn’t seem to understand that I wasn’t going through a campaign, I just loved exploring the fascinating world and characters. I replayed this recently (the right way) and the magic still holds.

Super Mario World
This is the Mario of the 2D Mario games. It’s one of the first games I ever played, and still holds strong.

Image result for the urbz sims in the city ds

The Urbz: Sims in the City (DS)
The Gamecube edition of this game is completely different, but I like that one too. This Sims game is a weird adventure that takes the player through different factions of cliques, to being in jail for all sorts of reasons, to genetic engineering. I will forever dream of a spiritual successor.

To the Moon
This game kickstarted my personal love of RPGMaker games with no combat systems. It’s an absolute classic, and has one of the more unique stories I’ve seen.

Undertale
I beat Sans, and that means that I’m good at video games.

Wandersong
I thought this would be a dumb, silly game, but instead I got a story that mirrored my own experience with depression in a really good and accurate way? I mean, is it silly? Yes, but it’s a magical experience.

Yoshi’s Island
I recently discovered that I could play this for free on my Switch, and upon opening it up I was destroyed with a wave of nostalgia. I know every song! This is also the only Mario game where the castle levels are actually my favorite levels.

Your Turn to Die
This game differs from every other game on this list because it’s not completed. But, I can already tell after playing the first half that this will end up being a 10/10 for me. I’m totally enthralled by the art-style, the adventure, the concept, and every reveal that comes out. It’s also the first Danganronpa/Ace Attorney style game I’ve played that has alternate routes based on your choices! And what a ride each decision is. Wow.

Dope Switch Games

Posted on August 31, 2019 by BishounenP

Being someone who works mostly late shifts, I’ve recently found myself on the couch late playing my Switch. Every so often I’ll sift through the hundreds of games on the eShop, looking for something new to play that I haven’t really seen anyone talking about. Here is some of those, and some that are well-known. Basically, here’s some dope Switch games.

Death Coming is a weird puzzle game where you go around a massive map and figure out how to kill as many people as possible. It didn’t control great on the Switch, but it was passable enough for me to complete it. It reminded me of another game that I like a lot: Party Hard, but on a much larger scale. My favorite level is the very last bonus level, where instead of killing everyone, you want to try to kill only specific people and avoid killing everyone else. I’d love to see a sequel to this with more levels like the latter.
Steam | eShop

Dandy Dungeon is a beautifully bizarre game. You play as an ojisan who is a game dev by day… game dev by night. But at home, he’s working on his own unique RPG which you “test” for him. And he’s also got a crush on a girl who is way too young for him. It’s a strange experience with a lot of weird old men, and it’s a lot of fun trying to efficiently complete dungeons, collect outfits, and upgrade your gear.
eShop

Forager is much more well-known than the others on this list, but I still needed to say something about it. It’s a farming game, it’s a mining game, it’s an idle game, it’s a dress-up game… this game has everything. Towards the end, I had so many buffs going, making my global items work fast, that my friend thought it was a sick beat and starting rapping to it. Just try it, you’ll probably like it.
Steam | eShop

Songbird Symphony is a lovely, musical adventure that I both already like and want to like more. The first half of the game is extremely fun and adorable, with there being several cute sidequests to build upon the background music, and clever rhythm challenges. However, the second half of the game fell flat for me, feeling like the side quests went away entirely only to focus on main story quests, and the rhythm challenges hitting a major spike from being doable to near impossible to perfect with no difficulty settings. Luckily (?) there is no way to fail, so even if you screw up immensely you still pass. Regardless, I had fun exploring the bird world and meeting all the characters. Oh, and some of the songs are real bangers. There’s no actual singing, but I felt like I knew how the words were sang based on their creative usage of instruments.
Steam | eShop

Maybe Lesser Known Recommendations

Posted on August 20, 2019 by BishounenP

I’ve been wanting to write up a list of games that I enjoy that maybe most people haven’t heard of, so here it is! This list is by no means comprehensive, so maybe I’ll write more lists one day.

Do Not Feed the Monkeys is a self-described “digital voyeur simulator.” You join a special voyeurism club in which you gain access to “cages,” AKA unsecured cameras. You spend your days working random part-time jobs in a desperate attempt to pay your rent, but if you interact with the cages, you may get more money and better bonuses. However, you can’t get caught, or the cameras will get shut off for good!

Graveyard Keeper is a game for people who love doing tedious tasks that lead to doing even more tedious tasks. Most fans of classic Harvest Moon style games will love this unique entry to the genre. Be warned, however, there’s no meaningful relationship development or romance in this game–your little guy already has a motive and a woman he is trying to get back to.

Hero & Daughter is a game I keep going back to time and time again. It’s a joyful waifu-collectathon and rogue-lite parody of all those RPGMaker games you’ve seen around. You get to help out the hero’s town, and have a house that you can put default RPGMaker furniture in along with building relationships with the girls of your choice. It continues to be fun for much longer than I ever thought it could possibly be.

Gleaner Heights is yet another Harvest Moon style game, with a Twin Peaks twist. It has one of the more unique towns that you’ll see in these types of games, with a lot of meaningful choices that can lead to the deaths of certain town members. Triggering all of the events was definitely my favorite part of this game. The only real issue I had was that the controls can be a bit iffy sometimes.

Draw Puzzle is like Picross, but not. I seriously can’t get enough of this game. Draw Puzzle 2, when?

And here we are again with another Harvest Moon–just kidding. Cattails manages to capture the feeling of a Harvest Moon game, but without actually being anything like it. It was incredibly fun to run around as a cat, desperately searching for food and capturing new territories for my faction.

Verdant Skies is another farming game, but with more of a focus on relationship building and helping your little village. I loved nearly every character and enjoyed spending time with them. A more detailed review of Verdant Skies can be found here featuring Jane Titor.

The Islander shouldn’t be as fun as it is. Don’t go into this game thinking it’s going to be like Stardew Valley, because it’s not. Instead, it’s an idle-ish game where you build your island and fill it out with decorations. I just kept playing this game over and over. I absolutely cannot wait for The Islander 2!

Always Sometimes Monsters is a game about choices. I’ve always been a big fan of RPGMaker games that aren’t actually RPGs, because I find that they often do really fun and creative things within them, and this one definitely does. At several points in the game you have to face ethical dilemmas, all leading up to the divisive ending.

Perfect for fans of Freebird Games (To the Moon, Finding Paradise), Rakuen is perhaps the best RPGMaker game I’ve ever played. It tells an incredible story and has a beautiful world to explore. The little puzzles it has are fun as well. This one cannot be missed.

The Spiral Scouts (NSFW) comes from the creators of HuniePop, with crude jokes being the only similarity between the two. It’s a puzzle game through and through, and the puzzles are both very clever and sometimes teeth-grindingly difficult. The humor may not be for everyone, but I enjoyed my time with this game.

From the creator of Pony Island, The Hex is another bizarre and sometimes meta adventure about exploring different video games made by one creator. It’s really weird, but exploring all the different mechanics and overarching story was a joy.

Dropsy is a psychopop point & click open world-ish adventure…where you can hug everyone. There’s no text in the game, but the story is still easy to follow and puzzles aren’t too tough. Even if you hate clowns, it’s hard to be afraid of the ones in this game.

MechaNika is a point-and-click adventure game about a little girl who wants to destroy the world. She’s a brilliant mechanic who knows her way around her dad’s garage. This, and its sequel, Agatha Knife, are both short and fun little adventures.

Foto Flash is an NSFW fetch quest game about running around and collecting pin-up photos for your boss. The art in this game really stands out, as it has both a unique style and character designs.

BP and J Discuss: Verdant Skies

Posted on January 25, 2019 by BishounenP

Part-Time Storier

Jane: Welcome to the second episode of BP&J Discuss, a series of collaborative reviews with my friend Bishounen-P!

Bishounen-P: Today we’ve decided to review something a little unorthodox for us, as we usually review visual novels, but we felt like those who enjoy VNs might like this game!

J:Verdant Skies is one of the many Harvest-Moon-inspired farming games out there, in which building potentially romantic relationships with the people who live near your farm can be just as much of a focus as actually making money farming. This one sets itself apart from the other games like that with a sci-fi setting—your farm is part of a small but growing human colony on another planet—as well as with some really refreshing diversity among the characters you can pursue. But before we start debating which one is best girl, let’s talk about the gameplay.

BP: One thing I…

View original post 1,042 more words

Cute, Short, Free

Posted on January 20, 2019 by BishounenP

Every now and then I find myself bored, and I go through my “to-play” backlog over on Itch. While most of the games I play over there are game-jam games to display one’s skills, several of those end up being adorable and something I’d like to see more of.

Marshmellow Day Spa is a game that I first looked at and said, “Wow, marshmallow is spelled wrong.” Being the naive and gullible idiot that I am, it took a second to realize “No, that’s how it’s supposed to be spelled. It’s a pun, Bish.”

This game is only a few minutes long, but the idea behind it and the graphics are both extremely adorable. You navigate a little spa in order to fill relaxing hot-tubs with cocoa ingredients per each marshmallow’s request. I’d love to see a more fleshed-out version of this game, or something equally as cute from the developer in the future.

There is Never Enough Space! is quite a unique concept for a little puzzle game. You have to sort files, furniture, and many other things to make room for other things. My only complaint is that I want more levels. I personally think this would make a fantastic mobile game.

“Oh great!” I said, when I first started to get into free Itch games. “Another farming game! I must quickly inform all of my friends of this game’s existence before I download it for myself.” Then I downloaded Perma, and had to come to the sad realization that many of the games that look amazing on Itch are either work demos or game jam games.

That being said, if you want a glimpse into what-could-be in this adorable, Animal Crossing-looking world, it is absolutely not a waste of a half hour or so. It will only scratch that itch a little but will also send you looking for more.

I have a tendency to save my favorites for the end. While I do have positive memories of the other games I’ve listed, I felt that most of them were too short. With Yard Tale, I’ve never felt that was the case. So, does this mean that it overstays its welcome? No! In fact, I feel like Yard Tale is around the perfect length for what it is.

If you like cute, quirky dialogue, silly but fun characters, and most importantly TRADING QUESTS (the distance for these is short trust me) then you should definitely give Yard Tale a download. It’s a great little game and I can’t wait for Froiktown to release more.

Vocaloid Favoritism

Posted on January 20, 2019 by BishounenP

Though I like to pretend this is a respected Visual Novel review blog, I mostly write it for myself. It’s no secret to the people who know me that I absolutely adore Kagamine Len, and that I have a big long playlist of Vocaloid songs that I listen to over and over and share with my good friend Jane Titor.

While I slacked a bit on writing for a few months while adjusting to my new job, it’s not really new anymore and I’ve got the creative juices flowing through me once again. I’ve been working on some SECRET PROJECTS and I figured I’d write up a blog post about some Vocaloid songs that I really enjoy.

Songs to Sing

I have a tendency to sporadically type out lyrics in capital letters to my friends and they’re beginning to recognize the songs that I repeat over and over. Though I barely know any Japanese, the following songs have sections that are easy to repeat.

Lovin’ That Beat

One thing I love about Vocaloid is that there’s no shortage to the sheer range of genres you can find, and a genre I always find myself jammin’ to in the car is electronic. *Excuse me, as I’m not extremely well-versed on music genres, but I think this one is broad enough to cover what I’ve posted below. I’m a terrible dancer, but I love to shake my hands around and do some upper body dancing to these.

Weird Stuff

The Vocaloid fandom, as most fandoms, can be weird. You can find a song about pretty much anything. You can find covers of English pop songs to original Japanese songs about a girl cutting off her finger because she broke a promise. The songs I’ve listed here include a Len cover of a familiar hammer song and a dystopian society where Miku is Big Brother.

Giga-P, Pinocchio-P, PowaPowa-P

Surely someone out there has wondered why I go by Bishounen-P. It originally began as an Idolm@ster joke. A friend and I were discussing that fans of Idolm@ster will make their game usernames with their favorite type of girl or related thing, like Cute-P (a type of idol) and then I named myself Bishounen-P, and it’s stuck. However, the original reason I noticed the -P on names was because of Vocaloid producers. So here, I’d like to say a little something about my favorite producers.

Giga-P is the reason I got into Vocaloid in the first place. A few years ago, when I was still in college, I thought I’d search up Vocaloid on YouTube and see if I could find something I’d like. The first song that I found was Giga’s remix of Suki Kirai and I absolutely adored it. Since then, I’ve followed his work and I honestly can’t say there’s a single Giga song that I don’t like. I’m also a big fan of his utaite (singing cover) work! I’m a huge Giga stan and I’ll take that to my cold, weeaboo grave.

I discovered Pinocchio-P through Project Diva. I originally was exclusively listening to Kaito covers of his songs featured in Project Diva, such as Common World Domination (and the Kaito version is still my favorite!) but I listened to more and more of his songs and loved the weirdness and realism in them. The song listed below is one of my diehard favorite Vocaloid songs, period.

Ah… PowaPowa-P. I discovered him far too late. After listening to Strobe Light, which is probably his most popular song (and a fantastic one at that), I listened to his entire discography. His songs are beautifully crafted and his lyrics ingenious. Discovering that he released this song as a suicide note tore me apart and nearly every time it comes on I have to stop what I’m doing and just listen.

For those of you that made it to the end, thanks for reading (and hopefully listening to) my self-indulgent post. And always remember, Kagamine Len is the best.

|Art for me by Ghiri

Spoiler Alert is a generic addition to the infinite runner genre

Posted on January 10, 2019 by BishounenP

I was flipping through my documents and found this old review I wrote in March of last year. I never posted it anywhere online, so I figured I’d post it here!

Spoiler Alert brings you to a time reversing universe. You play as a chili pepper knight, beginning on level 3-30, fighting the boss, then playing all levels in reverse. It’s a pretty neat idea, honestly!

However, the execution is poor.

The levels begin (or end, rather) simply. Level 3-29 starts off with one enemy, and two sets of coins you must reach. Being the second to last level, you would expect it to throw at you all it has. Now, I understand that games start off easy, to teach you mechanics and how to play the game in general. But Spoiler Alert is advertised as “a game you play backwards.” Being as such, it was disappointing to say the least that it ends up just being an endless runner game where you go left instead of right.

Putting that aside, Spoiler Alert has an even bigger problem than its simplicity.

A lot of levels flat out don’t make sense.

So, in order to progress, you have to jump on dead enemies to bring them back to life as well as collect coins the pepper received when he first played the level.

Pictured below is the end of a level in World 2. The coin at the beginning was never gotten by the pepper, so you have to jump over it. This doesn’t make sense. Since the level “begins” there, he would naturally obtain it, unless he was purposely avoiding it (which, again, doesn’t make sense.)

You might think this is an isolated example, but it isn’t. Here are some more examples.

Level 1-30, where you have to put in effort to avoid the coins a boss throws at you.

Level 1-20, where you have to get this coin in order to finish the level. It would be impossible for the pepper to retrieve this going forward.

Level 1-3. The level that made me even want to write this review. These spikes are at the beginning of the level. The pepper spawns at the very edge of the levels, because this is an infinite runner game (not to mention that the spikes have huge hitboxes.) If he were to play this left to right, he would die instantly.

Another minor annoyance is the fact that when going for gold, the only way to fully retry a level is to either complete it, or restart from the main menu. Getting gold on every level means to beat them without dying, so it’s irritating when you’re going through ninety levels to have to complete or go all the way back to the main menu to try again.

All in all, my main problem was with the lack of charm. It could have very easily been a charming little game, if they had put some more effort into making the levels seem real. As it is, Spoiler Alert remains as a generic infinite runner game.