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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.