what a year will do to you(r oshis)

the first half of this post was written on august 18, 2023, and posted on cohost. the second half was written when the next holocure update landed on november 15, 2024.

holocure - save the fans got put on steam with its latest update and like. yep that game still goes hard.

the beauty of crystal [old writing]

this is an archive of an abandoned draft about the final fantasy xiii trilogy, originally planned to be in a zine for dead genre chronicles' blog. it was archived on cohost but now it's on here because cohost is dead. long live the internet. :\

why futa fix (a mid porn game) is a 5/5 game in my book

 [mirroring this post from cohost since it's dying. original post date: june 24, 2024]

one of my partners (who also came up with the star-based rating system I use for rating games (most games are a 2/5)) wanted to know why I gave futa fix: dick dine and dash a 5/5 rating.

the stars are:

• not actively regressive/bigoted
• not a complete waste of my time
• I recommend someone else ever play this
• gave me something to think about afterward
• personal arbitrary point

we're focusing on that 4th one. here goes.

Val's Visual Novel Nonsense #03 - Word by Word, Line by Line, Darkness Retreats

    Daitoshokan no Hitsujikai (a good librarian like a good shepherd, stylized as such in the jp logo) is, in short, a fairly strong character-driven VN dragged down by a structural decision about the routes that unnecessarily dilutes the focus on the true end. Taking place at a school that is closer to a city in population, the story follows Kyotaro Kakei, a member of the Library Club, who coasts by on his ability to test well while spending every second he can get away with immersed in books. 

Val's Visual Novel Nonsense #02 - In Love and War, No Plan Survives First Contact With The Enemy

    Muv-Luv is a game that embodies the value of planning and foreshadowing, the power of contemporary consumption of media, and the degradation of both of those strengths under the flow of time and ensuing discussion.

Val's Visual Novel Nonsense #01 - Beyond the Sky, Above the Firmament

I have a lot of visual novels that I’m going to be playing, and for once I want to have some kind of archive of my thoughts on them. For whatever reason, most of my history with VNs has slipped my mind. I feel like I can only confirm that I’ve played certain games with the assistance of screenshots that are still buried in my documents, but even then, I have the sneaking suspicion that I’ve played some more than are listed there.

Drasilian Disappointment

Instead of dancing around it, I’m going to just come out and say it. I don’t think Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age was very good. Right now, I would rate it my least favorite Dragon Quest game, with all three entries that I’ve previously played to completion (DQ4-6, via the DS remakes) topping it by varying margins. I still did enjoy my time with it, to be fair, and I wouldn’t say it’s bad, per se, but something was off in the blueprints for this one.

Kill Your Masters, or: Hype Train Derailing

How do you like to hear about games?

The Dichotomous Dance of the Looter Loop

Have you ever had a moment when your mental capacity for buying into a game as an entertainment medium sloughs off, and you're left mindlessly running through the motions of playing it, your thoughts idle enough to notice you're sat in front of a Skinner box? I've been having more and more of those lately, and it's always centered around the idea of progression.