VIDEO GAMES
It's game fest season! Chris and I watched very, very many showcases (PlayStation State of Play, Summer Games Fest, Day of the Devs, Wholesome Games, Latin American Games, SEA Games, Future Games Show, XBox showcase, PC Gaming Show, Black Voices in Gaming, Frost Fest Games, The Unearthed Treasure Room, Access-Ability Showcase, Indie Quest JRPG Showcase), so I was a little overwhelmed by gaming news at the start of the month. My favorite ones - by far - were The Unearthed Treasure Room and Access-Ability Summer Showcase, which are great to watch at any time! We played soooo many demos during Steam Next Fest, and there were a surprising amount of super-impressive ones - here are my top picks, which ALL include demos that you yourself can try too!! (I'd include Mina the Hollower, but I forewent playing since I've already backed the Kickstarter!)
Chrono Gear: Warden of Time - OKAY so I'm biased, but I'm also SUPER proud of this team and think everyone should try out Chrono Gear!! Even if you're not a Hololive fan, if you enjoy super-slick platforming with speed-based action and lots of pretty pixel art you'll be perfectly pleased when playing this!
Danchi Days took me by surprise by just how unique it was with a variety of cleverly themed mini-games, exploration of hard-hitting themes, and an excellently crafted community of believable neighbors! I initially played because I think everyone involved in the game is awesome and the art style makes me happy, and loved it immediately for more than just what's on the surface! It's already very special.
Dragon March is like, the PERFECT game for me.... robot dragons? The power of love?? Snake-like puzzle-ish gameplay with a bangin' soundtrack?? Give it a shot!
Aeromachina: Test Flight seems to be a self-contained story within its universe, and it's really cool!! It gave me Metal Gear Solid vibes aesthetically with very awesome character designs that make me curious about what's to come. Very beefy experience, too!
Coffee Talk Tokyo is a welcome extension to the Coffee Talk series, with the same cozy vibes as the previous entries and new delicious drinks. Very excited to play more!
Okko the Exiled stuns with gorgeous pixel art, surprisingly well-written dialogue, and excellent character designs. While I felt some of the gameplay could be fine-tuned for even greater fun, it's a very impressive demo!
Flowers & Favours is exactly what it sets out to be: a sweet, simple little game where you can relax while arranging meaningful bouquets. I liked it quite a bit compared to other creative sims!
Everdeep Aurora actually played very differently than what I expected, and I LOVE that there's a dedicated "meow" button!! Super slick aesthetic, love all the creatures, and appreciate that (so far) the gameplay is more exploratory than fight-based!
Snowmelt Manor is a Sokoban that I feel like I could watch/play for hours because of how immensely cozy it is. Nifty puzzles, simple to pick up and easy to get back to if you take a break!
Roman Sands RE:Build has a vaporwave-y, multi-faceted aesthetic and frenetic energy that's extremely appealing to me!! The idea of being a bellhop at a very strange hotel and helping some VERY annoying guests with the way the story is presented is very interesting... curious to see where it goes!!
HARK THE GHOUL was a big delight and surprise. I really like the worldbuilding it does even just within the demo's parameters, love all the character (BUG!!!) designs, and am very intrigued by the combat system!!
My Familiar has extremely stylish UI, fantastic character art, and super fun spin on turn-based rpg gameplay! I LOVE that it initially takes place in Texas too... excited to see the story in action!
Brebeman is SICK!!! It mixes SHMUPs with rhythm games and music-infused attacks which happen on beat. The visual style reminds me of decoupage/photobashing in a very chaotic way, it's super awesome and pleasantly challenging!
Ninja Gaiden Ragebound isn't what I'd call an "indie" like the rest of this list, but gosh it was so cool and fun I had to include it! Very polished Ninja Gaiden fun, it has a lot of little quirks to it that make it satisfying to find collectables and finish the stages in style!
OKAY enough demos; let me tell you about some released games I've been experiencing!
Deltarune chapters 3 and 4 have released at last and they were SO worth the wait - I have full faith that the remaining 3 chapters will be worthy as well!!! I continue to love the vibes and earnestness in the writing, and there's one character in particular who I heavily resonated with (I won't be spoiling who that is since my bestie's still playing through it currently)... it's a game that I played through and then IMMEDIATELY wanted to play through again!! The soundtrack has been on repeat for weeks and I don't see it wearing out anytime soon. I'm hoping to actually muster enough energy to make fan art eventually, because it is very close to my heart in a similar way that its parallel story Undertale is.
Speaking of games that touch my heart... OUGH FFX was SO GOOD!! Yes, I'm 24 years late to the party, but I'm grateful I wasn't spoiled up to this point to be able to enjoy the game in its entirety. The characters have an amazing amount of depth to them, and I love that the relationships feel natural and earned - pretty rare for a story nowadays! The relationships themselves also feature some pretty complex storytelling that I wasn't expecting, and was fully grateful in how certain ones were portrayed. It's extremely clear why people say this game is one of the best Final Fantasy entries, and it's won a place in my heart. I know it's immensely different, but I'm looking forward to seeing where the story goes in X-2!
Chris recently tried out Dragon Quest 1, specifically the version for the Gameboy Color called Dragon Warrior 1 & 2, and it's very cute!!! Something about putting it on the GBC just works so perfectly for how it plays and looks. It has a humor about it that I wasn't anticipating and I'm in awe of just how open it is - I'm very curious to know what the rest of the world looks like!
Chris also tried out just a little bit of the original release of Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean, which is.... interesting!!! The protagonist is shockingly unlikeable and makes some of the ugliest faces I've seen in a game, and WOW that voice acting really is as awful as they say, but the battle system is fascinating in a way that I want to see how it evolves. Meemai is the main reason I'd keep playing, though.
I finally picked my Kingdom Hearts 1 playthrough again yayyyy! I had stopped about halfway through last year because the combat was triggering a very awful RSI any time I'd attempt to play, but it hasn't been as bad this time around because I'm taking many breaks. I'm hoping to continue replaying the rest of the series alongside Chris, who hasn't experienced some of the games, since we have all of them on our PS4/5 now!
Just got to Halloween Town and I still love Sora's outfit change!!!
I hope someone out there is reading all this and finds something they like! aaaaaaaaaa
Assorted Media
My favorite movie of the month is KPop Demon Hunters!!! Stunning animation propelling a story with themes of love over hate is absolutely my vibe, and I adore how they broke the rigs to make some of the most unhinged (and real) expressions on the girls' faces. I'm not personally "into" KPop myself, but I thought the music fit the movie extremely well! Also the tiger is utterly adorable. Even though certain aspects of the plot felt like they could have been a bit better explained, I'd definitely recommend it to any purveyors of fantastic animation.
Pariah features a young black woman struggling with how to present her butch identity, troubled over how to come out to her heavily religious family. The movie hits hard with how authentic its story feels, clearly a lived experience by its director/writer Dee Rees. Extremely well done, but it hurts!
On Friday the 13th, I watched a fun selection of dopey slashers, which made it a day to remember. My picks were Freaky (which happens in-film on Friday the 13th, nice), Prom Night (1980) (the original, which I hadn't seen before), Prom Night (2008) (the remake, which I've seen many times and is somewhat of a guilty pleasure movie for me), and Scream (which is actually a good movie and recommend it if you can stomach slashers). Another spooky movie I watched is the film adaptation for one of my favorite horror video games - Until Dawn - but it was atrocious and honestly shouldn't have even been named after the game with how different from its innate concept it was...
I had the pleasure of reading Let's Go Karaoke! ahead of its upcoming anime adaptation! I wasn't expecting how ridiculously silly (in a very positive way) the story would be, but I guess that's what you get when it's all about a choir student begrudgingly giving singing pointers to a member of the yakuza!
Speaking of anime... Spring season has just wrapped up, with Summer starting this week! My favorites of Spring are Apocalypse Hotel and Shoushimin Season 2. Apocalypse Hotel maintained having a huge heart through its characters, with an amazing amount of wacky moments and gorgeous animation to accompany it - I recommend it to anyone looking for a show that'll make them smile! Shoushimin wrapped up beautifully - and I mean that visually and writing-wise - with a heart-pumping conclusion and emotional script. The biggest let-down of the season, by far, is Gundam GQuuuuuux, which honestly kind of turned me off from Gundam as a whole... I feel like I need to rewatch Witch from Mercury to remember what a good Gundam series feels like, because this one was a huge disappointment from start to finish. The only thing it has going for it is colorful character designs, but otherwise it's poorly written with a painstakingly big reliance on the audience's nostalgia to carry it and a bland trio of main characters lacking any sort of personality. I'm glad there are some people out there who liked it, but I was personally thrilled that it's a single-season series.
please consider watching Apocalypse Hotel for more incredibly good moments like this one
Another anime I need to mention is Lazarus, which is overflowing with style. It's got some of the most incredible animation I've EVER seen in a tv series alongside a stellar soundtrack and fantastic character designs, but when we switched over to the English Dub halfway through (one particular episode had very poorly machine-translated subtitles, and we didn't wanna deal with that) it felt like the voice direction and writing weren't quite right... when we finished the show, it fell seriously emotionally flat. Out of curiosity, we rewatched the finale in Japanese and, sure enough, there was WAY more emotional weight in its original iteration. Even though I still think the pacing was a little strange, I'm probably gonna rewatch it all the way through in Japanese just to get the true meaning of its writing - it seems like it's far better overall.
I honestly think it's worth a watch for the phenomenal action sequences alone!
July time!
With Summer in full swing, it's getting quite a bit warmer so it'll be harder to finish projects (the lack of AC makes it rough), but I'll do my best to bring a little bit of love to the world with all I do! I'll continue streaming Mondays & Wednesdays, maybe with the return of art streams at some point. I have some more game ideas, as well as some characters I'd like to introduce sooner than later...! Keep an eye out, and thanks for reading!
I got this gorgeous teacup for free at my favorite local spot for scones when it closed down this past weekend!
