I’ve put off writing this review because it’d ultimately force me to return to the game. No, no, no. Don’t misunderstand, don’t get me wrong. This game is amazing. I don’t think I’ve ever made the statement “X game is the best, and no other.” If so, then I apologize, I’m going to break that statement. Overall I don’t have a particular favorite per se. To be frank, I judge on the quality of the story, not superiority or comparison over another. Well, I try not to, at least.

Getting back to it, this game hit me in a fundamental way that I don’t think I’ll be able to convey without describing large portions of my internal makeup, something I’m disinclined to do at this point. Nevertheless, I found this game had a tremendous amount of quality.

However, I’ll let you in on a secret: When I play a particular game (game is subjective, but work with me here, okay?) I have it running on one monitor, and a notepad doc open on the other. As I play, I take notes. What’s going on in-game, and how I’m reacting to what’s happening. I can’t possibly post the notes here, for one alot of personal shit is mixed in with it, as well as tremendous fucking spoilers, (not to mention it’s hugecat huge) but I’ll post excerpts in the hopes that perhaps you and I will maybe come a little closer to understanding Chaos;Head.

Now that I’ve gone through the opening (great music, BTW), This is awesome shit right here. The way things move visually- I hate to use evocative, but it is. It’s dizzying, when things move around, because it’s done first person. Things move and seem like you really are Takumi seeing them. Should I feel bad because some of the figures he has on his shelf are the same figures I have, or wanted to buy?

For me, I was captivated. I’d been hesitant to play the game, both because of the patch (more on that in a bit) but because, well, Nitro+ has a certain … well, noteriety. Not only that, but when people start going on and on and on about something, I tend to hate it out of spite. Boy howdy did people talk about it, and at length. I finally succumbed, however, and tried it out. Regarding the music- It was really great.

A metal stake… CLANG CLANG CLANG oh god not the music. Dude, fucking leave. This isn’t the time to be hanging out and listening to someone play “I’ve been working on the railroad, all the livelong DAY!” Just leave. Go. Get the fuck out of Dodge. Do not pass GO, do not collect $200, just GO. Oh god. I’m done for. BAD END, right? Glad? What? Why is she glad? Awfully happy, too. And bloody. I can’t see anything in her eyes, her face is unreadable. Am I dead? Will I die? Is this one of his delusions? She knows me by name and she knows my school and she’s wearing the uniform.

I’m referring, of course, to this scene. All of the little details that were occuring as the scene played out kept unnerving me. One other thing that set Chaos;head apart from my more recent games. I felt directly involved. It’s hard to connect to a character when there’s future robots, or incomprehensible mgics, or things things like that. The main lead, Takumi, is not an admirable lead. In fact, getting into Taku’s head is like slipping on a glove that had jelly inside. slimy and disgusting. Combining that with the overall disturbing, somewhat nervous, paranoid aspect of the game, when things happen, I was reacting.

Holy- If I have the stake, then it must be real, right? Wait a second. Let’s think this through logically. If there really WAS a gory murder, a New Gen murder, and it was done with those stakes, me having one in my posession implicates me. Disregarding fingerprints and all, if she didn’t leave any prints and I was caught out I’d be fucked, true and proper. If I got rid of it, and the police went looking for evidence, and a helpful garbage man found it and turned it in, then again, because of prints, I’d be implicated.

When I saw the stake for the second time, I had this little brainstorm. Fairly self-evident, right? Immediately after typing this out, Takumi thought the exact same thing. Not a big deal, normally, but when I was in the game, the parallel in our thought processes not so much the content but drawing the lines to the conclusions, the processes behind it, that freaked me out and drew me in that much more.

Thoughts on the womenfolk:

Aoi Sena: Sena was a difficult girl to like. Very tsun, difficult to know or understand. I felt more and cared more for her mother than Sena, but there were some moments when she was delightful.

Kusunoki Yua: It’s hard to put into words exactly what about her I liked or disliked. Every step along the way, from beginning to end, she was there, she evoked a response from me, be it amusement, nervousness, shock, consideration, moe. The way she moved, in my mind, from trusted to untrustworthy band back again really affected me. Her “awakening” seemed separate from her, detached, and I wish I’d been given more clues.

Kishimoto Ayase: Just like Yua, it’s hard to describe just what about FES I liked so much. I dunno. Despite her cool exterior, despite her defenses, I really liked her. No, I think I know why I liked her. Part of it was the singing; I’m a sucker for a sweet voice and hers was crystal clear. Part of it was her restraint, part of it was the sheer enigma of her. When you get to her part, the website of the hospital that is linked on @chan is real, and loli-FES is cute~

Orihara Kozue: I just didn’t like Kozu-pii that much. I mean, out of all of them I’d encountered, I’d trusted her more than Sena, Yua, Ayase, and Rimi, but I couldn’t like her. Part of it was her external personality No. It was the disparity between her external personality and her internal personality that jarred on me. Also, her voice grated on my nerves, along with all the upuu~ hanyuu~ and whatall else she added into her speech.

Sakihata Rimi: She takes #2 in how much I liked her, but only by the barest of margins. The way she kept me on edge, flip-flopping between being kind and sweet and cold and untrustworthy, and finally reaching an end with her (apparently she’s the heroine and all) was so amazingly well done. The feeling of “I could trust her. Wait. What was she doing? Is she plotting something? Oh, she’s not suspicious at all, no, wait!” through the entire thing was so awesome. It was the journey I made with her that made is so rewarding, so enjoyable. Riding that mix of paranoia and hope, fear and empathy from start to finish was simply amazing. When Taku was at the darkest points, when things couldn’t get any worse, those clear, openhearted moments of pure human kindness made me fall so hard for her.

Nishij? Nanami: By far and above, #1 in my book. From start to finish, there wasn’t anything at all I didn’t like. She’s a good girl. No crazies, really! Her honest purity is soothing, I mean, come on I’ve been having to deal with Taku’s shit for a while and frankly, Nanami was a breath of fresh air. Beginning, middle, and end, she was simply amazing. Part of it, I suppose, was the fact that she was one hell of a moe-bullet, but from start to finish she was wonderful. An excellent contrast to Taku. I’m not a fan of tsundere, but her bouts of mild tsundere were well orchestrated and that was actually a part of why it is I liked her so much. I regret being unable to share her fish sandwich. I would have.

Overall this game was superior to most I’ve played. Rich and rewarding, disturbing and hillarious. There were a surprising amount of things in the game that exist on “teh interwebs”, making it alot more… interactive than I’m used to, but in an excellent “I’m participating in the story” sort of way. on a 1-10, I’d give it a solid 10.

Patching: It is complicated, and it’s very much an effort. Also, it’s clearly and blatantly a beta patch. It’s a shining fucking example of why I refuse to help people with patching problems. If you can’t get it to work, don’t ask me, because I had problems too.

Downloadables? You bet! I’ve packaged up Nanami’s ringtone, Suwa’s ringtone, and Let Me Pass into *.mp3 format, so you too can use them for your own nefarious preferences. Right click, save as. Link verified working as of 12/19/2008.

Whose eyes are those eyes?

So I started playing Wanko to Kurasou because I saw it on /jp/… more out of boredom than any other reason. I’m not a furry, closet or otherwise, but I’ve been wanting to play a good game for a while. Having motive, opportunity, and plenty of free time, I went through the necessary steps and installed the english patch. Let’s stop here for a second.

Some games’ english patches are difficult to install, awkward, or require you to jump through hoops. everything was smooth this time through.

Moving on to the story side, you’re a guy that doubles as a teacher. You’ve got a checkered past and lots of free time. You don’t particularly want a pet. But you get one, and she’s a helpless moe-blob of a dog girl.

It’s a decent read, though not particularly gripping. I guess it’s targeted at the furry/ closet furry audience and I’m just not receptive. But Mikan is cute, though.

I’m going to try to add more when the game is 100% translated.

======

I’ve finished the Nadeshiko route and overall it’s a drag. The game plays like a slice of life with a variety of small climaxes; again it appeals to more of a furfag furry audience. It seems to me that Nadeshiko end is a diplomatic end; the happiness isn’t particularly palpable and the end is well, it’s sort of mediocre. Still waiting for Risa end.

You know, I never actually got around to playing this game until just yesterday. i mean, it’s been sitting there for years, mute and staring at me with somewhat accusing eyes. I mean, it’s a classic, right? I got around to it last night while waiting for another game to download.

So, I tried it out. I really like the menus; they were intuitive and easy to move around. the choices were a little silly. No, they were really silly. Not quite a throwback to the older menus that were time consuming to navigate through, (I’m looking at you, Three Sister’s Story) but … a half-step to the easy to follow menus I love and am familiar with. The stor4y was ridiculous. I’m supposed to care about a violent nutcase? She’s totally not my type! I’ll tell you who was my type, though, and I really was disappointed with her ending: Rika Shiraki.

Even though Rika was wholly under your magic, there was a certain sweetness to her behavior that the anime failed to deliver. In the anime, she was mindless, a lust-powered fuck puppet. In the game, there’s a certain amount of innocent sweetness. She’s kind, devoted (of course) she’s sweet, attentive, and altogether a desirable woman- completely different than the anime portrays. If I wasn’t in love with her when I cast the spell in the game, I was in love with her later. The game failed to deliver; a mediocre and unrewarding ending was all I got.

I feel a better usage of Rika-chan would have been to keep her as an alternative girl to Imari, outside the scope of magic. By avoiding the temptation of magic, you gain the opportunity to pursue her. Bah.

As I stated before, Imari was wholly unlikable. In the anime she had some sweet qualities; in the game she was violent, rude, petulant, pushy, and totally undesirable. After I hooked up with Rika and she walked in, she went ballistic. It’s ridiculous how inept and jeuvenile her responses were- if she wasn’t at all interested in me (and there was never any sort of ‘dere’ vibe from her) or, alternatively, if she wanted to remain my friend, she should have been more accepting of my relationship and accepted the fact that I only saw Imari as a friend and not as a desirable woman.

I haven’t yet completed the game, but I don’t really want to. the one girl I desired had a … mediocre and unrewarding ending; the others can rot in shit for all I care.

I installed and started playing Yume Miru Kusuri again, but not because of Aeka’s route. Admittedly, I love Aeka’s route, she’s so wistful and filled with a certain sadness. Refer back to my statement months ago that if i met this sort of girl in real life I wouldn’t give her the time of day; however in reading and experiencing her story, I can’t help but feel moved to be all big and strong and protective. She’s a sweet girl, albeit not terribly bright.

You know, that brings me to a point I’d like to make. Back in the day, I was raised by my mother country to believe that all men and women were created equal. When I went out in pursuit of a mate, I originally had the expectation that I would find someone that is equal to me. lo and behold, that’s not the case at all. Setting aside my chauvanistic perspectives, I found that there was no actual equality, because the staggering differences between the two genders make equality impossible. men and women are wired differently. There is no equal value- Dammit, I lost the original point. Tangents. Bah.

Getting back to it, i ran through Mizuki and Nekoko’s routes looking for a particular scene I couldn’t place, and ended up falling a little for Nekoko. She reminds me a bit like Aeka; both have their own escape mechanisms, Nekoko’s just happens to be a bit… bizarre. Mizuki I can’t deal with; I just can’t get to like her at all. Nevermind the fact that her hoohas are the size of water barrels, her personality is about as flat as your adorable imouto’s chest. There are a couple of times during the end that you feel for her, but by and large I can’t stand her. I did like the flight, and the balcony scene and her actual ending. the rest is crap. Aeka, though. Oh man. She’s such a sweetheart, and she invokes a similar response that Yumemi Hoshino invoked when I ran through Planetarian. (In before CLANG CLANG CLANG and “The Junker lived!” “Bullshit!”)

This rumination all reminds me I need to play through Ever17. Never got around to it, dammit.

Yes. The desire to protect something… is at the same time none other than the wish for something to violate it. -Nasu-

I like this sentiment, because it also describes the selfsame contradictions in religion. See, God is “good”. We don’t know that he is “Good” until there’s something “Bad” to compare him against. Therefore “God’s” righteousness is merely capitalizing on the human need for dichotomy and the intentional creation of an agent that would act as his negative number thus providing the choice.

To break it down simply, You want shoes to protect your feet. This also means you want to walk where your feet would otherwise be damaged without the protection afforded by those shoes.

To wish to be a hero is to wish for a villian to oppose you.

While we’re on the subject of Nasu, Heaven’s Feel is very near completion. And aassuming there isn’t a SSSSSSHHHHITSTOOOOOORM!!! around the deployment (in before the capabilities of the installer) I’ll be able to play through Sakura’s route by September.

UNG

I’m going to talk to you about Kana: Little sister today. I haven’t played it again yet, though I’ve been planning to for several weeks. What I’m hoping to do at this point is convey to you why i like it so much.

Kana: Little Sister is one of the games that I personally would place at the top ten. It’s just me and my opinion, though, so don’t come yelling if it doesn’t do anything for you. It’s lonely at the top, though. The games that I love the most get played the least because good things should be savored. For me, if I read a book, listen to a song, play a game, whatever, it’s in my head for good. It loses it’s impact if it’s played over and over. 

I’ve played through Kana: Imouto twice now. Both times I’ve tried for and recieved different endings, and yet both times I feel as though I’ve really earned both of them. I don’t know why, but Kana sends a big, sweet, sticky moe-bullet through the cold machinery of my cynic’s heart. The protagonist is someone I can relate to. In almost every scene, there’s some aspect that I couldn’t help and nod and say, “Yeah, that’s pretty reasonable.” Of course there’s times when he’s just like me, he’s a dick, a bit cruel, whatever and i can’t help but think, “man, you’re such a dick.” There are times when he’s just a moron, but you can file that under being socially underdeveloped, and emotionally awkward. I used to be like that too, albeit in junior high.

But in conclusion, the protagonist is somoene I can relate with on some level or another. Kana herself is a sweet girl, albeit a total moe-blob. I didn’t really get a feel for her personality until I had cleared my first ending, and by then i was a blubbery heap of tears, which brings me to my conclusion: Kana Imouto is a great game, it invokes a broad spectrum of emotions. I laughed. I cried. I facepalmed. At one point in the ending I got I got up, yelling “What the fuck? No fucking way!”, forgetting in my rage that it was in the early hours of the morning and my roommates were fast asleep. i love the game because I connect with it on that level. It invokes those emotions. (Well, that and the moe factor from Kana) It’s also why i hate playing the game; going through the spectrum of emotions like that is exhausting.

When I’m not out terrorizing the local Christian community with the blatant contradictions, total lack of verifiable and empirical information, hypocracies, and failures of their church or bemoaning the state of the U.S. Government and how I have observed that it has failed us, or buying all sorts of weeaboo paraphenelia, I’m playing ren’ai or dating sim games.

This time around, it’s Hitomi My Stepsister.

OTOH, I suppose I’ve been spoiled when it comes to “broken girls” in the typical ren’ai game; I mean come on, what could possibly compare to the broken girl than Kohaku? I’ve gotta be a lot more careful in picking the games I play ;_;

So, I’m playing the Plus+Disc finally. The music is … I dunno. richer. more subtle. the interface is also a lot smoother and more professional-looking. It sounds and looks a lot better and the character designs are smoother. I like it.

Also, one of the arcs had this little picture:

Super Sacchin!

(Pssst! Sacchin! Hey, Sacchin! Over here! No, you can’t.)

Isn’t it sad?

Oh, I admit it, I was waiting with bated breath for Mirror Moon’s Unlimited Blade Works patch. The irony is that the day it came out I had to return to work so I wasn’t able to play it right away, go figure.

LOL DRAMA aside, leaked beta vs final version, they did a good job. Takajun and all the rest of the Mirror Moon staff have my utmost respect and admiration. they really went all out on this one and you can tell.  I’m only the slightest bit miffed that they didn’t include a walkthrough and instead gave a flowchart, but really, who cares? it’s not that big a deal. The official patch is seriously badass and the added voices are a big plus. Plus, if you die, you get a taiga dojo, and that’s almost worth it. No downloadables, but I have a very upset Rin.

Oh Nestor, you beast~

If the Fate arc was about Saber and the servants, then Unlimited Blade Works was about the humans involved; Shirou, Tohsaka, Shinji, etc. Definitely character development throughout the whole arc, though to me it got strained at points. Archer reveals himself to be the bastard I knew he was “You’re a total failure. How’s that working out for you?” and is awesomely GAR. Shirou, despite being a tool, actually starts getting better towards the end. Tohsaka is appropriately cute, too.

There’s one point where the arc diverges and Tohsaka asks Shirou a question that (i believe) ties strongly into the Heaven’s Feel arc, which is still untranslated. I’m eagerly awaiting that arc, mainly because it revolves around Sakura (she makes my heart go pitter-pat) and also because it’s supposed to be the longest arc in the game. Kind of hard to believe, but the longer arcs are more rewarding to me. They explain more about the (lol) Nasuverse.

Haven’t posted in a while; sorry. Been playing Utawarerumono a lot.

Utawarerumono is a story centering around the masked protagonist, Hakuoro, who one day is found by a family of two girls and their grandmother in a nearby forest close to their village. He is badly injured and is soon found to have amnesia, so they take him to their home and treat him until he is well again. Hakuoro is soon accepted into their village where he stays and lives with them. The story’s genre is at first a fantasy-style story with heavy Ainu influence, though later develops science fiction themes towards the end.

Standard fare regarding the story progression, though there’s a few things I’ll mention:

1. There are no “story” choices per se. You progress through the linear story and things happen.
2. There are sRPG battles, which really make it worth playing over and over.
3. Some of the ero scenes are pretty lulzworthy.

I’ll post some screencaps and may even upload a FRAPS of one of the battles. Keep in mind that I’m not so good at sRPGs, so if you see something I’m doing wrong, i’m a noob, don’t lose sleep over it. I’m not.