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kieuecaprie · 10 months

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KieueCaprie's List of Games Finished in 2023 Entry 9

#21: Pikmin 1

Finished When? 21/6/23

What's Finished? All parts

Platform? Nintendo Switch

Pikmin is probably one of my favorite Nintendo franchises that I thought was pretty much dead (along with F-Zero and Star Fox) when they decided that, as a prank, they release a 2D platformer for the 3DS that got amazing reviews, so amazing, in fact, that nobody ever spoke of it again and Nintendo decided not to give it any more attention until Niantic dug up its grave to parade its corpse around.

Now that the corpse has gained new life with Pikmin 4 and the news that Pikmin 1 + 2 has been ported to Switch had hit, I decided that it was time to go back to the two gamecube games that occupied most of my time with the console (the rest were Mario Party games... which I mainly played by myself with...).

I actually did finish Pikmin 1 before back when I was a streamer, so routing my way through the game wasn't a terribly difficult feat. The game's fun but it's quite easy once you know what you're doing and it does suffer a bit from a disease called Tech Demo-itis. It's still good, mind you, and I love it to pieces.

#22: Unreal Tournament 2004

Finished When? 25/6/23

What platform? PC, Steam (Much like UT99, this game is unlisted, but I have it on Steam AND GOG.)

What's finished? Campaign, Experienced (apparently listed as Masterful in the high score table (but why????))

Initially, my impression was that UT2K4 > (only just) UT99 >>>>>>>>>>>>> UT3 but after suffering through an Experienced difficulty campaign, I can say that I think I prefer UT99 a bit more, at least the bots in the latter game used a wider variety of weapons over slapping the Link Gun button and W+M2-ing their way to victory.

Double Domination is... a complete slog, I'm sorry, it gets very stalematey REAL fast and if I have to hear "RED TEAM IN C-- *weird synth noise*" or "5... 4... 3... 2.. o- LAST SECOND SAVE" one more time, I'm going to throw my PC out the window.

Bombing Run is interesting but it started getting tedious as I climbed through the maps because the bots got more and more aimbotty as you go, to the point where your teammates (who are also bots) started sucking more. I like the idea and I kind of wish there was a modern arena shooter that implemented it in some form.

CTF was CTF. Against bots, the age-old strat of grabbing the flag, throwing the translocator somewhere where they won't path, going back to base, capping, teleporting, and repeating the same thing three to five times is always valid.

Assault is probably one of the few things UT2K4 has over UT99, what with vehicles, a pointer to the next objective, and actual respawn times. It was great playing through AS-Convoy again after all this time.

The final deathmatch against Xan was... tedious, mostly due to how large the final map is in comparison to its UT99 counterpart.

All in all, I liked UT2K4 but I think UT99 is about equal to it in terms of my preference now, partly because the latter has less reliance on double-tap dodging which is a neat idea in concept but the number of times I "dodged" off a cliff is too damn high, even after changing the double tap time.

#23: Pikmin 2

Finished When? 25/6/23

What Platform? Nintendo Switch, the inferior version

All Treasures

Finished When? 10/7/23

Man oh man, when I was much younger, I seriously anticipated this game when I first heard about it and it did not disappoint. After trying and failing the first game, finding out that this game had no time limit was a breath of fresh air for me back then. Does this still hold up now that I know how to clear Pikmin 1?

Yeah, I'd say so, I still love Pikmin 2 even though now that I am more experienced, the game has a lot of what some people would say bullshit (and others would say FUN ), what with falling enemies, falling rocks, falling EXPLODING rocks, and Waterwraith (which... I didn't have any trouble with this time around lol).

The game is still great to play, I loved splitting jobs between two captains and managing my army of pikmin as we scoured the landscape for every last bit of treasure we could find and then some. And although some of the bosses that used to be "hard" feel disappointing to me these days, I still liked playing through it.

I can honestly say that this is probably my favorite game in the series... unless 4 can topple it over, of course.

#24: Road Trip Adventure

Finished When? 3/7/23

What Platform? PS2

I was introduced to this game last year (or was it the year before) by a friend and despite it looking and playing like it belonged on a PS1 (which is funny considering the games that came before it), I actually had a ton of fun going around on a Road Trip Adventure around the world, exploring, racing, and gambling. Also, the story is about the biggest excuse that you could get: President Forest is sick of being the president so he's holding a World Grand Prix to find the next president. Yes, it's as stupid as it sounds, but it's motivation for the player character to go from living in Peach Town to becoming the President of the world.

I'll get some proper screenshots in future, maybe. Someday™.

#25: Arcade Paradise

Finished When? 6/7/23

What Platform? PC, Game Pass

This game caught my eye when I first saw it on Game Pass. Run a laundrette that was owned by your player character's father, Gerald, who happens to be voiced by the voice actor who voiced Geralt of Rivera, and secretly run an arcade in the back while expanding your premises to "fit more washing machines in" because "gaming will never take off" because the game is set in the 90's (even though I'm 100% sure a battery-backup RPG puzzle arcade game wouldn't have existed back then but what do I know?) with all the aesthetic and feel to it.

The game's pretty great, albeit very slow at times when you have to grind for things and it can be a total slog. It gets worse towards the end when the game starts asking for exhorbitant amounts of money for one arcade cabinet to match your pace.

On top of that, the business management side is... very basic. There's no failstates, there's no consequences outside of not making as much money as you should have, nothing, and the laundrette starts becoming incredibly tedious in the late game (although I feel that may actually be the point since, at the beginning, you tell your father that the arcade has the potential to make more money than the laundry).

Some of the games are pretty good and I can easily pick out MOST of the games they're riffing on such as Strike Gold being Dig-Dug, Racer Chaser being Pac-Man (with an interesting gimmick of having to get back to your car before you get caught by the cops if you happen to crash into one of them), and later on getting a DDR-like cabinet with an incredibly simple "rhythm" game.

The story is fine, it doesn't really get in the way all that much nor does it really need to be when the main attraction is the arcade games. One thing I will say though is that I really liked how they portrayed the father, I won't really say much about it, you can experience it yourself if you'd like. Plus it's free on Game Pass, so you aren't losing much by doing so if you're subbed to that service.

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#kieuecaprie gaming #kieuecaprie gamer list 2023

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entities-of-posts · 2 years

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// cw: animal death, car crash. its the roadkill guy again!

well, its about time i gave you another offering. think of this one as thanks for letting me hang around here so much lately.

when im not lurking in your archives, i tend to wander around places that, in all honesty, are very predictable of someone of my particular alignment. dark, winding roads, bracketed by trees and creeks. the kind of places one tends to find plenty of roadkill, along with the vermin that reap the benefits of that vehicular slaughter. vermin, in this case, also includes myself.

a few days ago i ended a human life for the first time. it was easier than i expected, but the Song in my gut had been telling me how good it would feel for weeks at that point. it wasnt wrong.

she was fairly young, a pitiable loss that is surely felt by many. she had little experience behind the wheel, you see, but when she took stock of the friends she went to the party with and she was the only sober one, she volunteered kindly to drive them all home. that was her first mistake.

the thing she hit wasnt something so big as to kill any of them on impact, but some may be surprised at how far an armadillo can throw a small enough car when hit at high speeds. not you, im sure, but someone.

the car flipped over itself once, landing crunched and steaming on the sharp incline of a hill beside the treeline. about 20 feet behind the mess of crumpled aluminum and shattered glass, i approached the cracked and oozing casualty of this young womans inattention and knelt before it.

she wasnt unconcerned about her drunk friends, as i had plenty of time while she was checking on them to let my Teeth emerge and hone in on the shattered creature. but then, as i heard the car door creak open with a hard kick and a foot step out to crunch shards of glass, something new happened.

now, i feel a preface to this next part might prove useful. for me, the draw of roadkill is threefold.

there is the instant before impact. when a particularly unlucky creature might have an opportunity to see the glowing eyes of its imminent demise, when the pilot of the killing machine realizes they wont be able to stop before a life ends at their behest. the uncomprehending fear these unfortunate souls experience is indescribably delicious, but if that alone could sate my hunger id likely serve a different patron.

then there is the immediate aftermath. humans react very differently to the accidental cessation of a life perceived to be "lesser" in some way, and some of these feed me more than others. my favorites are the ones who stop immediately to check, the ones who must know the extent of their slight against nature so that they can properly mourn the thing theyve done, but ive learned that these are few and far between. the most common reaction is a fast-paced transition from regret to denial, usually more concern for their own vehicle rather than life. mostly unsatisfying.

but then there are the more long-term repercussions. a thick smear ground into the pores of asphalt or concrete, a lingering reminder to all who see it that their way of life is a danger too great for most creatures to avoid or even anticipate. most choose to ignore the corpses, but those who dwell on the sight do taste the best.

which brings me back to my point.

humans have caught glimpses of me feeding in the past weeks, and have in turn fed me more with their revulsion, but this was the first time id eaten something so fresh right in front of the person who made that meal possible. she stared at me, silhouetted by flickering taillights as the broken shell cracked grotesquely in my undulating throat, no chewing necessary. i stared back, a wide grin splitting my face, and before i knew what the urge meant i was already loping toward her.

she was frozen, heh, like a deer in the headlights. i wasnt even coming for her quickly, but she didnt move an inch. the inside of the car was quiet and still as well, and as i reached a hand out toward her face she spoke.

"im sorry," she whispered, and then my fingers touched her cheek and she didnt have much to speak with, anymore.

the part after that is a bit hazy in my mind. i remember the taste of blood, and exuberant fear, and ground meat, and then i was sat up against the bumper with a pair of blood-streaked kitten heels in my lap and a bent diamond stud earring stuck between my teeth. i was absolutely soaked in gore and the car was still running, though the two figures inside seemed to decide being stuck in the backseat of a smushed car was better than the alternative. i dont blame them, and i was feeling very full anyway and so not particularly inclined to drag them out myself.

i left them there, in the end. washed myself off in a shallow creek nearby and made my way home, a little damp but unscrutinized. until now.

i bring this story to you not only as thanks for your recent hospitality, but also as a small offering to your master. the further i fall into the hands of Viscera the more i realize that the fear we all consume would be nothing without humanitys curiosity in the face of mortal dread. the ones who look closest seem to be the most afraid of what theyll see.

That is kind of you to say; and, not to toot my own horn, but I do believe you’re right :) So much of the most filling horror is made when the helpless victims simply cannot bring themselves to look away…

I certainly hope those remaining riders find their way to my door. I’m sure they’d give a wonderfully scarred statement.

#statements #Lance #the Flesh

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spookyspaghettisundae · 3 years

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Answers Found in Silence

Vincent licked his lips.

The blood tasted like iron, but the vision of the masterful painting before him absorbed his entire attention.

He loved paintings. He loved living vicariously through them. The rush it filled him with whenever his eyes followed every stroke of the brush, paint layered as passionate memories upon canvas, the sheer essence that the artist channeled into creating such masterpieces.

Seeing what they saw. Breathing what they breathed. Imagining what they must have heard at the time. Tasting what they sampled upon their tongues.

Absentmindedly, he licked his lips again, only now realizing how much blood must have sprayed his face upon bludgeoning a man to death. It took him out of his revelry. That taste of iron prevented him from embarking on another journey through the lens of the painting.

Vincent dabbed his lower lip, then inspected his fingertips, ensuring with a glance that it was indeed another man's blood.

He turned to the corpse splayed out on the marble floor behind him, in the middle of a pool of his own bodily fluids. Vincent scanned the dead body with silent contempt. His lip curled into a sneer. He shook his head in disbelief.

"Philistine," he muttered.

The knife that Sir Dorsey Dwyer had held now lay on the shiny floor beside him, underneath a reflective surface comprised of his own spilled lifeblood, pumped out to completion by his heart's merciless beating, throbbing until he had exhaled his last breath.

Dwyer had threatened to do harm with that knife. Not harm to Vincent—but to the painting. An act of aggression he could not tolerate. An act of spite which he would not suffer.

That they would not suffer.

"Yes," whispered his favorite voice. That sweetest voice. "You did well, my love. Revenge for a loved one he had lost, I can always fathom, but what he would have done to the painting never would have—"

"Brought him back," said Vincent, Lord of the Bailyview, seemingly to himself.

Nobody but him could hear the phantasmal companion whose sentence he had finished. He stood alone in that spacious hall, company only to his late colleague's corpse growing cold. Sparing little glance to the bent candelabra which had caved in Dwyer's skull, he turned to gaze at the painting again.

He said, "It is a bit of a bother though. I need to figure out how to get his sorry carcass out of here without getting caught red-handed, or our time together may just be spent in a cell in the Tower."

She stayed silent.

He rubbed thumb and bloodstained fingers together, marveling at the sensation of that warm slick fluid trapped between them. Though rare for him to take another person's life, he rarely felt anything even remotely related to remorse.

Like this painting.

A beautiful portrait of a quaintly handsome man. Staring off to the side through hazel eyes, head crowned by messy hair, garbed in a fancy dress likely donned just for the portrait's painter—or imagined, as it contrasted the rest of his appearance so.

The painter had clearly seen something in the motif of his masterpiece. Felt something for the man depicted on the canvas.

And the painter had been nobody less than the infamous Outer Wall Reaper. The murderer who had kept the city locked in a breathless fear, rendered masses afraid of the killer who stalked its streets by night, picking off people and making them disappear until only mangled bodies surfaced in the slums, organs missing.

And now, Vincent owned this painting, stolen from the Reaper's vandalized home by looters before an angry mob fully thrashed it. The piece of art had found its way into the private collection of this rich and handsome playboy.

"So fascinating," said she.

Orinrya.

"The painter? Or the subject?" he asked.

She rendered a whole aria, carried in the singsong of a single word as she replied, "Both."

He chuckled.

"So rare for us to glimpse what such a pure soul saw as attractive," she added.

"Pure soul?" scoffed Vincent. But he smiled.

"Yes. Just look at the way he painted every single hair on his head. What little attention he paid to the shirt's collar or the bow, while having slaved over the sheen he had seen on this man's skin. The hand that guided that brush also guided the needles and scalpels that took all those lives, in all those cold and dreary nights. The warmth of their blood, steaming in the snow—"

"You're right."

"Hm?"

"I see it," breathed Vincent.

He sighed. Shot another glance at the dead man on the floor, repeating his oath, "Philistine. To think—you almost robbed our world of this masterpiece. The single only painting the Reaper may have ever made."

Dwyer had been out of line; he had had no right to destroy it. Nobody did. The stupid fop had foolishly tried to put knife to the canvas, to slice it to ribbons in a fit of rage upon hearing who had painted the portrait. A petty act of revenge, as if it would have brought back his slain brother, the only wealthy victim whose life the Reaper claimed in his rampage through the slums. Caught with a night worker, no less, adding insult to injury.

And to imagine that a simple painting could have been the object of his impotent rage—no, they would never have suffered such petty revenge. After all, it was not the artwork that had taken his brother's life.

Snatching a gas lantern from the table, Vincent raised it in front of the painting and frowned. Though perfect for the simple sandalwood frame, this artificial light did not do the artwork itself any justice. The long, foggy night had swallowed the sun, and Vincent could not wait to behold the Reaper's artistry again in broad daylight.

In a way, the Outer Wall Reaper had just claimed another life. Even if only indirectly. Vincent smiled at that thought. That he had accidentally become the murderer's own instrument.

Almost as if on cue to disrupt his morbid amusement, someone knocked on the door.

Muffled through the entrance still closed, the butler spoke, "Milord, I heard—"

"It's fine, Perry. Brace yourself as you enter. Sir Dwyer had a," Vincent's words trailed off like these thoughts. He smiled again to himself before he finally finished the sentence. "He had an unfortunate accident."

He never turned around. The doors to the gallery opened and Perry entered. His shoes squeaked as he swiveled and froze in place, staring at the corpse.

"An accident with a candelabra, I see," said the butler with his usual measure of dripping sarcasm. "Looks like the poor chap fell backwards into it. Repeatedly."

Vincent chortled, still admiring the painting. He never understood how Perry found it in him to deliver such deadpan remarks without breaking out into laughter himself.

Their gazes met for a second, and as always, Vincent read no fear in Perry's eyes. They would never harm a hair on each other's heads, and knowing each other's dirty secrets assured mutual silence—or mutual destruction.

"What would you have me do about this mess, sir?"

Vincent clicked his tongue and shook his head.

"Pay no mind. Fetch me everything for some absinthe. I will take care of the late Sir Dwyer myself. And as you recall, he showed up here all drunk off his arse. I don't think anybody knows he even came here. And someone in the constabulary... still owes me a favor. I'll have it all sorted out soon, no worries."

"Despite the recent disaster at your party?"

"Oh, let them all talk. I love being the center of attention. Next thing you know, I'll be the headline of another lurid article," Vincent said, painting a picture in the air with a hand, fingers splayed as he envisioned the printed piece. "Painting me as the Outer Wall Reaper himself, while others rush to defend my name and trip over themselves in fabricating all the reasons why I would never harm a fly."

Vincent arched his brow as he flashed his loyal butler a twisted smile. The same involuntary expression to mark his face whenever he felt like he was winning a game. And he always won the games that people played in the rumor mill.

"I am less concerned about them, milord. And more about how difficult it will be to clean after the constabulary concludes their investigation." Perry raised his nose and stared down at it, gray cheeks reddening.

"Hm. I am terribly sorry about all that, Perry. You have my word; I'll hire someone to take care of it. Now—how about that absinthe?"

The butler emitted a grunt in recognition, bowed, and backed out of the gallery hall again, leaving Vincent alone with the corpse.

And Orinrya.

The door clicked as it shut completely.

"He's such a good friend of the family," she said. "Three generations, and now the old codger's stuck with handling your caprice."

She smiled through Vincent's own lips. He smiled to himself, as well.

"I'm sure he has his own share of amusements," he said. Focusing on the painting again, he asked, "Now, where do you think this one leads? It's just blank around the subject. Well, not entirely blank. There's some color, some suggestion of gloom. I'd wager he painted it just this same winter. But without background—no context. A blind journey. We've never done that before."

"And that's why we will, darling. You cannot resist."

He smiled even wider.

Orinrya was right. She knew his thoughts, reading them as clearly as if he had spoken them out loud, giving them air. She knew his capricious nature as well as he did, or perhaps even better. Knew he could not pass up on any opportunity to explore the unknown. He bored quickly of things familiar and always sought to visit a new horizon whenever it presented itself.

He flopped down onto the sofa with a heavy sigh, his velvety upholstered oasis in the middle of this opulent marble gallery. Surrounded by alabaster statues of ancient deities, and arrays of exquisite paintings that his family had amassed over all these years to plaster the high walls. The lights from gaslit lanterns cast pockets of eerie glow throughout the gigantic hall.

Vincent tapped his chiseled blood-splattered chin as he once more marveled at the craftsmanship that had gone into painting this portrait.

"What do think is his name? Or was?" he asked.

"Eric," she said. Giggled. "He looks like an Eric to me. And still alive, I feel."

Vincent chuckled.

"So, you're picking up on a name with an 'E'. Perhaps Egon? Egon. Hm. What a funny name," he mused.

"Edward. That must be it, for sure."

"How would you know?"

"Call it—intuition," she cooed.

"Or should I call it whispers? The things you hear from the beyond? You never answered, love. You never told me where you came from."

"And perhaps I never will," she breathed with melody, drawing out another smile from him.

The set of double doors opened into the gallery. The butler entered. Empty glasses and sugar cubes in a small metal cup tinkled and clattered until he arrived by the sofa's side. He set the contents of his tray down onto the table by the sofa, one by one, preparing everything for Vincent's ritual.

Before he could seize the bottle of green liquid to pour him a glass, Vincent raised a jewelry-clad hand to stop Perry.

"That'll be all. Thank you," he told him. "I'll take it from here."

Perry nodded, bowed again, and left the gallery, shedding not even a glance in the direction of Dwyer's corpse.

The doors clicked shut again.

"You know you don't need that, right?" asked Orinrya.

"Yes. But I just—I enjoy it too much. I like the taste. I associate it with our study of these pieces. With our journeys."

He chuckled again.

Perching a sugar cube atop the glass with the ornate spoon—and his family's crest of the eagle cut into the silver piece of specialized cutlery—he poured the sweet green spirit into his clear cup. The trickle of liquid tickled his senses.

And he lived for all manner of sensations.

"It is a lovely taste, I must concede," she said. "Particularly this bottle, this make. More than mere resemblance of licorice. Mint. Thyme? And a hint of other worlds. I do understand the appeal, don't get me wrong."

A delighted sigh escaped his throat as he cradled the glass between the fingers of one hand, swirling its contents like fine wine and sampling the drink's scent.

"Other worlds indeed," he said, the smile never fading from his face.

He sipped from the glass. Heat spread over his palate with a pleasant warmth, like a beautiful wildfire consuming the countryside, burning away every hint of iron and blood. He closed his eyes as he savored the aftertaste, and took another longing sip, kissing the glass like he would his many lovers, the men and women he consorted with behind closed doors at his many lavish parties.

"Drink, sweet prince," she said. "I long to see what lies beyond. I wish to meet this man for myself. To see what the Reaper saw."

"Taste what the Reaper tasted," breathed Vincent, licking his lips again, now only tasting the sweet sting of the green fairy, any tang of blood having been relegated into memory.

He focused on the painting. Drinking in the portrait's details. Warm tones made up the complexion of the artist's subject. Streaks and dabs of gray peppered dark hair despite the youthful and symmetrical face. A faint hint of stubble around the small and tender-looking lips and a soft chin.

And such kind eyes. So utterly kind.

What had the Reaper seen? Who was this mysterious subject?

"The killer became obsessed with him," Orinrya whispered. "Watched him from afar. But not like he watched the others."

Vincent sipped more from his cup; his sights fixed on the portrait. The spirit burned his throat on the way down and blood now rushed in his ears.

"Do you think he would have kept him for last? After torching down the entire world, would he have kept him around, do you think?"

"Not for long," she said. "Those kind eyes, he would not have been able to bear them for all eternity. Those eyes, painted thus, they knew not who watched him. What watched him. What monster—"

"Oh, my dear, let us not wield that word lightly," Vincent said.

His eyes fell shut as he drank more from the cup. The cool steel framing its glass made his silky palm tingle.

"Oh, but my dear, he is one of us," she sang.

"Was," said Vincent, breaking out into another chuckle.

Opening his eyes to continue gazing into the soft amber irises of the portrait's eyes, Vincent's vision blurred.

"Yes, was," she chimed in, joining him with melodious laughter in his mind.

"And this—Edward, you say—"

"Yes. Certainly Edward. I see a room. Orderly. Well-organized. Neatly arranged instruments. Cabinets filled with... medicine."

"A doctor?" asked Vincent with a lopsided smile, arching a brow.

"A doctor."

He drank more from the cup. Lost all sense of time as his senses dulled, losing track of how often he repeated the motion—the trickle of green spirit soaked up by the sugar cube, trailing down through the family crest into the cup, and burning in his throat as he sent it to cascade past his luscious lips and tongue.

"Here, in this very city, am I right?"

"Yes, dear. He is near. I feel it."

As his vision faded, his memory soon followed into the hazy mist.

Vincent cradled the bottle. Empty, save for a few droplets. They laughed as its glass shattered somewhere on the floor, no further mind paid to its breaking after jettisoning it away in a languid arc.

"I can almost taste it."

The lingering smell of the spirit occluded his senses further, but he began to smell another sharp substance.

Rubbing alcohol.

"We're getting closer, love," she whispered.

Every time he blinked, his eyelids grew heavier. His vision of the portrait turned into a blob of warm colors in dim light. The kind eyes of the mystery man in the painting—Edward—soon peeled away from that unseen something off to the right side of the image, and the doctor in the painting turned his head to look back at his spectators.

Then he looked out a window. His motions were slow, deliberate.

They felt that he felt watched.

"A busy street by day, just outside that window," Orinrya said.

"A foggy day," Vincent ventured. "A day not long ago."

"Only days around when the Reaper started his spree."

"Oh, how he cherished knowing how this beautiful man—this oblivious doctor—was unwittingly helping him."

"Did he provide the instruments?"

"Or drugs, perhaps?"

"No, just the thing to stab. A precise thing."

"A needle," they both said in unison, their voices blending until they matched. Orinrya spoke through his mouth. "A syringe."

Two voices. Not one.

The lantern's flame flickered but stayed alight. Turned bright blue. The world began to fade.

"Inspiration."

"He inspired him. Oh, he quaffed the nectar of this man's innocence—"

"Watched from afar, even before he started claiming lives—"

"Twisted it into something darker—"

"Something fierce—"

"Oh, the delicious transgression."

The lights throughout the gallery went out, one by one, until all but the lantern sitting on the floor between sofa and the lonesome painting remained lit. An orange-hued island in the middle of a sea of darkness. On one edge, the dapper lordling lounged, limbs drooping lazily off the sides. On the other, the painting.

The handsome man had disappeared from it.

Vincent brushed over his own lips and the numbness had set in. Unable to feel his own fingers, it felt like someone else caressed him, like she had planted there a gentle kiss.

They no longer saw a portrait, but another place. A window into that other location: a doctor's practice. Vacant of people, with shadows flitting about, hints of its owner leaping from one task to another chore, as day and night cycled rapidly, bouncing back and forth.

Meticulously washing his hands in the sink. Examining a sitting patient's eyes. Carefully bringing scalpel to an exposed arm. A laugh to defuse some fear. Blood, dabbed away with cloth in slender hands. A warm and kind smile to match the gaze from the painting, a patient calmed by his gentle disposition.

Oblivious of the darkness that watched him, reaching through past and present and now seeing that darkened room. A solid night, a roiling fog outside the windows. Like one monster once watched, spying from the outside, they now peered through painting, bridging time and space.

Vincent lurched up onto his feet and stumbled halfway on the infinitely long walk towards the painting. Glass shards crunched underneath his shoe, reminiscent of the blanket of snow outside, melting into the flurries of crystallized precipitation which he saw through the painting, falling softly to cobblestone-covered streets outside the practice's window.

Though numbed by stupor, the bumps and ridges of dried paint surfaced in a texture he traced with his fingertips, exploring the picture of the painting. No longer depicting the kind-faced doctor, but his practice, blanketed entirely by night.

"Push, my love. Let us explore."

And Vincent did. Pressed his palm against the painting, and ripples exploded outwards from it, as if he had disturbed the surface of a still pond. The image swallowed his hand and he pushed deeper, until he dove into that distorted image, neither place nor person, stepping entirely through.

As he stumbled again and blinked to orient himself, he stood inside that doctor's practice.

Rocked back and forth as the absinthe did its number on his coordination, barely able to read the handwriting on letters stacked on a desk.

Orinrya whispered through Vincent's lips, "Doctor Edward—"

"Carnaby," Vincent finished himself, slurring the surname in a drunken drawl, erupting into a stupid giggle.

He slapped the paper back down onto the desk and looked about, letting his eyes adjust.

"Do we truly travel to these places, love?"

"Or is it just a jaunt of the mind?" she countered.

"A little escape that leaves the flesh behind?"

He giggled another drunken giggle as he clumsily knocked over objects on the desk, causing them to clink and clatter and a small broken vial to gurgle out liquid. Something black, likely ink.

"Oh fairy, my green fairy," he murmured with the most melody that a positively drunken man could muster.

"This is all us, darling. No fairy needed. Just some added fun for your pleasure."

He pushed through a door, stumbling down dark corridors, and registering the softness of a carpet beneath his shoes.

"But it's so much fun, love—"

Vincent froze.

Bathed in a bright sliver of silver moonlight from a crack between the curtains, a woman lay in bed. A shapely face, heavily scarred, and peacefully resting, eyes closed.

"Oh, here we go again," mused Orinrya. "Be still, your beating heart."

Arms exposed above the sheets, wreathed in bandages, leaving just enough space for Vincent to take a seat at the sleeping woman's side. The mattress and bed creaked underneath his weight.

The scars on her cheek, as disfiguring they were, he saw past them and found a beauty he would have overlooked otherwise. But it was the scarring that captured his entire attention.

"Yet another fancy for you to entertain, love?"

He shushed Orinrya.

His fingers shook with the green fairy's tremors and an enamored fascination. He traced over the lines of those scars, an uneven drawing from a cut inflicted by a blade, that wandered over cheek to nose. Crisscrossing into another scar that ran across the nose, where ridge had broken once. Gingerly exploring the uneven surface of her warm skin where a hound's claw had raked her jaw. Her soft and shallow breath, he felt even with hands so numb.

So focused, so spellbound—

"Careful now," Orinrya whispered.

Vincent whispered back, "Sound asleep—"

"Look," she said. "Look away."

"No, I shall not."

"Look beside her, I say! Look. On the bedside table," Orinrya urged him. The singsong gone, her tone had fallen deathly serious.

That was when his blurry gaze finally came to rest upon it.

A leatherbound tome. Strange glyphs carved into its face.

Another gasp escaped Vincent's throat, all attention for the beautifully scarred woman now blown away.

An authentic tome of magick. He felt it. He felt its thrum. No ordinary book he had ever seen had ever looked like that. It had to be.

The prize he had sought for so long.

"Take me," Orinrya whispered.

No—the tome had whispered that. In his mind. Like her?

Right?

"Take it," she whispered in his mind. "Take it."

His hands trembled—hovered just above the cool leather surface of the book. How he yearned to rip it open and decipher its inscriptions. But his reverence weighed so heavily, the dread of what terrible secrets it may contain, it boggled his mind. His hesitation dragged on forever, mired in a swamp of lost time and a drunken haze.

"Take it," she hissed. Commanding.

His fingers trembled even more as they crept closer towards the edges of the book, keen on flipping the lid and perusing its mysterious pages.

He hesitated for too long.

"What are you doing in here?" a man blurted out behind them.

In the door to the room stood a dark silhouette. The squeak of metal and a clicking sound preceded a lantern going on.

The doctor. This Edward Carnaby. The kind face from the painting, kindness far from its current expression. Glaring at Vincent.

"Who in the blazes are you?" asked the doctor.

Brows furrowed; the moonlight twinkled with fear in the doctor's pupils.

Vincent rose to his feet and lurched towards him, tripping over a chair's leg. He caught himself against a dresser before he could fully plummet to the floor. Laughed, drunkenly.

"Should he see your face?" Orinrya asked. Another murmur in Vincent's thoughts. "Should he remember?"

"No. Yes!" Vincent said, followed by another clipped giggle.

Alibi, he thought. So convenient. If this was even real.

Doctor Carnaby cried, "Get out! Before I fetch a constable!"

The good doctor threatened, yet he took a timid step backwards, back into the hallway behind him. Frightened by the nightly invader in his home.

"Sorry good, sir," Vincent's words lurched as much as he did with his drunken gait. "I must have been confused. Long night—o-out drinking, you see."

"Get out!" repeated the doctor with more force. His voice trembled with terror.

Leaning against the dresser, sliding, and almost slipping as he propped himself up, Vincent eked out a theatrical gesture with his arm and bowed, nearly toppling over in the process. "I'm Lord Vincent Va—"

"I don't care who in the devil's name you are, you are bothering my patient, you drunken lout! Get! Out! " The doctor's fear audibly subsided. He cleared his throat and pointed a finger down the hallway, directing Vincent to leave that way.

He stepped aside demonstratively and waited for Vincent to follow his instructions.

"Yes, yes, yes. As I was saying, good sir, I must have taken the wrong turn—wrong door, you know, it happens," he said with a smile, growing aware of how much less charming he was whenever he was this heavily intoxicated. "Vincent Vance is the name, Lord of Bailyview. Terribly sorry if I broke anything on the way in—"

Doctor Carnaby's face fell through different stages. The dread dropped into fury, and the fury made way for confusion and mild annoyance, with a dash of pity.

"Just leave, please."

"Right," Vincent said, covering his mouth and feigning the urge to throw up, replete with a retching sound.

Carnaby waited patiently for him to step outside, and Vincent obliged. Stared over his shoulder as he turned into the hallway and stopped there—the scarred woman stirred, and more importantly, that leatherbound tome eyelessly stared back at him.

Beckoning him.

He wanted it so badly. Had to peel his gaze from the book. Had to tell himself he'd be back for it. Flashed a stupid grin at the doctor and stumbled forth.

The glow from the doctor's lantern made it easier to navigate the dark hallway, and in the blurry haze where time and space melted into one misty soup, he braced himself against a wall on the way until he pushed through a door that should have led outside. He slammed it shut behind him, more fiercely than he had intended.

But he did not find himself outside on the street, in the cold, where his breath condensed before his mouth, standing in the pale moonlight as it pierced a ring of clouds—but back in the gallery in front of the living painting of Doctor Edward Carnaby.

The doctor glared into the night outside his front door. Poked his head outside to see where his nightly intruder had staggered off to but paid it no more mind. Did not notice a lack of footprints in the thin layer of snow. He shut the door. The lock loudly fell into place.

Vincent leaned against the wall, watching through the painting.

The snowfall of flurries gently drifting down onto the cobblestone-covered streets made him sway again, made Vincent's legs buckle. Hypnotic as it was, it almost fully robbed him of his senses.

He crashed back down onto that comfortable sofa inside his opulent gallery.

"A fascinating jaunt, darling," said Orinrya.

"And a convenient alibi," he replied, shooting another glance at Sir Dwyer's body.

They laughed at the dead philistine.

The blur continued, as Vincent did not recall how he had gotten from the Reaper's painting of Doctor Carnaby in the main hall—to his private parlor.

Slumped into a different sofa, he peered up at the gigantic portrait of himself.

The renowned painter Léon Choffard had spent months completing this masterpiece. A stylized depiction of Vincent's likeness. Though already statuesque in the flesh, Choffard's artistry had lent the portrait a special something that portrayed Vincent as even more attractive than humanly possible—which Vincent regularly and smirkingly attributed to their brief and romantic tryst.

"It truly captures your pleasant face," Orinrya said.

"Thank you, dear."

Silence.

A large clock tick-tocked away from the edge of the room, with everything around him swamped in shadows, two lanterns shedding just enough light that he could study the rendition of his own portrait.

"I wonder," he suddenly said. "What would happen if we entered that picture? Where would it take us?"

Silence.

Orinrya stayed silent.

"Hm, I like that answer. It is intriguing, love. So mysterious. You say so much by saying nothing, you know that?"

She laughed inside his head. A sweet and seductive laugh. He smiled in response.

"Will you ever tell me what you are? Or is that destined to be our perpetual dance?"

She laughed more.

"In due time," she said.

"Like getting our hands on that book."

"Yes, in due time, darling."

"And the woman."

"The scarred one?"

"No. Yes. Her too," he said. He bit his lip, clamped his eyes shut and sighed. "I meant the lady from the new world, that witch-doctor. And all the others in her company. That bandaged inquisitor—oh, how I would like to peel his bandages away and hear all his stories. It's brilliant how all these fascinating people—and things—are all coming together here, all at once."

"Yes. You feel it," Orinrya said.

"Feel what?"

"The quickening."

"What do you mean?"

"Something new being born. Old dreams that are dying, and a new world being birthed before our eyes," she breathed.

Vincent shuddered with a chill running down his spine.

"And what is this new world you speak? You must know. You know so much. I know you know," Vincent whispered, erupting into a crazed cackle over how silly he found his own words.

She smiled. He felt it. The hairs on the back of his neck bristled as a soft breeze swept through his parlor like a ghostly presence. Like soft fingertips that brushed against his lips, not his own. Or perhaps his own, just numbed from the excess of strong spirits only slowly wearing off.

"The real question, darling—what will you do when you bear witness to the reckoning? Will you hold the reins? Or will you pass them off to see what spectacle others may unfold?" Orinrya asked.

The corners of his lips twitched. Both he and she, they smiled simultaneously.

Not gracing her questions with any straight answer, he only returned more questions.

"Are you angel? Or devil?"

Silence.

"Good answer."

He laughed a hollow laugh, eventually mounting into a long and wistful sigh.

Vincent drifted off into a dreamless sleep. And he never yearned for such, as he lived his dreams in every waking moment.

A lingering thought that swam atop the sea of oblivion.

Sputtering awake, the lanterns were no longer lit. Daylight flooded through open doors into the parlor. He still rested in the sofa, sprawled out across it like his own likeness in the gigantic portrait towering over him.

The air was cold and had left him with a painfully stiff neck.

As he shuffled lazily across shiny marble floors, he surveyed the damage he had wrought the night before. The glass shards scattered across the gallery, and the dead body of Sir Dwyer, still left in his own pool of blood.

Work to do. A body to be rid of. A chief to blackmail. A new slew of rumors to seed.

The rich lord took a deep breath and sighed again, rubbing the back of his neck.

He smiled.

"Oh, the woes of pleasure before business," he reckoned.

They both laughed at the thought.

"But that book—"

"Will be ours."

"Its magick—"

"We will wield it," they sang together, dulcet syllables spilling from Vincent's lips.

"Or will you be wielding it, while I soar to incredible heights on your back?" he asked.

And there was silence.

—Submitted by Wratts

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receptorconsuming · 4 years

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could u recommend some steam horror games!! (specifically retro indie games)

yeah of course! I can’t remember 100% all of these games, but many of them contain common triggers (particularly body horror, suicide, and sexual assault) so please be aware of that!! Also, because a lot of these are 15+ years old, they contain racism and homophobia typical of older content, unfortunately.

-The Penumbra Collector’s pack ($9.99, 2007) comes with Black Plague and Overture, two of my all time favorite horror games. Similar to Amnesia, just a very back-to-basics survival horror game. Has some of my personal favorite twists and scares!

-The Still Life pack ($14.99, 2002) is a series of point and click horror games about solving murders. The games themselves are far from perfect, but they have a great vibe and atmosphere.

-World of Horror ($14.99, 2019) is a game done in the style of retro horror manga. It’s gorgeous and super fun, but still in early access! It feels like you’re walking around a Junji Ito manga :’)

-The Witch’s House (free for lq ver, $14.99 for hq ver, 2012) is a brilliant RPG horror game done in the style of many, much older horror rpgs. Steam also has some other classic horror RPGs that I’d definitely check out, as well!

-Corpse Party ($14.99, 2016 rerelease of 1996 game). I know I mention this one on every list but it’s one of my all time favorites!! It’s a retro horror rpg with some really genuinely disturbing and thought-provoking content.

-Misao Definitive Edition ($4.99, 2011) A retro-styled horror RPG that has some interesting twists. A shorter version of the game is also offered for free.

-Condemned:Criminal Origins ($14.95, 2006) I haven’t played this one yet, but I’ve heard great things about it. A horror shooter game where you solve supernatural murders.

-Harvester ($5.99, 1996) “The most violent adventure game of all time” is kind of an oversell, haha, but it lives up to that title in some ways!! It’s a great classic horror/gore game, especially if you’re into vintage games.

-Saya No Uta: Song of Saya ($14.99, 2019 rerelease of 2003 game) is known as one of the darkest mainstream visual novels. It’s about a student who begins to see everything as flesh and gore, except for a beautiful monster named Saya.

-I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream ($5.99, 1995) Is a tale about outsmarting an evil computer that utilizes a lot of psychological concepts. It’s an awesome game that I’d strongly recommend.

-Togainu No Chi: Lost Blood ($14.99, 2020 expanded release of 2005 game) Another visual novel known for its extremely dark content, togainu no chi is an “erotic” horror story about a young man surviving in the wasteland left of Japan after WWIII. Also, I want to warn that this game contains EXTREMELY graphic depictions of sexual assault, and includes many topics that are often seen as too intense (even for the horror genre), so please be wary going into this game.

Of course, Steam also has some classics like Resident Evil, FEAR, The Crooked Man, etc.! I didn’t include those, just in case you’d already been through them! I hope that helps! <3

#ask #anon #game recs #Anonymous

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bandyisdandy · 3 years

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Persona 4 Golden - The Rainbow Connection (2/10/21)

Anyone who knows me within the space of gaming knows that my favorite game of all time is arguably Persona 5 Royal. The game just oozes personality and fun from the get-go. It is easy enough to pick up and check out, but also deep enough to keep you engaged for hours upon hours, hungering for more even after the credits roll on your 80 to 120 hour experience. Saying this, I also have to admit that, while it is the fifth entry in the franchise, I had never played another Persona before vanilla 5. Whenever hardcore players of the series I met over the years heard this, they insisted I play 3 and/or 4 before I go on saying that 5/Royal is my favorite in the franchise. This past January, I decided to finally pull the trigger and check out Persona 4 Golden on Steam. After playing the game for about 70 hours, I defeated the true final boss and finally put the controller down for a bit. All I can say is... what a god damn magical experience this was.

Persona 4 is a JRPG (Japanese Role-playing Game) that puts you in control of Yu, a high schooler living in the middle of Tokyo who is moving in to the country with his police officer uncle and young cousin while his parents go away for a year on business. While there, you meet a young man named Yosuke and a girl named Chie who tell you about a mysterious phenomenon known as the Midnight Channel that shows up when a heavy fog rolls into town and the clock strikes midnight. One night, while viewing this phenomenon, a girl appears in the screen who looks an awful lot like a senior to the students at their school. The next day, her corpse is found strung up on a telephone pole, baffling the police due to the fact that a similar death took place around the time of Yu’s arrival. While investigating the murder of their senior, Yu and Yosuke discover they can enter a special television at a department store, where they meet Teddie, a living teddy bear who can lead them through the fog-dense world within the TV. Upon finding a space where their senior once was, they fight beings known as Shadows and awaken Persona, living embodiments of their fighting spirit as well as their own belief and acceptance of themselves in order to do combat with the Shadows. After their victory, they figure out that someone pushed the upperclassman into the world within the television and the Midnight Channel prophesizes the deaths of those who appear on it. Using this knowledge, Yu and Yosuke continue to make friends, investigate the case, and do their best to uncover the culprit before a year is up and Yu must return home.

... That seems like a lot, right? Well, crazily enough, that is probably the first 5 hours or so at most, and there is another 65+ to go in your first playthrough. Now, this game, at first, is a tough sell especially if you are like me and played 5/Royal first as those games have spoiled our perceptions of what the franchise is and can be. Persona 4 Golden is definitely a step down visually as well as design and music-wise in comparison to 5. It just does not have the same substance that game does and the gameplay, in comparison, feels a bit dated here. The Shadows you encounter in 5′s dungeons are also the enemies you actually fight this time around and the Tarot Card system makes collecting and recruiting Persona much more annoying than the way 5 handles it in combat. However, while it sounds like I am being quite harsh on the game, in reality, this is by and far one of the best JRPGs I have ever played and cannot be recommended by me more. Since I got all the negatives out of the way, let’s look at the heaps of praise I have for this triumph of a game.

First and foremost, what really sets this game above and beyond a lot of others, maybe even doing this better in many respects than Persona 5/Royal, is the characters. Every character is just so damn interesting, and really adds so much charm to what is already a rather charming game. They bring the story as well as the countryside town you now find yourself in that much brighter and bigger. Each one has goals, values, idealizations, and realizations that flesh them out more than most games I have played, all of them having incredibly satisfying conclusions to their stories. Some stand outs for me are your young cousin Nanako, who is lonely due to her father always working as a police officer and her mother passing away in a car accident a few years prior to the start of the game, Kanji Tatsumi, a punk who uses violence and fear to mask his incredibly soft, caring side that enjoys arts and crafting more than he would care to admit, and Naoto Shirogane, a young detective hiding her femininity in order to find power and prestige in the world of private investigation which, in Japan especially, is a male dominated field - these are just some of the memorable characters you will meet. I am currently doing a second playthrough and have already met two characters I never encountered in my first playthrough that are honestly becoming some of my favorites in the series! Building relationships (yes, even romantic ones with your female classmates) is key to not only finding out more about them, but also key to getting stronger, unlocking abilities and weapons for you to use in your playthrough that will seriously make the game not only easier but I would go as far as to say more fun in regards to what possibilities open up to you in combat. Growing the bond between you and your friends within your party is also the only way to strengthen and evolve their Persona to bigger and better forms, making combat flow easier but also giving one a true sense of power, purpose and meaning in the memories you create with Yosuke and the gang.

The other thing that really made me fall in love with Persona 4 Golden is its story and location. While the bustling cityscape of Tokyo and Shibuya really makes Persona 5 and Royal feel big and grandiose in its vision of what a modern JRPG can be, Persona 4 Golden, while feeling smaller in comparison, feels much more unique and, weirdly enough, nostalgic - at least for me. The town of Inaba is small with little to do at first, but it still has some beautiful and honestly quite intriguing sights to see (I’m looking at you, Greedy Shrine Fox). As you become more accustomed to the town and what it offers, it surprises you and opens up even more based on your time within the game, the weather outside, and even the time of the day you are out and about exploring. I grew up in a small town outside of Boston and while it’s not exactly like Inaba, the parts I spent most of my days remind me of it - areas covered in trees near streams with small restaurants and bars nearby, nature trails to walk, seeing mostly the same people each and every day - it really sent me back to life growing up when I was the age of the characters and truly made the game something memorable and instantly connected me to what was happening. As for the plot, I am a sucker for a murder mystery - I love true crime and have always loved police or detective shows growing up. Being able to work towards a case and have your decisions, investigations, and choices up to certain points have merit and weight behind them in regards to what ending you get is absolutely amazing and really sets the tone for a game that shrouds you in mystery and keeps you at the edge of your seat at all times, all the while still finding the time to help you enjoy the ride with laughter, tears, and dialogue that just really gets to you from beginning to end, sticking with you even after you’ve beaten it. Throw in some seriously fantastic boss fights, great music, and top notch voice acting for the time and it all adds up to a package with so much content and so much to tell you along the way that you just can’t help but keep playing until you absolutely have to put it down, only to continue for hours and hours later on.

All in all, Persona 4 Golden is a seriously fun game. While I still think Persona 5 Royal is a better game than it, I cannot stop thinking about the journey it took me on. The places I saw, the people I met and became friends with along the way - it’s a surreal, dream-like game that really gets you thinking right from the beginning and keeps you on your toes until the bitter end. I found myself engrossed in the lives of these characters, worried for them anytime something happened to them within the context of the game’s narrative and only hopes to see them come out on top, and thankfully this was usually the case in my playthrough thanks to the choices I made. I can only wonder what would have happened if I chose things differently - where would my characters have ended up at the end of all this? Would things have gotten worse for them? Who knows - all I know is that once the game was over, I had nothing but smiles and happiness going through my head as I saw my friends say goodbye and I loaded up my stuff onto the train. All those precious moments, etched into my mind forever; the hardships of the dungeons, the toughness of the Shadows, the mystery of the killer - that’s how you create a great game narrative, and finish it with an even greater, satisfying ending. Check out Persona 4 Golden on Steam TODAY if you liked this review! https://store.steampowered.com/agecheck/app/1113000/

#persona #persona 4 #persona 4 golden #persona 5 #sega #atlus #smt #pc #pc gaming #gaming #steam #review #retrospective #video games #gaming blog #blog

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beneaththetangles · 5 years

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Reading Dungeon Meshi, Chapter 2: Tart

Intro

Welcome back to my read-through of Dungeon Meshi by Ryoko Kui, my favorite current seinen series and the absolute best place to find out what would happen if you had to eat your way through a fantasy dungeon, one delicious monster at a time. Our heroes are…

Laios Thorden, Skilled but Naive human fighter and monster-loving otaku

Marcille, elven mage and Only Sane Man

Chilchuck, halfling locksmith and Consummate Professional

and Senshi, dwarven warrior and dungeon-dwelling Hermit Guru

Their quest: dive through the dungeon, slay the red dragon, and retrieve the remains of Laios’s sister, Falin the cleric, in the hopes that she can be resurrected.

Let’s join them, shall we?

Synopsis

Chapter 2 opens on the second level of the dungeon, where rope bridges hang between ruined towers and colossal trees, a canopy world suspended in air, rampant with strange vegetation. This is the highest level of what remains of the lost kingdom, the peak of the spires of the golden castle. Our heroes wonder at the great trees – their trunks stretch downward into the abyss, and their tops should thrust through the level above, but in this cursed place there is neither earth nor roof nor sky – just the trees, and the void.

It’s time for the party to choose their next meal!

Laios consults his guidebook (bristling with tabs). He reels off the options, Marcille her objections: giant bat or giant rat (unhygienic!); forest goblin (no demi-humans!); animated armor (eat metal?). Finally they settle on foraging for fruit. Distressingly for the elven mage, even the dungeon flora are monstrous, sporting teeth, tongues, viscous vines, and a decidedly lively interest in animal prey. Laios pooh-poohs her alarm – after all, carnivorous plants are known in the wild even above ground, and none of the specimens Marcille points out are truly man-eaters. Still, these things have defenses, and won’t give up their fruit without a fight. Laios and Senshi reach for their weapons. Marcille steps forward and readies a spell – Senshi shouts with alarm, not wanting her to blow away the plant and the fruits at one blast – she turns – and in that instant a vine whips out, wraps the elf up, and whisks her into the air!

Swinging madly back and forth, Marcille knocks over the mouth of the plant that grabbed her, exposing a very dead and somewhat digested corpse. While the upside-down elf rages at Laois, he calmly points out that of course some plants have digestive tracts (just not the ones she asked about earlier), and by the way the one that’s nabbed her is a parasitic species that plants its seeds under the skins of its victims. He then calmly draws his sword, aims for the root, and cuts down the vege-beast with a single expert sweep. Marcille is grateful – for all of three seconds, until the ever-curious fighter inquires whether the vine’s firm but gentle grasp was…uh…pleasing.

We do not learn the answer.

So the party gather up their booty and retire to a hollow in one of the trees. There the fruits are lightly steamed and cored and the seeds are removed. Laios tries to pocket a seed, but Marcille swiftly confiscates it and tosses it on the fire. Senshi softens the peels and uses them to line the pan, mixes the mashed fruit with slime and scorpion soup, stirs, pours, heats, garnishes, and finally produces…man-eating plant tart!

The tart comes out both salty and sweet, a complexity of flavor that even intrigues Marcille. She wonders aloud about the survival advantages of a plant having attractive fruit, but immediately backpedals her show of interest when Laios seizes on her flicker of enthusiasm. Our elf is not a convert yet…

Finally, before they retire for the night the party must decide what to do with the dead body. Unable to revive the corpse, and hoping that the next passersby will return it to the surface, they truss it up with vines and hang it from a branch. The result, while making it more likely that the poor soul will be rescued, does appear somewhat macabre.

That night, Marcille has a nightmare.

Thoughts

Last time I mentioned my love for the chthonic, that troubling yet tantalizing savor of the underworld that wafts from the first few pages. In this chapter, the opening image of the floating forest reveals the mangaka’s taste for the weird and otherworldly aspect of fantasy. The reader encounters a planar shift, a startling reminder that a world of magic operates by different rules – or by no discernable rules at all. We are reminded that “fantasy” means anything is possible, that we have entered a realm of visions and dreams, that the genre can be so much more than, say, monosyllabic sociopaths gutting goblins in sewers. (Souka?)

But while the author is not shy of the weird and the wild and the wonderful, she balances the alien aspects of the setting – and adds to their substance and detail – by taking inspiration from the real world. In this case, “plant monsters”, a rather generic fantasy encounter, are made more tangible and distinctive by drawing conscious parallels with their terrestrial cousins. A thoughtful touch, accomplishing two things – firmer grounding for the fantasy, and renewed appreciation for the monsters in our backyard. After all, your garden-variety pitcher plant or Venus flytrap is, rightly considered, a nightmare thing of ghastly beauty, deserving fearful reverence.

Failing to be moved by the wonder of creation is a defect, and a dangerous one. Enchantment with the natural world, along with a healthy dose of prudent trepidation, can lead a seeking soul from admiration to understanding, from understanding to mastery, and from mastery to harmony. To admire is the first step. A lack of admiration can have one of two results – either the careless man is destroyed by his environment, or the arrogant man destroys his environment, and thus himself. In this chapter, Laios and Marcille exemplify the difference between reverence and arrogance. Laios’s natural exuberance for everything monstrous has resulted in a degree of expertise only attainable through dedicated ardor. Because he loves monsters, he studies them. Because he studies them, he knows how to defeat them, and how to do so with minimal risk, maximum efficiency, and maximum gain. Marcille, on the other hand, finds their prey repugnant, things to be destroyed, not understood. In clumsy haste, she risks the loss of the fruits of their labor by over-application of force, and then falls victim to her own ignorance of the dangers. Laios, with the quick, clean, deft hand of practiced expertise, resolves the situation in one stroke. Everybody survives, the environment is preserved, and the fruits can be gathered in safety.

Of course, we can’t be too hard on Marcille. For one thing, her face is adorable and hilarious, and her range of expressions might be the best part of this most excellent series. For another, her reactions are entirely understandable; she’s playing the part of the fish-out-of-water everyman, and the audience is meant to sympathize. It might even be argued that Marcille is the real protagonist, in spite of Laios’s position as leader. Consider that one of the characteristics of the lead character is that they develop over the course of the story, as the challenges they encounter force them to grow. Out of the four party members, Marcille is the one who exhibits the most dynamism. Laios, Chilchuck, and Senshi have fairly static personalities (though we see growth in all three later on). From the start, it is Marcille who bears the burden of constant personal tension, as her vanity, immaturity, and fastidiousness are pitted against the need to survive and to save her friend. Given the visceral horror of having to eat gross stuff, a horror that goes right to the root of any normal psyche, I’d say the elven mage rises to the occasion – if not with aplomb, then at least with some admirably steady guts.

Dungeon Meshi is published by Yen Press and volume two is available through Amazon.

#Manga #Dungeon Meshi #Delicious in Dungeon #Articles #Author: The Varangian

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englishvisualnovels · 6 years

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Tackle Existential Questions and Win Your Place in Society — Chuusotsu! 1st Graduation: Time After Time Launches Worldwide for PC

Developer: Studio Beast Publisher: Fruitbat Factory Release Date: April 24, 2018 Platform: Windows Age Rating: 17+ Price:

$9.99 (Original soundtrack)

$19.99 (Full game)

$29.98 (Game & soundtrack)

Chuusotsu! 1st Graduation: Time After Time is now on sale worldwide for PC. Developed by Studio Beast, the story features three oddball girls who must solve the philosophical question “What makes a wonderful life?” in order to win their place in society.

To celebrate its launch, the game is currently on sale for 10% off until May 1st. Also available is the game’s original soundtrack, titled the Chuusotsu! Sound Correction. The original soundtrack contains 13 tracks, and can be purchased separately from the game or in a bundle.

Fruitbat Factory’s release of Chuusotsu! 1st Graduation: Time After Time includes additional features such as a new opening video, new CGs, and dual language support with English and Japanese text options not found in the original Japanese release. The Steam release includes achievements, Cloud support, trading cards.

A free demo for Chuusotsu! 1st Graduation: Time After Time is available on the game’s official website and Steam.

youtube

Relevant Links:

Where to Buy (Digital): Fruitbat Factory, MangaGamer, Steam

Official Site (Demo available)

Synopsis:

Under the P3 law enacted under the Global People's Federation, citizens are ranked according to the Authorization Seals issued by the world government.

As spring arrives, the manga lover Marisugawa Arue, set back by a long-lasting illness, finds herself having to live her life as a "chuusotsu" - a person with no education beyond middle school.

The chuusotsu are not in possession of any Seals, and are considered to be failures at life. As such, their Authorized Power level is only 5 - young Arue's future is already looking mighty bleak.

"How will I be able to accomplish my goals now..."

In order to break free of her grim situation, and reach her true goal in life, Arue applies for a government relief program where she will...

Share a room with other chuusotsu!?

Her two roommates are overwhelmingly unique: a taciturn girl in a souvenir jacket and a crazy otaku girl.

And then the three girls are given group challenges to clear.

What makes a wonderful life?

Synchronize your minds and philosophize on this proposition.

"There's no way incompetents like us can do philosophy..."

Their time is limited, and failure means that they will immediately get kicked out of the apartment!

Will Arue manage to successfully complete the philosophical challenges and achieve a happy, steady-going life...!?

This is a philosophical story of how the three girls considered lame ducks by the society spend their unusual youth in a world where Authorization Seals decide the lives of all people.

Cast:

Arue Marisugawa Voiced by: Eruru Takeda

(Known roles: Akio Kagurazaka (Child) from East Tower, Lilia/Leea from How to Take off Your Mask, etc.)

The protagonist. A manga lover with delicate health. Arue is also mentally weak and, because of all those frailties, her academic performance was so poor that she has ended up a chuusotsu. Although she was a shy, fragile girl back in middle school, she has now leveled up into a blunt comeback maker. She seems to have signed up for the room-sharing program with an extraordinary enthusiasm for the purpose of getting the strongest job of 'Government Employee.' That's why she gets super passionate toward and aggressively tackles the challenges whose failure would put her out of the apartment. She's really crazy about manga. She can't and won't stop reading it.

Favorite Drawing Pens: Cobac, Multi-Line

"You have got to be more serious! Don't you understand if we get kicked out of here we're going to be just ordinary unemployed 15-year-old girls!?"

Koiro Hachisuka Voiced by: Ao Inukai

(Known roles: Shano Argrey from Boukensha no Machi o Tsukurou! 2, etc.)

One of Arue's roomates, who made her first contact with her in a love hotel street. Wearing a rabbit-printed jacket as her trademark, she was well known as "Beachside White Rabbit" back in her hometown. Having left home and quitting her role as the strongest gang leader, she has become just another chuusotsu. Although her being taciturn and great at fighting scares people off, on the inside she is actually a good girl who is pure and airheaded. Koiro is a big friend of justice, and takes a firm stance against all sorts of immorality. She is starving practically all the time. You can't fight on an empty stomach. Favorite Food: Rice (any brand) "...Salted rice tastes good, you know?"

Arara Fujisaki Voiced by: Chiroru Ohyama

(Known roles: Ayumi Shinozaki and Natsumi Nakashima from Corpse Party, Kiwi Arumeru from Love-Duction! The Guide for Galactic Lovers, etc.)

A crazy little girl who is embarrassing to be around. Ever since her childhood, all Arara has been doing is yelling out that she will defeat what she calls "the Ruler of the World", which steadily led her up the stairs to becoming a chuusotsu. She is the kind of girl who talks to a stuffed animal tied up to her arm. Arara only learns the things that interest her, and often does not know about commonplace things. She's also a picky eater and hence, as you can see, is flat as a board.

Favorite Celebrity: J. Inagawa

"That steel tower is the source of the Poison Pulse, Arara detects."

Holo Voiced by: Yamato Inuoka

A hologram interface developed by QUOLIC Co., Ltd. You can summon her from the mysterious machine known as "Soul Dispenser." She thinks and acts just like an air-headed large-busted blonde straight out of an American stereotype. Despite being an autonomous AI, she is not autonomous in the slightest. Her job is to be the adviser to the three girls.

Favorite Car: Bummer H2

"Check and promise! Holo is here!"

Kokoro Voiced by: Milk Amakawa

(Known roles: Sae Usami from Hana to Otome ni Shukufuku wo Royal Bouquet, Youko Saito from Rondo Duo -Yoake no Fortissimo- Punyu Puri ff, etc.)

The neighbor. She is a poker-faced little girl. She looks and acts childish, but is always alone. Whether it's because of her doggy-hoodie or not, Kokoro's sense of smell is quite sharp. She starts her sentences with "completely" and ends them with interrogatives. Her treasure is a tiny glass ball. She is a canned coffee lover.

Favorite Canned Coffee: Boos

"I completely want to do something for you in return, okay?"

Froit Voiced by: Nozomu Nanase

(Known roles: Sasa from Tsuki no Hana, You from Kohan no Shoujo to Giniro Fenrir, etc.)

Elite high school girl No.1. Froit is a slow-tempo, big-hearted, big-sister type of girl. She started her friendship with Yung through letter exchanges. She is currently into experimenting with her self-established psychoanalysis of other people. She touches other girls a lot.

Yung Voiced by: Ren Momoka

(Known roles: Yotsuba Asakura from Kimi no Omoi, etc.)

Elite high school girl No.2. She's the always-cheery Froit's underclassman. She viciously clamps down on any dirty scumbag who looks at her adored big sister Froit with perverted eyes. She literally bites them, which makes her a bit of a dangerous specimen. Her body is quite sensitive, and her back gives out on her from time to time.

#chuusotsu 1st graduation #studio beast #fruitbat factory #bishoujo #rating: all ages #indie

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xseedgames · 6 years

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Zwei: The Arges Adventure - Localization Blog #1

AAAAAAHHHHH IT’S FINALLY HAPPENING.

I’ve been working on this game for the better part of a year now, but have been unable to say anything about it for PR reasons – namely, that it wasn’t in a showable state, and we didn’t want to confuse prospective players by having two Zwei games announced but unreleased at the same time. Which is totally reasonable, but AAAAAAAHHHH I’VE BEEN WANTING TO TALK ABOUT THIS GAME SO BADLY YOU HAVE NO IDEA.

…Ahem. First off, I guess I should bring you all up to speed, in case you missed the announcement. Falcom’s 2001 PC classic Zwei!! is coming to the Western world via Steam, GOG, and The Humble Store in early 2018, under the name Zwei: The Arges Adventure. Why the name change? Well, because we already released its 2008 sequel, Zwei: The Ilvard Insurrection (which was originally called Zwei II: Sky-High Great Adventure in Japan).

That’s right. Localization work wrapped on the sequel first, and now we’re finishing things up with the original.

What are we thinking?!, you must be asking yourselves. Why would we release the sequel first, then go back and release the original? Why wouldn’t we release the original game first? And since we’ve already released the more modern second entry in the series from seven years later, can this earlier effort really hold its own by comparison?

Well, that’s why I’m so excited. Because Zwei: The Arges Adventure is good. REALLY good. In fact, I dare say it’s my favorite translation I’ve ever worked on to date – yes, even topping Return to PopoloCrois and Corpse Party. And if you’re at all familiar with me (this is Tom, BTW), that statement alone should tell you that Zwei: AA is something special, since PopoloCrois and Corpse Party are… shall we say, perennial favorites of mine. To put it very lightly.

So, yeah. Let’s address those hypothetical questions, shall we?

Why would we release the sequel before the original? Well, two reasons. One, because we can – these games each tell standalone stories, set on different floating continents with different casts of characters. Zwei: AA’s two protagonists, Pipiro and Pokkle, do make a few cameo appearances in Zwei: II, but this is done almost purely for the sake of fanservice (the literal kind, not the naughty kind). When all is said and done, these two games are completely standalone, taking place in the same world but telling very different stories with very different characters and a very different feel. Think of it kind of like the Ys series, but even more episodic (since, Ys Origin aside, Ys has the Adol-as-protagonist connection from one game to the next, whereas Zwei doesn’t even have that!).

The other reason is because of the nature of Zwei: AA’s code. The Japanese version of this game utilized DirectX 5, was formatted strictly for 4:3 resolution with no widescreen options whatsoever, offered a lovely FPS selection of 30 or 15 (seriously!), counted on players to play it with mouse and keyboard over gamepad (it supported gamepads, but… barely), and contained no fewer than six unlockable Windows desktop apps that were loosely tied to yet completely separate from the main game.

This is one of them. And that first screenshot at the beginning of this blog entry is another.

In other words… this is the kind of adaptive coding project that’s been known to give lesser programmers heart attacks. Getting a game like this to even run on a modern Windows machine at all – much less run WELL – was decidedly not a task for the meek. In fact, it’s because of the way this game is coded that we ultimately decided to translate the game in-house rather than working with any fan-translators as we did for Zwei: II, as no two programmers would handle this text the same way – and trying to convert a fan-translated script to a format that would work for us would’ve taken almost as long as translating the game from scratch.

So, yeah. Getting Zwei: II out first was pretty much just done because… erm… it was ready first. And it was always GOING to be ready first. Even with a lengthy QA process and a couple minor delays, it still inevitably got finished long before its predecessor was ready to make its debut.

Fortunately, we hired a veteran programmer to work with us on Zwei: AA… but you’ll never guess who! It wasn’t Sara, since she was busy getting Zwei: II ready at the time (and a fine job she did of it, with one of our smoothest PC launches ever!). But this wasn’t our first time working with the guy we worked with on this project, either. It was, however, our first time working with him to modernize someone else’s game – and he really did perform some miracles for us (and put up with my many, many demands for quality-of-life improvements and feature additions, to boot!).

The man in question? Matt Fielding, of Magnetic Realms. A.k.a. the guy who brought you the game Exile’s End.

Pictured: Exile’s End. Which is also an awesome game you should play!

And thanks to his technical wizardry, you guys are going to have an astoundingly up-to-date version of Zwei!! on your hands at launch. We’re talking more than just widescreen support here – there’s full in-game integration of the Pet Monitor and other desktop apps, new control functionality for more natural gamepad support across the board, inclusion of the arranged soundtrack from the Japan-only PSP version of the game, additional art and text content not present in any previous version of the game, and much, much more (to be detailed in future blog entries!).

Moving on to the second question I asked, with Zwei: II already out, can Zwei: AA hold its own by comparison?

I think you know what my answer’s going to be, on that one. Zwei: The Arges Adventure is a freaking awesome game with a lot to offer, and differs from its own successor in enough key areas that it can very easily hold its own any day of the week. Hell, you might even like it better than Zwei: II – it’s certainly a very close call for me, but I’d say Zwei: AA gets the slight edge!

Sure, they’re both dungeon-crawling action RPGs at their core, and they both use food to level-up, even sharing the same food exchange system to discourage grinding. And the two-character party (plus one pet), with one character taking the role of physical attacker while the other slings spells, takes center stage in both titles as well. Plus, both games are set on floating continents in the same world.

That’s a lot of similarities, but they’re all relatively superficial. You could say Zwei: AA is like the 2D answer to Zwei: II’s 3D world, but that would be discounting its snarkier and more tongue-in-cheek storyline (yes, even more than Zwei: II’s!), or the gorgeous and ludicrously colorful hand-drawn backgrounds, or the two games’ very different approaches to pets (you only get one pet in Zwei: AA as opposed to the veritable army of pets featured in Zwei: II, but that one dog or cat [or other?] has significantly more personality and gameplay involvement than its many Zwei: II counterparts), or the huge variety of minigames on offer (all of which have been adapted to play from within the game itself, despite formerly existing only as desktop apps)… and that’s just scratching the surface. In short, although the two games use the same basic template, they represent two very different approaches to game design within the confines of that template.

For me as Zwei: AA’s translator, though, I can’t help but laser-focus right on the game’s dialogue. Protagonist duo Pipiro and Pokkle are without a doubt the best pair to write that somebody like me could ever ask for. Pokkle constantly cracks bad puns (and I do mean constantly!), wears a tail for funsies, and is always hitting on women twice his age.

And Pipiro just has absolutely no filter whatsoever, and is full of so much snark that she’s fit to burst.

Practically every line out of these two is an absolute gem – and that’s to say nothing of the many quirky NPCs surrounding them over the course of their rather lengthy quest (such as the endlessly self-delusional “libertine fatass” that’s funding your adventure, and his extremely no-nonsense maid who gave him that nickname).

I… really can’t stress enough how much fun it was to write for these characters, and how inspired I was to come up with the perfect phrasing for every line. I’m extremely appreciative that we chose to translate the game in-house, as it gave me an opportunity to work much more deeply with this script than I ever could’ve if we’d only been tasked with editing it. As time went on, I found myself revising my work on a daily basis, making small tweaks here and there as new bits of wordplay or better puns popped into my head (much to Matt’s chagrin, I’m sure!). The end result is something that I can stand behind as a faithful interpretation of the game’s mood and intent – an attempt to convey the same degree of lighthearted fun and irreverence present in every line of the Japanese script, but formatted to sound more natural in English, accounting for context, tone, atmosphere, and individual character quirks rather than just hammering out a word-for-word translation.

I’ve never laughed so hard while playing a JRPG before, and I truly hope that when you guys play this one in English, you’ll find its English interpretation just as hilarious as I found its original Japanese to be. That would mean I succeeded at what I set out to do, and would bring me great joy and pride as a localizer!

And please do keep an eye on this Tumblr, as I fully intend to give lots more info about Zwei: The Arges Adventure (and more screenshots showing off lines I’m particularly proud of) in the weeks to come!

Until then, I hope you’re all continuing to enjoy Zwei: The Ilvard Insurrection, and… well, I’mma go back to testin’ Zwei: The Arges Adventure now, ‘cause I want this game to be downright perfect when it’s released! And with translation and editing 100% complete, and coding probably somewhere in the 70-80% done range, that release date will be here before you know it…

#xseed #xseed games #xseed blog #Zwei: The Arges Adventure #post: tom #long post #falcom

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fashionablyfyrdraaca · 7 years

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do you have any good suggestions for people who want to get into horror games? I'm not a fan of jumpscare games and I'm having some trouble finding good ones

yeah I can try to give you some good suggestions!!

so, in my opinion, this kinda depends on what you define as a jump scare. so I'm going to define it in how Five Nights At Freddy's does it. So like screamers and the like lol. I'll try to keep the amount of jump scares in each game to a minimum since I personally don't like games that rely on jumps and screamers.

I'll include a link to where you can get each game or at least read about it. And since we're doing horror genre, I do urge you to search up content warnings for each game just to make sure there's no major triggers in the game for you. For example, a lot of people can be triggered by insects or body horror.

Most of these games I have played myself or have had recommended to me btw. I will specify if its a game I haven't played.

I'm of the belief that pixel horror games are relatively safe and I really enjoy them. So here we go:

IB: This is a personal favorite. It's about this girl called IB who goes to an art gallery with her parents. While she is looking at the art, she realizes that everybody in the previously packed gallery have gone missing, including her family. She finds herself slowly drawn into a world where the paintings have come to life. This came is puzzle-based with no combat. The only things in it close to jump scares are enemies that chase you.

You can get it here. VGperson is a very good source btw because they list content warnings on their page. I'm pretty certain they list walkthroughs for most of the games that they have on their site.

Alice mare: This one is about a boy named Allen. He lives in this communal home with these other children. The children each have a problem that is unique to them and that they struggle with during the game. Then there is the teacher that runs the house who is perhaps the most mysterious of them all. This is probably the least horror out of all the ones on the list, but it's still pretty good. It's puzzle based and I can't think of a single jump-scare.

You can get it here. It's also a VGperson game!

Mad Father: This one is about a young girl named Aya who lives with her father who is a scientist/doctor. One night she wakes to monsters and spirits invading her home. They all seem determined to kill her father for reasons unknown. Aya slowly treads through her house, trying to find her father and trying to find the reasons behind the horror. There are some semi-jumpscare aspects to this one. They're mostly sudden jerky movements of an enemy or a character chasing you and suddenly bursting through doors after you. (You know they're chasing you though, so it's kind of an expected one?) Apparently there is one big jump scare in Mad Father, but I genuinely don't remember it very well.

This one you can buy on Steam but it's also available on VGPerson. (Links are attached for both.)

Corpse Party: A group of kids decide to play a game that is meant to keep them together forever, but instead it draws them into an otherworldly public school. They discover they have been separated into groups and must fight to survive against ghosts and a universe that seems to want them dead. All the while they must try to not lose hope and trust in one another. The only "jump scare" in this one is when you die/get a "bad end" and the game over sign flashes on the screen. It's rather sudden and if you have your sound on, can be kind of shocking or intimidating. You'll get used to it though because it happens every time you die and I really honestly don't consider it a jump scare due to its nature/purpose and how often you see it.

This one you can find on Steam!

The Crooked Man: A young man named David moves into an apartment recommended by his best friend. Over the course of a few nights, things start going wrong. His TV will turn on or a child will seem to be crying from within the walls. Eventually he starts receiving notes urging him to go to a special place. Desperate, he leaves and tries to hunt down the entity forcing him onward. This game does have a few situations that could be considered jump scare. There are one or two scenes were a scary face pops up that was rather shocking and during certain fight scenes, the enemy rushes forward extremely fast which could be frightening. However, I really enjoyed this game, so I think the few jump scare scenes it has are tolerable for the excellent story.

You can find it on VGperson!

And that's the end of the pixel horror games. The rest will be from other styles.

Resident Evil franchise: I'm mostly thinking Resident Evil 2 when I write this, but I have that on my Sega Dreamcast and I can't find a good reliable link to it online lol. So I thought I'd just recc the entire series. I mostly recommend it because it's considered a staple of the horror genre and one of those games that are kind of a milestone to play. Its kind of an elitist way to look at it, but I do find the games fun. They're full of zombies and monsters and are overall good fun. I recommend going through and choosing which game sounds the most interesting to you since there's a few. (I haven't played every single game in this series either, but the ones I have played I really enjoyed)

Here's the list of the ones Steam has!

Silent Hill Franchise: This is probably my favorite video game series ever. There are 8 in the series with each following a different main character. Each story is unique and heartbreaking. My personal favorites are Silent Hill 2, Silent Hill 4, and Silent Hill Downpour. Not a jump scare reliant series for the most part. It's a psychological thriller series so most of the scare is from the atmosphere and the tension.

The only one in the series I could find on steam is Homecoming. But here's the Silent Hill fanwiki page if you want to learn more.

The Cat Lady: A middle-aged woman, deeply unhappy with her life, starts the process to end it. She falls into a deep sleep and travels through different landscapes and scenarios. Do any of them have anything to do with her deep unhappiness? This one isn't really a jump-scare one either but there are scenes where a loud noise plays that could be considered shocking. It's more of a you know something bad is coming and you know you have to investigate it, but you don't want to.

You can get it here on Steam!

Detention: Two students wake up alone in their 1960s Taiwan highschool. Together they venture forward trying to figure out what happened to their school and uncovering their own secrets about themselves. The only jump scare content in this one is the loud screams that the enemies emit when they see you and start to attack. You seem them well in advance or hear them making some noise before they attack you, so it isn't too terribly sudden or unexpected. This one is a personal favorite, so I really do suggest giving it a shot.

You can find it on Steam here!

I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream: 5 people become captured by a tyrannical sentient computer called Allied Master Computer. Together they must delve into their hidden pasts in order to outwit the computer and potentially become free. This one is based off the short story of the same name and is by far one of my most favorite stories in existence. It has no jump scares and is more of a psychological horror game.

Here it is on Steam!

Soma: I'm not very far in this game. To my understanding, you're a normal guy who wakes up and discovers he's far beneath the Atlantic ocean. You have to fight to survive against monsters and an AI that is always watching. However, I do know that there are no jump scares in the traditional sense. It's more like Cat Lady where you're expecting something to happen but it's still scary when it does. I've heard a lot of people highly recommend this game and I'm quite enjoying it even though I just started playing it not too long ago!

You can find it here.

Serena: I haven't played this game but I saw a lot of good reviews for it. The Steam forums suggest there are no jump scares in this and that it is mostly atmospheric. It's apparently about a man who is waiting for his wife in a forest cabin. As he waits, he starts thinking about his memories with her and of his life and things in the cabin only make these memories worse. Slowly one starts to wonder where his wife is and why isn't she coming?

Here's a link for it as well!

Sorry if this got a little long, anon! I got really excited when I saw your ask because I really enjoy horror games (I'm easy to scare tho lol). I hope that you like some of these games and maybe get into the genre a bit more. If you have any other questions or want me to try and scrounge up more recommendations, feel free to send another ask! I'd love to talk about them with you. :D

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chickenfriedhorror · 5 years

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Review: Poltergeist III

Let me start by saying that if Carol Anne was my daughter, I'd drive her out to the middle of nowhere, leave her, and hope for the best.

OH WAIT! That's just what her lovely parents did in Poltergeist III, only they replaced "middle of nowhere" with "Chicago" and "hope for the best" with "foist her on your sister, her husband, and his daughter, because we can't take it anymore."

Following the events of Poltergeist and Poltergeist II, the story opens with Carol Anne (Heather O'Rourke) in a posh high-rise penthouse in the heart of Chicago, living with her aunt, her uncle, and step-cousin. She is obviously a burden on the family, but they all try to put on happy faces as she sits around and plays with that damn Speak-n-Spell all the time. I swear, when she's not dealing with the threat of ghosts, the kid does nothing else! I lost interest in mine when I realized it wouldn't "say" curse words, but she can't get enough of it! Well, I suppose this is what happens when televisions, clown dolls, and toy phones are off-limits to little girls who attract evil spirits from the other side. Ahem, back to the story. This is only the beginning, for there is danger afoot, and strange things begin happening with gusto, which everyone promptly ignores.

Carol Anne has the dubious honor of being enrolled in a special school for gifted children, lorded over by the insidious Dr. Satan-er-Seaton, rather. Seaton. Dr. Seaton (Richard Fire) likes to impress other psychiatrists with his acumen and impeccable goatee and makes Carole Anne out to be some Mesmer-esque master of minds, has inadvertently awakened the ghost of that crazy Reverend Kane, who will stop at nothing to get Carol Anne to lead them into the light.

This, of course, has alerted Tangina (Zelda Rubenstein), who gets on a plane immediately to help her, because Dr. Seaton is an asshole.

Bruce (Tom Skerritt) and Pat (Nancy Allen) have fights over Carol Anne between dealing with the various technical problems the building is going through; he likes her there, she wants her gone, and resents her sister for foisting her crazy child off onto them during a most stressful time in their yuppie lives. If it weren't for all the ghosts and such, this could have been a movie of the week about the benefits of acceptance and family change. It's not, but they sure forget that this is supposed to be a horror movie often.

Donna (Lara Flynn Boyle) is miffed because she has to watch Carol Anne and her red footie pajamas all night, but Carol Anne uses her mental might to convince Donna to go ahead to the party. She's just gonna be sitting around, you know, playing with her speak and spell, maybe slipping into the liquor cabinet...wait, that didn't happen. I wish it did, for it would have given her a little more character depth. Donna applies too much eyeliner, and Carol Anne leans into the bathroom door to give her some makeup tips. Then, there's a knock at the mysteriously closed bathroom door, and she opens it to see...CAROL ANNE! What just happened? Never mind, she has a party to attend. After arriving at the party with her collar popped and deeming it dullsville, she uses a handy set of master keys to break into the pool and throw a better party. She and her afro-sporting boyfriend Scott (Kip Wentz) sneak off to rob the grocery store of their cheese-doodles and Coors Light while upstairs, Carol Ann has run into some trouble.

Kane begins to torment Carol Ann in the apartment, and I can't say that the special effects were all that 'special,' because 90% of them are done with dry ice fog and flashing lights, but they're scary enough for Carol Anne, and she runs away. She's seen on the security monitors by Donna and Scott, who were trying to make out in the security room holding armloads of groceries, and they follow her to the parking garage.

Carole Anne doesn't really know how to vade a threat, and goofs around running backwards until she steps into a puddle. WATCH OUT, IT'S A REFLECTIVE SURFACE! Oops, too late; zombie hands jerk her down, Donna and Scott arrive just in time to provide a not quite convincing rescue attempt, and they all get pulled into the puddle.

Let me warn you right now: throughout the rest of the movie, you will hear the name "Carol Anne" about EIGHTEEN MILLION TIMES.

From this point on, things get a little flaky. Scott reappears and is crazy, screaming about Donna. Dr. Seaton comes to the building and tries to analyze him. Tangina comes in and rubs her necklace a little. She spouts some exposition about love and how it'll set the girls free or something, (I don't know, I quit listening for a minute), until she started talking about the evil beyond the bedroom door. I thought for sure she was talking about the Speak-N-Spell, but no, she meant Kane and the mirrors. She and Dr. Seaton face-off, then something spooky happens and the evil reaches out and deep-fries Tangina. We immediately have an excellent Lara Flynn Boyle freak-out as she climbs out of the still-steaming corpse of our favorite magical little person. Arguably the best part of the movie, second only to when she pushes Dr. Seaton down the elevator shaft after he goes chasing after the reflection of Carol Anne. Come to find out, that's not really Donna or Scott, but dopplegangers who like to make out sloppily, then rip each other's faces off.

The last half of the movie is spent following Bruce and Pat around, watching them get locked into large freezers, fighting undead livestock, almost drowning, snatching a necklace from an apparition of Tangina, being teleported into frozen, snowy parking garages, and being chased by possessed cars. I'm not sure what mirrors and ice have in common, but for some reason they go together like peanut butter and jelly in this flick. Are they playing up the idea that ghosts suck the heat out of the environment for energy? It isn't ever explained.

During the final showdown in Carol Anne's foggy room, Carol Anne shows up and spouts some angsty mess about how nobody loves her or wants her but Kane, but it's a ruse to get the magical necklace from Pat. She disappears, Pat gets strangled by her own reflection, pimp-slapped by Kane, sees the whole family lying around dead, and freaks out. Tangina appears yet again, spouting more about this love thing, and how it'll save everyone, and how she can end this whole thing by leading him into the light, and could have done it all along. SHOULDN'T SHE HAVE DONE THAT TWO FLIPPING MOVIES AGO?? Why'd she leave this poor girl to be tormented? Question for the ages, I suppose.

If there's one thing I hate, its when horror movies try to have some kind of redeeming value. I wanna be scared, not actually learn anything (except for maybe a few new ways that I could potentially die or enter an alternate dimension).

3 out of 10. When the scariest thing in the movie is a Speak-n-Spell, it's the best you can do.

Watch out for:

-Gratuitous One-way mirrors

-Disembodied hand coffee-mug flinging

-Elevator shaft Swan Dive

-Undead livestock

-Chicken-fried psychic

-Corpse burrowing

-Face peeling

-Necklace rubbing

-Decapitation by shovel

-Face peeling

-Head melting

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xseedgames · 7 years

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Question Extravaganza Blog #2

Hi there! Remember, back in December, when we had an “End-of-the-year Question Extravaganza Blog”? And how there was going to be a second part? Well, FINALLY, here it is! Round two of our answers to the questions that you sent to us via Twitter, so long ago.

Who’s playing this time:

Tom – Localization Producer

Brittany – Localization Producer

Junpei – Assistant Product Manager/XSEED’s Garbage Disposal

Ryan – Localization Lead

Nick – Localization Editor

Alyssa – Product Associate

Liz – QA Tester

Danielle – QA Tester

WARNING: Spoiler alert, just in case! And maybe some language.

Question: which character from Senran Kagura New Wave would you most like to see become playable in a future game

Liz:

There are so many! Kasumi, Kumi, Fuga, and Bashou Kasumi - shy girl that can code her way into your heart? aw yuss. Kumi - ngl I like foxes. I'm also hella curious what her animations would look like... Fuga - dude it's fireworks coming from a shamisen who doesn't wanna SEE THAT. AND THOSE PLATFORMS. DAMN. Bashou - paintbrushes: creation, destruction, or the beauty that comes from their combination? tune in next time on quiet girls that can artfully kill you

Brittany:

Fuga. I've loved her design ever since I first saw it and I've actually begged Takaki-san in person to put her in one of the core games.

Alyssa:

Picking just one is hard, so these are the ones are the top of my list:

Meimei – She fights by throwing bombs shaped like steam buns. Just. Yes.

Ukyou – For some reason, I really like the idea of a machine gun shaped like a bass guitar. She’s also a cutie, I like her design.

Seimei – I like the fact that she rocks pajamas. I wish I could wear pajamas all the time…

Question: What is your most favorite game that you have localized And why?

Brittany:

Trails of Cold Steel II. I cried so much while working on it, haha. It was the game that made me feel like I was really growing up as a writer, and I was so proud of the effort I put into that during every step of the process. Everyone knows I love the series, but for now, that game has a particularly strong place in my heart because I feel like I grew as a person together with those in Class VII (is this too cheesy? lol).

Junpei:

Definitely the EDF series. I’ve been a big fan of the series since the first EDF came out in Japan, but also I learned a lot from the producer and the dev team. It was a very exciting to work on, and luckily, EDF2: Invaders from Planet Space was selected as a D.I.C.E Award nominee.

Also, Touhou: Scarlet Curiosity was a favorite, too. The game is very fun and pretty. I didn’t really know about the Touhou series at first, but this was a good title for Touhou beginners like me to learn what Touhou is. The dev team is very passionate and professional. I was always impressed by them while working on this.

Ryan:

I have a few personal favorites: Estival Versus because I love the character banter, Deep Crimson for the same reason, and Suikoden V because it was my first real localization project and I still have a soft spot for it.

Alyssa:

I have a soft spot for Ys: Memories of Celceta. It was published before I started working here, but was the first XSEED game that I played.

Even though we didn’t really localize it (just published it physically), I’m a big fan of Shantae: Half-Genie Hero. Working with WayForward was an absolute treat and I’m so glad that we have a chance to do something with them.

Tom:

I think anyone who knows me knows my answer to this, but in case you don't: RETURN TO POPOLOCROIS, BABY!! ;) The very first game script I ever translated was part of the script to PopoloCrois Story II on the PS1, which I translated in play-script format and uploaded to GameFAQs as a translation guide. After that, the very next thing I translated was all 51 episodes of the two existing PopoloCrois anime. I am a PopoloCrois super-fan, and when the opportunity came along to work on a PopoloCrois game, to say I was ecstatic would be an understatement. Getting to officially write English dialogue for Prince Pietro Pakapuka, Narcia the forest witch, the White Knight, and the GamiGami Devil was an absolutely amazing experience, and getting to sit in on voiceover sessions and help shape the way they sounded in English was the icing on the cake.

Corpse Party is a close second, though, because I was able to get much more graphic than I'm used to, and it was a bizarre amount of fun describing some of the most horrible acts of mutilation and torture imaginable. It was weird working on Corpse Party and Fishing Resort at the same time, as I had to keep stopping myself from inserting extremely graphic language into the Fishing Resort script.

And Akiba's Trip: Undead & Undressed gets an honorable mention, as the three weeks spent in voice-recording for that game may be the most fun I've had in my seven years at XSEED.

Question: Where do you face the most unexpected challenges during the localization process?

Nick:

The thing about unexpected challenges is that they're...well, unexpected. The things we run into the most frequently are things we know to be watchful for based on past experience (which is why we usually catch the major stuff). A good example of an "unexpected challenge" would be realizing partway in that we don't actually have all the text files for the game, even though the developer said they gave us everything. Working on games that are still in production also has the tendency to turn up a lot of unexpected issues, particularly when the developers change things and neglect to mention that they were changed. If you learn that a localization was being worked on while a game was still in development, know that it was probably a huge headache for the translators and editors compared to working on something that has been finished and more or less finalized.

Sometimes it's because there's an honest mix-up and they thought they'd given us everything. Other times there's a breakdown in communication along the way, as can occur when information has to pass through too many hands. So...ultimately, miscommunication is where we stand to face the most unexpected challenges. It varies from project to project, and we know to be mindful of it, but we can never fully predict when this sort of issue will pop up.

Question: Where do you try to draw the line between remaining loyal to the original and changing to fit the region you are localizing for?

Nick:

Every editor will give you a different answer for this, so I can only speak personally, but here's where I stand on this issue. When I localize a game, I absolutely want the intent of the original to come through. That's what people are coming to the work for - what they want to experience. However, sometimes, truly conveying the spirit of the original work necessitates departing from the exact language of the original.

If one facet of my job is about accurately conveying information and character relationships, another facet is to ensure people who buy our games are entertained and engaged. That happens best with a script that feels fairly natural in its English phrasing. A quick example is how, if you listen to people converse, most people make frequent use of contractions. They’re a natural linguistic shorthand for English, so it feels natural to make broad use of them in character dialogue. But I often see dialogue written without them (like, where it doesn’t strike me as an intentional editorial choice). Without contractions, at the most basic level, you'll get dialogue that sounds wooden and has less flow to it (Tom and I often compare it to the speaking style of Data, from Star Trek: TNG), but in some cases, using or not using contractions can subtly alter the way we perceive a line, especially if there's no voice-over to clue us in. "I cannot believe he said that about me" carries a bit more of a testy tone than "I can't believe he said that about me."

There are also cultural differences that, when translated over on a 1:1 basis, won't elicit the same response from an international audience, so some tweaking is necessary to make sure Western players of a game experience enjoyment similar to what Japanese players would've felt. This is admittedly a touchy issue, since a lot of this involves getting a good feel for the characters' personalities, and so is inevitably colored by an editor's own interpretations of them. In a blog I wrote before the first Trails of Cold Steel was released, I laid out some cases where I basically felt that the characterizations provided in some places by the original script were lacking, so Kris and I embarked on a mission to strengthen characterization not through any sweeping gestures, but just by bringing certain traits more clearly to the fore in scenes specific characters were in. It's something you might notice if you had the Japanese and English scripts side by side, but it never stood out to most players, and from anecdotal accounts I've read many places online, I think this initiative of ours was very successful. Certainly, I think it brought a lot to Rean's character in particular.

Ultimately, I want a localization to keep all the information the original script gave, but sometimes I re-frame how that information is conveyed because I value entertaining/engaging writing and want our games to feel, as much as possible, like the English scripts could just as well have been the original scripts.

“So, where do I draw the line? As someone who always wants to push for better writing, I generally won't make an edit - even if it would sound great - that would result in dropping factual information conveyed by the original. Not necessarily on a line-by-line basis, but definitely on a scene-by-scene basis. Ultimately, I want a localization to keep all the information the original script gave, but sometimes I re-frame how that information is conveyed because I value entertaining/engaging writing and want our games to feel, as much as possible, like the English scripts could just as well have been the original scripts.”

Brittany:

This question is too broad and no one should have one answer for it. It depends on the game itself, the context, the importance of the topic in question in the scope of the story, the emotional impact it's supposed to make. The most generic answer I can give is that we should always remain loyal to the spirit/intent of the original game, and if anything comes under question, we should consult the dev team and get their perspective on it.

I guess an example that's happened a few times throughout Trails is one where Japanese honorifics are dropped as people become closer. A big deal is made out of it, but that sort of thing doesn't exist in English. At the same time, there's no reason to force it in the English version because the name-dropping isn't necessarily the focus--it's the result of characters becoming closer. The intent is the bond, and as long as you write the scene so that English players understand these characters have become closer thanks to what's going on, then I believe we're still loyal to the Japanese while still properly localizing the scene.

Question: outside of trails in the sky sc what was the hardest game to work on you've released?

Brittany:

It's a toss-up between Unchained Blades and Rune Factory 4. RF4 was a joy to work on because I'm a big fan of the series, but it also contains so many complex algorithms that even the Japanese version of the game occasionally had random bugs that just couldn't be reproduced. Those were everywhere during QA, and then we also had had all that text that needed to be checked for context...

Unchained Blades is far shorter with less text, but it was plagued with bugs during QA to the point where I once ran to the bathroom to cry from losing my save data for the umpteenth time. We had no debug mode for that one, either, so anything I had to test, it had to be done by playing through like a normal player. Hopefully the effort was worth it. I don't think I've ever heard of players experiencing the issues on that game that I had!

Ryan:

Probably Fate/EXTELLA, which had a lengthy, lore-heavy script with a long history behind it, plus a writing style that was both abstractly poetic and strictly technical.

Danielle:

I would say the Story of Seasons series, mostly because of the sheer volume of text and variables to test.

Question: which sort of cultural references do you try to keep rather than rewriting for localization?

Tom:

Generally, all of them. It's always better to keep a reference, and just maybe insert a brief explanation, than to get rid of it. People who play our games know that they're playing Japanese games, so I figure, why try to disguise the Japaneseness of them? Better to celebrate it.

Ryan:

Depends on the medium and context. Fate, in general, is known in part for drawing lore from all over the world, so we did our best to keep its references to world history and literature intact. Akiba's Trip was chock full of Japanese-language anime references, some of which had only unofficial translations, so we did our best to cobble together appropriate translations from Japanese and English fan sites. SENRAN KAGURA drops references to well-known anime now and again, well-known enough that we can keep them intact, with an English take on their wordplay (such as when Katsuragi's play on "a great era of sexual harassment," referring to the "great era of piracy" from One Piece, became "a great invasion of privacy.") Occasionally, we'll run across Japanese proverbs that don't have direct translations, so we'll do our best to find English proverbs or wordplay that match the general sentiment of the original.

Question: What was the situation in a game that gave you trouble? Joke? A conversation? Interactions? Items? Names? Tell us the worse!

Tom:

Shiawase no Sachiko, in Corpse Party. To this day, I'm still not 100% satisfied with my translation there.

See, in the Japanese, there's supposed to be a distinction between 幸せのサチコ ("Shiawase no Sachiko"), which roughly translates to "Happy Sachiko," and 死合わせのサチコ (a different way of writing "Shiawase no Sachiko"), which roughly translates to "Sachiko Aligned with Death."

The English I came up with for this is "Sachiko Ever After" vs. "Sachiko in the Everafter." And even that vaguely acceptable solution took far, FAR too long to come up with.

Sometimes, Japanese linguistic references are just really tough to work with!

Ryan:

The first example that comes to mind is a certain "My Room" conversation from Fate/EXTELLA, where Nero and the Master have a back-and-forth conversation about different kinds of bathing. The original Japanese script had an entire conversation tree about misreadings of kanji, which had no direct translation. This is one of those rare times where we were tempted to, as we sometimes call it, "Go full Samurai Pizza Cats," after the old anime dub where the American dub team never received the original script and had to make up a whole new one, but we stuck with it, and eventually came up with some reasonably close wordplay in English.

Question: Do you have friends in other localization teams/companies? What could you learn from them? Do you reach out to them?

Brittany:

I'd love to hang out with some of the localization people I've interacted with via Twitter, because I'm actually pretty ignorant of what goes on in other companies. I'm pretty much XSEED only, but I'd love to learn the process in other places or just bond with others who do the same work that I do.

Tom:

Absolutely! Other companies are "competition" to an extent, but they're also colleagues, and we've met with people from numerous other nearby companies for lunch, karaoke, etc. many times since I've been working here at XSEED. I don't know that we really learn much from them, nor they from us, but we always "talk shop" when we meet up, discussing localization challenges we've faced, fun stuff we've done recently, etc. It's just good to sometimes talk with other people who fully understand what we do.

Ryan:

We're good friends with the Aksys team down the street, a lot of our staff have Atlus experience, and most of the original senior staff came from Square-Enix. For Fate/EXTELLA, the Aksys guys were kind enough to share their notes and script from Fate/EXTRA as references. One of the best bits of advice I can give people looking for work in the industry is "Make friends wherever you go," and that's as true once you're in as it is when you're getting started.

#xseed games #xseed blog #Q & A #long post

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