MONTHLY CHECK IN POST

[alias_sqbr]

What's everyone been playing? Any recs? Made some fanworks? Post here! Lurkers and first-time posters are always welcome :)

Also, a reminder to post to the introduction post if you like.

Comments

[alias_sqbr]

It's a little tricky for me to play anything right now since my laptop broke. It should be fixed eventually but in the meantime I also can't look at the list I maintain of stuff I've watched/played lately.

*racks sleepy brain*

I played the flirty aristocrat Kyosuke from Rose in the Embers on the Love365 app, since he was free. Him being so blithely flirty when he had so much power over her annoyed me. Other than that it was cute enough.

[22degreehalo]

Hrm, summary check-in:

* Currently, I'm finally finishing off Act 2 of Because We're Here! It's one of my all-time favourite visual novels so when Act 2 first released I read most of it all in one go, but I had to pause right before the big battle, and ever since I've been scared to open it up again haha. It's definitely something that requires time and emotional space, but dear god does it hit that 'bleak and upsetting but with just enough promise of hope and love to not completely overwhelm you' type of mood I love. It's as much WWI drama as it is otome so it's definitely not for everyone but I truly do love it!

* I bought a new phone the other day which gave me the space to redownload Ayakashi: Romance Reborn! I know like NOBODY is playing it (esp compared to Twisted Wonderland and Obey Me which sadly don't interest me at all) but I love the setting and art and am v intrigued by a lot of characters so I've always wanted to get back to it! In fact when I first played I got really attached to Yura and decided to reroll for him. I got to FIFTY rerolls with no sign of him and then the game glitched and stopped deleting my save data when I uninstalled. :'D I was seriously becoming convinced the card was bugged and not actually showing up in the card pool... (Seriously - 15 characters, 1 guaranteed SSR per first pool, and sometimes 2 or even 3??? The odds were SO against me...) With my new phone I decided to return to my rerolling! ...and it still took another twenty-three :'DDD BUT I finally got him!!! And now I'm rather exhaustingly attached to the dumb account hahaha. We'll see how I go, but I'd reaaaally like to get his Christmas card from a revival event someday!

* I'm still playing a lot of Ensemble Stars!! There's actually been a LOT of Souma content lately! In fact I stayed up until 4am recently translating a long monologue of his from the Double Face event :) Unfortunately I'm still pretty frustrated about his lack of narrative focus, and reading the full translation of Meteor Impact that released recently... did NOT calm that dissatisfaction in the slightest. But once again, Dark Night's Passage promises SOME kind of future dramatic storyline for him, and included one really nice line about Kanata that I'm going to shamelessly cling onto for as long as I can <3 Speaking of Kanata though I loooooove the new card!! But Alas;;; :') I still need to save for RhyLink Lims (PLEASE can they be released soon I'm dyingggg) and revivals (I'm doing Camellia Train but I'm so Ready to let go of the leash and rack up 7mil for Wisteria Kanata!!) and the Souma gacha 5* that could show its face any moment now. So I just did one scout and I didn't get him. Sorry, Kanata... (OH and I'm in the process of writing something as well, as always. It's a difficult one though. Still figuring out how to handle it a bit.)

* I haven't read any more of Hakuouki sadly! I left off in a dramatic place and I've been sorta overwhelmed with Ensemble Stars angst lately so I haven't had energy to get back to it... And then today I chose to play Because We're Here instead :) Oh well...;;

* Still going through the Brothers Conflict translation on youtube! (And still planning on making that post sometime;;) Masaomi is more enjoyable than I expected! Older brother types are often too composed and not emotional enough for my taste but Masaomi has a real earnest vulnerability to him that I am enjoying A LOT.

* I tried the Best Friend Forever demo - that's an indie VN in the 'customise protagonist, date various genders' genre. It's all about your character moving to a city where EVERYONE loves dogs and meeting fellow dog-lovers while raising your own lil pupper. I really enjoyed the raising sim aspects - admittedly I always like raising sims but it was quick fun how they include your animated lil doggo onscreen by the textbox to respond to what's happening in the story and for you to interact with! However, the game's atmosphere is... very VERY millenial. I don't dislike that in general but it went maybe just a little too far for my taste. I don't particularly connect to any of the love interests? Theyr'e all SO cool and confident and archetypal that it just sorta makes me feel like a self-conscious weirdo loser by comparison. Not really my thing, and it's hard to justify getting a dating game where I don't really want to date any of the love interests. The general otome community would probably enjoy it more though?

* I bought both the Racial Justice and Equality bundle and then also the second LGBT+ bundle that went up so really I've got enough OEL visual novels to last me a lifetime. So far the most enjoyment I've gained from both is in learning just how wide the indie TTRPG field is. I'm up to page 50/59 and have more TTRPGs than I could ever possibly read, none of which I am ever likely to show to another person, but it's been a very fun browse. I'd like to try Errant Kingdom from the second bundle as well some time - I've been following the devs on twitter but was eh on buying an unfinished game, but I have no compunctions about playing an unfinished game since I rarely finish them anyway due to my own basic personality, so I might as well finally see what they've been talking about all this time.

* I didn't see any post about this, and it's probably worth a proper update, but the Lovestruck writers succeeded in their strike and successfully gained a pay rise!! I've been busy with other things so I haven't read much more there but it's definitely great news either way! n.n

* I'm still painstakingly making my way through Fire Emblem Three Houses, too. Something about the monastery really does just... shut my brain off, preventing any progress whatsoever. When I finally picked it up again after a break recently I spent over an hour in there before I finally moved on to the next week. Not next month, week. But I'm a little ways into the timeskip now and there's less to micromanage, and I have FINALLY worked out how I want my supports to play out (in the end I still couldn't decide between Ashe/Annette and Ashe/Caspar but I worked out that I can leave that one up to fate with little worry of it screwing over any other pairs so that's good enough) so I can just quick draw through my lunches now. I'm only borrowing this Switch from someone else so I really should try and get through it but welp :')

* Lastly this is even more only tangentially related but I'm making progress through my wanikani stack, too!! I finally signed up again early this year only to be faced with a GINORMOUS review queue that I was simply incapable of handling. After a lot of work and external refreshing I've finally been able to make a dent into it, and managed to hit a review count in the 500s this week :') That still sounds like a lot but if I put on Scykoh's randomizer Nuzlocke in the background I can actually churn out 100-150 without too much stress so the end is in sight!! Admittedly this was all ALSO put a bit on hold by Enstars, but a significant chunk of that was me translating, so :)))

Anyway this wasn't brief at all lol but oh well! I always seem to have too much going on hahaha :P

[waterscroll]

Ayakashi: Romance Reborn!

I'd be curious to hear more about that, I've been thinking of trying it since I like Samurai Love Ballad so much.

[alias_sqbr]

I keep hearing about Because We're Here! and it sounds like a very good game I am way too much of a sook to play.

I'm also curious to hear about Ayakashi: Romance Reborn! Sounds very grindy though, which I don't have a lot of patience for, that was one of the things that put me off Obey Me.

Hakuoki will be waiting for you when you're ready. I say, having been putting off some of the bad ends for...a few years...

I hadn't heard of Best Friend Forever, it looks cute and I was not expecting an Australian accent haha. But yeah I have encountered a few Western dating sims where everyone is Too Well Adjusted For Me and the humour is Very Millenial, it is not my jam (and not just because I'm Gen X)

You're right, I forgot to update about the Voltage thing!

I keep vacillating over Fire Emblem, it sounds interesting but for $80 I want to be sure I'll have fun.

Congrats on the wanikani! I have never studied Japanese myself but helped a friend in highschool practice her kanji flashcards etc, it seems like a lot of work.

Hearing about all this was great, briefness is definitely not required :)

[waterscroll]

I'm on Yukimura's act 2 in SLBP. It's a good route. I keep feeling like I'm done with this game and then keep continuing with it. Maybe it's the addictive payment structure. But this is a pretty decent route.

I also started playing Fire Emblem: Three Houses because I am fascinated by Edelgard, but I think the game is going to take too long for me and I'm really not enjoying the fight mechanics. I might look up scenes though because I'm curious how her story goes.

[alias_sqbr]

I have been kind of enjoying the break since SLBP stopped running on my emulator but I do miss it sometimes.

One of the big reasons I haven't tried Fire Emblem 2 Fates, even though the characters sound interesting, is the worry I won't enjoy the gameplay. People keep describing it as like chess and I hate chess. I really should watch a gameplay video.

[scytale]

Not really focusing on playing anything right now since I finished Amnesia, though I did start Hustle Cat.

I'm in the middle of Finley's route; she is very adorable as both a cat and a human (and nail painting!!). I like her a lot, with her mix of geekiness and wanting attention and flirtiness.

I'm less sold on the protagonist, though, and very annoyed at the way they get very Concerned for Finley. And I am definitely feeling very cheated the protagonist doesn't have a cat form, though.

I also really appreciate the fact that the game lets me change pronouns in route.

[alias_sqbr]

It's been a while but I vaguely remember having similar feelings. Especially about the lack of cat form.

[scytale]

Yeah! I just want to know what cat form the protagonist has. I'll trade the magic powers for that, thank you.

[alias_sqbr]

Rather unimaginatively, I always imagined a cute little grey cat. I googled grey cat and: something like this, but paler, for short haired Avery: https://www.rover.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/animal-3118722_1920.jpg

[scytale]

So cute! :D

I like to think that despite being a short-haired cat, Avery somehow manages to shed everywhere. It's like magic!

[alias_sqbr]

Haha, yes.