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]

I can't remember if I mentioned this on the last post, but I played and enjoyed "Lost in Secular Love", about an impoverished noblewoman in Ancient China trying to marry a rich monk.

[icecheetah]

Finally got the Our Life: Beginnings and Always DLC, and I finished my first playthrough! In which I basically played myself having a much nicer childhood. It was nice that I could be my queer self and just be platonic with everyone. Cove became my brother in all but paperwork (and blood). Doing another playthrough where my MC is crushing on him hard and it's fun too.

I've also been playing a couple Ciagram Games. Nightmare Harem and Diamond Girl.
Nightmare Harem: MC falls into a world of angels and demons and can go home in three months... if she doesn't fall for one of them that is.
Diamond Girl: One of those ordinary MC turns out to be the heiress of some big company otome, and now she has to learn how to live like a rich person when she mostly just wants to lounge around in tracksuits and eat dried squid.

The Nightmare Harem MC is one of the more competent japanese eyeless MCs I've seen (in the route I'm in she even successfully spies on people without being caught and she's meant to be an ordinary girl). It's pretty good.

Meanwhile Diamond Girl MC... is a disaster surrounded by geniuses who judge her for not being a genius. Though that may be because I'm getting the two asshole routes done first (and I've joked a few times about wanting to murder the dude whose route I'm on rn). It's very much filling my trash entertainment needs rn.

[caramarie]

What is the point in being rich if it doesn't mean you can just lounge around in tracksuits eating dried squid???

[icecheetah]

Apparantly if you're rich you gotta impress other rich people with your manners and clothes.

[alias_sqbr]

Yeah, Our Life didn't click for me but I love that it gives so many people so much joy, I really respect what it's doing.

[22degreehalo]

Lovestruck is closing down soon and I'm still really sad about it. :(

Also the news about the 3DS eshop closing next year finally got me to buy a replacement charger, and then I'll probably end up buying at least one of the Story of Seasons games because I haven't played any since Grand Bazaar (very underrated IMO) and I always meant to play a 3DS one but never got around to it. I hear Trio of Towns is really good so maybe that one? I always wanted to date Yuri or Iroha, though...

[icecheetah]

Oh gods, same. Lovestruck has been a massive part of my life... Though there's a big effort on the Lovestruck Reddit to archive the routes and I've seen a lot of people on tumblr archiving as well (the Reddit one is more organised) so...hopefully we'll be able to "keep circling the tapes".

[22degreehalo]

Yeah. :( I know I'm part of the problem because it's been ages since I was actively reading any stories and at least 2 years since I spent any money on hearts - not because there weren't stories that I still wanted to read, but I just suck at finishing things and I wasn't really interested in the newer stories (Reigning Passions was the last that I really loved, but I always really wanted to get around to reading Lucas in Ever After Academy), so it got away from me. And then I panicked and got upset to realise I might never be able to read them at all, and felt guilty for having contributed to it...

But man, I can't overstate how much I appreciated those stories. To have romances that were actually LGBTQIA+ inclusive, in the sense of explicitly bi protagonists and love interests, and actual asexual and even aromantic characters, including demisexual love interests - and, most shockingly and incredibly and wonderfully of all, having those diverse stories actually be well-written and interesting and romantic and filled with likeable characters...!!! I just have literally never encountered anything else its equal. Not with the sheer variety of character types and relationship dynamics it had. (Literally why is it SO HARD to find subby loyalty kink-ish adoring men in otome that don't ultimately have to get sorta dominant for sex appeal???)

After posting that comment I finally went and opened the app and finished Altea (my truest love UGHHH I'll miss the Love & Legends crew so much :((( ) but now that you mention it in your comment... yeah, I wanna contribute to the archive, too. It's so awful to think of them all becoming effectively lost media, and even if they end up becoming just novels basically without the sprites and music that's much better than nothing. I didn't take part to begin with because discord terrifies me (not so much the site itself just. the concept of having to do all communication with people real-time lmao.) and oh god I have to ask for a reddit DM when I literally haven't opened my inbox in years. But I wanna try. Especially since most of my faves are the older or less popular ones so I really hope I can make sure they're preserved!!

[alias_sqbr]

Yeah it's a real pity about Lovestruck :(