Tag Archives: characterisation

Waifu Wednesday: Risky Boots

The Shantae series is effortlessly and consistently sexy.

We’ve already talked about how the titular protagonist of the series exemplifies this perfectly, but the same is also true of a number of other characters throughout — most notably primary antagonist Risky Boots. Hell, even that name is kinda hot.

Risky is also a great example of how the Shantae series as a whole populates its world with interestingly flawed characters rather than one-dimensional heroes and villains — and as such elevates herself from simply “sexy villain” to “beloved character” in her own right.

Continue reading Waifu Wednesday: Risky Boots

Waifu Wednesday: Marin

Since its third installment A Link to the Past, Nintendo’s Legend of Zelda series has had a fine variety of memorable female characters.

My personal favourite from among this varied cast hails from the fourth game in the series, Link’s Awakening. This is one of my most fondly regarded installments for numerous reasons, including its divergence from the “traditional” Zelda narrative formula, its solid gameplay and the sheer technical feat of squeezing such a sprawling, consistently well-designed game onto the Game Boy.

But for all these good points, when I think of Link’s Awakening, my mind always goes to one place before anything else. And that place is sitting on a log overlooking the ocean, sitting next to Marin and wondering if there’s something between us.

Continue reading Waifu Wednesday: Marin

Supipara Chapter 2: With a Spring in Our Steps

[Editor’s note: as of February 2019, it appears that unfortunately minori is ceasing operations. This article has been left in its original form as published in June 2018 to preserve the original intention behind the series, even if it will likely never happen now.]

It’s wonderful to see that minori’s ambitious Supipara project is moving along nicely.

As you may recall from when we explored the first chapterSupipara is intended to ultimately become a series of five visual novels, all based around the same characters. Rather than taking the crowdfunding route a lot of current visual novel developers and localisers have been taking recently, developer minori has instead been ploughing its profits from sales of the existing Supipara chapters as well as its eden* project into development of the rest of Supipara.

It’s worth noting, however, that despite the series as it stands only consisting of two out of the five proposed chapters, each chapter stands very much by itself as a complete, self-contained story, and is well worth your time if you enjoy this sort of thing.

Continue reading Supipara Chapter 2: With a Spring in Our Steps

Gal*Gun 2: A Fond Farewell

cropped-header-5020040This article is one chapter of a multi-part Cover Game feature!
<< First | < Previous


It’s almost time to say goodbye to Sakurazaki Academy — at least until our next visit — but I couldn’t leave without showing at least a bit of appreciation for some more of the extended cast.

As you’ll hopefully recallGal*Gun 2 includes a feature known as “Rendezvous”, where once you’ve acquired the phone numbers of any of the secondary cast (and, under certain conditions, the main cast of heroines) you can invite them to several places, chat with them, fill them with sugar, look up their skirts and stand uncomfortably close to them in an attempt to indicate that you might want a kiss. Wholesome!

Today I thought I’d focus specifically on the third-years of Sakurazaki Academy, as I feel they were a little under-represented last time around. So let’s contemplate further the age-old question of Who Is Best Girl?

Continue reading Gal*Gun 2: A Fond Farewell

Gal*Gun 2: Narrative, Themes and Characterisation

cropped-header-5020040-4437620This article is one chapter of a multi-part Cover Game feature!
<< First | < Previous | Next > | Latest >>


Much like its predecessor, Gal*Gun 2 has a surprising amount going on its story — much more so than its seemingly fanservice-laden premise might lead you to believe.

While the previous game Gal*Gun Double Peace explored the idea of fallibility, and the fact that no two people cope with the knowledge that they are not and can never be “perfect” in quite the same way, Gal*Gun 2 takes something of a sidestep into a related, but slightly different theme: the idea of understanding oneself, and being honest about that “self” with others.

The various characters involved in the narrative all embody this theme in one form or another. So let’s go ahead and take a look at what’s going on in more detail!

Continue reading Gal*Gun 2: Narrative, Themes and Characterisation

Gal*Gun 2: Asking the Important Questions

cropped-header-5020040This article is one chapter of a multi-part Cover Game feature!
<< First | < Previous | Next > | Latest >>


In any creative work involving a cast of more than one female character — particularly if said work is of Japanese origin — there is one question that is, to some people, seemingly of greater importance than any other.

I am, of course, talking about Who Is Best Girl, an eternally raging debate that no-one can ever agree on, and which you’re probably some sort of despicable idiot if you ever declare your opinion on as being some sort of universal truth.

With that in mind, then, I thought it a good time to look at Gal*Gun 2’s extended cast outside of its main heroines, and pick a few favourites from the mix! Join me! STANDARD DISCLAIMER: If you have different personal Best Girls… well, that’s great. Let me know who they are! This is not a definitive list by any means.

Continue reading Gal*Gun 2: Asking the Important Questions

Waifu Wednesday: Risu the Angel

Japanese games have a number of different ways of handling narratives from a first-person perspective.

The typical “visual novel” approach allows the player to ride along inside the protagonist’s head, being privy to their innermost thoughts as well as the things they say out loud. But in other instances where this approach has not been used for stylistic purposes — and particularly where a silent or quasi-silent protagonist takes the lead — a companion character is often employed to either speak “for” the protagonist, or to complement them in some way.

Gal*Gun Double Peace featured the delightful Ekoro, who beautifully complemented protagonist Houdai’s bafflement at the situation in which he found himself through dry wit and a touch of sarcasm. And Gal*Gun 2, which features the player themselves as the participant quasi-silent protagonist, has Risu; equally delightful, but in a rather different way.

Continue reading Waifu Wednesday: Risu the Angel

I Finally Beat Persona 5

Most of the time, gaming is a fairly solitary activity for me, but on occasion, there are games that my wife enjoys watching me play enough to drag her away from Final Fantasy XIV for an hour or two at a time.

Last year’s Persona 5 was one of those games, and thus rather than focusing on it as I do with the Cover Games for each month, “we’ve” been playing it rather casually over the course of the last year or so. The other night, we finally reached the end.

What better reason to reflect on a game that, according to some, represented a great renaissance for a Japanese games industry that had supposedly been “kind of bad” for years?

Continue reading I Finally Beat Persona 5

Gal*Gun 2: A Strange and Sexy Little World

cropped-header-5020040This article is one chapter of a multi-part Cover Game feature!
<< First | < Previous | Next > | Latest >>


A game where you blast cute girls to quasi-orgasmic ecstasy while attempting to fend off the mischief of a cheeky young demon might not sound like the sort of experience that would have good worldbuilding, but the Gal*Gun series as a whole is full of surprises.

It’s clear that developer Inti Creates has taken a great amount of care over the course of the Japan-only Gal*Gun, its sequel Double Peace and Gal*Gun 2 to make the series something more than a throwaway joke game. Yes, it’s amusing; yes, it’s silly; yes, it’s cheeky, fun and sexy; but none of those things mean that it can’t have some depth or be well-crafted.

So today, then, we’re going to take a closer look at how the series as a whole builds that sense of a coherent world, and where Gal*Gun 2 fits in with all that.

Continue reading Gal*Gun 2: A Strange and Sexy Little World

Waifu Wednesday: Chiru Kondo

You know sometimes you see a character and immediately know you’re going to be into them? Yeah, that was me and Chiru, one of the two new main heroines from Gal*Gun 2.

My immediately positive reaction to her was before I even knew what sort of person she was through playing the game, though I had my suspicions. There was just something about her that was striking and pleasing to me… and I was delighted to discover once actually getting to know her that she was exactly my kind of girl.

So it is, then, that she is the subject of this week’s Waifu Wednesday!

Continue reading Waifu Wednesday: Chiru Kondo