Tag Archives: Japanese games

The joy and despair of loving things that others don’t care for

If you’ve been reading MoeGamer or any of my other work for any length of time, you’ll know that I’m a strong believer that anyone should be able to enjoy what they want (assuming it’s not outright illegal or harmful) without fear of being shamed for it.

By extension, I also tend to believe that anyone who enjoys something should have the freedom to talk about the thing they enjoy — again, without fear of being shamed for it, and with others showing them at least some basic courtesy and understanding, even if they don’t share the same tastes.

It’s this latter bit that the world today seems to struggle with — and it’s an aspect of life that, with increasing frequency in the modern age, leaves me feeling desperately lonely and frustrated, even surrounded by these things I love so much.

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Idea Factory deserves your respect

I am not a game designer.

I have attempted to make games at various points in the past, making use of toolsets ranging from Atari BASIC through STOS: The Game Creator, Klik & Play, The Games Factory, RPG Maker (of various flavours) and all manner of other things — but one thing has been constant: I’ve never gotten anything finished. And, as such, I have developed a good understanding of quite how much work goes into even the most seemingly simple project.

With that in mind, I always find myself gritting my teeth a bit any time I see people being unnecessarily disparaging about certain game developers. Whether it’s an entitled prick on Steam calling an indie dev “lazy” for not building their passion project to one ungrateful gamer’s specific expectations, or targeted campaigns of harassment against larger companies for one reason or another, I can never get behind that sort of behaviour.

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The MoeGamer Podcast: Episode 33 – The End of the Year Show

It’s the last-but-one day of the year, so what better way to round it off than to enjoy a couple of hours of chilled conversation between me and my good buddy Chris Caskie of MrGilderPixels?

The MoeGamer Podcast is available in several places. You can subscribe to my channel on YouTube to stay up to date with both the video versions of the podcast and my weekly videos (including the Atari A to Z retro gaming series); you can follow on Soundcloud for the audio-only version of the podcast; you can subscribe via RSS to get the audio-only version of the podcast in your favourite podcast app; or you can subscribe via iTunes and listen on Spotify. Please do at least one of these if you can; it really helps us out!

Or you can just hit the jump to watch or listen to today’s episode right here on MoeGamer.

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Around the Network

Another week over. Hooray, I guess?

To be absolutely frank, I haven’t had an amazing week in terms of general personal and mental wellbeing, but I won’t bore you with the details here — that’s what my exclusive daily blog for Patrons is for! (Among other things, obviously, please don’t get the impression it is nothing but Pete is Sad posts.) But, as always, my various ongoing projects have helped bring me a certain degree of joy and distract me from the general bleakness of late January that everyone seems to suffer under the weight of.

That’s a nice uplifting way to start, isn’t it? Let’s check out what you might have missed this week, and maybe we’ll all feel better afterwards.

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Around the Network

Happy weekend, folks, hope you’re all well. I’m having a bit of a trying time at present to be perfectly honest, but I won’t bore you with that here; remember you can sign up for my daily #oneaday blog on Patreon if you’d like a bit more of “the personal touch”!

Anyway, it’s been a busy week. My own personal issues aside, I’m more than happy with how things are going around these parts. I’ve got some fun videos going out nearly every day of the week now, we’ve got another great episode of The MoeGamer Podcast for you to enjoy, I’m really enjoying the current Cover Game feature and I’m feeling quite inspired for what I might be able to provide some deep-dives into over the course of the next few months.

For now, though, hit the jump to see what you might have missed this week.

Continue reading Around the Network

How Video Games Might Have Saved My Life

With today’s news about the suicide of Linkin Park frontman Chester Bennington, I thought now might be a good time to reshare a very personal piece I wrote a while back on my now-defunct personal blog.

Its link to Bennington is tenuous at best, I’ll freely admit, given that it’s an article about video games, but there’s an important core message in here that is relevant.

There are times in our life when we feel like we’re suffering, like things just can’t and won’t get any better. During those times, it can be tempting to contemplate taking drastic steps, up to and including ending your own life.

But, and you’ve probably heard these words a lot today already: don’t suffer in silence. Reach out to people and ask for help if you need it. And if there’s something that helps you cope, make use of it. Taking this advice is why I’m still here today.

This piece was originally written in April 2016, so some references may be a little dated! Oh, and here’s the source for the header image.

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An Open Letter to Kenichiro Takaki, Marvelous Games and All Producers of Games with Fanservice

A recent article published by PlayStation Lifestyle suggested that Senran Kagura creator Kenichiro Takaki has considered toning down the fanservice elements of his most famous series.

Speaking with the site, Takaki-san reportedly said that he had pondered this possibility “a little bit… the game started out very small and that was the big selling point in order to move units. Now that the franchise has grown and is getting more popular, it might be worth considering having features that differ depending on where it’s being sold. That way it might be able to sell better in certain regions where it would be problematic to have that kind of content.”

He did, however, also note that “there are also reviews that ignore the games due to the sexual content, and write it off from the start, so those aren’t very helpful. If you’re going to write it off due to a main component then that game just isn’t for you, and that review isn’t really useful as feedback.”

I’d like to take this opportunity to address Takaki-san, Marvelous Games and any other content creators who make fanservice part of their work, and reassure them that their work is welcome, enjoyed and appreciated by fans of all descriptions from across the world.

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Japanese Games Didn’t Just Suddenly “Get Good”

MoeGamer’s mission statement, which you’ll find over on the right, is “to provide comprehensive, interesting, positive and well-researched coverage of niche-interest and overlooked, underappreciated titles that tend to get a raw deal from the mainstream press”.

This has been my stated goal with the site from its inception in April 2014 — yes, we’re coming up on MoeGamer’s third birthday! — but my strong feelings towards it actually extend further back than that: to my JPgamer column and regular JRPG reviews at USgamer, to the visual novel and JRPG columns I hosted on the now-defunct Games Are Evil… in fact, my love of Japanese games can be traced all the way back to the 16- and 32-bit console eras in particular. (In the 8-bit era I was largely gaming on Atari computers!)

I’m not alone in my love of Japanese games and the feeling that they tend to get rough treatment at the hands of both the mainstream press and an ill-informed public — though to be fair to the latter, one tends to lead to another. Over the last few years in particular, there’s been great growth in “alternative” gaming sites aiming to specifically cater to niches underserved by the mainstream press. Friends of MoeGamer like Operation RainfallDigitally Downloaded and the recently launched j-ga.me/s/ all carry the desire to celebrate underappreciated titles — titles that, in many cases, have strong followings and communities surrounding them that are at best ignored and at worst ostracised and ridiculed by the mainstream press — and all go about this task slightly differently.

One thing that brings us all together, though, is the sense of exasperation when a Japanese game that, for some reason, it is “acceptable” to enjoy comes along and even mainstream critics are forced to admit the things that sites like us have been arguing for literally years. And with 2017 being such a strong year for such games already, that has been happening quite a bit lately.

Continue reading Japanese Games Didn’t Just Suddenly “Get Good”