Tag Archives: mental health

Announcements, Community

I’m Not Okay: Speaking Frankly About Mental Health, Frustration and Ambition

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Hello, dear readers. I’m going to take you a bit “behind the curtain” today, as there are some things I need to talk about for the sake of my own wellbeing.

Oddly enough, the last time I talked about this stuff was at roughly the same time last year, so I’m not sure if there’s something in the air in August or what… but regardless, apologies in advance if I end up going over any of the same ground, which I probably will.

Normal business will resume tomorrow, but for today… indulge me if you will, please. These things are important to talk about.

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Cover Games, Shade

Gun Gun Pixies: Tiny Girls, Huge Hearts

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shadeheader-3172714This article is one chapter of a multi-part Cover Game feature!
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One thing I always like to see is when developers get a bit experimental.

Idea Factory and Compile Heart have always been good at this, and their numerous experiments over the last ten years or so have really allowed them to hone their craft, showing marked improvements from their earlier PS3 titles up until today. And when you partner up with an ensemble like Shade, who, as we’ve already seen, are certainly not averse to doing things a bit differently from the norm, the results can be very interesting indeed.

One such result is Gun Gun Pixies. So let’s take a closer look at what’s going on with this unusual game.

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Waifu Wednesday

Waifu Wednesday: Yuno Hayase

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Who doesn’t love a good girl? That, it seems, is the angle that Yuno Hayase, valued member of game developer Judgement 7 alongside her sister Asano, is going for.

Throughout the early hours of visual novel Our World is Ended, Yuno represents a source of relentless positivity and optimism. She’s always there to encourage protagonist Reiji and her comrades in Judgement 7, whether the situation is simply enduring a hot day or fleeing for their lives from mysterious men in black.

But, unsurprisingly, there’s a bit more going on beneath the surface than her airheaded first impressions might suggest. Make that a lot more.

Spoilers and heavy mental health stuff ahead.

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Waifu Wednesday

Waifu Wednesday: Asano Hayase

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If there’s one type of character voice actress Eri Kitamura knows how to play well, it’s the seemingly aggressive but actually terribly insecure tsundere.

Asano Hayase from Red Entertainment’s visual novel Our World is Ended is a great example, affording Kitamura the opportunity to demonstrate her full vocal range over the course of the character’s development and narrative threads.

Asano is also an incredibly interesting, unconventional character in her own right, so she takes her place in the spotlight this week.

Some spoilers for Our World is Ended ahead!

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Waifu Wednesday

Waifu Wednesday: Michiru Matsushima

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After many months (years, actually, I think) of waiting, I finally took possession of my Grisaia Complete Box today.

As you may recall, I had many, many words to say on the subject of The Fruit of Grisaia and its sequel in a previous Cover Game feature, but I’m yet to explore either the third and final game in the main series or any of the “side” games. Consequently, I’ve officially earmarked some time (maybe after Death End Re;Quest) to cover the remainder of the series.

In the meantime, though, I thought it might not be a terrible idea to give one of the Grisaia girls a bit of a shout-out for today’s Waifu Wednesday. And since I’ve given Amane a bit of favouritism previously, well, today it’s Michiru’s turn.

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Features, MoeGamer Awards 2018

The MoeGamer Awards 2018: The “This Game Has An Excellent Female Lead And Is About Being A Girl, Stop Whingeing There Aren’t Any Games About Such Things” Award

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The MoeGamer Awards are a series of “alternative” awards that I’ve devised in collaboration with the community as an excuse to celebrate the games, experiences and fanbases that have left a particular impression on me in 2018. Find out more and leave a suggestion here!

This award was inspired by a conversation on Twitter started by someone who is apparently unable to look beyond the big-budget triple-A mainstream — specifically that as depicted by the annual Game Awards — for representation in video games.

I am not a girl. However, for a good few years now, I’ve really enjoyed the opportunity to play as female characters in games. As I recall, the first time I ever did it was in Baldur’s Gate on PC (which is also where I dreamed up the name I give every female character where the option to customise exists: Amarysse) and it felt strange and exciting at the time.

Now, it’s a much more normal part of today’s gaming landscape, but some people appear to not recognise this fact. So today’s award rather passive-aggressively celebrates a game I covered this year that particularly emphasises the fact it tells an interesting story with its female lead — a story that is very much about femininity.

And the winner is…

Continue reading The MoeGamer Awards 2018: The “This Game Has An Excellent Female Lead And Is About Being A Girl, Stop Whingeing There Aren’t Any Games About Such Things” Award →

Cover Games, Project Zero

Project Zero 4: Touched by the Moon

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cropped-projectzero-header-4357712This article is one chapter of a multi-part Cover Game feature!
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And so it is that we come to the fourth installment in the Project Zero series: a game that never came West in an official capacity.

Known as Zero: Tsukihame no Kamen in its native Japan and Mask of the Lunar Eclipse in the West following an ambitious (and successful) fan-translation project, this fourth game represented a number of “firsts” for the series.

It was the first installment to not be exclusively developed by Tecmo. It was the first installment to leave the series’ original host platforms of PlayStation 2 and Xbox. And it was the first installment to make a number of mechanical shakeups to the basic Project Zero formula, which would become fixtures in subsequent releases. Let’s take a closer look.

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From the Archives, READ.ME

From the Archives: It’s Not What It Looks Like

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The discerning visual novel fan who decides to “go public” with his or her love for the medium faces a challenge that you tend not to encounter in the more “mainstream” parts of gaming — the gaming equivalent of the “I read it for the articles” conversation.

Allow me to share an actual exchange I had on Steam when I first fired up my copy of Private Nurse, an excellent visual novel from AngelSmile that we’ll get on to in just a moment. (Full names have been removed to protect the unenlightened. And yes, I deliberately add all the VNs I play to Steam specifically to provoke conversations like this.)

A: Private Nurse? What is that, some Japanese nurse fetish thing?
me: Yes, it is Japanese 🙂 It’s a visual novel.
A: OMG I KNEW IT
A: nuuuuuuuuurrrrrse feeeeeetiiiiiiiish

This article was originally published on Games Are Evil in 2012 as part of the site’s regular READ.ME column on visual novels. It has been republished here due to Games Are Evil no longer existing in its original form.

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