Tag Archives: video games

Green Tea Area

Dig Dig Mine: Cake or Death

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Don’t you love it when you find a happy little bonus; something unexpected on top of something you already like?

I encountered one of my own this week. I’ve been following a bunch of Japanese and Korean erotic artists on Twitter recently — partly to satisfy my bottomless libido and partly to drown out the endless negativity of Western Twitter — and I was delighted to discover that one of them is not only into drawing pretty girls flashing their pants at you (NSFW, obviously), but also into making loving homages to retro-style games.

That artist’s name? Albe– wait, no, that’s something else. That artist’s name is @ryokuchamichi, also known as “Green Tea Area”, and the first of their games I’d like to share with you is Dig Dig Mine, which you can snag your own copy of for a mere ¥200 (about $2) over on Booth, a Pixiv offshoot focusing on independently developed digital art of various forms — including video games.

Continue reading Dig Dig Mine: Cake or Death →

Atelier

Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana – It’s an Alchemy Thing

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Despite being the sixth game in the series, Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana was the first to come West.

The exact reasoning behind this isn’t entirely clear, but it may be something to do with the fact that the early Atelier games were primarily abstract management simulations with RPG elements, while Atelier Iris unfolds in a manner much more like what the Western audience would have understood “an RPG” to be in 2005.

Perhaps it was assumed the West wasn’t ready for that sort of thing. Perhaps the amount of text in the earlier games made them impractical to localise at the time. Or perhaps they just sort of fell through the cracks. Whatever the reasoning, Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana was the West’s first Atelier game, so that’s where we begin our journey.

Continue reading Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana – It’s an Alchemy Thing →

Final Fantasy II, Final Fantasy Marathon, Videos

Final Fantasy Marathon: The Search for the Black Mask – Final Fantasy II #7

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With Fynn safely back under the control of the Wild Rose forces, the time has come to take the fight to the Empire. To do that, we’ll need some firepower.

Minwu set off for Mysidia a while back in an attempt to track down the Ultima tome, but no-one’s heard from him for a while. Firion and company decide to set off in search of him… but not before they stop by the Tropical Island to track down the Black Mask they’ll need to find what they’re searching for. Which, of course, begs the question why Minwu didn’t take it with him… but we’re not supposed to think about that.

Today’s episode is a bit shorter than previous ones; we’ll probably go back to about this length from hereon, as it’s a little more practical for me to record. It’ll mean the series as a whole takes a bit longer to get through… but these games aren’t going anywhere!

One-Shots

Hilzartov Fairy: Size Doesn’t Matter

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Here on MoeGamer, I don’t cover a lot of outright nukige — adult games where the sexual aspect is the primary focus — but when sexy gaming portal Nutaku approached me and offered to give me an exclusive look at what appears to be an artist’s passion project… well, how could I refuse?

Hilzartov Fairy, which you can check out for yourself here, is the work of a creator known as Mformental, whose extremely not-safe-for-work portfolio can be found over on Pixiv. They have a particular taste — and talent — for fantasy-themed artwork and animations, especially if it involves any combination of monsters, tentacles, futanari girls and significant size differences.

On the grand scheme of things, Hilzartov Fairy is one of their tamer works… though you still better be ready for some… unconventional sexual situations. Let’s take a closer look!

Strong sexual content ahead; you have been warned!

Continue reading Hilzartov Fairy: Size Doesn’t Matter →

Videos, Warriors All-Stars, Warriors Wednesday

Warriors Wednesday: A Light Worth Protecting

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Now we’re making good progress through the plot, it’s clear we’re starting to move towards one of the various conclusions to Warriors All-Stars.

For those unfamiliar, Warriors All-Stars features numerous endings based on the choices you make throughout the game. These aren’t visual novel-style binary choices, however; they mostly relate to which characters you recruit and which specific battles you choose to participate in.

Thankfully, there’s a handy menu in the game that shows you which battles unlock which paths. For now though, we’ll just have to see where this all ends up…

Waifu Wednesday

Waifu Wednesday: Kurokishi

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I may well be writing myself into a corner with this one, but after this week’s discussion of beat ’em ups on The MoeGamer Podcast, I spent some time with Denjin Makai. And I’m in love. Or possibly just lust.

Denjin Makai, for the unfamiliar, is a beat ’em up from Winky Soft and Banpresto that originally hit the Japanese arcades in 1994. It got a port to Super Famicom under the name Ghost Chaser Densei, but neither the arcade version nor this port ever came West in any capacity.

Which is a shame, because Denjin Makai is superb — as is its sequel Guardians, which likewise didn’t make it over here — and Kurokishi is super-hot. Let’s see what we can find out.

Continue reading Waifu Wednesday: Kurokishi →

Community

#LoveYourBacklog Week, 2020

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Hello! Are you following Later Levels? If not, get on that; Kim writes lots of lovely things about games, occasionally assisted by guest stars!

Kim’s also one of those people who is great at organising others, and encouraging them to do cool things like supporting charitable efforts and writing community blog posts. She also runs a thoroughly pleasant Discord where you can find support and advice from your fellow writers — as well as some people to read what you’ve written!

Last year, Kim encouraged us to embrace our backlog of unplayed or unfinished games, not fear it. This week, #LoveYourBacklog is back once again… and who am I to stand in the way of such an admirable endeavour?

Continue reading #LoveYourBacklog Week, 2020 →

Videos

Atari A to Z: Zybex

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We made it to Z once again, folks, and it’s time for an all-time classic shoot ’em up for the Atari 8-bit: it’s Zybex, from Zeppelin Games.

Zeppelin began their life as a company specialising in budget-priced titles on cassette; the first time I came across them was when they released today’s game Zybex and motorcycle racer Speed Ace for £2.99 each. Speed Ace was fairly decent, from what I recall — though at the time of writing it’s not one we’ve revisited as yet — but Zybex was something truly special.

Featuring frantic shoot ’em up action for one or two players, Zybex truly brought the arcade-style scrolling shoot ’em up home in style — and it still holds up pretty well today.

Find a full archive of all the Atari A to Z videos on the official site.

Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari A to Z Flashback: Codebreaker

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With the digital revolution, many classic tabletop experiences have fallen by the wayside. But back in the late ’70s and early ’80s, you could count on most households having a copy of Mastermind.

Mastermind was a code-breaking game developed by an Israeli telecommunications expert named Mordecai Meirowitz, and it was based on an earlier pen-and-paper game named Bulls and Cows. The concept is simple: one player develops a code consisting of four coloured pegs, and the other player has to guess this code in as few steps as possible, making use of the codemaker’s feedback.

Codebreaker is essentially a digital adaptation of this game, making use of numbers rather than coloured pegs. It also features an adaptation of the ancient mathematical game Nim, for those who enjoy taking the last chocolate in the box. As a complete game package, it might look a bit limited from a modern perspective, but there’s fun to be had here.

Find a full archive of all the Atari A to Z videos on the official site.

MegaFeatures

The Atelier MegaFeature: Prelude

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cropped-atelier-megafeature-header-1-8868334This post is one chapter of a MegaFeature!
Contents | Next >

We’re trying something new here on MoeGamer for 2020: something I’ve been trying to figure out the best way to do for a while. How, exactly, to tackle a series of significant length — both in terms of number of games and the sheer amount of time it takes to play them?

I was initially prompted to think about this by Falcom’s Trails series, which I’d very much like to cover when (if?) it’s finished. Each of those games are upwards of a hundred hours, and their narratives are interlinked, so they’re not things you can easily analyse in isolation. Or rather, given that interlinked nature, they’re not things I want to analyse in isolation.

That’s not the only series I wanted to explore in depth, though. One that’s been steadily filling up my shelves for the past few years is Gust’s long-running Atelier series… and given that the series as a whole is subdivided into smaller trilogies and duologies, it seemed like an ideal opportunity to experiment with the format.

And thus, I welcome you to the first MoeGamer MegaFeature!

Continue reading The Atelier MegaFeature: Prelude →