Amitte

Progress report: December ‘20 (a.k.a. Finally Done With This Shit…)

Remember my ridiculously heartfelt post from last year? Looking back on it, it doesn’t really seem that way, but I think I felt really emotional writing it. This time around, it’s way past 5 AM here and I haven’t taken a sip of kiddie champagne :<
Anyway, I’m convinced that I’m not the only one who’s absolutely and fully fed up with what 2020 served, so Happy New Year! May 2021 be better to us; I really don’t think it’s a lot to ask for. Perhaps I should be emotional in this post too, since my age is going to turn into a nice, round number this year…
…but first, my gaming progress! Speaking of nice, round numbers, I’m ending 2020 with a count of 90 completed/beaten games. I was essentially forced into giving up a lot of potential Steam playtime when my old laptop broke down (that saga spanned over a few months’ time), but I put all that time into console and mobile gaming, which I did my best writing about, too.
And this year around, I have a goal I hope to achieve! According to BLAEO right now, 61% of my library has never been played… and with some simple math, knocking that down to 55% should be easily doable. 50% might be a stretch, unless I put time into short games… and have enough time to play so much in general; but still, that would be amazing to reach. Naturally, that would also mean I don’t buy more games, unless…! …unless it’s a sequel to something I’ve enjoyed or something my friends have been nudging me to play (and there still are a few of those titles…). There’s something else I’ve wanted to shift my “monetary focus”, so to speak, so I don’t think that’s too much of a sacrifice when I still have such a big backlog.
Okay, now that I’m done rambling - what have I completed this month, you might ask?

Bishoujo Battle Mahjong Solitaire - If you’ve played any of the other Zoo Corporation games, you know exactly what this is - mahjong with anime girls. This time, they’re all from a game called りっく☆じあ~す (Rick G. Earth; whatever that name is supposed to mean/refer to), which is most likely unvoiced, because here, too, the sound design is lacking… ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

It Comes Around - A Kinetic Novel - I guess this was supposed to be a terrible Corpse Party bootleg? I vaguely remember reading about the ritual performed in this one somewhere online before playing the game, and past that… everything was a blur. The characters suffered from same face syndrome and their dialogues lacked authenticity, especially considering that they mostly converse through text messages. Glad it was so short and kinetic; it numbed me so much I might as well have skipped through it and my opinion wouldn’t have differed.

Kotodama: The 7 Mysteries of Fujisawa - Truth be told, my mind is mush after all the grind I had to go through to 100% this game. I believe this was PQube’s first attempt at development, and to me, it fell flat on its face. Kotodama follows you, the new student of Fujisawa Academy, as you try to get acclimatized. You also have a sidekick in the form of a demon you made a pact with. She will never let you forget her existence, sometimes interjecting during conversations with remarks so obvious it made me groan. But it’s not like anyone besides you can see or hear her, so it’s okay, right?! If that wasn’t weird already, you quickly find yourself recruited to the school’s Occult Research Club for the purpose of figuring out the titular seven mysteries. They end up ranging from somewhat insignificant (why are high schoolers so invested in a random white dog, anyway?) to the actual climax of the game, which I will not talk about to avoid spoilers. While you’re working on uncovering the mysteries, Mon-chan (aka your demon contractor) reminds you of Kotodama - that is, the power you wield. With it, you can access your target’s soul (?) and get information they would not disclose on their own out of them. You do that through… a weak parody of HuniePop. Rings even more wrong after Mon-chan says that the target might feel affected by what you do to them in the magical dimension, which you follow up by undressing not only your first, but all the other targets. That, and nearly all of the cast is high school students. Yikes. I will also gladly point at how unimportant the option to pick your gender is; even though I picked to be female, most of the targets are also female, which naturally led me to feel like I’m playing as a guy anyway (not that there was anything that would make me feel otherwise past the initial choice, though). The way this VN is constructed as a whole will force replaying and checking side menus on a consistent basis, which I now know I am definitely not a fan of. I find the soundtrack too short for a game that took me over 20 hours to complete and the voice acting… you can easily tell the same people voiced multiple characters. The interface and the menus have a really poppy, colorful aesthetic which I might be sick of after looking at it for so long. Story-wise, I don’t think it was worth it, I was only really pushed to the finish by my completionism. Not the worst game from PQube’s catalogue (cough Root Letter cough), but certainly not the best. Guess I should have played Steins;Gate 0 instead.

Little Misfortune - Another great point-and-click from Killmonday Games, Little Misfortune follows Misfortune (yes, that is her first name) Ramirez Hernandez, an 8 year-old girl who, under rather peculiar circumstances, embarks on an adventure in search of “Eternal Happiness”… whatever that might be. Revealing more would be spoiling the fun, but I definitely recommend this game (if you played and enjoyed Fran Bow, even more so!) for its dark humor and Misfortune’s wittiness.

Winter Novel - You could have called this game Work Sucks (For a Whole Week) and no one would have argued with you. I’m not a fan of the ASCII graphics, the music was pleasant to the ear, but overall, it didn’t make much of an impression on me.

Without Within 2 - The hilariously broke, yet aspiring calligrapher Vinty returns! This time, she received a grant for a trip to a calligraphy event in Melbourne. She’s hoping to witness the glory of her idol, Excelia, in real life for the first time (and not die from starvation before that)… After a brief introduction to Vinty’s lifestyle in the first game, the sequel picks up the pace ever so slightly. Vinty’s trip to Melbourne was described in great detail and accompanied by short clips of relevant locations IRL. I enjoyed the presentation enough to want to visit Melbourne myself, which is what I think is the ultimate selling point here.

See you next month! :)