u/dondashall

Just finished it and yeah, loved it, it was great. I don't think I have a favourite route really, both were amazing, if I were to say anything I think Juliet's wild ending was a bit lackluster, but yeah loved all of it. Seeing a story actually go for 2 happy endings without any bad ending nonsense was a breath of fresh air and both of the routes had their own distinct feel and yeah all of it was good stuff.

What really blew me away honestly though was the music. I can't remember a single VN where I've thought anything about the music, but this just blew me away. Not immediately, it kinda snuck up on me until I was "this music is amazing, can I find it on bandcamp" (and yes, I can - I will buy during next bandcamp fridays).

This paragraph is going to be me geeking out on the technical side. The soundtrack was absolutely amazing. It not only fit the mood correctly, it managed everything perfectly. A great blend of instruments from piano, to string music, to wind music - this is actually pretty rare video game soundtracks tend to favour piano - all of them expertly performed. The rhythm was nice that never went to especially high notes, the composition, variety, pacing, etc. just so amazing. Can't wait to get this for some out-of-game listening.

I don't know, but it just really hit me. And I've never before really thought that music isn't an area that VNs particularly prioritize and seeing one do it and the difference it makes is just astounding.

Again such an amazing soundtrack. And fantastic ending song too. The soundtrack alone just made me emotional, but the expert writing on top. Yeah, this was a great one.

Oh, feel free to talk about the narrative too, I just mostly had music thoughts to get out.

So I first played Dorf when it was very early in development and I didn't really think much of it at all and didn't even consider buying it on release, but it popped up in my browsing now and then and lately I've considered giving it a shot. Then it just so happened that recently I've been trying to find a sort of "forever" cozy game. I enjoy the regular fair our Stardews & Wanderstops and Sandrocks etc., but even if playtimes vary they do come to an end and you have to buy a new one and I thought it would be great to have something that you can make last a really long time.

So anyway I gave it a shot and while I haven't played that much yet, it's great. It's really relaxing - the controller support works great and even when maps expand quite a bit never do I feel like I'm supposed to be playing this with M&K. I'm like absolutely not a sandbox/creative mode type of player, but the experience is really easy to understand in a easy to pick up hard to master sense, but even being not great at it, it's an enjoyable relaxing experience and I'm not gonna lie it's nice seeing that I'm getting bigger high scores at the end. On the other hand I'm absolutely able to play it casually, I can play a few rounds to relax and then quit it to play something else, an experience I was unable to do with Balatro for instance, which took over my life until I had to uninstall it for my mental health.

Anyway, if any of you have been thinking about or not been thinking about it, I recommend it.

Lil' Bill doesn't talk about gaming all that often, but when he does it's solid gold. Everything in this videos is just chef's kiss.

That's pretty much all I remember. I really have no threads to pull on to remember the title for this one.

EDIT: Question answered. Thanks everyone.

Like I'll boot it up now and then and I'll have a relaxing time, but I also somewhat kinda miss that feeling of progression from when I was going through the original campaign and raising scores to 3 points. Perfects don't nearly happen with that kind of frequency. But I also don't really know what's another good rhythm game to try next. So, any recs?

Oh, PC only.

I don't know what it is with the voice acting in this one, but it really sets off my SPD. I kept hearing everyone talking about it, but I tried the demo a few times and I just couldn't, but I said to myself - ok, give it a final shot with the voices turned off - and it really did it. I'm still pretty early in the story, but it's really good. Just wanted to put down this for anyone else.

Also, btw it's pretty hilarious that this happened in a story with a character that is shall we say more than the average neurodivergent coded, lol

I noticed a large number myself in the games I clicked in, but THIS MUCH? Over 1500 games at next fest with AI disclosure warning. Sigh.

Persepolis is to my mind one of the best graphic novels ever written, certainly graphic novel memoirs, and a true look with all its complexities of life in Iran was like for someone with values that very much clash with those in power. It is not easy reading, but if you ever wanted an opportunity to pick up the book (FYI I owned the book for I think 10 years before I finished it) now's a good time to do so.

R.I.P. Marjane, gone too soon.

That's the entire conceit. He's invited other evil masterminds over to look over and buy his monsters, you as the poorly paid lab assistant get to risk your life for peanuts to show how the monsters work.

Damn, this is a poor look. If you want to send ebi-hime some love, now's a good time.

It's the only (straight) regency romance that I've completely clicked with and I've struggled to find anything like it. Not even Orchard's other books particularly clicked with me in that way. Figured I'd give it a shot over here.

I don't necessarily mean the same plot beats, although I wouldn't mind that. It's the writing style, the characters - even the side-characters were stellar - and just lots of stuff. Anyway any ideas? Better me a rec too many than too few, I can filter fine on my own.

I know MVs isn't a genre where narratives are the most important things, but there are still some lines I imagine people do not want to see crossed so this is an informative summary about said narrative.

So I picked this up because I like metroidvanias (obviously), the comic-style artstyle was cool, you get a dog and they talk in the store description about caring about historical detail (a bold-faced lie).

So game start out with you as a Spanish conquistador on the way to get rid of Cortéz - I'm game with that, kill the bastard. That doesn't happen, you defect to Cortéz, who is - very realistically - portrayed as a man who is a misunderstood hero that cares so deeply about the Mexican people and respects them, he even is in favour of equal rights for men & women. This continues a while until sigh those dastardly Mexicans betray him and threw them out of Tenochtitlán. Sigh, I guess he is forced to attack, but again the damn Mexican tribes betray him by not siding with him. Sigh, against his wishes, I guess he is forced to genocide two clans to not have them against his back - you as the player btw commit these genocides in the case of boss fights. Then you attack Tenochtitlán and it ends with a love story with a Mexican woman. Just in case they thought they were too subtle in the credits they mention that the people of Mexico/Mesoamerica has been unfairly maligned by "the black legend". I'd never heard about the black legend before so I looked it up and it's an idea that Spain's atrocities has been unfairly exaggerated.

Oh, and there's also a scene where Quetzalcoatl talks like a Christian preacher going on about Cain, the devil, and the lord. Totally serious.

She dresses down, acts humble to the point characters around her really should react a lot more than they do, decides she has to immediately break any engagement (even though it was just her behaviour that led to her death), etc.

Like some stories I get it, because there's other people doing politics stuff so she has to go more "all in", but in so many of these just don't act evil and you'll be fine. There's no reason to dress down, you don't have to act super-humble, and you can let the OGML break the engagement when/if he decides he wants to.

I'm not saying I've never read a story where this kind of reinvention is interesting, but most of the time it just goes too far.