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I Was Unprepared for What Makes Today Special

Least amount of spoilers I've ever put above the cut for one of these. I'm getting better at this.

This is genuinely so cute. I'm losing my mind. Kako's been suffering so much and this ragtag group of assholes really came together to help give her a good time.

Because she's a sniperrrrrr!!!!! That's so cute I'm gonna-- what the fuck is Kurara wearing on her feet? Is she always in heels? Is that why she's got no mobility on the battlefield?

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I Cannot Handle This Much Hype

When I first drafted this post, I didn't even have a name for this one. It was just untitled Nyamakop game. And I didn't care. I was given an awesome concept, shown some art and gameplay that looked cool. My wallet was already open and I was filled to the brim with hype.

So if you missed it, this game is about repatriating (I hope I spelled that right) artifacts back to African countries after they've been stolen for museums around the world. Straight up Killmonger BlackPanther and it's great. It's another heist game, but this one is for a good cause.

But then they showed what I think is one of these heist missions and somehow I was more excited than before? This looks genuinely so much fun. Maybe it was me growing up playing with my cousin's dollhouse, but this is just sparking so much joy in my brain.

First of all: hot. Everything about this promo art. Hot. I want to be everyone in this picture and also kiss everyone in this picture. But also. The trailer starts off with a professor who loses all their students. Which can confirm. As a professor who's first semester teaching was Spring 2020, that scene hit really fucking hard.

And the gameplay is so beautiful too! It looks like a genuinely fun game in addition to the fact that every frame is a work of art. It's got story, it's got gameplay, it's got vibes. Literally everything I want.

I was so excited for this that I got screenshots and texted my friends before the trailer was even over. I have a group of friends who I go on walks with and also play video games with. So a multiplayer game about going on a walk? Made by the Goose Game folks?? And it's adorable??? Perfect. Take my money.

Just look at these little guuuuuuuys! No thoughts behind those massive eyes. They know only friendship and walk and puzzle. Life as it should be.

Biggest wild card of SGF. With 100 guesses I wouldn't have said that fucking OFF would be making a comeback. But I'm so glad it is. I played this game in undergrad when I was first getting into hobbies and making friends and it was just so formative to my tiny adult brain.

But then they brought in Toby Fox??? This is bananas on top of bananas. Also I'm such a huge fan of how Fox keeps his anonymity and other game devs are so respectful of that. Like it's so easy to fake a Fox appearance but I trust that this is the real deal. So cool beyond words.

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Metal Gear: Last Defense Academy

This stealth infiltration mission was not what I expected when I finished my last post. But I'm really happy for all the little framing changes they're making so that the same old gameplay still feels a little more fresh and interesting. Plus Nozomi started on lower hp bc she's sick. Cute touch.

Look at this shit! I can't believe we're just murdering these dudes. They've clearly got some advanced civilization going on. I'm hardcore waiting for the other shoe to drop and find out it's us. We're the baddies.

I ass blasted through this part, but it's actually really nice that they cut the heavy shit in half. Gives people a break to go collect themselves if it's too triggering. I think the pacing has been really good so far, which seems like an insane thing to say given I've put so many hours in and still gotten 0 of 100 endings.

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Medium Hype Games: Day of the Devs

I tried to screenshot the website because it changes your cursor to be so cute! Please go visit their website so you can see what I mean.

Please just view the vibes of the art direction. The colors here and across all the screenshots are so good. The artists here clearly have the vibes on a tight leash and they are going exactly where they're intended and no further.

Honestly this game would be in my more hype list. But I have a group of friends I play Stardew multiplayer with. And that kind of takes up all the Farming Sim space in my brain. Still. This is definitely worth a look.

This is another super interesting multiplayer game. I'm not a fan of most competitive games. I just don't have that dog in me when it comes to beating an opposing team at gun shoot or whatever. But this has me considering playing a PvPvE game. And that by itself is noteworthy.

I mean. Certainly just looking at this game, there's a little something special. The vibrant neon in an otherwise dark, sleezy place. Which makes sense. This game is filled with sleezy folks in a vibrant world about thieves stealing from thieves. So there's a bunch of sneaking and it all looks pretty silly and unserious. Perfect combination if you want to get me interested in actually competing against another human.

So this. Is a bit disingenuous. This is not the first time I've heard of Consume Me. A youtuber I like played a little of it and I thought the art was really cute but the premise, ngl, spooked me a bit.

The game is about being a teenager and dealing with your complicated relationship with food and your growing body. As a certified adult whose relationship with food is still fucked up from this period of my life. It hits a little close to home conceptually. But I hope other people are able to find fun and meaning from it.

Also! Learned how to put a gif in these posts. Thanks itch io for being better than Steam and giving me a gif to use.

So Toem 1 has been on my wishlist forever and I have not, in fact, ever played or even purchased it. So as adorable as this sequel looks, I can't rightfully put it on my extremely hype list from Day of the Devs.

This weird mix of cartoon styles with the 2D and 3D is so unbelievably cool though. And the black and white just steps the cool factor up another notch. You can feel that these guys are doing their best to make art. And they are succeeding.

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Look. Look with your special blood.

No one I can spend time with. Can't leave the school. I've already done all the battle training. Bro this is just real life

I've mostly just been rushing through the actual plot based reading because I'm hooked on this game. But every so often I take a moment to click on a random piece of the background. I am never disappointed. This is phenomenal.

Every. Fucking. Time. I read this as gryptogoblin. There's a tiny little creature living in my blood. Selling bitcoin. Reading is hard.

Blood pact blood pact blood pact. Oh, nevermind. She just absorbs a commander one time. Got my hopes up for nothing.

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You Thought I Was Done!

Wrong! Day of the Devs attack!

Yeah, I'm gonna be blogging all the things I care about. So there's these two and Wholesome Games for sure. I'll also check out like Women and Latin American lead games, and someone I follow said maybe Persona at Xbox, so I'll watch that.

Also! I learned how to put links on images. So no more link spam at the end!

This post will be for the cool games that don't hit super hard for me. That way the extremely hype games can get their moments to shine without my rambling about my blogging thought process.

I. Fucking. Love. Journey and Abzu. Everything these folks make is so beautiful and like. Meditative? I know I just said this is for the less hype games, but this isn't hype you know? Like hype doesn't seem the right word for a game so chill.

Just look at this! Instant stress relief. I just want to put this on my wall and look at it any time I feel bad. These artists are something else man.

Vibes on vibes on vibes. This promo art is just so good. Actually kind of sad the game isn't like this.

I don't want this to be too long but picking just one pic for gameplay is hard because the gameplay is so cool and visually striking in its own right. I love any art that asks us to view a familiar narrative from an unfamiliar angle. Heist stories are fun and common. But often the creation of the infiltration plan isn't the main focus. But that's exactly what we're doing here. And I think that's such an interesting niche to go live in.

This is the other side of the gameplay. I love a good cork board/ red string moment, but actually going into these locations and planning out the heists looks like it's going to be so fun. And it seems like the locations and characters are all going to be really interesting.

I know I've been doing the title promo art normally for introducing new games. And I think that's a fun, understandable way to do it. But just. I wanted to get into the meat of Tire Boy right away. Mostly because I'm still struggling to get my brain around it. It looks incredible, but if I had to use just words to convey that to someone, 100% chance I would fail.

Like just look at this! The character is a tire with human limbs. I have no clue what the NPCs are. There's no clue in the quest tracker either. All I know about these NPCs is that they're in the first spot we check when looking for Pearl. But maybe that's all I really need to know. Keep on vibing, strange creature-dudes.

This is just so weird in a way I wasn't really anticipating. I almost got a gameplay pic of this same... puzzle? activity? the line graph thing shown above in the promo art. Because in the screenshot shared, it clearly showed that there's a character of "Boss" who sends text messages during different parts of the game. It's such a specific vibe, but as an adult with a job, it's a real one.

I struggle to put exactly the right words to these because it doesn't feel like a normal series of mini games. It's so minimalist, mostly because it's representing charts and graphs of data for a business. But then the job of the player is to manipulate those data for... some purpose? I don't even know if it's to benefit Boss or Company or what. Either way, I'm a big fan of whatever the hell's going on here.

That was a lot of me being very confused. So I'll end this post on a very straightforward game that I think is just unbelievably cute. This one is in a world where no one cooks and they want to bring a love of the culinary arts back to people. That's it. Very explainable premise, which can be a good thing.

Now I say that, but actually I'm not sure I understand the gameplay. Like this is definitely a standard JRPG turnbased combat, right? Everything about the UI is saying that to me, so I would be shocked if that's not what I'm looking at.

But surely there's also some kind of cooking mechanic too, right? Just like thematically that would make the most sense. These dosa scenes kind of look like cutscenes, but maybe I'm reading it wrong. I'm excited to hear more about this one though.

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Nice

Nice.

Woah, Sirei, calm down. Actually nevermind, this song is a fuckin bop.

I'm screaming. What is this announcement??

Bruh. That's it. Send post. I've got nothing to add on to this. Like I've been excited for day 69 since Kodaka and Uchikoshi are so horny, I knew there had to be a joke. This was so much more than I expected and I love every moment of it. The bop goes all day, by the way. It's phenomenal. No notes.

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Games Made for Me, Personally

And for my next trick: I'll ramble on endlessly about games that appeal to me for some reason beyond it's own merits. Like this one we're starting with! This is just multiplayer Danganronpa, and as folks reading my Hundred Line posts know: I real do love me some Danganronpa.

Now I have no idea what's going on in this screenshot. I've got the page linked below so you can watch the video. But I'm not certain if that'll give you any more of a clue. But I don't need to understand what's going on to know it's A Vibe and I'm super down for this.

Then there's like a match 3 puzzle? They combined the least horny parts of Danganronpa and Huniepop, two games I love but hate how horny they are. Phenomenal.

I have been getting into the Yakuza series and I've been having a great time. These really are the silliest, saddest, weirdest games I've ever played. So when I saw RGG was coming out with something with this gorgous noir vibe, I was already reaching into my wallet.

Look at this! Is this like 5 seconds before they drop a slur in the trailer? Yes. But it's a game about Japanese people by Japanese people, so it's not actually a big deal, was just super jarring to hear in the trailer. In Summer Games Fest no less!

So I've talked on here before about my love for Death Mark. And this promo art hits the nail on the head perfectly. Which is weird because while the in-game art and gameplay seem so deeply different, the vibes seem like they might end up being similar. Let me explain.

Look at this. You're going around this 3D world, interacting with objects, accomplishing tasks. This looks like a delightful farming sim.

But then this happens. Horrifying changes to the environment, spooky mysteries. But also. And I cannot express enough how much I love this. The tasks in the top left have not changed. You need to tend this terrifying back yard. Make sure to harvest a tomato with your glowing red gun.

I have spent. So. Many. Hours of my life. Playing Scott Pilgrim with my friends. Every time I move somewhere new and I'm nervous and trying to make new friends, I invite them over for some beers, break out my PS3 and play multiplayer. The original game means so much to me and I'm beyond hype that they're making another. And it's a PUN because you can PLAY AS THE EXES!!

Look! That's the asshole guitar dude, right? I was stuck on that level for so long. I am also just genuinely so bad at Scott Pilgrim and I can't wait to be super bad all over again.

No link for Stranger than Heaven :(

At least one game has a non-Steam non-Epic link, that's cool. This if for Fractured Blooms

No Scott Pilgrim link either. You win some, you lose some. Also I'm doing all these very hastily. If there's no link on the first page of search results, I'm giving up. Not like that many people read my blog anyway.

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Gundham Tanaka?? My Chunibyo King?

Sorry. Wrong Kodaka game. I do love Tanaka though. And I'm not gonna lie, Ima's had a really good character arc actually. He was annoying the shit out of me, but I've definitely come around on him.

Holy shit. That's a human person. Like we really can't ignore it anymore we aren't just fighting weird little goblins. These are people with thoughts and emotions.

Me in history class. Almost right. You're passing with a C- Eito. Also playing this right after Metaphor Re:Fantazio is crazy.

She has a picture! Is she gonna join the team? I really hope so. That would be so cool to team up with one of the enemy and learn from each other and stuff.

I came here to see the prisoner. What is this? I'm delighted. This is so dumb. This game is already 10/10 for me and I'm not even 60% through my first ending.

The... the first ending is at 100 days, right? I'm not going to have to keep going much longer, right?????

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Everything Else Cool

This is kinda a catchall for the things that I thought were cool but didn't quite get a spot in my ultimate hype post that's coming out next. Honorable Mentions if you will.

I've put. An unreasonable number of hours into Hades and now Hades 2. Especially given how not-very-far I am in the plots. I am genuinely bad at these games and I will play them for hours upon hours. They're just so fun and colorful and full of personality. And Towa seems like a great new addition into that niche.

The link is on the screenshot for this one. I just wanted an easy way to show the promo art style since the promo art is so adorable but also sooooo different from the in game art.

This is the gorgeous in-game art. I know it's fairly common, especially for older games and games that draw heavy inspiration from older games like this. But I don't get why promo art and in-game art differing this much makes sense. The game is gorgeous in its own way that I think anyone buying would be able to see.

Should've put in art but if felt too similar to out of words. Which. Now that I'm typing it doesn't make much sense. But it did when I was organizing my list of games into a post. So like. Take that.

Genuinely can't tell gameplay from cutscene though, every moment is so gorgeous. And the narrative seems like a really sweet coming of age kind of story. A little too far in the past for my coming of age, but still a nice story to see.

I won't play this but I'm so hype to watch this streamed because it looks like so much violent fun.

Like just look at this. The physics and rigging are obviously kind of wonky. But who care? You're beating up dudes and being a totaly badass. Phenomenal. Very excited.

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I Was Just Talking About This Game Being Serious!

Then this nerd has to go and say this line. I'm done. Can't have shit in this town.

Actually, someone I like a lot on youtube has been playing this at roughly the same pace as me and talking about Kodaka's influence and how he always needs to have someone chime in with a dumb comment to remind the audience that they're there. I can't get that out of my head now when I read lines like that.

holyfucking shit a choice! Is this it? Is this the moment that I get to split into one of the literal 100 fucking endings??

Goddamnit. No. No it wasn't. I was forced to go convince Kako. But also I think this is the first screenshot I've taken of the convincing minigame. Which makes sense because I love it so much, I don't think to take a second out to screen shot it. These vibes are so good with the lights and the way the wrong options appear in a way that makes you stressed into thinking "oh man, maybe this IS what I should pick."

Also fuck Ima. This was bullshit. Kako rules and I'm so glad she didn't listen to Takumi.

I really like the writing decision to make Takumi break from what readers (probably) want him to do, but in a way that doesn't have lasting impacts. It's nice to see Takumi scared and making bad decisions as a result. It's also nice getting to see Kako 360 no scope invaders from across the map. Truly this game has it all.

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Someone is Feasting. That Person is not Me.

So I'm going to make these themed posts about Summer Games Fest And Friends until I run out of things to say. But I'll also have my queue set to have two posts per day. So there will be one of these and also one of my regular Hundred Line posts. Twice as much posting joy. That being said, today's theme is: games that all look the same to me because I'm not interested.

There's a lot of shooters in this Summer Games Fest and also this post. Maybe that's really what I'm not liking here. I have a bad history in real life with guns so I don't like playing shooters too much. But I'm going to keep digging to see if there's any other reason so many of these feel like such misses for me and like they're hitting for some other person.

Okay, this is the same game as above. Only time I'm going to post two pictures from the same game in this post, but I really wanted to compare and contrast with this.

These robots look so insanely similar to the ones in the last picture. Okay these are both Mundfish, so maybe these are the same robots or something, just as an outsider this is a lot to try to differentiate. And really adds to the samey issue I'm experiencing.

This is from Arc. More guns, more photo realistic with realistic environments that have a bunch of sci fi technology slapped on top. Honestly maybe I'm just in a place where I need something more visually interesting because if I wanted to look at something realistic, I'd go outside.

This is from the Dune game. Fun fact: I played the Dune board game for the first time with my friends recently. It was super fun! This on the other hand? Doesn't interest me much.

This is from SCUM. I think it's supposed to be all caps like that? I apologize if I'm stylizing wrong. But can you see the type of game I'm talking about? It's another shooter. This is vaguely a real life city. There's nothing really grabbing me.

This is from Split Gate. This guy's hat was so dumb. It said "Make FPS Great Again" which I just think is kinda cringe. Not horrible, but def annoying.

There's like 6 more but idk if I even need to find them. I think I've made my point.

I think also something I've notice while looking through all these. Not only am I not a fan of the gameplay, but there's not a heavy focus on the narrative. So sometimes I will endure a gun based game if I like the narrative. But there's nothing story wise that I saw in many of these that pull me in.

All of this is to say that I'm very happy for the folks who are excited by these kinds of things. I think if this is your jam then you are feasting, you are going to have an incredible next couple of years in game releases. And that's good, too. I've had a great run of couple years, I've got plenty of backlog. The singular point that me and capitalists can agree on is that having a bunch of variety of options is good. Not everything needs to be for everyone, but everyone should be able to find their thing.

I hope that all makes sense and nobody feels attacked by my rant here. I just noticed this while I was watching and thought I'd put my thoughts down here.

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Plot So Good I Forget to Screenshot

Hehehe. This is really cute. Took me a second to get the song reference, but I like that a lot.

Uh. This one I'm not getting. I don't think this is part of the song? Maybe I need to relisten.

Read this line. Read this scene. Read it again. The social commentary in this and Rain Code. It's not like. Good. But normally these two are stuck in their big ideas like Hope and Free Will and shit. So to see themes like "Humanity has fucked up en masse, what're we gonna do about it" is refreshingly grounded. And I'm super here for it. Big ideas have their place, but so do stories like this. I'm glad to have both from some of my favorite VN writers.

That's no moon, that's a.... well I haven't seen Star Wars actually. But you get the joke.

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No One Asked, But I'm Glad There's an Answer

This one is for the weird shit that I wasn't expecting, no one was expecting, but still seem really fun and weird.

I don't like Disney, and by association Marvel. But I must admit the vibes here are incredible. I don't fully understand why it's only on the Quest, but actually the only VR setup anyone I know anyone irl with. So maybe I'll have an opportunity to try. But VR also gives me a tummy ache. Either way super cool super weird.

This one really took me by surprise. But actually, while looking for pics to post I saw that this apparently isn't even the first Wu-Tang game?? So maybe I'm just late here and they've been doing this.

Also it looks so good? Like this thing is dripping with style and personality. Genuinely I'm tempted to take a look even though I don't normally play this type of game and I'm not even a huge Wu-Tang fan (I mean, I recognize they're good, but it's just not my vibe).

Last one might just be weird because my friend has been trying to get me to play Guacamele for so long and I keep putting it off. But here the devs are with a new game that looks really beautiful.

I think this is called cell shading? It's the same type of thing that's going on in the Deadpool VR game that makes it look like a comic book even though it's 3D models. It's always so striking to look at, especially with these bright, vibrant color pallets.

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This is so scary

What the fuck does this mean? I've fought so many battles, had my friends and mentor die and go missing. This is the single scariest thing I've read.

Darumi knows what's up. Once I get any amount of endings and thus care less about spoilers, I'm going to look into the fandom opinion of Darumi. Since she's the stand-in for us I can see her being kind of divisive.

Well congrats Shouma, as annoying as your self hatred can be sometimes, "I'll go out in a blaze of mediocrity" is now a staple in my vocabulary.

That's so funny. I do love when these characters have their One Thing actually matter in the gameplay portion. Shouma hates himself so much he can't be brainwashed into anything else. Brilliant. 10/10.

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Unbelievable Art Direction

Exactly what it says on the tin. Today I'm talking about things I saw at the Summer Games Fest that took my breath away from visuals alone. Starting with this little guy.

This is from Out of Words, and I don't know if stop motion in gaming has gotten easier or if people are just willing to put in 8x the effort to get a game that looks 10x more interesting and unique and beautiful. But I'm 100% here for it.

And it's fucking CO-OP?? Are you kidding me? My boyfriend's never going to hear the end of this. I'm buying this game at launch and that's going to be all our at-home date nights until it's over. I really hope couch co-op and stop motion both have huge renaissances coming up because I love them both dearly and have been seeing much more of them.

I know I've already cursed once, but pardon my language when I say: WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN THIS IS A GAME??? This is the muppets. This is that puppet show they had on MTV when I was a wee baby. There's no way this is a game.

Well I stand corrected. There's UI and health and everything. This is crazy. Is this also stop motion? Is this just rendering insanely well? No way, right? I've seen AAA games not be able to render hairs like that. Genuinely if anyone knows how this works, I'd love to hear it.

I know I said this last time, but my brain really cannot wrap around this one. These are Legos. Immaculately lit and put together much better than I ever did as a child. But I feel like I can reach my hand through my screen and grab a piece, drop it, and destroy my foot stepping on it. That's how real these toys are.

And again! It's coop! With the red and the blue pieces solving puzzles together by building with Lego blocks. My wallet is crying but my relationship has never been happier.

Three incredible games here. I know there were a lot of beautiful games showcased and I'll be talking about those in future posts, but these guys right here are doing something different. The art I posted here is special and deserves a moment to be celebrated.

Once again, I provide links to pages where people can see even more:

Unfortunately I couldn't find a Lego link :( Even the pics that I got, I had to screen grab from the trailer. This one must be super new.

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I Stan One Idiot Motorcyclist

I know a wall of text isn't the best image to start with. Just. Please read the words this man is saying. I'm dying. Fuck yeah, man. Big-ass tigers make you drive faster.

I mean. I call him an idiot, but clearly he gets results. So maybe I'm the one who is dumb. After all

MY MAN GETS RESULTS!!