[2024/4/7 @ 11:18am] finally starting to get my gaming blog set up! i've been having a lot of fun updating the animanga blog, but i thought it would be nice to have separate
blogs for separate things i'm interested in. to be honest, i have a lot to say about just about anything at any given moment, so it's great to have a place to kind of brain-vomit. maybe
that's a gross way to put it... anyways!

it was my birthday a little while ago, so i picked up a couple of not-so-new games. it was really fun getting to visit all sorts of game stores again, but it turns out ps vita games are
kind of a pain to find in-person since the console wasn't very popular here. thankfully, i got lucky and scored a copy of 'steins;gate' and 'danganronpa: trigger happy havoc' which was
super exciting. i've played both of them before of course, but there's just something special about playing a game on its intended console... also, it's super satisfying finally having
a physical copy of two of my favourite games.

i still want to get a physical copy of the second danganronpa game... since it's my favourite, i feel its absence very strongly when i look at my collection... i'm not actually very big
on buying multiple versions of the same game, but these are a couple of my exceptions. i originally played both of these on my laptop, but i just find pc gaming rather uncomfortable for
some reason... or maybe too comfortable?

i'm not sure, but either way i find i always end up falling asleep somehow when i try to play visual novels on my laptop. maybe the warmth of the computer lulls me to sleep. other than
that, i also picked up some cds and a dvd copy of 'astro boy' since it was one of my favourite movies when i was younger. i love that my ps3 can also work as a cd and dvd player. what a
handy machine.

you know, i actually wrote this before i've added the gaming blog to my website, technically. it feels kinda weird...

[2024/4/20 @ 10:32am] a little while ago i started playing 'master detective archives: rain code' and i really enjoyed it. my attention kind of got stolen away by a different game i started
playing, though... i'd like to get back to it soon. i feel like it's so hard to resist the temptation of playing something new every time i'm in the middle of some other game. so, as a result,
i'm actually more focused on 'amnesia: memories' at the moment. one of my friends is a big fan of otome games, so i figured it would be fun to give one a try and this seemed pretty popular.
maybe i'm a little late to the party, though, lol.

anyways, i love games that are just super absurd, and this definitely fit the bill. i finally finished four of the good endings and unlocked the last route the other day, and playing through
it the first time i managed to get every single bad ending possible... it reminded me a lot of my very first playthrough of the game, where i made the mistake of picking the 'diamond' world
and was met with all kinds of terrifying twists...

i really enjoyed myself, though. i think since i went into it hoping for something absurd, and since i'm a big fan of horror games and media in general, particularly psychological horror,
i kind of played through it assuming that it was supposed to be a horror game and had a lot of fun with it.

i feel a little bad for anyone who picked it up thinking it would just be a cute dating sim, though. as far as i know, horror isn't even technically one of the genres it's listed as despite
everything that happens. the bad endings in particular definitely qualify as horror, regardless of what genre the game is trying to be. that one in the 'joker' route with the metal shrapnel
of sorts... yikes. not sure why, but that one unsettled me a lot.

some are pretty funny with just how weird they get and how easy they are to trigger. mild spoiler, but i ended up laughing at the one with toma in the 'joker' route since it felt so random. he
switched a flip so suddenly that it was just funny to me. having played through his route, obviously i knew he was like that to an extent, but it just felt kind of forced. plus, the ink part was
incredibly funny, whether intentional or not.

i love games with these sort of absurd, out-of-nowhere bad endings. they're so entertaining because you never know when a single, seemingly innocent, choice could result in something totally
unhinged.

if you don't like horror, the game isn't exactly terrifying or anything, but i wouldn't really recommend it. i feel like a lot of the entertainment value of this game lies in the absurdity,
not only of the characters and the things they do, but even the grounds for the story itself.

it's also pretty dated, and does come across as pretty sexist at times. that doesn't really bother me a whole lot since, again, it's pretty old now and generally speaking older media tends to
have those kinds of uncomfortable undertones regardless. i tend to lean towards older media in general, and i feel like viewing it with a modern perspective means a little suspension of disbelief
is necessary to enjoy a lot of it, unfortunately.

though i would definitely consider myself a fan of the game at this point, i wouldn't necessarily say it's something i'd go out recommending people. i feel like, considering why i enjoy it,
mainly being for the horror aspects and the absurdity of the game as a whole, it isn't really something a lot of people are specifically looking for when they're considering playing this, since
it's mostly marketed as a dating sim. i could definitely be wrong, though, as this is the only otome game i've played. for all i know these could be core aspects of the genre... who's to say?
still, i feel like it's really important to think critically about the media you enjoy, and i think a lot of the fun of playing something for the first time is re-analyzing your view of it as
new information presents itself. so, while this game certainly isn't without its flaws, i really did enjoy it. you'd do well to look up trigger warnings before you play it, though, if you plan to.

oh, and the production quality is pretty good. i didn't really like the style of the cgs, but the sprites and the voice acting were both really good. i don't usually care about voice acting in
games, but they did an amazing job in this one.

so, while it isn't necessarily the best thing i've ever played, it was incredibly entertaining. ultimately, i feel like that's all i'm really looking for in a game. it also gave me a good excuse
to use the ps vita i recently picked up. this is the first game i actually played on it, and it's honestly the best console for visual novels imo. it's nice and light, and the buttons are really
satisfying to press. plus, the display is super pretty.

anyways, the photos below are the rest of my handheld consoles (excluding my switch) because i decorated them recently. i used to put stickers all over my consoles when i was younger, so this
felt really nostalgic to do. it was nice being able to buy the stickers i wanted to instead of just using random ones, though. you can kind of see on my ds lite where stickers used to be, since
the pearl finish on that console sticks to the stickers and comes off... she's been through a lot...

the first ds i ever had was actually the pale pink ds lite. it had a broken hinge and eventually died a long time ago, though. so, the ds i've had longest out of this lineup is actually the
dsi xl! my sibling and i have matching ones, and they're in surprisingly good condition considering how long we've had them.

after that was the 3ds xl, which is definitely the most beat-up out of all of them since it was my favourite for the longest time. the amount of times i tried to walk away while it was still plugged
into the charger is actually horrendous.

finally, the new 2ds xl is the first gaming console i bought myself! the rest, excluding my newest addition, the vita, were gifts from family. i made sure to load it up with games before the
3ds eshop closed down, hehe... i can't wait to get around to finishing the ace attorney series on there.

...i feel like my blog entries just keep getting longer, so i'll end this one here. thanks for reading. :)

[2024/4/23 @ 7:47am] i recently finished painting my gaming shelf. this one was a lot faster to finish than my danganronpa or madohomu shelves were... i didn't want to commit to a full mural
on the back of the shelf like those two because this one has a different purpose, since it's too low to display figures or merch. (also because those murals were a pain to do, lovingly)

i kind of wanted to give it a similar vibe to the other shelves, though, and eventually i got the idea to just do one big spiral. i know it's just a spiral, and that not every spiral has to be a
junji ito reference... but it's one in my heart.

it's a little messy because i was honestly kind of rushing it, but i still like how it turned out. it's a little more interesting than a plain black shelf, at the very least.

i'm really looking forward to when i finally finish painting the third shelf... that one's my horror game merch shelf. i only decided that recently, though, so it's a little bare at the moment.
i can't wait for the ib nendoroid to ship out... i'd also like to include some amnesia nendoroids, though it's technically not a horror game. once the rest of the ddlc nendoroid and pop up
parades are also here, i think the shelf will look a lot more lively. i really want to include some fatal frame merch too, if i can manage to find any.