This was terrible game design. But I squeezed some lemonade out of it. I'll explain
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My most Luddite opinion is that you must pick one
a) the ability to connect with arbitrary numbers of people simultaneously around the world
b) rich, multi-modal, interaction that mutually exposes vulnerability among participants
if you want a) and b) simultaneously you get the basis for a science fiction horror scenario and that's a Bad Thing unless you're a Gendo Ikari type
"individuals might experience episodic segments of the lives of other willing participants (locally or remote) to, hopefully, encourage and inspire improved understanding and tolerance among all members of the human family" uh nope sorry
this goes to my periodic complaint about global villages vs. global cities. cities are anonymous places full of wary people that, after certain conditions are met, can become lifelong friends....
villages are places ruled by grandmas who, whatever the ethnicity or nationality, have intelligence networks that rival the KGB
a) the ability to connect with arbitrary numbers of people simultaneously around the world
b) rich, multi-modal, interaction that mutually exposes vulnerability among participants
if you want a) and b) simultaneously you get the basis for a science fiction horror scenario and that's a Bad Thing unless you're a Gendo Ikari type
"individuals might experience episodic segments of the lives of other willing participants (locally or remote) to, hopefully, encourage and inspire improved understanding and tolerance among all members of the human family" uh nope sorry
this goes to my periodic complaint about global villages vs. global cities. cities are anonymous places full of wary people that, after certain conditions are met, can become lifelong friends....
I mean, A enabled me to have B with a bunch of people I couldn't have met in the beforetimes, but this was a time on the internet when moving up the ladder of intimacy included "telling each other your legal names"
— K. Chen (@tznkai) January 6, 2021
villages are places ruled by grandmas who, whatever the ethnicity or nationality, have intelligence networks that rival the KGB
Considering this year I don't have much in the way of game translation to discuss, publicly, I'd say this was a productive year for writing threads on largely neglected and forgotten Japanese games. So if you're looking to learn about some, here's what I wrote about in 2020!
2020 was another year where I talked a *lot* of shop about dating sim history. Much of it was actual dating sims, like in some threads below, but sometimes I went on adjacent tangents, like for the cool Kojipro-developed Tokimeki Memorial adventure games:
I also went down a whole new rabbit hole for Fuuraiki, an open-ended PS1/PS2 adventure game with a cult following about traveling around the island of Hokkaido that's set to real world photography. It's a unique tangent in galge well worth exploring:
I also took a quick jaunt into Michinoku Hitou Koi Monogatari, a spiritual predecessor to Fuuraiki that's about traveling around Tohoku against a backdrop of mahjong matches. It's a rough draft that would get much more refined later, but still worthwhile:
In terms of actual dating sims that I covered, the focus was mainly post-Amagami games released by Kadokawa such as Photo Kano. While I think these games have MANY flaws, they do offer key insight into the state of the genre during its decade-long decline:
2020 was another year where I talked a *lot* of shop about dating sim history. Much of it was actual dating sims, like in some threads below, but sometimes I went on adjacent tangents, like for the cool Kojipro-developed Tokimeki Memorial adventure games:
I finished the drama CD for Shiori's route of Tokimemo Drama Vol. 3 earlier and it was sweet, but lacking. So, I'm plunging back into the world of Feeling Sad About Shiori! Maybe I'll make this a thread about all the cool ways KojiPro translated a dating sim to an adventure game? pic.twitter.com/SWXLvUwMO1
— Tom James, The Daigo Umehara of Dating Sims (@iiotenki) September 2, 2020
I also went down a whole new rabbit hole for Fuuraiki, an open-ended PS1/PS2 adventure game with a cult following about traveling around the island of Hokkaido that's set to real world photography. It's a unique tangent in galge well worth exploring:
So as I mentioned about a week ago, I've been digging into Fuuraiki, a late PS1 release I've been meaning to check out for years. It's an adventure game where you travel along Hokkaido on motorcycle taking photos of the scenery and writing travelogues and it's pretty rad. pic.twitter.com/uhajPmDrm9
— Tom James, The Daigo Umehara of Dating Sims (@iiotenki) January 27, 2020
I also took a quick jaunt into Michinoku Hitou Koi Monogatari, a spiritual predecessor to Fuuraiki that's about traveling around Tohoku against a backdrop of mahjong matches. It's a rough draft that would get much more refined later, but still worthwhile:
It's neat as a historical curiosity and I'm glad I did it to have context for a Fuuraikai route which sees Yumi (the oneesan in purple) return, but I wouldn't call it at all essential. My main takeaways are I suck real bad at hana-awase and a stupendously dumb swan boat chase. pic.twitter.com/aRe1S4yF6o
— Tom James, The Daigo Umehara of Dating Sims (@iiotenki) October 27, 2020
In terms of actual dating sims that I covered, the focus was mainly post-Amagami games released by Kadokawa such as Photo Kano. While I think these games have MANY flaws, they do offer key insight into the state of the genre during its decade-long decline:
Well.
— Tom James, The Daigo Umehara of Dating Sims (@iiotenki) April 25, 2020
Let's do this again, I guess. pic.twitter.com/pLoef5uHap
