There was once a boy. Handsome, tall, of average figure, accompanied by a downcast look. Inky dark hair, and a countenance seemingly calm, withstanding all trouble and hardships. However, though stoic and reserved, he had a hole right in the center of his chest, becoming deeper and ever so slightly painful. It was consuming him, tormenting him, and ultimately, it defeated him. That hole was called failure. After this fall, he tried to stand up. He mustered all the strength he could, and tried to walk. That very fist step was important, for that step alone would define if he either fell again, or if he would advance. Furthermore, his chest still hurt from his past defeat, and his feet were weighty, for they were tied to shackles. This shackles were his past. Past itself is not what had tormented him, but the deeds he had committed. Finally, the boy was capable to continue walking, now all his concentration focused solely on finding absolution.
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紅殻町博物誌
https://youtu.be/_-FsA-CHyTU
I most recently finished 紅殻町博物誌 (Bengarachou Hakubutsushi), the second title released by Liar-soft‘s often misrepresented and even more unknown sister brand raiL-soft. This marked my first experience with both this maker and its flagship author, the enigmatic Mareni. He’s probably most widely known in the west for being the guy who wrote Albatross Koukairoku, and as the writer whose work has ended up at the top of many eroge difficulty charts of questionable veracity throughout the years thanks to his high vocabulary level and distinct style.
I started reading this by accident, truth be told. I needed a change of pace for the night while in the middle of the final entry in the Akatsuki no Goei trilogy, so I opened Bengarachou Hakubutsushi and there was simply no turning back. It was unlike anything I’d ever seen before in eroge, with lines exponentially longer than what I was used to and absolutely spellbinding text that made me feel like I was reading something beamed in from over a century ago. A shame for AkaGoei (forgive me Kaito), but seeing this one through turned out to be the right choice as it quickly became one of the best experiences I’ve had in the medium. Continue reading “紅殻町博物誌”
What are we reading? Test Run
So this is a new post format we’re trying out to see if it will stick. Every other week or so we’ll have a collaborative post by various contributors to the blog discussing what we’re currently reading – the format is designed to be a bit more casual than full reviews, so that we can just get our thoughts out in a more immediate manner on whatever we’ve been spending our time with.
Do let us know if you’d like to see more in this format; I’m not quite sure it has enough meat on its bones in the current iteration. I would like do to at least one more test post with more authors… hint hint.
Anyway, this week’s posters are sacred, Wahfuu, and myself (Moogy). Continue reading “What are we reading? Test Run”
恋ではなく – Thoughts
…その冬は、
毎日が、
戦いだった。
それも…
終わりの、皆目みえてこない戦いだ。
First things first. What is love? Can we really define it? Is it something tangible? Probably not, but in occasions it punches people in the guts so hard it almost feels like it was. There must be something else to it. Something more than meets the eye. Something we can’t really understand wholly, in the sense and literal meaning of the word, and that may be seen as just another part of human nature. By some, nothing but the path to a mating ritual. It influences us, either as a father or mother, as a brother or sister, and it can define how we will be for a certain period of time, or even our whole life, at that. It can become intoxicating, a medicine for the afflicted heart, a necessity, nourishment for a wounded soul, an escape for those looking for refuge, or nothing at all. Our precious nothing. Love certainly comes in many forms and shapes, however, it is the human being who shapes it and embodies it. Thus, love takes a worldly shape – a human shape – ergo it transcends us, shapes us, or even rules over us. Continue reading “恋ではなく – Thoughts”
Crossing the Road When the Lights Go Green
いつか、届く、あの空に。- Thoughts
Quietly tucked away in popular moege company Lump of Sugar’s library of otherwise mundane tales of high school romance lies the sleeping giant that is Itsuka, Todoku, Ano Sora ni, henceforth referred to as Itsusora for convenience’s sake. Originally penned by veteran Shumon Yuu (more recently known from Asairo and Tenshi no Hane o Fumanaide fame) in the year 2006, it boasts an extraordinarily detailed setting populated with a cast of unique characters and a level of plot complexity few other titles can even begin to compete with.
Fair warning, this review will contain minor spoilers simply because the game is impossible to talk about in any significant way otherwise, but as always I will do my utmost to avoid anything that would seriously adversely effect a new reader’s enjoyment of the title. Continue reading “いつか、届く、あの空に。- Thoughts”
ガチャの値段 ～お前らも悪い～
やぁ、てるです。記事っぽいものを書いてしまいました。pastebinとかに張るのも何なので、許可をもらってこの場を借りてます。私を知らない人がいれば、私の正体なんてどうでもいいです。
自分の固定挨拶になりつつある「やぁ、てるです。」を使いすぎて変換候補に出てしまっていることが今しがた発覚しまして、この事実をどう受け入れたらいいのかよくわかりません。
さて、今日はガチャの話をしたいと思います。
私はガチャを導入してるクソソシャゲーが嫌いなことは周知の事実ですが、それには様々な理由があります。残念だけど私に発言力がないので何を言っても聞き入れてくれる人は少なく、だからこそ日に日にイラストに対する姿勢が傾き始めてます（イラストの力はすごい）。
その話はとりあえず置いておきます。
Kikaijikake no Eve – Thoughts
I finished 機械仕掛けのイヴ ～Dea Ex Machina～ a few months back and still haven’t quite recovered. To this day, I’m not sure what possessed me during those 8 days of 10+ hour reading sessions but it’s one of the coolest experiences I’ve come across in the eroge medium; I consider it a kind of landmark in my journey. I was recommended this game rather enthusiastically for some time prior to reading (thanks Moogy and Metarail) so I was decently excited for it right off the bat, but I did not expect to fall in love with it the way I did. I was hooked from the first scene, and with the exception of some technical issues on my end it never really let up. Continue reading “Kikaijikake no Eve – Thoughts”
Moogy’s Year End Extravaganza （かわいい） – Part 1
I’m going to review literally everything I read, watched, or played this year, and there’s nothing any of you can do to stop me. This will be a two-part series, mostly because I’m terrible.
Please be aware that all statements presented in this post are objective truths and if you disagree with me on anything then it is because religion has stolen your soul and made you its slave. Continue reading “Moogy’s Year End Extravaganza （かわいい） – Part 1”
A Cursed Flock of Birds – Rui Ha Tomo wo Yobu
“僕らはみんな、呪われている。
みんな僕らに、 呪われている。”
A little known fact about me: I’m an enormous Hino fanboy. Some of you might be shocked at this. Some of you probably knew. Some of you probably can’t imagine why, since what you know of Hino comes from a… rather, in my opinion, off translation of his game that didn’t really showcase his writing style, whilst also being his game with the most readily apparent surface issues. So, I figured that making a full post about not only my favorite game by him, but one of my absolutely favorite eroge in general, would be a good way to showcase why he is my favorite writer out of everyone I’ve discovered from reading eroge. With some added hope that I might be able to… somewhat clear up some odd misunderstandings that people have of this game.
Oh, and as a preliminary note, I won’t be going too deep into the fandisc’s theme of 明日 in this post, for reasons I explain below, but I do loosely talk about the fandisc and the quality of its parts, since it’s impossible to avoid. And of course, the fandisc has the theme of 呪い deeply ingrained into it as well, so you can somewhat take what I say here as applicable to the fandisc too.
And with the introductions out of the way, let’s get going. This is a bit of a long one.
Continue reading “A Cursed Flock of Birds – Rui Ha Tomo wo Yobu”
墓碑銘の楽しき混乱 A Fun Derangement of Epitaphs 