I don't know if I'm ever actually going to review either half of Umineko in here, so for the moment, just consider this at best a placeholder, at worst, just my personal check-point. It's been almost three months since my friends and I finished playing Umineko. Anyone who's read my pieces on Higurashi knows what that game was to me. Umineko sits at the top of it all for me. It's just at the top of everything I've spent my 20-odd years experiencing, the culmination of so much personal journeying, growing and experiencing. I sincerely doubt anything will knock it from its pillar anytime in any near future. What this means to me on an intimate level is something that ultimately right now belongs to my friends and I intimately. I don't know if and when I'll be comfortable sharing beyond that. That is our small world which we inhabit together. Some cat boxes are best left alone, and I think any of you would understand and respect that.

If anything, I want to really extend a lot of gratitude to Ryukishi07, to 07th Expansion and Witch Hunt, especially to the late BT, whose death and more importantly his lifelong friendship with Ryukishi clearly affected how the game evolved into what it became, to the voice cast, and to my friends for all of this. Genuinely a reason to live some days. A reason to create and imagine, every single day.

愛がなければ視えない。

I'm obsessed with this game. It's a brainrot that consumes me every waking hour. I binged the finale to Canto VI for 5 hours straight and was hooked the entire time. I've been working through reading the literary inspirations for all the Sinners, and what Project Moon have built off the back of Wuthering Heights is incredible. More than anything, the character writing is so movingly human despite the horrors and depravity of the City. Nobody's ever too "broken" to be worth love.

Love must be the reason why
I still believe in this lie
That you'll live a better life
Without me by your side

I've always wanted to conquer the world.

Sadly I live in modern America where guns the greatest thing known to man, bayonets are completely impractical, swords are fucking useless, and those amazing european suits of armor with dick protectors (yes those exist) are obselete. Thankfully, video games exist nowadays and I can kill my unquenchable thrist for this unknown type of urge I want. After years, I found what I was looking for. Strategy RPGs. For a while, Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War had what I wanted. Massive interconnected maps with a simple battle system and a great storyline to boot. Also, the game has a rating system which begs you to get a perfect game (which I plan to do one day) along with a generation system where the relationships of characters can lead different troops you get down the road. But the game wasn’t enough. The map was confined to a dozen or so maps that you couldn’t go back to and check on later. Plus, Fire Emblem had gone back to their regular old self and never tried this type of approach ever again. Plus, that rumored remake is probably not happening. Thankfully, I decided to graduate to grand strategy games and test their waters. There’s just one problem, they all fucking suck. Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Total War, and Liberty or Death were tailor made for hardcore players and insane PC gamers who can multitask like gods and know how to work their extremely advanced and complex UI and mechanics. They were a little too big for my taste. But thankfully, I found this game, Kichikuou Rance.

It has what I wanted. It’s immersive like wow I’m conquering the fucking world! It has a pretty simple UI design (being made in 1996 by a bunch of wack jobs who only made Dragon Quest but with pornographic twists and turns) and a simple battle system that just clicks. And, they are so many variables to take notes on. All main characters (side notes: there’s 167 characters I’m not joking) have good and bad ends depending on your actions. I want to go back to this game one day and just make the absolute limit of a strategy to get as many of the good endings of characters as possible. Ah yeah. The sex. It’s fine. Not the best. Not the worst. I was kinda shocked that one of the women in the game had a dozen guys with blue, pink, green, whatever hair and I was like “oh zamn thats nice”.

Anyways, good game. And before anyone asks, no I'm not a Rance fan.