A spectre is haunting Europe — the spectre of communism. All the powers of old Europe have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise this spectre: Pope and Tsar, Metternich and Guizot, French Radicals and German police-spies. Where is the party in opposition that has not been decried as communistic by its opponents in power? Where is the opposition that has not hurled back the branding reproach of communism, against the more advanced opposition parties, as well as against its reactionary adversaries? Two things result from this fact: I. Communism is already acknowledged by all European powers to be itself a power. II. It is high time that Communists should openly, in the face of the whole world, publish their views, their aims, their tendencies, and meet this nursery tale of the Spectre of Communism with a manifesto of the party itself. To this end, Communists of various nationalities have assembled in London and sketched the following manifesto, to be published in the English, French, German, Italian, Flemish and Danish languages. Chapter I. Bourgeois and Proletarians(1)

[German Original] The history of all hitherto existing society(2) is the history of class struggles. Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild-master(3) and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, a fight that each time ended, either in a revolutionary reconstitution of society at large, or in the common ruin of the contending classes. In the earlier epochs of history, we find almost everywhere a complicated arrangement of society into various orders, a manifold gradation of social rank. In ancient Rome we have patricians, knights, plebeians, slaves; in the Middle Ages, feudal lords, vassals, guild-masters, journeymen, apprentices, serfs; in almost all of these classes, again, subordinate gradations. The modern bourgeois society that has sprouted from the ruins of feudal society has not done away with class antagonisms. It has but established new classes, new conditions of oppression, new forms of struggle in place of the old ones. Our epoch, the epoch of the bourgeoisie, possesses, however, this distinct feature: it has simplified class antagonisms. Society as a whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps, into two great classes directly facing each other — Bourgeoisie and Proletariat. From the serfs of the Middle Ages sprang the chartered burghers of the earliest towns. From these burgesses the first elements of the bourgeoisie were developed. The discovery of America, the rounding of the Cape, opened up fresh ground for the rising bourgeoisie. The East-Indian and Chinese markets, the colonisation of America, trade with the colonies, the increase in the means of exchange and in commodities generally, gave to commerce, to navigation, to industry, an impulse never before known, and thereby, to the revolutionary element in the tottering feudal society, a rapid development. The feudal system of industry, in which industrial production was monopolised by closed guilds, now no longer sufficed for the growing wants of the new markets. The manufacturing system took its place. The guild-masters were pushed on one side by the manufacturing middle class; division of labour between the different corporate guilds vanished in the face of division of labour in each single workshop. Meantime the markets kept ever growing, the demand ever rising. Even manufacturer no longer sufficed. Thereupon, steam and machinery revolutionised industrial production. The place of manufacture was taken by the giant, Modern Industry; the place of the industrial middle class by industrial millionaires, the leaders of the whole industrial armies, the modern bourgeois. Modern industry has established the world market, for which the discovery of America paved the way. This market has given an immense development to commerce, to navigation, to communication by land. This development has, in its turn, reacted on the extension of industry; and in proportion as industry, commerce, navigation, railways extended, in the same proportion the bourgeoisie developed, increased its capital, and pushed into the background every class handed down from the Middle Ages. We see, therefore, how the modern bourgeoisie is itself the product of a long course of development, of a series of revolutions in the modes of production and of exchange. Each step in the development of the bourgeoisie was accompanied by a corresponding political advance of that class. An oppressed class under the sway of the feudal nobility, an armed and self-governing association in the medieval commune(4): here independent urban republic (as in Italy and Germany); there taxable “third estate” of the monarchy (as in France); afterwards, in the period of manufacturing proper, serving either the semi-feudal or the absolute monarchy as a counterpoise against the nobility, and, in fact, cornerstone of the great monarchies in general, the bourgeoisie has at last, since the establishment of Modern Industry and of the world market, conquered for itself, in the modern representative State, exclusive political sway. The executive of the modern state is but a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie. The bourgeoisie, historically, has played a most revolutionary part. The bourgeoisie, wherever it has got the upper hand, has put an end to all feudal, patriarchal, idyllic relations. It has pitilessly torn asunder the motley feudal ties that bound man to his “natural superiors”, and has left remaining no other nexus between man and man than naked self-interest, than callous “cash payment”. It has drowned the most heavenly ecstasies of religious fervour, of chivalrous enthusiasm, of philistine sentimentalism, in the icy water of egotistical calculation. It has resolved personal worth into exchange value, and in place of the numberless indefeasible chartered freedoms, has set up that single, unconscionable freedom — Free Trade. In one word, for exploitation, veiled by religious and political illusions, it has substituted naked, shameless, direct, brutal exploitation. The bourgeoisie has stripped of its halo every occupation hitherto honoured and looked up to with reverent awe. It has converted the physician, the lawyer, the priest, the poet, the man of science, into its paid wage labourers. The bourgeoisie has torn away from the family its sentimental veil, and has reduced the family relation to a mere money relation. The bourgeoisie has disclosed how it came to pass that the brutal display of vigour in the Middle Ages, which reactionaries so much admire, found its fitting complement in the most slothful indolence. It has been the first to show what man’s activity can bring about. It has accomplished wonders far surpassing Egyptian pyramids, Roman aqueducts, and Gothic cathedrals; it has conducted expeditions that put in the shade all former Exoduses of nations and crusades. The bourgeoisie cannot exist without constantly revolutionising the instruments of production, and thereby the relations of production, and with them the whole relations of society. Conservation of the old modes of production in unaltered form, was, on the contrary, the first condition of existence for all earlier industrial classes. Constant revolutionising of production, uninterrupted disturbance of all social conditions, everlasting uncertainty and agitation distinguish the bourgeois epoch from all earlier ones. All fixed, fast-frozen relations, with their train of ancient and venerable prejudices and opinions, are swept away, all new-formed ones become antiquated before they can ossify. All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned, and man is at last compelled to face with sober senses his real conditions of life, and his relations with his kind. The need of a constantly expanding market for its products chases the bourgeoisie over the entire surface of the globe. It must nestle everywhere, settle everywhere, establish connexions everywhere. The bourgeoisie has through its exploitation of the world market given a cosmopolitan character to production and consumption in every country. To the great chagrin of Reactionists, it has drawn from under the feet of industry the national ground on which it stood. All old-established national industries have been destroyed or are daily being destroyed. They are dislodged by new industries, whose introduction becomes a life and death question for all civilised nations, by industries that no longer work up indigenous raw material, but raw material drawn from the remotest zones; industries whose products are consumed, not only at home, but in every quarter of the globe. In place of the old wants, satisfied by the production of the country, we find new wants, requiring for their satisfaction the products of distant lands and climes. In place of the old local and national seclusion and self-sufficiency, we have intercourse in every direction, universal inter-dependence of nations. And as in material, so also in intellectual production. The intellectual creations of individual nations become common property. National one-sidedness and narrow-mindedness become more and more impossible, and from the numerous national and local literatures, there arises a world literature. The bourgeoisie, by the rapid improvement of all instruments of production, by the immensely facilitated means of communication, draws all, even the most barbarian, nations into civilisation. The cheap prices of commodities are the heavy artillery with which it batters down all Chinese walls, with which it forces the barbarians’ intensely obstinate hatred of foreigners to capitulate. It compels all nations, on pain of extinction, to adopt the bourgeois mode of production; it compels them to introduce what it calls civilisation into their midst, i.e., to become bourgeois themselves. In one word, it creates a world after its own image. The bourgeoisie has subjected the country to the rule of the towns. It has created enormous cities, has greatly increased the urban population as compared with the rural, and has thus rescued a considerable part of the population from the idiocy of rural life. Just as it has made the country dependent on the towns, so it has made barbarian and semi-barbarian countries dependent on the civilised ones, nations of peasants on nations of bourgeois, the East on the West. The bourgeoisie keeps more and more doing away with the scattered state of the population, of the means of production, and of property. It has agglomerated population, centralised the means of production, and has concentrated property in a few hands. The necessary consequence of this was political centralisation. Independent, or but loosely connected provinces, with separate interests, laws, governments, and systems of taxation, became lumped together into one nation, with one government, one code of laws, one national class-interest, one frontier, and one customs-tariff. The bourgeoisie, during its rule of scarce one hundred years, has created more massive and more colossal productive forces than have all preceding generations together. Subjection of Nature’s forces to man, machinery, application of chemistry to industry and agriculture, steam-navigation, railways, electric telegraphs, clearing of whole continents for cultivation, canalisation of rivers, whole populations conjured out of the ground — what earlier century had even a presentiment that such productive forces slumbered in the lap of social labour? We see then: the means of production and of exchange, on whose foundation the bourgeoisie built itself up, were generated in feudal society. At a certain stage in the development of these means of production and of exchange, the conditions under which feudal society produced and exchanged, the feudal organisation of agriculture and manufacturing industry, in one word, the feudal relations of property became no longer compatible with the already developed productive forces; they became so many fetters. They had to be burst asunder; they were burst asunder. Into their place stepped free competition, accompanied by a social and political constitution adapted in it, and the economic and political sway of the bourgeois class. A similar movement is going on before our own eyes. Modern bourgeois society, with its relations of production, of exchange and of property, a society that has conjured up such gigantic means of production and of exchange, is like the sorcerer who is no longer able to control the powers of the nether world whom he has called up by his spells. For many a decade past the history of industry and commerce is but the history of the revolt of modern productive forces against modern conditions of production, against the property relations that are the conditions for the existence of the bourgeois and of its rule. It is enough to mention the commercial crises that by their periodical return put the existence of the entire bourgeois society on its trial, each time more threateningly. In these crises, a great part not only of the existing products, but also of the previously created productive forces, are periodically destroyed. In these crises, there breaks out an epidemic that, in all earlier epochs, would have seemed an absurdity — the epidemic of over-production. Society suddenly finds itself put back into a state of momentary barbarism; it appears as if a famine, a universal war of devastation, had cut off the supply of every means of subsistence; industry and commerce seem to be destroyed; and why? Because there is too much civilisation, too much means of subsistence, too much industry, too much commerce. The productive forces at the disposal of society no longer tend to further the development of the conditions of bourgeois property; on the contrary, they have become too powerful for these conditions, by which they are fettered, and so soon as they overcome these fetters, they bring disorder into the whole of bourgeois society, endanger the existence of bourgeois property. The conditions of bourgeois society are too narrow to comprise the wealth created by them. And how does the bourgeoisie get over these crises? On the one hand by enforced destruction of a mass of productive forces; on the other, by the conquest of new markets, and by the more thorough exploitation of the old ones. That is to say, by paving the way for more extensive and more destructive crises, and by diminishing the means whereby crises are prevented. The weapons with which the bourgeoisie felled feudalism to the ground are now turned against the bourgeoisie itself. But not only has the bourgeoisie forged the weapons that bring death to itself; it has also called into existence the men who are to wield those weapons — the modern working class — the proletarians. In proportion as the bourgeoisie, i.e., capital, is developed, in the same proportion is the proletariat, the modern working class, developed — a class of labourers, who live only so long as they find work, and who find work only so long as their labour increases capital. These labourers, who must sell themselves piecemeal, are a commodity, like every other article of commerce, and are consequently exposed to all the vicissitudes of competition, to all the fluctuations of the market. Owing to the extensive use of machinery, and to the division of labour, the work of the proletarians has lost all individual character, and, consequently, all charm for the workman. He becomes an appendage of the machine, and it is only the most simple, most monotonous, and most easily acquired knack, that is required of him. Hence, the cost of production of a workman is restricted, almost entirely, to the means of subsistence that he requires for maintenance, and for the propagation of his race. But the price of a commodity, and therefore also of labour, is equal to its cost of production. In proportion, therefore, as the repulsiveness of the work increases, the wage decreases. Nay more, in proportion as the use of machinery and division of labour increases, in the same proportion the burden of toil also increases, whether by prolongation of the working hours, by the increase of the work exacted in a given time or by increased speed of machinery, etc. Modern Industry has converted the little workshop of the patriarchal master into the great factory of the industrial capitalist. Masses of labourers, crowded into the factory, are organised like soldiers. As privates of the industrial army they are placed under the command of a perfect hierarchy of officers and sergeants. Not only are they slaves of the bourgeois class, and of the bourgeois State; they are daily and hourly enslaved by the machine, by the overlooker, and, above all, by the individual bourgeois manufacturer himself. The more openly this despotism proclaims gain to be its end and aim, the more petty, the more hateful and the more embittering it is. The less the skill and exertion of strength implied in manual labour, in other words, the more modern industry becomes developed, the more is the labour of men superseded by that of women. Differences of age and sex have no longer any distinctive social validity for the working class. All are instruments of labour, more or less expensive to use, according to their age and sex. No sooner is the exploitation of the labourer by the manufacturer, so far, at an end, that he receives his wages in cash, than he is set upon by the other portions of the bourgeoisie, the landlord, the shopkeeper, the pawnbroker, etc. The lower strata of the middle class — the small tradespeople, shopkeepers, and retired tradesmen generally, the handicraftsmen and peasants — all these sink gradually into the proletariat, partly because their diminutive capital does not suffice for the scale on which Modern Industry is carried on, and is swamped in the competition with the large capitalists, partly because their specialised skill is rendered worthless by new methods of production. Thus the proletariat is recruited from all classes of the population. The proletariat goes through various stages of development. With its birth begins its struggle with the bourgeoisie. At first the contest is carried on by individual labourers, then by the workpeople of a factory, then by the operative of one trade, in one locality, against the individual bourgeois who directly exploits them. They direct their attacks not against the bourgeois conditions of production, but against the instruments of production themselves; they destroy imported wares that compete with their labour, they smash to pieces machinery, they set factories ablaze, they seek to restore by force the vanished status of the workman of the Middle Ages. At this stage, the labourers still form an incoherent mass scattered over the whole country, and broken up by their mutual competition. If anywhere they unite to form more compact bodies, this is not yet the consequence of their own active union, but of the union of the bourgeoisie, which class, in order to attain its own political ends, is compelled to set the whole proletariat in motion, and is moreover yet, for a time, able to do so. At this stage, therefore, the proletarians do not fight their enemies, but the enemies of their enemies, the remnants of absolute monarchy, the landowners, the non-industrial bourgeois, the petty bourgeois. Thus, the whole historical movement is concentrated in the hands of the bourgeoisie; every victory so obtained is a victory for the bourgeoisie. But with the development of industry, the proletariat not only increases in number; it becomes concentrated in greater masses, its strength grows, and it feels that strength more. The various interests and conditions of life within the ranks of the proletariat are more and more equalised, in proportion as machinery obliterates all distinctions of labour, and nearly everywhere reduces wages to the same low level. The growing competition among the bourgeois, and the resulting commercial crises, make the wages of the workers ever more fluctuating. The increasing improvement of machinery, ever more rapidly developing, makes their livelihood more and more precarious; the collisions between individual workmen and individual bourgeois take more and more the character of collisions between two classes. Thereupon, the workers begin to form combinations (Trades’ Unions) against the bourgeois; they club together in order to keep up the rate of wages; they found permanent associations in order to make provision beforehand for these occasional revolts. Here and there, the contest breaks out into riots. Now and then the workers are victorious, but only for a time. The real fruit of their battles lies, not in the immediate result, but in the ever expanding union of the workers. This union is helped on by the improved means of communication that are created by modern industry, and that place the workers of different localities in contact with one another. It was just this contact that was needed to centralise the numerous local struggles, all of the same character, into one national struggle between classes. But every class struggle is a political struggle. And that union, to attain which the burghers of the Middle Ages, with their miserable highways, required centuries, the modern proletarian, thanks to railways, achieve in a few years. This organisation of the proletarians into a class, and, consequently into a political party, is continually being upset again by the competition between the workers themselves. But it ever rises up again, stronger, firmer, mightier. It compels legislative recognition of particular interests of the workers, by taking advantage of the divisions among the bourgeoisie itself. Thus, the ten-hours’ bill in England was carried. Altogether collisions between the classes of the old society further, in many ways, the course of development of the proletariat. The bourgeoisie finds itself involved in a constant battle. At first with the aristocracy; later on, with those portions of the bourgeoisie itself, whose interests have become antagonistic to the progress of industry; at all time with the bourgeoisie of foreign countries. In all these battles, it sees itself compelled to appeal to the proletariat, to ask for help, and thus, to drag it into the political arena. The bourgeoisie itself, therefore, supplies the proletariat with its own elements of political and general education, in other words, it furnishes the proletariat with weapons for fighting the bourgeoisie. Further, as we have already seen, entire sections of the ruling class are, by the advance of industry, precipitated into the proletariat, or are at least threatened in their conditions of existence. These also supply the proletariat with fresh elements of enlightenment and progress. Finally, in times when the class struggle nears the decisive hour, the progress of dissolution going on within the ruling class, in fact within the whole range of old society, assumes such a violent, glaring character, that a small section of the ruling class cuts itself adrift, and joins the revolutionary class, the class that holds the future in its hands. Just as, therefore, at an earlier period, a section of the nobility went over to the bourgeoisie, so now a portion of the bourgeoisie goes over to the proletariat, and in particular, a portion of the bourgeois ideologists, who have raised themselves to the level of comprehending theoretically the historical movement as a whole. Of all the classes that stand face to face with the bourgeoisie today, the proletariat alone is a really revolutionary class. The other classes decay and finally disappear in the face of Modern Industry; the proletariat is its special and essential product. The lower middle class, the small manufacturer, the shopkeeper, the artisan, the peasant, all these fight against the bourgeoisie, to save from extinction their existence as fractions of the middle class. They are therefore not revolutionary, but conservative. Nay more, they are reactionary, for they try to roll back the wheel of history. If by chance, they are revolutionary, they are only so in view of their impending transfer into the proletariat; they thus defend not their present, but their future interests, they desert their own standpoint to place themselves at that of the proletariat. The “dangerous class”, [lumpenproletariat] the social scum, that passively rotting mass thrown off by the lowest layers of the old society, may, here and there, be swept into the movement by a proletarian revolution; its conditions of life, however, prepare it far more for the part of a bribed tool of reactionary intrigue. In the condition of the proletariat, those of old society at large are already virtually swamped. The proletarian is without property; his relation to his wife and children has no longer anything in common with the bourgeois family relations; modern industry labour, modern subjection to capital, the same in England as in France, in America as in Germany, has stripped him of every trace of national character. Law, morality, religion, are to him so many bourgeois prejudices, behind which lurk in ambush just as many bourgeois interests. All the preceding classes that got the upper hand sought to fortify their already acquired status by subjecting society at large to their conditions of appropriation. The proletarians cannot become masters of the productive forces of society, except by abolishing their own previous mode of appropriation, and thereby also every other previous mode of appropriation. They have nothing of their own to secure and to fortify; their mission is to destroy all previous securities for, and insurances of, individual property. All previous historical movements were movements of minorities, or in the interest of minorities. The proletarian movement is the self-conscious, independent movement of the immense majority, in the interest of the immense majority. The proletariat, the lowest stratum of our present society, cannot stir, cannot raise itself up, without the whole superincumbent strata of official society being sprung into the air. Though not in substance, yet in form, the struggle of the proletariat with the bourgeoisie is at first a national struggle. The proletariat of each country must, of course, first of all settle matters with its own bourgeoisie. In depicting the most general phases of the development of the proletariat, we traced the more or less veiled civil war, raging within existing society, up to the point where that war breaks out into open revolution, and where the violent overthrow of the bourgeoisie lays the foundation for the sway of the proletariat. Hitherto, every form of society has been based, as we have already seen, on the antagonism of oppressing and oppressed classes. But in order to oppress a class, certain conditions must be assured to it under which it can, at least, continue its slavish existence. The serf, in the period of serfdom, raised himself to membership in the commune, just as the petty bourgeois, under the yoke of the feudal absolutism, managed to develop into a bourgeois. The modern labourer, on the contrary, instead of rising with the process of industry, sinks deeper and deeper below the conditions of existence of his own class. He becomes a pauper, and pauperism develops more rapidly than population and wealth. And here it becomes evident, that the bourgeoisie is unfit any longer to be the ruling class in society, and to impose its conditions of existence upon society as an over-riding law. It is unfit to rule because it is incompetent to assure an existence to its slave within his slavery, because it cannot help letting him sink into such a state, that it has to feed him, instead of being fed by him. Society can no longer live under this bourgeoisie, in other words, its existence is no longer compatible with society. The essential conditions for the existence and for the sway of the bourgeois class is the formation and augmentation of capital; the condition for capital is wage-labour. Wage-labour rests exclusively on competition between the labourers. The advance of industry, whose involuntary promoter is the bourgeoisie, replaces the isolation of the labourers, due to competition, by the revolutionary combination, due to association. The development of Modern Industry, therefore, cuts from under its feet the very foundation on which the bourgeoisie produces and appropriates products. What the bourgeoisie therefore produces, above all, are its own grave-diggers. Its fall and the victory of the proletariat are equally inevitable.

Impossível gostar de algo quando ele demonstra tanta casualidade em desumanizar pessoas em situações vulneráveis. Entendo que, em jogos, normalizamos isso com violência: não temos o menor problema em triturar recursos humanos quando se trata de jogos de ação, mas fazer isso com o corpo e a autonomia de mulheres parece tão mais nefasto, e pessoal. Quando Big Boss sequestra soldados pra Mother Base, o tom do ato é de resgate, redenção, arrebatação - em Dohna Dohna é de exploração, nua e crua. O tom comédico que muitas vezes o jogo tenta instaurar nestas situações é intragável quando se trata de um ato como este. E embora a resenha aqui no site, que me convenceu a jogar o jogo, argumente que ele é como é para nos colocar na mentalidade de um monstro como esses, um Drakengard de prostíbulo, por se dizer, tenho opiniões bastante contrárias. Fora da bolha de usuários mais interessados em subtexto, vejo muito mais que a clientela trata com humor e até tesão esta instrumentalização do corpo da mulher; e enquanto procurava mais discussão sobre o jogo, me deparei com diversos comentários do leitor médio de VN reclamando mais de que foi outro cara que comeu a sua waifu do que o fato de que foi um estupro ordenado.

Por que vejo em Karryn’s Prison uma qualidade que aqui não consigo? Talvez porque Karryn faz tudo de sua própria vontade, visão deturpada dos desejos de uma personagem feito para o masculino que seja. Talvez porque nele a violência é minimizada, e tudo ao redor se leve nessa atmosfera hipersexual que faz alguns absurdos parecerem divertidos. Em Dohna Dohna não consegui entrar nessa mentalidade: para mim, o tom foi de horror. Sem comentários também para a presença maldita de conteúdo loli no jogo, que é uma verdadeira vergonha - ainda que majoritariamente opcional, considero indefensável.

Ainda que o gênero eroge pareça estar muito mais avançado do que o tabu que o permeia, é uma pena que jogos tão bem produzidos sejam usados apenas para atingir uma demográfica específica de homens com sérias deficiências em como enxergam relações sexuais. Não acho que uma arte bem desenhada acompanhada de algumas linhas duras sobre resistência e medo configuram bom discurso em relação ao tema de abuso - podem ser chocantes e eficientes no melhor caso, e no pior só servem de material fetichista. Após terminar o jogo, o comentário dos desenvolvedores me deixou claro que não há o menor interesse em diálogo: “desenhei com o pau na mão” - diz o ilustrador.

E levando por essa ótica, o que pensar de Dohna Dohna, o jogo? Não se trata de uma VN, e sim de um turn-based JRPG/management minigame com bastante conteúdo safe for work. O pesadelo de atrelar esse jogo à minha conta é o suficiente para que eu solte o resto dessa entrada sem tentar casar um ponto ao outro, o mais importante já tendo sido dito.

> Alguma coisa me manteve, e não acho que foi a expectativa de dois quadrinhos de hentai mediano a cada 1h de jogo. Seu loop, abstraído o grotesco, impele o jogador a continuar, ainda que num grind nada especial. Provavelmente quem me fez jogar até o final foi uma mistura da apresentação que está honestamente muito além de seu gênero, rivalizando mais um Persona em sua qualidade do que o próximo eroge de RPGMaker humilde: animações desenhadas à mão fazem seu sistema de combate voar: mecanicamente simples e elegante, em certas partes, mal pensado em outras; porém sempre atingindo todos os mandamentos do game juice bem produzido. Um loop de baixa fricção em um jogo bem produzido que consigo jogar cagando é a receita do sucesso para minha retenção.

> Em sua história e narrativa, é muito mais estilo e posturagem do que substância. Um elenco composto por personalidades enlatadas que acaba sendo mais icônico como elenco do que como um conjunto de individuais. Tenta criar um diálogo sobre os horrores de abuso enquanto ao mesmo tempo glorifica e dedica quantidade considerável de recursos pra criar cenas de abuso que só existem porque devem. O próprio argumento de porque a exploração sexual ocorre no jogo não vem de um lugar mais profundo do que: este jogo é um eroge e é isso que nós gostamos de ver.

Acho que com isso encerrei meu horny game arc com um gosto ruim na boca.

FIN?

“Nós vivemos em uma sociedade em que as pessoas acham mais natural violência nos jogos do que uma trepadinha esperta. “ - Joker, o Coringa

Joguei por fins educacionais.

Papo reto? Tem mais cuidado colocado na sua ludonarrativa aqui do que na maioria dos JRPGs que já joguei. A forma como o jogo bem gradualmente trata a personalidade da protagonista ficando progressivamente mais libertina, e como isso influencia e é influenciado por todos os sistemas (base-building, combate, diálogo, narrativa, side-games) é honestamente um exemplo de design a se seguir: nunca vi um nível de noção de sua própria proposta e coesão sistêmica assim em um JRPG, muito menos em um jogo hentai de RPGMaker. Você não só consegue montar uma build pra ganhar os combates deixando os inimigos exaustos (rs), quanto a forma como as árvores de habilidades são liberadas são coerentes com as ações da personagem e a evolução sistêmica de suas consequências.

A quem estou enganando? Straight to horny jail.

Antes de começar a falar sobre o jogo em si, gostaria de deixar alguns pensamentos sobre toda a discussão e raiva envolvida em relação a esse jogo... É uma das grandes provas do quão infectada pelas redes e pelas "opiniões fáceis" essa sociedade está. Acho que aquela coisa de polarização que foi tão falada nos últimos anos vem se expandindo e cada vez mais deixando de ser algo relacionado apenas ao âmbito político. O que teve de gente formando opinião (positiva ou negativa) sobre esse jogo a partir de outras pessoas é inacreditável, e acabou gerando uma raiva generalizada nas pessoas em discussões na internet. Assim como qualquer coisinha hoje em dia (por exemplo, caso do Chico e Luísa Sonza), foi gerada uma repercussão desproporcional para esse jogo, apelando pras emoções das pessoas como forma de gerar engajamento.

Mas enfim, agora falando puramente sobre as MINHAS OPINIÕES após cerca de 70h de jogo... É impressionante como jogos da Bethesda são capazes de te deixar num misto de sentimentos e sensações... Esse jogo definitivamente é um marco pro Todd Howard e pra Bethesda como um todo. Eu particularmente ainda prefiro Skyrim pelo fator imersão, que vou tentar descrever mais ao longo dessa análise, mas eu acho que Starfield tem as melhores ideias que o diretor/estúdio já tiveram. Algumas foram bem executadas, outras nem tanto.

Vou falar logo do que eu achei essencialmente ruim: combate e exploração espacial. Pelo menos durante a minha jogatina, pilotar a nave no espaço era mais um momento de tirar foto das paisagens estelares do que exploração em si, já que pra acessar novos sistemas estelares na galáxia, tem sempre que abrir o menu, sem a possibilidade factível de chegar lá só na pilotagem. Resultado: chegou um certo tempo em que estar com a nave sob a órbita de um planeta era só um passo obrigatório do jogo para eventualmente pousar nele, o que obrigatoriamente me fazia abrir o menu duas vezes seguidas: uma pra chegar no sistema planetário, e outra pra pousar no planeta. Isso quebrou um pouco a imersão em determinado ponto do jogo. Acho que o combate espacial em si não é necessariamente ruim, mas colocar enfrentamentos aleatórios (e obrigatórios, já que não dá pra viajar durante um combate) quando você chega na órbita de um planeta e pretende apenas pousar nele é bem anticlimático.

De resto, eu amei a ideia de alguns planetas com bastante conteúdo, com civilização concentrada apenas em pequenas regiões isoladas dos planetas, e outros planetas estéreis sem tanto conteúdo assim. Porque isso é uma visão realista do universo e de como a vida humana está destinada a ser no futuro, se conseguirmos sobreviver a qualquer evento de extinção que nos aguarda. As missões secundárias são, em geral, muito interessantes (algumas chegam a ser espetaculares) e conseguem gerar o interesse nos personagens envolvidos. Já a missão principal, não é tãããão boa quanto algumas secundárias, mas é definitivamente a melhor missão principal já feita pela Bethesda (a de Skyrim é beeem fraquinha, por exemplo). O combate com armas é bem divertido, o que era uma preocupação minha, devido a uns trailers que deixaram um "cheiro" esquisito em relação a isso. Mas a sensação de atirar é bem gostosa, e o jogo disponibiliza uma certa variedade de armas e possibilidades de buildar o personagem, apesar do sistema de mini desafios para subir alguma skill ser beeem chatinho. Além disso, você vai precisar de paciência no gerenciamento de recursos do inventário (recomendo alocar pontos no máximo de capacidade que o personagem pode carregar o mais cedo possível).

Por fim, posso falar que achei Starfield um bom jogo, com momentos que proporcionaram uma experiência incrível, apesar dos problemas apontados pela comunidade (alguns nem considerei problemas tão graves assim), e se você gosta de RPG's estilo Bethesda, vale muito dar uma chance!

Starfield is the surprise of the year. The trajectory of titles developed by Bethesda Game Studios has consistently declined since the launch of Morrowind. This decline has been characterized by a noticeable simplification of game systems to cater to a broader, more mainstream audience.

Starfield is not quite the return to deep, engaging RPG systems, but it seems like the closest thing we could get from the studio now. After an admittedly terrible introductory few hours that feel like an afterthought, the game opens up and lets the player off the leash.

While many have understandably bemoaned the disconnected, fast-travel-oriented nature of the game's structure, when you're in the game's main cities, it's hard to care because it's effortless to get sucked into one of these locations. My first time landing on Neon, the game's cyberpunk-themed city, I got sidetracked from a main quest and wrapped up into the branching feed of side content that mostly felt well crafted before stumbling upon the planet's faction quest, which was shockingly excellent.

The world is much more reactive to the player than BGS's modern output. Characters involved in intersecting quests acknowledge your previous deeds, and occasionally, your choices can significantly impact quest progression, even allowing you to bypass certain parts. Admittedly, there are occasional awkward moments, such as companions who should be aware of specific events acting surprised by related revelations. However, the frequency of these dynamic world reactions is a notable departure from the typical approach found in both Bethesda Game Studios titles and contemporary AAA games.

Here, not only do your choices carry weight, but your character's background plays a pivotal role, too. This manifests in dialogue options that ground your character within the game world and in choices that profoundly impact progression and interactions with the world.
For instance, I opted for the "Neon Street Rat" background and assumed the role of a Cyberunner, and the consequences reverberated through my experiences in Neon and the Ryujin questline.

These effects ranged from characters recognizing my character's prior knowledge of local gangs and politics to dialogue choices that provided alternatives to persuasion when dealing with quest characters. Essentially, it felt like my character was more than just an apparatus for me to navigate the world; they were an actual individual.

It's also a beautiful game, and not just by BGS standards. This is easily the most robust art direction of any title made by the studio, and I found myself taken aback by how gorgeous environments or vistas were, whether I was in space or on one of the game's procedurally generated planets.

The procedural nature of these planets is a hangup, as the game always has a different sense of exploration than one would expect from a BGS game. However, this is offset by the quality of the individual cities, which are incredibly dense.

Even then, it often feels more like an elaboration on Mass Effect than it does Fallout or Elder Scrolls in space. But even within this segmented nature lie small nuggets of discovery that lead to some of the best moments in the game. For example, while fast traveling to a system for a faction quest, I came upon a ship hailing for immediate assistance. I found myself face-to-face with an AI developed from NASA's Juno probe that had been aimlessly wandering through the galaxy for centuries.

The quality of the writing is all over the place, with some incredibly rote dialogue that is easily skipped through and some legitimately gripping sequences such as this.

Other than the segmented nature of "Loadingfield," another issue is how long it can take for builds to activate and many of the game's most interesting systems (such as shipbuilding) being locked behind skills. I understand that this was done because the developers intended players to play through multiple NG+ runs, but it often feels at odds with the type of game that BGS wants to make, one that allows players to see nearly everything. This game has substantially benefitted from cutting players off from certain factions or questlines due to their allegiances since it focuses on NG+ runs and alternate realities.

My most significant problem was grappling with the game's confusing politics and vision of a future society that seemingly never evolved beyond contemporary neoliberalism. Jemison and the UC are emblematic of this, as they have classes for their citizenship. The Freestar Rangers, billed as the antithetical faction, are just a different flavor of capitalists in that they are raging libertarians. Overall, it tries to present a hopeful vision of the future.

Still, I was disappointed by such a myopic view of the future held back by contemporary capitalist ideology. That could be an unrealistic expectation since this game was made under said ideology. And Jesus does this game like cops. Almost every faction is a different flavor of space cop. Thankfully, some of these end with the player getting to choose to kill CEOs and political war criminals, which makes this an easier pill to swallow, even if the game presents these people as isolated evils instead of symptoms of a more immense superstructure.

All in all, Starfield is a thoroughly enjoyable, if low-stakes, adventure. The end of the game offers a rather poignant and genius play on the concept of the Bethesda protagonist that makes at least the main quest worth playing for anyone who enjoyed even one of BGS's previous titles.
If there are multiple realities, as Starfield posits, there's definitely a better version of this game in one of those. But in this one, Starfield would never be able to live up to the expectations placed upon it by Bethesda, Microsoft, and fans. But in a world where development times have reached 5-6 years, that's ok because sometimes a flawed but enjoyable experience is enough.

Graças a Deus acabou...nossa, eu não vim pro Harmony esperando que ele fosse a vinda de Cristo, muito menos ser melhor que Symphony ou Aria, to na vibe de Metroidvanias e tava afim de jogar outro Castlevania já que pretendo zerar todos. Inicialmente eu estava gostando, mas foi ficando cada vez pior. É legal jogar um metroidvania com um Belmont e chicotar os inimigos, mas isso logo sai pela culatra pois um dos maiores problemas de Harmony na minha opinião é sua progressão, que é uma das progressões já feitas.

O jogo já é fácil, então a sensação de explorar pra achar alguma arma melhor é inexistente, tendo só algumas variações de efeitos pro chicote. Equipamentos eu devo ter trocado umas quatro vezes apenas, nunca senti a necessidade de ficar trocando. Harmony peca muito nisso, a sensação de ver quer você está ficando mais forte é quase nula. Os livros de magias são legais, mas o que já era fácil se torna um passeio no parque de tão apelonas que as magias são, é só ativar a magia com a cruz equipada e ver o God Mode ativado. Os bosses foram feitos, alguém teve a ideia, alguém fez o design, alguém pensou nos padrões dos golpes, eles existem. A trilha sonora é inimiga da audição, o chip de áudio do GBA já é conhecido por ser limitado, mas aqui foi demais, eu quase parti pro Spotify ouvir alguma coisa enquanto jogava mas isso iria tirar a imersão do jogo, então aturei aquelas músicas águdas horrorosas até o fim. A história é o padrão de jogos do gênero, encontra algum NPC, 20 segundos de dialógo, ele entra numa sala que é sem saída e some, sem grandes surpresas.

Agora vem o elefante da sala e ao meu ver, o maior problema de Harmony, a porcaria da mecânica de dois castelos. O level design do jogo já não é lá o mais primoroso, tanto visualmente quanto em layout, agora ter que ficar passando por essas mesmas salas duas vezes com variação de cor o jogo inteiro? No thanks. O infâme castelo invertido do Sympohny ao meu ver é um bonûs, você pode em menos de meia horinha pegar as partes do Drácula e partir pro abate, mas se você quiser tem várias áreas novas pra explorar com inimigos, bosses armas e equipamentos pra descobrir, aqui não. Estamos presos em passar pelas mesmas áreas várias vezes e tendo que voltar pra warp room pra trocar de castelo toda hora, é uma verdadeira desgraça. Agora imagina se perder nesse castelo mediano porque o item ou porta que você precisa ir está em outro castelo? Ugh.

No fim eu ainda acho Harmony bacana, ele só acaba se tornando mais irritante do que precisava por causa dessa gimmick de castelo, mas ainda foi divertidinho pois a movimentação é bacana, sair por ai matando bicho acaba por ser divertido, o jogo tem uma vibe bem diferente também, mas eu gastei muito mais tempo nesse jogo do que gostaria, demorei bem mais que o Aria pra zerar. Harmony podia ser só um arroz com feijão mas tentou inventar graça e acabou prejudicando a experiência.

Caraca mané tô lembrando aqui de quando eu era criança

A nostalgia é maravilhosa, não? Enfim. Eu como muitos cresci jogando os jogos do Crash no PS1, e embora tenha jogado o CTR eu nunca tinha zerado, sabe-se lá porque. Buscando algum jogo pra jogar no celular durante os períodos ociosos, eu decidi que ele seria um jogo tranquilo de se jogar no touch-screen, e o quão errado eu estava, ainda não tinha noção... eu cheguei até o quarto mundo de alguma forma na marra até que o emulador sumiu com meu save e tive que engavetar o jogo. Depois disso, insatisfeito eu comprei seu remake e zerei, achei um jogão. Com sorte após ter terminado, de alguma forma consegui recuperar meu save do clássico e decidi terminar de zerar, só que dessa vez no controle e com a mecânica de drift boost devidamente aprendida e explicada pelo remake eu pude aproveitar o que restou, tendo um feel real do gameplay do jogo e de como ele é gostosinho de se jogar, não ficando muito pra trás do remake não, embora o mesmo tenha se expandido muito, tornando esse aqui quase obsoleto em termos de conteúdo. É realmente um jogo que envelheceu como vinho, os modelos 3D são lindos, as fases, efeitos são todos com a capacidade total do PlayStation, que na época do lançamento já estava perto do fim da vida. Não tem muito no que se estender, é um daqueles jogos que todo mundo já conhece, um jogão que continua divertidão até hoje.

PS: a voz do Crash de quando ele apanha nesse jogo é simplesmente hilária, eu dou risada sozinho lembrando.

O grande reavivamento da franquia é também uma enorme ruptura com os clássicos - tão grande ou maior até mesmo que a de Doom 3. Por baixo de sua estética demoníaca e metaleira noventista, é possível ver que as inspirações do reboot são eminentemente modernas. O level design de Half-Life, as armas e movimentação de Quake, os sistemas de upgrade e habilidades onipresentes em games atuais: dá para repartir cada elemento do game e compará-los diretamente com outros jogos, mas comparações diretas com Doom 1&2 são mais difíceis de achar. Em nenhum momento essa ruptura fica mais evidente que nos mapas clássicos. Tanto a movimentação mais cadente do Doomslayer quanto o comportamento dos novos inimigos parecem realmente "deslocados" dentro daqueles níveis pixelados dos anos 1990. Doom 2016 não atualiza as mecânicas de seus antecessores para uma audiência moderna; ele se comunica com ela usando sua linguagem contemporânea.

O que torna o game tão bem-sucedido e querido tanto por novatos quanto veteranos é como e para quê ele usa essa linguagem familiar. Ele consegue ser uma negação aos shooters modernos usando as mesmas ferramentas que eles. Se em sua forma observamos uma ruptura, em seu conteúdo há um resgate. Doom 1&2 eram mais do que uma inovação tecnológica ou mecânica. Eles eram uma experiência sentimental, uma explícita explosão de violência e visceralidade. É esse sentimento que o reboot resgata de maneira triunfal. Cada mecânica nova, cada upgrade nas armas, cada segredo, estão lá com o solene objetivo de fazer você, o jogador, ter somente uma preocupação: matar demônios.

Sabe aquela sorrisinho malicioso que o Doom Guy fazia nos clássicos sempre que pegava uma BFG, como se ele estivesse dizendo "agora sim eu vou !@#!@@## esses monstros!"? Ele vai estampar a sua cara toda vez que você fizer um glory kill ou sobreviver a um grande tiroteio.

Rip and tear, until it's done.

Rance IX : A Solid Enough Revolution

It will probably come off as a surprise to most people here but I’m a huge fan of the Rance series, I’ve been so pretty recently as I started truly getting into the series around September 2021 and it quickly ruined any sort of credibility I had left in any online argument about RPG’s as it became my new hyper-obsession. Suffice to say that when I finished the latest release of the series (Rance Quest Magnum) I was craving for more and lo and behold the translation of Rance IX was right around the corner and it became by default one of my most anticipated game of 2023 (despite being a 2014 eroge).

Rance IX is a game which is a bit special even amongst other titles in the series, Rance IX places itself at the tail-end of the series most long-running subplot which is everything surrounding the Helman Empire, this is a subplot introduced for the first time in Rance III and which has been expanded upon in almost every single entry ever since. The series has rich lore and pretty consistent continuity but everything surrounding the Helman Empire and the Holy Magic Sect is the one part of the lore that the series fully embraced instead of shying away from so I was pretty excited to see how they will pay off more than 20 years of buildup surrounding this mysterious land and its secret and how they’ll reimagine the Kichikuou Arc related to it.

In another surprise twist however, this game more than simply being a pay-off is also a pseudo-remake of Mamatoto another AliceSoft game released in 1999 that I’ve played in preparation and which Rance IX heavily pulls away from. From its gameplay to different plot beats and themes, Rance IX isn’t shy about its inspiration to the game's benefits and sometimes to its detriment.

As it is tradition in the series, each entry has a different gameplay system. This time Rance IX is a Tactical RPG where you place units on a grid and fulfill different objectives. The game is fun but isn’t going to win any award in originality or complexity, Rance IX is perhaps one of the easiest game in the series which at least since Rance VI has tried to deliver a decent challenge, the game has a NG+ feature which allows you to up the difficulty a lil bit but I haven’t messed around with it as 2 runs of the game was enough for me to experience most of the content I wanted to see anyway.

The different maps are pretty barebone and straightforward and even though the game likes to spice things up sometimes with objectives which aren’t just “kill everything on screen”, you won’t be finding these battle instances to be substantial enough to warrant an epic “fire emblem killer own” in a random Twitter argument. It is a shame to say that I felt Mamatoto definitely fared better in this department with more challenging maps, more varied win conditions and a better overall difficulty so while Rance IX tries to copy the game-feel of Mamatoto, years of experience didn’t lead to a significant enough upgrade to call it a better game than the original.


Character growth is also pretty straightforward, only the weapon upgrade system is a bit quirky where you pretty much an increasing amount of money to maybe have the chance to boost your equipment, in any other case I would’ve complained about such a system but since Money as a resource is only used for this purpose, I don’t mind it as much but it might seem more problematic on higher difficulties. Much like Mamatoto you can allocate skill points to different stats and you get an overall bonus for reaching certain threshold for all stats of one character (something I forgot during my first run but wasn’t detrimental in the end)

Unlike the other title however, you won’t be doing many battles, since the game is definitely more focused on telling a grander narrative about Rance going to Helman to find a way to save Sill, fuck a couple of girls along the way and maybe help the revolution as a bonus. Progressing through the game is done through a series of clickable events most of which are just story driven with the occasional battle, if you’re really craving more fights however, there’s the optional (but not really) “free battle” which unlocks as the game progresses and reward you with items as well as Monkey Orbs for the game’s titular “Rance mode”.

Since the story is definitely the bigger focus this time around, how does it compare to the rest of the franchise ? Well I will say that Rance IX is an overall pretty pleasant ride all things considered.

The game is definitely more for the lore-addict of the series more than anything so if you’re not familiar with the rest of the franchise there’s not a great chance that starting with this one will give you much value since it really is here to pay-off several plot-points spread across the rest of the series. The game is excellently paced in my opinion as it is the case in almost all Rance games, it’s never boring, always fun to go through and the antics of Rance and his interactions with his surroundings is always a joy to go through.

Something that I definitely did appreciate this time around (and which was apparently a point of contention in its home country, different folks, different strokes I guess) is the heavier focus on different POV’s, a lot of Rance game tend to strictly follow the POV of Rance which is great but tend to not properly put into light the high stakes of the narrative at place. The game also has a surprising amount of male characters getting the spotlight this time around outside of Rance which in my opinion is great as most of these male characters went pretty under-utilized in the other title despite their appearances being more than welcome, some might say that so much sausage of burly men sitting around talking about war and stuff isn’t the most exciting premise for an erotic JRPG (especially ones that doesn’t focus on fiery male skinship) but it’s been long since I’ve given up on the Rance series actually being fully erotic for me and it’s not this game which is going to prove the contrary.

The main mean of obtaining h-scenes in this game is through a separate mode called “Rance Mode” where you spend Monkey Orbs obtained in battle to raise affection level with one of the game 7 main heroines, you will need 3 monkey orbs to raise one affection level and you can only stack up to 7 of them until you need to inevitably spend them (a baffling design decision as 7 isn’t a multiple of 3 which triggers my game design OCD). Spending these orbs will trigger an h-scene and this is where my main point of contention with this game will rise.

Most of the h-scenes in this game, while the art is still relatively fantastic, are honestly pretty barebone, generic and often-time kinda boring but less so than the erotic nature of the scenes. It's what they tell about the characters that bothers me a little bit more. Simply put, I have nothing against character development and this game delivers plenty on that, the idea this time around is that Rance will try to actually make the character fall in love with him, this includes ofc 2 characters which throughout the course of the series has been (and understandably so) averse to Rance’s typical bullshit, these are Kanami and Shizuka.

The issue is that the game has no sense of progression whatsoever, Kanami’s whole arc in this game is realizing that the happiness and normalcy of a healthy relationship she’s been looking for this entire time lies within the arms of the most unlikely person that just happened to be the one constant in her life (Rance). The problem is that Kanami comes to this realization literally on the first tier of affection level and this bothers me because that means that for the rest of the game onward, Kanami’s entire character will just boil down to “I love Rance” with very little to no variation towards that sudden realization.

Kichikuou did something much more interesting with Kanami in my opinion where her good ending is killing off Rance and running away with a stranger who is ostensibly worse than him showing that Kanami is the kind of girl who to quote Chaos “is the kind of girl that will let a bad man ruin her life”.

While I know Orion decided against reusing Code in the modern title as he actually hates the character, a bit of tension and drama wouldn’t have killed to make this new development for her character work and not reduce her to a one-note anime archetype which she wasn’t really to begin with.

The only time where that arc goes anywhere interesting is during her heroine route during the last chapter of the game where Lia figures out about Kanami and Rance’s relationship and throws a tantrum which almost lead to a global geopolitical warfare, that was indeed pretty funny and also gave some insight towards Kanami and Lia’s relationship not only as contractors and employees but also as friends and I admit that the ending of that arc wasn’t as catastrophically bland as the build-up leading up to it so in the end I felt satisfied.

Shizuka on the other hand is a bit more complicated, now for the record at least she has an arc going on outside of getting courted by Rance (which is the main objective of the dude, turning his biggest hater into a potential love interest) which is to save her sister Nagi who’s been burning with revenge ever since the events of Rance VI. So at least this is an on-going plot within the main story which isn’t solely about how she will end-up falling for Rance.

But again the game lack any sense of progression, Shizuka in the other titles tend to be reserved for the end-game, since Shizuka holds genuine grudge against Rance and is often the one to call out on his bullshit and trying to protect her best friend Maria from being more miserable trying to chase this man. From an erotic fan POV, the build-up/Pay-off nature of finally being able to get on with Shizuka has always been amazing but nothing more than a punchline which is fine since Shizuka is better when she puts up some resistance but here…


They did some weird things, first off Shizuka can be h’d toward the mid-game and is weirdly assertive about doing it with Rance even if she does it under some conditions. This creates a bizarre loop where Shizuka actually reaches for Rance’s affection like she “gave up” somehow and I can’t help but feel like this is a blatant case of character regression. While in the other game Shizuka was wary of Rance, here Shizuka fills more of a typical tsundere role where she actually enjoys having sex with Rance but is too prideful to admit to having feelings for the guy. Eventually laxing out and seeing some form of comfort for her underlying father issues into him.

It’s certainly a surprising turn for the character who has been firmly opposed to Rance’s advance since 1990 but I don’t know if it’s really all that great of a development. In fact this is kind of a pattern I’m starting to notice with Yoroide’s take on Rance and the relationship he has with most of the other female party members.

While Rance still does a lot of horrible shit, he sees a bit less comeuppance for doing so and while Yoroide is pretty good at introducing and writing for new characters (and making funny as shit situation about them), he seems to still have a problem having a grasp on characters with years of history behind them. It seems like Yoroide is not really daring enough to explore character dynamics that isn’t just strictly “X loves Rance '' which tends to pack these characters into a comfortable little hole. In general, Yoroide with Rance IX seems to try and reach a comfortable position to prepare the terrain for X and doing so as quickly and inelegantly as possible rather than incorporating nuance into his writing style to make the overall group dynamic better.

In the end it works out since progression is still progression and I’m pretty sure X definitely delivers plenty on paying-off from that (and Yoroide isn’t the sole man on board to make all the decisions regarding the writing of the series) but it’s sad that he seems buttheaded on boiling down these characters to their mere essential stripping them of what once made them so special back when Tori was still at the helm of writing for the series.

Many characters in IX are just here to be here, Maria kinda just exist in the plot and outside of a few exchanges like her going “wow” at funky magic technology, she doesn’t seem to do much despite the fact that her technical knowledge of war weaponry could’ve given an edge to the group during the main conflict and the same could be said about all the characters who don’t have a dedicated Rance mode. Tilde is an unfortunate character as a reinterpretation of Raftalia from Kichikuou I find her relatively weak as a character (and the whole sexual training arc really doesn’t help make her character shine the way she should) even Senhime, I’m all for bringing back Senhime since she was one of my favorite unit in Sengoku but in this game she’s pretty one note and about as deep as a puddle (with the whole joke about her being that she really isn’t “all that deep” which admittedly is a funny plot-point).

Pigu and Miracle end up being the best addition to the cast because if anything Yoroide is good at coming up with wacky funny concepts for characters and rolling with it to the extreme, their h-scenes were extremely funny and goofy and actually felt like the type of h-scenes you expect from this series instead of very long and drawn out too vanilla for my taste smut. Miracle herself is just absolutely perfect in her role and her existence and lore surrounding her power promises some really interesting stuff for the near future of the series

I think Yoroide still struggles at truly “getting” the Rance series, while the plot of IX is genuinely engaging, well-paced and fun to go through with both serious and emotionally charged moments as well as moments of levity as it is first and foremost a parody RPG. Rance IX lacks that edge, that biting style of self-awareness and socio-political commentary than a game like Kichikuou, Rance VI or even Sengoku Rance seemed to have. Which makes a lot of the elements of this game hit way less than they should.

Combine this with the game's obsession with following the throughline of Mamatoto almost to a T and the story becomes weaker as a result because of some choice that could’ve made the story better (like incorporating Io into the story, like what the hell AliceSoft ?) just weren’t made in order to keep the game true to his inspiration. In the end it does work out because these little winks at Mamatoto help enhance the charm of the game but I wonder if it would’ve been better to let Rance IX's own ideas shine brighter.

In Quest many of Yoroide’s problem came from not being able to quite manage the subtle balance between comedy and seriousness leading to some baffling narrative design decision that made a lot of the stronger aspect of his style weaker as a result as well as leading to a more “flat” interpretation of the series setting and characters, something that definitely carries over in Rance IX which is a more serious plot in comparison.

Another addition I wasn’t super fond of were the bad endings, apparently this was added by Orion and I’m going to be totally honest their inclusion was done really poorly. Not only do these scenes rarely feel like a punishment for the players own incompetence (since the game is really easy, actually getting these bad endings are harder than missing them) taking away from the “bad” side of these endings.

But outside of Sheila’s and Miracle’s bad ending which genuinely are harrowing and depressing as shit in a character accurate way (more so the aftermath and context of the h-scenes than the actual scenes themselves mind you), most of them are just gratuitous and feel like shock value for the sake of shock value. I know the easy answer behind their inclusions is “Some people are just into that kinda shit” but while the series is very self-indulgent to a fault, this is just another degree of it that I find didn’t add anything especially when similar types of content were included much more gracefully in previous titles such as Kichikuou or Sengoku Rance.

Now I’ve been going on negatively ranting about some of the game weaker aspects so you might expect me to come out the other end saying that the game is trash and not worthy of the expectations I projected onto it and this would be a blatantly false assumption because the game still manages against all odds to be one of the best entry in the series, not in my Top 3 mind you but at least in my top 5.


If like me you’ve been following this series from the beginning to the end and have been waiting for some form of pay-off on some of the game more in-depth plot line then you will be served with this game from the returning characters finally getting some closure to their arc like Patton, Hunty or even Hubert to some stellar reimagining of Kichikuou characters (Lelyuokov, Aristoles and especially Rolex were re-written wonderfully in this modern iteration of their character, I’m glad Rolex doesn’t die too meaning that he’s here to stay and be a badass for Rance X which is great, I wish he was my d-) to a deeper exploration of the lore surrounding the magic sect that’s been laying dormant since Rance IV.

This is genuinely a fantastically ambitious title that will have you at the edge of your seat and always wanting more at every second of it. The different endings are glorious, pretty hype and while it is kinda stupid that the game hides some of its content on NG+ because AliceSoft just needs to be quirky or they would probably die from a stroke. This is still a well-polished, well written, exceptionally satisfying entry into the series.

Sheila is a great character and a great main heroines and with Sill lacking in the cast it was cool to have someone to counterbalance Rance’s antics even if she does so in a very different way and discover different things about herself in the end (despite the circumstances of their meeting and relationship still being relatively fucked up, this is still Rance we’re talking about), I already mentioned how Miracle although she comes off pretty randomly in the middle of the plot absolutely slays in every scene she’s in with her dumb chuuni antics that will give Rance’s manchild attitude a run for its money and in general I still love the writing enough to be entertained by it.

I also got genuinely emotional and hype at some scene in this game and if that isn’t a testament that Yoroide has it in him to make scene like this work in-spite of the weaker aspect of his style I mentioned earlier then I don’t know what more prove would you need to convince yourself that I actually much like all the other title love this game.

In general the heroine route which serves as the conclusion to the different heroine arcs more than makes up for the shortcomings of everything building up to them which are more of consequences of structure issues than actual writing issues ! My favorite one being Shizuka’s and Kanami’s ending but all of them (outside Sheila which was kinda unnecessary) had something to look forward to and get hype about.

AND DON’T GET ME STARTED ON THAT TRUE END EPILOGUE ! I ABSOLUTELY KNEEL FROM ALL SIDES !

In the end, I will blame the weaker aspect of the game’s plot to Yoroide still needing to round up his skill a little bit, the structure being a bit awkward on the “affection” side of things and a general lack of bite that sadly won’t probably return to the series even in X since Tori isn’t her to provide on that front but it’s alright since a softer more straightforward style is probably what the series need leading up to its final entry !

I am VERY VERY excited for Rance X and can’t wait to see if all the fuzz and hype surrounding it was worth it (but 03 first ! And I also happen to be pretty excited in this one too)

Despite having said "I will never play this game ever again" at least five times here I am re-playing Sengoku Rance.
I am an huge fan of the Rance Series, but honestly this is the "worst" rance title. I haven't appreciated the story so much, not 'cause is bad, do not misquote me, but because is (in my opinion) worst than the other Rance Games; I've played 5 routes by now, but no one of them keeped my interest til the end.
But the gameplay.
OOOOOOH THE GAMEPLAY.
It's so stupidly addicting than I can't stop playing. It's a tactic with a lots of stuff to do and with tons of characters to appreciate (to love).

I recommend this game to anyone who wants just a good tactics.
If you want to talk with your friend about this game you can simply skip the eroge scene by pressing CTRL (I'm gonna be honest, I am not an huge fan of hentai/ecchi, I just CTRLed all of the eroge scenes).

Depois da saída de Shouzou Kaga um dos principais diretores da franquia, a nova direção da franquia resolveu que para seu próximo jogo Binding blade se espelhasse mais em seu primeiro jogo da franquia: Shadow dragon, reusando bastante elementos como: uma história, lord mais simples, arquétipos de personagens e é claro a própria gameplay que retirou muitos elementos dos jogos passados, com o intuito de simplificar a gameplay. Binding blade pode ser considerado como o berço do que a franquia continuou a focar e aprimorar até os dias de hoje.

A história do jogo é simples e direta ao ponto, um cara louco quer dominar o mundo com seu exército e o rei bom de um outro país tá doente e manda o filho de 15 anos pra guerra e foda-se vai lá filhão!!!!! Você vai juntando aliados pra derrotar o vilão e tem dragão no meio e o caralho a quatro, sim é bem foda-se mesmo, o que é algo triste considerando toda a carga dramática que Genealogy e Thracia trouxeram para a franquia, resumindo a história é competente, mas fraca e não muito memorável.

Roy seu main lord, é um protagonista de harem, não exalando muita personalidade ou carisma, em termos de gameplay é uma das piores units do jogo e precisa de bastante “babying” e ganha promotion MUITO tarde no jogo e você é obrigado a seize em todos os mapas do jogo com esse filho da puta com 5 de move (Sim esse filho da puta é uma puta cópia do Marth do primeiro jogo e também recebe uma arma efetiva em dragão só pra mexer na ferida), algo ruim também é que no Smash bros a forma de como o Roy é tratado é completamente diferente de quem ele é no jogo dele (mas isso é mais culpa do Smash do que do jogo), infelizmente tudo isso junto faz com que o Roy tenha uma visão muito negativa na fanbase, pessoalmente eu não o odeio mas sou muito foda-se pra ele sinceramente. O vilão do jogo é bem meh também, seu backstory é bom, mas sua motivação e plano são muito extrapolados, o resto dos personagens do jogo não possuem muito screentime ou importância, consequência disso é do jogo ser mais focado em world building, que aqui é um bom trabalho e felizmente temos um sistema que dão mais focos nestes personagens, sendo ele o sistema de “supports”, sistema esse que todos seus jogos futuros o utilizam e o aprimoraram, sendo esse sistema uma das marcas da franquia.

Como já tinha dito antes,Binding Blade retirou muito das mecânicas de seus jogos passados: dismounting, capture, leadership stars, e várias outras mecânicas do Thracia, nunca mais foram vistos na franquia inteira, já mecânicas como skills e capítulos de protect the throne e escape, não estão no jogo, mas felizmente tiveram seu retorno em títulos futuros, sendo uma exceção o sistema de con e rescue e infelizmente fog of war que se mantiveram; uma alteração que eu não gostei foram a troca de master seals por itens limitados que upam para cada classe, que tão aqui provavelmente para balancear mais a variedade de suas units, mas prefiro como era antes só um item foda-se, upa quem você quiser, que felizmente jogos depois dos de GBA voltaram a ter. Em termos de melhorias o jogo concerta/facilita várias mecânicas retardadas do Genealogy e Thracia, fog of war são mais toleráveis devido a você agora poder ver o mapa e só as units serem ofuscadas, a quantidade de usos de balistas foram reduzidas e agora são visíveis, o sistema de canto foi nerfado, aqui você não pode mais se mover depois de um ataque e nem equipar suas armas, mas pra todo outro tipo de ação sim, e agora você pode mudar a posição das units no seu mapa CHUPA THRACIA. Em comparação com o Thracia o jogo é muito mais fácil, mas em comparação com outros jogos da franquia ele ainda é difícil, causa disso seria o jogo ainda possuir same turn reinforcements, que os jogos futuros deletaram (menos hard mode do Shadow dragon e Awakening filhos da puta) e problemas de balanceamento que abordarei em baixo, pois é longooooooooo.

O jogo é bastante desbalanceado, muitas units ruins e outras que quebram o jogo, os mapas do jogo são bem grandinhos fazendo com que knights serem inviáveis e a porra do item que upa a classe deles é compartilhada com a que upa de cavalier, quem será que você prefere escolher em? As que mais se fodem no jogo são as units de machado, pois, grande parte das armas sofreram um decréscimo de hit no jogo e possuem os piores hits da série foda-se, não só isso, eles são fudidos pelo novo sistema de hit rates do jogo, “double roll”, o que é essa porra? Bem, o cálculo feito que se o teu golpe acerta ou não é determinado por um dado nos jogos passados, se você tem 40 de hit você vai atacar com 40 de hit, double roll são dois dados e isso significa que agora você tem mais chances de acertar um hit caso esteja acima de 50 e mais chances de errar caso esteja abaixo, ou seja, some isso com o decréscimo de hit mais o fato de units de machado naturalmente terem baixa skill, e tenha personagens constantemente errando golpes. Algo que eu sinceramente não gosto é que o jogo continua dizendo que o teu hit é como se fosse de 1 dado, ou seja, o que melhora a experiência do jogador que não sabe disso, mas convenhamos o jogo tá literalmente te enganando.

Em termos de mapas muitos aqui são ótimos e alguns poucos são exclusivos de rotas o que aumenta um fator replay, mas cara, tem muito mapa ruim também como: arcadia, possui um puta spike de dificuldade; o mapa da água subindo é uma merda; o capítulo 21 é um mar quase infinito de reinforcements; a rota de sacae inteira e ficar brincando de pega pega com o Douglas pra desbloquear o capítulo secreto é uma merda. Outro grande problema dos mapas é todos serem seize the throne, coisa que Thracia já tinha concertado, gerando pouquíssima variedade.

Mas agora vou me aprofundar no maior problema do jogo que é a falta de explicação da mecânica de support e os requerimentos do final verdadeiro.

Indo para os supports, são uma evolução completa do que tínhamos no Genealogy, aqui temos várias conversas entre dois personagens que os contextualizam além do que é mostrado na história e ainda garantem bônus em stats para ambas as units se ambos estiverem perto um do outro (igual a bond supports dos jogos passados), sendo um desses hit, que é uma puta ajuda contra os chefes em tronos do jogo. Esse sistema que até hoje é usado na franquia e uma de suas marcas mais famosas, uma ótima mecânica com um ótimo começ… não, porque o jogo não dá uma foda para explicar como ele funciona, ou quem tem support com quem, ou o que os bônus garantem, porra nenhuma, não só isso os supports são MUITO demorados de se obter, sério, os supports mais demorados do jogo são em torno de 200 turnos para obter de C à A, os bônus são ótimos, mas sinceramente não vale a pena, não só isso os supports tem um limite de 5, ou seja, se tiver interesse em ver algum em específico, vai ver no youtube ou wiki mesmo. Minha dica gaymer é só upar o support do Roy com a Lilina pois somente necessita de 36 turnos, isso pode ajudar a Lilina a ser seu boss killer.

Indo ao final verdadeiro, os capítulos “gaidens” do jogo são desbloqueados por certos requerimentos no capítulo passado, naturalmente manter um ou outro personagem vivo mais terminar o capítulo em um determinado número de turnos, nesses capítulos gaidens se você terminá-los você ganhará uma arma lendária que é extremamente forte, mas precisa de S rank em seu tipo de arma (que serve como um bom equilíbrio) e se você recolher todos você desbloqueará mais 2 capítulos que é o final canônico do jogo, legal e interessante né? NÃO PORQUE O JOGO NÃO TE DIZ PORRA NENHUMA, ele não te diz qual é o capítulo que desbloqueia um gaiden, nem os requerimentos, nem que você vai ganhar algo por pegar todas as armas e nem quem você tem que manter vivo, E QUER SABER MAIS? Se você gastar inteira umazinha arma se quer PAU NO SEU CU, sem final verdadeiro pra você, e adivinha… ele não te diz isso, e sinceramente, esses últimos capítulos possuem as melhores partes e resolução de pontas soltas da história. (vilão secreto também que é bem melhor que o principal).

Tá onde essa porra de jogo fica pra mim? Ele exclui a gameplay mais complexa do Genealogy e Thracia, mas também serve como berço onde os futuros jogos se basearam e melhoraram, especialmente os jogos de GBA, animações fodas de sprites? Ótimas músicas que ficam ótimas em um GBA? Uma gameplay mais simples e eficiente e que tirou várias demências do Thracia? Começou tudo aqui porra, mais respeito, os outros jogos de GBA só pegaram a mesma engine e melhoraram as mecânicas daqui, agradeço muito, mas se for para comparar não tem jeito, ainda é um Fire Emblem competente mas um dos meus menos favoritos da série, infelizmente.

Cara... que jogo gostosinho de jogar, fazia tempo que eu não relaxava jogando alguma coisa. VA-11 é uma visual novel ambientada em um bar num mundo cyberpunk (shocking). Invés de seguir um plot, o jogo investe 90% de seu tempo numa abordagem ''character-driven'' em que seus personagens são tudo aqui.

Juliann...Jill nossa protagonista é muito boa. Ela é extremamente divertida mesmo sendo uma personagem cínica, isso traz muitos dialógos hilários com as figuras mais inusitadas possíveis em um jogo que tem uma comédia excêntrica que eu pessoalmente acho bem engraçado. É um jogo cheio de piadinhas pervertidas também, o que me pegou de surpresa, mas de uma forma positiva já que eu sou imaturo e acabo rindo dessas piadinhas. O drama pessoal dos personagens mais ''sérios'' é muito bacana também, bem realista e muita gente pode se relacionar com vários personagens aqui. Dana merece uma menção pois ela é fã de wrestling e defende com unhas e dentes. Ela bate em quem fala mal então cuidado ao falar mal das nossas queridas lutas de mentira.

Queria dedicar um parágrafo pra falar sobre o world-building do jogo. É fantástico. Tirando o quarto e varanda da Jill o único cenário é o do bar, e eles conseguem te imergir nesse mundo de forma fantástica com apenas os personagens falando e dando suas opiniões sobre tudo que aconteceu e acontece nesse mundo. Fica muito a critério da imaginação do jogador pensar em tudo isso, em como as coisas eram antes do mundo se tornar como é agora, enquanto também te faz de imaginar como ele é nos dias atuais. Adorei.

Synthwave:
Eu: Trilha sonora 10/10. Só isso mesmo.

A arte do jogo é muito bonita, quem não gosta de temática cyberpunk? Eu como um apaixonado pelos anos 80 e essa temática simplesmente deslumbrei o visual do jogo.

Super recomendo pra quem tá iniciando ou quer começar a jogar visual novels, é bem curtinho, eu zerei em 13 horinhas. Agora é terminar de platinar. Valhalla é um jogo que já me faz sentir nostálgico mesmo tendo acabado de zerar, e tomara que o próximo seja tão bom quanto.

Veredito: A comida deliciosa e perfeita da vovó.

Minha avó paterna foi a melhor mestre-cuca de todas as galáxias. Ela não cozinhava nada extraordinário, nada que você veria num restaurante chique. Era feijão, arroz, bife, salada e purê de batata, tudo bem básico. Mas puta que pariu, NINGUÉM faz um feijão com arroz tão delicioso quanto o dela!

Chrono Trigger é o feijão com arroz dos JRPGs. Quase tudo nele já foi feito mil vezes em outros jogos: batalhas em turno, protagonistas adolescentes, fantasia medieval, magitecnologia, enredo de salvar o mundo. Mesmo os tropos dele que não são sempre associados a JRPGs, como viagens no tempo e parasitas malignos, são clichês de alguma forma.

Mas nenhum, NENHUM jogo faz o básico tão bem feito quanto ele. Cada mínimo detalhe foi projetado e executado com tal maestria que hoje, quase 30 anos depois, ele ainda reina como o melhor do gênero.

Tem nem competição.

História? A mais emocionante, bem amarrada e com melhor ritmo que um jogo do tipo já teve.

Sistema de batalha? Impecável, e te mantém engajado da primeira luta até o chefão final.

Personagens? Todos são excelentes, nas batalhas e nos diálogos. Porra, até a maioria dos NPCs parecem mais reais e desenvolvidos que muito protagonista por aí.

Sidequests? Todas são de alguma forma importantes pra trama e pro desenvolvimento interpessoal da equipe.

Não tem muito o que eu falar dele que já não tenha sido dito e repetido ao infinito na internet afora. Do mesmo jeito que nunca vou conseguir falar nada de novo sobre um bife. Um bife pode ser mega suculento, bem temperado, macio, delicioso, mas ainda é só o bom e velho bife.

Chrono Trigger ainda é um jogo super básico. Mas assim como o bife que vó Lourdes fazia, ninguém nunca conseguiu criar um JRPG tão perfeito quanto ele.
---------------------
PS: joguei a versão de DS, mas registrei aqui no site como a versão de Super Nintendo por burrice, hahaha! XD