While I'm reviewing this page for the base game, I'm still going to talk about the expansions. The reason I'm putting it on this one is just because the icon looks prettier than either of the mod preview icons and nothing else LOL. The only thing you need to know is the base game has characters and references up to Touhou 12, Shard of Dreams is an official expansion that raises the cap to 15, and Shard of Dreams -Extended- is quite literally every major character up to current. For the sake of not explaining that over and over, just assume I'm talking about -Extended- which I think anyone interested in should be playing anyways!

This is a wonderful Pokemon inspired Touhou fangame that takes the combat and stats we all know and goes on to make a game that is quite honestly better than any mainline Pokemon game IMO. One of the main draws for me both when I was only a casual Touhou fan and now when I'm even more obsessed is the fact there's a puppet (pokemon) for every Touhou character as long as they aren't some of the really bizarre choices like Great Catfish or that unnamed merchant that dies in FS (I seriously don't know why the character sorter enables that one) then you'll find them. And the game understands the importance of letting you play with your favorite because immediately upon starting the game you are required to tell an NPC your favorite character and that determines the starting puppet you get, even if your favorite character is Shinki who has one of the highest BST in the game. I personally made a fun challenge for myself in the main game where I made it so I could only use one character from every 3 games chronologically, meaning if I chose Youmu for example I wouldn't be able to pick any other characters from Touhou 7-9 or any spinoffs/manga in that timeframe. The ending team ended up being Yumemi/Shinki/Youmu/Byakuren/Sagume/Saki if you were curious! Even if you know nothing about Touhou I still think this is a game worth playing because it could lead to you finding a character you like using or their role in the story and then use that as a gateway to getting into the series, or even if you just planned on making this your only foray into Touhou that's perfectly fine too!

To nerd out a bit I'm going to womansplain some game mechanics, if it doesn't interest you then skip this whole paragraph. This game does have IVs/EVs/Evolutions(kinda)/Learned Moves but I really like how all of them are handled! IVs are the most similar in which when you catch a puppet you get assigned 6 random values for all your stats with a grade from S-E, with S being perfect IVs and E being dogwater (your starter gets to start with perfect IVs), and you don't unlock your breeding replacement until postgame but if you learn the Reincarnation system it's quite easy to eventually start making plenty of puppets with perfect IVs. Next, when you beat other puppets in battle your entire team gets these little points that can go into multiple things. The first thing is EVs, which instead of being something you have to carefully monitor in Pokemon games you can just put points into whatever stats desired to custom make your own EVs per puppet. Learned Moves are unlocked by level up, but they all conveniently get put into a menu that costs the same type of points and forgotten moves are always put back meaning if you replace a move and then want it back it's a negligible fee to get it back. Finally evolution works a bit differently than actual Pokemon. At level 30 every single puppet can form shift to 1 of 3 different forms depending on who it is and it can change things like BSTs, Abilities, and movesets, to sometimes even changing the type of the puppet outright. As an example, Reimu is a Void/Illusion type normally, but if changed to Power Reimu she becomes a Fighting/Illusion, and if she becomes Extra Reimu she changes types drastically to becoming a Wind/Warped puppet. There's so much variety in each character that you can have the exact same team of 6 puppets but with different evolutions meaning both teams could have a completely different strategy/build.

Out of numbers hell, other things I really like about this game is how well the setting of Gensokyo actually fits into making a really good Pokemon map. You have Youkai mountain for the mountain region, Human Village for a central hub, Forest of Magic for a forest region, and even the Underworld/Makai for cavernous/icy areas. And some of the characters fit into their role with ease with Medicine being a great example for a rival team leader.

And before I'm done gushing about this game I have to compliment the typing chart they made for this game which has a good mix of elements already in pokemon and wholly original ones that add a lot of fun to learning the new type matchups. My personal favorite addition is Sound as a type which doesn't have any inherent resistances to any of its weaknesses which means it isn't a free switch in like a grass to a water type would be, but the types it covers are some of the more annoying ones to find good weaknesses for.

To make an extremely long story short this is a fantastic game for Touhou and Pokemon fans alike that's definitely worth checking out if you have a decent interest in one or both. Thanks for reading this mess if you did!

cosmic smash sets the tone.

sonic adventure was a system seller, a response to nintendo's own 3D platformer which was sm64. however, games like Rez, L.O.L., Roommania and most importantly Cosmic Smash were political statements. it was a response not to one game but to the industry as a whole. that was sega saying "we are not afraid to experiment, and look at what that sentiment birthed".

sega gave their geniuses the platform and opportunity to shine. without worrying about money and profit, they allowed for odd and questionable ideas to become fully fletched experiences and the result was one of the best libraries of any videogame console ever. more importantly to this review is that this push of unadulterared >art< resulted in a strong and firm sense of style.

when people think of Y2K aesthetics, they're thinking of the dreamcast. they're thinking of Space Channel 5. they're thinking of Tomoko Sasaki's Serani Poji. they're thinking of Rez. but moreover, they're thinking exactly of Cosmic Smash.

a game that would give the guy who created VIDEOBALL a field day, a simple and finite one-player digital sport that gives the player set challenges that they can choose to overcome with whatever moviments they like. there's a time limit, but you don't need to worry about that when you already know how to control your character. it's ok, you'll make it. the challenges get trickier, but you get stronger, you create muscle memory and your own strategies to each stage. eventually you get a game over -- or you win, who knows -- and then, you think, "i'm gonna do it again".

all of that, of course, coated under the most clear cut and transparent display of what people would later call "Y2K aesthetics". so much in fact that it seems weird to think of cosmic smash as a part of the era and not the trend setter itself. the music, the textures, the lines, the minimalism, even the game design itself, all reek of the turn of the century. it's a more contained and quiet version of what Rez was doing, so it ends up being less eye catching but still beautiful. its minimalism also contrasts Rez's intricate design and artistic execution, being the exact opposite extreme, so it's sort of the anti-rez.

cosmic smash is an era defining statement, a tone-setter that feels like the cherry on top of the dreamcast library. anyone could play this, and everyone should.

a few months ago, somewhere, i read about an IF game made by a woman that had either a striking cover art or an unforgettable name. last week i started thinking about this game and searching for it relentlessly on myabandonware.com, to no avail. all i could remember was it being very personal and cryptic.
a few days ago i made a post on r/tipofmytongue searching for the game with the most details i could think of, and the first reply was from a VERY helpful person (really, the dude showed up like 10 minutes after i made the post) who sent me a link to the IFDB and mentioned the most active IF writer in the time period i mentioned-- Emily Short.

i'm still not quite sure if Galatea was that game, because a few details don't add up. i tend to have a good memory, but i'm terrible with names. still, i went in and played it.

i don't think there's much i can say that hasn't already been said in those other reviews here. in fact, i'm exactly in between them. i find the game's limited and limiting reality to be quite compelling, but underwhelming at the same time. there's not a lot i managed to talk about with Galatea and the endings i got were rushed and came in faster than i wanted. i didn't have any meaningful conversations with her and the biggest reason is probably the protagonist.

the mere fact that we have a protagonist who's not the player, but actually a nameless critic, bothers me a lot. i hate him, he seems like a snubby guy with not a lot of real problems. he talks about his family but most of it is left to narration.

Galatea also doesn't seem to have a lot to talk about (or the more realistic option: skill issue), with most replies i got being about the artist, and i'm gonna be real, i don't care about the artist. i want to know about Galatea, her opinions on art, her favorite things, her sense of humour... and i know this probably couldn't have been done at the time by just one person, but doesn't change the fact that it's underwhelming.


overall i must say i really liked the concept of Galatea and the idea that it exists, but the game itself is more of a proof of concept than anything else.

AND NOW TO THE ACTION BUTTON STYLE BOTTOM LINE:

"Galatea is the grandparent of the Doki Doki Literature Club 'Monika After Story' mod".

I'm going to be honest: I don't think I'll ever beat this game. I just downloaded it to actually feel the controls, which mind you, are actually really fun once you get the hang of it.
I see this as more of a friend than a videogame. it's company. Bennett Foddy's commentary is sometimes purposefully irritating, but most of the time I sense earnestness and comradery from his words, like the way he says he'll always save your progress. it really is just about the journey. you could play the same parts over and over again, just to have fun with the controls, and never beat it, and that's ok. like Foddy said in his playthrough in Kotaku: "riding the snake is the true ending of this game" (which I will never do because I'm ophidiophobic).

anyway, it's fun and funny and cool and iconic.