Coolest metaphor for puberty probably ever made.

People rag on this game for returning to the cult stuff from the first game and not focusing on the personal horror of the first game, but I think it does a pretty good job of blending both the cult stuff and the personal horror of the SH2 into it.

Also damn this game looks so damn good, Heather's player model is just great and the environments aswell man. Cool stuff!

-the use of comedy in parun’s work I find to both be rlly fascinating and disorienting. in both this and rekinder there will be very long monologue scenes that are disgustingly raw in their emotion, some of the best written stuff I’ve ever seen tbh and it’s almost always followed up by a punchline. I’m very into finding the connective tissue between diff generations and I think for zoomers and millennials it’s these attempts at kind of manipulative shows of emotion followed up by jokes to downplay their own emotional truths. everything is ironic and everything is a joke, it’s all one big performance for the person they’re trauma dumping on, you the audience. I don’t rlly feel like content warning this so I won’t go into specifics but I’ve had friends and loved ones tell me and show me fucked up shit and then play it off like they’re not hurting. I’m not saying any of this in a critical way, I do it, you do it and so did parun in all his work.
-the first creative effort my bf ever showed me was about a gay teenager and his relationship w his single dad and how bc the teenager didn’t feel at all connected or loved by his father he would do things to make his father hit him. it’s a fictional story but it was the first impression I ever had of my father in law, in the story the man was presented as cold and aloof, quiet but aggressive at a moments notice. the fictional description of this man ended up being pretty similar to the real life guy. and he’s a guy who’s been very sweet to me and who in his later life tried being closer to his family, a family which he’s readily welcomed me into when he didn’t need to, but we all end up paying for mistakes no matter how long ago we made them. him being kind of a shitty father long ago has followed him his whole life, it was the first thing I ever knew about the guy and no matter how close I am to him or how sweet he can be my mind always goes back to the story my bf showed me like six years ago.
-lots of interesting stuff here about how children grow up to be like their fathers and I think it largely rings true. think by the ending the themes of the story are just hammered in a bit too much, some stuff is a little too repetitive and unsubtle in a way that I never felt w rekinder. also I think this is like way more pessimistic and hateful in comp to rekinder, that game seemed hopeful that future generations will correct the mistakes of the past and lead better lives, it’s a very strange final game to make. in contrast this is very bleak and negative and seem to suggest future generations will actually make the exact same mistakes and go down the exact same routes. it’s two totally different explorations of the same themes. both r rlly good :-))
-gay in way that’s incredibly hard to describe?? gay in the way an image of a kid picking flowers during the baseball game is but also gay in the same way an image of like jeffrey dahmer or john wayne gacey is. idk if that makes complete sense tbh but what I’m trying to get at is how parun is often battling himself and conversing w himself here? presenting what seems like two totally different versions of who I can only assume is his self insert. how one version feeds into the other and how the other version is always present under the pretense? rlly genuinely hard to describe I’m sorry lmaoo
-think the usage of multimedia is genuinely fucking beautiful and funny and also disorienting and scary. idk any zoom in on the convenience store is kind of all of those at once. need more stuff that’s as experimental in form and medium as this is tbh so if anyone has any goods recs across all forms of media I would love to hear. have seen most of anno’s work and most of it does what I’m describing but specifically his and her circumstances and ritual, gemusetto’s first season does it. uhh twelve oz mouse too kind of
-literally was shocked at bit at the end w the spirits. rlly well done and I think what confirmed it to me as like a masterpiece.

Staring at the Abyss, in Paradise

What a way to start my vacations! Decided this would be a good game to acompany me during this travel, just for the setting alone. As I'm travelling here and there, it means internet connection is minimal, slow and sparse throughout the area, very bad. It was just me, and this game for the most part, also decided deprive myself of any guides or any type of FAQS mostly the ones centered around puzzles. So I went straight ahead into the unknow, waiting to see what this game could add to the Kill the Past series.

Flower, Sun, and Rain is a puzzle adventure game with a big focus on narrative. Specially making nods here and there to The Silver Case since it's secretly a sequel. Here in the west we never got to recieve neither The Silver Case nor Flower, Sun and Rain at the time of it's release in any type, way, shape or form. But 7 years later we got the blessing in form of an english localization. A little too late for the party, but we got it anyways. This was launched during Suda's ascent in the west with hits such as No More Heroes and Killer7, so it made sense that at least one of his beloved works left in japan would cross the sea in style.

We take control of Sumio Mondo, a so-called searcher. Search for objects, he finds them and make people's live easier or at least I think so. Main task, disarm a terrorist bomb set in a airplane...in 2001. Mind you this was released before 9/11, it was never created with only to shock with bad taste in mind. This "simple" task while strange to be delegated to someone like Mondo turns up to be more complicated than needed once "Days" pass away. Or not? It's a mystery within a mystery within a mystery. The deeper we get the darker it gets, as any hard truth might be. But in reality Flower, Sun and Rain tone isn't dark. In fact it actually leans towards something more like a surreal comedy.

It's an easygoing but slow adventure were danger is totally eliminated. So no "Game Overs" or any "Try Again" screen if you take the wrong decision or happen to go against the rules just because. While "Skill" as we know it, pressing the buttons at the right time or what not isn't necessary here; patience will be our best friend. I certanly have patience towards the things I like and I like Suda51 so I eat it all the way through without complaining. It's enjoyable if you can take silly jokes, harmless fun and math. Don't rush it, this ain't a race. Enjoy the funny DS graphics, the compressed ass songs, pink cocodrile. It's the moment, you know. Don't try to see the logical side of it if you can't make sense of it, that can hurt a cell or two at the long run with this game.

Flower, Sun and Rain as I said before is a direct sequel to The Silver Case. But I wouldn't consider that way exactly, take it more as a spin-off that will answer some very specific questions about one or two members of the The Silver Case cast. Doesn't make things go further in the Kill the Past series but gives us a very interesing insightful analysis of Sumio as a character. From this text now on this will be nothing but spoilers but I'll try to be as vague as possible in case you still reading this, I just want to make this go through. So, you ever asked what hapenned to Kodai in The Silver Case? Look it up if you don't remember. Thing is, he regrets it and the fantasy world of his would become reality. In Paradise. The Fantasy World he talked so much about, clashed with twisted reality and a bit of..let's say an impostor syndrome. The Time Loop means something incredible, an eternal trap.

Dreams are but mere reflections of past events twisted or arrange for personal purposes. This game really did happen? It doesn't matter, but it was necessary for awakening. His awakening. Flower, the flower it's you. Sun are the possitive emotions you carry, too much of it and you will burn. Rain, the rain represents struggle, too much of it and you will end up crushed. These factors makes the Flower growth healthy and strong. The Sun can represent the humour, the good vibes, the music. The Rain can represent the events that need to occur to advance the story; the puzzles or the endless walking. This is the Flower, Sumio. Kill the Past has always play with this concept, it's in the very name. Face the reality, face the consequences, to move forward. And this game is not exception. In fact, it might be it's most clear example of what Kill the Past is, altrough hidden under layers and layers of cryptic writting and events that don't seem to correlate to the main story.

My recomendation, play The Silver Case first, that goes without saying at this point. This game is not that important to the Kill the Past series in general if we take the conservative side of it being a sequel. Take it as a christmas special. Short, familiar and sweet or a halloween special. Long, weird and scary.