raisingcanes
71 reviews liked by raisingcanes
part of growing up is learning to disregard the opinions of gaming youtubers and to actually form your own
crazily enough, a bad translation should not define how a game is percieved, and in an age of romhacking and text insertions, you'd think that people would've caught on by now that maybe, just maybe, an nes game with countless articles going over the numerous translation errors and unintelligable text would have more people wondering what it would be like to play in its native language. but alas, despite being a game cut from the same cloth as the many pioneers of games as we know them today, simon's quest is usually only met with vitriol.
as good as symphony of the night is, and as much influence it had on the metroidvania genre, to disregard this game and claim that sotn is entirely what constitutes for the "vania" part of "metroidvania" instead is both dismissive and disingenuous. i'm not saying sotn isn't part of the vania in metroidvania, because sotn played a huge part in popularising and refining the formula - what i am saying is that sotn and countless other games in turn inspired directly by it likely wouldn't exist without castlevania 2. It, the first metroid, and the first legend of zelda (which i admittedly have more qualms with) all tackled non-linearity while console gaming was still in its hayday, all to mixed degrees of success, and quite frankly castlevania 2 stands on top as my preferred game. at least, it stands on top when the text actually makes sense. yes the translation sucks, yes "laurels in your soup" and "don't look into the death star" and all that, but if you're going to acknowledge that this game's translation is bad then you're doing it a disservice by playing it with that bad translation and judging it based on that when better, easily accessible alternatives exist.
the control scheme is still classic castlevania with your stiff jumps and knockback and it still feels good to just walk around and whip things. subweapons are definitely lacking though and you're required to throw holy water down a LOT in order to reveal illusorary blocks in the floor and secrets in the walls (the latter being well telegraphed and opting to throw water at each wall you can really doesn't consume too much time anyway) and while i'd be hard pressed to say it plays better than the other nes castlevanias, I can still pretty comfortably say that simon's quest is simply just a good game. it's certainly not as polished as the other two but it tried something new and didn't play it safe, and for that it helped form an entire genre. I respect it. it also had me bringing up a word document to note down all of the text because almost 90% of the text in this game is some kind of clue on what to do next, and I think the clues that you find in walls don't reappear either, which is kind of an issue. so that's something i definitely recommend doing.
here's the patch I used, it's pretty customisable and includes some nice qol additions that you can toggle on and off to get a more vanilla experience if you'd prefer. chief among these additions are the ingame map (which is copied 1-1 from the japanese manual) and a clue browser that saves having to manually note things down. I personally just enabled the retranslation (and kept the day-night transition text the same, mistranslation or no "what a horrible night to have a curse" will always be iconic, glad that's an option). The website is in finnish by default but there's language options as soon as you open it. Oh yeah, this thing is a whole project - it covers translations of the game in finnish, english, french, spanish and filipino. The author also has a page dedicated to dissecting the differences between the original official localization, the japanese script, and their own translations with their own reasoning provided. definitely worth checking out. one major word of warning though: there seems to be a bug where if you press right while hovering over any of the items in the upper half of your inventory, it just. wipes the lower half. scrolling loops around if you keep pressing left though, so it's not a huge issue. might be a good idea to have rewind or a savestate to go back to.
also if we're gonna make avgn's opinions the be-all end-all of retro gaming takes can we also admit that zelda 2 is actually good HE SAID ZELDA 2 WAS GOOD GUYS
crazily enough, a bad translation should not define how a game is percieved, and in an age of romhacking and text insertions, you'd think that people would've caught on by now that maybe, just maybe, an nes game with countless articles going over the numerous translation errors and unintelligable text would have more people wondering what it would be like to play in its native language. but alas, despite being a game cut from the same cloth as the many pioneers of games as we know them today, simon's quest is usually only met with vitriol.
as good as symphony of the night is, and as much influence it had on the metroidvania genre, to disregard this game and claim that sotn is entirely what constitutes for the "vania" part of "metroidvania" instead is both dismissive and disingenuous. i'm not saying sotn isn't part of the vania in metroidvania, because sotn played a huge part in popularising and refining the formula - what i am saying is that sotn and countless other games in turn inspired directly by it likely wouldn't exist without castlevania 2. It, the first metroid, and the first legend of zelda (which i admittedly have more qualms with) all tackled non-linearity while console gaming was still in its hayday, all to mixed degrees of success, and quite frankly castlevania 2 stands on top as my preferred game. at least, it stands on top when the text actually makes sense. yes the translation sucks, yes "laurels in your soup" and "don't look into the death star" and all that, but if you're going to acknowledge that this game's translation is bad then you're doing it a disservice by playing it with that bad translation and judging it based on that when better, easily accessible alternatives exist.
the control scheme is still classic castlevania with your stiff jumps and knockback and it still feels good to just walk around and whip things. subweapons are definitely lacking though and you're required to throw holy water down a LOT in order to reveal illusorary blocks in the floor and secrets in the walls (the latter being well telegraphed and opting to throw water at each wall you can really doesn't consume too much time anyway) and while i'd be hard pressed to say it plays better than the other nes castlevanias, I can still pretty comfortably say that simon's quest is simply just a good game. it's certainly not as polished as the other two but it tried something new and didn't play it safe, and for that it helped form an entire genre. I respect it. it also had me bringing up a word document to note down all of the text because almost 90% of the text in this game is some kind of clue on what to do next, and I think the clues that you find in walls don't reappear either, which is kind of an issue. so that's something i definitely recommend doing.
here's the patch I used, it's pretty customisable and includes some nice qol additions that you can toggle on and off to get a more vanilla experience if you'd prefer. chief among these additions are the ingame map (which is copied 1-1 from the japanese manual) and a clue browser that saves having to manually note things down. I personally just enabled the retranslation (and kept the day-night transition text the same, mistranslation or no "what a horrible night to have a curse" will always be iconic, glad that's an option). The website is in finnish by default but there's language options as soon as you open it. Oh yeah, this thing is a whole project - it covers translations of the game in finnish, english, french, spanish and filipino. The author also has a page dedicated to dissecting the differences between the original official localization, the japanese script, and their own translations with their own reasoning provided. definitely worth checking out. one major word of warning though: there seems to be a bug where if you press right while hovering over any of the items in the upper half of your inventory, it just. wipes the lower half. scrolling loops around if you keep pressing left though, so it's not a huge issue. might be a good idea to have rewind or a savestate to go back to.
Sonic Adventure 2
2001
"oh but the speed stages are too easy and badly designed and control poorly"
"oh but the shooting stages are slower than in sonic adventure 1"
"the treasure hunting stages are lackluster and underdeveloped in comparison to the other two kinds of missions at best, and overly convoluted and artificially difficult at worst"
you know, in my quest to 100% this game for the first time in my 22-year sonic adventure 2 career, i was worried i'd ruined the magic of the game for myself. mastering this game is grueling, man. it's one of the most tedious, difficult, and demanding collect-a-thons ever made, and after a certain point the cracks in the foundation of the basic game design begins to show as sonic adventure 2 begins to burst under the weight of its own ambition. there are only so many times you can handle playing the same set of missions over the same set of levels clearly not designed around them before you start to feel a little wearied, you feel me?
but i think my saving grace was the fact that i opted to gather all of the mission emblems before i actually completed the main story. after getting every A-rank from city escape all the way to final chase, i strapped right back in to the last story and let it enfold me. it's kind of funny how a lot of the things i cherished heavily at one point due to nostalgia vision and their impact on me lose their luster when i revisit them - sonic adventure 1 itself isn't immune to this, nor are other contemporary classics like half-life 2 or the original bioshock that were equally impactful on me - but nope, sonic adventure 2 still makes me feel like i'm standing on the fucking ceiling every time i strap in and let the main campaign take me. i mean, sure, the game is strongest as a 5-hour tour de force where it can showcase the strengths of its perfected gameplay loops without having to stretch them thin over a bevy of tasks not suited to them, and a few of the levels actively work against what the game's mission statement is... but what does any of that matter in the long run when sonic adventure 2 is simply the coolest game ever made?
by june 2001, the writing wasn't even on the wall anymore - the wall had actively been blown the fuck down by a monolithic black juggernaut sent by sony to wipe the floor with any and all competitors. the dreamcast had already been discontinued in march after a less-than-three-year lifespan, and with sega's transition into exclusively third-party software development the future of the company and its individual identity was cast into utmost obfuscation. it would be all too easy to just bow your head and duck out quietly here, but sonic team didn't seem content to just sit there and take it. if they were gonna sink, they must have planned on going down with the ship, because sonic adventure 2 is a masterclass in confidence - narratively and mechanically this is the best game that they ever made, and it knows it.
i think i could make an easy case for sonic adventure 2's complexity and depth if i compared it to devil may cry 3 (a game which has a lot of story and stylistic parallels to sonic adventure 2 as well... hmmmm): it's easy to waffle your way through each level and just keep going after you stumble, keeping a skill ceiling just low enough that you don't drown in the insane amount of shit going on... but part of the reason why sonic adventure 2 has such a reputation for its insane 100% status is because playing sonic adventure 2 well takes a lot of skill, practice, and willingness to learn. between the points system actively rewarding stylish gameplay and optimizing the living hell out of every second of your run, the fact that even one mess-up can potentially mean a restart, be it due to failing to maximize your point accumilation or (even worse) dying and starting with 0 points from whatever checkpoint you'd hit before that point. granted, many of the missions actively work against this design philosophy (especially since the same set of 5 missions is copy-and-pasted onto probably 95% of the stages, regardless of genre or level design), but when it hits? you get what you put into it. i've been eking away at sonic frontiers for the past sixth months or so, and it's perpetually perplexing to me that they apparently still don't know how to make sonic control well when they got it right twenty-three years ago. i'm starting to think we'll never get platforming levels like metal harbor or final chase ever again, or even the utterly deranged examples set by cosmic wall and mad space...
all right. sit the fuck down with your jututsu kaisens and your chainsaw mans and your my hero academias. bleach? one piece? dragon ball z? hell, fucking full metal alchemist (the indisputable GOAT in my opinion)? you all take notes too. this is the real shit, motherfuckers. REAL SHOUNEN. all killer, no filler. a series of picture-perfect Moments flawlessly interwoven together with just enough internal rhyme and reason to convince you to Go With It and not think about it too hard, all while having enough genuine substance and things to say for its children-and-teens audience to chew on. there's a reason that you hear people recite basically every cutscene in this game word for word during GDQ runs: everything from the iconic jungle clash between sonic and shadow to the mundane little moments like amy, knuckles and tails chilling on the side of the road just ooze style and personality, even when the story at hand is so boneheaded and numbskulled that you can't really get much out of it besides the raw adrenaline pumping through your veins. i even think the weird mo-cap on the anthro actors gives everything a lot of personality and charm, if only because this is the only time that sonic and co have felt like real people and genuine action heroes to me: it's little things like sonic assuming a cool guy fighting pose when he's about to square up with eggman, or the sheer cuntiness in rouge dangling above the eclipse cannon when introducing herself to eggman and shadow. sonic has always sort of had this reputation as being a silly scrimblo bimblo cartoon series, and it is that, but for one brilliant moment of clarity it commits to the bit and makes sonic actually as cool as he purports to be... and he's got enough swag that it actively rubs off on everyone and anything around him.
of course, this is maybe sonic the hedgehog's most controversial foray into genuine pathos... but i think everybody hams up the perceived "edginess" at the heart of the game without considering whether or not it's all in service of what the game ultimately has to say. sega knew that this would likely be their swan song, and the introspection and reflection littered throughout the script and reflection reflect that perfectly: sega was going out with a whimper after exploding onto the game scene with a bang, and the sort of questions the story poses reflects that perfectly. what happens when you're not who you thought you were, or when the people you define yourself by aren't who they thought you to be? the consistent anti-authoritarian throughline (sonic adventure 2 is an explicitly anti-police and anti-military game, and i'm not exaggerating even a little) reflects a willingness to distrust that which is portrayed as the unambiguous and untouchable good within our society. eggman's idolization of his grandfather is broken when he beholds dr. gerald's descent into wickedness, perhaps coming to understand his own lust for power and control as something less than the true tragic evil that now lives on through the blood in his veins. rouge's loyalty eventually yields not to her government benefactors or to her own selfish desires, but to her endearment to knuckles - an act which seems to even surprise herself by the end. hell, tails actually manages to make good on his "being independent from sonic" character arc from the previous game, considering that he breaks free from the mold of being a simple sidekick and is probably the single largest driving factor in the hero storyline from the moment sonic gets arrested for a second time.
last but most CERTAINLY not least, shadow the hedgehog's obfuscated memories and trauma-laden motivations all act to obscure and suppress the genuine kind heart and noble intentions he was born with and made for, perhaps being the embodiment of the game's study of and statements against the very concept of dualism. you would think that sonic's comparative lack of depth would make him stick out like a sore thumb here, but if anything i think this is the one and only example of that one-note characterization working to his favor: sonic simply is who he is, and his acceptance of his simple nature allows him to be who he is effortlessly without any kind of cognitive dissonance or baggage keeping him burdened to the past or anchored to laments about his present. he holds himself to no particular moral standard or self-image save for doing what he simply feels is appropriate at any given moment, his need for self-indulgence and going with his heart mercifully counter-balanced by the inherent purity of his character. shadow yields the title of "ultimate life form" to sonic not out of a recognition of his physical power or infalliability as a person, but because sonic's ideology is simply the way to be: unapologetically, violently, proudly yourself, unfettered to the artificial molds arbitrated your society, your past, or even your own everyday insecurities.
when i say sonic adventure 2 is one of the all-time top game narratives, i don't mean that it reaches the ideological potence of something like disco elysium or the inscrutable complexity of chrono cross, my personal favorite game narrative... i just mean that for the kind of thing it sets out to accomplish there's simply nothing better than it. crucially, to understand this the same logic applied to the main cast must be applied to sonic adventure 2 itself. yes, sonic the hedgehog is a silly series for silly children about silly cartoon animals... but if you look past that exterior and let go of all the pre-conceived notions you might have forged about what sonic apparently is, something special awaits you: the reality that sonic adventure 2, top to bottom, is one of the greatest games ever made.
"oh but the shooting stages are slower than in sonic adventure 1"
"the treasure hunting stages are lackluster and underdeveloped in comparison to the other two kinds of missions at best, and overly convoluted and artificially difficult at worst"
you know, in my quest to 100% this game for the first time in my 22-year sonic adventure 2 career, i was worried i'd ruined the magic of the game for myself. mastering this game is grueling, man. it's one of the most tedious, difficult, and demanding collect-a-thons ever made, and after a certain point the cracks in the foundation of the basic game design begins to show as sonic adventure 2 begins to burst under the weight of its own ambition. there are only so many times you can handle playing the same set of missions over the same set of levels clearly not designed around them before you start to feel a little wearied, you feel me?
but i think my saving grace was the fact that i opted to gather all of the mission emblems before i actually completed the main story. after getting every A-rank from city escape all the way to final chase, i strapped right back in to the last story and let it enfold me. it's kind of funny how a lot of the things i cherished heavily at one point due to nostalgia vision and their impact on me lose their luster when i revisit them - sonic adventure 1 itself isn't immune to this, nor are other contemporary classics like half-life 2 or the original bioshock that were equally impactful on me - but nope, sonic adventure 2 still makes me feel like i'm standing on the fucking ceiling every time i strap in and let the main campaign take me. i mean, sure, the game is strongest as a 5-hour tour de force where it can showcase the strengths of its perfected gameplay loops without having to stretch them thin over a bevy of tasks not suited to them, and a few of the levels actively work against what the game's mission statement is... but what does any of that matter in the long run when sonic adventure 2 is simply the coolest game ever made?
by june 2001, the writing wasn't even on the wall anymore - the wall had actively been blown the fuck down by a monolithic black juggernaut sent by sony to wipe the floor with any and all competitors. the dreamcast had already been discontinued in march after a less-than-three-year lifespan, and with sega's transition into exclusively third-party software development the future of the company and its individual identity was cast into utmost obfuscation. it would be all too easy to just bow your head and duck out quietly here, but sonic team didn't seem content to just sit there and take it. if they were gonna sink, they must have planned on going down with the ship, because sonic adventure 2 is a masterclass in confidence - narratively and mechanically this is the best game that they ever made, and it knows it.
i think i could make an easy case for sonic adventure 2's complexity and depth if i compared it to devil may cry 3 (a game which has a lot of story and stylistic parallels to sonic adventure 2 as well... hmmmm): it's easy to waffle your way through each level and just keep going after you stumble, keeping a skill ceiling just low enough that you don't drown in the insane amount of shit going on... but part of the reason why sonic adventure 2 has such a reputation for its insane 100% status is because playing sonic adventure 2 well takes a lot of skill, practice, and willingness to learn. between the points system actively rewarding stylish gameplay and optimizing the living hell out of every second of your run, the fact that even one mess-up can potentially mean a restart, be it due to failing to maximize your point accumilation or (even worse) dying and starting with 0 points from whatever checkpoint you'd hit before that point. granted, many of the missions actively work against this design philosophy (especially since the same set of 5 missions is copy-and-pasted onto probably 95% of the stages, regardless of genre or level design), but when it hits? you get what you put into it. i've been eking away at sonic frontiers for the past sixth months or so, and it's perpetually perplexing to me that they apparently still don't know how to make sonic control well when they got it right twenty-three years ago. i'm starting to think we'll never get platforming levels like metal harbor or final chase ever again, or even the utterly deranged examples set by cosmic wall and mad space...
all right. sit the fuck down with your jututsu kaisens and your chainsaw mans and your my hero academias. bleach? one piece? dragon ball z? hell, fucking full metal alchemist (the indisputable GOAT in my opinion)? you all take notes too. this is the real shit, motherfuckers. REAL SHOUNEN. all killer, no filler. a series of picture-perfect Moments flawlessly interwoven together with just enough internal rhyme and reason to convince you to Go With It and not think about it too hard, all while having enough genuine substance and things to say for its children-and-teens audience to chew on. there's a reason that you hear people recite basically every cutscene in this game word for word during GDQ runs: everything from the iconic jungle clash between sonic and shadow to the mundane little moments like amy, knuckles and tails chilling on the side of the road just ooze style and personality, even when the story at hand is so boneheaded and numbskulled that you can't really get much out of it besides the raw adrenaline pumping through your veins. i even think the weird mo-cap on the anthro actors gives everything a lot of personality and charm, if only because this is the only time that sonic and co have felt like real people and genuine action heroes to me: it's little things like sonic assuming a cool guy fighting pose when he's about to square up with eggman, or the sheer cuntiness in rouge dangling above the eclipse cannon when introducing herself to eggman and shadow. sonic has always sort of had this reputation as being a silly scrimblo bimblo cartoon series, and it is that, but for one brilliant moment of clarity it commits to the bit and makes sonic actually as cool as he purports to be... and he's got enough swag that it actively rubs off on everyone and anything around him.
of course, this is maybe sonic the hedgehog's most controversial foray into genuine pathos... but i think everybody hams up the perceived "edginess" at the heart of the game without considering whether or not it's all in service of what the game ultimately has to say. sega knew that this would likely be their swan song, and the introspection and reflection littered throughout the script and reflection reflect that perfectly: sega was going out with a whimper after exploding onto the game scene with a bang, and the sort of questions the story poses reflects that perfectly. what happens when you're not who you thought you were, or when the people you define yourself by aren't who they thought you to be? the consistent anti-authoritarian throughline (sonic adventure 2 is an explicitly anti-police and anti-military game, and i'm not exaggerating even a little) reflects a willingness to distrust that which is portrayed as the unambiguous and untouchable good within our society. eggman's idolization of his grandfather is broken when he beholds dr. gerald's descent into wickedness, perhaps coming to understand his own lust for power and control as something less than the true tragic evil that now lives on through the blood in his veins. rouge's loyalty eventually yields not to her government benefactors or to her own selfish desires, but to her endearment to knuckles - an act which seems to even surprise herself by the end. hell, tails actually manages to make good on his "being independent from sonic" character arc from the previous game, considering that he breaks free from the mold of being a simple sidekick and is probably the single largest driving factor in the hero storyline from the moment sonic gets arrested for a second time.
last but most CERTAINLY not least, shadow the hedgehog's obfuscated memories and trauma-laden motivations all act to obscure and suppress the genuine kind heart and noble intentions he was born with and made for, perhaps being the embodiment of the game's study of and statements against the very concept of dualism. you would think that sonic's comparative lack of depth would make him stick out like a sore thumb here, but if anything i think this is the one and only example of that one-note characterization working to his favor: sonic simply is who he is, and his acceptance of his simple nature allows him to be who he is effortlessly without any kind of cognitive dissonance or baggage keeping him burdened to the past or anchored to laments about his present. he holds himself to no particular moral standard or self-image save for doing what he simply feels is appropriate at any given moment, his need for self-indulgence and going with his heart mercifully counter-balanced by the inherent purity of his character. shadow yields the title of "ultimate life form" to sonic not out of a recognition of his physical power or infalliability as a person, but because sonic's ideology is simply the way to be: unapologetically, violently, proudly yourself, unfettered to the artificial molds arbitrated your society, your past, or even your own everyday insecurities.
when i say sonic adventure 2 is one of the all-time top game narratives, i don't mean that it reaches the ideological potence of something like disco elysium or the inscrutable complexity of chrono cross, my personal favorite game narrative... i just mean that for the kind of thing it sets out to accomplish there's simply nothing better than it. crucially, to understand this the same logic applied to the main cast must be applied to sonic adventure 2 itself. yes, sonic the hedgehog is a silly series for silly children about silly cartoon animals... but if you look past that exterior and let go of all the pre-conceived notions you might have forged about what sonic apparently is, something special awaits you: the reality that sonic adventure 2, top to bottom, is one of the greatest games ever made.
This review contains spoilers
“You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.” - Friedrich Nietzsche
Historians, whether they be of the armchair or academia-spoiled variety, will indefinitely debate what the most pivotal and transformative event is. Despite these disagreements, there are two indisputable historical events that have forever altered the course of history. The first and most obvious example of this is Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer’s invention of the atomic bomb in the 1940’s. The second answer, certainly the less sexy of the two, is Johannes Gutenberg’s 16th century introduction of the printing press. Gutenberg’s legacy is expandable to any facet of history itself, but before diving into that, it’s worth recontextualizing this for modernity’s sake. Before the era of the internet, there was this idea of ‘centralized information’. Not that everybody thought the same way or lived the same way- there have been wars fought over this since Man realized that pain can be inflicted onto others. In more ways than are worth getting into here, information essentially had to be centralized, thanks to a lack of improper education systems combined with lackluster literacy rates among the average Western citizen; we were to rely on those who could teach us- the ones that could Preach The Gospel. Though it may sound obvious, it’s worth reminding ourselves there was a point in time, not too long ago, that there wasn’t a choice of where we received our information. If the medieval example of weaponization was physical pain present in warfare and the like, then the contemporary equivalent are methods of influence and persuasion that could offer similar advantages. Martin Luther’s utility of the printing press was The game-changer; information and knowledge became readily available to the masses for the first time in history, leading not only to a total shift in how we think about ideas and interpret them, but allowing for an influx of opinion that wouldn’t have been heard otherwise. One of the most infamous early examples of a printing press beneficiary is Nostradamus, a jack of all trades as the history textbooks may tell us, but most importantly, he was a clairvoyant of sorts, The Seer; Les Prophéties (1555 A.D.) was a collection of Nostradamus’s prophecies of events that were to occur throughout the course of Earth’s existence. The default reaction that most people have upon reading the prophecies is that it’s a load of nonsense. An entirely sane response to have- I’d go as far as to say that I agree. What’s worth emphasizing here, is not that Nostradamus was full of shit, but that there is an option to disagree.
The printing press also introduced humans to think more ‘freely’ than we once could. All technology brings a mutual existence of benefit and dilemma. The quest for Truth is something that the average daydreamer will inevitably come to a crossroads with. The questioning of life’s meaning and what the future may hold rings through our ears on a day-to-day basis, but it’s rare that one ever comes to an actual acceptance of an answer. The ability to think brings you the benefit of having a brain full of ideas, the dilemma may be that you’ll never truly know how you feel. This is, part of a much bigger reasoning, why some turn to religion or philosophy; there is a comfort in just being told that this is that and that is this. Questioning another person’s logic or way of thinking is a lot harder to do when we have a direct relation to said philosophy. It boils down to trust; why am I to believe the random person that gives me one answer rather than the person I consider my best friend, who gives me an entirely different answer? This is the crisis of common knowledge.
The first three episodes of the questions arc (we’ll get to the fourth and final episode, then) have their stories told via ‘game boards’ which presents a new permutation of the events that occurred on October 5th and 6th, 1986. These game boards all take place on the remote island of Rokkenjima, located off of the tokyo coast. This entire island, as we are told, is owned and inhabited by family head Kinzo Ushiromiya: an inheritor of mass wealth, maintaining an equal distribution of addiction to absinthe, chess, and magic. Each game board has a set number of murders that occur, in a whodunnit style that leaves both the characters and reader unsure of what to believe. Each game board has a different combination of characters that die, but each case regarding time and reasoning, intentionally vague at points, follows The Witch’s Epitaph.
The selection of characters, if not random, is something that I am not sure of. Knowing Ryukishi07, though, I’d like to rephrase that and say that it’s something that I am not sure of yet. I am not going to get ahead of myself and introduce each character, you should already be familiar with them, anyways, but Umineko has an overwhelming amount of them, or so it appears that way at face value. Robert Altman’s 1975 film Nashville level of characters. With a head count of eighteen, the reader is offered a menu that shows the Ushiromiya family tree as a way to refer to characters early on when you are less familiar with them or who is whose parent/child, for instance. It serves an entirely different purpose throughout the rest of the questions arc; I found myself referring to it mostly to read the character descriptions and how they change when a character dies. Before I realized that this would be the main reason I make use of it, I found myself already familiar with the characters I was introduced to. Ryukishi manages to put so much effort, meaning, and time into his characters that it somehow feels that each one gets an equivalent amount of screen time (this is absolutely not the case). The entire cast feels as if they have a direct purpose and meaning in Umineko, a Chekhov's Gun of sorts. I believe in Ryukishi and 07th Expansion enough to know this is intentional. There is no fluff, there are no “filler arcs”- the astronomical quantity of words that Ryukishi writes are not without purpose. The interactions between characters and their respective pairing has a purpose- whether it be Kanon and Shannon or Eva and Hideyoshi, the pairings that we often find have some underlying emotion and meaning behind them. Oftentimes more than not, they share love. Love is something that is an essential part of how Ryukishi07 writes, and without it I strongly believe you would wind up with a lower quality of writing. Learning this way that Ryukishi07 views love and intrapersonal relationships is crucial to When They Cry as a whole.
As the game boards repeat, the information that we get increases in quantity and quality. What’s important to mention about what is given to the reader is not only does it help you solve Rokkenjima in early October 1986, but it gives you the missing ‘why’. This is a lot more important than whatever conclusion you may come to, and a hell of a lot less accredited than deserved. Battler Ushiromiya dismisses his initial theories after the first game board with an answer being ‘too easy’. This is something we’ve all related to, taking up a task that we may deem as complex, figuring out the solution and thinking that was it?- readily available knowledge creates a paradox that allows constant doubt of our own decisions or conclusions because of that option to think of what the Answer is. It’s a blessing and a curse. Why did you stop thinking? he’ll ask himself. This creates a paradox of sorts: did Battler stop thinking about a less obvious answer that may be more accurate, even if only marginally, or did he stop thinking about why the easy answer may be The answer? Answers mean ultimately nothing if an underlying foundation of reasoning and context is absent- I believe this to be true in nearly every facet of life. A part of me enjoys the Christie-esque theory craftings that lie between the questions and answers arc. The other part of me wonders whether The Answer matters. This is not to say that one's ability to ‘solve’ Umineko or not is necessarily impressive or unimpressive, you should be able to back up your own theory if it’s something that you believe in. I think that’s what Umineko does best at its core: these lessons of whether we truly believe in something or understand the concepts and emotions that we imagine to be true are crucial to properly processing that emotion.
This leads me into a quick mention regarding the fourth and final episode: Alliance of the Golden Witch. From my understanding, this is the most disliked episode in the questions arc. I’d imagine that this is the same crowd that doesn’t like Chapter 7 of Higurashi. I absolutely adore the relationship that Ange and Maria have. The sections of this episode that are spent displaying the growth and development of Ange’s understanding of ‘magic’ and how that relates to Maria is spectacular.
Howard L. Boorman, once-was Foreign Service Officer representing the U.S. in China, wrote in a 1996 edition of The China Quarterly: The label “history” is conventionally used with at least two distinct meanings: history-as-actuality and history-as-record. It is hard not to think of history as a giant game of back-and-forth semantics between the armchair and academic historian. Marx’s Theory of Historical Materialism brought to life this understanding that the ‘fundamental truth’ of a society’s history is told by those who have higher socioeconomic position relative to their nation’s output. Simply put: the wealthier ruling class are the ones going to be telling the stories of their nation that build a foundational understanding of what occurred through the years. History is told by the winners. I tend to view Umineko through a similar lens that Karl Marx viewed history as a whole.
It’s also hard not to think of these board games in dogmatic terms when storytelling is set up to be that way. Oftentimes the reader/listener has a certain level of trust in a storyteller, but aside from this inherent, yet willing and unknowing reasoning, there is not much supporting it.The average reader will not have a direct relationship with the storyteller. Without a familiarity of the author’s prior work, or an ability to contextualize a number of factors, the easiest option is to blindly accept what we are told. Umineko manages to use its format to manipulate this in a way where you (seemingly) cannot allow all three of these stories to coexist with one another. There are a mere number of contradictions that make this nearly impossible. This is not to say that I believe one out of the three game boards is the Truth; Higurashi is not read in this way, nor should it be.
All of this raises the question: what are we to believe? If this foundation of trust and normalities are stripped away, then what does that leave? It’s a downward spiral of second-guessing and self doubt that we face in our realities every single day; Umineko is the only piece of art that I can think of where it manages to take that concept into action by making you question every single thing that you’re reading, seeing, or hearing. The three game boards being told one after the other have their purposes regarding the story’s characters and development, but it also means that you don't necessarily have the option to poke holes in theories as you normally could if it was one game board. You can do this on an individual level, but when it comes to finding an answer for the sum of its parts, you come to a dead end.
Historians, whether they be of the armchair or academia-spoiled variety, will indefinitely debate what the most pivotal and transformative event is. Despite these disagreements, there are two indisputable historical events that have forever altered the course of history. The first and most obvious example of this is Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer’s invention of the atomic bomb in the 1940’s. The second answer, certainly the less sexy of the two, is Johannes Gutenberg’s 16th century introduction of the printing press. Gutenberg’s legacy is expandable to any facet of history itself, but before diving into that, it’s worth recontextualizing this for modernity’s sake. Before the era of the internet, there was this idea of ‘centralized information’. Not that everybody thought the same way or lived the same way- there have been wars fought over this since Man realized that pain can be inflicted onto others. In more ways than are worth getting into here, information essentially had to be centralized, thanks to a lack of improper education systems combined with lackluster literacy rates among the average Western citizen; we were to rely on those who could teach us- the ones that could Preach The Gospel. Though it may sound obvious, it’s worth reminding ourselves there was a point in time, not too long ago, that there wasn’t a choice of where we received our information. If the medieval example of weaponization was physical pain present in warfare and the like, then the contemporary equivalent are methods of influence and persuasion that could offer similar advantages. Martin Luther’s utility of the printing press was The game-changer; information and knowledge became readily available to the masses for the first time in history, leading not only to a total shift in how we think about ideas and interpret them, but allowing for an influx of opinion that wouldn’t have been heard otherwise. One of the most infamous early examples of a printing press beneficiary is Nostradamus, a jack of all trades as the history textbooks may tell us, but most importantly, he was a clairvoyant of sorts, The Seer; Les Prophéties (1555 A.D.) was a collection of Nostradamus’s prophecies of events that were to occur throughout the course of Earth’s existence. The default reaction that most people have upon reading the prophecies is that it’s a load of nonsense. An entirely sane response to have- I’d go as far as to say that I agree. What’s worth emphasizing here, is not that Nostradamus was full of shit, but that there is an option to disagree.
The printing press also introduced humans to think more ‘freely’ than we once could. All technology brings a mutual existence of benefit and dilemma. The quest for Truth is something that the average daydreamer will inevitably come to a crossroads with. The questioning of life’s meaning and what the future may hold rings through our ears on a day-to-day basis, but it’s rare that one ever comes to an actual acceptance of an answer. The ability to think brings you the benefit of having a brain full of ideas, the dilemma may be that you’ll never truly know how you feel. This is, part of a much bigger reasoning, why some turn to religion or philosophy; there is a comfort in just being told that this is that and that is this. Questioning another person’s logic or way of thinking is a lot harder to do when we have a direct relation to said philosophy. It boils down to trust; why am I to believe the random person that gives me one answer rather than the person I consider my best friend, who gives me an entirely different answer? This is the crisis of common knowledge.
The first three episodes of the questions arc (we’ll get to the fourth and final episode, then) have their stories told via ‘game boards’ which presents a new permutation of the events that occurred on October 5th and 6th, 1986. These game boards all take place on the remote island of Rokkenjima, located off of the tokyo coast. This entire island, as we are told, is owned and inhabited by family head Kinzo Ushiromiya: an inheritor of mass wealth, maintaining an equal distribution of addiction to absinthe, chess, and magic. Each game board has a set number of murders that occur, in a whodunnit style that leaves both the characters and reader unsure of what to believe. Each game board has a different combination of characters that die, but each case regarding time and reasoning, intentionally vague at points, follows The Witch’s Epitaph.
The selection of characters, if not random, is something that I am not sure of. Knowing Ryukishi07, though, I’d like to rephrase that and say that it’s something that I am not sure of yet. I am not going to get ahead of myself and introduce each character, you should already be familiar with them, anyways, but Umineko has an overwhelming amount of them, or so it appears that way at face value. Robert Altman’s 1975 film Nashville level of characters. With a head count of eighteen, the reader is offered a menu that shows the Ushiromiya family tree as a way to refer to characters early on when you are less familiar with them or who is whose parent/child, for instance. It serves an entirely different purpose throughout the rest of the questions arc; I found myself referring to it mostly to read the character descriptions and how they change when a character dies. Before I realized that this would be the main reason I make use of it, I found myself already familiar with the characters I was introduced to. Ryukishi manages to put so much effort, meaning, and time into his characters that it somehow feels that each one gets an equivalent amount of screen time (this is absolutely not the case). The entire cast feels as if they have a direct purpose and meaning in Umineko, a Chekhov's Gun of sorts. I believe in Ryukishi and 07th Expansion enough to know this is intentional. There is no fluff, there are no “filler arcs”- the astronomical quantity of words that Ryukishi writes are not without purpose. The interactions between characters and their respective pairing has a purpose- whether it be Kanon and Shannon or Eva and Hideyoshi, the pairings that we often find have some underlying emotion and meaning behind them. Oftentimes more than not, they share love. Love is something that is an essential part of how Ryukishi07 writes, and without it I strongly believe you would wind up with a lower quality of writing. Learning this way that Ryukishi07 views love and intrapersonal relationships is crucial to When They Cry as a whole.
As the game boards repeat, the information that we get increases in quantity and quality. What’s important to mention about what is given to the reader is not only does it help you solve Rokkenjima in early October 1986, but it gives you the missing ‘why’. This is a lot more important than whatever conclusion you may come to, and a hell of a lot less accredited than deserved. Battler Ushiromiya dismisses his initial theories after the first game board with an answer being ‘too easy’. This is something we’ve all related to, taking up a task that we may deem as complex, figuring out the solution and thinking that was it?- readily available knowledge creates a paradox that allows constant doubt of our own decisions or conclusions because of that option to think of what the Answer is. It’s a blessing and a curse. Why did you stop thinking? he’ll ask himself. This creates a paradox of sorts: did Battler stop thinking about a less obvious answer that may be more accurate, even if only marginally, or did he stop thinking about why the easy answer may be The answer? Answers mean ultimately nothing if an underlying foundation of reasoning and context is absent- I believe this to be true in nearly every facet of life. A part of me enjoys the Christie-esque theory craftings that lie between the questions and answers arc. The other part of me wonders whether The Answer matters. This is not to say that one's ability to ‘solve’ Umineko or not is necessarily impressive or unimpressive, you should be able to back up your own theory if it’s something that you believe in. I think that’s what Umineko does best at its core: these lessons of whether we truly believe in something or understand the concepts and emotions that we imagine to be true are crucial to properly processing that emotion.
This leads me into a quick mention regarding the fourth and final episode: Alliance of the Golden Witch. From my understanding, this is the most disliked episode in the questions arc. I’d imagine that this is the same crowd that doesn’t like Chapter 7 of Higurashi. I absolutely adore the relationship that Ange and Maria have. The sections of this episode that are spent displaying the growth and development of Ange’s understanding of ‘magic’ and how that relates to Maria is spectacular.
Howard L. Boorman, once-was Foreign Service Officer representing the U.S. in China, wrote in a 1996 edition of The China Quarterly: The label “history” is conventionally used with at least two distinct meanings: history-as-actuality and history-as-record. It is hard not to think of history as a giant game of back-and-forth semantics between the armchair and academic historian. Marx’s Theory of Historical Materialism brought to life this understanding that the ‘fundamental truth’ of a society’s history is told by those who have higher socioeconomic position relative to their nation’s output. Simply put: the wealthier ruling class are the ones going to be telling the stories of their nation that build a foundational understanding of what occurred through the years. History is told by the winners. I tend to view Umineko through a similar lens that Karl Marx viewed history as a whole.
It’s also hard not to think of these board games in dogmatic terms when storytelling is set up to be that way. Oftentimes the reader/listener has a certain level of trust in a storyteller, but aside from this inherent, yet willing and unknowing reasoning, there is not much supporting it.The average reader will not have a direct relationship with the storyteller. Without a familiarity of the author’s prior work, or an ability to contextualize a number of factors, the easiest option is to blindly accept what we are told. Umineko manages to use its format to manipulate this in a way where you (seemingly) cannot allow all three of these stories to coexist with one another. There are a mere number of contradictions that make this nearly impossible. This is not to say that I believe one out of the three game boards is the Truth; Higurashi is not read in this way, nor should it be.
All of this raises the question: what are we to believe? If this foundation of trust and normalities are stripped away, then what does that leave? It’s a downward spiral of second-guessing and self doubt that we face in our realities every single day; Umineko is the only piece of art that I can think of where it manages to take that concept into action by making you question every single thing that you’re reading, seeing, or hearing. The three game boards being told one after the other have their purposes regarding the story’s characters and development, but it also means that you don't necessarily have the option to poke holes in theories as you normally could if it was one game board. You can do this on an individual level, but when it comes to finding an answer for the sum of its parts, you come to a dead end.
Collecting white dots in Packed Man is the most fun you can have in a video game!
won't go as far as to say this is the best version of pacman but i'll be damned if it isn't utterly stunning
won't go as far as to say this is the best version of pacman but i'll be damned if it isn't utterly stunning
Dragon Warrior IV
1990
"Honey, wake up!", your wife tells you, "your boss will scold you again if you're late!". You're reminded of the existence of the overbearing and rude shop owner that employs you. How many hours at the counter will you have to spend this time before he is satisfied? Your back hurts, the bed you sleep in is worn out and not very comfortable, and yet you can hardly sleep in and fully recover - you have a wife and child to feed. You get up, get dressed, wash yourself and are now ready for another day at work. "Here's your lunch, honey", your wife tells you as she kisses you on the cheek, "have a good day!"
Taking the lunch, you're on your way to the weapon's shop. An old man stops you, "Torneko my dear", he says, "can you push me to the church? My bones are cranky, and I'll even pay you a couple gold for that." Needing every penny due to the meager pay you receive, you decide to help the old neighbour out. You feel ridiculous pushing an old man to the church, humiliated even, but eventually manage to complete the task. "Thank you dear, this is for you." You receive 9 gold pieces. The idea that you have to do such tasks for a mere 9 gold pieces makes you feel ashamed, thus not feeling like working, you take a little detour to the bar. An old drinking buddy is happy to see you. "Torneko old friend! How are you?", he shouts in a carefree manner that simply irritates you. How can he relax like that while you have to slave away in the weapon's shop? "Have you heard, friend, they say there are many treasures in the cave up north. Nobody goes there because they say it's full of monsters, but I wonder if the rumor is true. That'd be something if we could get our hands on it, eh? You wouldn't have to work for the old shopkeeper anymore, eh?"
Him and his ridiculous fantasies, you think. And suddenly, as if reminding yourself you're not quit as low as to start drinking and spreading rumors in the morning, you remember that you're already thirty minutes late to work. Finally, you decided to leave your daydreaming and already drunk friend alone and make your way to the shop. "You're late. Again. Where were you?" - he doesn't even greet you properly - "Stand in front of the counter and take care of the customers. You get paid on commission, so do your job properly." and as he says that, he disappears into the back of the shop. This is it. Another day of pain.
For hours customer after customer is entering, asking for one of the three items on sale at the shop or looking to sell one of theirs, and you diligently make sure they pay the appropriate price. Despite everything, you do want to do your job properly. After around 8-9 hours, you've finally had enough and ask for your pay from the shopkeeper. "Hmm, your work was worth 109 gold pieces today. See you tomorrow." The day of torture has ended, and it's time to return to the light in your life, your family. You enter your home.
"Welcome back honey, how was work?", she gives you a soft greeting kiss, "I'm glad you are working so hard for us honey, but does working for someone else really suit you? When I married you, you wanted to become the greatest merchant in the world. I know you can do it. That's why I married you! W-Well, it's not the entire reason of course. Fufufu."
Her words are encouraging, but also worrisome. Deep down you understand what she is really saying, She's saying she doesn't want a husband who's stuck in a dead-end job as a cashier at a weapon's shop. You're loved, but for how long will that last while you're humiliating yourself pushing around old men for a few more gold pieces? You go to bed, night falls, but your wife's words linger in your mind. This can't go on for much longer. "I have to do something. I'm done with this monotony, I'm sick of selling weapons for a couple gold coins. I want to provide for my family. I want to show them what I can do. Tomorrow I will do something. I will change something.", you think to yourself half-awake, imagining yourself bringing riches home to your soon-to-be-proud wife. Didn't your friend say something about treasure in a cave in the north? You've never fought with monsters before. You're a bit chubby, not the most athletic person, in fact, you've never won a fight before. But sometimes a man has to take risks. Sometimes a man has to be bold. Sometimes a man needs to want more.
Dawn approaches. This is the day. This is the day that will not be the same as any other. You go to the weapons shop. Not as an employee, but as a customer. You arrive. "A copper sword, please.", you tell your boss. "Torneko, you don't need a copper sword in front of the counter, no one is going to attack you", "well, I don't need the counter today. I'm quitting. But before I go, I need that copper sword.", "You're making a mistake, Torneko. But as you wish."
Leaving your life of monotony behind, you take the first bold step outside the safe confines of the city as suddenly a she-slime draws near. You're grasping the copper sword, of which you have sold hundreds, but have never used one for yourself - until now. You're fighting your fear, your uncertainty, your hesitation. This is it, there is no going back now, with determination you take your first blow.
Welcome to the world of Dragon Quest
Taking the lunch, you're on your way to the weapon's shop. An old man stops you, "Torneko my dear", he says, "can you push me to the church? My bones are cranky, and I'll even pay you a couple gold for that." Needing every penny due to the meager pay you receive, you decide to help the old neighbour out. You feel ridiculous pushing an old man to the church, humiliated even, but eventually manage to complete the task. "Thank you dear, this is for you." You receive 9 gold pieces. The idea that you have to do such tasks for a mere 9 gold pieces makes you feel ashamed, thus not feeling like working, you take a little detour to the bar. An old drinking buddy is happy to see you. "Torneko old friend! How are you?", he shouts in a carefree manner that simply irritates you. How can he relax like that while you have to slave away in the weapon's shop? "Have you heard, friend, they say there are many treasures in the cave up north. Nobody goes there because they say it's full of monsters, but I wonder if the rumor is true. That'd be something if we could get our hands on it, eh? You wouldn't have to work for the old shopkeeper anymore, eh?"
Him and his ridiculous fantasies, you think. And suddenly, as if reminding yourself you're not quit as low as to start drinking and spreading rumors in the morning, you remember that you're already thirty minutes late to work. Finally, you decided to leave your daydreaming and already drunk friend alone and make your way to the shop. "You're late. Again. Where were you?" - he doesn't even greet you properly - "Stand in front of the counter and take care of the customers. You get paid on commission, so do your job properly." and as he says that, he disappears into the back of the shop. This is it. Another day of pain.
For hours customer after customer is entering, asking for one of the three items on sale at the shop or looking to sell one of theirs, and you diligently make sure they pay the appropriate price. Despite everything, you do want to do your job properly. After around 8-9 hours, you've finally had enough and ask for your pay from the shopkeeper. "Hmm, your work was worth 109 gold pieces today. See you tomorrow." The day of torture has ended, and it's time to return to the light in your life, your family. You enter your home.
"Welcome back honey, how was work?", she gives you a soft greeting kiss, "I'm glad you are working so hard for us honey, but does working for someone else really suit you? When I married you, you wanted to become the greatest merchant in the world. I know you can do it. That's why I married you! W-Well, it's not the entire reason of course. Fufufu."
Her words are encouraging, but also worrisome. Deep down you understand what she is really saying, She's saying she doesn't want a husband who's stuck in a dead-end job as a cashier at a weapon's shop. You're loved, but for how long will that last while you're humiliating yourself pushing around old men for a few more gold pieces? You go to bed, night falls, but your wife's words linger in your mind. This can't go on for much longer. "I have to do something. I'm done with this monotony, I'm sick of selling weapons for a couple gold coins. I want to provide for my family. I want to show them what I can do. Tomorrow I will do something. I will change something.", you think to yourself half-awake, imagining yourself bringing riches home to your soon-to-be-proud wife. Didn't your friend say something about treasure in a cave in the north? You've never fought with monsters before. You're a bit chubby, not the most athletic person, in fact, you've never won a fight before. But sometimes a man has to take risks. Sometimes a man has to be bold. Sometimes a man needs to want more.
Dawn approaches. This is the day. This is the day that will not be the same as any other. You go to the weapons shop. Not as an employee, but as a customer. You arrive. "A copper sword, please.", you tell your boss. "Torneko, you don't need a copper sword in front of the counter, no one is going to attack you", "well, I don't need the counter today. I'm quitting. But before I go, I need that copper sword.", "You're making a mistake, Torneko. But as you wish."
Leaving your life of monotony behind, you take the first bold step outside the safe confines of the city as suddenly a she-slime draws near. You're grasping the copper sword, of which you have sold hundreds, but have never used one for yourself - until now. You're fighting your fear, your uncertainty, your hesitation. This is it, there is no going back now, with determination you take your first blow.
Welcome to the world of Dragon Quest
Marvel's Spider-Man
2018
Throughout the history of video games, those that have focused on western comic book superheroes have not been particularly good. I'm framing this as a (purposefully) broad and easily-expandable idea; Some have terrible stories, some have terrible gameplay, or a mix of both. The first game that I ever played that didn't follow this predictable format was Batman: Arkham Asylum. Ten year old me at the time knew nothing about video games, but I knew that this game was a lot different from how Superman: Shadow of Apokolips felt.
It's easy to blame studios like THQ, Activision, hell, even LJN (if we're going way back) for all of the seemingly low effort superhero games that were made revolving around the superheroes that we grew up idolizing. These were essentially cash-grabs for the companies at play- consumers are bound to buy a product if it has a recognizable character on it's packaging. Marvel and DC are guilty of this throughout it's nearly decade plus run of MCU films; Why sink in unnecessary amounts of effort when the launch of the product is bound to make money, regardless of it's quality?
Marvel's Spider-Man breaks this doom loop combo of bad writing and gameplay, and capitalizes on both of them. This game's story roped me in a hell of a lot more than I ever expected it to; I am already a fan of Spider-Man himself, but I've witnessed a shocking amount of people play this game who could give less of a shit about Spider-Man (or Marvel in general). This is how you get people invested into a character or story. When a company/studio shows us this potential that they could care if they wanted to, it makes it even more upsetting to see the shitty low-effort products that are inevitably released going forward. It seems that as long as Disney keeps their paws off of Marvel Game Studios, we might be able to have a period of time where superhero games are not only good, but great.
I'm stoked to play Miles Morales and Spider-Man 2 this year. I knew I was going to play them eventually, but finally playing this game made me realize what this hype around these games actually were. I get it now!
Edit: within the next few days I'm going to write more about this game's story, and talk about it in this review
It's easy to blame studios like THQ, Activision, hell, even LJN (if we're going way back) for all of the seemingly low effort superhero games that were made revolving around the superheroes that we grew up idolizing. These were essentially cash-grabs for the companies at play- consumers are bound to buy a product if it has a recognizable character on it's packaging. Marvel and DC are guilty of this throughout it's nearly decade plus run of MCU films; Why sink in unnecessary amounts of effort when the launch of the product is bound to make money, regardless of it's quality?
Marvel's Spider-Man breaks this doom loop combo of bad writing and gameplay, and capitalizes on both of them. This game's story roped me in a hell of a lot more than I ever expected it to; I am already a fan of Spider-Man himself, but I've witnessed a shocking amount of people play this game who could give less of a shit about Spider-Man (or Marvel in general). This is how you get people invested into a character or story. When a company/studio shows us this potential that they could care if they wanted to, it makes it even more upsetting to see the shitty low-effort products that are inevitably released going forward. It seems that as long as Disney keeps their paws off of Marvel Game Studios, we might be able to have a period of time where superhero games are not only good, but great.
I'm stoked to play Miles Morales and Spider-Man 2 this year. I knew I was going to play them eventually, but finally playing this game made me realize what this hype around these games actually were. I get it now!
Edit: within the next few days I'm going to write more about this game's story, and talk about it in this review
A few months ago, I joined a book club for visual novels. As a new fan of the medium through titles like Fata Morgana, Higurashi, and Umineko, I was incredibly excited for what was to come. Our first journey through the medium had me revisiting The House in Fata Morgana, which used to occupy my top 10. I still adore the game, but some of the elements that enchanted me on my first play-through of it were less magical on my second play-through, having read through masterpieces like Higurashi and Umineko. After that experience, I was more than ready to explore new Visual Novels, and the second title we played, Wonderful Everyday, did not disappoint at all.
If you were to ask me a few months ago what my top three favorite games were, I would have quickly stated that these included Umineko When They Cry as my most favorite, followed by Metal Gear Solid 2 and Final Fantasy VII. If you know how I feel about these games, you already know how difficult it would have been for any game to unseat any of these titles from their rankings. Wonderful Everyday managed to do the impossible however, with it currently sitting as one of my most favorite games of all time, which is something I do not say lightly.
Wonderful Everyday is a complicated experience to properly describe. It’s made me feel deeply uncomfortable and disturbed, while at the same time in awe of how genuine and beautiful the game can be. It’s hilarious and somber, beautiful and grotesque, sensible and absurd, all at the same time.
It's also a game that I think I needed to play through at this specific point of my life.
Depression and self-hatred have been consistent sources of various struggles for me for years, almost culminating at two separate points where I had attempted to end my own life. Learning to love and live with myself is a goal I’ve still yet to properly achieve.
Ever since I was 15, I’ve struggled to answer why I even bother to wake up each morning. Despite my efforts, it’s been difficult to truly justify living each day. That’s not something that goes away easy obviously, but my time with Wonderful Everyday has caused me to take a few steps back and reflect. Maybe one doesn’t need any specific ‘reason’ to keep going. Maybe it’s enough to just be able to laugh with friends occasionally. Maybe happiness can still be found even in the most hopeless of situations. Maybe simply ‘living happily’ is enough.
I think about Wonderful Everyday’s central message often. That idea of choosing to ‘live happily’, in spite of one’s own circumstances, has never felt more relevant to me than they have in the past few years. It’s certainly not an easy goal to accomplish, but it’s art like Wonderful Everyday that helps remind me that the pursuit is worth it no matter how far I’m away from it.
Wonderful Everyday is an experience like no other. Nothing has made me cry, laugh, and cringe like this game has. Even a month after finishing it, I can’t stop thinking about how this game has made me feel.
That being said, Wonderful Everyday is a really hard game to recommend, especially to those who are newcomers to the visual novel genre. I won’t go too deeply into spoiler territory here, but not only is it an experience that is viscerally uncomfortable and graphic at times, it’s a work that can tend to be intentionally cryptic at points. I don’t really believe that it’s something that a person who had never played through any visual novels before can properly appreciate. In one sense, it’s almost like throwing an infant into the deep end of a swimming pool. Even for myself, as someone who had a bit of experience with certain visual novels going in, Wonderful Everyday could be an incredibly uncomfortable experience at times.
I’d still say the experience was worth it and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I would write some contrived bullshit about how good art should “disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed” but I think at this point you get the idea. Even with how wildly unnerving the experience could be at times, Wonderful Everyday is still one of the best games I’ve had the pleasure of playing through.
Live happily.
If you were to ask me a few months ago what my top three favorite games were, I would have quickly stated that these included Umineko When They Cry as my most favorite, followed by Metal Gear Solid 2 and Final Fantasy VII. If you know how I feel about these games, you already know how difficult it would have been for any game to unseat any of these titles from their rankings. Wonderful Everyday managed to do the impossible however, with it currently sitting as one of my most favorite games of all time, which is something I do not say lightly.
Wonderful Everyday is a complicated experience to properly describe. It’s made me feel deeply uncomfortable and disturbed, while at the same time in awe of how genuine and beautiful the game can be. It’s hilarious and somber, beautiful and grotesque, sensible and absurd, all at the same time.
It's also a game that I think I needed to play through at this specific point of my life.
Depression and self-hatred have been consistent sources of various struggles for me for years, almost culminating at two separate points where I had attempted to end my own life. Learning to love and live with myself is a goal I’ve still yet to properly achieve.
Ever since I was 15, I’ve struggled to answer why I even bother to wake up each morning. Despite my efforts, it’s been difficult to truly justify living each day. That’s not something that goes away easy obviously, but my time with Wonderful Everyday has caused me to take a few steps back and reflect. Maybe one doesn’t need any specific ‘reason’ to keep going. Maybe it’s enough to just be able to laugh with friends occasionally. Maybe happiness can still be found even in the most hopeless of situations. Maybe simply ‘living happily’ is enough.
I think about Wonderful Everyday’s central message often. That idea of choosing to ‘live happily’, in spite of one’s own circumstances, has never felt more relevant to me than they have in the past few years. It’s certainly not an easy goal to accomplish, but it’s art like Wonderful Everyday that helps remind me that the pursuit is worth it no matter how far I’m away from it.
Wonderful Everyday is an experience like no other. Nothing has made me cry, laugh, and cringe like this game has. Even a month after finishing it, I can’t stop thinking about how this game has made me feel.
That being said, Wonderful Everyday is a really hard game to recommend, especially to those who are newcomers to the visual novel genre. I won’t go too deeply into spoiler territory here, but not only is it an experience that is viscerally uncomfortable and graphic at times, it’s a work that can tend to be intentionally cryptic at points. I don’t really believe that it’s something that a person who had never played through any visual novels before can properly appreciate. In one sense, it’s almost like throwing an infant into the deep end of a swimming pool. Even for myself, as someone who had a bit of experience with certain visual novels going in, Wonderful Everyday could be an incredibly uncomfortable experience at times.
I’d still say the experience was worth it and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I would write some contrived bullshit about how good art should “disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed” but I think at this point you get the idea. Even with how wildly unnerving the experience could be at times, Wonderful Everyday is still one of the best games I’ve had the pleasure of playing through.
Live happily.
Tsukihime
2000
Tick. Tick. Tick.
It is February 2022. I don’t remember the date. I’m sitting in my living room at midnight. I’m scrolling through twitter.
Nothing better to do with my time.
I see my friend, Rom, on the timeline talking about a game he really enjoys.
Tsukihime.
Game? That’s not quite right—it’s a visual novel. Up until this point the only one’s I’ve played are a handful of Ace Attorney games and the main entries in the Danganronpa series, but I see them more as games than visual novels in my eyes. I’m not particularly enticed by the screenshots of Tsukihime that I see either… I don’t read much and I don’t know if I could handle 50 hours of just that.
But even so, I’m find myself being pulled towards it…like a lost relic from the past, I’m nostalgic for it without a reason to be so, it might just be that I’ve played a lot of Melty Blood the year prior without any care for where these characters originated from but this feeling scratches away at my mind like a dog with my curiosity being the only driving factor. I do not understand.
—I cave.
𝗧𝗦𝗨𝗞𝗜𝗛𝗜𝗠𝗘
—Suddenly, I awaken with a start.
I can’t remember much from my reaction to the beginning, other than that I only experienced the first three hours before going to sleep, expecting myself to continue the next day. I didn’t.
A few months later, I find myself isolated. I can’t talk to my friends, I can’t do much of anything except waste my time playing video games. Still, it’s not all bad. This allows me to overcome some games on my backlog.
A voice in my head nags at me. Begging me to come back, come back to Tsukihime. Before I know it, I find myself on the title screen again. Over the course of the next two days, I find myself enthralled by the game, especially by Arcueid Brunestud. I wouldn’t call myself a “milkman” in any capacity…but something about this particular white woman puts her apart from the rest of the cast.
I meet her in the street. It’s my first contact with her.
It’s my worst contact with her.
Yet she still takes a chance on Shiki, and he takes a chance on her. They’re each other's polar opposites but incredibly similar too. They’re both beings haunted by a sin they committed as they try to atone for it. Their sins are pulling them toward each other, and it’s ultimately their sins that are tearing them apart. A love burns in Shiki’s heart that’s only matched by his murderous rage, both birthed out of the same place. He can’t let go.
A few days go by and I’m at the end. Shiki stares at the orange sky, I stare at my laptop screen. Both of us are waiting, waiting for a chance to meet her again and yet that feeling is what we ultimately must let go off.
The credits start rolling. There’s not a single tear in my eye…yet I don’t think I’ve ever felt this way at something before. I promise myself that I will finish this VN soon. The first of many lies.
On the 18th of April, 2022 at 12:02 am, I finish Arcueid’s route.
𝗗𝗔𝗬𝗟𝗜𝗚𝗛𝗧 𝗕𝗟𝗨𝗘
I close my laptop after that ending. I’m excited. I don’t think I’ve been invested in something this much in a while. I promise myself that I’ll start reading the next route tomorrow. This too, of course, is a lie.
I feel like it should be put into perspective just how much I had changed when I picked up Tsukihime again. I’d finished The Silver Case and with it I felt like a whole new world had been opened to me, a different way of viewing art itself. I feel like it was made for me on every level and it showed me where the true strength of a visual novel medium lies. Surely nothing else will ever make me feel this way, right?
—I’m in a familiar place. I’m isolated again. I’ve got nothing to do, nobody to talk to. Slowly, I feel an urge come over me. I’ve been here before, I know what to do. I find myself on the title screen again.
This music…I realized it before but this track really is beautiful. As limited and repetitive as Tsukihime’s tracks can get at times, I still love the sound. The repetition of the tracks is something I can grow accustomed to.
The same can’t be said for the narrative.
A few hours into the Ciel route and I’m still clicking away most of what I read. I’ve read all this before, seen all this before. It’s not unpleasant to go through this once more, but I really feel this is holding Ciel back as a character. I don’t think she’s being given ample time to develop her. I’m at the halfway point now, I think. I can’t tell when the Arcueid route ends and the Ciel route begins, but I think I made it.
Now that I think about it, each heroine is a character that lives and dies depending on their relationship with Shiki so what exactly is going on? Am I not near the end? Why is it still-
THUMP
—My heart throbs. I realise it.
This isn’t a mistake. This is a love triangle.
Frustrated. I’m frustrated. The more I read the more my suspicions just get confirmed. “Show don’t tell” is the rule isn’t it? Then why are scenes, ones that can be moving and impactful, traded away for a quick explanation of how each other is feeling? This is crazy, I’m crazy. I’m complaining about exposition dumps in a story filled to the brim with them. But I can’t help but feel this is where it’s most egregious.
What I’m reading…it’s something about perspective. Not only just in the routes, but bit by bit you uncover more of these characters, things you aren’t told in the other routes, and the two Near Side routes are a perfect showcase of that. Ciel is someone who’s able to stand on her own, apart from Arcueid, as a character. Yet she still parallels Shiki’s descent. So it’s frustrating. Frustrating that the relationship between these two feels so underdeveloped.
These thoughts keep churning in my head. At the forefront of my mind, while I keep on reading. I’m at the end now, the end of this journey. I’ve been critical of this whole route…so why does it make me feel this way? Is it some kind of Stockholm Syndrome? Am I just easily won over by lazy writing?
Shiki opens his eyes and Ciel’s teardrops fall. I smile.
On the 8th of January, 2023 at 1:08 am, I finish Ciel’s route.
𝗪𝗔𝗥𝗠 𝗔𝗙𝗧𝗘𝗥𝗡𝗢𝗢𝗡 𝗡𝗔𝗣
I close my laptop. I lie to myself again. It’s become a ritual now.
—It’s March. Hell is right around the corner for me. I don’t care. I don’t want anything to do with it. I refuse. I utterly refuse to care what life is throwing at me. Truth be told I don’t even think of it. To escape my hell, I decide to dip my toes into another one.
Truth be told, I knew what I was getting into with this route. It’s simple when I think about it. This is a game where in each route you have a heroine that you get into a romantic relationship with, so it’s not too far-fetched to assume this route will do the same. Only problem is that the heroine is the Shiki’s sister.
I can handle “dark” subject matter, it’s not a question of whether or not I can stomach incest, it’s if this game handles it well. Either that…or it veers into the dangerous territory of “problematic”. I’ve always found discussions about problematic content interesting. Of course I think the elements that fall under that label shouldn’t be in media if they’re used to fetishize them but I can’t help but notice that a lot of the argument surrounding them centers on the fact of morality. That in a society as consumed by capitalism as ours the only way to have an identity, something with which we can recognize others, is by the content we inhale at a rapid pace. Where the only way we can tell others that we are inherently good is if we enjoy stuff that doesn’t have anything “problematic”.
—There’s someone out there who could probably make an essay of this topic, but this is a review on Backloggd and I’ve spent too much time thinking about this because I’m already at the big scene.
“I love you as my sister.” Shiki says.
I hold my breath. Time feels like it’s stopped. A spark ignites in my head, the synapses of my brain jolt back and forth. My eyes fixate on the screen. My hand hovers on the spacebar. Maybe it will be all right, maybe there is no incest. I have hope, but fear still has an iron grip on me. After what feels like an eternity, I close the gap between my finger and my keyboard.
“But… I love you as my sister even more.”
I close my eyes.
“It is fate.” I utter.
Nothing I can do besides accept it.
Fate. It’s only now I realise that fate lies at the heart of this route. I’m so close to the end but this is where this route has laid its soul bare. Are we all fated to end up this way? Or can we change that? Is Akiha is a product of nature and Shiki one of nurture? Can you even fight against yourself in that manner? Is a child who has been abused all his life destined to repeat that cycle of abuse, is that evil just in his nature? It took me too long to realise, and now it’s too late.
Under a blue sky, a girl cries and hugs a knife. The end credits start playing.
On the 3rd of March, 2023 at 1:04 pm, I finish Akiha’s route.
𝗠𝗜𝗗𝗗𝗔𝗬 𝗠𝗢𝗢𝗡
—I lie again.
I have an idea. I’m eventually going to finish this visual novel one day, so why not make my review different for this one? Why not write in the style of Nasu’s prose?
Of course, I know how insane that sounds. I can’t compare to the real thing but I want to try anyway. It seems like a good way to challenge my writing capabilities.
The biggest hurdle right now is actually finishing this thing. I’m free now, so why don’t I finish Hisui’s route as soon as I can?
The first thing I notice is that this is a repeat of everything in the Akiha route for now. Mindless taps. Nothing but mindless taps.
Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.
I’m in a dark room.
Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.
I keep waiting.
Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.
That rhythmic tap of the spacebar. I press it over and over and over. I feel like I’m going insane. But I can feel it, I’m so close. So close to finally getting to the new stuff but with each tap my patience keeps dwindling until there’s nothing left. Knots in my brain. Cold dead eyes. I stare at the screen.
Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Ta-
This is it. I’m here.
…
……
………!?
Is this a joke? I don’t understand.
The main scenario in this chapter is just Shiki going insane in a room. Just like I was. For a moment it feels like an unfortunate coincidence, something to point at and laugh but I can’t but feel like there’s something more. I have spent these past few months honing my backloggdian skills, becoming a better writer on the way.
No. My analytical skills tell me this is something more.
Yes. Kinoko Nasu did all this purpose. Yes. Kinoko Nasu is that much of a genius.
I clasp my hands in a prayer. Blessed I am to be reading this visual novel. I can only marvel at this man’s sheer writing power. With this one route, I am not “just like” Shiki Tohno. I have become him.
But I’m ignoring something, aren’t I?
Hisui’s doll-like expressions, calm demeanor, and general aloofness is something I’ve grown accustomed to by now. So seeing it break doesn’t feel like the conclusion of a character arc, it feels like a porcelain doll shattering. It’s messy. Every time I look at her I see nothing, besides someone so hellbent on protecting oneself by any means necessary. Even if it means not rejecting your own humanity.
I’m underneath a tree. Clear blue sky. I listen to her.
My heart shatters.
On the 4th of October, 2023 at 11:08am, I finish Hisui’s route.
𝗗𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗠𝗦 𝗢𝗙 𝗦𝗨𝗡𝗦𝗛𝗜𝗡𝗘
I’m done lying.
—Perspective.
It lies at the heart of Tsukihime. A subtle change in how you perceive an event can lead to a radically different outcome. For a story that’s written with this theme at heart, I can only expect the final route to be a culmination of everything I’ve come to know so far.
But with each clicking sound on my keyboard, I just feel my opinions lowering. Is this…really it? I didn’t expect a grand finale but most of what I’ve seen so far is just a rehash of the Hisui route, and not in a good way. I can almost taste the laziness through the screen.
I don’t know if I’m disappointed or something else. In a way, I can’t say this is surprising. But regardless, everything feels so rushed. It’s almost tragic to see a narrative failing its most interesting character.
—Hate.
Everything in this house is built on hate. A carefully constructed façade through and through. If you didn’t know, you could have never even guessed, and the more I play the more I become convinced that everything would’ve turned out this way, sooner or later.
I keep pressing the spacebar. Of course, now I’m long past the point of divergence with the Hisui route as well. Coming face to face with what the route has to offer and I can’t help but feel an ache in my heart, coupled with a smirk on my face. I ache for what suffering took place but my smirk isn’t a sign of a critique of the game. I think.
In a lot of ways, Kohaku’s route sort of mirrors Akiha’s route as well. “Can a doll be fixed?” being the main question here. When do you stop believing in a person, when do you give up? For a person as pigheaded as Shiki Tohno, the answer is obvious. Of course I smirk, if only Akiha route’s Shiki could see what this one has to say about incest.
I come closer and closer to the finish line. The only thing I can hope for is a happy ending, and I got a rushed one.
On the 8th of October, 2023 at 11:26pm, I finish Kohaku’s route.
𝗘𝗖𝗟𝗜𝗣𝗦𝗘
—I’m finally here, aren’t I?
Text pops up on the screen, my eyes carefully examine every single line. I don’t know what I’m looking for. Maybe a more meaningful understanding of everything so I can tell myself that it was worth it. Maybe I don’t want it to end.
With each tap, with each clicking sound, I read more and more of the final words this product has to offer. Maybe it’s a form of Stockholm Syndrome, but despite its faults, I think this visual novel won me over.
What am I saying? Stockholm Syndrome isn’t even real.
Even now as I sit here months later, way past the due date on this review, I think back to it. My first experience opening Tsukihime and meeting her, along with my last.
I can only hope that I captured even a little bit of what makes Nasu’s writing so captivating to read, but even I can acknowledge that this is nothing more than a pale imitation. Although…don’t we all try to imitate a little bit of everything that we see?
When it comes to what I’ll imitate besides this…well…
The way I look at it, every single person touched by Shiki is due to his love. His decision to pay back that small bit of kindness he received when he was very little. We are all surrounded by kind people aren’t we? So why do we hurt the ones we love the most?
You may call this unrelated rambling. I call it a clever way of imitating Nasu’s tendency to go on tangents.
At the end of the day, I have nothing more than the memories I received. It doesn’t matter if they’re positive or not, I’m just glad to have them. I know that even they will twist, even they will fade. But I don’t care.
—The lunar eclipse is far away.
So I let go.
You go ahead and pass through your remaining time.
I’ll pass through mine.
Thank you, for everything.
It is February 2022. I don’t remember the date. I’m sitting in my living room at midnight. I’m scrolling through twitter.
Nothing better to do with my time.
I see my friend, Rom, on the timeline talking about a game he really enjoys.
Tsukihime.
Game? That’s not quite right—it’s a visual novel. Up until this point the only one’s I’ve played are a handful of Ace Attorney games and the main entries in the Danganronpa series, but I see them more as games than visual novels in my eyes. I’m not particularly enticed by the screenshots of Tsukihime that I see either… I don’t read much and I don’t know if I could handle 50 hours of just that.
But even so, I’m find myself being pulled towards it…like a lost relic from the past, I’m nostalgic for it without a reason to be so, it might just be that I’ve played a lot of Melty Blood the year prior without any care for where these characters originated from but this feeling scratches away at my mind like a dog with my curiosity being the only driving factor. I do not understand.
—I cave.
𝗧𝗦𝗨𝗞𝗜𝗛𝗜𝗠𝗘
—Suddenly, I awaken with a start.
I can’t remember much from my reaction to the beginning, other than that I only experienced the first three hours before going to sleep, expecting myself to continue the next day. I didn’t.
A few months later, I find myself isolated. I can’t talk to my friends, I can’t do much of anything except waste my time playing video games. Still, it’s not all bad. This allows me to overcome some games on my backlog.
A voice in my head nags at me. Begging me to come back, come back to Tsukihime. Before I know it, I find myself on the title screen again. Over the course of the next two days, I find myself enthralled by the game, especially by Arcueid Brunestud. I wouldn’t call myself a “milkman” in any capacity…but something about this particular white woman puts her apart from the rest of the cast.
I meet her in the street. It’s my first contact with her.
It’s my worst contact with her.
Yet she still takes a chance on Shiki, and he takes a chance on her. They’re each other's polar opposites but incredibly similar too. They’re both beings haunted by a sin they committed as they try to atone for it. Their sins are pulling them toward each other, and it’s ultimately their sins that are tearing them apart. A love burns in Shiki’s heart that’s only matched by his murderous rage, both birthed out of the same place. He can’t let go.
A few days go by and I’m at the end. Shiki stares at the orange sky, I stare at my laptop screen. Both of us are waiting, waiting for a chance to meet her again and yet that feeling is what we ultimately must let go off.
The credits start rolling. There’s not a single tear in my eye…yet I don’t think I’ve ever felt this way at something before. I promise myself that I will finish this VN soon. The first of many lies.
On the 18th of April, 2022 at 12:02 am, I finish Arcueid’s route.
𝗗𝗔𝗬𝗟𝗜𝗚𝗛𝗧 𝗕𝗟𝗨𝗘
I close my laptop after that ending. I’m excited. I don’t think I’ve been invested in something this much in a while. I promise myself that I’ll start reading the next route tomorrow. This too, of course, is a lie.
I feel like it should be put into perspective just how much I had changed when I picked up Tsukihime again. I’d finished The Silver Case and with it I felt like a whole new world had been opened to me, a different way of viewing art itself. I feel like it was made for me on every level and it showed me where the true strength of a visual novel medium lies. Surely nothing else will ever make me feel this way, right?
—I’m in a familiar place. I’m isolated again. I’ve got nothing to do, nobody to talk to. Slowly, I feel an urge come over me. I’ve been here before, I know what to do. I find myself on the title screen again.
This music…I realized it before but this track really is beautiful. As limited and repetitive as Tsukihime’s tracks can get at times, I still love the sound. The repetition of the tracks is something I can grow accustomed to.
The same can’t be said for the narrative.
A few hours into the Ciel route and I’m still clicking away most of what I read. I’ve read all this before, seen all this before. It’s not unpleasant to go through this once more, but I really feel this is holding Ciel back as a character. I don’t think she’s being given ample time to develop her. I’m at the halfway point now, I think. I can’t tell when the Arcueid route ends and the Ciel route begins, but I think I made it.
Now that I think about it, each heroine is a character that lives and dies depending on their relationship with Shiki so what exactly is going on? Am I not near the end? Why is it still-
THUMP
—My heart throbs. I realise it.
This isn’t a mistake. This is a love triangle.
Frustrated. I’m frustrated. The more I read the more my suspicions just get confirmed. “Show don’t tell” is the rule isn’t it? Then why are scenes, ones that can be moving and impactful, traded away for a quick explanation of how each other is feeling? This is crazy, I’m crazy. I’m complaining about exposition dumps in a story filled to the brim with them. But I can’t help but feel this is where it’s most egregious.
What I’m reading…it’s something about perspective. Not only just in the routes, but bit by bit you uncover more of these characters, things you aren’t told in the other routes, and the two Near Side routes are a perfect showcase of that. Ciel is someone who’s able to stand on her own, apart from Arcueid, as a character. Yet she still parallels Shiki’s descent. So it’s frustrating. Frustrating that the relationship between these two feels so underdeveloped.
These thoughts keep churning in my head. At the forefront of my mind, while I keep on reading. I’m at the end now, the end of this journey. I’ve been critical of this whole route…so why does it make me feel this way? Is it some kind of Stockholm Syndrome? Am I just easily won over by lazy writing?
Shiki opens his eyes and Ciel’s teardrops fall. I smile.
On the 8th of January, 2023 at 1:08 am, I finish Ciel’s route.
𝗪𝗔𝗥𝗠 𝗔𝗙𝗧𝗘𝗥𝗡𝗢𝗢𝗡 𝗡𝗔𝗣
I close my laptop. I lie to myself again. It’s become a ritual now.
—It’s March. Hell is right around the corner for me. I don’t care. I don’t want anything to do with it. I refuse. I utterly refuse to care what life is throwing at me. Truth be told I don’t even think of it. To escape my hell, I decide to dip my toes into another one.
Truth be told, I knew what I was getting into with this route. It’s simple when I think about it. This is a game where in each route you have a heroine that you get into a romantic relationship with, so it’s not too far-fetched to assume this route will do the same. Only problem is that the heroine is the Shiki’s sister.
I can handle “dark” subject matter, it’s not a question of whether or not I can stomach incest, it’s if this game handles it well. Either that…or it veers into the dangerous territory of “problematic”. I’ve always found discussions about problematic content interesting. Of course I think the elements that fall under that label shouldn’t be in media if they’re used to fetishize them but I can’t help but notice that a lot of the argument surrounding them centers on the fact of morality. That in a society as consumed by capitalism as ours the only way to have an identity, something with which we can recognize others, is by the content we inhale at a rapid pace. Where the only way we can tell others that we are inherently good is if we enjoy stuff that doesn’t have anything “problematic”.
—There’s someone out there who could probably make an essay of this topic, but this is a review on Backloggd and I’ve spent too much time thinking about this because I’m already at the big scene.
“I love you as my sister.” Shiki says.
I hold my breath. Time feels like it’s stopped. A spark ignites in my head, the synapses of my brain jolt back and forth. My eyes fixate on the screen. My hand hovers on the spacebar. Maybe it will be all right, maybe there is no incest. I have hope, but fear still has an iron grip on me. After what feels like an eternity, I close the gap between my finger and my keyboard.
“But… I love you as my sister even more.”
I close my eyes.
“It is fate.” I utter.
Nothing I can do besides accept it.
Fate. It’s only now I realise that fate lies at the heart of this route. I’m so close to the end but this is where this route has laid its soul bare. Are we all fated to end up this way? Or can we change that? Is Akiha is a product of nature and Shiki one of nurture? Can you even fight against yourself in that manner? Is a child who has been abused all his life destined to repeat that cycle of abuse, is that evil just in his nature? It took me too long to realise, and now it’s too late.
Under a blue sky, a girl cries and hugs a knife. The end credits start playing.
On the 3rd of March, 2023 at 1:04 pm, I finish Akiha’s route.
𝗠𝗜𝗗𝗗𝗔𝗬 𝗠𝗢𝗢𝗡
—I lie again.
I have an idea. I’m eventually going to finish this visual novel one day, so why not make my review different for this one? Why not write in the style of Nasu’s prose?
Of course, I know how insane that sounds. I can’t compare to the real thing but I want to try anyway. It seems like a good way to challenge my writing capabilities.
The biggest hurdle right now is actually finishing this thing. I’m free now, so why don’t I finish Hisui’s route as soon as I can?
The first thing I notice is that this is a repeat of everything in the Akiha route for now. Mindless taps. Nothing but mindless taps.
Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.
I’m in a dark room.
Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.
I keep waiting.
Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.
That rhythmic tap of the spacebar. I press it over and over and over. I feel like I’m going insane. But I can feel it, I’m so close. So close to finally getting to the new stuff but with each tap my patience keeps dwindling until there’s nothing left. Knots in my brain. Cold dead eyes. I stare at the screen.
Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Ta-
This is it. I’m here.
…
……
………!?
Is this a joke? I don’t understand.
The main scenario in this chapter is just Shiki going insane in a room. Just like I was. For a moment it feels like an unfortunate coincidence, something to point at and laugh but I can’t but feel like there’s something more. I have spent these past few months honing my backloggdian skills, becoming a better writer on the way.
No. My analytical skills tell me this is something more.
Yes. Kinoko Nasu did all this purpose. Yes. Kinoko Nasu is that much of a genius.
I clasp my hands in a prayer. Blessed I am to be reading this visual novel. I can only marvel at this man’s sheer writing power. With this one route, I am not “just like” Shiki Tohno. I have become him.
But I’m ignoring something, aren’t I?
Hisui’s doll-like expressions, calm demeanor, and general aloofness is something I’ve grown accustomed to by now. So seeing it break doesn’t feel like the conclusion of a character arc, it feels like a porcelain doll shattering. It’s messy. Every time I look at her I see nothing, besides someone so hellbent on protecting oneself by any means necessary. Even if it means not rejecting your own humanity.
I’m underneath a tree. Clear blue sky. I listen to her.
My heart shatters.
On the 4th of October, 2023 at 11:08am, I finish Hisui’s route.
𝗗𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗠𝗦 𝗢𝗙 𝗦𝗨𝗡𝗦𝗛𝗜𝗡𝗘
I’m done lying.
—Perspective.
It lies at the heart of Tsukihime. A subtle change in how you perceive an event can lead to a radically different outcome. For a story that’s written with this theme at heart, I can only expect the final route to be a culmination of everything I’ve come to know so far.
But with each clicking sound on my keyboard, I just feel my opinions lowering. Is this…really it? I didn’t expect a grand finale but most of what I’ve seen so far is just a rehash of the Hisui route, and not in a good way. I can almost taste the laziness through the screen.
I don’t know if I’m disappointed or something else. In a way, I can’t say this is surprising. But regardless, everything feels so rushed. It’s almost tragic to see a narrative failing its most interesting character.
—Hate.
Everything in this house is built on hate. A carefully constructed façade through and through. If you didn’t know, you could have never even guessed, and the more I play the more I become convinced that everything would’ve turned out this way, sooner or later.
I keep pressing the spacebar. Of course, now I’m long past the point of divergence with the Hisui route as well. Coming face to face with what the route has to offer and I can’t help but feel an ache in my heart, coupled with a smirk on my face. I ache for what suffering took place but my smirk isn’t a sign of a critique of the game. I think.
In a lot of ways, Kohaku’s route sort of mirrors Akiha’s route as well. “Can a doll be fixed?” being the main question here. When do you stop believing in a person, when do you give up? For a person as pigheaded as Shiki Tohno, the answer is obvious. Of course I smirk, if only Akiha route’s Shiki could see what this one has to say about incest.
I come closer and closer to the finish line. The only thing I can hope for is a happy ending, and I got a rushed one.
On the 8th of October, 2023 at 11:26pm, I finish Kohaku’s route.
𝗘𝗖𝗟𝗜𝗣𝗦𝗘
—I’m finally here, aren’t I?
Text pops up on the screen, my eyes carefully examine every single line. I don’t know what I’m looking for. Maybe a more meaningful understanding of everything so I can tell myself that it was worth it. Maybe I don’t want it to end.
With each tap, with each clicking sound, I read more and more of the final words this product has to offer. Maybe it’s a form of Stockholm Syndrome, but despite its faults, I think this visual novel won me over.
What am I saying? Stockholm Syndrome isn’t even real.
Even now as I sit here months later, way past the due date on this review, I think back to it. My first experience opening Tsukihime and meeting her, along with my last.
I can only hope that I captured even a little bit of what makes Nasu’s writing so captivating to read, but even I can acknowledge that this is nothing more than a pale imitation. Although…don’t we all try to imitate a little bit of everything that we see?
When it comes to what I’ll imitate besides this…well…
The way I look at it, every single person touched by Shiki is due to his love. His decision to pay back that small bit of kindness he received when he was very little. We are all surrounded by kind people aren’t we? So why do we hurt the ones we love the most?
You may call this unrelated rambling. I call it a clever way of imitating Nasu’s tendency to go on tangents.
At the end of the day, I have nothing more than the memories I received. It doesn’t matter if they’re positive or not, I’m just glad to have them. I know that even they will twist, even they will fade. But I don’t care.
—The lunar eclipse is far away.
So I let go.
You go ahead and pass through your remaining time.
I’ll pass through mine.
Thank you, for everything.
Tsukihime
2000
finished arcs route tonight. cried my fucking eyes out. definitely enhanced by the day preceding this session being one of the worst in my life, but i finally get it now. will be working through the other routes at a hopefully faster pace, but if this is the one full route i end up completing, im satisfied with that experience.
For the past few years, I have thought about writing a "walkthrough" for this game, repurposing that format to make something more tailored to this game's distinct structure than a typical essay or review. I still want to do that, but until then consider this a loose sketch of the primary ideas:
Western pop culture since the debut of Star Wars in 1977 has become obsessed with Heroes, their Journey, and their One Thousand Faces. In the 21st century, interpretations and explorations of heroism have largely become addicted to Joseph Campbell's monomyth structure by way of its diluted Hollywood cliffnotes versions from Christopher Vogler, Dan Harmon, and their like. What began as a loose interpretive tool for comparing existing myths and stories across cultures has become a rigid instructive tool for constructing and reconstructing the same stories over and over. Entries in the Legend of Zelda series have often employed this structure. Compelling as it is, it's the sort of truth you get from telling a lie often enough. Majora's Mask strives to be more honest about heroism.
Link is already The Hero when you start the game and though his journey was completed, time travel erased it from history. It now exists only in Link's memory (and yours, if you played that game first). Already we are in a textual knot: the hero's journey is shown to be entirely optional due to the overwhelming power the goddesses bestowed on Link and Zelda, but it did have to happen in the first place in order for it to then never have happened. The Hyrule fantasy in all its iterations is a rigged game, the Triforce having so many failsafes to prevent it ever being wielded for evil and always resulting in a two-on-one showdown. Majora's Mask swiftly plucks Link out of this dynamic and drops him into a new world called Termina.
Termina does not have a bucolic time of grace to fall from, but it has a sense of history culminating in a contemporary-feeling society. It has no divine order preserving it, but instead a singular core evil seeking to destroy life. People are not standing still waiting for the Hero to rescue them, but rather are in-fighting and exacerbating a bad situation through prejudice and selfishness. There are Heroes aside from Link, but they have failed. Similarly, the problems plaguing each region and Termina as a whole are not static: they worsen day by day until they become catastrophes. In prior games and later games people's situations were binary, being in peril until Link flipped their switch to rescued and caused them to say the same dialogue for the rest of their existence.
Like everyone currently alive in our reality, Link is born into a world that won't necessarily survive and not for lack of trying by well-intentioned people. The two powers that distinguish Link from those people are remembering and trying again; save and load. Every other verb necessary to succeed is either something anyone could do (listen/observe, communicate, exchange) or is a power given to Link by someone else. And each power allows you to solve the problem of another, making you a medium between people who cannot interact for lack of knowledge or who failed in the attempt. Everywhere you go, Link is just finishing a quest someone else started and by extension everyone you meet is a potential hero.
That is, until the game introduces Ikana. Ascending, inverting, and saving Stone Tower is not possible by any person you've met, not by any single form Link can assume: he must use shells of his forms to stand in the right place at the right time in order to progress, he must swap between all forms, and he must grow. No one person can save the world.
In a sense this was also true of Ocarina of Time or Link to the Past before, with the Sages/Maidens and Zelda assisting in defeating Ganon. One can play Majora's Mask like those games, such that Link prevents the primary apocalypse and everyone is in a roundabout way saved. Doing so would mean the Deku princess remains trapped and the monkey is still imprisoned; that Lulu does not perform again; that Romani Ranch is devastated; that Anju and Kafei never reconcile.
It also cannot be understated that no one helping Link or being helped by Link is a higher being chosen by fate. They have no magic, not even a magic of friendship as they will forget you in due time. They are all the people that in the prior game stood around helplessly and waited for you to solve their problems for them, feet nailed to the ground. Now they move and try but fail, only able to try the once. They are never in the right place at the right time until you use memory and communication to guide them there. If they could remember and try again, they could do it themselves. You were not chosen by fate, you are not a component of a formula, you are merely the person who remembers being a hero and is willing to try being one again.
If you play Majora's Mask like a conventional Hero's journey, jumping from region to region and vanquishing monsters, you arrive at its final challenge poorly equipped. The manifestation of evil will tell you plainly that you "only have weak masks". It can be defeated this way, and the conclusion is satisfying if you wanted a story about a hero narrowly defeating evil through their own cunning and some supernatural aid. When the credits roll, you will be shown the masks you didn't collect. Characters will be conspicuously absent from the celebrations of your victory over evil.
If you play the game caring about people and learning from them, you gather a number of masks to wear and identities to assume. Help everyone you can and bring their memory with you and give that memory to others, and the manifestation of evil will call you "the bad guy". You gain a new power that lets you steamroll over evil easily. The ending adjusts accordingly, and you see everyone you helped making each other happier.
Evil in Termina in not a person or demon, but a mask worn by the frightened to justify acting on their worst impulses. Throughout the world you learn of the direct damage Skull Kid wrought under the mask's influence, and the indirect damage forms a shadow of that same cruelty cast on other faces. Wear the evil mask to convince yourself you're good, and call someone wearing its opposite bad. Goes on so easily, grips so tightly. Just as anyone here could be a hero, anyone here can (and sometimes becomes) a villain.
Link's Awakening introduced the trading sequence to Zelda, and many games that follow incorporate it as a side quest. The structure is simple: you find something someone needs, you give it to them, out of gratitude they give you something someone else needs, repeat. Majora's Mask proves this is ultimately the only quest worth doing. Go among people and link them. Link as many people as you can, make them happy, make them willing to help each other, and evil finds nowhere to take root. You will never be picked by goddesses to go save the world by collecting crystals or medallions or triangles, so stop waiting for your journey to begin.
I played this game when I was six years old and it was new. I replayed it as a teenager, in my early twenties, in my late twenties; it had aged but was not old. When I began exhibiting symptoms of chronic illness around the age of 8, I would have good days and bad days. I found that after three days of feeling good or bad, my body forgot what it was like to not be how it had been for the past three days. When depression manifested later on in my life, I found a similar cycle. Three days in it and I feel like I will never be happy again, and fear I never was before. My mind needs to remember what my matter cannot. I come back to this game to strengthen my remembering; that every time I wake up facing three miserable days in which my world could fall apart, I can fight that off and maybe make for myself or someone else three better days. After all, I am at least waking up.
"And sure, if fate some future bard shall join
In sad similitude of griefs to mine,
Condemn'd whole years in absence to deplore,
And image charms he must behold no more;
Such if there be, who loves so long, so well;
Let him our sad, our tender story tell;
The well-sung woes will soothe my pensive ghost;
He best can paint 'em, who shall feel 'em most."
Western pop culture since the debut of Star Wars in 1977 has become obsessed with Heroes, their Journey, and their One Thousand Faces. In the 21st century, interpretations and explorations of heroism have largely become addicted to Joseph Campbell's monomyth structure by way of its diluted Hollywood cliffnotes versions from Christopher Vogler, Dan Harmon, and their like. What began as a loose interpretive tool for comparing existing myths and stories across cultures has become a rigid instructive tool for constructing and reconstructing the same stories over and over. Entries in the Legend of Zelda series have often employed this structure. Compelling as it is, it's the sort of truth you get from telling a lie often enough. Majora's Mask strives to be more honest about heroism.
Link is already The Hero when you start the game and though his journey was completed, time travel erased it from history. It now exists only in Link's memory (and yours, if you played that game first). Already we are in a textual knot: the hero's journey is shown to be entirely optional due to the overwhelming power the goddesses bestowed on Link and Zelda, but it did have to happen in the first place in order for it to then never have happened. The Hyrule fantasy in all its iterations is a rigged game, the Triforce having so many failsafes to prevent it ever being wielded for evil and always resulting in a two-on-one showdown. Majora's Mask swiftly plucks Link out of this dynamic and drops him into a new world called Termina.
Termina does not have a bucolic time of grace to fall from, but it has a sense of history culminating in a contemporary-feeling society. It has no divine order preserving it, but instead a singular core evil seeking to destroy life. People are not standing still waiting for the Hero to rescue them, but rather are in-fighting and exacerbating a bad situation through prejudice and selfishness. There are Heroes aside from Link, but they have failed. Similarly, the problems plaguing each region and Termina as a whole are not static: they worsen day by day until they become catastrophes. In prior games and later games people's situations were binary, being in peril until Link flipped their switch to rescued and caused them to say the same dialogue for the rest of their existence.
Like everyone currently alive in our reality, Link is born into a world that won't necessarily survive and not for lack of trying by well-intentioned people. The two powers that distinguish Link from those people are remembering and trying again; save and load. Every other verb necessary to succeed is either something anyone could do (listen/observe, communicate, exchange) or is a power given to Link by someone else. And each power allows you to solve the problem of another, making you a medium between people who cannot interact for lack of knowledge or who failed in the attempt. Everywhere you go, Link is just finishing a quest someone else started and by extension everyone you meet is a potential hero.
That is, until the game introduces Ikana. Ascending, inverting, and saving Stone Tower is not possible by any person you've met, not by any single form Link can assume: he must use shells of his forms to stand in the right place at the right time in order to progress, he must swap between all forms, and he must grow. No one person can save the world.
In a sense this was also true of Ocarina of Time or Link to the Past before, with the Sages/Maidens and Zelda assisting in defeating Ganon. One can play Majora's Mask like those games, such that Link prevents the primary apocalypse and everyone is in a roundabout way saved. Doing so would mean the Deku princess remains trapped and the monkey is still imprisoned; that Lulu does not perform again; that Romani Ranch is devastated; that Anju and Kafei never reconcile.
It also cannot be understated that no one helping Link or being helped by Link is a higher being chosen by fate. They have no magic, not even a magic of friendship as they will forget you in due time. They are all the people that in the prior game stood around helplessly and waited for you to solve their problems for them, feet nailed to the ground. Now they move and try but fail, only able to try the once. They are never in the right place at the right time until you use memory and communication to guide them there. If they could remember and try again, they could do it themselves. You were not chosen by fate, you are not a component of a formula, you are merely the person who remembers being a hero and is willing to try being one again.
If you play Majora's Mask like a conventional Hero's journey, jumping from region to region and vanquishing monsters, you arrive at its final challenge poorly equipped. The manifestation of evil will tell you plainly that you "only have weak masks". It can be defeated this way, and the conclusion is satisfying if you wanted a story about a hero narrowly defeating evil through their own cunning and some supernatural aid. When the credits roll, you will be shown the masks you didn't collect. Characters will be conspicuously absent from the celebrations of your victory over evil.
If you play the game caring about people and learning from them, you gather a number of masks to wear and identities to assume. Help everyone you can and bring their memory with you and give that memory to others, and the manifestation of evil will call you "the bad guy". You gain a new power that lets you steamroll over evil easily. The ending adjusts accordingly, and you see everyone you helped making each other happier.
Evil in Termina in not a person or demon, but a mask worn by the frightened to justify acting on their worst impulses. Throughout the world you learn of the direct damage Skull Kid wrought under the mask's influence, and the indirect damage forms a shadow of that same cruelty cast on other faces. Wear the evil mask to convince yourself you're good, and call someone wearing its opposite bad. Goes on so easily, grips so tightly. Just as anyone here could be a hero, anyone here can (and sometimes becomes) a villain.
Link's Awakening introduced the trading sequence to Zelda, and many games that follow incorporate it as a side quest. The structure is simple: you find something someone needs, you give it to them, out of gratitude they give you something someone else needs, repeat. Majora's Mask proves this is ultimately the only quest worth doing. Go among people and link them. Link as many people as you can, make them happy, make them willing to help each other, and evil finds nowhere to take root. You will never be picked by goddesses to go save the world by collecting crystals or medallions or triangles, so stop waiting for your journey to begin.
I played this game when I was six years old and it was new. I replayed it as a teenager, in my early twenties, in my late twenties; it had aged but was not old. When I began exhibiting symptoms of chronic illness around the age of 8, I would have good days and bad days. I found that after three days of feeling good or bad, my body forgot what it was like to not be how it had been for the past three days. When depression manifested later on in my life, I found a similar cycle. Three days in it and I feel like I will never be happy again, and fear I never was before. My mind needs to remember what my matter cannot. I come back to this game to strengthen my remembering; that every time I wake up facing three miserable days in which my world could fall apart, I can fight that off and maybe make for myself or someone else three better days. After all, I am at least waking up.
"And sure, if fate some future bard shall join
In sad similitude of griefs to mine,
Condemn'd whole years in absence to deplore,
And image charms he must behold no more;
Such if there be, who loves so long, so well;
Let him our sad, our tender story tell;
The well-sung woes will soothe my pensive ghost;
He best can paint 'em, who shall feel 'em most."
