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Patatitta
1,380 posts
Joined February 2020
Topic Starter
Patatitta
Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun

very messy narrative-wise but the art is really solid

Hanako-kun is about this school girl who hears about these 7 misteries of the school. So yeah, just typical school rumours and legends, but, these time, they are real. One of them is about a ghost that lives in the girl's toilet, this ghost is of course hanako-kun, who befriends this girl.

The narrative is messy and borderline aimless at times, at first it just explores what the other school misteries are leading to small arcs wich are light on tone, but as the manga goes on and the author realizes that this manga is going ot last for very long the arcs gets longer and the stakes are higher and the tone darker.

The manga starts with this very typical shoujo (more like directed to females than itself falling onto the categorization and publishing category of shoujo) trope of the attractive, misterous, normally paranormal guy with a touch of danger interacting with these other characters, the smug smile that hanako-kun consistently does for the first half of the manga is proof of this. The female protagonist at the start almost does feel like a character that is inviting for you to insert yourself into the story. Doesn't help that they consistently bait and suggest romance with the mc and hanako-kun, It's a very common trope nowadays, for example look at Bakemono Yawazukushi (tho that is more fujoshibait) or annarasumanara, hell, look how down bad a lot of women are for gojo from jujutsu kaisen. I don't know if hanako-kun was the one that popularized this trope or not, but I can tell for sure it's that.

As the anga progresses and it turns more serious, it turns more into a shounen. There aren't as many jokes and it's all more serious with more fights. However, all of that romance plot at the start kinda gets frozen, both hanako kun and the MC don't really develop taht much, and the relationship between them doesn't deepen. The mana sidesteps this issue by adding new main characters that do have other romances and complex relationships between them to give the reader the satisfaction of character developement.

Personally I think this manga shouldn't have gone for as long as it has gone, they're currently at volume 24, that is A LOT, and it's just clear that the author doesn't really know where they want the story to go, I think just the foundations of this manga are too weak to really support this 20+ volume epic. I would have written an ending at like volume 10 or so myself or just evolved the relationship and having the manga from that point to explore the nature of that relationship, more akin to something like apollon.

Now, the art of hanako-kun is FANTASTIC and honestly hard-carries the manga for me. It uses very wide strokes and consistent and striking use of that black with panels that are basically on negative color which reminds me of land of the lustrous. Presented in these massive one page panels and even full spread panels. The paneling is fantastic, really acentuating the art and being quite original on it's own right.

I think one of the aspects that make the art so memorable it's because it's a unique artstyle, but despite that, it's not like reading a super avant garde niche manga where it barely looks line anime, it is very much still anime, it still maitains anime charm, but you can still see a panel and instantly know it's of hanako-kun or even the author of hanako-kun.

Reading this for me felt like reading a CLAMP manga (specifically xxxHolic+sequels and cardcaptor sakura+sequels since those are the ones i've read), the story isn't that good, but just seeing the panels and the art makes reading this worth it. Placed on B tier.

----------------------------------

Started the darkness, may take a while on this one since i've never played a shooter on a controller and the game is being quite difficult for me, despite that, i'm pleasantly surprised by the game so far, I think it's quite good.
Patatitta
1,380 posts
Joined February 2020
Topic Starter
Patatitta
The Darkness

Pretty good game, shame that I got softlocked and didn't finish the game lmao

the darkness is a xbox 360/ps3 game where you play as this comoc book character, the darkness, who is a mafioso who is very cool and edgy and kills people and can control thios eldritch creature called the darkeness to kill more people in even cooler ways. Look, it's a adaptation of a comic book released in the 90's, and in the 90's "mature" and edgy thing were trending.

From what i've played, the story isn't exactly peak by any means, you're just mandated around by npcs and you do evil and twisted things. The story isn't really trying to sell you on a important messege and really ar just setups for you to go on gameplay sections and be cool.

my experience with gameplay is a bit tainted since this was my first time playing a shooter with a controller, which felt very difficult for me. Like unironically, playing this game has made me appreciate dark souls more, I was like "oh I get it, dark souls was the first 3d game to actually have good feeling combat with a controller"

the shooting mechanics are not like the ones we see in modern day. It's closer to golden eye than it is to counter strike. You can't actually aim, you can double wield weapons that you shoot one with each trigger. While you can get into cover, it's not that encouraged, it's not a cover shooter, it's not recommended, shooting while in cover is very difficult and I found it frankly not worth it, this is not gears of wars.

In order to not ide you usally just use a summon that acts like a tank, taking aggroo and leatting you waltz in and kill everyone. I also enoy that "melee" attack the darkness has, where you shoot one of your tentacle thingies to a enemy The tentacles are small and they creep through the floor, and the camara does follow it from the point of view of the tentacle, leading to this creeping grodund shot that is acutally used a lot in horror movies and the such, I really like that camera plane.

I don't think this shooting mechanics wer inherently good or bad, was just kind of the meta at the time and it served it's job of giving frenetic gameplay, which was what the game was going for. If you were the motherfucking darkness but the combat was this hyper slow, calm combat, you wouldn't feel much like the darkness would you

What I really enjoyed about this videogame is the ambiance, it's very dark and giity like you wpuld excepect, but it doesn't feel cheap or forced, I think it actually nails that ambientation. The game is very silent and verty dark, with light sources actually not illuminating very much, just making the surrounding area into a brighter color, but not giving more light, which makes breaking the light sources which you're encouraged to do actually enjoyable. It's a relatively silent game, the ost it does have doesn't go super hard or is invasive to your ears. I think the fact that you need to go to the different metro stations and actually wait there makes the world feel more alive, game does give you a lot of freeedom of choice when it comes to killing random npcs even if they were to have a a sidequest

Another thing this game does is that it doesn't have quest trackers, you listen what your goals are via conversation you often can't repeat and you just have to remember it, the game does give you freedom to go wherever from the moment you want, so you can actually get lost and have to resort to a guide, which while can be frustrating, I think really shows there was that aim to make this game as immersive as they knew how to.

I honestly would like to se a remake of this game now that we live in a post-metro world, I would like for them to take some design lessons from the metro franchise and remake this game going full into crafting a atmospheric and immersive experience.

I enjoyed it even if I couldn't finish it, placed on C tier.


------

next: the darkness 2
Last edited by Patatitta , edited 3 times in total.
-Izuki-
9,423 posts
Joined December 2023
-Izuki-
Cool!
And I'm sure that the second part bring you more enjoyment. Also, it works on pc, so there will be no any troubles with controller
Have fun
Nuuskamuikkunen
1,266 posts
Joined March 2013
Nuuskamuikkunen
Back to life in this forum

I'd recommend Kanon (2006)
z0z
521 posts
Joined February 2018
z0z

Nuuskamuikkunen wrote:

Back to life in this forum

I'd recommend Kanon (2006)
omg eblf you're back
Patatitta
1,380 posts
Joined February 2020
Topic Starter
Patatitta

Nuuskamuikkunen wrote:

Back to life in this forum

I'd recommend Kanon (2006)
accepted
Patatitta
1,380 posts
Joined February 2020
Topic Starter
Patatitta
The darkness 2:

This isn't even remotely close to the first game lmao like this is completely different

The first darkness ame was made by 2k games, the second one, by digital extremes (in collaboration with 2k). Digital extremes is currently known as the company behind warframe, a game that I enjoy, however, I hadn't ever really tried any of their older games.

While the darkness 1 was gritty and atmospheric, darkness 2 is a lot more over the top, a lot less serious and more gameplay focused. The gunplay and shooting mechanics were modernized to be closer to what we see today, right click to aim, left to shoot.

In addition to shooting, in this game we also control the darkness, which has been made completely useless when compared to the first game. You can no longer control what summons, it does it for you, but you have more hp and are meant to get close and personal with the enemies to melee, also killing allows you to eat their heart which revoers HP. So the summon is not really working as a tank anymore.

You can grab enemies and execute them in a really cool doom execution type sequence, this is of course, completely useless. Like, it's a slower and mroe risky way of killing someone rather than just shooting them.

The difficulty curve in this game is wack, at first, a headshot with a handgun will oneshot every enemy, in ordwer to make the game more difficult, starting from a certain level, enemies will have helmets, meaning you need one shot to remove the armor and another to kill... or you can just shoot with the cobra handgun to the body and that will oneshot. Literally shooting to the head is LESS effective than shooting to the body.

honestly may have just been because I maxxed out the gun talent tree, and given the enemies and environment drops ammo for the weapons you're currently holding instead of general ammunition, I was not running out of ammo in my cobra, note that the cobra is a secondary weapon, it's not supposed to be the big guns, but yaeh, it was completely broken

you can also dual wield guns like in the darkness 1, but this is again a bad idea, ammo economy is bad and since you can't aim accuracy is awful. Only really found a few situations where it was useful, that was when you unlocked the talent that allowed you to imbue the weapons in darkness making them not cost ammo and deal more damage and also gave you aimhack and wallhacks so you just kinda let it rip with double machineguns. Basically oneshotted a boss like that.

The leven design is also different, instead of this open world with side quests and not a single quest tracker, the darkness 2 is extremely lineal, it being divided in levels with very clear goals and quest trackers. The graphics also indicate that change in tone, instead of dark and gritty it has that comic book style that was popular around that time.

The story is not very good. The whole plot is that the darkness reawakens on the protagonist and there is this organization trying to steal the darkness from them. It's just kind of nonsensical, the darkness is extremely op on our side but completely useless on their side, the rules about how the darkness transference works doesn't even hold up 5 minutes later. The story doens't say anything, only really creates situation for the protagonist to be cool. There are two decisiosn but like they don't have consequences at all. There is also all this stuff surrounding the gf of the protagonist which I just thought was kind of dumb. Mainly the fact that the darkness would ACTUALLY keep the gf captive in a place where theoretically the protagonist could get through instaed of killing her and creating a illusion because you know the darkness can do that.

Also the game ends with this massive cliffhanger and given the darkness 3 never happened, it's completely unresolved

in terms of how enjoyable it was to play, darkness 2 was more fun than darkness 1, however, darkness 1 was more unique. Placed in C tier

--------

next: the wolf among us
still haven't started kanon, finishing the anime I was watching before you requested it first.
Last edited by Patatitta , edited 1 time in total.
Kobold84
Global Moderator
1,542 posts
Joined September 2013
Kobold84

Patatitta wrote:

next: the wolf among us
[Glass him]

can't wait.
-Izuki-
9,423 posts
Joined December 2023
-Izuki-

Patatitta wrote:

next: the wolf among us
I hope you enjoy it, because I wanna request another one game in this genre - Blacksad: Under the Skin
Patatitta
1,380 posts
Joined February 2020
Topic Starter
Patatitta

-Izuki- wrote:

Patatitta wrote:

next: the wolf among us
I hope you enjoy it, because I wanna request another one game in this genre - Blacksad: Under the Skin
added
179bpm
569 posts
Joined October 2021
179bpm
kpop demon hunters, i watched it for the first time a few days ago and it was suprisingly good, especially the animation
Patatitta
1,380 posts
Joined February 2020
Topic Starter
Patatitta

179bpm wrote:

kpop demon hunters, i watched it for the first time a few days ago and it was suprisingly good, especially the animation
will watch it but god that is the most unapealing title of all time
CLICKMACHINE
524 posts
Joined March 2023
CLICKMACHINE

Patatitta wrote:

179bpm wrote:

kpop demon hunters, i watched it for the first time a few days ago and it was suprisingly good, especially the animation
will watch it but god that is the most unapealing title of all time
So true lmao.
Patatitta
1,380 posts
Joined February 2020
Topic Starter
Patatitta
the wolf among us

They really did not nail the landing with this game

the wolf among us is a game by telltale, so it featuers that characteristic telltale format where it's basically a tv show made into a interactive videogame, you watch cutscene plays, and then you can select dialogue that is supposed to influence the story.

The game is divided into five 2 hour episodes, each one complete with a summary, a opening, and a preview, it's really trying to sell you on that interactive tv show fantasy, but I don't think they quite nailed the landing, for example, the reason why summaries and preview exists are to aid the viewer who is watching the show while it's airing, you can catch up to a story even if it's been a year since the last episode, and it creates hype for the next episode, problem is that this doesn't actually aid the viewer who is playing it after it all aired.

I get that there is no skip button for the summary and preview since there was no skip button in live television, and given that was the feel they were going for, they chose not to add it. However, since 2013 that was when this game released, streaming services have become more popular, and they allow you to skip summaries and endings, even openings, but the otaku inside me will never skip those. It just makes sense, it's a better viewing experience

I think this illustrates a very important point. Telltale was trying to basically 1:1 tv shows, this is a very different philosophy than visual novels for example. While VN's are literally an adaptation of regular physical novels into a videogame format, they really embrace the videogame medium, having developed into a literary genre that is COMPLETELY different than regular novels. They took advantage of the medium of videogames and that improved the works, the wolf among us isn't like this, it doesn't really take into consideration the strenghths and disadvantages of the medium

I think one clear example is the action scenes, there is a lot of action in the wolf among us, and it never quite felt great. While there is plenty of good action in videogames, telltale didn't want to have an actual fighting system ingame, and instead went with prerecorded quicktime events, and I don't think their implementation really works all that well. The action never really feels all that good or that satisfying, yet they have the same ammount of action than the shows they're trying to imitate despite it being not as effective.

My problem with the quick time events is that they flow very badly. We need to understand that this game was marketed to a very broad demographic, I would even argue that this game was NOT really marketed to the typical hardcore gaming audience, so, the game had to be made easy, this implies that every time there is a quick time event, the action basically freezes to give you more time to press the action, killing the flow. In some circumstances there werent' really any tells a quick time event section was going to start, so you also needed time to allow the player to react that they should put their hands on the keyboard (at least that was my experience, it's very clear that this game was mostly created with consoles in mind). Another problem with this is that given they expected less experience players, they also assumed they would be worse at masshing, giving into situations where I would mash too fast and would have to wait for the cutscene to match up with me so the game could continue, being stuck at 100% quicktime completion and just having to wait.

I don't think these are inherent problems with quicktime events, I think they can be done very well, like in the yakuza franchise for example. When you're mid boss and it turns to a cinematic you KNOW there are going to be quicktime events, which are very fast most of the time, they don't stop the action to allow you to press the button, maybe with a small slowdown of the action right before the impact, but that also doubles as a way to make the combat feel more impactful. It's like in smash bros, where after you hit someone really hard, the game freezes for a few frames to give more impact to the hit.

Let me illustrate a comparasion




you tell me what one is cooler

The one big selling point of telltale and the wolf among us is that is well, a interactive tv show, one where you can make decisions and for those decisions to matter, this is kind of bullshit?, the story is VERY lineal, most of the dialogue doesn't matter, and the one that does is followed by a contrived plot section to get you in the right place for the story to proceed, even the different endings that you can get are not very different, since it was supposed to have a sequel and they didn't just want to make one specific ending canon.

The decisions are also like "do you want to murder this civilian or not", they're FAR from moral decisions, in fact at the end of each chapter you get a overview of your choices and what most players took, and a lot of decisions are very onesided, like in the last chapter there was a decision where 97% of all players chose the same thing, that's a lot.

This game was released right at the start of the seventh generation of consoles, so xbox one and ps4, this is VERYT Important, as it was in this generation when there was this massive push to really mix videogames and movies/tv shows. I think the xbox one is an infamous console for this same reason, all of it's marketing was focused on the fact that you could run netflix on it, almost seemed like videogames took a backseat. At the same time, it makes sense microsoft tried to push in this direction given a lot of people basically bough ps2 just in order to run dvds on it.

There was a lot of attempt to make this format work, another famous example is the 2018 black mirror episode, bandersnatch, but I just don't think they're really focusing it the right way. You sould make a videogame first, tv show second, NOT the opposite, which was what was being tried

it's not like we don't have purely narrative videogames nowadays, it's just that most of those videogames are either visual novels or more of a point and click nature, and by last genre I mean stuff like disco elysium, 1000xResist, until then, a space for the unbound, I just don't really know how to categorize them. These are genres that DO take advantage of the medium and the stories benefit from it greatly, again, it's not like the genre of videogames doesn't allow for opportunities to perform good storytelling. It's just, that these type of videogames don't really appeal to the market they were trying to sell these games to, if it's too videogamy you may not grab that casual audience that you were aiming for, but IMO that approach just makes the actual games worse. A more videogamey telltale game could work, but just making fully animated, fully voice acted games is expensive and no one is really trying, can't blame them tho, telltale did go bankrupt after all.

Another problem with the tv show approach is that they invite you to watch every episode in a row, the save points are often infrequent which also makes no sense since that makes it super easy to save scum in this game kinda deminishing the point of "your action have consequences". Problem is that each episode as a I said is 2 hours long and I don't really usually do play sessions that long.

Now, the actual story of the wolf among us is... bad, the plot is that there exists this new york ghetto where fairy tale creatures live in, the nature and politics of this region are not really explained or explored, may be so in the original comisc they were based of (DC: fables), but it's at least not in the videogame.

There is a murder and you, the big bad wolf, sheriff of the neighborhood, needs to solve the mistery. Not a bad setting by any means, but again, they mess up the execution. A LOT of characters are introduced, but none of them have developement. Characters don't grow as much as they reveal they have a dark secret. They would rather add 20 more characters, each one with a couple of layers of things they're covering up than to let anyone grow. While it's not like you're struggling to keep track of who is who, the characterization is quite good so that's not a problem, the cast feels too convoluted.

The game also lacks a message, they sell you on this social critique, about how the economy of these type of ghettos can push someone to a life or crime, but they don't expand on that, they don't make any comments rather than the base observation, a observation that I Think it's pretty obvious and well known. They try to tackle other social issues like racism but again, it's such a shallow critique that it hurts, there is no nuance, in fact, most of these themes are brought up and then just brought up again, it's such a shame.

The plot also suffers from it being kind of unrealistic, i'm not saying "fairy tales creatures are not real!! grow up!!", I just mean, the whole world feels inconsistent. AFAIK as I know the ghetto is still very much part of new york city and the united states as a whole. In fact, in episode 2, the NYC police gets involved (and then they never appear again)...

This story is so focused on the ghetto that it forgets that everything else exists, it just makes you question "oh, why is the federal police not really getting involved in this?", because if they didn't and that was argumented it could make a very interesting point about how the governmend don't care or want to get involved with problems in this neighborhood, pointing out the racism inherent in the system but they just don't do that, they get involved, but then they are wrote out of the story. It's literally easier to make meaningful commentary than to find the way to not say anything, which is what they somehow did.

At the end of the game there is a trial, this trial fucking SUCKS. They didn't even have a courtroom, and it's not like they didn't have the resources, it's not like the government wouldn't be interested in processing the ones selling illegal drugs effectively making them NOT buy the government produced ones. In fact, now that i'm writing this, given that every fable was meant to buy and use this drug, wouldn't it have been a big fucking tell seeing so many people not actively buying them??????? it's not like everyone who took the illegally produced drugs where illegal inmigrants that have no documentation inside the system.

The trial was just insanely awful, literally everyone on the room HATED the crooked man, yet he says "oh well I didn't technically kill lily and faith it just happened to be done by a employee of mine in my illegal drug producing operation run by slave labour you can't convict me of that" and everyone goes "well shit he has a point we maybe should let them free" and i'm like EXCUSE ME?????????????????????? And again, there WAS evidence, like again, even if they couldn't be convicted for the killing, they could be convicted for the production of illegal drugs, that literally could be VERY easily proen with the laboratory that we literally visited last episode??? the one with the fucking SHACKLES in the floor and a big ass blackboard writing about the production and selling of drugs. In episode 1 I think it was tehre is also a point where the protagonist picks up a gun, and someone asks if they could be checked for fingerprints, where the protagonist says yes, that there should be fingerprints in the trigger and handle. Did we forget about that????? like yeah they weren't the crooked man fingerpritngs but have they forgotten the whole REALM of forensic sciences during the course of this stopry??, don't tell me they didn't have the resources they had the backing of the federal governmend and also a magic like a MIRROR THAT ALLOWS YOU TO LITERALLY SPY ON THE WHOLE GLOBAL POPULATION ARE WE NOT GOING TO TALK ABOUT THE FACT THAT THEY LITERALLY RUN A SURVEILANCE STATE????????????????????????????????????????

edit: forgot to talk about art this has gone for long enough already it's good I like that style it's a good adaptation of the comic book style to a videogame setting.

edit 2: I also forgot to say a lot of options you choose it and then the character says something completely different that what you had in mind which is also a problem IMO god I have SO MUCH to say about this game

Such a messy, such a empty, such a underbaked plot, really, I think it was terrible. Placed on D rank
--------------
next: Blacksad: Under the Skin

still watching kanon.
Last edited by Patatitta , edited 3 times in total.
-Izuki-
9,423 posts
Joined December 2023
-Izuki-
It's definitely not what I expected to hear... I mean, yeah, I'm agree with most of your takes, but I just can't figure out how this game couldn't not appeal to someone

And it's even funnier considering that I think this game is better than Blacksad
Patatitta
1,380 posts
Joined February 2020
Topic Starter
Patatitta

-Izuki- wrote:

It's definitely not what I expected to hear... I mean, yeah, I'm agree with most of your takes, but I just can't figure out how this game couldn't not appeal to someone

And it's even funnier considering that I think this game is better than Blacksad
should I still play blacksad then?
-Izuki-
9,423 posts
Joined December 2023
-Izuki-
Of course
Actually, raiting of the game isn't most important thing for me. I just wanna share my favorite games.
Last edited by -Izuki- , edited 1 time in total.
Patatitta
1,380 posts
Joined February 2020
Topic Starter
Patatitta
will play it then
-Izuki-
9,423 posts
Joined December 2023
-Izuki-
*feel pain through the monitor*
AxisPraxisMDS
143 posts
Joined October 2022
AxisPraxisMDS
Hitman Absolution, The Dark horse of Hitman
Patatitta
1,380 posts
Joined February 2020
Topic Starter
Patatitta

AxisPraxisMDS wrote:

Hitman Absolution, The Dark horse of Hitman
hitman are not exactly narrative games plus I would have to play the other hitman games
Kobold84
Global Moderator
1,542 posts
Joined September 2013
Kobold84

Patatitta wrote:

AxisPraxisMDS wrote:

Hitman Absolution, The Dark horse of Hitman
hitman are not exactly narrative games plus I would have to play the other hitman games
This entry is the most story-driven out of all (which made it controversial on release iirc), and its plot is standalone, so you don't have to play other games.
Patatitta
1,380 posts
Joined February 2020
Topic Starter
Patatitta

Kobold84 wrote:

Patatitta wrote:

AxisPraxisMDS wrote:

Hitman Absolution, The Dark horse of Hitman
hitman are not exactly narrative games plus I would have to play the other hitman games
This entry is the most story-driven out of all (which made it controversial on release iirc), and its plot is standalone, so you don't have to play other games.
i'm still going to pass on this one
tapperruiii
75 posts
Joined July 2024
tapperruiii

Patatitta wrote:

Kobold84 wrote:

Patatitta wrote:

AxisPraxisMDS wrote:

Hitman Absolution, The Dark horse of Hitman
hitman are not exactly narrative games plus I would have to play the other hitman games
This entry is the most story-driven out of all (which made it controversial on release iirc), and its plot is standalone, so you don't have to play other games.
i'm still going to pass on this one
top ten saddest moments in patatitta's analysis corner history
Patatitta
1,380 posts
Joined February 2020
Topic Starter
Patatitta
kanon (2006)

they tried making the most moe anime possible and they frankly got a pretty damn good result, don't think it's the moest of all time but it's definitively VERY moe

kanon is a romance anime based on the visual novel of the same name, the scenario was made by some random named jun maeda idk probably not famous hope their career goes ok. The plot is about this guy who moves back into a town they used to live in, and then gets involved with many different girls, which all of them have something paranormal going on.

The anime happens almost exclusively in this extremely snowy winter, which I think gives this anime a fairly unique visual look even if the acutal artstyle isn't too different to the many other vn adaptations that were common around that same timeframe.

The anime is divided into arcs, each arcs pressumibly being one of the different routes of the vn, I have not played it myself so I can't hard confirm but i'm like 95% sure it's like this. During each arc one of the girls becomes the focus. This girl is of course, incredibly fucking cute and has one or more gimmick attached to them, be it the character design, be it the speech manerism, or the paranomal situation they find themselves in. All of these gimmicks are of course not exactly things that are very commonplace on our modern society, but that just makes each girl feel more unique, and frankly, cute, because everything in this anime works to make the girls cute, even the fact that's it's snowy, they use it to give this one girl gloves and it looks super mega cute. The whole concept of a girl that is slightly socially unadapted but still very clearly sane and pure hearted, just kind of clueless about how the world operates, that by itself is cute.

this arc structure is also probably IMO the biggest problem of this anime. Since each arc is focused on one and one girl alone, it means the rest of the cast loses relevance, in this anime, you wont be seeing much of a specific girl outside of it's specific arc. Thawt means you won't be seeing the different girls intearct with each other very much, or have their stories really be interconnected.

At the end of each arc, the girl that protagonizes that arc is written off the story one way or the other, and then it moves on to the next girl. In a VN setting this does make sense, you beat the game, then you restart, and do it all over again but following a different route. Time quite literally resets to the beginning, but in the anime this is NOT the case, after you finish one route you start the next one on the same timeline, on the same playthrough, this doesn't really make much sense

This makes most of the supporting cast and the protagonist feel very static. Despite having them live through experience that carries with them very, very strong emotions, they don't really grow, because if they were to change substantially as a person, then that would mean you would have to rewrite all of the other routes to really make it consistent with the current personality of the characters. They sidestep this issue by not making the characters grow, that way they can still do a very faithful adaptation of the vn, even if this harms the acutal end product.

I feel this becomes very apparent very quickly, since most arcs are quite similar, they tackle similar topics and themes and even end in a very similar fashion, and not seeing the protagonist outlooks torwards this scenario feels painful.

The actual arcs are good, each one is well written and very emotional, but they just don't really work that well in connection with each other

I will say, the ending does manage to tie everything up in a way that feels satisfactory, but it's just a shame to have to wait until the last episode to really see something change

in general I enjoyed this anime, but yeah, I think it could have been better, placed on B rank.

-------

playing blacksad, generally positive feeling so far but it has a shaky foundation.

Next: kpop demon hunters
Last edited by Patatitta , edited 1 time in total.
Patatitta
1,380 posts
Joined February 2020
Topic Starter
Patatitta
kpop demon hunters

if the title of "kpop demon hunters" is a red flag to you, then this movie doesn't have anything to offer, if you can't get past the title there is nothing here.

Kpop demon hunters is a animated movie about this kpop group who hunts demons, as you may have expected. The plot is bad, like very bad, like exceedengly bad. None of the characters have any sort of characterization or real developement with the exception of the protagonist, most character just have one joke (if any) and that's their whole personality during the rest of the movie, the plot doesn't really hold up to a moment of scrutiny, the romance is half assed, the drama is honestly taken up way too lightly given thej actual stakes of the situation, there are plot holes everywhere as long as you look a little bit closer.

I guess this is can be excused by saying that the people watching this movie are not expecting high art, or regular art, or even low art. People watch this movie because it's a celebration of kpop songs and culture, having said that, I do still feel bad for these people, the fact that they're not actively looking for a movie that has a killer plot, doesn't mean that they don't deserve it. If a movie of this quality was made for a subculture or something I was a passionate fan about, I would frankly be mad.

As I said earlier, this movie lives or dies depending on your opinion of kpop music and culture. I don't have strong opinions on the actual music, it sounds nice, not playlist material but yeah, I can listen to them and vibe with them. Now, kpop culture, and idol culture by extension is not something I tolerate, I do have a hatred for it, the whole corporate nature of it puts me off, and the fact that the movie doesn't really address this and just instead plays on the fantasy that these are just 3 girls who are like very nice and girly who just happens to put out killer tracks is something that annoys me.

This movie has comedy but again, it doesn't resonate with me, mainly because I don't fuck with the characters. The whole YASSSSSSS QUEEN nature of the protagonist trio is not something I vibe with.

Same experience for me with the animation, I don't like the artstyle, every time a character did a facial expression it felt like I was watching a emoji.

I hate this movie a lot more than I said in this thread, but I know i'm not the target demographic and that i'm heavily biased agaist it so I will just put it in D rank and move on. I don't want to talk too much about this one

--------

still playing blacksad, generally positive so far
tapperruiii
75 posts
Joined July 2024
tapperruiii

Patatitta wrote:

kpop demon hunters
if the title of "kpop demon hunters" is a red flag to you, then this movie doesn't have anything to offer, if you can't get past the title there is nothing here.

Kpop demon hunters is a animated movie about this kpop group who hunts demons, as you may have expected. The plot is bad, like very bad, like exceedengly bad. None of the characters have any sort of characterization or real developement with the exception of the protagonist, most character just have one joke (if any) and that's their whole personality during the rest of the movie, the plot doesn't really hold up to a moment of scrutiny, the romance is half assed, the drama is honestly taken up way too lightly given thej actual stakes of the situation, there are plot holes everywhere as long as you look a little bit closer.

I guess this is can be excused by saying that the people watching this movie are not expecting high art, or regular art, or even low art. People watch this movie because it's a celebration of kpop songs and culture, having said that, I do still feel bad for these people, the fact that they're not actively looking for a movie that has a killer plot, doesn't mean that they don't deserve it. If a movie of this quality was made for a subculture or something I was a passionate fan about, I would frankly be mad.

As I said earlier, this movie lives or dies depending on your opinion of kpop music and culture. I don't have strong opinions on the actual music, it sounds nice, not playlist material but yeah, I can listen to them and vibe with them. Now, kpop culture, and idol culture by extension is not something I tolerate, I do have a hatred for it, the whole corporate nature of it puts me off, and the fact that the movie doesn't really address this and just instead plays on the fantasy that these are just 3 girls who are like very nice and girly who just happens to put out killer tracks is something that annoys me.

This movie has comedy but again, it doesn't resonate with me, mainly because I don't fuck with the characters. The whole YASSSSSSS QUEEN nature of the protagonist trio is not something I vibe with.

Same experience for me with the animation, I don't like the artstyle, every time a character did a facial expression it felt like I was watching a emoji.

I hate this movie a lot more than I said in this thread, but I know i'm not the target demographic and that i'm heavily biased agaist it so I will just put it in D rank and move on. I don't want to talk too much about this one

--------

still playing blacksad, generally positive so far
the animation totally reminds me of turning red in a bad way.

also i ain't one to criticize someone's taste but how did 179bpn like this in any way
Last edited by tapperruiii , edited 1 time in total.
179bpm
569 posts
Joined October 2021
179bpm
I'm going to try to redeem myself with the game later alligator
CLICKMACHINE
524 posts
Joined March 2023
CLICKMACHINE
Try Oyacocco.
Patatitta
1,380 posts
Joined February 2020
Topic Starter
Patatitta

179bpm wrote:

I'm going to try to redeem myself with the game later alligator
this?

CLICKMACHINE wrote:

Try Oyacocco.
sure, may take a little while to get to it tho, want to finish ao ashi first since that is what i'm reading rn and i'm still missing like 10 volumes
179bpm
569 posts
Joined October 2021
179bpm

Patatitta wrote:

179bpm wrote:

I'm going to try to redeem myself with the game later alligator
this?
Yeah that one
Last edited by 179bpm , edited 2 times in total.
Patatitta
1,380 posts
Joined February 2020
Topic Starter
Patatitta

179bpm wrote:

Patatitta wrote:

179bpm wrote:

I'm going to try to redeem myself with the game later alligator
this?
Yeah that one
sure looks cool
CLICKMACHINE
524 posts
Joined March 2023
CLICKMACHINE

Patatitta wrote:

CLICKMACHINE wrote:

Try Oyacocco.
sure, may take a little while to get to it tho, want to finish ao ashi first since that is what i'm reading rn and i'm still missing like 10 volumes
S'all good. Take your time.
Karmine
1,031 posts
Joined November 2015
Karmine

Patatitta wrote:

kpop demon hunters

if the title of "kpop demon hunters" is a red flag to you, then this movie doesn't have anything to offer, if you can't get past the title there is nothing here.

Kpop demon hunters is a animated movie about this kpop group who hunts demons, as you may have expected. The plot is bad, like very bad, like exceedengly bad. None of the characters have any sort of characterization or real developement with the exception of the protagonist, most character just have one joke (if any) and that's their whole personality during the rest of the movie, the plot doesn't really hold up to a moment of scrutiny, the romance is half assed, the drama is honestly taken up way too lightly given thej actual stakes of the situation, there are plot holes everywhere as long as you look a little bit closer.

I guess this is can be excused by saying that the people watching this movie are not expecting high art, or regular art, or even low art. People watch this movie because it's a celebration of kpop songs and culture, having said that, I do still feel bad for these people, the fact that they're not actively looking for a movie that has a killer plot, doesn't mean that they don't deserve it. If a movie of this quality was made for a subculture or something I was a passionate fan about, I would frankly be mad.

As I said earlier, this movie lives or dies depending on your opinion of kpop music and culture. I don't have strong opinions on the actual music, it sounds nice, not playlist material but yeah, I can listen to them and vibe with them. Now, kpop culture, and idol culture by extension is not something I tolerate, I do have a hatred for it, the whole corporate nature of it puts me off, and the fact that the movie doesn't really address this and just instead plays on the fantasy that these are just 3 girls who are like very nice and girly who just happens to put out killer tracks is something that annoys me.

This movie has comedy but again, it doesn't resonate with me, mainly because I don't fuck with the characters. The whole YASSSSSSS QUEEN nature of the protagonist trio is not something I vibe with.

Same experience for me with the animation, I don't like the artstyle, every time a character did a facial expression it felt like I was watching a emoji.

I hate this movie a lot more than I said in this thread, but I know i'm not the target demographic and that i'm heavily biased agaist it so I will just put it in D rank and move on. I don't want to talk too much about this one

--------

still playing blacksad, generally positive so far
This review is poetry.
Patatitta
1,380 posts
Joined February 2020
Topic Starter
Patatitta
Blacksad: Under the skin

It's less ambitious and more videogamy than wolf among us, and I think it's better because of it

blacksad is a noir detective game with gameplay similar to the ones of telltale. The game is based on the french comic by the same name. First of all, what's up with noir crime drama and furries, this is too common of a trope.

The game is fairly simplistic, there is as crime and you solve it, the game a I said is not very ambituous, it's not really emotional as you don't really develop a connection to the characters, the game doens't try to send any deep societal message either, there are no big turnabouts in the case, instead of having reveals that recontextualize everything like in ace attorney, proof just keeps piling up and up.

In many ways that is the weakest aspect of the game, the mistery is honestly just kind of a bit boring, however, in many ways I feel that is the point of the game?, in this game, you play as a detective, and I think the acutal roleplay aspects are really well done. The case isn't fucking crazy like in other detective games, but that just makes it feel more grounded, the game also sometimes shows the mental state of the protagonist, and while this game doesn't even try to sell you in the notion that your choices matter, having control over what the character says, does help you immersed on it. In this mistery most of the time you're going through the motions of solving the case but without the excitement of other works in this genre, kinda like if it were your job, which, it is. the end is also kinda depressing, this is also in part becauase of my decision to let the police arrest the woman at the end, but I like that ending, unambitious, anticlimatic even, the protagonist doesn't really fix their mental state, but he's also not depressed, this is his job and he is happy to do it, life just goes on

Still, despite me respectign the idea and honestly really liking the ending, the game for the most part was just kind of average. The fact that the game had it fair share of technical issues. doesn't help either The set camera angles can frankly be a problem when it comes to finding clues, since in this game, unlike the wolf among us, there is A LOT more walking around and interacting with objects. In the wolf among if you interacted with anything was to see the flavour text as the way to continue was very clearly marked, this is not hte case in blacksad. Despite the game being super simplistic mechanically, the game also controls like ass on keyboard+mouse, in fact, the mouse isn't even locked to the window. The game does recommend for you to play with controller so I only got myself to blame, but still, I didn't expect they would mess up the controls of a game with gameplay as basic as this. Also got softlocked once, had to reload.

Compared to the wolf among us this game also doens't try to be a tv show at all, it's a videogame first and foremost, not trying to bring the evolution of the medium, instead tehy just wanted to make a very detective game and they thought tis format was the one that fit best, as this game is essentially a 3d point and click game like monkey island (tbh, the developers of this game, pendulo studios, are specialized in making point and click games, in fact, I want to play their old 1997 game "hollywood monsters", had that noted even before this was requested).

The qicktime events are also better, they're a lot tighter and mroe dinamic, kept the flow of the action a lot better.

solid game even if ia bit average, still, got no real problems with it, placed on c rank.


---

next: Later Alligator

have yet to start the manga, will probably do it in the following 2 days tho.
Last edited by Patatitta , edited 1 time in total.
Patatitta
1,380 posts
Joined February 2020
Topic Starter
Patatitta
Later Alligator

I thought this game would be more similar to the previous, being a point and click mistery game featuring anthropomorphic animals, (in this case alligartors), that was not the case, this game is a mainly just a minigame collection with good art and funny dialogue

there isn't much that I have to say about this game, it lacks a story, it's very short, I did wish it didn't lean as hard into minigames, as I didn't think they were as funny

there really is no meat in this game to really say anything, sorry, placed on c rank. Nothing wrong with this game, but there is just frankly nothing to talk about.
kzwa
21 posts
Joined February 2023
kzwa
I know you said you probably wouldn't accept horror but these are a few games I think deserved to be experienced. If you can only do one, I put my most recommended at the top.

Links:

Soma : https://store.steampowered.com/app/282140/SOMA/
Inscryption https://store.steampowered.com/app/1092790/Inscryption/
Signalis : https://store.steampowered.com/app/1262350/SIGNALIS/

TTB:

Soma : https://howlongtobeat.com/game/22549
Inscryption : https://howlongtobeat.com/game/91622
Signalis : https://howlongtobeat.com/game/57149
Last edited by kzwa , edited 2 times in total.
Patatitta
1,380 posts
Joined February 2020
Topic Starter
Patatitta

kzwa wrote:

I know you said you probably wouldn't accept horror but these are a few games I think deserved to be experienced. If you can only do one, I put my most recommended at the top.

Links:

Soma : https://store.steampowered.com/app/282140/SOMA/
Inscryption https://store.steampowered.com/app/1092790/Inscryption/
Signalis : https://store.steampowered.com/app/1262350/SIGNALIS/

TTB:

Soma : https://howlongtobeat.com/game/22549
Inscryption : https://howlongtobeat.com/game/91622
Signalis : https://howlongtobeat.com/game/57149
actually fuck it i'm doing signalis, I would have done inscryption but i'm fully spoiled up on that game
179bpm
569 posts
Joined October 2021
179bpm

Patatitta wrote:

Later Alligator

I thought this game would be more similar to the previous, being a point and click mistery game featuring anthropomorphic animals, (in this case alligartors), that was not the case, this game is a mainly just a minigame collection with good art and funny dialogue

there isn't much that I have to say about this game, it lacks a story, it's very short, I did wish it didn't lean as hard into minigames, as I didn't think they were as funny

there really is no meat in this game to really say anything, sorry, placed on c rank. Nothing wrong with this game, but there is just frankly nothing to talk about.
I'm glad that it's at least above my last suggestion
AxisPraxisMDS
143 posts
Joined October 2022
AxisPraxisMDS
Heavy Rain?
Patatitta
1,380 posts
Joined February 2020
Topic Starter
Patatitta

AxisPraxisMDS wrote:

Heavy Rain?
heard that game is atrocious but idk got no justification to refuse
-Izuki-
9,423 posts
Joined December 2023
-Izuki-

Patatitta wrote:

heard that game is atrocious
iirc it has disgusting keyboard+mouse control and bad QTE
AxisPraxisMDS
143 posts
Joined October 2022
AxisPraxisMDS

-Izuki- wrote:

Patatitta wrote:

heard that game is atrocious
iirc it has disgusting keyboard+mouse control and bad QTE
Yeah, I felt that too, But over time im getting used to it, I guess that mechanic Apply mostly on Quantic dream games, sometimes it can be funny tho and absurd
Last edited by AxisPraxisMDS , edited 3 times in total.
Patatitta
1,380 posts
Joined February 2020
Topic Starter
Patatitta
Oyacocco

artsy manga, no clue how you found it or heard of it as it has a total of 30 ratings on MAL

it's about this guy whose father has liver failure due to his alcoholism and is hospitilized, and how he relationship with him develops as he may be inching closer to death.

The story is pretty solid, it's not subtle at all, which you know, may sound like a joke but it's a style of storytelling I enjoy. This is 2 volumes in total, plot moves very quickly, all of the places the protagonist moves around has some sort of plot relevance, I don't want to talk too much about the plot beause it's so short anything would be a spoiler and also i've not really got any comments with the ending, it's a fairly simple, unambitious story, that is well executed.

The art is very much not moe or cute, it does not look like your typical manga, not to say it's still not recognizable as manga, it's not that out there, but it's clear the mangaka didn't want you to percieve the characters as waifus or husbandos. The way the characters are drawn in this character is almost chibi, small body with big heads that don't include lots of detail. The faces of all the characters does look kind of depressed, which just adds to the tone of the story. I think the art is also very good at portraying the age of the characters, as everyone here is very clearly adult. The backgrounds are more standard, but a lot of this manga takes place in a car, and the backgrounds acutally do display motion by adding that sort of blur and displacement you would see by either moving very fast or taking a photo from the window of a moving acr

I respect this manga, I think it's solid, not mindblowing but yeah, it's an enjoyable read. B rank.
CLICKMACHINE
524 posts
Joined March 2023
CLICKMACHINE

Patatitta wrote:

Oyacocco
Yeah the art was what really got me interested. Chibi-like stuff on a sol heavy manga.

I found the author from Peleliu. It's his other manga getting adapted to a movie.
reffty_gag
407 posts
Joined July 2023
reffty_gag
https://myanimelist.net/anime/60489/Takopii_no_Genzai
-Izuki-
9,423 posts
Joined December 2023
-Izuki-
Try to watch "Nanbaka". This is a comedy about prisoners, their attempts to escape and some funny stuff
(prequel, sequel)
Patatitta
1,380 posts
Joined February 2020
Topic Starter
Patatitta

reffty_gag wrote:

https://myanimelist.net/anime/60489/Takopii_no_Genzai
oh boy, already watched it

tldr: fuck nilism man

already ranted about this anime to at least 3 peole I know, the plot is about this space octopus that is kind of a pardy of doraemon (they have magical gadgets that they pull and can use), and triges to help this depressed girl who suffers from bullying. The octopus doesn't know shit about the human race and wont learn, instead always coming to the wrong conclusions, this doesn't cange during the rest of the anime.

Let's get the good out of the way, this anime knows how to hit your emotional strings, the topis that they tackle are heavy, the situation is anything but subtle, it's cruel but in a way that you feel a story like this is plausible. All of the reveals and plot twists are impactful, the animatin is really good to add to that.

That's where my praises end, I think the writing of this anime is just pure ass. I think a good first step is to think what the message of tis anime is, is it a realistic and grounded depiction and study on bullying, both from the perspective of the one being bullied and the bully?, no, it is not, it's so extreme of a situation that if something like this were to happen irl, it would be the edgest of the edge cases. If all of the campaigns to educate peopel about bullying has told me anything is that real world bullying both has more nuances and it isn't as transparent. At least where I live, if you were to idk, fucking assault the other students laugh at them in public and quite literally write stuff like slut on their already broken backpack, you would at least be called out for doing so, but I guess teachers and the such just straight up don't exist in this anime.

so what's the point?, we know this situation is, we know that the author fantasized this situation just to inflict maximum pain on the characters, so what's the goal?, I think the first and most obvious deduction is that the world is a cruel place. Both our emotional reaction to the events and the general dialogue of the octopus, trying to understand the human race only to be confused by our evil doings. I'm fine with this, I agree the world is cruel and that humankind is more often than not evil. So you, so I , the ones living in this cruel world, what should we do? THe anime doesn't offer a solution, it just screams THE WORLD IS EVIL and then refuses to elaborate. Why is it that some people thrive in this cruel world and others don't?, if i'm not in a privilaged situation, what should be my outlook in life?, why did planet happy devlop into being this magical land of dreams while earth didn't? what is it of our human psychology that did that?, why do some people find happiness?, how do they do it?Why won't this anime answer any fucking question?

even in the ending, the resolution is that the octopus sacrifices himself to travel back in time once more and do things right for real this time. Because even as adult, everyone was depressed, no one was able to really recover or move on. So in this reset what changes in the general actitude of the protagonist that allowed them to finally live happily?, well, nothing much, she shows weakness and the bully just completely collapses and everything is fixed now I guess.I hate this for so many reasons. FIrwst of all I don't think this really solves anything, I don't think it really says a solution, but more than that, I hate that the ending is just "let's go back in time again". The message I recieve is that if you're an adult living with trauma, honeslty you're out of luck. We don't have a takopi in our lifes that can deus ex all of our problems away, and I just find frustrating that this anime will refuse to answer the question of how to be happy in a painful world, taht it doesn't adress how to moev on, it's just, there is nothing in this anime that you canreally learn from as a human.

This anime exists for one reason and one reason alone, which is to be emotional, this isn't inherently bad, I loev stuff like I want to ear your pancreas for examples, however, one thing I really fucking hate is nihilim. When the message is that the world sucks and lacks meaning and it's all pain and you can't do anything about it, that boils my blood, because it's just not true. It's possible to be happy, there are solutions to all of the problems takopi depict, however these are solutions that the anime will refuse to acknowledge. In addition ,if you were to subscribe that general ideology takopi spreads. Honestly I think you're going to live a very misserable life. You need hope in this life, not to drown in your own misery.

I think in that way it diffeers to animes like anohana or pancras,. THey don't really need to refuse to acknowledge solutions to make them emotionally powerful.

The writing in this anime is just very bad, one thing thatI really hate about this anime is the lack of any sort of foreshadowing, or in general for them to really commit to what they have already said. For example, on episode 1 they talk about the rules of using magiacl gadgets, this is a plot point that is utilized in like the next scene, and then never agian, you spent like 30 seconds explaining the mechanics of how doraemon works only to not really make use of it. Same withj magial gadgets, again the one that doraemon gives to the protagonist girl in episode 1, not really brought up again. Whenever they kill the other girl and hide the corpse using alien technology, did the police not care about finding ALIEN TECHNOLOGY on a crime scene involging the death of a grade school kid?, anda gain, the ending is the worst, the camera was broken but yeah I can kill myself to make it work again, this was never really ever explained or could be predicted, and it's that way by design so you don't seee it coming and have a emotionalr reaction or it, but it's just such a coward way to write this story, it's horrible

plaed in D rank, I really hate this style of anime.

------

just started signalis
Last edited by Patatitta , edited 1 time in total.
Patatitta
1,380 posts
Joined February 2020
Topic Starter
Patatitta

-Izuki- wrote:

Try to watch "Nanbaka". This is a comedy about prisoners, their attempts to escape and some funny stuff
(prequel, sequel)
sure
Karmine
1,031 posts
Joined November 2015
Karmine
Citizen Sleeper

Just got it and played through it (13h in 2 days), I'm definitely getting the sequel.
Patatitta
1,380 posts
Joined February 2020
Topic Starter
Patatitta

Karmine wrote:

Citizen Sleeper

Just got it and played through it (13h in 2 days), I'm definitely getting the sequel.
already completed it along with it's sequel, tho it's been a while so i'm a bit fuzzy on it

citizen sleeper is crpg game (at least i've always heard it described as such) with a sci-fi setting. You wake up on this space station and your goal is to survive.

There are a lot of correlations between this game in disco elyisum, both games have you play as an amnesiac who is just trying do to their best and faced with multiple people and factions each one with their respective ideologies. Citizen sleeper gameplay works with dice, you have this overworld where you can select different locations each with an activity to do, and in each one you have a chance to put in dice, each activity has a fail state, a neutral state, and a success state, the higher the dice the better chanes for a good outcome. This system is designed so you fail checks, you're meant to fail checks, as this is what creates most of the tension in the game. One turn you're doing fine the next one you're fucked, game autosaves so you can't savescul either.

The game is bery much about capitalism, the society you awaken in and are manty to survive is a hyper capitalistic one, you awaken on the bottom of the social hierarchy too, so have fun lmao.

THe way this game handles morality and ideology is really good IMO. In most games, your hand is never tied when choosing a ideology or even moral decisions, in fallout you can choose what faction do you want to govern the wasteland, in wolf among us you can choose if you want to beat up a innocent bystander or not. This often doesn't really work because there is a clear correct decision. This game doesn't really work like this, it's a survival game where you can really fuck up your playthrough real quickly, you can't act as this noble warrior who always does the right decisions, you need to look out for yourself, and it just so happen that the usually more morally dark decisions are the more profitable ones. In that way is like pathologic, the game becomes easy when you start playing as a total asshole.

Great game, I enjoyed, I think the sequel is even better. A rank.

---

signalis is cool

watched the first episode of nanbaka and it looks cool as well
Last edited by Patatitta , edited 1 time in total.
Karmine
1,031 posts
Joined November 2015
Karmine
Nice.
reffty_gag
407 posts
Joined July 2023
reffty_gag

Patatitta wrote:

reffty_gag wrote:

https://myanimelist.net/anime/60489/Takopii_no_Genzai
oh boy, already watched it

tldr: fuck nilism man

already ranted about this anime to at least 3 peole I know, the plot is about this space octopus that is kind of a pardy of doraemon (they have magical gadgets that they pull and can use), and triges to help this depressed girl who suffers from bullying. The octopus doesn't know shit about the human race and wont learn, instead always coming to the wrong conclusions, this doesn't cange during the rest of the anime.

Let's get the good out of the way, this anime knows how to hit your emotional strings, the topis that they tackle are heavy, the situation is anything but subtle, it's cruel but in a way that you feel a story like this is plausible. All of the reveals and plot twists are impactful, the animatin is really good to add to that.

That's where my praises end, I think the writing of this anime is just pure ass. I think a good first step is to think what the message of tis anime is, is it a realistic and grounded depiction and study on bullying, both from the perspective of the one being bullied and the bully?, no, it is not, it's so extreme of a situation that if something like this were to happen irl, it would be the edgest of the edge cases. If all of the campaigns to educate peopel about bullying has told me anything is that real world bullying both has more nuances and it isn't as transparent. At least where I live, if you were to idk, fucking assault the other students laugh at them in public and quite literally write stuff like slut on their already broken backpack, you would at least be called out for doing so, but I guess teachers and the such just straight up don't exist in this anime.

so what's the point?, we know this situation is, we know that the author fantasized this situation just to inflict maximum pain on the characters, so what's the goal?, I think the first and most obvious deduction is that the world is a cruel place. Both our emotional reaction to the events and the general dialogue of the octopus, trying to understand the human race only to be confused by our evil doings. I'm fine with this, I agree the world is cruel and that humankind is more often than not evil. So you, so I , the ones living in this cruel world, what should we do? THe anime doesn't offer a solution, it just screams THE WORLD IS EVIL and then refuses to elaborate. Why is it that some people thrive in this cruel world and others don't?, if i'm not in a privilaged situation, what should be my outlook in life?, why did planet happy devlop into being this magical land of dreams while earth didn't? what is it of our human psychology that did that?, why do some people find happiness?, how do they do it?Why won't this anime answer any fucking question?

even in the ending, the resolution is that the octopus sacrifices himself to travel back in time once more and do things right for real this time. Because even as adult, everyone was depressed, no one was able to really recover or move on. So in this reset what changes in the general actitude of the protagonist that allowed them to finally live happily?, well, nothing much, she shows weakness and the bully just completely collapses and everything is fixed now I guess.I hate this for so many reasons. FIrwst of all I don't think this really solves anything, I don't think it really says a solution, but more than that, I hate that the ending is just "let's go back in time again". The message I recieve is that if you're an adult living with trauma, honeslty you're out of luck. We don't have a takopi in our lifes that can deus ex all of our problems away, and I just find frustrating that this anime will refuse to answer the question of how to be happy in a painful world, taht it doesn't adress how to moev on, it's just, there is nothing in this anime that you canreally learn from as a human.

This anime exists for one reason and one reason alone, which is to be emotional, this isn't inherently bad, I loev stuff like I want to ear your pancreas for examples, however, one thing I really fucking hate is nihilim. When the message is that the world sucks and lacks meaning and it's all pain and you can't do anything about it, that boils my blood, because it's just not true. It's possible to be happy, there are solutions to all of the problems takopi depict, however these are solutions that the anime will refuse to acknowledge. In addition ,if you were to subscribe that general ideology takopi spreads. Honestly I think you're going to live a very misserable life. You need hope in this life, not to drown in your own misery.

I think in that way it diffeers to animes like anohana or pancras,. THey don't really need to refuse to acknowledge solutions to make them emotionally powerful.

The writing in this anime is just very bad, one thing thatI really hate about this anime is the lack of any sort of foreshadowing, or in general for them to really commit to what they have already said. For example, on episode 1 they talk about the rules of using magiacl gadgets, this is a plot point that is utilized in like the next scene, and then never agian, you spent like 30 seconds explaining the mechanics of how doraemon works only to not really make use of it. Same withj magial gadgets, again the one that doraemon gives to the protagonist girl in episode 1, not really brought up again. Whenever they kill the other girl and hide the corpse using alien technology, did the police not care about finding ALIEN TECHNOLOGY on a crime scene involging the death of a grade school kid?, anda gain, the ending is the worst, the camera was broken but yeah I can kill myself to make it work again, this was never really ever explained or could be predicted, and it's that way by design so you don't seee it coming and have a emotionalr reaction or it, but it's just such a coward way to write this story, it's horrible

plaed in D rank, I really hate this style of anime.

------

just started signalis

Patatitta wrote:

reffty_gag wrote:

https://myanimelist.net/anime/60489/Takopii_no_Genzai
oh boy, already watched it

tldr: fuck nilism man

already ranted about this anime to at least 3 peole I know, the plot is about this space octopus that is kind of a pardy of doraemon (they have magical gadgets that they pull and can use), and triges to help this depressed girl who suffers from bullying. The octopus doesn't know shit about the human race and wont learn, instead always coming to the wrong conclusions, this doesn't cange during the rest of the anime.

Let's get the good out of the way, this anime knows how to hit your emotional strings, the topis that they tackle are heavy, the situation is anything but subtle, it's cruel but in a way that you feel a story like this is plausible. All of the reveals and plot twists are impactful, the animatin is really good to add to that.

That's where my praises end, I think the writing of this anime is just pure ass. I think a good first step is to think what the message of tis anime is, is it a realistic and grounded depiction and study on bullying, both from the perspective of the one being bullied and the bully?, no, it is not, it's so extreme of a situation that if something like this were to happen irl, it would be the edgest of the edge cases. If all of the campaigns to educate peopel about bullying has told me anything is that real world bullying both has more nuances and it isn't as transparent. At least where I live, if you were to idk, fucking assault the other students laugh at them in public and quite literally write stuff like slut on their already broken backpack, you would at least be called out for doing so, but I guess teachers and the such just straight up don't exist in this anime.

so what's the point?, we know this situation is, we know that the author fantasized this situation just to inflict maximum pain on the characters, so what's the goal?, I think the first and most obvious deduction is that the world is a cruel place. Both our emotional reaction to the events and the general dialogue of the octopus, trying to understand the human race only to be confused by our evil doings. I'm fine with this, I agree the world is cruel and that humankind is more often than not evil. So you, so I , the ones living in this cruel world, what should we do? THe anime doesn't offer a solution, it just screams THE WORLD IS EVIL and then refuses to elaborate. Why is it that some people thrive in this cruel world and others don't?, if i'm not in a privilaged situation, what should be my outlook in life?, why did planet happy devlop into being this magical land of dreams while earth didn't? what is it of our human psychology that did that?, why do some people find happiness?, how do they do it?Why won't this anime answer any fucking question?

even in the ending, the resolution is that the octopus sacrifices himself to travel back in time once more and do things right for real this time. Because even as adult, everyone was depressed, no one was able to really recover or move on. So in this reset what changes in the general actitude of the protagonist that allowed them to finally live happily?, well, nothing much, she shows weakness and the bully just completely collapses and everything is fixed now I guess.I hate this for so many reasons. FIrwst of all I don't think this really solves anything, I don't think it really says a solution, but more than that, I hate that the ending is just "let's go back in time again". The message I recieve is that if you're an adult living with trauma, honeslty you're out of luck. We don't have a takopi in our lifes that can deus ex all of our problems away, and I just find frustrating that this anime will refuse to answer the question of how to be happy in a painful world, taht it doesn't adress how to moev on, it's just, there is nothing in this anime that you canreally learn from as a human.

This anime exists for one reason and one reason alone, which is to be emotional, this isn't inherently bad, I loev stuff like I want to ear your pancreas for examples, however, one thing I really fucking hate is nihilim. When the message is that the world sucks and lacks meaning and it's all pain and you can't do anything about it, that boils my blood, because it's just not true. It's possible to be happy, there are solutions to all of the problems takopi depict, however these are solutions that the anime will refuse to acknowledge. In addition ,if you were to subscribe that general ideology takopi spreads. Honestly I think you're going to live a very misserable life. You need hope in this life, not to drown in your own misery.

I think in that way it diffeers to animes like anohana or pancras,. THey don't really need to refuse to acknowledge solutions to make them emotionally powerful.

The writing in this anime is just very bad, one thing thatI really hate about this anime is the lack of any sort of foreshadowing, or in general for them to really commit to what they have already said. For example, on episode 1 they talk about the rules of using magiacl gadgets, this is a plot point that is utilized in like the next scene, and then never agian, you spent like 30 seconds explaining the mechanics of how doraemon works only to not really make use of it. Same withj magial gadgets, again the one that doraemon gives to the protagonist girl in episode 1, not really brought up again. Whenever they kill the other girl and hide the corpse using alien technology, did the police not care about finding ALIEN TECHNOLOGY on a crime scene involging the death of a grade school kid?, anda gain, the ending is the worst, the camera was broken but yeah I can kill myself to make it work again, this was never really ever explained or could be predicted, and it's that way by design so you don't seee it coming and have a emotionalr reaction or it, but it's just such a coward way to write this story, it's horrible

plaed in D rank, I really hate this style of anime.

------

just started signalis
well, i didn't expect that lmao
Patatitta
1,380 posts
Joined February 2020
Topic Starter
Patatitta

reffty_gag wrote:

Patatitta wrote:

reffty_gag wrote:

https://myanimelist.net/anime/60489/Takopii_no_Genzai
oh boy, already watched it

tldr: fuck nilism man

already ranted about this anime to at least 3 peole I know, the plot is about this space octopus that is kind of a pardy of doraemon (they have magical gadgets that they pull and can use), and triges to help this depressed girl who suffers from bullying. The octopus doesn't know shit about the human race and wont learn, instead always coming to the wrong conclusions, this doesn't cange during the rest of the anime.

Let's get the good out of the way, this anime knows how to hit your emotional strings, the topis that they tackle are heavy, the situation is anything but subtle, it's cruel but in a way that you feel a story like this is plausible. All of the reveals and plot twists are impactful, the animatin is really good to add to that.

That's where my praises end, I think the writing of this anime is just pure ass. I think a good first step is to think what the message of tis anime is, is it a realistic and grounded depiction and study on bullying, both from the perspective of the one being bullied and the bully?, no, it is not, it's so extreme of a situation that if something like this were to happen irl, it would be the edgest of the edge cases. If all of the campaigns to educate peopel about bullying has told me anything is that real world bullying both has more nuances and it isn't as transparent. At least where I live, if you were to idk, fucking assault the other students laugh at them in public and quite literally write stuff like slut on their already broken backpack, you would at least be called out for doing so, but I guess teachers and the such just straight up don't exist in this anime.

so what's the point?, we know this situation is, we know that the author fantasized this situation just to inflict maximum pain on the characters, so what's the goal?, I think the first and most obvious deduction is that the world is a cruel place. Both our emotional reaction to the events and the general dialogue of the octopus, trying to understand the human race only to be confused by our evil doings. I'm fine with this, I agree the world is cruel and that humankind is more often than not evil. So you, so I , the ones living in this cruel world, what should we do? THe anime doesn't offer a solution, it just screams THE WORLD IS EVIL and then refuses to elaborate. Why is it that some people thrive in this cruel world and others don't?, if i'm not in a privilaged situation, what should be my outlook in life?, why did planet happy devlop into being this magical land of dreams while earth didn't? what is it of our human psychology that did that?, why do some people find happiness?, how do they do it?Why won't this anime answer any fucking question?

even in the ending, the resolution is that the octopus sacrifices himself to travel back in time once more and do things right for real this time. Because even as adult, everyone was depressed, no one was able to really recover or move on. So in this reset what changes in the general actitude of the protagonist that allowed them to finally live happily?, well, nothing much, she shows weakness and the bully just completely collapses and everything is fixed now I guess.I hate this for so many reasons. FIrwst of all I don't think this really solves anything, I don't think it really says a solution, but more than that, I hate that the ending is just "let's go back in time again". The message I recieve is that if you're an adult living with trauma, honeslty you're out of luck. We don't have a takopi in our lifes that can deus ex all of our problems away, and I just find frustrating that this anime will refuse to answer the question of how to be happy in a painful world, taht it doesn't adress how to moev on, it's just, there is nothing in this anime that you canreally learn from as a human.

This anime exists for one reason and one reason alone, which is to be emotional, this isn't inherently bad, I loev stuff like I want to ear your pancreas for examples, however, one thing I really fucking hate is nihilim. When the message is that the world sucks and lacks meaning and it's all pain and you can't do anything about it, that boils my blood, because it's just not true. It's possible to be happy, there are solutions to all of the problems takopi depict, however these are solutions that the anime will refuse to acknowledge. In addition ,if you were to subscribe that general ideology takopi spreads. Honestly I think you're going to live a very misserable life. You need hope in this life, not to drown in your own misery.

I think in that way it diffeers to animes like anohana or pancras,. THey don't really need to refuse to acknowledge solutions to make them emotionally powerful.

The writing in this anime is just very bad, one thing thatI really hate about this anime is the lack of any sort of foreshadowing, or in general for them to really commit to what they have already said. For example, on episode 1 they talk about the rules of using magiacl gadgets, this is a plot point that is utilized in like the next scene, and then never agian, you spent like 30 seconds explaining the mechanics of how doraemon works only to not really make use of it. Same withj magial gadgets, again the one that doraemon gives to the protagonist girl in episode 1, not really brought up again. Whenever they kill the other girl and hide the corpse using alien technology, did the police not care about finding ALIEN TECHNOLOGY on a crime scene involging the death of a grade school kid?, anda gain, the ending is the worst, the camera was broken but yeah I can kill myself to make it work again, this was never really ever explained or could be predicted, and it's that way by design so you don't seee it coming and have a emotionalr reaction or it, but it's just such a coward way to write this story, it's horrible

plaed in D rank, I really hate this style of anime.

------

just started signalis

Patatitta wrote:

reffty_gag wrote:

https://myanimelist.net/anime/60489/Takopii_no_Genzai
oh boy, already watched it

tldr: fuck nilism man

already ranted about this anime to at least 3 peole I know, the plot is about this space octopus that is kind of a pardy of doraemon (they have magical gadgets that they pull and can use), and triges to help this depressed girl who suffers from bullying. The octopus doesn't know shit about the human race and wont learn, instead always coming to the wrong conclusions, this doesn't cange during the rest of the anime.

Let's get the good out of the way, this anime knows how to hit your emotional strings, the topis that they tackle are heavy, the situation is anything but subtle, it's cruel but in a way that you feel a story like this is plausible. All of the reveals and plot twists are impactful, the animatin is really good to add to that.

That's where my praises end, I think the writing of this anime is just pure ass. I think a good first step is to think what the message of tis anime is, is it a realistic and grounded depiction and study on bullying, both from the perspective of the one being bullied and the bully?, no, it is not, it's so extreme of a situation that if something like this were to happen irl, it would be the edgest of the edge cases. If all of the campaigns to educate peopel about bullying has told me anything is that real world bullying both has more nuances and it isn't as transparent. At least where I live, if you were to idk, fucking assault the other students laugh at them in public and quite literally write stuff like slut on their already broken backpack, you would at least be called out for doing so, but I guess teachers and the such just straight up don't exist in this anime.

so what's the point?, we know this situation is, we know that the author fantasized this situation just to inflict maximum pain on the characters, so what's the goal?, I think the first and most obvious deduction is that the world is a cruel place. Both our emotional reaction to the events and the general dialogue of the octopus, trying to understand the human race only to be confused by our evil doings. I'm fine with this, I agree the world is cruel and that humankind is more often than not evil. So you, so I , the ones living in this cruel world, what should we do? THe anime doesn't offer a solution, it just screams THE WORLD IS EVIL and then refuses to elaborate. Why is it that some people thrive in this cruel world and others don't?, if i'm not in a privilaged situation, what should be my outlook in life?, why did planet happy devlop into being this magical land of dreams while earth didn't? what is it of our human psychology that did that?, why do some people find happiness?, how do they do it?Why won't this anime answer any fucking question?

even in the ending, the resolution is that the octopus sacrifices himself to travel back in time once more and do things right for real this time. Because even as adult, everyone was depressed, no one was able to really recover or move on. So in this reset what changes in the general actitude of the protagonist that allowed them to finally live happily?, well, nothing much, she shows weakness and the bully just completely collapses and everything is fixed now I guess.I hate this for so many reasons. FIrwst of all I don't think this really solves anything, I don't think it really says a solution, but more than that, I hate that the ending is just "let's go back in time again". The message I recieve is that if you're an adult living with trauma, honeslty you're out of luck. We don't have a takopi in our lifes that can deus ex all of our problems away, and I just find frustrating that this anime will refuse to answer the question of how to be happy in a painful world, taht it doesn't adress how to moev on, it's just, there is nothing in this anime that you canreally learn from as a human.

This anime exists for one reason and one reason alone, which is to be emotional, this isn't inherently bad, I loev stuff like I want to ear your pancreas for examples, however, one thing I really fucking hate is nihilim. When the message is that the world sucks and lacks meaning and it's all pain and you can't do anything about it, that boils my blood, because it's just not true. It's possible to be happy, there are solutions to all of the problems takopi depict, however these are solutions that the anime will refuse to acknowledge. In addition ,if you were to subscribe that general ideology takopi spreads. Honestly I think you're going to live a very misserable life. You need hope in this life, not to drown in your own misery.

I think in that way it diffeers to animes like anohana or pancras,. THey don't really need to refuse to acknowledge solutions to make them emotionally powerful.

The writing in this anime is just very bad, one thing thatI really hate about this anime is the lack of any sort of foreshadowing, or in general for them to really commit to what they have already said. For example, on episode 1 they talk about the rules of using magiacl gadgets, this is a plot point that is utilized in like the next scene, and then never agian, you spent like 30 seconds explaining the mechanics of how doraemon works only to not really make use of it. Same withj magial gadgets, again the one that doraemon gives to the protagonist girl in episode 1, not really brought up again. Whenever they kill the other girl and hide the corpse using alien technology, did the police not care about finding ALIEN TECHNOLOGY on a crime scene involging the death of a grade school kid?, anda gain, the ending is the worst, the camera was broken but yeah I can kill myself to make it work again, this was never really ever explained or could be predicted, and it's that way by design so you don't seee it coming and have a emotionalr reaction or it, but it's just such a coward way to write this story, it's horrible

plaed in D rank, I really hate this style of anime.

------

just started signalis
well, i didn't expect that lmao
if you thought anything that I said was wrong or you have any other opinion you can say them, my opinion and interpretation are not absolute
CLICKMACHINE
524 posts
Joined March 2023
CLICKMACHINE

Patatitta wrote:

reffty_gag wrote:

https://myanimelist.net/anime/60489/Takopii_no_Genzai
Why won't this anime answer any fucking question?
You should see the authors' other work "The ichinose family's deadly sins." Started off as a linear yet pretty good story to unravel. Like each family member representing a sin. But then along the way, it completely derailed to something extremely confusing for no reason. As you say above, questions un-answered and a very vague ending. Apparently it's his "writing style" but I kinda wish he would've stick to the linear yet well written story instead of this confusing mess.

This is not a suggestion btw. Just wanted to yap.
Last edited by CLICKMACHINE , edited 1 time in total.
Patatitta
1,380 posts
Joined February 2020
Topic Starter
Patatitta

CLICKMACHINE wrote:

Patatitta wrote:

reffty_gag wrote:

https://myanimelist.net/anime/60489/Takopii_no_Genzai
Why won't this anime answer any fucking question?
You should see the authors' other work "The ichinose family's deadly sins." Started off as a linear yet pretty good story to unravel. Like each family member representing a sin. But then along the way, it completely derailed to something extremely confusing for no reason. As you say above, questions un-answered and a very vague ending. Apparently it's his "writing style" but I kinda wish he would've stick to the linear yet well written story instead of this confusing mess.

This is not a suggestion btw. Just wanted to yap.
I see, I have not read/seen anything else from that author (though not that he has any other animated work)
McEndu
1,378 posts
Joined March 2019
McEndu
all ctb maps ranked in July
Patatitta
1,380 posts
Joined February 2020
Topic Starter
Patatitta
nanbaka

only watched s1 as I didn't like it enoguh to warrant watching s2

nanbaka is a action/comedy anime about a group of escape artists who get sent to the world most secure prision. The first episode starts with them doing a escape attempt, so you would assume that would kind of the theme and the plot of the anime, them trying to escape the prision but, it really isn't?

Really early in the anime one of the characters say that prision is actually quite nice and that they didn't feel a need to leave it, which is a funny joke, but the problem start to arise then they actually keep up their word and just don't do that. All of the prision escape stuff is kind of dropped as it's not really a important topic in the anime, instead just having most of the episodes being about events or funny situations or even exploring the characters backstories, which just makes me question why they decided on this setting. If the prision doesn't operate like a prision, if there are not going to be cool escape sequences, if you're also not really going to give the characters a backstory of crime, then what's the point?, this anime could unironically have either worked equally as good or even better with a school setting.

I already mentioned one of the other points, despite the protagonist beings criminals, they don't want to make them actually evil, in fact, one of them just decided to get into prisions out of their own volition just to be able to be freed out of the shackles he wears becaue apparently the only one that can remove them is a guard?? I don't really get that whole storyline, mainly because it isn't really delivered as a joke, it doesn't feel like it's supposed to be funny

the anime isn't also really that funny, the longer into the anime the more it tries to be serious. Not that you can have comedy and drama both at once, it's certainyl possble and cool when done correctly, but this aniem doesn't erally do it peroperly as all of the actual plot stuff is really weak, there isn't really either any depth to the story or any emotional payoff, it's just there for the sake of having a story, which then makes you ask the question of why give protagonism to that aspect of the anime.

The one saving grace of this anime is the animation. It's actually surprisingly good, it doesn't have a ground brekaing visual style, but it does have some really beautifully drawn shots, and the character designs are all quite good and original, I just don't think a prision is the best setting for making use of that skill the staff clearly have for making really visually appealing set pieces

placed on D rank, not a bad time by any means, but I just didn't really get anything out of it.

---

McEndu wrote:

all ctb maps ranked in July
denied, I don't know anything about proper mapping or modding lmao, all of my favourite maps also tend to be either weird unrankable shit or converts (also, some of these maps are completely outside my skill level, specially now that i'm rusty)

----

still working through signalis
Last edited by Patatitta , edited 3 times in total.
Cui
16 posts
Joined February 2023
Cui
Hi Patatitta I like your youtube videos
Patatitta
1,380 posts
Joined February 2020
Topic Starter
Patatitta

Cui wrote:

Hi Patatitta I like your youtube videos
thanks
McEndu
1,378 posts
Joined March 2019
McEndu
Intel® 64 and IA-32 Architectures Software Developer's Manual Volume 1: Basic Architecture

uhh

what about Tetris Effect: Connected (single player campaign only)
Patatitta
1,380 posts
Joined February 2020
Topic Starter
Patatitta

McEndu wrote:

Intel® 64 and IA-32 Architectures Software Developer's Manual Volume 1: Basic Architecture

uhh

what about Tetris Effect: Connected (single player campaign only)
not narrative so rejected but I do have a review up on backloggd https://backloggd.com/u/Patatita/review/2273304/
[[[[[[
906 posts
Joined August 2019
[[[[[[
before you depart? it's a pretty short vn that's also really accessible even for non-furries
Patatitta
1,380 posts
Joined February 2020
Topic Starter
Patatitta

[[[[[[ wrote:

before you depart? it's a pretty short vn that's also really accessible even for non-furries
accepted

"really accessible even for non-furries" lmao ok, what would be a unaccessible une for non-furries?
Last edited by Patatitta , edited 1 time in total.
McEndu
1,378 posts
Joined March 2019
McEndu
Senren Banka
Patatitta
1,380 posts
Joined February 2020
Topic Starter
Patatitta

McEndu wrote:

Senren Banka
nah i'm not feeling horny sorry
Nuuskamuikkunen
1,266 posts
Joined March 2013
Nuuskamuikkunen

Patatitta wrote:

[[[[[[ wrote:

before you depart? it's a pretty short vn that's also really accessible even for non-furries
accepted

"really accessible even for non-furries" lmao ok, what would be a unaccessible une for non-furries?
Patatitta
1,380 posts
Joined February 2020
Topic Starter
Patatitta

Nuuskamuikkunen wrote:

Patatitta wrote:

[[[[[[ wrote:

before you depart? it's a pretty short vn that's also really accessible even for non-furries
accepted

"really accessible even for non-furries" lmao ok, what would be a unaccessible une for non-furries?
fair enough
Patatitta
1,380 posts
Joined February 2020
Topic Starter
Patatitta
signalis

not my cup of tea, but despite that, i've enjoyed it.

Signalis is a survival horror game, akin to old titles like the original resident evil games, with a sci-fi setting. There really isn't any real narrative thread pushing you torwards beating it, by that I mean, while the game does have a story, it's not like mario that you have the goal of rescuing the princess, or metal gear where the goal is to infiltrate the facility, you just kinda boot up the game, play it, and then you learn what the fuck is going on later.

Survival horrors are in general games I don't really fuck with, despite having played stuff like fear anad hunger multiple times or the recently released look ouside, I tend to fidn them frustrating. THe way these games handle horror is quite different to a scary movie for example, they're not reliant on jumpscares, and in fact the whole horror thing is reserved torwards the atmosphere. The way these games become scary is honestly just fucking with the base mechanics and concepts of videogames as a whole, stuff like, "oh yeah you have limited resources and you can very much fuck up your savefile", so whenever a enemy jum ps at you from out of nowhere, and you burn out all your ammo and healing, because if not the enemy would have for sure killed you and you would have lost 40 minutes of gameplay you get scared. You're scared of either losing progerss or not being able to beat the game.

Having said all of that, I didn't find signalis scary, and that is because I found it to be quite easy, (but tbf I didnt fidn games like fear and hunger super scary either, again, it was more frustrating than anything else, didn't get a thrill whenever the run started going to shit, but instead I got annoyed). In signalis more enemies are easily avoidable, and frankly, not much icentive to even kill them, since they will respawn uunless you use a certain item you only get halfway into the game. There is health regeneration as well, you can't regen to full health, however, the game will warn you whenever you're 1 hit away of dying, and then it will slowly regen torwaerds you having around 3 hits. Not a lot, but more than enough to get from checkpoint to checkpoint without using health items.

The chekpoint system is also generous for this type of game. Signalis maps are not lineal, instead you have a small, closed section with a lot of puzzles. You will be backtracking and going ovber the same rooums over and over, this includes checkpoints. My final game stats indicated I had a total of an average time of 8 miutes and a half between each save, common enough for me to not dread losing progress, because if I have to redo 8 minutes, that's not too big of a deal.

This kinad leads to a typical items in a rpg escenario, where you're always reserving it for "the right moment". I've got to the end of the game and I don't think i've used 15% of the consumables. There is just no reason to really use them, and since the game is made so you fear the future of your playthrough, you always keep saving them.

While I found the general moving around and picking up stuff fun, I don't really fuck with the puzzles, mainly because i0m not a puzzle fan, but also because frankly, in this specific case, it does ruin my immersion of the game a bit. Whenever I play a game, I like to rp, to really see things from the eye of the protagonist.

Let's say you're in signalis, there are hoards of zombies outside the door, however, inside the room you're safe. Inside the room there is a pathway that you must cross that is locked by a 3 digit password. In this situation you could either go outside, risk dying yourself, to find a document that explains the password (if such document even exists), or... you could just brute force it?, try every combination?, it's not too long where that isn't a possibility. For the record i've not brute forced anything because I knew it wouldn't be fun, but I really wanted to as the lust feel the thing my character would have done in that situation.

Now t, the story. Frankly I didn't care at all. While signalis does have a plot, I don't like the way it's told, it's very reminiscent to something like dark souls or hollow knight, it's all essentially just lore. You pick up items and stuff that tell you about the backstory of something or explains some of the worldbuilding, and then you mustpuece everything out. I don't really like this format, because it would make a otherwise very simple story into one that is hard to understand, but that is kind of the point. Signalis has so many layers of abstraction to the story, mainl, because a lot of people just like that the story is hard to understand. Not necessarily deep, but hard to understand.

This game also puts a lot of importance on it's visuals. it has a very retro style thanks to the pixel art and the crt filter, but in addition to that, it uses other techniques considered to be cool. One of them, is the monogatary technique of just flashing random text that you cant understasnd or read fast enough even if you understood what was saying, to your face, this game will just flash german and japanese text to your face for no rason, what does the text say? it quite literally does not matter, however, it does look cool.

In this regard, having the story be lore rather than an actual plot helps to build ambiance, which I will admit, is very well done and cool.

Placd on A rank, I think this game is cool despite be shitting on it a lot.

---

next: heavy rain
Last edited by Patatitta , edited 2 times in total.
CLICKMACHINE
524 posts
Joined March 2023
CLICKMACHINE
Try In Brudges.

Pretty good thriller
Patatitta
1,380 posts
Joined February 2020
Topic Starter
Patatitta

CLICKMACHINE wrote:

Try In Brudges.

Pretty good thriller
alerady seen it, been a while though, I don't really remember shit about it so won't really talk about it, wont place on tier list for that reason, but so you know I gave it a 8 in letterboxd
CLICKMACHINE
524 posts
Joined March 2023
CLICKMACHINE

Patatitta wrote:

CLICKMACHINE wrote:

Try In Brudges.

Pretty good thriller
alerady seen it, been a while though, I don't really remember shit about it so won't really talk about it, wont place on tier list for that reason, but so you know I gave it a 8 in letterboxd
Solid rating 👍
kzwa
21 posts
Joined February 2023
kzwa

Patatitta wrote:

signalis

not my cup of tea, but despite that, i've enjoyed it.

Signalis is a survival horror game, akin to old titles like the original resident evil games, with a sci-fi setting. There really isn't any real narrative thread pushing you torwards beating it, by that I mean, while the game does have a story, it's not like mario that you have the goal of rescuing the princess, or metal gear where the goal is to infiltrate the facility, you just kinda boot up the game, play it, and then you learn what the fuck is going on later.

Survival horrors are in general games I don't really fuck with, despite having played stuff like fear anad hunger multiple times or the recently released look ouside, I tend to fidn them frustrating. THe way these games handle horror is quite different to a scary movie for example, they're not reliant on jumpscares, and in fact the whole horror thing is reserved torwards the atmosphere. The way these games become scary is honestly just fucking with the base mechanics and concepts of videogames as a whole, stuff like, "oh yeah you have limited resources and you can very much fuck up your savefile", so whenever a enemy jum ps at you from out of nowhere, and you burn out all your ammo and healing, because if not the enemy would have for sure killed you and you would have lost 40 minutes of gameplay you get scared. You're scared of either losing progerss or not being able to beat the game.

Having said all of that, I didn't find signalis scary, and that is because I found it to be quite easy, (but tbf I didnt fidn games like fear and hunger super scary either, again, it was more frustrating than anything else, didn't get a thrill whenever the run started going to shit, but instead I got annoyed). In signalis more enemies are easily avoidable, and frankly, not much icentive to even kill them, since they will respawn uunless you use a certain item you only get halfway into the game. There is health regeneration as well, you can't regen to full health, however, the game will warn you whenever you're 1 hit away of dying, and then it will slowly regen torwaerds you having around 3 hits. Not a lot, but more than enough to get from checkpoint to checkpoint without using health items.

The chekpoint system is also generous for this type of game. Signalis maps are not lineal, instead you have a small, closed section with a lot of puzzles. You will be backtracking and going ovber the same rooums over and over, this includes checkpoints. My final game stats indicated I had a total of an average time of 8 miutes and a half between each save, common enough for me to not dread losing progress, because if I have to redo 8 minutes, that's not too big of a deal.

This kinad leads to a typical items in a rpg escenario, where you're always reserving it for "the right moment". I've got to the end of the game and I don't think i've used 15% of the consumables. There is just no reason to really use them, and since the game is made so you fear the future of your playthrough, you always keep saving them.

While I found the general moving around and picking up stuff fun, I don't really fuck with the puzzles, mainly because i0m not a puzzle fan, but also because frankly, in this specific case, it does ruin my immersion of the game a bit. Whenever I play a game, I like to rp, to really see things from the eye of the protagonist.

Let's say you're in signalis, there are hoards of zombies outside the door, however, inside the room you're safe. Inside the room there is a pathway that you must cross that is locked by a 3 digit password. In this situation you could either go outside, risk dying yourself, to find a document that explains the password (if such document even exists), or... you could just brute force it?, try every combination?, it's not too long where that isn't a possibility. For the record i've not brute forced anything because I knew it wouldn't be fun, but I really wanted to as the lust feel the thing my character would have done in that situation.

Now t, the story. Frankly I didn't care at all. While signalis does have a plot, I don't like the way it's told, it's very reminiscent to something like dark souls or hollow knight, it's all essentially just lore. You pick up items and stuff that tell you about the backstory of something or explains some of the worldbuilding, and then you mustpuece everything out. I don't really like this format, because it would make a otherwise very simple story into one that is hard to understand, but that is kind of the point. Signalis has so many layers of abstraction to the story, mainl, because a lot of people just like that the story is hard to understand. Not necessarily deep, but hard to understand.

This game also puts a lot of importance on it's visuals. it has a very retro style thanks to the pixel art and the crt filter, but in addition to that, it uses other techniques considered to be cool. One of them, is the monogatary technique of just flashing random text that you cant understasnd or read fast enough even if you understood what was saying, to your face, this game will just flash german and japanese text to your face for no rason, what does the text say? it quite literally does not matter, however, it does look cool.

In this regard, having the story be lore rather than an actual plot helps to build ambiance, which I will admit, is very well done and cool.

Placd on A rank, I think this game is cool despite be shitting on it a lot.

---

next: heavy rain
thanks for playing it, honestly think this is a very good review, and i see a lot of your points, theres 3 endings in total if you want to go for 100% but one of them is really obscure. if you're more into plot, story and possibly rp-ing feelings of the character, soma would be really good for you. its one of my favorite games of all time.

ps. If you don't do multiple request from 1 person I apologize.
Last edited by kzwa , edited 1 time in total.
Patatitta
1,380 posts
Joined February 2020
Topic Starter
Patatitta
I don't have a cap on how much a person can request at once, tho I won't do soma
Patatitta
1,380 posts
Joined February 2020
Topic Starter
Patatitta
Heavy Rain (Dropped)

Dropped this at the halfway point, not because I think it was atrocious, but because touhou 20 just came out and this game is just boring as fuck and I want to play touhou 20. Also, ironic that I had not played any game of this genre like a month ago and now i'm on the third one even if I didn't particullary love any of them.

Heavy Rain is one of those interactive tv show type of game, directed by everyone's favourite, david cage. The plot surrounds this guy called the origami killer, a serial killer that kidnaps children. You play as a diverse cast of characters who each has a different reason to try to catch the killer.

The gameplay is terrible, it once again features quick time events and running around for clues. The quick tiem events of this game are pretty bad, mainly beacuse it's not your typical press x to do y, but instead they ask you to click and hold and move around the mouse, and the general detection of movement and speed was bad.

Another problem is that you often have no fucking clue what a quick time event does until you do it. You have no clue what anything does until you do it. For example, in the wolf among us or blacksad, the button indicators would be a small thing overlayed with the actual item, so if there is a note on the table, and the indicator appeared over the note, you know you will be picking up the note. Heavy rain instead when you're close to a interactable element, a really big visual indicator on a random spot on the screen, soyou will very often do things that you didn't intend to do.

The camera is bad, mainly because it feels the world was not designed with the camera angles that they go for in mind, you consistnetly have to move to places that are outside your vision to advance the game, the game has a button to switch camera angles but this only works halfway, the realistic visual style also harms this, as a lot of times you don't even know where you are going in the first place as it's really not indicated, you just walk around until a pop up appears.

This game also must be played in long sessions, you can't manually save and have to rely on autosave, and idk the if it's because this is an older game that i'm running on a SSD, but... the autosave icon would just never appear????? I had to guess when the game saved????? (I never had any problems where I thought the game saved where it didn't, as I only quitted during the very clearly divided chapters but what the fuck man)

Now, regarding the story, once again it doesn't erally lean too hard in the whole "your actions matter" aspect, there aren't many decisions, half of them don't really matter, it's mainly character deaths that are a problem, but even those don't really matter that much, the story of each character is dissconnected enough from each other than even if someone dies the plot can continue without much problem. The story is very clearly lineal and this game will do anything to make sure the story continues as it's supposed to, leading to a very, very contrived story with plot points that begin and are not elaborated upon.

The story isboring, it's a mistery but it's approach ois more about moral problems and challenges than to catch the killer, this is fine, but the actual moral problems suck. Like one of the scenes involved me walking into the house of a random guy without a warrant, beat the fuck out of him, and had the choice of shooting or not when the guy tried to defend himself. I chose not to shoot and then the guy was like "you're really brave for doing that I would have shot" ????? bro this is fucking horrible I would have let you die before shooting the guy straight up. The moral problems are too white or black

also, I had heard this was one of those "so bad it's good videogame", but even while failing every quicktime event I still got bored.

placed on D rank

----

next: before you depart

apparently i'm not playing touhou 20 yet forgot this was in the queue fuck
Last edited by Patatitta , edited 1 time in total.
Patatitta
1,380 posts
Joined February 2020
Topic Starter
Patatitta
before you depart

okay I can go play th20 now, btw spoiler alert the game is quite literally 41 minutes long and I don't think it's worth it to talk about this without spoilers

before you depart is a gay furry vn from itch.io made on renpy, plaed many vns like this, just without the furry part. Most vns like that just are meant to pull on your heart strings, this does that quite a lot as well, it's understandable though, there really aren't that many videogames whose sole focus is self-insert romance, even less for LGBTQ+ romance, so yeah, almost no budget, free for everyone, short stories that are meant to give you that feel are very common.

Before you depart is a bit different though, this game is either really fucking ambitious with it's storytelling or i'm just overthinking things. The plot is about a guy who dies, and after a while, the grim reaper appears and asks them about their life since the grim reaper is having a existential crisis and wishes that by listening to his life experiences he would come to a better understanding of himself and what it means to be alive, since he was never alive.

The life story of the protagonist is told in a sad manner, this makes sense, it emotionally sets up the next act of the vn, but I want to focus on this for a moment. A life isn't inherently sad or happy, that interpretation comes in the way we tell the story, and this guy decided to compress their whole life into a 15 minute summary with a sad undertone. I find this to be fucking depressing. Let's say you die and are a ghost and a grim reaper appears and asks you about your life, would you tell them that your life has just been sadness?, it very much feels like the protagonist has not been able to come at piece with his life even on death, and that fucking sucks.

After that, the story goes on with a conversation between him and the grim reaper about the nature of life, only to find out there is probably nothing on the other side, protagonist gets really angry, and then things calm down and then they dance and kiss. The story is cutesy, but once again, let's look at the undertones and really think this out, which is definitively not the way this game is meant to be played

there was a line that was along the lines of "The fact that you're having a existential crisis is proof that you're alive". I disagree with this notion, what makes us alive isn't neither existential crisis or love, for us humans, it's the fact that we're concious, at least that is what I personally believe, problem is that interpretatin isn't fluffy or really gives roots to a romantic story so yeah wouldn't have worked in this game. Also, the whole i've not been able to come to piece with my life but now that i've met this furry guy for 20 minutes and fallen in love with him in such timespan I guess oblivion doesn't sound so bad thing really didn't work for me

The end is also ok, cutesy and romantic, but I don't think this game really offers any solution or ending or interpretation or valuable insight into life or death. Not that a 41 minute gay furry vn from itch.io made with renpy SHOULD aim to answer such questions, but again, it felt like it was trying to do so?, like it's too much of a lodead scenario to really avoid those topics and there are some lines and stuff that felt like they were trying to really address it

so yeah, it's cute. C rank.

----

nothing else on queue
Last edited by Patatitta , edited 1 time in total.
-Izuki-
9,423 posts
Joined December 2023
-Izuki-
https://myanimelist.net/anime/23283/Zankyou_no_Terror
Patatitta
1,380 posts
Joined February 2020
Topic Starter
Patatitta

-Izuki- wrote:

https://myanimelist.net/anime/23283/Zankyou_no_Terror
already watched

honestly, my favourite watanabe anime, i've seen cowboy bebop, i've seen samurai champloo, i've seen lazarus, i've seen space dandy, this is my favourite of his. (Have not seen sakamichi no apollon tho read the manga for it and it may be better than this one), having said that, watched this a long time ago so I may not remember things super exactly

This anime is a mistery anime about catching a terrorist similar in nature to the unabomber (which may be my #1 favourite terrorist). Most of the anime is just trying to solve the different riddles that the terrorist (named as sphynx) throws at them and trying to understand the motivations behind them.

The misteries were really interesting, they never felt bullshit, always giving a satisfying conclusion, and the ending was really good, won't really go much deeper because again, seen it a long while back, cant' exactly recall, I just remmeber having a good experience.

Placed on A rank.
-Izuki-
9,423 posts
Joined December 2023
-Izuki-
ok, maybe...
https://myanimelist.net/anime/12477/Sakasama_no_Patema
Patatitta
1,380 posts
Joined February 2020
Topic Starter
Patatitta

-Izuki- wrote:

ok, maybe...
https://myanimelist.net/anime/12477/Sakasama_no_Patema
no need to request just because I already watched the one that you suggested, in adition you can request multiple things at once if you want
-Izuki-
9,423 posts
Joined December 2023
-Izuki-

Patatitta wrote:

no need to request just because I already watched the one that you suggested
I just wanted to request some titles from my anime list, regardless of that

Patatitta wrote:

in adition you can request multiple things at once if you want
oh, great

https://myanimelist.net/anime/26243/Owari_no_Seraph
https://myanimelist.net/anime/16782/Kotonoha_no_Niwa
Last edited by -Izuki- , edited 1 time in total.
Patatitta
1,380 posts
Joined February 2020
Topic Starter
Patatitta
already watched garden of words a while ago, I don't remember much, wont place on tier list frankly because I can't be bothered to open photoshop again today may do it the next time it updates

defintiively the weakest makoto shinkai, it's shorter than their typical movie, the age gap stuff was also stuff that I didn't super love, and it didn't really hit that much emotionally, art was good though

the other two are accepted, tho I may take a while to get to them
Last edited by Patatitta , edited 1 time in total.
AxisPraxisMDS
143 posts
Joined October 2022
AxisPraxisMDS

Patatitta wrote:

Heavy Rain (Dropped)

Dropped this at the halfway point, not because I think it was atrocious, but because touhou 20 just came out and this game is just boring as fuck and I want to play touhou 20. Also, ironic that I had not played any game of this genre like a month ago and now i'm on the third one even if I didn't particullary love any of them.

Heavy Rain is one of those interactive tv show type of game, directed by everyone's favourite, david cage. The plot surrounds this guy called the origami killer, a serial killer that kidnaps children. You play as a diverse cast of characters who each has a different reason to try to catch the killer.

The gameplay is terrible, it once again features quick time events and running around for clues. The quick tiem events of this game are pretty bad, mainly beacuse it's not your typical press x to do y, but instead they ask you to click and hold and move around the mouse, and the general detection of movement and speed was bad.

Another problem is that you often have no fucking clue what a quick time event does until you do it. You have no clue what anything does until you do it. For example, in the wolf among us or blacksad, the button indicators would be a small thing overlayed with the actual item, so if there is a note on the table, and the indicator appeared over the note, you know you will be picking up the note. Heavy rain instead when you're close to a interactable element, a really big visual indicator on a random spot on the screen, soyou will very often do things that you didn't intend to do.

The camera is bad, mainly because it feels the world was not designed with the camera angles that they go for in mind, you consistnetly have to move to places that are outside your vision to advance the game, the game has a button to switch camera angles but this only works halfway, the realistic visual style also harms this, as a lot of times you don't even know where you are going in the first place as it's really not indicated, you just walk around until a pop up appears.

This game also must be played in long sessions, you can't manually save and have to rely on autosave, and idk the if it's because this is an older game that i'm running on a SSD, but... the autosave icon would just never appear????? I had to guess when the game saved????? (I never had any problems where I thought the game saved where it didn't, as I only quitted during the very clearly divided chapters but what the fuck man)

Now, regarding the story, once again it doesn't erally lean too hard in the whole "your actions matter" aspect, there aren't many decisions, half of them don't really matter, it's mainly character deaths that are a problem, but even those don't really matter that much, the story of each character is dissconnected enough from each other than even if someone dies the plot can continue without much problem. The story is very clearly lineal and this game will do anything to make sure the story continues as it's supposed to, leading to a very, very contrived story with plot points that begin and are not elaborated upon.

The story isboring, it's a mistery but it's approach ois more about moral problems and challenges than to catch the killer, this is fine, but the actual moral problems suck. Like one of the scenes involved me walking into the house of a random guy without a warrant, beat the fuck out of him, and had the choice of shooting or not when the guy tried to defend himself. I chose not to shoot and then the guy was like "you're really brave for doing that I would have shot" ????? bro this is fucking horrible I would have let you die before shooting the guy straight up. The moral problems are too white or black

also, I had heard this was one of those "so bad it's good videogame", but even while failing every quicktime event I still got bored.

placed on D rank

----

next: before you depart

apparently i'm not playing touhou 20 yet forgot this was in the queue fuck
heh, i Knew it you say its was Atrocious, Got a question, Is David cage games Is better than Neil druckmann TLou and david cage worse than Telltale? or even both worse/better?
Last edited by AxisPraxisMDS , edited 4 times in total.
Patatitta
1,380 posts
Joined February 2020
Topic Starter
Patatitta
never played TLOU, regarding telltale, I think the wolf among us is better.
AxisPraxisMDS
143 posts
Joined October 2022
AxisPraxisMDS
ok
AxisPraxisMDS
143 posts
Joined October 2022
AxisPraxisMDS
ah, one game, Driver San Francisco, Give it a chance
CLICKMACHINE
524 posts
Joined March 2023
CLICKMACHINE

AxisPraxisMDS wrote:

ah, one game, Driver San Francisco, Give it a chance
+1. Pretty fun game
Patatitta
1,380 posts
Joined February 2020
Topic Starter
Patatitta

CLICKMACHINE wrote:

AxisPraxisMDS wrote:

ah, one game, Driver San Francisco, Give it a chance
+1. Pretty fun game
will play
MangaGrumpy
374 posts
Joined May 2022
MangaGrumpy
The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles
SPOILERS:Ending fXXXing rattled me man
Patatitta
1,380 posts
Joined February 2020
Topic Starter
Patatitta

MangaGrumpy wrote:

The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles
SPOILERS:Ending fXXXing rattled me man
sure, but just so you know, you REALLY don't need to censor swear wrods here
Ymir
1,934 posts
Joined June 2020
Ymir
what the h*ck
tapperruiii
75 posts
Joined July 2024
tapperruiii
this place is so fr*cking we*rd
-Izuki-
9,423 posts
Joined December 2023
-Izuki-
w**t ** y** m**n, g**s ?
tapperruiii
75 posts
Joined July 2024
tapperruiii

-Izuki- wrote:

w**t ** y** m**n, g**s ?
w**hhhh, y*u c*n't ** s*ying t**t h**e
Westonini
0 posts
Joined May 2018
Westonini
excuse my language but holy guacamole
z0z
521 posts
Joined February 2018
z0z

Westonini wrote:

excuse my language but holy guacamole
i could go for some guac rn
Patatitta
1,380 posts
Joined February 2020
Topic Starter
Patatitta
Sakasama no Patema

I don't know what to make of this

Sakasama no Patema is about this world where there are people that have inverted gravity and the social conflicts that come fron it. The anime is very much a allegory for fascism, there is a scene straight up where they call the inverted the inferior race, however, it doesn't really go veryfar with that concept

the plot, while solid, is very simple, while the subject is heavy, the movie tone is generally light hearted (not happy, but very, very far removed from a war movie). In many was I feel they didn't really have much to say about the subject at hand and they just wanted to make a very unanbiguously evil villain faction.

The anime instead goes all in it's art, whiuchI will say, it's pretty solid, the skies are gorgeus, the contrast between the two factions architectural style apparent, and the plot allows the art to really to take center stage, for example, as I said the skies are really pretty, and since the anime is about people who have gravity inverted, they talk about the sky a lot. They also have many silent shots of characters walking over cool environments

It's also worth mentioning that watching this anime, it didn't feel it was a super high budget thing, it's not like you see the sky and you go "oh they spent 4 quadrilion on drawing a sky as good as that", it's not super detailed or anything, they just have really good composition and color usage, as it's arstyle isn't different to what you would see in a regular anime.

I thought this anime was pretty and I take no issues with the rest of it even if it's not particullary noteworthy, b tier.

---
next: Owari no Seraph

have not started game yet
started book, good so far, tho it's long, so don't expect it soon.
Last edited by Patatitta , edited 1 time in total.
MangaGrumpy
374 posts
Joined May 2022
MangaGrumpy

Patatitta wrote:

MangaGrumpy wrote:

The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles
SPOILERS:Ending fXXXing rattled me man
sure, but just so you know, you REALLY don't need to censor swear wrods here
Oh ok


PISS
McEndu
1,378 posts
Joined March 2019
McEndu
Donkey Kong Bananza looks cool imo
Patatitta
1,380 posts
Joined February 2020
Topic Starter
Patatitta

McEndu wrote:

Donkey Kong Bananza looks cool imo
you've need to have played it to be able to request it, also, I don't own a switch 2 and switch 2 emulating does not yet exist
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