Category Archives: community event

Dating Sim Community Game-Along Roundup #1

When I decided February’s Community Game-Along should be all about romance and dating sims, I had absolutely no idea whether it would be as big a hit as January’s Falcom theme. Imagine my surprise when it quickly turned out to be vastly more popular than its predecessor! The combination of some friends in high places helping me get the word out more and what I assume to be the gaming community’s skeptical fascination with dating sims in general has really helped lots of folks jump into the genre over the past couple weeks. And honestly, that’s all I ever wanted to achieve with these Community Game-Alongs, so I’m really glad to see people enjoying them!

“I funded this theme park with all that Mighty No 9 Kickstarter money. Ha suckers” #DatingSiMonth http://t.co/BZHjReCKEV
— Badr Alomair (@BadoorSNK) February 4, 2014

First of all, I need to give a massive shout out to my buddy Elliot Gay, who was kind enough to start a Dating Sim Month thread on NeoGAF! Since I’m still only a junior member (what can I say, I never post!), I’m not able to make threads of my own, so I would’ve never been able to have one without his help! It’s a great place to interact with other participants if you prefer doing so in a forum setting. While folks seemed really excited to join in when it was first announced, things have slowed down significantly in the past week or so, so I hope that doesn’t mean interest is waning…

The Dating Sim Community Game-Along was also picked up by Chic Pixel friend and prolific writer Pete Davison. He’s been dedicating his weekly JPGamer column over at USGamer.net to dating sims, which has done wonders for getting the word out about some niche titles available in English, as well as this event in general! His first installment focuses on Aselia: The Eternal and comes with a great introduction to the term “dating sim” and all the nuances that surround it. Aselia: The Eternal is unique in that it combines RPG battles and traditional romance visual novel gameplay, making it a more interactive experience than many other dating sims currently available in English. The second game he covers, Magical Diary, however, is an otome game by a western developer, which is something we haven’t seen many participants tackle so far.

“Magical Diary really highlights one of the best things about dating sims and relationship-centric visual novels: the fact that the relative lack of other ‘gameplay,’ for want of a better term, allows developers and writers to focus on exploring characters in an extremely in-depth manner, both as individuals and as parts of a relationship.” – Pete Davison, JPGamer: Dating Sim Month: Magical Diary 

I believe this is the first time we’ve had video submissions, as well – Tobiichi Karlsson has done a series of Let’s Play videos of the Japanese PSone game Magical Date! She chronicles the entire playthough in four videos, which are definitely worth a watch just to see all the weird mini-games.

I was unaware that Snake was in Sakura Wars 3. What a pleasant surprise! #DatingSiMonth pic.twitter.com/8BZeh18i4D
— Elliot Gay (@RyougaSaotome) February 3, 2014

But that’s not the end of the dating sim video content – Pete dives head on into the Love Plus fan translation, and put his adventures up on YouTube for all to see.

Marcus over at Pixel Pacas also did a news piece about this little shindig. Thanks, Marcus!

Falcom Month contributor Davzz returns with a very interesting niche pick, Mujintō Monogatari R for the Sega Saturn! This bishojō game finds the male player character stranded on a tropical island with, you guessed it, a bunch of cute high school girls. The game is unique in that it actually has you managing your party members and scraping to survive by scrounging for food and attempting to be rescued while at the same time trying to woo the ladies. What is even more interesting, as Davzz notes, is that the game actually had male romance routes in the original PC version, but they were removed for the Saturn port. It’s very rare to find a bishojō game with male suitors!

Kamion over at Gaoism decided to join in the fun, and her first game for the month is an odd little otome title called Otometeki Koi Kakumei★Love Revo!. The whacky and rather offensive game’s premise revolves around, if you can believe it, losing weight to get the guy of your dreams. I actually have a copy of this on the PS2, and am considering popping it in for this month’s festivities… if I can stomach it!

So much fluffiness (´∀｀) Well, first route cleared, time to go after the tsundere brother #猛獣使いと王子様 #DatingSiMonth pic.twitter.com/BEOCrmWyZM
— エクセレン (@_Exelen) February 2, 2014

While I had a rather bad track record during Falcom Month (just organizing is a lot of work, you know!), I’ve already made my first submission to Dating Sim Month in the form of a podcast with the lovely Amanda Cosmos! Be sure to give it a listen if you are at all interested in dating sims aimed at a female audience. In a related piece, Amanda gives a great introduction to otome games, starting with the origins of the genre, on her own blog. It’s definitely worth checking out if you’re new to the genre!

Finally, Kerry Brunskill, aka Kimimi, wrote a very interesting piece for Push Square regarding her feelings playing Mōjūtsukai to Ōjisama and how nice it felt to be catered towards as a female gamer for once. I definitely would like to see more posts like this that explore how playing dating sims (and romance sims, visual novels, etc. etc.) make people feel!

“As someone’s who’s trained herself to sharp-elbow her way into a hobby that can be unwelcoming and in some cases downright threatening to anyone that’s not part of the perceived ‘norm’, it’s a strangely novel feeling to come across a series that’s actively pursuing me as a consumer.” – Kerry Brunskill, Soapbox: How a Niche PS Vita Exclusive Made Me Feel Wanted

Check out Voltage otome games. ♡♡ We have new episodes & discounts during #DatingSiMonth! ♡♡♡ https://t.co/flFzAitJ1q pic.twitter.com/G1AaAUGkQa
— Voltage Ent. (@VoltageRomance) February 4, 2014

As always, I’m sorry I can’t include every tweet or forum post! If I’ve missed your article, though, please let me know and I’ll be sure to include it in the next one. For future Community Game-Alongs, I may stick to a bi-monthly roundup schedule, as keeping to weekly roundups proved a little too tall of an order for me. But if you have a preference, please let me know so I can consider it for next month! Also, it may seem early, but I’m already starting to think about next month’s theme, so feel free to shoot me any theme ideas. But I’m getting ahead of myself – let’s be sure to end Dating Sim Month with a bang!

Falcom Community Game-Along Wrap-Up (Weeks 3 + 4)

I still can’t believe what a success the Falcom Community Game-Along has been! What started as a offhand comment on Twitter turned into a fun month-long event that got all sorts of people playing games and talking about them, and I couldn’t have asked for more. Though things quieted down around week three, which prompted me to postpone that week’s roundup until the end, content really began to pick up again as the month came to an end.

This roundup post will focus more on the great selection of blog posts that went up, but that doesn’t mean there wasn’t also lots of tweeting going on! Be sure to check out #Falcomonth on Twitter to see how the month panned out.

And that’s Ys V finished. It was lots of fun. Special thanks to @GideonZhi‘s team for translating it #Falcomonth pic.twitter.com/PSTVYAyeo8
— Badr Alomair (@BadoorSNK) January 17, 2014

Today’s Series Dedication Sunday (No. 3!) is more of a Company Dedication for #falcomonth : Falcom Games! pic.twitter.com/TsOqeP3hpz
— CephiYumi 愚かな醜い (@CephiYumi) January 19, 2014

@Soulhouf pointed out a brilliant article on Hardcore Gaming 101 that covers the entire Ys series. It’s a definite must-read for both fans and those interested in checking out the series. I’m seriously impressed by all the details they’ve packed in.

Next, @DavZZGndm contributed a piece on Vantage Master Online – a game from a lesser-known Falcom series that is actually available for free in English translation from Falcom themselves! Davzz’s in-depth look at the 1v1 strategy’s systems, complete with plenty of screenshots, should be enough to make anyone interested in Falcom games want to check it out. And for the price of free, how can you pass that up?

meanwhile, in #falcomonth: ADOL, MASTER SWORDSMAN (but seriously how cute is this) http://t.co/kHWu1MkLHQ
— Ant Cooke (@TepidSnake) January 21, 2014

Over at One Million Power, Brian Clark whipped up a great piece about his experience playing the Famicom port of the original Ys. Unfortunately, the Famicom port featured some changes that were not for the better, such as the strengthening of all of the bosses except for the final one, who was made weaker (I might not mind that!), and reducing Adol’s movement speed. Even so, Brian notes that he enjoyed the experience overall and now has the perspective to see how modern action RPGs have evolved.

Badr Alomair managed to check out the fan-translated Ys V and reported back on his blog, Video Games! and other stuff. Often cited as the black sheep of the series, Ys V never got an official English release, but Badr asserts that he enjoyed his time with the game and considers it to be a decent introduction to the series, even with its flaws.

@apricotsushi The pressures of social media forced me to finally try out the classic Ys. #Falcomonth success!
— aka_Chewie (@ciscoidiot) January 30, 2014

Yay peer pressure! Ahem.

Cody Winn earns double, nay, triple points for not only covering Ys: Memories of Celceta (which we only saw covered in a couple of unrelated but well-timed reviews) but also having the most punny title of the month: “Ease into Ys.” I do love a good pun!

Anyway, Cody remarks that though he’d never played a Ys game for more than 10 minutes, he found Memories of Celceta to be fun and fast-paced. He does, however, mention that the music is one of his least favorite aspects, which is a bit of a kick in the gut for any Ys fan! However, it’s an unfortunate truth that Memories of Celceta was a little lacking for tracks.

Finally, Alois Wittwer wraps up Falcom Month with another great post about the very first Ys game. Unlike other write-ups, he chose to focus specifically on the game’s combat, and it’s a piece as snappy as the good ‘ol bump system. It’s a great way to finish up the month, as he manages to capture the beauty of Ys‘s battle system in a way few have done. Even if you think you’ve read enough about Ys, I highly suggest you go give it a read!

@_Kimimi Well happy! Now I can continue my own personal #Falcomonth (or months!)
— Paul Darbyshire (@pablo_0151) February 2, 2014

That’s right, Paul! Falcom Month is never truly over. As if we could ever stop playing Falcom games!

Once again, I want to give a huge thanks to everyone who helped make this Community Game-Along a success! It was a ton of fun, and I really hope everyone enjoyed sharing the Falcom love. If you’re interested, be sure to check out February’s Community Game-Along. The theme? Romance, of course!

Introducing the Dating Sim Community Game-Along!

January’s Falcom Community Game-Along was so successful that I thought it would be a shame to have the festivities end after only 31 days! As a result, you can look forward to having monthly game-along themes for the duration of 2014, or at the very least until interest and participation starts to wane.

Since February is the somewhat official month of romance, what better way to celebrate than with some dating sim games? The dating sim genre hasn’t ever had its time in the limelight outside of Japan, where it’s actually quite popular with both men and women. In fact, the term “dating sim” isn’t even really correct, as it only encompasses romance games that have simulation elements (usually meters for stats that you have to raise to get the girl/guy you’re pursuing). The Japanese term ren’ai, meaning romance, is generally used to refer to any games that focus on the romantic pursuit of one of usually a number of selectable men or women, but since “dating sim” is more the well-known term in English, I’ll be using it for the purposes of this event to refer to any game with romance elements, be it simulation, visual novel, or otherwise.

The “otherwise” is important here, too, since there many games such as the Harvest Moon and Rune Factory series that incorporate romance. It should also go without saying that romance games aimed at anyone are fair game, be they catering to a predominately male audience (bishōjo) or female (otome). Here’s a quick sampling of titles available in English that fall into the dating sim genre:

Arino plays Angelique Trois

Katawa Shoujo (PC, Mac, Linux) – If you’ve never played a dating sim game before and want an affordable first experience, you can’t really go wrong with Katawa Shoujo. Not only is it free, but it tells a surprisingly heartfelt journey of a young man who suddenly finds himself with a life-threatening disability. There are five female romance options, all with different disabilities, and the game treats its delicate subject matter more seriously than most games in the genre. Be aware, however, that this is an 18+ game, which means it features sex scenes, but they can be skipped by selecting an option in the menu.

Hatoful Boyfriend (PC, Mac) – For those who are ready to go all in, you can’t go wrong with Hatoful Boyfriend. While it’s a dating sim aimed at women, you’re not dating men… not human men, anyway. All of the suitors are male pigeons! The free version allows you to date seven different pigeons, but the full version with a mysterious eighth pigeon only costs $4, so it won’t break the bank.

Hakuoki series (PSP, 3DS) – One of the few major official otome game releases in English, Hakuoki is a must for all serious fans of the genre. Fully voiced in Japanese and taking place during the Edo period in Japan, the game is a great example of the kind of otome visual novels that are currently all the rage in the land of the rising sun. If samurai warriors aren’t your cup of tea, you may want to try Aksys Games’s other otome release, Sweet Fuse: At Your Side (PSP/PSN), instead.

Of course, there are many, many more games than the couple I’ve listed here, but it would simply be impossible for me to include them all! Here are a couple more titles you may want to check out: Dandelion (PC, Mac), Aselia the Eternal (PC), Absolute Obedience, Persona 3 and 4, and any entry in the aforementioned Harvest Moon and Rune Factory series. There’s also tons of free content available from last year’s Pulse Pounding Heart Stopping Dating Sim Jam! Finally, for folks who want to brush up on the classics, both the Angelique and Tokimeki Memorial series are great places to start. If you’re still having trouble finding something you’d like to play, let me know in the comments so I or someone else can help you out!

It’s easy to participate in the February Dating Sim Game-Along – all you have to do is play and write about dating sims in some form, be it on your blog, Twitter, or elsewhere! If you’re using Twitter, Tumblr, or Instagram (or some other newfangled social media that also uses hashtags), please use #DatingSiMonth so that I can keep track of your submissions and include them in my weekly compilation posts. Of course, you’re also welcome to submit podcasts or any other critical work to the Game-Along – as long as you’re talking about dating sims, virtually anything goes!

I hope you’re all ready to date some cuties and share your experiences come February! I’ve got a pile of Japanese otome games and Katawa Shoujo calling my name, so I, for one, am all set!

Falcom Community Game-Along Weekly Roundup #2

Falcom Month is in full swing now with people all over the web playing Falcom games and writing about them! In hopes of keeping this post a little more concise than the last one, I’m just going to link to last week’s roundup and the initial Falcom Community Game-Along post, so do go check out those if you want to read up on the event!

Just finished Ys1 Chronicles. I still prefer the PCE version but it’s an amazing game nevertheless #Falcomonth pic.twitter.com/55y2Iuvpwt
— Wassim Christin (@Soulhouf) January 13, 2014

First, @BadoorSNK linked to a great guide to the Ys series that briefly describes each of the games and recommends which ones to play first. Unfortunately, the original link appears to be dead, but here’s the image:

Just like last week, some folks took the opportunity to celebrate OSThursday with groovy Falcom tunes, but week two is decidedly Ys-centric! @TepidSnake goes for classic PC-88 Ys, while @pablo_0151 chooses a bright theme from Ys III, and @Soulhouf highlights a more intense number from Ys: Oath in Felghana.

This week also saw two reviews for Ys: Memories of Celceta go up! Elliot Gay of Japanator has some high praise: “If you have a Vita, I guarantee you that you won’t find a better action RPG experience on the console.” Phil Kollar has a similarly positive impression of the title, stating in his Polygon review that Memories of Celceta is the “most approachable and smartly designed Ys game ever.” If you have a Vita and don’t have Memories of Celceta on your “to play” list for Falcom Month, you may want to consider it!

“Attack food” in #TrailsSC seems really op so far. Deal 3k damage to a boss without any charge time? Sure, why not. #Falcomonth
— Hasemo (@Hasemo) January 12, 2014

@jdklove has also been streaming a playthrough of Brandish 2 throughout the week, so be sure to follow him and keep an eye on his Livestream channel if you’re interested.

Finally, @BadoorSNK wrote a great piece on his blog about the quirky PSP title Gurumin, which he just completed as part of Falcom Month. He describes it as a “pleasantly breezy, super-charming, and whole-out joyful experience” that takes about 10 hours to complete. The game is available on PSN for the Vita as well as UMD, making it another easy title to pick up this month! I know it’s next on my list to play after I finish Memories of Celceta.

Continuing on with #Falcomonth, still on Sora no Kiseki FC. Determined to finish everything at Ruan tonight!
— Peter Grant (@ragathy) January 9, 2014

Hopefully we’ll see more writeups and impressions as people start to finish their games in week 3! Expect something from me, at the very least… I’ll see you in the next roundup, and until then, happy gaming!

Join the VGW crew for some Mario Kart 7!

source (available as a poster!)

Just a quick heads up to anyone who’s interested in playing Mario Kart 7 with me and the rest of the crew over at Video Game Writers – we’ll be having a community games night on Tuesday (that should be today for most of you reading this!) the 10th at 5-8 pm PST (8-11 pm EST)! That’s Wednesday the 11th at… 11 am for those of you like me in Queensland, Australia. Man, time zones are confusing!

Be sure to register the VGW Mario Kart 7 community code: 07-8039-5578-5488

I will be hopping on and off for the whole three hours, so you’ll have plenty of chances to beat race me, if that’s something you’ve always wanted to do. Of course there will be prizes going out to those non-VGW members who manage to top the leaderboards, so there’s some extra incentive! (Do you need more of an incentive than the opportunity to race me?)

VGW will also be utilizing some amazing technology for a live podcast that you can sign into via Twitter or Facebook so that you can interact with all of us between the action!

And if you just can’t get enough of me, you can register my 3DS friend code so we can play together in the future! It’s 5198-2487-0725. Just remember to let me know who you are when you add me, or I won’t add you back!

I hope to see you all there!