Japanese Horror-inspired Visual Novel The Letter Needs Funding!

11 / 16 / 1511 / 16 / 15

The other day, I was contacted by Filipino developer Yangyang Mobile to spread the word of their Kickstarter campaign, The Letter. When I heard it was a horror visual novel inspired by Japanese horror media such as Ju-On, I was immediately intrigued! As a big fan of visual novels, and an increasingly interested but easily spooked horror game newbie, The Letter has the workings of being a very promising first game for Yangyang.

The Letter is an interactive visual novel with horror themes told from the point of view of six different characters. The gruesome tale starts when a letter with the words “HELP ME” scrawled over it repeatedly is found in an abandoned mansion scheduled to go up for sale. You can download the demo from the Kickstarter page for Windows, Mac, and Linux to get a feel for the gameplay, which takes visual novel text-based choices a step further by introducing quick-time events to high-tension moments in the story. While I’m not generally a fan of quick-time events, they really do make the scary bits all the more nerve-wracking!

I’m getting a major Corpse Party vibe from The Letter, which is definitely a good thing in my book. At the time of this post, Yangyang Mobile still has a ways to go to reach their funding goal, so head over to their Kickstarter and have a look at the reward tiers if The Letter looks up your alley. Best of luck to them!

Sunday Spotlight: Fiction-Food Café

11 / 15 / 15

Who doesn’t love food? Eating is one of the pleasures of living, and there’s nothing I love more than food inspired by my nerdy interests. After all, the abundance of themed cafés in Japan was the major reason why I started my Japan Envy column!

Splatoon cheesecake — Splatoon-themed ink splatter cheesecake! Wouldn’t this be great for a Splatfest party?

The Fiction-Food Café blog takes this one step further by offering a variety of recipes for nerds such as myself to recreate food inspired by my favorite media at home. I love that the Fiction-Food Café doesn’t stick to one type of nerdy media, either! In fact, the latest post is a recipe for mushroom scones for the 150th anniversary of Alice in Wonderland, which certainly has influenced more than a few anime, manga, and video games.

I have yet to actually try recreating one of the recipes myself, but it’s definitely high on my list! If you’re a hungry nerd like me, I can guarantee you’ll have a blast reading through all the awesome recipes at Fiction-Food Café.

New Kyoukai no Shirayuki Character Profiles and Scenarios Translated

11 / 13 / 153 / 8 / 16

As promised back in September, the November issue of B’s Log brought some more information about the 2016 otome game Kyoukai no Shirayuki. Not only does it include character profiles for the last two bachelors, but it also showcases the mirror world outfits for each of the main characters, some short scenarios, and finally unveils the queen! Read on for scans and translations of the full article.

Sunday Spotlight: MogKnight Niche Game Streaming

11 / 8 / 15

Hear that sound? That’s the first week of November whooshing on by! It’s already the first Sunday of the month, and boy am I not ready for the holidays. But enough about me! This week I’m excited to spotlight a long-time internet friend of mine who is making a name for himself in video game streaming: MogKnight!

Mog prides himself on niche games, so you’ll see all kinds of craziness on his near-daily streams. And if you aren’t able to tune in to the live playthroughs, there’s always archives and Mog’s YouTube channel, though you won’t have the fun of being involved in the chat! It’s worth pointing out that Mog is extremely friendly to all walks of players and does not engage in racist or sexist trash talk or jokes, so you can rest assured you will feel welcome in the chat room.

If that sounds its up your alley, consider adding MogKnight to your streamer rotation! You can keep your eye on his every move on Twitch, YouTube, and Twitter.

November Community Game-Along: Natsume

11 / 3 / 1511 / 4 / 15

As always, a new month has completely snuck up on me! I was so busy enjoying everyone’s kusoge playthroughs for October that I completely forgot to announce November’s Game-Along theme. Luckily, I think this month will be pretty laid back for us busy folk, because November is all about Natsume games.

Not that “laid back” is a bad thing, but Natsume is by far most famous for Harvest Moon (now published by XSEED as Story of Seasons), and you can’t get much more laid back than that. So grab a Natsume game and start sharing your experiences on social media with #NatsumeMonth! In the interest of making this as accessible as possible, both titles developed and published by Natsume are eligible for this month’s Game-Along. Here are just a few notable items they have in their roster:

How to Make a Japanese iTunes Account to Download Free Apps

10 / 29 / 158 / 14 / 17

The Japanese App Store is a treasure trove of free games you can download and play, even if you don’t know Japanese. Back in 2011, I published a tutorial on how to make a Japanese iTunes account without registering a credit card, and it continues to be one of my most popular posts. Though the process is largely the same, my original post was long overdue for an overhaul, so allow me to present… “How to Make a Japanese iTunes Account to Download Free Apps,” the 2015 edition! Read on and you’ll be downloading all sorts of free Japanese apps in no time!

Sunday Spotlight: Ataro’s Figure Photography

10 / 25 / 1510 / 25 / 15

Can you believe this is the last Sunday Spotlight of October? Before you know it, it’ll be 2016! Ok, I’m going to try not to dwell on the inevitable passage of time. I know just the thing to lift the spirits: cute figure photos!

は、箱買いしてしまった…！

A photo posted by エーたろ (@ataro878) on Sep 18, 2015 at 5:24pm PDT

This week’s Spotlight features Ataro, aka ataro878, an amazing figure photographer on Instagram. As far as I can tell, he doesn’t have any other social media or a website, which is a darn shame, but at least there’s one way to ogle his gorgeous photos:

サウンドトラック「スプラチューン」を聴いてノリノリな夜

A photo posted by エーたろ (@ataro878) on Oct 22, 2015 at 7:06am PDT

腹減ってきた[ ⚪︎▲⚪︎]

A photo posted by エーたろ (@ataro878) on Oct 4, 2015 at 6:48pm PDT

Check out Ataro’s stunning use of color! His main subjects are Nintendo figures such as Link, Kirby, and Splatoon items, but he also features Danbo and a Metal Gear Solid figure quite often, as well (apologies, but at this point I have no idea which Snake is which).

This guy deserves a lot more exposure, so go give him a follow on Instagram if you can!