Gem's Game Gems

A book club of one. But we talk about games.

[gemsgamegems]

Welcome to my even more personal, even less professional space!!!

I’ll review games here, specifically visual novel and indie titles, but the very rare triple A game might make an appearance!

Look forward to live blogging, unhinged clownery, and thoughts that can only be shared with strangers on the internet 😁

- Gem

~ACTIVELY PLAYING~

Sonic Adventure 1 + 2

Colorful Love jam entries

????

???

[miscgallery]

currently playing a game called wake up magical girl where you play as as [name withheld], a magical girl fanatic who stumbles upon a magical girl compact device that allows her to transform into a magical girl.

(MAJOR spoilers + rambling under the cut)

i haven't watched that many shows that center around magical girls, but i think it's interesting that in this setting magical girls are part of an established sector of the government. if i remember correctly it's under the panlumiere front. my best guess as to why this sector is named that is because "lumiere" means 'light', while the prefix "pan-" means 'whole.' from this it probably means that they're figuratively providing light into people's lives by giving them hope in the form of magical girls who fight bizarre monsters.

another interesting (and odd) detail is that one segment where all the magical girl compacts go offline, and hope (our magical girl assistant) remarks that they're intentionally doing so to reinforce to the general public that magical girls are essential to society. it seems like the government funds the creation of magical girl compacts & magical girls by proxy and so they intentionally do this to make sure that the public continues to support magical girls.

in addition to this, there are existing magical girl programs where girls can enter into and become magical girls. the other option is finding a magical girl compact like our protagonist did. a note about this, hope (at least in the route i took) can't seem to remember much about her though recalls that she was basically aware of the propaganda pushing people towards becoming magical girls. however based on the opening scene, the protagonist finds hope's magical girl compact in the aftermath of the previous owner's battle in which she died.

which raises another question. it's outright stated that the protagonist's older sister had actually found hope first. despite this, she discarded(?) her and eventually hope ended up finding her way into the protagonist's hands. which makes me wonder why in the world were both the protagonist and her older sister near the scene of the crime(?) and why did her older sister allow her to pick up hope and become a magical girl?

there's another character that appears briefly later on in the game, aka the protagonist's crush. it's stated that she barely shows up to school and also has a pretty bad reputation in her class. the protagonist still has a crush on her though LOL. more importantly she was frigid towards hope. it's a far-fetched guess but what if she had an older sister/family member who was also a magical girl who originally owned hope but died? or maybe she had a older family member who was a magical girl who died and so she became hostile towards magical girls as a result?

another interesting detail is that hope never remembers names. we only learn the protagonist's name near the end of the game (when she's summoned to fight alongside all the other magical girls in some sort of battle against walpurgisnacht type scenario). the only other name we get to learn in the game is prudence, which is the name of the magical girl assistant/mascot for the series red magical girl compact. hope doesn't even mention the name of the previous magical girl who owned her.

another interesting point is that magical girl assistants are supposed to be AIs with no emotion. prudence, who seems to be one of the newer models, fits this to a tee and encourages her magical girl to lean into the crime-fighting hero persona, meanwhile hope seems to be a lot more jaded. prudence mentions that hope's memories of her previous iterations(?) should have been wiped, but aren't. aside from this, hope seems to actually be able to feel emotions, particularly concern for her magical girl/the protagonist, and can even break pre-existing protocol and suppress threat alerts. it's mentioned that hope is an older model of the magical girl compact too, which probably means the later iterations had their codes tweaked to be able to think independently less.

last thing i'm wondering about. who in the world is chibi hope? what is her purpose? it seems like she's still talking to the protagonist, but she could very well be talking directly to the player. does she exist within the story or is she a part of the narrative? is she addressing the player or the protagonist? does she exist slowly for exposition????????

[gemsgamegems]

yaaaaaaaaaaaaaay 😁🫶🏽

[gemsgamegems]

Marion, you're so funny, pls don't go bald 😔🤧

[wistaliia]

thats so crazy how did that happen

[just-a-carrot]

WHAT ARE EVERYONES (plus cecil and hunar) FAVORITE SONIC CHARACTERS?!?!?!!

I only know the older characters so I'm sorry if this is really limited 😅

Iggy: Tails

Genzou: Sonic

Orlam: Robotnik

Gidget: Bunnie

Bucks: Scratch and Grounder

Hunar: Rotor

Cecil: I honestly can't even see him like any character...

Jerry: Coconuts

[gemsgamegems]

sooooo about that new DLC, huh??

[twoandahalfstudios]

😚😚😚😚

[gemsgamegems]

...So like....bickering with fictional men...maybe I love it??? just maybe.

[herotome]

Fanart for my new problematic fav Prince Valerian from Breathless Winds @breathlesswinds because I'm a mcfreaking fan 🥺

Other banger lines from him include:

Tch. Am I to worry about that treasonous snake? Your grandmother is a wonderful hostess and has a fine eye for tea. You'd do well to appreciate her. Continue to bark at my feet like a dog. You're beneath me. I wanted to- I needed to- become a better man for you. ... You're now uncertain if you want to prioritize bugs or clothing.

(Y'all should play it and gush about it with me!!!!!!!!!! Links in their dev bio go go go)

[viiisenyas]

For the love of god, BioWare... listen. It's 2024. I beg you, PLEASE put more curly hair options in the game. I am asking not to limit the options like you people did in Inquisition. I do not want to have to spend hours on end trying to find curly hair for my characters through mods. I do not want to see just three afro hairstyles with minimal effort put into it. Give us a variety of options.

Sincerely,

A black gamer.

[gemsgamegems]

Sooooooo I have trouble comes twice AND college craze posts in my drafts too that should probably get posted.

I guess once I finish Breathless Wilds, Seif, and one year or more backlist game, I will return to TCT and post those live reacts

[gemsgamegems]

oooooo so Vince, Chis, and Alex have caught my eye for sure one day I will leave the blondes alone but today ain't that day

I think though that Chris and Vince will probably have most of my attention, with Chris being first place because he has sisters he takes care of and I love that

[gemsgamegems]

I think everyone should experience happiness once in their lives and put this game on their radar 😊

[taibobo]

he's in his enclosure

[gemsgamegems]

he’s having enrichment time

[gemsgamegems]

I was trying to murder this man and I ended up with a family?!?!?!

I'm screaming 😩✋🏽

....

.......

...........

Okay!! So some thoughts + lingering vibes after finally finishing a complete playthrough of this game!!!

I was not expecting to get to pick my route so I spent redacted time trying to figure out what guy to go for first (when I played the demo way back when I just assumed I'd naturally be drawn to one guy over the other, but that didn't happen and really I just fell in love with the MC but alas you cannot date yourself 🤧)

There are multiple endings, and I considered for .33834 seconds consulting the guide to get the good endings...but then I was like I wanna see what ending I get naturally!! Also there are hints after a choice for the betrayal or the trust points, so that led me to...⬇️

The Decision to Try and Assassinate Seth. Which, I still don't know if that's an actual ending?? I picked a mixture of trust and betrayal options, with a slight preference for the betrayal ones, and certain events in the game lead to me to believe I'd get to live my Bad Bitch dreams through MC Iris.

So the ending I got feels like I somehow cheated the system LOL!!! (Only I would manage to get bad endings when I'm trying for good ones and get a decent ending when I trying to be Murder Bae with my destructive choices.)

Tomorrow's a chore day so I plan to do a route of The Dust Hunter and see what ended I get out of that.

But anyway, about the game itself?? Super fun, Iris is hilarious and snarky and ridiculous, the twists and turns were TWISTING AND TURNING OMG, the CGs are as beautiful as I knew they'd be, and this game lends itself nicely to replay.

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️✋🏽

The cackle I let out reading some of the lines in this game was unholy omg.

Anyhoo, here's proof I don't talk about the same 3 games on here. Much. You're welcome!

[just-a-carrot]

stargazing ✨

(bonus cute screenshot under cut)

literally doesn't matter how many times he does this, it always melts my heart... 🥺 i always stop and smile...

actually i've (finally) been switching up their armor some now that i'm facing harder enemies again and been putting iggy in some cute but kinda hilarious combos (like this long semi-oversized jacket on top with just these random wraps and bare feet for the bottom LOL don't ask it looks really cute) thanks to making him warfarer vocation that can equip any armor, and i swear genzou has been blushing and smiling ultra ridiculous amounts afterwards, every time i glance back he's just there smiling... probably coincidence but hilarious and adorable still