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Kotaku Column, Podcasts, and More!

It’s been busy for me lately! But not in a bad way. It’s all been fun stuff.

I’ve started writing a column on sex games at Kotaku! Which I cheekily named Come Yourself To Death (I’m very excited to cover Hadaka Shitsuji when that localization comes out). So far there are two pieces, the first on the yuri (girl/girl romance) game Kindred Spirits on the Roof and the second on a game jam game about explicit consent, Cute Demon Crashers. I have a list of interesting games I plan to play and write about, so please look forward to that!

And on the podcast front last weekend I was a guest on Idle Weekend! My friend Danielle and I talked about Mystic Messenger, Yuri!!! on Ice, and Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse. Meanwhile, a bit ago myself and Mattie Brice tentatively launched the first episode of our podcast, called Affection Points, where we discuss particular games. The first episode we have is on Style Savvy, a game we both dearly love and would discuss often at local bars.

Otherwise I’ve been helping out other journalists as “otome consultant”, providing guidance for this Mystic Messenger article on Vice and this Mystic Messenger article on Kotaku. Mystic Messenger is very popular lately!

#games #anime

Games — Mystic Messenger

I met my current partner on the internet 15 years ago. We found each other in a newsgroup (which was like an email-based forum aka Google Groups) and built our relationship via a related IRC chatroom and the phone calls. So flirting with characters in a chatroom format feels rather nostalgic.

Cheritz, the Korean developer that created Mystic Messenger, is a studio I’ve followed for a couple of years now. I bought their debut game, Dandelion, directly via their website. They were early adopters of localizing their otome games into English and I was all about supporting that, back when options were very slim.

I was initially taken in by Dandelion’s cute hook of dating animals that turn into men, but stayed for the surprisingly bittersweet endings and endearing characters. I later recommended their follow-up game, Nameless, in my Offworld article about otome games. And I did a bit of a Let’s Play of it.

Mystic Messenger is a free-to-play mobile game, very much unlike their more premium priced PC games. But the Cheritz soul is still there. This time instead of a day-to-day simulation or liner visual novel experience Mystic Messenger’s story is told through interactive chatrooms that naturally unlock every couple of hours. You can expedite this process using the hourglass currency you can earn and buy, but I really recommend sticking to the natural cadence of the game. It makes for a better experience.

You can also use these hourglasses to backtrack to inserting yourself into missed chats. Otherwise if you don’t keep up the chat opportunities will pass and you’ll be reading through archives, watching the characters chat about you while you observe. It’s kind of lonely and extremely effective to encourage you to pay attention when the chats first pop up. That’s also why I transferred the game to my phone instead of my iPad.

Through your chats and text messages you’ll first learn that Jumin is a trust fund kid who loves his cat, Zen is a narcissistic up-and-coming actor, Yoosung is a college student obsessed with an MMO, Seven is an erratic sysadmin, and Jaehee is an eternally suffering personal assistant.

Over time you’ll get to know and prefer some of them over the others, either consciously or unconsciously choosing your chat responses to pay attention to and side with one of them. After a couple of real time days the story will branch and that character will be your focus for the rest of the game.

Oh and sometimes the denizens of Mystic Messenger will literally call you. You can put your headphones in and have professional Korean voice actors chatting in your ear. I always pick up immediately for Jumin and Jaehee.

Download Mystic Messenger on Android or iTunes.

#games #cheritz #mystic messenger #otome

Best Manga of 2016

A few months ago I was invited to Anime Fan Fest to be on a panel along with Jason Thompson and Daryl Surat to champion my choices for best (and worst) manga of the past year. Just recently this same panel has been held at SDCC and it reminded me that I never got around to posting my list. So here is my selections of what I personally recommend should be read from among the countless domestic releases in the past year. I’m leaving out my votes for worst manga since I’m not here to yuck anyone’s yum, I just had to give some titles for the sake of discussion at the panel. You can read Jason and Daryl’s submissions for the panel’s list here.

Best New Manga (YA)

Yowamushi Pedal — Triumphantly heralding the return of sports manga in English! I love artist Watanabe’s flow and sense of speed, and while his characters may look rough in the beginning for those used to the anime’s style, their designs quickly catch up.

My Hero Academia — After watching episode one of the newly released anime I immediately jumped to read every English volume available. Themed after Western superhero stories and comic books, this series has a distinctly different flavor than One-Punch Man. And I never thought All Might would become my favorite character.

A Silent Voice — Emotionally draining but so worth the read. About a deaf girl and her bully.

The Ancient Magus’ Bride — I love Kore Yamazaki’s take on fairy stories and magic. And a mysterious skull-headed fae magician is oddly appealing.

Best New Manga (Adult)

Goodnight Punpun — Much anticipated by me! I love the style of all the background characters when compared to how Punpun and his family is portrayed as crudely drawn little bird people. Yet all their problems are just as real.

Princess Jellyfish — Also highly anticipated by me. Artist Akiko Higashimura is a personal hero of mine. It’s so great to see Kodansha taking a chance on manga aimed at older women (josei).

Monster — Naoki Urasawa’s long out of print masterpiece. It’s back in larger deluxe omnibuses and I can finally begin its mysterious journey.

Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun — I put this in the Adults section because I feel like there’s a lot of humor to Nozaki that I can only appreciate now that I’m older, especially a lot of the stuff revolving around the working adults the main characters interact with.

Gangsta — A violent mob assassin story but written and drawn by a woman for a change. Kohske’s rich artwork makes the topic all the more appealing to me.

Most Looking Forward To (these are both out now)

Haikyu!! — More sports manga please! I never knew I cared about volleyball until Haikyu came around.

Fruits Basket — And a rescue! Extremely out of print (I would see $24 used volumes and never #1) and something I missed out on in my old shoujo days, I’ve been wanting to experience this one for a while.

Unlicensed Dream Manga

Kakukaku Shikajika — Higashimura’s autobiographical manga! Tells the story of her getting her start in art in a rural costal town with a strange painting teacher. Very emotional.

My Brother’s Husband — Gengoroh Tagame’s general work! It’s a story about a man and his daughter, and his deceased twin brother’s Canadian husband who comes to live with them.

#manga

Spring Update!

Recently relocating to New York City has turned me into a travel hermit. With enough events locally to keep me busy every month I balk at the idea of flying across the country to wear myself down during my habitual San Francisco GDC excursion.

Trains and busses are tolerable. So this past weekend I was back in Boston for the first time since moving away in November, exploring my old stomping grounds in a new light and attending PAX East!

Saturday morning I burst awake and rushed to the convention center at the last minute to make it to the FFXIV panel. I have unexpectedly found myself caring quite a bit about this game, now that I have become invested in level-capped content. Present for the talk were the Japanese producer Naoki Yoshida (aka Yoshi-P, the man who saved FFXIV) and lead localization guru Michael Christopher Koji-Fox. It’s been rare for developers to leave Japan to personally present at conventions like PAX, but lately it is becoming more common at professional events like GDC. Yoshi-P’s team takes a lot of its cues from Western MMO development so they endeavor to make themselves available to feedback like Blizzard and Arenanet do. I was lucky enough to be able to ask my question from the audience about chocobos being summonable while queued for duty finder dungeons (currently a technical limitation due to the way companions work but being worked on!) and after the panel Yoshi-P agreed to a selfie.

I mostly made the trip to help my friend Christine Love at her booth for her upcoming game, Ladykiller in a Bind. I performed the same role at PAX West in Seattle last year. It’s extremely fun to meet and chat with the folks curious about her game, then coax them to give the discrete show floor demo a try. A majority of comers had never played any of Christine’s prior works nor had even heard of visual novels!

That evening was the staple Foreplay: Romance in Games panel. While I wasn’t on it this year my good friend Arden Ripley was for the first time. I was right up front being loud and supportive, much like Arden had been when I was on the panel the year prior. The entire room was bawdy and riotous, especially Judy Tyrer, who had worked on Second Life and now was a founder of the Jane Austen MMO, Ever Jane. She brought up great anecdotes about regency courtship rituals and penis-through-walls incidents. I want to be like her when I grow up.

Now I’m back in Brooklyn and planning my next excursions. This coming Sunday I’ll be moderating a panel at IndieCade East called From Sequential to Interactive: Comic Artists and Visual Novels. Joining me will be Kasey Van Hise, creator and writer for Hustle Cat and Mia Schwartz, artist for We Know The Devil. I will be offering my expertise in game jam organization and freelance writing advocation for visual novels.

Then in May I’ll be attending Anime Fan Fest in New Jersey. I’ve been invited to be on the Best and Worst Manga of 2016 panel, along with Daryl Surat and Jason Thompson. I’m curious to see how our tastes align and if I can convince people to try some of the manga I’m a big fan of. After the panel I’ll be sure to post my list here!

#travel #trip report #talks #panels #pax east #indiecade east #anime fan fest #hustle cat #we know the devil #ladykiller in a bind

Otome.sexy Holiday Gift Guide!

That seasons is upon us and if you’re reading this then odds are you know someone with similar tastes as me in your life! Below I’ve compiled a list of simple affordable gifts for friends and family consisting of things I already own and love or things I certainly wouldn’t mind unwrapping under the Christmas tree. The items chosen get a bit silly at times but I hope there is something you see that give you cheer-giving ideas! You’ll find the goods under the cut! Happy holidays!

#holiday #christmas #anime #manga #goods

New job

It’s already been two weeks and I’m feeling settled into my new habits in Brooklyn—so that means I’m feeling up for blogging again!

Two otome games have been released in English since I last wrote and I’m enjoying my time playing through Code: Realize on my Vita, with Norn9 to eventually follow. In-between that I’m developing an addiction to Nintendo’s newly released Yo-Kai Watch, which is basically a Pokemon-like developed by LEVEL–5. I wrote about their prior release Fantasy Life here, which Yo-Kai Watch feels very similar to.

And if you’re curious about what I’m now doing in New York you can play the game I’m currently working on, Two Dots. It’s a really charming puzzler for mobile and the team I’m with is extremely talented! I also now work dangerously close to Kinokuniya, Book-Off, and the Nintendo Store in downtown Manhattan....

#writing

New York New York

I’ve been quiet here lately because just recently I accepted a new job in New York City and I’ve been scrambling to coordinate a long-distance move this past month. It’s very exciting but doesn’t leave me much spare energy for blogging! I’m hoping after November I’ll be settled.

Meanwhile you can read a transcript of a candid discussion between Mattie Brice and I about our personal engagement with fandom over the years. It was a really fun talk with more entries to come as we get deeper in our drinks.

#writing #anime #travel #trips

Manga — Themes of bullying

Paste recently had me write an article about two manga I've been enjoying lately, A Silent Voice and Haven't You Heard? I'm Sakamoto. Both touch on topics of bullying but with different approaches. Both are also award-winning series written and drawn by women.

A Silent Voice really sticks with you, following the story of a reformed bully trying to fix the damage he’s caused. While the first two volumes are available bundled in both print and digital, Crunchyroll Manga has translated chapters much farther. I'm still trying to catch up to the latest and am finding it to be quite the trip down the road to reconciliation.

Haven't You Heard? I'm Sakamoto is available in print only and I was so excited when I first heard it announced for localization by Seven Seas. It's one of those works you never expect to come out in the West, you hear of its accolades and it winning fan-favorite polls but it seems too Japanese for any tight-budgeted publishers to risk it. I was often laughing out loud while reading it so I'm so thankful it got a release and I could convince my thankful friends to give it a shot too.

#a silent voice #koe no katachi #haven't you heard? i'm sakamoto #sakamoto desu ga?#yoshitoki oima #nami sano #manga #kodansha #seven seas entertainment

Games — How Idea Factory (Otomate) Creates Otome Games

Siliconera recently posted an interview with Norihisa Kochiwa, development director of Idea Factory. Otomate is a studio under Idea Factory that focuses on romantically themed visual novels aimed at women. Some of their games have made it over to the west, such as Hakuoki, Sweet Fuse, and Amnesia: Memories. In the interview Kochiwa goes over thematic decisions for new games and bringing out their titles worldwide.

"What we at Otomate would like to focus on and strive toward now is to work with various partner companies and creators to bring more of our Otomate titles to fans worldwide! We appreciate all your continued support!"

"Also, we would love to have feedback from western otome fans! Our first step is to try and introduce otome games as part of gaming culture in western countries, and grow the otome genre with our fans!"

It's nice to hear that they are making efforts to bring out more otome games globally! We've seen part of their efforts recently with Idea Factory International releasing Amnesia: Memories for PlayStation Vita and even porting it to Steam!

Additionally, the otome games Aksys announced for Vita a while back just had their release dates revealed. Code: Realize will be out October 20th and Norn9 will be out November 3rd!

#otome games #otomate #code realize #norn9 #hakuoki #amnesia memories #sweet fuse #games

Games — Amnesia: Memories released!

Otome dating sim Amnesia: Memories was just released for PlayStation Vita and for PC via Steam on August 25th! You can even get a significant 40% discount on the brand new Steam release if you buy it before September 1st. The iOS and Android releases will be out later this month!

But honestly "dating sim" seems kind of a misnomer when applied to something like Amnesia. In the West it's used as kind of a blanket term to describe any romantically-themed interactive game, which can be both easy to understand but also confusing when nuance is concerned. The term "otome" is gaining some prominence, though (it's even used in the Steam tags). But Amnesia itself plays out more like a mystery adventure visual novel, where your traumatized heroine tries to navigate existing relationships with guys she doesn't remember via parallel worlds, thanks to the help of ethereal Orion who acts as your guide and your snarky commentary (he says what we're all thinking, in a very meta sense).

So don't go into Amnesia expecting to build sweet relationships among a pool of options. Instead each guy is honestly kind of a jerk and at times terrifying, and through dialogue choices you're trying to suss out what your relationship even was in the first place without raising suspicion. It's like watching a soap opera mid-season and trying to work out all the backstories. I find it very interesting!

Thinking about all this I'm reminded of this recent article by Carli Velocci in Bitch Magazine about text-based horror games and how marginalized women engage with it and use it as an outlet for everyday fears.

#games #otome games #amnesia #amnesia memories #otomate #idea factory #idea factory international #vita #pc

Games — Final Fantasy XIV

It's been a while since I've really gotten into an MMO. Long gone are my college days of 40-man progression raiding vanilla World of Warcraft. I have so many other games I want to play and things I want to work on I can't bring myself to dump the requisite hours into online role-playing games. I also worked professionally as QA on one for quite a few years, so they've kind of lost their glamour.

Before WoW I played a lot of Final Fantasy XI. To the excessive point where I felt I had to do something drastic. I snapped all my install disks, sold off my fortune of gil, and deleted my level 62 Beastmaster while wearing her full Artifact armor and Monster Signa staff—a sort of viking funeral. I remember the hardships that the old Japanese MMO designs required. Which is why I was extremely hesitant to start playing Final Fantasy XIV, their newest Final Fantasy MMO, when it initially came out 2010. And I later heard it was pretty bad. Bullet dodged.

Then Square-Enix announced the FFXIV complete overhaul with a new director at the wheel. I wasn't sure how this was going to work out and the revamp was made live in 2013, a time period when I was very busy. But gradually I was hearing how legitimately good the new FFXIV, subtitled A Realm Reborn, was. I finally grabbed a cheap copy during a Steam sale last year and gave it a shot. And wow, they weren't wrong!

They even tied the world remake into the story, similar to WoW’s Cataclysm. I find the trailer for it very emotionally stirring....

Imagine my shock when I'm doing one of my first questlines, complete the requirements, and instead of requesting I go back to the quest giver in town, like I was used to in FFXI, I could turn it in at an outpost nearby and even pick up further quests there! This is something we've come to expect because of modern usability introduced by the likes World of Warcraft and I was really happy that simple questflow had made it into FFXIV. Also there were a lot of sidequests to gather and level up on, no more grinding on tons of enemies in forced parties.

Final Fantasy XIV cribbed a bunch of systems from other popular Western MMOs as well. There are public quests that pop up similar to Warhammer Online. Enemies' special attacks are telegraphed by AOE indicators on the ground ala Guild Wars 2. Reputation systems and daily quest allocations like World of Warcraft. Simpler travel systems via paid attuned teleportation, Chocobo rentals, airships, boats, and personal mounts. This all seems like really basic stuff but seeing how they implemented it all so fast after the initial launch is amazing! The latest expansion even added in flying mounts.

I'm also compelled by the main scenario epic storyline pulling me through the game. It feels very Final Fantasy and so many references are lovingly weaved into the game with masterful localization. Magitek armor, Judges, summons, Cid. A recent patch added in a Gold Saucer area where you can learn how to play Triple Triad. I enjoy that the class system is not tied to a particular avatar and instead you can switch your class via weapon equip and level each one individually on your same character. Some advanced roles even require you to progress multiple classes to a particular level in order to unlock their starter quest.

Time did a profile on the new director, Naoki Yoshida, and it goes over a lot of his Western gaming influences.

I’ve read that Dark Age of Camelot is one of your favorite games. What other games, either past or present, have been the most influential to you as a producer and director?

As an avid online gamer, I can’t go without mentioning Diablo and Ultima Online. Diablo taught me about the joys of playing online with other players, and how to add value to an item so that players would obsess over it. I don’t even want to think about how many hundreds of hours I’ve put into that game (laughs). As for Ultima Online, the thousands of people sharing one world, the thrill of player killers, and role-play that is very free, were all very impactful to me. There are many other games that fuel my passion, but I would list these two as must-haves. I can still talk through the night about all of the episodes I had in-game.

Read the rest of the profile on Yoshi-P here!

You can buy Final Fantasy XIV itself for PC, Mac, PS3 or PS4. You can also get it on Steam where you can even pay your monthly subscription fee via your Steam Wallet.

#final fantasy xiv #ffxiv #square-enix #naoki yoshida #a realm reborn #games

Manga — Happy 801 Day!

It's August 1st, Yaoi Day (8/01: Japanese eight can be read "ya", then zero as "o", then one read like "i"). My friend Anne has a really good short breakdown of the genre if you’re unfamiliar with it.

I thought I'd take this opportunity to post the list of BL (boys love) manga recommendations that I've been planning. For a while friends have been asking me to recommend BL manga that I enjoy and that would be good for beginners. I've also been asked by other friends for recommendations that deviate from the typical 90s-esque CLAMP-Shoulders Yaoi-Hands styles that are most prevalent. There are a lot of artists working in the genre so styles can range significantly.

If you want a BL history lesson I can't recommend more Moto Hagio's Heart of Thomas printed in a nice hardcover edition by Fantagraphics. It's a shoujo series from 1974 and one of the earliest examples of mainstream women manga artists exploring themes of same-sex relationships. While BL media can be fraught and filled with problematic portrayals that in no way reflect realistic homosexual relationships between men, it is an interesting space to explore because it's one where women have a lot of creative power in, as far as the Japanese market is concerned.

My tastes in BL manga tends to lean towards odd-couples with some domesticity, humor, and a bit of smut, so that will be present in my following recommendations. I definitely have a longer list and I plan to do a follow-up post outlining some series that would totally be on this list if only they were officially localized. It's also safe to assume that these books are rated 18+.

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His Favorite - Suzuki Tanaka (free preview) I wasn't sure what to think of His Favorite at first and grabbed it out of boredom, but it charmed me pretty quickly. This one is about an unattractive boy, Yoshida, and his popular classmate who takes a liking to him, Satou. At first Satou can come off as pretty pushy, but I enjoy how their relationship ends up in later volumes and the silly backstories. The Rumic-style humor and stylistic weighted lines of the art kept me coming back for all 7 volumes. Also I should note this one is very tame as far as any sexual content goes, so it's a good start for those not feeling ready to take that plunge yet. Can be read in either digital or print (with more options on the SuBLime website).

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Awkward Silence - Hinako Takanaga (free preview) Enthusiastic and consensual relationship from the get-go! Yes! So unfortunately rare (and lamentably doesn't remain true for the second pairing in the same series). Satoru is an introvert who has trouble making his expressions apparent on his face (which for the reader is supplemented by thought bubble exuberance and small expressive avatars). So this leads to communication issues with his new boyfriend to work out. Lots of misunderstandings that thankfully get resolved quickly and end up being more cute than irritating. Can be read in either digital or print (with more options on the SuBLime website).

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Apple and Honey - Hideyoshico I am a big fan of artist Hideyoshico! She captures very cute interactions between her characters and draws such expressive faces. Apple and Honey is actually side stories intersected with a different couple's short story in the middle. The other volume, His Rose Colored Life, is the main couple set in a college and is a bit more melodramatic than the other books on this list. I recommend getting these ones in print instead of digital, the transfer quality leaves much to be desired.

Crimson Spell - Ayano Yamane (free preview) Crimson Spell has got that corny fantasy romance novel aesthetic going for its covers and I love it. It's about a prince getting cursed by a heirloom sword and traveling with a sorcerer in order to find out how to remove his demonic affliction. Artist Ayano Yamane's books regularly top the New York Times Bestsellers list for manga when they are released (Crimson Spell volumes as well as Finder) and she is surprisingly popular here. One thing I didn't expect from Crimson Spell was the humor. It reminds me of Bastard!! but with way more actual sex. This one is only available in print.

#bl manga #manga #yaoi #crimson spell #his favorite #apple and honey #awkward silence #hideyoshico #ayano yamane #suzuki tanaka #hinako takanaga #sublime #june #sublime manga #june manga #boys love

Manga — Gengoroh Tagame TCAF panel transcript!

(it’s probably safe to assume most of these links are pretty NSFW)

In Toronto a couple of months ago I had the privilege of attending a panel featuring the world-renowned gay comic artist Gengoroh Tagame. Japanese manga artists don't often tour worldwide so being able to see them in person is a rare alignment of the stars depending on what festivals you're able to attend that given year (I still remember being devastated at missing out on Naoko Takeuchi visiting SDCC in 1998).

The panel also featured Tagame's long-time translator and localizer, Anne Ishii, and her collaborator at MASSIVE, Graham Kolbeins. Additionally there was Leyla Aker there, SVP of Publishing at Viz, able to offer insight into the other side of the coin, BL (yaoi) manga (Viz owns the imprint SuBLime).

What followed was an insightful look at Tagame's artistic history and the changes that took place in the gay manga publishing space over the past couple of decades in Japan. As a historian and a critic Tagame is very thoughtful about his art and hearing his lived experiences and take-aways was fascinating.

I highly recommend reading the entire transcript of the panel, thanks to Deb Aoki!

Tagame also shared some of his evolving thoughts on genre boundaries and the controversial term "bara":

"When I look at gay art in comics as a critic, I get really anxious about that division precisely because the simplistic way of dividing it is that BL represents more romance, narratives, thinner body types, more effeminate characters. And then so-called “gay manga” would be just more diesel, big guys and more hardcore sex, etc.

But what happens when the creator is a woman doing more hardcore work? Is that considered gay? Is it BL just because she’s female? Is it about the audience, or is it about the creators? So those are definitely things I think about a lot as a critic.

Furthermore, going back to the gender of creators, that’s problematic as well because sometimes BL creators– and I’m speaking just from personal acquaintance with some of these creators– may be biologically female or identify on the page as heterosexual women, but sometimes they’re actually lesbian or transgender."

...

"I mentioned in the Massive anthology that I actually personally hate the description “bara” comics, because it’s inaccurate and a false representation, but I’m thinking now based on all the issues I’ve just delineated that “bara” could actually be a very convenient term to describe the situation, or the style.

The reason I hated the description “bara comics” is because the one thing I wanted in the 21st century for people to stop appropriating this terrible word in association with gay men. I don’t want there to be any link between this derogatory term with the gay community. But, seeing it used as a way to describe just the content makes it apparent that it’s very convenient for talking about art that is linked by characters that are muscle-y, huge, and hairy, versus more feminine theme of willowy, romantic figures. That’s a delineation that I can appreciate, I think now, the more I think about it– “bara” could potentially emancipate the content from its creators."

Read the rest of the transcript here!

You can also read more interviews with Tagame and other gay manga artists in Massive: Gay Japanese Manga And The Men Who Make It.

#manga #gengoroh tagame #geikomi #bara #massive #tcaf

Games — Hatoful Boyfriend on Vita & PS4, Holiday Star coming

I've already obtained every single Steam achievement for Hatoful Boyfriend, even completing the epilogue after the final dreadful route. Yet I am still compelled to buy the game for my PlayStation Vita which was released just last week, along with for the PlayStation 4. They added an additional route written by Hato Moa, featuring the bird Tohri who is normally only found in the prequel Holiday Star.

Lucky for us Hatoful Boyfriend: Holiday Star has also been announced for the makeover treatment and will be coming out from Mediatonic and Devolver Digital in the Fall for all supported platforms (PC. Vita, and PS4). I have a friend who has played through the original doujinshi release of Holiday Star and she reports it's just as messed up as the first game, so I'm extremely excited for it.

If you are unfamiliar with Hatoful Boyfriend then Laura Hudson makes a compelling argument for the subversiveness of the game in her review. And if you aren't even sure how to approach dating sims like Hatoful Boyfriend in the first place then I can certainly teach you. But if you're an old pro like me and my friend Julian, you can listen to us talk all manner of Hatoful Boyfriend spoilers on the Gamers with Jobs podcast.

I love Hatoful Boyfriend. Creator Hato Moa is such an interesting person. You should definitely follow her Tumblr!

I also highly recommend the Hatoful Boyfriend drama CDs. They’re adorable and feature a cast of really talented and popular voice actors (Shuu is voiced by Dio from JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure). You can even buy translated Hatoful Boyfriend manga drawn by Hato Moa on the Amazon Kindle store.

#hatoful boyfriend #holiday star #playstation vita #playstation 4 #dating sim #otome game

Anime — Pillow Boys

Lately I find myself having to explain Japanese drama CDs to people more and more often. It’s because a lot of the techniques used in these situation audio dramas, usually aimed at women, have been finding their way into other media that makes it over to Western awareness, most recently being the Fire Emblem if binaural voice over dialogues when getting intimate with your army (wear headphones for this).

The topic also came up when I was livetweeting the new anime Makura no Danshi, a currently airing show that can be watched via Crunchyroll. While this new anime doesn't have the ASMR-inducing voice effects that the binaural recordings do, it has the same sort of scenarios that one-on-one drama CDs involve, basically dude talking at you and telephoning your character’s lines back. Each week a different animated guy will sit and pleasantly chat about your day for five minutes.

Once you break past the initial embarrassment factor it's nice to chill and bask in the presence of a piece of media unabashedly catering to women.

If you're curious about more stuff like this, many longer drama CDs exist. They range from transmedia tie-ins to existing properties, radio-style dramas, one-on-one situation CDs, BL dramas. There are even plenty of spicy 18+ offerings. Translations usually abound online thanks to Tumblr, if you don't mind following along or being surprised after the fact about what the sweet Japanese guy was actually growling in your ear.

Or you can wait for Fire Emblem Fates to come out next year!

#anime #makura no danshi #makuranodanshi #drama cd

Goods — Ugly Fenris

People responsible for Western games merchandise, we need to talk.

Lately a lot of my friends and artists I follow have been catching up on the Dragon Age series. I noticed when they hit Dragon Age 2 a big uptick in Fenris adoration came about. I was quite the fan of him when I played originally and find he still is a favorite of mine. But there's not really any merchandise to buy of him, oddly enough. So they get by with fanart and fan-made goods.

Then imagine my surprise when I see the same artists reeling at the little vinyl Dragon Age 2 figures being sold at the most recent San Diego Comic-Con. Turns out you somehow made Fenris ugly and this is definitely not the kind of goods they want on their desk. I certainly don't, which sucks because in general I do want a desk-Fenris. Not this McDonald’s Happy Meal gremlin, though.

(It’s not even the problem being “Oh no he’s ugly” it’s “Oh no literally the only figure I can legitimately buy of him is terrifying to behold.”)

Look, I know you guys are all chasing that Funko Pop! dragon of cheaply made vinyl blobs to line the walls of Newbury Comics but that’s just not gonna cut it for the players who I see most often championing your games.

And it's with situations like this that I see a completely different approach to merchandising for women in the West versus Japan's extensive goods market aimed at women. There’s a really big disconnect between what the fans I know want to buy and what is provided.

I realize sheer side of geographical area and retail shelf space are a completely different beast in the United States versus Japan, but in a world where you can distribute most everything online and where plenty of spots are somehow made for niche resin superhero statues: why is it still a limiting factor?

Japanese companies like Good Smile have now gotten to a point where they're teaming up with other figure company Max Factory and opening a separate brand, Orange Rouge, to handle creating Figma, Nendoroid, scale statues, and other collectibles of male characters for women fans. And Western companies like Marvel team up with Good Smile to make a bunch of cute little Avengers Nendoroids, among other things. They can even make Solid Snake look adorable.

What's confusing is why more Western game companies don't collaborate more often with Japanese companies like Good Smile to produce higher quality figures. It's not unheard of, even for BioWare themselves. They teamed up with Square-Enix's Play Arts KAI for some Mass Effect action figures. And they paired up with Kotobukiya for the Shepard and Liara sexy bishoujo statues, but only women figures nothing of the men characters of similar quality for women fans to buy. It's a bummer.

I guess there’s that Garrus bust? I don’t know of anyone who would want a bust...

Give me a statue of Fenris like this, on a throne of broken crates like at his trashy house and with a bottle of wine. As he do.

#dragon age #dragon age 2 #bioware #nendoroid #fenris #goods

Games — Understanding Dating Sims

After publishing my article on DRAMAtical Murder, Polygon has let me write up something new, this time concerning dating sims in general. I've always wanted to make a sort of how-to-play 101 piece on dating sims to link to my friends because I noticed a lot of them were having trouble understanding visual novel gameplay systems and repetitive story branching. It's not exactly the mechanics breakdown I promised in my otome history post but it is another step in the series.

Also published recently is my friend Miellyn who wrote an article about romance in a wide variety of video games for Vice, and she was kind enough to get a quote from me for it. We were both on a Romance in Games panel at PAX East 2014, which was quite bawdy and a lot of fun! There's also a lot of BioWare folks quoted in the article as well, along with my good friend Arden who made Kindness Coins.

I'm so excited to see interest in these kind of games and topics of romance increase. There's a whole lot more to be explored in the genre and the inspirations these games cause could turn into some really unique games down the line!

#games #otome games #visual novels #dating sim #polygon #writing

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