My Passionate Love Affair with Kabi Nagata....'s Work

Before we begin, I would like to say that this post covers deeper subject matters than what usually shows up on the blog: self-harm, alcoholism, hopitalisations, depression, unhealthy coping mechanisms, and more. I won't get too into details with certain things, but please be aware that these well come up. There's also a letter at the end to the author you can skip once you get there as it's technically the end of the article.

That being said, welcome back and enjoy.

 

June 2017 Community Game-Along: Puzzle Games

So, I haven't talked about games in… oof. Wow.

In a very long time.

But, I've come back to the gaming world—mostly! I've dusted off the olde Steam account, and I've nuzzled up with all of my beloved games. I haven't had a chance to play through my library in a really long time, but I've returned just in time for a fun event.

Anne Lee over at Chic Pixel has been orchestrating a "community game-along". You can view whole schedule here! It's a monthly affair, and of course, you don't have to join. But if you do, you get to read a lot of what other people are playing and/or what they love to play. If you haven't guessed already, June is #PuzzleGameMonth. And y'all.

I. love. puzzle games.

It's absolute in my top three and five genres. I may not seem like it, but I'm pretty adept at a puzzle games, specifically 2D, brain exercise puzzles. One such game that I want to talk about with you is LYNE.

REC·COMIC·DATIONS • Thicker Than Blood

How the hell have you been, GDR fam? Oh my good grief— it's been ages. I have tales of things that I have experienced and seen and fought and conquered. I have crossed rivers of broken wood, dilapidated stone beds, and empty Patreon halls— But instead of all that, we're going to talk about another comic that I've literally been a fan of for years. Are you ready? Because here we go.

Thicker Than Blood is an ongoing webcomic that takes place in the 17th century where demons and humans co-exist. The story revolves around a young man named Salvador, a royal soldier of The Five Crows. Of course, things are not quite as they may yet appear in the city of Pendulum.

REC·COMIC·DATIONS • Long Exposure

I've been gone for a while, but this time, I have an excuse! One: I've launched a Patreon. It had a kind of soft/quiet launch, so I haven't promoted it past twitter and (kind of) tumblr. Second: I've started a new series! That's right, my dear friends. GDR finally has a new series called Rec·Comic·Dations, in which I talk about comics (print and online) that I enjoy. No negativity, just good ol' goodness. So let's jump into this first one.

Long Exposure is an ongoing webcomic about a nerd and a bully who are forced to work on a class project together. The story revolves around them developing super powers after an incident at a strange research center, and finding themselves followed by a mysterious car, overcoming personal challenges, and (most importantly) discovering how gay they are for each other.

Pour Me a Yuri!!! on Ice

Yuri!!! on Ice is unequivocally one of the most popular anime to come out in Q4 2016— if not this entire year, honestly. Most of the reception has been incredibly positive, and there have only been a few nitpicks here and there about the overall theme of romance within the show itself. ……But honestly, a lot of it is unnecessary discourse. Also, Congratulations to it being the first anime I started and finished in the past… year. Thank you to Anne Lee over at Chic Pixel for the 48 hour CrunchyRoll guest pass, so I could watch the finale yesterday!(๑¯♡¯๑)

I've been interested in figure skating for years; it's been a silent interest of mine since childhood [I'll be posting about another one before the year is out, hopefully] and has always been one of those fantastical things that I never thought I could actually indulge in, in spite of already playing several sports back then. Figure skating is one of those sports that focuses so much on technique and encourages a stylised and personal approach to elegance. Despite the silly costumes, the competitors are fiercely loyal to their craft and incredibly disciplined. When I was growing up, figure skating wasn't really on the radar of many people around me. It was solely considered a feminine hobby, if it was even regarded at all, so it's nice to see something like this become so popular and bring fans of the sport, new and old together.

But enough about waxing poetic about ice knives and silly leotards, what about the show? Well. I'm glad you asked.

Ultimate Ultimatum: DATE OR DIE!!

It's been a bit since I've talked about an indie game that I was super stoked about. And this year, I have two! One of which I will tell you about right… n–

Date or Die!! is a thrilling visual novel where the main theme revolves a dating reality game show where everyone plays for keeps. What's to keep? Your life, of course! The game consists of a colourful LGBT cast and a dynamite, sadistic host. To quote the creators: "In terms of inspiration, think Flavor of Love and The Bachelor meets Danganronpa!" Boy oh boy. I can't wait for the full version of this.

Fredbear and His Spin Offs

So the news has come out that Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location will be coming out on October 7th. That's the rumour in the grapevine so far, and if you haven't seen the trailer yet, do check it out. Dear Mr. Cawthon himself has said that there won't be further trailers. We'll just have to make due with what we have, and I personally enjoy rewatching it.

For those who aren't aware, I am a big fan of the Five Nights series. There are a lot of fan games out there, and I do have my favourites. I won't be able to get into them all, of course, but I still wanna chit chat for little bit about them – let's do this.

Now That's Incredibox

Look at what I discovered at literally three in the morning. There's this incredible music web site called Incredibox, and I instantly fell in love with it. I mostly talk about things that I really enjoy on this blog, but truth be told, it's really hard for me to instantly like something, especially for a long time, but I really feel like this has something special.

Incredibox is a way to "express your musicality". Their words not mine, and in truth, I think it's pretty genius. You get a choice between instruments, percussions, effects, choruses, and beats. You drag and drop what you want onto a guy that slides on your screen, and bam! You get to hear the results in real time. Each musical choice you make has a different loading time because it's going to sync with the other choices you made in your mix track.

There's so much to talk about. WOW! We might as well dive under the covers for this one.

It's Okay: No One Has to Die!

Moving woes! I'm the closest thing you'll get to a nomadic life… I hope. Also, I have enough rants about writing to keep you all satisfied for the next year, I swear, but no excuses!/more on that later. I want to talk to you all about a game I played earlier in March.

no-one has to die. was created by StuStutheBloo. I've heard about it for a long time, but I never took the chance to actually play it. The image above is the starting screen. No title, no splash screen. Just this. Simple. Beautiful. And here is the actual size of the title screen.

It wasn't until last night at way too early in the morning that I decided to give it a go. I am really, really in love with this game. It's very short. You can play it all in about thirty minutes. As you can see, you start off at the very top and then you branch out with the various story lines. Playing as just one of the characters isn't quite enough, and it's definitely worth it to get the full story.

I always started watching other people play it, but I never watched a full let's play. I probably watched the first two or three minutes of game play, and I finally decided to just jump right into the fray myself. I'll admit, it wasn't what I expected. I thought I would be able to play just one path and be done with it, but then I got sucked into it. I became interested in the characters, and I, as the player, felt like an actual part of what was going on.

It's awesome! The game is short and sweet, and I walked away with a great impression of this all. I got to learn more about the characters and felt my opinions of them change as I played. I definitely recommend this game.

Check it out and form your own opinion of it. Play on Kongregate, on GameJolt, or here on Newgrounds.

GDR Book Club: The Vampire Lestat

This was a gift given to me by a friend. I haven't had a chance to read it until about January.

Anne Rice has a way with imagery and characterisation that makes me melt. Since The Vampire Lestat is a first-person account, it's incredibly intimate. That works to the book's credit as it's very easy to get immersed. I was thrown into Lestat's life right along side him. I shook my head; I disapproved. I was emotionally swayed, and most of all, I was taken away by Lestat's way of speech. My good friends, I have fallen in love with Lestat de Lioncourt. (Even while writing this, I realised that my full name would sound amazing with 'de Lioncourt' at the very end, hoho!)

Prince Not-So-Charming, Galavant

Aaaaah— What a charming little show. It's really hard for me to do a review about Galavant. I know just that it's one of my favourite shows right now.

One of my roommates, M, was the one who told me about this show. She was on YouTube browsing around and came across some of Galavant's first season clips. She told me about it, and we looked it up together. The first season is available on their YouTube, but each episode is $2.99. Considering the first season is only eight episodes, that's actually not bad at all.

Let's Take Our Hunter Exams!

Now here's something that comes as a surprise.

Before I switch my tumblr accounts, there had been a lot of hype for Hunter x Hunter. Over the past six months or so, I saw a lot of people talking about it (and Fairy Tail, actually). HxH was something that I had heard about here and there over the years, so I knew the name "Gon" but nothing else. Seeing the characters on my dash without context was always amusing and slowly gained my interested, but I never took the bait. It was always on that "Okay, I'll put it on my list" list, but I never thought I would actually fall into it.

That is until my roommate decided to take the plunge, and I'm so glad I jumped in as well. Oh, my dear sweet boys. Because I started, I won't be reviewing this like I did Daily Lives of High School Boys. Consider this review more of a stream of consciousness if anything.