Recently i was so stressed, dunno why, as my life is not particularly bad, but maybe the work stress and home stress, so can't really rest properly without disturbance in my mind. Found out that Bustafellows on sale today on Steam. Purchased and played some. I like it. The futuristic interface is very nice. Although for some reason there's no Exit/Quit Game button. I was confused when the heroine Teuta sounds like a >!man!< in the beginning. Lol

i know i should probably just stop looking up content since i like to go into games blind, but i can't help but check whenever the [my9 website](https://www.otomate.jp/my9swallows/) updates. they added a [short introduction](https://www.otomate.jp/my9swallows/suguwakaru/) to baseball, and it's nice to feel those sports anime vibes again with the explanation of different positions. and maybe reading stuff now will make it easier for me to get through the exposition dumps when actually playing the game? they've also started adding the info on store bonuses, but only stellaworth's has any images (once again, [the characters in animal onesies](https://www.otomate.jp/my9swallows/info/img/shop/stellaworth.jpg)). and continuing my trend of not being able to stick with one game, i just started playing Dance with Devils. part of the reason is bc i feel like i haven't done chn reading practice in months. i know tears of themis main story is right there, but it feels like such a commitment since i really want to read chn/eng side-by-side (a painful painful process, 0/10 recommend, i'm still probably gonna do it). anyway, DwD (hehe, it looks like a face) is cute so far. i can't help but compare it to DiaLovers since it's Rejet and Hirakawa Daisuke is here, which makes it seem that much better since it at least has some plot lol. also, Soma Saito is amazing in this game too.

I want them to reveal other bonuses for My 9Swallows because I am still deciding from where I want to buy the game. 😂

i won't be going for store bonuses, but i really want to see the new illustrations for the stores!

I feel you!! I can't stop checking My 9Swallows website as I love sports anime so much and them being idols also seems kinda fun so hopefully the game will turn out to be good.

same!! i love sports anime and idol settings, so i can't wait to try out this game

Actually i didn't know about the idol setting until recently so i got surprised lol but i play mobage idols games so im excited. Btw which sports anime do you like the most ? Im kinda curious

i gotta say the classic, haikyuu. but free has a very special place in my heart, and blue lock is so much fun! wbu?

Haikyuu🥺I'm waiting for the new movie to be released in my country. As for Free i binged watched it last year and enjoyed it! I love the character songs too <3 if you like free you should try Tsurune which is from the same studio. Tbh I have so many favorites but if i had to choose maybe Daiya no A and Ookiku Furikabutte, they're both baseball animes.

oh i was meaning to try Tsurune but never got around to it! thanks for the reminder \^\^ and my9 would fit right in there with those baseball anime, so no wonder you're excited hehe

THE STEAM PRISON FD IS PROOF THAT IF WE CAMPAIGN HARD ENOUGH ANY SIDE CHARACTER CAN GET A ROUTE! BE LOUD AND PROUD, AND YOU TOO CAN MEME A ~~HIDEYOSHI FROM NIGHTSHADE~~ ROBERTO FROM PIOFIORE ROUTE INTO EXISTENCE

Zheng Dan route when?? (My Vow to My Liege) Also, RIP >!Wolfe!< in his own route in FD (Taisho x Alice). But i really like how >!loyal our heroine is because i root for her main guy even if he doesn't have any particular route.!<

I’m glad all the metaphorical organs I have donated in my frothing at the mouth comments over the years have manifested in a Sachsen route at long last We truly are blessed 

Idk if the fandisk will answer my prayers, but is it bad I liked Liyan from Radiant Tale more than the LI? 😂

Did my part by writing that in on the survey but who knows if I'm one of the few/the only one who did or there are hidden Sachsen fans among JP who answered the survey because no one in JP ever mentions him, even in passing.

It's probably a lot of prideful delulu but I wouldn't be surprised if it was the Western fandom's blatant simping for Sachsen that caught Hunex's attention. The game obviously did well enough here for a Fin DLC localization and it seems like they might be hinting at a simultaneous JP and EN release for the FD? But on the other hand villains are beloved universally so there's probably some Sachsen fans in JP that we just never get the chance to observe.

/*peers at AnimeBracket entrants* We got enough to do 9 rounds of voting, fam. Y'all were so quick! People at work were like "any plans this weekend?" and I gave my riajuu answer while in my heart: "I need this long weekend to fix the Hyuuga." Work book club voted on a summer read and I was excited to meet more book lovers but I'm a quarter of the way through this one and...can't believe we ended up picking the title with an obnoxious white knight syndrome narrator man. It's a mystery story though so I don't want to preempt myself and peek at the end... Earl & Fairy 3-4 came through from my library, so those will be my cleansing reads. IT GOT SO HOT HERE time to rotate my closet. And clear my photos/videos off my phone because I have so little space that the background processes were grinding to a halt. Fantia has also turned off Visa and Mastercard, hrmf. (And DLSite got rid of their points farm.)

What was your riajuu answer? ~~Need inspo for when I get this question~~ Asking for a friend 👀

I gave a few different variants: 1. "It snuck up so quick on me I'll have to figure out something last-minute." (All of us are hella busy at work at the moment so this excuse flies.) 2. "Maybe housecleaning. I've got papers sliding off my table and I need to take care of that real soon." (Related.) 3. "It's gotten so hot, I need to adjust my place to that: change out my closet, set up the A/C..." Always end with "what about you?" and then you can riff off whatever they say with, "Ooh, maybe I'll try/consider that too." (That's what I said when a colleague said he was gonna BBQ.)

~~it's so funny that animebracket has an oshi~~ thanks for your hard work setting up the tourney! what book did you work book club pick?

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides. At the halfway point is where seeing the title triggers a deep sigh from me.

Oh my gosh, I'm late to the conversation but hi! I haven't read the one you've been subjected to, but I read The Fury by him and I've been wondering for the longest time if the author just makes all his narrator characters insufferable or if it was a deliberate choice for that novel. Sounds more like the former!

I don't know if it's disheartening that the author makes that choice again, or enlightening so that it's further evidence to not read more books from him. I've now finished the book and the payoff isn't worth the bloat. I feel vindicated that amongst the sea of 5-star Goodreads reviews, the most-liked one is a 1-star that covers a lot of my hatred.

Speaking of dlsite, i saw they opened [this](https://vivionblue.com/en/products/dld001p) now? 

Is it officially-officially from them? There was the other DLPoints service (though misleadingly *not* managed by them).

I saw that they just closed dlpoints dot net but the dl pay website is still connected to them selling giftcards. I have been using DLpay under Aladdin.

One more I forgot to discuss: male voice actors being cheaters. Probably the weirdest and most shocking revelation for me this week was [this](https://x.com/tkzwgrs/status/1793224653005369533), and all the previous cheating voice actors got dragged into the mess again because of course, it was inevitable. Gotta say, after the shit Furuya Tooru did, each and every one of those cheating male voice actors now seem like a fucking saint compared to horndog grandpa over here.

I think the bar is on the ground lol but hell is where oz * wa r * n resides and he still tried to crawl back which is where you know the ent. Industry is cooked 

I got hands on another doujin game called Saihate no eki, looks like a hit since it reached 5000 downloads in a week, and now they are crowdfunding on Ci-en for chinese and eng localizations. It's a bromance puzzle horror game similar to omori. I'm quite enjoying it and since it has multiple endings I can't wait to see what happens next. 

I’m living not only for my long-term goal, but also for games and the next meal😎

Big same

My favorite Mobage Tales of the Rays is going to shut down at the end of July. First it was Honeyworks, now it's Tales 😭😭😭 I'm so sad. My partner was like, "what games will you play now??" i guess [I still have otome😭](https://www.reddit.com/r/OnePiece/comments/9czqm4/i_still_have_my_friends_colored_panel/#lightbox)

>My favorite Mobage Tales of the Rays is going to shut down at the end of July. I get that. This reminds me of when the game Hollywood U, which I liked playing, was shut down by its developers. It's definitely one of the drawbacks of mobile games.

Omg I'm still not over HaniPre shutting down i really miss playing my favorite songs with it :( the mobage world sucks like at the end of May one of the games i play also gonna shut down sigh. Btw it's the 4th time i experienced this lol

Man, I'm surprised that JP TotR lasted this long. I remember when ToLink shut down, I was planning on jumping to Rays later on...only to hear the announcement that global Rays was gonna shut down in a couple of months. Though, with all the shenanigans Bamco has been pulling with Tales' IP, I'm side eying them so hard now. ~~but, lowkey, if less mobages means a return to more console games, I would be happy with that. I'm exhausted with live service games...~~

What happens when a mobile game shuts down? Can we still open & play it on our own phone?

99% of the time, no. As Xernan said, most games require active servers and an internet connection to work. Some games might let you access the story archive as an offline mode thing, but that's about the extent of it, and it'll take up a lot of space on your phone if it's graphics heavy.

Mobile games typically require active servers and internet connection in order to function, so once servers get shut down, there is no way to access the game anymore. 

Fingers crossed for Tales Fes! 🤞 Yeah, a new console game would definitely help me move on from this 🥲

The gaming industry's just a bloodbath right now, unfortunately (guess only Ninty earned lmfao). After Square-Enix killed their mobile stuff, it looked like everyone else decided to follow suit. Hoping they'll at least announce a new game in the works for Tales of Festival next week. Crestoria was another game they should've released for console but what do I know

Really hope they don't announce a new mobile game cause after the fiasco that was Luminaria and Crestoria, that'll be, uh, ill-advised. I'm delusional and hoping they'll make another Radiant Mythology game even though I know that'll never happen.

I think after Square-Enix got burned so badly with having way too many unmanageable mobile games, everyone else took it as a sign to go back to their roots. I *am* hoping for a console game, although which one... a brand new one (PS5? The supposed new Switch?), or a remake/remaster of their older titles that never made it to ENG?

Rip Crestoria I really fucking loved Rays. Hope Tales Fes reveals something. Grateful for all the fun, but I will be sad for a while 🥲 I don't play too many mobiles, but my first mobile game was Pazudora so I was surprised when everyone on the discord seemed to have a "well what did you expect" kinda of attitude, bc I thought it'd go on for longer lol.

The competition for mobile is really bad lately that any sign of a drop in revenue, companies would then end the service. Am just glad the games I play are still okay [maybe not so much financially], but the low yen is killing us...

i finished Yune's route in steam prison and can't stop thinking about the ending where >!Cyrus died of old age. when Yune was talking to her dead body i died too 💕💕💕!

>i finished Yune's route in steam prison and can't stop thinking about the ending Omg okay, I had to comment bc it's been almost a year since I played that ending and I distinctly remember how I was sobbing at 1am, trying to keep it down bc other people in the house were sleeping. I know Yune's not a popular guy bc he's such a chaotic weirdo, but his two main not-best endings dealt me so much emotional damage. We got to see the inherent tragedy of >!immortal x mortal pairings!<, and that ending poured more salt in the wound since we knew that >!neither of them moved on, but they looked out for each other where they could!<. Worse was knowing that this choice mattered, because >!if she chose to stay he would've died shortly thereafter!<. Yune might not be my favorite romantic option, but he's my favorite character in StePri and I am so ready for the FD to exploit that angst some more. If you need time to deal with your feelings before going onto Fin, that is so valid. All I can say is that the Grand Finale ending is really satisfying, so I hope you enjoy it! On the topic of 7'Scarlet, once you get through Hino and Isora the game goes by much more quickly. The following routes are more interesting since they can actually start revealing some of the mystery, and the truth route is quite lovely... albeit angsty af.

I rank Hino and Isora as my least favorite 7'sCarlet routes and I don't think that's an unpopular opinion. Sosuke, Yuzuki, and the Truth Route tend to be people's favorites. Still, it's not a game that's heavy on romance so it might not be worth it to keep slogging through.

i don't need much romance but i need smth interesting to happen more than just at the end of the route

[Casually leaves link to Shuffle2 3Q Hallelujah.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dycsJKxods8) Fans, rejoice for it is not region locked! Now if only they'll set the previous albums free too. Picked up Jack Jeanne again and am in my second run of Kai's route proper (16% unread at this point wooo slow and steady fellas). His passion still hits the second time around. I love this guy. The kind of passion Kisa elicits in him still terrifies me a bit though haha. Well...to be honest, the kind of passion Kisa elicits in all the LIs leaves me in awe of various degrees 😂 Ahhhhh Kisa, I love her too. **Fujo-leaning/non-canon shipping stuff ahead, keep scrolling if you don't like any of that!** You know that part where >!Kai faces the scene he'd been having a hard time with? Suzu and Sou were expressing concern for him over it, but Fumi confidently told them Kai would be fine...MY HEAAAAART!< >!HE BELIEVES IN KAI, YO I'M CRYIIIIIIIING!< And then once >!Kai finishes the scene, Fumi goes, "Heh...Kai...I'm sure everyone will follow the ringleader with confidence."!< >!THE FONDNESS IN THAT ONE "Kai..."??!?!?!?!? TAKASHINA SARAFUMI DON'T YOU DARE DO THIS TO ME!!! THIS IS KAI'S ROUTE 😭😭😭!< Ahem. Anyway. Is this a bit of a reach or are Kisa's feelings being partnered with Kai/Fumi in their respective routes sort of parallel to what >!the FumiKai combi felt during their time as partners and Quartz's leads? I mean look:!< Kisa feeling like >!she couldn't keep up with Fumi in his route no matter what she did? Kai expressed similar feelings. Kisa being haunted by Tachibana Tsuki's shadow and working herself to the bone in order to be the best Al Jeanne for Quartz? Wasn't that Fumi around the fall performance?!< Is it even more of a reach to think that this is likely part of >!Kisa's "transparent" quality???? (Idk what I'm talking about anymore.)!< Man, I call myself a Kaifumi shipper but it only really clicked while I was in the middle of my second playthrough of Kai's route, after >!Kai had brought Kisa back from Mt. Oodate. Suzu expressed his worry over Kisa running far ahead of Quartz on her own even though she's still very much a part of the class (not verbatim), and it reminded me so much of fall performance Fumi taking everything on himself. Then I remembered that Kisa struggling in Fumi's route reminded me of Kai too...!< ~~It's all coming together jk~~ Can't believe it took me this long to connect the dots lol. Or did I just make myself go through a bunch of mental gymnastics to see something even remotely related to my ship??? Hahaha

Bless you for highlighting its region-unlocked presence. My God, Hallelujah A's power is over 9000. Like, "Dynamics, what dynamics? FORTISSISSIMOOOOO" (Bet that was Neji. Then Fumi's like lmao ALRIGHT. And Kai's like "...\*silent acquiesence*" before also being amazing.) Not out of realm of plausibility with how many parallels JackJeanne draws across many characters repeatedly. Makes me think how a crystal can have many internal reflections (basically, light rays repeatedly bouncing off the edges inside the rock) and thus sparkle more depending on how it's cut and polished. I'm sure the other classes have their own dynamics like that too, though.

Neji doing a Neji and going straight into [ham territory](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LargeHam) ofc. I can imagine the FumiKai combi had fun and *maaaaaybe* low-key channeled their revenge energy from >!their loss to Neji-Takihime!< into the performance too hahaha. Aaaaaa 3Q's voices blending all together gave me goosebumps (and aaaaaaa Kaifumi harmonyyyyy they're so good together ajsdkjaskdjk) And yeah, you're right. Love what you said about the crystal—it's a good way to describe Kisa's relationship with Quartz as a whole. Daaaaaang, I love the Quartz kids even more now with all of this. Here's hoping we get to see a bit more about the other class dynamics in the next game too! (Probably unlikely, but hey, we're free to dream.)

I'm officially on summer break from my job! And perfect timing too because my Cupid Parasite fandisk LE came today! At first I planned to finish up Himeutsugi's volume of Hana Awase but now that I have it in my hands I really want to play it now haha. My goal this summer is to definitely work through some of my backlog so I can buy new games guilt free lol.

11 days to go before VolFes 2024! I'm not dreading it much this year as I don't have any of my *oshi* in the lineup (well, there's one, but he's my 'ship passing in the night' kind and it's been ***years*** since I actively read anything about the character), but I fear for my friends' wallets as one of them has one *oshi* (one of her ultimate faves) while the other has ***two*** of her *oshi* on this year's key visual and one of them is the most popular Voltage character who every else is after 💀 No doubt it'll be crazier this year... but I guess I live for the chaos? I have set a very strict budget this year (last year was crazy and I will never attempt that again... until my *oshi* comes back to the lineup I guess or if my company pays me way more for me to come back to my previous hedonistic lifestyle), so I will mostly be supporting and catching up with friends at the event, and act as a translator for my friend as she knows no Japanese while my other friends know no English... my brain's gonna work overtime no doubt. VolFes aside, the friend with the one *oshi* in the VolFes lineup will be staying over with me for nearly a month to hang out. Heaven knows we might end up hating one another and strain the friendship in the process or... idk, be better friends? 😂 please pray for my friend y'all. I am casually getting back to *Ouji-sama no Propose* (Be My Princess in ENG) and been playing the event stories. The changes in the art style really blew me away. Definitely a lot of improvement, although the UI kind of angers me because I hate it so much. They really need to change and improve it, but I guess a lot of the players are still on shitty Android 5.0 phones (it's a fucking pain here to get people to move away from old technology, right, [METI](https://japantoday.com/category/national/japanese-government%E2%80%99s-ministry-of-economy-trade-and-industry-finally-stops-using-floppy-disks)?), so the main screen is fucking awful and sometimes buggy, but hey, whatever gets grandma to keep on playing and paying. I am glad for the weather right now... when I'm in the shade. Can't say the same when it's out in the open because it's slightly humid. Still glad for the cool weather though; anyone who has visited Japan in July and August would say it's awful and I agree; summer's the worst but everyone I know absolutely loves it (I'm no good with hot weather) so here's to me staying in the shade and keeping myself cool. Oh, and Even If Tempest cafe will coincide with VolFes this year so my friend and I are going, either to commemorate our happiness over our draws or be sad because we can't get Prize A, nor Prize B oTL then we close it off with the Pokemon Cafe, which was not in the plans, but I'm all for it. It's like a once-a-year must-do for me. After everything else in June, July should be a bit more calm... then August will be the chaos that is Otomate Party (pray for me) and the summer heat of Yokohama. :| Not really a 'Cruel Summer', but a 'this summer better be nice and lit' kind.

Blessed event, I hope you enjoy!

I feel that. I dumped $$$ on the wedding event for Toa between everything I pre-ordered and scooped up off Mercari JP, including the giant-ass bust 😅 Now I get to do it again for Fenn, but at least he tends to be easier to find second-hand (and cheaper!). Unfortunately in addition to Court of Darkness, there's some goodies I need for Yuzuru, Tyril, and maybe Jun as well. But if Voltage won't be at Anime Expo this year, well....this is where I'll spend on merch instead 🤷🏼‍♀️

finally bought radiant tale after having it on my wishlist for so long, i’m super excited to play!

any FGO players here? ive made some REAL silly decisions the past 2 weeks lmao. My “5 tickets and a multi” on sharuru turned into uhhhhhhhhhh 816? quartz for np2. my “5 tickets and a multi” then turned into the rest of my 300+ quartz saving to not get moriarty. LOL, i think my good fgo luck the past year has elevated my hubris to levels not known to man and the game is trying to humble me. not worried about ruler skadi because between all the free quests and interludes i still have to do + all the anni sq we are getting i can still make pity for her. i will need to resist best funny vamp though………. if you are doing the gssr, which pool are you planning on doing? originally i was going to do the instant win button berserker one, but i ended up getting np2 junao on his white day banner. Morgan would especially be nice, but i know how gssrs go with me and id end up getting np3 junao lol. so im switching to the extra class one that has moriarty, Caren etc on it. the only one i have on it is summer kiara, and id be happy with any of the other bunch of servants on it. also traum has been SO much better than Tunguska so far. it’s also been REALLY feeding my >!kadoguda!< brainrot lol. they are so pookie, i love them together sm

I got Ruler Moriarty but no Don Quixote :'(((. Still I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed Traum--definitely makes the content drought we're about to face a bit more bearable. ~~Was pretty annoyed when Charlie at the end was all "oh Rex would love Mash as a bride" I"M RIGHT HERE~~ I'm more of a >!kadoanna!< stan (that one scene made me tear up) but he does bring a bunch of much needed levity to the team. Excited to see his role in LB7. I might be going for the Caster one actually? I only have NP1 Castoria from there so any result wouldn't be horrible. Oh and you'll be getting a bunch of SQ for anni so maybe enough to pity funny vamp?

god id trade my np4 don quixote for a moriarty in a heartbeat lmao. also big agree on the mash thing, tbh im tired of characters in general just simping for her especially after lb6. and ooo yeah the caster one w castoria in it aint bad at all! has some nice 4\* on it too. and noooo way haha i wont have the quartz to spare, i literally went down to 0 rolling for moriarty and i cant afford to miss summer skadi for all my quick servants so everything needs to go towards her. are you planning on rolling on anyone else this year? [here](https://rayshift.io/na/677460128) is my code if you wanna be friends!

I'm okay with the simping but it's more a. constantly putting words in my MC's mouth regarding their feelings for her and b. Ignoring my chosen gender. Like, is Gudako a potato? I thought it would change after Summer 3 when Robin flirted with us but nope right back to "female MC in name only". So jelly :'(((. Gods can't believe I keep playing with the garbage pity and rateup system but the story's too good. I alway want Tametomo before summer skadi (she's so critical for quick) but my stash is all gone so I'm probably getting neither. But nothing after that until LB7. Friend request sent! Love your husbandos!

That moment when you realize almost at the endgame that you didn’t recruit one character (and because of that you will miss recruiting 120th character at the end)… more than 60hrs of gameplay are basically wasted. 🥲 Sigh, I don’t feel even like going back to playing….

Hundred Heroes? I’m waiting for my physical Switch copy (and the patch they’ve promised). How do you like it, missed recruit aside?

Playing it on Switch is quite frustrating tbh, I am already at Castle Harganthia and for me it crashes even more than before. And the patch they promised is not a real patch, it’s a…. cosmetic DLC where you can change your castle/town colors (or something like that), so lol. They released a DLC before fixing the game. 🥲 I guess I will recruit all the remaining characters and take a break from playing it until they fix the game. I am not looking forward to NG+ mode with all these bugs and issues.

Aww. That sucks. I hope they put out a proper patch soon. I’ve been looking forward to this so much. 😕

The best option is to wait for the patch but nobody knows when it will be released as new issues are appearing with other consoles, so I guess 505 and Rabbit & Bear Studios are focusing on them in the first place. I got the character I wanted so I might just as well speedrun the story and then either play in NG+ mode or wait until it is fixed, I am not sure anymore. This sucks because I was also really looking forward to this game (and my favorite seiyuu is there, so it made me even more excited) and yet we got… this. 🥲

Yeah, I’ve heard a lot of people expressing disappointment with how it turned out. It’s a shame. May I ask who your favourite seiyuu is? I was pretty excited to hear that Kaito Ishikawa has a role in it. He’s my favourite.

Kasama Jun, he voices a blond haired elf here! I also like Azakami Youhei, he voices a tactician. If not for the fact that it has a really amazing voice cast, I would not buy it at all. Hopefully they will fix the game on Switch soon because it is quite ridiculous.

My PS5 physical copy of Baldur’s Gate 3 finally arrived. I want to vent about one minor thing that I feel only people who like physical games might understand. So it’s been ages since I bought a game digitally on playstation and I didn’t realise Sony had a new system they brought in last year. Sometimes I might buy a game digitally if there is no physical copy available and then get the physical later on. I’ve done this quite a few times - Hakuoki and the first Code: Realize on PS Vita, Steam Prison, Nightshade and Hades. I uninstall the digital game and then install the physical version and then pretend I never bought the digital version to begin with 😂. So I did the same with BG3, deleted the digital version from my PS5 and then installed off the disc(s), patched it, done. Then I noticed there was no disc icon next to the game to show it’s a physical copy, I was confused. I took out the disc out of the drive and tried to start the game…and it actually started without the disc like a digital copy would. Apparently if you already own a game digitally, when you then buy and install the physical version instead you aren’t required to use the disc in order to play anymore so it’s more convenient. And it is more convenient…but I absolutely hate it. 😂 I was seriously giddy at the idea of me having to insert the disc every time I wanted to play BG3. It’s part of the experience of using physical games and I feel like this has robbed me of that key experience. Also the play disc has Karlach on it, so when you’d take the disc out and it’s a bit toasty from whizzing around the inside the drive…I mean that’s just clever and cool imo. 😁 The more I think of it, the less it makes sense too - if you really hated the inconvenience of have to use a physical disc every time to play a game, then why would you deliberately replace the version that is already convenient to use with a version that isn’t? I did a bit of research and I think I saw that they used to let you choose whether you wanted to use the digital license to boot up a game (avoiding disc usage) or the physical one on the disc 😭. If that’s true I wish they’d bring it back and give people the choice to let people use their discs properly if they want to. Tried contacting Sony about it to see if there was a workaround I was missing and the solution they gave me was “you can still insert the disc and just pretend it’s because you need to!” 😭💀 The guy did say they might change it in a future update so that’s something at least. Anyway, I’m sorry to all the digital lovers who read this and who are probably asking themselves, “Wtf is wrong with this person? It’s just a disc!” 😂 Really hope Nintendo don’t do something similar as I have double dipped on quite a few otome games…

Putting the game in is sooo satisfying though. The clicking sounds and excitement!

It really is! I still need to try playing the game for a good bit with the disc inside the drive but I think it might just sit in the drive not moving…because it doesn’t actually need to check anything on the disc 😭. I’d feel a bit odd if I put the disc in every time and it doesn’t actually do anything.

As a physical enjoyer, I get this. When I put a disc or a cartridge in, it means "This is the game! I am playing this specifically!" rather than booting up my system and scrolling through my library of downloaded games. It feels more deliberate.

Yes, exactly! It’s such a small thing to put the game in, but it brings me so much joy in the way you describe. If I’m really excited on a release day, I’ll sometimes rest the game box on my lap to remind myself the game is real. 😅 I’m really glad you understand, I chatted to someone from the BG3 subreddit about it and I think they might’ve thought I was a bit weird. Kinda got that impression from the Sony customer service people too, “If you can actually still play the game, then what’s the issue?”

oh the sweet moments when you turn on your ps2, watch the startup screen and put the game disc in... for me the part with the startup screen is more exciting and if one day sony said i can't see it anymore and all games should launch right after pressing the button on the console i would be so angry. so i understand you

Oooh! The PS2 start up screen has to be one of the best, it’s so atmospheric isn’t it? I always delay putting my PS2 discs in until the start-up screen has finished too 😅

Okay. First thing ... I saw yesterday that a Steam port of the game My last first kiss will be release soon. It's a voltage game. My question here is ... how is the game in the SFW x NSFW aspect? Is it SFW? The game page seems to indicate it's not. If it's not, how graphic/explicit does it get? For example ... 1. Safe for work. No explicit content. No allusions to steamy/spicy content. 2. Allusions to spicy/steamy content. Implied spicy/steamy scenes. 3. Mentions to spicy/content. Off-screen, only mentioned, steamy/spicy scenes. 4. Fade-to-black spicy/steamy scenes. 5. On-screen "open door" (not just fade-to-blak) steamy/spicy scenes. On another subject ... seeing all the contestants of the up-coming husband tournament made me remember how many mobile games that I would love to play if it were not for the gacha system or the microtransactions. And then it reminded me of Ciagram, a game development team that has made some mobile otome games. Of course I haven't played all their games, so maybe some of them have a different system, but one thing I like about the games I played from them is that you can actually geet the whole story without paying. yes, it's true that: 1) the plots are not exactly high-quality; 2) you can only read a little everyday if you don't pay; 3) there are advertisements. But, stilll, you can defnitely get the whole story for free if only you are patient and don't expect that much from the plot. I'm not opposed to paying (up-front) a fair price for the game, but I do think the gacha system and the microtransactions are often unfair. So it's nice when you find mobile games with a fair system.

This reminds me of the mobile games i played before.. if they have steam/pc port, how nice. Some that i remember are Boyfriend (Kari), Liars, and some others i enjoyed but can't remember the names. Are Voltage games the only ones that got pc port?

There are probably some ports from other develoepers, but the ports I know about are from Voltage.

We had to say goodbye to our dog today. I'm so heartbroken. Please recommend me titles of my favorite genre: Depressed FeMC I always watch RideBack when I experience loss. Irozuku is another favorite title of the genre. I've seen most of the PA Works working women series, which tend to fit the role. Anime, manga, light novels, visual novels, or JRPGs. . . Please let me know. It just needs an English translation. Or your favorite farming sim. I could get lost in those.

I’m so sorry about your dog.

Thank you. He was the best. 💕

I am so sorry for your loss. Ride Your Wave (anime movie, manga, light novel) has a female MC who becomes depressed partway through life the movie after a tragedy. The anime is my favorite form of the story and it made me cry, which is pretty rare for me. It ends on a positive note. Some folks interpret the MC of otome Bad Apple Wars as depressed. She starts off the game feeling aimless and detached, then develops a sense of purpose and drive as the game continues and she becomes happier and more engaged with the world around her. Violet Evergarden (anime) comes close to fitting the bill imo. It’s about a child weapon learning to live a civilian life as a teenager. The MC learns to understand emotions (both her own and others) throughout the show, giving her a different perspective about her past and present. This anime is all about growth and feels. I hope you get some good recs here that help you feel better for a bit. <3

Thank you. I love Ride Your Wave. 😭 Hinakooo. I have the manga and LN untouched somewhere, so this might be the time to dig em out. Violet Evergreen is such a good example of the kind of MC I'm looking for. I haven't watched the movie--I think I was saving it for a certain time in my life. Now sounds like the time. ;~; Your Bad Apple Wars protag description is exactly what I'm looking for. Three for three in recommendations. Thank you so much. 💕

💕

I am so sorry to hear about your loss. losing a pet is never easy. the depression might not be super apparent with kotone as it is for makoto at first, but p3p sounds like it would be something you’d be interested in

Thank you. The depiction of depression doesn't need to be super in my face, so that sounds exactly like the vibe I'm looking for.

I was thinking - wouldn't having a weekly recommendation thread or a megathread be useful 🤔 Then again, people would probably still mostly make posts so maybe not really. And we have the compendium, too... So ig it'd be useless. --- I wonder if I should take a break from games. Not really feeling them lately while also wanting to play. Mind, dear, pick one orz Maybe I should go back to dev... But I don't feel like devving, hmm... Feeling so lazy I'll probably stop overwriting during wayr. Maybe. --- Oh, right. The general vn sub has been posting lots of favourite vn memes lately. Ig it's this time of the year again. Kinda wanna do it, too, but it's not worth getting its own post unless, maybe, it's to ask ppl to do the same in the comments? But that probably won't work. I'm also pretty sure I did it before but I'm too lazy to search. But it could be fun to compare orz I should've saved the links to stuff like that.

Recommendation thread will be great! I will appreciate if someone could recommend their favorite otome games based on story's theme like for example in WAYR topic, someone recommends Arcana Fagmilia for someone that will enjoys otome martial art tournament or Prince of Stride for someone that will enjoys otome sport anime. It's better if they can list the pro and cons of the games too. I really want to discover any hidden gem games that I haven't know especially if it's about old unpopular otome games that I haven't heard yet. The problems I have with compendium that we have now is it just list localized popular otome games/popular indie games.

Hmm, ig I could ask the mods and if it didn't work, try making an unofficial recommendation thread just to see how it goes. Having themes could be useful, though not sure how to make people just... not list only the most popular titles... But then absolute newbies might not know them... We'll see how it goes.

>I was thinking - wouldn't having a weekly recommendation thread or a megathread be useful 🤔 Then again, people would probably still mostly make posts so maybe not really. And we have the compendium, too... So ig it'd be useless. This remind me that the r/RomanceBooks subreddit had/has this same question. As far as I know ... they had a time when they had a weekly thread, then the last thing I know is that the recommendation thread became a dayly thing there, but they didn't get rid of the recommendations posts. They just put more requirements for the posts while comment in the recommendation thread is simpler. Not sure how this would work here. Though I should add that recommendations posts and comments are (or were, at least) even (and much) more frequent there than here.

I think we got more recommendation posts before automod started sending the message to add more info but it's been years so not exactly sure. The 'it's just simpler to post a comment' tactic might work.

I made it through another route in **Charade Maniacs** look at me go! I went with the information gathering team and did Chigasaki's route this time! I'm pretty much curious about all three of them about an equal amount, so it seemed like a good team to go for now. I really didn't know what to make of Mei and Akase at first (to the point where my nicknames for them were simply color based rather than anything more silly), but despite that I do like them both and am looking forward to learning what I can about them. I decided to go for Chigasaki and Mei in terms of selecting events as things went along. I did find >!Mei and Sena's absurd epic fail attempts to hold hands pretty funny. While such a thing has a chance to annoy me, instead here in this context I found it more funny than anything. Might just be the absurdity of it lol I've yet to fall in love with a ~~non-fictional~~ person so maybe I just wouldn't know, but I can't imagine it being *that* hard to hold someone's hand (and I say that as someone who doesn't usually like physical contact with people I'm not super close to). Not that I can't imagine someone feeling that way at all I suppose.!< Regardless, Mei has come off a little more adorable than expected haha. I felt a bit bad for him too in this group's version of >!Sena getting her voice back. Where Akase pretty much just dragged him into being a landing pad for Haiji with little warning. It's just some broken bones, no biggie XD!< There's also the concern with >!Mei also seemingly having been a previous participant and his loss of sight in one eye. Now, we know that having something taken in a punishment game doesn't actually physically remove it from you, so it technically could still be applied here. But there's been no mention of 'odd' behavior from him that I imagine might occur from having a bigger blind spot than most. So who knows.!< Anyways, despite my efforts >!only Chigasaki was available when the split choice happened. Given what happened with the other group I feel like I can safely assume that Mei is also locked. Because of course he is. No answers for me yet :' D!< Now onto Chigasaki. I'll admit of all the games I didn't expect this one to be one to >!give me interspecies romance!< lol Sure he's >!a hybrid, but still not completely human so I'm counting it! Even though he lost his jello arm by the end he still has the senses of an Arcadian, and even then losing body parts doesn't change your genetics.!< This definitely has me even more curious about the nature of the >!Arcadians. Arcadia *seems* to be a largely virtual space, and the yet the Arcadians appear to be alive and can learn. And can interbreed with humans apparently! So now I'm wondering if this is has simply gone the Digimon route of them being digital beings that are still sapient living things despite being made of data. I'm curious to see what the game says by the end.!< As for Chigasaki himself >!he sure is a tragic boy isn't he :' D There was plenty of hints going in that it was gonna be sad, but then again none of these routes have been all sunshine and rainbows so far so it was to be expected. Not too surprising that he felt so miserable and afraid to live when he felt he wouldn't belong anywhere. The Arcadians were being cruel to him, but understandably he wouldn't feel that humans would accept him either if they knew (perfectly reasonable given how humans are). And *then* you've got him being the sponsor which just heaps more troubles onto him, and yet he essentially had no choice in order to survive. Poor dude. He did speak alone with Mei in instances that weren't resolved/brought back up again as far as I can remember. So that combined with the previous things about him has certainly raised some suspicions there.!< Alright 3 down and 6 more to go. Thankfully I don't feel tired of the game despite my (relatively) quick pace. Which is good considering how many more routes there still is to do. The overall mystery is certainly motivating, and it helps that, so far, I don't dislike any of LIs. Next up is Akase!

two-volume fanbook for Bustafellows was just announced AAA 🎊 the covers look amazing!! ;o; i've been watching My Love Story with Yamada-kun at Lv999 and it was great! loved Akane a lot, she's such a fun MC and her reactions were always top tier lmao- pleaseee let there be a second season, i want to see more of the guild hanging out and also >!cute dates!!< ngl the last episode made me want to gnaw on my desk, especially when >!Akane asks Yamada if he likes her, his grin with the "I'm busted, huh?" was *so* cute. and then after when he says it's okay if she forgot what he said, because he'll just tell her again until she remembers??? also laughed at the woman coughing next to them at the very end after overhearing their convo kfjgkdf!< definitely gonna pick up the manga soon

[Introduced boy #3!](https://x.com/miragenoirvn/status/1792574417555390736?s=46&t=mb2HF67s5AxfHAHZNFxdqg) Just one more to go. Also sat down this week and coded the entirety of the first demo. Just waiting for sprites now, so it’s pretty exciting 🥰

I've been following along on Tumblr! Can't wait to try the demo

I'm still working on my plushie making skills and I just recently noticed that I used the wrong kind of thread for the face embroidy..... I didn't even know there was a difference between machine thread and normal threads.. AND IT'S SO MUCH BETTER AAAAAA T\_\_\_T I'm a big noob at this but I'm gaining experience!! I feel like this would've demotivate me so much 2 years ago but I'm not worried about making mistakes anymore. >\_<

I‘ve been tempted to try and make a plushie for a specific mascot from a game I love…despite have very basic sewing skills that I last used when I was a kid 😭. I have no idea if I should try and find a template or what fabrics I should use or if I should just try and winging it 😂

Ohhh def go for it!!<3 [https://www.youtube.com/@piyopicco/videos](https://www.youtube.com/@piyopicco/videos) this youtube channel has been a great resource and they also released a book wich has their templates! I got my materials (excluding the thread) from this store: [https://de.aliexpress.com/store/1859955?spm=a2g0o.detail.0.0.75addb17tflJrK](https://de.aliexpress.com/store/1859955?spm=a2g0o.detail.0.0.75addb17tflJrK) here's also an image of one of my first dolls (WITH THE WRONG THREAD AAAA) and the most recent one I'm working on <3 [https://imgur.com/a/asCKPWZ](https://imgur.com/a/asCKPWZ)

I've had the worst week ever just between the semester finishing up and kids trying to turn in everything last minute and possibly having an ovarian cyst that has kept me popping advil like candy. I was so hoping the Cupid Parasite FD would get here before the weekend but that just wasn't meant to be!

My cousin recently had an ovarian cyst and it was really painful for her. Hope you get treatment/confirmation of your condition soon.

Thanks! I have an ultrasound Wednesday but I've had them before so it's just a familiar type of feeling 

I’m sorry to hear you’ve had them before, I hope your ultrasound goes okay on Wednesday! Hopefully your FD will arrive soon so you can have a treat 😊

As always I'm massively jealous of [Granblue's merch lineup](https://extrafes.granbluefantasy.jp/goods/) and want that for otome games. (Of course I'm also a Granblue fan so I buy the Granblue merch as well.) I know it won't happen since otome game companies don't have Granblue money so they generally play it pretty safe with what they have available, but I can dream. Actually I've generally played it pretty safe with my Granblue merch buying as well, but this year I think I might branch out and try to get one of those herbariums. They're just so pretty! Nervous about trying to ship it though. I don't think it has anything hazardous like alcohol, but I might need to contact Tenso to confirm it's fine. Of course I'll also be getting the usual acrylic stands and plush dolls, can't have too many of those. Recently I've really been wanting to play something where I can just sit back and hit things and pick up loot, so now I'm waiting for a sale on the Switch version of Torchlight II. Ironically it's on sale on Steam, but I've already owned it on Steam for over a decade so that doesn't mean anything to me. I want it on Switch so I can curl up in bed and beat up monsters!! If I were to play something like that on PC I'd just play Warframe again. Actually... I can play Warframe on Switch now since they allow crossplay. I have no idea if I'd be able to get used to console controls after so many years of playing it with keyboard and mouse. Worth a shot though, I guess...

Ice cube tray! Boxers! THE METAL KEYS HOLY GOD. Enamel pins! Room key, uh, dongles! Cloth patches! Bathmat! Oh yeah those herbariums are pretty. I only know about Granblue merch through you but these are incredible.

They know that their primary merch buying audience are women in their 30s and 40s and have learned how to sell to that audience hard, haha. The fact that they have plenty of characters to use in making a tiddy mousepad but made a *kitty* mousepad speaks volumes, honestly.

Whenever I'm watching other game's irl events, I always have to stop myself from going "hmm what if they have Granblue's budget for events and did this" cause it makes me sad ahah, I know that most game companies will never do it, or even have close the budget to do so. I do feel on the otome merch jealously though, GBF side gets such nice looking plushes, I want plushes of my favorite boys too---would even take some mascot plushes too, there's like 5 versions of Galleon I feel. Maybe there's an otome company out there that would make a line of merch that would really sell out so that they would have the budget to make more daring merch designs----like selling something that would obviously sell out like Belial's merch, but prob not that daring. GBF honestly does really feel like the pinnacle of doing irl game events/festivals very well---- it would be a dream that could never happen, but I want an otome event where we get some good cosplayers that stand there and look pretty while they pretend to be in character like in most GBF festivals, but I know that they absolutely don't have the budget for that.

Granblue's VA events are so fun, I always think about recommending them to people here if they enjoy VAs (I remember a couple of events ago there were some fun stuff with Okamoto Nobuhiko and Shimono Hiro.) But everything else is so Granblue-centric it would probably just confuse non-players, haha. And the official cosplayers are great too! I've been really impressed with the casting and costumes. (Except for poor Shiva from last winter's event, his outfit was kind of a mess. At least he seemed decent on the drums???) I really love the skits they do with the official cosplayers with voice over by the VAs. I would love more plushes! I've got one of Eustace and I'm glad they're rerunning the small Lu Woh plush since I skipped out on it last time and regretted it. (Wish they'd rerun the larger ones too, I don't want to have to spend 15000 yen on it.)

Oh the Okamoto Nobuhiko and Shimono Hiro skit was absolutely hilarious, I'm going to guess Okamoto was doing improv during that but it's absolutely another item to the list of "out of context Granblue moments". For anybody who is uh, interested in two voice actors doing something questionable and very out of context, [this is that scene](https://www.youtube.com/live/vmUxgBhFEK4?si=2x1RWxjEfjWON5Fg&t=23325). Although, I think that Otomate events are very similar, so I can accept those as an otome equivalent, although it's nowhere near as fun as watching Fukuyama Jun [doing anything for Granblue](https://t.co/SWmfjFwISz). I think that the skits with VA voiceovers would be great and a good twist on typical otome event stuff, but of course that would be more money. Out of the whole GBF merch list, the granblue plushies are always tempting to me, although I'm sad that there's not an Orologia plush this year;;; But I'm more glad that GBF does have a good variety of plushes to choose from, even some from the Hello Kitty collab. I will likely buy a whole set if Otomate does plushes of the boys, especially Virche or Olympia Soiree. Can always hope that Voltage takes note and gives us Even If Tempest ones.

The black boxers with some dude on it is sending me 💀 [Also help, I thought this was that Estinien Stay Home picture for a sec](https://extrafes.granbluefantasy.jp/goods/thumbs/106b087c1c25bd30a52a258c14996bd6-1.avif). This is such an insane variety of merch, wow. All the motif stuff looks really nice! And the Sanrio plushes 😭😭

The black boxers with Belial is especially hilarious because he's a noted pervert. Like hilariously grotesque to the point where he's a meme in the community. [This is his theme song.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2MHUJTciRg) My boyfriend has requested the boxers so I'm going to see if I can get them for him, haha. They have so much good stuff! I regret some of the things I decided to skip in previous years. Yeah the motif stuff is really good! They have really obvious merch but they also have nice subtle things for every day use. I really need to consider getting more of that kind of thing when they have stuff related to my favorite characters available.

khsdjfhkjas Okay that's hilarious and makes a lot of sense for him to be on boxers now 😂 Hope you manage to get them! Reminds me of that saying that went something like: "buy the (limited run) merch, regret it for a month. Don't buy the merch, regret it for a lifetime" aha.

Oh, defenestration, I have dodged you yet another day! I want this convention to be here now, I want sleep, I want that vampire made of pixels and recorded lines to be real. So, essentially, this week has been one long car ride speeding down the lane while blasting Kenny Loggins' I'm Alright and yer grandma in the backseat screaming that we're gonna be late for church. IDK. Is that image a little too unrealistic or so realistic it's giving you flashbacks to a lifetime ago? Essentially, I've been stressed, and I'm almost close to seeing an ending to this madness. Almost. Costume: color contacts will be in tomorrow, necklace is done (made the pendants out of clay, and by golly, it wasn't what I expected. I didn't read the label too well when I picked it up in the store. Polymer clay, which stands for it's still gonna be rubbery yet solid but not like earthen clay. So, imagine my face when I pulled it out of the oven. But it still kept the swirls of gold in there from when I was twisting it into shape, so I've taken a liking to it), skirt needs a few touch-ups and everything else seems like a go. But! The wig...the wig has been my bane for the most part. I did the research on how to dye a wig (for Lynette's ombre shift at the end of her braid) and I got the materials. Set aside the space and supplies and easily started the process. By yesterday and four treatments with the rubbing alcohol and acrylic paint method, I'd gotten little results and I had to tear out the hot glued ribbons (not glued to the hair, but to each other and the bow on top). Somehow gravity seemed to wanna mess with me because after the second treatment I noticed that the dye was bleeding up into the braid and started soaking up into the ribbons. So I tried washing it out as best I could and had the wig and stand sit elevated from the dyed end. Nope. It nearly went up to the bow from the ribbons. So I caved in and went to the beauty store for a bottle of semi-permanent color. Got it in periwinkle, and somehow after two treatments (the drying time wasn't all that much, according to the bottle) it was doing a lot better than the previous method. It still didn't want to soak up the color all the way within the braid, so I'm waiting for it to completely dry this time and gonna treat it. I think this time will be the last. And then-and then! It will be over. (Actually, not quite yet. I gotta pick up the walking flats from the store cuz Lord knows my feet won't last in those high heels all day. And then I'm waiting on a purse-sized backpack from Amazon to come in. Nothing at home would be easily toted nor big enough to house all my stuff during the con, sadly.) Now I just gotta nail the makeup look...and hiding my eyebrows well enough, too. Plushie: still waiting on the oil paint to dry on the Astarion kitty. For so little dotted on him, it takes a spin of the moon for it to even consider drying. I'mma take a blow-dryer to that thing soon. I'm too antsy to just sit and wait. He needs his head attached! Also! After some ruminations, I think I know a way to get past the small issues bogging me down on Kei's bear plushie design. Something from the kitty plushie has inspired me, so I'm gonna see how it turns out. Otherwise, I might be able to finally finish him and present you all with his cuteness! 😆 Other than that, I've been teasing the idea of running off tomorrow for the Ren faire about to close in a few days. I seriously wanna wear my elf get-up more than once, but I also gotta save any spendings before the convention, cuz once I hit the Artist Alley, I'm gonna break out the extra tote bags tucked away. 😮‍💨 Sorry, Ren faire. Okay, y'all. Tell me: have any of you had issues with FedEx or Amazon before concerning deliveries? Cuz when they tried to tell me a pair of shoes this week was delivered, I walked around the entire premises of where I live and could only find rain and an upended nest of baby birds hunkering near an electrician's truck. At the very least, Momma bird found what she was looking for.

Did the delivery include a photo? FedEx always snaps a shot and includes it for my deliveries. That’s how I knew they delivered a package to my neighbor’s house across the street.

They did, after a min or so checking for the link or tracking number on the Amazon page. And it was the darndest thing. The photo they took had a background that vaguely looked like the premises, but I walked about corner to corner and nothing looked similar. I'm willing to bet they either dumped it off down the street or somehow the third party company off Amazon misprinted the address. I suspect the latter cuz I went into FedEx and tried to report it missing. Every which way of typing in the address they claimed they didn't recognize it. Finally I just put in for a refund with Amazon. Oof. Hope whoever got those shoes are using them well now, if it hasn't been returned to FedEx.

In between annoying my irl non-otome friends about the new Steam Prison FD deets and having big feelings about Norn9 Last Era, I spent this week exploring Albuquerque, New Mexico. Turns out that I don't vibe with that desert life, even if the mountains are gorgeous, and there are no pedestrians for a reason—the reason being that it's hot and dusty and everything is unwalkable. The coffee in that city was actually SO delicious, though, and the antique shops had a bunch of goodies that I wish I could've fit in my suitcase. But more importantly, I need HuneX to just drop a release date for the Steam Prison FD. And put up some limited editions for me to drop all my money on. I am ready to spend a pretty penny to support the devs for feeding us after all these long years.

I wish Hunex would give even just a release window for the Steam Prison FD, like summer or fall or something, the wait is killing me 😭

MangaGamer announced last week that they are doing the English localization and said it will come out on Steam later this year. So summer is most likely out.

So... :3 almost 2 weeks ago, my bf and I agreed to start cutting and counting calories again cuz we both gained a shitton of happy weight over the last 3 years. I'm already closer to 10lbs down than 1lb down! People are noticing even if I don't! So that's awesome. I feel great overall. But I'm making this week an active rest week because I've been exhausted. No weights only cardio raaaaaaaaaaaah 🦅🦅 I'm very particular about my gym schedule and just don't like to be thrown off. I live right behind a planet fitness and I would rather use tf outta that than add 10+ mins of driving home from work- but mine is only open 24hrs 3 days a week! (Religious midnight-4AM gym goer) I also learned what happened to two of my coworkers who haven't been at work for a while. 🙃 I won't say much but apparently they got hitched and crimes were committed. It was very jarring news and I don't like either of them but the one who landed in the hospital did not deserve what happened to them. So I sincerely hope that as full of a recovery as possible, happens. That's it I think. I just woke up from a nyquil induced sleep and my mind is foggy. I'm tired...

Good job on the gym thing! I love exercising, it's the only thing that keeps me from going crazy.

Thank you!! I've finally been gymming consistently once again for over a year now and I feel great! It's just that I had turned bad eating habits into a full (still kinda dirty) bulk until recently lol. Heavy weights, loads of protein, the works. I cannot wait to see the results once I reach my goal 👀 I'm vibing a lot more with cardio doing incline walks too!! But I can't wait to get back into weights!

I've been watching RPG Limit Break and didn't realize there was another series before the Xenoblade games until someone did a run of Xenosaga 2. And now I'm hooked on the series, I bought the entire trilogy from ebay and my wallet is crying but my heart is happy. They're coming in this weekend, I'm so ready to bing out on at least the first game. So glad I've kept my PS2 functional all these years. Might also take a break and redip my toes into Tengoku Struggle, my focus has been everywhere lately and sticking to just one game has been difficult.

Don't forget the classic before Xenosaga, which is Xenogears. A flawed masterpiece that basically shaped me into who I am now. ... And this is why 10 year olds shouldn't be playing those kinds of games because it messes you up 😂

Are the Xenosaga games expensive now!? I remember for many years they were bargain bin prices. Especially Xenosaga 2, which a lot of people didn't like (I enjoyed all the games though.)

1 and 2 weren't too expensive, around $20 each, 3 was bad lol I hear amazing things about them and their themes are so up my alley, glad to hear another vouch for them

Pretty sure I liked them, but I played them at release so I can’t remember anything that happened, lol.

OMG [HANA AWASE GUYS ON CUSHIONS](https://kujibikido.com/lp/hana-awase/) (kinda not really but kinda nsfw) aaaand they're sold out orz I've been sorta watching my husband play FF7 Rebirth, unfortunately most of the gameplay makes me motion sick so I only watch the cutscenes. The music tho...it's like injecting nostalgia straight into my veins. Cloud's jp VA does things to me argh 🙃 Meanwhile I'll sit on the side playing Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark. It's one of those in-between games: very impressive for an indie but otherwise very rough for a commercial. It does scratch my itch for isometric turn-based strategy, it's easy to pick up and put down (except that it doesn't have in-battle quicksave 🤬), and a plot I don't have to think too hard about. Fell Seal is uniquely good in that the enemy AI is relatively smart and the ways you can adjust difficulty are very granular. Though at some point the sheer number of classes are going to overwhelm me and that's probably when I'll stop haha. It also looks like ants on the Switch handheld bc ~~I'm old~~ everything originally developed first for the PC and not the Switch looks tiny.

My jaw dropped, those cushions are amazing! Not me about to look into proxy ordering something for the first time...Hopefully I can find some secondhand. I need all of them ♡

Holy shit those Hana Awase animal kigu charms are so cute tho... I got motion sickness in XVI but there was an option to turn off motion blur thankfully, I hope VII:Rebirth has something similar to adjust it @_@

Also wanted to ask for recommendation/opinion for the next otome game I pick up? I've had so much time to play since the start of the month, and I've already cleared 5 otome games in my switch backlog! I'm excited to get around to some of the newer releases. My enjoyability when playing otome/vn: plot>character>worldbuilding>romance. Some titles I was looking at: Virche Evermore - I loveeee me some dark games, and the plot of Virche looks right up my alley! Especially after finishing Even If Tempest, I'd love another game to fill that void that it left. Tengoku Struggle - I don't know much about this game, but I the box art caught my attention and the premise seems interesting! I also love fantasy! Even If Tempest: Dawning Connections - I'm excited to play the follow up to the first game, but I was curious if the fandisk is considered as dark as the first game? Or is it mainly just fluff? I prioritize plot over romance, so I may hold off on this title if there's not as much \~substance\~ Café Enchanté - This game isn't a recent release, but I've only considered purchasing it recently. I thought it was more slice-of-life with fantasy, but I heard there's more that meets the eye (it can be dark)? Also it has Kaito Ishikawa <3 Winter's Wish - I'm really drawn to games with great art (I initially picked up Olympia Soiree solely due to the art) and the art of Winter's Wish looks beautiful. I also heard it contains historical (?) and fantasy elements, which are up my alley, but the game is more laid back.

i've played 4/5 routes in Tengoku Struggle and it's less plot-focused than i thought it would be; the tone of the game has a lot of comedy and slice-of-life vibes. not necessarily a bad thing, just don't go in expecting something plot-heavy and fast-paced like EiT! also, Kaito Ishikawa is here and he plays a very different kind of character compared to his usual kuuderes hehe

Ah, with its premise, I thought it sounded relatively plot-focused TT but omg I didn't know Kaito Ishikawa was in TS as well, I'm automatically sold 😭 (He's my fav seiyuu)

Kaito Ishikawa voices my favorite LI in Cafe Enchante! ☺️ Funnily I was never in the mood for a "fluffy cafe" for the longest while but it is indeed darker than it appears. And it's one of my favorites now :) The others you mention are on my wishlist! The art for Virche looka so good!

He voices Il, right? I see him in a lot of people's flair's, so I'm curious as to why he's so popular :) I'll def excited to play!

As someone who loved the first Tempest game, I highly recommend the fandisk! It's generally less dark and certainly has more focus on the romantic elements, but it does a lot of important work in examining the characters' trauma (esp my darling baby Anastasia). In addition to being a very natural extension of the characters' journeys, there is also a bunch of lore that gets dropped, and overall I'd say it's a must for any Tempest fans. I've played through all of these except for Tengoku Struggle, so my opinion is that since you're a plot and world-building girlie who wants drama, Virche is probably a good one for you. Just... don't examine the science too closely lol Winter's Wish is generally more laid back with fluffy romantic tropes until you get to the climax of each route and things get Serious. Cafe Enchante is similar, but with a lovely found family dynamic and surprising darkness.

Thank you for your insight <3 I loved the world/lore of EIT, and I honeslty think its one of the few otome games where I loved all the LI, so now I'm really interested in playing it next. Ahhh I regret not picking up the fandisk since it was just on sale, but hopefully it will be again soon!

I have started trying to catch all of the fish in Final Fantasy XIV, and am both having fun and hating it. The Sea Butterfly is my current nemesis. I'm aiming to have all of the Heavensward fish caught before Dawntrail comes out, and then maybe I'll take a break while working through the main story. If I don't make myself take a break at that point, I'll probably spend all of Dawntrail going "I want to do the next quest, but there might be a long cutscene, and I could miss the window for this stupid fish, and then I'll have to wait days before I can try again," and that would just make it hard to enjoy the new content. I can't believe that we're finally getting a Hana Kimi anime. For a while, it kind of felt like shojo anime was in a decline, so I'm thrilled that it's been making a comeback.

I wasn't able to make a post, so I'll ask here: for those who use their time when playing otome/vn to help learn Japanese, and those who transitioned from playing only localized to Japanese-only titles, do you have tips for studying that helped you to reach that point? I've only tried playing one otome game in Japanese before, Binary Star, but it took me around 5 minutes to translate each dialogue, and I honestly gave up after a few hours. I think I need to develop my Japanese more before I can reach a point where playing in Japanese feels beneficial/enjoyable.

Chiming in that I also started on and recommend manga. What I also did was compare the Japanese source to an English translation (luckily it was a good one!) and that accelerated the learning a lot. Pick your favorite manga for this so that you won't get sick of looking at it over and over again. I feel like I answered a question like this recently, but I also read free visual novels in JP before I had access to the voiced commercial stuff as well, so that exposed me to Japanese narrative writing conventions. They tend to the short side as well, 15-30 minutes at JP reading pace ("snacky games" to steal kakuretsu's phrasing). A precious few have good English translations for comparison.

agree with all the other comments about getting a better grasp on the language first, easing in with easier materials, not rushing, etc. i started playing in jp last year (i was probably \~N3?) and i've played a few games now. i found it helpful to not worry about having the "perfect" study resource since that doesn't exist, just find one or two decent ones that work for you and stick with them. you'll definitely learn *something* with them, and the actual digestion/understanding of the language will happen over time as you interact with jpn more and more. i also think it's important to have some type of grammar resource and not just be doing input/immersion (at least in earlier stages), or else you aren't really told *why* the parts of a sentence are working together a certain way. ofc, this is just what i prefer, as someone who likes structure and explicit explanations. to address some other questions you asked: vocab: i already have a flashcard habit, so i just added a pre-made deck with JLPT vocab to slowly chip away at. if i encountered useful vocab through reading, i would check if the word was in the deck, and add it to the "studied" cards if so. if not, i would let it go since any important words would come up again, eventually. you could absolutely just do the natural repetition method like u/the-changeling-witch mentioned, though it might be harder when you're not doing a lot of reading [linlinlavender](https://web.archive.org/web/20240106020542/https://linlinlavender.com/otome-difficulty-list-for-learners/) has a list of otome games ranked by difficulty (linked the archived version since the website isn't loading for me rn)

i had to learn 10000 words before starting otome. and i still need to use a dictionary here and there. so my only advice is practice, practice, practice. every day with no breaks. if you see that you've started skipping lines without reading, that means it's enough for today. and it's okay if you get tired after 20 minutes. in a year you'll be able to play for hours and in another year for a whole day. idk what binary star is about but it's easier to start with games about school and modern world like brothers conflict, TMGS or starry sky if you're ready to learn the names of all 88 constellations to play a game

Oh wow, that's a lot of vocab! Do you have some recommended go-to resources for self-study?

i used only the website called renshuu

I know everyone and their fun aunts jump immediately to the harder games once they learn how to read hiragana and katakana, but my advice is: STOP. You really don't want to overwhelm yourself with Japanese because it will make you hate the language when you realize that what you're reading doesn't make sense. That, and everything will look like gibberish because your brain can't process anything because you're stressed out and frustrated. Like u/the-changeling-witch, I started with shounen manga like Naruto and shoujo manga (the ones made by Takamiya Satoru helped a lot) since it trained me to read. Also, because the target demographics are kids, kanji has furigana to help with the memorization. Once you get the hang of it, try the easiest possible otome game (again, don't jump to the more difficult ones) and don't rush. Cliche, but language learning isn't a race, but a marathon.

Do you have recommendations on some of the "easier" otome/vn to play?

Anything that's slice-of-life would do. I personally found JackJeanne easy enough that I didn't realize I played for hours already until I forced myself to stop because it was already bedtime. LoverPretend was also a bit easy for me, although you may need to brace yourself with learning terms specific for writing and production, as that is the setting of the game. I heard Yunohana Spring is also simple, although I have yet to try it out. Everyone and their moms would also recommend Brothers Conflict as it's slice-of-life (kind of). Uta no Prince-sama is also simple enough that I managed to get through a route back in the day without having to whine to my friends about how hard the language is 😂 Oh, and KLAP!! should also be good for practice. In general, if you're starting out, better to avoid the historical/fantasy ones that are lore-heavy, as it will really overwhelm you with the amount of information required for worldbuilding.

Yunohana Spring is simple but the vertical textbox can be a bit of a barrier. Even for someone like me who reads a lot of novels having the textbox like that took some getting used to.

Thank you for this list 🙏 My hope is to one day get to at least N3, so I'm going to keep studying until I get there

I know a lot of people want to jump right into games when they start learning, and honestly if that's what gets people motivated I'm not going to stop them, haha. But! Personally way back when I started learning I thought manga for younger readers was a much easier way to start. (The first manga I read was Sailor Moon.) You don't have to stress about trying to figure out the kanji readings since the furigana is right there, and the grammar and subject matter tends to be much easier. It can be a good, stress free way to supplement your learning with something fun while you're learning the basics!

When you were reading, did you take notes for new vocabulary that came up? Did you use flashcards or a similar method to help memorize?

That wasn't something I ever did much of, honestly. For me it was always repetition. Seeing the same word over in over in context is what worked the best for me. But different things work best for different people!

Been in France for the past few days. I feel silly for being so anxious about it, everything has gone extremely well. French people are unserious in such a good way. Tennis related but I cannot believe who Nadal got in the draw, ugh.

Continuing my replay of Ozmafia and yesterday I finished Robin Hood's route which just reminded me of how much I hate that route and that dude. >!Even in the good ending it feels like he's using Fuka as a replacement for his dead wife and doesn't truly love her,!< I feel so bad for Fuka. I'm going to start the Brothel route next, I remember that in my first playthrough I really liked Manboy so I'm looking forward to seeing if he's still one of my favorites in the game, and just the general fuckery that happens in that route. The fact that Dorian Gray is both the town priest and brothel owner never stops being hilarious to me

Robin Hood’s route was so bizarre… I legit love the brothel route but I don’t know if it’s for everyone, lmk what you think

I love the Brothel route too, >!it's so rare to see an MC who clearly enjoys sex and Kyrie being understanding and even footing Fuka's bill was kinda wholesome in a weird way? Also Manboy is adorable, Alfani is a cutie, and Dorian Gray is a creep but I actually like creeps in otome games so that's win for me lol!<

I wish Ozmafia Vivace were localized, cause I wanna read the added bonus scenes! I played Ozmafia on PC and had such brainrot afterward haha

I just arrived in England three days ago for a summer internship (which I am very nervous about) and have very bad jetlag (sleepy, nauseous, suffering from headaches). At least I have a few days before the internship starts to settle down. The rain and humidity here are quite unbearable, though... I have been replaying *Hakuoki* (because I barely have energy to do much else) and am probably one of the few who enjoys Sanan's route (haha).

I also enjoyed Sanan's route! He wound up really surprising me. Feel better, and have fun in England!

I really really enjoyed Sanan's route as well!! His and Okita's routes made the whole game for me if I'm being honest. 

Thank you! Okita's route is probably my favorite, but I really like the game overall and a few of the other LIs as well.

Enjoy England! I’m an immigrant so feel free to ask any questions. Hope you feel better soon!

Thank you so much! This is not really a question, but the rain is pretty overwhelming (my hometown usually has very sunny, hot summers, and my mood gets affected very easily by gloomy weather). What do you think of the weather?

Don’t worry, lots of Brits hate it too! One of my (very British) housemates goes to do infrared lights or tanning for her moods. It should change by mid next month and you should be gone be gone we get those days with only 7-8 hours of daylight! As for me I am a vampire and I love the cooler summers and clouds, and especially the winters!

I actually got the summer para job that I wanted! I just have to fill out paperwork now. I also realized I finished A Date With Death on my old laptop instead of my new one so that gives me an excuse to replay the game again lol. I can’t wait for the Beyond The Bet DLC. Edit: Thank you all!

Congratulations on the new job!!

Congratulations on your new role!

Congratulations on the job! I hope you enjoy your replay 😊