Greenlight It! #8: Go! Go! Nippon! ~My First Trip to Japan~

Visual Novels are usually about telling a story, like what you guys could see on the last Greenlight It! which talks about Dysfunctional System. Now today's Greenlight It! will also be about a VN, however the purpose of this VN is a bit different than usual. It does still have a story to tell but it's main purpose is to act as a tour guide for those who are planning to go to Japan or just wanted to experience what it is like over there.

Greenlight It! #7: Dysfunctional Systems

Those who likes to read OELVNs(Original English Language Visual Novel) should already be familiar with Dischan. Juniper's Knot and Cradle Song are two of Dischan's Visual Novels that offers excellent art and intriguing story. Now, they have decided to enter Steam with their newest title, Dysfunctional Systems.

INheritage Trailer

I've posted about INheritage before and you can read it over here but maybe some of you will ask, "what does the actual game look like?". Well ask no more, because today the devs at Tinker Games has released a trailer for their shoot'em up game.

Games I'm Currently Playing, Feb 2013 Edition

It's been awhile since I've done these "games I'm currently playing" thing. It's not really that interesting, I know but I just like to share these as I like to share my thoughts on my blog. There aren't really many new games I've played currently but they're still pretty fun nonetheless. Here we go.

INheritage Preview

Indonesia was never really known for our games. Of course plenty of Indonesians works in the game industry, but as developers most are only known for browser or mobile games. INheritage is one such game, a shoot 'em up developed for mobile by the guys at Tinker Games. What makes this game different than the others?

KS Group Reading, 2 more days

So, those who've read this blog since a few months ago should already know that I love Katawa Shoujo. The subreddit for Katawa Shoujo decided to do a group reading of the Visual Novel and it will start on january 4th. Why January 4th? because it's the 1 year anniversary of Katawa Shoujo's full release.

For those of you who've played KS before I invite you to join in and replay the VN, relive the experience and rediscover your feels again. For those of you who haven't played KS before, now is a good time to start.

Check out the Reddit post HERE
According to the poll, we're going to do Emi's Good End route first, check the post HERE

I think I'll do a recording of my playthrough, I'll embed the video on a later post.

Cherry Tree High Comedy Club Short Review

There are plenty of games out there that are so hyped up but are eventually released and disappointing a lot of people. There are also games that nobody have ever heard of that are hidden from plain sight but are actually fun to play. In my opinion  Cherry Tree High Comedy Club would fit the latter. A time management game with anime-style art where you run around town to level-up your skills and try to improve your friendship with the other characters? sounds quite fun to me.

Otaku Motivator - Burn Your Fat With Me

Well, gamers aren't exactly the healthiest breed of humans and let's face it most of us really-really needs exercise. Most of us wants to change but we just need the right motivation. And really, motivation is really hard to find. But now, there's an app that will help with getting gamers that motivation to exercise.

Some...news

A bit late, but better than never :)
Humble Bundle 6 is out! it's a very great deal with Rochard, Shatter, S.P.A.Z., Torchlight and Vessel if you pay below the average price and you get Dustforce if you pay over the average price that people paid. As a plus, you'll also get each game's OST. And all of them are activatable on Steam! Buy it here: http://www.humblebundle.com/

Second, I want to make a shout out to some VNs that are under development currently that are inspired by Katawa Shoujo: Missing Stars and Love Despite. These two VNs will have almost the same setting with some different twist as Missing Stars handles the topic of mental disabilities(they got some flak because of it but I say if they handled the topic well, it definitely have the potential to be great) and Love Despite deals with both mental and physical disabilities. These two are still in development and I'm looking forward to playing both of these games.

Want to know more? visit their sites:
Missing Stars: http://somnovastudios.blogspot.com/
Love Despite: http://www.love-despite.com/

And starting today I will post whatever OST I'm currently listening to the post, just because i want to.
Today's OST is Stride, from Katawa Shoujo. Enjoy :)

Games I Currently Play

As usual, I post about games that I'm currently playing. At the time of this post I'm actually not in the mood for any game. However there are some titles that I've been playing these few days. Let's have a look :)

1. Katawa Shoujo

This one should be obvious since I already post a short impression of it 2 posts ago. But for those who still want me to tell you how great this game is, read on. Katawa Shoujo is a Visual novel, so expect to see A LOT of text and only a few choices a long the way. Despite this however, KS is a very enjoyable experience because of the great story. There have been mixed reviews by different people but the general consensus is that Katawa Shoujo is a damn good game and everyone should try and play/read it. Download, here: http://katawa-shoujo.com/

2. Analogue: A Hate Story

Got this from a bundle a few weeks ago. Played it for a few hours and only touched the surface of the game but I can safely say that this is an interesting game. People say that this is a Visual Novel and while it is indeed have the same basic concept as a VN it is IMO more interactive and has a more unique "feel" to it because of the setting and how the game interface works. The story is quite enganging even though it is shown more in the form of journals and logs with some short conversation with Hyun-ae the AI. For those of you who likes reading or playing VN, Analogue could be an interesting game to pick up. Available on Steam, here: http://store.steampowered.com/app/209370/

3. Guild Wars 2

Because this list is made in no particular order, Guild Wars 2 is here. It is actually my most played game right now although I don't play this as much because my character already reached level 80. However I still play the game regularly and still plans to play this game for many more months. I don't hink I need to tell any of you about Guild Wars 2 because it is really popular so...yeah.
Buy it, here: http://buy.guildwars2.com/

Games I'm going to play
There are sometitles I downloaded but still haven't have time to try. I will play these games eventually :)
- Juniper's Knot: http://junipersknot.dischan.org/
- Cradle Song: http://cradle-song.com/index.php
- Borderlands 2: http://store.steampowered.com/app/49520/

Katawa Shoujo

Well, I've been following the development of Katawa Shoujo since 2007. I've been on and off since then waiting for a release. When the Act 1 Demo was out I downloaded it but only played very little of it, mostly because at the time I was currently bored of VNs and didn't even want to try to start playing VNs.

Even after Katawa Shoujo was released earlier this year I only downloaded and installed it but never play it. This time it's because I was playing SWTOR at the time. fast forward a few months until last month and I decided to play Katawa Shoujo for the first time. As a note, I haven't even read any reviews at the time so I don't know what I was about to play. I only know it as "a VN about crippled girls", not in a negative sense since I always thought that if they are going to make this they would do it right and not some stupid fetish crap. I don't know why, but I just believed that.

I...was...surprised. After I met all the characters in the game and played for around 30 minutes I was already in love with the game. I love all the characters and their personalities(minus some annoying side characters) and it drew me in even more.

Since the game is still in development I've set my eyes on Hanako and decided to play her route first and that is what I did. Almost got into Emi's route but I realized that I've made a wrong choice and reloaded the game before I chose THAT choice(you know which one, the one which locks you into Emi's route). 8 hours later, after finishing Hanako's route I felt something that I haven't felt for a few years from playing VNs. Last time I felt this way was when I finished Aeka's route in Yume Miru Kusuri. I love it, I love every single moment of Hanako's story.

Even though most of the conflict are packed into the end of Act 3 and Act 4 it's a really really great rollercoaster of emotion or as most KS players say it "it gives me so many feels". The events are heartwarming and heartwrenching. That moment when Hanako broke down in the middle of the class really got to me and that ending, it was so beautiful, even if the story is quite short(and yes, I wanted more but what we have right now is good enough I suppose).

I almost don't want to do the other route after finishing Hanako's, just like after I finished Aeka's route on Yume Miru Kusuri. That feeling of "If I do another route, what will happen to Aeka/Hanako?". But I felt that it would be a waste if i did that(even though I really did that with Yume Miru Kusuri) and played through Rin's route, and then Shizune, Emi and Lilly.

I haven't finished Lilly route(currently in Act 4) mostly because I currently have so many feels that I don't think I can finish it right now. I got some problems IRL that needs to be dealt with and I don't want to ruin my experience with KS because of that. And besides, I'm having way too much fun with Guild Wars 2 :P

For those of you who doesn't know what the heck Katawa Shoujo is, I suggest looking at their website here:  http://katawa-shoujo.com/ . The concept might make you think "omgwtf cripple porn game" but the way they handled the topic is so good that you'll never feel that they are just using the "disability" part as a fetish object. Katawa Shoujo is much much more than that...and this picture here describes it the best:

Give the game a chance and play it with an open mind, it'll surprise you as with so many people who now love this game. The link to download the game is in the website I linked earlier. The game's free btw :)

Note: I wrote more about KS on GameQQ Max #7. Note that it's in Indonesian Language.
Download it here: http://max.gameqq.net/