Hello, patrons, prospective patrons and people just looking for a convenient roundup of the week. Here's what you might have missed on MoeGamer this week!

The MoeGamer GameCast, Episode 6: ZAWAZAWAZAWA
Midori, Yumi, Penelope and I discuss the matter of "auteurs" in video games, and how this is a much more common phenomenon in Japanese development than here in the West. We also talk a bit about the rather disturbing but awesome anime Kaiji.

From the Archives: Birds Suddenly Appear Every Time You Are Nier
With no apologies for the title, here's an article that I originally published on Games Are Evil back in 2012, focusing on Taro Yoko's rather wonderful Nier, the sequel to which has come out recently and which my friend Chris' wife will only refer to as "sad game".

Ne no Kami: Love, Innocence and Ayakashi
The big Cover Game feature for the week, we look in detail at the main narrative of Ne no Kami: The Two Princess Knights of Kyoto, with particular attention paid to the protagonist Len and her development over the course of the complete story. Ne no Kami is a thoroughly lovely yuri visual novel that you should check out if you like creative use of Japanese mythology, cute girls who love other cute girls, and a meaty, interesting story to get your teeth into.

Wii U Essentials: Super Mario Maker
A look back on one of the Wii U's coolest titles: a resurgence of the standalone "construction set", the likes of which we haven't really seen since the '80s and '90s.

From the Archives: Aselia the Eternal's World Made of Words
Another article recovered from defunct site Games Are Evil, this time looking at visual novel Aselia the Eternal from Xuse and JAST USA, and how it manages to build a thoroughly convincing fantasy world without actually allowing you to freely explore it.

Shmup Essentials: Zangeki Warp
Like shoot 'em ups that do things a little differently? Astro Port's Zangeki Warp combines the Gradius-style blasting of its spiritual predecessor Satazius with the point-to-point warping of FuturLab's Velocity to create something altogether rather special — and something that very much wants to kill you.

Thank you once again for your continued support of what I'm doing with MoeGamer. Please continue to show your support by following me on Twitter, liking, sharing and retweeting my articles and also pointing family and friends in the direction of this page. Don't forget I have some new goals  in mind for various milestones of monthly donations — it'd be great to achieve at least one of them.

I'd love for MoeGamer to help me get paid for doing what I love — and what I'm good at — so please consider a small pledge per month if you like what I'm doing, or if you can't stretch to that just some enthusiastic sharing on social media is very much appreciated!

I've set some new milestones for donations with more concrete "consequences" for meeting them. Your continued help and support is very much appreciated, and helps make MoeGamer continue its work as The Place to Be for in-depth exploration of Japanese games and visual novels — and, of course, those works inspired by the Japanese, too.

Here's a breakdown of the new goals.

At $50 per month, I'll arrange some web hosting for the browser-based versions of my "podcast as a visual novel", the GameCast. This means that you'll be able to play and enjoy them online rather than having to download them, which will be much more convenient for everyone.

At $100 per month, I'll sign up for WordPress' premium services, which will remove all ads from MoeGamer and add some additional functionality such as the ability to self-host audio and video. This means less reliance on external services such as YouTube, and more in the way of exciting multimedia articles.

At $300 per month, I'll invest in some proper streaming and capture equipment so I'll be able to produce more video content, hopefully on a regular basis. I'll also be able to expand my collection quite considerably, exploring an even broader array of games than I do already.

Please continue to read, enjoy and, most importantly, share the articles you enjoy on MoeGamer — and also do dip in to the other content across the site, too. You never know, you might find a new favourite to explore! Try clicking the "Anything!" button on the menu bar at the top of the site to jump right to a random article.

MoeGamer is a passion project but I'd love to turn it into something more. I can only do that with your help! Your continued support is appreciated.

Hello! Here's what you might have missed in the last week on MoeGamer.

The MoeGamer GameCast, Episode 5: The Stacey Dooley Incident
We talk about the BBC Three documentary "Young Sex for Sale in Japan", in which reporter Stacey Dooley made some rather bold accusations about Japan… and which a number of Japanese writers and artists responded rather strongly to.

Eorzean Diary: Lonely Explorer
Ponderings on Final Fantasy XIV's Palace of the Dead, one of the game's most unusual and interesting pieces of content.

Ne no Kami: Exploring Shinto Myths and Legends
First of this month's Cover Game articles, we explore how visual novel Ne no Kami: The Two Princess Knights of Kyoto makes use of Japanese mythology to form a backdrop to its action.

Wii U Essentials: Xenoblade Chronicles X
We look at one of the Wii U's most unusual and distinctive games — not to mention one of the most unusual and distinctive JRPGs there ever was. Xenoblade Chronicles X is a perpetually misunderstood and underrated game that is one of the console's finest titles.

Shmup Essentials: Minus Zero
Triangle Service's unusual "only lock-on shooting" game is a lot of fun, and a great way to while away a few minutes… or a few hours if you're anything like me and can't quite tear yourself away from just one more attempt.

From the Archives: I Will Fly You To the Moon and Back
A piece originally published on Games Are Evil back in 2012 that explores Freebird Games' beautiful narrative-centric adventure To The Moon.

Episode 6 of the GameCast  was released today, too. We talk about "auteur theory", Taro Yoko, Nier Automata, Neptunia in VR and bleak anime Kaiji.

Hello everyone! I've inadvertently forgotten to link a few posts on here recently, so here's a summary post of what you might have missed in the last week or two:

The MoeGamer GameCast  is my new, experimental "podcast as a visual novel", featuring discussion about games, anime, criticism and the news… as well as a few other mysteries along the way, too. Start from the Pilot episode if you want the full story; they only take about 10-15 minutes each to play through.

Wii U Essentials  has continued with a look at a few more fine games from the troubled console's library, including Twilight Princess HD and Super Mario 3D World.

READ.ME  is a column I've recovered from the Internet archives courtesy of the ever-wonderful Wayback Machine. Originally published in 2012-2013, it explores a variety of visual novels and topics surrounding this unique, narrative-centric niche of gaming.

And, of course, February's Cover Game coverage has continued with in-depth articles on Suou Amane  and Kazami Yuuji  from the Grisaia series.

I've also added a new button on the MoeGamer menu bar to take you to a random post. Check it out; you might find yourself reading about something you'd never considered taking a look at! Click here  or click the "Anything!" button on the top menu to surprise yourself.

The lineup for the next few months of Cover Games is as follows:

March: Ne no Kami and Sacrament of the Zodiac, two yuri-themed visual novels from Kuro Iroduru Yomiji (localised by Sekai Project/Denpasoft) with a shared setting and characters.

April: Nier Automata from Square Enix. Given how much I loved the original Nier, and how much I'm looking forward to this game, there ain't no way I'm not writing a ton of words about it!

May: Xanadu Next from Falcom and Xseed, a retro action dungeon crawler with Falcom's typically deep mechanics and worldbuilding.

Thanks once again for your continued support of long-form, positive writing about these underappreciated, often overlooked games. Please do share both the MoeGamer site and this Patreon page with your family, friends and social media followers and help show that there's still a place for this kind of coverage in a world increasingly dominated by outrage-led clickbait and hasty, kneejerk reactions!