I haven't spent as much time with this game as I'd like to in order to be able to give it the full "Cover Game" treatment on the main site, so I thought I'd provide some exclusive impressions to you, dear Patrons.

Well, uh, I've already spoiled my main impression in the headline, but it bears repeating again because holy crap this game is good. Like, really good. Crazy good.

My trouble is that the PSP that exists in my mind's eye and the actual capabilities of that dear little system don't quite correspond with one another. The PSP of my imagination languishes somewhere around the PS1 in terms of performance and graphical fidelity — and indeed, some developers barely get beyond this standard — but in fact, it's capable of a lot more. A lot more.

To put it another way, I was expecting Ridge Racer for the PSP to look and perform maybe as good as the admittedly still glorious Ridge Racer Type 4 on PS1. I would have been satisfied with that. But then I booted it up and the damn thing exceeded my expectations by a considerable margin.

We have a game that looks to be running at a super-slick 60fps, and consistently. We have a game that incorporates lovely fancy lighting effects such as realistic sun glare and sunlight reflecting off the road surface. We have a variety of different environments and times of day, helping each track and variation thereof to have its own distinct "feel" through vibrant colours and its overall atmosphere. We have a game that is, in other words, absolutely oozing with style and overwhelming technical competence.

Perhaps most exciting of all is that Ridge Racer for PSP treats itself as a kind of Ridge Racer's Greatest Hits, incorporating tracks from a bunch of the previous games including the original, Revolution, Rage Racer and Type 4 — there may be more, but these are what I've seen so far.

And it plays well, too. Adopting the style of drifting introduced in Ridge Racer V on the PS2, the game has a nice smooth feeling to its control, even when using the D-pad for steering. In fact, I'd probably go so far as to say that in contrast to the later Ridge Racers on console, the D-pad is actually preferable to the PSP's dodgy analogue nub; I might feel differently if I was playing with the Vita's sticks, but since I have a physical copy I'm playing on original hardware.

The music's great, too, covering a variety of different styles including one track that has some absolutely glorious saxophone work, which is something I'm always in favour of on a soundtrack. So far I've only played the game through the PSP's internal speakers while my wife was watching The Great British Bake-Off so I haven't quite had the full effect as yet, but I'm looking forward to breaking out the headphones and diving further in to what appears to be a lovely soundtrack later today.

In short, if you — like me, I'm ashamed to say — have ever passed up on the PSP version of Ridge Racer but are otherwise a fan of the series, I encourage you to rectify that immediately. You will not be disappointed!

There are so many great games that have either just come out, or that are coming out very soon. I have pre-ordered most of them, and in some cases they've already arrived; they're all games that I'm keen to write about in detail on MoeGamer, so I definitely have some interesting things lined up for the next few months!

Here are the games I'm planning on covering in the near future. Let me know if there are any you'd be particularly interested to hear about sooner rather than later!

Rance 5D and VI
I've already set this for next month. I've beaten Rance 5D and am about halfway through Rance VI at present, which means I should be done with it by this time next month, when I'd come to write about it.

Rance is a fascinating series of RPGs that gets pretty much no recognition outside of the existing eroge fanbase, so I'm keen to talk about it in detail and explore its history, its extensive lore and, of course, the games. Expect more Rance in the future, too, when MangaGamer finish working on Sengoku Rance and Rance Quest.

Eiyuu*Senki
This has been out on PS3 for a while, but JAST USA finally released the adults-only PC version today. I have a copy of the rather lovely looking physical edition on the way, so this is very much on the agenda at some point in the near future.

For those unfamiliar, Eiyuu*Senki is a strategy RPG featuring genderbent versions of numerous historical heroes. It sounds like a lot of fun, and is supposed to be a solid game, too. Looking forward to exploring it.

Ys VIII
I've already covered the Ys series up to Memories of Celceta in great detail, but the first completely brand-new Ys title (i.e. not a remake or reimagining of an earlier game) for years is definitely worth exploring as its own thing. I will probably wait until the whole translation controversy is done and dusted with this one, however, since I'm keen to have the best possible experience from the outset.

Nights of Azure 2
I absolutely adored the first Nights of Azure, and am very excited to play its sequel. Not a lot more to say about this at present as I've been deliberately avoiding reading too much about it so I can go in fresh. I hope the music is still in the Castlevania mould.

Blue Reflection
The very concept of this one sounds interesting and arty, so I'm fascinated to take a peek. You take on the role of a young ballet dancer whose career is cut short by an injury, but who obtains magical powers. There's a blend of slice-of-life school days action and supernatural monster fighting RPG action, and some absolutely gorgeous art, so I'm looking forward to this.

Senran Kagura Peach Beach Splash
I always have time for the Senrans, particularly when they're doing something new outside of their usual hack-and-slash remit. Peach Beach Splash sounds like a really fun game, and I'm sure it will be backed up by the same delightful blend of tones and strong characterisation that I've come to love the series for.

Mary Skelter: Nightmares
Dungeon crawlers seem to be having a bit of a renaissance recently, but this one looks particularly interesting with its fairy tale-inspired characters, blood-splattered aesthetic and intriguing-sounding mechanics. This is another title I don't know a lot about as I've been avoiding reading too much on it, so I'm excited to go in "blind" when the time comes.

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Then of course, alongside all these games I have numerous titles on various platforms going right back to the SNES era that are well worth exploring in depth. It's going to be a busy few… years, I think!

One thing I've been keen to do with MoeGamer for a while — not just with regard to Patreon, but generally — is do something "physical".

Those of you who are familiar with my complete career in and around games will know that I grew up around magazines. My father, brother and I all contributed regularly to a UK Atari magazine called Page 6 (later New Atari User after it merged with its big rival), then my brother made the apparently wise decision not to go to university, and instead to jump straight into a job in magazine publishing, initially on Europress' daring experiment with a weekly games magazine, Games-X, and subsequently on Maverick Magazines' Mega Drive Advanced Gaming, PC Player and Dennis Publications' PC Zone before heading over to the States to work on EGM, OPM, 1up.com and later GamePro and Gamespot.

I wasn't quite so lucky with my career trajectory, though I did contribute on a freelance basis to a number of publications including PC Zone and the UK's official Nintendo magazine before my later stints on GamePro and, most recently, USgamer. It is fair to say, however, that being in print is somewhat "in my blood".

As such, to get to the point at last, one of the things I've been interested in doing with MoeGamer is finding some means of publishing at least some of my articles in a physical form — either a book or a magazine format. Self-publishing solutions are fairly widespread these days, so I've been investigating a few.

So far, I've found two that are particularly interesting, though I think only one of them will prove to be reasonably practical. I'll share them both with you for now, though, lest you too are interested in such things.

The one I've become aware of most recently is BlookUp, recommended by someone I follow on WordPress. This promises to "make a book of your blog" and indeed it appears to deliver on that; simply pop in your blog's details and, after a short loading break, you can easily import your content (including images and video thumbnails), tweak it as necessary and then have it laid out automatically (albeit fairly basically) into a book for you. It's a neat service with an excellent preview function, but it seems to be quite pricey for what you get, so it's not entirely practical for what I want to do, I don't think.

The other that I'm much more interested in — but which requires a lot more work — is Blurb. This offers a really solid suite of tools for assembling self-published books and magazines of various types, and even has some downloadable software to use that doesn't suck. (Anyone who has ever used, say, proprietary CD labelling software will know how much of a crapshoot this sort of thing can be.) I've previously done an experimental book based on my Senran Kagura Estival Versus articles and it came out really beautifully in terms of quality, but again was a little pricey for what I wanted — but then I did use the highest possible quality settings.

What I'm going to experiment with when I have a moment is Blurb's magazine option, which seems to be much cheaper. I'm interested to see what the quality and pricing is like — first impressions are that it's a lot more practical, but as with most of these things, it will depend on how many pages are involved. If it proves to be a practical option, I'll look into both selling them separately and providing them as a tier of Patreon reward, like a "subscription".

I'll keep you posted!

Not long after Dream Daddy, another Western-developed visual novel themed around gay men has hit Steam: Coming Out on Top. While I applaud the efforts of developers to cater to both the gay male and fujoshi crowd, I was struck by the quoted comments from the reviews on the Steam store page.

Pretty solid reviews, I'm sure you'll agree, yet they leave a bit of a bad taste in my mouth. Why? Because these comments would never be made by a publication such as Rock, Paper, Shotgun or Eurogamer with regard to a visual novel or dating sim that was aimed at heterosexual men and/or homosexual women. In fact, visual novels or dating sims aimed at heterosexual men and/or homosexual women are lucky to get covered at all by mainstream publications.

Let's take something like the Grisaia series as an example. These aren't "dating sims" as such, but they feature narrative routes that can be distinguished by which of the games' five heroines they focus on. Everything Queerty says about Coming Out on Top can also be applied to Grisaia: it is sharp and well-written, it's witty, it has believably goofy characters who show multiple facets to their personalities, and its sex scenes are incredibly hot. I still hold Grisaia up as a prime example of how 18+ versions can be superior to all-ages editions, simply because its erotic scenes are not only incredibly hot, they're also integral to character development and make a great deal of sense.

I have to admit that while I have nothing against Dream Daddy and Coming Out on Top and, indeed, as I say, welcome the fact that hungry gay men and fujoshi are being catered to — both are underserved markets in the West — it's somewhat galling that experiences that do the exact same thing for heterosexual men and/or gay women are ignored at best, unreasonably censured as being misogynist or sexist at worst.

The most galling thing is the fact that games like Dream Daddy and Coming Out on Top are often being hailed with ridiculous hyperbole like "the best game ever" (obviously not intended to be taken seriously, but still) and the implication that they are something new, exciting and daring, whereas the concept they are based on is nothing new. Visual novels and dating sims have been around for a long time now, even in the West, and the fact that the intended audience for many of them is heterosexual men doesn't preclude them from having excellent characters. In fact, as many long-time visual novel fans will happily tell you at great length, female characters typically get way more development and characterisation than males… though Grisaia's Yuuji is an admitted exception in this regard!

All this is why, so far as I'm concerned, sites like MoeGamer and others who pay attention to the wider market of visual novels are important. Many of these games are great, and despite having a specific target audience, can often appeal to people outside of their core demographic through compelling narratives, witty writing and strong characterisation.

As I've said a number of times already, I don't begrudge the success and positive reception of titles like Dream Daddy and Coming Out on Top. But I do object to the double standards on display here. I want to see good works of this type featuring heterosexual relationships celebrated and enjoying some success, too — because they're simply not at the moment.

This is almost certainly part of the toxic culture of political correctness surrounding mainstream games coverage, where anything that can be tied to the amorphous "queer" identity must be celebrated at every opportunity, and anything that might appeal to the terrible evil white straight male (Japanese straight men also fall into this category, despite not technically being "white") must be demonised whenever possible. It sucks, and it needs to stop; everybody should be able to enjoy whatever they like and celebrate it without guilt, regardless of preferences, orientation or… well, anything, really.

If you'd like to read some of my own work on visual novels of this type and haven't already, have some links — feel free to share, too, please!

Grisaia
Frontwing's incredible series about the unusual young man Kazami Yuuji and the equally remarkable young women who become his "family" of sorts.

Ne no Kami
A visual novel based around Shinto myths and legends, with a touch of Lovecraft and Norse mythology thrown in for good measure.

Nekopara
An adorable series of kinetic novels about catgirls starting a new life with their master.

Fate/stay night
An epic, lengthy tale (well, three epic, lengthy tales) about supernatural forces battling for the Holy Grail in modern-day Japan.

Katawa Shoujo
A heartwarming tale about learning to live with disabilities, and how people learn not to let themselves be defined by their shortcomings.

School of Talent
A story about growing up unremarkable in an environment surrounded by utterly remarkable people, and how you can form a connection with another person in that situation.

Supipara
A tale about rebuilding your life after a major upheaval, rediscovering the people and the things that are important to you… and determining whether or not the local witch really has your best interests at heart!

A sincere thank you to you for your support; it's times like this where I feel like what I do with MoeGamer — and what other people I know do with their own sites, too — is all the more important, so I intend to keep celebrating these great games as much as I can, and hopefully at least a few people will pay attention along the way!

Since Fate/stay night's coverage ended up being so close to the wire (I was still finishing off Heaven's Feel right up until the end of the month!) I decided to get started on next month's games nice and early so I'd be able to write about them in plenty of time. (This is also why I chose the Ridge Racer series for this month's coverage — aside from the fact I love it, it's also rather less time-consuming to revise, research and write about!)

As I've noted a couple of times previously, I decided to cover MangaGamer's recent(ish) release of Rance 5D and Rance VI next month. Rance is a series that I have previously only had a passing familiarity with. I never played any of the old Japanese versions or fan translations, and my only real contact with it was with a friend I used to podcast with mentioning Sengoku Rance a few years back, and him having a lot of very positive things to say about it.

I'll delve a bit more into what Rance is all about next month for those who are unfamiliar with it, but suffice to say for now that it's a particularly interesting series to examine because it's actually one of the longest-running series of PC games out there, especially from Japanese developers. Beginning in 1989 on NEC's PC-98 platform and later moving to Windows-based systems, Rance is nearly as old as Square's venerable Final Fantasy series, and has seen as much if not more "reinvention" over the years, taking in adventure games with RPG elements, dungeon crawlers, top-down RPGs, grand strategy games and even installments that defy easy description such as Rance 5D.

Rance is noteworthy for having a protagonist who defies pretty much every JRPG hero convention there is. He's selfish, arrogant, generally only in things for his own benefit (or at least he takes great pains to put that impression across) and rather prone to treating people around him in a less than gentlemanly manner, even going so far as to sexually assault enemies and allies alike should the opportunity arise — but he also steps up to the plate when needed, and will use his considerable strength for others' benefit if there's something in it for him. In D&D terms he's hovering somewhere around the Chaotic Neutral mark; he certainly does things that are indisputably "evil", but likewise it's clear that there's good in him too. Sometimes.

In other words, he's a deeply fascinating character, even if he is absolutely morally repugnant on paper. (In practice, I must confess he and the characters around him are written with such wit that it's hard to truly dislike him even as he gets up to his most questionable activities.) As such, I'm greatly looking forward to exploring him and his games in detail.

I already beat Rance 5D and was so struck with how much I enjoyed the experience that I've already composed my article on the subject for next month. Now I'm delving into the much more substantial Rance VI and having a great time with it. I was expecting what you often get with Japanese PC games, which was a visual novel with some lightweight RPG elements, but no; this is a full-on, super-deep dungeon-crawling RPG with really interesting and creative mechanics, great characters, cool level design and some badass music.

I can't wait to share my thoughts with you in more detail — and I will also most certainly be preordering both Sengoku Rance and Rance Quest Magnum when MangaGamer make them available!

Those of you who have known me for a while will know that I adore having a physical collection of games. I'm by no means one of those people who's all "no physical, no buy", but where the option exists to have a physical copy, I will most definitely take a physical copy.

This option doesn't always exist, however — and in the cases where I get review copies, I'll inevitably receive digital versions instead because those don't have to be "shipped" anywhere. So, what to do in that situation, then?

Why, roll your own, of course.

Okay, I'll grant you this isn't an option that is going to appeal to everyone given that it takes time, effort, expenditure and resources to do this, but I like having these things on my shelf, so if that means I have to print my own inlays and labels, so be it!

I don't just do this to fill my shelves up for the sake of it, either; I find that having a physical copy of something is an excellent reminder that you actually own something rather than it ending up buried deep within a purchase history list, email account or Steam library. It's a nice memento of having actually played something (as in these instances, all these cases are for games I've played and enjoyed) as well as a reminder for a year or two (or more!) down the road that I might want to revisit one or two things.

There's a more mundane, practical reason for it, too: archival and backups. In the case of something like Fate/stay night, which never got an official English release, but which has received a wide variety of patches and updates from the fan community, I'm keen to preserve those efforts in a form that I can easily show to someone else, install on a new computer in a few years' time, or just look back fondly on.

It also, to me, instills these games with a greater sense of "value" — as soon as they become physical copies they become actual possessions rather than just something you downloaded on a whim one day. They're something to be enjoyed rather than just passively consumed.

So how do I go about this? Well, I don't do anything particularly complicated. I simply knock up a quick case design in OpenOffice Draw (template attached to this post!) using official box art where it exists in suitably high resolution, or using other high-resolution official art that I just like the look of in other cases.

On the spine I try to include the authentic logo where possible (and where it's readable!) otherwise I'll go for an approximation using the same fonts, colour schemes and designs. And on the back, I just use another piece of artwork; while it's tempting to mock up screenshots, blurb, system requirements and suchlike, there's really no need to, and where actual box scans exist, they're inevitably much too low resolution to print at any decent quality.

I then print the artwork at the highest possible quality onto A4 photo paper, then trim it down to size with a guillotine. The photo paper gives a lovely glossy finish and really makes the colours shine much more than with plain paper.

And that's how they look on a shelf alongside "real" physical editions. Pretty nice, non?