#oneaday Day 177: A quiet day

I didn't play The Dagger of Amon Ra today after all. I figured there's no rush — my The Colonel's Bequest video is in three parts, so I can spread those out across this week and perhaps a bit of next week, and set aside a bit of time in the week or next weekend to play The Dagger of Amon Ra without feeling like I need to race through it. I have a trip into the office this coming week, too, so that will put Tuesday and Wednesday evening out of action, so no sense rushing things.

I will, however, be coming home from this office trip with a veritable armload of goodies that I'm very much looking forward to having a proper play with. Chief among these are the two Evercade Alpha units, which are the bartop arcade form factor Evercade devices that we've just launched. These are lovely things indeed, and the fact they work with the full library of Evercade carts (including the Namco ones, which won't work on the TV-connected VS system) mean that they might just become my preferred way to enjoy Evercade games. I'm especially looking forward to playing Star Luster on them; I feel like the cockpit-view space sim will feel nicely immersive when played with arcade controls!

It's a little late for Thanksgiving, but I'm immensely grateful that I was given the opportunity to work on the Evercade project. From the moment it was announced, I knew that it was going to be something thoroughly interesting and special, and now that I've been a full-time part of it all for quite a while now, I'm still thrilled to be involved. It's a platform that offers something genuinely unique in this day and age — and it's a system that, in one form or another, be it the dinky handheld Super Pockets or the behemoth that is the Alpha, I would recommend without hesitation to anyone who complains that they "don't have time" to play modern video games. If that's the case… play some old ones! They're still damned fun. Plus there are lots of folks making brand new games for old platforms (and in the style of old platforms), too, meaning you don't have to miss out on playing "new" stuff just because you've decided to play with a retro-focused system.

Next year we've got some immensely exciting stuff planned that, of course, I can't talk about just yet, but I'm super thrilled we have them in the pipeline. It's going to be a super-cool year for Evercade, and I hope that now we've stuck around for four years (having successfully launched right in the middle of the 2020 pandemic!) people will see that this is absolutely a platform well worth taking seriously.

Christmas is coming up, y'know. Super Pockets make excellent gifts. Evercade EXP-R, VS-R and Alpha make even better gifts. Particularly if you pair them with an armful of cartridges!

Anyway, enough selling while I'm off the clock. I'm off to go play a round or two of Donut Dodo before bed.

Want to read my thoughts on various video games, visual novels and other popular culture things? Stop by MoeGamer.net, my site for all things fun where I am generally a lot more cheerful. And if you fancy watching some vids on classic games, drop by my YouTube channel.

If you want this nonsense in your inbox every day, please feel free to subscribe via email. Your email address won't be used for anything else.

#oneaday Day 176: Take a Bow

Today, I played through all of the first Laura Bow game, The Colonel's Bequest. I enjoyed it a lot! You can read more about my thoughts on the subject right here, and a full Let's Play of the game will kick off on my YouTube channel from tomorrow. It's just three (long) episodes rather than a lot of 30-minute episodes like I did with The Case of the Serrated Scalpel last year, as I felt that fit the format of the game a bit better, and the overall structure of The Colonel's Bequest is… well, quite different from pretty much any adventure game I've played.

But enough of that. What's next? The Dagger of Amon Ra, of course! This is the follow-up to The Colonel's Bequest, and I'm going to do my best to play it through and record it tomorrow. I don't know if it's longer, shorter, easier, harder… the only thing I do know is that it uses point-and-click controls instead of The Colonel's Bequest's text parser, and it quizzes you on what happened at the end, so you need to make notes, just like Laura herself.

Then after that, I'll start having a look at The Crimson Diamond. Plus alongside all this, I might do something similar to what I did last year ("3 interesting DOS discoveries", "5 DOS games I always wanted to play" and "5 of the best early FPSes") if I can figure out what I might want to cover for videos in that style. I haven't started looking yet. Racing games is a possibility — a good excuse to bust out the Screamer series, perhaps? — or flight sims. Space combat sims? I don't know. I haven't decided yet. Looking at shareware stuff I used to like is also a distinct possibility, perhaps from the perspective of "shareware games I always wanted to try the Registered version of", since the only Registered shareware game I had back in the day was Wolfenstein 3-D, which I got for free after making some levels that were included in the official "Super Upgrades" expansion pack.

I've probably told this story at least once on this blog before, right? Well, regardless, I'll tell it again, 'cause you might be new around here. It's a story of delightfully happy coincidence.

Back at the time I was playing Wolfenstein 3-D on the family PC, I was involved with a local shareware library. I did a bit of part time work helping them out at local computer fairs, writing their catalogues and that sort of thing. I don't remember getting paid for this, but it was decent experience and I got lots of freebies from the shareware library, which was nice.

Among those disks that I got for free were numerous Wolfenstein 3-D editors, and they worked with the shareware version. So I made a bunch of levels.

I forget the exact circumstances of how the next bit came about, but I was browsing the GAMERS forum on CompuServe one day, when I found myself in contact with a gentleman called, as I recall, Carlton somethingorother. He was a representative from Apogee, and he was looking for new Wolfenstein 3-D levels to include in the upcoming data disk for the game. There was money on offer for anyone whose levels were included. After consulting with my parents — online safety and all that — I submitted my pack of ten levels to him, expecting never to hear from him ever again.

Imagine my surprise when a few months later, I got a package from the United States containing a cheque for $200, plus a registered copy of Wolfenstein 3-D and the new Super Upgrades pack, which included my levels, along with a bunch of other community contributions. So technically I'm a professional game designer.

But anyway. Yeah. That copy of Wolfenstein 3-D was the only Registered shareware game I had, because it was the early days of the Internet (in fact, via CompuServe, our "ISP" at the time, you couldn't even access the Web, and had to append "INTERNET:" to any email addresses you were sending messages to outside of the CompuServe service) and my parents weren't super-into the idea of sending $40 overseas in the hope of getting a video game back, and they absolutely weren't going to share their credit card information online. As such, I became intimately familiar with a lot of "Episode 1s" and not a lot else… so exploring the "Episode 2s" and beyond for some games I liked back in the day might be interesting, for sure.

I'll think of something. For now, I think it's time to just play something fun for a bit without thinking about how to turn it into an article or video. Come to me, Donut Dodo…!

If you want this nonsense in your inbox every day, please feel free to subscribe via email. Your email address won't be used for anything else.

#oneaday Day 175: I picked what to play for #DOScember

As you will know if you've been reading for the past few days, I've been mulling over what to do for "DOScember" this year on my YouTube channel. I was fairly firmly set on doing another full adventure game playthrough, but hadn't quite settled on what.

Well, after being recommended the excellent looking The Crimson Diamond, I'm… not going to play that right away. Instead, I'm going to play at least one of the games it cribs extensively from, and a series of adventure games I've always wanted to check out but never got around to: the Laura Bow mysteries from Sierra.

I've spent a little time familiarising myself with the first game The Colonel's Bequest this evening, and I think I've got a feel for what to expect now. This was a highly experimental game for creator Roberta Williams, and modern commentators tend to agree that it doesn't quite succeed at what it's trying to do, but it's a thoroughly interesting game nonetheless. That sounds like ideal fodder to play, talk about and discuss. Plus, like I say, I've wanted to play both Laura Bow games for ages and never made the time to do so.

For the unfamiliar, The Colonel's Bequest is a mystery-themed adventure game in which you play the 1920s journalism student Laura Bow, who has come along to provide moral support for her friend Lillian while she attends a family reunion of sorts. Said reunion is taking place on the plantation of Colonel Henri Dijon, a former war hero, and is, for maximum creepiness, in the very depths of a bayou in the southern United States.

Upon arriving at the mansion, Laura notes that despite the Colonel announcing that he has left an equal share of his fortune to everyone present (except Laura, obviously), all the family members immediately start being absolute dickheads to one another, and it's clear that mischief is about to be afoot. What then follows is a curious twist on the usual adventure game formula, where you, as Laura, must wander through the mansion and its grounds, attempting to gather pieces of evidence and knowledge that will allow you to leave the situation 1) alive and 2) with a full understanding of what happened.

The Colonel's Bequest mostly lacks conventional puzzles, aside from a couple of instances. Instead, the game is mostly about being in the right place at the right time to witness or discover things; the game is split into hour-long Acts, which in turn are split into 15-minute time blocks, and discovering something significant causes time to advance. It's possible to advance time before gathering important items or speaking with certain characters; indeed, it's possible to "finish" the game with almost complete obliviousness to what happened around Laura, and you are not penalised for doing so, other than receiving a low "Sleuth" rating in the finale.

What this effectively means is that The Colonel's Bequest is a game in which taking notes of what happens when, where, how and why is quite important, particularly if you plan to replay the whole thing. Having pieces of evidence or knowledge to ask or tell people about can lead to learning more about what's going on, and you'll need to follow all these threads to their various conclusions as much as possible to get the best rating.

I stopped playing for this evening because I don't want to spoil too much for myself. I suspect my playthrough won't conclude with me getting the elusive "Super Sleuth" rating at the conclusion of the playthrough, but I'm looking forward to giving it a go anyway. In typical Sierra style, there are some delightful characters involved, along with some fun narration, and this is what I'm really looking forward to: having an excuse to do some silly voices.

Anyway, yeah. So that's the plan. The Colonel's Bequest, at the very least. And if I get through that fairly quickly, on to The Dagger of Amon Ra. And if I beat that before December is through, then I'll look at The Crimson Diamond. After all, I felt like I should probably familiarise myself with the "source material" before jumping into something that is a direct and unashamed homage to it, right?

If you want this nonsense in your inbox every day, please feel free to subscribe via email. Your email address won't be used for anything else.

#oneaday Day 173: Staring down the barrel of #DOScember

#DOScember is the annual celebration of DOS gaming and computing on YouTube and surrounding environments (not to be confused with #DOSember, which is a Twitch thing) and, even though many of the original participants and organisers have become somewhat disillusioned with the whole thing for various reasons, it's still a fun excuse to bust out some classic MS-DOS games and remind yourself of how good early '90s PC gaming was.

I did a few videos last #DOScember that I not only enjoyed making, they also performed rather well on my channel. So I'm likely going to spend this December doing primarily DOS gaming stuff on my YouTube channel.

I'm thinking a few things at this point. Firstly, I'm quite keen to do another full adventure game playthrough similar to my The Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Serrated Scalpel runthrough from last year. (This wasn't a #DOScember thing, it was just something I felt like doing at the time.) I haven't yet decided what I should do as yet; on the one hand, playing something I'm already familiar with should mean that I can get through it without getting stuck, but on the other, this might be a prime opportunity to explore a game I've never tried for the first time.

The temptation when thinking "I want to play an adventure game" is to jump straight to Sierra and LucasArts, and for sure, they are all solid choices. But there were other folks making adventures at the time, too, and I think the stuff from them is worth celebrating, too. At present, I'm leaning towards something from Access Software, as these are games I've never tried, and I know at least some of them (the Tex Murphy games and Countdown spring immediately to mind) are fondly regarded.

When considering that I probably want to play these games as a Let's Play, I'd also prefer a game that isn't "talkie", so I can narrate and do the voices myself. It's a silly little thing, but I do very much enjoy doing this, so it's something I'm particularly looking for.

The other thing that I'll probably do is at least a few "pre-scripted" videos like I did last year. Last time around, I looked at early first-person shooters, games I'd always wanted to try but never had the chance to, and interesting discoveries I'd stumbled across by chance. Those are solid formats, and all of those videos performed well; I'm thinking I might do something other than first-person shooters for the first bit though. Perhaps space sims or flight sims? Those are ripe for exploration, and they're both genres I used to absolutely love.

Anyway, that's the plan for #DOScember on the YouTube channel. If you have any good DOS adventure game suggestions (preferably of the point-and-click variety, and preferably not "talkie", as outlined above) then I'd love to hear 'em. Otherwise, I'll see you on the channel!

If you want this nonsense in your inbox every day, please feel free to subscribe via email. Your email address won't be used for anything else.

#oneaday Day 171: The End of Grisaia

I've finally finished The Eden of Grisaia, and, aside from the prologue/after stories and gratuitous H-scenes, which I will probably save for tomorrow given it's getting late, that means I've finally brought this amazing trilogy to a close. Back when I first backed it on Kickstarter, I had been led to believe that it was one (well, three) of the best visual novels ever produced, and having now read the whole thing through from start to finish, I have to concur.

It's a long read, to be sure — the first game alone is somewhere in the region of 50+ hours, though the subsequent two are closer to the 25-30 hour mark — but it's one of those instances where the sheer length is kind of important to your sense of involvement with the whole thing; by the time you've reached Eden's dramatic finale, a big part of it all feeling so satisfying is because you've previously spent so much time with these characters.

And it's really interesting how the whole thing is handled. I won't go into specific details in this post as I'll probably do a more substantial writeup on MoeGamer in the very near future, but I will talk in general terms.

The Fruit of Grisaia, the first entry in the series, is set up in a typical "bishoujo game" format, where you make a few choices in a common route, then end up on a specific girl's route to see their story and endings.

The Labyrinth of Grisaia, the second entry, follows this up with a series of non-canonical "After Stories" which assume you're continuing from the good endings of each girl's individual route from The Fruit of Grisaia. But then it presents you with what it calls its "Grand Route", which, very unusually for what has up until this point seemed mostly like a fairly conventional romance visual novel, focuses very much on the protagonist.

Then The Eden of Grisaia picks up where the cliffhanger of Labyrinth left off, only unlocking its "After Story" and a short "Prologue" to the entire shebang after you've read the conclusion of the protagonist's tale.

Grisaia's protagonist is no ordinary man, you see. He's not a self-insert for the player, and you are not supposed to "inhabit his role" as you are in some other games. Yuuji, as he is known, is a complex, thoroughly fascinating character, and the way the trilogy gradually drip-feeds you the truth of Yuuji's full identity and background makes it consistently compelling. At the start of The Fruit of Grisaia, you think he's a bit of a weirdo who is starting a new life at a school that is also inhabited by a bunch of other weirdoes. Throughout The Labyrinth of Grisaia, you learn a lot about his past life that made him the way he was. And in The Eden of Grisaia, things build to a dramatic conclusion that sees Yuuji confronting his oldest and most feared foe in scenes that would make a Metal Gear game proud.

Yes, y'see, Grisaia's big secret, if it even is one at this point, is that it's not a standard school romance series at all, despite what The Fruit of Grisaia might initially lead you to believe. Mind you, with the high drama that occurs in each and every character route in The Fruit of Grisaia — which ranges from violent yakuza shenanigans to the post-traumatic consequences of having survived through a situation that involved, among other things, cannibalism — you'll barely be halfway through a route before you realise that there is definitely more going on here than might have initially appeared.

The series moves from being a tale about coping and moving on from trauma to some rather thought-provoking ruminations on war and terrorism in the information age. And it does so gradually and naturally; The Eden of Grisaia ends up in a very different place to where The Fruit of Grisaia started, but that just makes the journey feel thoroughly worthwhile. I can highly recommend the experience of reading through the trilogy, and I'll have more to say on the subject when I'm a little more awake.

If you want this nonsense in your inbox every day, please feel free to subscribe via email. Your email address won't be used for anything else.

#oneaday Day 169: Analysis paralysis strikes again

I'm having a bit of a "moment" this evening. I want to play something, but my brain is bouncing every which way while I try and actually settle on something to spend some time with. Part of the issue is that I've started several things, and when this happens I find myself feeling "obliged" to try and finish those off, but part of me also wants to experience something brand new.

To clarify: all the things I've started I absolutely want to finish. But I think I may have inadvertently overwhelmed myself with everything I have on the go already. So indulge me a moment, if you please, while I attempt to make some sense of what my brain is thinking.

Games I have started but not finished (and which I want to finish): Mon-Yu, The Eden of Grisaia, Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana, Yakuza 5, Trails in the Sky Second Chapter, Atelier Lydie & Suelle: The Alchemists and the Mysterious Paintings, Little Busters!, Rance Quest Magnum

Games I am considering replaying for New Game+/DLC etc: Final Fantasy XVI, Final Fantasy XV, Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin, Blue Reflection: Second Light

Games I quite fancy starting: Loop8: Summer of Gods (yes, I know it's supposedly pump but I want to try it anyway), Rhapsody II, Kowloon High School Chronicle, Collar x Malice, Nights of Azure 2: Bride of the New Moon

Games I feel like I "should" start at some point but which seem to get knocked down the priority pile regularly: Final Fantasy IV/V/VI Pixel Remaster

You can hopefully see the issue I have presented myself with: a veritable horde of long RPGs and visual novels, all of which I want to play and finish. And I've rather stupidly gone and actually started a bunch of them and left them half-finished, which is where my analysis paralysis is primarily stemming from.

So let's take those "games in progress" and look a little closer.

Mon-Yu: Dungeon crawler that I started on stream, but have subsequently been playing off-stream, because I'm not sure it's the best game to "build an audience" with. Has the advantage of being extremely light on the narrative, so it's a game that, in theory, can be dipped in and out of as mood dictates. Its main disadvantage is that it's quite tough, so rewards protracted sessions. It's not super-long, though: I believe there are seven main dungeons and I'm on the fourth. So a bit of determination can probably bash this one out before too long.

The Eden of Grisaia: Visual novel that I'm really enjoying and have been wanting to see the conclusion to for nearly ten years. This is easy enough to fit in whenever, since it requires no decision-making, just concentrating on the unfolding narrative. I am presently about 50% through its main storyline, though there are some other stories that unlock after that is completed. This is something that, perhaps, I can play over lunch instead of watching videos, since I can just stick it on auto and watch it unfold.

Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana: I love Ys, but I started this at the behest of one of my wife's friends, who was drunk at the time and wanted to see it. This means I'm not particularly invested in my current playthrough, so it's pretty much at the bottom of my priority list, and I might even just start it over when I come to play it "properly".

Yakuza 5: I also love Yakuza and am keen to get up to date with the series, but doing so feels a tad overwhelming right now. I am fairly early in this and haven't gone through much of the plot, but I have been enjoying the side activities, as is the law with Yakuza games.

Trails in the Sky Second Chapter: I had bold plans to play through "all of Trails", which was a silly thing to promise myself. I enjoyed revisiting the first Trails in the Sky, but Second Chapter's similarity to it made me feel a little burnt out going straight into it. I'm not far into this at all, but I'm far enough that I'm not sure I'd want to start over.

Atelier Lydie & Suelle: I was doing great on the Atelier MegaFeature over on MoeGamer, but I kind of ground to a halt with this game, not because I wasn't enjoying it, but at least partly because I started working on Rice Digital and thus didn't have time to commit to personal projects like this. It has been long enough that I think I can probably start this over when I want to come back to it.

Little Busters!: I took this with me on an overnight trip to work to play out of curiosity, and enjoyed the few chapters I played through, but again, haven't got far. Again, I think I would probably start this over when the time comes.

Rance Quest Magnum: Another game with Yakuza syndrome: I want to catch up on the series, but doing so is a daunting prospect. This game at least has the benefit that its early hours are relatively light on plot, and its quests are bite-sized, making it a game that you don't necessarily have to devote hours to in order to get the best out of it.

I'll also say it's worth noting that recently I finished Silent Hope, which was one of those games that had been looming over my head for ages, and it felt good to finally knock that one on the head. I also played through 1000xRESIST the other day, and enjoyed that a lot.

Thinking about things sensibly, then, the thing that would make the most sense would be to play The Eden of Grisaia when my brain is alert enough to read, Mon-Yu when I fancy bopping things until numbers come out. I drop Ys VIII, Atelier Lydie & Suelle and Little Busters! without guilt for now, and come back to them fresh and from the beginning when I'm not so overwhelmed. I review how I'm feeling after finishing either Mon-Yu or The Eden of Grisaia (or both) and consider whether to pick up where I left off in either Yakuza 5 or Trails in the Sky Second Chapter at that point — in other words, defer that decision until one or two things are checked off.

That sounds good, right? Okay, The Eden of Grisaia it is for now, then.

If you want this nonsense in your inbox every day, please feel free to subscribe via email. Your email address won't be used for anything else.

#oneaday Day 168: On The Spectrum

I got that new Spectrum. I was going to call it a Spectrum Mini, but it really isn't — it's a well-crafted replica of the original 48K Speccy, rubber keys and all, only it has stuff like HDMI out, USB ports and suchlike.

Like TheC64 Mini/Maxi, TheA500 Mini and The400 Mini, it's an emulation box with a bunch of built-in games (48 this time) and the ability to load your own stuff from USB.

As I type this, a vast collection of Spectrum games and demos are copying themselves to a USB stick, so I haven't had time to try that side of things today. I have had a play with some of the built-in games, though, and they're a really interesting mix.

There's expected stuff like Manic Miner and Skool Daze — though no Jet Set Willy, interestingly — but of particular note is the selection of modern indies that are included. There's some really cool stuff in there, including a 3D platformer called Cosmic Payback and and light-based puzzler called Tenebra, both of which I've had some fun with today.

The Spectrum is not a system I know well at all, having grown up an Atari boy. So I'm thinking I may chronicle some of my explorations and discoveries on YouTube. While I'm on, I've never really covered the built-in games on TheC64 and TheA500 Mini either, so between those three I think they'll make some nice companion pieces to my 400 Mini playlist and all the other Atari stuff I've done.

These systems were bitter rivals back in the day, but today it's easy to be in a position where you can appreciate all of them. And you should, because they all have unique charms, for sure.

Anyway, that's a loose plan in place that I'll likely start on tomorrow. For now, sleep beckons!

#oneaday Day 167: What happened to plain ol' fantasy?

This is a discussion I've had a few times on Discord of late, but I don't think I've mentioned it here. So, being in need of something to write for today, I thought I'd ponder it here.

I grew up being rather fond of fantasy — you know, swords, magic, elves, goblins, that sort of thing. I attribute this primarily to my brother's girlfriend of his teenage years introducing me to HeroQuest and the Elric of Melnibone role-playing game; I never played the latter but I did play a fair few sessions of the former, and even managed to convince my parents to get me Advanced Heroquest by Games Workshop for one birthday, which I think has successfully hit the table maybe two or three times in my entire life. (Lucky it has solid solo rules!)

Similarly, one (well, two, technically, I guess) of my favourite book series growing up was David Eddings' Belgariad/Malloreon cycle, which chronicles the rise of young farm boy Garion into a god-slaying hero and powerful sorcerer. Also of note was Douglas Hill's Blade of the Poisoner and its sequel Master of Fiends, both of which were really for kids, but which I enjoyed and re-read numerous times in my youth.

What do all the above have in common? They're all simple, straightforward, old-fashioned fantasy. I add those qualifiers because I feel we don't get a lot of simple, straightforward, old-fashioned fantasy any more. We get a shitload of "dark fantasy", sure, and we also get a lot of "ironic parody fantasy". But just straightforward, simple fantasy? That feels like a dying breed.

To clarify what I mean by these terms: by "dark fantasy" I mean a world where everyone is either miserable or fucking (often simultaneously), the streets are made of mud and the dwarves say "fuck" a lot. By "ironic parody fantasy" I mean "teeheehee, the heroes of this fantasy world know what a 'level' is and talk like they're in a Marvel movie!".

Both of these have their appeal — they must do, otherwise there wouldn't be so fucking many of both of them — but I feel we've reached a point where "subverting the expectations of the fantasy genre" is now more of a cliché than… the fantasy genre itself. I hunger for a good old-fashioned tale of swords and sorcery where no-one says "well, that happened" or "fuck", and which culminates in the plucky young hero, who came from humble beginnings, punching out some sort of god-like entity.

It doesn't even feel like we get this in video games much any more. Final Fantasy has very much gone down the "dark fantasy" route in more recent installments and I think that has been a positive move for the series — Final Fantasy XVI and Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin are particular highlights from recent memory — and a lot of anime-style RPGs play up the comedic angle somewhat. There's nothing wrong with either of these things — I enjoy both when I'm in the mood for them — but sometimes you just want something a bit more… straightforward, I guess?

I'm intrigued to try out Metaphor: ReFantazio at some indefinite point in the future, though I suspect that veers towards "dark fantasy", and I have several dungeon crawlers waiting in the wings that might fit the bill.

I'm not mad about this or anything — trends and tastes change, after all — but I just think it might be nice if we could see a bit more in the way of old-school barbarians-in-loincloths-and-wizards-with-beards fantasy. It was a defining influence on me growing up, and it would be nice to revisit that.

If you want this nonsense in your inbox every day, please feel free to subscribe via email. Your email address won't be used for anything else.

#oneaday Day 166: Only seven years late... and then some

Longtime readers of my blog and MoeGamer will know that the visual novel series Grisaia has been something of a defining influence on my media tastes for quite some time. Indeed, over on MoeGamer there's probably a book's worth of words on the first two games that I invite you to read at your leisure.

And yet. And yet. For some reason, despite coming to the end of second entry The Labyrinth of Grisaia in 2017 and being incredibly excited about the cliffhanger it ended on, and curious on how it might end up… I have only just got around to making a start on the final part of the original trilogy The Eden of Grisaia. I say "the original trilogy", because since The Eden of Grisaia's release in English, there have been numerous non-canonical spinoff titles released in the series, plus an entire second series of games known as Grisaia Phantom Trigger which, I believe, is eight volumes long. (Granted, I believe one "volume" of Phantom Trigger is a tad shorter than one of the original three Grisaia games, but still.)

Anyway, like I say, I have finally got around to starting The Eden of Grisaia. I was concerned it would be tough to get back into after seven years away from the series, but almost immediately I was reminded why I love this series, and why I've always considered it so important to me. So I'm definitely going to make reading through this final volume from the first trilogy an absolute priority, because I am thrilled to be back in the company of these characters.

But what is Grisaia? I mean, my simple answer to that is "go read the MoeGamer articles linked above", but you may not have the time to read a five-figure word count on the subject. So I will attempt to summarise the series thus:

Grisaia is, in part, a coming-of-age story about people finding their place in the world. This might not sound particularly unusual for a visual novel, and indeed Grisaia initially looks like it's doing its very best to be a fairly conventional high school romance sort of affair. There's an unvoiced male protagonist, a harem of young women who all come to adore him for one reason or another, nookie (in the 18+ version, anyway, which is absolutely the version you should be playing) and multiple endings.

But there's one fairly large spanner thrown in the works almost immediately, and that is the protagonist in question: Yuuji Kazami. He is anything but a "self-insert" or cipher for the player, and right from the opening moments of the first installment The Fruit of Grisaia it's clear that something is up with him. We join him just as he has walked 150km to get to his new school, Mihama Academy, and over the course of his interactions with the five main heroines, we come to learn that he has a mysterious "job".

Initially, the details of this "job" are kept exceedingly vague, but it becomes apparent very quickly that Yuuji is no ordinary high school boy. He is wise — and cynical — well beyond his years, and he uses this experience to help the heroines in various ways. He by no means acts as a "magic bullet" to solve all their problems for them, but his experience in the ways of the world helps him form an incredibly close bond with all five of them. In the original The Fruit of Grisaia, these bonds are implied to be exclusive, and indeed there are even "After Stories" in second part The Labyrinth of Grisaia that continue on that assumption.

But the main story of Grisaia really gets started in The Labyrinth of Grisaia. It's there we learn all about Yuuji's background — which I won't spoil here for the moment, but it's fair to say he is cynical, jaded and experienced in some curiously specialised skills with very good reason — and the whole thing concludes on a dramatic moment that effectively seems to take Yuuji completely out of the picture.

Now, it's a bold series that seemingly removes its protagonist from proceedings two-thirds of the way through, but that's exactly how final part The Eden of Grisaia starts. We switch to third-person narration and follow, for the most part, the exploits of the five heroines as they leave Mihama Academy behind and take on the seemingly impossible task of getting Yuuji back. We have occasional cuts back to Yuuji's present situation, but the focus is still very much on the heroines. At least it has been for as far as I've read so far.

This is a really interesting narrative technique, because it makes it abundantly clear that while The Fruit of Grisaia very much had a kind of "dating sim"-style setup in which you had to pick the right choices to get onto your favourite girl's route and then pick the right choices to get her "good" ending, The Labyrinth and The Eden of Grisaia have a very specific story to tell. Indeed, the main narratives of both unfold as a kinetic novel with no player input whatsoever. It's testament to the quality of the writing (and the translation) that Grisaia remains so thoroughly compelling, even after it takes away both the player's already limited agency in proceedings and the character they were supposed to be "inhabiting".

Don't mistake the switch to third-person narration as being boring, though. The Eden of Grisaia's narrator may be omniscient and non-participant, but they very much have a personality of their own, and they have some exceedingly entertaining remarks to make at times — usually at the expense of Michiru Matsushima, the group's resident "idiot".

Thus far I am very much back in Grisaia mode, and I can't wait to see what happens next. I also know that Grisaia games are a very long read — honestly, it's knowing there are probably 30+ hours of reading ahead that caused me to put off Eden for so long — but I am going to take my time and enjoy it.

In the meantime, if you've never explored the series for yourself, I still highly recommend it. Yes, it's a bit of a commitment to read all of it, to say the least, but it's a journey well worth taking. It's regarded as an absolute classic of the medium with very good reason, and my "Complete Box" version of it that I have on my shelf is absolutely one of my prized gaming-related possessions.

If you want this nonsense in your inbox every day, please feel free to subscribe via email. Your email address won't be used for anything else.

#oneaday Day 163: A thousand resistances

Having finished Death Mark II last night, I kicked off a recommendation today: 1000xRESIST, which is a game title I have no idea how to say out loud.

I played it for a good 6 hours or so in total, so I think it's safe to say I'm having a good time. I thought I'd reached the end, but then a whole new bit started, and with it being half past 1 in the morning I thought I'd probably better stop.

I don't want to spoil too much about the game because it's very much a "story game" that is light on what we'd call traditional "gameplay" beyond moving around various beautifully presented environments, but I thought I'd pen a few words at least.

In 1000xRESIST, you play the role of Watcher, a clone of the mysterious "ALLMOTHER", the sole survivor of a global crisis that wiped out the rest of humanity. An entire society of the ALLMOTHER's clones has apparently sprouted up and is functioning about as well as can be expected in a futuristic post-apocalyptic dystopia where breathing the unfiltered air causes all your bodily fluids to leak out through your eyes.

What's particularly interesting about this game is that you get to see the "past" of the ALLMOTHER via various means, and because your character is from a time period that is completely unfamiliar with concepts like "high school" and "boys", there's a marvellously "uncanny" feel to everything you do and see.

It's not overdone, but it is almost intoxicatingly disorienting to begin with. As time goes on, you get used to it, though; you learn the curious little phrases that have come about as a result of generations' worth of worshipping the ALLMOTHER, and you start to understand why this peculiar society functions the way it does.

There's definitely a lot to unpack in the narrative as a whole, as there's a swathe of different themes tackled at various times. It's intelligently written, never patronising, and dear Lord is it (apparently) compelling, given the amount of time I've spent on it today.

Thankfully, I have a couple of days off work tomorrow and Tuesday, so I should hopefully be able to polish it off in that time. I'm keen to talk more about it, as I suspect pondering it on "paper" will help me process the many varied themes it brings to the table.

For now, though, sleep beckons.