2041: A Little Respect Goes a Long Way

Whew, that got pretty heated, huh? I make absolutely no apologies for yesterday’s post: it needed to be said, and I stand by every word of it. To reiterate: if you don’t like ecchi content in your games, that’s absolutely A-OK. The second you start branding people who do like ecchi content in their games as paedophiles, though, that’s when you cross a line from “opinionated person” into “total cunt”.

I’m really disappointed to hear of the number of NeoGAF bans that have resulted from the article I mentioned yesterday. (Still not going to link to it.) Quite a few friends — and quite a few new acquaintances — all found themselves banned simply for expressing dissent or dissatisfaction with the article, often in a polite manner. And no, that’s not just excuse-making — they really were polite about it. More polite than I was yesterday, anyway.

I’ve never been a member of NeoGAF. Not through lack of trying, though every time I have tried, my email address hasn’t been “good enough” for them to allow me in, whatever the hell that means. In one particular instance, it took nearly two years for my “application” to be rejected; I didn’t try again after that.

If it hadn't been Omega Labyrinth, some other game would have been the victim (and, likely, beneficiary of a ton of new publicity) of the latest round of outrage. — If it hadn’t been Omega Labyrinth, some other game would have been the victim of the latest round of outrage — and, it has to be said, likely a beneficiary of a ton of awareness it wouldn’t have had otherwise, so it’s not all bad.

NeoGAF is regarded by many as the de facto gaming community online. It’s where all the game journalists from the mainstream publications hang out, it’s where game developers and publishers hang out — in short, it’s a huge, centralised place to talk about games. Or at least, it should be: in the last few years, however, there’s been an increasingly tight leash put on exactly what is and is not acceptable to talk about there — and, relevant to what we’ve been talking about, a lot of the stuff that is outright banned from discussion falls under the Japanese gaming umbrella.

Trouble is, from what I can tell as an outsider to the overall community, there is pretty much no rhyme or reason to what is and is not acceptable. Senran Kagura is acceptable, it seems — or, at least, it was; a significant number of participants in the long, active Senran Kagura thread got banned as part of this latest nonsense — but something like Criminal Girls is not. Japanese games are the only games that appear to be subject to this much scrutiny; big Western games are discussed without any issues whatsoever, regardless of if they have any sexual or violent content in them.

I don’t want to dwell too much on NeoGAF because, as I’ve already said, I’m not a member there and so cannot comment with authority from the perspective of an actual community member. What I do want to talk about, however, is the broader problem that NeoGAF’s situation and yesterday’s debacle really highlights: the fact that it’s deliberately (and, I’d argue, maliciously) creating a divide between different “strata” of people who enjoy video games. In other words, if you like one of the “approved” games, you’re absolutely fine; you can continue discussing games and gaming culture as much as you like. But if you like one of the “forbidden” games — regardless of the fact that these games are not illegal, are not banned and are sold at retail — then your opinion is, it seems, automatically invalid; you’re not welcome to discuss it in the Internet’s equivalent of “polite society” and are instead forced underground to find cliques and subcultures who will accept you for your tastes, rather than everyone being in a happy melting pot respectfully exchanging opinions and learning from one another.

Dungeon Travelers 2 was the last game to come under the microscope for being responsible for all society's ills. Unfortunately for the outrage brigade, it turned out to actually be a really good game, too. — Dungeon Travelers 2 was the last game to come under the microscope for being responsible for all society’s ills. Unfortunately for the outrage brigade, it turned out to actually be a really good game, too.

As I’ve argued before both here and over on MoeGamer, this situation does a lot of creative works an enormous disservice. In my last ever JPgamer column at USgamer, I commented on the fact that a lot of the games that are habitually branded as “creepy” (or worse) by mainstream critics actually tick a considerable number of the boxes that these people tend to want to see as evidence that gaming is “growing up”.

Female protagonists? Or at least women in important positions with regard to the narrative? Sure; check out the Neptunia series, Omega Quintet, Criminal Girls, the Agarest series, Akiba’s Trip, Monster Monpiece, Moe Chronicle, Demon Gaze, Dungeon Travelers 2.

Unconventional storyline that isn’t simply “solve all your problems by punching/shooting/swording them to death”? Sure! Check out the Atelier series, Recettear, the Ar Tonelico series and plenty more.

Ambitious narrative themes? Sure! Take a look at The Witch and the Hundred Knight (coming soon to PS4!), Time and Eternity, Senran Kagura, Criminal Girls, Ar Tonelico…

You get the idea: these games don’t get anywhere near enough credit and are, more often than not, either ignored or derided by people purely on the grounds that they’re open and up-front about — in most, not all cases — wanting to indulge in a bit of light-hearted, cheeky teasing as part of their overall aesthetic. In some cases, the ecchi content is even used genuinely effectively to depict the growing relationship between characters; Time and Eternity and Demon Gaze were both particularly good in this regard, reflecting the protagonist’s sexual frustration and the growing relationship of trust and love between the player character and their main quest-giving “contact” Fran respectively.

Now, as Brad Gallaway wrote in his absolutely exemplary review of Dungeon Travelers 2, “people who are allergic to skin-heavy content might have a hard time getting past it to enjoy the game underneath. And honestly, that’s all right. I’ve always said that not every game is right for every person, so bouncing off of Dungeon Travelers 2 for that reason alone would be totally understandable.” This is the point that appears to be most frequently missed: games are not always for everyone. Sure, there are plenty of box-ticking focus-grouped triple-A games out there that are designed to appeal to the broadest possible demographic: they have to, because they cost an absolute fortune to make, so they’d better sell through multiple millions of copies to prove all the developers’ hard work wasn’t for naught.

I was specifically forbidden from even mentioning Monster Monpiece during my time at USgamer because of its provocative artwork -- despite the fact that it's a really interesting collectible card game. — I was specifically forbidden from even mentioning Monster Monpiece during my time at USgamer because of its provocative artwork — despite the fact that it’s a really interesting collectible card game.

But here’s the important thing: not every game is like that, nor should it be. Games with ecchi content are designed for a specific audience — and that audience cannot simply be defined or written off as “horny teenage boys”, as it usually is, though they are certainly part of it. In reality, the market for otaku games is male and female; young and old; straight and gay; trans and cis; and made up of pretty much each and every race, nationality and religion. The one thing they have in common? They like what they like. Simple as that. And these games are designed to push their buttons without caring what people outside that existing niche think of them. And that’s absolutely fine.

Tastes in art are complex, fluid, ever-changing, and one person can be into lots of things. You can enjoy high-class art and the most lowbrow of entertainment, and I know plenty of people who do. Likewise, you can also choose to enjoy just high-class art or just the most lowbrow of entertainment, or something middle-of-the-road. In the world of games, you can be someone who plays every “walking simulator” out there and believes they’re the future of interactive entertainment. You can be like my Dad, and only ever play Microsoft Flight Simulator. You can play nothing but hidden object adventure games. You can be someone who just plays Call of Duty with their friends on weeknights. You can be someone who has invested a thousand or more hours into Dota 2. Or you can be someone who enjoys games where anime girls have breasts and flash their panties.

Or — and here’s how you get the richest possible experience from one of the most exciting and complex forms of creative media in the world in 2015 — you can be into multiple things, and you can be open to new experiences. You don’t have to like everything, and you almost certainly won’t. That’s all absolutely, completely and utterly fine; the diversity in tastes is one of the best things about modern gaming, and the fact that month after month, all manner of different tastes are specifically catered to by developers and publishers is absolutely brilliant.

I maintain that anyone who hates Neptunia needs far more joy in their life.

What’s emphatically Not Okay by any stretch of the imagination is, as we’ve already said, shaming people for what they are into, regardless of what it is. Don’t like anime panties? Fine. Don’t throw horrible names at people who do. Don’t like Gone Home? Also fine; likewise, don’t throw horrible names at people who do. Don’t like Call of Duty? Also fine… you get the idea, no? To sum up: don’t be a total cunt.

A little respect goes a very long way. And gaming culture as a whole is not remembering that fact right now, and it saddens me greatly. Let’s all try and do our bit to make our wonderful medium a little bit better for everyone, shall we?

2033: #4favocharacters

As luck would have it, just as I was settling down to get this written, someone tagged me in one of those viral Twitter things where you post pictures of four favourite somethings (in this case characters) and then tag a bunch of new people to see what they come up with.

I responded relatively hastily, though I did make one substitution before I submitted. I kept mine to the world of games, largely because I think that was the intention, and also because if I start getting into TV series and anime I would have been there all night deciding.

Anyway. This seems like a good opportunity to expand on my choices. My picks were as follows:

Katsuragi (Senran Kagura)

I’ve already written reams of text on Katsuragi so I won’t delve too much into that again, but suffice to say that Katsu-nee is one of my favourite characters due to the fact that I think she’d be fun to hang out with if she was a real person. I question whether or not she’d actually hang out with a dude like me, of course, given that Senran Kagura rather strongly implies that she’s a bit gay — also the whole “I’m not a ninja” thing — but, assuming that sort of thing isn’t a consideration… yes, I think Katsuragi would be fun to hang around with.

The most appealing thing about Katsuragi is not her aggressive sexuality — though her self-confidence and willingness to pursue what she desires rather than moping around in the dark about it is something I can respect — but rather it’s that in her calmer moments, she’s the very model of the perfect older sister. She’s kind, she’s caring, she looks out for the people she loves and she’ll do anything to protect them — though she’s most certainly not averse to playing a prank or two to have some fun at their expense.

Senran Kagura as a whole is filled with deep and fascinating characters, and those who actually bother to give the series the time of day (rather than writing it off because boobs) all have their favourites, leading to frequently quite heated discussions online. I could have picked any number of the Senrans, but on balance, it’s Katsuragi that my thoughts keep returning to, so Katsuragi it is.

Noire (Hyperdimension Neptunia)

I love all of the Neptunia cast to pieces, but from the moment I “met” her for the first time, I knew that Noire was going to be my favourite. Twintailed hair, a tsundere personality, a propensity towards attractive but impractical-looking outfits with garters, belts and straps all over the place? Sign me up.

After spending a considerable amount of time with her over the course of a number of different games now (with more still to go), I realise that my connection with Noire goes somewhat deeper. It’s not just that she exhibits traits that I find attractive. It’s not even that she’s cute or has a figure to die for (man, Tsunako really knows how to draw curves). It’s that, amid the chaos of your typical Neptunia story, I find her to be probably the most relatable of the cast — with the possible exception of IF, whose world-weary exasperation with the nonsense she constantly gets caught up in nicely reflects the feelings of frustration and annoyance I often feel at the most stupid things our own world has to offer.

Noire, though, she’s an interesting one. Determined to always do her very best and prove that she “can only do everything”, she often falls foul of her own ambitions and desire to climb to the top of the heap. This is particularly apparent in Hyperdevotion Noire, where an impulsive act towards the beginning of the game throws the world into chaos — but rather than slinking away quietly to pretend like she had nothing to do with it, she takes responsibility and does her best to make things right, even in the face of constant and frustrating opposition.

Noire is lonely, too. She has a lot of what could be described as niche interests — though not quite to the degree of the yaoi-loving Vert — but doesn’t quite feel comfortable sharing them with anyone. The closest she comes to opening up to another person is with the player-protagonist characters in Hyperdevotion Noire and Hyperdimension Neptunia PP‘; it’s kind of sad that she has trouble being this honest with the people who are ostensibly her best friends, even as they’re honest with her. I suppose that, more than anything, is why I feel like I can relate to her somewhat; while I’m not a goddess running a country, I can most certainly understand the desire to shout about the things you’re passionate about but hesitating, not knowing what people will think of you if you do open up.

Maya Fey (Ace Attorney)

At the opposite end of the spectrum is Maya Fey from the Ace Attorney series, a character whom I don’t particularly relate to as such, but whom I find enormously fun to have around.

Maya is the perfect foil to Ace Attorney protagonist Phoenix Wright’s initially bumbling ways, and grows and changes with him as a character. Initially appearing to be rather childish, over the course of the Ace Attorney games she gradually shows herself to be a deep and complex character, holding enormous respect for her cultural traditions and a passionate belief in Wright’s ability to find the truth in even the most confusing of cases.

Maya and Phoenix’s relationship is kept somewhat ambiguous throughout the games. It’s clear that there’s a bit of a “spark” there between them, but whether or not it’s simply close friendship through shared trauma — they first meet as a result of the death of Maya’s sister Mia, which Phoenix ends up investigating and eventually solving — or something more is never quite clear. One can probably assume that Phoenix, being a few years older (early 20s to Maya’s 17 at the outset of the first Ace Attorney game) is understandably hesitant to even consider taking things any further, but frankly, I wouldn’t have been at all surprised to see them get together in one of the games. To my recollection, though, it hasn’t happened — though it has been a while!

Anyway. Maya is a fun character who is enjoyable to hang out with. Since the majority of the Ace Attorney games unfold from first-person perspective, Maya is the character you see most frequently, since she often offers observations and suggestions to “you” (as Phoenix) while you’re investigating the crime scenes. Spend that much time with a character — the Ace Attorney games aren’t short! — and you’re bound to develop some affection for them.

Hanako (Katawa Shoujo)

Games had captivated and emotionally engaged me with their stories before, but it was Katawa Shoujo that forged the tastes I have today. And, specifically, it was Hanako — though before we get into any arguments about “best girl”, I liked all the others; I just liked Hanako the best. And here’s why.

Again, like with Noire, I found Hanako to be relatable. And again, not because I’m in the literal same situation as her — Hanako has burn scars all over one side of her body due to a past trauma, and thankfully I am free of such readily apparent mementoes of tragedy — but because I recognise so many of her personality traits, her route in Katawa Shoujo was almost painful to play through.

Hanako suffers from dreadful social anxiety, much like I have done. Hanako’s is far worse than mine, at least at the start of the game — she literally can’t stay in the same room with people she doesn’t know — but her feelings of being trapped in an uncomfortable situation, of wanting to do nothing but bolt; they were all too familiar.

Hanako’s route is one of the most interesting ones in Katawa Shoujo because things sort of happen in a bit of a haze. When protagonist Hisao sleeps with Hanako, for example, it’s clear that the two of them were very much caught up in the moment, with Hisao unable to restrain himself, and Hanako unable to communicate quite what she was feeling. This leads to a gut-wrenchingly awkward scene after the fact where Hisao realises that technically Hanako never actually said “yes” to him. From here, the story can branch in one of two different ways: Hisao can either try and be overprotective of Hanako, which ends rather badly with her finally snapping and casting him out of her life, or he can quietly support her when she needs it, allowing her to work through her issues at her own pace, opening up when she’s good and ready.

It’s this last bit that I found particularly poignant. There are a lot of things with which I need help, that is most certainly for sure. But I’m someone who tends to prefer to have the satisfaction of at least trying to solve things himself. I don’t like asking for help, and I don’t like people interfering when I haven’t invited them — but I do welcome support and encouragement when I make it clear that I am in need of it. I understood Hanako’s frustration in the “bad ending”. I understood her sense of closure in the good ending as both she and Hisao come to terms with their own broken lives, accepting both themselves and each other as they both look forward to a future in which they no longer have to be alone.

1912: #WaifuWednesday (special guest: #BoobsNotBlood)

So Wednesday rolls around again, and as we established last week, that means it’s time for Waifu Wednesday.

Before that, a ~~short~~ hefty preamble, though, because it’s being discussed as something of a hot topic on the social media Interwebs at the very time I type this. I refer to the issue summarised under the Twitter hashtag #BoobsNotBlood, in which a number of people have begun pointing out the hypocrisy of popular media in being absolutely fine with graphic violence — the most recent example of which being the new Mortal Kombat game — but immediately shunning anything that has even the slightest hint of being sexual. (Unless, of course, it’s being used for advertising, in which case it’s fucking everywhere, no play on words intended.)

Mortal Kombat, to put things in context for those who are less familiar, is a series that has always prided itself on being graphic. Back on its original release, it was one of the first games to use digitised real actors as its sprites, and one of the first arcade fighting games to feature blood and gore splattering around the screen as the fight continued. Its most notorious feature, though, was the ability to perform a “Fatality” move on a defeated opponent — by entering a convoluted series of button inputs, you could kill your opponent in an assortment of overblown and violent ways, ranging from ripping out their heart to pulling out their spine. The latest Mortal Kombat continues this tradition, even going so far as to provide some of the most obnoxious microtransactions I’ve ever seen — the ability to buy tokens allowing you to perform these Fatality moves more easily without having to learn the button inputs. That’s a whole separate issue, though, that I’m sure we’ll talk about another time.

Anyway. I have absolutely no problem with Mortal Kombat, or indeed pretty much any violent game or piece of media. Violence has become so normalised in modern popular culture that, for the most part, people tend not to bat an eyelid at it any more. (There are exceptions; very realistic gore, torture and any form of depicting realistic violence against women still tends to make people uncomfortable at the very least.) That, in itself, is perhaps a concern for some people, but so long as you’re able to distinguish fantasy from reality — and pretty much everyone is, with the exception of people who already have some pretty severe mental disorders — it’s not a problem as such for your average adult human. (We could get into the whole “think of the children” thing here, but again, that’s probably an issue to tackle another day; I’m primarily concerned with people old enough to make their own decisions here.)

So violence is, for the most part, A-OK in the eyes of popular culture in the West. Sexuality, though, is a big no-no. And this is where the primary resistance to modern Japanese games tends to come from: because the otaku market in Japan — who enjoy fanservice and sexualised content — is a sizeable one with disposable income to throw around, that is the market that many anime and game creators choose to focus their attention on. And with good reason: you go where the money is. It’s the exact same reason we have so many annualised sports games and dudebro shooters here in the West: they sell.

You may not think that otaku games and dudebro shooters have much in common, but there’s one very important aspect in which they’re very much alike: people outside of their core demographic seem to wilfully misunderstand and misinterpret them, and then make a point of talking them down — in the process alienating the people who do like them — at every opportunity. I’ve been guilty of this myself over the years, but since throwing myself more into the things I love to the exclusion of things I didn’t like but explored because I felt I “had” to, I’ve become more content to simply live and let live: I’m never going to play, say, Halo 5 because it just doesn’t appeal, but I certainly don’t begrudge anyone who will enjoy it the experience of playing it.

A key difference, though, is that otaku games are a relatively small market in the West, while dudebro shooters make up the majority of the market. This is the complete inverse of the situation in Japan. The otaku games are seen as a minority, so they’re an easy target; I don’t know if their critics are simply trying to outright get rid of them altogether — I suspect there are at least a few people out there who wouldn’t mind if we never saw a doe-eyed moe girl ever again — and so it’s their controversial aspects — their sexuality — that tends to inflame the ire of critics who, generally, have absolutely no fucking idea what they’re talking about.

And yet, as Mr Matt Sainsbury of Digitally Downloaded said during a Twitter discussion yesterday, sex has been a crucial part of artistic expression since… well, forever. And yet the moment we see a flash of panties, a bit of cleavage, a provocative pose or a bit of dialogue about boob size, that seemingly invalidates the whole experience in the eyes of some critics. It’s painfully inconsistent and hypocritical to completely devalue an experience on the grounds of sexualised content when extreme violence passes without comment. (To clarify: I don’t have a problem with either, and believe that content creators are free to make whatever they like — or what they feel will be popular — without external pressure from people who speak from an ill-informed perspective.)

So with that in mind, let’s take a conspicuously sexy character for this week’s Waifu Wednesday.

This is Katsuragi from the Senran Kagura series. She’s a member of the Hanzou Academy, a school that trains “good shinobi” — ninjas who supposedly do work for the benefit of all, rather than individual self-interest.

Katsuragi is an interesting character in a number of ways. She’s arguably not the most explicitly sexual of the Senran Kagura girls — that honour probably goes to Haruka, who I’m sure we’ll talk about in the near future — but she is certainly one of those who is most comfortable with her own body, personality and sexuality.

This is an important and interesting point about most of the cast of Senran Kagura, actually; while the series is most widely renowned for its exaggerated jiggling boobs — indeed, the series creator has gone on record as unashamedly saying the reason the series exists at all is because he wanted to see pretty girls with jiggling boobs in 3D on the Nintendo 3DS — the girls aren’t simply well-stacked stick-figures, as sometimes seen in other anime-inspired work. Rather, in most official artwork — and indeed in the game, too — they’re depicted as having healthy curves and, in most cases, being happy with their bodies. (The couple of exceptions to this — Mirai and Ryoubi — have their dissatisfaction with their bodies explored as part of their own personal story arcs.)

Like most of the cast of Senran Kagura, it was not happy circumstances that drew Katsuragi to the Path of the Shinobi. I shan’t spoil her personal plot here, as it’s explored in more detail than I can give justice to in a few short paragraphs in both Senran Kagura Burst and Senran Kagura Shinovi Versus (and, presumably, the recently released Estival Versus, which is currently only available in Japanese). Suffice to say, though, Katsuragi has a fair amount of personal demons to take on, and a lot of sorrow to deal with.

She has two main means of dealing with these things: firstly, by acting as an “older sister” figure for many of the other group members, who recognise this and refer to her as “Katsu-nee”, “-nee” being a Japanese suffix to denote an older female sibling, but also often used in contexts like this where intimate personal relationships take on a “sister-like” quality. She is a character that her friends in Hanzou look up to and trust greatly, and often confide in.

Her second means of dealing with the emotional baggage she’s been dragging around with her is being a complete pervert, and it’s this aspect of her personality that is more obvious from the start. It’s also this aspect of her personality that cause many people to write her off as little more than a shallow, fanservicey character, but it goes much deeper than that.

Katsuragi’s perversions — particularly her habitual groping of her peers’ breasts — are a form of self-expression for her, and a reflection of the fact she has had to, to a certain degree, bring herself up without some of the normal “boundaries” set for youngsters. She herself refers to her behaviour as sekuhara (sexual harassment) and confesses in Shinovi Versus that she uses it as something of an icebreaker. Her peers don’t always see it the same way, of course — it’s a rather intimate invasion of personal space, after all — but as they — and the player — come to understand Katsuragi, it becomes more and more apparent that this exaggerated behaviour of hers is simply a front for how she’s really feeling inside; she maintains the facade of an energetic, enthusiastic, overly sexual young woman in order to avoid having to burden others with her own emotional turmoil; while others are happy to confide in her, she has some difficulty in being truly honest with them.

Katsuragi develops something of a rivalry with Hikage from Homura’s Crimson Squad. In many ways, Hikage is the polar opposite of Katsuragi, in that while Katsuragi is vibrant and, at first glance, extremely open about her feelings and passions — although as we’ve just talked about, the truth becomes apparent over time — Hikage is dour, emotionless and seemingly unable to enjoy anything. Katsuragi makes it her mission to try and get Hikage to “enjoy” a fight between the two of them, even though they are technically on “opposite” sides of the good/evil divide between shinobi. The two eventually strike up something of a friendship as a result; opposites, as they say, attract.

Katsuragi is an unashamedly sexual character who likes to show off — she explicitly says so when she performs her Ninja Transformation sequence in Shinovi Versus. Where critics tend to habitually misunderstand her — and the Senran Kagura series as a whole — is that this isn’t just there “for the sake of it”. It’s part of who she is, and that should be acknowledged — without shaming it — but, more importantly, it’s not the entirety of her being. She’s a complex, interesting character, and very much one of my favourites in the series, and that’s why I’ve devoted so many words to her today.

Thank you.

1906: Tune Out, Jump In

There’s something to be said for “unplugging” to various degrees now and again. Some people take this to an extreme and go out into nature without any electronic devices chirruping in their pocket; others might take a more modest approach. But it’s a good thing to do now and again, particularly when it comes to the always-on nature of the modern Internet.

I wrote a few days ago about how I’m coming to resent my phone and the compulsions it gives me to pick it up and check it even if nothing interesting is happening on the Internet. Between Reddit and Twitter — I’ve successfully purged almost all trace of Facebook from my life — I find myself drawn to look at what people have been saying, even if it’s been literally minutes since I last did so. There’s rarely anything interesting going on, to be perfectly honest, and even on days like today, where there was a temporary brouhaha over one of Polygon’s staff members having conveniently acquired the domain name for an upcoming new Lego game the day before it was announced (hmm…) it’s questionable as to how much “value” all that sort of thing is actually adding to my life. (Though I guess you could say the same about anything.)

Since my Xbox 360 controller bit the dust last night, meaning I can’t play Final Fantasy XIV this evening — I’ve been playing with controller for far too long to ever be able to switch to keyboard and mouse, even temporarily — I decided to curl up with my Vita and spend some time with a game I’ve had on the go for quite a while but still not got around to finishing: Senran Kagura Shinovi Versus. I also decided that I was going to sit and play it with headphones on rather than playing through the Vita’s admittedly not-all-that-bad-but-still-nothing-compared-to-something-good internal speakers. I also decided that I was going to concentrate on it and not even think about grabbing my phone during loading breaks.

It will doubtless not surprise you to note that the experience was considerably enhanced by the combination of these factors. The use of headphones meant I could enjoy the game’s excellent soundtrack and voice acting to the full without disturbing anyone — and also without anyone or anything disturbing me. In turn, this “cutting myself off” from the outside world through headphones made it a lot easier to not give a shit about anything my phone was doing. And by not fiddling with my phone during any sort of downtime like loading breaks or whatever, the whole thing was considerably more immersive.

I’ve long been a fan of playing games on headphones, ever since I first discovered Wolfenstein 3D and Doom had true stereo sound. It’s cool to play on a big speaker system, sure, but sometimes nothing at all compares to being able to completely shut yourself off from everything going on around you and lose yourself in something entertaining and immersive. It doesn’t have to be a game, either; it could be a podcast, an audiobook, a favourite album — the important thing is making sure that you’re free of external stimuli, and can simply concentrate fully on the thing you’re trying to give your attention to.

So now, having broken my concentration to come and extoll the virtues of this practice for you all, I think you all know what I’m going to head back upstairs and do right now.

No, not that, you filthy pervert. (Insert predictable comment about Senran Kagura here.) I’m off to go and see how the Gessen Girls’ Academy story of Senran Kagura Shinovi Versus ends. I may be some time!

1800: Pondering Some Games of the Year

It’s getting to that time of year where it’s time for everyone to start considering their own personal “Games of the Year”, as if someone declaring something their Game of the Year is in any way meaningful or impactful on the experiences of others. Regardless, many of us still do it, if only as a means of celebrating the experiences we’ve found the most memorable over the course of the last twelve months.

This year I don’t really have a single Game of the Year as such, but there are a number of titles I feel are worth making specific mention of. So I’m going to mention them right now.

Steins;Gate

Previously, I knew Steins;Gate was a well-respected visual novel and anime series, but little else about it. When visual novel specialist JAST USA picked it up for localisation and publishing, however, I knew that I should probably to play it, if only to know what it was all about.

I wasn’t disappointed.

Spinning an interesting, exciting but plausible sci-fi tale, Steins;Gate is an unconventional time-travel/parallel dimensions story featuring an extremely memorable cast of characters, a very well-realised setting (Akihabara and the surrounding area in Tokyo) and a compelling story that, although lengthy, certainly didn’t outstay its welcome.

Steins;Gate will likely prove frustrating to some due to its pure visual novel nature, and the fact that the choices you make throughout are handled in a somewhat odd manner by interacting with the protagonist’s phone. If you treat it as a multi-path story rather than a “game” as such, however, you’re in for an absolute treat: it’s one of the most exciting, thrilling and thought-provoking sci-fi stories I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing for quite some time.

To say too much more would be spoileriffic, but suffice it to say that Steins;Gate blends fantasy and (obviously well-researched) reality together to create a very coherent, solid whole that is eminently worth your time.

Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn

This one doesn’t really count as it came out last year, though I have been continually playing it since last summer, which is noteworthy in itself. Moreover, it’s seen four major content patches since its original release, expanding the content on offer to players to nearly twice as much what was in there at launch. Pretty impressive stuff.

The reason why I’m still enamoured with Final Fantasy XIV is the promise for the future. The next major patch promises to wrap up the 2.0 storyline with some sort of Exciting Happenings, then after that it’s into the expansion Heavensward (teased above), which promises all manner of new things going on — most noteworthy among them being whole new zones to explore, because although Final Fantasy XIV’s patches have greatly expanded the number of dungeons and boss fights available for players to take on, the game’s rather small world (by MMO standards, anyway — it’s still pretty sprawling if you go around on foot) has remained the same size throughout, with only the town of Revenant’s Toll in the Mor Dhona region undergoing noticeably significant renovations over time.

It’s been interesting to play a game such as this at high level for such a long period of time. I feel I know the game very well by now, but there are still things I am learning, and the most challenging stuff in the game — we’re currently working through the raid dungeon The Second Coil of Bahamut — is still genuinely challenging, even with high-level gear and a party of players that knows the encounter at least reasonably well. I’m looking forward to seeing what the future holds for Eorzea and its surrounding lands.

Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth1

Regular readers will know all about my love for the Hyperdimension Neptunia series, despite its numerous flaws. Re;Birth1 is, to date, the best game in the series, bringing in the solid gameplay of Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory and coupling it with a retelling of the first game’s story.

Neptunia’s core appeal for me is twofold: firstly, it’s simply fun to play. The battle system is hugely enjoyable — if occasionally unbalanced — and it’s that rare thing: an RPG where it’s a pleasure to grind.

The second core appeal element is to do with its cast of characters, all of whom I absolutely adore. Neptune’s hyperactive, childish nature is wonderfully contrasted with the tsundere personality of Noire, the quiet-but-occasionally-prone-to-rage Blanc, the “older sister” Vert and the other supporting characters, and the story, while silly fluff for the most part, is told in such a charming manner — featuring frequent fourth-wall breaking to bring the player into the experience alongside these cute girls — that it’s difficult not to sit there with a huge smile on your face while playing through it.

I’m reliably informed that Re;Birth2 and Re;Birth3 are even better, so I can’t wait to try them for myself: Re;Birth2 is coming West very soon indeed, and Re;Birth3 hit Japan recently, so we can expect it over here sometime soon-ish, hopefully!

Senran Kagura

I first encountered the Senran Kagura series early this year, and I’m absolutely hooked. Burst brought me an updated version of a game genre I’ve always been fond of — the 2D side-scrolling Streets of Rage-style brawler — and combined it with cute anime girls and a surprisingly strong story. Subsequent installment Senran Kagura Shinovi Versus — which also made it out this year — brought the gameplay into 3D fully intact, from what I can tell so far, and has cemented my love of the series. And as for Bon Appetit… well. All I can say is “L-lewd!”

The core appeal of Senran Kagura for me is not the fact that its cast is exclusively attractive women with massive knockers — although I’m certainly not complaining about this. (Aside: I actually rather like the fact that Senran Kagura’s cast is, on the whole, somewhat on the more “curvy” side than many other video game and anime characters — and not just in the boob area.) Rather, it’s about the fact that these characters are actually all very well-defined personalities, and the game explores them in great depth over the course of its unfolding narrative.

Knowing nothing about the game before playing it, I was very surprised to discover numerous levels opening not with short cutscenes then getting straight into the action, but with half-hour-plus visual novel sequences narrated from the perspectives of various different characters. By presenting the story in this manner, the player gets a uniquely personal perspective on the unfolding events as well as the opportunity to “hear” what they’re thinking as well as saying. Normally in visual novels, we only get to hear the innermost thoughts of the protagonist character — normally, though not always, intended to be a self-insert for the player and consequently deliberately rather bland. Here, conversely, we’re not playing “as” the girls; we’re getting the opportunity to learn about them by effectively riding along inside their head as they come to terms with growing up as young shinobi, often on different sides to their friends.

My experiences with the three Senran Kagura games I’ve had the pleasure of playing to date means that this series is now right up there with Hyperdimension Neptunia in terms of games I’ll happily rush out and buy without a second thought the moment they’re released. Not bad for a game best known for T&A.

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These are just a few of the games I’ve had the pleasure of playing this year. They’re mostly games I played recently, I’m aware, so over the next couple of days I’m going to rack my brains a bit and think about some of the other games I’ve played that are particularly noteworthy, and share the joy with you lot a little bit.

That and frantically wrapping presents. It’s nearly Christmas, after all.

1793: Oppai Cookin’

Been playing a bit of Senran Kagura Bon Appetit! over the last couple of days as a precursor to delving properly into Senran Kagura Shinovi Versus. And I’ve been pleasantly impressed.

For those unfamiliar with the series as a whole, here’s a breakdown: Senran Kagura Burst on Nintendo 3DS was the first game in the series released in the West, encompassing what were two separate releases in Japan: Senran Kagura: Skirting Shadows, and Senran Kagura Burst, which incorporated the story of Skirting Shadows and another full story with the five “antagonist” characters from the original. The two stories run in sort-of parallel — there are a few differences in terms of the events which occur, but they end up in the same place and conclude with the same events from different perspectives. The game itself is a modern-day take on brawlers like Streets of Rage and its ilk: you run from one end of a level to the other, beating up groups of enemies in order to proceed, occasionally squaring off against bosses.

Vita installment Senran Kagura Shinovi Versus is regarded as a “spinoff” — the numbered sequel Senran Kagura 2 is a 3DS title — but it follows on from the events of Burst and introduces numerous new characters as well as following the stories of the original cast further. It’s still structured like an old-school brawler, but this time gameplay is in full 3D, lending the gameplay a feel somewhere between Streets of Rage, Dynasty Warriors and Power Stone.

Bon Appetit, meanwhile, is a “true” spinoff in the sense that it’s not intended to be “canonical” to the main storylines of the other games, which are all fairly serious affairs about what it means to be a ninja, and how difficult it can be to grow up with all manner of difficult responsibilities and expectations thrust upon you. Bon Appetit, conversely, is about cooking, boobs and arses. Pairs of girls from the previous games pair off and engage in a cooking battle against one another, represented as a rhythm action music game played over the course of three rounds, with the loser of each round suffering the indignity of damage to their clothing — the iconic feature of the series as a whole is clothing destruction — and a comprehensive drubbing resulting in being stripped completely naked, covered in tactfully-placed whipped cream and chocolate sauce in order to pose provocatively atop the world’s largest cake.

Bon Appetit has absolutely no shame whatsoever, and it’s immensely enjoyable as a result. It’s lewd and it’s rude, but it’s also a lot of fun to play, feeling very much like PS1-era rhythm games such as Parappa the Rapper and its ilk. There’s a decent selection of catchy tracks — all originals, once again calling to mind PS1-era music games, particularly those with “character songs” such as Bust-a-Groove — and these vary from the fairly straightforward to the extremely challenging, with the two-lane note charts often being composed in such a way as to deliberately confuse you, a process made significantly easier by the backdrop occasionally being filled with giant gyrating bottoms and titties, particularly if you hit the single “heart” note in the song correctly.

In many ways, Bon Appetit is absolutely indefensible. It’s pretty much fanservice in its purest form — in fact, it’s striking a double fanservice whammy by being a particularly fanservicey game in a series already notorious for its fanservice — but in being this way it’s doing exactly what it sets out to do: to provide a fun, silly and enjoyable opportunity to play with a cast of characters who are genuinely beloved by many in a context significantly far removed from their normal situations. The game states up front that it’s not intended to be taken seriously, but manages to provide the player with an addictive and strangely compelling experience in the process, even once the initial appeal of “life and hometown” wears off.

So whatever you may find yourself thinking of it after what I’ve written above, I’m having an absolute blast. And you know what? I think I’m going to go and play a bit more right now.

1792: Company of Players

One interesting thing I’ve noticed in several games I’ve played recently — primarily those of Japanese origin that err towards the moe/fanservicey end of the spectrum, unsurprisingly — is what appears to be, or what I’m choosing to interpret as, inspiration from the theatrical world.

Take Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth1, for example, which I finally achieved the Platinum trophy for last night and consequently am (probably) done with for the moment. The Neptunia series as a whole is pretty self-referential, with protagonist Neptune in particular frequently breaking the fourth wall to address the player directly, and various other characters making it abundantly clear that they’re aware of the numerous tropes that they embody and that the narrative as a whole is based around.

In spite of all this, though, it plays things fairly straight (well, as straight as it can when Neptune is involved) right up until the final encounter between the goddesses of Gamindustri and the villainous Arfoire. Spoiler: the heroines prevail, justice is served and peace returns to Gamindustri, with a happy ending for all — even more so if you pursue the “true” ending — prior to the credits. And in typical Neptunia tradition, the credits roll is a loving pixel-art homage to classic games of yesteryear, simultaneously recapping several major points in the main game’s story while demonstrating the developers’ encyclopaedic knowledge of classic game titles.

It doesn’t end there, though; after the credits comes a wonderfully heartwarming little sequence in which all the major characters in the game address the player directly and thank them for playing. It feels very much like the video game equivalent of a “curtain call” in the theatre, with each character stepping forward in turn to, effectively, take a bow and allow the player a sense of closure — at least until the next game they feature in. Once that sequence finishes and you save your clear data, that’s it; the curtains go down, the lights come up and it’s time to leave the theatre.

But like the best theatrical productions and the actors who bring them to life, Neptunia’s cast is bigger than the individual games they star in. Rather, despite the games not really having a coherent, canonical chronology of what happens when — the series is very fond of rebooting itself on a regular basis — these recognisable characters simply come together to do different things every so often, whether it’s another big RPG adventure, attempting to make it as idols or fighting bad guys in a distinctly Senran Kagura-esque fashion.

The idol game Hyperdimension Neptunia: Producing Perfection in particular is an interesting take on the series in that it’s the first in which rather than the characters glancing sidelong at the player and making witty asides to them, the player is actually a participant in the ongoing story. In many ways it’s an opportunity to “meet” your favourite characters in a far more intimate manner than previous installments have offered; in fact, it’s rather more of a dating sim than an idol management game, since it largely revolves around building up your relationships with the four goddesses as opposed to actually trying to make their careers a particular success. To continue the theatrical comparison, it’s like having the opportunity to appear in a production alongside a high-profile star — though the game does take great pains to note at its outset that its events are not “canonical”, insofar as anything in the Hyperdimension Neptunia series is “canonical”.

I mentioned Senran Kagura above, and this, too, presents an interesting example of how a stable of characters can be reused in a variety of different situations. First game Senran Kagura Burst — actually a compilation of the first two Senran Kagura games originally released in Japan — tells a self-contained story whose visual novel sequences give us some uniquely personal insight into the way the various characters think and feel about what is going on. This format is continued somewhat in Senran Kagura Shinovi Versus, officially a “spin-off” but actually following on from Burst’s story.

And then you have Senran Kagura Bon Appetit, also known as Dekamori Senran Kagura. This game is, like Producing Perfection, a spin-off that is not intended to be taken seriously. An overblown, dramatic introductory sequence mirrors that seen in Shinovi Versus, before quipping at the end that you probably shouldn’t take everything quite so seriously, so here is a game about large-breasted girls attempting to cook each other’s clothes off in time to music.

Yes, you read that correctly; although Senran Kagura is most notorious for its large boobs and clothes-ripping mechanics, for the most part the storylines in Burst and Shinovi Versus are fairly serious in nature, exploring everything from young people coming of age, with everything that entails, to finding the true meaning of one’s chosen path in life. Bon Appetit, meanwhile, does have a story — one that I haven’t delved into yet, having only tried the “Arcade” mode so far — but largely revolves around the aforementioned cooking so hard your opponent’s clothes fall off. And then admiring them covered in chocolate sauce and whipped cream afterwards.

It should be jarring; it should be weird, but somehow — assuming you’re already on board with the series — it’s not. It works. These characters are being treated more like “actors” performing different roles, albeit as the same people. It brings a sense of comfortable familiarity to the game — like seeing a favourite actor on stage or on TV — even as the games go into all sorts of weird territory, both in terms of subject matter and game styles.

I think right here is one of the reasons I find myself gravitating so strongly towards this style of game more than anything else: I’m a sucker for good characterisation, and if I find a particularly loveable group of characters that I enjoy spending virtual time with, I’ll happily take that time together in any form it might happen to take — be it fighting monsters, training to be an idol, being a ninja or having a cook-off. Fortunately, I don’t see the Senran Kagura or Hyperdimension Neptunia series going away any time soon, so I look forward to spending many more hours in the company of these virtual young ladies as time goes on.

Sad? Perhaps. But here’s the thing: I’ve come to regard all these characters with genuine affection, even with the awareness that they’re all exaggerated anime-style tropes on legs. And that, really, is the essence of moe: the feelings of love or affection towards fictional characters who are specifically designed to elicit such a response. I’d say their creators have done a pretty good job on that front, really.