This one didn't work out all that hot. I filled it out a while ago and left it hanging around for some reason.

1. Bruno (Animamundi)
2. Ghaleon (Lunar)
3. Helen (Clock Tower)
4. Gotts (Clock Tower)
5. Morris (Lunar)
6. Dyne (Lunar)
7. Latona (Lunar)
8. Bad Girl (No More Heroes)
9. Odd Bunsen (Cat Who... series)
10. St. Germant (Animamundi)

( Cut )

I'm thrilled to see that someone's making Animamundi fanart, particularly of the caliber of Candra's work - bold color, strong Art Nouveau-esque lines, and a Lady Death aesthetic. She has other fanart and original work well worth checking out, if you've no problems with the frequent S&M milieu. (Er, but don't go to that Castlevania section at ( Read more... )

It took long enough for me to add an Animamundi tag; I was kind of reluctant to have one of my very first tags be for a game that really is half-porn. But I'm fond of the characters and the superb translation, and the game mostly avoids the missteps so many visual novels make to frustrate the player's sense of curiosity and desire to explore. It ( Read more... )

Overdue, I know. I'm going to be going back and forth between the cuts from spoiler talk to vague non-spoiler talk.

As I said in the music post, at its best, 999 is tense and gripping as hell. I don't have a copy of the original Japanese release, so I don't know if this is a faithful translation of a great original script or if Aksys just made ( Read more... )

Julious, Angelique: - It took me a good long while to come around to Julious; he's an easy scapegoat in the Clavis/255 affair. Upon reflection, though, 255 acted reprehensibly; her first act upon being awarded the crown was to order Julious to put a knife in his best friend's heart, and she deprived Clavis of his only emotional support at the ( Read more... )

Any gamer worth their salt can name a few favorite death scenes. How about, though, those that fell short of expectations?

Neo Angelique Abyss, Mathias: Not from a game, but game-based, and still my benchmark for unsatisfying deaths. Ange finally gets the guts to off a guy, and it's used as an affirmation of the eliminationist, throw-people-away ( Read more... )

Over at Jill Sandwich, Stacie Ponder is asking gamers to send her lists of their "ten favorite horror-based video games." I'm not well-played in horror, so here's my odd list of choices:

Clock Tower: The Super Famicom one. It's a horror movie on a cart, several things done superbly, particularly given 16-bit constraints - the multiple endings ( Read more... )

Mr. Bates, Clock Tower: The Struggle Within: I thought it was a real coup back in the day getting Roger Jackson for videogame voicework, but I guess this wasn't out of line with his other assignments if you look at his resume. Jackson's VA is an obvious highlight of the English version; I'm fonder of it than the voice acting for Shou, though it ( Read more... )

All right, let's try more of a mix this time around.

Bruno (Animamundi)
Ghaleon (Lunar)
Helen (Clock Tower)
Gotts (Clock Tower)
Morris (Lunar)
Dyne (Lunar)
Latona (Lunar)
Bad Girl (No More Heroes)
Odd Bunsen (Cat Who... series)
St. Germant (Animamundi)

( Cut, cut, cut )