Now that’s what Zwei should have been.
Sunrise has redeemed themselves, albeit with new girls so it takes the wind out of my theory, but hey, I’ll gladly take over the top action and lesbian innuendo over their previous snoozefesti. The first five minutes alone were better than most of Zwei…
My god… they’ve actually made be buy into the Otome franchise haven’t they?
Kawaii~!
Wow! The response to Starlight has been phenomenal! I’ve received a lot of attention directly on this blog and not just on the Ren’Py forums, which was completely unexpected! I apologize for not responding sooner (holidays don’cha’know) but I’ve asked the stars of Starlight to help me respond to the comments now that we are all back and ready to work in the new year!
Hmmm… now that I check my mail bag it seems the majority are bug reports… orz
Actually, I am very grateful! They are super helpful and they will all be addressed in the imminent (and hopefully final) 1.1 release. That said, onto the letters!
Author
The strangest thing for me is how all the characters look off-camera. This is the first ren-ai game I ever played, and so I cannot know if this is an aestetic and visual language of the genre, or a creative trick to let them talk to each other and the player without turning, or something else entirely. But it definitely stands out.
I’ll answer that! Author, you’re quite right. Visual Novels in general use a limited number of poses so you want each graphic to be as flexible as possible. That means usually they either always look at the camera and never at each other, or sometimes look at the camera when speaking directly at the player, and just somewhere off into space if they’re speaking to each other.
“Off into space?”
Ah, ha, ha! Um… Moving right along… why don’t you answer this next one?
Author
When played full-screen (which is the default), the picture is stretched to fit the widescreen dislplay. It should have been letterboxed off the sides at the minimum. Although it may be better to produce the whole thing 16:9, it’s 2007 after all.
Duh! Widescreen would be much cooler for our debut! If only Rocket wasn’t so lazy! Maybe for our next mission…
Right then… thanks for that… um… interesting reply. Rose, quick the next letter!
Ellume
Very well done! Heck, I would buy a game like this with a full story. I look forward to seeing more.
Oh! Thank you! We hope to bring you the first real episode of Starlight by this spring, but it will take lots of work so we look forward to getting some help!
sixten
Good stuff. I played through to “Good Ending 2/3″ and I was surprised how seriously I took the choices. I used to read Star Wars and Star Trek novels a lot in the past, but quit when my tastes turned to the moe side of the force. Not only does your game bring back memories, it also indulges my desire for cuteness. It’s like an amateur Galaxy Angel. You, sir, pierce the freaking heavens. … By comparing our work, it’s clear that we share the same moe obsession and technical drawing skills, so I’m guessing we think alike. And if that “Honi!” at the end of your credits is a Potemayo reference, not only do we think alike, we are kindred spirits.
Wow! Thanks! I think this letter deserves a special response, right Violet?
…
Violet!
Ah… “I’ve always dreamed of having a “bosom” friend…a true kindred spirit!”
Please help us Onee-chan! You’re our only hope!
Get it now! (^_^)
Note: Small bug was found with version 1.0, please be sure to get 1.01!
Transform and roll out!
Cupholders are an optional accessory.
NECCO headgear
(Networked Environment Command and Control Operations)
Just a little something I’ve been musing on. Starting to gather steam, but first there is something called Starlight I need to finish!
Yes my favorite topic is back, and yes this installment is one that was not planned as part of the original survey. What gives? Well, actually this was going to be my review of Lucky Star but in the process of writing it I realized that:
A) Reviewing or even talking about Lucky Star is boring and it’’s been done ad-nauseum.
B) Lucky Star is not about plot or meaning, its about the characters, and the characters are not only moé in of themselves, they are about moé. Self referential, meta-moé.
Kagamin, moé!~
I think with Shingo’s groundbreaking work, and my modest addition we have a pretty good understanding of how we can define moé, that is a definition of how the word is used.
Also through Shingo’s work we have a terrific framework for understanding how moé actually is delivered, but what I’ve been endeavoring to tackle is why does moé exist? What is it for? My thesis had been rambling and historical (and I think still valid), but Lucky Star made me realize I could reformulate it in much simpler terms:
Moé is that which makes the female accessible or unthreatening.
In this post feminist world of gender equality it’s easy to over look the gaping chasm of understanding between the sexes, especially in other cultures. Still even for us English language anime fans, and more so for the Japanese otaku the female can be in many ways (and plenty of them non-Freudian) a terrifying ‘other’. ‘She’ threatens to replace our established roles in society, consume our adult independence with a meta-motherness, and/or absorb our individuality in intimacy. Not really of course, but anxieties are often illusory or illogical.
Moé is the antidote, and Lucky Star showed me how even ‘threatening’ moétic character types like the tsundere actually fit into a framework. Shall we meet the cast?
Technorati Tags: Lucky Star, moé
Luna is the new Osaka - Mahou!
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Despite a rather dorky subname DH seems well its way to being one of the best books of the series, ranking up there with Sorcerer’s Stone, Prisoner of Azkaban, and Order of the Phoenix. Must be something about odd numbers. I’m just about half way now (I’d be further but the time share with She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Denied-Her-Dose-Of-Harry-Potter, forces a more contemplative pace). It’s a brilliantly good read with far more rip roaring action than I had any right to expect. It also seems like she will pull off a stisfying conclusion despite the amount of ground to cover, so keep your fingers crossed. My only complaint so far is the perfunctory treatment of Hedwig’s death, but that’s a minor quibble in an otherwise thrilling ride.
UPDATE:
Finished the book this morning. No more spoilers, but get your hanky ready. This was a wild, dark and disturbing ride, really the best of the bunch, and a fitting conclusion. Definitely epic.
We also saw the Order of the Phoenix movie on Sunday. Aside from the perfect delight that was Luna, I give it a solid meh. Snape was brilliant and Tonks looked hot, but overall a little too much training and not enough action. I blame the screenplay and producers. I think the director did quite well with the material. I did enjoy more time with the characters, but what’s up with Ginny? Half the scenes she looked cute enough, but in the other half she looked totally plain, and not to mention generally about 8 years old. Harry’s main squeeze has got to be toning up her appeal right quick for effective smouldering in the last two flicks!
But really, it’s all about Luna. For those of us who can’t get enough of her…
Gureen Lagann
In other news Guerren Lagann is frackin’ epic! A seven year jump and Simon was throwing off strong shades of Baltar as he ruled humanity / lounged apathetically in his executive office. The real unexpected delight were Ginny and Darry - plausible teen mecha pilots without super powers or special destiny. I never though I’d see it. Ginny is hawt simply by virtue of being a teen mecha pilot with pink hair, but her character seems strangely dilluted without her stoic loli facade. I hope that outside of combat she grows a personality and maybe a cuter wardrobe. (her old dress from the first half of the season would be a fetching midriff revealer now). On the other hand, Darry seems cuter and disappointingly less spastic. I’ll wager that he pulls a Hayate and ends up in a neko-meido-cosplay before the series is up. Don’t just take my word for it. EPIC!
Technorati Tags: Gurren Lagann, Harry Potter, Moetan
Our wacky friends from overseas pull out something so audaciously insane that you have to realize they’re operating on a whole different level.
Take your typical dojin eroge (which is in of itself an insanely complex and more than slightly disturbing phenomenon) and add hyper loli personifications of the major combatant nations of Europe in WWII, put in a land war strategic over game, decide battles with bouts of strip mahjongg, and make the player character a thinly disguised Charlie Chaplin look alike.
Viola you have: ベルリンは萌えているか!? Google tells me means, “Berlin is Sprouted, or?!“, I’ll go out on a limb and suggest something like Berlin is Moé?! WTF?! That may not be accurate but it does sums up my reaction. Yes gentle reader, as far as I can gather, you too can watch anime Hitler molest lil’ innocent loli-Germany-tan in her school swimsuit if you posses the mad Mahjongg skillz.
Somewhere there’s a brilliant Post Modern thesis in this whole thing. Thankfully that’s beyond me. orz
I mean that most literally. It’s been too long since an action movie left me with my jaw on the floor.
Transformers is no deep epic, nor is it even a very coherent summer blockbuster. It makes Independence Day and X-Men look nuanced and tightly plotted. Nonetheless it delivers big on three key fronts. Firstly, robots go boom. And boom. And BOOOOOOOOM!!! Really, it’s awesome. Secondly all of the plot we care about is driven by the humans who develop as some really unique and memorable characters. Finally, it’s still the freaking Transformers, and when Optimus intones “One shall stand, one shall fall,” chills went up my spine.
Go forth and enjoy it on the biggest screen, in the loudest theatre you can find. I recommend the Arclight’s Cinemascope geodesic dome in Hollywood. Be warned, I think I strained my eyeballs, and I brought eye-drops to put in half way through the flick. You heard the man - roll out!
Technorati Tags: Transformers
The World to Reverse is a unlikely little pairing of hobbyist visual novels, fan-subbed as part of an annual fan-subbung of visual novels contest (say that three times fast). As I mentioned before, the majority these works serve as socialization simulators. Not that there’s anything inherently wrong with that - on the contrary it’s a fascinating, innovative use of the medium and I plan to continue that train of thought when I get back to the rise of Moé.
