April 7th

Welcome back readers.

Kaile’s prepared a real banger of a TMIVGV for your viewing pleasure. Over twenty picks, and they still found time to watch that 4-hour Noah Caldwell-Gervais odyssey on the Diablo series. Check it out!

In other site news, I’m hoping to have our Jam Showcase Roundup ready to go before the next TWIVGB. I won’t promise promise, because this is also the busiest time of term at both of my other jobs, but I’ll have it to you as soon as I can, as well as some plans for keeping this fansite thing going!

This Week in Videogame Blogging is a roundup highlighting the most important critical writing on games from the past seven days.

Somewhere Far Beyond

While usually I keep pieces about the same game together, this week I felt there was some good connectivity between these first two selections on Drgaon’s Dogma 2 and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth for how they both weave in-and-out of the text. They’re good!

• THE LOST HIKER | DEEP-HELL
  Skeleton takes a hike through Vermund.
• flowers yet bloom in this rotted church | Bullet Points Monthly
  haha damn.

“what is a woman? truthfully, this is a meaningless question in the context of ffvii, where everyone’s a woman and there are only two genders: aerith and tifa. between the characters of ffvii, sacrifice is the primordial love language, the way one proves the measure of their devotion.”

What’s New?

Now let’s take a look at some recent titles and topics.

• Saviorless – Reseña del primer juego indie hecho en Cuba | GamerFocus
  Julián Ramírez checks out an evocative exploratory platformer debut from an independent Cuban studio (Spanish-language article).
• Visual Novel Developers Aren’t Laughing at Palworld’s Predictable April Fools’ Joke | Inverse
  Robin Bea chats with developers and creators who would love to see studios treat VNs as more than a cheap punchline.

“The problem may not be any single visual novel parody, but their repetition. Visual novels are already looked down on by some gamers who either see their straightforward focus on narrative as a detriment or have the misconception that all the genre has to offer is titillation. By joining in on the joke, publishers further undermine a genre that’s already misunderstood by the public.”

Beyond the Binary

Next we’ve got two picks exploring and disrupting binaries of ideology, design, and identity.

• Black and White | Into The Spine
  Niki Fakhoori reflects on the moral philosophy of Pokémon‘s Gen 5.
• Liminality: Fear of Transition | Unwinnable
  Kasio Dalton muses on the between and beyond in both the horror genre and in identity.

“I enjoy liminal horror, but there can be so much more to liminality. There has to be. Transition can be overwhelming, and I’d rather not spend it perpetually anxious – there’s no need to fear transition. Yes, it can be scary. It can be uncertain. But it can also be a place of sojourn, beauty and identity.”

At Great Paints

In this week’s design-focused section we’ve got new perspectives on gambling and, yes, yellow paint.

• Playing Balatro | Donkeyspace
  Frank Lantz takes a pharmakalogical approach to Balatro‘s juice.
• Some Questions I Personally Find Interesting About Paint | Unwinnable
  Jay Castello moves past discourse to have a conversation about design and genre convention.

“Not all artifacts of artistic creation are diegetic. We might instead choose to treat the yellow paint the way we treat a shaky cam or water on the camera. The film director uses these not because they are within the story but because they are a connection between the story and the viewer. They tell us something about the medium itself, not the narrative within it.”

Self-Defeating

Our next two picks explore from different angles the conceits and fallacies that undermine authoritarians’ own ends.

• Helldivers 2’s comedy comes from propaganda — that’s why it’s so fun | Polygon
  Cass Marshall revels in Super Earth’s self-defeating absurdity.
• Why Max Hass Matters | Unwinnable
  Joshua M. Henson measures the true worth of Wolfenstein II‘s revolutionaries by who they make room for at their table.

“While they are no stranger to internal conflicts, the Kreisau Circle in Wolfenstein II are a community in the truest sense. The act of resisting the Nazi occupation with violence is not enough. The Resistance must also revolt via empathy towards those that fascism casts aside.”

Critical Chaser

Our concluding segment this week brings together both poetry and poetry criticism!

• A 16-Bit Memorial Garden | Unwinnable
  Phoenix Simms explores the Super Mario World-tinged poetics of Stephen Sexton.
• Zelda With a Pearl Earring | Videodame
  Natalie Schriefer writes some verse bringing together art mashups, fandom, and internet culture.

“Your art is beautiful — and even
with 100k views on your Zelda,
there’s not one nasty comment.”