August 25th

Welcome back readers.

Another quiet week around the site update-wise, but as always, we’ve got fresh new reads to share. And hey, we could always use some extra stability, so if you’re interested in helping us with that, check out the Patreon!

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

Style Points

This week we start things off with four pieces that all have something to say about style!

• Zenless Zone Zero: The GwG Review | Gamers with Glasses
  Dylan Atkinson concludes that for all its issues with balance, depth, and pacing, MiHoYo’s latest gacha’s got style.
• ¿Por qué cambió de traje Mai Shiranui? Análisis a fondo del símbolo sexual de KOF y Fatal Fury | GamerFocus
  Julián Ramírez explores the lore and dev history behind the KOF kunoichi’s character designs over the years.
• Ys IX Monstrum Nox: Burn bright | Kimimi The Game-Eating She-Monster
  Kimimi soaks in the scenery in Ys for Goths.
• Black powder, pink bows: How shooters got cuter | Polygon
  Ana Diaz chats with Riot devs about a shift in aesthetics in online shooters.

“In the end, the rise of pink and feminine aesthetics in games seems to be an effort to give players a greater range of options. You can get dragons and you can get sakura blossoms. Master Chief is still a space marine — but with cosmetic items, he can wear cute little cat ears. Now players can try it all — military or not.”

Mega Vibe

How about a Sega-centric section? We’ve got both 8-and-16-bit offerings coming up next.

• Phantasy Star 1 — Review (hater warning) | cohost
  Elephant Parade finds Sega’s first foray into the Algol system to be lacking in dungeoneering depth.
• How The Sega Genesis Made Weird Work | Paste Magazine
  Madeline Blondeau situates the history and context of the esoteric, edgy, and avant-garde entries that continue to define the legacy of Sega’s 16-bit machine.

“The Genesis was not an accidental success, nor an overnight one. It was a concentrated, focused effort to do things differently than the much larger competition. A “David and Goliath” story, as Nilsen puts it, the real buried lede in Sega’s temporal triumph is that it offered area to experiment with style, content, and depth in a way developers hadn’t been able to up until that point.”

Design and Designer

Design perspectives, from the designers! These are part of a larger series that I haven’t yet been able to read all the way through, so here are two initial highlights.

• HITM3 (2024): Thinking, Filming & Editing a Cutscene | After Journey’s End
  Xiri muses on editing and intimacy in HITM3.
• The Narrative Voice of ESC (2018) | After Journey’s End
  Lena Raine describes the design interplay of voice and choice.

“Throughout all of this, ‘You’ are always in question. Whether it’s defining your character profile in the roleplaying environment, the Navigator describing herself to you the reader, or every character looking into a mirror and seeing the real person behind their roleplaying personas.”

Novel Visions

Next up, a pair of pieces on visual novels, looking alternately at cozy porn and narratives of therapy.

• Review: Vampire Therapist is a Fang-tastic Debut from Little Bat Games | Sidequest
  Melissa Brinks finds an intriguing new VN a little rough around the edges but well-informed and rewarding.
• This Abundance Of Sex Is Kinda Nice, Actually | cohost
  Blit unpacks the presence and conequences of safety, softness, and abundance in porn VNs.

“I think it’s important to take extra care with cozy porn. Cozy porn pieces don’t just say “bodies like this get to have sex and attention” in their subtext. They also say “bodies like this get to feel like they belong.””

Critical Chaser

Sorry.

• Hollow Knight Fans Are Ready to Have Their Hearts Broken Again by Tuesday’s Nintendo Direct | IGN
  Rebekah Valentine presents a brief history of a meme forged in longing.

“Will it show up? Will they be disappointed again? Almost every time, there’s a seeming consensus it won’t be there, but that vibe tends to come alongside a kind of desperate longing to be wrong.”