senpaijake

Author: Jake Brunton

  • FH Dev Diary #5 – On Relationships,

    FH Dev Diary #5 – On Relationships,

    Greetings! Senpai here. It has approached nearly a full month since I last wrote about the project. Now that I have stepped away from the grindstone and am taking time to look at changes thus far, I can say there has been an laudable amount done in the last 25 days!

    NSFW warning: content not suitable for minors ahead (obviously).

    Psst: this is a lengthy and technical one. If you just want to see images and video, jump to the bottom!

    Relationship System has begun

    One of my internal to-do’s for April was to begin the Relationship System, and that is what I have done. For a while, I had formulated the base idea and then refined the process with some research and back and forth to understand what might be the best mathematical representation for relationship progress.

    Project FH under the hood calculates relationships and their interactions in a layered formula. First, the success of interactions is gated by each NPC’s “interest” stat. These are:

    • sexInt – How interested they are sexually, gates sexual interactions.
    • romanticInt – How interested they are romantically, gates romantic interactions.
    • friendInt – How interested they are in being friends – you get the picture.

    These three variables act as stats like Charisma or others would in a game of DnD – you roll based on the formula baselines of success (factored by other things) and these act as your “+3” to the roll essentially. The idea with these stats are to allow for playing with interactions in different ways to get to an outcome in some other way.

    So we will use aunt Miyuki as our beloved example.

    If her starting stats are set to relatively tame ones, such as:

    • Trust = 100 / 500
    • friendInt = 100 / 500
    • Lust = 90 / 500
    • Perversion = 90 / 500
    • Relation Level = 3 / 10
    • SOC_STATUS = Normal
    • RELATION_TYPE = Neighbors

    BUT, we set her sexInt stat to 450 out of 500, we are likely to succeed in SEXUAL interactions, as seen in the screenshots resulting from these variables:

    No AI Project FH

    With those stats, even though we’re not Friends, Lovers, FWB or whatever, her sexual interest in the player is almost maxed out, so using Perv skills like “Show Bra” -> “Show Boobs” even up to “Paizuri” all worked.

    When we had the variables down to normal levels again, including setting sexInt to around 40 out of 500, we get an expected rejection when asking her to show her bra off:

    Senpai, why allow this possibility?

    Because it is a fun idea! My goal for the core design of Project FH is to have the personal interactions mimic real life a bit – people are not two-dimensional like most farm sim games make you think. You don’t just compliment a bunch and give them what they like. Sometimes, they may be sad or upset and even a gift they love might not help much. Sometimes, if you flirt enough or give them a “special item,” they may be willing to mess around even if you’re just Friends or even acquaintances.

    Some may even be willing to hate-fuck if they’re angry with you. The possibilities are limited realistically, but the feeling to the player is that of control on the experience. This is the type of formula that makes interactions in games like Baldur’s Gate so fun – there are obvious points of entry, but so many other ways to achieve a result!

    Other considerations for Relationships

    The overall flow, anytime you interact with a character using either a Social Skill or Perv Skill/H-Action, the system calculates in a few steps:

    Layer 1: interest stat checks.

    This uses a lerp(minChance, maxChance, stat / 500) to calculate the success or failure. This is why if sexInt is nearly maxed out, you will almost always succeed.

    Layer 2: SOC_STATUS adjustment.

    SOC_STATUS is a list of the social statuses an NPC has. These are essentially how “mood” acts in a game like The Sims. Essentially, each status adds a pre-set amount of additional chance. For example, if Miyuki is currently “Horny” but her sexInt is only 120 out of 500, you add an additional nude anywhere between 20 – 30%, making it likely to succeed.

    Layer 3: pass to updateRelation.

    The interest check determines fail or pass of the skill. Either outcome requires that the updateRelation() function increases or decreases your overall relationProgress value with the character.

    In this screenshot of the debug overlay, we see the stats and the current progression. You will notice diminishing returns with each interaction, where positive interactions stop increasing it overall after the third time – but be careful, negative ones will continue to degrade your relationship!

    Concluding the Relationship System

    Overall, I am happy that the foundations are here. I have a GML script that runs test cases to check the math, and currently had them hit all positives so far (but it funnily destroys the framerate when ran). This system will grow in scope surely as I proceed and things are removed and added from the master design. It’s really cool to see math gate the interactions and make this once dead NPC that was spinning out on a path act like a human!

    A Better DialogueManager (for content creation)

    Though DialogueManager had existed, I immediately noticed its deficiency when trying to write further JSON content to power Miyuki’s dialogue. Basically, before this dev diary, the data structure was like so:

    miyuki.json

"conversations":
  {
    "miyuki_greet_default",
    "conditions",
    "priority" : 0,
    "lines": [
         lines
     ]
},
{
    "miyuki_horny_initiate",
    "conditions",
    "priority": 0,
so on

    The old version was making assertions on context strictly by the NPC KEY [“miyuki”] and the skill id [“paizuri”] and using a special function to handle openings always as greetings.

    The problem with this is it was technically possible for the completely wrong dialogue to play out in any context. I realized this as I was writing the dialogue where, if Miyuki is horny and has the right entry conditions, we would offer to perform a service for you – no skill dispatch needed. However, the DialogueManager couldn’t really know about context at all here – it only knew the combination of NPC Key with Skill ID: things like greetings or special dialogue were all up in the air with little control outside of the writers having to plan each dialogue condition specifically around this design flaw.

    So a refactor of DialogueManager was done which touched other systems. However, control and content creation will be MUCH easier. The new version allowed me to remove the middle-man document that mapped all dialogues for things and let all that data – along with its context – in its respective owner’s JSON file.

    This includes nesting all dialogue under their actions/skills with variants:

    "npc_key": "miyuki",
"display_name": "Miyuki",
"greetings": [
    {
        "variant_id": "horny_paizuri",
        "priority": 10,
        "conditions": {},
        "lines": [ ]
    }
so on..

    The new data structure starts everything with the action, such as the “greetings” you see. This means we now truly have an organized list of dialogues per pool for each NPC, supporting different variants and making it much easier to understand the context.

    Here we can see the result of an alternative greeting. One in which Miyuki’s SOC_STATUS = Horny, matching the conditions of her horny_paizuri greeting:

    Some other changes had to be made, as these special greetings essentially fire off an entry into the same skill-chain as if you picked “Perv -> Show Bra -> Show Boobs -> Paizuri,” but now context is passed so it can skip to where you need or control as needed. In this case, Miyuki skips the formalities and gets straight to it.

    So that took a good amount of time to refactor and get working. But I am now in a place where I feel like a blocker has been removed – I can easily write in the JSON data and make dialogue for all NPCs way easier without having to juggle the conditions vs priority for all of them.

    Let there be (day)light and menus!

    I do this weird thing where I am working on a feature in a git branch, and once I am done with it I decide to start something else in the branch. So the alphaRelationship branch merge also includes a daylight system and the beginnings of the Menus!

    Screenshots only here as I have bored you long enough with the technical talk:

    Early morning

    Daytime through afternoon

    Evening/sun is setting

    Night – late night.

    This all syncs via the current hour in the obj_clockController. GUIManager draws over the screenspace with tint and hues to mimic daylight. This will expand for weather once that gets implemented later in the year.

    Menus

    I purchased a cute UI asset from itch.io to test out some graphical menus. It’s clunky and using junk/placeholder data, but we have something to utilize when pressing the escape key now:

    Conclusion

    It has been a productive month for Project FH! I am going to finish up more tweaks and small changes before taking a decent break from it in May. I am also continuing to work with the legend Neme on art assets for Miyuki right now – including a first animation for one of the H-Actions! I will be sharing that demo video on my Bluesky Account when the time comes, so you can see the true final vision of how it will “feel” interacting with the ladies in Project FH.

    After the break, I plan to tackle getting the data for all items ready and implemented so we can expand the Menu system and begin the actual Farming part of the game. Once those pieces are done, I anticipate by late 2026 and early 2027 to have content made for more NPCs.

    My plan is to have a very very early-alpha playable version released via some means (likely to be Patreon). This is my personal goal for the build so I can start funding this project (by that, really just funding wonderful people to contribute to it).

    Like with the first dev diary, I am providing a non-committal but idealistic timeline for you to expect on this project:

    June-August:

    • Item and Inventory system v1 implemented
    • Final tweaks to Dialogue and social systems
    • Finish all dialogues for Miyuki NPC
    • Finish all dialogues for Hiroshi NPC

    September-October:

    • Official artwork for Hiroshi (just default spring outfit with a few expressions)
    • Official artwork for Mei (Hiroshi and Miyuki’s daughter, spring outfit portrait, expressions, some H-action art)
    • Content: full schedule built for all of year 1 Spring for Miyuki, Hiroshi, Mei
    • Farm system v1 implemented (for spring crops only)

    November-December:

    • Alpha main menu and settings implemented
    • Finish the early-alpha playable prototype maps (includes: Farm map, Furukawa House Map, Player House Interior, Mori Shop Interior, Furukawa House Interior)
    • Finish the Tutorial Quests and implement QuestManager

    January-February of 2027:

    • Release the first ever playable prototype. This will include:
      • Year 1 Spring ONLY
      • Only three NPCs: Hiroshi, Miyuki, and Mei Furukawa
      • Only the exterior and interior maps for the Farm Land and the Furukawa House map
      • The first iteration of the final game’s tutorial and opening scene (SceneManager put to work!)
      • Expected interactions you can do:
        • Miyuki:
          • All social interaction variants
          • Show Bra -> Show Boobs -> Paizuri
          • Show Panties -> Show Ass -> Buttjob* (if funding allows)
        • Mei:
          • All social interaction variants
          • Show Bra -> Show Boobs
          • Show Panties -> Show Ass
        • Hiroshi:
          • All normal social interactions
          • Special interaction if he is nearby when performing a Perv skill with Miyuki

    This prototype build is the current end-goal to serve as a proof of concept and get people interested/hyped about the game! I need to establish it in a way where I can fundraise somehow, as the art assets needed for the final full game (which would take a couple of years to reach) is non-negotiable for me.

    Media

    That’s all for now!

    Peace peace ~

  • FH dev diary #4 – Managing Scenes, getting assets, drawing paths

    FH dev diary #4 – Managing Scenes, getting assets, drawing paths

    Hello hello and welcome to another dev diary 4. A little over a week since the last one, but I have put in some significant progress to this week’s goals. So, the juicy behind-the-scenes screenshots and early footage you will see will be pretty different from the previous post’s.

    During this last week, I wanted to tackle two things: start exploring other sprite work assets available out in the world of itch.io to use for prototyping a “feel,” and the Scene Manager system.

    During this time, I was also working with a immensely talented artist recruited and commissioned to get a basic character sheet and usable portrait of one of the first characters you will interact with – Miyuki!

    No AI Training

    (Commission done by the talented DatNeme: https://datneme.carrd.co/#)

    Miyuki is your aunt-in-law and spends most her days operating the town’s local general store. I am super stoked to see the vision I had come to life in this way and can’t wait to get the art-train going even further as this little hobby-project grows into something more.

    Additionally, I have tried out the Memao Sprite Sheet Creator. This specific tool (which I can recommend for other indie devs needing some assets asap) helps you make overworld sprites with a variety of options. They have extended it to allow custom assets and connect them via JSON but 1) I am no artist (best I can do is draw poopy maps) and 2) I have other things to do right now. But it’s a cool little program and the style of overworld sprite is definitely the type of thing I am looking to utilize.

    The strip image imported in GameMaker is a little wonky with how it builds the cells to cut out from so I have had to manually export a sheet for each movement and its direction to avert this.

    I also set up a second room to test how rigging up additional characters, spaces, and paths feel. Also peep the debugging system – you’ll see the masking box on the sprite’s foot. This was a side implementation I did in the middle of the room test because I got tired of manually setting the masking boxes to the characters each time I change the sprites. It’s been a game changer.

    Now we move on to part two:

    The SceneManager script

    The video above at the start shows a crude “scene” in FH. This is all done by a script in run-time. I know, I know. I have heard that you can use Sequences in GameMaker, and maybe in the future that will be the best route. But for absolute control, I have taken the path of setting up another constructor that feeds off a registry file that has the nodes that build a scene.

    This registry file essentially lets you write out the structs of each node or “step” of a scene, and its main action. These are move_path, move, expression, and dialogue. Right now, my test prologue scene is using paths drawn in the room that get called by the SceneManager when it reads the structure:

    This is a view of the pathing in that room for this scene. I might re-think some of this system, because having to draw all the paths for each scene that would take place on each map seems like it will be chaos for the room editor in the future. Perhaps I’ll just set a point and have the SceneManager use the same logic from the AIController to draw a path in run-time? I dunno, but this is what I have so far.

    And it works! It’s crude, and it took a few hours of debugging other systems. DialogueManager needed to understand the difference between when it was running in a scene versus in game-time. This is because when a scene flips, the in-game clock and all AI schedules pause and stay that way till it is flagged as finished. I had it designed to work with an “InteractionManager” which I failed to account for – so there was some tomfoolery to get it all fixed. So now I can have it distinguish between in-game dialogue and scenes.

    Anyways, to cut it shorter – that’s the progress within the last week and some change. We’re moving at a good pace – once I get all these foundational systems set and polished off, I’ll feel more confident to start spending more dedicated time to writing (dialogue, characters, quests etc.).

    Peace peace~

  • FH dev diary #3

    FH dev diary #3

    ​A lot of work has been done to hmSpirit – which is now henceforth labeled as “FH” in the dev diaries.I have a ideal final name picked out, so this is the abbreviation of that! 

    Creative-front

    First and foremost, I have been actively trying to recruit the work of lovely independent artists in game-dev communities to help make some character concepts and sprite art. I have a commission underway right now for the character Miyuki who I am actively testing and building game functionality with. The post is still up, and I am still interested in artists – especially sprite focused with tileset experience. If that’s you, ring me! 

    I have just finally started a TOUCH of writing. Right now, I am in the trenches of writing the dialogue for the prologue/opening scene of the game. While I don’t plan to slack on the writing, the benefit of a game that will be 50% hentai is that the writing does not need to end up profound or anything – I love profound stories, and plan to someday make serious games utilizing them, but for now, I am enjoying being simplistic and funny with the characters and world building.

    I am not completely inept to art! I have spent a couple of hours concepting the actual in-game maps for when that endeavor is ready:

    ​This concept art is about -I dunno – 45% done? The world won’t be massive by any stretch of the word, but it will be large enough to feel like a fully fleshed out farm sim.

    Boring technical stuff

    Today, I spent a couple hours on a few things. Firstly, documenting annotation for the scripting so we don’t lose the plot when moving dialogue from script files into their JSON structures. That was small fluff but important. After that, I had worked on updating a bit of the state machines and systems in the project so far, as I am trying to get the interactions and dialogue system really nailed in before anything else. This ended up leading me to realize that Gamemaker does NOT include sprites or assets if they are not referenced anywhere in the code or other instances like rooms. So, I set up a singleton SpriteManager which meant stopping what I was doing, and refactoring how I create character objects and set sprites.

    Since the game will change sprite visuals per season, this helps with that. But it also helps with what my main goal of the day was: prototyping the flow of the H-action system. You will see it in the video below, but the idea is essentially you can get to a point with eligible characters to have lewd interactions with them (gated by AP or Action Points, of course). As such, I need to ensure that the dialogue JSON also was able to tell my DialogueManager when we need to change the character’s sprite: whether it be a simple expression change, or change to something like “Miyuki_showBra_embarrassed” or “Miyuki_paizuri_one.” So, I got that wired up.

    Some other changes since dev diary 2: the GUI and resolution settings of the game have been re-thought and are now handled with my GameInstance object on load to be consistent across the board. Also, the last update did not show the SocialMenu – the radial wheel of options to choose from for your social (or perverted) interactions. You can see everything in the footage below:

    Some other things I have been chipping away at:

    • setting up the JSON for all crops, seeds, and tools
    • planning out the rest of the game items, such as flowers, key items, and so on
    • updating project documentation
    • budgeting for the project (keep in mind, this is like a hobby’s worth of savings right now 🙂 )

    Peace peace~

    ​

  • hmSpirit Dev Diary #2

    hmSpirit Dev Diary #2

    Hello everyone~! I have a new dev diary update to share on my hmSpirit project.

    I have been pounding away at prototyping on this and am finally back with a new post to share the progress made so far! I have a decent bit of tech-facing things to discuss in this dev diary so strap in.

    While it definitely doesn’t look like much, I have made several big implementations since the last time. In dev diary #1, the footage and progress thus far only included a lot of beginner troubleshooting and getting collision rigged up. The next step for the programming front included wiring basic AI movement, which was a lot of trial and error (and to be honest, it’s still kinda buggy).

    Following the AI Controller was the introduction of the Scheduler constructor – a struct that will allow NPCs to register their instance and a pre-defined key-value pair (dictionary style) array to tell the NPC what to do. Right now, it is straight forward and hard-coded into each NPC object, and essentially tells the NPC “at this time, either follow this path or wander around.”

    Actually, I am getting a head of myself – I added a pretty simple clock system too. This may get more robust, but for now it’s a persistent object called in by my GameInstance object to have a sort of time system for the game.

    _accumulator += delta_time / 100000;

if (_accumulator >= seconds_per_min / time_scale) {
    
    _accumulator = 0;
    minute++;
    
    if (minute >= 60) {
        minute = 0;
        hour++;
    }
    
    if (hour >= 24) {
        hour = 0;
        day++;
    }
    
    if (day > 28) {
        day = 1;
        
        //We count seasons from 0 to 3, cannot go over 3
        if (season == 3) {
            season = 0;
        }
        else {
            season++;
        }
    }
}

    This is the only calculation running per step for the clock – here we simply accumulate time based on Gamemaker’s delta time into milliseconds.

    Simple, right?

    Anyways, we’re back to the Scheduler. The struct utilizes these variables:

        entry_builder = _entry_builder;
    entries = [];          
    current_index = -1;
    active_task = noone;
    next_index = 0;
    last_day = -1;

    Every NPC builds out a schedule that is currently hard-coded in their Create code:

    schedule = new Scheduler(function(season) {
    return [
    { hour: 6, minute: 50, type: "path", value: path_npc_1 },
    { hour: 9, minute: 0, type: "path", value: test_2 },
    { hour: 10, minute: 0, type: "wander"}
    ];
});

    The current implementation allows to pass in a path string to tell the AI Controller’s poll_schedule function if we are following a path or simple wandering around. My brain is drained right now, but I am sure we will expand on the capabilities later.

    Today’s work achieved laying out the foundations for the InteractionManager and DialogueManager structures. Having not been exposed to other farming sim game’s codebases, I was making a guess that the best approach to separate concerns here was that we needed a manager to poll and register things that could be interacted with. Basically, a system that checks each Step for things the Player can press “E” on. That’s pretty much it – this will then callback to the appropriate manager to handle further processing. In this case, the DialogueManager’s functionality gets called from the NPC’s interaction object:

    interaction = new Interactable(id, INTERACTION_TYPE.NPC, "Miyuki", function(_player) {
    global.DIALOGUE.start("miyuki", _player, interaction);
    return "dialogue: miyuki";
});
global.INTERACTION.register(interaction);

    This implementation session was rather educational, because it helped me discover the use of Included Files in Gamemaker. This is important because I want to be proactive and have the dialogue of the game ready for localization and prevent hard-coding text.

    As such, my current approach is a three-tiered approach of using JSON in the /datafiles folder of the project.

    Basically, the system is nothing special and typical of a localization-supported language in a program:

    • One file with all the strings matching by key for each language (string_en.json)
    • One file for each dialogue per NPC, that references the language’s matching key, no actual text inside
    • A JSON file to match the condition sets. In this case, dialogue_index.json is what puts it all together.

    These are loaded in at the start of the program and persist in memory to prevent re-opening these files and ingesting the data. I think this would be the approach for memory-management, but I am sure there will be some roadblocks once we have a bunch of dialogue in there. Oh well~~

    That’s the grossly simplified over and under of the programming work done so far on the project that leads you to the video posted at the start of this dev diary. I am very happy with the foundations I have laid out, and they’re stubbed for more features but there’s definitely a lot more work to do to make them less buggy and feel more like a professional release. All’s that to say: even though it appears like the standards, this is a good bit of work and the workspace of the project is showing that growth:

    I am of course keeping a running documentation library in my drafft-2 instance, as adding any new character or interactable requires understanding some of the code base that exist. Once I get these current features ironed out nicely, I will tackle prototyping the actual farming system. I wanted to focus on interactions and the dialogue first because this game will heavily rely on these parts to progress.

    Anything on the Creative front?

    YES!

    I have made more progress on the master GDD, finally tackling the list of characters to be made. Of course, as the game goes into true pre-production and a team is assembled, these things may change, but making a list of characters and their basic personality and appearance has been something I have been stuck on since December.

    Much like anything in life, I just had to man-up and sit down and start writing anything to get this done – and I did. I am currently happy with the list of characters I have come up with, and some of them even inspired some possible side quests and features to think about!

    Not counting the Player, there are 18 planned NPC’s – 10 of which are currently planned to get at least intimate with 😉

    I realize writing this out it seems lofty, but again – this is subject to change. Once I get in the actual flow of a production, this can drastically get slimmed down or maybe even go up! Only time will tell…

    Thanks for checking this post out. If you’re interested, you can bookmark this blog for more updates or follow me on itch.io:

    https://zero-senpai98.itch.io

    I am cross-posting these updates there as well.

    I think in the next coming months, I will considering looking at some communities to see if there are any individuals looking to collaborate on a project like this.

    Peace peace~

  • “Scarlet” review

    “Scarlet” review

    Starting last year, I made a personal pledge to see any movies that interest me in the theaters. I have historically never been really into movies, but I have gotten to the point in life where that has changed. So, whenever I see a movie, I keep an eye out on the trailers as well to see if something interesting pops up. Scarlet was one of those films.

    An original animated film directed by Mamoru Hosoda – whom of which directed Summer Wars, a weird but fun to watch anime film I enjoyed as a younger fella. The trailers for this move were well made: it had presented a growing war of two sides of a long-past era, and a modern day man who somehow gets pulled into it. I was convinced to pick up a ticket last night before it left the theaters.

    As I prefer to do reviews with a “from the top,” I will begin by saying I still have mixed feelings on this movie, but I am hovering at that 4.5-5 / 10 range. Now, let’s dive into why it’s hovering on the worse half of a “mid” film:

    The establishment of the film’s story is a gender-bent revision on Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Scarlet – the princess of Denmark in the 1600s – loves her father dearly. We are treated to seeing how his benevolence and attitude toward peace permeate and guide young Scarlet’s heart. Much like Hamlet though, Claudius (the uncle), has a thirst for power, and true to the tale, this leads to a set up in which the king is executed for being a traitor. During this scene, he shouts something to Scarlet but she cannot quite hear it – this is important to hang on to.

    Time moves forward, and the attempt on Claudius’ life is done, but the tables turn and Scarlet ends up “dying” in her attempt to poison her uncle. This whole opening is done quite fast and for good reason. It is a contextual establishment to the story and Scarlet’s motivations, and this isn’t a Hamlet movie, it simply uses the work creatively. However, while this pacing works here, it continues to be applied in the rest of the direction of the film. And this is my biggest and first qualm with Scarlet. Pacing is the enemy that destroys this film. When things should be longer, given more focus, more dram and tension, it is sped up and when moments don’t really contribute overall, they are given too much time.

    The Pacing Problem

    To provide more context, the movie truly starts in the “Otherworld,” noted as a place where life and death coexist. Scarlet awakes here and does not immediately turn to nothingness as she is fueled by her need for revenge. The movie does a montage of her scavenging old weapons, shaping them up and getting in a few fights. The pacing works in these moments because we have already seen her train with the sword – now we just need to know how she got her equipment. But then, later in the movie, what should be the build up or the rising climax is quick-cut straight to the peak, dropping any additional character or world building.

    My friend who had seen it with me agreed that he felt this movie was flip-flopping all over the place, and the pacing is the culprit for this feeling. While I was watching, I kept waiting (or hoping)for some longer scenes that had more depth and development, because every scene had the wrong pacing even 1 hour into the film. I was ultimately let down. We get important scenes of fights or drama that last at times no longer than a few minutes, while we get other scenes of peace that try to push the metaphorical narrative that get entire TRANSITIONS that last several minutes alone. I am confused about the pacing in this movie as it is directed by a long-established and award winning director.

    The Character Problem

    Scarlet is the protagonist, but we have a companion of the name Hijiri as a secondary main character. Hijiri is obviously used to serve as the “guiding light” to Scarlet in her time of being blinded by vengeance. A EMT from the modern day, Hijiri early on shows disdain towards taking a life and only wants to talk things out and heal people who have been hurt.

    The trailers for this movie made Hijiri appear as a major boon to this film’s plot, and they definitely tried to write him as that, but it seems along the way – either due to editing or production decisions – decided to give up finishing his characterization. Hijiri is for the most part dragged around to heal people and say that death is bad. When we are introduced, he doesn’t even have any establishing context like Scarlet.

    Quick tangent: this film opened Scarlet’s story with “Her Arrival” in a sort of chapter-title establishment. We would expect Hijiri to have his shot as well, but this never happens!

    Hijiri is unfortunately surmised to nothing but a romantic interest for Scarlet. He is obviously meant to serve as a narrative device, the character that helps Scarlet see the light, but this is haphazardly handled much like all other writing and direction in this film.

    My final peeve about this character: the entire movie makes the audience feel like he should not be here – they do not open up about his death until the very end. There is a character, a witch like lady that lives in the Otherworld we see when Scarlet arrives. At a rising climax battle in which Hijiri decides he needs to fight, this witch appears and is surprised to see him there. “What are you doing here? “she asks him. It makes it appear the movie is trying to say “Hijiri is not the same as the other beings here” and maybe there is something he is based off of that supports this. Maybe I am missing it. But they end his character off by revealing his death in the real world and completely drop this interesting opportunity to use him as something else – a guardian angel, a guide, something!

    The rest of the characters, primarily the evil ones, are way too cartoonishly evil. They never take advantage in combat, they all act like boisterous fools at all times (ultimately leading to their downfall), it all makes the fight and the stakes feel useless. This film could have foregone the big battle spectacle and been just the same – maybe even better.

    The Impact Problem

    The overall message that Scarlet tries to convey is that life is precious, forgive yourself and live on. This has been told before and is in all fairness an important reminder, especially in tumultuous times. And there are many metaphors, allegories and story beats to use to creatively express this message. Scarlet pulls it off at times, but the overall connected narrative confuses itself between its lack of characterization and bad pacing that any impact you could have had on the audience is completely lost.

    What should have been an empowering and moving ending felt confusing, unfinished and even a little corny. And it all could have been avoided had the previous two problems been fixed in this narrative. The movie’s connecting of the story and its themes and metaphors happen too frequently on this bad pacing that we spend more time getting bits of “think about this sort of metaphorical lesson” where the lesson is somewhat different each time. For example, early on, after they save a caravan being raided by bandits, the same caravan offers to travel with them. Hijiri willingly agrees, Scarlet begrudgingly obliges. This long scene showing them travel and live with these folk culminate in the leader talking to Scarlet, and he spits the lesson out for us: “when you’ve been betrayed enough, you start to long for someone to trust.”

    Another lesson that is important to learn, but the movie doesn’t really use it. Betrayal only came in the form of the Hamlet story and then the same cartoonishly evil villains throwing hands with Scarlet. There wasn’t enough there to make this moment feel impactful. And then it ends with a dance scene that is drawn out way too long. The impact did not happen, but the film assumes it did it perfectly and ties it off with a funny dance scene – a scene of peace for our heroes.

    The movie uses the same song as a emotional connection and Hijiri sings this song to Scarlet one night when she awakes from a nightmare. Before this, he asks what she would live like if she was in another life. This song puts her in a trance, and for about what felt like 5 to 6 minutes of film runtime was spent on her envisioning herself in the modern era dancing with Hijiri. Scarlet breaks down at this image, seeing she would have been happy in another life. This is a beautifully animated moment, but the impact is not there. I get that this was her moment of change (hence by the fact the following scene shows her cutting her hair short – a trope in many a anime when a woman shows resolve in changing). But, the movie didn’t do enough beforehand to make it seem like Scarlet was truly blinded by revenge. She wavers in her quest and ability for the majority of the film up to this point.

    And the worst offender: the ending has no impact outside of its visuals and strong acting. The ending attempts to wrap up all of these half hearted narrative points in one bundle and does so in a rush, leading to one of the most disappointing attempts at tugging on my heart strings I have ever felt.

    The Conclusion

    This image released by Netflix shows the character Scarlet in a scene from the animated film “Scarlet.” (Netflix via AP)

    The 2025 animated film Scarlet has a problem crafting a concise narrative. It opens up several branches for characters and different allegories but cuts them off prematurely or never really develops them. What is left a visually and well-acted animated film that makes obvious attempts to have impactful moments and an impactful ending, but its disservice to its own plot points and characters leaves it so there is no impact at any point whatsoever.

    This is a rare case where I believe a movie would have benefited from being longer. Had they more time to craft longer scenes to give us more info behind Hijiri, give the two more time to form a relationship, and provide more tensity building to the final battle spectacle, this film would have been stellar. Unfortunately, this is simply a visually appealing but confusing, poorly connected narrative dud.

    4.5/10

  • Swallowtail

    Swallowtail

    Hello there, Swallowtail.
    Flapping about the branch of life.
    Could you truly tell,
    what keeps one from strife?
    I’m searching for reasons alone.
    And I cannot comprehend an ideal;
    To love or life I am not prone.
    To flap with the Swallowtail upon the hill.

    Can the anger of one destroy you?
    Or do you find yourself a peaceful bait?
    When this world seemingly defiles you,
    how much longer does patience wait?
    I’m following you now, on the hill.
    The sunlight is streaking in our eyes.
    Love and happiness like this can kill;
    we’re a delicacy to the flies.

    Swallowtail, can you tell me why?
    The innocent life in the town below.
    How come the dirty innocence cries?
    Simply because the revelation was bestowed?
    When I shut myself away from the rest,
    I am not quite sure.
    When I hide from their detest.

    O’ Swallowtail, you have a beautiful dream.
    Two friends happily pleasured in the sun.
    But the fallacy of it all falls through the seam,
    and the dream is done.
    O’ Swallowtail, you have the beautiful patience;
    that which one detests me for.
    My life ordeal is stagnant,
    and I fall through the door.

    Outcast by the species I am of.
    Outcast by the Gods up above.
    I crawl, freezing, up the hill.
    Looking for my pal, who has fallen ill.
    Please…

    Hello there, Swallowtail.
    Who is frozen on the dead branch of winter.
    Can you tell me?
    Why the life is scarred with the splinter?
    The splinter of sin?
    The outcast within?
    Swallowtail…?
    You’re carried by the wind.

    2016, Jake Brunton
    Photo by Seth Wickham on Unsplash

  • Melony

    Melony

    If I had barred my heart long ago,
    this pain would’ve left me sooner.
    If I had embraced the cold brought of the snow,
    this choice would’ve died.
    Conjugate this love again, please
    on the mountains in Nepal, I can’t find her.

    Fake burden of her illness crossed in snow
    Fake burden destroyed
    my lovely Melony.
    Fake lips coughing to the growth of the fake burden, I love you
    Melony.

    Ominous disposal of the capsule,
    why it can heal my heart so.
    Snow flaking the atmosphere on her ashes, she left my view so.
    Sleep, bring me the fake burden…

    Fake lies of lust and disgust
    Fake love and ideals separated me; Melony.
    Fake hearts switched the philosophy-
    I love thy Melony.

    If she had never made acquaintance long ago,
    pains of today would have been neglected.
    If I’d have chosen to love her,
    honest;
    i wouldn’t be lost…

    2016, Jake Brunton
    Photo by Sasha Freemind on Unsplash

  • -DEDO-

    -DEDO-

    If I could have one wish
    I would wish for an eternal sleep that brings peace.
    Because of the monsoon rain,
    I fall weak and I love it.

    If there ever was a sunny day,
    I wouldn’t know it.
    Because I am quite the weak human
    and I disagree with this life.
    I wish to fall in the lake of the city
    and let the citizens eat my flesh.

    If I could do one thing
    I would strengthen the rope that protrudes from my ceiling.
    Unfinished documents on my scraped desk
    they remind me of why I hate who I am.
    The monsoon rain can’t stop
    and the beat never stops.

    If there ever was a sunny day,
    I wouldn’t know it.
    Because I wish to no longer be human.
    Because I wish to become one of the daemon?
    Because I am tired.
    Yes, I disagree with this life.

    Alas, I adjust my attire for my ruler
    as to not threaten the quality of this worthless value.
    Grabbing the documents, finished, I leave
    and enter my daily hell.
    These grey suits drain me
    These grey suits tempt me.

    I let go~
    …

    If there ever was a sunny day,
    I didn’t live to see it.
    Because I was foolish.
    Because I was selfish.
    Because I was stupid.
    Yes, I loved this life,
    but I claimed it for the value of the taxman.
    Why would I do such a thing?
    Monsoon rains seem to understand.

    Photo by Ryunosuke Kikuno on Unsplash

  • hmSpirit Dev Diary #1

    hmSpirit Dev Diary #1

    It’s no big surprise that I think the ideal career is one of a game director/developer. I love video games and have my whole life, and one of my favorite aspects of video games are their elevated ability to tell a story, to make you feel things. This lofty opening is simply to provide my passion behind the subject, because while I have several ideas of fun games in the chamber of secrets, this update and the next several will be around a project for a NSFW game – a hentai game, if you will.

    Back in late 2021, I was actively writing demo scripts for a game I call the “dream project,” and while it has been indefinitely on hold, it is not without reason. I had enrolled into a Computer Science degree program to force myself into a deeper understanding of the principles of software design and development. Along that path, I took some game design courses that expanded my knowledge on how we approach game design and project management. During the degree, probably two or so years ago, I was friends with a friendly guy from Canada that ran his own software development firm. He has all but faded away from my life, but I still recall during one of his random pop-ups a conversation we had had: we discussed my further interest in advanced CompSci topics and then discussed my want to make games. This brought up the interest in doing a hentai or adult game, primarily for a shot at financial success that could be reinvested further.

    That is not to say this project does not contain any passion or aims to be a soulless cash-grab: on the contrary even. Currently titled “hmSpirit,” this is a 2D project being prototyped in GameMaker, a software I have been interested in using for some time now. As 2026 started, I decided if I had a resolution of any kind, it would be to kick it in gear with working on projects that put some of my degree to use (I am now graduated as of writing this!) Within just the first few weeks of 2026, I have already learned so much about the engine and got a ever so slight grasp on my approach to making a production-grade project by the end of this.

    Introduction to “hmSpirit”

    Code named “hmSpirit,” the project is currently to prototype something that will aim to be one of the best adult Farming RPGs. It is essentially a merge of my enjoyment of the doujin hentai game world and farming sims/RPGs. I know that there are a good few of these that exist on the market, but I personally feel none of them go far enough to provide a solid game experience all around. In fact, that is my complaint with most H-games: more often than not, core gameplay loops are neglected for quick thrills.

    You may say that is the point, they are literally porn games, and in some cases you may be right, but there are many classic Eroge or H-RPGs that have attempted a balance, and I want to strike on it and then some! While I don’t believe it will end up being on the quality of Stardew Valley, my vision is a core farming RPG that is well-done enough that people wouldn’t even mind if it never was a hentai game as well. But, my personal motto is “I want to make games I want to play,” and I love farming RPGs and H-games, but there isn’t a fun one that merges these for something you could sink say 50-60 hours into on just enjoying the gameplay loop and world alone.

    My idea, as much of it I can share, is to focus on one of the features I always love in any RPG when it’s incorporated (especially in Farming ones): relationships. A farming RPG without relationship mechanics is like a car without oil: you just can’t drive far without it (or at all, depending on the car). A big focus on the master Game Design Document (MGDD) is how the balance between Farming and your relationships are. To grossly summarize it: the quality and output of your farming endeavors will effect how your relationship endeavors with the NPCs, and vice versa. And not just in a positive way! Another important design philosophy to me is to design systems in a way that even if they’re limited in technical scope, they can be manipulated by the player to play the game again in many different ways.

    In one player’s save, they may choose to play it like they’re playing something like Stardew Valley – farming, becoming friends with everyone, unlocking all the secrets, and maybe do a little tomfoolery with their wife/husband/partner of choice on the side. Another player may choose to go full pervert-eroge gamer mode and focus maybe a little too much on the erotic aspects. I want there to be the freedom of choice there within this symbiotic system, but of course punish swinging too far in either direction (sort of like real life, huh?)

    So, on paper a prospective player may look and end up seeing a relatively tame hentai Farming game, but in reality the project scope is rather involved. I hope I keep the steam going so I can update someday on my challenges in developing the inter-workings of these relationship systems, but for now, you can have my lofty visions and the actual updates as of now.

    Design Documents

    The Master Game Design document is currently at 28 pages and over 5000 words, which is actually on the smaller side, but is by far the largest GDD I have put together so far. It is still ongoing and like most GDDs, it will change as the project takes new identities, but this has been a fun creative outlet I have desperately needed for sometime now. Thinking out the high-level systems, the skills, the scenarios and gameplay loops has been a blast. I have plans to work on this a bit more to a first revision by the end of January.

    I am trying my best to not tread into feature-creep too early, and so I personally feel my plans outlined in the GDD are on the slim side, but again, I want to prototype something playable with a solid foundation of design documentation before I ramp into actual production.

    Game

    This is the latest in-engine footage captured today. This is of course extremely amateurish. I am not too dedicated into programming the prototype yet, but I am trying to achieve the following while designing:

    • Get more acquainted with Gamemaker
    • Learn the engine low-level systems, functions, how to handle maps and tiles and draw orders, etc.
    • Set up basic boilerplate stuff, like collisions, depth, basic interactions, and basic AI (movement)

    This is the culmination of probably just 6 or 7 hours of work so far – of course using assets I have purchased from itch.io. I am fine with premade assets for prototyping (you can find the tileset by Emanuelle here) – I have plans to commission or employ the works of artists once it is ready for a pre-production state.

    Again, this video doesn’t show anything to brag about, but rather serves as proof to myself I am doing it. I am essentially taking up some hours throughout the week to handle all aspects of game production to trick my brain into getting into a locked-in state for the prototype. Under the hood, I am a little more proud, as I have been trying to wire this so that high-level concepts such as Character logic, input and collision handle in a reusable way and not copy+pasted per object. I may be making a hentai game, but I want it to run efficiently and be as bug-free as possible gosh darn it!

    I also have active engine and script documentation going, so if by some chance other people come on, they have the idea right away (and so do I if I ever take a break…) I am going to play around with setting up a basic interaction/trigger to dialogue system soon and then focus on making the rest of the preliminary design documentation: the MGDD, character sheets, crude concept art (I am not a great artist), scenarios, etc.

    Current (fuzzy) timeline for the prototype:

    Jan:

    • Basic dialogue system
    • Basic NPC AI movement on paths and prepare for unique NPC schedules
    • Finish the MGDD

    Feb:

    • Start Character Sheets
    • Start first “clean” test map in-engine
    • Start Character Dialogue mapping
    • Any bad concept art for characters

    Mar:

    • Start prototyping the farming mechanics and in-game clock
    • Prototype UI elements (menus and inventory)
    • Start Quests outlining

    Apr:

    • Dedicate to finishing design materials for first prototype
    • Finish up any lingering development items prior

    June is a busy time at work, so I will likely not get to do much for the project then.

    Jul:

    • Begin the prototype for the relationship systems
    • Begin prototyping cut scenes (to reuse for story and relationships)

    I hope you look forward to more updates if you’re a fellow farming rpg and/or H-game enjoyer!

  • My top games of 2025

    My top games of 2025

    2025 was a lighter year in new game releases. For me personally, the year did not ramp up until after the Nintendo Switch 2 release. I had spent the early part of the year moving, flying out to stay in L.A. for a week, and finally taking care of boring adult stuff that comes with moving to a new place. However, as a certified gamer, I still surprisingly pulled off playing enough new titles to culminate into a Top 10 list, so let’s do that.

    This list includes a game that is left unfinished, so I will mark it with a * in the list. This is more of a stream of consciousness on what I remember feeling when playing these games and less of an analyzed, well-thought critique of these games.

    10. Dynasty Warriors Origins

    When this game was first revealed it was safe to say I was decently hyped up for it. I loved the Warriors musou games growing up, and haven’t played one fully since Dynasty Warriors Empires 8. The graphics engine finally looked better, the battle scales looked larger – I was prepared.

    January 17th, 2025 came and essentially went. I do like this game, but honestly its inclusion at the top of this list is due to having not finished many games or playing enough games at the top of the year. I may do an in-depth review/rant on this in the future, but while it was an enjoyable action game, DW: Origins dropped off so much of what makes the series a fun and replayable experience.

    9. WUCHANG: Fallen Feathers*

    This was a game I didn’t even know about until I saw it randomly on the Playstation Store’s “Upcoming” section. Pretty lady + dark souls is always a easy sell to me. And, after seeing Iron Pineapple’s video on it, I figured I’d give it a shot.

    This is the game I have yet to complete, by the way. I won’t get too detailed, but the game is fun. It definitely captures the way I felt when playing Dark Souls (1) for the first time, but in a macabre fantasy China. The moment to moment gameplay is fun and there is plenty of challenge, but this game runs pretty bad at times (even on my PS5 Pro), and before I could even finish it, controversies with the player-base in China led to content being censored or redone before I could experience how it originally was.

    8. Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds

    I was late to the party on this one. Let me get it out of the way: this game is way more fun than Mario Kart World (which is not on this list). To be fair, it’s hard to beat a racing game where you can play as Hatsune Miku.

    I picked this one up for Black Friday and played a good bit with my friend. It’s by no means the perfect game, and it is plagued with a balancing issue that has yet to be addressed (you want to be in between 4th-8th place until the last moments of the game pretty much). There are also some sad looking graphics engine issues even on PS5 Pro, such as background characters appearing to be .gifs imported into the world. All that aside, the character selection is great and the racing is fun and feels good to control.

    7. R.E.P.O

    R.E.P.O dropped in February, but I didn’t play it until a couple months after. I had still felt full from my good 40+ hours in Lethal Company the year prior, but my friend saw a lot of clips of this game and wanted to try it.

    It became a regular Discord get-together for us for a month there in 2025 and it was good fun the whole time. I know the game still receives updates from time to time, but it ultimately felt like there was a little less to truly work towards besides powering up. I absolutely love the ways you can try to kill the monsters too – the sleep dart gun is top tier!

    6. Donkey Kong Bananza

    We finally get to the Switch 2 games. I was up past midnight picking up the Switch 2: despite the online discourse, I was excited. DK Bananza looked like fun, so I picked it up. I don’t really play any sort of platformer-adventure games often (if ever), but admittedly the Switch 2 was sort of dry at the time, and this was the stream of water it desperately needed.

    This game was a blast – early negative reviews be damned! I played primarily in handheld mode and enjoyed smashing entire blocks of terrain, collecting all of the fossils and running around to get the Crystal Bananas. This is a solid game, which explains its nomination for Game of the Year at The Game Awards 2025. The only real complaint I had for DK Bananza is it overstays its welcome in the story and could have been shortened just a touch.

    5. Elden Ring: Nightreign

    I am an Elden Ring lover. I have played Dark Souls 1 and some of 2 and 3, so I may be called a poser, but Elden Ring was an insane release back in 2022. I even 100%’d it – I love this game. So when Nightreign was announced to be a co-op roguelike spinoff, I was somewhat skeptical but still excited to try it out.

    When it dropped, that excitement was validated. The game is essentially co-op runs through a mashup of the Elden Ring maps, where every second counts to level up and get better weapons before the Fortnite-esque storm consumes you. I 100%’d this game as well and enjoyed many sessions with my friends, but now that the DLC has dropped, I found myself not as eager to come back as I thought I would. I’m sure I will come around, but the DLC expansion did not demand my immediate attention.

    4. Monster Hunter Wilds

    This was the game that tricked me into believing I needed a PS5 Pro. Some background: I was in the middle of a move when initial reviews were dropping, and the game looked like a lot of fun. But performance issues on consoles were noted, and many had said that PS5 Pro was the definitive way to play this title. I’m not super sure about that, as it still has some embarrassing hiccups on it, but regardless, this was a fun addition to the series.

    Another one I spent a good chunk of my Spring on and it ended up 100%’d as well! As an Insect Glaive main, I wish the feel for the weapon was retained from MH Rise. Instead, it is back to the sheepish jumps of World, but with the addition of the new special attacks, I can forgive it. It really does suck Capcom haven’t quite pushed to eradicate the glaring performance issues yet…regardless, it is more than playable and what you get to play is a blast.

    3. Umamusume: Pretty Derby

    Yes, my top three starts this way and I am not ashamed. I was a fan of Umamusume Season 1 back when it aired originally. At the time, I did not know it was planned to have the game come out first, and then it wasn’t until the Global release earlier in 2025 that I even knew there were multiple seasons, a movie, and that Japan had the game for some time.

    Although it took me a minute to understand the actual gameplay of this little gacha, it got me back into the series full-send. I am now knowledgeable on many race horses from around the world, get to enjoy cute horse girls daily, and am catching back up with all the anime I have missed (and it’s all good!)

    The reception for Umamusume: Pretty Derby’s Global release actually shocked me! I remember it was a popular show back in S1 of the anime because people thought the concept of race horses turned anime girls was funny. I guess it’s an everlasting charm, because I still love it!

    2. Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma

    Hoo boy. I have played RF3, RF4, and RF5. I still remember when RF5 was title revealed years ago, I had tears in my eyes because prior, the series’ developer was shutting their doors. Not too long after, in 2023, we saw “Project Dragon” revealed as a Rune Factory game. Little information dropped about this until the months leading to release – which was pushed back to release with the Switch 2 on June 5th, 2025. That whole time, I had just assumed we were getting Rune Factory 5 but “in Japan.”

    What an awesome surprise this was. To be frank, this is definitely a sort of “spin-off” on the series, but it does introduce so many changes to the core mechanics that I think Rune Factory should include going forward. Building multiple villages with NPCs that can come and go to automate farmer and foraging and more, lots of different combat styles and skill trees to invest in, and a cast of just all around lovely and fun characters that are all well voice acted. This was my obsession all of June, I could barely put the game down. I still have the end-game content to finish, but I got a solid 60+ hours out of simply playing through the main story while getting distracted with side content here and there. There are some things I wish this game went further on, like the relationship systems and marriage, and I quite dislike that they locked some romance options behind a DLC, but it is probably the best Rune Factory to date.

    1. Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar

    I have played nearly 100 hours of this game so far. I preface with that because I initially planned to make this the #2 on the list. But, simply for what this game is and how much time I put into it alone this year – it has to be number 1.

    I never played the original Harvest Moon: Grand Bazaar (unfortunately). However, with the modernization of the old games under the moniker of “Story of Seasons,” I have picked up every type of remake to-date, so this was no exception. I never expected much, especially when the previous remake was my childhood favorite, Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life. But when this released and I got my hands on it, I was more than pleasantly surprised.

    Many a fan are hailing this as “the best game in the series” and at this point, I am inclined to agree. It is by far the best looking we have seen from Story of Seasons to this point, and what was a small DS title in the series has been remade into a full-sized package worth every penny. One of the first things I noticed that instantly told me this was a quality product was there is a beefy amount of voice acting – something that has been extremely rare for the series outside of some vocal stims and grunts.

    The next thing was that this game looks so pretty. Yes – it’s not revolutionary graphical prowess you would see with a triple A title, but for a long-time fan, this is the same feeling as shifting from a PS3 game to a PS5 game. Colors are deep and lush, the foliage amount and animations really make you “feel” the wind of Zephyr Town. It’s just a cute little treat for your eyes.

    Gameplay is solid as ever too (with some caveats). While there is a lack of world customization the baseline titles attempt to give, it is not necessary here. You can unlock more fields, repair the windmills to unlock more resources – there are progression systems, and it all culminates with the overhead system of progressing your bazaar rank. This is an extremely fun loop to work through, as you never feel the need to “skip a day” in any week in the game, as you always need to work on meeting the goals for the next bazaar rank. I do dislike the decay/quality system, as it makes you rush to try and use your produce and food items at all times, and I feel like I am spending half of my harvest on making more seeds than I am simply making money. But those are tiny complaints.

    This is one of my top-played games on the Switch 2 or Switch library in general, and is by far the most time I have put into a Story of Seasons game since I was a kid (I lost hundreds of hours of sleep to the original HM: A Wonderful Life). With that being said, these are just some of the reasons I picked this as my stand-out game from 2025.

    Honorable Mentions

    There were a good amount of games in 2025 that I picked up, but these are mostly ones I picked up near the end of the year and/or haven’t finished enough of to feel like I could place it comfortably on a list like this.

    Expedition 33

    I waited for the physical release which was pushed back into November, so I didn’t get to start this title until mid-November of 2025. I have yet to finish it and have just started Act 2. I see why people were all about this, but because I did not finish it in time and from some personal opinions on it, I think this is simply a solid RPG to recommend but not quite one to take home all the gold.

    Megabonk

    I heard a lot of good things about this throughout 2025, and before I bought it on-sale in late December, I wrote it off as “just another Vampire Survivors” game. To be fair, I do like the gameplay loop of those games, but I really only played Holocure in that genre and nothing else. I decided to pick up Megabonk and man, it is just good fun where you can sort of shut your brain off, but put in enough thought per run to feel like a smart fella. I haven’t played enough and have only unlocked a quarter of the items, but yes, this is a really fun game!

    Yakuza 0 Director’s Cut

    I picked this up a day after the Switch 2 dropped for the simple fact that I had not played Yakuza 0 since back in 2017. Yakuza 0 was my first experience with the franchise, so at the time the appeal of the substories and minigames had not dawned on me, so I remember burning through the game really fast.

    As of writing, I have put in over 50 hours into Director’s Cut so far on my Switch 2, and I am glad I picked it up simply because it is letting me truly love Yakuza 0 all over again and to go back and appreciate everything I had neglected before.