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Game Thoughts: Slay the Princess

Slay the Princess released last month and I finally got around to playing it. It was a treat!

I've been interested in minimalist game development recently, and visual novels are a big part of that domain -- games that are primarily dialogue and still images (and usually choices).

If you dig past the upper crust of VNs (mostly comprised of romancing anime harems) there's lots of indie developers doing really interesting stuff with the genre. Slay the Princess is a super fresh take on VNs, utilising the common mechanics to get weird.

The story plays with narrator(s) of questionable trustworthiness and is filled with interesting decisions to be made. Surprisingly the game was fully voice-acted, which added extra layers of immersion as the game progressed.

I played through to the credits once and was really happy with the experience. The pacing was great for the single playthrough, giving the player just enough time to figure out how things "work" before getting to the ending. The music and voice acting were also wonderful, and the entire concept was creative, unique, and executed perfectly.

Having beaten it once, however, I'm not sure I want to dive back in. It was a fantastic experience, and I'm admittedly curious to see some of the other routes I could have taken (some photos I've seen online hint to me missing out on some really interesting ones!), but knowing how the game works spoils a big part of what made it fun on the first playthrough.

It was short, but it's got my appetite up for more indie / unique visual novels!

Book Thoughts: A Memory called Empire

Yesterday I finished the audiobook version of A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine. It was really really good.

While I read a lot of Science Fiction, "Space Opera" isn't usually my cup of tea as it can sometimes read as fantasy-but-in-space, and I've got normal fantasy for that. I want philosophy and anthropology from my sci-fi. It turns out, however, that I can be perfectly satisfied with a good story in space.

The book opens with an absolutely fantastic dedication:

“This book is dedicated to anyone who has ever fallen in love with a culture that was devouring their own."

What a fucking concept and dedication! As someone born and raised in North America this isn't something I've ever given much thought to, and the dedication kept echoing throughout the story. It's rare that I remember a dedication by the time I finish a book, but I had to go back and re-read this one at the end.

After the dedication, we're presented with what is the most preposterously over-jargoned prologue I've ever had the displeasure of reading. Especially in audiobook form, the prologue was almost impenetrable. I have a friend who actually quit the book before even finishing the prologue.

Once you're through those weeds, however, the story unfolds. A story about the ambassador from a small space station to a galatic empire, replacing her somewhat estranged predecessor and equipped with secret technology. The protagonist's love for the empire she's working in is sold really well, and I've got people in my life which I'm sure could relate strongly to her.

There's politics and violence and a bit of romance, some fancy technology that makes one wonder about its implications (though this isn't speculative sci-fi, so those implications aren't very thoroughly explored), and jump gates. I had a great time all the way through, but it really picks up in the second half.

Something I found very clever in the book was the way names were designed. In the Empire, people's names are a number followed by a noun (usually a flower or plant). This leads to names like "Twelve Azalea" and "Thirteen Seagrass", but also plays into some pretty funny opportunities. What's neat is this feels really scifi, while making all the names extremely easy to remember. I didn't once find myself wondering "who is Xlaxcalon again?" like one often will do in these kinds of stories (warning: the prologue and sequences from the protagonists home station absolutely do have ridiculous names like Yskandr Aghavn".

The difference between the names of the Empire's citizens and those on the station is only one of many, and the book takes a lot of looks at what one can feel like being treated like "a barbarian" when one is a foreigner in a new land (even when one is well versed in the language and culture).

I really appreciate how much the author worked towards making the Empire feel like a fleshed out culture, from the facial gestures to the poetry to the religion it felt very cohesive and well defined.

It was a great read, and I've already started on the sequel!

Comic Thoughts: Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind

Today I finished reading the final volume of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, the manga written and illustrated by Papa Ghibli himself: Hayao Miyazaki.

It was only recently that I'd learned this Manga existed. Despite Princess Mononoke being my favourite film since I was 12 (and it still holds up!), I'd only consider myself a mid-tier Ghibli fan. I've seen all the major films and am super hyped for the new one that recently released, but I've passed up 3 separate chances to go to the Ghibli museum, don't like Totoro, and own no more than 10 pieces of Ghibli paraphernalia (DVDs excluded).

While the movie version of Nausicaa (I'm dropping the umlaut henceforth) was already fairly high up on my Ghibli list, what really interested me about the manga version was learning it was way longer. 7 volumes, to be exact, with a story that takes us many more places amongst many more factions than the film.

If you liked what the film had to offer you should absolutely pick this one up and give it a read. Between Nausicaa the film, Princess Mononoke, and this manga, I feel like Miyazaki felt a strong need to express his views on humanity's destruction of the earth through greed and war. Despite this scathing criticism of humanity, however, he leaves hope through the actions of the main protagonists.

It's definitely not as clean and tidy as the movie version -- with so many factions and characters it can get a little confusing, and at times it definitely gets a little lost in the weeds. The message is loud and clear throughout, however, and punctuated by a version of Nausicaa that gets her hands much more dirty and openly questions her own actions and intentions throughout the story.

Book Thoughts: A Psalm for the Wild-Built

My favorite type of science fiction novels focus on people and societies instead of the tech. "Speculative anthropology [with robots n' future stuff]".

One subgenre of this that I've been excited to see explored is "Solarpunk". This genre veers away from the typically dystopian future outlook to offer a hopeful vision of the future where humans can live in harmony with the ecosystem.

Yesterday I finished the audiobook version of A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers -- a Hugo-winning solarpunk novella about a tea monk and a robot. I've got mixed feelings about it, but overall it was a pleasant and relaxing read.

Note: I recommend reading this one instead of listening, as I wasn't fond of the narrator's choice of voice and emphasis for a lot of the reading.

(Spoilers after the jump)

Book Thoughts: The Shadow of the Wind

I finished listening to The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón the other day. I had originally thought it was some kind of magical fantasy book, but it was absolutely not that. It was, however, and excellent read/listen outside of my usual genres and writing style.

The story takes place in Barcelona in the 1940's and 50's as a young boy seeks to solve the mysteries surrounding the author of his favorite book. As the story unfolds it becomes a wonderfully captivating tale of murder and mystery and intrigue, all while we watch the narrator grow up and stumble through his own life making mistakes along the way.

There is so much emotion in this novel. Barcelona feels alive, the characters are all messy and passionate and expressive, the events and storylines that take place are often so illogical but so human in ways that you don't frequently see in SciFi/Fantasy, and it was a very refreshing read for that - I had a similar experience when reading East of Eden in that strange capturing of human messiness that is so often distilled out of my normal reading.

The author has a line that "Books are a Mirror", that you only see in them that which you already have inside you. This really struck me, as while I most definitely learn new things from books all the time, a book like this truly feels like a mirror. I kept seeing in the story reflections of my own mistakes and experiences in life, bittersweet reminders of failed romances and lost friends that elevated the story.

Given the messy nature of the story and the lives the author spins into this tale, they managed to finish completely cleanly -- they tied up every loose end and left no questions about any of the characters' fates. I thank them for that, as I really felt attached to many of the colorful cast.

I really enjoyed this story and how perfectly self-contained it was. I understand there's some prequels out there, but for now I think I'll let this one stand on it's own.

Game Thoughts: Chrono Trigger

Long ago as a youth I got a copy of Chrono Trigger included in my "Final Fantasy Chronicles" PS1 Collection. At the time I knew nothing about the game, and ended up getting stuck on the Mountain of Woe boss and moving on to other things. Though I would pick the game up again on various emulators over the years, I'd never get past the first trip to 600AD due to short attention span. Eventually the number of times I'd started the game became it's own barrier to entry, as I dreaded replaying the beginning again.

It's one of those weird things -- one of the most beloved pixel art JRPGs of all time, yet I couldn't bring myself to even start it anymore, let alone finish it. However, recently Chrono Cross got a re-release, and a new indie game, "Sea of Stars" came out flaunting Chrono Trigger inspirations. I felt like I owed it to myself to beat the original game to prepare my pallette for these other titles and finally took down my trophy DS copy of the game down from its pedestal, booted up my much-loved 3DS, and beat one of the best JRPGs of all time.

Comic Thoughts: Junji Ito (3 titles)

It's been a while since I've read any Junji Ito stuff, despite having loved Uzumaki and the Amigara Fault (the later turned me into a permanent fan). On a trip today I picked up 3 of his novels: Remina, Sensor, and Black Paradox.

Remina didn't do much for me. It lacked any real depth and didn't give me that twinge of dread I want when reading cosmic horror. It did have a couple of memorable horrific scenes that were truly deranged (in the good Junji Ito way), but was overall a disappointment.

I enjoyed Sensor much more. The story beats were more substantial and it had some really great chapters. There was a bit with bugs that was really good stuff, and the story had good overall weird vibes to it. Still, it wasn't great -- I started questioning whether I was just viewing his stuff through rose-tinted glasses.

However, Black Paradox was fantastic. Really good stuff, twisted in the right ways, strange as hell and dark. It's the shortest of the three, but the best by strides. The setup was great, the development was great, and the characters were interesting.

Black Paradox is a real gem, and definitely belongs on the shelf next to Uzumaki and Tomie; the other two just get to go there because of alphabetical ordering.

Book Thoughts: This is How You Lose the Time War

I just finished listening to This is How You Lose the Time War.

It was a very different kind of sci-fi novel. Very abstract, poetic. Loose on detail and high on feelings, which is a stark contrast to many stories in the space which are so fixated on hard maths and time paradoxes.

It was honestly a beautiful short story. It plays off modern common knowledge of sci-fi, hand-waving the nanomachines and time-jumping into the background so we can focus on the two focal characters as they write letters to one another and develop a relationship.

As they move from rivals to friends to more, their letters become increasingly abstract -- the wingbeats of a bee, the shapes of the year-lines in a felled tree, the protein shapes of a core of apple. Admittedly, while these feats of steganography managed to imply technical and artistic feats of nature and technology that were wildly romantic, they occasionally broke immersion with how absurdly out-of-the-box they got.

I regret having listened to this one rather than reading it, I feel like the tactility of holding and reading their letters on paper, and treading and re-treading passages, would have elevated this beyond what the narrators could do.

All in all I found it a very pleasant and creative piece of sci-fi. I really enjoyed the intertwining of sci-fi and poetic writing, which is a combination I don't freqently see in my usual reading.

Book Thoughts: Yumi and the Nightmare Painter

After finishing Frugal Wizard, I launched directly into Sanderson's next audiobook: Yumi and the Nightmare Painter. In my last post I whined a bit about how Sanderson should use these books to explore a bit and deviate from his norm. He didn't do that here, but hot damn if this one isn't peak Brandon Sanderson.

I was honestly surprised with how good this one turned out. It went in a couple directions I genuinely didn't expect, he nailed the young romance (maybe even went a little too manga with that bit), and I just thoroughly enjoyed myself all the way through.

If it didn't have so many little Cosmere / Hoid references I would go as far as saying this would be the best "Introduction to Sanderson" book. It's an excellent standalone(mostly) novel that shows off Sanderson's unique twist on fantasy / magic at his current writing capacity (vs something earlier like Elantris). Yes, it's very young-adult, but I was a young adult when I got captivated by this kind of fantasy storytelling with the Wheel of Time at 13.

Sanderson used a lot of Japanese / Korean influence when designing this world, and managed to do it in a way that leaned on the imagery and language semantics of the cultures without stepping into stereotypes. Honestly it was quite clever - by evoking the Neo-Tokyo and ancient korea that we so commonly see in media, then deviating just enough, he managed to build a novel fantasy setting in way less words than would otherwise be needed.

If the last book was vanilla soft serve, this one was a hearty home-cooked meal with a touch of asian fusion. Comfy, just a tiny bit adventurous, very satisfying.

I want to add an extra note about how much I've been appreciating Sanderson's post-scripts in these books. Having the author openly talk about how different media he's enjoyed influenced how he builds his worlds and stories is very validating. It's something I do a lot when building stories and games in my head, and I've always felt slightly ashamed that my ideas are always just iterations, combinations, or extensions of ideas from other sources. It's one thing to hear an author talk about inspirations in interviews, and quite something else for them to be willing to openly stamp those sources of inspiration directly into their work, and even have the narrator read them out loud in the audiobook version.

Book Thoughts: Frugal Wizard's Handbook

Today I finished my audiobook copy of The Frugal Wizard's Handbook for Surviving Medieval England, by Brandon Sanderson.

(Big spoilers warning)