Introduction to Boys' Love Games

I really wish that I didn't feel the need to put this disclaimer here, but I'm going to do it for the current readers I have who might not be comfortable reading me talk about how much I like male homosexual romance manga/anime/games/etc. You have been warned. This will be the first post of many to come, so if you're not comfortable with that or are gearing up to write me a nasty comment, I'm going to politely ask you to skip this post, or stop following my blog altogether if it bothers you that much. That is all. 

Phew, now that that's out of the way... On to the good stuff! I could spend a whole entry (or entries, even) explaining what boys' love, or BL, is, but for the purpose of keeping things short I'll provide a simple explanation: BL/yaoi/shonen-ai is a sub-genre of Japanese manga, written by women for women, that focuses on the romantic and often sexual relationships between men. The genre has expanded to games, and since I feel in the mood to talk about BL games (thanks to The Gay Gamer, who inspires many of my posts these days), that's what I'll be covering today. This is by no means a definitive guide or anything, I'm just getting things started.

Have you ever heard of the genre of games called "dating simulation"? If you haven't, it's because they are virtually non-existent in the west, due to presumed lack of interest, I would believe. They're very popular in Japan, though, with names like Love Plus for the DS garnering all sorts of international news coverage for spurring some men to do various amusing public proclamations of their love for the game such as marrying their virtual girlfriends.

Well, just as there are dating sims for heterosexual men, so are there dating sims for women (bet you didn't know that). Not only are there games for girls where you control a female avatar as you try to win over the love of the man of your choice, but there are also games where the main character is male. These are BL games.

Most BL characters could easily be mistaken for girls.

Most BL games are relatively explicit in nature, and are thus limited to PC-only releases due to the strict ratings system for game consoles. Nevertheless, there are a few tame BL games available for consoles, mostly the PS2 and PSP (yes, they still make plenty of PS2 games in Japan). 

Perhaps the most popular BL game developer is Nitro+chiral, with titles like Lamento and Togainu no Chi garnering tons of fans in Japan. You can find censored versions of Togainu no Chi on the PSP and PS2, but Lamento (see first image) is too explicit to port, so it remains PC-only.

But never fear! There are, well, two English BL games (I was convinced there were more but as of writing this I did a 30 minute Google search and couldn't find anything else). Absolute Obedience for the PC is one, and in my opinion, the better-looking of the two. JAST USA, the company behind the localization, is also behind the first BL game commercially available in English, Enzai. Sadly, though the company has since localized quite a number of male-oriented eroge ("erotic games"), these two titles remain the only BL they've released so far.

BL games are, on the whole, visual-novel style, meaning you'll mostly be reading through dialogue and textual descriptions, occasionally being prompted to make a choice, and then for all your efforts you'll be treated to a number of lovely CGs along the way. Characters are, on the whole, fully-voiced, and voice actors play a significant part in the popularity of the games themselves in Japan. Each game features numerous potential partners for you to choose from, some varying in difficulty as to how tough they'll be to "get."

In closing, I'll confess that I've never really played a BL game. Sure, I know a lot about them, and I own the PS2 version of Togainu no Chi, but I haven't played a significant amount of it. I have played the heterosexual, or otome, counterpart to BL games, where you play a female avatar who is out to find herself a male partner, simply because I quickly tire of visual novels. When I play a game, there is only so much reading I want to do! Otome games are much more interactive, for whatever reason, and offer various stat-maxing options and mini-games to keep you interested enough to play them through until the end. But I'll save that for another post! Here, have some Togainu no Chi! Let me know who you'd go for if you were to give it a play.

Who would you pick? (image courtesy of NCSX)

Slow Monday

Today literally was slow! I made my first stew, an Irish lamb stew from Frankie magazine, which was quite simple, took 3+ hours to cook, and tastes pretty good! Not that I have many stews in my repertoire to compare it to, but it's a start. Ok, now that I've got that bad pun out of the way...

In gaming news, I finally updated the eShop and downloaded my free copy of Excitebike as well as the 3D Pokedex. I'll admit, I wasn't that excited for Pokedex 3D (I'd rather play an actual Pokemon game then just look at 3D models of them), but I'm all for free things, so I couldn't pass it up without checking it out. Excitebike, on the other hand, was exciting and new for me (ok, I couldn't help it), as I've never played the original before. And after fooling around with it for a few minutes, I've gotta say, it's quite difficult! I don't really understand the mechanics yet, so I either go horribly slow and get bored or try to go too fast and just end up crashing and then cursing at myself for having to wait to go again.

Have you heard about the lack of a save file delete/reset option in Resident Evil: Mercenaries 3D? This is another shameless plug, but just today I wrote a pretty in-depth post at VGW if you'd like to read more about it. Basically, though, as a way to combat used-game sales, Capcom decided to give players only one save file, which cannot be erased or reset, so you can only play through the game from scratch once. I personally think this is a horrible decision and will definitely deter me from buying the game in the future (though I admit I wasn't particularly leaning towards a purchase in the first place), but what do you all think? I know used game sales can hurt the developers and publishers, but you shouldn't punish consumers, and rather reward them to provide incentives to buy new games, such as exclusive DLC, etc.

In other news, Shaun and I saw Kung Fu Panda 2 over the weekend. I enjoyed the original well enough, but wasn't going to see the sequel except I kept hearing rave reviews right and left that assured me it was actually better than the original. Story-wise, I'm not so sure I'm convinced it was better, but the animation was so beautiful I didn't really care. Give me fuzzy computer animals and a peacock villain voiced by Gary Oldman and I will go home a happy woman. The fight scenes with Lord Shen, the aforementioned main villain, were mesmerizing. If you want to see some gorgeous animation, then definitely consider seeing this on the big screen (I didn't see it in 3D so I can't comment on that), but otherwise you may want to wait for a rental or skip it altogether.

Recent Happenings–Me at VGW and StreetPass Meets

Well, besides that book review, I've been a little MIA as of late, huh? Time to fix that!

As I mentioned in my previous post, I'm now a member of the lovely, inspiring team at www.videogamewriters.com! I'll be covering news and some reviews, with a slight angle towards Japan-only releases and news fresh from the land of the rising sun. I believe my first review for them will actually be of Grand Knights History for the PSP in September, and I'm looking forward to it! (thanks to The Gay Gamer for making me aware of this game in the first place!) So far I've written a few news articles, and most notably an opinion piece on Nintendo's decision to exclude DVD playback capabilities while pursuing possible social network connectivity in the Wii U, so if you're at all interested, I'd love if you gave it a read! If you want to be a real pal, show your support for me and the rest of the team at Video Game Writers by following us on Facebook and/or Twitter! And I highly suggest you check out some of the other articles on the site, it really is a pleasure to read (and there was absolutely no mention of booth babes in any of their E3 coverage!).

In other news, we had another StreetPass Brisbane meetup last weekend, where one of our members was kind enough to pass on her copy of Alice in Wonderland for the DS to me! It's one of the only movie/game tie-ins that ever looked any good to me, so I'm excited to check it out.

Another one of our members ordered the giant AR card from Nintendo Club Australia, and he brought it along to the event so that we all could take some snazzy 3D photos of giant Mii's and Nintendo characters. We got a lot of questions and interested passers-by. Here's what we looked like:

Nothing like a bunch of 3DS fans gathering together, I say! In fact, this Saturday has been declared 3DS StreetPass Day by none other than Nintendo, and to show StreetPass Brisbane's support we'll be holding an event on the day, too. I'll be trying my hand at hosting a Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition tournament (wish me luck, I've never done something like this before!).


I'd love to write more but since this post is long overdue, I think I'll leave it at that for now and save the rest for subsequent posts. I don't like how dead things are getting around here!

Book Review: 'Family Ties & Torn Skies'

First, let me say that I'm rather embarrassed that this review has taken me so long to finish! I was honored to receive a review copy, but unfortunately various other exciting things all happening around the same time (such as my joining the staff of the amazing gaming website, Video Game Writers! more on that later) meant that I couldn't dedicate the time I needed to produce a good review. And, since I told myself my next post would be this book review (as motivation to finish it quickly), the result has been that this blog has had a serious lack of posts as of late. I'm terribly sorry! Now that things are settling down, you should expect to see more regular posts from me.

Without further ado, on to my very first book review!

Family Ties & Torn Skies is a collection of stories and poems from from http://tornworld.net, a comprehensive site that compiles the rich and expansive universe of Torn World, created by Ellen Million. The anthology is broken into two parts, the first half focusing on the Snow-Unicorn Riders, an isolated arctic community, and the Empire, an expansive civilization ruled by science and order. As the title suggests, the central focus of this particular collection is on family and the journey from youth to adulthood.

Reading through the various stories, I was amazed at the amount of depth and detail given to the fantastic realm of Torn World. I was particularly enchanted with the Snow-Unicorn Riders stories and their culture and customs, as they are depicted as living close to nature, and the bonds created between members of certain age-sets (groups of individuals who are of similar age and form lifelong bonds with one another) were interesting to see develop over time.

Fantasy fans should find much to like in these stories, but those looking for a lot of action might find this collection to be a little dry, as the focus really is on family and community, and as such there is often more dialogue than action (don't expect any epic, Lord of the Rings-style battles here). That said, there is so much love and care that has gone into crafting Torn World that it is hard not to be impressed by its charm. The book is also riddled with lovely illustrations that really bring a sense of familiar warmth to the whole package.

To get started, you may consider clicking around the Torn World website to get a sense of what kind of style the book is in. There is so much free media available that it really is worth taking a look at–for example, here is a link to one of the stories included in the anthology, titled "Fala the Leader." The site was also helpful for me as I was reading the book so that I could keep track of the characters and learn more about some of the customs and creatures mentioned. If anything, this is one of my main quibbles with the anthology–though it attempts to educate its readers on so many aspects of the world, sometimes there is so much new information that it is very difficult to keep things straight, and at times I wish things were explained a little more, as someone who wasn't familiar with the website before picking this up.

I highly suggest you check out the site and, if you like what you see, consider supporting this immense artistic collective by purchasing Family Ties & Torn Skies. It's available as an ebook for only $4.99, or you can preorder the hardcover anthology and get a free copy of the ebook in the meantime for $14.99. You can definitely see the passion and enthusiasm in each and every one of the contributors to this collection, and it is an enjoyable read, albeit sometimes rough around the edges. I look forward to seeing more from Torn World in the future.

Imagine noua din Supernatural

Imagine noua din Supernatural

News from 100FgC HQ

The membership of the 100 Football Grounds Club squad currently stands at 186. Any regular readers who have intended to add themselves to the ‘Roll Of Honour’ please do so as soon as possible as there's only 13 squad numbers left before membership reaches full capacity and closes.

The website has been going for almost 5 years now so I suppose anyone with an interest in ground hopping and joining this little organisation would have done so by now, nevertheless there’s still plenty of time to declare your interest, just email me at this address >>> 100FgC

As part of the 100FgC 5th Anniversary I had intended to try organising a squad get together at the beginning of next season, with Brighton as the destination and Albion’s new Amex Stadium as the obvious venue for a day of bevvy and football. However according to my south-coast correspondent, tickets will be like gold dust for the first few games as all season tickets have sold out with only about 1000 tickets available on a match to match basis.

I would still like to organise something to mark the blog’s 5th birthday, so if anyone has any suggestions then please contact me and we can hopefully come to some arrangement.

I would like to take this opportunity to mention a few landmarks achieved by the 100FgC squad over the last season.

Congratulations to #161 Michael Swaffield who completed the current ‘92’ at Chesterfield’s B2Net Stadium on 7th May and #152 Mark Chatterton who also achieved the set at Spotland on 23rd April. You can read about Mark’s achievement on his website - http://www.doingthe92plus.co.uk/

Other credible mentions got to #34 David Poole, #130 Bill Hunter and #139 Sam reaching 200 grounds, #47&48 Julian and Joerg Liestner 400,#43 James Rennie 500, #16 Marc Wordehoff 600, #17 Patrick Haller 700 and #20 Ansgar Spiertz who has now seen football in 92 countries. (apologies for anyone I may have missed)

Last but by no means least, my heartiest congratulations go to #93 Dan Gooch and #139 Sam who are expecting the first ever 100FgC baby. The “bump” has already been to 28 grounds with more matches planned at the beginning of the season before the happy arrival at the end of August. I’m sure the rest of the squad would like to wish Sam & Dan all the best on this special occasion.

My travel plans for 2011-12 are looking rather limited and few and far between but I’m confident that I’ll finally finish ‘The 92’ and reach the 300 mark sometime next season, so until then enjoy the brief football free break and the rest of the summer.

A shirt I love but don't have the guts to buy

Well, I'm going to bite the bullet and make a post. I promised myself I wouldn't post anything until I finished my book review, but that's taking longer than I want it to and I don't like going so long without posting anything. Since I don't really have anything prepared today, I'm going to show you guys this awesome shirt by a tip-top artist, Kate Beaton (go check out her site if you have a minute, her latest Spiderman comics are too funny).

If you'd like to purchase one of these gems for yourself, head here. I honestly would, but I'm too meek to go around offending everyone that looks at me. This shirt truly speaks to me, though, so it's a darn shame (I'm not a heartless monster, I swear).

I'll also share with you one of my all-time favorite comics by the lovely Ms. Beaton (props if you know what it's referencing!):

Ahhhh, that puts a smile on my face every time. But that's all for now, sorry! I'm going to get this review done if it kills me. I know you're all probably dying to know what I think about all the latest E3 news, but I think I've tweeted about it enough. Just click the link on the right sidebar to head over to my Twitter account and read all about it.

Insurgence Convention in Birmingham

Insurgence Convention in Birmingham