It’s no secret that I take many inspirations when writing my stories, and most of the time the inspiration is rather obscure, and therefore hard to identify. Even for me. However, I recently reread an erotic manga by the name of Trans Venus, and realized that I basically copied its core concept for no less than three of my stories. My Life As Abigale Quinlan, Terrance & Urabe’s Alien Assassination Adventure, and The Malice of Abigale Quinlan. All of these stories involve a formerly male protagonist who is unwillingly placed inside of the body of a coy and condescending woman with immense powers, and is forced to listen to the woman’s banter throughout the story. That is basically the core concept behind Trans Venus, and I had no awareness of this while I was writing these stories, as I barely remembered the manga. Also, here’s the link to the fan translation in case you’re curious. NSFW warning.
Following the last week’s announcement of Project Rap Ribbit, a rhythm action game from the creators of Parappa The Rapper, Gitaroo Man, and Vib Ribbon, the companies involved launched a Kickstarter campaign. They are asking for approximately 1.1 million dollars in order to bring this project to life, and they really don’t have a whole lot to show for it. The Kickstarter simply features concept sketches and descriptions of the gameplay, which begs the question of how much work has actually been done on this project, while the stretch goals were so questionable they were overhauled. I am hesitant about this project because of this, but will likely still check it out whenever it is released. Well, if it is ever released anyhow, seeing as how within the first week, the project has yet to reach the 20% mark. Ouch.
So, for a while it has been known that the upcoming Sonic Forces would feature three gameplay styles, that of classic Sonic, modern Sonic, and a third character. This third character is a “Custom Hero” that the player can create freely from a vast array of accessories and several animals, effectively allowing fans to both create their own original Sonic character and put it into the game. An idea that is somehow laughable, desperate, and also kind of brilliant, as I am genuinely excited to see what people make with this character creator and what I can do with it. Also, this character has gadget-based powers, which seem pretty neat, but I know that is going to upset some super fan with twice the Autism as me.
You know, this announcement got me thinking about the series a bit more and Sonic has the most inconsistent world and general tone of just about any game series I can imagine. The Genesis games took place in a vibrant nonsense world filled with wondrous settings that honestly made little sense as anything beyond levels. The Adventure games took place in a modified version of the real world, still with some weirdness though. The semi-realistic worlds of Secret Rings, Black Knight, and Unleashed, along with Generations that combined everything and Colors and Lost World that were set in distant locations. Truly, I have never been more baffled by a game series’ world. I seriously would love an interview with whoever is running Sonic Team so he could explain this wackadoo nonsense of their flagship series. I mean, somebody called out Miyamoto for having Chargin Chuck throw baseballs, but nobody asked Sonic Team how the very world of Sonic works or functions? That’s kind of hard to believe.
Nintendo held an impromptu Nintendo Direct, which is a pretty redundant thing to say considering the nature of these events, on ARMS this past week, and has been the case since the game’s underwhelming initial reveal back in January, it continues to look progressively more interesting. The characters look creative and memorable, the gameplay looks to have a lot of depth to it, and while I am a bit upset that there is not a traditional story campaign, the multiplayer modes seem pretty robust. While I have very limited interest in games of this sort, Nintendo seems to be doing their darndest to draw people in, and assuming the game remains fresh thanks to free updates, I might eventually dive in. Or at least play it with my significant other.
To close out the week, there were a few more stray announcements with little substance to them. Ubisoft recently held their fiscal year earnings report, and unceremoniously announced the next addition in two of their IPs with The Crew 2 and Far Cry 5. An announcement that came with no new trailer or proper details beyond a pair of logos. Both games will likely be shown at E3, and I look forward to rolling my eyes at them, as I do with most western developed AAA endeavors, seeing as how they are probably not made not for people like me.
Meanwhile, Dontnod Entertainment announced that a new Life Is Strange title is in development, which bring sup several questions, mostly with how it relates to the first. Regardless of whatever form it takes however, I enjoyed Life Is Strange quite a bit due to its story and characters, and would be interested in a successor that can work out some of the kinks the first entry had.