Rundown (2/08/2026) Natalie Writes Too Many Eating Scenes

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This Week’s Topics:

Rundown Preamble Ramble:
Natalie Writes Too Many Eating Scenes!

As a writer, there are a number of quirks, habits, and creative rhythms that I have that annoy me. I am fully and well aware of how samey a lot of my phrasing and vernacular can be, as I simply write in large enough quantities to see the patterns. Idioms, phrases, sentence structures, my beloved rule of listing three descriptors— which fucking AI is doing, making me look bad, but at least I use em-dashes my way— the sexy way! This is not necessarily a problem per se. I do try to spice up my writing and avoid repetition when I notice it. I even have certain repetitive elements flagged in my grammar editor. However, it’s the creative and storytelling elements that irk me most.

Not the hyperfixation on SPACE, big final battles, or TSF. All of that is just part of my brand. And I do not think my story structure and approach to telling a story is necessarily limited. I don’t follow any rigid formula, and like to mess around with what a story can be depending on the idea in my head. Even if I do have a burgeoning difficulty with story lengths, as I keep trying to do more with recent stories and keep adding character-building banter following my switch to a better dialogue format.

No, instead the one storytelling element that I have used too much yet cannot find a workaround for is what I call “social eating scenes.” These are pretty self-explanatory. Scenes where I have two or more characters discuss things over a meal. A pretty staple type of scene that you see in just about every type of media and type of story, and a very utilitarian scene.

Eating is the universal thing that everybody needs to do, so it makes sense as an activity in basically any context. Restaurants are places where people just sit around and talk for long periods of time, waiting for their food, eating it, chatting as they digest, etc. Food is a loaded subject for humans and what a character eats, how they eat, and how they perceive food tells you much about them as people. No matter your culture, food is a tool for people to form bonds and connections.

Families go out to eat as a treat and to celebrate key events. People go over to a relative’s house for major holiday dinners and celebrations in… myriad cultures. Business professionals have a long-lasting history of discussing business over a meal. Meals are how a lot of friends catch up after a long period of time. Going out to eat is a thing that people do, and something I have plenty of experience with, as most of my social gatherings with family have been centered around meals in some way.

It makes sense to have social eating scenes in a story. But I HATE the fact that I keep falling back to this as a thing I have characters do. And with Verde’s Doohickey 2.0: Sensational Summer Romp, it is really bad. Lemme do a chapter by chapter breakdown for y’all!

Like… HOLY SHIT Natalie. Why is this the one thing that I keep going back to, and why is this in SO MANY chapters? Well, the reason is kinda simple. Because the structure of VD2.0 is built around characters going out and enjoying their summer vacation. And while going out and about, they naturally take some time to eat. Going out to eat gives them a reason to just sit down and talk in this very banter-heavy story. And it is more interesting to have character going out to eat than have them in a room, doing nothing, while talking about something.

Not all of these scenes are created equal. A meal can just be an excuse for two characters to meet and its contents of the meal can be unimportant or loosely discussed. It could be a framing device to describe their morning, as some people start the day by eating breakfast with family. And in a story where the perspective shifts constantly, meal scenes are a good way to ground the story in daily lives and daily events. What were these characters doing before now? Doesn’t matter, it’s noon, so they’re having lunch and talking, because that’s what normal people do!

I have reasons and justifications for doing this, and to make this very clear, most of these scenes are not about food. I just DO NOT LIKE how I keep on doing this again, and again, and again. Looking at the outline for Act III, I keep doing this! I keep having characters stop during a road trip to grab some street tacos, pick romantic targets while at a hotel’s dining hall, and go on parallel dates to both a night festival and a fancy restaurant. Because it’s part of a vacation, one of the main things to do at a hotel, and the perfect preamble for SEX! Oh, and the actual ending involves a party, which also contains food, because what party DOESN’T have food? Social people with families have three social eating scenes every day of their life! It can be their PEAK social time! Aaaaahhhhh!!!

Akumako: “Do I need to walk you off the ledge?”

…No, I’m good. I just need to be aware of this repetition and try to avoid it. Not stop it, just reduce my usage of this narrative device, because while I think it works when reading the story, it becomes a glaring trope when viewing it from afar.

Akumako: “In your defense, this is a thing you are just doing in this story because it lacks a traditional narrative structure of persistent conflict. It is a vacation story set over the span of months. Dominance of Abigale Quinlan had some lunch scenes as the main characters were kids at school, and lunch is the main social time for kids at school. Psycho Shatter 1988: Black Vice X Weiss Vice had a dinner scene for a family because that was the most logical opportunity to present an interracial couple and their Black daughter. …Before the father unleashed his literal inner demon as a White man who subscribes to Whiteness, even though he married and loves a Black woman.”

Yes, I know that this is not a problem with other stories of mine, but I keep going back to it with this one.

Akumako: “You do know you can just change it. Like, maybe cut one of the eating scenes from the July 3rd chapter.”

I thought about that and… no. Because learning someone’s favorite ice cream flavor adds superlative secondary information about them, and the scene has a purpose, to see them enjoy or dislike a new aspect of their bodies. A new body can allow someone to enjoy something they liked in a new way, or it prevent them from enjoying a thing that they should like due to an inferior palate. This is symbolized and exemplified by them trying their favorite ice cream with a new tongue. It’s basic shit, but important shit.

The scene of people eating ice cream outside on a summer’s night hits harder because there is ice cream. The characters are trying to make the most of their environment by pairing it with the act of eating a sweet seasonal treat. The ice cream bit is just there for VIBES! And the late dinner scene is there to show characters taking a break from a project and sitting down with, effectively, their bosses. And it’s a better visual when someone is dunking their falafel into a cucumber yogurt salad. The visual, the vibes, of someone sitting around and talking for the sake of talking is less interesting than people expressly illustrating their bonds by casually eating with each other.

I don’t just do this for no reason… but I need to try to be more creative and find more ways to have characters DO THINGS without just sitting at a table to eat. However, my mind keeps going back to this because, as I said, eating is a universal thing. It’s something that even a shut-in like me also does. Not necessarily social meals. I rarely have those nowadays. But definitely regular eating. I have three meals a day, and* I am a notorious snacker, I even have night snacks I eat while exercising.

Akumako: “You eat while exercising?”

Yeah, I have oranges, apples, broccoli, cauliflower, and “matza salsa humus sandwiches” while I’m on my old-ass Schwinn exercise bike, doing four miles in 20 minutes at level 8. I eat weirdly in that sense, and I’m not even good at it, as I just eat the same thing day in and day out, placating my firmly unsophisticated palate. You give me a fruit drink and I will have no clue what fruits are used in it. And you ask me to describe flavors and I don’t have the vernacular to really do so. Most of these eating scenes just mention foods and have some surface level descriptions. Because it’s not really about the food, it’s about giving the characters something to do!

Akumako: “…So, did you reach a conclusion that will change your perspective going forward?”

Not really, no. Just… be more creative and daring, don’t fall into ruts, and try to only cut corners when it’s funny.

Akumako: “What does that last bit even me—”

AND NOW ONTO THE RUNDOWN!

Akumako: “BITCH!“

Nintendo Financials Update Q3 2026
(And Other Gaming Hardware Tidbits!)

Well, Nintendo released financial results this past week, and seeing as how I’ve made it a point to highlight them over the past few quarters, I may as well highlight them this time, as I find them interesting to note.

The Nintendo Switch 2 sold a staggering 7 million units last quarter, bringing its lifetime sales to 17.37 million. Going against the doomy gloomy reporting that I engaged in, Switch 2 has sold considerably faster than the Switch 1 did. And the Nintendo Switch 1 cleared 155 million at 155.37 million units sold. Meaning it’s just five million units away from selling as much as the PS2, allegedly. This proves that the dedicated base will just BUY the hardware they need outright, even if the price is jacked up by $100 due to tariffs.

Mario Kart World, despite what The Internet likes to say, is doing incredibly well at 14.03 million units. Donkey Kong Bananza netted 4.25 million, not DKC numbers, but that’s 25% of all Switch 2 owners. While Pokémon Legends: Z-A managed to sell 12.3 million units in two and a half months. That is in-line with other non-new-gen Pokémon games for Switch during their debut quarter. The base has bought it, even if the internet hate engagement farming nonsense tried to tell people it was bad, actually. I mean, it had problems, but it was doing so many novel and interesting things that I think it was worth celebrating. Also, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond sold over a million copies despite being met with rampant criticism.

Seeing these hardware figures is reassuring at the moment, but I have to admit that I am worried about the future prospects of gaming hardware. Gaming could go from relatively inexpensive to mildly expensive due to all of the RAM and NVMe shortages caused by AI companies placing insane orders that, hopefully, they won’t be able to actually use for anything. I want to have higher hopes after seeing the PlayStation 5 clear 92.2 millions even after the tariff tax and no price drops since launch. Yet I fear that another price hike is inevitable, and will happen sometime before GTA VI launches as a cultural canon event. Hopefully one that follows the biggest Blue Wave ever seen in America, but don’t get your hopes up until your children hatch.

Oh, and while I think the PS5 will be okay, I foresee the next generation of Steam Machines and the Steam Cube being FAR more expensive than they should be, and Valve has primed people to expect just that, delaying the launch of their new slate of products. God, not only is AI damaging careers, the planet, the concept of truth, the concept of journalism, and people’s ability to critically think, it’s also hurting the concept of computer ownership and gaming hardware. Well, American generative AI, that is. It’s different in 21st Century nations like China with all their open source AI models…

…Anyway, onto the next Nina Tendo tidbit!

Nina Tendo’s Friends’ Switch 2 Showcase
(Nintendo Direct 2026-01)

Despite being a new year with a new console, Nintendo decided to grace us with another Nintendo Direct Partner Showcase. Which always strikes me as a bit unnecessary from a branding perspective, especially when Nintendo has been making various announcements over the past month. The Virtual Boy trailer, the Nintendo Switch Online content drops, the Mario Galaxy movie trailer, the Tomadachi Life Direct, that Donkey Kong Country 4 update, various trailers for upcoming Mario stuff. I get why they want to diversify how they distribute information, but I also view it as very sloppy and hectic for no real reason. Personally, I would have Nintendo Directs be less exciting monthly affairs, but that would not fly for obvious reasons.

As a Direct, I felt that it was a bit too fixated on ports that, realistically, should have come much sooner. I know they were likely delayed due to limited dev kit distribution and… the fact that it takes months for studios to learn new hardware, port games over to it, and optimize them to their liking. I think it’s good that games like Tales of Arise, Fallout 4: Anniversary Edition, Oblivion Remastered, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, and Digimon Story: Time Stranger are coming to the system.

…Actually, I take back what I said. Most of those listed games can get bonked, as they are Microsoft titles. They are all games that I look at and think “this should have been released for Switch 2 by now.” Except for Time Stranger. The fact that it didn’t launch on Switch and Switch 2 was a bogus boondoggle.

And the decision to cap off the Direct with these Microsoft titles was… bad. Resident Evil Requiem would have been a bit lame, as it has been part of so many showcases. However, it’s a PS5 game that is also coming to Switch 2, part of a legacy Japanese game series, and the first main RE game to launch day and date on a Nintendo system since… Resident Evil Revelations (2012)?

Ah well. At least the announcements were cool.

Tokyo Scramble Announced
(Japan’s Funniest Dino Crisis!)

…I can’t be the only one who thought this was a new Disaster Report game.

Tokyo Scramble is the type of game that… I just don’t know how this exists. The game follows a White lady named Anne who, while in Tokyo, falls into an underground labyrinth full of dinosaur-like creatures called Zinosaurs. The initial footage shown in the Nintendo Direct makes it look like it takes its premise seriously, being a cinematic stealth action game about avoiding these Zinosaurs and luring them into a series of context-sensitive traps. From spikes to pistons to whirling machinery, all at Anne’s disposal through her magic smartwatch. It seems to be played relatively straight, with tense sound effects, only undercut by the game’s… fidelity.

Simply put, Tokyo Scramble looks like a game that was announced for PS3 in 2010 but did not come out until 2015, where it was released on PS4. Animations don’t quite look at they should, with Anne’s death animation and dinosaur getting hit by an excavator animations looking unfinished. Some of the environmental assets and even Anne’s model don’t look quite right. And the game looks like a compromised Switch port, despite being a Switch 2 exclusive. I don’t want to say it looks bad. I can absolutely mesh with this level of visual jank, and find it endearing. It just does not look like a game from 2026.

…But then the trailer showed footage of a Game Share feature where up to four players can control the game at once, splitting the movement, actions, traps, and camera functions. Effectively turning this game into a de facto party game, where four numbnuts need to rally together and communicate in order to play a game half as well as any of them could on their own. This was when it was clear to me that this game is absolutely meant to be a tongue-and-cheek affair, and this belief was only crystallized by its other announcement trailer.

This trailer pairs the footage with an English vocal song, narration from Anne, and wacky dinosaur moments that could only be funnier if paired with cartoon sound effects. You have this singer pouring her goldarn heart out as Zinosaurs get smacked in the face by a basket ball machine. Climb up escalators like they’re treadmills. Get crushed by a crusher only for their model to clip through the crusher for 15 full frames as its dying animation plays out. Run into spikes and immediately eat shit. Get hit by a robo cart that moves with enough speed to create a cloud of smoke and send the dinosaur flying through dry wall. Oh, and there’s a six-horned Zinosaur with an insane mane of white hair, standing on top of a giant underground castle, while sci-fi machinery lingers overhead, straight aura farming it up.

I NEED to know what insane man is directing this game, because HOLY SHIT is this some hot nonsense, and I am ALL FOR it!

Akumako: “The director and producer’s name is Makoto Yamamoto…“

The director of Sengoku Basara?

Akumako: “How the hell should I know? There’s more than one Makoto Yamamoto in the games industry.”

Well, I can figure out who made this by looking at the company history. Let’s see, Tokyo Scramble— which is a terrible name for a game set mostly underground and with no other human NPCs outside of an intro cutscene— is not being made by the psycho dastards at Granzella. Who, for the record, should be working on a remake of Disaster Report 2: RAW Danger! (2006). Because that game would absolutely resonate in the modern world, ESPECIALLY if it came out a week before a horrible natural disaster.

So, who’s developing it? Why, Adglobe of course! Who the hell are Adglobe? Well, Adglobe is a Japanese studio, with offices in Montreal, that does that “confusing Japanese company thing” of being a general small tech company and a robust games studio. They made their own games and contribute support to other productions, such as Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl (2021). While collaborating on smaller titles, such as Backdash (2017) with Skeleton Crew Studio. Specifically the Skeleton Crew Studio that organizes BitSummit, the Japanese indie game expo. Not the Skeleton Crew Studio responsible for the seminal Flash classic Abobo’s Big Adventure (2012).

Adglobe does a lot, though in recent years they have backed away from doing a lot of overt game dev stuff. Instead, they have partitioned their dev team into a subsidiary known as Binary Haze Interactive. A company with the same address as Adglobe’s corporate office that’s headed by former Capcom producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi, who… wait, I know that name! That dude’s doing double duty running studios! He’s working at NetEase’s GPTRACK50 in some lead role on Stupid Never Dies!

Akumako: “YOU’RE THE STUPID THAT NEVER DIES! What did I JUST say? There’s probably more than one Hiroyuki Kobayashis in the world of gaming. Their names aren’t even written with the same kanji. It’s 小林 裕幸 at GPTRACK50 and 小林 宏至 at Binary Haze.”

Well fuck my ass and call me Shirley!

Akumako: “I ain’t sticking my smegma stick in your hemorrhoid-filled pooper, Shirley.”

Anyway, what I was originally going to say is that Tokyo Scramble is the latest game from Adglobe, developer Ender Lillies and Ender Magnolia. A pair of highly regarded Metroidvanias that have their place on my incomprehensible long list of games I would like to play. Redemption Reapers, a dark European fantasy tactical RPG that I had completely forgotten as I can only fit so many generic looking dark fantasy games in my head. Also, it got pretty middling reviews from critics. I never really expected them to put out a title with this level of production values, even as a $30 budget title, but I’m glad that they are branching out, seeing what works, and I earnestly hope that Tokyo Scramble becomes the 5/10 kamige that it’s poised to be.

Tokyo Scramble will release exclusively on the Switch 2 on February 11, 2026.

Paranormasight: The Mermaid’s Curse Announced
(It’s A Horror Series, Bay-Bee!)

So, this was an odd game to kick off the Direct with.

Paranormasight: The Mermaid’s Curse is a horror mystery adventure game from Square Enix and the versatile Xeen. If that name sounds vaguely familiar, that’s because it’s a sequel to Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo (2023), a pretty acclaimed Japanese horror/mystery adventure title that got some buzz among niche circles as being the latest brainchild of Takanari Ishiyama. A writer and director and musician who really cut into his own when working on the Tantei Kibukawa Ryōsuke Jikentan.

If you never heard of that, I’m not surprised. TKRJ was a series of cult classic cell phone Japanese horror adventure games that were teetering around lost media before being re-released on Switch and Steam as part of the G-Mode Archive initiative. Unfortunately, these titles were only ever released in Japanese, so his legacy and history in horror is pretty muted. You may as well introduce him as the guy who directed the dead mobile title Schoolgirl Strikers for Square Enix. Or one of the composers on Metal Gear Solid (1998) before Kojima ditched every composer for the sequels.

Horror was clearly where his passions lied. Square Enix gave him a chance to make the sort of game I’m sure he wanted to make for a decade. Since it did well, they are letting him create another fairly inexpensive looking horror adventure title, which I find to be quite cool. This is exactly the type of lean development and series building that I always say I want to see more of!

This sequel looks to be a reprisal of the same flavor of horror, but with a deliberately coastal setting and an all new cast, making this a game that newcomers can seemingly just jump into. As for what they are jumping into? Simple. Evil mermaid mysteries on a small island town in the 1980s. Its openness and bright blue skies gives it a very different flavor of horror than the more urban flavor of The Seven Mysteries of Honjo, and I consider that to be a rather bold decision. Same with Nintendo opening up the Direct with this game. Adventure games like this can be a hard sell using more traditional means, and there are few mega publishers who would be willing to promote niches like this. …Or put out bangers mystery adventure games like the Famicom Detective Club remakes and sequel.

Paranormasight: The Mermaid’s Curse was announced for February 19, 2026 on Switch 1, Switch 2, PC, and mobile.

Another Eden Begins Announced
(It’s Another Offline Gacha RPG! Yay!)

Another Eden Begins was a surprise, as I was not even sure what I was looking at when it unceremoniously showed up in a sizzle reel.

To provide a bit of background Another Eden is a 2017 gacha RPG that has been doing respectably enough to last nearly a full decade on the market, and is most notable for its co-director and writer, Masato Kato. One of the golden boys at SquareSoft during the late 90s. Kato worked on Chrono Trigger (1995) as a writer and uncredited co-director. Was a writer and planner on Final Fantasy VII (1997) and Xenogears (1998). He directed and wrote Chrono Cross (1999). And spent the early 2000s to mid 2010s as a freelance RPG writer.

By the time mobile was becoming too big to not notice, he opted to buddy up with mobile juggernaut GREE to work on Another Eden, making them money while he gets to make another time traveling RPG. Which I just find to be funny. Can you IMAGINE Square Enix looking at the director of Chrono Cross and tell him that no, he cannot make a new Chrono game and needs to go work with some damn gacha company? And can you imagine Square Enix doing OODLES of collabs with this game? …I hope you can, because that’s what happened.

Admittedly, there were probably hundreds of other people who worked on this game, not just Kato. Yet he is the key figure in marketing this game, and I’d assume that most of this story-driven game’s story comes from him.

So, what is Another Eden Begins? Well, the marketing is not at all clear about this, but the game appears to be an offline de-gacha’d conversion of Another Eden, designed around the form factor of the Switch. The UX has been redone, but the graphics, animations, and assets are all the same. The cast of characters is drilled down to 19, far from the 65 launch characters and 384 current characters. And through some fandom sleuthing, people believe this will only contain the first story arc of Another Eden, The Cat Beyond Time and Space. A 26 episode story that was followed by three other arcs spanning a total of 122 chapters… so far.

How much is this really? What side content and side stories will be included? Are they going to make a sequel containing the content from subsequent versions, or just sell additional story arcs as DLC? I have NO IDEA, but as a documented burned gacha hater, I will fully embrace and support any endeavor that tries to make gacha games playable offline, so I WILL buy this game day one, to send a MESSAGE.

Akumako: “Hey, uh, if you are so gung-ho about that, why didn’t you buy Octopath Traveler 0 at launch?”

…BECAUSE I FORGOT! SHIT!

Natalie then went to buy Octopath Traveler 0, here’s a receipt as evidence:

Akumako: “Grape Mang Graming? Such a cheap-ass…”

Another Eden Begins will debut for Switch, Switch 2, and PC this summer. Hopefully it will be followed by subsequent releases, preserve the whole caboodle, but who the hell knows with how the world is burning.

Granblue Fantasy: Relink – Endless Ragnarok Announced
(Granblue Fantasy: Relink With Endgame Content for Switch 2)

Why the hell haven’t I played Granblue Fantasy: Relink yet? Oh, right, producing stuff for this website. Like this Rundown.

As a noted fanatic of Cygames’ Dragalia Lost, the live service that I loved and lost, I was keenly interested in Cygames’ big AAA console game debut with Relink, a 3D action RPG with intense team-based battles, dazzling production values, and a sizable world to explore. It had some production delays, but came out great as far as I could tell. I’ve never dabbled in Granblue anything, but I can tell there is enough shared DNA between it and Dragalia to make me feel something radiant if I checked it out.

The game came out February 1, 2024. It reviewed well and sold over two million copies. And while I doubt that was enough to make up nearly a decade of development, it was pretty good for a PS4/PS5/PC game based on a mobile game that never officially left Asian markets. That was seemingly it, but with the game now matured, and the Switch 2 representing a new opportunity to breathe life into it, Cygames has decided to create some new postgame DLC, dubbed Endless Ragnarok. Following the end of the game’s campaign and the defeat of LILITH, Endless Ragnarok aims to provide a series of repayable challenges. It’s in the name, really. New bosses, a roguelike mode— I miss the Kaleidoscape— new “master trait” upgrades for characters, and the introduction of playable super powerful summons to make the boss battles seem more epic.

As a piece of DLC coming out at $30 and 2.5 years after the original game, this sounds fairly slim. For that price, I’d expect half a sequel. But I am glad that the game is receiving further support and making the game more than what it once was, and that it is coming to a system with a more devoted gaggle of RPG enthusiasts.

Granblue Fantasy: Relink – Endless Ragnarok will debut on July 9, 2026 for Switch 2. While the Granblue Fantasy: Relink – Endless Ragnarok upgrade kit will be released as DLC for PS4, PS5, and PC, also on July 9, 2026. …They really like making the language confusing, don’t they?

I’m actually pretty tempted to get into this game as a little post-novel reprieve, as I intend on finishing Verde’s Doohickey 2.0 Act III sometime in June and will want to wait before I rush into a new fiction project. Will I though? Who knows! After all, I still have a laundry list of games I’ve ear-marked for reviews this year! …Eight is still a laundry list, y’know!

…Here’s the list by the way:

Xanadu 6: Kyoto Xanadu Announced
(Falcom Does What Gamindustri Don’t)

OKAY! GUESS I GOTTA TALK ABOUT XANADU NOW!

Short version! Dragon Slayer II: Xanadu (1985) was a hugely revolutionary game in the burgeoning RPG genre of the 1980s. It is the game that made Falcom a truly noteworthy studio, and it was the highest selling PC game in the entire country. If you were a computer gamer in 1985, you played Xanadu, plain and simple. Which is a bit surprising, as Xanadu as a game is pretty cryptic, confusing, and punishing if you don’t know what you are doing. Basement Brothers made the most popular video about it on the English speaking internet, and most of what I know about it as a game comes from them.

Rather than dwell on the game’s success however, Falcom continued to do their own thang. They made a Scenario II expansion for diehard fans. Licensed Xanadu to Hudson Soft, the Bomberman guys, who made Faxanadu (1987). Which you might know if you are an oldhead NES dork. It was a far more approachable title, a Xanadu for Famicom players, and can be thought sibling to Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (1988) and Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest (1987) were attempting. You’re a guy, side-scrolling through a world full of monsters, trying to get gold, gear, and magic in order to get to through a deluge of different monsters to bring peace to the land. Yet it was also a lot snappier, without the same weight of early Castlevania or the bad sword of Zelda II.

Then Falcom reinvented the series with The Legend of Xanadu (1994) and The Legend of Xanadu II (1995) for the PC Engine CD-ROM². A pair of games that aimed to blend the general framework of their Ys series with side scrolling action stages and Falcom’s mastery of making sick-ass PC Engine cutscenes. Someone really should re-release them— OH WAIT! Someone is!

Alongside The Legend of Xanadu, Falcom also released a series of re-whatevers of the original for then modern PCs with Revival Xanadu (1995) and a Sega Saturn remake that, unlike the original, doesn’t hurt my eyes to look at. And it didn’t plagiarize Ultima III.

The series then went dormant as Falcom underwent a reconstruction period following the rise of Japanese Windows and booming popularity of the PlayStation. But they did not forget their roots and made sure to try their hand at a new Xanadu with 2005’s Xanadu Next. I actually played this one, reviewed it almost a decade ago, and I found it to be a thoroughly engaging action RPG. A bit obtuse for its own good at times, and not really helped by its overly PC centric UX design, but a rock solid affair that I think holds up pretty well. And to think I would have missed it if Xseed hadn’t re-released this Japanese exclusive PC game, with a full English translation, in 2016.

Unfortunately, Xanadu Next did not light the world on fire, as the Japanese PC games market in 2005 was, well, pretty dead beyond MMOs. So when they decided to revisit the concept in 2015, they decided to make something with far more appeal… by making a Xanadu set in modern day! Tokyo Xanadu (2015) is a game I REALLY wish I had played when it was new, as I know I would have loved it. It has the presentation prowess of the Trails series, the frantic action of the Ys entries preceding it, and some of the modern day Japanese high school stuff of a Persona game. It was marred by a subpar translation, Vita jank, and some “first game in a new series” design muckiness, but I still think it’s neato.

This brings us to Kyoto Xanadu, which is very much them doing Tokyo Xanadu but with a Kyoto flavor, as if the name did not give it away. Whereas Tokyo Xanadu was more urban and modern, Kyoto Xanadu is a lot more traditionally Japanese. Set in an alternate universe Japan where Kyoto retain its status as the nation’s capital, incorporating a lot of late 19th Century style architecture in its world design, preserving a classic Japanese flavor. Giving the teenage protagonist (because it’s always teenagers) an antiquated uniform when he’s not wearing his blasé gray hoodie and black jacket (how cold is it in Kyoto)— the Alex Mercer drip.

Structurally, it’s very much a Persona-like, with the player juggling school, friends, and dungeon exploration while progressing a main storyline and exploring a fictionalized alt present version of Kyoto. Though, there is a notable quirk in its presentation. While the game has the standard VN style first person talky bits and cutscenes, the main form of gameplay involves exploring Kyoto from a 2.5D perspective, which is certainly a choice.

When creating a 3D world, you generally want the player to feel like they are involved in it, and have some sense of presence in it. It’s what turns a location into a place. Being able to look around, rub against walls, and tilt the camera every direction makes a world feel “substantial” and less like a background. It feels like you are only able to access a world from two axes, or in case jumping is prohibited, one axis.

This is far less of an issue when it comes to exploring the depths of Another World via Hirasaka Xanadu, a transdimensional gate beneath the school. In a callback to the original Xanadu, dungeon exploration involves traversing 2.5D dungeon floors with blocky features. Rather than… whatever the original was aiming for with combat, the combat is… what you would expect of a modern action game. With players slashing, smashing, and dodging through enemies while unleashing rechargeable supers, bashing baddies, using the environment to traverse to new places, nab loot, et cetera. Little Noah stuff!

The catch is that the game switches to a fully 3D action title when it comes to boss fights. A move that one could compare to the perspective shift from The Legend of Xanadu games, but one that I consider to be a more economical decision. 2.5D dungeons, which are probably procedurally generated, are not that expensive to produce. 3D battle arenas are not that expensive to produce, as you are largely just designing a boss and a container, just enough to show off the hypest moments. But fully 3D dungeons that change whenever you enter them? Unless you want samey rooms of Euclidean geometry, it’s gonna be expensive. And Falcom is anything if not a frugal company. It’s why they have the greatest release per capita ratio of just about any developer.

Kyoto Xanadu will be released this summer for PS5, Switch, Switch 2, and PC. Though, the localizer for international markets hasn’t been announced yet. Which I’m sure is frustrating to the “Falcom enthusiasts” who seem to like bitching about the developers’ localizations more than the games themselves.

A Bunch of Game Collections Were Announced
(A Preface to Bomberman, Goemon, and Console Archives)

I gave myself three minutes to come up with a header image. This is all that came to mind.
Brain is bread!

Okay, so… the longer I keep doing this stuff, seeing people re-release classic games, the more I realized that, fundamentally, this is not good enough, and will not be good enough. Any collection, compilation, or bespoke re-release is always going to need to be treated as a product. Gaming as a medium seriously lost something special with the closure of the Wii Virtual Console and by not bringing over PlayStation Classics from the PS3/PSP/Vita over to the PS4. We had collections of hundreds of games, thousands if you could alternate languages, all available for a cheap price in a uniform format, no frills, but just what you need to access them.

Good start, good work, and I think these storefronts should have been the basis for something bigger, larger, and supported by the entire industry. A way to play classic games on new platforms via emulation. Except all of their work was reset going into a new generation due to either legal issues or profitability concerns, leading them to reset their past library. At this point, I just want there to be a legal mechanism to buy ROMs, own them, and carry them forward on various accounts for generations. Yet we have no single good way of doing that.

Sometimes random old games are just randomly ported onto new platforms and stay widely available for the foreseeable future. Sometimes you get niche ventures like Egg Project that create a platform to buy old games. Sometimes entire brands like the G-Mode Archives re-release games via a standardized emulator they use, while being the only company supporting these re-releases. Sometimes old games are given slight remasters as they are brought into new markets.

What do I really want? I really want a platform-agnostic digital library of old games where people can just buy an old games for a couple bucks, download it on any device. And if they download it on a computer, they can just grab the ROM file and load it up in an emulator. But there is no way Nintendo or Sony are going to do that. My biggest hope would be a company like GOG to go bonkers and form all sorts of insane partnerships allowing people can buy games from a veritable super library. But I know that’s not going to happen, as corporations have a vested interest in vaulting their works, in creating scarcity, and limiting the options available to a customer.

It’s why older releases are delisted in favor of newer ones, so many publishers are against anti-DRM measures and put performance tanking DRM into their games, and so many publishers LOVE online gaming, as it gives them complete control. God, if I were a hundo millionaire, that’s the passion project I’d be working towards.

ANYWAY! TIME FOR SOME OLD SHIT!

Super Bomberman Collection Got Shadow Dropped
(Classic Bomberman is BACK! …On a Budget!)

Konami announced two retro game collections as part of this showcase. One for the international market and another, better, one exclusively for Japan.

The first one is something that I’m shocked Konami hadn’t done before, a compilation of old Bomberman games, dubbed the Super Bomberman Collection. Now, there is TOO MUCH that can be said about the history of Bomberman and the weird places that the series went. It was a hugely prolific series back in the days when Hudson was alive, being the de facto mascot of the developer— more than that damn bee or prehistoric Air Zonk. They were pumping out four damn Bomberman games a year for over a decade. And if there is any series that I would LOVE to see compiled into a collection, this is probably one of them.

You have the seven Game Boy games, the 3D platformers, Bomberman Generations, Bomberman Jetters, Bomberman Kart games, plural, Bomberman puzzle games, seven Bomberman Land party games. There’s that one PC game where they had secret files where Billy West and Charlie Adler say fuck and shit, which I think is the funniest shit ever. Then there’s Sunsoft’s Bomber King: Scenario 2 – Blaster Master Jr. BOY (1991), the Game Boy spin-off predecessor of IntiCreates’ Blaster Master Zero trilogy!

…BOMBERMAN HARDBALL BATTLES: SPORTS WITH BOMBS (2004) FOR PLAYSTATION 2!!!

There is TOO MUCH Bomberman in the world, and you could easily fit TEN collections with Bomberman games. But Konami is instead gracing the world with a lower cost collection of seven games. Bomberman (1983) for Famicom, the worst Bomberman game by most accounts, nobody knew what they were doing with that, didn’t even have multiplayer. Bomberman II (1991), a sequel fully made for the Famicom that did what Bomberman (1990) for PC Engine, but on less powerful hardware, delivering about what one would expect from a classic Bomberman experience, just without a lot of polish and pomp. …And the five Super Bomberman games for Super Nintendo.

So, the Super Bomberman games are good, they are vintage and quality Bomberman, and if people played Bomberman with friends in the 90s, they probably played the Super Bomberman games. This is where much of the series’ iconography really comes from, and while the games were basically annualized from 1993 to 1997, they continuously changed things up, made improvements, and tried to give each game their own identity. An identity that was largely sanitized and simplified with the Super Bomberman R titles. They’re officially the successors, but they’re really not. Konami just wanted to give the veneer of a legacy with these games.

On one hand, it’s great to see these games get an official re-release. Heck, this marks the first time Super Bomberman 4 (1996) and Super Bomberman 5 (1997) have been officially released in English. But I can also tell this was done to create the illusion of value, when they could have offered so much more and went with whatever could be done within the budget the team was given.

Why not also add the three PC Engine titles? Why not add Bomberman: Panic Bomber (1995), the Japanese only puzzle game? Why not include the Game Boy games? Or is emulating multiple Game Boys too hard for the Switch? Hell, you know what would be have been SUPER COOL? Hi-Ten Bomberman, the widescreen Bomberman game for ten players, made back in 1993. …But Konami wasn’t willing to pay for them to QA more than two emulators and seven very similar games.

Instead, it’s just these seven games with a couple extras. A boss rush mode that’s a glorified save state loader. Save states. Screen filtering options. A soundtrack section. A gallery of concept art. And on Switch 2, you can share the game with up to three friends via Game Share. For $20, I CANNOT say it is a bad value. By Virtual Console math, this is a $50 value for the games alone. …But I also doubt that Konami are going to do another Bomberman collection after this. Why? Well, look at the developer.

Super Bomberman Collection is licensed and sanctioned by Konami, but was developed by Red Art Games. A French boutique games company that primarily sells physical copies of niche games and indie hits to Europeans. However, they also have a development studio that works on both original titles and compilations like this. Such as Ufouria: The Saga 2 (2024) and SUNSOFT is Back! Retro Game Collection of Three No Name Games (2024).

Studios like this tend to operate on thin margins and merch sales, existing technologies, and doing what sells the most. They might have preservationist goals, but if they don’t have the tech needed to re-release PC Engine games, or arcade games, they just aren’t going to do that. So, no, you’re not going to get a re-release of the four Bomberman games for Nintendo 64. Y’all ain’t gettin’ any of that Bomberman 64×4 hotness. Because nobody has a good enough N64 emulator for that, and you can’t just publish recomps on consoles.

Super Bomberman Collection is available now for PS5, Xbox Series, Switch, Switch 2, and PC via Steam.

Ganbare Goemon Daishuugo! Announced
(Goemon is BACK! …But Only in Japan!)

Konami’s Japan only collection is… fairly understandable, but still upsetting, as it’s a Ganbare Goemon collection. Y’all know Goemon, right?

Akumako: “The Smash Bros. Mii Fighter costume?”

Orz…

Okay, so, Goemon was a highly prolific and fluid series of games by developer Konami from 1986 to 2005. In America, its presence was highly muted, only containing a total of four titles out of… 25 tiles. (If you don’t count mobile games, which I’m not gonna.)

  • Ganbare Goemon: Yukihime Kyuushutsu Emaki (1991) for Super Famicom, a hard-as-balls co-op action platformer that has regardless become a cult classic for its presentation alone.
  • Ganbare Goemon: Neo Momoyama Bakufu no Odori (1997) for Nintendo 64, which could generously be described as a cross between Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time but as JAPAN as a game could get while remaining accessible to sheltered American kids. (It’s nowhere near as good as either, but still very solid.)
  • Ganbare Goemon Derodero Dōchū Obake Tenko Mori (1998) for Nintendo 64, a far more straightforward, and snappy 2.5D action platformer, which HAD to be disappointing to kids expecting another REAL 3D game.
  • And Ganbare Goemon: Kurofune Tō no Nazo (1997) for Game Boy, a Zelda clone that was nowhere as slick as Link’s Awakening. Because only the best were making Game Boy games in 1997.

Outside of a hyper specific demographic, these games are basically unknown, and the closest thing we’ve gotten to a new Goemon game in two decades is Bakeru (2023). Which is a Goemon 3D action platformer in all but name. It’s on Switch and PC, you should check it out.

At this point, Goemon is just a nostalgia property with an overwhelmingly Japanese audience for its overwhelmingly Japanese release history. So all Konami is willing to do with it is release the games that are inexpensive to re-release. Enter Ganbare Goemon Daishuugo!, a 13 entry compilation of the Goemon games for Famicom, Super Famicom, Game Boy, and Game Boy Color by the technical wizards at M2.

Considering Konami’s strong relationship with M2— they did the Castlevania, Contra, and Gradius collections— this is far from unprecedented. It’s a sizeable spread of games spanning the series history, nearly half of them. The other half would require a lot more work to get going, and I’m never going to say “13 games isn’t enough” unless we’re talking about something cheap. Like a Mega Drive collection. I could bemoan the lack of a western release… but literally 11 of these games were never officially localized. Now, choosing to geo-block the Steam store page? That right there is just dirt.

Ganbare Goemon Daishuugo! will be released in Japan for PS5, Switch, and Steam on July 2, 2026.

Hamster’s Console Archives Are Here!
(Have Cool Boarders and Ninja Gaiden II NES)

For nearly a decade, Hamster Corporation has been doing good work with their Arcade Archives series, bringing classic arcade games to PlayStation and Switch. They have re-released 397 games on these consoles, and in many senses, they are the type of standard-bearer that I want to see. My problem with them is rather simple. They don’t put out their games on PC. Well, besides some Neo Geo games. I would LOVE them if they could bring them to PC, make DRM-free versions widely available, and do all they can to keep these games available forever. Because consoles storefronts are temporary. But computer files? Those are going to be around so long as we have computers, bucko.

Anyway, the Direct began by announcing an Arcade Archives release of Ride Racer 3: Rave Racer (1995), skipping over Ridge Racer 2 (1994) for some reason. Which is great, as the children need to know about Ridge Racer. But then they announced a wild expansion of their service, moving beyond just arcade games and into the wild world of console games!

That’s right, baby, Hamster is bringing over classic games directly for you to buy. The Virtual Console of yore is back, and these mad lads are driving change. So how are they going to announce it? What are they going to do to get people psyched? …Well, watch it for yourself. Please..

Double post of the same video!

Just the way they show this off with Doraemon (1986), this licensed Japanese only title Famicom game. The announcer just says the name Doraemon, then it cuts to the gameplay, and it just looks like ass. The crunchy music, plain green ground, nonsense buildings. The player wanders around, then falls into a sewer that looks like it’s from that cruddy TMNT NES game. It’s like if you announced an Atari 2600 collection with a man saying E.T., and then you saw E.T. fall into a hole. Peak comedy. Whoever got that through deserves an award.

Okay, but what other games were shown off here? …Well, they certainly are video games.

  • Sonic Wings Special (1996), a PS1 vertical shooting game.
  • Dezaemon Plus (1995), another PS1 vertical shooting game.
  • Nobunaga’s Ambition (1988), the NES version of the first entry of the beloved grand strategy series.
  • Monster Rancher (1997), a PS1 game clearly made in response to the Pokémon craze, all about using the PS1’s CD player to generate monsters based on actual CDs. Which would be exciting if the first two games weren’t already on PC and Switch.
  • UFO: A Day in the Life (1999), a PS1 classic experimental RPG that’s one of the sequels to Moon: Remix RPG Adventure (1997)! Sure, the release will be Japanese only, because you’d need a whole-ass Tim Rogers to translate a game like that, but still! That’s COOL!
  • MegaMax (1986), an NES horizontal scrolling shooter about a not-Gundam fighting nebulously defined bullet sprayers in a pseudo 3D perspective. It sure is an early NES game.
  • Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure (1998) for PlayStation 1, a cute tactical RPG that helped put Nippon ichi Software on the map… but was also re-released on both Switch and PC.
  • Master of Monsters: Disciples of Gaia (1997), a fairly generic looking hex-based fantasy tactics game that has long battles with seconds of story between them. Western critics thought was middling at the time, and it sure looks like that

This line-up is very underwhelming, not gonna lie. If there is someone whose game library looked like this as a kid, I want to know what they are doing today. Because they probably stopped gaming. However, none of these are going to be the launch titles. HOW is Hamster going to make a statement here, what games will they show off to show they mean business? …Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos (1990) for NES. …A sequel to a game on the same console, a game already on Nintendo Switch Online, and a game that SHOULD have been in Ninja Gaiden: Master Collection (2021).

Uh, okay? What about their big PS1 debut? How will they wow us? …With Cool Boarders (1996), the first in an easy to forget PS1 snowboarding series that was the bread and butter of Rising Zan: The Samurai Gunman (1999) developer UEP Systems. They began with Cool Boarders and died after Cool Boarders: Code Alien failed to sell on the PS2. …Wait, the current Life is Strange developers started their life developing Cool Boarders 3 (1998)? …How deep into the hole am I?

Ahem.

Point is, these are two complete nonsense releases. I don’t know HOW this was the best they had to show, but… you gotta start from somewhere, I guess?

Overwatch 2 is Now Overwatch Again
(And Natalie Still Hates It!)

The older and the more jaded I become, the more I learn about the boundless evils and ceaseless malice of the most powerful men in the world, the less patience and respect I have for the institution of online multiplayer gaming. It is a way to sell people to other people by manufacturing a sense of community in a world where austerity, isolation, bigotry, effective poverty and disenfranchise have deprived people of a true sense of community. It is a way to perpetuate a culture of FOMO with limited time events and a service that will either have an explicit or implicit shelf life. Either the game is shut down, “dies” due to a lack of players, or is taken away from the players as the owners transform it into something different.

If you are engaging with an corporate owned online live service, you are not the player, you are being played, as your highest value to corporations is not what you have in your shrinking wallet, it’s your eyes and attention. They want your time, your hours, to live rent-free in your head. For you to buy their marked up merchandise, to speak highly of their products when they come up. For you to care about them. Epic does not just want people to play Fortnite, they want them to make Fortnite, to talk about Fortnite, and to treat Fortnite as a pillar of industry. Much like how Call of Duty was shorthand for video games in the late 2000s and early 2010s, Fortnite is shorthand for video games in the modern era. At least in western cultures…

It is far too difficult for me to see these ventures as anything other than an attempt to create a new global order, using the digital frontier to create a new world not limited by geography, but competition and technology. With corporations serving as digital landlords that dictate laws, that control language, and profit off of people sharing their own creations, their own content. All while urging everybody to become a creator, to react to what other people are saying, and form an ouroboros of crap.

It is far too easy for me to conclude that using corporate services is in some way unethical. That it is serving the would be feudal lords of a new, worse, era, where power lies solely in the hands of corporations and the governments they puppet …I say while using Microsoft products for work, like hundreds of millions of other people around the world.

I am regularly left pissed with myself for how I willfully engage in these services, with the products of these corporations. How enamored I am with an industry designed to consolidate wealth from systematically laborers who are denied reasonable work hours and steady careers. How I have allowed YouTube to be my source of video content, allowed Steam to be where I acquire games from developers, and allowed Discord to be the place where I speak to my friends. It makes me crave a better internet, something open, decentralized, and free of corporate clutches. Software and products can still be sold. Services can be offered via a subscription. But for as innovative as online gaming has been, I simply cannot look at it without heavy shades of cynicism. Not all are cynical, but all of the biggest ones are.

On that note, Overwatch. I view Overwatch as a game that only made gaming worse. Originally seen as just a resurgence of the class-based shooter genre that was prominent before Call of Duty mucked conventions with loadouts, it quickly became something different. A Trojan horse for many live service trappings with its loot boxes for skins, sprays, and cosmetic guff. Guff that spurred a years-long debate on when are loot boxes okay as people mindlessly bought 50 packs for the thrill of gambling— of Real Boy Gaming. A cast of characters who became staples of fan art, fan works, and porn. Lots of porn. And a universe that aimed to capture the attention of millions of players, becoming their fandom, a core part of their lives, as they played the game again and again, repeating the motions, as content dripped out precipitously.

The merits and pros of Overwatch as a game are things I am not interested in entertaining. What matters is that people had a strong positive association with the product, leading it to become an industry darling and a profound moneymaker for Bobby Kotick’s Activision Blizzard. I was dismissive of it as an entity back then, shrugging off the hype it garnered from people who I vested a level of trust into. …And then the game slowly faded away as new multiplayer hotness came by, as Epic-Tencent’s Fortnite: Battle Royale and Krafton’s PlayerUnknown’s The BattleGround of PUBG shifted the needle. The problems with its foundation became more overt. There was a lot of community drama, an inevitability when something has no cultural barrier, and not enough newness to keep people invested in it as a game.

This lead Bobby Kotick’s Activision Blizzard to announce Overwatch 2, a game that would never exist in its stated form. Co-op missions, story campaigns, various changes to how characters functions, all were announced in 2019, but these features largely did not make it into Overwatch 2 (2022). A game that was by in large a relaunch of Overwatch (2016) that made controversial changes to its core systems and did not offer the feature set expected of a sequel. Let alone one seven years in the making that rendered the original game unplayable.

From there, I wrote off Overwatch 2 as a mistake, a means of garnering hype while underdelivering a product, as to be expected of Bobby Kotick’s Activision Blizzard. A company behind many abuses that I have covered over the years, and currently an asset under Microsoft, who I have little but spite and disdain for these days. And not just because of all the egregious shit they have done to aid in Israel-America’s attempted genocide of the Palestinian people.

With the bad press, broken promises, and steady stretch of controversies I have seen over the years, I have developed a bitterly negative view of Overwatch. While it is a creation of dedicated artists and designers who put their everything into it, the title is ultimately a product that exists to consume attention. It exists to consume money in exchange for appealing costumes, to further the reach, capital, and interests of their corporate overlords. It is not a unique position, and none are free from the sin of enabling corporations. But I view it as especially egregious for how it enabled evil people and inspired publishers to demand live services that would, and have, been shut down over the past decade.

…Oh yeah, I guess Overwatch is ten years old. …Meaning now is the perfect time for the developers to try to bring back people who played the game in their teens and twenties. Because the nature of decades, of viewing time and numbers in a base ten format, means people are predisposed to 5/10 year nostalgia cycles.

Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard has announced big plans for 2026, positioning it as a comeback year for Overwatch video game service. With an upcoming February 10th update promising new five characters, new skins, new UX, continued rebalancing for competitive play, and a new year-long event that will bring another five new characters. In addition, to help ease players back in and signify a new era, the marketing team has changed the game’s name from Overwatch 2 back to Overwatch.

They have their own stated reason, but from a marketing standpoint, this is almost certainly to create the illusion to lapsed fans that their favorite 2016 video game never left. It’s been here forever, for you, and is now getting so much stuff. You like stuff, right? Then come back in, as Overwatch only asks your time, your mind, and your valuable attention.

Bah! To hell with all of this! I am sick of people frolicking back to these live services in an attempt to feel something, when all they are doing is aiding in structures that wish to harm them. But I KNOW that gaming won’t change. Because this, all this crap, this is just gaming to the majority of people, and they don’t give a shit about the systems that have been growing over the past few decades! I know they want meaning, I know that people need entertainment that brings them joy, and I know that the games can be really fucking good, and free. But GOLDARN do I hate how they just dominate the conversation, and how past successes can be harvested every decade as part of a nostalgia cycle that won’t ever end.

…That all being said, I have to say that Microsoft’s artists were cooking with something fierce with Domina. She’s a tall imposing Black woman with stylish short hair, wearing a white and gold skirt suit that’s just gaudy enough to be recognizable, yet still passes the bar for professional attire. She has huge boobs and extra flared hips wrapped up in a white miniskirt so tight you can see the FUPA. AND her name is Domina(nce). Somehow, some way, I am just going to wind up copying this character design. Because it’s so good. …The other four designs are fine, but just looking at them, I can tell they’re for the Chinese and Asian markets.

Akumako: “Uh, pretty sure Domina is also for the Asian market, dude. She’s not Black. She’s from India.”

…You sure?

Akumako: “Eyup.”

Huh. Shows what I know about anything!

Progress Report 2026-02-08

I was originally planning on talking about the Epstein files in some capacity this week, but work, the Nintendo Direct, and VD2.0 all distracted me, and I have not had the courage needed to dig into these files. But I consider them to be a truly radicalizing collection of documents, a glimpse into the lives and minds of the ultrarich and how they view society, how they view their world, and how they intend to control it. I would personally recommend the write-up Aftermath did on the story, specifically Epstein’s links to prominent figures in gaming and tech, as it’s better than anything I could have scrambled together:

“These objectives are not implied; they’re stated outright. Resulting class solidarity among the hyper-wealthy is unconstrained by laws, boundaries, or industries. If something can be used to amass more power, it’s on the table. This, obviously, includes video games and the internet, which have played an increasingly pivotal role in securing the far right’s grip on numerous institutions and governments over the past decade.”

True facts!

The video games industry, the gaming community at large, is in part responsible for the rise of the ultrarich and their prominence over the world. Gaming is an excellent tool for propaganda, the interactive elements allow powerful people to influence people in subversive ways. And propaganda goes down a lot smoother when it’s fun. But the more of this correspondence I see, the more I add to my Epstein folder, the more transparent the ultimate goals of these people become.

The ultrarich are a genre of humans whose ultimate ideal of freedom is owning an island not subject to laws. It is owning people. It is owning children. It is owning children who you can fuck to your heart’s content. When they say shit like “democracy and freedom are no longer compatible” this is what they mean. Because democracy is an enemy to their freedom. Because they do not see themselves as humans. They see themselves as Humans, and see everybody else in the world as a bunch of NPCs for them to fuck with. NPCs for them to fuck. They have so much power they don’t need to act like humans, don’t need to think like humans, and are protected by other powerful people, who own the world. Not nations, but people.

The reason why so many rich and powerful people were friends with Jeffrey Epstein is because they idolized Epstein. They wanted to be Epstein. He was the ultimate end goal. Someone people listened to, a figure seen as respectable, with the ability to influence the world, while retaining the freedom to rape children, fulfilling the ultimate taboo in the West. More so than murder, because any hick with a gun and a badge can do that.

Also, I am saying that even the women who associated with Epstein, such as the wizard book author wanted to be Epstein. Hell, especially the women. Because at that level of power, once one becomes a billionaire, being a woman is a shackle and chain that will prevent one from ever being a true dominator of the world.

…And that’s why I should be careful about even introducing subjects like this. Because I refuse the use of any sort of filter that would prevent me from saying crap like that. I should just SAY the end goal of the ultrarich is to become a pedophile more powerful than many nations. Because I KNOW that is true. The files told me so, there in black and white. I don’t need to extrapolate that a notorious transphobe has penis envy, like a dumb bitch. Even IF I think it is true and is LIKELY a factor in her transphobia.

In conclusion: Fuck trials, fuck the prisons, just kill the rich. It is SO MUCH faster and FAR easier. They have delight in killing us, and they are just as weak to bullets as anybody in a poor country.

2026-02-01: More Garden of Sinners with friends and doing some extra chores for my mother. Wrote 4,300 words for Verde’s Doohickey 2.0: Act III July 4, FINALLY finishing that monster of a chapter, 26,000 words in total. And it took me a while because I had to spend almost an hour looking into locations and Chicago apartments so that I could visualize what a location looked like. What I would give for a reference manual of 1,000 outfits for men and women and floorplans of 1,000 homes around the world. Wrote 1,500 words for the Rundown Preamble, but can you really call like 250 of that writing?

2026-02-02: Wrote 600 words to polish off the Rundown Preamble. Wrote 1,800 words for the Pokémon Black Ramble supplemental thing. Wrote 3,100 words for Verde’s Doohickey 2.0: Act III July 5. Which will be the last chapter before I break to focus on other stoofs. Wrote 250 words for the Nintendo sales thing.

2026-02-03: Wrote 5,000 words for VD2.0A3 July 5. I wanted to do more, but I got sleepy in the middle of a scene that deviates from my hastily rewritten outline. I’ll finish it tomorrow unless I get swamped with work. I am making really good progress so far, and that makes me a happy Nattie!

2026-02-04: Wrote 1,600 words for the Overwatch rant! Added 250 words to the Nintendo sales bit. Wrote 3,700 words for VD2.0A3 July 5, finishing the draft. Meaning it’s Pokémon time, bitch! …Tomorrow. It’s like 1:20 in the morning as I’m writing this.

2026-02-05: Somehow I only got 5,500 words into this Rundown after the big Nintendo Direct. I had to do a bunch of piddly research stuff that took WAY longer than expected, and I am lowkey upset with myself for not getting more done. Also, no Pokemon! Boo!

2026-02-06: Wrote 1,000 words to wrap up this Rundown and 900 words that I’m saving for next week, as it got too pissy. Hella urine, unlocked. Edited this like a fat bitch. Played like four hours of Pokemon Black, doing side quest stuff and getting to the seventh gym.

2026-02-07: Beat Pokemon Black, wrote 2,900 words for the Ramble.

Verde’s Doohickey 2.0 – Act III: Worldly Wonders
Progress Report

Really happy about the progress I’ve made. Less than a month into production, and that’s a third of the novel written. Will take a break next week as work ramps up and I take care of other writing obligations.

Current Word Count: 76,895

Estimated Word Count: 222,222

Words Edited: 0

Total Segments: 30

Segments Outlined: 30

Segments Drafted: 10

Segments Edited: 0

Header Images Made: 0

Days Until Deadline: 143

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This Post Has 2 Comments

  1. skillet 02/08/2026 Reply

    Methinks Natalie should put this quirk of hers to rest by just writing a whole story centered around eating now. And/or she should really just read the rest of Delicious in Dungeon, which fully embraces all the points she talked about… not that I would *ever* willfully pile onto her oh-so-busy schedule!

    Also, Domina Overwatch looks like she was created in a lab to check boxes off a list, so the whole dommy mommy thing they’re trying to sell with her kinda bounces off of me. But that is probably just as informed by my own cynicism towards the Overwatch (or Wotch, for short).

    1. Natalie Neumann 02/08/2026 Reply

      Nah, as I said, I don’t have the knowledge needed to write about food at that level of detail. I explained why in the article itself! Delicious in Dungeon is ON THE LIST. It just has less pull compared to the allure of writing sometimes.
      Domina looks like she was designed to check off boxes, yes. But she checks off the boxes I LIKE in a way that I have not quite considered. Also, my intentions are to STEAL her look with a new character, not give them any money or mindshare. …Maybe it can be a future Black Vice outfit. I am going to need ten of those for a future novel.
      I will throw you off a bridge if you call Overwatch “Wotch.” Do not besmirch the proud legacy of The Wotch with this shite!