Rundown (1/07-1/13) Livin’ the Trans Life
So, for the past two weeks I have been presenting myself as female whenever I go out, and doing so had felt rather.. odd to me. On one hand, I feel as if I am doing nothing different at all, seeing as how I started feminizing my voice years ago, and started altering my walking patterns several months ago. It truly feels as if I am doing nothing different as I was when presenting myself as male, except now I have a feminine, if swollen, face, and my hair is a bit longer and nicer. I guess you could say the change does not feel as massive as I initially thought it would, but that’s okay, considering I am more comfortable with myself than I have been in many, many years.
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Go! Go! Nippon! ~My First Trip to Japan~ 2016 Version Review
‘Cos you gotta Go! Go! ‘fore you can Stay! Stay!
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Rundown (12/17-1/06) I’m Back and I’m Tired!
Hello everybody. While I initially said that I was not going to start up the whole Nigmabox train until mid-January, I have been feeling a lot better post-surgery than I expected, and have been somewhat productive when it comes to playing games, so I figured that I’ll resume my usual review and rundown schedule. I was actually going to start things up sooner, but, well, I could not find enough noteworthy new stories to do a full Rundown, hence why I’m bundling together three weeks of news here.
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Rundown (12/10-12/16) Let the Hiatus Begin!
On December 16th, I underwent facial feminization surgery. Due to the intensive nature of the procedure and prolonged recovery time, this site will be entering a hiatus effectively immediately, lasting until sometime in mid-January, likely January 17th, 2018. Until then, the only thing I will post is a pre-prepared end of year post. I never wanted to pull a hiatus like this, but I sort of need to for recovery purposes. So until then, I’ll see you all later.
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Saya No Uta ~ The Song of Saya Review
Listen up, here’s a story. About a little guy that lives in a flesh world. And all day and all night and everything he sees is just flesh like him— except they are pulsating and screeching inside out abominations and he wants nothing more than to destroy the horrific and disgusting creatures all around him. And also have sex with his loli waifu.
Disclaimer: The following review contains screenshots depicting blood, viscera, and sexualized children. Reader discretion is advised. This post is Not Safe For Work.
Rundown (12/03-12/09) Rest Before the Final Battle!
Next week is going to be a hectic one for me. I have finals, work, and, of course, surgery all scheduled, and am scattering to get everything done in time. And seeing as how the The Game Awards were held this past week, I’ve got a lot of news to get through.
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Rundown (11/26-12/02) Natalie Loves Video Game History
I do not get to talk about this very often, but I dearly and truly do adore so much about the history of video games, far more than any person ever should, and find one of the most entertaining things I may do with my time is to learn about the industry’s past and the pivotal turning points that have come to define it today. From how the bullheadedness of Sega Japan led to them turning down Sony, Silicon Graphics, and the advice of their American division before releasing the Saturn. Or how Atari wanted to release the 7800 around the launch of the NES, but couldn’t due to unpaid wages and ownership disputes. It has fascinated me for over a decade, and is largely the reason why I felt comfortable enough with the medium to even start this blog in the first place.
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Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Review
Animal Crossing: Pocket Prison!
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Rundown (11/19-11/25) Clothes Are My Enemy!
Seeing as how I am going to begin presenting myself as female within a month or so, I have recently been shopping for a large quantity of clothes in search for ones that look good and actually fit me. Female clothing in particular uses at times baffling measurements to determine sizes and how large a certain article of clothing should be on a person. And if one goes against the generally accepted norms by being very small or taller than average, then clothes shopping becomes that much more annoying. Being 5 foot 10 and 125 pounds, or 178 cm and 57 kg, I am pretty much relegated to tall small clothing, and searching for decent clothes in those sizes made me realize why women stereotypically spend so much time shopping. Because even finding something as simple as a good crewneck sweater can be an endeavor.
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Rundown (11/12-11/18) Ultra Gripe Leads to Ultra Delay!
On Friday, I received my copy of Pokemon Ultra Moon, and have since invested 10 hours into the game. Normally that would mean I would be able to get my review out fairly quickly, but I kept encountering a very unique problem. You see, prior to the release of Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, I assumed that Pokemon Bank would be comparable from day one. It is not. Because of this, I was unable to transfer the specific Pokemon I had bred for a team that I intended to use in Ultra Moon. Now, for those asking why I don’t just build a new team or replicate the one I wanted in Ultra Moon, the answer is quite simple. I don’t want to put myself through this rigamarole yet again.
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Rundown (11/05-11/11) Sonic Team Made an Oopsie!
Over the past week Sonic Forces came out, and the general reception of the game has been… pretty darn poor to be honest. From criticisms levied towards the barren level design, a story that does not properly take advantage of its premise and characters, and various underlying gameplay/technical issues that make the game less refined than Sonic Generations, which came out six years ago. It is a genuinely confusing state of affairs, especially because of how much time Sonic Team has had to invest in this game.
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ICEY Review
ICEY… I see? No, I really don’t. I don’t see what you’re doing here.
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Rundown (10/29-11/04) Natalie Vs. Finance
With my facial feminization surgery less than two months away, I have been taking a closer look at my future finances and how exactly I am going to afford things going forward into 2018. Things are not as well as I initially forecast, but by borrowing money from my grandmother, I should be able to afford the surgery without using up absolutely all of my liquid assets, and will only walk away with a fairly small account payable. Which I will pay back over the 2018 period, wherein I hope to see slightly increased revenues, but in order to afford the many new expenses I will encounter in this period, I will need to forego certain luxuries. Most notably frequent game purchases. Gah, finances, you are quite the troublesome dastard sometimes. (more…)
Doki Doki Literature Club Review
Doki Doki Literature Club is one of the many titles I inadvertently stumbled across while perusing the cluttered Steam marketplace in search for interesting sounding titles that I might not have heard about otherwise. At first, the game seemed to be a rather typical dating sim, but one with the very curious disclaimer that the game is not suitable for children or the easily disturbed. Combine this with a strong recommendation for the game from my significant other and my realization that the game was actually free, I decided to give Doki Doki a shot. In doing so I found one of the most interesting games I have played all year. (more…)
Rundown (10/22-10/28) A New and Less Sexual Era
So, the biggest story from the past week is probably how popular gaming forum NeoGaf went offline for the weekend after the owner of the website got himself in some major trouble. The kind involving massive sexual harassment and what, from what I heard, basically amounts to rape. I regularly visited the forum, mostly just to peruse the news that my usual sites miss out on and pick up on things that many outlets would not report on. It was a very good place for information, but I and many others decided to jump ship from this site because, yeah, no, you cannot really wash away the toxicity that comes with that kind of association. So instead I and a bunch of other people are now getting news from a successor called Reset Era. Heh. Cute. (more…)
Gurumin: A Monstrous Adventure Review
Falcom is a very odd developer. A long standing Japanese developer with a history based in creating games for older Japanese computers and creating a wide variety of innovations in the RPG genre while primarily being known for Trails, a series of incredibly detailed JRPGs with a strong fanbase, and the Ys series, a collection of action RPG titles that shifted and mutated its exact genre over the years, and is home to some of my favorite examples of the genre of all time. Yet they can also be very experimental, as seen previously in games like Xanadu Next, which I reviewed a few months ago, and even more so in one of the more unique titles in their release history, Gurumin. (more…)
Rundown (10/15-10/21) A Master No More!
Over the past few weeks, there has been a distribution going on for the new legendary Pokemon, Marshadow, which was distributed at GameStop in the United States. Unfortunately, I missed my chance to visit one to get the mode needed to get the new Pokemon and preserve my complete Pokedex. Why is that the case? Well, I am not very mobile on my own (I cannot drive) and the task of asking my mother if I could stop by one of these stores was a bit too much for me, what with my social anxiety and such. I downplay it a lot, but my social anxiety and poor social skills makes it genuinely hard to do even basic tasks. I feel awkward so much as saying hello to someone unless they greet me first. (more…)
Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony Review
Following the Danganronpa series over the past few years has been a turbulent ride, spanning over two excellent visual novels, a decent third person shooter that I should really revisit, an anime series that I railed on for 7 pages and still feel as if I was being a bit too generous towards, and various fan translated spin-off media that I never really checked out. However, all of that seemingly comes to a close with Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony.
(more…)Rundown (10/8-10/14) The Return of Press-Switch!
After three years of eager anticipation, it has finally happened. Press-Switch has finally been updated! For those unaware, or have forgotten, Press-Switch is an absurdly expansive freeware visual novel centered around body swapping, mind alteration, possession, cloning, merging and all kinds of fun stuff. While it may seem like some sort of fetish driven excursion, which it is at least to some extent, the level of detail, variety, and complexity in its story has turned it into something far greater that I could have ever expected, and I cannot say enough good things about the game. (more…)
Dysfunctional Systems: Learning to Manage Chaos Review
Sometimes I really should do more research into the games I review before selecting them, because oh boy is this one a doozy. Originally released in 2013, Dysfunctional Systems: Learning to Manage Chaos is the first episode as part of a visual novel series envisioned by its developers, Dischan. Following the success of the first installment, the company held a Kickstarter for three additional episodes of Dysfunctional Systems, including a prequel episode, a far longer second episode, and a climactic third episode to wrap everything up. Unfortunately, things went wrong, and the series went dark in 2015, and it was not until 2017 that episode 0, Dysfunctional Systems: Orientation was released, with development on the second episode restarting afterwards. That should have dissuaded me from reviewing this game, but it didn’t! (more…)
Rundown (10/01-10/07) My Dear’s Danganronpa Dilemma
Over this past week I have been making my way through Danganronpa V3 while my significant other has been doing the same. We have been discussing the game in detail as we continued our parallel playthroughs, and during that discussion, they revealed that they did not know that you could save during a class trial. They assumed that a massive portion of a game, one part of a portable game series, would arbitrarily prohibit saving, and require players to rush through the entire 2+ hour trial in a single session. They somehow never figured this out despite playing Danganronpa 1 and 2, as theynever opened the menu over the span of 20+ hours of class trials in those games. This baffled me so much that I could not stop myself from sharing it. (more…)
2064: Read Only Memories Review
I’ve noticed that as of late more and more titles are coming out with original base versions of a game before being updated, either continuously or all at once, to become more substantial and improved experiences. I know why this is the case, but it always makes me reluctant to check out a game unless I know it is fully complete and will not be given substantial updates after the fact, as I want to have my first experience with something be in its best rendition. I bring this up because that is exactly what happened with me and the original release of Read Only memories, and then I forgot it was updated until about two weeks ago. Whoops. (more…)
Rundown (9/24-9/30) A 13-Year-Old Dream Lives On!
I believe that I have talked about how back when I was around the ages of 12 – 14, I was a big fan of a lot of Newgrounds flash animations, amateur made cartoons that often took the form of video game parodies, and provided one of my friends and I with countless hours of enjoyment. One of my favorite series from back then was TTA or TVTome Adventures, a story driven and incredibly ambitious series centered around a convoluted anime-esque story about people playing a virtual reality MMO based loosely on the online interactions of a bunch of teenagers. It was a 73.5 episode saga created primarily by one person, Chris Niosi, throughout his high school years, along with other various flash cartoons. (more…)
Metroid: Samus Returns Review
It’s kind of surreal to be playing a new 2D Metroid game like this. I mean, it’s been 13 years since Zero Mission last scratched that itch, and it’s been a decade since the series had a genuinely good game. Still, after so much clamoring and waiting, a new classic-style entry in the series was finally released. A remake technically, but one so thoroughly rebuilt and reworked that it may as well be an entirely new title. And as a new title, it is good, but not without its faults. (more…)
Rundown (9/17-9/23) Natalie Plays Handhelds Wrong!
It just occurred to me that I do not play handhelds like most normal people do. From what I can gather, most people tend to play handheld game systems while they are raised to the middle of their chest, and bend their head down slightly while doing so, but are also prone to just playing them while in bed, or laying down on the couch or some such thing. Whereas I find both of those to be uncomfortable positions, and instead always play handheld games with the handheld placed near by lap or with my arms resting on a desk while I play, similar to how I play games with a controller. And I have been doing this since I got my GameBoy Advance back in second grade. (more…)
Darksiders Warmastered Edition Review
“Natalie, why do you do this to yourself?” Do what to myself, voice in my head? “Why are you going back to a game that you remember disliking when you played it 5 years ago?” Because I always felt that I should actually like this game, and wanted to give it another shake. “Even after re-reading your original review?” Well, I tried to. My writing was just awful back then. “You know, you sometimes have a really bad tendency for self-destructive behavior.” I know voice in my head, I know. (more…)
Rundown (9/10-9/16) Video Games Can Hurt Sometimes
So, I recently picked up Metroid: Samus Returns, and while I enjoy the game quite a bit, I have one resounding problem with the game that is not the fault of the game. It’s that the original model of the 3DS is downright horrible for action intensive games. Maybe I am just clenching the system too hard, or not distributing my fingers properly, but after less than an hour with the system my hands started getting sore as the system dug into my palms and my fingers contorted themselves into an awkward claw so I could press the miniscule shoulder buttons. Maybe I’m just getting old, seeing as how it has been almost 4 years since I played an action game on the 3DS, but… wow does it feel bad to use. (more…)
Panzermadels: Tank Dating Simulator Review
By now, it should be pretty evident that I really enjoy visual novels, and I think I can boil down the reason why to a single point. Visual novels allow for a level of versatility in storytelling greater than any genre of game and have the ability to explore more bizarre or outlandish premises. Partially due to how they do not need to be built around any specific gameplay style, but also because they are an accessible medium for developers without much programming skills. A point that Panzermadels encapsulates quite well. (more…)
Rundown (9/03-9/09) Natalie Forgets Easily
Over the past week, I decided to go through a list of the games I have reviewed since I started this blog long long ago, and I’m not sure what surprised me more. The fact that I somehow wrote about 300 game reviews over the span of 6 years, or the fact that I barely even remember playing through so many of them, let alone reviewing them. I mean, I legitimately forgot that I wrote a Rayman Legends review back in 2013. My memory has legitimately been getting worse and worse as of late, and I tend to forget most things very easily. Heck, I do not even remember a single game I reviewed a month ago. (more…)
Rayman Legends Review
Several months ago, I reviewed Rayman Origins, a colorful, creative, and tightly designed platformer that I came away from about as positively as I could. As such, it seemed inevitable that I would get to its sequel, Rayman Legends, and seeing as how the game has a Switch port due out in about a week, I figured that now would be as good a time as any. (more…)
Rundown (8/27-9/02) The Future Will Hold Less Despair
In between my rapid running through the game I’m reviewing next week (mostly because the other two I lined up had mechanical and optimization issues), I found some time to play the demo for Danganronpa V3, and I have to remark at how impressed I am to see a demo of such length, detail, and quality be released for a game in this day and age. It was not as elaborate as I am sure the final game will be, the Class Trial didn’t even have a proper ending, but the level of detail and showcasing of some new mechanics made me excited to see more the game of its colorful cast and how the final game will shape up. It’s actually comforting to know that the same Danganronpa spirit I have come to love at least appears to remain alive in this entry, when I’ve had doubts about this series’ future ever since the unfortunate Danganronpa 3. Anyways, on with the news. (more…)
Rundown (8/20-8/26) Natalie Will Spend All Her Money!
So, I recently made my appointment for facial feminization surgery, and as it turns out, I will be using approximately all of my money outside of my IRA to pay for it. Because of this, I will not be doing as I originally planned, and I believe referenced in a prior Rundown, and purchase a Nintendo Switch for my recuperation period. I will also be taking a hiatus beginning in mid-December and lasting until sometime in January. I take pride in how I have maintained a constant weekly review schedule for the past two years, but I will need to break it, on account of my face being reformed into something prettier. (more…)
Disgaea PC Review
The Disgaea series is one that I have already held at least a passing interest in, as it’s art style, humorous sensibilities, grind and growth centered gameplay, and generally playful tone all struck me as things I would love if I gave it a try. With the release of a PC port of the very first game, it seemed like there was no better time to get into the series and, um, I don’t really like it. (more…)
Rundown (8/13-8/19) I’m a Weird Sonic Fan
Some might be wondering if I will be reviewing Sonic Mania soon, as its PC version will be coming out on August 29th, but I am not planning on reviewing it for quite a while, as I often wait for games to go on sale and such. I will get to it eventually, and will hopefully enjoy it, despite it being pretty obvious by now that I am part of the generation who genuinely prefers the 3D games over the 2D games. I mean, I like them so much that I have done some concept work for a story that “homages” Sonic Adventure 1 and 2, and I was more excited to hear this new track from the rapper behind the Knuckles stage themes for Sonic Adventure 2 than I was for anything pertaining to Sonic Mania. I guess you could say a weird Sonic fan that way. (more…)
Lily’s Day Off Review
Anybody who looks at the games I review can parse that I tend to gravitate towards shorter games as, quite simply, it is far easier to get through one game a week if it is 10 hours long or less, and I try to parse out games that take 20+ hours with games that take only a fraction as much time. So without further ado, Lily’s Day Off, one of the briefest games I’ve covered on this site, and actually a pretty nifty visual novel. (more…)
Rundown (8/06-8/12) Natalie Has a Weird Brain
I originally wanted to write a silly introduction about sexualized cannibalism, but I do put my name on this site, and I do not want to get in trouble for yammering about sexual cannibalism, or worse yet, child sexual cannibalism. I don’t even know why I find the idea so amusing, I repeat, amusing, not sexual, but my mind often drifts to it. And thoughts of microwavable burgers made of loli meat. Which is totally different from vore by the way, as vore does not involve ripping away at flesh and chewing it up. In vore, someone swallow up little peoples and they become part of them. Also, here’s the image from the Wikipedia page for vorarephilia, as I cannot find an SFW image of sexual cannibalism. (more…)
Sonic The Hedgehog 4: Episode II Review
Following Sonic 4 Episode I, I was genuinely dreading what would be in store for Episode II. From what I had heard, the game was notably worse than the original installment, and contained next to nothing worthwhile in its entirety. However… I actually kind of like it. (more…)
Sonic The Hedgehog 4: Episode I Review
After going through the classic Genesis-era Sonic games last year with reviews of Sonic The Hedgehog 1, 2, CD, and 3, I thought I was done revisiting the classic titles. I am, but there was one mainline Sonic game that tried to recapture the feeling of these games, one that the upcoming Sonic Mania will basically overwrite. That is Sonic The Hedgehog 4, an episodic game series that must have done so poorly for Sega that they actually never finished it, instead stopping after two episodes. Seeing as how both games are surprisingly different for episodic titles, I will be reviewing the games separately, starting with Episode I naturally. (more…)
Rundown (7/30-8/05) Gamindustri Is a Bizarre Adventure
I’m looking over what I have to say this week, I think I can safely say that the game industry is a pretty weird place if you ignore most of the AAA fluff that goes about and dig a bit deeper. Just this week we have a Chinese imitation of a popular AAA game series published by a small scale American indie publisher. A studio collapsing due to a poorly received game that was locked in a vicious dec cycle. A completely failed attempt at crowdfunding that was picked up by a publisher of games based on children’s cartoons. A dancing rhythm game spin-off starting a character whose death is a crucial point in the story. And even a sexual harassment charge involving a boy who used to be a big deal on the G4 message boards. (more…)
Gemini: Heroes Reborn Review
Back in 2013, a little known Chicago based game developer by the name of Phosphor Games announced Project Awakened, an incredibly ambitious superhero game that promised to offer an, in retrospect, downright absurd level of customization and variability compared to other games on the market, all powered by the then new Unreal Engine 4. It stuck with me for quite a while, even after the independently developed game failed to accrue the needed funds via Kickstarter, and the project was supposedly cancelled. But the developers apparently were able to salvage enough of their work and concepts to create a brief game that also served as a tie-in to some TV show I have never heard of… Which I guess is still something. (more…)
Rundown (7/23-7/29) Much Ado About Rambles
Seeing as how this week had little in the way of news that I cared about, I ended up doing a lot of rambling about two specific topics I have some level of passion behind, but do not fall into the category of gaming news that has come to define these Rundowns. Sorry about that, but this is my segment, and I’ll talk about whatever I goldarn want to. (more…)
Remember, Remember Review
While I am the sort of person who does not shy away from reviewing obscure titles, I think I hit a new extreme here, as Remember, Remember, a visual novel that was released on Steam and Itch.io back in May of this year, has not been given a formal review of any kind beyond Steam reviews. I genuinely do not think this has ever happened to me before, but after playing through the game, I cannot say I am surprised by the lack of attention it has garnered.
(more…)Rundown (7/16-7/22) Get Foked for the Next Battle!
Oh goodness, did I seriously reference the Warrior comics with this title? What even is my life at this point? (more…)