To begin with, I was fascinated with the idea of having a personal login to my own (despite the fact that literally every page here is -my own-) area on this site. Mostly as just a way to include little things meant just for me, like a welcome message or notes, or really whatever. Ultimately, the data has to exist on github at present anyway, and on the host's servers, so it's out there either way. But even so, having a little login prompt that reveals more just to me is really kinda just neat.
But there's a lot of utility to that too, specifically when it comes to general site management.
And site management was something I've become more concerned about overtime, because updating something while I was away from my PC would require direct editing in github, which for some things is fine, but being able to have in progress drafts that exist in source but not visible on the site except to me is much nicer, and so I sought to implement this. Minimizing how required VSCode was when just adding content vs actual structural changes or styling, and being able to visualize what something would look like in place without
running a dev server locally were key. So now instead of creating a new post by making the file locally, I have a basic form coupled with a basic text editor for managing more complex blocks that will automatically push to a beta branch on git and open PRs for my convenience. This or similar exists for most collections on the site- posts, songs, games, etc.
In practice this admittedly is very square peg round hole, and if there's anything that makes me switch to a less static site it'll be how bad it feels to us this over time, but we'll see!
In any case, these sorts of pages (and especially things that result in git operations!) deservedly live behind that login gate. Things aren't always so simple though, as not having a dedicated server backend causes many headaches. Since github isn't really meant to be used as a pseudo database, there are all sorts of race conditions and general slowness. And initially, I ran into issues re: file size and what functions/actions in my host provider could manage, which was a huge problem. After shifting things around though and utilizing a github app, most of that has been able to be worked around, to a point where while some issues still exist, the main use cases work pretty well.
I'm still quite undecided on how all this ought to be long term though. I am ultimately very torn between static site speed and just having a data store and/or a single page application, but I generally like the editing/adding experience as is. I'll let it sit for a while and see how things go, I suppose.
The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales is a game I learned about by accident a couple of weeks before its release, and that immediately caught me eye as a new HD-2D game. Having greatly enjoyed both Octopath Traveler games and Triangle Strategy, I was eager to check out something with different gameplay utilizing the style, and while I wouldn't say the narratives of any of those games were outstanding, they were generally enjoyable and other aspects more than made up for it. Elliot took my a bit longer than initially anticipated to get through though, as I started it late due to wrapping up Higurashi, and ended up decently busy afterward. However, time can be made for things that are particularly captivating. Elliot, to my dismay, was mostly not that.
I never really pictured Elliot as the sort of game I'd write anything about here to begin with, and it was solidified after my first few sessions, but it did something I thought was kind of neat during the game's finale that made me think well, I think it deserves something.
If there's one thing I think The Adventures of Elliot excels at, it is probably the flow of combat. Admittedly, it took a while for me to gain an appreciation for it, as it isn't exactly my style and it can be a bit punishing at times, but in hindsight it's hard to say it's bad. What I think makes it good is how it generally rewards considered play. If you try and spam attacks over and over on most enemies, you will end up getting hit, as whatever hitstun there is is minimal and/or quickly diminishing. The game gives you a shield though, and it's a big part of gameplay, so understanding enemy attack and movement patterns to weave blocks between your attacks is key. When this is executed on, your kill-streak is maintained and increased, ultimately giving you more money from drops, as well as just feeling smooth. For me the epitome of this was when I had upgraded weapons with the correct magicite and really started to abuse the Scythe Chain. Unfortunately because I was using a Steam Controller, sometimes pressing the backpaddles would cause unintentional strikes or blocks which often felt awkward, but that's thoroughly on me. I did find the default block button a little rough at times, but I think it's serviceable (right shoulder). One other thing that could be awkward at times was that you have 8 directional movement or yourself and enemies, and diagonals in particular were very easy to misjudge, leading to hits and loss of your streak. I am glad that movement is as free as it is, but accidentally running into enemies and barely missing a strike because of micro positioning issues definitely isn't the best.
Boss fights were interesting for the most part, though at times enemy damage did feel a little brutal compared to what you'd be able to do during safe windows, but it is what it is. Again, shooting myself in the foot here especially late game as I was lacking a lot of health upgrades. I think having those would have helped a good deal, but ultimately boss fights are 1) understand the pattern 2) hit when safe 3) adapt during enrage phase. There's a group of mechanical bosses of different types that you begin with by fighting one of a particular type on its own, then the other, then the other, and then you start getting fights where you have to deal with multiple at once, which was an enjoyable bit of difficulty progression. I probably missed out on a fair few bosses though, as I ended up skipping a lot of side content because...
Elliot is a game where you go back and forth between various eras of the main continent you play on. However, in order to make the game too overwhelming when the available area is multiplied by 4 times in size, the actual continent is very small and claustrophobic. Crossing the map takes very little time apart from loading screens when necessary and using dungeon connections to get between areas, and at least for me, there comes a point when I've been in a dungeon a couple times in different eras that I just, really couldn't be bothered. What was also wild was how many teleportation points there ended up being in an already small map. It takes hardly any time to get anywhere, but you still get unlimited free teleports everywhere.
Often times, the cross-era variety did not really warrant using the same maps and enemies and it felt very chore-like to explore too much. I was already not super motivated to explore a bunch, but what you can explore is so limited and samey that that motivation fell even lower. Which is a shame, because when a big part of your game is crossing vast amounts of time and the actual changes are mostly limited to the main town and a couple of other locations- things too which you only really come to appreciate when going for the 'true' ending- you'd think there would be more to pull you in.
I think time travel is something that is known to be difficult to execute on properly. While in the end I think the way this story resolves ends up justifying a lot of things that feel questionable in the moment, it's sometimes not very satisfactory. The little things, such as seeing the ancestors of characters you're familiar is often cool, even if it feels very one dimensional at times, but the way the first antagonist unfolds ends up coming across as very.. blah? It could be a (very reasonable) limitation to not have someone going to the past change a bunch of stuff suddenly in the future, as it could be a difficult thing to do properly, but to have nothing really happen at all does feel odd, even if you can argue that 'well of course it didn't change anything, because you beat them before then!' I think some of this would be improved if the game didn't drag its feet regarding the overall narrative, by which I mean having two fakeout endings does not feel very deserved. Both of these endings are intended to convey that something was missed, which if you thoroughly explored and encountered certain events may just come across as unnecessary, and if you didn't, doesn't feel great because building up to a climax and then going 'but wait there's more go back in' is, well, anticlimactic. I do however appreciate the game going beyond that first ending certainly, as it really would not have been much of a story if that was where it stopped. The steps needed to keep going also serve to motivate you more to keep going, as you get more important character interactions and it isn't just 'save the princess you met at the beginning of the game that you don't really have all that much connection to.'
And now some spoilers!
Still though, most of all that is just fine, nothing GOTY worthy, and things were wearing on as the tasks leading up to the true ending path kept on coming. Eventually though, everything was completed and the final fight was all that was left. The first stage of the fight is kind of cool in concept, but (and if you know you know), the small map really diminishes the impact, and the controls are just super awkward. That first stage is required though, and fortunately isn't too difficult to get through near perfectly, but the second stage is where my heart sank as I saw that the final boss
For me, however, having only ~half the total HP I probably should, and very few empty potion vials, I was staring down a hefty task, and I really was ready to be done with the game. And then it happened:
The game overall is very earnest as far as its characters and world go. Nothing is ever really all too complex, Elliot begins and stays as probably one of the most 'good guy' good guys to ever exist, and a central theme is bridging differences, working together, and maintaining hope in the face of despair. I think the final moments of the game manage to really take all that and cash it in all at once, and all of the sudden a lot of what made the game boring, or not all too outstanding kind of diminishes. One complaint I saw early was that this game had Navi syndrome pretty bad- a companion character that would rather not stop interrupting. I was quite surprised when I found it this wasn't Heuria people were complaining about, but the second character to fill that role a fairish bit into the game. But honestly, while Faie was talkative, it never felt too overbearing for me, which I think says a lot regarding the atmosphere or message the game is trying to convey. Faie always has hope and is always eager to help out (and genuinely in a couple moments points things out that I don't think are immediately obvious the way many other comments can be regarding certain puzzles), and this makes her Elliot's perfect traveling companion, as well as just making it feel like you're in good company.
Very much YMMV, and I gotta be honest in that I don't think I would come back to replay this anytime soon if ever, but I think it is impressive that, even if this game isn't breaking new ground really anywhere, and isn't really my style in other ways, that it can still pull what would have overall been a leaning disappointing experience from the brink. I am happy to say that in the end, I can walk away from Elliot with a positive impression. Most reviews I've seen tend to be more wholly positive about the whole thing, and I think it' critical reception has been pretty good. So I think if this style of game is more your speed, you really can't go wrong.
Until next time, Hope is always there.
]]>There really isn't all that much to say that wasn't said last year overall though. The con is still small, and in some ways it seems like it shrank slightly, though in others it felt like it expanded. Specifically it seemed there were fewer Vendor booths overall, but more Artist Alley booths, which I don't hate. Further, there was a large volume of unprocessed 3D printed fidget toys and very basic pokeball type things last year, which I'm pleased to say did not reappear this year. There were a few booths with such items, but significantly fewer. As a 3D printing enjoyer, I am more than okay with 3D printing in general, but you have the upcharge for a small multicolor trinket that cost pennies to produce, and the items themselves only have any value as something a layperson looks at and goes 'wow that's so cool!' once before it essentially becomes waste. A bit of an exaggeration perhaps, but just not something we need filling space at a convention where creatives gather. I'd have more leniency if people at least designed their own things, but when multiple booths are selling the same thing, and knowing the open nature of 3D printing communities, that happening is doubtful.
And among the booths in Artist Alley, I find quite a bit more that I was interested in compared to last year, spending quite a bit more than I set out to ^^;
But it isn't every day you see that much random high quality Touhou merch for sale. I noted last year that I was surprised to see some featuring a less popular character, but wow did this year blow that out of the water. I even saw some art of one of the characters from the newest game, which is even more surprising as it seems rare when someone beyond the classic Windows era shows up to begin with.
I also ended up deciding this was the year of stickers, as I have a laptop to fill up and a water bottle to finish. While I'm sad that the Better Call Saul sticker set at one booth in particular was sold out (we attended only on the final Sunday), I'll have to make do with some Mike Ehrmantraut instead.
As last year, completing the floor was a firmly one day thing, so an overall good experience for the time. After the floor closed, we made our now annual post-Anime-Magic trip to the nearby Fogo de Chão, which was well worth it after a day of walking the con floor with an empty stomach.
I'm not sure how much of a fixture Anime Magic will be in the future, but it is nice having a relatively low intensity late Summer con to go to if nothing else. I'm certainly pleased by my haul this time around and am keen to see the con grow as time goes on. Here's to next year, and hopefully another anime con before years end!
That's all for now- until next time!
]]>At some point last year, not more than a few weeks prior to Gen Con 2025, a friend posed the question (paraphrasing) 'do we want to try going to Gen Con even though it is imminent?' And we definitely tried, but the exorbitant hotel cost, lack of hotel space nearby in general, and dubious ideas of transportation meant that it wasn't to be, almost certainly for the better. This year however, with others also interested, we chose one day to attend the con, booked an AirBnB a couple months in advance, and after a bit of a whirlwind of a couple days, have successfully completed Gen Con 2026 with an eye for a full Gen Con 2027 weekend.
Gen Con is a convention highly centered around board games, ttrpgs, card games, and a lot of general nerdery ultimately much broader in scope than the likes of your typical anime con. For myself, it is by far the largest convention I've been to, with near double or more attendees than ACEN usually gets at a cool ~72,000 over the course of the weekend. Not only does it utilize a hefty portion of the Indiana Convention Center and several ballrooms in the neighboring hotels, but also closes down several streets for food vending and utilizes a pretty good sized portion of the next door Lucas Oil Stadium.
The journey down was by car, and ended up being a good 4 1/2 hour drive or so, with a really rough amount of traffic near Chicago combined with rain. I ended up working a half day and wanted to get some miscellaneous things done before going, and so the time of departure also wasn't ideal, but arrival at our AirBnB that evening was quite welcome. Ultimately the AirBnB choice was because hotels were rough, and the cost of splitting it across the whole group made it decently affordable. Questionable amenities aside, it was a solid location, and not too far from downtown. The shower was embarrassingly difficult to operate, however.
On the morning of our attendance day, I ended up being first to the floor itself and was amazed by how large the space was. ACEN's dealer's hall and artist alley are both large spaces, but this first hall was particularly surprising because it was essentially just rows and rows and rows of tables for playing various games only. After crossing the whole hall and finding a conveniently placed help desk, I was informed the entrance to what I'll call the 'Main' Exhibit Hall was in the opposite corner, so made my way back over just as they were opening up the entrance and many, many people were gathering. I undertook a mission to find some specific books for a friend who wasn't able to attend and made my way to that company's booth (which naturally was on the opposite side of the hall) immediately just to get it out of the way. After the rest of the group arrived and I had to double back to meet up with them, I really began to understand just how large this space was. In the end, I think it took a good 3 1/2 - 4 hours to clear (and not completely) between 1/4 and 1/5 of the booths there. For me this was fine, as I came away with many pretty dice, but in particular I wanted to do as much of the floor as possible on this trial trip to Gen Con because I think it's the best way to get a feel for the con overall. Between what sorts of things are sold, what artists have up for display and the sheer volume of people you walk past, you get a good look at everything. Plus, since the floor closes at 6, you do have time for some events afterward anyway.
Towards floor closing time, myself and the group I was with decided we wanted to go to a sit down restaurant to eat. However, the rain that had been falling all day had decided now was the time to become torrential, but seeing as we wanted the sit down restaurant and were carrying a ton of stuff that needed depositing in the car (my fingers and arms were dying from the aforementioned books I had been now carrying all day), we booked it in the rain the block and a half or so to our garage, and arrived to the car soaking wet sans the one of us who was blessed by random poncho man. About 5 minutes after pulling out of the garage of course, all our phones began to scream because there was now a -Tornado Warning- in effect.
By the time we worked out that yes it actually did say Warning not Watch, and that Warning was the worse of the two, we had already driven far enough that there were no tall buildings or garages to shelter in any more and ultimately decided well, the touch down was south, and we're going north, so despite the warning and the heavy rainfall we made our way towards our AirBnB and ate dinner nearby. Unfortunately due to time constraints we weren't able to stop back at the AirBnB for drier clothes, but we mostly dried out in the interim anyway and grabbed umbrellas from a nearby store before heading back. I will let the reader guess whether these ended up needing to be used.
Several of our group had an expensive (but good value) Magic the Gathering event to attend, so when we arrived back the rest of us gathered to watch the 'Dungeons & Drag Queens' performance, which ended up being a pretty good time. These sorts of live play DnD type things can be hit or miss in my experience, but between the performers, the live improv music, and some good old horrendous d20 rolls, there were many laughs to be had.
After that concluded, we attempted to watch some of the destruction of the card tower charity event that was running during the con, but there was a large crowd making it difficult to see, and the actual destruction was put off and put off despite being past when it was said it would begin? Having not much context for what this particular event is like and it being the end of the day definitely made it not the best thing ever, so we ended up dipping early and heading back to the AirBnB to wait for the others to return, sleep, and hit the road the following morning.
All in all, I think all of us agreed that this was a very successful trial run of Gen Con, and that we are all very interested in doing a full weekend + attached hotel next year. In particular, I'm keen to try more games with the expanded timeframe a full weekend brings, and also have the ability to rest without driving when necessary.
I think Gen Con was also very interesting insofar as how it felt. Having mostly been to anime cons, there's going to be an obvious difference in general vibe between those and something like Gen Con right off the bat in terms of subject matter, but I think it goes deeper. For one, Gen Con has a much longer history than something like ACEN, and as a larger convention with more experience behind it, it came across feeling a good deal more professional across the board. Something I didn't mention was Gen Con's artist alley, which isn't even called that, but is notable in that it was extremely small, not quite out of the way, but definitely not -central-, and featured booths that in general felt a bit more hefty than what you would see at ACEN's artist alley (not wholly, to be clear). I think in general, an artist alley at an anime convention will feature smaller operations that trend more amateur (not in a negative connotation or in terms of quality, just people newer to doing this kind of thing), whereas the artist booths on the floor felt more like, this is my capital B Business, or, I have designed professionally for X, Y, or Z, and here's some of my other work, which- ACEN does have, but there was more of it here. Key also for me I think is that because anime wasn't the focus and you thus don't get as much flavor of the week 'I have to draw this series because it's popular right now and I need to pay my bills,' I found on average the booths ended up being more personally interesting, or had things worth looking at. Part of why it took so long to cover so little of the main hall was because most of those booths were worth looking at in detail in a way that I don't get as much at something like ACEN.
Additionally, I think the average attendee age felt trended a little higher than ACEN, and if it didn't in reality I wouldn't be surprised if it was because there were more parents with younger kids. It's not as though Gen Con had 0 nudity or similar content, but compared to an anime con it was both generally more tasteful, less present overall, and just less relevant? Anime/Manga is more concerned with aesthetics literally as explicitly visual media and enticing character designs are just the way things work in order to get eyes on your series. Games obviously do need to be concerned with this to a degree as well, but it's less of a focus I think. In any case, the perceived cultural differences between conventions made for a nice break, though I don't intend on stopping going to ACEN or other anime themed cons any time soon. Variety is good.
I am a bit annoyed at myself though, as I intended to take many more photos and then just didn't, so here's to doing better at that next time. Have a stadium shot in closing.
That's all for now- until next time!
]]>I originally encountered Higurashi no Naku Koro ni via some late 00's anime recommendation image. I remember being generally aware that this thing existed, and I ultimately went into the 2006 Studio DEEN adaptation not really knowing all that much about it. As someone who is really not a big horror fan (especially back then), little did I know that I would soon be up at 3:30 AM terrified of the view outside my window onto the street because I just watched the end of the Onikakushi arc and was half expecting someone to be standing out there saying "I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry...". Looking back, there's a lot to be desired in the presentation in the DEEN adaptation, but it's hard to say that it didn't succeed in conveying at least some of the VN's stellar atmosphere. I'm not here to discuss that, however. While there are a few things I'd like to write on Higurashi at some point, for now I just wanted to focus on one little part of it that I wasn't quite aware of until having finished the original VNs, something which had been put off for far too long.
And long it was. After Umineko had thoroughly attained favored brainrot status and I had then gotten through Ciconia phase 2 never, I finally decided to give the Higurashi VN a shot. I broadly remembered the plot and all, but as I had only watched the anime 10 years ago or so at the time, I figured there were a lot of gaps to fill. I initially blitzed through the first 5 episodes and then decided to take a small break before proceeding. Well, that break unintentionally ended up being about 4 years long, but at long last as of last week I finally wrapped it up.
Below will contain spoilers for Higurashi overall, so be advised!
As mentioned, by watching the anime I was generally familiar with the plot- the different arcs and what they covered, the truth behind the mystery, those sorts of things. What really struck me upon finally reaching chapter 8, Matsuribayashi, was the 'Connecting Fragments' section- something I never heard anyone talk about. At this point, we're very familiar with what Rika has been going through, we well as Hanyuu alongside her, and so the idea of needing to gather what information we can from the various fragments they have experienced together in order to figure out how to succeed makes a lot of sense, and really is just an extension of the process she's been going through since Onikakushi. What I wasn't expecting here though, was gameplay- having to choose which fragments to view to unlock other ones and eventually get the full picture of what had been happening in Hinamizawa. Framed as having to undergo the same trials Hanyuu did, I think it's a really neat way to involve the player (even if what you're doing isn't particularly challenging) in a bit of of the suffering these characters underwent. It doesn't stop there though, as that would happen in the final, hidden fragment.
Another thing which I wasn't aware of at first is that after you complete the game once, the next time you reach 'Connecting Fragments,' if you complete all the fragments in a particular order with no mistakes you unlock another one, called 'Flags from kids' meals.' As you may expect from the context these flags were brought up in the VN prior, this has to do with Takano. Specifically, it is an alternate world in which at the behest of a traveling Rika/Bernkastel, young Miyoko Tanashi is given the opportunity to return home and join her parents on their fateful train ride, but this time without incident, allowing her to collect her final little flag and avoid tragedy. The end though, quickly transitions back to a view from the Sea of Fragments and a bit of meta commentary:
Followed by this message from Ryukishi07:
I have always heard in vague terms that in some interview or another (which, honestly I'm sure exists) that Ryukishi07 took particular interest in sharing his toy box, so to speak. This is an idea that comes across in his works just by taking a step back and looking at them (at least, for WTC in particular); he creates fascinating worlds with a few rules and a bunch of characters, demonstrates differences in how they may act, revealing further insight as you go along, and providing a structure which lends itself well towards further exploration. I had no idea it was laid out this explicitly in Higurashi, though I think Umineko readies itself for this a bit more by referring to particular collections of events on Rokkenjima as 'forgeries' and discussing them as something that exists in universe.
It's pretty much an open call for fanfic writers to just have at it, isn't it? And I think it says something about Higurashi's relationship to canon as well. The original VN and its core narrative will always exist, but there's no end to how you can play around with its contents to tell interesting stories. I mean even forgetting the idea of fanfic, Higurashi officially has a substantial list of spin-offs and extra-arcs that are not penned by Ryukishi at all, yet generally tend to fit quite well. The reception one arc or another receives may vary, but it's knowing that outside the core story, these are all but another possibility, nothing more, nothing less. Ryukishi himself seems to revel in this state of affairs, and appears very interested to see what kinds of things people come up with- certainly so during the writing process for both Higurashi and Umineko, where he had mentioned browsing forums or discussing with fans, informing some of his own decisions as far as what to reveal when as these titles progressed.
I think in the end that structuring your work in such a way that everything can simultaneously be canon and also not is a pretty interesting thing, and while things like Higurashi Gou & Sotsu do try to meaningfully shape the sandbox a little bit, the space still exists for all kinds of interpretations or works to exist. A never ending sea of fragments is a pretty great metaphor for this as well. Infinite tiny pieces that are all parts of a larger whole; a fairly open collaboration between author and audience. I think there are some similarities here in the openness of WTC to something like that of Touhou, though Touhou doesn't quite have the same supporting structure- it's just the creator being pretty hands off as far as fanworks go. It's cool to see, and cooler to see explicitly called out in the original VN.
That's all for now- until something else cries!
]]>Implementation was relatively simple- just adding a class and a few properties to dictate the text, location of the text, and which 'gallery' it's in- something I haven't explored that much but I think is a way to stop being able to navigate through every image on a page if they are in different galleries. Add some css overrides to get it looking more like what I want, and voilà.
What made things a bit more complicated was that with this I was also looking to create WebComponent(s) for a few sets of tags that were reused commonly, such as those around images in blog posts. There's not an awful lot to mention there, other than the post files look much cleaner using the custom component. The internal logic just exists to make it a little customizable including things like position and border style. From this effort components for images, multi-images, song-covers, and iframes (for the as of writing one youtube video embedded) were created. I've elected to exclude the game covers for now since I think the detail is pretty readable as is and they're all really just borrowed assets meant to make the page they're on look satisfying, which I think they do.
That isn't the only upgrade to images though, as I also wanted to introduce spoilerable images. This is mainly going to be for future posts, to allow more spoilery stuff to be posted, but I also chose to do it since a couple of the cover images for some recent games could be considered spoilery. It's a little bit of a stretch, but better safe than sorry and also is a way to test it out live in a small way. Along with this, the first site wide options and a page for them were introduced.
I decided to have two controls for this, mostly because I don't think not wanting to see spoilered images on a collection of game cover art which you can trivially be exposed to means you should see everything unspoilered as a result, so you can choose to enable/disable for posts or just for game covers at the moment. This state is tracked by a cookie, but defaults to showing the spoiler overlay. I've already begun brainstorming a few other ideas for the options page, but those aren't a major priority at present.
Anyway, the implementation of the spoiler overlay was a bit rougher compared to glightbox, as this one didn't rely on anything external other than the svg for the icon. Before settling on an options page, I had a checkbox on the sidebar and originally thought of keeping that there, but it presented issues. I wanted toggling the checkbox to unspoiler/respoiler images depending on the previous state, and this seemed to work one way but not the other. If the page loaded with it unchecked (disabling), re-enabling would not apply the overlay. What this ended up being was a combination of two things- the first being that a lot of the initial javascript wasn't properly waiting for the DOM to fully load, which also impacted the overlay by making images 'flash' briefly, which defeated the purpose. The second issue was our good ol' friend css. The component responsible for the overlay was being hidden/unhidden properly, but it was stuck behind the actual image when toggling back and forth like this. It worked fine on load when enabled, but not when dynamically being applied. So that was fixed, and I subsequently moved the options to a separate page, so the situation can't really happen anymore. At least the code is more resilient? If you edit the cookie directly however, it won't work, I'm sorry to say.
That's all for now- until next time!
]]>However it has been a while, and at this point, this is a cosplay I've wanted to do for a long time... and have attempted to start multiple times. The first time, I modeled and printed a fairly (in my opinion) good reconstruction of her naginata's blade and the decorative bit below it (painted and all), but I stalled out after that because I had originally wanted to use a bit of plastic plumbing pipe for the haft. The second time, I fully modeled the whole naginata, as well as the shoulder armor pieces, but get stuck when trying to deal with the chest armor, as this was where I had to break away from my model & 3D print & finish each piece routine, and started working with EVA foam for the first time, as well as having to pattern something for the first time. I ended up with two plastic cemented pieces for the front and the back, as well as some design embellishment on the front when I hit the brick wall that time around. Mostly, I couldn't figure out how to satisfactorily connect the pieces, how to have the belt which sits on top of the lower part attach properly, and how I was going to be able to support many of the other pieces with something that flimsy. Additionally I had never painted this material before and I was quite afraid of making a huge mess out of the pieces I had already but quite a bit of time and money into. In the end, work stalled overall with a minor resurgence to model and test out how the skirt armor plates would work. But now, armed with a fancier printer and using ASA instead of PLA for the first time, I'm going back at it with renewed vigor. Part of the problem with 3D printing is the finishing- the amount of sanding and filler primer layers required is great, and even then results are far from guaranteed, but ASA is a material which is supposedly much easier to sand than PLA, and also has the option for acetone vapor smoothing (something I don't expect to try, but does exist). The current aim is to do some test work on a piece of the armor to see how smooth I can get it feeling & looking, and then doing work to finish more as I go along, which I'm hoping will provide the thrust of motivation I need to get through it this time around.
Beyond that, I figure writing about it will also help, so in this, the first post for this project (and first item in the projects page list) I intend to go back a little and talk about the initial research and horrendous napkin math that led me to my initial models and some of the trials and tribulations experienced along the way! So without further ado...
One of the first places my mind went when addressing the task of designing a cosplay that requires a lot of bespoke components is to the question of proportion. To begin with, how on earth am I to know how big these components are? Specifically in terms of armor and weapons. But related to this is the fact that, as the title of this section may imply, different heights are involved, and that impacts everything. Tomoe's in-game profile lists her height at 162cm or ~5.3ft, a number which un/fortunately doesn't match my own, but at least with both our heights, a ratio emerges. The problem then is, there isn't really any documentation on character costume related dimensions or anything like that, and even the art like above doesn't exactly give the whole picture because 1) do horns count? (I am almost certain the answer to this is no) and 2) the image isn't even a true full body shot. With this situation before me, I could only really turn to one thing- the relevant in-battle sprite, pictured above...
With the aforementioned ratio in mind, I could use some dubiously accurate pixel based distance math to begin to understand how large these pieces should be in real life. Extremely suspect in terms of accuracy but really the best I could do without straight eyeballing it, but even that said there was a little bit of necessary eyeballing, due to distance and angling and all that. The first and least risky place to apply this to was to me pretty clearly the naginata. Since a good 80% of it's length is 'line,' it's about as non-complicated as it can be for using this method of calculating length. Even when the line gets a bit spicy by the blade and curves, it's not too difficult to get more than good enough estimates. Where things got trickier was specifically on what I call the hilt/blade guard (which is probably not the right terminology but it works for me)- the golden piece with the curves sticking out right below the blade. While getting dimensions for it wasn't the worst, getting the model to look accurate enough while being large enough to support the weight of the lengthy blade atop it was a challenge. This model was made ages ago, and I think with what I have learned in the interim, I could redesign it well enough, but I like how it has turned out, so it'll stay for now. Fortunately because the whole thing needs to be split into printer-sized parts, I could always change that piece out until glue is firmly in place.
I then went on to begin looking at the armor plates on the upper arm. This is where the pixel math got a bit more dubious, and I had to rely more on visual appearance by printing out prototypes and seeing how they looked. This was also the first time I had to really fight against Fusion- specifically with the top curved up piece. Making a half potato chip shape by itself isn't too bad, but what was a nightmare was getting the rounded border piece to look the way I wanted it to when swept around the edge. What was a super nightmare was getting the curved strips to even remotely work. It turns out that, especially with the level of knowledge and lack of general training I have with Fusion or CAD in general, this was an extremely difficult task. While I could get to a point where I could more or less get the shape to bend in the right direction, I was met with endless issues trying to get the bodies of the main part and each strip to combine- frequently seeing the dreaded boolean error. As you can see from the mesh view in the images, it ends up being incredibly funky. I had to manually delete some sections of the mesh and do some weird surface merging, but I think the end result ended up looking alright, and when attached, the pieces function.
And attaching was a question I had to grapple with. Fortunately, after looking up examples of real world samurai armor, I found that the artist for Tomoe did a fantastic job at designing relatively realistic armor. As the abundance of holes in each piece may indicate, it's intended for some sort of cords/fiber/what have you to loop through and crisscross to connect each piece in a way that is ultimately pretty darn sturdy. You can see this in the art at the top, though the glimpses we get of the back side both there and in the sprite (which you can see more in certain attack animations) doesn't really make sense with this in mind, since you can't really see the cords from the reverse side. Being able to look at historical examples really helped out, since people you could see every angle and get a better idea of how these things were held together. There were also several blogs I found of people trying to make their own using historical techniques, which was another great resource. With this figured out and a satisfying plan for the shoulder armor, the next part was the skirt armor, and boy was that one much less obvious to figure out.
The actual plates were much simpler to design, since there wasn't a piece that curved in an extra dimension in a strange way. The weird part however was what appeared to be the connecting cords for these pieces, made very little sense in the original art. You can see similar crossing x shapes as in the shoulder plates, but above it you have way too many bits of cord to make sense- not all would be able to have a destination hole to connect to. Further, as you go down, each plate gets more x's. So there are a lot of extra cords, but then some actually need to be there? How the plates overlapped was also less clear at first, but I was able to make sense of it after thinking it through and experimenting- ultimately these pieces are much more tightly bound than the shoulder pieces. As you can see by the image, I'm not quite finished with these. I only just figured out how to best handle the curved strips that go in the middle space and am currently doing a painting test with the top piece. I still have one major bottom piece to completely design (though it shouldn't be too difficult), and I have to experiment further with the crest on the central bottom piece. Very unfortunately, the bottom piece is just a bit too large for my printer to do in one go, and my previous printer couldn't even do any of them in one go. The ways I came up with to link the pieces together on the old printer were not great, so I'll need to figure out something better for these. Unlike the naginata, these are much thinner (as I need 8 columns of these in the end...) and the weight is distributed differently, so I'm not quite able to use the same dowel + connector tricks.
... and that's it for the first post. The only major piece I've yet to discuss is the chest armor I mentioned in the beginning, but I think that can wait until I look at that part a bit more closely. For now, it's a lot of waiting on the printer, sanding, and more sanding. Below will be a few pictures of pieces printed on the old printer in an unfinished state. With the post now made as well, I'm hoping to soon have the projects sub-area built out and a hub page for this project created, as well as links to this and all future posts, and some form of image gallery, so look forward to it!
That's all for now- until next time!
This journey began when I began brainstorming adding a new 'main area' for projects (which, as of writing is still a ways off, but still). When I added the area to my page listing to see how it would currently render, I ran into two main problems:
Both these problems intertwine a good deal, and mostly because for some reason I have decided to make this site (in the biggest air quotes possible) 'mobile friendly.' On my phone, the previous layout took up essentially the entirety of the width they were provided, with the text starting to bleed out the borders. I didn't want to restrict myself to 5 tabs ever, even with the ability to have dropdowns under them, as not every page I may want is as simple as a list of things.
Initially I was thinking to move the buttons to the currently unused right side of the main area, descending from top to bottom. However with this, I was concerned about reducing the width for content even further, and ultimately it came down to an aesthetic reasoning. I found that I quite like the 'bump' of the tabs above the main content area, filling out the gap between that row of the grid and the header, especially with the sidebar not having it. Additionally, I like the illusion of the main content area being a tabbed folder, which while it could also be done on the side, I think would end up being a bit more awkward because of how wide they would need to be (vertical names are a definite no here). Having this kind of navigation towards the top makes more sense to me as well.
What I ultimately settled on was what you see in the first image, and hopefully matching what you see above, assuming I haven't totally redesigned it. I decided to change how I was currently using the (poorly constructed) dropdown system that the 'lists' tab had been using, to instead have it only used on the first tab, and have the first tab represent the 'main area' you were currently on, with the others linked in the dropdown itself. 'home,' 'blog,' and 'lists' became the main areas ('projects' to follow some day), and the rest of the pages were grouped under them. For 'lists,' not much changed as it already had 'games' and 'songs,' but 'home' gained 'friends' and 'about' as subpages, as they didn't really warrant 'main area'ship and felt like they would fit among what is a generalist kind of tab. With 'blog' becoming a main area, I now saw the opportunity to add in a base page for post tags, though I'm not sure what else would fit there, which is fine. 'lists' is in a sort of awkward position because there was no root 'lists' page before, it was only a means to get to the dropdown for the actual pages, so at present it is a very barebones under construction page while I figure out what I want to do with it. Probably some kind of 'top x of y' kind of thing? We'll see.
The dropdown itself was kind of nightmarish to adapt to this, mainly because the original architecture assumed that the button which is hovered over to reveal it, would never be a link itself. This combined with less than stellar layout + a very confusing mess of css (that I aim to break out and document better at a future point) made for a challenge. I ultimately ended up looking around for some stripped down examples of this kind of thing, played around in w3schools html playground and ended up adapting the existing code to that, which made things much cleaner. The navbar's layout itself also has a hefty Liquid syntax to set up everything properly. There are likely better ways I could have arranged the data file it reads from, but I appreciate the way in which it ends up being dynamic.
I'm fairly satisfied with where this ended up, and though I expressed how I'm not keen on adding things to the right space for fear of what it will do to the mobile view, it is something I'm thinking about. With nav buttons like this, I think the issues are unavoidable, but with another block of something, it'll probably just end up stacking like the sidebar does. This is the first post discussing any of what goes into this website, and I hope it is at least a little interesting. When I ultimately have a projects page setup, the website itself will be one of the projects included there, so I do hope to continue to write more as I go on. I don't think everything will get a post, I just want to document some of it.
That's all for now- until next time!
When you're on Discord long enough to build up a collection of servers, you learn to pick your poison. Sometimes it's great joining the official server for whatever thing you're into, and other times it's a constant stream of < insert text version of discord ping sound here >. As such, most of the servers that are higher up on the list of ping-offenders tend to get that turned off rather quickly, with some exceptions. But sometimes a larger server shows restraint, and won't hastily unholster their @everyone... "unless at the uttermost end of need." It is for this reason that when the near ~16k member Touhou Project server breaks it out, I quickly go and take a look.
What is rare though, is when the announcement you then go and look at isn't one of the usual suspects- them being the announcement of the next game in the series, or the actual release day (which isn't exactly hard to divine either way). This time, it was something that I don't think many people would have seen coming- the announcement of the series' first remaster, which is of Touhou Koumakyou ~ the Embodiment of Scarlet Devil i.e. 'Touhou 6,' which has by far the most popular characters in the fandom overall, and further which is basically -the- game that caused this series to absolutely explode with popularity in ye olde niche online communities in the early-mid '00s. More than that, while this isn't the first game to have an official English translation (that title belonging to Antinomy of Common Flowers), this project was done with collaboration from some of the people behind thcrap, which is huge for the community, since thcrap is a purely community project, but also as a result means it isn't just an English translation being released, but several other languages as well. The game will also allow the ability to play a recreated (including as many bugs as they can!) version of the original game, with no new assets or gameplay modifications, marking the first time that will be available to a wide audience. As for new assets- much of the old art has been redrawn in much higher fidelity by Curee of AQUASTYLE, a circle which has been around for quite a while, new animated boss sprites have been created by Unabara Iruka of Tasogare Frontier (one among the inspirations for this site's name), and ZUN himself is rearranging the entire soundtrack.
The coolest part about this is as some of the more Touhou astute people might note, the fact that this is not purely a ZUN project. In fact, ZUN and the other collaborators formed an entirely new circle called Shanghai Alice Reprise, whose stated purpose seems to be being '...dedicated to making Touhou Project games playable on modern platforms.' And that right there is the really exciting part because EoSD isn't the only early Windows era Touhou game that has yet to make it to Steam. I am incredibly excited for eventual Perfect Cherry Blossom and Imperishable Night remasters, especially if they go as all out as this one. All three of these games not only have problems running on modern Windows, but some of the source code has been lost as well, which means a Steam upload is impossible. I think many would just call it there and not embark on a project of this scale, but here we are. The fact that these games even got on Steam in the first place was practically a miracle in the beginning, but I'm glad to see it's worthwhile enough for things like this to happen. Some speculate that this new circle may finally be the occasion for anything at all about the PC-98 games to enter into the modern era, but that's one we'll have to wait and see on. I'm not sure I'd hold my breath.
The announcement itself was also interesting in that this seems to have been revealed in a Nintendo Direct of all places. I'd say there were a few things that probably grabbed most people's attention there besides this, but it's a cool thing to have happen. Of course this also means that the game will be getting a Switch/Switch 2 release, marking the first time one of the mainline games is making it to a console (it's also going to PS5). It'll be interesting seeing what this means for the fandom as a whole, as this level of fanfare & exposure could draw in many new fans, so long as the inherent barrier of entry this genre has isn't too oppressive- something they seem to be taking into account by introducing what seems to be an infinite lives mode?, which is neat. It is certainly my hope that some new blood could serve as a catalyst for parts of the community to improve, but we shall see.
All in all this was an incredible thing to see happen. It took a little bit for it to really set in, but it's been a long time since I've been this outright excited for the next Touhou entry. I always look forward to new releases and am eager to see what new things they add both to the world and in terms of music, but just seeing such an important old game get a fresh coat of paint like this is something else. It takes me back to my early days trying to figure out what all this was and how to get past stage 4. Memories. Also, the fact that much of the work is being handled by others on the team also makes me hopeful that the impact to new titles won't be too significant, so if these New Classic versions can keep on going on the side, we'll be in for quite a treat.
The official website can be found (again, in English!!!) here, and the game itself will release on September 10th (which may be 9/9 in my timezone and also Cirno Day, which is amazing) of this year. Time to toss it on the backlog!
That's all for now- until next time da ze!
During the intro cutscene, the general gist is laid out. You play as Simon P. Jones, the nephew of late eccentric Baron Herbert S. Sinclair, who prior to his death suddenly revoked all previous wills and bequeathed the entirety of his estate (known as Mt. Holly) and all within to Simon on the condition that he locates the 46th room of this 45 room manor- this being the initial main goal of the game. 46/45 is sure a way to pique some interest, that's for sure. The gameplay itself is (broadly) speaking a sort of roguelite, where each day you begin in the Entrance Hall, which has north, east, and west exits blocked by simple closed doors. When you open a door, you are given a selection of three (mostly) random rooms, each of which has 1-4 doors, and can be in a particular rotation. The overall house layout is 5 columns of 9 rows, with only the bottom center (Entrance Hall) and the top center (Antechamber) initially filled out- to get to Room 46, you have to 'draft' rooms from room exits to snake your way up to the top and figure out how to get past the antechamber along the way. Generally, you aren't going to get this on your first run, as you've yet to unlock several permanent additions/upgrades that make this task much simpler, though horrifyingly enough there is an achievement for actually doing this in a single day. One I don't plan on taking on anytime soon.
The main limiting factor within a day's run is your step counter, which decreases whenever you cross the threshold between rooms, or certain areas in general, such as if you go back out of the Entrance Hall into the The Grounds or further. When you hit 0, Simon essentially tires out for the day, and you return to your tent outside to rest for the next day- you aren't allowed to stay in the estate overnight, giving time for the rooms to reset and for you to try again. Steps can be increased via a permanent upgrade or more commonly, by food items you can find around the house, either laying around in certain rooms or bought from a shop. Certain rooms may also restore some steps, or take steps away from you, meaning you have to be careful what paths you follow in case you end up at a dead end or locked door you don't have a key for, in case you need to backtrack- and you will, inevitably, have to backtrack. Your resources will also limit you, needing gems to pay to unlock certain rooms, coins to buy useful items, and keys to open locked doors. Some doors may also be blocked by needing a special keycard, unless you can find an alternate way to get through them. And if you find yourself drafting your last room and no matter what you pick it marks the end of your run, you'd better hope you have some ivory dice to reroll the offered selection.
Breaching the antechamber doesn't ultimately take too long, though RNG can greatly influence this, and upon reaching it for the first time, you are presented with a cutscene that, depending on how much you have seen up until then, will have more or less weight. This is because as you journey through the estate, you will come across photographs, scrawled notes, books, a fortune teller?, and many other things of interest that serve two main purposes. The first is to provide context to the world you're in. You may find an old newspaper clipping with reference to an older denizen of the estate who has long since passed, or you may find a cute illustrated picture book or a redacted history of the country this all takes place in. It is in my opinion, these sorts of finds which serve to give that Room 46 cutscene as much weight as it is. But the second purpose of these things, is to plant seeds of mystery, or provide clues towards some thing or other. You may find a note referencing the location of a lever in a room you've been in before (and certainly having seen no lever), or you may find a combination lock to a safe with no written down code in sight, or you may find a blackboard with a strange grid on it that happens to match the 9x5 layout of the estate. And it is these sorts of clues and puzzles ultimately intertwined with the history, geography, and people you learn about, that truly form the bulk of what this game is, as when you visit Room 46 for the second time (noting that the cutscene for the first time ends your day automatically) and can actually explore the room itself, you find a note detailing in riddles 8 locations where you can find particular keys, which, if you've made it that far, you should have a pretty good idea as to where they go.
Ultimately I think that Blue Prince is a game about satisfying the player's curiosity, and providing just enough information and hints to drive the player to take a deep look at the information they have, to find the next mystery to solve. However, the game does make it quite clear that purely getting the bottom of things for 'getting to the bottom of things's sake isn't quite what it is going for. One of my biggest regrets about playing Blue Prince is all the external help I got along the way- whether that was sitting in discord calls streaming the game and being led in one direction or other, or getting insight from people who hadn't even played the game on a particular puzzle to get through a mental block, or in the end, needing to resort to the internet in a couple of spots. Looking back, nothing in the game is what I would describe as truly unfair. Rather, the amount of information you have is vast, and the relevance of said information can range from dubious to critical, but how things end up is a function of the notes or pictures you thought to take, and whether you can connect the dots in the right way. With certain word based puzzles, you very well may need to consult a dictionary, but what is hard to determine is when you hit that point. Over the course of the game, particularly in the latter third or so, I gained a better intuition towards what sorts of things it was asking me to look for, or, by virtue of the possibilities narrowing as time goes on, having a better idea of what clue really sticks out in comparison to the others, but ultimately for me in the end, it wasn't enough. It's a complicated feeling, because for certain puzzles, knowing who I am and how I think, it's easy to say there's no way I would have ever gotten that, and obtain a solution and proceed, but there were also times I thought as such and gave it a day, or looked at a note later, and suddenly it came to me. All of this to say that, while I firmly reached 'the end' of Blue Prince, and it was an enjoyable ride, I did it in a way which I perceive to be incongruent with what it is truly saying or going for- in which there is some irony, but that's possibly for another time.
As such, when I did finally arrive at the ending, I have to confess that I was a bit disappointed. I had built up some kind of idea of where things would eventually end up, but found that what I got was very different. After having waited a bit to sit down and write this, in hindsight I actually think this is kind of perfect, and it has illuminated for me what I really think the game wants to express, which is a love for the process of thinking and puzzling and solving as far as, well, what you deem appropriate, or as far as it serves you.
What follows is a tad on the spoilery side, but in order to avoid really spoiling anything, I will keep it in the vaguest possible terms. At a certain point very late into the game, what I would describe as the penultimate 'ending' before the final-final-actually"final" major puzzle (which, I suppose, could be different depending on the order in which you come across things), you are given an arrangement of boxes not too dissimilar to the boxes you find in the Parlor. Opening each box carries a different result (and you can open them all over several in game days), but one in particular did end up serving as a nice bookend to one aspect of the game's underlying narrative- an aspect which I had been building up as what the 'end' would have to do with, and, if I had chosen to stop after having seen that, I probably would not have come away with that initial disappointment once I went further on. It's only really by reflecting on the game as a whole that I've been able to come to that realization, though.
To wrap up, Blue Prince experienced some level of community controversy during The Game Awards, where many fans perceived it as having been snubbed for not being a contender for Game of the Year, or for not winning Best Indie Game (which was a very stacked category, even discounting Expedition 33's controversial 'indie' status), but I don't think I feel the same. For one, I think Expedition 33 is practically a head to toes incredible package, and one which has much more compelling character writing across a wider cast than I would say Blue Prince does, but more than that, for better or worse, Blue Prince is a very unique game, as I hope I've made evident so far. I absolutely think that something being particularly unique is not reason in and of itself to deny it some award or other, but it means that the game has made decisions in terms of presentation or gameplay that while justified, can hamper the experience to some degree. Among these are things like frequent recurring lengthy animations, or how the RNG of room drafting can mean you waste several days if you're trying to go for something specific, but ultimately all these things combine to give it its identity, so should they be excised for a better chance at winning in the Game Awards? Probably not, and, speaking as a very big fan of Umineko, I'm very much for weird unique stories being the way they are. The thing that Blue Prince perhaps suffers the most from on an awards show like The Game Awards is the fact that it is a thoroughly English language game. The amount of wordplay is so thick and intricate that it's extremely difficult for me to imagine a localization realistically being possible. Almost to the extent that I would say, to try and do so means to create the Blue Prince equivalent for that particular language, you'd have to change so much. While this is a fairly large accessibility barrier, the fact that it does rely so deeply on language is exactly what gives it so much of its identity. I think that making these puzzles universal across all languages would inherently diminish the complexity and cleverness the game is able to achieve, so while it's sad that others across the world can't necessarily experience the game, it's a tradeoff which I can agree with (biased native English speaker as I am). I can only hope that games on this level can be made in other languages, in ways that get deep into it with the ways in which other languages can play with words, and I would look forward to being familiar enough with whatever languages these are to be able to enjoy them myself.
That's all for now- until next time!