Here is where you can post the media you received and your thoughts on it. You may be as critical or nonchalant as you like and the gifter may choose to reveal themselves here and comment on your review. There is no time limit and you do not have to leave a review, but do please post here if you finish your media so I can at least inform the gifter.

I received kanata no astra
I had intended on just watching the whole thing if I got any 1 cour anime but tbh this was something I enjoyed enough that I binged the entire thing in one sitting. I was probably the perfect recipient for this specific thing and I'm not sure how I managed to pass it up when it aired.

bitches i got KYOUSOUGIGA

originally i was going to do a long review where i describe things in immaculate detail but i don't feel like restating the plot. i took a bunch of pictures for that, and i have turned them into a collage

Spoiler: Show

kyousougiga is difficult to talk about without referencing other shows or stories, and i think that's on purpose. first you get it from the look and animation. the crazy faces, loose animation and big cross-shaped lens flares reminded me of kill la kill, and that was already paying tribute a bunch of other shows. you get a similar feeling here, where it seems like they wanted to experiment with as many different animation techniques as they could.
the story is similar. they throw in everything from yokai to mecha to the mafia and it's all just kind of tossed at you without warning. alice in wonderland was probably a big inspiration since they talk about it all the fucking time. not the cards or the shrinking potion or the dude high on mercury, but the absence of logic. they're not going to carefully explain shit for the people watching at 2x speed. you gotta think about it and even then you might not understand what's going on.
i've talked about this show quite a bit without saying anything at all, so if you made it this far then you'd probably love watching it. i can definitely recommend it to anyone who likes animation or anyone who wants a version of kill la kill that isn't insufferable. overall i give it a 0/10 for making me delay watching the kamen rider 01 movie

I watched the 2000 Dune miniseries, it reminded me a lot of Star Wars meets Game of Thrones

zelma sent me chainsaw man

Spoiler: Show

it is the most zelma thing i have ever seen

it was hilariously fast paced for the chapters he recommended, i just now went through the first 13 or so, might continue because it is entertaining. found it odd how the first chapter packed so much setup in it that could have definitely been drawn out a lot more but i guess the author REALLY wanted that specific premise with all of the layers to it but also didn't want to stick to any one part of it for long. they burn through exposition REALLY fast in general which is a good and bad thing. the main character is pretty likeable.

i don't think i would have ever read this normally but it isn't bad

even while banned, zelma is still able to post titties vicariously

This post was last modified: Sep 10, 2021 at 12:24 AM by Hearts.

I played Iji

Spoiler: Show

Iji is a freeware platform shooter made primarily by one dude in Game Maker. I've never even heard of it before so I wasn't sure what to expect, but I played through the whole game in a couple of sittings. It took a few hours on normal difficulty.

The non-spoilery gist of the game is that you play as the titular character Iji, a girl who's been enhanced with nanomachines to fight aliens, as she escapes from some kind of scientific/medical facility and fends off an alien invasion. It's a pretty simple premise, though there's a little more going on with the plot that's revealed as you progress, both through the story itself and through logbooks found around the map.

Spoiler: Show

The controls are simple, consisting mostly of walk, crouch, and shoot. There's an EXP system that lets you spec into different stats upon leveling up, ranging from straightforward stuff like HP and attack to more specialized stats like hacking skill and ability to use alien weaponry. EXP earned in each stage is capped to prevent infinite grinding, and neglecting certain stats will prevent you from getting past certain doors or using some weapons, so you probably can't do everything in one playthrough. There's a decent variety of weapons to unlock too, so overall I felt like I had some freedom to experiment with my playstyle.

Spoiler: Show

The game's stages are non-linear and hold some collectibles and secrets to discover along the way, which is right up my alley. Stages are separated, though; once you clear and exit a stage, you can't go back to it later. And again, it seems impossible to do everything in one playthrough. While this is good for the replay value, it's slightly vexing for a completionist.

The most interesting part of the gameplay, though, is how your choices affect it. You have a kill counter that tracks how many total aliens you've killed, and your level of bloodthirst seems to have an effect on several parts of the game. Now brace yourselves, because I'm going to make the comparison.

*sigh*

Like Undertale, the number of enemies that you kill seems to affect not only the ending, but also the story and dialogue along the way, and even the text in some of the logbooks. I had a pretty ruthless playthrough, and the aliens grew progressively more fearful of me as I carved a bloody path through the facility. With some exceptions, the direction you take isn't dictated by binary moral choices, but instead happens fairly organically, which is a plus.

The unfortunate part is that I never felt like I actually cared. Simplicity of the story and characters aside, I was never given enough of a reason to give half a shit about the aliens. Killing them was not only easier, but felt entirely justified.

As for visuals and audio, it's...alright? The game certainly doesn't look pretty, but it's good enough for a one man project and gets the job done. At the very least, the simplicity of the sprites and backgrounds makes it very easy to tell what's going on at all times. The music on the other hand fuckin' shreds. Bad art but good music worked for ZUN, anyway. There's a little bit of voice acting too, and your character's voice lines in combat also seem to change with the story, which is a nice touch.

Spoiler: Show

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqwm2TLl-a4

Overall, I enjoyed Iji. The way it integrates the kill counter system is neat, and it seems to have a lot of replay value. I think it's held back by its story coming across as merely a vehicle for the gameplay rather than a true complement to it, and the visuals being a bit amateurish. I kind of got the impression that it was a precursor to great games moreso than a great game itself, but it was still a worthwhile experience, and I'll probably consider a second playthrough at some point. My thoughts on the story may change if I experience it in another way.

...

Spoiler: Show

Oh boy one of those "killing is bad" things. At least it sounds like it does a little better with the concept in some ways than Undertale with the enemies progressively fearing you and whatnot but yeah, the justifications for pacifism in those stories never really works out.

i suggested iji
it's way older than undertale (2008). i think the kill count thing is supposed to be like metal gear solid where it's an extra challenge to sneak through without killing people. i think i have done a no kill run
there's definitely stuff that you basically have to save for a later playthrough. one i remember is you basically have to max out armor and health and then there's an area you reach by rocket jumping
the story is a little thin and generic so i get wanting to kill everything and blow through it. i had fun just fucking around with different weapons and paths though. glad you liked it well enough! it's not a masterpiece but i think it's a fun lesser known game

Hearts's review made me assume it was a morality type thing rather than solely an extra challenge, if it's not as heavyhanded as I'm automatically assuming it to be just from how stuff normally handles that concept it might be okay on that front.

Hearts's review made me assume it was a morality type thing rather than solely an extra challenge, if it's not as heavyhanded as I'm automatically assuming it to be just from how stuff normally handles that concept it might be okay on that front.

in general there's different side areas and optional dialogue based on what you do, i think the no kill thing is just an extension of that. i haven't played it in a while though

This post was last modified: Sep 10, 2021 at 1:15 AM by Hearts.

I don't think the game necessarily intended to be preachy, as the story was more of an accessory to the gameplay and anyone doing a pacifist run is probably doing so for the challenge as Aidan said. I think it was the ending I got in particular that left a bad taste in my mouth

Ending spoilers: Show

I got what I'm pretty sure is the bad end by choosing not to spare the final boss, which resulted in another character claiming he was only pretending to be a genocidal asshole and was testing me. Said character then proceeded to orbital strike the surface of the entire planet to ashes because he "knew humans are like this"

Another thing I forgot to mention in my review is that the logbooks were probably my favorite part of the game, both for the lore they provided and because some were just fucking funny

ok what the fuck that sounds INCREDIBLY dumb

lol that's stupid as fuck i didn't know that

I'm posting next since everyone else is busy with real life and/or is a coward.

I awoke one morning and found myself finally blessed with my recommendation. What will I get? A cool album, a hentai game, maybe some kind soul will gift me an early access demo of the new Senran x Neptunia. I opened the DM from Snaggle and to my horror I saw it.....


bruh


i have been successfully avoiding anything to do with these nipponese bitches since like 2008. my closest exposure is listening to lulu karoake sing the songs and shit and maybe getting linked some tracks by 2F but not once have i ever or did i ever plan on touching the games. until now. so let's load this bitch up.


my first impression was once again what the fuck this looks like it was drawn in ms paint. which i'm fine with but literally every piece of art i've seen of these hoes has been beautifully crafted like van goh himself drew it and this is the source??? wtf


Anyway you get to choose between your preferred loli; I chose Reimu because even in a series i know nothing about i'm able to identify the best girl. one again the art is laughably not what i expected but it's charming in it's own sort of way. but i'm drunk so i'm really just laughing with a broski and shit but then



it happens.







on god if you could've seen my face the moment this start playing and how quick i switched up you would've think i've been a 2hu bullet hell player my whole life. why does this song go so hard? i'm shooting the fuck out of these little angel bitches. speaking of which i'm sure there's a story and a good reason to why i'm killing these angel bitches but i did not install the translation patch for this game so i'm winging it and just saying i'm sending them back to where they belong which is hell. i'm fucking these things up and then i get to the final point of the stage.



now like i said; did not install the japanese patch but i'm pretty sure these two do no get along from my understanding and just based off the simple fact that she's seemingly stopping me from murdering more mini angels. so i guess it's time to fucking fight. no problem. i'll take her out just like i did the rest of the holy shit what the ufck is this



this is a relatively tame screenshot but the shit gets way crazier. i just remembered last minute i need to cap something for this fight. i eventually did succeed in beating her after dying twice and i made my way to the next stage.

I gotta say overall I was pleasantly surprised. I've never played or really enjoyed bullet hells but I had a good time with this. I don't think I'll become a frequent /jp/ poster or anything but I def can see myself playing this on days where I have some downtime. Overall 2hu bitches gets 8 thicc goth waifus out of 10.

wtf why do the lolis get club music with a bonus violin player on coke

because zun loves to make music, and the games are just an excuse to shove his music at more people

i should have participated in this lmao hope there's another instance of WEM

i should have participated in this lmao hope there's another instance of WEM

i would love for this to be a regular thing tbh

i should have participated in this lmao hope there's another instance of WEM

i would love for this to be a regular thing tbh

next time it should be one thing you like and one thing you hate, and the person has to guess which is which