As you can see, we're in the midst of a redesign. I believe we'll be staying put for the immediate future, so I'll be tweaking some things around here in a continued effort to bring you guys a better gaming site. The absolute basic things you need to know is that the Media page is now bigger, since it now houses the 'Fiction' section of the site. This is due to me accidentally deleting the Fiction page and being too lazy to recreate it. I apologize for nothing.
Also the carousel doesn't work with this particular theme, so now everything is kind of married into one blog. The sidebar will keep track of the latest updates and what not and will serve the same basic function, but with me just not updating the thing as constantly as necessary, especially now in the final weeks of the year, I figured it would be a great time to experiment with the format. If things get too messy, we can always switch back and something tells me the current theme will be updated soon enough to include a carousel menu system so I'm happy to sit back and wait on that one for now.
Otome Week is FINALLY upon us! After several delays, we are pretty much ready to get started in what will be a journey NO ONE will get until the final chapter is written and closed. We roll out with a very special First Impression of SakeVisual's Backstage Pass and will end with the debut of something that I have had a lot of fun writing and taping: The AMG Reviews. Hopefully you will laugh along with me and learn a little something about the genre that you may not have known, thanks to the thought coming from the mind of a relatively average gamer. We'll see this coming week.
And it will most likely barely dent the mad rush to finish as many reviews as I possibly can before Christmas. I still have one hell of a backlog to go but progress is being made. Just keep an eye on Twitter as a whittle down the list!
And finally, December means it's nominating time for the 2013 Best Ofs! Can you believe it's been nearly a year since we last came together on Twitter to celebrate the insanity that is EVNs? This year we are just finishing up mapping out the last few categories, but the rules remain the same! The clock starts NOW for everyone to catch up on this year's releases (including me) and we all have until December 31st (New Year's Eve) to make nominations. In that same vein, developers have until that time to release a project for it to be considered for nomination. The full list of rules and regs can be digested over on the Best Ofs section of the site along with previous winners and categories.
This way, everything in the year will be covered without any potential negative fallout. But, along with putting up the Christmas Tree, there is a tradition on the site for December that will not be ignored. For those of you new to this little corner of the internet, I make the first nomination for the top prize, English Visual Novel of the Year, at the beginning of December. Last year it was Katawa Shoujo and before that it was Kansei. So my first nomination is pretty vital to the entire process...like the first ant to find food in the frozen tundra.
So, who's the first nominee? Well, if you've followed this site this year, it won't be too much of a surprise. The reveal is under the cut!
Dysfunctional Systems Ep. 1 - Dischan
Winter's journey into a world rife with subjection, rebellion and ultimately death, puts her in a position we rarely see game protagonists: vulnerable. Not the familiar, 'I will only grow stronger from this momentary weakness!' vulnerable; a very human vulnerable. The type of vulnerable you can only feel when you realize the things you thought you understood are all wrong. With billions of lives now weighing on her conscious, Winter has to live on in confines of what we've been told is a utopian society...but also one bent on 'managing' other realities as they see fit.
The running character arc for Winter is the backdrop for a well-written, and often times exciting, political thriller tied to something we've all experienced in the West: minimum wage. On paper, it's like the people how try to sum up something like Spice and Wolf saying it's about economics or Ghost in the Shell saying it's about hackers. The truth is that there is much more going for it than just that and so much time and attention is given to making it all as close to real life as possible give the twists the story takes towards its chilling climax so much more power than yet another yarn in yet another high school.
Ironically, that is where the series is heading next, but that's neither here nor there. I first played Dysfunctional Systems in April and I can report that I have played it at least once every month since then. The next chapter has yet to be discussed and there are hundreds of questions that have to be answered. For its excellent story, incredible artwork and keeping me hooked for its coming sequel, I can think of no better way to start this off than with one of the biggest highlights of 2013. With that, I officially nominate Dischan Media's Dysfunctional Systems Episode 1: Learning to Manage Chaos (seriously though with that title guys?) for the 2013 English Visual Novel of the Year!
If you haven't yet, read my review of Dysfunctional Systems for more information and keep an eye on this very site for more nominations, features and reviews!