You've Got Some Balls, Beefucker.

[rionaleonhart]

More of The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy! Just finished day forty-seven of a route that involves a surprising quantity of bees.

I think, when we're getting ready for battle, we should allow Yugamu to stab everyone with their Infusers. I think he would really enjoy that. A nice little treat for him.



To nobody's surprise, Yugamu likes Darumi's suggestion that we could all pull our own fingernails out. It's a shame these two never meet in most of the routes I've played; they seem so deeply compatible.

I can't believe 'Go away! No boys allowed in the yuri zone!' is an actual canonical line. This game is a masterpiece.

When Takumi teams up with Yugamu:

Yugamu: Wanna try for the Best Couple award while we're at it?
Riona: We don't need to try.

I'm so glad that, in this route where we're tragically deprived of Eito, someone is still willing to step up and be our weird boyfriend.

(Darumi and Hiruko are slaughtering invaders together.)
Tem: Nice to see the girlfriends are having a good time.
Riona: There's a lot of homoeroticism in this route.
Yugamu: It kills me to say this, but I'm afraid we must cede the Best Couple award to them.

I love that Yugamu is just as gay for Takumi outside the 'everyone wants Takumi' route. He's flirting non-stop, and I find him enchanting. Delighted by the way he's constantly endeavouring to get into Takumi's bed.

Go on, Takumi; let yourself be seduced by the guy who's obsessed with the concept of killing someone he loves! I'm sure there's no possible way you'll regret this.

Hmm! 'Takumi killed Gaku while blacked out' was obviously always a possibility, but, now that we know there's a chance Eito's personality is influencing Takumi's, it suddenly seems substantially more likely. Intriguing potential here for Takumi to learn he murdered his friend and have a hideous mental breakdown.

Takumi: Since this killing game started, you've basically been my closest friend. But now you tell me you only wanted to bring out Eito's characteristics from inside of me... Did I never matter to you at all?

A lot of Takumi and Yugamu's interactions consist of Yugamu being creepy and Takumi going 'oh, my God, why are you like this?', so it's nice to have these moments of sincerity. Takumi genuinely values Yugamu's friendship! Even if Yugamu's friendship can be, uh, pretty unsettling.

Takumi and Tsubasa holding hands as they murder invaders together is very cute.



Out-of-context The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy:

Yugamu: Don't worry about that. I'm really good at ramming stuff in holes that look like they'd be too small to fit.

This game is so weird and horny. I'm having a blast.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

It's funny when reading your notes about this having just seen a little bit (I'm not concerned about spoilers as don't think I'll play and if I do, I'm not too concerned about spoilers for this one: there is no fun murder solving opportunity or escape run fun, or at least not enough of it for me) as it just seems so bizarre. Probably like reading posts about AI: The Somnium Files without having played it, which is fitting, given creators!

I've also been playing a time travel game in a totally different genre that's about as different as can be from this - Old Skies, a point and click adventure. But you'll be pleased to know that despite the many, many differences, we can all appreciate the best time travel trope: where there's a world and/or situation that is absolutely prime for protagonists to have a mental breakdown. It has an... interesting take on time travel and a world that's mired in it.

Trailer if you're interested (always keen to share the hidden gems): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCiEk-LezlY

One of the character voices was driving me crazy trying to work out where I knew it from and it turned out to be Detective Grimoire, lol.

-timydamonkey

[rionaleonhart]

I've had a few people say they're enjoying my posts about this game! It's definitely weird to play, and I imagine it's even weirder to catch glimpses of it from afar.

Thank you for the Old Skies trailer link! It's rare for me to get into a point-and-click game, I've found, but I do enjoy time travel and mental breakdowns; I'll be interested to hear how you get along with the game!

[(Anonymous)]

I finished it the other day and have thoughts on the worldbuilding and themes!

The basic premise is that in the future, time travel is possible! As you might imagine, unfettered access to time travel is somewhat dangerous, and after some bad times, it's decided that time travel has to be more strictly regulated. Which basically means you put in a request which goes via a board who decides if your request is approved or not (people and events are given timeline importance ratings and if they're high, you're not touching it) - and if it's approved, you pay a fuckton of money and gallivant off with a time travel agent who accompanies you to your goal. Since there's a ton of time travel, the world is constantly shifting and Chronozen agents basically exist outside of that, remembering what has happened without timeline shifting affecting their memories. People and items are shifted in and out of existence (if x doesn't meet and marry y, then all their descendants no longer exist). Shops and news constantly chronoshift. Some of them are plot relevant and some aren't: like there's a constantly chronoshifting news item about a war which is mostly irrelevant, but it goes through one country winning, the other country winning, a ceasefire... There's no protection for changes made and things can just be overwritten by someone else's later time travel. Collateral damage can happen: hey, look, we did your request, sorry that guy died 30 years before he was supposed to. It's really a fascinating look at how a world with massive time travel could actually really suck.

As for the agents, it's a kind of shitty existence in both minor and major ways. You have an awesome family? They could be shifted out of existence. Or you could be shifted into a history where you have a family and yet you don't know about them or who they are. There's these little threads on the computer where the Chronozen agents can chat that really just exist for worldbuilding reasons, but you've got problems like "I just brought this great tech then the company got shifted out of existence so it doesn't exist any more" or "I'm trying to read this biography but it keeps chronoshifting as his history changes" and nearly always ends with "just don't anything that's not chronolocked or you'll be really disappointed". They're basically married to their job as there's no real existence outside of it. You exist outside of the world with no real permanence as nothing around you is permanent. Then there's the client in the first chapter (which is not particularly long), who just wants to save someone, but his request was declined as he's too important to request as if they lived his life may have changed, and not have done the amazing advancements in Science he provided. (Why does someone else get to decide that those advancements are more important than a life, he says.)

I just really dug the worldbuilding and concept. The protagonist comes to care for someone over the course of the game, and in a world where nothing can truly be permanent as it can instantly be wiped out of existence, it changes her and her outlook on things. I just really enjoyed it and I wasn't sure I was going to - although I am a big Wadjet Eye fan, so perhaps I shouldn't be surprised.

Also, you can see the breakdown potential. :P

-timydamonkey

[rionaleonhart]

Oh, wow, that is a really interesting concept! There's something fascinatingly horrifying about the idea of a world where history is constantly changing, and you're one of only a few people who can remember how things were before. I'm a little reminded of how Zero Escape Shifters have to live with the knowledge that, at any point, another version of themselves could swap with them and hurl them into a different universe.

[rionaleonhart]

Just spotted a post about Old Skies on my Dreamwidth reading page, if you're curious!

[(Anonymous)]

Excellent, thank you!

[trepkos]

Bwahahaahha!

[rionaleonhart]

I have no idea why this game exists, but I'm so pleased it does.