May: Golden Month

noYOUm!

Some games from my library that I should keep in mind for this theme:

KAMI - “Created by State of Play, famous for their handcrafted aesthetic, KAMI has been created with real paper in an elegant Japanese theme.” - HLTB: 1-3 hours
Karateka - “Karateka will charm you with its classic love story set in feudal Japan” - HLTB: 1 hour
Pixel Puzzles 2: Anime - Anime tag - HLTB: 16ish hours
Tales of the Orient: The Rising Sun - “Travel to the Edo period in Japan and help Satsu and Miyamoto in an epic adventure to preserve ancient Japan.” - HLTB: 12 hours
Tengami - “an atmospheric adventure game set inside a Japanese pop-up book. “ - HLTB: 1-2 hours
War of the Human Tanks - Anime tag - HLTB: 4 hours

Name	Achievements obtained	Playtime	Status
War of the Human Tanks	2/61	1h11min	dropped
Karateka	6/12	1h04min	finished
TOTAL:	8	2h15min	1 game finished

kubikill

Perfect! Just as Yakuza Kiwami 2 is coming out this month :)

Name	Achievements obtained	Playtime	Status
Yakuza Kiwami 2	59 out of 59	91.6h	completed

I’ll pretend that was intended! :)

Quisty

Ohhh, yeah! This is gonna piss some people off though. Can’t wait to start killing some anime backlog once I’m back from vacation.

Yep, I expect people to either love or hate this month’s theme. :) It’s only fair to finally focus on these games as well, though!
And there should be enough to choose from for people who don’t like anime games. Even Hitman has a level set in Japan, for example.
Have fun on your holiday!

Quisty

Thank you :) It always amuses me how offended some people are by anime.
PS: I believe Spike Chunsoft is a Japanese dev as well.

Well, the anime style is very distinct, I suppose it’s reasonable that some people will prefer the european/western graphic which is more “natural” to them. I’m not an anime fan, myself, though I wouldn’t say it downright offends me.

Fnord

I don’t mind Japanese games at all (heck, right now I’m playing the first Suikoden), butt here are some tropes that are common in anime (and anime-styled games) that I just can’t stand. That, and parts of the fanbase, makes a part of me cringe every time I hear things being described as “anime”.
The biggest offender when it comes to “anime themed stuff” is really how female characters tends to be written. Male characters are not immune to this, but female characters in particular in anime-themed games & media tends to fall into very simple and easily marketable stereotypes (this was something I’ve complained about for years, and finally about 2 years ago found out is by design from someone who works with localizing Japanese media, basically they have these easily marketed archetypes that they know will sell. Some people like child-like characters with squeaky voices, so one of those gets put in, some like more mature women who can act as a mother figure, so one of those gets put in and so on (even if the characters are supposed to be more or less the same age) and so on, with very simple visual shorthands for these characters. He (the localizer) referred to them as “moe types”.)
But that said, not all anime-themed media falls into this trap, and not everything that falls into this trap is bad (I did like Tales of Zestiria…)

And that’s an overly long explanation nobody asked for of something very trivial :P

Haha, maybe nobody asked for it, but I like to hear (read) what other BLAEO members think about something :)
You definitelly got a point there, I can imagine that the “anime writing” of characters is something that’s certainly not for everyone. It doesn’t help that for the longest time, “anime games” were pretty much just porn (and Steam’s not helping the case, with the piles of bad hentai games and all).

It’s funny you should say that. I am generally not a fan of anime, but I have collected a few titles over the years that I thought I might enjoy. I just played one of them, Bermuda, and it was exactly as you describe: There was one character who has adult responsibilities but has a squeaky voice and looks and acts six years old because sci-fi, another character was literally named “Mother,” and another was very protective of the “childlike” character and had this odd (almost creepy) relationship with her.

I think for some it’s the “anime boobs” phenomenon and related portrayal of women, and for others it’s the highly sexualized appearance of childlike women/girls. I find the former annoying in how it permeates the Steam store, and find the latter distasteful and borderline offensive. But obviously there’s a lot more to anime than just that! I’ve tried to keep an open mind about anime and have played a few that were tagged anime, and have others in my backlog. I’ve added these to my attack plan for this month in the spirit of the monthly theme. I think in general I find I don’t like the anime art style, Japanese game music, “anime fantasy”, or fighting games, but that’s just personal preference. I have nothing against people who like those things.

for some it’s the “anime boobs” phenomenon and related portrayal of women, and for others it’s the highly sexualized appearance of childlike women/girls

I think these are valid points. Plus, like I wrote in my reply to Fnord, it certainly doesn’t help that for the longest time, “anime games” were mostly just porn. Nothing wrong with sex, but it’s not really hard to understand why some people might not be very fond of that style.

Dandey

Ain’t Square Enix Japanese as well and having quite a big portfolio of games?

Yes they are, but Steam only has a list of games published by Square Enix and I could not find a list of games developed by them. Let me know if you can find one so I can include it!

Dandey

this one? in theory, as it also appears the one where they are publishers…steam is kinda….ummm…retarded sometimes

That’s the problematic one because everything published by Square Enix is showing up there. :I These publisher pages are really annoying sometimes - like not being able to see all games developed by Arkane because clicking on their name just leads to the publisher page for Bethesda…

Did a small research since I’ve been very curious about it too. Hope you can understand this with my non-native speaker explanation and limited PHP knowledge though lol.

I found out there is still a way to do this but with some caveat. I can see that everything you type on the search box on Steam gets sent as a GET form (ie. search terms can be seen on the URL). Your search terms get sent as the value(s) for the search term ‘?term=’. Then if you google “Steam search by developers”, you’ll realize there is two other hidden search terms:’?developer=’ and ‘?publisher=’. I’d say these two were the legacy auto-search terms that’ll show up when you click on dev or publisher names on the game’s store page. These are still functional though, and you can use these to search for games developed by or published by certain companies.

So with all that said, all you need to do is edit the search URL on Steam. Without the < > brackets you’ll go:

https://store.steampowered.com/search/?<developer/publisher>=<ENTER DEV NAME HERE>

By doing so this link will search for games developed by Square Enix only. In theory you should’ve been able to do the same thing by putting ‘Developer: Square Enix’ on the search box, but the Steam search doesn’t work that way. No matter what you input only ‘?term’ is used. But I guess you can still take advantage of it. First input the dev/publisher name on the search box, then manually edit ?term on the URL into ?developer.

I would really love for an easier way to search for developers or publishers without going to their page though.

EDIT: And from searching SE games I just found out Octopath Traveler is releasing on Steam next month lmao.

Trilled Meow

Good find on the workaround, but I think gamefaqs has what we need here: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/company/10815-square-enix?platform=0&year=0&region=0&devpub=1

Good call, but I still prefer to search it on Steam since I could easily gain information on which titles I own and which ones I don’t.

Trilled Meow

This is what Gamefaqs is still good for: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/company/10815-square-enix?platform=0&year=0&region=0&devpub=1

adil

Nice theme! I might as well make use of it to motivate myself to finish some of the games I started playing but somehow ended up putting on hold…

Name	Achievements obtained	Playtime	Status
FINAL FANTASY X (Switch)	No achievements	~~13 hrs on record~~ 25 hours	unfinished
Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair (Vita)	~~9 of 47 (14%)~~ 23 of 47 (44%)*	~~9 hours on record~~ 37 hours	beaten
Cyberdimension Neptunia: 4 Goddesses Online	~~13 of 50 (26%)~~ 45 of 50 (90%)	~~2 hrs on record~~ 20 hours	beaten
Shiness: The Lightning Kingdom (SG win)	~~4 of 39 (10%)~~ 5 of 39 (13%)	~~4 hrs on record~~ 5 hours	unfinished/dropped?
TOTAL:	-	59h this month	2 games beaten

* Vita adds weight to achievements I believe which explains why my % completion is lower than my number of achievements unlocked.

Quick words on beaten games:
Cyberdimension Neptunia: Pretty but uninteresting gameplay. The worst being that there is no feel when hitting enemies. It’s like you’re hitting air… Also, it requires too much grinding which hinders the fun. Wouldn’t recommend the game and that’s coming from a fan of the Neptunia series. 2/5
Danganronpa 2: Better than expected. The story is really insane and intriguing. The cast was awesome, even the few that annoyed me.

Quick words on unfinished games:
FINAL FANTASY X: Still as great as I remember but I will most likely not finish it this month. The game is too massive. Will continue my journey slowly to beat it once more.
Shiness: I have such a hard time enjoying this one. It is so different from what I expected. I highly doubt I’ll ever finish this game…

DANGANRONPA! <3

adil

Yep, I finally started it again last month but then FFX came out… xD So it was briefly on hold once more. But I just finished the first trial last night. It’s looking pretty intense so far!

Sounds good to me :]
Have fun with it!

Cece09

Name	Achievements obtained	Playtime	Status
Dead Rising	50/50	45.6	Finished
Hatoful Boyfriend	16/16	7.1	Finished
Higurashi Ch.2	15/15	10.4	Finished
Higurashi Ch.3	4/16	2.7	dropped
Total	85	65.8	3

Cece09

yes all the hearts because higurashi is amazing!

Tempête Joachim

Name	Achievements obtained	Playtime	Status
Corpse Party	17/17	11.7h	Completed
LiEat	30/30	3h	Completed
Forgotton Anne	33/33	8h	Completed
Mad Father	16/27	2.4h	Beaten
Tokyo Dark	44/44	8.1h	Completed
TOTAL:	140/151	33.2h	5/5

List

Saikania

Tokyo Dark is such a super great game, I really love it!

tsupertsundere

Happy Reiwa!

I think this theme is wonderful, and can be wonderful even if someone doesn’t care for anime. The Japanese game market is one with many facets!

I’m in the middle of playing a game that I think would count - but I remember in the past the preference is to keep games for the monthly theme ONLY during this month. I’m about 2/3rds done with that game—I shouldn’t include it, right?

I’m sure you’ll find some other games to play this month as well. :P So feel free to include the one that’s 2/3 done since it won’t be your only entry.
(And yeah, at some point I really should clarify how much a game can be played beforehand and still count for the monthly theme. I’ll figure it out! :) )

tsupertsundere

Oh yeah? Whoohoo! Thanks, skanda :D

Name	Achievements	Playtime	Status
xBlaze Lost: Memories	40 of 40 achievements	99 hrs (10 actual)	Completed!
Alicemare	13 of 13 achievements	7.7 hrs (1.5 actual)	Completed!
Tokyo Dark	39 of 44 achievements	32 hrs (7 actual)	Beaten!
Oblivious Garden	38 of 38 achievements	146 hours (9 actual)	Completed!
Natural - Beyond Nature -	No achievements	11.5 hrs (2.5 actual)	Beaten!

Looking at your “Happy Reiwa!”, not only does it make me feel weird - how cool is it that we’re living to see the era in Japan change? even though we shouldn’t care that much unless we’re related to Japan?, but it also makes me think - how about we make it a Golden Reiwa and just play Japanese games for decades? :D

Nicknames

Oh boy, now I have an excuse to clear up all those short anime-styled games I have in my backlog

Name	Achievements obtained	Playtime (in hours)	Status
Gyromancer	0/0	18.5	Beaten \o/
BAD END	14/14	3.2	Completed \[T]/
Cursed Sight	9/9	3	Completed \[T]/
Japanese School Life	6/6	1.5	Completed \[T]/
Bermuda	0/0	1.5	Completed \[T]/
PRICE	8/8	1	Completed \[T]/
Mutiny!!	19/35	4.2	Beaten \o/
Sweet Fantasy	15/15	0.6	Completed \[T]/
Sakura Spirit	0/0	2.7	Completed \[T]/
TOTAL:	71/87	38.3	Finished Games: 9

samwise84

I will join this month since I want to finish Yakuza 0 and it fits the theme perfectly :) I just started chapter 8 out of 17, so a long way to go.

Name	Achievements obtained	Playtime	Status
Yakuza 0	23/55 23 in April	0 h/ 47h in April	unfinished
Bad End	14/14	3.15	Completed
fault - milestone one	0/12	0	Unfinished
fault - milestone two side:above	0/9	0	Unfinished
Galaxy Girls	23/23	11.1	Completed
Go! Go! Nippon! My First Trip to Japan	0/85	0	Unfinished
Negligee	17/17	6	Completed
SeaBed	0/14	0	Unfinished
Starlight Drifter	0/44	0	Unfinished
Strawberry Vinegar	0/28	0	Unfinished
TOTAL:	54/278	20.26	beaten: 0 completed: 3 unfinished : 7

Not a fan of anime, but I think I have the perfect games to play this month!

Name	Achievements	Playtime	Status
Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun	14/44	~17 hrs	✖️
Killer is Dead - Nightmare Edition	40/48	~28 hrs	✔️
The Coma: Recut	N/A	-	✖️
Ara Fell	N/A	-	✖️
TOTAL:	54/92	~45 hrs	1

By the way, in case someone happens to read this:
I’d like to recommend a game called Disgraced by Corrosive Studios. The guy makes high quality RPGMaker games with decent writing and Disgraced is set in feudal Japan 👍

The Coma: Recut is definitely a very fun Clock Tower-styled game with a striking comic book art style to boot. But man, I have to say one of its true ending requirements is just so obscure.

Hmm, looks like I’ll have to consult a guide for the “true” ending then! Good to know it won’t be just me being stupid hehe :D

the Traveler

Name	Achievements obtained	Playtime	Status
Bayonetta	21/50	7.5 hrs	unfinished

I was just gifted this game last month by a friend so this works out for me! Unsure if I’ll 100% it yet, but I’ll definitely play storyline anyways.

EDIT: Did not finish the game this month because I’ve been one lazy arsed bastage, but will carry over play into the next month!

Name	Achievements obtained	Playtime	Status
Blood Code	28/29	18h	finished
Hakuoki: Kyoto Winds	36/36	43	finished
The Men of Yoshiwara: Kikuya	17/17	26h	finished
TOTAL:	81	87h	3

I’ve gone forty-plus years and have never heard of “Golden Week.” :p

I typically don’t like Japanese/anime games/content/media, but I’ve tried to keep an open mind about anime games and have played a few that were tagged anime, and have others in my backlog. I’ve added these to my attack plan for this month in the spirit of the monthly theme. Some of them are “more anime” than others.

tsupertsundere

oh no! Not Last Days of Spring 2! And Blue Rose was only ‘ehhhh… okay….’!

I’m glad you’re keeping an open mind, and try not to let stinkers change that (though Fault is very good)

Well, I played the first one so I acquired the second one. But yeah, nothing from your masterlist or anything.

Last Days of Spring 2 was worse than the first one, as far as I can remember. And it’s stupid what you have to do (or not do) for one of the endings/achievements (Takeo arc). In my “natural / legitimate / no-spoiler” playthrough I didn’t hook up with anybody, lol. Cross one off the backlog, though, so I can’t complain.

I suspect I’ll be able to get to Fault (m1) before the month is out. But next up is One Small Fire at a Time. I enjoyed the first one.

Name	Achievements obtained	Playtime	Status
Bermuda	no achievements	2.0h	completed
Dust: An Elysian Tail	28/30	28.6h	beaten
fault - milestone one	12/12	6.5h	completed
Sickness	10/10	15.5h	completed
It Comes Around - A Kinetic Novel	no achievements	1.5h	completed
KAMI	no achievements	5.2h	beaten
Last Days of Spring 2	7/7	3.3h	completed
Crimson Gray	10/10	4.5h	completed
One Small Fire At A Time	21/21	7.5h	completed
TOTAL:	88	74.6h	7 completed, 2 beaten

I must say, the first time I heard of a “Golden Week” was a couple of days ago on Steamgifts (one thread is titled “Golden Week Sale” or some such) :D

By the way, may I ask why you abandoned Dust: An Elysian Tail? I never played the game myself, but it seems to be praised to high heaven by many people.

I didn’t abandon it– I merely never started it. It’s in my Idled only so far and Would play elsewhere / other version lists, which in this case, means that I would play a DRM-free version of the game I have on HumbleBundle. The primary reason is simple– I’m not particularly good at these games, and there are many achievements I’d probably never be able to achieve, hurting completion more than I’d like.

That said, I took another look at it yesterday because of the theme, and I might be changing my mind. While I’ll never get all of the achievements (Complete the Game on Tough or Hardcore setting, finish every challenge with four stars, etc.), I think with a little work I should be able to get…20/30? Maybe 25/30 if I enjoy the game? But I confirmed there is an Easy game mode and it appears you can go back to previous areas to collect achievements. So maybe I’ll play it this month. :)

Ahh ok, my bad. I looked at your “attack plan” and saw that the game was marked red, so I assumed there was something that made you abandon it :)

I can relate to this:

there are many achievements I’d probably never be able to achieve, hurting completion more than I’d like.

Good luck if you decide to play it this month, be it on Steam or elsewhere :)

I finally made an alt to put all of those juicy games I want to play but don’t want to worry about achievements / completion%. But ask me how many of those games I’ve actually played for more than a couple of hours? Exactly one.

So I just finished Dust: An Elysian Tail today. I played on Easy, which was really too easy (I crafted almost no gear and seldom ate food for health), but I think Normal might have been a bit hard. I think I might have been able to do it, but it would have been a struggle and taken longer and I just wanted to enjoy the game. I was able to get my best-case scenario for achievements– 28/30. Everything except “beat the game on tough or hardcore” and “get four stars on all [seven] challenges.” So I’m pretty happy! :D And that’s one great thing about the monthly themes…I might not have dug this one out of the backlog otherwise.

Oh– and it took me 28.6 hours, more than twice the “Main Story + Extras” estimate on HLTB. ;-)

Nice, congrats on beating the game! 28/30 achievs is pretty good in my book, too :)

And yeah, the HLTB times are often completely off in my experience. Probably posted by people who either follow a step-by-step guide (where applicable) or doing speedruns. Or just making the times up :D

I’m waiting for Yakuza Kiwami 2 to release, might as well sign up for the conveniently timed theme

Name	Achievements obtained	Playtime	Status
Yakuza Kiwami 2	45/59	55 h	beaten
Strange Telephone	8/8	2 h	completed
PRICE	8/8	1 h	completed
Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc	13/38	20 h	beaten
Love at First Sight	12/12	2 h	completed
Lily’s Night Off	18/18	1 h	completed
Fare Thee Well	-	1 h	completed
TOTAL:	104	82 h	7 games beaten

Deleted

This comment was deleted over 5 years ago.

I think you accidentally replied to my message :p

Girlbeard

Oops. Sorry :D

I know this might sound like nitpicking, but PRICE is actually from a Chinese developer.

I saw someone else had it on their list - that’s how I found out about it actually - so I assumed it was because it was japanese. Thanks >_>

You’re welcome. Hope you didn’t take this the wrong way :)

Half of the games in my library that I actually wanted to play probably consists of games that fits into this theme. So hey, what a great time to rejoin the Monthly theme since I have no idea what to play next.

Game	Achievements	Time	Status:
Battle Chef Brigade	1 of 25 achievements	hours	Unfinished
Dust: An Elysian Tail	0 of 30 achievements	hours	Not played
Shadow Tactics: Blade of the Shogun	4 of 44 achievements	hours	Unfinished
Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc	0 of 38 achievements	0 hours	Not played
Total: games \| Beaten: games	Total achievements:	Playtime this month: hours	100%’ed: games

Trilled Meow

I have a small (10 games) list of games set in Japan or are about Japan (I’m not sure that Pixel Puzzles: Japan technically has a setting). Most aren’t on the Wikipedia list.

Name	Achievements obtained	Playtime	Status
X-note	0/0	0 hours	never played
D4: Dark Dreams Don’t Die -Season One-	55/78	9 hours (this month)	beaten
TOTAL:	55/78	9 hours	1

Kyrrelin

Oh, this is such a great theme! <3
But I fear that I won’t have enough time with all the Star Wars games that I planned to play….

Since I’ve been ~~threatened with blackmail~~ notified about this month’s theme by 3 different people because ~~I’m a weeb or something~~ it’s probably something I should participate in, I might as well join in for the first time. I’ve made a list thingy with some of the games that fit that I currently have installed, but I’ll probably end up editing both that and the chart as the month goes by.

Name	Achievements obtained	Playtime	Status
Flowers -Le volume sur printemps-	N/A	~11h (+9h before May)	Completed
Noel The Mortal Fate	N/A	~14h	Completed
PRICE	8/8	~1h	Completed
Confess My Love	21/21	~2h	Completed
Jigoku Kisetsukan: Sense of the Seasons	8/21	~4h	Beaten 1 Route/Pacifist
Cursed Sight	9/9	~3h	Completed
Idol Magical Girl Chiru Chiru Michiru Part 2	N/A	~4h	Completed
Fatal Twelve	31/31	~20h	Completed
Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair	5/47	~10h	Unfinished
Highway Blossoms	20/20	~7h	Completed
KARAKARA	7/7	~3h	Completed
Blade Kitten	7/20	~4h (+2h before May)	Beaten
Crystal City	6/6	~2h	Completed
TOTAL:	122	~85h	Games beaten: 12

notified about this month’s theme by 3 different people

Did you mean a doggo, a cat and a sheep?

I heard Noel is really good so it’s nice to see that in your chart. :blobdogeyes:

lmxn

3 different animals :spacecat:

Maybe :blobdogeyes:

I only added Noel there because it doesn’t have cardz so I can’t idle it unfortunately :sadness:

a doggo, a cat and a sheep walk into an octopus

:shy:

Weeb

𝓌𝑒𝑒𝒷

Girlbeard

An actual post this time (hopefully).

This would be the perfect time to play the Learn Japanese to Survive games I got in the winter sale as well as the Higurashi VNs. I was planning to get through some more SteamGifts wins but I’ll delay those for a few weeks.

Name	Achievements obtained	Playtime	Status
Higurashi When They Cry Hou 2: Watanagashi	15	11h	complete
Higurashi When They Cry Hou 3: Tatarigoshi	16	12h	complete
Higurashi When They Cry Hou 4: Himatsubushi	8	6h	complete
Higurashi When They Cry Hou 5: Meakashi	16	9h	complete
Higurashi When They Cry Hou 6: Tsumihoroboshi	15	13h	complete
Learn Japanese to Survive: Kanji Combat	0	0h	unfinished
TOTAL:	achievements obtained	playtime this month	Number of games finished
	70	51h	5

stef

I won’t get to most of these, but I might as well write them down. Great theme!

Name	Achievements obtained	Playtime	Status
Higurashi When They Cry Hou - Ch.1 Onikakushi	14/14	6 hrs	finished!
A Hand in the Darkness	0	0	unfinished
Yomawari: Night Alone	0	0	unfinished
The Coma	0/0	5 hr	finished!
How to Take Off Your Mask	13/27	2 hr	finished!
TOTAL:	28 achievements	14 hrs	3 games finished

Supernormu

Cool, gets me onto a couple of games I’ve been meaning to play for some time, and a genre I’ve never tried before.

Name	Achievements obtained	Playtime	Status
Bayonetta	0 of 50	0.0 hrs	Never played
Binary Domain	0 of 49	0.0 hrs	Never played
Long Live the Queen	0 of 45	8.1 hrs*	Never played

Fnord

Name	Achievements obtained	Playtime	Status	Notes & Comments
Suikoden	N/A	~12h (total 19)	Finished	PS1 game. Really good actually
Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim	4 (9)	2,8 (9,5)	Finished	Started 2 years ago, finally beaten!
Supercharged Robot VULKAISER	22	0,6	Finished	This was an unexpected treat
SHOCK TROOPERS 2nd Squad	2	0,8	Finished	That feeling when the framerate drops to the point where 1 in-game second is over 20 real seconds….
Anarcute	16	3,9	Finished	Like Hello Kitty, but with more rioting and property damage
Sword of the Samurai	N/A	2,7	Finished	Ancient grand strategy game. Quite fun!
TOTAL:	44	22,8	6