Visual novel Coffee Talk Tokyo serves up an image of 'Cool Japan,' but not much more

Coffee Talk started out as a slice-of-life visual novel casting you as a night-shift barista serving Seattle’s uniquely magical residents, from elves to vampires to succubi, hearing out and advising their whims and woes over steaming cups. Its strength was not just in the individual lines of dialogue spouting from these monsters (affectionate), but also in how those were placed within the context of Magical Seattle: a thread of societal distaste towards interspecies relationships, for example, is held taut through several characters’ arcs, not just in the two characters whose parents explicitly disapprove of them for it. Opinions and arguments towards the ills facing this world are treated with the weight they deserve, acknowledging the fluidity of both public opinion and the problems themselves.

Read more

from Rock, Paper, Shotgun https://ift.tt/eZyHVbf
via ifttt

The Sunday Papers

Sundays are for hopping over stepping stones across a river. There's a stone missing in the middle. Immediately, a quest decision prompt flashes up before my eyes, offering three choices: turn back in humiliation; attempt the leap and risk perishing in the writhing waters, leaving this week's Sunday Papers unfinished; or pile up smaller stones into a rudimentary foothold – an alteration of the river's flow that will surely lead to calamity miles downstream in the Humber Estuary. Urgency is added by the arrival of swarms of flies.

I chickened out and turned back in the end, but not before taking a lovely photo. Anyway, here are some things to read.

Read more

from Rock, Paper, Shotgun https://ift.tt/AumR3xI
via ifttt

Joy Malignant is a photobashed, dice-based RPG where every choice you make affects how your faceless body looks

The thing about Citizen Sleeper is that I wish there was more of it. Not literally, necessarily, I'd never want that world to be exhausted of its setting, and my imagination is stronger than any threequel or otherwise. Still, I'd like to play more of it because its inventive approach to digitising tabletop RPG design still feels fresh now. Thankfully, more and more games inspired by its structure are popping up, like Joy Malignant, another dice-based RPG where every choice you make affects how people see you.

Read more

from Rock, Paper, Shotgun https://ift.tt/cRd12fO
via ifttt

Bloodwoven is a survival immersive sim set in a world built on top of the frozen corpse of a god

I do love me an odd little immersive sim I do. There's just something special about the flexibility in them, so my ears always perk up like a dog hearing the word walkies whenever a new one enters the scene. Today, it's Bloodwoven, the next game from the devs behind Blood West (guess they like blood a lot), with a logline that has immediately drawn me in: "survive and thrive in a world built upon the frozen corpse of a forgotten god." Chills!

Read more

from Rock, Paper, Shotgun https://ift.tt/RAeCulZ
via ifttt

Civilization 7 devs talk 20th century leaders, controversial historical figures, and dealing with colonialism in 4X strategy games

Civilization 7 is a big, complicated mess of a game with intricacies so delicate you and I couldn't possibly understand at a glance how or why they were decided upon. So, to shed some light on the design process, Firaxis has put out a big ole post answering a load of community questions digging into things like controversial historic figures, whether there'll be more 20th century era leaders coming in the future, and more besides.

Read more

from Rock, Paper, Shotgun https://ift.tt/TVZC7E6
via ifttt

Star Wars Eclipse "literally cannot be finished" if layoffs go through, its devs reportedly say

Earlier this week, French video game union STJV called for a national industry strike, starting with a picket line held at Detroit: Become Human developer Quantic Dream's physical studio. The union claimed that 115 jobs were at risk of layoffs as part of an "internal reorganisation." Now, based on a report that speaks with some devs that work at Quantic Dream, it sounds like the studio's upcoming Star Wars Eclipse is at risk of cancellation.

Read more

from Rock, Paper, Shotgun https://ift.tt/OK27Vh1
via ifttt

From Hydro Drift Ninjas to Sonic Napoleons: I spent far too long definitively ranking Tokyo Xtreme Racer’s best opponent names

Hmm. On the one hand, a Turbulent Thursday. On the other, a Big Mum. We’ve all had Thursdays we could describe as turbulent, so the owner of the 2014 Nissan Fairlady Z who drives with the Neo Limited crew scores a point for relatability. That said, the large mother of the Family Business gang, who as fate would have it also drives a Fairlady Z, scores points for being straightforwardly funky. Both racers’ names are hilarious to me, but in the list of top ten opponent monikers from Tokyo Xtreme Racer, there simply isn’t room for both of them.

Read more

from Rock, Paper, Shotgun https://ift.tt/HzWNCVq
via ifttt