Overall, I really enjoyed this, especially how it used the different worlds in order to build the idea of authority, manipulation, and how things were set up to provide a disconnect from any one interpretation, denying comfort through the alienation even through the warmer moments.
With that said, I found it hard to pick up on how different elements were being used at time, while I think that English isn't the author's first language, with how much grammar and other ways of seperating out words was messed with, it made it difficult to read through at times, including some times where there were similar words used in place of other ones like demented when the symptoms of dementia were described. While that does fit with how much of the other parts such as the art and formating were used, I also found myself doubting how much of the different parts were included as part of the intended effect. Also, while it wasn't a massive issue, the icons to know how to navigate different functions such as save, load, back, history, options, exit were difficult to figure out and notice what they were supposed to be used in.
All that said, I did enjoy it, losing a clear sense of definition in the narrative was a suprisingly enjoyable feeling even with the agrieved and predatory actions of many the characters aimed at the eyes we're seeing it through. Very much worth the read, if only to try and piece together your own understanding of it.
Maolong
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In addition to the issues about the disconnection of what food is, farming sims also fail to describe the simulation of what labor actually entails on a farm. Things become abstracted into the abilities of an individual, while farming involves a broad skill sets beyond these related to the methods and knowledge of the land and plants. That is, if you are working with them. Modern systems prioritize ownership to be declared a 'farmer,' other's are laborers. This mimicry of the same systems of how what becomes a 'farming sim' recreates these same effects, and divorces people from the effects of the land, as well as acting to create a class and typically cultural warfare aimed at the supremacy of one group over the other. Farming in the sense of the work related to growth, maintenance, and harvesting of crops becomes a method of social violence through the degredation of the laborer's work through removing the title of farmer from them, while exploiting their work to have what is sought from the labor (profits) given to the owner. In a globalist world, this will act as part of Neocolonialism making it so that the food produced in an area becomes the food for those in other areas, and even those that service local areas will be tied into reliance on larger systems that are in the power of other nations.
The farming sim is the obfuscation and justification of this system, the creation of food into profits, and the distribution of them to the owner removed from labor.
Quick tip for people playing, if you want to see all endings don't rely on saves. I had issues with saves keeping me locked into a single ending.
(Spoilers ahead)
Apple Seeds is a beautiful game about two girls and the way that their relationship struggles between their own clashing personalities, the different parts of society they inhabit, and most crushing of all....
Their music tastes.
Each of them has their own ideas about what the relationship should be, and the navigation of this along with their other desires creates a narrative around this shared negotiation, and how each of them creates meaning in a world that isn't going to grant it.
When the story turns hard into the supernatural dissertation on what it means to be alive and to exist in relation with others, the ways that connection is drawn with people and not simply the sacks of meat you know it really comes to life makes it so that simply having the ability to 'turn the world into a playground' doesn't give you the ability to simply recreate the world. Existence is itself something that one can not take for granted, and your mistakes can not be taken back. They are like everything else, part of life and the meaning people find in it. Similar to noise music it is the composite parts that create meaning and the sensation of life, not simply the need to be tuned into one specific thing.
It ends up creating a specific beauty with the story, focused on the characters and distilling the rest of the world into these elements that we end up getting to learn why we can not forget or ignore them not just through their effects on the two we know best, but for how they define the world they exist in.
You know from the moment that Snowy shows up just what sort of influence it will have from that body shape and too cute perception, and it makes sure to deliver. It felt like a break from reality, the way that time seems to no longer exist at some point where 15 years is simply a repitition of patterns that have somehow made a person, and everything that a failure to grow brings.
Really good style through it, especially with the use of colors and shapes going on. I enjoyed a lot of the scenes, but did have some issues following how it happened across time, not related to it being non-chronological but rather how it was difficult to feel the passage between a lot of the different sections. I do think it still works though, but get's held up by many specific scenes above all else.
I really enjoyed this, the art especially had a charming touch with how the different elements of paper drawings were included in sections like the background. Overall, while I was wanting more ways to understand the relationship between Eva and Mary, the humor and drama of the situation was still very gripping and very enjoyable!
I really loved playing this, should have read it a long time ago.
Outside of the atmosphere, there's also the way that it builds a world and creates the distinctions about what different roles are that makes it hit like a truck when it tries to make it land. Very simplistic writing, but it is used to hit effective as hell.
Damn I loved the ways that Alpha's own assumptions about herself were slowly revealed to be nothing more than just just having the ability to not deal with those issues in that way from being an alpha. She isn't special for it, she's just another alpha. Similarly the way their dynamic worked the whole time helped perfectly to underline how they approach this differently. For Omega (The clearly superior girl and would make an excellent date partner) it's an act of reversal, while for the Alpha it's a series of ways to maintain the system. The sex and violence were mixed perfectly together to make them both play into each other until there wasn't really a difference and I loved every second of it.
Short but fun read! All the pieces fit smoothly together in a tense relationship that really hits home just how much harm's getting done. Moira and Valerie work really well together, and the Vampire Hunters really do act as a good organization of their own seperate from the police, it really brought to mind the people I know who work in weapons manufactoring or surveilence construction even if that's 'immoral' because it helps them get by. Vampires really did a good job of not being a metaphor.
Plus the designs were cute.
Just a warning, this comment has some spoilers.
Let's go to Heaven was honestly an amazing read. Even from the start language is used masterfully to evoke a specific type of feeling while still actually making the actual words make sense. That is honestly, way harder to do then it sounds and definently harder then you've made it look here. The way sex is described, does an amazing job of both being actually erotic and feeling so hollow that you know that Deimos is basically unable to get into it. This also ends up playing into how they become gods really nicely, with Deimos going from feeling like someone who's bored and hollow to someone who has basically no will for herself. It's fascinating to see how that makes her puppetted by someone else's desires even while she is disgusted by them. This is especially noticable after going through it a second time to find that there was no changes no matter what you choose, even when they were meaningfully different.||
I think for main criticisms, a ton of energy is spent building it up so that the whole piece has a certain feel but most of that is done for setting the tone. After that's been done, that sort of eerie feeling where nothing is quite grounded ||Is really only dropped off at the very end. While that is a nice touch, it leads to there being a lot of emotional points that feel very similarly because they're all in the same soup. Stuff like panic, apathy, desire, and disgust all have a similar feeling throughout, and it'd been nice if there was a bit more distinction to each of them.||
That being said, one of my two favorites at the moment. I really liked the characters here, they played together really nicely and that's on top of the use of language.



