I keep starting and abandoning posts that go into my drafts, as I try to stay tasteful about how fucking revolted this part makes me. Like, I'm legitimately unsure if the very relevant trauma I have is making me see things that aren't here
But first we see that Star Flower is trying to ingratiate herself to the group, just after she reappears from chapter 5. Chapter 5 is about how Clear Sky is still abusive towards his son, and she comes in after stroking his ego, stressing how alone she is, and appealing to how she'll be loyal unlike his child. (She glances over at Thunder, directly implying this.)
Now in Chapter 9, she's babysitting and trying to care for Milkweed's kits (in spite of discomfort from Milkweed), taking a wet sleeping space away from the others, and pulling more than her own weight "without complaint." Putting herself through harsh sitations to prove her worth.
All while trying to appear extra attractive to Thunder, and later Clear Sky. Basically every man in power who can "protect her"
Like, am I going fucking crazy? With how we later find out that Star Flower was "promised as a mate" to One Eye's subordinate Slash, is... is that hypersexualization? One of the extremely stigmatized symptoms of sexual abuse?
She goes to find Clear Sky alone to throw herself at his paws, and he's very quickly attracted to how she promises to perfectly obey him, have no needs of her own, and finally be the perfect servant that he desires
"I don't deserve your trust because I am dirt. I understand you because I also regret something. I'd die for you. I'll never betray you unlike those who have."
This isn't manipulation. She means this. The story is playing their romance sincerely. She's comparing "betraying" Thunder by telling her own father about an assassination ambush to Clear Sky's history of child abuse, physical assault, and murder
She believes she's on the same level as this; a monster who murdered a childhood friend in a fit of entitled rage. She was a victim of One Eye who really believes that the way her father used her means she "understands" this monster, deserves this treatment.
And Clear Sky LIKES that.
He likes that she will have COMPLETE FAITH in him. That she will follow him WITHOUT QUESTION. That she will OBEY his orders. That's fucking verbatim, that's THE TEXT!!!
WHILE HE'S STILL CRYING ABOUT "ive tried to atone every day" FOLLOWING THE LAST TWO BOOKS WHERE THE ONLY SHITTY THING HE DOESN'T DO IS MURDER INNOCENT WOMEN
Am I insane?? Am I wrong??? Am I missing something here???? Why the fuck is the fandom takeaway "haha sexy girl steals his dad." Did I read the same book
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Ride 745: At the window seat
Pag 1
1: The last
2 / 3: 200m!!
Pag 2
1: 150m!!
2: Sugimoto is still ahead!! Danchiku is behind!!
6: There are
Pag 3
1: 100m left!!
Pag 4
1: Issa.... are you watching, Issa
2: I've always been timid
3: I always pushed your back with all my strength
4: And then watched you being all frolic
5: I was satisfied
Hahaha!
Piece of cake!
Pag 5
1: When I was little, during school trips, on the bus
2: I won the window sit
I got it!!
3: I enjoyed looking at how the scenery changed outside the window
Oh, there are cows!!
4: The window seat is super nice!
But I was pushed by my friend
Neh, Danchiku, let's swap seats! Come on, Danchiku
6: Okay
Thanks!!
I gave up my seat
7: In the end
Amazing! What's that tower?
8: our seats stayed like the whole time
9: People also often cut the line in front of me
Sorry, Danchiku!
No, but the line....
Ah, you're so nice, Danchiku, so nice!!
Pag 6
1: After that, the girls scolded me, too
You're too nice, Danchiku!
Yes, yes
Well....
At times like that, you need to flat-out reject them!
Yeah, you're a guy after all
Yeah... you're right... indeed....
2: It bothers us, you know
Is it... my fault...?
3: Is it me....
4: I also yielded with bicycles
Move, slowpoke!!
5: “Move”.....
Ye... yes
Pag 7
1: If you don't want to win, then don't run in races!!
3: Riding was fun, so I started running with bikes, but
4: Indeed....
Want to win.... huh
5: I'm nervous....
I was even late for the start the other day
And I couldn't move forward.....
6: I guess I'll cancel my entry on the next race, then....
I thought I should stop
Pag 8
1: Oi, you
2: At that time....
Ah- ah
My bad....
3: I was thinking while walking... and since the street is narrow
You want me to give way!?
4: Even though I was just walking on the side of the road
5: No
6: You don't have to give up anything
Pag 9
1: Huh
2: You said “my bad”, but you're not at fault
3: I heard there's a guy who goes to the same school as me and who ride bicycles
A guy who runs seriously and practices properly!!
4: I'm looking for that guy
Looking for....
5: He called out to me so self-importantly
Pag 10
1: That guy was Kaburagi Issa!!
Team up with me, and let's become the best in Japan!!
2: The strongest local club team here is called “Team SS”
First, let's join it and train!!
Pag 11
1: That guy was saying things that made no sense, but he had said the two things I wanted to hear the most at that time
2: “You don't have to give up anything”....
“You're not at fault”......
3: So, too suddenly and without really understanding, I said yes
Huh.... yes
Alright, it's decided
4: Danchiku!? It's an unusual name, and that's important!!
It's important?
'cause it sounds kinda cool!!
Huh
5: I still think it wasn't a mistake
What a weird guy....
6: Because Issa never stole my window seat
7: And didn't cut the line in front of me
Waa Danchiku, I'm so behind you!
Haha
Lucky you, dammit
Pag 12
1: And with an overwhelming accuracy, he gave me instructions to move forward!!
Here, Danchiku, move forward!!
Yeah!!
Pag 13
1: It's SS!!
Kaburagi from SS is jumping forward!!
Danchiku is pulling him, that's bad!!
2: Let's win this race!!
Yeah!!
5: That's why I always dreamed of making you “frolic”
Hahaha
6: I pulled you, and you took the finish line
7: That was enough for me
Pag 14
1: But then, after he joined Sohoku, Issa started to say those things
2: Now!! You're next!! Get stronger!!
3: I had no confidence
….. yeah
I wasn't selected for the Inter High during our first year
4: And even when I was chosen for the “Minegayama” race during fall
5: Don't worry, you can win
6: Even though Issa cheered for me, I doubted myself
Yeah
7: Practiced hard, I ran on Minegayama, and somehow I won
Pag 15
1: But right after that, my condition got bad
3: As expected..... right....
Alone, I convinced myself I didn't have what it takes
4: I didn't rely on my heart
It was probably small enough to fit in the palm of my hand
5: I read so many books, trying to make it bigger
Pag 16
1: You can do it, don't worry, you have me with you
I can't wait for the Inter High...!!
You're making so many grains of rice fly around
2: Hahaha
3: When the training camp started, Touji-san gave me a new bike
4: And I became your buddy
5: There's something I noticed
Let's make a special technique
You can do it now!!
7: Ah....
Pag 17
1: I remember something I read in a book
2: “Four things necessary for a person who wants to build up self-confidence”
3: “Find the amazing within you”
“Praise yourself for it”
“Don't deny it”
“Keep polishing it”
4: These are ideals... there's no way anyone can do it
6: I want to meet someone like that, bring them to me...
I thought so, and so that time I put down the book
7: But
Pag 18
1: He was there, right in front of my eyes!!
Pag 19
1: It's been right in front of my eyes the whole time!!
2: The guy who finds the “amazing” in himself, who praises himself for it, and never denies it!!
3: I realized I've been with him for many years!!
4: So I feel like I'm starting to see the process to gain confidence in myself, Issa!!
Pag 20
1: Please look at me, Issa
I'll go to the Inter High!!
2: To prove that my heart is getting bigger, little by little
3: And to make you, who believed in me, even more frolic!!
5: Danchiku is shouting!!
6: He accelerated again!!
7: I'll become much stronger!!
Pag 21
1: Garuaaa!!
2: 50m left!!
They're neck and neck!!
(Thank you @monkeyingaround for beta-ing this chapter!! <33)
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Unfairly Maligned Games, Vol. 2
Games I loved that got low scores, review bombed, or have some other weird negative stigma attached to them that I think is unfairly earned.
NOTE: I don't believe in giving games a number score or a letter grade. Maybe I'm just bad at criticism or very easy to please, whatever.
We Happy Few [2018]
Originally advertised as some kind of procedurally-generated stealth horror survival game that people kept insisting was "like BioShock" even though there is literally zero correlation or even vague resemblance to BioShock, this game's crowdfunded development process was a long hard rollercoaster ride through concept and scope changes, getting picked up by major studios and publishers, a constantly evolving marketing campaign, and a loud, rude blasting of negative press right before and right after launch due to bad take misinformation and some game-breaking bugs on Day One.
We Happy Few started as a Kickstarter project from Compulsion Games, a small studio known only for their previous game Contrast. In Contrast, you play as a child's silent imaginary friend in a cabaret dancer costume who can phase in and out of backgrounds to become a shadow on the wall and solve platforming puzzles. Working together, you help the child navigate through her emotions as her parents struggle through their own relation-shit in an early 1900s European port town. Seeing as their first game was stylish as hell and widely praised among indie crowds, it's no surprise that a Kickstarter for a new game from that studio became an instant success, so much so that it caught the eye of several big studios (Microsoft and Gearbox Publishing), and it quickly turned into a vastly bigger project with many more hands working on it. The proc-gen element was downtuned and streamlined, and the main emphasis of the game became about survival, stealth, and story.
And let me tell you. In terms of story, this game is phenomenal. The simple premise is that you play through the lives of three people living in 1950s-60s England, under a government that is forcing everyone to take these candy pills called Joy that make you instantly and excessively cheerful, so you can easily forget about all the horrible things that the government wants you to forget ever happened about The War, the Missing Children, and all the people still actively dying of malnutrition from the ongoing Famine and all that. The people are mandated to forget their worries, grin and bear it, pretend everything's just peachy keen, and if you refuse to take that pill, people will notice your un-cheerful behavior and call the police to track you down and beat you senseless. Can't have any Downers in our perfectly lovely happy town, now can we?
The game's art direction features two stark parallels between a dreary English village and early 60s-70s psychedelia (with a hint of A Clockwork Orange for good measure), and a soundtrack influenced by bands of the era, such as The Doors, The Beatles, The Byrds, etc. The dichotomy of looting dilapidated rural homes while avoiding plague-ridden peasants versus the rainbow streets and lava lamp light show sex dens in the cities is truly astonishing. It's a game about, funnily enough, Contrasts between the bright and cheerful life everyone is forced to think they're living, and the grim depressing reality that lies underneath. Many people initially assumed this meant the game had some kind of anti-drug message about not relying on your depression medication cause pills can't fix everything, but it's clear right from the get-go that's nowhere near the case. We Happy Few is a story about revisionist history, the pressure to conform, submission to a corrupt system that might not even know what it's doing, and the very British notion of Keeping Calm and Carrying On as if major atrocities hadn't just been committed in a massive world war.
Gameplay-wise, this is a strange hybrid of survival and stealth, with combat definitely being present, but taking a backseat for the most part. It's much easier to distract enemies than fight them, and many of the characters excel at hiding in plain sight, provided you don't do anything to make people suspicious, like running and jumping around or breaking into houses to raid them for food. You do have options and skill trees though, so the game does allow you to tailor it to your own playstyle to a degree. I had significantly more fun playing it slow and methodical, sneaking up and choking out enemies, and watching NPCs bump into each other awkwardly while quoting ancient English literature for no apparent reason. Taking it slow, reading every scrap of paper and Journal I found, my final playtime was about 50~ hours.
Again though, let me gush about the story for a second. The base game has three full chapters, each of which has you play as a different character with different strengths and game mechanics (including such wildly inventive ideas as the burden of motherhood taking up inventory space if you don't periodically check on the baby you have to leave at home, and carefully maintaining a balanced blood sugar level so you don't collapse?!). Their stories are all deeply connected in ways that aren't immediately apparent but are cool as hell once the pieces of the puzzle come together. Each chapter more or less takes place at the same time, but the events always play out slightly differently, because memory-altering drugs fuck with your sense of reality and make us all question the reliability of each narrator. If that wasn't already cool enough, the game also features three DLC packages where you play as three ADDITIONAL characters, each of whom is also a recognizable face in the main story if you're paying attention. These DLCs add even more neat mechanics and open up the story events even more in and around the main game. They were honestly all an absolute blast to play, especially if you were already as invested in the story as I was. And the subject material goes all over the place, touching on such highly specific topics as 60s science fiction, gay lovers, Beatlemania, trippy drug-induced murder mysteries, the British occupation of India, and plenty more. I can't stress enough what a unique storytelling experience this game has to offer. It really is unlike anything else I've ever played! But alas, we should probably talk about why nobody else seems to be as enthused about the game as I am...
Aside from the huge misunderstanding about the game's message, We Happy Few was bombed with criticism on Day One due to some major bugs that hadn't been ironed out - remember, for a $60 game backed by some big names in the industry, it was still very much an indie passion project from the start, and it's clear it wasn't given the full AAA treatment at all. Several big-name Game Reviewers (a field I detest almost as much as Cartoon Reviewers) ripped into the game for its bugs, and while I can't fault people for being mad at broken quests and at least one full-on softlock, not everyone experienced those bugs, and many of them were ironed out in later patches. It's almost like chasing those Day One reviews and videos are a bad idea for people who want to Enjoy Games. Sadly, first impressions are all that seem to matter anymore in gaming, so those early negative reviews still sting to this day. But people out there will give games like Skyrim a perfect 10/10 despite a significant number of similar bugs (hell, they're almost a charm of the series at this point), so why should an indie game not be given the same graces?
In closing? We Happy Few is a phenomenal story in a completely fresh setting that really doesn't feel like anything else before it. The game has been criticized to hell and back for its early bugs or for "boring" gameplay or whatever the Review outlets chose to report, but to me it stands out as an extremely unique experience in a sea of Lowest Common Denominator games. I'd rather play an imperfect or buggy game with a unique or highly niche premise than yet another polished piece of pristine pop pleasure, and I genuinely think people would enjoy games like We Happy Few if they just lowered their goddamn expectations for once in their lives.
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