Welcome to the end of another month here at gamergal.exe! May has gone by in a flash and I’ve unfortunately not got that much to show for it. I managed to finish a couple more games, started the grind in Stardew Valley, and developed a new unhealthy obsession with IDOLiSH7… There’s a bit of other stuff too, but I’ll try and keep this month’s summary short after April’s information overload.
Completions:
Tengoku Struggle -Strayside-
seekL
Another 2 games were added to the completions list this month! I spent the majority of my time playing through otome game, Tengoku Struggle -Strayside-, which actually pleasantly surprised me. I wasn’t sure at first and it took me a couple of routes to get into the game, but then I was hooked thanks to all the characters interactions and I loved the found family vibes! The ending was a bit of a let down, although I actually didn’t care too much since I had a great time with the rest of the game. The most recent game I finished was the new chat sim, seekL, from robobarbie (Blooming Panic creator), and even though it was only a few hours long, I had such a great time with this game and it’s wonderful scripting. It was incredibly immersive with coding mini-games and felt so realistic at times with the humour and text language used. The video call sections were also fully voiced in English which was a super nice touch. I definitely recommend giving it a chance, especially since it’s free!
Games Played:
Stardew Valley
Cupid Parasite: Sweet and Spicy Darling
IDOLiSH7
I started playing Stardew Valley this month with my fiancée. We’ve almost made it to winter of the first year so far, but I must admit, I’m having a hard time remaining interested at the moment since everything seems to be progressing too slowly. I know it’s a long game and these things take time, but I’m just kinda bored to be honest… My fiancée LOVES fishing games though so he’s having a blast. Earlier this week, I started the brand new otome release of Cupid Parasite: Sweet and Spicy Darling. After asking the question of how people play their route orders in FDs on Twitter, I decided to start with my least favourite (Gill) which I’m now starting to regret because I’m having such a hard time trying to remain interested. I’ll get there though, Ryuki please wait for me!! Last on the list – I downloaded IDOLiSH7! After becoming obsessed with the anime and the music, I decided to try the game out for myself. My Japanese language is still pretty basic, but I’m going to persevere and hopefully this game can motivate me to do some proper studying that doesn’t just involve a few Duolingo lessons each day.
Purchases:
Cupid Parasite: Sweet and Spicy Darling
Only the one purchase this month which was the Day One Edition of Cupid Parasite: Sweet and Spicy Darling. I was shocked to find it arrive a few days early, although this didn’t make too much of a difference since I was still finishing off Tengoku at the time. I’m sure this game will be the main feature next month though!
Blog:
Nothing to see here…
I’ve been working on a few posts over the past few weeks which I’m hoping to focus on next month. I know I say that every month, but there’s actually quite a few in my drafts folder that are well overdue that I still want to publish – the main one being my Top Games of 2023 list. There’s 3 drafts I hope to post in June, so I’ll try my absolute best to at least see those come to completion before this time next month.
Other:
Since Tengoku Struggle -Strayside- took up the majority of my time, I didn’t get much of a chance to do anything else. I managed to binge through all episodes of IDOLiSH7: The Third Beat and absolutely LOVED it, yet I’m so upset with how they just ended it like that. WHEN IS S4??? I then reread Business Proposal vol. 4 before reading the new release of vol. 5 and I can still confirm that this is one of my all time favourites (maybe this is the reason I love the fake dating trope so much at the moment). I’m hoping to watch the drama soon as it’s going to be a few months before the next volume comes out. Album wise, I purchased imase‘s debut album 凡才 (BONSAI) which is pretty good, although I feel like I won’t be able to properly enjoy it until we get some actual summer weather here.
Music:
Not going to lie, I struggled to find 3 songs for this post. Last month’s bangers spoiled me and I’m still listening to those (or i7)… I managed though! First up is new song 睨めっ娘 (Niramekko) from 友成空 (Tomonari Sora). It’s no Demon’s Banquet, but it’s pretty catchy and I like it’s simplicity. I really enjoy the hints of Japanese instrumentation in Tomonari Sora’s songs and I think this track could really grow on me.
Next up is ミスフィット (Misfit) by 獅子志司 (Shishishishi). One of my favourite things about Shishishishi’s music is that he releases both vocaloid versions and self cover versions of all his songs – even going as far as making two separate albums to split his works. I usualy prefer his vocaloid tracks, however, since this song is brand new, the vocaloid version hasn’t been uploaded to YouTube yet – so we’ll have to make do with his vocal version instead!
The obvious choice of the month was only released earlier today, the new original song 梅酒ロック (Umeshu rokku) by my favourite vocalist メガテラ・ゼロ (Megatera Zero). It’s been a while since he’s written an upbeat rock-style track so this was a super nice surprise this morning! His vocals are perfect for this style of music, and once again, he doesn’t fail to disappoint with his talent.
That’s all for May! I aim to finish some blog posts, crack on with my Japanese reading via manga and now IDOLiSH7, and I also plan to finish Cupid Parasite by the end of next month. Sometimes I really wish there wasn’t so many things that I enjoy as I easily flit from one to another and barely ever stick to my plans… My manga backlog is piling up horribly, and there’s still a bunch of songs I want to learn on guitar for these covers that I bet I’ll never actually commit to doing 🤣 Ah well, as long as I’m having fun, I suppose it doesn’t really matter, right?
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