If I had one nerdish obsession other than my books and Yoko Kanno’s entire discography that I could point to as a defining point for my cultural and entertainment preferences, it would be Batman. From the massive animated universe lorded over by Paul Dini and Bruce Timm that nurtured my boyhood mind, to the graphic […]
We want to be loved, and – in the deepest part of our hearts – share the memories of our path in this world with someone dear to us. Through or with Pokemon themselves, all that matters is there was, however briefly, someone who cared. To whom our existence mattered. The former is not […]
So, where do we start here? Ace Academy actually has a long history with VNs Now. We first crossed paths when it was Kendo Crush two years ago. Shortly after PixelFade removed Kendo Crush and revamped it under the title of ACE Academy: same basic idea, just set in the future with giant robots. Considering […]
One thing I often hear as a critic is that no matter how bad I believe a game is, I need to find something positive about it. I admit that it mostly stems not from what I critique, but rather it comes from how I critique. After five years of this, I’ve never been one […]
Okay…nobody panic…but we’re going to talk about diversity today. I SAID NO ONE PANIC. I’m sure everyone reading this already has an opinion on the representation of different ethnicities, genders and sexualities in Western media. I want to make clear from the offset that we are not here to debate the larger cultural clash and […]
And so, a new chapter opens. Yes, I am still done with the Sakura series. My hands are washed of it and I am not looking back. However, I’m not necessarily free from the sub-genre that spawned it. Interestingly enough, despite the success of Sakura Spirit a few years ago (siiiiigh), only a handful of […]
Ah Otome, we meet again. I mention this everytime I cover an otome game, but new readers don’t know of the old dust-ups otome fans and I got into when this site first started. That’s right: that is where it all started for VNs Now. So whenever we do discuss otome again, it’s always a […]
One of the rare pleasures that can come for any critic is to see a piece of media overcome preconceptions and become more than the sum of its parts. It occurs more in mainstream gaming because genres bleed over far more: especially in First Person Shooters which is still gaming’s bread and butter. So when […]
Just to be fair to everyone, the following review discusses several themes in Atom Grrrl that can be offensive to some readers; including racial slurs, graphically described violence, sexual assault and other unsettling material. I talk about all of this with examples so please keep that in mind. Have you ever read or watched a […]
I’m always interested whenever someone attempts to portray humanity in a realistic way. We like to romanticize our behavior and attitudes to one another in order to promote the ideal of decency. And while that’s not always who we are, portraying humanity any other way risks alienating the audience. It’s a fine line to walk […]