A History of Hidden Cats Games

There are an epic ton of hidden cats games on Steam this year.  And I like them a lot.  What started off as a totally random thing, became copied by many indie studios for a quick buck.  But which studios do I want to support?  Well, I'm trying them all.

The oldest hidden cats game I could find on Steam was the 3D Hidden Paws by Manic Hyena in 2018.  Manic Hyena's hidden cats games are unique in that they're all in 3D, and you have to navigate the camera around islands to spot each cat and ball of yarn.  The controls are a little rough, but I give Manic Hyena credit for the original idea, and I enjoyed the first few levels of Hidden Paws.  They've produced 3 hidden cats games in total, a winter themed one, a summer themed one, and a mystery one.   The game includes helpful hints for when you get stuck, but doesn't give away the answers entirely.  Well done.

2 Yaoi Visual Novel Studios, All Praise!

ChaniMK is a Visual Novel studio that seems to be mostly BL, but they've started some GL leaks in social media.  They started releasing titles on Steam in 2022, and I love them.  I've played through two of their VNs so far, and went and bought everything else they've released on Steam so far.  No sexy times, but the boys kissing are so sweet and cute.  I'm digging it!  They've previewed art for GL VNs and I intend to buy all of those too, because their writing is totally my jam!

3 Yuri Visual Novel Studios, 1 Comparison Review

On Steam, there are hundreds, maybe thousands of visual novels.  Most of them are heterosexual male fantasies.  Some of them are heterosexual female fantasies.  Even fewer are LGBTQ+.  My favorites to read are girls kissing girls.  I've started to get back into boys kissing boys too, but we're talking lesbians in this blog entry.  I've been searching extensively for more lesbian and sapphic romance visual novels.  Many VN studios do the occasional one off girls love story.  You have to dig to find it.  But three studios have stood out to me for producing multiple lesbian and sapphic romance visual novels.  I've sampled all three's works, and here's what I have to say on each of them.

Dharker Studio is a long standing VN studio that focuses on heterosexual male fantasies, but has 27 LGBTQ+ tagged games in their library.  Their oldest VNs go back to 2015, and one of their most famous series, is a lesbian VN series starting with Negligee.  So I bought Negligee and started reading it.  The artwork was very nice, but I hated the writing.  It wasn't funny, it wasn't sexy, it was just dry.  So dry, I got bored before finishing my first playthrough, and I returned it.  After an hour and a half of reading, I wasn't invested in the characters at all.  It felt like they had no emotion, and were just sexy robots with nice art, trying to imitate human life.  I would have PREFERRED if they were robots trying to imitate human life.  So yeah, gonna pass on Dharker Studios from now on.

Palia Launches on Switch, Free Shit

Today was Palia's third or fourth launch day.  First there was the closed beta, then the open beta, then launched on the Epic Games store, and now on the Nintendo Switch.  In my opinion, this is the biggest launch since open beta, because today we welcomed in the Animal Crossing crowd.  Animal Crossing has a huge following on the Nintendo Switch.  Animal Crossing is no longer getting free updates either, so that crowd's been looking for a new game to obsess over.  I think this will be a good opportunity for Palia, if they don't get over-compared to Gameloft's Disney Dreamlight Valley.  Gameloft and Disney have a lot more money to throw around, and they charge a hefty fee for their game, so I hope people will enjoy how largely free Palia is in comparison.

Palia Winterlights Festival, part 2

Much to everyone's surprise, though it makes a lot of logical sense, Singularity 6 pushed their second content patch for December through 2 days after the first one.  I mean, it makes sense, get the work done early so you can take a winter holiday, I get it.  I do hope they hotfix some shit before they go on vacation, but I don't blame them for trying to leave early.  They've been working nonstop since August, with content patches every 2 weeks and new outfits in the cash shop every time too, and hotfixes after every single patch.  They deserve a break.  I just really hope they put out one more hotfix patch before they call it until January.

Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku, anime and manga review

Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku, is one of my favorite het romance series, both the anime and the manga.  The manga has 6 or 7 volumes, and I have the boxed set.  The anime is one season and only covers volume 1 or 2.  But I love these nerds.  It's about grown ups, in a workplace I used to be in, dealing with being nerds and being in love.

Narumi and Hirotaka are the first couple introduced, and they have the childhood friend thing going on, and they're the main focus of the anime and the first volume of the manga.  Narumi tries to hide her nerdiness because it's ruined her past relationships, and Hirotaka is open about his.  Will dating a fellow nerd be just the thing Narumi needs to find happiness?

The second couple featured in the series is Koyanagi and Kabukura, a pair of grumpy tsunderes who got together at the end of high school.  Will they ever get married?  Or will their grumpyness break them up?  You must read to find out!

The third couple, which only shows up in the manga, is Hirotaka's younger brother, who's still in college, and sucks at videogames, and a cute girl who's really good at videogames.  Can they overcome the talent gap and play together?

I love it, all of it.  Go buy the box set.  Do it.

Sasaki and Miyano Anime Review

Sasaki and Miyano is an excellent modern boys love anime.  It's a sweet, romantic, slow burn with a satisfying ending.  It's totally innocent too, so younger audiences can watch it, though they might get bored.  It definitely reflects more modern values, with emphasis on boundaries and consent.

Miyano is a cute little boys love fan, who reads bunches of boys love manga, but never imagines a boys love story could happen to him.  But then Sasaki comes into is life, and he's crushing hard for Miyano!  Will they get together as a couple before Sasaki graduates?  Go watch and find out.  Have fun, enjoy.

Cherry Magic, Manga Review

Cherry Magic: 30 Years of Virginity can make you a Wizard, is an ongoing boys love office romance manga I've had the pleasure of following for a couple years now.  I've read volumes 1 through 8, and 9 is promising to be a sweet finale.  This manga is sweet as hell!  Volume 1 was meh, but from volume 2 on, I was hooked.  Adachi and Kurosawa are so freaking cute.  A lot of love was put into this manga.  A live action adaptation was made a couple years ago, and it's freaking adorable, and an anime adaptation is finally in the works for possibly next year.  I recommend all of them.

Dakaichi Review

Dakaichi: I'm being Harassed by the Sexiest Man of the Year, is NOT FOR CHILDREN.  They have a LOT OF SEX.  This is a boys love anime targetting an older, more mature audience.  Also, like many old boys love anime, they're dubious on what counts as consent.

Warnings out of the way, I'm a grown ass woman and a long time boys love fan, so  I had some fun with it.  Sure, it's got a sketchy start, but it gets better as you watch it, if you're into this sort of thing specifically.  If you're an old fujoshi like me, it's fine, otherwise, give this one a pass.

The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady Review

The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady is a lovely anime with a long name.  It's an isekai featuring a girls love romance.  It currently only has 1 season of 23 minute episodes, but it ends really nicely and doesn't really need any more.  The title is a mouthful, and the character's names are a mouthful, but it's really amazing  otherwise.  It portrays a sapphic romance without being sleazy and fanservice.  I'm not against fanservice as a whole, but it's just nice to see it not used once in a while.

Euphie is engaged to a crappy prince and scheduled to be the next queen, but shenanigans happen and the prince is a turd, so princess Anis says "Mine now" and rescues Euphie, then they fight monsters, have fun, blah blah blah.  Go watch it.  My review?  10/10  Now go watch it.

Inugami-san to Nekoyama-san Review

Inugami-san to Nekoyama-san, is a cute, short form girls love high school anime where most of the characters take on traits of animals.  And they all act pretty innocently gay.  It's available subtitled on Crunchyroll, and there are 12 seven minute episodes.  The main characters are a doglike girl, a catlike girl, and their perfectly human and sane friend.  The dog girl and the cat girl have crushes on each other, and the totally human girl plays the straight man for comedy purposes.  I enjoy binging this quick and fun anime.  It's really cute, and silly.

Palia Winterlights Festival, part 1

I apologize for not making a post about the Halloween stuff in Palia, but it was really just some Jack-o'-lanterns and pay to own costumes, and that's it.  Nothing went down for Thanksgiving either.  But the winter holidays, they're special, and Palia is trying to give them their due.  The intent is definitely there, but the execution needs tweaking.

For starters, Jina gives you a tree, and a quest to get ornaments from every villager except Zeki, he's got his own separate thing.  You light a candle with each villager, hear their hopes and dreams, even the dog, Tau.  You only have to talk to 8 for quest completion, but for maximum tree ornaments, talk to every bloody villager.  When I was done, I had a stack of candles, a stack of gold balls, a stack of wooden ornaments, and a stack of gold bells.  I also had a new candelabra for the dining table.  None of these candles can be lit, strangely enough.  Every other candle in the game can be lit, but not these new ones.