Is ... is that really a translation of the PSP visual novels? Could this be true? Or is a spin-off for mobile phones?

I also love Persona dearly! A more detailed interaction system distinct from the typical stat-raiser stuff (person A will like you more if you are smarter, person B likes if you gift them a notebook, etc), would be great. And admittedly nothing would make me happier than female routes for 4 & 5.

Wheee, that looks cool! While I love my visual novel format, I also think that romance games could use a little more variant in their gameplay (but please no half-assed minigames). Maybe something like the Bioware stuff or Persona, but with a much bigger emphasis on your love life.

Haha, sorry, I skipped that in my hurry to plug P3P and the female MCs route (which I seem to do in every P3 discussion).

Hah, I just dug out my PSP to start a NG+ in P3P, which I prefer to the original. Also, dating Ryoji is super Freudian (as you are basically his... mother?)

The route for the female MC in P3P actually has social links to all your teammates (yes, including Koromaru the Magic Dog), and you could just stay friends with the male cast instead of automatically starting a romance.

Thanks for the suggestions! I already own a few of those ;) Nightshade sounds cool, haven’t heard of that yet! I’ll probably get Hakuoki Kyoto Winds for the Vita once the second part is out, even though I already own two versions of the game (plus the high school AU thing in Japanese).

If you have a Vita, there are quite a few really nice romance VNs available there - more money up front, sure, but I found the mobile ones are horrible about microtransactions, and the translation is often questionable. Plus, they are pretty short.

What, a sequel to Yomawari: Night Alone? How did I not know this? I hope the dog makes it... Spoiler:

Super interested here.

I’m referring to Minako/Hamuko/Shiomi or whatever the protagonist of P3P’s female route is officially called. I’m still sad she’s not canon, even though I think her storyline is better than her male counterpart’s route (e.g. it includes social links to your whole party, not just romantic partners).

No female protagonist for P3 Dancing? :( Will there be at least Koromaru dancing?

Will it run more stable? The last update ended with not only the game crashing regularly, but my whole phone crashing... And crashing again... And again...

Great piece! I love seeing some indie tabletop games reviewed around here.

I liked Arriety, as I’m very much a friend of cutesy stuff, especially cute miniatures. But I understand that it’s not for everyone. My husband already announced that he’s going to watch “My Neighbor Totoro” with our son when he’s old enough, which is better than Arriety, but still very much a cute kids movie. Let’s…

I can only report from my own effort to get my husband to watch anime with me:

I’d recommend “Guardian of the Spirit”, a somewhat ghibliesque show about a female spear fighter (a cold veteran in sensible clothing), who rescues a young prince, is hired as his bodyguard as she pledged to protect people to repay a past transgression, and find herself (and the prince) at the center of a, well,…

I couldn’t agree more. I never had a big problem with lawful good characters (and I’m fine with characters disagreeing about moral conundrums, in a reasonable frame), but both chaotic neutral and of course chaotic evil tend to attract a certain kind of players who have the most fun when they destroy other people’s…

Very interesting article! For another international perspective, here in Germany*, a midwife for pre- and especially aftercare is covered under basic insurance, in addition to your OB/GYN, and a pediatrician.

Yes, at least around here it’s the spoofers and level snipers who make the gym game utterly inaccessible. With all the coins they can farm, they’ll have no problems pushing their mon’s motivation.