I think my girlfriend was more annoyed that I kept killing everyone in the shooting sections before she had a chance to do much. But the end shoot-outs did feel rather unfair when one of us has a lot more experience with shooting games than the other.

This is... bizarre to say the least. Like, you were playing a fictional character in a video game. And in-universe, it’s even more unhinged - under what “ethical” framework could someone demand you let them kill you?

I would agree that bullies are often not clever but their comments can still be hurtful and lasting.

Yeah, “your art’s fucking weird” seems about right for a high school(?) insult.

Admittedly I skimmed this because I want to experience this for myself as fresh as possible, but yeah — my eyes were drawn to the “Your art’s fucking weird!” part and I don’t find it remotely hard to believe that some asshole teenager would say that to someone. Kids aren’t always — in fact, they seldom are — eloquent…

I haven’t played it yet so I can’t exactly put anything in context, but “Your art’s fucking weird!” sounds like something a kid would say to be mean. I still remember being a youngling and my grandma asking me why I couldn’t draw anything nice (it was all tornados destroying cities and Mortal Kombat characters killing…

If there’s ever going to be a definition of a bad-faith take, this article should be cited as an example in its entirety. It’s contrarian simply for the sake of being contrarian. Here’s the thing: thinking that The Short Message mishandles its themes jsut because it doesn’t present them in a fashion as deep as a…

You’re looking at mainline games in your comparisons though.

There’s also social media isolation, validation obsession, family trauma, jealousy, and mental health issues. 

It gave me the impression there is a little more nuance here than just bullying. Yeah that’s part of it but it seems like there are other issues at play that were glanced over. 

Pretty sure artwork from this game leaked years ago and it was a Silent Hill project back then too.

Why? This and Ascension were just random side projects. They are meant to be different and experimental. I’m a diehard SH fan but neither of these have moved the needle in either direction because they shouldn't. 

Kotaku at it’s finest, finding issues where the are none.

Came here to make this comment, glad it was already here.

Yeah, not a fan of this. Trans woman here, for reference. Removing the only trans woman in the game and replacing her with a “haha, nutjob conspiracy theorist” isn’t the answer to a transphobic scene.

Agreed. I didn’t view the initial as trans panicky though. Could it have been handled better? Sure. There was a missed opportunity, but young high school kids don’t all need to act as though they’re completely accepting and not confused with the world - hence the “not ready” comment by the lady.

Last paragraph feels incomplete without mention of the queer representation in Persona 2, with its openly bisexual protagonist and the option to pursue a romantic relationship with a gay party member. And it also suffered from having an unfortunate case of trans representation with an NPC being played for jokes.…

I’ll start by pointing out that I’ve never played a Persona game, so I have no idea what their political/ideological/sociological underpinnings are.

As promising as this thing looks, it’s still not the same to me without co-op. What made SoM and SD3 so memorable to me was sharing the adventures with my 2 brothers. That’s what set it apart from every other action RPG. That niche is still underutilized today and Mana could easily capitalize on it, but for whatever…

Has Square Enix ever made a good mana game? Or was it all the MUCH better developers from the superior SquareSoft?