Lurker > UF8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYns0pLW2CA neat (might count as this month depending on where that date is set to)

regarding more stuff that is definitely this month though, i've been playing some of the tsugunohi games and also this touhou dolldraft game
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1341460/Touhou_DollDraft/

it's... not really a very good or polished game, the story mode is a nightmare and very short (mercifully) and multiplayer might as well not exist, the character roster is terrible (6 characters including two Tewis because ?????) and the mechanics aren't explained at all... but it's interesting

also, i'm keeping an eye on this freeware vn text adventure
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1684660/
with everything else this month i'm probably going to wait till it's translated but it has caught my attention at least

apparently library of ruina is out of early access, wondering if i should pick it up

also there's these coming up too
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1638220/_/ (port of a 20 year old chinese rpg that had a highly successful tv drama adaptation apparently)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atZ0Be1MKDQ (some rpgmaker game that feels inspired somewhat by rhapsody a musical adventure. looks very basic but also seems to have some charm)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rf6RZAeO7CM (fangame 2hu rpg that's been out for a year, but now getting localised surprisingly (yes, there is a translation even if there is no english trailer...). apparently the dev's also made a game called Bomber Cirno, which is an interesting fusion of bomberman and crypt of the necrodancer)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACzx2FNUA6c (train simulator but slightly fancier)

implying the retirees next year won't be all zts songs anyway

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZWI6zfPnuY neat

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X66YlReFzSc noticed this a bit late

definitely a good week for songs and covers in general
(here's some other ones i liked)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nQKnPvMsRU tojiro's cover of that one semi-recent really good kafu song from sasakure.UK
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DSlDHot3AU ririmu's op theme (good song and good visuals from wotoha)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4Uqow9GYkU uiha/chihiro/shizurin/mikoto yamasusu op cover
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=063INZy-ZtM gen 5's group covers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYfUaHljuKg (they're better than the original songs tbh)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mO0s9WTI-eU (okay lioness pride is good too but otherwise there have definitely been better holosongs)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RN321K_vl5g sango's hatsune miku no bousou cover
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvUp6R5bUAA noname ft.propolis sachiko anmin swimming cover
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6QBJIhsztE (enma) ruri's cover of mr virtualizer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUru33n0ITs yuni's king
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=td0yGjdsspw kohigashi's phony
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nReJpvkBoTI ai-chan cinderella
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icYGQJ3Xgrk mair ao to natsu
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nepJu6N_Uec kizakura hikari shama cover
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pz5CgZdTKGs rim's keshi cover
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hmcf01DLepk ciel's henshoku cover
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77ZCoqWK9Rw koko's q-vism cover
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4493CGfmgsU kaf's umi ni bakeru from fukakai q1 re (which is not new but i hadn't seen q1 re so it was still fresh)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWil2CT66OU memex machigai sagashi cover
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-z5TrBGFkY memex keitai renwa cover
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfABGFwWei4 vivienne kensington cover of a nice olympic song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1P7PEy3FhRA obese eye cover
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aPa7kSJH-4 ganbaruuko's 3rd anniversary song (it's a little better than the holo anniversary songs imo so i'm counting it even though it was technically (barely) last week)

i swear i did trim this down to just the ones i wanted to share oops (there were more than i realised)

what

UF8 posted...

Garden Story (set for a summer launch window, might be august 11th/12th though)

didn't actually expect to be right

LeonhartFour posted...

the one thing I wish other RPGs would copy from Mario RPGs is timed hits

it's such a simple thing to include and it's so much fun

i wish shadow hearts wasn't dead :(

oh yeah while we're still talking a bit about terms

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eY3QZP0Kslk

paper games is a term that is dangerously close to becoming a thing if this is any indication and that scares me

typical of australians to not understand what artistic means and mistakenly form an artonelico swimming team instead

while we're on this note, considering a majority of said 1000 games also explicitly use the term metroidvania... yeah it's not like it can just be written off at this point

oh yeah it hasn't been getting great reviews since turns out it's a bit buggy and not that long which isn't that optimal for the price but here comes niko really is pretty ok

button city's the next game i'm very keen to pick up, though uh... truthfully, i ran into a bug in the demo that rendered the game unplayable (keyboard fully unresponsive after changing the controls, closing and reopening the game). so i'm definitely going to also wait for reception on that too

(actually, i'm not sure there is a single non-amazing vtuber cover of gunjou/ultramarine out there. it's been a little while but usuwa suu's, mair's and yuni's were exceptional too, and checking now the ones from suzuka stella, aruby, tamaki and hakase are all extremely close to flawless too)

clearly the genre should be called Metroidfouria

somehow i got roped into ddlc fully blind as soon as it released so

that was something

oh yeah, speaking of yoasobi covers, I really liked Kohigashi Hitona's (formerly of the Hanayori group) cover of ultramarine the other day

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TO5eIv7gySE

she also just celebrated her 2nd anniversary last night
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPn1b5DKQ-Q

DigiFamily
Catabolism

6>10>14>7>9>15>13>8>12>11
(extra mention to 4 for also being top tier. also only placement i'm super confident about is 11 (sad that's even with daddy mulk))

darn, series x/s combined sales are a hundred too high

kinda legit impressive how they're doing though, seriously

just a minor stream list (split by hour)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFDKLn-ozbE hano undertale
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAs7pUwZqVE solca pso2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6f3BcXiMx4 tsukasa pkmn gsc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNi7SUuloGo nia sparkcraft

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPf0VjzuYAI hareru 2nd anniversary
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxGZBhR6kOE kawaisou l2d v3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlglQ1W5qac maomao
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q__UCo38h54 kanau casual utazatsu
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWD2RTWxzOg bell wunderdoktor
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vfqq8OyUOuc vgeneration pico park collab
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ki__ba1Xvms colocraft (rapt brigade collab)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sLkfKSr33I komugi friday stream

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96Vs612_DRw miyabicraft
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-L2cxIlXBJM olivercraft
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJAeUFNTTEM lee shion bday

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2ClMOI5Gts kurokiri aria uta

on a vtuber whaling note, i still can't get those hano and ribon singles and dakis yet. i hope they don't run out of stock before i can...

since this is a bit of a thing, i might as well post what i have (along with rough scores reflecting how I'd rate them when I was most and least into them during this contest)

Catabolism (#1 - 9.2-9.8/10 (currently 9.4))
resurrectedreplayer (#12 - 8.9-9.6/10 (currently 9.2))

Bahram Attack -Nekomata Master Remix- (#28 - 8.3-8.9/10 (currently 8.9))

Fogbeasts (#46 - 8.5-9/10 (currently 8.5))
Into Free -Dangan- (#48 - 8.4-8.9/10 (currently 8.6))
Living in the City (#49 - 8.5-8.7/10 (currently 8.5))
Dreamy and Boisterous Holy Land (#56 - 8.3-8.7/10 (currently 8.4))
The Explosion (#57 - 8-8.7/10 (currently 8.6))

DigiFamily (#75 - 7.5-8.3/10 (currently 8.1))
POINT OF NO RETURN (#101 - 7.8-8.5/10 (currently 8))

Id (Purpose) (#122 - 7.5-7.8/10 (currently 7.5))
Pioneer's Horizon (#134 - 7.3-7.6 (currently 7.4))
Paradise (Stay Forever) (#144 - 7-8/10 (currently 7))
Soaring Through A Blue Sky (#147 - 7-7.7/10 (currently 7.1))
Class::CIEL_N_PROTECTA; (#168 - 6.6-7.2/10 (currently 7.2))

Octopunch (#200 - 6.4-6.8/10 (currently 6.6))

not bad but obviously only a few of them were my preferred picks

Dreamy and Boisterous Holy Land
POINT OF NO RETURN

Class::CIEL_N_PROTECTA;
The Explosion

poor cladun

Into Free -Dangan- (48/256) / Central Tower "Axis Pillar" (39/256)
Living in the City (49/256) / Genesis Beyond the Beginning (80/256)

before i revised the rankings i had dangan like 30 spots above axis pillar which i realised made no sense when I knew i was definitely voting axis today (no offense to dangan)

another very good day

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zejRqlR1Muk ok this is good

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1579310/Light_Infantry/

esp the soundtrack

Sounds like GRIME is reviewing well, at least among the select few places that are covering it. i think it's sitting around an 85/100 average from 5 reviews and holding over 90% positive on steam. solid in gameplay impressions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0u__DXn9iU

since my money might be a bit tighter than i first thought for the next couple of weeks i guess I'll wait and see how stuff like niko seems before picking anything up. I already ended up getting christmas tina on mangagamer (which quietly released a couple of days ago) so there's that too.

redrocket posted...

What is revival?

pretty much an end of eva director's cut with a pretty interesting recap film attached to the front

not many people tend to watch or even know about it sadly which is why i like to spread the word when i can

resurrectedreplayer (17/256) / Speartip of Judgment (7/256)
Danger (ARM version) (8/256) / Bahram Attack -Nekomata Master Remix- (45/256)
Pioneer's Horizon

flipping back to timespinner today
i hate match 1. not quite my overall favourites of murasaki or zts umineko offerings but still roughly mid-9s anyway. i'm not even sure i actually prefer speartip so much as just "i want it to win this specific match right now" more and i would be very happy for rr if it could also leave its mark despite all the change coming to vgmcs over the last few years
apologies to bahram too

and yeah like i mentioned prior i recommend checking out revival (not to be mistaken for rebuild) of evangelion release instead of just end of eva

or just death(true)2 and then end on probably netflix

Catabolism
Calling

still haven't been totally paying attention to stuff recently but i did notice there's some stuff of moderate note this evening

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ml0Lvg-yzTw Usuwa Suu's 3d debut and original song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jvkj4B0qplQ (original song)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knvGlccOt90 Amakawa Hano and Himekuma Ribon's 2nd singles+dakis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CeDb50QyFk (ribon's stream next hour)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSyYE1RhZh8 Nekoto Kanami's 30k/1.5 year anniv stream with new (3d) costumes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TG5ZSKbu2Fc Tenkai Tsukasa's new 3d (much like the v2 l2d, i don't like it as much as the original but it's very accurate to that at least)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BKYT9r6MUI Nolca Solca's bday/announcements

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqLzmEsDgNY ViANKiE mini live LOOK

apparently the single CDs are only being sold with the dakis for 18k yen each... i hope they don't sell out before the deadline since i sure can't afford them currently
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-eJ1xZpJfQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czQ703BA1lc

Chrono Trigger (231) / Pioneer's Horizon (131)
DigiFamily (114) / Breath of Forest (165)

yes i'm voting for something i ranked 100 below the other song because i'm just feeling ct more today. appropriate i guess that it's a ct vs not-ct match that I'd flip like this on.

also probably still underranked digifam. just because i like optical mode a lot more doesn't mean digifam's probably not in my top quarter of the field

these feel like very weird retirement round matches. has more of a... round 2 vibe, i guess. i can only assume there hasn't been any time travel involved

year of skatebird

on the one hand i don't really care about octopunch but on the other it means ikou came out looking not that weak (at least for now) despite the r2 loss which is nice

i kinda expected dbhl to smoke its division so for beyond the bounds to prove a worthy challenger is a bit of a surprise. also now what looking respectable in its swift defeat too, which is another nice surprise

Id (125) / Immanence (21)
PONR (104) / Lamer (127)

everything in the top half so pretty good day (especially considering how high the halfway point is)

oh uh

skatebird delayed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4aIuu0a4Fw

(of course, whether i'll actually play any of them this month given last month is another question, but i'm still probably going to get most of these)

on my steam wishlist, there is...

GRIME (August 2nd)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAVoa1vaIKI
metroidvania with a unique art style

Here Comes Niko! (August 3rd)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYNPzzmh3oQ
chill, cute and fun kinda paper mario-ish platformer

Death Trash (Early Access August 5th)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1oA9yUrnlY
gritty retro wrpg

SATORI (August 6th)
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1451970/SATORI/
nice free running game from a kiwi dev

Lifeslide (August 6th)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeBwpY0DLy4
paper plane 3d runner(?)

Tale of Jade (August 6th)
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1537480/view/2979675609123464519
chinese card battler

Glyph (August 9th)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daBFYZThWuY
well-crafted 3d platformer with an emphasis on speedrunning

Button City (August 10th)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrVHrepsaKk
endearing game with all the genres

Greak (August 17th)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CX3GzWbokG4
hollow knight meets trine?

PSYCRON (August 20th)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHr534dBMh8
ESA-like metroidvania

Hoa (August 24th)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2-qMjmVeL4
beautiful puzzle platformer

Behind the Frame (August 25th)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7_xvyKFAOY
game about art that looks absolutely gorgeous. puzzle game

Book of Travels (Early Access August 30th)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfPJ12NlF-c
seemingly quite unique pseudo-mmo?

JOYSPRING
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NExEeZSydtg
somewhere between celeste and jump king? only set for some time this month for now

and potentially
Garden Story (set for a summer launch window)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkgujkQyc-0
stardew-ish game with a hint of zelda and some extra charm

1f y0u're a gh0st ca11 me here! (august/september)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kdfg6R-UGk
"action novel game". english coming after launch either way

and since there's something like a hundred other things saying 2021 in general there's probably more than that

skatebird sounds dope too and definitely keen on nmh3

okay so yeah there's a ton of games from the various indie showcases at e3 and also the steam next fest that are apparently releasing this month so probably them lol

congrats to explosion for proving me wrong that it wasn't just set for a guaranteed round 4 loss this time

i guess neo kobe still was though, very impressive showing from it though

BtB (10) / DBHL (57)
SoS (144) / Octo (199)
GBtB (149) / (37)

I feel like I was being overly harsh to the falcom songs here while ranking, especially genesis and boisterous, but still not enough to put those matches in any particular doubt

well, all of them are only pseudo-indie, but it's still true

oh yeah i remember seeing whitewater wipeout in the... wholesome direct, i think?

it was a goodass trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X781_LH9PN8

ah, now that's some unfortunate timing

nanase taku's birthday stream (in an hour)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odBqFs9ohv8

but also

ganbaruuko's 3rd anniversary
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiZjfS5YeXk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0o29DAkZrE

ouma yuu's 2nd anniversary a couple of hours later too
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVRyjemDYlw

Oh yeah also I like the recently debuted nijis. Not surprised to see Leos blowing up quickly among them (save for Lain who's just barely keeping up with him even with the perks of being the lone girl in the wave also with very strong gap moe) given his particular style, but i also find him kind of annoying so he's definitely my least favourite currently... Also Oliver's really good and it's a travesty that he's the most overlooked.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V86I5TEAOyg new marble (noticed a bit late but oh well)