The fickleness of our memories is an often-used element in stories. The fact that things slowly come to light as the story moves forward indeed helps in setting the pace of the plot in place.

Most stories tend to use traumatic experiences or sudden forgetfulness to explain why these tales unfold the way they do. Of course, while games like Key's ( Read more... )

The bond between family members is something many people take for granted. Certain cultures encourage independence over ties with family, while others look down upon those who severed ties with their kin. Still, the idea of being without anyone to count or fall back on carries a certain appeal when it comes to a story. Loneliness and suffering tend ( Read more... )

Live, from the Promised Land, I come bearing some sort of information on what's been going on lately, as well as a sudden revision to my plans for the next month or two ( Read more... )

Gender roles and expectations are obviously powerful elements in stories, as they set the foundation for character interaction and character development. In the case of character interaction, it helps determine how characters get along, when their motives concur and when they become clear enemies. Character development is highly influenced by these ( Read more... )

Ok, so I'm taking a bit of a break after plowing through my Rakuen replay and Patvessel. I did want to talk about some of my current games and maybe spoil some stuff from Pygmalion in this post, though.

Don-chan ga kyuu~: The long-awaited spin off title to light's Sakashiki hito ni miru kokoro has finally been released (I think the game has been ( Read more... )

The conflict between Law Enforcement and Criminals is as old as styles of story can get. The thrill of the chase, wit against wit and concept of justice versus deviance is indeed a powerful combination, and quite capable of making a story interesting and entertaining. Of course, as the ideas behind such stories evolved, comedy managed to wiggle its ( Read more... )

Note: This is a remake of my original review for the game below. As such I have removed the old review so that this may stand as a more accurate presentation of the game in question.It should come as no surprise that the eroge market of today forces the player to search through thousands of titles on a monthly basis to find that one particular game ( Read more... )

Few people in this world are strangers to the concept of forbidden or taboo romance. While the more popular examples are displayed as tragedies, there are obviously numerous degrees of this element. It can range from something as innocent as a student developing a crush on their teacher to the well-known "star-crossed lovers" story type. While ( Read more... )

Having seen sufficient new material and interesting developments in games like Pygamlion, it's time to get some stuff off my chest as far as what's been going on with me.

Pygmalion ~The Dark Romance~: As I somewhat expected, this game turned out to be impressive in structure and premise. The story is akin to a train speeding down a railroad, ( Read more... )

Looking to the past is, in my opinion, a critical element when it comes to appreciating advancement of a genre of entertainment. By this I mean that while we can stare in awe at what is seen as "current" material, looking to previous works is just as important in order to see just how far an idea, concept or mode has come since its inception. At ( Read more... )