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Writing a New Book / Go Buy Laika: Aged Through Blood
2 years ago
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TL;DR: I’M WRITING A TRILOGY CALLED PRIDE OF THE RATS. FIRST BOOK IS ALMOST DONE. ALSO GO BUY LAIKA: AGED THROUGH BLOOD, AND ALSO MY FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD AND TURBO OVERKILL.
Hey guys. More shiz and blah-booty happened.
So by the time I post this, I’ll have released a teaser/preview for my new ambitious project, Pride of the Rats. It’s this massive story and the first entry in a trilogy I’ve been working on for months that deals with innocent rats being forced into a rebellion after a bigoted ruler declares genocide on their race.
As you can expect by that description alone, it’s a lot more mature-ish from my usual content, it’s not erotica, and it’s very light on sex scenes or fetish scenes, etc. There are some farty and gross bits in it, but as a whole, the story has nothing to do with that. And on that note, the novel is not gonna be as humorous or lighthearted as most of my written works (I’m probably gonna have to put trigger warnings in the final product given the themes it covers).
All that being said, it’s my first massive project dealing with giant anthro rats, not chunky orcs or other humanoid creatures. So if you’re curious to read a preview of the story so far, check out the sample that I just recently posted!
In other gaming related news, no. Haven’t played Super Mario Bros. Wonder. Not yet. Don’t know if I’ll buy it. I still haven’t 100% Super Mario Bros Odyssey (and probably never will despite how much I like the game) and I don’t wanna spend another $60 on another 2-Dish Mario game when there’s a lot of other more interesting projects out there. I’m not buying Sonic Superstars. I did buy Sonic Frontiers—which I actually liked quite a bit! The ending was rushed, and the DLC was disappointing, but the base game as a whole was surprisingly good! I don’t know when/if I’ll buy Super Mario RPG Remake. But it does look tempting graphics-wise, especially since when a character levels up, the leveled up character does a pose and everyone in your team does a little victory dance and it’s cute. That being said I’ve played the original game multiple times already so I know all the plot-points and plot beats so it’s not like I’m gonna get spoiled on anything. And on that note, that’s kinda why I might not get it because…technically I’ve played it already. You can see Boshi’s feet in HD though, so I guess there’s that.
I feel like this year has finally set in stone that a lot of people are kinda getting tired of the same games—and it’s officially hit its breaking point with the release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III, the sequel to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II that has nothing to do with the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare trilogy despite being part of the Modern Warfare trilogy. This is a sentence that I just said that makes absolute sense in context. And I hate that. But instead of talking about gaming controversies and how a DLC was released for $70 or what was and was not nominated for GOTY awards, let’s talk about more obscure shiz.
I’m gonna get into the coyote game in a moment but for now here’s two honorable mentions of indie games you should play!
- My Friendly Neighborhood: Hey guys! Are you tired of mascot horror games? Well here’s another one! Here’s another mascot horror game about cute cuddly creatures who have been possessed by dead children or are sapient and victims of rape and abuse or they’re actual monsters created by mad scientists who are products of their environment! …Oh what’s that? That’s not the plot? The actual plot is that you’re trying to repair an antenna while fluffy puppets keep trying to hug you and you shoot them with letters?
…I don’t think I need to say much more. My Friendly Neighborhood starts out being what you think it is, and then it’s not. And it’s wonderful. The puzzles and combat/gameplay alone is enough to purchase the game, given it has Resident Evil-ish mechanics.
- Turbo Overkill: Hey guys! You wanna play an FPS similar to DOOM but set in a futuristic cyberpunk world when you gotta stop an AI from destroying the universe? And then shit goes wrong and the beautiful lush setting turns into actual cyberpunk Hell on Earth? Cool. Buy the game.
“But JT! I’m tired of boomer shooters! How come everyone—”
And you have a chainsaw in your leg.
“Okay, how much is this game?”
$25. It’s on sale for $20 for a couple more days.
Okay, so onto Laika: Aged Through Blood. So the overall premise is that you’re a coyote who is immortal and comes back to life should she die. It’s a post-apocalyptic world where you live with a small community of other talking animals and you’re just trying to survive in a world overrun by an avian dictatorship that wants to kill all non-bird scum. Your job is to stop the birds from their tyranny by any means necessary.
By which I mean you drive around on a motorcycle and shoot shit while looking badass.
The first thing to point out is that this game has Souls-like elements. As I said, every time Laika dies, she respawns from a “bonfire” you activated as a checkpoint. Every time you die, you lose some of your “money” and you need to collect it before dying again, or else it’s gone for good. You get “money” by killing enemies (or by playing Blackjack). The enemies also respawn. There are many points in the game where you gotta backtrack and may get lost because you don’t know where to go, only for your brain to click and say “Oh that’s right! I can unlock that thingy now!” You can also get newer weapons in the game—many of which, excluding the shotgun, are kind of fucking impractical compared to the basic bitch starting weapon of a revolver…similar to how I (personally) can get through Dark Souls just by using a regular longsword/claymore that I continuously upgrade. Also, the story is very dark. So keep all this in mind.
On the topic of the story, there’s a lot of disturbing content within the game. Outside of the immense gore, the game is very nihilistic. There’s always this underlying theme that nothing matters and everything you do is pointless. You can tell it’s affecting Laika—an already cynical creature who has become jaded due to losing two children and the decaying world around her. The game is very mature when it comes to its heavy themes, but also isn’t overly-explicit about it. The game opens with you discovering your surrogate nephew’s body disemboweled and strung up on a post. Thankfully the game doesn’t pull a Walking Dead and spend its time killing off characters constantly for shock value, but the game does not sugar-coat anything either.
You have to deal with nihilism and watching as the world around you continues to crumble, all while you question if you are doing anything to help your people. You have to deal with the fact that Laika, for lack of a better phrase, is a neglectful parent since she keeps leaving her daughter home alone while she goes off to fight bad guys. There are multiple sidequests that end in tragedy or the death of a side character. There’s a sidequest that all but states a child was physically and/or sexually abused, and you can murder the abuser while he pleads for his life and suffer no consequences for killing him. There’s another quest that ends with a character committing suicide, and you see the body onscreen.
In spite of being a beautiful-looking game and having a world full of animal characters, it’s respectful with the themes it talks about and mature in how it handles them. Yes, a child is raped, but this is only implied through subtext; nothing is shown onscreen. The game has humor, yes, but all the humor takes place during the downtime in the game when Laika is in her home (aka, the game’s only safe zone) talking to other civilians. The only other humor the game provides is deadpan humor (mostly sarcasm from Laika) or very dark humor provided from characters who clearly use humor as a defense mechanism for how shitty the world is (there’s a bar and motel owner in particular; y’all know who I’m talking about if you played the game).
Also, soundtrack. It’s beautiful. It’s very melancholic, but it’s also very beautiful and fitting for the game’s tone. I’m not gonna link to any of the potential spoiler songs or any of the depressing ones so here’s “Playing in the Sun” since it’s one of the more upbeat songs in the game outside of “Coming Home”, and even that song you could argue has subtext about one accepting death, giving its title a double meaning.
This game…really pushed me. At first I was having fun with the game and enjoying its tone and difficulty. And then I killed one of the bosses in the game and Laika has a conversation where she contemplates that she’s losing herself every time she dies and every time she kills. And then later after I killed a very fucking difficult-ass boss, I was treated to…a scene. Most of the people who have played this game will bring up this “scene” and the song that plays in the scene. And that was when the cracks started…and the nihilism started getting to me. And later on another event happened, and while this event did not break me, it was the final straw. Half an hour later, everything I experienced was too much and I broke down.
I spent a good ten…maybe fifteen minutes crying nonstop. I couldn’t even play the game. I put down my controller and just cried for a while as I played one of the songs on loop. …And when I was done, I just…kept playing. More terrible shit happened, but it didn’t affect me. It couldn’t anymore. And it wasn’t because I didn’t care—I did. It’s because the game successfully turned me into Laika. I was just numb to everything. Bad things happened. I would voice my opinion on the matter. And then I would continue. …That was all I could do anymore.
I think that’s the beauty of this game. Even when you’re in a desolate world, even when everyone around you is dying, even when you, the player, have become numb to everything, you still push on. Maybe it’s out of stubbornness; maybe out of a sense of achieving a goal; maybe just because you can. But even when you know nothing matters as a whole, you can find something in that nothing and make that matter. And when you do that…you feel like you’re invincible. Like Laika. It’s also kind of why I love the ending, considering what happens (which I won’t spoil).
Anyways, yeah! Go buy this game please. So many people online bitch and whine that games are terrible now (outside of Nintendo games), but then games like this comes out and they fly under everyone’s radars. Spark the Electric Jester 3 and BROK: The InvestiGator both came out in the same month just last year and neither got as much mainstream attention as Sonic Frontiers (especially the former. Because why pick up this game when we can all bitch about whether or not the new Sonic game is terrible? >__>).
If you don’t want a game this dreary or difficult, pick up Turbo Overkill. If you don’t want a game super bloody and graphic, pick up My Friendly Neighborhood.
Later.
Hey guys. More shiz and blah-booty happened.
So by the time I post this, I’ll have released a teaser/preview for my new ambitious project, Pride of the Rats. It’s this massive story and the first entry in a trilogy I’ve been working on for months that deals with innocent rats being forced into a rebellion after a bigoted ruler declares genocide on their race.
As you can expect by that description alone, it’s a lot more mature-ish from my usual content, it’s not erotica, and it’s very light on sex scenes or fetish scenes, etc. There are some farty and gross bits in it, but as a whole, the story has nothing to do with that. And on that note, the novel is not gonna be as humorous or lighthearted as most of my written works (I’m probably gonna have to put trigger warnings in the final product given the themes it covers).
All that being said, it’s my first massive project dealing with giant anthro rats, not chunky orcs or other humanoid creatures. So if you’re curious to read a preview of the story so far, check out the sample that I just recently posted!
In other gaming related news, no. Haven’t played Super Mario Bros. Wonder. Not yet. Don’t know if I’ll buy it. I still haven’t 100% Super Mario Bros Odyssey (and probably never will despite how much I like the game) and I don’t wanna spend another $60 on another 2-Dish Mario game when there’s a lot of other more interesting projects out there. I’m not buying Sonic Superstars. I did buy Sonic Frontiers—which I actually liked quite a bit! The ending was rushed, and the DLC was disappointing, but the base game as a whole was surprisingly good! I don’t know when/if I’ll buy Super Mario RPG Remake. But it does look tempting graphics-wise, especially since when a character levels up, the leveled up character does a pose and everyone in your team does a little victory dance and it’s cute. That being said I’ve played the original game multiple times already so I know all the plot-points and plot beats so it’s not like I’m gonna get spoiled on anything. And on that note, that’s kinda why I might not get it because…technically I’ve played it already. You can see Boshi’s feet in HD though, so I guess there’s that.
I feel like this year has finally set in stone that a lot of people are kinda getting tired of the same games—and it’s officially hit its breaking point with the release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III, the sequel to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II that has nothing to do with the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare trilogy despite being part of the Modern Warfare trilogy. This is a sentence that I just said that makes absolute sense in context. And I hate that. But instead of talking about gaming controversies and how a DLC was released for $70 or what was and was not nominated for GOTY awards, let’s talk about more obscure shiz.
I’m gonna get into the coyote game in a moment but for now here’s two honorable mentions of indie games you should play!
- My Friendly Neighborhood: Hey guys! Are you tired of mascot horror games? Well here’s another one! Here’s another mascot horror game about cute cuddly creatures who have been possessed by dead children or are sapient and victims of rape and abuse or they’re actual monsters created by mad scientists who are products of their environment! …Oh what’s that? That’s not the plot? The actual plot is that you’re trying to repair an antenna while fluffy puppets keep trying to hug you and you shoot them with letters?
…I don’t think I need to say much more. My Friendly Neighborhood starts out being what you think it is, and then it’s not. And it’s wonderful. The puzzles and combat/gameplay alone is enough to purchase the game, given it has Resident Evil-ish mechanics.
- Turbo Overkill: Hey guys! You wanna play an FPS similar to DOOM but set in a futuristic cyberpunk world when you gotta stop an AI from destroying the universe? And then shit goes wrong and the beautiful lush setting turns into actual cyberpunk Hell on Earth? Cool. Buy the game.
“But JT! I’m tired of boomer shooters! How come everyone—”
And you have a chainsaw in your leg.
“Okay, how much is this game?”
$25. It’s on sale for $20 for a couple more days.
Okay, so onto Laika: Aged Through Blood. So the overall premise is that you’re a coyote who is immortal and comes back to life should she die. It’s a post-apocalyptic world where you live with a small community of other talking animals and you’re just trying to survive in a world overrun by an avian dictatorship that wants to kill all non-bird scum. Your job is to stop the birds from their tyranny by any means necessary.
By which I mean you drive around on a motorcycle and shoot shit while looking badass.
The first thing to point out is that this game has Souls-like elements. As I said, every time Laika dies, she respawns from a “bonfire” you activated as a checkpoint. Every time you die, you lose some of your “money” and you need to collect it before dying again, or else it’s gone for good. You get “money” by killing enemies (or by playing Blackjack). The enemies also respawn. There are many points in the game where you gotta backtrack and may get lost because you don’t know where to go, only for your brain to click and say “Oh that’s right! I can unlock that thingy now!” You can also get newer weapons in the game—many of which, excluding the shotgun, are kind of fucking impractical compared to the basic bitch starting weapon of a revolver…similar to how I (personally) can get through Dark Souls just by using a regular longsword/claymore that I continuously upgrade. Also, the story is very dark. So keep all this in mind.
On the topic of the story, there’s a lot of disturbing content within the game. Outside of the immense gore, the game is very nihilistic. There’s always this underlying theme that nothing matters and everything you do is pointless. You can tell it’s affecting Laika—an already cynical creature who has become jaded due to losing two children and the decaying world around her. The game is very mature when it comes to its heavy themes, but also isn’t overly-explicit about it. The game opens with you discovering your surrogate nephew’s body disemboweled and strung up on a post. Thankfully the game doesn’t pull a Walking Dead and spend its time killing off characters constantly for shock value, but the game does not sugar-coat anything either.
You have to deal with nihilism and watching as the world around you continues to crumble, all while you question if you are doing anything to help your people. You have to deal with the fact that Laika, for lack of a better phrase, is a neglectful parent since she keeps leaving her daughter home alone while she goes off to fight bad guys. There are multiple sidequests that end in tragedy or the death of a side character. There’s a sidequest that all but states a child was physically and/or sexually abused, and you can murder the abuser while he pleads for his life and suffer no consequences for killing him. There’s another quest that ends with a character committing suicide, and you see the body onscreen.
In spite of being a beautiful-looking game and having a world full of animal characters, it’s respectful with the themes it talks about and mature in how it handles them. Yes, a child is raped, but this is only implied through subtext; nothing is shown onscreen. The game has humor, yes, but all the humor takes place during the downtime in the game when Laika is in her home (aka, the game’s only safe zone) talking to other civilians. The only other humor the game provides is deadpan humor (mostly sarcasm from Laika) or very dark humor provided from characters who clearly use humor as a defense mechanism for how shitty the world is (there’s a bar and motel owner in particular; y’all know who I’m talking about if you played the game).
Also, soundtrack. It’s beautiful. It’s very melancholic, but it’s also very beautiful and fitting for the game’s tone. I’m not gonna link to any of the potential spoiler songs or any of the depressing ones so here’s “Playing in the Sun” since it’s one of the more upbeat songs in the game outside of “Coming Home”, and even that song you could argue has subtext about one accepting death, giving its title a double meaning.
This game…really pushed me. At first I was having fun with the game and enjoying its tone and difficulty. And then I killed one of the bosses in the game and Laika has a conversation where she contemplates that she’s losing herself every time she dies and every time she kills. And then later after I killed a very fucking difficult-ass boss, I was treated to…a scene. Most of the people who have played this game will bring up this “scene” and the song that plays in the scene. And that was when the cracks started…and the nihilism started getting to me. And later on another event happened, and while this event did not break me, it was the final straw. Half an hour later, everything I experienced was too much and I broke down.
I spent a good ten…maybe fifteen minutes crying nonstop. I couldn’t even play the game. I put down my controller and just cried for a while as I played one of the songs on loop. …And when I was done, I just…kept playing. More terrible shit happened, but it didn’t affect me. It couldn’t anymore. And it wasn’t because I didn’t care—I did. It’s because the game successfully turned me into Laika. I was just numb to everything. Bad things happened. I would voice my opinion on the matter. And then I would continue. …That was all I could do anymore.
I think that’s the beauty of this game. Even when you’re in a desolate world, even when everyone around you is dying, even when you, the player, have become numb to everything, you still push on. Maybe it’s out of stubbornness; maybe out of a sense of achieving a goal; maybe just because you can. But even when you know nothing matters as a whole, you can find something in that nothing and make that matter. And when you do that…you feel like you’re invincible. Like Laika. It’s also kind of why I love the ending, considering what happens (which I won’t spoil).
Anyways, yeah! Go buy this game please. So many people online bitch and whine that games are terrible now (outside of Nintendo games), but then games like this comes out and they fly under everyone’s radars. Spark the Electric Jester 3 and BROK: The InvestiGator both came out in the same month just last year and neither got as much mainstream attention as Sonic Frontiers (especially the former. Because why pick up this game when we can all bitch about whether or not the new Sonic game is terrible? >__>).
If you don’t want a game this dreary or difficult, pick up Turbo Overkill. If you don’t want a game super bloody and graphic, pick up My Friendly Neighborhood.
Later.
