Tweet

its actually more like 5-7 books

    • FanonFan [comrade/them, any]@hexbear.netEnglish
      35·
      10 months ago

      I used my fingers to mark decision spots so I could backtrack when I died and effectively read the entire book. I’d run out of fingers pretty fast so my goal was usually to die so I could close off timelines and free up fingers.

    • Water Bowl Slime@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
      11·
      10 months ago

      If you’re interested in a choose your own adventure video game, then try 9 Hours 9 Persons 9 Doors and its sequel Virtue’s Last Reward. Not to spoil too much, but switching between timelines is a game mechanic and important to the plot.

      Also play the DS version of 999 because the ports suck (the dual screens matter)

      • NonWonderDog [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
        5·
        10 months ago

        Loved these, and played 999 side by side in English and Japanese. Have to say it’s much better in Japanese, though, and

        Japanese-version puzzle spoiler

        the title pun

        is permanently seared into my brain.

        • Water Bowl Slime@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
          4·
          10 months ago

          Wait, what’s the title pun?

          endgame spoiler

          I know that 9 is pronounced like Q in Japanese, so does qqq mean something?

          • NonWonderDog [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
            6·
            10 months ago
            spoiler / Japanese lesson

            It’s the Q thing, but it’s pointedly not qqq.

            Numbers in Japanese are weird, and have multiple readings. There’s a native Japanese system (“koko” for 9) and a more common Chinese-derived system (“kyuu” for 9), but the number 9 actually has two Chinese-derived readings (the second one being “ku”).

            Different readings are used in different contexts. “kyuu no [thing]” is always a valid way to say 9 of something, but “ku” is used with some counting words and there are plenty of old-fashioned words and phrases using the native reading (“koko-no-tsu” is a very common way to say “9 [things]” or “9 [years old]”).

            The Japanese title is 極限脱出 9時間9人9の扉, with the subtitle pronounced “kujikan kunin kyuu no tobira”. That’s really the only natural way to write it, so you don’t notice anything weird, but it’s definitely a choice.

            The 「の」 particle basically turns the preceeding noun into an adjective, and nouns can be either plural or singular based on context. Taking those together 「9の扉」(kyuu no tobira) means “9 doors”, but it can also mean “the 9 door”. “The kyuu door.”

            In contrast, 9時間 (kujikan) and 9人 (kunin) are compound words that unambiguously mean “9 hours” and “9 people”.

            • Water Bowl Slime@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
              3·
              10 months ago

              Wow that’s so cool!! Thanks for telling me about this! I can’t imagine what other details got lost in localization. At least the west got that box art that can be flipped upside down.

      • Omegamint [comrade/them, doe/deer]@hexbear.netEnglish
        5·
        10 months ago

        Another game I’ve suggested to literally anyone I can. I’m glad I played it with another friend without an attention disorder bc otherwise I would’ve dropped it like 10 times over in frustration, and it ended up being my favorite game in a really long time

    • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
      6·
      10 months ago

      So does it have a solid ending? I’ve never played it, hearing that they were working on a sequel for so long, and now that’s been canceled.

      • bazingabrain@hexbear.netEnglish
        15·
        10 months ago

        hm, I was kind of disappointed at first, but over time I realised the ending I got, which was the main one (there are many endings I think), made perfect sense for harry as a character and for the story as a whole. Its a very sweet story with some very bitter moments, I dont think any media made me cry before I played this game. Its genuinely life changing, youre not the same person when the credits roll, I place it up there with Dune.

      • GalaxyBrain [they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
        6·
        10 months ago

        Depends on what you’re looking for in an ending. It’s not a cliffhanger or anything that makes a sequel necessary. Your mileage may vary on how satisfying you find the ending, but a lack of traditional narrative satisfaction is for sure an intentional artistic choice. It’s thematically appropriate to leave you feeling a bit shitty at the end.

        • Omegamint [comrade/them, doe/deer]@hexbear.netEnglish
          6·
          10 months ago

          Hallmark of good fiction is that it leaves you feeling something really strongly. If one wants a tidy “satisfying” ending any random genre fiction will generally suffice, but to expect it as something necessary is silly. Not to say that untidy endings are always good, you’ll find a million art house films that overreach and end in the middle of nowhere, but if it’s done right it’s usually very poignant. After all, if fiction is imitating life why should there be a nice wrap up? That’s definitely not how life is

          • GalaxyBrain [they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
            8·
            10 months ago

            It’s a satisfying piece of art, and that’s what matters. I totally agree. Disco Elysium should be held on the levels of Moby Dick artistically. By all rights it should be in contention as a literary classic, it’s just not a book

  • bazingabrain@hexbear.netEnglish
    19·
    10 months ago

    Gamers WILL play the communist game, they WILL read the fancy words, they WILL do introspection :dig-the-fucking-coal: (why is this not an emoji yet?!)

        • theposterformerlyknownasgood@hexbear.netEnglish
          13·
          10 months ago

          “Ask yourself: is there something sinister in moralism? And then answer: no. God is in his heaven. Everything is normal on Earth” goes hard as a criticism of “moderates”

          • M68040 [they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
            5·
            10 months ago

            My pet theory prior to Sacred and Terrible Air getting translated into English was that at least some high level moralists were a death cult deliberately trying to cause aggressive pale expansion by trying to make apathetic, noncommittal beliefs the norm at scale. (At this point details concerning the Pale turning aggressive and Revachol getting nuked in the '70s had made it into english speaking circles, but not much else)

            • theposterformerlyknownasgood@hexbear.netEnglish
              4·
              10 months ago

              There’s a thing that gets hinted at one point, that the pale might be a result of the literal theft of the future by governments and corporations, and I really liked that idea. Making the death of the future a literal phenomenon. I have not read sacred and terrible air yet, I’ve got the pdf downloaded but I never got around to it.