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Bowl of Lentils

@bowloflentils.bsky.social

2.9K followers 270 following 830 posts

An occasional YouTuber that enjoys talking about video game history and Japanese adventure games. I was also a lead editor on the Sakura Wars 1 and 2 fan patches. https://www.youtube.com/@bowloflentils

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Bowl of Lentils @bowloflentils.bsky.social · 26d

!!NEW VIDEO!!

This time I cover Chunsoft’s Sound Novel franchise, a hugely important series in the history of Japanese video games that served as the progenitor to the visual novel genre and was a source of inspiration for all kinds of developers.

WATCH - www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9BT...

Thumbnail art for "The History of Chunsoft's Sound Novels" video.

Shows a girl wearing headphones while reading a book. The English and Japanese words SOUND (音楽) and NOVEL (小説) are behind her.

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Bowl of Lentils @bowloflentils.bsky.social · 8h

Oh for sure. It would be cool to see those titles on more systems.

Bowl of Lentils @bowloflentils.bsky.social · 10h

Today's release of Ys vs Trails makes me hopeful that we'll see more localizations of Falcom's back catalog. For example, it would be cool if the Geofront's upcoming fan translations of The White Witch and Dinosaur Resurrection got the same treatment and became official releases.

Artwork for Geofront's translation of The Legend of Heroes III: The White Witch.

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refint/games @refint.games · 13h

It's been a long road, but Ys vs Trails in the Sky: Alternative Saga is finally out today.

Thank you for every message, every word of support, and for your patience.

We promised 2025 and we kept that promise.

illust: Gaha / Studio Pom

#Ys #YsvsTrails #Trails #Falcom

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RPG Site @rpgsite.net · 1d

Against all odds, Ys vs. Trails in the Sky: Alternative Saga finally gets a worldwide launch 15 years after its JP-only PSP release. The end result is a high-effort remaster of a crossover fighter from a bygone era - our impressions: www.rpgsite.net/feature/1867...

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Bowl of Lentils @bowloflentils.bsky.social · 17h

I feel like in the case of Metaphor it helps make the game feel more cohesive, since the 3d models are used during all of the other gameplay. But Dark Auction just felt like it would work better with a fully 2d presentation. Maybe there is more gameplay involving the models in the full game.

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RPG Site @rpgsite.net · 1d

Ahead of its launch, we had a chance to play Ys vs. Trails in the Sky: Alternative Saga on PC and Switch to cover our Steam Deck impressions, PC port features including ultrawide support, & more. A Switch patch with improved resolution on Switch 2 is also coming soon: www.rpgsite.net/feature/1866...

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Bowl of Lentils @bowloflentils.bsky.social · 18h

Right, the demo just suddenly ends before you do any actual puzzle solving. You don't even get properly introduced to the entire cast.

Bowl of Lentils @bowloflentils.bsky.social · 18h

Yeah, Dark Auction looked its best when the 2D art was front and center. I kept thinking during my playthrough that the game should ditch the polygonal models and just place the 2D portraits in the 3D environment (like Danganronpa or even Nippon Ichi's Ichiyanagi Nagomu series).

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Bowl of Lentils @bowloflentils.bsky.social · 1d

The demo ended before the story really got started, so I'm still hoping that the final game will be okay. But Dark Auction's developer, Izanagi Games, also doesn't have the best track record, so I'm keeping my expectations in check. (2/2)

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Bowl of Lentils @bowloflentils.bsky.social · 1d

Just played the demo for Dark Auction, the new ADV by Rika Suzuki (writer of Hotel Dusk/Another Code). The character art by Kohske looks really nice but I honestly have mixed feelings about everything else. The translation, 3D graphics, and the way the story played out were all a bit awkward. (1/2)

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Stealth40k @stealth40k.bsky.social · 1d

New Mario Halloween Art From Nintendo!

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Meisho Doto (REAL) @wanwanattack.qtbrewer.moe · 1d

The demo for Dark Auction, the new game from the Hotel Dusk writer, is up on steam! store.steampowered.com/app/2363180/...

Dark Auction on Steam

Noah lives with his eccentric father, who searches for artifacts linked to “Dictator X.” When he joins a strange auction at an ancient castle, he must solve the mysteries hidden in the items and uncov...

store.steampowered.com

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Tom, Legally Certified Date Simmelier @iiotenki.bsky.social · 1d

Maybe this is only news to me, but signal boosting this anyway because it can't be understated what a treasure trove this archive of Game Freak's zines is. These volumes only show up VERY occasionally online and command a lot of money; obtaining a full set to scan would've cost thousands of dollars.

Sasha's Retrobytes 🏳️‍⚧️ @sharkabytes.bsky.social · 1d

These were added to Internet Archive in their entirety after the Game Freak giga leak, where previously only a handful could be found.

同人誌GAME FREAK : GAME FREAK : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

☆同人誌GAME FREAK.7z タイトルページ数サイズ発行年月日備考 GAME FREAK Vol.1 14 A5 1983/5/28 ...

archive.org

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Imran Khan @imrankhan.bsky.social · 2d

A shower curtain that is a screenshot of Ocarina of Time where the text “Water Temple” is on the screen, hung up over a shower.

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amr al-aaser @siegarettes.bsky.social · 1d

they dropped a proper trailer for the Kamaitachi collab and it's half VN lovers and half confused fighting game fans in the comments
youtu.be/9a5Smsd6YUE?...

Street Fighter 6 x Banshee's Last Cry Special Collaboration Announcement Trailer

YouTube video by Street Fighter

youtu.be

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Bowl of Lentils @bowloflentils.bsky.social · 1d

Hm, I'm not positive but a few Falcom fan sites do list the port on their website (estimating that it came out around October 1984).

tk-nz.game.coocan.jp/ysmusic/scre...

www14.big.or.jp/~nijiyume/fa...

Bowl of Lentils @bowloflentils.bsky.social · 2d

Same! I really loved 428 so I hope we can some day play its spiritual predecessor in English.

Bowl of Lentils @bowloflentils.bsky.social · 2d

Yeah, for sure. The look of the original game is iconic for a reason. Such a shame that we have two English translations of Kamaitachi yet neither one has the blue silhouettes.

Bowl of Lentils @bowloflentils.bsky.social · 2d

Wow, thank you very much for the kind words!

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Bowl of Lentils @bowloflentils.bsky.social · 2d

I remember some old-school fans being upset with Chrono Trigger's re-translation on the DS. Specifically how Frog no longer spoke in Shakespearean English.

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Mato @clydemandelin.bsky.social · 2d

From my book about #Undertale 's official English-to-Japanese translation

I'd like to expand on this for an article on my site, so if you have any examples of "imprinting" situations in fandoms, please let me know

Some quick examples include FF4, FF6, Trails in the Sky, what else?

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Bowl of Lentils @bowloflentils.bsky.social · 2d

This is a two page ad for Kamaitachi no Yoru that features Raita Ryu, an actor famous for playing a detective in Taiyo ni Hoero and who also starred in Kamaitachi's TV commercial. Chunsoft's founder, Koichi Nakamura, was a big fan of the actor and he was even later invited to play a role in Machi.

An ad for Kamiatachi no Yoru, taken from the January 1995 issues of GameWalker.

SOURCE: https://archive.org/details/GameWalker-1995-01/GameWalker%201995%2001/page/38/mode/2up

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Brandon Sheffield @brandon.insertcredit.com · 4d

That silent hillf feeling

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Bowl of Lentils @bowloflentils.bsky.social · 3d

I saw Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Cloud recently and really enjoyed it. It came out in Japan last year but was shown in US theaters earlier this year.

Bowl of Lentils @bowloflentils.bsky.social · 3d

I'd read the heck out of that book.