Review: Hakoniwa Explorer Plus (suxamethonium 2018)-sadistic monster girls and wacky action

[@mackerelphones]

I happened to look at this video the other day, and I realized I made a mistake. At 1:42, I say, "There is one ending," but there are actually TWO endings (as I acknowledge later in the video). The only difference between these endings is an alternative final boss and a different credits song. Still, sorry for the mistake. I hope someone got fired for that blunder

[@teruteru6673]

The visuals look gorgeous, something about dense, colorful isometric environments really soothes the soul.

[@jurassicarkjordanisgreat1778]

The music for this game is so awesome. I bought the soundtrack and been listening to it for years. So underrated

[@brinklebros7136]

this game is a master piece. I have been learning java recently and have been doing sprite art for over a decade and It is my dream to recreate this framework and polish it to the next level.

[@hrommurchendain7820]

Well, sometimes trashy things do become sincere. For me, there's a certain comfort to stupidity and triteness, which more polished works or sophisticated ones fail to recapture. Such trite games include, for example, Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure and Fortune Summoners: A Secret of The Elemental Stone, where cute girls go on silly adventures to be the best thing they can be, whether it's to get the prince back or just be the best buds and stop the evil. In their cheapness and derivity they still produce the kinds of environment and music that inspires something pure and clear in me, their desing full of that childish wonder and a certain familiarty, so that I cannot hate it in any way. I can only awe at it. Or maybe I just like cute anime girls, and it was just a delusion and a justification for me to interact more with them? Who knows! Who's to say that butt-slashing isometric album full of vulgarity and beauty can't have the same comfort, that games, like Journey, claim to produce? Hell, I've even found Total Overodose, with its stereotypical Mexican gibberish, sincere and fun! Sorry for sloppy writing: first time commenting.

[@mackerelphones]

I feel like what might distinguish something like Hakoniwa Explorer Plus or other similarly trashy or sort of thematically shallow stuff is sincerity. I don't know about Fortune Summoners or Rhapsody, but in Hakoniwa at least, it feels like the creators *cared* about what they were doing, and that goes a long way, at least in terms of how the video game "feels"

[@hrommurchendain7820]

@@mackerelphones Exactly. Now, as I think, all my points (e.g. "childish wonder and a certain familiarity") stem from sincerity. It is so sincere, as to become endearing. But I would argue, there's also one element, that elevates sincerity, and it is *simplicity* of intent. Hakoniwa is simple in its intent, as it just wants to fulfill a sexual fantasy of sorts, so its sincerity comes off a little clearer. But such game as Armed & Delirious (this point and click adventure game from 1997, which was once featured on Game Dungeon by Ross Scott) clearly is sincere with the amount of unique models and locations present, but so obtuse and incomprehensible, as to become literally unplayable without a guide. But that's kind of endearing in its own way, right? World is a hard thing to understand...

[@mackerelphones]

@@hrommurchendain7820 Now see, with GrannyX/Armed & Delirious, most people who know about it seem to consider it terrible. And in a lot of ways, I see why they think that. But to me, it's so bizarre and unique that, even for all the obtuse design decisions and general inexplicable cruelty, I can't dislike it. Who's to say that, "objectively," it's bad to be virtually impossible to figure out? Who says the creators want anyone to complete it? But that said, GrannyX does not make me happy, like Hakoniwa. I think it is because Hakoniwa's intent is super-clear, like you said, and also clearly cutesy and silly, whereas GrannyX makes me feel like there's something terrifying that I'm missing

[@hrommurchendain7820]

@@mackerelphones I feel like what might be missing, at least for me, is: Who the hell is Grandma/Granny? Yes, she’s a member of the Crotony family, mostly isolated from others and an alcoholic, selfish and sadistic. But that’s all we know! The main thing we assume would be telling of her are the worlds and places she visits, following Yume Nikki logic. But GrannyX’s worlds are jumbled and deformed images of everyday places. I think, the European name "Dimentia" with tagline “It’s a state of mind” is the most telling. We literally explore the state of mind of a person with this horrible disease. It’s almost like the stage 6 of “Everywhere At The End Of Time” album, without any buildup, just sheer cacophony of once recognizable locales. At least, in Hakoniwa we know exactly what’s going on, even though this is mostly achieved through familiar design tropes. But I find that madness rather compelling, at least the visual results it produces. So, yeah, one more thing to sincerity, simplicity and cuteness is familiarity. This is getting more complex with each comment!

[@hughlingard]

i was laughing my ass off throughout this review tysm 😂😂

[@NIGH11]

You had me at pervy landstalker.

[@TheDaoOfLatino]

I'll take whatever video you post; no matter how beefy you think it is or isn't.

[@beboxit]

truly a man of culture

[@VjRoboZ]

Verdaderamente un hombre de cultura

[@culIen]

I like liking and enjoy commenting comments

[@shavingrabbid]

Evil Sukumizu is truly evil and hot

[@Whoopsie_woggzy]

good video essay

[@samwill7259]

Maybe they ARE made of goo. Some people are into that

[@samwill7259]

@@mackerelphones Talk about a missed opportunity!

[@mackerelphones]

Some of them *are* goo-based, the "golems." (An earlier comment from me that I deleted said all the slimes were ONLY slimes, and never women--which is true, but there were ALSO goo girls! I forgot the golems! That's what sam will was responding to)

[@neatsquid2640]

Cool beans.