Neotrogla é desconfortável, com alguns poréms. Esse é um poema de terror feito no Twine, sendo lido em navegador na sua página do itch.io. Eu não sou um cara muito de terror, e não é por ser um negócio assustador, é porque na maioria das tentativas de passar essa sensação específica de medo, eu acabo ficando mais apático do que esperam de mim, por isso acabo não me envolvendo de formas significativas com obras desse tipo. Pelo o que entendi da história, é sobre uma mulher que em meio a vida miserável na sua cidade, acaba focando na sua admiração por insetos. Comparado ao outro trabalho da criadora (Post-Disclosure, Devil's Night), que era algo mais singular, esse aqui é mais amplo. Essa premissa junto ao uso de body horror consegue passar vários significados, reprimir paixões pessoais, o tédio de viver numa cidade ou até auto-imagem, e a sensação de desconforto com si mesmo foi bem passada pela escrita. A história é breve, e em teoria isso devia ser bom, já que não arrasta e cansa menos, mas o ritmo da narrativa é um pouco prejudicado pela brevidade, pois o começo que serve como preparatório pro terror acaba sendo mal desenvolvido e a transição pro terror acaba sendo repentina, mas não nego as duas partes serem interessantes. O prólogo detalhando a vida da protagonista é intrigante, seja pela podridão do ambiente ou pelo psicológico dela, e as partes de terror são desconfortáveis, não me deixaram com medo, mas são desconfortáveis. Neotrogla é um experimentozinho legal, sendo um poema de terror competente feito numa ferramenta open-source de storytelling simples, apesar de ser limitado pela duração e formato escolhido.

Roxy conjures images of decay and desolation in her sophomore work, which explores our symbiosis with the pests that inhabit our homes. our fear of pests lies within seeing those that we do not accept trespassing on our property; a desperate clinging to impose a totalizing will in our domain. to that end, Roxy heightens the terror by marking her own body as the point of infestation, where unknown alien entities lurk under the surface and bubble up at times of strife and anger. with everything physical in the world dominated by insects and parasites, the game paints the descent of the psyche into the world of the roach.

definitely appealed to me based on my current living situation renting a townhouse littered with mouse droppings and roaches. insects I can mostly handle, other than a little incident last week where I bit into a 7-11 cookie that had been sitting on the shelf in a folded-over bag, noticed it tasted off, and then looked at its wrapper that had been crawling with ants. promptly screamed and hurled up into the trash can. also have had to both kill multiple living mice caught in traps or dispose of corpses of ones that have died in our cabinets. no matter how many openings I plug with steel wool (which ends up getting into your clothes and scratching you while you're out and about) there always seems to be new ways for them to get in. I'm definitely getting a cat when I move out.

also great work by conecvltist on the music. enjoyed Concrete Hive the most thanks to its animating, hollow rhythm and the multiple layers of grimy buzzsaw pads littered on top.

C'est la vie

Horror is… not a genre I have a good relationship with, to be honest. And I don’t mean I had bad experiences with bad works, not at all, in fact, in all of my trials of my tribulations with the different pieces that induce fear, there’s only one that I could call ‘’bad’’. So it’s not a matter that I haven’t consumed horror media… rather it’s the fact that I’m a complete and utter coward.

Be it a painting, book, film or videogame, a good piece of horror has an inconceivable amount of power over me, and I know many other people share the same feeling. But between all the types of horror, beyond the monsters and the murderers, beyond the gore and even the psychological horror, what has proved time and time again to be my single biggest fear (aside from arachnophobia) is both the industrial horror and, above all else, the fear of what can lie under our skin, otherworldly, unknow horror that changes us and traps us in our own body, rotting away inwards… so yeah, if you put one of Koji Kondo’s work in a 10 meter radius near me, I would most likely immediately shit my pants.

Neotrogla seems to be tailor made for me, or rather, tailor made to disturb the shit out of me, as it combines these exact two fears and adds insect into the mix, ‘cause who needs sleeping, am I right, folks?

Its briefness may be detrimental to a certain extent, as it makes it have some weird pacing narrative wise, and I feel that the jump into the ‘’’’true’’’’ horror part starts too abruptly considering how slow paced the beginning is, but at the same time, it hasn’t stop it from sticking in my mind a while after beating it. The sheer oppression that the city and walls of steel and concrete ‘cause over the protagonist and the inhabitants, the bug ‘’museum’’ scene, the whole latter half of the game. Is so visceral, yet beautifully written, A dance macabre that gets more horrendous as it goes on, but you can’t stop looking at it. You can’t do anything to stop it. As if Kafka’s ‘’Metamorphosis’’ was made an even more horrendous tragedy, the foulness of what’s happening makes you feel sick to the core, as well as to feel sorry for the protagonist, all while the excellent soundtrack envelops you, paralyzing your whole body to the point the only movement you can perform is shivering. It’s a cacophony of otherworldly and nightmarish sounds, and as few songs as they are, they work perfectly, and my god do they manage to add SOO much.

It's not perfect, as a visual novel it doesn’t stive to be really ‘’visual’’ and again, it seems hampered by its own briefness; but the sheer amount of talent that has been put into this short experience is enormous. Some parts have been left engraved on my mind, and the mixture of both real and impossible horror makes it achieve even greater heights.

The possibility of the makers of this game reading this is once again very real, since this was made people I follow here, and I hope I managed to do it justice with this little review and you enjoyed reading it! ‘cause be assured you sure left an impact on me…

Tonight is gonna be full of itch and paranoia

Buzz Buzz

hey yall i'm back at it again.

basically an expansion of a poem i wrote back in college running to its logical conclusion. featuring music by absolute legend ConeCvltist. This is a naked marketing move by Big Roxy... play my game!

play it here.. Enjoy a short lil' spooky thing.

Dark, repugnant feasts punctuate the creepiest moments of the story, itself soaked in the festering decay of urban life. You can practically hear the cracking of chitin shells and splintered bone as you turn each brilliantly constructed page. Speaking of hearing, the soundtrack, coupled with the few, well-placed and moody pictures, enhances the storytelling from chilling to hair-raising and nightmarish levels of frightening.

Reading Neotrogla brought me back to the time I first discovered Stephen King, to when I listened to clipping.'s darkest tales of encounters with the supernatural and the mental and bodily toll it takes on the scarred protagonists. If Roxy ever decides to release an anthology of horror stories, even in a non-visual novel style, I'd rush to read it in a heartbeat.

The other day I was taking an afternoon walk to get some fresh air and get the blood flowing. I somehow noticed an ant crossing the sidewalk, and instinctively I stepped over it to avoid squashing them by accident. I'm not exactly sure if that's a sign of compassion or a form of superstition, but I like to think it's the former.

Respect little friends. Buzz buzz.

ᙙᙖ <3

...and respect Cone for making those bangers while under college schedule. Goddamn y'all rule. [Includes MagneticBurn who did the cover art in record time]