played oct 2nd (finished oct 15th) for rpgmaker october
after playing this myself w a friend in tow id say heisei pistol show is the better game--this being a remake of a 2003 game forces it to somewhat rein in the more wild tendencies hps lets loose, and it being more subdued is not always a bad thing but it can make it feel too beholden to the blunter theming and rpgm horror conventions of the original that im not as big on. this being said, its one of the most fascinating cases of a remake out there, and even reined-in late oeuvre parun is at a greater power level than almost anyone else working with the engine. coming back to kinder to take the piss out of its own corpse party riffing and its overly sentimental moments with tone smashing cutaway gags and black humor is so much fun, and ironically makes its concerns more believable, more infused w a keen sense of self-deprecation that wont let itself wallow in misery. the motifs you can spot from hps that were added to the remake too (the princess/prince tale, art serving as parallax backgrounds) go to show there was a sincere drive to revisit the project and not just mock it emptily. yuiichi being campier in this version (as far as i can tell) makes him even better as the host of this show. the ending where everyone dies is everything i love abt parun distilled too, literally one of the best bad ends ever.
reaching the credits is too sad knowing this is the last song this author sang to us. a disappearing act at the end of a grand finale is too much to bear when they arent around to hear the applause they deserve.
after playing this myself w a friend in tow id say heisei pistol show is the better game--this being a remake of a 2003 game forces it to somewhat rein in the more wild tendencies hps lets loose, and it being more subdued is not always a bad thing but it can make it feel too beholden to the blunter theming and rpgm horror conventions of the original that im not as big on. this being said, its one of the most fascinating cases of a remake out there, and even reined-in late oeuvre parun is at a greater power level than almost anyone else working with the engine. coming back to kinder to take the piss out of its own corpse party riffing and its overly sentimental moments with tone smashing cutaway gags and black humor is so much fun, and ironically makes its concerns more believable, more infused w a keen sense of self-deprecation that wont let itself wallow in misery. the motifs you can spot from hps that were added to the remake too (the princess/prince tale, art serving as parallax backgrounds) go to show there was a sincere drive to revisit the project and not just mock it emptily. yuiichi being campier in this version (as far as i can tell) makes him even better as the host of this show. the ending where everyone dies is everything i love abt parun distilled too, literally one of the best bad ends ever.
reaching the credits is too sad knowing this is the last song this author sang to us. a disappearing act at the end of a grand finale is too much to bear when they arent around to hear the applause they deserve.
2 Comments
agree agree agree. thinking abt what you said its like esp interestingly employed in the case w this game, where it is abt mental illness which usually brings a bunch of gauche assumptions of what that must entail (and tbf i dont think kinder/re:kinder can 100% beat those allegations but ill overlook a lot of it for a game originally made in 2003), but that distance/sentiment balance as you put it that he built up to over the years gives this a crucial self-awareness that many other "im crazy/sad" type beat horror games lack. like yuuichi constantly deflects from admitting his pain for fear of not being understood n parun's tendency to divert hard from the dramatics for jokes right before their climax parallels that, AND it still has this v real desire to be understood that's felt underneath all those contradictions that in turn works against yuuichi's denying of his true feelings as all he can do. just makes whatever made up rules for games trying to depict this sort of stuff feel so hollow and like theres an obligation to break them as hard as parun did.
SimonDedalus
1 year ago