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[personal profile] lb_lee
Submitted by [personal profile] beepbird! Thank you, [personal profile] beepbird!

"I'm so tired of the bad blood between us. But it's hard to let it go. You've hurt me. And I've also hurt you."

Blurb: You're on a path in the woods, and at the end of that path is a cabin. And in the basement of that cabin is a Princess. You're here to slay her. If you don't, it will be the end of the world.

Why is it worth your time?: Overtly median protagonist where hearing voices is a central part of the narrative, an ever-changing princess whose fluidity of self is emphasized, and it's all amidst a narrative where your choices all have meaningful consequences (despite the time loops). Hearing voices is presented as a strength, not a flaw, and you even have the chance to tell one of them that you missed him.

Plural Tags: nonhumans, the dead, realitymashing, enmity, teamwork, nonswitching (mostly), median, voices, possession

Content Warnings: a detailed list of content warnings written by the developers can be found here (it even breaks it down by route): https://blacktabbygames.com/content-warnings-stp

Accessibility Notes: Game can be purchased from Steam, Gog, itch.io, and on Switch. Dialogue is narrated and the accessibility menu includes font replacement and adjustment, text-to-speech for non-narrated dialogue, and contrast improvements. Game is a visual novel, so it's mostly text, though there are some stunning images that don't give much information that's not also stated in text.

The audio is only available, however, in English. (The text is available in English, French, Italian, German, Spanish (both Catalan and Latin American), Japanese, Korean, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, and both Simplified and Traditional Chinese.)

If the violence is too much for you, ManlyBadassHero did a censored Let's Play here covering all routes and updates.

Misc. Notes (if any): Abuse is not related to the plurality; there's never any explanation given for the voices existing, actually. Check the content warnings for sure on this one. It's definitely a horror game.

Also, there is merch: shirts, stickers, and posters!
lb_lee: A happy little brain with a bandage on it, enclosed within a circle with the words LB Lee. (Default)
[personal profile] lb_lee
"Her horror grows to anger. Her anger grows to rage. Her rage grows to berserker fury. She is not Petra now. She is not even Mayanna. She is..." (from Section 3 Chapter 3 of the prose serial)

Blurb: (adapted from the intro from Section 3 Chapter 3 of the serial) "Modern English schoolgirl Petra Stone is a reincarnation of the matriarchal warrior princess Mayanna. The Princess and the schoolgirl exist as two independent personalities. She has been taken back into ancient matriarchal Britain by an Amazon group: Rahiyana, the leader; Thunder, a seven-foot powerhouse; Whirlwind, the teen tornado and a shape-shifting imp named Uisce. But the evil patriarchal Lord Fear is determined to kill Petra and has sent a powerful and mysterious band known only as the Swarm..."

Why is it worth your time?: This is a heck of a ride: a mostly-lost sword-and-sorcery prose serial and computer game about a lesbian matriarchy whose chosen one is a multiple. The serial is pulpy.

The game is a throwback, even by 1992's standards, but it's spoken of with fondness and respect by text-only game fans, and while we took  a while to get our sea legs, we found it enjoyable with its dreamy, whimsical tone. It's the first computer game I know of with any multi themes at all. Unusually for its time, it involves multiple female party members, all of which you can play by typing the command BECOME WHIRLWIND (or Rahiyana, and so on), so there's a strange element to the player becoming multiple people and questing to bring a different multiple to power. I have never seen a project like this, and it is an odd duck that I'm glad has been salvaged, even piecemeal. If you're into sword and sorcery, or just the oldest multi computer game I've found, give it a shot!

Plural Tags: abuse not mentioned, the dead, nonhumans [goddess, dog], spiritual, switching, possession

Content Warnings: contain spoilers; see comments

Access Notes: The prose serial is the most overtly multi part of this story, and it gives valuable context for the no-intro-given game, so read it first. Sadly, it seems to be mostly lost media; only Section 3: Berserker Chapter 3: Berserker and Section 4: Histories Chapter 1: Trial by Conscience have been scanned, though at least they've been posted online as both PDF and screenreadable plaintext. The special collections at UC Davis may have more?

Both halves of the game can be played thanks to emulator on archive.org, but despite being text-only, it is probably not screenreadable, and only Silverwolf Part 2: the Sacred Mountain has Petra/Mayanna/Silverwolf in it, and in a fairly passive role. (The two halves can be played in any order. We found Part 2 more enjoyable, but if you're dying for completionism, here's the link for Part 1: Quest for the Sword.) There is also a walk-through, which I found invaluable.

There was a comic meant to be released with the game, but far as I know, it never came to be.

Misc Notes: Okay, I fell down a rabbit hole with this one,because it is an odd, odd duck. I am restraining myself from infobricking about the kinky matriarchal Irish women who dressed in Victorian fashion and also became a well-reputed text-only gaming house. What a wild ride.

Also, I'm leaving the authors' names as "various" in the header bar because here are the names associated with this project:
  • Michele Dennis (illustrator of prose)
  • Laeretta Krenne-Genovene (writer of prose)
  • St. Bride's (credited as the game creator, also the name of the group that the creators were part of)
  • Priscilla Langridge or Marianne Scarlett, who were credited as St. Bride's Game Mistresses in this 1986 article from Crash Magazine.
  • Zenobi Software (the company that picked up the Silverwolf game after St. Bride's went bust and actually got the damned thing released)

lb_lee: A happy little brain with a bandage on it, enclosed within a circle with the words LB Lee. (Default)
[personal profile] lb_lee
“I tried. I'm doing my best.”

Blurb: a depressed girl decides to climb a mountain, only to discover that the place brings your mind to life. And the girl's mind really, REALLY doesn't like her. The mountain and her own mind seems to fight her every step of the way, leading her to wonder: why is she doing this?

Why is it worth your time?: It's really good. Easy to learn, hard to win, fun to play, beautiful soundtrack, striking visuals, and weds its themes to its gameplay. I loved playing this game and regret that I've been unable to play the expansion due to injury. We wrote a more personal, spoilers-included explication of why we love it here.

Plural Tags: realitymashing, fusion/integration

Content Warnings: In comments below; contains spoilers. This game is kid-friendly!

Accessibility Notes: This game is HARD. Let's Plays get through it in roughly 20 hours, but it took us 140+, and we haven't done the expansion pack. Access Mode allows you to toggle various settings (such as game speed, increased stamina, and invulnerability) to make it more playable for folks who can't manage the intense twitch reflexes required. I had to use the mode myself to complete the game, and I appreciated that the game did not insult or punish me for it. That said, the voice audio is intentionally jibberish, and the text cannot be resized. There are Let's Plays for this game, but I haven't watched any and thus cannot recommend any in particular.

This game is also available in German, English, Castilian Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese (Portugal), and Russian.

Buy it here!

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