Without a drop of cynicism, I'm blown away that I can broadcast my thoughts to the internet.
「ハイ ハイ ハロー 調子はどう？」「ユー・アー・リスニング・トゥ・レディオ・ハッピー」
The Ramp-Up
Mic check's all done. How's everyone doing? I'm taking the opportunity to experiment with each Letely entry, so if the structure seems a little inconsistent, that's totally intentional. I wanna keep everyone guessing.
In retrospect, I might have been influenced by the intro segments to Lyle Rath / Wrath Club's Pregame Discharge series on YouTube. "Unpredictable" is an understatement to the wonderfully off-the-wall irreverence so densely packed into the first couple minutes of each episode. It's a "gaming news show" in technical terms, but you can go back and watch old episodes for the pure entertainment factor even if the actual happenings discussed are long-past.
Oop, that's our first mention of video games. We all warmed up? Ready to chat about some games and anime?
Some New Pick-Ups
Senki Zesshou Symphogear
ROGUE FLIGHT
Next up are the bonus modes and achievement hunting!
New Articles!
ULTRA SHOGI
This is a recommendation of the free indie title 超将棋 (Chou-Shogi). Part personal reminiscence, part review, this is a fittingly oddball piece for an oddball game. I think this piece might be a personal favorite of mine, since there's no other place it could have come from but right here.
BUBSY, DESTROYER OF WORDCOUNT
I'm happy to announce that one of my most detailed single-game articles is about Bubsy on the SNES. This was an absolute joy to research and write, all thanks to a casual offhand bet from a friend to cover the game here on the blog. I'm glad I was able to dive down the rabbit-hole on the bobcat game, and the resulting product is something I am immensely proud of.
I have a hub post on Bluesky that links to my countdown thread about the Bubsy book (yes, book!) called Bubsy Bobcat's Totally Authorized Answer Book by Donald R. McCrary and published by Compute Books. Also linked is my initial Bluesky coverage of the game as I played through it for the first time, with some extra screenshot that didn't make it into the final blog article.
Looking Ahead
Aikatsu! x PriPara
Around three weeks ago, the first PV for the Aikatsu! x PriPara film project came out. Release is slated for Autumn 2025. Fun Lete fact, I really like Aikatsu! This crossover film might be what I need to finally dive into PriPara. It'd be a dream come true to be able to attend a screening in person.
Kill the Past
After some conversations on Flower, Sun, and Rain and Grasshopper / Suda51 on Bluesky, the Kill the Past collection of titles is now a prominent part of my games backlog. My experience with titles within or related to Kill the Past is limited to LET IT DIE, Killer is Dead, and a little bit of the aforementioned Flower, Sun, and Rain. Based on some comments, it seems like I'll probably want to start these games from the very first ones chronologically released and work my way forward. All good by me; I like to do that anyway!
And...
- Blue Protocol: Star Resonance was announced less than a week ago. I never got to try the original BP on the JP servers before its relatively quick EOS, so this might be interesting. That said, Star Resonance isn't Bandai Namco, but an outsourced studio based in Shanghai. I'll withhold further comment for now until general release comes around and we can see how the game stands up when put to scale.
- Astebreed 1CC when? Later. I got a friend to install the game, so naturally, that's my excuse to revisit it myself! I've already pocketed an Easy 1CC a couple years ago, so next up is the Normal 1CC grind.
- Finally spent the time to set up PC-98 emulation so that I could get my ass beat by 字慢グランプリ (Jiman Grand Prix), a kanji quiz game preserved by Krugman over at krugman.net, Dirty Floppies, and of course IA. You are not prepared for this game. There are trivia questions referencing Japanese domestic political moments going on 75 years in the past as of writing (er, at least one). Fun diversion, and I'll probably revisit to get my revenge on those wacky questions at some point.
Closing Thoughts
The next couple months promise to be packed with work and fun. I'm not sure how exactly I'll survive at the end of it, but I do know that the one-year anniversary of Better Lete Than Never approaches rapidly, like a Darius boss. What will we do to celebrate? It's a secret! (Translation: I don't know yet!)
Springboard: the Cool Rollback Thread
Now that you're done with this blog update, why not head over and read some other cool stuff?
Game dev Muno posted an incredibly detailed Bluesky thread about rollback netcode here. A dedicated blog-format version can be found here. I love this sort of stuff, and the visuals are simple yet thorough as they show off the problem case and various scenarios of delay-based and rollback-based solutions.
It's cool, check it out if you're at all interested in fighting games or gamedev. It's probably one of the best overviews of rollback I've seen, and really helped me grasp how it functions on a detailed and practical level.
That's all from me!