#grimgrimoire

Today @ 1PM (CT) / 2PM(ET)

GrimGrimoire (PS2)

Shigatake

UNCLE GAMER STUFF #32

Mother. Fucking. Vanillaware.

I'll be honest I'm not even sure what to say about this picture of my collection of Vanillaware games... other then that I hesitated about taking it because I wanna get my hands on the Vita release of Muramasa... but figured that wouldn't happen anytime soon so I just took the shot. But like, I can't possibly compress why I love these games into a like, single page long post, but I'll express some of it at least!

For a company who's games are most famous for their utterly stunning visual art style... and giant boobs, the thing about Vanillaware games I go back to time and time again in my head is the writing, plain and simple. I think most fans will agree with that, but also I can imagine a lot of people who's heads will spin at the idea. And while I could sit here and rattle off the things in the writing that make them good, checklist style, I feel very much that I just can't do it justice without actually like, telling the stories, at which point... just go play the games!

And boy do I mean PLAY, because the gameplay of Vanillaware games is also consistently top-tier stuff. Like their games legit have everything; breath taking art, fantastic writing, wonderful music, and they're friggin fun to play cuz they got that good gameplay. And they've hit several genres too! They're not a one trick wonder company, they're known for their RPGs of course, but like... they blend what that means into other genres so well, beat em ups, lightning action, tactics, ogre battle... they made a Warcraft style game for the friggin PS2! And while they mostly do classic western fantasy, they've also pivoted into Japanese fantasy and high concept sci-fi!

Vanillaware just keeps releasing bangers and I do surely hope to see them continue to succeed and thrive for as long as possible. In a gaming world that's been so suffuse with awful business practices and social-media-first minded companies, Vanillaware just shows up once every so often, drops another mind blower, then disappears, and I friggin love it.

(Hell they take so long between games to the point where I've seen a new trend of blatantly-trying-to-look-like-vanillaware indie/small studio games because clearly people get impatient)

(But also its good that they take as long as they need, btw, thats GOOD)