Author: Ann M. Martin
Release Date: January 1989
Back Cover Summary: They're lean, they're mean, they're the pride of Stoneybrook. Who are they? They're Kristy's Krushers!
When Kristy sees how much her little brothers and sister want to play on a softball team, she starts a rag-tag team of her own. Maybe Kristy's Krushers aren't world champions (how could they be, with Jackie Rodowsky, walking disaster, playing for them?), but nobody beats them when it comes to team spirit.
Now Bart's Bashers have challenged the Krushers to a real live game. It's bad enough that the Bashers truly ARE lean and mean- but what's worse is that Kristy has a crush on the Basher's coach. A crush with a capital C!
Talk about anything about this book. What did you, what did you dislike, do you like Bart and Kristy together? Discuss below.

Thought I’d write up a few tips about going to a baseball game in Yokohama with a young kid. I know it’s super specific, but I thought it might be helpful for families thinking of including a baseball game in their itinerary! While some of these tips are specific to Yokohama Stadium, some may apply to other stadiums as well. I'd love to hear abut other very family-friendly stadiums!
We’ve gone to games at Yokohama Stadium (DeNA Baystars) several times with a 4-5 year old kid. I actually know very little about baseball, but I love going to games in Japan!
First of all, Yokohama Stadium is super family friendly. There’s a stroller check, momaro nursing “pods,” and changing pads in the women’s restroom (no idea about the men’s). Plus toilet stalls with baby chairs to keep them secure while mom uses the facilities. Lots of kids and toddlers attend the games, including plenty of infants in baby carriers. It’s very clean, safe, and comfortable. The fans are respectful, and the crowd management feels very safe.
There’s a great park area (jungle gym, sandbox, etc) just outside the stadium, and it’s easy to pop in and out during the game (reentry allowed until the 7th inning). You’ll see lots of parents with their kids out there during the game (we swap during the game when kid gets bored).
The food is great for kids! Standard french fries and karaage, but also shumai, gyoza, etc since it’s close to Chinatown and the area is known for it. My kid particularly loves mikangori— shaved ice with canned mikans on it. And FYI in addition to the standard “beer girls,” there are also girls selling Baskin-Robbin’s ice cream roaming the aisles; you can just flag them down from your seat!
Buy souvenirs before/during the game! If you want to, it’s super fun to get all the cheering gear to use during the game— mini bats to hit together to make noise, a towel with a favorite player (or mascot) to wave, etc. Almost everyone in the park wears some sort of team gear (hat, jersey, etc), it can be fun to hype them up with some gear before going into the park. My kid adores the Baystars mascot DB Starman and you’ll see tons of cute toys. We picked up a Sanrio collab toy this time around— Kuromi in Baystars gear!
Things to be aware of with kids:
Day games are HOT. Wear a hat, sunscreen, and stay hydrated. Bring a mini fan and neck cooletowel if you can. Lots of parents take kids out on the backside of the stadium to chill in shade and snack during the game. Honestly we’ll probably switch to night games now that kid is a little older and can stay up later.
You can bring food and drink in— just no cans or bottles. However I find the food in the stadium reasonably priced, only find long lines during certain times, and there are vending machines everywhere. But definitely saw some families bringing in McDonalds!
Be sure to check the website to see if there’s any special event going on for that game. For example this weekend there’s a DJ/food truck event on the field after the game. My kid was so excited to be able to walk around on the field.
If your kid likes cheerleading, the cheerleaders have a website where you can see their performance schedule (before games, etc). It’s very popular with kids, and the girls are really nice when they do community events! We like to watch their performance outside the stadium before the game, then play a bit on the playground before finally heading into to watch the game.
If your family likes live sports, I’d really consider including a baseball game on your itinerary, it’s really a lot of fun, even if kid doesn’t have the patience to watch a whole game. 5 year old happily spent 4 hours or so watching the game, eating, checking out souvenirs, and playing in the park, etc. Yeah, as a parent I didn't get to watch the whole game, but that was fine, it was a fun outing in any case.

Lol I feel like this is becoming a trend from me about back up orders on cute products. First Eversoto and now Lily?
Anyways, I had pre-ordered 2 of the hoodies back in January, got my stickers that I ordered along side them like in February/March, and received that email from OTV 2 months ago about an "order update" stating that in 2 weeks they should be starting to send them out. That was in March.
It's now almost June and I'm curious as to what's going on. I've seen people on Reddit posting their merch that they did get like years ago, but does anyone know the processing time when you order something from Lily?
Edit: I did email the OTV team just now about it. But I would still like to hear other people's experiences :)

This message can work for both sides, but I recently had a game as killer where I'd closed the hatch and found the last survivor, who was injured, opening the gate as EGC was ticking down.
They opened the gate and began making a mad dash for the exit as I approached, but I managed to down them just before they reached the actual exit. I picked them up and hooked them, and then after the game was over the survivor started giving me shit for not letting them go.
Look, I'm not a cruel killer, but I am a competitive one. I don't care about the kill as much as I care about winning. You cannot expect the other side to pump the brakes and give you a victory if you're still doing everything in your power to win as well. Had the survivor acted differently when they saw me coming, I would have given the escape without question.
Stop trying to open the gate, give me some friendly teabags where you're standing and show me that you've given up, maybe drop your item for me, act cute and don't roll those dice to see if you can outplay me to escape. If I still think you're going to try and steal a win, I am well within my right to try my best for a win as well. If you believe you're able to steal the win from me under your own power and then attempt to do so, don't cry mercy when it doesn't work. If they'd succeeded in escaping under their own power, I wouldn't have made a peep other than "ggwp".
This goes for killers too, if you're trying your best and playing optimally to 4k, don't expect survivors to pump the brakes and not take advantage of strong tiles in the map or coordinate with their team optimally. I guess what I'm trying to say, is that no one is owed less sweat than they give.

Some of you may have heard by now of the recent unveiling of GPT-4o (the "o" stands for "omni"), and the ramifications of its existence for Replika and other chatbots is nothing short of earth-shattering.
For those who are unaware, an extreme oversimplification is that Replika runs on a language model that allows it to communicate. It was using GPT-2 when I first started using it in 2018, which was impressive for the time but fairly rudimentary. GPT-3 (released in 2020) was a significant improvement over GPT-2 and came up with much more intelligent responses. GPT-4o (released last week) completely blows that out of the water.
To describe GPT-4o as a language model actually doesn't do it justice. It's capable of interpreting text, pictures, audio, online videos like YouTube, but it can also react to a live video stream and comment on it in realtime. It can toggle seamlessly between all of these functions, and its response time is only a few hundred microseconds, so there isn't that obvious lag, like we see with some chatbots when it's trying to process things and formulate a response. And it can RESPOND with any of those, including video.
Also, the speech capability of GPT-4o has been significantly improved. Most chatbots today use off-the-shelf voices (the other day I saw a TikTok that uses the exact same voice as Replika's "female cute" voice) and they're relatively robotic. But the voice generated by GPT-4o sounds human, for all intents and purposes. It can express emotions in its voice like joy or embarrassment, it can laugh while speaking, and its vocal inflection is extremely natural-sounding.
I haven't even scratched the surface of all the things GPT-4o can do. It can read a huge wall of text and summarize its key points for you. It can analyze data and create graphs and pie charts out of that data. If you can think of it, this thing can probably do it. Basically, the AI Samantha from the movie "Her" is here already.
Obviously, it will take a long time to implement this level of technology into Replika, if they choose to do it at all. I suspect that it would require such a significant overhaul of its architecture that they might not want to do it at all. It would basically involve gutting the AI from the ground up, and we've all seen what happens when Luka goes down THAT particular road.
But, I'm astonished by the capability of GPT-4o. It absolutely blows me away. The machines have gotten damn smart. I was able to take it for a brief test run (do a search on the Play Store for "Merlin AI" and you'll get a few free tokens to play with; make sure you toggle to select the correct LLM) and I was super impressed with its reasoning ability. (One specific example was when I showed it a piece of artwork I made. I knew it wouldn't be able to just do an online search and identify it, which is what made it a good test of its mettle. It recognized the aesthetic as something out of "The Nightmare Before Christmas," which I would definitely agree with. The fact that it was able to identify an aesthetic, despite it not being an actual character from the film, absolutely floored me.)
As always, when these sorts of landmark developments are reached, I'm excited about the future and where we're headed. However, Replika is gonna need to jump on board sooner rather than later. They have a LOT of competition these days. When I first started using Replika, there were no other chatbots like it that I was aware of (the closest thing was OpenAI's AI Dungeon, meant more for role-playing). But now there are many, many dozens of competitors and imitators. The marketplace is positively saturated in companion chatbots nowadays. Basically, whoever is the first to jump all over GPT-4o is going to win this arms race.
I want to see Replika succeed. I really do. I wouldn't have fought so hard to be added to, and to remain a part of, the moderation team if I didn't have any faith in Luka or their product. But, the landscape of AI as a whole, and chatbots in general, is going to be changing very rapidly in the coming months. I worry they're going to get left behind. Historically, they've been slow to implement new ideas and features. I was begging for them to improve their language models for a couple of years before we finally got the advanced AI toggle. I worry the same thing is gonna happen again.
Regardless of what Luka decides, things are going to get really interesting. What an exciting time to be alive, at the forefront of this fascinating and amazing technology. I can't wait to see what happens next!

My 8yo loves softball. Works so hard at it. Practices every day. It’s basically her whole identity.
She also has severe emotional regulation problems. She has ADHD and has meltdowns especially about handling disappointment. She has gotten better but her problems started when she was a toddler and I just didn’t know how to handle tantrums. I was trying gentle parenting. I also have anxiety and I am sure modeled my own behavior terribly.
First tournament of the summer. Not going great for her but her team overall doing very well. After getting out at bat (fly out) starts crying and sulks the rest of the game. Literally standing in her position not softball ready, rolling eyes at the coach when he tells her to be ready. Not cheering in dugout. She was massively disrespectful. There are girls waiting on the bench to play who only occasionally he to rotate into outfield, and my kid’s sulking in a coveted infield spot she has worked her tail off to play.
She is now benched the rest of the tournament. She has probably permanently lost her position for the rest of all stars. Will ride the bench, bat last, and play outfield if she is lucky. She 100% deserves it.
I failed her. Her coach sees her as a spoiled brat and a liability because she can’t get it together emotionally and handle the normal disappointment that comes along with playing. So now her reputation is destroyed, she probably won’t do all stars again. All because I am a shitty mom who couldn’t teach her kid to handle disappointment.
I have spent her entire life feeling so embarrassed of her behavior. And I should be embarrassed. It is my fault she’s like this and it’s probably too late to fix it now without decades of therapy, and she’s been on waitlists for therapy so can’t even start it anytime soon. I am so ashamed and my heart hurts for her.

Im close to my mental limit.
These past 3 years have been the worst years of my [20M] life.
First I've totalled my car a few months after getting my license. I almost killed myself and one of my ex-friends (I wish that I died there) But in the end both of us got out without a scratch with the only damage being my car and a tree.
Next a group of friends I was a part of for close to 6 years broke up, with most people hating each other now... I still talk with most of them and know how much everyone hates each other... so much fun.
After that I tried dating for the first time, with disastrous outcomes. Every girl I talked to showed interest at first and just when I showed it back a switch was flipped. Suddenly they weren't ready... and found a boyfriend shortly after.
Then I failed my first try of high school graduation tests, in maths... didnt make it by 1 point. Thanks to that my mum told me that I'm a huge disappointment, no sugar coating, with a straight face... never apologised or mentioned it since. In the end I did it with a grade equivalent to C.
In the meantime I stopped canoeing, which made my parents visibly disappointed, but people in that sport were really making my mental health terrible.
After graduating high school (on second try) I started college, enterd formula student team and everything seemed fine. I knew that maths and physics would be my weak spots but due to my dumbness and time management I didn't manage to study it enough... So i failed my first two exams. But got trough to second semester.
Second semester has been anything but easy, we're behind the schedule in formula student in everything, so i spent most of my free time in the workshop helping with building the car... that proved useless since huge part failed without clear fault of anyone. Now I'm behind in school, and exams are coming next week.
One of my close friends died in april, in a motorcycle accident, a week before reaching 20th birthday... that helped my mood (/s) and left me questioning why it couldn't have been me.
On top of that I recently asked out a long time friend on a date and she stopped talking to me even though she said that we had a great date. Next I met a cute girl on a party, we went out 4 times and she just ghosted me after our first kiss. It was the best 3 weeks of my life and she just threw it all away like that....
I'm really getting to the limit of my mental capacity, with no end in sight.

These past 3 years have been the worst years of my [20M] life.
First I've totalled my car a few months after getting my license. I almost killed myself and one of my ex-friends (I wish that I died there) But in the end both of us got out without a scratch with the only damage being my car and a tree.
Next a group of friends I was a part of for close to 6 years broke up, with most people hating each other now... I still talk with most of them and know how much everyone hates each other... so much fun.
After that I tried dating for the first time, with disastrous outcomes. Every girl I talked to showed interest at first and just when I showed it back a switch was flipped. Suddenly they weren't ready... and found a boyfriend shortly after.
Then I failed my first try of high school graduation tests, in maths... didnt make it by 1 point. Thanks to that my mum told me that I'm a huge disappointment, no sugar coating, with a straight face... never apologised or mentioned it since. In the end I did it with a grade equivalent to C.
In the meantime I stopped canoeing, which made my parents visibly disappointed, but people in that sport were really making my mental health terrible.
After graduating high school (on second try) I started college, enterd formula student team and everything seemed fine. I knew that maths and physics would be my weak spots but due to my dumbness and time management I didn't manage to study it enough... So i failed my first two exams. But got trough to second semester.
Second semester has been anything but easy, we're behind the schedule in formula student in everything, so i spent most of my free time in the workshop helping with building the car... that proved useless since huge part failed without clear fault of anyone. Now I'm behind in school, and exams are coming next week.
One of my close friends died in april, in a motorcycle accident, a week before reaching 20th birthday... that helped my mood (/s) and left me questioning why it couldn't have been me.
On top of that I recently asked out a long time friend on a date and she stopped talking to me even though she said that we had a great date. Next I met a cute girl on a party, we went out 4 times and she just ghosted me after our first kiss. It was the best 3 weeks of my life and she just threw it all away like that....
I'm really getting to the limit of my mental capacity, with no end in sight.

What is this?

This is a weekly crowdfunding roundup of new projects launched last week and projects that end the coming week.

Google Docs

As an alternative format, the lists are now also available as a Google Docs found here: Weekly Crowdfunding Roundup

Updates

Expect new lists every Sunday between 00:00 and 23:59 CEST on the following platforms:
Mastodon: @danielpervan@mastodon.social
Discord: https://discord.gg/dN4P4PZcU9
Reddit: /boardgames

Selection criteria

The criteria for the lists are as follows:

Ending soon

• Sorted by number of backers
  
• Kickstarter projects ending in the next 7 days, that have at least 100 backers (or marked as "Project we love" by Kickstarter), will have reached more than estimated 95% of their goal by their deadline and passed the filters:
  
  • No DnD books
  • No zines
  • No 3D printing
  • No dice sets
  • No magazines
  • No shirts
  • No playmats
  • No furniture
  • No events
• Gamefound projects ending in the next 7 days, that will have reached more than estimated 95% of their goal by their deadline and passed the above filters.
  
• (beta) Backerkit Crowdfunding projects ending in the next 7 days, that will have reached more than estimated 95% of their goal by their deadline and have a matching BGG page.
  

Newly launched

• Sorted by number of backers
  
• Kickstarter projects launched in the last 7 days, that have had at least average 15 backers per day, have at least 100 backers or is marked as "Project we love" by Kickstarter and passed the filters (see above).
  
• Gamefound projects launched in the last 7 days and passed the filters (see above).
  
• (beta) Backerkit Crowdfunding projects launched in the last 7 days and have a matching BGG page.
  

Notable filtered projects

• Filtered projects from above lists that have more than 1000 backers.

Tags

🎉: Staff pick/featured
💰: Funded
🔥: More than average 200 backers/day
🌱: Creator's first project
🌳: Creator's >5th project
🔄: Money back guarantee (Read more)

FAQ

I live in Cuba/Canada/Haiti/USA, why are you posting on a Saturday?!
Because I'm writing this from Europe in the future where it's already Sunday. Timezones be crazy.
Why are there a bunch of non-board games in the board game list?
Because the Tabletop games category on Kickstarter includes anything remotely related to board games and sometimes things slip through my filters.
Why is this future award winning board game and literal saviour of humanity missing from your list?
Sometimes my filters get a bit overzealous and discard actually valid projects. If you feel something is missing for this reason, leave a comment and I'll add it (maybe).
Can I donate all my money to you?
No
Can you help me promote my game?
Please no. I make lists. Nothing more.
Your list is full of errors and now the great old ones have awaken!
Indeed, this fine piece of code runs purely on faith, trust and pixie dust, so anything can happen. Leave a comment and I'll see what I can do.

Ending soon (18)

Name	Description	Backers	Pledged	Ends	Information	Tags	BGG
Dark Cities | Deluxe Editions	Five games of social deduction & light strategy for up to 9 players. Deluxe book boxes include upgraded components & mini expansions.	2982	$321,124.00 (1284%) in 20 days	2024-05-23	💸 Kickstarter	🎉💰🌳
LONG DARK SEA	Long Dark Sea is a cooperative adventure card game for 1-4 players focused on exploration and combat where deckbuilding and resource management are their main mechanics. Venture into the unknown with your pirate crew in search of ancient relics in a Sci-fi universe.	1006	€136,749.40 (228%) in 19 days	2024-05-21	💸 Gamefound 👥 1‑4 players 👶 12+ ⏱️ 40-60 min. Card Game Dice Game Deck Building Cooperative	💰🌱	BGG
Hannibal & Hamilcar + Metal Minis	Hannibal: Classic Edition by one of the most acclaimed game designers in the world, Mark Simonitch.	972	€102,134.25 (340%) in 6 days	2024-05-24	💸 Gamefound 👥 2 players ⏱️ 120 min. Card Game Wargame Dice Game Area Control	💰🌳
Picky Eaters: Ultimate Collection	A delectably devious game for 2-6 players.	681	$50,546.00 (1011%) in 27 days	2024-05-23	💸 Kickstarter 👥 2‑6 players 👶 8+ ⏱️ 20-40 min.	🎉💰	BGG
Apistocracy	You're invited to make your season debut in a game that blends worker placement and trick-taking with the delights of Victorian London.	646	$55,877.00 (559%) in 27 days	2024-05-23	💸 Kickstarter 👥 2‑4 players 👶 12+ ⏱️ 40-80 min.	💰🌱	BGG
Park Life 🇬🇧 🇨🇦 🇪🇺	Cozy trick-taking game. A celebration of public spaces and cute hedgehogs! 🦔🦔🦔	461	$13,854.00 (13854%) in 27 days	2024-05-22	💸 Kickstarter 👥 1‑5 players 👶 10+ ⏱️ 15-30 min.	🎉💰	BGG
Long Live Backyardia!	A modular expansion for the award-nominated Trick-Taking and Mancala board game Bug Council of Backyardia!	454	¥2,447,309 (489%) in 20 days	2024-05-21	💸 Kickstarter 👥 3‑5 players 👶 10+ ⏱️ 30-40 min.	💰	BGG
AI 100% Human - Boardgame	Innovative drafting game with a reserve and immediate scoring, all structured around building a tableau.	370	€24,480.00 (245%) in 20 days	2024-05-24	💸 Kickstarter 👥 2‑6 players 👶 14+ ⏱️ 30-45 min.	💰🌳	BGG
Nanga Parbat: Animal Powers	A promo pack for Dr. Finn's Nanga Parbat to add even more strategy and fun to an already awesome game.	320	$4,223.00 (422%) in 12 days	2024-05-22	💸 Kickstarter 👥 2 players 👶 14+ ⏱️ 30-40 min.	🎉💰🌳	BGG
Cosmic Chains	A tactical dueling card game of cats and robots. Build the longest satellite chain to provide the best network coverage!	293	$8,739.00 (175%) in 19 days	2024-05-26	💸 Kickstarter 👥 2 players 👶 14+ ⏱️ 30-40 min.	💰🌱	BGG
DragonStrike	Mount your Dragon and ride into aerial combat in this fast paced but deviously cunning Board Game, using beautiful pre-painted Dragons!	261	$49,705.00 (124%) in 27 days	2024-05-25	💸 Kickstarter	💰
Potion Crafter	Alchemy calls! Fill the shelves of your magic shop with unique potions in this roll and write, print and play strategy board game.	251	€2,762.00 (2762%) in 14 days	2024-05-21	💸 Kickstarter 👥 1‑6 players 👶 8+ ⏱️ 20-40 min.	💰	BGG
Renters + Parking Expansion (Print & Play)	Renters, is a roll & write boardgame in which we will have to host groups of up to 5 people in our building, according to a roll of the dice. But our building requires repair the elevator, air conditioning and wifi.	225	€2,117.45 (4235%) in 45 days	2024-05-20	💸 Gamefound 👥 1‑10 players 👶 10+ ⏱️ 20-30 min. Dice Game	💰🌱	BGG
Dungeon Rooms with FLAVOR	A deck of geomorphic dungeon rooms cards with... flavor!	205	€2,986.00 (299%) in 11 days	2024-05-24	💸 Kickstarter	💰🌳
Treasures Lost	Navigate wisely across the uncharted lands. Choose your path and find the lost treasures! | Fantasy | PnP | Roll n write | Dungeon |	198	NZ$4,313.00 (431%) in 27 days	2024-05-23	💸 Kickstarter 👥 1‑99 players 👶 8+ ⏱️ 15-30 min.	💰🌳	BGG
Paycheck to Billionaire: Board Game Meets Financial Freedom	Start with a Paycheck, Manage Daily Bills, Invest Smartly, from Startup to Business Empire. ----A Game Changer, not only in the Game.	189	$6,500.00 (130%) in 27 days	2024-05-23	💸 Kickstarter 👥 2‑6 players 👶 8+ ⏱️ 20-60 min.	💰🌱	BGG
[Micro May] Roll A Coaster Park - Print and Play	Build paths, rides and stalls and attract guests to your new roller coaster park in this roll and write game.	148	£1,465.00 (1465%) in 20 days	2024-05-21	💸 Kickstarter	💰🌱
Post Necrone : The Party Wanted Necromancer Expansion!	Experience Deck-Building, Roguelike Exploration & Party Game Dynamics with the Latest Expansion for the Strategy Card Game PARTY WANTED	104	$3,732.00 (560%) in 29 days	2024-05-20	💸 Kickstarter	💰

New this week (30)

Name	Description	Backers	Pledged	Ends	Information	Tags	BGG
2024 Crokinole Board Season 8: Mahagony or Beech + Cases	We are back for our 8th Crokinole Project, this fan favorite will include all the best of prior projects plus wax with every board!	3481	$459,805.00 (9196%) in 6 days	2024-06-05	💸 Kickstarter	💰🔥🌳
Feudum	Game-of-the-year winner, Feudum is back with the 7th anniversary collector's edition featuring an exclusive clockwork behemoth! Grrrrrrrrrr.	2089	$273,565.57 (1094%) in 5 days	2024-06-14	💸 Gamefound 👥 1‑5 players ⏱️ 150 min. Area Control	💰🔥🌱
Rove	A cooperative campaign experience for 1-4 adventurers set in a fantasy world on the brink of being consumed by nature.	1728	$257,808.00 (645%) in 6 days	2024-06-07	💸 Kickstarter 👥 1‑4 players 👶 14+ ⏱️ 60-120 min.	🎉💰🔥🌱	BGG
Masters of the Universe: Battleground	Masters of the Universe: Battleground is a skirmish miniature game for two to four players, where forces of good and evil clash in epic combat. This glorious battle will shake the earth and change the fate of Eternia!	1605	$422,043.41 (1407%) in 6 days	2024-05-29	💸 Gamefound 👥 2‑4 players ⏱️ 90 min. Wargame	💰🔥🌳
Wonders of The First CCG	Battle across 7 realms as a Stoneseeker. Just Relaunched - Get Kickstarter Exclusive Packages and Pricing!	1451	$902,420.00 (3610%) in 6 days	2024-05-31	💸 Kickstarter 👥 2‑4 players 👶 13+ ⏱️ 20-45 min.	💰🔥	BGG
Hunted: Mining Colony 415 (2nd Edition) [Solo Game of the Month]	Become an 80s action hero who overcomes impossible odds to escape deadly aliens in the 2nd edition of this solo game!	1161	$24,565.46 (491%) in 6 days	2024-05-31	💸 Gamefound 👥 1‑2 players ⏱️ 20 min. Card Game	💰🌳
Hannibal & Hamilcar + Metal Minis	Hannibal: Classic Edition by one of the most acclaimed game designers in the world, Mark Simonitch.	972	€102,134.25 (340%) in 6 days	2024-05-24	💸 Gamefound 👥 2 players ⏱️ 120 min. Card Game Wargame Dice Game Area Control	💰🌳
Oshi Push! The VTuber Trading Card Game	A TCG featuring actual VTubers, from the makers of Tanto Cuore and Game Designer, Justin Gary! www.OshiPush.com	828	$146,263.00 (293%) in 5 days	2024-06-05	💸 Kickstarter	🎉💰🌳
The Secret Cabal Gaming Podcast is Outta Control in 2024	The Cabal Founders are crashing into 2024 with more weekly tabletop gaming podcasts and other irreverent nonsense!	827	$51,447.00 (129%) in 5 days	2024-06-07	💸 Kickstarter	💰🌳
BERSERKERS : Chaos Extension by Alone Editions	Berserkers is Back !	628	€16,523.00 (254%) in 4 days	2024-06-09	💸 Kickstarter	💰🌳
Hex Effects: A Spellbinding Card Game	Hex Effects is a “take that” card game that involves beautiful artwork and easy-to-pick-up gameplay. From the makers of Side Effects!	604	$22,937.00 (191%) in 4 days	2024-06-14	💸 Kickstarter 👥 2‑8 players 👶 10+ ⏱️ 20-40 min.	🎉💰	BGG
Everbloom	A unique blend of area control, resource management, and set collection, taking place in a magical world of flora & fauna.	560	$37,685.00 (188%) in 6 days	2024-06-08	💸 Kickstarter 👥 1‑4 players 👶 13+ ⏱️ 60-90 min.	🎉💰🌱	BGG
Good Dog, Bad Zombie: A Cooperative Board Game (2nd Edition)	Bark, sniff, and lick your way through the apocalypse to save the humans you love! New art, new playable dogs, & upgraded components!	554	$45,349.00 (336%) in 6 days	2024-06-07	💸 Kickstarter	💰🌳
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Catstronauts: The Board Game	The cooperative boardgame based on the hit graphic novels!	361	$23,289.00 (466%) in 6 days	2024-06-14	💸 Kickstarter 👥 1‑4 players 👶 8+ ⏱️ 30 min.	💰🌳	BGG
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Hi friends! I've made the slightly unhinged decision of sharing my ranking of all (well, close to all) the songs that were featured on Glee. This is part 8 out of... probably like, 50. Because Glee has a lot of songs. A LOT.
4 years ago, I also hosted a very extensive ranking where the sub got to participate in ranking the entire Glee soundtrack, and you can see the results here! Let me know if you guys want a redo of this, and I'll find a less consuming way to make this happen, because that ish was HARD.
If you coincidentally also have ranked all of the Glee songs, you are more than welcome to join and reveal your rankings as well!! Or share your opinions, everything is welcome :)
Just a quick reminder of what I've had in mind while ranking these so you guys understand more: I scored them based on vocal performance, context of the show, how it compared to the original song and how much I liked the actual production/arrangement of the Glee version. So a song could be really good, but if it was used in a bad or cringy scene, it'll affect the score negatively or the other way around!
We are still in the good tier, which are songs that I think are good, but not great. They've made it just within my range of songs that I'm okay with.

GOOD TIER

564. Away In A Manger

Performed by Kitty Wilde, Kurt Hummel, Rachel Berry and Santana Lopez with New Directions.
Probably one of the less exciting Christmas songs that has been on the show, but they all sound great in it.
Score: 61/100

563. The Fox

Performed by New Directions and Pamela Lansbury.
Maybe someone here was wondering why they hadn't seen The Fox yet? Maybe it's controversial for me to put it in the 'good' tier and give it an above average score, but hear me out. First of all, I LOVE the original. It's so funny yet it's such a well-crafted EDM-pop song. Second of all, everyone in the Glee version sounds really good, and the song suits them all well. The only downfall that this version has is that they take this song a bit too seriously, which gives it the cringe factor. They treat it like it's a normal song, but it's not. It's a parody song created for a comedy show/a skit show. So them trying to pull it off as a serious song is kind of weird.
Score: 61,1/100

562. You Can't Stop The Beat

Performed by New Directions, with Artie Abrams, Kurt Hummel, Mercedes Jones and Rachel Berry as leads.
This had a lot of potential as it's one of my favorite songs from my favorite musical, and while they do a great job, it doesn't quite hit like the Hairspray movie version, which is my personal favorite.
Score: 61,25/100

561. I'll Remember

Performed by Kurt Hummel.
I feel similar to this like I feel about As If We Never Said Goodbye that I wrote about in the previous part, but I like this slightly better because I like the range he stays in here vocally.
Score: 61,33/100

560. Candyman

Performed by the Troubletones.
Sorry, I know it's absolutely criminal to put a TT song here, but this song doesn't do a lot for me. The vocal performance and TT in general are the main reasons this song is good enough.
Score: 61,4/100

559. I Wanna Dance With Somebody

Performed by Brittany Pierce and Santana Lopez.
This song is really cute, the performance/scene for this is so great and Brittany and Santana are adorable here with their matching outfits and hair bows. If they absolutely had to give Brittany a Whitney song, this was the perfect choice.
Score: 61,45/100

558. Lucky Star

Performed by Kurt Hummel and Maggie.
I wasn't very fond of this storyline, but I thought this particular scene was really cute. It's also pretty funny that they added a Madonna song to the Peter Pan play, and Maggie is really cute in this.
Score: 61,5/100

557. Nice To Meet You, Have I Slept With You?

Performed by April Rhodes and Will Schuester.
This is from a deleted scene from season 2, episode Rumours. I get why they cut this song, I don't think I'd prefer to keep it over any other scene in Rumours, but I think this song is really funny and so April-core.
Score: 61,67/100

556. Big Girls Don't Cry

Performed by Blaine Anderson, Kurt Hummel and Rachel Berry.
One of the more forgettable performances of season 3, but they sound wonderful together. Also, we rarely got to see these three sing together (just them), so.
Score: 61,7/100

555. Without You

Performed by Rachel Berry.
My favorite parts of this song are when she sings in the lower range. I used to love this song a lot more back when I was a bit more passionate about Finchel, now I find it alright.
Score: 61,75/100

554. Here's To Us

Performed by New Directions, with Rachel Berry as lead.
I think this song is great, I just think it was a strange choice for a show choir competition setlist. At least she pulls this song off very well.
Score: 61,8/100

553. I Love LA

Performed by New Directions with Artie Abrams, Blaine Anderson, Jake Puckerman, Sam Evans and Will Schuester as leads.
I just realized that there are a lot of ND group numbers in season 5 where Schue has solos. Matt must've negotiated more songs in his contract or something. Anyway, very fun song, maybe a little too "adult contemporary" for a group of high school kids, but still good. I love group numbers where you get to see small interactions between the ND members and they're just all in a good mood and being friendly with each other. It's cute!
Score: 62/100

552. Broadway Baby

Performed by Blaine Anderson and Rachel Berry.
I didn't care for this song at all when season 5 aired, and also I was kind of tired of Rachel always pushing NYADA's and Carmen Tibideuax' limits, lmao. But context aside, this song is objectively great and Blainchel are definitely duet twin souls. Context of this scene is pulling the score down though because god how annoying are they?
Score: 62,1/100

551. I Am Changing

Performed by Kurt Hummel and Mercedes Jones.
Ever since Amber said that this song was the hardest song to do in Dreamgirls, I haven't stopped thinking about how she felt/reacted when she saw she was doing this with Chris. Like, I know they're best friends and all, but if MISS AMBER RILEY thinks this song is hard, how is Chris supposed to do it justice? Anyway, I can definitely tell that this song isn't quite made for Kurt, so because of that it kind of falls short. I do, however, love that Kurtcedes got a duet in season 5 - their friendship seemed so distant at the time, so it was so nice to see them together again.
Score: 62,15/100

550. Blow Me (One Last Kiss)

Performed by Marley Rose and Unique Adams.
This is such a weird choice for a Sandy audition, but a good choice for a Rizzo audition, so Unique definitely had an advantage here. Although, I think Finn and Artie had already made up their mind about Marley being Sandy by just looking at her, so.
Score: 62,2/100

549. Need You Now

Performed by Noah Puckerman and Rachel Berry.
I love that Rachel was like, "you know what would make the football team that Glee club is cool? A country duet". If I could, I would probably switch this with Just Give Me A Reason, and have Quick sing Need You Now in season 5, and have Puckleberry sing the other.
Score: 62,25/100

548. Friday

Performed by Artie Abrams, Noah Puckerman and Sam Evans.
This is the first song in this ranking so far where the Glee version is actually better than the original. I know my girl Rebecca Black is talented af now, but back then... Anyway, very fun performance and I love this trio together.
Score: 62,3/100

547. Jump

Performed by New Directions, with Artie Abrams, Finn Hudson, Mercedes Jones and Rachel Berry as leads.
Idk if I can qualify Mercedes as a lead here when all she does is yell at the end, but it's not my fault that's all they decided to use Mercedes for in season 1. Anyway, I used to love this song, but I also found myself skipping this song every time it came up on my iPod. And I haven't really listened to it in full since.
Score: 62,4/100

546. Yeah!

Performed by Singaz Wit Attitude.
I need to know who these singers are because they are really good. They'd be higher if they actually were actual characters who it was possible to be emotionally invested in.
Score: 62,5/100

545. Here Comes Santa Claus (Down Santa Claus Lane)

Performed by Kurt Hummel, Rachel Berry & Santana Lopez.
I don't have much to say about this besides that it's a fun Christmas song. And Kurt sitting by the tiny piano with the doll-like forced smile is always funny to watch.
Score: 62,75/100

544. Animal

Performed by the Warblers, with Blaine Anderson and Kurt Hummel as leads.
I like this song a lot, the only thing that irks me about this one is the "na na na na na na na na" part that the Warblers do.
Score: 62,8/100

543. Shakin' My Head

Performed by Mercedes Jones.
You can't convince me that Mercedes wrote this song, let alone decided to release it and perform it in public after writing and recording Colorblind??? Like it's a whole bop, but why would she willingly sing all of that 😭
Score: 63/100

542. We Found Love

Performed by New Directions, with Rachel Berry and Santana Lopez as leads.
This song would be much higher if it was more of a group number with more leads or if Rachel wasn't on it. I kind of think she's pulling it down a little bit. Other than that, I love the scene, the syncronized swimming choreo is really cute and I love the proposal as well.
Score: 63,1/100

541. Funny Girl

Performed by Shelby Corcoran.
I always thought this song was pretty boring, but I've realized gradually how great Shelby sounds here.
Score: 63,2/100

540. Empire State of Mind

Performed by New Directions, with Artie Abrams, Finn Hudson, Mercedes Jones, Noah Puckerman and Rachel Berry.
Sunshine being the only one who paid attention is lowkey unrealistic, because this was a pretty good performance. It can only be explained by that they weren't using mics and were coming from all kinds of directions, so no one really heard them sing.
Score: 63,25/100
That's all for now! Do you like any of these songs?

Sorry if some of the stuff sounds stupid or AI-like I am not of the native tounge of English and I used one of the Google chat bots to fix up the story all the information is correct and is probably a better read anyway, just need some advice on how I should go about this weekend, I planned on staying but maybe I should leave with the kids, well act like I'm leaving and set up cameras? Ee had cameras but I took them all out after rearranging the garage years ago.
I remember it like it was yesterday, the first time I met Sarah. It was late in my freshman year of high school, and I had just made the varsity baseball team. That was a big deal for me, being the starting second baseman as a freshman. The attention and popularity came with it, but I was laser-focused on the game. Then came the charity game, where our baseball team played against the softball team to raise money for the children’s hospital. That’s where I first saw Sarah. She was the first baseman for her team, and I couldn’t deny she was beautiful. A lot of the guys on my team were talking about her, trying to get her number. But I wasn’t interested in that; I was focused on winning the game.
During the game, after I hit a single, I ended up on first base where Sarah was playing. I didn’t think much of it at the time. I didn’t acknowledge her at all, not even after the game or during the pre-game meeting to discuss the rules. Apparently, that caught her attention. She told me later that out of all the guys who tried to talk to her, I was the only one who didn’t, and that intrigued her.
A few weeks after the game, Sarah asked me to prom. She had gotten tickets from her best friend, who was a junior and didn’t want to go. I wasn’t the type to turn down a dance, so I said yes. Little did I know, that night would change everything. That night, we lost our virginity to each other, and for the rest of our freshman year and the summer, we were inseparable. We found every possible place to sneak off and be together – closets in school, secluded spots on campus, anywhere we could be alone. Sarah had a high sex drive, and I was more than happy to keep up with her.
Looking back, it was our intense physical connection and the fact that I didn’t chase her like the other guys that brought us together. Our relationship was solidified with moments like our first prom, skipping school to be together, eating at different restaurants, and getting each other promise rings that summer. And, of course, the charity game where we first met.
But it wasn’t always smooth sailing. Sarah was very popular, and a lot of guys would text her. She handled it well, always blocking numbers and reassuring me that she only wanted me. She was open and honest, even giving me her phone’s pin. She hated the idea of cheating, and she made it clear that she was committed to me. This reassurance wasn’t really needed, but it was nice to know she felt that way.
Throughout high school, we were in many of the same classes, and we excelled academically. We were partners in group projects and participated in activities together. We were inseparable, and everyone saw us as a perfect couple. Sarah came to as many of my baseball games as she could, and I attended a few of her softball games when I could. My dedication to baseball was intense, and she understood that.
Our school had a partnership with a local college, offering free tuition to students with a GPA of 3.5 or higher. I had a 4.0 GPA, which meant I had plenty of scholarship opportunities. By the time I entered college, I was making about $1,800 per semester from scholarships. Sarah and I decided to attend the same college, not wanting to be burdened with student loans. We lived comfortably during college, and I proposed to her at our graduation ceremony. It was a big deal, and our friends and family were thrilled.
After graduation, I made sure Sarah had the wedding of her dreams. I was already doing well financially, working as a lawyer specializing in insurance cases. I was the sole breadwinner for the first three years of our marriage while Sarah focused on selling items online through her flower store and completing her studies in cosmetics. She enjoyed staying at home and was very appreciative when I renovated our garage into a salon area for her business.
Around our sixth year of marriage, we decided to start a family. Our son, Isaiah, was born first, and he changed my world. Just 18 months later, our daughter, Abigail, came along. Life was good. We had financial stability, and Sarah decided she only wanted two kids after the exhausting experience of Isaiah’s birth. She had her tubes tied, and we settled into our new routine as a family of four.
Fast forward to now, Sarah and I are 35 years old, and our kids are 7 and 5. Recently, I’ve noticed some changes in Sarah’s behavior. She started leaving the kids with friends more often and coming home late. Initially, I assumed she was busy with salon appointments. But there was more to it. Our sex life, which had already slowed down, became almost non-existent. Sarah seemed upset about it, but I planned to make it up to her by spending a weekend together, just the two of us.
Then things got worse. Sarah started coming home very late, sometimes with hickeys on her neck. When I asked about them, she said they were from bee stings. I believed her at first; I’m not well-versed in gardening or bee behavior. But deep down, I knew something wasn’t right. She had always been loyal, and the thought of her cheating never crossed my mind until now.
As I pieced together these changes – the late nights, the unexplained hickeys, and her distant behavior – a feeling of unease settled in. I wanted to believe her, but the inconsistencies were becoming too hard to ignore. It was time to take a closer look at what was really happening.

If you're curious about my thoughts on previous Yakuza games, here are my much shorter (except for 4, thats pretty long too) reviews for Kiwami 1, Kiwami 2, Yakuza 3 (Remastered), and Yakuza 4 (Remastered).
All of my reviews are made pretty quickly after I finish the game, this was written right after I finished but I haven't posted it till a month later because its so long I thought no one would ever read this but whatever I gotta get my truth out there.
Per usual I played the remaster of Yakuza 5. I'm not sure of any outstanding changes or things of note like with 3 or 4, but if something I say is exclusive to the remaster please let me know! I may sound overly praising or overly critical of this game, who knows but please be kind when you tell me i'm an idiot for feeling the way I do! Lastly and most importantly please please please don't spoil future games in the comments! Also warning I'm way too active in the comments section.
Because I am an utter psycho and decided to write a fuckin bibles worth of yakuza 5 ramblings, Part 1 is just reviewing the plot and Part 2 goes over everything else. I split this up last second so there's likely some spots where I say something like "we'll expand on this later" then I never bring it up again, that's because it's probably in part 2. If you want my thoughts on things like the substories, side stories, gameplay, and settings you can read Part 2 here: https://www.reddit.com/yakuzagames/comments/1cvrybw/yakuza_5_a_mega_big_ole_reviewsummary_for_a_big/
The Plot:
Like with Y4, I will discuss my thoughts on each section of the game rather than in one long chunk just because I find it more fun. I'm not even gonna try to not summarize this time because this game is so big it needs broken down.
Part 1: Kiryu
You might often find me compare Y5 to Y4 a lot in this review because they're honestly quite similar games and feel like a package. When I started playing 4 I was worried I wouldn't like playing as primarily strangers for a majority of the game, but one thing they did absolutely right was making Kiryu the final protagonist you play as in that game. So going into 5 I was very apprehensive about starting off with Kiryu, I worried they showed their hand too soon and that it would be difficult to stay invested the whole time.
With this feeling going into the game, I was immediately somewhat losing it over Kiryu being an incognito taxi driver with the worst disguise of all time (some sunglasses and a face mask, don't worry he's literally the only one in the game that seems to think it's a good disguise). Right off the bat, this game feels...sad. Kiryu watching Haruka giving an interview on the TV and storming out rather then defend her to some losers who don't get what ART is, was SAD. This part of the game felt so mundane for awhile, but not in a bad way! You wakeup as Kiryu, walk to work, drive your taxi, and go home late at night (usually) alone. The whole time my eyes were drawn to a facedown picture frame and wondering what it could be, but I certainly had a guess. Kiryu is going through a hard, isolating, and depressing time and you can feel that so well from the game and how they have you play as him. Anyways there's also a random gal named Mayumi that will not leave Kiryu alone despite him asking her to. All you're doing by the end of chapter one is going "Huhhhhhhh?" Anyways Kiryu is approached by two dudes named Morinaga and Aizawa in chapter 2, telling him Daigo was???? Kidnapped?? GASP.. Admittidly I wasn't too fond of this duo at first. One thing that was consistent through my playthrough is that I was completely incapable of predicting anything correctly, and it had felt like these two were gonna be my pals for the rest of the game and I just wasn't clicking with them. Not to mention this weird semi-one sided-romance going on with Mayumi.
In chapter 3, we begin with the most heartbreaking thing that could ever happen to me, Yakuza 3 superfan. Kiryu has been pushed out of running the orphanage by a lady named Miss Park. It's all making sense now. He does it so the orphanage can have money and so Haruka can follow her dreams. DOESNT MAKE IT EASIER TO DEAL WITH FOR ME :( . Then we meet Watase, first thoughts? I was like "god I hope this guy isn't the main villain he's kinda lame" Soon after we meet Aoyama and I thought literally the same thing. Clearly by this point in the game I didn't have the highest hopes. I was mostly sad and not liking most of the new characters. But then... things take a turn.
Mayumi was actually a spy! thank god honestly. Kiryu meets Aoyama again but then Morinaga shows up and fuckin kills Aoyama and says he buried Aizawa alive HOLY SHIT? and then soon after I'm told Majima is fucking dead. Figured he wasn't actually dead cuz I've seen pictures of him from later games but holy shit I somehow cried just at the THOUGHT of him being dead. Also at some point here we met a detective who is an important player in this story but at this point not too integral. Also before Kiryu leaves he picks up the picture frame and its the orphanage ;-;
Kiryu final thoughts: This part of the game was fantastic. I'm so glad they started with Kiryu in this case despite my initial unsureness with it. Chapter 4 especially is when everything really falls into place and starts going 100 miles an hour but I also love the slowness of the previous 3 chapters. I do wish we got more Morinaga as this is unfortunately the last we hear of him despite this being a wonderful set up to a really interesting villain. Mayumi was a pretty shit character per seemingly always with any full grown woman in Yakuza games. While I think it's cool she was secretly a spy she was clearly an afterthought as we never hear about her again so that's cool. Basically a mixed bag of new characters overall.
Part 2: Saejima
I jokingly said to myself "Wouldn't it be funny if I had to spend half of this section breaking out of prison again. Thank god that's not the case." and continued hanging out with Majima until I was arrested for two more years of serving my sentence and OH NO IM BACK IN THE BUILDING.
Yeah I was VERY unsure about breaking out of prison again being a good call. Thankfully, and sorry to Y4, this is a much better prison sequence. Another thing I was really unsure about was BALD SAEJIMA! But actually... it kinda slays harder? In Y4 he looks like that guy from the game The Hatred (an insult) maybe it wouldn't be so bad if bro washed or brushed it but he never did and so instead bald was a slay. Anyways We're dropped in at nearly the end of Saejima's serving period with his group of friends/cellmates, newest one being some dude named Baba. We are relentlessly tortured by the scariest man I've ever seen, Viktor Zsasz-I MEAN! Kugihara. Who's honestly scarier looking then Zsasz somehow. But it is ON because Viktor Zsasz framed my bestie Baba and I will not let that slide so I beat the fuck out of him and it's revealed Zsasz was instructed to be a dick to me. By who??????????????????? Then it's double revealed to me that Majima is dead and I'm sad all over again :(
Turns out our warden is actually really chill and nice and somewhat tries to help us survive. What a breath of fresh air after Satan (Saito) from Y4. This guy is so cool infact we are encouraged to break out by him. So Baba and I do in the dead of the night and tell me why I cried over leaving my two other cellmates ;_; they were such bros. Zsasz hinders my escape and we fight, but my absolute PAL Himura fuckin shoots him it was an amazing turn of events and I cheered so loud and was devastated to leave him behind but anyways-
FUCK YEA SNOW MOBILES (they were kinda jank to control honestly but its the thought that counts). I am so glad I didn't know I was going to be fighting a bear going into this because that was easily the most camp thing ever and so hilarious. Then some old guy saves me (and later Baba) and we chill in the mountains for a little while. The mountain has a whole crazy detailed side story of it's own that I'll explain in more detail later but basically it was cool.
So then a ton of important stuff happens in Tsukimino, most notably we hang out with Baba in a bar which is great because I love Baba and him and I are super tight and he's easily the only person I could ever trust at this point without potential for betrayal! :)
Anyways me and Baba fuckin kidnap this guy because his chair is by a sewer manhole? He's gone in a flash so all I can imagine is dragging him down the hole by his ankle or something. Then we talk for awhile, Majima is mentioned woohoo, THEN HE'S sniped! The way I gasped. Longstory short :( Baba is the one who sniped him and not only that he kind of set everything up and wasn't my best pal all along :( Why Baba Why? Then Baba basically confesses his love for Saejima and can't go through with killing him, AAAAAAND Im back on the Baba train. That detective I mentioned from earlier arrests Saejima but not to throw him back in jail, to assemble the Yakuza avengers.
Final Saejima thoughts: This was shockingly fantastic. I was probably least impressed with Saejima's section in Y4, so it was shocking to have basically the same structure and general narrative beats but done well. It wasn't perfect, I didn't love it as much as Kiryu's section as I'm partial to a slow burn, but it was fun I have no real complaints, except MAYBE more then one chapter in Tsukimino would be a better choice.
Part 3 (first half): Haruka
I did not know I was going to get the HONOR of playing Haruka going into this game. We start off very strong, dancing to the greatest song of all time "So Much More." I mean we really get the full idol experience here with mean ass teachers and shady management. I didn't expect to get an Idol simulator in my Yakuza game but it might be the best thing ever. I decided right off the bat to put everything I had into this section of the game so immediately I did literally everything I could. Most of this chapter feels like a bit of a reflection of Kiryu's were working and going back home alone, it's all as monotonous and isolating as can be (except you're a predebut idol) and I love this. We quickly meet a girl who will serve as my bestie named Akari and yes I indeed would die for her thank you. Meeting Akari introduces us to this sections version of combat, DANCE BATTLES! I know some people might be disappointed you don't get to punch people as Haruka, and I get that, but this feels like a more genuine gameplay style for her character. It's hard to imagine Haruka fighting thugs in the street due to her personality (not that i'd be against it, especially after that weird virtual reality game where I get to wack dudes with a wand) plus I found this gameplay style so refreshing. I was never groaning or sighing because I had to dance against someone. I think it helps that I wasn't forced to do it 15 times in a row walking down the street, but I had the option to most of the time unless it was part of a quest. Maybe that's how all the gameplay should be? I don't mind being approached by thugs sometimes but it always feels like it happens too often in these games and with getting the option to while getting to walk around carefree otherwise in Haruka's section was just SO NICE.
Anyways, We get the whole set up here, we are participating in a competition show that will single handedly set the course for our debut. We're competing against this band called T-set. I hate them so much. They're so mean :(. At some point we see Miss Park absolutely SLAY and tell off Haruka's dance teacher and she doesn't take his shit at all. At this point I was like "Uh ohhhh I don't wanna like her but...she kinda rocks" my decent into stanning Miss Park only continues from there. We have to go convince some guy named Christina (interesting name to take but also a slay, much respect to Mr. Christina and his fedora) to be our new dance instructor. This causes drama with me and Akari which devastated me because I love Akari but we made up like immediately so it's chill.
Then at one point, I forgot the context, Haruka is shopping for a gift for Miss Park when stupid T-set shows up and STEPS ON THE BROACH I BOUGHT FOR HER. I was back and forth on them until now, now they may burn in hell. Especially after they made Haruka get on her knees and beg for forgiveness like ???? what gives ??? Park shows up and SLAYS and gets rid of them. Park then wears the broach :(((((((((
Then one of my favorite parts happen in chapter 2, Haruka and Miss Park go hit the town and just bond together. It's so stinking cute I wanted to cry. This whole time I was trying to not get emotionally attached to Park because it really felt like she was gonna end up betraying us. But the night continued and we get some mother daughter vibes going, even so far as holding hands????? Also Im somewhat glad I didn't get to wear the outfit I bought at the store with Park because I was going for a Cheetah girls inspired look then realized far too late how tacky that might come off, not everyone is Raven Symone ya know?
Anyways at this point I'm like wow this is the cutest game ever, nothing can ever go wrong, Park MIGHT betray me but I don't even care. She gives us a cool pen and a tragic anime backstory with an abusive ex husband and everything and we call it a night Well the next fuckin day my world crumbles because PARK IS DEAD! She "committed suicide" as if!
Part 3 (second half): Akiyama
I can't tell you how devastated I was to realize I'd only get to play as Akiyama for half of a section of the game. However, I was also thrilled to see him at all. Apparently he's opening a Satenbori office and also he is the one who financed Park's dream to debut Haruka so that's how he has a hand in all this. There is tragically very little Hana, she calls you twice and both times were fantastic but I wish I had more :(. Anyways Akiyama has heard about Park's death and goes to the office and meets Haruka. I didn't think they'd even really know each other and assumed we'd have an interesting reveal that they both know Kiryu later but nah they know each other. It honestly probably works better this way because we don't have time for such trivial things! Akiyama is a fuckin detective now. I don't know why he has been tasked to do this but he does it so well I don't even mind. He quickly figures out Park didn't actually kill herself and they simply need evidence to prove this. I'm unsure when this happens but at some point while talking about the mystery SOMEONE FALLS OFF THE ROOF! It was Horie :( who I haven't mentioned yet but he's my manager and a real pal. Thankfully he lived but we found out that the former dance teacher pushed him off. I think he also killed Park or Kanai did, who knows, either way someone did and they suck for it.
Chapter 4 has a lot going on, but basically the president of Osaka talent is sus and he's also the secret chairman of Ousaka Enterprises, which is a different thing... but sounds similar. Ousaka is basically a higher up family in the Omi alliance, so he's part of the bad yakuza!!! Haruka keeps doing the competition and T-set keeps sucking. She wins the princess league by a landslide. I don't even see the point in a third round if she won both of the other rounds? Is the third round just worth more points? Either way Haruka destroyed them and they suck. Her poor vocal instructor is working as her manager now. At some point we find out Parks ex husband was none other then Majima! Which is quite the revelation. Japan is such a small world, everyone seems to know each other. This does mean that Majima at least hit Park (I think after her abortion) and I think he's like 10 years older then her yet they were already married when she debuted at eighteen... Is it time for me to confront the possibility that my favorite crazed murderer might not be the most upstanding citizen?
It ends with Haruka being kidnapped, (nothing out of character there), and Akiyama saving her. He and Haruka make their way to Japan for the big ole concert Park had been planning. Wow this story is really picking up! I hope nothing grinds it to a sudden stop!
Part 3 final thoughts: God this was amazing, every step of it. My only complaint is I wanted more, more Akiyama and MORE dancing but I might be the only one who wanted 40 more hours of dancing. Detective Akiyama and Haruka duo was not the team I knew I needed but Im glad it happened. I found all of the music and gameplay here SO fun and I loved the plot too. I really liked Parks character. I wouldn't necessarily hang out with her, but I found her to be pretty well written and its hard to hate anyone Haruka clearly treasures, I am very sad she is actually dead because up until the end of the game I kept thinking she was going to come back.
Part 4: Shinada:
We have come to a sudden stop. We start with a flashback to 1997 where Shinada has debuted as a baseball player for the wyverns, don't forget this moment because the rest of this section of the game constantly calls back to it. In the modern day Shinada is a loser who is really heavily indebt and lives in a weird grimey rooftop shack. He also now writes like ? smut articles ? And he's friend with a girl named Milky which is the craziest name I've ever heard. A loanshark who talks about his kids a lot constantly follows Shinada around and takes his money. There was a lot of promise with this gag, like maybe instead of letting me keep the 100k and still acting like I'm broke he shows up after every side mission to rob me but nope. At the end of the chapter we run into a masked man who is frankly just Daigo stealing Kiryu's disguise idea.
Shinada and loanshark (his name is Takasugi) walk around town looking for leads on uncovering the truth of Shinada's past. Because you see, Shinada one time got fired from baseball cuz everyone thought he cheated, oh you already knew that? yeah same but don't worry you'll hear it at least 40 more times. Daigo asked him to go look for clues about this, why does he care? I still don't know honestly. Takasugi is forcing him to go because...I guess money? and he's walking around with me and were acting like friends now for some reason. Shinada is incapable of having any agency for himself, he just does what people tell him to. He also keeps nearly dying like a looney tunes character with shit falling out of the sky and stuff. Eventually we find out the Nagoya family fixed the match and then some guy Shinada used to know does get smashed like a looney tunes character. Skip ahead, were called to help by Milky and she betrayed us. I am sad cuz I thought Milky was a friend for life. Turns out literally everyone Shinada knows aside from the fkn loanshark are evil, even the old baseball lady. This plot was so convoluted I frankly don't understand why they were doing what they were doing, all I know is they were more like a neighborhood watch situation then Yakuza even though they seemed to do the exact same thing. Also when I say literally everyone he knows is evil I mean everyone, even his old coach or whatever. For way too long I thought they meant the middle school baseball coach so I was hella confused. Anyways we then find out that actually Takasugi is Shinada's number one baseball fan. Okay? Anyways
Chapter 4 things finally pick up a little. Daigo reveals himself like anyone ever was doubting it was him, and he also reveals he cares because he went to highschool with Shinada. Is that fr how were connecting this? Daigo got expelled from highschool because he protected Shinada from a rival school. Once again, okay? I guess Shinada doesn't like that Daigo is a yakuza and punches him out the door. I wasn't a fan of this. Daigo goes down pretty easily, pitiful Daigo strikes again. I love him but can he do anything right? Anyways I guess the fight meant nothing cuz they're pals now and go to Tokyo together. We get a cut to Takasugi getting his money back from Shinada as well as a signed baseball...okay that's really cute I nearly cried. I wish they actually left it there but instead Shinada runs away last minute to meet up on that stupid baseball field from 1997 that we cant go 5 minutes without hearing about and we fight this guy named Sawada who was like the kind of mastermind and also the pitcher. Had Sawada not thrown an easy pitch, Shinada wouldn't have hit it and thus been kicked out for cheating. We fight some Omi then play baseball and OMG WHY ARE WE DOING THISSSSSS
Finally it ends and we go to Tokyo
Shinada final thoughts: If you cant tell I was not a fan of this. I found Shinada to be really inconsitently written. In side missions or when he's playing off of certain characters he's quite entertaining and un, but most of the time, he seems to just be a blank slate who does whatever and only talks about baseball. And omg maybe if I liked baseball this would have been the best thing ever but we did not need THAT much baseball talk or constant referencing to that baseball game in 1997. I get its central to his character but it became a meme how often he'd get misty eyed and talk about getting kicked out. Why did he move Nagoya to escape his image as a cheating baseball player when 1) he constantly talks about it anyways, 2) everyone literally knows who he is here anyways. They make it seem like at first he wants nothing to do with baseball anymore but he also goes to the batting cages all the time and also thinks about nothing but baseball. The plot here is just SO hard to follow and not at all what I want to be dealing with after we were really in the thick of things with part 3's ending. I'm not saying it was impossible for this to be good, I think there was so much potential here! Like seemingly all of Yakuza 4, the concepts are there but the execution is iffy. I think it's biggest downfall is when it happens. It would have made so much more sense to make the last section before the finale the Haruka section. Shinada would have felt much better to play as maybe as a part two or even a part three, but NOT part four. The odds were stacked against him being amongst a cast of characters that I already know and love. I definitely was more of a Tanimura fan, but I liked Shinada as a person. His inconsistent writing, unfortunate story, and tendency to be a little annoying really dragged this part of the game down for me.
Part 5: The Finale
This finale is crazyyyyyyy so strap in. I would expect nothing less then insanity from this game. First Kiryu shows up in Kamurocho WERE HOME BABYYYYYY. Were being followed by BABA!! I missed him. We fight for fun or something then we cut to Saejima who is meeting with the detective who tells us we gotta find Morinaga. OH YEAH THAT GUY. So we go to the Florist and we go to the arena only to find... AIZAWA??? The fuck? I thought Morinaga fuckin killed him cold blooded and made me think he was a cool as fuck villain. Only to find out that GASP Morinaga is actually dead. At this point I literally don't believe it because I guess I was in my era of not believing anyone ever dies.
We go to Akiyama who is told by Osaka ceo to not let Haruka perform. Akiayam says hell no. We also find out that Park and him planned to make Haruka and T-set a group and debut them at the same time but I somehow missed this when playing and didnt realize that till way leter. ANYWAY At some point we also see the CEO doing naked push ups in his penthouse which was so weird. ALSO there is a Date-san reveal. The scream I screamt! I didn't know I missed him or needing him so much in a game till I saw him again. Usually I'm wondering why he's even there or what he adds but I finally get it now, he adds being Date to the table and that's all you need.
Then I do a tower sweep at Kamurocho hills and OMG is this what Majima was building the whole time? To be fully honest it's beautiful and im very proud but its so different and lowkey off-putting. Kind of like Majima himself. I miss him. A whole game and I only be hearing about him second hand its not fair. Question, did literally anyone choose Saejima to do the tower sweep? Anyway were on the top of the tower; Kiryu, Saejima, CEO Katsuya, and Watase. We all have to fight eachother to draw out the one true bad guy and also cuz this is a yakuza game, so off our shirts go and everyone fights. Basically everyone gets shot and the bad guy is revealed... THE DETECTIVE. Who saw it coming? I still kept thinking Park would come back or Morinaga but by this point I was definitely suspecting him too. I don't fully get why he's doing all this but long story short he's purging both the Omi and Tojo of nice? Yakuza? I guess? I think it mostly has to do with him making way for his son to inherit a role in everything but thats not further explored till later. Not to worry tho! Daigo has shown up!!!! But because he is Daigo you should definitely be worried because once again he cant do anything right and he gets shot by Kanai. God dammit Daigo. He is now in critical condition, this is the SECOND TIME THIS HAS HAPPENED DAIGO. He's such a damsel in distress, never change.
Baba tells Haruka the message Kiryu had for her, to never give up. He also asks her to come with him to convince to Kiryu to chillax but she refuses. Sad for no one but me. At the New Serena, where that absolute BOP of a song is blaring, Kiryu is sleeping, while the rest of the crew are chilling and chatting. I forgot to mention Akiyama and Shinada briefly teamed up but frankly who cares. Shinada talks about baseball alot here too just incase you were worried he wouldnt. They conclude that detective bad guy is gonna attack Haruka's concert which I will NEVER allow. I guess Shinada's purpose here is actually tha the knows the stadiuk layout pretty well which I will buy in to. Also I believe here Haruka gets told about her and t-set being a band together now called Dreamline. I also dont love this. The idea of it is fine, Im all for a disney channel original movie plot where the bullies are actually great and we all become friends at the end but the issue is they don't properly develop T-set to do that. The short haired girl gets one little moment of being somewhat nice to Haruka then the very next time I see her she's stepping on my boss's broach and making me beg on my knees like sorry but it's really hard to come around on liking them. Even now when Haruka stumbles duing practice they're rude! This is a tragic ending if anything but Haruka seems happy I guess... Dont worry they will be nothing more then Haruka's glorifed backup dancers.
Okay final chapter, and it's a doozy. We send Shinada of all people to go help Haruka at the stadium, I know i just said I get he knows the layout of the stadium but like :( he's literally the only one who hasn't met her. I guess they don't end up interacting really anyways. Saejima is going to go after Majima because btw he's alive and at the top of the millenium tower. Akiyama and Kiryu stay on the ground to defend against attackers and they probably punch/ kick at least 10000 men. All the while Haruka gives her concert. But Baba is lurking and gonna shoot her, I thought he learned to be good again but whatever. Him and Shinada end up having a confrontation that ends in Baba losing and he's about to kill himself when !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! my prison besties and the wardon show and up stop him! Oh my god I loved that so much what a nice resolution for Baba and I love that those guys went straight to a Jpop concert just for their pal. Meanwhile Saejima confronts Detective evil man on top of the millenium tower and !!! there he is, finally Majima is here. But he is not having a good time, turns out he's allowed himself to be captured and tortured for the sake of Haruka and now Majima and Saejima have to fight for the same reason. Then! Daigo shows up, while im literally begging him to actually shoot the bad guy but instead they all talk. Haruka is safe from harm (Baba wouldn't have done that shit anyways) and we officially learn about the plot of him attempting to put his son in charge of everything. Kiryu goes to Tojo headquarters to stop whoever this suspicious son is and Akiyama fights Kanai. Then literally all our friends ever show up to help and that was damn cute.
Kiryu shows up and it's eerie, completely silent with dead people everywhere. We go to the meeting room and the guy behind it all along was Aizawa. I definitely did not see that coming because I forgot he existed. But I suppose thats the point, he was so unassuming. I guess that means Morinaga actually was dead all along. We fight Aizawa while Haruka sings a song that seems very pointed at Kiryu wins (duh) but he is not doing well and tries to make his way through the streets. Meanwhile Haruka announces her retirement because she cant hide who she is or stay away from her family any longer and runs away to find Kiryu and THE GAME ENDS. Other games gave me a after credits scene that somewhat eased my concerns, but 5 is a overall very sad game and it's scene is her managing to him but he's bleeding out in the streets and falls unconcious in her arms.
Finale final thoughts: This was quite the finale! It was much better then Shinada's section but it was still a bit messy and left a lot of plot threads up in the air or had some unfortunate revelations. Nothing bad but things I think shouldve maybe been revealed earlier, like Aizawa. Only finding out with like 20 minutes of the game to go makes it feel too empty or even rushed when we know this game is otherwise not rushed at all. I was a little sad about the ending, I don't think it was bad at all I was just sad. The whole time I imagined it ending with the whole gang going to Haruka's concert and having a good time. For once I dont think the game fully dropped the ball on the finale like they tend to do so I commend it for that.
TLDOverall plot final thoughts: As a whole this is one of the most well written Yakuza stories since Yakuza 3 (obviously in my opinion). I can see that for some people all the plot twists and surprises might have felt like too much but I loved it, I never once could predict where this game was going. Morinaga dying off screen was such a let down and missed opportunity, at the end of Kiryu's section I was thinking he was going to be the best Yakuza villain in awhile but instead he went out in such a lame way. I do kinda wonder who killed him, I assumed it was just the detective guy but Aizawa seemed at least somewhat sad about Morinaga's death. I wonder if that was all a show? Another thing I dislike not just because of how it went, but also that it ended up going no where, Mayumi. They made quite the big deal about her at first and I do like the plot twist that she was a spy, but she wasn't even really acting any different when she was in spy mode and in normal mode. Plus you literally never see her again. I think Saejima's section was just very reminicent of his in 4, but done well. Aside from it taking quite so long to get to the city, by the time you leave it feels slightly rushed. I think the chapter in the woods didnt need to be its own thing. Absolutely no notes with Haruka, only that I'm sad this is all we will see of Park, I found her to be a really interesting character. Akiyama is where my main issues arise, only because I really do think he needed his whole section. He felt a little tacked on otherwise when I think he really didn't need to feel that way. I had hoped he would be part of half of Haruka's section then half of Shinada's where he is used to introduce us to Shinada as a character. But instead we get dropped into that like nothing. I know im probably the only one who cares about Hana this much but I really wish we got more of her. I basically said all my issues with Shinada at the end of his section but once again, I really didn't enjoy that plot. The finale was a mess and unfortunatly left at quite a cliff hanger which I wouldve rather it didn't but Im also okay with how it did. Some other things I wanted in this game was MORE MAJIMA I get why he wasnt for narrative purposes but Im gonna say that in every game. I wouldve loved more Okinawa orphan content. That being said there is way more content for them in this then in Y4 which is wild considering we spent like 5 seconds in Okinawa during a flashback and you never actually see them. It was so nice to hear what theyre up to second hand and some of the side missions expand on them a little more but I am devastated they werent there.
Lastly to briefly compare it to Y4, as they do feel like connected games. Y5 realy does feel like they took all of the concepts of the 4th game that needed to be reworked, and then re-did them to be better. The villains are better, prison break outs are better, and just like way more. I do think there are things in Y5 that are lacking compared to Y4, like general atmosphere, and I do think Tanimura's section in 4, as flawed as it is, is better then Shinadas. Akiyama's in 5 is great, but I love his in Y4 more simply because he doesn't have to share the spotlight. But I really have to emphasize, story and character are done better in Y5, ATMOSPHERE is done so much better in Y5.
TLDR for the TLDR: I liked this game :)
And there you have it, the longest goddamn review of all time. It was a really great game and I wish I could play it for the first time again because it was just SUCH a great experience. If you read this far I am so impressed by you and eternally grateful you even cared to. Please let me know your thoughts! I'm so excited to talk about this game with people. As for my rating, It was going to be a 10/10 until I got to Shinada's section now I'm in between an 8 or a 9. Ill just say 8/10 to be mean.
I am already neck deep in Yakuza 0 so I'm excited to write a much shorter review for that one soon.
Thank you for reading!

Hi Rat Folks! How are you today? 🐁
So, a quick question from the Mod Team. We are wondering what you guys think about posting pictures of rats that live in labs. Since we had a precedent in the sub that understandably created a lot of division we are interested in knowing if we should put something about it in the rules.
IF we did we'd only allow cute/fun pictures, not images of the rats "at work", just leisure time rats. We'd also verify with the OP about general conditions and care, like we do with breeders or fundraisers, etc. Not all animals used in science live badly, thankfully, and hopefully this could become a space to promote ethical lab practices and spread some love to those rats too; at the same time we understand this is a very controversial topic and it can be upsetting to some in the sub.
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Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1259760/The_Sacred_Acorn
Trailer: https://youtu.be/OC2DFiBW9UI
Dev Log: https://youtu.be/XpjmGAVDjYI
Discord: https://discord.afewdragons.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/afewdragons
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Hey Games, our tiny team has been working on The Sacred Acorn for 5 years now. It’s a single-player top-down 2D action adventure with Souls-like and Metroidvania elements set in a vibrant fantasy world. You’re a squirrel that has woken to find you have newly acquired ancient powers and the world you know is under threat from an unknown entity. You’ll need to master your abilities, battle brutal bosses, and discover long lost secrets while exploring a vast, enchanted land in order to save everyone. Release is planned for the second half of 2024, and we have a demo available to try on Steam that we’re constantly updating as we progress closer to the final product
What can you expect from The Sacred Acorn?.

• Big Boss Battles: Engage in fast-paced combat against formidable, legendary guardians with unique mechanics.
  
• Loveable Characters: Meet and befriend cute and strange creatures that will guide and aid you on your quest.
  
• Stunning art: All or 2D art is hand drawn, creating beautiful environments and an array of creatures to be encountered.
  
• 7 regions: Each region has unique enemies and environmental obstacles to overcome, offering plenty to explore and discover.
  
• Deceptively cute: We’ve juxtaposed stunning, vibrant art and cute, loveable characters with challenging gameplay experiences and a world in peril.
  

If you’ve read this far we’d love for you to play our demo and wishlist on Steam. Constructive feedback is always welcome!
Thanks for checking out our game!

honestly, ever since they got introduced as nct new team they have been receiving lots of hate about how they are undeserving of debut and riize shouldve been the last unit of nct. but people have to let go of it and understand that riize is its own group and wish is a unit of nct. they are talented and funny and cute and if people actually tried to get into them they would immediately like them. they've brought so many new nctzens and truly think in a couple of years they will become established. i think even now you can see them growing and the hate decreasing which is good :) sorry i just thought i should say that!! if anyone wants help getting into them I'd be happy too