Mystic Messenger Trash: Behaving Badly in V’s Route

Mystic Messenger Trash: Behaving Badly in V’s Route

Welcome back to Mystic Messenger Trash, where I chronicle playing Mystic Messenger. The following contains spoilers for V’s good and normal routes in the game, passing mentions of the bad endings, and general in-game lore that you learn outside of Another Story. There are also some spoilers for Rika Behind Story.

Another Story, which encompasses both V’s and Ray/Saeran’s routes, takes place six months after Rika’s “death” (unlike the routes in Casual Story and Deep Story, which take place two years after). Another Story is basically an alternative universe of Mystic Messenger, where the player-character shows up earlier than in the Casual and Deep Stories. For the sake of length, I’m going to assume a baseline level of MM knowledge. (more…)

February Roundtable: Wario and Waluigi

February Roundtable: Wario and Waluigi

This month, the month of love, we’re going to let you take a little peek behind the Sidequest curtain. For whatever reason, we rank quite highly for the search term “wario and waluigi,” which is not something we expected when we wrote “Wario and Waluigi: Who Are They, Anyway?” all those years ago. But because the Brothers Wario (if they are, in fact, brothers) keep driving traffic to our site, and because our other highest-ranked keyword is porn related, this month’s editorial meeting went A Certain Direction and Zora made us aware of this Wario and Waluigi body pillow (link NSFW). So what better way to honor the Brothers’ service to Sidequest than to make them this month’s icons to celebrate Valentine’s Day? (more…)

On Silent Protagonists: The Case of Persona 5’s Joker

On Silent Protagonists: The Case of Persona 5’s Joker

I should begin by saying this is not an ode to silent protagonists. If anything, I’d like to argue that for a strong narrative-driven game, a silent protagonist is actually a detriment. How does one hook a story on a main character who has no or limited personality? In this essay, I will… argue that Joker, the silent protagonist in Persona 5/Royal, had no right to be silent.

Spoilers abound for Persona 5 Royal. (more…)

January Roundtable: Looking Forward to 2022

January Roundtable: Looking Forward to 2022

Usually we try to have a clear theme here in our monthly roundtables, but you know what? New year, new us, as they say. Instead of focusing on one thing or another, we’re just looking forward. What do we see on the horizon? What are we hoping to see on the horizon? What are we settling in with in this cold and cozy month? (more…)

Review: No Longer Home Tenderly Examines Liminal Spaces

Review: No Longer Home Tenderly Examines Liminal Spaces

Sidequest was provided with a copy of No Longer Home for Mac in exchange for a fair and honest review.

No Longer Home is a game that popped into my awareness at a time of transition. I graduated from my MFA in May, I turned 30 in August, and for the next year, I’ll be writing full-time. There’s a certain amount of uncertainty in my life right now, and that sort of uncertainty, the type that appears when one’s in a liminal space, is at the center of No Longer Home.

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