108 | a Mystic Messenger update & Fandom Snowflake Challenge, Day Two: babbling about X-Note AGAIN

[straightforwardly]

► So, never did get around to writing a second entry yesterday. But that’s alright, because I can do it now. First, a link to the end-of-the-year writing meme I always do: 2016: Writing Year In Review.

► Second: A quick update on my Mystic Messenger playthrough. It’s Day Five now, and SUCCESS. I got onto Zen’s route! I didn’t end up running into a bad ending after all! I was a bit worried about that, since I was also getting a lot of hearts from Jaehee and Yoosung… I actually wasn’t sure if I had enough of a majority with any of them to get on a route at all, tbh. But I did, and it was the one I wanted to do first, so I’m happy. ♥

I have to say, though, I really liked that last chat on Day Four, “Weird Dream”. Something about it felt very nostalgic— it reminded me of conversations I’ve had with other people before. Especially with how Zen leads up to it with ‘Can I ask you a weird question?’ I ended the conversation with the “We might both be robots” answer, and was very satisfied with how that went. It really was a fun conversation.

► Finally: The Fandom Snowflake Challenge! I missed Day One, and while I know that I can still go back and do it, I think that I’m just going to let it pass by. Instead, I’m going to focus on Day Two.

In your own space, share a book/song/movie/tv show/fanwork/etc that changed your life. Something that impacted on your consciousness in a way that left its mark on your soul.

So I had to think about this one for a little bit. At first, I couldn’t think of anything, because while there is a lot of media that I loved deeply and passionately, I don’t think that there’s actually ever been anything that I could honestly say has changed my life. But then I decided to focus on the second part of the statement— something that impacted your consciousness in a way that left its mark, and the options opened up before me.

I considered authors, like Jane Austen, who I love so much that it’s hard to believe that I only read her works for the first time when I was fifteen.

I considered books, like The Little Prince, which struck me with so much awe the first time I read it, that I’ve never been able to forget it since, or the Little House on the Prairie series, which I still reference in everyday conversations, usually with my family, but sometimes with others as well.

I considered poetry, like Zbigniew Herbert’s Elegy of Fortinbras, which has not only stuck with me ever since I read it on a poetic/literary level, but also forever informed how I read Hamlet, or maybe Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself”, and how the lines Do I contradict myself? / Very well then I contradict myself, / (I am large, I contain multitudes.) put for me in words the first description of my own approach to so many topics.

(I didn’t consider video games in general, though now that I think about it, I can easily define certain eras of my life with the games I loved then.)

But then I considered the Mystic Messenger portion of this entry, and realized that, although all of the above are incredibly valid answers to this question, I knew exactly what I needed to talk about:

X-Note.

I’ll be upfront: Unlike some of my above examples, X-Note has never actually impacted my day-to-day life. But I’m choosing it anyways because my love of visual novels in general and otome games in particular shape a huge portion of my current fannish life, and I can trace that all back to the release of X-Note in March 2011.

I’d followed the creator, Zeiva, on DeviantArt for years— so long that I actually no longer remember how I first ran across her. So when she released a demo of X-Note on her page, I decided to play it, mostly on a whim. I never actually intended to buy it.

But then I hit the end of the demo, and I knew that I couldn’t just leave it there. I had to know what happens next.

I bought it that same day. That was the first game I ever bought digitally. It wasn’t my first otome game (I’m pretty sure that was Princess Debut, a cute game on the DS that ate up way too many hours of my life), but it was my first visual novel, and playing it was like having a whole new world open up to me.

I was hooked; I was in love.

Now, after having played many more visual novels, I know that X-Note isn’t as perfect as I thought it was. (Though I will forever maintain that its sequel-ish prequel, Area-X, is a masterpiece.) If nothing else, the opening chapter is too rushed. But I still love it dearly, and recommend it to people at every opportunity. And to this day, Anon is one of my all-time favorite VN characters, and Anon/Essi one of my favorite romances. There’s such a beautiful complexity to him, and to them, that will never leave me.

So yes, I love X-Note and the series it belongs to with a passion. Playing it for the first time was such an amazing experience that has never left me; to this day, I buy every Zeiva game that comes out without question (despite usually being very cautious with my money) simply because of the pure faith X-Note gave me in the quality of their games. But I think the biggest impact that it had on me is that it served as my introduction to visual novels, and did such a fantastic job at it that I dove into the genre and never looked back.