gave a cursory look to the steam versions of the kh games. kh1 runs stupendously well on deck, solid 60 with incredible power efficiency. no more having to wrassle with the epic versions and their myriad of issues trying to get them running on linix (the games would always crash at points where the cutscene video files were supposed to play)

I'll be checking through the rest of the games on both PC and deck. pretty cool to have all these on here now

Haraiva on twitter made a post and then deleted it about orientalism in "cozy/wholesome" games specificially about fetishizing and infantilizing japan.

They went on to say that just because something is cutsey and charming doesnt mean that it isnt a form of racism. Celebratory intent doesnt negate harm and appropriation.

Its a real shame they had to delete it because they got harassed. i think is completely correct and this conversation needs to be more in the public conscious. Ive been seeing some of it in ttrpgs vis a vis 'ghibli aesthetic', but i'd like to see more of it esp within ""wholesome"" games discussions.

This is especialy relevant given there are 2 different games made by different teams that are using japan as a backdrop all while using fake kana. There is genuinly no reason for this other than fetishization.

Edit/Amendment: I want to acknowledge that orientalism is an issue throughout all genres of games, but for the purposes of this post I was focusing soley on those listed as "cozy" or "wholesome"

I am not a scholar, not an expert, and i am a white man, but the term "cozy orientalism" a la "techno-orientalism" really seems like an appropriate phrase for this phenomenon