Culture Schlock

I've said this before, but one of my favorite things that happens to media during localization is when the studio tries to pass it off as taking place in the United States when it very clearly does not. They got away with it pretty easily in the first Ace Attorney game, which just took place in «the city», but as the games got more involved in Japanese mythology they started digging a pretty deep hole for themselves and it was too late to say «just kidding, we're actually in Japan».

So sure, Nine-Tales Vale is totally inhabited by «Japanese immigrants», and also some thousand-year-old Japanese youkai spirits immigrated with them.

Making the Cut

If your Pokemon isn't capable or interested in gently swatting a ball of yarn at you, you will never truly be close.

Nothing can break the emotional bond forged by slide puzzles! NOTHING!!

Let This Be a Lesson

A lot of games have a «cradle» town at the beginning of your GRAND ADVENTURE, where talking to the inhabitants helps bring your attention to potentially-useful things, like how to move your legs. Five minutes later, having been told everything you could possibly want to know, you can toddle away and move on with your life.
In Animal Crossing, you live in this town and can never escape.

Trying My Patience

NOTE: this is not a spoiler for any case in Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies or for any other Ace Attorney game! I don't like to include spoilers in these comics, so I tried to make up a case goofy and weird enough that nobody would think it is, but that's kind of a hard bar to set with this series. If the next game has a case about super-buff greaser brothers, I'll be the first to apologize.

I liked Dual Destinies in general, but it has a serious case of the hand-holdies. You typically either know the villain right off the bat or can figure it out within a few minutes, and then you have to play through hours of the other characters being dumb and meandering through the plot until you finally get to a part where you can point out the shocking revelation you made at the beginning of the case. There was a point where I had to make an argument I knew was wrong, just to progress the game – it felt less like unraveling a murder mystery and more like watching a bunch of turtles wander around in an empty room until one finally bonks into the door.
WORST OF ALL, sometimes when the opportunity to announce the «twist» finally comes up, your assistant has the nerve to helpfully give you a super-obvious hint for what you're supposed to say. I feel like if the game wants to play itself, it shouldn't give the pretense of user input.

Egging the Question

If a little unusual, it wasn't outright weird for the random old couple that runs the Pokemon Daycare Center to not know exactly about how an egg is formed. I don't know what the state of reproductive education was seventy years ago in a fake universe! So I can let it slide. On the other hand, the Daycare in X/Y is run by Pokemon Breeders, who, by definition of their job titles, make a living by getting Pokemon to make more Pokemon. I'd say they should probably actually understand how that's happening, but on the other hand I don't know how living boulders or garbage golems can lay eggs either, so who am I to judge?

I'm getting better at the put-the-right-year-on-the-comic game! THIS year, I only inaccurately dated TWO comics before remembering to change it. I think this is a new Awkward Zombie record!

Claims Department

Nobody pays property taxes or anything (or even contributes much to town works) to live in my town, so I think it's fair game to take whatever they drop on the ground as tribute. RENDER UNTO THE MAYOR THE THINGS THAT ARE THE MAYOR'S.

Trade Trade

I like that when an opponent civilization captures your civilian units, you can recapture them, rather than setting them free. I understand the game logic behind structuring it that way, but it seems like a pretty awkward interaction to have between people who were on the same side five seconds ago.

That Synching Feeling

i'm helpiiiiing

This comic is brought to you by AZ Forum member ShuckleShellAnemia! Wow!

Hourly Comic Day Comics 2014

Hello, friends! Saturday was Hourly Comic Day, and I celebrated in the usual style by drawing comics hourly. Here are them, and also some illegal hourly comics that spilled into Sunday! I hope you enjoy what was in retrospect a pretty boring and weirdly painful day.

Questionhaire

It's kind of cute that, rather than sliding around features in a menu, things like your facial features or your haircut are decided by a personality quiz. On the other hand, I feel weird having to cheat at a personality quiz for ten-year-olds to get cool hair.

ARE YOU READY TO GET CANADIAN? I am! I'll be in Ontario TWICE this year and I'll be looking for you, specifically! First I'll be in Toronto for TCAF during May 10-11th, and then a few months later I'll be in Hamilton for ConBravo! during July 18-20th! I got a passport and everything, and in the «why are you going to Canada» section I wrote «TO GIVE NERDS HIGH FIVES». Don't make me a liar!!