The sun sets on this period of Novel Not New, just as it does on the Bakumatsu Period and its defenders the Shinsengumi. A doomed romance either from 153 years ago or, strangely, perhaps 4 years ago as we tie up the last loose end on this show. After covering the first game in this two-part remake on our 10th episode, let our 42nd close the tale on this samurai otome. We’ll see you on Scanline Media, I hope.

A good mystery is like a good croissant: I bet it’s been a while since Kotaro Uchikoshi has made either. Heyoooo! Jen and Six are joined by former cohost Olivia and special guest Kim to tackle the sequel to AI: The Somnium Files, and the latest game by the creator of the Zero Escape series. It’s time to dive into the minds of suspects to determine the TRUTH behind the Half-Body Killings. And also get very exasperated, because this is not the sequel that Jen, Olivia, and Kim were hoping for. (Six never played the first.)

Stories don’t always have to end to be over. Though the dream of a Shenmue 4 remains alive in the minds of a few, the reception of 3 made that more unlikely than ever. The Shenmue series is very near and dear to us- we’re late converts but our faith is strong. In an effort to tell all of y’all what makes the series so special, we’re joined by Kyrie Page (@KyrieAPage) from Scanline Media (like us!) to go through the series. The groundbreaking Shenmue 1. The astonishing, peerless Shenmue 2. And finally, Shenmue 3. Which wasn’t… QUITE what we were hoping for.

This Month’s Game!
Shenmue III

Next Month’s Game!
AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES – nirvanA Initiative

We came, we saw, we killed chaos. A bit outside of our normal wheelhouse, but with just Jen and Six at the reins we’re gonna make some wild choices. We’re here to tell the story of Jack Unknownlastname with Jackson (@headfallsoff) from Abnormal Mapping and Ryan (@BluestRose430) from The Safe Room. What happens when Team Ninja makes a Final Fantasy? It’s… actually… really good? Huh.

This Month’s Game!
Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin

Next Month’s Game!
Shenmue III

You can find Jen, Kyrie, and Six’s podcasts about Shenmue 1 and 2 on any podcatcher on the Scanline Talks podcast feed, and here are links to the episodes for Shenmue 1 and Shenmue 2 respectively.

The boys are back in town. The boys are still in town? We’re heading down to Fake New York to time travel, fight crime, and get a boyfriend. Sorry, that’s a lot, isn’t it? To be fair, so is BUSTAFELLOWS, which they write in all caps every time so I’m pretty sure I have to as well. It’s otome game time again here on Novel Not New, along with time for some announcements, happy and sad. Mostly sad.

This Month’s Game!
BUSTAFELLOWS

Next Month’s Game!
Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin

I bet it’s been Ages since you thought about this one, huh? Myst was an unlikely explosion of popularity, a strange point-and-click puzzler that surged to being the best selling game of all time. How do you follow a game like that up, with as unexpectedly huge as it became? Is it as simple as just finding more strange places to click around? And does the team at Cyan Worlds realize what a bad person Atrus is? Lots of questions. We’ll do our best to answer them.

This Month’s Game!
Riven - The Sequel to Myst

Next Month’s Game!
BUSTAFELLOWS

It's Teen Time again as the NNN crew heads to Edwards Island for a night on the beach. A momentary distraction with paranormal radio signals goes wrong, and suddenly we're dealing with ghosts and stuff. That sounds bad, right? No, trust me, it's vastly preferable to spending any more time with Ren.

This Month's Game!
Oxenfree

Next Month's Game!
Riven: The Sequel to Myst

Another entry in the desperately underserved genre of roadtrip RPGs! What happens when you put three (maybe four, hard to tell) queers in a car on their way to slay an ancient evil? Well, unfortunately, you get the first game in Novel Not New's history that we decided not to finish. We've got a lot to say about this game, and it's not particularly positive. You can stay out of the car, it's ok.

This Month's Game!
Get in the Car, Loser!

Next Month's Game!
Oxenfree

What happens when you make a career out of pretending something exists, and then just as you're about to quit you find out it really does? Apparently you get real close to a gayst (a gay ghost), or least that's Madison's reaction in Heart of the Woods, a fantasy yuri VN. There are some definite things to like here, but we end up more middling on it than excited.

This Month's Game!
Heart of the Woods

Next Month's Game!
Get in the Car, Loser!

You don't need an apocalypse for life to be miserable. Four Horsemen tackles the bigotry, hate, and oppression that immigrants face, all with a punk aesthetic and rebellious spirit. Unfortunately, our time with it left us frustrated with mechanical opaqueness, inconsistent theming, messages we couldn't agree with, and more. We're glad they tried, but they really didn't nail it.

This Month's Game!
Four Horsemen

Next Month's Game!
Heart of the Woods