2026 Media Goals update 1

I set some really lofty goals for this year, media wise.  I wanted to finish and review 1 book, 1 vn, and 1 cartridge game each month.  So far, every review I've posted this year is media I already played or read and finished last year or earlier.  I have a crazy amount of goals this year, between my writing, my art, my dolls, and my backlog, but I don't think I should give up just yet.

His Primal Kiss by Kota Quinn

His Primal Kiss is book 2 in the Monster Match series that I started last year.  I know they look like women on the cover art, but the two main characters are both male.  They're just really pretty for an orc and a human.

Maddox is an orc tattoo artist who specializes in magic, healing tattoos.  He gets a lot of old people as customers.  He went to open up shop in the human world because something (I can't remember what) told him his soul mate would be a human so he thought his chances of meeting a human soulmate would be best in the human world.  Very logical, I appreciate that.

Dani is a pretty guy with a supernatural stalker, so he hires the orc to be his bodyguard at first, and then they start dating.  Fake dating?  Then real dating.  The story isn't what I'm here for, let's be honest.  I just want to watch them be cute and kiss and yeah.

Not as strong as the first one in the series, but it's fiiine.  I enjoyed it.  Oh, and the supernatural stalker situation gets resolved and everybody gets a happy ending.  I probably could've skipped this one, but then I wouldn't have met the main character for the next book! 

Princess Debut for Nintendo DS

Princess Debut was one of my first handheld games ever.  It came out in 2008.  It's about half visual novel, half dancing minigame.  You're a schoolgirl named Sabrina (unless you change it) who swaps places with a princess with the same face and name because the schoolgirl wants to meet princes and dance and the princess really doesn't.  To get each ending, you need to beat the dance competition with each prince.  One playthrough is about 8 hours, and there are 6 princes with a 7th hidden prince.

I love the shit out of this game.  It's painfully repetitive and takes forever to get through a playthrough, but I still love it to death.  I beat it 3 times the first time I had it, then sold it, then missed it so much I bought a new copy to try again.

I hope you like midi files, because that's what all the songs are, midi files of really old classical numbers.  Some of them still play in my mind, even though I haven't touched the game in ages.  You can't really customize your character but you do get costumes and ballgowns to choose between for the dancing segments.  I haven't unlocked them all yet.

I can't deny, the game is a bit harder to play on a 3DSXL, because it was designed for a smaller screen, so your hands need to work harder during the dancing, but I still love this stupid game.

Do I have a favorite prince?  No, they're all pretty dumb.  Okay, maybe the secret 7th prince is okay, who knows I never got him.  Do I think any of them are gay and shippable?  No, they act like children, so I can't see them that way.  I don't take much stock in the protagonist marrying one at the end either.  It's cute, but they're kids.

NekoPara vol 1 Review

NekoPara vol. 1!  The one that started it all.  It came out in 2014, and I read it first in 2018.  The first read took me 2 months, holy crap.  I'm a slow reader.  Any ways, the first hour is one long angst fest as Kashou tries to convince Chocola and Vanilla to go home, and they beg Kashou to let them stay with him at his new bakery.  They prove their worth, become waitresses, and all the rest of the novel is mostly fluff.

Book Review: Threading Carefully by Ashlynn Mills

Threading Carefully by Ashlynn Mills is the first in the Monster Match series, a collab project by a bunch of writers all in the same supernatural universe.  I read a few of them last year, so I'm gonna read more this year, and review the two I've already read now.

Nova is a Frankenstein-type monster, made up of the corpses of other people, held together with thread.  His first "master" was his creator, who was a really bad person, but that's not the important part.  He's on his own, looking for new friends and a chance to go to the human world.

Frank is a human doctor with an interest in the healing properties of things from the monster world.  He also doesn't have a lot of friends and just got dumped, I think.  And since he's a physical doctor who's handled injured humans a lot, he's already got practice stitching people up.  Plus, Nova thinks he's really cute.

There's a secondary plot about Frank's best friend dating a guy trying to sabotage relations between the monster world and human world, but really what you're here to read is Nova and Frank being cute together.  And Frank thinks he's straight in the beginning, but he really goes for Nova, so I guess you're Bi, Frank!

Fluff and smut aside, this is a good introduction to the Monster Match series, and I liked it so much, that I read book 2, which I'll add the review later.

My Steam Replay 2025

I played Hello Kitty Island this year.  Yep.  and used Spirit City to help focus on projects, yep.  And I reinstalled and restarted the Sims 3.  Checks out.

2026 Media Plans for the Year

I really wanted 2025 to be the year of backlog, and that really wasn't it.  So let's try again!  2026, a year of tackling backlog.  The backlog I want to focus on is my console games and Steam visual novels.  I have 40 DS/3DS game cartridges, 45 Switch game cartridges, and hundreds of VNs on Steam, so any progress I make will be a win.

Part of my process will be getting away from my PC, because I feel locked to it, so I'll work on console games, which I have handheld consoles for, and install my VNs on my Steam Deck.

RULES

1. I will try every game once.

2. I will DNF games I don't want to play or can't complete due to difficulty.

3. I will record my progress on my backlog lists.

4. I will review games and VNs I finish.

5. I will look up guides when I get stuck on games.  If they're too obscure and no guides exist, I will DNF.

So, yeah, that's my plan to play through my DS/3DS and Switch backlog next year, as well as working on my Steam VN backlog.  If I get 1 game and 1 VN done each month, I think I'll be satisfied.  I really hope this gets me more used to gaming on machines separate from my computer, so I am not always glued to my desk.