The Rice Digital Friday Letters Page, March 11, 2022 – A few questions

You’ve all been pretty quiet of late! Last week we didn’t get any letters for the Rice Digital Friday Letters Page at all, which made me sad. But this week we have, at least, had a few to ponder. Do feel free to send us a note at any point throughout the week, though — we really do love hearing from you, particularly if it gives us the opportunity to talk about some of our favourite things.

You can contribute to the Rice Digital Friday Letters Page at any point by either using the form at the bottom of this page, or heading over to the main Letters page and filling out the form there. The only info we need is a pen name and your email address — the latter won’t be shared with anyone, it’s just there so that if we do need to give you a private response for whatever reason, we’re able to. And you can write about anything! Ask us a question, request that we cover something, share a cool creative project you’ve been working on — the possibilities are endless.

Just don’t be a penis, because as I think we’ve established, that’s the one thing I don’t have patience for. But I know everyone reading this is better than that anyway! So, on that note, let’s get in to this week’s letters, which are a small pile of quick questions to blaze through.

The new boys

Dear Rice,

You gonna cover the new generation of Nijisanji EN boys? They seemed to pass by relatively unnoticed.

VoxACoomer

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Hi Vox ACoomer (is he? Actually, don’t answer that) and welcome to the Rice Digital Letters Page! The short answer is “Yes!”

The longer answer is that this week has been exceedingly busy for one reason or another, so we simply didn’t really have time to sit down and watch the new boys’ debuts. We’ll make a point of correcting that next week, though, as it’s been a while since we had some VTuber coverage — well, aside from the situation with Rushia, of course, but that was pretty sad to see unfold.

I think it’s interesting to see what Nijisanji is doing with their rapidly growing cast of English VTubers. After three sets of female VTubers, we’ve now had two sets of male ones — are we due another group of boys in a few months? It remains to be seen, but I am in favour of what they’re doing.

While on the one hand it’s easy to give a big thumbs up to VTubing in general as being a field where women are able to thrive — something that’s important to highlight these days — I think it’s also easy to go overboard with that and make it feel like it’s a field that men simply can’t break into.

For the longest time, the vast majority of successful, well-known VTubers were female, after all — and while that’s great to see, I think the importance of the “self-expression” angle that VTubing provides cannot be underestimated, and that’s something which can apply to anyone, regardless of their race, gender, background or other characteristics.

The addition of Nijisanji’s male generations shows that men are able to thrive in the field by being themselves, too — there’s no need for them to pretend to be a girl or anything like that, unless they want to, of course. And, given that we boys are notoriously bad at expressing ourselves and talking about our feelings, I think it’s important that VTubing be available as an outlet for those who wish to take advantage of it.

So anyway, yes, we will give the new boys a look as soon as we’re able. Next week! Hopefully. Probably. Maybe.

A bit of a Switch

Dear Rice,

Gal*Gun Double Peace is out on Switch soon, right? Do you know if there are any noteworthy differences from the PS4 and Vita versions?

KuronaDesu

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Hi KuronaDesu, I gather you’re a fan already. From what I understand, the Switch version is pretty much the same as the previous PS4 and Vita versions, but comes bundled with most of the DLC that was originally available separately. That means you should have a variety of costumes available from the get-go that weren’t available in the base PS4 and Vita games.

The specific phrasing in the press release was “most of the DLC”, not “all of the DLC”, so I think it’s safe to assume that the incredibly expensive joke DLC Pheromone Z item will not be included — and perhaps if there was any licensed DLC (I think there were a few branded T-shirts in the original?) that might not be in there, either.

The other noteworthy difference is the Collector’s Edition. The Horny Trinity Edition for the Switch version is different from the original Collector’s Edition that came out for the PS4 and Vita versions — the one with the cool wallscroll, art book and CD soundtrack. The new Horny Trinity edition includes an acrylic standee, a slipcase to put all three Gal*Gun games for Switch in, plushies of Kurona and Ekoro, and a “DIY Tentacle Kit” that absolutely definitely isn’t a pair of stockings.

You can get the Horny Trinity edition with just Double Peace if you already have Gal*Gun 2 and Gal*Gun Returns on Switch — or the Ultimate Edition comes with all three games. Either way, it should be a nice complement to any Gal*Gun box sets you have already from previous releases.

We should be doing some Gal*Gun Double Peace coverage next week to coincide with the release. I’ve been trying to convince PQube to send me a Horny Trinity edition to unbox and possibly put some underwear on my head again, but they haven’t bitten yet. I will not be deterred, however.

Horrible little thing

Dear Rice,

I tried the Lily’s Well game you posted about and enjoyed it, not sure it quite lives up to some of the RPG Maker horror classics but it was pretty good. Any plans to cover stuff like Ib, The Witch’s House, Corpse Party and suchlike?

Sachiko

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Hi Sachiko, please tell me you don’t have any scissors to hand. Um, anyway — the short answer is yes! I love indie horror games, and to my shame I haven’t played quite a few of the classics. We did cover Corpse Party a while back but I’m due a revisit of that, as I never got around to trying the revamped version for Switch. Plus I still haven’t played Blood Drive and the bit of 2 that eventually limped out — I think those are worth a look, too.

I’ve actually been asking people for indie horror recommendations recently and have had some great suggestions that I’ll be making a point of checking out in the coming weeks. Ib and The Witch’s House will definitely be among them — though I can’t promise exactly when just yet. Soon, though, probably — and in the meantime, if you (or anyone else reading this) have any other personal favourites you want to recommend, please do feel free to drop us a line here at the Rice Digital Friday Letters Page.

You tell us what you want to read, and we can write it! If you don’t, we write what we want to read, because we’re narcissists like that. Or something. Anyway, do feel free to offer suggestions at any point — that’s part of the reason this whole Letters Page thing is here in the first place.

So, in short, watch out for more indie horror funtimes soon — and catch up on the stuff we’ve covered to date in the Library!

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That’s your lot for another week, then. I’m off to go and play Gran Turismo 7 now it’s actually finished installing — and we will, of course, see you next week. Have a lovely weekend!

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