Things I enjoyed in May 2026
May kinda flew by. But I'm ready to talk about what I experienced sooner than ever!
A body has been discovered
I didn't know SHINRAI: Broken Beyond Despair until my friend Cre announced she'd been working on the game's sequel. I wanted to play it before the sequel came out1 and ended up receiving it as a present for my birthday. I think that's a win!
If you like murder mystery visual novel, this might be right up your alley. Ten teenagers join an halloween party alone in a secluded hotel and, as you may expect, things will happen. I don't want to say more, it's a fun mystery to uncover, with twists and turns that reminded me of a Danganronpa case, and the less you know beforehand the more you'll enjoy, I think. The characters might look a bit trope-y at first glance, but I feel like there's a lot of thoughts behind them and I ended up being quite endeared by them, especially Raiko and Kamen. In the end, I feel like a lot of heart was put into this project and narrative universe and that's why I'm quite excited to delve a bit more into it, with both the aforementioned sequel and GENBA no Kizuna, another murder mystery set in the same universe. You'll definitely hear from me then!
My comfort cragna
Let's stay in a Japanese setting with Reynatis, a game I've talked a lot about here. I won't repeat myself in saying how, despite all of his flaws and not really having anything absolutely mindblowing, this ended up as an overall positive experience for me. Except I hate the main character, but what can I say...
Things don't improve in future legally distinct futuristic Tokyo
We're still in Japan... kinda. Soul Hackers 2 is set in the future in a city that greatly resambles Tokyo, with its own legally distinct iteration of Kabukicho, with a gigant Jack Frost replacing Godzilla and a shop named De La Mancha (I wonder what is it referencing...). Like its PS1/3DS predecessor its a spin off of the famed Shin Megami Tensei series, but unlike it's predecessor I heard it wasn't very well regarded by fans of the series. As for me, though, I actually ended up loving it!
We follow Ringo, an emanation of a super AI predicting a world ending menace. Her mission is to stop the end of the world and to do so she ends up hacking the souls of some individuals (who end up being her companions). While I agree the game is fairly easy and the dungeons are quite uninspired and sometimes a bit boring, the story is nice and I especially loved the cast. Heck, Saizo was the one I had less interest in and ended up being my favourite character! I really enjoyed his backstory and his relationship with his girlfriend Ash. But, to be honest, I really enjoyed everyone. I love how Ringo ties everything together, as all good protagonists should do. She's actually not a silent protagonist as most Atlus games tend to have and I think this is for the best. I hope Atlus starts considering having more protagonists like her!
#Mermay
Let's take a ship to Australia now! A couple of months ago I read Weyward 2. Since I really liked it, my friend Ali lent me The Sirens, Emilia Hart's second novel. I feel like of you liked any of those two books, you'll enjoy the other as well, as they have similar themes (women strength, maternity, awful men and a sprinkle of magic). This time we follow the story of two Australian girls and their dreams about two deported irish sisters that feel far too real to them. It's a good story and it's very well written.
I think I liked Weyward a tiny bit more, but it probably comes to preference about the cottagecore setting compared to the seaside setting of this novel.
Wait, stilish devils?
I wasn't all that interested in going to the cinema to see The Devil Wears Prada 2, to be honest. I don't remember much about the first movie, I just watched it once when it came out in 2006. I've also never been all that interested in high fashon. But my colleagues convinced me to go after work and spend the evening together. We had an evening full of bad surprises, but that's beyond the point of this paragraph.
The movie itself was... ok? A bit slow in the first half and a bit over the top in the second one, but I don't think it's terrible. Thing is, if in 2006 I had nothing much to say about ultra rich people and their shenigans, now many of those same shenigans tend to drive me a bit mad sometimes. We see enough of them in real life already. I don't know, maybe I'm just not the target audience.
Boys will be boys
Talking about powerful people doing what they want, The Boys just reached its ending after five seasons and a two-season spin off. It could have been better, but at least they nailed the ending. It's a bit infuriating, though. To reach this ending, we had to endure two seasons (four, if we're counting the spin off) of mostly pointless storylines and "hey, remember Supernatural?" 3. It's a shame. They could have handled the whole show a lot better, but if you're in for a drama about corrupted super heroes, you could do worse than watch The Boys. It's a fun ride, until at least the third season.
After an end, a reunion
Many of my peers grew up watching Scrubs. While I actually didn't, my bf is one of them. Not long after we got together, he asked me to watch the whole series together. All eight seasons. Yes, eight. He refuses to acknowledge the existence of a ninth season. I probably should have watched it by myself, but I never found the motivation to do so. Not even when the new season was announced. Many were really skeptical about that, but, in the end, I think this season was quite inoffensive. Sometimes it's fun, sometimes has some drama, the characters felt like themselves: it felt like Scrubs. I don't think it reaches the heights of the classic seasons, but it's ok. Will there be a new season? We don't know, and I'm not sure if I hope so or not. We'll see!
What else?
- Great Nobuo Uematsu concert in Milan, featuring Sarah Àlainn who is as sweetheart and has an angelic voice (you might know her for some vg songs in Xenoblade, Eiyuden Chronicles or Monster Hunter).
- I snatched some literary classics in my moms library, stay tuned for opinion on books you probably read in high school.
- I watched some Nier stage play with a friend and they were really good!
a date is not announced yet, but iirc is tentatively this year↩
you can read about It in my march post↩
I've never been a Supernatural fan. I tried to watch the first season back when it was hype on Tumblr and it bored me to death.↩