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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

We've solved murders before on this show. And we've certainly caused some. But can you DERAIL a murder investigation? This is the task set to us in Overboard, as we try to get away with the murder of our truly dreadful husband. But getting away with murder is easy. Doing it with no loose ends is the real trick. This Month's Game! Overboard Next Month's Game! Four Horsemen

As Great Ace Attorney finally hits Western territories, the Novelists turn their gaze to the last release in the series. By the time of Ace Attorney 6, the series had become a digital-only series with little fanfare, but the writing might be more ambitious than ever. We're not just in "America" anymore, we're doing some globe trotting to the fictional country of Khurain and its supernatural court system. Twists and turn(about)s abound in this legal adventure! This Month's Game! Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice Next Month's Game! Overboard

Even in death, you can't escape your commute. Jen, Olivia, and Six embrace the vampire life as a young kindred courier fully out of their depth in a game of grand undead politics. The Inquisition, dark magic, an angry elder vampire... it may seem like a lot, but don't worry. You could always just turn invisible. This Month's Game!Vampire: The Masquerade — Night Road Next Month's Game!Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney — Spirit of Justice

This is the podcast room where it happens. We have a country to run. Now, running the country? That's easy. Just be a big socialist. But dealing with all the people that those decisions make mad? Well, that's a different matter.... This Month's Game! Suzerain Next Month's Game! Vampire: The Masquerade — Night Road