I am gonna be honest, when I find channels that talk about games from the old days and in another language I get really happy. there is only 2 youtubers (you as well) that talk about this kind of stuff. thank you for taking the time to make these videos.
Language is indeed a high barrier. Like, I haven't got around playing Iranian games in their native language. I've seen retro streamers play untranslated Japanese games using ITH, and they seem to do the job okay.
While lacking anything really substantive to say about this particular video (I liked it), I will say I appreciate the high level of care and nuance that goes into the writing for your videos in general.
Thanks for noticing! Given today's climate, I especially paid more attention to the script this time around. Even consulted my sister who has a Master's in Media Studies XD
Love Nikki: Dress-Up Queen is a child-friendly dress-up game based in a currently highly queerphobic China, and there’s more queer pride in any of the “‘Rainbow-Themed’” (they literally put quotes around it) outfits they give out for free every June than in this entire gameplay recording lmao I used to play dress-up games constantly when I was a kid. This kind of art was really common in Korean ones that I saw, but it must have been traced over or just imitating the look because it was redrawn in Flash lol. The way makeup worked was pretty similar. I have no idea if they were part of the same scene or all drawing from similar shoutout/josei artists; I wasn’t even old enough to know niche game dev lore in English yet, let alone in another language. Anime proportions messed with my child brain, but I couldn’t even stand CLAMP at the time, so I would have clicked off pretty quickly. I can just imagine my mum going on one hell of a rant about the next-level “impossible body standards for women” if she so much as glimpsed those Slenderman-tier gams on the screen.
Oh, some contemporary queer dress-up game facts: Helix Waltz was a spin-off of a fantasy tactics game where you dressed up in particular items to appeal to the various figures in a city, such as by wearing a noble family’s colour or fitting a particular style, They’d dance with you if you appealed to them and could increase your (diplomatic) relationships with influential figures. Many of them were women, like the main character, and it’s an open secret that one of the young men nobles was AFAB. Unfortunately the service ended long ago. Great political story though. Alice Closet is a Lolita fashion dress-up game where you dress up a little pixie creature called “Alices” (which are like…pixies, maybe? They’re natural beings but also magic and technically genderless, though some are born with a more boyish aesthetic. They have free will but generally don’t emote with facial expression and are entirely nonverbal.) One of the main characters, Seilan, is an AMAB seamstress. There’s so much to unpack there but it never felt uncomfortable when I played it. Weird as hell concept, though. Also, the art is credited to Arina Tanemura of Full Moon O Sagashite/Idolish7 and it’s very pretty.
Thanks for the info! I rarely play social mobile games so it was interesting to know. The first South Korean Otome game 'Love' has a makeup and dressup mode, and back then I was complaining about normalizing girls on wearing makeup from such a young age lol All I know about mobile dressup games is that there's Yuri plots in Dress Up! Time Princess. Oh and this whole Northeast Project of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences debacle over a Hanbok outfit in Shining Nikki. I've seen Alice Closet. My first impression was boy Tanemura's art style sure has changed. In a good way, but less recognizable as hers.
@@bapsagoTo be honest, Love Nikki has had SO many controversies that I hadn't even heard of that one 😅 from racist content that portrayed Indigenous characters as cannibals, to almost all dark skin tone items and suits having a "sexy" attribute, to sexualised or violent content being censored, to the variety of monetisation issues, there's no password recovery if you sign up with email, community management policies and enforcement in the gallery section... I wasn't even part of the community at the start. It's that rife with scandal that I can remember all of those being brought back up in conversation pretty recently. Games aimed at women and girls get away with SO much more scummy stuff imo since there are fewer big publications and journalists interested in covering them.
great video as always, thank you for covering this game! i was intrigued by the art and title, it's a shame the story doesn't quite do those themes justice...
Maybe you can mindlessly play it as a cute dressup game, thing is the game doesn't have a lot of variety to call it a dressup genre either. And having to go out in josou whenever you have to buy stuff is a constant pain in the butt.
Great video! You always find such fascinating and obscure games. Though, as a queer person (specifically from a non-western country - probably), I'd say that Yuuta/Yuuko not going with a clear label for their gender and sexuality isn't wrong or bad queer representation. A lot of people just don't like choosing labels or don't consider it at all and I honestly don't get what the fuss is about. Not every non-cishet or gender-non-conforming person chooses or acts according to a certain label and I don't think labels make a queer character more relatable/realistic necessarily. Obviously, that doesn't make the game/writer perfect in terms of representation, like, he's clearly pretty biased against traditionally masculine gay men and the game seems to lack diversity with the crossdressers (they all seem to be men who dress up as girl characters they created) as well as any sort of real character depth. It also... I dunno, feels kinda sexist in that slightly dated way.
Thank you for your insight. If BL/Yuri adult games are categorized under queer representation, I can't see why Trans' can't be seen as one. I should have given more thought on that. Although making Yuuta a fully fleshed out character and spending the entire prologue on how he conceived his Josou identity, then going on to not having a single input concerning his flings felt more like lazy writing more than anything. There's also this conversation with Asami saying she slept with a man for the first time in her life on the day of her divorce.. because she wanted to feel like a woman I guess? Maebashi Rino seems to be quite heteronormative by default.
Oh my god. As a Tales fan, I've seen that key art for Trans' floating around with people saying it's by Inomata and I just accepted they were right 'cause. I mean. It's clearly Inomata's art style! Kinda fun to have this be the way I learn it's not her. The unfortunate part is that I've always been curious what the key art was for and now I know it's just a boring game with cute art. Ah well, such is life. Great review as always!
Next chance you see Trans' artwork claiming that it's Inomata's, you now have a video to link to! I too was led to play this game because the artwork reminded me of Inomata, but the game really doesn't do the artwork justice.
i've been collecting old otome/bl/女性向け game magazines and i saw an ad for this game in one of them and was curious as to why it was in there; learning that "otokonoko" as we know them today weren't much of a trope back then was interesting. it's a shame this game doesn't present the best ideals and doesn't accurately convey transness... i really enjoy your videos!! edit: checking again, the ad in the magazine i have (an issue of cool-b from 2005) was actually an ad for the second trans' game that was r-18. much to think about...
According to Catear's website, Trans' was sold in both male and female targeted game shops. I wonder if they put out ads in danseimuke game magazines as well. Here's hoping some gamers got some entertainment out of it. The art's good at least. Back in the day some Otakus believed that thirsting on femboys made them gay, and were gravely offended by their mere existence. Times have really changed!
A very good video once again. I feel that even as a intermediate Japanese speaker, i dont get exposed to a lot of LGBTQ stuff. So this was a interesting history lesson if nothing else. Hopefully the next game you decide to play isn't a slog and a little bit more progressive when it comes to these topics!
There are a few Japanese books and comics(some being autobiographic) touching on LGBTQ+ topics, but in games not so much from what I've seen. Trans' is a rare game even in this time and age, that much I can say. As for my next lineup, well... let's say half and half.
I thought I was the only person who knew this game existed! I found it many years ago in the Hard Off near my apartment in Shizuoka and immediately sourced the second game as well! As a trans woman, I was shocked to see such a progressive game released in Japan during the early 2000s!
This is such a great video. I'm happy I've discovered this channel. What an interesting and messy game. I find the heart-rate mechanic very interesting, although "school girls make fun of you" is such a misogynistic and silly threat regarding the fear of not passing in public. I would like to see these mechanics explored in a game that has more thought put into its story and overall gameplay.
When Yuta gets exposed for being a cross dresser, random people recognize him from the streets and give him gross looks, and he even has trouble finding a job. People in the world of Trans' absolutely despises cross dressers.
While progressive for its time, I'm not sure if it aged particularly well in a transgender lens, seeing as most of it centers around transvestitism and cross-dressing. Edit: Getting to the writing part and the various bad endings that come from taking hormone pills...yeah, this definitely didn't age well as a transgender experience.
True....@@bapsago On another note, what was so bad about Trans- 2's artstyle? It doesn't really look similar to the first game but all I see about it is that it looks more realistic, which isn't really a bad thing.
The ex girlfriend was a shitty person, but I'm so glad that she didn't get hurt of any of the endings I considere the main protagonist worst than her, it was an awful breakup, but duuuude, are you going to take revenge because of that? i think is enough revenge just stealing her clothes ;y anyway, is there a good ending with the ex?
They do deserve each other, but abducting her rival hostess(she does not recognize Yuuta in this route) to be locked up in a sex dungeon is too much. Unfortunately no good ending with Eri. There is an ending where Yuuta becomes her servant after getting caught crossdressing, if that counts?
@@bapsago Not that I'm 100% on Eri's side, but her design so similar to Hachi from Nana makes me not think straight. It seems to me that the ending of the maid is normal enough to be considered good uwu
Damn, the premise of a game who takes this sort of topic seriously sounded really interesting... too bad the game sucked lol. At least the artwork is nice... banger video as always
Sometime a niche can be too niche. And being bad on top of that doesn't help at all. According to the high ratings on DLsite some people must have enjoyed it.
It's a good question! There indeed is a distinction between drag and josou. I purposefully did not get into the topic of drag since there would be a lot to talk about and would derive wayy too far from the subject. But if you google those two words there are several good articles that come up!
이노마타의 오토코노코로서의 페르소나가 하시모토일지도요!?...라는 헛소리는 접어두고;;; 오토코노코물도 퀴어물도 BL물도 그렇다고 그냥 야겜도 아닌 그 무언가라는 장르...라는건 저 시대에만 핀포인트로 나올 수 있었던 걸지도 모르겠네요. 아니 그렇다고 별로 시대적 가치를 부여할 만한 게임으로 보이지는 않지만요;;;
보다보면 하시모토가 선을 더 굵게 쓰는 것 같기도 하고..근데 생각해보면 이노마타는 애니메이터 출신이니 충분히 그림체 변화가 가능할 것 같기도 하고.. 어찌됐든 그림체도 비슷한데 이렇게 오랫동안 친구상태를 유지한 것 보면 굉장히 돈독한 사이인 것 같아요. 플스시절에도 비슷한 이도저도 아닌 게임이 쏟아져 나오긴 했죠. 그 중에도 평가할 만한 가치가 있는 게임이 있는 반면 망똥겜도 있었지만.. 트랜스'는 어느쪽이냐면 후자에 가까우려나요ㅋㅋ 취지 자체는 특이하다고 생각합니다.
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I am gonna be honest, when I find channels that talk about games from the old days and in another language I get really happy. there is only 2 youtubers (you as well) that talk about this kind of stuff. thank you for taking the time to make these videos.
Language is indeed a high barrier. Like, I haven't got around playing Iranian games in their native language. I've seen retro streamers play untranslated Japanese games using ITH, and they seem to do the job okay.
@@bapsago I didn't know there was Iranian games, that's kind of cool thing to know. it just makes me appreciate you even more.
While lacking anything really substantive to say about this particular video (I liked it), I will say I appreciate the high level of care and nuance that goes into the writing for your videos in general.
Thanks for noticing! Given today's climate, I especially paid more attention to the script this time around. Even consulted my sister who has a Master's in Media Studies XD
Love Nikki: Dress-Up Queen is a child-friendly dress-up game based in a currently highly queerphobic China, and there’s more queer pride in any of the “‘Rainbow-Themed’” (they literally put quotes around it) outfits they give out for free every June than in this entire gameplay recording lmao
I used to play dress-up games constantly when I was a kid. This kind of art was really common in Korean ones that I saw, but it must have been traced over or just imitating the look because it was redrawn in Flash lol. The way makeup worked was pretty similar. I have no idea if they were part of the same scene or all drawing from similar shoutout/josei artists; I wasn’t even old enough to know niche game dev lore in English yet, let alone in another language.
Anime proportions messed with my child brain, but I couldn’t even stand CLAMP at the time, so I would have clicked off pretty quickly. I can just imagine my mum going on one hell of a rant about the next-level “impossible body standards for women” if she so much as glimpsed those Slenderman-tier gams on the screen.
Oh, some contemporary queer dress-up game facts:
Helix Waltz was a spin-off of a fantasy tactics game where you dressed up in particular items to appeal to the various figures in a city, such as by wearing a noble family’s colour or fitting a particular style, They’d dance with you if you appealed to them and could increase your (diplomatic) relationships with influential figures. Many of them were women, like the main character, and it’s an open secret that one of the young men nobles was AFAB. Unfortunately the service ended long ago. Great political story though.
Alice Closet is a Lolita fashion dress-up game where you dress up a little pixie creature called “Alices” (which are like…pixies, maybe? They’re natural beings but also magic and technically genderless, though some are born with a more boyish aesthetic. They have free will but generally don’t emote with facial expression and are entirely nonverbal.) One of the main characters, Seilan, is an AMAB seamstress. There’s so much to unpack there but it never felt uncomfortable when I played it. Weird as hell concept, though. Also, the art is credited to Arina Tanemura of Full Moon O Sagashite/Idolish7 and it’s very pretty.
Thanks for the info! I rarely play social mobile games so it was interesting to know.
The first South Korean Otome game 'Love' has a makeup and dressup mode, and back then I was complaining about normalizing girls on wearing makeup from such a young age lol
All I know about mobile dressup games is that there's Yuri plots in Dress Up! Time Princess.
Oh and this whole Northeast Project of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences debacle over a Hanbok outfit in Shining Nikki.
I've seen Alice Closet. My first impression was boy Tanemura's art style sure has changed. In a good way, but less recognizable as hers.
@@bapsagoTo be honest, Love Nikki has had SO many controversies that I hadn't even heard of that one 😅 from racist content that portrayed Indigenous characters as cannibals, to almost all dark skin tone items and suits having a "sexy" attribute, to sexualised or violent content being censored, to the variety of monetisation issues, there's no password recovery if you sign up with email, community management policies and enforcement in the gallery section... I wasn't even part of the community at the start. It's that rife with scandal that I can remember all of those being brought back up in conversation pretty recently.
Games aimed at women and girls get away with SO much more scummy stuff imo since there are fewer big publications and journalists interested in covering them.
great video as always, thank you for covering this game! i was intrigued by the art and title, it's a shame the story doesn't quite do those themes justice...
Maybe you can mindlessly play it as a cute dressup game, thing is the game doesn't have a lot of variety to call it a dressup genre either. And having to go out in josou whenever you have to buy stuff is a constant pain in the butt.
Great video! You always find such fascinating and obscure games. Though, as a queer person (specifically from a non-western country - probably), I'd say that Yuuta/Yuuko not going with a clear label for their gender and sexuality isn't wrong or bad queer representation. A lot of people just don't like choosing labels or don't consider it at all and I honestly don't get what the fuss is about. Not every non-cishet or gender-non-conforming person chooses or acts according to a certain label and I don't think labels make a queer character more relatable/realistic necessarily.
Obviously, that doesn't make the game/writer perfect in terms of representation, like, he's clearly pretty biased against traditionally masculine gay men and the game seems to lack diversity with the crossdressers (they all seem to be men who dress up as girl characters they created) as well as any sort of real character depth. It also... I dunno, feels kinda sexist in that slightly dated way.
Thank you for your insight. If BL/Yuri adult games are categorized under queer representation, I can't see why Trans' can't be seen as one. I should have given more thought on that.
Although making Yuuta a fully fleshed out character and spending the entire prologue on how he conceived his Josou identity, then going on to not having a single input concerning his flings felt more like lazy writing more than anything. There's also this conversation with Asami saying she slept with a man for the first time in her life on the day of her divorce.. because she wanted to feel like a woman I guess? Maebashi Rino seems to be quite heteronormative by default.
@@bapsago Yeah, heteronormative is what it is. And kinda lazy, as if Maebashi just didn't care about making it fun. So much wasted potential!
Oh my god. As a Tales fan, I've seen that key art for Trans' floating around with people saying it's by Inomata and I just accepted they were right 'cause. I mean. It's clearly Inomata's art style! Kinda fun to have this be the way I learn it's not her. The unfortunate part is that I've always been curious what the key art was for and now I know it's just a boring game with cute art. Ah well, such is life.
Great review as always!
Next chance you see Trans' artwork claiming that it's Inomata's, you now have a video to link to! I too was led to play this game because the artwork reminded me of Inomata, but the game really doesn't do the artwork justice.
I get so excited seeing the notification pop up for a new Bapsago video! I'm really enjoying the mixing up series, keep up the good work!
I always get giddy at kind comments.Thank you so much.
i've been collecting old otome/bl/女性向け game magazines and i saw an ad for this game in one of them and was curious as to why it was in there; learning that "otokonoko" as we know them today weren't much of a trope back then was interesting. it's a shame this game doesn't present the best ideals and doesn't accurately convey transness...
i really enjoy your videos!!
edit: checking again, the ad in the magazine i have (an issue of cool-b from 2005) was actually an ad for the second trans' game that was r-18. much to think about...
According to Catear's website, Trans' was sold in both male and female targeted game shops. I wonder if they put out ads in danseimuke game magazines as well. Here's hoping some gamers got some entertainment out of it. The art's good at least.
Back in the day some Otakus believed that thirsting on femboys made them gay, and were gravely offended by their mere existence. Times have really changed!
A very good video once again. I feel that even as a intermediate Japanese speaker, i dont get exposed to a lot of LGBTQ stuff. So this was a interesting history lesson if nothing else. Hopefully the next game you decide to play isn't a slog and a little bit more progressive when it comes to these topics!
There are a few Japanese books and comics(some being autobiographic) touching on LGBTQ+ topics, but in games not so much from what I've seen. Trans' is a rare game even in this time and age, that much I can say.
As for my next lineup, well... let's say half and half.
Thank you for reviewing this game. I always wanted to learn more about the game but couldn't find lot of english information.
I'm here to inform :) The artwork's the only appealing part of this game imo
I thought I was the only person who knew this game existed! I found it many years ago in the Hard Off near my apartment in Shizuoka and immediately sourced the second game as well! As a trans woman, I was shocked to see such a progressive game released in Japan during the early 2000s!
I've seen the artwork for this game before, so I've always been curious about this game. Now my curiosity is satisfied, thanks~
The artwork was what led me to play this; a shame it was not so good. Glad that I was of help!
17:07 Igarashi living the dream. 😂
And he really emphasizes that throughout the entire manga.
This is such a great video. I'm happy I've discovered this channel. What an interesting and messy game. I find the heart-rate mechanic very interesting, although "school girls make fun of you" is such a misogynistic and silly threat regarding the fear of not passing in public. I would like to see these mechanics explored in a game that has more thought put into its story and overall gameplay.
When Yuta gets exposed for being a cross dresser, random people recognize him from the streets and give him gross looks, and he even has trouble finding a job. People in the world of Trans' absolutely despises cross dressers.
Thank you for making this video
While progressive for its time, I'm not sure if it aged particularly well in a transgender lens, seeing as most of it centers around transvestitism and cross-dressing.
Edit: Getting to the writing part and the various bad endings that come from taking hormone pills...yeah, this definitely didn't age well as a transgender experience.
Perhaps that's what the 'transgender' part of the title was.
True....@@bapsago
On another note, what was so bad about Trans- 2's artstyle? It doesn't really look similar to the first game but all I see about it is that it looks more realistic, which isn't really a bad thing.
The gameplay and art looks really nice, so it sucks to know that the writing is lackluster
Still though, dress up minigames are my jam
I wished the clothes had way more in variety.
와 이겜까지 나오네요...저번꺼가 너무 건전하다싶더니 ㅋㅋㅋ 2는 갑분야겜이 되버리고 작화상 주인공 생긴것도 여장하기엔 애매...했는데 1은 걍 여자라고 해도 믿을듯ㅋㅋ
2탄 작화는.. 너무 퇴화했죠. 옷이 많으면 뭐해 몬생겼는데.
유우타는 생얼도 걍 여잔데 왜 여고생들이 남자같다 수근대는지 모르겠어요. 면도 안 하고 나왔나..아니 쟤 수염이라도 나긴 하나(...)
The ex girlfriend was a shitty person, but I'm so glad that she didn't get hurt of any of the endings
I considere the main protagonist worst than her, it was an awful breakup, but duuuude, are you going to take revenge because of that?
i think is enough revenge just stealing her clothes ;y
anyway, is there a good ending with the ex?
They do deserve each other, but abducting her rival hostess(she does not recognize Yuuta in this route) to be locked up in a sex dungeon is too much.
Unfortunately no good ending with Eri. There is an ending where Yuuta becomes her servant after getting caught crossdressing, if that counts?
@@bapsago Not that I'm 100% on Eri's side, but her design so similar to Hachi from Nana makes me not think straight.
It seems to me that the ending of the maid is normal enough to be considered good uwu
Damn, the premise of a game who takes this sort of topic seriously sounded really interesting... too bad the game sucked lol. At least the artwork is nice... banger video as always
Sometime a niche can be too niche. And being bad on top of that doesn't help at all. According to the high ratings on DLsite some people must have enjoyed it.
In terms of language, do they make a distinction with drag in japanese? It feels quite nuanced so I'm not sure if I'm asking the right questions.
It's a good question! There indeed is a distinction between drag and josou. I purposefully did not get into the topic of drag since there would be a lot to talk about and would derive wayy too far from the subject. But if you google those two words there are several good articles that come up!
모르고 있던 고전게임 이야기 잼나게 듣고가요~
이노마타의 오토코노코로서의 페르소나가 하시모토일지도요!?...라는 헛소리는 접어두고;;;
오토코노코물도 퀴어물도 BL물도 그렇다고 그냥 야겜도 아닌 그 무언가라는 장르...라는건 저 시대에만 핀포인트로 나올 수 있었던 걸지도 모르겠네요. 아니 그렇다고 별로 시대적 가치를 부여할 만한 게임으로 보이지는 않지만요;;;
보다보면 하시모토가 선을 더 굵게 쓰는 것 같기도 하고..근데 생각해보면 이노마타는 애니메이터 출신이니 충분히 그림체 변화가 가능할 것 같기도 하고.. 어찌됐든 그림체도 비슷한데 이렇게 오랫동안 친구상태를 유지한 것 보면 굉장히 돈독한 사이인 것 같아요.
플스시절에도 비슷한 이도저도 아닌 게임이 쏟아져 나오긴 했죠. 그 중에도 평가할 만한 가치가 있는 게임이 있는 반면 망똥겜도 있었지만.. 트랜스'는 어느쪽이냐면 후자에 가까우려나요ㅋㅋ 취지 자체는 특이하다고 생각합니다.