Advent Calendar: Let's Play 24 games!

Download links are here.

You're welcome.

Oh, welp, I guess we are--
oh, no, I need to be a member.
... Well, it'd get boring if I just played the same person's games every day anyway!
Just a moment while I start on the day's game...

Oh, whoops. Here's the actual download link.

Man, I sound way more into this game than I actually am. It's just that if you don't play it, I want it to be because you didn't want to, not because I am dumb and failed to give you a working link at least twice.

I'll probably play it, but I've had enough of Buff's awfulness for a while and it'd be too similar to yesterday's game, so it'll be at a later date I think. I wanna keep this varied. :3

And so, today's game is NOT about terrible ponies: We are playing "Inu No Ongaeshi"!
Somewhat based off of the Japanese folk story, "Tsuru no Ongaeshi," also known as "The Crane Wife."
In "Inu no Ongaeshi," you play a lonely freelance writer, if, with your lack of motivation, you can even call yourself that. One morning, you meet an injured dog in the forest- rather, a dog girl.
Apparently the author's only 14 years old. This game is more serious than the other two have been, but hopefully that won't upset people too much. Let's start!


Pretty neat-looking, serious intro screen... Welp, I guess that once more, our romance option is hidden from us.


Surely, nothing bad can come from a cat adopting a dog! No sirree!


The game opens with the sound of the default phone ringtone. I initially thought "alarm clock" though, because who actually uses the default ringtone?


Yo, mom! Cat pretends not to know who it is -- he doesn't seem to like his mom much, if at all, which is a shame. I love moms, you're not being a very good self-insert here.




But mom! Why WOULDN'T you be surprised of your daughter/son/cat being an awesome published writer? I get to be so creative and sell stuff and--
... uh, freelance writers DO actually get published, right?
This isn't just a title Cat forced onto him/her/itself because they sorta kinda write as a hobby, right?


Cat, you can do both. There is no reason not to do both.
In fact, if you do nothing except force yourself to stare at your writing all day to try and write, I can see why you'd get stuck.

Not pictured: Our mom's SICK BURN when she laughs and says she should tell us to do something we actually can, unlike dating or writing.
I don't think mom approves of creativity.


And then she leaves us with this! Apparently she doesn't want me to get a cat, probably out of fear that I'll make it my girlfriend or something.

I'm a cat! It's only natural! A dog would probably eat me or something!


... Well, she won't listen to paranoid talk about the dog-eat-cat world, I suppose.
Her fault if she finds me half-eaten.


Because evidently, Cat is lazy.


This is accompanied by frantic tapping, so much that the key comes loose.
Uh, Cat...
You... know that holding the key down yields the same result, right?



Maybe you should focus on the characters instead. A story is only as original as its components, after all -- the characters can make any plot awesome.
... On that note, who the hell moves out of the house to become a "freelance writer" without having even started their story? That seems like an incredibly terrible decision no matter how you put it!


In the end, Cat goes to bed without having managed to write anything, all day.
I think you might just be a shitty writer, Cat.
You should probably have thought of that before you moved to another timezone to pursue this career.


This screen pops up to signify time passing, I think. Nothing too special, it just pops up so the story doesn't go straight to "10 weeks later".


Evidently, Cat hates the sun.
Grumbly and annoyed, he goes out for his usual morning walk, the only time he doesn't spend staring at his computer screen hoping that he'll find inspiration in his desktop background.

His desktop background is probably the default, too.


... The sound of a wounded animal, to be precise.
Cat considers the possibility that it's a dog, and that he'll get bitten in half for approaching it. No idea what a cornered animal can do after all.



Nature has always been merciful and not left poor sad animals to die alone and unloved, right?

Investigate, Cat and drop the bollocks about sun. It started snowing here today and that means two months before I see it again.

Y-You don't like snow? But snow is awesome!
The ground's totally covered in white outside~ It's always depressing to not have snow during the winter for me.


Either way, off we go to find our dog!
I mean... hurt animal!


Cats aren't exactly known for getting lost, after all. But my personal sense of directions is utterly horrid -- there's a store I don't usually go to and while I know the way there, every time I try to return I end up on a detour and have to circle back around to get home. Once I got completely lost and had to ask for the way. And the one time I got straight home was when I was trying to get to another store after not finding what I needed.

Yeah, I could totally get lost in a small forest.


I can't help but imagine Cat accidentally stepping on the thing. WHOOPS
Well we found it! And what is it?


Yes it is!
Surprising nobody!


Or biting me. Point one for the cat!
But we can't just leave it this way. Cat starts considering how it's probably an unwanted mutt, a dog nobody cares about, that's all unwanted and unloved and alone.


Well, you're loved now puppy!
Heading straight home, Cat tends to the poor thing's wounds.




Yeah I'm keeping the SHIT out of this dog.


Maybe you should start on a new story, dude.
Or try fleshing out your characters instead of trying to start the story just yet.
Just. You know. Do something different.


Oh, well time to make dinner then!
... What do you mean you have no food?
Damnit, starving writer. Why did you leave home!? You're terrible at this!


Deciding he doesn't want the responsibility of keeping a dog, he leaves the door open so it can leave.
Cat, you are the WORST self-insert.


And the poorest! Dry noodles is all he can afford.
He looks at dog collars, but they're all extremely expensive.


And then he buys a spool of ribbon. Purple, since it's the cheapest.


He keeps reasoning with himself that he's just helping it look feminine and similar excuses, until he finally admits that he wants to keep the dog. Attaboy! Now let's go home and cuddle the crap out of our new puppy!


... Oh.


:<



Oh, so she was the one that moved... You should've moved with her, Cat! You moron!
Cat keeps yelling and screaming that he wasn't going to keep the dog anyway, and suddenly--


Oh dear lord what are you
and where did you get those clothes, is that my bathrobe?

... Well it's better than being a naked dog girl I guess. Points for modesty!

Cat is utterly horrified at being called "master" for some reason, and we introduce ourselves. I'm a cat, doggy. A cat can't be your master, that's just silly.


The doggy girl keeps claiming that we helped her, and as he's slow on the uptake Cat keeps insisting that he's never seen her before, prompting her to ask if he's blind.


... Doggy, sweetie, you need to work on your english.
She suddenly notices the purple ribbon, and he ends up saying that yes, it is for her.


Apparently she knew exactly what it was for, too.
I would've assumed it to be a toy, myself. Guess that's the difference between cats and dogs...


Took you long enough!


... You determined her gender earlier on! Get your act together, Cat!


She doesn't like being called "dog girl", though. So she tasks us with naming her!
Sadly, I don't get to name our new puppy, Cat is adamant in naming her on his own.


Cat, that's a terrible name.
... If you can't even think of a name for a dog then it's no wonder your characters fall flat.
(Though I would've probably just called her "Shephy" or something.) Still, she likes it well enough.



HEY MOM
I GOT A DOG LIKE YOU SAID
AND THEN I MADE IT MY GIRLFRIEND
THIS IS WHAT YOU GET FOR BADGERING ME :D

I like snow when I can watch it, but I hate walking through it because it always ends up with damned blizzards which is not very positive when your means of transport is public transit. I spent 50 minutes waiting for a bus in a blizzard once and I have never in my life been colder. It's nothing like that bad now, so my only excuse is I have a complex with the risk of slippery asphalt after I fell, wearing school bag and all straight on my knee last winter and ended up with a black marked, sore as hell knee for a month.

Oof, yeah, that doesn't sound fun.



... Sad thing is, she looks more like an adult than a lot of "legal" characters do, to me.


... That'd be one hell of a charge.
Like a freelance writer could do that successfully...


Well, see, if anyone saw you they'd think I'm secretly a master surgeon and-
... yeah no, can't tell her that.


Yeah, let's go with that instead. Hungry!


B-But I don't like steak.
... eh, why not. Can't be any worse than my 40th meal of noodles.




Shows what I know.


Go for it, magical matter-creation doggy girl! Make all the steaks you want!

She notices that Cat's still sad though, and he tries to explain the whole surgery accusation thing.



Well you ARE my girlfriend-to-be. Of course I have to think you're cute.

And then she's so overcome with glee that she...



... Evolves!



(Dog Girl: Evolves into Inuko if levelled up at max happiness)


Oh, right! ... Did she seriously evolve in the middle of cooking? That might be dangerous.

... Making steak with long sleeves is dangerous too, for that matter!


You really should have gone with your mom when she moved out, dude.

This premise is oddly adorable. I can even live with her butchering of the English language,

She gets better at speaking english after a while, thankfully.

The next morning, Cat is awakened by Inuko's cheery voice.


Again pulling food out of the fridge!
(Really wish she'd ask what I like...)


But she IS a dog.
Though, she notices Cat's still depressed and asks why. He claims to be happy, but she isn't falling for it.





Yes - no - sort of! Maybe!
Partially!
Inuko smiles wide and decides she can fix this issue without hearing Cat out.


Shame. Maybe you'd DO SOMETHING with your life if that thing broke.


"Namely, that I can't write worth shit."


Inuko probably IS a better writer than you, Cat! Despite the whole "can barely speak english and used to have paws until yesterday" thing!


Inuko demands that we head out for a while, and she'll stay there.



Yup, Inuko's gonna write a bestseller!
Suck on THAT, Cat!


... Oh, uh, you were sitting in just your underwear?
...
Aaaaawkward. Not helping those pedophilia charges you're worrying about.


And what happens outside?
Why, our dear mother calls us again, of course!



Not pictured: More BURNS. I swear, his mom's a pro at this.


(Did you know? Apparently imageshack has a 500 image limit. Whoops. IMGUR IT IS!)



Sad thing is I agree with her, dude.
You're seriously doing nothing with your life.
At all.
You kinda suck.


Oh, uh. About that...


So, did we get a doggy girlfriend? Or is she our SECRET magical doggy girlfriend?

Hiding her just makes you creepier, young fella me lad.

"So, Mom, I have this dogfriend. Girlfriend. Dog. You know what, just strike me off the will."

Tell mommy about Inuko. Which is literally dog-girl anyhow. Inu = dog.. Ko = girl.

Just read through the thread - I have a bad habit of missing interesting threads until they've already reached a notable size.

Great so far, 'tis hilarious.

I'd go with telling mom, but.. exactly what is he going to tell her?

Possible options:

• Yeah, I went and bought a dog like you suggested.
• I found a howling, injured puppy in the forest and brought it home with me even though I cannot afford a vet, proper dog food, or even a collar.
• I found this super-duper-awesome Inuko doggrrrll. She can, like, evolve and she loves me and MY LIFE IS PERFECT I DO NOT NEED TO WRITE ANYTHING EVER AGAIN MY DOG CAN DO IT FOR ME SHES WONDERFUL AND YOULL NEVER UNDERSTAND MOTHER YOU DONT LOVE ME LIKE SHE DOES LEAVE ME ALONE

Not telling is the wiser choice, but I have a feeling that telling will lead to a more interesting story. So tell her.

In other news, I don't like imgur very much. It's being problematic.

We decide to tell our mom! Surely she'll be proud of us!
Or disown us! Either one's pretty likely right now, really.



Not sounding very confident there, Cat.


... ...
So is she impressed or ...?


Nope! She doesn't believe us at all!
She tells us she's happy we got a sense of humor, then instantly resumes talking about my move.


But mom!
Those lawngnomes are the only things that ever loved me!


Oh, and that I suppose.

Cat cuts the call and heads back home, grumbly.


Inuko happily lets us in, and asks us to read what she's written.


And time passes...



He says that there are only two things that surpass this story's beauty;
How fast she made it...



Geh, I hate when that happens. I'm just typing along, then go "wait how is this word spelled" then "... is this a typo too? HOW IS ANY OF THIS SPELLED" and I can't see the words as words anymore, just collections of letters.



No, Cat! Don't compliment her so much! You'll make her--



... Evolve.
Hey, she looks more adult now! Congrats, Cat! You won't have to introduce your mom to someone with the appearance of a grade schooler!



And so they sit that way all night, being adorable.

Man, Cat really really sucks as a writer if he's so easily outclassed.

Adorable mental images flood my brain! Bad grammar would do me in, though, it makes me twitchy.

Imgur can be trying. When it works it it's fast and no trouble at all but when it doesn't, YE GODS. I had 160 images to upload for my LP yesterday and it was intent on driving me batters. It ended up taking all in all 14 uploads and I had to keep checking when it tried to skip random shots and that was when things even got uploaded and I didn't get constant error messages.

Woo! Book: Finished!
He thinks back on how it's all thanks to Inuko but she refused to let him put only her name, so now it says it's made by them both.


Greatly reducing any awkwardness from introducing a grade-schooler as your girlfriend.


So, all in all, she's improved greatly!

He keeps thinking about how adorable she is and how loyal and doggy-like she is in personality for a bit. Yes, Cat, she's a dog. You know this!



Aging kinda fast even for a dog, though.

Anyway, more time passes and then it's morning!


And Inuko is excited! Why?


Because we have mail! Very good mail!


... Either that, or they just sent back the whole script with a "no thanks" note.
Welp.


... eh?



T-That can... That can happen?
... I'm sort of scared actually, I have a story I want to try and get published and... I thought you got either accepted or rejected. Not forced to rewrite characters and plot elements. D: I hope I wouldn't get butchered too heavily...


Inuko is understandably upset, and demands we leave so she can do the edits all on her own. Cat is reluctant since she's done so much work and he feels he can edit it himself (though, I reiterate, Cat SUCKS at writing).



So, what do we do?
Imgur stopped working... You're not giving me a first good impression, imgur.

I have a strange sense of a looming tragedy...

Well, she's adament. Better obey.

Please don't let Cat write anything.

Do as she says.

Alright, let's listen to the doggy girl! She's done this a lot of times before, so she'll be fine.


Cat's still reluctant though. Sorry dude, majority rule!



A trek to the store and back follows, shown only through location screencaps. Man, Cat, you don't think much while walking do you?



So, he doesn't head home. Fair enough!
Instead he heads to the forest where he found Inuko to begin with, starting to ponder about her.


Specifically, this.


Oh, don't be so modest. You know you want more.

Eh, what's the worst that could happen?

Tell her how you feel.

Half your work? Be honest here Cat, she does all your work for you.

Hmmm... It's pretty early in the relationship, so normally I'd say it would be good to wait, but she's a dog, so she's all like, "Hello, Master. I just met you and I loooovvve you." So go ahead and tell her.

Depends. If it's a short story for, say, a magazine, the story can generally go through without too many edits, maybe a few corrections of grammar. If it's a novel, being accepted usually means they like the idea of your story, and you'll get an editor to work out the details with.

Either way, I'm pretty sure it's not going to work quite like they portrayed it here. They won't just send you back your manuscript with post it notes on it, they'll have a letter explaining the changes they want made and will probably converse with you about it. I'm fairly certain they don't just let you know they like your story at the same time that they mark up the whole manuscript.

No, exactly. Not to mention he hasn't even signed a contract yet; why would you go through all that work editing when you have no guarantee they'll pay you?

Oh, right, magical pixie dog dream girl game. Never mind.

Oh, that's true.
That's reassuring... Actually getting to talk with them about things instead of being sent a letter with "this character doesn't work, please remove it"... That feels better.

Eating dinner right now and not in a hurry to struggle with the stupid image-uploading programs, so the update might take a little bit!

Deciding he needs to shout his love right here and now, Cat rushes straight home!





... Gotta stop surprising her, Cat. I swear!

Well, yes, that's what you've been telling me.
No need to yell.


...Oh, whoops. Guess we shouldn't have listened to her, huh?

That's okay! Old dogs are fine too!
You wouldn't believe how lively old dogs can be.

Aw, but!

... Without any sequels? From a tiny publishing company?

Must be one hell of a book.


Make me.

Actually don't, it would be pretty terrible if you used your magic for that. Suddenly all I know is that there is a dead old lady with dog ears and a tail lying on my floor.



Well, then stay here and DIE by me! I'm not picky!


Noooooo, come on! It's not so bad to die by my side, is it?
Just stay here for a bit longer!



Old ladies should not be allowed to be this fast!


Damnit, Inuko! Don't cheat!
Get back here you old doooog!
Her ribbon snaps and falls off as she runs...

...
...
She's gone.
Still, Cat shouts out at the nothingness.

This ending is perfect. If we had waited all we would found is an empty house with a completed manuscript.

Aww. Once a dog person, always a dog person.
... Well, not sure the previous one really counted, but still.

Once a cheapskate, always a cheapskate.
... Nah, just kidding. He couldn't afford anything else.

I have to compliment his tastes in dogs though.
Anyway, they're moving out it seems!


SO CUTE. <3

... Wait, Cat has a car? Since when!? Maybe he just borrowed one...

The new owners will be getting an unpleasant surprise, I stuck them all in crevaces in the walls so they'd be always watching.


I'm sure they won't mind you moving several timezones away.

... Could you ever?


Thought so.


The game has a cute little outro with the doggy girl's various ages, ending with this.

I hope you all enjoyed!

... I don't even like dogs why can't I hold all these feels why ;----------;

Guess what ending I got when I did a test run? :D :D :D

...Sorry... I appear to have a little dust in my eye... yeah... that's what it is... dust...

Damn it game! I'm not even a dog person and you manged to make me cry.

... Okay fine; I'll be the one to do it.

Huh, the art endeared itself to me after a while. And there's also the fact that Inuko's fucking awesome as a character.

Same. I'm really not a fan of that watercolor-filtered photo style of backgrounds and nothing will make me, but the sprite art was pretty cute.

Is it sad I saw this coming back when I said looming tragedy? Inukooooo T_T

I may be naive, but I really didn't see this coming. So sad ...

I need to leave this here to feel better: