I find it interesting that the potato on the second pizza was actually mashed potatoes! Never had that on pizza before, but you know what? It works!

They also brought a bottle of spicy oil to my table, which was a nice accent.

And some complimentary pizza balls with seaweed flakes while I waited.

So, I did what anyone would do... and ordered two! A decision I'm still recovering from 6 hours later. ;)

They were good pizzas! Not amazing -- a bit overly soft and doughy for my liking -- but made fresh to order, and for that price, they're nothing to scoff at!

Got a mix, and a potato & bacon.

...whose extremely risque song "I'm Your Treasure Box" was the biggest vtuber hit in the world for quite a while, and was allegedly ghost-written for her by Toby Fox of Undertale fame (and its sequel song, "Dead Ma'am's Chest," was then not-so-ghost written by a fully credited Toby Fox!).

And many of their vtubers are also jpop sensations at this point, with songs regularly hitting the Billboard Japan charts and getting air play in stores and restaurants here. It can't be stressed how huge a hit Hoshimachi Suisei's "Bibideba" was (and still is), and then there's Houshou Marine...

Are you not familiar with vtubers, then? Because it would be odd to know of vtubers, but not know Hololive, as they've been the biggest and most successful vtuber agency in the world for years now, by a huge margin. They have three main branches --- Japan, English, and Indonesia.

(I just really find it interesting that this is a game with a massive cast, literally all of whom are exaggerated anime representations of actual people, most of whom are still actively streaming at least several times per week. It must be so surreal for them to play this -- in character, no less!)

It's worth noting, though, that you apparently don't have to know anything at all about Hololive to enjoy the game, as its plot is supposedly fully self-contained. And it mostly draws from the lore behind the vtubers' characters, which is usually pretty minimal, so there was a LOT of extrapolation.

And the character lore for her generation characterized each of its members as the guardian of something else: Mumei is the guardian of civilization, Fauna the guardian of nature, Baelz the guardian of chaos, Sana the guardian of space, and IRyS the guardian of hope. Which this game's plot plays on.

...Council (later renamed to Promise after some departures/retirements and a new member added to the roster, though the departed members still play a huge role in this game).

The main character is Hololive Promise member Ouro Kronii, whose vtuber character lore sees her as the guardian of time.

Yeah, it's a general fan-game for the entire Hololive vtuber agency. As I understand it, just about every one of the 70+ vtubers associated with Hololive, past and present, is included or referenced somewhere in the story, though the focus is on the second Hololive English generation...

Freedom Planet is one of my top 5 favorite indie games of all time, and with me being a Hololive otaku as well, I can't see myself NOT loving this game.

...And I also knew, given how good Freedom Planet's OST was, that this game's OST was going to be amazing. And... yeah, it is. Insanely good.

However, I only discovered a few days ago that the game was made by GalaxyTrail -- of Freedom Planet fame! -- which I somehow was totally oblivious to until now. And that changes things!

I'm probably going to buy a Steam copy and try playing it sometime this weekend. Because it does look amazing!

Ooh, where are those from?

Honestly... They have that same Snickers ad campaign in Japan, and that would kind of be a PERFECT choice for it. ;)

Oh, he's actually got a BUNCH of new songs out. YouTube just recommended me one for the first time in ages.

Here's another. This one has real meme potential, though I have to wonder how many times he accidentally licked his mic while recording it... www.youtube.com/watch?v=sH9e...

(Actually, looking into it, it seems he left Atlus years before his death, so I guess he never would've been a mainstay on SMT and Persona. Nonetheless! His passing was a great loss to the game music scene; may he rest in peace.)

And one more -- a slower ice theme this time (and one of the best ice themes of its era, hands down!). If you've never listened through the original Persona 1 soundtrack, I'd urge you to do so -- it's genuinely one of the unsung gems of that whole console generation. www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TZ0...

And a very close Exhibit B. Both dungeon themes (where Persona 1's OST really shines!), both EDM, and both composed by the late Hidehito Aoki -- who could've been a mainstay on SMT and Persona, but tragically lost his life in a car accident in the early 2000s. www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDNc...

This has become one of my top five favorite Hololive original songs, and it's also a real showpiece for Ludokano -- a big Biboo fan who likes making sh*tpost animations and arranging music, and whom Biboo contracted to help make her an original song and music video. And boy, did he ever deliver!