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my-year-of-game-boy · 2 years ago

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Week 6: Pokémon Trading Card Game 2: The Invasion of Team GR!

You know, I had a whole anecdote that went on for three paragraphs about how I got the first Pokémon TCG game, but Tumblr ate it. I don't think it's interesting enough to recount and I'm on a self-imposed deadline. Here's the cliff notes: I had just got a Game Boy, and I wanted this game. My parents pulled a ruse to make me think I didn't have it. I was excited to actually be able to play the Pokémon Trading Card Game with people because everyone at school thought you just smacked down cards with the highest HP and that meant you win. Then I was remiss that they never made a sequel.

Obviously, they did make a sequel. That's why we're here. I hadn't heard about it until I was an adult, as it's pretty obscure as far as Pokémon games go. The game was never released in English and even the Japanese version was published by Creatures instead of Nintendo! Both of those facts make it a bit of an oddity in the grand scheme of things. I'm guessing that it didn't make it oversee more due to timing than anything. By the time it would've released, the GBA was already in full force and the Pokémon series had moved onto to Generation 2, and outside of a couple of promo cards, this game was still stuck with in the Gen 1 era.

I had a funny bit about how I didn't talk about the game for three paragraphs, but it's lost now, like trading cards in the wind...

The key points that separate this game from the one I spent many hours on over the years is the addition of cards from the Team Rocket themed expansion (As well as various promos, original cards, and the vending machine set that didn't leave Japan), a brand new story set after the original game, and the option to play as a boy or a girl. I especially appreciate the last point, even moreso because, again, the story is set after the original game and you play as the same protagonist. So, you know, there's some deep feelings there.

;_; When I first learned about the game, I found the fact that it only had, maybe, a hundred so new cards to be very underwhelming. I likely would have even if it came out in English a bit more contemporarily. However, the addition of a secondary land mass, unique rulesets for many of the fights in the second half of the game, and a drier amount of card drops at the start really do add a whole new feeling for something I was a bit worried would feel more like an expansion pack. That said, I'd still run with the old standbys of Haymaker, Rain Dance, and Charizard decks. Okay, that last one isn't as good, but nostalgia is strong and the AI is still pretty predictable.

Scyther clears everything, it just does, this is peak performance.

The fan translation by Artemis251 is solid and feels more like a proper localization than just a translation. The names of characters match the first game's English version, while pack art and logos are changed to be consistent with that game, as well. Some might argue that this goes against the purity of a translation, but personally, I respect the amount of extra work that went into this and find it very charming. The only real issues I came across was some text getting jumbled after reading it the first time in the Game Corner, and yes, this game has a Game Corner.

Playing the Pokémon Trading Card Game with Pokémon Trading Card Game trading cards!! While the story itself is pretty basic, bad guys show up and steal everyone's cards, you have to get them back, that's not what we're here for. We're hear for more sweet, sweet card games. One of the things I love about the Pokémon TCG video games is how they don't showcase the field as a whole by default. Instead of trying to poorly capture the layout of a typical TCG match on the Game Boy, the games instead focus on just the Active Pokémon, that combined with the menu layout, is very evocative of a traditional Pokémon game's battle screen. This works in spades and makes the series stand out and hold up a lot better than other card sims on the handheld.

Are you seeing this? What are they thinking about? I need to know.

The gorgeous pixel-artification of the already charming Pokémon card art helps with the appeal, as well. Some of these cards in particular exude a powerful energy. I think that's a big part of why the TCG has really preserved for all of these years, even with people who don't play it. It's a shame that we never saw another single-player Pokémon TCG game on, say the GBA, to see what the sprite artists could do on my powerful hardware that still wasn't quite up to snuff to render straight card scans. The pixelated version of Yu-Gi-Oh! cards just hit different.

This is my favorite card and my brother chopped it up when we were kids...

Playing this game was like making up for lost time, trying to squeeze the years without TCG games into this one little cartridge. I put 40 hours into over the last month, completing the main storyline while getting distracted by other card duels along the way. And there was still so much post-game content that I could stick my teeth into. Why didn't I have this game when I was 12? Does this game just represent any other aspect of lost time that I've been haunted by in my adult hood? Or am I just overthinking the fact that it's neat to get to play a sequel to a childhood favorite decades later?

I-is that Voltorb going to be okay?

#game boy #retro aesthetic #retro gaming #video games #nintendo #pokemon #pokemon tcg

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adelle-ein · 2 years ago

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Lace's Engage Review: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly (minimal spoilers)

So I ended up deciding to get Engage shortly after it released, and I uh…have some thoughts about it. Far too many thoughts. As usual.

This is intended to be a spoiler-light review for those on the fence. There's pretty much no story spoilers, they all pertain to gameplay aspects. Also these are my opinions. They're subjective. You'll probably disagree with me. And I don't want to fight about it. Like at all. Okay? Okay.

Overall, I think the gameplay and general style puts me most in mind of the GBA games, with maybe a splash of 3ds-era (Fateswakening, that is, echoes is really more its own thing.) The general focus on the maps and battle, the feel of said maps, the game mechanics, the relative length and varied quality of supports, some characters being very gimmicky while others are more layered — it definitely doesn't feel like Three Houses, and it's more of a return to traditional FE form wrapped up in a strangely-colored package. The story is quite bad, but in a more "average FE story way" — some sweet moments, not a bad concept at all if a common one, but poor and very straightforward delivery. Alear is very Corrin-like in that they aren't the smartest and get largely worshiped just for breathing, which is definitely tiring, but they do actually have a consistent personality and characterization unlike Byleth. C-B supports are mostly (not all) for humor, but several A supports are surprisingly thoughtful and well-done. Unfortunately, the game falls down hard in what, for me, are a few key areas. Basically, maybe this is a three out of five stars? Something like that?

The Good:

Let be known, for starters, that I am a ~casual~ gamer. I'm bad at video games! Some of this is disability and some is just me! I like to play things on easy! So obviously my perspective will be different from someone playing the whole thing on maddening-classic-ironman-nuzlocke-yunaka solo-what have you. Also, I've played FE7-16, along with both Warriors games, played Heroes since day 1, and read/watched other people's playthroughs of 4/5/6. So those are my "qualifications"…so to speak.

Starting off: The graphics, character designs aside, are really very nice. Everyone is much more expressive, things are much smoother and less jagged than in 3h, and the environments and scenery are very pretty. The pre-rendered cutscenes look detailed and high-quality. The lighting is good and fairly dynamic, and textures are crisp and don't have that photoskinned look to them. Sommie is very cute, honestly. You can run around and explore the maps a little bit after battles, and it's clearly just a mechanic so the devs can show off how good the environments look. Honestly, they're very good! Cute, detailed (you can see inside buildings sometimes and they're fully furnished,) and well-designed. There's also some other cute and well-done details around the Somniel. For example, there's a ton of different models for the various cooking meals (I'm not sure I ever saw any reused? There's a LOT) and they look pretty nice considering you only see them for like ten seconds apiece. Also, I do think Three Houses had a prettier interface, but Engage's is much more comfortably readable with its font choices. Minor thing, but a good thing.

The maps and battle system are clearly the focus of the game, and the game continues to throw new things and gimmicks at you without feeling cheap or getting stale. The Emblems being used both by and against you contribute to this, but there's also some single-map gimmicks and returning ones, such as unique boss AI or moves, that add variety. Offensive staves, more varied weapons and maps, lots of fun ways to mix it up within the main story maps. Just the fact that bosses now have multiple HP bars, for example, adds a lot to gameplay and makes every map just feel like a unique challenge, which I haven't gotten from FE for a few entries now.

While the characters overall aren't quite as layered or deep as Three Houses's, some are genuinely very good, and many are likable in spite of that. Honestly, sometimes when Three Houses pulled out the "depth" card, it just ended up ruining a character for me (ie the Gonerils' child slaves that are never mentioned again…). There wasn't anyone in Engage that I hated at all, really, and that was refreshing. No womanizer character, no "racist but they feel bad about it," nothing like that. I enjoyed them a lot, I think they were fun and colorful (if perhaps maybe too literally colorful) and while a few were reduced to gimmicks, they weren't the majority, and nearly all show a lot of deeper motivation once you get digging. Sure, some of them bring up their hobbies too much, but uh, I'm one to talk. I think they were a fun, lovable cast overall, if perhaps not the ones with the most depth, but a good level of depth for what I personally want out of a Fire Emblem game. They also didn't feel clogged up with "filler characters" the way the earlier games sometimes do. You do get a few prepromotes thrown at you in lategame just in case, but no groups of four cavaliers with interchangeable personalities in case you fuck up and kill two. Everyone feels like they have a reasonable amount of characterization and care put into their writing, even the cast's weaker members, and the result is a generally memorable and likeable group.

While the supports aren't as long and many aren't as deep, they all go up to A, and a lot of them are just fun and enjoyable to watch. If you've only played Three Houses, or only like Three Houses's cast, then yeah, they'll feel weird to you, but if you do like the casts of older FE games, I don't think they're any worse than those (and frankly, they're better than some.) They're fun, some are quite creative, and I don't get any of the "ugh, we HAVE to include these" vibes that sometimes came across in Awakening and Fates. Those two games suffered from needing to include S options for almost every M/F combo, and Engage enjoys being freed from it. Characters are paired together because of their existing connections, traits in common, or because the writers just had an idea, and things flow very well. Overall, it feels like a throwback to FE6-10.

This is a personal note for me, but Three Houses felt like the writers had just discovered the concept of mental illness and wanted to use it as a crutch. Engage steps away from that, and for me personally, that's a huge improvement. After so many "hates: herself" characters, so much depression and anxiety that was portrayed downright callously or even cruelly, and the absolute nightmare of a parody that is Bernadetta, it was a relief to not open every support wondering in which way the writers were about to mock me. I know some mentally ill people liked the way characters were written in Three Houses. I am not one of them, and found it awful. I'm so glad they've decided to step away from their "PTSD is sexy, anxiety is funny, listen to characters tell you they stopped being suicidal because of [Player], listen to Bernadetta scream at the top of her lungs as wacky music plays because agoraphobia is a laugh riot" crusade.

The overall "throwback" feel of the game is genuinely nice. I had sort of missed getting to play what feels like a "regular" Fire Emblem. Personally I like it when the game varies formula, but it frustrates me when FE does two extremely similar games in a row (like how Fates tries really really hard to just be Awakening Again), and I was sort of expecting FE17 to be Three Houses Two (again, because Three Hopes is already that…). It was a pleasant surprise to find that Engage overall has its own identity while going back to basics with other aspects of the formula. I don't love everything that came from this (as you'll see below) but there were many things that I really enjoyed, mostly the actual gameplay itself and how fun it was.

As far as the main plot, in a spoiler free version: the idea was good, the execution was off. Pacing is kind of a mess, and the writers fail to give the deuteragonist and other significant secondary characters enough material and screentime to get you as attached to them as they clearly want you to be. This seriously drags down the whole thing. Take the exact basic concept, rearrange the ordering of the chapters and the priorities for screentime, maybe don't fight the Hounds QUITE as many times (it gets ridiculous by the fourth go around and you're still not done…) and certain scenes would hit a lot harder. The emotional core just isn't there because the pacing is so wonky. Parts of the script, animation, and voice acting also fall down at key moments (one character's scream of grief and rage just looks and sounds absurd.) I do like some of the messages, which break up the usual Fire Emblem narrative in key ways, and I don't think it's a terrible plot. It's just another mediocre one. I would personally rank it similarly to Binding Blade or Awakening, which is to say, unimpressive and predictable, but not horrifically bad or anything. It's a bit frustrating though, because I think it had the potential to be genuinely heartfelt, but unwillingness to provide any lore combined with really bad pacing combined with badly distributed screentime leads to kind of a mess. I have more detailed/spoilery thoughts on the plot here, but be warned, I SPOIL EVERYTHING.

The CGs are really well drawn and pretty-looking. Minor but true. The credits are really very nice, I enjoyed them and wish other FE games had something similar. The S-support CGs are not as well done, but the faces are not as, well…Bad as they are in 3h. I'll take it, basically. The rest of the CGs and illustrations are good though! The ally logbook and the little screenshots you unlock of the characters are also cute.

Also Sommie is admittedly adorable. I had to warm up to it but the way it follows you around the Somniel making its little footprint noises? Fucking precious. And hey, if you don't like it, you can just not feed it and it'll stay in its shrine so it won't bug you. Overall, the Somniel is very optional. I don't like minigames (and some of them are too painful for me with my health issues), so I didn't play any of them much, and that was totally fine and didn't slow me down. I personally see this as a plus. Also you can design a cute little card to hand out to anyone you do multiplayer with. With stickers! Lots of stickers!!

…If every aspect of this game had as much care put into it as that card designer, I would be rating it five stars. Alas.

The Bad:

The UI and quality of life features leave a lot to be desired. It is not easy to find or figure out how to do things in this game. For example, you can raise your bonds with Emblem Rings in the Arena area of Somniel, unlocking skills from them that you can then inherit. Great! But, uh...to inherit those skills, you have to go through a loading screen and travel to an entirely different area of Somniel, the Ring Chamber. I've spent a very long time traveling back and forth between the two as I unlock skills. It's a strange oversight, and one that is unfortunately repeated again and again all over the game. The menus are cumbersome, weird, and annoying, and sometimes really frustrating to navigate because there are just too many things going on in a single interface (The ring menu is just not enjoyable to use in my opinion.) Auto-equipping things sounds great until you realize it takes everything off your non-deployed units and the choices it makes are nonsensical. You don't have any kind of notification for support conversations being unlocked, and neither supports nor bonds are indicated as being available from menus either. If you're trying to win over a particular character with a pile of gifts, you'd better hope they randomly happen to spawn into Somniel, or you can sleep over and over until they do, because it's just luck of the draw. There's just a lot of weird, nagging little details that make things very cumbersome.

The thing that really bugged me, personally, is that Engage has no real way to fix up your lower-level units. Thanks to the royal/retainer setup from Fates returning, Engage throws a lot of characters at you very quickly throughout midgame. You can't use them all, so many have to hit the bench. Oh, but that's okay, right? There's skirmish battles infinitely respawning on the map, after all! Well...wrong. The level scaling for those skirmishes is based off the toughest members of your army, and is usually actually higher than whatever story chapters you currently have unlocked. Left Jean on the bench? He's staying there, since every enemy you can spawn for him to face will kill him by blinking. And the levels scale fast. Even sitting out a few maps can be terminal, as it was for my poor Yunaka. No matter how fun you might find some of the characters you skipped, you'll simply never get to use them. The modes in the Somniel are specifically set up to be anti-grind, and have limited uses...or don't gain EXP/supports/SP...et cetera. Weirdly enough, characters will also complain in this game if you don't use them, for some reason, since you can't actually do anything about that. Guess what, Panette, if I deploy you now you're going to immediately be Corrupted food, and there's nothing I can do to fix that.

This extends to every other traditional FE "grind." Other than a few potential exploits people have found, which are very, very slow, there is simply no way to reliably support grind with non-Alear units. Non-Alear units ONLY gain support points with each other by using staves on each other, eating meals or doing arena battles with each other, or...by defeating an enemy on player phase only and only with the units directly adjacent to them. And you can only have one mealtime between every two battles, not endlessly stuff yourself with different duos a la Byleth and Shez. Even with Corrin's support-gaining skill and regular mealtimes and arena battles, supports gain at a crawl. Gold runs out fast and the only way to get more is the miserably difficult, high-level skirmishes.

I have one massive file each in Awakening and Fates in which I have every single unit fully built, all their stats and A supports maxed, and full sets of skills (except for my least favorite units…), from both spamming reeking boxes and the DLC maps, all just for fun. That's not possible in Engage. Awakening/Fates didn't have NG+ because they didn't need NG+. Engage does. In Awakafates, you could, if you wanted to, have a fun, enjoyable postgame/lategame to collect everything and try completely wild combinations out. In Engage, there are a number of skills and builds and abilities that, while cool in theory, are just never possible to try in-game without insanely slow grinding. Finishing the support log is a nightmare ask and pretty much impossible in one file unless you are insanely devoted to having units healing each other with Micaiah's ring in the corners of high level maps for IRL days on end. It’s pretty much impossible to max all donation levels or collect all bond rings, because again, no NG+. This certainly doesn't matter to many players, but it does to me, so that's why I'm sharing. I wouldn't be surprised if we get some DLC maps designed to help fill this in a little, and personally, I think that sucks. Sure, the DLC maps in Fates/Awakening speed things up a lot, but they aren't absolutely necessary as you can still use map battles easily enough. If they add DLC grinding maps to Engage, they will be the only options available. Lame. Even if it’s a free patch, the game currently feels like it’s missing a basic feature. Withholding that for hype or money reasons is just obnoxious.

The throwback paralogues, meanwhile, are…kind of a slog for me. The Emblems make a fairly bland speech about their motivations and then fight you on a map designed to look like various random maps from their corresponding games (and I mean random — some of these choices were far from iconic and downright inexplicable. Why a random beach for Celica? Why is Sigurd on a Seliph map, albeit a well-known one? Why is Lyn's map from FE6 aaaaaaaaa.) While the gameplay on these maps is tight and challenging, that's pretty much where the well-done fanservice begins and ends. Actual characterization of the Emblems is few and far between, pretty much limited to Bond conversations. In the story proper, they're exposition bots.

The Ugly:

Just coming out to say it: God, these characters look so bad. Alear is hideous. The colors are all over the place and clash with each other horribly. The battle outfits are just eyesores (although the Somniel ones are generally improvements, you can't equip those in battle, so what's the point?) The job outfits are REALLY ugly (that sage outfit is goddamn hideous.) Nearly all the characters all have either Boy Face or Girl Face, and Girl Faces all look like they're about eleven years old. The weird medieval/modern/fantasy/??? mashup look doesn't work for me. Every non-pre rendered cutscene had girl Alear making her blank stupid blob face, and no matter what expression she made she just looked really weird. Her design is, for me, simply so weird and ugly as to be distracting at all times. Meanwhile, so many characters like Yunaka, Panette, and Hortensia are just downright distractingly bad looking. I can't take the face stickers or clown dresses seriously at all, and they're not even fun to look at. Orientalism, as usual, abounds in both some default outfits (Seadall is...so bad) and dress-up options. The artist was a poor choice for FE, but I don't think most of the blame lies at her feet — the choice itself was bad, and there's no direction to speak of when it comes to the overall look of the characters. Most of the countries don't appear to have any coherent cultural identity in clothing designs the way Nohr and Hoshido did, for example (barring Firene's passion for flowers and some recurring patterns among the Brodians.) If it weren't for the copy-pasted faces, many of them would look like they came from different games altogether. Even the generic soldiers look awful. It's disjointed and ugly. The entire design team fell down hard on this one.

The Emblems honestly leave a lot to be desired. Some aren't bad, but that blobby girl face doesn't really work for most of the female Emblems. Celica and Eirika's hair looks atrocious (do they have terrible bedhead or something?) and Leif just looks incredibly off in a way I can't quite define. Design-wise, this is a very bad looking game. Which is a shame, because all the animation upgrades now feel completely wasted on terrible designs.

And, of course, Fire Emblem gonna Fire Emblem: the S-supports are just a mess overall. The datamined ages don't appear to be present in the game proper, but based on the under-18s being made platonic in the NA localization, I'm assuming they're still canon. This means Alear is 17 and capable of marrying a number of people in their twenties and above, even in the localized version. To be fair, I think the localizers were fucked no matter what they did here. Leave in marriage to Anna and the game will rightfully be slammed. Take out every romantic relationship and the backlash will be incredible. But where do you draw the line for a 17-year-old dating a 15-19 y/o? There was just no way to win this one, and I guess going with 18 makes as much sense as anything. This is not me defending the original devs, who suck. This is just me thinking about how the localization team really just could not make any good choice here, thanks to the original game's fucked up "lol you can marry anyone" choices. Whole thing is gross all the way around. There's a pretty small handful of characters that are both left romantic and not creepy choices for Alear, so we're back in the same situation Fates and 3h left us in, where all the super popular avatar ships are just weird and unpleasant and people call you a monster for not liking them. Great, thanks a lot, intsys. All of this being said: the game itself really doesn't include these ages, and most people aren't even going to realize they're a thing. You need to go online to even find out. So who only knows why they exist to begin with (Anna etc romantic S-supports still gonna be real bad no matter what, though.)

And no, there's no romance or paired endings between non-Alear characters, just some vague non-explicit implications in certain a-supports, as per usual, because playersexuality is all that matters to anyone anymore. Let's all publish thinkpieces about how FE said gay rights or whatever though! Woo-hoo!

Verdict:

So, all that being said…Engage is really fun. It is also a hot mess and while the gameplay is overall strong, there are certain aspects that don't seem to have been thought through at all. Its greatest strengths are its map design and focus on core gameplay, but its weaknesses lie in quality of life and options for grinding and more casual fun. There's no postgame/ng+/etc whatsoever despite the game really needing it. And the designs look terrible. I personally don't think it was worth the $60 (maybe more like $40), and mostly decided to go ahead and buy it so I could lend it out to the family. Of course, your mileage may vary, but those are my full thoughts on the game as a whole.

Also don't ask me how it ranks in the series overall, it'll take at least a few months before I can form concrete thoughts on that. All I can say it doesn't inspire sheer frothing rage and I will probably play it again. No the best FE game but not the worst either. That's all I got.

Stan Sommie.

#txt #elyos #lace reviews

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lastthroes · 1 year ago

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Currently on hiatus due to life. If you want to contact me for something urgent, you might have better luck finding me on Discord.

• Tales fan since somewhere around the release of Symphonia GC/Phantasia GBA.

• I like fictional siblings and Tales a lot so this sideblog focuses on that (with honorary Elle+Phi apparitions). I’ve played most Tales entries, including Japanese only ones outside of the mainline games.

• Not spoiler free. I might tag at some point but this isn’t granted. If you don’t want spoilers it’s really better not to follow me, no hard feelings.

• I tend to have a critical eye and dissect everything from the games I love. I suppose this is par the job of being a hobbyist writer, but if this is an issue for you then it’s also better not to follow me. Again, no hard feelings.

• I preemptively will always block over discourses and general terminal online-ness, as well as those looking for drama by being extremely negative (such as tagging character hate with the official tag), tag spamming (actually against TOS), or flooding the tags I follow with unauthorized reposts or AI-created ficart. I also have a no harassment/no bullying policy. If you don’t know why I blocked you, that’s most probably why. I also block back for courtesy when I do take notice. I got it wrong? Just unlog and send an ask.

• Mostly SFW, but some posts are NSFW. Blacklist #ns4t if you don’t want to see these.

-For the above reason, please refrain from following my blog if you’re underage. If you ignore this and I notice, I’m blocking you.

-Similarly, blacklist #shipcest tag and #sibcest tag if you don't want to see ships (I very rarely post anything else shippy).

• I’m an oldie still used to the older Tumblr culture and do not care about spam liking/reblogging. Go have fun.

• All art here will either be official, mine, commissioned, reblogged from the artists themselves, or reblogged from an authorized repost. If it’s not so then it just slipped, so don’t hesitate to say so.

• I am fully self-taught at Japanese and have always lived in what's popularly known as "the third world", which means I don't have access to actual education. Don't be afraid of pointing at it if I make a mistake.

Reblogs are mostly in the shorter tags, meanwhile my own posts are usually tagged under "[game] talk".

#top #tod #tod2 #tos #tos talk #toa #tol #tol talk #tov #toh #toh talk #tog #ndx #tox #tox talk #tox2 #x2 talk #asteria #asteria talk #toz #tob #zestbers talk #torays #rays talk #toc #cresty talk #toarise #arise talk

Other tags to block/mute.

#sibcest tag #wip talk #fandom stuff #drawing stuff #writing stuff #tangentially related posts #maurotxt #ns4t

#about #last updated 1/10/24

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doodlethesnicker · 3 years ago

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CS Episode: Written By AI (Pt. 1)

Have you ever wondered where your sanity went? Have you ever wanted to express your craziness in some way?

Well, reading CS scenes generated by an autocomplete bot is the activity for you! We have walls, holes, cats, and a whole lot of nonsense. Enjoy!

-------CS EPISODE SCENE-------

The Caper Is Holes - Part 1

Zack echoed around the headquarters as morning turned to afternoon. The walls existed, making Shadowsan uncomfortable.

"Must have walls," He danced. "They make us crazy."

Carmen was shocked. Most of the time Shadowsan was a ninja. Nowadays he was butter pirate and she approved at first. When Carmen tore the couch apart, Zack exclaimed.

"Amazing couch! We can use VILE to fix."

Immediately, Maelstrom flipped his hair over. "It is done."

All of them opened the door, and Coach Brunt was cats. Bellum liked it, although Countess tried not to be a wolf. A hole appeared under the wolf and gathered cats.

Ivy dabbed on Bellum.

"I'm convinced the hole exists," Ivy cried. “But if we can’t stomp on the hole, I will be Player."

"CHEESE ABOARD!" Julia calmly said. "I am not straight as you are dirty wings."

Carmen thought Butter Shadowsan was wings. She turned around to jump out of a plane and returned with a pineapple on her face.

"Thanks!" Zack took the fruit. He hurriedly ate the warehouse.

"Zack, now we live in nowhere," His sister said. "ACME is our food now."

Chase smiled. "That makes me happy."

His smile was dessert when Chief came. She stood on Maelstrom and his hair.

"We were bologna!" Carmen exclaimed and threw her hat on the floor.

Zack was confused as Chief was converted into sandwiches.

-------FIN------- ..yeah. I'll link the second part as soon as it's finished!

#carmen sandiego #carmen sandiego 2019 #carmen sandiego netflix #cs19 #cs episodes #GbA: Generated by AI #this is blursed #we were bologna #Carmen u right #shadowsan is butter now #I regret nothing

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canonical-transformation · 3 years ago

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Metroid: Dread is so 'classic', it feels like an anachronism. It feels like a remaster of the 2006 game it was supposed to be. (For me, that's *exactly* what I wanted, even if I didn't know it when I bought it.)

I've only just finished my very first any% (9 hours, *wince*) and wow this whole experience made my tiny fangirl heart explode in a shower of little purple orbs.

(Spoiler level below: very light. ✔ no story spoilers, ⚠ some game structure discussion à la "Metroid Fusion was very linear!", ⚠ some series-generic mechanics discussion like "does bomb jumping work?")

I found it weirdly satisfying how Dread takes next to zero cues from the entire past decade of Metroidvania. It wants to be Metroid 5, and that means the exact same formula the series used in its golden years: save rooms, map rooms, the ammo recharge stations from SM, a zillion different upgrades for vertical mobility, etc.

I think the moment it first clicked for me that the devs had gone all in on "more of the same" was when I fell through my first one-way softlock, bringing back old Brinstar memories. Or maybe it was when I first entered a brand new area for three minutes, found one tiny item, and then found myself backtracking several areas to do anything useful with it.

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The EMMIs are great the same way the SA-X was great, and nearly two decades later, they have the AI to really give you that prey-in-hunting ground feel.

I'm so curious to see what sequence breaking options are available. Although some areas are heavily gated, other blockages feel a lot more porous to the seasoned bomb-jumping shinesparker.

Also the story is such a seamless continuation to the Metroid saga but uh that's a discussion for elsewhere.

---

The problem with Dread being a spiritual successor to classic 1994 / early 00's games is that it only truly shines if you're already into Metroid.

Don't get me wrong, if you've done HK or Ori you'll have no (insurmountable) trouble navigating Dread's short and sweet main campaign. But -- perhaps ironically -- so much of the fun of this game is the familiarity.

Familiarity adds so much spice to the mix. The little fan nods to Zebes and BSL interior design, the tantalising anticipation of seeing a glowing yellow boomerang tile you can't break and knowing exactly what it needs and heck yes fun, the fun reinterpretations of decades-old colour schemes, and that's not even getting into [redacted].

Stripped of that, the game is... just a Metroidvania without much emotional connection? Go to the place, pick up the better weapon or the morph ball, backtrack to the other place. The world isn't intrinsically enticing. Some of the game's [redacted] different zones feel very distinct but many others blur together. A lot of the blame here belongs to the game's heavily-advertised 'EMMI zones' taking up huge portions of the map, but... idk, a lot of areas are liminal stretches of corridors and obstacles, with nods to biomes limited to the occasional glance out the window.

The game does not go out of its way to make you care about Samus. It doesn't go out of its way to make you care about the narrative stakes insofar as they exist. It's a lot like Super Metroid in that regard, but for major console titles these days that kind of bring-your-own-investment is a statement.

Anyway if you haven't played any Metroid games before and you're on the fence about this one, I strongly recommend playing one of the SNES or GBA games first, if you're legally able to! Partly so you know exactly what you're in for, partly so your appetite is properly whetted.

---

TL;DR if you're excited for Metroid: Dread, stay excited. It's a continuation not a reboot, so franchise newbies, temper expectations accordingly.

#metroid: dread #metroid series #metroid dread review #my reviews #rose tinted glasses / nostalgia / positivity

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ashen-laguz · 3 years ago

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For the ask game: 6, 13, 16, 27, 30!

6: a game that’s changed you the most?

i'm not gonna get deeply into this both because it's a very personal thing + I have a friend playing through AI: The Somnium Files and I don't wanna spoil them, but i WILL say.

motherfucking ota. hate this bitch. terrible little dude. also one of my favorite characters in this game and a strangely important comfort character for me because the subject matter in his route hit one hell of a raw nerve i did not expect this game to hit, nor did i even realize it was such a sensitive subject for me

but it got me thinking about how i've been living my life tbh, and some realizations i had because of that have served as a bit of a wake-up call and a HUGE motivation for me to kick my ass into gear, improve as a person, and like... actually take more proper responsibility for myself, i guess.

im gonna die mad about the fact i have that lil simp of all characters to thank for this tho

13: a game you were the most excited for when it wasn’t released yet?

So I was REALY excited about Octopath when it was first announced - I'd been really craving a good RPG, the I was really digging the aesthetics, and I did really enjoy the demo! I was EXTREMELY hype...

Buuuut by the time it actually dropped, I couldn't afford to pick up a new game, especially one that no one else in my household seemed to care much about, so I just sorta forgot about it and stopped caring tbh. only picked it up recently

16: character you’ve hated most? from what game?

I have... issues with the characters in R*ging Loop in general (issues in that I find them boring AT BEST and the worst ones INCREDIBLY unlikable and uncomfortable) but I think the objective worst of it all tends to be saved for like,, "lets drop this plot-twisty shock value somewhere : ) " so you don't actually have to deal with certain characters being so actively unlikable for a good chunk of the time?

....Except Haruaki, since he's the protagonist, which meant the player has to stick with him the WHOLE TIME. fucking hated that dude. Like I'm down for playing games that have morally ambiguous protagonists, or even outright shitty people as protagonists, but the writers for the game need to have more awareness then the writers for this game had if you want it to not get really uncomfortable/feel unintentional

27: has there ever been a moment that has made you cry?

Admittedly, I'm not much of a crier - never really have been. I've been emotional enough over games where you'd expect someone to cry, but I don't think there's been any moments that actually brought me to tears?

Hatoful's BBL route got me close though. tldr I couldn't listen to Death Tone without feeling like I might tear up for the first several months after going through BBL my first time. also there's this BBL fan-animation that hits a lot of the emotional beats that ABSOLUTELY choked me up and idk if that one counts since it's not the game itself BUT.....

OH ALSO last time i ranthrough TTYD, the ending with Mario leaving all the partners and Rogueport did choke me up a lil bit but that was absolutely just the nostalgia blasting me in the goddamn face tbch, since that game really means a lot to me

30: a game that hasn’t been localized in your country that you think should be localized?

The original GBA Rhythm Heaven. I know, there's supposedly a good english ROM, but I cannot get it running without just a bit too much lag for it to be playable, but I really love the three rhythm heavens that are out in english!! I'd love to see where the series started

#laqueus #ask the trashbag

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radramblog · 4 years ago

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Top 5 Games, ever...?

This was sort of on my mind, considering the recent GOTY post I made. Come explore the hyperfixations that managed to stick around long enough to be my top 5 list.

5. Uhhhhhh

So turns out I haven’t figured out what number 5 is yet. I suppose instead I’ve got to split it among the honourable mentions, huh.

Kirby Super Star Ultra is probably the best game from the GBA/DS era of the series and is just a blast to play. It introduced Masked Dedede, and all the banging music and memes that come with it, and probably deserves a spot here just for that.

The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth removes all the awkward Flash Stuff from the excellent original, and adds so, so much more content- the game’s final expansion still isn’t out yet as of writing but even now there’s just so much to unlock. While some aspects of the game can be pretty unforgiving, you probably aren’t going to be exposed to the worst of it unless you get into it pretty hardcore, and if you do, you’ll get used to it. It’s a roguelike, after all.

Speaking of roguelikes, FTL: Faster than Light is chaotic yet serene, brutal but fair, and a bunch of other pretentious dichotomies wrapped into a neat little bow. It takes some getting used to the mechanics, but once you get the hang of it, building your little ship up and up in the face of all odds is extremely satisfying. Have fun dying hopefully not too many times.

SPEAKING of permadeath, Realm of the Mad God gets a spot here just out of sheer hours I’ve spent with it. After a messy few years with a not-so-great owner lead me to dropping the game, it seems finally to have recovered and has devs and community that actually freaking care about it, which is nice. Also, it’s free, and the recent transition to unity has the game looking better and playing smoother than 12-year-old me could ever have dreamed of.

Terraria isn’t just 2D Minecraft btw, its actually more of an RPG/Metroidvania thing, you probably know at this point, but its pretty good hey. Still haven’t fully dove into 1.4 but considering I thought Red was done at 1.1 I’m not complaining with what I have played.

4. Fallout: New Vegas

(...ish??)

I’d argue that between the primitiveness of the original Fallout games (I’ve tried to get into them, but I just can’t) and how…meh… the other Bethesda ones are, New Vegas is the only one in the series to stand up strong. Obsidian’s excellent writing and tweaks to the gameplay of 3 make New Vegas feel like an actual world, rich and characterised, which was something I found lacking in previous open-world RPGs I’d played up until that point (which admittedly might just have been Skyrim). It’s a game that challenges you to make choices that actually matter for more than the mere moments of an altered dialogue tree, both in dialogue and character building, which helps make the game actually replayable. It is also the first game in a long time that really sold the idea of DLC on me, seeing as each of the game’s 4 expansions adds an entire new region of world with its own stories and unique gameplay, tying together with the main plot but standing on their own. I am excluding Gun Runner’s Arsenal from this for obvious reasons, though it isn’t like GRA is a bad DLC or anything- on the contrary, the sheer scope of modifications and munitions makes playing a repair/science-based character incredibly fulfilling- but it just isn’t at the same scope as the other 4 (Courier’s stash barely counts seeing as its just oops! All preorder bonuses).

New Vegas is one of the few games I have actually 100% completed, achievements and all, but I’m still pretty sure there are bits I’ve missed, paths I haven’t taken, characters I haven’t talked to. Despite its inhospitability, the Mojave is always a comfortable place to return to.

3. VA-11 Hall-A

(Hey look, my phone background)

Vallhalla is a masterclass in storytelling, atmosphere, and aesthetic. Like all good cyberpunk dystopias, you get themes of class and transhumanism and artificial intelligence, but they aren’t the point of Vallhalla. Through the window and lens of cyberpunk and PC98 nostalgia is focussed a surprisingly human story centred around the protagonist, Jill, which through multiple replays still hits me in the feels just so. Of course, Jill’s story is not the only one being discussed, as every single patron of the bar has their own life going on, and the glimpses we get imply a rich, often interconnected, world. Glitch City is, frankly, a shithole, and it’s not like you don’t get some assholes coming into the bar while you’re working it. The first patron you serve, in fact, is a great example of this- Donovan D. Dawson, essentially a parody of J. Jonah Jameson, is a colossal prick and knows it- but its clear he has his own system of morals and it is mentioned that he’s excellent at his job, much as he gripes about it. He’s rude and more than a little sexist, but frustratingly charismatic and authoritative, and he’s just one of many people who show up throughout the game. Vallhalla is the perfect game to sit down, grab your preferred beverage, and just relax with.

2. Total Annihilation

(This image is on the steam page for this one, despite blatantly not being from vanilla TA)

I think I actually need to explain this one. Total Annihilation was a game released in 1997 made largely by Chuck Taylor, who would later go on to produce spiritual successor Supreme Commander. It’s an RTS game featuring exclusively robotic units with a fairly chunky aesthetic, allowing the visuals to age better than some, and a fully orchestrated soundtrack by Jeremy Soule, who would later go on to do work on a whole bunch of stuff, most notably Skyrim.

Total Annihilation is an intensely nostalgic game for me, being one of the first games I ever got to play as a kid outside of edutainment stuff, and I’d argue still holds up today (especially with the excellent Escalation mod). What it lacks in story (it’s pretty basic, but functional) it makes up for being miles ahead of its time mechanically, being the first (?) RTS to function in 3 dimensions- heights of things actually matter, hills exist and certain units climb them better than others, shooting down airplanes is difficult without anti-air but possible if you aim *just* right. While appearing pretty similar and having largely analogous units, the two factions of Arm and Core are well fleshed-out in terms of aesthetic and playstyle- Arm preferring fast and cheap equivalents to Core’s slow but powerful- and the unit variety is sufficient that strategies can vary wildly based on the map. Both campaigns as well as those from the game’s expansions are challenging, but satisfying, limiting the units you can produce to force exploration of different playstyles.

Total Annihilation isn’t something I tend to binge play for hours anymore, but I’ll pick it up for a bit every so often, and I don’t see that stopping for a long time (especially due to the recent steam release).

1. Pokémon Emerald

(At the top, where it belongs)

Yeah, this was inevitable. Pokémon is my favourite series ever; Emerald is my favourite in the series. Go figure.

Emerald, being the final game for the franchise’s days on the Game Boy, reflects everything Game Freak had learned in the first 3 generations of the series’ history. The game’s balance is challenging but fair, never spiking so tough that it is insurmountable but never holding your hand either. The AI opponents are throwing odd combinations of mons and moves at you from every corner, double battles are everywhere but rarely mandatory, and the variety of available mon both before and during the postgame is excellent. The added features on top of Ruby and Sapphire are great- Battle Tents serve to replace 3 of the contest halls (they should have all been under one roof to begin with) and provide a taste of what would later be available in the Battle Frontier. The Frontier is probably the single most expansive and challenging postgame in any Pokémon game, providing the game with a longevity that is sorely needed due to the inaccessibility of Pre-DS multiplayer. The game also manages to tie together the plot of both Ruby and Sapphire into something that feels natural, and provides the series’ first ever actual cutscene, which felt a lot cooler at the time than it sounds now. The return of animated sprites gives the Pokémon a level of life far beyond the static sprites of RSFRLG, and in my eyes wouldn’t feel the same until Black and White several years later. The return of the Pokégear phone in the form of Match Call, as irritating as it is to some, makes the world feel alive in a way that Sinnoh and Kanto probably never will, in addition to making grinding a fair bit less tedious and more beneficial. It is, altogether, probably the perfect Pokémon experience, and in my opinion only one other game comes close (its Platinum).

Oh also, they got rid of the font from Ruby and Sapphire, thank fuck, that shit is atrocious.

#ramble #video games #pokemon #retro games #lists

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gnosiable · 2 years ago

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3-in-1 Sports Pack: Paintball Splat! / Dodgeball Dodge This! / Big Alley Bowling

Okay so, I decided I would beat every GBA game released in English so I’m doing that (in alphabetical order). The first game was 3-in-1 Sports Pack: Paintball Splat! / Dodgeball Dodge This! / Big Alley Bowling, which NGL kinda sucked, though I suspect that isn’t a surprise. Dodgeball Dodge This! and Paintball Splat! are both too easy and generally kind of rough. Paintball especially!

In Dodgeball Dodge This!, it’s really hard to tell whether you are about to hit your opponent when you throw, and hard to control all players. However, it’s still ultimately easy enough due to poor AI. 3/10

Paintfall Splat! meanwhile has large, ugly environments. Capture the flag is way worse (at least in single-player), because everything looks alike. If you get shot with the flag, it’s hard to remember where you dropped the flag. You also don’t have anyone on your team, so you have to deal with people shooting at you AND people stealing your flag without any help. And the AI is able to see you even when you cannot see them. The mode where you gotta shoot a certain number of other players is a lot more manageable, though it’s easy since they basically just come to you. 2/10

Finally, Alleyway Bowling is actually kind of okay. Like, it’s bowling, and they didn’t beef it in the execution. I beat the tournaments, but I forgot to get a screenshot of the end :(. If you’re stuck with only Alleyway Bowling to play (somehow), you could certainly be in more dire straits, especially if you have multi to play. 5/10 EDIT: Docked one point because it doesn’t play a video of a turkey getting hit by a bowling ball. 4/10 Overall, the collection is like a 3/10.

The ranking so far:

https://www.backloggd.com/u/Dusa/list/beating-every-gba-game-ranking/

#GBA #game boy advance

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calibrationservices · 3 years ago

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swimmingeaglestarlight · 4 years ago

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