#I have a lot of nostalgia for the DS as a console and also for the Wii

[sweetandglovelyart]

Might be showing my age a little bit here, but did any of you guys also play Super Princess Peach on the DS when you were kids? It was one of my favorite DS games when I was younger, and the impending release of Princess Peach Showtime has gotten me thinking about it again. I still have my cartridge for it, and I also still have the original case and instruction booklet that came with it.

Even after all these years it still works too! Can’t believe that this game is almost twenty years old!

[jisuto]

On the topic of game reception, what are your thoughts on the current state of pokemon?

OK THIS ASK WAS SENT BEFORE THE HUGE LEAK LOL but I have a lot to say:

I watched VHS tapes, played the games, and owned merch since a young age so the series is very special to me. But I don't like the current direction at all and it's not because of the designs or nostalgia. The quality and game performance plummeted so how can I enjoy playing when there's mad lag or low frame rate that hinders my progress and worsen the experience??

It took too many years for them to realize they need to put quality over quantity after the SWSH mess, seeing that they can get away with pretty much ANYTHING and still make huge profit. You see people say that Pokemon should've never went 3D and stay 2D but tbh, it's a series that improves it's graphics as technology advances so it's not a surprise for them to finally go 3D and personally I think that's fine but just keep it looking good and fun (though I would love a 2D/3D hybrid). XY introduced a lot of new features but still lacked in some aspects that still haven't really been solved or added.

Reusing assets is common in the industry but only to a certain extent. They claimed that SWSH was taking a while to make because they were making brand new models which turned out to be a lie and they look like bootleg figures with the new lighting. The 3DS models were ripped from Pokepark, including some animations, but a lot of them still barely have any character. They have their own in-house team (Creatures Inc) so they made the decision NOT to have pokemon properly animated or look alive.... Also they made spin-offs like Ranger, Colosseum, Pokepark, and Pokken which look AMAZING

FRLG took only one year while HGSS was being developed at the same time as Platinum and took 3 years to finish that turned into one of the best games and remakes ever made. As the franchise expands, the team also needs to add more manpower but Game Freak can definitely afford to get more resources to help them?? They can't continue having a ragtag team of like 20 people to make a game back then and do the same now then expect good results... Hire more people who know how create with current gen consoles IT'S COMMON SENSE PLS also I can't believe they had a different company create BDSP knowing how beloved and groundbreaking DPPT was?? No redesigns like the previous remakes and thought it was a good idea to keep it looking a carbon copy to the DS style...

Also it's shocking to see how fan reception can change how the devs direct the next gen ESPECIALLY when it's not even real constructive criticism?? When Unova came out, I remember seeing all the online outcry about "OH THEY HAVE AN ICE CREAM CONE POKEMON AND A TRASH BAG, THEY'RE RUNNING OUT OF IDEAS EW" then actually hear it being repeated at school.... I WAS TRYING TO SURVIVE SINCE DAY 1 IN THE TRENCHES DEFENDING THIS GAME IT WAS ALWAYS GOOD AND DIDN'T NEED 10 YEARS TO AGE WELL. It's crazy how these are the same people who want another Kanto when Trubbish is Grimer (garbage waste) and Vanillite is Voltorb (based on literal items) then you could not catch any other pokemon from different regions in the main game. And the leak confirmed that the disgruntled hate from the west made the devs not release new pokemon in B2W2 and move them over to XY instead AND NOT GIVE A SINGLE GEN 5 MEGA EVOLUTION. So we were robbed because of genwunners who were fixated on the wrong things and ignored all the great content Unova brought us. It's strange how players keep complaining they want a different and fresh game, but want it to continue being super formulaic and binary like wtf do you want make up your mind

None of the switch titles really got me invested and I always end up replaying the older games but hopefully PLZA will break the curse and finally give us a nice game. Also why don't we have more spin-offs on the switch if there's so many of them floating around like the DS had a bunch??? STOP BEING COWARDS I WANT A POKEMON NINTENDOGS GAME OR THAT FIRE EMBLEM CROSSOVER WE WERE SUPPOSED TO GET. I JUST WANT TO HAVE FUN AGAIN ;w;

[crystalelemental]

I've been hitting a mild rut with Pokemon, while simultaneously retreating into familiar comfort games that won't really challenge me much, but I'm also feeling kinda stagnant.  My initial thought was "I should pick up another Etrian Odyssey game!"  And then I didn't.  But while looking for options, I realized...while I'm doing better with the Switch, I really do not branch out at all.

For clarification: the entirety of both my DS and 3DS library of physical games?  Pokemon, Etrian Odyssey, and Fire Emblem.  That is literally all I own, barring like two games.  Even the GBA carts are all just Pokemon Gen 3 and Fire Emblem 7.  I barely owned Wii or WiiU games, with most of them just being Zelda.  I think I have maybe five WiiU games total.

The Switch catalogue has a lot more variety going for it, more than I've probably ever had in my life.  But I still find it hard, sometimes, to branch out.  Part of that is finance, I don't necessarily want to spend on new games.  There was one that the art caught my attention in the news, and when I went to check it out it was fucking $80.  I am not paying that for a game.  It also went on to talk about your male protagonist despite all the box art being female characters, so honestly just fuck that.

With Echoes of Wisdom, I do think I've kind of identified part of the problem as "not wanting to feel stuck."  One streamer I watch talked about how the mobile market and console games competing directly with them has led to a higher rate of instant gratification and people can't sit with discomfort and frustration anymore, and...there may be some truth to that.  Granted, I was never particularly good with it, but I can feel when I'm playing an unfamiliar game and encounter something I don't immediately understand, my instinct is to jump straight for the guide.  I did that around four times with EoW, but there was one situation where I didn't and figured out the puzzle and felt super clever.  It's more rewarding, but it's time consuming, and I am covetous of my time, even if I don't do the most with it.

And what this results in is an aversion to trying out something new.  That's potentially going to eat a lot of time and what if I don't like it?  I wasted my time then, didn't I?  Because that's never happened before.  I certainly didn't have a phase playing and reading stuff I knew I would hate just to get mad at it.  So what's the issue taking a chance on something that might be good?  It is the lack of assurance?  If I know I'll hate it, at least I went in knowing what to expect, I guess.

In another direction, part of the issue is not really knowing what I enjoy.  Genre in games is already hard to define, but it makes it incredibly challenging to know how to articulate what I like, and what might land well.

Like, okay, I like Pokemon.  Maybe other monster catching games are good?  Nexomon was a knockout success (though not entirely because of monster catching), but I didn't care much for Cassette Beasts, and every Digimon game has been a resounding miss for me.  Nexomon was just a fun story, and Pokemon is nostalgia so it succeeds in spite of its horrid flaws.

But hey, that streamer calls Pokemon an adventure game primarily.  Maybe what you need is more adventure games?  Maybe.  But that's Zelda, and modern Zelda I do not like at all.  The open-world approach isn't fun, and I don't actually like tricky or punishing combat systems I have to be good at in real time. I wouldn't know what else to look for, considering my dislike for active systems in most scenarios. Do not test my reaction speed, it is bad.

Well, what about Fire Emblem, then?  Maybe you really like tactics games?  Maybe.  But if it weren't for Unicorn Overlord, I'd say the entire genre outside of FE sucked.  Triangle Strategy was awful in pretty much every direction, and even Tactics Ogre, which I had on good authority is one of the Big Names for strategy, felt so slow and offputting that I put it down after maybe two hours.  I know the ongoing joke is that FE sucks and even its fans hate it, but I legitimately think they're the only tolerable strategy games to me.

So okay, what about Etrian Odyssey?  Maybe you like dungeon crawlers?  This...might actually be the dead ringer, depending on difficulty.  I haven't played many, but I really enjoy EO (games 3 onward, anyway), and the one attempt at another in Class of Heroes did land favorably for CoH2, at least, despite some chatter about how the games don't get tolerable until 3.  I dunno, I thought it had personality.  I'd play 2 again.  I think it's just a question of how difficult others would actually be, because consistently, I hear feedback of "The game is super hard and will kick your ass," and I am admittedly easily intimidated by the prospect of difficulty I can't adjust.

But there are other aspects.  What about the Atelier games, you loved them even if you fell off after Shallie.  Ryza is rare and expensive so I've had some trouble there, but we tried Rune Factory 5 and it was...fine?  More importantly, the structure of these games gets me so obsessed that I'm in an actively worse mood when I am working.  I can basically only play them during breaks, or I am Miserable.

What about Final Fantasy?  Maybe you need more story-centric RPGs?  ...actually, maybe I do need more story-centric RPGs, post cancelled, anyone have Switch recommendations?  Bonus points if it's a female lead.

I think I just.  Struggle.  Sometimes.  To find things that I feel like would be to my taste.  I want to branch out, but I think I am often intimidated out of trying.  I don't really know what I want.

[catboygirljoker]

What were your thoughts about KHearts before you got into it vs Now having been into it? Also late welcome to the community hope you've had fun!

thankyou :D!! i have had fun, sitting in my little crevice and exporting my xigbar images and xigbar posts. im happy that people have connected with it in some way :]

thoughts about KH before i got into it:

for some reason i was under the impression that the games were about a boy who has dreams about disney worlds. and he has regular size feet in the real world and only has big feet in the dream world. i also think he traveled with mickey and not donald or goofy

also for some reason i was under the impression that ventus was sora's dad. it was not until i actually watched the cutscenes in birth by sleep and saw lea and isa that i realized OH. this is NOT as far back on the timeline as i thought it was

images of a spiky red boy and a spiky blond boy and a black haired depressed girl eating ice cream together with lots&lots of people sobbing in the replies. (REALLY emphasized the slow creeping emotional dread of that game for me. like golly i sure hope i dont get emotionally destroyed like all those other people! and then i , was)

when i was in middle/high school i had friends who were super into it, but i was never able to play it because my parents had a policy of No Consoles. we were allowed to have handhelds, though, because my family took frequent road trips, so when i found out that there was a KH game for DS i said to a friend "oh, cool! dyou think id be able to play it without playing the other games?" and she looked at me, and looked at her copy of Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, and said "........no"

only ~15 years later do i realize how funny of a question that was

thoughts about KH as i was getting into it:

too numerous to count. i shall attempt to keep it moderately brief

last year my husband listened to a podcast called "lore dump" where people explain the lore of different media to each other, and they did an episode/series on kingdom hearts, and i heard some pretty WaCkY sTuFf (i specifically remember them explaining what the recusant's sigil is, in the context of xigbar explaining that they'd been tracking sora and riku through the story of DDD)

found a vod of one of my favorite streamers streaming 1 and 2 to benefit abortion rights in texas, and i was like, well, here's my chance, heh, im gonna understand all of the WaCkY LoRe

i start up the stream. within the first 15 minutes i Get it. like it feels very dated in a lot of ways but i instantly understood what made people connect so strongly with this series. even as someone who didn't grow up with any attachment to it, and was a little put off of it even by how into it my friends were, to me kh1 is just pure high octane nostalgia. the tone is so specific and warm and bittersweet. i cried multiple times during the ending. it just really got to me! i was hooked!

when i fixate on a media property i like to have a hot person to chew on. i really. really thought it was gonna be axel. he is exactly the kind of character i would've fixated on when i was younger, when i had friends who were into KH. older mentor figure character who takes younger characters under his wing. associated with fire. projects brash confidence. k,ills people. he's a really good character! i love him a lot! every time he appears on screen i get on all fours and start barking! and there's all this fanart and merch and...then i got distracted......

hey blake in early 2023. it's me, blake in late 2024. have you heard of kingdom hearts. yeah. yeah youre gonna get really into it. yeah youre gonna have the longest running blorbo since you mega-fixated on the tenth doctor when you were 14. yeah. yeah um. you know the clip where the guy says "me? i'm already half xehanort!" and sora says "that's..nuts!"? yeah that guy? yeah. yeah. that guy. the half xehanort guy. yeah youre gonna make a fool of yourself online for that guy.

[seyvia]

📩 Simblr question of the day: A non-sims simblr question/s! Besides Sims, what other games do you play and what platforms do you like to play on? (PC, Console, Mobile...) What would genre/s do you tend to lean towards? (FPS, Sandbox, Multiplayer, Simulation, etc.)

Bonus! If a game has character customization, do you like to make a completely new character everytime or do you like to use the same OC/Sim?

Feel free to ramble, especially if you really enjoy a game (❁´◡`❁)

Thank you for thinking of me💕(>/////< " ). (Sorry it takes me so long to answer these) I'm only playing pc/mobile games currently, but I used to play lots of console/ds games. But I'll stick to talking about what's current. (I'm honestly a bit behind the times, lol 👉👈)

I play Syberia religiously every year! All three games, if I can. I didn't enjoy that recent one that came out. I wish I could explain why better then, 'the vibes were way off and the actual gameplay part of it was nonexistent,' I've played this game since I was 7, ok! It developed my brain! I have HIGH expectations and no tolerance for anything less at this point.

I also pick one of the old Her interactive 'Nancy Drew' pc games to play on the side because they make me happy and give me so much nostalgia. (The problem is I know who did it, so no surprises for me🥲) they just don't make these kind of games like they used to.

I've played farming sims since the GameCube, as some of y’all know, I only recently started playing Stardew Valley. I enjoy it far more then I imagined. If you're wondering why I hadn't played it before now, well, I simply didn't appreciate the pixel style until recently. I find it charming now♡ I've been playing Palia since last September and I'm really enjoying it. It's charming and the characters designs are something I've wanted from a farm sim for a long time, plus+ its freaking free♡ (I'm not big on multi-player, tho so I have to build up the courage to play it, I'd have loved it if it was a solo🫤). I played Ooblets on my hiatus. It was very cute and reignited my imagination♡

I bought Fallout 4 when it was on sale. I hope to play it soon, I love retro 50s/60s atomic age. My brothers are really big on it, and it actually brought us a little closer since they didn't understand my enjoyment of the era before they played the game.

I played all of Spyro reignited last summer♡ pretty proud of myself for getting almost perfect. And for mobile I play 'Good Pizza, Great Pizza' It's so cute highly recommend. I want to get home chef hustle and recreate my character in Sims, lol!

CHARACTERS: Honestly, I make a new character depending on the game and what suits my interests at the time, but they are usually the same? Like, they all kind of look like...me, sometimes...😅 when in doubt, brown hair! that's about it.

[viridiave]

A little love post to HORROR JRPGs

Content Warning:

So I'm gonna be talking a lot about some pre-Undertale era RPG Maker Horror games, and this post is gonna contain both spoilers and the discussion of the following:

Blood and Gore

Psychological horror

Child abuse

Sexual assault

Suicide

Violence

Fictional minors being put into very messed up situations, because that's just the kinds of games these are

Other upsetting themes

Hetalia (because I can imagine that all of us have very complex feelings about this fucking franchise. It existing feels like it needs a warning)

This post is a nostalgia trip and exists purely because uh. I have literally no one else to talk to about these games, and please just click away if any of the above makes you uncomfortable in any way. Some of this stuff can't exactly be handwaved as just being products of their time.

I'll draw smthn real quick later just to make up for it I promise

I'm like days late to Halloween but I just wanted to write this after getting a bout of nostalgia lmao

I absolutely fucking love Horror JRPGs - the freeware ones, even though I haven't touched one in a LONG time. I'm talking about the pre-Undertale era freeware games by the way, and in the first place I don't think I can consider Undertale a horror game but that's a topic for another day. OneShot also doesn't count aksjak OneShot gives me existential dread and a nonzero amount of guilt sure, but never terror

But let's dial that back a bit.

To begin with. 'Vir, you're a fucking coward, you run upstairs when you see that someone on TV has a gun. You can't stand watching horror movies. How the FUCK did this happen'

Weirdly, you can thank Hetalia for that. Specifically, the freeware Hetalia fangames that used to circulate on DeviantArt - that shit led me down this rabbit hole. And I guess it made sense, most Hetalia fangames are a coin toss between a horror game and a fantasy JRPG with countries getting isekai'd. I also played the fuck out of those.

For a bit of background, I love video games, but neither me nor my family ever really had that much spending power to buy game consoles, so my selection was pretty limited. Before I turned 18, I remember that we owned a GameBoy, a GameBoy Advance, a PSP, and one of those Fun-Sized Nintendo consoles with built-in games. We never bought cartridges either. I got my first DS from my dad on my birthday when I turned 18, and that's all the consoles that my family has ever owned. Still kinda jealous of my friends who have Switches, but eh - one day.

I just played a lot of Harvest Moon growing up, that's been my object of interest in my elementary days. The most of a horror game that I've been exposed to was watching my friends play Five Nights At Freddy's back in 5th grade.

Then high school happened, and I got new friends and shit - and was introduced to both more conventional horror games and Hetalia. Which is. A really weird combination when I think about it now, but everyone who was alive and kicking around in the early 2010's would know what HetaOni is, and you can see how that slope led to me playing freeware horror games. I'll always be grateful to these games, seeing as I never had easy access to mainstream experiences growing up.

I think I played HetaOni exactly once, on my first laptop. I played most Hetalia fangames exactly once, but they all just stayed on my old hard drive. None of them really had anything interesting going on gameplay-wise, I mean it's RPGMaker and these were people who just really wanted to make Hetalia fangames, but I remember some of them just sticking with me. I'd play them while I was away on trips to my grandmother's house, then watch let's plays on YouTube when I wasn't otherwise occupied with schoolwork. Really when I say Let's Plays I only mean KyoKoon64's - and that's how I was actually introduced to horror JRPGs.

CLOÉ'S REQUIEM

There's been a couple of times where they played some of the more recognizable horror JRPGs on their channel, but the first one I REALLY saw a playthrough on was one called Cloé's Requiem. I don't know what exactly it was about this specific game that stuck with me, and at the time I didn't know that this had like. More warnings than you would usually find on a horror JRPG. Calling it now, please look up said warnings before you try ANYTHING with this game - I can't promise quality and nuance, but I can promise great moments. Those moments stuck with me to this day, SOMEHOW, even after encountering games with better story and gameplay experiences… it's about a cursed 12 year-old boy trying to free a cursed 13 year-old girl, never getting a shot at the normal life he wanted and playing the violin because he can't do much else.

I think this game changed my life. Not in like, any grand manner mind you - but I feel like it's the game that best represented this time of my life as a weird high school outsider who obsesses over games that nobody's ever heard about. I was introduced to a lot of things through this game, it's just this whole volley of firsts that I wouldn't trade for anything else. Baby's first horror game, first jumpscare I ever consented to, first taste of games containing disturbing themes of sexual assault and gore, first trips to Pixiv and NicoNicoDouga - just all the fucking firsts. I wouldn't call it a great game, but it IS important to me.

When I think about it now, it's a game about curses. Michel D'Alembert is a talented violinist at 12, and his alcoholic father milks the shit out of this talent because they're not exactly what you would call well-off. His twin brother Pierre is a pianist, is nowhere near as talented as his brother, and hides his misery over this situation under a big-little brother façade. Cloé Ardennes is a pianist too, she's wealthy, talented, and still plays with her stuffed animals. She is cursed with an insane father who rapes her, and a mother who hates her. Charlotte is a young maid with nothing and tries her best, only to be killed because she happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. Unsurprisingly things fall apart for everybody very quickly.

Pierre's frustrations with his spoiled, lazy brother boiled over, and he curses Michel out in a heated moment. This drives Michel to murder their Charlotte by accident, and she becomes his curse - he runs out of the house, kills cats, and finds himself in the dilapidated mansion that Cloé inhabits. Cloé by this point is already dead, and so is her dad, her parents, and the maids. Cloé's father may be her curse but she is the curse of this mansion, and it transforms into something hostile until Michel comes along and saves her from the shadow of her father. Michel plays her a requiem, and resolves to go home to confront his crimes - and back to Pierre, who regrets everything he's done. Watching the sun rise with a disappearing Cloé in the True Ending will likely be the last peaceful moment he will ever have in his life.

That's like. Not everything that happens in this game, but this post is already so goddamn long and I still have a lot of other stuff I want to talk about. But the gist of it to me nowadays is that these children are cursed with loveless lives and the whims of the adults that have power over them. In the end, their lives are all ruined. Cloé and Charlotte are dead, and we have no idea what becomes of Michel and Pierre when word gets out that Michel killed a maid and assaulted several others in the house in a fit of emotional instability. In every other ending, Michel is killed and Cloé remains an evil spirit, so really this is the best that anyone ever gets out of this experience.

I remember watching a playthrough of Con Amore on YouTube, but I understood none of it because it was in Japanese, and the game itself was untranslated at the time. It follows the cats Noir and Blanc and basically serves as an addendum to the base game - honestly it made me feel sorry for Charlotte, who was nowhere near as psychotic as Michel thought she was. There's also light novels, but international shipping is expensive and I don't know Japanese so. I'll just never figure out what happens to everyone after the game ends I guess

One of these days, I'll buy the remake on Steam - which exists, and I can't say I recommend it if everything I just listed bothers you in any way. But I can't shake the attachment I feel towards this game no matter how many years it's been, nor how uncomfortable its themes are, so you know - maybe one day. I'll go back to it.

IB

So - following that, I got pretty curious about the other games in this genre of freeware horror. Ib is the one that everyone knows the best, both Markiplier and Pewdiepie played it so you KNOW it gets press, but even in Japan this game was a hell of a hit. To me, it's a simple game that I can finish in an hour, but man what an hour it can be.

If you were to play this game right now after seeing how much press it gets (which I think you should, it's on the Switch now! Go get it!), you MIGHT be a little disappointed. It's nowhere near as gory or disturbing as Cloe's Requiem for one and you know - a bunch of blood and guts and ghosts on the walls does not a good horror game make, but make your choices accordingly. Nah - instead this game's staying power lies in its atmosphere. Like how many games can you say take place inside of an art gallery where most of the pieces try to fucking murder you? I mean there's probably a lot, but something about Ib's almost ambient sense of dread and exploration just kind of sticks in people's brains. Everything's a little scarier when the shapes are so close to being discernable but aren't, and I guess that's the appeal and horror behind Guertena's gallery.

Ib herself is a mute protagonist, pretty typical, but she's also NINE, and the game will let you know that no matter how unfazed she gets or how precocious she can be, she is a child all the same - and children break very easily. I personally love how the game barely has to say anything about how shaken she actually is about her situation, because it will show you how - she has nightmares that you can't escape, she sees herself getting hanged, Garry will need to shake her out of her shock when she sees a picture of her parents in the gallery that should not exist. She loses all of her will to live when she loses Garry to insanity. And speaking of Garry…

There's one standout room in this game and it's the Doll Room. 10/10 would NOT recommend it to anyone who suffers from anxiety because WOW I did not think the RPG Maker 2000 engine could ever have been capable of that. Nobody blames Garry if this room fucks him up. I mean come on the dude has to literally rip open the stomachs of dolls to find a paint ball. Those sound effects make it sound like the dolls are made of skin and flesh and all the while the giant fucking doll is creeping out of the goddamn painting while some of the most anxiety-inducing background noise is playing -

Yeah no I don't know why I ever said you'd be disappointed by this game. Or maybe you still would, this is a low-res game made in 2012. But my god does it TRY to scare you in the best ways it can.

One of the best moments in this game I think is the one where Mary and Ib are alone together, and the conversation gets increasingly unhinged with Mary asking Ib questions non-stop with no background noise other than their steps. At this point, they're separated from Garry, and they're trying to find a way back to each other. Garry meanwhile is slowly piecing together the truth about Mary and how dangerous it is for Ib to remain alone with her, all the while still trying to figure out how to get back to both of them.

The section after that is in the Sketchbook which honestly? The vibes of this place are impeccable. Somehow it's fitting that one of the tensest areas in a game about a fine arts gallery is the place made entirely out of childlike scribbles.

Overall, I'd say the experience is well worth an hour or two - I'd recommend it happily over Cloé's Requiem, if only so you can have a taste of what Horror JRPGs were like before Omori came along. Yes I know that Omori isn't Japanese but it's very much in the same vein as these games.

OTHER GAMES

Those were the safe two that planted my feet firmly into the Horror JRPG fandom, but there's a lot of other titles out there, so let's go - lightning round!

Ao Oni is the ubiquitous one, like chances are you've at least HEARD of it in passing at some point in your life. Like this shit made it to the big screen in Japan, that's how much of a deal it was. I've never played the original myself, but it's partly because its formula of stuck in a mansion with a horror that chases you around is present in pretty much every Horror JRPG after its release in 2007. If you want some classic fun with the big blue demon though then you can't go wrong with the freeware version.

Mad Father and The Witch's House are part of what I like to call the Big 3 of JRPGs starring preteen girls experiencing the Horrors™, mostly because back in the mid-2010's I couldn't go three posts without seeing them all together. Mad Father is the only other one of said Big 3 that I've touched, because I was too coward to touch The Witch's House and Ellen's whole deal remains a mystery to me to this day. I think Mad Father got a remake a couple of years ago, so you can check that out if you want, but keep in mind that these two games in particular might not stoke the same kind of magical staying power that Ib somehow retained years after its release, and I know those two rely on jumpscares a lot more than Ib does.

I'll eat my fedora right here by the way, because one of my cardinal sins of being a Horror JRPG fan is that I've never played Yume Nikki. As far as these freeware games go, this is probably one of the more avant-garde ones - it's artsy, atmospheric, and a game best experienced by getting lost in the strange environments it provides. Out of every game on this post, this is the one I'd describe as the most Earthbound-esque, with its horror lying mostly in the surrealist ambience of just… wandering around in Madotsuki's mind. The end is just as quiet as the beginning, but is no less chilling to watch happen. Then you fuck around a little bit on Youtube and you find out what's actually going on, and uh - yeah that checks out, cosmic horror sounds par for the course at this point.

Yume Nikki and OFF are two of the games I think of when I hear about Horror JRPGs being talked about alongside Undertale - and nope, I haven't played OFF either. That's my other Horror JRPG sin. I was a picky teenager, but I've grown now and wow I need to find a time to play these games in peace. OFF actually isn't even Japanese, it was developed by Mortis Ghost and released in French back in 2008, making both pretty old and already pretty weird in the library. The reason I bring up OFF is because it's one of the older examples I know of that also incorporate Earthbound's precision 4th-wall breaks, and that it's a game about judgment and interrogates the player (more you than the Batter you play as, serving more as a vehicle that the game uses to ask questions through) about the choices they make in the game. OneShot is probably the one game in this genre of indie RPG that I know so far that employs this metaphysical idea of the player existing in the game in any kind of charitable fashion (aside from again, Earthbound and to some extent Mother 3), so between it, OFF, and Undertale they're what I'd refer to as the Interface Screw-RPG Trio.

Some other titles that I like are between the same devs, even some that I haven't really played to completion. Cloé's Requiem for example was made by Buriki Clock, and they've made other titles like Fantasy Maiden's Off Hideout and Trauma Traum - the latter I can't play because it doesn't have an English translation rip. Miwashiba is another dev which I think people who have a taste for light lolita goth-pastel colors would like, because my god the character designs in both Alice Mare and LiEat are peak. Don't even get me started on the fashion of 1BitHeart because everything in that game has such an impeccable aesthetic. I think I saw something at one point about 1BitHeart that like. Might count as a shared joke between Xenoblade fans, but I'd be hard-pressed to give context because again… packed schedule, who dis?

Just to talk about Alice Mare a little more, I've actually played this one - it sports a heavily storybook-inspired cast with some unique tastes on the tales. Most of my actual experiences with Alice Mare were from the English Light Novel, which I do still have! I really recommend it to people who have a couple of hours to spare on some light, relatively bloodless horror. Most of these games have Light Novels, come to think of it - hell Ib even has whole audio dramas, one of which was fanmade in English, and from what I remember of it the voice acting for Mary was PEAK.

One last dev I want to talk about is Segawa. I've saved them for last because their brand of horror is reserved mainly for one game, but their other games Farethere City and Tower of Hanoi are no slouches either. I don't know much about Tower of Hanoi (or if it even has an English translation right now), but Farethere City is a pretty cute experience as far as pseudo-horror games go from what I've heard, which is probably good for us because their other standout game is anything but cute.

END ROLL

Ah, End Roll. The last of the Horror JRPGs I've played before school kicked me even harder in the shins and I had barely any time for it. Out of all the games I mentioned on this list, this is the one with the most staying power in my brain - and also the one that influenced me the most.

So, I don't talk a lot about my original works. Nobody asks, so I don't overshare. But some of the prevalent overarching themes of my personal mythos are those of guilt, self-love, and the burdens of love. All of these themes were lifted directly from End Roll - which is to say, End Roll actually only deals in guilt, my brain just ran buckwild with trying to wrap itself around the logistics behind InfoRuss. One of my main protagonists, Rosso, is a dead-ringer expy of Russell - the same goes for Blanco with the Informant. One of the only ways I can describe Rosso and Blanco's relationship is 'selfcest as a metaphor for the painful coexistence of self-love and self-loathing', and how this relationship reached this point was largely thanks to the Informant and his role in Russell's dream.

I don't really know why I've come to associate the idea of self-love with guilt, because that's like. Not what the game is trying to do. The game's express purpose is to tell you the story of a boy who comes to love his victims and self-destructs under the crushing guilt that he carries from killing them. By some weird hand, I've fixated on the Informant and his determination in seeing that mission of the game through - AND his secret boss fight. Actually, I should. Go ahead and describe the build-up to his secret boss fight

You can only access it if you've purchased the optional villa, and if I recall correctly you can only fight him on the last day of the dream. The locked shed next to the villa is revealed to be a library of some kind called the Graveyard of Books and like - sure enough, there's books of every kind just torn apart and scattered about everywhere. The reason for all of this is because of the Informant's jealousy. He is created specifically so he can provide Russell with the necessary information to complete the Happy Dream Experiment, and in this regard he thinks Russell doesn't need anyone other source of information than him. So he does away with the useless other books, except for the strategy guides because that's the only kind of book Russell likes - and thus, the only kind of book that the Informant likes. Notes are scattered in the hallway leading up into his boss room, with the last one sticking out in my mind to this day:

'He thinks he's the most important thing to you.'

Which. I don't know why that line is so important to me. Whether it be because it awakened something weird in me, or because I myself was dealing with my self-loathing in a VERY complicated manner at the time, that line has gone on to dictate the way that I write about my characters even to this day.

It's such a visceral depiction of self-inflicted brutality. Russell Seager is a 14 year-old serial killer who grew up loveless and abused, and has no shortage of things that make every waking moment of his life fucked up. He killed people - some who just happened to be wherever he was at the time, some willingly by his hand - could not feel guilt about any of it, and when he lost Yumi to his drunken father while his nymphomaniac mother watched he snapped and killed both his tormentors. He then turned himself in to the police, a teen on death row. Happy Dream is him discovering guilt through dream versions of the people he killed. Happy Dream is what allows him to manifest the newfound emotions he felt through interacting with the kinds of people that his victims COULD have been. The world he creates morphs into the self-inflicted hell that is his guilt.

Russell has no happy ending, his guilt won't allow him that. Everything around him becomes a reminder of the lives he's destroyed, and how much of a living hell his own life was. Through feeling happiness and love from these fabricated visages of the people he killed, he learned guilt. It's such a weird exercise in sympathy, knowing that you're playing as this remorseless kid going through rehabilitation through extreme means. It either doesn't work, and he's deemed a failure - or it does, and he commits suicide either by confessing his crimes to one of his victims and stabbing himself to death with a syringe, or he stays in the deteriorating dream, never to wake up again.

At some point it honestly just turns into misery porn, if you look at it from a certain angle - this game is set on having Russell die no matter what. I couldn't tell you what EXACTLY it is about this experience was so impactful that it would go on to influence the way I want to spend my life - that is, I want to make games exploring these kinds of themes. Guilt. Sins. If loveless lives can be redeemed and made better. By the time the last day in the game rolls around, it's just a matter of giving Russell closure over his miserable life and choosing for him what his last freedom is going to be.

I think one of the reasons I like thinking about the Informant with regards to Russell is the scene that happens if you choose to go through with the first True Ending. Russell never really much liked the Informant, and the feeling is mutual. Russell is cold to him, and the Informant takes every opportunity he can to rub all of Russell's sins in his face - and that's his job, he represents the fundamental, uncomfortable truths of Happy Dream. If Russell chooses not to leave the dream, he is resigned to its destruction and waits for the inevitable along with the other denizens of Nameless Town. But if Russell chooses to get out of the dream, the Informant returns to Russell in tears, happy that he can finally be back to being a part of him - to this game, it's the ultimate acceptance. Russell then goes on to confess his crimes and the reality of the dream to one of the citizens, and he wakes up when they kill him in tearful retribution by his request.

He grabs the syringe next to his bed, and stabs himself to death, unable to handle the guilt. That's how the game always ends for me. The Informant succeeded, Happy Dream succeeded - and Russell chose to die as person who could finally feel remorse.

It's a regretful story with themes that really shouldn't be replicated in any fashion in real life, but somehow I found it fascinating in the way it explores the facets of the self. It makes me want to ask more questions and explore that angle of self-reflection to the furthest extremes that I can conceivably reach, and I guess that's one of the many reasons why I respect it so much.

SO… WHAT NOW.

Nah, that's kind of it. Like, OF COURSE this isn't all I have to say about the games that I mentioned, but wow this post is so long and I was just pining for the days of a couple of years ago. These games were present for the most transformative years of my life, and uh - whether or not that was actually a good thing remains to be seen, but I'll always be grateful for their presence in the void that I call my gaming experiences.

Horror JRPGs will always have a special place in my heart for how they tell their stories. Nowadays, I've developed more of a taste for fantastical RPGs that prefer to hide their horror in the margins of the narrative, fridging the terror for when the player wants to step back a bit and think about the implications of certain events in the greater world. Undertale, OneShot, and the Octopath Traveler games all tick that box for me - and all of those games are ones I hold dear. Like I'll probably ramble about OneShot some other day, because that's the other game that really changed my life in a way I felt like I can never come back from - but there's just a lot of special things to be said about these neat little self-contained, 6-hour freeware games. For now I'll close this long-ass post out. Happy late Halloween I guess - the M&Ms in our fridge have never tasted better.

[bahamutgames]

AFTERTHOUGHTS : Platinum Version

Game: Pokemon Platinum Version (September 13, 2008)

Console: Nintendo DS (Via emulation)

Another day, another Pokemon. After a really stressful and bad move. There was only one thing I wanted to do to destress: PLAY POKEMON PLATINUM!! So I did! And now I'm here to tell YOU what I thought about it!

That's all I got for an intro. So as always, this isn't a review! Just my thoughts on the game after beating it! If I ever talk about a game that interests you, regardless of my opinion, you owe it to yourself to PLAY THE GAME!!

AS ALWAYS, POKEMON PLATINUM SPOILERS AHEAD!!

Opening

So, much like Emerald last year, this is actually my first time playing through a Sinnoh region game! In a weird way I have a lot of nostalgia for DPP, while also having less nostalgia for it than RSE? For example, it's featured very prominently in Brawl. But like, I had barely seen any gameplay of these games before. But also, I played SoulSilver as a kid. So there is a connection there even if it's all over the place! I actually have a fond memory of picking my brother up from school and having him tell me that the new Pokemon generation would have a Monkey, Penguin, and Turtle starters... Crazy how time (and space) just seems to slip on like that. But there's no time (nor space) for that! Let's get right into Pokemon Platinum!

Stuff I liked

So... first off... This game is gorgeous. Seriously gorgeous. The music and sprites really hit a sensitive spot in my brain and heart and soul. Cause my first night playing I was almost moved to tears by how pretty it was! I'm not kidding! It just really got to me for some reason! I think having actual day / night cycle that line up with real life is so charming. Even if I did end up mostly playing at night it actually made me want to play at different times to day so I could see the changes and hear the different TOD music. The sprites are seriously legendary, GBA sprites might still be a personal favorite but I think Pokemon have never looked better than they do specifically in the DS Main Series games. I still kind of consider them to be the gold standard for how a lot of Pokemon look and tend to pull out DS era sprites as reference more than their official artwork lol. And not only that, but 3D Models are used in this pretty heavily for the first time in the series. And maybe it's just cause I'm a sucker for 2D sprites on 3D backdrops, but I think it looks great! Visually, I think hands down this is the best Pokemon thusfar.

Next up, the music. Oh it was so nice, I loved a lot of the town themes this time. They were all really relaxing and comforting (again maybe cause I mostly played at night lol) and my personal favorite theme was Route 209 which I think might be a super generic choice BUT IT'S GOOD!! In general DS Pokemon has a really nice and cute soundfont. Maybe I'm just nostaglic from HGSS but... I'dunno! I like it a lot!

And the whole world of Platinum continues my personal favorite things I've been really loving about this series. Technology, and each region having a specific theme that shapes the plot and legendaries. On the technology side, the Poketech RULES. I made basically no use of it, but it's super cute and I feel like I would have been IRRITATING pulling out Platinum for the calculator constantly as a kid lol. And getting to collect new apps for it was super cute. I really love seeing the technology upgrade in the world as the technology in real life upgrades, even when tech in Pokemon is so sci-fi, it's very connected to our real world technology. And of course this ties into the tech the consoles are on with this game having online and TOD stuff. It's just... SO COOL how these games actually use technology to make each game so fascinating and cool in a tech way?? Idk.

As for the theme. Kanto had science, Jhoto had Spirituality, Hoenn had Prehistory, Sinnoh seems to be deeply rooted in... I don't know how to put it. Creation? Existence? As this focused more on human origin and creation? It has some interesting religious stuff too, even featuring a church which is surprising for a Nintendo game lol. But the whole theme of the fabric of reality with Time and Space and Distortion was very cool. And an interesting theme to set the plot around with the villains going from being kinda Rocket-esc lowlifes to becoming full blown terrorists to having the most INSANE plan yet. With the highest stakes of ANY villain team so far. It's neat.

Speaking of that, I did think the distortion world was kinda cool. I was pleasantly surprised to have the chance to actually fight the Boxart legendary after I felt a little robbed of that in Emerald. It was a neat set piece and having that last tense showdown with Cyrus in this bizarre purple hellscape was exciting! In general, I would really like to see more boss fights against Pokemon that aren't controlled by a trainer in the main story.

Sinnoh in general, I quite liked. It felt oddly familiar to me in a way. I think because so much of it is comprised of forests and lakes? It felt like something you'd see down where I live. And it has some pretty interesting areas like the beach town where they use solar panels as roads??? Totally solar punk dude I LOVED that. Super cute NPCs with some nice Gym Leader designs (a lot of hot girls in this game Cynthia was so FINE), Dawn is one of the peak Pokemon protagonist designs. It's a nice region with a lot of nice areas and people to love.

But, most importantly. How about those Pokemon? This is what it always comes down to for me. I play these games FOR THE POKEMON. They're who I want to see! Honestly? I quite like the Sinnoh dex! As a kid I remember really hating a lot of the Pokemon in this region. But I think that was childish genwunner brain. It's a GREAT selection of Pokemon with some genuinely fascinating choices for monsters. A venus fly trap, a straight up portal. Some of my favorite Pokemon come from this region like Mismagius and Darkria. And, I think DPPT does an OKAY job with the distribution. I was able to meet a lot of new faces and ultimately build a team with a few Pokemon I really wanted. But it's not perfect. Let's jump into that next section to talk about some issues I had when catching Pokemon.

Stuff I didn't like

So, yeah, I built a nice team and caught a lot of Pokemon. The distribution isn't bad. But it's not... great? So, at the start you'll be catching new guys left and right. Buizel, Bidoof, Kricketot, Shellos, Shinx... And then for about half the game you'll kinda realize... You're STILL running into those same guys over and over and over! So you end up with most of the Pokemon you'll meet right out the gate. Yes that's not entirely true, and when you get to the snowy region the selection opens up more. But still you'll be fighting the same handful of Pokemon for a good chunk of the game. And for as much as I like the selection of Pokemon, a lot of them are kind of weird looking and never really grew on me. And I think they rely a little too much on evolutions of old Pokemon. A surprising amount of them are evolutions. And while some of the new forms are personal favorites like Mismagius and Mammoswine. Sometimes they just ruin a line with something like Rhyperior!!

Alright alright. So, for as much as I liked Platinum. It had a lot of really weird shortcomings in my opinion. A big one being, you may have noticed... I don't compliment the story pretty much at all. I think it's kind of weak overall. The game opens and the reason you get your starter feels really weak and rushed. Like it's all just kind of happening to you really quickly? And then the plot is sort of nothing for most of the game. Galactic is there and doing low level crimes... Looker is there and he do be looking. Your rival is there and he talks... But there's not much happening for a good portion of the game and it just kinda feels like, underwhelming? And then part way through Galactic become terrorists and the game goes from 0 to 100 out of NOWHERE! JUST YESTERDAY I WAS COINCIDENTALLY RUNNING INTO A GUY WHO GAVE ME A TURTLE NOW I HAVE TO GO TO AN ALTERNATE REALITY!? It's not bad exactly it just feels so... Odd to me.

Then the gameplay, I can't help but be disappointed about team battles. Emerald introduced 2v2 battles and even had one whole single team battle with a partner! Platinum has way more 2v2 team battles! One where you fight alongside a green haired baddie and one where you fight alongside a guy who looked like sir aaron from the Lucario movie! That's awesome! But, and I know this was an unrealistic expectation... My beautiful 3v3 battles... Why didn't it happen? Just one battle where I control 3 Pokemon? Or it's me and 2 other people fighting all at once? I want MORE interesting things playing on the traditional battle system! I know BW will have 2 rivals. But somethings telling me to not get my hopes up for 3 way battles.

And lastly. The difficulty. Dude. I don't know if it was just me, but this game was HARD. Like, easily the hardest Pokemon game thusfar. I don't know what happened! I feel like every single story fight was a massive roadblock where I just couldn't made any progress to save my life. Grinding felt slower than the last 3 games, and it really felt like no matter how much I grinded or how high a level I was. The gym leader's final Pokemon would be 10 levels lower than me and still wipe my entire team by spamming a single move. I hit these roadblocks CONSTANTLY. During EVERY major boss battle in the game. I'm not kidding. I genuinely have no idea what I was doing wrong! I'm not a team building expert but I never had EVERY boss be a total roadblock. And sadly, this kind of made the game a drag. I knew I'd had to grind like crazy and just pray for good luck during each fight because being overleveled didn't help, odds are I'd miss all my attacks and get wiped insantly. And it really sucked the air out of a lot of scenes for me.

Final Thoughts

Platinum is a very good game. I completely understand why so many people say it's their favorite. It is COOL! It's easily the prettiest looking, maybe one of my favorite soundtracks so far in the main series. It's got a great selection of Pokemon and is fun. But ultimately, I just can't help but feel like it's missing something. Like it just has a lot of shortcomings in important areas I needed it to not have shortcomings in. If that makes sense?

Let's take a look at that tier list:

I always feel like a bit of a crazy person when I put any of these games lower than Red. OBVIOUSLY they are objectively superior to Red in nearly every way. But ultimately, for everything Platinum does better. I think Red still beats it at distribution of Pokemon, it's story, and making good use of its characters and villains. I do think this game IS a step up, but it's just not personally my favorite I don't think. However, it's still a cool game and I'm very happy I played through it!

===

That's that! Lately I'm a little swamped with irl stuff and work lately but I really had an itch to write some afterthoughts today! There's so much I'm playing atm and still some games I need to write about and there's so many upcoming games I wanna try and so many games I have that I haven't played. But we'll get to it.

Also this is completely random, but I like to mess around with the content for a game in Smash Bros. when I beat its origin game. And while I always liked Spear Pillar, after playing Platinum, it is straight up one of my all time favorite stages. It RULES! So chaotic, so gorgeous, and the detail of the bottom layer being the underground mechanic? That's SO FUCKING COOL!! Genuinely a new favorite!

Next up is Black & White! Which I actually have tried before! But never beat. So I'll hopefully be fixing that... Sometimes soonish!

If you wanna see the cold ass crew for Platinum you can right here!

And as always, you can follow me on twitter to see what I'm playing right as I beat it!

That's all I got! Go out and play something you wanted to as a kid, but never got around to!

[sunlightfeeling]

very interested in your console/game collection actually, if you wanna talk about that 👀

Yo! Yes, yes! I’d love to. 🥰 This post is prettyyyy long, but this is for what I currently have. But I can totally go over past buys too. I’ve honestly had quite a bit more than this. Just let me know.

Consoles: ps5, ps3, ps2, wii(/gamecube since it’s backwards compatible), and the 3ds xl I mentioned

Games are pretty standard so this isn’t inclusive but here’s some of my rares/unusuals are:

ps2: Burnout, The Dog Island (my childhood omg), SSX Tricky, We ❤️ Katamari (I just realized I don’t have Katamari Damacy but I also realized I know why…oof…maybe someday I’ll buy it again LOL)

Those are all mostly nostalgia games for me from stealing the console from my brothers 🥰

ps3: The Simpsons Game, Yakuza Dead Souls, Nier, Puppeteer, Journey Collector’s Edition, Hitman HD Trilogy

ps4, I’ll include all steelbooks: Hitman Complete First Season Steelbook, Dragon Quest XI (Definitive Edition), Final Fantasy XV Deluxe Edition Steelbook (probably the most gorgeous thing I own, I’ll add a picture at the bottom of this post), Yakuza remastered collection box set (with a freaking Y5 ps3 box lmao it’s empty but so sick…I actually have another remastered copy but it’s just the ps4 box with all the games), steelbooks for both kiwamis and LAD, and the essence of art edition of Y6 (phew, this was a lot lol)

Wii/GameCube: Pikmin (New Play Editions for Wii), Kirby’s Epic Yarn, Kirby’s Return to Dreamland, Super Mario Galaxy 1 and 2, Kirby’s Dream Collection (the special edition/20th Anniversary thing), Animal Crossing GC and City Folk, PokePark 1, and Mario Party 4 and 8 (my two ultimate faves)

DS/3DS: Kirby Super Star Ultra, Super Princess Peach, Fantasy Life, Poochy and Yoshi’s Wooly World, Kirby’s Extra Epic Yarn, Pokemon Ultra Moon

and that’s about it for current consoles and games!

I also have the Yakuza 0 record collection and Cuphead OST records. The Cuphead is at my parents house cuz I basically forced my dad to listen to it since I needed his opinion (he’s a huge jazz fan so his opinion is so vital 😂). But I do have the Y0 set to show off.

Final Fantasy XV Steelbook:

[transgirl-gaming-thoughts]

My Thoughts On: Apollo Justice, Ace Attorney

Hey folks! The Ace Attorney franchise is one of my favorite game series, if not my favorite of all time! I've been playing through the latter half of the series post-Trilogy lately, and just finished Apollo Justice and wanted to write some thoughts on it!

No worries, this will stay spoiler-free for the plot!

As the title suggests, the protagonist of this game is Apollo Justice, a rookie defense attorney fresh off the bar. Apollo has to learn what it means to truly defend someone, and along the way he gets tangled up in the woes of another ace defense attorney, and a troupe of stage magicians.

Again, keeping the plot a secret here, this game is incredible! Obviously there's no Psyche Locks in the game's main investigations, as Phoenix isn't there to throw his magatama at everything that seems suspicious. Instead, Apollo discovers a new ability in court that allows him to perceive the body language of a witness and tell when they're lying on the stand! It's a very original concept for the series, but like most of Apollo Justice, I'd say it's interesting and original, but not as good as the Trilogy. In the Ace Attorney Trilogy, Wright's magatama gives a more engaging gameplay aspect to the investigation chapters and helps really tie together the game's theme of evidence and contradictions. While Apollo's perception ability is interesting, they added it to the part of the game that is already the most interesting. I think it might have played out better if the perceive ability fully replaced the Psyche Locks in the investigations so that Apollo had a neat engaging gameplay mechanic when he's out of court.

That aside, the cases are very well-written, as always with these games! Particularly the final case has twists that are just so far and above the kind of twists thrown out in the Trilogy, and while I still think the Trilogy were better games overall, Apollo Justice has a lot of value in this sense! The ending left me absolutely breathless, and I was grasping at every little detail shared in the credits sequence!

This game was originally made for the DS, but I played the remake for the 3DS and it was great! It works pretty much like the Ace Attorney Trilogy remakes, and was also released internationally via the 3DS eShop. However, because the game has an English/Japanese toggle on the main menu like the Trilogy does, you can also buy the physical retail version from Japan and still play in English! (The 3DS is regionlocked, but is easy to homebrew to unlock or there's lots of Japanese consoles around.)

Overall, you can't go wrong with an Ace Attorney game, and Apollo Justice keeps that trend going! I can't wait to see what they did with AA 5 & 6, but I don't think they can ever top the nostalgia and impact of the original three Phoenix Wright games.

Thanks for reading, and be sure to ask questions and suggest new post ideas in my ask box! Stay safe, stay hydrated, and God bless! Happy gaming to ya!

~ Alex

[twitterrefugeenick]

This person clearly has no conception of anything from before they were born but games have been $70 before. Take a look at MSRP for a lot of SNES games, especially late-era ones with lots of storage space and/or chips like the Super FX. Those games were even more unaffordable for children to buy with their allowance than they are now thanks to inflation and reduced access (I.e. no digital storefront keeping games around after their release window). The switch to discs initially reduced costs because they’re a much cheaper medium than carts but as the storage space increased dramatically so too did production costs, which means that games are priced higher to make returns. There are absolutely conversations to be had about what makes a game worth $70 (they ought to at the very least not be broken at launch) but video games aren’t just a medium for children, so making a hard line saying “games should never be too expensive because otherwise kids won’t be able to afford them” is a bad take seated more in nostalgia than any understanding of the video game industry.

In fact, it’s way cheaper to game as a young person now than it ever was because there are so many games that are literally just free. When I was 13 if a game was free it was either flash garbage or illegally downloaded, but today a 13 year old can download literally the most popular game in the whole world and start playing without paying a cent. Again, there are conversations to be had about exploitative payment models in F2P gaming but it’s insane to think that kids are getting priced out of video games when Fortnite and Minecraft are making it so much easier than it was. Phones have approximately infinity games and a vast majority of them are less than $10 if they cost any money at all.

Also, there’s a difference between a DS (a pure handheld meant for younger players meaning cheaper) and a Switch (a console meaning production costs for games are higher). Handhelds were designed to be more affordable. The Switch is playable portably but in terms of design philosophy it’s a console.

ok I got into an argument with someone in my media class yesterday so I’m just gonna say it:

No video game should cost $70.

I’m sure the new Zelda game will be great, but no video game should cost $70. “But if you adjust for inflation, this is actually less than what the Wii games were,” cool. No video game should cost $70.

We no longer live in a world where a kid could save up their allowance for a couple months and then be able to buy a video game. Just buying one has somehow turned into such a grandiose adventure it takes all of the fun out of getting a new game.

The only possible benefit might be that, with games being so expensive, people might be more likely to pick up an indie game because those companies can’t afford to sell those games for a lot.

This is becoming normal. I used to be able to buy four ds games for $70. What the hell.

And you know damn well that Nintendo can afford it.

[ponycritterz]

<3 Hi I'm ponycritterz, or pony for short!

Click below to learn more about me, and what I'm going to post!! <3

DNI INCLUDED IN THIS POST. PLEASE READ BEFORE FOLLOWING/INTERACTING

Hai hello!!!! :33

My pronouns are he/him, I'm gay n happily taken, and I'm 19 years old! I have the best bestie in the world, and I'm madly in love with all things nostalgia. I would describe myself as a guy who dresses goth, but has a bedroom full of cute pink stuff :))!! My goal one day is to have a pink poodle and stride down the sidewalk wearing all black, with a lovely corset ♡

My interests include 70s-2000s nostalgia, collecting older toys/video game consoles, video games, vintage interior design, the color pink and red, and more!

My top three favorite video games to play have to be Baldurs Gate III, Overwatch, and Sims 3! But as for like., video games I love no matter what, that includes Club Penguin, Webkinz, Tomodachi Life, Sims Urbz DS, Rune Favtory Tides of Destiny, Cooking Mama wii, Animal Crossing GC and New Leaf, and many many more!!

As for like., misc interests, I like a few YouTubers such as Call Me Kevin, Jerma, Oneyplays, Supermega, Kurtis Conner, Izzzyizzz, Film Cooper, Inabber, and EXPLORE WITH US. I love a few shows too, including Golden Girls, Fullhouse, and How I Met Your Mother a lot right now!!

Christmas is my ALL TIME FAVORITE HOLIDAY. It's connected to me in such a nostalgic way, and not really in a religious way at all. I start decorating in July <3 /j

(Vintage) toys I collect include, My Little Pony gen 1-4, Calico Critters, second-hand Precious Moments (because I don't support them lol,) Barbies, Furbies, Muppets, Sesame Street, and more!

As for hobbies, I make digital art, crochet, cross stitch, make Perler bead art, make stuff with air dry clay, repair old toys, and window shop tehe :3 I'd love to learn how to sew.

For "fandomy" interests, I'm currently into Baldurs Gate III, Ghost (band,) Smiling Friends, My Little Pony (gens 1-4,) and definitely more I can't think of. I'm also still super interested in the "classic" fandoms, (such as Sonic, Creepypasta, FNAF,) I just don't talk about them as much anymore. And if you're wondering how we haven't met, I was on Amino, not Tumblr yet <3 LMAO :3

I heavily dislike spiders, death, religion, excessive drug use, and bigotz <3

On a more personal note, I deal with a lotta dumb stuff that sets me back!! I'm on the spectrum, have BPD, chronic fatigue, severe OCD, and wayyy more dumb stuff. But!! I find posting on social media to be a fun way to cope here and there :)

I'm also under the age regression/dreamer umbrella, and will not tolerate any hate about that. ♡

DO NOT INTERACT IF:

- You are a minor!! 17 is right on the line!! I recommend any minor that reads this to go play Webkinz and be a kid as long as ya can :) /gen

- YOU ARE A NSFW ACCOUNT!!! Whether it be some form of "agere" or not, ION like it!!!

- You are anti LGBT+, furry, agere, women's rights, abortion, vaxx, masks, all of that!

- You can't tolerate., "cringe"?? Cringe is dead!! Have fun, rawr means ily in dinosaur bro <3

- Can't tolerate tone indicators, some cussing, over use of ":3"....

- you are an asshole <3 ion like em!!

I am open to making friends as long as you're not dry, follow the DNI guidelines above, and don't talk excessively about drugs/religion. I ain't about allat!

Please interact if you are SFW, a nice person, LGBT+ or ally, whatever!! Just be cool :P

What I'll be posting:

Moodboards, agere/dre inspo and such, maybe some requests, silly tingz, various crafts, and more :)

I'm not too sure I'll have like a consistent post schedule or anything, but I'd love to try as much as I can while staying healthy!!

That's pretty much it!!

Thank you so much for reading!! I appreciate you, and hope you enjoy my blog :) I'm VERY new to Tumblr so I'm just getting the hang of things -- bear with me!! <3

[novakattt]

im going through a trip down memory lane lately, and it's extremely confusing...

by that i mean is that ive found my nintendo switch, my 2ds and my ds (which didnt have a charger so i played the 2ds games on the 3ds). and ive started playing all of the games from those consoler that i could, and wow, its so fucking weird

like i have kirby triple deluxe which i remember having and playing, but then i played it and i didnt really remember anything from it, i just remembered kirby planet robobot (i really like that one :3)

then i played 2 of my ds games, new super mario bros and that mario 64 for the ds. and the only thing i realized with those was that i sucked ASS at games!!!! like on the first one i only got to world 2 as a kid in the span of like years idk, but now i finished WORLD 2 IN AN HOUR

i did get a lot of nostalgia from these though, specially with the switch games even though that wasnt that long ago. like mario oddyssey, kirby star allies and specially acnh!!!!

i adored playing acnh during quarantine, i loved it :3

but i did restart my island a while ago, so im just gaining back my progress slowly (without time skipping btw), and im loving it so much!!!!

all my new villagers, my lil home, my outfit is actually fire (but i dont know how to download it to my pc sooo :<)

but yeah overall nintendo games are great, i adore them and theyre a great part of my past!!!

(also idk if itll help to push this account to have more following, but im just gonna use my own @ for this)

[agentpaint]

So I was doing some research for something I’m planning, and I realized how much I miss the DS.

Like looking back on it, that thing was my rock. I took that thing everywhere. The GBA holds a special place in my heart for being my first gaming device, but the DS was on another level.

I don’t want to post pictures rn (maybe I’ll do that when I get my blog running on my neocites) but back when I was a kid I carried around a HUGE case that held all of my DS games.

Looking back on it, I was a fucking lunatic for that, someone could have easily stolen all of my DS games or I could’ve lost them all!

In fact, that did happen! But not to this case in specific. My original GBA and games was stolen and I lost a smaller bag of DS and games, miraculously the 2nd one was returned to me safely.

Anyways, I never went anywhere without my DS. I was basically an iPad kid with this thing, but the games were all physical.

I still have all if my games actually, but no convenient way to play them. My original DS won’t turn on anymore, and my attempts to buy them on ebay have went poorly with broken hinges.

I have a 3DS, but honestly I really, REALLY don’t like the Circle Pad. It’s worse than the D-Pad and the D-Pad is in awkward position to use for long periods of time.

But back on topic, while doing my research, I decided to look up DS games and I was hit with more nostalgia than I realized I had.

Pokemon, Mario, Cooking Mama, Nintendogs, Brain Age, Kirby, Starfy, Warioware DIY, Megaman Zero, Diddy Kong Racing, Bomberman, Clubhouse Games

A lot of these were games that I haven’t thought about in years but when I saw the box arts all of the memories came flooding back.

But what I also noticed when looking through this list was how many iconic games there were I didn’t play

Ace Attorney, Ghost Trick, Zelda, Animal Crossing, TWEWY, Rhythm Heaven, Sonic, Trauma Center, Style Savvy, Professor Layton, Scribblenauts,

Obviously I was a Nintendo kid with a strong Pokemon/Mario/Kirby bias, but it’s surprising at how many fantastic games went right under my nose.

I kinda have an itch to go back and play all of these games and maybe some licensed/shovelware games? Maybe even on stream?

But then the problem becomes that I’d have to emulate them to capture the game, unless I wanna break the bank on a 3DS capture card.

And here’s where my problem comes in: I don’t like DS emulation. It’s one of if not the most impossible experience to emulate. The dual screens, the touch screen, the clam shell design, all of it cannot be realistically emulated on a PC or a phone.

Playing a DS game this way is too much of a compromised experience for me, and I can’t see myself enjoying it, even when streaming.

And it really upsets me because what are you supposed to do about it? The 3DS is out of production, and unless the Switch’s successor is planned to have a dual screen then the legacy of the DS is impossible to preserve.

We’ve already seen this with ports of DS games coming to Switch and other consoles. They have to make do with a pop up picture in the corner or completely redesign the game for an arguably worse control scheme.

It really sucks because again, unless this form factor comes back DS ports will always have to be compromised in a way that harms their preservation.

And unfortunately the emulation device market haven’t tried out a dual screen device yet either, I guess it’s too niche or maybe the DS isn’t retro enough to consider it being worth it.

Maybe someday this niche demand will be recognized, I’m sure as we move further away from the 3DS era more will recognize this. Hopefully either Nintendo or an emulator device maker will see the demand and make something along the lines of a DS Mini like the NES/SNES Mini, but not mini because it’s already a handheld.

They did already try something similar with the Zelda Game and Watch, so I hope they try a Gameboy/Gameboy Advance someday, although that would still mean we’d have to wait longer for a DS. Maybe they could skip? I doubt it.

This is why I’m putting my hopes into the emulation device market. There’s a lot of issues with those devices, but it’s far more realistic to see one of them attempt a DS device than Nintendo right now.

Wow I talked for a while. Sorry for the long post!

[timbrrwolfe]

Currently having a minor existential crisis over the fact that I considered myself a gamer growing up while having had SO FEW GAMES for every console/handheld I had. Like, I knew I didn't have that many games. I had a handful of N64 games, a good amount of GBC and GBA games (I guess because my parents thought handhelds would make it more likely I'd go outside? Might've just been that they were cheaper, I have no idea). A decent number of GBA games I suppose. A few Wii games. etc. etc. The one that managed to short circuit my brain for a few minutes was DS.

I've been going through retro catalogs lately to see what I missed out on, what looks interesting, all that. I missed out on (S)NES entirely, and their era of games isn't particularly interesting to me in general. Some good and interesting games, but a lot of games that reviewers just dig into "this game was SO hard." GBC and GBA were systems I had...not a /lot/, but a fair amount of games for, and I was passingly familiar with a lot of the ones I didn't have.

DS though...there were a ton of games that I just fully missed out on. Which got me thinking about which games I /did/ have. I eventually landed on 7 that I could remember, only one of which I ever beat. Granted I think I was a little more into Gamecube and even started playing City of Heroes during the DS era. But it still blew my mind to realize how little familiarity I had with the DS library. Even the games I had heard of as good (some in retrospect) I never had. And the ones I did have? Not good. Pokemon Diamond, Wario: Master of Disguise, and whatever the DS Viewtiful Joe game was? All slow, or boring, or otherwise didn't hold my attention. Even now I have no desire to go back and give them another chance. Nintendogs was cute at first but that wore off fast.

Super Mario 64 DS I beat, and have fond memories of. YGO World Championship 2010 I sank time into since that was right around when I was being very casually competitive with YGO. And Pokemon White I probably would have beaten (and even had it be the first Pokemon game I did beat) had it not been stolen out of my DS somehow. I still need to take time to play through it in full honestly.

But I digress. For some reason it really threw me for a loop that even lists of "best DS games" I was getting pelted with titles that I had never even heard of, and do look like fun. Truly an era I missed out on. I think in my brain it's also tied to 3DS which I /know/ I missed out on gaming with friends during. I had a couple popular games, to be sure. Pokemon X, ORAS, Smash 3DS. But I had a few friends who were very into AC:New Leaf, or Tomodachi Life. Things like that, which I just fully missed out on. So I think that sort of missed opportunity nostalgia linked up with the realization that I missed out on a ton of DS games (especially since there were games those same friends talked about a ton. Conversations that I couldn't really take part in). That was an era of my life that I considered myself a gamer, but I had missed out on a /ton/ of borderline cultural touchstones. And I guess that's what's got me shaken about it.

[nintendowife]

Fun questions that made me think back and a little to the future!

Last game you finished  Need for Speed: Most Wanted U on Wii U. Finishing it was one of my gaming goals for 2023.

Game(s) you’re currently playing  Many! Atelier Shallie: Alchemists of the Dusk Sea DX (Switch), Shadows Over Loathing (PC), Touhou Mystia's Izakaya (PC), Pokémon Rumble World (3DS), Easy Come Easy Golf (Switch).. And the daily dose of Fitness Boxing, Fitness Boxing 2 and Jump Rope Challenge on Switch.

1-3 games you’ve played in the past 12 months that you really enjoyed  Atelier Escha & Logy Plus (PS Vita), Pokémon Violet (Switch), Chrono Trigger (Nintendo DS).

Do you like to get 100% achievements/trophies?  Yes and no. Trying to platinum games actually drove me away from the PlayStation ecosystem. The grind for trophies made playing feel like an unpleasant chore and ruined many games for me. I've been a lot happier playing on other platforms where it doesn't feel like I must complete everything the way someone else intended.

Game(s) coming out that you’re looking forward to  Octopath Traveler II, and many others I'm eyeing with a varying level of interest. Let's just say my backlog isn't going to starve this year either.

A series you’ve enjoyed since your early days of gaming and still enjoy to this day whether it still has games coming out or is one you return to  Not sure how many game series I've liked during my early days of gaming are still around... Tetris? Super Mario?

A series you’ve lost interest in  Tekken. Tekken 7 having a large portion of existing characters as DLC rubbed me the wrong way and I didn't buy it. Might also be that my gaming tastes have changed over time and I'm not that much into fighting games anymore.

A series you haven’t played but are interested in trying  Halo series, Trails series.

A game you played completely blind with no prior knowledge of and enjoyed/loved  Ruiner (played it on 4 different platforms and got a physical copy too), Watch Dogs 2, Gears of War 4.

A console and/or handheld you’ve never played but would like to try  Xbox Series X.

Do you prefer ‘blank slate’ main characters you make yourself or otherwise project onto, or characters with a set personality and backstory?  I like both equally. Ready-made characters can be very interesting, well-written and endearing. But I also like creating my own character, having an idea of their personality in my head and then customizing their looks and naming them based on that.

A character you particularly like in the game you’re currently playing  Escha Malier in Atelier Shallie DX.

Quick, name the first song from a game that comes to mind  Super Mario Bros World 1-1 theme.

A song that’s sure to hit your nostalgia buttons  Bubble Bobble (Commodore 64) music.

Do you have a backlog and do you keep track of it? If so, how?  Yes, thank you for asking! I use Backloggery intensively to marvel at my pile of unfinished and unplayed games.

A game you’d like to replay that you haven’t  Titanfall 2 - magnificent game.

A game you didn’t finish but would like to get back to or restart someday  Nightshade (aka Kunoichi) on PS2 (I got stuck in a weird level, not knowing how to proceed) and Zelda: Ocarina of Time on N64 (I got stuck in the Water Temple).

A game location you really like  The city of Prontera in Ragnarok Online.

A game you started up for the first time and you knew from the start it was going to be great  Xenoblade Chronicles 2 when I arrived to Argentum Trade Guild and saw all the Nopons.

A boss you think is really cool  Mary Kelley in Watch Dogs: Legion. If that doesn't count due to no actual boss fight, then Galdera in Octopath Traveler.

A boss that was disappointing  The final boss in The Ascent. Well, not the boss itself I guess but rather the underwhelming ending after defeating it. I was expecting some kind of cool story development but the game kind of just ended. I remember thinking "that was it?!".

A game ending that’s really stuck with you  Xenoblade Chronicles X's ending was particularly fascinating. I also immensely enjoyed the ending of Yomawari: Midnight Shadows.

A “Wow” moment of awe  Stepping to the first open area near the beginning of Xenoblade Chronicles X, seeing the gargantuan creatures roaming the grassy plains. It was the first moment I witnessed the impressive scale and scope of the game world.

A game with a cool art style  From more recent ones the first coming to mind is Sable with its striking and unique comic book style visuals.

A game’s art style that had to grow on you  Xenoblade Chronicles X. Initially the character art style was off-putting. That one thing in chapter 5 changed my mind.

Realism or stylized?  Stylized, absolutely.

A game you love the atmosphere of  Yomawari series and Project Zero (Fatal Frame) series games.

Pick a series you like. What was the first game you played for it? Was it a good starting point? Would it still be a good starting point now?  Fire Emblem series, my first introduction being Fire Emblem: Awakening. Considering I've bought all the main series FE games after that one, I'd say it was a good starting point. I believe it would still be a great title to start with.

On average do you have one game or multiple games going?  I tend to play many games simultaneously. I've tried to limit it to just one RPG at a time and playing other genres as side dishes.

Game you think you’ll finish next?  Atelier Shallie DX or Shadows Over Loathing perhaps.

Someone has never played a video game before but is open to trying any genre. What game would you recommend as their first?  Something with easy controls that doesn't punish you for not being skilled. So maybe something like Sable? It offers relaxed exploration with interesting narrative and there is no combat to worry about. It's overall a nice experience that might be easy to grasp for someone who is new to gaming.

Video Game Asks!

Adding my own pool of asks about video games because I always like to talk games and asks are fun. Send numbers, reblog for yourself etc.

Last game you finished

Game(s) you’re currently playing

1-3 games you’ve played in the past 12 months that you really enjoyed

Do you like to get 100% achievements/trophies?

Game(s) coming out that you’re looking forward to

A series you’ve enjoyed since your early days of gaming and still enjoy to this day whether it still has games coming out or is one you return to

A series you’ve lost interest in

A series you haven’t played but are interested in trying

A game you played completely blind with no prior knowledge of and enjoyed/loved

A console and/or handheld you’ve never played but would like to try

Do you prefer ‘blank slate’ main characters you make yourself or otherwise project onto, or characters with a set personality and backstory?

A character you particularly like in the game you’re currently playing

Quick, name the first song from a game that comes to mind

A song that’s sure to hit your nostalgia buttons

Do you have a backlog and do you keep track of it? If so, how?

A game you’d like to replay that you haven’t

A game you didn’t finish but would like to get back to or restart someday

A game location you really like

A game you started up for the first time and you knew from the start it was going to be great

A boss you think is really cool

A boss that was disappointing

A game ending that’s really stuck with you

A “Wow” moment of awe

A game with a cool art style

A game’s art style that had to grow on you

Realism or stylized?

A game you love the atmosphere of

Pick a series you like. What was the first game you played for it? Was it a good starting point? Would it still be a good starting point now?

On average do you have one game or multiple games going?

Game you think you’ll finish next?

Someone has never played a video game before but is open to trying any genre. What game would you recommend as their first?

[chocomony]

Hey!!

What are your thoughts on each of the Nicktoons Unite games?

Hello there! I must mention that I have only played the 2 ½ games of the series, but I have seen a playthrough of the other 2 so I can comment a bit on those as well.

Anyway, here are my thoughts….

Nicktoons Unite

Man, the nostalgia is real when I see this game. This game was my introduction to the crossovers trope that I still love to this day. I remember being so hyped up for this game as a kid and to this day I’m glad this game came to be. This said… this is not a good game. I mean I still appreciate it, but I cannot for the life of me watch a full playthrough without getting bored. Also, the sound mixing and music gives me an uncanny feeling. This is such a weird game.

Rating: 3/5 ghost rats. That was an ok first crossover attempt.  

Battle for volcano island

My favorite one from the three and the one I played the most. I remember having the most fun with this game just walking around the hub world and watching all the concept art for the game. The story, wise I think has the best character interactions, I just wished the game had a better cast of characters (and poor Timmy, even Jimmy who wasn’t a playable character has a bigger story role than him). The aesthetic of this game is also pretty nice.

Rating 7/10 crabs. If my game still worked, I would probably play it once in a while.

Attack of the Toybots

 I have never played the console version of the game, but I have played the DS version (my boy Tigre was there!). I didn’t hate it but it left a lot to be desired. As for the console version from what I have seem it looks pretty cool, and in general, it feels like a more refined version of Volcano Island. I can see why a lot of people like it!

Also, I believe there is another Nicktoons fan comic based on this game. Which is nice.

Rating 6/8.3 toyboys. For the console version, the DS version is not as great.

Globs of doom

This game is weird… In concept, the idea of heroes and villains working together is a good one. But most of the villain selections aren’t great and the execution is…. Meh… The gameplay didn’t look particularly good either.

Lastly, the way they marketed the game as a “Spongebob Squarepants” game makes me think they didn’t really care about this one and just wanted a quick and easy buck out of this game.

Rating: 3.1416/6. Just meh.