#If you want I can always remake it with a different location or time in mind if you prefer!

[hollowingearth]

I'm sorry but the more I think about the Rebirth ending the more I love it actually like. The whole trilogy has been a meta commentary of sorts and, specially, Aerith's death is at the epicenter of it. She both dies and doesn't die exactly because us, as an audience, want both things to happen.

People have been clamoring to be able to save Aerith since 1997, there were fake hidden hacks, AU fictions, retellings, everything. Everyone has been at Squeenix's doorsteps begging them to let us save her. Like, it's at a point where the "Square will let us save Aerith if you pay for the DLC" joke is much more than a decade old.

On the other side, there's this very expressive unwant for any change whatsoever from the source material. It's not a feeling that is exclusive to FF7 either, there's this very clear pushback against any new remake/adaptation that deviates, even slightly, from it's original. People don't want new content, they want the old one they experienced when they were younger, but prettier, they want to both feel the nostalgia and experience everything as if for the first time again.

From that camp, I think the most prominent argument is that FF7 is about loss, right? And they're not wrong. Aerith's death is the crux of the story, it's the very thing that made FF7 as known as it is, there would be no actual weight to what it's trying to tell if the heroine doesn't die in the middle of it, an unexpected, hurtful, avoidable death. What's the point of a narrative about grief if you can just... avoid losing someone? Avoid having it be cruelly taken from you?

And yet, you see, if want someone to die, if you want something to be taken from you, are you really losing it? In the original, part of the impact was that no one could see it coming, it was a straight representation about how death is sudden and takes away opportunity from you. Aerith doesn't go into the sleeping forest willing to make a sacrifice for the greater good, she has barely started her adventure, she makes a promise to go on the highwind, the group is one location away from finding out more about her ancestry and her family.

That's not true for the remake, tho. Everyone knows about her fate, about what is going to happen to her. That's probably the most spoiled moment in video game history. I personally knew about her death before I truly understood what Final Fantasy even was. So now we have an audience that is extremely aware of what, when and how her death is going to happen. That's why the Confluence of Worlds is put at that moment, because it's the single most expected moment in the entire triology, it's the one moment that made the narrative resonate so well.

The impact is impossible to recreate now, even for newer fans of the series. People want a 1:1 retranslation but such a thing would always be a gimmicky shadow of it's original. It's why the focus shifts, now the most emotionally impactful scene is not the killing of her but of her goodbye, in the church after the dream date. "Thank you," Aerith echoes "It's been fun", a callback to her conclusion on Remake where she says "I'm grateful for all the words we shared. All the moments and the memories. You've made me more happy than you know."

So she dies and she doesn't, both at the same time. Effectively in limbo now, narratively explained by lifestream shenaningans. We put her there ourselves, by refusing to move on, refusing to accept her death but also refusing to change, allowing a different outcome. I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing, at least, Aerith's words sound like the very sincere feelings of the developers, who are grateful for all the love we all have powered into their work all these years.

I just love it so much, I could spend hours talking about it.

[dalekofchaos]

RE1 is getting remade for the 30th Anniversary and here's why I support it and what I'd love to see in the RE1RR.

Updated with the next gen graphics in the RE Engine

The plan is obviously to remake RE5, but we need to do Wesker's OTHER big appearances first. I believe we should get the following released in the specific order. 1, 0, then Code Veronica and finally RE5. Cause if you tease RE5 and have Wesker, you should have the three games that featured Wesker before his death in RE5.

The atmosphere and tension of the Spencer Mansion in the new age and basically RE1 meets Village. The visual aesthetic of Village’s Castle Dimitrescu for Spencer Mansion.

Better characterization. Flesh out all the characters. Improve the plot/story.

Chris and Jill’s campaigns to be separate and different, so by the time they meet at the end they’ve both had their own adventure, and you need to play through both to see both sides. Perhaps give Chris the mines and Jill the guard house. Expand the mansion, and when they separate at the start they pick up different keys and access different areas. That way they story would be canon regardless of what happens, and there would be some variety. Also have Rebecca and Richard as playable paths, similar to Sherry and Ada in RE2R.

A playable Wesker mode with him having to move about the mansion and into the lab under a certain amount of time.

Also would like them to keep the REmake music (especially the save room theme), though they could always release a Deluxe Edition like 2R with the OG music too?

Additions. I would be happy with an entire new floor in the Spencer Mansion. Or making the Residence 3x as long. Adding a forest section, either during the opening and/or later in the game. Extended playable sequences for Rebecca and Barry – different locations for each, like how the Orphanage was entirely new for Sherry in 2R. An abandoned greenhouse near the guardhouse with Plant-42 and similar experimentation , an extended cemetery with more tombs, a third floor in Spencer Mansion, more floors in guardhouse, etc.

Making S.T.A.R.S. matter. The game begins at the R.P.D. After picking between Chris and Jill, you make your way from the garage and up into the department proper, crossing paths with various characters referencing the recent cannibal killings and the fact that Alpha and Bravo have been assigned. The walk through the RPD could be intercut with news reports and police banter about what’s been happening. You can interact with the various characters as much or as little as you want en route to the briefing room. Chris and Forrest can talk some trash and reference their apparent contest for top shot. Enrico can be seen helping Rebecca organize her equipment and her nerve. Joseph can be given more personality than being puppy kibble. Marvin can be caught informing Rebecca that she won’t be the rookie in a couple more months. Chief Irons can greet the player with the mask of a competent professional because his mind was still intact. Hell, perhaps we can even catch a glimpse of whatever act Wesker put on for the two years that made these people trust him. Wesker and Enrico would then host the briefing that will send them into mountains, still treating this like they think the suspects are hill people or whatever, culminating in Bravo Team taking point while Alpha Team remains behind. There could be some more small talk or some kinda time lapse before Richard makes contact in a panic before communications break down. Alpha Team immediately preps and heads out, complete with changing clothes in the locker room and gearing up. The player will actually play the search through the woods, discover the crashed helicopter, and play through the mad chase to the mansion where the game as we know it begins.

Throw the players off by changing the keys and rooms

Zombies, Crimson Heads and every other BOW in the first game

Defense weapons and head stomping

Lisa Trevor(she could work like as a stalker enemy)

Same notes, but add in some new ones

All the puzzles, but mix it up

Just give us “One more second and you were ALMOST A JILL SANWICH” let Barry be the cheesy bastard that we know him to be

Stick with the REVIll face model for Chris, but younger and less steroids. Like how many faces can he wear?????

Stick with the RE3R face model for Jill, but don’t let it look like she just got out of being dipped in the sewer

Include Zero as DLC. My pitch of a RE0R. But the main requirement for RE1 is for Rebecca to NOT be cowering in the corner. Rebecca CANNOT be in the corner cowering from a Hunter when she is more than capable. A simple scream of surprise, but when we reach Rebecca, we see that she's perfectly fine

Bonus costumes For Chris:Made In Heaven outfit, BSAA outfit, CVX STARS outfit For Jill:RE3 original and Remake, BSAA, RE:Resistance, and RE5 Battle Suit.

And finally getting what we never got in the original or the 2002 remake. The ending that has Chris, Jill, Rebecca and Barry in the chopper. So my big idea to make this happen is this. If we play as Jill, Chris makes it to the mansion with us. Jill and Barry go and investigate, while Chris and Wesker are outside. They vanish. Richard will mention that Rebecca Chambers left the mansion after hearing Brad’s radio and went to get help. We will later see Rebecca in the cell with Chris in Jill’s story. For Chris’ story, Barry makes it to the Mansion. Chris investigates the gunshot while Wesker will say they will split up and investigate the Mansion and everyone vanishes. Later in the game before we get to the lab, there would be a dropped Barry’s photograph. Later when we get to the cell, Barry will be in the cell with Jill. Barry apologizes to Chris for what he’s done and Chris understands why he did what he did and he can help make things right. Ultimately in both playthroughs, all 4 S.T.A.R.S. members work together to fight the Tyrant until ultimately Chris or Jill destroys the Tyrant with the rocket launcher. It ends with all 4 members escaping in the chopper as the Mansion explodes.

[tspud-screenshots]

intro

Hello! Do you need screenshots of TSPUD but don't have the game or no-clip? Do you need a specific angle or screenshot of a specific part of the game that is usually glossed over in videos or images? Send a request either in submissions or the inbox and I will do my best to provide it!

RULES:

Mod is a college student, Please be patient if you submit a request! This blog is meant to help provide resources and references so I may take time in answering your ask/submission

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The Half-Life 2 Stanley Parable Mod, The Stanley Parable Demo, and The Stanley Parable HD Remaster (2013) are available for screenshots as well. If you want a screenshot from those games then please specify, if not I'll be going with Ultra Deluxe.

While I can't access Ultra Deluxe's assets, I can direct you to certain assets that I may have on hand from the one steam guide with a few assets uploaded to imgur. Feel free to ask about those as well as assets from the HL2 Mod, the Demo, and the HD Remake.

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Requests are open!

MASTERLIST: (Updated August 31st)

Locations

Not-Stanley Boss' Office

Meeting Room

Broom Closet

Bucket Apartment Ending (P1) (P2)

Mind Control Facility Cameras (P1) (P2) (P3)

Warehouse

Starry Dome and Zending Stairs

Employee Lounge

Hallway Leading to the Employee Lounge (Rooms Only)

Hallway Leading to the Employee Lounge (Rooms Only)

Assets

Computer Head Art from the Stanley Parable 2 Expo Office

Characters

Stanley (Not-Stanley Ending)

Mariella (Insanity/Dream Ending)

Watching/Airport Man (Bucket Elevator Ending/Bucket Quiz Ending)

The Bucket (With Stickers) (Beginning office pre!Two-Doors)

Employee Numbers

063

126

159

253

307

420

Misc.

Lighting Differences between Source and Unity

[bearpillowmonster]

Epic Mickey: Rebrushed

I'm an Epic Mickey stan, I would've bought this whether I played it or not, just to support it because I've always wanted more. (mainly, for Oswald!) But so much was planned for this franchise, including a movie and an Epic Donald spinoff.

CHANGES

Looking at this is night and day especially for a dark setting. The graphics weren't bad on the Wii, they were just, well, on the Wii. (which ran at max 720p) And while that's still feasible, it's so nice to see everything smoothed out and relit. They didn't have to go as far as messing with the actual fidelity of it or the custscenes but they make it known what a movie it would've been and we lost boys.

The addition of sprinting, dashing and butt stomping is really what this game needed because the first Epic Mickey was a Wii exclusive and I loved playing it when I first got into it but I found it had faded since then. I came back maybe a year or two ago to try and play it again and I just couldn't bring myself to. I like platforming and the platforming in this game sucked, it wouldn't control right, I felt like I was jumping in a straight line, like barely any momentum. It wasn't quite there for something you do a lot of. And if you fall in the thinner, there's very seldom a platform to catch you so dying sets you back and then you had to walk back so sprinting is just a complete clutch.

You also had aiming to deal with as far as the Wii remote- This review is for the Switch version, yeah, I knew that it would run a little worse than the other consoles but now I have the experience to talk about specifics and I wanted to play it on the go. The darkness I mentioned can be adjusted, not just in brightness but in color and style for color deficiency. You cannot shake the joycon to spin.

There is a choice to use motion controls when you're spraying but that's the only time it comes up, you already have to have the button pressed down and even then you can just use the analog stick, it's really good either way, no complaints. You can also set it if you're standing still and press the down arrow. The framerate…could dip and there was a time or two where it'd get stuck, the load times can be long (but you don't see a loading screen often) it's just weird to me that the game is a remaster of a game from 2010 and actually has the biggest file size on my Switch and even with all that size, has longer loading screens than comparable titles like Super Mario Odyssey.

And this is especially important for this game because you sometimes have to traverse back and forth between Ostown and Mean Street and whatever to get the side quests done (and sometimes main) and every time you have to speedrun the same pathway level (projector) to get there and each time you jump in or out is a loading screen. Seeing as this is labelled as a remake and not just a remaster, they very well could've made a fast travel. There were some instances like that where the sequel had the feature that I wanted and was hoping that it'd be updated in here like so many remaksters are doing now, Last of Us and Horizon for example.

The one thing that did carry over is that you've probably seen the different skins that you get with either preorder or purchase, there are a few unlockable ones as well. They fit well with the 2.5D levels (Brave Little Tailor for 30s cartoons, Steamboat for 20s). There is a photo mode, it's not as customized in the 2D levels but I definitely had fun with it if you can't tell.

It's the same game but it's not one-to-one, for example, the locations of the power boxes are different in Os-Town, scenes like this look different.

Which is a downgrade in my eyes but some of them are very neutral, like the health bar

…that's a choice, I guess, there was no real need to change it. It definitely makes things more textured and seem a little less rough, look at this platform where you find Pete Pan.

Sometimes more detailed and lush, but sometimes it takes from the scene. Little stuff like goo dripping from the ceiling removed, sometimes it's the overall colors and vibes of a level to either lighten or darken. I can't say whether I like one or the other totally more.

THE GAME

Let's talk about the meat because it's 60$ so I'm going to treat it like it as if it was a brand new game, plus I never reviewed the original and I don't talk about it enough so here we go. I'll cover thinner mode in some other post, this is more or less hero mode.

It's a reasonable amount of hours and honestly time as been gracious to it, whether it be the growing cult status or the fact that it's on other consoles other than the Wii because while the combat still leaves a little to be desired, the gameplay overall is a lot more refined in my eyes.

There are times where your paint can't reach an item, it's not a bad limitation but still in sight, it tells you what's reachable by turning green. But this is especially precise and annoying for the ending with the bloticles. I don't get what it is with games and popping bubbles.

Oswald is in this a lot less than I remember, I always thought of him as making mischief for a level but he kind of shows up just to show you your end goal. Towards the second half he appears a lot more though. It's kind of cool how it's all a Alice Through The Looking Glass type thing and Oswald is the White Rabbit. And all things forgotten, Atlantis, Tron…no Black Cauldron (which fits perfectly) and no Treasure Planet though everything that is popular is all mechanical, an artificial imitation and the way Smee is colored makes it look like the concept art, all inverted from the way we know and it's just-

I really like the idea of having different endings correlating to how you played. When I first played this, I tried to hundred percent it first round and paint absolutely every nook and collect every item and to be honest, I found myself doing a lot of the same stuff I did when I started, it's funny, I have the same thought processes but I've come to the conclusion that if I waste my time on just one collectible, it won't be as fun and I won't want to play it anymore and it's been this long so let me finish it. But there are obvious rewards for either path, one of the first I could tell was having a gremlin in a catapult and a chest on the switch. Remove the chest and it launches the gremlin, remove the gremlin and it locks the chest. There are times you can just thinner brush most things and it'll show a negative outlook on the world itself. You can either clean up your mess with paint or take out the trash and destroy it like it never happened.

There are a lot of things to collect and I had fun just looking in every corner though I found that they seem kind of half-and-half, some going by the wayside like the pins and some being cool like the concept art.

[alicethepiper]

just thinking about a re5make

just the title. i'm on an re4r binge again (when am I not) and I'm just so excited to go back to Kijuju.

re4remake is easily my favorite game in the series and even as someone who has yet to finish the original, i still see and listen to the accounts of others who did - and their comparisons between the two mean a lot and have me excited for what's in store for re5. i think i'm so excited because unlike og re4, i have beaten re5 countless times and im just - ahhhhhhhh. so excited. (if i come across a sheva in og re4 mod watch me beat it immediately lol)

was watching a playthrough of re4make and person playing was complimenting it while also going through her favorites between og and remake. she was commenting on the krauser boss fight, and then the saddler one. and maybe it's literally just how goopy and gross saddler is (and that's what reminded me of excella), but i am so excited to see excella's boss fight. just, in that moment, i was like "oh shit. there is a chance that we're gonna get an updated re5 and we're gonna see botox buddy #2 in all her remake glory." and that's so fucking cool.

i have so many (constructive, i hope) criticisms of re5 - i played the xbox 360 version originally a year ago, and then this summer came back to it, saw re5 on sale, and caved. Since this summer i've only been playing the PC version - and i play it with a lot of mods.

my main complaint (and also source of excitement) is the absolutely disgusting horrible godforsaken green filter, or the idea of a *lack* of it. re4make is so fucking pretty. i am so excited to see that treatment given to other resi games. and i want more from the environment too. there's literally so much opportunityyyyyyy capcom pleaseeeee.

you change location so much in re5. in particular, im a huge fan of the marshlands and it's essentially the stone retrieval thingy in chapter 4(?) of re4make. just - imagine the marshlands with more color?? more foliage?? just, more?? agh. and there's the beautiful scene with the sun rising behind sheva as she and chris ride around on the boat? i need that whole section with the sun rising. do you know how pretty that would be? and then when you get all the slates and open the door, the sun can come up more and whatnot idc. just, let me ride the boat around the pretty marsh. let there be more animals just chilling about (not just the alligators/crocodiles/i can't tell the difference/i always forget/i'm sorry). let me kill enemies with a beautiful sunrise behind me pleaseeeee. i know resident evil is a "gross" series with lots of gunk and shit, but there are so many instances of the games being absolutely gorgeous. the train in re0? queen zenobia? the rcpd literally being built on top of an old museum? let re5 be pretty, capcom. pleaseeeeeee

i'm also just excited for the bossfights overall. everything in re5 is huge and in a potential re5make, there's such an opportunity to make it feel just MORE. irving? excella? jill's bossfight in general??????? literally there is so much potential here. i'm so excited for a jill fight. make the environment more. the voicelines when chris calls out for her. when you play as sheva and AI Chris will stand in front of Jill so you don't shoot her??? i could cry.

also capcom make me like the mkono boss fight please. when i grab the flamethrower, make it do something :)

also, all of the ruins in the game just have so much promise. i haven't played tomb raider in a hot minute, but i remember that shit being fire. give it the tomb raider treatment or something idk.

another thing that i'm so so desperate for is dialogue. i NEED more conversation between Sheva and Chris. They're literally at the hip the entire game, so let them talk. I want to know more about Sheva. I want Chris to slowly open up about Jill, Raccoon City, and the Spencer Mansion. Let that man talk a bit about Wesker - Sheva is walking into hell with him, she deserves to know what's up. (and please bring karen dyer back pleaseeeeeee). from my understanding, sheva was really only supposed to be a liaison between the different BSAA locations. she's essentially there as a translator and guide for chris - yes, she can take care of herself and kick ass, but she wasn't supposed to have to. and then shit hit the fan. so let them talkkkkk about it. let her open up about her dead parents and shit. let chris open up about his dead parents. orphan bond and shit idk

i'm not sure how co-op is gonna work with potential re5 or re6 remakes, but I personally love being able to play with other people. either way, a girl can dream.

i'm sure there's more i could think of but this is what came up off the top of my head. i have no clue if we'll get an re5make (it seems like it would make sense that it comes next after 2,3, and 4 getting a remake). i'm not like keeping my hopes super high or anything but i do want my thoughts out into the universe because i think it would be cool to look back at what i was thinking before re5make was promised/not promised/delivered, etc.

[sliphole]

Questions/complaints I currently have about SH2 Remake:

Why does Silent Hill look like a complete shithole? It was a tourist town, for goodness' sake, they cared about their image! I mean, I do understand that Bloober Team made the decision to make it look old and dilapidated because it's abandoned, but did they understand why and how it was abandoned in the original? As far as I remember, it's not as if the town was known to be abandoned for years, it was as if all the residents just...vanished, all at once. There was evidence in the original SH games that people had very recently lived normal lives in town. That eerie feeling that something more is wrong is gone with this lack of detail.

the game is way too dark, is anyone else complaining about this? The way James is navigating and interacting with memos and items in near darkness early in the game should mean he'll have no trouble blindly inserting a key into any unlit locks he may or may not find. No need to open any cans of light bulbs this time around.

This is a general grievance with modern video games, but I hate damage effects that take up the boarders of your entire screen. The enemies are a lot more aggressive and also there are a lot more of them in this remake (like everyone has already been saying). It also takes less hits to get you to critical health, and you will take damage. But this is also a survival horror game, right? Naturally you'll want to hoarde your health items until you really need them, so get used to seeing that red vignetting and hearing James moan and groan for most of your playthrough.

Flavor texts and James' little comments about items, messages, etc. are gone! Holy shit, why? It makes me appreciate only now how important those texts are to James' character, as removing them subsequently means James has about zero personality. Beyond that, we're missing so much important context and information, such as James' alcoholism which was only mentioned in one text in the original if you happened to examine some discarded bottles.

The ability to explore different locations in town that were inaccessible before would be cute for long-time fans if the game were a faithful adaptation and it were optional, in my opinion. Instead, it's another aspect of this entire game being padded to Hell in an attempt to lengthen the play time, therefore justifying the $70 price tag that's been attached to a 23-year-old video game. In a better remastering, I would understand adding new clues, items, or puzzles to encourage exploring the new environments they worked on, and I understand this is why they did so. But Team Silent made the decision not to add any of these extra environments in the first place, and I'm sure it's because it's tedious and unnecessary and doesn't serve the plot in any meaningful way.

For Silent Hill in general but SH2 especially, I personally don't like the constantly free-moving camera. So many of these scares and set pieces were designed with the fixed camera angles in the forefront of their collective mind, so taking that away makes them a lot less effective. Watching this playthrough, for example, the hallway scream in the apartments was caught at such an awkward angle that James' big, stupid head clipped through the camera as he looked around all startled. Besides that, everything just feels very flat and a lot less cinematic. And of course they had to add annoying interact icons to everything because it all blends into the environment now.

I really don't like what they've done to Eddie. He's like a cartoon caricature of his original character. He's way more overtly pathetic, and him asking to come with James when they meet is so out of character and is such a bizarre creative change. I know it's been said before, but I don't understand why everyone who works on a remaster/remake of the Silent Hill games can't just leave well enough alone. Why do they always have to make creative changes that are unwanted and unneeded?

[heinousactszx]

the oracle games are kind of incredible in retrospect. 2 fully fledged zelda games releasing on the exact same day, and despite many people's belief (myself included) that it was a pokemon type deal with minor differences, the truth is that they're two similar but entirely distinct adventures. they honestly feel ahead of their time in some ways, especially with the concept of a linked game. it's an idea that exists in more modern systems, but for the game boy to pull off that level of inter-connectivity is pretty incredible, even if it's also a bit overwhelming. if i was a kid i'm sure i would have dug into every last secret the game has to offer, and it has many for sure.

the stories are fairly good, for what they are, you're rescuing the damsel as always, which is definitely tired, but the towns and other locations you visit have a lot of charm to them, and the trade side quests encourage you to visit everywhere you can. the story of a linked game is also cool because of twinrova's shenanigans, and i love that the resurrection is botched for ganon, but also that twinrova was clearly doing it for love of their son and not for power, because they would not have sacrificed themselves otherwise. it's cool that they borrowed so much from ocarina to recreate in 8-bit

the differences between the two games are pretty significant when you actually play them, even though they share the same graphics, many items, movement, enemies, etc. the puzzles in ages really force you to think out of the box. my ages playtime is almost 5 hours longer than seasons because of the puzzles. meanwhile seasons is more straightforward in that it lets you have moe free reign over the world while giving you some more involved fights instead. that said, seasons has plenty of great puzzles, and ages has fun battles and a good amount to discover. both games are equally good, although if i have to pick, i think i'd go with seasons (sorry solarsyrup!). it's just because of the seasons gimmick and because i love the magnetic gloves so much. those things need to be in every single zelda game. fours swords doesn't count

that said, the games aren't without faults. the combat can really frustrated you, both because link has almost no invincibility and because movement can be too sensitive at times. a few of the bosses (onox especially) can feel straight up unfair, as do some of the puzzles where one screwup can cost you a significant amount of time in backtracking. playing without savestates seems like it'd be much more of a chore. the games do feel held back by being on the game boy, both because of the screen size and because there's just not enough buttons for some of the complexity the game wants you to do. if grezzo were to remake these games in the link's awakening remake engine like it's been rumored, i think it would be very welcome

still, it's all minor complaints at the end of the day. it's hard to call any zelda game "slept on", but the oracle games do feel somewhat overlooked in the grand scheme of the series. both of them are absolutely worth your time

up next, none other than my favorite, the one and only, the best zelda game ever made. a link between worlds

(after a break, because i've played so much 2d zelda in the past two weeks)

[arcticgraverobber]

I just finished: Resident Evil 4 Remake - Separate Ways DLC!

The original Separate Ways DLC didn't seem like much more than a throwaway excuse to add more content - the answer to what Ada was doing all that time during the main game being: exactly what you expected her to be doing. I'm happy to say the remake is anything but, and likely surpasses the remake in my mind.

The voice actor change was something that I largely didn't notice in the main game - the controversy is not something I particularly want to talk about but from what I have seen it does make seem to make sense to change to a more appropriate actor, even though that may not be the actual reasoning behind Capcom's decision. Playing the DLC I went back and forth on how I felt about the new VA, initially thinking that I just hadn't noticed how bad she was in the main game because Ada has fairly little screen time. However, while I would've preferred someone more in line with the previous pefromances, allowing consistency within the 'remake verse' as it were, as I played more of Separate Ways I softened up on the potrayal - I think some of the more throwaway lines may have been a little flatter, but that can possibly be put down to this being a DLC and thus having tighter time constraints. Contrasting the lines that are repeated from the main game she sounds a lot better, and some of the performances later in the game are particularly memorable - in fact, overall this game has made me much more interested in Ada Wong as a character.

This is also the first time Albert Wesker has been shown in any meaningful way, and whilst I enjoyed him well enough (though disappointed it's not DC Douglas) I feel like this may not be the best way to introduce him to players only familiar with the post 7 games. I do think it's important that these games stand on their own - and I really don't think this is enough of an introduction to go in to 5, as the end of the game seems to imply. My hope is that they at least put out a remake of the original, if not Code Veronica as well.

The DLC also introduces new abilities for Ada, unlike the original, where the main difference in game play was simply that you had slightly different weapons than Leon. Ada now can use here grappling hook both to move quickly to certain predetermined locations, and also to perform melee attacks on enemies from further away. While the change is fairly minimal, paired with new attack animations it's enough to make you feel more agile and fluid, suiting Ada's character.

Ada seems to have had quite a change in this - previously always the enigma, Separate Ways gives us just a little more of an insight into her background, and develops her as a character more than any of her other appearances. While a mysterious figure can be compelling for a while, it loses it's charm when it becomes clear that there are in fact no hidden answers to be found in the first place. Simple things, like Ada remarking that she thought she was 'done smelling burnt bodies' or her disobeying of Wesker's orders are enough to develop her beyond simply being a mysterious femme fatale.

This is certainly a good step if they are planning on also producing a remake of 6 after 5, though I still really hope they don't go straight to that. Separate Ways however, stands on it's own well, and again, maybe even surpasses the main game in my estimations.

Significance: 1/3

Grade: A

[h0tpiink]

SO?? TWISTED WONDERLAND OC??? Not my MC, but a pom student!! Her name is Primrose Aurore! (it means first rose at dawn lol. or it would.)

art by me, for me! lol. anyways, I put a lot of effort into it so pls support me (by sending me good vibes. but if you want to commission me i can make a commission page or something idk)

I based her off of Belle (she went to NRC due to it being more "exciting" than RSA. lol)

PRIMROSE AURORE!!

Grade/Class: Sophomore, Class C (no.?)

Birthday: October 9th (Libra)

Height: 165 cm

Dominant hand: right

Homeland: Queendom of Roses

Club: Book club

Best subject: Animal linguistics

Hobbies: Reading, gardening, caring for others

Pet peeves: Judging, lack of common sense, bad live action remakes.

Favorite food: Roses

Least favorite food: Wild game

Talent: Reading while walking

Raised in the Queendom of roses in a smaller town, due to her being "different" (autism spectrum shenanigans, as well as ADHD) she was made a social outcast and bullied (like, egged on so that she would get angry, alienated from peers, etc. she found an escape in books! happy to read her days away, finding escapism in the stories people would tell of heroes and knights and princesses.

She was put in pomfiore because, well I originally drew this as a little self insert thingy, since I got sorted into pomfiore, but I wanna make her a legit character so I found who I could and belle seemed like a good option tbh!! Only thing we have in common though is being seen as a social outcast 💀.

This twisted version of Belle isn't too similar to the original, fun fact. As Belle's "weirdness" only goes as far as her being well red and not wanting to marry gaston lmao. So I put her on the autism spectrum, and had her "weirdness" be a general lack of social skills, issues with communication, etc. Only finding peace in fictional worlds that she imagines. She's rather awkward!! All of her life, she was forced to try to "fit in", and any time she would share her hyper-fixations or interests, she was put down and insulted, therefore she is rather shy when it comes to talking to people, and keeps her nose in a book at all times. Since she's in pomfiore, she's expected to keep a certain appearance, however, she lacks any aspect of self care, having sensory issues that don't take too kindly to it. Despite that, she's still gorgeous (i don't expect the og belle to have very many skincare routines. lol. so her beauty was just from washing her face with water (possibly dirty water lmao)). She gets all hyper when talking about her books though, her smile lights up the room when she talks about the prince who wakes the princess with a kiss, or the battle scene between the two dragons, one fighting for good and the other evil. Curious lady!! always poking her head where she's not supposed to, ending up in situations that could easily be avoided if she just kept to herself. nosy. Is always looking for quiet places to read in peace. She often finds herself in isolated locations that have a surreal feeling to them.

still working on her unique magic, tho o7

ANYWAYS. SHE'S HERE!!

She's pals with Epel( both of them are pushed by vil to care for their appearances. Prim has it a bit worse off though, as the sensory is too much for her 😭). Prim and Epel have an alliance since they're both country bumpkins. However, Vil is tough on both of them. She and Epel are in the same spot as beauties that need refining.

Vil is like another mother to Prim. Vil often makes sure that she remembers to do her skincare etc. Vil is harsh on her when it comes to self care, but he knows that she has a hard time with it, so he tries his best to accommodate for her struggles. Prim cares a lot for Vil, and confides in him with her daily struggles, and Vil is happy to listen since he knows that it makes her a lot easier to deal with in the morning.

she's in the same class as floyd leech. Despite being a little afraid of him, they surprisingly get along. Floyd is sometimes happy to listen to her gush about her current hyper-fixation, thinking it's funny how such a reserved and quiet girl can end up so excited over something so silly.

She often bumps into Malleus while looking for quiet spots to read, or when she's poking about school grounds. At first she was scared of him, but then learned that he's not so bad, and that he would listen to her gushing about her books. Eventually, she'd gift them to him to read. (she's happy he's not as scary as she thought he was. after all, judging a book by its cover is bad.)

[atdwarriorsau]

food has been on my mind, so what would be the clans favourite dishes if cooking was a thing? like maybe honey glazed ham or venison or hamburger idk.... like, culturally, what would be a favourite food among each clan?

Oh boy you have NO IDEA what you've just started! I love food culture, I love talking about food culture! Buckle in for an essay

First of all, I HAVE to mention @bonefall, the GOAT of Warrior Cats culture redux! SO MUCH of AtD is inspired by their work < 3 I love it, if you wanna know my opinion on basically any Warrior Cats disc horse/hot takes just look at the bonefall post l!

I love their culinary clan cat stuff! Especially Windclan tunnelbuns, my favourite!

-

OKAY AtD time

So because The Prophecies Begin is canon, I can't really change much, HOWEVER that means I can do ANYTHING I want to the lake territories. Also other clans (UNLIKE CANON) WILL have their own cultures, such as around food. More on that later.

Also I should mention I will ignore irl what cats can actually eat to let myself be more creative. AtD locations are not based anywhere in the real world.

We really get things going with the journey. This is the first time the entirety of the clans are forced to work and travel together. This is an important moment to see even though their cultures aren't the same they're all cats. They have more in Common tha apart. This actually plants some seeds for further things down the line >: )

Cats in AtD can eat a more diverse palate than in canon, and being forced to move on before learning how to hunt in one place, they have to get creative. This is where the eating of insects is born. It's for survival now, but later becomes a common snack.

Besides having new food to eat, cats from different clans, mostly the young generation, combine cultural food practices to make new memories, or just share things with each other!

Clan Differences:

Thunderclan

- not much I can say rn (until we get to the lake)

- this is base canon

- fav food in atd, Thunderclan likes mixing food, especially mixing mice meat and the meat of any corvid

- idk why, but for irl, Thunderclan always gave me BBQ energy, especially backyard bbq

Shadowclan

- these guys...

- Shadowclan, even before the journey, has the most diverse foods

- due to past famines, they are more open to trying different prey

- a Shadowclan cat invented adding things to prey for flavour (rn its mostly herbs)

- has the skills to identify whether roadkill/crowfood is safe (wich will be vital on the journey)

- fav food in atd, cut open a large frog/toad, clean out the meat leave the juices, dice up some small mammal prey meat, put inside frog belly and leave to ferment : )

- fav irl food, Shadowclan is soups and stews to me. Also bread with stuff in it

Riverclan

- FISH

- started the practice of removing the bones (and scales) from the prey, more like perfected it

- will later find out they're really the only clan that has the ability to enjoy sweetness ie fruit or honey

- atd fav food is fish

- I know you think irl fav food is ALSO fish, but actually Riverclan is 'throw a bunch of random things in a bowl and call it a salad' to me. Also the expenssive gourmet restaurant nothing meals lol

Windclan

- they do the most well during the hunger-pained journey because they are kinda used to it?

- Windclan cats are practically trained in not eating much, only really eating once a day

- one rabbit is usually good for many cats, they don't hunt that often

- will later experiment with drying strips of prey meat (bacon clan)

- fav atd meal, strip the fur n' skin of a rabbit, leave it out in the sun (flesh facing up) for a bit, enjoy!

- fav irl meal, sandwiches, anything you can wrap in bread. Also energy drinks for some reason. I know I said Shadowclan would develop stuff like spices, but Windclan is the spicy food clan to me

(no skyclan yet shush)

Much of this happens once we get to the lake so I might remake this then! Thanks for the question

[fuzziekins]

For the purposes of this post, i'm gonna go with the last movie i watched fully and go a few weeks back to when i convinced my friend to watch Brother Bear. Originally my friend and i were gonna watch Peter Pan and Wendy cause they love Peter Pan but we could barely make it halfway through which really surprised them, and i wasn't following what was happening. Before we settled on that we were trying to figure out what else to watch, preferably something they haven't seen before. One of my suggestions was Brother Bear which i loved when i was younger (it was the first movie i saw in theaters twice) and, for reasons i don't understand, they never saw it. So they ended up deciding to give it a try.

There are a lotta things i love about that movie. The obvious one is the classic hand drawn animation cause that's something that's basically extinct by this point especially in movies since everything is computer animated. The music is fantastic for multiple reasons. One being that it matches the aesthetic of the movie perfectly and the other being the songs were written by Phil Collins (aka the guy behind Tarzan) and you know Phil Collins goes hardcore on things. I also just loved the younger bear, Koda, in the movie, and how he was always bugging Kenai. i thought he was hilarious. This was one of the movies where, when i was younger, i could memorize a buncha scenes and try playing it out with plushies (in some cases, to the actual score which the only movie i could really do before then was The Lion King and now as an adult i could also do Beauty and the Beast). Being older now i have even more appreciation for the movie. Aside from the fact that it's one of the few original ideas Disney created - cause you know Disney does its best when it retells fairy tales or classic stories in their own way - and you know they can do original ideas just as well [when they want to and don't hyperfocus on remaking movies they already put out]. Personally i also love looking up facts and learning about movies after watching them, especially Disney movies. The movie actually plays in two different resolutions. The first part of the movie is...i guess for a better wording, more narrow and the colors are on the more de-saturated or darker side. After Kenai transforms into a bear, the movie shifts to more of a widescreen and the colors get significantly brighter (or, at least they do to me since having been an art student i was trained to notice more differences between color so obviously as a kid i wouldn't've picked up on it). They specifically did that to show the difference from Kenai's pov as a human vs a bear. It's things like that, that are little reminders of not only how much effort goes into making these movies but also how much research is done and how much people really think about what they're putting on the screen. Also sidenote the characters are completely POC because of the location and time period and during before diversity was more pushed than it is now, that feels kinda significant.

This was also the second friend i convinced to watch the movie and who thoroughly enjoyed it (be warned of course, there are sad parts in the movie especially considering Kenai believed he got turned into a bear cause he "didn't do anything wrong" (spoiler - he did)). One of my other friends, we watched the DVD of Brother Bear i had cause she didn't have streaming at the time and she enjoyed it so much that another time we hung out she wanted to watch it again. That being said, i highly do NOT recommend the sequel. Animation not being as good (obviously) and different voices (also pretty normal for direct to video/DVD sequels) aside, they very clearly only made Brother Bear 2 to give Kenai a girlfriend. And being the hopeless unromantic that i am, it only took one watch for me to decide HELL NO. The sequel is dumb and pointless (as are many sequels but this one absolutely).

And trust me, if you want more than a review and an actual recap of events in the movie to wanna make you feel to a small extent like you're watching it, i can very easily type that up [without actually watching the movie again, though writing it probably would take the same length of time as watching the movie lol].

I did also watch about half of the Addams Family from 2019 when it was on, but that was only to have something on in the background to fall asleep to. I think i got up to the part where Wednesday when to school with regular kids and shortly after that was when i fell asleep, so i can't really comment on anything about it except the designs for the Addams Family was much better than the other humans in the movie. I did also catch bits and pieces of the first Paw Patrol movie though, again, something to put on while i was falling asleep, but that i have no idea what happened except the Paw Patrol was going into the city to do a thing and i'm still waiting for my friend's kids to tell me how the movie ends.

wait guys. reblog this and tell me what the last movie you watched was. bonus points if you add a short review <333

[bigcheesespookyness]

Fright Night 2011

When I first had the task of figuring out what remake horror movies to watch of course I immediately went to google. There were so many options, but one movie kept popping up. So, I decided to check out the reviews and see how much money it made the reviews were decent but the movie only grossed 41 million which isn’t a lot for a movie at this time. You might be asking what is the name of the movie. “I’m getting to that iiiiiiiiittttttt’sssss Fright Night (2011)”.

Fright Night is quite the interesting watch. For those who don’t know it’s a vampire movie. Were the next-door neighbor movies in and happens to be a vampire. His main goal is to capture and then feed on humans as well as turn the, into vampires. Charley the main character gets put front and center of the conflict by his childhood friend and must not only survive but also protect his loved ones. I did a brief outline so now a spoil warning is now being placed.

Starting off with the whole dissection of this film the best thing about this movie was the characters. Especially nowadays where villains always have some form of sympathy it was so refreshing to see such a horrid monster. The name of the vampire is Jerry which is a dumb name for a vampire. He is not only smart and uses his abilities to the fullest, but he does things just to hurt the people he is hunting. There is one scene where Charley is in his house trying to rescue his Gogo girl neighbor. Knowing he’s there and knowing that the Gogo girl has been turned to a vampire instead of eating him at that very moment he lets Charley think he has saved the girl only to get blown up by the sun moments later. As enjoyment sweeps across his face. He’s so evil its amazing. Then there is Peter Vincent and the actor who played him was perfect he really showed an expression of trauma and made me love the character. Charley is boring and honestly really lame in the beginning tossing aside his old best friends for popularity. Yet you slowly but surely start to cheer for him. Not just because he is a hero but also how badly you want Jerry dead. Just like in pro wrestling you can only have an ultimate babyface if the heel is completely hated.

Moving on to the location which was perfect for the story. Being in Las Vegas with people coming in and out the whole time. As well moving around in the city having tones of different locations and sin city truly just fits. Next thing I want to talk about is the religious undertones of the movie. With Jerry eating only one food that wasn’t human which was apples. Which is considered the fruit that the devil used to tempt both Adam and Eve. Which at points and times Charley and his girlfriend Amy could be considered because Jerry did turn Amy into a vampire. Also, another thing that I loved is Harley goes at Jerry with a big cross, but Jerry says that it does really nothing specifically because he doesn’t have much faith. Which as a Catholic man myself loved that scene because the cross is protection for real believers not fakes. Which at really any point in time does Charley even have some reason for faith. The last this I will talk about with the religious undertones is the pool scene with Jerry and Charley’s ex best friend Ed. https://youtu.be/Z8qdj8l4M-U?si=BoT-85BiOefRD4A5

I love that screen for more than one reason. The vampire using his powers to corrupt and convince Ed to not fight it and basically join him. At first it hurt because I wanted a redemption arc for both him and Charley, but it wasn’t in the cards. The second and best reason is when he lets Jerry bite him, he lets go of the cross as it falls to the pool. Great shot but also having Ed leave Christ for the power and abilities of being a vampire. Just great symbolism. The camera work was great and different tell they had fun with it you can also tell that they wanted to have a 3D aspect to the movie which was popular at the time. The CGI wasn’t the best but still is okay I mean for 2011 I think it’s decent and wouldn’t take away from the movie.

I really liked his film, but I hated most of the reviews I read about it and the academic sources were kind of hard to find. I really wanted to hear about the religious undertones from someone else and I couldn’t find it just how great of a character Peter Vincent is which don’t get me wrong 2nd best written my personal favorite. But just because the movies comedy horror or has certain things people don’t like they say things that I don’t agree with so I suggest you all should watch it and tell me if I missed some more cool symbolism.  

[futuresconnected]

Dec. 24th 2023: Kiwami 2, Granblue Fantasy Versus, Arknights

What's up gamers, this week flew by and now its time for the Sunday roundup!

Over the week I finished Yakuza Kiwami, and moved on to the start of Kiwami 2, which remakes the second game in the series in the style of the sixth game, marking a big shift in visual quality and gameplay style. Once I realized how close I was to finishing Kiwami, I wanted to go ahead and blaze through the end without worrying too much about the side content (sorry Pocket Circuit) to keep my momentum up through the series before the JRPG explosion that's going to happen from late Jan-March of next year. Overall I had a good time with Kiwami, the main story is all classic crime movie drama throughout, and I really enjoyed seeing Kiryu and Haruka meeting each other for the first time and seeing Kiryu truly being "not the step-dad, but the dad who stepped up".

I was getting a bit tired of the gameplay by the end, especially how it seemed to me that the best way to approach any one-on-one fight was just to sit in Rush style and dodge around people endlessly till you could hit them, so with the bit of Kiwami 2 that I played this week I was very glad to see that that game was going to play very differently from the first. The more visceral style of the combat, the more free-flowing combo routes, and higher focus on equipment are all pretty interesting so far, though we'll see how I feel once I run into a few more bosses. I also really love the character progression system of Kiwami 2 so far, its really tickling the rpg gremlin part of my brain that loves to build up different colored skill trees. I enjoy how the different exp types encourage you to go do a bunch of different activities in the game, and using the completion list to give you big chunks of related exp vs. a currency to buy bonuses like it was in 0/Kiwami 1. I haven't played too much of this game, but since I've got the week off for Christmas and New Years, I'm going to try and really sink my teeth in over the next 10 days or so.

Something else I've been playing a lot of recently that didn't make the cut for the last recap is Arknights, a gacha-based Tower Defense game that I've been playing on my phone, tablet, and PC. One of my good friends has played this game for a while and always posts the cool and silly character designs from that game, and I had been looking for something else fun to do on my phone during those boring days where I'm working in the office, so Arknights it was. I have a somewhat latent love for tower defense games that doesnt get a chance to shine too often, and this game has been reminding me a lot of what I like about the genre. So much of this game is a kind of puzzle game: can the roster of characters I have access to do what the level is asking of me? How could I better position my units to hold enemies in a certain location? etc. etc.

I am also, unfortunately, a chores enjoyer when it comes to video games which means that a long-term character progression system like you see in a lot of games of this type is actually pretty appealing to me. I love to level up my little guys and see them get new skills,abilities, outfits, and so on, its fun!

Last but not least though, the thing that has really captured my attention this week is Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising, which I talked some about last week but has only gotten more into my brain this week. I think this game is really fun! I've had a blast so far learning how to play the game, the combo routes that this game has for most characters feel extremely "cool" to do, and are easier to pull of than they might seem, which allows someone who is *ok* at fighting games like me to feel a good sense of accomplishment from pulling them off. I think that the way the game incentivizes you to use the "Skill" button to shortcut your special moves is also really great, it's made me have to develop new muscle memory but also means that doing combos and pressure in this game just feels a lot different from other games I've played, and how it feels in this one is just good.

I've even been playing a new character! Which is wild considering how they put Siegfried, the man with big armor and a bigger sword (AKA the most me-coded character ive seen in a fighting game yet) in the game, and yet I've been drawn to someone else completely:

This week I've been learning how to play Narmaya, who feels like someone who really likes Vergil from Devil May Cry designed her. This is for sure one of the hardest FG characters I've ever tried to play, but I'm really feeling the burn of figuring it out. Her whole thing is swapping between two stances with different special moves and normal attacks, which makes her very busy to play but allows for some absolutely sick maneuvers in the corner. Truly the only thing I dont like about her is that she's an anime-big-sister type, and all of the Draph in this game have the fattest tits imaginable, but I'm willing to put up with a little waifu-ness because she's just so cool and so much fun to play!

I will certainly be playing more of her, so please look forward to updates in future FGC Corner posts.

That's really all for this week, glad to be moving through the Yakuza series some more, glad to be having such a blast with Granblue, and looking forward to more of both during the Holidays!

Talk to you next week :)

[gertlushgaming]

Atelier Marie Remake: The Alchemist of Salburg Review (PlayStation 5)

For this Atelier Marie Remake: The Alchemist of Salburg Review, where It's not about saving the world. In this "leisure adventure RPG," failing student Marie pursues alchemy, adventures, and quests while aiming to graduate in five years. "Atelier Marie," the origin of the Atelier series, has been remade with new elements!

Atelier Marie Remake: The Alchemist of Salburg Review Pros:

- Beautiful graphics. - 10.24GB download size. - Platinum trophy. - You get the PlayStation 4 and the PlayStation 5 versions of the game. - Two free DLC packs in the store. - Three difficulties - Easy, normal, and hard. - Can set how to fast forward works for interactions (toggle/hold down the button). - Text scroll speed - 1 to 10. - Cursor speed. - Invert axis. - Sprinting can be set to the toggle or hold button. - Two soundtrack options - Remake or original. - Autosave on/off. - Two play mode choices - normal and unlimited. - Tutorial pop-ups as you play. - A mini-map can be brought up, leave it solid or press again to have it faded but visible. - The Sky Tavern is where you go to get additional quests from villagers. - Quests are called agendas and you can set how many progress boxes you see for them. All agenda are time-based and finishing them late lowers the reward. - The academy shop is where you visit to buy and sell items. - Party members can be hired (you pay a wage) and increase your friendship with them to lower wages. - World map locations that show party members' wages, recommended level, and what resources and enemies may be encountered. - Turn-based combat. - After exploring an area you get bonus exp based on the trip's length. - Synthesize is crafting and combining items. - Synthesize success is based on your level and the level needed for it. - Fatigue is a mechanic that is used in many parts from traveling to crafting and affects your performance/success rates. - The Town map locations are all fast-travel. - The simple gathering allows you to just press a button and get random materials. For a more direct gathering of materials, you do it all manually. - Combat can be manual or you set it to auto. - Earn EXP and level up to increase your stats. - Play how you want. - The whole game is time-based in that overtime you use up a day and you have X amount of years. - Members you recruit can have different levels and even be super strong., - You see the enemies walking around. - The desk allows you to have/load, change the soundtrack, and edit costumes. - Resting in bed refills all mp and HP. - You have no control over the world map, only in the destination but you can get random encounters on the way. - Fairies can be hired to go on scavenging missions for you and do all the crafting/mixing. - Hit the enemy first in the open and you get to attack first. - New areas uncover as you play and fill in the world. - Play how you want. - A very satisfying gameplay loop. - Boss/dungeon-like encounters. Atelier Marie Remake: The Alchemist of Salburg Review Cons: - So much information to take in. - Cannot rebind controls. - Slow starter as you go through each task to show how it's all done. - Unlocks (usually from real DLC) are available in every game. - The auto-battle has to be turned on every session. - Takes a while to get going as you can only hold such a small amount of items so getting bag upgrades is a must but also a tad slow. - Triggering battles is not always easily done. - Lost a load of progress as it kept saying I had insufficient funds for wages but I couldn't move anywhere or do anything. Related Post: Stack Stones Review (Steam) Atelier Marie Remake: The Alchemist of Salburg: Official website. Developer: KOEI TECMO EUROPE Publisher: KOEI TECMO EUROPE Store Links - PlayStation Read the full article

[breakfastteatime]

Okay, I guess I can scrape together a few A LOT of thoughts in no order whatsoever. Obviously massive spoilers under the cut. I have avoided major spoilers for the original (I think lol). I will do a seperate post with OG spoilers another time.

Overall, I really enjoyed it. To be absolutely clear, Final Fantasy VII is my favourite game of all time. I'd be here forever trying to put into words what it means to me. Both remakes so far have done an amazing job of updating the original without trying to replace it. I will always prefer the original, but the remakes are phenomenal. And HUGE. My final hour total for my first playthrough of Rebirth was 117 hours. ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTEEN HOURS. And I still haven't finished all the side quests and minigames.

Parts of it delighted me, parts of it really surprised me in an "oh, wow, they're going THERE!!!" kinda way, parts of it hit me as hard as the first time, I really liked what they did with Junon and Gongaga, and I really liked the new lore with regards to the Gi and the Black Materia.

QUEEN'S BLOOD, MY BELOVED.

All the familiarity between the team, especially moments where Barret straight up parents both Cloud and Yuffie, are a delight. In my mind, the team always had that connection because the original is just that good, but Rebirth had the capacity to make that even better.

I genuinely can't imagine what it must be like only playing the remakes and not knowing the original. I also appreciate that for people who didn't play it at the time (especially you babies who hadn't been born) it must be somewhat impenetrable given its age. It was the first game I ever played that made me want to wipe my memory and play it again from scratch.

...I also remembered just how many of my favourite parts of the original come after Rebirth ends. Icicle Inn, my beloved.

NO ROCKET TOWN, BOO. I guess we're going there next time. Same with Wutai. Oh, speaking of...

I really like that they've gone into more detail with Wutai and the coming war. Although I have no goddamn clue what Glenn's deal is or his unseen companion whose name I have totally forgotten lol.

Not a huge fan of what they did with the City of the Ancients (or the Forgotten City, whatever!). That's one of my favourite locations in the original (the VIBES. THE VIBES), and I'm not a fan of not getting to explore it fully. BUT I will always have the original, and I accept they are doing something different here.

Also not entirely settled with Red/Nanaki's change of voice. He does get that in the original, but when you're reading it to yourself, the text changes but the pitch doesn't. This was... this was a lot. And it doesn't help that he sounds like he's about 10 rather than 16ish.

It bothers me a tiny bit that they moved the Temple of the Ancients, but not that much. I do love how it was hidden away.

Not sad they dispensed of Bone Village. That was always a pain in the butt. I do wonder if it'll crop up in the next one.

I really like how Cloud is somehow even more out of touch with reality than in the original. The Gongaga scene was amazing, and I'm gonna need Cloud-dodges-bullet gifs asap. And that LAUGH when he finds the Black Materia. THEY KEPT THE JERKY SHOULDER MOVEMENTS OF THE ORIGINAL YEEEEEES. Again, that was always one of my favourite parts. Oh oh oh oh and the fact that he still has the freaking black materia at the end. Menacing! I'd say more, but that'd be spoilers for the original...

THEY GOT RID OF THE FUNNY LITTLE GURU DUDES FROM THE TEMPLE BOOOOOO. BOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

The ending. Oooh that ending. Cloud is so much more menacing than he ever felt in the original. You always knew he wasn't quite right, and he might do something crazy (kinda glad they took out the part of him beating up Aerith), but where he ends up in this one feels so much heavier. UUUUUUGH I wanna talk spoilers from the original but I won't. Him being able to see Aerith feels so ominous, even though Red senses her too. Like it isn't a relief he can talk to her because she's not really there at all. The game left me with a real sense of unease, but, again, SPOILERS FOR THE ORIGINAL.

Sorry, going back a bit to the City of the Ancients, that final boss battle kind of took away the impact of the original too. Having to go straight from Aerith dying to fighting Jenova while her theme plays broke little baby Breakfast Tea. Cloud being so upset too - "Aerith will never laugh again..." It hit so hard back then. I still cried this time, but not seeing Cloud carry Aerith's body and let her slip away under the water was a shock because obviously that did happen - they're all at the water's edge... Sometimes, all the extra stuff got in the way of what made the conciseness and limitations of the original so good.

"Because, Cloud, you are just a puppet..."

So yeah, Cloud being able to see her feels less like he knows she's okay because he's aware of other realities and more like he's in serious denial. Mentally ill denial. I mean he is quite seriously ill, but, you know, spoilers for the original ;)

The Zack stuff was interesting, as was all the multiple universes stuff... Sephiroth cannot be contained!!!!!

Battle on the Big Bridge?! In MY Final Fantasy VII? It's more common than you think!

ROCHE, MY FRIEND, NOOOOOOOOOO. Still cracks me up that in Japanese he shares a voice actor with FFXV's Gladio.

Some of the side quests were really tiresome. Reaaaaaaally tiresome UGH. I want to do another playthrough but much quicker and focused solely on the story as it got a little lost in all my wanderings.

How DARE they make me care about a bunch of Shinra grunts. How DAAAAAAAAAAAAAARE.

I loved the Gold Saucer so much more in this version. Two things struck me - 1) that's a TERRIBLE idea for a hotel. Poor Cloud. 2) It's like if Disney World also hosted UFC matches that guests could take part in.

I think that's it for now. There's a lot more but it's late, I'm tired, and I don't have the energy.

Finished FFVII Rebirth. I... I uh... I need a minute...

[flubbythefoolish]

Hot Take Review: Party Parrot World

tl:dr - its coot, i like it

So what even IS Party Parrot World?

Basically, Party Parrot World (PPW) is the spiritual successor to Club Penguin. PPW is essentially an interactive chatroom with different locations, games, and customizable avatars. Honestly, the timing couldn't be better with the recent demise of everyone's favorite Club Penguin fan remake, and PPW is in early beta and I got the opportunity to play it so I wanted to write about it yada yada etc etc

So what did I like about it?

One of my favorite things about PPW is the music. The choice of music is limited, at least right now in beta, but.. like. Just listen.

The quality of the music is, honestly, shocking. This is some Nintendo-level music. And the fact that there are several different versions to match the different vibes of different locations on the map? Bootiful.

Speaking of the map, another great aspect of the game is the different places you can go; many locations are direct callbacks to Club Penguin, such as the snowy mountain top or iceberg, and other areas are more specific to the tropical theme, like the treehouses and plant nursery.

They already have a lot of outfits to choose from, so characters are very customizable even within the beta. And the games and npc's are very cute and, at times, educational? Which I think is a nice touch:

For example, here is Chez Sandi who teaches you math.

Generally speaking, the game managed to keep a lot of the fun, quirky, bird-themed goodness that we enjoyed in Club Penguin.

Okay, so what didn't you like about it?

Well, let's get the obvious out of the way: it don't always work.

Obviously, this is a beta so bear that in mind as I tear them a new one, but. When I play a game, I want it to work.

And several minigames, or components of those games, just didn't work.

Also, every room appeared to be a prison from which there was no escape (aside from using the map to teleport lol). Walk up to a door from the outside, and you get in with no problem (aside from the loading screen for every room). But once inside, you realize that the doorknob has snapped off.

The last thing I want to talk about is that the game is... well. It's 3D.

The 3D nature of the game isn't, inherently, problematic. And I'm sure some people enjoy it. And it has lots of design benefits. But at the end of the day, lots of 3D models and games end up looking.. generic. Club Penguin had a very distinct graphical style, and one that was easy for kids to emulate, which I think contributed heavily to overall community engagement. And it prevented the current jarring effect that occurs every time you play a minigame and switch from 3D to 2D when going between overworld and minigame environments.

I also think that, while 3D has a lot of benefits from a game development perspective, it has several drawbacks from a player perspective. The biggest one is the computational power required to play a game like this.

Currently, there are 2 ways to play the game: on your desktop and on your phone. And if you have a good phone or desktop there is no problem (I'm running the game on my desktop and getting 999 fps).

But one of the iconic things about Club Penguin, and a lot of the popular games from the early 2000s, was how accessible it was to the public. Sure, games like Club Penguin, Runescape, or AdventureQuest had kinda potato graphics but that meant they could run in the browser. And while running a game in the browser is a bit of a nightmare from a development standpoint, especially in regard to optimization, it is a player's dream. Because then, not only can anyone play on (almost) any computer that can access the internet, but they don't even have to download it (downloadable "viruses" are a great way to get your younger players yelled at by their parents, especially in families with only 1 computer).

Only time will tell whether or not this will truly be an issue, but often the poorest members of our communities are the ones not heard when they are excluded. And in a world that has been systematically eliminating free public spaces in real life, I'm saddened every time I see a new, exciting online space have a built-in poverty filter (*coughcough* metaverse *cough*).