#Not sure how I feel about some of the soundtrack remasters but.

[shima-draws]

I’m not super far into the game yet but DAYUMMMM THE MUSIC THO?? They’ve EXTRA remastered it. REMIXED it even. Also I noticed that they’ve made new tracks for mood changes too, and gave some characters some new themes :’D I really like those little additions in the soundtrack, definitely makes the game feel more modern for sure

Also I laughed my ass off at the Goomba face off bc they censored the FUCK out of it. And for good reason too I mean the original is, um, well,

I guess catcalling isn’t age appropriate LMAOOOO

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

I've been trying to focus on thinking about things I enjoy about the idea of the TWST anime. And regarding overblots, I think an anime version would really help illustrate (even more) how terrifying the process is. I really like how the manga shows Riddle's OB, and I love anime as a medium, so I'm pretty hyped to see how it will be conveyed in it.

I really hope they accentuate the horror of it- I'm aware that they might not go all in w the horror like I would personally like, but the thought still excites me. What kind of music will they play? Will the animation change like it does in some animes when the characters are distressed (wobbly lines, glitchy effects)...? What sort of directions will the voice actors get? I mean, they already voiced the game, but anime gives them more room to do voice stuff. I'm really hyped for this aspect tbh...

And I'm also excited for the possibility of dubs, since I'm quite a fan of the whole dubbing world. (I know some ppl have their fears about this last possibility, but in my case even if it turns out to not be so good, I think we could still have a good time w something like that. Plus I've seen some popular eng dub actors hyped about the anime and wanting to be casted for certain characters)

I also wanted to apologize for my previous ask ᕙ⁠(⁠⇀⁠‸⁠↼⁠‶⁠)⁠ᕗ I already did so in the comments, but I felt bad about doomposting on your inbox. My mind's first reaction is usually to see the negative first and become anxious, and it's something I'm working on, but it sometimes goes out of hand. But now that a bit has passed, and specially thanks to your advice, I can sit down and try to focus on the things that excite me rather than the ones that scare me. Sure, building too much expectation could backfire at the end— but as you said, we have little to no information at this point. So I think focusing on the things I'd like to see is a better usage of my time. If they turn out to disappoint me... That's something I'll worry about next year, I'll suppose. I'm still a bit anxious and scared, but there's also lots of things I'm hyped for. I'll try to take your advice and focus on those. 🫂 Sorry if my previous negativity made you uncomfortable.

[Referencing this news! Asker’s prior post here.]

I’ve seen a lot of fans speculating that the OB transformation sequences will resemble magical girl ones! While that’s a fun idea, I do feel like it makes more sense for the anime to portray OB as something scary and all-consuming, similar to how it is depicted at the end of animated dorm commercials and in the manga. For the characters experiencing them, it’s not meant to be glamorous… All that agony, the dripping ink leaking out of their orifices and dripping like blood. Overblot looks incredibly horrific, and I think that should come through in the animation—whether they change the usual style for these segments or keep it the same.

I think the anime would reuse (or maybe do remastered versions of?) the Twst soundtrack for a lot of the show. The compositions are already there, so might as well. Maybe experiencing the anime will help to make the music more memorable, since it seems the game soundtrack alone isn’t doing it for some fans.

No clue about the JP voice cast; I did see some people worrying that they could replace the game’s voice cast for the anime, but as I’ve mentioned already, that’s an unfounded claim. If the usual VAs are there, surely they won’t just reuse the already recorded lines from the game?? 😂 I’d think they’d at least have to rerecord those based on how the script and its scenes are laid out, plus additional dialogue to fill in the gaps (such as new scenes).

No confirmation of an English (or other language) dubs yet either! (Again, this is another topic related to the anime that sparks worry, but I must stress that it’s pointless to get into a tizzy about something that isn’t concrete yet.) But yes, I’ve already seen English VAs expressing interest in certain characters; Daman Mills wants to audition for Malleus, Alejandro Saab has made it known he has Twst on his radar and wants to voice Leona, etc. (The latter has done Twst dorm leader impressions for fun before; I think Mr. Saab could make for a decent Leona or even Malleus!)

Don't worry about the previous ask ^^ I think it's better that we discuss these things with one another rather than post or tweet into the void and allow those negative feelings to fester. If you want to view it in a different way, think of it like the OB boys actually getting therapy/finding someone to confide in instead of being allowed to stew in their own emotions and risking OB a second time. Sometimes all it takes is that gentle nudge or a reminder to step back and take a deep breath. When we let our emotions get the best of us, we end up thinking and acting in irrational ways, and then that can lead to people--whether yourself or others--getting hurt.

[mizukagami-takamagahara]

Annon-Guy: In terms of the options for the XBLAZE Remake/Remaster Poll, have any thoughts besides the Thrid Game (which you and I voted for)?

Let's see...

An English Dub of the XBlaze games would be great. As a native English speaker, I'm much better able to understand the tones of lines in English, and that can add another layer to character or scene analysis.

More animated scenes might be fun, but I always felt that the animated scenes in the BB franchise were a little weak or off-model. They just don't have a big enough budget to make those feel great, for me, so they instead feel sort of distracting. I guess it would depend on how they were done!

Similarly, I'm just not personally too interested in mini games or stuff like the BlazyBloo game. They just don't add anything to the experience for me! Changes to the Phantom Field of Lost Memories could be interesting, but I worry they wouldn't be super impactful. More obstacles could just be frustrating. I could see something fun with a little RPG mechanic of some kind, but that might be too much of a shift and also just feel out of place. I'm not sure- I just think it might be cute.

On the other hand I would absolutely LOVE an Expanded Story. I don't exactly think it's necessary for the XBlaze games, but it would be a WELCOME expansion. I'm constantly hungry for more of lore from the BB universe, so any additional look at the world would make me happy. I desperately want to see the rest of the Ten Sages, and learn more about how the XB world overlaps with or deviates from the BB world. But even outside of big plot stuff, just getting to learn more about the characters would be fun too.

It's hard for me to form an opinion on the idea of a simplified TOi system, as I can't conceptualize it. I kind of like the idea of dialogue options, and the intractability they bring, but I don't know if I'd want it at the expense of the TOi. I like the unique way it gave us some glimpses into the characters interests and online personas.

I think a lot of people would love a remixed soundtrack! It would probably be fun! But it wouldn't do much for me. I have a hard time processing multiple things at once, so I generally either play my games on mute so I can focus, or if I do listen to the soundtrack, I really don't digest it. To really appreciate the music, I have to sit down with it alone and consciously focus my attention on it, and I haven't done that with this series yet. I probably should!

I'm conflicted on an Elise route. On one hand I would love to see more about Ishana, and more of Elise in general, and it would be good for her to bond with people outside of Kuon. On the other hand, I worry a romance with Touya would feel forced (the Mei end felt sort of shoehorned for me in some ways already, though I've found an interpretation I like since) and even more than that, I worry it would do harm to her writing as a sapphic woman. She's already in dicey waters as a gag character who's status as the only openly queer member of the cast is kind of played as a punchline, so if she were to have a straight relationship that was written with a serious tone, while her wlw relationship with Kuon was still left as mostly a gag, it would leave a bad taste in my mouth. I don't think it would do her justice. On that subject though, although they would feel just as out of place in a lot of ways, this does have me wondering about an Acht route or a Yuki route...

And lastly, I would kill a man for a Bloodedge Experience adaptation of some kind. We desperately need a reliable way to experience SOME of that story in the English speaking fandom, or even just get a taste of the characters in their own environment (as opposed to their CF cameos.) It could even get more attention on the series, and perhaps prompt the release of the next god damn volume.

[styrmwb]

I Beat Games in 2024

At the start of the year, I started to write my thoughts down about games I beat starting with Chrono Trigger; I eventually got A Lot Better with it, and I stuck with it until the end! I'm quite proud of myself. Sure, the posts are usually long and rambly, but I feel like I've improved at putting down Why Exactly I Like And Don't Like Things. Perhaps I'll get better!

But similar to every company (Spotify, Nintendo, Youtube, McDonald's) doing years in review, I Also wanted to do one for myself! Behold: The List

Shoutouts Tiermaker for letting me be a coward and not do a strict numbered list (I wish it wasn't so low quality)

Lemme go up with a short little thought and how I think the game stuck with me to the end

The One I Didn't Beat

Baba is You - Game is Frustrating

I started playing Baba after I beat Persona 5, and before Dawntrail came out. I'd wanted to play this game for a good while. Very funny energy, and super cool concept. Change the rules to solve the puzzle. What I got was less a think about how to change the rules game, and more of a block pushing "how do I get the rule that I want" game. I got mad. Is it possible that I was just dumb? Yes, absolutely. But I couldn't get myself to finish it. Perhaps I will return.

C Tier - Liked, But There's Problems

Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail - Falling Prey to Stagnation

I still love FFXIV; and I do think that Dawntrail brought a lot of good things. Soundtrack is stellar, world design is awesome, and once they released the raids? Dude. The combat design this expac is STELLAR. PLUS I GOT TO SEE THE ARK ANGELS AND PRISHE AAAAAA. But alas, the FFXIV formula we've had since ShB still remains. The writing continues to leave a bad taste in my mouth. I'm burnt out. I'm not... Excited to play the game right now. I really hope they fix that, I want the game I love to thrive.

Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII - Great Gameplay in a Weird Place

I think I played Lightning Returns at the perfect time. It really felt like XIII-2 Chapter 2. I'm super happy that I got to finish the XIII trilogy. I think the game is good, but I don't know if it's gonna Stick with me as much as some of the higher entries. Again, the soundtrack is phenomenal (FF games Can Not Miss I SWEAR TO GOD), and I stick by the fact that if I were to revisit it, I would get a whole different fun from optimizing time now that I know How Much Time it is.

B Tier - Solid Games All Around

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance - Childhood Chapter Comes to a Close

Another game I'm really happy to have finally finished. Reliving the nostalgia of the past, as well as being able to approach it with an adult mindset. The game was addicting, the style of it still lives in my head; I honestly think it's one of the best artstyles in the entire series. Yeah, there were some problems like the laws and the nature of the grind + new units, but overall I really loved how the game stuck together.

Yakuza 3 Remastered - Closer and Closer to Catching Up

A classic Yakuza experience. It's a tried and true formula that fills my completionist wants and needs. It definitely has the best story of all the LaD games so far (0-3), and while I wish the remaining games were happy fun Sunflower times, I know poor Kiryu won't get to relax. I think the only reason this isn't higher is just cause it doesn't have too much special sauce differentiated from previous games (plus the combat stuff late game docks a point). Either way, still excited to continue on.

A Tier - The A is for Amazing

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth - 2024 (New) Game of the Year

Congratulations to VII Rebirth for being the only 2024 not-expansion game I played this year. This was pretty much the game I rooted for in the game awards (which don't really matter) but honestly I feel bad cause it feels like default. Regardless! None of that matters! Rebirth was such a good game. It made me love and appreciate VII's world and cast so much more than the original did. I loved the new additions of Queen's Blood and Gilgamesh, and I genuinely think that game is the template of what action FF should be. It just needed to not beef the ending to be S tier.

Final Fantasy XIII-2 - Best in the Trilogy

An honest to god surprise hit for me. I did not expect to like XIII-2 as much as I did. The organization and gameflow of it stuck with me so much more than XIII or LR, I loved the small cast: Noel was tragic, Serah got screentime and character, I got more Hope content, and Caius is absolutely one of my favorite FF villains now. The soundtrack fucked, the atmosphere was great; it just really stuck with me. Think what I really would have appreciated is a little more respect on the previous cast.

Slayers X: Terminal Aftermath: Vengance of the Slayer - awsome seekwel to my favorite indy

The thing about Slayers X, is that I Literally don't have any problems with it. The game is EXACTLY what is needed to be. I've never played a boomer shooter, but I had a lot of fun running around, shooting glass sharts, finding secrets, and listening to that 2000s nu metal grungy soundtrack (I'M STILL NOT GOOD WITH GENRES DON'T GET MAD AT ME). It does help that I have some personal bias in the matter, but I love games in this universe and I can't wait for more.

World of Warcraft: The War Within - PLEASE DON'T LET THIS AGE BADLY

This expansion is the direction I NEEDED WoW to go in. The art direction, the story, the characterization, the gameplay. I haven't felt a love this strong for this game since Legion. I haven't been able to check it out beyond the first part of the game due to Money, but I do hope that it's continuing to not suck. I hope that when the Worldsoul Saga completes, I can confidently say to people without feeling bad: "I love World of Warcraft."

Splatoon 3: Side Order - Final Course of Single Player Goodness

Similar to Slayers X; I don't really have any issues with Side Order! It's what I expected, it feels like what I was promised, a Splatoon roguelike. I had a good bit of fun with it, I loved the attention to detail they put in. The gameplay loop was really fun, and it made unlocking bits not a miserable experience. Plus more Off the Hook is always appreciated.

S Tier - Games of the Year, Games of All Time

Persona 5 Royal - Hoo Boy.

The inventor of jazz. The game that crosses over with everything. I understand the hype. I LOVE Persona 5. I think out of every game I played this year, Persona 5 stuck with me the most. It made TIME MANAGEMENT ADDICTING. It gave me a huge cast of charming characters, playable and not. The vibes were immaculate, the story felt cathartic. I loved the gameplay, the interactions of elements, the usage of real world mythology; and though some of the Royal bits could have been added on a little smoother, the quality they gave me clears any complaints I got. The fact that I still have such good memories even after playing plenty of other games tells me this isn't just some kind of recency bias (it might still be), Persona 5 is one of my favorite games ever.

Chrono Trigger - Absolutely Deserved Reputation

Finally. At long last. Chrono Trigger was a game that I NEEDED to play. It's a perfect RPG (well nothing is perfect and I could get some minor nitpicks but). The cast is amazing and well rounded, the battle system is still a classic RPG but takes its own spin, makes it unique feeling. It's not a guys to one side enemies to other random thing, it FEELS like a whole battlefield, the positioning mattering, the interactions between characters, GOD it's so good. For a time travel story, it all makes sense, it does what a time travel story SHOULD. The soundtrack is fucking legendary and I still listen to it to this day. What makes it really special is that I got to play this classic without knowing pretty much anything about it. Chrono Trigger was an absolute treat, and I think it's definitely one of my favorite games of all time.

Bonus

Of course, these weren't the only games I played this year, just the main ones. 2024 saw the return of my Final Fantasy XI phase, where I got to beat Wings of the Goddess and A Shantotto Ascension (as of writing this I'm still playing); and I have to plug it to make sure people realize that Wings of the Goddess is one of the best FF storylines they might never experience. I got the first Mario Party I ever enjoyed playing in Jamboree, which doesn't feel super mean spirited and rage inducing like previous entries, as well as Mario Kart 8 Deluxe somehow also creeping in. Theatrhythm continued to be a main stay as what I go to to fill my rhythm game need; and right at the start of the year, I finished the pokedex in Pokemon Violet.

Finally, my main replay of the year lied in Hypnospace Outlaw; my favorite indie game of all time. Going back to reexperience it, check out all the new content that got released after my first play, that game continues to remain truly special in my heart.

I wanna keep doing this in the future. It was really fun, it gives me a record, a snapshot of my thoughts; something to look back on. Who knows what'll happen in 2025? Maybe I'll branch out more. Maybe not. Maybe I'll only play Yakuza games all year, it's possible.

And the most maybe of all; maybe I'll play more Actual new releases instead of old games. We'll find out!

[ivynivekgames]

Here's something Sorely Kneaded :3c (Sorely Kneaded Update Announcement)

Heads up, this is gonna be a MEATY post! (This is making up for all the time of I've been so quiet).

It has been… checks watch okay, over a year since the original [猫はかわいい (kitties are cute)] demo dropped, wowza! Well, I got a couple of things I wanna mention and talk about, and about the future of this project (ALL OF WHICH ARE IMPORTANT)! I've been pretty quiet on saying anything update-wise, but there's a good reason for that… But first, some context!

Now, when I started work on this, I wasn't sure about what direction to take this. I just kinda winged it and hoped for the best, but as I was writing up ideas and where to take the project in the background--the scope has been getting bigger... And the original ideas I had for the time being just weren't holding up. My ability as a writer has majorly improved throughout this (2024) year (I applied myself, tee-hee).

On top of becoming a better writer and getting a more concrete vision of where to take the game, a new musician has joined in helping with the game's soundtrack (an aspect I was woefully fearful of). Their music will be replacing the old (though there may be a track or two that will be kept from the previous composer, seeing as they're essentially... Perfect). The new sound is a lot more fitting in terms of atmosphere and energy.

Art wise, it is still handled by me, but some of the workload is being taken care of by some good, talented friends that are willing to help make this project come to fruition, they too, have been gaining a better understanding of the artstyle that fits the game best. On my end, I've been getting even better at utilising the hard work that has been handed to me and having it make the most impact.

All things considered, I've realised that with so much improvement on the side of production, the earlier parts of the game would have to reflect my new standard going forward (namely The Void and Emerland). The original story is ill-fitting and its concepts too derivative (and anything original is ill-explored) and tone is mixed.

Hence, I am happy to the Sorely Kneaded update. A total reimagining of the CatJam's vertical slice. With half a year of development already, Sorely Kneaded will aim to show my vision and standard quality for the project going forward.

This update is not an earth shattering or thoroughly exhausting endeavour in the sense of scope, rather, it's a showcase of something much closer to what the final game will be. In the update you'll find:

Remastered graphics of assets that were originally sub-par in quality.

New soundtrack and sound design, more fitting for the game's vibes and vision.

New content, more secrets, etc.

A much more balanced gameplay experience, with more interesting dungeons to navigate and more focus on narrative decisions (though the game will still only have one ending).

Greater focus on characters and their interactions, this is a character-driven game, after all. ;)

And finally, a much more fleshed out story and lore, completely abandoning the original "Hell" related plot. Frankly, even the original game barely attached itself to Christian canon, so I feel this was the right choice.

My goal with this project has always been to make a fun and genuine experience that comes from the heart. I have a vision and ideas I want to show to anyone that's interested, and I couldn't bear the idea that I'd somehow deliver it in a shoddy state.

I want to direct you all away from hell, and welcome all of you to the World of Mu, a place where magic flows like air and one only truly dies when their soul fades...

The update will drop when it's done, currently: The Void is in a near-complete state and Emerland will begin development shortly. I will make a follow-up announcement for when it's released, beyond that--hold tight!

Potential questions:

Q: How big will this update be? A: It will likely be bigger than the original demo, I project about 3~ish hours out of it on an average playthrough (the early parts are fairly story heavy).

Q: How will the new music fare compared to the original? A: The new music will be rad! Er... I mean, it's gonna be AWESOM- okay no. It will service the game's atmosphere and tone much better. You'll just have to like, listen, dude.

Q: How good will the new graphics be, compared to the original? A: It's nothing earth shattering, the art will merely be "spruced up" since I want the graphics to maintain a "soulful" look. I have a vision... Q: Any content being removed? A: Yes. As previously said, all the music will be getting replaced, along with the old sound effects. Story elements will be cut in favour of new ones. You may have liked some old concepts or ideas, but I promise that what's new will more than make up for that!

Q: Will the old [Kitties are Cute] save file work with Sorely Kneaded? A: 99% sure it will not (can never be too sure), disregarding that. I put so much effort into making this new stuff, you GOTTA play it, dude!

Q: What will happen to the old demo? A: It'll be left on the page, available for download. I think it's good to leave it archived as a way to show how far the project has come.

PS: The page will be update when the update is out.

Credits:

Director, Writer, Designer, Programmer: Ivy Nivek

Music and Sound Design: @witchscadence, Ivy Nivek

Art: Guck, Split, Spoop, Ivy Nivek

Want to make developing this easier? Throw me some change: https://ko-fi.com/ivynivek

[creativriot]

Oughhh considering everyone is posting their sonic 3 thoughts

Basically it was better than I expected but not exactly a cinematic replacement for SA2

-I keep seeing people referring to the “Talk about a low budget flight! No food or movies? I’m outta here!” As a snapcube reference like no babes that’s from the original game I-

-upwards akira slide goes crazy

-absolutely adored the visual nods to the Shadow the hedgehog game. Also love how it looks like they tried to get the shadow meteor to look as black-armsy as possible considering Black Doom was absolutely not going to show up here.

-I honestly feel like they executed Maria’s death the best way they could, finding a balance to have it be like…caused by GUN without having a soldier absolutely lock in his shot on a child. Bro said fuck them kids fr 💀

-while #notmygerald the writing for the dude was better than I initially anticipated.

-there are moments where the film just doesn’t feel…confident? Like it cuts to a joke after having a serious moment way too quickly instead of letting the moment sit, and it’ll flashback to a scene that wasn’t too long ago to make sure you remember what they’re talking about. Straight up the moment where Shadow points to his chest telling sonic to finish him off only for Sonic to realize what he’s done would’ve been way more impactful if it wasn’t interrupted by a flashback.

-While I would prefer to have the beast in the flesh, having the biolizard be a goofy b movie kaiju in an old film was kinda cute ngl.

-insert joke about shadows punch not being enough to kill Tom. Like yea I knew they weren’t actually gonna do it but c’mon man don’t play with me like that- (/j/j/j if you like the human characters that’s more power to you)

-as excited as I was to see the GUN Robots in love action, it wasn’t really that good of a replacement for the Final Hazard fight but like! It still did what it needed to do! And honestly I’m a sucker for robots. and honestly even though it isn’t the perfect translation to Adventure 2 to the big screen as I had wished it’s not like I can’t play SA2 anymore.

-while I’m absolutely elated they didn’t chicken out and make GUN the good guys, I feel like their moral ambiguity could’ve been fleshed out a bit more. Like initially when commander Rockwell (had to google her name lmao) was looking for the Eclipse canon key and seemed frustrated that it wasn’t on the commander I was expecting the twist to be she had plans to use it for her own goals and it was gonna be a three way race between Sonic, Egg-men and GUN.

-to be honest there are plot points and whatever that felt like they needed more time to be developed but this is a movie so whatever

- THE SCENE WHERE SHADOW LOOKS SO CONFUSED, SCARED AND HURT WHILE BEING PUT INTO CRYOSTASIS??? /pos

-personally didn’t get the scorpion Vs mantis thing? Like I get the part that they’re scientists, brains over brawn and whatever but the exact choice to execute it like that felt a lil…idk strange? But anyways I wanna believe the whole Gerald scorpion thing is a potential nod to Spinball- I wanna believe.

-dunno how to feel about Gerald’s death like as funny as just ceasing to exist was nothing is ever gonna top that he deadass canonically died by firing squad 💖

-Yea like a Pavlovian bell I started getting emotional when the soundtrack started referencing the Final Scene track from SA2. SA2 was such a good game dude I hope it gets some sort of remaster at some point. Fuck dude. But on that note THE CREDITS SAID CITY ESCAPE? I MUST BE DEAF AS FUCK I DID NOT HEAR THAT SHIT 😭

POST CREDIT THOUGHTS

-As much as I expected Eggman to get killed off because of the whole Carrey retiring situation, a tad bit bummed because In my mind the perfect metal reveal would be if sonic & co. Didn’t know, and during a confrontation with ‘eggman’ the Liquid Metal melts away to reveal our favorite metal blue boy. Alas 😔

-yea obsessed with Metal showing up in the post credits sequence. I’m not sure if it’s implied sonic went fast enough to travel to the future? But like. I’m hoping that it’s not JUST Amy and she like takesss sonic to meet her friends so we can get a live action big n cream? I heard some people hoping for blaze and like yea.

-please I need SCU big. He better have whiskers and he better be the sweetest boy under the sun.

-METAL OVERLORD IN SONIC 4 OR BUST 🗣️

-felt the shadow reveal was abit lacking. Like yea ofc they’re not gonna kill off the biggest cash cow SEGA has. They could’ve at least used the “he’s still alive” reveal to introduce at LEAST OMEGA. On that note I’m curious how they’d execute his character IF they do 🤔

TLDR JUST PLAY SONIC ADVENTURE 2 /j

[alpaca-clouds]

I sure miss .hack/

One anime series - or rather multimedia franchise - I have an immense amount of nostalgia for, even though it was never as big of the thing, as some others, is .hack/

Given it has been a while, since the franchise released something new, let me quickly explain:

.hack/ is a multimedia franchise, that features stories set in a VR MMORPG called The World. Originally the story featured the conceit that some players for some reason got "stuck" in the game, unable to log out, while their physical bodies fell into a coma. Just as there was a mystery featuring the AIs, that for some reason had evolved in the game's mainframe - and a mysterious artefact called the Key of Twilight.

I honestly do not know what it was about this, that spoke to me so much. But I was early on very fascinated by the idea of a VR MMO - even though we of course know today that it is something that is probably not easily achievable. (In a weird way, franchises like .hack/ kinda had the right idea by having the physical bodies turn into a near comatose state while playing, which would probably help the motion sickness...)

It was one of the first anime I pirated back in the. xD Even though I did not get to play the game until I was an adult, given that I was not allowed to have a game console as a child.

I know a lot of people, who found .hack/SIGN, the first anime series of the franchise, rather boring as it has a really, really slow pacing. Like, wow, the pacing is really slow. But... to me it really worked. There was an intrigue about the series and how it explored The World. (Not to mention that from today's perspective the main character is easily read as a trans guy.) And yes, of course the Yuki Kajiura soundtrack played heavily into it.

See, one of my big first online memories is playing the browser based game, that Bandai was hosting back then. A game mostly frequented by Japanese players, so I was trying my very best to keep up with where the chat was going. And when we were "playing" (it was not so much of a game, really) together, it was always a headache to find a timeslot, where me and the Japanese folks could meet up.

Most of all, I think, the series weirdly captured that early 2000s online culture quite well. This is especially true for the more comedy heavy and cutsy "Legend of the Twilight" series. (Man, I need to rebuy that manga at some point.) Which just very much captured the feeling of just meeting online with friends from all over the world, who you might never meet, and... yeah. Just hang xD

But also the plot so often kinda had this undertone of "The World belongs to the players, not the company". Because especially in "Legend of the Twilight", but in the other entries too, one of the central conflicts comes from the company hosting The World trying to control the mysteries - especially the AIs. While the player characters are fighting against it and ending up siding with the AI.

Something, that feels strangely accurate to the modern internet, where the big, near monopolistic companies try control the user experience more and more, rather than letting users decide about their own experience.

The franchise of .hack// seems to be long dead and forgotten by Bandai and development studio CyberConnect2. The last game that released was .hack//Link, the last other media was the .hack// movie in 2012, that apparently passed everyone by either way.

To put it differently: It has been 11 years, since some new media released for that franchise. And it does not seem that anything is in the works to keep up with it. Especially as Bandai has taken the official international website off the net in 2020.

Technically, of course, a Switch Remaster of the .hack//GU games released in Japan last year for the franchises 20th anniversary - but it does not seem as if there are any plans to release it worldwide.

Maybe the franchise had its perfect moment in time in those early 2000s, when the internet really felt like an entire World that was there for us to explore.

But man, I miss this franchise. I had so much fun with it. And I just... love The World.

Also I need to leave this banger opening for .hack//Link with you. Because darn, I love this thing.

PS: If any of you went like "That kinda sounds like Sword Art Online" at this... Yeah, I to this day have the slight suspicion that Reki Kawahara was "lightly" inspired by .hack//. Because really, the entire SAO stuff to me is ".hack// but with less interesting characters and world building".

[0m3g45n1p3r4lph4]

Whats the deal with Bionicle Heroes (Wii)?

Okay so everyone here knows Bionicle Heroes, probably by either the GameCube or Playstation 2 releases. Maybe even the Xbox release (of which all 3 are pretty much just ports with the input graphics changed) or the PC version (mouse and keyboard controls being the most drastic difference). It's many people's favorite (or at least most nostalgic) Bionicle game, competing with or right after Mata Nui Online Game.

The game itself is already quite repetitive - if you're the type to go for 100% completion, you're gonna be hearing the Hero Mode song A LOT. Even the DS version makes better use of unique mechanics by having Hahli use her Kanohi Elda to detect secrets, but that's a different tangent.

When I learned there was a Wii Version I was so excited to play what could very well be the Best version. To preface, I know a lot of people have a stigma against motion controls, but I've always found that the Metroid Prime Trilogy works so excellently with a Wii Remote and Nunchuck in ways that no other control scheme can match! Movement with an analog stick is more precise and comfortable than keys, and aiming with an analog stick is always wonky and imprecise. Mouse is okay, but Prime's pointer controls make those games really slick - just point where you wanna shoot, you can adjust the zones on the edges of the screen for turning your view, I really like it. I play on a close approximation of that style on Prime Remastered, but Joycons even have Gyro Drift so it doesn't always feel great.

So I go into this expecting similar - to be able to point at anywhere on screen and shoot at that. To point at an enemy and have the targeting lasers aim right at them.

Nope. Targeting is locked to the center of the screen.

Despite constantly having your pointer visible, THE ONLY INTERACTION IT HAS WITH THE GAME IS TO ROTATE THE CAMERA. You can't point at anything. Only moving the cursor towards the edges of the screen to turn your view, and whatever is closest to the center of the screen becomes your target.

You can't even adjust these zones.

Prime Trilogy showed me how WiimoteNunchuck can be one of the best control schemes, but I underestimated how it can also be one of the worst. What's the point of having a pointer if you're just gonna treat it as an analog stick????????

Not to mention it's clearly a rushed port of the GameCube release, including any prerendered cutscenes being much more compressed (though including new dialogue in the opener?) and even some missing textures revealing open skybox (luckily just minor stuff).

Like sure, I've got my gripes with every version of Heroes (the dumbing down of the most intense part of the story thus far, turning the Piraka into bumbling fools, you could at least make them intimidating in the part where BALTA TALKS ABOUT HOW INTIMIDATING THEY ARE CMON) but the control scheme makes the Wii version easily the worst. All the DS hand cramps are at least balanced out by the unique content, rahi variety (THEY HAVE FROST BEETLES), etc.

At least it's still got the good soundtrack.

[1001albumsrated]

#12: Machito - Kenya (1958)

Genre(s): Afro-Cuban, Latin Jazz, Cubop

Staying in the Afro-Cuban vein from the last entry in 1001 Albums, this time around we have Kenya, by Machito. As I mentioned in my Palo Congo review, this kind of music is a big blind spot for me. This is the second album on the list that I truly have never seen.

To my light understanding, Machito is a pretty big deal in this scene, and influenced many of the American jazz artists who took on some Latin trappings (there was an era where this sound was extremely trendy: see Miles Davis & Gil Evans' Sketches of Spain for a prime example of it done well).

Kenya, in contrast to Palo Congo, feels much more like jazz in a traditional sense, whereas Palo Congo seemed much closer its Afro-Cuban roots. Aside from the percussion, the rest of Machito's band is a fairly standard jazz orchestra, and plays with many of the American bebop trends and styles of the time in mind. That being said, these guys are anything but a schmaltzy big band. While the band is very tight and clearly well-composed and rehearsed, they pull no punches. When Machito puts the gas pedal down, it goes all the damn way down. The opening track, Wild Jungle, is a great example of the sort of blistering, frenetic energy the band can conjure.

This is an interesting listen, partially on account of how popular these sounds became in filmmaking in particular. These driving congo rhythms have soundtracked many a high speed chase scene over the years. The difference is, this is the *real thing*. There's a sincerity and authenticity here that the Hollywood imitators always seem to lack, a true driving energy behind the music. Add in some lightning fast bebop solos and you're in business. And even when they drop the tempo back for a song or two, there's still a powerful driving force behind the slinky lounge tunes on the disc.

Unfortunately, like Palo Congo, this album is long out of print (a situation that well predates the original 2005 release of 1001 Albums). Also, when doing some digging on the release history, I discovered that everything I'd read about this album to date really buried the lede that Cannonball fucking Adderley is on this thing. That explains the excellent sax solos. I'm surprised he didn't get some kind of callout on the cover. Anyways, I ended up listening in hi-res on Qobuz, and will be keeping an eye out for a copy of the album. Sonically, the recording is kinda rough. I'm not sure if the master that made it to streaming was a later generation tape copy, or if it was just rough to begin with (supposedly the version on Qobuz is a 2000 remaster, so it's fairly likely the original tapes were lost or damaged in the intervening 42 years). In particular, more dynamic moments often sound completely blown out. It's possible this is an artifact from later tape generations, or it's equally possible the engineer thought this would be some laid back Nelson Riddle sort of affair and just had his gains set too high. I'd be curious to hear an original if one ever crosses my path to see if those problems persist on it.

Regardless, sonic warts and all, this album is loads of fun. Again, like Palo Congo, I'm in no place to judge the historical or cultural significance of this one, but aesthetically it's a great listen and well-worth one of our hotly contested 1001 slots. Really pleased to have discovered this album.

Next time: the energy stays high with Little Richard's rock n roll landmark album, Here's Little Richard!

[teddybeartoji]

oh btw would you like a spring wedding or a summer wedding orrr???

u were drinking coffee i am drinking tea hehehe actually what a good opportunity to ask about your drinking prefrences yk what kind of coffee do you like what kind of tea what kind of a husband am i if i don't know this smhh

EMILY MY ONE TRUE ICON!!!!!! SHE'S SUCH A BADDIE I LOVE HER SOOOO MUCH EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE and i like sam a lot too she's a little baddie too she's just not mean enough lmao oh and i cannot stand ashley................... i mean i am obviously very biased bc she was the one to start bitching about emily being bit and all SIGHHHH SILLY GIRL YOU OUGHTA WATCH YOUR TONE AROUND MY WIFEE omfg and JESSICA EEEEE MY GIRLYPOP GFFFF I LOVE HER TOO i hope she'll get more screentime this time around she deserves it!!!

NO BC AGAIN UR SO RIGHT (as always) MIKE IS SUCH A PRETTY LITTLE PRINCESS AND HE WOULD 10000% GIGGLE WHEN YOU'D TWIRL HIM AROUND EEEEEEEEEEHEHEHHEHEHE SO MANY GFS IN THIS ONE GAME WOWAWEEWAAA and and and i also love josh!!! our brains really are connected huh....... we can pay for his therapy sessions together yayy

okay also i'm pretty sure it's not gonna be a simple remaster but a remake instead??? this is the important little tweet!!! but i'll just point out some things real quick anyway "new perspectives to make the story more nuanced and emotional" + new locations and new interactions EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE THEY'RE CRAZY FOR THIS I'M SOOO EXCITED I CAN'T FUCKING WAITT "bla bla the game now allows the player to really feel the experience of that fateful night." WHAT THE FUCK WERE WE FEELING BEFORE THENNNNN?????? i've never screamed as loudly as i did when i was playing this game..... my brother had to come and check up on me and my friend like four times.................... now now now being the soundtrack professional... this next piece of information is crucial to the upgrade "... featuring a new score from legendary horror composer mark korven." AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH A GOD THIS GUY IS GREAT i'll just give u two little examples bc why not the lighthouse + the witch (i love love love both of those films btw)(but i won't recommed them to u bc they're horrory lmao) aaaand last but not least "we've seized the oppurtunity to expand upon unexplored emotional parts of the story" i think it's safe to say that this will be my game of the year hehehehehehe

IT'S TOTALLY NORMAL TO JUST WATCH OTHERS PLAY BTWWW!!!! i watch gameplay vids all the time hell i rewatch the same gameplay vids lmao

i'm so sad that i didn't get to play this game without ever seeing the gameplay though... i think i watched markiplier play it just when it game out so i remembered a few things from it.... actually now that i think about it i still might've gotten jessica killed right at the start my first time around but then i refused to accept that so i immediately did it again lmao and then i managed to save everyone YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW BADLY MY FUCKING HANDS WERE SHAKING AND HOW I WAS LITERALLY SWEATING AND MY HEART WAS BEATING SO FAST jfc it was as if i was there in the game hashahsaghsghah yeahhh anyway i really fucking love this game and i'm so happy i get to talk about it with youu hehehehe

omggg and on bsd!!!! i have now officially watched all of it yayy!!! and i liked it a lot a lot a lot NIKOLAI IS SO FUNN WHATT man i love all of the characters i just ahhhhhhhh wanna start writing for them but that's a little scary looool BUTTTT do let me know if u do start watching it so i can bother u some more hihihihihi

HIIIII ARI ANGEL!!! how are you??? what are you doing?? i NEED to know. anyway i am bringing u this sweet little tiktok bc it made me think of u LOVE YOUU<33333333

https://www.tiktok.com/@nakanoic/video/7318401900146117894

- @softgirlgonehaywire

MICKEYYYY MY BELOVED <333 FIRST OF ALL TYSM FOR THE KUNIKIDAZAI FOOD WAHHHH THEY R MY SWEETIES 🥺🥺🥺🥺 kunikida is my wife so true i miss him sm :(((( my meowmeow… the light of my life…….. IT REMINDED U OF ME??? mickey pls watch out i am sending a big fat kiss ur way LOOK OUTTTTT

AND i’m doing well!! i don’t have to do any uni reading til like . tuesday so i’m planning on writing + reading some fics from my tbr >:33 i dunno if i’ll succeed but i really wanna finish the knight!sugu fic by suguru’s bday… i’ll tag u in it either way hehe so trust that u will be the first to know 🙏🙏 i’m also a lil depressed bc of jjk leaks T-T BUT super excited bc the jjk fighting game drops tmrw!!! i’ve already preordered it and i’m sooo excited to play it !!!!

HOW ABT U MICKEY….. what have u been up to?? how does it feel to be a free full-time tumblrina??? 🎤🎤🎤 i hope u’ve been resting and celebrating a bunch !!!

(ALSOOOOO MICKEY MY SOULMATE EXCUSE ME U LOVE UNTIL DAWN????? UR FAVES ARE EMILY AND MIKE???????? i had no idea it was getting a remaster that’s so fun I LOVE IT TOOOO even tho i had to look away for a lot of scenes phdjsh…. AND AND AND believe it or not but my favorites are ALSO emily and mike <333 i like my women mean and my men silly.)

[moviemunchies]

I only got into Uncharted recently. I had never been that much into the games–I don’t think I had even heard of the series until the third game came out, and I was astounded at how many awards it won in the yearly GameTrailers awards that year (shows you how old I am, that I remember GameTrailers of all things).

But then when the pandemic started the Playstation Store offered the original trilogy remastered for free! And I am ALL about free games and so I thought I’d give it a shot and they’re pretty darn good! I was vaguely interested when a movie was officially announced and once it finally came out, I thought I’d give it a go.

Uncharted is the story of Nathan Drake, a small-time thief with an interest in history. While he’s working as a bartender in New York City, a thief named Victor Sullivan asks him to help him find the treasure of Magellan, something he and Nate’s now-lost brother have wanted to find for ages. But there’s someone else after the treasure: Santiago Moncado, whose family has been after the treasure for a long time, and his hired mercenary Jo Braddock.

At some point, this movie was being billed as a prequel to the games. I’m telling you right now: it’s not. It’s an alternate continuity. There are a lot of things that don’t square up with the backstory of the games, and that’s fine–movies and games are different experiences. But if you’re expecting a faithful adaptation of the story from the games, then you’re in for a disappointment.

Alright, so right out the gate, I wasn’t a huge fan when they announced that the lead role would go to Tom Holland. It’s not that I think he’s a bad actor, but I was of the opinion that he was way too fresh-faced to be Nathan Drake. I revised my opinion a bit upon seeing the first trailer, but having seen the movie, I tend to think that my first impression was correct. He doesn’t do badly, but he doesn’t feel quite right as Nathan Drake. He comes across as much more innocent than the Nate of the games. And yeah, Drake is at his heart a good guy, but he’s also a thief who knows his way around firearms and dangerous situations.

I understand that they toned down the violence for the movie so a more innocent Drake was perhaps called for. And I understand that fan favorite Nathan Fillion is probably too old for the kind of story they wanted to tell. But I don’t think Tom Holland was the best choice for the role here, and I suspect he was only chosen because he made it big off the MCU. Like I said, he doesn’t do badly, just not as well as a more fitting choice might have been.

[Also, there are a surprising number of shots in which Nate is shirtless? I don’t think there are any shots of shirtless Nate in the games, so it looked like they only wanted to show off how in shape Tom Holland is. It was a bit weird.]

There’s a plot development in which Braddock does a thing and I don’t know why? It definitely felt like the kind of thing an Uncharted villain might do, but they usually get a lot more motivation to do so. Here she just does it, and I don’t get why. For the treasure, I guess, but it’s not like she was hurting for the money before. Eh. Just didn’t work for me.

I had fun with this movie though. I don’t know, I think if you saw the trailers, you’ll know exactly the kind of movie you’re getting. Most of the major beats are at least hinted at in the trailers (even the mid-credits scene, which is an odd choice). Yes, there’s treasure hunting. Yes, there’s over-the-top action sequences and chases. Yes, there is considerably less shooting than in the games (I’m not even sure how all that gunplay would be worked into a film). I think it works overall. Not as a brilliant, memorable movie that sticks out from similar treasure-hunting adventures, but it’s not a bad flick. Still, with the massive reputation that Uncharted has in gaming circles, I imagine they were hoping for something a little 

Although would it have been too much to ask for the movie soundtrack to use more of the motifs from the games’ soundtracks?

You would get a more unique story experience from watching the cutscenes of one of the games on YouTube, but this is an enjoyable enough movie.

[amysteriousmessenger]

cinema date with zenny!

my laptop crashed and this got deleted and I had to start again so I hope this is okay ;-;

Cinema Date with Zen/Hyun Ryu Headcanons

Date nights with you are some of Zen’s very favourite evenings. He enjoys staying in the apartment with you just as much as he loves going out, so he leaves it up to you for what your preference is on that day. When you say that there’s a new musical movie that you wanna see, Zen’s more than happy to take you on a date to the cinema. 

If it’s not a musical he’s familiar with, he’ll definitely look up a stage production on his phone beforehand on Youtube so he can get a feel for it. Of course, this was after you told him that he could watch other performances of stuff on Youtube. He had to be informed of this fact, he did not discover it organically. As most musical theatre fans are, he’s tentative about movie adaptations so he wants to know what to expect in advance. He has seen some horrific performances.

However, you saw that the cinema was running a remastered version of Dirty Dancing, so you didn’t have to worry about whether the both of you would enjoy it or not. You knew you’d both like it! 

Zen likes to buy your cinema tickets because he likes to be the one taking you out on the date and treating you right. It just feels more chivalrous to him and it’s how he likes it. If the two of you go on a day where the tickets are on sale, even better! He’ll use the extra money to upgrade your popcorn size. Zen isn’t one for snacking, but he always makes a point of buying you some popcorn, soda and a water. He’ll also get a water for himself too. He doesn’t usually buy any popcorn for himself but he’ll steal a handful or so of yours, especially if you feed it to him. Look how cute you are, how could he ever say no to you?

He always prefers to go to the later showings because they’re less busy and feel a little bit more romantic to him. Plus, if he can sneak an extra kiss in the dark cinema while it’s empty then that is most definitely a bonus. 

As you both settle down into your seats, Zen’s arm is immediately around your shoulders and pulling you close to him. If there’s a divider between the seats it might be a little difficult to do so, but if you’re able you can nestle your head into his chest and wedge the popcorn between the two of you.

When the movie starts, you’ll catch Zen mouthing the lyrics very quietly humming along to any of the songs that he knows out of habit. It’s never loud enough for other people in the cinema to hear and you enjoy it far too much to ever tell him to stop. It’s super sweet and comforting, especially since you can feel the vibrations from him doing it whenever you lean onto his chest. 

He always manages to keep his voice hushed when making comments or jokes about the film, and knows how flustered you get when he brings his lips close to your ear to make sure you capture every word over the movie, so he makes a point of doing it even more.

When Dirty Dancing ends, you can absolutely guarantee that Zen is going to have the soundtrack playing that night when you get out of the shower. He wants to dance with you to ‘Hungry Eyes’, The Beast seemed to like that song a lot.

[bihet-dragonize]

oh wait other updates. nothing interesting or funny like the source port thing. but I saw Doom (2016) & Doom Eternal on sale for Switch so I got them, since I don't own a PC that can run either one or a console besides the Switch. I'm Doom anon again btw

also I bought the first 4 Doom games (Doom 1993, Doom II, Doom 64, Doom 3) on Steam on sale because I figure I might try mods or source ports, or maybe make my own levels. probably I'll just play them on Switch though, except maybe Doom 3, I might play it on PC

I still haven't actually played through Doom II all the way, or Doom 64, or Doom 3. actually I hadn't read about or played any Doom for like, a really long time I think. they updated the "official add-ons" system for the Unity shell Doom & Doom II ports though so now every add-on is downloadable in either game

the Quake remaster has a similar thing, with curated mods downloadable for consoles (because reasons, console manufacturers are not big fans of mods on consoles and they need to make sure mods available aren't doing a copyright violation), and that has the Quake 64 campaign downloadable

see, when they made Quake for Nintendo 64, it wasn't a straight port. it's a bit different, though the levels are more or less the same, so it's nice they included it, even if it's not substantially different in most ways. it had its own soundtrack too

here's how this relates to Doom: the same thing happened with Doom on the Atari Jaguar. a downgraded port of Doom was made, tweaking or cutting levels from PC, as well as adding 2 brand new levels (which used the same names as cut levels for some reason). that port was then the basis for other console ports, including PlayStation's Doom, which was actually Doom and Doom II

PlayStation Doom includes all the Jaguar levels, adjusted a bit for PlayStation and adding Doom II enemies on the Ultra-Violence difficulty, plus levels from the 4th episode of The Ultimate Doom, plus most of Doom II (no Icon of Sin though, sadly). all the levels are tweaked again from PC, though less than on Jaguar because it was a more powerful console than Jaguar. the most interesting part imo though is that it had 6 new levels in addition to the 2 from Jaguar, for a total of 8 console exclusive levels

now, what disappoints me with the Unity shell remasters is, there's no official add-on for the Jaguar or PlayStation levels (which on PlayStation also had its own unique soundtrack just like Quake 64 -- same devs, actually, and the same composer; same people all did Doom 64 after they ported Final Doom to PlayStation, which was actually a mishmash of levels from the 2 Final Doom campaigns and the Master Levels for Doom II). anyway I feel like if they can release Quake 64 in Quake, why not for Doom also? put PlayStation Doom and PlayStation Final Doom on there as add-ons. why not?

like. I get that the version of the engine used on PlayStation isn't identical, it had fancier lighting effects and other differences and it was on a console. but you could port the levels over easily enough. PlayStation has an exclusive enemy too but it's just a reskin so that's not a problem

it just bugs me that if you want to play those levels you gotta play the low-res PlayStation version with its terrible framerate, which I can't do on my Switch

You said there's nothing funny in this message but then you named like 8 (is Final Doom a difficulty or an actual game?) different Doom games 😭😭😭😭😭 djdjsfjjfjdkskfjfjkfjfj also you have like all of them???? That's so cool!! And yeah I'd be mad as hell if I was stuck playing any low-res version of ANY game lol

[the-shared-brain-in-retrograde]

Guardians of the Galaxy

What a bunch of a-holes...

A Joint Review

Its well known that @becksxoxo and the Mouse are quite tight, so I'm sure you'll appreciate how we managed to get them to show the What If... T'Challa was Star Lord episode to coincide with our rewatch and judgement of Guardians of the Galaxy. You're welcome. (JK, we're not sure how in league with the What If...? series we want to be.)

Skipping over the death of a family member, this film employs that tried and tested method of great cinema the world over: if you can't start your film with a forward role make sure there is a dance routine (may we suggest Get Over It)

As we watched Peter break and enter into that temple our minds glazed over with thoughts of Indiana Jones. We would like to stress it was a sub-par Indy, mind. Peter's outfit is very good, we love a swishy leather coat, however his mask is a little creepy. The big eyes conjure up The Fly Man vibes, which we don't like, and we are worried that the flatness doesn't allow for the nose, but he seems to be getting alright so we'll leave him to it.

Peter Quill is a lot. We bet he'd be fun to be at a party with, but incredibly stressful to be with at any other time. He's always on, and I can guarantee he is not going to be turning up at the fountain in town at 11am, when that's the plan. He's a fun main character but neither of us really connected with him. He's funny at times, and we enjoy him being part of the group but we're a bit meh. @cassandrafey says that part of this for her is just knowing what he is going to be like and do in the future films, of which she is still furious. @becksxoxo has no idea what she is talking about as all she can recall from Infinity War is Cass SOBBING most of the film. Also, at the end, like we got that his Mum and Gamora said the same thing, "take my hand," but we really felt the ick when they superimposed his Mum over Gamora. We know there are some parenting issues in the MCU, but this was too much. He does have his moments, but then he ruins them. Bloody men.

These opening scenes also showcase just how great the soundtrack to this film is. We think it might even beat Captain Marvel and that had some bangers. Our favourites are:

Gamora has beautiful hair and is good with her knife throwing, and as we have mentioned, many times, these are two things we greatly appreciate. We think she's quite cool, but there are times we worry that she is a little bit stupid. The whole scene with her, Peter and the walkman is meant to be romantic, but don't lose your mind over the first idiot who plays you a song. You're better than that. It also falls on Gamora to be the moral compass of the group, which is a great responsibility for someone with such a murderous reputation. We respected her decision to do the right thing, rather than use the resources to get away from her dickhead of an adopted father.

Rocket and Groot, the MVPs of Guardians, our favourites. Which we're sure is a kick in the balls for all those actors who had to turn up and sit for hours in make up and work for their pay. But they are hands down the best characters in this film. We love them. The backstory, the character development, their relationship, WE LOVE IT. We love the rage that Rocket is filled with, and then the abject sadness of what was done to him. He makes us feel things, which is more than can be said about the other characters in this film.

We have heard that Vin Diesel takes this role very seriously, which is cute, but it is confusing that such a big name was used for a three word role. But even in those three words he says and emotes more than others, and in the end he sacrifices himself to save them all. (Now we won't go into who else sacrifices themselves during the other MCU films because that way lies disagreement and mammoth rants. We may have been dancing on the verge of argument last night in fact...).

We would love to know more of their origin story, how they came to be a team, and if Rocket will ever get to keep any of the artificial body parts he sees (we don't know if we should like this as much as we do, but its really funny and we are horrible people). Also these two have the best lines in the film, 10/10 love them.

A tangent happened here... it should be mentioned when discussing this last night @becksxoxo said although she loves Rocket, she has heard some things about Bradley Cooper that aren't great, then proceeded to say but have you see How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, which was funny because it turns out he isn't in it. @cassandrafey thinks that Bradley Cooper looks like a Hollywood Lee Mack and as a consequence is always sort of disappointed it isn't Lee Mack when she sees him, because as we’re sure you can appreciate, Lee Mack is very funny. The fact that Cass can’t actually see Bradley Cooper in this means that for once she doesn’t think about Lee Mack at all and can therefore say it’s probably his best role. Again, we know that this is likely a bit of a kick in the teeth for old Bradley.

Then there's Drax. Drax the Destroyer. There he is. We like him being part of the team, and he does say sorry when he fucks up in the giant celestial head. Maybe there is something to be said for being so literal. Because friends do say sorry to each other, and some groups of superheroes could maybe take a leaf out of their book...

I think them being friends, and a proper team, does add to our enjoyment of the film. Also we would like to break out of a prison with our friends, what a bonding experience. Getting to ride a office through a corridor like Baba Yaga in her pestle and mortar. What japes.

What personal item would you risk you and your friends life for to go retrieve?

@becksxoxo Peter, my childhood soft toy. I realise I'm a grown adult but that rabbit means more to me than you will ever know.

@cassandrafey I have struggled so much with this and when Becks asked me this question I did blurt out the name of my childhood soft toy (Dumbo) in such a way that it sounded like I was making a vicious attack on her. But in actual fact he currently resides in my parents house in Yorkshire so I’m not sure it’s true. But Becks says I have to pick something so I said fine, that keyring she made me for my birthday, which sent her almost hysterical because it’s a handmade TFATWS keyring and she’s threaded letters on to it so that it says ‘Sam and Bucky forever’ (among other things) and it’s in pastel colours and there’s little hearts and it’s totally adorable. I do carry it everywhere with me, and sometimes I look at it when I’m in despair at work and just feel better on two levels; a) the thought of Sam and Bucky is cheering and b). the fact that a grown woman sat there threading these letters together for another grown woman’s birthday gift. (Becks scooting in here to say the keyring is cursed. It's massive, illustrated, and includes other phrases outside the one Cass has shared. Also kissing fish? And yet not the worse thing I've ever made...)

Fucking Thanos. HATE HATE HATE. When @cassandrafey sees him in this film, all she can think of is the fact he looks like he's sat in a stair lift chair, which is amusing, and she enjoys it because she likes to belittle him as much as possible. Also @becksxoxo husband says he likes Thanos, and that he thinks snapping half the universe away is the right thing to do. She wishes Thanos would snap him away, idiot.

We're sticking Nebula in with the villains, but is she really? Or is she just a very damaged young woman? She is a baddie, she is. We do feel a bit sorry for her, as she is constantly over shadowed, but she is a maniac. She shouts get "out of my way!" at nobody at one point, so clearly very angry. Also she did something to annoy @becksxoxo in Dr Who one time, and as such she holds this against any character she will ever play, its like Imelda Staunton all over again.

Another day, another shit Marvel villain. Much like the incident with our Ecclescake, he’s had most of his features covered and had to put on a funny voice, and it’s hard to come back from those things. We don't understand why Ronan is out to kill planets, and have just put it down to religious zealousy. At least Thanos states his points clearly (@becksxoxo found that very hard to type and didn't care for it at all). The two things we did enjoy about Ronan was a. the noise he made when he died, and b. in the outtakes he does do the dance off with Star Lord and it was good.

We have a friend who really likes The Collector. Like REEEEEALLY likes him. (And we shall out her here; everyone say hi to our star guest and President of the Collector FanClub @acelucky 👋). Which we do not see, but also do not judge. As showcased in our previous reviews and personal tags we all have our little issues, our winter soldier-style code words that send us spinning into financial difficulties. The Collector did let us in to important information regarding the Infinity Stones, and how it was all going to start tying in together, unless you had left the room at that vital moment and missed useful information once again. God damn it Becks. How do you ever expect to understand these Infinity Stones with that sort of attitude?

What collections would you like to exhibit?

@becksxoxo would be:

My collection of precious things, all my crystals, coins, ornaments and candles (everything my husband deems as tat)

My collection of beautiful books. Have I read them all? No. But do they look good? Yes. Also the featured book would be the leather bound tome of all the people who have ever wronged me. A very long list. And the pages would be turned regularly so you could get the full effect. People could also make appointments to check the book to see if they, or their ancestors, were included.

My cross stitches. With a highlight on my halloween poem, my snowy winter landscape and portrait of Ron Swanson.

My fandom merch. My tie in novels, my lego figues, funko pops, tshirts and hoodies, my Grogu bop it (why yes Din, I will pull it - just thinking about that silly little game sends my finances spinning)

All the items I'm taking from Cass once she's dead.

@cassandrafey has noted Becks’ cunning ploy to get at the things she’s taking from me when I’m dead whilst I’m still kicking. I would exhibit:

These reviews. Our life’s work should be properly displayed.

Our proverbs. Me and Becks write them on the side. For example, ‘if you sleep now you won’t feel the benefit when you’re dead.’ That kind of thing.

Gifts I have received over the years. Which would include all of the things Becks has made for me (in an ideal world this includes the disembodied papier-mâché head of Noel Fielding she once lovingly crafted, although in real life this had to be got rid of following a terrible incident with my mother. I don’t want to talk about it.) And all the Christmas ornaments from the terrible Xmas ornament competition myself and The President of the Collector FanClub have been involved in over the years.

My favourite books

The final room would be called The Bad Boy Gallery, and it’s just photos and reels of all the villains and scoundrels I have ever loved. There would be quite a bit of leather involved in the decor. On the walls are painted the insane things I’ve said to excuse these men over the years. Such gems as ‘oh he’s just misunderstood’ and ‘he’s a desperately lonely man’ and ‘I kind of think he had a point there’ and ‘do you he grew that hair out for the part?’ amongst other unhinged ramblings. Criminal by Britney Spears is playing discreetly from the speakers. Exit into gift shop and buy a little postcard of your fave.

@becksxoxo: oh my gods, I didn't even think of the gift shop. Which is shocking in itself because I fucking love gift shops. I bet you could get yourself a pair of Binky Barnes shorts, candles scented like our favourite financial instabilities, and prepare bottles of my sangria and cocktails. Also attached would be a coffee shop that strictly sold autumn/winter beverages. I'll start looking for the gallery space now.

We do have a soft spot for Yondu and the Ravagers. We loved the constant threat of being eaten, and that he should be grateful he wasn't eaten. We love that they're essentially space pirates, and who doesn't love pirates? @becksxoxo loves anything than Sean Gunn does, the odd little oaf. We also learnt through Yondu, and his nifty arrow, that @cassandrafey can't whistle and its brought great amusement. She can rap the entirety of The Bad Touch though, so she's not without skill. Also, at the end, when Yondu is sad down and all the Ravagers are drinking and cavorting around him we got strong Jareth and the Goblins vibes, and that warms our hearts no end.

Other people of note we'd like to say we enjoyed were:

Glenn Close calling that man a prick.

John C Reilly regretting all his life choices when letting those idiots leave scott free.

Peter Serafinowicz. We know he is being a serious actor in this but we both just wheezed about, laughing, thinking of Black Books and Brian Butterfield.

What song would you have a dance off with somebody to?

@becksxoxo Saturday Night by Whigfield

@cassandrafey The Bad Touch by The Bloodhound Gang. And I’d rap whilst I did it too.

In conclusion, we reet enjoyed the movie. It was light hearted and fun, and we managed to not get too many feelings involved. Which at times is all you can ask for. We will be joining them again next week, so fingers crossed we enjoy it as much. We've both only seen volume 2 once, when it first came out, so it will practically be a new one for both of us on account of apparently terrible memories.

[creativenicocorner]

Did you ever create a Playlist for your 3 acts fic? Like I know Barb is musical nerd in the first act and you had godsdamn abba running in the background while they were running away from angor in what wouls theoretically be the angor management arc but...curious if you follow an actual Playlist or is it just vibes?

Thank you so much for asking!! ♡(´⌣`ʃƪ)

It sort of depends in a sort of "What came first the chicken or the egg?" kind of way. As sometimes I'm inspired deeply by a song or a music piece for a certain situation or characters. Is the piece situationally appropriate? Character appropriate? Both? - I go into more detail about that here.

Take the Gimme Gimme Gimme (a Man After Midnight) not only is it appropriate (I believe) in terms of the lyrics, in which that man after midnight is most likely Strickler should he ever get his shit together (he will in the future), who is currently acting as their getaway driver while being chased by another Midnight man of a different sort (Angor). But also coincides with Barbara's love of musicals! Its very conceivable of her to have a CD soundtrack of the Mamma Mia musical (maybe even a remastered one at that). Sure it's played as a goof to alleviate the tension, but it also paves the way for other Mamma Mia moments that Barbara could have (The biggest one I'm excited for being The Winner Takes it All. Great potential for a future Walter and Barbara situation. or EVEN, Barbara contemplating her ex-husband James.)

Then there's the song the section is named after Roundabout. Which, is the goofy Jo Jo's Bizarre Adventure meme song, but also an incredibly good song when listened to in its entirety - and the lyrics feel incredibly fitting situationally, and leaning towards Strickler some. Not to mention the lyrics are incredibly telling in a Stricklake sort of way...

We the readers know that between the two of them it will be Strickler who remembers Barbara - and it foreshadows Barbara's own change as she starts to deviate from canon.

My plot dictates the music, and sometimes I'm dictated by the music, in a very "chicken or the egg" way haha. Sometimes I have songs set and ready put aside

For instance in ACT II when Nomura and Jim inevitably fight for Gunmar's amusement deep in the depths of the Darklands I know for a FACT I want to use Bizet's "Toreador" from the opera Carmen. As the fight is not only a show for Gunmar like watching a bull fight. But also, to the surprise of no one, Nomura will have a lot of association to Opera. So the piece will be not only situationally but also characteristically accurate. The real question might end up being, between Jim and Nomura, who is the bull? And could the bull be someone not even in the rink? (Gunmar).

What music pieces I have leading up to that is foggy and vague, I have other music pieces set aside, especially for Nomura, but it likewise depends on how the plot will evolve while I write it too! Maybe down the line I'll think of something I hadn't while planning and BAM there's a whole section based on the soundtrack to The Legend of Ocarina of Time or Twilight Princess or something lkgdlkfj (As to me, Jim as a lot of LoZ vibes musically, among others!)

Another one I have planned but am unsure what other music pieces will happen until I reach that point is the dreaded S3 Merlin scene where he tries to convince Jim to become a troll. In my own morbid humor (mainly to cope) I have set aside Neon Genesis Evangelion's "Cruel Angel's Thesis" cause 1 the song fucking slaps, 2 I couldn't stop associating Jim with Shinji when I watched that scene. Specifically the joke "Get in the fucking robot Shinji" Cue Jim and Shinji having a Bad Time Indeed™ ;w; (Don't worry, Merlin is planned to have an even WORSE time afterwards). (ง •̀ω•́)ง✧

And maybe that'll change!! I remember for ch15 I had originally planned on the song section to be Mitski's Crack Baby. As it felt VERY fitting for both Barbara and Walter. Not only for Barbara's memory loss, but also that changeling feeling of missing something that you're not entirely sure about.

And YET Samba Em Prelúdio felt hauntingly right to me, it was soft, delicate, the lyrics are tragic, and the way Vinicius de Moraes ,Maria Creuza, Toquinho sing it gives me goosebumps every time.

ANYWHO! I hope that helped answering your question!! Thank you so much for asking!! It really means a lot to me!! ヽ(o♡o)/

[scottymcgeesterwrites]

Final Fantasy VII Remake Review

Year: 2020

Platform: PS4

I finished this game shortly after posting all my main single-player series Final Fantasy reviews. I was still digesting it and thinking about it to put together my review.

Synopsis:

The Shinra Electric Power Company rules over the city of Midgar, and the eco-terrorists AVALANCHE stop at nothing to try and prevent the life essence of the planet from being used as energy. Barrett, leader of AVALANCHE, hires a mercenary named Cloud Strife for their bombing mission on a Shinra Mako Reactor. Cloud doesn’t care much for the greater cause and only wants his pay. But then, after a mission goes awry, he meets Aerith, a flower girl who is the descendant of the Ancients. He quickly finds himself wrapped up in the greater conflict against Shinra.

Gameplay:

Final Fanatasy VII Remake has one of the best gameplay styles of any Final Fantasy game. It’s that good. It seems like after all these years, this is what Square really wanted to do. Since this was released after Final Fantasy XV, it’s pretty much the successor to its gameplay. While Final Fantasy XV has you more or less spamming the attack button with occasional spell casting and item usage, Final Fantasy VII Remake has you much more involved with the Materia system, abilities, and guarding/evading. One notable example is that Final Fantasy XV always told you when you should guard in order to counter, but Final Fantasy VII Remake has you figure that out on your own.

The abilities are so goddamn flashy and cool during gameplay. Tifa’s moves are quite possibly the most awe-inspiring.

My only complaint is locking onto the enemy during battle. You have to press down on R3 to lock onto an enemy, and I sometimes found that jarring with the camera controls. Sometimes I accidentally disengaged from an enemy and missed an attack. Since your moves are dependent on an Active Time Battle system, you can waste a turn if you get hit while conjuring a spell or taking out an item. That sometimes made me go “REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!”. But in the long run, those were very small gripes. The battles are so much fun.

Since the game follows only the Midgar portion of the story, it’s linear. But you reach sections where you are free to roam around and do sidequests before continuing with the main objective. I’m sure the later releases of the remake will feel much less constrained. But this remake does a good job at expanding upon Midgar without feeling too redundant.

Graphics:

Jesus Christ. This game is gorgeous.

Both in-game graphics and pre-rendered cutscenes. The switch between a pre-rendered cutscene and in-game cutscene has become much more seamless than ever before.

If you remember my Final Fantasy XV review, I mentioned how NPCs and other in-game animations seemed stiff and stilted. Final Fantasy VII Remake takes steps to remedy that. Characters have more fluid movements and everyone’s lips move a lot more. However, lip movements can come off as awkward. My friend was watching me play, and during one in-game cutscene they said “Something looks weird with their lips.” At times, lip movements seem too dynamic when the character is standing relatively still, which comes off looking like Mr. Ed the horse trying to talk.

Despite those small awkward things, the rest of the game is extremely polished. Remember how blocky Final Fantasy VII was? We now finally see these characters and the world of Midgar brought to life in beautiful HD graphics.Like holy shit. Everyone looks so beautiful.

Before I played this game, I was a Tifa stan, but now, ho man, they made Aerith so much more appealing.

SO.

MUCH.

MORE.

APPEALING.

And Tifa shines better than ever. I’m very tempted to just gush about her but here is just a couple enticing gifs.

Imagine playing this game and still thinking gamers are oppressed.

Story:

Final Fantasy VII Remake follows from the start of the original game up until the party leaving Midgar. Square plans to release the rest of the remake later.

I have to say, they made the story a lot more engaging than the original. That may seem like blasphemy, but the dialogue and voice acting was just so damn good. Some of my favorite moments included the banter between Aerith and Cloud. Like I said, I wasn’t into Aerith that much until I played the remake. She’s just so damn cute and charming. One of my favorite parts was when she said, “Shit” and almost fell, after mentioning how she didn’t need help climbing a ladder. Her voice is so lovely and amusing to listen to. The growing romance between her and Cloud doesn’t come off as forced or cringey, because we now spend so much time with Aerith.

Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie have much more important roles in the story. This gives us a greater sense of Avalanche as a ragtag group.

Entire chapters focus on them, especially Jessie. I cringed a bit at Jessie to be honest, despite her popularity. She now comes off as a copy of Aerith in the sense that she comes on strong to Cloud. But really strong. Like “I want that D right now” strong. Cloud has officially become your usual anime boy who is good at everything that can make any woman magically fall in love with him. So that whole thing made me roll my eyes.

There are some new characters inserted, such as the SOLDIER Roche. I thought they were going to do more with him but, apparently not. The new characters can be a bit “meh”, such as Chadley. Johnny isn’t a new character but may as well be since his role is so expanded. He was probably the most annoying, constantly calling Cloud “bro”. That gave me some bad flashbacks of Prompto’s modern-speak in Final Fantasy XV.

The remake adds a certain new plot element that you’re not sure at first where it’s going until it’s revealed at the very end. The ending can be a bit out there, as the original storyline is changed significantly. SIGNIFICANTLY I was curious if this game would make sense to first-timers, but, probably not when you reach the end. The ending heavily relies on you knowing the original game.

My only complaint about the story was how they started the motorcycle chase cutscene. That was my favorite cutscene of the original game, with Cloud driving down the stairs and the group getting into the car. I liken it to the barrel scene in the original Hobbit novel. But like the Hobbit movie, they made the motorcycle scene pretty outrageous. Like so over-the-top that my initial reaction was to scoff at it. It also struck me as awkward, because there were many moments when the bad guys could have shot them but just. . .stood there watching Cloud kick their asses.

Some people may be upset by how the remake ended, while others find it cool. I thought it was cool. But at the same time, now I want an official “remastered” Final Fantasy VII too. Just a game strictly like the original but with vastly improved graphics.

Music:

The music was pure eargasm. There were many moments when I fanboyed screaming “THIS IS THE SONG! YESSS!” They remixed the songs so well, from the battle theme to the Shinra theme, and the Wall Market theme. Everything you loved about the original soundtrack but MORE gusto, more pomp and circumstance.

A couple complaints though.

1 – I think the focus on making the music more orchestrated takes away the mood of the original music. I missed some of the synth and electronic from the original game because it related well to the technological city of Midgar. The synth and electronic featured in the original game gave off a brooding, darker mood.

2 – I didn’t like what they did with the Crazy Motorcycle music.

Notable Theme:

It’s difficult to find pieces of the original soundtrack as of today, because Square is taking them down from YouTube. Still, some people have managed to keep up some of the coolest tracks from this game. Unfortunately, the videos have gameplay footage, which could be spoilers, technically.

I’ll just leave it as this:

The Jenova battle theme is a much longer piece in this game, but it pays off at the final quarter of the song.

Trust me.

Verdict:

The remake does the original justice. We waited so long for this game and it delivered, unlike Final Fantasy XV.

I don’t think a first-timer would really appreciate it though as much as a fan of the original game would. Sure, there’s nothing stopping you from just going into it without knowing the original game, but there are things that one wouldn’t understand unless you played the original game. In that sense, the word “remake” is a bit misleading. Maybe they’re “rebooting” the entire Compilation of Final Fantasy VII? It seems like they’re going for what they did with the newer Star Trek movies, if you catch my drift. But I can’t say for sure exactly where they’re going with it until the next game comes out, but it seems that way to me.