#actually haven't seen any of the gameplay or visuals of (I don't think) so this should be interesting!

[ghostprinceiii]

"You're going to need a compelling reason to gain entry to Inazuma..."

My compelling reason is I need wood from there to make a purple bed for my teapot house.

[sasaranurude]

Okay. I've been playing Tokyo Debunker today, since the release happened to catch me on a day when all I'd planned to do was write fanfiction. I just finished reading the game story prologue (it was longer than expected!), so here's a review type post. If you're reading this post not having seen a single thing about this game: it's a story-based joseimuke gacha mobile game that just released globally today. It's about a girl who suddenly finds herself attending a magic school and mingling with elite, superhuman students known as ghouls. If you look in the tumblr tag for the game you'll see what appears to be a completely different game from 2019 or so: they retooled it completely midway through development, changing just about everything about it due to "escalating competition within the gaming industry."

I'll talk about how this looks like a blatant twst clone at the end.

Starting with the positive: The story is charming. I enjoyed it thoroughly the entire time and am excited to read more. The mix between visual novel segments and motion comics was really nice--it broke things up and added a lot of oomph to the action or atmospheric scenes that visual novels generally lack. I like the art in the comic parts a lot. the live2d in the visual novel parts is... passable. Tone-wise, I think the story was a little bit all over the place and would like to see more of the horror that it opened on, but I didn't mind the comedic direction it went in either. The translation is completely seamless. The characters so far all have unique voices and are just super fun and cute. Of the ones who've had larger roles in the story so far, there's not a single one I dislike. It's all fully voiced in Japanese and the acting is solid. (I don't recognize any voices, and can't seem to find any seiyuu credits, so it seems they're not big names, but they deliver nonetheless.) Kaito in particular I found I was laughing at his lines a ton, both the voicing and the writing.

He's looking for a girlfriend btw. Spreading the word.

The problem is like. The gameplay is the worst dark-pattern microtransaction-riddled bullshit I've ever seen. Hundred passive timers going at all times. Fifty different item-currencies. Trying to get you to spend absurd amounts of real world money at every turn. There's like five different indicators that take you to various real-money shop items that I don't know how to dismiss the indicator, I guess you just have to spend money, wtaf. Bajillion different interlocking systems mean you have zero sense of relative value of all the different item-currencies. I did over the course of the day get enough diamonds for one ten-pull, which I haven't used yet. Buying enough diamonds for a ten-pull costs a bit under $60 (presumably USD, but there's a chance the interface is automatically making that CAD for me--not gonna spend the money to check lmfao), with an SSR rate of 1%. BULLSHIIIIIT.

There's like a goddamn thousand-word essay explaining the dozen different types of character upgrades and equippables and equippables for the equippables!! Bad! Bad game design! That's just overcomplicating bullshit to trick people into thinking they're doing something other than clicking button to make number go up! That is not gameplay!

In terms of the actual gameplay, there is none. The battle system is full auto. There might be teambuilding, but from what I've seen so far, most of that consists of hoping you pull good cards from gacha and then clicking button to make number go up. There's occasional rhythm segments but there's no original music, it's just remixes of public domain classical music lmao. I'd describe the rhythm gameplay as "at least more engaging than twisted wonderland's," which is not a high bar

At least there's a cat in the rhythm bit.

And like, ok, I gotta remark on how derivative it is. Like I mentioned in my post earlier, this game is unabashedly aping twisted wonderland's setting and aesthetic. (That said, most of the stuff it steals from twst is magic school stuff that twst also basically stole from Harry Potter, so...?) However, it isn't exactly like twst: in this one, the characters say fuck a lot and bleed all over the place and do violence. Basically, the tone is a fair bit more adult than twst's kid-friendly vibe. (Not, like, adult adult, and I probably wouldn't even call it dark--it's still rated Teen lol. Just more adult than twst.)

Rather than just being students at magic school, the ghouls also go out into the mundane world to go on missions where they fight and investigate monsters and cryptids. Honestly, the magic school setting feels pretty tacked-on. The things that are enjoyable about this would've been just as enjoyable in about any other setting--you can tell this whole aspect was a late trend-chasing addition, lmao. So, yeah, it's blatantly copying twst to try to steal some players, but... Eh, I found myself not caring that much. Someone more (or less) into twst than me may find it grating.

Character-wise, eh, sure, yeah, they're a bit derivative in that aspect too, but it's a joseimuke game, the characters are always derivative. Thus far the writing & execution has been solid enough that I didn't care if they were tropey. If I were to compare it to something else, I'd say the relationship between the protagonist and the ghouls feels more like that of the sage and wizards in mahoyaku than anything from twst. There's some mystery in exactly what "ghouls" are and their place in this world that has me intrigued and wanting to know more about this setting and how each of the characters feels about it. I have a bad habit of getting my hopes up for stories that put big ideas on the table and then being disappointed when they don't follow through in a way that lives up to my expectations, though.

So, my final verdict: I kind of just hope someone uploads all the story segments right onto youtube so nobody has to deal with the dogshit predatory game to get the genuinely decent story lol. Give it a play just for the story if you have faith in your ability to resist dark patterns. Avoid at all costs if you know you're vulnerable to gacha, microtransactions, or timesinks.

[cloud-ya]

As a fellow hi3rd turned hsr player, how are we feeling about Star Rail now that some time has passed? I remember disliking it because new ppl wouldn't use Honkai Star Rail as the tag and would flood the HI3rd tag with a lot of "x reader" fics with the Star Rail men.

I dropped playing it after Seele's banner and haven't really felt a huge desire to progress past the Ice Planet. Idk, I worry that it'll go the Genshin route and become aimless and boring.

I do enjoy the designs a lot more than genshin's but still not as much as HI3rd. I like that we have an MC who doesn't feel completely unrelated to the story like how it feels in genshin, and Stelle actually talks instead of having a small flying companion speak everything for us.

Gameplay wise I think it is more fun than any of the previous games, but visually lacking a little. (Kind of biased here since I adore turn based combat) I guess I'm just waiting for the "WOW‼️" moment with this game.

Honkai Impact 3rd really won me over with the main cast of characters as well as the reveal with Sirin. I might not have loved every decision made along the journey of Part 1, but I never really felt bored or distanced from the story like I do with the other two games.

I've been playing Star Rail ever since its release, the only long breaks being between events and new patches because I didn't feel the need to grind constantly and I've been pretty burnt out for a while.

geez I surely do hate people who mess up the tags. it still happens, but on way lower frequency now I think. it's even more annoying when you wanna find one hi3 character with their very own tag but end up seeing just their HSR counterpart with messed up tags - big issue as a Murata Himeko enjoyer, smh.

the game is as if Honkai Impact and Genshin had a child. it's somewhere in-between in quality I guess, though it leans more towards HI3 (because it's a Honkai game, duh). the maps really be giving you this feeling of not-so-open open worlds from HI3. I guess the story is fine, though I've seen people saying it's rushed; ngl I was kinda surprised to see Jarilo-VI part being already concluded in just one version lol. I don't mind anything in the trailblazer, only that the trend of more and more gacha games deciding on the either full or partial self-insert with dialogue choice doesn't sit well with me.

while I'm not repulsed by the turn based combat I think I prefer the hack and slash combat of HI3, or just the types of combat that let you move freely. personally I try to have a taste of every combat type.

I love the most of HI3's part 1 too and while I lost interest in the story after HoV disappeared for good, the only thing that really bothered me besides the hov death bias was the finale which was soo damn rushed just to end before Star Rail's premiere, and other dumb things in it like the whole Ai-chan self-insert bullshit

[ayy-lmao0]

Ok so I was searching the internet for a good hour for an answer to this and didn't find shit (though maybe there is one, but I couldn't see every post because I still haven't seen the whole game) until I came up with a possible answer by myself, so I thought that I'd share my thoughts here for some poor souls that are also bothered by this question and don't want to ruin their game experience

So, HOW THE FUCK DOES THE V.A.N.N.I. MASK WORK??

If this question popped up in your head you propably saw at least the beginning of the game and honestly I don't think I'll need anything else in this post

I also saw, that this is not touched upon in the game itself (i saw posts of some people, who did see the whole thing)

Ok anyway to the fucking point, sorry

So when we get the mask, this occipit transponder is, fucking, injected into Cassie's head

The occipital lobe is responsible for visual perception (yk depth, color etc.)

A transponder is used for identifying, detecting and locating obcjects, but for communication (though this isn't that important here I think)

It makes her able to see and communicate with Helpi even outside the mask

But notice how she can only see the glitches AFTER she gets it?

Without it she wouldn't be able to. (Though it can just be a gameplay thing and I'm overthinking this)

But mostly I think it also just, yk, does more than the name and Helpi tell us, since transponders shouldn't really work on fucking PHYSICAL stuff, like, walking through walls, right?

Well, this shit happens in the future (and in another universe, but who cares) so this chip propably just transports you into the AR world, when combined with the mask. You don't just see it, you ARE there. At least partly. That's why you can touch stuff, that is only from that place.

And partly, because, well, you still are visible in the real world. For example gregory still saw Vanny, right? Freddy didn't, propably because of the mask sending a signal or something yadda yadda (holy shit I'm sick of this word 💀), but she was making Gregory's vision glitch, because she wasn't 100% here. She was in the AR world at the same time (again, it could also i just be a representation of that and Greg didn't really see it, but idk, that motherfucker propably does send some waves that affect our meat jelly when in use)

Anyway, this whole "ar" thing is just actually VR premium

Tldr; this chip Cassie gets injected into her head partly transports her into the AR world and lets her go through walls

Sprey for my incoherent babbling and total lack of capacity to explain things clearly I hope this helps in any way 💀

[naggingatlas]

i think im actually going to cry (for like. the sixth time i think) from how much i love spark 3. i cannot remember the last time i craved to play a game Just For Fun. just because a game Feels Good. i've played my fair share of good games, the best in their genres, i've mastered a few (i speedran rayman legends as a 9 year old before i knew what speedrunning was, i consistently beat grown men in guilty gear xrd in online play a few years later). but no matter how invested i was in the Weekly Game Newscast! #84's findings, treating every fresh release, indie and not, like a newly discovered species in the Nature magazine, i haven't seen a game that made me experience genuine, unadulterated, tear-jerking and sacred Fun in nearly 10 fucking years. not objective fun, interest and satiation and just. Quality you know from a game, of course not, this has been a much better decade for gaming than cod bros believe, i can give you like 40 games that were objectively insanely fucking good that came out during that time, by which i was gripped at the nipple and squeezed and twisted, by their story, their setting, their characters, their gameplay concepts, their essence, their everything. and i haven't had fun with any of them. i think. yasha's definition of fun. where i smirk whilst doing The Tech and i don't require someone to watch my stream and talk to me so i don't fall asleep and where i don't get panic attacks when it gets too hard and i just wanna push on and i want more and more and more. and then spark came and found the ignition key somewhere in the dried up bushes, stuck it into the half-dead nissan s-cargo of my heart and slammed the gas. i haven't kept a game on my drive after completion for this long in years, because i never wanted to just open a game and play it to De-Stress. Spark The Electric Jester 3 Is The First Game In 10 Years That I *Enjoy* ***Playing***. that doesn't feel like a Chore, that feels like a G a m e . a game. like frolicking. like a puppy in the grass. the first game i get excited to play, that i ask to play at a friend's house if they have it. not to show off, not to rant on them about the lore or production or mechanics but because I Like Playing It. because I Love It. i have never cried because of how good the game Feels. not the story, not the lore, not the visuals, The Fucking Gameplay. i mean, of course, the evangelon denpa vn typa shit that happens in there contributes immensely and i would still be obsessed with it even if i've only seen the letsplays and whatnot. but i'm so fucking glad that's not the case. i'm so fucking glad spark made me love games again.

now watch this skill contest entry. these aren't finger breaking speedrunning tricks. this is natural movement for this game. and a bit of level knowledge. i don't wanna get sexual but i wanna get sexual with this code. watch this and say it's not on par with like sm64 or whatever. spark the electric jester 3 is a freak of nature in the platformer genus and i hope all of it's mutations will have the dominant genes.

[gauntletqueen]

I haven't watched your KH streams (I caught part of one live but watching VODs really stresses my attention span, plus I didn't find you until you were already near the end of II) but I was wondering if you had any experience with any of the related Square-Enix and Nomura library like Final Fantasy, The World Ends With You, Super Mario RPG, Bravely Default, Theatrhythm, Dragon Quest, etc?

Nice question :> I'm not as big a Squenix fan as a lot of others, but I've played a fair bit of their games! Time to make a stupid long post about it :)

When it comes to Final Fantasy, the usual turn-based combat is hard for me to stick with, usually, but: - I've watched playthroughs of FF7, I hate Cloud for realsies and Sephi as a joke. The game has a lot of great visual designs and its length was very impressive for the time. I am against the "remake". - I have played through FF15 (more than once). I recognise its flaws but appreciate the characters and interesting story even if it's not told that well safhghaf - I've played ~200 hours of Acclaimed MMO FF14, including the entire base game story, and I recognise it does what it does very well, which is master the classic MMO formula, which is not for me sfahghaf - Also FF Explorers on the 3DS, that one's pretty fun :> - I know a bit about other Final Fantasy games through osmosis and watching other playthroughs like I did with 7, but the info didn't stick as well sfahhgaf

I reeeaally wanna play TWEWY sometime!! I actually have the DS game cartridge, but I just. Haven't found the time and focus for it hsgafghjaf. It seems super cool though, both in stylization and gameplay.

I've played through Super Mario RPG when I was little! I love its graphics style and the funny quirky tone of it, plus the sound effects are so fun!! Wish they'd acknowledge it beyond a Geno Mii costume :/

Also Nier, I've only played Automata but I've seen the entirety of Gestalt (that's the western Dad-ified version of the original Replicant that got a remake a while ago) and love them for their wild world building, extremely tragic stories and how Fucking Obtuse they dare to be, I think that's cool and fun :>

I've never played Theatrhythm, Bravely Default or Drakengard (Except Nier I guess)

I've only played One Dragon Quest game, Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime on the DS! As I understand, it's part of a series in Japan, but this one's the only one that got localized in the west. It's one of my favorite DS games, it's sooo fun and unique!! The mainline turn-based games don't grab me at all so I never bothered playing any of them safhghgasf

I have played the demo of the original Octopath Traveler, which has a cool aesthetic but bored me to no end asdfhgfagshj

I think that's it? I can't think of other major Squenix JRPGs. I like the settings and kinds of JRPG stories a lot of their games tell, but their gameplay often doesn't grab me ghasfhgaf. Hope that was informative or fun or something, thanks for the question!!

[sapphire-weapon]

Idk if this is of any interest to you, but I remember way back you mentioned RE 7& 8 were hard to play because of the first person thing. I despise that style too. 7 and Skyrim took me forever to fully adjust to and I just generally dislike not seeing my character lmao. Anyway, RE8 does actually have an official third person playing mode now, and plays the same way as the other games. I just thought I'd mention it in case you were unaware and wanted another try or whatever, but I assume you likely know already.

Also, I'm adding on a headcanon that I've had since playing. Nobody else has said it, so I'm sure I'd hear a lot of disagreement. Many point out that Leon and Ethan would've been great friends or had shipping potential, despite them never meeting. I've always seen it slightly differently though, I think Ethan actually shows what Leon could've been if he wasn't traumatised (well, before Ethan got his own hefty dose obviously lmao). I really like E and do think the characters would mix really well, but it felt to me like they might've taken some early, bare bones Leon concepts and built a different character off of it. I don't know, that's just what went through my head before.

Also, is it really true that the Winters story is completely done!? I'm seeing that passed around a lot, but it's completely nonsensical. Rose is not a finished character and the DLC made it very clear that she has a huge role to play in the future of RE. I'd be so disappointed if that whole story was dropped, especially because she's so likeable...

So, real quick -

Yes, I do know that RE8 has a third person mode. I still haven't really had the desire to play it, though, because from what I've seen, it's a bit clunky. The game was not designed with third person in mind, which makes certain sections of gameplay artificially harder and/or lose their thematic impact.

The Winters' family story is done, but that doesn't mean that Rose will never be used again. Like, when the Raccoon City arc was done, that didn't mean that all of the legacy cast went away. They just moved onto the next story arc. Rose can still move onto the next story arc; it's just that the story arc won't be about her family.

As for the middle part of your ask...

I disagree that Ethan is a look at Leon's character if the Raccoon City outbreak didn't happen.

And I say that because -- and this is a theory that I've held close to my chest for years and have never really spoken about -- I think that Sebastian Castellanos (the protagonist of The Evil Within) was, in part, Shinji Mikami's creative exploration of where Leon's character could have gone if he'd stayed a cop -- which is why TEW plays so similarly and is structured so similarly to RE4 in the first place.

Sebastian started his career as an idealistic overachiever who was so good at and so dedicated to his job that he became the youngest officer ever in the KCPD to be promoted to Detective. But, in the end, he broke, too, and went off the deep end into a horrible spiraling meltdown that culminated in him turning into a paranoid conspiracy theorist with a drinking problem who nearly lost his job -- several times -- for insubordination, violent outbursts, and illegal investigations into the corruption within the KCPD. The only thing that saved him was his incredible reputation and spotless record from when he was younger.

If you're interested at all, I have a compilation of Sebastian's in-game journal detailing the rise and fall of his career here. There's also a visual representation of the good times -> the breakdown -> the result that the DLCs put into the game that you can watch here.

Basically, I think that Leon's character was always bound for tragedy, one way or the other, because I don't think that Leon ever had it in him to have a healthy response to grief and hardship in his life to begin with. All roads lead to the same place.

Ethan survived (well, "survived" LMAO) several different traumatic events and arguably came out stronger. I don't think Leon ever would have or could have done the same.

[prowerprojects]

I'm sure Rouge could, as with other characters. But it comes back to which ones and why? It is her style or required for her line of work? Does she draw the line with specific ones or isn't as skilled with one gadget compared to another?

It's a matter of what the gameplay calls for. (If Tails Adventure and Sky Patrol are anything to go by, a Tails focus game is likely not going to play the same as those who follow Sonic's main gamestyle. If flight the main aspect, the game will focus on that. If gadgets are, it will be on that. Both? A compromise would have to made, but I'm sure they could get it to work.) If you ever heard of "Rachet and Clank", it probably gives a better visual of what I mean for this hypothetical. Spyro too, though more flying than gadgets.

I would say Rouge mainly has experience and stamina over the youngsters; but coming down to what they use their flight capabilities for; Tails being air support and Charmy stated to be a tracker. Plus Charmy does use his stinger and Cream uses Cheese as a projectile. (The fox likely can't beat Rouge toe-to-toe, but I'm sure he'd cause enough trouble for her to not consider him easy pickings next time.) In fairness, we don't really get much time with Prime Tails. {Not the first time a Tails has used a RC device either} It mainly Nine and the other counterparts instead; who live in rather hostile places.

I checked to be sure, and yeah, there is one flight level: The first Speedy boss. There are places to land [in case you get hit], but the stamina bar is completely removed here, as the goal is to get to the top while avoiding Speedy.

Honestly, it's a concept that's not used enough. I can totally buy him coming from the grocery or tool shop, using his tails to carry as much bags and supplies as possible. (Although not techinally the fur, when Nine takes off with the shard; the one Sonic just got absorbed into, you can see it wrapped in his organic tails. So yeah, I say it stands a good chance of coming back.)

You are correct. (Hmm, well, Amy was already shown to throw hammers in Origins.{Which funnily enough again, was shown in X before. The episode Sonic finally comes back from Chris' world.} I say it has a fair shot of sticking. A little less certain with Tails, but I think it could work in Frontiers. Part of me feels that a tweaked version of the Avatar's Wispon gameplay from Forces would fit him well. We'll see what the DLC does for both.)

Hmm, I can buy Tails being interested in history. Especially if it helps him better understand of what's going on at the moment or could be applied later. (Also, I think he just likes learning new things. That being said, it doesn't mean he'll be an expert of something overnight. Hence why he consulted Professor Pickles during Unleashed.)

I feel like the Rouge conversation got a bit away from the point I was originally trying to make, haha =_=' (it's ok but I'm just gonna drop it here)

I heard of Ratchet and Clank but have never played it myself. I looked up some gameplay footage and it looks pretty cool! (Longing for a Tails solo game intensifies)

I know, I know, drones are just so... lame :( I'm still holding out hope that we'll get to see more flashbacks with Prime Tails, I really like him from what little we've seen of him even though he's written so differently from probably any version of Tails I've seen before (except for maybe in some fics haha)

Yep! I've noticed that thing with Nine! (Part of my headcanon is that Tails's ability to control his Tails like that helps him fly (a little bit); I don't have a clear idea of the details, but the basic one is that he's able to position the fur of his tails in such a way that it makes slightly easier for them to function as helicopter blades. At this point it's instinctual for him, but if you're not Tails you might have a bit of trouble figuring out how to do it)

Yeah, I guess we'll see.

Man you mentioned the wispons and it made me think – we haven't seen Tails actually inventing anything for a while, huh? Unless something completely slipped my mind, the last time he had a new invention was Unleashed (the Miles Electric), and it's also the last time we've seen him with a new vehicle (Tornado-1. Geez. The Sonic Boom tv show made fun of his inability to come up with names and I kinda see where they were coming from here lmao). Mannnn. We can talk forever about the loss of his fighting abilities, but he hasn't exactly been shining in other areas either.

Yeah, it definitely doesn't seem... ooc for him to be into history, it just doesn't seem as connected to his usual interests. (But I guess history is inescapable in any field of work) Though Tails also has his own interest in chaos emeralds. (And you know if Eggman keeps summoning ancient evils (and Shadow) it's nice to at least have a general idea of what's going on. Or at least who to ask haha)

[louiesselfshipramblings]

Thoughts on the media my f/os are from!

The MCU kinda sucks these days. The last good thing they put out was GotG Vol. 3, and you know that was all Gunn. Granted, the series's highs are still very high—Iron Man, Avengers 1, all the Captain America movies, Thor 1, Thor Ragnarok, the Guardians trilogy—and there is occasionally some good. And of course I have a soft spot for the Hawkeye tv show. It was good!

The Legend of Zelda is still one of my fave series, and while I did enjoy Tears of the Kingdom on initial playthrough...man, this game sucks. And not even in a bad game way; it's just so derivative. Which like, yeah, sequel literally built off the back of BotW, but there's no innovation. It has all the issues BotW had, but worse. Like, I'm biased of course, but Purah's redesign is legit one of the best things about the game. Like, it's not bad, I like it, but man...and the story! Jeez, what a waste of time...

ENA is weird cause like, I knew about, then my friend showed me it, and I thought it was neat. Still a cool idea and such. It's just I kinda joined when the "original" Ena was ending and stuff with DreamBBQ was starting. My pref is still towards OG Ena, but I'm excited to see where Joel G takes things.

I have an interesting relationship with Sonic the Hedgehog; I don't play his games too often, but I love the lore, and side material like the comics and shows. Sonic Lost World is not a game I played, but I heard negative things about. Basically a Mario Galaxy clone...but Mario Galaxy is good, no? Considered by many one of the best games of all time? I dunno. The main thing is the Deadly Six...like I love Zeena, naturally, but the others. Eh...neutral. There's a reason my sona is Mobian and not zeti lol.

I was originally gonna watch the One Piece anime, but I eventually decided to go with the manga cause I heard it was paced better, plus I always wanted to read manga. Overall, I like it! It's very good. Simple at points, yet powerful too. I just wish Oda was a lil less horny, or at least reeled back the likes of Sanji and Brook. And drew women differently. And fixed Usopp's design. Yeh. Aside from that, it's good.

I haven't played Overwatch! I just think Sombra and D. Va are pretty. Mei, too. And Venture is kinda snazzy. It looks fine. Blizzard sucks but you knew that.

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure was my first real anime (outside of like the Pokemon anime), and it was good! David Productions really nailed the art style and colors, especially the color choices! Might check out the manga some day, but very excited for Part 7 to be animated!

Moon Girl & Devil Dinosaur is the perfect show to watch if you're a Marvel fan and fed up with the MCU. Creative, striking, and actually progressive when Disney isn't banning episodes like the morons they are. I need to watch a few more episodes, but the show is VERY good. Track down that banned one if ya can, it is WORTH it!

I've been a fan of Five Nights at Freddy's since I was a wee lad...never played an entry lol. Yeh I was more into the lore with MatPat, Dawko, 8-Bit Ryan, Razzbowski, those guys. It was fun! I still enjoy it but it def fell to the back burner. The movie was good, prob gonna see the sequel.

For the record I would totally give Danganronpa a chance, but ugh I just cannot do visual novels. There's just not enough "game" for me, if ya get me. No shade to people who do enjoy em, more power to ya. Just not for me. From the gameplay of 1, 2 and V3 I've seen...seems okay. Outdated at parts, and kinda on the nose with its 'hope v despair' theme, but each seems a solid mystery with a colorful cast.

I was late on the train for Kid Icarus: Uprising, but damn when I hoped on, did NOT regret it. Some of the greatest writing, voice acting, voice direction, story, and characters yet to be put to a single Nintendo game! The greatest come back for ANY Nintendo franchise! Gameplay is kinda standard but plays well. A sequel would be nice, but honestly a port to the Switch would be lovely as well.

For five bucks, Pseudoregalia is a steal. N64/PS1-looking 3D metroidvania with great music and solid controls. Plus the main character is my wife. I've been meaning to finish it, but I've been busy...will one day tho!

Indigo Park is another game I haven't played, BUT I did watch MarKatoto play through all of chapter 1, so that counts right? Anyways, cute looking game. Charming. Nice atmosphere. It doesn't feel like it's trying to crib FNAF's style, which is to its benefit. I have high hopes for the game moving forward, especially when compared to slop like BanBan, yuck.

The Mario + Rabbids games, both Kingdom Battle and Sparks of Hope, are the most not-me games I ended up likely. XCOM-esque real time strategy where Mario crosses over with Ubisoft's Rabbids? But it works! I still need to play the DLCs all the way through, but again...busy! Maybe some day...

The Wild Robot truly is a triumph. A phenomenal film with gorgeous animation, amazing voice work, a simple yet effective story, and just an air of coziness to it. It's a nice film. Can Chris Sanders just direct every movie from now on?

I got into Doki Doki Literature Club when mascot horrors were in their peak. Ya know, Hello Neighbor, Bendy, Tattletail, that stuff. Again, like FNAF and Indigo Park, I never played it myself, but seen it played enough to know it well. Maybe it doesn't have the best presentation or execution, but I still feel it's effective at what it's trying to do, all while still having a lovely cast of characters and a very cute art style. Would check out DDLC+, but again...visual novels.

Pokémon...ugh. What a franchise. Most profitable franchise in the world, backed by one of the most beloved and successful gaming companies of all time, all to releases, well...Scarlet & Violet on release day. Gen 7 was the last game I considered good, and maybe I'm biased. Last game you could have every mon in. At the very least, I still love the series for its ideas and designs, and I am looking forward to Legends Z-A. Legends Arceus was surprisingly good, so with how long Z-A is taking, not to mention FINALLY being the long coveted third Kalos game, I'm hopeful.

[netrunnervt]

The Absolute State of (Arcade) Racing Games

A friend recently opened up a conversation with me about racing games and how they think the genre is dying.

After a long think and even longer talk, I'd like to bring up a few of the points we mentioned as a general round-up of what I think is actually going on with racing games, and why it feels like you haven't played a good racing game in ages.

TL;DR? You haven't. But you already knew that, so let's get into the actual details under the cut.

Here's the core issue: Mainstream arcade racers are becoming more like sims. Why is this a bad thing? Because Arcade and Sim racers used to have an incredibly clear divide - One was clean, realistic and meant to actually present a believable driving experience, while the other was meant to be over-the-top fun and style.

What big racing game releases recently have been over the top fun and style? I can't think of one off the top of my head. NFS Unbound has a gorgeous cartoony/graffiti ish style and people are slagging it for being "too much" or some shit, even though it's literally the best NFS since Rivals (Heat was mid and shouldn't even count as an NFS game, I will die on this hill). I can list off a FEW recentish racers that I've had fun with, but none of them have seen mainstream success:

Inertial Drift (banger.)

Night Runners Prologue (BANGER.)

GRIP: Combat Racing (SO CLOSE to being great)

Retrowave (neat little time killer)

Redout 1 and 2 (Anti-grav racing, obscenely good)

Notice anything? There's a non-zero chance that you've not heard of any of them. That's the other big problem - There ARE fun arcade racers, but none of them are being pushed to a mainstream audience.

Finally, one last issue that relates to Unbound's reception: There's a vicious cycle where arcade racers become "safer" in style and more like sims in gameplay, so the more hardcore side of the racing game community becomes a bigger proportion as casuals leave, and then they speak out against any game with even slightly flashy visual identity/style. This goes back to the start and racing games are all encouraged to be more clean looking, clean driving and completely lacking any flashy fun. It's a self-feeding cycle.

The most fun big-name arcade racers in the past few years have been NFS Unbound and whichever Forza Horizon has been available in the year you're talking about. Think about those two, then compare them to things like Midnight Club 3, Blur, Split/Second, CrashDrive 2, Burnout Paradise, Asphalt 4, F-Zero, even fucking Micro Machines.

All of a sudden, Horizon looks fucking boring. And that's because it is. The Expeditions in 5 are awesome, don't get me wrong, but the rest of it... eh. And everyone except Whitelight (awesome video essay btw) praised FH5 as a "10/10 arcade racer". It's honestly insulting.

I miss the arcade racers of the 2000s, and I know you do too. Back when Need For Speed was outselling FPS games and the world was a happier place. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I wish we got games a little more like Asphalt - a series I haven't touched in YEARS.

Until then, check out these personal favourites:

Night Runners Prologue

Inertial Drift

Burnout Paradise.

Redout and Redout 2

and of course,

Need more recommendations? Don't mind even older games? Have an emulator or console that'll run them for you?

Midnight Club (any)

Need For Speed (Underground to ProStreet era)

Ridge Racer (any)

F-Zero (any)

Micro Machines II

Crash Drive 2 (old flash game, you can probably find it standalone somewhere)

WipEout (Fury is my favourite, but any)

I'll be waiting alongside you until then.

[fi-fi-squeaks]

Why I Play Fighting Games

You know, I sometimes ask myself why I'm so dedicated to fighting games. Especially when I think back to how, for many years, I avoided them entirely because of big name toxic streamers and the toxic attitudes I've seen from fighting game players I knew personally.

I think I now have an answer that I'd like to share with you.

Characters and Story

So first, I know that story has never been the MAIN thing for fighting games. Stories and endings are usually very simple and straight forward. And even today, I'd never dare compare most fighting game stories to in depth tales spun in RPGs (Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous) and certainly not from print books. However, there is gold to be had and a huge part of that comes from the characters.

For example, as a transgirl, Bridget's discovery of her transness in Strive was mindblowing. And it got me to get back into fighting games. It's easy to want to cheer on the struggles of characters when you can understand their motivations and gimmick. In a way it's kinda like cheering on your favorite professional wrestlers. You can see their gimmick, you know what they're about and you want them to succeed.

In fact, I joked with my bestie that the more sympathetic I am to a character, the more likely I am to want to main them. And then I consider characters who are like me (biracial/black/creatives/entertainers/so on). And then a variety of factors. The characters I like most are all characters I sympathize with (Manon), enjoy their personalities (Leroy), or enjoy their interactions with the rest of the cast (Anre).

Vision

I won't get into details on medical things, but I have a medical condition that, at present, makes it hard for me to see small text on a screen. This has made me hunt down text size mods for Owlcat's Pathfinder games so I could actually read the text as I played. Or supersize my UI in FFXIV so I could actually function.

This is also why I'm fine with more actiony games and why I welcome voice acting when I can get it. I love to read. But I hate squinting or shoving my face in front of a book or screen when text is too small.

Fighting games, for the most part, don't provide this problem for me. The characters and sprites, particle effects, and moves are large. Healthbars and Super meters tend to be easy to read. So my vision doesn't really become a hindrance to how I play. Simply put, I can play this game without a lot of extra hoop

Mastery

Finally, I am not, in any shape of the word, a master at fighting games. But, I am getting better each time I pick up the controls and battle with my friends or with strangers in ranked. The game never changes and, barring patches and updates, the tools don't change. So I can feel myself growing better.

I remember a discussion about intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in videogames in Super Eyepatch Wolf's Shenmue 3 vid. I can look back and see how I've improved as I play. And that's a feeling I can't get out of most rpgs.

For example, when I think about how proud i was to make it into silver with Luke in SF6, I was not very good. I didn't know combos. I didn't understand frames, and I barely knew how to anti-air. But now, I'm good enough that I can pick up the basics of a character fast. I can see my gameplay AS I play and point out my own mistakes. In short, I'm much better and I can keep getting better.

So That's Why I...

There are other reasons of course. Like I haven't talked about how much music, visuals, and vibe get me into fighting games. Like I love character and stage themes. I love how massive these weird fighter personalities can get. And I adore the hype of new characters and the tournament scene. In fact, I hope to one day make my own Evo push (even if I end up losing in Pools, I want to try and see how far I can go).

It's also why I've been playing more fighters both on and off twitch. And why I invite you to play fighting games if you are even slightly interested. I realize that competition and pvp can be scary and frustrating for a lot of players, so I would say seek out fighters with rich singleplayer modes.

Here's a short list and explanation on games I think might be good to look into. I am not saying these are the best of the best or even the best for new players (since I also enjoy games like The Black Heart). These are just the ones I personally enjoy and I'm sure more experienced fighter gamers will have better suggestions.

Street Fighter 6: World Tour Mode, ON ITS OWN is worth the price of entry. You get to play a created character going through a story. While the story is mid at best, the fun part is learning how to play via the minigames and challenges, meeting the signature characters and learning stories about them, and creating disgusting busted combos of moves that you pick up as you play Best of all, you don't need to buy season passes to use dlc character moves for your create a character. And you also have the standard story mode, an arcade with classic games you can play on your own, and recently a mode to train against virtual opponents at various skill levels. Good shit.

Tekken 8: Similarly to SF6, there's an arcade quest mode. Which is built to teach you how to play. And it gives you advice geared towards the characters you want to use. And the character episodes are very short runs with five fights for an ending that's often silly and nonsensically enjoyable. I will say that the main "story mode" is meh for me, but I'm told that a) Tekken's story was always a secondary thing and b) This is my first Tekken so I don't know anything about these characters before I played.

Granblue Fantasy Versus Rising: So the main reason to try this game is that it's free to try. You get to play some of the single player story mode, the "not-Fall Guys" mode, and you can play with Gran and a rotating pool of two other characters. Obviously, there are things about the free to play mode that stinks, but I'd say getting to try a good game for the price of free is NOT a problem.

Anywho, if you play Fighting Games, I'd love to hear what draws you to them.

[argentumcor]

On the future of major video game franchises

All culture war stuff aside, the gaming industry is bumping into the same problem as movies: Return on Investment. It costs a lot to make a AAA video game and take a lot of time- not a little of that, it seems, bound up in new hires or even old ones learning how to use proprietary dev tools.

As movies need to take a look at their budgets, so do video games. There's a lot to be learned from indies in this respect. There are a lot of good-looking indie video games made by small teams on relatively small budgets. The thing is they tend to focus on visual style and good gameplay loops over photorealism and 'pushing the envelope'.

They also generally aren't being overseen by a committee who only sees the game as a line item on a financial report. Finances matter, yes, look at what I'm saying! But when you run a burger joint, you aren't getting ordered around about how to make a good burger by someone who doesn't care or know about hamburgers, or at least not if you want to the burger joint to be successful. Imagine running a restaurant where everything on the menu is micromanaged by one of those people who don't care about taste and only see food as fuel.

There's also an inflexibility when it comes to franchises that used not to be there. I've been on a Halo kick lately but you can see it in others. MS sees Halo currently as an FPS franchise; whether this is because of or the reason why Halo Wars 2- a pretty good if simple story-based RTS- was not sold on Steam or Epic or any other common PC storefront isn't clear. But the universe has a lot of potential to compelling stories in less costly ways, as seen by the ongoing book sales.

Multimedia storytelling is dying. I own the novelization of Iron Man, but there was not one for Endgame. There's tie in comics for DC games still, but I think that's because DC comics is a feel-good jobs program and not a business. Star Wars has one maybe ongoing video game series, a now non-canon MMORPG, and an upcoming game that I haven't heard much about.

A lot of this is tied to quality, of course; it frustrates me as someone with a real gift for capturing character voices and vibes from media in my writing that the only way to get into writing for franchises is to know someone. I don't know anyone and, because of my religion and background, the people I would have to know probably want me dead. I could do better than the writers in the industry who get these jobs. Of course, being good at something means you can ask for more pay, because you are not an idiot; if Disney hires a narcissistic idiot with psychological issues and rich family who can't write very well to write a Star Wars novel, she doesn't know any better and it wouldn't occur to her to demand a better deal. Nor would she have cause to ask for one once the numbers are crunched (not that Big Pub is terribly honest about, or even actually knows, those.)

As with so many things in this day and age, it feels like an unwillingness to plant trees you may not live to see bear fruit. You can say a lot of things about those who built our culture in the past, and people most certainly do often and loudly, but they did have the willingness to look at things in a true big-picture way and to ride chaos into interesting places instead of curling up on these iffy-but-known little dinghies with the execs and the CFO's niece and a college buddy's former intern as the storm threatens it.

[bluerosesburnblue]

This video annoys me. Not only because I've seen the Type-0 comparisons before and it's still just as much of a reach as it was then, but because it does that thing I complain about where Nomura gets involved in a game and everyone goes "oh, Nomura was in charge of EVERYTHING." He was not. The central point of this video is misunderstanding what Nomura's role was in Type-0

Because first off, no, the characters aren't "his." Nomura was only the character designer and that's not how that works. While he's also the character designer for KH and prefers to use characters that he designed when incorporating other Square Enix characters into KH (probably because he has to REdesign them for KH), the difference is that for KH he's also the director and a writer, while he's not for the vast majority of those other characters. Therefore, the process would be for the director and writer of those games to come up with the personalities and roles of the characters, then hand that off to Nomura to come up with (usually several) draft designs based on that, which the director then selects from. Nomura's only role in the creation of the Type-0 characters would be their physical appearances, and even then the finalized versions are the director's pick. He had nothing to do with their personalities, their roles in the story, and he didn't get the final say on the designs used in the final product

(He was also the creative producer on Type-0, but the creative producer's role is just to ensure that all the departments are coordinated together, so the gameplay is matching and serving the story, the design team's designs are being incorporated into models that the programmers can actually use, etc. He has nothing to do with the writing/conceptual work, etc. That's the director's job)

So with that all in mind, what makes more sense? That Nomura is stealing character designs and plot concepts from a game that he was minimally involved in the story of to use in his own game (which would be a total dick move to Tabata now that he's left Square, and even if Nomura's upset about his FFvs.XIII project being changed to FFXV and given to Tabata I doubt he'd be THAT petty). Or that Nomura, when working on Type-0, got a character description that reminded him a bit of a character he'd already made, Demyx, so he incorporated aspects of Demyx's design into one of the draft ideas for that character that got approved and then may have reworked some visual elements that he experimented with from that game into his own?

Also, I really do need to point out that in the model comparison part, the poses don't match up well at all outside of some vague similarities that can be chalked up to "this is a generic pose." Like, Gula's pose matches the Sora render from DDD and Aced's matches Sora's pose from 1.5, that doesn't make them both Sora. And also... we do totally have Foreteller model rips that look nothing like the Type-0 characters. You think the KH fandom wouldn't try to grab those? Please. We have some from the KH3 Re:Mind journal entries and Back Cover. Haven't managed to find any of Ava or Luxu, unfortunately, but the fact that they're all more developed than you'd expect and that the facial structures are consistent between games (even seemingly gaining more detail in KH3) would lead you to believe that the designs are a liiiiiiiittle more finalized than just being placeholders and they sure as hell aren't the Type-0 characters

How do you guys feel about this? I feel it's probably moreso that Nomura is just referencing Type-0/Agito XIII ideas (like the tower and its characters) in Kingdom Hearts now. I kind of hope that the Foretellers and Master of Masters aren't literally supposed to be the Type-0 characters or a Kingdom Hearts version of them, and that that's part of the reason their faces have been kept hidden and that at some point they're going to take off their hoods to reveal Queen, Ace, Deuce, and whoever else's faces (-has not played Type-0 yet-). Because that would be a twist lost on so many people (as this video notes) and a bad decision for that reason.

[blazehedgehog]

Have you played Balan Wonderworld? I genuinely love the game, and while it's got its issues, I genuinely do not get the sheer amount of hate behind it. It's a decent puzzle-platformer IMO. If you've played it, what are your thoughts on it?

I streamed about two hours of Balan right before I moved out of my apartment earlier this year. I always intended to go back to it and stream more and never did.

I also played the demo when that came out, so I've played the game both before and after it was patched. I think the patch does a lot to tighten the game up so it doesn't feel so sluggish.

It's a charming, interesting game, with great character designs... but... I dunno. I don't hate it, but there's something really strange about it, even after the patch.

It is very, very clear that Yuji Naka and Naoto Ohshima were trying to recapture the magic of NiGHTS. In terms of core gameplay they are nothing alike, but there's a lot of design similarities in terms of visual style, vibe and intent.

But none of it is as tight or as polished. It really does have the feel of, like, a student project or an Xbox Live Arcade game from 2010.

Which goes in to Yuji Naka's complaints, right. That he was pushing to have the game delayed and both Square-Enix and Naoto Ohshima conspired to dump the game and run. Whether or not that's actually true is up for debate, but at the very least, it's an official admission that the game needed more work and did not get it.

It is a lot of interesting ideas and interesting designs and interesting worlds but it fumbles the execution. I'll play more of it some day but obviously I haven't been in any rush.

People probably dogpile on it a little more than it deserves, though. I think there's room for saying "it's not that bad." But I also say that as someone who loves NiGHTS. In the wider scope of gaming, NiGHTS is sometimes seen as kind of a strange and obtuse game by the mainstream, I think.

So who knows, maybe Balan did accomplish what it set out to be.

[hgf-the-fairy]

Solaris, the utterly mind-blowing Atari 2600 game

I was going to upload a longer GIF of the game, but it turns out the game is a bit... flashy at times, so I had to trim out the UI and cut it off far earlier than I wanted unfortunately. Discretion is advised if you wish to see footage of the game in action with the full UI, as it can flash a fair bit, and the game has occasional full screen flashing effects too.

That being said, I uh... yeah, wow. Multiple gameplay styles in pseudo 3D with a proper like, menu thing that you use to... I think move around a sort of world map? Look, I don't fully understand the mechanics of this one, I'm kind of too blown away by the visuals here to pay attention to that one whenever I play this thing.

From what I can tell though, basically in Solaris you travel between various different section types, some on planets, others in space, and you use the scanner map thing to choose which kind of section you want to do next. And you can't move through something if you haven't already cleared it.

I don't really understand the overarching objective, but what I do know is that it's fun to shoot stuff in the game and the moment to moment gameplay is fun enough that even if you're like me and can't be bothered to read the manual to understand how it works (I assume the manual explains better what's going on anyway), the game is probably worth giving a look just to see the sheer spectacle of this thing!

Of course, it being an Atari 2600 game, I can't imagine there's too much I'm missing about how the mechanics work. Even the most complex games for the system tend to only require so much explanation, and that's stuff like, E.T. or whatnot, wherein weird symbols are explained in the manual and you have to know how those work or you will be hopelessly lost on how the game is supposed to work.

In other words, while there's probably more going on here and I bet if I played it enough times I'd catch on, I also could probably beat the game just using my current knowledge of the mechanics without ever really fully figuring out what the exact win condition here is.

I'm admittedly less sure what to say about this one overall though, I just think it looks cool and is decently fun to play.

Seriously though. How the actual heck did somebody pull this off on the 2600??? I feel like I've seen demoscene stuff on there that I understand how it'd be possible more than this for crying out loud.

This is a system with 256 bytes of RAM as a reminder.

If you didn't know that before, go back and watch that GIF again. 256 bytes of RAM. And no framebuffer of any kind to speak of, you had to re-adjust sprites per scanline on the darn thing.

Somebody looked at that and said "oh yeah, this should be a reasonable game for that". Somehow. And pulled it off, too.

Like... I dunno, if that isn't impressive, doubly so for a game most people seem to have forgotten about, I don't know what is.

[snarky-gourmet]

Hi! Are you playing Engage? What are your thoughts?

I am 🤧

I hope u don't mind this being semi-long but I wanted to mention some things I haven't personally seen Professional Reviewers™️ mention and other details that I've taken note of as well as my opinions thus far!

(No spoilers included, basic summary at bottom of post.)

Disclaimer that my perspective comes from the bias of only having played 3 Houses and 3 Hopes to completion; I do however have varying levels of approximate knowledge in regards to previous games and protagonists. As a general rule of thumb though, my main point of comparison is 3h.

Visuals:

-I'm not particularly fond of the specific art style in Engage, but there art times where it's not that distracting. I think that overall some of the 3D models look better than others. There are no still-photo icons to go along with dialogue, so focus is fairly hard to direct away from the 3D models.

-Battle animations are quite smooth, but I find some of them to be quite dramatic, especially the hit/damage animations! It's not really a positive or negative for me, just something that stands out. On the plus side it seems there are no more arrows clipping right through walls or units running through fences, etc, during battle animations.

-I actually do like all of the well-polished major cutscenes a lot. There are quite a few throughout the chapters I've played thus far and they are visually pleasing.

-Everything looks very shiny. Very shiny. There is quite a bit of crisp contrast in menu screens and the like. Text is a bit bigger than in 3h, so reading things is easier on the eyes.

Music:

-Overall I quite like the music during battles. I haven't had of the music any stuck in my head yet, so I think they're a bit less memorable than the scores in 3h, and those from Awakening that I've heard. but the music is honestly decent, I don't have any complaints about the quality.

-The music alternates between 1 song and another during the player turn and the enemy turn. I could personally do without this, but on the bright side you will always know whose turn it is.

Gameplay:

-Strictly comparing it to the gameplay in 3h maps, I've found it to be a bit more labourous in Engage. A lot of this can probably be attributed to differing controls, but I also feel like I'm pressing way more buttons to get the same things done.

-Weapons don't lose durability. I didn't know this in the first few chapters and was freaking out trying to figure out if my only weapons were going to break suddenly sjfbd

-Maps seem to be smaller in Engage than in 3h? I'm not sure if this will be consistent or not. Along with the possible smaller map size, I personally have found it to be very easy to work through maps even on hard. (Edit: smaller maps are not a constant thing; it was more common at the beginning.)

-There's a phase after battles where you can wander around a 3D rendering of the map and collect items, talk with allies, and a few chapters in, you can also adopt animals you find on the map. I like the cats :]

-Wandering around the Somniel is comparable in spirit to the explore phase in 3h. I personally don't think that the actual spaces, the Somniel and Garreg Mach, are comparable enough to pit them against each other. Somniel feels sort of like a very expensive dollhouse, I think. I am very fond of the garden. There is a wisteria tree. :]

-There are activities/minigames you can do in Somniel that will have benefits for the next battle in the story. They unlock gradually as the story progresses. I kind of like things like that because it can help break up the story a bit.

Characters:

-I like Alear tbh. I picked m!Alear to play as and I think he's neat :]

-I don't have much to say about the supporting characters as a whole. There are a few that I do like! But if someone is particularly fond of the sort of social bonding that exists in 3h, they may be disappointed, as in my opinion, there's just simply not a lot of depth going on, but nonetheless there are some fun characters.

-Similar to some games pre-3h, you are thrown new units at a pretty constant pace, so if someone isn't performing well or you don't like them much it doesn't have to hold up the game as they can be replaced.

-I am...not a fan of a lot of the voice acting. There are definitely some that this doesn't apply to! But yeah. I'm trying to decide whether or not I want to continue with the eng voice-over or the jp one going forth honestly.

Misc:

-If you have the dlc you can dress up the characters a bit. I'm not personally fond of the outfits offered, BUT. BUT! You can give Alear an earring and tbh that's all that matters. To me.

-My general impression is that the game is pretty straight-forward. I don't think there's room for many different interpretations of events that go on.

-S Supports happen at the end of the game. There are platonic ones and romantic ones, but both Alears can choose to s support anyone.

-It's a bit cheesy in a fun way.

Overall:

I think that if you go into the game generally knowing what to expect, it's decent. So far, I haven't encountered any glitches, so it does get a fair amount of points in this day and age for not being a broken game on release 🤪 If you really enjoy turn-based strategy games in general, it will likely hold at least some appeal. If you are looking for something that is very similar to 3h in every way, you may find yourself disappointed. People who have played older entries in the franchise may get more out of this game, but not having played pre-3h games won't hinder anything. There are some elements of Engage that just don't do it for me personally, but I am still having fun despite that, and I wouldn't consider it bad. My absolute biggest gripe is how the general style looks.