#grim fandango spoilers

[deadguydeathmatch]

Elimination Round 1: Poll 12

[lucimiir]

MY MAIN TAKEAWAY FROM FINALLY READING GIDEON: IT SHOULD BE A POINT AND CLICK ADVENTURE GAME

Picture it! One of those point and click, room by room adventure games (grim fandango, broken age, day of the tentacle, the inner world, to name some of my favs) where your character has to move through a world and advance by interacting with objects and characters.

The plot would barely even have to be changed? The majority of the book is exploration, and would work well as just player character Gideon moving through Canaan house and discovering things. A lot of the scenes don’t necessarily need to happen in a defined order, and could happen as the player progressed in whatever way they chose. Because a lot of the characters are off doing their own thing so much of the time, they could be stationary figures that you could come up to and interact with through dialogue trees.

There would need to be some sort of combat mechanic, and a LOT of cutscenes and/or fixed dialogues, especially toward the more plot heavy end, but even so

Plus then there’s SO MUCH potential for really cool art and visuals and interesting character designs!! And if really feels like the plot would exist most naturally this way, this book would never ever work as a movie or something

I can picture it so well! The first scene waiting for the shuttle provides a perfect opportunity for a closed off area for tutorial mechanisms. You could spend so much time running around Canaan House and exploring things and discovering doors and meeting the characters including Dulcinea lounging around with her romance novels and being cryptic, and Palamedes and Camilla would just be waiting around by the hatch for you to stumble across and lead you to Harrow in her cocoon. When you go down to the facility with Harrow you could get stuck down there until you progressed far enough through the challenges to get out. The first lab you unlocked is a perfect opportunity for bopping around and finding cool objects to store away for later. And then when you come back to the room with Jeannemary, you’re locked in their until you make the active choice to go to sleep, so it feels like you’re responsible for her death! Etc etc etc

Yeah I’m just very enthusiastic about this

[fnafawoundleftbleedingau]

Also following the post I reblogged earlier today about the AI thing scraping Ao3 fics. I've locked my fics down for registered Ao3 members only for a while. With any luck it will be a temporary change.

On a side note unrelated to my FNaF stuff. Im not very far into the game yet. But I've started playing Grim Fandango for the first time today. I'm really curious to see how the story plays out. And I absolutely adore the shape-y... ness, of the character designs! Just like I did with Psychonauts! The people at Double-Fine know how to make great shapey characters. I gotta study up on the art in those games more for when I get back to doing designs for the Through the Static AU

[captmickey]

OKAMI IS BEATEN!!

AND THE LAST HOUR AND A HALF WAS BLOCKED BECAUSE PLAYSTATION DEEMED IT AS A SPOILER OR WHATEVER BULLSHIT SO I JUST HAD TO PRETEND TO BE AN NFL ANNOUNCER. THAT WAS FUN.

But yeah, we did it, Waka and Ammy went back to the Celestial Plane, Issun is fulfilling his calling, I whimped out on the spider but sped run Orochi, fought the fish fetus (a word combo I never thought I'd say) and now Nippon is finally living in a good age.

Thanks to everyone who joined me on this journey, it was absolutely worth it........ sans the spiders. I'm debating what to do for next week, it'll probably be either my next mega-stream: Uncharted or Grim Fandango, we'll see.

Until then, see ya!

[buggymakesart]

Could u info dump about the smile for me game? :3 /nf

:-D!!! I can try! I'm not very good with my words, but thank you for letting me say them anyway :-]

I think one of my favorite things about the game is how weird everything is and how it makes it seem like 'Oh yeah that's normal!' Which is really nice!! Cuz I define myself as pretty weird!

Spoilers for the new update!!! v v v

For example, Flower Kid now has Flower Hands! Which I thought was a cute new addition, especially considering when playing you get A Hand as an item

SPEAKING OF THE UPDATE!!!!!!! GOD DAMN!!!!!!! They added so much ESPECIALLY INVOLVING KAMAL AND HABIT!!!! THE TWO GUYS!!

THEY MADE THE HABITAT TOGETHER LIKE I THOUGHT!!!!!!!!! AND THE ARTBOOK EXPLAINED EVEN MORE THINGS THAT I DON'T WANNA SPOIL HERE, SO I RECOMMEND GETTING THE DIGITAL DLC CUZ IT UPDATED ALONG WITH THE GAME. I really can't believe that LimboLane decided to make that canon. It's making me have so many Thoughts everyday.

Thoughts that include the fact that there's A COLLECTOR'S EDITION & PHYSICAL ARTBOOK!!1!!! THAT I IMMEDIATELY BOUGHT. NOT FAIR TO ME CUZ I BOUGHT THE GRIM FANDANGO COLLECTOR'S EDITION A WEEK EARLIER.

Anyway now I'm out of money <//3 This damn game I will purchase so many things, I bought the vinyl first pressing as well so you know that I'm a Super-Fan

I just really attached to Smile For Me for reasons unknown to me! It itches my brain in a good and nice way every time I think about it which is OFTEN! It's a silly game about mental health and helping people! I love helping people! And making them smile!! And the game makes me smile so Win-Win!.

I'm particularly attached to Dr. Habit as you can probably tell from all the art I do of him on here and all the talking I do of him on my main. He's so!!! Look at him!!! He's so pretty and silly and tall and all the things that I personally enjoy looking at into one being!

Legitimately I have NOT felt crushes on fictional characters to this extent before. I DON'T KNOW WHAT SPELL YUGO PUT ON THIS GUY TO MAKE ME LOVE HIM SO MUCH BUT IT AINT GOING AWAY ANYTIME SOON! Maybe it's cuz he's so mysterious and doesn't show what he really looks like up until the reveal which permanently changed my brain.

And even more epic is that Yugo said we can headcanon all the characters how ever we want so my headcanon for him is that he's transfem and uses He/Him and She/Her cuz I am a Girl Liker and I can do what I want. And him and Kamal are T4T (Kamal being transmasc)

I love how in earlier play tests of the game, the players wanted to Kiss Habit so LimboLane added the neutral ending where you can. So real of them to do that <3

ALSO!!!!! There's a lot of implication that the characters are Neurodivergent which makes me very happy and probably why I clung myself so much to the game being Au-DHD myself. Yugo is neurodivergent themself as well which is pretty swag. We love trans & neurodivergent creators of the world

Okay at this point I'm just RAMBLING, and I thank you if you read this much and thank you for being patient with me about it lol! I'm not very good at info dumping but I'm not sure if there's a way to do it really?

TL:DR I really like this game

[srhunt]

[babycharmander]

[ID: the three hands shaking meme, with one labeled “Manny Calavera,” one labeled “Morceau Oleander,” and one labeled “Me,” with the center text stating “having an office that was originally/doubles as a supply closet” /end ID]

did anyone else find this relatable? no? just me?

[espeon9891]

kinda ended up thinking about flower gore when i was thinking about Grim Fandango so here’s a Manny

[jenniferstolzer]

Umm, Grim Fandango for the fandom thing?

I just watched Coco tonight, so it’s fun to think of Grm Fandango a little bit since i was so reminded of it in the movie!

The first character I first fell in love with: I liked Manny straight off! He’s got a great wit about him. 

The character I never expected to love as much as I do now: Glottis! I didn’t know what to do with him at first, but he quickly became my #1 favorite by the time we got to year 2.The character everyone else loves that I don’t: I know Domino has his fandom but I don’t really care for the guy. The character I love that everyone else hates: Who do people hate? All the people I can imagine people hating are like Hector, and I don’t like Hector. The character I used to love but don’t any longer: I was excited when Olivia joined our group and came to El Marrow, and really disappointed in her when she turned on her heel.The character I would totally smooch: I’d kiss Salvatore, that suave sobThe character I’d want to be like: I’d like to be like Meche, she’s such a good person but tough as nails as well.The character I’d slap: When Meche slapped Manny I fully supported her. A pairing that I love: Manny/Meche, Manny and Glottis as bros.A pairing that I despise: Lola and Maximino! Why did she get hung up on that rotten chunk of driftwood? Poor Lola. 

Best friends!

[roachliquid]

spending the entire dramatic climax of Grim Fandango aware that Manny is wearing stilts is an Experience

[lozartist]

Inktober 3 and 4! Just a couple quick sketches on my break. Manny Calavera from Grim Fandango and Enid from OK KO Let's Be Heroes! Enid contains SPOILERS FOR UPCOMING OK KO It's up on demand, but I dunno if it's on the app at all and it says it's supposed to air like the 27th.

[deadguydeathmatch]

Dead Guy Death Match Round 2: Poll 16

[genaleah]

ANSWERING WILDCARD QUESTIONS

For the first time in about a year maybe??? Some of these might be even older than that.

Yes, it is Korka! I definitely want her involved, she’s a wonderful character and there is a *lot* of fun paranormal stuff going on in this setting that she can help them research. Also, I’d just love for her and Nelson to become friends!

Thank you! I love him a lot, and it’s fun to picture him interacting with the other guys. They’d all make for some interesting uncle figures, but they might not be that great in terms of role models.

OHOHO. Devilish laugh. That’s a wonderful idea, and a good way to keep him occupied at some point. He’s a great character, but he’s incredibly powerful, and I want these dudes to solve their own problems whenever possible. 

A good question! I don’t remember most of my dreams, but there’s usually a consistent look to the vivid ones. Lots of water, mountains, creeks, and high, winding roads. There are also a lot of buildings that are closely integrated with nature, even though I have almost never seen construction like that. 

I had not, but now I have! Here’s a trailer, for anyone else that missed it:

https://youtu.be/33HXHaaagsw

I really like these new models! I’m looking forward to watching a playthrough when that’s available. Just like with Rhombus of Ruin, I don’t think I’ll be able to play this one myself.

DOUBLE FINE, I WISH TO SPEAK WITH YOU- no, I’m kidding! I think great minds think alike. But I’m really excited to learn more about that character and possibly involve them in this whole au eventually. 

I’ve actually tried to avoid almost any info about Psychonauts 2 so I can go in mostly-blind, and a lot of the characters are vague to me. It’s fun to look forward to, but it’s also a little harrowing because I don’t know how to anticipate for it!

N...NO..... I NEED TO... Honestly those are old enough that it might be a good idea for me to re-make them, as well as the playing cards I made for the mega playlist cover. I think it’d be nice to remake them as vectors... that might make for a nice art stream sometime. I’ll mention publicly if I start doing that, and sharing any of these conceptual Wildcards arts when they’re done. 

And if you’re just curious about what the tarot cards for the other characters are going to be, it’s this:

Eddie: Judgement, The Magician, The Emperor

Manny: Death, Justice, The World

Sam: The Chariot, The Tower, Strength

Max: The Devil, Wheel of Fortune, Joker

Although! I may actually give the Moon card to Max instead of the Devil, and replace the missing card from Nelson’s selection with the High Priestess?  🤔  I’ll decide when I get to it.

Could be! I’ve flip-flopped occasionally on if I want the split-a-cab gang to participate much in the story. I think they deserve a break, and splitting an apartment in New York seems like a good situation for the four of them.

Oh boy, that must be so disorienting for him. The Psychonauts deal with a lot of hippy-dippy weirdness in a seemingly organized way, but it seems like they’re not as paranoid about safety as a real federal organization would be. Not necessarily a good thing, considering one of their camp counselors went AWOL one day, and the head of the Psychonauts got kidnapped the next. They kinda need to get their act together.

Fun fact, in one of the earlier drafts of Chapter 3 I was actually going to make Nelson get scanned by the equivalent of a metal-detector for malevolent thoughts at the door and get really spooked by it, but I decided against it.

YEAH IT’S ON THE LIST

Honestly, a big bulk of the plot in this just regards characters having to face their mental health struggles... via facing it as literal internal demons, unstable powers, etc.  It’s going to take a little while for any of Eddie’s teammates to realize how MUCH he has going on under the surface because he does a pretty good job of hiding it. “Needing to help others above ever helping themselves” is a hard issue to notice if you’re not looking for it. But it’s a guarantee that once they find out he needs help, they’ll give it; whether that’s making sure he’s not working himself too hard, or fighting off demonic cultists. Care comes in many forms.

SHE NEEDS TO REST.... POOR SYBIL (on the upside, they don’t TECHNICALLY work there, so she might be fine most of the time.)

Strong Bad isn’t a Psychonaut! He’s just a vlogger and a petty (psychic) criminal. It’s honestly not very different from canon.

Free Country, USA is a smalltown hotbed of psychic activity. Nearly everyone there has some mild capacity for supernatural powers, but nobody really notices or cares. Strong Bad just pops the tops off of cold ones and.... sometimes alters reality, a tiny bit. But mostly just in regards to media. The cartoons, comics, etc, that he invents and talks about have a tendency to suddenly voip into existence and nobody knows how. I swear, there’s actually a line of him saying something to this effect, but I can’t find it anywhere.  Don’t worry about it! Nobody in town is ever going to do anything truly nefarious with their powers, so it’s not a high priority on the Psychonauts’ radar, just a weird footnote.

The only reason Homestar is an actual agent is because he seems like exactly the kind of guy to sign up for a job like that on accident and then stick with it. And he’s a talented telekinetic! None of his other friends know about his job or notice his absences.

And just for fun, here’s some weird instances of psychic overpowering that happened in the cartoon:

---

(Poor Strong Sad)

I’ve actually answered this one before! BAM  Pretty sure all of it is still accurate.

Nelson: He sees floating sheets of paper containing notes, questions, etc. Anything that he wants to know more about regarding that person. The notes are subject to edits, cross-outs, ripped pages, etc.

Guybrush: He sees the item that the person is carrying that he wants most. As he gets to know people better, he sees them for their useful skills first.

Manny: His view of most living people is not very kind...

The people he’s closest to will eventually look a lot less garish. More like a flattering, camera-ready versions of themselves.

Eddie: Sickass sketch drawings that look like they belong in the margins of a composition book. The illustrations improve as he gets a better picture of where they’d fit in the internal lore of his mental world.

Sam: A lot like Nelson; Sam pictures case files, though his are a bit more in-depth.

Max: Max’s visions of people are highly personal and uncomfortable for those who witness them. He sees Nelson as a puzzle with a piece missing. Guybrush is a ripped up voodoo doll. Manny is a forgotten ofrenda. Eddie is a powder keg with a long, lit fuse. Sam is Sam, but he’s the wrong one.

I also got two questions that were pretty big subjects, or that I didn’t want to repeat, so I’m gonna cover them pretty broadly:

REGARDING [X] CHARACTER OR SERIES INCLUDED IN THE AU

Sure, I support it! I’ve gotten this question a few times in regards to things that I haven’t had time to delve into yet, or I’m not interested in, so I’m not going to include it into the AU myself. But if you want to explore an idea like that, feel free! This AU is pretty dang collaborative.

My main focus is just on the main 6 properties: Psychonauts, Puzzle Agent, Monkey Island, Grim Fandango, Brutal Legend, and Sam & Max.

But my general rule of thumb for “characters that exist somewhere within the background of this story” are any other properties owned by Telltale, Lucasarts, or Double Fine. And considering all of the licensed games that Telltale was getting into before it kicked the bucket, that includes some really weird characters, even up to the Venture Bros. I loved that series, but I’m not really interested in doing anything with them for this story! Partly for my sanity, the canon I’ve picked are already a lot of content to play with. 

ASSORTED QUESTIONS ABOUT THE WILDCARD AU DISCORD

There’s no particular criteria needed to join the discord, and it’s not strictly on a need-to-know basis! Because it’s been a long while since anyone has joined, I've been hesitant about adding new people in... But I‘ve decided to try sending invitations again! Everyone who had asked about it in the past will be getting a ping by me in about a day or so, since I want to double-check if you’re still interested. If you’ve been nervous to ask you can reply to this post or message me privately.

Some things to keep in mind before asking or accepting the invite:

If you’re not a friend or a follower I recognize, I will likely double-check your tumblr along with some other current members before sending the invite. 

Here’s the Rules page, so you know what to expect before you join: 

Be Mindful - Respect other people's boundaries, don't do or say things that would cross the line. If your behavior makes other people feel uncomfortable or unsafe, I will remove you from the chat. In most cases I will try to resolve things with you and offer a chance to do better, but that will depend on the severity of the situation. And if you have any concerns regarding another member of the chat, you can contact me privately.

Health Boundaries - While discussions of mental health do occasionally pop up, do not rely on the chat for help. None of us are equipped to handle serious mental health concerns, and it will only cause distress for everyone. Please seek real help if it is needed! If you rely on people beyond the point that they have asked you to stop, I will remove you from the chat.

NSFW - Generally speaking, try to keep NSFW talk to a minimum. Swearing and humor is fine, but don't get too explicit please! Discussions should usually keep to a PG-13 / occasional R, but no NC-17.

Spoilers & Censorship - Please use the spoiler function to hide story spoilers, as well as discussions and graphic depictions of gore/excessive blood/body horror/severe psychological horror. Include a content warning so that people know what they could potentially be seeing when they click on the censored content. If the spoilered content is the subject of a back-and-forth discussion, please use another warning when you are switching to a different spoilered topic. (Note that these rules were added to the chat later, so be careful when using the search function or back reading.)

The canon series involved with the Wildcard AU are Psychonauts, Puzzle Agent, Monkey Island, Grim Fandango, Brutal Legend, and Sam & Max. Please be mindful of story spoilers!

Channel Organization - Also be mindful of which channel you're in and move a discussion over if need be! That way they don't get too clogged with unrelated info.

Creative Criticism - When it comes to writing, art, or character creation; try to be open to suggestions from others! Nearly all of the creative work in the chat is collaborative, so input from others is important! Creative criticism is not the same as judgement, and is not a personal attack.

Have fun! - Discussions move quickly in this chat! Don't feel bad if you ever need to step back, whether it's because of the speed or a disinterest in whatever current topic we're focusing on. If you ever want to come back, we're happy to have you and can give quick explanations if you feel out of the loop! :thumbsup:

We’re a group of approx. a half dozen to a dozen people, either posting very very quickly in a span of a few hours or barely anything for a few days. We’ve been in an activity uptick lately and there’s about a year and half of back content, too. If it’s hard to keep up on, not that interesting to read through, or you just have a hard time gelling with the group that's already there, there’s no shame in just lurking or dipping out if you need to.

We also talk a lot about Psychonauts OCs, so anticipate that.

[cosmic-navel-gazin]

This is something a bit different from me, but in light of the recent announcement from Ubisoft that there’s going to be a remake of Prince of Persia: Sands of Time coming out in January 2021, I thought I’d share some thoughts.

(This started out small but got outta hand so super long post incoming, no spoilers for the games)

So first off, a bit of my history with the original game.

 I’m a big fan of the Prince of Persia (PoP) franchise, and I’ll fully admit that nostalgia plays a big part in it. You see, in many ways this 2003 classic was my real entryway drug into the world of videogames.

It wasn’t the first videogame I had ever played. My friends had consoles, there were some games on the school computers, but I didn’t own games as a kid. As far as my parents were concerned, these were all the spoils and soul damning devices of Lucifer himself. You know how it is, every generation goes through this thing of blaming all the world’s problems on a new artform: rock and roll, comic books and then videogames.

So yeah, a gaming console or buying games for the home computer was a BIG NO-NO! 

But of course, the more an authority figure says you can’t have something, the more you want and crave it. It was only a matter of time until the opportunity presented itself to me.

And then the day finally came.

It was just me and a couple of friends, going to this new magazine store near the school. And there it was: the dvd case that came with a gaming mag for like 5 euros if I remember correctly, stupid cheap for such a great game. 

There was doubt, there was fear, there was anxiety. I didn’t know much about the game, only the old 1989 DOS Prince of Persia:

This had the same name but looked different. I was seduced immediately.

The case stared longingly at me:

 It’s not my fault, I was bewitched and I bought it.

My symbol of rebellion, my first big transgression, and my first real treasured posession that I bought with hard earned money.

PoP:The Sands of Time was my original sin so to say:

Accurate representation of what happened that day

I furiously installed the game as soon as my parents left the house. Played it for a couple of hours and stood in awe at the thing - the cinematics, the cool parkour moves, the arabian nights setting, the time manipulation to undo mistakes when platforming or in combat, the Prince breaking the fourth wall saying:”no no no, that’s not what happened, let me start over” whenever I died and got a game over…

You have not experienced true fear if at some point in your life you didn’t feel the cold sweat running down your back as you hear the very distinct sound of your parents’ car arriving when you’re doing something “prohibited”.

 As soon as I heard that sound, I quickly quit the game, uninstaled it (I could not run the risk of them finding out I had tainted their machine with a videogame *gasp!*), and ran to my room to hide the game before opening the door for them. 

Neetheless to say, I never made much progress since I had to start over every time after quitting and uninstalling the thing. I would just play those first couple of hours over and over, never knowing how the story progressed, but I was happy all the same. At one point I knew every line of dialogue, every music cue, every sound effect of that beginning part. It would be some years before I got my first laptop and finally managed to complete it. 

All of this to say that the game means a lot to me. Not just as a product or piece of entertainment. This wasn’t casually playing on someone’s gameboy advance or PS2 to have a bit of fun and pass the time.

 This was more intimate.

 It was just me; the game; a dark room and a blanket; and a sincere and charming, simple but compelling story told seamlessly through mechanics that only enhanced it. This was me witnessing gameplay and storytelling going hand in hand in a way that even many of my other favourite games don’t do, or don’t do as well (there’s usually some disconnect where a game only manages to really excel at one but not the other).

Ok, so on the announcement and trailer:

As a big fan you might think I was super hyped for this. 

But I gotta say…no, not really.

I’m not super angry, but I’m not really excited either honestly. And I don’t think it’s just the rough and uncanny character models and animation that people are pointing out all over (although that doesn’t help).

I guess to talk a bit on that, I should stress out that my problem isn’t that it doesn’t look realistic enough. To be honest, and this is going to sound rich from a big Witcher 3 fan, I think that the gaming industry overall, moreso big tripple A titles, seem to have this unhealthy obsession with photorealism. Like, I don’t need to see the characters’s pores to care about these polygon people. Strong art direction is what I feel is more valuable. I just don’t think this arms race to photorealism is sustainable. Games are taking longer to make and fund, and I’d rather have dev teams spend more time polishing and refining the games’ mechanics and/or story if the trade-off is less “realistic” graphics.  

It might just be personal preference, but I wish we were getting more stylized character and world design. Go look at some screenshots for Pathologic 2, a game that came out last year that hits that sweet spot between full-blown cartoony/caricature and realistic by today’s standards:

And I think that is somewhat what they were going for with this remake’s character models (or I hope it was). But it’s still not quite there, hopefully they’ll work on improving those so they can hit that sweet spot also.

(in defense of my hipocrisy and love of The Witcher 3, I think the more realistic look was appropriate for the world they were portraying, it benefits from it. However I don’t think I would love it any less if it had less detailed models and environments)

One last thing on the graphics.

I will say this though, at least from the footage we see in the new trailer the team seems to be capitalizing on colour. Big vibrant reds, blues, whites and yellows in the environment look great, and really captures the 1.001 nights/arabian nights feel that I absolutely love. I appreciate that since there’s always this tendency for remakes to suck all the colour and life from the original (in both games and movies), regardless if it fits the setting and tone or not.

Anyway, I think the reason I’m very much without a big reaction is that I believe the 2003 original is a true classic, a masterpiece even - I guess I should stress out that when I say masterpiece, I don’t mean it’s perfect. Just that the whole is bigger and better than the sum of its parts, that the things it does right, it does so right, that it completely overshadows the flaws. 

The story, the art direction, the gameplay (the holy trinity of platforming, combat and puzzle solving), the brilliant introduction of the dagger of time as a gameplay and story mechanic (one of my favourite mechanics in all of gaming), the music, the charming duo that is the Prince and Farah, the tight pacing with the game being just the right length and not overstaying its welcome, the outstanding level design where you’re never stuck doing one thing for too long (the game is always juggling between combat, story, platforming and puzzles, mixing and matching)… 

Looking at all these things, I just really don’t think we need a remake because I don’t think there’s that many glaring terrible flaws that could justify it. 

Adding more scenes and content could be good, or it might backfire: bloat and ruin the game’s already excelent pacing and fluidity (which I think is the main keyword that better describes the original, everything flows superbly). The original was only 6-8 hours long and it is better for it. I’m not confident that adding dozens of hours of gameplay like the big tittles today would help at all.

The only real improvements I can see are: 

tweeking and perfecting the combat (I’ve seen it mentioned that they’re implementing a targeting system which sounds good); 

perhaps also better Farah’s A.I during combat when you have to help protect her from swarms of enemies;

Maybe throw in a couple more enemy types? The cut sand tigers for example? 

usual things like adding the option of subtitles, add the ability to skip cutescenes;

But other than that…

I don’t even think the graphics of the original look bad. They’ve aged of course, with the game being 17 years old, but still. I installed it last night and played through the first hour to take some screenshots and I think they’re still good:

I can understand the MediEvil remaster, the Spyro remaster or the more recent FFVII remake in terms of wanting to update the graphics. I can understand that not everyone can easily go back to these low poly lads:

 But this game? I know I’m influenced by nostalgia and all, but I don’t think it needs that makeover that badly, especially when compared to these other remakes and remasters. Funnily enough, I just noticed that these examples I just listed were all PS1 games. PoP: SoT was a PS2 , PC and Xbox game. PS2 era games have aged far better visually and don’t need that big a makeover in my most humble opinion.

It would be one thing if the original was out of print like a Rule of Rose scenario ,where you can’t find the game unless you go to ebay or something and it’s stupid expensive. Or if it was a pain to get running on modern systems like it was with Grim Fandango, until it got a remaster. 

But no, you can find the Sands of Time trilogy and the PoP (2008) reboot on GOG and Steam (on Steam only there’s also the PoP:The Forgotten Sands midquel). So there isn’t the usual problem of the game no longer being accessible to people who want to play it, which helps justify the need for a remake.

The original still plays nice, sounds nice and looks nice, so I guess this all goes to show that at the end of the day, this remake just feels a bit unnecessary to me, at least from what little the trailer showed (I would love to have my bitter cynical ass proved wrong though!). 

 Maybe I just have a superhuman tolerance for older games and how they look, I really don’t have that big a problem if the game itself is good or interesting, so I don’t always think older games need remakes.

Maybe my falling out of love with Ubisoft in this last decade has curbed forever any hype I might have for their announcements, even when they pull out my  son, my baby boy Prince of Persia out again.

 Maybe I’m just burnt out and too pessimistic about remakes, remasters and adaptations (although game remakes usually do better than film ones).

And this makes me a bit sad because I don’t want to sh*t all over the first piece of “new”  Prince of Persia content we’ve had since 2010??? Oof, it’s been a while.

Especially knowing that Yuri Lowenthal is coming back and excited to voice the Prince again. And I also don’t want to be too harsh since we’re looking at an alpha of the game. But so far I’m just very numb to this, I do seriously hope it turns out good and that they don’t rush it out the door. But I’m not convinced we need a remake in the first place. The original is a milestone, a game changer. I’d rather see a game that had great ideas and poor execution being remade than something people already love and consider a masterpiece.

 Guess we’ll see how I feel once more news and footage come out.

Oh and feel free to share your own thoughts on this remake. I’m curious to know what both fans and newcomers alike think.

small edit: I can’t believe I was just watching this Sands of Time playthrough on youtube and at one point it is said: “Another game that is designed similarly to this is Soul Reaver actually.” 

Of course! I didn’t even see it! All of my favourite things are connected!!! Maybe that detail was another thing that helped me getting really into Soul Reaver as I was first playing it.

[danwhobrowses]

One Piece Chapter 981 - Initial Thoughts

Ohoho... Now that’s more like it! After another long break Chapter 981 releases Spoilers for Chapter 981, read it and support the official release

No Cover Story this time, we got a Colour Spread, I think Oda was sneaking in some messages in there, praising music for being universal and honest, which is nice for these times

People will complain about how Oda draws women but you can’t deny that he gives his audience fanservice on both sides, Kid out there full rip probably sent a lot of girls and lgbts in a spin

Things are getting a little out of hand for Queen, we see another Enel face from him

See this is what Apoo vs Luffy should’ve been, Kid completely shrugged off a surprise attack. But of course Apoo isn’t Yonko Commander level, proof is right there. Also small allusion to Pirate Alliances ending badly again, is this foreshadowing or trying to make us worry about Law?

Oda making that Number look as silly as possible XD Why does the intimidating shadow always lie?

Luffy ZOOOOOOOMS...with the stretched chicken leg

Ah but where would we be without the bickering? And Killer gets to show his intelligence here, even when driven mad by the SMILE he is the most sane of the four

Giving Apoo the sound limitation does justify his strength a little, but still mad he 2KO’d Luffy at 100% If it was a sneak barrage then sure, but 2 hits was far too few

Also classic joke set up, however it does mean there’s a risk of them not knowing that Apoo’s ability only works when heard...

The Eyeball print definitely seems to be Who’s Who’s banner, as he has his entourage of cat people, it’s fortunate though that he’s prioritizing Yamato for now, he really wants Queen’s head

Looks like someone never told Big Mom of the back way into Wano, her crew are re-attempting the waterfall

Oooooooo Kin’emon is seriouuuuuuuus! Working the pincer as well is clever, on top of Law and Denjiro’s flank

Buuuuut the Tobi Roppo circulating can throw spanners, as would Black Maria’s brothel...the door is a bit small for her isn’t it?

Sanji FOCUS! No, Noooo! He’s gone...too late

Team Tank are also splitting to search for Momo, which might I add still includes Carrot so can she be Nakama already?

Sanji being sad that the brothel is empty is funny, but honestly I don’t think he’d know what to do in one...

Kin’emon you have a Devil Fruit, you can’t jump into the water!

Oh lord Chopper! ...Maybe she still remembers her Olin liking to you? I mean, she only met Chopper in WCI when she was having cravings, and she loves to collect...

Up the Waterfall BM’s crew remind us that most of the people on there are dicks and want Luffy’s head, and the only one happy about the Kaido alliance is that bitch Flampe

‘No, it’s not him’ meant there was only one person it could be

MARCOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooooo! Thank god you changed your mind you sneaky pineapple

HAHAHAHAHA, down again, looks like BM will be lacking some reinforcements, but this makes it interesting. BM is now in the wolf’s den without back up, except for Luffy’s alliance and Kid

There was something really significant about what Marco said as well, it’s possibly on par with when Shanks praised Coby for his actions kickstarting a new era, change is being promised, for better or for worse. That or it just reminds me of “You can’t come at the King that easily”

What’s more IZOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Go help your sister! Oden Retainers and WB Remnants 4 Life!

Well this makes thing a little more balanced for team Luffy; the Flying Six don’t wanna engage unless they have to, BM’s forces are being held back, the Samurai or Law haven’t even gotten involved yet and Apoo can be neutralized. But it’s not all bright, BM spotting team Tank is dangerous, we still don’t know what happened with Team Denjiro, Team Grim Fandango (Franky and Brook) and the Mature Duo (Robin and Jimbei). The return of Marco and Izo does make me wonder if Hawkins will come back now too which I still hope for, sadly it seems Tashigi will not be entering Wano for the time being unless something warrants an extended stay in Wano itself. But we’ve still got question marks on Caribou, Kanjuro, most of the Flying Six, Yamato, Tama, Hitetsu, Hiyori and more. But now it’s looking like a Yonko Mash. But what was the title “Engagement” all about?

[piracytheorist]

Another year gone, and good riddance to this one. Even though it was terrible, your creations made it fun. So take a moment to reflect back on your work. Which made you smile and which one drove you berserk? Then tease us, please, with what you've got planned for next year. So we may all raise a glass to new fandom content with a hearty cheer. Finally, pass this along so others can share their past success and future ambitions. It's all part and parcel of fandom traditions! Happy New Year!

Ah, it was a bad year. And all things considered, parts of my creativity waned. According to my AO3 stats, for my “casual” account, since 2017 I managed to cross 30k words every year. In 2020 I hit just 5k. In my whump account, however, things stayed more or less the same. I guess some things worked for me and some didn’t, lol.

This was the first year I wrote fic for a new fandom, particularly the videogame Grim Fandango. It was so weird, since I started writing for OUAT I had never ventured so far away from it, but it felt natural to get into the mindset of those “new” characters and write with them in mind. And though I feel satisfied with what I’ve already written, I don’t think I’ll write anymore for it, but it was a nice experience to try something new like that!

Since November and until just yesterday, I managed to write 44k words on a single fic. The story is complete, so I mostly need to proofread and edit it, and hopefully I can start posting soon! It’ll be a Captain Swan AU of a romcom of some years ago, but I’ll keep the film’s name a secret until I post the first chapter (we don’t want spoilers now do we?), and of course anyone that knows me should expect lotsa angst in it. I do like me a happy ending though, so that’ll have one too.

When it comes to gifs, according to my archive page this year was just a little less prolific than 2019. Even though Wizards and The Right Stuff came out in 2020, I remember I had a huge strike of wanting to make gifs now in 2019, so statistically there’s more in that year. But I’m happy with what I managed to make with Colin’s shows and web interviews. There’s always room for improvement, and I’m glad that with only two shows of such a few episodes and only a couple of HD interviews, I managed to make so many gifsets both for me and the fandom to enjoy, and even learned a few more tricks in colouring and editing the lighting and all that. In such a small fandom, I suddenly feel seen as one of the most prolific gifmakers.

All in all, especially considering the time I spent stuck at home, I don’t think I was as creative as I would have wanted. But it was a hard year and the last thing any of us needs is more self-doubt. So with one 44k-worded completed fic on the way, hopefully some gifs here and there if I get inspired or if Colin bestows upon the internet another interview taken from the front camera of the phone he can’t seem to stop dropping, here’s to hoping for a brighter year to, among other stuff, boost creativity! 🎊🎊🎊