#obviously they have parts in the actual story of tekken but

[cherrysodabear]

🕊The reunion 🕊

Mika belongs to @chloesimaginationthings !

[kristailine]

Tekken 8 storymode thoughts/rant/review

Obviously will contain spoilers

But I have to say that

Surprisingly, I really liked Tekken 8's story (which is something I really didn't expect. I was preparing to gaslight myself that I liked the story because I was expecting a mid plot. But I can definitely say that I genuinely enjoyed this installment's storymode)

I'm going to remove my kazujun stan lens for this review

Jin has always been an after thought to me. The only time I care about him is if it's connected either to Kazuya or Jun (as a kazujun shipper). But the way he was written in Tekken 8 added layers to him and developed his character well. Don't get me wrong though, IT WOULD NEVER REALLY ERASE THE FUCKED UP SHIT THEY DID WITH TK5-7, but Tekken 8 was sweeping up some of the garbage left behind.

I always joke about Jin and his war crimes. Obviously, waging war is bad irl, but this is fiction okay. Anyway, Tekken 8 somehow managed to make me really feel like Jin didn't want to wage war. It was more of a result of his own self deprecation. Add to this, he was already suicidal before he took over the Zaibatsu, but after Tk6, he just really sulked into the idea of having to carry his sins and let it define him for the rest of his life.

The way they turned Jin from this guy who's hopeless and is submerged in his own hatred towards his bloodline and himself to this guy who finally acknowledges that all of the bad things are a part of who he is, but it doesn't have to be who he completely is, was really really really written decently. This whole character development with Jin instantly makes Tekken 8 on par, if not equal to, Tekken 4 story writing. And I was really impressed and blown away with how they unfolded the development. Because I really didn't want the romanticization of all his past mistakes, and his allies just cheering him on. Instead, his allies actually acknowledge JIN AS A DEVIL literally and figuratively (e.g Hwoa saying Jin has those dope-ass powers, Leroy asking Jin who is he, Xiaoyu saying she isn't scared of Jin despite the devil look), but they all believed in the chance they gave him to atone for everything he's done wrong.

I wish we could've gotten more about the history of the devil gene. It's still a very vague concept, and I was kinda expecting Tekken 8 to answer most of the questions about it, but still no.

Although as a Jun stan, I'm upset she never really appeared in the real world, I have to say that I really like how they still kept going with Jun's persona as a mysterious woman. If you see a previous post of mine, I have always been scared that Tekken 8 would finally be the franchise who would ruin Jun's character, but they played safe with it. She's still as mysterious as ever, but they allowed her to show more of her kindheartedness.

Like I said, I really wish we could've gotten more. I wish we could've also got to explore Kazuya's perspective. It's been like 6 consecutive games, and we still haven't had a storymode that focuses on Kazuya's character (always the one sided villain). Although, I understand why they couldn't do it (maybe because of budget constraints, and it would really diminish and compress the quality of Jin's char dev if they're gonna focus on both of them). I'm assuming at least that we get Tekken 9 and have it shine a spotlight on Kaz.

Overall, I really liked it. It gets an 8/10 for me!

More things I kinda didn't like:

- Where the hell is Yoshimitsu???? He appears in the tournament and then goes Bye Felicia once Kazuya absorbed Azazel LMAOOOOO. His bio about investigating the Mishima bloodline and whatever didn't really reflect on the storymode :<<

- Nina and Steve.... Uhhh.... We already had them in Tk 7, and I was at least expecting that they would continue it in Tk 8

- The Asuka Kazama erasure.... She's just treated as another one of the side characters at this point. I fear she's just only in the game now because of Lili. She's very underdeveloped and underutilized and I feel so sad about it :<<

Tekken has a very interesting set of characters with amazing dynamics and chemistry with everyone else. It has a huge amount of lore to explore as well. And they could really do better by exploring and developing most of the characters. Here's to hoping we get a story expansion DLC not just for the main story, but also for the other beloved characters in the game.

[xander-morrison]

Learning Tekken 8 Journal (Day 1)

Today is the day! Loving this game so far. For reference, the only other Tekken game I've played (aside from one match of T7 at an arcade) is T3, so I have a LOT to catch up on. Like, aside from me being unfamiliar with half of the cast, characters I DO know have more moves now, there's walls on stages now, characters get rage art super moves now, etc. Plus all the stuff actually new to T8.

With so much to learn, I figured I'd stick to some familiar territory and pick up my main from T3, Xiaoyu. I figure I'll use her for a bit, progress through the single player arcade thing until I feel more comfy with the game's mechanics, and then learn at least a little of each character until I pick a main for sure. Xiaoyu is a fine character of course, but one, I don't want to lock in a main without trying everyone out first, and two, as much as I like how she plays, I don't care much for her as a character. Generic Asian schoolgirl types are just... really not my thing. If she still plays the best for me out of everyone, I won't be upset keeping her as a main, I don't hate her or anything.

I played the arcade story thing for about 3 hours and made it to the orange ranks, at which point the game wants me to start learning more in-depth combos for my character. I figure that's a good time to try some new characters, rather than get too invested in one. Characters I have my eye on include:

Zafina (I hear she plays kinda like Xiaoyu with a few stances and such, but I think she's a way cooler character)

King (I originally wanted to main him in T3, but his multi-button inputs were a lot harder in that game and that was a major sticking point for me since I was brand new to the game. They seem much more lenient so far in T8 so he might be worth revisiting)

Devil Jin (His character reveal trailer made him look really cool, I don't think I have the tech skill to main a Mishima at the moment but still)

Steve (I hear this character is hard as shit but I'm really curious how he plays without kicks. Who knows, maybe it'll click)

This is the first game since like... Overwatch in 2018 that I've felt inspired to actually grind and get competitive at. Normally I am very much a one player game kind of guy, my most played games are roguelikes, RPGs and Souls games. Tekken is fun enough to make me really want to sink my teeth into it and stick around. It's my first modern fighting game (my next most recent fighting game I own is fucking Injustice 1), and the first one I have the chance to play actual online for. I've played a handful of older fighting games against bots and my friends, but will that gave me any advantage over everyone else new to Tekken? Probably not.

I'll be updating this lil adventure from time to time with the "#tekken 8 journal" tag on here. I actually really wanted to record this learning experience for youtube as well (@transjester64 and I have a gaming channel called Look What We Played), but I need to install a new cooler part for my PC for it to be able to handle both playing and recording without issues. :( Hopefully I can get that up and running soon, I like sharing this kind of stuff (obviously lmao)

[izzasecretredacted]

Using A Spark in Fate Core to Build My World

I thought I’d show you my process through A Spark in Fate Core, a worksheet for creating an original campaign setting. This doubles as a writing tool and something that will contribute to gameplay, even after going through it, so I think it’s worth showing what I ended up doing before formulating that introductory post.

Since Spark in Fate was made specifically for Fate Core, a TTRPG I’m not using, I’m using part of it. I also homebrewed this a bit, since it’s built for collaborative worldbuilding and I’m just doing this on my own, but not that much..

Step 1: List Media

Going into this project, all I knew about it was that I wanted it to be kinky, in a world that’s atleast better than real life, and related to space. This first step, which is to list some media that I like or has things that I want in my world, will help me get a more solid idea. I’m not going to justify my choices, because I don’t have to, not until step 2.

Usually, you would have 1 or 2 per player. I picked 3 total, which is a bit less than you’d normally have, but that’s because of a future step.

Cowboy Bebop

Star Trek

Tekken 3

I didn’t need all of the media to be sci-fi, and in fact, only 2 have space travel. I didn’t need media with a story, either. I’m actually pretty sure that, every time I’ve done this with an actual group, atleast one person gives an album. I make a point that it works just as well as anything else. I picked these because they were either cool, or were cool and also had themes I wanted to explore.

Step 2: List Inspirations

After asking for some of the stuff I like, Spark in Fate then has the gall to ask ‘why’. This means I have to pinpoint specific things in the media I’ve listed that I want to see in my world, and put that concept into a phrase that’ll be called an inspiration. I went for 1 ‘cool’ inspiration and 1 ‘thematic’ inspiration for each piece of information, just to keep a balance or something.

I’ll describe my thought process for deciding each inspiration. I won’t go in depth about how that inspiration relates to the media it comes from, because I don’t need the inspirations to be perfectly reminiscent of how they were explored in the media I chose.

Cowboy Bebop

Bounty Hunting

This felt like a good way to facilitate swashbucklery duels, and maybe have an excuse to explore dub-con/cnc style dynamics.

Holding on to Identity

I tend to get bored of sex that just exists for its own sake (acespecs gonna acespec), so I figured it’d be fun to ask what makes sex, and for that matter, romance and gender as well, meaningful to the characters doing it.

Star Trek

Space Adventure

It’s fun, you should try it! That, and I recently came across a book called “Elf Genders” that has tables for randomly rolling genders for fantasy cultures. I won’t use that specific book, because some of the tables are checks for if certain things are discriminated against, and I just don’t want to introduce that in this game. I’m giving it a shoutout because it made me realize that it’s kinda silly how aliens in media are often just a couple of genders that humans ended up with, and I thought I’d contribute to rectifying that.

Almost Utopic

Utopian fiction appeals to me because I just think it’s a more productive way to comment on real world issues, and because not being depressing doesn’t make something less intelligent or meaningful. I went with ‘Almost Utopic’, partially to acknowledge that Star Trek’s politics aren’t perfect, but mainly because it makes fitting it into the Thirsty Sword Lesbians framework slightly more straightforward.

Tekken 3

Expressive Fighting Styles

I like when characters have fighting styles that fit their personality, and are flashy to the point of ‘that would never work in a real fight’. Basically, professional wrestling.

Tech Awakening Old Horrors

I wanted to interrogate the idea that technological advancement is inherently good. Obviously, as a tool, it's done some pretty cool things like develop modern medicine and make long distance communication practical, I guess. I’m more talking about the idea that we should have more powerful technology just for the sake of it, and thought maybe having really powerful technology that poses an existential threat could be a good jumping off point. I didn’t intend to end up with ‘fossil fuels but Lovecraftian’ but maybe I can lean into that.

Step 3: Genre

This is when you pick a genre and put an adjective infront of it to make it more unique. That’s about it. It sounds easy, but with a group, it can sometimes take awhile…

Anyway, I went with “Kinky Sci-Fi Adventure”, of course.

Step 4: Scale

Ironically, this is another one-question-long step. It asks what problems the PCs will need to face, ranging from small town drama to saving the world from a mad god. This is actually a pretty complicated question when you put it in the context of a single campaign, which is probably why it gets its own step. It asks you to say something like ‘small scale’ or ‘big scale’, but then add a phrase to elaborate on the nature of that scale.

I plan on this campaign being a monster-of-the-week with space travel and rival characters. Since the broader problems of the world aren’t being tackled (atleast, not in the start), this would actually be a ‘small scale’ campaign. I’ll specify that the setting takes place in a large location, but focuses on a certain type of character.

I went with “Small Scale (Space, but Filled with Rivals)”.

Step 5: Establish the Facts

At last, I get to start putting in some more tangible elements into this world. Normally what would happen is the DM would ask a question (my favorite starting question is ‘What does mundane life here look like?’, but that’s neither here nor there), and a player answers it in a way that incorporates one of the inspirations. Then, that player asks another question, and another player answers it by incorporating another inspiration. This goes on until every inspiration is incorporated, making sure everyone gets to ask and answer a question.

When I’m doing this on my own, I sometimes write down a question and randomly roll for what inspiration to use to answer it. For this campaign, I don’t have to, because Thirsty Sword Lesbians has a worksheet for worldbuilding, with questions that I can use for this process. This is why I only used 3 pieces of media with 6 inspirations, because there were six questions that I wanted to pull from the TSL worksheet.

Since the questions were decided by another source, I just picked the inspirations I wanted to use.

What community does the PC live in?

The Sell-Whips. (Expressive Fighting Styles)

What’s the scale of this community?

Scattered across two galaxies. (Space Adventure)

What is especially positive about this community?

Complete and mutual respect for each-other’s needs. (Holding on to Identity)

What is a serious flaw of your community?

Sometimes you need to ‘grab’ someone to help keep the ship running. (Bounty Hunting)

What poses a threat to your community?

The sorta benevolent Federation, which pressures others to assimilate to a specific way of life. (Almost Utopic)

What poses a threat to the world?

The chaotic, powerful, and destructive Extinction-Tech. (Tech Awakening Past Horrors)

Step 6: Name Your Child

It wants a title for the world. Most groups skip this step. I figured there’s no better title than my blog title, so refer to that and continue to Step 7.

Step 7: Step 7

This is Step 7. It’s the step where ‘Sparks’ are come up with, root problems that have an effect on the entire world, and it’s the last step that I want to do. This step exists even for small scale campaigns, because they give an understanding of where more local problems originate. This is normally done by each player thinking of 2 sparks, but I like to make sparks usings the facts I established in Step 5, which is not Step 7. Step 7 is this.

Remember these Sparks, they’re the whole reason why I thought this process was worth showing. They’ll come up in a future, similarly ‘behind the curtain’ post, and will hopefully play a huge role when actual gameplay starts.

It’s a dangerous job, but someone’s gotta do it. (The Sell-Whips.)

Interstellar travel takes a while. (Scattered across two galaxies.)

Sell-Whips stick together. (Complete and mutual respect for each-other’s needs.)

Sell-Whips hunt each other. (Sometimes you need to ‘grab’ someone to help keep the ship running.)

Life’s hard for those who aren’t homogenous. (The sorta benevolent Federation, which pressures others to assimilate to a specific way of life.)

Extinction-Tech is never good news. (The chaotic, powerful, and destructive Extinction-Tech.)

In later steps, a group or solo player would create more local issues, and then create some key characters and places. I plan on doing all that without Spark in Fate, so that’s why I’ve neglected them. I just needed to come up with a skeleton (or the outside of the iceberg, if you’ve seen that Brandon Sanderson lecture that one time), and get those Sparks as a secret tool that will help out later. It’ll be a bit until I start the actual journal, I got some homebrew ideas I want put into writing, plus a bunch of rivals and my PC’s crew, but next post will have atleast a little bit of narrativeness to it.

[erenaeoth]

Hey have you finished Tekken Bloodline? I have a lot of thoughts about it and I'd love to hear yours

I have, yeah! I confess to binging it yesterday morning and am part way through a second watching now.

I'll put thoughts under a spoiler for those who haven't finished it yet.

I'm pretty pleased with Tekken Bloodline! It's closest we've ever gotten to a faithful adaptation of any Tekken material, and whilst there are some alterations, inaccuracies, and artistic liberties taken, I'm really pleased to finally have something that loves its source material and enjoys telling the original story.

There are obviously lots of things I would have done differently, but it has met and exceeded my expectations. There is a lot of careful attention to detail, from using TK6 SC Mishima Estate to model the estate on, to even dreamscape scenes like in the final episode taking place on Tekken stages like Infinite Azure and its nightime counterpart.

The closest I came to being irritated was some of the devil gene descriptions, which are all introduced too early, since Heihachi's more serious research into it is because of Jin, not before. That being said, I really loved the idea they fronted that actually the Devil Gene isn't evil - it is a power to be controlled like any other, and that with self-control and an absence of hate, it can be used for good. It turns the Devil Gene into something much more like the Force - a natural, neutral phenomenon that is only a tool in the hands of a moral agent. This does a lot to remove the 'genetic defect makes you evil' that some later Tekken risks slipping into. It also gives Kazuya a more full agency over his evil actions, which has always been important to me. The choice to focus on violence being what breaks Jin and forces him into increasing hatred and loss of control was a really nice one, and something I've always thought is really important and overlooked in Tekken. I think it is in Talon's fic you fear for my life (i fear for yours) that Hwoarang is disturbed by Jin's single minded desire to kill Ogre for revenge. Jin's overcommitment to violent ends begins as his undoing (in so far as his own choices are to blame for where he ends up), and we see that carried through in his thoughtlessness and cruelty later.

I do think though that with this more neutral angle on the Devil Gene, they might struggle to convey its parasitic aspect, which, whilst not excusing Jin or Kazuya's actions, also shouldn't be downplayed. Even the existence of a full-fledged Devil within them is a testament to trauma, without which a devil cannot arise. It is clear from places like Tekken 4 and 5 Jin intros, that Devil preys on the mind and eats into one's thoughts, filling them with violence and hatred. So whilst I like the take that the TV series has on the gene, I'm not sure how successfully this concept would carry over to a second series.

I am glad though that they introduced and demonstrated how unreliable Heihachi is as a source of facts. I was dismayed momentarily by the thought that they were really fielding the idea that Ogre awoke because of Jin fighting and came looking for him. In fact Heihachi had already told us Ogre was seeking out strong opponents (ie. Jun, not Jin) and to have Julia confirm that Heihachi awoke Ogre is a relief. It was a nice touch actually, to show off how manipulative Heihachi can be. Jin was getting more cocky and disobedient in that scene until Heihachi made him feel racked with guilt over his own possible inolvement in his mother's death. He instantly becomes malleable to his grandfather's whims and smaller as soon as he believes this to be true. Very Heihachi. Nice.

Talking of very Heihachi, I loved that we got a nice window into how messed up Kazuya's life must have been under him. We have Heihachi constantly berating Jin for essentially not being enough like his father, offset with Heihachi saying that Kazuya is pure evil. Why aren't you more brutal like your pure evil father, Jin? hurry up, be more like him. Oh, now you are, guess I'll shoot you. Good old Heihachi business.

I'm also chuffed that Xiao and Hwoarang got bigger roles in this, though sad we could have had either of those first meetings outside of a montage. I think all the characterisation in this was really nice actually. Every character was recognisably themselves, and I think the writer really understood Jin and Hwoarang's rivalry, which comes out of Hwoarang's endings really. I also loved Heihachi slamming Jin's emo behaviour and bigging up Xiaoyu. Another peak moment.

I think I could keep writing about this all day. I watched it in Japanese and am watching it in English now. I don't love Heihachi's English VA... but I think his Japanese VA did a really good job, and sounds a lot like Heihachi's deceased actor. I loved the time and energy put into studying the characters moves - all the recognisable stances and moves that have not only been choreographed well into a fight, but also done to convey character. I think unless you have choreographed a fight for a story in some capacity, you might not realise what a difficult task that is to do - you not only need to convey the fighting style well, get it to gel in an interesting way on screen to tell a story - you also want to let those movements still show off the character's personality. For example the playful way Xiaoyu's Phoenix stance is used, and the way Hwoarang is taunting during flamingo, using that very functional stance to act all cocky. There's just a lot of time and love gone into this animation.

I don't really have time to go into much more - I'll mention that I think the choice to put Leroy in in order showcase someone else who's been personally injured by Heihachi is a good one that makes a lot of sense. In fact, I think Leroy, all things being equal, would have made most sense as a Tekken 1 character, given his story, but moving him forward into a Tekken 3 plot did neaten the story they wanted to tell, and provide good strong evidence against Heihachi's lies about his own self image.

Stuff I was less keen on - the implication that Jin's brand is just a cool flame tattoo (we only see it when his new bad boy flame gi is shown off); the implication that Jin wasn't born on Yakushima and that his mother isn't from there; never discussing the Mishima Zaibatsu or just how loaded Heihachi is; setting the whole tournament in Peru? I thought flying there meant that they were going to have stages all over the world that contestants flew too, but no... just all set there, okay.

But anyway, enough of my rambling. Please feel free to chime in with your own thoughts and whether you enjoyed the show. If there was a second season, what would you like to see in it?

[gear-project]

Annon-Guy: Animation - In terms of artstyle's, do you prefer Hand-Drawn Sprites or 3D Rendered Models in regards to fighting games?

There's actually... three factors that can help make or break a game's appeal:

1. The Art style and rendering of the characters (in other words, how these characters are initially designed, which is sometimes inconsistent depending on the artists involved).

2. How accurately that art style(s) is converted in to either models or sprites. (Physics and animation quality are also a factor, including how big or small the sprites/models are.)

3. Whether or not the overall style/presentation/environment of the game appeals to the player.  (Just as with Guilty Gear, things like Lifebars/User Interface, Music, Story, game mechanics, extra features, etc all help define the appeal.)

Factors 1 and 3 typically go hand in hand as far as how a game is presented, game difficulty and its adjustment can also be factor as well.

But, more importantly, Factor 1 is usually set by the developers and how they want to present the game to make it appealing.

Like, for example, comparing games like BlazBlue and Melty Blood.

At its peak, BlazBlue has very well-defined artistic visuals and large colorful sprites which are very expressive and complex, not to mention decently animated.

On the other hand, Melty Blood has very small sprites, very simplistic animations, and while the game is still very fluid in animation, still has limitations in how the game plays out (when a character gets hit for example, they do not have multiple reaction animations).

Rather than saying BlazBlue is "better", it's more accurate to say Melty Blood has its own "appeal" to certain players.

This could be said of other games, like Akatsuki, Arcana Heart, Skullgirls, and many others.  Each has their own method of animation, sprite rendering, and overall presentation.

What determines how they rank in appeal is up to the players themselves, not so much what they actually LOOK like.

If you were to compare Melty Blood with similar art styles in anime like Fate/Stay-Night, obviously the latter would be a superior presentation, but at the same time consider what Melty Blood itself would look like if rendered in the same style as a film series like Garden of Sinners?

This is what I mean by "accurate portrayal".

It's one thing to create a sprite based on a particular artist's nuances and have it not be "all that accurate"... but it's another thing entirely when you can render it right down to the smallest details that the artist is known for.

If, for example, you compared such a work (Melty Blood but with higher quality sprites/animations) with BlazBlue... I'm almost certain fans would be split down the middle over which they liked more.

In some regard, this was the end result of a game like Under Night In-Birth.  While still a game made by French Bread as Melty Blood was, their goal was to compete and surpass the sprite quality of BlazBlue.

Now, consider how hype-inducing a game like BlazBlue Crosstag Battle actually is?

Players get to COMPARE the sprites of characters.  Even characters from older games get to join in on the fun, and even had their animations updated, like Heart Aino from Arcana Heart and even Blitztank.

Well, "updated" is also fairly vague.  Depending on whom you ask, you might say "would Heart Aino look better if animated/drawn by someone else besides BBTeam?"

Some might argue that BlazBlue sprites are TOO detailed, or they don't detail the accuracy of certain animations.  There's lots of nitpicking to go around.

Now, let's shift gears a bit and discuss 3D rendering, animation, and presentation.

Depending on whom you ask, 3-D is either easier or harder to render in terms of "accurate portrayal" based on how an artist intends to present their characters.

A good way of understanding this hurdle is to look at some of the oldest 3-D fighting games in existence: Virtua Fighter, Battle Arena Toshinden, Fighting Vipers, Ehrgeiz, Power Stone, Dead or Alive, Tekken 1 and 2.

One of my favorites as an example is Battle Arena Toshinden.  The 3-D models themselves don't really do the artwork presentation any favors, and yet this game did have something of a fanbase.

You could also compare it with the classic game Soul Edge, which had a lot of anime-based artwork which looked almost nothing like the 3-D models it presented.

Soul Edge later became the Soul Calibur series, and went for more "semi-realistic visuals" with its design, deciding to abandon its initial "anime" look.  This was also true of the Tekken games, though in the case of Tekken 7 the lines are somewhat blurred because of how much they increased the quality of the game's design.

While Tekken 7 isn't exactly "anime", it does certain things that give it anime elements, like throwing fireballs (Geese/Gouki), and even some level of airdashing (Noctis/Kunimitsu).  Contrast with Soul Calibur VI, which adds a lot of visual effects to clashing in the form or Reversal Edge clashes, Break Attacks, and other visuals.

Still, you have some level of grey area when it comes to comparing how accurately characters are presented.

Say you were to compare Mortal Kombat 9, Mortal Kombat 10, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 11.  There's quite a lot, in terms of details and features, that could be discussed between these three games.

All three of them still have their appeal, but the same is also true of older Mortal Kombat titles as well.

In terms of my own personal tastes, if I were to compare Guilty Gear Strive with a classic game like Guilty Gear X, while GGX doesn't "accurately portray" how characters looked in Daisuke Ishiwatari's artwork, the same could also be said of the renders from Guilty Gear Xrd.

Rather, in terms of significance, in terms of what people seek to enjoy, and the "limitations" people can endure (otherwise known as "suspension of belief"), or even just the hope that "my favorite character will be rendered in this amount of details"... again, oftentimes it boils down to personal appeal and expectations.

There are things Ishiwatari can do that no amount of 3-D rendering in Guilty Gear Strive (or later games) could ever accomplish.  That is the undeniable truth about Art and presentation in videogames.

But part of the ambition in Game Design is to seek "how accurately" these characters can ultimately be portrayed (regardless of 2-D or 3-D platform) and ultimately how appealing such a game can become.

However, even if such games reach the Zenith of character appeal and presentation... how much of that can be made "fun" and "appealing" to gamers, remains to be seen.

As for myself, I acknowledge the source.  No matter what mistakes Ishiwatari has made or will make... it's the fact that he continues to experiment, the fact he continues to make these games... that in and of itself is what I find "appealing".

[hi-i-love-u-bitch]

Excuse me! But where is my Sanders Sides Gamer AU???

Voices in my head: Gee Bunny, it seems you have no problem writing a lot of other fics and stuff yet you still haven’t even finished the next chapter of your Spiderverse fic???

Me: SHUT THE FUCK UP DISEMBODIED VOICES IN MY HEAD!!! IF YOU WANT THAT FIC DONE SO BADLY TELL MY LOGIC AND CREATIVITY TO GET THEIR ASSES IN GEAR AND GIVE ME SOME GOD DAMN INSPIRATION!!!!

Voices in my head:.....

Me: Yeah, that’s what I thought! Anyways, idk if I just missed a memo or something but I haven’t seen any Gamer AU of my boys and that is a crime in and of itself! Like, how dare! But fret not, I am here to provide content (Read: headcannons) that you did not ask for! Let us begin! Or should I say start!

(please note that I am not a gaming expert so feel free to add or correct stuff)

NOW WITH A PART 2!!!!

MAIN SQUAD

Roman Rosewood

Obviously loves RPGs! Anything with a good story line really! Or has medieval fantasy aesthetic!

Skyrim, Diablo, Undertale, Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, Fallout, Red Dead Redemption, Undertales, Dragon Age, God of War Dark Souls, Assassins Creed, Earthbound, etc.

Played West of Loathing just so he could rip on it but actually ended up loving it and spending way to many hours playing. Then he found out there was a game called Kingdom of Loathing by the same creators and went down that rabbit hole as well.

He was iffy about getting into JRPGs but then Virgil convinced him to play Persona 5 and he absolutely fell in love with the music!

All the music in his phone is either from musicals or Video games!

Also really likes choose your own adventure games like Detroit: Become Human, Life is Strange, and Telltale Games

So much video game merch! Usually figurines because he likes to make little shelves and display cases for them.

He also really likes multiplayer games because he’s a social butterfly and likes to play with his squad.

Sucks at first person shooter games but still willingly plays Fortnight or Call of Duty or Left for Dead with his friends because he doesn’t want to be a drag and complain. But also they sometimes die in game in the most hilarious ways and it just leaves everybody wheezing.

Virgil Dante

Horror games, obvs!

All about that dark aesthetic!

Devil May Cry, Silent Hill, Fran Bow, Sally Face, Resident Evil, The Witch’s House, Amnesia, Little Nightmares, Bendy and The Ink Machine, Alice: Madness Returns, SCP-Containment, Pony Island, etc.

Yes, he’s played all the Five Nights At Freddy’s games. It’s a good series and it isn’t his fault the fandom is bat shit crazy and full of ten year olds! Fuck you Roman!

Every time the Walking Dead comes out he knows he’ll end up crying by the end of it. He and the squad make and event out of it.

Japanese horror games are usually his favorite because they deal more with the psychological aspects of horror instead of the jump scares

So, yes, he’s also a fan of Corps Party and Fatal Frame

Also really good at first person shooters because he has a really steady hand (you usually have to when playing horror games least you want to restart the level) and it pisses Roman off to no end every time Virgil randomly headshots him.

Usually likes to by merch in the form of posters, t-shirts, or beanies. He only buys figurines if it’s a game he really, really likes.

At first didn’t know why people kept bugging him to play Doki Doki Literature Club but then he finally caved and...oh...that’s why.

Logan Mill

My boy loves puzzle and strategy games yo!

Legend of Zelda, Portal, Tetris, Unravel, World of Goo, Inside, Limbo, Pokemon, Shadow of the Colossus, StarCraft, Command and Conquer, Age of Empire, Heart of Iron, World of Warcraft, etc.

He likes Overwatch but doesn’t like playing with people online so he usual solos or asks the others to play. But that too usually ends in chaos.

Hates rage games because he gets frustrated easily and has broken at least four keyboards and two controllers

He still plays them anyways because he can beat it damn it! Just give him a minute!

Enjoys the God of War series despite all the mythological inaccuracies

He plays a lot of Minecraft to relax or destress and has build beautiful works of architecture and sometimes entire cities.

He thought it was stupid and childish and was embarrassed about it for a long time until the squad came over to his house one day uninvited and caught him playing. He was getting ready for them to make fun of him but they instead gushed about how AMAZING everything looked and how TALENTED he was for building all himself.

Logan ends up showing them how to play afterwards and they work together to make weird sculptures and complex tunnels underground.

He likes practical merch like backpacks, coffee mugs, pencil holders, notebooks, ect. as well as a few t-shirts and novelty ties.

Yes, he does collect Pokemon cards!

Patton Adley

Silly dating sims, farming games, and any cute game really! Plus a few side scroller games!

Stardew Valley, Harvest Moon, Slime Rancher, The Sims, Dream Daddy, Animal Crossing, Kirby, Monster Prom, Hatoful Boyfriend, Scribblenauts, Night In The Woods, Ni Nu Kuni, etc.

Big Nintendo fan!

He made the mistake of playing Doki Doki Literature Club without reading the warning tags and regrets it immensely...still a good game though.

He did the same thing with Huni Pop but that one made him laugh more then anything and he kind of got addicted to it. Then he found out there was a sequel called HuniCam so he went down that rabbit hole too.

He likes a lot of phone app games too like Cut the Rope, Neko Atsume, and Candy Crush.

Loves trashy dating app games, he thinks they’re so funny and cheesy

He was addicted to Mystic Messenger for a long while

Just because he has his preference doesn’t mean he won’t try other games too, Logan got him hooked on World of Warcraft (though really he did that to everyone), Virgil showed him Hollow Knight, and Roman suggested he play Undertales.

Prefers merch in the form of plushies and key chains!

He likes to bake and decorate cookies, cakes and pastries in the form of his favorite video game characters.

RED SQUAD

Duncan [Deceit] Adley (Patton’s twin)

A lot of first person shooter and combat games!

Doom Series, Super Smash Bros, Mortal Combat, Halo, Fortnight, Grand Theft Auto, Street Fighter, Tekken, Soul Calibur, Half-Life, Team Fortress, Destiny, Wolfenstein, Bio Shock, Splatoon, PUBg etc.

Patton was the one that introduced him to Splatoon and he won’t admit that it’s actually super fun.

Doesn’t mind story driven games and RPGs but he really just wants something he can zone out to and relax

He likes to troll people online, mainly assholes picking on little kids who just want to play.

He once teamed up with a group of kids on Call of Duty solely for the purpose of collectively kicking the asses of this groups of so called “real gamers” that were being jerks.

Has memorized all the combos! He doesn’t have time to sit and look up a cool finishing move, he needs it now!

Always mains the weakest/most useless character in fighting games and still manages to kick everyone’s ass.

Doesn’t have a preference in merch and usually grabs whatever he likes be it figurines, t-shirts, posters, plushies, or whatever, so long as he likes the game it comes from.

Has several tattoos from his favorite games

Emile Picani

Classic retro games, cartoonish games, and Nintendo are his jam broham!

Mario, Classic Sonic, Paper Boy, Transylvania, Spyro, Pac Man, All the Saga Disney games, Duck Hunt, Mario Kart, Galaga, Mega Man, Donkey Kong, Secret of Mana, Banjo-Kazooie, Conker’s Bad Fur Day, etc.

Absolutely fell in love with Shovel Knight when it came out!

Remy got him into all the indie pixel games: Towerfall, Terraria, Owlboy, Hotline Miami, Papers Please, Celeste, One Shot, etc.

Duncan was the one that introduced him to Cuphead and the usually play it together and see how far each of them can go without dying.

The game is difficult but the art is still so breathtaking!

Likes the occasional psychological thriller game

Bet Virgil showed him Alice: Madness Returns and Doki Doki Literature Club (after he’s played it of course)

Likes plushies and figurine merch with the occasional poster and coffee mug.

Likes to doodle a lot of his fav video game characters and cartoons and is actually really good at it. He helped design most of Duncan’s tattoos.

Remy Knightly

Likes a lot of indie games and old online flash games!

The Stanley Parables, Oxenfree, Inside, Firewatch, Super MeatBoy, The Binding of Issac, Donut County, Henry Stickman series, Impossible Quiz, Crush the Castle series, Hyper Light Drifter, etc.

He always gets everybody hooked on one game or another

He convinced everyone to play Undertales so for like a month they all went through a HUGE Undertales faze.

Was the actual, ACTUAL one that showed Duncan Cuphead because he knew the dork would be reminded of Emile because of the animation and would want to show it to him and play multiplayer (*cough* subtle matchmaker *cough*)

(Do not be fooled, he is a pinning boy himself)

Is up to date in all the gossip of the latest games and consuls, indie or mainstream! He’s in the know, know and if you need to know something chances are Remy probably knows it.

Weeds out through all the indie horror games for Virgil and recommends what he thinks are the best ones.

Same thing with Logan and his puzzle games, he’s usually is able to find very strange ones and Logan seems to likes those best.

Obviously has a lot of merch in coffee mug and thermal form as well as a few key chains.

Occasionally streams on Twitch with Duncan and Emile (sometimes inviting the main squad too), they’re commentary is usual hilarious.

[breadknight-likes-things]

Sayonara Salvatore!

“Sayonara Salvatore” was a fairly early mission in GTA 3, and it was by no means the first time this trope was used in media, but it set a precedent in my experience with video games and it was a big redefinition for (too) young me about what a video game task or mission could be.  Given to you about a third of the way into Grand Theft Auto 3, “Sayonara Salvatore” tasks you with assassinating the don of the Mafia, a man you’ve been working for up to a few missions ago, until he, you know, tried to kill you.  You do so by posting up on the roof across from across from the strip club you’d also been taking missions from earlier in the game and just blasting the hell out of the guy with a sniper rifle as soon as he’s in view, in retrospect it’s not even treated like a big deal or a grandiose moment.

The thing is, when I was a kid playing this(again I should not have been playing this) the idea that I was going to kill someone who had been giving me missions up until then was just baffling.  Some part of me had separated out the cutscenes of a game and the actual act of playing the thing as two things that would just never interact, so suddenly having the task of killing someone from those scenes was weirdly big.  I think some of this has to do with most of my experience up to then with the idea of cutscenes were the endings in Tekken 2 and FMV intros that I somehow had thought put Pixar to shame.   NPC’s felt like a level of untouchable, and I’d never considered that in the story of a game they could be just as disposable as as the random enemy NPC’s who always attack you.  Obviously this is true for pretty much all storytelling, hell look at Game of Thrones, but for video games it was something I’d yet to have even consider.

Rockstar would of course return to this well in....more or less every game they’ve made since, and it would never hit me quite the same as when I sniped that weird old man who would later re-appear in a bit part in Grand Theft Auto San Andreas.  So I guess I’m just asking everyone to say it with me folks 

“Sayonara Salvatore!”

[sage-nebula]

final fantasy?

This really depends on which Final Fantasy we’re talking about, haha, because my opinion varies a lot!

Overall:

Nah | haven’t seen yet | didn’t like/gave up | like it | love it | highly recommend.

a reason why: I don’t have a clear reason why aside from “most of the games were on Playstation systems when I was a kid, and I didn’t have ready access to them.” That’s a slight lie; I had a PS One as a kid, that I used primarily as a Spyro and Tekken machine, but that’s because I didn’t have Playstation games, generally, since we were poor and any video game money I had typically went to Nintendo games (since I was far more into Pokémon and The Legend of Zelda). Like, if I had a choice between a Final Fantasy game I had never heard of or a new Pokémon game for the N64, I was going to go for the Pokémon game every time, no matter how much of a random spinoff it was. That was just how I was as a kid, and I didn’t have the disposable income to get both.

That said, I did try to play Final Fantasy IX once. I had rented it from Blockbuster (that sentence aged me terribly, didn’t it?), and even though I know now there’s no way in hell I was ever going to finish it within the week I had to play it, I was excited for it anyway. The problem is, there was something wrong with the first disc; it kept freezing shortly after the theater sequence in the beginning. I thought that meant I had to change the discs, but that didn’t work, obviously, since the first disc is not that short. In the end I returned it without getting any farther than the very beginning, and that was the end of that. (I did buy it ages ago on PSN, but I once again didn’t make it very far since the combat hasn’t aged well, imo, and it was bugging me. :/ Maybe I’ll go back to it someday.)

Since then I’ve played a handful of other games (which I’ll rate in a moment). In my experience, I tend to prefer the less traditional (i.e. non-numbered) Final Fantasy games, over the main series ones (which feels a bit backward, but hey). Overall I do think there are appealing things about the series, but I just never got very into it.

That said, of the ones I’ve played:

Final Fantasy III:

Nah | haven’t seen yet | didn’t like/gave up | like it | love it | highly recommend.

a reason why: This was one I actually didn’t mind very much in terms of story or combat (and it is in fact where I got the name Luneth from), but shamefully, I ended up getting to a part where I had to beat a boss (Medusa or something like that) that I just could not overcome. Truthfully, I could have overcome this obstacle by level grinding, but I abhor level grinding (and am especially irritated when I have to level grind despite not running from any random encounters), so I just . . . put it down and never went back to it. I never got very far and I don’t remember much about it aside from the fact that the main character was named Luneth, and I had a female red mage party member that I liked a lot.

Final Fantasy VII:

Nah | haven’t seen yet | didn’t like/gave up | like it | love it | highly recommend.

a reason why: I’m just honestly not very interested, haha. I already know all of the plot details and spoilers, and the fact that the localization has so many typos (from what I’ve seen) was rather off-putting to me. The graphics I can live with; typos are another story. But yeah, I know that everyone hypes up VII as being The Very Best Ever™ (it’s basically the Ocarina of Time of its series), but I was just never very interested in it. That said . . .

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII:

Nah | haven’t seen yet | didn’t like/gave up | like it | love it | highly recommend.

a reason why: I needed games for my PSP, saw that this was a thing, thought, “Hey, that’s an RPG, I’ll probably like that,” and got it. I LOVED IT. Yes, yes, I probably should have played through VII first, whatever, I don’t care about that. I already knew all the spoilers from VII, and this is a prequel anyway, so what does it matter? It doesn’t.

I praise Crisis Core for several things. One, I freaking adore the protagonist. Zack Fair is an actual puppy angel and I love him to pieces. Second, the combat is great. Rather than being traditional turn-based combat, Crisis Core is far more action-oriented, which is a lot more engaging for me. I also really love the DMW and how it gives you bonuses based on Zack’s memories with his loved ones. My god, Cissnei’s and Aerith’s bonuses might have been broken, but I loved them. So the gameplay was fantastic, especially with all the side missions you could do (I loved all of the side missions with Yuffie, hahaha). Lastly, that ending. THAT ENDING. This is a perfect example of a thing where, you already know how it’s going to end, you know Zack doesn’t survive the game because he can’t if VII is going to take place, and yet it still punches you right in the gut. This is one of the few things that made me cry just as hard on the second time through as I did on the first. It was beautifully executed (no pun intended) and just . . . aghhgdsghdsagdsa. Crisis Core, man. So, so good.

Final Fantasy IX:

Nah | haven’t seen yet | didn’t like/gave up | like it | love it | highly recommend.

a reason why: Again, I’ll probably go back to it someday, but the combat felt very tedious and boring which made me not very inclined to keep playing, especially with the frequency of random battles. But that said, the story seemed intriguing and the ending looks sweet (I’ve seen gifs on my dash), so I’ll probably go back and finish it someday, especially since I do own it.

Final Fantasy X:

Nah | haven’t seen yet | didn’t like/gave up | like it | love it | highly recommend.

a reason why: My roommate freshman year of college played this one while we were in the same dorm together, and I apologize to anyone this offends, but the voice acting was atrocious. I’m not talking about just in the fake laughing scene; other scenes grated on my ears, too. Voice acting can make or break a game for me (it broke me on Baten Kaitos before I even made it post the tutorial level, tbh), and that put me off X. To be fair, since she played it in the same room as I did I know a lot of the spoilers anyway, but still. 

Also, years and years ago there were people online who bashed Tales of Symphonia by calling it “just a cheap knock-off of Final Fantasy X,” so. That didn’t help to instill any warm, fuzzy feelings in me for it. :/

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance:

Nah | haven’t seen yet | didn’t like/gave up | like it | love it | highly recommend.

a reason why: I haven’t played this one in years, but my god did I adore it when I played it. Again, I saw that it was an RPG (for the Game Boy Advance, this time), and I like story-based games, so I bought it. I did not regret it. This was actually my first ever SRPG, but I found the gameplay very easy to understand, and the story sucked me in immediately. I mean, a bunch of kids who go to an alternate universe after reading a book? And then for that alternate universe to actually be a manifestation of their dreams (especially the dreams of one of them, Mewt) in an attempt to keep them there? Like, bruh, that’s my jam! I absolutely love stories like that, where they’re in alternate worlds and they have to fight to get out, but the main thing keeping them there is themselves. I remember going out of my way to clear all the bonus missions in that game even after beating the main story, I loved it just that much. (I tried to write fic, too, but it wasn’t very good, especially since I was like . . . thirteen/fourteen, haha.) It was great, a++.

Final Fantasy Tactics A-2:

Nah | haven’t seen yet | didn’t like/gave up | like it | love it | highly recommend.

a reason why: This one, however, aggravated me. I can’t remember why, exactly---it’s been a good number of years---but I think it had something to do with the disconnect it seemed to have with FFTA? Something like that, how it broke canon or something. I honest to god can’t remember, but I do remember that I was really annoyed, put it down, and never went back. Pure disappointment. =(

Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions:

Nah | haven’t seen yet | didn’t like/gave up | like it | love it | highly recommend.

a reason why: Again, I needed games for my PSP, and my friend Luke recommended this one to me (after I mentioned playing FFTA, but actually before I had played A-2), and though I was a bit disappointed that it had nothing to do with FFTA, really, I gave it a shot. AND I’M SO GLAD I DID.

Like, honestly? I’m so mad that I don’t have my PSP anymore, and that this isn’t on PSN for PS3, because I want to play it again so badly. Everything about this game was spot-on fuckin’ amazing. The story, the characters, the gameplay, the animation, the music---everything was phenomenal. Even the cameo characters, because I fully admit that one of my all-time favorite characters in the game was Balthier, and I considered getting XII just for him (I didn’t, though, since he’s a side character in it rather than the main). This game’s narrative has everything you could want from a narrative---intrigue, drama, betrayal, romance, emphasis on family, the works---and is just . . . god it’s so good, so much of the dialogue is golden (and I applied it rather well to YGO characters once upon a time, too). Honestly, this is probably my favorite of the games on this list (though Crisis Core is a close second). It’s incredible.

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles:

Nah | haven’t seen yet | didn’t like/gave up | like it | love it | highly recommend.

a reason why: This is an odd case in that I really, really liked / loved it . . . but was forced to give up because I couldn’t beat the final boss (and I do mean the final, final boss). :(

I had so much fun playing this game. Despite how annoying the moogle was (“I’m tired, kupo!” “It’s freezing, kupo!” “I’m too HOT, kupo!” SHUT THE FUCK UP, KUPO!!), I found the exploration and variety in combat to be fantastic, and I loved my character (she was a wolf-styled selkie; I wish I remembered what I had named her). I also played this game with my older sister a lot, which was one of the few times we ever got along. She would help navigate, and I handled the combat. We were a good team at that, but even with her navigation and my combat skills, by the time we’d reach the final boss (Raem, I think its name was?), I’d be too low on health to beat it. :( I could have trained up more, but I just never went back, which is a shame. I will say that I adored the passage of time, and the memory aspect. Reading the journal entries on top of doing the sidequests for all the different characters in the game was probably my favorite part.

If only Kupo (his real name was Mog, but we called him Kupo), wasn’t so goddamn annoying. Honestly, Kupo, I know I need you to carry the chalice, but shut the fuck up for real.

And I think that’s all of the ones I’ve played! Well, I do remember playing another Crystal Chronicles game for the DS---Ring something or other---but I didn’t get very far and can’t even remember the title, so I don’t think it’s fair to rate it. :)

[radramblog]

Nintendo Direct E3 Takes

Well we’re pretty much done with E3 at this point, and it looks like once again Nintendo is carrying the whole damn thing on their back.

This is obviously a bit biased, because I’m not really into the AAA gaming industry otherwise, and the only other potential announcement I cared about didn’t happen. You had one fucking job, Capcom. One job.

Anyway as I did last time this came around I’m giving some hot takes like every single other person on this godforsaken internet because innovation is dead and react culture is king. Shall we?

Smash DLC Fighter…10 or something idk

I mean, look. I was hoping for an indie representative. Kazuya isn’t really that. But on the other hand, Tekken rep is something I can still get behind. They’ve already got Street Fighter and Fatal Fury in there, might as well get Tekken. What’s next, Raiden from Mortal Kombat? Hell, might as well get some Rivals of Aether character in there, might as well, don’t even have to change much.

From what little we’ve seen of Kazuya’s kit, it looks like his gimmick is going to be…complicated input combos for special attacks. Hm. Well, it’ll probably be fine. People managed with Ryu, they’ll manage with Kazuya. I do appreciate that they gave this guy his demon form- I guess they had to make him jump somehow, huh?

 Life is Strange

I haven’t played the original Life is Strange, but I did watch a playthrough so I know how it goes. Don’t really know much about Before the Storm or 2, but I don’t think 2 is part of this collection anyway? Look I’m probably not going to buy this, but it’s probably good that it exists. The original was like, actual good rep, I think, so they’re probably not going to fuck this one up. New character is neat looking, good for them.

 A Bunch of games, I guess

Guardians of the Galaxy? Damn dude, did I ask?

Worms Rumble said it had 32-person multiplayer, which I was like well hang on how’s that going to work with turn-based Worms combat you’d be waiting for ever. Except it isn’t turn-based. And it looks like ass as a result. F.

Astria Ascending…I’m reading this name and I already forgot what this was. Sorry if you cared about it I suppose.

I know nothing of the Two Point…series, I guess? I keep on seeing Hospital pop up on either Steam or the eShop, and I’ve scrolled past it without thinking twice every single time. Not about to change that.

 Super Monkey Ball

I understand this series was a lot of fun for a lot of people, but it just looks miserable to me. With that said, I have seen some speedruns of these games that look incredible, so on that axis I’m happy this is getting made. Makes doing a marathon-length run of this a fair bit easier.

 Mario Party

Look I haven’t even gotten around to playing my (very fake) Mario Party 3 cart, you think I’m going to buy another 80 dollar game on top of that? Nah.

 Metroid

Yoooooooooooooo lets fucking gooooooooooooo

Okay so I’ve actually never beaten a Metroid game. Got some ways into Fusion and Super but didn’t complete either of them. But this looks super cool and good and I’m here for it. They mentioned that this was the first new 2D Metroid game in 19 years, which I guess means Fusion was the latest one.

…wait how many Metroid games are there even? Like, the original, Super, Fusion, the three Primes, and that one we don’t talk about…is that it? That feels a lot smaller than I thought it was, but I guess it adds up.

Just don’t cock it up, I guess. Metroid and Castlevania’s absence have left indie devs to fight for the Metroidvania name, and it’s about time the big boys got to come back around again.

 More bullshit

Just Dance 2022. Is this one also coming out on the Wii?

Some racing game that looks cheap as fuck, neato. Man I feel bad for the devs working on these absolute shovelware games, like I bet they’re either working hard or being worked to the bone. But this is what the result is. R.I.P.

It’s about 13 years too late for me to be caring about Dragon Ball. Especially since this is just a port. Next.

Mario Golf

I mean we saw this earlier this year. I don’t even know what was actually new in this presentation.

Bowsers outfit is fucking clean though. Once again proving himself the best Mario character.

 Monster Hunter

Fuck off Capcom. Y’all are leaving Mega Man in the fucking dust and he doesn’t deserve it.

I mean I guess ill get into it here, I mostly just wanted something, anything for the Mega Man Battle Network series. It’s their 20th anniversary, and we haven’t gotten shit so far. Literally just a MMBN collection for the switch, that’s all I want. They were even on the Wii U VC, you can just port those again, I don’t care fucking give it to me.

Anyway. Monhun? Ehhh they already showed this at their lacklustre presentation who cares.

 Warioware

Look I haven’t played this series before, it’s probably fun, but I’m not sure how they stretch microgame content out into a fully-priced game.

Also, the multiplayer looks kinda miserable? Like, in case Mario Party was a little too efficient for ruining friendships, now you can yell at one person specifically for fucking the both of you up, and vice versa. Wheeeeee.

 SMT5

Shoutouts to Squiggy, they’re super hype for this and I’m happy to see it. I personally again haven’t played this series, let alone Persona (though 4 is sitting untouched in my steam library, oops), but it looks pretty aight. I’m sure there’ll be a huge pile of demons to fuck up, or friend up, and some level of story that people will like (I have literally no idea what the plot of the series is), so. Atlus (?) has been at this for a long fucking time, they aren’t goofing this up.

 Danganronpa

Shirtless Rantaro Shirtless Rantaro  (shamelessly stolen from u/ AnaLissaMelculo on r/danganronpa)

I’m interested to see Talent Development Plan develop into it’s own fully fleshed out game. It was surprisingly good for a tacked-on minigame, and I hope that they’ll fully take advantage of its potential.

It also looks like the 4 games are releasing separately on Switch, but there is a physical collectors edition with all of them, and I mean, I can probably afford that, riiiiight?

R.I.P. Ultra Despair Girls fans, snubbed yet again. Ehhhh fuck it aside from the dialogue that game sucks ass so its fine.

 More stuff

Fatal Frame looks spooky, I guess. I dunno, I was talking to mates through half of this one so I basically missed it.

DOOM Eternal DLC, cool. I still haven’t finished the original.

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater should be on the Switch, and now it is. Or, it will be, in a couple weeks. Good.

There’s something on this list of notes called Strange Brigade, and I have literally no idea what that is. Oops again.

Mario+Rabbids 2, now with a Rabbid Goth GF. I’m terrified to go on any fuckin NSFW platforms for the next couple weeks, because I’m sure everyone is drawing incredibly cursed hentai of that thing. Ubisoft sucks ass, fuck Ubisoft, don’t buy this.

 Advance Wars

This sure isn’t Fire Emblem. Actually when I was explaining to my mates why this was cool, I called it Fire Emblem but with tanks instead of waifus, except I forgot this game still has waifus. I know strategy nerds love this series, so for their sake I’m happy to see it remade. This just looks unbelievably cute.

 Zelda

Oh look, Hyrule Warriors 2 DLC, Zelda gets the motorbike now, cool who fucking cares we got more BOTW sequel footage

It does kinda bug me that people keep calling this BOTW 2, because there’s no way that’s what it’s going to be called. Zelda has never done numbered sequels. I mean, they’ve also very rarely done sequels at all, but there are a few- Phantom Hourglass is a sequel to Wind Waker iirc.

It is kinda funny that right after I was saying boo who cares to Skyward Sword remake (still mad this is one game and not a collection) that the new game clearly has SS-ass floating islands and such.

I was hoping we’d get to see Zelda do things this game. Apparently not, she’s stuck in a hole now. Or dead. A shame. But Link at least looks kickass, so.

Look, they could not say a single other thing until release and everyone would still buy this game. Breath of the Wild was an incredible enough game that so many things that vaguely resemble it get compared- Genshin Impact comes to mind. This is likely made by the same (or similar) team, in the same world, and it looks fucking incredible. We all know this is going to be a good game. My hot take isn’t going to change that.

 And that’s the tea, sis. All the shit that Ninty had in their corner of E3. It’s a pretty solid lineup! It looks like they are bringing their A-game. I was kind of surprised not to see any Pokemon stuff- while it usually gets its own direct these days, BDSP is really coming up soon and they kinda need to win back the crowd on that one.

Oh what am I saying, it’s fucking Nintendo, it’s too big to fail.

[jobsearchtips02]

10 methods to play great computer game while you’re stuck inside

Link can go everywhere you see in this image in “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.”.

Nintendo.

Due to the continuous coronavirus pandemic, individuals all over are spending more time in the house.

What to do with all that spare time? Play fantastic video games!

Here are our tips for the best computer game to play for all kinds of individuals.

Go to Company Expert’s homepage for more stories.

You stuck at home?

However when you’re through with that stuff, and find yourself bored once again, here are some killer tips for the best video games to play.

Dive into a spectacular, huge world with “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.”

Nintendo.

Much of the setup for “Breath of the Wild” took place 100 years in the past. The game expects that you (Link) and Princess Zelda– the long time heroine of the series– failed in a significant battle versus antagonist Ganon.

Platform( s): Nintendo Wii U and Nintendo Switch

Laugh your face off with family and friends of any ages with any/all of the “Jackbox Party Load” video game packages.

Jackbox Games.

Ignore Parcheesi– your family and friends will have much more fun with absurd and wonderful Jackbox Games classics like “Quiplash” and, obviously, “You Do Not Know Jack.”

There are so many benefits to the excellent “Jackbox Party Packs.” They come with a lot of video games in each, they’re playable with a lot of individuals without any additional hardware, they’re offered on every platform, and they’re a ton of fun.

Each pack includes a handful of different video games, and each game is its own parlor game. Some are concentrated on trivia while others are closer to Mad Libs or Pictionary. The games are widely smart, simple to discover, and extremely replayable.

More than anything else on this list, the “Jackbox” video games are accessible for anyone– whether you have actually played great deals of computer game or never ever held a controller in your life.

Platform( s): Basically everything, including every game console, computer system platform, and a lot of set-top boxes.

Chill with “Stardew Valley.” Simply chill.

Stardew Valley.

” The best method to explain the video game, as a whole, is ‘lovely,'” my coworker, Matt Weinberger, wrote in a 2018 enjoy letter to “Stardew Valley.”

” There’s no real pressure,” he composed. Simply put, “Stardew Valley” is a really chill video game. And in these trying times, couldn’t you use a chill game?

Here’s how Matt described the game:

” You are a city-slicker who inherits his late grandpa’s dilapidated farm. It depends on you to plant crops, break rocks, slice wood, and cut yard to bring back the farm to its former glory. And as your farming expertise grows, so too will your relationship with your neighbors in the town of Stardew Valley, the game’s namesake. If you ever played the timeless Super Nintendo title ‘Harvest Moon,’ the video game’s inspiration, you understand what to expect.”

Better still: Considering that releasing back in 2016, the game has gotten a string of considerable, free updates that included major features like online multiplayer.

Instead of rejuvenating Twitter, why not water some crops and tend to some chickens? Now is the ideal time for some self care.

Platform( s): PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Change, PC, Mac, iOS, Android

Master battle royale video games: “Fortnite,” “Pinnacle Legends,” and “Call of Responsibility: Warzone” are all free– and excellent.

EA/Respawn Entertainment.

In Between “Fortnite,” “Pinnacle Legends,” and “Call of Task: Warzone,” there is a ton of enjoyable to be had for no dollars.

Each of these video games belongs to the extremely zeitgeisty fight royale game genre, which derived its name from the movie of the same name in which a group of high schoolers combat to the death on an island.

It can be intimidating in the beginning, however the genre rewards mastery– and if you’ve got a lot of time inside, why not invest it becoming a battle royale master?

Platform( s): PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Change, PC, Mac, iOS, Android

Discover your childhood with the Nintendo Switch Online retro games from NES and Super NES.

Nintendo.

Nintendo Change Online is Nintendo’s variation of PlayStation Plus and Xbox Live Gold– in order to play video games online, you must spend for a membership.

That unto itself isn’t extremely interesting, however the library of retro video games that includes the Nintendo Switch Online membership certainly is! For $20/ year, Nintendo offers a library of over 60 timeless games from the Nintendo Home Entertainment System and Super Nintendo Entertainment System.

The list consists of several significant “Super Mario Bros.” video games, numerous significant “The Legend of Zelda” video games, and lots of other classics– from “River City Ransom” to “Pilotwings.”

Nintendo Switch Online is, honestly, a significant anticipate what you’re getting: Literally lots of Nintendo classics across two timeless game consoles. Those video games likewise include contemporary amenities, like save states that allow you to stop video games anywhere you desire and jump back in exactly where you left off.

Platform( s): Nintendo Switch

Or play some of the very best brand-new games with the huge instant library of Xbox Video game Pass.

Microsoft.

Perhaps you’re not into the retro thing, and you’re aiming to play things like “Grand Theft Auto 5” and “The Witcher 3”? A somewhat costlier, but likewise exceptional option exists in Xbox Game Pass.

For $10/ month, Xbox Video game Pass offers access to a library of over 100 games. Every brand-new game that Microsoft publishes, from “Forza” to “Halo,” is offered through Game Pass at launch, in addition to a broad library of major third-party games, like the previously mentioned “Grand Theft Vehicle 5” and “The Witcher 3.” It likewise features replayable stuff like “NBA 2K20” and “Tekken 7.”

If you own an Xbox, there are couple of better offers to be discovered in video gaming– and if you’re looking for a library of video games to play while passing the time inside, look no more than Game Pass.

Platform( s): Xbox One, PC

Loading Something is packing.

Play all the big PlayStation 4 exclusives you have not yet, from “Marvel’s Spider-Man” to “God of War” and “The Last of Us.”

Marvel’s Spider-Man.

There are too lots of excellent games on the PlayStation 4.

” God of War” is an excellent, gorgeous action video game with an unexpected depth to its characters.

” The Last of United States” takes the endlessly retread trope of the zombie armageddon and uses it to stunningly psychological ends in a game that assists to move the entire genre forward.

Accept your inner divine being while clearing lines in the very best “Tetris” video game ever made, “Tetris Result.”

Enhance/The Tetris Business.

” Tetris Effect” takes a fundamental game (” Tetris”), performs it completely, and crucially evolves the principle into something totally fresh.

The foundation of “Tetris Impact” is still concentrated on creating and clearing lines from the play field as brand-new blocks are randomly created from the top. There is no significant shift or development in this regard– “Tetris Impact” is, at its core, a “Tetris” video game.

The game’s title seems like a mental phenomenon– and it is, in truth, exactly that: where gamers begin “seeing” the patterns of “Tetris” on the planet or in their mind as they wander off to sleep. “Tetris Effect,” the game, takes that and twists it back on itself.

Throughout gameplay, a synaesthetic journey takes place in the background. With each twist of the “Tetris” block (” tetronimo”) and lateral movement, the game’s music responds in turn. While this acoustic partnership occurs, the game’s background visuals take gamers on a journey through space, or the oceans, or across a huge desert.

It’s surreal, lovely, intense– and it’s much more than a parlor trick.

Beyond offering an extra audio/visual part, these synaesthetic effects serve to additional imprint the game’s seemingly simple gameplay into consciousness. It deepens an already flow-like experience.

Platform( s): PlayStation 4, PC

Hit the road with the slow-pourin’ “Red Dead Redemption 2.”

Rockstar Games.

On its surface, “Red Dead Redemption 2” is a cowboy game about six-shooters, burglaries, and living outside the law. It’s a Western-styled shooting game with a huge open world. The game’s advertising tagline says all of it: “Hooligans for life.”

Rockstar’s fictionalized 1899 America is a stunning, deep, remarkably slow-paced experience that concentrates on one male’s journey of self-realization.

” Outlaws for life” seems like a fight cry, but in “Red Dead Redemption 2” it’s really a desperate effort to hold together a lifestyle that’s quickly ending up being untenable.

” Red Dead Redemption 2″ is also an absolutely huge journey of a game– the “There Will Be Blood” of computer game, that needs as big an intellectual financial investment as it does time. If there’s a better time to dive into such an endeavor than today, while stuck inside your home, I do not know it.

Platform( s): PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC

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from Job Search Tips https://jobsearchtips.net/10-methods-to-play-great-computer-game-while-youre-stuck-inside/

[erenaeoth]

Does Jin even know how to cook? I know his mom is a bad one but I wonder if Jin learned how to cook for themselves or had someone teach him back when he is living with her?

Jin, Food & Cooking

*warning: eating disorder and cannibalism mentions

In terms of actual sources, all we’ve been told is that Jun is a bad cook because she’s more preoccupied with the ecological impact of her cooking, and that this means that Jin was used to bad cooking and eating whatever. And we were told that Heihachi and Kazuya have a gourmet and very particular taste in food. So for Jin, all we know for certain is that he would have had a big shock when he moved to the Mishima Estate and got used to the food there.

For my own headcanons, I have lots of thoughts about this. I think Jin does indeed know how to cook and took an interest when he, let’s say, noticed a disparity between his mother’s cooking and food he could get in the nearby village on Yakushima. I think he asked elderly folk there to teach him a little, and used to watch them, to try and learn himself, and would sometimes experiment with this (this is what my short story Summertide was about). I think both Jin and his mother followed the Shojin Ryori temple diet, which, amongst other things, is vegan, and I think Jin learned to have that balanced mindset and spiritual interest in preparing food that is typical of the cuisine. Jin lived quite remotely in the mountains of Yakushima with his mother, and I imagined they had an out of the way house hidden in the mountain (different to the more easily locatable ancestral Kazama house which I imagined as on the outskirts of a village). And I think Jun and Jin also lived on the mountain itself a lot, especially in the summer months, and would often be away from the house living under the stars and in nature itself, so the food they made would often come from foraging, something important to Shojin Ryori as well.

So whilst moving to the Mishima Estate was obviously always going to be a big change and shock for Jin, I think it was particularly big in regard to food, because it went from being tied to other aspects of his life, and a part of recognising balance and his place in the world, to something entirely done by a serving class for him, and over which he had no control. The food was always exquisite of course, but I don’t imagine Jin ever speaking up to ask for food to be cooked according to the preferences of his faith. He is a guest in his grandfather’s household, with abundance lavished on him, and to start asking for specifics would have felt like an imposition and poor reception of his grandfather’s generosity.

This changes again when he’s on the run. I imagine he had to cook for himself again whilst in Australia. It’s changed from the childhood interest he had in it though, as it’s a matter of necessity and he’s starting to spiral into all those doubts about his self-worth after being betrayed and believing himself to be a monster. I headcanon that he applied for work in a restaurant, with his cooking being one of the few things he had some vague confidence in getting a job out of to support him whilst he was learning kyokushin. He was put in front of house as a waiter though despite being a terrible people person, because the restaurant owners had more faith in him drawing customers’ eyes than in his zero professional cooking experience.

From Tekken 5 onward, we really hear a lot about Jin starting to lose control more and more often. We know from Tekken 6 Scenario Campaign that Devil Jin has some... interesting tastes, shall we say. It talks openly about wanting to devour its enemies, talking of them as prey and wanting to eat them. Post-transformation Jin likely spent a lot of time emptying his stomach after Devil’s escapades, so I imagine he came to despise anything related to thinking about food. It’s a purely mechanical necessity and there’s nothing more to it. Getting what he needs to as sustenance and managing to digest it before Devil takes over was probably more of a priority.

When Jin becomes CEO of the Zaibatsu, he once again can return to the Mishima ease of having everything catered for him. I think he probably continued his more careless diet, and he deliberately doesn’t stick to the more spiritual, ritualistic eating from his childhood, since he considers himself to be an abhorrence unworthy of seeking that spiritual balance and peace. His actions make him a monster, and what would be the point in trying to hold to such a diet when he has Devil cannibalising whenever it gets loose anyway.

So I think actually his relationship to cooking and food are a kind of microcosm of the transformation he goes through in his life. His access to food and the choices he makes in regard to it reflect the wider lifestyle choices he makes or has made for him, and his own thoughts on his self worth or lack thereof.

[limtaestories]

Lim Tae’s Origins: Chapter 2: Life Status at 17

Before getting 100% into the story, I need to recap how IRL life was going at this moment. 

Just like the title says, I was 17 back then, in second year of High School and I can say that I was kinda living right at this time, life consisted of going to HS, playing on the basketball team, watching anime, reading Naruto every week and then debate with my friends about this (I didn’t start reading One Piece until the end of my second year at university) and obviously gaming. 

Compare to my 5 years of mid school that were filled with good memories with good friends I made along the way but also very bad memories why people being real snakes for no reasons and the big love trauma that made me feel like I’m cursed and broke my self-esteem for a long time (I finally managed to fix 95% of it, so no worries I’m fine today!), the 3 years I spent in HS really were kinda peaceful. With its ups and downs of course, but people were more honest if I can put it that way. But I’m getting a bit too much into the future! Got to rewind back to 2011-2012! This is the period of the first part! 

If I could make a summary of what I’ve done and how I was : 

- I was getting good at basketball, I started to try playing in an actual club but I had a douchebag coach that almost killed my passion for basketball. 

- I sucked at Tekken real bad, even if I liked this game as much as I do today, I didn’t have the guidance I have today.

- I tried to get close to a girl but I was clumsy in my approach and of course I was kindly rejected (For real, I usually say that some of the girls that rejected me were bitches, but the true fact is that very few of them were actual bitches on the moral side, this one was a very kind girl, and with the rejection she just told me it wouldn’t happen).

- Useless info, but I was killing everything in English class, it was the only class where my creativity was overflowing with crazy ideas. 

To make it short, I was a loser, but not that much of a loser, because people respected me, knew that I was a gamer but didn’t take me that seriously when it came to some matters. 

At the same time, on the gamer side, the process into me being an uncommon type of gamer already started, not because I wanted to be different from the get go, but because I always had that need to find a game with an original gameplay or something in the game that was different regarding the universe, the music, the design or anything else. Because most mainstream games would bore me to death. Because when I see my Xbox 360 games, I can feel proud of most of the games I bought (90% second hands hehe), the result of years going to game stores looking for the good game and passing on the boring games such as Call of Duty, FIFA and Assassins’ Creed (after the first two that were really good back in the days). 

But of course, I was about to evolve, because the following months would have an impact on how to see things as I would join the guild where I would meet one of my best friends, people I thought were good, the person I wanted to be the love of my live, and the person I hated the most... 

To be continued.

[williamsjoan]

DualShockers’ Game of the Year 2018 Staff Lists — Michael’s Top 10

As 2018 comes to a close, DualShockers and our staff are reflecting on this year’s batch of games and what were their personal highlights within the last year. Unlike the official Game of the Year 2018 awards for DualShockers, there are little-to-no-rules on our individual Top 10 posts. For instance, any game — not just 2018 releases — can be considered.

Ah, yes. It’s that time of year once again. With 2018 coming to an end, we celebrate our love of video games with arbitrary lists naming our favorite video games of the year. Does this list matter? Probably not. But I’m here to perform my duty of telling you what’s good.

Joking aside, 2018 has had the highest of highs and the lowest of lows in video games. We were graced with several “masterpieces” while also covered — excuse my language — in absolute shit. We’ve also had some unexpected duds; games we thought would be, at the very least, good but just ended up being another disappointment. It has been a mixed bag in 2018, which made creating this list the most difficult it has ever been for me.

With all that said, here are my favorite games of the year. No, WWE 2K19 is not on this list, I just like the picture a lot.

10. Rainbow Six Siege

I know what you’re thinking: “why is a game from 2015 on a list dedicated to games released in 2018?” Rainbow Six Siege is obviously not the best game of the year, but it certainly made a huge impact on me and how I will play games moving forward.

You may recall an editorial featured on DualShockers I wrote earlier in the year titled “Red Dead Redemption 2 Made Me Realize That Long Games Aren’t For Me.” While RDR2 was the catalyst to this realization, there are tons of games this year, like Assassin’s Creed Odyssey or Monster Hunter: World, that I just couldn’t get through primarily due to its length. I enjoyed everything that I played, but there were just other games out there that felt more rewarding after just a few minutes with them.

Let me also iterate on something that I may not have touched on in that editorial: I’ve also completed some longer titles this year. God of War and Lost Sphear are, by no means, the longest games to complete, but they do take at least 20 hours of your time. Even with games like Monster Hunter: World or RDR2, I spent at least 20 to 30 hours playing those games. It became more about player satisfaction rather than that they’re “too long.” Although, RDR2 is too long…

Anyways, this brings me to Rainbow Six Siege: the 2015 game that made it on a “top 10 games of 2018” list. This game is pure satisfaction: whether I win or lose, every minute never feels wasted, and I feel like I am constantly improving and learning after every match. It also helps that each match is very short, allowing me to get a few rounds in even if I just have 30 minutes to game.

This “short but sweet” direction is something I’ve appreciated for a while now. But as I’ve grown to the ripe old age of 27, that appreciation has grown exponentially and playing Rainbow Six Siege, especially with my friends, has been one of my most satisfying gaming experiences in years. In some ways, this game symbolizes all the quality shorter experiences, like Gris or Florence, than just saying “Rainbow Six Siege is my number 10 game of the year because it’s a good shooter from three years ago.”

9. Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden

This was a late entry. Releasing earlier this month, Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden thoroughly entertained me more than any tactics game in recent memory. Yes, even more so than Into the Breach, which would be occupying this spot if I had not played this.

What really impresses me with Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden is its world. Set in an alternate timeline where nuclear warfare ended humanity as we know it, you follow a talking duck and pig who are tasked to help out the Ark, one of the last beacons of civilization left on Earth. I’m not too far into its story — hence why it is so far up my list — but it is a tale that I find intriguing and I’m constantly thinking of it almost every hour. The synth-laden soundtrack, along with snarky dialogue from some talking animals, gives the game a cheesy vibe that I absolutely adore.

While its world is at the forefront, its gameplay shines just as bright. As engaging as the tactics games before it, Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden manages to stand out with what I’ll call its “exploration phase.” Instead of just dropping you into the fray, you can move around the world freely. You can explore any area at your leisure to pick up scraps or new equipment to improve your arsenal.

This exploration phase also allows you to perform some reconnaissance before you rush into battle. Instead of going in guns blazing, you can get the lay of the land and identify where are your enemies are before you proceed. A major part of succeeding in Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden is stealth: if you can stealthily pick off enemies, the higher the chance that you have of defeating the opposition, even if you’re outnumbered.

Although my time has been limited with Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden, its challenging gameplay and the appealing world has got its hooks in me and I can’t wait to jump back in.

8. Starlink: Battle for Atlas

Before my recent obsession with Super Mario Sunshine‘s Il Piantissimo, there was Fox McCloud and his Star Fox fleet. Star Fox remains my favorite Nintendo franchise to ever grace the many television screens throughout my life. The original Star Fox, along with DOOM, Mortal Kombat, and Galaga, makes up the foundation of my video game interests; Fox has played an integral role in my life, in more ways than an anthropomorphic fox probably should.

When I saw the Star Fox fleet show up in Starlink: Battle for Atlas during Ubisoft’s E3 press conference this year, it was like my childhood dreams came true. Not only will I be able to fly around an open galaxy in the Arwing, but I’ll also get an awesome toy I can display on a shelf. Ubisoft certainly got my attention as a Star Fox fanboy, but the toys-to-life genre has, for all intents and purposes, died. I wasn’t quite sure how much I would actually enjoy this game beyond playing as Fox.

Fortunately, Starlink: Battle for Atlas made me believe there is still room for the toys-to-life genre to thrive. Although its story and characters are paper thin, its gameplay is a blast. Is this the Star Fox game I’ve been wanting since the disappointment known as Star Fox Zero? Yes actually, it is.

Check out the DualShockers review of Starlink: Battle for Atlas.

7. Quarantine Circular

Last year Mike Bithell’s first short, Subsurface Circular, made it onto my top ten for 2017. Like previously pointed out with Rainbow Six Siege, it was a game that respected my time. Only lasting roughly two hours, I was able to play it in one sitting and get that feeling of satisfaction I always look for when playing video games. Subsurface Circular‘s spiritual successor, Quarantine Circular, is another short that still hits the same satisfying notes as its predecessor but in a slightly different way.

While it does bring back the text-based gameplay from Subsurface Circular, the puzzle elements are mostly non-existent in Quarantine Circular, instead favoring storytelling and player choice. It was a bit of a bummer that the word puzzles were very sparse, but thanks to its exceptional and thought-provoking tale, I was just as captivated by it.

Check out the DualShockers review of Quarantine Circular.

6. Call of Duty: Black Ops 4

Yes, Call of Duty Black Ops 4 (or IIII) is on this list. It isn’t perfect, but BLOPS 4 is the most fun I have had with a multiplayer game since Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. Yes, you read that correctly.

I have a ton of problems with Call of Duty: Black Ops 4: the Zombies mode is hot trash, Blackout is a ripoff of a better battle royale, and some of the technical aspects of its gameplay are pretty awful. Even with all of those problems, I love its multiplayer. The map selection is pretty strong, the gameplay is still tight despite some of its terrible technicalities, and the newly-introduced systems makes it stand out from its predecessors. It may not be perfect, but it’s the Call of Duty that really just clicked with me more than any entry from the past three years.

Check out the DualShockers review of Call of Duty: Black Ops 4.

5. Dragon Ball FighterZ

Last year, a fighting game was my favorite game of the year, as Tekken 7 opened my eyes to competitive gaming. Sure, I watched EVO and other tournaments from time-to-time, but I never tried to play competitively. That changed with Tekken 7 and continued with this year’s best fighting game, Dragon Ball FighterZ.

Dragon Ball FighterZ is the epitome of the expression “easy to learn, hard to master.” This is the perfect game for someone not familiar with fighting games: the simplest combos are legitimately done by mashing the punch button. Just knowing the basics of the attack and countering will actually see you triumph over your opponent more than not. The complexities of the game come from stringing together those simple combos and special moves in effective ways. When you do inevitably get to that level, Dragon Ball FighterZ is one of the most satisfying fighting games you’ll ever play.

Check out the DualShockers review of Dragon Ball FighterZ.

4. Forza Horizon 4

It’s impressive what Playground Games, Turn 10, and Microsoft Studios have done with the Forza Horizon franchise. With every entry, they somehow find a way to improve upon it in awesome and creative ways. Forza Horizon 4 is no different. This entry proves that this series is not just some Forza Motorsport spin-off: Forza Horizon stands on its own, and truly is the best racing series any console has to offer.

Check out the DualShockers review of Forza Horizon 4.

3. Beat Saber

During Black Friday, I bought one of those PSVR bundles that included the Move controllers, SUPERHOT VR, and Creed: Rise to Glory for the low price of $250. For that price, it was absolutely worth it. Not because of the pack-ins — although I’m super excited to try SUPERHOT VR at some point — but because of Beat Saber.

This rhythmic masterpiece isn’t just a game, it’s a lifestyle. Although I’ve fallen off a bit recently, I was playing Beat Saber every day as a way to exercise. Just after four or five songs, a generous amount of sweat would cover my headset as I took quick, tired breaths from being so exhausted. It really does test your physicality just as much as your reflexes.

Beat Saber also shows that VR doesn’t have to be limited to short, on-rails experiences: they can be full-fledged games that you can play for hours on end. Tapping into the addictive rhythmic nature of Guitar Hero or Rock Band, I found myself playing Beat Saber for hours, constantly trying to top my last high score. It may not be the game that made me a believer of VR — that accolade goes to Thumper — but it certainly reinforced that belief.

Check out the DualShockers review of Beat Saber review here.

2. God of War

Growing up, I was primarily a Nintendo kid. I had only known the Mushroom Kingdom, Hyrule, the Lylat System, and all the other worlds the Nintendo family of consoles had to offer. It wasn’t until the Xbox 360 launched where I truly ventured away from the familiar and comfortable places of the past and looked towards the future.

With that being said, I scarcely played a PlayStation console; it wasn’t until the PS4 launched when I delved into the franchises exclusive to that platform. So, when a new God of War was announced for PS4 – one that you did not need to play the other six to understand what was going on – I was intrigued. It was not the violent and monotonous action game I had once seen, but a more grounded take set in the realm of the Norse gods.

I’ll admit, I was lukewarm in the first few moments of God of War. I thought the story seemed great and the characters aside from Kratos were interesting, but I really was not into the gameplay. Heck, I still have problems with some of the mechanics. It wasn’t until the dragon boss fight where everything clicked for me. The gameplay, the story, the world… everything was just more enjoyable from that point on. It was this weird “voila” moment that I haven’t had since I played Mass Effect.

God of War is a very special game. It is the one from this year that transcends into “greatest of all time” terrain. I’m sure this is the new litmus test for great video games moving forward.

Check out the DualShockers review of God of War.

1. The Messenger

Alright, ladies and gentleman: I present to you the best game of 2018. Actually, scratch that. I present to you one of the best games this generation: The Messenger.

Before I gush about how amazing this game is, let me tell you a story first. During PAX East this year, I sat down with the game’s director, Thierry Boulanger, where he showed me the first few moments of the game. If you’ve played, you know that the first level is like any other Ninja Gaiden-inspired platformer. Sure, it had its own unique take on it, but it wasn’t out of the ordinary. Then, he spoiled one of the main plot points for me…

So, that seems pretty crappy, right? But after he told me that the scroll I was carrying to the top of that mountain was actually a map and that once the Messenger opens that map, the game becomes a Metroidvania, my brain melted. It was, far and away, my favorite game I saw at PAX East, and one I was eagerly anticipating.

Once I finally got my hands on it in August, I thought I knew what I was getting into. I already knew the big twist, right? What other surprises could this game have?

A lot. The answer is a lot.

It turns out there was at least one thing in each stage that surprised or delighted me. Whether it was some ridiculous commentary from the Shopkeeper — the actual best character of the year — or a time-traveling boss fight, there was always something that made me verbally question just what mind-blowing thing happened.

The Messenger is the most clever amalgamation of storytelling and game design I have ever had the pleasure to play. With such a killer soundtrack by Rainbowdragoneyes, fun gameplay, and an engaging story, Sabotage Studio’s first outing is the interactive definition of why I play video games.

Check out the DualShockers review of The Messenger.

Check out the other DualShockers’ staff Top 10 lists and our official Game of the Year Awards:

December 17: DualShockers Game of the Year Awards 2018 December 18: Lou Contaldi, Editor in Chief // Logan Moore, Reviews Editor December 19: Ryan Meitzler, Features Editor // Tomas Franzese, News Editor December 20: Reinhold Hoffmann, Community Manager December 21:  Scott Meaney, Community Director // Ben Bayliss, Staff Writer December 22: Ben Walker, Staff Writer // Chris Compendio, Staff Writer December 23: Grant Huff, Staff Writer December 26: Iyane Agossah, Staff Writer // Jordan Boyd, Staff Writer December 27: Max Roberts, Staff Writer // Michael Ruiz, Staff Writer  December 28: Noah Buttner, Staff Writer // Rachael Fiddis, Staff Writer  December 29: Steven Santana, Staff Writer // Tanner Pierce, Staff Writer December 30: Travis Verbil, Staff Writer // Zack Potter, Staff Writer

The post DualShockers’ Game of the Year 2018 Staff Lists — Michael’s Top 10 by Michael Ruiz appeared first on DualShockers.

DualShockers’ Game of the Year 2018 Staff Lists — Michael’s Top 10 published first on https://timloewe.tumblr.com/

[kaufamnstewart31-blog]

The 5 Best Mobile Video Game Marketing Examples With Influencers.

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Tekken 7 Producer Says Making Crossover Characters Is Harder Than They Imagined Tekken 7 solidified itself in the fighting game community with its PlayStation 4 , Xbox One , and PC release earlier this year, having sold well over two million copies to date. Along with that success, developer Bandai-Namco is continuing to support the game with new content and the tradition of worldwide tournaments. One of the things to get excited about is the implementation of crossover characters from other franchises. The game launched with Street Fighter 's Akuma, but Geese Howard from the Fatal Fury series will join the roster by the end of the year, and Noctis from Final Fantasy XV is jumping in next year. Tekken producer and director Katsuhiro Harada along with designer and translator Michael Murray visited our office here at GameSpot with a hands-on demo of the next crossover character, Geese Howard . But we also took this opportunity to speak with them about the process of incorporating characters outside of the Tekken universe, why the the Tekken World Tour tournament had its finals in the US, and if there's a Nintendo Switch version down the road. This interview was conducted prior to the announcement of Noctis coming to Tekken 7. GameSpot: Now that you're bring in a new character, how does, if at all, Geese Howard change the balance within the game and where would you say he falls into the character tiers in the competitive space? Harada / Murray: One of the things we face with Geese, and this is kind of similar with Akuma, is that we didn't receive any assets from SNK or Capcom. We created the character from scratch, so all the character modeling, the animations, everything we did on our own. And also, when taking new characters and putting them into our game, obviously, the Tekken characters have a lot of techniques, a hundred or so on average per character. The 2D fighters, they have their very famous techniques that we implement first, but then we have to also fill out the rest of their technique list with moves to mesh them well with the Tekken. Even before we get to the balancing part of the development, this section alone is quite the priority. As far as the game balance goes, two characters fighting each other on the ground is something we have a lot of experience and confidence in as far as the frame data that, the attributes that we give to the techniques, how much time they need to recover after their techniques, etc. All these balancing issues are something we're very familiar with, but when we implemented Akuma, he appeared to be quite strong to a lot of people at first because he was one of the first characters in a 3D fighting game to actually be able to jump at your opponent like you do in the 2D games, and Tekken wasn't designed like that. So, some characters don't really have a lot of options against that particular aspect, at first, when he was released. So we've continued to balance out Akuma through a series of different patches after we released him. Now we feel that the feedback from the community is that he's fairly balanced. But it took some time developing that. We're in a good space with the blend of 2D characters with our game. What's next for franchise crossover characters? Do you see more Street Fighter, any Guilty Gear characters, or Persona 4 Arena characters, maybe? After doing two collaborations so far in Tekken 7, one thing we found is it's a lot more difficult than we've originally come to vision. First off, there might be a certain character that we would want to do that maybe the person on the other end, the other company and their licensors, might not be on board. Or it could be something that the fighting game community would really like to see, but that particular IP owner wouldn't sign off on being in Tekken. Even a lot of times, the point is not to try to take the fans from the respective IP and bring them into Tekken. It's more, by adding that IP if fighting games as a whole kind of become more exciting, and you attract a newer audience that wouldn't have bought either game in the first place because it's so exciting, and that's really what we're trying to achieve from a marketing goal, especially. So when you look at these kind of collaborations, there might be some that the fighting game community just go crazy about, so some of the marketing people in charge might be in the mind that "Okay, that might be really cool for the hardcore fans, but it wouldn't bring a new audience." Collaboration is really, we've found, quite difficult. It's just that in certain cases, we think, "Yeah, this is awesome." The IP owner then thinks, "Yeah, this is cool. Let's do it." And the marketing guys as well say, "Yeah, that's a good opportunity." And then it's finally able to come together. It is a lot more difficult than we originally imagined. How do these cross-IP collaborations start? Was it easier to get a hold of and work with SNK? It is kind of an interesting story. In past interviews when we were still creating Tekken 7, Harada was often asked who he likes, characters from other franchises. We all often answered that we love Samurai Shodown , and also Geese [from Fatal Fury]. He's just an incredible villain that both of us really love, and the fans caught on to that interview, and they were like, 'Wow, I love Geese, too. He would be so cool in a Tekken game!' And it turns out that the SNK team actually saw that, and they approached us and said, 'Hey, you know the Geese thing? Is there anyway that we could make this happen?' So they actually approached us, which made it a lot easier, and so it was quite smooth. Another factor in discussions is, from a market standpoint. For example, we often receive collaboration offers from other IP owners for like Tekken, and maybe the game designers on each side think, "Okay, this could work, and we might get along well," but from a marketing team's perspective, the scale might be a little bit smaller for Tekken. Tekken is a franchise that sold 47,000,000 copies worldwide to date. One particular installment might sell three to four million copies each, so if the IP being offered is quite small and not as well known worldwide as our game, a lot of the times our marketing team won't be able to work it out just because the balance isn't there. So, a lot the elements really have to come together to make one of these projects happen. Going back to Tekken characters specifically, have there been any thoughts of bringing some older characters that aren't in the roster? A lot of people like Lei Wulong and Julia! Or are you sticking to trying to do collaborations? Part one of his answer; up until now with Tekken, we haven't really done much DLC. It's always been a new, developed game, a particular installment, and then it's released, and that's it. You move on to the next one. But since we're doing DLC and the lifecycle is a bit longer, this opens up doors to do other things with the franchise for a particular installment. It's not like the possibility is zero that we'll see a returning character like the ones you mentioned. We obviously have to have new content or people will say the game feels stale or what's new about this particular installment. So, a lot big games do bring back certain characters from past installments, etc., and that's a really good thing to do. But at the same time, if you are creating this new content that's expected of your game, especially for a fighting game, there's some older elements that you have to decide not to include often times, especially with characters. For example, if you had game with a hundred characters, and it would be pretty hard to make into a balanced game. Your typical fighting game has 20-30 characters, so if you're trying to balance like 70 or 80, that's quite difficult in itself. It might be good for players selecting a character, but as far as creating the game, it's a lot not only for the assets but the balance itself, since your opponent also can pick from 80-70 characters. Just trying to learn the matchups and the balancing is a nightmare. And if we were to do that at the same time as including new things, we can't have both. It's kind of a trade-off. And if you were to have 80 characters in your fighting game, people would start giving questions about the game balance as well. So, it's really a difficult problem for us in trying to fulfill all these different needs because they often contradict each other. It's quite difficult as far as who we pick for the character roster because a lot of times people will be very vocal and stand out on social media once a character that they were using has been eliminated from the game. But they're completely silent when a particular character is in the game. For example, Ganryu is a character that everybody uses a lot and likes, but he's not in the game currently. And it's a character you don't really hear much about if he's in or if he's missing. So, it's really difficult to gauge how accurate and how big the numbers are behind that particular character. And when we do make these decisions, it's not just based on our personal preferences. With Tekken Tag Tournament 2, we have to use these numbers and try to look at how much a character is being played. For example, Jun was a character that was added for Tag 2, brought back from an installment after a lot of outpouring on social media. But then when we did include her, we actually went and looked at the raw numbers of usage and how many people were playing. We saw that it wasn't nearly as much as it seemed on social media at the time. So, it's quite a difficult problem to ascertain exactly how many people are fans of certain characters. We would really like to, and part of the problem is a character might not be as popular as we think, and maybe the character wasn't designed well enough on our side to make it appealing enough to a wider audience. So, Harada does give that to the community, but at the same time, if there is a character that you like, you should show a lot of love and maybe they won't disappear. Akuma from the Street Fighter franchise was the first crossover character for Tekken 7. Let's talk about the Tekken Finals! What was the impetus in bringing it here to San Francisco and out of Japan for the first time? Well, it's really a simple answer. It's basically that in the past we had tournaments in Japan, and if you look at fighting games, we've had fighting game tournaments for quite a long time before it developed into esports. But in recent years, we've seen this gradual jump to esports in the fighting game community, which also means you have sponsors, but you also have prize money. And in Japan, there are a lot of restrictions on prize money, so that's something we couldn't do in Japan. So for this time around, to actually have a proper world tour, we gave the reins over to our American and European offices, they're their own separate companies. They were basically in charge of planning the whole tour, all the logistics and regulations and everything. It's really strange that Harada and I are just guests at the tournament this year, just like the players. It's quite difficult to hand off everything to them because we can't be involved. But that's kind of one of the reasons that it's in the U.S. this year for the Finals. But another reason we were able to hand it off easily to our Western counterparts, is that Japan has always kind of been the home of fighting games because of the arcade culture, the way that the genre grew up. We've always seen a lot more tournaments in the arcades and also in Japan. But with our game, with Tekken, we've notice that the player base is 95% in the West. Over half of that, European. So, we were happy to see our American and European offices take over this and to perhaps give our players in those different regions more opportunities to participate in tournaments and to enjoy the game in that manner. When you have these huge events like these Finals, especially, what's the most exciting part for you, though? We've actually purposefully designed Tekken 7 this time to have a lot of elements in the gameplay linked to a spectator experience; what's typically exciting for the player can also be exciting for the viewer as well. Like, when someone turns the tables with their Rage Art or Rage Drive, or certain times when the game will go into super slow-motion right before the last blow by their opponent. These kind of things are what make the game really fun not just to play but to watch. These big events showcase those feature game. And personally, I would just say that you have all the communities together from Europe, the US, normally there's a lot of focus on Japan or Korea because they see the arcade installment first, but it's always cool to see the rivalries between the different player bases in different regions. And in Japan and Korea, you'll kind of see a tendency for players to gravitate towards whatever character seems to be the strongest at the moment. But I see, especially in Europe, a lot more interesting choices that we don't see come out in tournaments in Asia, as well. Even the way they play is quite different in each region. Seeing that all come together at one worldwide tournament is really exciting. Now, you have Tekken 7 out there in the open on all platforms. It's currently sold over 2,000,000 copies at least on consoles. I'm sure you would consider that a success. How has that enabled you to plan for what's in the near future? Has that changed how you're approaching the roadmap for Tekken? Well, that's an interesting question. If you look at the previous installment before Tekken 7, it would be Tekken Tag Tournament 2. And that was game that was really well received from the fighting game community and Metacritic, as well, but it actually didn't sell nearly as well as a lot the installments in the series. It was actually maybe one of the more difficult titles throughout the history of the franchise. Now we're almost at the start line because Tekken 7 came out and like you said, it sold over 2,000,000 copies worldwide, and it did so rather quickly compared to internal company expectations. So, that combined with esports becoming a more exciting scene and Tekken being able to play a major role in it, these two things have brought Tekken back to the scene in our company. It was a series that didn't quite meet expectations with the past installment but now people are saying, hey, Tekken still has broad appeal. And with those two things, we're finally on the starting line so that we can now perhaps have more authority in some decisions, and maybe that'll pave the way. Obviously for Tekken 7, there are some things we would've liked to include in the game that we couldn't for a variety of different reasons. A lot of these things are some of things that fans are pointing out as well. Maybe this makes it a little bit easier to try to do some of these things that we initially wanted to do but couldn't. Would that include a Nintendo Switch version? Well, you know, it's always a challenge. For example with Tekken 7, because we use Unreal Engine 4 that allows us to first bring the game to PC, something we've never done before. Unreal Engine was great because right away, we could get the graphics to a certain level quality the game was running fairly quickly. But it's not something right out of the box we can program and it's done. There are a lot of things that people don't realize, we have to reprogram on our side to make it work well with Unreal Engine. That was just for the current hardware, so you can imagine that for Switch. Especially at launch, that's something that wasn't a viable option. Some of the core components have to be handled by the engine, so I guess, as time goes on, maybe we'll see more of the adaptation of the engine to the Switch. Maybe we'll see methods to make a lighter version of the game that's easily portable to that platform. At the moment, that's not necessarily the case. Actually, we haven't really done much research into how much it would take to do that, yet, as we're still working on trying to address certain areas of the game or to add features for the current platforms that people are interested in. So, we're not even really aware yet of how many people would actually want a Switch version of the game. We understand the appeal there, being able to take it anywhere with you, that's quite an awesome feature. But at the moment we're not in a position to do that. But like we said, we're not quite aware of how many people out there are looking for Tekken 7 on Switch. Maybe it starts by people saying, "Hey, this something that I really want." And we would go from there, but who knows? At the moment, nothing planned. November 28, 2017 at 04:15PM