#or finish up phantasy star 2 finally

[she-anemone]

im almost done with metaphor. almost. allllmost

[harpy-of-the-storm]

A Rambling Post about the way Lyrical Music is used in Phantasy Star Online

Cool let's get started.

When you start a new character, or if you wait on the title screen, this will play.

It's a song that swells with hope for...well, a whole new world. That's the general plot of Phantasy Star Online, which starts the After Unification War timeline. We've messed up our home planet, Earth Coral and we're sailing the sea of stars to find a new one.

However, I wouldn't say that The Whole New World only represents the planet Ragol as a hope for continued human civilization in-setting. I'd argue that it also represents Phantasy Star Online's bold push to bring online multiplayer gameplay to the living room, albeit this is perhaps a retrospective view that would not have been as visible at the time.

The lyrics are definitely compact - just two verses of four lines each.

Innumerable stars Won't tell us where to go It's a long, long run To the palace in the sun

With hopes and dreams Our ship will cross the sea To the whole new world Shining like a pearl The whole new world

Which is itself an interesting comparison to the ending theme of Episode 1, Can Still See the Light. This theme has a few variants - one in which the lyrics are replaced with "la-la-la" vocalizations, an instrumental piano, and later a wind orchestra variant.

However, I'd like to talk about the lyrical one.

Contrasting The Whole New World in a few ways, Can Still See the Light has a lot to say. Take, for instance, the opening two verses.

Wish for peace Wish for dreams Wish for love You are gone Without saying goodbye

Starry sky I can still see the light You've saved And I think of you tonight Soon the dawn will come again What have I got What has it cost me

...So we've clearly moved on from the hopeful ship that set sail from Coral. This talks about the wishes that are held, or perhaps were once held...and begins talking about the sacrifices that were made in order to make them real.

It talks about those innumerable stars. How they're still visible, and how the singer thinks of the person who made that possible for her. But, she questions the price of seeing another day.

I can feel you are near Within me, outer space Here and there Tell me please How much we have to bleed When we'll get the land of dreams After lonely bitter days

Here, she's saying she knows she hasn't lost this person she's singing about - not entirely, she still feels the subject of the song is with her; yet she begs an answer, which I'd argue it seems she doesn't believe she'll get. How long? How much? What do we have to give to make it all the way?

Why must I do it alone?

It's really the "after lonely bitter days" line that makes me think...she knows she's talking to empty air.

Lastly, the song closes with a somber refrain of the questions above; about the price of a new day. Except on the final refrain, the singer asks it directly.

Why can I still see the light You've saved Though you are now out of sight Soon the dawn will come again But what have I got What has it cost me

With this one word changed, from now to why, we change the entire framing of the verse. She no longer seems happy - if indeed she ever was - that she can see the light of a new dawn. Instead, she's asking a hopeless question.

Why is she still here?

Phantasy Star Online's second episode doesn't get a new opening theme - it reuses The Whole New World, which admittedly does hint at a deeper level of the plot. As we move in to and finish Episode 2, however, we are awarded a new ending theme to chain things together - World With Me.

This song pleads. Gently. Softly. Entreating the listener to stay and weather the storm together.

It opens with verses saying how the singer understands your feelings of unease, how you feel overwhelmed. And understands answers where a prospective listener to the song is saying it's too much, too hard - they can't let it go.

And she assures you, gently, that you have to. Nothing lasts forever. Nothing's going to remain the same. So all we can do is believe, and choose to keep living, right?

The entire understanding of World With Me is that, you are someone's forever. You are someone's want. You are something to someone.

It's fairly generically 2000s, I think, as far as the song itself goes as a standalone. Telling you not to give up, to believe in love, that nothing is permanent so you have to keep holding on. It's pretty standard feel-good-and-stay-motivated talk, right?

I think, though, that it's important in the context it's provided in. Phantasy Star Online is not a game with a lot of hope. You save the world but kill the girl. You have to overthrow the government just a little bit. All of your heroes are dead and a solid quarter to a third of the monsters you've been fighting were once people who are now horribly mutated by the ancient evil that was sealed on the planet the game takes place on. You're trapped in a time loop that will ultimately end in your failure and the ravaging of the universe.

And you are being asked to hold on and keep fighting. To believe that help is on the way - that it is possible to be saved as you stand alone against all of this.

Lastly, I am going to double back a bit for one more "lyrical track" that does a great job at being what it is.

This is the theme of the final boss of Episode 1. It does not have recognizable lyrics. There is a sound in the background that is representing lyrics which starts about 70 seconds in. However, it is not strictly legible as anything other than some sort of background choir.

You are not meant to know what this is, or what it is saying. You are facing an unstoppable, soul-devouring, reality-warping force of destruction that has you in its own personal arena that it designed just to fight and kill you.

Everything about this fight is meant to unsettle you, but the addition of uncanny valley not-quite-lyrics?

I did have to throw this in as an honorable mention.

[dark-falz]

With scrolling through my archive and seeing old pictures of myself, on this transformation Tuesday I give you PSO trash at age 20 and PSO trash at age 27 and unless I get more tattoos these will probably be the last selfies I post here. (enlarge right pic to see skyly poorly, also unless I finally begin streaming but those will be temporary posts)

Also, art tags have been added for all games, so here’s a link to the art tag. Characters are about halfway done. Links all work but I wouldn’t bother with marked undone ones yet as I plan on finishing that section up tonight. Race/Class is more nitty gritty so maybe I can knock it out tomorrow and be done. Quick links: Phantasy Star I, Phantasy Star II, Phantasy Star III, Phantasy Star IV, Online, C.A.R.D., Universe, Portable, Portable 2/Infinity, Zero, Online 2

[blazehedgehog]

You sound like somebody who just plays online multiplayer games and gets immediately bored at anything that tries to tell an actual story. You sound like your just in it for fast quick paced gameplay and nothing else

This ask almost directly follows me talking about JRPGs I've played, where I state I put more than 100 hours in to the original Final Fantasy 7. I have lots and lots and lots of posts on this blog also stating how much I don't like Final Fantasy becoming more of an action game and less of a turn-based RPG. Just saying.

Also let it be known that while at TSSZ, I reviewed Grand Theft Auto 4, Grand Theft Auto 5, Phantasy Star Zero, Sands of Destruction, Breath of the Wild, Judgment, and was in the process of also reviewing Final Fantasy 7 Remake when Tristan shut the site down*. A lot of those games, I put 30-50+ hours in to. For Breath of the Wild, I put THREE HUNDRED hours in to it, by the time I got everything I wanted out of it.

Steam lists my playtime in Skyrim at 138 hours, and I'm probably not even halfway done with the main questline. I think I'm over 50 hours in to FF7 Remake, finally nearing the end of the game.

But here's the deal: I do like, and even tend to prefer, shorter, more simple games as I get older. I've taken to multi-tasking a lot, so splitting my attention between a game and Youtube (or Twitch) has become how I relax.

When I'm splitting my attention like that, I don't like playing story-heavy games, because I think the narrative deserves my undivided attention.

And often it's just... way easier to... not do that. To fall back on replaying Spelunky, or Burnout Paradise, or a narrative-driven game I've already finished so that I don't have to pay attention to the cutscenes the second time through. To chill out and vegetate to something I don't have to devote my full attention to.

Is there anything wrong with that? Only a little. I could, and try to, push myself to play bigger and more narrative driven games. It's why I ended up playing through Uncharted 1 and 2 a couple years ago, but I got lost on whether or not I should bother with Uncharted 3 or just move on to The Last Of Us.

But also: I'm allowed to play what I want to play, and this ask feels ever so slightly like an attack. And to be honest, I don't understand why.

* I probably reviewed more long games, but those are the names that jump out at me, and most of my TSSZ reviews have not yet been archived on Last Minute Continue.

[t-a-c]

Opinions on video games I played in the long, long decade of 2020

Fire Emblem Three Houses – Cindered Shadows: wow this came out in 2020 huh. The side story was a great campaign, and I should really give the game another run to try using the characters in the main game.

Warframe – Scarlet Spear: this event was honestly pretty tedious and the all-or-nothing score bonuses felt really punishing. And to think this was still the better way of getting Arcane upgrades

XCOM: Chimera Squad: oh wow this also came out in 2020. This feels like they didn’t want to commit to a full XCOM 3 yet but wanted to make something so they could try experimenting with new gameplay elements and concepts. If that’s what they intended, I really like that approach.

Megaman Zero/ZX Collection: A really solid compilation of some mostly solid GBA/DS games, with quite a few options and enhancements to make the early-series jank a bit more tolerable. The added bonuses like the art gallery and the challenge mode are very nice extras as well.

Streets of Rage 4: I was never expecting this game to happen. I was less expecting this game to come out and actually be not just good, but incredible. Now I’m gonna wonder what other old Sega series gets resurrected from the void...

Blaster Master Zero: A nice throwback/re-imagining of the NES original that does a lot to forge its own identity. Still need to try out the sequel, I’ve heard good (and weird) things about it.

Mighty Gunvolt Burst: the existence of this game single-handedly justifies and redeems the existence of Mighty No. 9.

Rise of Industry: A nice fun little resource management/logistics game. Gives me slight Transport Tycoon vibes.

Half-Life 2 – Episode 1 + 2: yes it took me almost 15 years to get around to finishing HL2 and playing the Episodes and that’s only because if I didn’t raocow was going to do it first. Overall pretty good, but I think I can go without a Strider fight sequence ever again

Half-Life Source: yeah I can see why people say this is a janky port

Black Mesa: For a fanmade project, this is absolutely incredible. The sheer number of ways that it improves and iterates on the original is astounding, and the new take on Xen is utterly mindblowing to experience

Slay the Spire: A nice fun diversion, especially on the days where I’m too worn out to focus on anything more mentally involved.

Final Fantasy XIV – 5.2 through 5.4: honestly if 5.3 had been the end of the storyline like they originally set out to do, I would have been fine with that, it was an excellent conclusion. However, with what 5.4 is setting up, I am eager to see what 6.x might hold (and hoping that it doesn’t suffer for Yoshida being involved elsewhere with directing XVI)

Phantasy Star Online 2 (NA Version): on launch? Worst experience I’ve had trying to install and run a game. Once Ep4 and the Steam release came out? Good. Once Ep5 came out? Great. Once Ep6 Pt1 came out? Excellent. I can nitpick some of the item name translations to hell and back, but the story dialogue and voice acting is very good.

Command & Conquer Remastered: I was expecting over and over for EA to find a way to screw this up. Somehow they didn’t, although I imagine that Petroglyph, Lemon Sky, and the community doing most of the work kept things on track. A very good remaster of a good RTS duology.

Tropico 6: I finally got around to grabbing this off my wishlist. It’s got a lot of improvements and additions over what was there in 5, and the series flavor is still present and accounted for, but there’s still a lot of stuff from 3/4 that I miss.

Touhou Spell Bubble: Picked this up after watching it played by HoloEN, and I’m enjoying it a lot even though I haven’t really touched rhythm games in a long time. Really good music selection, although it has the ‘early Windows era bias’ a lot of derivative works have.

[asklyra]

2020 AskLyra Something Something Video Game Talk-about

I haven’t done this in like 3 years. I usually don’t play very many different vidjas (instead playing only a few for months at a time). This year I did play many different vidjas. I’ma talk into the void about ‘em. Maybe you’ll hear me and comment (also another thank you to all the people that have gifted me games)!

Dauntless

Fun game for a good while. It’s like a F2P version of Monster Hunter. The end-game threw me off, but I had a good time getting there.

Earth Defense Force 5

Not as good as EDF 4.1. I don’t think that’s a fair to say, but I said it. EDF 5 is the superior title, but it lacks the progression and sense of dread that would slowly come over you in EDF 4.1′s campaign as you played this silly, campy game. EDF 5 is good, and if you played 4.1 you should play 5. But once it’s over, it won’t hold you for as long as 4.1 did.

Portal Knights

It received (what is presumably) it’s final update this year. And it’s good! I had got kind of tired of it by the time the final update released (I’ve played it for over 600 hours), but it’s good! Just make sure you get it on Steam. Other versions of the game are missing features.

Risk of Rain 2

Very fun game. Wholly different than the original RoR; the third dimension completely changes things. Gameplay is much more frantic and the game is overall much harder. The environments are cool. The characters all play different. AND! AND! They brought back my favorite, Acrid! That was awesome!

XCOM: Chimera Squad

This was an interesting one. What if XCOM played and progressed more like a typical SRPG, with designated characters that have unique abilities (with room for customization, of course). The answer was... pretty good! I was disappointed that in my playthrough I didn’t get snek (it’s RNG which characters you get), but I had a great time and I’d like to play through it again!

Phantasy Star Online 2

Decent game. Varied gameplay per class. Fun boss fights. What you actually do in the game is extremely repetitive. The story (and its pacing), was the worst I’ve ever seen in any video game ever, and it treats you like you’re an absolute moron. As bad as FF14′s story was up until like level 40, this is so much worse. And it somehow gets worse.

Genshin Impact

Okay, follow me here. Nier: Automata’s gameplay meets Breath of the Wild’s environments, with a heavier focus on story and world building than either of those games. There are lots of characters to play, lots of environments and puzzles. There is more content in this game now (which is still updating, they just released a new sub-area days ago) than there was in BotW period. And it’s free. I have over a dozen different characters and I’ve never paid anything.

I need to make sure this is understood. This game... should not exist. Have you seen the gaming landscape in the last decade? It’s dire. But the environments here are gorgeous. The characters are charming. Even NPCs have identity. It’s got humor. It’s got drama. It’s got mystic. And it’s free? This is insane. Forget what you may have heard, this is the game of the year.

Satellite Reign

While a little buggy (and not well optimized), I was surprised to find a very enjoyable game here. Which is especially impressive since I went in thinking this was an SRPG- but no. This is Stealth-Action RTS. So yeah. Cool game, but absolutely vital that you seek and read as many data caches as possible or the ending won’t make any sense.

2064 Read Only Memories

Mmm... This is why I tell people I don’t like adventure games. I loved the setting. I loved the characters. I loved the music. I loved the voice acting (at least for all the main characters). I really loved the humor. I hated playing this game. Oh my God, it’s so boring. This game is between 10-20 hours long, but it’s gameplay is not varied enough for that. And it’s not like there weren’t mini-games or puzzles, but they’re so few and spread out.

D4: Dark Dreams Don’t Die

On the other end of the spectrum, this is an incomplete game that was overall, a much more enjoyable experience. There’s less work involved to find the funny stuff and while I don’t like QUEs, at least those made the experience engaging. And that’s the difference between games like D4 and Night in the Woods, and games like ROM. You are a video game. Engage your player!

Fallout Tactics

I was gonna play this. After Satellite Reign turned out to not be an SRPG, I was in the mindset and everything. But it wouldn’t start. Found out the Steam version is garbage, and even if you use a workaround to get it to boot, it can corrupt your save data! So...

Yakuza 0

Wow. I haven’t played a game polished like this since Automata. When I started the game I thought it was just the one combat style. Then I got another. And another. And then I switched characters. And they had 3 fighting styles too. Plus there’s weapons. Plus the second character has alternate weapon styles. There’s so many side quests and activities. It’s like Shunmue meets GTA, but with heart.

I haven’t finished it yet, but with how the story’s been so far, I can’t imagine them dropping the ball. And that scene with Kiryu and Nishiki after the car ride? That was powerful. I don’t think I’ve ever witnessed a scene like that in cinematography.

This is a track in a menu for a system you can completely ignore.

This game is amazing!

[viewtifu1backlog]

2020 Backlog Progress in Retrospect

2020 was the year of finally finishing the backlog. The final game ended up being Disco Elysium back on July 1st but in the months since I’ve built up a list again. Going forward I’m hoping to keep the backlog at 10 games or less since I’ve found I do like having a wider list of games to choose from after finishing something. After finishing over 100 games in 2020 there were a ton of classics that I finished for the first time, so many so that making a top 20 list was very difficult. I’ve always made this end of year breakdowns for my own archives but I thought it would be fun to share it this year alongside the full list of what I finished!

Top 20 of 2020 First Time Finished

1 Sakura Wars (Sega Saturn) 2 Skies of Arcadia (Dreamcast) 3 Dragon Quest XI S (Switch) 4 Shiren the Wanderer: The Tower of Fortune & the Dice of Fate (Switch) 5 Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss (PC) 6 Red Dead Redemption 2 (PC) 7 Mega Man Legends 2 (PS1) 8 Shining Force II (Genesis) 9 Xenoblade Chronicles X (Wii U) 10 Super Mario Odyssey (Switch) 11 Sea of Thieves (PC) 12 Phantasy Star IV (Genesis) 13 Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair (Switch) 14 Shenmue (Dreamcast) 15 Last Window: The Secret of Cape West (DS) 16 killer7 (PC) 17 Moon: Remix RPG Adventure (Switch) 18 Maniac Mansion (PC) 19 ZeroRanger (PC) 20 VA-11 Hall-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action (PC)

Favorite game of 2020: Sakura Wars

When I was looking back at this year, the game that stuck the most with me was easily the original Sakura Wars for the Sega Saturn. Back in December of 2019 the english patch released online and I was so excited to finally be able to play the first entry in one of Sega’s biggest franchises for the first time. I had yet to play any games in the series beyond just fumbling around an import copy of various games on Saturn and Dreamcast and I was glad to be able to experience it with such a well-made fan patch. It’s a very simple strategy game mixed in with lite RPG and Dating mechanics but there’s such a great charm to how well everything mixes together. The way they mix in the animated cutscenes throughout each chapter make it feel like you’re playing a classic mid 90′s anime and it was just a nice cozy experience the whole way. I managed to play through it twice this year and tinkered around with later entrees in the series but I’m hopeful that the sequel will get picked up as a fan translation project soon, otherwise I’ll probably be going through those games the old fashioned way with a printed out GameFAQS guide at my side.

Date breakdown of everything new or finished in the backlog this year:

12-13-20 Started: Cadence of Hyrule: Crypt of the NecroDancer  (Switch)

12-12-20 Beat: Shiren the Wanderer: The Tower of Fortune and the Dice of Fate  (Switch)

12-06-20 New: Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light  (Switch)

12-05-20 New: Shiren the Wanderer: The Tower of Fortune and the Dice of Fate  (Switch)

12-02-20 Beat: Super Mario Sunshine  (Switch)

11-30-20 Beat: Dragon Quest Builders  (Switch)

11-27-20 New: Steins;Gate  (PC)

11-26-20 Beat: Shantae and the Seven Sirens  (Switch)

11-25-20 Started: Shantae and the Seven Sirens  (Switch) Beat: Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes  (Switch)

11-21-20 New: Cadence of Hyrule: Crypt of the NecroDancer  (Switch) New: Vitamin Connection  (Switch) New: Paper Mario: The Origami King  (Switch) Beat: killer7  (PC)

11-18-20 Beat: Metal Slug 6  (ARC)

11-14-20 Started: Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes  (Switch)

11-13-20 Beat: ESP Ra.De. Psi  (Switch)

11-12-20 New: Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes  (Switch) New: ESP Ra.De. Psi  (Switch)

11-11-20 Completed: No More Heroes  (Switch)

11-08-20 New (Null): Cave Story 3D  (3DS)

11-07-20 Completed: Gate of Thunder  (TGCD)

11-06-20 New (Null): No More Heroes  (Switch) Beat: No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle  (Switch)

11-01-20 Beat: Danmaku Unlimited 2  (PC) Beat: Triggerheart Exelica  (DC) Completed: Gradius II  (NES)

10-28-20 Completed: Costume Quest  (PC) New (Null): No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle  (Switch)

10-25-20 Started: Murder By Numbers  (Switch) Beat: Blue Wish Resurrection  (PC) New: Blue Wish Resurrection  (PC)

10-22-20 Beat: A Hat in Time  (PC) New: A Hat in Time  (PC)

10-17-20 Beat: Thunder Force AC  (Switch)

10-16-20 New: Thunder Force AC  (Switch)

10-14-20 New (Null): Slime Mori Mori Dragon Quest 3: Daikaizoku to Shippo Dan  (3DS)

10-13-20 New: Shantae and the Seven Sirens  (Switch)

10-12-20 Beat: Chex Quest  (PC) Completed: Mega Man 5  (Switch)

10-07-20 Beat: Mega Man Zero 3  (Switch)

10-05-20 Beat: Cave Story+  (Switch)

10-04-20 Completed: DELTARUNE Chapter 1  (Switch) Started: DELTARUNE Chapter 1  (Switch)

10-03-20 Completed: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney − Trials and Tribulations  (3DSDL)

10-01-20 Started: Dragon Quest Builders  (Switch)

09-27-20 Beat: Star Ocean: First Departure R  (Switch)

09-25-20 New: Murder By Numbers  (Switch)

09-20-20 New: DELTARUNE Chapter 1  (Switch) New: Dragon Quest Builders  (Switch) New: Romancing SaGa 3  (Switch)

09-19-20 Beat: VA-11 Hall-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action  (PC) New (Null): Super Mario Galaxy  (Switch) New (Null): Super Mario Sunshine  (Switch) New (Null): Super Mario 64  (Switch)

09-16-20 New: Star Ocean: First Departure R  (Switch)

09-14-20 Beat: Armed Police Batrider  (ARC)

09-13-20 Beat: Moon: Remix RPG Adventure  (Switch)

09-10-20 New: Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura  (PC)

09-07-20 Beat: Disgaea 5 Complete  (Switch) New: VA-11 Hall-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action  (PC)

09-05-20 Beat: King's Quest: Quest for the Crown  (PC)

09-02-20 Completed: Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss  (PC)

08-27-20 Started: Moon: Remix RPG Adventure  (Switch) New: Moon: Remix RPG Adventure  (Switch)

08-23-20 Beat: Wario Land III  (GBC)

08-19-20 Started: Wario Land III  (GBC) Completed: Broken Age  (PC) Beat: Bomb Monkey  (3DS)

08-17-20 New: Chicken Wiggle  (3DS) New: Mutant Mudds Super Challenge  (3DS) New: Xeodrifter  (3DS) New: Bomb Monkey  (3DS) New: Mutant Mudds  (3DS)

08-16-20 New: Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss  (PC)

08-15-20 Beat: Maniac Mansion  (PC)

08-14-20 Beat: Devil May Cry 3 Special Edition  (Switch)

08-10-20 New: Wario Land III  (GBC)

08-09-20 New: Maniac Mansion  (PC) Beat: Red Dead Redemption 2  (PC)

08-03-20 New: Disgaea 5 Complete  (Switch)

08-02-20 Beat: Star Wars: Dark Forces  (PC)

08-01-20 Beat: Donkey Kong Country 2  (GBA)

07-31-20 New: Star Wars: Dark Forces  (PC)

07-25-20 New (Null): Devil May Cry 3 Special Edition  (Switch)

07-24-20 New (Null): Cave Story  (Switch)

07-20-20 New: Shin Megami Tensei  (SNES) Beat: Mega Man X4  (Saturn)

07-17-20 New: Donkey Kong Country 2  (GBA)

07-16-20 Beat: The Wonderful 101: Remastered  (Switch)

07-12-20 Completed: Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers  (NES) Completed: Rockman 8 FC  (PC)

07-11-20 Completed: Mega Man 8  (Saturn)

07-09-20 New (Null): The Wonderful 101: Remastered  (Switch)

07-06-20 Completed: Darkwing Duck  (NES) New: Red Dead Redemption 2  (PC)

07-04-20 New (Beat): Streets of Rage 4  (Switch)

07-01-20 Beat: Disco Elysium  (PC)

06-30-20 Beat: ZeroRanger  (PC) New: ZeroRanger  (PC)

06-25-20 New (Beat): Super Puzzle Fighter II X  (Saturn) Beat: Resident Evil  (Switch)

06-20-20 Beat: Xenoblade Chronicles X  (WiiU)

06-17-20 Started: Resident Evil  (Switch)

06-16-20 Completed: G-LOC: Air Battle  (Switch) New: Resident Evil  (Switch) New: G-LOC: Air Battle  (Switch)

06-08-20 Started: Disco Elysium  (PC)

06-06-20 Completed: Time Bokan Series: Bokan to Ippatsu! Doronboo Kanpekiban  (Saturn)

06-05-20 New: Disco Elysium  (PC) Completed: Mega Man X3  (SNES)

06-04-20 New (Null): Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition  (Switch)

06-01-20  Completed: Super Mario Odyssey  (Switch)

05-28-20  Beat: Mega Man Zero 2  (Switch)

05-25-20  Completed: Diablo  (PC)

05-15-20  Completed: Aladdin  (Switch)

05-13-20  Beat: Bayonetta 2  (Switch)

05-10-20  Completed: Seaman  (DC)  Beat: Shining Force III  (Saturn)

05-02-20  Completed: Spider-Man vs. The Kingpin  (GEN)

05-01-20  Beat: Etrian Odyssey II: Heroes of Lagaard  (NDS)

04-29-20  Beat: Phantasy Star IV  (GEN)  New: Spider-Man  (GEN)  Beat: Mega Man Legends 2  (PS)

04-25-20  Started: Phantasy Star IV  (GEN)  Started: Seaman  (DC)

04-24-20  Beat: Shenmue  (DC)

04-20-20  Completed: Last Window: The Secret of Cape West  (NDS)

04-19-20  Beat: Sea of Thieves  (PC)

04-14-20  Started: Last Window: The Secret of Cape West  (NDS)

04-13-20  Beat: Shining the Holy Ark  (Saturn)

04-10-20  Completed: Professor Layton and the Unwound Future  (NDS)  Beat: Professor Layton and the Unwound Future  (NDS)

04-02-20  Beat: Boktai: The Sun Is in Your Hand  (GBA)

04-01-20  Started: Professor Layton and the Unwound Future  (NDS)  Completed: Mega Man Legends  (PS)

03-29-20  Completed: Phantasy Star II  (GEN)

03-27-20  Beat: Panzer Dragoon: Remake  (Switch)  New: Panzer Dragoon: Remake  (Switch)

03-26-20  Beat: Skies of Arcadia  (DC)

03-22-20  New (Null): Animal Crossing: New Horizons  (Switch)

03-17-20  Beat: Goldeneye 007  (N64)

03-14-20  Completed: Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair  (Switch)

03-09-20  Beat: Kirby and the Rainbow Curse  (WiiU)

03-07-20  Completed: Popful Mail  (SCD)  Completed: Retro Game Challenge  (NDS)

03-06-20  Beat: Mega Man Zero  (Switch)

03-05-20  Beat: Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair  (Switch)

03-03-20  Beat: Bangai-O Spirits  (NDS)

03-02-20  Beat: Super Monkey Ball 2  (GCN)

03-01-20  Beat: Shining Force II  (GEN)

02-29-20  Started: Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair  (Switch)

02-26-20  Completed: Aliens Infestation  (NDS)  Beat: Banjo Tooie  (N64)

02-21-20  Completed: Ecco: The Tides of Time  (SCD)  Beat: Kirby & the Amazing Mirror  (GBA)

02-18-20  Completed: Shinobi Legions  (Saturn)  Beat: Phantasy Star Online Ver. 2  (DC)

02-16-20  Beat: Super Mario Odyssey  (Switch)

02-14-20  Started: Super Mario Odyssey  (Switch)

02-13-20  Beat: Blazing Chrome  (Switch)

02-12-20  Beat: Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age - Definitive Edition  (Switch)

02-08-20  Completed: Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle  (GEN)  New: Shinobi Legions  (Saturn)

02-04-20  Beat: Shinobi  (Switch)  New: Shinobi  (Switch)

01-30-20  Beat: Sakura Wars  (Saturn)  New: Blazing Chrome  (Switch)

01-23-20  Beat: Fatal Fury: Mark of the Wolves  (DC)

01-21-20  Beat: River City Girls  (Switch)

01-20-20  Completed: Charge 'n Blast  (DC)  Beat: Gunvolt Chronicles: Luminous Avenger iX  (Switch)

01-17-20  New: Sakura Wars  (Saturn)  Beat: Iconoclasts  (Switch)

01-16-20  Beat: Guilty Gear X  (DC)

01-14-20  Beat: Daytona USA: Championship Circuit Edition  (Saturn)

01-12-20  Beat: Power Stone 2  (DC)  Completed: AI: The Somnium Files  (Switch)

01-11-20  Completed: Azure Striker Gunvolt 2  (3DS)  Beat: Azure Striker Gunvolt 2  (3DS)

01-09-20  Completed: Super Return of the Jedi  (SNES)

01-08-20  Beat: Mega Man ZX Advent  (NDS)

01-06-20  Beat: Disgaea PC  (PC)  Started: Mega Man ZX Advent  (NDS)

[janishacolors]

Janishacolors’ Art Goals

Happy MONDAY! I hope everyone’s doing alright! I will say last week was very productive but when the weekend hit I got super LAZY! I grilled some things for my family (I don’t comfort bake I comfort grill XDDD)My brother gifted my Desktop with Phantasy Star online 2 and it was first time in a while relaxed and played a game ;;;;w;;; It was honestly much needed because I tend to get wrapped up in my work but also feel that I’m not doing enough ^^;

(Baby’s first bullet journallll XDD wish I would have done this sooner LOL)

This week I’m going to do a little accountability check on my goals for this year and beyond. If you’re just tuning in definitely check out last weeks art blog about Managing Big Goals so you know what’s going on in this blog!

OKAY! Let me start by highlighting my BIG Goals in my Art journey

1. Complete My Graphic Design Major

2. Work on my Original Webcomic Series

3. Work for the Game Freak Company as a Graphic Designer

4. Social Media Shenanigans!

So right now these are my Major goals for the next few years in my art career. And looking at these as they are they look so crazy. But these goals have be chopped up into so many mini goals that there’s so much to keep me motivated and passionate about this journey! So here’s a general rundown!

1: Complete My Graphic Design Major

So aside from just graduating in this major I really want to take advantage of everything that we learned in this major at my university especially when it comes to web design and user interface so interestingly enough all my Pokémon related projects fall under this big goal.

- [ ] Study UI/UX (user interface/ user experience)

- [ ] Web design

- [ ] Continue search for Ux/Ui internships

- [ ] Improve on Simplified logo work

- [ ] PKMN Logo project (Eve’s Story)

- [x] Finalize Eve’s design

- [ ] Draft at least 10 PKMN logo designs from the sinnoh region

- [ ] Create at least 3-5 side characters and create character sheets ()

- [ ] Fall semester 2020(please stay remote lol)

- [ ] Typography,

- [ ] Pre Press Production,

- [ ] Illustration

- [ ] Spring 2021 classes (n/a)

- [ ] Make Senior Project my original webcomic series

2: Work on my Original Webcomic Series

So this has been a story in my head for 10 years now. it’s change so much but now I think I’m ready to finally share it! I’m sure most of you guys of seen my OC Astrid floating around X3 the story revolves around her and many others like her and their beautiful multiverse and the many theories about the cosmos that I have studied. Some things from this story will be featured in my future portfolio for the Game Freak Company.

- [ ] Original Story Stuff(Untitled Infinity)1st chapter

- [ ] Pick a name for Original Story (I’ve changed it so many time It doesn’t have a name anymore.)

- [ ] Create at least 10 different environment designs

- [ ] Create 20 creature designs

- [ ] Complete 5 unique Character Designs (sketches completed now to render them)

- [ ] Find more space related podcasts

- [ ] Watch animal documentaries (sea life specifically)

- [ ] Opening chapter pages for Original Story in July (final sketch work in progress)

- [ ] Webtoon setup

- [ ] Launch Webcomic pt1 July 25th

- [ ] Pinterest adssss

3: Work for the Game Freak Company as a UI/UX Graphic Designer

After doing some super homework on the requirements that the Game Freak company, I’ve learned What they’re not looking for is a portfolio full of art that is Pokémon XD they’re looking for all kinds of unique designs to see how creative and original you can get. Game Freak just finished up doing interviews at the end of June for new graphic designers and it seems like they do this every 2-3 years so I’ll be working my ass off during that time frame.

- [ ] Study/ brush back up on additional languages

- [ ] Japanese

- [ ] ASL

- [ ] Portuguese/spanish

- [ ] Portfolio Set Up

- [ ] character/Creature Design (in progress)

- [ ] Illustration (needs updating)

- [ ] Ux/Ui

- [ ] Written Works (TBA)

4: Social Media Shenanigans!

I’m trying to rebuild my social media and it’s been a fun learning experience. My main plan right now is to diversify my social media so you don’t get the exact same thing between all of them. May seem crazy to some but it keeps me very motivated to post! Feedback on how I’m doing on any of my social media is always appreciated. I’m just a shy kid trying to do my best LOL

- [ ] Diversify Social Media’s

- [ ] Facebook

- [ ] Character/Creature Design/Environment Design >w<

- [ ] Twitter

- [ ] Talk/share about fanart and original projects owo

- [ ] Instagram

- [ ] Focus on the day to day struggles of an artist XD

- [ ] Tumblr

- [ ] Artistic thoughts, process, and Art advice :D

- [ ] Pinterest

- [ ] Advertisement for Webcomic x3

I know it’s laundry list of goals but when I am hell-bent/determined to do something I will pursue it to the bitter end! It’s a gift and a curse LOL! But I can’t thank you guys enough for joining in on this journey with me!If you’d like to share your goals or need help with you art goals feel free to reach out or jump in on the colorful circle forum!

Since I am trying to meet a deadline for my webcomic I will not be updating my Weekly art blog for the next few weeks so definitely visit the forum I’ll be at least posting some motivational stuff while I finish up the first couple of pages

Till then stay tuned!

[vxndictive]

//What has the mun been doing the last few weeks since she’s been so inactive?

Short answer: Playing PSO2 while trying to recover her muse. She’s gonna try to get back to replies as soon as she can, and she really appreciates getting interactions even though she’s slow as hell. Long answer below the Read More.

I’ve been having a bit of difficulty trying to write since roughly halfway in July, and that’s the main reason why my drafts basically just stopped. I’m just not feeling satisfied with anything i put out and the doubt that my partner will not like it is always in my mind, so i end up delaying and delaying. I’m not planning to take a hiatus or anything, i just need to get back into the proper mindset. Struggling with personal issues definitely doesn’t help. I ended up finally managing to get into Phantasy Star Online 2 and playing it has definitely given me some ideas i want to explore, again, i just need to find the proper motivation to do so. I really want to finish all the pending AUs i have too and i want to get in contact with a bunch of people to properly plot out things and send lots of asks to cool fellas i want to interact with. I’ll get to this as soon as my muse decides to return. Thank you if you decided to stay and if you didn’t, then hey, that’s fine too. Can’t force anyone to wait around forever. I appreciate your understanding a lot.

[magical-agatha]

heres my day of dealing with microsoft bullshit laid out

boot up phantasy star online 2, it was working perfectly the last 2 days, now it boots only to a black screen

attempt to uninstall pso2 thru the windows 10 apps settings, it hangs and acts as if its not working

it is working but its just not communicating that in any way so i spend the next few hours trying to manually uninstall pso2

this requires changing a LOT of permissions bc pso2 actually gets installed across 3 separate locations, all of which the administrator is locked out of in different ways

i finally get in, and start deleting it. i should have permission but i still cant delete some stuff, and i struggle with it for another hour or so

i decide to retry uninstalling it thru the settings, and decide to wait to see if it just needs 5 mins to actually start uninstalling or something

it uninstalls

i die a bit inside

okay, thats okay, now i just download it from the microsoft store app, right?

wrong. changing those permissions broke the microsoft store app, as well as the microsoft help app and presumably others

i try some fixes from the microsoft forums, none work, i try live chatting but i cant bc the help app is broken

i try repairing windows, basically reinstalling w10 again but keeping my files, that doesn't work

all thats left is to do a clean reinstall, so i grab a thumbdrive and make an install media and restart my pc

it doesnt register the thumbdrive so i find an empty external hard drive and use that, that works

but, when i go to format my 3tb hdd on my pc to install w10, the installer fucks it up and partitions it in a way that makes 750gb unuseable

so now i have to move all my files off my storage hdd on my pc onto a separate external hdd, and install w10 to my 1tb storage drive

so that i can use that w10 install to format and correctly partition my 3tb hdd

then i have to install w10 on the 3tb hdd

and move all my files back onto my storage drive

and finally reinstall all of my steam games, misc programs, and pso2 onto my 3tb drive

i have had a very frustrating day so far and im going to have to finish all this tomorrow bc its going to take hours to copy all the stuff from my storage drive to my external drive. i hate windows 10 with a Passion.

[coolgreatwebsite]

Cool Games I Finished In 2019 (In No Real Order)

We’re here. The end of the decade. 2019 was a weird, turbulent year for me. Despite my cross-country move already being a year behind me somehow, nothing’s really settled yet. Living situation is still weird, still separated from most of my belongings, I left my full-time QA job for a contractor position at a mobile game advertising company that may or may not convert into a full-time position... everything about what’s going on with me still just feels like I’m completely winging it, and while that’s not a position I’m really comfortable being in for such an extended amount of time, everything seems to be working out okay enough despite it. All this is probably why I spent most of my time playing the shit out of a handful of games rather than playing a bunch of different games this year! Needed some sort of stability. Also when I did manage to pull myself away from the timesink games and play something else, a lot of them ranged from “okay” to “real bad”. But I still managed to play just enough stuff that I liked to where I can put out yet another one of these.  Here’s a bunch of cool games I experienced for the first time in 2019.

Phantasy Star Online: Blue Burst (PC, 2005)

I haven’t bothered to do two thirds of the story quests yet and have barely touched any Episode 4 content so this game technically doesn’t count for this list, but if I left it off I would be neglecting to mention an extremely large portion of my video game playing time this year. I fell back into PSO preeeettty hard this year after the surprise announcement of Phantasy Star Online 2 finally coming to the US. Guess what: game still rules. It feels stiff to play and it’s obviously far less expansive than it seemed back in 2000, but the core of Phantasy Star Online is still as fun as it ever was and the aesthetics are still entirely my shit. I love everything about the way this game looks and sounds, I love stumbling on a weird new weapon, I love participating in the custom seasonal events the server I’m on runs, and I love how oddly relaxing the experience of playing this game and taking it all in is. I will probably continue to play Phantasy Star Online into 2020. I will probably still dip back into it after PSO2 US servers finally launch. If I know you and you want to join my Discord server for PSO get at me. PSO forever.

Cookie’s Bustle (PC, 1999)

You ever play a game that just speaks to you? Even through a language barrier? A game so incredibly out there and bizarre in the exact way you love that you can’t help but adore it despite barely understanding it? Holy moly did I ever find that game. I learned about Cookie’s Bustle through a news story last year about some rare games leaking from a Japanese collector’s stash. Didn’t manage to get it to run back then, but my off and on attempts to get it working finally paid off in March of this year and I’m so glad I kept trying. I knew nothing of this game other than it had a weird name and was about a bear doing sports, and it turned out to be a fully voice-acted and mostly unsubtitled adventure game starring Cookie Blair, a 5 year old girl from New Jersey who sees herself as a teddy bear and has traveled to Bombo World, an island nation once visited by aliens and currently in the middle of a civil war, to participate in the Bombo Sports Tournament. Dead level, I probably shouldn’t have been able to genuinely love Cookie’s Bustle as much as I did. The only context I had for what was happening and what I was supposed to do was provided by a 20-year-old Google translated walkthrough with broken images, the game’s slightly higher than usual reliance on English loan words, and 30-ish years of video games and anime allowing me to halfway pick up on a handful of Japanese words. However, Cookie’s Bustle is dripping with an undeniable and off-beat charm that genuinely transcends language. Even if you can’t understand the words and specifics, you can understand the basic plot, characterizations, and emotions they’re going for. Cookie’s Bustle manages to both be completely off-the-wall bizarre and feel totally genuine and heartfelt at the same time, a balance very few games manage to successfully hit but many of my favorites do. One could say that’s why it seems to have resonated with a decent amount of other people this year, too. Games rarely make me feel sad that they’re over. but when they do that’s how I know they’re one of the good ones. Seriously, go look up a longplay or stream of Cookie’s Bustle if you (understandably) don’t want to go through the hassle of setting it up and figuring out how to play it, it’s impossible not to love.

Devil May Cry 5 (PlayStation 4, 2019)

Here’s something crazy to think about: Devil May Cry 4 came out 11 years ago. Aside from being a potent reminder that time is moving too fast and we’re all going to die soon, that means that there hasn’t been a DMC for over a decade. Devil May Cry 5 does not bare this fact even a little bit. Not only did they pick up right where they left off and manage to make another Devil May Cry game without missing a beat, they made arguably the best Devil May Cry game. I mean I still like the story and single-character focus of DMC3 the best, but DMC5 is the best playing game in the series without a doubt. Nero finally feels like he has a complete and complex toolset, Dante is the most mechanically dense and fun to play he’s ever been, and they even added a new guy that’s... neat to play as, until you start trying to S-rank the harder difficulties. Then he’s kind of annoying to play as. But it’s still cool that they tried something totally different and mostly got it to work! They also did something very stupid that I love and used this game as an excuse to make literally every single piece of Devil May Cry media canon. Like, characters exclusively from the anime and the books show up and act like they’re someone you already know and love? And they go out of their way to explain the most esoteric lore shit possible?? And despite it all they still intentionally give DMC2 as short a shrift as they can??? It’s so dumb, it rules. It’s just one of the many things about the game that show that even with so long of a gap between entries, no love for the series was lost by the people that make it. I don’t think the suits at Capcom expected this game to hit as hard as it did though, because despite there being clear areas where the game could be expanded on with DLC there still hasn’t been anything announced. I hope they’re maybe saving it for some sort of DMC3-esque special edition, or maybe just already working on DMC6, because even after getting all S-ranks I still wanted to play more. The game’s just that damn good.

Hypnospace Outlaw (PC, 2019)

I expected very little from Hypnospace Outlaw. I backed the game on Kickstarter solely because it looked cool and I thought a game about fake GeoCities was neat, and then I immediately forgot about it until it released. Admittedly my lack of expectations stemmed mostly from the fact that it’s kind of hard to set expectations for a game you never really thought too hard about, but even in the brief period of time where I considered it enough to give it money, I never expected it to be much more than a pretty-looking 101 Great GeoCities Jokez delivery vehicle. Boy was I wrong. I mean, it is incredibly good at that, but Hypnospace Outlaw is so much more than a funny period piece. The basic premise is that you’re in alternate universe 1999 and have just become a community moderator for an Internet service provider that allows people to connect to the Internet while they sleep. You’re tasked with browsing the game’s weird fake Internet and issuing demerits to users who violate the five basic Hypnospace rules, but it quickly evolves into something way bigger. Hypnospace Outlaw’s greatest strength is its exceptional ability at weaving together subtle world building, small and engaging character arcs, esoteric microjokes, and a genuine sense of mystery and discovery into an incredibly cohesive and engaging package. It’s as much a game about the people that use and run its weird fake Internet as it is about that weird fake Internet itself. And a lot of the problems both face echo the problems we face with our real world Internet today. When I was mapping out writing this article like a month or two ago I was prepared to go on about how at its core, Hypnospace Outlaw is an incredibly poignant story about how uncaring tech corporations actively harm their users and always have, but then a couple of days ago I read Colin Spacetwinks’ game of the year list and his #1 entry put most everything I would have said about that topic down in a way more eloquent and well-written way than I ever could have. And then I remembered that Friend Of The Site Heidi Kemps covered some of the same angle but from the perspective of the early Internet in an article earlier this year, again way better than I could have. So I highly recommend you read those when you’re done here. What I wanna bring up instead is just how effortlessly surprising and interconnected a lot of stuff in Hypnospace feels, using a mildly spoiler-ish late game example. Two of the first “zones” you’re allowed to moderate when you start Hypnospace Outlaw are Teentopia and Goodtime Valley, which are essentially alternate universe Yahooligans and a little slice of Hypnospace just for Boomers respectively. On Teentopia you’ll see a bunch of kids that are wild for Squisherz, Hypnospace’s alternate universe version of Pokémon, and over in Goodtime Valley you’ll see (much like there was back in real world 1999) a few pages made by religious fundamentalists convinced that everything the kids like these days is the work of Satan. This of course includes Squisherz, and you can find a page by one organization full of crackpot conspiracy theories with flimsy evidence that TOTALLY DEFINITELY backs up their claim. Squisherz contains a wolf, which the Bible warns about many times! This giraffe monster CLEARLY has a pentagram in its design!! And the eye of this snake-like Squisherz is the eye of Horus, an Egyptian occult symbol and NEED I REMIND YOU that Lucifer took the form of a snake in the Garden of Eden!!! It is very clear what this page is goofing on and throughout the course of the game it doesn’t get updated at all, so it’s very easy to laugh at it and forget about it. Very late into the game, you get an optional sidequest. Adrian Merchant, one of the CEOs of Merchantsoft, the company that created Hypnospace, was found out to have logged traffic indicating he was a frequent visitor of a website called Children of HORUS, and a call is put out to investigate what that even is. You can easily find the website, but it asks you for a password if you click the Enter button. Adrian Merchant is consistently portrayed throughout the game as a complete idiot, and the solution to this puzzle has you capitalize on that. Another early game objective ended up with you finding a list of cracked passwords, and one of those passwords happens to be for the instant messenger account of Adrian Merchant. If you can remember that he was even in that text file from forever ago, and then put two and two together that of COURSE that dumbass would use the same password for everything, you just punch in his messenger password and you’re granted access to the Children of HORUS page. It turns out that HORUS is an acronym that stands for Hiding Occult References in Utmost Secrecy, and the page itself is a basic leaderboard with a list of names and two numbered columns reading “Hidden” and “Found”. In that list of names you’ll find A. Merchant, along with the names of various other CEOs and celebrities you might have read about elsewhere in Hypnospace. One of the other names on this list is F. Kazuma, the CEO of Monarch, creators of Squisherz. The funny conspiracy theory website from the beginning of the game that you most likely forgot about was, about this one specific thing, correct. There was an eye of Horus hidden on the snake from Squisherz. Not as any sort of Satanic plot, mind you, but only as part of some weird millionaire dickwaving contest. This dumb tiny revelation is not called out by the game at all and nothing comes of it, it’s just there for you to notice if you’ve been paying enough attention. Hypnospace Outlaw is LITTERED with stuff like this. Weird small interconnected things you wouldn’t expect to be interconnected. Little dumb things you wouldn’t expect to have any sort of payoff but somehow do. And it’s also just as chock full of big things. Having all the pieces fall into place at once to where I was able to access Hypnospace’s equivalent of the dark web was the best sequence in a game this year for me, even beating out the outlandish shit in DMC5. Getting and solving the final case was a rush. Hypnospace Outlaw is full of incredible moments big and small. It’s genuinely engaging and affecting, which is so much more than I was expecting from a game that was pitched to me as “Funny GeoCities Cop”. It almost has no right being so good. But it is. Hell, even the music rules! I didnt even get into that! I don't have enough time or space to get into that now! The music is so goddamn good! I know I started these lists because I had no interest in ranking games, but every year I sort of jokingly-but-not-jokingly say “haha this game sure would be my number one if I did that!” for at least one game. It’s time to fully lean into it. I don’t gotta rank ‘em all, but I can pick a favorite. Hypnospace Outlaw is my favorite game of 2019 with a goddamn bullet.

These games were also cool, I just had less to say about them:

Etrian Odyssey (Nintendo DS, 2007): Man, this series just started out good, huh? I dabbled with the first two games in college when I got a DS flashcart but never really dug in until EO4, and the first game is enjoyable in just about every way the modern ones are. Definitely more barebones and punishing though. Kero Blaster (PlayStation 4, 2017): This is a game by the creator of Cave Story that does not aim to be Cave Story, and that’s fine! A fun little shooter in its own right, though I do think the shooting in Cave Story felt a little better than it does here. Space Invaders Extreme (Nintendo DS, 2008): I played the shit out of this game in college thanks to that flashcart I mentioned before, but I never finished a playthrough in full until this year for some reason. Still way stylish and way fun! I need to get a copy of the second one... CROSSNIQ+ (Nintendo Switch, 2019): Incredibly chill puzzle game that can be as hard or easy as you want it to be. Almost uncanny in how well it emulates the style of late PS1/Dreamcast games. Super Mario Maker 2 (Nintendo Switch, 2019): Mario Maker 2 is kind of weird for me. It’s a solid improvement in a lot of aspects, but a clear regression in a lot of others. Also the online multiplayer is the second least amount of fun I’ve had with a video game this year (Secret of Mana swooped in and stole the number one slot near the end). Still, I had a lot of fun with it and I’ll probably end up going back to it eventually. Katamari Damacy Reroll (Nintendo Switch, 2018): The original Katamari Damacy is still every bit as fun and charming as it was upon its original release. This port is weirdly based on the Japanese version with the English text inserted, which means no English voice acting and Wanda Wanda only plays in the multiplayer mode. The Joycon sticks also aren’t the greatest for doing charge rolls. But none of these faults detract too much from the game. Bring on We Love Katamari Reroll! Earth Defense Force 5 (PlayStation 4, 2018): Sandlot somehow keeps finding ways to make each new EDF bigger and explodier, and EDF5 is the biggest and explodiest yet. I think the mission design in 4.1 was more solid overall, but 5 feels the best to play and has the most fun tools. Also the dialogue is the most absurd its ever been, and the final boss goes for it way harder than the series ever has. Pokémon Shield (Nintendo Switch, 2019): This game is honestly just okay, but leaving it off would again be neglecting a game I put a ton of time into this year. Pokémon Sword is fun in the way most Pokémon games usually are, and extremely half-baked in basically every other aspect. I’m still having a good time putting together teams and finding shinies and doing The Pokémon Thing regardless.

And that’s 2019 (and this decade) in the bag! I don’t know where anything’s going from here, but I’m going to ride it out as best as I can! I hope you do too! As always, thank you so much for getting to the bottom of all these words. I’m hoping to be in a more stable place mid-2020, and then I want to get back to all the things I haven’t had time to do. I want to get back to streaming, I want to write more dumb articles like The Best Babies, I want to do it all! I hope I will be able to do it all. Until then!

[hcmj]

HCMJ’s Favorite Albums of 2019!

Listen to a mix featuring these albums here: HCMJ’s 2019 End Of Year Mix

Other Favorites:

David Bruce - The North Wind Was a Woman

galen tipton - fake meat

upusen - Highland Ave.

BLACKPINK - Kill This Love

Starkey - Earth EP

Lamp - ‘A Distant Shore’ Asia Tour 2018

AWITW - Ｓｈｅ Ｗａｌｋ Ａｌｏｎｅ う者姻

Seaketa - Gion ぎおん

SNJO - Diamond

BONNEVILLE - AFFORDABLE LUXURY

20) Gareth Davis & Scanner - Footfalls

I first found the experimental composition/clarinet music of Gareth Davis in the early 2010′s during my initial dive into the Miasmah catalog. Teamed up here with another electronic musician/clarinetist, Footfalls uses long, poetic waves of deep woodwinds and synth improv to describe hauntingly desolate environments. It only seems fitting to start the list with one of many bookends on a decade in the grim, cold grey of Philadelphia.

BANDCAMP | APPLE MUSIC | SPOTIFY

19) Barker - Utility

Arp and delay-driven rhythmic expression that recalls late-era Kraftwerk, building a pristine sci-fi future with ear-pleasing, rich, and laser-sharp production. Like disembodied trance or house music searching for a strong beat that never comes, Utility is absolute, skillfully-stated synth pleasure.

BANDCAMP | APPLE MUSIC | SPOTIFY

18) Sean McCann/Seth Graham w/Kymatic Ensemble  - Split Series Vol. IV

Seth Graham’s Gasp was a big favorite in 2018, here condensed and re-imagined for chamber ensemble. Sean McCann’s “Vilon” finds a blissful middle-ground between electronic ambient music and traditional western instrumentation, like a poignant hymn sung somewhere far away, while the new “Gasp” arrangements are full of expressiveness and surprises.

BANDCAMP

17) 猫 シ Corp. & t e l e p a t h - Building a Better World

Deep bass pulses and distant rain welcome us to a familiar comfortable place, but as the unmistakable sound and melodic freedom of telepath’s original synth work bends its way over rolling toms in the reverb-soaked hifi opener, it becomes clear that this album is something new and special. Full-on new age drenched in an endless downpour, it’s a huge and beautiful world that’s blissful to be lost in.

BANDCAMP | APPLE MUSIC | SPOTIFY

16) Various Artists - Oneironaut

Another rare case of a compilation that is actually worth listening to, Japanese indie powerhouse Local Visions assembles the best talent from the sax-loving, jazz-infused, post-vaporwave electronic underworld of Japan and beyond in the indomitable Oneironaut comp. Notable contributions from Utsuro Spark, upusen, Tsudio Studio, tamao ninomiya, and countless others deliver a hazy daydream.

BANDCAMP

15) wai wai music resort - WWMR 1

Also from Local Visions comes this special collection of tracks caught somewhere between “lost LP found in a record crate” and “bedroom 4-track” - two distinct lofi flavors that mysteriously meld seamlessly on WWMR 1. It sounds new and old, youthful and mature, and full of affection for love and the music it references.

BANDCAMP | SPOTIFY

14) EXID - Me & You

There’s something about this mini-album, a Christmas time snowy nostalgia as the sun sets on another chapter of life (and era of kpop) in tracks like “나의밤” and “WE ARE..,” the Jamiroquai funk of “내일해 (Urban Mix),” or club igniting title track - EXID may never exist in this form or at this level again, and like so many of my favorites this year it reflects the recent history of its genre brilliantly.

APPLE MUSIC | SPOTIFY

13) Fire-Toolz - Field Whispers (Into the Crystal Palace)

Field Whispers is the stunning next step in the evolution of Fire-Toolz that feels completely at home on the finely-curated Orange Milk. Extended sax-soaked dreams collide with splinters of music jumbled and broken, elegant and disjointed, all bouncing off each other while still leaving room for moments of soaring guitar and dreamy synth pads.

BANDCAMP | APPLE MUSIC | SPOTIFY

12) Hakobune - The Last of Our Time Together

With over 50 releases (4 just this year!), Hakobune’s discography can seem like an impenetrable wall of ambience, but like classics Seamless and Here and Love Knows Where, The Last of Our Time Together stands out - monumental and multi-dimensional - a slow dance skidding along the frozen surface of an endlessly deep, rich sea of emotion.

BANDCAMP | APPLE MUSIC | SPOTIFY

11) FM Skyline - Advanced Memory Suite

As nostalgic electronic music continues to evolve and find itself elevated in the hands of increasingly-focused musicians, FM Skyline delivers a joyful retrospective on a decade that gave new life to so many old sounds. Exploring the inner recesses of our memory and delusion, Advanced Memory Suite turns the page on a decade of chillwave/synthwave/vaporwave/whateverwave. It’s a hypnotic monument to the modern renaissance.  

BANDCAMP | APPLE MUSIC | SPOTIFY

10) emamouse - Black place on the edge

It was a huge year from the prolific Tokyo-based visual artist and musician emamouse, whose non-stop creative output continues to challenge the very nature of reality. Black place on the edge was a standout favorite this year, layered and mysterious - incidental music for the surreal dreamworld described in mou’s most unnerving illustrations. Like waking up and finding yourself trapped inside Quest 64.

BANDCAMP

09) Koeosaeme - Obanikeshi

My favorite Orange Milk release of the year, Koeosaeme delivers another absolute hurricane of hyper-detailed, sensory-extreme, buckshot-to-the-face arrangements. The sheer amount of data on this album is staggering, with more musical information packed into a few minutes of its blissful chaos than most full length albums combined.

BANDCAMP | APPLE MUSIC | SPOTIFY

08) Jaeho Hwang - Non-self 비자아

I was super fortunate to play a show with Jaeho Hwang in Tokyo during this year’s Neo Gaia Phantasy tour - his immense set started so intensely it’s as if the entire room was cast under a shamanistic spell, hypnotized by percussive expressionism, drawn to the light of digitally melting faces and occult rituals playing out on the screen behind him. Non-self 비자아 is without mercy and full of powerful and primal energy.

BANDCAMP | APPLE MUSIC | SPOTIFY

07) Weyes Blood - Titanic Rising

Natalie Mering’s subtly expressive, velvety voice on its own is enough to make anything she touches turn to gold, but her songwriting is so masterfully dialed in on Titanic Rising it’s as if Harry Nilsson came back from the dead to write a new volume of pop rock ballads to get us through the next 50 years. It’s an album dripping with love for all the best parts of the 1970′s (Stardust-era Willie Nelson, early ELO, “Lost Weekend” Lennon and friends, etc), but also showcases the compositional chops to match and sometimes surpass its musical lineage (e.g. “Picture Me Better”).

BANDCAMP | APPLE MUSIC | SPOTIFY

06) Monari Wakita - RIGHT HERE

Off the heals of last year’s jaw-dropping Ahead!, ex-Especia Monari Wakita continues to defy modern conventions while asserting herself as one of the most powerful female voices in jpop. “エスパドリーユでつかまえて” sounds like Hitomitoi when she was a rising star, FRIEND IN NEED continues the new jack swing flirting, “やさしい嘘” sounds like it’s begging to be sampled by a future funk artist, and the lead-off single “Just a Crush for Today” is somewhere in a stop-and-go freefall between Billy Joel and Sonic R.

VIDEO 1 | VIDEO 2

05) Yeule - Serotonin II

Beneath the subtle power and diffusion of a voice like an extra-dimensional Julee Cruise, Serotonin II’s beautifully bleak paintings of the world it carefully constructs are reflective of Yeule’s transcendence into the artist’s next form. Crumbling brutalism under a blinding white sky, aliens in a graveyard - the romance of eternal torment in the spiral - all in dark room illuminated by a computer monitor sometime in the 00′s.

BANDCAMP | APPLE MUSIC | SPOTIFY

04) The Caretaker - Everywhere at the End of Time - Stage 6

The final release for this multi-year project, capturing a mind being lost to dementia, also marks the end of Leyland Kirby’s multi-decade spanning Caretaker project - a project that has had an immense impact on my perception of the limitlessness of music. Now completed, Everywhere at the End of Time towers as a 50 track, 6.5 hour journey from dreamy lucidity to terrifying confusion and darkness.

BANDCAMP

03) Tsudio Studio - Soda Resort Journey

Tsudio Studio brings a contemporary frame to leisure fantasy. Instant classics “Kiss in KIX,” “Asian Coke Light,” and “Like a Ruin” expand on the electro-bossa pop of Port Island, while surprises like “Beijing Cat” expand and explore new worlds of sound. One perfect chord after another, from start to finish, Soda Resort Journey is bubbly and delicious to listen to. Play it looped, close your eyes, be where you’d rather be.

BANDCAMP | APPLE MUSIC | SPOTIFY

02) Minuano - Butterfly Dream

Lamp vocalist Kaori Sakakibara’s side project Minuano is like some mutant variant of Lamp - equally complex while slightly less disorienting arrangements (although there are a few re-worked Lamp classics on here), tighter pop sound, stunningly immaculate vocal production - all while maintaining the unique orchestral jazz pop that makes both bands such a euphoric joy to listen to. “Memory of Soda Pop” was my favorite track released by anyone this year.

BANDCAMP

01) EQUIP - CURSEBREAKER X

This was the year of EQUIP. No better story for this year, no better sound than CURSEBREAKER X - the songs from this album will always bring back a thousand memories of smoke-filled clubs, dark forests, and snow-capped mountains from across Japan - the building promise of absolute freedom and a happier tomorrow as we all lived the Neo Gaia Phantasy.. But even without my personal connection to the music, the hardware-driven “perfect sound” VGM and EQUIP’s signature cassette tape destruction has never been better balanced than it is here - it’s loud, and filled with unforgettable melodies and unknown lands. It’s monumental and iconic and will stand the test of time and it was my favorite album of 2019!

BANDCAMP | APPLE MUSIC | SPOTIFY

[arcaneranger]

Final Thoughts - Fall 2019

This season was a major disappointment specifically if you look at it through my rules, but I set them this year and I intend to keep them.

Basically, multiple shows were confirmed to have “second seasons” or continuations coming in spring, which falls within my qualification as a “part two” rather than a whole new season and therefore puts them on an entirely different list at the end of the year. And most of what was left were a) already long shows or b) not interesting enough for me to want to hurry through them.

And Babylon, which is so delayed that I’m gonna include it in Winter 2020 because I’m not gonna let another whole January go by without finishing this rather bad year of anime.

Let’s get on with it, then.

Shows not appearing on this list:

Sword Art Online Alicization - War of Underworld, because it’ll now wind up on the Long Show list for next year as a whole (counting all of Alicization as one season, as it probably should be.) Food Wars: The Fourth Plate is in the same boat.

My Hero Academia Season Four, Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun, Fate/Grand Order, Case File nº221: Kabukicho, Phantasy Star Online 2, Radiant 2nd Season Ahiru no Sora, Blade of the Immortal, and Gundam Build Divers RE:Rise because they’re all long shows that will also land next year.

ORESUKI: Are you the only one that loves me? and Ascendance of a Bookworm because ORESUKI is apparently just not over until an OVA comes out next year (and boy oh boy is that fuckin stupid) and Ascendance now falls within my rules for a long show, as it’s continuing in less than six months.

Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Nue These II because it’s a series of movies and I don’t cover those.

Babylon because the second half isn’t burning off airing until January.

Fairy Gone and We Never Learn because they’ll end up on the Long Show list as per my rules.

So, with all of that out of the way, 23 shows were licensed for simulcasting that began and ended this fall. (Man, that’s depressing, and it’s only gonna get worse in a second)

In an effort to actually get this out in a reasonable time, I am just going to hit the highlights, because I have at least two more lists to do and trudging through my dropped list for Fall is going to give me Seasonal Affective Disorder.

Worst Of the Season: It’s a Fucking Tie

Val x Love

You probably won’t ever see the video I planned to make about the horrendous first episode of Val x Love because production issues caused me to delay it until it made no sense to make anymore, but I wrote several thousand words on the ineptitude on display in every facet of this show. Calling it trash is an insult to my garbage can.

High School Prodigies Have It Easy, Even in Another World!

I don’t understand the appeal of power fantasy shows and probably never will, but this one takes it about four steps too far with an entire cast of overpowered narcissists who face absolutely no stakes aside from the possibility that they might succeed too much. Who on earth is this for?

I finished 3 shows this season:

Kemono Michi: Rise Up! (7/10)

A very fun, very different isekai romp from the guy who brought you KonoSuba, Kemono Michi flew very comfortably under the radar this fall, only pulling in about half the viewership of the much less interesting Cautious Hero. Despite this, it was a fun combination of isekai with a standard sports anime plot, mixed in with gratuitous animal enthusiasm and a few very good wrestling sakuga shots.

Outburst Dreamer Boys (7/10)

But if Kemono Michi flew under the radar, Outburst Dreamer Boys may as well have been completely invisible, which is ironic given the attention-grabbing main cast. Despite a few moderately mature plot points, ODB wound up pulling me in with wholesome charm, depicting the best-case scenario for a benign group of high school oddballs getting to live their bliss.

Best of the Fall: Stars Align (9/10)

Of course, the show that ended up pulling in the most interest at the last possible second ended up at the very top of my list, if not for anything but strong animation (...to start, anyway) and sheer plot ambition. I’m not going to say that Stars Align handles all of its very delicate plot points with grace, but it does give them the gravitas they deserve, and it left me with my jaw on the floor at several points. We might never get the other half of the story, but what we have here is a great start to what should have been an amazing show (that should have landed on my long show list for next year…)

And that’s it! This one was short because the next list I have to make (the long-form one) is...well, not. Stay tuned, it’s coming shortly!

[lomoent]

Sonic unleashed ps2 jp

SONIC UNLEASHED PS2 JP FULL

SONIC UNLEASHED PS2 JP PLUS

This (and the first Generation game) was part of the Sega Ages 2500 series of remakes that got released on the Playstation 2. The Phantasy Star fansite has finished fully translating the Japanese only Phantasy Star Generation 2, which is a remake of the SEGA Genesis/Megadrive JRPG Phantasy Star II.

SONIC UNLEASHED PS2 JP FULL

No Comments Phantasy Star Generation 2 gets full English fan translation If you have an extra $4.00 dollars I suggest you also pick up one of my favorite Playstation One games, none other than Tomba!a game created by Capcom legend Tokuro Fujiwara. If you have a Playstation Vita I would suggest picking up Persona 4 Golden instead of the PS2 classic version, since it has more content.

SONIC UNLEASHED PS2 JP PLUS

If the prices aren’t low enough, Playstation Plus members get an extra savings (ranging from 10%-20%). Persona 4 Arena Ultimax is a fighting game that continues the plot after the RPG games, FYI: Persona is like Final Fantasy as you don’t need to play the prior ones to enjoy a new entry. What Yakuza title are you picking up? Let us know in the comments below.ĩ Comments PlayStation Essentials Sale slashes prices on Persona gamesĪre you a SEGA fan that still hasn’t tried any of the popular Persona series video games? I think now is the time for you to jump on board since Sony has put three entries on sale! All prices are USD. Supplies are limited, so be warned that they can disappear at anytime. Rare Yakuza titles get reprinted, but do you think its worth the price? Thankfully, if you aren’t happy with your copy, Amazon has a good refund policy even on 3rd party sellers. There is also a ebay seller, by the name of vgp_videogameplus that is selling these same titles with free shipping option. I would totally pick up Yakuza and Yakuza 2 on the PlayStation 2, those are the rarest titles. I first assumed these were actually ‘newly found stock’, but according to producer at Atlus USA, Sam Mullen, these are ‘ reorders’. Yakuza 2, before the reprinted offer, was over a hundred bucks used, so having it for $50 dollars brand new is a great deal. Did you want to pick up the first two Yakuza titles on the PlayStation 2, brand new and at a decent price? You are in luck as rare Yakuza titles get reprinted thanks to Amazon seller JADD ENTERTAINMENT.

[blazehedgehog]

More broadly speaking, do you enjoy Japanese RPGs? Do you believe that there are certain parts of the JRPG framework from which Sonic can take?

I’m trying to take stock of the JRPGs I’ve played.

I have finished Final Fantasy 1 (GBA), Final Fantasy 4 (DS), got up to the final boss of Final Fantasy 6 (GBA), finished Final Fantasy 7, Chrono Trigger (SNES and DS), Super Mario RPG, Earthbound, I got up to the final dungeon of Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded, finished Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, died to the final form of the final boss in Bowser’s Inside Story… I finished the mini-JRPG in Retro Game Challenge (Guadia Quest) and probably the one in Retro Game Challenge 2 (Guadia Quest 2).

I have also put significant time into Final Fantasy 5 (SNES), 8 and 9, Chrono Cross, Phantasy Star IV, Sands of Destruction, and probably a few more I’m forgetting. I’ve also watched a complete Let’s Play of Final Fantasy 10.

I am interested in playing Mother 3, Breath of Fire 1 & 2, even eventually going back to something like Illusion of Gaia or Tales of Phantasia. I’d also like to try Xenoblade Chronicles 1 at some point. I still want to go back to Phantasy Star IV. I just bought Cosmic Star Heroine not too long ago, and I’d like to dig into that, as well.

I like JRPGs, but mainly I like classic JRPGs. In particular, that’s where I feel like Square has lost the plot the hardest – starting with FF8, it felt like they began changing things arbitrarily just to make things different for the sake of being different. The draw system in FF8, the field effects in Chrono Cross, the linearity of FFX, the weird Gambit combat system of FF12, etc. Final Fantasy stopped feeling like Final Fantasy.

The Square I fell in love with ceased to exist almost immediately after I discovered them and they became this weird monster where you get the feeling they think they’re creating “art” but all I see is weird, ugly, obtuse garbage. They still put the Final Fantasy name on games but they don’t seem to contain a single element that I would describe as a hallmark for that series.

And worse still, Square had this moment where they seemed to realize how far away they’d strayed from the path… only to double back down on that stuff with Final Fantasy 15. I have absolutely zero faith in Square anymore to make games I care about.

As for other, more recent JRPGs, I dunno about those, either. Most are very influenced by modern anime, which I don’t really like. Maybe a Tales game would be nice (I hear good things about Vesperia) or Dragon Quest 11. Just never something like… I dunno, Neptunia. Or Atelier.

Out of all the JRPGs I’ve played and seen, I cannot think of anything Sonic should borrow from any of them.