#ost appreciation hours

[justplaggin]

riveting spine-chilling breathtaking incredible showstopping spectacular

[aqqleshiqqing-archive]

guys i hope you know this is just the first song and it's already ruining my mojo by the way he laughs so maniacally

[nyupuun]

Its one of those nights were you have to listen to Yugioh 5Ds OST and let all of your neurons activate at once

[anti-social-anthem]

my cousins out here having children and here I am upset there is no legitimate TOTK OST on Spotify

[xitsensunmoon]

Finally done with this oughhhh... the timer says i worked full fucking 24 hours on this😭

School game animation... Obviously I couldn't work on it if it didn't have my blorbo so here he is. They work together seamlessly as well hehe I would appreciate you sharing this post because I'm dead

Each of those took 8+ hours to make aha ha how I love. How I love animation... It was worth it tho! My fav is the attack sequence with claws :) the way his tendrils move just scratches something in my brain

Also I made a lil video of how my animation progressed since 2022 if anyone is interested it's under the cut<3

The song is from Happy Meat Farms OST Tony Ashley - Mother :)

[noxtivagus]

a night will never not be complete without me rambling abt ffxiv huh

[vanade]

IT IS DONE 📢

The Dawning may be over but it's still on in my heart...

Spend a few days with my guardian Ceph, helping him figure out cookie recipes with Eva's 1st gen oven. Will you befriend him? Spend every moment flirting?? Will you EAT THE FORBIDDEN DOUGH?

Features:

10.7k of text (10-15 min per playthrough)

lots of dialogue choices

customizable player name (pronouns are unspecified/gender-neutral throughout the game)

be a human, awoken or exo (changes some flavour text)

original OST by my sister

too many cookies

Play it for free over on itch.io ! Windows, Linux, OSX and Web-Playable! (download recommended though) Also if you enjoy it I would really appreciate if you could leave a rating!! This was a solo project for #WinterVNJam2023 and it was a work of love (and insanity)

[ai-megurine]

HOTD S2 episode 2 "Rhaenyra the Cruel" reaction

• This OST! Djamin Rawadi is a god

• Can we appreciate Aegon's friends? Staying with him despite the state of madness he's in and closing the door to make sure he has some privacy

• oh so that shot of Aemond was him realising that he was the target!!!!

• I'm sorry I'm not that sympathetic to Alicent's tears? I just wish we could see more of Helaena grieving. I love the dress though

• ALICENT B&C IS NOT ABOUT YOU

• Otto shut up.

• Get Tom an Emmy, an Oscar and every single award in the world. His "what?" of disbelief to Otto stuck with me, dunno why

• In love with Larys' entrance. No one notices him until he speaks, he's in the background. Perfectly suits him

• "Bitch Queen of bastards" lmfao

• Love that the Council is shutting up and just letting Aegon rant. They're all scared of him in a way

• Who knew I'd ever be happy to see Larys?

• "I'll kill him myself" feed him to Sunfyre pls. Or Shrykos

• Aegon losing it every time Otto speaks is such a mood

• Jasper Wylde has a lign! Who knew.

• "We know our enemy!" with the little hand thingy was funny, I'm sorry

• Tyland!!

• "you're already seen as weak" oh fuck you Otto

• Why would anyone think that Rhaenys committing mass murder means Rhaenyra should be Queen???

• Aegon "my little son's body" broke me.

• Alicent calling Aegon "my darling" was sweeter than I thought.

• oh so Helaena can be a spectacle but not you??

• HELAENA MY LOVE

• LET ME HUG YOU

• DAEMON WHEN I CATCH YOU

• BALERION HIMSELF COULDN'T PROTECT YOU

• Oh my lord she's holding Jaehaerys' clothes 😭😭😭

• She's grief personified I can't breathe

• Phia is an angel

• THE TEAR ON HER CHEEK

• AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH the "I don't want them closer I don't know them" breaks me. She's my angel, I will fight the world for you

• ALICENT WHO CARES YOU'RE BANGING COLE. IT HASN'T BEEN 24 HOURS SINCE JAEHAERYS DIED

• "This is for my boy" AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH.

• The toy horse 😭😭😭😭

• The music is so good

• (when did they have the time to make all the uniforms and banners??? Sewing ladies have been doing overtime)

• Blood IMMEDIATELY giving up all the information was low-key funny but it really showcases who he is. A big bully who uses his strength to hurt people weaker than hip (women and children) but the second he's caught? He folds like a coward.

• Lmfao Larys' face. Even he was like "damn dude I didn't even start"

• Who the fuck is the herald? I thought Otto would be the one doing this

• OH MY GOD THEY SEWED THE HEAD BACK?????

• ANGEL, BABY, I LOVE YOU

• DAEMON I WILL KILL YOU MYSELF

• The little circlet on his bead 😭😭😭😭

• why barn owls on the shroud? I mean it's Helaena and she's flawless so I like it anyway

• So the death of Jaehaerys has FINALLY been acknowledged as kinslaying as well

• Blood's face when he understands that Aegon is coming and that it's going to be painful

• Noooooo, I wanted more pain for Blood

• Oh no my girl being so overwhelmed. She's in pain 😭😭😭

• Oh Rhaenyra's reaction to B&C

• I mean why wouldn't they accuse you? Like? Bestie? Who would it profit to kill Aegon's heir?

• Is Daemon actually smirking???? This man istg

• Rhaenys immediately knew, this woman is too good for these people

• Rhaenyra's realisation

• "Killing it"??? IT???? WOMAN.

• DON'T YOU FUCKING LAUGH. If you felt any ounce of remorse, you would be screaming in rage about it

• "you have wounded me" BESTIE A CHILD DIED WE DON'T CARE ABOUT YOUR STANDING

• JFC the way she reacted when he broke that glass!!! She's obviously scared, it's definitely not the first time.

• Emma the actor that you are. Rhaenyra looks ready to rip Daemon's head with her bare teeth (which she should do, it would be iconic)

• You are a monster dude

• Oooh that silence

• "because of your virtue" hshshsjsj

• Bestie Viserys named Rhaenyra heir out of grief and guilt

• "You're pathetic" is so iconic, love it

• Baela exists! That coat is atrocious though

• So no risking Jace but Baela is fair game huh? Bitch (and I don't even like Baela). Good scene though

• Behold, Daemon runs away from his family

• HELAENA STILL DOESN'T HAVE A GUARD???? WHAT???? AEGON HAS TWO HE COULD SPARE ONE

• Oh god her and Aegon. Grieving, broken, but unable to connect. I feel like she wanted to reach out in the stairs, but he runs away because he's on the verge of breaking down and be can't have that in public.

• The nodding???

• NOOO THE BED

• I mean, I know it's better but

• Oh god the mattress covered in blood

• The juxtaposition with Rhaenyra being with her son is heartbreaking. The way she realises that this is what Helaena lost, that Jaehaerys was that age

• ALICENT STOP THINKING ABOUT YOU BANGING COLE NO ONE CARES

• Also Cole should be guarding Helaena and Jaehaera

• The religious trauma of consensual sex

• I wished the Alicole storyline would take less screen though, I mean good for them but that mess of a relationship shouldn't overshadow Helaegon's doomism and greek tragedy right now

• Cole needs to stop beefing with the rest of the world, Arryk isn't responsible for it

• Love Arryk for calling out Cole

• LMFAO THE OTHER KINGSUARDS NOPPING OUT. Valid ngl

• YOU'RE MAD SER. Love him

• Cole's hypocrisy is a delight. He's a terrible person, but he's so interesting

• Why don't they use poison though

• Laenor being mentioned? Neat. Him teaching the boys about fishing and Sea Shanty is pretty fun

• Damn that scene is actually good!! A shame I couldn't care less about Baela and Rhaena

• Oh so that's the famous brothel scene?

• Aemond's mummy issues on fill display 🙏🏻

• I love the relationship between him and the madame ngl. Like I know he pays her for it but her gentleness with him seems to be at least partially genuine. Her facial expression when he doesn't look at her are pretty telling

• Hugh Hammer the return! Fuck if I care but hey, I'm not against them developing the Dragonseeds. I wish Nettles was around too. I guess Hugh will join TB after his family's death? Or he'll be a spy for TG? Dunno

• So we know Baela ends up with Alyn, and he looks so much bigger and older than her 😭 Like it makes sense but DAMN

• I genuinely cannot begin to care about Corlys to save my life

• WAIT RHAENYRA DIDN'T KNOW WHO MYSARIA WAS???? THIS IS SO FUCKING FUNNY

• Mysaria being a good character wasn't on my bingo card but I don't dislike it

• Seasmoke following Addam around like a lost puppy is so funny to me. Also his sounds are so cute. I guess Laenor died off screen?

• The focus on the smallfolk is great. It reminds me of Varys' quote about the smallfolk always being the one to suffers.

• Cheese didn't suffer enough and I wish that dog a very nice "find a better owner"

• "Oh, I had them hanged" is so fucking funny.

• Otto is right, though. Like, this was a terrible idea.

• Ooooh mentioning Jaehaerys was a dumb move. You should Aegon isn't going to be rational about it

• Aegon, you can show strength by, you know, USING YOUR DRAGON. Honestly a public execution of Blood would have been better

• Otto's "wtf" face is so funny. I love him. Tom and Rhys are carrying this entire episode. Phia too, but she's less present

• Otto, do you REALLY think Aegon gives a single fuck about Viserys???

• Otto being fired for upteenth time is so funny. This man files for unemployment every three weeks

• Otto's last act of defiance was great

• Yeah, Mysaria isn't exiting the show

• Oh, that's how she'll stay

• Elinda Massey exists!

• I'm glad they didn't make Rhaenyra fight Arryk like some believed. It makes much more sense for her to be genuinely scared for her life. Like, Arryk is a grown ass man in armour and literally one of the best knights of his time

• They deserved better

• Otto unknowingly dissing his daughter's bf right in front of her was peak irony.

• "Petty revenge"? A FOUR YEAR OLD CHILD WAS DECAPITATED

• FUCK YOU ALICENT. Your son isn't "valuable", he's YOUR SON

• DAERON MENTION!!!!!!!! VICTORY!!!!!!!!

• The generational trauma of zero communication 🙏🏻

• Aegon sobbing and breaking down

• Nooooooooooo

• My love

• Let me hug you

• He's so beautiful

• A fallen angel

• CRISTON LEGIT SITTING ON HER BED WAS SO FUNNY LIKE WHAT

• HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN WAITING

• ALSO WHO IS GUARDING HELAENA

Conclusion :

Tom is a god, Phia is an angel, I will start a cult for Ramin Djawadi. The acting in general was top notch, but Tom and Phia have ascended to god-like.

Helaegon's doomism and Greek tragedy will be my death, I love them your honour.

The focus on the smallfolk was very good, and I hope they do it for both sides.

[alexanderwales]

I wish I could sit down and explain things to the algorithms.

"Hey, look, you noticed that I was searching for stuff related to Final Fantasy 7, and I appreciate that. I was talking about it, tagging it, reading some discussions, and at the time, yeah, I was interested. But I'm done with the remake now. I'm not permanently in need of more Final Fantasy 7 stuff. I've moved on to other things. The fanart and fanfic is sort of falling on deaf ears here. You showed me that picture of Aerith fingerbanging Tifa and I won't lie, it definitely activated some neurons, but what I'm interested in now are some critiques of the last season of Umbrella Academy. Or give me some game design thoughts on Factorio. We're done with the Final Fantasy 7 stuff now."

But no, the algorithms just pick up on what you're currently talking about, searching about, etc. You watch one Youtube video on some of the worldbuilding of Midgar and suddenly there are just dozens of suggestions for five hour long video essays and OSTs and a bunch of stuff that I do not care about.

If the algorithms are here to stay, I just want them to be better, or to have better ways of talking to them.

"Please only play me Everclear's 'Father of Mine' when I'm in the mood to be sad/angry about my relationship with my father."

"I care far more about entertaining storytelling than subject matter, I will watch a five hour video on anything if the writing and production is good."

"I sometimes engage with people who are wrong on the internet, but I do not endorse this, and do not want more discourse that I've only dipped my toe in because someone said something that was incorrect, and all that searching and reading I did on the topic was to see how wrong they were."

If I had any faith in AI as a tool, I might hope that the algorithms get good enough to sand away some of these issues. But of course I don't have faith in AI, and of course the algorithms are designed for maximizing advertising dollars by way of increasing engagement, and I'm left grumbling at my computer every time the algorithm has clearly gotten the wrong impression.

[ejamesquijano]

LET’S GET OUT SOMEWHERE FAR THIS TIME In search of kindness, purity, and serene happiness

There is this one question that always stuck with me ever since I have read it somewhere: When was the last time you did something for the first time? Such a simple sentence yet the weight of it lingers in me thereafter. Today though, I’ll have an answer to that question, this is also a simple one but certainly one for the books of this dear existence too — Another first time to ever happen in my life was that I lived in a different country for a month.

And it really warms my heart to meet you again, Taiwan.

Since I tell the stories of my life in here and if you’ve been reading them, you would know that I did have a rough start this year and it was just recently that I am slowly bringing myself up from the chaos. But in the middle of 2024, I was offered an opportunity to work overseas and I seized it immediately. I can say now that it was one of the best decisions I have made this year because I never thought that this work trip would save me in more ways than one. I was working, yes, but for lots of reasons this felt like some sort of an escapade.

The Supercut:

Quick stop at Geo’s. Morning rush. Sunny flight. Hello again Taipei. Meeting the Taiwanese team. Stayed at Taoyuan. Life in Aspire Inn. Rm 3107. Ah Mu Ping adventures. Ximen Reservoir. Sesame Hotel’s grandeur. 13 shooting days. 2am Walk. Quick visit at Dihua St. Reverse Shoot calls. Nightly pagpags. Rainy afternoons. 7 Eleven nights. Google Translate. Night out at a Breeze rooftop bar. Midnight snacks at Mcdonald’s. An afternoon photowalk in Taoyuan. Digicam Memories. Fun times with actors and crew. Learning Taiwanese phrases. Appreciating new-found Taiwanese friends in the same field. 2 days in Taipei. Night biking at Chiang Kai-shek Park. Dinner x Booze night with Art Department. One bottle at Revolver. Visited Eslite Bookstore. Golden hour walks at Chiang Kai-shek Park. Foodtrip at Raohe Night Market. Booze night with Camera Department at Jellyfish Bistro and Bar. Picture wrap at Sesame. Afternoon road trip to Taipei. Quick photowalk x biking at Ximending. Visited The Red House x DVD Shop. Passed by Fong Da Coffee. Explored the roads around Ximending. Wrap Party at a KTV room in Partyworld. Sing-along featuring Meteor Garden OST. Bought treats x Xing Fu Tang milk tea at Ximending before calling it a night. Packing my stuff at dawn. 6am ride to the airport. Feeling everything at this point. Lim Giong’s 單純的人 in my playlist. Airport things. Afternoon Manila touchdown. KFC for lunch. Another stop at Geo’s before my bus ride home.

Sometimes my life seems like a blur when I am working, but as I write this and reminisce, I can actually say that I was so fucking happy. This second visit to Taiwan was an escapade indeed, and now it seems like I am coming back to reality. Well, it just feels surreal living somewhere far for a month and doing the job that I love which is making a film. What an experience, truly. And it felt really bittersweet to think that every great thing always ends in goodbyes. But I am happy, I won’t dwell in the blues today ‘cause this memory will always bring me indescribable delight.

That’s a wrap Taiwan. You will always have a special corner in my heart, so I’ll see you again someday.

*** 35mm Kodak Gold 200 June, 2024

[doshmanziari]

Two (relatively) recent and worthwhile considerations of FromSoftware soundtracks

As I mentioned a few months ago, I supplemented and republished an older essay on the music of Demon's Souls, the Dark Souls series, and Elden Ring, which you can read here. And I figure it's worth bringing up again, since I'm recommending two videos on the same general subject for a mini-post here.

To begin: Loopine, one of whose videos I've linked before, came out with a video, entitled "How Elden Ring Surpassed the Dark Souls OST", arguing that Elden Ring's clearer and deeper sound design puts it above Dark Souls 3's score. I find Loopine's analysis according to production unusual, appreciable, and clearly articulated; and, contrary to most media criticism solely being the self expelling thoughts, Loopine also conducts a small-scale experiment with other people regarding musical recognition — an experiment that, were it to be applied on a large scale, could yield very interesting results. Even so, the final thought I continue to have here is that the scores to Elden Ring and Dark Souls 3 are so comparable in their aggressive roteness (or rote aggressiveness?) that sound design can't possibly make that large of a difference.

Let me kinda diverge for a moment to remark on the trend Loopine mentions of "REAL CLASSICAL GAME COMPOSER CONDUCTOR REACTS TO DARK SOULS/ELDEN RING MUSIC" videos, just to say: first, how weird that videogame culture at large continues to suffer from this sort of media envy, awaiting the representatives of "real" art-forms to recognize an Undertale theme, or whatever. There seems to be the presumption that a certain kind of professional occupation necessarily yields novel insights; and that such professional appreciation somehow enforces an objective qualitative status upon the art. Did Bach admire the work of Vivaldi? Sure. Does that mean that I have to "admit" that Vivaldi's music is great? Uh... no. But, more than that, I find these videos confusing, given their emphasis on the quality of effectiveness — because a large part of my critical argument is that most tracks for the Dark Souls sequels and Elden Ring are highly ineffective.

A possible reason for this stark divergence of opinion is that, perhaps, most of the people featured on these videos haven't spent much time with the games, and so they miss the more particular details; and they also do not examine the soundtracks as a whole, both internally and according to FromSoftware's relevant catalogue, and lose sight of a bigger picture which reveals the tracks' interchangeable identities. On its own, Yuka Kitamura's theme for Lady Maria might seem extraordinary, and specially suited to that confrontation; when played right after the two-dozen others like it from Dark Souls 3 and Elden Ring... well.

From here, then, I'm going to recommend Crunchy's comparison of the original Demon's Souls soundtrack to the remake's. Being almost 3.5 hours long, and having no script prepared, it is, in a sense, the opposite to Loopine's. The length is not necessarily to the comparison's benefit. I think the video's maker would admit that, eventually, it becomes difficult to sustain the fresh particularities of criticisms made earlier on, because the offenses are fairly consistent. Since I left a comment on the video, I'm going to just quote that comment here:

This is a good musical analysis. Most of the comparative critiques I've come across couch the difference in terms of "taste", meaning that they tend to miss the contextual dimension. I think that it can be argued that the remake's music even fails on its own terms: the elaborateness of the reimaginings suggests that you're battling highly complex bosses with multiple phases, and that's not the case at all. With some of these tracks, I feel like half of the respective boss fight might have gone by during the intro. Given the general orchestral approach, I have the impression that the composer was probably drawing on Bloodborne's OST as the standard, since that was the last FromSoftware title prior to the remake which utilized an actual orchestra for pretty much its entire score; but, of course, Bloodborne's OST is communicating something very different from the world of Demon's Souls. Shrieking, slamming, grotesquely dark horror is definitively out of line, just as the needless graphical elaborations turn a brutal and austere world into a series of decked-out theme parks. I continue to be confused by most of FromSoftware's musical decisions for these games. For instance: why hire Motoi Sakuraba as your composer for Dark Souls? Nothing about Sakuraba's résumé recommends him as a composer of any sort of orchestral music. Was he just an affordable, "reliable" option? [Crunchy provided his own response to this: "I think Sakuraba was hired mainly because he had a relationship with Bandai, who published DS1."] How so much of a game like Elden Ring can be particularly crafted, while 85% of the music is a bundle of atmospheric non-events and "epic" slop, is baffling. Miyazaki's role here seems strangely incompetent, and out of line with the image of the man who pushes these teams to exceed aesthetically generic impulses.

(Parenthetically, I'd call readers' attention to Crunchy's videos on Elden Ring. I've explored just a few, but each stands among the most interesting and informed analyses of the game's esoterica I've come across so far) — OK. That's all for now. Bye!

[somethingwittyandweird]

It's that time again! What's your favorite game you played this year?

Hope you're ready for a response to rival last year's post. There are so many good games that I have so much yapping to do about. And, if I may say so, this year was an accomplished one: I made some notable progress putting long-standing backlog titles to rest, as well as some new games that won me instantly. So, let's dive in...

We started off VERY strong with converting one of last year's “I watched this game and it was cool” to “I played this game and it was cool”: Hi-Fi Rush. It absolutely captivated me throughout. It has everything- charm, style, writing and characters that are heartfelt, hilarious, and over the top all at once- and most of all it has an incredibly natural evolution of the high-style high-precision action genre into a rhythm-based brawler where the world moves to the beat. Do I even need to mention it has, not one, but two banger soundtracks? It's a game I look forward to replaying (a rare praise from me), and one I know I'll be in love with for a long time.

Around the same time I was working my way through Sea of Stars- I've talked more about that here but it also really had me engaged as a modern love letter back to the SNES JRPG era. Visually stunning, musically lovely, satisfying gameplay, and a story that I felt gave its well written characters the space they deserved.

Once those were out of the way, I had my mission for the rest of the year: get this backlog CLEARED. Throughout the year, I knocked out:

Pokemon Ranger: Shadows of Almia: a game beloved by many growing up that had passed me by. Experiencing it for myself years later, I could tell that I would have poured endless hours into this DS title as a kid, and even today I loved it enough to 100% its quests and Pokedex. Absolutely killer writing and fun gameplay that still holds up today. I am glad I played it as an older adult though for one reason: at this age I know how not to harm my DS’ screen when drawing endless loops.

NEO TWEWY: A sequel to a cult classic I never thought I'd see but I was so, so happy to see it come back. The new game massively shook up the gameplay (it had to, TWEWY for DS is very literally inimitable) but fully kept the spirit and updated it. As the OG wore its 2000s teen culture loud, this game carried the torch forward and gave us the same charm with modern Internet culture. It brought back old characters in excellent ways, added great new ones, had some of my favorite kind of time travel writing moments, and did it all with style, flair, and a rocking OST. In every way a worthy successor to the OG.

Indivisible: Another game I wrote about elsewhere, Lab Zero's sadly ill-fated entry into action platforming. As I said there, I'm glad I could give myself closure on it and I was glad to appreciate the parts of it that did clearly shine- the delicious visuals and combat gameplay. Hopeful to see where those devs end up and what they'll contribute their talent to now.

Triangle Strategy: In terms of strategy games this was a foray outside my usual Fire Emblem interest zone, but it is my friend’s favorite game of all time, so I had to give it a go. The differences took some adjusting, but I ended up enjoying my time with the game. Combat was engaging, visuals had me oohing and ahhing in places, I liked the characters (Julio and Jens my MVPs). But the standout was the story- as deep and politically thrilling as I was promised it would be. The narrative voting/negotiation system offered me some cool moments of choosing my path (or one time having it chosen for me) which culminated in a really really well set up three-way ending split; it wasn't just choosing a side but choosing an ideology, and the characters who wouldn't abide that choice felt completely justified in their refusal to follow you. I didn't get the golden route, but I may go back someday. Without a doubt my best narrative game of the year. (Plus, the final boss of the route I chose was really really tactically engaging and I loved it as much as i feared it.)

Along the way, a few non-backlog titles did sneak their way onto the list…

Case of the Golden Idol: a visually quirky detective narrative puzzle game that scratched the same deductive itch as Obra Dinn, I had a lot of fun deciphering its ersatz mystery. Each chapter is a death tableau and you use clues and logic to piece together who is who, what is what, and what has happened, with each scene leading to a bizarre overarching narrative that makes you want to keep going just to see how wild it gets.

Death’s Door: A little soulslite adventure title about a reaper crow working for Death and trying to straighten up some loose ends. The environments are really well modeled (though a map wouldn't have gone amiss) and the combat system had a satisfying loop with some unique twists. Its final boss impressed me by being a spectacle fight through multiple zones that showed off the boss’ powers thematically, let you learn what the boss was doing in each phase, and wasn't a drag to retry (the usual danger with set piece fights that keep shifting areas). 

Blasphemous: One of those “classics” of the modern indie metroidvania space, and one of the first to get overtly Soulsy with it, I finally got the chance to try it and it showed me just why it deserves its "classic" status. The writing was very Souls and the platforming very vania, both excelling in their own way. I really loved the sheer variety of collectibles, that's a strong point in my heart for any metroidvania. I absolutely adored the music, a masterwork of Spanish guitar tracks I still listen to. And visually the game’s strong Spanish Roman Catholic aesthetic absolutely oozed artistic passion, and it was clear that so much work went into its visuals… including the surprising amount of (well-animated) gore. Which leads me to…

Nine Sols: if I had a nickel for every soulslike metroidvania I played this year that turned out to be quite unexpectedly graphic, these would be my two nickels. But content warning aside, I can't sing Nine Sols’ praise enough. Its gameplay was thoroughly polished and at every turn designed to help you feel like a kickbutt martial artist warrior, running up walls and surviving lethal enemies with perfect parrying and a unique attack to give that iconic ‘dash past enemy, beat, they explode’ rhythm to the fights. Then it sells that mastery by making enemies increasingly lethal, requiring more and more skill, but the floor never ramped hard enough that I was frustrated (though the last two bosses had me baffled for a while). Exploration felt rewarding with a lot of cool and useful items to find, and seeing this game’s beautiful blend of "Taopunk" futuristic + traditional Oriental environmental designs was a treat unto itself. And lastly, there's a gripping story that unfolds as you get to know its characters- Yi, your mysterious protagonist, the friends he makes, and the enemies he ruthlessly cuts down.

Are we done yet? Almost, I promise. 

As of writing I'm in the middle of Echoes of Wisdom and Ghost Trick, so those, while both great titles, will I think be their own posts. All that's left then is to acknowledge the games I played that I didn't, or couldn't, “beat:” the multiplayer ones.

I played a bunch of MtG with my friends, and I played a lot of Civilization VI with other friends, and those both took up many happy hours. If this wasn't too long already I'd tell you about unstoppable bunnies and definitely not werewolves, or my friends and I allying to conquer the world. But I knew when I got my switch recap today that there's a clear standout in hour count alone: It's not a surprise to you or to me, it's Splatoon freshwater-freaking 3. 

How could I not give it the most love for this year where I fell harder into it than ever before? Where my elite Salmon Runner friend helped me climb to dizzying new heights of EVP rank 999? Where I appeared on so many friend’s multiplayer streams for Splatfests and Big Runs? Where I took it upon myself to fill out my weapon collection 100%? Where I did Side Order runs until I knew every floor by name? Every one of those things has given me a cherished memory… but none more cherished than attending an honest-to-goodness music festival in this game, with my friends, reminiscing on past triumphs, on the importance of living in the present, and with the thrill of looking to the future. I loved Splatoon 3, and with the Grand Festival, it felt like the game, the devs, and the community gave me that love right back. 

That, among all of these games’ memories and experiences, is the one I think I'll treasure longest.

Video games are cool. I'm so, so glad they're real.

[misarem]

yapping about Kill the Past under the cut cuz im now free from the 25th ward finally

THE SILVER CASE

-it feels cliche to say the first game was my favorite but uhhh haha. knowing suda, The Silver Case probably didn't fully accomplish what it set out to do but to me, it's so self-contained and demonstrates such ownership of a style that mostly came out of necessity that i can't not admire it, and i'm also so fond of my playthrough of it which was so fresh and curious, compared to the other two games which were fun but I was thinking too much abt how it connects to TSC

--also just the way i played this game is so special, i was very committed to the darker aesthetic to the point where I only played past like 10pm for a while, which is funny cuz the opening of the game is straight up paranormal but by the 2nd chapter transmitter loses that edge until debatably lifecut. tokio is also haunted and paranormally but by that point i just started playing normally. it sorta reminds me of paranormasight which starts out so spooky and the curses are very present but a few hours in it sorta reverts to being a pretty normal feeling but still very good detective mystery. at one point a character does an escape room ala zero escape and its funny. but TSC doesn't stray from its initial vibe as much as paranormasight at all.

-i also played the parallel stories of TSC separate from each other rather than alternating, which made placebo such a slog but i almost feel like I appreciated both stories more that way, even though i would have loved to experience how placebo compliments transmitter

--despite not clicking with placebo at first, tokio is like one of my favorite characters this year hes such a fucking Guy. and you experience him so intimately in placebo in a way i can't even describe but is effective by the end.

---theres a bizarre and esoteric mental link in my brain between tokio, ange from umineko and fucking flynn moore from the furry visual novel Echo because of them being like surprise deurotagonists (sp?) that get fucked up from having to search for the truth about the past and how theyre all chained by it. do you think they would put happy colors in my padded cell or would it just be all white.

-I also feel like I came out of TSC a lot clearer than I did FSR or 25W, I'm sure I missed several details at first but the shelter kids stuff and kamui as more of a role and a criminal influence than as a person wasn't that hard to wrap my head around even though I thought the silver eye stuff was so whatever. i kind of wonder if part of the reason i clicked with it faster was because I'm such an mgs2head, and the whole kamui thing is sorta like what the solid snake simulation appears to be at first

-also the mackerel phones video about Kusabi is so good and feels like a must watch for how well researched it is and how accurately it nails the feeling and message of transmitter.

-TSC also uses film window a lot better than 25W and it might be worth researching how the latter being a phone game affects things but i just got off that game

-also would kinda love a translated version of the PSX version someday just to feel how different it is. idk if certain ppl hate the official translation so much maybe they should do it themselves ooooh

-i havent read 4.5 and i meant to do so before 25W to have that context about sumio and sakura and i kindaaa didnt so lol i have to do that eventually.

FLOWER, SUN AND RAIN

-"flower, sun and rain" is like a speech tick to me in the way of like, rupaul on the weakest link immediately defaulting to chaka khan when he doesnt know the answer to a question

-i wish i felt flower, sun and rain the way I felt TSC. i had a decent time with it and even had a good sense of humor about the more obviously tedious parts and the OST, and I get how mundane it's supposed to be, what it's saying about living in peace and the lie of paradise, but it didn't click with me as much. maybe a pitfall was being so attached to TSC when i played, i was probably looking for something i shouldn't have instead of just enjoying the game for what it was altho i didn't hate it or anything.

--ideally this also gets a translation on its original console cuz I like some parts of the PS2 soundtrack and id love to experience all the art assets and music in PS2 quality.

---sorta tangent. i love the opening tracks for all of these games but Anata no Tameni might be my favorite, beyond just being amazing its so dramatic and unlike the rest of the series and it really stands out. the ds opening in comparison might actually be my least favorite because of that lol

-i think that the mondo/kodai revelation is so funny just because it's an idea you'd either keep in the back of your mind or just wave off because of how dumb it seemed but regardless it's constantly staring you in the face. assuming you even played TSC before this

--sumio was never super proper or anything, i don't think, but his personality here compared to TSC is so funny, he can spend 20 years with bottled up rage and fake his way into an incompetent police force without slipping thaaat much but here he has enough small inconveniences to hit a kid over it. kind of an interesting play on like the salient thing about personality and the self being buried and it feels like an early version of like a shiroyabu situation. not the last time i will compare sumio and shiro.

--i also think its funny that the model of sumio mondo looks pretty similar to kodai compared to the key art of mondo and we should explore that one day

-i wanted more out of toriko kusabi, she was a fun diversion and i didn't expect her to be a tokioesque second protag or anything but idk. she was fun when she went against sundance and at the end and her being like a subliminal kinda suggestion to sumio's buried memories of her father i think is cool. in a less meta sense it's also cute that shes working for her dad i wonder if tetsu has to like try not to step on christine everytime he comes home from the bathhouse at like 2am. actually i dont remember what their family situation even is

-speaking of kusabi i think him like being the guardian/ferryman for sumio's journey is so so beautiful and true and i like that he gets to pull him back from the depths the way sumio sorta inadvertently did in parade/kamuidrome.

--its also really funny to me kusabi just disguises as a chubby white guy. it was probably a fatsuit but i feel like kusabi could be like 50lb away from being a bear anyways. its like the grocery store deli scene in bobs burgers.

---i also appreciated parade from transmitter way more playing this and thinking about sumio. when i played parade the first time i loved connecting the dots on everything but then it kinda got buried by kamuidrome and lifecut. and now im such a shooter for sumio kodai. look at me talking about the previous game wooo.

-i think the character designs in this are funny for how little of them you can actually see. everyone loves yayoi and yayoi is such a serve but my other fav is ken. all the punk details are completely lost in the actual game. the models also super undersell stephen carbione's look, cuz in-game he sorta looks like tokio but then you see his key art and its like yea he would look like that.

-tokio was in this game

-i think edo macallister should be a bellhop in every video game with a hotel ever. im going to the other side of the country soon and if the guy behind the desk at the hotel isn't edo i will be severely disappointed.

-i love that its hyenas. i think there should be like tokio morishima as an anthro hyena and he still has his domesticated turtle or at least like hyena sundance or yotaro or something. i think ppl would be quick to anthropomorphize tokio as a literal turtle guy.

-the eleven children stuff is whatever, i do like that theres a bunch of sumios running around but idc for all the other implications and like step and remy and koshimizu and whoever else. is sumio mondo still deaf and mostly relying on lip reading? cuz i dont think that gets brought up again. i mean he wakes up to a phone ringing every morning but i guess those are the clones. if the hearing is referenced early in fsr and i just missed it then that would be very cool. maybe thats why the voices for the characters are abstract and illegible. maybe flower sun and rain is the best game ever.

THE 25TH WARD

-what if we were all protagonists.

-i dont think this game uses film window as well as TSC but i do like the art and how much of it there is in correctness and matchmaker, also the different styles.

-i love yotaro osato sadly hes so funny and fluffy. hes osato in my notes and in normal convo but i want to call him yotaro affectionately. i do love tsuki too hes such a sufferer.

--i think theyre a teeeeny bit like like p4 adachi and dojima if they were both murderous.

-i feel bad for the lady that gets murked immediately in correctness i had a funny voice for her in my head

-shiro and kuro god bless them are funny and parallel sumio and tetsu to me. both sumio and shiro grapple with their criminal power, although sumio goes against the hc unit while shiro attempts to but finds himself back with them at the end, and while kusabi over time softens quite a bit and learns from sumio in a more overt way than kuro being literally the "japanese dirty harry" and not having as much of an arc, they both are compelled enough by their partner to rein them back in. just the surface level so i dont have to write a whole essay in a stream of consciousness type of post

--what even happens to them bc as far as i can tell, shiro just continues to be a tool of the state and kuro maybe? shoots her superior and then the 25th ward blows up.. with them on it? like okay at least tsuki got outta there.

--on the shiroverse timeline. theres conflicting sources on if his immortality is a kamui thing or a sumio mondo thing or something else and thats funny. the sources all being fan wikis and tvtropes because fuck this game that zero people played and negative people have documented.

-i need to like hold myself back from analysing meru as trans because its so clearly done for shock value but it somehow aged really hilariously now with how prevalent trans egirls are. liek theres a strange almost unearned truth to how meru exists online versus irl.

--kind of all of the gay/trans mentions in these games are like this although kusabi you can at least take in sorta good faith?

-i need to think abt what i thought abt tokio here. its increasingly funny how online he is for being a normal dude in the late 90's early 2000s.

--his portrait in yumi is kind of a hear me out but all the cgs of older tokio look crazy. tokio in general looks a mess in this game and its funny. look at him try to be masc

-i mentioned mgs2 above and the 05 chapters of these games are so reminiscent of the s3 plan and the patriots with the frontier etc using the city to collect data and the protags having to figure out where they fit into it. during TSC, i was paying a lot of attention to the story as it related to the advent of technology. it felt really relevant to kamuidrome and all of placebo but mostly ended up as background/context to the story. it was used a lot more here and i really liked it. chat logs are a great framing device in all the routes since they add so much flavor and emphasize the loneliness of life in the 25th ward (semi-related: in both TSC and 25W, the environments are devoid of people in film window, and i think this works way better for 25W than it did for TSC). placebo is yet again a good example of this with tokio only really interfacing with the world through his computer most of the time

--in terms of twists, i might actually like "the city is just a means of data collection ready to be wiped at any moment/it resembles a computer more than an actual city and life there is so impermanent that its hard to tell how real it all is" better than the end point of tsc which was "they were trying to mass process children to find a means of immortality" which i was so whatever on even though the game is trying to be crazy and also say something about like life and aging in society, but in tsc i like "they were mass grooming perfect civilians and inadvertently making them susceptible to crime" as a conclusion a bit more. but i mean 25W also poses so many more questions than it does give answers so.

---despite everything i think it was an interesting idea for suda and masahiro yuki and masahi ooka to create the 25th ward almost as a sandbox to explore more of the ideas of the first game like how the internet affects human connection, communication, sharing of information, and how people are affected by criminal power/kamui. it was a cool idea in the original but i love actually getting to see shiroyabu steadily become more unhinged (death filing), kurumizawas pervasiveness, tsuki and osato coming to grips with their own (esp osato's immense) criminal power, etc. in spite of all of the loose ends and craziness, sometimes you really need a space to work out your ideas and express yourself and i commend grasshopper for doing that so i could have played this on a nokia in 2005. in japan

overall these were video games. very excited to forget everything about them when i fixate on something else. tsc might actually be one of my fav things i played this year. would love more analysis of the 25th ward, theres some essays/interpretations floating around and ghenryperez will get to his video on it eventually. maybe i need to be the change i wish to see but also boo putting effort into writing and analysis sux.

i started sudas works with nmh, then 2 before stopping until i played killer7 a year ago and really liked its style and sense of humor. i think this happens to a lot of people, and then a year after that i started tsc. i wasnt originally that interested in nmh tsa but now that i know theres hello 25th ward characters in it i might have to try. and then nmh3 after that. and then i also wanna play twilight syndrome/moonlight syndrome when that gets a translation because of lunatics. and i also got killer is dead when it was on sale for like 2 bucks. we can enter the greater sudaverse.. together

[asteralley]

finished playing metaphor (technically not yet since I'm in the middle of the epilogue. but I'm bascially done) and I have a lot of positive thoughts about it 😌 (spoilers under the cut)

everybody's said this before but it has all of the charms the persona series captured me with and cut down a lot of the fat and issues I had previously. I really preferred not having romance options this time around so no forced moments were made with the protag and the female party members. (besides eupha but they were cute so I'm biased for them)

on the flip side, I was really disappointed with how they handled the final festival scene in eht ria where you could choose one party member to hang out with. for the female party members, when they ask what wish protag made he could answer basically with "world peace", "safety of our friends", or "for you" but when I did the event with strohl, the last option was replaced with "I forgot to make a wish". and junah also joins the scene at the very end even though she doesn't in the other scenes? like it just really felt biased against strohl in that scene.

on a more positive note, the ui and ost really brought everything to life! atlus really sticking with what they do best hehe

I really liked the reveal with more's identity as well. it tied up everything nicely 😌

fidelio's death was the first time a video game actually made me cry lol. I'm always weak to sibling relationships

the game is very forgiving with the time management aspect, which I appreciate so very much. I had like 10 days of free time after I maxed out all social stats, follower bonds, and finished all the side quests. it was amazing.

a personal nitpick I have is the in-game dictionary not being alphabetized? the contents are separated by category but they could definitely improve the organization.

also, I wish there could've been cosmetic outfits whenever you go in a dungeon. I know there's the dlc outfits but. im not paying money for that yknow.

I loved exploring each city and how the little npc side stories developed! I got like 107 hours playing the game and a lot of that was from walking around.

I hope atlus continues the trend of having a talking protagonist in the persona series! it was really refreshing, seeing him actually get a sprite. if atlus wants to continue having a silent protagonist, then I feel like the direction they went with in metaphor is a good step.

regarding my thoughts on will as a protagonist, he's pretty good! definitely one of my favorite atlus protags. I eventually came to love his design and his little mannerism of adjusting his collar was cute

in summary: metaphor was a really fun game to play and the writing was amazing 🫶 if they ever release a figure of will I'm pre-ordering that instantly

[minindo]

what was making your first siIva rip like? was it difficult to execute, did it take a long time, and was making it worth it?

after submitting it, how did you feel and how did you feel after seeing it accepted and published on the channel?

and nowadays, how do you feel when looking back at your first siIva rip?

Run! (OST Version) - Undertale

I started this rip around 7 AM Pacific (9 AM Central Time, where I was) during Dat Boi day, after waking up and seeing that that event was happening. Prior to this I had never been confident enough that I could make something good enough for SiIva. I don't know what got me to be motivated and think that I could email a rip for the first time, maybe it was that making a dat boi rip seemed straightforward. This is what the original version sounded like. I sent it to @chickensuitgay, who I knew solely from Vavr, asking if it was good enough for SiIva. Over the next six hours, CSG gave me feedback on fixing up the rip, very patiently I might add. The percussion, mixing, timing, pitches, compressor were all fixed from this original revision because of their suggestions. I'll forever appreciate the help they've given me.

Getting a single rip on SiIva opened doors for me in what I thought was possible for me to do. Across the rest of the day, I remember reloading the Undertale playlist over and over until a private video appeared, and then reloading my subscriptions every 15 minutes until the rip uploaded. When it appeared I was ecstatic. Chicken encouraged me to make more rips, and I did, but it took a while lol. My next two and only other SiIva rips in 2020 were during WinterFes. Looking back on the rip itself, I don't think it's super great. The lyric sentencing choices are kinda weird, for one. But it makes me happy reminiscing on how it happened and how it felt at the time, and I'll always have a fondness for that event day because of it. What a good day, and a good event too lol. Dat Boi is, I think, a perfect example of a type of SiIvaGunner meme I love, taking a silly but pure "outdated" meme and just running with it anyway. Having a character attached also helps. Most of the people who made a ton of rips for that day are close friends of mine now, it's funny how these things turn out. Finally, that rip being my first on SiIva means my rips playlist's natural thumbnail will always get to be Undertale, which is funny.

[merloksdigitaltoes]

ooooooo you wanna listen to my music so baaaddd ooooooo

hi guys, for those who aren't aware, I make music n stuff similar to video game osts and instrumental tracks! Tumblr isn't the best place to gain traction with my jams, and because Spotify and SoundCloud will make you pay money to upload music, I'm providing you guys with YouTube links! For a while I was a bit too dead to post on YouTube, but I am trying to be a bit more active with uploading my music content on there again :) It would really be appreciated if y'all would give it a listen! (Note: while i do want to be more active, a lot of my stuff is made for fun, so my schedule might not be super million miles per-hour active.) Link to my actual youtube - MilkIsVibin - YouTube Link to my most recent playlist - https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoHHS-429mKPFu8hjQDulufAppvTnSxOY&si=tU5-5iIvWuO_7p5C Please listen to my music i am desperate I'm scratching at the walls HGHRHGHRGHRHG