#so for them it would be harder. because adapting to the style of gameplay is objectively hard

[genderqueer-miharu]

I really think we need to make it illegal for people to say "the game is too easy" in a videogame review/critique

[paulopc1234]

📜 Legacy of the Packs Challenge – The Sims 2

I love The Sims 2! It’s such a detailed game with so much to explore. One day, while watching YouTube, I came across something called Lepacy (I think that’s the name lol) for The Sims 3 from a YouTuber, and I really wanted to play it. But at the time, my game was lagging so much that I gave up. Nowadays, it runs better, but there’s still something preventing some mods from working, even the ones that used to work before. Anyway, back to the topic... lol. So I thought: What if I did this challenge in The Sims 2? Since it has its own expansion packs, I figured it would work really well! I created some rules, researched the expansions, and came up with stories in the style of Not So Berry, because I love challenges with a good lore behind them lol. Initially, I posted the rules on ModTheSims, but looking at them now, I think the stories could be improved. So I decided to post the updates here! (Why not update them on ModTheSims?) I don’t know lol, I just felt like doing it here.

I recently reinstalled my game and lost my old save, which was already reaching the fifth generation (forgot to back it up, rip). Now I’m playing again and testing the challenge, so I’m not sure if some rules will be too hard in practice lol. But so far, it’s going well! At the time of this post, I’m heading into Generation 2 in this new game. I play with a lifespan similar to TS3 because I think 29 days is too short for any gameplay, so if you play without mods, this might make things a little harder lol (I think).

AH! One more thing! I won’t say I’m the creator of this challenge because someone has probably done something similar before. If it already exists and some rules are similar, that’s totally normal since we’re basing it on the game packs. Now that I’ve written this huge intro, let’s get to the rules! Happy simming!

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📝 General Challenge Rules

🔹 Content Unlocking: You can only use careers, objects, and clothing from new expansion packs when the heir of that generation is born. Until then, use only the content available from the packs you’ve unlocked.

🔹 Custom Content: Mods and custom content are allowed, as long as they don’t break the core rules of the challenge.

🔹 Moving to a New World: Some generations require moving to a different world, but this is optional. Feel free to adapt this rule to fit your gameplay.

🔹 Careers: Every heir must reach level 10 in their chosen career.

🔹 Cheats: Only necessary cheats are allowed (like resetsim or bug fixes). Overusing cheats can take the fun out of the challenge.

🔹 Make It Your Own!: The challenge should be fun! If a rule doesn’t make sense for your story, feel free to modify it and create a narrative that fits your playstyle.

🔹 (Extra) Memories & Photos: For a more immersive experience, take photos of your Sims during important moments (like graduations, weddings, and births) and create a family album! By the end of the challenge, you’ll have a visual timeline of your family’s journey.

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💰 Generation 1 - Base Game

The basics were never enough for you, but in early adulthood, you had no choice. With big ambitions, you want to reach the top of your career and provide a life of pure luxury for your children. However, a mistake from the past lingers in your memory: a marriage that became an obstacle to your dreams. Now, you’ve decided that love will never interfere with your professional journey again. Raising your children alone will be a challenge, but you’re willing to do whatever it takes to secure a prosperous future for them.

📍 World: Pleasantview, Strangetown, Veronaville, or a Custom World 🎯 Aspiration: Fortune 💼 Career: Business, Medicine, Military, Criminal, Law Enforcement, Politics, Science, Culinary, Athletic, or Slacker

✅ Rules:

Reach the top level of your career

Accumulate 30,000 simoleons in household funds

Have at least two biological children and adopt one child

Marry a coworker and divorce before discovering a pregnancy (or before they find out)

Raise all children alone, without remarrying, until they are teenagers

Have a romance during your journey

Reach level 10 in the Cooking skill

📚 Generation 2 - University Life

Growing up with an independent and successful mother, you felt inspired to follow in her footsteps. However, your journey takes you through university! Studying is your priority, but that doesn’t mean you'll be the type of student who spends all day locked in their room. After all, college life should be enjoyed to the fullest, right? Romance, parties, and friendships are all part of this unique experience before facing the dreaded adult world.

📍 World: Pleasantview, Strangetown, Veronaville, or a Custom World 🎯 Aspiration: Romance, Popularity, or Knowledge 💼 Career: Natural Scientist, Paranormal, Show Business, or Artist

✅ Rules:

Earn at least two scholarships

Maintain high grades throughout university

Reach level 10 in the Creativity skill

Have three romantic relationships during college

Join an academic secret society

Throw a big graduation party

Reach the top of your chosen career

Marry a fellow university student

🌙 Generation 3 - Nightlife

You were never a fan of rules and let alone studying. Since childhood, your parents tried to control your behavior, but your true passion has always been nightlife. While everyone at home was asleep, you would sneak out to parties, bars, and secret rendezvous! During one of these wild nights, something unexpected happens: an unplanned pregnancy. To avoid financial issues and child support, you decide to marry the baby’s other parent. However, fidelity was never your strong suit, and your free-spirited nature keeps you exploring new romances. But fate has a funny way of teaching lessons, and another unexpected surprise might just turn your life upside down.

📍 World: Downtown (via cheat), a Custom World, or any world from previous packs 🎯 Aspiration: Pleasure 💼 Career: Slacker

✅ Rules:

Meet your future child’s parent during a night out

Go on five dates with different Sims, with at least two being “Dream Dates”

Marry the Sim you had a child with before the baby is born

Have a child outside of marriage

Get divorced and never remarry

Successfully dine and dash at a restaurant

Have a negative relationship with a family member

Reach level 10 in the Charisma skill

(Optional) Befriend a vampire or become one

🛍️ Generation 4 - Open for Business

As a child, you found solace in stores, escaping from the chaos of your troubled home life. Seeing happy customers sparked an entrepreneurial dream within you. Now, your goal is to open your own business and make it a huge success! Unlike your parents, who failed to build a stable family, you want to marry young and create a harmonious home. However, beyond professional success, you also want to be actively present in your children's lives, teaching them all the things you never learned growing up.

📍 World: Custom or any world from previous packs 🎯 Aspiration: Family or Wealth 💼 Career: Must own a business, but may have a job if from the base game or university

✅ Rules:

Have a lemonade stand as a child

Be a high-achiever as a teenager

Own at least one 5-star business (you may own more)

Learn the Parenting skill

Teach all your children to walk, talk, and use the potty

Earn a gold medal in one of the following talents: Sales, Cash Register, Stocking, Cosmetology, Flower Arranging, Robotics, or Toy Making

Adopt at least one child

🐾 Generation 5 - Pets

Since childhood, your heart has always belonged to animals. If it were up to you, you would have taken in every abandoned pet in the world, but your home was already chaotic, and your parents set a strict limit: only one pet. Now that you have your own home, nothing stops you from welcoming as many paws as possible. You're in a stable relationship, and children were never part of your plans… but life has a funny way of surprising us. An unexpected pregnancy completely changes your fate. You’re not thrilled about it, and even after your baby is born, your heart still belongs to your pets. After all, a newborn can wait… but a hungry pet? Never!

📍 World: Custom or any world from previous packs 🎯 Aspiration: Knowledge 💼 Career: Business, Medicine, Own a Store (or a custom veterinary career)

✅ Rules:

Own at least one dog, cat, hamster, and bird

Marry someone in the Science or Medical career

Have only one biological child

Teach at least one command to each of your pets

Release one of your pets into the wild

Help one of your pets reach the top of any pet career

Reach level 10 in Logic and Cleaning skills

(Optional) Become a werewolf or befriend the leader of the pack

🌦️ Generation 6 - Seasons

You grew up feeling like you were never a priority. Your parents were always too busy with their scientific experiments and pets to truly care about you. This loneliness led you to find comfort in food, and nothing warms your heart like a good grilled cheese. When it was time to leave home, you slipped away so quietly that your parents barely noticed. With a suitcase full of dreams and your pet as your only companion, you move far away, searching for a fresh start. You long to find someone who truly loves you and to fully embrace every season—because this time, you want to be the main character of your own story.

📍 World: Colina Formosa, Custom, or any world from previous packs 🎯 Aspiration: Family or Grilled Cheese 💼 Career: Music, Law, Journalism, Education, Adventurer, or Athlete

✅ Rules:

Move with your pet to a different neighborhood or a house far from your parents

Fall in love with the first Sim you feel strong attraction toward (as an adult)

Go fishing every Sunday (can have a pond at home)

Earn a talent badge in Gardening or Fishing

Experience every season (play in the snow, rake leaves, etc.)

Join the Gardening Club

Grow your own garden

Reach level 10 in Cooking and Creativity skills

(Optional) Befriend a PlantSim or become one

✈️ Generation 7 - Bon Voyage

Since childhood, you dreamed of exploring the world, but your parents always kept you trapped at home. Whether out of fear of flying or simple attachment, they never allowed you to travel. But now that you’re an adult, nothing holds you back! You pack your bags and embark on the biggest adventure of your life. And who knows? Maybe you’ll find love along the way! With your suitcase always ready and adrenaline coursing through your veins, you dedicate yourself to discovering the unknown—exploring new cultures, uncovering stories, and… perhaps even falling into a forbidden romance in a faraway land.

📍 World: Custom or any previous pack world 🎯 Aspiration: Knowledge or Pleasure 💼 Career: Adventurer

✅ Rules:

Travel to each vacation destination at least once

Complete all 45 vacation memories

Have a romance with a native Sim from one of the trips

Adopt at least one child

Purchase a vacation home in one of the destinations

Plan a honeymoon

Reach level 10 in Body and Charisma skills

🎭 Generation 8 - Free Time

You were the star of your teenage years—popular, surrounded by friends, and always in the spotlight. But as you grew older, that confident person began to fade, and you realized your so-called "friends" had vanished. The abandonment left you with a suffocating fear of loneliness, pushing you to dive headfirst into hobbies. You long for children, but the thought of struggling to conceive terrifies you. To ensure you’ll never be alone, you choose adoption first. Marriage is another fear—you dread being left at the altar in front of everyone! Until you find the courage, you fill your days with hobbies, seeking joy in life’s little pleasures.

📍 World: Desiderata Valley, Custom, or any previous pack world 🎯 Aspiration: Popularity 💼 Career: Architecture, Dance, or Entertainment

✅ Rules:

Max out enthusiasm in one of these hobbies: Film & Literature, Arts & Crafts, or Music & Dance

Become a member of a hobby group

Earn a Talent Badge in Pottery or Sewing

Adopt two children before having a biological child (or before getting someone pregnant)

Subscribe to at least two hobby magazines

Only get married after adopting two children

Reach level 10 in Creativity, Cleaning, and Logic, plus level 5 in at least two other skills

🏙️ Generation 9 - Apartment Life

You’ve always believed in magic. While others laughed and called you a lunatic, you knew there was something greater out there, and you were determined to uncover it. As soon as you could, you moved into an apartment… but reality hit hard when you realized you couldn't afford it alone. Now, you share the rent with an unusual roommate, but who are you to judge? Between spells, broomsticks, and a butler who seems to know too much, you dive deep into the supernatural, determined to become a powerful spellcaster. And amid this whirlwind of discoveries, fate has a surprise in store: rekindling love with your childhood friend.

📍 World: Belladonna Cove, Custom, or any previous pack world 🎯 Aspiration: Knowledge 💼 Career: Paranormal

✅ Rules:

Live in an apartment

Have a roommate at some point in life

Hire a butler

Become a spellcaster

Max out your magic skill

Marry your childhood friend

Reach level 10 in Logic, Handiness, and Cooking

(Optional) Build a mansion for your family once you can afford it

Hope you enjoy playing! ❤️

[gamingblur103s]

my thoughts on neo the world ends with you

long but probably not very good to read. spoilers and allat

i have to admit that i have a knee-jerk resentment towards a lot of the twewy franchise outside of the original game. every port and remake and reimagining of the original is simply worse off because something fundamental about what made the original experience so fantastic is removed. granted, this is often out of necessity for it no longer being a DS game, and from a business perspective, something like the anime adaptation only makes sense when a sequel is coming out practically immediately after the anime ends. still, in regards to these rereleases, i can easily see them as things that only add to the franchise rather than remove from them. the mobile port, despite screwing with the art style and the gameplay, added new music that is on par with the original game's score. the anime adaptation, despite its truncation, occasional mischaracterization, and format the story was not made for, looks pretty great and is still fun enough to be an effective recap, which was its precise purpose. it is much harder to say the same for final remix.

final remix is a port of a port; it maintains the streamlined and exponentially less engaging gameplay of the mobile version. granted, it comes with new pins which work well enough with this new base, but that doesn't change the problems i have with these fundamentals. to make up for that (as well as bridge the gap between it and neo), final remix comes with "a new day": a continuation of the story that is necessary to experience in order to understand neo.

to be blunt, a new day is where my previously mentioned resentment began. the story it tries to tell is so emphatic on its mystery that it foregoes any actual depth. as something that is expressly being tacked onto the original story rather than its own entity, its poor quality leads to directly detracting from that story.

the reaper's game (for og twewy at least) was meant to act as a symbolic prison for neku that colored every bit of his progress. yes, his character development is fairly blatant, but if anything, it benefits from that. the framing of the reaper's game actually makes the arc more grounded in how arduous it is, in how it was so much longer than neku could have ever expected, in how it hurt in all the ways he was scared it would.

it's all perfectly embodied by the fact neku is still wearing his headphones when the original game ends on the sublime emotional note of him taking them off. it's careless storytelling, to such an extent that it colors everything that came before it as the last canonical events we get to see, made all the worse by how it (and consequently, the game) ends with Neku dying. again. the only thing that keeps me from being completely outraged at the comical disregard of his arc is that it at least doesn't take away his emotional development.

there's also the iffy characterization overall, once again to serve a mystery the plot cannot afford to answer the larger reaching implications of. mind you, there's nothing outright OFFENSIVE about its portrayals (i actually think fake joshua is the best example of characterization in the whole thing; it's fun to show what a character is by what they aren't), but it's all just so vapid. forgive me for being smarmy enough to use an antimetabole, but when you go through a whole-ass video game that has its plot function in service to its characters, playing such a blatant sequel-bait that has its characters serving the IDEA of a plot feels like a disservice to those characters. if there's a connection to be felt, it's not indicated or made stronger by what happens here; it's all for the sake of hype.

i'm rambling, but hopefully that embodies my emotions going into neo comprehensively enough. i couldn't help but see a new day as utterly counterintuitive, and as a result, i had my typical territorial nature for my favorite things cranked up to twelve. i couldn't even fully trust the original staff with this game. for a while, i couldn't shake the feeling that the franchise of twewy outside the original game tarnished my experience with it. i did everything i could to convince myself to go full "death of the author": everything that isn't the original game simply isn't canon. but that didn't feel right to me, so i still kept this deep curiosity in me. then, about two and a half years after its release, i started up neo and spent my winter break exclusively on playing it through to the end (college made it so if i didn't finish it then, i'd have to wait till the summer).

this FINALLY leads me to my thoughts on the game this post is supposed to be about.

in a word, neo feels derivative. mind you, that's by no means the full story. for certain aspects, that description is either deeply unfair or outright untrue; for others, it's frankly generous. holistically, however, it feels like a continuation of what twewy had to offer, when it could've been an evolution. this by itself would make it worse than the original, but then there are times where it can't even accomplish that much.

on that note: the presentation.

og twewy didn't just have a fantastic style, but phenomenal direction. it was a multi-pronged refutation of the idea of "style over substance". the pause menu alone is so informative, yet so digestible because of its adherence to the game's style, what with its inspired choice of music and cute lil thumbnails for all the menus you can navigate to from there. there's also accounting for what players will most often check the menu for and an effort to make such features particularly accessible. the shining examples of this are dedicating nearly all of the top screen to the map and the fact that all the combat options aside from the pins (your level, partner behavior, game difficulty) are available on that screen, rather than hidden in another menu. hell, credit where it's due, the rereleases' version of this menu are all just as good; the attempt to depixelize the visuals makes it look a little too much like a gacha game for my liking, but absolutely nothing about it was changed in such a way that it becomes harder to navigate

in general, i think ui/ux design is way more important in games than it's given credit for, though that's undoubtedly changed in recent times. it's always been listed as a separate career from other graphic design jobs, and rightfully so, but for games especially, it can't be stressed enough how much they make or break a game's flow and "vibe". fact of the matter is, a significant chunk of a player's time is going to be spent in menus no matter what. i'm sure there's exceptions to this, but all i can think of is very primitive examples like pong which obviously don't apply to what i mean. as a result, making those menus feel fun and/or natural to use elevates the entire experience in ways even the most diligent game developers might not realize. an article from gamesradar has a translated quote from persona 5 director katsura hashino which really emboldened my feelings on the topic

"In Japan, UI design is often handled by new employees. ... Top level designers are usually in charge of characters and background graphics, with the UI being secondary. I think that’s a mistake. That’s why Atlus' UI designers are paid so well."

(side note: as great as the menus in p3r mostly are, the change for the in-battle menu from the revolver chamber is criminal. i know they still kinda have it, but i still prefer what the original did)

with all that said: neo twewy has three pause menus.

the first menu, which i will call the main menu, is where most of the options that relate to gameplay are. your current objective, social network (no jesse eisenberg in sight), equipment, map, and collectible progress. each of those five things i mentioned are their own menu within this menu, except for equipment which is actually two menus in threads and pins (to be fair, just like twewy).

the second menu, which i’ll call the pause menu, has all the shit that give off system setting vibes. saving, loading, going to the title screen, volume control, subtitles (always yes), voice track (we’ll get to that), the works. worth noting that this menu has absolutely no style to it. it is laughably barebones. sauceless, if you will.

the third menu, which i’ll call the combat menu, has all the combat options twewy had at the bottom of its main menu. this menu is also pretty lacking in sauce, though i suppose there’s only so much that could be done without it feeling obtrusive.

an insane person would argue this is a good translation of the immediate access in twewy’s ui. this division means less navigation is needed for certain option and it makes clutter a non-issue (in theory). while i’m sure this is true for some, for me, it became a consistent headache which would often undermine what i think are its design goals. the main menu’s subdivisions are a good example, but i actually didn’t have too much of a problem with it since switching between the menus was fairly snappy. the pin menu, however, was COMICALLY clunky. it becomes far too difficult to navigate your list as soon as week 2 starts. neo is a home console game, so there is zero need for a single pin to take up THAT much space on the screen, especially when that same pin at a different level of progress is listed separately, effectively doubling the amount of shit you have to sift through. the attempts at giving me shortcuts and filters ended up only confusing me. by the end, i resorted to exclusively consulting the full list every time, because even if it was tedious as all hell, at least i understood it and could eventually memorize the positions of things.

granted, it’s not all bad. you can actually access the combat menu while you’re in the main menu, so you can experiment with your level and view the drop rates in the noisepedia simultaneously. this version of the map, while it takes extra steps to access, also has features twewy’s map did not, namely the ability to see the kinds of noises that spawn in an area. you can even zoom in and out! for some reason!

these undeniable improvements are not only things twewy did not have, but in some cases (i.e. the map's new features) couldn’t have. however, it’s still missing the forest for the trees; the fundamental flow is still so disjointed that these features feel like a bandage on a tumor. i fully concede this next complaint is at least partially on me, but i cannot tell you the number of times i pressed the button for the wrong menu. because each menu has important shit that i need frequent access to, my muscle memory for the “i need menu things” neurons are always confused. if i’m not wasting time by going to the wrong menu, i’m wasting time by hesitating on pressing any button in case i’m wrong.

i’m being cruel here to an extent, and i acknowledge that. in isolation, these problems aren’t even a fraction as damning as i make them out to be, but when it’s something repeatedly experienced throughout the entire game, i cannot ignore how i dread having to interact with these menus and how they color my experience. granted, you could argue these complaints refute my thesis statement on neo being derivative. it may have failed, but is this not neo trying something new? to that, i would make the distinction that this is not a case of neo evolving, but rather, simply adapting.

allow me to branch back out to the more general subject of the game’s presentation.

i am by absolutely no means going to be calling the presentation of neo bad. that might be shocking to hear after me going so hard on the ui of all things, but i'm not an idiot. the soundtrack is a delight ("the beginning of a happy life" is genuinely, no bullshit, honest to god one of my favorite vg songs i have ever heard), the visuals are never any worse than ok (fret's design is by FAR my favorite, but i also liked shoka, rindo (mainly just his mask continuing the theme of neku's "hear no evil" with "speak no evil"), and susukichi), and when the two combine, it consistently achieves a familiar vibe throughout.

VERY familiar.

again, the presentation of neo is not bad. i would go so far as to call it good overall. but i genuinely struggle to think of any way it substantially iterates on what twewy has to offer. from where i'm standing, it feels like a complete copy-paste (with one exception that i swear i will get to soon cuz this is now like my third time alluding to it).

it's a bit of a mainstream example, but when you look at something like final fantasy, there's a clear throughline in the presentation of pretty much the entire series. even at its most vibrant and cutesy, there's this particular breed of gothic or sci-fi or—and i truly do not mean this disparagingly—edgy you can feel in the foundation of a final fantasy game. conversely, even at its darkest, final fantasy has its own brand of whimsy and bombast in chocobos or summons or the bajillion leitmotifs throughout the franchise. through it all, final fantasy has maintained a strong fundamental identity, but has managed to express it in a myriad of ways that, rather than dilute said identity, only bolster and refine its spirit.

i use final fantasy specifically because of its similarities to twewy. granted, these similarities are largely surface-level, but that's also kinda my point. final fantasy as a franchise achieves the variety it does through acknowledging what is fundamental to it and innovating off of that. by contrast, twewy (the franchise, not the game) is afraid to change its spirit and seeks purely to preserve it. because of that, the only way you could really differentiate twewy (the game, not the franchise) and neo at a glance is because of the hardware they are on. acquiescing to the merciless march of time, rather than embracing it.

that's why i still think my complaints about the ui ultimately fall back on the critiques of neo being derivative. while the problems with the ui in isolation seem like the developers trying something new, when you look at neo holistically, it is so clearly just an attempt at merely adapting, and sometimes it feels like neo fails even on that level. it isn't even innovation by necessity; every change feels like a sacrifice more than anything.

and on that note: gameplay.

i would say i generally enjoyed playing neo. the overworld exploration is very bog-standard, but i still appreciate it. remind is cute (it and telewarp's mechanics are obviously scripted but successfully "feel" cool to use) and dive fights are cool. i didn't mind the lack of fast travel, and in fact ADORED beat's soundsurf. having it add to your groove makes so much sense it hurts, and i love what it does to the music. but all of this is kinda window dressing when compared to the combat.

i'm sure my utter obsession with rpg (especially traditional rpg) gameplay aids my love of neo's combat, but i think most people can appreciate the gameplay loop. assigning party members to specific buttons is an undeniably fun concept. the hyper-customization of the combat is also something to be admired (to an extent); i'm sure i'm not particularly special for this, but i adore any opportunity to play a game "my way". the pin list is a teensy bit bloated with repeated ideas but with a higher number and/or different and somewhat arbitrary "element", but i sincerely love it overall. with how diverse the ideas are, there's a shocking few that i would consider objectively worse than the others. for example, the strength of the game's combo system "groove" means that a pin having a lower power doesn't actually make it necessarily worse, since less damage per attack allows for longer combos, which allows for more liberal and consistent use of the special moves unlocked by reaching the 100%, 200%, and 300% thresholds. inversely, as a compulsive grinder, the game's progression felt fairly natural even when i was pretty blatantly overprepared. fights are incredibly busy, and the boss fights especially are designed so that a single mistake can become a slippery slope of punishment. i died fairly frequently, particularly from getting too big for my britches and taking on a reduction chain i just couldn't handle. thus, fights never felt thoughtless the whole way through, which i was frankly REALLY impressed by.

i would accredit each of these compliments (or a stronger version of them) to twewy (to the point where i'm strongly tempted to derail this whole thing into how much i fucking love twewy's gameplay), but to its credit, neo does take different ways to get there in a lot of cases. to be doubly fair, though, as i've previously stated, these different approaches feel like they needed to happen rather than resulting from a distinct and passionate vision. to be TRIPLY fair, though, what's here has so much polish and depth that there was clearly some kind of passion present. my mind made a strong connection to kingdom hearts; i am not a big kh fan, so that is either indicative of just how similar neo and kh are (that someone like me could point it out) or how ignorant i am to action rpgs (accusing neo of being similar when it's really not). i'm open to either option.

the hyper-customization also feels like a double-edged sword, in that there is virtually no difference in how each of the six party members play. making your party members distinct from a gameplay perspective is INCREDIBLY important, because it's such an effective tool of storytelling. for better or worse, how a character performs during gameplay will directly influence how a player will view that character holistically. if, either by pure luck or bad game design, a character underperforms, a player is inclined to view that character less fondly. while neo's method of little if any distinction seemingly circumvents this slight dice roll, it closes off a unique opportunity entirely and settles for something that feels a little bland. mind you, this doesn't change anything about what i liked about the game's customization and customization as a whole. i do believe, generally, that the more customization the better, but that can't be an excuse to homogenize the party members.

none of how the game handles levelling up and stats really helps this. yes, characters will have different tastes in terms of food (leading to potential bonuses on top of the stat increases that food already does), and some clothes will have secondary benefits exclusive to certain party members, but it's not nearly enough.

i'm tempted to say that the solution to this would be to find a better balance, and that is still true on a fundamental level, but i also don't think making party members distinct and customization are mutually exclusive, or even necessarily things that mitigate the capacity for the other. if you want to go as extreme as what neo attempts, then yes, a focus on customization will undermine uniqueness, but there's also ways to let them heighten the other. in twewy's case, the dynamism of neku's gameplay vs the static "gimmicks" of his partners spoke not only to the personalities of each character individually, but also of neku's relationship with those partners and with people as a whole. more contemporary and popular examples of this would be pokemon (especially nowadays with nature mints and streamlined ev training) and persona (especially 5 royal).

the latter of the examples i bring up is an interesting one to me: taking advantage of a protagonist who is a canonical blank-slate (not to say joker or any persona protag from 3 onward has no personality, just that they are wild cards) to let them fit whatever mold the player wants. it's a big indicator of what i mean when i say that customization and uniqueness can coexist, because in this case, they're two almost completely separate spheres that manage to function without overpowering the other. when they DO interact, such as with the intended evolution of the mc's personas or the customization allowed for non-mc party members, it only enhances what it touches.

i should stress, despite these critiques, that i think neo's gameplay is good. i had fun with it. there are aspects of it, such as its pin selection, that i found memorably impressive. but i want to stress why i stick so strongly by my thesis—that neo is derivative—even for its best aspects.

and on that note: the story.

let's get the big thing i've been alluding to out of the way: i ADORE neo's localization. i really, truly, sincerely think there wasn't a single time in the entire game where i felt some piece of dialogue was awkward, and that is not only a compliment for the localizers, but for the writers as well. don't get me wrong, i could sometimes notice that things were localized, but that realization never jarred me. rather, it made me that much more confident about what that piece of dialogue could tell me about the character saying it, the situation they're in, and/or their relationship(s) to whom they're talking to.

i won't act like it's absolutely perfect, of course. however, my complaints come from failures to achieve the goal of localization, rather than with the innate nature of the practice. for example, probably my biggest hang-up on it is that it undersells a lot of the sentiment when shiki and neku finally reunite, though the voice acting is partly responsible for that (likely moreso the voice direction rather than the actors themselves, but i can't say for sure).

back on the positives, i do find the english voice acting pretty good. miranda parkin as nagi is my personal highlight; her performance reminds me a LOT of erica lindbeck's futaba sakura, and you should absolutely look into her work on her youtube channel "ParkinArt" when you get the chance, because she is superbly talented. shoutouts also go to xander mobus as kubo (i struggle to think of a sleazier voice) and pretty much every returning va.

in general, i am pretty massively defensive of localization and localizers; whole lotta people who don't know shit spouting, well, shit. to be fair, i'm not much better, but at least i'm on the side of the people who do this shit for a living. and i'm also on the side which appreciates those people for the work they do, because i can't help but feel like it's really fuckin hard. you're not just translating the literal words, but finding ways to synthesize it to maintain the SPIRIT. This short video by "Jehtt" about the opening line of Sonic Adventure is an excellent example of what I'm talking about.

as for the content getting localized itself, final remix (and specifically a new day) made it clear that whatever sequel comes out, it's going to be some kind of direct continuation of what's been established, rather than a self-contained story in the same universe or something along those lines. personally, i would've preferred the latter if a twewy sequel HAD to exist, and to its credit, my favorite things about neo twewy's story tend to be the things which THEORETICALLY make it stand on its own. obviously, your enjoyment is enhanced if you play the first game, but there's enough in neo to make it possible for someone who doesn't to still understand it.

for example, new characters are fun, even if occasionally half-baked. i'll get the riff-raff out of the way: the shinjuku reapers felt like goofy personifications of gimmicks that served their purposes well enough, coco is a bit less annoying this time, tsumugi is hilariously half-baked after being hyped up as much as she was, hazuki... exists, and i struggled to see any of the other team leaders as more than an impetus for other characters (though i am DEEPLY grateful kanon isn't as bad as she could've been). speaking of which, how about those characters?

my favorites were nagi and fret; i see their concepts as a bit tropey, but executed well all the same. the ways their arcs intertwine were surprisingly compelling; nagi's dislike of fret wasn't just a weird gag, but an inevitability of fret's compulsion to put up a front and nagi's keen perception and hatred of "fake" people. once nagi learns why fret puts up this act as he makes an effort to move past that instinct, they start bonding almost immediately as she tells him more about her inner workings and that she'll take care not to be so judgmental thanks to his influence. the reveal that she got fret on elegant strategy after the events of the game made me smile way more than the game trying to get me to like rindo and shoka as a couple ever did.

on that note, i could take or leave rindo as a protagonist, and in general, my interest in the shinjuku reapers (especially shoka) waned as they became more significant. that's not BECAUSE of their significance, mind you, simply that they ended up disappointing me in one way or the other (with the possible exception of kaie who was just kind of a silly little guy). it comes back, yet again, to my thesis on this game failing to meaningfully iterate. i understand and agree that there's a lot of value in establishing parallels between characters, even if the plots of their stories are disconnected. i would go so far as to say it's ideal to make a sequel expand on the subtext of what's been established like that, as long as it and what's new bolster each other. in the case of rindo, i struggle to appreciate things about him that aren’t some extension of neku when he was a protagonist. i found his arc about making his own decisions sudden and a bit inexplicable, especially with how blatantly it was stated. felt like a case of saying a character was having a specific arc without actually giving them that arc.

as for shoka, i do like her more than rindo. in fact, it’s her relationship with him that made me lose interest; it felt like all the things that endeared me to her, like her relationships with the other shinjuku reapers and her brand of snark, got pushed to the side in favor of said relationship. it dominated everything else about her character in a way it felt like it just didn’t with rindo. granted, this could just be because he’s the protagonist, and her “snark” is a surface level reason to like her. however, i don’t find that first concession to be an adequate excuse, and it was precisely her personality that got me interested in the character to begin with, only for it to feel discarded (albeit probably not completely, i’m sure there’s a cute lil moment or two i’m forgetting). considering shoka’s love of gatto nero and shiki’s presence in the game, i imagine the parallels between the two have to be somewhat intentional, including with their relationships to their respective mc. like with rindo, these parallels make it hard for me to appreciate the character, but unlike rindo, shoka’s parallels seem to actively oust the things unique to her, as opposed to rindo’s leaving little opportunity for appreciable distinction to begin with. again, i ultimately prefer shoka, as tis better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all.

that just leaves the three elephants in the room/party: all of them are returning characters. two of them are characters you played as in twewy.

i do want to make it clear that even at my most territorial, i don't think i was ever completely against the idea of there being returning characters; if anything, my ideal twewy sequel would actually feature characters like joshua or hanekoma more prevalently than they were here. rather, much like most things, it comes down to how you implement them, and neo does so in a way that pretty blatantly relies on them. even that isn’t a necessarily a bad thing, but remember what i said about this story attempting to stand on its own?

what shocks me about their sheer prevalence is that very little of it feels necessary. i don’t get the feeling that any of the og gang were needed to make this story work on a thematic level (as happy as a lot of their scenes together made me), and in fact, as i alluded to with rindo and shoka, it actually seems to impede or dampen a lot of what the game is trying to go for. i see it as perhaps the single most blatant example of my thesis statement. neo plays with the concept of a self-contained story, but is unable to let go of what's already there, innovate enough on the franchise and original game’s core, and pull through with something standalone, because it seems generally unwilling to embrace change, and consequently, key aspects of creativity and what makes a good sequel. i understand if others don’t share this opinion, but to me, it really feels like neo only changes when it has to, and that reflects in the changes it makes as well as the ones it doesn't.

and on that note: the conclusion.

sorry this feels so disparate. i definitely wouldn't call neo a bad game, and in fact, i think given some time, i can comfortably call it good. plus, i can, after some difficulty and deliberation, say it and even final remix's existence only add to og twewy. impulsive territorialism be damned, it makes me happy to see stories and characters i love be added on to like this. the aspects i consider bad, even if they might be fundamental, are not enough for me to avoid embracing and appreciating the good. my silly little headcanons are not “threatened” by things like final remix, even if it felt like they would be in the moment. it is still possible to imagine all my favorite characters living happily ever after with each other, even that cunt with the mop for hair joshua, and if anything, certain scenes in neo only add to those delusions. i may have complained about them, and i do stand by those complaints, but i cannot deny how much i love them in isolation. i think the only thing that could've made me hate them is mischaracterization, but the only instance of that which stuck out to me (neku and shiki reuniting) seems to be a translation issue, and the real sentiment of the scene aligns far more strongly with my views of the characters.

that said, i'm still definitely disappointed by it all. neo's derivative spirit felt very pervasive to me the whole way through, and by the end, i felt a strong urge to replay twewy. that's not a necessarily bad instinct to have after playing a sequel, because it's the idea of "wanting more". it is, however, bad in this case, because it was a mix of that and the idea of "wanting better". i wanted to play something where these good ideas were new, or better yet, something where the new ideas were good. as it stands, i'm left the slightest bit hollow; just enough to be noteworthy, but i still feel like a dick for bringing it up.

i'm happy i played this game. i may very well play it again in the future. there's aspects of it i like to the point of loving. and yet, i hesitate to say i like it.

my feelings on this game continue to be jumbled, even after all this. still, writing a lot of it out definitely helped, and it was really fun to make! thank you oh so very much for reading; i hope you enjoyed it!

oh, and i would rather rip my dick off than play scramble slam again-

[yumeka36]

Elden Ring Nightreign Network Test

I was one of the lucky people who got picked to participate in the network test for Elden Ring Nightreign that took place this past weekend. Wanted to share my thoughts on the game based on my experience with the network test (PS5 version).

I should preface by saying that I'm a big fan of FromSoft games, especially Elden Ring, Bloodborne, and the Dark Souls trilogy. However, I've never played a "rogue-like" game before, so having that in Nightreign was definitely out of my comfort zone. But I was able to adapt relatively quickly to the emphasis on fast-paced survival, plus RNG with weapon pulls, vs taking time to explore every nook and cranny and fight every boss/enemy (which is how I usually play FromSoft games).

I didn't play the very first network test session when there were apparently a lot of connection errors, but I did play the second one as my first experience. Since I'm very used to Elden Ring's combat style and enemy types, most of the game felt fairly familiar. The main thing I struggled with at the beginning was understanding how the night slowly creeps in and covers the land, gradually draining your HP if you're caught in it. I kept dying seemingly for no reason until I finally understood this mechanic. Even after I figured it out, I admit it's one of the things I didn't like, but I'm sure I'll get used to it in the official release. I know this is part of the fast-paced survival aspect of the game...but I've never been a fan of rushed, timed gameplay, so having to run away from a boss fight because the night is draining my HP was disruptive. Especially if you end up dying and spawn at a grace far away, then you're forced to book it to the night boss arena while wasting your heals since the night is draining your HP, leaving you with little healing left for the boss fight. Again, I know this is part of the survival aspect of the game and I'm sure I'll get used to it in time, especially when I start memorizing optimal routes to take for each expedition.

Other than that though, I really enjoyed the game! I love the boss fights and combat in Elden Ring, so experiencing that with some altered mechanics was a blast! It was fun finding different weapons and power-ups each time, making each expedition unique. It was a bit difficult in the first couple test sessions without multiplayer though, since coordinating with your team seems to be a core aspect of the game. But once they allowed multiplayer passwords again, I was able to get runs going with one of my friends, and that was really fun! Even though there was one extra person in our team that we couldn't communicate directly with, we still managed to do well. But despite this, unfortunately I never did make it to the final boss in any of my roughly 20 runs across all the network test sessions I had time to attend.

Which brings me to something I wanted to mention, though I believe it's an issue strictly with the network test and won't be relevant in the final game - from what I understood, there were two possible maps you could get in the network test, each with a different layout, enemies, and bosses. One map had the two demi-humans as the first night boss, and the DTS plus two cavalry boss as the second one. And the other map had Centipede Demon and Margit/Morgott as the two main bosses. I don't know if I just had terrible luck, but I would say at least 75% of my runs had the map with the demi-human duo boss...and I just found it much harder. Not only did I find the demi-human boss fight harder than Centipede, but that trio fight on day 2 was ridiculously hard. Even when my team was level 10+ and had good weapons, we still couldn't beat them. And not only that, but Margit seemed to always spawn as an extra boss in this map who pursues one of the players, making it even more difficult. So yeah, assuming these maps had equal odds of spawning and are supposed to be equal difficulty, not sure why I kept getting the seemingly harder one, lol.

One thing I would tell FromSoft to implement based on this network test is the ability to quit an expedition without penalty if your teammates disconnect. I'm not even sure what the "penalty" was since I was too afraid to quit out myself, but there were some annoying instances where my teammates would bail out right away, and if I tried to quit and start again, the game would tell me I would incur a penalty. So I was forced to wait until the night boss spawned, die to it, and then I could finally have a chance to try again. So yeah, being given the option to quit out of an expedition without penalty if your teammates disconnect would be nice.

Overall, I enjoyed Nightreign a lot! Playing the network test got me even more excited to get the real game and play with a full team of friends, plus get to experience each of the different starting classes. Already pre-ordered the collector's edition 😁

[masterskywalkers]

While I feel that games like Pillars of Eternity can't really compared to Baldur's Gate 3 in terms of playstyle, I will say that Baldur's Gate 3 - like other games such as Dragon Age: Origins and Knights of the Old Republic - work well as a good introduction into the older, more strategic isometric genre.

Pillars of Eternity is a love letter to the isometric style of the 90's - 2000's, and one of the gaming inspirations it borrows from is the original Baldur's Gate games and Icewind Dale. These types of games borrowed a lot from tabletop games (Baldur's Gate is obviously a D&D game built in the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons system - or second edition, for ease.).

Isometric gaming was something that was on the way out a few years ago, and Pillars of Eternity began life as a Kickstarter project. It gained interest and, while being of a rather niche interest in the wider gaming market, sparked enough of a buzz that it woke up others who took inspiration from the isometric style and brought more games back to that style. Pillars wasn't alone in restarting this resurgence, but it damn certainly helped it.

Baldur's Gate 3, to me, is more of a return to what RPG's used to be back in the late 00's. Its gameplay is far more reminiscent to Dragon Age: Origins than it is of its original two entries - so much so that when I first spoke of BG3 to friends, I actually compared it to DA:O in the styling of it.

You have to remember that when isometric games were big in the 90's and early 00's cutscenes weren't as big a thing as they are in games now - they were there, but the technology wasn't like it is today so the cutscenes would either be filmed or have to be much shorter / or silent (think original cutscenes in Final Fantasy from entries 6-9 that had no voice acting, or old titles like the Wing Commander series - hey, didn't Mark Hamill film for those?). CRPG games had to rely on the story - both visual and through actual reading on the player's part. Baldur's Gate 3 is quite amazing to me because it gets to take influence both from its original routes through the gameplay, but it also gets the luxury of having cutscenes and showing scenes where characters can talk and interact face to face. Because of this, Baldur's Gate 3 is actually a nice introduction for a new RPG gamer to find their footing in the genre. Harder difficulties lend a strategic process that can open doors to players wanting to explore the more challenging games that isometric gaming opens (especially when BG3 introduces those legendary actions in the later part of the game on harder difficulties). The RPG genre is always evolving and changing, and we'll continue to see how it adapts as the years go on and more ways to tell a story develop and grow. Isometric gaming is just another variation of how to tell a story, just as RPG's like BG3 and DA:O and 2 are another version of the genre. I would also argue that games like Dragon Age: Inquisition are slightly different from both of what came for, as they brought with them the open-world element. In a way, Inquisition is unique to its own franchise in the way BG3 is, as it borrows pieces from its past, but grows with what's new also (even if I still feel Origins / Awakening is the strongest entry in the entire series).

So, yes. I don't really like/agree with comparing these games in accordance to gameplay and style as they are all products that reflect the differences of how the genre itself grows. Pillars was always a love letter to games of the past, whereas BG3 is a story that pushes the boundaries of what we have available to use with today's resources. RPG's will keep changing, but we'll always see those special games that come out to celebrate a different era of the genre.

[poppyseed799]

HIII I MAKE CUSTOM ORIGINS DATAPACKS FOR THE MC ORIGINS MOD 😁 WHO WANTS TO HEAR ME DISCUSS A BIT OF ORIGIN DESIGN PHILOSOPHY AND TIPS FOR IF YOU WANT TO DESIGN AN ORIGIN???

For the rambling on how to design an origin, check this read more

First of all, Disclaimer:

No one’s opinion on what makes an origin good should be taken as fact. It’s all subjective. I’m a firm believer that you should make origins in whatever way YOU want, because there will ALWAYS be someone with the same or similar tastes as you. Even if a majority think your origin is poorly designed, there will be a handful of people who are glad it exists. I think it’s good to listen to criticism and others’ opinions to help you really flesh out your own ideals, but if you disagree with someone’s opinion, then don’t change your style just for them. So please just read through everything I have to say here and decide for yourself which ideas you want to use for your own designs.

Also, even if you don’t code origins yourself, if you’re a fan of typing up ideas for them, that’s what this is for lol. It will bring up a bit of coding stuff though.

Alright! First of all, a major pet peeve of mine! Impact level. Those green/yellow/red circles next to the origin’s name? Yeah. A lot of the time, I’ll see people choose whether the impact is low/medium/high based solely on how many powers it has. This is NOT what impact is for.

“Impact” is how much of an impact it’ll have on your typical minecraft survival let’s play. Basically, you’ll just have to think, “if I tried playing this like as if I was a human, how impossible would it be?”

Avian is low impact because it pretty much only prevents you from eating meat. That’s not a core part of human gameplay, so the impact is low. Enderian is medium impact because not being able to touch water will definitely change how you play the game, but not SUPER drastically, as touching water isn’t really that big for a typical minecraft playthrough. Blazeborn is high impact because it spawns in the Nether, which will absolutely change how you play. I’ve seen people do challenges where they start in the nether before lol.

So basically, even if your origin has the power to cast ten million spells, if its only downside is that it can’t eat vegetables, then it’s low impact since it doesn’t change your ability to play as a human would much. It’s just that you have the added bonus of magic.

I’m just tired of seeing really powerful origins with a lot of details in them always being high impact when you could still play somewhat normally with them. Low and Medium impact origins can be chock-full of complex powers too!

And yes, the impact is mostly focused on the downsides of origins, since I feel like the indicator is meant to help people know how much they’ll have to adapt. People who don’t want a hard time will go for low impact origins, people who like a challenge will go for high impact. Mixing up “high impact” with “lots of powers” will make that harder for people.

Now with impact out of the way, here’s some more design tips! Many of these ones I learned from others in the discord server, although they may be slightly changed to fit with my beliefs more. As I said it’s good to listen to others ideas to add to your own philosophy!

It’s helpful if your origin has a core gimmick. I personally don’t believe you NEED one, but it IS REALLY helpful for designing your origin, and will also draw more attention to it.

For example, say you want an origin that, um… shoots fireballs. You can make buffs and debuffs that encourage the use of said fireballs, so that it doesn’t feel like a random ability that you don’t really need!

People are really obsessed with balance, and tend to slap on debuffs and buffs to make things even, but if they aren’t related, then it feels really odd and hard to say if it’s balanced. For example, if you make your origin able to fly, and try to balance that by making it unable to eat meat. Like… okay? That doesn’t really affect the flying at all. Instead you could limit the flying (without making it useless), or make it so you’re worse on the ground. Or if you really want to balance it with not eating meat, make it so the flying costs food so the debuff of limiting your food options feels more relevant!

That being said, not everything has to be relevant to each other. There’s something that people like to call… flavor traits? Where it has nothing to do with the main gimmick, but fits what the origin is based on. An example being Avians laying eggs. It makes origins more fun, and I highly recommend adding them, but an important tip is to make sure they aren’t TOO impactful. Making a perfectly balanced origin and then making it take damage in water just for the lolz would give it an unnecessary major disadvantage. Instead you could just like give it weakness in water or something.

Designers don’t typically say this but it’s my belief that it’s okay if your origin doesn’t have a gimmick and is just a bunch of flavor traits, because not everyone is using origins for the gameplay, some are using them purely for roleplay purposes. I’d still recommend having a gimmick to make it more fun, but ultimately it’s up to you. (I also recommend making your flavor traits work well together if you’re not going to have a gimmick)

On the flipside, as I said I HIGHLY recommend adding flavor traits, as I’ve seen some origins that have a really cool core gimmick that they clearly worked hard on, but then they just decided that was enough and didn’t add anything else. It made the theme of the origin feel fake. Please add little things that add to the theme 🥺 but also try not to make your origin too crowded (well, I personally don’t mind crowded origins, so if you don’t either then go ahead! But if you do or you’re trying to appeal to others who do, then plz don’t force yourself to add traits if it’s already too much).

Something that’s more for coding, but also if you want to go into extreme detail when daydreaming about your own origins you won’t code yourself…

Avoid using potion effects for things when you can. Sometimes it’s good! But there are downsides to it, such as it overriding actual potions, cluttering your screen, and also making some people think you’re lazy but I say ignore the haters.

It’s not always bad; if you think a potion effect is the right way to go, then go ahead. But like, if you want an origin to be faster in a certain biome, instead of applying speed effect to them while they’re in it, you could make a conditioned attribute to their movement speed. It’s easy to notice without being a distracting icon, can be amplified with speed potions rather than negating them, and highly customizable so you can make it as fast or slow as you want!

The customizability is great as well, cuz if you wanted your origin to be faster and stronger at night, but you feel like applying speed and strength is too much, you could just make 2 conditioned attributes (one for movement and one for damage) and make it so it’s SLIGHTLY faster and stronger so it’s not too crazy! Once again this gives you the bonus of not overriding actual potion effects so if you drink strength you’ll be even STRONGER! It feels more authentic and real.

Practically ANY potion effect can be recreated with origin powers, even stuff like mining fatigue and regeneration (which yes would be more customizable). Hell, even luck. So I encourage you to try to take advantage of this, but also use actual potion effects whenever it feels more appropriate.

And now for another simple pet peeve which doesn’t really have anything to do with actually DESIGNING an origin, but rather EXPLAINING your origin.

Pros vs Cons vs Neutral traits. It should always be comparing it to what a HUMAN can do. It can climb walls? Humans can’t do that, that’s a pro! It can’t eat meat? Humans can eat meat, that’s a con! It’s translucent? That doesn’t affect the gameplay at all, it’s neutral! It can breathe in water but not breathe air? That’s something that is both a good thing that humans can’t do and a bad thing that humans can do, it’s neutral!

That’s how it works. So, tell me why people are making “it can only eat meat and golden apples” NEUTRAL. Like, humans can eat more than that!!! It’s a con!!! Even worse, when they say “it can only eat meat” con “it can eat golden apples” pro WHAT DO YOU MEAN??? EATING GOLDEN APPLES ISN’T A PRO HUMANS CAN ALREADY DO THAT!!! They’re just comparing it to other carnivore origins when you SHOULD be comparing it to HUMAN. Just. Whether it’s for impact or for pros/cons, ALWAYS compare to human.

I think I’m out of less opinionated stuff, so here’s some personal preferences that you DON’T have to listen to AT ALL because it’s just my opinion.

I don’t like origins that aren’t a species. Not like made up ones, those are fine. I mean stuff like “warrior”. My guy that’s a human. Even stuff like “wizard” like unless it’s a wizard that got physically infused with magic I don’t see why this is an origin instead of a class or something!

To be clear, I do totally get it. People want to make magic/combat systems but don’t know how to make mods, only origins. By all means, I should ALSO like making origins like these, but I don’t. Idk why. It just rubs me the wrong way. Like. That’s just a human. Install a magic mod.

Unnecessary size changes also kind of annoy me. I LOVE LOVE LOVE them for flavor traits, don’t get me wrong! But sometimes they’re like WHOLE BLOCK height differences with NO accommodations. Like they didn’t think a whole block change to the height would make the game any different. News flash, IT DOES. Just be sure to keep in mind how annoying playing the origin might be when changing height. Anyways, the more opinionated part of this one is that I feel like it’s really unnecessary sometimes when it’s like.. pig origin. Pigs are small so you’re small. Like erm what? Most mobs are smaller than humans, but most mob origins aren’t shorter, so why is THIS one? But that’s just me. Sometimes it feels fitting, other times it doesn’t.

A lot of people say not to overstep Merling by giving your aquatic origin all of its powers, and I agree… except I also disagree at the same time. Like, making aquatic origins that aren’t just Merling copies? Extremely fun and test your creativity. But also I think we should be allowed to treat Merling as Underwater Human if we want. Like if a server has a bunch of underwater origins then Merling can just be like the human for ppl who wanna be aquatic. Guardian from I think mob origins is one of my favorite origins cuz it plays differently from Merling despite having all the Merling traits, but isn’t STRONGER. It’s just Merling with a theme and it plays into the theme really well in a way Merling doesn’t.

I got bored of typing auugghhh talk to me about origins I have a lot of fun making these 😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁

[frauhupfner]

hello! i would like to know how you simulate war in your game, i am currently making my adaptation of the decades challange for sims 2 that matches my gameplay style and i have no idea on how to make it! (I was going to put the sims in the sim bin for 20 sim days but i think this a little too boring)

Hello. :) Before the first world war started I also was thinking of just sending the male Sims to the Sim bin but I also wanted to show what the men are going through so I made a subhood where I had just one lot- the war place. For the second world war I made three more war places. All adults and teens from this family moved to the war place and spent their days there. I also used a mod that makes sickness more deadly (I sadly can't remember where I found it.). At the first world war only Alfred had a job since he was at the medical career and doctors were needed at the war. Everyone else gave up their jobs. The teens went to school just normal and I imagined that they are looking for enemies somewhere. ;) To kill a Sim I used mods and functional guns (by JaViera here). Sometimes I used pose boxes on both wars. To let something burn I used this round fire thing from Nightlife (I still don't know what it's called, even in german ^^). To make it look a little like the world around them is burning I used these effects. The second world war was a little harder to play for me since I'm playing a german family and we all know what part Germany had in that war. :/ So I also made a concentration camp where I made some war pictures about deporting children and women, and a lot with burning houses and some Sims. One of those pictures also found it's way to Simsecret (as a nice secret) and someone there made some mean comments just because I'm german. :/ If you want to know anything else just feel free to jump into my ask box. :)

[ichika27]

The World Ends with You

(Yeah, it’s the same screenshot I used for my post about ep. 1. I couldn’t get a new one so...)

Ah, first week without the TWEWY anime to look forward to. I’m actually kinda sad cause I’d miss waiting for the episode every Saturday night (Ani-One posts theirs on that day here). I have some stuff I wanna say about the anime so I thought I’d make one of these plus this is a good way to end the twewy anime blog post series I make every week. I’ll try not to spoil until the very bottom of this post which will have a spoiler warning.

Also, this will be very long and rambly as most of my fandom posts are haha.

Story:

A boy named Neku wakes up in the middle of Shibuya with no memory and finds himself as a player in the Reaper’s Game. For a week he must partner up with a girl named Shiki and both of them must complete missions, battle creatures called noise, and survive as failure meant erasure.

Characters:

Neku Sakuraba - our main protagonist who somehow lost his memories and is now playing the Reaper’s Game. He’s a loner who isn’t too keen on getting close to anyone let alone working alongside anybody - unfortunately for him, it’s a requirement if he wants to survive. As a player he has an assortment of abilities to fight off noise and other enemies (in the game this meant he can use a lot of different pins).

Shiki Misaki - the nice and friendly Shiki becomes Neku’s partner in the Reaper’s Game. Unlike Neku she has knowledge of the game and fills Neku in on things he doesn’t understand. Her ability is to control her stuffed toy called Nyantan/Mr. Mew which she uses in combat.

Beat - the tough skateboarding player, he’s somewhat more like the typical hot-blooded shounen protagonist when compared to Neku. He’s protective of those he care about especially his game partner, Rhyme. He uses his skateboard in battle.

Rhyme - Beat’s game partner who is a lot kinder and calmer than him. Rhyme tends to be the one to reason with Beat when needed and the two are always seen together.

Yoshiya Kiryu - a mysterious boy who seem to know more than he lets on and acts at times acts suspicious. He prefers to be called by the nickname Joshua.

Sanae Hanekoma - a cafe owner who helps out Neku and the others and would give them advice. His advice prove to be very helpful and Neku takes them to heart. Seem to have a lot of knowledge about the Reaper’s Game but doesn’t seem to be a reaper himself.

--

Thoughts:

(I tried my best to not be spoilery in the character descriptions so some names weren’t written in full)

The World Ends with You (or in the original Japanese “Subarashiki Kono Sekai”/It’s a Wonderful World) is an anime based on the video game of the same name. It had to compress an entire game’s worth of story within it’s 12 episode run which meant they cut out a lot of things and combined some scenes to quickly run through them. It’s theme song is the anime version of the game’s original OP “Twister” although this wasn’t what was originally planned but an incident involving the band who sang the original theme forced them to make changes. The original voice actors from the game also reprised their roles for the anime. The series is created to be watched before the release of the long-awaited sequel game.

The art style is made to be similar to it’s game version (with a bit of change to adapt it as an anime like when it comes to body proportions). They also retained the effect of the characters from the UG (players/reapers) being brightly colored while those from the RG having darker/muted colors. While the noise are obviously cg, I personally liked this since they’re said to be from a different plane anyways so it’s a nice contrast to those from the UG and RG. They had to update the setting though as years had passed since the original game’s creation and they had to model anime version of Shibuya to what it’s real life counterpart now looks. The characters are also given smartphones instead of the flip phones they had in the game (anime-only watchers who are gonna play the game would have to get used to them still using flip phones though lol).

Okay so story-wise... it’s rushed. Of course it is. They shortened it so that what’s left would mostly be important plot points from the main story but they cut out many scenes that consist of character interactions and several little things that could’ve fleshed out the characters more. The gameplay is also made simpler with some mechanics taken away and the mini games weren’t adapted (RIP to Reaper Creeper and Tin Pin Slammer, especially the latter as you’re severely missed). The game boast an assortment of characters and some NPCs have their own stories but due to the anime’s limited run time, they had to either be cut out (and are just given cameos) or given smaller roles (and their stories weren’t adapted). They did, however, give a few bits and pieces of information that weren’t in the game such as some details about certain characters and one supporting character was given a bit more screentime that they did in the game version.

Despite the rushed nature of the series (which may or may not affect how one views the story itself), the anime made sure to adapt several important scenes and the dramatic stuff is made worse... like, they really had to make some deaths harder to take. The battle scenes were nice as well although my biggest complaint about them is that the boss fights were over too quickly. There were scenes that were changed for the anime version and there are those that I liked and those I didn’t but there are many which I think was as good as the game’s version.

Do I recommend the anime? The game is better, the characters and story are more fleshed out and the way the character/relationship development happens is better paced so of course, me, biased already would tell you to play the game instead if you haven’t yet. Do I recommend those who played the game to watch the anime? Yes! Yes I do. I think the anime is better watched when you’ve played the game and know the stuff that they cut out cause it’ll make better sense that way. Plus I found it enjoyable seeing the scenes from the game animated and the characters are speaking whole dialogues and moving. It’s great!

Even if the anime wasn’t perfect, like I mentioned before, they did their best to condense the entire main story in a 12 episode series and it tried to be as faithful as it could to the original story so despite the deviations when it comes to how things got to the way they did, if you summarize important plot points, they would be the same (with some details changed). Overall, it was very enjoyable and it wasn’t as bad as I feared when I heard how many episodes the anime was going to have.

--

Some spoiler thoughts:

It would’ve been better if the anime had more episode count than just 12. Cramming a 3 week story of game into just 12 made the thing very rushed with Week 1 only getting three episodes, Week 2 getting four, and final Week getting five. They had to get to the good stuff so they cut off a lot of scenes where the characters are interacting with each other which means they suddenly get character developments and relationship developments too quickly. It might not be that obvious to anime-only watchers but to me, it felt kinda sudden and it feels like it doesn’t work out well story-wise since Neku had to learn how to trust other people and make friends and with how he started vs. how he came out of it contrasting each other.

By the way, they made the characters look good in the anime. Especially Joshua. Have you seen Joshua? He’s so pretty in the anime. I want a picture of him I could stare at anytime I want to (I do not own a phone, sadly).

I like how they gave Eri more scenes though and that they changed her outfit for the anime so she won’t look exactly like UG!Shiki. All of her scenes though made me feel like I wish the anime gave closure to Shiki’s own story by showing us her and Eri making up. Another scene I liked in the anime is Neku’s fanboying of CAT when he finds out the truth. It was adorable.

Some info was taken away from the anime. Beat and Rhyme leaving home had scene dialogue and unlike Beat just narrating it in-game but they didn’t mention specifically why he was angry and his trouble at home. Joshua wasn’t present when Sota and Nao gave Neku a pep-talk either which is a shame cause I think that helped Josh as well. 

I mentioned before how the anime made things go too fast. They cut off chunks of not-main-plot story that let the characters interact with each other more which means each game day is shortened as well. I think it made sense that Neku wakes up at the scramble in the end and not stressed out because he didn’t go through as much as his game counterpart did. That said, game Neku learned a lot from more than just the main cast in the game compared to the anime so I like his character development in the game better.

They took away Tin Pin Slammer. I am sad and disappointed. I was hoping so bad for Another Day to be adapted even if it’s an OVA. That and the ramen incident are part of Josh’s week which meant some side of him wasn’t shown (I mean, anime fans don’t know he wasn’t there on week 3 since he’s busy playing a kid’s game elsewhere and how he could talk about food like he is from a cooking anime). Speaking of Josh, they made him very suspicious from the get-go in the anime. I understand as there’s a limited run-time and they can’t really afford to be subtle about it but it meant some of the fun interactions with Neku is gone and so are some scenes where they actually got along. At least they had ice cream together, I guess?

(I have more to say when it comes to Joshua cause he’s my fave character but this is long and my thoughts on it would make this way longer. I might make another post.)

In the end, it wasn’t perfect but the anime was fun and enjoyable enough that I found myself looking forward to it every week. Seeing scenes I recognize from the game in animated form (with voice acting!) felt exciting and awesome. I’ll miss this show and I still wish it was longer.

If you’ve read this far well, thank you. And also I’m confused why but still hopefully that was a good time-killer. I have so many other things I wanted to comment on but that’s for another time. Maybe.

[britesparc]

Weekend Top Ten #482

Top Ten Sega Games

So I read somewhere on the internet that in June it’s the thirtieth birthday of Sonic the Hedgehog (making him only a couple of months younger than my brother, which is weird). This is due to his debut game, the appropriately-titled Sonic the Hedgehog, being first released on June 23rd. As such – and because I do love a good Tenuous Link – I’ve decided to dedicate this week’s list to Sega (also there was that Sonic livestream and announcement of new games, so I remain shockingly relevant).

I’ve got a funny relationship with Sega, largely because I’ve got a funny relationship with last century’s consoles in general. As I’ve said before, I never had a console growing up, and never really felt the need for one; I came from a computing background, playing on other people’s Spectrums and Commodores before getting my own Amiga and, later, a PC. And I stuck with it, and that was fine. But it does mean that, generally speaking, I have next to zero nostalgia for any game that came out on a Nintendo or Sega console (or Sony, for that matter). I could chew your ear off about Dizzy, or point-and-click adventure games, or Team 17, or Sensible Software, or RTS games, or FPS games, or whatever; but all these weird-looking Japanese platform games, or strange, unfamiliar RPGs? No idea. In fact, I remember learning what “Metroidvania” meant about five years ago, and literally saying out loud, “oh, so it’s like Flashback, then,” because I’d never played a (2D) Metroid or Castlevania game. Turns out they meant games that were, using the old Amiga Action terminology, “Arcade Adventures”. Now it makes sense.

Despite all this, I did actually play a fair few Sega games, as my cousins had a Mega Drive. So I’d get to have a bash at a fair few of them after school or whatever. This meant that, for a while, I was actually more of a Sega fan than a Nintendo one, a situation that’s broadly flipped since Sega stopped making hardware and Nintendo continued its gaming dominance. What all of this means, when strung together, is that I have a good deal of affection for some of the classics of Sega’s 16-bit heyday, but I don’t have the breadth or depth of knowledge you’d see from someone who, well, actually owned a console before the original Xbox. Yeah, sure, there are lots of games I liked back then; and probably quite a few that I still have warm nostalgic feelings for, even if they’re maybe not actually very good (Altered Beast, for instance, which I’m reliably informed was – to coin a very early-nineties phrase – “pants”, despite my being fond of it at the time). Therefore this list is probably going to be quite eccentric when compared to other “Best of Sega” lists. Especially because in the last couple of decades Sega has become a publisher for a number of development studios all around the world, giving support and distribution to the makers of diverse (and historically non-console) franchises as Total War and Football Manager. These might not be the fast-moving blue sky games one associates with Sega, but as far as I’m concerned they’re a vital part of the company’s history as it moved away from its hardware failures (and the increasingly lacklustre Sonic franchise) and into new waters. And just as important, of course, are their arcade releases, back in the days when people actually went to arcades (you know, I have multi-format games magazines at my parents’ house that are so old they actually review arcade games. Yes, I know!).

So, happy birthday, Sonic, you big blue bugger, you. Sorry your company pooed itself on the home console front. Sorry a lot of your games over the past twenty years have been a bit disappointing. But in a funny way you helped define the nineties, something that I personally don’t feel Mario quite did. And your film is better than his, too.

Crazy Taxi (Arcade, 1999): a simple concept – drive customers to their destination in the time limit – combined with a beautiful, sunny, blue skied rendition of San Francisco, giving you a gorgeous cityscape (back when driving round an open city was a new thrill), filled with hills to bounce over and traffic to dodge. A real looker twenty years ago, but its stylised, simple graphics haven’t really dated, feeling fittingly retro rather than old-fashioned or clunky. One of those games that’s fiendishly difficult to master, but its central hook is so compelling you keep coming back for more.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Mega Drive, 1992): games have rarely felt faster, and even if the original Sonic’s opening stages are more iconic, overall I prefer the sequel. Sonic himself was one of those very-nineties characters who focused on a gentle, child-friendly form of “attitude”, and it bursts off the screen, his frown and impatient foot-tapping really selling it. the gameplay is sublime, the graphics still really pop, and the more complex stages contrast nicely with the pastoral opening. Plus it gave us Tails, the game industry’s own Jar Jar Binks, who I’ll always love because my cousin made me play as him all the time.

Medieval II: Total War (PC, 2006): I’ll be honest with you, this game is really the number one, I just feel weird listing “Best Sega Games” and then putting a fifteen-year-old PC strategy game at the top of the pile. But what can I say? I like turn-based PC strategy games, especially ones that let you go deep on genealogy and inter-familial relationships in medieval Europe. everyone knows the real-time 3D battles are cool – they made a whole TV show about them – but for me it’s the slow conquering of Europe that’s the highlight. Marrying off princesses, assassinating rivals, even going on ethically-dubious religious crusades… I just love it. I’ve not played many of the subsequent games in the franchise, but to be honest I like this setting so much I really just want them to make a third Medieval game.

Sega Rally Championship (Arcade, 1994): what, four games in and we’re back to racing? Well, Sega make good racing games I guess. And Sega Rally is just a really good racing game. Another one of those that was a graphical marvel on its release, it has a loose and freewheeling sense of fun and accessibility. Plus it was one of those games that revelled in its open blue skies, from an era when racing games in the arcades loved to dazzle you with spectacle – like when a helicopter swoops low over the tracks. I had a demo of this on PC, too, and I used to race that one course over and over again.

After Burner (Arcade, 1987): there are a lot of arcade games in this list, but when they’re as cool as After Burner, what can you do? This was a technological masterpiece back in the day: a huge cockpit that enveloped you as you sat in the pilot’s seat, joystick in hand. The whole rig moved as you flew the plane, and the graphics (gorgeous for their time) wowed you with their speed and the way the horizon shifted. I was, of course, utterly crap at it, and I seem to remember it was more expensive than most games, so my dad hated me going on it. But it was the kind of thrilling experience that seems harder to replicate nowadays.

Virtua Cop (Arcade, 1994): I used to love lightgun games in the nineties. This despite being utterly, ridiculously crap at them. I can’t aim; ask anyone. But they felt really cool and futuristic, and also you could wave a big gun around like you were RoboCop or something. Virtua Cop added to the fun with its cool 3D graphics. Whilst I’d argue Time Crisis was better, with a little paddle that let you take cover, Cop again leveraged those bright Sega colours to give us a beautiful primary-coloured depiction of excessive ultra-violence and mass death.

Two Point Hospital (PC, 2018): back once again to the point-and-clickers, with another PC game only nominally Sega. But I can’t ignore it. Taking what was best about Theme Hospital and updating it for the 21st Century, TPH is a darkly funny but enjoyably deep management sim, with cute chunky graphics and an easy-to-use interface (Daughter #1 is very fond of it). The console adaptations are good, too. I’d love to see where Two Point go next. Maybe to a theme park…?

Jet Set Radio Future (Xbox, 2002): I never had a Dreamcast. But I remember seeing the original Jet Set Radio – maybe on TV, maybe running on a demo pod in Toys ‘R’ Us or something – and being blown away. It was the first time I’d ever seen cel shading, and it was a revelation; just a beautiful technique that I didn’t think was possible, that made the game look like a living cartoon. Finally being able to play the sequel on my new Xbox was terrific, because the gameplay was excellent too: a fast-paced game of chaining together jumps and glides, in a city that was popping with colour and bursting with energy. Felt like playing a game made entirely of Skittles and Red Bull.

The Typing of the Dead (PC, 2000): The House of the Dead games were descendants of Virtua Cop’s lightgun blasting, but with zombies. Yeah, cool; I liked playing them at the arcades down at Teesside Park, in the Hollywood Bowl or the Showcase cinema. But playing this PC adaptation of the quirky typing-based spin-off was something else. A game where you defeat zombies by correctly typing “cow” or “bottle” or whatever as quickly as possible? A game that was simultaneously an educational typing instructor and also a zombie murder simulator? The fact that the characters are wearing Ghostbusters-style backpacks made of Dreamcast consoles and keyboards is just a seriously crazy detail, and the way the typing was integrated into the gameplay – harder enemies had longer words, for instance – was very well done. A bonkers mini-masterpiece.

Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 (Switch, 2019): the very fact that erstwhile cultural enemies Mario and Sonic would ever share a game at all is the stuff of addled mid-nineties fever dreams; like Downey’s Tony Stark sharing the screen with Bale’s Batman (or Affleck’s Batman, who the hell cares at this point). The main thing is, it’s still crazy to think about it, even if it’s just entirely ordinary for my kids, sitting their unaware of the Great Console Wars of the 1990s. Anyway, divorced of all that pan-universal gladhanding, the games are good fun, adapting the various Olympic sports with charm, making them easy-to-understand party games, often with motion control for the benefit of the youngs and the olds. I don’t remember playing earlier games extensively, but the soft-RPG trappings of the latest iteration are enjoyable, especially the retro-themed events and graphics. Earns a spot in my Top Ten for its historic nature, but it’s also thoroughly enjoyable in its own right.

Hey, wouldn’t it be funny if all those crazy internet rumours were actually true, and Microsoft did announce it was buying Sega this E3? This really would feel like a very timely and in some ways prescient list.

[zachsgamejournal]

PLAYING: Final Fantasy VII Remake

I love it. Done. Just Kidding. Final Fantasy VII is one my top 10 favorite games of all time. My first play through was over 99 hours, and I didn’t feel like I was “done”. I just beat the game to beat it. I’ve restarted the opening Midgar section a hundred times. I love it.

I don’t know why, but when the PS2 came out, I heard rumors of FFVII sequels...but then FFX got a sequel. I didn’t really care for that one...Why did it get a sequel? Then PSP had Crisis Core and Advent Children. While Crisis Core was an action packed revisit to FFVII’s world, it wasn’t exactly a remake. And while I enjoyed watching Advent Children a 100 times...it wasn’t exactly a film-adaptation, or even an EPIC-Quality sequel to the game. When the PS3 Demo teased a remake, I became desperate. I needed this REMAKE. When the PS4 Remake  was announced, I couldn’t believe it was real!!!! But then it turns out, it was only going to be the first section and that there would be “changes”. While I’m ok with the game ditching the turn-based combat, I didn’t want a game so revamped that it was unrecognizable. And the fact this was only the first section, I was worried that a. they were filling the game with fluff, and/or b. they wouldn’t bother making the rest... Doesn’t matter now. It’s in my hands now, and I can’t wait to play! FFVII’s opening is possibly my most favorite opening of any video game. How the stars of space turn to life-stream embers, and Aerith steps out of an alley to reveal a bustling city. The Camera pulls back to reveal Midgar, our new home, a huge ominous tower surrounded by planet-killing reactors. Then as the camera pushes in, there’s quick cuts of a train--building the tension and pace of this slow, elegant reveal. And boom: the bombing mission begins! In contrast, the remake starts with a vast desert landscape in daytime. For a moment, I thought it was meant to mirror the desert Red XIII visits at the end of VII...maybe it is. But then we see Midgar, reimagined to new glory! It was strange, but not offensive. Until we cut from day to the familiar image of Aerith looking at Mako energy. She’s prompted to leave the alley by someone...or something. And we pull back to see Midgar, as in the original. And while I’m glad we’ve remade this perfect scene, it is sabotaged by the new day-time opening. The city has been introduced twice. Revealed twice. And one is clearly more impactful than the other (the original). Ah well. Now we’re in the familiar train station. I think they’ve added some sections to give more combat opportunities for the player. It works. The combat is fun enough. I’m glad that I can “strike” as much as I want without delay, unlike Crisis Core. Maybe it’s because I played CC for hours that I’m so satisfied with this action-combat? Limiting the item and magic use to a timer was a bit awkward. I would often forget to use them. I’m still quite confused about when to use special moves like Braver. Shinra soldiers are no sweat. The graphics are great and the lighting perfectly captures the original’s style. It was fun to play a modern game with 90s aesthetics. Because the camera is now over the shoulder and not overhead, like the classic, I almost missed how many times they took the original game’s environments and reworked them for the remake. I was impressed when I discovered it and absolutely thrilled. They’ve also done a good job reworking the enemies into the game. The dialog/story is a little hit or miss. But that’s just kind of where Japanese games live, for me. In the 90s and early 2000s, most games didn’t have good writing, even if they had good stories and ideas. So Japan’s non-western style didn’t stand out that much, and they were usually cutting-edge for cinematic games and storytelling. Now that Western Games have improved so much, it’s harder for me to tolerate Japan’s eccentric style. The original game was very succinct and clear: Barret was an angry, militant rebel who saw Shinra Corp as a threat to the world. He explains clearly how the reactors are sucking up the planet’s energy. The stakes were clear. Cloud’s cool indifference was an interesting foil. Usually you’re the hero, now you’re just a jerk. While the remake did a good job showing that Cloud was specifically brought to do the fighting, proving his worth to the team, when we get to Barret’s speech about the reactor--it’s somewhat unprompted and...unspecific? It’s so over the top, I hardly realized this was “the speech”. If you’ve never played FF7 before, I’d imagine the point would be lost on you. If you have played, then you get the joke that Barret isn’t exactly an environmentalist--despite his impassioned posturing. I think this is a misstep.

But they did give side characters more of a voice in this mission, especially Jessie. They basically sacrificed Barret’s presence to give the others more talking opportunity. This works because we’re gonna get to know Barret over many, many more hours. But it also gives Barret a more solemn presence that works for his character.

Getting to the iconic scorpion bot fight, I was impressed by the challenge. The original game is still trying to let you win at this point. The only way to lose is to attack when the tail is up, unleashing a devastating laser attack. But this game really pushed me. Maybe it was meant to challenge the player and force them to experiment with different attacks and strategies. I had to heal a lot!! Also, it seemed like my dodge was worthless. Occasionally the boss would launch a barrage of missiles and when I tried to roll-dodge, I always rolled right into a missile. By the end, I just didn’t bother dodging or blocking, cause they don’t seem to do anything...maybe I suck.

Then it was time to escape. This was fun, but they introduced a new “shock trooper” or something. These guys are fast, strong, and a pain in the ass. I couldn’t dodge, I couldn’t block, and I couldn’t land a hit. I hate these guys. It seemed odd to put such a challenging enemy into the game at THIS timed moment. But maybe they assumed I’d be better at combat by now?? The biggest issue with FFVII is that you start the game as terrorists and that’s never really addressed. Sure, you’re stopping an evil corporation, but you’re doing it at the expense of innocent lives. The remake makes a smart decision here and establishes the bomb as small and insignificant. But then President Shinra orders the reactor to be destroyed--causing a huge explosion that causes a great disruption to the civilians. I assume this is an effort to paint your team as terrorists and enemies of the people. I think it’s a good twist that corrects the original’s problematic points.

After escaping the reactor, the team is faced with the aftermath of the explosion. They’re confused by the amount of destruction, but also try to rationalize the importance of their goal. While I think they were mostly trying to stretch playtime, there’s an interesting sequence of having to face the fruits of your labor: burning buildings, crashed cars, injured people receiving emergency care, displaced citizens, and complete chaos. Even though I know, as the player, that Shinra is the true cause--it’s a good beat to have the player/characters facing the consequences of rebellion.

This leads into a new take on Aerith’s introduction. This is where Japanese “styles” don’t meld with me. Aerith is fighting off invisible spirits--and it looks ridiculous. Most people would give this flower girl a wide berth, and likely not purchase her products. But Cloud is just like, “Hey, what’s up?” after blowing up a reactor... Anyway, Cloud also sees these ghosts: hooded creatures. This is new--but I wonder if it’s related to Sephiroth clones/alternatives?

Aerith runs off, and we’re treated to a vision of Sephiroth. This seems to be addressing another issue with FFVII--what is this all about? In the original, Shinra is the main enemy within the early 2-5 hours, and Sephiroth is lightly referenced. It’s not till Shinra is found murdered that we really see Sephiroth as a potential threat--let alone the “final boss”. It’s a weakness in the storytelling, for sure. But having the vision of Sephiroth appear and bring Cloud back to the fateful day seems like a real attempt to focus the narrative.

And then I had to do a lot of fighting. It was fun, and didn’t quite feel like “stretching”, but it was funny to reflect that this 30+ minute sequence was about 5 minutes of gameplay within the original. So--I’m around chapter 2 of an 18 chapter game. These chapters cover about the 5 hours of the original’s plot, but I’ve already put in 1:43 hours.

Final Fantasy VII spends so much of the early game in Midgar, it really starts to feel like home--as much as it’s meant to represent the dangers of capitalism and fossil fuels--it really becomes a part of you, like the Mansion and Police Station in Resident Evil 1 and 2. I’ve always wanted to see more of it--so I’m hopeful that this game has taken the time to really build Midgar.

[endlessdoom]

Earth

10 Maps-set

By Roger Ritenour

ZDoom version.

1998 original release.

MAP01: The Ruins

Ah, the classic Earth, a map-set that would revolutionize with its sophisticated and realistic environments. The first map is a testament to the kind of ambition the author brought to this creation. A medium sized map with a large extension of enemies and a somewhat unexpected difficulty, for an introductory map. With a design that tries to replicate a more natural and realistic look in terms of natural environments, The Ruins also takes us to what seems to be the reminiscences of an ancient civilization with a Greco-Roman style. One of the few maps of its kind, even to this day, only that gives it a certain charm that is difficult to replicate. If it weren't for its somewhat unfair difficulty (which you would expect from a classic) this would be a great map in every sense, but in spite of that, I can easily see why it is so iconic.

MAP02: The Tomb

A sensation of exploration and adventure floods this WAD that almost seems to imitate an Indiana Jones adventure. The Tomb is a medium to large map set in the interior of a catacomb in a pyramid. With a somewhat abstract design, full of mazes, traps and demons, this map manages to capture perfectly well the essence of exploration and adventure within the confines of Doom's world. Unfortunately, a somewhat incomprehensible layout and switch-hunt make it a bit boring after a few moments, becoming a tedious task where the action comes second.

MAP03: Mines of Moria

You don't expect an exact replica of the Mines of Moria, but I can understand the charm and atmosphere that the author was seeking to recreate. It is a rather labyrinthine map, dark and with very little ammunition. A bit dangerous if we do not know how to handle the encounters against heavy enemies. The layout of the map has a progress so lost, but due to its nature of crossed roads, two things can happen: Either we find the necessary keys for the exit by accident (they are only two keys) or we spend a long time walking around.

MAP04: The Chasm

A huge ravine and a mountain/rocky map await us. A classic style of trying to recreate natural landscapes with the Doom engine during the 90s. What we can expect is an extremely simplistic and even somewhat boring landscape to observe, but the charm is always in its pure essence. With a less complicated design than the previous one, this is a map of less exploration and a little more tight combat.

MAP05: Strategic Defense Command

The introduction through the crack with the elevator makes this map a visually attractive adventure, taking into account the date. A somewhat complicated map due to the use of a multitude of enemies in tight rooms, but with a layout that combines good ambience with an adventure style, this is an entertaining map, although perhaps more difficult than it should be.

MAP06: Observation Station

Now we travel through a key capture while facing huge hordes of enemies. Once again, like the previous map, this one makes use of large groups of enemies in rooms with almost no maneuverability, especially an area after getting the red key, where we face a heavy horde of enemies with an Archivile, which is more than protected behind the horde of enemies. After that we even have a Cyberdemon at the end, which is not a major problem, but feels like a nuisance at this point.

MAP07: The Emerald Tower

A very short level that focuses on slaughtering a large group of Pinkies and then a small squad of Mancubus. Nothing special in itself, so it feels a bit of a lackluster in a way compared to the rest. At least it works as a good resting point. Kinda.

MAP08: Ammo Pit

A strange madness. This level seems to match the labyrinthine style of Mines of Moria and The Tomb, while adding the difficulty of previous maps to it. A bit insane in terms of item placement and monster placement and a somewhat simplistic level design. It's a slightly boring map compared to the others, perhaps its most remarkable point is the strange ''Ammo Pit'' near the beginning of the map, which I couldn't find a way to circumnavigate or complete, or even use. The map is solid when it comes to the 1999 visuals, of course, it is simply that particular area that I do not understand what its purpose is other than to kill us.

MAP09: Islands

Two floating islands connected through portals take us on a somewhat hot but more open and less dark adventure. While the visual theme itself is quite appealing, the execution is somewhat bland. The totally flat land and the trees that stop our movement make the combat a little more boring but at the same time more relaxing, since at least we don't have to worry so much about being dragged to the pits of hell. The connection of the keys is a little lost but simple enough not to take too much time. In itself, it's a slightly fast map (or long if we don't find the blue key) with a more special style but a bit poorly executed, but what can we expect? It would be a little unfair to say such a thing in the full sense of the word.

MAP10: The Hill

We got to the last map, and oh hell, Roger definitely let go of all his anger on this map. A bit complicated as far as his gameplay is concerned, at least now we have a little more ammunition but the amount of enemies and the positioning they have make this map a gameplay nightmare. I hope you like dodging Revenants missiles because that's what we will do 50% of the map. After that we have to go to different towers to get the keys while surviving different traps with hitscanners up to the eyeballs. A complicated map no doubt, but at least it offers a more entertaining combat thanks to the use of open field.

End.

Overall:

» Earth (1998) Roger Ritenour

I think we all have a special period that we appreciate and love among all the others. Maybe it is because of a magical charm that we feel is impossible to replicate in other eras, or maybe it is because there is a select group that we enjoyed during that time; in one way or another we all have our favorite mapping eras, but when a clear point arrives in which we can all agree it is that the 90s were a wonderfully enigmatic time. The birth of many artists who left their mark on Doom history plates, as well as of mapping styles and philosophies that would change history forever, giving way to the evolution (or mutation) of different WADs that would revolutionize the world. It's 1998, and one of those WADs has just been born. Earth, a WAD from 1998, It is an exemplary work that left a clear mark on the world of Doom, probably marking itself as a milestone in certain aspects. Considered by many as one of the best WADs in history (after all, it's on the list of the 100 WADs of all time), Earth is an exemplary case of what the 90s were like; a stage of evolution where certain raw models were born to give birth to something interesting over time. First things first; the visuals. Earth stands out for this in total and absolute grace. This is the best factor and there is no doubt about it. Taking into account that we are in a stage where the visual effects, the texture work and the geometry of the game had not been fully exploited yet and most of the editors at that time did not offer enough capabilities to create them, as well as the source-ports were not fully capable of surpassing the vanilla limits. Earth stood out for taking that to the other side and bringing with it a unique, distinctive look that can be appreciated to this day. Imagine a beach, the sound of the waves crashing against the wet rocks in the background. The clear, dreamlike sky that emanates a galactic atmosphere. Imagine an adventure through caves lost in civilizations of millennia ago, where nothing stays but the remains of ancient relics forgotten by time. This is Earth, a collection of 10 maps made with the goal of delivering realistic adventures that will leave behind the traditional Doom style and go deeper into a natural look that evokes environmental sensations. Some maps will lead you beachy, floating island, while others go into the depths of rocky mines that intertwine between tech-bases and hellish grounds. This is the peak of 1998 visuals, the absolute best there was. Despite looking raw as fuck, I still think dearly that it manages to succeed in delivering that feeling of exploration and adventure. But not all that glitters is gold, and this is where we encounter the rocks of the road. Earth, despite being revolutionary in its visuals, fails to adapt to gameplay. We all agree that the 90s were not... uh, precisely the best time for gameplay, but many WADs had already managed to find a precise balance between both factors. On the other hand, Earth seems to sacrifice its gameplay for visuals. It feels like a rookie, almost as if Roger has run out of time to make balanced and interesting encounters. Most demon encounters focus on bullet-sponges, unexpected traps, and sadistic positioning. This makes Earth an experience that is best enjoyed in low difficulties like HMP or lower, but UV? It may be a little harder than it needs to be. Earth is a classic in every way and one that even if it lags a bit behind in gameplay, even for its time, I think it is necessary to play it in its entirety in order to learn the appreciation of the evolution of WADs. It was one of the first to set the pace regarding visuals and therefore has its reputation as a totally solidified classic. It may not be the best representation of Earth in the world, but there is no home like home, and our home is Doom. A Doomed Earth.

[xxsasukelover69xx]

concept: mdzs as a video game

so like i was thinking and i’ve also been playing a lot of league of legends recently. it popped into my mind that mdzs would almost be perfect for a video game: there’s the characters, the concepts, the original moves performed by the characters, etc. for example, jiang cheng’s zidian, which could be used as a mid-range attack dealing ‘magic damage’ (i’m not too sure what ‘magic damage’ would translate into for mdzs; cultivational damage, maybe?). and we’ve also got the variety of things wei wuxian can do, such as summoning his JoJo stand wen ning to fight for him. now, here’s how i’m thinking the game would work:

the characters

so, there’s a wide variety of characters in mdzs, and the stronger ones tend to have more ‘original’ moves. i think, like with league of legends or overwatch, you could select which character you want to play in a round (like wei wuxian or lan wangji) and there would also be skins for them (such as ‘young wei wuxian’ or ‘chinese new year wei wuxian’) alongside their default appearance, which would be how they appear normally in the anime/manhua/live action.

i think it would be a good idea to have all of the characters be available for people to play, but also have them fill a specific role. like with league and overwatch, there’d be your supports, tanks, and dps. however, unlike with overwatch, i think a jungler-type role would also be a good fit. for those who do not know what a jungler is, it’s a league of legends role where you go around killing non-player enemies to buff up you & your team. a good character for this would be jin ling, referencing how at the beginning of the novel he put up a ton of traps for spirits to get caught in (he could also catch members of the enemy team as well, keeping them trapped there for a certain amount of time).

in-game

of course, we also have to think about how this would work in-game; do we want this to be a first-person shooter style game, or do we want this to be more of a league-type game? personally, i think a league-type game would be better, because it’s easier to access compared to a first-person shooter across most computers, where you can see everything that’s happening from a bird’s eye view.

however, we could also take a more story-based approach (think horizon zero dawn, skyrim, borderlands) where you go around as 1 character for the entire story, unless it requires you to switch once or twice for plot purposes. of course, a game like this would cost money, and we all love spending money, but i personally think this would be an interesting approach to the game.

we all know how every single-player game has it so that you unlock stronger abilities and buffs on a ‘skill tree’ as you level up. i think this would be a good idea because we can’t all just start out strong. sure, there would be characters that are stronger than the others, but that would be due to the role they fill (support, tank, etc.). it’d be pretty epic gamer if you got to select which skill tree you wanted to build upon too for each character.

obviously there'd be the spirits which you can go out and fight for quests and level grinding purposes. the further you get into the story, the harder the enemies get to kill, and there has to be bosses, that’s just a no-brainer. it would ALSO be pretty epic gamer if you got to fight against some of your fellow cultivators for some quests, like getting to fight xue yang or something as a main quest in the storyline. you could also do night hunt challenges that would be optional whenever you reached a mountain or something. during the night-hunt, you’d have to kill as many spirits as possible before time runs out and make sure that the opposing team doesn't get more than your team.

with this borderlands style of gameplay, you’d get to switch how you’re viewing the character and stuff. that’s more of a minor detail, though.

the storyline

i’m gonna avoid spoilers here, because i know not everyone has completed every adaptation of mdzs. because it’s in a video game style, we can’t exactly...just go with the normal storyline all the time, because you’re playing separate characters from wei wuxian or lan wangji. we’d have to deviate from the original storyline to something that would fit all of the characters in and treat them all as a main character. i’m not really sure what we should have as the main storyline of this game, though. any suggestions?

of course this is only a concept. i’m not actually going to make a mdzs game, but it’d be fun! lmk what you think

[ladala99]

Spyro Reignited Countdown - A Hero’s Tail

And finally we get... I guess it’s not really a return to form but it is a return to greatness.

A Hero’s Tail uses the Spyro characters and basic mechanics and makes it a modern (for the time) platformer. This does eliminate one of the franchise’s core features (finite gems), but ultimately, it did a good job and did the franchise justice.

And it also officially introduces Ember, who Spyro fanficcers liked to ship with Spyro, especially as a rival ship versus Cynder of later titles. Yes, that was a part of the fanbase I frequented. I am not sorry.

Gameplay

Spyro’s controls are brought to the modern (again, for the time) age, with a much more responsive camera and really that’s the only major difference. Spyro feels like Spyro. He flames, he charges, and he glides.

...Well, aside from the fact that they swapped the Flame and Charge buttons, and now you have to hold X to glide rather than just press it. I first played this game as a demo and legitimately thought the change was a mistake, but nope. Not entirely sure why it was made, but it was. Perhaps it aligns with other PS2 platformers better?

Mini rant, courtesy of how 3-year-old me remembered the controls: Circle is flame because it’s red and the mouth makes an O. Square is Charge because the sides are pointy. X is jump because the X is blue like air and you are in the air while jumping. Triangle is zoom in because the bottom represents a really wide view and the top represents a really narrow view. Why would you change this?

But anyway, it works for the game. Aside from not matching previous games, it’s easy to adapt to and the controls are very responsive. They’re not quite as tight as in the originals, but they’re very close.

Additional Playable Characters

We’ve got a few this time. There’s Hunter, Sparx, Sgt. Byrd and the new character Blink. Totally new. What are you talking about with the “but he appeared in a GBA game”?

While Hunter was technically playable before, this is the first time you can platform with him. His moveset’s pretty similar to Spyro’s, aside from one of his main attacks being very ranged. Aside from his arrows, he’s basically Spyro, but not as maneuverable. Yeah, he can scale walls and Spyro doesn’t in this game, but that ability originally belonged to Spyro, so it doesn’t feel unique.

What is unique is that one section that you’re forced to play as him as part of the story. That was neat. And frustrating because he does not platform as well as Spyro does, since his movements are floaty and you can’t correct them with gliding like you can Spyro’s, and this area has a lot of small platforms.

Sparx has a completely different gameplay style this time: rail-shooter. It’s honestly not that bad, especially in comparison to Season of Ice’s Speedways. I just prefer the other Sparx gameplay.

Sgt. Byrd, speaking of Speedways, takes over for Spyro during them. And his levels are definitely not designed in the same way the old Speedways were designed. It used to be that there was a clear linear path to take from one object to the next, but that is not the case here. I like these Speedways better than Season of Ice’s, but I don’t like them much.

As far as actual controls go, Sgt. Byrd does just fine. Sometimes his turning is a little difficult, but it works for how wide open the areas are.

Blink controls very similarly to Hunter, with the main difference being how the level is designed. Blink’s levels are all underground, having a specific set of enemies and such, and they’re all considered minigames with the goal of destroying Dark Gems. He suffers from the same floatiness as Hunter, and there’s certainly a lot of platforms. Somehow, though, his levels never got me stuck like Hunter’s did in that one section.

Sometimes I feel that Eurocom wanted to make a Blink game, not a Spyro game. While Blink’s levels are minigames, they’re really fleshed out and well-designed. They have plenty of variety, if not in appearance.

Collectables

Gems are not just currency to be used at Moneybags’ shop. They’re found everywhere, and can be collected from enemies multiple times. At the beginning you’ll be hurting for them, but by the end of the game you’ll have much more than you know what to do with. At least, that’s my experience.

Dragon Eggs return, with a twist. They’re pretty much optional, and much less valuable than the other main collectable. This time, dragon eggs come in different patterns and if you collect a set, you unlock a thing. A lot of those things are just the ability to play minigames from the main menu.

The things that I care about are the concept art gallery (as that’s always cool) and the Ember and Flame skins. Mostly Ember since I like playing as female characters. It’s just a skin, though, and it changes back to Spyro in cutscenes plus uses his sound effects. Still: first time skins are in the game, unless you count the color cheats!

Finally we get Light Gems. They’re used to power up gadgets and open doors. They’re required for progress in certain places, but not always. They’re always rewarded on the second round of minigames, which means everybody talks about how worthless Dragon Eggs are in comparison. We don’t want these unborn children, give us the shiny thing!

Oh, and Dark Gems. They aren’t collected, but destroyed. You need to smash all of them to continue.  They’re just scattered around the levels. You’ll come across them.

Powerups

Supercharge returns! Sort of! It’s one of the powerups that the Professor unlocks for you when you collect enough Light Gems. It really doesn’t feel the same, and it’s used for a few doors, some of which you can’t just charge to from the pad.

There’s also invincibility which works like it did in Lost Fleet, allowing you to travel through acid. Just with a stricter time limit and now it makes Spyro metal rather than red.

Finally I’ll mention the orb-thingys that let you use a ranged version of your breath abilities. I literally have never used them, but they’re there. I can’t say one way or the other how useful they are, but they definitely are not necessary.

Other Modes

The other minigames, as all minigames repeat, are turrets and ball gadgets.

Turrets aren’t hard, but they are stressful. You need to protect the thing while other things try to steal/eat/whatever it. Or you need to protect yourself and hit a huge number of enemies. I don’t like this minigame. Especially the baby turtle one.

Ball Gadgets are much more fun to watch than they are to play. The controls work, but it takes a bit to stop. There’s also a couple of on-rails ones that are really trial-and-error. Even knowing what to do, you’re going to fast to react so you need to memorize every action.

Breath Abilities

This game continues the trend of having them! And acts like it’s the first time at the same time. Enter the Dragonfly is apparently not canon.

Fire acts like it always has. They didn’t do the particle effect thing like Enter the Dragonfly did so it moves forward with you as it should.

Electricity starts out as a weaker Fire and then ends up being much more useful. It takes longer to defeat enemies, but there are certain enemies that are immune to Fire but not Electricity. After a point, it’s not worth it to switch back, since Fire just isn’t universally useful like Electricity is.

Water is just used for puzzles. Nothing else. This is also the only time Water is an element in the series.

Ice freezes certain things (like steam vents so you can use them to pole spin), and enemies of course. There are certain enemies in the final area that are only weak to Ice. (Maybe Water too, but I haven’t tried) Otherwise it freezes enemies so you can charge them like in other games.

Bosses

Finally, we get some new ones!

Gnasty Gnorc returns as the first boss. He’s actually far stronger than he was in Spyro 1, ironically enough. The fight itself is a pretty fun platformer boss fight, but his personality... it’s so childish. It’s like they didn’t know who he really was before.

Ineptune is a new character. The fight itself is, again, great for this style of game. Her character is kind of forgettable, though.

And then we get Red, who we fight twice. The first time is actually harder if only for the fact that you’re in an icy arena and thus the controls are more slippery. He’s not a very complex villain, but his fights are pretty fun, but very similar to the other two.

Special mention to the mammoth, who wins via being in a cutscene. You never see him again, having no chance to best him. He is truly Spyro’s greatest foe.

Levels

Continuing from Attack of the Rhynocs, the levels are much more seamless. They’re still very distinct, but in a lot of cases (moreso early-on than later) they feel like the same level as you begin in.

And again like Attack of the Rhynocs, the levels don’t have concrete ends. You can check your map and see how many Dark Gems are left, but it doesn’t really feel like you’ve finished even after you smash them all.

There’s no main conflict to defeat or anything, it’s just exploring and smashing Dark Gems, and occasionally finding a Dragon Elder to give you new skills. You get a checklist, but it’s not the same.

The theming is fine, if generic. Older Spyro games tended to have an irony to them, but not this one. Everything is played straight. Which, of course, makes it so this game doesn’t stand out very much.

Story

I don’t even know if I fully understand it. So Red’s an evil dragon who mined some Dark Gems to spread evil throughout the lands. And the Elders are very hesitant to tell you more.

Eventually it comes out that Red used to be an Elder, but he betrayed them. I really don’t understand why they couldn’t just tell Spyro that. Do the Elders just have a reputation that they don’t want to sully or something?

We get no motivation on Red’s part, and normally I’d be fine with that, but with all the secrets I expect a bit more. Also: who’s Ineptune in all this?

There’s parts where I feel I missed a game. Ember knows Spyro, and Spyro appears to know Ember. I feel like I should know who Ineptune is just because of how little introduction she gets.

I read that there was going to be a TV show that got cancelled but the games didn’t, but it was literally one forum post and it may have just been someone making things up. It would certainly explain things, though.

Unique in the Series?

Yes and no. It definitely has a unique feel as far as the series goes, but it’s very generic at the same time.

A lot of what it introduces is used again in later games, even though that part of the series is very different.

But yeah, Water Breath, Pole Spinning, and Wall Kicking are unique to this game in the series. They aren’t unique in general (See: Mario. Yes, even Water Breath. See: Sunshine), but for the series, definitely.

It’s at that weird awkward part in which it’s not anything groundbreaking, but it’s still really good.

Conclusion

Best post-Insomniac Classic Spyro, if only by default. It’s generic for its time, bringing Spyro fully into said time. It works, it’s fun, and I wish there were more to this part of the series that weren’t... well, Orange.

[timeagainreviews]

Doctor Who and Video Games

We live in the era of the franchise. Everything it seems is getting the franchise treatment. After the success of the MCU, everyone wants that sweet sweet money. We’ve got the failed Universal Monsters reboot, the Harry Potter extended universe, and endless Star Wars movies. However, some franchises, it would seem, struggle to grow further than their core narrative. Star Wars never strays very far from the battle with the Empire. Which is one thing you can’t really say about Doctor Who. Doctor Who has done fantasy, sci-fi, period drama, schlocky horror, whimsy, and utter rubbish. I’ve always admired Doctor Who’s flexibility as a property. It lends itself beautifully to a wide range of mediums, such as audios and comic books. But what about video games? Are there any good Doctor Who video games? Could there be?

Over the past week, in preparation for this article, I've completely immersed myself in the world of Doctor Who video games. I feel uniquely qualified to have an opinion on the subject. But before we continue, I give a word of caution. I'm talking directly to you, now. Never in your life, should you ever play "Doctor Who: Return to Earth," for the Nintendo Wii. It's not worth the £1.80 that I spent on eBay. You don't ever deserve to do that to yourself. I don't care what you've done, nobody deserves that. If like myself, you have played this game, you have my deepest sympathies, especially if you paid for it new.

It doesn't interest me to make a list of the worst Doctor Who video games, as many people have done this already. It's nothing new to say that Doctor Who has a video game problem. When I wrote that Doctor Who should be run by Disney, I don't actually mean it should happen. I was merely illustrating that Disney knows how to take care of its properties. I would venture that Doctor Who has always had a bit of a management problem. Merchandise from Doctor Who has always reminded me of Krusty the Clown merchandise. So much of it is some bullshit they slapped a Dalek on said: "10 quid please!" Barring the occasional home run or third-party licensing, a lot of the merchandise is pretty uninspired. Which is bananas, because the world of Doctor Who has so much colour and potential.

Video games based off of movies and television are almost always as bad as movies and television based off of video games. They're rarely breaking the mould in their new medium. Most of the time, tie-ins such as these are quick soulless cash grabs. You can see this a lot in the Matt Smith era. There are at least seven games featuring his Doctor, and then a sudden decline. Matt Smith was the Doctor during one of the show's biggest points in popularity. Never before had the show been embraced on such an international level. Of course, the Beeb wanted to push as many video games out as possible.

The problem is, they didn't throw a lot of money at it, and not one project seemed to get the focus it deserved. I won't pretend to know the motivation behind the BBC's forays into video games, but it seems to be a trend with them to overdo something, and then be scared of it in the future. They changed the 5.5" figurine set to a 3.75" scale and nobody wanted them. Because of this, we haven't seen nearly as many 5.5" figures since. They once put out a figure of Lady Casandra's frame after she exploded into gore. We used to get figures like Pig Lazlo and the Gran from "The Idiot's Lantern." Now we'll be lucky if we get everyone's favourite- Graham O'Brien. They also did it with the Doctor Who Experience. They make this brilliant Doctor Who museum with the OK'est walkthrough story, and then put it right in the middle of Cardiff. They wondered why it never made any money. I've been twice, and I gotta say- they should have put it in London. It would still be open.

This isn't to say all of Matt Smith's video games are bad. In fact, the Eleventh Doctor adventure games referred to simply as "The Doctor Who Adventure Games," are some of my favourite in the entire lot. And as much as I would like to blame the BBC for their lack of caring, the fact is Doctor Who is not easy to translate into video games. Even if they do care, they still need the right team on the job. Oddly, it's one of the Doctor's greatest charms that makes Doctor Who hard to translate into a video game, and that's the Doctor's stance on violence. If the Doctor could pick up a laser pistol and just frag some Daleks, we'd probably have an entire series on our hands. Unfortunately, most developers go one of two ways. They either ignore the pacifism or we get countless mind-numbing puzzles.

Puzzles are by far the worst element of any Doctor Who game. In the browser-based "Worlds in Time," there were a plethora of Bejewelled type mini-games and pipe matching puzzles. The puzzles got increasingly harder even if the player wasn't also getting increasingly better. Even the platformer "The Eternity Clock," was mired in constantly stopping to do puzzles. They pop up in the Adventure Games, but other than the infuriating "don't touch the sides," puzzles, they don't detract much from the gameplay. There were moments where I felt a bit like a companion because I was decoding a Dalek computer for the Doctor, which is really the money spot for a Doctor Who video game. Any time a Doctor Who game can make you feel like you're in Doctor Who is time well spent.

When asking my friends what kind of Doctor Who video game they would like to see, many of them mentioned they would like a survival horror type game. We sort of get this in many of the Smith era games. In "Return to Earth," the mechanic is sloppy and infuriating at best. In "The Eternity Clock," and the Adventure Games, it's a little more manageable. It's a nice way to add a challenge to a non-violent gameplay style. It would be interesting to see what a game team from something like "Thief," or "Resident Evil," might do with the sneaking aspect.

Another way the games have completely side-stepped the non-violence and puzzles is by having the Doctor act as a secondary character. The player is put in the position of the companion or perhaps a UNIT soldier as in the case of "Destiny of the Doctors." If you've not played DotD, I wouldn't blame you. I was hitting my head against the wall just trying to figure out what to do. The only real reason to play that game is for one last chance to see the fabulous Anthony Ainley reprise the role of the Master. He's in totally smarmy ham mode, even if it's a bunch of gibberish they shot in a day. You can find the entirety of the footage on YouTube and it's surreal.

The problem with having the Doctor be violent is that it doesn't feel true to the character. Sure, Three did some Venusian aikido, Four broke that dude's neck in "Seeds of Doom," and even Twelve socked a racist in the face, but these are isolated incidents. The spirit of the Doctor is lost in 1992's "Dalek Attack," when the Doctor is forced to go full on bullet hell on a Dalek hover cart. It's funny then that one of my favourite Doctor Who games incorporates a violent Doctor. In the Doctor Who level of "Lego Dimensions," the Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver to make villains fall apart in a very safe Lego style violence. I can excuse this mostly because the game is not primarily a Doctor Who game at heart.

Funnily enough, the Lego game does something I've always wanted in a Doctor Who video game. I've always wanted to have a Doctor Who game where you could regenerate into different Doctors, and also go into their respective TARDISes. Sure, some of the games on the Commodore 64 allowed you to regenerate, but it was pretty naff in its execution. I tell no lies when I say I spent a lot of time regenerating and reentering the TARDIS to explore the Lego versions of their respective console rooms. Really, the biggest problem with the Lego Doctor Who game is that it wasn't it's own game. Lego Dimensions was its own failure. If TT Games would come out with an entire Doctor Who game, I would buy it yesterday.

The overarching problem with every Doctor Who game is the same problem Torchwood had- if it wasn't attached to Doctor Who, we wouldn't be interested. While I did have a lot of fun with the Adventure Games and Lego Dimensions, not one Doctor Who game has every element right. One has a good story, but poor mechanics, another has great mechanics but doesn't feel right. It's a bit of a tight rope to find the perfect balance, but I don't feel it's impossible

One of the reasons I would love to see a proper Lego Doctor Who game is that they have a history of good adaptations. They're not exactly beloved games, but I myself play a lot of them. One of the most impressive things I've seen them do was in Lego Batman 3, where they made each of the planets in the Green Lantern mythos a visitable world. Could you imagine the same treatment for Doctor Who? Visiting Telos and Skaro, and then popping off to medieval earth or Gallifrey? You could get different missions depending on which Doctor you were, or what time you arrive in. And the collectable characters! So many companions, and Doctors, and baddies, and costume variations to unlock! Doesn't that sound nice? You can buddy Jamie and Amy with Seven and Twelve and have an all Scottish TARDIS! A Zygon could ride K9!

The fact is, we probably won't see a very expansive Doctor Who game. I would be very enthusiastic for an open world Doctor Who game, but even as I type it, it sounds difficult to pull off. I may be able to say what doesn't work about the games, but saying what would work is admittedly, not as simple, but this doesn't mean I can't think of at least one good game. Piecing together some of the things I mentioned earlier, I think the best genre for Doctor Who is point-and-click adventures. I know I keep singing the praises of the Doctor Who Adventure Games, but it's because I think they were actually onto something. It's sad then that they scrapped any further developments to work on the inferior "Eternity Clock."

Could you imagine a point and click Doctor Who in the same vein as "Day of the Tentacle," or "Thimbleweed Park"? You walk around as the Doctor, pick up bits, talk to funny characters and solve complex problems. If you throw in a bit of horror survival, you've basically got the Adventure Games, which is my point- Do more with what they've already done. Grow the concepts. Improve the mechanics. A Doctor Who game should be jammed packed with Easter eggs, unlockables, and mystery. The point is, do more. Even their phone apps are abysmal. You know how much I would play a “Pokémon Go,” style Doctor Who game? You go around trapping baddies in cages you set off with your sonic screwdriver or something. I. Would. Catch. Them. All.

We still have “The Edge of Time,” coming to PC and consoles in October, and I'm pensively excited. While the graphics seem really top notch, in no way does it feel like anything more than a fun little VR experience. The game is going to remain exclusive to that small subsection of gamers that own a VR headset. Before it has even been released, it's closed itself off to yet another section of its very wide audience. Let's just hope that it doesn't scare the BBC away from making a proper Doctor Who game in the near future. And in the meantime, I'm going to have to borrow my friends' VR set, because of course, I'm going to play it. It's Doctor Who.

Well friends, thanks for reading! I had a lot of fun “researching,” this article. Playing Doctor Who games all week? Oh no, twist my arm! Sadly, a lot of these games are no longer available from their original sources. I was able to find a lot of them on the Internet Archive. If you want to give them a go, I would definitely suggest it. A couple of them are even capable of being emulated on your browser from the Internet Archive. The game I had the hardest time locating was “The Gunpowder Plot,” but I was eventually able to find it after some digging. I didn’t play any of the text-based games because I’m not very good with spatial awareness, and so text-based games are usually a nightmare for me. Sadly, Worlds in Time is lost forever, but I remember my character fondly. I also discovered I’m pretty good at Top Trumps: Doctor Who. Go figure.

[doubleca5t]

Final Fantasy VII is the game that broke the FF series into the mainstream outside Japan and gave Square a taste of true blockbuster success that they've been chasing with the mainline final fantasies ever since.

The reason why this is a problem is that, if you look back on why FFVII was so successful outside of Japan (the series was already a juggernaut domestically by that point) it really all comes down to graphics. Sony made a huge marketing push for FFVII as a Playstation launch title because VII was one of the first games to make really good use of full motion video to create cinematic cutscenes. They don't look impressive by today's standards, but imagine if you thought the absolute best that a video game could look was something off the SNES? A lot of teens and college kids were in that exact position in 1997, and seeing the cutscenes from VII blew their goddamn minds. VII is often lauded as the greatest the series has ever been, but it was really more of a lateral move from what came before it in terms of gameplay and story. IV, V, and VI already had sprawling worlds to explore and an elaborate system for character customization and an excellent story (complete with major character deaths and all), and in fact, some hardcore fans of the series will actually tell you that despite it's popularity, VI (and sometimes even IV) is actually a little better than VII.

The reason why VII took off the way it did was that it used revolutionary new graphics to hook people in so they could see the kind of great games that square had been putting out for years.

But I think the downside of this is that it convinced Square that top of the line graphics were a necessary component of a mainline final fantasy game. The reason I describe this as a ticking time bomb is that once the 7th generation of game consoles came around and game development switched to HD, it didn't really make sense anymore for a JRPG to have the best graphics in the business.

Like, when you think about it, a huge percentage of JRPGs are essentially shorthand. The concept of an overworld with a separate map from each individual location you visit is shorthand for exploring a vast open world, because it would be too complex to show that in detail. Turn based battles with simple attack animations are shorthand for seeing your characters engaged in fast-paced, real time battles because that would be too complex to show in detail. Random encounters are short hand for running into monsters and enemies while exploring a hostile environment because it would be too complex to show that in detail.

But if you're pushing for high end graphics, if you want your game to really knock everyone's socks off with how good it looks, none of that shit works. The cognative dissonance between hyper realistic graphics and gameplay that requires heavy suspension of disbelief is simply too much.

Most JRPG franchises have figured this out and adapted appropriately. Dragon Quest, Xenoblade, hell even Fire Emblem all got around this problem by sticking with a simple but effective cartoony art style that allows them to save on graphical fidelity in return for staying true to their gameplay roots.

But FF refuses to do this and as a result has been reinventing the wheel with every installment since XII. And as graphics get better and better, they're forced to push themselves harder and harder to stay on top of them, to more and more diminishing returns.

i dont know much about final fantasy but i think whatever the ticking time bomb did also affected 14 because 1.0 was so bad it was literally nuked into unplayable oblivion with a moon

This is in reference to something I said on twitter, which was something to the effect of "Final Fantasy VII is a masterpiece and a classic, but it also turned the mainline games into a ticking time bomb that didn't go off until XIII." XIV managed to turn it around eventually, but 1.0 was really the low point of the collapse, and based on the reactions to XV, the franchise is still struggling to find its footing.

[sketchiedetails]

I started off my emulator kick with God Hand, a game I’ve always wanted to play but finally got around to getting after watching Pat and Woolie blitz through Easy Mode (which I totally did too because Normal isn’t even the deep end of the pool it’s where shore drops off). This is just a general writeup of how I feel about the gameplay, and I’ll probably make a followup post about some of the little things I appreciated in the art direction (despite this being known as the game with “ugly ass levels”)

(Don’t act like you don’t like the- )

I think God Hand is one of those titles now that is in cult classic status, like Blade Runner or the Big Lebowski as a video game, in terms of being critically panned on release but with a die hard following and it’s not surprising if you happen to watch any gameplay.

What I like about God Hand is something tiny-design pointed out in a post that the combat is actually a very simple system that just happens to be juxtaposed with the most punishing difficulty in a video game I’ve seen yet.

The way the combat works is that 3 of the face buttons are assigned as attack buttons while the Circle button is a general Action button used to interact with the environment and with NPC’s. Two of the attack buttons have modifiers based on pushing the button at the same time as facing away from your target, while Square works as a combo button of sorts where you mash it several times to chain attacks that you can customize so you can tailor make your fighting style.

This is a really innovative system, because not only can you customize your attacks but you can make Gene work for you whereas other games would have you work your muscle memory around a character. If you like, you can map a Guard Breaker attack to a simple face button rather than to a Normal command or part of your combo string so that it’s ready for use whenever enemies block and have a Launcher attack mapped to a Normal command so that you won’t easily press it and trigger the animation, which isn’t too much of a problem for most attacks in God Hand since almost every attack cancels into dodging.

One of the things that isn’t so readily apparent in the game is that there are actually hidden attacks mapped to Triangle that are based on the enemy’s relative position to Gene. If an enemy is down, rather than mashing Circle to initiate a Stomp barrage, you can hold down Triangle to charge up a leg drop attack which can juggle an enemy into the sky and if you launch an enemy high enough if you press Triangle you can do a jumping roundhouse which launches them across the level. Also, running attacks vary depending on which attack button you press, with Triangle being a flying kick, Square being a leaping tackle, and X a slide tackle that can trip up weaker enemies.

God Hand’s combat system is like a paradox in that it’s actually a very simple in terms of input commands compared to contemporary action games which are mostly about memorizing specific combos that will guarantee the most damage with little time exposing yourself to enemy attacks - Bayonetta and OG God of War spring to mind - but has potential for deep combos and it’s actually a boon to the player that inputting commands is so simple because most of the time you’re either dodging attacks or attacking yourself and it removes that extra step other games have with testing your execution and memorization of command inputs.

The inherent “mashiness” of the combat really makes the game feel like a modern beat ‘em up, which is apparently what Clover were aiming for when they made the game.

One of the harder hurdles for new players to clear with God Hand is that Gene moves on RE4-style tank controls. This game is Shinji Mikami’s follow up after Resident Evil 4, and it shows. The tight camera perspective initially feels counterintuitive to a game that’s all about crowd control in large open arenas, but it’s actually pretty easy to adapt and you learn to make good use of the radar for offscreen attacks. Most of the context sensitive finishing attacks in God Hand make the ridiculous shit Leon could pull off look almost tame in comparison.

The adaptive difficulty is also something Mikami brought over from RE4. The game changes its pace based on your performance and even unlocks attacks for certain enemies that you’ll never see on Easy Mode. One of the fat thugs just Sumo Headbutted over towards me in the first level when I hit Level Three.

I really enjoyed God Hand. I was always a fan by proxy, but I’m glad I got to experience it myself. It’s dumb, it’s crass, it’s hard as hell, and the plot is so threadbare that it’s barely worth mentioning. It reminds me a lot of Vanquish, which I guess is appropriate since most of Clover’s employees went on to found PlatinumGames and Mikami himself directed Vanquish. It’s also fitting in that I think it’s replaced Vanquish as my go-to game when I’m bored and don’t wanna try anything new out.

Please play God Hand