#suck it capcom i make my own game mechanics

[rainwaterapothecary]

Long-ass post about what the fuck this machine might be:

Screenshot by @geddy-leesbian and sent to me for research by @courtofparrots

So, what the /fuck/ is this damn thing? (And it’s side-quest: This fucking /shoot/):

At first I thought the machine was some form of Vacuum Furnace since the shape and the possible intake shoot (which will give me hell this entire research process) looks like an incinerator and something to suck things into the incinerator:

(Source.)

But the shape isn’t 100% right, and as CAPCOM need something to do a 1:1-ish model for the game, I scrapped it and moved on.

The next candidate made my heart hurt since it’s a Marine Waste Incinerator:

The shape is similar, it has a box-like connection that I wasn’t able to find almost anywhere else, but no fucking shoot.

/However/, I think I’m onto something here’s a couple other models I found:

Why is this heartbreaking? Because Luis is not only on a shoe-string budget in the middle of noplace, but he’s also having to use whatever the cult can scrounge up for him. I’m convinced he brought his little autoclave from a mainland somewhere, but he needed an incinerator.

They’re off the ocean.

Where there’s a will there’s a way, and Lord Saddler is demanding he makes a way using this hulking machine that isn’t even meant for use on land.

However, the one in Luis’ lab doesn’t look like it’s meant for use on a ship, and there isn’t that fucking spout.

Next, I followed the little tubes on the sides:

And it looks a lot like they’re meant to be on a locomotive or a boiler:.

Why would he need a boiler? I have no idea, ask a scientist. But, visually we’re getting closer.

I looked up what that black piece is for, since I initially thought the piece on Luis’ machine was for some sort of vault technology, housing a locking mechanism for keeping a vacuum seal in the case of the vacuum furnace.

^This thing.

In boilers however, it tends to contain an exhaust fan/motor (iirc). Again, having a fan could work for some sort of incinerator and there’s no real point in having a vent/air filter right below it (the cylindrical thing) unless it’s dealing with something that needs a lot of air.

Now, on boilers and incinerators there tends to be some sort of (usually red) component on the front that /could/ be something that damn shoot connects to. Ex:

That is a burner/igniter.

^This is what it looks like on the inside.

Could the shoot be a hookup? I have no idea. I don’t /think/ so though, since the shoot looks more like a place to expell something (think coal from a coaling tower on a railroad). (In fact, this thought momentarily brought me down a rabbit hole of ‘what if it’s for some sort of coal refinement’? But I rejected that idea because then it would be more of a grinding machine and this is more boiler-incinerator-type-deal.)

My friend brought up a good point that maybe the shoot is for sucking up waste material.

Using my own knowledge of trades, I’m not sure that’s the case? Usually, if something has to go down then the spout will be tilted up so that it’s not fighting gravity. However, I am a city kid with a business degree, so we can safely shelve that idea since it’s outside my wheelhouse.

It was at this point that I realized the box next to Luis’ machine could be part of the whole device:

The only times I’ve seen something like this with an attached cube it was on an electric steam boiler:

And on the vacuum furnace, marine waste incinerator (already mentioned), and this medical waste incinerator:

Which brings us right back around to incinerators.

So while I can’t find anything that has the damn shoot, here’s what I /think/ all the pieces of the machine are. (Again, I am not in sciences or in trade, so this is all I could find after a three-hour research stint that ended when I got too frustrated.)

AND COMPLETELY EYEBALLING THIS NEXT PART:

The items on top of it are these little crates that I’ve only seen in workshops but the ones I’ve seen are roughly 26” across. Which makes this mystery machine ~78” Tall and ~91” Wide (not accounting for the angle it seems to be at).

In closing, I think this is some sort of incinerator (wow, three hours of research just to be back at square one? First of all, rude. Second of all, I now know more than when I started so that’s fun for me!) and for storytelling purposes I want it to be a marine waste incinerator, built for burning waste onboard a ship or for getting rid of oil waste. This way it illustrates just how resourceful and flexible Luis had to be in order to /try and get his fucking tools to do what they’re supposed to/. His autoclave isn’t a true autoclave and it’s /tiny/. He’s working with an old acrylic glove box. He’s been given an oil waste incinerator off a boat and he has to make it /work/.

In short, this is what I do for fun and now I have to get back to work. 😊

Sources:

https://www.marineinsight.com/tech/9-tips-to-maintain-high-efficiency-of-marine-incinerators/

https://addfield.com/case-studies/waste-oil-incinerator/

https://xuyemachinery.en.made-in-china.com/product/FdRTyotOfHUY/China-Industrial-Incinerator-Waste-Oil-Burner-Available.html

https://zaobt.ru/en/news/marine-incinerator-for-vostochnaya-verf-jsc-shipped-from-the-site-of-st-inc

https://www.indiamart.com/proddetail/incinerators-3550461212.html

https://trends.medicalexpo.com/inciner8-ltd/project-115640-426969.html

https://www.google.com/imgres?q=steam%20boiler&imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.3diequipment.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2023%2F01%2Fcocran-steam-boiler-model-thermax-pic2371b-1-600x377.jpg&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.3diequipment.com%2Fproduct%2Fcochran-steam-boiler-model-thermax%2F&docid=xunMT1CJ-fei2M&tbnid=zBjSfu1BNa7HiM&vet=12ahUKEwif7dG8hYSIAxURAzQIHazPMW44KBAzegQIUBAA..i&w=600&h=377&hcb=2&ved=2ahUKEwif7dG8hYSIAxURAzQIHazPMW44KBAzegQIUBAA

https://www.google.com/imgres?q=steam%20boiler&imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.hvacinformed.com%2Fimg%2Fproducts%2F400%2Fu-nd-400_1628544986.jpg&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.hvacinformed.com%2Fbosch-thermotechnology-u-hd-boiler-technical-details.html&docid=8M3mwXLLyvCvNM&tbnid=qs-8ZiQlRet2ZM&vet=12ahUKEwif7dG8hYSIAxURAzQIHazPMW44KBAzegQIUhAA..i&w=400&h=400&hcb=2&ved=2ahUKEwif7dG8hYSIAxURAzQIHazPMW44KBAzegQIUhAA

https://easywater.com/commercial/applications/steam-boilers/

https://www.thermodyneboilers.com/3-ton-steam-boiler-price/

https://www.thermodyneboilers.com/oil-fired-boilers/

https://www.parat.no/products/marine/parat-mel/

https://betterbricks.com/resources/boilers

https://powerhouse-combustion.com/components-of-a-boiler/

https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lokomotivn%C3%AD_parn%C3%AD_kotel

[devilsurvivor-2-recordbreaker]

So I Played Devil May Cry 1

So Devil May Cry, everyone knows the story from a point of view long after it began and only shortly after the series had concluded. The start of it with  the first on ps2, the let down and crunched timed Devil May Cry 2, the series savior and reestablisher Devil May Cry 3, then Devil may Cry  4 and the reboot (DMC Devil may Cry) people hated because of character assassination made in the new canon, and the return return to form with the highly anticipated and highly praised Devil May Cry.

But something always has to start from somewhere. Devil May Cry 1 was just that. Being that legend and history goes that when the teams at capcom were working on how to make a resident evil game for the playstation 2, they ended up with a far more action-focused and far more distinct product. Add some reference some classic literature and poetry like the Divine Poetry and mix in the pathos and gloom of the story with just the right amount of comedy in and you got yourself something very, very special.

However compared to it’s future installments DMC 1 is quiet bold as it is tame with it’s gameplay. Later installments make you a small tank filled to the brim with weapons you can swap on the fly but in DMC 1 you only really have 3, including your starting sword. You only get a handful of abilities and the style swapping system hasn’t even been installed as that only came around during DMC 3 and became a staple of the series then after. Here Dante can only use one gun and one weapon at a time too, meaning you have to constantly swap your weapons through the menu and back out.

This makes for a pretty laid back approach to combat as the majority of enemies always feel intimidating but always like you know what your doing once you get a hang of how weapons and guns combo into each other.

Story and dialogue are also pretty tame too. Nothing too special outside of boss encounter dialogue. You really can feel the resident evil design philosophy from when it was first being constructed. The large castle on the island somewhere lost in the ocean filled with demons and who knows what else. Puzzles by baker’s dozen as Dante moves from small subsections of rooms to another solving abstract builtin puzzles. If it wasn’t for the structure and pacing of the missions you probably feel like you were just playing a resident evil game, wandering from one sight to another to solve puzzles, kill baddies, slay a big baddie and do it all again until you destroy the biggest baddie which threatens the outside world.

Spoilers ahead, nothing as much as story but more as in the design of the game so be warned.

My only complaint would have to be the last two missions of the twenty two in the game. Yeah you heard me- 22 big ones. Really a good four of them go by so quick that they function more like loading screens or transitions between missions than actually missions of their own. Plus the final three were the final boss extravaganza which I have to warn was exhausting to try and beat. No Spoilers but I will be discussing their design so again this is your warning.

Mission 20′s boss is just the same boss you’ve been fighting for the past four stages. Like no joke it just sucks. Only because its a ‘do a thing to reveal its weakness and then attack and wait repeat this until its dead’ but the there are so many factors that make it so exhausting. The cramp space, the little wiggle room, more than the previous fights with it.

Mission 21 is just another intermission level to get you where you need to be.

And then there’s Mission 22. Oh boy

Its a shoot’em up with werid controls. The second half has so many mechanics you are not aware of that youll be doing it wrong for like half an hour only to realize you can attack regularly and with the special devil trigger you have in this fight has extended reach and finally beat him only to relize that now you have to do a ‘get the fuck out of here right fucking now’ moment where your running alover the place to escape before everything blows up. and then you have another kingdom hearts 2 Alladin World carpet ride mini-game where you have to avoid debree so you can make it out safely. Its a bitter end but my god is the rest of the game just way better by comparison.

Still a good game though so yeah I liked it very much.

[graedari]

Clay Terran Week 2021: Day 7 - Future (Part 2)

"... Trucy?"

"Nothing- Nothing..."

Taglist below the cut:

@booklover223 @anitamta

[ssszine]

Copper_wasp: Sorry V Lovers, not a fan at all 🤷‍♀️ My favorite part was when he melded back into Vergil 😂

Avianbrother: I appreciate the amount of work put into his story and how he fits within Vergil's development, but it kinda blows that such a visually and mechanically interesting character had to go

Keeroo: - gloves coming off - Story wise, V's fate is a tragedy and I'm still mad about it. He is an excellent character with a ton of potential, and while I can appreciate the narrative Capcom was going for, I still think they could have told the story in a better way. TBH I feel like having a character "die" is a cop out. Gamewise, he added a new facet to the gameplay that I adore, because tbh I suck at playing Dante and Nero. I hope there's a similar playstyle in whatever game they make next for DMC to allow more players to enjoy it.

Harlot-of-oblivion: I find V to be very intriguing, especially in the Visions of V manga where we get a lot more character developement from him. And he plays his part flawlessly in the game as that aspect of Vergil. I'm okay with him not being his own character, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't curious how that would've worked if Capcom went for it 👀

Vinumxvitae: I love him, but I do wish there was a way for him to stick around and I wish we had more time to see some in-depth development

BlueRoseBlaze: Anyone who knows me know I wish V was his own character I have this joke that Capcom can only afford to have 1 new character per game anymore and they either die or they turn out to be a Sparda

InugamiMochi: I love V as a character but I waffle on whether I want him as his own character or as part of Vergil.  One on hand, I love the aspect that he is Vergil's humanity.  On the other hand, my time with him ended too quickly because he was part of Vergil.

Twinkstimulator: i agree with mochi and bird. i like him aesthetically lmao but v, my guy, go smoosh back into vergil pls

[princesslpyhead]

A Long Rant About Sindel, Recycled Animations, and NRS;

(The witch is back and looks... Familiar.)

It's not bitching, it's not complaining, it's not negativity, and it's not wrong.

A lot of people are asking why is NRS recycling so many animations from previous games. With MK11 NRS has now for the 3rd time made one of the best selling games of the year, with the launch of a fighting game title (following similar headlines from Injustice 2 and Mortal Kombat X). Back to back to back best sellers. A lot of people have had complaints since it's release about balance, the roster changes, Mileena, transphobic voice actors, Mileena, the unlock system, Mileena, and now the animations.

In a tweet from Treybaile, multiple animations from Sindel were shown to have origins from Injustice 2 characters. The post claimed, "Sindel plays similar to starfire and I'm a little disappointed". Obviously this was a bad assessment to make, but begged the question, "Why is the best selling fighting game/ one of the top selling games of the year reusing old animations?" The answer is multifaceted but the initial response was obvious.

The "Toxic" NRS community;

In an overwhelming bid to suppress "negativity" the NRS community and Twitter users took to bashing the opinion and community for "negativity", "nitpicking", and "complaining" (criticism is not the FGC's strong suit whether it be dishing or taking).

A lot of MK11 players do have a very negative outlook on the game, but from the supporters excuses were made to defend NRS's choice. Okay, that's the preface, now heerreee I gooooooo.....

Other fighting games reuse animations!? Why pick on NRS?

So no one complained about Kitana, Johnny Cage, Scorpion, or anyone else having reused and altered animations. Same goes for the majority of Street Fighter and Tekken's cast. The reason for this is that a large majority of those animations form a character's identity. If Dhalsim didn't show up in SF6 and instead Ken could do fullscreen stand fierce, you might hear a complaint or two. In fact a major topic during the release of Kage was why do his buttons look so similar to Dan Hibiki's from SF4?

When someone is wondering why the possesed and undead former Queen of Edenia shares animations with 3 superheroes from another series, it's not exactly out of line. Tekken especially is a game comprised almost entirely of it's predecessors in how it animates, yet faces no ire because characters follow 2 unspoken rules; 1) they are themselves 2) they're emulating someone with the same fighting style. NRS didn't get that memo for Terminator or Sindel. Whomp whomp. Confused/Angry people don't know why they're angry and confused.

She has similar powers to those characters and NRS has a "Style"! What is she/ are they supposed to do?

In a perfect world characters are completely expressed in gameplay through their design, buttons, specials, and animations. We would hope NRS has the time/budget to make a bad guy not share moves with 3 separate good guys, and hope their animations have enough character in them to not be interchangeable. If your animations are being mixed and matched and turned into a "new character" we would hope there is a reason why within the games story.

Simply put; people expect NRS to make Sindel look like Sindel, and hope their style is wide enough that animations don't become vague copies of each other. (It is that wide, but we'll get to that later).

Why bother nitpicking such a small thing?

We all paid money for the game. We're all pouring money into the game for season passes and skins. We all see the hearts/souls/time crystals and understand NRS wants to separate us from our hard earned dollars (or in my case begrudgingly and mostly easily earned from slinging coffee). When a best selling game does something people might recognize as out of line, they are allowed to question that. NRS is not an indie developer running on 3 developers and a dream. Mortal Kombat is a multi-million dollar franchise owned by Warner Brothers with their 3rd feature film on the way. They play by corporate rules now.

They want to do things like maximize profits, and hire recently graduated students to pay less than minimum wage and lay off. Take criticism with a grain of salt. Read a glassdoor review of Capcom sometime. Video games are like a sausage factory, but the meat is some stressed out kid working months of crunch time who hasn't seen the sun since oh I don't know when.

Your scrub ass friend complaining about balance while you're washing him repeatedly with Raiden is one thing. That's bashing a game you don't know how to play. Asking, "why am I doing Injustice 2 stuff in Mortal Kombat 11?" Is a fair question that deserves a fair answer.

IN DEFENSE OF NRS;

NRS is not a lazy developer. They just look like it. Whomp whomp part 2.

MK11 is the best looking NRS game, shoulder to shoulder with Injustice 2. It is the most balanced NRS game to date (for better or worse). It is the single best looking 3D animated fighter out right now. I say this as someone who plays Tekken and Street Fighter way more seriously. The faces in MK11 look ridiculously good (except cassies weird baby smile), the characters move pristinely, elegantly, and naturally, most of the time. It is easily one of the most AAA fighting games.

However NRS is questioned as a developer very often and while that is okay, it is also, very unfair, and lends itself to their development cycle.

AAA Fighting Games;

"Every year you get a new Call of Duty, Madden, Assassin's Creed or whatever, and they all feel the same as last year's with minor changes and it sucks ass and why do we buy video games?"

Fighting games almost never seem to get this criticism anymore, despite the fact that Capcom made 4 versions of Street Fighter 4 and is on it's 2nd version of Street Fighter 5 currently, a game released in 2016. Tekken 7 has been out in Japanese arcades since March 2015 and has seen few complaints and steadily rising numbers since then.

Mortal Kombat X came out in April 2015.

Mortal Kombat X came out in 2015. NRS is working too fast.

Since Tekken 7 was released, NRS has released MKX, MKXL, Injustice 2, Injustice 2: Legendary Edition, and now MK11. Mortal Kombat/ NRS fans still complain they are getting content too slowly.

Unfortunately for NRS as well they are not working on a single franchise in these time periods as well. Alternating between Injustice and Mortal Kombat, 2 games with different mechanics, characters, and to a mild extent player bases, has resulted in a partially fractured community, and a homogonizing of identities between games. Some people don't want their peas to touch their carrots.

Furthermore, jumping from franchise to franchise faster than Tekken can complete a single cycle results in some rules being broken. Sindel owns a partial mix of Black Canary and Starfire animations because NRS wants to release a new character every two months and a new game every year.

SFV players waited nearly 8 months for 3 characters. One of them was E.Honda. he slaps his thighs a lot now. I love it.

If you want to know why animations in NRS are being recycled their are 2 clear answers;

1. They are making content for and balancing their games at a break neck speed.

2. Every developer already does this, you just don't notice because you're not comparing Tekken 7 Paul to Tekken 6 Paul. They're both going to spam deathfist at you.

And that's all! Don't feel bad for criticizing video games and don't sit around thinking any developer is out here strictly trying to be your friend and not trying to make some sweet fucking dollar bills. Obviously developers care about their communities but video games are equal parts art and sausage factory. Now leave me alone, I gotta go spend $20.00 on 500 crispy ass time crystals or whatever.

[lacquerware]

Hellblade's Language Problem

::WARNING: MANY HELLBLADE SPOILERS WITHIN::

I think I went into Hellblade with particularly well-balanced expectations. On the one hand, I had a vested interest in Ninja Theory’s success, having devoted several (rather grueling) years of my life to promoting their controversial last two titles, DmC Devil May Cry and its rerelease, DmC Devil May Cry: Definitive Edition as a community manager at Capcom. In my view, Ninja Theory greatly exceeded Capcom's and my own expectations for DmC, but they walked away from the experience dripping with rotten tomatoes from irate fans who wouldn't have been happy with any reboot of their beloved series, no matter what it did. With Hellblade, I'd wanted to see Ninja Theory get the credit I knew they'd long deserved.

On the other hand, I was also quite disappointed when NT revealed Hellblade to be a more narrative-driven piece, and I was downright worried when they still hadn’t highlighted the combat system after three or four PR beats. They were selling this game on its fancy performance capture technology and its treatment of mental psychosis, not its Smokin’ Slick Style and Just Guard mechanics. I’m fine with narrative-driven games, but there are tons of them nowadays, and NT is essentially the only Western developer to have sipped from Capcom's forbidden font of combat wisdom. NT walked away from DmC with a world-class mastery of combat design, honed under the direct tutelage of Capcom’s own Hideaki Itsuno (DMC series director and veteran fighting game dev) and his team of designers. It seemed a shame to let that mastery go underutilized.  

I eventually concluded that Hellblade probably wouldn’t be the DmC-without-the-baggage follow-up I’d dreamed of, but it’d probably still excel on its own merits. In other words, I went in expecting a good game, but not expecting it to top DmC.

It pains me, then, to conclude that my experience with Hellblade was mostly just bad.

Early on in my time with Hellblade, I asked myself, “So is it ‘SEH-noo-ah’ or ‘SEN-yoo-ah’?” referring to the protagonist's name. Then one of the voices in Senua’s head called her “SEH-noo-ah.” A little later, one of the other characters calls her “SEN-yoo-ah.” Later still, Senua says her own name, pronouncing it "SEH-noo-ah." Much later, Senua’s own mother calls her “SEN-yoo-ah.” Is this inconsistent pronunciation a symptom of Senua's psychosis, or merely an oversight in the game’s voice direction? I don’t know, but I see it as symbolic of the overarching issue with Hellblade: it has a language problem.

When I say language, I’m talking about the visual, auditory, and tactile language that the game uses to guide its player. Ninja Theory took on a lofty challenge with Hellblade: to convey the experience of mental psychosis, using a video game. To be clear, psychosis is a severe mental disorder which presents the mind with vivid delusions—false sensory inputs. Video games, by definition, use sensory feedback—namely, graphics and sound—to communicate a consistent, predictable set of rules and parameters to a player. How do you simulate psychosis and make a functional game at the same time? How do you present meaningful feedback to the player while also inundating them with erroneous imagery and sound?

Ninja Theory actually found a variety of ways to do this. As they explain in the documentary included with the game, many sufferers of mental psychosis display a tendency to draw patterns and connections where none are apparent (to normoids). So essentially, they're ascribing their own rules and logic to the world. Arguably, this is what all game designers do anyway, so in that regard this premise might be surprisingly fertile ground. Indeed, we mostly see Senua’s hallucinations take recurring, systematic forms: glyphs which she must overlay with seemingly arbitrary sights in the environment; “portals” which, once passed through, reveal new avenues; and horrible humanoid demons, with whom Senua must do battle. Theoretically, these elements successfully convey Senua’s mental condition while still offering the player a “game” rather than just a series of crazy, unpredictable occurrences.

So what’s the problem?

The problem is a simple matter of execution; the game is technically flawed. Tutorial-less and HUD-less, it relies solely on subtle, in-world feedback to communicate its rules of engagement to the player, but then breaks those rules either through technical failure or conscious design choices. In a different game, I might have picked up on each bug or design issue much quicker, but because of the psychosis premise and the subtlety of the issues I faced, I found it abnormally difficult to distinguish between intended weirdness and simple video game flaws. In other words, the game isn’t just about being crazy—it is crazy.

Here are some examples:

-Early on, the game establishes that you can use the R2 button to “Focus” on certain objects in the environment to activate puzzles or audio logs. A little later, the game introduces a new type of "Focusable" object--an icon of a flame--but for some reason these objects don't respond to your Focus until you're much closer. The game betrays its established rule for how Focus works, without clearly reestablishing the new rule. I probably passed by that first flame icon five times, attempting to Focus each time but receiving no feedback. By the time I realized it was a distance issue, I’d wasted maybe thirty minutes searching for a way to progress.

-Focusing on each flame icon activates a sequence in which the environment is engulfed in an inferno, leaving you with mere seconds to run away before dying horribly. When I activated the first one, I instinctively started running in one direction, only to have the voices in Senua’s head started frantically crying, “No, not that way!” So I stopped and frantically searched for another path. Before I could find one, I died horribly. It seemed so unavoidable that for a moment I thought the death was scripted. When I realized it wasn’t and I respawned, I examined the surrounding area at my leisure and determined that, actually, there was no other path and I was running the right way. Was this a bug? Or was I now to understand that sometimes the voices in Senua’s head actively try to get her killed? I’ve since cleared the game and still don’t know….

-I encountered a bug which prevented one of the first puzzle-locked doors in the game from opening. It wasn’t totally clear that solving the puzzle was supposed to unlock that specific door, so I found myself wandering back and forth across the vast section of the map available to me at the time. Additionally, there were music cues which played upbeat, intense music within a specific radius (which didn’t even contain the door in question), and cut off abruptly the instant I stepped outside that radius. I scoured every inch again and again. After close to an hour of wandering and scouring, I googled it in exasperation and discovered it was simply a door bug. The music was just completely arbitrary. Unforgivable in a game that demands you take unexplainable sights and sounds at face value.

-One section of the game introduces a light/darkness mechanic. You must stand in the light at all times—either by carrying a torch or standing in designated illuminated areas—or you will die horribly within seconds. In one such instance, a fight sequence breaks out while you're carrying a torch. Senua subtly drops the torch on the ground as the fight begins, and a grueling battle ensues. When it ends, darkness floods your surroundings, and if you don’t think to retrieve the dropped torch, you die horribly within seconds. But what was illuminating us during the fight sequence, and why did it stop after I won? When the darkness came, my instinct was to run, which of course got me killed. I had to repeat the entire fight.

-The boss which follows the darkness segments has the ability to spew darkness (shoutout to DmC’s Hunter). Visually, this darkness looks just like the darkness which causes you to die horribly within seconds elsewhere, so the natural assumption is that you must scramble to find the light. This proved not to be true; rather, the darkness simply makes it dark, which sucks because it’s hard to see. Lol. 

-The glyph puzzles, which I felt the game leaned on way too much, were extremely finicky. I often found myself desperately trying to line up the overlay with its apparent environmental counterpart, only to be denied feedback. “Guess I’m barking up the wrong tree,” I’d say, and search elsewhere. Eventually I’d circle back and retry for lack of any better ideas, and finally I would land upon the precise footing that triggered the game’s acknowledgement of my solution. Because of this finicky detection, it frequently took me upwards of thirty minutes to execute a solution I’d figured out in five. These moments deeply hurt the game’s immersion—it’s hard to believe someone tormented by voices and haunted by hellspawn would spend this long lining up glyphs with such surgical precision. I felt neither crazy nor like a warrior; I felt like a child with a defective issue of Highlights Magazine. 

Weirdly, in other cases the game would give me credit just for glancing in the general direction of a solution I hadn’t actually noticed yet.

By the time the credits rolled, I’d experienced so many baffling inconsistencies in the game’s communication that the whole thing just felt like a misfire.

Now look--I’ve been known to both overthink things and not be very smart, so I don’t imagine everyone will have the experience I had. In fact, I googled “hellblade frustrating” just to see, and was shocked to find that all of the results were about how frustrating the combat was. I actually found the combat to be Hellblade’s saving grace—satisfying, consistent, and almost perfectly balanced thanks to a God Hand-style difficulty auto-balancing feature. The camera worked against me in a few situations, but most fights left me feeling like I’d beaten dire odds, and certainly made me sympathize more with Senua’s plight than the mundane action of lining up Viking runes with wooden scaffolding.

The moral of Hellblade’s tale seems to be that Senua won’t “cure” her psychosis, but that she can heal by learning to accept it as a part of who she is and coexisting with it. After finishing the game, it occurred to me that I would almost certainly have a  better time with Hellblade on a second playthrough. Those bugs and flaws would still be there, but I’d know about them and be able to anticipate them. There’s an obvious parallel here. I don’t think it’s intentional (though the idea of “bad design by design” does intrigue me), but I think there’s some poetry in the notion that we can apply Hellblade’s lessons to itself.

All that aside, I appreciate what Ninja Theory has done to advance the conversation on mental health and develop a template for their "AAA indie" model. Hats off.  

[aion-rsa]

15 Hardest SNES Games of All-Time

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In their move from the NES to the SNES, Nintendo and its development partners often relied on using 8-bit games as the basis for 16-bit innovations. While that approach helped move us towards the future of gaming, it also meant that many SNES games felt spiritually similar to NES titles.

That also means that many SNES games retained that arcade-like difficulty that would, in some ways, define over a decade of gaming. While the average SNES game didn’t feature nearly as many of the technical and design hurdles that contributed to some of the most difficult NES games ever made, the console is still the proud home of some of the most enjoyable challenges in video game history.

Whether you fondly remember them when you look back on this era or whether they’ve become the star of your worst gaming nightmares, these are the 15 hardest SNES games ever made:

15. The Lion King

Much like how Disney tucked Mufasa’s devastating death scene into a children’s movie, the SNES version of The Lion King lures you in with the promise of a whimsical adventure and then stabs you in the back as soon as you let your guard down. 

The Lion King starts off easy enough (at least relative to other games of this era) and even impresses with its colorful visuals and surprisingly faithful soundtrack. However, most new levels introduce a vicious spike in difficulty that will undoubtedly leave you wondering why you suddenly suck. Then, about halfway through, you’re blindsided by an escape level that’s arguably as challenging as the speeder bike segment in Battletoads due to its use of both front and rear threats rendered in not quite ready 3D technology that makes controls frustratingly unresponsive.

While the latter half of the game steps off the gas just a bit, The Lion King’s challenge roadblocks ensure most young gamers never made it that far. 

14. Super Ghouls ‘n Ghosts

It’s amazing that Super Ghouls ‘n Ghosts is at least as difficult as its predecessor considering that its controls are vastly improved and the action is significantly smoother overall.

However, it appears that Capcom felt that since Super Ghouls ‘n Ghosts was much more “playable” than Ghosts ‘n Goblins on NES, that meant that they could make the game noticeably more difficult. This sequel features more on-screen enemies and more environmental hazards but the same iconic health system that essentially leaves you with a razor-thin margin for error that might as well be non-existent due to how difficult it is to progress after a single hit. 

While this game’s hard mode may be the most difficult challenge on the SNES, I’ll “split the difference” slightly and rightfully refer to this title’s normal mode as one of the most punishing experiences in the history of Nintendo consoles. 

13. Battletoads in Battlemaniacs

Truth be told, I debated whether or not to include Battletoads in Battlemaniacs given that the game is probably slightly easier than the NES original. At the very least, it repeats a lot of the original’s best tricks.

However, familiarity does little to diminish just how difficult this game truly is. Once again, the “highlight” of this game’s difficulty is the various vehicle sections that require you to avoid various obstacles while moving at high speeds. The infamous speeder bike section in this sequel is as hard as it ever was, but I have to give a special shout-out to that vertical scroller level that requires you to maneuver between wall spikes that force you into a “safe zone” that’s only about as wide as your character.

I’d consider this the best way to experience Battletoads due to its visual and control improvements, but the game is so difficult that it rides that line between being addictively challengingly and frustratingly cruel.

12. The Simpsons: Bart’s Nightmare

Yes, Bart’s Nightmare is a pretty bad game that suffers from some often awful controls, but it would likely still be remembered as one of the most frustrating SNES games ever made even if it was a bit more refined. 

Essentially a collection of “minigame” levels, Bart’s Nightmare forces you to quickly master a series of entirely new scenarios with their own rules. That’s annoying, but what makes this game so noteworthy is that some of the individual levels in this game are as mechanically challenging as they are conceptually confusing. There’s no better example of those concepts than the game’s Indiana Jones tribute level: a bewildering collection of platforms and traps that would still be difficult to figure out even if things weren’t constantly trying to kill you. 

This is one of the SNES’ best examples of a game that lures you in with its familiar name and then compensates for a relatively short amount of content by making everything as hard as possible. 

11. Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest

Growing up, I don’t really remember hearing many kids talk about how hard the Donkey Kong Country series is. It wasn’t until years later I really started to see more people give this franchise the respect it deserves as the home of some of the most infuriating platformers ever crafted. 

Donkey Kong Country 2 is the arguable apex of this franchise’s difficulty curve. Once again, the “problem” here is the variety of the game’s stages. Even if you’re able to keep up with a series of (certainly creative) new challenges, you’ll eventually encounter a new stage that uses an old mechanic but makes things roughly twice as difficult as before. To make matters worse, the mechanics are spaced out in such a way that you basically need to re-learn them while now battling a much more difficult version of the concept. 

The good news is that Donkey Kong Country 2 is actually a genuinely well-designed game that encourages you to keep trying even as it mercilessly forces you to doubt your abilities. 

10. Earthworm Jim 2

While the original Earthworm Jim is difficult, not even that game can prepare you for how unforgiving Earthworm Jim 2 truly is. 

If Earthworm Jim 2 only consisted of its side-scrolling stages, it would still be in the running as one of the harder SNES titles. However, we once again encounter a “Battletoads” scenario where the game’s special vehicle and race sections raise the overall difficulty to such a degree that I honestly can’t say I’ve ever spoken to anyone who managed to beat this game as a kid or adult without at least relying on emulator save scumming. 

Oh, and the fact that some of this game’s most infuriating levels also see you, quite literally, let puppies down every time you fail is an exercise in pure cruelty. 

9. Jurassic Park

During the 8 and 16-bit eras, it was relatively easy to buy into the idea that a game was simply impossible. While that distinction was sometimes afforded to action titles that demanded perfect reflexes and pattern recognition, you more often heard it used to describe titles of that era that left you wondering “Where am I going, and what am I supposed to do?”

Few games of that mold are more memorable than Jurassic Park. What starts off as a seemingly simple top-down action game quickly reveals itself to be a labyrinth of puzzles, awkward first-person segments, and enemies that can kill you before you have a chance of figuring out where you’re supposed to go next. It honestly reminds me a little of the notoriously difficult Fester’s Quest for NES. What’s worse is that there are no save points or passwords, which means that you’ve got to beat the whole thing in one lengthy sitting.

I’m actually a little impressed that this much creativity went into a relatively early licensed game, but Jurassic Park is a prime example of the kind of game that essentially demands a walkthrough as even figuring out which direction you’re supposed to walk in is often unintuitive.

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15 Hardest NES Games of All-Time

By Matthew Byrd

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8. ActRaiser 2

The original ActRaiser was also fairly difficult, but its blend of platforming, action, and town building is so impressive that you kind of forgive it for its difficulty spikes. For ActRaiser 2, developer Quintet seemingly convinced themselves that the reason people loved the original was because of its challenging side-scrolling levels rather than its variety. At least that’s my best explanation for why they abandoned the town building elements and instead focused on crafting the hardest side-scrolling levels imaginable. 

Much to the dismay of many young gamers, they accomplished that mission in such a way that ensures the mere mention of ActRaiser 2 can unlock a treasure trove of repressed gaming memories. Some of this game’s challenges are amplified by its sluggish controls and animations, but much of the difficulty comes down to the level design. From floating platforms to the pit of deaths, ActRaiser 2 is like a hall of fame for every controller breaking concept of its era. 

The shame of it is that ActRaiser 2 is really just a few tweaks away from being one of the underrated gems of its time. Instead, the game’s only notable legacy is the crushing weight of its difficulty and some great art direction.

7. The 7th Saga

The SNES is rightfully remembered as the home of some of the best RPGs ever made, but few of those RPGs are necessarily remembered among the console’s most difficult games. That being the case, you may go into a game like The 7th Saga feeling pretty confident. 

If so, then consider this your fair warning that The 7th Saga is absolutely one of the hardest 16-bit games ever made. For some reason, this game’s developers decided to make the U.S. version of this game even more difficult than it already was. The result is a project with typical RPG challenges that are amplified by the fact that enemies can survive an absurd amount of damage that makes level grinding more important than ever. Sadly, the U.S. version of the game makes leveling even slower than before, which means that already challenging battles feel that much more laborious.

The 7th Saga is actually a very good game, but its already challenging puzzles, dungeons, and bosses are made legendary by virtue of one of the most questionable difficulty bumps in gaming history. 

6. Super Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back

I actually love the SNES trilogy of Star Wars games and recently wished that a developer would revisit their core concepts and update them for modern platforms. If that happens, though, then there’s going to be an interesting debate about whether those games should retain the difficulty that has come to define The Empire Strikes Backs. 

The other two Super Star Wars games are difficult, but Empire Strikes Back is on another level. While some of the vehicle stages are annoying, they’re not necessarily the reason so many gamers never beat this sequel. That honor instead belongs to the absurd toughness of the average enemy combined with the need to navigate some tricky levels while battling them. How can so many creatures survive so many blows from a lightsaber? Why is absolutely everything in this galaxy (including wild creatures) so hellbent on killing our heroes?

Empire Strikes Back often avoids feeling cheap or especially cruel, but that’s cold comfort for a legion of fans who have still never beaten this game. 

5. Contra III: The Alien Wars

I don’t have to tell most of you that Contra 3 is a hard game. It is, after all, a Contra game, which means that it was designed to be frustrating. Even still, there are reasons why Contra 3 stands out to this day as the hardest game that many of us played growing up. 

Here again, we have a SNES game where the developers must have thought to themselves “Well, if we’re giving them better graphics and better controls, then we should probably make everything more difficult to compensate for the natural frustration we lost.” As such, Contra 3 ups the ante of the franchise by taking what was already a very difficult action experience and adding a variety of expertly placed environmental hazards that keep you constantly off-balance. It certainly doesn’t help that the bosses are some of the toughest in the series’ history and that the game’s top-down segments offer a uniquely challenging break from the standard side-scrolling action.

This is really just a great action game that so happens to also be maddingly (but appropriately) difficult

4. Hagane: The Final Conflict 

Hagane: The Final Conflict wasn’t especially popular when it was released in 1994, but this is one of those games that was “resurrected” by the internet. Those who did play it spent years passionately encouraging everyone to revisit this truly overlooked gem. 

Before you do play this game, though, you need to know that Hagane is almost comically difficult. While Hagane’s generous controls and incredible overall design mean that you’re not hindered by fundamentally unfair mechanics, the sheer amount of obstacles this game throws at you will leave you laughing at the game over screen as you try to process what just happened. Imagine Shinobi with even more enemies and environmental hazards. That’s the basic Hagane experience.

That said, Hagane’s incredible controls, lightning speed, and excellent level design make it worth every frustrating moment you encounter along the way. 

3. U.N. Squadron

You can’t talk about the hardest SNES games without talking about the console’s collection of side-scrolling shooters. Which shooter is the hardest, though? Super R-Type? Axelay?

Actually, I think that honor belongs to U.N. Squadron. This often underappreciated game initially impresses with its surprising customization options, but it’s perhaps best remembered as a stunningly hard experience. Even though U.N. Squadron isn’t as “cheap” as similar SNES games and doesn’t suffer from as many slowdown problems, this title compensates for its lack of inherent issues in other ways. Actually, U.N. Squadron‘s enemies and levels are cleverly designed to quickly produce some of the tightest death zones you’ll find in any SNES game.

Even genre veterans will find themselves sweating during this game’s final levels. Don’t even get me started on how rough the higher difficulty settings are.

2. Zombies Ate My Neighbors 

At a time when zombie games were still a novelty (which feels like a lifetime ago), Zombies Ate My Neighbors allowed players to test their mettle against an undead horde while enjoying creative and colorful visuals complemented by a fairly tight control scheme. On the surface, it doesn’t seem like it would be one of the hardest SNES titles. From moment to moment, I’m not sure it is.

However, Zombies Ate My Neighbors has truly earned that distinction amongst gamers who have actually tried to beat this game. Not only does Zombies Ate My Neighbors feature nearly 50 levels (each of which is more difficult than the last), but the game’s resource system means that even a minor mistake on a level can make every level that comes afterward even more challenging than it would otherwise be. The constant onslaught of resource-demanding bosses can also easily wear down the patience of even the most composed players.

Even amongst the speedrunning community (to which some of the most skilled gamers in the world belong) Zombies Ate My Neighbors is considered to be one of the most difficult games ever made from a completionist perspective. If you really think about it, you’ll probably realize you never actually made it that far into the game no matter how much you played it. 

1. Castlevania: Dracula X

With Super Castlevania 4, Konami dialed things back a bit by granting the player more control over their character. The game was still difficult, but the fact that it allowed you to do things such as swing your whip in any direction made it much more accessible than anything that came before. 

Castlevania: Dracula X, on the other hand, throws all of that out the window and replaces those expanded controls with more environmental hazards than ever before. Considered to be the “true” successor to Castlevania 3 due to its retro controls and design, Dracula X can also be considered the hardest game in a franchise synonymous with difficulty. There is almost no margin for error in this action title as nearly every jump and swing can end your run if they’re not executed perfectly. 

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The cherry on top of this one is a final boss fight against Dracula that forces you to jump across tiny platforms as you try to beat what would already be a difficult boss even without the gimmick. It’s an appropriate nightmare of a gaming experience.

The post 15 Hardest SNES Games of All-Time appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[caseymalone]

Top 10 Games 2017

Here are my top 10 games for 2017! Minor spoilers for a few of them, but nothing major. You’ve been warned!

10. Resident Evil 7: BioHazard

There have been 27 Resident Evil games, including remakes, remasters, 3DS releases but excluding pachinko machines and Tiger Electronics handhelds. Of those near thirty games, Resident Evil 7 brings the total I’ve enjoyed to… two. I guess this is my way of saying that between being a huge scaredy cat and irked by the stuffy, smothering control scheme of the originals, there’s no nostalgia weighing me down whenever Capcom reinvents Resident Evil, first with Resident Evil 4, now again with 7.

But where Resident Evil 4 took the fantasy of being a special agent in a world full of monsters further than ever before, Resident Evil 7 drops it completely. In it, I’m a wimp, a nerd with a camera at the whims of this family of maniacs, trapped on their grounds by a drive to find my wife, who is changing into… something. Capcom smothers me with a pervasive sense of helplessness playing RE7, forcing me into a desperate scramble to escape the unstoppable Daddy (side note: “The Unstoppable Daddy” was my nickname in college). Filling me with absolute dread when the disgusting creature Marguerite becomes clambers through holes and onto walls. And forcing me to freeze up and take a deep breath at the sinking realization that my next goal is all the way across the grounds.with god knows what between me and it. Even the change to a first-person view means your helpless doesn’t stop at your ability to fight - you don’t even know what’s around you. Resident Evil 7 left me terrified and anxious throughout, which is saying something since  played it on Easy.

9. Gorogoa

It’s now an annual event that, despite a perception that Adventure Games are dead, someone releases a labor of love whose beauty and finesse showcase the best the genre has to offer. Gorogoa asks you to interact in the simplest terms - zoom in and out, or drag and drop. What makes Gorogoa special is that when I do those things, it feels like I’ve changed fundamental ways that I think. My perspective on the world has shifted about ten degrees to the left and all the rules are new. That combined with hand-drawn visuals, stark sound design and desolate narrative made Gorogoa a brief yet crucial experience for anyone looking to see games as more than loot-box dispensers.

8. Star Wars: Force Arena

Oops, speaking of Loot Boxes. Well, card packs? Is there a difference? Where have we come down on this? The conversation around gaming in 2017 has been dominated by a debate about the ethics of selling random pulls at cards, skins, characters, horses, buggies, whatever, and I’m going to level with all of you - my perspective is skewed. I make mobile free-to-play games, which use this mechanic, and I’ve been playing collectible card games since the Revised core set for Magic: The Gathering came out in 1994. So one way to look at my opinion is that I don’t have a problem with this way of selling people games, and a much less charitable one is that I’m fully indoctrinated. Either way, being able to get emotionally side-step this entire debate has lent me the clarity of mind to tell you all that Star Wars: Force Arena is good as hell.

Force Arena is the real-time, head-to-head gameplay of Clash Royale, but with direct control of a Hero, MOBA-style, then Star Wars’ed all the way up. Every system is implemented in a smartly and cleanly, facilitating my ability to get into the game and getting out of my so I can let people know my Han Solo deck is not to be flexed with. The whole thing is catnip for Ol’ Maloney over here, and I am straight rolling.

7. Star Wars: Imperial Assault - Legends of the Alliance

Is spaghetti a sandwich? Is Chewbacca a dog? Is Matt Kessler a mongoose? Is Legends of the Alliance, an app for Star Wars: Imperial Assault, a video game with physical components or a board game with a digital accessory? The line between board games and video games is get blurrier, as outstanding digital components have begun to take the place of cumbersome bookkeeping, or allow designers to add elements that would be impossible to achieve otherwise. Or, in the case of Legends of the Alliance, replacing the Imperial Player entirely.

Traditionally played as a team of rebels against a monolithic Imperial player, Legends of the Alliance turns Imperial Assault into a fully cooperative experience, running the campaign as a virtual dungeon master, setting up your next level and directing Imperial enemies to attack your heroes. But more than simply emulating a now missing player, Legends of the Alliance takes this chance to add something to the experience.

Without the app you bounce from one XCOM-esque tactical mission to the next, but now… now you go on non-combat missions. You make friends in the world. You feel a real sense of betrayal when you learn not all the Rebels are working for the greater good, and you deal with the emotional aftermath with other characters when the Empire manages to grind you under their heel. These things weren’t in the box of plastic and cards I bought years back - they were exclusively part of Legends of the Alliance, and creating new memories and experience while justifying asking you to bring your laptop to your tabletop.

6. Horizon Zero Dawn

There’s a vital sincerity to Horizon Zero Dawn. After borrowing mechanics liberally from Far Cry/Assassin’s Creed, adding giant robot dinosaurs, and then putting the voice actress behind Borderlands 2’s (in my opinion, brutally irritating) Tiny Tina front and center, it would have been so easy for Guerrilla Games to smarmy one-liner their way through this post-post-apocalypse adventure. Instead they cast that all aside to carefully bring you into a world without even a hint of irony.

At the center of the game is Ashly Burch’s Aloy, full of wounded confidence and strength tinged with kindness, a performance so natural yet thoughtful that Aloy stands above any other character in games this year. That sincerity doesn’t make Horizon a serious or grim affair - there’s jokes, and boy howdy is there a lot of flirting - but it serves to draw the player into the world, rather than establish a safe ironic distance from which both the player and the game can remain “cool.” Every choice shows that Guerrilla Games truly wants me to care about Aloy and the world of Horizon. It turns out I do.

5. HQ

For me, 2017 was a year of shared gaming experiences. I’ll get to the other two big ones below, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t include this nightmare of a Black Mirror episode, this scheduled dose of Quiz Daddy Scott Rogowski, this twice daily car crash with a cash payout, HQ.

For months at 3 PM, I’d jump into Discord with my friends and join in the collective hypnosis of a new game of HQ. We were beyond captivated. We had a million questions - who is Scott? Why does he vamp with the intensity of someone hosting at gunpoint? Where is he broadcasting this from? And when he’s not there, where the hell is Scott? Who is this rando who claims to be ‘Scott’s Boy’? How does the player count keep growing, and how does this thing make money? It was a mystery wrapped in tech startup poppiness and a screaming man in a suit, and we wanted to know everything about it.

Like any mystery, as we’ve learned more about Scott and HQ, our interest has waned and my friends have fallen off the Trivia Train. But for months, once a day we’d simultaneously drop everything and delve into it. Something nothing else in games or television has gotten us to do for years. Also, uh...

…

I’m playing a game called HQ Trivia. You should play too. Use my code “caseymalone” to sign up.

4. Super Mario Odyssey

In late October 2017, was there anything I needed more than some unabashed joy? A full-on celebration of bright colors, silly characters and bizarre hats? Super Mario Odyssey would be an incredible game at any time in history, but the timing of its release felt like more than just a game; it felt like a balm. A warm weighted blanket sewn from my old t-shirts, taking nostalgia and making it into something new, something calling me to come back and crawl under it all day, every day. A game that rewarded me for just being in the world, asking me to challenge myself at your own pace, issuing pats on the head and individually wrapped chocolates as a reward for just wandering around and doing my thing. 2017 was a year where Nintendo was dedicated to challenging what people expect from them with their hardware, their mobile ports, and another of their major franchises. When it came to Mario, though, Nintendo clearly just wanted to make people happy. And I’m so, so grateful for that.

3. Destiny 2 & 2. PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds

Destiny and Battlegrounds seem like pretty starkly different experiences, but what I got out of them in 2017 was the same - time with some of my best friends. Friends who live in Los Angeles, New York, New Jersey, England, San Francisco; people I never get to see, people I don’t even get to talk to that often. But those friendships got actually stronger this year through these games.

That wouldn’t be possible if the underlying games weren’t outstanding - Destiny 2’s shooting feels incredible, and its endless list of chores made sure there was always a mission for me to suck friends into, or a goal for me to help them out with. There aren’t (currently) many Strikes for us to go on, but honestly that helped - when you know all the beats, a zen-like state takes over and you can enjoy the lock-on and kickback of hand cannons without worry. All the while catching up, making goofs, or ranting about the state of the world without the game getting in the way.

Destiny 2’s not perfect - a lot of the changes made from Destiny to Destiny 2 to make it smoother and more welcoming turned solo play into a dull shade of its predecessor. But as a part of a Strike Team, Destiny 2 hums with efficiency, getting out of my way and letting me and my friends have fun.

And it would be second to none this year if wasn’t for PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds.

Battlegrounds is insane, it’s a fun-time mess-around machine paired with an intensely hardcore military shooter, a game that’s thirty minutes of a goofy chatroom capped off with two minutes of a game-ending firefight. Except for when that fire-fight lasts for twenty minutes and it’s the most intense experience of my life. I’ve had as much fun losing PUBG as I’ve had winning (the few times I’ve managed to snag a chicken dinner), and I’ve had even more fun when I die and get to stay in voice-chat to cheer on the rest of my squad, spectating through to the end.

While I don’t get much out of watching strangers stream on Twitch, I’ve been lucky that enough of my friends stream this game, for a while on an almost daily basis, that I had just as much fun watching them as actually playing it. I laughed so hard when friends would get motorcycles trapped in a tree, cheered when they’d have from-behind victories, and feel heartbreak when the squad’s last hope would get shotgunned from behind after escaping tough spot after tough spot. Somehow all these feelings were just as strong as when I was behind the controls myself. There’s magic in this game, which boggles the mind, because with its bugs and frankly generic style, it could not possibly look less magical.

I cannot fucking believe I’m typing this but it turns out the real game of the year was the friends I made along the way.

1. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Just kidding, game of the year is The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

I always have less to say when I get to the top item on my list because what could I possibly say about Breath of the Wild that hasn’t been covered already? Nintendo stripped so much out of the Zelda series that honestly when I started playing it, I felt uncomfortable and exposed - what do you mean my weapons break? Wait, I don’t have to buy bombs, I just HAVE them? When are the DUNGEONS going to show up, what are these shines? I don’t like this at all. But as I bristled against those, I was slowly filling with wonder. Every canyon I walked out of, every corner I turned, every hole I climbed out of revealed a field with towns and caverns, or small forests full of unknown treasures and monsters.

Lots of games do open worlds, but where Skyrim feels like I could get lost in it, the Hyrule of Breath of the Wild feels like I am conquering it. In Skyrim I feel like I’m exploring the map - in Breath of the Wild, I’m making it.

I remember so clearly, late at night, climbing to the top of a bridge that crosses Lake Hylia. I don’t know why I was there, or what I thought might be at the top of the tower, but Nintendo put it there, so maybe. Maybe there was something. I climbed to the top and there wasn’t anything for me to take, but as I looked over towards the horizon, Hyrule stretched on forever. I felt overwhelmed with the possibility of disappointment - that I would feel the need to climb it all, that there wouldn’t be a thing for me at the top of most of those towers, under those rocks. And as I thought about that the music changed. From the water of the lake emerged Farosh, the lightning dragon, soaring, completely oblivious to me. He was beautiful, powerful, made me forget about any of my goals or collectibles and forced me to take in his majesty. Forced me to realize there were no rupees or arrows up there because this moment was my reward. And that there would be moments like this all throughout Hyrule. I just needed to go looking for them.

Near Misses: Injustice 2, Everybody’s Golf, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

[erictmason]

Top Ten: Non-Nintendo Nintendo Games

These days, when one thinks “Nintendo Game”, they’re likely thinking of a game developed by Nintendo. But back in the day, a “Nintendo Game” meant literally anything on a Nintendo system.  And there was quite a bit to offer in that respect, too.  See, before Nintendo’s near-monopoly-level dominance of the market began to break down thus forming a powerful rift between Nintendo and other third-party developers which has yet to fully heal to this day, there was basically no other place to turn BUT Nintendo if you really wanted to get your game out there.  As a result, the legacy of Nintendo’s older systems, and even some of its newer ones, is defined just as much by games developed by other studios as it is by the games Nintendo itself created.  I thus decided, thanks to some inspiration from the_moviebob and the recent revival of his “Game OverThinker” series in the form of Top 10 countdowns, to look at those games across all of Nintendo’s history, and pick my personal ten favorites of the bunch for you to see!

For the record, “non-Nintendo Nintendo game” here means two things:

1.)    The game cannot be developed by Nintendo, nor use any Nintendo-owned characters.

2.)    At the time of the game’s original release, it had to be exclusive to a Nintendo system; games that retroactively received multi-platform releases still qualify.

With that out of the way, here’s my personal picks for the Ten Best Non-Nintendo Nintendo games:

10.) Sonic Colors (SEGA, Nintendo Wii, 2010): Man, remember that brief, magical time from 2008 to 2012 where it looked like SEGA might actually be getting the "Sonic" series back on track?  Well, "Sonic Colors", to my mind at least, is one of the very best games to emerge from that all-too-brief cycle, taking the day-time segments from the previous year's "Sonic Unleashed" and expanding on them beautifully.  The new ways to traverse and explore the game's impressively-constructed stages added a nice amount of depth, collectible red rings lent the game a decent amount of replay value, and even the multiplayer mode managed to provide some amusing little distractions, as well as being cleverly integrated into the single-player campaign by playing a role in unlocking one of the game's big secrets.  Heck, it even featured the debut of a new, significantly less annoying vocal cast for the "Sonic" characters.  Sure, like a lot of Sonic games, it can be fairly rough around the edges, but isn't there something nicely poetic about one of the best things Sonic's done in the last decade being exclusive to a Nintendo console?

9.) Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem (Silicon Knights, Nintendo Gamecube, 2002): These days developer Silicon Knights feels a bit like the sad punchline to a bad joke after the one-two punch of the disappointing "Too Human" and the atrocious "X-Men: Destiny".  For a while there, though, their reputation was iron-clad, thanks in no small part to "Eternal Darkness", one of the most compelling games, not just for the Nintendo Gamecube, but indeed the entire console generation it was part of.  Mixing Lovecraftian horror with wide-spanning time travel, it's one of the few games to evoke a true sense of existential dread, with the very concept of sanity itself being built into the game's mechanics.  This forces you to witness the strain these incredible events really put on the player character's mind, and thus do your level best to wrestle against that ever present tide, only to find out how very difficult that fight is.  Combined with branching paths to keep you coming back and compelling horror imagery that remains exceptionally potent all these years later (indeed, some of the game's cruder graphics almost enhance the effect), it makes for a truly haunting requiem.    

  8.) The Wonderful 101 (Platinum Games, Nintendo Wii U, 2013): Even fewer games emerged to try to truly take advantage of the Wii U's unique game pad controller than did those which tried to really engage with the Wii's motion controls, but thankfully one of the ones which did was "The Wonderful 101", Hideki Kamiya's exuberant love letter to the Tokusatsu genre.  Basically an Action Game take on the "Pikmin" series, "101" puts you in control of a massive travelling army of superheroes who can unite into various giant constructs to fight evil, with the Game Pad's touch screen providing a quick, easy way to draw up the relevant formations, as well as amusing mini-game segments that use the game pad to show you the inside of a building while needing you to observe the effects it has on the outside up on the TV screen.  The design continuously finds clever ways to challenge the player, and like all Platinum game, it also has an airtight combat system that leans heavily on timing and reaction in the most viscerally satisfying way possible.  All that, and it wears its visual identity proudly up front at all times, an aesthetic that is simultaneously wonderfully unique, even as it is also steeped in obvious, affectionate homage.    

7.) Odama (Vivarium, Nintendo Gamecube, 2006): Here's a game few people have even heard of, let alone played.  This is because, like most games which fit that description, it's a truly bizarre cross-pollination of genres.  How bizarre?  It's a Feudal Japanese War Epic...played through via pinball mechanics.  If such a combination sounds impossible, all you need to do is give this truly one-of-a-kind experience a go, because once you do it'll make you wonder why more people haven't tried it.  Giving the player a bird's-eye-view of various battlefields, you are charged with using your pinball flippers to try and guide the "Ninten Ball" (a massive, wrecking-ball-like pinball stand-in) to hit specific targets, flatten enemies, and try to clear a path to allow your troops to overtake the enemy's territory.  Admittedly, the fact that this is a game of pinball, and thus often subject to as much luck as skill, can make even the early levels tricky to actually get through some times, and it does take a bit of time before the game's full, mythological tone takes hold.  But even so, "Odama" makes its eclectic mixture work, and work remarkably well, pulling you in and keeping you going all the way, revealing new and ever-deepening layers to its game play without ever changing its fundamentals.  If you can find a copy, you owe it to yourself to give it a try.

6.) Goldeneye 007 (Rare, Nintendo 64, 1997): Everyone knows the old conventional wisdom: licensed games suck, and movie games suck even harder.  Yet the Nintendo 64 adaptation of the James Bond film "Goldeneye" doesn't just Not Suck, it's a stone-cold classic whose shadow still looms large over the entirety of the FPS genre.  These days, of course, that's primarily attributable to its exceptional multiplayer mode, which even by modern standards shows an absolutely dizzying degree of customization to fit just about any group's preferred style of play.  Want to keep certain stages off the rotation?  Want to play with only a certain kind of gun?  Want to change up how to win a particular kind of match?  "Goldeneye" lets you.  But the single-player shouldn't be taken for granted either, taking some of the movie's best moments and translating them perfectly into playable form.  All that, and it's filled to the brim with brilliant deep-dive references for long-time Bond fans.  No doubt about it, no one does it better than "Goldeneye 007".

5.) Viewtiful Joe/Resident Evil 4 (Capcom, Nintendo Gamecube, 2003/2005) : The entire premise of this list rests upon Nintendo's relationship with third-party developers, and nothing is more emblematic of how poor said relationship has grown in the last two decades than the notorious "Capcom Five", a highly-promoted batch of five games from developer and long-time Nintendo collaborators Capcom, meant to be exclusive to the then-struggling Nintendo Gamecube...one of which was cancelled outright ("Dead Phoenix"),  two of which were Gamecube exclusives that sold poorly ("P.N.03" and "Killer 7"), and then there were "Viewtiful Joe" and "Resident Evil 4", both of which proved popular enough to warrant Playstation 2 ports within a couple years of their respective releases.  But even setting that contentious history aside, these two are indeed both fantastic games, one the stirring debut of a great new franchise from future "Wonderful 101" creator Hideki Kamiya (and steeped even further in his love of Tokusatsu, if you can believe it), the other quite handily the best of its notorious franchise, amping up its action elements while still delivering the shock and gore.  Neither one could save the Gamecube from its premature demise, but both demonstrate a remarkable level of polish, innovation, and engagement.  From "Joe"'s endearing sense of humor and fantastic fighting mechanics capturing the unique charm of the Super Sentai Hero, to "RE7"'s over-the-shoulder camera allowing the game to come at you full-throttle exactly when it counts most, they both prove themselves essentials for any Gamecube library, and a fitting last hurrah for that faded period of time when Nintendo and Capcom basically went hand in hand.  

4.) Mischief Makers (Treasure, Nintendo 64, 1997):  The release of "Super Mario 64" in 1996 revolutionized the world of video games in general, and the platformer genre in particular.  Suddenly, everyone, from long-time favorites like Donkey Kong to lowly also-rans like Bubsy were pumping out 3D platformers in "64"'s image, and the genre's 2D roots seemed destined for extinction.  It would take a lot of guts to put out a "traditional" 2D platformer in that environment, but sure enough, "Mischief Makers" had guts to spare, providing not only a refreshing alternative to the 3D glut but doing so with one of the most unique, best-constructed entries in the entire genre.  See, rather than the usual hop-and-bop strategy, platforming in "Mischief Makers" instead centers on using special dash boosts to make your way to where you need to be, and shake-shake-shaking every last item you can get your hands on.  It's not only a compellingly visceral new layer to things, but one the game explores thoroughly and creatively across its vast, well-varied selection of levels.  Shake an object to transform it, or make it drop an important item, or get it to move in the direction you want; the game finds every angle it can, and each one succeeds.  The Boss Battles are some of the  most satisfying and challenging I've ever played, too.  Even its story, loaded with sharp-witted humor and fantastically memorable characters, adds an extra layer of flavor to the whole experience.  "Mischief Makers" was sadly underappreciated in its day, and hard to find nowadays, but even so, it's an absolutely great game. 

3.) Castlevania (Konami, Nintendo Entertainment System, 1986): Did you see that awesome trailer for the new "Castlevania" series coming to Netflix?  Not only does it make the show look like it is going to be seriously great, it also serves as a stark reminder that, while it may have found renewed success and vitality as a Playstation game thanks to the iconic "Symphony of the Night", "Castlevania" began as, and is primarily associated with being, an NES game.  And what an NES game it was, too.  Throwing basically every last Horror Monster you could think of-Dracula naturally, but also the Frankenstein Monster, Medusa, and no less than the Grim goddammed Reaper-together into one place, mixed well with a unique take on the Gothic Horror aesthetic, and brought to life with some of the best graphics on the system, as well as some of its very best music, the original "Castlevania" offered up a compelling, challenging experience.  Some of that challenge can be more than a bit cheap at times, it's true; like "Ninja Gaiden" (a game which just barely missed this list, for the record), the occasional clunkiness of the controls can lead to deaths that feel unfair.  But for the most part, difficulty in "Castlevania" is earned by way of enemies equipped with tricky patterns, platforming designed to lead you right into the thick of danger, and managing your resources as best you can to insure they achieve the best effect.  There's a lot of depth to the action here, with the wide variety of sub-weapons available to you and the situations you'll encounter.  It all adds up into one of the best, most bizarre, most fascinating games to grace a Nintendo system.

2.) Final Fantasy VI (Square, Super Nintendo, 1994): Like "Castlevania", "Final Fantasy" is a series that, once upon a time, was primarily associated with Nintendo.  But much like their relationship with Capcom, the Nintendo/Square (at-the-time-enix-less) partnership fell apart after the end of the Super NES, and "Final Fantasy" would go on to be much more a Playstation franchise from that point on.  The good news, then, is that the last "Final Fantasy" game to come of that partnership is also one of the very best games in the entire franchise.  It features one of "Final Fantasy"'s most memorable villains in the form of the genocidal mad-clown Kefka Palazzo.  It features one of the series' most memorable, at-once-humorous-but-also-heartwarming sequences in the form of the notorious Opera performance.  And it features one of the franchise's most ambitious narratives, one that takes you to the very literal End of the World and back again.  Meanwhile, the aesthetic, the last time series mainstay Yoshitaka Amano would act as the primary character designer for the franchise, is gorgeously realized, pushing the Sci-Fi/Fantasy angle the series had been refining over the last several years to all-new places, and its soundtrack, composed by another FF veteran, Nobuo Uematsu, is justifiably legendary among fans.  Most of all, though, it's just a gripping RPG from start to finish, taking all the things that had made prior "Final Fantasy" games work and polishing them to an absolute mirror shine.  The combat, the travel, the customization options for your characters..."VI" marked the end of an era.  But what an ending it turned out to be. 

1.) Mega Man 2 (Capcom, Nintendo Entertainment System, 1988): It would seem nearly impossible to believe today, given the relative disarray into which Capcom has allowed him to fall, but once upon a time, Mega Man was one of the true stars of the video game world.  And if you ever need to remind yourself of why, all you need to do is play "Mega Man 2" for the NES.  It is here that the "Mega Man" series as we know it today truly begins, taking the rougher look, feel, and build of its predecessor and granting it a greater degree of polish, depth, and outright fun.  The new Slide mechanic, for example, changes up the pace of the game's platforming considerably, while the more nuanced take on the previous game's rock-paper-scissors system for the various new weapons Mega Man can acquire provides the game with many of its most memorable moments (you ever try to use Metal Man's own weapon against him?  You should!).  The stages are all significantly better designed, too, with sharp, challenging traps mixing with pin-point precise run-and-jump segments, as well as some great new enemies to blast along the way.  The music and graphics are aces too, finally fully realizing the Anime Sci-Fi Kid's Book aesthetic the series is now so well known for, and creating some of the most memorable music ever heard on the system (Dr. Wily's Castle is still an all-time great track).  It even introduced Mega Man's iconic sidekick Rush the robo-dog, giving the character himself that much greater a sense of being a complete character by virtue of having a partner and friend to (literally) bounce off of.  "Mega Man II" is one of Capcom's very best games ever, and it's the single best non-Nintendo game to hit a Nintendo console.

[vgthoughts]

Capcom -- Thoughts

In all honestly, Capcom is probably one of the most influential companies out there. Their games and genres range from all over the place! 

Take for example, one of the most notable fighting games out there, Street Fighter. Street Fighter has been around for so long, yet, we still see it shine in many small audiences. Seeing it being played at EVO hypes you up and playing with friends lets you see who they truly are when you play against them. But really, what I’m saying is, so many have tried to understand the formula of a “good” fighting game. And I feel that the Street Fighter Franchise has always seemed to nail it down (in some cases, but even with the new Street Fighters that do disappoint fans, they are still being played at EVO). I think the most notable as well is the different characters and their different playstyles. You’ve got Ryu and his pretty versatile kit, then you have your ranged Dhalism, to the choke-and-hold em Zangief. There are many more characters of course, but so many fighting games have tried to make their own rendition off of these simple characters and tried to go above and beyond. But I don’t know, it’s just something with Street Fighter that just pulls me back. I probably think it’s just the design of the characters and how notable they are, but I’ve always been in love with the Capcom artstyle. 

Another shining example is Megaman, however, I’m actually not too well versed in Mega Man as I’m really bad at them. Mega Man was not only fresh when it was first released, but the fact you learned game mechanics in game without having to have a book tell you what to do or have a tutorial show you how to do it. And sadly, we don’t see many games like this anymore. We are usually guided with tutorials of how to play games and sometimes, it just distracts us from the game that we’re playing. Although, these can be said for a lot of the old games before, but I feel like Mega Man did it best. (and I’m a Metroid fan to death, but honestly, the mechanics of Mega Man’s level design ultimately help you understand the game and how to play.) I think the only real game to this date that probably jumps you right in without giving you a real tutorial is the Soulsborne Franchise. But that discussion is for another time. Honestly though, I wish I could expand further on Megaman, but I suck so bad at the game that I only beat a few bosses and never completed a game. :( But there are other games, too, such as Mega Man Legends (I actually enjoyed it as a kid, but I don’t think I have enough memory to understand it in it’s entirety), then there’s also Mega Man Battle Network. 

Honestly, I can keep rambling on and on about Capcom with Devil May Cry, Resident Evil, Dead Rising, Ace Attorney and so forth. They’ve just got so many influential games that it’s outstanding. And they’re not afraid to be different. 

But you also can’t forget the great video game music they’ve got:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGw8DWctAts -- Guile’s Theme

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_I34nshlOPk -- Objection! -- PW:AA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zceFErzseFk -- Mall Music -- Dead Rising

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=as_ct9tgkZA -- Mega Man 2 -- Dr Wily Stage 1

I’ll probably do more of these! This was so fun to do. I’ll also end with some of my OSTs from my favorite games or video game franchise. Anyway, see you soon.

[itsybitsyjoltik]

alex's opinion of every (non-spinoff) aa game (and also the investigations games)

this has been On My Mind ever since i was playing aa6 so here goes. this will be…kind of a short version bc i could say A Lot More about all of these but i’ll spare you guys for now. might do a full write-up breaking down how i feel about every case and detailing my problems with individual games some other time

original trilogy -phoenix wright ace attorney: a solid entry. i feel like a lot of the love it gets is rooted in nostalgia, and some stuff doesn’t hold up as well on a replay. third case is possibly the least memorable in the entire series. def had a fair amount going for it, though, and whatever complaints i may have for capcom’s overreliance on edgeworth, he def has the best handled character development of any prosecutor in the series.

-justice for all: you know how every starter pokemon has that weird middle evo that looks like an awkward teenager bc that’s what jfa is like. not bad, really, and it definitely serves its purpose in the original trilogy, but on its own it’s definitely…awkward. the main issues are the lack of overarching plot and that dreadful third case. it introduces two of my fave characters, though, pearl and franziska, and that last case is easily one of the best in the entire series. it also has one of my favorite soundtracks, and i actually really like the psyche lock mechanic even if it’s annoying sometimes.

-trials and tribulations: easily the best game in the series imo. the overarching plot is really great. dahlia is a spectacular villain, definitely my fave in the series. soundtrack is fantastic. the second case is actually a great filler case?? Really Rare. the fifth case is easily my favorite in the series and really does a great job bringing the first three games together in a way that actually feels cohesive. i mean i have my issues with the game too (third case is Bad, mixed feelings about how godot is handled) bc every aa game has issues but it’s Good

ds era -apollo justice: listen it’s in its own category bc there’s really no other game in the series like it. j/k now that i've played the investigations spinoffs i think there's def a lot of similarities bt them and aj but I'll get to those in a moment. aj’s…an interesting game. it tries doing a lot of things and takes a lot of risks. some of them succeeded, some of them didn’t. some of them just straight up didn’t go over well whether they worked or not, at least at the time, and many of them were kind of wasted by the fact that the series went right back to the status quo afterward. but it’s definitely not a bad game, and i think it’s one that benefits from an openminded replay even if you didn’t like it. the cast is one of my favorites in the series, even if a couple of the witnesses suck. the cases are weird but i really like…pretty much all of them, honestly. it sets a tone like none of the other games, and the color scheme goes along with it really well - it honestly looks really good. i fucking Hate kristoph but he’s a great villain even if the amount of loose ends with him drive me up the wall. my biggest issue with aj is just…all the loose ends in general, and it makes me frustrated for what could have been.

investigations: the general theme of the ds era of a games was very experimental and very willing to take risks, and that applies every bit as much to the aai games as aj. investigations had some really interesting ideas, but it has a fair amount of issues, too. the pacing of the game is...not good, especially the first couple of cases and the end. the non-chronological order of the cases was a little annoying, although i didn't hate it as much as in dd. kay, lang, and calisto were all fabulous characters, but i was def frustrated it took so long for any of them to show up and most of the other characters were sort of unmemorable. the soundtrack was a little hit or miss for me. the mechanics of the game were okay.

investigations 2: unreasonably good for a game that's probably never ever getting an official english release. possibly the best ace attorney game there is. every case was good - the only case i sort of didn't like was the flashback case, but i understand why it was there and liked at least the idea of the intersecting stuff bt the past and present cases, even if i didn't particularly care for some of the execution. the characters were fantastic. the plot was fantastic. honestly it has my favorite soundtrack in the entire series. logic chess is easily my favorite mechanic in the series, it's so fun?? and i could literally (and probably will) write an entire essay on the parallels bt aai2 and aj bc there were a lot of them and they were brilliantly done, and i'll forever be disappointed from now on that this was followed up by dual destinies.

modern ace attorney -dual destinies: Hoo Boy. i have a lot of issues with dual destinies. it’s going to be hard to keep this brief. i did like the characters - athena and blackquill in particular are great. the problems…okay i know aa has always been over the top, but the whole dark age of the law thing was so over the top that i couldn’t take it seriously. the game…really tried to be dark but the tone just did not work for it at all, whereas i think aj handled the whole the system is corrupt angle a lot better bc it was better at setting a consistent tone and keeping it more subtle. none of the cases really stand out in a good way, and this is the point in the series where it really starts to become noticeable that there’s Too Many Characters - whatever complaints ppl might have about aj dropping most of the old characters for a new cast, at least it knew how to focus. clay could have been handled in a much more interesting way, and the apollo and athena tension really needed some kind of foreshadowing to not feel so forced until the reveal. also the phantom was boring as shit as a villain and a waste of a more interesting character. overall dd’s just…kind of a mess.

spirit of justice: trying to keep this low on spoilers. i think it’s overall a way more solid game than dd, but it shows many of the same modern aa problems. the basic plot with the whole defense culpability act is stupid and again way too over the top to take seriously, but the actual way the plot is handled is a lot better. all of the cases were pretty good, even if the last one kind of drags. the characters were good. there’s just So Many characters - see the complaints about the cast glut in dd, but even worse here. like, seeing maya was great, but the amount of actual screentime she got was kind of a letdown, for instance. mixed feelings about the retconned apollo backstory stuff - it’s fun but feels forced. mixed feelings about the ending. also the divination seance was a neat idea but a Pain in the Ass and i can’t believe they managed to make the fingerprint mechanic even more annoying

[fortunefavorsthebrave-dude]

took my melatonin HOURS ago but then got too into thinking about how i would fix the ace attorney sequel trilogy if given the chance so. here goes lmao under a cut so it doesn’t get crazy long

apollo justice: absolutely perfect start. wouldn’t change a single fucking thing.

aj2: for this one, klavier is still the prosecutor, ema is still the detective, and phoenix is still badgeless. we need more time to get to know the supposed core cast dammit. i’m stupid and can’t write mysteries so i have no real specifics BUT during one case they would introduce clay (maybe he’s in the larry role where apollo has to defend him as a fun continuation of that bit of og pattern) and the final case would end up revealing the truth behind apollo and trucy’s parents. maybe phoenix has to testify for some reason and apollo can sense he’s not telling the whole truth about everything and he breaks and tells them about thalassa. anyway. klavier gets a character arc where he works through all the shit that happened to him in aj, and he ends up stepping away from prosecuting for a while at the end of the game. ema manages to become a forensic scientist right at the end. both of these are important for the third game in the trilogy. oh and also i wanted something to tie it really directly back to aj, like another kristoph machination or a copycat killer, but i’m worried about it just being aj again. w/e i’m not actually making this.

OH MY GOD ALSO IMPORTANT: they don’t forget about the fucking jury system!!!!!!!! like the law does change (probably not in a meaningful mechanical way you’d still have to do cases the same it’s just a “jury verdict” now instead of the judge alone). that was such a huge part of the end of aj and it kills me that they just dropped it even though it wouldn’t have changed much about the games themselves.

aj3: this is just dual destinies with some tweaks, because i did actually like a lot of dd. the focus switches between apollo and athena as they swap out the defense and assistant roles during each case. athena takes point during the tutorial (so apollo can tutor), and takes point again during the last case where apollo is being a fuckin weirdo. obvi that would have to build up a little slower since i want apollo to be present in this game, but it’s generally similar. blackquill and fullbright and all that stays pretty much the same. what else uhh trucy is there just in a slightly reduced capacity (same as the original i guess lmao) and clay’s death actually hits you bc you’ve met clay before in the last game. klavier still helps out with the themis case, and probably makes at least one more minor appearance bc i love him. maybe in the tutorial to also help guide athena? he’s a nice guy he’d do that. better than a payne that’s for sure. anyway yeah at the end apollo says he’s sorry for suspecting athena and mentions something about what a great lawyer she is and how she’s more than capable of standing on her own.

WHICH LEADS INTO ATHENA CYKES: ACE ATTORNEY THAT’S RIGHT THE BATON IS PASSED ONCE AGAIN

i love apollo dearly but if he actually got a decent trilogy arc then i would be okay with him stepping aside to let athena shine. my concept is like. new detective and prosecutor (blackquill is DONE he QUITS fuck the justice system and fuck this he’s on a beach somewhere sipping cocktails and resolutely not thinking about courtroom shit) both of whom are ladies bc i hate gamers and i want them to be big mad. the assistant is none other than dear pearlie fey whom i love and miss and love. my rationale for this is like. 1) she and athena are around the same age so they’d get along well i think 2) every assistant is magic-based in some way and she fits the bill 3) it lets us see a character we haven’t seen since the og trilogy and who was also a child during her initial appearance like i would love to see how pearl’s changed and grown since then 4) i love her okay i just want her back

SO i have much less of a story concept for this one bc there would be new characters to kind of base things around (esp since athena kind of works through her trauma during aj3/dd) but i have this vision of like. phoenix is working towards getting his badge back (since capcom wants to suck his dick so bad fine w/e if you want another beenix trilogy you can have it but only after athena gets a turn) and he’s like ah shit pearlie’s flying in today from khurain but i have a test or something hey athena could you pick her up and keep her entertained. but athena’s like mr wright i have to go to a crime scene for my case and phoenix is like oh that’s fine i used to take her to crime scenes and court all the time she’s cool with it and athena is like. mr wright. why. but she picks pearl up anyway and she helps with the investigation and from then on they’re like Friends and they’re the duo for this trilogy, with an occasional swap-in from apollo and/or trucy. i also want there to be the question of like did phoenix do that on purpose or did he honestly just need athena to pick pearl up bc he double booked himself? The World Will Never Know.

i was also thinking about the seance mechanic in soj and how it’s interesting even though the rest of the game is a trash fire so like. maybe in the time between aj3 and ac:aa (which is maybe like two years?) spirit mediuming has kind of become cool again and is more widely accepted in a court of law so they can still pull off the seance bullshit and use that mechanic alongside pearl’s regular khurain channeling to spice it up some from the original trilogy. it could even be a case in the nebulous realm of aj2 that gets the ball rolling on that.

for the new prosecutor i think she has to be more of an edgeworth type than a klavier type, since athena is very emotional and less serious than apollo so she’d need to counterbalance that. as i was typing the last paragraph i was like oh FUCK what if she’s also a spirit medium from like a different family who’s trying to prove her worth against the fey clan in a public forum. idk how that would work mechanically but i would imagine similarish to nahyuta? like a female version of nahyuta but without the weird stupid family plot bullshit.

WAIT OH NO okay i forgot pearl was in dd!! it’s been too long since i played rip and she was in the bonus case too. like she has met athena already lmaooo. i’m willing to retcon that tho bc the aquarium case was kinda weird and hard to manage without phoenix being there, and also bc she doesn’t really do anything in dd, and also because i say so.

also: Pearl was originally characterized as a snooty rival spirit medium who was about the same age as Maya

took that off her wiki which means there’s some small amount of precedent for my new prosecutor. take that capcom. also i didn’t really mention the detective bc her character doesn’t super matter. it can be whatever lmao. double also all the old main characters make appearances throughout athena’s trilogy but i want to make it so so clear that it’s her shit and while the others might pop in to help out a little or just swing by and mention their own cases so we know they’re still out there, these are athena’s fucking games dammit.

anyway that’s all i’ve really got for now so. lol. i should go to bed.

[writin-bout-games-blog]

Goty 2k18

Here are the best games I played in 2018; honorable mentions are for either games I played this year that released outside of 2018 or remasters that don’t count.

Honorable Mentions: 

Hollow Knight (PS4/Xbox One/Switch/PC) - I didn’t play this 2017 release until the Switch version this year, but it’s the best game I played in 2018, and maybe the best Metroidvania I’ve ever played as well. It has a bit of a slow start in terms of seeing new areas and gaining new abilities, but stick with it and it becomes one of the most rewarding games I’ve ever experienced.

Yakuza 0 (PS4/PC) - Narrative oriented games have never been my bag, but I’ve rarely felt this invested in a story in any medium. The characters are immediately memorable, at once both over the top caricatures of goofy hyper masculinity and oddly thoughtful yakuza members concerned with their community and just being human. I’ve never seen a story so masterfully jump back and forth between overwrought anime nonsense and down to earth character beats, all while retaining its unique sense of self. It’s a lovable soap opera starring handsome criminal boys with hearts of gold, and shouldn’t be missed by anyone.

Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana (PS4/Switch/PS Vita) - This series has been around for decades, and I never gave it a glance until I heard a bit of the soundtrack for this entry. It lacks polish and has a pretty simplistic combat system, at least on the default difficulty setting, but it’s one of the most interesting JRPGs I’ve ever played, as the entire game takes place on a deserted island after a ship is destroyed by a kraken-esque creature. Oh, and the aforementioned soundtrack is absolutely delightful, with cheesy electric guitars around every corner. It’s the perfect game to unwind with before bed on your Switch.

Katamari Damacy Reroll (Switch/PC) - It wouldn’t be fair for the best game of 2004 to also be the best game of 2018, so it’s been excluded here. But make no mistake, this is the best purchase you can make this year.

Actual games of the year:

12. Far: Lone Sails (PC) - I fucking love games where you operate a large vessel by controlling a small character inside of it. I’m not sure how to describe this type of sub-genre, but Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime and Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime are the only other examples I know of. And while those are fast, goofy, frenetic and colorful experiences, Lone Sails takes the concept and applies it to a linear, artsy indie game. And it turns out, making one of “those” indie games and coupling it with a fun and relatively unexplored gameplay conceit makes for an extremely memorable experience; the first time my train-shuttle-car-thingie reached full speed as I perfectly managed my fuel, steam and acceleration is something that’s stuck with me all year. The only thing keeping this game from rising higher up this list is that I think it’s painfully short at around 2 hours long, and I say that as someone that loves shorter experiences. A more fully fleshed out sequel or spiritual successor has the potential to be considered an all-time great.

11. Donut County (PS4/Xbox One/Switch/PC/iOS) - The soundtrack for this game alone is clever enough to deserve a spot on this list, honestly. And clever is the best word to describe Donut County as a (w)hole. Having not heard pretty much anything about the game going in besides general good word of mouth, I was genuinely stunned as I realized the entire game was nothing but moving a hole around and growing bigger as I sucked up objects in a stylized world. In all respects, this game feels like the western equivalent of Katamari Damacy, though there are probably some poignant think pieces to be written comparing Katamari’s building with Donut County’s destruction. Regardless, Donut County is delightful. The humor may not be for everyone (I personally loved how accurately the dialogue captures the tone of texts between 20-somethings), but there’s something for everyone to enjoy here.

10. God of War (PS4) - God of War is interesting. It feels like a mish mash of pretty much all the non-shooter related hot trends in video games right now, and yet doesn’t really excel at any of them. The story’s fine, though I think both Spider-Man and Red Dead Redemption 2 told far more nuanced and interesting ones this year in the western-developed AAA space. The combat feels great for the first couple of hours, and BOY DOES THROWING THAT AXE AND RECALLING IT FEEL AMAZING, but encounters aren’t really changed up at all past the halfway point of the game, and the combat in general feels like it’s shown you its entire hand within a couple of hours. And yet, everything about the game is so memorable. From punching indestructible gods through mountains in the first 15 minutes of the game to hanging out with a sardonic decapitated head, I feel like this is the most I’ve thought about an action game after completion besides Bloodborne. It doesn’t hurt that this might be the best looking game I’ve ever seen, either. It might just be the meatloaf and mashed potatoes of video games, but it’s some pretty damn good meatloaf.

9. Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom (PS4/Xbox One/Switch/PC later) - There are plenty of sidescrolling indie metroidvania throwbacks these days. Oddly, there’s also been a fair few games in the oft overlooked Wonder Boy vein lately, the series Monster Boy belongs to. There aren’t a lot of downright pleasant games made in this style lately though, and pleasant is the perfect word to describe the time spent exploring this game. The visuals are absolutely gorgeous, the soundtrack is second only to Celeste this year, and the game somehow manages to feel like playing a Master System game without all of the drawbacks a statement like that would normally entail. What holds this game back from true greatness for me is that some of the later dungeon and boss designs are remarkably unclear in their progression, mostly the haunted mansion area. That said, these are relatively small complaints in a surprisingly large adventure, and the different animal abilities are truly brilliant. Monster Boy occupies the same space for me as last year’s truly incredible SteamWorld Dig 2, and if that doesn’t sell you on the game then nothing will.

8. Yakuza Kiwami 2 (PS4) - Everything stated above in the Honorable Mentions section applies here; Yakuza is a series about lovable handsome crime boys playing the role of boy scouts in their community, if the boy scouts kicked motorcycles at bad guys. I will say that Kiwami 2 never approaches the pure brilliance that was Yakuza 0, but most of that can largely be attributed to the fact that this game is a remake of a 12-year-old video game from two console generations ago. And don’t let that statement deter you; the story is as engaging as ever, and Kiwami 2 also shares with 0 the most fun game within a game I’ve ever played - the cabaret club management sim, which tasks you with recruiting hostesses to take on an evil circuit of club owners in a tournament of taking money from lonely Japanese businessmen. It’s as absurd as it sounds, and far more engaging than it seems, which kind of summarizes the series as a whole. My only caveat with this entry is that I would consider it absolutely crucial to play through 0 and Kiwami 1 before this, as there are some emotional seeds planted in those two games that come to tear-jerking fruition here.

7. Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of An Elusive Age (PS4/PC/Switch later) - With the sales and reception of both this and Octopath Traveler, 2018 seems like the year in which throwback JRPGs came into vogue, and I couldn’t be happier about it. I grew up loving the genre, but post high school my love largely faded for any of them that weren’t Pokemon or Mario adjacent. While I still think there’s a lot of self reflection for the genre to accomplish that Dragon Quest is existentially incapable of doing (as its own design and fandom have prevented it from making any meaningful mechanical progression in decades), DQ11 succeeds in that it’s just a really fantastic video game. Its story is always captivating and repeatedly goes in directions I never expected. Its characters are simple and painted in broad strokes (I mean that in the best way possible) while remaining some of the best written and most engaging party members I’ve ever encountered. And its battle system is oldschool, somewhat archaic and even punishing without ever feeling unfair, and it has just enough new mechanics to constantly give the player a wider swath of options than the series has ever had before without relinquishing the series trademark simplicity. It’s the most I’ve enjoyed a tradition JRPG since Chrono Trigger, and I was never once bored in my 70+ hours of playtime. Really, the only complaint I can level against the game is that the series composer is a monstrous piece of homophobic trash that deserves to be launched into a brick wall via trebuchet.

6. Mega Man 11 (PS4/Xbox One/Switch/PC) - Who would have imagined that a new Mega Man game under contemporary Capcom could end up being great? The soundtrack is extremely disappointing and the Wily stages are a series lowpoint (especially when compared to the previous two Mega Man games), but everything else in this game is operating at heights the series has never previously achieved. The mark of a good Mega Man game is how versatile the robot master’s weapons are within the actual platforming segments, and 11’s level and enemy design are completely built around using these weapons and the new double gear system as well, which allows a player to increase their firepower or slow down time at will. Every ability is not only useful but fun to use as well, even the obligatory shield weapon. Much like what last year’s Sonic Mania did for Sonic, there has never been a better time to try out Mega Man.

5. Call of Duty Black Ops 4: Blackout (PS4/Xbox One/PC) - The way in which the battle royale genre has overtaken video games is remarkable, though not as remarkable as the fact that a Call of Duty game is being included on one of my game of the year lists. I could go deep into how Blackout feels like a best-of compilation for the genre, or how remarkable it is that it retains the goofy, unpredictable nature of PUBG while actually feeling like a polished video game. But what’s most notable about the game for me is just how much fun I’ve had playing it with my friends. Video games mean a lot to me, and having a game in which our party chat can go from discussing poor life choices made by people we know to yelping as shots soar over our head as quickly as it takes for an armored truck to appear outside the house we’re hiding inside of is something truly special, and it’s something I’ve only encountered with this genre of games. Blackout may not add much of its own flavor to battle royale, and what little is there (the perk system and zombies) feels either broken or weirdly inconsequential. But sometimes, a less broken game with a slightly faster pace is all you need to become the most playable game of the genre, as well as the most I’ve ever enjoyed a multiplayer console shooter.

4. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Switch) - Smash is my all-time favorite multiplayer series, so the biggest character, stage and music roster to date makes this entry a no-brainer. I mean, I could spend multiple paragraphs absolutely gushing about how excited I am for all of the love the Castlevania series (another all-time favorite video game franchise) has received here alone. And that’s kind of the point. From Isabelle’s accidental murder sprees to K. Rool’s big belly rude boy moveset to Kirby sporting a beard after eating Solid Snake, with Ultimate it feels like nearly anyone that has ever played a video game can find something within that brings a smile to their face. And this is to say nothing of the over 1200(!) “spirits” in the game, all referencing even smaller and more obscure video game things. Will the game have an interesting competitive scene? I think so; I’m no pro, but the game feels so much better to me than any game in the series post Melee. Only time will tell how fun of a tournament game Ultimate ends up being, but as a celebration of the medium as a whole, this is a love letter to nearly all corners of the industry, no matter how niche. And that’s where my love of Super Smash Bros. has always stemmed from - its unflinching love and celebration of the things in my life that I love and want to celebrate. Plus, there’s Castlevania stuff in this one.

3. Tetris Effect (PS4) - Positivity in my life has been in short supply the past couple of years. To be more straightforward, the world has been an absolute fucking nuclear wasteland of hopelessness for the past couple of years. Hell, there’s an argument to be made that it’s been on this level for a while, and it’s my privilege that has prevented me from seeing that, which is even worse. My eyes have been opened, they cannot be closed, and while part of me wishes they could be, most of me can only stare with a grim sense of foreboding and wonder where the hell we’re going and how we fix all of this. So, Tetris then.

Tetris is simple and Tetris can be overwhelming. Add psychedelic visuals, spac- Enya-world music and the option to experience it all in virtual reality, and you have something simple, something overwhelming, and something oddly powerful. To say I had an emotional response to Tetris Effect is an oversimplification. Losing myself inside of my VR headset to clearing lines while dolphins made of light surrounded and splashed around me was beautiful, ridiculous, cheesy and, somehow, empowering. I’m under no illusion that the world is going to get better  while I hide inside, literally blind to everything going on around me, and no one should be. But the best art never was able to save us; it reminds us of what there is to lose and why the things we love are worth fighting for while also giving us the strength to do so. This sounds like a lot for what basically amounts to Tetris with cool music and visualizers, and I get that. But while writing and editing this piece, not only do I not feel like any of this has been hyperbolic per my experiences, re-reading my own words really just makes me want to play some more damn Tetris Effect.

2. Celeste (PS4/Xbox One/Switch/PC) - If Tetris Effect is your overly positive friend that can seemingly never be brought down by anything, Celeste is the friend that’s been through more than you could ever imagine and came out through the other side a better person, and not only knows you can as well, but actively pushes you to be the best you can be. This is both narratively true, as the surprisingly great story deals with depression and self-loathing and overcoming anxiety, but also what the game beats into you through your own act of playing it. Well, “beats into you” might be putting it lightly; “gently yet forcefully stabbing into you” is a bit more accurate. Yes, the game is an unbelievably hard platformer (at least on the B and C side levels), and it does take a lot of inspiration in its design from fellow platformer classic Super Meat Boy. But while Meat Boy makes your repeated deaths part of the punchline, Celeste prefers those failures to be recontextualized as experiences to be learned from. “You’re going to beat this level, and you’re going to beat this game. Just keep trying.” is what Celeste wants you to take from its harsh design. And maybe that kind of motivation doesn’t work for everyone, but the people that stick with the game found what will go down as one of the all-time greats in the genre, and certainly one of the best games of the decade.

Oh, and the soundtrack is fucking incredible too.

1. Monster Hunter World (PS4/Xbox One/PC) and Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate (Switch) - I knew something special was happening when I saw multiple Playstation friends who usually only play Call of Duty and sports games devoting dozens (or even hundreds) of hours to Monster Hunter World this year. I was skeptical, having tried to get into the series previously on the 3DS, but something just clicked this time that hadn’t before, and soon I was farming Nergigantes for entire evenings. The game was full of nothing but memorable moments, but realizing for the first time how the insect glaive worked and flipping through the air whacking a giant electric flying squirrel as we were both being chased by a fire breathing t-rex was the most out of control I’ve ever felt playing a video game while simultaneously being the coolest thing I’ve ever done in a video game. And to revisit that same scenario over a hundred hours later, armed with the knowledge that only experience can give of how to actually control my insect glaive flips, was one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve ever had. All of the knowledge gained from World was then taken to MHGU on the Switch later this year, where my girlfriend and I put over 200 hours in and still have not seen all of the content within. If two grown adults sitting in a hotel room and screaming with delight when they see how cool the weapons they can forge from hunting a bubble dragon are isn’t an indication that their families should seek help, it means that Monster Hunter is pretty great.

So which game is better? My heart of hearts tells me World wins out by an inch for its extremely intelligent streamlined design and accessibility, but MHGU has dozens and dozens (and dozens and dozens) of different monsters to hunt and hundreds of weapons and armor sets to choose from, and having a full blown Monster Hunter on a portable with a decent screen and dual analog sticks is a great argument for the Switch entry. Really though, it doesn’t matter; these are both amazing games, and I wanted to give them both their due without using two slots. If weirdos on your friends list you haven’t talked to since high school who usually only buy FIFA can fall in love with Monhun, so can you.

[salarta]

For the fun of it, I’m going to post about all the cases I can remember where I stopped buying stuff from a company involved in creative works because of various things they did. Also, my history with them and current state. I could write very long posts on each of these, but my intent is to try to keep it short and straightforward.

Square-Enix

I grew up with Final Fantasy from Squaresoft. It was my lifelong fandom.

Problems arose with Final Fantasy X-2, Final Fantasy IV: The After Years, and Chrono Trigger DS. All of these games either were ideas for new franchises forced where they didn’t belong, or half-assed projects meant to bilk money out of people. The final straw was 3rd Birthday, one of the most insulting works I’ve ever seen. It bent over backwards to ruin perception of Aya, treated her like a sex object, and the producer and scriptwriter lied profusely about things like how the clothes ripping away mechanic was for “realism.”

Current status: Starting 2010, I’ve refused to buy anything Squeenix until a new game starring Aya Brea would be made that treats Aya right and makes 3rd Birthday noncanon. Squeenix’s philosophy is to hide its mistakes instead of fixing them, so I expect I’ll never buy and engage in anything from Squeenix again.

Ubisoft

I didn’t have much history with Ubisoft. I had been starting to get some interest in Assassin’s Creed after an online pal introduced me to the franchise. I greatly enjoyed AC3.

Then, Ubisoft decided to be dicks to Patrice Desilets. A lot could be said about this, but the cliffnotes is this. Desilets was making 1666 with THQ. Ubisoft bought THQ. When Desilets left/was fired (can’t remember which), the rights to 1666 were to go back to him if it got canceled. So, Ubisoft put the game on “indefinite hold” instead of canceling it - ensuring the rights wouldn’t go back to Desilets while never actually doing anything with it. I stopped buying anything Ubisoft until Desilets got the rights back.

Current status: The rights finally went back to Desilets after a few years. I immediately bought four games: Far Cry 3, Far Cry 4, Far Cry Primal, and Assassin’s Creed Syndicate. This year, I bought Far Cry 5, and I currently have Assassin’s Creed Odyssey next to play after I’m done with Soul Calibur VI.

Soul Calibur

I’ve been playing Soul Calibur games since SCII. I’ve enjoyed them a great deal. My favorite character in the franchise is Setsuka.

Soul Calibur V is where I had big complaints. The excuse of a time jump to change the roster conveniently meant most of the female roster “needed” to be changed while most of the male roster got to remain. Including the removal of Sophitia and Taki. To Taki’s exclusion, the director claimed she was “too old” to be a ninja, yet he saw no problem with Mitsurugi, Siegfried, or Raphael returning. I played Lost Swords, but I determined that I wouldn’t play another Soul Calibur entry until Sophitia and Taki were brought back.

Current status: Soul Calibur VI just recently came out, and it brought back Sophitia and Taki, and gave them some of the respect they should’ve gotten during SCV. As such, I own this game. I’m playing it right now. 

Resident Evil

Like most people, I started with Resident Evil 2. I was never a huge fan, but I followed along with main entries up to and including Resident Evil 5.

Then Resident Evil 6 happened. A supposed “anniversary” title, it excluded Jill and Claire completely, while putting Chris and Leon on a pedestal. Other projects began to make it abundantly clear that the current team fanwanks over Chris and Leon while refusing to acknowledge the value of Jill and Claire. I can say so, so much on this, but I’ll refrain for brevity sake. I determined that after RE6, I would only buy something if it starred Jill or Claire, until they got to be the stars of a main numbered entry again.

Current status: Capcom still hasn’t done it, so this rule is still in effect. Notably, I’m skipping the Resident Evil 2 “remake” because it’s become abundantly clear that the team is treating it like a Leon fanwank with Claire included rather than an actual remake.

DC Comics

Of the two “big” superhero entities, DC is the one I grew up with. It was mostly Batman growing up, because that’s what DC was focusing on the most. But I still loved Superman a lot. I never really got to watch any of the cartoons. Never seemed to catch them. It was mostly about films. I came to greatly enjoy Harley Quinn as I got older, to the point where I read her first (in my mind only) solo series.

The first DC “reboot” of the 2010s is where things changed. I had huge problems with how they changed Harley Quinn. The design threw away her entire harlequin theme, and all the fun it meant, to make her basically look like a clown girl Joker knockoff. I dropped everything DC at that point with plan to only engage in stuff that included actual Harley Quinn until she came back.

Current status: In rare cases where I find out actual Harley Quinn is involved in something, I check it out. I watched the Batman and Harley Quinn animated movie (which sucked) in theaters, for example. The only exception I’ve made so far was the Wonder Woman film, to support female-led superhero films. I do see that there’s going to be an animated series with Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy. If that’s the start of bringing back actual Harley, I may be returning to DC soon.

Nintendo

I also grew up with Nintendo. They were the main video game provider. There’s not a lot to say in this regard.

Other M was where problems started. I actually bought, played and beat the game, and I can tell you it’s an insulting wreck. But it’s Nintendo’s behavior afterward that turned me against them. They basically blacklisted Metroid and Samus except for cases where they “had” to use her. They treated her and Metroid like a minor franchise, ignoring its anniversary, cause they didn’t want to admit they made a mistake and fix it. And there’s also Federation Force which is a whole other ball of bullshit. Nintendo’s antics there led me to refuse to buy anything Nintendo until they decided to make up for what they were doing to Metroid and Samus and treat them right.

Current status: Nintendo put out a new Metroid game and plan to release Prime 4 too. I wish I could say that’s the end of the story, but it isn’t. I’m pretty pissed still that they threw Alison Rapp under the bus for a bunch of vile assholes, and fueled more harassment in the industry. I don’t know when I’ll get Nintendo stuff again. I’m still not fucking over this.

ArenaNet

I bought and played Guild Wars when it came out. I played and enjoyed it. There isn’t a whole lot to say on this.

If you’ve watched video game news this year, you know Mike O’Brien fired Jessica Price and Peter Fries for bullshit reasons. In doing so, he fueled tons of assholes hellbent on harassing good people and forcing them out of the industry. My reaction is that I’m never touching another ArenaNet thing until Mike O’Brien is out. Because he should be forced out. He doesn’t deserve his position.

Current status: Nothing’s changed, so I’m waiting for Mike O’Brien to be gone. I don’t anticipate this being any kind of burden on me.

Disney/Star Wars/Marvel

Oooookay, this is a big ball of stuff right here. It’s gonna be hard to keep this short.

Obviously I grew up on a lot of Disney stuff, like just about anyone in the United States. Star Wars, I got into during the 90s when the original trilogy was getting released. Marvel, I saw stuff here and there but didn’t truly give a damn until 2009 when I discovered Polaris.

When Disney bought up Star Wars, they shut down Lucasarts very abruptly, with no plans whatsoever to prep the studio’s employees for its end. I found (and still find) that absolutely fucking atrocious. So, I refuse to touch Star Wars video games. I actually don’t have any criteria for engaging in Star Wars content again. Maybe that criteria will come back some day. Maybe I’ll never touch another Star Wars game. This happened in 2013, by the way.

Then Marvel. After the forced retcon on Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver’s parentage, I vowed to never buy or engage in anything from Marvel except content that’s either X-Men related or tied to Polaris, until the twins were Magneto’s kids again. Only exception I made was the Black Panther movie, to support minority-led films.

Now, I’m about to drop everything Disney - including X-Men content, Star Wars, ABC programs and anything else - because of their treatment of Polaris this past year. To treat Polaris like her only value exists in being a supporting character for the stories of men, then throw her into limbo while putting those men on a pedestal, fucking infuriates me. Disney does not deserve money or support, so I won’t give it to them. This will only change for me if Polaris gets a solo, mini or oneshot comic, or leads a team book again.

Current status: No plans to ever play a Star Wars game again. Everything’s on track for me to refuse to touch Disney content after this year, possibly for the rest of my life. Only exception I plan to make is Episode IX, just to wrap up the sequel trilogy I’ve been watching.

In conclusion, I have a lot of companies that I refuse to play, watch, read anything they offer. Sometimes, like with Soul Calibur and Ubisoft, things change for the better and I come back to it. But most of the time, it’s like Squeenix or Disney. A company treats franchises or people like shit, they do nothing to fix their mistakes, I continue to not give them money or support because they don’t deserve it.

A lot of people think this is a huge burden. It’s not. The truth is that in our world, there’s a looooooooooooooot of creative content out there. If I wanted to, I could spend the rest of my life reading all the fanfiction written just today. I’m watching 5 TV shows right now that aren’t tied to Disney, more than I watched during the 2000s. I’ve recently played Far Cry 5, Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise, Soul Calibur VI, and I’ll soon by playing Assassin’s Creed Odyssey.

I don’t need these companies to find entertainment. In some cases, I can even make my own. I can create things that these companies refuse to make. These companies need me more than I need them, because they need money to stay in business, and my money plays a role in that.

That’s my long post.