justbluejay

[justbluejay]

From now on whenever someone asks me how to learn music theory I'm just going to send them this video

[justbluejay]

I've gotten over 200 responses so here is a preview of the results so far!

Respondents come from a wide distribution of game experience. While many respondents started playing during Shadowbringers or later, they only account for about 45% of the total sample size. Of the respondents who joined during Endwalker, the most said they started playing during 2022.

The most popular character choice is Female Au'ra, with 35 responses. The least popular is Male Roegadyn with 4. The least popular female option is Roegadyn and Lalafell, tied at 9 responses each. The most popular male option is Hyur (18) followed closely by Viera (16). Female Hyur, Miqo'te, and Viera are all more popular options than any single male option.

Despite its rework, the most common choice for Main Job was Summoner with 25 responses. The most popular response for the other roles are Dark Knight (19), White Mage (18), Reaper (11), and Dancer (14). As of this writing, no respondents have listed Gunbreaker as their main job (Gunbreaker does get better representation later on when I ask role-specific questions).

Being an English-language survey, it is natural that the overwhelming majority of respondents use NA and EU data centers: about 97% of responses were for one of these. Currently, Crystal is the DC that most respondents use (55), with the most popular EU DC being Chaos (38). Only 6 respondents have their main character on Dynamis, and Materia only has two, which is one less than respondents using the Elemental DC (the de-facto JP data center for English speakers).

Endwalker 6.0 currently ranks fourth in respondents' favorite MSQ storylines (with 126 responses), underneath Heavensward 3.1-3.3 (130), Shadowbringers 5.1-5.3 (153), and Shadowbringers 5.0 (190). By contrast, Endwalker 6.x is fourth lowest, only beating out the two ARR storylines and the Ala Mhigo side of Stormblood (including patch 4.1).

Estinien is currently the most stand-out Scion of the Seventh Dawn during Endwalker, with 46 respondents choosing him over the rest of our principal cast. Y'shtola and Krile tie for last with only 8 respondents each.

The top five new characters (or at least distinct versions of characters) introduced in Endwalker are currently Hythlodaeus (139 responses), Erenville (113), Vrtra/Varshahn (107), Venat (105), and Themis (104). Another stand-out character is Brandihild, who received 75 responses.

Currently the top choices for favorite duties are as follows:

Dungeon: The Dead Ends (58 responses, 27.4%)

Trial: The Final Day (54 responses, 25.8%)

Extreme Trial: Storm’s Crown (Extreme) (44 responses, 33.8%)

Normal Raid: P11 (58 responses, 29.7%)

Savage Raid: P10S (20 responses, 20.4%)

Alliance Raid: Aglaia (82 responses, 41.8%)

Over 70% of respondents have participated in higher-difficulty content (at least Unreal/Extreme level) this expansion! Additionally, 63 respondents say that Endwalker was the first time they have done so.

Finally, the current average rating of Endwalker as a whole is ~6.8/10, with the most common rating being 8/10 (59 responses).

So recently I made a huge survey about the End of Endwalker! People have lots of opinions about this expansion so perhaps if you've got the time settle down and make your opinions heard!

If you haven't already guessed, there's spoilers for the entirety of Endwalker within. Have fun!

[justbluejay]

So recently I made a huge survey about the End of Endwalker! People have lots of opinions about this expansion so perhaps if you've got the time settle down and make your opinions heard!

If you haven't already guessed, there's spoilers for the entirety of Endwalker within. Have fun!

[justbluejay]

VGM Tuesday: New Format and DuckTales: Remastered

Since moving my Video Game Music Tuesday feature from my personal facebook to Tumblr, I've realized that I can do tons more with a blog post than a single song. So since today is the start of a new month, I'm going to change things up a bit!

So a simple changelog:

I'm changing from Video posts to Text posts. This way, I can have a more unified embedding for multiple videos.

I'm focusing on Game soundtracks rather than individual songs. Each game will three to five of my favorite songs.

Each post will receive at least three tags for easy browsing: One for the series it's a part of, one for the console it's on, and the last for the composer. There could be more tags for special things.

Periodically, I'll be posting my old posts onto this blog on the day they were originally posted. This will make the blog seem older than it actually is, but oh well!

Now, onto the actual content!

I recently picked up DuckTales Remastered. Even though I never played the original, I think this game is still really great! And here's a major reason why:

(Oh, and here's the original 8-bit version, if you were wondering where that was.)

But that's only one of the levels that you traverse! Here's one of my favorites, The Amazon!

(8-Bit!)

The soundtrack remixed by popular chiptune and video game composer Jake Kaufman, also known as Virt, which is really cool. 

They also added an intro stage to the game!

They even gave it an 8-bit version!

I'm about done, but I want to gush about one more thing. They turned this:

Into this:

Which is one of my personal favorites.

wee-yoo!

[justbluejay]

Guys. Wind Waker HD is out on the eShop. (In stores next week!)

I remember when it first came out and everyone was like, "Horrible graphix!"

It then turned out to be one of the best Zeldas ever, and my personal favorite. So everyone complained about Twilight Princess, which has too been vindicated in favor of complaining about Skyward Sword. The cycle continues.

[justbluejay]

Just got Super Mario Bros. 2 for Virtual Console.

So good!

[justbluejay]

Famous Let's-Player Chuggaaconroy recently started playing through Kid Icarus Uprising. This game is a definite part of the 3DS Must-haves list.

Sakurai (of Kirby and Super Smash Bros. fame) gives his special touch throughout. You can tell it's him with the menus, unlockables, and galleries. There's even a shoot the credits minigame at the end!

[justbluejay]

Played a little bit of Final Fantasy Tactics Advance the other day.

Such a nice game!

EDIT: Here's the updated version from Final Fantasy Tactics A2!

[justbluejay]

This is so late. For a swap meme I'm doing.

I'm so sorry.

[justbluejay]

EarthBound has been on the Wii U Virtual Console for over a month now. When I got my Wii U for a late birthday present, this was the first thing I bought.

This game is just great. You might not like it, but I sure do.

[justbluejay]

Space. The Final Frontier.

These are the voyages of The Kestrel. Its continuing mission: To deliver important documents across the galaxy to the last bastions of a dying Federation, and to not die horribly in the process.

I picked FTL up during the Steam Summer Sale, and it is really good. Instead of dogfights like most space games, this one focuses on ship and crew management. If you ever wanted to see what living on the U.S.S. Enterprise would be like, this game's for you!

[justbluejay]

My very first VGM Tuesday was a Dragon Quest song. I feel it's high time we have another one!

Almost the entire soundtrack of Dragon Quest VIII was recorded by a live orchestra. It gives me tinglies.

[justbluejay]

Totaka Month is finally over! Yay! Let's do some music from non-Nintendo games for a bit, shall we?

I picked up a PS2 last month, and I got a few games to go with it too. One of them was the delightfully quirky Katamari Damacy. It's been called the stress ball of video games, and that is a very apt description. You're given a super-sticky ball (called a Katamari) and tasked with rolling up as much stuff as possible within the time limit. Your Katamari starts out small and can only roll up erasers and pushpins, but amass enough of those and you can roll up cars, buildings, and even people!

[justbluejay]

You can't do a thing on Kazumi Totaka without mentioning this little ditty. Aptly called Totaka's Song, it's been an Easter Egg in almost every game he's worked on, including every game I've featured this month!

Most of the time, to hear this song you have to wait 2-3 minutes in a place you don't usually spend that much time in, like a Game Over screen, a level select screen, Pause menu, or small in-game location. In Animal Crossing, it's the by-request only K.K. Song, and in Mario Paint, all you have to do is click the "O" on the title screen. There are still a few games where they haven't found it yet, but like most easter eggs people are scouring the games and data for it.

For a more detailed look at this song, check here.

[justbluejay]

Totaka composed for a lot of Game Boy games, such as Super Mario Land 2 and Link's Awakening. This game, For the Frog the Bell Tolls, is a Japanese only adventure game that is considered to be a predecessor to Link's Awakening. You play as the Prince of the Sable Kingdom, who goes a quest to save the princess and best his rival Richard. You also get turned into a frog. For further connection with Link's Awakening, Richard gets his own villa on Koholint Island, where a slower version of this song plays!

This song has been stuck in my head for a while. I really love the use of the bell chime melody. Bells are apparently an important part of the game, so it's nice that that's reflected in the music.

Also, It's my birthday today. Happy Birthday to me.

[justbluejay]

This remains to this day my favorite Animal Crossing Main Theme.

Totaka has probably had the most influence on this series than anything else he's worked on, and it shows.

As a bonus, here's a selection of my favorite K.K. Slider songs.

K.K. Cruisin'

K.K. Disco (New to New Leaf!)

K.K. Fusion

K.K. House

[justbluejay]

I watch Ash Catches a Pokémon

Spoiler alert: Ash doesn't just catch a Pokémon in this episode...

This episode wraps up the small arc that could be called the 3-part pilot. Now that the basic characters are introduced, the episode also is the prototype of the basic format of the show: Ash meets a new pokémon, tries to solve a problem, Team Rocket shows up and then blasts off, usually because of the new pokémon. You know the drill.

A while ago, Extra Credits did an episode where they briefly touched on how this show is pretty much a subtle guide for the games (Extra Credits: TransGaming). There are tons of lessons in this episode:

Bug is weak to Flying, which is weak to Electric.

Weakening a Pokémon makes it easier to catch. (This was also taught in the first episode, so yeah)

Sending out a Pokémon weaker than your opponent is not a good idea, but it also doesn't mean an automatic black-out.

Sometimes, you can't win the game on raw power alone. In the words of Misty, "You've got to have strategy!" (Though most solo runs and kids who pretty much just use their starter make this lesson moot.)

Switch Training. Ash really did know what he was doing!

I sure wish String Shot in the games worked the way it does on the show. Though lowering your speed is kinda nice. I also really enjoy how Caterpie only uses String Shot and Tackle, while Pidgeotto uses Quick Attack and Gust. Staying true to the games!

And now, Misty's fear of bugs. The way that Misty and Ash interact teach a very great lesson: People are afraid of things that other people have no big deal with. Now, being kids, Misty and Ash haven't learned the next steps of facing your fears or not mocking people's fears, but we have a start!

The scene with Pikachu and Caterpie dancing under the moon is so great. Wordless communication at its finest. We also get to see Caterpie's desire to evolve into a Butterfree, which it gets to work toward.

All of this together makes for a really solid episode. My favorite so far.