#All Our Asias

[miloscat]

[Review] All Our Asias (PC)

Another thought-provoking combination of retro-style graphics and emotional sincerity!

Between Even the Ocean and Anodyne 2, Melos Han-Tani (one half of Analgesic Productions) created this short adventure game. Well, Marina Kittaka (the other half) made some contributions along with others but All Our Asias is mostly a one-person project and a personal story-driven experience.

The game is a meditation on various topics. What does it mean to be Asian? How well can you really know another person? What kind of impact do you want to leave on the world? Through Yuito’s quest to discover more about his estranged father his own motivations and identities are challenged, and by extension the player’s. He struggles against bureaucracy, finds truths mundane and profound, and encounters compassion and community. There’s a lot going on in the game’s 90-120 minute runtime.

All this is wrapped in an exploration of low-poly 3D spaces that feel very much like Anodyne 2’s 3D overworld. The trademark Analgesic melancholy is here in spades accompanied by a familiarly haunting soundscape. The environments are abstract, built from the dreams of a dying man of real places and memories, made surreal and twisted. Trundling around them is slow, which gives you time for the atmosphere to wash over you. They may just feel like a vehicle for the story at times but they’re still very evocative in their own right even if the “gameplay” of navigating them is relatively shallow.

Like other Analgesic games, there is naturally a postgame. Infinite flight is unlocked along with warps to the different game sections. Developer commentary and behind the scenes material is however relegated to a separate book which can be purchased in a “fan pack” along with the soundtrack. The game itself is free so it’s a good way to support Melos and get more out of this piece.

Since it is free, there’s little barrier to trying it out… I did have to set up a Joy2key profile since it failed to natively recognise my controller, but it was worth it. The low-poly stuff is a good way to get you in the door and then you just might find that the game makes you think about things a bit! We need more of that in our games, I reckon.

[maiteo]

the idea that european teams are invincible and set the standard when it comes to football needs to die immediately

[vhstown]

its crazy how it's accepted that there's so many different types of white people but when it comes to POC and especially brown / desi people we're all just seen as like... indian or something . and not even indian just a stereotype of what people think indians are

[waitmyturtles]

Your post about your upcoming Bad Buddy meta got me thinking about Bad Buddy (again), and I remembered one particular thing that had an impact. Apologies if this is long and rather incoherent, I wrote this past midnight.

In the final episode, the part where we see Ming and Dissaya turn a blind eye to Pat Pran's shenanigans really struck a chord with me.

[I'm an Indian, born and raised, and queer, but it's well worth mentioning that my experiences are not universal- in fact, they may be the exception rather than the rule; I'm not quite sure.]

What it reminded me of was, that asian parents tend to come around eventually- in particular mothers. We've seen time and time again in series' that deal with difficult/not accepting family members; Bad Buddy, GAP, Wedding Plan, maybe even Double Savage (haven't watched this one but I believe the dad feels bad in the end?), that even if the parental figure(s) doesn't agree with their children's choices, they learn to compromise. Because the difference in opinions isn't worth losing their children over. Obviously, for every parental figure that comes around there's one that the children cut ties with (Wedding Plan remains a good example), but I think it's something worth seeing.

It made me think of how I was never scared of coming out to my mother, because I knew that, despite the difference in views, and her prejudice, she'd accept me, no matter whether she thought it was a phase or not.

Do I know what the point of this ask is? Not really, I was rather nervous sending this ask, especially not on anon, but I'd love to know what you think of this, since I've come to really enjoy reading the thoughts you have on these shows.

Ohhhh, wow. @starryalpacasstuff, come 'ere for a big mom hug! HUGE HUGS!

I'm gonna unwind a little randomly; I hope this is coherent. A ton of what I write about on my blog vis à vis Asian dramas are the unique characteristics of Asian families and an Asian upbringing. Parental conditional love, competitiveness, our unique experiences with intergenerational trauma. I write a lot about how Asians, in our cultural expectations of life, accept pain and suffering as an assumed part of our existences. The reason why I watch Asian dramas exclusively is that, as I'm Asian-American, I just connect far more easily to the Asian cultural experience of growing from a child into an Asian adult, than I do the experience of white Western folks growing into their adulthood. I grew up intimately with Asian cultural practices and expectations; but I also grew up with racism in my external American world, and came to my adulthood in a society that still values white Americans above all other demographics.

But one thing I'm cognizant of, that I don't think I write about enough, is that many of these characteristics of the Asian cultural scopes of life are indeed similar to those that a fully American person (for example) might experience. It's not like intergenerational trauma doesn't exist in the West. It's not like homophobia in families against a child doesn't exist in the West.

However. As an Asian-American, one thing I note about many (not all, of course) Western families and family systems is that very often: Western adults will give up their agency to be loyal to what I might call a "higher power" -- a philosophy, a political preference, a religion. If a queer person wants to come out in a conservative American family, that queer person may very well be risking cutting permanent ties with their family.

That, of course, also happens in our Asian family systems. But I think you're onto something, @starryalpacasstuff. While divorce rates are sky-high in the West -- there is also a paradigm of family systems being and looking different in the West than they do in Asia. Asian family systems still don't accommodate for divorce and blended or chosen families as they do in the West.

The Asian family systems and paradigms that you and I grew up with as Indians absolutely still value a heterosexual two-parent household -- and I'd posit that our past generations, our grandparents and great-grandparents, put HUGE, HUGE pressure on our parents to keep the two-parent family systems together and whole. And to keep the children close. It's a huge value in our Asian cultures to have whole and complete families. The West has become far more accommodating, culturally, on this issue.

And, so. I totally agree with you, @starryalpacasstuff. I think we do see the beginning of a coming-around on the parts of Ming and Dissaya. And that coming-around is certainly something we can relate to. Our parents will likely accept us for our differences. I fucked a lot of shit up with my folks when I decided to live independently of their desires -- and I don't think things really healed (and I still carry tremendous traumatic baggage) until after I had my own kids, and expanded all of our families. Because in the end, the value in our Asian cultures is that keeping the family complete and close still matters more than any one's individual biases or desires.

Ming and Dissaya are remarkably traumatized people. Ming was traumatized by the expectations of his father. He screwed Dissaya over, and literally handed his trauma to Pat on a silver platter, for Pat to embody for most of his life. And Pat flipped that platter over in his father's face and ran away. Ming, at the end of the series, is passive-aggressive with Pat, despite Pat's efforts to try to work with him. And yet -- Ming still sips Pran's scotch.

To your point -- does time heal everything? I'm not so sure in the West, with the Western predilection for Christian/Puritanical/conservative values to supersede reasonable family resolutions. But I think, because of the value that Asian systems put on having complete families, that you are right -- that there may be more room in Asian family systems for eventual acceptance of a child's "differences," despite us living in collectivist societies. This is definitely not an absolute. There are environments in which it's still dangerous to come out. But the value that Asians put on family does indeed give us a tiny bit of comfort that our cultures can move the needle on acceptance in different ways over time.

[pwurrz]

people are using the “learn to separate fiction and reality” to justify genshin’s and more specifically hoyoverse’s racism and whitewashing of african cultures and. well. i can’t say i’m even a little bit surprised.

[dieletztepanzerhexe]

guys

im going to Uzbekistan. to work on excavations on a site from the middle paleolithic... wow...

paleolithic professor invited me to join her team. so i had to accept

[el-smacko]

Like. Crazy how in the US military service is the only way to guarantee you get healthcare or education or employment services or political consideration, which are things a lot of industrialized nations have for all their citizens. A real fucking shame that we made Starship Troopers in the 90s but after the Iraq War we make shit like Rebel Moon and turned Star Wars into Marvel and and Star Trek into James Bond. Fascism really won the propaganda war. People really believe Iraq was some desert backwater full of illiterate fanatics because they’re too stupid to know it was a thriving urban center for thousands of years until the United States violently deindustrialized it in the Gulf War.

[peachiyyy]

as a south asian, it’s so fucking frustrating to see so many south asian ‘actvists’/people in general stay silent about 🇵🇸 because of the rampant islamophobia non-muslim SAs are filled with. A lot of SAs are z!0nists solely bc they hate muslims/islam but these idiots dont realize that 1) this was never about religion and 2) the same z!0nists theyre ass kissing look down on SAs and think we’re all dirty and ugly. Imagine bootlicking people who would spit on u if given the chance THAT much

[unproduciblesmackdown]

blade gunnblade !!!!!!!!

via eliza simpson:

There are no words for this true warrior. They kill me. MMM: went in for a post show hug. Me:"ow!" Asia: "oh sorry, that's my bullet necklace." 😳........ 😍

[funnierasafictive]

your talks about knowing if someone is a fictive or not is fucking hilarious because like- for us SPECIFICALLY I’m essentally front personified and thus the perm fronter and front gatekeeper as of now but like!!!- for us we operate a lot on what we can (phantom) feel, hear or see- like yeah it’s not most clear but like- suddenly feeling picked up or splatted against a wall but not SEEING it happen to the body and KNOWING it’s not happening to your body is a REAL FAST reality check, drawing something and suddenly feeling like there’s wires under your skin shocking you half to death bc youmanaged to actually draw a brain buddy without realizing even more so.

would recomend checking to see if the voices register as “not yours” or “in another language”- even if you register the words and language if it doesn’t FEEL like what you know as yours/body’s you should check shit out- we primarily use body’s voice or I’m limited to it- however I DO register the spanish and such languages at times and I can 10000% tell you that juanaflippa threatened someone with a gun bc she didn’t want to see a “not my mate” throwing themself on me and I 1000% registered those words as rusian despite body being english only and the voice she had at her disposal as ONLY the body’s voice.

idk if any of this will help anyone but it MIGHT be more aproachable to ask them to say/do something a certain way involving your senses and check that way than other methods,,

AGH THATS SO TRUE. this is nicer than me going "annoy them" BAHAHA

[boyruggeroii]

There really is something to be said about usamerican's (and european, but you know what prompted this) passion for cheap anthropology, and to be fair much has been said about the connection between imperialism and anthropology, so I'll just say that it's annoying as fuck

[cheeseknives]

Watching this makes really stressed about healthy and safety regulations...

[hussyknee]

If you're dual citizens or parents are from different countries, please tag both. Include a cool fact about your country as well if you like. :)

(Tumblr only has ten options, so I've mostly divided the regions into Western/ non-Western.)

[iwatcheditbegin]

I’m so sick of the nonstop erasure of poc swiftes. It never ends. Like what do you get from invalidating massive amounts of poc?

[a-god-in-ruins-rises]

a very good point. we should be getting tribute for our services. but also, there are certain intangible benefits one gets from this position.

but also, we should become even less reliant on seaborne trade. this is all the more reason to build up the New World.

belt and road initiative for the americas. imagine a land-route -- road and train -- between north america and south america. and obviously this would be supplemented by seaborne trade. but it's just better to have as many routes as possible.

additionally, while i think we should be "reshoring" critically important industries and high-end manufacturing back to america i do think we should nearshore some of the less-critical industries. that is, we should bring them back to the western hemisphere. as china increases to modernize and wages get higher they're going to be less competitive anyway. but bringing industry to the americas will reduce costs because it brings production closer to the consumer.

and then not to mention it will bring jobs and wealth to latin american countries which will help stabilize their countries and will reduce "push" factors for would-be immigrants. and the more integrated pan-american economic network would foster a sense of community between all the many american countries.

[leng-m]

Wh... why are tourists... like that