#and when I say Nintendo characters I literally mean any character from any Nintendo franchise

[geminiiviolets]

if I made a fan dorm/fan school based around Nintendo characters would anyone want to join?

[e10withadot]

The problem with a Mario Movie. A retrospective, review, and first impressions.

I'm a big Mario fan. No, but really. Most of my life I've been obsessed with the fat italian plumber that speaks in gibberish and saves the princess. As such, there's one constant thing in the series that is clear to any fan.

The story does not matter.

Some Paper Mario fans would like to tell you otherwise, but it's the truth. In a deliberate attempt from series creator Shigeru Miyamoto, the Mario franchise has stuck to its guns tonally. The reason being Miyamoto's idea of the "essence of Mario".

"So for this game, since the fundamental elements of Mario is to express the form to follow the function, it would be best to keep creating unique ideas that would come from this element." - Miyamoto-san, explaining the "Essence of Mario" in a Super Mario Galaxy interview.

The Essence of Mario is form following function. That means, for something to be "Mario"- its function needs to be understood as you look at it.

For example, the series-staple Koopa Troopa. It's a turtle, so when you look at it- it's clear that stomping would cause it to hide or pop-out of its shell. Same with the Toads- since they have a similar shape to the Super Mushroom, you can tell that they're helpful- in contrast to the enemies who are a variety of shapes and creatures.

This "essence of Mario" is arguably what's kept Mario consistent this entire time. Certain rules as to what is Mario has kept the games from straying too far, like Sonic the Hedgehog. Although, as a caveat, this essence heavily restricts storytelling.

If something Mario must be understood immediately, there's no real room for plot developments or changes in role to any characters. This is why the Peach/Bowser plot is reused so often. You have Peach, the clear goal of the journey- and Bowser, the clear villain. Their designs mimic this: Bowser is more large and menacing than the other enemies, and the princess' design uses bright colors- blonde hair, bright pink dress.

That's not to say the Mario series has never tried to expand its world with stories- the Mario RPGs have tried to do so for more than two decades now. Even still, those games generally have a very simple main plot- and the fun comes from the shenanigans along the way.

So Mario and Story, don't mix all too well. What happens then, if you force Mario to do so? No, I'm not talking about the Super Mario Bros. Super Show or its continuations, and neither will I discuss the Japanese-exclusive "Super Mario Bros.: The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach!". These do what the Mario RPGs do, and place Mario in "wacky" unrelated shenanigans. Our next example, does something VERY different.

Super Mario Bros. (1993) - It ain't no game, that's for sure.

Super Mario Bros. (also known as Super Mario Bros.: The Movie) is a 1993 fantasy adventure film based on Nintendo's Super Mario video game series. The first feature-length live-action film based on a video game, it was directed by the husband-and-wife team of Rocky Morton and Annabel Jankel, written by Parker Bennett, Terry Runté, and Ed Solomon, and distributed by Buena Vista Pictures through Hollywood Pictures. It follows brothers Mario (Bob Hoskins) and Luigi (John Leguizamo) in their quest to rescue Princess Daisy (Samantha Mathis) from a dystopic parallel universe ruled by the ruthless King Koopa (Dennis Hopper). - Wikipedia

What the fuck was that description.

I remember watching this movie 7 years ago, and man was it wild. There was this asinine plot that tried to explain the Mario world as an alternate dimension that was created back in whatever million BC when dinosaurs went extinct.

If you've been on the internet long enough, you'd have probably seen screenshots at LEAST. The goomba design is already terrifying, but there's also the humanoid "King Koopa" as this scaly bald dude, a small dinosaur which they call "Yoshi" but bares no other resemblance, and talking fungus. No, not Toads. Literal talking mushrooms- but like telepathically talking mushrooms.

This plot is undeniably a mess. I've watched the entire thing and I still can't fathom that it exists.

Why is it bad? It's simple. Because it tries to overcomplicate the Mario series to an extreme extent. It was arguably necessary, of course. I mean, the latest mainline game in the series when this released was Super Mario Land 2. Not really enough of a basis to make a movie out of.

It's just- well, the movie introduces so much, and adds characters and plot points that serve no purpose other than to be "fanservice" (if you could even call it that). If you know the games, you might get a little chuckle from some of the names and faces. The problem is that all this "fanservice" and explaining is a detriment to the plot as a whole.

It's still a story to rescue a princess, but it's Daisy instead of Peach now- and she's a love interest for Luigi instead of Mario. This dynamic could've worked fine, if there was any chemistry between Daisy and Luigi. They meet for like, two scenes and then she's taken away into dystopian fungus-dino world.

There's a little chemistry between the brothers, but it's mostly in a comedic "eyyy we're from Brooklyn" way. I know I'm asking for emotion from the fucking Super Mario Bros. movie but if you're going to make a blockbuster film, with a big budget and plot and hype it up- that's expected. The Sonic movies, and Detective Pikachu at the least did this. But no, the 1993 Mario movie settles with a clusterfuck of information instead.

You could potentially argue that this movie is good in a cheesy, early 90's kinda way- like Back to the Future or something. I disagree. Back to the Future was never this complicated, nor terrifying. If I wanted to watch a fun late 80's to early 90's film, I'd watch that. If I wanted to watch a Mario movie, I'd probably watch The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach.

Illumination's challenges. and shortcomings.

Now, Illumination takes the stage. They have big shoes to fill here. First of all, they need to prove that they're not the 1993 movie. No complex plot, and no weird designs. Seems pretty easy at first, but then you gotta ask... what's there to make a story out of?

The Mario franchise has evolved past Mario Land 2, but not much in terms of plot or story. They could perhaps rely on Super Mario Odyssey a bit, but I don't see much that could be done without resorting to the tried-and-true "wacky shenanigans" route.

Furthermore, the reputation of this studio should be considered as well. Illumination is infamous for being cost-effective with their movies first and foremost. Most of their movies are then made very safe and marketable, in order to sell merchandise to children. This is most notoriously stated by their founder and CEO, Chris Meledandri:

As Mr. Meledandri will tell you, his is not a typical animation operation. He wants to prove that strict cost controls and hit animated films are not mutually exclusive, that these pictures do not have to cost $150 million, which is about what Paramount Pictures and its partners spent on “Rango.” They can cost $69 million, the budget for “Despicable Me.”

“Very few management layers, clear decision-making, shortening the length of time you spend developing a movie — it can be done,” he said. Hiring vocal talent with less star power and keeping investment in animation technology to a minimum also keep his costs down. - New York Times

In contrast, this new movie does feature renowned actors like Chris Pratt as Mario, so I guess it's not as cost-effective now.

The idea of this new movie is apparently an origin story. Foreman Spike, who is a character from Wrecking Crew (an NES game in which you play as Mario), is gonna appear- as well as Donkey Kong, and Kamek, who are early Mario characters. It's an interesting idea, and it's been done in the previous movies- but it's more faithful this time, for better or worse

I have just watched the trailer, so these thoughts are gonna be messy buuuut- it seems this movie is going for the "wacky shenanigans" route, maybe??

It's such an odd first impression. Really short, and only shows some new(?) characters getting destroyed by Bowser and then funny Chris Pratt shows up.

It's apparently an isekai, which was also already tried before. Most of the actors were pretty good, except good-old Chris Pratt- and the visuals look good enough, which is expected from Illumination.

There's not much to say, really. Looks like another Illumination movie, if we're being real. Likely good for kids, not much entertainment in it otherwise. It's a fine start, but not what people probably wanted a Mario movie to be.

The movie isn't out yet, meaning I can't say much more. I just hope it's ironically funny so I could still laugh at it.

Sources:

[immaturityofthomasastruc]

Lila Rossi: I’d Say She’s a Good Villain, but Then I’d Be Lying (300 Follower Special)

Deception and cunning are easily two of the most important traits an antagonist could have. It shows that even if they don't have the strength to overcome obstacles, their wit is more than enough. This kind of trait is why characters like Lex Luthor, David Xanatos, and Princess Azula are so beloved, simply because of how intelligent they can be as villains and pose a real threat to the heroes.

It's clear that the Miraculous Ladybug writers want Lila to be seen as this, but the writing seriously fails to back that claim up.

Easily one of the most controversial characters in Miraculous Ladybug is Lila, mainly for the writing surrounding her. But there was a time where she was actually more of an ambiguous character, mainly for the lack of screentime she had until Season 3. But unfortunately, the more appearances she's had have painted a very poor portrait of an antagonist.

Lila's Tragic and Sympathetic Motivation for Hating Ladybug

Lila's first appearance was at the tail end of Season 1, “Volpina”. She was a new transfer student from Italy, and quickly made friends with a lot of her classmates for the lies she told, including being friends with Ladybug (which Alya blindly believed without doing any research like any excellent journalist). But because of how close she was getting to Adrien, Marinette, in a rare act of selfishness, transforms into Ladybug just to chew out Lila for lying about knowing her, humiliating her in front of Adrien. And this is the only motivation we get for what Lila does afterwards.

I'm not saying that it's wrong for Lila to get upset at Ladybug for doing this, and I like the moment of weakness Marinette has, but this is literally the only explanation we get for Lila deciding to side with Hawkmoth, a literal terrorist. As much as I hated the way the arc turned out, I could still understand Chloe siding with Hawkmoth, as it was clear that Hawkmoth was manipulating her and taking advantage of her ego. Lila? Ladybug's mean to her one time, and that inspires her to conspire with a complete stranger who brainwashes people to attack the city, which endangers innocent people and causes God knows how much in collateral damage if not for Miraculous Ladybug fixing everything.

I just don't get how a single negative interaction with someone is enough to conspire with a literal supervillain. Even in Season 3, when Marinette and Lila truly became enemies, it was because she risked exposing all the lies she told, which could damage her reputation. Sure, it's petty, but it makes sense for Lila to want to keep up the illusion. If she was simply an antagonist to Marinette in her civilian life like Chloe was before “Miracle Queen” , I'd be fine with that, but the writers clearly want her to be seen as on the same level of evil as Hawkmoth. I'll get into why that doesn't work later on.

Why Lila is an Excellent Liar

In my Master Fu analysis, I had pointed out that despite all the flaws he had, the narrative insisted on portraying him as an incredibly wise mentor. The same problem applies for Lila as well. We're supposed to see Lila as an expert manipulator and liar, but her lies are insultingly obvious. She always claims to be friends with celebrities and does all these awesome things, and in an age where we can have almost any question answered thanks to the internet, nobody ever stops to question her.

It's even more frustrating when you hear Lila talk about saving Jagged Stone's cat, when Jagged Stone is established to be very fond of Marinette (evidentially more than his own daughter), and nobody ever points that out. I think if Lila's lies were more stories about her travels around the world than outright lies about real people, it could have worked. It'd still be hard to believe, but it's something.

But this is a problem with writing shows aimed at children. As much as we hate writers who need to spell out things to kids, sometimes, they just don't understand some of the media they consume. Seriously, I never got this joke in SpongeBob as a kid, and I can't believe Nickelodeon actually approved this.

So the dilemma when writing a show with children in mind is finding that sweet spot between assuming your audience can figure it out, but not being too vague in your details. It's even harder when you need to find a way to convey the fact that someone is lying without being too obvious. Unfortunately, the show clearly fails to do that

Okay, this is going to sound like an incredibly weird thing to cite, and I only know about it because I used to know someone who was a huge fan of the franchise, but the movie Monster High: Friday Night Frights does a better job of subtly explaining to the audience that a character is lying. Please, just hear me out.

The movie follows the main characters competing in their high school's roller derby for the season after everyone on the usual team gets injured, and the championship match is against another school whose team tends to cheat to win matches. How they manage to do this without getting caught is anyone's guess. While the main characters are practicing, their coach, Clawd, notices a spy for the enemy team taking video of them to study their moves. In response, he calls over one of the athletes, Operetta, to chew her out for her showboating attitude. In reality, he's alerting her to the spy. Only using facial expressions, he clues her, and by extension, the audience, in on the fact that they know what the opposing team is trying to do.

This soon leads to Operetta pretending to tell the enemy team about their secret plan for the championship match, which was really an attempt to outsmart them to gain the advantage in the final stretch. The brilliance of this is how the audience is informed of this with no dialogue, and there's no scene afterwards spelling it out for those who don't get it. It manages to convey deception without being too obvious that Clawd and Operetta are being deceitful.

I think if there were more subtle hints to show the audience Lila was lying, she would be seen in a better light. As it is, Lila's lies are just pathetic, and it's ridiculous that everyone believes her. Which leads me to...

Lila, the Master Manipulator

I once read a Star Trek: Voyager fanfic that poked fun at the series by claiming that the reason a lot of the dumber episodes like “Threshold” and “Twisted” happened was because one of the crew members was an alien who unintentionally produced mood altering pheromones, with Captain Janeway actually realizing they were all high because of said pheromones, while two of the unaffected crew members were wondering what the hell they were doing before they found out the cause. Why do I bring this up? Sometimes, it feels like Lila is an unintentional parallel to the alien in that story.

Like so many characters, it's clear the show desperately wants the audience to view Lila in a certain way, but her actions do very little to actually back up that claim. When she's not using lies to tell stories about so many famous people she knows like her uncle who works for Nintendo, Lila is using strategies to manipulate everyone that are so obviously deceptive, the Thermians could pick up on them. Everyone and their mother knows how ridiculous a lot of what Lila does in episodes like “Chameleon” and “Ladybug” are, and I've talked about them before, so I'll try to be quick.

First off, as someone who had access to accommodations through high school and has had assistance in college so far, there is no way in hell that Ms. Bustier should take Lila's tinnitus at face value in “Chameleon”. If a student has a disability that could interfere with the education process, physical or developmental, not only does the school have to evaluate their performance, and determine if they're eligible for an Individualized Education Program, or IEP, but her teachers would have to be notified in the first place. As her primary educator, Ms. Bustier would be part of the team to oversee Lila's IEP and determine what accommodations she needs to help her learn better with her tinnitus and arthritis. But because the writers don't know what Google is, they just ignore it,  assume that Lila can just say she has a disability, and have everyone believe it. Even when Eric Cartman pretended to be disabled to compete in the Special Olympics, he put in more effort to look the part, even if he looked like a caricature.

Then there's the fact that that in “Chameleon”, everyone just believes Lila when she says Marinette stole her grandmother's necklace when not only is said necklace from the Agreste line of jewelry, but Alya, who is Rena Rouge, can't pick up on the fact that it's a fake. All she does to justify these lies is come up with a sob story about how nobody believes her, yet nobody ever tries to defend Marinette except Alya one time, and it was after she got expelled.

Or what about in “Oni-Chan”, where Lila thinks having Kagami kill Ladybug while claiming she'll back away from Adrien is a good idea? Let's say Oni-Chan does kill Ladybug or at least take away her Miraculous, what then? We know Lila wouldn't go through with this promise, and as soon as Kagami sees her harassing Adrien, she'll be ripe for akumatization again. Overall, not a great plan.

And yet somehow, this last example is what made her worthy enough to become one of Hawkmoth's most trusted agents. I'm just going to say it: Lila is not a good fit for the power of illusion. Whenever she's Volpina or Chameleon, she always goes out of her way to make a big show instead of being subtle with her deceptions. “Chameleon” is the worst offender, as even though Lila gets the power to shapeshift into someone else, instead of being discreet and cornering people into kissing them and gaining their appearance, she just runs around to get Ladybug's attention instead of being subtle. Even Felix had the bright idea to pretend to be Adrien to catch Ladybug off guard. How do you lose to something that happened in “Felix”?

Despite all of these screw-ups, we're still supposed to see her as this master of deception worthy of allying with Hawkmoth in both his supervillain and civilian form, when really, she's a terrible liar on the schoolyard and on the battlefield.

Why Lila is an Important Character

In the grand scheme of things, Lila just isn't as important of a character that the show loves to parade her around as. She's nothing more than a plot device used to raise the stakes in an episode, given how much reality seems to bend over just to accommodate for her lies. Even when the show alludes to her being part of bigger things, like her deal with Adrien, or her rivalry with Marinette, they don't even go anywhere.

She just feels pointless when you remember Astruc's brilliant idea to force Chloe into being the final Akuma for the season while Lila isn't even mentioned once. She only really makes appearances whenever the writers feel like it, which is why it’s hard to take her seriously. Why should I take this character seriously as a threat if the writers refuse to take her seriously as a threat? Why build Lila up as a big threat and not give her a major role in the finale? Why even include her in the show in the first place when you could show Chloe being more manipulative to fill in the plots Lila plays a big part in?

As of the time I am writing this analysis, four episodes of Season 4 have aired, three of them have been about lies or deception, and Lila hasn't been mentioned at all. It honestly seems like she won't appear unless the writers need a easy way to drive up the conflict, so they can justify it by saying that Lila's “superpower” of lying is more powerful than the common sense of everyone else.

I'm sorry this post was shorter than the last one, but compared to Master Fu, there's not that much to say about Lila that I haven't already said. Even the show barely gives her any attention, so it's hard for me to really find a lot to talk about.

[flyingcookierambles]

sadness over a3! eng i guess

oof just on my 700th day.....

kinda sad because of the announcement about A3! ENG server shutting down soon due to financial difficulties at LIBER/CYBIRD in the past two years (covid-19 related, etc.). according to a rather in depth reddit comment that had links to LIBER's publicly available financial reports + some financial reports from LIBER's parent company, Aeria, in english, covid-19 really hit LIBER hard since they had to cancel many money making events, from pop-up shops for the typical anime merch trinkets (keychains, plushes, pins, etc.) to the huge in-person events (voice actor meetups, the stage plays of MANKAI LIVE, etc.). due to shrinking player base on the ENG server + major loss of profits on both JPN and ENG servers, LIBER had to choose one or the other and they chose the JPN one, which i totally understand since it's way bigger there and the JPN fanbase will continue to give the franchise money more often. also, another person found a financial report/estimate from the google play store or something, and A3! ENG only made ~$20K to ~$10K in the past few months, which i guess is not enough to keep a server and localization company afloat. 

i got pretty attached to the characters and it was a great game to help get by during college. and honestly, while i am very sad about this, again, i understand why LIBER did this, looking at their financial report from 2020. I would LIBER save the entire franchise rather than shut all the servers down, making us all unable to see our favorite actors ever again, even if it means that we ENG fans will have to go thru the extra steps of finding/reading fan translations, wikis, etc., to read any further stories from where A3! ENG left off. still, A3! ENG's localization was something special. i'm saying this as a TKRB JPN player who read the wiki for all the character voice lines and then had to see the official TKRB ENG localization make Yamabushi Kunihiro a rapper for some reason? lol. it was....weird.... meanwhile, all the memes and slang in A3! ENG didn't seem out of place and all fit their personalities because 3/4 of the troupes were all high school to college age and 3 of them were ~Gamers~. Out of all the gachas i've played, i feel like the only other F2P gacha game that had this incredibly smooth, all cultural jokes/puns translated in a way that still makes sense/fits the character/doesn't require a galaxy brain and some TL note to understand, is probably dragalia lost and that's only because it has frickin Nintendo localizing/publishing it globally for CyGames. Nintendo. i'll eventually read the fan translations of A3!'s Act 3 on the wiki, but it won't be the same without Kazunari's super high-energy influencer slang of "'whoa fam! that's totes 'blammable, gotta take a pic!" or Itaru's gremlin Gamer speak of "lol get rekt noobs" or Tsuzuru's tired dying breath of "that ain't it chief." the appropriate slang and relatable meme speak of the localization really helped humanize these characters as people of their respective ages, rather than just a typical formal speak or some directly translated JPN slang -> ENG that turns out super awkward that can be found in bad localizations.

going back to the reddit comment too, the death of A3! ENG servers could have bad repercussions in the future for other joseimuke games. josei, if you for some reason have been in the anime fandom but still don't know this term, is basically the genre of stories/video games/media/etc aimed at women. it's the mature adult counterpart to seinen, media aimed at adult men. basically shoujo/shonen = elementary/middle school/high school aimed while josei/seinen = high school/college/adult aimed if that helps. Joseimuke is a part of josei that is not specifically romance. while some josei/joseimuke can overlap with otome, aka female aimed dating sims/romance media, they have many things about them that make these all separate genres. one of the official A3! ENG translators and a known fan translator of another joseimuke gacha, Mahou Yaku/Wizard’s Promise, minami, goes more in depth with this in a twitter thread. 

A3! was an actor raising game, and a big part of it was found family and relationships that were platonic. yet it got advertised as an otome, which has more connotations with dating sims and brings to mind other shoujo/otome games and anime where the cast is all high schoolers and the setting is most often in a high school. but, other than some characters making flirty jokes or implied to have crushes on Izumi/player character, many character relationships with Izumi are platonic and not romantic at all. Spring Troupe in the game also jokingly calls themself a family. the entire Mankai Company is basically found family. plus, since the game actually has time passing in story and the characters age with each year, half of the characters aren’t even in high school anymore. a large majority of them are in college or are graduated by now, with only a few still in high school. i’m not surprised if a reason that some people left the game was due to feeling bored with the slice of life/not romantic story, feeling that they were lied to about it being an otome, which was falsely advertised since it is a game meant for the older teens/adults demographic of josei/joseimuke.

i’m worried that other japanese companies will look at this shut down as a “josei/joseimuke doesn’t work well in the west” and never localize other josei/joseimuke gacha games like Mahou Yaku, EnStars, Twisted Wonderland, Helios, etc.

while i like otome and shoujo, i, as a 23/soon to be 24 year old college graduate and now tax paying adult, want more stories that have more mature themes and characters that are more my age so i don’t have to feel awkward when i’m playing some dating sim and i, a literal 23 year old adult, and trying to woo a 16 year old. it’s...a little awkward to say the least. i would gladly welcome more mature media that is categorized as josei/joseimuke.

sorry if this is all over the place, but overall im just sad that A3! ENG is shutting down. i don’t know if i’ll join the JPN server yet. i’m def going to read the Act 3 story via fan translators on the wiki, but A3! gameplay was...boring lmao. as much as i love A3!, im sure that the constant event grind/burnout and boring rng gameplay turned people off too and i dont blame them. i felt the burnout bad since i participated in basically every event since day 1. it. is. rough. i’m not joining the hellish thunderdome that is the JPN server and im not ranking anymore as a F2P player lmao. literally had to play almost every waking free moment to get into the 30%-20% bracket as a F2P person and i never got to top 20%-10%, much less top 1% lmao. i’m don’t whale enough lol. 

i feel like i should probably just. crack open my genki 2 textbook and uhhh totally legal pdf copy of tobira. so i can just. get the JPN version of games in the first place so i don’t have to worry about getting shafted since overseas fans are often considered expendable. 

i wish that, when any games that are online end, gacha or mmo or anything, anything online, companies will let fans archive things. or like. release a book that is just the story text or something. like. CYBIRD is letting us still technically play the game and have the story and all, but what if they eventually later shut everything down? why not just release a pdf/ebook that’s just the text of the eng localization for some money? i’d buy it. for nostalgia and rereads and all and also archiving purposes. i think i’ll try to help with any english localization archive projects if i can so that the hilarious and incredible localization that was a work of love from the translation team doesn’t just disappear forever.

well.

that’s it for now. as i said, guess i’ll head to the app for one of the last times to read the last unread stories and mini stories i have left, then the wiki for Act 3, and then i guess i’ll crack open genki 2 and bunpo.....

some fun random links for you to think about!

random ffxi article that came to mind (if ffxiv ever shuts down in the next 20 years or whatever i’d be cool to get a statue of my character at the end)

and death of a game playlist by NerdSlayer Studios on Youtube that has me thinking a lot about game preservation and losing MMOs and games

the lost media wiki  and blameitonjorge’s lost media iceberg

other gacha games i’ve played that have shut down that i think about sometimes because the loss of A3! ENG isn’t my first rodeo:

terra battle & terra battle 2 (1)

AFTERL!FE

(related kitsu post link for archive reasons)

[zaph1337]

Monster Hunter Rating 5: Felyne

If you’ve seen enough of Monster Hunter, even if you’ve never played it, you probably know about this next monster. Not because it’s known for epic fights or anything like that, but because there’s almost always one around to give players a hand. Let’s talk about the hunter’s little helper, the Felyne!

(How it appears in Monster Hunter 1)

(How it appears in Monster Hunter 4)

Appearance: Felynes are a type of monster called a Lynian. Unlike most other monsters, Lynians are as intelligent as humans are and have their own cultures. Lynians are either ape-like or cat-like, and if you can’t tell which one the Felyne is, then...I don’t know what to say here that isn’t offensive, so I’ll just stick with “you’re wrong.” Since Felynes can wear different clothing, I’ll stick to how they look without any; that is to say, just like a bipedal cat. While this is boring in concept, the Felynes are so iconic and lovable that they don’t really need to stand out in a huge way appearance wise. Though I should point out that Felynes typically have light fur colors; if you see a cat Lynian with darker fur, it’s almost certainly not a Felyne. 7/10.

Behavior: You can’t sum up Felyne behavior any more than you can sum up human behavior. Felynes have different cultures, which means that Felynes in one geographic region will almost certainly have different customs and values than those living in other regions. They do, however, typically get along well with their human and Wyverian (basically the elves of Monster Hunter) neighbors, and participate in cultural exchanges with them. Several Felynes even live in human settlements as farmers, traders, chefs, and even “Meownster Hunters.” ...yes, they use cat puns in their speech. While this would certainly appeal to Nepeta Leijon (and some of my sister’s friends), I think it’s just...too easy. “Hey, here’s a cat person. They use cat puns in almost every sentence because they’re cats.” It just seems unnecessary. Something else I don’t really like is how often Felynes seem to be in positions of servitude in human villages. The Felyne housekeeper in Rise calls you “Meowster” (”Master”), and while I get that they’re supposed to be a maid, it still seems degrading, especially since the ones that help you on hunts (we’ll get to those soon) call you that, too. It doesn’t seem as bad as a House Elf situation, but it and the cat puns are enough to keep me from giving this a perfect score. 9/10.

Abilities: Again, you can’t really sum up what Felynes are capable of since they have as much potential as humans do. They’re intelligent enough to make tools, such as the pickaxes seen in the images above, and even bombs. They can get good with all manner of weapons, too, and they put these skills to good use when hunting on their own or when fighting alongside a human hunter. Felynes that join the player character on hunts are called Felyne Comrades, Partnyers (ugh), and, in Rise, at least, Palicoes. Palicoes have their own armor and weapons, and both are unique from the ones that players can equip. Seriously, one of the weapons you can equip to a Palico in Rise is literally a squirt gun, which is amazing. Palicoes can also have different roles, such as Healers and Gatherers, which affect their behavior and abilities. Here’s a fun fact for you: Monster Hunter has had a lot of crossover events and DLC across the games, and a lot of it usually involves giving Palicoes weapons and armor based on whatever series is collaborating with MH at the time. You’ve got stuff like the Mario and Luigi outfits in Monster Hunter 4:

Now, MH4 was on the 3DS, so it makes sense that there’d be some Nintendo rep in the series. But you’ve also got some weirder ones, like this one from Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate (known in Japan as Monster Hunter XX, pronounced “Double Cross”):

This is...unorthodox, but again, it makes some sense; both Phoenix Wright and Monster Hunter are Capcom properties. But this next one, which is also from MHGU? It makes no sense whatsoever to me:

No, you are not hallucinating. There was literally a canon crossover event between Monster Hunter and Sailor freaking Moon. I don’t like the way this thing is looking at me, and I like what the internet probably did when they saw it even less. And this isn’t even the weirdest or most disturbing outfit Palicoes have gotten because of crossovers! I just didn’t show images of some of the other ones because the wiki won’t tell me what franchises they’re from. If you wanna see them, click this link and scroll down a bit: https://monsterhunter.fandom.com/wiki/Felyne_Photo_Gallery#Felyne_Comrades_.2F_Palico_.2F_Partnyer

If you wanna see some of the franchises MH has collaborated with (including Pizza Hut...twice), go here: https://monsterhunter.fandom.com/wiki/Monster_Hunter_Collaborations

Where was I? Oh, right, the Felyne abilities. Well, they can basically do anything humans can, and they can fight alongside you, so 10/10.

Equipment: Despite what you may think, you can fight Felynes if you encounter them in the wild, and they do drop items upon defeat. However, they’ll only attack you if you attack them. Thankfully, you can’t kill them; when you’ve done enough damage to them, they’ll burrow away, leaving behind items for you to pick up. However, none of these items are very special, from what I can tell, and don’t seem to be used in making any equipment, so there’s literally no reason to hurt these little guys (unless there’s a mission where you have to defeat them that I don’t know about). But they do have weapons based off of them, which you can make from items that I presume aren’t dropped by anything when you kill it. Now, this is the first time I’ve felt that I’ve needed to show multiple weapons here, and that’s because Felyne weapons are...weirdly inconsistent. There are a few which look like what you may expect--that is, sticks with paws on the end--but there are more that are...well, to start, here’s a Light Bowgun you can make in several games--it’s called the Felyne Helldoll in MH1 and the Felyne Ragdoll in other games:

...well, at least they made the tail the barrel instead of, well, the butt. This is...kinda cute? But then you’ve got weapons like this Switch Axe (an axe that can turn into a sword) from MHG/MHGU and Rise called the Grim Cat:

Okay, what about Felynes made the devs think “Cheshire Cat?” This is disturbing. And then you’ve got this Hammer from Monster Hunter Frontier G which--oh, god, what is that.

Th-that’s a hammer? How is that--y’know what, no. I-I think we’re done here. The point is that Felyne weapons are so diverse in terms of design that I don’t think I can rate them as easily as I can other weapons. I’m just gonna give these a nya~/10.

Final Thoughts and Tally: Felynes might as well be the secondary mascots of Monster Hunter (we’ll get to what many consider the true mascot another time); they’re easy to understand and they’re cute enough to be iconic. They’re the most human out of all of the monsters, and that makes them easier to connect with, especially if you’re a cat lover. The fact that they’re a huge help on hunts just makes them easier to appreciate, and the different weapons and armor you can give your Palicoes adds even more personality to these little guys. 8/10.

[mashounen2003]

Sonic opinions - 1

Honestly, I think it's time for me to give closure to the “Sonic fan phase” of my life. I’ll keep playing the games if they pique my interest, but in terms of the stories they tell and how their characters are portrayed, these games no longer appeal to me. The comic currently published by IDW isn’t complete garbage nor does it have so much drama and controversy surrounding it, in addition to having Whisper and Tangle, two characters I really like at least on a conceptual level, but the story and characterizations are leaving me deeply disappointed and sometimes fall even lower than the recent games written by Pontac & Graff, namely with regard to the characterization of Sonic himself.

The continuity of the TV series Sonic SatAM and the comics published by Archie was always the branch of the franchise that truly caught my attention and is my main source of inspiration for writing stories; in fact, SatAM was the way I found out about Sonic and became a fan in the first place. But this “North-American continuity” is already as dead as the Mega Man Legends saga, and it looks like the vast majority want to forget it as if each and every one of its elements and ideas inherently had just been a massive nightmare regardless of its execution by the writers. At best, the fandom currently sees this branch of Sonic as some silly “edgy” attempt to take the franchise seriously, something that may have been laudable but was always foolish and doomed to fail and is such a risky gamble that it's not worth trying again.

I'm also getting fed up with the Sonic fandom in general, despite sharing a lot of opinions with some individual fans. Yes, I know there are already many who have declared this for the most varied reasons, be it the “shipp wars”, something in Sonic or even the franchise as a whole suddenly becoming “cringe” due to a whim of a majority portion of the fandom, or the way Sonic reuses "hackneyed" tropes in an alleged demonstration of lack of originality; however, when someone gives Sonic the middle finger for this kind of reasons, they usually do it hypocritically.

No, what got me tired of the Sonic fandom is the way everyone becomes obsessed with picking one branch of the franchise, calling it "the true Sonic", claiming this is the only pure and genuine incarnation of the “soul of Sonic” (if there really is such a thing), marking as “foreigner” every character, concept or element from any other branch of the franchise, and demanding from the fans of those other branches to get on their knees and be thankful that the "True Fans (TM)" even allow them to stay in the fandom. Note that I’m not accusing fans of only one specific portion of the franchise: there are such people among fans of the videogames’ continuity, @skull001 being probably the worst offender, but there’s also that kind of people among the SatAM and Archie-Sonic fans, such as the “nostalgic” delusional pissbabies, blatantly homophobic and conservative, who are now supporting Twitter hashtags like “Rally4Sally” and “Udon4Sonic”. You may think this is actually something typical of all fandoms, but it’s not: this is truly something unique to the Sonic fandom; I don't see huge hordes of Mega Man fans bullying the Legends fandom or making fun of them for the way their favourite saga ended two decades ago; even in the Dragon Ball fandom, despite constant discussions about what is canon and what is not, there’s some kind of tacit consensus that GT and Super are two offshoots of the franchise, equally valid although not coexisting in one same fictional universe (although Shūeisha itself seems to officially support this view, which certainly helps prevent some discourse), while the only part of Dragon Ball universally despised (and rightly so) is Dragon Ball Evolution.

I'm sorry if this hurts some people’s sensibilities, but if I decide to write a story with any given set of characters, elements, concepts, setting, internal rules and whatnot, the only thing in my mind will be to write a mildly decent story. I'm not here to “honour” -let alone honour at all costs- some supposed legacy and traditions that some people say should be upheld by each and every Sonic content creator. And let’s be brutally frank: we’re talking about a franchise that started as platformer 16-bit videogames whose sole purpose was to show SEGA’s consoles were better and handled speed better than Nintendo's; SEGA never really intended to tell a story or portray its characters consistently, only later did the cast begin to receive more defined personalities and the games start telling stories because SEGA suddenly saw this would make them sell more, and even that varied wildly according to whatever seemed more convenient at the time; not to mention SEGA's unique habit of entering vicious cycles of failure and over-correction, where Sonic Team makes a few mistakes in a game that did everything else more or less well, SEGA throws away the entire game along with the foundations on which it was built and the story that was told by that game, Sonic Team makes a new game with absolutely everything replaced and makes mistakes again but those mistakes are different from those of the previous game, the process is repeated ad nauseam and no-one is ever satisfied with anything. A few Sonic fans trying to impose on every other fan a supposed single Sonic canon with some kind of official approval seal by SEGA & Sonic Team is something quite backward, because that single official canon almost never really existed, and if it does exist, it makes no sense and is internally inconsistent, dependent on the creation of new games, and very likely to be retconned, overwritten and modified at any time.

There are other "bad habits" of the Sonic fandom that have led me to break ties with them. One of them is the way many fans take one trait of a character, be it simply one of many facets of their personality or even a physical trait, and turn that into the entire personality of the character; many of those same fans are also massive hypocrites, complaining (albeit rightfully) about how SEGA oversimplifies Shadow into either “Sasuke the Hedgehog” or “Vegeta the Hedgehog”, but then they do the same as SEGA. One of the cases in which this is most evident is when they make Sonic's personality boil down to "gotta go fast" and "be a free spirit"; based on that, they denounce that Sonic saying "I would slow down for you" to one of his closest friends (even if Sonic and Sally weren’t a couple when he said that and/or you don’t support that shipp, it can be said she was at least one of his closest friends in the SatAM-Archie continuity) contradicts the very essence of the character, or they do something even worse: saying that "being a free spirit" means being away from your friends and not having "ties" (like... literal ties, made with ropes, the ones that are actually a bad thing) with anything or anyone. It's like when Goku is portrayed by Dragon Ball fans as far more insensitive than the actual way Akira Toriyama had conceived him and always wrote and portrayed him in his official work.

There are also the plainly disturbing ideas many fans seem to have about personal relationships, judging by the opinions they give about the relationships of Sonic and the rest of the cast. In addition to making everything revolve around vaguely defined words and concepts they throw right and left almost without thinking about their actual meaning, they also seem to believe that having friends and caring for them, or any kind of responsibility no matter what kind it is, is nothing but a drag, like rat-s*** stopping you on your way to "freedom" (this is just amazing: they say the entire Western canon is edgy and the British comic’s Sonic is a jerk, but if you think about this for a bit, these fans’ version of Sonic turns out to be even edgier and more of a jerk than Shadow in his spin-off videogame); in the case of Archie-Sonic, there are all the abuse apologists supporting Scourge and Fiona being a couple, even though you don’t need any “meta” analysis to see he’s (at the very least) verbally abusive towards her and had attracted her by posing as someone else in the first place.

[blazehedgehog]

What was the honest reaction to Sonic 06 back in 2006?

It was a long time ago, so I can only really speak to my own perspective.

Sonic 2006 was the time that Sega’s marketing department really started cranking the hype train really, really hard. Sonic 2006 was announced as a fresh start. A soft reboot. Sonic Team said they were treating it like “the first Sonic game on the Sega Genesis.” You still had Tails, and Knuckles, and Shadow, but it was the start of a new era. A new type of Sonic the Hedgehog. More serious, more realistic, more “epic.”

At this point, there was no reason to necessarily distrust any of that. Yes, Sonic games had been slipping in quality, and yes, Sega was still more or less pretending that everything was “okay.” But that was always in the typical, “we’re trying to sell a video game and not go bankrupt” sense. This felt like a tacit acknowledgement that things weren’t so great and they were going to start over and refocus. Set things right.

Early gameplay footage looked rough. I distinctly remember a Gametrailers hands-on where they were demoing the Mach Speed Zone in Kingdom Valley, and the Sega representative was very clear and upfront that the game wasn’t done yet, and all of the empty space Sonic was running through would be filled in later. (It wasn’t.) There was also the typical debate over the TGS 2006 “Bringing it Home” playable demo, where people argued then, too, that the game wasn’t done yet, and not to judge things too harshly. The final version will be better.

The final version also wasn’t done yet. So, y’know.

I had effectively bought an Xbox 360 for this game. I was broke as per usual, but I’d gotten lucky and won a Gametrailers video competition, which landed me $1000 in Gamestop gift cards. I bought a PS2, a Nintendo DS, and an Xbox 360, plus more than a dozen games between the three platforms. I knew there would be more Xbox 360 games besides Sonic 2006, and I’d even originally wanted a 360 primarily for Elder Scrolls Oblivion, but the simple fact is that once the money was in my hands and I spent it, Sonic 2006 was the only actual Xbox 360 game I owned.

Or was going to own, anyway. I think I’d won the contest in September or October of 2006, when Sonic came out in November. So I bought the 360 a few weeks early with some original Xbox games, and spent the interim with Spider-man 2, Ninja Gaiden Black, and the copy of Halo 2 I borrowed from my cousin.

Sonic 2006 was the first game I’d ever pre-ordered. The second game, pre-ordered on the same day, was The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess for the Gamecube. I still have the tiny pre-order statue that came with Sonic. His gloves and socks, once white, have begun to yellow with age, and the skin tone on his face and body is turning an ashy gray.

Even 72 hours before launch, there was not a clear picture what Sonic 2006 actually was. Sega was deliberately obfuscating certain features; early in development they’d sworn up and down that there were only three playable characters in the game, something that blatantly wasn’t true. Perhaps it was miscommunication from Japan, but it meant they were now going out of their way to hide how many other playable characters were actually in the game. I naively distrusted most (if not all) professional reviewers back then, and the earliest scores for Sonic 2006 were all over the map.

As a Sonic fan, you kind of had to know how to read between the lines on the more negative reviews, because we were definitely in the era where it felt like critics were starting to dogpile on the Sonic franchise now that Sega was a third party developer. There weren’t a lot of professional reviews you could trust regarding Sonic games, or at least, that’s what it felt like. This was the rise of the podcast, and snarky hosts were taking whatever low hanging fruit they could get.

I remember waking up on launch day -- friends had gotten up early and picked theirs up in the morning, when I’d rolled out of bed somewhere closer to noon (or maybe even afternoon). I had plans to pick up my copy later that evening, after sunset. My friends did not sound happy, but again, there was always this vibe of “Wait and see.” They had only just started the game. First impressions were still too fresh to really call.

But I had this moment, this cold spot in the pit of my stomach, where I thought “Maybe I can cancel the pre-order and get Gears of War instead?” Reviews for Gears seemed pretty good. I’d probably be happy with it instead of Sonic.

I couldn’t let myself do that. I was a Sonic fan. This was the first big Sonic game of a new generation. A new start. I bought the console for this. First game I ever pre-ordered. The second Sonic game in the history of the franchise I’d bought on launch day. This was it. This was the event. No backing down. Besides, Sonic 2006 was a big 15th Anniversary celebration game. They wouldn’t make such a big deal about the anniversary without just cause, right? Sonic 2006 was going to be great. I just needed to calm down.

So we drove out to Gamestop -- and it was the sort of thing where I think we couldn’t do the pre-order at my local Gamestop for some reason, so this one was a town or two over. It was a journey. I was nervous the whole way there. Something told me I was making a mistake. But I had to do this.

I think it may have been starting to rain as we rolled up on the store. It was around 8pm, and people were starting to camp out on the sidewalk. Literally camp out, tents and all, because of the rain. Today was the launch date for Sonic 2006, but tomorrow was the launch of the Playstation 3. These guys were here for Gamestop’s “Midnight Madness” launch event. They were going to be some of the first to get a PS3. I was probably the last person to pick up a Sonic 2006 pre-order.

Sonic 2006 might have been the first Sonic game to ever make me angry. I’d had a lot of internet debates on how I felt about Sonic Adventure 2, but most of those amounted to splitting hairs about things that felt disappointing when compared to the original Sonic Adventure. I was not angry then, I was simply let down. I was similarly let down when I finally got a chance to play Sonic Heroes. But again, not angry. Baffled, maybe. A little sad. But not angry.

With Sonic 2006, I slammed head first in to all of my excitement and uncertainty at 200mph. This was a Sonic game unlike anything I’d ever played before, and in all of the worst possible ways. Enough has been said about the quality of the game that I don’t need to describe anything that’s wrong with it -- also because literally everything was wrong with it. Perhaps the first video game I’d ever played, ever, on any platform, that actually fought back against your efforts to play it. A disaster in every sense of the word. A broken nightmare. After finishing Sonic’s story, I was mad. How could they let this happen? What was wrong with them?

I was less angry after having finished Shadow’s story. Shadow had even buggier gameplay than Sonic, but it also felt more complex, more action-oriented. His story was better, too -- instead of the sappy Princess love story, Shadow’s story was about how the world was against him, and the crossroads that brought him to: rise above his past and strive to be a better person, or give in to the temptations of evil? It was still dumb as heck, but it was less dumb than Sonic’s story.

By the time the credits rolled, I had accepted the fact that this game was a mess. More of a mess than any Sonic game ever had been before. It was clearly a deeply unfinished game. Friends theorized maybe they could patch the game, because that was a thing games could get now. Sonic 2006 could still be saved. The PS3 version wouldn’t be out for another month, surely that means they’re working on a fix, right? Some were even theorizing over an achievement called “Nights of Kronos” -- it mentioned a “complete ending to the last hidden story.” Perhaps that meant there was going to be more? Maybe we got the bad ending, and a better, more finished ending was waiting for us on the disc somewhere?

There wasn’t. And no patch ever fixed the game. That was Sonic 2006 -- the kiss, the loading screens, the strange mannequin NPCs, the stiff controls, the glitchy physics, the empty overworlds, the bizarre dialog, the plotholes and time paradoxes, that’s just what the game was, and was always going to be, forever.

Before Sonic 2006, you could say that 3D Sonic games were bad, but there was always a place to defend them from. They had problems, but they were never irredeemable. Sonic Heroes may have had frustrating controls and repetitive level design, but it had great art direction, nice music, and fun concepts. They were always trying, dang it, and it was obvious to see that.

Sonic 2006 felt irredeemable. Offensively terrible. A failure on such a level that it was hard to comprehend. Beyond simply “a new low” for the franchise. This felt like rock bottom. It was the kind of bad that spread like a virus. Even good games, like Sonic 2 on the Sega Genesis, felt notably tarnished by the existence of Sonic 2006. It threatened to ruin the entire franchise by proximity alone. For some, it probably did. I definitely had a moment where I wondered if I would ever enjoy a Sonic game in the same way ever again. They were all tainted now. Infected by memories of Sonic 2006, the game that was supposed to save the franchise, but condemned it to the lowest pits of hell.

In isolation, that might have been the end for me. I might have continued to drift away, bit by bit, until I found greener hills outside of the Sonic franchise.

I’ve said this before, but what saved me was getting hired to write for TSSZ News. Now, suddenly, I was paid to play and write about Sonic games. It was a duty. And it helped that the first Sonic game I reviewed for TSSZ ended up being Sonic Unleashed, a game I continue to openly gush about to this day, more than a decade after its release.

But never forget that Sonic 2006 was such a disaster that it nearly made me give up Sonic the Hedgehog. It really was that bad.

[purplesurveys]

1184

survey by xflirtykaosx

Alphabetti Spaghetti (2/3)

F o r e v e r - y o u r s - F

Do you fancy any celebrities? If so, who? KIM TAEHYUUUUUUNGGGGGGGGG

Do you watch any FBI shows? Which ones? No.

Have you ever been to a festival? Which one? I don’t think so.

Do you have a fireplace in your house? Hell no. Just the idea of having a fireplace considering where I live and the general climate we have all year makes me nauseous haha.

Do you have a hot flask? I’m not so sure what you mean but if you’re referring to tumblers like Hydro Flask that keep drinks hot/cold for a really long time then yeah, I have one.

What decade were you four in? 2000s.

Do you like the TV show Friends? I love it. I haven’t watched an episode in a while, but it’s always a go-to for me whenever I feel really really really down.

Do you like the feeling of cat fur? Sure, it’s pleasant. Same with dog fur.

Go girl, go; G

Do you have a back garden? Not really a garden but we do have a sort of backyard; basically some space behind the house. 

Do you have a gentle touch? Idk...depends on what I’m holding or touching, I guess? Like I would obviously hold an infant as gently and gingerly as possible, but I wouldn’t pay as much attention if I’m holding something ordinary like my phone.

Do you like girly programmes like Gossip Girl? LOL at girly. Who says Gossip Girl and literally any other show out there has to be for a certain audience?

Do you ever use gloves? Only when I order from Frankie’s since they provide gloves with their meals.

Do you prefer gold or silver? Silver.

Are you a greedy person? What makes you greedy? A little bit, when it comes to food hahaha. I don’t like sharing and I get angry if someone eats a portion I already called dibs on.

Have you ever seen a gypsy? No.

Hold on honey, I'm here. - H

Do you have any bad habits? What? I pick at my nails - either set - when I get tense. I also tend to get a liiiiitle bit reckless with my money, if I do choose to spend. I’m pretty self-disciplined for the most part, but I let that go as soon as I give myself the green light lol. Exhibit A would be me spending a total of nearly P7,000 just this week alone on BTS merch...

Do you know anyone called Helen? I don’t think so. My dad has a cousin named Helena, though.

Have you ever watched a documentary about Hitler? Not directly related to him, but I remember watching Night Will Fall in high school.

Do you put hm in a lot of your survey answers? Not a lot. Occasionally, though.

When was the last time you went to hospital? What was it for? May last year. Blood and urine tests.

Do you like HP (Harry Potter)? Who's your favourite character? I didn’t grow up with it, but it’s not as if I’m a passionate anti. It’s just not my cup of tea, even after trying to read the books.

Do you spell it honey or hunny? I never spell it as hunny unless I’m saying it sarcastically or playfully with friends.

Are you afraid of this Swine Flu Hype? That’s gone now, right? We’re dealing with something else entirely.

In the end we all die broken. - I

Have you ever been to Ibiza? Nopes.

Do you take ice in your soda/fizzy drinks? I don’t really have a preference as I don’t regularly consume fizzy drinks anyway, as long as it’s not lukewarm.

Who do you think is a complete idiot? Anyone supporting the government at this point is a good runner-up.

Do you often wonder what if? Sometimes. But I also find it a waste of time, so I don’t dwell on them.

Have you ever seen an Igloo? I haven’t.

Do you get ill often? No, almost never.

Do you ever imagine you were not human? What did you imagine you were? No, this has never come to mind.

Do you like sexual innuendos? If it’s not too trashy, sure.

What is your IQ? Idk, I’ve never had it checked.

Do people often call you irrational? I’ve never been called this before, at least not to my face.

Do you think the name Isis is pretty? ...Welp, not anymore.

Do you get itchy eyeballs? That never happens. Is that even possible?

Do you know what ix stands for in roman numerals? 9.

Just breathe baby, breathe. - J

Have you ever been in jail? I have a very vague memory of visiting a prison with my parents before, but I no longer remember why I was there.

Do you like JD (Jack Daniels)? Nahhhhhh. Had a tiny sip of it once, found it absolutely nasty.

Do you get jealous easily? Not anymore.

Do you tell a lot of jokes? Yeah. I like making people laugh, so I drop jokes whenever I can whether I’m in a formal or informal setting.

Do you finish school/college in June? When I was in college, my school year ended every May. Before that, the academic calendar ended every March.  

Kiss me, kill me, thrill me. - K

Do you know a girl called Karla? Yeah, one of the managers at work is a Karla but I don’t work with her. I also went to grade/high school with a girl named Karla; she was my friend for a while as well, but we grew apart over the years.

Did you watch Kenan and Kel? Nope.

Do you prefer kisses or hugs? Depends on the person, I guess. But in the context of being in a relationship, I do love being kissed.

Do you like Korn? I don’t listen to them.

Do you like watching films with Kung Fu in them? Not in particular.

Lessons learnt the hard way are the best I've ever had. - L

Do you like Lady Gaga? She’s okay. I’m not super crazy about her but I tend to like all the stuff she puts out.

When was the last time you had lemonade? Wow, it’s definitely been a while. Maybe a year or so ago? I don’t get to have it a lot; usually only when it’s offered at hotels or resorts when I go on vacation.

Do you ever lie to save your own skin? Sometimes, but I never let the lie be too big just in case it bites me back in the ass one day.

Do you think llamas are cute? Sure.

Do you use Lol a lot? Yes.

Do you think you are lucky or unlucky? Neither.

Melody in my heartstrings. - M

Do you like Mac and Cheese? Loooooove mac and cheese, especially truffle mac and cheese.

Do you ever eat at McDonald’s? What's your usual? Not very often tbh, but I do like McDonald’s. I don’t eat it frequently enough to have a usual order; I get whatever I feel like having at a given moment. And since we’re here, I’m gonna be plugging the BTS Meal, in stores 5/26! HAHAHA

Do you like Medieval games like 7elda? You mean The Legend of Zelda? I do love that franchise, but I don’t like the medieval genre as a whole; I just happened to grow up with the Zelda series and Nintendo as a whole, so I’ve taken a liking to it. 

What's on your mind right now? That it’s Monday again tomorrow. I feel like I’m starting to get burnout :/ I’ve definitely noticed I haven’t been being 100% at work lately...but it could also be because the weather is crappy hot again, which makes it a lot harder to work and keep focused.

Is money in your opinion, the root of all evil? It’s part of it.

Do you like Mr and Mrs the show? I’m not familiar with it.

Do you read murder mystery books? Which ones? No.

Do you find Mystical stuff fascinating? Not really.

Nobody loves me, what a change. - N

Do you know the name of your local shopkeeper? We don’t have those here.

Have you ever been called nerdy? I’m sure I’ve been.

Are you you truly a nice person? I hope that’s what people see and think.

Do you overuse nouns in your sentences? I like using adjectives, for one; but I don’t exactly know how you can overuse nouns hahaha.

Do you know anyone personally who is a nurse? Yes, I have several relatives who are in nursing.

Only you - it always has been. - O

Do you obey authority or deliberately disobey it? Obey for the most part.

Is there anything in your room that is an Octagon? What is it? I don’t think so.

What odor can you smell in the room you're in now? The neutral scent my aircon is blowing out.

Do you get offended easily? I think sensitive would be a more fitting word.

Have you ever been to Ohio? No.

Do you ever say Oi? Sure, but not frequently.

Do you spell it OK or okay? I use both; I don’t have a preference. What I avoid is ‘K,’ though.

Are you older than the number day you were born on? Yes.

Have you ever watched the film the Omen? I haven’t.

Name one thing you always have taken for granted? The basic things, I guess, like breathing.

Have you ever had an operation? On what? Never.

Do you like things in a set order or doesn't it matter? As much as possible I do want things to be organized, yeah. I get restless if I see a very messy spreadsheet or Powerpoint, for instance.

Do you have a habit of overreacting? I was a lot more...theatrical in my reactions before haha. Not so much these days; I’ve toned down a lot.

Do you think Owls are nice? Sure.

Do you know what an Oxymoron is? Yup.

Have you ever tried Oyster? Yessssssss I love them and now you’re making me crave them :(

[britesparc]

Weekend Top Ten #482

Top Ten Sega Games

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[surveys-at-your-service]

Survey #333

“imaginary chain  /  the one you never break  /  seething all alone”

Do you have any fears you would rarely admit to anyone? Nah, I'm pretty open about what I'm afraid of. What website do you spend most of your time on? YouTube. What class in high school did you struggle with the most? I honestly don't remember with certainty, but it was probably math or economics. At least, I think econ was my senior year. What could you talk about for hours? Mark, meerkats, a few game franchises... maybe a couple more topics. Who is your favorite character from Harry Potter? I wouldn't know. Do you salt your popcorn? Yes. Do you have a Steam account? Yeah, but I don't have many games on there and rarely touch the ones I do. Do you like gaming? I do, but not as much as I did for most of my life. I mostly just play WoW now, and even that I'm not that into anymore. Part of it though comes from not buying any new games that I'm interested in because 1.) no money and 2.) no proper console, and you can only replay games so many times before you're just... yeah, done. Do you like reading books? Some days. Do you like religion? All things considered? No. Do you like Grand Theft Auto V? Y'know, growing up, I actually liked watching my younger neighbor play one of those games, but I don't remember which. Though he never actually "played" it... just ran around wreaking havoc, lol. I do however think GTAV was the one that Jason and Jacob started playing together when we moved into the apartment, and I thought the story was okay; I don't think they ever got far into it, though. Definitely wasn't Jason's sort of game, and I don't think it was too much up Jacob's alley, either. Can you twerk? I haven't tried and you will never see me try either, lmao. Do you have a Spotify account? Yes, but I almost never use it. If the last person you kissed tried to kiss you again, would you start kissing them back? Yes. If your best friend of the opposite sex tried to kiss you, would you start kissing them back? No. Have you ever kissed someone who has previously kissed someone you hated? Yes, because of how badly she hurt him. I don't have any negative feelings towards her now, though. We're actually friends, haha. The irony. Are you an easy lay? What weird wording. But whatever, quite the polar opposite actually. When’s the last time you said you were sorry? A few days ago. Are there any songs you listen to everyday? No. Would you like living on the coast? As someone who lives in a state hit by hurricanes usually every year and has seen the incredible damage they usually bring to the coast, no. I don't like the smell or gritty feel of salty air, either. When’s the last time you were really late to something? No idea. That's usually not a problem with me. Why did you stop liking the last person you liked? The last person I actually stopped like-liking would be Girt, and that would be because I just came to the realization I saw him too much as my brother instead of boyfriend. It just always felt awkward. Do you still talk to that person? Yeah, we're good. No hard feelings or anything between us. Are you keeping a secret from someone who needs to know the truth? No. Do you trust easily? Fuck no. I'll be cautious, at least to some degree, about new people for a while. What is the last song to make you cry? Since I've actually behaved and not listened to any trigger songs, it's been a long while, but it was probably "Another Life" by Motionless In White. Last person you hung up on? I'm sure some automated message. I barely ever answer the phone to numbers I don't recognize, though. Where was your last car ride to and from? To Wal-Mart w/ Mom to pick up our order and then back home. Next big outing? *shrug* Do you find it difficult to stay invested in online relationships? Not really, no. Considering I'm by far my most authentic self online, I actually tend to appreciate virtual friends more, if I'm being honest. I try to keep up with those people. Are you the type of person who pays close attention to the release dates of movies, music, etc., and will, for example, go see a movie or buy an album on the date it is released? If so, when is the last time you did so? Not really, no. I think I saw Warcraft the day it came into theaters, though. Do movies often make you cry? What kind of films/scenes make you tear up most? Yep. Tragic romance tends to do it the most, I think. Do you use any apps to track your health or medications? I have one to track my menstrual cycle as well as another that tracks my daily caloric intake, but I'm bad at using it because it's tedious if I actually have to measure something. Whose opinions/recommendations do you value most? Ummm if you mean like, in general, probably my mom's. But this most certainly depends on the subject I'm taking feedback on. What is something society "expects" you to do that you don't want to do and/or don't plan on doing? Shaving my legs came to mind first. Granted, I will if there is almost any chance of someone seeing them, but otherwise, I just don't care. We respect women with body hair on this account and see them as no less feminine. Are you interested in architecture? Is there any particular style that you're drawn to? I think it's cool, yeah. I should have an answer for this, given architecture was a massive focus in Art History the last time I was in school... Roman architecture comes to my head first, if that says anything. What was one of your favorite things from the nineties? BOY OH BOY, SO MUCH!! I'm probably gonna say the toys. There was some dope shit, man. Do you collect things pertaining to an animal? ANYTHING and EVERYTHING featuring a meerkat!!!!! :''') Do you wish that people were kinder to spiders? Well, yes. I hope everyone in their heart wishes this, even if they're afraid of them. They're very important to our ecosystem, and none are out there to harm us; their existence does us a favor. Where do you normally order pizza from? Domino's (my favorite) or LIttle Caesar's for the price. Did your parents keep anything of yours from when you were a baby? Oh yes, loads of stuff that's stored away somewhere. Do you own one of those "____ For Dummies" books? No, but I feel like we had one at some point? What was the last VHS tape that you watched? Yikes, who knows. Did you watch Boy Meets World back in the day? I actually didn't, no. Our old neighbor though loved it so much that she named her daughter Tapanga (deliberately spelled that way). Who is your favorite Scooby Doo character? I never really had one. Maybe Thelma. If I were to give you a coloring book, what would you want its theme to be? Animals. Have you ever won a stuffed animal at a carnival? Possibly a small one. I can tell you I did however accidentally stab the guy who ran the dart-throwing booth though, lmfao. He was obviously fine, and it wasn't a bad wound. I felt SOOOOOO bad. Are you a fan of narwhals? I'm a fan of any animal. Narwhals are definitely fascinating creatures. Grape or orange soda? Orange. Grape-flavored soda ain't my thing. Have you ever wanted to vlog? Noooo. My life is so painstakingly boring and repetitive. Did you have a favorite Disney movie as a child? It was and still is The Lion King. Do you or have you ever owned a portable gaming console? Yeah, a GameBoy Advance and Nintendo DS. Is shyness cute? It definitely can be. Have you ever had alcohol poisoning before? No. Do you like to gossip, or do you prefer to keep your mouth shut? I'm not a gossip fan. Have you ever vandalized someone else’s property before? Most definitely not. Are your parents divorced? Yes. Have you ever been under suicide watch for 72 hours in a psychiatric ward? Yes; at least here, that's protocol when you're admitted for suicidal thoughts/tendencies. Have you ever gone through your significant other’s phone or social media accounts, or do you respect their privacy? Absolutely not. That shit pisses me off so badly. Do you wear any sort of clothing for religious reasons? No. What's something you worked extremely hard to get? My sanity back. Sounds so dramatic, but I'm literally not kidding. Have you ever been labeled negatively or otherwise been called something extremely derogatory? Not that I remember. How many kids do you want to have? I don't want kids, but to entertain the question, when I did, I wanted three. It's fuckin wild to imagine for even a second that I once wanted that. Do you believe that being gay is a sin? *eye roll* Are you any good at photography? If so, what’s your specialty? I mean it with modesty, but I think I'm pretty good. My favorite thing to photograph are animals, but I generally take most pictures of people by request or pay. Judging by my deviantART account, my nature pics definitely get the most attention. Have you ever been a member of a gang before? Fuckin yikes, no. An infamous gang tried breaking into my childhood home once, so you can probably gather that I would never take part in their "big bad guys" bullshit. Have you ever felt like you were neither male nor female? No, I'm comfortable as a cisgender female. Do you like oatmeal raisin cookies? NO. Anything with raisins = NO. Do you think you’re attractive? No. Has a teacher ever caught and read a note you were passing in class? No, not that I really passed notes to begin with. I'd be mortified, regardless of what it was about. Would you rather live in a tropical or arctic climate? Arctic. Do you have an older brother? Yes. He's technically my half-brother, but I don't see "half"s. Have either of your parents ever been to jail? No. Are your collarbones prominent? Bitch I wish so I could get the damn dermal piercings I've wanted for years. Have you ever in your life worn overalls? As a kid, yeah. So ugly. Do you love yourself? It's... weird. Therapy is making me realize that a part of me, maybe even the bigger one, doesn't, but at the exact same time, I know I have worth just like every other human. I just don't treat myself like I do. What TV shows do you keep up with? None, until Meerkat Manor returns this summer. :') When’s the last time it snowed where you live? A couple months ago we got a little bit of it. Is your belly button pierced? No, but it would be if I was actually skinny. Just in my personal opinion, I don't at all think that that piercing would look nice on someone as overweight as me. Even if my damn dreams come true and I lose all the weight I want, my stomach will never look "normal," even after I get the excess skin removal surgery that will be very high on my priority list for my own self-image that's been nothing but loathsome since 2016. What is your favourite dinosaur? Spinosaurus is the obvious answer. What do you remember the most about your childhood? Lots of imagination. Parents arguing. Playing with my little sister. What age did you get your first hair cut? I have no idea. Do you have a favourite toy from childhood still? No. I wish I hadn't gotten rid of it. Have you ever made bread? No. Would you ever consider shaving your head? Nah. Would you like to live in a realm where the zombie apocalypse is possible? Who says we don't now? Zombifying parasites already exist among insects and such, so like... it's not unimaginable to one day see one developed enough to infect humans. I sure as fuck hope not, but. What do you use to dry your clothes? (Tumble dryer, radiator, etc) We have a dryer. Do you ever play the built-in games on your computer? Which ones? Nah. What was the last spontaneous thing you did? I did this many, many months ago, but I guess watch an episode of The Witcher by my own volition. I don't really do spontaneous things with how routine I am, but I had a random urge to check it out one morning. How loud can you whistle? Not very loud at all. Does anything on your body hurt or itch right now? My knees really hurt. They're getting worse. When was the last time you built a sandcastle? There's noooo telling, it's been many years. Have you ever ridden a mechanical bull? No. Well, not a *real* one, anyway. Just the little ones for kids. If you had to appear on a game show, which one would you choose? Family Feud. What is your favorite hot beverage? Hot chocolate. Do you have an alter ego? Describe them: No. Food: Are you adventurous or do you stick to what you know? I absolutely stick to what I know. I am SO picky. Is there anything (out of the obvious) that makes you feel really ill? I'm not immediately sure, but there's probably something. Do you bump into things often? Yes. I've always had this weird habit of like... drifting when I walk, so I do this easily. I just kinda wander to the sides a bit without realizing it. What design is on your calendar this year? I don't have a current one. Did you enjoy playing Hop Scotch when you were younger? I did. Do you feel uncomfortable going to the movies by yourself? Nah, not really. I did that with Warcraft and it was actually pretty chill. When thinking about your dream home, what do you think would be your favorite thing to shop for? The ~g o t h i c~ decor. Do you ever listen to those lo-fi hip hop/study music playlists on YouTube/Spotify? No. Are you likelier to work harder if you’re being paid? If not, what drives you to give your best effort? I mean, yeah. I'd assume that's pretty normal. Does the fashion sense of a potential partner matter to you? No. Is there anything that you prefer to write down rather than type? I'm unsure. If you download/torrent things, do you remember the first thing you ever torrented? Oh, the Limewire days of music pirating... but no, I don't remember. What was the last thing you posted on Instagram? Something photography-related, but I don't feel like checking. What do you wish your hair looked like? I wish I could pull off pastel pink hair rn. It also desperately needs a trim. Do you still feel anything for the first person you fell in love with? I'm sure I always will, at least a little. Do you get any magazines in the mail? No. Have you ever paid for any kind of online membership? Uhhhhh have I? I don't think so. Who’d you last see in a tux? Probably the groom of the last wedding I shot. Do you record any TV shows and watch them later? No, but I used to do that big time because I loved "rewatching" stuff when I was on the computer. Out of everyone you know, who was the most heart? My mother, big time. Who’s the bravest person you know? Also my mother. Or Sara. What profession do you admire the most? Teachers might just win. The patience that must take, among so many other things. Have you ever made a fake profile, for any reason? No.

[kingjasnah]

Is there the full list of brandersons favourite games reposted somewhere?

i dont think so? or not that ive seen. u can literally just sign up for the newsletter on his website but screw it ill just post them for u. it sure was a TRIP scrolling past these to get to the interlude though. undertale is on this list.....im shakign at the thought that adolin was based off ff10 tidus but i cant get it out of my head now

#10: Katamari Damaci

I love things that make me look at the world in a new way. Katamari did this in spades. It is an imaginative, bizarre vision with unique gameplay. It is like nothing else in the world and I love it for all its strangeness and occasional lack of gameplay polish.

I was transfixed the first time I played it, and have looked forward to it being remade and rereleased on multiple different consoles. I love the cute—and somehow creepy at the same time—storyline. It feels like a fever dream more than a game sometimes, and is probably the closest I’ll ever get to understanding what it’s like to do drugs.

#9: Undertale

This is an oddball on this list because I think it’s the only game that is not a franchise from a major studio—but is instead an indie game, which I believe was originally funded on Kickstarter.I loved how this felt like a novel as much as a game. It was one person’s vision; a single story told really well, with a huge amount of personality. The humor was just my kind of wonderful/terrible, and I was instantly enamored with the characters.That probably would have been enough, but it is a nice deconstruction of video games as a medium—and has not one, but multiple innovative gameplay mechanics. Together, the package left me enamored. This is a work of genius that I feel everyone should at least try, even if it ends up not being for them.

#8: Fallout: New Vegas

I have played all of the core Fallout games, and I was one of the (it seems few) who was really excited when it moved from turn-based tactics to first-person shooter. While Fallout 3 was good, it didn’t have the charm of the first two.New Vegas delivered on everything I was hoping to see. The charm was back, the writing sharp, the quests imaginative. The gameplay was engaging and branched in a variety of directions, the gunplay was solid, and the atmosphere immersive. I of course love the first two games in the series—but New Vegas combines everything I like in gaming into one package. (As a note, I own the Outer Worlds, and am looking forward to digging into it. Consider this item on the list a recommendation of other Obsidian games—like Knights of the Old Republic Two—regardless of genre, as I’ve found them universally to be superior to their contemporaries.)

#7 Super Mario World

When I was eleven, I flew (alone, which was very exciting to me) from Nebraska to visit my uncle Devon in Salt Lake City. Before I left, my father gave me $200 and told me to pay for my own meals while on the trip—but of course, my uncle didn’t allow this. At the end of the trip, I tried to give him the money, which he wouldn’t take.I mentioned my dad would take the money back when I got home, but that was okay. Well, my uncle would have none of that, and drove me to the local mall and made me spend it on a Nintendo Entertainment System. (This uncle, you might guess, is an awesome human being.)Since that day of first plugging it in and experiencing Mario for the first time, I was hooked. This is the only platformer on the list, as I don’t love those. But one makes an exception for Mario. There’s just so much polish, so much elegance to the control schemes, that even a guy who prefers an FPS or an RPG like me has to admit these are great games. I picked World as my favorite as it’s the one I’ve gone back to and played the most.

#7: The Curse of Monkey Island (Monkey Island 3)

I kind of miss the golden age of adventure gaming, and I don’t know that anyone ever got it as right as they did with this game. It is the pinnacle of the genre, in my opinion—no offense to Grim Fandango fans.This game came out right before gaming’s awkward teenage phase where everything moved to 3-d polygons. For a while after, games looked pretty bad, though they could do more because of the swap. But if you want to go see what life was like before that change, play Monkey Island 3. Composed of beautiful art pieces that look like cells from Disney movies, with streamlined controls (the genre had come a long way from “Get yon torch”) and fantastic voice acting, this game still plays really well.This is one of the few games I’ve been able to get my non-gamer wife to play through with me, and it worked really well as a co-op game with the two of us trying to talk through problems. It’s a lovingly crafted time capsule of a previous era of gaming, and if you missed it, it’s really worth trying all these years later. (The first and second games hold up surprisingly well too, as a note, particularly with the redone art that came out a decade or so ago.)Also, again, this one has my kind of humor.

#6: Breath of the Wild

I never thought a Zelda game would unseat A Link to the Past as my favorite Zelda, but Breath of the Wild managed it. It combined the magic of classic gameplay with modern design aesthetic, and I loved this game.There’s not a lot to say about it that others haven’t said before, but I particularly liked how it took the elements of the previous games in the series (giving you specific tools to beat specific challenges) and let you have them all at once. I like how the dungeons became little mini puzzles to beat, instead of (sometimes seemingly endless) slogs to get through. I liked the exploration, the fluidity of the controls, and the use of a non-linear narrative in flashbacks. It’s worth buying a Switch just to play this one and Mario—but in case you want, you can also play Dark Souls on Switch... (That’s foreshadowing.)

#5: Halo 2

Telling stories about Halo Two on stream is what made me think of writing this list.I’m sometimes surprised that this game isn’t talked about as much as I think it should be. Granted, the franchise is very popular—but people tend to love either Reach or games 1 or 3 more than two. Two, however, is the only one I ever wanted to replay—and I’ve done so three or four times at this point. (It’s also the only one I ever beat on Legendary.)It’s made me think on why I love this one, while so many others seem to just consider it one of many in a strong—but in many ways unexceptional—series of games. I think part of this is because I focus primarily on the single-player aspects of a game (which is why there aren’t any MMOs on this list.) Others prefer Halo games with more balanced/polished multiplayer. But I like to game by myself, and don’t really look for a multiplayer experience. (Though this is changing as I game with my sons more and more.)I really like good writing—which I suppose you’d expect. But in games, I specifically prefer writing that enhances the style of game I’m playing. Just dumping a bunch of story on me isn’t enough; it has to be suited to the gameplay and the feel of the game. In that context, I’ve rarely encountered writing as good as Halo 2. From the opening—with the intercutting and juxtaposition of the two narratives—to the quotes barked out by the marines, the writing in this game is great. It stands out starkly against other Halo games, to the point that I wonder what the difference is.Yes, Halo Two is a bombastic hero fantasy about a super soldier stomping aliens. But it has subtle, yet powerful worldbuilding sprinkled all through it—and the music...it does things with the story that I envy. It’s kind of cheating that games and films get to have powerful scores to help with mood.The guns in Two feel so much better than Halo One, and the vehicles drive far better. The only complaint I have is that it’s only half a story—as in, Halo 2 and 3 seem like they were one game broken in two pieces. And while 3 is good (and Reach does something different, which I approve of in general) neither did it for me the way Two did, and continues to do.

#3: Final Fantasy X

You probably knew Final Fantasy was coming. People often ask if the way these games handle magic was an influence upon me. All I can say is that I’ve played them since the first one, and so they’re bound to have had an influence.On one hand, these games are really strange. I mean, I don’t think we gamers stop quite often enough to note how downright bizarre this series gets. Final Fantasy doesn’t always make the most sense—but the games are always ambitious.Ten is my favorite for a couple of reasons. I felt like the worldbuilding was among the strongest, and I really connected with the characters. That’s strange, because this is one of the FF games without an angst-filled teen as the protagonist. Instead, it has a kind of stable happy-go-lucky jock as the protagonist.But that’s what I needed, right then. A game that didn’t give me the same old protagonist, but instead gave me someone new and showed me I could bond to them just as well. Ten was the first with full voice acting, and that jump added a lot for me. It has my favorite music of the series, and all together is what I consider the perfect final fantasy game. (Though admittedly, I find it more and more difficult to get into turn-based battle mechanics as I grow older.)

#2: Bloodborne

Those who follow my streams, or who read other interviews I’ve done, probably expected this series to be at or near the top. The question wasn’t whether Souls would be here, but which one to pick as my favorite.I went with Bloodborne, though it could have been any of them. (Even Dark Souls 2—which I really like, despite its reputation in the fandom.) I’ve been following FromSoftware’s games since the King’s Field games, and Demon’s Souls was a huge triumph—with the director Hidetaka Miyazaki deserving much of the praise for its design, and Dark Souls (which is really just a more polished version of Demon’s Souls).As I am a fan of cosmic horror, Bloodborne is probably my favorite overall. It really hit the mix of cosmic and gothic horror perfectly. It forced me to change up my gameplay from the other Souls games, and I loved the beautiful visuals.I am a fan of hard games—but I like hard games that are what I consider “fair.” (For example, I don’t love those impossible fan-made Mario levels, or many of the super-crazy “bullet hell”-style games.) Dark Souls is a different kind of hard. Difficult like a stern instructor, expecting you to learn—but giving you the tools to do so. It presents a challenge, rather than being hard just to be hard.If I have a problem with Final Fantasy, it’s that the games sometimes feel like the gameplay is an afterthought to telling the story. But in the Souls games, story and gameplay are intermixed in a way I’d never seen done before. You have to construct the story like an archeologist, using dialogue and lore from descriptions of in-game objects. I find this fascinating; the series tells stories in a way a book never could. I’m always glad when a game series can show off the specific strengths of the medium.In fact, this series would be #1 except for the little fact that I have way too much time on Steam logged playing...

#1: Civilization VI

This series had to take #1 by sheer weight of gameplay time. I discovered the first on a friend’s computer in the dorms my freshman year—and I can still remember the feeling of the birds chirping outside, realizing I’d been playing all night and really should get back to my own dorm room.That still happens, and has happened, with every game in the series. I have a lot of thoughts on this series, many of them granular and too specific for this list. (Like, it’s obvious AI technology isn’t up to the task of playing a game this complex—so could we instead get a roguelike set of modifiers, game modes, etc. to liven up the games, rather than just having a difficulty slider that changes a few simple aspects of the game?)I’ll try not to rant, because I really do love this game series. A lot of people consider IV to be the pinnacle of the series, but after V unstacked units—and VI unstacked cities—there was no way I could ever go back. If for some reason, you’ve never played this grand patriarch of the 4X game genre, it’s about starting with a single stone-age settler who can found a city—then playing through eras of a civilization, growing your empire, to try to eventually get offworld with a space program. (Or, if you prefer, conquering the world.)It’s a load of fun in the way I like to have fun, and I feel like the series has only gotten better over the years. My hat is off to the developers, who keep reinventing the series, rather than making the exact same game over and over.Now, about that request for difficulty modes...

there are runner ups but for the sake of anyone whos on mobile and cant get past a read more (first of all omg im SO sorry) ill refrain. anyway he thought WHAT loz game was the best before botw?

[aion-rsa]

Street Fighter vs. Mortal Kombat: The Many Ways the Crossover Almost Happened

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Street Fighter II: The World Warrior, the game that really kickstarted the fighting game genre, has turned 30 this year. To celebrate, Ryu and Chun-Li are appearing in Fortnite. It’s par for the course for Ryu, who has been in so many crossovers to fight everyone from everywhere. Ryu has crossed over with the cast of Tekken, the guys from King of Fighters, the Marvel superheroes, just about everyone under the Nintendo banner, GI Joe, Power Rangers, and even Family Guy for some odd reason. Ryu and Street Fighter have crossed over with nearly everyone.

Yet for some reason, the number one dream fighting game match-up has never happened. Yes, we’re talking about Street Fighter vs. Mortal Kombat. These two giants of the fighting game industry have never exchanged blows despite being household names from the very beginning of the fighting game boom of the early 1990s.

That doesn’t mean there haven’t been some close calls or that they haven’t brushed shoulders in the past…

The Beginning of the Rivalry

The first iteration of Street Fighter II came out in February 1991. This was the sequel that made good on the promise of the 1987 original, which had great ideas that it couldn’t really execute. It would be bold to say that Street Fighter II perfected the formula, but it was such an improvement that it’s still incredibly playable to this day. It was a lucky break for Capcom, who would go on to milk the game’s success with several new editions of the title, from 1992’s Champion Edition all the way to 2017’s Ultra Street Fighter II: Final Challengers for the Nintendo Switch.

If you’re a fighting game aficionado, you know the history. The success of Street Fighter II sparked a boom for the fighting game genre. In Japan, SNK released Fatal Fury and Art of Fighting right on the heels of Capcom’s hit, while Alpha Denshi gave us World Heroes in ’92. Meanwhile, in America, Midway Games was planning its own Street Fighter II competitor, which was originally meant to be a tie-in game for the movie Universal Soldier starring Jean-Claude Van Damme. When that project fell through, Midway turned to the much gorier Mortal Kombat, a fighting game that digitized actors instead of sprites, an innovative approach to animation at the time.

Released on October 1992, Mortal Kombat was a major hit, and Midway quickly put out a sequel, Mortal Kombat II, six months later in April 1993. The third game would be out two years later. Mortal Kombat was speeding through its early days with cabinet after cabinet, while Capcom was focused on re-releasing newer versions of Street Fighter II. After making bosses playable, adding new characters, and tossing in other bells and whistles over the course of various upgrades, the studio concluded the game’s original run with 1994’s Super Street Fighter II: Turbo.

That meant that at a time when the internet was in its infancy, these two popular franchises were mainstays of print gaming magazines. Announcements, previews, reviews, secrets, tips, and so on. If your early ’90s magazine didn’t have at least a page dedicated to Street Fighter and/or Mortal Kombat, then get your eyes checked because you weren’t looking hard enough.

In 1992, Electronic Gaming Monthly famously pulled an April Fool’s Day gag on readers where they took the Street Fighter II mistranslation, “You must defeat Sheng Long to stand a chance,” and insisted it was a reference to a secret boss fight that involved working your ass off in the game in a way that was outright impossible, making your way through the game as Ryu without taking a single hit until your battle with M. Bison (and that was the “easy” part). The joke led to many stressful nights for gamers, who were finally told the truth about the hoax the following December.

But Midway took the idea of a secret boss more literally. Using the Sub-Zero/Scorpion ninja sprites, Midway introduced a green-clad fighter named Reptile, a seriously difficult opponent that you could only fight in arcade mode under some seriously ridiculous circumstances. Reptile was added in the 3.0 version of Mortal Kombat, making him the first secret boss in the genre’s history.

Capcom would eventually catch up with Akuma, a character extremely similar EGM‘s design for Sheng Long, in Super Street Fighter II: Turbo. By then, Midway had thrown in three more secret boss fights for Mortal Kombat II, and even SNK had already introduced Ryo Sakazaki as a secret final boss in Fatal Fury Special.

Brushing Shoulders

The Mortal Kombat series really thrived as a gorier and campier alternative to Street Fighter II‘s more fundamental approach to the genre, but that didn’t stop Midway from taking a couple of jabs at Capcom. In-game, secret characters would occasionally pop up before rounds and say something cryptic for the sake of helping the players figure out how to unlock their fight, a nod to the Sheng Long joke. But there were more direct pokes at the competition. For instance, Jade would occasionally appear for the sake of asking, “CHUN WHO?” and vanishing. Midway also included “RYU” as default initials on Mortal Kombat II‘s high score board. Cute.

Meanwhile, Capcom stoked the fire with a commercial for Street Fighter II: Champion Edition for Sega Genesis. It featured a security guard at a toy store coming across a box for the game. Blanka’s arm would thenreach out and grab the nearby box for Mortal Kombat and crush it into smoldering trash.

But it wasn’t all jabs. The two companies crossed paths in other interesting ways. In 1993, Malibu Comics published a Street Fighter II series for only three issues before having to drop it because Capcom was unhappy with Ken Masters’ grisly fate in the story. Around the same time, Malibu also launched a Mortal Kombat series, and the publisher would actually batch issues of both series together and send them to vendors.

Read more

Games

The Strange History of Street Fighter Comics

By Gavin Jasper

Games

The History of Mortal Kombat Comics

By Gavin Jasper

Hasbro double-dipped when it came to action figures too, releasing sets for both Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat, complete with weapons and special vehicles. But while Street Fighter characters were treated like part of the GI Joe line, and were even featured in commercials where they all hang out and beat the crap out of Duke, Mortal Kombat was kept separate from Hasbro’s most popular figures.

Nintendo also used both franchises as major selling points for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The SNES ports for Super Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat II both played big parts in Nintendo’s Play It Loud ad campaign. One such commercial even had a guy getting a massive Street Fighter vs. Mortal Kombat tattoo on his torso.

But the closest thing we’ve ever gotten to a real crossover between the two games was through their Saturday morning cartoons. Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm were both released as animated follow-ups to their live-action movies, although they were directly inspired by the games themselves. On Nov. 16, 1996, both series, as well as Savage Dragon and Wing Commander Academy, took part in a long-forgotten crossover event based around a hero named the Warrior King and his search through the multiverse for a special orb that controls the weather.

The Warrior King played a major role in his Street Fighter episode as the romantic interest of Chun-Li, while in Mortal Kombat, he merely made a quick cameo as a shadowy figure running through a portal. Regardless, both stories involved the villains (M. Bison and Shang Tsung) wielding the same mystical orb.

No, the crossover ain’t much, but that’s still more than what we got in Wreck-It Ralph. Although the Disney movie featured M. Bison, Zangief, Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, and Cammy, it didn’t bring in any official Mortal Kombat characters to face them. Instead, the movie included “Cyborg,” a blatant Kano knockoff with the same cybernetic eye, goatee, and zest for heart-ripping. Why didn’t Disney just use Kano? Probably because he’s a Warner Bros. property. Still, missed opportunity.

Copying Test Answers

The video game adaptation of Street Fighter: The Movie will always be a fascinating novelty. Released in 1995 in arcades, the game not only copied Mortal Kombat’s digitized actors but it actually featured Jean-Claude Van Damme, the actor Midway had been unable to secure for its own Universal Soldier tie-in years earlier.

Interestingly, whenever Capcom sets out to make a totally new Street Fighter game, the studio usually chooses to go in a new art direction. Street Fighter V is the exception, although Capcom did initially start with a more photorealistic art style before nixing it and going with “Street Fighter IV but extra.” So, when Capcom tapped Incredible Technologies to put together the video game version of Street Fighter: The Movie in 1995, it was at a time when the publisher was also considering using the digitized Mortal Kombat style for Street Fighter III. Thankfully, Capcom decided not to go in this direction.

Midway hilariously dipped its toe in Capcom’s waters a bit more blatantly in 2004. Mortal Kombat: Deception introduced a fighter named Kobra who was supposed to be the latest human POV character, only evil. But Midway initially named him “Ken Masters” due to his physical similarities to the Street Fighter character. The studio included “Ken” in a beta version of the game provided to the press, with the express direction NOT to mention the character.

Guess what happened next. A German publication posted the images of “Ken Masters” anyway, suggesting Mortal Kombat vs. Street Fighter was finally happening. Sadly, no, this was not a teaser for the long-awaited video game crossover. It seemes Midway just hadn’t come up with a proper name for “Ken Masters” yet.

Capcom did throw in a cute reference to Mortal Kombat in Marvel vs. Capcom 3. The game featured Nathan Spencer, the Bionic Commando, whose cybernetic arm could shoot out like a grappling hook and grab opponents from far away. When doing that to yoink an enemy towards him for a haymaker to the face, he’d quote Scorpion’s famous “GET OVER HERE!” Nice.

Not the Right Fit

Mortal Kombat co-creator Ed Boon admitted in 2008 that he’d tried to make Mortal Kombat vs. Street Fighter happen at one point but Capcom wasn’t interested.

“I’ve always wanted to cross MK over since about MK4, or something like that. I’m a big fan of all of the other fighting games, Street Fighter, Tekken. I always thought, wouldn’t it be cool to have MK vs. SF and MK vs. Tekken? We pursued some of those ideas to the extent we could but we always ran into some kind of road block and couldn’t do it.”

A full-on roster vs. roster situation was out back in the ’90s, but these days, guest characters are a normal part of fighting games. Tekken 7 alone includes representatives from Street Fighter, Fatal Fury, Final Fantasy, and The Walking Dead. Mortal Kombat and Injustice have gone all over the map with their DLC choices, including slasher villains, ’80s action heroes, Spawn, Hellboy, and even the Ninja Turtles. When a fighting game announces a new season of DLC, you usually know to expect at least one crossover character to be included in the package.

For 2019’s Mortal Kombat 11, Boon reached out to Capcom once again. Wouldn’t it be neat if a Street Fighter character got in on all the gritty time-traveling action? While we don’t know which character Boon was interested in using, many fans theorize Akuma would have been the perfect fit. But Capcom said no.

Here’s what former Street Fighter producer Yoshinori Ono had to say about it:

“It’s true that a proposal for a Street Fighter character in Mortal Kombat was rejected by Capcom, but it wasn’t me personally! There were many people at the company that felt that it wasn’t a good fit for our characters. I actually met Ed at the Brazil game show and spoke to him personally about it. So it’s true – but I didn’t make the decision!”

So why didn’t it happen? Probably because Mortal Kombat 11 is banned in Japan due to all the gore and extreme violence.

“I understand why people want it,” Ono said at the time, “but it’s easier said than done. Having Chun-Li getting her spine ripped out, or Ryu’s head bouncing off the floor…it doesn’t necessarily match.”

Maybe one day. For now, we’re left waiting for Ryu to finally get over here.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Special thanks to tabmok99 for helping with this article. You can check out his Mortal Kombat know-it-all YouTube channel here.

The post Street Fighter vs. Mortal Kombat: The Many Ways the Crossover Almost Happened appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[kaialone]

Spirit Tracks Translation Comparison: Intro

This will be a comparison of the original Japanese version and the US English localized version.

Specifically, this will cover the intro cutscene of the game, detailing its backstory.

You can also watch this cutscene for yourself in English and Japanese. If you want, you can check out the EU English version, too.

For the comparison, the usual points apply:

Bolded is the original Japanese text, for the reference.

Bolded and italicized is my translation.

Italicized is the official NOA translation.

A (number) indicates that I have a specific comment to make on that part in the translation notes.

As you read this, please keep in mind that with translations like these, it’s important not to focus on the exact literal wordings, since there is no single “correct answer” when it comes to translations.

Rather than that, consider the actual information that is being conveyed, in which way, and why.

--

The Backstory:

これは遠い遠い昔… 人がこの地に生まれた頃の物語

This is a tale from long long ago... From the age when people were born in this land.

This is a tale from long ago. It's the tale of the first settlers of this land.

神の御名において治められし 大地は安寧のなかにありました

Ruled in the name of a God,  (1) the land was at peace.

In the beginning, the people followed the spirits of good, and all was peaceful.

けれどもその穏やかな時は 突如として失われたのです…

And yet, that time of tranquility suddenly came to an end...

But that era of peace soon came to an end.

闇の権化 魔王の襲来…多くの 命が奪われ 大地が焼かれました

An incarnation of darkness, the Demon King, invaded... Many lives were lost, and the land was burned.

The evil Demon King rose to power, destroying everything in his path.

全てを支配せんとする魔王は ついに神にも戦いを挑んだのです

The Demon King was close to seizing control of everything, and at last challenged the God as well.

The spirits of good had no choice but to face him in battle.

魔王と神の戦いは 永きに渡り 幾度も繰り返されました

For a long time, the battle of the Demon King and the God kept repeating over and over again.

The war that ensued seemed to last an eternity, and much blood was shed.

永遠に続くと思われた争いの果て 神は遂に魔王を討ち果たしました

At the end of their seemingly everlasting struggle, the God finally slayed the Demon King.

Finally, the spirits subdued the Demon King, though they could not destroy him.

しかしその神も かつての絶大な 御力を失ってしまったのです…

However, that God had also lost their once tremendous power...

Their powers were greatly depleted.

神は残された御力で魔王の魂を 闇の床に葬り…

With the power they had left, the God buried the Demon King's soul in a bed of darkness...  (2)

With their remaining power, they buried the Demon King's spirit in the ground.

彼の者が這い出ることが かなわぬよう塔を建てられました

To ensure that he would never crawl out again, they built a tower.

They built shackles to imprison him, and a tower that acted as a lock.

塔を要に魔を縛る封印が施され それは今も大地を覆っています

They fit the tower with a seal that binds demons. It covers the land to this day.

These shackles cover the land to this day.

全てを終え力尽きられた 神は天界に戻りになりました

After all was done, and with their power exhausted, the God returned to the heavens.

With their power drained, the spirits of good returned to the heavens.

神も魔も去ったこの大地は今 私達の手に委ねられています…

This land, left by both the divine and the demonic, has now been entrusted to us...

Suddenly bereft of both demons and spirits, this land was entrusted to us.

Translation Notes:

What I translated as “God” is 神/kami in Japanese. This can also be translated as “Gods”, but I have my reasons for going with singular instead, which I will explain in more detail below.

What I translated as “bed” is 床/toko in Japanese, which does mean “bed”, among other things, but in a loose sense that can also refer to something like the floor and the ground.

--

Comparisons & Thoughts:

Since this scene establishes the basic foundation of the entire story, which has seen some minor changes in English, there is a lot to talk about here, even if the text itself is short.

-

First of all, there are multiple points I want to go over regarding the divine entity which ruled the land in the past.

In the English version, they are called “the spirits of good”, but in many other language versions, they are called “the gods”, which is a closer translation of 神/kami, the word used in the Japanese version.

I want to point out that, depending on the context and one’s definition of what counts as a god, 神/kami could actually be translated as “spirit” or “spirits”, too.

However, in the case of the Zelda franchise, there are already creatures called “spirits” in the English adaptations of the games. These are called 精霊/seirei in Japanese, a word which more unambiguously translates to “spirits”. They include characters such as the Light Spirits in Twilight Princess, or Link’s spirit companions from Phantom Hourglass.

Because of this, translating 神/kami as “spirits” in this game here does conflate them with the previously established spirits in a misleading way.

It’s possible that they didn’t go for “gods” in English to avoid religious connotations, which is a bit of a bigger concern for a handheld title, since those are assumed to have a younger general audience.

But they actually do have at least one mention of the word “goddess” in the English version, and also feature the word “demon” a bit more prominently than most Zelda games.

So it’s not entirely clear.

For all we know, it could simply be that they came up with this idea of “Spirit” being the general theme of their localization (Spirit Tracks, Spirit Train, Spirit Flute, Zelda being a spirit), and thus went with “spirits” for branding purposes.

-

The next detail I need to address about this divine entity is the fact that I chose to translate 神/kami as the singular “God”, rather than the plural “Gods”.

You see, the Japanese language doesn’t truly have distinct singular and plural. Thus, any noun could be translated as either, and the only way to know which to go for is by knowing the context.

When it comes to the Zelda franchise, normally the obvious thing would be to translate 神/kami as plural, since this universe canonically has multiple deities, major and minor ones.

And these usually appear in groups too, like the most prominent gods in the franchise, the Three Golden Goddesses themselves.

But, as I was looking through the Japanese text of Spirit Tracks, I never came across anything that specified whether the 神/kami from its backstory was supposed to refer to multiple deities or a single one.

Once I realized that, I went back and noticed that the pictures in this intro cutscene actually seem depict a single entity fighting the Demon King:

If these were meant to be multiple deities, it feels like they would have depicted them as such here, but they didn’t.

So, while this isn’t concrete evidence that it was a single deity, I have never seen any evidence that it was multiple deities either.

For me, these pictures push the odds slightly in favor of it just being a single deity, so I have decided to go with that.

There is not much to truly go on, but given what little we have, I do believe this is the more likely option. I also think this ultimately fits slightly better with a few story details that come up later.

Going with the singular “God” does give me a few other problems, though.

Just as Japanese lacks a true plural, it also lacks things such as articles and capitalization.

Because of that, I might need to go with “God”, “a God”, “the God”, and so forth in my translation, depending on the context. And I’ll also have to make a choice when to capitalize the word or not.

Just be aware that in Japanese the word would always just be 神/kami, completely unchanged.

Additionally, the Japanese language also only rarely makes use of third-person pronouns, especially gendered ones. That’s just how the language works. As a result, the gender of this deity is never clarified either.

I decided to go with they/them pronouns for them in English, rather than to assume, but please note that this is just my translation choice.

In the Japanese version there simply aren’t any pronouns used for them, and that’s not an unusual thing.

These sorts of choices are always unavoidable when translating something from Japanese to English, so please be aware of them.

This is one of the many reasons why one should not take a translation’s wording exactly literal.

-

This next point isn’t related to this cutscene specifically, but I still wanted to mention it.

A little bit of trivia regarding this deity:

They don’t seem to have a specific given name, but in recent Japanese media I have seen them be referred to as 光の神/Hikari no Kami, which means “God(s) of Light”.

The earliest official instance of this term being used that I could find was actually in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS. It was also later used in The Legend of Zelda: Encyclopedia.

I have seen it float around online a lot earlier than that, but I have never been able to find the original source for it.

As far as I am aware, this title does not appear in the game at all, at least I have never seen it anywhere.

If you happen to know where this title originated from, by all means, let me know!

-

With all that covered, we can move on to the more direct comparisons for this cutscene.

There is a very notable difference right at the start:

This is a tale from long long ago… From the age when people were born in this land.

This is a tale from long ago. It’s the tale of the first settlers of this land.

In the original Japanese version, it’s established that the events of this tale first began during the time when “people were born in this land”.

This makes it pretty clear that this tale involved the native population of this land.

In the English version, they instead say it’s the tale of “the first settlers of this land“.

This is quite misleading, as it gives the false impression that this tale is about the Hyrulean settlers, who arrived to this land 100 years ago.

Even if one were to argue “first settlers” could refer to previous settlers, the people described in the tale were clearly supposed to be natives of the land in Japanese.

This is no minor change, and from what I’ve seen, it led to a lot of confusion about the game’s backstory among English-speaking fans.

There are quite a few people who seem to be under the impression that Tetra and her crew would have fought the Demon King, but in reality, this conflict is supposed to have taken place many years before the Hyrulean settlers even arrived.

It’s a history that is unique to this land and its original native population.

This would also somewhat change the implication of this tale being told to Link. If you imagine it to be the story of the Hyrulean settlers, it’s Niko just telling Link about something that occurred in their recent history.

But as a tale that precedes the Hyrulean settlers, it’s Niko passing on knowledge about the history of this land prior to their own arrival.

This also happens to be one of the instances I know on top of my head where the EU English version has a more faithful translation, instead saying it’s the tale of “the first people of this land”.

-

Going forward, there are a few things to say about the battle with the Demon King as it is described here.

In Japanese, the Demon King is called 闇の権化/yami no gonge, “an incarnation of darkness”, which I feel might be interesting for people who want to speculate.

But I’m not sure if we are supposed to take this part literally, or if it’s just a poetic way to describe him.

The English version goes with a non-literal interpretation, adapting it as “The evil Demon King”.

-

A minor detail, but the Japanese version states that the Demon King went to challenge the God himself.

The English phrasing leans more towards it being the spirits of good who challenged the Demon King, but it’s a bit ambiguous.

-

Most interesting to me personally is the part where the Japanese version states that the battle between the two “kept repeating over and over again.“

The battle is stated to have been incredibly long in either version, but something about this phrasing here makes me imagine a conflict that keeps flaring up again and again across centuries.

Maybe even something slightly similar to the recurring conflict between Link and Ganondorf in the old Hyrule?

It’s a minor difference, but still one that affected my mental image of these events.

-

Finally, in Japanese it’s outright stated that the God “slayed” the Demon King, which is presumably why he was reduced to a soul.

In one sense, he died physically. It’s just that when you’re a Demon King, that doesn’t mean you’re out of the picture just yet.

The English version tones this down a notch, simply stating that the spirits “subdued” him. They even go as far as to´clarify that the spirits “could not destroy” the Demon King.

This actually will be a recurring element in this localization. For some reason, they seem to avoid this story detail.

-

Another little bit of trivia here:

This Demon King, whose actual name we learn later on, has the honor of being the first “Demon King” ...in English.

In Japanese, the titles “Demon King” and “Great Demon King” were frequently used for Ganon/Ganondorf already, but they were always translated as something else in English, like “King of Evil” or “Prince of Darkness”.

But with Spirit Tracks, they finally let this term be used.

He is still kind of special in Japanese too, since he’s the first one to be called Demon King who is not Ganon/Ganondorf, so let’s give him that.

-

And the last bit I want to compare directly is this part:

To ensure that he would never crawl out again, they built a tower.

They built shackles to imprison him, and a tower that acted as a lock.

They fit the tower with a seal that binds demons. It covers the land to this day.

These shackles cover the land to this day.

The differences here are simple.

In Japanese, the train tracks are a part of the larger “seal” that binds the Demon King, but in English they are made out to be like actual “shackles”  that directly hold him captive.

At this point in the story, this seems like a fair interpretation of what the tracks probably do, but later in the game we will get a more detailed explanation that differs from the English version.

Like I mentioned in the Introduction part, this change is most likely to elevate the importance of the tracks in the game’s lore, to fit with the English game title being “Spirit Tracks”.

Minor changes like these for the sake of branding aren’t unusual, from what I’ve seen.

-

All in all, the localization in this cutscene suffers a bit when it comes to accuracy, due to some changes they probably had no choice but making.

The story changes regarding the tracks is something that affects the whole game, naturally.

It’s an overall minor change, just a slight alteration of how this Demon King prison functions, but something the deep lore analysts among you might want to keep in mind.

Arguably, this change also causes some ever so slight plot holes later in the story, but mostly if you want to be nit-picky.

My biggest gripe in this scene is the “first settlers of this land“ line, especially since the EU English version has an easy fix for it.

It’s just a few little words, and yet they drastically change the implied context of this scene.

And I know for a fact that it has been misleading English-speaking fans for years, so I think it’s fair to say that this is a notable difference.

However, those aspects aside, this cutscene is well-written in English.

It’s faithful to the Japanese version in a way that isn’t too stiff, they did a good job of localizing the text in a general sense, and handled the changes they made well enough.

I’m still somewhat astonished they were able to have mentions of demons, the heavens, and even get in the line “much blood was shed “, which was not this violent in the Japanese version.

I know technically none of these are completely new to English Zelda, but still.

Anyway, that’s all for this part, feel free to proceed to the next one!

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 | Start | Next Part >

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[milly-plays-litg]

Hi! For the ask ship meme uwu: 001: mortal kombat, 002: kuaitana and 003: my dear princess kitana. bye :)

Sure, dear anon. Thank you for sending this ask. Someone seems to know me, so, let’s go then.

001 | Send me a fandom and I will tell you my:

Favorite character: Kitana, hands down. She was my main since MKII, and I kinda related to her. 

Least Favorite character: Kronika. She sucks as a boss. She is boring, plain and cheap, Shinnok is ten times a better villain than Kronika will ever be.

5 Favorite ships (canon or non-canon): 

Taleena (Tanya x Mileena), Kuaitana (Kuai Liang x Kitana), JadeLao (Jade x Kung Lao), CageBlade (Johnny x Sonya), Bireena (Bi-Han x Sareena).

Character I find most attractive: As for women, MKX!Tanya is hottest girl I have ever seen in Mortal Kombat. As for men, MK11!Kuai Liang is the most attractive man ever.

Character I would marry: Johnny Cage. He may be a jerk sometimes but I see why Sonya married him and I can’t blame her. 

Character I would be best friends with: Kung Lao. It would be a real fun to have a wit battles with.

a random thought: I don’t care what everyone says, but alongside with Nintendo, Pokemon and the WWF (back in the day during the end of the nineties), Mortal Kombat was my childhood. Later I liked other fighting franchises as Street Fighter or Killer Instinct, but never with the same intensity which I loved Mortal Kombat. Maybe is for that reason that certain retcons saddens me.

An unpopular opinion: I don’t know how much of umpopular opinion is this, but I don’t find that the guest characters are a good idea, even if I understand the financial gain behind it. I look at both Joker and Terminator slots and kinda saddens me the fact that Havik, Mileena or Reptile could have been in MK11 roster instead of them.

My Canon OTP: Taleena. Even if it’s safe to assume that is nothing but a fling and that there is more sexual attraction than real feelings between them, I will forever ship Mileena and Tanya in a romantically way.

My Non-canon OTP: Kuaitana. No, I don’t ship Kitana with Kuai because they wear blue and are assassins. I ship them because they have a lot in common:

Both were literally raised to be assassins and became honorable warriors for good causes, like saving Earthrealm and aiding to defeat Shao Kahn. 

In their transitions, both rebelled for freedom. In the old timeline, Kuai rebelled hinself from the Lin Kuei, so they wouldn’t turn him to a robot like Smoke. Kitana rebelled herself from Shao Kahn after she discovered her real origins and Kahn’s deception regarding Mileena’s existence.

It was literally confirmed that for being a Cryomancer, Kuai has edenian ancestry even if he was born and raised in Earthrealm.

Both have to deal with a brother/sister who went or is still nuts (Noob and Mileena).

Most Badass Character: Kitana, Kitana and Kitana. ¿Who dares to ditch Shao Kahn and lives to tell it?. None than the Princess of Edenia.

Most Epic Villain: The most obvious answer in terms of popularity would be Shao Kahn. But in my eyes, my choice is Shang Tsung. While Onaga and Shao Kahn are kind of brutes, Shang has the same means that also made other characters like Palpatine or Voldemort to be formidable villains: a scheming brain and cold blood.

Pairing I am not a fan of: 

Kotal x Jade. I despise it, because Kotal is a total piece of shit in my eyes and I headcanon him as possessive, jealous and liar type of man (one of his intros with D’Vorah kinda hints the last when she implies that she bedded him). Jade can do waaaaaaay better than him. She does not deserve a supremacist git whose idea of a “uNiTeD oUtWoRlD” means the slavery of Edenia.

Liu x Kitana: is not that I don’t like them, but I was never fond of them together. Is the same feeling I also get from Baraka x Mileena.

Character I feel the writers screwed up (in one way or another): Sindel and Mileena. The first was supposed to be a caring mother who tries to deal with her dark past as Kahn’s consort and not the golddigger that NRS gave us. The second was supposed to be Kitana’s evil twin who grew up with her and later hated her by irrational motives, thanks to NRS now, Mileena is a childlike experiment from Shang Tsung’s laboratory Flesh Pits.

Favourite Friendship: Kitana/Jade, Liu/Kung and Smoke/Kuai. Personally, I like when positive and healthy friendships are portrayed in media and despite of being known by being gory and violent, Mortal Kombat has plenty of healthy friendships.

Character I most identify with: Jade.

Character I wish I could be: Kitana.

002 | Send me a ship and I will tell you:

When I started shipping them: Long ago, when I discovered that I didn’t liked Liutana at all. I respect all ships, but Liutana is not my thing so I started to ship Kuai and Kitana since the days of MK9, later I found fanfictions/fanarts of them together which fueled my ship. 

My thoughts: I love them and canon or not, I will ship them forever. As I explained earlier, they have a lot in common and I don’t ship them just because they wear blue.

What makes me happy about them: The fact they have a lot of things in common so I can ship them freely.

What makes me sad about them: Nothing at all. 

Things done in fanfic that annoys me: When Kitana is depicted as a Mary Sue or a lady-in-distress. If there’s a thing that I love from her, is the fact that she has a lot of shortcomings and is not a perfect human being.

Things I look for in fanfic: A lot of fluffy. This may be cheesy, but I love Kuaitana fluffy fics. Neither am bothered by NSFW (or lemons if you want) fics as long as they are well written.

My wishlist: Not going to lie, but I don’t have one at all.

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: While I know that my ship is not canon, I’m not totally repulsed to Liutana, Liu is a cool guy who cares about Kitana after all. Just merely not my cup of tea. And if Kuai ends with Hanzo in canon, I will be okay.

My happily ever after for them: With Kitana ruling a free Edenia as Queen alongside Kuai as a Prince Consort while he reconnects with his edenian roots.

003 | Give me a character & I will tell you:

How I feel about this character: About Kitana, she is not only my main since MKII and my favorite character of this fandom, she was the first female hero that I truly liked. Words cannot describe how much I love her. Her story is one of the most epic in the Mortal Kombat universe. After she discovers Kahn’s betrayal she stands up against him by doing what she thinks is the correct thing to do. 

Any/all the people I ship romantically with this character: I have shipped her with Jade at some point in the past and Kuai Liang. But Kuaitana will be always my very first ship regarding Kitana.

My favorite non-romantic relationship for this character: Her friendship with Jade. I love when positive female friendships are depicted in media. My favorite moment of them will be when Jade in MK9 literally defects from Shao Kahn after she witnesses Kitana being arrested after she discovers Mileena’s existence and the deception related from Kahn’s part.

My unpopular opinion about this character: Even if I like the idea of Kitana defeating Shao Kahn (after the hell she endured for his cause, he had it coming. He deserved to be humlliated by Kitana), I’m not fond of the idea of NRS of ditching her Edenian identity and making her Kahnum of Outworld. I will be forever positive to the idea of a free Edenia from Outworld ruled firstly by Sindel and later by Kitana after she inherits the throne from Sindel at some point.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: That her edenian identity were acknowledged by freeing Edenia when she killed Shao Kahn during MK11, and helping Sindel to rule her realm as a warrior princess with Jade or Ermac’s aid.

Favorite friendship for this character: Like I said before, Jade will be always Kitana’s best friend.

My crossover ship: I don’t have an oficial crossover ship for Kitana. But for some weird reason, I’m kind of open to ship her with Cammy or Rose from Street Fighter.

[my-whumpy-little-heart]

2, 8, 9 for vidya game asks :3c

Thanks so much for the ask, Allen!!

2. Most nostalgic game?

Ohhh man, I don’t think I’m gonna be able to give a singular answer for any of these questions. Prepare yourself for unreasonably long rambling.

Most nostalgic game in terms of the-entire-fall-season-reminds-me-of-playing-it-I’ll-never-forget-the-impact-this-game-had-on-me is Undertale. I played it first about three or four years ago and it did lead me down an ultimately negative path in terms of self development at the time (for goodness sake, please don’t get too deep into the fandom around that game, especially if you’re young) the game overall left a positive impact on me. I love it to pieces and can confidently say it’s one of my favorite games of all time. 

Most nostalgic game in terms of I-played-it-as-a-smaller-child-and-it-tastes-like-being-young-again is Fishing Resort for the Nintendo Wii. I really doubt anyone out there is gonna know this game, and if you do then hello I love you. In fourth or fifth grade I had a friend who absolutely loved to play this game with me. We’d play it for hours on end whenever she came to my house and never got tired of it. I played it all the time on my own too, and it became my happy place. 

It’s just a really calming, simple game where you run around and fish all day at your choice of different resorts, trying to catch plenty of different types for your aquarium. It’s not especially stimulating or exciting, and there are so many better games you could be playing, but I’d absolutely recommend it if that description interested you. 

Most nostalgic game in terms of yeah-I-just-all-around-vibe-with-this-one-and-love-it-a-lot-and-also-nostalgia is Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. It was the first game I had when we got a Wii U about....... 7 years ago at this point? And it was my first Zelda game as well. I love the art style, I love the gameplay, I love the music, I love the story... I love this game. There’s really not much more I have to say. It introduced me to one of my long time favorite series’ in gaming and it did a damn fine job! Also, I would kill and die for the King of Red Lions.

8. Favorite song from a game?

Alright, all three of you lovely people who have sent asks for this so far sent me this question. And that means I can do whatever I want now because I have so much space to yell all my favorite game music at you all. I’ll be categorizing by games/franchises because :D so much music, so little time.

The Legend of Zelda: Molgera Battle Theme - Wind Waker Song of Storms/Inside Windmill Hut - Ocarina of Time Gerudo Valley - Ocarina of Time Groose's Theme - Skyward Sword (also, shoutout to Romantic Groose for the beautiful trombone there) Eldin Volcano - Skyward Sword Mogma Theme - Skyward Sword Any Of The Music In Eldin Please I Would Die For Those Heavy Beats And Low Brass Oh my gosh just put the rest of the Skyward Sword soundtrack on there too honestly. I love it so much. Deku Toad - Twilight Princess Goron City (Day) - Breath of the Wild Zant Battle - Twilight Princess

Uhh okay there’s a Lot here and I know there’s so much more I could have put so saving more relevant music for the next answers so I can actually finish this today, lol! Just know the Zelda franchise has such good music.

9. Favorite character from a game?

Ohhhhhh....... Oh this is so hard. Mostly because I haven’t played enough games lately and need to remember which characters I got unreasonably attached to. 

Okay. I’m gonna go with GlaDOS from Portal and Portal 2 here. I’m so very tempted to obsess over Wheatley, and just know that I love him to pieces despite [redacted for spoiler purposes] and all that, but today GlaDOS just.... takes the cake.. :) 

So yeah, she’s absolutely hilarious and I laughed out loud at so many of her lines in both games. She’s the perfect character to have interact with you while you’re doing all your good old portally missions and when you’re.... not doing your portally missions. All in all, GlaDOS is a fantastically hilarious villain who still manages to be quite intimidating when all’s said and done......uNTIL Portal 2! You get such a different view of her due to the events of that game and while it’s by no means a redemption, GlaDOS gets to be put in a different position than usual and it’s so very interesting! So yeah! I love her!!!!

Hm. I’m gonna try and make the next answers. A little more concise. Or this is gonna take literal hours oops 

[meyerlansky]

feel free to answer this privately because i can totally understand not wanting to answer it publicly but as someone who adores your take on things (particularly when they're salty) i'm dying to know what character(s) you were thinking of when you reblogged the post about characters worshiped by the fandom who aren't that great (and why if you're willing)?

haha oh god

i am very willing to admit that, unfortunately for everyone who ever comes in contact with me, i am fairly contrarian by nature, so i usually end up not liking whatever the fandom fave is for basically any media i consume, which means there were. a lot of things in mind when i reblogged that one. i’ll also caveat this entire post by saying that 85% of the time, it’s about the fan reaction to characters i interpret in certain ways, particularly characters that get positioned as protagonists but do unsavory shit that gets excused BECAUSE they’re positioned as the protags, while antagonists get condemned for doing the same shit or less. but ANYWAY here are the ones off the top of my head this month:

given that it’s my main fandom, it is quite literally always the atlantic city characters from boardwalk, because i like to sit around and think about old beefs far more frequently than is healthy, and i stand by my opinion that richard is about as interesting as a bowl of oatmeal and half as deep, and that gillian's stans drank a feeew too many glasses of the ~*weaponized femininity*~ kool-aid and hid behind "ur not a feminist if u don’t support her" to attack anyone who didn't agree with them, etc etc my BWE beefs are old news at this point but tl;dr I STILL GOT 'EM. 

even though i definitely don’t consider myself a fan of the franchises at this point, i'm also pretty much never over how much marvel movie stans of captain imperialism INSIST that a mentally ill physically disabled addict who makes a huge effort to atone for the way he's hurt people in the past is OMG SO EVIL AND THE WORST AND COMPLETELY IRREDEEMABLE and then just ignore the aforementioned imperialism of their fave because he happens to be pretty. 

also also ryan from achievement hunter pisses me off because he’s a smug condescending motherfucker about anything he doesn’t personally enjoy, especially nintendo stuff, and i don’t find his munchkining in let’s plays enjoyable at all, which is especially frustrating for me because he used to be one of my favorites and then just turned into a asshole especially once he started streaming solo. 

FINALLY i am in disco elysium hell lately and i don't understand why so many fans seem to fixate on vicquemare when he sits around and is a snarky sack of shit for three days when he COULD be helping out on a murder investigation that ultimately gets six other people fucking slaughtered, but no you gotta get those alcoholism jokes in i guess. that's way more important.

there are definitely others but those are the biggies right now