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tlbodine · 3 years

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The Horror Genius of Five Nights At Freddy’s

I’ve been playing FNAF: Help Wanted VR on my Oculus Quest lately (a birthday present to myself -- I know I’m late to that party!) and it’s reignited in me my old love of this series. I know Scott Cawthon’s politics aren’t great, but I don’t think there’s any malice in his heart beyond usual Christian conservative nonsense -- and I think he stepped down as graciously and magnanimously as possible when confronted about it. Time will judge Scott Cawthon’s politics, and that’s not what I’m here to talk about. I want to talk about what makes these games so damn special, from a horror, design, and marketing perspective. I think there’s really SO MUCH to be learned from studying these games and the wider influence they’ve had as intellectual property.

What Is FNAF?

In case you’ve somehow been living under a rock for the last seven years, Five Nights At Freddy’s (hereafter, FNAF) is a horror franchise spanning 17 games (10 main games + some spinoffs and troll games, we’ll get to that), 27 books, a movie deal, and a couple live-action attractions.

But before it exploded into that kind of tremendous IP, it started out as a single indie pont-and-click game created entirely by one dude, Scott Cawthon. Cawthon had developed other games in the past without much fame or success, including some Christian children’s entertainment. He was working as a cashier at Dollar General and making games in his spare time -- and most of those games got panned.

So he tried making something different.

After being criticized that the characters in one of his children’s games looked like soulless, creepy animatronics, Cawthon had his lightbulb moment and created a horror game centered on....creepy animatronics!

The rest, as they say, is history.

The Genius of FNAF’s Horror Elements

In the first FNAF game, you play as a night security guard at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, a sort of ersatz Chuck-E-Cheese establishment. The animatronics are on free-roaming mode at night, but you don’t want to let them find you in your security room so you have to watch them move through the building on security camera monitors. If they get too close, you can slam your security room doors closed. But be careful, because this restaurant operates on a shoestring budget, and the power will go off if you keep the doors closed too long or flicker the lights too often. And once the lights go out, you’re helpless against the animatronics in the dark.

Guiding you through your gameplay is a fellow employee, Phone Guy, who calls you each night with some helpful advice. Phone Guy is voiced by Cawthon himself, and listening to his tapes gives you some hints of the game’s underlying story as well as telling you how to play. A few newspaper clippings and other bits of scrap material help to fill in more details of the story.

Over the next set of games, the story would be further developed, with each new game introducing new mechanics and variations on the theme -- in one, you don a mask to slip past the notice of animatronics; in another, you have to play sound cues to lure an animatronic away from you. By the fourth game, the setup was changed completely, now featuring a child with a flashlight hiding from the monsters outside his door -- nightmarish versions of the beloved child-friendly mascots. The mechanics change just enough between variations to keep things fresh while maintaining a consistent brand.

There are so many things these games do well from a storytelling and horror perspective:

Jump Scares: It’s easy to shrug these games off for relying heavily on jump scares, and they absolutely do have a lot of them. But they’re used strategically. In most games, the jump scares are a punishment (a controlled shock, if you will) -- if you play the game perfectly, you’ll never be jump-scared. This is an important design choice that a lot of other horror games don’t follow.

Atmospheric Dread: These games absolutely deliver horror and tension through every element of design -- some more than others, admittedly. But a combination of sound cues, the overall texture and aesthetic of the world, the “things move when you’re not looking at them” mechanic, all of it works together to create a feeling of unease and paranoia.

Paranoia: As in most survival horror games, you’re at a disadvantage. You can’t move or defend yourself, really -- all you can do is watch. And so watch you do. Except it’s a false sense of security, because flicking lights and checking cameras uses up precious resources, putting you at greater risk. So you have to balance your compulsive need to check, double-check, and make sure...with methodical resource conservation. The best way to survive these games is to remain calm and focused. It’s a brilliant design choice.

Visceral Horror: The monster design of the animatronics is absolutely delightful, and there’s a whole range of them to choose from. The sheer size and weight of the creatures, the way they move and position themselves, their grunginess, the deadness of their eyes, the quantity and prominence of their teeth. They are simultaneously adorable and horrifying.

Implicit Horror: One of the greatest strengths to FNAF as a franchise is that it never wears its story on its sleeve. Instead of outright telling you what’s going on, the story is delivered in bits and pieces that you have to put together yourself -- creating a puzzle for an engaged player to think about and theorize over and consider long after the game is done. But more than that, the nature of the horror itself is such that it becomes increasingly upsetting the more you think on it. The implications of what’s going on in the game world -- that there are decaying bodies tucked away inside mascots that continue to perform for children, that a man dressed in a costume is luring kids away into a private room to kill them, and so forth -- are the epitome of fridge horror.

The FNAF lore does admittedly start to become fairly ridiculous and convoluted as the franchise wears on. But even ret-conned material manages to be pretty interesting in its own right (and there is nothing in the world keeping you from playing the first four games, or even the first six, and pretending none of the rest exist).

Another thing I really appreciate about the FNAF franchise is that it’s quite funny, in a way that complements and underscores the horror rather than detracting from it. It’s something a lot of other properties utterly fail to do.

The Genius of Scott Cawthon’s Marketing

OK, so FNAF utilizes a multi-prong attack for creating horror and implements it well -- big deal. Why did it explode into a massive IP sensation when other indie horror games that are just as well-made barely made a blip on the radar?

Well! That’s where the real genius comes in. This game was built and marketed in a way to maximize its franchisability.

First, the story utilizes instantly identifiable, simple but effective character designs, and then generates more and more instantly identifiable unique characters with each iteration. Having a wealth of characters and clever, unique designs basically paves the way for merchandise and fan-works. (That they’re anthropomorphic animal designs also probably helped -- because that taps into the furry fandom as well without completely alienating non-furries).

Speaking of fan-work, Scott Cawthon has always been very supportive of fandom, only taking action when people would try to profit off knock-off games and that sort of thing -- basically bad-faith copies. But as far as I know he’s always been super chill with fan-created content, even going so far as to engage directly with the fandom. Which brings me to....

These games were practically designed for streaming, and he took care to deliver them into the hands of influential streamers. Because the games are heavy on jump-scares and scale in difficulty (even including extra-challenging modes after the core game is beaten) they are extremely fun to watch people play. They’re short enough to be easily finished over the duration of a long stream, and they’re episodic -- lending themselves perfectly to a YouTube Lets Play format. One Night = One Video, and now the streamer has weeks of content from your game (but viewers can jump in at any time without really missing much).

The games are kid-friendly but also genuinely frightening. Because the most disturbing parts of the game’s lore are hinted at rather than made explicit, younger players can easily engage with the game on a more basic surface level, and others can go as deep into the lore as they feel comfortable. There is no blood and gore and violence or even any explicitly stated death in the main game; all of the murder and death is portrayed obliquely by way of 8-bit mini games and tangential references. Making this game terrifying but accessible to youngsters, and then marketing it directly to younger viewers through popular streamers (and later, merchandising deals) is genius -- because it creates a very broad potential audience, and kids tend to spend 100% of their money (birthdays, allowances, etc.) and are most likely to tell their friends about this super scary game, etc. etc.

By creating a puzzle box of lore, and then interacting directly with the fandom -- dropping hints, trolling, essentially creating an ARG of his own lore through his website, in-game easter eggs, and tie-in materials -- Cawthon created a mystery for fandom to solve. And fans LOVE endlessly speculating over convoluted theories.

Cawthon released these games FAST. He dropped FNAF 2 within months of the first game’s release, and kept up a pace of 1-2 games a year ever since. This steady output ensured the games never dropped out of public consciousness -- and introducing new puzzle pieces for the lore-hungry fans to pore over helped keep the discussion going.

I think MatPat and The Game Theorists owe a tremendous amount of their own huge success to this game. I think Markiplier does, too, and other big streamers and YouTubers. It’s been fascinating watching the symbiotic relationship between these games and the people who make content about these games. Obviously that’s true for a lot of fandom -- but FNAF feels so special because it really did start so small. It’s a true rags-to-riches sleeper hit and luck absolutely played a role in its growth, but skill is a big part too.

Take-Aways For Creatives

I want to be very clear here: I do not think that every piece of media needs to be “IP,” franchisable, an extended universe, or a multimedia sensation. I think there is plenty to be said for creating art of all types, and sometimes that means a standalone story with a small audience.

But if you do want a chance at real break-out, run-away success and forging a media empire of your own, I think there are some take-aways to be learned from the success of FNAF:

Persistence. Scott Cawthon studied animation and game-design in the 1990s and released his first game in 2002. He released a bunch of stuff afterward. None of it stuck. It took 12 years to hit on the winning formula, and then another several years of incredibly hard work to push out more titles and stoke the fires before it really became a sensation. Wherever you’re at on your creative journey, don’t give up. You never know when your next thing will be The Thing that breaks you out.

If you want to sell a lot of something, you have to make it widely appealing to a bunch of people. This means keeping your concept simple to understand (”security guard wards off creepy killer animatronics at a pizza parlor”) and appealing to as wide a segment of the market as you can (ie, a horror story that appeals to both kids and adults). The more hyper-specific your audience, the harder it’s gonna be to find them and the fewer copies of your thing you’ll be selling.

Know your shit and put your best work out there. I think there’s an impulse to feel like “well, nobody reads this anyway, so why does it matter if it’s no good” (I certainly have fallen into that on multiple occasions) but that’s the wrong way to think about it. You never know when and where your break will come. Put your best work out there and keep on polishing your craft with better and better stuff because eventually one of those things you chuck out there is going to be The Thing.

Figure out where your target audience hangs out, and who influences them, and then get your thing in the hands of those influencers. Streaming and YouTube were the secret to FNAF’s success. Maybe yours will be BookTube, or Instagram, or a secret cabal of free librarians. I don’t know. But you should try your best to figure out who would like the thing that you’re making, and then figure out how to reach those people, and put all of your energy into that instead of shotgun-blasting your marketing all willy nilly.

You don’t have to put the whole story on the page. Audiences love puzzles. Fans love mysteries. You can actually leave a lot more unanswered than you think. There’s some value in keeping secrets and leaving things for others to fill in. Remember -- your art is only partly yours. The sandbox belongs to others to play in, too, and you have to let them do that.

If in doubt, appealing to furries never hurts.

Do I take all of this advice myself? Not by a long shot. But it’s definitely a lot to think about.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go beat The Curse of Dreadbear.

#horror analysis #writing advice #fnaf

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lindzem · 3 years

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FNAF: SECURITY BREACH RANT

(SPOILERS, TW:SPOILERS)

I really have this strong urge to write a short story about Pitch as an animatronic trying to save small human Jack from a huge mega mall...

Jack would hide under Pitch's robe for safety to keep from being spotted.

North, Bunny, Tooth, and Sandy would all be corrupted animatronics with their own theme attractions. North's indoor Sledding. Bunny's Trampoline jungle gym. Tooth's Fairy castle. Sandy's Slumber party.

The security guard would be Manny, trying to murder Jack while Pitch tries to help him escape.

I guess I just feel the actual game of Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach left such a MASSIVE hole in regards to plot and dialogue interactions across the board. They SO OBVIOUSLY spent ALL of their budget on JUST THE VISUALS AND MODELS.

That's what was so massively disappointing. The game COULD have been an amazing 10/10, but there was such massive gap with the core of the storytelling for the base plot and dialogue that did its amazing detailed visuals a disservice from the start.

And thats ontop of all the plethora of gameplay bugs it had too. The sound design was pretty good too overall, but there were bugs with the dialogue too commonly seen where characters would day something completely different from the on screen subtitles.

Even the core mechanic of having the enemies teleport to you when you got caught was so goddamn annoying, it felt like the game was punishing you for even the slightest mistake in stealth up until you get the faz blaster.

Not to mention the variety of endings left me just confused and unsatisfied because they were so short and not very well explained, which also lends itself to the severe lack of dialogue around the characters and the plot itself.

So that being said, the game will have to stay at a generous 7/10 for me. I loved all of the voice acting, the voice actors did wonderfully! BUT the lack of real plot and dialogue comprehension/cohesion is truly where the game suffers the most in my opinion.

The game models, map size, and the details of the environment itself were FANTASTIC! I truly felt like I was there in the Pizzaplex, that it was a real place! It was so fun to explore and look around at the ambience and scenery!

I wanted so badly to know WHY and HOW Gregory got into the Pizzaplex. I wanted so badly to see more CUTSCENES and see more wholesome interactivity between him and Freddy. I wanted, at the very least, for all the bosses to have their own unique cutscenes, fights, and interactions too.

This game could have been so amazing if the developers fleshed out way more on....literally anything but the environment. As cool as it is to run around, its meaningless if there is no story purpose to it. All of the locations had such potential, but they either didnt have the time or resources to polish it.

That's kinda what it comes down to: The game feels so unfinished and not polished because it lacks a solid story, dialogue, multiple bug fixes, etc. Otherwise, it would have been freaking amazing if it delivered on all fronts. Just feels like they wanted it out before Christmas and they rushed to shove it out as fast as they could with no real quality check apart from the game's environment visuals and character models.

So all in all, I'll give it a solid 7/10. I wish that it could have been spectacular, but sadly that did not happen.

#five nights at freddy's #five nights at freddys security breach #fnaf spoilers #fnaf security breach #tw spoilers #riseoftheguardians #pitchblack #jackfrost #rotg

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inventors-fair · 4 years

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Kald’ve, Would’ve, Should’ve (and Finally Did) Commentary

No no, of course I didn’t forget, you forgot. And I couldn’t blame you if you did, it’s been some time coming. Commentary may be a special action, but it obviously still uses the stack - and as it gets stacked under more and more things, it can take a while to see it resolved. While I can’t promise the next one is going to have split second timing, I’m definitely going to be adjusting my schedule to make getting things out on time more manageable.

This challenge revisited what I started with the release of Zendikar Rising, albeit with a slightly looser approach, and I definitely enjoyed the increased diversity that I saw in submissions because of it. I think it’ll take a couple more of these before I'm able to mould my prompt to hit exactly the kind of results I’m looking for, so I doubly appreciate everyone participating in my little mad science design experiments in the meantime.

That said, let’s not keep you waiting...

@bread-into-toast - Halvar, God of Battle // Sword of the Realms

Flavour: This was a direct cleanup of a card that was already in the set, so there wasn’t a lot of flavour to credit you with specifically. There is new flavour text on the front face (which wasn’t an option on the printed version thanks to the MDFC frame treatment) that I suppose gives us slightly more insight into Halvar’s personality.

Mechanics: The front face has one minor change to the timing of the combat ability that does succeed in making it objectively more powerful, but probably does not make for more interesting gameplay overall - it pushes more of the combat math onto your opponents, essentially reducing the decisions you make to “what punishes these blocks the most.” The back face has a more significant change, trading out the original’s recursion ability for an ability that I assume is supposed to better represent the Omenpaths flavourfully, since it’s certainly not a core white effect. In practice I have to imagine the recursion ability plays more nicely with the equipment theme than a ramp effect does.

Nitpicks/Templating: The front face trigger would read “At the beginning of the declare blockers step each combat,” which is admittedly confusing because “beginning” implies that it’s before blockers even though it wouldn’t be - the awkwardness of the template is probably a reason we don’t see it more often. The ability on the rear face would want to specify where you’re casting the spell from like Sram’s Expertise does, otherwise you’re leaving it up to players to guess which spells it’s allowing them to play, and they’ll often guess wrong.

Overall: Shop the art all you want, I still think he’s as handsome as ever.

Charmera - Imyir, God of Tracking // Bow of Freedom

Flavour: I feel like I might be a little sketchy on the flavour for this one, but I believe the idea is that Imyir was fated to track “the Wolf” but never catch it, and had to break free of that fate in order to finally succeed. That definitely sounds like a neat concept, and I think you could’ve been even a little more explicit in delivering on it to really drive that story home - though I suppose this does already have more space devoted to flavour text than any of the Gods that did see print.

Mechanics: The ability on the front face is very powerful, I suspect the fact that the draws are temporary is a relatively small downside compared to the ability to chain card draw by hitting creatures one after another. The back face is... Well, I’ll be honest that I don’t know what you intended it to do. Indeed, both sides are exiling cards from your library face down, meaning you have no idea what they are, but allowing you to cast them. Is it supposed to be casting one at random? Did you forget to include the part where you look at the cards? That confusion aside, the 7-mana legendary artifact that mills you for 10 every turn (but explicitly hoses any graveyard synergies) doesn’t sound particularly exciting, though I guess if the effect isn’t intended to be random the free cast would be quite powerful. But just imagine casting this in multiplayer and milling yourself for 50 cards just to get to cast one for free - the ratio doesn’t seem appealing.

Nitpicks/Templating: If you want players to know what’s under their face down exiled cards, you’ve got to include a “look at” line. If a player was able to look at it once they’ll be able to look at it as often as they like for as long as it remains exiled, but that first look has to happen explicitly. Also: 8 lines of text does not have room for flavour text.

Overall: I just hope the Wolf made it out okay.

@col-seaker-of-the-memiest-legion - Scythed Whirlwind

Flavour: Embittered with time is definitely right up Egon’s alley, though the card name and the other aspects of the flavour don’t feel like they resonate particularly strongly with me. If there’s a way the flavour is supposed to lend itself to the mechanics, I’m not immediately seeing it.

Mechanics: You mentioned in your submission that you intended this to be a “skill-testing” board wipe, but I’m struggling to imagine what skill this would be testing. This is obviously just a board wipe in the vast majority of board states, though obviously it does - somewhat - encourage you to play creatures with equipments, but in practice this is still just going into (near-)creatureless decks.

Nitpicks/Templating: Targets are chosen as part of casting a spell, so they can’t be conditional like this. You’d want the spell to be modal, as you won’t be obligated to select targets for the mode you didn’t choose.

Overall: Maybe it’s just me, but the name conjures images of kamaitachi more than anything out of Norse mythology. But I’m also not an expert.

@corporalotherbear - Explore the Realms

Flavour: You acknowledged that flavour was your focus with this one, with the flavour text here hinting at an upcoming Phyrexian corruption of the ten realms. That makes some sense in the context of Vorinclex’s unexplained appearance, and indeed may wind up being something Kaldheim has to deal with in the future.

Mechanics: An Explore variant that lets you drop two lands instead of one, albeit for one extra mana. Ramping by two is a lot more powerful than ramping by one, but the requirement of having two lands available makes this a little less consistent. Generally speaking, cards with high power level and high variance tend to lead to unsatisfying play patterns, so I’d be nervous about the games where this does succeed in ramping from 3 to 6, even if it does so unreliably.

Nitpicks/Templating: Most quotations in flavour text are credited to someone, and while it’s not strictly necessary in a case like this, I think it would go a ways to helping deliver on the flavour.

Overall: Ten realms is an upgrade over nine hells, I guess.

---

@deg99 - Nith, Root Gnawer

Flavour: Your goal was to deliver on more dragons, and this kinda does that. I’ll admit that I’m lost on why it’s also a Troll, as those are completely separate species and it doesn’t appear to be an obvious crossbreed of the two. It’s not immediately obvious what the lands in graveyard clause is supposed to represent flavourfully, but if Gadrak is any indication that isn’t really necessary.

Mechanics: What stands out most here is - obviously - the repeatable land destruction. Against anything but the rampiest of decks, if you have this on the battlefield by turn six it is very unlikely for any opponent to recover from blowing up a land and creating a large token every turn. The fact that it’s unable to attack early really doesn’t feel relevant, because it’ll rarely be attacking late either - the upside of denying your opponent resources while expanding your board is almost always just much better than 5 damage.

Nitpicks/Templating: Templating favours common contractions, so it’s “can’t attack,” and (for whatever reason) only subtypes are ever capitalised: “4/4 green Troll Warrior creature token with trample.”

Overall: Repeatable land destruction is certainly a trollish thing to do, I’ll give you that.

@demimonde-semigoddess - Huatli, Guiding Hand

Flavour: Huatli on Kaldheim is a curious inclusion, feeling even more out-of-place than the existing non-native planeswalkers - of course this isn’t exactly a bad thing, as planeswalkers aren’t really supposed to blend in anyway.

Mechanics: The interplay between the three abilities here seems reasonable enough, the downtick creating tokens that trigger the first ability, and the uptick allowing them to trigger it on both attacks and blocks. It’s a little unexpected that both ways of triggering the ability are inherently aggressive (the block trigger only succeeds in tapping down blockers for the next turn), and cute that the otherwise unique tribal effect works with changelings in the set. It’s a little hard to gauge the overall power of three-mana planeswalkers as there’s often a thin line between unimpressive and broken so I won’t pretend to know how powerful this is just by looking, though I imagine the difficulty of blocking against it would give creature decks lots of trouble.

Nitpicks/Templating: You likely know the creature type in the first ability should be capitalised, and abilities with multiple targets read “each get” for the sake of clarity.

Overall: Is it the dinos that her hand is guiding, or something else?

@dimestoretajic - Calix, the Hidden

Flavour: This is an unexpected take on Calix, taking on a rather different appearance presumably as a disguise. It’s not immediately clear to me what he’d be hiding from, but the reference to Kratos is cute even if it’s ultimately confusing.

Mechanics: Always hard to evaluate planeswalkers without the benefit of iteration, but the abilities seem roughly in Calix’s wheelhouse. The first ability is a scry that upgrades to a draw if it hits an enchantment, probably reasonable enough at three mana; the downtick lets you trade him in immediately for a Stasis Snare effect; and the ultimate gives you a bunch of free Sagas. I think the idea of Calix interacting with Sagas is a little cute, though he definitely had that opportunity on Theros and didn’t so it might have been best to do it a little more subtly.

Nitpicks/Templating: The first ability feels like it has a lot of decision points for digital; I’d consider just revealing in the first place to save some clicks. The second ability is probably much wordier than it should be; I don’t think you gain much by naming the token (or by making it green), and the exile effect should probably just look closer to original Calix’s downtick. Be careful with so many wordy abilities on one planeswalker; I understand the desire to be clever, but ironically being elegant is even cleverer than being clever.

Overall: I’m down for Calix with a beard.

@driftingthruthecosmos - Immortal Triumph

Flavour: This appears to be playing into the trope space of Valhalla, letting your permanents ascend to the beyond only to return for a prophetic final battle. I think the art is an actual depiction of Valhalla, and the name generally signals toward the same concepts without actually embracing Kaldheim’s application of the same trope space, “the Worthy.”

Mechanics: This card definitely doesn’t work as written, but I prefer to judge design on the design’s merit’s, so I’ll do my best to work out how you expected it to work. The fact that this hits any nonland permanent makes it quite versatile, allowing it to return the same permanent turn after turn which can be difficult to overcome - even something as innocuous as Omen of the Sun can be pretty overbearing being recurred turn after turn with relatively little room for counterplay.

Nitpicks/Templating: The first ability leaves a few unintuitive holes where permanents can be lost despite the replacement effect. The second one appears to grant foretell (and a foretell cost) to a card it just put in your hand, which isn’t logistically feasible since your hand is a hidden zone. I’m not sure why the ability didn’t just turn the chosen card face down and make it foretold a la Ethereal Valkyrie.

Overall: I think my biggest wish for this one would be that the ‘glory’ was actually something you had to earn, rather than being totally universal.

@evscfa1 - Mistlebranche, Cosmic Prank

Flavour: The core idea of a weapon based on mistletoe deriving from the story of Baldr is really sweet, though some of the aspects of this design seem to stray a bit from that core concept. Most significantly the decision to make it a snow permanent with a snow equip cost seems rather unexpected.

Mechanics: Not to sound like a broken record, but the snow equip cost is what catches my eye the most: it makes the design very narrow, being completely useless without two snow sources plus a creature to put it on. Once it’s equipped, deathtouch and menace means that any creature this goes on will immediately be trading 2-for-1, making it really difficult to keep up with in any deck that’s able to produce tokens. Exiling planeswalkers too is a cute addition, and particularly powerful alongside making your creatures highly unprofitable to block.

Nitpicks/Templating: If you’re gonna make a weapon based explicitly on a plant, how did it end up anything but green? I imagine you designed the abilities first and chose the color to fit, but in this case I think the color was probably an important aspect of delivering on the concept and wasn’t a good place for compromise.

Overall: The name Mistlebranche sounds so elegant, though.

@fractured-infinity - Firja, First of the Valkyrie

Flavour: Reusing the Firja character with a new title. There’s enough about Firja elsewhere in the set to inform her character a bit, but that also means the title change can only do so much to change my perception of her.

Mechanics: The four life as a cost is pretty close to free here, but it does at least force you to adjust your play patterns to preserve your life total as you work up to it. In practice this is the kind of card you generally hold onto until you can guarantee some value from, and since we don’t see many Angels below three mana, this would often be waiting until eight to get played. That’s probably reasonable though, as once it does get going it tends to end games very, very quickly. This has the interesting upside of being less bad in multiples than most legendary creatures, as the second copy of this can still be cast to generate a token off the first.

Nitpicks/Templating: “First” in the name and each instance of “Angel” in the text ought to be capitalised, and life is always expressed with numerals: “4 life.”

Overall: Nice to see her growing out of that awkward Judge of Valor phase.

@hypexion - Kaya’s Gambit

Flavour: A play on the existing Divine Gambit design, with a couple minor tweaks. Interestingly, the flavour text comes very close to standing on its own - I didn’t remember the original’s, and yet it made some sense on its own (though perhaps it would’ve made less if I wasn’t aware of Divine Gambit already). The biggest miss is that the “gambit” part of the name makes virtually no sense with this design, as there’s no risk involved in using it.

Mechanics: Flexible if conditional removal. At worst it’s Disperse, at its best it’s just an exile effect. The biggest differences between this and the original are the open information and the (virtual) lack of a failure rate: with open information you’ll never be surprised by what your opponent gets back from this, and only returning the card to hand means that it’s rarely just not worth doing at all. This is clearly a more powerful version of the effect, but I’m not convinced it’s either more interesting nor a more appropriate power level.

Nitpicks/Templating: You probably want to use “with that permanent” instead of “with it”, as the text refers to multiple objects and they like to be as unambiguous as possible. I looked for examples that used “it,” but I didn’t immediately find any.

Overall: There are white cards, and then there are good cards.

@i-am-the-one-who-wololoes - Winter Travels

Flavour: The name definitely conveys both the concept and the mechanics reasonably well, and the flavour text itself is really evocative and has great imagery to it.

Mechanics: A mistake designers tend to make when designing for a known format is throwing multiple elements of that format onto the same card: when not done carefully, the result is a card that only works in a narrow intersection rather than being interesting in each archetype it makes use of. In this case, Snow archetypes make much better use of this than foretell archetypes, meaning this probably should’ve just accepted it was a Snow card and dropped foretell altogether.

Nitpicks/Templating: The template is unclear about whether the second condition - all snow mana - applies only when the spell is foretold or not, which is always going to be a problem with double-conditional cards. Also: this card had 9 lines of text before you put flavour text, it’s important to know when to make cuts.

Overall: Maybe I’ve read too much Robert Frost, but I really appreciate how poetic the concept here feels.

@ignorantturtlegaming - Elendriel, Twisted Prophet

Flavour: It’s not super clear to me who or what this is supposed to represent. The name and typing is enough to hint at a broad identity, but there’s a lot going on and not enough string to really tie it all together.

Mechanics: Like I mentioned for the submission above, throwing lots of a sets themes/mechanics onto a single card generally makes that card narrower and less exciting, rather than more exciting. In this case you’ve got a card relying heavily on foretell outside of the foretell archetype colors, unable to meaningfully contribute to its own colors’ archetype (Elves) without foretell, plus a boast ability that feels out of place both mechanically and conceptually...and also depends entirely on foretell.

Nitpicks/Templating: Flavour text was pretty important for the boast cards. While there were a couple rares that didn’t have room for it, notably the legendary ones both did because the flavour text was instrumental in selling the mechanic.

Overall: Elves > Foretell > Boast > ??? > Prophet!

@kavinika - Tjalfi, the Godly Messenger // Fjara, Doomskar Lookout

Flavour: Your submission took some time to explain the top-down basis for these two - a servant of Thor (Tjalfi) and one of the roosters of Ragnarok (Gullinkambi) - though obviously you’ve taken some slight liberties. The biggest issue with the flavour here is that it diverges from what the set establishes the Gods to look like - double-faced creatures with elements closely related to their divine duties on the reverse. With the set having only limited space to create and deliver on expectations, there probably just isn’t space to also subvert those expectations.

Mechanics: Mechanically, it’s awkward to have a red card that generates longterm card advantage, even if the condition for doing so is essentially a red thing. The two sides sort of push you in the same direction - lots of nontoken creatures - and the trigger on Fjara theoretically helps to reclaim Boast creatures that were lost trying to trigger the opposite side. The mana costs seem hard to pull off in the same deck, but I can at least see the play pattern it’s trying to encourage - though I can’t help but wish Fjara’s ability was a Boast ability, just to really help the card enable itself as most of the Gods do.

Nitpicks/Templating: Tjalfi’s triggered ability runs on a bit, it probably wants to be separated into two sentences: “ [...] of your library. You may reveal [...]” I’ll also a nitpick that if you’re going to base a character on something as unique as a rooster that crows at the end of the world, you probably want to make the connection as clear as possible - I don’t think anyone is going to make that connection here.

Overall: Maybe I’m just salty that I didn’t get the chicken version.

@kytheon4-4 - Gunnar the Breathless

Flavour: You made sure to include flavour text, which I think was really important to selling the Boast ability as it appeared on cards in the set. The specific flavour text you chose comes off as wordy, the story it tells is hard for me to parse (one can only imagine where they’d tucked the troll’s club away whilst hitching a ride), and doesn’t feel like it connects in any obvious way to the ability on the card. One of the fun aspects of Boast was how well they focused on creating stories to explain the specific ability on the card, but apart from maybe interpreting the troll’s lunch as life gain, I’m just not seeing that on this one.

Mechanics: You’re right that it would’ve been nice to have one of the Boast enablers show up at a lower rarity, though I’m suspecting that it probably didn’t for power level reasons - Boast is actually pretty powerful, and I wouldn’t be surprised if one of the rare enablers had started out at uncommon and gotten pushed to rare for being too impactful. I think it’s nice of you to try to make the ability broad enough to work outside of just Boast - there are a few things this breaks in older formats, but in Standard the scariest thing it can do is enable Kargan Intimidator or Subira, both of which are probably safe enough even with free abilities.

Nitpicks/Templating: All the templating stuff looks fine.

Overall: The irony of “the Breathless” holding a horn is not lost on me.

@masternexeon - Aggravated Berserker

Flavour: This card is a little light on flavour, which I’m normally just fine with, but in the context of Boast the flavour does a lot to bring the mechanic to life. It’s clever that the name is a throwback to Aggravated Assault, but I think a little more attention to detail could’ve helped it really pop.

Mechanics: Obviously this was really close to one of the winners, with the big difference being the Dwarf tribal element. Obviously I favoured the version that had a slightly broader appeal, but since Dwarf tribal was one of the themes of the set, there’s probably a version of this design that does both (extra combat for everyone plus a bonus for Dwarves) that I would’ve liked better than either.

Nitpicks/Templating: You’ll want to make sure to capitalise “Dwarves” in your rules text.

Overall: No spoilers, but this one almost seems designed with my next challenge in mind.

@misterstingyjack - Toralf and Valki Deceive the Giant King

Flavour: Boy howdy, that’s a name - I’m impressed that your renderer got it to fit. This is a top-down story about Thor disguising himself as his own mother in order to trick a giant that wishes to marry her into returning his hammer. The chapters of the Saga follow that pattern pretty precisely, letting you disguise one of your creatures and - over a couple turns - steal an artifact from an opponent. You might have considered swapping chapters 1 and 2, so that the destruction effect could represent the hammer going missing which prompted the whole endeavour. Indeed, then you could even move the mill effect into that ability, to represent the hammer being buried after it’s stolen.

Mechanics: Similarly, I think putting the destruction effect up front would’ve done this card some good. The copy effect is cute, but it’s not the most powerful effect on the card, and as written this is pretty easy to blank with a removal spell. I do really like the way the abilities intersect the colors - destroying an artifact or creature requires both colors, temporary copy effects from a graveyard feels both red and black, and recurring an artifact is something red can do that still feels pretty black.

Nitpicks/Templating: As much as I respect how ambitious the name was, I’m confident you had shorter options available.

Overall: It’s always lovely to see a top-down story that you enjoy getting represented as a card, nice choice.

@mtg-ds - Koll, Breath of the Bellows

Flavour: I definitely understand your frustration that there aren’t more smiths that do actual smithing in Magic, instead just encouraging you to build a deck that simulates their doing so. This correction for that is pretty straightforward, making axes and shields to equip to your army.

Mechanics: The low costs on this are going to lead to a lot of Equipment tokens on the battlefield at any given time - any time you have unspent mana you’re going to pour it into making tokens, especially since you can do so at instant speed. Combining that with the first ability reducing the Equip cost to zero, you’re going to have a mass of equipments shifting constantly from creature to creature, which just seems logistically difficult to keep track of.

Nitpicks/Templating: Everything looks right to me.

Overall: I have to assume stumpy Dwarven limbs are to blame for why they’re wearing shields on their shoulders rather than strapping them to their arms like the rest of us.

@naban-dean-of-irritation - Niko, the Defiant

Flavour: Niko was immediately a beloved character for a lot of us, so I can definitely understand wanting to reimagine that character more in line with your perception of them. It’s hard replacing the first iteration of a planeswalker because all the lore we have available is the card that exists and stories based on that card - so it’s just inherently difficult for me to see how these abilities relate to the character, since it’s essentially establishing a different character with the same name.

Mechanics: The most glaring issue is the fact that the first ability essentially gives haste on a WU card, which qualifies as either a very strange design choice or a pretty significant oversight. The third ability also feels like it’s skirting the color pie, presumably attempting an Omniscience impression that just feels out of place for this pair. The uptick and downtick feel like they’re designed to do pretty similar things, both primarily saving creatures from unfortunate blocks. I suspect the reason is that the ‘instant speed on your turn’ effect pushed the design into rather narrow space, where two abilities came out very similar while the third simply doesn’t really benefit from the instant speed.

Nitpicks/Templating: No obvious templating woes.

Overall: As much as I respect their defiance, defying the color pie is where I draw the line.

@nine-effing-hells - Fraenir, the Greed-Cursed

Flavour: I always enjoy top-down designs especially, and this story of a Dwarf hoarding treasures until they transform into a Dragon is such an excellent place to mine for those designs - and really, what set wouldn’t want more Dragons? The abilities themselves tell a story of murser and greed, even without needing flavour text to help it along.

Mechanics: I think my biggest issue with this design is that rather than the transformation being something you work towards or work to avoid, it is awkwardly positioned between the two - there are times the Dwarf Berserker will be larger by virtue of controlling lots of non-Treasure artifacts, making it unclear what the play pattern of the card actually is. It does have the benefit of being easy to avoid transforming when you don’t want to, but I think it would suit the design better to arrange the abilities to make the comparisons between the two states clearer (for example, giving the Dwarf non-combat abilities and saving the combat abilities for the Dragon half).

Nitpicks/Templating: Easy mistake, you missed the word “token” in the sacrifice trigger.

Overall: I’m really curious what the art for a card like this would look like.

@partlycloudy-partlyfuckoff - Pagan Chamberlain

Flavour: I have to assume the whole design was for a chance to use that flavour text, as the other aspects of the card don’t seem to align with Kaldheim as a setting - the world has no actual vampires, and the concept of a non-believer makes a lot less sense in a world where gods are as tangible as this one.

Mechanics: Similarly, this isn’t playing into any of the mechanical themes of the set; there isn’t even a strong monocolor theme to run counter to. I suspect the rationale is that each of the gods in the set are monocolor creatures, but seeing as there’s already a card in the set with protection from Gods, it seems strange to try to be subtler about it than that one.

Nitpicks/Templating: Nothing much to nitpick over.

Overall: In this set, the answer to that question is usually “an artifact.”

@real-aspen-hours - Ill Omen

Flavour: The name aligns well with the foretell mechanic, and the flavour text helps connect an important story beat to a broader narrative and to the flavour of the card itself. I’d be a little reticent about including such a significant spoiler in flavour text, but perhaps there’s a way to phrase it so that it reads like a prophecy until you find out it’s already happened.

Mechanics: This is effectively three-for-one removal, which is a lot of value for a single uncommon. Locking it to sorcery speed gives at least some incentive not to foretell it, as that delays it for a full turn - it won’t be often you cast it straight, but that I can at least imagine the situations is a plus. It’s especially powerful in that when it isn’t useful as a removal spell, it allows you redraws for something more useful.

Nitpicks/Templating: Foretell shows up after the spell effect, even for those cards that care whether they were foretold. While we’re here, good catch on including a target in the card draw effect - while it would be easy to exclude one, ensuring that the spell has two targets keeps the whole thing from fizzling if the targeted creature disappears before it resolves.

Overall: This feels like it’s only a slight push away from being constructed playable, and I’d be interested to explore what more it takes to get it there.

@snugz - Surtland Rimereader

Flavour: I rather like the flavour here, a Giant that’s able to see the future with the help of the snow allowing you a Future Sight effect specifically for snow cards is pretty satisfying. It’s not immediately obvious what the last ability represents, but the rest of the card feels like it sells it well enough anyway.

Mechanics: I’m not entirely sure that blue is still able to play lands off of this type of effect; the original obviously did, but none of the blue variations since then have, and I’m not sure ‘snow’ is a blue identity to bend for it. The triggered ability feels a little bit awkward with the overall design since you specifically don’t have much control over the first spell you cast when you’re doing so from the top of your deck.

Nitpicks/Templating: Good catch on the updated template for Future Sight, as I don’t think they’ve actually printed any cards with that wording yet. It was updated some time after Bolas’s Citadel was printed, and we’ve yet to have another card in that style see print.

Overall: Would’ve loved a rime-rhyme pun somewhere in the set, and this feels like an opportune place for it.

@stormtide-leviathan - Kvasha, God of Magic // Kvasha’s Birth

Flavour: In this setting, the connection between enchantments and Spirits and flash doesn’t feel immediately obvious. Now naturally this is trying to create a connection where one didn’t exist previously, but it does feel like it muddles the flavour slightly to do so.

Mechanics: This is large and evasive enough to serve as a finisher even without making extra tokens, though the tokens can serve as some resiliency against removal. I’m not entirely sure how the flash ability relates to the rest of the card, except to change the template of the Saga’s first ability. If that were so important I’d have looked for a first chapter ability that could take advantage of being cast at instant speed, but then more likely I would’ve just cut the flash bit entirely.

Nitpicks/Templating: I’m not sure what it was intending, but there’s no way for a chapter ability to see the object it’s on entering the battlefield - that ability won’t resolve until well after the permanent has entered, and if it somehow re-entered the battlefield it would do so as an entirely new object. The last chapter ability will want to specify whose controller the object returns under (usually its owner’s), and you’ll want to move the ‘face-up’ bit into reminder text - you don’t need rules text to make it work that way, but it’s definitely worth clarifying for players who might not realise.

Overall: My favourite god designs in this set were the ones that let you use both sides with just one copy.

@thedirtside - Ragnarock

Flavour: The setting for Kaldheim reworked the concept of Ragnarok into what they called a Doomskar, leaving the original name feeling out of place within the setting. The color combinations used for the spell also aren’t represented in the setting, making it difficult to imagine what part of the world this is supposed to be representing in practice.

Mechanics: The most obvious point here is that the foretell cost and the casting cost don’t overlap, making it almost impossible that any given deck will actually have the option of casting it both ways - since the options it provides are the only thing that makes foretell interesting, intentionally designing to hamper that doesn’t seem like a good use of the mechanic. The foretell cost is also much easier to pay than the casting cost, making the added bonus for foretelling the spell feel really counterintuitive.

Nitpicks/Templating: It’ll take a slightly wordier template to achieve the second part of this effect, something like: “For each permanent destroyed this way, CARDNAME deals damage to that permanent’s controller equal to that permanent’s mana value.”

Overall: That must be a really big rock.

@theobligatorysql - The Sagas of Worlds

Flavour: One of the fascinating things about Sagas is the way they use art to represent the stories for them - this set uses carvings, reliefs, even tattoos as a form of storytelling. So while the idea of compiling them all into a single tome is cute, it feels to me like it isn’t exactly fitting for the world itself. I could definitely see it as the work of an outsider - Tamiyo, for example - but it feels like it makes less sense as something native to the plane.

Mechanics: I’m a sucker for designs in the vein of Treasure Map and Mazemind Tome, so an artifact with a cheap scry effect is right up my alley - though admittedly, I’m not sure why this inventivises scrying to the bottom as that complicates the calculus and will cause players to make bad scrying decisions for perceived value a nonzero amount of the time. I’m never a big fan of tutoring as it tends to lead to repetitive gameplay, and the fact that it takes at least 4 full turns to set this up to draw even a second card means that it’s nearly always going to be fetching up a cheap Saga instead of a random draw.

Nitpicks/Templating: I’d probably just use “scried” in the first ability, though admittedly that templated hasn’t been used yet.

Overall: This would be a great opportunity to finally get the word “edda” on a Magic card.

@wolkemesser - Bard of the Fallen Meek

Flavour: This was actually far and away my favourite submission to this challenge in terms of flavour, as I love the way it draws attention to the difference between Istfell and Starnheim, and shows regular individuals within the setting reacting to the concept of the Worthy. The flavour text itself could probably stand to be pared down to be a little punchier about the point it’s making, but I absolutely love what it’s trying to do.

Mechanics: That said, the implementation is a little messier. The skulk mechanic was used in one block five years ago, so certainly doesn’t qualify as evergreen. I like that the creature itself has stats that make it easy to safely get its Boast ability going, though the ability itself feels rather unexciting. I’m not sure what about the card demands the double white in the mana cost, or even what makes this a rare over an uncommon.

Nitpicks/Templating: You missed capitalising “Spirit” in the Boast ability.

Overall: I would’ve loved to pick this as a winner, next time try an extra pass or two to make sure you’re hitting all the aspects of the challenge.

#inventors fair #commentary #kalda woulda shoulda #3smuth

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gothamcityneedsme · 4 years

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I saw this bouncing around my dash and decided to fill it out myself for fun :) I decided to not double-list any games, and I tried to mix up the companies I used too so that the list would be more unique.

Long post, so I’m doing a readmore for my longwinded part lol.

(read more)

Favorite Game: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords - I could talk about this game forever. How it tears apart the Star Wars universe from within, how it creates a compelling story while challenging the usual themes, etc. I could talk for ages about the characters and how their motivations slot in place, and how this game lends itself to interpretation and analysis alongside roleplay. It’s just a wonderful game, one I deeply love and will always love. It’s a game that isn’t afraid to have you talk to other characters for twenty or thirty minutes at a time and honestly I’m always riveted at every line. This game deserves the cult fanbase it has, but I think there’s a lot the fanbase misses in appreciating this game. (Note...gameplay is a little janky and a community made mod restores a lot content that was cut before shipping-the game wasn’t properly finished).

Best Story: Fallout New Vegas - It’s the setting that makes the story here, and all the moving pieces and factions alongside the main conflict really make this game stand out. There’s so many little pieces to find along the way in the world and the way the main quest splits based on who you want in power feels important--and you are choosing a future for this whole region.

Favorite Art Style: The Witness - This game is peacefully wonderful with its visuals. There are wonderful nature scenes and nests of wires and panels spreading in various parts of the island that are fascinating to look at. The environment is half of the gameplay in most areas, so it’s important to look around even though exploration is not really the gameplay. You find puzzles in the world, even in nature, and it’s fascinating. The colors are bright and beautiful. There is even a map in the middle of the island inside of a lake that helps you track your progress if you notice it (it isn’t like a normal ‘map’).

Favorite Soundtrack: Shin Megami Tensei IV - I love video game soundtracks, but SMTIV is something special. The music booms in ways that make you really understand the atmosphere of the world, and there’s a great mix of different kinds of tracks for different places. I love the tracks for the other worlds you enter, and the themes of the different routes are done so well. Some of the music draws from past SMT games, but the remixes done for this game really are stunning to me, and there’s so many fantastic original tracks.

Hardest Game: I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream - I love this game but I literally never touch it without a walkthrough, which is why it gets to be the hardest game on the list, despite being a point and click adventure game lol. Also just emotionally this game is challenging too, but I definitely mean this more in terms of getting a ‘perfect run’.

Funniest Game: The Stanley Parable - Trying to make this list has taught me that I don’t really play many ‘funny games’. I don’t know if a game where multiple endings demand that you kill yourself should count as a ‘funniest game’, but it is also a game where the narrator tells you to stare at a fern and memorize its features, so....it counts.

Game I Like that is Hated: RWBY Grimm Eclipse - I’ve been playing this game since it was in early access and have loved it the whole time. I find the gameplay soothing and fun, and I like playing the different characters. It’s a game I play to chill out and just enjoy some fun battle mechanics. It’s a fun game and I’ve spent over 100 hours in it, so I hope I like it, lol.

Game I Hate that is Liked: Nier Automata - Neither this game’s gameplay or story impress me, and the fact that you have to replay basically the same stuff from a more boring-to-play-character’s pov in order to SEE all of the plot is a huge damper on the experience. The story, to me, someone who engages with a lot of robot-focused fiction, is far from impressive or new, and it hardly engages with genre specifics at all, let alone in a new or interesting way. I view this game as ‘a story with robots in it’ rather than ‘a story about robots’, which, to me, is a detriment.

Underrated: Nevermind - This game is amazing and very unheard of--and when it is heard of, it has been marketed incorrectly. Nevermind seems like a horror game, and does market itself as one a bit, but it’s much more than that. It’s more about trauma, recovery, therapy, etc. This is a game that is so mindful about the topics it engages in that I am impressed by it every time. It’s heavy with symbolism and character, despite lacking conversations or other similar game mechanics. This is a lovely game that I really wish more people knew about-`p5-all of the patients are so interesting, and the focus on recovery and mental health is impressive.

Overrated: Fire Emblem - I sort of mean this as the series as a whole really. I have enjoyed the entries I have played somewhat, but I overall consider the series much less impressive than I was led to believe by others. The gameplay especially is not impressive to me in any regard, even though I sometimes do find myself enjoying it. The stories are alright, but many of them are weighed down by the gameplay and as a writer and person who likes to analyze writing, it’s very hard to do so when it isn’t able to fully exist under the chains the gameplay forces on it. There are ways to mix gameplay and story well, Fire Emblem has not really done that in any of the entries I’ve played. That being said, I don’t regret playing them, and I will occasionally replay, but I consider them mediocre games at best.

Best Voice Acting: Devil Survivor 2 - I love the voice acting in this game. I feel like all the characters are really suited to their voices, and it’s really easy for me to visualize their voices. They really bring the game to life and make both the dramatic and the funny scenes more enjoyable.

Worst Voice Acting: Jedi Knight Jedi Academy - I love this game, I really do, but some of the voice acting is janky. Some of it is okay too--I think Kyle Katarn’s voice actor does fine, and some of the others I like NOW but hated when I was a kid, but the male protagonist voice in this game is just awful. Which is bad when Jennifer Hale is the female voice actress lol. His performance is passable though unless you’re playing darksided--the darksided ending to the game lacks all punch when you’re playing the male protagonist.

Favorite Male: Battler Ushiromiya from Umineko no Naku Koro Ni - He’s the protagonist for most of the visual novels and I adore him utterly, especially once you move past episode 2. He’s a wonderful character who I care about deeply. I love his drive and how he fights--he’s someone who is easy to cheer for. He matures well throughout the series and his character development is just wonderful.

Favorite Female: Naoto Shirogane from Persona 4 - I really like how Naoto fits so well in the game, especially for being a final recruit--oftentimes the final recruit of Persona games (post 3) have a bit of a more difficult time feeling right with the group. Naoto works really well though, and I love her struggles and story as well. I think the difficulties she has concerning living as a woman in her field hit very deep to a problem that has existed for a very long time.

Favorite Protagonist: Connor of Daventry from King’s Quest 8 Mask of Eternity - I’m like, one of four fans of this character in the world, lol. KQ8 is not a very well liked game and it does have a lot of issues, both with age and with how much of a departure it is from the series prior to it. It’s strange to take a puzzle adventure game and make it a hybrid with what basically is a shooter, and it doesn’t really work. Add to that the fact that you spend most of your time in the game without anyone around to talk to and it leads to this really polarizing and weird experience. For me, Conner goes through what I would consider to be the ‘Ultimate Nightmare Scenario”. Everyone in the world is turned to stone except him (and he survived out of mere chance) and so now it’s up to him, practically alone, to save the entire world. There is no game lonelier than this. I adore him for his bravery in the face of it, and how he just picks up to do what must be done because someone should do it, and if no one else can, then he will. I also really love how he apologizes to people who are encased in stone while he takes money from their houses to help him on his journey. I really do think he went back after the game was over and gave everyone heaps of gold to pay them back with interest lol.

Favorite Village: Oakvale from Fable - The first Fable is the only one I really like, and it was one of the games I played when I was little, so the hometown in the game always meant a lot to me. I like how you grow up there and how your tragic backstory is there--and then how you get to return to the town years later after you’ve come into your own, and you can see it completely rebuilt. I like to spend a lot of my time in this town, just wandering around it and playing the minigames. Even though I have a house in every town, Oakvale is where my hero calls home.

Most Hated Character: Merril from Dragon Age 2 - I don’t really want to lay into how I feel about Merril, but what I will say is that it was suggested to me that I totally ignore her when playing, and I did so. I only met her for her quest, dropped her off in town, and literally never spoke to her or interacted for the rest of the game. I had a much better experience for it, honestly. She appeared after I made my choice in the end of the game, which felt weird since I hadn’t spoken to her in several ingame years, but other than that, the game was totally fine without her. I sort of just wish you could kill characters in DA2 the way you can in DAO, then I’d just do that, tbh. It doesn’t suit very many (or any) of the characters I rp in DA2 to keep her around or support her in any way.

First Game I Played: Mixed up Mother Goose Deluxe - I’m not actually sure if this is the FIRST game I’ve ever played or not, but it’s one of the first I played alone as a kid. I really loved it--this is probably what created my love for point and click adventures, and the game was very silly and fun.

Favorite Company: Bioware - I’ve always been a sucker for Bioware games, ever since Knights of the Old Republic 1 was my favorite childhood game. I love how they do stories and party members, and while I’m not a fan of all of their games, I really love what they’ve made and their style of storytelling and character driven plot. Even though sometimes their stories get cliche, I think the suit video games well and most of my early gaming was within their games.

Hated Company: EA - Bioware truly only started to go to shit after the EA acquisition, so I fucking hate EA. I know Bioware had issues before EA too, but I definitely don’t think EA has helped the situation whatsoever.

Depressing Game: The Beginner’s Guide - I relate to this game as a creator and a writer, and it affects me deeply because of the story it tells and the questions it raises. It makes me reflect on how I think of myself as a creator, and it reminds me of friendships I used to have.

Creepy Game: The Path - God, I love this game. It’s just aimlessly wandering around and finding symbolic scenery and watching your current character comment on it. Then, you go off to find your girl’s wolf, and each one is different and unique to her, and you watch it ‘kill’ her--and facing her wolf is the only way each girl can truly mature. Whenever you get to grandmother’s house, the camera switches to first person, and your eyes keep closing, so you can only see while clicking to move. It forces you to keep moving so that you can see, but since you are moving, you only get to see things somewhat vaguely. It’s got a great atmosphere, and I love the symbolic storytelling.

Happy Game: Eastshade - This game is so sweet. There’s some drama around to with many of the quests, but I like this as an rpg without combat, and I think this would be a really good kids game. There’s a lot to see and explore, and the game was made to be really pretty so that you want to paint several aspects of it. It’s really lovely to just wander around in this game and bike around the area, painting anything that suits your fancy. As long as you don’t finish the main quest, you’re free to wander, and materials do respawn, so you essentially can infinitely paint once you get far enough.

Favorite Ending: Virtue’s Last Reward - I love the questions this game asks and where the ending goes. It thematically ties together--the whole reason the game itself exists is to get the attention of a ‘higher being’--the player, essentially. I love how it plays with that concept, and even though the final game in the series doesn’t entirely pick this idea up where this game left it, standalone this game is stunning in how it comes together.

#shitpost #long post #this was fun to do #i made it so every answer was a different video game and i tried to mix up my companies as well #got 3 atlus games on here but mer #2 obsidon #llol #2 sierra too haha but still #beginner's guide and tsp were made by the same guy too but #STILL I LIMITED MYSELF OK #these answers aren't absolute because i was trying to have a good diverse list lol

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retphienix · 4 years

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*slamming table louder each time chanting* bad ending get

Bad ending get

BAD ENDING GET!

@gamesception I have to thank you for the recommendation because while Hollow was on my radar, it wasn’t a game I fully planned on playing purely because, if I haven’t beat the darn horse dead already, it’s not a genre I’d consider a forte of mine.

I’m thankful as all hell to you for that little push, and I apologize in advance for this:

I probably won’t be going all in for bonus content and all the endings despite the world and story having its hooks in me MORE than enough to warrant me attempting to muscle through.

Fact of the matter is- I suck at this genre. Give me a 3d souls game or a shooter or a tactical RPG or most RPGs for that matter and I’ll piledrive through because those are my jam and I can more naturally adapt to increasing difficulty because those are genres I’m acclimated to.

2d action platformers? I’m so trash I can’t beat a sonic without save states and mario is honest to god a hardcore challenge for my hands.

Now I do love the genre and trying my hand at improving- and this was a 11 out of 10 experience for that that genuinely didn’t have a low point despite any gripes I mentioned (even Nosk).

But knowing that the games post-release content aimed for more challenge- knowing that the other endings (after beating it I looked em up because I am pretty decided) require additional bosses and a real final boss- I know enough to know it’ll take ages for me to accomplish that.

And maybe I will at some point, because my god, I’m hooked both on the reward of playing and on the story, but as for the blog’s inclusion I think we’re done here outside of a potential post gushing in friggin 10 years time when I sit down and return to this gem.

I really really ended up loving this, not that I truly doubted that. But I really did have, I don’t know, lesser expectations for how the world would hit me. I’ve just seen a lot of games attempt to replicate the souls world building before and they come off as just desperately copying or otherwise lacking heart- this though? This genuinely holds its own flame.

From exploring the environment to talking with the denizens, to the bosses, to the fully verbalized plot- it’s apt that the characters are bugs because it got its hooks in me for certain.

Reading through the wiki post-credits and watching the alternative endings I’m left even more enthralled on that end.

I mean, they really had the dedication to make this bleak world end truthfully instead of copping out and giving you a glitz and glamour happy true ending possible- huh? And I love that shit.

That’s the kind of stuff that hits your heart upon completion and makes you think about the game for months after you stopped holding the controller.

That’s the stuff that makes you sit back and consider what a happy ending would be, what all the things that are left ambiguous actually turned out to be and potentially inlay those as things that make the post-ending better or worse for those you met along the way.

That’s the shit that shows a story well told, start to finish.

And I’d have just as soon skipped it entirely and thought of this as “That one soulslike that’s 2d and I heard was good” instead of what I will get to hold onto now. Thanks again, sincerely :) Game story means a lot to me, as well as the overall experience a game can lend you and allow you to expand on for yourself- all those pieces that make what you get from a game unique and individual despite the mass product-ibility of the game itself.

That means loads and you let me see a great deal here :)

Enough of that.

Hollow Knight.

This is usually where I ramble about flaws or gems in the game despite how silly I think that can be since every game has both and I almost always emphasize one or the other when I don’t mean to lol.

So Hollow Knight. It shoves some features that don’t feel right in a metroidvania. It has a world that doesn’t ENTIRELY properly mold to the exploration of a metroidvania (too much is unlocked with single upgrades, it more or less becomes an entire map of free reign and near equally difficult areas with single rooms barred off until you get things like the shade dash).

It falters on base game difficulty on occasion because of the ‘we accidentally made the metroidvania map too open too quickly’ thing.

And despite any of that it ended up playing like a wonder all the way through lol.

God, some of those bosses will stick with me just because of how perfectly balanced they felt like the manti or either Hornet fight.

And yet my takeaway will remain the story and world. They really pulled out the stops and went for it and created a world that feels so utterly unique. What an ingenious design decision to make everything insect themed, it gives the world an alien feel that I certainly haven’t felt before. And it’s incredible to me how a game that is more or less gray for the length of the gameplay felt so full of color and artistic expression.

The zones have so much life through the land itself despite the plague-like infection and corpses everywhere. The Fog with its bubbles will definitely stand out there.

I’m wrapping up and doing a terrible job of it and all that’s going through my head is “Those endings, the ambiguity of Hornet’s outcome or even the truth of how the knight persists or entirely dissolves in the flower extended ending since in the others he either becomes the new vessel or perishes. I can’t stop dwelling on that world I’ve explored in those context.”

and

“I should write fanfiction” followed by “Do not do that you have not explored 100% of the game and you’re obsession with details will kill you in attempting that, stick to writing your darn (as of now) OneShot game fanfiction instead you dolt”

This was good. Very good. I’m sorry to sort of blanket it out with such a simple statement but honestly, I couldn’t do it justice, so I’ll say it plainly. This is a good game and I’m happy to have played it :)

#RetPlays #Hollow Knight

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notspoondere · 4 years

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The Mechanical Flavor of the World Legacy Characters

[This blog post discusses “flavor” with respect to the card design in Yu-Gi-Oh!. If you’re not already familiar with this term, it’s captured pretty well in this article by Mark Rosewater. Just keep in mind that flavor may also describe card effects.

Also, all of the images embedded in this post can be viewed full-size here.]

With the printing of Girsu, the Mekk-Knight Orcust in Eternity Code and the full spoiler of Rise of the Duelist, it is looking more and more likely that we’ve reached the end of the World Legacy storyline. It’s possible that new story-focused cards for these archetypes will be printed in the future, but it’s probably going to take a backseat to functional legacy support, similar to what happened with the Duel Terminal archetypes that received support in the Link VRAINS sets. As a result, I figure this is a good time to talk about their overall design and point out what I feel is its biggest success over Duel Terminal: flavorful designs.

To illustrate this difference, let’s consider a pretty key player in the Duel Terminal storyline and keep track of his effects as he changes forms throughout the story. (Consult the translations for Master Guide 4 if you’d like evidence that the first three monsters all portray the same character.)

We can see a pretty linear increase in stats from Sentinel to Roach, and he has a theme of caring about level 5 or higher monsters. This gets a pretty nice followup, becoming a Vanity’s Fiend for lv5 or higher monsters in... Evilswarm Ophion, which is a totally different card not present on this chart, because the powers of the Sacred Tree let him nuke the field instead!!

He then inherits the powers of Sophia and ends up weaker because Exciton got banned. Bravo. (It’s worth mentioning that the original form of Ophion, Gungnir, Dragon of the Ice Barrier, has a completely unrelated effect of discarding cards to destroy cards, and Evilswarm Bahamut steals monsters instead of bouncing cards like Brionac, but Evilswarm Ouroboros at least tries to approximate Trishula.)

Can you see the problem? I was going to make another image showing this off until I realized that following Gem Knight Lazuli all the way through Construct’s various forms would take way too much horizontal space, but feel free to construct an explanation in your head for why combining Apoqliphort Towers (the real one) with El Shaddoll Construct (foolish a Shaddoll/Catastor eff) makes Shekhinaga (Divine Wrath on a fusion) or why adding in Infernoid Devyaty (wipes backrow, also tributes to negate a monster) and some ice turns that combo into Anoyatyllis (Konami said fuck Nekroz). It’s because these cards are either not designed for flavor, or are designed around the flavor of their archetypes rather than that of their characters, so the characters in general have a pretty weak identity.

You could maybe say that’s because Duel Terminal is a grand-scale war story, so none of the characters are meant to stick out. That would make sense, sort of, so what about stories with fewer characters that change forms multiple times? The Dracoslayer lore did that.

I’m not typing out all of what Master Peace 2 does, but in case you weren’t around from May 2017-2018, you can read that here. He’s a Wyrm because all the True Dracos are, except his previous form wasn’t, except all of them probably could have been without hurting their chances of seeing play (until we got Guardragons Elpy and Agarpain).

The sole thing that ties all of these cards together is that they supposedly feature the same character, and all have effects that destroy cards. They have about twice as many differences. Master and Luster are both Pendulums, while the other two aren’t. Master Peace 1 is a Special Summon by Tributing, but Master Peace 2 requires a Tribute Summon to gain effects. Master Peace 1 has a negate, for some reason, even though none of the other forms have it, so if he gained it from the Dracoverlord tributed for his summon (these are his enemies, by the way), then he apparently forgot it by the time he reappeared in the story. Speaking of which...

In the lore, he essentially aids three tribes (Majespecter/Dinomist/Igknight) trying to fight off the Amorphages, and the Extra Deck Dracoslayers represent their powers combined. True Dracos exist because, in a totally different world, three completely different tribes (Zoodiac/Crystron/Metalfoes) are being assailed by the True Kings. They form a summoning circle (Dragonic Diagram) to summon him for help, and he accepts the power of the other True Dracos or something. The other True Dracos (who are also based off of the first three archetypes, like the Dracoslayer extra deck... for some reason) are disciples of Mariamne, the True Dracophoenix, who mechanically is a True King and shares minimal synergy with any of these cards, and the one who seemingly gets things done is Metaltron XII, the True Dracocombatant, who probably is just the three tribes’ power combined. Who also gets protection from effects by being Tribute Summoned and also floats into anything from the Extra Deck that isn’t LIGHT/DARK. And Konami says he’s a Zefra now. And who the fuck is Dreiath III supposed to be? He’s not even good?

I have many problems with True Draco. Anyways, let’s get to the point. (Nin/Long/Din)Girsu’s character arc, as shown through monster cards in the World Legacy story, is much more internally consistent.

Let’s assume that Girsu, the Orcust Mekk-Knight is a de-powered form from after the battle inside the World Gears (presumably he lent this power to Avramax, though this isn’t shown in the artwork; also, he has Ib’s ribbon on his arm). It’s understandable why the maindeck cards and extra deck cards should do something different, and the first maindeck monster is a vanilla anyways, so I wouldn’t consider it that bad of a break. No idea why he’s a Mekk-Knight though.

These effects form a pretty clear pattern. Girsu here sends things to the GY without targeting them and eventually gains protection effects as he grows in power. His ultimate form is the only one that lets him protect other cards, which is maybe a statement on his goals given how long he spent trying to revive his dead sister, and if that holds water, Mekk-Knight Orcust Girsu is evidence of his eventual success. After all, this card by itself can summon every single one of Ib’s forms except her vanilla and Knightmare incarnations.

That is to say, we gain a bit of understanding of Girsu’s abilities, goals, and bond with his sister through the mechanics of his cards, and if you don’t think that’s the tightest shit, well, I just made you read nearly 1k words on why it is. Better yet, there’s more:

Auram’s extra deck incarnations all have ATK-boosting effects, and his World Chalice form translates him getting more powerful with the World Legacies. Both Blademaster and Crusadia Equimax activate effects by tributing monsters they point to, suggesting how he calls upon his allies for help--there’s a reason Ningirsu went off and ended up with a bunch of brass instruments as his only company while Avram wandered the world with his best friend (who is a fucking dragon) and scored himself a choice elf harem. They call him King because he wears the crown, you see?

On the topic of Crusadia, let’s take a closer look at how Equimax is typically summoned. Typically you’ll try to get a Normal Summon on board, hope it sticks to make Magius, summon again to search Draco, and build your way up with Crusadia monsters to make Equimax. Afterwards you’ll want to boost his damage with the effect of Maximus, summon a large monster to one of his zones, or buff him with the spell you searched off of Regulex. Any two Crusadia monsters with different names can do most/all of this, so think of it as an “all your powers combined” thing a-la Metaltron XII, except executed much better.

(Sidebar: If you’re willing to entertain a bit of theory, the Crusadia maindeck is the epitome of a successful flavorful archetype design. Pretty much every Crusadia list maxes out on every monster in the main because they’re all interchangeable, even though they all have different effects. You could argue that Draco and Reclusia are way better monsters than Leonis, but fundamentally it doesn’t matter; you need two of them and it doesn’t matter which two. This lends them a sense of uniformity without erasing their uniqueness, which suggests that the Crusadia are an army of equals and Maximus may be the leader “de facto”. I highlight this because World Chalice tried to do the same thing, except that deck eventually cut its normal monsters down to a single copy of Chosen, and nobody ever played Crowned.)

Meanwhile, Avramax sports his ultimate ATK-boosting effect, protects other monsters from attacks, is immune to targeting (these two might seem out of line, but they’re upgrades of the protection effects that the previous two Mekk-Knight Link Monsters have), and non-target shuffles a card if he dies.

This is where I’d like to shift the direction of this discussion towards power levels and, implicitly, gameplay balance. Yes, I’m about to get into a powerlevel discussion about fictional characters portrayed on Yu-Gi-Oh! cards which have actual power levels, but hear me out.

Based on their original incarnations, Auram is ostensibly the main character, but strictly weaker than Girsu. Both have 0 DEF as Normal Monsters and Girsu has an extra Level and 200 ATK over him. With the power of the Chalice, Auram can revive allies and potentially gain more ATK than Girsu, but there were hardly even 5 World Legacy cards in the game at that point, and Ningirsu actually has removal. Later on, World Legacy’s Nightmare shows Girsu holding his own versus all of the Knightmares, but when it comes down to the climax of that arc, Avram inherits the power of Mekk-Knight Blue Sky and promptly gets overpowered by Iblee anyways, leading to Ib’s death and the scattering of the party (He is also still weaker than Ningirsu here). Auram and Girsu end up at odds several years later as Crusadia Equimax and Longirsu, the Orcust Orchestrator. If you look at the way these two cards might interact as enemies, it tells us a lot about this matchup: Equimax doesn’t start with enough ATK to hit over Longirsu, and Longirsu seems to have the upper hand thanks to removal, but with the power of friendship, Equimax can safely negate Longirsu’s effect and even swing over him. Finally, as Dingirsu and Avramax, Dingirsu loses or goes even at best: Dingirsu sends Avramax to GY, Avramax spins Dingirsu when he dies, both parties end up with nothing. Keep in mind that Avramax no longer needs support from allies to do this and Dingirsu absolutely cannot swing over Avramax at any point in time, so if the resource game isn’t in consideration, these cards will either trade or Avramax will always win.

That’s a cool interaction, but why did I bring up card balance? This interaction was only uncommon in tournament play because Orcust was an insanely popular deck. Playing Salamangreat, I’d regularly make Avramax versus Sky Striker and expect it to stick for a while, but versus Orcust? That boy would be gone in a second, and I’d rather not commit a link-4 worth of material to have a monster die and only get to spin a card. Keep in mind that going card-for-card is maybe not always favorable for the player.

What I mean to say is, Avramax would be a pretty insane card in a format without Nin/Long/Dingirsu’s non targeting removal. Consider the following scenario: Girsu’s extra deck forms do not exist. You are going second versus old Danger! Thunder playing the Trishula fusion. They half combo you, ending on something like Colossus + Avramax made with I:P Masquerena, and in doing so, banish the Borreload out of your extra. Do you even play a card that can out an Avramax otherwise? Probably not. Avramax could have put us into another Dark Destroyer format where targeting sucks, but Girsu kept us safe.

If anything, I hope R&D puts this level of thought into their flavor moving forward. World Legacy was a pretty big success on most fronts and I’d like to see what they do going foward in the next OCG series.

Thanks for reading. This is my first time writing about the game from a non-competitive perspective, so let me know how I did.

#yugioh #yu-gi-oh #yugioh tcg #world legacy #long post

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mediaeval-muse · 5 years

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Video Game Review: GreedFall (Spiders, 2018)

Genres: action RPG, fantasy

Premise: Players assume the role of De Sardet, a human noble who arrives on the recently-discovered island of Teer Fradee. Able to ally with either the natives who inhabit the land and/or any of the foreign nations competing to colonize it, De Sardet seeks out a cure for the mysterious illness that plagues their family, while also battling monsters and magic.

Platform Played On: PC (Windows)

Rating: 3/5 stars

Disclaimer: My rating is in response to multiple aspects of the game, not just its politics. If I were evaluating solely on politics and gave the developers the benefit of the doubt that they were trying to make something with a good message, my rating would be around the 1 to 2-star range, depending on player choices.

***Full review under the cut.***

I am evaluating this game based on four key aspects: story, characters, gameplay, and visuals.

Story: I’m immediately wary of any pop culture item that tries to tell a story about colonialism and Indigeneity because it usually ends up indulging in colonialist fantasies rather than critiquing them. Complex, morally-grey stories are great and all, but when it comes to tales about colonialism, “both sides” narratives tend to look a little insensitive. So, I can’t tell you why I decided to play GreedFall, other than I heard that it filled the Dragon Age-sized hole in people’s hearts. Since I’d rather use my own judgment than read video game reviews, I bought this game on sale and gave it a go. If nothing else, I told myself, I could use my history and literary analysis chops to say something intelligent about it.

In terms of politics, I don’t think GreedFall was as terrible as games where the goal in itself is colonization, but I also don’t think it achieved a narrative that was critical enough of colonization. De Sardet’s primary goal is to achieve balance between all the nations (which I’m calling factions because they’re mostly that). While I can admire that GreedFall really pushed for peaceful relationships, as well as pushed back against abuse and racism, I ultimately thought the developers didn’t consider how the struggle for balance actually facilitates colonialism. This game presents colonialism a diplomatic issue, so as a result, Teer Fradee is kind of a fantasy where colonists can settle on native land while maintaining friendly relationships with Indigenous peoples (at least, if you play it that way - at worst, you can seize absolute power). The experience was similar to the one I had playing BioShock Infinite, whose politics involve a “both sides” argument - the difference is that BioShock Infinite made explicitly clear by the end of the game that Booker was the true villain. With de Sardet, it’s a bit more ambiguous, depending on how you play, but I do think the game pushes you to be diplomatic rather than power-hungry. As a whole, it brings up the very valid question of whether or not colonialism should be in media period, or if there’s some value to be derived from consuming problematic media that tries to do good and talking about it.

Still, I have to give credit where credit is due. GreedFall had the guts to actually try to tackle little-discussed themes in this game, such as forced conversion, abuse within the sciences, and institutionalized bullying. While the missions associated with these big themes were accomplished with varying degrees of success, many of them added emotional depth to the game. Companions would have emotional reactions to these quests that tugged at my heartstrings, and there were never any shots of graphic violence or mutilated bodies, so it didn’t feel like I was playing the game for an edgy thrill. All of the side quests had a lot of bearing on the main plot and the worldbuilding - I don’t think I encountered any “fetch quests,” so most of the things I was doing actually related to enhancing my understanding of the world and its social dynamics.

The game also did a good job of presenting players with factions that were constantly in conflict with one another, lending an added layer of complexity to all the political aspects of the plot. Character’s personal quests were also very well done and had emotional depth. Vasco’s arc about learning about his true family was a nice exploration of birth family vs found family (he’s a sailor whose birth family gave him to the naval faction, the Nauts). Kurt’s quest was also a good one about the bonds between military recruits and really showed his commitment to people over institutions (he’s de Sardet’s commander at arms). Siora’s quests were more about staying true to her culture (she’s a native and daughter of one of a now-deceased tribe leader), while Aphra’s were about learning to be open minded when learning about a different culture (she’s a scientist interested in plants). Petrus’ were a mix of taking down the head of his Church and helping your character find their roots (he’s something of a pastor who also wields magic to fight). You can tell that the developers were inspired by Bioware games in that you can cultivate reputations with your companions and eventually romance them. Many of these romances are available to both male and female PCs, so there’s potential for a queer ship.

I will say that by the end of game, I was emotionally wrecked, despite all the political problems. So, I do think the developers of this game have a good sense of storytelling - I just wish they had done better politically.

Characters: Similar to Mass Effect or Dragon Age, GreedFall gives players a player-controlled character (PC) and a host of companions to take on an adventuring party. De Sardet, the PC, doesn’t have much personality when they’re being diplomatic, but I did enjoy the moments when they were confronted with information that impacted them emotionally. I played a female de Sardet, and the voice actress did a good job of balancing emotion with the facade that’s required of a diplomat. Constantin, de Sardet’s cousin and governor of New Serene (one of a few colonial settlements on Teer Fradee), is also carefully written as a charismatic, sympathetic nobleman’s son who wants to prove his worth. He and de Sardet share a close bond, which made moral decisions a bit more personal and emotionally difficult. I do think he became a scapegoat for all the evils of colonization, though, and I wish more was done with him to implicate every colonizer on the island. The companions are likewise very likable and fairly unique. Each of them had personal quests and stories that were compelling and sympathetic. I do wish there had been more opportunities to chat with them, or that they talked to each other during exploration (like Bioware companions do). I also appreciated that the Teer Fradee natives weren’t one, homogeneous group. I think too often we see pop culture try to write Indigenous peoples as having the same culture and goals, but with this game, there was some variety regarding what the best course of action would be against an invading force. I’m sure, however, that the depiction of the natives overall was problematic, but I’m not well-versed enough in native representation in pop culture to articulate the issues. While they weren’t portrayed as primitive or child-like (at least, I didn’t think so), I don’t doubt that there were tropes in there that I just couldn’t recognize (for example, Siora maybe a Chief’s Daughter/Indian Princess trope - it’s complicated). I suggest finding and reading an Indigenous critique of the game. (There’s also this one, which is valid, and I do think the game’s efforts and failures are worth talking about.)

Gameplay: This RPG mainly relies on balancing skills, talents, and attributes. Skills define what weapons you can use and how (one-handed blades, two-handed blades, firearms, magic, etc). Talents are things like charisma, science, or lockpicking - stuff which will affect the way you interact with the world. Attributes are mental and physical abilities like strength or willpower which affect how you wield weapons. Overall, the process of leveling up and gaining points to spend in these areas was pretty straight-forward, and I enjoyed the mental challenge of building a character that fit my play style.

Combat was a little clunky; basic attacks ran just fine for me, but there wasn’t much grace in the way characters dodged or rolled. I also kept getting thrown off by the fact that you can’t press space to jump! But in all, it wasn’t the worst experience. Enemies had helpful health bars, and I enjoyed the combination of a pistol and a rapier to finish off my foes. The diplomatic elements were by far the best part of gameplay for me. If players assign their skill points well, de Sardet can use a number of different tactics and choose from multiple dialogue options, from intimidation to taking advantage of intuition to laying on the charisma. It was fun to figure out which tactic would work on which characters, and how my skill sets translated into consequences for my decisions. I do think, however, that more options could have been presented to players in terms of dialogue choices and role-playing elements. While players make important choices regarding how to handle any given situation, there was little opportunity to purely role play. More opportunities to influence the direction or tone of the dialogue in non-crucial situations, I think, would have helped and made my De Sardet feel more unique.

Visuals: Aesthetically, I very much appreciated that we were given a fantasy game that wasn’t set in the faux Middle Ages. I loved the 18th century vibe to all the clothing and town layouts, and each of the maps were distinct and fully-realized, from the urban settings to the natural ones. There was a bit of repetition in the urban layouts; the palaces, for example, were the same, and some houses were recycled, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as Dragon Age II. I also appreciated that there were people of various races and genders in all positions and all social circles. There were women in the guard, women working on ships, and so on, without any hint that it was unusual. There was also a fairly wide variety of skin tones, with people of color being included in higher social classes and not relegated to lowly servant roles. There are some problems in that “diversity washing” detracts from the racial conflicts that were very present in the 18th century. I don’t think the developers thought through the implications of putting POC in positions of power where they could commit violent colonial acts against the natives. The creatures on the island were interesting to look at. Their designs frequently combined natural imagery (such as vines and wood) with horror to create foes with an eldritch, elemental vibe. The same creepiness was reflected in the fictional disease that afflicts the colonists; the afflicted had black, vine-like tendrils running through the skin, and there was an impending sense of dread whenever I looked at someone who was infected. Despite all the things I liked, GreedFall’s biggest problem is its animation. For a game that was made in 2019, facial expressions and combat are quite clunky, to the point where the characters felt robotic. I understand that not every video game needs to have top-tier level animation, but playing GreedFall was similar to my experiences playing the first Witcher game or the first Mass Effect or Dragon Age: Origins games. Still technically playable, but it feels very outdated.

In-Game Triggers: violence (especially racial violence), colonialism, racism, religious zealotry, torture,

I feel the need to point out that while I don’t think this game is gory or explicit in any way (PG-13 would be my rating), there are some scenes that people may find triggering. There’s also one where a Native is killed by a religious zealot, and I found it extremely upsetting (it happens when you first enter San Matheus, if you need a heads up). Other than that, you never actually see characters torture native peoples, but you do hear about it later.

Recommendations: I would recommend this game if you’re interested in the 18th century, the age of imperialism, role-playing games, and fantasy. You might also like this game if you’re a fan of Bioware RPGs.

#video game review

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recentanimenews · 3 years

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FEATURE: 4 Anime That Would Make Great Video Game Adaptations

Hello everyone, and welcome to Why It Works. Have you heard the announcement of Dragon Ball: The Breakers? It looks like we’ve got a new Dragon Ball videogame coming, though this one features some novel twists. Rather than simply facing off as Super Saiyans, The Breakers will see players splitting into two unequal sides. One “Raider” will terrorize the countryside from above, taking the form of Dragon Ball villains like Cell or Frieza, while seven non-powered “Survivors” will scramble for cover, cooperating and gathering weapons to take down their much greater foe.

The Breakers' gameplay seems pretty darn fun, but personally, I was most struck by the ingenuity of the game’s fundamental concept. The game seems like a brilliant riff on the unique dramatic properties of Dragon Ball, celebrating its appeal from an angle that isn’t frequently highlighted in video games. That feeling of terror as a lone figure floats in the sky above isn’t exclusive to Dragon Ball, but it is a quintessentially Dragon Ball feeling and it’s encouraging seeing a game studio attempt to synthesize that feeling into gameplay.

Generally, the anime-to-game pipeline is pretty straightforward: you take an action anime and turn it into an action game, resulting in our current proliferation of anime brawlers and anime fighting games. There’s nothing wrong or unusual about this; it’s clear we all want to beat the tar out of each other with our favorite anime characters. That’s totally normal. I know I’m personally still holding out for an ArcSys One Piece fighting game. At the same time, games like The Breakers illustrate how the diversity of anime experiences could also inspire a diverse array of video games. Today on Why It Works, I’d like to offer just a few examples of some novel yet natural game adaptations I would love to see.

The first idea that struck me, and one which I was frankly a little surprised doesn’t exist already, is a The Promised Neverland survival horror game. Both the alienating corridors of Grace Field House and the all-encompassing forest canopy of the world beyond would serve as ideal venues for sneaking, discovering, and trying not to get killed. The very qualities that made The Promised Neverland unique as a manga — its lack of overt “fight scenes,” its focus on mystery, etc — also make it perfectly appropriate to be adapted into a non-combat-oriented game, where running and hiding are your only options. A The Promised Neverland game inspired by properties like Little Monsters or Amnesia sounds like a slam dunk game experience.

The ongoing 86 EIGHTY-SIX also seems perfectly suited to game adaptation. 86 EIGHTY-SIX’s distinct approach to assessing the battlefield, wherein the overall lay of the land and strategic decision making is valued over individual acts of heroism, seems like it’d lend itself perfectly to an ambitious strategy game. You could easily adapt the tactics and themes of 86 EIGHTY-SIX to a Valkyria Chronicles-esque battlefield simulator; but if you wanted to truly emulate the feel of the show, you might instead go for a more ambitious approach, creating an asymmetrical action-strategy game where both the Handlers and units on the ground are controlled independently, fusing high-level strategy with skill-testing action gameplay. Can you imagine a game where the soldiers and strategists are technically working in cooperation but driven to conflict through their focus on personal survival versus overall victory?

The uniquely game-like elements of Mob Psycho 100 also seem like they could inspire a distinctive game design. Sure, you could easily adapt Mob Psycho 100 as an action game, but what if your goal was to avoid that worst-case scenario? Mob doesn’t actually want to fight, you could help him by guiding him on his way to school or the office, dodging obstacles and difficult conversations, and carefully working to keep his stress low. Falling somewhere between Super Monkey Ball and a reverse Katamari Damacy, “Manage Mob’s Mind” seems like it’d be a charming arcade-style experience as you attempt to keep anime’s goodest boy happy and flourishing.

All three of the games above could easily be produced by a small or mid-level studio, as they’re essentially condensing one element of their show’s appeal into a concise, level-oriented framework. For my last pick, I’m going to dispense with all of that pragmatic scale-managing and just reach for the holy grail: a sprawling open-world One Piece game where the sea is a “world map” you sail to travel between destinations. Combining the pacing of Dragon Quest, the meditative seafaring of Wind Waker, and the open-world exploration of games like Spider-Man or Assassin’s Creed, the ideal One Piece game could either chart an expanded version of the Straw Hats’ own journey or simply offer its own path to glory in the context of their world. There’s no harm in dreaming, right?

Those are the first unique anime games that come to mind for me, but the possibilities here are as endless as the diversity of anime itself. Think of your own favorite shows, and imagine all the unique ways drama and gameplay can intertwine. And before I go, let me offer you all one final cursed thought: Parasyte Among Us. My condolences.

Nick Creamer has been writing about cartoons for too many years now and is always ready to cry about Madoka. You can find more of his work at his blog Wrong Every Time, or follow him on Twitter.

Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: Nick Creamer

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retrorendum-blog · 6 years

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We <3 Katamari - Review

It’s been a while since I’ve posted here. I started this blog, or at least the idea of a game review blog, as a school project about two years ago. The very first game I reviewed was a wacky PS2 game called Katamari Damacy that I’d found by the happy accident of my friend owning an old disc, and I quickly grew to love it, completing the game in under a week by playing a few hours each day. That love never died, and over the last few years I’d find myself pulling up the Katamari soundtrack on YouTube or popping in the disc to roll up a few towns and relax. Enter the Nintendo Direct that happened on September 3rd of last year. We got the announcement of Luigi’s Mansion 3, Town, Animal Crossing Switch and more, but to me the biggest moment of the show was the reveal of Katamari Damacy Reroll, an announcement that literally had me standing on my chair and yelling in excitement as my friends watched me with growing concern. I got the game for Christmas this past year courtesy of my brother, and I played it non-stop for days until I once again rolled up the moon and the credits rolled. The next day, once again consumed by Katamari fever, I ordered a copy of the original game’s PS2 sequel, We <3(Love) Katamari. This is the game I’ll be reviewing today, as I completed it this morning.

Title: We <3 Katamari

Available and Reviewed On: PlayStation 2

Info: Namco, 2005

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS MINIMAL SPOILERS FOR CONTENT IN WE LOVE KATAMARI

Story: The King of All Cosmos may have royally screwed the planet and all it’s people a few years ago, but after they played the game Katamari Damacy, they can’t help but crave more of it’s addicting gameplay, unique style and ear-worming tunes. It’s your job, as the King’s son, Prince, to return to the surface of the earth and aid any Katamari fan with what ails them- by rolling up anything and everything in your path. Each level you select from the newly renovated hub map is a different task from a different fan, each with their own small tale to tell that ties in to what you’ll be doing in the following level. There’s also a subplot that is told through a cutscene every few levels that depicts the life of the King, through all his successes and hardships. This plot provides much more character to the quirky characters in the royal cosmic family, and also introduces you to the King’s father, who has his own small character arc as well. This story is told without any dialogue or text, and while that does miss the greatness that is Katamari’s charming writing, it makes sense in the context of a flashback over a cosmic being’s lifetime. Combined, these two tales make We <3 Katamari a much more engaging game since it provides small goals in the form of the cutscenes as well as giving the characters more depth and development. It’s wacky, fourth wall breaking, and just so Katamari. 9/10

Visuals: This is a department where We <3 Katamari isn’t too far from it’s predecessor, but the minor changes that are provided make the visual treat that the game does provide much more satisfying. The visuals are virtually identical, although this game has a much wider variety of creative items and diverse locales that make the best of the simplistic art direction and flesh out the world that you’re plodding through. This change in world design is most apparent in the game’s new types of levels, such as the firefly level (see picture below), where the entire level takes place at night, with peaceful french-inspired music playing in the background and a thick layer of gently swaying fireflies that glow softly as you roll them onto your sticky ball. Another fantastic level is the under water one, where schools of fish of all shapes and sizes zip by and you collect colorful stones and other aquatic goodies. It’s levels like these that make We <3 Katamari into a much different beast than Katamari Damacy, since it provides you with a more intimate sense of scale in the world, as well as showing you just how much beauty and creativity you weren’t shown during the relatively catastrophic events that took place after the King’s drunken rampage. Overall the visuals aren’t actually improved over the first game, but much more creative usage of Katamari’s artstyle lends itself to a more coherent and satisfying experience. 9/10

Music: Katamari music is an acquired taste. It’s all over the place -drawing inspiration from tons of genres and creating its own style with multiple recurring themes- all the while attempting to be drilled into your skull as some of the most memorable and uplifting tunes that any video game has provided. I think the reason the music in We <3 Katamari stuck with me as much as it did is because of how much I’d enjoyed the soundtrack of the first game. This soundtrack is heavily influenced by that one, taking the main theme in many different directions including but not limited to awkward acapella, softcore rock, and animal noises (yes that is real). Once again however, it’s diversity where this game truly shines. The tunes playing in each level are wildly different, matching the aforementioned variety of unique stages. Guitar melodies may be followed by a soothing chorus in a vast field of flowers, or a sound-effect filled chaotic tune may play while you race across an island at 5 times the normal speed. One other thing this game does allow is the ability to choose which song you want to play during each level before you play it, although I personally stuck to whatever the game had preset. I greatly enjoyed the music of We <3 Katamari, and I look forward to creating a playlist that incorporates the best of from both games. 10/10

Gameplay: Here’s the big ‘un. The most important aspect of any video game, especially one so based around the uniqueness of video games as a medium- gameplay. This is where We <3 Katamari differs most from Katamari Damacy, although it may not be apparent at first. The controls (unsurprisingly) are unchanged, and you have no new abilities or upgrades to your ball- but the important part is everything surrounding the actual Katamari mechanics. The level design and pacing and progression have all been majorly overhauled between entries, and I’ll devote time to the changes on each aspect. First with the level design. As I’ve mentioned in the previous sections, this is the way We <3 Katamari stands furthest apart from the original. Every level is much smaller in scale, taking place in one type of location, such as a campground or a zoo, in one building, such as a single school, or even just one kid’s room. Tied into these more focused stages are many unique mechanics, which vary wildly from level mechanics. In one level you’re be tasked with keeping a ball aflame to grow big enough to light a bonfire, making it necessary to manage your fuel levels by focusing on collecting burnable objects, as well as avoid water to make sure your Katamari doesn’t instantly go out- which would force you to restart the stage. Another level has you rolling a skinny sumo wrestler around a town, picking up food and allowing him to grow in size so he can fulfill his dream of winning a sumo tournament. Next is pacing and progression, which is the part of this game I had the biggest issue with- and unfortunately is the main reason this doesn’t get a perfect score (spoilers). The problem originates from the exact thing the level design does so well, which is smaller scale missions and more consistent size. This means the game as a whole doesn’t have the same sense of progression that made the first game so addictive. You no longer start out small then consistently grow until you’re absorbing literal continents, but instead stay approximately the same size, except for one level in the middle where you’re able to reach over 1000m. This means that the final level, which I won’t spoil, is oddly anticlimactic since its scale feels completely out of place. This same final level has another side though, because it’s actually given to you early- but you aren’t able to finish it quite yet. This isn’t necessarily a good thing, since I think the game would have been fine without this change, but it’s still an interesting way to show progression. Gameplay gets a 9/10.

Verdict: We <3 Katamari is a fantastic game. It’s lightyears ahead of the original in some ways, that lead to a much more diverse experience, but also takes a step back from one of the main aspects that made the first game so addictive. It’s quirky, unique, and most of all a ton of fun. It’s a game I’d recommend to anyone who enjoyed the original game, and even to those who just want something new. In my opinion these two games, We <3 Katamari and Katamari Damacy, are two different beasts that work best in a pair. One gives you a more grand and god-like story with an incredible sense of progression, while the other shows you the intimate side of the world and it’s people, along with a hearty dose of well... heart. We <3 Katamari is a must play, and gets a 9/10 from me.

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postgamecontent · 8 years

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Quintet Spotlight: Terranigma

Original Release Date: October 20, 1995 (JPN)

Original Hardware: Nintendo Super Famicom

There are no two ways about it: Terranigma is Quintet's masterpiece. It feels like a culmination of everything they had been trying to do with their previous games both mechanically and in terms of story themes. This was the developer's final Super Famicom game, and with a major departure of staff during its development, perhaps the last game developed by Quintet to maintain the feel of its earlier games. Several months before Terranigma's Japanese release date of October 20, 1995, graphic designer Koji Yokota and a number of other Quintet staff left to form Shade Inc. Their first game, the PlayStation action-RPG Granstream Saga, felt like a spiritual successor to Quintet's 16-bit era work, but their output since then has been full-on "paying the bills" work. As for Quintet, they slowly faded into the shadows of the Japanese games industry, serving more frequently as a programming house or ghost developer. Perhaps they would have had another Terranigma in them, given more time. Perhaps they wouldn't have. The important thing, I suppose, is that they managed to get Terranigma finished and even localized before things went really bad.

Unfortunately, since it was a very late release on Nintendo's 16-bit hardware, that localized release only made it to PAL regions. Enix had already closed their overseas branch due to poor sales results, so Nintendo ended up publishing it themselves in Europe and Australia on December 19th, 1996. I can think of a number of reasons that Nintendo would have passed on a North American release. The simplest explanation is that the Nintendo 64 had already released in the United States and Canada, so they wanted to focus their marketing efforts on it. Indeed, Nintendo of America would only release a handful of titles after the Nintendo 64 came out, and all of them were from major brands. No matter how well Illusion of Gaia had performed, Terranigma was not going to be of a similar market value to games like Donkey Kong Country 3, Street Fighter Alpha 2, or Kirby's Dream Land 3. Understandable, to be sure, but also entirely aggravating. Terranigma is one of the finest RPGs on the Super NES, and the only real way for North American players to experience it is on an emulator. A sad fate.

That's the business, though. Let's talk about the game itself. To put it simply, Terranigma carries forward all of the strengths of Quintet's earlier action-RPGs while shoring up the biggest common weak point. You can count on once again going through some interesting side-stories, hearing some excellent music, and experiencing some creative mechanics. This time, however, the action combat that makes up the bulk of the gameplay is actually really good. The main character, Ark, is the most agile and capable Quintet protagonist we've seen yet. He can run, jump, dive, and jab with his spear in a few different ways. He's got a bit of weight to him, which takes some getting used to, but once you've done that, it's an awful lot of fun just zooming around and taking out enemies. Ark's spread of moves reminds me of Adol's capabilities in later Ys games like Oath in Felghana.

The enemies also step their game up. The game throws a good variety of enemies at you, and does a nice job of mixing up the groups so that you're always having to adjust. You can't just use the same attacks again and again. Some enemies need to be hit with a diving attack, others with Ark's Stinger-like dash, while some are most effectively dealt with by simple thrusts of the spear. Enemies also have elemental strengths and weaknesses that you'll want to account for. In short, the game isn't nearly as much about exploiting a stupid AI routine and hammering the attack button repeatedly as previous Quintet action-RPGs were. Even the bosses are better than they were in previous games from this team.

It makes a huge difference for the overall quality of the game. The dull, stupid enemies of Soul Blazer and the somewhat stiff combat in Illusion of Gaia were both things that you tolerated in order to get at the good parts of the games. In Terranigma, entering a new action area holds just as much excitement as heading into a new story segment. That lends the game a much stronger pace than previous games, making it incredibly hard to put down. The action areas themselves make use of a greater variety of puzzles and gimmicks, with some designs that wouldn't be that far out of place in a Legend of Zelda game. Of course, for every Zelda-like dungeon you come across, there is another that is completely off the wall in a very Quintet sort of way. Importantly, the game isn't afraid to make you wait if it suits the story.

Terranigma is a somewhat bigger game than its predecessors, but thanks to its scope, it feels considerably larger. The game is broken into four different chapters, and apart from the brevity of the first, each of them feels like they could have been a stand-alone game from earlier in the system's life. The story starts off generically enough with our hero, Ark, being awoken by his friend, Elle. Ark and Elle live in a small village with a number of other people. They rarely venture outside of the town, and it's indeed said to be dangerous for some to be outside of their own houses. Ark is something of a local trouble-maker, so your first job is to march yourself over to a neighbor's house to apologize for something he did before we started the game. When that's done, Ark returns home to find that his father figure, the Elder, has gone out on an errand. The others at the Elder's house have taken this opportunity to try to open a door that the Elder has forbade opening.

By hook or by crook, that door comes open, and Ark finds himself descending into the depths. At the bottom lays a box, and when Ark opens it, a monster named Yomi is released. At the same time, all of the people in the town, including Elle, are frozen. Only Ark and the Elder remain in their normal states. The Elder admonishes Ark but tells him he must visit five towers to wake the townspeople up again. He sends you out of the safe borders of the town towards the first tower. When you leave the town, you'll be struck by the appearance of the sky, which looks heavily distorted. This is because the village is located in the underworld of the planet. The surface has been barren for a long time, we're told. As you go through each tower, Ark not only awakens some villagers but also continents on the surface world. After you've saved everyone, the Elder advises you to travel through a hole in the ground to the surface world and try to awaken life there once more. Ark has one last meeting with Elle before diving into the unknown, ending the chapter.

The first chapter of Terranigma contrasts the familiar and the alien to great effect. The opening and the village itself could not be more plain as RPGs go, but the minute you set foot outside, it's clear that you're in a whole other world. You enter a tower, and things feel quite safe again, but you're always have to trudge back through that bizarre world map to get to your next goal. The game doesn't beat around the bush concerning which world you're meant to be in, as the continents you raise are all named after the real Earth continents. At the end of the chapter, Ark faces the tough challenge of diving into the unknown with no way back. He leaves his familiar home to save a world he's never even seen. For the player, though, this is an opportunity to leave the alien for something altogether more typical. It's easy for us to jump into that hole. But just to give us some unease, the Elder tells Ark that we will lose one gameplay crutch in the new world. Up until now, our weapon would restore lost life at a steady rate. That no longer works on the other side, so you'll have to find another means. Uncertainty. We jump anyway, because what else are we going to do? Leave a hole unexplored? Right.

We begin the second chapter in a dead, lifeless world. Everything around is barren and dry. A little stroll around the part of the map accessible to us tells us that we are in South America. A faint voice calls out to Ark, asking for his help. We make our way into a huge tree that hides a fairly large action area. Poison and monsters are all over the place, but there isn't anything here you wouldn't be prepared for if you made it through the first chapter. After finding and defeating the root of the problem, the plants and vegetation of the world suddenly spring back to life. But even as it happens, Ark is given a caution: it's still too early for everything to be waking up. That doesn't give Ark much of a pause, as he spends the rest of the chapter reviving the rest of the world. First the birds, then the winds, then the animals, and finally, human beings. Every step of the way, the mantra is repeated: it's too early.

The second chapter feels like a souped-up Soul Blazer more than anything else. There's plenty of action, and since humanity doesn't get awakened until the end of the chapter, most of the story is centered around Ark's communications with nature itself. There are some pretty powerful moments in this part of the game. In one section, you're having to act as a bodyguard for a young lion cub who is taking a test to prove his worthiness as a potential king. He's fairly confident, but for much of the climb, you're having to watch over him very carefully. When you reach the summit of the mountain, a monster confronts Ark and the lion cub, taking pot-shots from a ledge that is out of your reach.

The cub will provide rocks for you to throw at the monster, but just when you think it's beaten, the nasty villain pulls a trick. It knocks the ground out from under Ark, sending him falling down to a ledge below. You're unable to get back up, so all you can do is listen to what happens next. The cub, thinking you dead, attacks the monster to avenge you. This whole process takes an uncomfortably long time, and since you can't see how the fight is going, you feel tension. Is the cub Leim going to be okay? You want to take care of him, but all you can do is trust that he is strong enough to do it on his own. He overcomes the creature, finds you safely below, and heads home with his head held high.

It's an uplifting moment, but Terranigma has plenty of kidney punches, too. When you're on your way up a snowy mountain to restore humanity, you accidentally slide down a slope and crash into a wall, setting off an avalanche. Ark is swallowed up, and when he wakes up, he's inside a cave. A goat, who was also trapped, is tending to him. When you stand up and explore the cave that you're trapped in, you see another goat's dead body. The first goat matter-of-factly informs you that the body belongs to her husband, who was killed when the avalanche hit. One minute they were happy and having fun, she says, and the next, he was gone. Both Ark and the player know that they were the cause of this misery, and the goat likely suspects it as well. But it hangs in the air, unspoken.

With no obvious way out of the cave, the goat and Ark hunker down for the night. The goat sleeps close to Ark to keep him warm. In the morning, she asks if you would like breakfast. As Ark, and perhaps the player, wonders where the goat found food, she gestures to the body of her husband. Ark wants no part of it and wonders how she can eat the meat of her husband's corpse. She tells Ark that it is because it is her husband's corpse that she must eat it, for if she dies, that is simply one less goat in the world. Ark passes anyway. The goat then gestures towards the back wall. She's found a spot that is weak and she believes she can ram through. This noble goat, whose full misfortunes are your fault, has done everything to save you. It's exciting when she finally breaks through that wall, knowing that you'll both soon be free.

Upon heading into the room she has opened up, the worst happens. The only way out is up a sheer wall that Ark can climb, but the goat cannot. She tells Ark to go on, that she will find another way out, but the goat, Ark, and the player all know that she will not. You are left to deal with the feeling of having destroyed two innocent lives all because you were romping around like a fool. Some might call it a cheap narrative trick, but this kind of thing is incredibly effective at drawing emotions from the player. Quintet's scenario writers were really good at this, perhaps too good. Virtually every victory in a Quintet game is a bittersweet one. In the scope of the game, the goat scenario happened relatively early on, but it stuck with me for the rest of the game.

In the third chapter, humankind has returned to the world. Ark has been out of it for a while, long enough that whole civilizations have sprung up. The feel of this chapter is completely different from the last one. You'll still be delving into dungeons and beating up monsters, but your aim is less about creation and more about proliferation. The Elder has asked you to help human civilization, currently in its nascent stages, advance and grow. You need to help towns grow by promoting them to other places. Photos, local goods, and so on can help you do that. Eventually, you'll awaken a scientist named Beruga, who survived the destruction of the previous world by going into a cryogenic sleep. He turns out to be mad, and wants to wipe out all life on the planet, replacing humans with the undead. Yes, another Quintet game, another story of science gone wrong.

The game's big twist happens here, revealing that Ark was accidentally aiding the Devil by bringing the world to life so soon. With Ark's part played, the Devil means to kill him, but Ark escapes. The rest of this chapter has you hunting for five Starstones that, when placed in the right location, will call a Golden Child who has the means to defeat the Devil. Upon completing that task, the Golden Child turns out to be Ark's overworld counterpart, the seed from which the underworld Ark was created by the Devil. He informs you that you are meant to be the legendary hero, and then kills you. What? That's the end of the third chapter.

After a somewhat mellow, if occasionally somber, second chapter, the third chapter is back to jerking you around. Sure, there are lots of signs that the proliferation of humanity might not be the best thing for the world, but it's easy to get swept up in the process of helping civilization along. Then the cards are laid on the table and all you want to do is stuff the proverbial genie back into the bottle. The end of the chapter is almost a bigger mind-screw than the twist. You've worked hard to get some help in fixing your mistake, only to be told that you are the only one who can set things right. While you're processing that, Ark is killed, leaving you wondering which end is up.

I don't want to spoil everything about the game, so I'll leave the fourth chapter as a mystery. It's more linear than the previous few chapters, and also quite short, but it packs a strong emotional punch. The ending is slightly more positive than normal for a Quintet game, but it's not exactly a happy ending, either. At the very least, it leaves you feeling somewhat reassured that your efforts were not in vain, which is more than some other Quintet games end with. All told, I think the main story in Terranigma isn't as organized as the one in Illusion of Gaia, which would be a much bigger problem if the game itself weren't so much fun to play. The side-stories are excellent, and as with my previous write-ups, I've chosen to leave most of them for you to discover. But the main plot starts and stops frequently, and the character work outside of Ark and perhaps Elle isn't quite as strong as it could be.

Still, there are enough dynamite storytelling moments of emotional punch and introspection to feed your brain over the course of the game's 20 or so hours. While the game isn't as pretty as some other late-generation 16-bit games, there's an awful lot of candy for the senses, too. The game forces quiet, reflective pauses on you now and then, soothing you with imagery of nature and some of the lovely music from the game's soundtrack. If there's one thing that Quintet proved to be good at above all else, it was in using a variety of moods, speeds, and emotion-tugging to keep the player transfixed. Terranigma is perhaps their ultimate accomplishment in that regard. You will feel like you've been through the wringer by the time you finish this game.

This write-up is already hideously long, but I think I could write twice as much if I thought anyone would read it. Maybe one day I will. Let's wrap this one up for now, though. If you only make room in your schedule to play one Quintet game, make sure it's Terranigma. Their whole library is weird and worth experiencing, but this game is a pure classic. It's an utter shame that it is not canonized on the level of games like Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy 6, and Earthbound, because it is very much punching in the same league. This playthrough was my first experience with the game, and not only do I consider it one of the better games I've played in recent memory, I'm finding myself mulling exactly where in my top 10 Super NES games I'm going to fit it in. It's that good.

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retrospectre · 8 years

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Playdead’s INSIDE

Inside is a puzzle platformer released in the summer of 2016 by Playdead, the studio behind the indie-darling, Limbo, similarly about a young boy in a menacing world who runs to the right. Inside was first announced back in E3 2014 during the Microsoft conference as part of its indie line-up. Since then, its been released to critical and commercial acclaim. Now that the dust has settled, lets see what the fuss was about.

Inside immediately introduces us to the familiar minimalist UI, or lack thereof, many remember from Limbo, with the title screen revealing itself to be the opening scene of the game. Our protagonist slides into view, and we gain control. Right off the bat, we can sense that there is something seriously wrong as the boy sneaks past ominous patrols of cargo and pickup trucks in the forest setting. We can sense that the boy is possibly being hunted, and our suspicions are confirmed when he’s spotted, and a man comes chasing after him.

Here is where we run into our first issue, something that also comes up in Limbo. The player is quickly introduced to the trial-and-error style of gameplay that Playdead seems to rely on in many parts of the game. As the boy runs from the pursuer, he trips over a branch on the ground, runs out into the headlights of another truck, and trips over a log, resulting in death in all three situations.

The game, in my opinion, often does a poor job of telegraphing “puzzles” or obstacles, where it seems almost necessary to have to learn through dying due to the weakness of visual cues. These don’t result in an “A-ha!” moment that drives the core of most puzzle games, but in “oh, alright. I see” moments where you finally understand what it is the developers intend for you to do. These moments are not only unsatisfying when beaten, but often rip the player from the experience. Playdead is excellent in their mastery of setting the tone and creating an immersive atmosphere, but they undermine that by constantly throwing these trial-and-error puzzles at you. These types of puzzles evaporate any accumulated tension as the player needs to sit there and figure out exactly what it is the developers want them to do.

But lets return to what I mentioned about the atmosphere, because again, that is where the game shines. This game almost entirely carries itself on its tone, atmosphere, and setting. The washed out colors of a oppressive and horrifying world blend perfectly with the echoing soundtrack to create a world that is stressful to navigate, but mesmerizing to watch. The player is drawn to learn more about this world the boy inhabits, and that acts as the driving force for most of the game. Playdead truly understand how to create a world that entrances and pulls in its players. And while most would call inside a puzzle-platformer (myself included), I would argue its the environmental storytelling that is the true “meat” of the game.

And that’s both a good thing and a bad thing. The puzzles are the core of what you’ll be doing in the game, sure. But they aren’t innovative or compelling enough to carry the game on their own. To put it bluntly, they simply act as things for the player to do while they gaze with wonder and horror at the environments Playdead has created. In fact, it can be argued that the puzzles work to the detriment of the game.

Almost all puzzle games that take place in a physical world space need to have a certain suspension of disbelief. The idea that there just so happens to be puzzle after puzzle standing between the player and the end goal, and that these obstacles can be overcome with everything lying in near proximity. The exact suspension of disbelief needed depends on how well the game explains these puzzles. Inside... doesn’t exactly do this. Some of the puzzles do successfully masquerade as “That’s... just how the environment happens to be configured!” While others will make the player wonder “Who in their right mind would design a door to work like this?” And once again, this method of puzzle design breaks the immersion that the game so heavily relies upon.

Here we’ll be heading into spoiler territory, analyzing the game’s message and overall themes. If you haven’t played the game and don’t want the ending spoiled for you, then now would be a good time to tune out and return when you’ve finished the game.

Its clear from the very beginning that Inside is about control. Early on we’re introduced to a core mechanic of the game, the mind control helmets. The boy puts these helmets on and are able to gain control of various zombie-like “drones” in the area. The boy also seems to have some sort of control over various animals throughout the game, being followed by baby chicks early in the game and then schools of fish later in the underwater sections. The game is very subtle in its exploration of the themes of control, but does well in keeping the player reminded of its ubiquity throughout the game.

At one point it’s shown that the boy can use a helmet to control a drone who’s also wearing a helmet to control a third drone. This mechanic is extremely well done because it introduces the player to the idea that multiple layers of control are possible beyond the superficial aspects we’re familiar with. One might immediately wonder whether or not the boy is being controlled by an unknown entity, and even more meta, the player can become conscious of the fact that they themselves are controlling the boy. This is an amazing use of a mechanic to blur the lines of the game world and the real world and question if the game’s narrative adheres to this distinction.

Finally, towards the end of the game, the boy reaches the end goal; a giant mass of humans melded together into a grotesque huddle. The boy frees the Huddle by removing the various restraints, which look suspiciously similar to the mind control helmets being used throughout the game. This scene seems to suggest that the Huddle itself was controlling the boy all along in an effort to free itself from its prison. And as the boy is absorbed into its mass, assimilating with the huddle, player control is shifted to the Huddle. After wreaking havoc on the facility behind these experiments, the Huddle lies peacefully on a beach, with a thin ray of sunlight shining optimistically on the beast.

More observant players will notice, that during the Huddle’s rampage, it falls into a tank containing a diorama of a coastal setting fully identical to the beach at the ending, complete with an artificial ray of sunlight. Playdead seems to imply that the Huddle, despite its murderous rampage, was actually still somehow acting within the confines of the facility’s experiments. That its entirely possible that the beach itself was a staged setting, for reasons that are not entirely explained.

This implication does, however, lend to the overall themes of control and shows that the game not only explores the idea of direct control, but also indirect forms. Did the facility “control” the Huddle and guide it towards this pre-ordained end goal? Perhaps it goes a step further, and says that even after breaking free, the player is still under the control of the game, continuing to head toward the right as they’ve been doing throughout the game. The questions of control and player agency once again blur the lines of just how deep a story is Playdead trying to tell.

And finally we have the alternate ending, unlocked to the player on a second playthrough if the boy manages to unplug all the various orbs of light throughout the game. The boy is able to enter a new area and finds a room with various monitors and computers. At the end of the room is a mind control helmet, and should the boy pull it, he slumps over into the same position as the other inactive drones littered through the game. The screen fades to black and the game ends.

This alternate ending can be seen as a commentary on player agency. Its often said that even in the most linear of gameplay experiences, the player always has a choice; to continue playing or to turn off the game and stop. This alternate ending seems to be an easier-to-swallow option, whereby the boy pulls the plug and the player loses control of him, implying that the narrative does recognize the player as the controlling force behind the boy. And the player makes the decision to pull that plug and end the game before its truly “over”, similar to the idea of putting a game down before completing it.

Playdead continue to prove that they are masters at creating worlds that simultaneously feel unwelcoming and captivating. Players of Inside will feel compelled to continue playing in hopes of learning more about the world. Playdead is vague with any real details though, leaving the true narrative of the game ambiguous. While many will see it as a beautiful method of storytelling, others may find it unsatisfying. Worse yet, some may feel cheated, having powered through many of the game’s mediocre puzzles in hopes of illuminating the secrets of Inside to minimal avail. Regardless, Playdead has managed to create a truly enrapturing world that is, at times, pulled down by its lackluster puzzle design, and in the end, creates a piece that, for better or worse, inspires more questions than it answers.

#review #inside #playdead #game reviews #gaming #puzzle #analysis #playdeads inside #playdead studios

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inventors-fair · 4 years

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Lyrical Poets

There was a pretty diverse set of musical interests represented in this competition - a wide variety of artists and genres, which definitely kept things from getting dull on my end. Without further ado, let’s jump on in!

@antmations - Erissa, Bog Witch

Flavour: Spooky big bog witch makes everybody feel like dying. I'm not sure it communicates why I'm better off that way, but I'm sure she knows what she's talking about. Mechanics: A deathtouch creature is already a pretty significant deterrant to attacking, so adding extra downsides makes it especially unattractive. Be careful with effects like this because they often put the opponent in a position where they feel they can't progress the game without dying, which just makes the gameplay grind to a halt. Templating/Nitpicks: Nope, nothin'. Overall: Bog Big witch energy.

Charmera - Bad Moon Risen

Flavour: I respect how literally you played into this, especially the references to old card names. Kudos. Mechanics: Obviously with taking things as literally as you did, the design kinda has to wind up all over the place. My biggest takeaway from this one is that it feels like it should be a Saga that just ticks up through the lines you're referencing. Templating/Nitpicks: On MTG.design, you can use asterisks (*) to drop bullet points into your modal effects. It's super convenient. Overall: The chorus of this song is commonly misheard as "There's a bathroom on the right." That would probably be harder to design.

@corporalotherbear - Tranquility, the Trickster

Flavour: You chose a very simple effect which gave lots of room for flavour text. Just with the lines included I still don't totally understand the why, but it definitely conveys what's going on. Mechanics: This is repeatable removal, and pretty strong removal at that. Red is supposed to be weak against creatures with high toughness, but besides actual-factual walls this will generally circumvent that. Templating/Nitpicks: While a creature technically can fight itself, if you asked players what that means probably 9 out of 10 would get it wrong. The correct way to template this would probably be to just write out, "deals damage to itself equal to twice its power." Overall: It is a heck of a trick, tho.

@dabudder - Unbounded Truth

Flavour: The lyric you chose is really wholesome and pleasant. Revealing cards feels like "saying what we mean", though it fights the theme a bit that only our opponents get in on that action. Mechanics: Peek with some incidental lifegain tacked on sounds reasonable, I suppose. Control decks probably wouldn't mind knowing what answers they need to dig for while giving themselves more time to do so. Templating/Nitpicks: You're looking for "card", not "spell", and converted mana costs are "high" rather than "great". It probably comes out, "You gain life equal to the highest converted mana cost among cards revealed this way." Overall: Thanks for going to the trouble of submitting it until it went through. I expect next week to go a little smoother for you.

@dim3trodon - Paladin of Silence

Flavour: The lyrics are pretty evocative, and I can imagine a paladin saying (or explicitly not saying?) exactly that line. Good choice to lean on the spell Silence to define what exactly that means. Mechanics: I'm not sure what's Blue about this one. Perhaps it was for the Flash, but it's worth noting that every color has access to Flash for effects that genuinely require it to work - this would be one of those. Templating/Nitpicks: Kudos on being careful around flicker effects, though also be wary when you have to do that. It can be a sign that the core effect isn't very fun. Overall:

@dimestoretajic - Kawejitch, the Unrestrained

Flavour: Thanks for putting a face to the lyric that's been stuck in my head since my childhood. Only a little surprised that face has a trunk. Mechanics: This is functionally unblockable, but Mardu probably adds up to that. The rate could probably use some attention, as an 8/5 unblockable for six is better than anything that's been printed. Putting combat keywords on a creature that's nearly impossible to block feels like a miss; I think it's to really stick the "couldn't hold me back" thing, but I feel like super-menace delivered on that well enough. Templating/Nitpicks: I hope I'm not the only that gets unreasonably happy reading lines of text like this. Overall: I've been talking to myself out loud the whole time I've been typing this.

@emmypupcake - Burden of Despair

Flavour: Between the art and the flavour text, I can certainly feel the despondency of the situation. Mood. Mechanics: This is reasonably flexible removal, getting rid of little dorks entirely and mosty disabling bigger ones. The power drop feels pretty irrelevant since the creature can't attack or block anymore, but I suspect it's just there for symmetry. Templating/Nitpicks: Yours is one of only a couple submissions that correctly represented both title and artist in the flavour text. I'll be clearer about it in the future, but gold star for you in the meantime. Overall: Bog Big mood.

@fractured-infinity - Erase From Time

Flavour: I'm not sure what the art is showing me, but the flavour text does more than enough to set the tone. Gone for good. Mechanics: This is quite the clever little innovation, a variation on White's more permanent exile removal that is relevant in multiplayer. I'm a little curious why it phases instead of exiling, since the nonlegendary clause means it wouldn't hit Commanders either way, and the two are equivalent in most other cases. Templating/Nitpicks: No need for hyphens in "nonland" and "nonlegendary". Overall: This is one of those moments where you come up with a cool concept, you develop an awesome design around it...and somehow that design just no longer fits that concept. The biggest thing keeping you out of the winner's circle this week was that your innovation played in the opposite direction of your theme by making the removal less permanent. Solid design work, though.

@gollumni - Guildless Anarchist

Flavour: I assume the flavour text is mostly connecting with the first ability. Some designs just need the added context of a set or cycle to really make sense, and that's okay. Mechanics: Part of me suspects the first ability is a little overcosted, because it doesn't actually net you a card - see Haunted Crossroads for reference. That said, the repeatable removal and/or Lava Axe of the third ability seems pretty strong to make up for it. Templating/Nitpicks: Magic is picky, so you only "return" cards to the battlefield or your hand; you'll just "put" this one where it goes. Also, you'll want to include "untapped" in the cost of the third ability; the rules don't strictly require it, but templating praxis does. Overall: "Slaughtermatic" is my new word of the day.

@hypexion - Ravenous Extraction

Flavour: I've never heard it, but even just reading it that flavour text seems catchy. It has a clear message, and the Treasure tokens have added meaning thanks to the "inheritance" line. Mechanics: This hearkens back to Squandered Resources, both mechanically and thematically. Moving it to Red is probably correct in the modern color pie, though admittedly I'm not sure at what rate either of these effects would be fair. Nyxbloom Ancient triples your mana more permanently for seven, so...maybe five is fine? Templating/Nitpicks: For poetry, line breaks are as much a part of the writing as the words. If it's not possible to fit with line breaks intact, you'll want to include slashes to indicate where they should be. Geist of the Moors is an example of what that looks like. Overall: I'm going to have to look up this song to see how close it sounds to how I'm reading it.

@ignorantturtlegaming - Angel's Song

Flavour: An angel's song is definitely magic-appropriate flavour, and has a lot of room for interpretation. "Eternal life" as doubling your life total makes sense, though the burn part feels more like punishing the gathering than calling it. Mechanics: Moving Sphinx's Revelation to sorcery speed does hurt its power level, though I'm not sure it does it enough to compensate for all the upsides this has. Having the option of using it as a sweeper is huge, and the life doubling on top of the first mode seems like it gets out of hand quickly. Templating/Nitpicks: Modal spells only really have their modes. If you want the conditional part to occur regardless of which mode you pick, the correct way to do that is to include it in both modes. I agree this feels weird. Overall: A song called The Gathering was such an apt choice, kudos.

@illharg-the-rave-boar - The Key and the Gate

Flavour: I'm definitely picking up the "thrall to Yog-Sothoth" feel. And the card is powerful enough that it communicates a sense of powerlessness against cosmic forces. Mechanics: This card is quite the beating, but I suppose three-color, seven-mana spells generally should be. This is a pretty clear 'game over' in most cases - unless your opponents have another source of cards, the fact you're stealing one each turn and doming them for 7 every time they whiff should end the game pretty quickly. Templating/Nitpicks: There are enough details of the lyrics that lend themselves to Magic vocabulary (rainbow, cascade, even walls) that I wish the design were a little more explicit, but I understand there's only so much room. Overall: Songs these days really have nothing on great old ones.

@khyrberos - Neutral Physician

Flavour: Few things make me happier than "deniability" on a card that literally denies an ability. This has a few different things going on, but they're all pulled reasonably well from the text you're referencing. Mechanics: All the different pieces of this card kinda drag it in different directions. While they're clearly pulled from the lyrics, they don't really create a unified mechanical identity, which makes it hard to imagine how a card like this should be used. Templating/Nitpicks: If you want it to counter death triggers, you can actually just do that. "Counter target triggered ability if a creature dying caused it to trigger" does what you want without the weird timing restriction. Overall: I think there's actually something here, it just needs a little polish.

@macaroni-and-squeez - Rising Form-Claimer

Flavour: Using the untap trigger to show the creature "woke up" that way is really clever. Mechanics: The delayed trigger feels a little hard to track, and I can't help but think there must be a simpler way to achieve a similar feel. I do like the fact that the tap in the cost of the ability sets up the untap trigger, which makes the design feel internally consistent. Templating/Nitpicks: There's a comma missing between your costs, and you probably mean to say "When CARDNAME becomes untapped during your next untap step," otherwise the trigger hangs around indefinitely and goes off every time it untaps. Overall: Is this thing skinless until you activate the ability? Oh no.

@machine-elf-paladin - Goblin Firework Festival

Flavour: This line feels so much like a goblin rhyme, I'm really pleased that you felt that in it too. The unpredictability of the end result, and flavour of blowing up your friends and fireworks feels very resonant. Mechanics: This is a finisher, with a pretty clear multiplayer leaning. I think in practice this would generally kill whichever player is at the lowest life total, encouraging them to sacrifice everything they have, in turn possibly killing another player and encouraging them to do likewise. While the effect feels fun to read, I'm not convined the actual gameplay would feel interesting most of the time. Templating/Nitpicks: Gold star for the use of slashes to indicate line breaks in your flavour text. Overall: I hope this song is as fun as this design implies it is.

@martian-june - Blood Pact

Flavour: Combining a group hug effect with a group slug effect to convey "friends who bleed" is pretty clever. Mechanics: This is an interesting combination of 'White' and Black effects. The card draw is something that Black can do at this rate, and the opponents drawing cards probably covers any cost of the life loss. I'm not sure precisely what deck is looking for the combination of these effects, but it's neat to see them done together. Templating/Nitpicks: I don't think there's any strong reason for the "if" clause, there are very few effects that would prevent that from happening anyway. Overall: I like centered cards too.

@milkandraspberry - Taunting Slander

Flavour: I can see how "stupid butt" might get one's hackles up. Them's fightin' words. Mechanics: A fight effect with a little extra reach seems sensible enough. You'll often lose your creature along with theirs, so it's a little bit like a Heartfire. Templating/Nitpicks: "...each get +1/-1..." is the template you're looking for. Apart from that, I'd just like to see the flavour and reminder text italicised - it subtly communicates that I should be reading it differently, which is surprisingly helpful. Overall: Not too strong, not too bad.

@misswamyn - Bardic Inspiration

Flavour: I can definitely imagine how a great song could get your troops a-movin'. I do wish there was a little more to make me feel why this song has this effect, but the overall effect definitely makes sense. Mechanics: The biggest miss is that there's nothing particularly White about it. Otherwise, perfectly solid. Templating/Nitpicks: This is a really simple line of text that has apparently never appeared on a Magic card before. Those are always a treat. Overall: Makes me wonder what the actual greatest song ever would do.

@mistershinyobject - Ghastly Grasp

Flavour: Drain is definitely a classically Black way to illustrate the concept of touch. The impression I get is that the creature is the one overwhelmed by your touch, though I'm not sure I immediately connect with the "almost convinced me I'm real" line. That part seems especially poignant, so I'd love to see it show through in the mechanics. Mechanics: You expressed some concern over whether this was allowed in Black - personally, I don't think it's even a bend. Because Black can get full drain at roughly this rate, it certainly wouldn't be a break for it to get only half of that. Dealing damage without any lifegain would have to be a bend then, but this sets itself up to gain life almost every time it's used. I think you're fine. Templating/Nitpicks: Power seems like an odd choice over toughness, just because it feels like it's operating on an entirely different axis. Overall: Killing a Rampaging Ferocidon with this would be so satisfying.

@misterstingyjack - Keeper of the Fourth Mystery

Flavour: I wouldn't have picked up on what this card's flavour text was saying without your explanation, though with the explanation I can pretty clearly see what motivated your decisions. Mechanics: Expanding your tutor effects is an interesting space to play in, I wonder if there's a good way to make it work. Templating/Nitpicks: Unfortunately, this template probably doesn't do it. I don't believe an effect can really look forward to see where the searched card is going to be put, and I'm not sure the search replacement would work as intended anyway. This is a tough templating challenge though, so I think this was a valiant effort. Overall: A honestly hope to see a more polished version of this in the future.

@morbidlyqueerious - Lethal Prominence

Flavour: It works a little hard to convey its theme, but I think it gets there. Mechanics: You're right that it came out a little wordy, and I suspect there's probably a more elegant way to deliver on the notes this is trying to hit. I think it gets dragged in too many directions trying to incentivise everyone (the counters, the Gold, the attack requirement). That said, I do like where it's aiming. Templating/Nitpicks: Nothing stands out, which is good. Overall: This is exactly the kind of lyric I had in mind when I created this challenge.

@nine-effing-hells - The First Home of Crafters

Flavour: It does do the work of tying Dwarves, Artifacts, and Artificers together thematically. Mechanics: Lands that tap for multiple mana are often a problem, and there are enough cheap artifacts that I would expect the other two types to be largey irrelevant. That deckbuilding restriction is a limitation, but history has shown that cheap artifacts tend to be good together without a lot of extra help. Templating/Nitpicks: You noted that the wording on the trigger is hard to follow, and I have to agree. I think it does function correctly though, so points for that. Overall: It's definitely a song.

@quillpaw - Mercury in Retrograde

Flavour: It's hard for me to connect what the flavour text is telling me to the resulting effect, which is unfortunate because each of them seems cool on its own. Mechanics: This is definitely a variant of Kruphix that feels Red. I think it feels a bit bad that it costs so much, because by the time you can start holding onto your mana it's going to kill you pretty quickly trying to do so. I think the downside feels appropriate though. Templating/Nitpicks: Those are two different abilities, so they should be spaced a little differently. And generally you'll want quoted flavour text inside quotations marks. Overall: I still can't figure out if it's a friend or not.

@real-aspen-hours - South Wind

Flavour: Cute to evoke the spell Hurricane for a song of the same name. The second half is...Shatterstorm, which I suppose is on the storm theme? Mechanics: Suspend is something we probably won't see much of soon, and this isn't the kind of effect that plays especially nicely with that mechanic. When your opponent knows a sweeper is coming, they just know not to play into it. Templating/Nitpicks: I put the card image together for you. I think I do good work. Overall: You've got at least three more winds to design now.

@reaperfromtheabyss - Question to the World

Flavour: The design itself asks questions without answering them, which is kind of an interesting place for this to be. Mechanics: The coolest part of this design is that it asks your opponent whether they want to bother dealing with it (and giving you cards) or just letting it live as a minor inconvenience. This came close to winning, and my only problem with this design is that the combination of evasion and hexproof takes most of your opponent's ability to interact with it away, leaving that one interesting question pretty moot. Templating/Nitpicks: Cards would be exiled "with" it, not "by" it. Overall: Did they ever get an answer?

@scavenger98 - Horizon's Turn

Flavour: I definitely get the sensation of leaving the surface world behind and taking to the skies, which is a neat story. Mechanics: This a tough one. It's a six-mana (twelve, if you count the skipped untap) sorcery that can often do actual nothing depending on your opponent's deck. The frustrating part is that there's no real way to build around it, because it relies entirely on your opponent's things. Also, skipping untap steps is just rough. Templating/Nitpicks: Nope, nothing in particular. Overall: I feel like there's more story to this than I'm picking up on, and it genuinely makes me want to know more.

@shakeszx - Leave Breathless

Flavour: The "doesn't untap" clause is normally used for ice effects, but I can see it being used for breathlessness. Adding the activated ability bit certainly sells it as something different. Mechanics: Split second isn't a favourite of mine, but I suppose it's there to make sure the activated ability line gets to do its thing. This is only moderately better than normal freeze effects, so I'm not sure the color-intensive cost is really necessary. Templating/Nitpicks: It's a little weird that the effects last for different periods. I'd probably just attach the activated ability limitation to "until it becomes untapped", as many activated abilities won't be usable until then anyway. Overall: That line is a pretty good choice, I gotta say.

@snugz - Caught in the Act

Flavour: A song as well-known as this one is a bold choice because it comes with so many preconceptions. I'm not sure I'm picking up where all the different parts are fitting together thematically, and that could be part of it. Mechanics: This is some nifty little soft removal. It feels a bit like a Blue Stab Wound - most often, this will be used to immediately kill small opposing creatures (by leaving up a blocker big enough to eat it in combat), but occasionally it’ll be stuck on something harmless to achieve the recurring effect. In most cases, mill two each turn is not going to be too scary (and is even an upside at times), but in a mill deck every recurring source of mill is key. Templating/Nitpicks: Reimagining the artist of the song as a character was an interesting little addition. Overall: I would not be at all surprised to see something like this printed in an upcoming set.

@sorustyitshines - Fire-Forged Bond

Flavour: This definitely conveys the theme of two creatures fighting and enduring hardships together. I feel like you have the space to do a little more to really sell the theme, but it's certainly clear from what you've got. Mechanics: This is an effect that doesn't exist yet, which means it's got that much going for it. I think the theme gives you space for a little more innovation than what you took advantage of; something like "those creatures gain indestructible for as long as you control both of them" is a slightly more unique space that leans a little harder into the story you're trying to tell. Templating/Nitpicks: The effect wants "each of two target creatures", otherwise it sounds like you're splitting the one counter between them. Overall: It probably doesn't need to be rare, but otherwise this is a very printable card.

@teaxch - Sink and Drown and Die

Flavour: I had to actually listen to the song to piece together what was going on, as the flavour text only went so far. That said, aligning the three effects with the three verbs was really cleverly done. Mechanics: My only real qualm here is that your opponent makes all the decisions. This would probably be in the winners’ circle if you picked the three permanents and they picked what to do with them (a kind of Kiss, Marry, Kill effect). Templating/Nitpicks: The existing templating looks perfect, so instead let's imagine the Kiss, Marry, Kill version: "Choose three nonland permanents controlled by the same player. That player returns one of them to its owners hand, puts another on top of its owner library, and sacrifices the rest." Overall: Just hoping the flavour text wasn't aimed at me.

@tmstage - The Lone Digger Club

Flavour: You were correct in assuming I'd seen the video, so I did have a sense of what was going on here. That said, I warned that the card was the context I was most interested in, and it doesn't serve to communicate all of that itself. Mechanics: This is a really cute way to evoke the effect you were going for. Forced blocks (and attacks, for that matter) can be done within Blue, and the aggressive feeling definitely justifies the Red inclusion. Templating/Nitpicks: Nowadays attack restrictions refer to "combat" rather than "turn", so that it's clear how they interact with multiple combat phases. Overall: The purple art on a Blue-Red card is so satisfying.

@whuh-oh - The Demon Within

Flavour: I can see how each of part of the lyric is supposed to correspond to one of the activated abilities, though it's not immediately obvious which effect is which line. Mechanics: Free mana is often very strong, and being able to turn 2 life into three mana each turn feels strong - I suppose it's only a turn sooner than Gilded Lotus with a higher color requirement, but it's also a lot more flexible than that. The fact that the third ability doesn't seem to interact with the other two makes it feel a little out-of-place, especially since three abilities and the activation restriction means you could pretty easily have them work cyclically (i.e., have the last ability read "BBB: You gain 2 life."). Templating/Nitpicks: You'll want it to read "only once each turn", because templates. Overall: Form of the Demon is a pretty neat idea.

@wolkemesser - Memnarch's Manic Plan

Flavour: The strongest flavour points for this card go to the fact that it makes you think like the character; you immediately start to imagine the payoffs for doing the thing, and the costs just become an afterthought. I think that was really cleverly done. Mechanics: The biggest obstacle is that this is a bit of a one-card combo. As long as your deck has any game-winning combo somewhere in it, you just build up a lot of permanents and play this, hoping to draw into your combo and immediately have the mana to play it out. Either you succeed and win on the spot, or you don't and your opponent picks you apart while you try to piece things back together. It's possible this gives you enough resources when it works not to immediately fold to pressure, but if that's the case there's just not much risk to playing it after all. Templating/Nitpicks: Looks like you missed the word "cards" after "draw X", otherwise you're golden. Overall: I was really pleased to see Memnarch show up on this, thanks for that.

That’s our feedback this week - I wanted to get it out of the way so that you all could focus on @teaxch‘s challenge starting today. Thank you all again for letting me share one of my favourite design exercises with you, and I hope that some of you will keep it in mind the next time you’re struggling to nail an idea down.

Until next time,

~Mod [ @3smuth ]

#inventor's fair #custom magic card #wax lyrical #proving grounds #commentary #3smuth

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operationrainfall · 4 years

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Title Panzer Paladin Developer Tribute Games Publisher Tribute Games Release Date July 21st, 2020 Genre Retro platformer Platform PC, Nintendo Switch Age Rating E for Everyone 10+ – Fantasy Violence Official Website

I’ve been a fan of Tribute Games for years, but this is the first time I’ve directly received a review copy from them. And though a fan, I feel many of their games in the past have been great, but not amazing. Most were held back by balance issues, such as Mercenary Kings Reloaded or even Flinthook. But turns out it was just a matter of time, cause after playing Panzer Paladin, I’ve come to a revelation. This is the best game Tribute has ever made. Not only that, but it’s my favorite new retro title since Shovel Knight. You’re probably curious why I feel that way, so I implore you to keep reading.

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The first thing that’s great about Panzer Paladin is the plot. It’s very 80s, in the best way. The game starts with magical weapons falling to earth, opening portals for fell armies and turning humans into foul beasts. Several portals have opened up, summoning a horde of eldritch foes ready to lay waste. The only answer to this magical mayhem? Robots, of course! They can’t be corrupted by the magical energy, and thus can wield magical weapons safely. The robots in question comprise the titular Panzer and Paladin. These are Grit, a gigantic mech, and Flame, a human sized android made for rescue operations. That said, don’t count Flame out! Even though she’s nowhere near as tough as Grit, she can wield a mean laser whip, reach tunnels inaccessible to Grit, grapple across pits and even heal the giant mech remotely. Meanwhile, Grit will be what you use for the bulk of combat. He can attack upwards to reach vertical heights, bounce on foe’s heads like Uncle Scrooge, dash backwards, block enemy projectiles with a shield and can withstand a ton of hurt before he crumbles.

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I really was drawn in by the pulpy fun of the premise, and it’s only made better by beautiful anime cutscenes. They look like they could have been drawn by greats of the genre, and they lend a ton of personality to the cast. Even though you’re only controlling Grit and Flame, you have a supporting team of goofballs, mostly lending moral support. You also have a sinister foe in Ravenous. He’s the one behind all the chaos happening on the planet, and he openly mocks your efforts to stop him. There’s also the mysterious Horseman, who seems to have goals all his own, despite obviously being a magical creature himself.

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With the stage set, I should talk about the game itself. It’s clear the folks at Tribute outdid themselves here, finding inspiration in a number of classic series. There’s a level select and final stage gauntlet similar to Mega Man; The Horseman’s musical theme reminds me of Proto Man; there’s a mech and pilot dynamic not unlike Blaster Master; Grit wields a shield that works similarly to Zelda II; and though there’s not Castlevania wall meat, you can often find hidden weapons by busting open walls. That said, this very much feels like a unique experience. These small touches are meant to flavor the larger experience, but it’s one wholly distinct from any of those games. One mechanic that brings that to bear is how weapons work.

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Each of the weapons you’ll discover are one of three types – Cut (sword), Pierce (spear) or Impact (Hammer). There’s no weapon triangle to worry about, but you will need particular types of weapons to break open corresponding blocks. Also, since all these weapons are magical, they increase your burden. I admit I’m not entirely sure how this works, other than having a high burden seeming to guarantee encounters with recurring mini boss The Horseman. You’ll find weapons in levels, and defeating foes also results in weapon drops. Though the weapon type isn’t that important, other than their attack range, their spell type is vital. Every weapon has a spell inside it, and you can unleash it by breaking them. You do so by holding ZL and ZR until the meter fills, and there’s a ton of spells. Some will heal you, others temporarily increase your stats, some literally give you wings and others hurl lightning at foes. That’s far from all of them, but you can see there’s a good variety. There’s a definite risk and reward with the weapons. Do you keep wielding a weapon until its durability runs out, allowing it to shatter? Or do you break it early to cast a spell? Sometimes you’ll need to throw the weapon at a distant foe, losing it in the process but dealing a ton of damage. The nuance is fantastic, and it really lets the player tailor the experience to their preference. On that note, there’s also different difficulty settings, so the game is only as hard as you want it to be. That said, even on Normal difficulty Panzer Paladin is a hearty challenge.

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The cool thing about how weapons work is they effectively let the game play like a Metroidvania without actually being one. Though you can explore and find hidden nooks and crannies, these just have hidden 1UPs. Your only permanent upgrades come from trading in excess weapons at the lab to increase Grit’s health bar. Other than that, you have to manage your arsenal wisely. Keep in mind, the best weapons come from the many colorful bosses in the game. These are found in distinct regions across the world, and all represent iconic mythological monsters. In Egypt there’s Anubis, the USA is seduced by Lilith, Japan is menaced by Gashadokuro, Greece strangled by Medusa and Russia bewitched by Baba Yaga. There’s plenty more, and they all serve as great challenges with amazing design. They have unique attack patterns along with tells, and they force you to react accordingly. Some fights even force you to play as Flame briefly, such as when Anubis casts you out of Grit. Flame has helped save my ass more than once after Grit perished, letting me win hard fights. None of the bosses is easy, but with one exception, they’re all fair. That exception is the first boss in the final gauntlet of the game, and it almost made me give up. Thankfully I found a combination of spells to deal with it, and the rest of the final bosses were more balanced, much to my relief.

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I really liked the way the game played, and found the loop of going through levels, acquiring weapons, beating the bosses, upgrading, rinse and repeat to be fluid. You’re free to tackle the stages in any order you choose, though some are definitely harder than others, and some bosses will give you a steeper challenge. The platforming isn’t quite as great as the combat, though not cause it’s poorly implemented. It’s more that Tribute’s tendency for difficulty rears its head more often in these sections. Not really for the platforming while in Grit, but when I had to control Flame solo. Flame has a fraction of the health that Grit does, and spikes he can shrug off instantly kill her. Additionally, the grapple and swing mechanic takes a bit of getting used to. I thought I couldn’t get past a pit in Mexico, and died repeatedly before I got the timing down. Thankfully, the sections where you only control Flame are pretty brief, and generally come right before a checkpoint. The interesting thing about checkpoints is they continue the risk vs reward by forcing you to spend a weapon to activate a checkpoint. Grit grabs it and slams it downwards in what I refer to as a Reverse Excalibur. You’re free to pull the sword back out of the stone, so to speak, but if you do so and perish, you’ll start over from the beginning of the stage. Overall the gameplay is fantastic, and the combat is tremendous. It just can be a bit anxiety inducing during some platforming.

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Panzer Paladin has a surprising amount of replay value. First you play through the game on Classic, and then you unlock Remixed mode, as well as Speedrun and Tournament. Remixed seems mostly the same, other than enemies being more durable, traps being more dangerous and the layout of stages tweaked slightly. The boss fights all felt the same, other than one new boss fight early on. To be fair, I haven’t beaten the game on Remixed yet, so it’s very possible there’s other late game differences. Speedrun lets you challenge stages with set weapons and beat them to try and reach par times. Tournament is fun, other than when I hit the roadblock of the boss I complained about earlier. I think you’re supposed to beat it by using the game’s Parry mechanic, where attacking after blocking an enemy attack temporarily stuns them. Unfortunately I never mastered that technique, so thus far I have been unable to beat Tournament. Also, I encountered a glitch where a boss literally disappeared as I battled through that mode, forcing me to restart. These bonus modes are still fun, but my favorite is a mode I haven’t mentioned yet – Blacksmith mode.

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Blacksmith mode is outstanding. It’s super intuitive, and lets you design your own weapons. You are limited to a color palette of 4 colors, but there’s a lot you can accomplish with that. First I made a boring hatchet, but later went nuts and made a lollypop spear and banana blade. Once you design your weapon, you use points to allocate towards various attributes, such as durability, attack speed and more. Then, after you have saved your design, it will actually show up in the game! After you battle The Horseman, he always gives you a random weapon. If you’ve designed some, he’ll instead drop one you have created. I believe this feature will take online into consideration, so hopefully after this review goes live, I’ll start finding weapons designed by other folks playing the game. Either way, I really like Blacksmith mode, and only wish I was able to save more weapon designs.

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Tribute never disappoints with design, and Panzer Paladin is no exception. This is a game that’s both faithful to NES classics of the past while still showing off a ton of style. There’s great touches during the cut scenes, and though there’s a limited color palette in the stages, nothing is ugly. I especially love the boss designs, which all are equal parts menacing and delightful. One favorite is an angry ice boss I call Frosty the No Man, but they’re all wonderful. All the enemies are fun too, such as snickering goblins, demonic fire spewing plants, lumbering giants, bird men, mummies and so much more. There’s no lack of vision here, and it all blends together into a vast tapestry. The music doesn’t disappoint either, with punchy sound effects. Best of all, every stage has a unique musical theme. It all comes together seamlessly, and just serves to make Panzer Paladin an even more memorable game.

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Overall, Panzer Paladin was actually better than I thought it might be. It wasn’t quite perfect, but it came really damned close. If they had done things like make Remixed a bit more different than Classic, or ironed out the glitches I experienced in Tournament mode, I would have given this a perfect score. It’s a tremendous value for only $19.99, with multiple endings, tons of different modes and an adventure I won’t soon forget. I spent about 10 hours beating the game the first time, but since then have spent several more hours just enjoying the game. I always knew Tribute was capable of greatness, and I’m so glad they achieved it in Panzer Paladin. Now I just hope they have a sequel in the works, cause I want to see more from this amazing world.

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[easyreview cat1title=”Overall” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”4.5″]

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REVIEW: Panzer Paladin Title Panzer Paladin

#oprainfall #Panzer Paladin #PC #platformer #Retro #Review #Switch #Tribute Games

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entergamingxp · 4 years

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Final Fantasy 9 and the picture book adventure of a PS1 Final Fantasy • Eurogamer.net

There’s a small, almost incidental sequence that I’ve often thought about since I first played Final Fantasy 9. In it, Princess Garnet (or ‘Dagger’, at this point in the game) and her buffoonish knight Steiner have a conversation whilst in a hillside cable car, all brass and rivets. Soon after they are reunited with thespian/thief Marcus in the station café, before the next leg of their journey. The area is framed from up high, round tables and stools and bottle green gas-lamps. The lighting is warm, people are chilling, and the music is a near-lullaby recorder version of the game’s theme Melodies of Life. The scene feels recognisably suspended, in transit. An enclave of calm and safety removed from normal concerns, like morning light on a weekend lie-in.

Marcus notes that Garnet has changed during her adventures, now more experienced, talking in slang. This is later in another carriage, and you mainly see the back of her seat throughout the conversation, as if happening upon it as it unfolds. Then she gets up, suddenly excited to talk about the things she’s seen, the battles she’s fought. And then, ‘I’ve always wanted to see the marvellous architecture of Treno! I can hardly wait!’.

‘On second thought’ – Marcus thinks, in a thought bubble – ‘she hasn’t changed that much’.

I think what stuck with me was the sense of an in-between time, but captured, noticed. Made visible by its inclusion but still casual, offhand, overheard in the way it’s framed on the screen. It’s even more effective because the cable car and station sequences straddle more dramatic scenes with hero Zidane and the rest of the gang in the ravaged, rain-pelt kingdom of Burmecia. And I love the sense of scope this brings, that adventures are big (cosmically so, this being Final Fantasy) but they’re also asymmetrical and irregular and the small bits matter, too. But also, I love how much of this texture comes from the fixed-perspective backdrops of the game.

Now you might have guessed, but I only started this replay because I was Full Of Hype from all the Final Fantasy 7 Remake coverage. My YouTube algorithm had doubled-down on reviews and comparisons and Let’s Plays. Between you and me, I even got emotional watching a YouTube player herself get emotional at the Remake’s title screen and I’ve barely even played the original. And I never normally watch Let’s Plays! I don’t even have a PS4!

I had bought 9 for the Switch previously though, not because I had any intention to actually replay my Favourite Ever Final Fantasy – of the four I’ve played, tied with 12 – but because I vaguely intended to use the new modifiers like No Encounters and Speed-Up to have a dip sometime. A quick-flick through a fondly remembered journey I once took – charming and painterly and medieval-adjacent. I think I’d pegged FF9 as an aesthetic and world I loved (which reminds me of Crystal Chronicles too actually, which is gorgeous), but draped and fastened around a rickety old gameplay machine. I’d bought it as a playable nostalgia prompt, I had no real interest in playing it again properly.

But all that Hype pushed me over – along with those Speed-Up and No Encounters options – and I decided to play a bit, then a bit more, and then a lot. Because to my surprise, the thing holds up! Battle animations have real crunch and flair (and that mid-air hang-time of Freya’s Spear!). The menu work is responsive and engrossing, with that bright and breezy chime-squeak noise. Even Zidane’s run gait and footstep patter seems somehow right-on and satisfying, with that little whoosh on jumps. And pressing your way through the game’s story grammar of dialogue boxes and panto reactions feels less archaic and limited than just different but charming: A uniquely-video game hybrid of reading and theatre, metered out and sped-up with button-presses and without the tedium of voice recordings read out slower (and false-er) than you can read. Oh, and of course there’s the music!

But most of all, it’s been a treat to play through this kind of adventure again, one that takes place on gorgeous pre-rendered backdrops. Without the concerns of a right camera stick. Without constantly, distractedly roaming my gaze around for the next engagement or interaction. Without being the screen-centred nucleus of all happenings, shifting the world around my avatar’s back.

Instead you get the stripped-back, near 2D pleasure of controlling Zidane – or Garnet, who runs knock-kneed, or Steiner who runs like a bucket – around a fixed scene, drawing the control stick around its ring in pleasing curves and loops that follow the path’s many (many) meanders. These are routes that curl over and around themselves within a single area – the M6 spaghetti junction but fantasy.

And with this comes characters who run into and out of the scene, sometimes disappearing towards a vanishing point, like on the walkway to Lindblum that stretches away like the bridge in Shadow of the Colossus. Or sometimes startlingly big and screen-filling, the party now all cramped together in Eiko’s rock-hewn cave cellar. When Marcus is looking for Blank (who’s been petrified in stone by a forest spell) the scene plays out sideways through a silhouette forest like it’s Donkey Kong Country Returns.

All this elasticity of perspective lends a neat sort of visual potential energy to the journey, a cinematic framing that’s baked into the game as you play it, and a sense of movement and progress as you transfer between backdrops. There’s a screen in which you run towards the Iifa Tree on a huge woven road of roots, shot from above with mist-shrouded tendrils stretching far down into the crevasse. Then when you get to the tree proper the camera pans up, the characters dwarfed at the bottom like that famous Secret of Mana title screen.

Yes it is a shame that in these HD ports the backgrounds are a little smeared in translation, and the newly bright and crisp character models look a little detached atop them – you can see a YouTube PSX Let’s Play to see how it should look, with the pleasing grain of its unsmoothed textures. And for how good it could look check out the unearthed original source images, or a video of the brilliant-looking AI-enhanced Moguri Mod) – but these images are still a treat. This is a fantasy world that looks lived-in, drawn with a free-hand irregularity. Ladders bend, roof-tiles curve, stairs are uneven, and overall things seem slightly chubby, charming, emplumped (yes, I made that up). But it still feels well-observed and grounded, with that So True recognition of real spaces and how they happen: There’s a worn groove in the cobblestones outside a theatre’s back-alley entrance. Rat-kid Puck calls to Vivi from a wooden scaffolding platform amidst the rooftops of Alexandria.

Often these areas are anchored by some foreground detail, like the strange dragonfly with a ballooning frog-neck in Black Mage Village, or the clutch of bluebells by the North Gate. And many of the scenes have movement and noise, like the clatter of cogs and gears (there are so many cogs and gears!) or passing clouds outside a shattered airship window. I especially like how the shop and house interiors are painted as if cut-open to peer in, the outside alongside the insides, drainpipes and grass tufts and some birds nesting in the Card Enthusiast’s chimney. All of this collapsed together in flatness, squashed into single frames dense with stuff and secret, without being beholden to – and broken by – 3D space and shifting perspectives.

So the story itself plays out as moments witnessed within these scenes, sometimes even across scenes, as FF9’s Active Time Event mechanic allows you to cut to character vignettes happening simultaneously elsewhere. And as with any real adventure, important events and conversations often take place in unassuming edge lands and collateral spaces; cellars and riversides and make-shift paths as much as throne rooms and city-squares.

CGI cut-scenes aside, this is drama and movement that occurs within the frame, instead of your avatar being the focus, the centre of the story, The Shit – the heroic, roaming Inducer of Important Moments. Here instead Dagger will run atop the screen, small amidst the clutter of Treno city. Or Eiko the child-summoner will jump off the airship’s bow, surprising and sudden without any fuss or angle change. At one point Freya performs a river-dance prayer in the sanctuary of Cleyra, facing the screen like an audience. At the end the camera pans quickly across to see the harpist’s strings break into a droplet shiver, which feels interesting and uncertain because it happens within shot, without the machinery of cuts and edits.

Quick aside – have you ever used the word ‘continua’? I hadn’t! But I recently saw a BBC3 short about languages, and in it this guy just comes on and casually says that language is what ‘helps us make sense of the continua of experience’. Just casually! Like ‘continua’ wasn’t the word I’d needed for so long! Because I’m always thinking about this kind of thing. About where you make the breaks, and how that affects the whole.

I often think about the way that music (or silence!) in games is such a physical component of game spaces. And how it can lend that sort of metaphysical differentiation to areas – this place is different to the last in some essential way. And I think a lot about visual voltas too, jolts of change like that fixed shot of the Temple of Time behind Hyrule Square, where suddenly all is quiet and Link seems small. The kind of step change that gives a visual journey its stresses, its passage and rhythm.

Part of the richness of this whole era of Final Fantasy came from its four-course fullness, from flipping between the flavours of battle and town and overworld and menu. But also, from a game made up of pre-rendered or painted screens, its areas tied intractably to their framing, perspective and paths. So that each one is firmed up by specificity, as discreet places in the world and unique beats in the story.

When I’m feeling particularly pretentious (or caffeinated, basically), I wonder if it’s a bit like spacetime, and its interdependence. As in, because videogame spaces happen via video (and sound, and play), so how we see and control a character through them also sort of is the space. Like how Samus’ weighted movement in Metroid Prime make the planet Tallon IV itself feel heavier, more solid. Or the university newspaper piece I once wrote about playing Tomb Raider Anniversary (The best Tomb Raider. Tied with nothing) with mouse control on PC – able to jump with the right-click and move the camera simultaneously like a first-person shooter – and how it seemed to subtly shift the focus from Lara as a marionette I manoeuvred around the environment, to a central axel around which I looked around tombs. And I can’t tell you how much time I spent fiddling about and experimenting in Breath of the Wild – forcing myself to play only with the lock-on camera, or with other Zelda area music playing concurrently through headphones – to try and work out what exactly had so changed the felt quality of this 3D Zelda.

And I wonder how different the spaces of the Final Fantasy 7 Remake feel to those playing fresh, compared to those to whom these new 3D-spaces exist in relation to their memory of the f9ed-perspective 2D originals, like visual DNA now brought to life.

(With caffeine and sugar I’m even worse).

These FF9 backgrounds don’t really feel like potential 3D spaces to me, to be imagined and triangulated out into something else – not unless I try to imagine it for fun. Instead it’s an adventure that feels- as artist Toshiyuki Itahana says in the Inside Final Fantasy 9 documentary – like a picture book. Occurring in solid, particular visual moments that feel lived in, witnessed, specific. And it’s still so fun! With its own type of happening that emerges from these scenes with the luminous, captured happenstance of a photo: The opening with Puck the rat, criss-crossing across Alexandria’s rooftops. The chat between Zidane and Vivi by a village wall behind a windmill field. And a long-remembered scene in a hillside cable car, just to the side of the plot proper, but right at the centre of a story that builds and builds from moments and details and asides. And then an ending so lovely I cried.

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/07/final-fantasy-9-and-the-picture-book-adventure-of-a-ps1-final-fantasy-%e2%80%a2-eurogamer-net/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=final-fantasy-9-and-the-picture-book-adventure-of-a-ps1-final-fantasy-%25e2%2580%25a2-eurogamer-net

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