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peemanne · 1 year ago

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Yakuza 3 Review: Shining "Black Sheep"

Hey, it's Pee again. I actually finished writing the first draft of this AND my Yakuza 4 review months ago on my notebook, but I didn't get around to transcribing it digitally until now. Ended up rewriting a lot more than I was expecting haha

Also I still need to finish my 0 review but I'm a little caught up on making my 6 review first, since I'm kind of just dying to talk about it. Anyways, here's Yakuza 3. It's so cool.

This review contains MAJOR SPOILERS.

Reviewed on April 10, 2024. Last completed on March 5, 2023

Completed on PC (Remastered)

Rating: 8/10 (4 Stars)

Yakuza 3’s become something of a black sheep within the community. It might be because of the jump from Kiwami 2 or the lack of a proper port of the original 2, but a part of the community seems to be so adamant about bashing 3, usually because of the combat, the story, or some mix of both. That being said, I’ve noticed that we’re kind of backtracking from that, as more and more people come to praise and appreciate 3, some even calling it one of the best. Personally, I do find myself liking Yakuza 3 quite a bit, though there are definitely a few missteps that hold it back from really sitting there with the other greats in RGG’s catalogue.

I just want to get one thing immediately out of the way as I get into the game’s combat: “Blockuza” is an overblown exaggeration. Kiryu has a lot of tools to get past something like that. With that being said though, Yakuza 3’s early game combat can feel a little miserable at times, especially with some egregiously bad boss fights like Tamashiro 1 and Rikiya. Once you grab the Komaki abilities though, it all really starts to open up for the player. Wall bounding with Kiryu’s moveset is fun, counterattacks like the Komaki Parry and Tiger Drop feel especially beefy in this entry, and 3’s engine allows for some neat off-the-ground tech if you know what you’re doing. While I don’t think it’s quite as satisfying as its predecessor Yakuza 2, Yakuza 3’s hits still feel hefty and impactful, with the aforementioned counterattacks being the big winners here. The sound design in the combat is still really solid, and I believe is something that usually goes underappreciated during discussions of this game’s combat (and in general, really). I also just wanna bring up the weird messed-up faces that appear after you use heat actions on the generic street goons. It’s very funny just how absolutely horrible they look after a fight, and it’s even funnier that this carries over to 4. One aspect that I do feel is a little lacking though is Kiryu’s damage in this entry. It’s weirdly lacking? And it’s not like bosses take too long, that’s not really my problem, but it makes heat actions feel oddly weightless despite the good animation work. Getting everything right for a heat action only for it to barely dent the poor soul you’re beating the snot out of just doesn’t feel the same. For comparison, Y4’s Kiryu feels like he does way more damage with his heat actions, and I think they feel better there because of it, which is interesting when you remember Y4 Kiryu is almost identical to his depiction in 3. Yakuza 3’s combat overall is pretty solid save for the early game. It’s far from the strongest this series has seen, but Kiryu’s moveset feels strong and is just pretty fun to mess around with. Props to Richardson for being the only actually enjoyable gun boss fight in the series. With that being said, please keep Lau Ka Long away from me.

Yakuza 3’s story arguably has Kiryu at his best. He finally gets to breathe in between constant Tojo feuds with some dad slice-of-life stuff at the orphanage, and all of it is just so, so cute. It’s a little slow, sure, and that might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I found myself so charmed by it all. My heart melts seeing Kiryu, who’s gone through so much, get to be happy with his little scamps. The characters really come through here, the stars of course being the Ryudo family. Rikiya’s the brightest one, a fun companion throughout who both contrasts and bounces off of Kiryu well. Then there’s Nakahara and Saki, a sweet encapsulation of the game’s themes of fatherhood. And there’s the kids themselves, all distinct and fun to simply watch run around with their Uncle Kaz. My favorite one is Taichi because he’s awesome.

The rest of the plot though, I’m a little mixed on. There are some genuinely great stuff here: Mine’s an amazing antagonist despite his small amount of screentime, seeing the Tojo so broken down after Kiryu’s shenanigans in 1&2 was interesting (the Nishikiyama family having KANDA as its patriarch is my favorite example of this), Majima’s characterized shockingly well, this game marking the start of him being taken more seriously, and Joji’s honestly a cool ass character despite being an asspull and a half. Unfortunately, Yakuza 3 has a few egregious mistakes that impede it from being an all-timer story for this series. For one, 3 falls victim to a lot of early writing habits that this series eventually broke out of over time. A lot of characters unjustly die for no good reason, Mine and Kashiwagi being the biggest offenders. It also has the big ol’ “Kiryu forgets to disarm the bad guy and said bad guy kills a valued ally” schtick, and it’s as infuriating as ever. Then there’s the “giant exposition dump” chapter, with Yakuza 3 having by far the worst case of it ever with Chapter 9: The Plot, which is almost entirely dedicated to Kiryu and Date sitting down and listening to some politician explain what the hell is even going on. Despite all of this, Yakuza 3’s story is still very enjoyable, and I think it’s very much worth it to endure all of its little shortcomings to appreciate its amazing characters, both new and returning faces.

Side content is decently well-rounded for the most part in Y3. It introduced the series to Karaoke, for which we are all eternally grateful, of course. I really like the hostess songs in this entry, and it’s a shame that most of them don’t return for later games. 3 also has the hitman missions, which is a cool side-activity throughout. Additionally I hate Yakuza 3’s golf and everything it stands for Yakuza 3’s substories consist of a lot of filler substories where not much really happens, but the ones that stand out REALLY stand out. You have a really unique substory that spans from Chapter 9 until the finale in Murder at Cafe Alps, you have some silly gag substories like Kiryu having to cross the street with 2 massive ice-cream cones. You have substories that flesh out characters from the main story, like the amazing Dotting the Eye with Rikiya, and the sweet Date’s Pride substory. You can also have Kiryu say “H e y , s w e e t c h e e k s” in English, if you so please. I love it! 1-4 all have substories that occasionally use full-on cutscenes, and you can tell how much care they put into them. Yeah, it still has that annoying thing from other early games where you can flat-out fail a substory and lock you out of them, but still. Quality selection of substories.

Lastly, 3’s soundtrack. I’m absolutely a sucker for this series�� soundtrack, so I’m not even going to pretend that I’m not biased. Yakuza 3’s music bridges the gap between the roughness and raw power of the original Yakuza 1 & 2’s almost grungelike style with the cleaner compositions of the later games, and I think it works out pretty well! You have your badass tracks like FM-Sound’s Storm, Bruise, and Hear this in the game. You have your intense, climactic songs like the fan-favorite Fly, the beautiful Lyricism Without Tears (which, as a bonus, gets one of the coolest track names this series has ever been graced with), and the underrated End Point. I find Yakuza 3’s OST isn’t really talked about all that much outside of the justified praise of Fly, which is a real shame, because there are some real quality tracks on display here.

Yakuza 3 stands as a very solid game in its own right, even with a few annoyances bogging it down. I don’t think it deserved all of the unending slander it seems to receive. I love my dad Kiryu, I love seeing him hang out with his kids, and, despite all the bad, I still love this game. Also, Albert Wesker’s in it, and I think that’s pretty funny.

#rgg #ryu ga gotoku #yakuza #like a dragon #ramblings of the pee-man #Yakuza 3 SPOILERS #I got YAKUZA 3 SPOILERS in here..........

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macaronnya · 3 years ago

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Fresh(?) Impressions (5)

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Hello Enstarries~☆ It is the next unit, Akatsuki! I don't have anything to write here as an introduction anymore but leaving it empty is weird, especially with the lengthy disclaimer. So, I'll just babble a bit here. As of now, the first shuffle event is here! I am aiming to get Kaoru! Idk if I'll actually like him as much as I hope but I like the song, his card is pretty and I can always use another Glitter 5☆ rn. I hope he won't be too expensive....

DISCLAIMER!: Everything said here is for entertainment purposes only and not meant to attack anyone. This is not an accurate description of any characters but my subjective rambling for fun, so please don't take it too seriously. (Just to be safe, I'm kinda scared of elite idol fans) Also, you will hear me mention other games a bunch of times bc I'm that bad and uncreative at explaining and I'm still grieving A3!EN's shutdown. Eng is my 2nd (or 3rd?) language.

Without further ado...Let's Ensemble!☆

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I love traditional japanese music mixed with modern, or to be precise, hearing kotos and shamisen playing with modern intruments in modern tunes. It's just SO cool and beautiful, just what their unit theme is, according to enstars wikia. I like the majority of their songs. As far as I know, akatsuki means dawn or so (Akatsuki no Yona = Yona of the Dawn), which explains their red theme. I like their outfits quite a bit as well. Kimonos are SO pretty and I like their more loose approach to it. All the colors work so well together! Oh, and I thought it's cool how they danced with swords and fans (like in Love Live or Pretty Rhythm). Anyways, weren't they one of the ruling and oppressive units in the "!" era? Yikes 😬 Well, they're good now.

8/10 - really like their music and the members are kinda funny

Keito Hasumi

He is, what one and he himself would call, a hobbyless person. Anzu just asked him why he was sitting alone and he went on and on just to say he didn't know what to do with his free time lol He looks so boring at first with his student council president look and aura but the fact that he masks his awkwardness with long paragraphs and lectures, plus he likes comics, reminds me of Sakyo (A3!), which makes him funny again. It even fits with the I-used-to-be-an-evil-boss or whatever happened in the "!" era. And what's up with his points system 😂 Does he have a whole book with everyones' names and points inside it, that he carries everywhere? Would have an actualy blacklist. Or maybe even: Dear Diary, today Miss Producer made fun of me :( Gosh, Leona (Twst), his VA twin would fold him in half in a second. With all of that done, I like his voice. It's a weird mix of being high and deep at the same time but not really and it feels like drinking cold water.

6.5/10 - pathetic funny man I'd be too scared of him in rl tho bc of his authorative air

Kuro Kiryu

Kazuma Kiryu?!?!?!?! (Yakuza series) Big scary looking guy who changed his way of being a gangster to being a big dorky softie 💕 We love to see it. Big bro, likes sewing, caring, hubby material He may not be a man of many words but that's OK, I'm sure his actions prove his good intentions. He seems like he can cook and do housework. Probably has a single father. I love this trope of scary giant with a heart of gold so so much He's also ambitious enough to pursue both being an idol and designer!!! Literally a fusion of Yuki, Omi and Juza (A3!). Is his hair color red or black? Whatever it is, I bet if a card of him with his hair down comes out, everyone is gonna go crazy (me included).

8/10 - good boy, I'd pat his head

Souma Kanzaki

He never grew out of his chuuni phase and even went as far as to get an official license for his sword, if that isn't dedication idk what is. -insert meme of a guy cutting cake with a giant sword but instead it's a fish and his katana- He's like Gakupo (Vocaloid) but real. May or may not be friends with the ninja guy. He used to have a lot of friends in elementary school but then became a loner, is what I imagine. Dude didn't even realise people were kinda put off by his sword. If he has a license, then he practices kendo, right? He can actually wield it, right? If he also likes swords a lot and not just being a samurai, he'd have a field day with Touken Ranbu. His voice is softer than I imagined it to be, it has a pudding like texture.

7.5/10 - part of the drama gangy, would be the uncle kids love only for his cool things

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Conclusion

They can live perfectly fine in a house with just the three of them without burning it down. We have a cook, smn who does the paperwork and finances, and a handy guy. Honestly, still a pretty normal group here. I can't wait for more songs of them to come.

That's about it this time. I hope you found it nice and all if you made it this far. If you have any thoughts you wanna share, just remember, that everything is just for fun and stay polite! See you in the next part~☆

#ensemble stars #enstars #Akatsuki #macaron rambles

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elemental-daddy-neos · 5 years ago

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Character ask thingie- Yusei! owo

Crab crab crab crab crab crab crab

Why I like them/why I don’t Well for starters, it’s impossible for me to not like one of the only good dads in Yugioh when those are so rare to come by. Yusei’s a wonderful father figure to at least three kids (Rally, Luna, and Leo), and the familial bond he’s got with these kids is always really sweet to see. Yusei is also an incredibly self sacrificing person, and his drive to save everybody and make up for his father’s actions when he’s got the weight of Zero Reverse hanging over him, despite him having been too young to have done anything about it at the time, just gets your heart. Also, his firm belief that nothing and no one is useless is definitely something to be admired. There’s a lot of things to like about Yusei, and pretty much nothing I can think of that I dislike lol.

What I like about their appearance

Yusei is just all around a really pretty boy. I love the shade of blue his eyes are, and his overall outfit is cool, too. 10/10 design right here.

Do I prefer their dub names or original names? Name’s the same in either.

OTP

Toolshipping! These two click together immediately once Bruno starts talking code to Yusei, and they do not Stop talking about code together for three (3) nights. They enjoy coding together so much that they do it. For three nights. And then they finally crash together. If that isn’t Peak romance then I don’t know what is.

Also we’re not gonna talk about season 5 okay, it didn’t happen, I’m not upset, you’re upset, they lived happily ever after and that’s the truth-

But god yeah they just have so much in common right away, from their passion for code to their horrible habits of not sleeping in favor of their special interests, and just. They gay. Everyone around them thinks they’re gay. Leo even calls them a pair of lovebirds in the sub! They’re gay. End of story.

NOTP Kingcrabshipping (Jack/Yusei) is my biggest one here since for one thing, the two of them are adoptive brothers, and for another, even if they weren’t, Jack would be toxic as fuck in a relationship. Bastard only cares about himself and has never once treated his brothers kindly, so just ugh. I could never love a ship like that. I also really don’t like Faithshipping (Akiza/Yusei) for several reasons. It’s far from healthy, especially given how horrible Akiza was to start out with him, and after that... She never really treated Yusei like a person or an equal to her, but she more saw him and his life as an ideal to have. She romanticized the thrill of Yusei's life and sought out this idea of freedom that could only be obtained through him and a duel runner, but I don't think she ever really saw Yusei for Yusei. There’s also the whole factor of her last incredibly abusive relationship making her desperate to latch onto some sense of normalcy in him, and I just... Really don’t think that’s what either of them need.

OT3 Haven’t really thought about it before, but I guess that Yusei/Bruno/Kiryu could be nice. Those are the only two people I ship Yusei with in the 5Ds universe, and all three of them either become dads or have dad energy, so I think they could get along pretty nicely.

Favourite card they use

Junk Warrior! Its summoning animation is very satisfying to watch, and overall it has a nice design. 10/10 legs.

Favourite moment they were in

This one really stood out to me when I was watching 5Ds because every other time Yusei’s connection to his father (and subsequently Zero Reverse) got brought up, he’d end up blaming himself for everything that happened to the people of Satellite, despite having only been a baby at the time with nothing to do with anything. Yusei views saving the world as his responsibility to make up for all the damage that his father caused.

But in this scene, for once in his life, when Harald threw his involvement with his father in his face like this, Yusei actually denied the notion of him being cursed with a destiny of destruction, and it was just really nice seeing Yusei say that he’s not automatically a bad person just because of who his father happened to be, and I just really liked seeing Yusei stand up for himself here. It’s the kind of thing he’d have said to himself, but hearing it from someone else and actively denying it just made me think he was finally starting to break away from blaming himself all the time over something he had no control of. If only that attitude could have lasted.

Least favourite moment So this isn’t my least favorite because of what Yusei did necessarily, but because of what the writers did with his character arc revolving around Z-ONE. The episode in season 5 in which, after revealing that Yusei and Z-ONE were the same person, they pulled a sike on the viewer by saying that actually, Z-ONE was never Yusei, he just took kinning to a whole new level and got Yusei Fudo surgery to look exactly like him. Former heroes turned villain interacting with their past good selves make for such interesting plot points, especially when their influence on the past leads to their past selves overcoming them, and fulfilling their true desires in a way they didn't think was previously possible. I think it'd have been neat to have people know that Yusei and the villain are the same person, because it sets up a possible divide of people who think Yusei is good because he stopped his evil future self, and people who think he's bad no matter what he does because he has the potential to become that evil self one day. It also gives his brothers/kids the opportunity to contemplate whether or not they still trust and stick with Yusei even after knowing that's what he could one day become in another timeline. Anyways that’s my least favorite Yusei Fudo moment because the writers are pussies that couldn’t have an interesting character arc for their mc for once in their fucking lives and let him have secretly been the bad guy all along. They were so close to going through with it, and they squandered it.

Would I fuck, marry or kill them I’d rather one of his potential boyfriends have him, but since Yusei feels bi to me, I’d pick marry. This crab deserves love.

#ygo ask meme #ygo 5ds #yusei fudo #sorry this took so long i was really tired yesterday #lucia-nanami #toolshipping #bruno borrelli

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thesteadydietofeverything · 5 years ago

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Top 10 Games of 2019

This was an extremely good year for games. I don’t know if I played as many that will stick with me as I did last year, but the ones on the bottom half of this list in particular constitute some of my favorite games of the decade, and probably all-time. If I’ve got a gaming-related resolution for next year, it’s to put my playtime into supporting even smaller indie devs. My absolute favorite experiences in games this year came from seemingly out of nowhere games from teams I’ve previously never heard of before. That said, there are some big games coming up in spring I doubt I’ll be able to keep myself away from. Some quick notes/shoutouts before I get started:

-The game I put maybe the most time into this year was Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. I finally made the plunge into neverending FF MMO content, and I’m as happy as I am overwhelmed. This was a big year for the game, between the release of the Shadowbringers expansion and the Nier: Automata raid, and it very well may have made it onto my list if I had managed to actually get to any of it. At the time of this writing, though, I’ve only just finished 2015’s Heavensward, so I’ve got...a long way to go.

-One quick shoutout to the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy that came out on Switch this year, a remaster of some DS classics I never played. An absolutely delightful visual novel series that I fell in love with throughout this year.

-I originally included a couple games currently in early access that I’ve enjoyed immensely. I removed them not because of arbitrary rules about what technically “came out” this year, but just to make room for some other games I liked, out of the assumption that I’ll still love these games in their 1.0 formats when they’re released next year to include them on my 2020 list. So shoutout to Hades, probably the best rogue-like/lite/whatever I’ve ever played, and Spin Rhythm XD, which reignited my love for rhythm games.

-Disco Elysium isn’t on this list, because I’ve played about an hour of it and haven’t yet been hooked by it. But I’ve heard enough about it to be convinced that it is 1000% a game for me and something I need to get to immediately. They shouted out Marx and Engels at the Game Awards! They look so cool! I want to be their friend! And hopefully, a few weeks from now, I’ll desperately want to redact this list to squeeze this game somewhere in here.

Alright, he’s the actual list:

10. Amid Evil

The 90’s FPS renaissance continues! As opposed to last year’s Dusk, a game I adored, this one takes its cues less from Quake and more from Heretic/Hexen, placing a greater emphasis on melee combat and magic-fuelled projectiles than more traditional weapons. Also, rather than that game’s intentionally ugly aesthetic, this one opts for graphics that at times feel lush, detailed, and pretty, while still probably mostly fitting the description of lo-fi. In fact, they just added RTX to the game, something I’m extremely curious to check out. This game continued to fuel my excitement about the possibilities of embracing out-of-style gameplay mechanics to discover new and fresh possibilities from a genre I’ve never been able to stop yearning for more of.

9. Ape Out

If this were a “coolest games” list, Ape Out would win it, easily. It’s a simple game whose mechanics don’t particularly evolve throughout the course of its handful of hours, but it leaves a hell of an impression with its minimalist cut-out graphics, stylish title cards, and percussive soundtrack. Smashing guards into each other and walls and causing them to shoot each other in a mad-dash for the exit is a fun as hell take on Hotline Miami-esque top down hyper violence, even if it’s a thin enough concept that it starts to feel a bit old before the end of the game.

8. Fire Emblem: Three Houses

I had a lot of problems with this game, probably most stemming from just how damn long it is - I still haven’t finished my first, and likely only, playthrough. This length seems to have motivated the developers to make battles more simple and easy, and to be fair, I would get frustrated if I were getting stuck on individual battles if I couldn’t stop thinking about how much longer I have to go, but as it is, I’ve just found them to be mostly boring. This is particularly problematic for a game that seems to require you to play through it at least...three times to really get the full picture? I couldn’t help but admire everything this game got right, though, and that mostly comes down to building a massive cast of extremely well realized and likable characters whose complex relationships with each other and with the structures they pledge loyalty to fuels harrowing drama once the plot really sets into motion. There’s a reason no other game inspired such a deluge of memes and fan fiction and art into my Twitter feed this year. It’s an impressive feat to convince every player they’ve unquestionably picked the right house and defend their problem children till the bitter end. After the success of this game, I’d love to see what this team can do next with a narrower focus and a bigger budget.

7. Resident Evil 2

It’s been a long time since I played the original Resident Evil 2, but I still consider it to be one of my favorite games of all time. I was highly skeptical of this remake at first, holding my stubborn ground that changing the fixed camera to a RE4-style behind the back perspective would turn this game more into an action game and less of a survival horror game where feeling a lack of control is part of the experience. I was pleasantly surprised to find how much they were able to modernize this game while maintaining its original feel and atmosphere. The fumbly, drifting aim-down sights effectively sell the feeling of being a rookie scared out of your wits. Being chased by Mr. X is wildly anxiety-inducing. But even more surprisingly, perhaps the greatest upgrade this game received was its map, which does you the generous service of actually marking down automatically where puzzles and items are, which rooms you’ve yet to enter, which ones you’ve searched entirely, and which ones still have more to discover. Arguably, this disrupts the feeling of being lost in a labyrinthine space that the original inspired, but in practice, it’s a remarkably satisfying and addicting video game system to engage with.

6. Judgment

No big surprise here - Ryu ga Gotoku put out another Yakuza-style game set in Kamurocho, and once again, it’s sitting somewhere on my top 10. This time, they finally put Kazuma Kiryu’s story to bed and focused on a new protagonist, down on his luck lawyer-turned-detective Takayuki Yagami. The new direction doesn’t always pay off - the added mechanics of following and chasing suspects gets a bit tedious. The game makes up for it, though, by absolutely nailing a fun, engrossing J-Drama of a plot entirely divorced from the Yakuza lore. The narrative takes several head-spinning turns through its several dozen hours, and they all feel earned, with a fresh sense of focus. The side stories in this one do even more to make you feel connected to the community of Kamurocho by befriending people from across the neighborhood. I’d love to see this team take even bigger swings in the future - and from what I’ve seen from Yakuza 7, that seems exactly like what they’re doing - but even if this game shares maybe a bit too much DNA with its predecessors, it’s hard to complain when the writing and acting are this enjoyable.

5. Control

Control feels like the kind of game that almost never gets made anymore. It’s a AAA game that isn’t connected to any larger franchises and doesn’t demand your attention for longer than a dozen hours. It doesn’t shoehorn needless RPG or MMO mechanics into its third-person action game formula to hold your attention. It introduces a wildly clever idea, tells a concise story with it, and then its over. And there’s something so refreshing about all of that. The setting of The Oldest House has a lot to do with it. I think it stands toe-to-toe with Rapture or Black Mesa as an instantly iconic game world. Its aesthetic blend of paranormal horror and banal government bureaucracy gripped my inner X-Files fan instantly, and kept him satisfied not only with its central characters and mystery but with a generous bounty of redacted documents full of worldbuilding both spine-tingling and hilarious. More will undoubtedly come from this game, in the form of DLC and possibly even more, with the way it ties itself into other Remedy universes, and as much as I expect I will love it, the refreshing experience this base game offered me likely can’t be beat.

4. Anodyne 2

I awaited Sean Han Tani and Marina Kittaka’s new game more anxiously than almost any game that came out this year, despite never having played the first one, exclusively on my love for last year’s singular All Our Asias and the promise that this game would greatly expand on that one’s Saturn/PS1-esque early 3D graphics and personal, heartfelt storytelling. Not only was I not disappointed, I was regularly pleasantly surprised by the depth of narrative and themes the game navigates. This game takes the ‘legendary hero’ tropes of a Zelda game and flips them to tell a story about the importance of community and taking care of loved ones over duty to governments or organizations. The dungeons that similarly reflect a Link to the Past-era Zelda game reduce the maps to bite-sized, funny, clever designs that ask you to internalize unique mechanics that result in affecting conclusions. Plus, it’s gorgeously idiosyncratic in its blend of 3D and 2D environments and its pretty but off-kilter score. It’s hard to believe something this full and well realized came from two people.

3. Eliza

Eliza is a work of dystopian fiction so closely resembling the state of the world in 2019 it’s hard to even want to call it sci-fi. As a proxy for the Eliza app, you speak the words of an AI therapist that offers meager, generic suggestions as a catch-all for desperate people facing any number of the nightmares of our time. The first session you get is a man reckoning with the state the world is in - we’ve only got a few more years left to save ourselves from impending climate crisis, destructive development is rendering cities unlivable for anyone but the super-rich, and the people who hold all the power are just making it all worse. The only thing you offer to him is to use a meditation app and take some medication. It doesn’t take long for you to realize that this whole structure is much less about helping struggling people and more about mining personal data.

There’s much more to this story than the grim state of mental health under late capitalism, though. It’s revealed that Evelyn, the character you play as, has a much closer history with Eliza than initially evident. Throughout the game, she’ll reacquaint herself with old coworkers, including her two former bosses who have recently split and run different companies over their differing frightening visions for the future. The game offers a biting critique of the kind of tech company optimism that brings rich, eccentric men to believe they can solve the world’s problems within the hyper-capitalist structure they’ve thrived under, and how quickly this mindset gives way to techno-fascism. There’s also Evelyn’s former team member, Nora, who has quit the tech world in favor of being a DJ “activist,” and her current lead Rae, a compassionate person who genuinely believes in the power of Eliza to better people’s lives. The writing does an excellent job of justifying everyone’s points of view and highlighting the limits of their ideology without simplifying their sense of morality.

Why this game works so well isn’t just its willingness to stare in the face of uncomfortably relevant subject matter, but its ultimately empathetic message. It offers no simple solutions to the world’s problems, but also avoids falling into utter despair. Instead, it places measured but inspiring faith in the power of making small, meaningful impacts on the people around you, and simply trying to put some good into your world. It’s a game both terrifying and comforting in its frank conclusions.

2. Death Stranding

For a game as willfully dumb as this one often is - that, for example, insists on giving all of its characters with self-explanatory names long monologues about how they got that name - Death Stranding was one of the most thought provoking games I’ve played in a while. Outside of its indulgent, awkwardly paced narrative, the game offers plenty of reflection on the impact the internet has had on our lives. As Sam Porter Bridges, you’re hiking across a post-apocalyptic America, reconnecting isolated cities by delivering supplies, building infrastructure, and, probably most importantly, connecting them to the Chiral Network, an internet of sorts constructed of supernatural material of nebulous origin. Through this structure, the game offers surprisingly insightful commentary about the necessity for communication, cooperation, and genuine love and care within a community.

The lonely world you’re tasked to explore, and the way you’re given blips of encouragement within the solitude through the structures and “likes” you give and receive through the game’s asynchronous multiplayer system, offers some striking parallels for those of us particularly “online” people who feel simultaneous desperation for human contact and aversion to social pressures. I’ve heard the themes of this game described as “incoherent” due to the way it seems to view the internet both as a powerful tool to connect people and a means by which people become isolated and alienated, but are both of these statements not completely true to reality? The game simplifies some of its conclusions - Kojima seems particularly ignorant of America’s deep structural inequities and abuses that lead to a culture of isolation and alienation. And yet, the questions it asks are provocative enough that they compelled me to keep thinking about them far longer than the answers it offers.

Beyond the surprisingly rich thematic content, this game is mostly just a joy to play. Death Stranding builds kinetic drama out of the typically rote parts of games. Moving from point A to point B has become an increasingly tedious chore in the majority of AAA open world games, but this is a game built almost entirely out of moving from point A to point B, and it makes it thrilling. The simple act of walking down a hill while trying to balance a heavy load on your back and avoiding rocks and other obstacles fulfills the promise of the term ‘walking simulator’ in a far more interesting way than most games given that descriptor. The game consistently doles out new ways to navigate terrain, which peaked for me about two thirds of the way through the game when, after spending hours setting up a network of zip lines, a delivery offered me the opportunity to utilize the entire thing in a wildly satisfying journey from one end of the map to another. It was the gaming moment of the year.

1. Outer Wilds

The first time the sun exploded in my Outer Wilds playthrough, I was probably about to die anyway. I had fallen through a black hole, and had yet to figure out how to recover from that, so I was drifting listlessly through space with diminishing oxygen as the synths started to pick up and I watched the sun fall in on itself and then expand throughout the solar system as my vision went went. The moment gave me chills, not because I wasn’t already doomed anyway, but because I couldn’t help but think about my neighbors that I had left behind to explore space. I hadn’t known that mere minutes after I left the atmosphere the solar system would be obliterated, but I was at least able to watch as it happened. They probably had no idea what happened. Suddenly their lives and their planet and everything they had known were just...gone. And then I woke up, with the campfire burning in front of me, and everyone looking just as I had left it. And I became obsessed with figuring out how to stop that from happening again.

What surprised me is that every time the sun exploded, it never failed to produce those chills I felt the first time. This game is masterful in its art, sound, and music design that manages to produce feelings so intense from an aesthetic so quaint. Tracking down fellow explorers by following the sound of their harmonica or acoustic guitar. Exploring space in a rickety vessel held together by wood and tape. Translating logs of conversations of an ancient alien race and finding the subject matter of discussion to be about small interpersonal drama as often as it is revelatory secrets of the universe. All of the potentially twee aspects of the game are balanced out by an innate sense of danger and terror that comes from exploring space and strange worlds alone. At times, the game dips into pure horror, making other aspects of the presentation all the more charming by comparison. And then there’s the clockwork machinations of the 22-minute loop you explore within, rewarding exploration and experimentation with reveals that make you feel like a genius for figuring out the puzzle at the same time that you’re stunned by the divulgence of a new piece of information.

The last few hours of the game contained a couple puzzles so obfuscated that I had to consult a guide, which admittedly lessened the impact of those reveals, but it all led to one of the most equally devastating and satisfying endings I’ve experienced in a video game recently. I really can’t say enough good things about this game. It’s not only my favorite game this year, but easily one of my favorite games of the decade, and really, of all-time, when it comes down to it.

#outer wilds #death stranding #eliza #anodyne 2 #control #judgment #resident evil 2 #fire emblem: three houses #Ape Out #Amid Evil #games #video games #GOTY

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bluerosesburnblue · 5 years ago

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Nothing upsets me more than a legitimately good story being ruined by “extra” content. I’ve already complained at length about Pokemon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon’s story changes over the original games so now it’s The World Ends With You: Final Remix’s “A New Day’s” turn because CHRIST

I’m writing this as I come across points while watching a playthrough, so:

God, Coco is the single most insufferable being. “totez hilar” just dated this content so baaaad, and I’d even say it was dated language when Final Remix came out. No other character abuses modern slang as their entire character. Like, slang is used but not as a substitute for personality. Beat speaks in a very casual, urban style but it never ends up being detrimental to his character as a bit of a punk with a “perfect little sister” that he wasn’t as naturally smart as, so he just gave up on trying and ended up being a bit of an aggressive slacker. Heck, he tones it down a bit for emotional moments, too. Coco, though, comes across like her ultra-modern “cutesy” text message slang is supposed to be her personality, and even when it’s revealed that she’s the villain of the episode you just can’t take her seriously through the “like, ohmigosh, I can’t believe you’re ruining my plaaaaaans” bullshit. What does she have going for her if you rewrite all of her lines without that speaking style? She’s just a generic manipulative brat

Frankly I also just disagree with the entire premise of A New Day and the plot threads it sets up for a potential sequel, i.e. “having Neku and Beat run through a game again as a trap to get Neku into yet another game in a possible sequel.” TWEWY is a complete experience and had been for at least a decade. Literally every character had a complete arc. The worldbuilding was rich enough that they had more than enough to come up with a sequel set in the same world, but in an entirely different town with an entirely new cast and, heck, even entirely new rules for the Game that would’ve expanded upon the world of the games without taking away from the characters whose time in the Underground was already done

But, noooooooo, we’ve gotta bring Neku back. Can’t have a game without Neku they literally SAY THAT (”The Game, like, literally can’t go on without Neku.”). And let’s bring Minamimoto back, too, as a good guy! The fans loved him! This doesn’t come across as pandering at all!

Just... you have the girl with the red headphones designed! Make the sequel set in Shinjuku with her as the main character! (Hell, I don’t think I would have even minded Minamimoto coming back for that because there was enough leeway in the base TWEWY for him to have survived his encounter with Josh, just leave Neku out of it). This is the most infuriating part because it actually takes away from Neku’s story. The entire GAME was a test of character to see if even the worst, most closed off person could learn empathy and respect and Neku DID. And in return, that sparked a change in Josh. His story is done. Coco using Neku, though, has nothing to do with him as a character and everything to do with him being the face of the game and it shows

And why the hell is Neku so trusting of Coco anyway? I get that he opened up over the course of TWEWY, that was kind of the point. But you come back to life, everything’s fine, and then suddenly you’re in a death game again and so is one of your best friends, like, he should be WAY more concerned and suspicious. But one little Reaper gives him the sad eyes and he just caves instantly like “fine, come along.” Even when Neku grew to like some of the Reapers, like Uzuki and Kariya, it was still far more of a rival-like respect. He knew damn well that it was their job to see him gone and while he accepted their help when they gave it and helped them when their lives were in danger (possibly, up to player choice), they weren’t buddy-buddy with each other, knowing that as soon as the immediate danger to them had passed they’d be on opposite sides again. And these are the Reapers he’s closest to, even at the end of the game. And then all of a sudden Coco goes “but I’m a wittle wost baby weaper” and Neku’s response is, “well, shit, welcome to the team.” WHAT

I hate using the term “Mary Sue” but Coco is absolutely a Mary Sue in its original meaning. The plot bends over backwards to accommodate her at the expense of the main characters’ personalities or reason, all while giving her a clothing style incongruous with everyone else’s meant to stand out and make her look special and not having her face any repercussions for her actions (so far which is, again, another issue with the very premise of A New Day since that’s exactly how things will end off if TWEWY doesn’t get a sequel, the possibility of which is not a guarantee AT ALL)

Shiki and Rhyme start saying blatantly false things about themselves and handwaving it away with “ohhh, that must have been our new Entry Fee! Just the exact same ones as the first time again!” and only BEAT is suspicious and NEITHER OF THEM are suspicious of Coco, the only non-generic Reaper they’ve met so far. Christ, I appreciate Beat being attentive with matters of his sister because that’s in-character but NEKU was always the more paranoid AND observant one yet all he thinks about is “gee, I’m sure having weird visions today, huh?”

And then Coco starts BLATANTLY gaslighting them about Kariya and Uzuki’s personalities and they’re STILL not suspicious of her like ughhhhhhhhhhh. Nekuuuuuuu you LIVED THROUGH JOSH WEEK 2, you have BEEN IN A SITUATION where the mastermind partnered up with you to divert your suspicion and keep an eye on you how are you less suspicious of this brat than Beat is???

And why are none of the characters bringing up the fact that you have to be DEAD to be in the Game??? You all spent three weeks of hell to claw your way back to life, how are you not more upset about what seems like you all dying again, basically immediately after you just got brought back? And I know the Shiki and Rhyme in A New Day are illusions, but Neku and Beat AREN’T. Nobody even comments on the implication that they’re dead again and what that means!

I can’t believe they made new expressions for the fake Josh’s changed personality but still refuse to make anything for Shiki’s true appearance

Hell, there’s enough lore with Josh that you could make an entire prequel about him becoming the Composer instead of this mess and, you know, EXPAND on someone’s character and what led to him being so disillusioned with Shibuya as the Composer instead of employing the Happy Ending Rewrite on Neku and then gutting his personality to make Coco the focus. I’d LOVE a Josh prequel with competent writing. Kingdom Hearts made the Xehanort prequel and hooked me in a single chapter with expanded worldbuilding and interesting ties with Xehanort’s character to friends that humanize him, do the same for Yoshiya “Joshua” Kiryu!

Pfffffff hire me and let me make the dream TWEWY trilogy: Joshua prequel > TWEWY sans A New Day > sequel set in Shinjuku starring Red Headphones Girl with Occasional Josh and Hanekoma Interaction

It is so unnecessarily cruel to make Beat relive Rhyme’s erasure and subject Neku to believing that Shiki was erased as well, and yet they do NOTHING with it except have it be cheap tension for five minutes. The characters basically say “wow, I’m so sad!” and then IMMEDIATELY move on to “OMG is Neku seeing the fuuuuuture?” Your LITTLE SISTER and FIRST REAL FRIEND IN YEARS just seemingly died permanently! When Rhyme was erased the first time it took Neku one and a half in-game days to even talk about it because he was so upset, and from then on he was focused on avenging her/bringing her back. Shiki was his entry fee in Week 2 and that made him hyper paranoid the whole time! WHY ARE WE JUST GLOSSING OVER THIS especially since they made SUCH a big deal about how they just finally started believing that the fakes were real (after a whole TWO conversations)

And then at the end they say that they’re inside Coco’s Noise that is SO BIG that it has an ALTERNATE DIMENSION INSIDE IT and Hanekoma’s like “I’ve never met a Reaper POWERFUL enough to make a Noise like this. Wow, Coco, you’re so POWERFUL that even I, an Angel, am impressed!” This. Coming from the guy who specifically chose Minamimoto as his failsafe to kill the Composer should the Game go wrong because a Taboo Minamimoto, heavily refined using forbidden methods, would be strong enough to defeat THE COMPOSER. And he’s now going on about how Coco’s the strongest Reaper ever, basically admitting that she’s probably stronger than the Composer of Shibuya. SURE. BECAUSE COCO WASN’T BAD ENOUGH ALREADY SHE HAS TO BE THE STRONGEST REAPER EVER, TOO

And then it just ends with Josh and Hanekoma exposition dumping about how Shinjuku got erased as Noise entered the RG (WHAT?), Neku’s visions were probably caused by the red headphones girl who’s super special (who???), and Coco’s just so special powerful (why...), but it’s not their problem so fuck it. Oh, and also Josh doesn’t care about Neku anymore, despite that being the whole point of TWEWY. Yeah, the guy who flew off all upset when Hanekoma asked him if he wanted to hang out with his friends at the end of the game. Uh huh. Even if he’s lying, why even put that THERE instead of saving it for the sequel?

And then Coco just... revives Minamimoto. Even though, oh, right, the Taboo Refinery stuff was so precise that the only reason Minamimoto came back the first time was because Hanekoma, THE PRODUCER AND AN ANGEL, set it up for him. But I guess Coco’s just soooooo super powerful and knows FORBIDDEN HIGHER PLANE KNOWLEDGE and can just do whateeeeeever she wants. Not like Hanekoma was so paranoid about someone finding out what he did for Minamimoto that he went into hiding, certain that he’d be reported to the higher Angels and destroyed

A New Day is so painfully shallow from a writing experience. It’s a poor continuation off of the solid, complete TWEWY story experience that just doesn’t have a handle on Neku’s character, turning him into this bland vision machine with no emotional connection to anyone. The way that it expands the worldbuilding with “Inversion” does one thing that I HATE, which is taking an emotion-and-character driven story and turning it into a generic “end of the world” scenario, “raising the stakes” in a way that divorces it from what made it memorable in the first place. If Kitaniji directly effecting the RG during the main Game’s plot was the point where he crossed the line in-universe, then that loses its special nature and impact if you then go “oh, btw, Noise can destroy the RG city if you let them”

And then there’s the absolute black hole of a character that is Coco Atarashi. She wasn’t designed to fit into the world of the game, she was designed to stand out. On its own that’s not a bad thing, especially given the themes of the game that revolve around owning your true self and baring it to the world, but then you combine it with no personality beyond being a manipulative brat obsessed with the events of TWEWY, extremely lazy text message slang dressing up her dialogue to make it stand out, the way that Neku and Beat’s personalities change to accommodate her presence just to shoehorn her in and then have a cheap “omg she was bad” twist, and then dumping powers on par with Josh and Hanekoma on her and there is NO saving her character

The only good part of A New Day is “Wake Up.” And even then, there’s better TWEWY songs, I just like the vaguely Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance vibes it has in parts

#the world ends with you #the world ends with you spoilers #liz's shenanigans #the playthrough i was watching to refresh myself on twewy's story hit a new day and my blood pressure spiked instantly #i have never lost interest in a sequel quite as fast as i did this #i just... how do you fuck up this bad???

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finding-fallen-stars · 5 years ago

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YGO Questionnaire

Tagged by @howaboutalittlehelpneos (thank you, Zen)

I don’t actually use this platform to talk very often-- I’m more often than not content to be a silent lurker-- but this is a fun opportunity to talk about the Special Interest, so hell yeah! Fair warning, this isn’t exactly spoiler free.

Favorite series: This isn’t really a difficult pick for me-- out of all of them, GX is the one that resonates with me the most! There’s a lot of aspects I look for when it comes to storytelling, and GX just happens to check a lot of boxes; I’m a sucker for a good coming-of-age story, and with devotion, deconstruction of common shounen archetypes, well-written representation of mental illness, and even the rare but important sentiment that reckless altruism is not, in fact, a good thing? It’s pretty much everything I could want out of a story.

I know a lot of people say that season 3 is the one that makes GX worth watching, and while s3 is my favorite, I honestly believe that it’s all worth watching; the filler episodes (in season one especially) are genuinely entertaining and really contribute to the show’s theme of growing up and changing, and I love the earlier episodes just as much as the later ones.

Go watch GX-- it’s just so gooooood

I will say, if I had to pick a close second, it would be 5Ds-- GX just has a special place in my heart.

Favorite Protagonist: Most people who know me know the answer to this one-- it’s Yusei. No contest whatsoever.

I have gone on no shortage of long, rambly essays about why I love this boy too damn much-- part of it is just because I personally connect with him in a lot of ways, part of it is just because he’s so compelling and interesting, from the depth of his guilt over something he had no hand in to the fact that his desperation to save people has almost become his sole aspiration. I could talk for a while about how much and why I love him, but I can just leave it at saying that I think he’s a really wonderful character, protagonist, and he gets the serotonin going. (I have a little Yusei charm on my keys that just brings a smile to my face every time I look at it, lmao)

crab boy is the best boy.

Favorite Rival: Hoo boy this was a hard one for me because my taste in fictional characters ranges from holy and good (see: Yusei and Yugi) to literal garbage, so I adore pretty much every rival in every Yugioh series I’ve watched. (minus Jack-- I’m not exactly a Jack fan lmao) But if I did have to pick (and I do), it would have to be Manjoume.

He’s just... such a good character. I think the anime does him dirty in a lot of ways, but his character arc is just so GOOD. He starts the series out with no genuine friends-- just people who follow him around because of his name and influence, but he forms sincere friendships over the course of the series and manages to grow past his fear of loss, and it’s just... wonderful. I was so genuinely proud of him when he could stand up again and resolve just to try again after losing by the final season; it displayed so much growth in one statement and it made me really happy. Is it strange to feel genuine pride for a fictional character? Maybe. Do I care? No.

Honorable mentions go to both Seto Kaiba and Shark, too! It was a tough choice between these three.

Favorite BFF: This is a hard one-- I’d say Johan no contest if I counted him as a best friend, but I don’t because he always read as a love interest to me lmao so I’m just gonna say Joey

I’m really not all that fond of Duel Monsters, to tell you the truth? I find the story flat and while there are some good concepts, nothing ever really seemed to have an impact, but Joey always stood out to me as one of the few characters that actually actively developed and grew as the story unfolded. He was a genuine delight and I appreciate him both as a well-written character and as an interesting narrative foil to Kaiba. I just wish more current media took him seriously and respected him lmao (looking at you, Duel Links)

Favorite GFF: Aki! Easily Aki, even if I find her lack of relevance later in the story absolutely tragic. I don’t really know what I expected when she was introduced, but she proved to be a lot more interesting and well-written than I anticipated-- her backstory is heartbreaking, the spiral she goes down as the people who are supposed to uplift and take care of her reject her and regard her as a monster is very understandable, and she’s just... such an interesting, well-written, and flawed character. I didn’t agree with all of her actions, of course, but I think that was the point in the end, and I wish there could have been more focus on her recovery from everything that happened with Arcadia and her moving forward from Divine’s manipulation and all. There’s a lot of potential there that just didn’t get tapped.

god I love her

Favorite Villain: VECTORRRR

I’m not fond of any of GX’s villains (minus Saiou and Camula), I do like 5Ds’s villains but just not as much as Vector, and as much as I adore Marik, Bakura, and Pegasus... my only justification is just that he’s Vector

(using the squishy Vector, in honor of Zen)

S tier design, genuinely entertaining villain despite how despicable his actions are, charismatic, and actually legitimately competent-- I didn’t trust his little carrot bitch facade the first time around, but he had me several times after that. He’s just... so well-written, so well-performed, and so good altogether. I think he’s the best villain across all of the series.

Favorite Card:

As much as I love my Aromages... Stardust Dragon and Rainbow Dragon have special places in my heart.

Favorite Episode: I also have to go series-by-series here.

Season 0: Episode 7 - “The Underhanded Digital Pet Rebellion”; this whole episode was just a wild ride in concept and in execution, and I loved it-- genuinely wasn’t expecting that plot twist either!

Duel Monsters: Episodes 96-97 - “Darkness vs. Darkness/One Turn Kill” - Again, I’m not big on DM, but I love these episodes just because of how much of a bitch Bakura is the whole way through. Marik and Bakura bickering like a married couple is also good content.

GX: Episode 152 - “Activate Super-Fusion! Rainbow Neos” - I have rewatched this episode a ridiculous number of times-- I just love seeing Judai’s efforts to save Johan finally pay off, and the moment where he saves him again at the end is just... so so good. Easy favorite.

5Ds: Episodes 86-92 (Crash Town)/106-110 - Okay, I’m cheating here, but I couldn’t deciiiide. I loved seeing Kiryu’s arc wrapped up so neatly and just the aesthetic of Crash Town, and then the entire duel with Placido in the WRGP arc where Shooting Star Dragon gets summoned is SO good. I genuinely couldn’t decide.

Zexal: Episode 143 - “The Aloof Duelist ‘Nasch’: The Destined Final Duel” - Not going to lie, I bawled like a fool at the end of this episode, and I picked it primarily because it impacted me so much emotionally. Shark’s parting words to Yuma did in fact make me weep and @howaboutalittlehelpneos can testify.

Favorite decks to use: I mostly use Aromages, but I try to also use my Magician Girl, Crystal Beast, and Junk Synchro deck too!

Fusion, Ritual, Synchro, XYZ, Pendulum, or Link?: I’m a Synchro lover myself, but fusions entertain me as well~

Years in fandom: I’ve been here since April lol

Who am I tagging: I don’t really interact with many people and I’m kind of shy as is, so... whoever wants to?

#yugioh #ygo tag meme

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nakamura-ryousuke09 · 5 years ago

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Long Thoughts as I Play Yakuza 5

Currently beginning Yakuza 5 and having played 0-6, I have newfound appreciation for the franchise. Not all games were perfect, but they were definitely more than just fun. Everything from the tattoo design, music soundtrack and symbolism has me in awe each time I play the games. I replayed Yakuza 6 and watching the bittersweet ending again was more emotional than I thought it would be. They really wove the theme of family very well into each of the characters. Yakuza 3 left more of an impact story wise than the other games. Even with the clunky models and not-so user friendly map, something about Yakuza 3 personally stuck with me. The ending til this day still has me heartbroken and yearning.

Now that Yakuza 7 is coming to the West, I cannot be even more excited. The franchise has grown and my only wish is to have it continue to do so. This was the franchise that solidified by resolve to start video gaming in general. I was sold when I saw a Y0 trailer featuring Kiryu bashing some punk with a motorcycle and decided to purchase a console. I wanted to see cash rain from the sky and the over the top heat actions made the experience even better. Kiryu Kazuma isn’t just another fictional character to me. He is the very personification of a dragon, powerful and benevolent. Kiryu, alongside with the colorful cast, shaped the overall tone of the games. The way the creators wrote and designed Kiryu had me evaluating people in the real world. Are there Kiryu Kazumas out there upholding their moral codes and helping those in need? It’s someone we wish was real and also someone we strive to be. Now I know for sure I won’t be cracking skulls with daikon nunchucks and nor can I pick up a giant marlin cannon, but I can at the vey least take a page out of Kiryu’s book of wisdom.

#ryu ga gotoku #yakuza #kiryu kazuma

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smokeybrandreviews · 5 years ago

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Smokey brand Select: Heavy is the Head

There is a criminal lacking amount of material about Godzilla on this blog. I feel ashamed that i have so haphazardly neglected the Big G. I've spoken about this before, but Godzilla means a great deal to me. I didn’t have the warmest of experiences during my childhood so i cherished the ones that weren’t horrifying. I’m melancholy for a reason and a lot of that can be traced back to my unkind environments as a kid. Godzilla is tied to many of those good memories i was able to glean off the darker circumstance of my halcyon days. I’ve seen every movie and own about half of them. It occurs to me that there are, like thirty of these things and, with the release of the what might be the final Monsterverse movie on the horizon, Godzilla vs. Kong, i wanted to take a look at the entire catalog. I wanted to revisit the films and choose what i believe to be the best in the franchise.

10. The Return of Godzilla

This was probably the first Godzilla movie i ever saw in my entire life. The second is actually on this list a ways down but this one left a massive impression on me. It was gorgeous, lavishly produced, and completely different than the film i had just watched. Not in the sense of tone, they both are on the darker side of the Goji spectrum, but this is the first time i witnessed the “death” of a Godzilla and it f*cked me right up. I remember weeping about that for days. Imagine my surprise, years later, when i found out that Godzilla 1985 was the start of an entire era of Goji films. This thing is actually a direct sequel to the 1954 Gojira film, ignoring everything in the Showa era. As such, it takes a ton of cues from that film, not only the tone, but visually as well. This Goji is like an updated version of that Goji and it really shows. I initially saw this film in the re-cut, Americanized, version Godzilla 1985. It was fine. I was a kid so i didn’t even know about the way the US butchers foreign film yet. As an adult, i made it a point to watch the original Japanese version and i can say, hands down, that version is the superior watch. I’d say check both out, Godzilla 1985 and Return of Godzilla if you’re a Goji fan but Return is definitely the better of the two.

9. Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla

This is the first appearance of Kiryu, the third Mechagodzilla. You’ll notice that Mechagoji makes a ton of appearances on this list. That’s because it’s films are some of the best in the entire franchise, hands down. Plus, it’s my all-time favorite Goji villain. This particular version was our introduction into the loose continuity of the entire Millennium era. This saw Goji in a ton of one-shot type and experimental narratives. The only two story lines actually connected were this film and it’s direct sequel, Tokyo S.O.S. I chose this one over it’s follow-up because of the raw emotion i felt seeing the best design of Mechagoji ever captured on film, for the first time. Kiryu is a masterpiece and i loved every second it was onscreen. The narrative is an interesting one, too. It’s not top-tier but, for the Millennium series, it’s pretty ambitious. Objectively, Tokyo S.O.S might be the better film, but this one made a great first impression. If you see one, you have to see the other. They’re kind of a set.

8. Godzilla: Final Wars

Oh, Final Wars. Your ambition is only matched by your absurdity. Look, final Wars is Endgame before other was an Endgame. It’s the cap to the entire Godzilla franchise to that point, kind of like how Destroy All Monsters was supposed to close out the Showa era. We saw how well that worked, just like this “conclusion.” This thing is unapologetic fan service, rife with the campiest of performances. I mean, the Xilliens in this are a direct reference to the original, would-be world conquerors from Planet X, first introduced in 1965. I love that sh*t! It’s chock full of Aliens, Mutants, Monsters, and more! Almost every Goji villain gets a cameo, including the first US attempt at a Goji adaption, Zilla. Gigan got an updated design that was just gorgeous, King Ghidorah gets a promotion to Kaiser, and Monster X is introduced as it’s own thing. That initial design was absolutely filthy and immediately made my top five Goji villain designs. Speaking of designs, Final Wars Goji is my favorite version of the King, Slim, mean, and breathtakingly regal in statue, it was dope seeing this suit in action, even if it was the only time.

7. Godzilla: King of the Monsters

I’m a huge fan of the new Monsterverse being woven together by Legendary over here in the States. So far, I’ve enjoyed every release, even Kong: Skull Island. I don’t like King Kong. Never have. It’s a rather offensive allegory when you think about but that’ a discussion for another day. This is about the latest release of Legendary’s universe; King of the Monsters. Like Final Wars and Destroy All Monsters before it, this film is kind of a celebration of the Goji franchise as a whole but with a Yankee twist. For the first time, we get to see what classic Toho monster look like, filtered through a modern Hollywood lens and, let me tell you, it is a sight to behold. I was already on board for the Godzilla reveal a few years before but Mothra and Rodan killed it. Those designs were amazing, particularly Mothra. She seemed like a proper threat and not some mascot. I loved it. That said, and this might be blasphemy among the fandom, but the Monsterverse version of King Ghidorah is the best goddamn version of the monster ever captured on film. This motherf*cker is smarmy, conceited, arrogant, and just plain awesome. The design, the personalities, the cruelty; It’s everything a challenger to the Throne had to have and Legendary nailed it. The movie, itself, is kind of weak in the narrative department, mostly as a knee-jerk reaction to the heavily human story of the initial Godzilla release, but the monster action is premium.

6. Godzilla vs. Biollante

Among the fandom, this is considered the very best Godzilla movie in the entire franchise. I wouldn’t go that far but i can’t deny the objective quality saturating this film. It gets right what so many of these movies get wrong; The human story line. That aspect of the story, rather than feeling like something tacked on for perspective, is integral to the overall narrative. It’s rare for that to occur and this film was the first time experienced it, myself. This is easily the best film in the Showa era but it took some time for it to be seen as such by the entire fandom. Initially, people hated this movie. They hated Biollante and wanted to see old monster with new tech. They got their wish and those films are kind of bogus. Heisei closed out strong with Space Godzilla and Destroyah, but that was after a series of mediocre retreads. Toho should have followed their instincts and moved forward with the new look they pushed with Biollante. She was dope and deserved better initially. and, yes, Biollante is female. That’s part of that integral human story i spoke of before.

5. Terror of Mechagodzilla

The second appearance of Mechagodzilla was one for the history books. The bionic monster was just a ferocious, just as menacing, as his initial outing but even moreso here. Terror is less heavy that the first time we saw Mechagoji, but it’s still got a ton of blood on it’s hands. This thing skews closer to the darker Showa outing but never really gives you pause like those other films do. No, it;s true to the narrative established a year before and tends to be an exercise in violence the whole way through. I really like this film and it has one of the best stories in the Showa era. It's not as tight as it’s predecessor, which is on this list, but it does a spectacular job with what it has.

4. Godzilla

So this is the first of several adaptions of the the initial Godzilla encounter. This particular one, is the first appearance of the Big G in the Monsterverse. The 2014 Godzilla film is derided for having next to no Godzilla in it, but that didn’t bother me too much. Of course you want all Goji, all the time but that makes for a lousy film. King of the Monsters did that and it is vastly inferior, narrative wise, to this flick. This film, while Godzilla-starved, does accomplish that rare thing Biollante was able to pull off and so few others in the franchise seem to do; Make the human narrative relevant. This sh*t does that exceptionally, even if they kill off the best character in the entire goddamn movie, almost immediately. Still, after Bryan Cranston bites the dust, i was still on board. A lot of this movie feels like a test run for what comes later but what a Beta it turned out to be. As a film, Godzilla is amazing. I loved the narrative, the characters, and even the monster action, what little there was initial. I really hate the MUTO. They’re kind of corny looking, a little generic, but the best designed of all the US Titans. All of the US Titans are gross looking. All of them. Great movie though!

3. Gojira

The first appearance of Godzilla and the most harrowing tale in the entire franchise. The name Godzilla is actually a misnomer. Goji’s original name was Gojira, which basically means “whale ape’ but this was mispronounced by Americans as Godzilla, thus the moniker we use today. Gojira is the correct, Japanese name, for the King of Monsters but people, worldwide, recognize Godzilla more so it’s been accepted as the proper name. Now that that little tidbit is out of the way, let’s get into the many, MANY, different cuts of this film. Similarly to Return of Godzilla, this one was recut, had scenes added with a well known US actor, dubbed, and released under the title Godzilla: King of Monsters! I’ve seen both versions and there each have their merits but the aggressive bleak tone and tragic narrative of Gojira make for a truly emotional viewing experience. Godzilla isn’t a monster in this movie, he’s literally the physical personification of that devastation inflicted upon Japan, by the atomic bomb. This film is Japan mourning the death of their great country. This is Japan reflecting on their sins. It’s an incredibly raw, violently bleak, take on such content, easily held in the same vein as Schindler’s List. That’s not hyperbole either, this film hits the same as that one. The US cut is good as a film but lacks a lot of that genuine Japanese energy. Gojira does not and of the tow, this one is far superior. both version are absolutely required viewing if you’re trying to get into Godzilla.

2. Shin Godzilla

I love Shin Godzilla. I was mad hyped when Toho announced they were going to release a proper Goji film after some years and even more on board when i heard that Hideaki Anno was going to be in charge of it. Dude is the principal architect of my all-time favorite anime, Neon Genesis Evangelion, so i knew there was going to be a brilliance to this flick not seen in the entire franchise. The take on Godzilla being a manifestation of how crippling bureaucracy and tradition clot the Japanese culture was not lost on me. This is another one of the Goji flicks that puts precedence on the human story and it does that so goddamn well, i was stunned. Look, i loved film and, as a film, this thing is outstanding. I get that it can come across as plodding and slow paced, but you have to understand, it’s showing you, real time, what it’s like to move through the Japanese government. All of that red tape, all of that inaction, is a noose around Japan’s neck and you get a real understanding of that. Not only does this thing have great direction and exceptional performances for a Japanese product, that Shin Goji design is absolutely horrifying. It’s wholly original, brilliantly executed, and easily my second favorite in the entire franchise. I love this movie and everything it represents. Shin Godzilla is absolutely required viewing for the Goji fan.

1. Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla

I alluded to this before, but Mechagoji is my favorite Godzilla villain of all-time. This film is why. Terror was the second Godzilla movie i had ever seen. It was the first VHS i ever bought with my own money. I remember, vividly, the emotions i felt watching this mechanical monstrosity decimate both King Shiisa and Godzilla. Mechagodzilla was a legitimate powerhouse and it demonstrated that with every assault on Tokyo. I mean, he shows up, and damn near rips Anguirus’ face right the hell off! We saw blood, so much blood, spew from Goji’s best friend and it was truly heartbreaking. Angie just scuttled away in defeat, inflicting almost no damage to the violent impostor and, from there, it was just a massive show of power. Unlimited power. Narrative wise, it’s actually one of the best, most coherent stories in the entire franchise. In my opinion, it could give Biollante a run for it’s money but most would place is a step behind. Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla is my favorite Goji film and required viewing for any fan of the series.

Honorable Mentions: Godzilla vs. Mothra, Godzilla vs Gigan, Ghidorah, the Three Headed Monster, Godzilla vs. Hedorah, Godzilla vs. Space Godzilla, Godzilla vs. Destroyah, Godzilla, Mothra, and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out attack, Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S, Godzilla Raids Again

#Smokey brand Select #Godzilla #Gojira

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smokeybrand · 5 years ago

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Smokey brand Select: Heavy is the Head

10. The Return of Godzilla

9. Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla

8. Godzilla: Final Wars

7. Godzilla: King of the Monsters

6. Godzilla vs. Biollante

5. Terror of Mechagodzilla

4. Godzilla

3. Gojira

2. Shin Godzilla

1. Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla

#Smokey brand Select #Godzilla

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notespoherbabas · 3 years ago

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New video games 2017 images

#New video games 2017 images update#

#New video games 2017 images full#

#New video games 2017 images Ps4#

Just when players didn’t think 2017 could have a better start for video games, it got even better.

#New video games 2017 images full#

Here’s our full list of the best video games that released in February 2017. If you missed out on any of February 2017’s best video games, do yourself a favor and pick ’em up. Should she go to band practice, smash some stuff up in the woods with her friend, or head to the mall with another? With a charming, eccentric cast of characters and some superb writing to boot, Night in the Woods is one of the best indie video games you’ll play in 2017. Taking control of college dropout cat Mae Borowski, players decide what she does with her day. Combine that with some excellent level design that keeps rewarding you with fresh and exciting things to see and do and you’ve got one of the finest Action RPGs in quite some time.įebruary 2017 also brought one of the most laidback releases in the form of Night in the Woods. Players will need to master combos, constantly hunt out the best gear, and utilize a variety of combat stances to exploit their opponents’ weaknesses. If fighting giant robot animals isn’t your cup of tea (if that’s even possible), then PS4 exclusive Nioh also released to offer an incredibly challenging experience.

#New video games 2017 images Ps4#

If you’ve got a PS4 and haven’t picked it up yet, do it. However, what makes Horizon Zero Dawn truly shine is its combat which prioritizes smooth and strategic play over huge explosions or simply bombarding your enemies into the ground. Players assume the role of Aloy as they explore this post-post-apocalyptic world filled with towering animal machines. Whether you were looking for a charming indie, or a triple-A blockbuster, there was a bunch of new releases to accommodate everyone.Īrguably the best of the new releases to hit stores in February 2017 was Horizon Zero Dawn. Moving on from Killzone’s linear gray worlds, Guerrilla Games has created a visually stunning world that’s teeming with things to see and do. When it came to video games, February 2017 truly spoiled players.

Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue.

Our best new video game releases for January 2017 are all listed below. Just as you’d expect from a game about Yakuza members. Focusing on Kazuma Kiryu and Goro Majima, Yakuza 0 tells a story of warring families, betrayal, and plenty of drama. Despite not being hyped on the scale of Resident Evil 7 or Horizon Zero Dawn, Yakuza 0 still delivered an excellent prequel story for the long-running series. They’re completely insane and have plenty of twisted plans if they manage to get their hands on you.Įlsewhere in January, players got one of the less celebrated releases of 2017 in Yakuza 0. Of course, with this being a Resident Evil title, the Bakers aren’t just some friendly deep-south family. Players assume the role of Ethan, a young man who’s come to rescue his long-missing wife from the Baker Estate. January 2017 was all about Resident Evil 7, which adopted a first-person perspective while retaining the most classic qualities of the franchise. Not only did players get the long-awaited return of Kat in Gravity Rush 2, but players also got one of the best horror video games in recent years. The year kicked off with a bunch of new releases that turned out rather well. Kingdom Hearts HD 2.January may have been a quiet month for video games in the past, but 2017 had different ideas. January Resident Evil 7: Biohazard GameĪtelier Shallie Plus: Alchemists of the Dusk Seaĭragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King You can also reference our feature on the game release dates of 2016.

#New video games 2017 images update#

To help you keep track of everything coming out, we've compiled the release dates of all the biggest games confirmed to come out in 2017 so far.Ĭheck them all out below, and be sure to revisit this page often as we update it with release date changes or release dates for newly announced games coming this year. This year is packed with some of the biggest new games to play, including heavy hitters like Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, Mass Effect: Andromeda, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Wildlands, Persona 5, and much more.

#New video games 2017 images

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mkdremareriser · 7 years ago

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“Rider Rewrites: Build” + Theories about the Future of Build’s Story

Fuuuuuuck me, it’s been literally years since I’ve done Rider Rewrites. In fact, so long that I only ever made one Rider Rewrites, and that was for Ghost, a season that a lot of people have problems with (like the main character, though like I said in it, I actually enjoyed Ghost). So for a while I was thinking “I’ve been free from college for a while, so why not try doing Rider Rewrites again?” and here we are. I’m gonna do Build, since it DID recently finish, and I’ve already gotten a few ideas about what I’d change with it. This is also gonna have my opinions about the final episode in general (since it seems like there are quite a number of people who didn’t like it), and also my theories about where Build’s story will take them, primarily with the Zi-O crossover movie (since I’m sure what I’ll theorize with the Build arc in the TV series proper will be debunked fast) and Build NEW WORLD.

So since it’s been a long while since I’ve done a Rider Rewrites, I feel like I should restate my criteria as well as add some new ones:

- I’m only doing KR seasons that I’ve personally watched to the end, which are Kuuga, Ryuki, Blade, Den-O, Kiva, and all of the Phase 2 Heisei Riders. - No requests, I’m only doing this ‘cuz I feel like it. - Again no actual schedule, but this time I’m hoping to do at least a few more after this. - This is heavily opinion based, so there are definitely gonna be disagreements with what I’d do. I’m fine with different ideas and opinions, just as long as you respect mine as well. - This is all written under the premise that I'm a writer with an “infinite” budget, since I understand that with the restrictions that the real staff and cast have (such as cost of effects, timing, and having to edit things to fit a standard-length episode), they likely wouldn’t be able to do it. - My changes are likely not going to be in chronological order, it’ll probably be all over the place in terms of thinking. - I’m doing this without any knowledge about Kamen Rider Build: Be the One, so any changes that I’d make that are answered in the movie, I’ll take back. This will likely be the same for any future Rider Rewrites, since I’m intending to do these immediately after the TV series itself has finished, as it’s typically where my ideas for changes is the freshest.

With that out of the way, let’s get down to it.

SUMMARY:

The setting; 10 years ago, a space mission to Mars brought back a mysterious item dubbed the Pandora Box. Amidst the celebration of finding such an item, a mysterious man interrupts the ceremony by touching the alien artifact, which activates it and creates a giant wall known as the Skywall that emits a red glow, and divided the country of Japan into three new ones, Touto, Hokuto, and Seito. The light that was emitted from the Pandora Box’s activation affected the minds of those present there, namely Gentoku Himuro, who was there in place of his father, future Touto Prime Minister Taizan Himuro, who couldn’t make it, future Hokuto Prime Minister Yoshiko Tajimi, and future Seito Prime Minister Masakuni Mido. Their minds were affected by turning them into war-thirsty people who sought to use the power of the Pandora Box to their desires, and it was only by Taizan Himuro’s intervention that the Pandora Box was kept out of everyone’s hands. But in the background, a mysterious organization known as Faust begins to act, desiring to take the Pandora Box for itself.

Build follows the amnesiac genius physicist and scientist Sento Kiryu, the titular Kamen Rider Build, who seeks to find out his true identity, as well as convicted murder and former MMA fighter Ryuga Banjou, who transforms into Kamen Rider Cross-Z. They are aided by Soichi Isurugi, a mysterious man who runs the cafe nascita and acts as support by providing information in the lab underneath the cafe, his daughter Misora, who uses her connections as the internet idol Mii-tan to get information as well as being the one responsible for purifying the Fullbottles, which are necessary for Sento and Ryuga to transform with, and Sawa Takigawa, a reporter who’s in need of a big scoop, who also uses her connections to provide information to the Riders. Together, the nascita team fights against Faust and their leaders, Night Rogue, a malevolent man with the powers of the Bat Fullbottle, and Blood Stalk, his lackadaisical second-in-command who has his own plans and intentions. But underneath it all, things are much more complicated than it seems....

MY OVERALL OPINION:

I love Kamen Rider Build. It’s easily one of my favorite KR seasons I’ve ever seen. it’s not perfect, I can acknowledge that. Hell, if it were, I’d probably wouldn’t even be doing this Rider Rewrites for it. But that doesn’t change how I feel about it. I really enjoyed the characters, the plot, the designs, everything about it. But with that said, let’s get into

WHAT I’D CHANGE:

- First off, I think what I’d change is the introductory scene for the Hokuto Three Crows and Kamen Rider Grease. While it wasn’t bad, per se, it did come to my attention some time ago that in that introductory scene, Akaba uses a laser to destroy several buildings (probably killing a bunch of innocent bystanders while doing it) because he was getting bored waiting for Kazumi to join them. Which severely clashes with how we’re supposed to feel bad when he dies fighting against Gentoku as Kamen Rider Rogue. Instead of having Akaba lasering those buildings, I’d have the scene be that Kiba and Aoba are watching their tablet, and they turn around to face Akaba as the Castle Hard Smash, punching away at a Guardian he destroyed before using his laser on it (significantly weaker than what we see in the show, the trade-off being that he can use it more often as an attack now, since he barely used it in the first place). Kiba would chide Akaba about disobeying Kazumi (since I’m also imagining that the beam would damage another building (just not as much as in the original scene), but it would zoom out to show that Kiba is sitting on a Guardian he destroyed, and Aoba had planted a foot on one he did. Akaba would then detransform, revealing that he was different from a regular Smash, and would call out to Kazumi, it playing out much like in the original scene, where we see him having broken through the Skywall as Kamen Rider Grease and having destroyed the Touto Guardians. I feel like this change would help make the Hokuto Three Crows more earning of sympathy, since Akaba wouldn’t have just unnecessarily caused large-scale devastation. - For that matter, give some more time to the Hokuto Three Crows, since we barely know them outside of their relation to Kazumi. Aoba suffers this the most, since he dies first and very early on. According to Kazumi, he was a person who really cared about his friends, and would even cry for a complete stranger. I would like to actually see that, like give Aoba a scene where after he had fought a couple of Guardians (or the Riders), he sees a civilian scared to death of him, and tells them to go, that he’s not there to hurt them. Make him the most like Kazumi in that regard, so that his death stings him and the other two all the more. - Related to giving characters more screentime, do the same with the Washio Brothers. As they were in the series, they were just to be the “sidekicks” to Gentoku while he was on Seito’s and Nanba’s side and little else. For Fu, I’d like to emphasize his relationship with Rai a lot more. Make it that while he’s loyal to Nanba, Rai is the person he cares just a little more about. For instance, have it that when Rai goes back after losing to Kazumi in the Touto-Seito battle, Fu tells him that he’ll take care of things in a genuine tone, and do a brotherly handshake of sorts with him (which would be when Rai hands him his Gear Engine to let him transform into Hell Bro’s). And have it that whenever Rai’s down, Fu is always concerned for him before Rai insists on him finishing the job and tossing his Gear Engine to him. For Rai, I’d emphasize his prideful nature and loyalty to Nanba a lot more. Like, make it being a Nanba Child is a badge of honor for him, especially since he was the one chosen to be the Engine Bro’s. Have it so that in a lot of the fights we have with him, he’s talking down against his opponents about how inferior they are to him because he’s a Nanba Child and they’re not, and that with each fight that he loses, he becomes increasingly desperate to show that he’s superior to the point when he and Fu are offered to take the Nebula Gas infusion before their fight with Evolt, that he’s readily accepts it and pressures Fu to do the same (who I’d imagine would be just a liiiiiiittle apprehensive, but not too much as to not do it since he’s that loyal to Nanba as well), and that he has an even bigger breakdown about Evol being that much stronger than them, even after that Nebula Gas infusion. But still have Rai going down swearing his allegiance to Nanba, but this time as a way to comfort himself about the fact that not only is he not as strong as he thought he was, but that he’s now dying in front of his brother. Also, I think there could’ve been more of an effort to give the Washio Brothers more interactions with each of the characters, since they really don’t have any sort of significant relationship to any of the characters, even to Utsumi and Sawa, both of whom are also Nanba Children with them. - Show Sawa doing her espionage and information gathering. As funny as the “It’s better that you don’t know” gag is for me, I do understand the frustration some people have about her being this incredible character, yet we rarely ever see her doing her thing. Personally, the lack of her actions I chalk it up to the fact that doing unsuited stunts is that it’s time-consuming to teach actors who don’t have any experience with doing their own stunts, that using unsuited stunt doubles is harder to do since you have to match their physique to the actor’s/actress’s, and that it’s altogether too much money and too much of a risk that could injure them. For the purposes of Rider Rewrites, we’ll be ignoring that. Let’s see Sawa take down a bodyguard in front of a doctor who has access to Banjou’s medical records, let’s see Sawa sneak around to get information, just show her doing more things. - On a related/off-topic side note, I don’t really necessarily think that just giving her the role of like, another Rider or a Rider-like user is really conducive to her character. Like I understand the want for more female Kamen Riders/Rider-like characters, but I personally don’t see it as something entirely necessary. Honestly, in my opinion it kinda makes it feel like the female characters are only useful if they can transform and fight alongside male Riders, and that’s sorta more disrespectful, since we have just as many non-Kamen Rider/Rider-like male characters. Though admittedly with Build, there were none of those. Plus, if it’s on the basis that “we need more female representation in Kamen Rider”, I feel like Magical Girl shows like Pretty Cure kinda fill a similar niche. - Give Utsumi more of a personality other than just being a blind follower of whoever’s the main villain at the moment. Like show more of his inventive side, but have Nanba and Blood Stalk/Evolt dismiss his original inventions and praise the ones that he’s copied, and show his frustrations with that more, but that it’s not enough to break his loyalty to Nanba. Also do more hints about his nature as a cyborg, since that’s one of the few things I feel like genuinely comes out of nowhere in Build besides a few jokes about him being one. Like have Blood Stalk/Evol make fun of him for thinking so much like a computer, or have Utsumi move around a little unnaturally at some points (mainly whenever he’s transformed into Night Rogue or MadRogue). - On the topic of Vernage, I don’t really have a problem with how she’s used, especially within the context of the series, since she’s on a time-limit that grows shorter each time her powers are used. People seem to think that she’s done nothing, but remember, without her emptying the Touto Fullbottles and her defeating Evolt so many years ago, we wouldn’t have a story. - I don’t necessarily have a problem with Sento as a character, but as a Rider, I feel like we should’ve gotten him to use more of his Forms, especially since we’ve established early on that he likes to use different Best Matches and Trial Forms to his advantage. Like, let’s see more of his Best Matches with the Fullbottles we rarely see, even if it’s only used once in the series. Let’s see him use Best Matches like BeetleCamera, or DogMic, or TurtleWatch, or UniRaser, any of them. It’s a shame that later on he mainly relies on RabbitRabbit, TankTank, and Genius Form. Speaking of which, let’s see Genius Form use more of the Fullbottle powers. We see Sento use the Diamond Fullbottle’s powers to defend himself against Evolt’s attack in one episode, so I don’t see any reason why he couldn’t use the other Fullbottle powers as well. - Related to the lack of Form usages later on in the series, we can also circumvent this by just using the Fullbottle finishers of weapons that can use them, like the Drill Crusher, the Beat Closer, the Twin Breaker, the Transteam/Nebulasteam Guns, the Knuckles, and the Fullbottle Buster. Like let’s see the effects of using those Fullbottles have on the weapons, as well as use them more for Charge/Discharge Crushes. - For Ryuga, I’d say that I’d like to see him use the basic Cross-Z suit for a little longer before upgrading into Cross-Z Charge, since it didn’t get to really shine, even after he had to go back to the Build Driver, since he almost immediately gets Cross-Z Magma. Same deal with Great Cross-Z, since it’s a fantastic repaint of basic Cross-Z, though I don’t mind its lack of usage as much as I do with basic Cross-Z. As a character, I don’t have any problems with him. In fact, he’s easily become one of my favorite secondary Riders, and I’m absolutely excited that he’s getting his own V-Cinema next year. He deserves it. - If there’s anything related to Ryuga I would change, I would add more new scenes of him and Kasumi to make it so that we feel a bigger connection between them. Like I love how he still thinks about her even after the 2/3rd point of the series, but it’s always of the same scene. Like, show me more scenes of them together so I can feel like it’s a real relationship. - Kazumi’s character I feel like was fine, but I would definitely tone down his fanboy tendencies at some points, since it was a little over-the-top. I wouldn’t get rid of them, just tone them down a little bit. I’d also wouldn’t give him a new form before Grease Blizzard, since I feel like the impact of Grease Blizzard is because it’s a new form and that it was dangerous thanks to the multiple Nebula Gas infusions he took. Maybe instead of a second Twin Breaker and the Dragon Sclashjelly, he gets a new weapon first, like maybe his own Beat Closer (which is one of my favorite Rider weapons that sadly doesn’t get used often). Hell, call it the “Beat Greaser” and give it new sounds and a paint job and make it a Web Exclusive toy. Bandai loves doing that. - Gentoku’s also fine. At first I felt like I’d have the most problems with him when he was revealed to have a redeeming arc, but after all was said and done, I think it worked for him. Like the nascita team didn’t immediately accept him joining them like I worried about (since he did kill Akaba and was in general partially responsible for the terrible things that happened to each of the characters), and he truly does earn his place with them instead of it being “Oh, I guess we all immediately forgive you for your transgressions.” - Blood Stalk/Evol as a villain is fantastic. He’s got charm, he’s got power, he’s got some of the coolest Kamen Rider designs I’ve ever seen. My biggest problem is his somewhat simple motivation of getting stronger because he’s supposed to be the “superior being”. Like I’m sure in “Be the One” they reveal more of his motivation and background since members of his race also make an appearance, but for now, I’m mainly just going off on the TV series since I have yet to watch the movie. Personally, I would give Evolt a bigger backstory. Like I would make it so that Evolt had been a high-ranking soldier of his race that was entrusted with the Evol-Driver (something that he named himself because he’s egotistical) and the Pandora Box in order to fight a war against another planet. But after that, he became enraptured with the powers that the technology gave him on top of his own that he ends up going off on his own to become stronger and stronger, as well as becoming smarter and smarter with how he handled things. This would eventually lead him to Mars, where he meets his match against Vernage. But as he is, he works as a fantastic villain. - Overall, I think I’d give the series more breathing space to allow it to expand and explore everything, And with that all said and done, I’ll talk about my thoughts on the final episodes.

Honestly, it’s how I expected it to go, and I’m pretty satisfied with it. I’ve seen some people express dissatisfaction with it, and it’s understandable. But with the fact that their plan involved combining two Earths to create one new Earth, it’s hard to not imagine it going that way. Like, if the Earth’s combined and everyone was alive and had their memories of the previous universe, then what was the point of the tension and drama? Likewise, if the Earth’s combined and everyone that died stay dead, then what was the point of combining them? Personally, the Earth’s combining and everyone’s alive but without the memories of the previous universe is the better outcome, because it shows us how the world is without Evolt and the Pandora Box, and makes us wonder where Sento and Ryuga will go on from there. Speaking of which, I have a couple ideas of how the nascita team will reunite and regain their previous memories. I’m willing to bet that in either Zi-O’s and Build’s crossover movie or Build NEW WORLD, that they’ll all coincidentally meet at the nascita cafe, where they start wondering if they all know each other since each of them feels like the other is familiar, before being pulled into the movie’s plot. Maybe it’ll happen, maybe it won’t, but I’m hoping it does.

#kamen rider build #kamen rider build spoilers #build spoilers #spoilers #rider rewrites #kamen rider

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cheshire-dog · 7 years ago

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Yoshiya Kiryu, a character study

Spoilps obviously

Yoshiya Kiryu, or Joshua, stands out as an oddity in 'The World Ends With You'. Almost everything about him is at odds with the universe he inhabits. His casual, grey clothing contrasting with a modern, colourful world of fashion that's distinctly Nomura in design; His voluntary and illegal entry into the Reaper's Game almost invalidating the fear and stress felt by the rest of the cast; His misanthropy and contention with being a sarcastic pessimist directly defying the narrative's belief in becoming a better person; And most importantly of all, his crippling loneliness contrasting not only the sociable cast, but even himself and his own philosophies. It's this juxtapository nature and his emotional and characteristic complexity that makes Joshua such an interesting character to deconstruct, and within that deconstruction is there not only greater depth in understanding Joshua, but also in understanding the character of Neku Sakuraba - the game's protagonist, and reverse-foil to Joshua - and the game's own themes and ideals.

This post assumes that you have played through all of TWEWY's main storyline. However, any information from the Secret Reports and Another Day will be explained.

The Beginning

To start understanding Joshua, we must see him as we do initially; how he appears at face value in one's first playthrough. Throughout Week 2, he is seen as a manipulative, condescending, sarcastic, misanthropic liar who only plays the game for kicks, and enlists Neku as a forced bodyguard to help Joshua "jack" Shibuya's underground. However, this Joshua is also sympathetic, being ostracised through life due to a "second sight" which caused him to see something that was socially nonexistent, which led to loneliness, implied suicidal depression, and an eventual apathy to death - as, to him, death was literally a game which allowed him to exist among people he could finally relate to. He may be an arsehole who maybe killed Neku, who shows no concern for the players and reapers being erased around him, and who trivialises the suffering of those around him just by being a voluntary player, but of course he is. Actions and personality may not be justified by backstory, but they certainly can be explained and understood. Why would someone who was conditioned to see death as an improvement upon life care if his actions - or inaction - led others to death or erasure? The week also plays host to a deep friendship being formed between the two partners, as they discuss and share philosophical views and morals, though Neku begins to see his own personal change through Joshua stating things Neku once agreed with but had since reconsidered following his bond with Shiki. This combination of hate, respect, and kinship regarding Joshua ends dramatically with Neku learning that Joshua attempted to save Neku from his real killer, and witnessing Joshua's valiant sacrifice to save Neku again - successfully, this time. Neku's hate for Joshua turns into hate for himself and the hostility he showed Joshua, and even moreso hate for the game that had now taken every single friend he'd had - Shiki as a hostage, Joshua and Rhyme as victims, Beat as a turncoat, and his long lost friend who was assumedly erased following a car accident (though that would only ever be brought up during Another Day, it is safe to assume it happened in both timelines).

How ironic that this emotional development must be turned back towards Joshua as the third week ends.

In the dramatic climax of Neku and Beat's takeover of the Shibuya Underground, a coup originally inspired by Joshua's own ambitions, the unimaginable happens as Joshua appears and is amalgamed into Draco Cantus, and after Neku's victory, paralysises everyone in the Shibuya River sans Neku and himself, reveals his title of Composer, and makes his identity as Neku's killer certain, all in order to challenge Neku to a duel "for Shibuya". This sudden wave of reveals, this unravelling of Joshua's web of deceipt, strikes the player and Neku. A friendship built on lies and manipulation all having to be faced at once as Neku has to force himself aim a gun to the sociopath he'd considered a friend. But Neku fails to consider that friendship in past tense, and collapses his arms, and Joshua pulls his own trigger. Upon this loss, Joshua looks down at him with his trademark cocky smile.

Yet, after this, Neku wakes up in Scramble Crossing, free from the game, with a pre-established friendship with Shiki, Beat, and Rhyme. Neku lost the duel, but Shibuya was spared.

This is where we must further analyse Joshua, critique his inconsistencies, and learn the truth behind this enigmatic personality.

The Duel, or, Why Neku?

An important place to start is that final duel. The first question would be "why duel?" Joshua is the Composer, after all. Even in his low-frequency human form, he's far more powerful than Neku without being faced with restrictions in the form of rules and games (as evidence, he killed Taboo Minamimoto with his weakest attack, something a max-stats Neku with the best deck builds can't do that quickly). With Kitaniji, he had the reasoning that he was making a bet with his immediate subordinate and advisor, someone whose opinion is important in the Composer's decisions, but Neku is just a pawn that Joshua was more than willing to murder, and whose express purpose in the game was to destroy Shibuya on Joshua's behalf. So, I ask again, why duel? A theory I'd read about in shibuyasmusic's fanastic piece on Joshua (link here) is that it was not a duel on whether Shibuya lives or dies to begin with, like the player is meant to assume, but that it's a duel for the title of Composer. But that opens yet more questions. Why, still, the decision to duel? Why the change of heart? And, arguably most importantly, why give Neku of all people a shot at Composer? But to answer all of these, we must first ask why he chose Neku as his proxy to begin with.

Thankfully, the Secret Reports answer this question. Upon the decision to play the game for Shibuya, Joshua swiftly consulted the Producer, who is confirmed within these same reports to be Hanekoma. The latter offered his murals as perfect spots to scout for potential proxies, as they were imbued with two important codes (as detailed in the Week Joshua Day 5 secret report): One to attract those with strong Imaginations, and one to strengthen said Imagination. This made his murals a perfect location to find worthy candidates. Neku was, supposedly, picked specifically due to his attitude. His proxy being "the worst person in Shibuya" would act both as a constant reminder to Joshua why Shibuya was corrupt and needed to be destroyed, and also a certification that his proxy could not change ways during the game - that they might stay the scum of the Earth, causing them to act completely selfishly to Shibuya's detriment and prove that the city couldn't be saved. It is also worth noting that Joshua himself shares most of the traits that made Neku such a perfectly awful candidate. More on that later.

Despite all of Joshua's forethought, Neku changed. He'd opened his horizons, befriended people he'd once ignore and silently judge. He ceased fighting for himself after only one week, instead fighting for Shiki, revenge on Joshua's hehalf, and eventually the very thing he was supposed to aid the destruction of: Shibuya. While this might have meant nothing in the logistics of Joshua's plan, with Neku's newfound goal to save Shibuya actually serving Joshua's need to overthrow Kitaniji just the same as the original, intended goal of taking over Shibuya for selfish reasons, this change of heart meant the world in the mentality of Joshua's plan to raze Shibuya. With the personification of Shibuya's corruption ironically undergoing a total reversal of attitude, the prospect of Shibuya improving its state was now plausible. This revelation, coupled with Joshua's own interactions with Neku, witnessing his growth and their own parallels, struck Joshua, leading him to spend most of Week Beat reconsidering his original plan. Once again, more on that later. For now, one of his most important aspects as a character: his rampant hypocrisy.

Joshua and Hypocrisy, Among Other Things

Joshua is a complete hypocrite with a literally almighty sense of superiority. Where he might be a close-minded person who cares only for his own values and completely seperates himself from others, he detests the same sentiments coming from his subjects. Where he has honest philosophical discussions with Neku about misanthropy and the absurdity of expanding your worldview, he specifically chose Neku as a terrible person because Neku held those views. As a stranger, Neku is scum; as a friend, he's relatable. It's this divine hypocrisy that led to Shibuya deteriorating under the ruling of a terrible person, and Joshua's wish to destroy Shibuya without realising he caused the deterioration from the beginning. As the Composer, Joshua very literally holds the right to judge, and being the misanthrope he is this leads to a very heightened sense of superiority and a high set of standards that he himself cannot meet. How such a flawed person could be Composer under the angels' rule is beyond me, but his personal failings led only to Shibuya's downfall and a firm belief that he was right to judge the city for it. His apathy brought about by his assumed childhood - I should mention now that I believe Hanekoma's story to be true, just not as recently occuring as he might have the player assume - causes him to abandon hope quickly and opt to eviscerate his "mistakes". Even in his low-frequency human form, this complex continues with him assuming the worst of all Players and Reapers, leaving several to die for little reason other than assuming they were scum, and displaying a readiness to murder Neku in an act he genuinely saw as just and reasonable. If his leaving people to die sounds familiar, it may be because that's exactly how Neku acted in the early days of Week Shiki. I'd like to reiterate in further detail the parallels between these two characters and their service as foils.

Allow this to be a study of Neku's arc, for a moment. It's important to understand Joshua as a foil. Following the drastic changes Neku undergoes in Week Shiki, coupled with the sudden return of his memories and essentially identity, Week Joshua serves to let Neku look retrospectively on himself; he gets to see how he's changed, and is given an opportunity to rethink himself and come to understand his personal philosophies better. His recollection of CAT, nostalgic tour of a city he despised just a day prior, and conversations with a partner essentially embodying his personality not one week earlier all serve as a mirror to Neku, allowing him to truly grow by comparing his old self to the person Shiki inspired in him. It's very much a week of reflection, the calm before the storm that is Week Beat. What this means for Joshua is that he is distinctly depicted as immature here. As Neku spends a week in a pseudo-meditative journey to enlightenment, Joshua constantly acts like a child, being a stubborn brat when Neku won't help him "find" Shibuya River, sarcastically hitting on Neku *just* to taunt him, and, strangely enough, engaging in mature conversation about the Sisyphian task of getting along with people. While these conversations are by and large the most maturely he ever acts in this week, with even his sacrifice being held back by the trademark cocky smirk, he's still explicitly childish in the narrative's eyes. As Joshua talks about how people can never truly expose themselves to one another, and how he's not even bothered by this as he talks of his introverted mind being a peaceful garden that needless bonding would only disturb, Neku's silently reconsidering the fact he once agreed with this. "Is that really how it is?" These conversations are framed as Neku seeing the absurd pessimism in what he once believed; an evolution for Neku that derides upon Joshua. And Joshua comes to recognise this. Through the week, Neku's maturity affects him. This is shown in a climactic "end" to Joshua's arc, of sorts, as he abandons his selfish attitude and sacrifices himself to save Neku...

...Of course, he doesn't actually, though while this will be reframed through the finale to be one final lie and a betrayal of Neku's trust, within the greater narrative and this interpretation of Joshua, the sentiment is still there. He may have needed to save Neku to beat Megumi, and secretly didn't sacrifice himself at all and only teleported to the universe of Another Day (Another Day has a strange climax, it's weird. And yes, it's canon), but his growth was real. Even if his faux sacrifice is unrepresentative of anything anymore, the emotions it originally elicited still hold true. After staring his flaws in the face, and viewing someone he once saw justice in murdering grow into a compassionate person, Joshua spent his week recovering from the Level i Flare discussing with his alternative self whether he should truly destroy Shibuya. While most of what occured during his week in Another Day is unknowable and everything I say about it is purely theoretical, considering the nonsensical ending, it seems safe to assume they arrived at the decision that Shibuya would be spared. But he didn't know if he was worthy. This is where the duel, and the three questions surrounding it, come back. Joshua changed his mind sometime during Week Beat, with his change being inspired by Neku's own. He saw the potential of a Composer in the matured Neku, and believed Neku might be more worthy than himself, but he knew that he couldn't just say "hey I'm not actually dead btw you're God now," so he made the best of a bad situation. He put Neku in a position where Neku could either deliver capital punishment to Joshua, which would deem Joshua not worthy of the position and give the title to Neku, or he could hesitate, as he did, which would prove that the worst people truly can change, and Joshua would continue his rule as Composer with a newfound sense of philanthropy and patience.

Some Kind of Ending

To fully complete this analysis, I should explain my beliefs on what Joshua was prior to his becoming Composer. I've already said I belive Hanekoma. Second Sight is a real occurance that occassional scanned pedestrians will display, and it genuinely makes sense that Joshua might have had it when he was human. I've already briefly described what I imagine it was like, though to further explain, I imagine he was horribly outcast. Few people knew the UG existed, so he would undoubtedly be shunned and even probably called insane for seeing something that didn't exist for most people. I once said he would see death as literally a game, which he would. He'd see the Reapers, understand why they do what they do better than any Player, and he'd know that, in the UG, there'd be no second sight or ostracisation. I honestly believe he killed himself to be able to go to this wonderland of sorts. But his suicide isn't too relevant, strange as that sounds. It's more the reasons he would kill himself, which stayed true until his week with Neku. He'd be apathetic, wanting death as a complete improvement on life, and understanding death as a second existence; nothing to fear. His isolation would cause him to detest people, and the fact they could never understand him inspiring his belief that nobody can ever understand one another. Eventually, he'd become Composer. Eventually, his loneliness would return from his youth due to his limited contacts as Composer, and eventually all of his unaddressed flaws would run rampant. Until the two weeks that changed everything.

Or, at least, that's what I think. This may have gotten a bit emo, considering that Joshua's the kid who runs around, trolling and hitting on Neku in his favourite Lapin Angelique dress. But that's the conclusive timeline and arc I came to when studying this fantastic character. Thank you for reading, and remember that Joshua did nothing wrong...

...also he's literally Ryo from Devilman, but, like, less horrible and with a way more hopeful character arc.

EDIT: this post is fucking ancient and garbage but im keeping it up for posterity

#twewy #joshua

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terminator855 · 5 years ago

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Yakuza 0 - Where it all began

Writing a review for Yakuza 0 is not an easy task as it was made as a prequel for a legendary series which carries such a legacy that it can not be ignored. And this was also the first Yakuza to hit the PC market and Yakuza 0 made quite the impact. As such I shall try to convey the feeling of this game through words. Something which is arguably impossible.

Story

This story is a an absolute chaos. Chaos is something we think about in a negative way. We need order and a story has to be built in such a organised way that one can not not understand the whole situation while being trapped in it. Yakuza 0 doesn't care and it´s something great. Another thing that is great: no character is bland within the story. Everyone has his own goals, motives and a past. Just like the main characters: Kiryu wants to be part of the Yakuza just like his foster father and tries to do his best while still maintaining his noble attire. But when a job went wrong and the whole world seems to break around him, he has to punch his way through everything just to survive, despite not knowing how everything fits together. On the other hand is Goro Majima: In general the Yang to the Ying of Kiryu. Later on in the series we see how Majima´s story is going to be intertwined inseparable to Kiryu, but they are not yet destined to meet. Still they are already deeply connected. And the story unfolds beautifully, but still so tragic that more often than not the sadness of the situation is more impactful then the fun of the substories.

What are substories? Well, now we get to the funny part of the game. Substories are basicially sidequests which have to be done for rewards. There is a difference about sidestories in this game: They are more than just "fetch me that, bring me this and battle that guy". Some of them carry real emotions and everyone of them is so unique that I can´t comprehend why I/Kiryu had to help a girl to improve at SM, but we did it. And you read that right: I couldn´t decide which person I wanted to use, as everything Kiryu does is so relatable and he genuinely just to tries to be a good guy who helps others. The same goes for Majima, but he is way too complex as a character to explain him within a review. My best guess is that everything you heard about Yakuza 0 being strange is related to the substories. And there is nothing to argue about: The Substories remain unique and really unconventional. When you heard something about this game you couldn´t believe, it might be true.

Gameplay

It is an 3D-Action Brawler which plays out in a limited overworld of city called Kamurucho which is basicially the redlight destrict. (And another place I can not spoil yet). You got your typical combos, your finishers and dodge move. Despite looking pretty simple, the combat evolves so much over time that you are starting to realise that you adapted new moves without really realising it. And there are ton of them as both playable characters have 4 unique styles which are comparable to one another, but not the same.

While it sometimes gets stale as you fight through enemy wave after enemy wave and spam healing, you realise that you either get good or your healing won’t be enough to beat certain enemies and bosses. The most unique thing about Yakuza's battle style is the "Heat Gauge" which fills whenever a hit has been landed. When it has been filled enough, it can be used for finishers which deal a lot of damage and have short animations. SidecontentThis has to be said as Yakuza 0 has so much side content that there it more time to be spent with it than the actual main story. Management, dancing, karaoke, shogi, flirting, pocket car racing, gambling and the list continues. More than enough variety to entertain for more than 50 hours.

Music

In comparsion the music is somewhat underwhelming, no theme really manages to shine and captures the interest any longer than the situation it has been used for. Also there are certain themes like the "emotional" theme that gets used over and over in sidestories. And the whole soundtrack lacks vocals. This is not inherently bad, but certain fights would just have deserved something like a latin chorus to illustrate the gravitas of the situation. Despite everything the soundtrack manages to keep the player engaged and in the end that is what mostly matters.

Graphics

The graphics are not on the level as other triple A productions, but they are good enough to look pretty and Yakuza 0 shines in terms of the design of the environment. I can not understand japanese, but actually every sign that is readable is also translatable and even true Yakuza confirmed that Sega managed to capture the streets look in Yakuza 3 and Yakuza 0 doesn't seem to fail too. Just astounding and shows real dedication.

Conclusion

Yakuza 0 is an absolute one of a kind experience of a game. There is nothing quite like it and because of that it seems the only thing I can do to have the same feeling after playing Yakuza 0 is playing more Yakuza games. I just can encourage everyone who reads this review to check this banger of a game.

#yakuza #yakuza 0 #sega #review #gaming

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bmaxwell · 5 years ago

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Top games of 2019

For much of the year I thought I might have a hard time building a solid list of 10 games. As it turned out, I could have made a top 20 without much trouble. So it was a good year for games, but maybe there weren’t many 10/10 classics for me. I did have BT’s, BB’s, and even a BD-1 though!

First up, my Old Game of Year: Yakuza 0

The dichotomy between Yakuza 0′s melodramatic main story and its silly tongue-in-cheek side missions made the game an absolute joy to play. One minute you’re dealing with warring Yakuza factions and torn loyalties, and the next you’re doing minigames like karaoke, bowling, RC car racing, and darts, and then you’re helping a dominatrix find her confidence or helping a human statue sneak away from his post to go take a much-needed shit. All throughout you’re also beating the shit out of legions of street thugs and yakuza dudes using kicks, punches, bats, bicycles, salt shakers, teapots, and whatever else is handy. I fell in love with this game in a way I very much did not expect.

Also good ”old” games: World of Final Fantasy, Ni No Kuni 2, Steamworld Heist, Odin Sphere Leifthrasir

Best Music: Death Stranding

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The game’s score is good, but the licensed music was key in some of Death Stranding’s best moments. The above song starts playing during your first journey in the game, and the tone is just spot-on perfect. Death Stranding works for me in a similar way that American Truck Simulator works for me. When you’re barely surviving a long trek, and a peaceful, melancholy song starts playing just as you reach the top of the hill and finally see your destination? Just perfect.

Also excellent music: Sayonara Wild Hearts

Most disappointing: Control

Well, I got fucking Alan Wake’d by Remedy again. Fantastic atmosphere and setting for a game, cocked up by repetitive, boring combat. So much about Control is so very good. I love the mystery of the janitor and the main character, the Twilight Zone/X-Files vibe of the agency and the Oldest House. The game’s architecture is arresting, and the writing is excellent.

But for me it was undone by the combat which quickly became a tedious, thing I had to Get Through to see more of the good stuff, and the more challenging fights became something I just didn’t want to engage with anymore. The checkpoint system and maps weren’t helpful, and I received too many optional side quests that I couldn’t complete because I hadn’t found the necessary traversal power yet. I loved so much about the game, but the moment to moment playing of the game was frequently not fun for me.

Ultimately it felt like a game that did not respect my time. The game desperately needed an Easy setting so I could just blow through the bits that I didn’t like. Like Alan Wake, I expect to be pulled back into it and then bounce off again at least two more times.

And now, the games that were in the running for the top 10 but missed the cut:

Dicey Dungeons:

You roll dice and spend them to activate equipment, gaining more equipment as you go. It’s a close cousin to deckbuilding games, but a little lighter and more forgiving. Slotting dice into cards feels good though. The variety in characters and cards help give this game good replay value. Give me randomized cards/gear, and characters to unlock in a run-based game and I’m a happy guy.

Judgment:

Yakuza minus Kiryu and Majima, with some investigation minigames thrown in. It’s pretty good! Most of the new detective minigames feel like they get in the way (tailing people is just silly, taking photos doesn’t work great). I never really felt strongly compelled to stick with it though. I miss the charm of Kiryu and the grime of 80′s Kamurocho. It’s an excellent game I might have enjoyed more if I hadn’t played Yakuza first.

Chocobo’s Mystery Dungeon: Everybuddy!:

This port of a Nintendo Wii roguelike is one that I missed in its original incarnation. It’s got the “I move - all the enemies move” turn-based gameplay that I love, and classes to unlock. All of this is very much my shit. It’s goofy the way that Final Fantasy games are, and the design feels older than it is (I thought it was a PS2 port before I looked it up). But hey - give me stuff to unlock and the old “I move - you move” gameplay and, again, I’m a happy guy.

Ring Fit Adventure

This game is getting me to exercise just about every day. It’s not a great video game (nor should it try to be) but as a workout tool it’s wonderful for someone like me who has trouble finding the time and motivation to go out of the house and exercise.

Untitled Goose Game

You are a winged angel of chaos in this joyous little game. I found the gameplay itself to be pretty shallow and lacking, but it’s a wonderful sandbox to play in. Tormenting people is great fun, and the way the goose animates is just perfect.

Table of Tales: The Crooked Crown

This was the PSVR game that stood out the most for me this year. It’s a tactical RPG complete with a DM that narrates everything, tiles to move your characters around on, and card-based combat. It’s a charming game and I hope they make more.

Luigi’s Mansion 3

This was my first game in the series, and I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. It’s a charming game, and the variety from floor to floor. I could forgive the wonky control scheme, but I think there’s just a low ceiling on how much a cutesy, family-friendly Nintendo title can resonate with me these days.

Dragon Quest Builders 2

Dragon Quest and Minecraft had a baby. This was my favorite game of the year for turning my brain off and checking things off a list. I’m not sure Dragon Quest Builders 2 is a Great Game, but it’s wonderful gaming comfort food for a Dragon Quest fan.

Void Bastards

Void Bastards might be this year’s Dead Cells - a run based game that never quite hooked me, but I’ll keep coming back to it. The developers really did a lot without a lot of variety in the way of art assets. It’s a satisfying, often funny shooter (admittedly not my jam). What a terrific name though.

Steamworld Quest

The Steamworld series is an impressive, weird thing. I’ve never seen a series change genres like this; they started with Steamworld Dig (Metroidvania) then made Heist (a tactical combat game) then another Dig, and finally this year they released Steamworld Quest - a deckbuilding RPG. Customization and unlockables are among my favorite gaming buzzwords, and they’re here in spades.

Sayonara Wild Hearts

More of a visual companion set to a pop album than a conventional game. This is for me what Rez was for a lot of folks. Most stages are autorunners where you’re collecting hearts, dodging obstacles, shooting giant wolves, and fighting lesbians while racing atop motorcycles. It’s a story about love, heartbreak, and finding yourself, told through music and images. Nice to have a game that feels like it was made specifically for marginalized folks.

10. Concrete Genie

Concrete Genie’s best trait is its earnestness - an increasingly rare thing in 2019. It’s about an artistic being pursued by bullies in a run-down town. He finds a magic brush that lets him paint friendly monsters into life and also paint magical landscape scenes onto buildings in an effort to bring life back to the town.

The themes of the game and how they’re handled feel a little after school special to me, but the game has a lot of heart. And the gameplay loop of creating monsters, painting buildings, and unlocking new types of things to paint never got old because it’s so damned beautiful. And you have a lot of room to be creative with how you paint. The game is not challenging, and I think the experience is better for it. There is some light platforming, puzzling, and combat, but none of it ever got frustrating. A wholesome game like this was a very welcome thing this year.

9. Indivisible

Indivisible is a odd mashup of platformer, RPG, and fighting game that blends those well enough that I can't easily put it into any one box. For me, it’s the closest to a fighting game I’ve played in probably 20 years. It has launchers and finishers and timed blocks. You collect a big old army of people you can swap in and out, the writing is smart. The platforming parts are the weakest part of the game, as some of the jumping challenges can feel uneven, and there’s a lot of “I see what I have to do, now I just need to try over and over until I execute”

The setting (Asian mythology as a backdrop) and combat felt unique enough to keep me going, and the game has a charm and personality. I like how the main character is a well-intended fuck up that has to atone for her mistakes, somewhat reminiscent of Mae from Night in the Woods.

8. Children of Morta

This is an action RPG with character progression where you are playing members of a family. The gameplay is solid, and the game drip feeds story and character interaction between runs. It’s a well-narrated and charming thing. The writing can be funny and often touching. There are story bits like the uncle crafting a pair of daggers for Kevin, who falls in love with them. Mary - his mother - takes them away for being too dangerous, and she doesn’t want her boy putting himself at risk helped me feel invested in the characters and story more than most ARPG’s.

The movement and combat feel snappy, and there are plenty of skills to unlock so you always feel like progress was made even when a run falls short. There are plenty of little secrets and tchotchkes to find in the dungeons, and between runs you can see the family members doing their own thing in the house where they live together. It’s a refreshing take on the action RPG genre.

7. Outer Worlds

I remember when The Outer Worlds was announced at The Game Awards. None of this checks any boxes for me: sci-fi setting, shooting, wacky characters. You can make your character DUMB and get special dialogue choices! Humor in game very rarely works for me, and this sounded like it was going to be that jaded, shitty Rockstar brand of humor. Hard pass from me.

Enter Xbox Game Pass. The Outer Wilds Worlds started getting positive word of mouth and it was included with Game Pass, so I figured I may as well give it a go. I encountered something I didn’t expect: really terrific writing.

I turned the difficulty down to its lowest settings and mowed through the game, savoring the tongue-in-cheek dialogue in a world where corporations own literally everything. The first character you meet is hiding out in a cave because he’s been wounded. Not too wounded to give you the company’s sales pitch though! It’s not the best choice, it’s Spacer’s Choice.

The whole “corporations are in charge” bleak humor hits more than it misses, but the real star of the show is your companions. They are generally convincing and feel like real, fleshed out characters and not simple tropes. Each companion character gets their own interesting set of side quests (except for the dumb boring robot companion). My first companion Parvati’s story revolved around mustering the courage to pursue a romantic relationship with a woman. They wrote Parvati as an asexual character, and it felt natural and not forced - not an easy task.

It leans into being a dumb video game in all the right ways and made me care about the characters more than the story. The story’s cynicism wore thin eventually, but the game ended at just about the right time and didn’t overstay its welcome.

6. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

Jedi Fallen Order lies at the intersection of 2 things I admire more than enjoy: Star Wars and Souls-likes. It’s also EA doing their best to show that they can release a AAA Star Wars game with no microtransactions after the tire fire that was Star Wars Battlefront II. This game is an excellent make-good for EA, though I’m sure it’s more “We had to do this to restore consumer trust in us” than any real change of heart.

This game, at the time of this writing on a base PS4 anyhow, has some jank. Textures would often pop in after a second or two, I had a Stormtrooper get stuck in place like a statue, and I had a couple of hard crashes. Despite all of that, I kept coming back to the game every night until it was finished. And it impressed me enough to put an EA Star Wars game in my top 10. You win, universe. The combat was a good balance of fun shit like force-pushing dude off a cliff and tense one-on-one battle where parries and dodges are needed to get by.

The game’s story is what kept me wanting to see what was next. It’s a game set in the Star Wars universe with the confidence to resist reminding you of the characters and places you know from the films, and it’s better for it. I found myself invested in the fates of the characters. While the main character is more or less a blank cipher for the player, he’s still a better protagonist than Anakin Skywalker because I didn’t actively dislike him.

5. Bloodstained

New games succeeding as remakes or homages with goofy videogame-ass videogame stuff was sure a theme this year. Bloodstained is so ridiculous in so many ways. A lady asked me to bring her a specific piece of armor to honor one of the fallen villagers. When I did so, she tearfully thanked me then gave me 3 pizzas as a reward. The paintings on the walls will often come to life and attack you; those paintings are all portraits of people who backed the game on Kickstarter. One of the enemies resembles a giant house cat, another is a giant domestic dog. NPC’s repeat the same dialogue, such as a quest giver named Lindsay who says “Kill those murderers DEAD!” every time you speak to her.

And there is a metric ton of shit to find, collect, and craft. Most of the gear you equip looks goofy as hell. And the more new skills and gear you unlock, the more overpowered and broken you feel. The dialogue is corny as hell and plays things straight, which is the only way a screwball game like this actually works. The combat feels good. Experimenting with the powers and systems is a blast, and uncovering the map and secrets is satisfying.

4. Fire Emblem 3 Houses

- Despite being extremely my kind of shit on the surface, I’ve never done more than dabble with a Fire Emblem game. When I heard people invoking Persona and Harry Potter. I mean, a strategy RPG with relationship stories set in a school environment checks too many of my boxes to ignore.

What surprised me with the game is how much I came to really know the students in my house.* I felt like I knew Bernadetta, Dorothea, Ferdinand, Edelgard, and all the others. Alternating between exploring the school grounds, choosing lesson plans, having tea with a student, and leading them into battle was a nice way to mix up the experience. Training them in skills based on which character class you wanted to promote them to was a nice touch.

3. Death Stranding

Death Stranding has all of the batshittery it was rumored to have: Norman Reedus hiking around with a baby in a jar, poo grenades, tar squids, and people with names like Die Hardman, Mama, and Fragile. Kojima has about as much subtlety as David Cage with the metaphors and themes of the game. Cell phones latch onto you like handcuffs, and Likes are much sought after to the point where people are addicted to them. The game is all about reuniting America and forging connections. You play as a man named Sam. He’s a porter who works for the Bridges company. His name is Sam Porter Bridges.

Sam is playing a major role in reconnecting the country by hand delivering packages from city to city as well as reconnecting the country up to wifi. Continuing with the games themes, Sam has a touch phobia. It’s a game about isolation and introspection, and about the need for connection with one another. Hideo Kojima makes for damn certain that you know that when you play the game. It’s a little like David Cage, but with less cringe and more weirdness.

It’s an introspective game full of small moments. Sam curling up under a structure that another player has built, exhausted and cradling his jar baby as a melancholy song plays is the kind of moment that doesn’t play well in a demo or a video, and won’t resonate with everyone. Those of us it does work for, however, are in love with the experience. It takes the hard-to-describe appeal of a game like American Truck Simulator and adds a decidedly human element to it. There is comfort to motion and travel. We like to be rocked, or transported in a vehicle as babies. It’s the simple comfort of motion, and a way to connect to our world. There’s something to that.

I love seeing this level of ambition and weirdness from a major AAA release.

2. Disco Elysium

He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man.

I thought of Dr Gonzo of Hunter S Thompson fame early and often while playing Disco Elysium. It’s an easy connection to make; you wake up face down on the floor of a demolished hotel room. You have a wicked hangover, wearing nothing but your undies. Your necktie whirls around the ceiling, attached to the ceiling fan.

I got sloppily dressed and staggered out my door, where I was confronted by an attractive woman in the hall. Some primal part of my character thinks it’s a good idea to ask her to fuck; you crudely do so, and it goes the way you might expect. I was fresh off of playing The Outer Worlds, so I was used to any dialogue prompt associated with a skill being automatically a positive thing. As it turns out, your character gets all sorts of a impulses that aren’t always in your best interests. This first interaction put me off a little bit, I don’t want to play a game that’s trying to be cool and edgy. As it turns out, this isn’t really that.

In Disco Elysium, you play as a cop sent to sort out a murder where a body was found hanging in a tree behind this hotel. Seems that, after 3 days, you’ve managed to run up a hotel bill that you can’t pay for, frighten the patrons by threatening to shoot yourself in the head in the hotel before you lose your badge and your gun. Another cop is sent to assist you since you’ve accomplished exactly nil after 3 days. He’s from another precinct and doesn’t know you, so you haven’t burned up all of your goodwill with him yet (unlike everyone else in your life).

At a glance, it’s a Baldur’s Gate-style isometric RPG with a modern setting. In practice, it’s a lot more than that. First off, the game has no combat. Or rather, no conventional combat. Any physical encounters (which were exceedingly rare in my play) are handled through dialogue choices determined by how you’ve built out your skills. And the way the game manifests your skills is smart and feels organic, not forced.

The skills aren’t the usual RPG fare. There are 24 of them, consisting of stuff like Visual Calculus, volition, Pain Threshold, and Shivers. As you might have guessed, 24 skills in a game with no conventional combat means there is a LOT of writing in this game and just as much variance from one play to the other. My detective was a highly emotionally sensitive guy, able to pick up on what folks may be hiding, very in-tune with the cosmos, and deeply introspective (upsettingly so?).

It’s a detective RPG with a healthy dose of political intrigue, class warfare, and nihilism. Disco Elysium feels like an actual adult game, and not in the “look at all this violence and titties” sense. The best comparison I have is Planescape Torment.

1. Resident Evil 2

- What a complete game. This was my first Resident Evil game and I am in love with it. The game drops you into a hostile environment that slowly transitions from a horror show with danger around every corner to feeling like a space that was very much mine. Creeping around an unfamiliar environment in the dark with a flashlight and limited ammunition, as it turns out, is fun as hell.

The combat is slow and deliberate in a way that made the action feel satisfying and not cheap; when I did encounter enemies that moved quickly and suddenly, it got my heart rate going. And my arc with Mr X from pure terror to minor annoyance to acceptance as part of this undead infested police station I call home felt pretty special.

He is an indestructible character that follows you endlessly like the Terminator. You’re faster, but he is relentless. Hearing his heavy footsteps somewhere in the vicinity was a nice atmospheric touch. I had a couple of instances where I was running from something, turned a corner and collided with this 8 foot tall beast.

Resident Evil 2 is just the ideal dose of scariness, and gets all the dumb videogame-y parts exactly right. It feels like a Metroidvania, a world filled with locks and keys where the secrets are drip-fed to the player. Creeping through an unfamiliar area with only 2 shotgun shells and 5 pistol rounds left was a deliciously tense experience, one that other games rarely give me.

The game’s second playthrough felt a lot more different from the first than I’d feared. I’ve never really played another Resident Evil game, and I’ve never had any interest in horror games. And now here I am anxiously awaiting next year’s RE3 remake.

*Black Eagles, baby!

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abuthecoo-blog · 8 years ago

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My Take on Different Game Genres

This will be my last post before I’m done messing with what this site can do. There’s a lot of different genres for games out there and I’m gonna hit some of them and give you my take on them.

Fighting Games: These are fucking sick. I love these. I would argue that good fighting games are some of the hardest types of games to make. All the characters need to be balanced and equal, but at the same time they all need to be unique and powerful. Small things like frame data and matchups need to be considered. Most of all, however, a fighting game needs to be hype. Watch the cinematic trailers for Street Fighter x Tekken. They’re hype right? they get you pumped don’t they? Now watch the actual gameplay for Street Fighter x Tekken. Technically it’s a good fighting game, but it’s a little boring (and a little simple but that’s not important for this discussion). Now go watch some fighting game tournaments. Tekken is my go to game but a lot of people (koreans) like Street Fighter. Listen to the crowd. They’re getting hyped, they’re screaming and hollering and cheering the players on. I love fighting games. Tekken is my favorite fighting game followed by Marvel vs. Capcom 3.

Point and Click Adventures: these are also some of my favorite games. It’s really interesting to go back to the really old point and click adventure games and see how different things were back then. A lot of basic do’s and don’ts in game design are because of point and click adventures. Apart from the game design aspect, these games are just relaxing to me. It’s just you and the game, you’re on an adventure but not a serious one. You don’t need to worry about fighting monsters or getting a good score. You just travel the world and solve puzzles, maybe make a few friends and hear a few jokes, it’s all good. I will admit that the old games have some bullshit in them though. King’s quest was brutal with it’s fail-states, and a few Lucas Arts games didn’t really master the art of “pacing” yet. Despite all that, I still love them, Gabriel Knight, Gabriel Knight 2, and Last Express are my personal favorites.

Platformers: These are usually hit or miss, rarely anything in between. Anyone can make a platformer, but making a unique and enjoyable platformer is tricky stuff. Look at Super Mario, he’s the top dog for a reason. Those games defined the genre, they made an amazing world with simple and fun gameplay. All the levels are familiar, but add their own twists. It takes skill to make something like that. As for playing them, I think they’re loads of fun. My sister isn’t too fond of them, but I think that they provide a great challenge while always adding twists to a now standard formula. My personal favorites are Megaman x 1-8 (except for 7) and Cave Story. My sister’s personal least favorites are Lego Lord of the Rings and Lego Harry Potter (technically they’re not completely platformers but they have platforming in them).

RPGs: These games take devotion. As a designer, it’s a load of work trying to make an RPG, and as a player, it takes a lot of time to sink into an RPG. When making an RPG, you have to take into account the mechanics and the game world. Most famous RPGs have a large, well-developed world around them . The Elder Scrolls has Tamriel, with it’s Nine Divines and Daedric Princes. The Witcher has Novigrad, and Skellige, and the clashes between the monsters and humans. An RPG should have a thought out world, remember that. Oblivion is my favorite RPG of all time, and probably my most played game of all time. I wouldn’t be surprised if I had upward of 1000 hours in that game spread over three consoles. I learned more about that game than I did human biology.

Action Adventure: This is probably the broadest genre out there.Saints Row, Yakuza, Assassin’s Creed, Uncharted, and Legend of Zelda are all technically Action Adventure games. And... yeah that’s about right. In all these games there’s action and you go on an adventure, so there you go. These games are often up to personal creative ideas when it comes to why they’re popular. Legend of Zelda has you literally going on an adventure to save Hyrule and rescue Zelda. It’s fun, lighthearted, and enjoyable. Uncharted has you pretending to be Indiana Jones for about 8 hours. That game is an excited cheesey story that let’s you pretend you’re a treasure hunter. Yakuza let’s you kick fucking ass as asian the Chuck Norris, Kiryu Kazuma. That game is badass and emotional. These games are so open for interpretation that it’s hard to pinpoint what makes them popular, but it uses involves a lot of ass kicking. My favorite action adventure series is the Yakuza series. I never actually played these but I’ve seen videos and the memes.

Everything Else: I’m going to stop here but I’ll probably go more into these later on if I feel like it. there’s a lot of genres I missed (obviously). Racing games, RTS games, stealth games, simulators, visual novels, etc. etc. etc. ETC. So yeah, I’ll go more into this later

#games #game design

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