#which is objectively the best entry in the franchise but like

[poemistic]

im really sad no one else saw the cult aspects of sh3 more compelling like i did when i first watched a playthrough of it. idk it maybe my religious trauma talking, but the constant talk of bringing salvation and being saved by god steams from the deep primal fear of the world and life and all its sufferings and just the gaping unknown of what comes after death and!!! idk it gripped me personally. along with heather’s struggles with identity, agency, and the constant themes of cycles repeating and rebirth?? 

Saint Alessa Gillespie Mother of God Daughter of God?? am i the only one who thought this went fucking hard as hell?? 

in this part of the game when we see this painting, Heather has been going through a lot of self reflecting, especially during the chapel section. We really get to see Alessa’s life was like when she was carrying God, and it’s during this part I think heather accepts that Alessa is an important part of who she is, even if she’s no longer Alessa anymore. I think she says something along the lines of “I’m not Alessa, but Alessa is still me.” at one point. I can’t help but see it as an allegory for self acceptance, specifically the acceptance of trauma/abuse done unto you. Heather’s denial of being Alessa makes sense during the beginning. She has no memory of being Alessa, and people (Claudia) who clearly want to hurt her keep insisting that she is. 

But the thing is, Claudia sees heather as Alessa: Mother of God... simply a vessel meant to carry their cult’s deity. not the true Alessa Gillespie. So as the game continues with Heather recovering more memories of her past life, along with suffering the same problems as Alessa did 17 years ago, she truly comes to accept that she was Alessa, who fought SO Hard to be and to live as heather!!! Being heather, or Cheryl Mason, was supposed to be Alessa’s hard won happy ending. After literal years of being tortured in a cocoon of pain and misery, Alessa does escape in the end too, through being reborn as heather. How can heather deny that part of herself that used to be Alessa, after all Alessa has done to get her where she is? 

the symbolism of agency and autonomy with the mother of god daughter of god stuff makes me go actually insane. The cult forcing her into motherhood, but Alessa embracing that role to birth a life that She wants to bring into the world? A life that is filled with love and joy (with harry !!! 😭😭😭), her OWN personal paradise??? WAAAAAHHHHHHHHH 

[wfagamerants]

With my Jamboree hype still in full force, I decided to revisit both previous Switch Mario Parties as a refresher, with some 3, 6, Star Rush and Top 100 on the side to help with some things I wanted to compare.

Mario Party is one of my favorite series in anything and I have been vocal about my relationship with the Switch games being rocky. I was curious to see if the benefit of hindsight changed my views on them.

The answer is one No and one Yes, with some no sprinkled in.

Super Mario Party

This is the big one for me.

From the Hudson games, to the first five NDCube titles, I unironically enjoyed every previous entry, as is well known with all the cheerleading I do for 10 and Star Rush in particular and even Island Tour has some good stuff well worth experiencing.

With all that in mind, it probably comes as a surprise THIS is the one Mario Party I genuinely can’t stand and a revisit did not change my mind one bit.

Not like I didn’t try either, even with my enjoyment of the other NDCube games, of course I was excited to see the old formula back, but that only means so much when it doesn’t do it well and that’s what I really do think is the case here.

Going point by point, as I like to do, I wanna start with one thing I do find praiseworthy…despite not liking it that much, the character roster.

Mario Party usually doesn’t have much going on in terms big roster numbers, so to see one push so far is genuinely refreshing and they did need to put work into it, given the amount of characters that needed to be updated (Hammer Bro and Dry Bones) or never had a playable MP outing period (Pom Pom, Goomba, Monty) not even mentioning all examples here, that stuff is commendable.

I’m just personally not that big on the selection. Losing the Toads really hurts and I am generally more in favor of less mook centric rosters, even if I like all the ones on offer. Pom Pom to me, even as someone who loves the boss characters like the Koopalings, King Boo, Petey, King Bob-omb, etc, is just a really lame and unappealing character, no better than Boom Boom who at least had Strikers to make me warm up to him.

Bowser being playable is also iffy for me. I love the big guy, but taking him out of his usual role has some very drastic consequences in function and flavor, which I am very happy Jamboree is addressing, to give us the best of both worlds, but more on that later.

Objectively, this is a good roster, it’s just very not for me.

Another thing I find praiseworthy and do enjoy is the hub. Dropping regular main menus in favor of an interactive hub where you can walk around and chat with characters is a cute concept I want to return.

Once we get to the actual board gameplay though, the cracks start to show right away.

Everyone already complained about it, even when the game was new and generally praised, but yeah. 4 boards is an absolutely abysmal number and that could at least be salvageable if they were all good and fun to play on but….you already know where this is going.

I will say, I do love the themes. As much as I think the previous games did more with the NSMB tropes than they are given credit for, it’s great to go back to something more original again. They are cool themes, they are visually great, that stuff all works out.

Too bad they’re really bad boards.

It’s been talked about to death, but yeah, the boards are incredibly tiny and small boards don’t even need to be bad. DS had smaller boards and did such a good job with them you barely felt it, on top of to me, being a Top 5 Mario Party.

Not only are Super’s boards even smaller than the ones for the game that HAD to scale them back, but they are also very linear, with little in the way of interesting gimmicks or alternate routes.

You can call most MP boards, aside from deliberately linear ones like Pagoda Peak, basically big circles or squares. That’s fine, they are BOARDS after all, it’s more what you can do on them that matters and makes you not even notice that.

King Bob-omb’s Powderkeg mine feels like the closest to  an aversion to this and even it just amounts to choosing either the smaller circle or the larger circle, to run in circles in. There is simply nothing interesting going on and the events are too basic and lame to distract from it.

What doesn’t help is that Super made some changes to fundamental aspects of MP we take for granted and it really says a lot about how well thought out those elements were.

For one thing, the Dice has been reduced from a 1-10 to a 1-6. This was already a thing in 9 and 10, but in those games you were all in the same vehicle and progressed together, it was way more about wanting the best result out of your current situation. In Super, being a classic style MP again, it just makes progression feel fundamentally more sluggish, since cutting down the dice numbers so hard means you will go by nature, much slower and the odds of barely going anywhere are way higher.

There is also just the general lack of truly threatening obstacles on the boards. This especially shows with Bowser being playable. Gimmicks like him being on the board like MP1 and MP4’s Bowser’s Gnarly Party are off the table, as is him having his own board or game specific ideas like Bowser Time in MP7. Instead of Bowser Spaces we now have Bad Luck spaces.

They Suck. Really hard.

The penalties are just not threatening and the game feels rigged to prioritize the tamest one. The coin penalties barely hurt, losing an item is really not that big a deal here, the star moving is rarely anything but a non-punishment, etc. They do get a bit more punishing during the last 3 turns, but not only does that window give them little time to come into play, but even losing a star is less of a big deal than it would usually be, for one particular reason.

The economy in SMP is totally out of whack. 

Now second and third place also get coin rewards in minigames, which WAS a thing in 9 and 10 as well, but in those games that had more of a purpose, given the much more limited control during board play for everyone. In a classic Mario Party though, this already has implications and it only gets worse with other elements thrown in.

It just doesn’t feel that rewarding to be good at minigames,  because even if you play well, you may not even build up much of a lead, with Hidden Blocks, Hidden Block items and Lucky Spaces that can give coin rewards in abundance and ALL that is combined with how little everything costs.

Stars cost only 10 coins and combined with how small the boards are, getting to one rarely feels like a hassle. Even stealing a star only costs 30 coins and items are remarkably cheap and that’s on top of there being so few events that really threaten your coin count. King Bob-omb is really the only one that makes a real attempt there.

All of that results in really dull board play. More than ever the game really is all about the dice roll, with nothing from the board layout, to events, to the items, doing anything interesting to let you strategize or anything like that.

There’s also the small annoyance of them finding it necessary to give you needless tutorials and tips, like when you open the map or getting an item for the first time, which you can’t disable. 

On a final note for the board play are the allies and ally spaces, as well as custom dice, all taken from Star Rush. A lot of people dislike them, but I do find their implementation to be the most interesting thing on SMP’s boards. Supremely unbalanced, it needs another pass there, but I can see interesting potential for it in a MP with boards of more substance.

There is also Partner Party, which is essentially the Star Rush mode of the game and as Star Rush fan, I should love it.

Eh.

I appreciate the thought, but you can’t do free for alls, There are way fewer opportunities to get and especially steal allies and the boards continue to be void of anything interesting. Even just playing the 4 boards it had once each, with the minimum Turn count of 10, felt like a slog.

Then there are the minigames, which I often see praise for and honestly, they’re okay enough, but I do find the overall selection pretty meh.

It has genuine highlights, Slaperazi, Croozin’ For A Broozin’, Don’t Wake Wiggler and Fuzzy Flight School all being ones I really like for instance and I don’t hate the motion controls, I think they work fine.

It’s really not so much that there are a lot of bad minigames and more that it misses types I really like. There are no platforming minigames, no brawling minigames where you just punch and kick other players off of a platform, only one mashing minigame, etc. That’s on top of the fact that I feel a lot of the rumble minigames are really samey. There are like three separate minigames where you use the rumble to select the biggest/most of the thing you are meant to get.

There is also a general major sense of reduced player interactivity that plays into this and the most blatant example of it for me is comparing Hammer Drop from Mario Party 1 (and Superstars) to Super’s very own Lightning Round.

They are very similar coin minigames, but there is a major difference that sets them apart. While the hammers and lightning strikes both aren’t much of a threat, Hammer Drop lets you jump to swipe the incoming coins and coin bags, even jumping on opponents and hindering them or even ground pound opponents to hold them back. In Lightning Round, that interactive element doesn’t exist and everyone is just slowly running to the coins, while dodging total non-obstacles.

That example sums up a lot of why I find SMP’s minigame selection to be just not as interesting as the rest of the series and it also contributes to a stylistic difference I am not fond of at all.

I always loved Mario Party for being a more zany kind of Mario game, putting the characters in all kinds of wacky scenarios and to be fair, Super isn’t FULLY devoid of it. It’s still a rare time you see, say, Peach, helplessly chased by a giant Wiggler or Broozer army entirely as a gag at her expense one moment and then the next she pilots a big Sidestepper mech to whack Bowser with hammers with. That stuff is just awesome.

Super just has very little of it, due to the lack of interesting board gimmicks and action-heavy minigames and even what is there is heavily scaled back. Like characters just go into their dizzy animations when a Bob-omb blows up on them, rather than flying off-screen and said Sidestepper mech minigame just flings the characters away with a generic flail the game uses for almost every single negative event, as opposed to the other MPs which will just totally crush the character.

Is it pure flavor? Yeah, but I like flavor, flavor is good. MP just has a particular personality to it that Super doesn’t capture. It has plenty of personality in other areas, but it is missing a particular aspect I thought helped make the games really energetic, competitive and cartoonishly charming. It’s as if Mario took a page out of Wario’s playbook to be more wacky and I miss that.

Having said all that, one area the game does quite well in are the side modes. Champions Road is a perfectly functional ‘’Play all the Minigames’’ mode and Toad’s Rec Room hosts some minigames I honestly wish had regular play counterparts.

River Survival is decent, not something you can go back to much, but it’s a neat concept that at its hardest, does offer a challenge and its own minigames are pretty enjoyable for the most part.

Sound Stage meanwhile is the big star of Super as a whole for me. I love the rhythm minigame approach, there is a great energy to it, it’s got some lovely charm with all the dance animations for the cast (Waluigi’s moonwalk being the best, just sayin’), it’s just a good time. At most I wish I found the music more catchy, but it does its job at being fun to play along with.

I didn’t mean to be as negative as this likely came across, but it is just how it is. While it has some content I really like and ideas I think have potential, SMP on the whole I just do not like at all. It brought back the classic formula, while totally butchering it and it’s just all around lacking in so many things I like about the series. I went back to it to see if time and benefit of hindsight changed my mind and sadly no, if anything I have only grown to dislike it more.

Mario Party Superstars

By contrast, Superstars won me over on several things I was iffy on. I still have my gripes, but overall, I was pleasantly surprised.

One not pleasant surprise since the game came out, to start similarly to the Super section, is the roster. It’s small, it’s lame, we all know that. Of course character choice rarely affects anything in MP, but as I said, flavor is good and besides: When a series makes this much money and makes so heavy use of reused models, animations and voice clips across games, I do expect it to at least be able to compete with games that came out in the 2000s in terms of content in all places.

Speaking of which, this game is a bit funny to evaluate because it is all remakes of older content, but there is still plenty to talk about.

First there are the boards, five in total. Only one more than Super in terms of quantity, but they are all so much better than all of Super’s boards combined that they may as well be four boards more than Super had. That said a 6th board would have been appreciated, ideally they wouldn’t have just a N64 focus, but if they really wanna then at least give 3 a second board.

The board selection itself is quite pleasing. It has Horror Land so that alone is already a slam dunk, but there is a good quality level all around. The lack of a proper finale board is felt and I would have rather had a second MP3 board than two from MP1, simply because the former has much more interesting board design, but as it is, it’s fine.

Peach’s Birthday Cake made me roll my eyes when I saw it, but it turned out to be the most pleasant surprise of the whole game. The addition of items, a shortcut ramp and Bowser also doubling as a short-cut, if with a penalty, along with the lottery being moved, makes getting around and actually getting stars is far smoother and quicker. This also makes star stealing Piranha Plants far more of a threat, since there actually is something to steal now and that’s on top of there also being coin stealing Piranha Plants now.

This game turned what I thought was easily the worst Hudson era board and turned it into my second favorite one in this game. I am still stunned to this day and the improvements made to it show some really smart thinking that makes me optimistic for Jamboree’s new original boards.

The other boards haven’t seen any major changes and that’s perfectly fine. Playing Yoshi’s Tropical Island with items is a fun new experience though.

The actual board play has improved a lot, on top of playing on actually good boards, the coin distribution after minigames has been reworked to give the winner 10 coins again instead of only 8, with second and third only getting 2 and 3 respectively, making minigame wins far more of a benefit to build up a lead again. Stars are also back to the usual 20 coins and Bowser is back and as punishing as his spaces always are, so seeing harsh loses through that and the returning Chance Time brings back a ton of value to coins and stars that they largely lost in Super.

One new addition that’s consistent across all boards is Lucky Spaces, functioning the  same as in Super. The coin and item rewards you get from those can be really extreme and coupled with how many of these spaces there are, it gives the game a pretty chaotic feeling at times. For this particular game, I’m cool with it for this game, but ideally future games cool it a bit with these things.

There are also some nice QoL additions that once again, give me a lot of confidence for Jamboree. The generally increased game speed is a plus. Getting to choose between random Bonus Stars and the classic three is a feature that always should have been there. Getting to save up to 8 sessions, even online ones, is incredible and having the option to speed up board event scenes is a godsend for ones you may see many times in a row.

So yeah, the board game portion to me is a total hit in this game. The minigames are where I get more mixed. Not counting item minigames there are 100 in total and over half of those were already in Top 100. Not a bad thing by itself, but it does make some choices made bother me even more. Also not a fan of the N64 focus on the minigames as well, since it not only throws out a lot of good minigames, but it also screws over the GameCube and Wii & Wii U minigame packs, which would have been really cool options with a bigger selection.

Despite the latter gripe, I think the selection is….okay. It has it’s winners, particularly Hot Rope Jump and Dungeon Duos, but also some really notable stinkers like Spin Doctor, which wasn’t even in Top 100, so they deliberately picked that over something like Camp Ukiki or Apes of Wrath from the same game, genuinely bewildering. Duel Minigames in general really got the short end of the stick with only 5 in total and of all things, they pick stuff like Spin Doctor (which is at least okay) or Mass Meteor (one of MP6’s few stinkers).

Top 100 wasn’t perfect in that regard either, but I found its overall selection way more consistently solid and satisfying.That and bringing back certain minigames a third time just baffles me. Piranha’s Pursuit is a really bad minigame in all its incarnations, that can way too easily turn into a free win for the one player. It was a weird choice in Top 100, but bringing it back again in Superstars, without any changes for the better, really pushes it.

It’s still largely a good selection, it’s just easy to see the cracks when you have older versions to compare these games to and some did get butchered a bit. Tidal Toss’ hitboxes for the biggest waves not matching the visuals in particular being a NASTY example.

The characters also make far more grunts in many of the minigames and...yeah they can get pretty insufferable, especially with how small the pool of voice clips in this game is, compared to say, MP10, which had two minutes worth of clips for everyone.

There is also a case where the game still feels like holds back on bit on Mario Party’s old personality, with alterations to some minigames, for some examples:

You don’t see losing players bounce away in the lava anymore in Bumper Balls, they just vanish.

Several minigames replace more distinct damage poses with the generic flail, even if the more appropriate animation is elsewhere in Superstars.

The characters just lamely fall off the record in Dizzy Dancing, instead of crashing into the walls.

Squared Away lost it’s ending animation, which was already a thing in Top 100, the only time it took something like that away, but that had an excuse due to it using a generic minigame results screen like the other NDCube games did before.

Even taking the slapstick aside, replaying 3 in particular really revealed how many small things got cut for more generic animations. Hide and Sneak in particular has the characters just all do a heads down ducking pose, as opposed to the original where everyone had a distinct one, like DK adjusting his tie or Mario lying down.

Again, all this is flavor, but it sticks out even more when you are remaking content and if the roster is gonna be that small, going the extra mile on a few things would be appreciated.

It feels weird too, because the game oozes personality in so many other areas.

The title screens are all lovely.

The board ending pics and loser elimination sequences at the end of a round are very classic Mario Party.

The way characters literally pull out maps when you study the board map is amazing.

The dismayed reactions everyone has when landing on a Bowser space are great.

The Stickers are a fun evolution of taunts that can express way more.

Really, the game is full of great personality, it’s just in the minigames where some of the old charm they had gets weirdly sanded off.

Lastly there is online which is as functional as one could hope for. Has its hick-ups, but for Nintendo standards it’s fine. It’s not a disaster ala’ Mario Maker 2.

All nitpicking aside, this is a good game and a good Mario Party. I don’t think it’s one of the best ones, but the QoL additions and generally really solid board gameplay show the potential for it is there.

More than anything it feels like a testing ground to study the old board designs and test out things like the online, rather than something meant to be big on its own. I didn’t even touch on side content because there really is nothing to discuss.

Good game, but I was waiting for the next big thing and now it’s finally happening.

Super Mario Jamboree

My thoughts back here still apply and are very up to date, since we haven’t seen anything new since:

Playing the other two games again just really put into perspective how many things already got improved from one game to the next and it makes me all the more hopeful for Jamboree.

I have no doubt it will be the MP I have been waiting for all gen and I couldn’t be more excited~

[akimojo]

I'm very happy I found your blog! I absolutely ADORE ff13. The story, the characters, the mythos... it's all so compelling to me. I get frustrated whenever I see people hate on this game because I honestly do not understand why some claim it's the worst ff in existence? I totally get that the combat is not everyone's cup of tea (I personally love it) and that the linearity can be tedious to players who enjoy big open worlds, but in terms of the story itself and its characters I really can't comprehend what all the negative backlash is about. Which sucks because I truly would like to understand where the hate is coming from. My only major criticism is that the exposition could have been better executed, since a lot of it is hidden in the datalog entries. But other than that, I think the characters are very complex and the way the story unravels around them is a wonder to experience. Also as a side note, I can't believe people still hate Hope and accuse him of being annoying and useless when he's arguably the character that evolves and shows the most growth in the entire game 😭 It's almost as if the people who hate on him didn't finish the game. But yeah, I was wondering if you have any criticisms regarding ff13? I'm very interested in your opinion!

GODDD i know right??? subjective opinion is all fine and dandy, but it's the people that claim the game is objectively bad that really frustrate me 😭 ESPECIALLY when they shit on any of the characters (hope my boy </3) because honestly??? ffxiii has THE best character arcs in the whole franchise and that's a hill i'll die on

as for criticisms? i actually do have some, believe it or not fdjsmf

as much as i personally love the gameplay i gotta admit i don't like how slow-paced it can be. boss fights are really really fun, but fighting regular mob enemies when you're grinding (and you really do need to grind a lot after reaching pulse) can get real tedious

i like that not everything is told to us directly and that we have to figure out a lot of stuff on our own, but i do dislike how some important information in the datalogs are not really brought up in the game itself. like the first time i played xiii-2 i was so confused when serah mentioned being saved by vanille once? and then in 2021-ish when i replayed xiii again and read the datalogs i saw that they actually wrote that vanille and fang carried serah out of the vestige after she was turned l'cie and i just!! why was that not at least hinted at some more!!

also, they did vanille's english voice actor so dirty 😭 she does such an amazing job in the sequels and i don't understand why the english localization team made her do all those noises in xiii lmao

speaking of vanille, i'm also really disappointed that her and lightning barely interact!!!!! they're the two most important characters in the first game but they probably have the least interactions together out of any other pair in the group and it bugs me so much ashdfjms

[skaruresonic]

Regarding illusions of Rouge and Omega I think it's exactly how you said: having Shadow being tormented by someone not named Maria isn't "important" enough. Here you not only get the feels points (because Maria was so important to Shadow that the fandom must make his whole existence revolve around her) but also approval from the more elitist anti-sega side of the fandom (because you unlike the big bad sega actually remember the continuity and giving respects to the "best" parts of the franchise).

Unfortunately in the current fandom climate "continuity" means you must reference literally everything from past entries every 5 minutes or else you're "being inconsistent". See: the people asking "why does Knuckles not talk about the Master Emerald? Does he just not care about guarding it anymore??" or the small-scale "drama" around Dream Team cause omg big bad sega is ruining the timeline again cause the game doesn't mention Sage anywhere.

but also approval from the more elitist anti-sega side of the fandom (because you unlike the big bad sega actually remember the continuity and giving respects to the "best" parts of the franchise).

If they really wanted to give respect to the "best" parts of the franchise, they'd all go play Battle

Shadow's trauma will never not inform a part of his character. It's the foundation on which most of it currently rests. It's rather insecure to keep insisting that every form of suffering he experiences from here on out must tie back to his original trauma in some way. That's... not how life works.

For all of this hullabaloo about Rouge and Omega being Shadow's besties, when showed a canonical example that possibly supports what they're talking about (if you tilt your head and squint), they don't want it to take it.

Which is it? Are they his ride or die until he drops them like hot potatoes for Maria's memory, or what?

---

Unfortunately in the current fandom climate "continuity" means you must reference literally everything from past entries every 5 minutes or else you're "being inconsistent". I hate the use of the word "inconsistent" because nobody can provide a solid definition. They always say something that inevitably devolves into being a roundabout way of saying "the games' quality fluctuates" and/or "the games suck." Or else they just mean the art direction's changed again. Changes in art direction alone do not true inconsistency make. Sonic and co.'s characterizations have largely remained consistent across the games. It's fanon that's changed. It's really ironic too because the series references previous games all the time.

--- See: the people asking "why does Knuckles not talk about the Master Emerald? Does he just not care about guarding it anymore??" or the small-scale "drama" around Dream Team cause omg big bad sega is ruining the timeline again cause the game doesn't mention Sage anywhere.

At some point it hilariously reads like a serious lack of object permanence. "ST didn't show Cream in Forces, they forgot her!" Or maybe they're just not using her atm and she still diegetically exists in the world, just like how Shadow didn't magically poof out of existence in Unleashed.

Sage isn't in Dream Team? Guess she must have been erased like Doodlebob lol.

[disneywizard]

The Best Animated Series of 2022

2022.  Another year of Animation has come and gone, and so it is now time to do the one thing that I do on this site: make my top 10 list. This year should be an interesting mix, since I am allowing myself to put adult animated shows on the list for the first time.  But only if they are exceptional.  While this definitely made making this list harder this year, due to more content, it wasn’t as bad a deluge as I feared.  

Before we unveil the list, I also wanted to give a shout-out to the best thing that happened in 2022: the return of Gargoyles in comic form.  From Dynamite Publishing, written by series creator Greg Weisman.  Gargoyles is my favorite show of all time, it’s the reason I became enamored of Animation in the first place.  So I highly encourage everyone to check the comics out, if you can.  

And now for the list: Honorable Mentions: Green Eggs and Ham, Dragon Age Absolution, and Paranormal Park were all fantastic shows, I just thought that the following ten series were slightly better.  But all three of these shows ALMOST made the list as I was working on it, so I thought they belonged here.   And without further ado:

10) Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir

The French Action Adventure show about two superheroes in love with each other continues to go strong for it’s fourth and fifth seasons, which have included some of the best episodes of the show.  

Available on: Netflix (S1-3) Disney+ (S4 & 5*)  

9) Legend of Vox Machina

Man I wish someone would animate my D&D campaign.  

Available on: Amazon Prime.

8) Kid Cosmic and the Global Heroes!

Craig McCracken’s amazing superhero show is the first one on this list that officially ended this year, and went out quite strong.  I cried at the end of the series.  Definitely worth a look.

Available on: Netflix

7) Tales of the Jedi

I’m not much of a Star Wars fan.  It’s hard for me to even care outside of the Rebels series.  But this anthology series was so good, I’d be remiss to exclude it from the list.  

Available on: Disney+

6) The Dragon Prince: The Mystery of Aaravos

If I’m being honest, TDP was a bit weaker this season than previous showings.  We’ve had a time skip and the characters are now all in different places, which made it a little harder to get back into a groove with them.  But the story was still fantastic and I can’t wait to see how the next 4 seasons unfold.  

5) The Owl House

Why are you not watching this show?  You definitely SHOULD BE, it’s FANTASTIC.  The top four-through-two shows on this list were, IMO all so good, it was impossible to objectively place them in any order, so I’m listing them by my favorites.

Available on: Disney+  

4) Star Trek: Prodigy

This show taught me to love Star Trek again.  Everything from the voice work, to the animation, to the story is an absolute treat.  The easter eggs aren’t heavy handed, but will excite you trekkies when you see them, and the plot kept me fully excited and engaged all season long.

Available on: Paramount+

3) Amphibia

Another show we said goodbye to this year, the series finale had me in tears.  I just love these characters so much.  Everyone should watch this show, especially if they want something more from the property, and the defictionalized Marcy’s Journal hinted at some interesting future possibilities...

Available on: Disney+

2) Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous

Another show that we said goodbye to this year, Season 5 was an excellent close to the series, especially following the slightly weaker season 4.  The epilogue hinted at the possibility for further hijinks with these characters, and I hope we get them.  This is my favorite entry in a Movie Franchise that I already love.

Available on: Netflix

1) Young Justice Phantoms

WOO-HOO!  It’s here!  It’s finally here.  I can finally actually put the show I actually thought was the best of the year on my actual list, instead of just being an “Honorable Mention” like in past years.  This season was an incredible well written roller coaster of character and story arcs, that kept my attention and interest from beginning to end.  I cannot emphasize how good this show.  There was never any question where it was going to fall on my list, unlike the rest of the shows on here.  It was always going to be #1 because it was the best.  Watch it on HBOMAX while you still can, because given what has been happening over there lately, who who knows how long that will be.

Available on: HBOMAX, for now.  

[panicintheghostward]

Aloy, Romance, and Power

AKA: I don’t think Aloy needs just anybody and I think the writers know it too.

Spoilers for both games

I’m gonna try and keep this to some kind of reasonable length, but who knows. So the thing about Romance and the Horizon Franchise is that, it’s at best *Complicated*. I’ll try to make this quick, which is exactly why we’re starting at the basically the start of the first game.

Aloy has had as we learn in the first ten minutes of the game an extremely unconventional and isolated childhood even by the standards of the world she’s living in. We see that, through the beginning of the game she’s reviled, shunned and looked down upon by almost everyone except for rost. But then, Rost is gone, lost in a billow of smoke and sacrifice in a final and desperate act to save his child.

Upon waking, Aloy is once again, alone and this time she has not even the security and safety of her focus, her father or her weapons. These things are acquired, eventually but put a pin in that image of Aloy at her most vulnerable. We’ll get back to it.

After she finds her gear, she scans a focus from one of the soliders she killed we are greeted with the first thread of the story and what will come to haunt Aloy’s every action in the time to come. Her Mother, Elizabet Sobeck

After the door speaks, she’s made a seeker much still to the ire of, basically everyone involved in the governance of the nora tribe. Some of the tribe are speaking highly of her in passing for her actions in the proving, but it’s fairly scattered.  

There’s more we could touch on but I’m going to try and stick to the large moments that define Aloy as a character and her relationship to others. So let’s jump forward.

After many tribulations Aloy finds her self back inside the heart of all mother and she’s finally rebuilt the doors dna record so that she can be allowed entry. Once inside she learns from a record message sent by GAIA that she doesn’t have a mother(from her perspective) in this moment Aloy makes it no secret that she feels this makes her inhuman, an object to be used until the earth is safe and her task is complete, and nothing more. Sylens, tries to assauge her of this. Ironically purely because she’s still of use to him and he can’t have her refusing to move forward, but it helps. Slightly.

Then Aloy comes out the door once more and the Tribe has completely and instantly Shifted their stance on her. Now, once the object of almost complete disgust she’s being treated as a god. Because she’s of use, she, to them. Is their salvation, almost god like, after all she was welcomed in and known by the god they’ve spent generations worshiping.

Aloy predictably is disgusted and even though she’s struggling to believe that she’s worthy of person-hood, she refuses the praise partly because of the outright hypocrisy but also because  she’s *terrified* that they’re right and she’s nothing but an extension of a machine’s will.

We see this motif again and again with nearly everyone who meets Aloy wanting _something_ from the all powerful savior of meridian. She’s almost never let to be just herself, and because of the way people continually place her on a pedestal and leave her in charge she’s never allowed to relax. Even amongst friends.

This is a pattern that if anything only grows stronger in the second game especially with that big gay immortal obsession one of the Zenith’s has been torch carrying for eleven hundred years.

My point is: Most of the people around Aloy on some level don’t let her be a full person, she’s forced into a position of leadership whether she actually wants it or not. But she won’t complain because she believes that, these acts define her worth. Because after all, without them what is she? Her, a person created by a machine as a last ditch attempt to save the planet against all odds. If she can’t do the one thing she’s meant for, then what is she good for.

I could reiterate this point with examples but I don’t think it’s necessary this pattern is written large in almost every single one of Aloy’s interpersonal relationships. The people who come closest to treating her as a true equal are Tallanah, Varl and Vanasha. To everyone else, including Erend she represents something other than herself. And in my opinion, I think it would be weird to pair them romantically with anyone whose exhibiting this behavior. I mean, Most of the people interested in her romantically are in love with an idea. Aloy sees it too, like when she calls out Avad for merely trying to replace Ursa with someone who he could lie to himself with.

I think romance may play a part in the next game. But I am fairly certain that the writers as thematically consistent as they are, won’t have it be able to be just anyone. Aloy is likely bisexual so odds are I think we’ll have at least two choices. But whomever they are, they’re going to have to meet Aloy where she stands and as she is. She’s made it clear she won’t accept anything else

[onceuponalegendbg]

Top Ten Ace Attorney Games

So this seems appropriate given recent announcements. Note: I’ve never played the Professor Layton crossover so it will not be on this list. Can’t really rank something you never interacted with, you know? Also, goes without saying but all opinions expressed in this are fully subjective and should be taken with a grain of salt. Like, seriously, guys. I’ve warned you.

10) Apollo Justice - Okay, so I just want to say that AA4 is not a bad game, but good lord is it the one I have the most problems with. Good things first, however. I love the dynamic between Apollo and Trucy. Their banter is so fun. I like this version of Phoenix. Really seems like he’s grown a lot in the time between games due to circumstances. I feel his relationship with Trucy could have been explored more but what we do get is good. Ema’s back, and I’ll never say no to that. Klavier is a good rival for Apollo. All that said, man do I remember barely anything about any of the cases of this game. Outside the main cast I remember Lamoire, Kristoph, and that a couple of Gramaryes are in this one. That last case also just... gives me a headache if I think about it too long.

9) Justice For All - Oh boy. So outside of introducing my favorite Prosecutor of the OG trilogy, JFA is a bit meh overall. Don’t get me wrong, Case 2 with all the Fey Drama is very solid and the final case... Come on, do I really need to say how good the Engarde Case is? I don’t even hate the Berry Big Circus case as much as most people (except for the very uncomfortable love triangle, that I detest) but even I can’t deny it’s one of the weaker cases in the series and the first case is... the whole amnesia device is more annoying than clever. Again, I’m sure I’m not saying anything new here.

8) Ace Attorney: Phoenix Wright - Man, I wonder if this is some form of sacrilegious putting the first game this low on the list. Honestly, there’s not much to truly criticize with this one. It’s a very solid first entry into what would grow into such a beloved franchise. But I also just don’t have a ton of things to say about it in general? At least not many that haven’t already been said by more articulate people than I. It’s a good game. Solid starting point. Weakest case is the first one but... It’s the first case. So. To be expected.

7) Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth - Admittedly, this is only so low because I love the other games more and the last case is.... unbearably long. It was brilliant of Capcom to take what is likely AA’s most popular character and give him his own games, and even better to give us characters like Kay and Lang while also giving us Tiny Franziska. We did not deserve Tiny Franziska but they gave her to us anyway. A very enjoyable foray with a new game-play style.

6) Trials and Tribulations - Oh man, I am going to get so much crap for this one. Before anyone comes at me! Yes! T&T is a near flawless entry. Genuinely, the writing for this one is insane and Dahlia is such a well used antagonist. The through line for this game is masterful. Even the third case, which is indeed the weakest case, I find some charm in. So don’t get me wrong, I’m well aware that objectively this probably should have at least been in the top three. But this isn’t an objective list. This is my list. And while I do love T&T, I just adore the games in the top five more.

5) Ace Attorney Investigations 2: Prosecutor’s Path - An improvement from the first Investigations in almost every way. While I do think that the last case is still a bit too long, I think it’s overall more interesting than the first’s. More of Kay, Miles, and Gumshoe having the best dynamic. The addition of Ray, Sebastian, and Justine only making the cast all the better. Again, I’m a sucker for Justine being the best mom ever and her dynamic with John (and even Sebastian) is something I wish we’d had more of.

4) Dual Destinies - I don’t care what ya’ll say, AA5 is a fun addition and Athena is an amazing new character. I freakin love Athena. Like, I’m sorry but any character that has been through that much crap and still manages to smile and cheer up the people around her even when she’s feeling the absolute worst is a good character and I will die on this hill. Not to mention Blackquill being an equally fantastic rival for our protagonists. And that reveal in the last case while Aura is forcing them to do a retrial for her brother! “Oh but Phoenix is back to being goofy and it’s like AA4 never happened.” “Oh, but Apollo is angsty for no reason.” Sorry, doesn’t bother me. Like, I’m not even willing to call these things nitpicks because they’re just such non-issues for me. The only thing I’ll say is that the models do look a little off sometimes. This is a good game, ya’ll are just mean.

3) Spirit of Justice - So confession, SOJ was the first AA game that I saw from start to finish. I’d tried before but I’d never found the right let’s play of the AA franchise. Then I did find one, and I watched SOJ through start to finish. And I really enjoyed it. I love the setting of Khura’in, Rayfa, the final boss looking like a Power Rangers’ villain. Also, while we do get a lot of father son stuff, I’m such a freakin sucker for the mother daughter stuff between Rayfa and Gharan and Amara. Also, the Magical Turnabout is just... such a fun case? And of course, Maya can’t be in a game without getting accused of murder. But her growth as a character is great. I just really really enjoy this game, guys.

2) Great Ace Attorney: Adventures - I’m sure this comes as very little shock to anyone who knows me. The first GAA game is astounding. I love this cast of characters so much. Susato, Ryu, Sherlock, Iris, Barok, Gina, Toby, they’re all great! The new mechanics with the jury and multiple witnesses on the stand are great. The story is great. Yeah, the first case goes on for too long, but at least it feels fresh due to the new setting and characters. I feel like I can’t properly articulate how much I love this game. Which, speaking of...

1) Great Ace Attorney: Resolve - Yeah, yeah. Predictable, I’m sure. But what can I say, this took everything I loved about the first game and just made it better and expanded on it. The story takes so many twists and turns and it takes the characters and their bonds from the first game and makes me love them even more. WE LOVE THE FOUND FAMILY TROPE! Kazuma comes back and he becomes such a fascinating character. Rei, Courtney Sithe, Esmeralda Tusspells, Drebber are only some of the memorable new characters for this part 2. The fight against Stronghart (Vortex is still the cooler name) is such a triumphant moment! And playing as Susato in the first case!? That was amazing! And Ryu’s growth throughout all of this!? Like excuse me! I love this boy! 

[ispyspookymansion]

I think the reason evil dead is doing so well is because we're judging franchises. Whilst a film like Halloween may be objectively more popular, it has many less well regarded sequels which drag down the quality of the overall franchise. Evil Dead only has four entries so far, and each film is generally well liked, which means the evil dead franchise has an overall higher quality than many of the longer more popular franchises.

(That being said, I am now and forever a saw believer and I believe the episodic, soap opera-esque style of the saw series makes it the best horror franchise as each entry in the series feels like an essential puzzle piece of the story, therefore lending a value and enjoyment factor to each film regardless of its individual quality due to the way it plays into the intricate and overcomplicated web that is the plot of saw,, does this make any sense? No but i know its true in my heart)

I AGREE W YOUR TAKE ABOUT SAW IM ROCKIN W IT SO HARD!!!!!! and yes about evil dead too :-) i guess im surprised by the hate for final destination and child’s play, a lot of it seeming to be motivated by them being stupid/campy but evil dead doing so overwhelmingly well yk? i think childs play is pretty consistent in quality with the exception of like….3. the tone shifts radically, but so does evil dead? idk. we’re all ashpilled i guess

[serena-joy]

Here’s the problem with Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning part 1. Spoilers below, obvs.

——————————————————

Well there are several in my opinion, but they all center around the death of our favorite MI6 agent, Ilsa Faust.

Now I have to give the disclaimer that I am extremely biased as a big fan of the character, and Rebecca Ferguson in literally everything. With that said, I am going to try my best to approach this as logically and objectively as I can.

First let’s talk a little about the development and reception of the character throughout the series. I think this is important because big action franchises like this are primarily concerned with money. Of course the action and stunts will draw the most people in, but secondary to that is having characters the audience likes and wants to root for. It’s really kind of boring watching characters in peril when you don’t care about them. I bring this up because a major character death can absolutely impact the success of the franchise moving forward. Anyway, Ilsa was brought on for Rogue Nation as a foil of sorts to Ethan Hunt, but also as an equal to him. A different side of the same coin, if you will. The character was very well received by audiences, and MI5 is regarded as one of the best in the franchise. I think a lot of that is owed to the introduction of this new and interesting character, and of course the performance given by Rebecca Ferguson. They managed to keep Ilsa mysterious and morally grey throughout the whole film, while simultaneously making us care about her. Again, credit to the writing and performance. This carried over to Fallout as Ilsa became more fleshed out and solidified as a permanent member of the team. And still the character is undeniably a fan favorite leading into the next entry.

Now, we know romance is not that important in an action franchise, but we go into Dead Reckoning part 1 with high hopes for something happening between Ilsa and Ethan, based especially on hints from Fallout. But even so, their relationship and connection is so compelling, it would be satisfying even if it were to stay totally platonic. Here we have two characters that care about each other and their team members more than anything else, including themselves.

So that brings us to the untimely death of Ilsa Faust about half way through Dead Reckoning part 1. I have problems with this narrative choice for several reasons, including the rationale behind her death, the repercussions on the story, and how the other characters reacted.

Now I want to be extremely clear here. Ilsa dying in and of itself is not the problem.

As a fan of the character of course I wouldn’t want her to die, but I realistically was not expecting her to make it out of this franchise alive. Ilsa, like Ethan, is absolutely the kind of person who would sacrifice herself for the good of her team. Even for someone she barely knows. Ethan is the same way, but they can’t obviously kill off the main character (unless they do which would be…a choice). So, while I was hoping it wouldn’t be so soon, I was on some level expecting her to die. The biggest problem I have is that she did not get a death even close to deserving of her character and the impact she’s had on the franchise.

Now when looking at the possible reasons for Ilsa’s death, there are several things to consider. Narratively the death of a major character close to the protagonist is usually to affect or motivate them in some way. With the setup from the past two movies, Ilsa was primed to absolutely be a character whose loss should devastate Ethan, but… it didn’t really? In fact the affect on the entire team was, in my opinion, very understated. I get that they had to keep their heads in the game and continue the mission, but I don’t know… I guess I was just expecting much more of a reaction than what we got. Now, call me an optimist but I think it’s possible this could have been done to leave things more open for the next installment. We all know these movies are sort of written as they go along, so perhaps during filming Chris McQuarrie wasn’t honesty sure if this was a true death or not and didn’t want to write himself into a corner. But regardless, McQuarrie has said the death of a character close to Ethan was necessary to up the stakes and drive the story. But like I mentioned, we don’t really feel that much of an impact in the aftermath of her death. It can be argued that this was necessary for Ethan to make the right decision and not kill Gabriel (the bad guy), otherwise all information is lost and her death is in vain. But if that’s the case, why do we have the flashback of Gabriel killing someone Ethan cared about in the past? It just seems redundant and unnecessary.

Now here’s where you’ll have to forgive me as I have not seen the early installments in a very long time, but if I’m not mistaken, Gabriel and this mystery person are never shown or mentioned prior to this film. So why, pray tell, did we need to invent this backstory to make Ethan hate the villain if Ilsa was going to die and get us to the same outcome? Or if we flip that around, why did Ilsa need to die if he already had history with this guy and a tragedy to motivate him? If I’m missing something here please feel free to chime in, but I don’t understand the narrative logic here.

For this reason, I’m more inclined to believe the decision to kill Ilsa may have been driven by something outside the story. Scheduling can be a major factor when it comes to casting, so it’s entirely possible Rebecca was not able to commit to further installments due to her increasing demand and busy schedule. But, I’m not so sure about that. I don’t know Rebecca of course but based on a lot of interviews I’ve seen her do, she has loved being part of this franchise and has excitedly jumped at every opportunity to continue to be a part of it. I would like to think she would have made every effort to commit to both films, as they are the last two in the franchise anyway. The other reason I’m skeptical about this explanation is that she had a great relationship with both Tom Cruise and McQuarrie, so if she decided to move on I would have expected a much different sendoff. Either something open ended with the possibility of returning in the future, or a death that is depicted more heroically with much more impact to the tone of the movie and characters.

Which leads me to what I think is a more likely explanation - a studio decision. I don’t have to tell you all that the way women are treated in the male-dominated action film world is not great. To say the least. There seems to be some unspoken rule that while a male character can be brought back time and time again across a 20+ year franchise, the female lead must be replaced with every entry. Why? Because the male target audience might appreciate something shiny and new to look at with each installment. It’s sick, it’s gross, but that is how it has been. One thing I loved so much about Mission Impossible though, was how it broke this mold and charted new territory by bringing the female lead back and not only that but retaining her as an important and three dimensional character. But after dead reckoning I’m starting to realize that maybe Ilsa has been on borrowed time this whole time. I’m not sure why it has to be this way, but it sure looks a lot like Ilsa was killed to make room for Hayley Atwell’s character to become the new female lead. Maybe some studio exec thought they might lose viewership if audiences were asked to care about not just one but two female leads in an action franchise. I understand the desire to bring in new characters to keep things fresh, but the notion that one woman has to disappear to make room for another is honestly the kind of bullshit I am just so tired of seeing. It’s 2023 and we are still not past this, but I digress.

If you ask me, I think the joke is going to be on them. I know a lot of people are upset by the decision to take Ilsa out of the franchise and I wouldn’t be surprised if some decide not to tune in for part 2. I know personally I’ll be waiting for confirmation that Ilsa does or does not appear before I make the decision to watch. When Ilsa died I immediately became way less invested in the rest of the movie. If she’s truly dead I honestly can’t see myself caring enough to sit through part 2.

Which brings me full circle back to the story. If Ilsa’s death had been done in such a way that her massive positive effect on the franchise was somehow honored or acknowledged, I don’t think I personally would have had the same reaction. And I think I would have kept watching. But whatever the reason for the choice to kill the character, what I can’t figure out is why it wasn’t better written. I think the only satisfying explanation would be that she in fact is still alive, but I’m honesty afraid to hope for that given the track record of the movie industry as a whole.

The only glimmer of hope I’m holding onto is something Rebecca said in an interview. She is asked how stunts compare between Mission Impossible and Dune, and mentions a stunt she performs that she can’t recall if it was in “the first or second one.” It’s a little unclear if she’s referencing Dead Reckoning part one and two, or Dune part one and two. But given the context I think it seems like she’s talking about dead reckoning, which would indicate she is in both part one and two. But decide for yourself:

[nelson-riddle-me-this]

Top 5 Bond films!

Want to preface this with a few things. First, this franchise is hugely problematic and I do not enjoy it blindly. I did however latch onto it in middle school, and aesthetically and musically it was very formative. John Barry's scores for the series are still among my favorite film scores. His music is sophisticated yet straightforward and has inspired me greatly. Also the franchise has been a great way for me to learn about filmmaking and history. That being said, let's get into it.

Thunderball (1965) It was my first, but even if it hadn't been it'd still be my favorite. It's the 4th in the series and imo catches the franchise at it's zenith. I think it's the last film before the series grew 'too big for it's britches', striking a balance between the outlandish scope of the later films and the tighter and comparatively grounded espionage of the series' early entries.

Casino Royale (2006) I'm confident claiming that this is objectively the best movie in the series. It takes the character of Bond seriously but sill manages to be very entertaining and can I say glamorous? The action sequences are riveting, the cast is excellent, and it's perhaps David Arnold's best score for the series.

You Only Live Twice (1967) In so many ways this film has not aged well (Sean Connery in yellowface, for one...) and tbh it's been harder and harder for me to rewatch. But there is so much about it that makes for good "imagination fuel". The film mostly takes place in Japan, and it's a fascinating portrait of (at least a white British perspective of) Japan in the mid-late 60s. Though in some ways it's a sloppy film, there are times it makes great use of it's enormous budget - most notably Ken Adam's volcano base rocket silo set(complete with helipad and monorail), a gorgeous custom Toyota 2000GT sports car (roof cut off bc at 6'2" Sean Connery was too tall to fit inside), and a car chase involving a tandem-rotor helicopter and a giant electromagnet... Also, if you watched Totally Spies as a kid, this movie's where they got the whole 'whimsical slide dumps you into secret espionage office' shtick.

Goldfinger (1964) Though I prefer Thunderball, there's no denying Goldfinger is the series' most iconic and enduring film. This is where the style and tone of the series solidified. The cast is memorable, there are lots of iconic moments, though "Bond girl" Pussy Galore's arc is misogynistic (shocker, I know), homophobic, and deeply troubling. Acknowledging that, it's a compact and tightly-paced espionage adventure that manages to be very entertaining and has been a big influence on the franchise and in popular entertainment at large,

Diamonds Are Forever (1971) Honestly I wasn't quite sure what to pick for #5. I haven't seen most of these movies in ages. There are definitely better Bond movies, but I have an affection for the hot mess that is DAF, largely because it's probably my favorite of John Barry's scores for the series. On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) is pretty good despite how bland George Lazenby is. The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) is the best of the Moore era, but I DESPISE Roger Moore. I remember liking what I've seen of Dalton's 2 Bond movies, though I'm so foggy on them. Brosnan is fine, but I don't have the attachment to him that I do to Connery. Quantum of Solace (2008) I remember really liking and maybe that'd be a better choice for #5, but hear me out: Jimmy Dean (OF BREAKFAST-SAUSAGE FAME!) plays a reclusive Howard Hughes-esque millionaire, Charles Grey (OF ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW FAME!) plays cat-petting villain Blofeld and even does drag, Shirley Bassey sings the title song which includes the lyric "touch it, stroke it, and undress it", there's cheezy casino source music [that played all day in my head in middle school], and hot ladies who crush Sean Connery with their thighs.

Also I recommend the podcast Kill James Bond! (recommended to me by @aeschylus-stan-account) if you're interested in something that unpacks the problematic history of this franchise in a fun way.

[dimiclaudeblaigan]

Really doesn't help with my motivation to play Engage either when so many people are saying it's just leagues and leagues better than... my second favorite entry in the series (right under Sacred Stones). And to be clear I've been playing FE since I was a kid, and 3H is still easily top three, even with all of its flaws. The people who try to hype up Engage as better than 3H kinda give it... a pretty high bar to try to leap over for a lot of people? And I get a lot of that is coming from exhaustion from 3H's fandom (mostly edelstans lol) but it still doesn't do the new entry any good imo.

Yeah, I get that. When people put down my favorite entries to boost another entry, it just feels like a jab more than an actual breakdown of the titles. I can see good and bad in both Engage and Houses, but I don't think it's necessary to tear one down for the other. Honestly, there was no way Engage would be similar to Houses' gameplay mechanics because the main mechanic of Engage relies on something closer to the Pair Up system but with Emblems, which is a very limited (turn wise, because you get so many turns with the Emblems at a time versus Awakening's introduced Pair Up) gameplay mechanic.

I've also been playing FE since I was a kid and I definitely agree Houses is one I prefer, and yes, also, story wise. I do understand the story has some issues and it's definitely annoying that you have to go through the hub world system for the first half of the game in every single playthrough if you want your units to perform at their best for the chapter maps, but that's only because the story is broken up between four routes (five if you count CS giving us even more information while still using the general hub world system, just much more limited). I get it, it can be irritating for lore lovers and some people don't want to play the same game four times (or at least not so quickly, and it's hard to avoid spoilers sometimes if you don't hurry through all four routes which can suck). The story itself though, as a connected whole, isn't bad.

Personally I find what Houses lacked in they did try to work on in Hopes with the characters, like how Felix and Sylvain were pretty shallow characters in Houses in some aspects (mainly in the main story. They had great supports sometimes, but their main story lines were often very shallow). Hopes gave them characterizations that felt genuine and real, and it's something I like to keep in mind for my next Houses playthroughs.

All the FE games have flaws in some areas so it's not Houses in particular. Like you said, it's probably fandom exhaustion, but that isn't the same as treating it like the worst entry in the franchise or like it's objectively inferior to Engage. To me, Engage is inferior both in story and gameplay, but I mainly focus on what I enjoyed. I do like the Emblem system, I just wished some of the older characters weren't ooc or that they got a bit more than generic lines for most of their bond conversations.

Engage doesn't really feel like a step up to me, but just another take on modern gaming. A step up would be like FE8 to FE9 (which is a little ironic, since FE9 was actually supposed to be FE8 because it was presumably in development before FE8 (it's called FE8 internally) but got released after SS and thus became the ninth entry). A different platform can do wonders for a franchise's new entries, but these two games don't have that.

And of course, I have no issue with people loving Engage. It's just getting pretty regular that I see (especially on YouTube in particular) people acting like Houses is suddenly a really bad entry, as if it wasn't what the whole fandom was obsessed with for three straight years.

In some way I think it's good that they're bringing FE7 back via the GBA emulator on Switch, because I'm hoping it reminds people that you don't need these complex new mechanics for a game to be that good. You don't need to dunk on the other entries for not having what you liked in it when you can play a game that has good story and characters but has an older way of playing/a not as new way of playing.

I enjoy Engage, but it just starts making me feel bitter when I see people comparing it to Houses and tearing Houses down to do so. It's fine to enjoy both and treat them as separate things even if they're within the same franchise. Every new game is going to "get better" in the sense of modern gaming, but it doesn't make the older ones worse.

[mrnerdteacher]

The One Scene in “Avatar: The Way of Water” that Perfectly Encapsulates Everything Great and Not-So-Great about the Sci-Fi Spectacle

A Slightly-Spoilery Avatar Review

Lest I be accused of click-baity cynicism, let me begin by saying that James Cameron’s Avatar sequel is a ground-breaking achievement of visual story-telling. It is quite literally the most amazing thing I have ever seen on screen, and its special-effects filled me with a sense of awe and wonder I have not felt since the first Jurassic Park.

However, for all its technological innovations, watching A:TWoW feels like unearthing a time-capsule from a day when movies were more simple-minded and audiences expected less nuance. Pot-bellied villains cackle about how much money their evil deeds have wrought, newborn babies are held aloft for the adulation of the village, and every male character (indigenous or military) refers to one another as bro. For as innovative as the franchise has been, its script feels weighed down by the 13 years it took to make it to the second entry. And no scene summarizes this better than one in particular… (Minor Spoilers ahead)

At about the halfway point of the film, a new set of villains is introduced: poachers. For the sea-faring Na’vi, the ocean is filled with not animals, but friends. In fact, the audience is explicitly told that the whale-like Tulkuns possess more emotional and mathematical intelligence than even human beings. Which makes one 12 minute segment of the film borderline unwatchable.

A mother “whale” is isolated from its pack and slowly tortured to death in front of its infant. Its skin is ripped, its limbs stretched out, and its brain is literally juiced for an anti-aging serum that has no bearing on the plot whatsoever. 

However, my objections are not with the violence (Cameron’s environmentalist commentary is heavy-handed but well-intentioned). My biggest issue is that the film can’t help but make the bad guy’s seem kinda cool. The music swells triumphantly as they fire their harpoons, they quip and woo-hoo like Marvel heroes, and their crab-shaped submarines transform into Lego figurines right before your eyes.

And it all looks incredible.

And thus, there is the essential problem that keeps an obviously good movie from being truly great. The filmmakers can’t set aside their enthusiasm for technology (cinematic or imagined) and focus on the emotional core of its story. The actors, writers, and everyone involved ABSOLUTELY have the ability to make a statement. But they’re slightly more interested in making and selling toys. And that’s just a bit of a shame.

Good for: special-effects enthusiasts & lovers of the third dimension

Best line: “Spare yourself the shame of being useless.”

Final Grade: B

[legion1227]

Mortal Kombat 11: A Review.

In anticipation of Mortal Kombat 1 releasing, I decided to buy Mortal Kombat 11 a few months ago. I played the game in bits over the years at gatherings but never got much substantial time with the game until this purchase. As a big fan of the Mortal Kombat franchise, this game held me down, a fighting game casual fan, while waiting for the next entry.

Story-wise, the Mortal Kombat games got messy over the years. It was simply about a tournament in the 90s games, then became more complex with the 3D era of games introduced in the 2000s, like Deception, Deadly Alliance, and Armageddon. Then, Mortal Kombat 9 was released. MK 9 was the (sort of) reset the franchise needed. Cleaner slate, taking characters in new directions, 9 was ambitious. Then Mortal Kombat X was the follow-up, and Mortal Kombat 11 was the finale to a story established in 9 while also setting up the next game as a hard reset, like 9.

Mortal Kombat 11 was in a bizarre spot, huh.

Regardless, the story mode and story DLC were a lot of fun. Battling through the vast amount of characters in the roster with a rotating and changing cast of characters to play was fun. Ideally, when I'm looking for single-player content in a fighting game, the Mortal Kombat games are the standard of what I love and want to see. The cutscenes and fighting choreography are the best seen in the franchise so far. Character arcs for fan favorites like Scorpion and Sub-Zero are memorable. Newer or returning characters like D'vorrah or Kotal Kahn stand out in their own ways. And Kronika made for a challenging final boss for the game, though not as memorable as previous final bosses like Shao Kahn. The Aftermath DLC was even more fun. As a small continuation from the original story, DLC characters like Nightwolf and Fujin get some time to shine. But whoever's idea it was to bring back Cary-Hiruyuki Tagawa, the legend who played Shang Tsung in the 1990 movie, to reprise his role for this game is a genius. Whenever Shang Tsung is on screen, he's an utter delight.

Looking beyond the campy pleasure that is the MK story, other single-player content provides many hours of enjoyment. Traditional arcade mode to unlock character endings is my favorite thing in a fighting game right after a decent story. Fighting several different opponents, watching specialized intros between my character and the enemy, attempting to link combos, and alternating between finishing my opponents with fatalities, brutalities, stage fatalities, friendships, and whatever else all add to an overwhelmingly positive experience. I tried every character, and among the nearly forty available characters, I found that stringing along combos and special moves with Shao Kahn was the easiest. I love many fighting game series besides Mortal Kombat, like Street Fighter, Blazblue, or Tekken, but I've always appreciated how much easier it is to pull off special moves or complex combos in the recent MK games. So gameplay-wise, Mortal Kombat 11 feels good. It feels right. It's joyous to look at and a bomb to play.

Besides the traditional arcade mode, there are other arcade-esque modes called the Towers of Time. The ever-changing rotating towers with differing objectives or challenges provided a different intrigue every day. Your rewards usually end up being one of three types of currency that can be used at the Krypt, where you can buy customization options for each character or concept art or brutalities, among numerous other things.

There comes my one major gripe with the game. The Krypt fucking SUCKS!

Actually, the Krypt is somewhat cool. Exploring an island to purchase various items, navigating through death traps, and seeing some easter eggs for fans was a distinguished experience. What muddies the experience is that you have coins, souls, and hearts that act as payment for whatever. Some items cost coins, and some need others. The best way to accumulate currency is grinding through the arcade towers, which can become tedious after a while. Especially considering the requirements for hearts and souls are more demanding and specific than coins. My hope for Mortal Kombat 1 is that a version of the Krypt similar to this one appears but only uses one type of currency.

As a casual fighting game fan, this game works immensely for me. The blueprint of fighting game single-player content I would like to see as someone who prefers not to hop online and get my ass handed to me by pros who eat, sleep, and breathe the game. I dunno if or when I will get Mortal Kombat 1, but until that day, for a Mortal Kombat fix, I will definitely indulge over and over again in Mortal Kombat 11. Great game. 4/5.

[theprojectrenebloggger]

EA held Q3 FY20 earnings call held yesterday.

CEO Andrew Wilson responded to questions regarding The Sims franchise.

The title features single-player and multiplayer components.

The Sims 5 is one of those games that’s an inevitability. It’s not a question of if, but rather, when. Yet, Electronic Arts (EA) has not formally confirmed its plans for the next entry in the franchise.

During EA’s Q3 FY20 earnings call, CEO Andrew Wilson offered the closest thing to a confirmation that The Sims 5 is indeed on the cards.

Single-Player and Multiplayer

When asked about the possibility of relaunching an online version of The Sims given its current popularity, Wilson hinted that the next entry in the franchise could incorporate both single-player and multiplayer components.

He explains;

Typically, what The Sims has done is really focus on fulfilling the motivations of inspiration, escape, creation, self-improvement, and not necessarily focus as much on social interaction and competition.

Wilson then goes on to recognize the growing competition between players. He clarifies that he is not referring to competition in the traditional sense. He points to how players compare and contrast their creations.

The Sims 5 In Pre-Production

As he wrapped up his response, Wilson offered a hint at what shape the next game could take. He explains;

As Maxis continues to think about The Sims for a new generation across platforms and a cloud-enabled world, you should imagine that while we will always stay true to our inspiration, escape, creation, self-improvement motivation, that this notion of social interaction and competition – like the kind of things that were actually present in The Sims Online many years ago – will start to become part of the ongoing The Sims experience in the years to come.

Going by Wilson’s wording, The Sims 5 is still in the conceptual, pre-production phase.

Playtesting for The Sims 5 could be getting started as early as next week if recent reports are to be confirmed. According to a leaked email and some promotional images, the game which is officially still known as Project Rene will be rolling out to playtesters on October 25, 2022.

The news was first spotted by the publication Insider Gaming. Sources currently working at the publisher, Electronic Arts, have apparently confirmed the reports.

“Sign up for the Playtest! The team at Maxis has been hard at work developing new innovations for The Sims,” the email in question reads. “You’re invited to test out a pre-alpha experience for Project Rene. We’re looking to make this the best experience possible and we can’t wait to get your feedback and hear what you think.”

The leaked email goes on to describe some of the new features in Project Rene. “This playtest will focus primarily on our new object customization tool currently called ‘Workshop.’ This tool is meant to help you customize objects to decorate an apartment,” potential playtesters were told. “We encourage you to share your creations as well as download what other players have made. And to experience everything this playtest has to offer, remember that you can play with your friends!”

Electronic Arts only just announced Project Rene earlier this month, Vice President and Franchise Creative Lyndsay Pearson remarking that “we are building the next generation Sims game and creative platform.” The executive went on to describe how the company will be “reimagining The Sims you know and love with new ways to play. This is the future of The Sims, built on a foundation of charming Sims, powerful tools, and meaningful stories.”This call for playtesters apparently was never meant to go fully public. “We encourage you to join sessions with your friends and/ or join the private playtest Discord to find new friends to play with. As a trusted Community Playtesting member, you are eligible to invite up to three friends to sign up for this playtest.”

The Sims players are looking for their access to the Project Rene playtest, which seemingly disappeared from their EA accounts.

The Sims players are looking for their access to the Project Rene playtest, which seemingly disappeared from their EA accounts.

The playtest for The Sims' Project Rene is now live on EA, but some eager players can't seem to access it. The upcoming game, which will be presumably called The Sims 5, is said to be the next generation of The Sims.

Revealed at Behind the Sims Summit earlier this month, Project Rene will have better furniture customization and collaborative play. Ever since the very first game, developer Maxis Studios released multiple The Sims expansion packs that gave players creative options to build and decorate their homes, as well as their Sims. So, fans have been looking forward to seeing how Project Rene would improve the life simulator game further.

Shortly after Project Rene's announcement, EA opened signups for The Sims playtesters on its site for those who want to try out the game starting October 25. EA Forum community manager EA_Cade also confirmed that they've already selected and notified playtesters last week. However, some players were having issues accessing it. A few said it disappeared completely from their EA accounts and that their playtest schedule was not confirmed. One noted that they had accomplished the required survey, which EA approved, but still couldn't find the link.

This seems to be a glitch on EA's end, and there's no news yet on whether playtesters got to access Project Rene already. What's also interesting was that the playtest invitation reportedly encouraged players to invite up to three friends to experience the game with them. It certainly lines up with Project Rene adding a multiplayer feature to The Sims.

There's no exact timeline for Project Rene's launch just yet, but many fans are hyped to see what EA and Maxis will add apart from the furniture customization. The Sims is known for leveling up the gameplay experience with each iteration, which started when it introduced aging in The Sims 2 and cars in The Sims 2: Nightlife expansion pack. A more recent example was when The Sims 4 introduced Traits in 2014, allowing players to add unique and sometimes hilarious characteristics to their Sims.

For now, players will have to sit tight and wait for the next Project Rene update. The playtest period will also allow EA and Maxis to make the necessary changes to the game before they put it out to the world. While waiting, players can download The Sims 4 for free, as well as its expansion packs, and start honing their house building and decorating skills.

Nicknamed Project Rene and currently in the early stages of development, it would seem that The Sims 5 has already been cracked and pirated by certain third parties. These hackers have managed to replicate the Denuvo tokens used to grant access to the game, as The Sims 5 started its playtesting stage on October 25.

The long-awaited sequel to Maxis' legendary life simulator has been the subject of a lot of speculation. Many fans of the franchise, especially those who have been there since the first game, have become jaded by the monetization practices and exorbitantly priced content packs of The Sims 4. Though Electronic Arts has supported the game for almost a decade, the community always assumed that The Sims 5 would eventually come to fruition, and wondered in which direction the game would be taken in.

Though not much is known about Project Rene this early into its development, one of the features that have players excited is the possibility of taking room decoration an extra step further than what it was in The Sims 4. Players can now take apart a bed and manually adjust the shape of the headboard, the texture of the blankets, or even the placement of the pillows. This feature would allow for a lot of unique, asymmetrical designs, and given how much of a draw customization and house building is for The Sims players, offering deeper ways to personalize their game seems like a homerun for Maxis.

As opposed to The Sims 4 pivoting from a multiplayer game into singleplayer, The Sims 5 will have a stronger identity in its development. One of its more exciting multiplayer components is its implementation in the Build and Buy mode, allowing players to collaborate on designing a house together with ease and establishing a strong social component to the game. Though the crack allows the hackers to play The Sims 5 in a P2P network outside the official Electronic Arts servers, it is unknown as yet if the group has any plans to make the access token generator public.

The Sims 5 is currently in development.

The Sims 5 being in development isn't exactly a big secret, considering Maxis announced it, and even showed off in-development footage. While there's still a while till the next entry in the series launches, you can bet there will be a host of new features that come along with it. The footage revealed by the developer illustrated the level of customisation you'll be able to have over individual pieces of furniture. However, a couple of leaked images – probably from a recent playtest – have given us a more macro view of the upcoming title. As spotted by PC Gamer, a handful of Sims 5 images that weren't revealed by Maxis found their way onto Reddit. The account has since been deleted, but the images have been saved by viewers and showcased on other platforms. What's different from the official reveal is that these images show the neighborhood view in Sims 5, which Maxis has not yet revealed. While The Sims 4's City Living expansion already gave us a slice of the city life, these images show a detailed neighbourhood, with apartment complexes and cars.

"This play test mostly was focusing on the new building and furniture features," said the original poster in the comments section. "It had 4 preset studio apartments for you to mess around in or an empty one for you to build in. There were no sims in this at all." Hopefully, this means the devs have more plans for the surrounding neighbourhood. Considering that these are pictures of a screen and not screenshots, and also the OP account being deleted, we can assume that the images were taken in a rather unsavoury way.

LEAK🚨 Some images have been leaked of Project Rene (The Sims 5) Playtesting. Let's remember that possibly EA test server was violated by hackers (It's not confirmed yet). What do you think? pic.twitter.com/6L10LqHDu6 — Central Simmer | Multilingual (@centralsimmerML) November 11, 2022

While the official footage gave us a peek at just how customisable the game could be, some fans felt like the footage resembled the series' upcoming competitor, Paralives. The in-depth customisation and furniture manipulation feel pretty similar to that of Paralives, according to some fans. However, they are split on whether this is good or bad. Some feel that EA has ripped off its competition, while others see no harm in the series adapting with the competition.

A new title in The Sims series was announced earlier this year, with playtests beginning soon afterwards, and it hasn't taken long for leaks from it to begin to spread. The game is called Project Rene, and many players assume the title to be synonymous with The Sims 5, although that was never explicitly stated by developers during the game's announcement; it's possible, then, that the game isn't a mainline entry in the franchise, and is instead a spin-off title akin to The Sims Freeplay. However, whatever Project Rene's identity truly is, fans no doubt want to learn more about the mystery title.

Just a week after playtests started, pirating of The Sims 5 began, giving a larger audience access to the game's pre-alpha state. As the audience has widened, so have leaks, with two substantial ones containing several in-game images each surfacing in the past few weeks. These have all revealed things about Project Rene's world, design mechanics, the appearance of Sims, and more.

Sims 5 Leaks Have Shown A New World

The world shown in Sims 5 leaks covered by Sims Community isn't dissimilar to those that exist in The Sims 4, but they don't look interchangeable either. The exterior pictures in one of the leaks shows what looks to be a few city blocks, featuring a promenade-like area with shops and a café in a more urban setting, although not to the scale of City Living's San Myshuno. The closeness of the businesses has resurfaced some questions fans have already had for ages about the next Sims entry, particularly if it will be an open-world title like The Sims 3. With their proximity to each other, it's easy to imagine Sims walking from place to place unhindered by loading screens, but that's of course all speculation.

One of the most standout details from these exterior shots is the large presence of cars. When ranking the main Sims games from worst to best, many veteran players would place The Sims 4 quite low for many reasons, but one of the biggest is the complete absence of vehicles, which were a fun and useful part of every other mainline entry. In the leaked photos of The Sims 5, cars can be seen in many shots lining the streets as well as some signs containing Simlish rules of the road, which begs the question of if they'll make a comeback as usable objects. However, even though they can't be used with gameplay in The Sims 4, cars are still featured as decorative objects in some neighborhoods, which could also be the case here.

Something that was first shown in the initial Sims 5 leaks that centered on building, also outlined by Sims Community, that was expanded upon in the second batch of revealed images is the fact that this could be the first mainline Sims game - if that's in fact what Project Rene is - to begin with apartments as the default living space that Sims move into. Every other entry has begun with houses, with some adding apartments in subsequent DLC. One of the leakers has stated that the playtest contains four already-decorated apartments for players to experiment with, as well as an empty one. The apartments look nearly indistinguishable from those in The Sims 4 City Living, with elevators and neighboring apartments all bordering each other.

Sims 5 Leaks Revealed A Lot About Design, A Little About Sims

While it's been speculated that The Sims 5 could utilize things like AI technology for Create A Sim, no such information has been revealed so far from leaks. In fact, details about Sims themselves in the leaks so far has been quite minimal. The gameplay of the playtests has centered around building in the game's Workshop mode, and the only images of Sims have been found through a leaker going through the game's code. This netted three images of two female Sims and one male Sim, which are still missing features like eyes and full coloring. Other than these absent details, the Sims look essentially identical to those players are familiar with.

On the other hand, a host of information has been revealed about The Sims 5 building from the leaks that have occurred to far. Screenshots of a tutorial for Workshop mode have expanded upon the brief decorating footage shown during the Behind The Sims Summit presentation, detailing how every piece of furniture can have its coloring, size, parts, materials, and patterns customized. Players can easily share individual pieces or entire areas using a multi-select tool and quickly upload it to share with other players, and there are two separate menus where furniture can be found: a Discover menu that displays user-made furniture, and a Buy menu that showcases Maxis-designed pieces.

Part of the second leak has shown off a huge amount of interior spaces and furnishings, with almost 40 images of apartments. A small but standout detail from these Sims 5 leaks has been more clutter in places it typically can't be placed without Sims object movement cheats or mods, such as dishes in the kitchen sink and stacks of boxes in an unused fireplace. General object placement seems much more free than in past titles, which has given the rooms a more natural feel to them, and is sure to please Sims builders who love clutter and small details. None of the objects themselves look like anything groundbreaking compared to that which players are already familiar with, but they do look to be of high graphical quality, which has been a concern for many fans after learning the game will be playable on mobile.

These two leaks are likely just the beginning of those that will be seen of Project Rene as the game progresses in development and playtests continue. As with all leaks, it's important to remember that these initial images certainly don't reflect the final product. Even for Simmers who believe Project Rene probably isn't The Sims 5, the prospect of any new Sims game is interesting nonetheless, and something that's fun to keep up with so long as players take everything with a grain of salt. The design elements of the game look incredibly promising, and while it's a bit disappointing that much hasn't been revealed on the Sim side of things, it makes sense that a game so early in development wouldn't have the much more complex gameplay of Live Mode available yet. The Sims 5 itself is still many years away, but keeping tabs on leaks like these is an entertaining way for players to pass the time while they wait.

[monstermonstre]

anyway aside from how much I loved One Cut of the Dead, the other films I've watched since my last update didn't excite me as much but I said I'd try to write about them all so here goes:

the best one aside from One Cut was Witchfinder General which I did not enjoy watching even tho I found it objectively good and it led to a long and interesting conversation with my friend afterwards, the problem was purely personal: not only I went into it not realising quite what the tone of the film was (and I am not in the mood for depressing material atm) but also my tolerance for depictions of certain types of violence has decreased significantly over the years; again I thought it was a good movie and I do not think the depictions weren't necessary or poorly executed but I just personally was not in the headspace for it and I had a bummer of a time

aside from these, I also watched the latest entries in the Scream and Hellraiser franchise and found them boring at best, at least Hellraiser has that eye candy with its sexy monsters and set designs (also liked the ending), Scream just sucked

[trustrental]

Geometry wars 3 dimensions cover

#GEOMETRY WARS 3 DIMENSIONS COVER FULL#

#GEOMETRY WARS 3 DIMENSIONS COVER SERIES#

#GEOMETRY WARS 3 DIMENSIONS COVER FREE#

Scores can get a bit ridiculous as you go, due primarily to the potential for the score multiplier to increase without limit.

#GEOMETRY WARS 3 DIMENSIONS COVER FULL#

Once a level is open you can play it as often as you like, chasing after a full three-star rating and a spot above your friends scores on the leaderboard. Each level has a set of score targets to aim for, with rewards ranging from one to three stars, and if you don’t earn enough stars the section’s boss fight remains locked until you go back and improve a bit. One level may see you with only a single life, smart bomb, and bonus ability to reach the maximum high score, while the next might be a score attack with infinite lives but limited time, or a battle in an arena that’s gradually getting smaller and smaller until there’s no place left to dodge. Each level is its own variation on the Geometry Wars theme, with different goals, enemy mixes, and individual leaderboards. The main mode of Geometry Wars 3 is Adventure, which strings 50 levels together one after the other with six boss fights interspersed along the journey. It says something about the effectiveness of the level design that the best arenas are the ones that are mostly flat, with all the action happening on a single (non-sphere) surface. The familiar claw ship and the hundreds of enemies swarming the arena surface all travel the same way, making the 3D levels serve the purpose hiding encounters around the curve of the world and while providing a nice bit of eye-candy. Bullets fly as if the world was flat, wrapping around sharp corners or up the curves of a sphere, traveling as if there’s no 3D bending to the arena. Levels can be set on spheres, cubes, whatever a peanut-shape is called, or even on the traditional rectangular surface given a slight bit of warping at the edges. While the twin-stick shooting is set on a plane, same as normal for the genre, that plane isn’t likely to be flat this time around.

#GEOMETRY WARS 3 DIMENSIONS COVER SERIES#

Geometry Wars 3 is an arena shooter wrapped around a series of 3D objects. For those curious as to how it stacks up to its forerunners, though, I can say that just because GW3 is easily the weakest entry in the series, that doesn’t mean it’s a bad game. For the sake of this review I’ll be approaching GW3 mostly from the latter perspective, because every game element feels like it’s been re-thought from the ground up to present the series to a new audience.

#GEOMETRY WARS 3 DIMENSIONS COVER FREE#

There’s two ways to view Geometry Wars 3– either as a new game in the Geometry Wars series, or as its own individual game, free from expectations based on previous series entries. After all this time waiting a new Geometry Wars is a real treat rather than simply the latest game in the series, and if Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions is more a franchise rebuild than a true sequel it’s still a fun little twin-stick shooter. Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 came out a little over six years ago and how on earth have six years gone by since then!? Still, it beats getting bludgeoned with annual sequels, so it’s hard to complain too much.