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only-by-the-stars · 3 years

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the annotated Tome of the Wild

I don’t know how many people are interested in this sort of thing, but let’s go for it anyway! There are a lot, and I mean a LOT, of series references and cameos in this story, as well as tons of foreshadowing of various plot points, that may or not have gotten noticed, so I’ve been thinking about making a series of posts talking about it all for anyone curious. So here is part one, covering Chapter One: The Old Grist Mill.

(spoilers for the whole thing, obviously!)

- First up is the attire Link and Aryll are wearing. In the show, the protagonist, Wirt, is wearing a Halloween costume, though this isn’t immediately apparent that that’s the case. For Link’s costume, the choice was obvious: his Wind Waker clothing that you can get via amiibo in Breath of the Wild. Aryll, of course, is wearing the alternate pirate dress that you see her in when doing a second playthrough of WW.

- Then there’s the lengthy list of possible names Aryll tosses out for her frog. This is something that Greg, Wirt’s little brother, does at the beginning of the show, so I thought it’d be a fun way to sneak in a bunch of names that I wasn’t going to use otherwise.

Rauru: The Sage of Light in Ocarina of Time

Zauz: The blacksmith who forges the Phantom Sword in Phantom Hourglass

Snowpeak: For the Snowpeak Ruins, one of the best dungeons in Twilight Princess (and the series IMO)

Lorule: The “Dark World” of A Link Between Worlds

Vaati: The villain of Minish Cap (UNDERRATED GEM)

Swamp: Self-explanatory, there are multiple swamps in the series, like Misery Mire in Link to the Past and Goponga Swamp in Link’s Awakening

Lynel: The infamous, terrifying enemies we all know so well I hunt them for fun sometimes

Poe: Ghostly enemies that recur through the series (perhaps most memorably in TP)

Zonai: The mysterious long-lost race that built some very cool structures in BOTW

Ancient Columns: An area in BOTW where you find a memory and the Tena Ko’Sah shrine

Stealthfin: For the Stealthfin Trout in BOTW

Orca: The old swordsman on Outset Island

Ankle, Knuckle, David Jr.: Tingle’s brothers from WW

Guru-Guru: The Terminan version of the guy in the Windmill who teaches you the Song of Storms

Astor: The villain of Age of Calamity

Molduga: The sand-dwelling bosses in BOTW

Ook: A very hilarious and memorable mini-boss from TP

Tingle: The infamous Tingle, who of course Aryll thinks would be the worst name for her frog. Greg is cut off from saying what he thinks is the worst name, but I had to let Aryll speak for this little gag.

Phew, that was long. Moving on!

- “Rule one of the researcher's code is to never give up! That's what my teacher says, anyway.” Yes. Robbie is Aryll’s teacher, that is a line he says during the cutscene just before the “Relentless as a Waterfall” battle in Age of Calamity. As you might expect, Aryll finds him very amusing.

- Aryll stuck a piece of candy on a tiny black turtle that dripped an oily substance onto the forest floor as it crawled along. Dekuwood oil sighting! This is the very same turtle that gets swallowed by the dog that accosts them later, and the oil is what caused its transformation, just as it did in the show.

- “Why are we in the woods? How did we even get here? I don't... the last thing I remember is...” He screwed up his face in concentration. “Gah, why can't I remember? We were—” So Link goes into water and wakes up in a place he doesn’t know, with no memory of how he got there? Sound familiar?

- A shudder went through him and he resolved to ignore it, even as the sounds of ghostly laughter seemed to reach his ears from far off. And did the mists seem to be growing thicker? A reference to the Lost Woods from BOTW. Quite appropriate, given they’re lost in the forest.

- The mysterious woodsman is, of course, Rhoam. Who was also the first person that Link met in BOTW on the Great Plateau. He has a lantern there too, and carries around an ax, and is separated from his daughter. Just. Too easy.

- I’ll talk about this more in later posts, but, Midna in Beatrice’s role was one of the first and easiest choices I made when casting this thing. Also, notice how she takes off as soon as Rhoam shows up? This is a thing that happens in the series with the Woodsman and Beatrice, who have no prior connection, but Midna definitely knows this guy, and that reveal was held back for later via keeping that bit from the show.

- Also, in the show, the wood is called edelwood; here I chose dekuwood not just because of deku trees and whatnot in the series, but. well. Also to invoke the memory of the Deku Butler’s son in Majora’s Mask who became a victim of the Skull Kid and thus Link’s first mask.

- Link saying “Hey, listen” to Aryll is a callback to Navi’s infamous phrase from OOT.

- “Not in any way that would be beneficial to you.” Link will remember this later when the Beast is trying to get him and Midna to choose whose soul will be in the lantern.

- She leaned up on her toes and retrieved what looked like a compass. Compasses are, of course, a dungeon item in most of the games.

- The owl statue Aryll plays with, and subsequently breaks the beak of, is a reference to the owl statues in Link’s Awakening. Their eyes do indeed glow when you talk to them in the Switch remake, and in the dungeons you have to retrieve their broken-off beaks to converse with them.

- In the show, you don’t find about Wirt’s crush until much later, but I wanted to establish the plotline of Link’s love for Mipha and what he’s been doing about it right here at the beginning. His avoidance of her and what Aryll tells him about how its caused her so much pain is the beginning of his descent into despair near the end of the story. Not to mention that I hinted at the tape’s existence with Aryll’s reference to him making “that thing” for her.

- Aryll decides to call her frog “Blupee” after the glowing, rabbit-like spirit creatures in BOTW.

- “Sheikah smoke! Poof!” A reference, of course, to how the Sheikah can appear or disappear in a puff of smoke.

- “He is the death of hope, a cunning calamity... he steals life, steals children... he, he...” A calamity, eh? Now where have we heard that phrase before? And Rhoam is, of course, alluding to his belief that the Beast is responsible for the disappearance of his daughter, Zelda.

- “Leave me now, young man... take your sister and go east.” In the show, the Woodsman tells Wirt to go north. But here, it’s east, because their next destination is Ikana, which is located in the eastern portion of Termina in MM.

- A half-moon the color of yellowed pages had risen in the sky by now, and by its light Link guided Aryll onto a path that he was reasonably sure led east. This bit of description is not just there to be pretty. I established a specific phase of the moon here so that I could go back and use the exact same description in later chapters, when more time had passed and it wouldn’t make any sense for there to actually be the same moon phase going on. This is a hint to the fact that everything in the Wild, takes place during the same night in Link’s world. This is something that you see visually in the show, but must be described in a fic.

and that’s it for chapter one! stay tuned for chapter two!

#annotations

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sol1056 · 4 years

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something fascinating from a sociological meta perspective about all these franchises going off the rails and ending bleakly is that it's in line with studios attempting to cash in on the modern nihilistic sense of humor. I saw someone describe it as "pop culture nihilism" and this feels so off-putting yet accurate, that instead of getting uplifting tales to make us feel and do better we get stories that only affirm that nothing we do will matter

we’ve always had stories like that. it’s just far more prevalent in the era of stories being gate-kept by corporations and/or producers from the one-percent. of course they prefer stories that emphasize nothing ever matters, because the last thing they want is change. or that’s the second-to-last thing they want, with the actual last thing being competition.

it’s not just grimdark nihilism, either. you can see it in rom-coms where a successful big-city character experiences small-town life and discovers that doing small-town things on a small-town budget is just so much more fulfilling than wearing the latest fashions, having access to all the newest broadway shows, international cuisines, amazing museums... oh, no, that can’t possibly compare to truck rallies and small-town bake sales.

while this is often gendered, with high-powered women forced to be a stand-in mother (or pretend wife) and discovering their previous material/physical success was a hollow substitute covering up their desperate need to be a wife and/or mother -- sometimes it shows up on the male side, too.

where the high-powered corporate guy gets hit on the head or caught in a time loop or whatever gimmick and wakes up to find himself married to his high school sweetheart, working long grueling hours in blue collar, with three kids and too many bills to pay. yet somehow the lesson isn’t ‘thank god I made the choice I did not to get my girlfriend pregnant at sixteen and have to marry’ but ‘wow life is so much more fulfilling when you have little to no money, work in a brutal blue collar job, and have no prospects of affording college for those three monsters’. (or alternately, his car breaks down in a small town and he’s forced to deal with the locals and discovers they’re so much more ‘real’ and ‘true’ than the slick city types he’s used to.)

death of the author and all that, but in this case we have to look at who bankrolls these stories (at least in the US) -- and they’re very much the top-five-percent, financially. which means the story that’s supposedly affirming these situations as the ‘best’ thing (and all the limitations that come with that: less/lower education, less/lower job prospects, less/lower cultural exposure) are basically saying: oh, you should pity the person with the full bank account who’s just jetted off to Paris, or eats at the best restaurants, or shops at all the best tailors, who has corporate meetings all day and broadway tickets at night, the poor things, their lives are so hollow and empty what-with not knowing what it’s like to live in a ‘real’ place with its ‘real’ values. feel good in your small town with your limited prospects and your never-ending bills, because at least you have a ‘real’ life unlike these people with none of your worries.

that’s a different kind of nihilism, but when you step back, you can see it’s just as bleak, in its own way. like stories that should be uplifting heroic sagas yet either end with nearly everyone (except the white people) dead or are gritty grimdark rise-to-the-top-only-to-get-stabbed -- there’s a common theme that trying to have more is gonna make you miserable and lonely (or dead, depending on the genre). and it’s all geared towards getting you to come away with the conclusion that those at the top are just miserable suffering bastards who have no friends other than their possessions and you’re so much better off not even trying. oh, those pitiful rich people.

although sometimes it’s also gendered in another direction -- looking at you, Avengers and The Witcher -- where the story sets up the cards in such a way that a female character cannot simultaneously be powerful and a mother. Or that trying for both dooms her in some way, although more often she’s forced to ‘sacrifice’ being a mother if she’s to gain that power. And then, of course, she views herself as an aberration or as broken, as if an inability to bear children renders a woman somehow monstrous. (it’s only one step removed from the true monstrosity, culturally, of a woman who refuses to have children, which is also on the story gatekeepers’ list of characters that must be punished for daring to step out of line.)

but all that said, we need to look at the stories that have staying power -- and a lot of the stories that come to mind, right now, just haven’t been around long enough to demonstrate whether they’ll become cultural touchstones.

whenever we talk about stories and the zeitgeist, I’m reminded of that avatar movie (the one with blue people) that was so lauded at the time for its technical stuff, that it’d stand up there with Titanic and It’s a Wonderful Life and whatever. But now (if it’s ever even mentioned) it’s mostly in terms of comparison of budget, or special effects. otherwise it was mostly seems a blip on the cultural radar, quickly forgotten, but you need that time and distance to see that it was barely a few ripples in the cultural ocean.

compared to films like, say, the first Star Wars movie. or Lord of the Rings -- book or movie. or any of Jane Austen’s books. all of those fundamentally do posit worlds in which change can happen, there can be happy endings where the bad guys are put in their place and the good guys (even the little ones) can eventually prevail. there’s a ton of others, across every genre, but it takes time to see that long-term impact.

which is to say, yes. over the past thirty years, there’s been a tremendous trend (especially in fantasy) to take a grimdark approach where nothing we do will ever matter and/or we shouldn’t try to do anything because it’s doomed to failure/misery. there’s tons of books and films and shows pushing that perspective. in the end, though, the stories that matter most, the ones whose lessons have the greatest impact, are those we go back to over multiple generations, remaking them, recasting them, revisiting them.

those are the time-tested stories that speak loudest, and I would not be surprised if --- like A New Hope or Lord of the Rings or Star Trek --- those stories, overall, are ones that argue the exact opposite of this flash-in-the-pan nihilism. that even the smallest can play a role, that change is not only possible but worth the fight, and that the arc of history does bend towards justice.

#pop nihilism #literature #sol thinks about stuff

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chriscdcase95 · 4 years

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Reposting for TLDR reasons.

To see the full rant, click the “Keep Reading”, but this covers what I consider an example of a show taking shipping wars too seriously, giving fans and how it can potentially pull a show down the tubes. Especially at the expense of character development and their stories.

It’s kind of a follow-up to another post I made about canon and non canon ships, and how there’s some ship based stories better left to fanfiction.

Disclaimer: I generally don’t like Ship Policing (bullying, and badgering other people for liking “the wrong ship”) despite this being one of my biggest NOTP’s. I don’t intend to bully people who like this ship, and this analysis is based on my observations and opinions.

So here I am talking about a barley known show and ship that’s barely relevant anymore if at all. This is a follow up post on a Loud House post regarding a non canon ship called Luaggie. I mentioned on that post , how it was an example of a fanfic ship and it’s best to be left a fanfic based ship. I now bring to you it’s antithesis; Jemma of Every Witch Way. Originally this was strictly about why some ships and stories that are best left to fanfiction, but there are so many problems with this ship, that I don’t really know where to start. I guess I’ll start with an introduction to the show.

Edit: I also had to revisit to trim this down, and correct misinformation.

Edit Edit: Twice. I had to edit it twice!

“What is Every Witch Way ?”

Every Witch Way was a comedy/drama series on Nickelodeon. Anyone who heard of it would know it is an Americanized remake of Grachi, a Latin American Nickelodeon series. The less educated may dismiss it as a Wizards of Waverly Place knockoff. The series focuses on Emma Alonso, a teenage girl who moves to Miami with her father and discovers she is a witch and chosen to one day lead the magical realm. With a group of muggle friends, the enthusiastic tough girl Andi; Emma’s queen bee rival Maddie also being a witch; a subplot about Fantastic Racism that ended with the wiping out of all but two of an entire race; we got ourselves a simple little TV show that could be a passible watch.

Coming from a post iCarly, Victorious and Big Time Rush era of Nickelodeon, where most of their shows were marketed to the younger kids and barely anything for teens to chew on, Every Witch Way was a breath of fresh air. Taking cues from previous Nick shows such as H2O Just Add Water and House of Anubis, and aimed for a teenage audience, it was more interested in telling stories than telling jokes.

I would have called the show an underrated cult classic series to get nostalgic over, like The Troop (a show which I’ll also talk about one day)…then comes seasons three and four and it becomes clear that Every Witch Way is more interested in ship war than it was telling stories. Maybe I was giving the show too much credit or had too much expectations for it. Let’s just say this was no House of Anubis or the Avatar franchise. I don’t know what pulled the show down the tubes; it was either the character Jax Novoa and his story arc, or his relationship with Emma. But they overlap with eachother so I might as well cover all of them.

“What kind of relationship is Jemma ?”

Imagine if you will; a high school drama, that involves a loving, kind and empathetic girl meeting a dark brooding bad boy, who does bad things. But because he has a sad past and bad parents, anything bad he does is immediately forgiven and brushed aside, or justified. And it is by the love of this girl, and only because of this love, does the bad boy get redeemed.

It’s the kind of story you see in mediocre romance stories or fanfics; the idea that the dark and brooding love interest with a bad past or history can be changed for the better with the love of the protagonist. This describes the relationship Emma and Jax’s relationship to such a tee that it’s borderline parody. The kind of reationship you’d at least put some kind of spin on.

So how does this compare to Jax and Emma’s relationship ? A quick description is that Jax is a new student and a dark seeming wizard introduced in the second season, who immediately displays an arrogant personality and behaviour while befriending Emma and putting the moves on her (and making a quick rivalry with Emma’s then boyfriend Daniel). Emma has a good heart, and a loving empathetic girl, so of course she likes to see the good in people and Jax was no exception. Jax eventually “changes” his darker ways and becomes more altruistic, mainly to get back and stay into Emma’s good graces.

Normally, I have no issues with an Enemies to Lovers story, but it’s the context and overexposure that puts Jemma in a bad light.

Emma continuously forgives, or ignores Jax’s flaws to near absurdity, mainly because Jax has a dead mom and an emotionally distant, controlling and seemingly abusive father…which is shown to be false in the many retcons season four gives us.

“What are the problems with Jemma ?”

I said in another post that a friend of mine defined toxic relationships differently than I did; one definition was that a ship is toxic based off of fans behaviour in the name of the ship; I define them for how much it romanticizes problematic behaviour. How does Jemma fall into either of these ?

Back when Every Witch Way was on, Jax x Emma fans were pretty rapid, and became the most loud and vocal part of the fanbase. Any attempts to criticize Jax, his behaviour or relationship with Emma is bombarded with “HE CHANGED! HE CHANGED FOR HER!” ad nauseum.

It’s gotten to the point where they literally vote their preference to make them the shows official couple. This can be partially blamed on the writers because they went about asking their audience what they want to happen in a TV show, having them vote for wat hey want to happen and in turn made season four into a Jemma based AU fic that rewrote the entire show. Kind of lacks integrity if you ask me. It also had to have been one of most one sided and manufactured shipping wars I’ve seen. By the end of the series, Jemma fans were pretty sore winners.

So Jemma fans could be pushy, but did Jax and Emma’s relationship entail toxic ideals I listed above ? On the surface, “no” since Jax doesn’t physically abuse Emma or the like…but Jax is manipulative person, and is rather possessive and entitled towards Emma all things considered. And what else can you say about a relationship where this partner has manipulated and gaslighted nearly everyone around him to get in, and attempts to destroy the world over a breakup ?

There’s so much to cover that stems from Jax that I might as well write a section on Jax himself. The worst that can be said of Emma here is that she was too forgiving and empathetic for her own good.

“Jax and how not to write a redemption arc”

So Jax is an overwhelmingly popular character on the show, so much that season four retconned him into the main character behind Emma. It’s easy to call him a Gary Stu character since he’s a seemingly perfect character who gets his way all the time and soon becomes the center of the show. This trope also fits; “Draco In Leather Pants” where a villain tends to get romanticized or woobified in fanfics regardless of how sympathetic or redeemable they are in canon; mostly because they are cute.

When Jax was introduced, he was the de-facto Big Bad of season two, being the most prominent, and personal antagonist and direct source of most of the drama that occurs in the season. Throughout the season he befriends and puts the moves on Emma with the intent on using the power coming Fool Moon (long story) to take over the world and rule at her side. Jax eventually falls in love with Emma, but when she breaks up with him when she makes right with Daniel… Jax’s response was aiding in an attempt to destroy the magic realm; something they make clear would kill all but a few magical beings in the world and this is something Jax is very aware of In the final showdown Jax makes it clear to Emma that he doesn’t care about what could happen to their loved ones in this magical apocalypse, so long as Emma is with him.

Again, I wouldn’t take this as seriously if the show didn’t treat it as seriously.

Now in his defense, I was originally rooting for Jax to reform himself. No joke, I genuinely wanted to see how Jax would make good with those he manipulated, pushed around and tried to fucking kill. I like a good redemption stoy as much as the next guy, but Jax doesn’t really go through one; he just turns Face at the last minute, apologizes to Emma about not wanting to hurt her, Emma immediately forgives him and Jax wastes no time putting the moves on her and antagonizing Daniel. What punishment does Jax go through ? What atonement did he have to suffer ? He’s put through a boot camp with the threat losing his powers, all the while he agonizes that those who he wronged still resent him. To be fair he does have genuine good deeds in season three; such as heping a dying friend, and even riskiig his life to save another But even then, the sho treats Emma as his prize for being a Nice Guy, and he admits this to Emma during the third seasons finale in a scene we are supposed to find romantic. And when he gets the girl, its all rendered moot in season four.

Helping or not helping with Jax’s character is that in season two he is given multiple “excuses”; controlling and abusive father, seemingly dead mother. They worked back then in making Jax sympathetic. The problem is when we get the actual revelations of his family and in turn make him unsympathetic in retrospect.

“The Mess That Is Season Four”

I don’t like the Fanon Discontinuity trope - where fans refuse to accept an istallment as canon out of a dislike of them. I generally don’t apply this trope with very few exceptions. But let me tell you this; when I say season four isn’t canon to the previous seasons, that’s not me talking, that’s the show itself talking.

It isn’t a continuation of the previous seasons, it’s a reboot. When Emma and Jax become the shows OTP, the universe literally changes around them. Season four introduces a plot point that where an SCP style anomaly exists called a Continuum Break, in which as a direct result of Emma’s decision, the universe casted Daniel out of everyone’s lives, and their friends memories, and retroactively replaces him with Jax. Subsequently, the events of the previous seasons and their conflicts revolve around Jax and Emma’s relationship.

One reason why these retcons don’t work is that because the world was altered in Jemma’s image, Jax here isn’t the same Jax as we knew through season two and three. The retcons fail because Jax’s previous sympathy is erased in retrospect, because Jax would hide behind his parents as an excuse for his actions (the dead mother wasn’t dead, but in fact, secret villain; and Jax’s abusive father wasn’t abusive). Jax being sympathetic hinged off of these excuses, and they either never applied, or was hit by the reset button, and thus irrelevant to his development.

And I am left asking myself why the writers came up with the Continuum Break in the first place ?Where Jemma fans that pushy about making their ship canon that they had to make it the only canon relationship in the show ? If so, that’s how wildly Jemma shippers are, if not that’s on the writers for being that much fan slaves. What other point could there be in portraying the Continuum Break as the way things should be ? Not to be pesimeistic, but it feels like this is the show throwing a character under the bus for the sake of rewriting the previous seasons and making Jax the new protagonist.

On top of that, other characters and arcs get thrown under the bus too

Mainly, Mia Black, who was introduced in season three as the de-facto main antagonist, and is added as another member of the love triangle. Mia is also affected by the Continuum Break as she is also cast from everyone’s memories and lives, to live an alternate life with Daniel. This is arguably more jarring than Daniel being taken away because Mia ultimately doesn’t sacrifice her morals for what she believes in and ultimately wasn’t that much of a threat and her own redemption arc is foreshadowed throughout the season by bonding with Daniel and Diego, and the added empathise on how lonely she is. This culminates in Emma reaching out to her in the season finale, and declaring herself her protector. Like Jax, I was looking forward to seeing where they would take Mia and her arc the next season. Well as a result of the Continuum Break, she’s out of everyone’s lives, and living an artificial alternate one the universe spat out. Like Daniel, she may have been happy with her new life, but it still renders everything they foreshadowed for her and what she’s been through for nothing.

Personal conclusion

I reiterate my first statement Every Witch Way was a great show (first three seasons, at least is IMO). It was a breath of fresh air in a time when most of Nick’s shows were targeting a younger demographic in a post iCarly, Big Time Rush, and Victorious era. I’d call it an cult classic series, but I still feel that season four keeps it from being one of the great ones. I do recommend checking the series out, the story arcs are mostly good. Unfortunately by the time season four rolled in, it seemed pretty clear the show was more interested in shipping wars than it was in telling it’s stories.

I can’t really pinpoint what caused the show to drop in quality; the manufactured ship war ? Jax as a character ? Jemma’s pushy fans ? The writers for bending to fan demands ? Either way, season four’s Continuum Break was something the show could have done without. I won��t say that Jax is the most unlikeable character on the show (that would be Emma’s father) and he isn’t the most evil either (that would be Torres). I consider Jax and his blunders more so the fault of how he was written than anything else.

I will give Jax and Jemma this; the character and ship has so much going for it, I can’t help but compare and contrast them to other similar characters, story arcs and ships. I use it as an example of not to write a redemptive romance, and why some things are best left to fanfiction. But above all else, I hold it as an example as to why writers and creators shouldn’t sacrifice their stories blindly cater to fans and popular ships.

#Every Witch Way #Emma Alonso #Daniel Miller #Jax Novoa #Mia Black #Andi Cruz #Maddie Van Pelt #Deigo Rueda #Katie Rice #Sophie Johnson #And because I mentioned these shows #Victorious #icarly #big time rush #house of anubis #h2o just add water #the troop

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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The Nintendo Fan Games That Tried to Revitalize Pokémon, Metroid, and Super Smash Bros.

https://ift.tt/331g4Zh

In 2016, Milton Guasti’s Metroid 2 remake (AM2R) was released online after a decade of work. One day later, Nintendo sent DMCA takedown requests to the websites that hosted it. Many fans were shocked by the decision. Guasti seems more surprised by the efficiency of it.

“Throughout the years I started seeing that [a takedown] could be possible,” Guasti recalls. “What I was not expecting was that it happened so fast.”

New fan-made gaming projects are developed and distributed all the time, and often embraced by studios, but as those in the creative community know, Nintendo has historically been adamant about protecting its properties and taking down fan games. From novelty game mods to NSFW art of Bowser, there’s no guarantee that fan creations based on Nintendo games will survive online for long.

So what makes someone spend years on a game that may only be widely available for one day? For Guasti, it was the chance to learn programming within a fascinating framework.

“I decided I wanted to practice a little bit of programming, so I downloaded GameMaker and did a couple of mini-games here and there just to learn a little bit of how game logic and design are done,” Guasti says. “Since most of the effort in designing something is getting the first couple of decisions, remaking something that’s already done seemed like a good idea to save time. I had recently played Metroid: Zero Mission on the Game Boy Advance [a remake of 1986’s Metroid], and since there was no similar treatment for Metroid 2, I said, ‘Well, this is a black and white game. Whatever I do with ripped sprites might be better than this. So I guess I can make a Metroid game.'”

For Guasti, the appeal of making his own Metroid game was more about the design of the franchise than his overwhelming love for the series. He described himself as more a Metroid “enthusiast” than a “hardcore fan” when he started working on the game. For others looking to learn how to develop and design games, the choice of which game to use as a starting point comes down to franchises they’ve always loved.

“It was my childhood dream to make my own Pokémon game,” says fan developer Involuntary Twitch. “Thus began my nine-year journey with fan game development as a hobby.”

That hobby became Pokémon Uranium, a Pokémon fan game the size of a major franchise installment. Involuntary Twitch wanted it to feature all of the things that she loved about Pokémon games: “pixel art, exploring, discovering new creatures, and uncovering mysteries.” For the many ways that Uranium was designed to be an homage to Pokémon, there was at least one element Twitch hoped to improve.

“I have been my entire life saying that Pokémon can and probably should do a little bit better with the stories,” Involuntary Twitch says. “I don’t think Pokémon needs to tell this grand, epic story with all these plot twists and betrayals and darker themes…but I think that what makes a good story is just the feeling that your actions actually matter, that the things you do are instrumental to the outcome of the plot.”

As the tale of a young trainer whose mother was lost in a nuclear accident roughly 10 years before the mysterious appearance of radiated Pokémon coinciding with the construction of a new power plant, Uranium‘s plot is darker, more complicated, and perhaps a bit more mature than what many of the games in the Pokémon franchise aim for. It’s also a big part of the reason why Uranium was widely hailed as a breath of fresh air for a franchise that largely sticks to the same formula put in place in the ’90s.

Yet, the story of Uranium that many more people are familiar with is what happened after the game was released. Much like AM2R, Uranium was hit by DMCA takedown requests issued by Nintendo shortly after the project’s 2016 release. After over nine years of work, Uranium‘s widespread availability could be measured in hours. Once again, the move did not come as a complete surprise.

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

“I think our mentality was that we’d already had multiple playable releases out of the game, and so whatever its ultimate fate may be, we owed it to ourselves,” says Involuntary Twitch of the decision to continue working on the project despite the likelihood that it would eventually be taken down. “This is the single biggest project that any of us had ever done in our entire lives…So, we owed it to ourselves and we owed it to the people who were excited to see this game fully realized to see it all the way through the end”

So why didn’t Involuntary Twitch and her creative partner JV just make a copyright-free clone of a Pokémon game?

“I did consider it, but I mean, at that point, we were in too deep,” Twitch says. “Literally every single part of the game would need to be thrown out and reconstituted to the point where it would be unrecognizable. And in exchange for doing that, we would get way less exposure, and we would basically just be filing the serial numbers off something that’s meant to be our love letter to a franchise…I feel like doing that would’ve drained what drove us to make this game in the first place, which was our love for Pokémon.”

That certainly seems to be the dilemma. Many Nintendo fan creators are often inspired by their love for Nintendo games, but there are times when Nintendo can be hard to love. The company will go years without even acknowledging beloved franchises but it’ll immediately litigate when fans pursue the projects and ideas Nintendo won’t.

Those bespoke projects are often designed to appeal to a section of the fanbase Nintendo has sometimes ignored. Uranium featured a more mature story not commonly seen in Pokémon games. AM2R focused on one of Nintendo’s most complex (and often ignored) franchises. And in terms of notorious Nintendo fan projects designed to address something that was missing, few titles are as compelling as Project M: a Super Smash Bros. Brawl mod designed not to reinvent the wheel but simply make that game feel closer to its predecessor.

“Brawl took away almost everything that many people enjoyed about Melee from a gameplay design perspective,” says former Project M webmaster Taylor “Warchamp7” Giampaolo. “The floatier gravity, the slower gameplay, the removal of many character control nuances like dash dancing and wave dashes, and random factors like tripping that took control away from the player all contributed to a game we found less enjoyable. Project M‘s main goal was to bring back the elements of Melee that we all enjoyed like the faster pacing and balance of risk/reward.”

On the surface, a mod like Project M probably comes across as the work of a fanbase that felt Nintendo had gotten it wrong. Yet, that’s not necessarily the case. If anything, the game is more often talked about as a kind of “What if?” scenario designed to explore what may have happened if the competitive community that embraced Melee had become the primary audience for future installments.

“Project M is definitely our alternate take on what we’d like the series to look like,” Giampaolo says. “Melee‘s competitive nature is sometimes considered a happy accident, and I’d say Project M is a deliberate execution of those competitive aspects.”

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Melee‘s expansive multiplayer modes make it clear the game was intended to be played competitively between friends, but what many believe Nintendo did not necessarily anticipate was how the game would be embraced by more “hardcore” fighting game fans. What was essentially conceived as a Nintendo mascot brawler became a mainstay in the competitive fighting game community, and some of the things that made the game so different are also what made it popular among the genre’s most dedicated fans.

“Melee‘s mechanics offered an extreme freedom of movement that provides limitless options in various situations,” says Smash Bros. modder Dan Salvato. “I think most notably, simply moving your character around on the screen is extremely fun in itself. Most fighting games are balanced around what you can’t do in any given situation, but Melee kind of rips out the brakes and hands the keys to the player. You might get a lot of Melee die-hards giving you a list of reasons that Melee is ‘better,’ but I think that it just provides a different experience that captures a different audience of players.”

As a look into a kind of alternate reality for the Smash Bros. franchise, it’s easy to again wonder why the Project M team simply didn’t create their own Smash Bros.-like game based on Melee‘s mechanics. Much like with Pokémon Uranium, the decision to stick to the Smash Bros. name and the many copyright conflicts that come with it can be attributed to a combination of love and logistics.

“Everyone on the Project M team was incredibly talented but a lot of members had skill sets that were specifically tailored for modding Brawl,” Giampaolo says. “Some of the people that did programming on the team didn’t know any normal programming languages; they only knew assembly and had learned it through modding. Some of the animators didn’t have any experience with industry animation tools; they only knew how to use the community-created ones designed for Brawl‘s file formats. I consider their work even more impressive because of that but it means they wouldn’t have had an easy transition to making a ‘real’ game at the time.”

The Project M team was aware of the risks associated with the game they were making, and, as such, decided to institute a series of rules that they hoped would help protect the game against an immediate takedown. For instance, they encouraged people to play a “hackless” version of the mod that still required them to purchase Brawl, and they didn’t add new characters to the mod that weren’t already present in Brawl in some way.

In a way, the guidelines worked. Project M wasn’t hit with an immediate takedown request, but the constant threat of future legal actions and the desire to start on an original project accelerated the end of its development. But before that happened, Project M was embraced by the Smash Bros. competitive community who began using it and other modded versions of Smash Bros. as the feature attraction in many tournaments.

It doesn’t seem many of those fans expected Nintendo to embrace Project M or officially support any Smash Bros. mod. However, many of them wanted Nintendo to at least recognize their passion for the series’ competitive elements and how many felt Melee, in particular, best represented those qualities. There’s a degree to which the competitive Smash Bros. community lived in that same “under the radar” territory that Project M tried to exist in, and there’s a degree to which the competitive Smash community just wanted to be seen as fans who built a tournament scene based on love and shared passions. When Nintendo finally noticed them, the real trouble started.

“Over the years, the most community backlash hasn’t come from Nintendo not caring, but it has come from Nintendo interfering,” Salvato explains. “I think a decade ago, the Smash community felt more desperate for Nintendo’s acknowledgment…but once Nintendo stepped in, though, all of their regulations followed, and the Smash community started to question whether they actually wanted it.”

In 2020, Nintendo sent a cease and desist letter to a beloved Smash Bros. tournament that planned to use a Smash Bros. Melee emulator to host a digital event during the Covid-19 pandemic. The letter even targeted the event itself, which meant the hosts couldn’t simply feature the latest Smash Bros. game instead. After years of being ignored, the Smash Bros. competitive community was dealing with the fallout of being seen. While Nintendo has helped event organizers in the past, it was that lingering threat of things quickly going the other way that so often made the relationship uncomfortable and, at times, impossible.

Guasti can tell you more about Nintendo’s history of acknowledging the work of fans in their own strange way. A year after shutting down AM2R, Nintendo revealed and released an official Metroid 2 remake for the 3DS called Metroid: Samus Returns. Given that the franchise had been dormant for some time and that an unofficial remake of that same game had just been taken down a year before, the reveal of Samus Returns came as a shock to many, including Guasti.

“It was quite a surprise. Nobody saw it coming,” Guasti recalls. “Once I finished seeing the trailer, it was like, ‘Hmm, so that’s how the Metroid fights look with a budget.'”

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Samus Returns and AM2R are actually quite different in terms of their visuals and mechanics, but in a way, the differences made the speed at which the latter was taken down before the former was released that much more surprising.

“If you think about it, it’s super fascinating,” Guasti says. “These two points of view of the same story have been developed in parallel. At least one of the parties didn’t know that the other existed. Even if there are a couple of elements in common, the way that they conveyed the game feel and the whole environmental design, how Samus moves around and all of the elements in the design are completely different.”

Maybe there’s an alternate timeline where the differences between the two games meant both were allowed to exist, but Guasti doesn’t seem to dwell much on that. As strange as it may seem for someone who spent so many years of their lives on a project they couldn’t profit from, Guasti seems satisfied with how things worked out.

“I can’t be mad,” Guasti says. “I reached the audience that I wanted to reach. I learned everything that I wanted to learn from that…I’m really happy how that stage in my life turned out.”

Considering that Guasti’s work on AM2R helped him find a job in the video game industry where he later worked on the Metroidvania title Ori and the Will of the Wisps, you may think that the fate of AM2R is only easy to accept given that it led to a career and all of the benefits that come with that. Yet, there are many creators who share the belief that the real value of their work was the chance to share something with other fans like them.

In fact, some wouldn’t even mind if Nintendo essentially released the games they worked on without even giving them direct credit, much less a check.

“I would be ecstatic,” Giampaolo says of the possibility of Nintendo releasing its own Project M without acknowledging the mod’s creators. “We created Project M because it was the game that we wanted to play and it is, to date, my favorite entry in the genre. I’d love nothing more than for more players to get to enjoy that.”

Of course, Project M is a mod to an existing Nintendo game, and its creators were always aware of the fine line they were walking when working on it. They also got to end it on something closer to their own terms, and the mod is still massively popular among its intended fanbase to this day. But what about Involuntary Twitch whose project was hit by one of the swiftest and most complete takedowns in fan game history? How would she feel if the next Pokémon game was essentially a copy of Uranium but she received no credit?

“I’d be thrilled,” Twitch says. “I wanted to play one of my own games on a Nintendo handheld my entire life. And even if they didn’t put my name in the credits, I would still know that I was there, that I had inspired some type of its DNA. That, to me, would be enough. I mean, I am not here to chase clout. I don’t make fan games for attention. I make it because I like to do it and it’s a fun hobby for me.”

While there is something exceptional about those who create to fulfill a vision and share it with the world, this mentality seems to be the lifeblood of the fan game community.

“The modding mentality is that you have a community that loves a game so much that they want to extend its lifespan and help each other enjoy the game even more,” Salvato says. “In my experience, mods are always full of a lot more love for Nintendo than they are of disappointment. Modders are proud and passionate, and they love what they do.”

You could argue this love is rarely reciprocated by Nintendo, but some creators suggest we may need to change our perception of success by recognizing that completing and sharing these projects can be more important than profits and fame.

“I hope that it brought them some joy because, to me, creating stuff is something that defines who I am,” Involuntary Twitch says. “I hope that it can help other people to find out who they are and develop their skills and find a place where they belong.”

Why does someone spend years of their lives on a project that can’t make money, will probably be shut down, and will never be embraced by the company that inspired them? The answers vary but seem to often come down to a surprisingly simple philosophy. You can spend years waiting for Nintendo to do make something, or you can spend that time doing it yourself and letting the memories, the love, and the quality of the games justify it all.

The post The Nintendo Fan Games That Tried to Revitalize Pokémon, Metroid, and Super Smash Bros. appeared first on Den of Geek.

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#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

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lizacstuff · 6 years

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Anons 7x06

Lots of anons in my inbox, a few under the cut. The tone of most asks is not complimentary towards the season or episode, you have been warned.

Anonymous said:Seems like there must not be a lot of Regina fans out there, despite the ER making a lot of noise. Demos held steady.

I wouldn’t count those numbers before they’re hatched. Sound like the show was preempted in certain markets (Boston, a huge DMA, for one) so the numbers should be adjusted for that when the nationals come out on Monday. Right now OUAT is getting credit for whatever replacement programming the affiliate put in it’s place.

Anonymous said:I'm seeing that for some areas the episode got pushed back till early Saturday morning. Do they take into account when figuring out the ratings? I'm already seeing ERs complaining about it and saying if the ratings are bad that's the only reason why. 😒

See above. The overnights (today's ratings) include viewership for whatever aired in OUAT’s place. Monday they should adjust to reflect more accurately how many people watched the actual episode. They are right, though, in it negatively impacting the live numbers. However, it shouldn't really impact the L+3 or L+7 numbers.

Anonymous said:Is it bad that I laughed outloud when I saw that Regina gave everything Ivy she needed to cast her curse? Just like the time Regina pushed Lily too far and she turned into a dragon and endanger the town? Or the time she told Zelena to go after Hades and change him and refused to listen to anyone's concerns and everyone almost ended up trapped in Hell? I'm surprised the writer's still don't see the pattern like fans do.

Even without malicious intentions, she’s a disaster who ruins everyone’s lives. It’s bizarre that the writers continually follow the pattern, but never have Regina question her own judgement when she’s doing it. Whatever else happens, Regina makes emotional, unilateral decisions that usually end up biting other people in the ass.

Anonymous said:Why would Regina stop henry for having a tlk with jacinda to break the curse? they don't have chemistry but they have been written as tl, at least make them kiss to destroy this stupid season one for all

Because Ivy did something, that Regina remembers, that will put the people that Regina “loves” in jeopardy if the curse is broken. We don’t know who is in jeopardy or how.

Anonymous said:So the reboot it's all Regina's fault? Why am I not surprised? Having Henry all for her and without snowing and captain swan, obviously a villain like her was behind this

Regina isn’t being purposefully villainous, but her stupid choices have landed them in this position.

Anonymous said:So regina thought she never adopted a child and its now forced to live with him not knowing her and can't break the curse?? Also her soulmate still dead and she is away from sb and her "family"&"friends"? Hahahahahaha karma is a beautiful thing!!! So she is alone and miserable and childless? Jefferson, snowing of the early seasons and the whole ef1 is laughing and partying

I suppose she is getting a little bit of karmic retribution, but I wouldn’t consider her knowing Henry is her adult son, and still being close to him even though he doesn't know, as quite the same thing as orphaning Emma and Snowing missing out on raising her or knowing her for 28 years.

Anonymous said:Its weird since I thought Shoe Believer had an okay start in the beginning. It wasn't anywhere near CS or Snowing but they were still okay. With every episode they just feel more and more dull and forced.

I always thought it was forced, particularly in the pilot, but I thought it might grow as the season progressed. I’m not feeling it. They are telling us it’s true love, not showing us. Unlike CS, Snowing or RB where we saw those relationships develop over time, this feels completely unearned, and a TLK would be like Zades or Red Warrior where it feels like complete out-of-nowhere nonsense. CS had to go through multiple seasons of trials and tribulations, both proving they would go to the end of the world or time for one another, before the show would even whisper True Love at them. The writers have lost their mojo when it comes to writing a love story.

Anonymous said:After this weeks episode I'm more thankful than ever that Regina is far away from Captain Swan and everyone in storybrooke. They don't need to suffer the consequences of someone who has failed as a queen and a mayor.

Honestly, it being canon that Regina and Rumple are out of Storybrooke, is the silver lining to S7.

Anonymous said:I’m kind of confused , since 7x02 I’ve been trying to keep up with show . But I haven’t been paying that much attention ( I usually just put it on the tv while I’m on my computer or something, so it’s really just background noise ) but I do have a question, who is that hag in lady tremaine’s basement thing ? And also ..... can you list the people who are aware that there was a curse / who’s now awake . Cuz I can’t keep up

That’s the witch. Right now I think the only characters awake are Ivy, Regina, and sometimes Alice when she isn’t on medication. I could be wrong though, because my ability to stay focused during this show has not been great.

Anonymous said:I stopped watching s7 after 7x02 but as someone who still watches it/keeps tabs on it do you know if the timeline is explained like now that Lucy is born and is 10 years old does that mean captain swan's child is around that age or is Emma still pregnant cause time moves differently?

They haven’t really answered that question yet as far as I know. My gut is that very little time has passed in Storybrooke and as we speak Captain Swan is preparing for their baby. But that’s my gut, not fact.

Anonymous said:I'm so mad - this was the last drop for me with this show. I have been watching S7 for Colin (I'm a Nielsen family and my viewing does count for the ratings) but what they had Henry say last night was the last straw. Swan Believer and their amazing dynamic in season 1 was what kept me watching the show (until CS came along ) and to have to see the writers IGNORE what was once the backbone of the original show (Emma/Henry) to prop an abusive mother/son relationship is absolute bullshit.

cont - previous ask about Swan Believer. I feel sorry for Colin and for the cast and crew, but from now on I will not be watching the show anymore. Nothing about it excites me/makes me happy. It feels like a chore. And these writers do NOT deserve to get renewed nor to get anymore chances to ruin their own canon of what was once a beautiful show.

Describing it as a chore is pretty spot on. I understand you wanting to watch for Colin (especially as a Nielsen household) but you gotta do what’s right for you. That line seemed completely unnecessary. There were a lot of ways they could have had a nice mother/son moment without going there.

Anonymous said:I just saw a gifset of Regina waking up from the curse. So that's really the reaction she chose to go with? She really hasn't seemed to grasp the subtleties of acting, has she?

No, she has not. However, I have to say that Lana’s acting as Roni in Hyperion Heights this episode was the least of the episode’s problems.

Anonymous said:Did you see any of Lana's answers to her fans on Twitter? Besides laughing at the idea of her wanting to do a remake of Silence of the Lambs and play Clarice, when she was asked what she's learned from Bex she said that red heads have more fun than blondes. I imagine in this situation you answer these questions quickly and don't contemplate on your answers, but wow did that seem like a dig. And if you look through the comments all of her rabid fans seemed to think so too and were loving it.

I thought a more accurate tweet would have been “Red heads kiss my ass better than blondes." ‘Cause Bex has had her lips permanently affixed to her ass for years now, just the way Lana likes it.

Anonymous said:I'm indifferent about Wish Hook, and I wouldn't mind if his daughter was Alice and they got a storyline together, but they got nowhere in this episode? And going by the promo, the mess of the wish realm strikes again as Wish Hook was realm-traveling apparently. How did a non-wish Rapunzel from a separate realm come across someone who didn't exist until present-day 6x10? This is unexplainable.

Do we know that Rapunzel is from a separate realm and not from the Wish Realm? It would be unbelievable to think that WishHook left the WISHAU before it was created with EQ’s “wish” in 6x10. I think looking for any sort of logic or even in-universe fairy tale logic to make sense of anything to do with the WishRealm, including WishHook, is an exercise in futility.

It simply doesn’t make sense, and each episodes they change the rules to accommodate anything they want to do. Of course I think it’s nonsense, but I’d still rather this and have CS safely tucked away from this ridiculous season, than have them using the real Hook this season. Because honestly I don’t care about the integrity of the storytelling in S7, I only care about CS. (though that doesn’t stop me from poking fun at it.)

Anonymous said:I honestly was not one bit surprised when Colin said he was still under contract this season, but at the same time I do believe he enjoys playing this character and I'm sure he feels loyal to the show, it has been his big break. But I have to believe with the storylines and the material he's given, if not already, then by the end of filming he'll probably be in the same mind frame as Bobby. 100% only there for a paycheck. I just hope his agent is actively seeking better opportunities for him.

We really don’t know what he’s thinking or feeling, but low ratings have got to affect things on set in some way, so it sucks if he’s in any kind of stressful environment. Even if it’s just them getting pressured to send out scripted PR tweets for each episode. On the upside, other than 7x02, he’s been in these eps so rarely, that I’d guess he’s not working more than 1-2 days per episode, which probably means a lot of time that he can be home with his family and newborn. It might be a blessing for them right now. As I said we can’t know, but I just wish the best for him and his future career.

Anonymous said:Was there something wrong with the Rogers' scenes? I thought they were pretty decent, especially his interactions with Alice.

To all my anons wanting to know about Rogers scenes, you’ll have to come off anon if you want to chat about it.

#ouat negativity #ouat 7x06 #anti lana #anti regina #asklizac #anonymous

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schmidtchristmasmarket · 4 years

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For creating great holiday ambiance in your home you will need more than a decoration, Christmas lights, and a cup of coffee or tea, you will need music playing in the background just to add a little bit of a holiday spark in your room. That’s why we picked the greatest Christmas songs, you can listen with your family and friends.

The best thing about Christmas music is the fact it can bring you memories of the holiday no matter what period of the year it is, and for those who like spending time next to the Christmas decoration, in a cozy blanket, watching shimmering snow through the window this is a really good news.

So let’s discover the world of Christmas songs!

#1 ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ – Mariah Carey

https://youtu.be/yXQViqx6GMY

Although, Mariah’s undeniable Christmas classic never made it number one back in 1994, we decided to put this song first, and there is a lot of reasons for that. This song re-enter The Top 40 every year since 2007, giving Mariah Carey the great title of the Queen of Christmas.

Year 2019 Mariah Carey celebrated the 25th anniversary of her iconic Merry Christmas album, so she released a 2-CD Deluxe Anniversary Edition, that includes the original album, plus a bonus disc featuring previously. She also did a remake of this song that we all know and love.

#2 ‘Last Christmas’ – Wham!

https://youtu.be/E8gmARGvPlI

Love and holiday, two inspiring topics to write a song about, and if you mix it, you’ll get one of the greatest hits, known as ‘Last Christmas’. The English pop duo Wham!, having George Michael as a lead singer brought sensual and silky sound to Christmas by creating a song about Christmas love, followed by heartbreak.

The song is released in December 1984, and since then is one of the Christmas songs you can’t imagine the holidays without. The original song was written by George Michael, and so far there are a lot of great covers.

#3 ‘Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)’ – Darlene Love

https://youtu.be/4EvZOXEoJ84

One of the most moving and heartwarming Christmas songs of all time is definitely ‘Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)’ by Darlene Love. The combination of her smooth vocal, Phil Spector's glorious production, and Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry’s magical songwriting skills, we got one of the fines tunes, that can easily melt anyone's heart.

The song is from 1963, but it has a lot of covers, and one of the most famous is from Mariah Carey. A lot of people claim that Darlene Love was the Queen of Christmas too, and a fun fact is that her song All Alone for Christmas, was one of the songs from the popular Christmas movie Home Alone 2.

#4 ‘White Christmas’ – Bing Crosby

https://youtu.be/A9ibhWgMlso

What a great way to bring the power of Christmas nostalgia, by listening to one of the most famous Christmas songs - ‘White Christmas’ by Bing Crosby. This is what it sounds like reminiscing about past times, and an old-fashioned Christmas setting.

The original song is released in 1942, written by Irving Berlin, and sung by Bing Crosby. This song became the world’s best selling single with estimated sales of over 50 million copies all around the globe. A lot of musicians did a cover of this song, so the full amount of sales is even higher.

If you like the good old sound of nostalgia, deep emotions, and you enjoy bringing back the old memories tucked in your blanket, you will love the feel this song is giving.

#5 ‘Fairytale of New York’ – The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl

https://youtu.be/j9jbdgZidu8

Melancholy and peace, yet joy and fulfillment, all of these are emotions you can feel by listening to the song ‘Fairytale of New York’ by The Pogues with Kirsty MacColl. So, shut your eyes and give it a go, prepare yourself for this mixture of emotions.

A lot of people enjoy this song, describing it as a perfect four-minute narrative of hope, despair, and heartbreak. It’s all in one, and it’s a Christmas song, that can bring up a lot of memories and stories.

#6 ‘Christmas Wrapping’ – The Waitresses

https://youtu.be/nud2TQNahaU

Let’s spice it up, and bring the Christmas spirit in a different rhythm. If you like the vibe of the Blondie and Talking Heads bands, you will certainly like this Christmas song. The sound of ‘Christmas Wrapping’ really gives you festive feeling, bringing joy and fun holiday time.

#7 ‘Happy Xmas (War Is Over)’ – John Lennon & Yoko Ono

https://youtu.be/yJ4tW7AG_mc

A protest song, that gives you courage, festive vibe, and euphoria. John Lennon and Yoko Ono gave us the feeling of equality, the sound of peace, love, and hope. ‘Happy Xmas (War Is Over) is an anti-Vietnam War song, that had a huge impact in the ‘70. A lot of artists made their own cover of this song.

#8 ‘Santa Claus is Coming to Town’ – Jackson 5

https://youtu.be/gmUW2pVAopc

There are multiple versions of this song, by everyone from Justin Bieber, Mariah Carey to Michael Bublé, but Jackson 5 gave it that groove and fun sound we all like. This fun Christmas song brings all generations together, and creates good memories with friends and family. So let’s bring some groove on the Christmas Eve and let’s dance next to the Christmas tree.

#9 ‘Blue Christmas’ – Elvis Presley

https://youtu.be/QipqXel5G4g

‘Blue Christmas without you’ said Elvis Presley, and we all felt that words. The King of Country music gave his melody and swag to the holiday period. We needed this sound just to feel safe and at home whenever we hear it.

#10 ‘River’ – Joni Mitchell

https://youtu.be/3NH-ctddY9o

From the ‘Jingle Bells’ piano opening it’s clear this is a beautiful and delicate Christmas song, for those who are heartbroken, or thinking about the person they love. The song brings back memories even for the people who are happily in love.

By the end of the ‘River’ all you’ll want to do is to hug a person you love, and to cherish every moment spent with them. Maybe that’s why ‘River’ is one of her most covered songs, having been recorded by over 500 people.

#11 ‘Wonderful Christmastime’ – Paul McCartney

https://youtu.be/94Ye-3C1FC8

As the name says itself, the song is about shaving a good time with your family and friends on Christmas Eve, and being truly happy to have someone to spend this day with. The song describes one joyful Christmas, with all traditions that we love and cherish. It needs to be on every Christmas music list.

#12 ‘8 Days of Christmas’ – Destiny’s Child

https://youtu.be/MKdndMXIVXw

Is it even possible to add some sass in a Christmas music? If it is, that Destiny’s Child did it! Beyonce, Kelly and Michelle turned a coy old holiday classic into a bumping R&B modern Christmas song. This has to be one fine achievement, so we decided to put it on our list.

#13 ‘Dear Santa (Bring Me a Man This Christmas)’ – Weather Girls

https://youtu.be/Ko3yBFoTm5c

From the same album as the song ‘It’s Raining Men’, the ‘Dear Santa’ stayed in the same vibe of pure female energy. Groovie song about one interesting wishlist, puts a new perspective of a good and fun Christmas song. For all single ladies, and for everyone who loves Weather Girls this is a song to listen on a Christmas Day.

#14 ‘What Christmas Means to Me’ – Stevie Wonder

https://youtu.be/wtgGBgpNcIo

Do you know what Christmas means to you? If not, think about it while listening to this song. For Stevie Wonder Christmas means singing carols, decorating a Christmas tree, being with his baby. Maybe you can agree with him, or you can add something to this list.

#15 ‘Stay Another Day’ – East 17

https://youtu.be/-wNhdjoF-6M

This song wasn’t supposed to be a Christmas song at all. Actually, the songwriter explained that it supposed to be a very sad song. Somehow, the raw emotion that this song brings, touched our hearts, and became a legit holiday song, great for slow winter days.

This is our list, and it’s up to you to add your personal favorites, that will bring the Christmas spark in your home, whether it is that part of the year or not.

Shop for you Christmas Decorations at Schmidt Christmas Market

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if-only-angels-could-prevail · 7 years

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here’s my LONG ASS POST where i talk about my favorite movies of the year!* i included 11 favorites, 6 alternate choices, a list of my favorite performances, and a list of my favorite music in these movies.

*in this case, “year” means “awards season”

THE BEST ONES (11 picks because I couldn’t narrow it down to 10)

20th Century Women

After Mike Mills’ masterful ode to fatherhood in Beginners (a movie that changed my life as much as any movie ever has), he matches his predecessor and then some with 20th Century Women. This is a brilliant, moving, and funny rumination on womanhood and motherhood, on what it means to be a woman, and even an examination of what feminism means in America’s constantly-changing cultural landscape. Partly based on Mike Mills’ own childhood, he described the movie as a love letter to the women who raised him, and the affection and honesty is on full display. It examines three very different women, played by three wonderful actresses, and their effect on the adolescent Jamie, Mills’ own self-insert. It’s timely, political, charming, and full of stunningly relevant dialogue about gender conformity and what it entails. This is a movie about womanhood, for everyone.

American Honey

This is a movie best described by contradictions. It’s intimate and it’s epic, it’s dreamlike and it’s realistic, it’s devastating and emotionally fulfilling. There is very little story to speak of--Star is an 18-year-old woman who joins a ragtag group of young people who sell magazines across the country. The whole movie is meandering, but Andrea Arnold (a brilliant director, also check out Fish Tank) fills this simplistic storyline with so many quiet observations and confrontations that by the end, one feels both completely full and all the more curious. It is contemporary filmmaking at its most poetic and immediate.

Arrival

This is a movie that will leave (or rather, has left) everyone talking, which is exactly my type of science fiction. It’s a quiet testament to critical thought and language, and how thrilling it can be. My only quibble is that as wonderful as Amy Adams was (and she really was pitch-perfect), I think I might have enjoyed it more with unknown faces playing these characters. But that’s not the point. The point is there was one single moment--literally down to the very second--immediately before the end credits rolled when the entire movie clicked for me, and I was overjoyed. Such moments are extremely rare in film, and I can only hope other audiences experience (or did experience) the same ecstatic epiphany that I did in that final moment.

The Handmaiden

A Korean gothic lesbian revenge story. I was sold as soon as I heard the description. This movie reminded me of all the most exciting plot-twisty mind-bending Hollywood creations (Gone Girl came to mind a lot), but the thrills were propelled even further by the sheer visual panache and gorgeous design work that are sometimes lacking in said genre. The acting was extraordinary as well. Another movie that’s probably best knowing very little about before you see it. It’s thrilling, violent, beautiful, and passionate storytelling.

Hell or High Water

I’m slightly biased because I love the idea of the contemporary western (True Grit and The Homesman are two of my recent favorites), and this is a prime example of old-fashioned western filmmaking with a strong contemporary sensibility. Like 20th Century Women, it seems to exist in multiple generations, and even as the characters talk about something completely unrelated, I was acutely aware of the divide, of the fascinating visual contradictions. To me, this cultural conversation was the underlying force behind the way this old-hat story was told. But don’t get me wrong: this is a pitch-perfect screenplay, possibly the best of the year. And the cast is insanely good.

Hidden Figures

I wanted to stand up and cheer at multiple points. I teared up during at least five different scenes. This is Hollywood filmmaking at its most shamelessly crowd-pleasing, and I ate it all up. I think when you have a story as worth telling as this one, a little crowd-pleasing is earned. It’s entertaining from beginning to end, and its cultural imprint (highest-grossing of all the best picture Oscar nominees) will be empowering from years to come.

Jackie

The best biopics are about more than one person. The best biopics both relate someone’s story with accuracy and use their story to confront the audience with their own selves. This is exactly what Jackie does: it’s an unsettling movie that gets under your skin, asking questions about celebrity, about luxury, about culture, about womanhood, all the while offering a stunning character portrait of one woman. This isn’t just a history lesson: this is a confrontational masterpiece, using this figurehead as a lens to examine our own selves. Jackie Kennedy passed away when I was less than a year old, but by the end of this movie, I felt like I knew her, and I felt like I knew myself better than I had before.

Lemonade

Beyonce casually reinventing the movie musical genre. Lemonade celebrates black femininity in a revelatory and empowering way. And yet, speaking as a white boy, it can be adored by anyone with an appreciation for aesthetic beauty, and anyone who loves music. (Seriously. Amazing music.) Like some other movies on this list, the narrative is thin, but it’s thematically tight, gripping, and always exuberant to watch. It will move anyone who’s struggled through an adult relationship, and even those who haven’t will feel privileged to watch this raw and emotionally naked portrait. It also proves that movie musicals need not be nostalgic fluff pieces (*cough*)--they can be current, they can be iconic, they can be culturally relevant, they can be hot-blooded, angry, sensitive, thrilling, poetic, feminist, and last but not least, unapologetically and exuberantly black.

Miss Sloane

I’m biased because I love Jessica Chastain. But his movie delivered. It’s about a fast-talking political lobbyist and how she navigates the political sphere, confronting her coworkers, her enemies, the law, and (most significantly) her own conscience. Its conversations are timely, as one would expect. But I found it most interesting as a contemporary morality play. Like Jackie, Miss Sloane is a character study which isn’t content being a mere character study--it confronts the audience on well-worn but ever-timely questions of how we define morality, happiness, and success. Some of the dialogue comes across as cheesy faux-Aaron Sorkin, which has drawn some criticism. The critics are right, but I ate it all up. This movie is more entertaining than any movie about a political lobbyist has any right to be, and even when it veers toward the unbelievable, it’s an awesome ride.

Moonlight

If I keep going back to the phrase “visual poetry,” it’s because this year in movies was an embarrassment of riches in that regard, Moonlight being a prime example. Every shot, every frame, felt so vital, deliberate, and beautiful. Moonlight is many things--a careful rumination on masculinity, a testament to parenthood, an artfully-crafted coming-of-age movie--but above all else, it’s a love story. A black gay love story, told with sincerity and a lot of heart. Quietly groundbreaking and cathartic.

Silence

Is it too bold to suggest this could be Scorsese’s masterpiece? It’s certainly among his most ambitious. And it’s painstakingly crafted, and dramatically tight. Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver (both acting up a storm) play 17th-century Jesuit priests who experience extended religious oppression in their efforts to spread Christianity throughout Japan. I know that sounds boring. But Silence is a force of nature, jaw-droppingly epic in scope. And yet for all its hugeness, for all its passion and melodrama, there is a stinging intimacy throughout that keeps one caring for these characters as if they’re longtime friends or brothers. And like every good period drama, it feels achingly contemporary, and the story feels heartbreakingly current. It’s a behemoth of a movie that my own paltry superlatives can hardly scratch the surface of, but trust me: it’s incredible.

ALTERNATES

Allied

Great old-fashioned filmmaking without pandering to nostalgia. It’s an extremely handsome movie, and it’s dramatically taut, but the story still manages to defy your expectations at every turn. Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard are wonderful movie stars, perfectly cast in this old-fashioned yarn. I wish it had managed to find more of an audience, because it’s top-tier Hollywood storytelling.

Fences

Fences is indisputably a great play, so even a version that feels like a self-conscious adaptation is still going to be awfully good. Viola Davis is perfect, as we all know. Denzel Washington's performance felt too big for my taste, as if he didn’t do much in terms of translating his performance from stage to film, but obviously he’s a wonderful actor and charismatic as hell. Since not everyone can see Fences onstage, this movie is a damn good substitute.

Hail, Caesar!

The Coen brothers are likely my favorite movie directors working today--their last three movies in particular have all been extraordinary (A Serious Man, True Grit, Inside Llewyn Davis). Hail, Caesar! seems like an unusual next step for them, going back to some of their zanier antics, with a loving tribute to old Hollywood. But this isn’t cheap nostalgia--this is a deliciously original story, full of wacky surprises, a LOT of kooky characters, and some completely unexpected gags. It’s pure entertainment, if you’re buckled up for a lot of weirdness.

The Jungle Book

Another “pure entertainment” entry. I was awed by this live-action remake of the Disney classic. The artistry in the CGI was mind-blowing, and it had such an awesome power on the big screen. The classic story was told with care and economy, but the design and visual beauty was the main draw. And I always support unprompted musical numbers in non-musical movies.

Kubo and the Two Strings

Beautiful, beautiful designs, and a wonderfully original and twisty story. In retrospect, I wasn’t sold on all the plot elements, and the mostly-white cast playing Japanese characters seemed indelicate for several reasons. But it was visually stunning, the music was gorgeous, and the story was laudably original and full of imagination.

The Lobster

What makes dystopian stories so appealing is they offer the audience a lens to look at their own society through a foreign and fictional concept. The Lobster is a great example, offering a look at society’s expectations for how we treat romance and sex. The script starts to verge toward too much concept at points, but I found it compensated for its heavy plot turns with a treasure trove of wry observations. The acting and the execution is good, but in this instance, the script is the main draw, and one that left me thinking long after I had finished.

INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCES I LOVED

Annette Bening and Greta Gerwig in 20th Century Women

Amy Adams in Arrival and Nocturnal Animals (despite my quibble about casting movie stars in Arrival, she delivered a brilliant performance)

Viola Davis in Fences

Kim Min-hee and Kim Tae-ri in The Handmaiden

The always-brilliant Jeff Bridges in Hell or High Water

The entire cast of Hidden Figures

Natalie Portman in Jackie

Beyonce in Lemonade

Joel Edgerton and Ruth Negga in Loving

Michelle Williams in Manchester By The Sea

Jessica Chastain in Miss Sloane

Ashton Sanders, Andre Holland, Jharrel Jerome, Naomie Harris, and Mahershala Ali in Moonlight

Nathan Lane in No Pay, Nudity

Andrew Garfield in Silence

Paul Dano in Swiss Army Man

MUSIC I LOVED

Hail, Caesar!

Hidden Figures

Jackie

The Jungle Book

Kubo and the Two Strings

La La Land

Lemonade

Moana

Moonlight

Silence

Swiss Army Man

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kuwaiti-kid · 4 years

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12 Best PS1 Role Playing Games (RPGs) of All Time

Magic, adventure, intrigue, and the 32-bit era of graphics.

When you mention the origins of our favorite role-playing video games, nostalgia runs rampant within us. We all remember our first, our favorite, and everything in between.

Role-Playing games have shaped the expectations of how many of us want to experience our gaming journey. The hardest part is finding which to choose. Which are best? What stories should you invest thirty hours of your life into?

Get ready to have another blast from the past! We are delving deep into the amazing games that made up the epic Playstation Roleplaying genre of the ’90s.

Here is our list of the best PlayStation RPG games ever!

The Best PS1 RPGs of All Time

1. Xenogears (1998)

When it comes to RPGs of such massive scale and scope, Xenogears should need no introduction. The story is all-encompassing and intense. It does not only does it entail the death of a god and dualism. Xenogears also has arching stories of reincarnation, religion, use of mass control, and brainwashing.

Xenogears centers around the main character Fei, an adopted young male in the village of Lahan. Fei was brought by a mysterious man while suffering from retrograde amnesia. During an attack on Lahan from Gebler, Fei pilots an empty gear and fights the enemy, accidentally destroying the village. As a result, Fei and Citan, the village's doctor, leave with the abandoned gear to get it away from the town.

From this point, you meet multiple supporting characters that very clearly also have skeletons in their closets.

Mixing a unique style of 2D animation with 3D backdrops, Xenogears focused on its anime inspiration with fully animated and voiced cutscenes. Gameplay centered around a stamina-based combat system. This is a playoff of the Active Time Battle system found in games such as Chrono Trigger and the Final Fantasy series.

Every character and inch of this game is worth exploring to experience the all-encompassing details and rich storyline. At the time, Xenogears was a groundbreaking game. This is a must-play.

2. Final Fantasy VII (1997)

If you haven’t heard of Cloud, Tifa, or Aerith, you have been living under some very large rubble in Midgar. Final Fantasy VII is considered to be by far the best Final Fantasy game ever made. So let’s talk about why.

FFVII's gameplay, story, and setting are almost unparalleled.

The Materia system was an excellent idea that contributed to altering character stats. The character list is filled with interesting personalities, even if they're not all brought into the open.

The world setting for FFVII is full of mystery and variety, from exploring the ocean depths in a submarine to zipping about the skies in your airship to traveling around on a Chocobo, it was about as dynamic as any interactive world could've been. Each town had a style and persona all its own, each area had a specific appeal, and how each character reacted to each region was also outstanding.

The depth of that story, the levels, and dimensions on which it operates, the pacing that seems just about perfect; it all combines to create a highly enjoyable experience. It has philosophical and psychological angles that few really appreciate,

And Sephiroth remains the greatest villain of all time for one big reason: He has mastered the art of being both sympathetic and completely brutal.

The game was so fantastic; the Final Fantasy VII Remake is the most requested and anticipated remake game of all time.

If you are looking for a fully immersive and enjoyable RPG experience that pulls you in from the moment you begin, then Final Fantasy VII should be the next game to pop into your system.

3. Final Fantasy IX (2000)

It is no surprise with how iconic the Final Fantasy series is that there would be more than one of them on this list. We talked about the iconic Final Fantasy VII, so now let us talk about Final Fantasy IX and why it is so crucial in the series.

There were concerns regarding how modern Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VIII were with more high-tech robotics and settings. When IX came along, we were transported back to the origin of the Final Fantasy game designs.

FFIX brings us back to pay tribute to its former classics. Traditional medieval fantasy setting and a cast of characters who resembled the classes of old. The characters included Vivi, the Black Mage, and Steiner the Knight, to name a few.

They even made subtle nods and references to previous games to kick that nostalgia up a notch.

The basis of the story? A theater troupe named Tantalus moonlights as a gang of noble thieves. They head to the city of Alexandria to perform their latest play and devise a plan to kidnap the royal princess Garnet. You play as main character Zidane, an actor and thief with a monkey tail. The troupe sets out to capture the princess, only to find that she’s been planning her escape all along.

What follows is a world-spanning adventure involving war, subterfuge, magical crystals, summoned monsters, and lots of clones. If you want to see how it all plays out, I suggest you grab yourself a copy!

4. Chrono Trigger (1995)

The first installment of what is referred to as the Chrono Series is the famous Chrono Trigger. Having been described as revolutionary, some of the elements of the game had never been presented before. These included its multiple endings, plot-related sidequests focusing on character development, unique battle system, and detailed graphics.

Chrono Trigger is a timeless role-playing classic where you embark on a journey to different eras. As the story unfolds, you will travel to the middle ages, future, prehistory, and ancient times. Chrono Trigger gives a new spin to the traveling and monster-killing that you’ll have to do.

The battle system, which is a new take on the “Active-Time-Battle” (or action RPG) system seen in the Final Fantasy games, is enjoyable and unique. You can perform special moves called Techs and even combine with a couple of your party members to perform a triple combo Tech. The use of Mode 7 graphics pops off the screen, and the level of detail is astounding. The overall visuals of the game are brilliant for the time.

Chrono Trigger was the third best-selling game of 1995 in Japan and shipped 2.65 million copies worldwide by March 2003.

It is widely considered one of the most unique RPG’s ever to hit console. It was also very well-deserving of a sequel!

5. Chrono Cross (1999)

Looking for time travel, changing your fate, and the concept of parallel worlds all rolled into one package? Say no more! Welcome to the fantastic must-play sequel, Chrono Cross!

Boasting some beautiful graphics for its time, and an equally brilliant score, it's also one of the first games to offer a ‘New Game Plus' for replayability in an RPG. For anyone that is an RPG fanatic, the replay value for a game speaks volumes.

Renouncing from the traditional turn-based combat system Chrono Cross went with a more stamina-focused approach. They added elemental magic to the mix as a means to sway the battle. You have the option of a large playable support cast wielding different affinities. Having the opportunity to mix different battle group combinations gives the player the power to create a lethal group against powerful foes.

Many say this was not necessarily the best sequel for Cross due to the change in platform. This game the opportunity for new graphics and options that could substantially adjust the game scope. However, it is repeatedly noted as being a brilliant game worthy of precious playtime.

6. Suikoden (1995)

Not long after the launch of the PlayStation, Konami released a 2D role-playing game with a killer soundtrack called Suikoden. Creator Yoshitaka Murayama opted to prioritize storytelling and atmosphere over the fancy 3D graphics that were just starting to take off.

The game centers on the political struggles of the Scarlet Moon Empire. The player controls a Scarlet Moon Empire general's son, who is destined to seek out 108 warriors or 108 Stars of Destiny) to revolt against the corrupt sovereign state and bring peace to a war-torn land.

Suikoden was widely considered the best RPG on PlayStation. It earned this title from fans due to its great premise, fast-paced combat, and emotional story. The game itself was so well received that it was worthy of a sequel.

7. Suikoden II (1998)

Continuing with its traditional 2D graphics, Suikoden II is brilliant in both narrative and storytelling. It avoids traditional world-destroying power/demonic force in favor of warring states and factions. The game itself follows with the same storyline and characters as the original. Unlike other RPGs, the Suikoden games are all set in the same universe, with recurring storylines, characters, and settings.

The game itself contains challenging dungeons and bosses, but there is no grinding necessary! Thanks to the auto-attack option, you can quickly and efficiently level characters, so they are always up to speed.

Not only do you have satisfying combat, a cooking mini-game, a top-ranked villain, and flying squirrels, you also get to run your castle.

8. The Legend of Dragoon (1999)

This RPG is another that has a well-known name, but for different reasons. Gamers found this one appealing and claim it is PS1’s most underrated RPG. That makes this classic worthy of a second look!

While it does offer many similarities and familiar aspects of a “traditional” RPG, Legend of Dragoon added the ability to change the nominal Dragoons into enhanced versions of themselves to aide in combat.

Much like Limit Breaks and Trance in FF, it enhanced combat from being turn-based and straightforward.

It had all the fluff and pizazz of a 32-bit-era Final Fantasy, but the CG cutscenes and pyrotechnics weren’t as up to par with its competition. The battle system also had some technicalities as far as healing and logistics that were a bit questionable. On the flip side, though, many loved how pleasantly straightforward it is.

If you're after something to fill that void between Final Fantasy but don't want to branch too far out, you can't go wrong with Legend of Dragoon.

9. Final Fantasy Tactics (1997)

More Final Fantasy, you ask? Absolutely! They did not earn their title as masters of RPG for no reason! So let us delve into another series gem, Final Fantasy Tactics.

Final Fantasy Tactics begins with Ivalice just recovering from the Fifty Year War against Ordalia. The game's story follows Ramza Beoulve, a highborn cadet who finds himself thrust into the middle of an intricate military conflict. This erupts into a full-scale war known as the “Lion War,” with either side using whatever means possible to secure their place in the throne. This includes bearing an illegitimate child, killing other potential heirs, betrayal, assassination, and false identities.

Pretty intriguing, isn’t it? The plot sounds like a Game of Thrones spinoff!

The battle system is a traditional turn-based and is played out on three-dimensional, isometric fields. In battle, JP is rewarded for every successful action. JP is used to learn new abilities within each job class. Accumulating enough JP results in a job level up; new jobs are unlocked by attaining a certain level in the current job class.

Final Fantasy Tactics received universal acclaim upon its release, and critical opinion of the game has improved further over time. This one is definitely worthy of a spot on the must play list!

10. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (1997)

Symphony of the Night is a platform-adventure action role-playing game developed and published by Konami in 1997.

Symphony begins during the ending of the previous game in the series, Castlevania: Rondo of Blood, where Richter Belmont confronts and defeats Count Dracula. Four years later, in 1796, Richter goes missing, and Dracula's castle reappears. That is spooky enough to get my attention!

The game is non-linear, but most of the castle is inaccessible until various items and abilities are collected, including shapeshifting into a bat, wolf, or mist. It does have RPG based elements in the combat as well. Alucard's hit points determine the maximum damage he can withstand before dying while his magic points decide how frequently a magical attack may be cast. He has four other attributes: strength – the power of his physical attack; defense – his resilience to damage inflicted by the monsters; intelligence – the recovery speed of magic points; and luck – the frequency that enemies drop items.

Symphony has a massive, free-to-explore game world with numerous secrets to uncover. It has been praised for integrating RPG elements without compromising the series' basic gameplay. Multiple critics also made mention of the ingeniously designed enemies and the story's many plot twists.

The game has developed such an immense following that original copies are now considered collectors’ items. It has continued to receive critical acclaim and has appeared on many top games’ lists.

Make sure you grab a copy of this one. You will not be disappointed!

11. Star Ocean: The Second Story (1998)

What landed Star Ocean: The Second Story on this list is the aspect of quality over quantity. It may not be the biggest entry on the list, or even the most popular. What does it have? A story that could rival some of the greatest of those sitting on the throne of the RPG universe.

The overall storyline begins with the main protagonist Claude, son of Ronyx Kenny of the first Star Ocean, being transported to a mysterious world, where he meets Rena and a cast of enigmatic support characters. One of whom, Ashton, is cursed with having two dragon heads attached to his head, that bicker and talk over him. Talk about a permanent headache?

Your progress toward towns, and through dungeons toward the ultimate evil force. This all comes across as a fairly standard base of a PRG story.

The plot twist? This game has 87 different endings.

Some are minor changes, ranging from discovering the identity of one of the bosses, or if you paid attention to certain conversations throughout the game. But this added a new scope than the standard RPG game progression system.

The combat system was also impressive by doing away with being time-based and staying continuously active. It was a refreshing change over selecting through menu prompts.

While this may not be the most popular or classic game on the list, it is definitely one worthy of checking out!

12. Vagrant Story (2000)

Vagrant Story is a beautiful exploration into cult lore, mythology, and ancient magics. It is often referred to as a form of a “spin-off” if Final Fantasy Tactics due to Yasumi Matsuno working on both and set in the same fictional world of Ivalice. Doesn’t that name sound familiar?

Vagrant Story is unique as a console action-adventure role-playing game in that it features no shops and no player interaction with other characters; instead, the game focuses on weapon creation and modification, as well as elements of puzzle-solving and strategy. For many in the know of the ROG universe, this concept was almost completely different.

The gameplay is more of a 3D dungeon explorer, with each area of exploration/combat being broken apart as rooms or small arenas. It utilizes a form of a real-time active battle combat system. Activating combat brings up a personal space bubble, and any offending part of the enemy's anatomy that pierces that is asking for some battle damage. You can also chain together stronger attacks for a combo hit.

These combinations gave a fresh take on the adventure RPG genre. It would pave the way for new gameplay concept to come to light.

Vagrant Story is a lengthy yet wonderful fantasy journey through a largely rewarding game.

Wrap Up

The list of amazing RPGs that were produced and released for the PS1 could go on for ages. Some may even consider this the golden age for RPG releases. It paved the way for amazing remastered games and fresh stories for modern-day gamers!

Original Playstation RPG’s truly take the digital cake for all that they encompass. Unique storylines, bold changes in new combat systems. You name it, and they produced it.

Whether you experienced this fantastic 90’s age of gaming firsthand, or are new to it and looking to explore, you will not be disappointed.

All that is left now is for you to pick a game and play! After all, no story would be complete without the player beginning their journey.

Where Can I find The Games?

Here are some primary locations to obtain these classics:

Playstation Store Classics

LukieGames

DKOldies

GameStop

The Old School Game Vault

Are you looking for more? Check out our list of the Best SNES RPGs of All Time!

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M*A*S*H: 10 Hilarious Memes Only True Fans Will Understand – Screen Rant

Despite being over 40 years old, M*A*S*H is still considered to be one of most popular television shows out there. With memorable characters and surprisingly serious moments amidst the comedy. Though the comedic elements weren’t always great by today’s standards, it was a unique show that hasn’t truly been replicated since.

RELATED: 10 Quotes from M*A*S*H That Are Still Hilarious Today

One particular sign of this show’s timelessness is the fact that there are memes based on the show. While most of them are geared toward fans of show, who either grew up with it or saw reruns on MeTV, they will certainly find these memes hilarious.

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10 Checked By Radar

At a glance, what the road-sign in this meme claims sounds ridiculous and even creepy. But it’s made funny by the superimposed presence of Corporal “Radar” O’Reilly from M*A*S*H peeking out from behind the bushes near the road, making a pun out of the sign as a result. Though in reality, speed checks using radar scans aren’t entirely far-fetched.

According to Mental Floss, police officers will fly over stretches of highway in small aircraft and either “Use VASCAR systems” which are basically radar guns or stopwatches to clock a vehicle’s speed before radioing a ground officer to pull the vehicle over if it goes over the speed limit. Nevertheless, that hasn’t stopped the Internet from turning this concept into a hilarious meme.

9 Trying To Sleep

Being the company clerk for the fictional 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital stationed in South Korea during the Korean War, Radar had to keep track of a lot of things (which is another reason why the previous meme is funny). So naturally, he got easily worried and because he wasn’t the most self-confident character in the cast of M*A*S*H that made him susceptible to suggestions from more charismatic characters like Captain “Hawkeye” Pierce.

RELATED: 10 Jokes From M*A*S*H That Have Already Aged Poorly

Hence, this meme is appropriately funny by having Radar personify a person trying to go to bed while Hawkeye is whispering something to him as the personification of the person’s inner fears about how everything can possibly go wrong. It’s not only fitting of their characters but their facial expressions fit the meme’s subtitles quite well.

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8 Closed The Garage

In keeping with the theme of hilariously appropriate facial expressions, we’ve got Major Margaret Houlihan making this face which can only be described as being mildly confused yet clearly preoccupied about something. Hence, we have a tagline that seems like the most specific yet relatable scenario that would lead her to make this kind of expression thus making it funny.

Then like the previous meme, this one also fits Margaret’s character as she was arguably one of the most well-organized officers in M*A*S*H. This is despite the fact that she was constantly flirted with by the guys and actively had an affair with a married man.

7 Let’s See

Aside from his charisma and tendency to make witty remarks, Hawkeye didn’t usually play by the rules at the 4077th MASH camp. In fact, he was even downright lazy at times as his facial expression in this meme indicates.

RELATED: M*A*S*H: 6 Best Friendships (& 4 Worst)

This notion is further assisted by the meme’s funny tagline which lists various chores that have to be done with an abrupt stop by the ‘Or’ part of the sentence. While it’s not explicitly implied what’s going to happen instead, it probably has to do with drinking since we see Hawkeye holding a full martini glass which makes sense as he had alcoholic tendencies in M*A*S*H.

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6 Surgery Is Finally Over

Since Hawkeye was the 4077th MASH camp’s chief surgeon, he was almost always involved in most of the surgeries that happened when wounded and/or dying soldiers were flown in. Because surgery is an intensive and delicate process, it’s not only stressful but also exhausting.

So the joke in this M*A*S*H meme is that after Hawkeye performs surgery, he falls into a deep sleep. Then what makes the meme funnier is that the person featured in this meme is “Dan” Avidan from the two-man music group Ninja Sex Party and the increasingly popular YouTube video gaming channel Game Grumps, who was either sleepy or on the verge of sleep in several videos of Game Grumps.

5 Reposting

By its definition, a meme is an image that is repeated over and over again regardless of its original context. However, in an age where people’s attention spans are growing increasingly shorter a meme can become ‘old’ by Internet standards pretty quickly.

RELATED: M*A*S*H: The 10 Saddest Moments, Ranked

That concept in turn serves as the basis for the humor in this meme, which uses a notably hilarious still-frame from the third season M*A*S*H episode “Adam’s Ribs”. In it, Hawkeye gets fed up with the food served at the camp and starts chanting “We want something else!” making it the perfect metaphor for this meme’s tagline about what it feels like to see the same thing reposted multiple times.

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4 Beaver Biscuits

Though Hawkeye was known to make sarcastic remarks that ultimately came off as hilariously witty in relation to the situation at hand, Colonel Sherman T. Potter often made exclamations that were funny in of themselves. An example is the one this meme uses, which sounds so strange on its own that it becomes funny in combination with Potter’s angry face.

Of course, this was just one of many hilarious exclamations that Potter used in duration of his time on M*A*S*H. After he replaced Lieutenant Colonel Henry Blake as the 4077th MASH camp’s commanding officer, he quickly became one of the most popular characters on the show and his strangely funny exclamations may have had something to do with it.

3 I Am Hawkeye

Because Hawkeye is such a distinct name, it’s hard to forget. Yet who people associate it with has changed across several generations, as various characters in movies and TV shows of varying genres have been called Hawkeye. This meme highlights a few examples with Hawkeye from the 1992 remake of The Last of the Mohicans at the top, followed by the superhero Hawkeye from The Avengers, and then ending at Hawkeye from M*A*S*H.

RELATED: 10 Things That Make No Sense About M*A*S*H

The main humor of this meme comes from the subtitles, as each guy claims to be the ‘true’ Hawkeye with M*A*S*H’s Hawkeye pointing at himself and implying he’s the one the others got their name from. While this is true time-wise as M*A*S*H predates The Last of the Mohicans 1992 movie, let alone The Avengers, the book The Last of the Mohicans was based on was written in the 1800s making its protagonist Hawkeye technically older than the others. Still, this meme is funny for its references and truthfulness to an extent.

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2 Ermahgerd

One of the Internet’s most popular memes, “Ermahgerd” is an exaggerated misspelling of the phrase “Oh my god” to coincide with the girl in the photo’s excited expression which is so cringe-worthy that it’s funny to look at. Now in the original meme, the girl was holding up books from the horror series Goosebumps with the tagline “Gersberms / Mah fravrit berks” according to Know Your Meme.

In this meme, though, the book covers have been replaced with M*A*S*H DVD covers. Yet the effect is the same as this meme’s tagline has the same exaggerated misspelled words as the original meme, and the girl’s face makes it all the more funny.

1 Scared, Potter?

Much like Hawkeye, the name Potter has changed in terms of association with different fictional characters among various generations of people. While most people today associate it with the titular protagonist in the Harry Potter franchise, Sherman T. Potter from M*A*S*H predates the former by at least two decades.

So the humor of the above meme comes from mixing the association of these two different characters by having a still-frame of the Dueling Club scene from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets intercut by M*A*S*H’s Potter making one of his weirdly funny exclamations. This in turn makes it hilarious for older and younger generations of M*A*S*H fans.

NEXT: M*A*S*H: 10 Hidden Details You Never Noticed

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cryingbecausecoatls · 7 years

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Projects, Pt 1

The next 7 projects I’ll describe are all new to me, so I think I can get away with cramming them into two posts, as I don’t have nearly as much history with them yet.

That said: Why the heck did I take on 7 new projects at once? I am not very smart, and I am having regrets, I think. Just a single 5-egg nest has made me realize this is going to get out of hand VERY quickly. I mean, as quickly as these dang breeding cooldowns can be... (I am going to have a TON of breedings to organize starting in about 10 days.)

The first project happens to be, by far, the most difficult on this list, and possibly the most difficult I’ve ever had. (Maybe. I mean, the ones that I think are going to be easy wind up being hard, and the ones that I think are going to be hard, wind up being easy...) It has all the marks of being difficult: Unpopular/uncommon colours, all three being spread across the colour wheel (non-monochromatic), triple gem gene including STAINED, and, of course, it’s a Coatl. That said, Swamp Iridescent/Carmine Butterfly/Tangerine Stained makes a darn pretty Coatl...

GOOD LUCK TO ME. I’ve got a set of 4 pairs set up for this, though one “pair” is actually a trio- two gem breeds to a Ridgeback, which is... less than ideal. But I couldn’t turn down the Ridgeback, she was so close...

Project number two happens to be my very first Wildclaw project, and unlike every single Coatl project, I am excited to be breeding Wildclaws, because dang it, graciliraptors are great and I love them and they don’t eat fish.

In theory, this one sounds easy: Chocolate Tiger/Jungle Seraph/Blue Gembond or Okapi. The catch, unfortunately, is Blue. Brown-range/green-range/green- to brown-range, AKA tree dragons, are very common, especially among Wildclaws, due to them being Nature’s breed, but not unlike the Crimson/Crimson/Violet Coatl problem, the tert colours are rarely found outside that range, which makes reaching that range... problematic.

I have yet to pick up a single dragon for this project, and with the new AH on the horizon, my motivation to go and look now has vanished into the void. In the meantime, I am looking for dragons in existing lairs to see if I can throw together close pairings that way, but the results are looking not-great. No wonder this was another hand-me-down project from another breeder!

The third and final project for this post is a super pretty Imperial that I am honestly surprised no other breeders wanted to take on. Maybe because, judging by my hodge-podge pairs, it’s turning out to be a difficult one as well. But, you’d think, with colours and genes like these, it’d be relatively easy to achieve!

That is Ice Petals/Royal Butterfly/Lavender Glimmer, and dang isn’t he a pretty boy? Unfortunately, the starter pairs that I have for him are... not pretty, as in, they have some terrible odds against them. When the AH remake hits, I think I’m going to take a second stab at setting this project up. But for now, I’ll have to make do with what I have.

In short: I am super excited for that AH remake. Being able to select multiple genes, breeds, and colours is SUCH a huge boon to these projects! What has taken me literal hours to do in the past has now been drastically shortened in time. Odds are, I will possibly be redoing many of my projects once it hits and I am better able to find exactly what I need!

#Flight Rising #FR #Coatl #Wildclaw #FR Imperial #flight rising breeding #dragonwish foundation

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kuwaiti-kid · 4 years

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12 Best PS1 Role Playing Games (RPGs) of All Time

Magic, adventure, intrigue, and the 32-bit era of graphics.

When you mention the origins of our favorite role-playing video games, nostalgia runs rampant within us. We all remember our first, our favorite, and everything in between.

Get ready to have another blast from the past! We are delving deep into the amazing games that made up the epic Playstation Roleplaying genre of the ’90s.

Here is our list of the best PlayStation RPG games ever!

The Best PS1 RPGs of All Time

1. Xenogears (1998)

Xenogears centers around the main character Fei, an adopted young male in the village of Lahan. Fei was brought by a mysterious man while suffering from retrograde amnesia. During an attack on Lahan from Gebler, Fei pilots an empty gear and fights the enemy, accidentally destroying the village. As a result, Fei and Citan, the village’s doctor, leave with the abandoned gear to get it away from the town.

From this point, you meet multiple supporting characters that very clearly also have skeletons in their closets.

Every character and inch of this game is worth exploring to experience the all-encompassing details and rich storyline. At the time, Xenogears was a groundbreaking game. This is a must-play.

2. Final Fantasy VII (1997)

FFVII’s gameplay, story, and setting are almost unparalleled.

The Materia system was an excellent idea that contributed to altering character stats. The character list is filled with interesting personalities, even if they’re not all brought into the open.

The world setting for FFVII is full of mystery and variety, from exploring the ocean depths in a submarine to zipping about the skies in your airship to traveling around on a Chocobo, it was about as dynamic as any interactive world could’ve been. Each town had a style and persona all its own, each area had a specific appeal, and how each character reacted to each region was also outstanding.

And Sephiroth remains the greatest villain of all time for one big reason: He has mastered the art of being both sympathetic and completely brutal.

The game was so fantastic; the Final Fantasy VII Remake is the most requested and anticipated remake game of all time.

If you are looking for a fully immersive and enjoyable RPG experience that pulls you in from the moment you begin, then Final Fantasy VII should be the next game to pop into your system.

3. Final Fantasy IX (2000)

They even made subtle nods and references to previous games to kick that nostalgia up a notch.

4. Chrono Trigger (1995)

Chrono Trigger was the third best-selling game of 1995 in Japan and shipped 2.65 million copies worldwide by March 2003.

It is widely considered one of the most unique RPG’s ever to hit console. It was also very well-deserving of a sequel!

5. Chrono Cross (1999)

Looking for time travel, changing your fate, and the concept of parallel worlds all rolled into one package? Say no more! Welcome to the fantastic must-play sequel, Chrono Cross!

Boasting some beautiful graphics for its time, and an equally brilliant score, it’s also one of the first games to offer a ‘New Game Plus’ for replayability in an RPG. For anyone that is an RPG fanatic, the replay value for a game speaks volumes.

6. Suikoden (1995)

The game centers on the political struggles of the Scarlet Moon Empire. The player controls a Scarlet Moon Empire general’s son, who is destined to seek out 108 warriors or 108 Stars of Destiny) to revolt against the corrupt sovereign state and bring peace to a war-torn land.

7. Suikoden II (1998)

Not only do you have satisfying combat, a cooking mini-game, a top-ranked villain, and flying squirrels, you also get to run your castle.

8. The Legend of Dragoon (1999)

Much like Limit Breaks and Trance in FF, it enhanced combat from being turn-based and straightforward.

If you’re after something to fill that void between Final Fantasy but don’t want to branch too far out, you can’t go wrong with Legend of Dragoon.

9. Final Fantasy Tactics (1997)

More Final Fantasy, you ask? Absolutely! They did not earn their title as masters of RPG for no reason! So let us delve into another series gem, Final Fantasy Tactics.

Final Fantasy Tactics begins with Ivalice just recovering from the Fifty Year War against Ordalia. The game’s story follows Ramza Beoulve, a highborn cadet who finds himself thrust into the middle of an intricate military conflict. This erupts into a full-scale war known as the “Lion War,” with either side using whatever means possible to secure their place in the throne. This includes bearing an illegitimate child, killing other potential heirs, betrayal, assassination, and false identities.

Pretty intriguing, isn’t it? The plot sounds like a Game of Thrones spinoff!

Final Fantasy Tactics received universal acclaim upon its release, and critical opinion of the game has improved further over time. This one is definitely worthy of a spot on the must play list!

10. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (1997)

Symphony of the Night is a platform-adventure action role-playing game developed and published by Konami in 1997.

Symphony begins during the ending of the previous game in the series, Castlevania: Rondo of Blood, where Richter Belmont confronts and defeats Count Dracula. Four years later, in 1796, Richter goes missing, and Dracula’s castle reappears. That is spooky enough to get my attention!

The game is non-linear, but most of the castle is inaccessible until various items and abilities are collected, including shapeshifting into a bat, wolf, or mist. It does have RPG based elements in the combat as well. Alucard’s hit points determine the maximum damage he can withstand before dying while his magic points decide how frequently a magical attack may be cast. He has four other attributes: strength – the power of his physical attack; defense – his resilience to damage inflicted by the monsters; intelligence – the recovery speed of magic points; and luck – the frequency that enemies drop items.

Symphony has a massive, free-to-explore game world with numerous secrets to uncover. It has been praised for integrating RPG elements without compromising the series’ basic gameplay. Multiple critics also made mention of the ingeniously designed enemies and the story’s many plot twists.

The game has developed such an immense following that original copies are now considered collectors’ items. It has continued to receive critical acclaim and has appeared on many top games’ lists.

Make sure you grab a copy of this one. You will not be disappointed!

11. Star Ocean: The Second Story (1998)

Your progress toward towns, and through dungeons toward the ultimate evil force. This all comes across as a fairly standard base of a PRG story.

The plot twist? This game has 87 different endings.

The combat system was also impressive by doing away with being time-based and staying continuously active. It was a refreshing change over selecting through menu prompts.

While this may not be the most popular or classic game on the list, it is definitely one worthy of checking out!

12. Vagrant Story (2000)

The gameplay is more of a 3D dungeon explorer, with each area of exploration/combat being broken apart as rooms or small arenas. It utilizes a form of a real-time active battle combat system. Activating combat brings up a personal space bubble, and any offending part of the enemy’s anatomy that pierces that is asking for some battle damage. You can also chain together stronger attacks for a combo hit.

These combinations gave a fresh take on the adventure RPG genre. It would pave the way for new gameplay concept to come to light.

Vagrant Story is a lengthy yet wonderful fantasy journey through a largely rewarding game.

Wrap Up

Original Playstation RPG’s truly take the digital cake for all that they encompass. Unique storylines, bold changes in new combat systems. You name it, and they produced it.

Whether you experienced this fantastic 90’s age of gaming firsthand, or are new to it and looking to explore, you will not be disappointed.

All that is left now is for you to pick a game and play! After all, no story would be complete without the player beginning their journey.

Where Can I find The Games?

Here are some primary locations to obtain these classics:

Playstation Store Classics

LukieGames

DKOldies

GameStop

The Old School Game Vault

Are you looking for more? Check out our list of the Best SNES RPGs of All Time!

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