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unsoundedcomic · 3 months

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Without getting into spoilers-- is there anything you can tell us about how you came up with the concept/character of Sessine/ Ilganyag? Both design-wise and character-wise she feels very unique to me. Sympathetic, manipulative but also deeply tragic and bizarre. (weirdly enough I feel similarly with Ruck? Those senets man)

Mm, diving deep back through the misty recesses of my memory, she would have originated from Mullenkamp, from Vagrant Story. Bastion was originally a stand-in for Sydney Losstarot, from that game. The priestess Mullenkamp did some vague cultic voodoo long ago and Sydney inherited it. Mullenkamp was depicted in the opening FMV as a belly dancer with a sword on her head, and that is the extent of her characterization. Sydney never interacted with her and she wasn't an active agent.

But she shoulda been, that woulda been cool, so Bastion got a dark lady goddess/priestess. In RP he referenced her now and then but she had no appearance or voice. She was called Lady Ilganyag, with the Black Tongues named after her and under her control. Bastion would have one-sided conversations with her when I needed to write out his reaction to an event or show how he was feeling in general.

In Unsounded, I decided to blow her role way the heck up, and she became the tiddybird we all know and love. She's suffered the kind of loneliness and disappointment that becomes alienation, and yet she cannot stop loving and wishing for better. She adores humans even though she understands they're terrible creatures. They're jewelled and poisonous spiders in an abandoned terrarium but she is their mother, she has known them since they were the tiniest children, and so she cannot help but love them.

But she did originally spring from Bastion play, and still has that role of someone who has directly inspired everything but who is barely on the page.

And yet there is a twist that will make her machinations clear as glass. It's on its way.

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sevlinop · 3 months

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The other most moving moment in Final Fantasy 8

Happy 25th Anniversary FF8! A few weeks or so ago, I wrote this essay about FF8 after replaying the game over the holidays.

https://www.tumblr.com/sevlinop/740421894418972672/the-most-moving-moment-in-final-fantasy-8?source=share

I was originally planning on just reblogging it, and adding a comment, since I have a Super Bowl party later and wasn't sure If I'd be up to writing. Also for a video game that's been being discussed for 25 years, I felt like that was the only interesting and original thing I had to say about it.

Then I rewatched the cutscene I mentioned in the aforementioned post. For one, I misremembered some of the details when I wrote that essay, so I'm somewhat embarrassed about that. Still, the core message holds true, Imo. Squall essentially has a moment of Eternal Recurrence (bear with me, unfortunately I was a philosophy major), and affirmed that his life is worth living. He says yes to life, despite his suffering. Both in the past, present, and inevitably in the future.

What compelled me to write this post isn't that scene though, it's the more famous FMV after. Squall is sent to a realm that's an endless desert, where he wanders for who knows how long. Bombarded by disturbing images, and his own sense of identity being challenged in a mind bending montage. The most famous moment being the Squall black void face.

To me this isn't because Squall affirming his life in the prior scene was pointless, it's that he's only done the first part. He chose to keep living, and that his life was worth it. That's a huge step for any person, let alone someone like Squall. Still, despite what many claim, no man is an island. All Squall did was the first part.

Just working through his problems in his head, and fixing everything, wouldn't make sense as a conclusion for Squall. That's not really what Squall's character arc is about, or the theme that FF8 is trying to communicate. It's how opening up ourselves to others can change us, redeem us, and save us.

So Rinoa does the second part, she saves Squall. He's already completed his own inner journey, for the purposes of a video game character at least, but his external one has only begun. The real hard part won't be the events of the game, but having to now live his mundane, everyday life.

This is why despite the sorceress connection, Ultimecia is really meant to be Squall's narrative foil, not Rinoa's. She tries to save herself via Time Compression, and ironically causes her own demise because of it. Her goals really aren't far off from Squall's, she wants to be perfectly self sufficient. Granted, her pain is different from Squall's, and only implied. Still, she's the main antagonist for a reason.

She's unable to escape how her own persecution and trauma has wounded her. And because of that, Ultimecia lives in an empty castle, in some distant future, seemingly alone. And trying to find a way to somehow become even more alone.

Squall can and does overcome his past though. In part through his own efforts, but also because of Rinoa and the others. She's willing to embrace being a sorceress and using those powers, if it means saving Squall. He needs her just as much as she needs him. Just like we all need someone.

Thanks for 25 years FF8!

(On a more lighthearted note, what character do you relate to the most? I personally have always identified a lot with Zell, since I'm also overeager and can be annoying, lol. I love his character arc, and how he slowly becomes a leader in his own right. )

#final fantasy 8 #ff8 #squall leonhart #rinoa heartilly #ultimecia #zell dincht #ff8 meta #final fantasy meta #ff8 analysis #character analysis #happy 25th anniversary ff8 #Sevlinop's rambling again

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metatronhateblog · 1 month

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IT'S DONE

Okay so I've been holding this FMV/Fanvid in my clutches for a while now and not sharing. In all honesty, I just didn't feel like making a thumbnail. But someone so graciously made one for me! SO NOW! MY MASTERPIECE! THE VIDEO THAT HAS BEEN PLAGUING MY BRAIN FOR THE MONTHS I'VE BEEN HOARDING IT!

I GIVE YOU

Don't Blame Me.

(I'll reblog with link since Tumblr hates links!)

#good omens #good omens 2 #ineffable husbands #aziraphale #good omens season 2 #crowley #fanvid #good omens fanvid #edit #taylor swift

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matchadobo · 1 year

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masterpost

if you follow me and you satisfy these conditions: no icon/header, no interactions with my posts, no likes/following, no bio—you will be blocked. reposting my works WITHOUT CREDIT including edits, colorings/art, and writings are strictly prohibited. full masterlist and rules for requests under the cut.

rules for requests

no yandere tropes or anything violent/abusive

no race specific nor gender specific (in this case, i only write for gn and afab) nor appearance specific nor age specific or generally something-specific SJASDDJSAJ

i can only write for afab readers identifying as she/her as of the moment

no oc

minors should proceed with their own discretion when visiting my blog and giving requests (i am not enabling minors but i also have no control of their content consumption, this is only a warning and a reminder)

not a native english speaker but i am fluent in this language, just don't expect top tier grammar lmao

i mostly write for kidd, but i'm willing to try and write for these characters. these are the only characters i will accept for requests: (these may subject to change)

fantasy tropes are welcomed! i especially love writing for these, you can check my past hcs for reference (although i don't write for hybrids/minks/fishman/furries, it's uncomfortable for me)

smut and/or suggestive themes are also welcomed, but please don't expect much i'm just starting to get the hang of it T^T

i only write from upto 3 characters for each request, you can put more than 3 people in your requests but i will only choose upto 3

KEEP IN MIND

i'm a very selective author so don't expect for your request/s to be accepted and made, i only pick ones i like and can give justice to

i only write for one piece as of the moment. i'm caught up with the anime, not so much in the manga

please be patient with me bc i either complete requests very fast (bc i'm probably on vacation that time) or very slow (bc i'm a student :c). i only do this in my free time and if we have regular school days, there is no free time!!

be respectful and don't spam requests

requests are: open

colorings

sasaki to miyano

kaeya, diluc, and zhongli

dr. vegapunk/york

izou of ringo

why so serious?

the king of the underworld

raitei no yoroi

hibari and kujaku

BEELZEBUB; Hurry... Quickly... Please... Kill me. As brutally... and... as hideously as you can.

QIFREY; o, rushing waves... bring to me the one i seek

hcs and scenarios

all my writing are catered to fem readers unless mentioned otherwise

KIDD; it all started with a drink

ACE; guitar

KIDD; make me pretty, aye?

KIDD; bet

KIDD; 9 things i hate about you

KIDD; how does eustass kidd propose?

KIDD; kidd as a father

KIDD; coming home to you

KIDD; eustass kidd as a college student

KIDD; 3 times he almost said i love you and 1 time he actually did

SHANKS; bathing with the emperor on a hot summer day🔞

KIDD; beauty & the beast

KIDD; dates with college kidd

BENN; billiards séx🔞

KIDD; the captain has an allergy!

KIDD; the captain's madam🔞

KIDD; the pirate's princess🔞

KIDD; kidd being sweet

KIDD; reconcilation

KIDD; n/sfw alphabet🔞

IZOU; haircare with izou

KONIG; someone to come home to🔞

KIDD; overnight

KIDD; how does he apologize after a petty fight

KIDD; giving him flowers

KIDD; toxic ex

KIDD; doing the shaving for him

KIDD; biker kidd au

KIDD; babysitter🔞

SHANKS; safeword🔞

KIDD; fvck me like you love me🔞

KIDD; calm to his storm

ACE; the way you look tonight

KIDD & KILLER; gifts

KIDD; christmas headcanons

KIDD & KILLER; north blue s/o

KIDD; soft and loving kidd

KIDD; tending to his wounds

KIDD; it's the captain's birthday🔞

KIDD; birthday present🔞

KIDD; runaway princess

KIDD; overheard🔞

KIDD; avenging you

TBoTE SERIES

intro w/ chapter list

edits/fmvs

KIDD; make way for the king

KÖNIG; der Panzer

LAXUS DREYAR

RWRB; tahanan

playlists

eustass kidd

zosan

shanks

perona

sanji

nico robin

weeb sh!t

opm

#cha's masterlist #cha writes #cha colors #cha edits

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farfromdaylight · 1 month

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some thoughts on the first couple hours of ff13, after picking it up for the first time in a decade

it's fun how much the party 1) doesn't know each other and 2) doesn't like each other! it's very different for a JRPG for the party to just NOT get along to this degree. the only people out of the initial 5 who even know each other are lightning and snow, and lightning has VERY good reason to dislike snow on the outset. the rest are just complete strangers! it's such a fun dynamic.

the dialogue does a perfectly fine job of explaining what l'cie are. like, they explicitly tell you multiple times. fal'cie is a little more murky, but even then, it's not hard to figure out.

that said, the opening is pretty slow in both story and gameplay. not having any magic makes sense for the world, but it makes the game very dull to play for a good 90 minutes. i think if it was remade today they'd streamline it a lot more, because while it's a fine tutorial, there are genuinely too many encounters before you actually get your magic powers.

hope's motivation is pretty thin from the beginning, tbh. watching your mom get killed and being understandably upset about it is perfectly serviceable as a motivation, but then hope runs into snow and doesn't confront him right away. i actually think hope is written quite well, better than i remembered — he comes across as an emotional teenager rather than someone making logical, rational decisions. but if you don't give the character that grace i can understand finding him frustrating.

snow is almost intolerable. i'm really leaning hard on the memory that i liked him a lot more in lightning returns, because he is so fucking annoying in the opening here. calling yourself a hero when there's absolutely no evidence of you being one (and in fact clear evidence that you're NOT a hero) is just obnoxious. also, snow's friend group just comes across as a bunch of weirdos than characters i want to know more about.

vanille is also a weirdo, but at least i know that's wholly intended. i really like the subtle touch of her already having 3 ATB bars when you get to play her initially.

the overall choice to start the game where it does makes sense from a gameplay perspective — it's where the fighting actually starts — but weakens the overall narrative, IMO. FF13 begins in medias res and leans hard on the fact that there were 13 days of prior events that culminated in the Purge... but since the player has no knowledge of all this and a lot of the background isn't immediately clear, it makes for a harder sell. i personally very much enjoy the storytelling in this game, but i can understand why others don't. it requires you to put the narrative together as you go.

once you actually get your magic powers, the game takes off like a rocket. the gameplay remains SO much fucking fun. it's a fascinating evolution of turn-based combat and it works SO well. i do remember how long it'll be until i have 3 party members again, and that part of it is a drag, but the actual combat is so enjoyable i hardly mind.

the game still looks gorgeous. i'm playing on steamdeck and am frequently amazed at how good it looks. obviously the FMVs are still incredible, but the ingame models look SO far ahead of their time, to say nothing of the environments. (also, the fact that i can play a PS3/360 game on handheld and have it Just Work is like magic to me.)

there are so many save points! this is hardly important, but it's making me laugh because i really didn't remember there being a save point around every corner. it's certainly convenient, though!

i don't know how much of it i'm going to play — i'm really supposed to be playing new games right now, not replays — but at the same time i've had SUCH a good time revisiting it that i may carry on for a while yet. we'll see!

#ff13 liveblog #ffxiii #still more fighting

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belladonna-and-the-sweetpeas · 7 months

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List 10 comfort shows and tag 10 people

I was tagged by @twig-tea (thank you!). This is really difficult because I don't tend to re-watch shows. When I'm obsessed I read fanfic, find FMV's on youtube, and search the tag on Tumblr for gifs and meta lol. I tend to go to books and music for comfort in preference to other media. That being said, here are a few shows that have brought me comfort, that I have re-watched at least once, and that made me cry when I needed that catharsis.

Bad Buddy. Nobody needs me to do a shout out for this show, but I knew I was going to love it from the first teaser trailer, I watched it live from episode one, and I re-watched all episodes released before each new episode dropped. It is also the first BL that I ever shared with an IRL person. It's the perfect mix of fantasy, romance, reality, and comedy.

Until We Meet Again. The heartbreak, the healing, the pain, the inevitability, the love. It gets me every time. I'm a sucker for anything that rips my heart out and then shoves it back in.

Triage. Time loops and time travel and changing ones fate because of love and friendship and light in the darkness and nobody being perfect, but also being able to change and how our lives are made of connections and past circumstances and our choices are influenced by the opportunities we have and what support we get.

It's OK to not be OK. There's a theme here, I know hahaha. Intergenerational trauma and healing, how damaged people can help each other, and the importance of family. I binged this show and there are many scenes that I go back to watch when I'm feeling a certain way. I think this show reminds me a lot of one of my all time favourite stories ever. If you love intergenerational trauma and healing and feeling like a monster and grief and love and family, then please, I beg you, go and find and read Fruits Basket.

Bromance. One of the first Taiwanese dramas I ever watched. I know it can be controversial, but I've enjoyed stories that deal with gender identity since I was a teenager. I've never felt particularly connected to societal expectations for the presentation of my own femininity and I have always felt that gender is unimportant for my personal attraction to people. Having people in stories who are unashamedly loved for themselves, no matter the gender people think they are, or the expectations placed on them because of their gender or gender presentation feel so comforting to me. I really love Coffee Prince for the same reasons. There are also several books and manga that I revisit regularly that have this theme.

Eien no kinou. Yes, it is heartbreaking, but it is so soft and gentle about it. The idea that the universe would conspire to give you time to say goodbye to someone you love is so beautiful.

Old Fashion Cupcake. The unknown influences we have on people, the romance of learning to live not merely exist after losing that for ourselves, people who aren't teenager or young adults having a beautiful love story and finding happiness with each other. It's just very comforting to me.

Leverage. The found family, and making the world a little bit better, and how evil people hurt others not because they care, but because they don't care, how grief colours everything. I think this show is a masterpiece and the way that the episodes mostly follow a heist of the week is also very comforting because I can watch just one episode and not feel like I have to keep watching.

Avatar: The Last Airbender. Oh would you look at that, more trauma! But for all the pain, there is love, and laughter, and healing, and "That's rough, buddy".

Full Metal Alchemist. Yes, Brotherhood is objectively better, but I watched the original anime with my best friends in high school and it has been on my list of forever faves since then. Nothing has ever hit the same emotional devastation as the reveal of what happens to Nina (iykyk). But the love and devotion in this story always wraps me up like a warm hug.

I did not realise I had that much to say about TV shows or how many themes my favourite media have in common XD

If you haven't been tagged and want to do this, please jump in and take this as your invite! I'm not sure who has done this, so I'm going to tag a few people, but no pressure if you don't want to or already have :) @axolola, @chalkrevelations, @fatgumsurpremacy-remastered, @vera9, @neoncoloredglasses, @theflagscene, @omarandjohnny

#tag game #comfort shows #trauma and love and healing #this makes me want to go back and watch all of these again #plus read everything they remind me of #and a few that didn't make it on the list lol

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renmorris · 11 months

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thinking about that genre that SGF occasionally dives into. offputting british science fiction games from the 90s released on the ps1.

sentient is of course the best entry into this genre so far, it’s a weird ugly little game that I find kind of captivating in both its oddness and the fact that the time limits for each objective place you in a roll where you are functionally playing as someone caught in a timeloop on a space station doomed to fall into the sun

quantum gate is an fmv fever dream. hypnotic. racist. uncomfortable. as he said himself 'this game makes me feel like there’s something wrong with me'

martian gothic feels like a cult hit without the cult status. the lady from the prisoner tv series is there voicing a sexy ai. its offbeat and unhelpful and unfairly hard. the characters are detached and snarky in a particularly aggravating way that makes solving puzzles even harder because they won’t just say what shit is when you examine items. it feels like a game that’s mad you’re trying to play it.

#supergreatfriend

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accio-victuuri · 2 years

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no surprise here, i’m listening to taylor swift’s new album and there will be one track that reminds me of zz/wyb. this one may be unexpected cause it’s not sweet like daylight ( lover ) or call it what you want ( reputation ) etc. It’s the 13th track, Mastermind.

I’m thinking about Devil’s Timeline or even just them noticing each other in 2017 and lowkey stalking the other’s weibo account. Then once they met in CQL’s shoot, their initial interaction was so indifferent then a few seconds later turned almost intimate. If you believe the CPN that Web pursued the role cause he knew GG was gonna be his romantic interest then it fits. It wasn’t accidental. Or if you’re more on the “GG knew of Bobo” and already had a bias towards him even before they met. It’s inevitable. They always ( unconsciously ) had the other in their radar and were just waiting for the perfect opportunity.

It doesn’t matter who’s POV this is, because the way I see it both of them are masterminds in their own right. They both had a plan. All the play fights, rainbow farts, doting, teasing, longing stares and everything in between was done with intent. There is something beautiful about the head canon of them scheming so the other will fall but the truth is it wasn’t even needed. 💫

NOW I NEED SOMEONE TO MAKE AN FMV OF THEM WITH THIS SONG AS BGM. 😌

#yizhan #bjyx #personal #there is no science here folks im just clowning like i always do #Spotify

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greatwyrmgold · 11 months

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One thing that's been in the back of my mind is the aesthetic component of great video essays. I don't mean the fancy costumes of ContraPoints or PhilosophyTube, or at least I don't just mean those. The video that got me thinking about this topic was The Future is a Dead Mall - Decentraland and the Metaverse by Dan Olson. The video has a running motif that I can only describe as "the 90's".

(Perhaps inaccurately—I don't actually remember any of the 90's, and I think there are some aesthetc call-backs to the 80's, too? Or at least things that make someone who never saw the 80's think "the 80's"...)

At its most obvious, you have Dan comparing the Lindt Experience to the decade's FMV adventure games. Once you I notice that detail, I started to see this motif reflected across the entire video—early Internet gifs in the title cards, references to other 90's or 90's-adjacent media, slides presented in the style of ye olde analog projectors, period music, and so on.

Why does Dan keep referencing the 90's? Several reasons come to mind.

Two of the big metaverse-inspiring narratives, Snow Crash and The Matrix, were written in the 90's. All modern "metaverses" are building on ideas developed in that era.

At the same time, they are failing to learn lessons learned in the 90's. Website design streamlined into a consistent form, simple layouts of text and perhaps images, because anything more complicated just makes the website more cumbersome. Decentraland and other metaverse projects which "activate the trap card of falsifiability" go hard in the other direction.

The whole video has a running mall motif. There's the MetaGamiMall, there's the mixture of social and commercial elements which malls embodied in their prime, there's the fact that Decentraland and other Metaverse projects are directly compared to dead malls, including in the title. That golden age of malls was, or at least included, the 90's.

Whatever the intended purpose of the 90's motif, or even if it has no purpose on its own, it serves to make the whole feature-length video essay feel cohesive. It makes the whole thing feel less like a series of topically linked shorts or a meandering stream of consciousness, and more like a single entity, a single work, a single argument with a singular thesis. "The Web 3.0 vision of the future is a dead mall."

#video essay #media analysis #dan olson #90s #motif

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catie-does-things · 1 month

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oh my word, I went and looked up Zutara I'd Lie fmvs because of your tags and they're all 14, 15, 16 years old (one was even JUST s2 Zutara, bless) which is amazing and so much fun lmao - so since the lyrics are still apt, I think someone needs to make a new one with slick modern editing; I'd (d)ie.

For the record, I'm pretty sure this was the one that introduced me to the song.

But I don't know, I kind of like that it's just the preserved piece of fandom from 2008. A slick modern editing version wouldn't feel right.

#catie answers things #zutara #you look like taylor swift

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guzhufuren · 1 year

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hey i know this whole thing with build has been very draining so i’m wishing you the best and hoping it’s not hitting you too hard

to distract myself from that i’ve been working on a kinnporsche playlist except i can’t think of many songs that would work. do you have any songs you associate with kp?? they don’t have to actually fit the narrative or anything, as long as they (for whatever reason) remind you of the show

of course if any of your followers also have a suggestion i’d love to hear it

take care!!

hi sweetheart! v draining, thank you so much for caring!! sending warmth your way and wishing you all the best too

ah i actually don't like listening to/making playlists for tv shows because the only tracks that remind me of them are either the official show soundtracks, or if someone made a fan made video and i now associate the music editor put there with the show. which happens v v rarely cause i adore fanmade videos but find about 1 in 1000 that i actually like. only saw a few KinnPorsche fmvs that made me feel things

so my KinnPorsche playlist is made of episodes soundtrack and looks like this

EDIT i forgot!!!! Taste by Stray Kids is the one song that reminds me of vegaspete, it's perfectly them. and Jeff Satur's Hide for kimporchay

suggestions in the notes are very welcomed darlings <3

#sending you hugs and blowing some air kisses<3 #kinnporsche #asks

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demonfox38 · 6 months

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Completed: Quest: Brian's Journey

Question: have you ever unironically loved something a majority of people consider awful?

Like, I don't mean a shitty person. I’m talking crappy media. LIke, is there at least one movie that was featured on "Mystery Science Theater 3000" or "Rifftrax" that you would watch without jokes? Do you have any cheap sci-fi novels or trashy paperback novels that are falling apart from how often you've re-read them? Have you ever seen a kid's show that was clearly just a ploy for marketing toys and loved it regardless?

I'm bringing this up because, in order to talk about "Quest: Brian's Journey," I'm going to have to talk about "Quest 64." Like, what I find genuinely special about that game, and why I consider this game's existence a miracle.

If you can't understand loving garbage, you're not going to get anything else out of this evaluation.

"Quest: Brian's Journey" is a 2000 Gameboy Color RPG that takes the root function and plot of the Nintendo 64 game "Quest 64" and "demakes" it for the lower-powered hardware. In some fashion, it could be considered a sibling to titles like the GameBoy version of "Metal Gear Solid," "Resident Evil Gaiden," and "Perfect Dark." Those titles were at least associated with games from the PlayStation and Nintendo 64 era that people generally considered good. The predecessor for "Quest: Brian's Journey," on the other hand…

Look. I know why "Quest 64" is bagged on. In an era bursting at the seams with FMV cutscenes, nascent voice acting, and long, complex storylines, "Quest 64" is downright rudimentary. Would it have done okay, had it been released at the beginning of the Nintendo 64's life? Maybe. But, in 1998? In the era of Squaresoft's indominable reign in the west? It was—and to some extent remains—a joke. Doubly so after more successful Nintendo 64 releases (particularly the big gun "The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time", released only a handful of months later.)

Would it have been nice to have some level of cutscenes and puppetry in "Quest 64"? Absolutely. Maybe something more than a text crawl for an ending? Duh! "Quest 64" is a game released in a beta state, desperately needing at least six months of polish before it should have been dropped on the planet. But, for all its perceived flaws, I don't hate "Quest 64." In fact, I very much enjoy it! The game is lively, colorful, pleasantly varied in character and enemy design, and relaxing to play. For me, it scratches the same itch as archery or pool. It's a game that values positioning, accuracy, and exploration. All good stuff! Drop on top of that a leveling system that augments stats based on your actions and enemy reactions, and grinding suddenly becomes both rewarding and addicting. Like, no matter how you screw up, at least you'll be making progress.

Despite liking "Quest 64," it took me a long time to hear of its follow up games. (Yes, that's right, games. But one is just a "Dig Dug" kind of clone, so don't get too excited.) Like, I only heard about "Quest: Brian's Journey" a few years ago when it was featured in an RPG Limit Break race. I'm still baffled it took me almost 20 years to hear about it. Like, hell. Am I really that much out of the loop, or was there just nothing in terms of marketing for this game? I mean, I'd believe that, but I still feel weird for being so clueless as to its existence. Talk about totally missing your audience.

I suppose when your audience is one of out a million people, someone's going to slip through the cracks.

Despite being a rudimentary port, "Quest: Brian's Journey"'s plot ends up being more complex than its predecessor. The beats are mostly the same, with the hero leaving his monastery home to pursue his father across his Celtic-inspired homeland, acquiring magical stones and driving off monsters and demons in the process. However, more effort has been put into illustrating each plot point, clearly and precisely spelling out or expanding each beat of the story like…I don't know. A real video game! Additional boss fights are also present, giving a little bit of an extra surprise to players of the first game. Granted, it's not the most complex adventure in the world, but it gives way more personality and explanation to characters than before. Like, I can better understand Colleen's hatred for the pirate Kiliac, and Leonardo's whole deal makes way more sense.

Also, the fate of Brian's father is 100% not missable this time! So, hooray for clarity! Could have done without the bit where a 14-year-old princess is being forced into matchmaking, though. That's just weird and creepy.

Most of the environments from the previous game are here, minus Glencoe Forest. (Like, I can see where it roughly was, but it's just tiles instead of its own area.) While not a one-to-one map recreation from the previous game, it's parsable enough to know what is what. Most of the difficulty navigating them is due to the maze-like structure of most environments. Granted, missing treasures is not that big of a deal. The game is very generous with item drops in battles, and you'll easily max out your spirit statistics before you find them all in game.

It's wild how easy it is to overclock Brian in this game. Like, it's mostly the same leveling system as before, taking into account a player's actions and suffered damage to augment health, MP, evasion, defense, and the aforementioned spirit pool. In "Quest 64", it would take days to fully max out your statistics, with players often finishing their game at 40-43 spirits per element out of the max of 50. Here? It all accumulates way faster. Like, I easily hit the 50 max spirits per element before reaching Brannoch Castle (the penultimate dungeon), and I was able to max out HP just casually goofing around after beating the game. The only stat that was a pain in the ass (literally) to level up was defense, and even that is easy to push up to at least 70.

The battle system is intuitive, especially for people who have played the previous game. It's just A to whack with a stick, B to line up spells, and Start to use items. About the only curveball here is the way you learn spells. Previously, "Quest 64" only cared about a single element's level before granting you spells. "Quest: Brian's Journey" wants the player to be more balanced with their element spread, requiring certain levels in each element to grant the player a spell. For example, the first healing spell used to be granted at a Water level of 6. Now, it requires a split between two or three levels between Water and Earth. Not exactly the worst trick, considering how a skilled "Quest" aficionado is already dumping stats into those elements first, but it's good to know about.

Honestly, all of the elements are balanced much better in this game. Like, I watched a Wind Cutter 3 easily dump 200+ damage into a boss, killing it off in two turns. Absolute improvement!

In terms of enemy design and placement, it's mostly as previously experienced. Like, there are some augments, like how fast Merrows can be. But, again, if you know the first game, you've got this one. The only real bastard here is King Beigus, who can easily drop 150-180 HP if he wants. Otherwise, it's very manageable. Possibly, abusable, if you know how to play around spell area limitations!

Something's not quite right with the top-down perspective. Like, I appreciate a column-based spell hitting as high as it does, but it wouldn't look right in 3D. Imagine a geyser of water shooting 6 feet to the right instead of 6 feet vertically, and you'll get what I mean.

The translation for this game is off as well. Some enemy names and spells are mistranslated (most notable "Vanpire's Touch," which was correctly translated as "Vampire's Touch" previously.) I suppose having different companies publishing this series will have details like that slip through the cracks. THQ, Konami, Sunsoft—what a weird mix! Any port in a storm, huh, Imagineer?

I'm honestly surprised that this series' developing company is still around, as of 2023. "Medabot" money is strong, I guess!

Aesthetically, the game looks and sounds like what a competent Nintendo 64 to GameBoy Color port would be. Even acknowledging the limitations there, I do think it is a little visually disappointing. A lot of the spritework is small, so some character and monster details are lost to the compression. It's also limited palette-wise, leaving the previously vibrant environment and characters mostly some shade of cream or brown. I've got no complaints for the musical composition, though. Like, yeah, there's still a natural limit being hit. But, it went from a mid-tier midi arrangement to a competent square-wave arrangement with every tune still being recognizable, so I can't bitch about that! Very pleasant.

If you found "Quest 64" to be an enjoyable experience, "Quest: Brian's Journey" is a natural and easy recommendation to make. Granted, that's like saying, "If you enjoy making taxidermy arrangements using the corpses of squirrels, you'll find doing the same with mice to be equally enjoyable!" At least, to some people. I suspect there is an overlap between players who liked this game and would like the NES games "The Magic of Scheherazade" or "Faria: A World of Mystery and Danger," but again, I may be speaking in tongues.

Do you want an old fantasy game with an easy and quirky battle system that lasts about 10 hours? If so, here you go! Enjoy getting into mouse taxidermy.

I mean, there are worse ways to develop your skills.

#post game evaluation #quest: brian's journey

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brushes-of-sage · 1 year

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OKAY SO NOW WE STAYS NEED TO GIFT THE BOYS WITH AN FMV OR SOMETHING WITH YOUTIFUL BEING SUNG BACK TO THEM AS A THANK YOU 💜

How dare they make me cry and believe someone loves me at 1 am in the morning? /hj

#stray kids #stray kids 5 star #you make stray kids stay

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skaruresonic · 5 months

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Coming from someone who has played SH2 a grand total of once I have never found myself ever having issues with the load times.

The only issues I did have were with how empty and overly spacious the town's streets are (which is probably the point given the setting but that only goes so far to make up for how uninteresting it is to explore imo) and how overly generous it was with resources which led to enemies being little more than nuisances

Coming from someone who is not a fan of the series I think these are the only aspects that would need improving and it could be done with a remaster of sorts that maybe added an option to have less resources laying around or something. A full blown remake should be reserved for those games that are truly rotten at the foundation and as such require complete workarounds

Of the original four, SH2 is the least in need of a remake because it already has so many different ports and rereleases. So you know Konami is only trying to cash in on nostalgia. PT whomst? What's really burning my ass is the fact that even people who call themselves hardcore SH fans are falling for the technical limitations cruft, in this quasi-condescending "uwu poor lambs did their best with what they could" kind of way. As if the artistic direction counts for nothing because the tech they used wasn't as advanced as it is today. This kind of thing is why I think game preservation and history are incredibly important. We keep losing the history in which games are made, lack the context necessary to understand them, and then make up erroneous narratives as a result. Such attitudes wouldn't be so prevalent toward the original if we remembered the quantum leap between the PS2 and the PS1, what an amazing artistic vision the "limiting" tech of the time helped Team Silent to realize. People often cite SH1's limited draw distance as if it's a flaw Team Silent worked around, but forget that it wasn't a problem on the PS2 - so why do later games in the series still feature heavy fog? At some point you have to stop thinking about it in terms of technical limitations and give the creators credit where credit is due. In fact, the reason the fog looks like ass on even later consoles is because the PS2 is capable of layers of transparency that others are not. Team Silent knew this, and they baked these quirks into their design. Folks are so ready to trot out "old graphics are old" as an excuse, like shut your entire ahistorical ass up and respect your elders. You think Sato lived in the office for three years in order to work on SH1's FMVs just so you could sneer at him?

Team Silent had done everything they set out to do, no more or less. And that's before Sato came out and said technical limitations weren't an issue in SH2's development.

(And it's actually really funny because SH2 released to lukewarm reception at first, with some folks upset that its tone diverged from the more overt horror of its predecessor. It didn't become a ~masterpiece~ overnight.) SH2 was the game they spent the most time and resources on. IIRC, SH1's team was much smaller, and development was split between SH3 and SH4, with only a year's worth of crunch allotted to produce SH3. SH3 has a stronger case that they had to cut corners, but even that boiled down to time constraints. I won't pretend SH2 is some masterpiece in terms of gameplay, obviously. Mechanically, it tends to be fairly uninteresting. At the same time, however, I don't think the jank necessarily works against the game. To me it would be more brow-raising if it were a more "sound" game combat-wise. SH3 has a heavier focus on combat by giving you a variety of weapons, and it tends to make the gameplay a little goofy. Plus, Homecoming already proved that better combat doesn't necessarily equal better game. SH2 is also that rare game where even its flaws work mostly in its favor. Its idiosyncrasies are what define it. We can debate the degree to which the jankiness was deliberate forever, but for better or worse, when you sand off the rough edges, you lose some of that special quality that makes the game unique.

David Lynch-esque dialogue, or "odd" Japanese direction misaligning with English voice acting? Who cares? Does it succeed in unsettling you? Then it's done its job. Another thing I learned from Sato's interviews is that Team Silent was mostly composed of artists instead of gamers. That likely made a critical difference in how the game feels. It's not supposed to be a gamey kind of game. You play it for the atmosphere, the characters, the story.

Oh but I guess James has real boy Emoshuns now so none of that matter. Never mind the fact that the remake will probably make your laptop fucking explode.

Silent Hill 2 Will Push Your PC to Its Limits - IGN

You sure it's the original suffering from "technical limitations"? Lol. Lmao.

#asks #silent hill 2 #sh2

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