2018 went by very quickly. I recently seen posts on the internet saying that 2018 felt particularly long and one particular post pointed out some events, memes, and topics from earlier in the year and it even surprised me that they were from this year. That particular post felt that our modern day society is fed so much media in such a short duration that it's become normal to quickly forget something once something new is introduced. On one hand, it's a bit terrifying how much information we consume each year on a day to day basis. But on the other hand, it's impressive how much we can accomplish in such a short amount of time now.
There were a few major low-points throughout this year: Our whole family getting sick in January and neglecting exercise because of it, losing our pet chicken Powderpuff early May (which I didn't even post about because of the anxiety it caused), my mental breakdown in September, and some family tension that just happened a few days ago (that'll hopefully be resolved).
But I've been doing the best I can to see the bright side of things. I've really been trying to be more positive for myself and not just because I want to be for others. This was especially true after my mental breakdown in September. I'm only a few weeks away from going on my first trip to Japan because of that incident. Throughout the year, I started working on original audio work again to prepare a new portfolio for finding a job. Through practice and more remixes, I've finally learned a bit more about mastering which has made a huge difference in the quality of my work. I became closer to my family, lifelong friends, and even new friends. I enjoyed a lot of great games this year. I got a Nintendo Switch from my sister and Nintendo released a new Super Smash Bros. game. One of my closest friends had her wedding ceremony earlier this month. Yes, the low-points of this year have been difficult; however, there were a lot of things to be happy about and grateful for this year. I want to be able to move forward in life and enjoy even more of it from here on out.
I'll probably post about New Year's Resolutions and this year in gaming in the following days. But for now, I'm going to enjoy the last day of 2018 and do a bit of planning for 2019. Happy New Year~
Monday, December 31, 2018
Monday, November 5, 2018
Nintendo Smash Direct 11-1-18
Oops, I totally missed making a post in October. I can't say I was particularly busy last month as progress for work was slow (finished one audio project) and so was progress on finishing games (finished 5 on record, but 3 of them were extremely short). I don't see myself fulfilling much of my New Year's Resolution, but I'm still working hard to get as close to it as possible. Much of October was mis-management of time, being distracted, and creating lots of characters in Soul Calibur VI. I've barely played single-player in SC6 as most of my time is spent in character creation and playing online with friends.
Besides that, I've started making plans to go on a trip to Japan three months from now. One of the things I really wanted to do out of High School or College was study abroad in Japan, learn the language, learn the culture, and change while I was there (hopefully to become more independent and responsible for myself). That never happened and I often wondered if I still want to do it. It definitely wouldn't be the same anymore as I've changed and so has Japan. So at the very least, I want to visit Japan and experience a tiny bit of it before Olympics 2020 Japan as I'm sure the country is bound to change after the event. Hopefully plans go smoothly and I'll finally get to experience Japan first hand.
Nintendo finally aired their last Smash Direct this past Thursday. Near the end of October, I was hungry for more information on Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. I wanted to know who the last characters were and what that mysterious mode that was blurred out is supposed to be. Before Nintendo even had a chance to announce a Direct, news reports were blowing up on a supposed "leak" that revealed the last characters being added to Smash Bros. Ultimate. In retrospect, I should've known the leak was fake considering how perfect it seemed. The "leak" was a snapchat picture of all the characters, but it was blurry. Based on that blurry picture, fans speculated that the remaining characters joining the roster were:
-Shadow the Hedgehog (Sonic the Hedgehog)
-Banjo-Kazooie (Banjo-Kazooie)
-Isaac (Golden Sun) "WHY COULDN'T THIS ONE BEEN REAL, DANG IT?!"
-Ken (Street Fighter) "This was the only real one"
-Mach Rider (Mach Rider)
-Geno (Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars)
-Chorus Kids (Rhythm Heaven)
-KOS-MOS (Xenosaga)
Aside from Mach Rider and Chorus Kids (and maybe even KOS-MOS), all of these characters were highly requested characters by fans during the Smash ballot back on Super Smash Bros. for Wii U. I would've been pretty excited and happy for all of these characters. Alas, this was not the case and it caused quite the drama.
So the Direct started out really strong by revealing two new characters: Ken Masters from Street Fighter (an Echo Fighter of Ryu), and Incineroar from Pokémon. The inclusion of Incineroar hinted strongly that the leak was fake. It caused quite a sinking feeling for me and many others when Sakurai said that these were "the last two fighters to join the roster". "Surely, there has to be more?" was going through many people's minds. It went on to talk about Amiibos and then led up to talking about the mysterious mode "spirits" where a large number of characters from many different games act like "equipment" from SSB4 for the player's character to use in Spirit mode.
I liked the idea of seeing so many different characters show up. As the direct explained the gameplay, I thought to myself "this sounds like a mobile game". It sounded potentially fun, but possibly grindy as well. Spirits can be caught, trained, fed, sent out to find treasure, etc. Its main gameplay is essentially a glorified events mode where the player must fight opponents with specific conditions and scenarios and references the spirits. What I like about all of this is all the RPG aspects that gives the player a sense of progression by collecting and getting their characters stronger.
I have mixed feelings about how Online gameplay is handled. Online will allow more flexibility on specific rules the player wants to be matched up with, but it'll also make finding matches potentially more difficult. The ranking system will be universal all around rather than having a specific "ranked" mode (which was For Glory in SSB4). Match making will prioritize making matches closer to where you are to minimize lag. Overall, the changes give the player more control over what kind of match they want to play online.
And then Assist Trophies showed up with the first one being Shadow the Hedgehog, which means he won't be a playable character. They show cased new assist trophies such as Yuri from Fatal Frame from Wii U. And then immediately after that they showed Isaac from Golden Sun, a character I was really hoping on being playable for once. They showed some other cool ones like Guile from Street Fighter, Dr. Wily from Mega Man, and Tiki from Fire Emblem.
The direct talked a bit more about different modes, options, gallery, and Mii Fighter customization and costumes. Then it revealed that they already planned on 5 DLC packs, with each one containing a new character, a new stage, and additional music tracks to go along with it. Unfortunately, they're not going to tell us who are what they are. So it's like every other fighting game where they ask you to put down money on content we don't know anything about. ($5.99 each or $24.99 for all five). If you do buy the season pass, you get Rex's costume for Mii Fighters, additional music from Xenoblade Chronicles 2, and characters from it show up as spirits. This made me sad that Rex/Pyra didn't make the cut as playable characters.
So when it got to the part where Sakurai mentioned working on something that isn't completed yet but will be free for those who purchase the game before the end of January, I didn't know what to expect. Many people expected/hoped that it was another character with some individuals believing that it was going to be Geno. I normally watch reaction videos for Smash directs to see other people get excited for the same things I'm excited for. But this time around, I went to see how others felt about the reveal of Piranha Plant as a character. For me, I was only mildy disappointed and confused. But man, were some people upset. The common reactions I saw from watching reaction videos were:
-Incessantly screaming "WHAT?!"
-Being very angry and screaming "WTF?!"
-So shocked/confused that they just stare with a blank expression
-Laughing hysterically
-And the rare one was seeing some of them cry
Here are some of my favorite reactions to various parts of the direct:
Shadow and Isaac deconfirmed
Rex/Pyra deconfirmed
Piranha Plant
Rex/Pyra deconfirmed
Piranha Plant
Piranha Plant
Piranha Plant
Poor Jacob.....
Arnold one of the very few people happy to see Piranha Plant
At the very least, the ended with a high note at the end showing a cinematic from Spirits' Story mode, gameplay footage of it, and the reveal that the main theme has lyrics. Despite some mild disappointments from this last direct, I am so excited to play this game and to see what the future holds for it.
Besides that, I've started making plans to go on a trip to Japan three months from now. One of the things I really wanted to do out of High School or College was study abroad in Japan, learn the language, learn the culture, and change while I was there (hopefully to become more independent and responsible for myself). That never happened and I often wondered if I still want to do it. It definitely wouldn't be the same anymore as I've changed and so has Japan. So at the very least, I want to visit Japan and experience a tiny bit of it before Olympics 2020 Japan as I'm sure the country is bound to change after the event. Hopefully plans go smoothly and I'll finally get to experience Japan first hand.
Nintendo finally aired their last Smash Direct this past Thursday. Near the end of October, I was hungry for more information on Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. I wanted to know who the last characters were and what that mysterious mode that was blurred out is supposed to be. Before Nintendo even had a chance to announce a Direct, news reports were blowing up on a supposed "leak" that revealed the last characters being added to Smash Bros. Ultimate. In retrospect, I should've known the leak was fake considering how perfect it seemed. The "leak" was a snapchat picture of all the characters, but it was blurry. Based on that blurry picture, fans speculated that the remaining characters joining the roster were:
-Shadow the Hedgehog (Sonic the Hedgehog)
-Banjo-Kazooie (Banjo-Kazooie)
-Isaac (Golden Sun) "WHY COULDN'T THIS ONE BEEN REAL, DANG IT?!"
-Ken (Street Fighter) "This was the only real one"
-Mach Rider (Mach Rider)
-Geno (Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars)
-Chorus Kids (Rhythm Heaven)
-KOS-MOS (Xenosaga)
Aside from Mach Rider and Chorus Kids (and maybe even KOS-MOS), all of these characters were highly requested characters by fans during the Smash ballot back on Super Smash Bros. for Wii U. I would've been pretty excited and happy for all of these characters. Alas, this was not the case and it caused quite the drama.
So the Direct started out really strong by revealing two new characters: Ken Masters from Street Fighter (an Echo Fighter of Ryu), and Incineroar from Pokémon. The inclusion of Incineroar hinted strongly that the leak was fake. It caused quite a sinking feeling for me and many others when Sakurai said that these were "the last two fighters to join the roster". "Surely, there has to be more?" was going through many people's minds. It went on to talk about Amiibos and then led up to talking about the mysterious mode "spirits" where a large number of characters from many different games act like "equipment" from SSB4 for the player's character to use in Spirit mode.
I liked the idea of seeing so many different characters show up. As the direct explained the gameplay, I thought to myself "this sounds like a mobile game". It sounded potentially fun, but possibly grindy as well. Spirits can be caught, trained, fed, sent out to find treasure, etc. Its main gameplay is essentially a glorified events mode where the player must fight opponents with specific conditions and scenarios and references the spirits. What I like about all of this is all the RPG aspects that gives the player a sense of progression by collecting and getting their characters stronger.
I have mixed feelings about how Online gameplay is handled. Online will allow more flexibility on specific rules the player wants to be matched up with, but it'll also make finding matches potentially more difficult. The ranking system will be universal all around rather than having a specific "ranked" mode (which was For Glory in SSB4). Match making will prioritize making matches closer to where you are to minimize lag. Overall, the changes give the player more control over what kind of match they want to play online.
And then Assist Trophies showed up with the first one being Shadow the Hedgehog, which means he won't be a playable character. They show cased new assist trophies such as Yuri from Fatal Frame from Wii U. And then immediately after that they showed Isaac from Golden Sun, a character I was really hoping on being playable for once. They showed some other cool ones like Guile from Street Fighter, Dr. Wily from Mega Man, and Tiki from Fire Emblem.
The direct talked a bit more about different modes, options, gallery, and Mii Fighter customization and costumes. Then it revealed that they already planned on 5 DLC packs, with each one containing a new character, a new stage, and additional music tracks to go along with it. Unfortunately, they're not going to tell us who are what they are. So it's like every other fighting game where they ask you to put down money on content we don't know anything about. ($5.99 each or $24.99 for all five). If you do buy the season pass, you get Rex's costume for Mii Fighters, additional music from Xenoblade Chronicles 2, and characters from it show up as spirits. This made me sad that Rex/Pyra didn't make the cut as playable characters.
So when it got to the part where Sakurai mentioned working on something that isn't completed yet but will be free for those who purchase the game before the end of January, I didn't know what to expect. Many people expected/hoped that it was another character with some individuals believing that it was going to be Geno. I normally watch reaction videos for Smash directs to see other people get excited for the same things I'm excited for. But this time around, I went to see how others felt about the reveal of Piranha Plant as a character. For me, I was only mildy disappointed and confused. But man, were some people upset. The common reactions I saw from watching reaction videos were:
-Incessantly screaming "WHAT?!"
-Being very angry and screaming "WTF?!"
-So shocked/confused that they just stare with a blank expression
-Laughing hysterically
-And the rare one was seeing some of them cry
Here are some of my favorite reactions to various parts of the direct:
Shadow and Isaac deconfirmed
Rex/Pyra deconfirmed
Piranha Plant
Rex/Pyra deconfirmed
Piranha Plant
Piranha Plant
Piranha Plant
Poor Jacob.....
Arnold one of the very few people happy to see Piranha Plant
At the very least, the ended with a high note at the end showing a cinematic from Spirits' Story mode, gameplay footage of it, and the reveal that the main theme has lyrics. Despite some mild disappointments from this last direct, I am so excited to play this game and to see what the future holds for it.
Tuesday, September 25, 2018
Picking myself back up
It's been a crazy month and a half worth of productivity and videogames. I started working on new original material to build a new portfolio to use in applying for a job and I got two done with a 3rd one started. In between, I was inspired to do a remix.
All the while, I was playing games like: Monster Hunter World, Overcooked 2, Touhou Luna Nights, Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[st], Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater 3D, Blade Strangers, and The Messenger. Everything seemed great and I felt happy, albeit a bit pressured by my own expectations.
My sister had come home to visit two weeks ago. Due to past events from last year and pressure from work, my sister has been stressed and upset expressed from the conversations we've had each time she has come home. In one of the conversations we had on the night of September 15th, she said something that had triggered something within me. Slowly, all thoughts of struggle, difficulty, disappointments, fears, anger, resentment and everything in-between throughout my whole life started flooding my mind and tormented me all night long for 7.5 hours before I manged to fall asleep. I tried so hard to just sleep and forget everything and just move on with my life. But after just a mere 3 hours of sleep, I had woken up and felt like I had a clear head, and then it the thoughts came back. After lying in bed for another 3 hours, I decided to just get out of bed. When I got downstairs I knew I couldn't hide anything as I was already at a breaking point and felt like I was going crazy. You could say I went through a nervous breakdown or mental meltdown. I spent the next 5 hours of the day yelling and crying, trying to express all of my anger, doubts, disappointments, frustrations, fears; just everything that came to mind to my parents and sister. I do not wish to explain any of it as they're all to personal for me to post in a blog. It was an arduous process. I had some closure to some of my fears and doubts and I was hoping I'd maybe feel better after getting everything off my chest, but I felt miserable. At the very least, my head felt more clear and my heart less heavy. I was exhausted, numb, and I just felt so empty. I didn't feel good about myself or my life for the next week. I didn't feel like myself, as if my soul was removed from my body. I tried playing videogames Monday night and I couldn't even enjoy what I was playing. I spent the following week playing music, trying to find myself in it. I also spent the week trying to get through Metal Gear Solid 1 which I had bought that Saturday before my outburst. It's strange, but the message the game conveyed felt like it helped me get through some of the difficulties in my mind.
It's been a little over a week now and I'm starting to feel more like my usual self. Over the weekend, I still felt empty like I lost direction in my life. But I came to a decision I felt would help me: I'm going to try to fulfill as many of my New Year's Resolution as I possibly can. I always set really difficult resolutions that I could never finish in hopes that I'd try harder and be more productive that year, but I rarely fulfill them because of it. As we approach the end of September, I felt I didn't have much time to actually fulfill them, but deciding to focus on them fills me with renewed purpose and drive. My mind feels clear once again and my heart is once again excited. I obviously have a lot to sort out in my mind and in my life, but it's going to take time.
All the while, I was playing games like: Monster Hunter World, Overcooked 2, Touhou Luna Nights, Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[st], Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater 3D, Blade Strangers, and The Messenger. Everything seemed great and I felt happy, albeit a bit pressured by my own expectations.
My sister had come home to visit two weeks ago. Due to past events from last year and pressure from work, my sister has been stressed and upset expressed from the conversations we've had each time she has come home. In one of the conversations we had on the night of September 15th, she said something that had triggered something within me. Slowly, all thoughts of struggle, difficulty, disappointments, fears, anger, resentment and everything in-between throughout my whole life started flooding my mind and tormented me all night long for 7.5 hours before I manged to fall asleep. I tried so hard to just sleep and forget everything and just move on with my life. But after just a mere 3 hours of sleep, I had woken up and felt like I had a clear head, and then it the thoughts came back. After lying in bed for another 3 hours, I decided to just get out of bed. When I got downstairs I knew I couldn't hide anything as I was already at a breaking point and felt like I was going crazy. You could say I went through a nervous breakdown or mental meltdown. I spent the next 5 hours of the day yelling and crying, trying to express all of my anger, doubts, disappointments, frustrations, fears; just everything that came to mind to my parents and sister. I do not wish to explain any of it as they're all to personal for me to post in a blog. It was an arduous process. I had some closure to some of my fears and doubts and I was hoping I'd maybe feel better after getting everything off my chest, but I felt miserable. At the very least, my head felt more clear and my heart less heavy. I was exhausted, numb, and I just felt so empty. I didn't feel good about myself or my life for the next week. I didn't feel like myself, as if my soul was removed from my body. I tried playing videogames Monday night and I couldn't even enjoy what I was playing. I spent the following week playing music, trying to find myself in it. I also spent the week trying to get through Metal Gear Solid 1 which I had bought that Saturday before my outburst. It's strange, but the message the game conveyed felt like it helped me get through some of the difficulties in my mind.
It's been a little over a week now and I'm starting to feel more like my usual self. Over the weekend, I still felt empty like I lost direction in my life. But I came to a decision I felt would help me: I'm going to try to fulfill as many of my New Year's Resolution as I possibly can. I always set really difficult resolutions that I could never finish in hopes that I'd try harder and be more productive that year, but I rarely fulfill them because of it. As we approach the end of September, I felt I didn't have much time to actually fulfill them, but deciding to focus on them fills me with renewed purpose and drive. My mind feels clear once again and my heart is once again excited. I obviously have a lot to sort out in my mind and in my life, but it's going to take time.
Friday, August 10, 2018
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate 8-8-18 Direct
I went into this Direct with low expectations and came out of it being way more excited for the game than I thought I'd be. What I expected was 2 echo fighter reveals (an echo fighter is a character based off an existing character's move set) and some feature updates. What we got instead was 2 highly requested new characters, 3 echo fighters, and a TON of information regarding stages, music, items and modes. I don't record my reactions, but I'd like to take the time to do a play-by-play of what I was thinking so I can look back at it one day and remember how happy I was on this day.
00:06 - Castle? IT CAN'T BE?!
00:12 - LEATHER BOOTS, IT'S SIMON!
00:16 - *Doors open* I CAN'T BELIEVE THEY'RE STARTING THE DIRECT WITH THE ONE THING I'VE WANTED TO SEE ALL THIS TIME!!!
00:30 - OMG, Someone hired Luigi for the wrong job! And Mummies, it has to be Simon!
00:40 - MEDUSA, IT IS SIMON BELMONT, YES, YES, YES! *Trying really hard not to scream*
01:02 - OMG, So violent!!!!! Man, Nintendo isn't messing around no more!
01:11 - HERE WE GO!!!!!!!!!
01:22 - *Trying SO HARD to not cry!*
01:35 - Whoa, dive kick into Forward Air!
01:38 - Chain swinging from Super Castlevania IV!
01:48 - Whoa, what the heck? When did Simon ever do that? *This made sense after seeing Richter*
01:53 - Omg, what a throwback. That walk, those staircase, THIS STAGE!
01:57 - That's a cool stage hazard
02:08 - WTH?! IS THAT RICHTER?!
02:14 - *muffled scream* HGGGGGGGGGGGN!
02:28 - OMG, ARE WE GETTING ALUCARD, TOO?!
02:36 - Oh, guess he's an assist trophy.....
02:52 - Omg, that's beautiful
03:42 - D'aw, Pichu is so cute~
04:18 - Oh man, "Out of Time" from Castlevania 1. I can't wait to hear the other songs.
04:48 - What? Which enemy is that? (People suspecting Kid Dracula)
04:56 - *Sees list of music tracks, starts getting emotional again*
05:42 - *Sigh* Alucard would've been an awesome character to play, too.....
05:48 - Omg, this music~
06:06 - *"Bloodlines" starts playing* Man, I can't believe we get Simon AND Richter!
06:48 - WHAT? MORE CHARACTERS?! I hope it's Chrom and Shadow the Hedgehog!
06:54 - YES! WE GOT CHROM!
07:08 - Oooooo, he's an Echo Fighter of Ike!
07:15 - Wait, Blade Dance with reverse grip? Is he an echo fighter of Roy? *Looking at it now, it's not even reverse gripped. So Marth's move?*
07:25 - Lol, so many Fire Emblem Sword wielders. I'm happy.
07:38 - Kraid's Chamber? *The music*
07:42 - Aw dang it.....please be different *fears it's an exact copy of Samus*
08:15 - Dang it, I didn't see anything different.......
09:24 - Lol, they brought back Brinstar Depths. Did fans really want this?
10:07 - Oh wow, that's Final Destination? Looks cool.
10:18 - Okay, of course we get a Mario Odyssey Stage.
10:58 - Whoaaaaa, that's Fountain of Dreams? Awesome!
11:26 - What? Over 100?! That's amazing!
12:06 - Oh thank goodness you can turn off Stage Hazards.
12:34 - WTH?!...........
12:40 - Okay, stage switching in-between battle, that's pretty cool.
13:48 - Wow, that is a crazy amount of songs!
15:36 - Oh nice, I don't have to switch between character select, rules, and then back again
16:05 - Whoa, picking a stage before the character? Crazy. Gonna be hard to get used to.
16:25 - Oh wow, they changed Sudden Death. They really care about the competitive side!
16:42 - Whoa, a Final Smash meter would be like a Super gauge like a real fighting game! Can we make this legal in competitive smash?
18:12 - Smash down sounds like a fun mode
18:35 - Wow, I don't know if I'll use all this, but it'll definitely be useful for video analysis and tutorials
18:42 - Oh please be like old Classic Mode
18:57 - Oh good, it is
20:15 - *Brain is starting to wander because tired and getting fed with so many new information*
21:34 - WTF?!
21:38 - Awwwww dang it, he's an assist trophy........DAAAAAANG IIIIIIIIIT!
22:11 - LOL, Mario's expression!
22:22 - GRAY FOX! *Thinking about Egoraptor's Metal Gear Awesome flash video*
22:27 - Oh, it's Nikki! How cute~
22:33 - Omg, Shovel Knight is in Smash!.....kinda.
22:47 - Omg, how do you avoid that?
22:55 - Aw dang it, Ashley is still an assist trophy. Oh well, wishful thinking.....
23:03 - Xenoblade Chronicles 2 enemy?
23:12 - Waaaaaait, isn't he from Monster Hunter.....
23:18 - Oh wow, Monster Hunter is represented in Smash?
23:45 - Please look better.....
23:53 - Ugh, okay, I guess it's somewhat better. They're still using Games & Mor.....wait, what's the blurred out thing?
24:03 - Aw really? *Too tired to think at that time, but now I'm thinking it's Adventure mode*
24:21 - Did the screen just shake? Someone messing with the camera?
24:25 - What in the world? It happened again.
24:29 - OMG, THERE'S ONE MORE CHARACTER REVEAL!
24:46 - Omg, they did it.....They brought King K. Rool. Jeez, they're really going down the list and trying to please everyone! I hope Sakurai isn't working himself to death with all this.
25:08 - There he is!
25:12 - .....Wait, what?
25:18 - LOL, WHAT A TROLL! There's no way this is a prank. He has to be in. This is good reaction video material right here!
25:24 - YEAH, GET OUTTA HERE DEDEDE!
25:27 - Well, not super excited, but I'm happy it's him and not someone obscure.
25:30 - LOL!
25:38 - Oh good, he has his Captain K. Rool outfit. I'm going to use that one.
26:05 - Omg, this remix is soooooo good!
26:54 - Wow, what a crazy direct. What can they possibly show next to top this?
And then two rants I had on Facebook:
Okay, it's been a day so I think it's safe to talk (gush) about yesterday's Smash Bros. Direct.
I honestly went into the Smash Direct with low expectations and debated whether I really wanted to wake up at 7AM in the morning just to watch it. The E3 reveal for the game lived up to my expectations: Bring every character back, change the mechanics to the game so it feels fresh, and introduce one new character that I care about. But for some reason, it still felt underwhelming and I wasn't THAT excited for the game.
This Direct changed my mind. The E3 trailer said "not to expect too many new characters" and the subject of "Echo Fighters" made me believe that most of the new characters will be these clone characters. So I expected 1-2 Echo Fighters with a few content reveal like stages and items.
I didn't expect them to start the Direct out with revealing the one character I wanted most in Smash Bros. for the past 17 years (other than Ryu Hayabusa from Ninja Gaiden). When I saw the Castle, I already started wondering. Then I saw the boot and started freaking out. I still wasn't 100% sure, but as soon as I saw Medusa, I was positive. When Simon removed his cloak, I was holding back tears and trying SO hard not to yell (my mom was still sleeping). It was so surreal and I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I'm already ecstatic but still out of it because I couldn't sleep the night before and had only 3 hours of sleep at the time, and all of a sudden I see the blue outfit and he shouts "Begone! You don't belong in this world, Monster!" I flip the heck out and try not to scream "RICHTER!" while going HGGGNMMN with my mouth covered. Then I was so excited that I thought they also added Alucard, but no name intro so I sadly accepted the fact that he was an Assist Trophy. They showed the list of 34 songs for Castlevania and I started becoming emotional again (I freaking LOVE the music to the Castlevania series).
When they got to Echo Fighters, I was hoping to see Chrom and Shadow the Hedgehog. I was excited to see Chrom and was super happy to see that he had a mix of Ike's moves and Roy's moves (reverse grip during dancing blades) and not just a complete clone like Lucina (I really hope they changed her up more). I had feared Dark Samus being one of the characters for the concern that she'd be straight up Samus with a different look. And from the trailer, it looked pretty dang similar to Samus (other than idle animation). If there are some noticeable differences when I play the game, I'll be pretty happy with the character (I liked Dark Pit more than Pit in Smash 4).
They revealed a bunch of new settings and modes that really shows that they care about the competitive side of Smash as much as the casual side. The one thing that really stood out was the Final Smash Meter. Can we make this legal in competitive smash? I feel like it's such a waste to have all these cool Final Smash attacks and never see them other than play casually (and even then we still might not get to see them). I love this idea and hope to see it used in tournaments.
Man, they didn't just show a few stuff. They showed a LOT of stuff. Stages, music, modes, settings, items, new Pokémon, and new Assist Trophies. My heart skipped a beat when Zero showed up. Then I realized he was an Assist Trophy (Zero was high on my list of who I'd want in Smash) and then my heart was crushed a little. The Assist Trophies were cool. I felt bad for all the people who wanted Shovel Knight as a playable character. Seeing Rathalos makes me want Monster Hunter in Smash. She was super fun in MvC:I mechanically, but can't say I liked how she looked along with a lot of other things in that game. So it'd be cool if we get a Monster Hunter character in Smash. The teased mode on the main menu makes me believe there's an adventure mode, and that makes me really excited.
I thought the screen shaking was a mess up with the camera, but then it happened again. The lead up made it pretty obvious it was King K. Rool. I loved the trailer for it in how it made it look like him and then it was King DeDeDe playing a prank. Nintendo knew people would make reaction videos and that trolling was great material for reaction videos (linked Nairo's reaction). K. Rool wasn't a character I really wanted (at least compared to other potential characters), but I'm happy with his addition. I love the arrangement of his theme, it's so nostalgic to hear it again.
Sakurai also said that all characters will be shown before the official launch and they have some more to show in the future. Who else could they add that's hype? Since they catered towards us older gamers with Simon/Richter and King K. Rool this time, maybe it's something for the newer gamers? Monster Hunter character? Rex/Pyra/Mythra from Xenoblade Chronicles 2? Gunvolt from Azure Striker Gunvolt? My mind is going crazy right now. But I'm convinced, I'm super excited for SSBU now.
[Another rant on Wednesday's Smash Direct]
I can't even begin to express how elated I was to see that Simon and Richter Belmont were going to be added to the roster of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
While I was binge watching reaction videos, I was *somewhat* surprised with the responses. What I wasn't surprised about was a lot of people hamming it up in front of the camera and cheering for a character (that some admitted) that they knew nothing about (which can be borderline painful to watch but still fine because Etika's videos are like that and I love his videos). A lot of people have been talking about Simon Belmont the past 2 weeks and it was apparently slightly leaked (I had no idea about it, which I'm glad I didn't) so a lot of YouTubers already suspected his reveal.
What I was surprised about was everyone being blindsided by the reveal of Richter Belmont and having the genuine reaction of "WHO IS THAT?!" I always thought more gamers knew who Richter was over Simon because of how Symphony of the Night's opening had become such a meme on the internet (I quote it quite often and in fact, I think "my favorite quote" I wrote on facebook from 10 years ago is still there). But then everyone knew who Alucard was. How is it that everyone knew Alucard and not Richter since you have to play Richter in the first 10 minutes of SotN? Then it occurred to me that people might know Alucard from the Netflix adaptation show of Castlevania 3: Dracula's Curse (which I was pleasantly surprised with for the first season).
I'm not mad, but I was a bit sad that most reaction videos didn't know who Simon or Richter was and/or never played a Castlevania game. It's okay though! When Marth and Roy were added in Melee, almost no one knew what Fire Emblem was in the West (there might have been hardcore gamers who imported back then). Now Fire Emblem is one of the most prevalent IPs Nintendo possesses. With Simon and Richter being added to SSBU, people are talking, researching, and making videos about them and the Castlevania franchise! I don't have faith in Konami making an honest to goodness Castlevania game (or any game for that matter) any time soon. But with this revitalization of the Castlevania name, perhaps we can get one in the future.
It feels a bit lonely being excited about these two characters on my own, but at least 2 other of my friends were just as excited so I could share the hype with them!
And finally, reaction videos!
I can't wait to see what else they've got to show us!
00:06 - Castle? IT CAN'T BE?!
00:12 - LEATHER BOOTS, IT'S SIMON!
00:16 - *Doors open* I CAN'T BELIEVE THEY'RE STARTING THE DIRECT WITH THE ONE THING I'VE WANTED TO SEE ALL THIS TIME!!!
00:30 - OMG, Someone hired Luigi for the wrong job! And Mummies, it has to be Simon!
00:40 - MEDUSA, IT IS SIMON BELMONT, YES, YES, YES! *Trying really hard not to scream*
01:02 - OMG, So violent!!!!! Man, Nintendo isn't messing around no more!
01:11 - HERE WE GO!!!!!!!!!
01:22 - *Trying SO HARD to not cry!*
01:35 - Whoa, dive kick into Forward Air!
01:38 - Chain swinging from Super Castlevania IV!
01:48 - Whoa, what the heck? When did Simon ever do that? *This made sense after seeing Richter*
01:53 - Omg, what a throwback. That walk, those staircase, THIS STAGE!
01:57 - That's a cool stage hazard
02:08 - WTH?! IS THAT RICHTER?!
02:14 - *muffled scream* HGGGGGGGGGGGN!
02:28 - OMG, ARE WE GETTING ALUCARD, TOO?!
02:36 - Oh, guess he's an assist trophy.....
02:52 - Omg, that's beautiful
03:42 - D'aw, Pichu is so cute~
04:18 - Oh man, "Out of Time" from Castlevania 1. I can't wait to hear the other songs.
04:48 - What? Which enemy is that? (People suspecting Kid Dracula)
04:56 - *Sees list of music tracks, starts getting emotional again*
05:42 - *Sigh* Alucard would've been an awesome character to play, too.....
05:48 - Omg, this music~
06:06 - *"Bloodlines" starts playing* Man, I can't believe we get Simon AND Richter!
06:48 - WHAT? MORE CHARACTERS?! I hope it's Chrom and Shadow the Hedgehog!
06:54 - YES! WE GOT CHROM!
07:08 - Oooooo, he's an Echo Fighter of Ike!
07:15 - Wait, Blade Dance with reverse grip? Is he an echo fighter of Roy? *Looking at it now, it's not even reverse gripped. So Marth's move?*
07:25 - Lol, so many Fire Emblem Sword wielders. I'm happy.
07:38 - Kraid's Chamber? *The music*
07:42 - Aw dang it.....please be different *fears it's an exact copy of Samus*
08:15 - Dang it, I didn't see anything different.......
09:24 - Lol, they brought back Brinstar Depths. Did fans really want this?
10:07 - Oh wow, that's Final Destination? Looks cool.
10:18 - Okay, of course we get a Mario Odyssey Stage.
10:58 - Whoaaaaa, that's Fountain of Dreams? Awesome!
11:26 - What? Over 100?! That's amazing!
12:06 - Oh thank goodness you can turn off Stage Hazards.
12:34 - WTH?!...........
12:40 - Okay, stage switching in-between battle, that's pretty cool.
13:48 - Wow, that is a crazy amount of songs!
15:36 - Oh nice, I don't have to switch between character select, rules, and then back again
16:05 - Whoa, picking a stage before the character? Crazy. Gonna be hard to get used to.
16:25 - Oh wow, they changed Sudden Death. They really care about the competitive side!
16:42 - Whoa, a Final Smash meter would be like a Super gauge like a real fighting game! Can we make this legal in competitive smash?
18:12 - Smash down sounds like a fun mode
18:35 - Wow, I don't know if I'll use all this, but it'll definitely be useful for video analysis and tutorials
18:42 - Oh please be like old Classic Mode
18:57 - Oh good, it is
20:15 - *Brain is starting to wander because tired and getting fed with so many new information*
21:34 - WTF?!
21:38 - Awwwww dang it, he's an assist trophy........DAAAAAANG IIIIIIIIIT!
22:11 - LOL, Mario's expression!
22:22 - GRAY FOX! *Thinking about Egoraptor's Metal Gear Awesome flash video*
22:27 - Oh, it's Nikki! How cute~
22:33 - Omg, Shovel Knight is in Smash!.....kinda.
22:47 - Omg, how do you avoid that?
22:55 - Aw dang it, Ashley is still an assist trophy. Oh well, wishful thinking.....
23:03 - Xenoblade Chronicles 2 enemy?
23:12 - Waaaaaait, isn't he from Monster Hunter.....
23:18 - Oh wow, Monster Hunter is represented in Smash?
23:45 - Please look better.....
23:53 - Ugh, okay, I guess it's somewhat better. They're still using Games & Mor.....wait, what's the blurred out thing?
24:03 - Aw really? *Too tired to think at that time, but now I'm thinking it's Adventure mode*
24:21 - Did the screen just shake? Someone messing with the camera?
24:25 - What in the world? It happened again.
24:29 - OMG, THERE'S ONE MORE CHARACTER REVEAL!
24:46 - Omg, they did it.....They brought King K. Rool. Jeez, they're really going down the list and trying to please everyone! I hope Sakurai isn't working himself to death with all this.
25:08 - There he is!
25:12 - .....Wait, what?
25:18 - LOL, WHAT A TROLL! There's no way this is a prank. He has to be in. This is good reaction video material right here!
25:24 - YEAH, GET OUTTA HERE DEDEDE!
25:27 - Well, not super excited, but I'm happy it's him and not someone obscure.
25:30 - LOL!
25:38 - Oh good, he has his Captain K. Rool outfit. I'm going to use that one.
26:05 - Omg, this remix is soooooo good!
26:54 - Wow, what a crazy direct. What can they possibly show next to top this?
And then two rants I had on Facebook:
Okay, it's been a day so I think it's safe to talk (gush) about yesterday's Smash Bros. Direct.
I honestly went into the Smash Direct with low expectations and debated whether I really wanted to wake up at 7AM in the morning just to watch it. The E3 reveal for the game lived up to my expectations: Bring every character back, change the mechanics to the game so it feels fresh, and introduce one new character that I care about. But for some reason, it still felt underwhelming and I wasn't THAT excited for the game.
This Direct changed my mind. The E3 trailer said "not to expect too many new characters" and the subject of "Echo Fighters" made me believe that most of the new characters will be these clone characters. So I expected 1-2 Echo Fighters with a few content reveal like stages and items.
I didn't expect them to start the Direct out with revealing the one character I wanted most in Smash Bros. for the past 17 years (other than Ryu Hayabusa from Ninja Gaiden). When I saw the Castle, I already started wondering. Then I saw the boot and started freaking out. I still wasn't 100% sure, but as soon as I saw Medusa, I was positive. When Simon removed his cloak, I was holding back tears and trying SO hard not to yell (my mom was still sleeping). It was so surreal and I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I'm already ecstatic but still out of it because I couldn't sleep the night before and had only 3 hours of sleep at the time, and all of a sudden I see the blue outfit and he shouts "Begone! You don't belong in this world, Monster!" I flip the heck out and try not to scream "RICHTER!" while going HGGGNMMN with my mouth covered. Then I was so excited that I thought they also added Alucard, but no name intro so I sadly accepted the fact that he was an Assist Trophy. They showed the list of 34 songs for Castlevania and I started becoming emotional again (I freaking LOVE the music to the Castlevania series).
When they got to Echo Fighters, I was hoping to see Chrom and Shadow the Hedgehog. I was excited to see Chrom and was super happy to see that he had a mix of Ike's moves and Roy's moves (reverse grip during dancing blades) and not just a complete clone like Lucina (I really hope they changed her up more). I had feared Dark Samus being one of the characters for the concern that she'd be straight up Samus with a different look. And from the trailer, it looked pretty dang similar to Samus (other than idle animation). If there are some noticeable differences when I play the game, I'll be pretty happy with the character (I liked Dark Pit more than Pit in Smash 4).
They revealed a bunch of new settings and modes that really shows that they care about the competitive side of Smash as much as the casual side. The one thing that really stood out was the Final Smash Meter. Can we make this legal in competitive smash? I feel like it's such a waste to have all these cool Final Smash attacks and never see them other than play casually (and even then we still might not get to see them). I love this idea and hope to see it used in tournaments.
Man, they didn't just show a few stuff. They showed a LOT of stuff. Stages, music, modes, settings, items, new Pokémon, and new Assist Trophies. My heart skipped a beat when Zero showed up. Then I realized he was an Assist Trophy (Zero was high on my list of who I'd want in Smash) and then my heart was crushed a little. The Assist Trophies were cool. I felt bad for all the people who wanted Shovel Knight as a playable character. Seeing Rathalos makes me want Monster Hunter in Smash. She was super fun in MvC:I mechanically, but can't say I liked how she looked along with a lot of other things in that game. So it'd be cool if we get a Monster Hunter character in Smash. The teased mode on the main menu makes me believe there's an adventure mode, and that makes me really excited.
I thought the screen shaking was a mess up with the camera, but then it happened again. The lead up made it pretty obvious it was King K. Rool. I loved the trailer for it in how it made it look like him and then it was King DeDeDe playing a prank. Nintendo knew people would make reaction videos and that trolling was great material for reaction videos (linked Nairo's reaction). K. Rool wasn't a character I really wanted (at least compared to other potential characters), but I'm happy with his addition. I love the arrangement of his theme, it's so nostalgic to hear it again.
Sakurai also said that all characters will be shown before the official launch and they have some more to show in the future. Who else could they add that's hype? Since they catered towards us older gamers with Simon/Richter and King K. Rool this time, maybe it's something for the newer gamers? Monster Hunter character? Rex/Pyra/Mythra from Xenoblade Chronicles 2? Gunvolt from Azure Striker Gunvolt? My mind is going crazy right now. But I'm convinced, I'm super excited for SSBU now.
[Another rant on Wednesday's Smash Direct]
I can't even begin to express how elated I was to see that Simon and Richter Belmont were going to be added to the roster of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
While I was binge watching reaction videos, I was *somewhat* surprised with the responses. What I wasn't surprised about was a lot of people hamming it up in front of the camera and cheering for a character (that some admitted) that they knew nothing about (which can be borderline painful to watch but still fine because Etika's videos are like that and I love his videos). A lot of people have been talking about Simon Belmont the past 2 weeks and it was apparently slightly leaked (I had no idea about it, which I'm glad I didn't) so a lot of YouTubers already suspected his reveal.
What I was surprised about was everyone being blindsided by the reveal of Richter Belmont and having the genuine reaction of "WHO IS THAT?!" I always thought more gamers knew who Richter was over Simon because of how Symphony of the Night's opening had become such a meme on the internet (I quote it quite often and in fact, I think "my favorite quote" I wrote on facebook from 10 years ago is still there). But then everyone knew who Alucard was. How is it that everyone knew Alucard and not Richter since you have to play Richter in the first 10 minutes of SotN? Then it occurred to me that people might know Alucard from the Netflix adaptation show of Castlevania 3: Dracula's Curse (which I was pleasantly surprised with for the first season).
I'm not mad, but I was a bit sad that most reaction videos didn't know who Simon or Richter was and/or never played a Castlevania game. It's okay though! When Marth and Roy were added in Melee, almost no one knew what Fire Emblem was in the West (there might have been hardcore gamers who imported back then). Now Fire Emblem is one of the most prevalent IPs Nintendo possesses. With Simon and Richter being added to SSBU, people are talking, researching, and making videos about them and the Castlevania franchise! I don't have faith in Konami making an honest to goodness Castlevania game (or any game for that matter) any time soon. But with this revitalization of the Castlevania name, perhaps we can get one in the future.
It feels a bit lonely being excited about these two characters on my own, but at least 2 other of my friends were just as excited so I could share the hype with them!
And finally, reaction videos!
I can't wait to see what else they've got to show us!
Monday, August 6, 2018
Looking at EVO 2018 Announcements
It's strange to have EVO at the beginning of August instead of the beginning of July, but this allowed an entire month for me to be productive.
I was able to finish one Remix and then work on an original composition (which I can't upload quite just yet). I've started working on some original work to put together for a new portfolio so I can start looking for jobs again with something new to show. After finishing the original composition, it was so embedded into my mind that I was hearing it in my sleep and was thinking about ways I could change or improve it in my dreams. It became so exhausting that I knew I needed a break before I try to compose anything else. So I took the past week off of work of any kind and focused on getting through some games. I had been staying up late a lot throughout the month trying to progress in some games and finish them. I realized this wasn't working out so I really wanted to take some time to actually sit down and get through some of these games so I'd stop having the urge to stay up late to make progress. Unfortunately, I only managed to get through three of them as the 4th games I was working through happened to be twice as long as I thought it'd be. Also, EVO was this past weekend so I didn't have as much time to play as I was focused on watching streams.
EVO was a lot of fun to watch this year and it had way more streams on main stage side and AnimEVO side. I was anticipating some exciting announcements to be made during EVO, but nothing really compared to the reveal of BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle from last year.
[Dead or Alive 6]
Other than showing us a new character, they hinted at the return of Hitomi and Leifang
Diego is their attempt at attracting more Western audiences to their game. With making the statement of wanting to make the characters less sexualized and creating and culminate an acceptance to the competitive scene, they aim to have their game be part of the list of games featured at next year's EVO event. I'm excited for a new installment in the DoA series, but everything they've shown and said so far has been killing my excitement for it. It's like they have an identity crisis and they're trying to find a way to be part of the cool kids. Only time will tell how this pans out.
[SNK Heroines ~Tag Team Frenzy~]
They've revealed the last character for the game and it's not who I was expecting at all.
I couldn't help but laugh at the absurdity. There are plenty of female characters to choose from in the SNK series, and they ended up choosing one of their most well known male characters to turn into a female for the game. I had hoped and expected it to be Fio from the Metal Slug series based on the silhouette looking like someone saluting with a ponytail blowing in the wind. I'm okay with this turn of events, but a lot of fans are quite upset about it. I just hope the game will come to PC and soon.
[Fighting EX Layer]
Terry shows up again in another game in his original male form.
He looks so good. He looks way better than he did in King of Fighters 14. Pullum Purna and Vulcano Rosso are also back. I'm hoping and waiting for Fighting EX Layer to come to PC.
[BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle]
As expected, the only real news is that the last 9 remaining DLC characters were announced.
They come out today, so at the very least I was excited about that. Then they go and teased us at the end of the trailer that a new franchise is coming to the game, but didn't say which one and when they'll talk about it. It could be part of the datamined information of Asuka and Yumi from Senran Kagura, or the hinted inclusion of Neptune from Hyperdimension Neptunia. But for all we know, it could be something that wasn't datamined or rumored like the Arcana Heart series. I'm excited, but I'm also mad we have to wait for more information.
[Guilty Gear]
They announced a World Tour for Guilty Gear Xrd Rev 2, BlazBlue Central Fiction, and BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle. They showed nothing new and said that Daisuke Ishiwatari is working on something Guilty Gear related, but that's it.
[Super Smash Bros.]
This is all they left us with:
Thanks, Nintendo........at least it's something for once.
[Soul Calibur 6]
Two more returning characters. Seong Mi-Na is looking great.
[Tekken 7]
Two returning characters with 3 more characters will release in the future. The sixth character is a guest character and I can't say I'm all too thrilled about it. It's not an appropriate character for the game so I'm rather disappointed.
[Dragon Ball FighterZ]
As found in the datamine, Cooler was revealed.
[Street Fighter V]
G and Sagat are available now. I don't have any Fight Money left to buy anyone.....
Thus ends another year for EVO.
I was able to finish one Remix and then work on an original composition (which I can't upload quite just yet). I've started working on some original work to put together for a new portfolio so I can start looking for jobs again with something new to show. After finishing the original composition, it was so embedded into my mind that I was hearing it in my sleep and was thinking about ways I could change or improve it in my dreams. It became so exhausting that I knew I needed a break before I try to compose anything else. So I took the past week off of work of any kind and focused on getting through some games. I had been staying up late a lot throughout the month trying to progress in some games and finish them. I realized this wasn't working out so I really wanted to take some time to actually sit down and get through some of these games so I'd stop having the urge to stay up late to make progress. Unfortunately, I only managed to get through three of them as the 4th games I was working through happened to be twice as long as I thought it'd be. Also, EVO was this past weekend so I didn't have as much time to play as I was focused on watching streams.
EVO was a lot of fun to watch this year and it had way more streams on main stage side and AnimEVO side. I was anticipating some exciting announcements to be made during EVO, but nothing really compared to the reveal of BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle from last year.
[Dead or Alive 6]
Other than showing us a new character, they hinted at the return of Hitomi and Leifang
Diego is their attempt at attracting more Western audiences to their game. With making the statement of wanting to make the characters less sexualized and creating and culminate an acceptance to the competitive scene, they aim to have their game be part of the list of games featured at next year's EVO event. I'm excited for a new installment in the DoA series, but everything they've shown and said so far has been killing my excitement for it. It's like they have an identity crisis and they're trying to find a way to be part of the cool kids. Only time will tell how this pans out.
[SNK Heroines ~Tag Team Frenzy~]
They've revealed the last character for the game and it's not who I was expecting at all.
I couldn't help but laugh at the absurdity. There are plenty of female characters to choose from in the SNK series, and they ended up choosing one of their most well known male characters to turn into a female for the game. I had hoped and expected it to be Fio from the Metal Slug series based on the silhouette looking like someone saluting with a ponytail blowing in the wind. I'm okay with this turn of events, but a lot of fans are quite upset about it. I just hope the game will come to PC and soon.
[Fighting EX Layer]
Terry shows up again in another game in his original male form.
He looks so good. He looks way better than he did in King of Fighters 14. Pullum Purna and Vulcano Rosso are also back. I'm hoping and waiting for Fighting EX Layer to come to PC.
[BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle]
As expected, the only real news is that the last 9 remaining DLC characters were announced.
They come out today, so at the very least I was excited about that. Then they go and teased us at the end of the trailer that a new franchise is coming to the game, but didn't say which one and when they'll talk about it. It could be part of the datamined information of Asuka and Yumi from Senran Kagura, or the hinted inclusion of Neptune from Hyperdimension Neptunia. But for all we know, it could be something that wasn't datamined or rumored like the Arcana Heart series. I'm excited, but I'm also mad we have to wait for more information.
[Guilty Gear]
They announced a World Tour for Guilty Gear Xrd Rev 2, BlazBlue Central Fiction, and BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle. They showed nothing new and said that Daisuke Ishiwatari is working on something Guilty Gear related, but that's it.
[Super Smash Bros.]
This is all they left us with:
Thanks, Nintendo........at least it's something for once.[Soul Calibur 6]
Two more returning characters. Seong Mi-Na is looking great.
[Tekken 7]
Two returning characters with 3 more characters will release in the future. The sixth character is a guest character and I can't say I'm all too thrilled about it. It's not an appropriate character for the game so I'm rather disappointed.
[Dragon Ball FighterZ]
As found in the datamine, Cooler was revealed.
[Street Fighter V]
G and Sagat are available now. I don't have any Fight Money left to buy anyone.....
Thus ends another year for EVO.
Monday, July 9, 2018
Getting back into productive mode
The past 2 weeks, I had decided that I would take a break from working and focus on enjoying the games I recently bought and try to get through as many games I can so I can cycle in some new games to play. It's not so much as stepping away from work as it is allowing my mind to be at ease and actually enjoy free time. Despite not actually being in a work environment with strict deadlines, getting up early, and having the same pressure as a job, my mental state of mind prevents me from enjoying games during the day on weekdays because it feels necessary to be productive. Even on weekends, I feel like I need to make the most of my time to play or do what I want before the weekdays arrive once more for me to stay productive. This often leads to indecisiveness when choosing which game to play. Because of this, I often try to play games to finish them rather than to simply enjoy them.
These past two weeks have been blissful peace with my own mind and being able to enjoy many different games. I was able to get through two dozen games this past month. The problem is that I accumulated three dozen games within the past month. A majority of the games I finished were games I bought during the Steam Summer Sale. I have to say that the discounts weren't the best this year, and so this is possibly the most I've ever spent in a single sale. I also bought a lot of videogame soundtracks with those games which added to the cost. Along with playing all those games, I was watching Summer Games Done Quick on the side. There were some interesting runs this year, but I noticed that I pay less and less attention to the runs now. It's not like EVO where I put all my focus into watching the streams. I suppose an entire week worth of watching people play videogames is rather exhausting, especially when I'm focused on playing games myself. I also received a Nintendo Switch just last Tuesday which added another option to a selection of games I could play. All-in-all, it was a really fun vacation for my mind to sit down and actually play some games. I honestly want to extend it and continue playing more since I have a ton more games waiting to be played, but I have too many things I want to finish this year to lollygag any further.
I might work on a few more remixes (if it doesn't take too long) before I get to creating original audio work. I have a lot planned for this month, so hopefully I can knock some projects down.
Games I really enjoyed playing this past month:
-BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle
-Metroid: Other M
-NOISZ
-Nex Machina
-Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition
-Front Mission Evolved
-Livelock
-Nidhogg 2
-Pocket Rumble
-Mighty Gunvolt Burst
-Ruiner
Games I really enjoyed playing but didn't finish this past month:
-Agents of Mayhem
-Final Fantasy XV Windows Edition
-It Lurks Below
-Wizard of Legend
-Fire Emblem Warriors
These past two weeks have been blissful peace with my own mind and being able to enjoy many different games. I was able to get through two dozen games this past month. The problem is that I accumulated three dozen games within the past month. A majority of the games I finished were games I bought during the Steam Summer Sale. I have to say that the discounts weren't the best this year, and so this is possibly the most I've ever spent in a single sale. I also bought a lot of videogame soundtracks with those games which added to the cost. Along with playing all those games, I was watching Summer Games Done Quick on the side. There were some interesting runs this year, but I noticed that I pay less and less attention to the runs now. It's not like EVO where I put all my focus into watching the streams. I suppose an entire week worth of watching people play videogames is rather exhausting, especially when I'm focused on playing games myself. I also received a Nintendo Switch just last Tuesday which added another option to a selection of games I could play. All-in-all, it was a really fun vacation for my mind to sit down and actually play some games. I honestly want to extend it and continue playing more since I have a ton more games waiting to be played, but I have too many things I want to finish this year to lollygag any further.
I might work on a few more remixes (if it doesn't take too long) before I get to creating original audio work. I have a lot planned for this month, so hopefully I can knock some projects down.
Games I really enjoyed playing this past month:
-BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle
-Metroid: Other M
-NOISZ
-Nex Machina
-Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition
-Front Mission Evolved
-Livelock
-Nidhogg 2
-Pocket Rumble
-Mighty Gunvolt Burst
-Ruiner
Games I really enjoyed playing but didn't finish this past month:
-Agents of Mayhem
-Final Fantasy XV Windows Edition
-It Lurks Below
-Wizard of Legend
-Fire Emblem Warriors
Saturday, June 23, 2018
Brief look at E3 2018
I've been so busy with working on music that I didn't get to talk about E3 at all. At least I finished it:
Steam Summer Sale began on Thursday and Summer Games Done Quick begins tomorrow, so there isn't much time to talk about E3. Still, I want to briefly skim over some of the games I saw this year (and a lot of good ones were announced this year).
New Games that impressed me:
Control
Control looks pretty wild with its physics based combat and trippy presentation.
Cyberpunk 2077
Cyberpunk 2077 is actually not a newly announced and was teased 5 years ago. Despite not showing any gameplay, the new trailer really sets itself up for what kind of world we're going to get to see in this game and it looks crazy. It's lively, colorful, and imaginative with a very immersive feel to it. Whether we're going to get to play it within the next two years or not is questionable, but I'm certainly a lot more interested in it now.
Fire Emblem: Three Houses
We finally get to see something for the new Fire Emblem game on Switch and it looks beautiful! I was a little surprised when the music turned into Drum 'n Bass, but I think I like it. My only worry is that it's called "Three Houses" and I don't want them to split it into three games again like they did with Conquest, Birthright, and Revelations.
Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise
I honestly wasn't sure if we were going to get this game or not in the West. I'm glad we are because this looks really good.
Ghost of Tsushima
There aren't enough games with realistic Katana swordplay and I've yearned for one for many years. Ghost of Tsushima was certainly a surprise at E3 and I was really impressed by the dynamic combat they showed off. I'm looking forward to this game.
Jump Force
I'm not sure how I feel about this announcement yet. I love the visuals and it seems to be a much bigger budget of a game than J-Stars Victory VS, but I don't know enough about the gameplay. If it's just a nicer looking version of J-Stars Victory VS, then I might pass on this game. But if it's a completely new game with a new combat system that's faster-paced and not as clumsy along with a lot more characters, then I'll be super interested.
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
When this game was teased last year during the The Game Awards, I was a little confused. I had suspected Bloodborne 2, but then I saw all those writing in the background. "Was Bloodborne 2 going to take place in Japan?" I didn't expect it to be a whole new IP. To me, it looks like Tenchu meets Dark Souls, and I couldn't be more excited. I'm definitely looking forward to this one.
There could be a ton more I can talk about, but I'll just stop right there so I can get back to trying out all these indie games I just bought from Steam Summer Sales.
Teasers that just showed a Title Logo:
Babylon's Fall
DOOM Eternal
Nioh 2
Starfield
The Elder Scrolls VI
Games I'm Excited For (and possibly pre-order):
Anthem
Code Vein
Daemon x Machina
Dead or Alive 6
Devil May Cry 5
Mega Man 11
Resident Evil 2 Remake
Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin
Senran Kagura Burst Re:Newal
Shining Resonance Refrain
SNK Heroines Tag Team Frenzy
Soulcalibur VI
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition
Total War: Three Kingdoms
Games I'm Interested in / Keeping an eye on:
Assassin's Creed Odyssey
Battlefield V
Battletoads
Beyond Good and Evil 2
Call of Duty Black Ops 4
Catherine: Full Body
Days Gone
Death Stranding
Dragon Quest XI
Dying Light 2
Fallout 76
Gears 5
Halo Infinite
Hitman 2
Insurgency: Sandstorm
Just Cause 4
Kingdom Hearts III
Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk
Mary Skelter 2
Metro Exodus
Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate
Nelk and the Legendary Alchemists: Atelier of a New Land
Octopath Traveler
Overkill's The Walking Dead
Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight
Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight
Pokémon Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee!
Rage 2
Red Dead Redemption 2
Serious Sam 4 Planet Badass
Shadow of the Tomb Raider
Spider-Man
Starlink: Battle for Atlas
Team Sonic Racing
Tetris Effect
The Division 2
The Last of Us II
The Quiet Man
Tunic
Valkyria Chronicles 4
Valneer of the Dragon Star
Wolfenstein: Youngblood
Yakuza 0 / Kiwami for PC
Yakuza: Kiwami 2
Steam Summer Sale began on Thursday and Summer Games Done Quick begins tomorrow, so there isn't much time to talk about E3. Still, I want to briefly skim over some of the games I saw this year (and a lot of good ones were announced this year).
New Games that impressed me:
Control
Control looks pretty wild with its physics based combat and trippy presentation.
Cyberpunk 2077
Cyberpunk 2077 is actually not a newly announced and was teased 5 years ago. Despite not showing any gameplay, the new trailer really sets itself up for what kind of world we're going to get to see in this game and it looks crazy. It's lively, colorful, and imaginative with a very immersive feel to it. Whether we're going to get to play it within the next two years or not is questionable, but I'm certainly a lot more interested in it now.
Fire Emblem: Three Houses
We finally get to see something for the new Fire Emblem game on Switch and it looks beautiful! I was a little surprised when the music turned into Drum 'n Bass, but I think I like it. My only worry is that it's called "Three Houses" and I don't want them to split it into three games again like they did with Conquest, Birthright, and Revelations.
Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise
I honestly wasn't sure if we were going to get this game or not in the West. I'm glad we are because this looks really good.
Ghost of Tsushima
There aren't enough games with realistic Katana swordplay and I've yearned for one for many years. Ghost of Tsushima was certainly a surprise at E3 and I was really impressed by the dynamic combat they showed off. I'm looking forward to this game.
Jump Force
I'm not sure how I feel about this announcement yet. I love the visuals and it seems to be a much bigger budget of a game than J-Stars Victory VS, but I don't know enough about the gameplay. If it's just a nicer looking version of J-Stars Victory VS, then I might pass on this game. But if it's a completely new game with a new combat system that's faster-paced and not as clumsy along with a lot more characters, then I'll be super interested.
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
When this game was teased last year during the The Game Awards, I was a little confused. I had suspected Bloodborne 2, but then I saw all those writing in the background. "Was Bloodborne 2 going to take place in Japan?" I didn't expect it to be a whole new IP. To me, it looks like Tenchu meets Dark Souls, and I couldn't be more excited. I'm definitely looking forward to this one.
There could be a ton more I can talk about, but I'll just stop right there so I can get back to trying out all these indie games I just bought from Steam Summer Sales.
Teasers that just showed a Title Logo:
Babylon's Fall
DOOM Eternal
Nioh 2
Starfield
The Elder Scrolls VI
Games I'm Excited For (and possibly pre-order):
Anthem
Code Vein
Daemon x Machina
Dead or Alive 6
Devil May Cry 5
Mega Man 11
Resident Evil 2 Remake
Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin
Senran Kagura Burst Re:Newal
Shining Resonance Refrain
SNK Heroines Tag Team Frenzy
Soulcalibur VI
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition
Total War: Three Kingdoms
Games I'm Interested in / Keeping an eye on:
Assassin's Creed Odyssey
Battlefield V
Battletoads
Beyond Good and Evil 2
Call of Duty Black Ops 4
Catherine: Full Body
Days Gone
Death Stranding
Dragon Quest XI
Dying Light 2
Fallout 76
Gears 5
Halo Infinite
Hitman 2
Insurgency: Sandstorm
Just Cause 4
Kingdom Hearts III
Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk
Mary Skelter 2
Metro Exodus
Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate
Nelk and the Legendary Alchemists: Atelier of a New Land
Octopath Traveler
Overkill's The Walking Dead
Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight
Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight
Pokémon Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee!
Rage 2
Red Dead Redemption 2
Serious Sam 4 Planet Badass
Shadow of the Tomb Raider
Spider-Man
Starlink: Battle for Atlas
Team Sonic Racing
Tetris Effect
The Division 2
The Last of Us II
The Quiet Man
Tunic
Valkyria Chronicles 4
Valneer of the Dragon Star
Wolfenstein: Youngblood
Yakuza 0 / Kiwami for PC
Yakuza: Kiwami 2
Monday, May 21, 2018
Looking Forward to Summer 2018
There's only 2 weeks of May left and I have a lot on my mind. My last music project was Burning Fighters which was the first remix for the Shoot-em-Up album which I uploaded in the beginning of April.
I haven't been working on any music since then aside from practicing some guitar and piano. I spent all of April trying to read. I borrowed Romance of the Three Kingdoms from a friend and tried my best to sit down and read through all 4 books. I'm not even done with the first one. I guess I could be spending more time throughout the day reading it and I'd be done by now. I've been trying to get back into exercising regularly again and it always feels like it takes up a lot of time after I've finished, eat lunch, and take a shower. I had planned on getting back into working on music in May, but I've also been focused on wanting to finish certain games as well. Interestingly enough, a friend recommended his friend to me for Videogame music composition/production. He's working on a game independently and wanted original music for it so we set up a deal with each other and now I'm just waiting for more information on what he needs. In the meantime, I'll probably still be reading and getting back into my own music work.
As for finishing games, I was adamant on finishing BlazBlue Central Fiction's story mode as BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle was releasing soon. Although they probably don't have anything related to each other, I felt it necessary to finish up the game before then. I knew it was going to take me a while, but it wasn't nearly as long as previous games since it had a lot less content. I really liked the whole story and it's become one of my favorite ones in videogames. With each passing game, I've come to love BlazBlue more and more. Although a bit cliché and finding a lot of parallels to its counterpart game Guilty Gear at times, the characters of BlazBlue stand out with its eccentric designs and striking colors. Backgrounds have a certain depth to it that sets the stage of its lore. The music is obviously good as it is composed by Daisuke Ishiwatari of Guilty Gear fame. The music often reflects the characters' personality and/or theme rather well while still managing to keep it catchy and memorable.
To give some examples, Ragna is a hardheaded combatant who keeps things simple and fights wildly. So his theme has a simple melody and the rhythm is rough and aggressive. He's also known to be a beginner friendly character to start out with because of his simple move sets. So the art design, music, personality, and gameplay of the character all work together cohesively to create this image that stands out and is memorable.
Here's another easy example. Taokaka is a playful character that has a childlike behavior. The music portrays this through its fast tempo and very happy melody.
This is one of my favorite songs. Bang's character is loud and fails to be inconspicuous which is ironic as he's a ninja. He is filled with pride leading a life of righteousness and serving justice to all who do wrong. The way the guitar wails and sings matches Bang's personality well in the same way he yells and makes his presence known. The tune honestly sounds a bit like a sentai hero theme song where the protagonist is filled with justice and hope for everyone.
Other than the story, art, and music, BlazBlue's gameplay was something that also felt new to me when I first play it nearly a decade ago. Each character has a unique mechanic or "gimmick" that stands out from the rest of the roster. Unlike other fighting games where learning one character might make it easier to learn the rest of the cast, each character is so different that you really have to find the time to sit down and find out each individual attack and their potential for each situation. This might seem discouraging to newcomers and casual players, but there's a stylish mode which simplifies the combat so that it's enjoyable for the player but not so optimal that it breaks competitive gameplay. In other words, there is a lot of depth to the characters.
I was thinking of doing a full rant on BlazBlue's story mode, but considering that it's a series that took me potentially 100+ hours to finish, I think I'll just simply say that "I loved it and can't wait to see more in the future".
As I stated in the beginning of the post, there are only 2 weeks of May left. BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle releases on June 5th and that'll probably start my summer slack in which the events of Summer will distract me from productivity. The schedule is really weird this year as it usually has the events back-to-back from each other: E3, Steam Summer Sale, EVO, and Awesome Games Done Quick. This year, Steam Summer Sale and Summer Games Done Quick over lap each other right after E3. Then nothing happens all of July (not counting Comic Con since there's never news that I care about during that event). Finally, Evo begins at the beginning of August. Maybe I'll try to stay productive in July. So before June 5th, I'd like to get some work done and finish up a few more games before then.
I haven't been working on any music since then aside from practicing some guitar and piano. I spent all of April trying to read. I borrowed Romance of the Three Kingdoms from a friend and tried my best to sit down and read through all 4 books. I'm not even done with the first one. I guess I could be spending more time throughout the day reading it and I'd be done by now. I've been trying to get back into exercising regularly again and it always feels like it takes up a lot of time after I've finished, eat lunch, and take a shower. I had planned on getting back into working on music in May, but I've also been focused on wanting to finish certain games as well. Interestingly enough, a friend recommended his friend to me for Videogame music composition/production. He's working on a game independently and wanted original music for it so we set up a deal with each other and now I'm just waiting for more information on what he needs. In the meantime, I'll probably still be reading and getting back into my own music work.
As for finishing games, I was adamant on finishing BlazBlue Central Fiction's story mode as BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle was releasing soon. Although they probably don't have anything related to each other, I felt it necessary to finish up the game before then. I knew it was going to take me a while, but it wasn't nearly as long as previous games since it had a lot less content. I really liked the whole story and it's become one of my favorite ones in videogames. With each passing game, I've come to love BlazBlue more and more. Although a bit cliché and finding a lot of parallels to its counterpart game Guilty Gear at times, the characters of BlazBlue stand out with its eccentric designs and striking colors. Backgrounds have a certain depth to it that sets the stage of its lore. The music is obviously good as it is composed by Daisuke Ishiwatari of Guilty Gear fame. The music often reflects the characters' personality and/or theme rather well while still managing to keep it catchy and memorable.
To give some examples, Ragna is a hardheaded combatant who keeps things simple and fights wildly. So his theme has a simple melody and the rhythm is rough and aggressive. He's also known to be a beginner friendly character to start out with because of his simple move sets. So the art design, music, personality, and gameplay of the character all work together cohesively to create this image that stands out and is memorable.
Here's another easy example. Taokaka is a playful character that has a childlike behavior. The music portrays this through its fast tempo and very happy melody.
This is one of my favorite songs. Bang's character is loud and fails to be inconspicuous which is ironic as he's a ninja. He is filled with pride leading a life of righteousness and serving justice to all who do wrong. The way the guitar wails and sings matches Bang's personality well in the same way he yells and makes his presence known. The tune honestly sounds a bit like a sentai hero theme song where the protagonist is filled with justice and hope for everyone.
Other than the story, art, and music, BlazBlue's gameplay was something that also felt new to me when I first play it nearly a decade ago. Each character has a unique mechanic or "gimmick" that stands out from the rest of the roster. Unlike other fighting games where learning one character might make it easier to learn the rest of the cast, each character is so different that you really have to find the time to sit down and find out each individual attack and their potential for each situation. This might seem discouraging to newcomers and casual players, but there's a stylish mode which simplifies the combat so that it's enjoyable for the player but not so optimal that it breaks competitive gameplay. In other words, there is a lot of depth to the characters.
I was thinking of doing a full rant on BlazBlue's story mode, but considering that it's a series that took me potentially 100+ hours to finish, I think I'll just simply say that "I loved it and can't wait to see more in the future".
As I stated in the beginning of the post, there are only 2 weeks of May left. BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle releases on June 5th and that'll probably start my summer slack in which the events of Summer will distract me from productivity. The schedule is really weird this year as it usually has the events back-to-back from each other: E3, Steam Summer Sale, EVO, and Awesome Games Done Quick. This year, Steam Summer Sale and Summer Games Done Quick over lap each other right after E3. Then nothing happens all of July (not counting Comic Con since there's never news that I care about during that event). Finally, Evo begins at the beginning of August. Maybe I'll try to stay productive in July. So before June 5th, I'd like to get some work done and finish up a few more games before then.
Tuesday, April 24, 2018
Let's talk about Furi [SPOILERS]
Furi was a game I almost passed up on because I've played a lot of games over the past few years claiming to be hardcore, difficult or the next "Dark Souls" and ended up feeling disappointed. Furi seemed like another one of those games that was unnecessarily frustrating for the sake of difficulty. What a lot of designers don't quite understand is that players aren't looking for a game to purposely make them die over and over again with surprises or unrealistic expectations, but rather a game that genuinely challenges the player in overcoming realistic obstacles; failure is just part of the process towards success. Furi is thankfully the latter.
I kept an eye on Furi and eventually a friend picked up the game for me for Christmas a couple months ago. I was still weary about the game and wasn't sure if I was going to enjoy it, but a lot of people that have played it kept talking about the music. I listened to the music for quite a bit before playing the game and eventually bought the soundtrack. Much like other videogame music, I had a better appreciation for each and every song after I completed the game as they each hold a strong association with events and bosses. So what exactly is Furi? Furi is an Action game that pits the player against one boss fight after another. No exploration, no pre-boss stages (with a semi-exception to one boss), no new power-ups or character levels, just a simple set of tools against meticulously designed bosses. The player can slash with the sword, do a charged sword attack, shoot, shoot with a charged shot, parry, and dodge. The objective is always the same throughout the game: survive and kill. Each boss has between 4-7 phases (with one boss at 9 phases). The player has 3 lives for each fight and regains a lost life for each phase they successfully finish. Losing all 3 lives means starting the boss fight over. The bosses are designed in the way old games bosses: with patterns. With the ability for players to observe, memorize and exploit patterns, there is little room to call foul play, cheap deaths, and unfair difficulty. Attacks are projected and can be identified and reacted to even on the first encounter (mostly). It is with these design choices in mind that I accepted the challenges and forgive the difficulty of the game. Besides the engaging gameplay and sublime soundtrack, the game has a strong sense of identity with each boss having a unique personality, theme and trait that makes the fight against each one so memorable. I'd like to discuss each of the boss fights briefly.
[Boss Fights] - Discussed based on Furi (Normal) Difficulty
1) The Chain
Boss Theme: 6:24 by Danger
Also known as the Tutorial boss. He tortures The Stranger (player character) and is the jailor that keeps him there. He's the only boss I fought and finished in Furier (Hard difficulty) mode and is way different. In Tutorial, he has a lot less attacks, isn't as fast, and is rather predictable so that the player can get accustomed to the game's mechanics. He has simple attacks and his dialogue is the stereotypical "you're weak, I'm strong" demeanor which seems rather silly when going against him in Normal difficulty. His boss theme made me get really into the fight though.
2) The Strap
Boss Theme: Enraged by Carpenter Brut
Ah, Carpenter Brut. Another reason I knew I'd like the music is when I heard he contributed to the soundtrack. The Strap is actually another prisoner, but is also a guardian to keep The Stranger from leaving. Her attacks involve a lot of homing bullets and a giant laser. Despite being just the 2nd boss in the game, she's incredibly quick and will dodge a lot of the player's attacks unless she had just finished using her laser or some other action that binds her to a position. The laser attack on the last phase gave me a bit of trouble. This boss fight teaches the player in a subtle manner to get behind cover when possible and to dodge effectively.
3) The Line
Walking Theme: A picture in motion by Waveshaper
Boss Theme: Wisdom of rage
This is where I felt a bit of the aesthetics didn't quite match up with the music and theme the game had set thus far. It was trippy to see The Stranger walking around, upside-down while platforms came together to progress him forward. But the more natural look of rocks (earth) made the environment look more rustic as opposed to its technology infused areas from the first two bosses. This was a pretty cool boss fight where the boss sat in the middle while the player had to break through reflecting walls and dodging dangerous waves of energy and projectiles. He eventually fills the screen with bullets and slows down time around him to a halt while quickly ambushing you with melee attacks. Unlike The Chain (who was arrogant) and The Strap (who was spastic), The Line was a calm old man who evoked a sense of patience and confidence. This boss fight forced the player to use their ranged attack and subtly teaches them to use it more often in fights.
4) The Scale
Walking Theme: Unraveled by Lorn
Boss Theme: Set me free by Lorn
This boss wasn't too bad, but I still found it a bit annoying. The boss has a strong theme of neon green and it certainly leaves an impression. The boss shoots lines of green projectiles that leave a trail behind. Not only does it do damage, but it also disorients the player which makes the screen go a bit wobbly. The Scale can duplicate itself into many images which shoot at the player. He has projectiles that can split and shoot out and warp itself back in. He can fill the screen with horizontal and vertical lines throughout the stage, limiting the amount of space the player can move in. It's also one of the bosses that does quite a few melee combos which forces the player to learn how to do consecutive parries. The boss theme is quite minimalistic and has a strong tie to the look of the stage, but it's probably my least favorite one to listen to.
5) The Hand
Boss Theme: What we fight for by Carpenter Brut
I started questioning the story and my own playable character at this boss fight. What is this game even about? Who is this character I'm controlling? Is he actually the bad guy and everyone else I'm fighting the good guys? The boss fight begins with The Hand speaking to his son and then speaks to The Stranger, saying that his purpose in fighting gives him strength that is beyond The Stranger's. And then you kill him.....This boss fight was much more intimate as it involved a lot more parries and melee strikes. The stage is smaller, the attacks from the boss are a lot more dangerous, but he's hilariously exploitable with ranged attacks (at least on Normal difficulty). The look of this area really didn't match the music and the theme the game had set itself up for thus far. The fight was okay and the music is (surprisingly) only okay (considering it's Carpenter Brut) and so this fight was one of the least memorable ones in the game.
6) The Song
Boss Theme: Make this right by The Toxic Avenger
This was, by far, my favorite boss fight in the game. It was highly engaging as there were minimal invincible phases for the boss, lots of movement, heavy use of ranged attacks, challenging and beautiful bullet patterns, and one heck of a boss theme (I love this song). It often bugs me when boss fights have phases of invincibility and requires the player to dodge the onslaught before being allowed to fight back. A lot of the bosses in this game has that, but they're usually not long enough for it to really make me hate the fight. But this particular boss fight doesn't have the "your turn, my turn" design and really has both the player and the boss go at it the entire time. It was a boss fight that really got me pumped up and excited. It's also the only point in the game where you can get an alternate ending. It obviously cuts the game in half and you can definitely continue again from that point to finish the game (or at least I think so, I didn't do this ending), but it's an interesting feature to allow the player to actually choose to take The Song's offer in staying there to prevent further killing and possible annihilation of her people (although that probably still wouldn't matter after I found out the true ending). The only thing I would like to criticize is that the design of The Song is kind of dopey. I like the visor coming down in front of her eyes, that was cool. But her wings look really dumb.
7) The Burst
Walking Theme: Love and madness by Scattle
Boss Theme: You're mine by Carpenter Brut
Oh man, this was a frustrating boss. The arena is possibly the largest one in the game and you have to play a game of hide and seek with an elite sniper who's capable of one-shotting you. While you search for her in this gigantic arena, there are tons of drones constantly shooting at you or ramming into you. Once you do find her, you have to beat her down hard enough to have her duel you. She's fast, sneaky, and can easily restart a phase with just one shot. At one point, she's go invisible and you'll have to react to the shining effects of attacks and sound effects. I do like how unique this boss fight was and it was certainly memorable, but man she was a pain.
8) The Edge
Walking Theme: A big day by Kn1ght
Boss Theme: Something memorable by Kn1ght
This was the hardest boss for me to get through and possibly the most frustrating in the main game. Upon starting the fight, I lost all three lives in a mere 16 seconds. I was flabbergasted by how the difficulty spiked up to an almost unreasonable degree. How this fight worked was that the player can't attack the boss. Any attempts to swipe at the boss was met with a painful counter. The only method to defeat The Edge (as far as I know) is to parry a full melee combo from him before hitting him once. Any extra attacks beyond that one attack is also met with a painful counter. What makes this difficult is that his attacks come out quickly and some of them are delayed. If you get in the rhythm of parrying each of his attacks, it tricks you into parrying a delayed attack. Regular attacks take off 2 bars of health while delayed attacks can take off 4 bars (from a total of 10 bars). There might be a signal to tell what combo he uses, but I couldn't figure it out and only reacted as best as I could. Sometimes it's a single attack, sometimes is a triple, sometimes it's a 4-hit attack, sometimes the 3rd strike is delayed; it was all very frustrating trying to keep up. I screamed, I complained, but in the end I got through it. It took a little over an hour to defeat The Edge. It wasn't until after I beat the game where I had an appreciation for this particular boss fight. The last two bosses weren't nearly as difficult as this one and this boss forced me to become better at parrying which made it incredibly useful for the DLC bosses and Furier difficulty. I joked with a friend on how this boss fight is practically asking you to be Daigo Umehara by doing a full parry and executing a counter attack. I believe this boss fight is a reference to the fight between Musashi Miyamoto and Sasaki Kojiro as the first thing The Edge says to the player is "You sure took your time". Musashi had purposely arrived to his official duel against Sasaki late to upset his opponent and cause distress to his mental state. Musashi had arrived to his duel by a fisherman's boat and had carved a bokken (wooden sword) out of a boat oar, the weapon The Edge uses to fight you with on his last few phases. The Edge would often mutter about giving him something memorable and the fact that I spent so long learning his pattern and getting down the timing of the parries made this a memorable fight for me, a skill I needed to fight against the DLC boss and The Chain on Furier difficulty.
9) The Beat
Walking Theme: A monster by Waveshaper
Boss Theme: You are the end by Waveshaper
I love this boss fight on so many different levels. This is one of the best walking themes in the game right next to "A picture in motion". Within the story, this last guardian asked to be the last hope for their world in keeping The Stranger from escaping. She is described as inadequate and powerless, but was given the position to humor her. As the boss fight begins, I immediately love the boss theme music as much as the walking theme music. I also quickly realize that it has a sort of stage, as in you have to get through some obstacles before you can face the boss. The Beat knows she's weak against direct confrontation, so her strategy is to run away from you while blasting a bunch of projectiles to take you out. The thing about this is that the patterns are kind of challenging, but not particularly difficult. This is a deliberate choice by the designers (I believe) to drive at a point in the story and for gameplay's sake, to give the player a rest after an exhausting fight against The Edge. When you get to the last phase, The Beat is already limping and begging for her life. Although I questioned it once when fighting The Hand, it was at this point in the game that I really questioned "what am I fighting for?" I felt so bad and questioned the morality of The Stranger, even if I didn't have a choice in the matter if I wanted to progress forward. It was such a strong message and memorable moment that didn't require a long winded dialogue as it was able to convey the message through the gameplay.
?) Walking out
Walking Theme: My only chance by The Toxic Avenger
This was the song that I heard that made me decide that I wanted to buy the soundtrack. As The Stranger walked out of the prison and into a beautiful field of green grass, you see life and color fade around him as he made his way towards the tall building in the distance. As that happens, the credits started rolling. I was confused and kept saying "there's no way that's the end of the game!" The story still didn't make sense and to leave the game's last boss with The Beat seemed odd. After the credits, a cutscene showing The Stranger getting on a jet pack took him into space where he arrives at a space station filled with other beings that looked exactly like him. He reaches a room with a large projection of a head what seemingly is an computer speaking to him. The computer welcomes "Rider" back home and asks for information on the planet and whether it was an adequate place for them to assimilate. It is at this point where the player can choose to fulfill "Rider's" original directive to confirm assimilation on the planet, or to oppose the computer and destroy the space station. Everything that led up to this suddenly makes sense: All the bosses you fought weren't keeping The Stranger inside the prison just because of the people he's killed, but because they're preventing the annihilation of their people. The Voice (rabbit man who tells you about each guardian) freed The Stranger in the beginning of the game and had him fight each of these guardians to understand their views and bet on The Stranger to set things right. Or you could just assimilate the planet and avoid fighting the last boss.
10) The Star
Boss Theme: 7:53, 8:02, 19:06, 19:07 by Danger
This wasn't so much a Boss fight as it was an endurance test. While shooting lasers at different weapon parts, the player much survive a barrage of bullets, lasers, and physical attacks to bring down the space station. I can't remember if it took me 2 or 3 tries, but wasn't nearly as hard as fighting The Edge. It was certainly exhausting though as each phase lasts a really long time and the last phase has quite a few phases of attack patterns within itself before you can finish the boss off.
DLC 1) The Flame
Boss Theme: Shambles by Scattle
What can I say about this boss? He's a pain. Lots of tricky melee combos and bullet patterns not seen in the main game. He took a little under an hour to learn his pattern just enough for me to beat him. The hour spent fighting The Edge certainly helped.
DLC 2) Bernard
Boss Theme: Slight remix of 6:24 by Danger
HA, I tried a few times and immediately gave up. Not only does this boss have ridiculously fast teleporting attacks, they also have 9 phases and no longer wanted to torture myself in learning all the patterns of a boss that would probably take me hours.
Overall, Furi is a fantastic game and I enjoyed it. I would probably have put in the time to try to get through Furier difficulty, but seeing how The Chain took me around an hour to beat, I decided I would stop there as I need to get around to playing other games.
I kept an eye on Furi and eventually a friend picked up the game for me for Christmas a couple months ago. I was still weary about the game and wasn't sure if I was going to enjoy it, but a lot of people that have played it kept talking about the music. I listened to the music for quite a bit before playing the game and eventually bought the soundtrack. Much like other videogame music, I had a better appreciation for each and every song after I completed the game as they each hold a strong association with events and bosses. So what exactly is Furi? Furi is an Action game that pits the player against one boss fight after another. No exploration, no pre-boss stages (with a semi-exception to one boss), no new power-ups or character levels, just a simple set of tools against meticulously designed bosses. The player can slash with the sword, do a charged sword attack, shoot, shoot with a charged shot, parry, and dodge. The objective is always the same throughout the game: survive and kill. Each boss has between 4-7 phases (with one boss at 9 phases). The player has 3 lives for each fight and regains a lost life for each phase they successfully finish. Losing all 3 lives means starting the boss fight over. The bosses are designed in the way old games bosses: with patterns. With the ability for players to observe, memorize and exploit patterns, there is little room to call foul play, cheap deaths, and unfair difficulty. Attacks are projected and can be identified and reacted to even on the first encounter (mostly). It is with these design choices in mind that I accepted the challenges and forgive the difficulty of the game. Besides the engaging gameplay and sublime soundtrack, the game has a strong sense of identity with each boss having a unique personality, theme and trait that makes the fight against each one so memorable. I'd like to discuss each of the boss fights briefly.
[Boss Fights] - Discussed based on Furi (Normal) Difficulty
1) The Chain
Boss Theme: 6:24 by Danger
Also known as the Tutorial boss. He tortures The Stranger (player character) and is the jailor that keeps him there. He's the only boss I fought and finished in Furier (Hard difficulty) mode and is way different. In Tutorial, he has a lot less attacks, isn't as fast, and is rather predictable so that the player can get accustomed to the game's mechanics. He has simple attacks and his dialogue is the stereotypical "you're weak, I'm strong" demeanor which seems rather silly when going against him in Normal difficulty. His boss theme made me get really into the fight though.
2) The Strap
Boss Theme: Enraged by Carpenter Brut
Ah, Carpenter Brut. Another reason I knew I'd like the music is when I heard he contributed to the soundtrack. The Strap is actually another prisoner, but is also a guardian to keep The Stranger from leaving. Her attacks involve a lot of homing bullets and a giant laser. Despite being just the 2nd boss in the game, she's incredibly quick and will dodge a lot of the player's attacks unless she had just finished using her laser or some other action that binds her to a position. The laser attack on the last phase gave me a bit of trouble. This boss fight teaches the player in a subtle manner to get behind cover when possible and to dodge effectively.
3) The Line
Walking Theme: A picture in motion by Waveshaper
Boss Theme: Wisdom of rage
This is where I felt a bit of the aesthetics didn't quite match up with the music and theme the game had set thus far. It was trippy to see The Stranger walking around, upside-down while platforms came together to progress him forward. But the more natural look of rocks (earth) made the environment look more rustic as opposed to its technology infused areas from the first two bosses. This was a pretty cool boss fight where the boss sat in the middle while the player had to break through reflecting walls and dodging dangerous waves of energy and projectiles. He eventually fills the screen with bullets and slows down time around him to a halt while quickly ambushing you with melee attacks. Unlike The Chain (who was arrogant) and The Strap (who was spastic), The Line was a calm old man who evoked a sense of patience and confidence. This boss fight forced the player to use their ranged attack and subtly teaches them to use it more often in fights.
4) The Scale
Walking Theme: Unraveled by Lorn
Boss Theme: Set me free by Lorn
This boss wasn't too bad, but I still found it a bit annoying. The boss has a strong theme of neon green and it certainly leaves an impression. The boss shoots lines of green projectiles that leave a trail behind. Not only does it do damage, but it also disorients the player which makes the screen go a bit wobbly. The Scale can duplicate itself into many images which shoot at the player. He has projectiles that can split and shoot out and warp itself back in. He can fill the screen with horizontal and vertical lines throughout the stage, limiting the amount of space the player can move in. It's also one of the bosses that does quite a few melee combos which forces the player to learn how to do consecutive parries. The boss theme is quite minimalistic and has a strong tie to the look of the stage, but it's probably my least favorite one to listen to.
5) The Hand
Boss Theme: What we fight for by Carpenter Brut
I started questioning the story and my own playable character at this boss fight. What is this game even about? Who is this character I'm controlling? Is he actually the bad guy and everyone else I'm fighting the good guys? The boss fight begins with The Hand speaking to his son and then speaks to The Stranger, saying that his purpose in fighting gives him strength that is beyond The Stranger's. And then you kill him.....This boss fight was much more intimate as it involved a lot more parries and melee strikes. The stage is smaller, the attacks from the boss are a lot more dangerous, but he's hilariously exploitable with ranged attacks (at least on Normal difficulty). The look of this area really didn't match the music and the theme the game had set itself up for thus far. The fight was okay and the music is (surprisingly) only okay (considering it's Carpenter Brut) and so this fight was one of the least memorable ones in the game.
6) The Song
Boss Theme: Make this right by The Toxic Avenger
This was, by far, my favorite boss fight in the game. It was highly engaging as there were minimal invincible phases for the boss, lots of movement, heavy use of ranged attacks, challenging and beautiful bullet patterns, and one heck of a boss theme (I love this song). It often bugs me when boss fights have phases of invincibility and requires the player to dodge the onslaught before being allowed to fight back. A lot of the bosses in this game has that, but they're usually not long enough for it to really make me hate the fight. But this particular boss fight doesn't have the "your turn, my turn" design and really has both the player and the boss go at it the entire time. It was a boss fight that really got me pumped up and excited. It's also the only point in the game where you can get an alternate ending. It obviously cuts the game in half and you can definitely continue again from that point to finish the game (or at least I think so, I didn't do this ending), but it's an interesting feature to allow the player to actually choose to take The Song's offer in staying there to prevent further killing and possible annihilation of her people (although that probably still wouldn't matter after I found out the true ending). The only thing I would like to criticize is that the design of The Song is kind of dopey. I like the visor coming down in front of her eyes, that was cool. But her wings look really dumb.
7) The Burst
Walking Theme: Love and madness by Scattle
Boss Theme: You're mine by Carpenter Brut
Oh man, this was a frustrating boss. The arena is possibly the largest one in the game and you have to play a game of hide and seek with an elite sniper who's capable of one-shotting you. While you search for her in this gigantic arena, there are tons of drones constantly shooting at you or ramming into you. Once you do find her, you have to beat her down hard enough to have her duel you. She's fast, sneaky, and can easily restart a phase with just one shot. At one point, she's go invisible and you'll have to react to the shining effects of attacks and sound effects. I do like how unique this boss fight was and it was certainly memorable, but man she was a pain.
8) The Edge
Walking Theme: A big day by Kn1ght
Boss Theme: Something memorable by Kn1ght
This was the hardest boss for me to get through and possibly the most frustrating in the main game. Upon starting the fight, I lost all three lives in a mere 16 seconds. I was flabbergasted by how the difficulty spiked up to an almost unreasonable degree. How this fight worked was that the player can't attack the boss. Any attempts to swipe at the boss was met with a painful counter. The only method to defeat The Edge (as far as I know) is to parry a full melee combo from him before hitting him once. Any extra attacks beyond that one attack is also met with a painful counter. What makes this difficult is that his attacks come out quickly and some of them are delayed. If you get in the rhythm of parrying each of his attacks, it tricks you into parrying a delayed attack. Regular attacks take off 2 bars of health while delayed attacks can take off 4 bars (from a total of 10 bars). There might be a signal to tell what combo he uses, but I couldn't figure it out and only reacted as best as I could. Sometimes it's a single attack, sometimes is a triple, sometimes it's a 4-hit attack, sometimes the 3rd strike is delayed; it was all very frustrating trying to keep up. I screamed, I complained, but in the end I got through it. It took a little over an hour to defeat The Edge. It wasn't until after I beat the game where I had an appreciation for this particular boss fight. The last two bosses weren't nearly as difficult as this one and this boss forced me to become better at parrying which made it incredibly useful for the DLC bosses and Furier difficulty. I joked with a friend on how this boss fight is practically asking you to be Daigo Umehara by doing a full parry and executing a counter attack. I believe this boss fight is a reference to the fight between Musashi Miyamoto and Sasaki Kojiro as the first thing The Edge says to the player is "You sure took your time". Musashi had purposely arrived to his official duel against Sasaki late to upset his opponent and cause distress to his mental state. Musashi had arrived to his duel by a fisherman's boat and had carved a bokken (wooden sword) out of a boat oar, the weapon The Edge uses to fight you with on his last few phases. The Edge would often mutter about giving him something memorable and the fact that I spent so long learning his pattern and getting down the timing of the parries made this a memorable fight for me, a skill I needed to fight against the DLC boss and The Chain on Furier difficulty.
9) The Beat
Walking Theme: A monster by Waveshaper
Boss Theme: You are the end by Waveshaper
I love this boss fight on so many different levels. This is one of the best walking themes in the game right next to "A picture in motion". Within the story, this last guardian asked to be the last hope for their world in keeping The Stranger from escaping. She is described as inadequate and powerless, but was given the position to humor her. As the boss fight begins, I immediately love the boss theme music as much as the walking theme music. I also quickly realize that it has a sort of stage, as in you have to get through some obstacles before you can face the boss. The Beat knows she's weak against direct confrontation, so her strategy is to run away from you while blasting a bunch of projectiles to take you out. The thing about this is that the patterns are kind of challenging, but not particularly difficult. This is a deliberate choice by the designers (I believe) to drive at a point in the story and for gameplay's sake, to give the player a rest after an exhausting fight against The Edge. When you get to the last phase, The Beat is already limping and begging for her life. Although I questioned it once when fighting The Hand, it was at this point in the game that I really questioned "what am I fighting for?" I felt so bad and questioned the morality of The Stranger, even if I didn't have a choice in the matter if I wanted to progress forward. It was such a strong message and memorable moment that didn't require a long winded dialogue as it was able to convey the message through the gameplay.
?) Walking out
Walking Theme: My only chance by The Toxic Avenger
This was the song that I heard that made me decide that I wanted to buy the soundtrack. As The Stranger walked out of the prison and into a beautiful field of green grass, you see life and color fade around him as he made his way towards the tall building in the distance. As that happens, the credits started rolling. I was confused and kept saying "there's no way that's the end of the game!" The story still didn't make sense and to leave the game's last boss with The Beat seemed odd. After the credits, a cutscene showing The Stranger getting on a jet pack took him into space where he arrives at a space station filled with other beings that looked exactly like him. He reaches a room with a large projection of a head what seemingly is an computer speaking to him. The computer welcomes "Rider" back home and asks for information on the planet and whether it was an adequate place for them to assimilate. It is at this point where the player can choose to fulfill "Rider's" original directive to confirm assimilation on the planet, or to oppose the computer and destroy the space station. Everything that led up to this suddenly makes sense: All the bosses you fought weren't keeping The Stranger inside the prison just because of the people he's killed, but because they're preventing the annihilation of their people. The Voice (rabbit man who tells you about each guardian) freed The Stranger in the beginning of the game and had him fight each of these guardians to understand their views and bet on The Stranger to set things right. Or you could just assimilate the planet and avoid fighting the last boss.
10) The Star
Boss Theme: 7:53, 8:02, 19:06, 19:07 by Danger
This wasn't so much a Boss fight as it was an endurance test. While shooting lasers at different weapon parts, the player much survive a barrage of bullets, lasers, and physical attacks to bring down the space station. I can't remember if it took me 2 or 3 tries, but wasn't nearly as hard as fighting The Edge. It was certainly exhausting though as each phase lasts a really long time and the last phase has quite a few phases of attack patterns within itself before you can finish the boss off.
DLC 1) The Flame
Boss Theme: Shambles by Scattle
What can I say about this boss? He's a pain. Lots of tricky melee combos and bullet patterns not seen in the main game. He took a little under an hour to learn his pattern just enough for me to beat him. The hour spent fighting The Edge certainly helped.
DLC 2) Bernard
Boss Theme: Slight remix of 6:24 by Danger
HA, I tried a few times and immediately gave up. Not only does this boss have ridiculously fast teleporting attacks, they also have 9 phases and no longer wanted to torture myself in learning all the patterns of a boss that would probably take me hours.
Overall, Furi is a fantastic game and I enjoyed it. I would probably have put in the time to try to get through Furier difficulty, but seeing how The Chain took me around an hour to beat, I decided I would stop there as I need to get around to playing other games.
Monday, March 19, 2018
Thinking about the new Smash Bros.
Pulled directly from what I posted on Facebook:
I've been thinking about more Smash Bros. this past week and wondered what would be some crazy scenarios when they finally talk about the game. Here are a few thoughts:
1) What if they already announced all the new comers from that one Direct? So Amaterasu from Okami, Travis from No More Heroes, Solaire from Dark Souls, Sans from Undertale, Crash from Crash Bandicoot, etc.
2) What if this is not a port of Smash 4 with add-ons but a revised game of Smash 4 that plays like Project M/Melee? They'd bring the community of Melee and Smash 4 together (but potentially kill off the Smash 4 community because of how ridiculous Melee players are).
3) What if this really is a new entry entirely? I mean, I guess it would be if #2 was true. But it's kind of crazy to think about having an entirely new Smash Bros. game when it's been only 2 years since Bayonetta was released on Smash 4 considering how long it takes to make a Smash Bros. game.
Even if the game was a new game that uses the same engine and assets of Smash 4, I'd be totally okay with that because they could potentially deliver something new and fresh to the series without having to work Sakurai and team to the bone.
There's a lot of characters I'd like to see be added. Since Melee, I've been still waiting to see Simon Belmont (or any Castlevania character) and Ryu Hayabusa (Ninja Gaiden) be added. I was incredibly happy to see characters like Mega Man, Duck Hunt Dog, Ryu (from Street Fighter), Cloud and Bayonetta be added in Smash 4 so I'd like to see more classic and iconic game characters be added. With the disappointment of Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite, I'd like to see a lot of those characters be added to Smash Bros. instead. So Arthur from Ghosts 'n Goblins, Amaterasu from Okami (which I mentioned earlier), Fire Brand from Gargoyle's Quest, Nathan Spencer from Bionic Commando, Strider Hiryu, X and Zero from Mega Man X (even though we got Mega Man), etc. I guess I'd like to see more classic characters from the NES and SNES be added.
As cool as it'd be to see some indie game characters be part of the roster, I'd much rather see an entirely separate game with a whole bunch of indie game characters rather than just 1 or 2 of them as guest characters. I know there are a few of them already, but there needs to be a really good project that has a whole bunch of them all in one game. The Drifter from Hyper Light Drifter is actually what motivated me to pick up Brawlout and they later added Juan from Guacamelee to the roster. And Ori was added as a DLC character in Rivals of Aether. It inspires the desire to have a whole bunch of indie game characters fight it out in their own game because I feel like they'd be outshined by the other well known characters in Smash Bros. One project that seems to have some of the best known indie game characters all in one game is Indie POGO.
At this point, I'm just really hungry for more information on the new Smash Bros. Before it releases and before I pick up a Nintendo Switch, I've really got to clear out some backlog first...
I've been thinking about more Smash Bros. this past week and wondered what would be some crazy scenarios when they finally talk about the game. Here are a few thoughts:
1) What if they already announced all the new comers from that one Direct? So Amaterasu from Okami, Travis from No More Heroes, Solaire from Dark Souls, Sans from Undertale, Crash from Crash Bandicoot, etc.
2) What if this is not a port of Smash 4 with add-ons but a revised game of Smash 4 that plays like Project M/Melee? They'd bring the community of Melee and Smash 4 together (but potentially kill off the Smash 4 community because of how ridiculous Melee players are).
3) What if this really is a new entry entirely? I mean, I guess it would be if #2 was true. But it's kind of crazy to think about having an entirely new Smash Bros. game when it's been only 2 years since Bayonetta was released on Smash 4 considering how long it takes to make a Smash Bros. game.
Even if the game was a new game that uses the same engine and assets of Smash 4, I'd be totally okay with that because they could potentially deliver something new and fresh to the series without having to work Sakurai and team to the bone.
There's a lot of characters I'd like to see be added. Since Melee, I've been still waiting to see Simon Belmont (or any Castlevania character) and Ryu Hayabusa (Ninja Gaiden) be added. I was incredibly happy to see characters like Mega Man, Duck Hunt Dog, Ryu (from Street Fighter), Cloud and Bayonetta be added in Smash 4 so I'd like to see more classic and iconic game characters be added. With the disappointment of Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite, I'd like to see a lot of those characters be added to Smash Bros. instead. So Arthur from Ghosts 'n Goblins, Amaterasu from Okami (which I mentioned earlier), Fire Brand from Gargoyle's Quest, Nathan Spencer from Bionic Commando, Strider Hiryu, X and Zero from Mega Man X (even though we got Mega Man), etc. I guess I'd like to see more classic characters from the NES and SNES be added.
As cool as it'd be to see some indie game characters be part of the roster, I'd much rather see an entirely separate game with a whole bunch of indie game characters rather than just 1 or 2 of them as guest characters. I know there are a few of them already, but there needs to be a really good project that has a whole bunch of them all in one game. The Drifter from Hyper Light Drifter is actually what motivated me to pick up Brawlout and they later added Juan from Guacamelee to the roster. And Ori was added as a DLC character in Rivals of Aether. It inspires the desire to have a whole bunch of indie game characters fight it out in their own game because I feel like they'd be outshined by the other well known characters in Smash Bros. One project that seems to have some of the best known indie game characters all in one game is Indie POGO.
At this point, I'm just really hungry for more information on the new Smash Bros. Before it releases and before I pick up a Nintendo Switch, I've really got to clear out some backlog first...
Friday, March 9, 2018
Super Smash Bros. for Switch Announced
I went into yesterday's Nintendo Direct with mild curiosity and low expectations. There didn't seem to be anything new to announce with a lot of games already announced in past directs so I was only expecting updates on those games such as Kirby Star Allies and ports like Hyrule Warriors Definitive Edition. It's too close to E3 for them to drop any big news for a Nintendo Direct so I didn't have much to look forward to......or so I thought. Surprisingly, the announced a decent amount of new games and ports that I'm actually interested in: new WarioWare game, Luigi's Mansion 3DS, Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story 3DS, new No More Heroes game, and Splatoon 2 expansion. In terms of updates on previously announced games, I'm interested in Detective Pikachu, Kirby, Octopath Traveler, and Mario Tennis. What was really surprising was seeing the newest Crash Bandicoot remake announced for the Switch. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. My first thought seeing it though was "Crash can be in Smash Bros. now."
After the lengthy update on Splatoon 2 and its expansion (I really liked the trailer for the expansion), the Nintendo Direct seemingly was coming to an end. With it ending there, I was a bit disappointed but not surprised and felt that they announced a decent amount of things to look forward to. But then, all of a sudden:
Right before the stream started at 2PM PST, this is what I typed to one of my friends:
-1:58 PM Wishful thinking, but hoping something smash related!
-1:58 PM lol, even if they did want to announce something like that, they'd leave it for E3
I am so glad I was wrong and happy that they surprised us with that teaser. When they said that was it, I was a bit sad. Then they raised my hopes up again with showing us one last thing. And admittedly, I was sad to see the Splatoon paint show up when the trailer started. "Splatoon 1 on 3DS? Splatoon characters in Mario Odyssey? Splatoon 1 content added to Splatoon 2?" It did not cross my mind that they'd reveal Super Smash Bros. while simultaneously announcing the addition of Squidkids being part of the roster (but a lot of people suspected it). It was a good lead in from talking about Splatoon 2 to announcing Squidkids being in Smash Bros. It's such a well done trailer. When it zoomed in on the eye and showed the reflection of the Smash Bros. logo, I flipped out and started screaming. I was then laughing and tearing up at the sight because I really wasn't prepared for it.
But don't take my word for it, look at how other people reacted:
Now we just have to wait for more information and wait for it to actually release.
After the lengthy update on Splatoon 2 and its expansion (I really liked the trailer for the expansion), the Nintendo Direct seemingly was coming to an end. With it ending there, I was a bit disappointed but not surprised and felt that they announced a decent amount of things to look forward to. But then, all of a sudden:
Right before the stream started at 2PM PST, this is what I typed to one of my friends:
-1:58 PM Wishful thinking, but hoping something smash related!
-1:58 PM lol, even if they did want to announce something like that, they'd leave it for E3
I am so glad I was wrong and happy that they surprised us with that teaser. When they said that was it, I was a bit sad. Then they raised my hopes up again with showing us one last thing. And admittedly, I was sad to see the Splatoon paint show up when the trailer started. "Splatoon 1 on 3DS? Splatoon characters in Mario Odyssey? Splatoon 1 content added to Splatoon 2?" It did not cross my mind that they'd reveal Super Smash Bros. while simultaneously announcing the addition of Squidkids being part of the roster (but a lot of people suspected it). It was a good lead in from talking about Splatoon 2 to announcing Squidkids being in Smash Bros. It's such a well done trailer. When it zoomed in on the eye and showed the reflection of the Smash Bros. logo, I flipped out and started screaming. I was then laughing and tearing up at the sight because I really wasn't prepared for it.
But don't take my word for it, look at how other people reacted:
Now we just have to wait for more information and wait for it to actually release.
Tuesday, February 27, 2018
The year of not getting dog'd
"Don't get dog'd" is a phrase I use often, usually in videogames. It essentially means "don't get blindsided" (by a dog or something similar to a dog). Dogs in videogames as enemies can be annoying. They're fast, hard to hit, have unpredictable movement patterns, do a lot of damage (or outright kill you), and can overwhelm you in large numbers.
In the Chinese zodiac, 2018 is the year of the dog and I'm really hoping this will be a great year. 8 is a lucky number in Chinese (and Asian culture in general). But seeing how it's the year of the dog, I joked early on in the year of being careful not to be "dog'd". Just because we have that 8 in 2018 doesn't mean we should be overzealous.
I didn't get any work done this month, but I have been working on a medley remix that'll be the first song in the shoot-em-up remix album I mentioned 2 years ago. It's taking a long time because I had a lot to fix, alter and import before I could actually get around to remixing it. Throughout the month, I worked on this remix, went to Jury Duty, spent a week cleaning the house in preparation for Chinese New Year, spent time with my sister, and got caught up with some new games. It's been a busy month in February and yet it felt so short. I'd really like to get this current remix done, perhaps work on a few more and then get around to working on original content. I really want to make the effort to create original content and do some more job searching this Summer and Fall.
With the release of Dynasty Warriors 9 and Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet this month, I knew I'd be pretty busy with videogames. I was spending most of the early month trying to get through Samurai Warriors: Spirit of Sanada, which I pre-ordered last year, in preparation for Dynasty Warriors 9. I had a feeling if I didn't finish the game, I'd be swept up in DW9 and not play it. I didn't finish it and I really did end up playing quite a bit of DW9 in terms of hours (around 15 so far) and haven't had the chance to go back and finish it.
Dynasty Warriors 9, unfortunately, has a lot of flaws and problems with it that didn't meet my expectation for the game. It's not optimized to run at a steady frame rate and was running below 20 fps on the first day (a patch was released on the 2nd day that fixed the frame rate issue a little). The English voice acting is atrocious and is almost as bad as Dynasty Warriors 3. Among those two glaring issues are repetitive objectives, lack of dynamic level designs, questionable cutscene animations, and some poor looking models for NPCs that are speaking. Despite all this, I've been having a lot of fun with it. It's immersive, the open-world aspect makes for a much more relaxing experience since I can take on objectives at my own pace, and there's all sorts of neat little mechanics you can take advantage of such as assassinating enemies with a bow and arrow.
In between the release of Dynasty Warriors 9 and Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet was a Steam sale for the Lunar New year, which I wasn't expecting. I picked up 4 games and the soundtrack to Furi with one of the games being Gang Beasts. I've been still playing online multiplayer games with my friends with revisiting Left 4 Dead 2, playing some more Rainbow Six: Siege (which has been a lot of fun), finally getting around to playing Dragon Age: Inquisition multiplayer, and Gang Beasts. Gang Beasts is a party game with floppy people trying to throw each other off platforms. It's hilarious and I hope we get to play it some more. Puyo Puyo Tetris released today and my friends picked it up along with me so we plan on playing that tonight. It's been a fun month playing these games with my friends and we're eagerly awaiting the release of Monster Hunter: World for PC as a few of our friends picked up the PS4 version and have been playing it this past month.
Just this past Friday was the release of Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet and I had pre-ordered it for PC. I was very excited to play it, for whatever reason (kind of reminds me of Phantasy Star Online, it's a third-person shooter, and it's Sword Art Online related). It sadly doesn't support ultrawide screen and I can't even play it fullscreen without it bugging out while widowed causes the mouse to bring up my taskbar from the bottom if I aim down too far. Tutorial took quite a few hours to get through. But when I finally got through all the dialogues, cinematics, and character introductions, I had a blast. The game reminds me of the way Cyberdimension Neptunia's gameplay felt in how things were set up, but with a much higher quality. The presentation of the environment is beautiful, albeit empty. The game does have some flaws here and there, but nothing that really takes away from making the game fun. I've put in about 17 hours so far and it feels like nothing (like I've barely done anything) so I think I'm having a lot of fun with it.
With the release of Puyo Puyo Tetris today, I don't think there are any other games I want to pre-order until the end of May when Dark Souls Remaster releases. So I'll be using the next 3 months to catch up on my backlog and enjoy the games I have now. I know I've mentioned it quite a few times already, but I'm really looking forward to this year. The next three month working hard on my projects while catching up on backlog, then Dark Souls Remaster and BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle releases late May, early June respectively, E3, Steam Summer Sales, Summer Games Done Quick, EVO, and then hoping I can get some interviews or land a job during the fall.
In the Chinese zodiac, 2018 is the year of the dog and I'm really hoping this will be a great year. 8 is a lucky number in Chinese (and Asian culture in general). But seeing how it's the year of the dog, I joked early on in the year of being careful not to be "dog'd". Just because we have that 8 in 2018 doesn't mean we should be overzealous.
I didn't get any work done this month, but I have been working on a medley remix that'll be the first song in the shoot-em-up remix album I mentioned 2 years ago. It's taking a long time because I had a lot to fix, alter and import before I could actually get around to remixing it. Throughout the month, I worked on this remix, went to Jury Duty, spent a week cleaning the house in preparation for Chinese New Year, spent time with my sister, and got caught up with some new games. It's been a busy month in February and yet it felt so short. I'd really like to get this current remix done, perhaps work on a few more and then get around to working on original content. I really want to make the effort to create original content and do some more job searching this Summer and Fall.
With the release of Dynasty Warriors 9 and Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet this month, I knew I'd be pretty busy with videogames. I was spending most of the early month trying to get through Samurai Warriors: Spirit of Sanada, which I pre-ordered last year, in preparation for Dynasty Warriors 9. I had a feeling if I didn't finish the game, I'd be swept up in DW9 and not play it. I didn't finish it and I really did end up playing quite a bit of DW9 in terms of hours (around 15 so far) and haven't had the chance to go back and finish it.
Dynasty Warriors 9, unfortunately, has a lot of flaws and problems with it that didn't meet my expectation for the game. It's not optimized to run at a steady frame rate and was running below 20 fps on the first day (a patch was released on the 2nd day that fixed the frame rate issue a little). The English voice acting is atrocious and is almost as bad as Dynasty Warriors 3. Among those two glaring issues are repetitive objectives, lack of dynamic level designs, questionable cutscene animations, and some poor looking models for NPCs that are speaking. Despite all this, I've been having a lot of fun with it. It's immersive, the open-world aspect makes for a much more relaxing experience since I can take on objectives at my own pace, and there's all sorts of neat little mechanics you can take advantage of such as assassinating enemies with a bow and arrow.
In between the release of Dynasty Warriors 9 and Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet was a Steam sale for the Lunar New year, which I wasn't expecting. I picked up 4 games and the soundtrack to Furi with one of the games being Gang Beasts. I've been still playing online multiplayer games with my friends with revisiting Left 4 Dead 2, playing some more Rainbow Six: Siege (which has been a lot of fun), finally getting around to playing Dragon Age: Inquisition multiplayer, and Gang Beasts. Gang Beasts is a party game with floppy people trying to throw each other off platforms. It's hilarious and I hope we get to play it some more. Puyo Puyo Tetris released today and my friends picked it up along with me so we plan on playing that tonight. It's been a fun month playing these games with my friends and we're eagerly awaiting the release of Monster Hunter: World for PC as a few of our friends picked up the PS4 version and have been playing it this past month.
Just this past Friday was the release of Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet and I had pre-ordered it for PC. I was very excited to play it, for whatever reason (kind of reminds me of Phantasy Star Online, it's a third-person shooter, and it's Sword Art Online related). It sadly doesn't support ultrawide screen and I can't even play it fullscreen without it bugging out while widowed causes the mouse to bring up my taskbar from the bottom if I aim down too far. Tutorial took quite a few hours to get through. But when I finally got through all the dialogues, cinematics, and character introductions, I had a blast. The game reminds me of the way Cyberdimension Neptunia's gameplay felt in how things were set up, but with a much higher quality. The presentation of the environment is beautiful, albeit empty. The game does have some flaws here and there, but nothing that really takes away from making the game fun. I've put in about 17 hours so far and it feels like nothing (like I've barely done anything) so I think I'm having a lot of fun with it.
With the release of Puyo Puyo Tetris today, I don't think there are any other games I want to pre-order until the end of May when Dark Souls Remaster releases. So I'll be using the next 3 months to catch up on my backlog and enjoy the games I have now. I know I've mentioned it quite a few times already, but I'm really looking forward to this year. The next three month working hard on my projects while catching up on backlog, then Dark Souls Remaster and BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle releases late May, early June respectively, E3, Steam Summer Sales, Summer Games Done Quick, EVO, and then hoping I can get some interviews or land a job during the fall.
Monday, January 29, 2018
Sick again
I remember getting pretty sick sometime around this time last year (I checked my posts and it was at the end of February 2017) and was thinking that I was getting sick again. It wasn't as surprising this time around since it was my dad who came down with the flu last Thursday and then two days later my mom and I both started coughing on Saturday evening. I was mostly coughing and trying to control the cough so that it wouldn't mess up my throat. But eventually I started to have body pains and fatigue. I thought I'd be okay after one day, but it only got worse. By Monday, my cough got worse, I was getting a headache, I felt weak and the body pains got to the "skin and hair hurts" stage. I would feel shivering cold Sunday and Monday nights and was covered in sweat after a few hours of sleep. By Tuesday and Wednesday, my throat was a bit raspy and my abs and shoulders were sore from the coughing. Despite all this, I was not bedridden in any of the days. Thinking I was finally recovering on Thursday, my allergies hit like I knew it would and make me suffer an extra three days with watery/itchy eyes, stuffy/runny nose, burning sinus pains, congestion, sneezing along with the coughing that I still haven't recovered from the flu. Right now, I'm just coughing and feeling a bit weak from the ordeal, but I should be fine for the most part. From what I'm told, the flu that's spreading around the country right now is one of the worst ones in 32 years. Well, I got through it so hopefully I've built up an immunity to it for a long while.
Throughout that week, I mostly spent it catching up on PC games and clearing hard drive space for the arrival of Dragon Ball FighterZ and to install Tom Clancy's The Division which I bought during the Winter Steam Sale. I most spent the week playing through Dragon Quest Heroes which turned out to be really fun despite all the mixed and negative reviews I read about it. As for Dragon Ball FighterZ, the came released this past Friday and it was thankfully small (4.7 GB) so I had no problem fitting it on my hard drive. I haven't finished Story mode on it, but the game itself has been a lot of fun. Online Multiplayer works on a dedicated server basis which made it the best connection I've had playing a fighting game with one of my friends. I've tried playing a few fighting games with this friend and our connection hasn't always been the best. But Dragon Ball FighterZ has mostly been a great experience so far with a few instances of it freezing up or lagging out. I want to finish Story mode tonight since Dissidia Final Fantasy NT comes out tomorrow and I want to be able to play it by then.
I finished my first remix of the year to celebrate the return of Sakura back into Street Fighter V. I'm really happy with how the remix turned out.
Sakura's a fun character and it's nice to finally have an Arcade mode in Street Fighter V, but the netcode still sucks so my friends are kind of reluctant to play it as much.
I thought about what I want my next step in projects to be and I think I want to create at least one remix for the Shoot-em-Up remix album before I start working on my original compositions and projects that will lead up to another wave of job hunting I'll do. There's a lot of work I want to do, music I want to create and games I want to play this year. I'm hoping it'll be a great year because I'm looking forward to it.
Throughout that week, I mostly spent it catching up on PC games and clearing hard drive space for the arrival of Dragon Ball FighterZ and to install Tom Clancy's The Division which I bought during the Winter Steam Sale. I most spent the week playing through Dragon Quest Heroes which turned out to be really fun despite all the mixed and negative reviews I read about it. As for Dragon Ball FighterZ, the came released this past Friday and it was thankfully small (4.7 GB) so I had no problem fitting it on my hard drive. I haven't finished Story mode on it, but the game itself has been a lot of fun. Online Multiplayer works on a dedicated server basis which made it the best connection I've had playing a fighting game with one of my friends. I've tried playing a few fighting games with this friend and our connection hasn't always been the best. But Dragon Ball FighterZ has mostly been a great experience so far with a few instances of it freezing up or lagging out. I want to finish Story mode tonight since Dissidia Final Fantasy NT comes out tomorrow and I want to be able to play it by then.
I finished my first remix of the year to celebrate the return of Sakura back into Street Fighter V. I'm really happy with how the remix turned out.
Sakura's a fun character and it's nice to finally have an Arcade mode in Street Fighter V, but the netcode still sucks so my friends are kind of reluctant to play it as much.
I thought about what I want my next step in projects to be and I think I want to create at least one remix for the Shoot-em-Up remix album before I start working on my original compositions and projects that will lead up to another wave of job hunting I'll do. There's a lot of work I want to do, music I want to create and games I want to play this year. I'm hoping it'll be a great year because I'm looking forward to it.
Monday, January 1, 2018
Videogames of 2017
I played a lot of fun videogames in 2017 and there's already a lot to look forward to in 2018. Throughout the year, I kept thinking "what would the game of the year be? There are so many to choose from!" I didn't think too hard on my top lists as I had fun with a lot of games that it's kind of hard to determine which I thought was better than the other.
Here's my Top 10 games released in 2017 that I played through:
10) Fire Emblem: Heroes [iOS]
Surprised to see a mobile game on here? I played a decent amount of mobile games in 2017 that were actually fun, engaging, and had longevity. There was Fate Grand/Order, The Alchemist Code, King's Knight, Terra Battle 2, Sword Art Online: Memory Defrag, and Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp (I didn't play this one; no memory space). The one that really stood out for me was Fire Emblem: Heroes, which condenses the Tactical-RPG into short bursts of skirmishes and allows you to recruit many characters across the Fire Emblem series to help you on your fight. Bringing a lot of the characters, music, and mechanics of the games into a free mobile game made for a mildly entertaining experience until you get far into it and realize you can't progress unless you do some hardcore min-max stat and skill inherit management which makes it tedious. It's also discouraging when you see a character you like and not get them after spending all your in-game currency to try to get them. What was a fun Tactical-RPG in the beginning has now become a character collector for me. But it seems it was a Waifu/Husbando collector for many right from the start.
9) Metroid Samus Returns [3DS]
It didn't live up to my expectations and I still like the fan-made remake more, but I still managed to play through the game three times before I shelved it away. It's nice to have another Metroid game again after so many years, but I wish it was better.
8) Senran Kagura Peach Beach Splash [PS4]
I was a bit worried about this spin-off, but it turned out to be pretty fun. It's the first game in the series I played on a console instead of a handheld and it looked really nice.
7) Destiny 2 [PC]
This was actually on the top of my list until I hit the end of the game and realized there's practically nothing to do anymore. Destiny 2 is a huge improvement over the first game in terms of the base game's campaign, but it still suffers from the lack of content at end-game. It's still a really fun game and I just recently bought the expansion hoping it adds a bit more to it for me to continue playing it.
6) Cyberdimension Neptunia: 4 Goddesses Online [PS4]
Honestly, this wasn't a very good game. The graphics were janky, the camera would easily get obscured by the environment, and much of its gameplay was replaying levels over and over again with different objectives. And somehow I enjoyed this game a lot. I've been wanting a true Action-RPG Hyperdimention Neptunia game since the beginning and this was the closest to having that. I love the new outfits and look each character has and the new music made for this game specifically (the series is known to recycle their assets to no ends) so it was really refreshing to see new content in the game. I think what really got me into the game was how familiar it felt to playing Phantasy Star Online Ep. 1&2 on Gamecube and how I would run the same levels over and over again. There were a lot of funny references to online games, the 2D art is incredible, and the music is a lot of fun to listen to. So the overall quality wasn't the best, but I had a ton of fun playing through the game.
5) Tekken 7 [PC]
I was relieved to see how well the game ran on PC, but there were some disappointments. I didn't particularly like the story and how they explained how everything came to be, and it was a bit sad to see all the side characters get a really small, one-battle scenario. The game would (rarely) crash and restart my whole computer (probably because of how graphic intensive the game is). And compared to previous installments, the game was lacking in content and modes. Still, the core game is incredibly fun, the graphics is the most beautiful looking fighting game in the past few years, the soundtrack is possibly the best in the series right next to Tekken Tag Tournament 2, and everything is working as intended (an Arcade mode, controller compatibility, working Online mode, Treasure battle mode to earn Fight Money, and incentive to earn/spend Fight Money on different outfits and customization without having to pay real money for them. If this all sounds like I'm pointing out all the flaws of Street Fighter V, it is. Street Fighter V fixed a lot of problems this year, and yet I still don't continue to play it because the netcode is still poor and causes a lot of frustration for my friends and I. I bought and played a lot of fighting games this year, but Tekken 7 was the one I played the most and really enjoyed.
4) Sonic Forces [PC]
There was a lot of expectation built from the reputation of Sonic Generations and there as a lot of expectation built from the beginning of the game, but it didn't quite live up to it. Sonic Forces is another game with a lot of disappointments that I still ended up having a lot of fun playing. The graphics are aesthetically beautiful, but flawed design wise. The music is some of the best I've ever heard from a Sonic game with the exception of Classic Sonic stages having mostly bland, boring, or annoying tunes. And the stages are so short that a lot of them can be finished in under 1-2 minutes. Still, the core gameplay was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed making and customizing my own original characters. I don't think I got my $40 worth, but I did get 20 hours of gameplay from a 3 hour game. I was most disappointed with the boss fights as it seemed like you were going to get to fight every villain from the series when it's not the case. Also, 4 of the boss fights are very similar and unimaginative. I have mixed feelings about the game and don't think it was quite the best, but it stood out to me and I enjoyed it so much that I think it's worth listing on my top 10.
3) Warriors All-Stars [PS4]
I wasn't sure if we were even going to get this game localized, so I pre-ordered it when I heard it was going to arrive on Western markets in the fall. There isn't anything I was particularly disappointed with this game, but I did find it annoying to having to replay a lot of levels a lot to either get different endings, get more money or exp, or just to fulfill a request. Those minor annoyances aside, I had a lot of fun playing the game and watching the characters interact with each other. I think I would have played the game a whole lot more if it weren't for the fact that I was still trying to get through new games that I bought.
2) Nioh [PS4]
I've played a few Souls-like games and they all had a similar concept without a good execution. Nioh does a good job of capturing what makes difficult games fun and satisfying while managing to distinguish itself from the Souls series. I particularly liked how fast-paced and action-filled the fights were in the game. There are many different builds you can work with and different playstyles all work in their own way. It's a well polished Action-RPG that has a lot of depth and challenge. What prevents it from being my #1 for 2017 is how much this game made me rage.
1) NieR: Automata [PS4]
I honestly wasn't expecting to place NieR: Automata as my #1 game for 2017. It's strange and kind of drags on at times, but there was something special about this game. The first hour really defied my expectations for the game as it changed from a vertical shoot-em-up, to a twin-stick shooter, to a hack-n-slash, to a 2D platformer, to a 3rd-person shooter. It's crazy! At its core, it's an Action-RPG with a smooth and satisfying Hack-n-Slash based combat. The graphics is beautiful, the environment is haunting, the music is pleasant and addicting, and the story is quite bonkers until you get to the end and realize how philosophical it becomes. It was a well-designed and worthwhile experience getting through the game.
Honorable mentions: Rivals of Aether [PC] (yay, it's fully released!), Azure Striker Gunvolt 2 [3DS], Sword Art Online: Memory Defrag [iOS]
Here are my top 10 games that I played in 2017 but was released in previous years:
10) Just Cause 3 [PC]
I played through the series in 2017 and was really frustrated with both the first and 2nd game. The third game was a ton of fun and was what I wanted out of the game: causing mass destruction in a relaxing manner. The freedom and flexibility of movement is what made it entertaining because traversing to your destination in the first two games always felt like a drag and a waste of time. I would've liked to play more if it didn't take up so much hard drive space and I didn't have such a huge backlog.
9) Trigger Happy Havoc Danganronpa [PSV]
I liked this game, but it was also really long and exhausting. With the scenario of a bunch of teens being stuck inside a school and getting away with murder the only means of escaping, it was a depressing game. It had interesting characters, nice music, good writing, and a unique presentation that made it really stand out from many other games like it. As much as I liked it, I felt like I needed a break before I played the 2nd one and I never did throughout the year because of how long I felt like it was going to take to get through it. I'm definitely going to try to get through it in 2018 though.
8) Project X Zone [3DS]
After 4.5 years of off and on playing (I didn't play it 2015 and 2016 apparently) with 82 hours and 44 minutes clocked into the game, I finally finished Project X Zone in 2017. I really liked the game. It's a celebration of many different videogames, its characters, music, and lore all mixed into one crazy Tactical, Action-RPG. The game was inappropriately long though. How many times do you have to get ambushed before the chapters ends? I'm really looking forward to finally playing the 2nd game and hope that it's not as long.
7) Grim Dawn [PC]
I was hesitant about playing this game since it was being developed on the same engine as Titan Quest and I got bored of that game near the end. Grim Dawn was pretty engaging and challenging throughout my whole playthrough. It's a game I plan to continue playing for quite a while despite my time constraints and thankfully it doesn't take up much hard drive space.
6) The Evil Within [PC]
This was one of the games I couldn't play on my previous laptop because of how graphic intensive it was. I was really impressed by the presentation of the game. It was a trippy ride with fun gameplay mechanics that wasn't too focused on Action and still had that uneasy tension of a classic horror-survival game. I was getting through my 2nd playthrough when I decided to stop and move onto new games. I'm really interested in the 2nd game since it's an open-world experience. That should be interesting.
5) DOOM [PC]
I don't think I've ever liked DOOM more than I do now with this latest iteration. It's fast-paced, challenging, has a lot of freedom in movement, has a fun multiplayer mode online, and it has custom games available for people to create and play. I had to delete it after a while since it took up something like 80 GB and I needed to move onto new games. However, if I get enough hard drive space again, I'm reinstalling it because it's seriously a lot of fun.
4) Killing Floor 2 [PC]
I wasn't sure what to expect other than maybe a nicer looking Killing Floor 1 game, but I'm happy that it was much more than that. The new classes bring new playstyles and actually having friends to play with this time around made the game a lot more fun. Combat is frantic and satisfying with more options in strategies, equipment, and playstyles. It was the best co-op game I played this year aside from Destiny 2.
3) Rabi-Ribi [PC]
Rabi-Ribi is so darn cute, and yet it's one of the hardest games I played in 2017 other than Nioh. A 2D Action-Platformer mixed with Danmaku (bullet-hell) isn't really new to me, but its presentation is so well polished that I can't help but praise it. Bosses have anywhere between 10-50 attack patterns and it keep surprising me. It can definitely be stressful at time, but the cuteness somehow makes me forgive its brutal difficulty. I thought of quitting so many times, but I'm pretty stubborn and wanted to see it through. I'm not sure if I want to get the DLC and endure more bullet hell yet, but I do miss hearing the music and seeing the cute characters.
2) Ys Origin [PC]
Over a decade later, I finally got to play through the game. I was afraid I waited too long before playing it and it might have aged poorly, but it's still as beautiful and magical as I expected it to be from 2006. Combat is frantic and satisfying as I climbed through the tower and got more powers to face new challenges. I finished near the end of the year, so I've actually only beaten the game with one of the characters and plan on playing through it two more times with the remaining characters for the full experience. I'm so happy we got the game localized, it's so much fun.
1) VA-11 HALL-A [PC]
Normally, the games that we talk about and have high regards on are the most recent games we play as their experiences are the freshest in our memories. I got VA-11 HALL-A for Christmas in 2016 and played it throughout January in 2017. But the game left such an impression on me that I still think and talk about it now. It has such a strong sense of atmosphere (with the music being a huge factor) and the writing is so engaging that it's kind of hard to forget about it after playing through it. The developers are working on their next game and I'm really looking forward to it.
Honorable mentions: Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight [PC], Deathsmiles [PC], Shadow Warrior 2 [PC]
And finally, here are games that released in 2017 that I found interesting and started playing but didn't finish and/or didn't buy yet:
Fate/Extella: The Umbral Star
Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Future Tone
Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony
School Girl/Zombie Hunter
Resident Evil 7: Biohazard
Tales of Berseria
Yakuza 0
Fairy Fencer F Advent Dark Force
Sniper Elite 4
Berserk and the Band of the Hawk
Hollow Knight
Horizon Zero Dawn
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Atelier Firis: The Alchemist and the Mysterious Journey
Accel World VS Sword Art Online: Millennium Twilight
Mass Effect: Andromeda
Toukiden 2
Operation Abyss: New Tokyo Legacy
Blue Reflection
Persona 5
Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition
A Rose in the Twilight
Dragon Quest Heroes II
Puyo Puyo Tetris
The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky the 3rd
Prey
Strafe
Akiba's Beat
Injustice 2
Operation Babel: New Tokyo Legacy
Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia
Guilty Gear Xrd Rev.2
Samurai Warriors: Spirit of Sanada
Tokyo 42
Dark Rose Valkyrie
God Wars: Future Past
Nex Machina
Valkyria Revolution
Splatoon 2
Pyre
Super CloudBuilt
StarCraft: Remastered
Agents of Mayhem
Nidhogg 2
Sonic Mania
White Day: A Labyrinth Named School
Absolver
Yakuza Kiwami
Ys Seven
Utawarerumono: Mask of Truth
Senko no Ronde 2
Monster Hunter Stories
Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana
Divinity: Original Sin II
Dishonored: Death of the Outsider
Mary Skelter: Nightmares
Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2
Guild Wars 2: Path of Fire
Hob
Ruiner
Cuphead
Battle Chasers: Nightwar
A Hat in Time
Touhou Kobuto V: Burst Battle
Chaos;Child
The Evil Within 2
ELEX
Etrian Odyssey V: Beyond the Myth
South Park: The Fractured but Whole
Fire Emblem Warriors
Nights of Azure 2: Bride of the New Moon
Yomawari: Midnight Shadows
Assassin's Creed: Origins
Super Mario Odyssey
Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus
Zwei: The Ilvard Insurrection
Call of Duty: WWII
.hack//G.U. Last Recode
Demon Gaze II
Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon
Star Wars Battlefront II
Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp
Seven: The Days Long Gone
Xenoblade Chronicles 2
Dead Rising 4: Frank’s Big Package
Tokyo Xanadu eX+
Arcana Heart 3: Love Max Six Stars
What a fun year in videogames. I'm looking forward to the gaming I'm going to do in 2018.
Here's my Top 10 games released in 2017 that I played through:
10) Fire Emblem: Heroes [iOS]
Surprised to see a mobile game on here? I played a decent amount of mobile games in 2017 that were actually fun, engaging, and had longevity. There was Fate Grand/Order, The Alchemist Code, King's Knight, Terra Battle 2, Sword Art Online: Memory Defrag, and Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp (I didn't play this one; no memory space). The one that really stood out for me was Fire Emblem: Heroes, which condenses the Tactical-RPG into short bursts of skirmishes and allows you to recruit many characters across the Fire Emblem series to help you on your fight. Bringing a lot of the characters, music, and mechanics of the games into a free mobile game made for a mildly entertaining experience until you get far into it and realize you can't progress unless you do some hardcore min-max stat and skill inherit management which makes it tedious. It's also discouraging when you see a character you like and not get them after spending all your in-game currency to try to get them. What was a fun Tactical-RPG in the beginning has now become a character collector for me. But it seems it was a Waifu/Husbando collector for many right from the start.
9) Metroid Samus Returns [3DS]
It didn't live up to my expectations and I still like the fan-made remake more, but I still managed to play through the game three times before I shelved it away. It's nice to have another Metroid game again after so many years, but I wish it was better.
8) Senran Kagura Peach Beach Splash [PS4]
I was a bit worried about this spin-off, but it turned out to be pretty fun. It's the first game in the series I played on a console instead of a handheld and it looked really nice.
7) Destiny 2 [PC]
This was actually on the top of my list until I hit the end of the game and realized there's practically nothing to do anymore. Destiny 2 is a huge improvement over the first game in terms of the base game's campaign, but it still suffers from the lack of content at end-game. It's still a really fun game and I just recently bought the expansion hoping it adds a bit more to it for me to continue playing it.
6) Cyberdimension Neptunia: 4 Goddesses Online [PS4]
Honestly, this wasn't a very good game. The graphics were janky, the camera would easily get obscured by the environment, and much of its gameplay was replaying levels over and over again with different objectives. And somehow I enjoyed this game a lot. I've been wanting a true Action-RPG Hyperdimention Neptunia game since the beginning and this was the closest to having that. I love the new outfits and look each character has and the new music made for this game specifically (the series is known to recycle their assets to no ends) so it was really refreshing to see new content in the game. I think what really got me into the game was how familiar it felt to playing Phantasy Star Online Ep. 1&2 on Gamecube and how I would run the same levels over and over again. There were a lot of funny references to online games, the 2D art is incredible, and the music is a lot of fun to listen to. So the overall quality wasn't the best, but I had a ton of fun playing through the game.
5) Tekken 7 [PC]
I was relieved to see how well the game ran on PC, but there were some disappointments. I didn't particularly like the story and how they explained how everything came to be, and it was a bit sad to see all the side characters get a really small, one-battle scenario. The game would (rarely) crash and restart my whole computer (probably because of how graphic intensive the game is). And compared to previous installments, the game was lacking in content and modes. Still, the core game is incredibly fun, the graphics is the most beautiful looking fighting game in the past few years, the soundtrack is possibly the best in the series right next to Tekken Tag Tournament 2, and everything is working as intended (an Arcade mode, controller compatibility, working Online mode, Treasure battle mode to earn Fight Money, and incentive to earn/spend Fight Money on different outfits and customization without having to pay real money for them. If this all sounds like I'm pointing out all the flaws of Street Fighter V, it is. Street Fighter V fixed a lot of problems this year, and yet I still don't continue to play it because the netcode is still poor and causes a lot of frustration for my friends and I. I bought and played a lot of fighting games this year, but Tekken 7 was the one I played the most and really enjoyed.
4) Sonic Forces [PC]
There was a lot of expectation built from the reputation of Sonic Generations and there as a lot of expectation built from the beginning of the game, but it didn't quite live up to it. Sonic Forces is another game with a lot of disappointments that I still ended up having a lot of fun playing. The graphics are aesthetically beautiful, but flawed design wise. The music is some of the best I've ever heard from a Sonic game with the exception of Classic Sonic stages having mostly bland, boring, or annoying tunes. And the stages are so short that a lot of them can be finished in under 1-2 minutes. Still, the core gameplay was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed making and customizing my own original characters. I don't think I got my $40 worth, but I did get 20 hours of gameplay from a 3 hour game. I was most disappointed with the boss fights as it seemed like you were going to get to fight every villain from the series when it's not the case. Also, 4 of the boss fights are very similar and unimaginative. I have mixed feelings about the game and don't think it was quite the best, but it stood out to me and I enjoyed it so much that I think it's worth listing on my top 10.
3) Warriors All-Stars [PS4]
I wasn't sure if we were even going to get this game localized, so I pre-ordered it when I heard it was going to arrive on Western markets in the fall. There isn't anything I was particularly disappointed with this game, but I did find it annoying to having to replay a lot of levels a lot to either get different endings, get more money or exp, or just to fulfill a request. Those minor annoyances aside, I had a lot of fun playing the game and watching the characters interact with each other. I think I would have played the game a whole lot more if it weren't for the fact that I was still trying to get through new games that I bought.
2) Nioh [PS4]
I've played a few Souls-like games and they all had a similar concept without a good execution. Nioh does a good job of capturing what makes difficult games fun and satisfying while managing to distinguish itself from the Souls series. I particularly liked how fast-paced and action-filled the fights were in the game. There are many different builds you can work with and different playstyles all work in their own way. It's a well polished Action-RPG that has a lot of depth and challenge. What prevents it from being my #1 for 2017 is how much this game made me rage.
1) NieR: Automata [PS4]
I honestly wasn't expecting to place NieR: Automata as my #1 game for 2017. It's strange and kind of drags on at times, but there was something special about this game. The first hour really defied my expectations for the game as it changed from a vertical shoot-em-up, to a twin-stick shooter, to a hack-n-slash, to a 2D platformer, to a 3rd-person shooter. It's crazy! At its core, it's an Action-RPG with a smooth and satisfying Hack-n-Slash based combat. The graphics is beautiful, the environment is haunting, the music is pleasant and addicting, and the story is quite bonkers until you get to the end and realize how philosophical it becomes. It was a well-designed and worthwhile experience getting through the game.
Honorable mentions: Rivals of Aether [PC] (yay, it's fully released!), Azure Striker Gunvolt 2 [3DS], Sword Art Online: Memory Defrag [iOS]
Here are my top 10 games that I played in 2017 but was released in previous years:
10) Just Cause 3 [PC]
I played through the series in 2017 and was really frustrated with both the first and 2nd game. The third game was a ton of fun and was what I wanted out of the game: causing mass destruction in a relaxing manner. The freedom and flexibility of movement is what made it entertaining because traversing to your destination in the first two games always felt like a drag and a waste of time. I would've liked to play more if it didn't take up so much hard drive space and I didn't have such a huge backlog.
9) Trigger Happy Havoc Danganronpa [PSV]
I liked this game, but it was also really long and exhausting. With the scenario of a bunch of teens being stuck inside a school and getting away with murder the only means of escaping, it was a depressing game. It had interesting characters, nice music, good writing, and a unique presentation that made it really stand out from many other games like it. As much as I liked it, I felt like I needed a break before I played the 2nd one and I never did throughout the year because of how long I felt like it was going to take to get through it. I'm definitely going to try to get through it in 2018 though.
8) Project X Zone [3DS]
After 4.5 years of off and on playing (I didn't play it 2015 and 2016 apparently) with 82 hours and 44 minutes clocked into the game, I finally finished Project X Zone in 2017. I really liked the game. It's a celebration of many different videogames, its characters, music, and lore all mixed into one crazy Tactical, Action-RPG. The game was inappropriately long though. How many times do you have to get ambushed before the chapters ends? I'm really looking forward to finally playing the 2nd game and hope that it's not as long.
7) Grim Dawn [PC]
I was hesitant about playing this game since it was being developed on the same engine as Titan Quest and I got bored of that game near the end. Grim Dawn was pretty engaging and challenging throughout my whole playthrough. It's a game I plan to continue playing for quite a while despite my time constraints and thankfully it doesn't take up much hard drive space.
6) The Evil Within [PC]
This was one of the games I couldn't play on my previous laptop because of how graphic intensive it was. I was really impressed by the presentation of the game. It was a trippy ride with fun gameplay mechanics that wasn't too focused on Action and still had that uneasy tension of a classic horror-survival game. I was getting through my 2nd playthrough when I decided to stop and move onto new games. I'm really interested in the 2nd game since it's an open-world experience. That should be interesting.
5) DOOM [PC]
I don't think I've ever liked DOOM more than I do now with this latest iteration. It's fast-paced, challenging, has a lot of freedom in movement, has a fun multiplayer mode online, and it has custom games available for people to create and play. I had to delete it after a while since it took up something like 80 GB and I needed to move onto new games. However, if I get enough hard drive space again, I'm reinstalling it because it's seriously a lot of fun.
4) Killing Floor 2 [PC]
I wasn't sure what to expect other than maybe a nicer looking Killing Floor 1 game, but I'm happy that it was much more than that. The new classes bring new playstyles and actually having friends to play with this time around made the game a lot more fun. Combat is frantic and satisfying with more options in strategies, equipment, and playstyles. It was the best co-op game I played this year aside from Destiny 2.
3) Rabi-Ribi [PC]
Rabi-Ribi is so darn cute, and yet it's one of the hardest games I played in 2017 other than Nioh. A 2D Action-Platformer mixed with Danmaku (bullet-hell) isn't really new to me, but its presentation is so well polished that I can't help but praise it. Bosses have anywhere between 10-50 attack patterns and it keep surprising me. It can definitely be stressful at time, but the cuteness somehow makes me forgive its brutal difficulty. I thought of quitting so many times, but I'm pretty stubborn and wanted to see it through. I'm not sure if I want to get the DLC and endure more bullet hell yet, but I do miss hearing the music and seeing the cute characters.
2) Ys Origin [PC]
Over a decade later, I finally got to play through the game. I was afraid I waited too long before playing it and it might have aged poorly, but it's still as beautiful and magical as I expected it to be from 2006. Combat is frantic and satisfying as I climbed through the tower and got more powers to face new challenges. I finished near the end of the year, so I've actually only beaten the game with one of the characters and plan on playing through it two more times with the remaining characters for the full experience. I'm so happy we got the game localized, it's so much fun.
1) VA-11 HALL-A [PC]
Normally, the games that we talk about and have high regards on are the most recent games we play as their experiences are the freshest in our memories. I got VA-11 HALL-A for Christmas in 2016 and played it throughout January in 2017. But the game left such an impression on me that I still think and talk about it now. It has such a strong sense of atmosphere (with the music being a huge factor) and the writing is so engaging that it's kind of hard to forget about it after playing through it. The developers are working on their next game and I'm really looking forward to it.
Honorable mentions: Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight [PC], Deathsmiles [PC], Shadow Warrior 2 [PC]
And finally, here are games that released in 2017 that I found interesting and started playing but didn't finish and/or didn't buy yet:
Fate/Extella: The Umbral Star
Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Future Tone
Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony
School Girl/Zombie Hunter
Resident Evil 7: Biohazard
Tales of Berseria
Yakuza 0
Fairy Fencer F Advent Dark Force
Sniper Elite 4
Berserk and the Band of the Hawk
Hollow Knight
Horizon Zero Dawn
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Atelier Firis: The Alchemist and the Mysterious Journey
Accel World VS Sword Art Online: Millennium Twilight
Mass Effect: Andromeda
Toukiden 2
Operation Abyss: New Tokyo Legacy
Blue Reflection
Persona 5
Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition
A Rose in the Twilight
Dragon Quest Heroes II
Puyo Puyo Tetris
The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky the 3rd
Prey
Strafe
Akiba's Beat
Injustice 2
Operation Babel: New Tokyo Legacy
Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia
Guilty Gear Xrd Rev.2
Samurai Warriors: Spirit of Sanada
Tokyo 42
Dark Rose Valkyrie
God Wars: Future Past
Nex Machina
Valkyria Revolution
Splatoon 2
Pyre
Super CloudBuilt
StarCraft: Remastered
Agents of Mayhem
Nidhogg 2
Sonic Mania
White Day: A Labyrinth Named School
Absolver
Yakuza Kiwami
Ys Seven
Utawarerumono: Mask of Truth
Senko no Ronde 2
Monster Hunter Stories
Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana
Divinity: Original Sin II
Dishonored: Death of the Outsider
Mary Skelter: Nightmares
Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2
Guild Wars 2: Path of Fire
Hob
Ruiner
Cuphead
Battle Chasers: Nightwar
A Hat in Time
Touhou Kobuto V: Burst Battle
Chaos;Child
The Evil Within 2
ELEX
Etrian Odyssey V: Beyond the Myth
South Park: The Fractured but Whole
Fire Emblem Warriors
Nights of Azure 2: Bride of the New Moon
Yomawari: Midnight Shadows
Assassin's Creed: Origins
Super Mario Odyssey
Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus
Zwei: The Ilvard Insurrection
Call of Duty: WWII
.hack//G.U. Last Recode
Demon Gaze II
Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon
Star Wars Battlefront II
Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp
Seven: The Days Long Gone
Xenoblade Chronicles 2
Dead Rising 4: Frank’s Big Package
Tokyo Xanadu eX+
Arcana Heart 3: Love Max Six Stars
What a fun year in videogames. I'm looking forward to the gaming I'm going to do in 2018.
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