I am so behind in everything. I still haven’t recorded the music cover I’ve been working on, I haven’t learned all that much in my language study sessions, I only finished 2 games this month (maybe a 3rd tonight?), I’ve gained back a little bit of weight because of the few times we went out to eat and missing exercises a few days, and all that effort I made being able to sleep early and wake early has been slowly undone as I struggle to sleep at earlier times. I finally finished the drawing of the Under Night In-Birth characters, but it took up the first half of the month to complete it. I’m mostly satisfied with it, but it does have a few problems I noticed after staring at it for so long so I might go back to fix it. I haven’t recorded the song I’m learning on guitar yet, but I feel like I’ve made a decent amount of progress on practicing it. My left wrist hurts from practicing on the guitar, so I’m probably going to rest for the weekend. I’m trying to complete so many things before June hits that I feel like I won’t be able to get anything done.
There’s a lot that’s going to happen in June this year. Guilty Gear Strive, Samurai Shodown on Steam (FINALLY, AFTER 2 YEARS!), Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis, and Scarlet Nexus all release in June. Multiple game announcements will be made through digital streaming events in place of in-person E3 events. Steam Summer Sale starts at the end of the month. There is just so much going on next month; I’m not sure how I’m going to handle it other than possibly dropping everything I’m doing just to enjoy the games that are coming out. I really want to go back to working on that big project I started back in October, but I know it’ll be a lot of work and won’t be done that quickly. I suppose I can work little by little on it throughout June.
Setting aside all my worries, I am SO excited for the games next month. I keep thinking about Guilty Gear Strive these past months that it’s been difficult to focus. I’ve been watching a lot of clips of beta gameplay, listening to the music, and trying to learn as much as I can about this newest installment in the series. Depending on how SNK packages Samurai Shodown for Steam and what they price it at, I may or may not pick it up right away. As excited as I am to play the game, I’m not too keen on spending $110 ($50 for base game; 3 x $20 DLC packs) especially when we’ve waited 2 years after its initial dated release. I’m also not sure if I’ll have anyone to play it with, whether if the single-player mode will keep me playing for very long, and not to mention the amount of money I need to already spend on all the other games.
I potentially have one more week left for any productivity I want taken care of before I dive deep into playing Guilty Gear Strive, PSO2: New Genesis, and Scarlet Nexus.
This month has been extremely productive, but
exhausting. I finally got around to
doing one last example track for my portfolio.
It took a week of research, experimentation and picking out the
instruments I wanted to use before I actually started composing. What I originally wanted to do was make a
semi-longer track that transition between different ideas to kind of tell a
short story. The narrative and ideas
came out to be a bit longer than I expected and the track I made inspired me to
split it into six separate ones to tell a somewhat longer story. I’m already working on the 5th track
out of the six, so I’ve been making good progress. The problem is how I went about my days this
past month.
I have stopped watching animé entirely this month because of
how much time I’ve been putting into working, exercise, and gaming. I’ve explained what I’ve been doing with
work. For exercise, I decided to pick up
Ring Fit Adventure for the Nintendo switch and have been utilizing it the past
2 weeks. Despite all the push-ups,
squats, and resistance band exercises I’ve been doing, I still felt like I
needed cardiovascular exercise really badly.
Ring Fit Adventure has been a great stand in for not walking outside or
going to the gym (since air quality has been poor outside and gym is closed due
to Covid-19). I also wanted a cardio
workout to improve my sleep since it’s been so difficult to fall asleep the
past year. I think it would have helped
if it weren’t for the fact I kept staying up so late every night.
With gaming, Genshin Impact is out and I’ve been playing it
everyday if not to just to do daily quests.
Along with that, I’ve been still doing daily runs for Guardian Tales and
Phantasy Star Online 2. Playing through
these 3 games has been wearing me down and I haven’t been completing any games
the past few months. So initially, I was
playing Genshin Impact at 2AM when it resets to do my dailies, but then I
wouldn’t feel satisfied and end up playing something else right after up until
5-6AM before I head to bed. It was
becoming a really awful habit and so I’ve changed it where I do dailies during
the day and play other games at night. I
still haven’t really fixed it since I still go to bed around 3-4AM, but it’s a
little better. Minecraft Steve and crew
were released for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and I played a bit of that. Cagliostro released for Granblue Fantasy
Versus and I ended up playing quite a bit more of the game again just to try to
get better. I spent quite a few hours in
RPG mode farming for materials to make weapons, reviewed and practiced
characters I was already learning and figuring out new ones. I discussed with a friend I was playing with
that I was a bit disappointed in myself for having over 100 hours in Granblue
Fantasy Versus and was still playing at a basic level. So I’ve been trying to learn and expand my
knowledge, abilities and understanding of the game. I also did a bit of that in Under Night In-Birth
Exe:Late[cl-r] since I wanted to learn a few new characters. Besides that, playing games like Yakuza 0,
Halo 1 in the Master Chief Collection, Tangledeep and Rivals of Aether with
mods on has kept me up quite a few nights.
I really am trying to improve myself this month in every
aspect: music composition/production, gaming with self-improvement and learning
new things, and health with implementing cardio exercise and trying to sleep at
more reasonable times. It’s become a bit
overwhelming, but only a bit. While I
don’t feel pressure or stress from it all, I do feel like my motivation is
starting to wane in everything I do.
This is contradicted with the motivation to do more with all of
them. I already have plans on what to
work on next after this current project, but I really have to focus on putting
the portfolio together and start searching and applying for job. There are a TON of games I want to play and
get through, but a lot of time is taken from just doing dailies on the three
main games I’ve been playing everyday (approximately 1-3 hours per day). I want to work out harder and actually try to
lose weight and get a toned body for once.
But when it comes time to do any of them, I feel tired just thinking about it.
For November, I need to focus on really putting my portfolio
together and get myself prepare for job applications. Other than that, I should also focus on
restructuring my daily life and finding a good balance between everything so I
can be more efficient and enjoy what I’m doing more. If thing go well, maybe I can enjoy a month
of relaxation in December.
It's hard to believe that we're at the end of the year, let alone the end of the decade. When this decade began, I was finishing my last two quarters of college and was eager to jump straight into the Electronic Entertainment Industry right away so that I can finally start learning about game development. I was filling out papers for the JET program to study abroad in Japan in hopes of getting a different perspective in life. I was still dead set on working with concept art, animation, and design. I had my whole future planned out and I thought I knew where I was headed.
Between that time and now, I've worked for an international online gaming company for 8-months, participated in two game jams to help out friends from the Videogame Development Club that were still at UCI at the time, had 4 games published, switched over to music and began studying composition and production, and ended the decade with going to Japan for two weeks, and finally getting my first real job for two short weeks this past month since 2011. Now my life is full of uncertainty and doubt. Despite that, I know I'm stubborn and will probably continue to work towards getting into the game industry as I improve my abilities with working on music and continue to study game design. This decade didn't go according to plan and I feel like I didn't make as much progression in my life as I had hoped I would. But it's not all bad!
After getting laid off from my first job in 2011, there wasn't very much for me to do as I kept looking for work and submitting applications. At the very least, I was still able to play games with a friend online from time to time. But near the beginning of 2012, some friends from UCI started playing League of Legends and we all brought friends together to play in-house games. For an entire year between 2012-2013, I played LoL every night and got to know all these strangers who were friends of friends. After arranging a meet up in 2013 and hanging out with them in person, we all had gotten closer and have since then deviated off to playing other games other than LoL. It's rare to go throughout a night without joining chat to play games or even just chat for a bit ever since then. I've met so many new people and made so many new friends in that manner that I find myself lucky to be in such a unique position. I think that's the greatest story I'd have to tell from this decade.
I never imagined that I'd be working with music as a career path, and yet I spent most of my time throughout the day practicing music, making music, arranging and remixing music, and constantly learning something new out of it. With that, I was fulfilling a lot of childhood dreams I had of recreating my favorite videogame songs. It's been a strange decade, because there's a lot I'm disappointed in and regret. And yet, it felt like such a fulfilling time in my life as I reflect upon it.
This past month has been pretty hectic, mainly because of the job I took up that pretty much kept me busy throughout the entire day. Originally, I had planned on finishing everything in 12 days and so I worked on Saturday and Sunday for first week as well in order to complete all my tasks by the second Friday. Unfortunately, some plans were changed and I got a lot more work and was given more time to do it. Not wanting to drag it out, I worked harder each day instead and added an extra 2 days. It was an interesting experience, but it's definitely not something I'd want to do in the long term. (I'm purposely not talking about it too much since I signed an NDA and don't know how much I can actually talk about it without getting in trouble).
Two days after my last day of work, the Steam Winter Sale began. I really did try to keep my spendings to a minimum this year, especially after my Japan trip. I did a good job throughout the year, but it was all for nothing after these past two months of spending. Despite my efforts to keep the amount spent for the sale, I still bought quite a few games. I'm even thinking of picking up a few more before the sale ends in two days (I'm in this deep already.....). I've been playing games with my friends when I can and have had little to no time to play my single-player games this entire month. I finally finished my last two remixes for the year:
I'm probably going to finish up my last video project, create a new one for all the games I've played the past few years, plan out the upcoming year, and then finally just relax and catch up on some games because I feel like I haven't stopped working or just "doing things" since the beginning of November and I feel really burnt out.
I'm currently experiencing some discomfort with my nose cavity and throat feeling dry, a slight headache, fatigue, and some queasiness in my stomach. I hope I'm not getting sick leading up to the new year and new decade. I did all that I could this year and this decade and perhaps I'll reflect on it a bit more, but it's almost time to start planning for a new future.
I've been incredibly busy the past two months right after EVO finished and have barely given myself a chance to really rest a little. While it's great that I've been so productive, it's very easy to keep rushing forward and lose sight of where I'm headed. With getting one audio project done after another and switching from one new game to the next, both work and play has kept me busy.
What eventually broke this chain and gave me a bit more to think about was an offer a friend gave me. The same friend that I helped with a project back in July was now able to officially hire me for contract work and asked me a few weeks ago about doing it. I thought about it for a while and ended up initially turning down the offer and decided to focus on music since I was incredibly motivated and inspired the past few weeks. He eventually contacted me again last week and really tried to convince me to take the job. In my mind, I felt it was unnecessary for my participation. But he was adamant on specifically having me do it. I was rather surprised by his enthusiasm and started to consider if I could put aside time for it. I asked for more details with the duration of the job in particular and it's about 4 weeks. After spending nearly an hour trying to persuade me, I eventually sort out how I was going to approach taking this job, slowing down on my audio work, and then continuing what I was doing after those 4 weeks of work time in my head and agreed to take the job.
Honestly, I felt bad for making my friend work so hard to try to convince me to take the job when I've been complaining about not getting any job opportunities for so long. Having been so unfocused all year since returning from Japan, I didn't want to ignore the motivation and inspiration I've recently gained and so I've been fervently working on remixes and continue to do so until I start on that job. In any case, here are the remixes I've finished the past 2 months.
On the videogaming side, I've jumped from playing Fire Emblem Three Houses to having to switch to Astral Chain, then to Daemon X Machina, and now Code Vein. With no more pre-order games in mind (other than Mario & Sonic at the Olympics 2020 in November), I can kind of relax a little on time constraint and slowly take on those 4 games. With the amount of work and games I've been putting time into recently, I felt almost as blind as I was before I got so motivated. I think that's why it's important to me to take one day out of each month like this to write in my blog to be able to reflect and clear my mind a bit so I can stay on the path I want to head towards. You can say I've been pretty happy with the amount of progress I've been able to cover in both work and games the past two months, and yet I still feel empty at times. I want to be able to reach a point in my life again where the uncertainty of my future feels exciting rather than daunting. My trip to Japan proved that my life still has that potential.
As we get into the Autumn season, I push forward towards my short-term goals and hope that it helps my long-term goals.
I'm actually surprised by how focused and productive I've been the past month. Much like last year, I wanted to spend the month of April reading and I wanted to make a better effort this year than I did last year. Although I've only finished 1.5 books, I did stick to the reading this month by reading 3-4 hours a day. I started with a book written by a family friend called "The Lu Family Saga". It talks about the many revolutions and wars China went through in the past century and her family's involvement in it. It was a surprisingly easy read as it was about a history I wasn't very familiar with. Right after finishing that book, I went back to continuing reading the Hellgate: London trilogy of books I bought over a decade ago. I had recently finished playing the Hellgate: London videogame for the first time and felt inclined to finish the books. I was halfway through the 2nd book before I stopped nearly 10 years ago since I last read it. I'm currently on the 3rd and last book and think I can finish it sometime next week. It was surprising to me that I remember all the characters and what happened before. Still, that's only 1.5 books I finished and I had planned to read quite a few more books.
How I managed each day this past month was reading the first half of the day and then working on practicing "mastering" audio work the last half of the day. I keep saying "I'll stop early today to play some games" everyday but never managed to do so. After learning about being able to master my audio tracks last year, I really wanted to practice and learn how to use the program to make my music sound better. So I've been going through my previous work and try to remaster each one. I haven't finished that many as two particular tracks had me going back to them for 3 weeks because I was always unsatisfied with something. I'm definitely getting better and it's making it easier to get through, but I can certainly tell I have a lot more to learn. Which, by the way, here is my remix from December:
This was the most complicated video I've created for a music upload. I experimented and learned a lot.
Because of reading and my work habits this month, I realized it's taking a bit of a toll on me. I haven't been exercising, I'm making less time for playing games, and I feel more drained. I'm hoping to balance this a bit during May. I plan on working on a new remix I have a strong idea for while taking the time to get through some more games. I feel restless with the games I'm playing and I'm in that mode where I feel like I'm playing more to complete a game rather than to have fun with it. Maybe that's true and I just need to put a bit more time into games since I really want to. I can tell my brain is looking for that stimulation as I've been staying up late at nights the past week just to play a bit more. I'd rather not ruin my sleep schedule that I've worked so hard on trying to correct. Besides that, I'd like to get back into exercising of some sort. If I don't go to the gym or go out walking, I'm hoping I can do some floor exercise mini-games while I'm playing games.
If things go according to plan, May should prove to be an entertaining and productive month.
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
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.
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 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.
Oh man, I didn't expect to be so incredibly busy these last two months. Right after finishing the Super Mario Medley Remix, I started working on the Ghosts 'n Goblins Medley Remix and it took a lot of work. Here it is:
It originally had 3 more songs than this, but I wasn't sure if I was able to meld it in well while making in interesting and short. It was the first time I worked with sidechaining and I'm glad I finally have that skill in part of my repertoire. It was a nightmare balancing and mixing the tracks this time around as it reach up to 32 tracks. But now that it's done, I'm taking the rest of December off from working to catch up on other things and relaxing. One of the things I need to catch up on is writing about games because there are a LOT of games I want to talk about. I think the only way I can reasonably do this without taking all of December to write about them is by keeping them short and writing many at a time. In fact, it'd be great if I can finish them all today so I can focus on playing and finishing up some games for the rest of December. It will be difficult to write about most of the games in detail anyways as the experience and memories of them aren't as fresh as when I had finished them.
So first up is Metroid: Samus Returns for the Nintendo 3DS.
I was obviously excited for the game as it has been over a decade since the last 2D Metroid game and I absolutely love Metroid. But when I saw that MercurySteam was co-developing the game, I got worried because of their work on Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate on the 3DS. I also really didn't want to compare the experience to the fan-made game Another Metroid 2 Remake (AM2R) released last year, but it's impossible not to since both game's objective was the same: to recreate Metroid 2. Having played AM2R kind of set the bar of expectation and what I wanted out of a Metroid game.
Pros of Metroid: Samus Returns:
+ Beautiful 3D graphics, environments and creatures
+ Sound effects were of high quality
+ Combat has a nice flow to it
+ Interesting new abilities and uses for them
+ Not particularly short or long gameplay time
+ Had speed running in mind for level design
+ Last boss almost ruined the experience for me, but the true last boss made up for it
Cons of Metroid: Samus Returns:
- Few and unmemorable boss fights
- Music were high quality and had some familiar tunes, but was mostly unmemorable
- Melee counter gets old and tedious half-way though and free-aiming can be annoying
- Area Themes were weak; it made everything kind of meld and feel the same
- Backtracking had little purpose and felt more tedious than rewarding
- Boss fights are tedious and drawn out unnecessarily
- Hard mode offers nothing new except for enemies doing more damage
Things AM2R did better:
+ Quite a few memorable boss fights that were challenging and exciting
+ Strong sense of area themes and atmosphere
+ Smarter level designs that made exploration interesting
+ Metroid fights were fast-paced, exciting, but still challenging
+ Controls were nicer with better air movement
+ Lots of "moments"
+ A true challenge in Hard mode with new AI movements, less resources, and higher damage
I played through Samus Returns three times: Casual run on Normal Difficulty, 2nd run on Hard, 3rd run as speedrun on Normal. I felt iffy about everything the first run, more sure the 2nd run, and certain on how I felt about the game the 3rd run. To boil it down in general terms, I found the game to be mildly entertaining and enjoyed it, but it was sadly an unmemorable experience that seems to be outclassed by the experience I had with AM2R of which I played 5 times. Invincible enemies that need to be flipped with melee counter or invincible indefinitely, Metroid fights with invincibility states, the digger bot with a few repeating patterns with a small window of vulnerability and the Metroid Queen having long attack patterns with invincibility state made everything feel tedious like it's wasting my time. If it weren't for the True Boss fight with Proteus Ridley at the very end of the game, I would've been pretty angry about how the game ended because the fight against the Metroid Queen was long and boring. I liked the fight against Proteus Ridley in terms of presentation, from its familiar and exciting music to the fast-paced combat that didn't involve invincibility states. In all honesty, the actual fight itself wasn't spectacular as it's pretty easy to learn his pattern after a few tries and he becomes really easy. So while I'm glad they finally made another 2D Metroid and having enjoyed it, it was honestly the least memorable 2D Metroid game in the series.
September was quite a busy month with getting audio projects done and getting through some games. I created a few songs, covers and remixes for fun and practice while most of September was spent working on two remixes that's part of the 4 remix albums I set off towards working on last year. I wasn't sure if I could even finish the Ninja Gaiden remix before the end of the month when I suddenly got really sick in the stomach and threw up last week. Thankfully, I made a speed recovery and worked hard on it to get it done so I could enjoy the final product. I had those two remixes uploaded last night.
I really liked how the Double Dragon remix turned out. I wanted it to be kind of laid-back, but still be upbeat. But when I finished the Ninja Gaiden Remix, I felt like it paled in comparison since a lot more thought, work, and inspiration went into it. I've been wanting to make this remix for a while ever since I started listening to more music from the Synthwave/Retrowave and Darkwave genre. And it was no surprise that I was going to work on remixes from Ninja Gaiden when I decided to make a Ninja themed remix album. I was thinking about participating in INKtober this year like I did last year. But because of the momentum I gained from the work I've done in the past 2 months, I decided I would focus on my own projects throughout October. After getting the two remixes up last night, I have a bit of leisure time today to write and reflect as I'll probably continue working on Monday after some rest over the weekend.
Aside from work, I've been enjoying the games I've pre-ordered for the month of September and October. I've been so busy that I haven't had time to write about NieR: Automata. There are a few games I want to get into an in-depth analysis on, so for now I'm just going to briefly go over some of them.
After completing NieR: Automata and Final Fantasy Type-0 HD back in early August, I wanted to complete a few more games before all the pre-orders started rolling in. I managed to finish up Touhou Genso Rondo: Bullet Ballet and the original main story of Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate before Warriors All-Stars came in the mail. What I mean by that is that Warriors Orochi 3 originally had 4 chapters (or was it 5?) and it looks like all the other ones were added afterwards (10 chapters in total). So I'm probably going to go back to it and try to finish the extra content when I get the chance. It looks like I managed to finish Koihime Enbu, Necropolis (with a friend), and Kirby Triple Deluxe before I finished Warriors All-Stars. Nothing much to say about a lot of these games: Touhou was okay, Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate was a lot of fun, but there's still more I want to get around to playing in it, Koihime Enbu was pretty fun but frustrating sometimes, Necropolis was rather disappointing and bare-bones (not to mention how unreasonably difficult it seemed if we didn't find a ranged weapon that made it much easier), and Kirby Triple Deluxe was mediocre with a ridiculous 7 phase final boss. Warriors All-Stars is one game I'll probably want to get into a deep discussion about because I absolutely loved the game and had a lot of fun playing it. I finished Metroid Samus Returns and felt rather conflicted on what I thought about it throughout my playthrough. That's another game I want to go into detail with. I finished Story mode of Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite with a lot of disappointment for the entire game, but still like the overall feel of gameplay. So I'll definitely talk about that game as well since I have a lot to complain about it. And just a little over a week ago, I downloaded a free Half-Life 1 modded game called "Half-Life: CAGED". I didn't like it very much. The puzzles and platforming were pretty good, but combat was quite awful. It made me want to play Half-Life, so I finally downloaded and played through Half-Life 2: Episode 1; it's a game I bought back in 2011. I started Half-Life 2: Episode 2 last night.
There's a lot I want to accomplish this month, so I'm sure it'll be interesting. I'm probably going to be writing quite a bit about the few games I mentioned in the following days or weeks.
There's much I want to rant and discuss, but I'm stretched for time and want to make the most of this week. I just want to be able to share the first 3 remixes I've completed and uploaded this year:
I've been keeping myself busy these past three months and it's left me with less time to write and reflect. Still, I feel as if I'm not getting enough done each day. The year has been a slight struggle, but not bad so far. Until next post!
I really shouldn't have started my last post with "I'm feeling pretty good lately" because about a week later, I wasn't feeling that way. I started to experience hunger feelings with some slight burning, sharp pains around where my heart is, and numb to occasional sharp headaches everyday. It wasn't as bad as all the other times I felt ill in the past year, but it did affects during the time my sister was visiting. I always seem to fall ill around the time I see her.
Anyways, Summer ends in 3 days and it makes me feel a bit sad. I'm not sure what to look forward to nowadays other than release dates of games I really want. Summer has all the events I'm excited for and it's always a bit sad to see it end each year, so it's been the one season in the year that I'm usually excited for now.
It's been a crazy 3 weeks since my last post, and it all passed by so quickly. I had found some VSTs that mimic the soundchip used in the NES and decided to experiment with it and create an original song inspired by Mega Man using the VSTs:
I started up my remix of Elegant Summer right before my sister came home. I wanted to finish and upload it before the Summer ended, but I don't think that's viable anymore unless I rush it, and I don't want to rush this one. I also got word back from the company I applied a job position for and was declined and won't be making it to interviews. I did mention in my last post that I certain I wouldn't be getting the job, but it was still worth it and I really liked the mock-up I created from it. There's another position open that I could apply for, but it's not exactly what I want to do. Still, it's an opportunity and I'll take it. So I'll be working on that in the following weeks.
In the first two weeks of September, I mainly spent it composing Swift Man, starting up the Elegant Summer Remix, and playing lots of God Eater Resurrection. I forgot to mention last post that I had started with God Eater Resurrection that came free with the purchase of God Eater 2 Rage Burst. I am up to 68 hours on GE:R so far and have a bit more to go before completing all missions. I really like the game. It has a good story, fun characters, exciting combat, and lots of depth in character builds. And then in the past week, I spent time with my family with my sister visiting us. We went out to dinner a few times, watched half a dozen movies, played some games, caught up with each other, and went shopping (well, they went shopping while I just walked around with them). I haven't watched movies in a very long time, and so this is the most amount of movies I've watched in years. We watched X-Men Apocalypse, which I didn't like very much. I requested to watch Red Cliff since I've always wanted to watch it but never did. It was split into two movies and each one was 2.5 hours long. It had some slow moments, but it really immersed the viewer into the world of Ancient China. The battles were well choreographed and exciting. I enjoyed it. My sister wanted me to watch Pop Star and Spy. Pop Star was not only funny, but is a great critique in our modern day society. Spy was hilarious and well worth the watch. I also wanted to watch Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV. It was pretty much what I expected. The graphics were incredible, but the story was typical and the pacing was slow. My sister left yesterday to go back to her home in SoCal and got back to work today. She seems really stressed about work, even when she was home with us during her visit. I hope she can finish what needs to be done in the next 3 months so that she'll be able to relax during Christmas time.
Mystery Chronicle: One Way Heroics released last week and I've been waiting for it all Summer. The game has some stuttering problems, can't be closed in-game (gotta Alt+F4) among other problems, but the extra content and a more updated/polished graphics are worth it. The game's still a lot of fun as the original One Way Heroics, but there's some aspects from the original that I still like more (such as status of other players, the retro-like charm, and smoother map scroll). Besides continuing God Eater Resurrection, I'm still playing Resident Evil Revelations 2 and just finished my 3rd run of campaign about 2.5 hours ago on Survival difficulty. Bosses and certain enemies would kill me between 1-2 hits. It wasn't too bad, but decently challenging. It unlocked another difficulty level after that one, but I'm not too keen on playing through it. I might consider playing Countdown mode. Otherwise, I'm going to play Raid mode a bit more and finally call it quits on it. Resident Evil Revelations 2 exceeded my expectations and I really enjoyed it.
As sad as it is to see Summer come to a close, I'm looking forward to playing more fun games and working on new projects. It's been a rough year, but at least the gaming side of things have been great.
I'm feeling pretty good lately. I put in the effort of applying for a job at two companies with one of them requiring a mock-up. I created the mock-up throughout the month of July and really liked how it turned out, though I doubt I'll get the job. I'm getting back into the rhythm of exercising and sleeping better (need work on falling asleep earlier though). I finished up my Guilty Gear X - May Remix last week and uploaded it yesterday:
And I've been buying/playing some really fun games recently! I pre-ordered God Eater 2 Rage Burst last week and it released earlier yesterday. I've played a few hours and am anxious to play some more today, but not before I do a little bit of work today. Just this past weekend, I finished up Resident Evil Revelations 2 and found out that there were two endings to the game. I got the bad ending and was flabbergasted when I saw the credits roll because I thought that was the real ending of the game. There were unanswered questions and the ending left me feeling unsatisfied. I then thought of the possibility of multiple endings and looked it up to find that the game indeed had two different endings. I didn't have to play the entire game over again to get the true ending, but I felt compelled to play it again. In my first playthrough, I played on Normal and was pretty thorough in exploration. So I decided to play Easy the 2nd time and have a relaxing experience with the game. And it was a lot of fun! This brings me to discuss today's topic of "replaying games"
Replaying a game, whether it's multiple runs in a row or revisiting it years later, is not uncommon and is something I used to do quite often when I was younger and had significantly fewer games. But post-College years, I have accumulated an insurmountable amount of games of which many can relate to as a backlog. Because of this, it is very rare for me to play a game more than once and I'll usually just move onto the next game. Other times, playing a game just once and ignoring all the side missions/quests is enough for me because the extra content becomes mundane. So it's been quite a surprise to myself that I have replayed a few games multiple times in a row throughout this year. When Mighty No. 9 released, I played through it 2 times normally and then a 3rd time with the DLC character. I even still plan on playing it for the challenge modes and maybe on harder difficulties. Then earlier this month, Another Metroid 2 Remake released as the fan-made remake of Metroid 2 and I ended up playing that game FIVE times in a row! For Resident Evil Revelations 2, I've been wanting to play it since last November when I got it but haven't had the time or Hard Drive space to do so. I was expecting the game to be mildly entertaining and only planned on playing through it once. But I enjoyed it so much that I might consider playing it a 3rd time. I haven't even gone through the DLC stories yet and played much of Raid Mode because God Eater just came out.
So what is it about replaying a game that's so fun and makes it worth the extra time and effort put into it? Well, it's a bit similar to reading a book or watching a movie. When reading a book a 2nd time, certain plot points will be perceived differently because all the plot twists and pivotal points are already known from the first read through. Watching a movie over and over again, you might be inclined to pay attention to different things throughout the film like the background or other character's facial expressions that aren't the focus of the shot while watching a movie again years later might be for the purpose of nostalgia or you'll have a different opinion of the film after so many years. But for books and movies, they don't change. They're the same every time you read/watch through them. For videogames, it's a bit different because you interact with the medium and have control over it. When I was younger, this is how I would play and replay games: I would play the game normally and enjoy the game casually as it was meant to be played; then I would try 100% the game doing everything you possibly can in the game; and lastly I would try to finish the game as quickly as possible. Two games that comes to mind that I have done this with is Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow and Metroid: Zero Mission; both for the Gameboy Advance.
Ultimately, the reasoning for replaying a game is having a different experience with it. With books and movies, the experience will probably have 2-3 different experiences: the first time, knowing everything that'll happen the 2nd time onwards, and revisiting it years later with possibly a different mind set. But with videogames, there are an array of dynamics put into play such as difficulty levels, different modes, and multiple characters.
Let's take Resident Evil Revelations 2 as an example since it's the most recent game I have played through multiple times (twice so far). Here are some reasons for why I would play through the game multiple times if I decided to play it a bunch of times: *I actually did these
-*Playing on Normal difficulty: My first playthrough with a decent amount of challenge.
-*Playing on Easy difficulty: Relaxing experience while getting the true ending.
-Playing on Survival difficulty: A truly challenging experience with low resources
-Playing Countdown Mode: It's kind of like a speedrun!
-Playing Invisible Mode: Enemies are invisible. Makes it that much harder
-Beating the game with knife only: There was a mode like that in the older Resident Evil games
-Beating the game under 3 hours: There's an achievement for that
-Beating the game with only the use of the Pistol
-Playing through Raid mode with all character levels maxed
There's a lot more variations I could probably put in that list. A lot of hardcore speed-runners enjoy setting challenges and mixing it up which keeps the same game fresh. That's why even now, people are still speed-running games back from the NES days. There are 100% runs, fastest runs, one type of weapon runs, blind-folded runs, minimal upgrades runs, etc. I miss enjoying games in this fashion, but I generally don't have the right mindset to be able to do so because going through so many games each year that I rarely feel like I have the time to play a game multiple times. I guess it's a little different for me this year because I decided I wanted to play games I enjoyed as a lot of games I played last year left me frustrated or disappointed. The one exception I've made throughout these past 6 years is revisiting older games, mainly one's I've never completed. I was in the middle of running through Super Metroid again after playing Another Metroid 2 Remake and Metroid 2 earlier this month, but I didn't get to finish because of Resident Evil Revelations 2 and now God Eater 1 & 2. I think I will play Resident Evil Revelations 2 a few more times as well as Mighty No. 9 until I feel completely satisfied before I delete them off my hard drive (with Mighty No. 9, it's not a big problem, but RE:R2 is taking up 18 GB of Hard Drive space). If I ever get around to it, I'm pretty sure I'll be spending a lot of time playing through Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.
I’ve been okay for most of the month, I suppose. I can feel my lower back hurt a bit recently,
possibly due to returning to lifting weights and abdominal exercises. I spent the past week organizing and writing
notes on the projects I’ll be working on this year including recreations of my
past compositions, creating new original work, and recording all the piano
arrangements I’ve done in the past 16 years. It’s scary to say and think “wow, it’s been 16
years!” Well, it’s been sort of a crazy
nostalgic trip looking at old notes I wrote back 16 years ago when I was just
fooling around on the keyboard and playing the melody of songs I liked. Looking through notes and old MIDI files, I was taken back to when I was 13 in my own
new room. Memories of playing Gameboy
color and Gameboy Advance, going over to my grandmother’s house or friend’s
house to play Nintendo 64 with them, hours spent creating StarCraft maps,
skateboarding, learning songs on piano for hours on end and such all rushed
back to me. It was mainly learning and
playing piano that really got me thinking back. During High School and Jr. College, I would
spend anywhere from 2-7 hours a day playing piano and trying to memorizes new
songs I’ve come across from playing various videogames, animé I watched, or
songs I just happened to stumble upon on the internet. It made me really miss those days of when I felt
so passionate about game development and music. The thought sat with me throughout the weekend
and I was pretty happy with where I went with it now. I’ve created a few games, I’ve learned and
arranged dozens of songs on piano, I’ve created numerous songs of my own, and I’m
playing a larger variety of games than I’ve ever done before. Like today, Overwatch officially launches and
I’m going to start playing right after I post this. The main point I want to make is that
reflecting back on the past 16 years has really made me appreciate my life now
than I already have and it has also refueled my passion for playing the piano. I know I’ve been neglecting learning new songs
on piano aside from maybe 1-3 a year. So
I’ll be focusing on practicing the piano again and recording everything I’ve
arranged and learned in the past decade and a half. I guess it’s actually been longer than that
since some of my piano compositions were made before I actually took piano
playing more seriously. Anyways, I want
to enjoy playing Overwatch for now and will get around to my new projects soon
enough.
I think I'm finally as normal as I possibly can be right now. My heart palpitations stopped last Tuesday and that was the last of the major problems I had. Right now, only a minor lower back pain and some leg pains would occur occasionally, but they're easy to ignore compared to what I had to go through those past 8 weeks before last Tuesday. For this month, I focused on uploading my 3 remixes that I've worked on so far and planning ahead for the next few months.
I would say a majority of this month was trying to get work done, playing games and not feel miserable. There were a lot of days where my back hurt, my stomach felt queasy, I had a headache, or my heart palpitations were bothering me. I've been okay ever since last Tuesday and I've been sort of at a loss at what to do next. I bought Melty Blood: Actress Again Current Code the day after I uploaded the remix I did for it as it's the first time Melty Blood got an official English Translation and sold in the Western market. I've been going through Arcade mode with all the characters and I'm not even half way done yet. Because I've been playing the game a lot, I'm reminded of a lot of the music. Just to note, I've been playing Melty Blood for about 10 years now. I played the original 2, then Act Cadenza, and then I barely played Actress Again. I never got that good because I didn't have anyone to play against, but I know a bit of the mechanics from playing it for so long. Listening to the music again, I'm really tempted to remix a lot of the songs. I have enough ideas for a full remix album, but I kind of want to mix and match various fighting game music to remix and not just focus on one game again. But before then, I plan on working on some original music and some animation projects before I get back to remixing this year. I want to add new material to my portfolio and send out some more resumes.
Besides Melty Blood, I've started playing Resident Evil 4 HD again and making an effort to try to finish it (started last summer, I think). I've also continued to play a LOT of Senran Kagura Estival Versus and proceeded to buy $25 worth of DLCs. I felt kind of bad at first, but I ended up playing a total of 68 hours as recorded in my save file last night before I called it quits. SKEV was a great game and I loved it. I don't think there will be a Senran Kagura game for a while as the company is working on several other projects. As of right now, there is a Animé Weekend Sale going on for Steam so I might end up picking up a few new games (I mainly want to buy a lot of the OSTs for games I have). I don't have a clear cut schedule, plan or goal at the moment as my ailments really set me back by another 2 months, but I kind of enjoy how relaxed I feel at the moment. I hope May will be a productive month for me though, because June and July has always been the most difficult months to stay productive for me.
I've been wanting to do this for a while. Just for fun, I reviewed all the character theme songs for the Senran Kagura series and ranked them. Here are the results:
I think the hardest character themes for me to rank was Yagyū, Hikage, and Haruka as their character themes have been consistently good throughout the series. I didn't like a majority of the songs from Bon Appétit, but added it in part of the ranking as there were a few songs I thought was okay and even fewer that I thought were better than some of the main series songs. Here are some of my favorite songs from the series:
Crimson Shadows Opening (Burst):
Yomi's Theme (Burst):
Homura's Theme (Shinovi Versus)
Murasaki's Theme (Shinovi Versus):
Mirai's Theme (Deep Crimson):
Homura's Theme (Deep Crimson):
Yomi's Theme (Estival Versus):
And as a bonus, here's the 2nd Ending from the animé;; it's the only good thing to come out of it.
The month of May seemed so far away when I started this year, and yet here we are at the end of the month already. I was still dealing with the chain of ailments I had been suffering with at the end of April. I went down to SoCal Irvine area early in the month to see friends and celebrate my sister's birthday with her as well as Mother's Day. I had planned for that weekend for months and I ended up going down there with a stomachache just as I was thinking I was getting over my chain of ailments. On that weekend, I hung out with 9 friends on one day and 11 friends the next. We played mini-golf and played a bunch of arcades. I wasn't sure if I was able to manage since it was a lot of people to interact with, I wasn't feeling well, and I didn't really plan where to eat and kinda winged it along the way. It was exhausting and a bit nauseating with the stomach not cooperating the entire weekend, but I had a lot of fun and was sad to see everyone off.
On the day I was on my way back home from the weekend trip, I checked on some gaming news and saw that Koji Igarashi had finally launched a Kickstarter for "Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night"; the game he was working on. I had no doubt that he would start working on another Metroidvania when he left Konami several months back. What did surprise me was that he asked Michiru Yamane (composed/produced pretty much all the music to Castlevania games from Symphony of the Night to Order of Ecclesia) to join the project to work alongside Ippo Yamada in creating the music. I was ecstatic and couldn't contain myself. In the description, it said that Yamane was "excited to hear the fan's covers, remixes and arrangements of her first song for the game 'Theme of Bloodstained'". I felt unbelievably motivated and worked tirelessly the next 3 days on a remix.
Here's the original:
Here's my Remix:
I had sent a message to both Koji Igarashi and Michiru Yamane on the Bloodstained official Youtube Channel in hopes that they'll hear my remix. But I still haven't gotten confirmation whether they've heard it or not, and I'm not sure if I ever will. We probably won't get to play the game until 2 years later, but I'm excited for it. It's currently at 2.8 Million Dollars and still has 15 days to go.
I knew I would crash in motivation after finishing the remix for Bloodstained, and it was hard to get past. I went back to working on my Guardian Legend Remix project and created probably the least inspiring remix I've done so far. But I got through with it because I wanted to move on and continue working rather than brood over one remix. I did that with the first remix on this project and wasted a lot of time, but I suppose it was worth it. I've already started on the next remix, but I've got some things on my mind that's threatening to impeded on my progress. I haven't looked at available jobs in a while and am thinking it might be a good time to take a look at listings and apply for some. Then there's also the problem with incoming distractions. June and July are my favorite months of the year, right next to December. In these two months, there's Steam Summer Sales, E3 News and Game announcements, my birthday, 4th of July BBQ, and EVO Tournaments to watch. Last year, I heavily invested my time looking through gaming news, buying and playing new games, and watching a bunch of fighting game tournaments and had a LOT of fun. With very little opportunity to go out and have fun, you tend to take the smallest of pleasures and revel in them. I have no doubt I'll be going through the same thing this year which is why I am a little worried. I guess I'll figure it out somehow.
Looking at my backlog progress, I actually completed very few games this month compared to previous ones in the year. The two major games I've completed this month are Dragon's Dogma and Metro: Last Light. I've had Dragon's Dogma for a while now and really made an effort to finish it after I had completed Time and Eternity. After playing so many RPGs, I wanted to play an Action game or Hack-n-Slash on the PS3. I started Drakengard 3 and had mixed feelings about the game. The quality of the graphics are not nearly as nice as the cinematics and the gameplay is slightly on the clunky side. But I think the writing is pretty good, even though it's quite twisted. The game has a really messed up sense of humor that's overtly sexual and violent. For an Action game, it seems longer than most in gameplay time. The levels look much longer later in the game, and I hope it doesn't drag out for the sake of gameplay time. I'm enjoying it so far, though I can understand the negative feedback it's been receiving. I also really like the music:
Here's the arranged version for the boss battle:
On 3DS, I'm still working on getting through Bravely Default. I wanted to finish it before seeing my sister so I could return it to her, but I just couldn't finish it in time. On PC, I'm a bit lost on what I'm really focusing on, but I suppose I want to finish Valkyria Chronicles first since I've installed that since February. I kind of have 5-8 games I plan on finishing up before moving on, and it's really hard since Steam Summer Sale is approaching and I'll probably be adding more games to the list. On PS Vita, Hyperdimension Neptunia U just got in the mail this past Sunday. I was rather reluctant on pre-purchasing the game or even getting it. From the gameplay footage I saw, I was afraid of it being too easy. There were players who would stand there to demonstrate that even being hit there was barely a threat of dying. Well, either they changed the game for the US release or those players were incredibly over-leveled because I often lost half my health in one hit or died really quickly. I didn't mind it because I wanted the challenge. I was also afraid the game might be too simplistic. In a way, it kinda is as most missions require the player to kill a certain amount of enemies in a small closed-off arena. There doesn't seem to be enough depth to the game and that kind of saddens me. It seems like the new game they're working on uses the same game engine as HDN:U but with zombie like creatures. I'm not sure how I feel about this. I wouldn't be so bothered by this if I was paying $20 for these spin-offs.
At the very least, I like the humor in HDN:U that the series is known for. But I don't know if I can justify buying anymore HDN games at full price if they're going to spew out so many games at once.
I've been listening to the soundtrack to Senran Kagura Estival Versus today and I'm really liking a lot of the songs. They're a bit different from usual, but perhaps they're all following a theme. In Senran Kagura 2 (which is set to release in the US this Fall), the music sounds a lot heavier and darker. The opening is also darker. But in Estival Versus, the music and game looks and sounds happier and lighter. It looks like the theme is based around the beach, which might explain some of the more happy sounding music. I'm actually a bit disappointed in Ikaruga's theme this time around. It doesn't really stand out like it usually does. Although Murasaki's Theme isn't nearly as good as it was in Shinovi Versus, I still kind of like that powerful opening:
I loved Yomi's themes in Burst, but didn't like it as much in Shinovi Versus. It was a little weird in Senran Kagura 2, but at least I thought it was okay. But this new theme of her's in Estival Versus has some of that flavor that Burst did with an uplifting, bouncy theme. It's sort of fun and carefree and catchy which I like.
I'm also liking the themes for the 5 new characters. Jasmine/Sayuri's theme has an opening that sounds so akin to Dynasty Warriors' music that I would believe it to be from that game just by hearing that one section. Renka's Theme definitely stood out to me. It's like DDR music mixed with Taiko no Tatsujin (Taiko Drum Master). I remember seeing a short footage of Renka's gameplay and how she fights using Bachi sticks and smacks enemies like a Taiko drum. The song is hyper, exciting and catchy. And also, that Taiko playing is so entrancing.
We probably won't see Senran Kagura Estival Versus until next year, but it'll be a game to look forward to.
