Incoming Distractions!

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.

Spring dropped by to punch me in the face! & Rant on Rogue-likes

It's Spring again, and I hate it.  Every year, I know it's Spring or Autumn when allergies hit.  And when they hit me, they hit really hard.  Over the weekend, I had some sort of dry throat ailment that was really affecting me.  My throat felt dry, itched, and hurt a bit, but nothing serious enough to be considered sickness.  It might have been the excessive amount of spicy food I was eating those few days.  It persisted for 5 days and just when it seemed like I was starting to feel okay again, I woke up sneezing three times in a row with a tear running down my left cheek.  That's when I knew allergies had hit me.  It started yesterday and it's been awful dealing with it.  Coughing, sneezing, watery/teary eyed and runny nose on my left side, and headaches from all the coughing and sneezing.  I woke up this morning hoping it was all gone since I had taken some medicine.  I opened my eyes feeling perfectly normal, but a teardrop came out of my left eye the second I lifted my head.  So today I haven't been coughing and sneezing as much as yesterday, but new problems come forth.  Both eyes are watery now and both nostrils and runny AND stuffy.  I'm having a difficult time seeing or breathing.  My throat is itchy again and I have a numb headache from the ordeal I face all day yesterday.  I don't feel like doing anything.  I don't want to work, don't want to move around, and I can barely play videogames (though that's what I'm mainly doing to try to take my mind off of my ailments and pass the time).

As much as I like being able to play games throughout the day to pass the time, it's also difficult to enjoy them when my mind is so muddled and feeling so awful.  I really wanted to get more done this week.  And I was working so diligently on Monday, too.  It's almost the end of April and I've barely gotten done with what I wanted to this month.  Despite that, this has been a productive month.  In the first week of April, I spent each day cleaning a part of my room and reorganized the whole place.  Looking at my room, nothing much has changed, but everything within my night stands, closet and organizer spaces have been rearranged to suit my needs better and to clear out any unnecessary junk.  It's funny, because what lead me to want to do all that was because I ran out of room to put my handheld game boxes together (3DS and PS Vita games).  It was all for the better though and finding what I need in my room became easier.

I then got into listening to some Japanese Funk and Disco of sorts early in the month.

Because of this, I started listening to old Disco music I used to hear when my father put them on at home or in the car.  I listened to them so much that I decided to make a Disco mix.  I wanted to learn more about Disco as well since I plan on using that influence in future compositions and remixes.  Besides that, I continued working on my Guardian Legend remix that I began again (I started planning it back in 2007) and got one remix done.  I took 4 short tracks (3 of them being around 10 seconds long and 1 being 25 seconds long) and turned it into a 13 minute remix.  I liked how it turned out composition-wise, but I felt like my music suffered greatly from my lack of experience and knowledge in mixing and mastering music.  I spent some time to learn more, but I don't think I learned nearly enough.  I went back and re-did the first remix track for the project since I didn't like how it turned out.  It turned out great the second time around!  But then I found out that it had a pop sound when the tempo changed.  I have no idea why it did that since it never did before.  I'm very sad about not being able to take out that pop sound, but I really liked how the 2nd version came out compared to the first one.  I don't have any of them uploaded yet, so I can't share yet.


While I was trying to pass time yesterday while suffering from my allergic reactions, I played a bunch of Rogue-like inspired games I had.  This included Delver, Heavy Bullets, Faster Than Light, and One Way Heroics.  I started thinking about it and I realize that I'm actually getting sick of hearing the word "Rogue-like" in games.  They generally have insane difficulty curves, make you slog through several boring beginning levels and immediately throw a curve-ball at you when it starts getting good, and sometimes they feel so empty with little content which leads to memorization and the ability to react fast enough to get through the game.  Most of the games involve "BS Deaths" which I know is part of the Rogue-like genre.  So why am I okay with it in some games but not others?  I guess it's just a matter of perspective.

Dungeon of Dredmor is still one of my favorite Rogue-likes.  It doesn't follow the exact rules of a Rogue-like, but it's one of the closest games to one that's much more casual friendly.  Even when I play on hardcore, Dungeons of Dredmor is still capable of entertaining me throughout my playthrough.  If I wanted to complete the game, I turn hardcore mode off (and I did that and completed the game once).  It has so much content and so much dynamics in how many different events and situations can happen each time you play that it has true replay value.

Eldritch was one of the games I had a problem with.  It's a First-Person Perspective, Rogue-like Action-Adventure game where you have to go through 3 different realms and bring 3 objects back to complete the game.  The game was meant to be very difficult and follows the perma-death rule of Rogue-likes.  What you can do is save money to a bank to withdraw later even after death to use and make the next playthrough a bit easier.  Besides the immense difficulty, the problem I had with the game was how limited the items were.  The game felt lacking because of that.  It was just a matter of dying over and over until you memorize every enemy pattern and get good enough to get through the game and by saving up money to make the play through easier.  After a while, I gave up because it felt more like a chore and I wasn't have fun with it.

Heavy Bullets is kind of similar in a sense to Eldritch in that items felt limited and saving up money was a key mechanic to making the play through easier.  I really wanted to like Heavy Bullets, but enemies and level designs felt unorthodox for the sake of difficulty.  There are enemies that hide within bushes of the exact same color, turrets with insane accuracy and fire rate, and enemies with erratic movement patterns.  It reminds me a bit of Receiver, an experimental First-Person Shooter Rogue-like.  That game also had BS turrets and flying enemies with erratic movements.  Even worse, you died in one hit in that game.  I watched a full walk through of Heavy Bullet and the first thing the player did was pull out $3000 from the bank that he saved up.  Heavy Bullets had an interesting idea with only using the bullets you had on you and picking them back up and all, but the overall design revolved too much around farming, memorizing enemy patterns (keep in mind you have to start all over from the very beginning, so you can't really practice against those enemies you meet for the first time), and maybe even a bit of luck.

Speaking of luck, Delver is kind of like that.  During my first play through, I got far into the game with little problem and finding a lot of useful items.  And then one of the enemies, the same one I've been seeing throughout the game, shoots me twice and I immediately die.  The 2nd time around, I picked up 60 arrows without a single bow in sight and finding little to no curatives.  Shortly after I found one, one of the enemies popped out of the shadows soon afterwards and one-shotted me.  What was upsetting was there wasn't even an animation.  He just walked up to me and it said "You Died".  3rd time around, I didn't go nearly as far as my 1st and 2nd playthrough.  Instead, I died on the 2nd level because there was a room full of spikes that immediately killed me.  Like I said before, I know BS deaths are part of Rogue-likes, but it was hard to find the game enjoyable when it pulls so many fasts ones.

One game I thought that was good but had the same mechanic is Faster Than Light.  People love this game, and a few of my friends have poured several dozen hours into it.  Every time I play, I get through the game fairly easily only to run into that one enemy that completely overwhelms me.  There's nothing that can be done during those events.  At this point, it isn't even about skill like the past 3 games I talked about, but solely on luck.  That isn't to say that Faster Than Light is entirely luck based because there's a lot of planning and strategy involved.  I also think FTL has a decent amount of content to keep it fresh and interesting; however, those random difficulty spikes made it really hard for me to enjoy.

Hack, Slash, Loot, on the other hand, was entirely luck based or pretty dang close to it.  Despite having a myriad variation in classes, the game lacked dynamics and content.  Getting a new class required to die 10 times each.  All classes played pretty similar to minor differences.  Enemies could randomly one-shot you.  Your attacks might hit if you're lucky.  I'm pretty sure I've talked about this game either on Superpad Unplugged or here because that game really riled me up.  It was the least entertaining Rogue-like I have played on Steam, I believe.

One Way Heroics is a game I've played and completed a few times on easier difficulties.  It was the only game that I kept playing last night despite dying so many times.  Like Dungeons of Dredmor, it has a LOT of content, it can save so death isn't necessarily permanent, and it has a lot of dynamics.

There are so many "Rogue-like" games on steam now with a majority of them disappointing me that I'm starting to get sick of hearing the word.  I know there's a lot of potential for Rogue-likes, so I'm hoping better games will be made with that in mind.  I'm really liking the officially released Crypt of the NecroDancer and I have yet to buy The Binding of Isaac Rebirth, so I have hope for the sub-genre.