Screenwriter Aaron Stewart-Ahn joins a panel guest hosted by Esper to cover the current definition of “good graphics,” Nicholas Cage’s sublime beauty, and seeing Attack of the Clones on acid. Hosted by Esper Quinn, with Ash Parrish, Brandon Sheffield, and Aaron Stewart-Ahn. Edited by Esper Quinn, original music by Kurt Feldman.
That was a fantastic episode! Aaron Stewart-Ahn was an amazing guest and very welcome again, @Esper filling in as an incredible guest host, great questions and the fact I have Kin-dza-dza! ready to watch when I have some time just means many more positive words for the episode!
Could this be expanded into either an entire episode or just a series please!?
The coolest motorcycle in a video game (and in Cyberpunk 2077) is actually Jackie’s Arch. The Kusanagi is nice but that handling kills it…
It’s not exactly open world, but I have to give a nod to Final Fantasy XI. I can think of countless zones I enjoy just inhabiting, but the two that stick out the most are The Sanctuary of Zi’tah (which is always one of the first places I return to whenever I come back to the game) and Aht’Urhgan (which kicks Jeuno’s ass every day of the week and twice on Sundays)
As for Ul’dah… sigh
There’s no way for me to be anything but an old woman about this one: Data Center travel (and to a lesser extent World Visits) irrevocably changed Balmung’s roleplaying community, which used to have Ul’dah as its central hub. Once Balmung’s Ul’dah was elected the general chat center of FFXIV (for NA/EU Data Centers, at least), that original, home-grown community was pushed into the fringes and is a pale shadow of what it used to be
I’m not sure I’ll ever stop being sad about that. It’s hard to explain just how unique of an experience hanging out was there, and the server’s roleplaying community has never been able to find its footing somewhere else in the game
Lots of great responses to this one, but I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t find an excuse to mention that Final Fantasy XIII does some cool things with its linearity that would be hard to convey without that interactivity
Soulsborne games are a great answer to this. The Decemberists songs often have an ethereal or dream-like quality to them, and there’s probably a number of indie games that would fit the bill, too, though that’s not a space I’m immersed enough in to give a good answer
Lets add to the Actors Fighting Game Featuring Nicholas Cage roster.
Jackie Chan’s gotta be in there, besides his genuinely good acting abilities his stuntmanship would give him a really wide moveset to choose from.
Could/Should we pull from tokusatsu actors?
I think Brandon wasn’t off the mark in terms of what good graphics mean “in 2025.” We have reached a point where art direction is more what people remember as “graphics” in a video game. It’s 2025 and gaming is SO varied in their graphics, it definitely comes down to aesthetics that people will remember as “good graphics”.
With technology as advanced as it is, when a game pushes the boundaries in what graphics can do, it will end up dating itself. As Ash stated, we are able to see FFXV as a “PS4 game”. How advanced a game is for the time does not mean it has “good graphics”. It’s definitely more about art direction.
It’s clear that at some point people stopped caring about graphics and started caring about art direction. Look at Indie 2D Pixel Art games and their explosion in popularity and availability. Look at the trend of intentionally making games mirroring N64 of PS1 aesthetics. Freakin’ Balatro sold a billion (exagerration) copies and can run on a decades old computer. Graphics as a whole mean so little now that it’s art direction which may or may not drive the need for higher technical requirements.
I had no idea Aaron Stewart-Ahn did all those early The Decemberist’s music videos. That rules!
I can see Souls-bourne games being The Decemberists of games. There’s a darkness but also a humor there. I agree that it’s not all about breakups. At it’s core, Meloy’s songwriting is about having fun telling stories, and he has fun doing it by making it all baroque and faux-literary with big words and playing in very old tropes. There’s a genuine love and sincerity in there, too, which is a key element I think. It comes to a totally different overall effect, but Kingdom Come: Deliverance also comes to mind. Or like, Pentiment. But Fromsoft’s Souls games’ willingness to pull from such a wide variety of sources to create a specific vibe just works so well.
EDIT: just adding here so I don’t spam multiple posts. I do listen to Insert Credit first thing in the morning at the gym. Monday gym days are the hardest, mentally, so it helps get me there.
Exercise is great! Not just for the Nazi-punching / running away reasons mentioned, but it’s also really good for mental health, as Aaron mentions. I mostly got through 2020 in one piece through working out, both in my apartment (doing some light strength training as well as Supernatural VR) and by going for (masked) long runs outside where nobody was.
I also want to note, it can be a good way to build community too. I boulder, and I’ve met some friends through that and met lots of other more casual, cool acquaintances. I’m in multiple run clubs and have made friends that way too. We support each other, not just in our work outs, but just generally. And more than ever, I think that’s really important!!
I really feel like I need to clarify something: “Cloud’s motorcycle from Final Fantasy VII” would be the Hardy-Daytona, stolen from Shinra as Avalanche escaped Midgar, featured in Remake as well. The motorcycle available for purchase in Final Fantasy XIV is Fenrir, Cloud’s motorcycle from Advent Children. I was speaking about Fenrir the whole time, but realized afterward people might think I was talking about the Hardy-Daytona, which is also cool, but I personally like Fenrir a little more. I am so, so sorry for the confusion this surely caused.
Aaron’s brief mention of the Star Wars grindhouse reminded me of the first time I experienced (wild tangent coming) Anchorman.
When I first managed to track it down it was a “cam” version, and with it came with the requisite colour bleeding and slightly wonky framing that just felt like a found VHS recording. So much so that I honestly thought that was how it was released and thought the actual release sucked because of the clarity.
