@“yeso”#p148785 Oh no doubt, but not by the same people! Those who would earnestly call Rush Hour “the most vital piece of Chinese art of all time”, for example, are typically not connected to my own social and professional circles.
@“2501”#p148791 did you do the pushups?
@“yeso”#p148788 Objection: I don't want to look like a croissant. Willing to add a whole set of exercises in rotation for this.
@“2501”#p148780 I think the connections to his background are a bit more pronounced in Part 2 but still relatively subtle, not essential but enough to be interesting. He had talked about how his views of politics informed the game. Ignoring the final takeaway from the author I found some of the background of the story from Druckman interesting.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/bv8da4/the-not-so-hidden-israeli-politics-of-the-last-of-us-part-ii
My young‘un asked what my Mega Drive 2 was, so I booted it up and played the first couple missions of Shining Force CD. It’s good stuff, and I might continue. I liked the novelty of >!losing all my equipment!< and fighting in the second mission, and I managed to not let anyone die.
@“xhekros”#p148827 yeah whatever your strength-training exercise of choice is fine as long as you exert yourself
@“yeso”#p148835
This push-ups for takes business is really taking off. Now how do we monetize it?
@“FaulteredBeast”#p148830 Yeah I’ve seen the Vice article before, which seems to be the source for 99% of the discourse on this topic. I’m interested to replay TLoU2 with this real-world context in mind - I listened to the podcast where Druckmann mentions the Gilad Shalit incident that allegedly inspired the first game’s ending; it’s included in the PS5 edition - but I can safely say the real-life influences on other ND games are pretty oblique, even with things Druckmann has claimed were directly inspired by actual events. The Vice author clearly put some thought into it and has actual knowledge of the subject, but trying to mash the entire game and its legions of well-trodden genre tropes into a tidy Israel-Palestine allegory (how many different pieces of American postapocalyptic fiction feature a quasi-Evangelical messianic cult? How many seasons of The Walking Dead conclude on some mock-Hobbesian silliness about capital-H Humanity being too violent and foolish to cooperate?) feels as strained and silly as implying the first game’s ending, due to its oblique inspirations, reveals the essential brutality of the “Israeli mindset”. Past a certain point, it’s trying to construe the looseness of the game’s inspirations as allegorical and moral failures, when it’s highly questionable whether the game was ever trying to be an allegory in the first place. And this one article has inspired a small legion of armchair commentators with little to no knowledge of the Israeli-Arab conflict to declare that by playing and disliking this blockbuster American video game by an American studio with an Israeli-American writer they now understand the twisted mind of that foreign, black-hearted creature, “the Israeli”. It gets very very exhausting when you’re tuned in to this stuff.
(Also: while I remember having major issues with the game’s writing, I’m a little tired of people complaining that it made them control characters whose motivations and methods they found unsympathetic. I’m pretty sure that’s the point?? It’s not trying to scold the player for playing the game, it’s trying to force them to empathize with specific characters doing immoral things despite not being totally immoral or unsympathetic people. However hamfisted it is about this, I really didn’t think the intent there was unclear. Nothing has ever led me to believe Neil Druckmann has anything intelligent to say about politics, but at their best ND games are very effective at capturing moments of individual-level emotion and psychology, which is a far more interesting perspective to look at them from than their shoddy worldbuilding and plot contrivances.)
@“2501”#p148845 Agreed, a lot of Druckmanns stated inspiration is hard to distinguish in game and that could be from him not fully leaning into those ideas at the start or just the expected sanding off of ideas that happen during AAA game design and after hundreds of hands touch the project.
The biggest problem with 2 for me was that it is great gameplay and a great 12 hour story, just stretched out so long until it becomes very heavy handed and repetitive. Granted, playing it at release, quarantined during a pandemic, and finishing it in a week likely did not help matters. Would be interested to replay it at some point.
@“FaulteredBeast”#p148846 Yeah my single biggest problem with Part II is that the second act (starting around the 12-hour mark) just drags and drags and drags for so much longer than is necessary to get the point across, and its whole new faction of spoopy religious fanatics is just too cartoonish to take seriously. I mean just about everything about the game is overkill, down to the all-time hilarious melodramatic touch of NPCs screaming “NOOOO NOT JOSEPH, I LOVED HIM SO” when they find a dead body. That said I did appreciate how the last act, when it suddenly declares it’s going to go on for even longer and introduce even more depraved killers to kill and isn’t even pretending to be exciting or fun anymore, nails a feeling total agonizing numbness that no other video game has ever even tried to evoke.
Can’t wait to try that hi score roguelite mode!!
Anyway Crisis Core might have the worst soundtrack of any Final Fantasy game I’ve ever played. I know this isn’t the objectively worst thing you could say about a video game soundtrack (sorta praising with faint damn) but this is a game that specifically wants to remind you of Final Fantasy VII almost constantly so when it’s not playing decent remixes of Uematsu tracks from the original game the comparison is pretty egregious.
I‘m so sad. I lost about 6 hours in Fire Emblem Echoes because I died twice deep into the Tower of Duma. More like the Tower of Dumb! Up until this point I hadn’t touched the turn wheel, but I was prepared to use it here since there‘s only one save point at the bottom of the tower (I think). However, you can’t use the turn wheel if Celica dies. It‘s just a hard cut to Game Over. I still dig this game and, darn it, I’m gonna keep trying, but this situation got me fuming.
Edit: I got through it and it was a slog. This time I went all the way back to the save point after clearing the mini-boss of each floor. It made the process longer, but the extra experience from incidental battles probably helped.
I've started playing Persona 2 Innocent Sin as dictated by the Insert Credit Forum Brain Trust.
I haven't really played that much, but I'm already enjoying some of the small stuff. The overworld is great at evoking a sense of a bigger place. Something about the alleyway with all the shops that you pick from a menu does more for my imagination that I think a full 3D depiction would. It makes it feel like such a busy, cramped little alleyway. The overworld music has a little bit of a mall vibe which adds something as well.
I'm also loving how the Velvet Room is portrayed in this one. Making the music diegetic is so cool.
1 Like
@“Mnemogenic”#p149013 what are you playing it on? I played it on an oled vita and it looked great. Loved looking at those little sprites and 3d dioramas
@“GigaSlime”#p147468
Sorry if it's already been explained, but the joke with Star Ocean games is (at least for 1 and 2) they're fantasy games masquerading as sci fi games - no space travel whatsoever, you're always stuck on a "backwater" planet
The twist that SO1 pulls was too much for me, honestly none of them have great stories - you play the Tales series for the good stories and better combat (and soundtracks tbh). The skills/alchemy aspect of SO games are the one thing that makes them interesting, but once you break the game/get infinite money/etc you realize the combat is so hollow that it's not even that satisfying imho
@“yeso”#p149036 I‘m playing it on an Anbernic RG405M. I don’t think the screen is anything special, but it looks great and it‘s 4:3. I’ve only seen the school so far, but the diorama style is great. I'm looking forward to seeing more of what they do with it.
@“kyleprocrastinations”#p149006 Correct. Can't use turnwheel if Alm or Celica die. This is important to keep in mind for… >!the post-game Thabes Labyrinth. If you bring both Alm and Celica, even if one if “leading” your party as your Lord, both can give you a game over. Some people like to leave Celica behind because of this but I still found her very useful. Definitely check it out - I thought it was a very fun challenge and pretty unique for FE!<
In more recent games they change the mechanic where your Lord dying just automatically forces you to use your turnwheel if you still have uses left.
I love Star Ocean the Second Story R, but I also think it‘s really funny that the game says, "OK, time to put on your thinking hat so here’s this music"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8HqEZ92mE0
Think I might try that Pal World on Game Pass tonight. I just want to see them poke Nintendo's lawyers as much as they can. I wanna see how long or how short those pokin sticks are
@“Kite006”#p149059 I most certainly did get bored after Ronyx rejoined the party and just shelved it to play through the Metal Gear Master Collection instead lol