tag:dreamwidth.org,2011-12-22:1191038Chai A Daythere's never enough teaJean T2019-02-17T03:37:05Ztag:dreamwidth.org,2011-12-22:1191038:444456Nintendo Direct Blathering2019-02-17T03:37:05Z2019-02-17T03:37:05Zexcitedpublic0 (What, me remember to hit post after I write something? ha. Well that was a fantastic Nintendo Direct - worth the wait in my opinion, though please Nintendo don't make us wait that long again!)<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCME2yPJKWk">Video Link</a></p><p> *screams in Mario* I'm so so so excited for Mario Maker 2!! So excited I missed the bulk of the announcement and had to watch it over again because omg there's so much to be excited about here - slopes! switches! the themes! Luigi! It's coming out in June!!! I love the original Mario Maker, though I admit I didn't play all that much of it. I'm... not that good at old school Mario. I get through the games, somehow, but I'm definitely below the average skill level. Or at least I feel like that. It doesn't take away that I love the games though, and more then playing Mario Maker I love watching truly skilled players play it and the sound of it is sort of comforting? So I've fallen asleep to Mario Maker more times then I can count, and I'm looking forward to doing the same with Mario Maker 2. Fingers crossed for <a href="https://www.mariowiki.com/Thwimp">thwimps</a>!</p><p>That Marvel game is mildly interesting, in that they spent so much time highlight Captain Marvel - it seems like a gesture of confidence in that movie, and that's promising. It's something similar with Joker in Smash - they aren't showing much of him, which is interesting because there's a big Persona 5 announcement planned for March. If Joker being in Smash is part of Persona 5 getting a switch release then it sort of makes sense to hold back. Yeah I'm pulling for a switch release of Persona 5, and I'm more hopeful for it after seeing the push for hardcore games. <span style="background-color: initial;">I hate that term, hardcore. The games it describes aren't necessarily harder than other games, and the easy games aren't any less core to a system's library. But what else do you call those games? Anyway, after seeing that sort of games, the Final Fantasy, the Dragon Quests, the Assassin's Creeds, the Hellblades, and even strong rumors of the Kingdom Hearts games? I feel confident in having some hope for Persona 5.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: initial;"> I love that Captain Toad Treasure Tracker is getting some love, because I'd really like to see a sequel to that one - there's so much more they could do with that concept and I'd like to see it. I have that one on the Wii U, but if I had the cash to burn on buying a game I already own? I would. </span></p><p>Bloodstained looks amazing. The Castlevania games are one of the gaps in my gaming experience, as I've only loved them from a distance, but I'd love to dig into Bloodstained. It looks like all the best parts of the SoTN style games, but polished and with a female protagonist.</p><p>I'm not really a fan of the series, but I've heard such good things about Dragon Quest 11 I can't help but be excited for it. I'm always down for a solid jrpg experience. Because of it's release window I imagine it's going to be my birthday game. I suppose it shows my age as a gamer that I can't quite escape the console wars mentality, and oh does it feel like a coup to have the definitive version of the game be on a Nintendo console. That's one of those good signs about the Switch and big games.</p><p>Oninaki looks beautiful. Again, I'm a sucker for pretty jrpgs. 'Deep, single player campaign' is my ultimate catnip, and <span style="background-color: initial;">I am Setsuna has been on my radar for forever. *sobs over empty wallet*</span></p><p><span style="background-color: initial;">I of course downloaded and played through the Yoshi's Crafted World demo immediately. It's a delightful game, and I don't know why I'm surprised about that because of course it's a delightful game! Epic Yarn and Woolly World were delightful games so how could Crafted World be anything else? I love games that just give me a mode like Mellow Mode, so I can chill out and play a game, and it's not like it strips the challenge out of the game like some people might think. </span><span style="background-color: initial;">The end of March is awfully close, I need to start saving...</span></p><p><span style="background-color: initial;">Fire Emblem isn't my game at all, but I have to admit on second viewing of the direct Three Houses is kind of sucking me in.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: initial;">Like everyone else I downloaded Tetris 99. I'm... not great at tetris, but it's more fun to lose then I thought it would be. A nice little distraction game.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: initial;">Final Fantasy VII on the switch is just.... *vibrates with excitement* FF7! Portable!! Final Fantasy IX too! I still wonder what the deal is with Final Fantasy VIII being missing in action. I'll have to look into that when I've got a spare moment.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: initial;">Astral Chain is a game that at first game I wouldn't be in to - actiony, not much there to hook into. But made by Platinum Games? *hearteyes* *hearteyes* Bayonetta 3 still happily in development? *HEARTEYES INTENSIFIES* thank goodness they said something, I imagine if they didn't there'd be an uproar because of the uncertainty after Metroid Prime 4 getting restarted out of the blue. I buy the theory MP4 got handed back to Retro because Retro is finished with whatever they were working on and I'm dying to know what that was. A rerelease of the Metroid Prime Trilogy? Donkey Kong? Something new??</span></p><p><span style="background-color: initial;">With a lineup like this it's hard to say they saved the best for last, but they certainly saved some strong hype for last. Link's Awakening!! I knew it was that the moment I saw the waves, just.... *screams in Zelda* That artstyle(I typo'd 'heartstyle' there, and honestly? yes!!!), that music! *buries face in hands and happy cries* Every time, it's like coming home. I don't even like that high bloom, out of focus edges graphical style, but it looks good here and I will follow Link any where.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: initial;">Not part of the direct, but I the news about the Hollow Knight sequel is intriguing. Again, aren't played Hollow Knight - too poor - but the style is beautiful and I don't need to play to know the gameplay is excellent. Silksong looks like more of the same, but better and with a female protagonist. Makes me wish I'd backed the kickstarter to get in on both of these games. </span></p><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=anindigomind&ditemid=444456" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2011-12-22:1191038:444280My Collected Notes on A Hat in Time:2019-02-09T01:24:53Z2019-02-09T01:24:53ZSubcon Forest Time Rift - A Hat in Time OSTaccomplishedpublic0I think I'm done with A Hat in Time for a bit. I've hit a point where it's just not rewarding to grind out the last few achievements and Death Wish challenges, so I think I'll step away from the game for a while. Leave some things for me to do when I come back to the game for the promise second round of DLC. Here are some of my notes on the game from my journal, from different days over the last couple of weeks. <br /><br /><a name="cutid1"></a>(1/27)<br /><p><span style="background-color: initial;">I took far too long to get around to A Hat in Time. In fairness, it came out in the midst of a traumatizing mess of moving and for months after just looking at the name on my list of steam games made me feel guilty for being blindsided by how awful some people can be. A Hat in Time is a very good game, and it really doesn't deserve that association. I find the controls are blessedly both tight and forgiving, meaning I'm not frustrated like I am with Yooka-Laylee, and I about cried when I found that it had customizeable field of view options as I was getting terribly motion sick playing it. I love the visual design, and the characters turned out way more charming then I expected.<br /><br />(1/30)<br /></span></p>Spent the afternoon playing A Hat in Time. I played up to beating Snatcher, and now I feel a bit aimless - should I go deal with Mustache Girl, or go to Alpine Skyline? There's no real direction because both have equal weight in game play. Subcon Forest was a level I was really concerned about during the kickstarter, I was worried it would be awful but I think now it's my favorite level in the game? The Snatcher boss fight is awful though, it just goes so fast I can barely keep up with it and it took a heavy dose of luck to beat it. Definitely not the fight I'm going to see for the one hit hero achievement if I go achievement hunting.<br /><p>I really like Subcon Forest's music, right up there with the soothing Rift themes. So mellow I could listen to them endlessly.<br /><br />(2/1)<br /><br />I did play a bit of A Hat in Time early today - made an attempt at the final boss, and actually made it through the level this time. I'd made decent progress on learning the boss's pattern when suddenly the boss just up and despawned from the arena. Just poof, gone - I don't think I'd done anywhere near enough damage for any sort of cutscene to have glitched out. I played around in the arena for a bit, just in cause something was trying to load in the background, and one it was clear nothing was going to change I quit out and I didn't have time to try again. It's a mild delight, because it's been ages since I've run into a glitch that's actually really affected my ability to play a game! As I recall... the last time was needing to wait for collision to load in FFXIII-2, and that wasn't really a hindrance just an annoyance.<br /><br />(2/2)<br /><br />Played a bit of A Hat in Time - gave up on the final boss to play in Alpine Skyline, and almost immediately ran into a puzzle that needs a post-game item and ugh I'm so tired of that in games.<br /><br />(2/3)<br /><br />My goal for the day was to beat the final boss in A Hat in Time so I could open up the rest of the game, and it was about 2pm by the time I got to sit down and play the game. I beat the boss, ran around collecting yarn and relics. The game is open to me now, and I just have to decide how much of it I want to play. I guess I'll play until I'm sick of it or the achievements get too hard for me. It's a good game, I hope there's a sequel someday.<br /><br />(2/4)<br /><br />My reward to buckling down and doing that was a can of tamales and a bit of time playing A Hat in Time. I finished up with Alpine Skyline, and then I messed around with mod levels for a while. It's really fun to play rifts, I'm glad the developers left the doors open for custom levels and mods. It's a delight. Next up is the DLC content. I might play a bit more tonight, I'm not sure. I've hit a bit of a wall with the game, because the Arctic Cruise stuff all takes so much time and feels less... optimized. The critical path just isn't clear at all.<br /><br />(2/5)<br />I put some more time into A Hat in Time. I'm still... I love the game, but I'm aggravated with the difficulty of the dlc. Because it feels... fake. I finished the first rift and the first act, the rift from a lot of practice(and I got all the storybook pages) and the act because I'd watched a playthrough video of it the night before. What gets me is the lack of healing items in the rift, which makes even small failures very punishing in a way other rifts to this point haven't been, and the convoluted and unintuitive layout of the cruise ship making navigating it a real chore, made worse by a camera that's just... The camera is bad, it's often way way too close to Hat Girl to the point of I can't see anything no matter what the settings are. Especially if I'm close to an object, like say a wall I have to precision platform off. It makes a lot of the platforming blind. The DLC feels bloated for length, to make the dlc 'worth it'. I'll finish it, but it's my least favorite part of the game so far. I don't want to play it, I want to replay the main game and all it's well designed levels and platformer that felt good and rewarding. The death wish challenges look interesting, at least if I don't need to do the higher level of difficulty for them they'd be fun. A good excuse to play the game over again basically. I haven't even poked at them, I'm afraid they'll be the sort that only unlocks in order.</p><p>Another like and dislike - I'm not a fan of the rope mechanics. They work alright, but I could use a bit more 'magnetization' because I just barely miss them so often. I love how Hat Girl counts when you pick up items that count towards a total, something about her voice clip is especially adorable. A neutral - the sound effect for the doors in Hat Kid's ship opening are... strange. It sounds like a sound a critter should make, and it took me forever to realize it was the doors.<br /><br />(2/6)<br /><br />I played more A Hat in Time - finished off the Arctic Cruise levels, and the rifts. It was... Arctic Cruise was not great. First a busywork level, then a timed busywork level, and then the physics were just all messed up for the final level. I feel like almost none of my failures were fair. Did a few of the mod levels, and some of the Death Wish challenges. I enjoy the 'Peace and Tranquility' mode. That is like the perfect thing - gimme the challenge without the impossible bullshit, gimme a way to play the game I enjoy. No judgement zone. It's beautiful. I wish more games had something like that, and I love the games that do. Platformers need to be forgiving on some level. I just wish I didn't have to kill myself three times to activate it.<br /><br />I technically 100%'d the game today! Which I think is all main story time pieces and rifts? They gave me the fancy hat and everything. That does feel like an accomplishment. <br />--</p><p><br /><br />Hmm. I feel like my tone is overall negative, but I suppose that's only because I took a break or got broken out of the game when I was frustrated. I love the game - five stars,, anyone who likes platformers should play it. I only mentioned briefly the soundtrack, but I find I love it in general - it's bombastic and cheerful, and some songs are so peaceful. I've added it to my rotation of music to play in the background.<br /><br />Current playtime is 32 hours.</p><br /><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=anindigomind&ditemid=444280" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2011-12-22:1191038:443549Transistor(Spoilers)2019-01-24T04:25:09Z2019-01-24T04:25:09ZPaper Boats - Transistor OSTaccomplishedpublic0 <p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", "Sans Serif"; font-size: 16.1px;"><img class="fr-dib fr-draggable" src="https://d1u5p3l4wpay3k.cloudfront.net/transistor_gamepedia/3/31/Red.png" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; vertical-align: top; position: relative; max-width: 100%; cursor: pointer; margin: 5px auto; display: block; float: none; width: 300px;" alt="" /></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", "Sans Serif"; font-size: 16.1px;">Well. I did it. I got all of the Steam achievements for Transistor! Steam says I've put 33 hours into this game, and I'm willing to believe it. It took a lot of practice to get the finer details of the combat mechanics into my head, and I just can't hurry through the game even on my third playthrough. The colors, the designs, the music... it's all so lush and I can't help but want to soak it, to linger long over the finer details of Transistor's world. The way the story is built up in layers, so even though it's lightly told it's got this ring of realism to it. You've got the story of Red and the Camerata and the destruction of Cloudbank, and you've also got the story of Red and The Boxer, this soft romance, and you've also got this story of Red and her emotions - her music is melancholy, her choices are desperate, and even the most strategic combat reflects anger. Like... gods, the ending of the Spine fight is just jawdroppingly visceral.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", "Sans Serif"; font-size: 16.1px;"> </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", "Sans Serif"; font-size: 16.1px;">I just love Red - she's this brilliant artist that's had her art, her voice(her AGENCY how's THAT for a theme?), stolen from her and her partner taken for her at the same time. And the Boxer - he loves Red so damn much and only wants her to safe, and her only concern really is him. To touch on the ending - I've seen the criticism, and I think it's bunk. It's made pretty clear by the end that while Red can fix Cloudbank, she can't get her voice or the Boxer back. She could rebuild the city, people would come back but what was she supposed to do, become some sort of God of Cloudbank, presiding over an empty city? The only way she could become whole, to get her voice and her love back, is to go into the Transistor. There's this theme of self destruction/suicide in that... so Cloudbank is digital right? it's a virtual city? And the process is what shapes the city. So the city destroys itself, and in the game you have this metaphor for death with the country, but then at the end Red's choice seems less of a destruction and more of a... restoration, for lack of a better word. She goes to the country, though whether that's the country-country, the real world outside of the virtual world of Cloudbank, or another virtual world like a facsimile of the country... *SHRUG* Love is another theme - the Camerata's love of the city, wanting it to exist as it is, Sybil's obsessive love of Red, the Boxer's soft and concerned love, and Red's love carrying her through the end of all she knows.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", "Sans Serif"; font-size: 16.1px;"> </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", "Sans Serif"; font-size: 16.1px;">I love the Boxer too - gentle, supportive, protective. I connect with his adrift nature - Cloudbank is a place where anyone can be anything, and he doesn't know what he wants to be and that makes him an outsider in that system, and right now I'm really feeling that. Life is easier if you have goals - with goals you fit into the system no matter what your goals are, but what if you just want to live? To exist? It's hard. In the game one of the locations briefly visited is the selection offices, and I doubt that's meaningless. Just like the final goal being the cradle - a journey from death to life.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", "Sans Serif"; font-size: 16.1px;"> </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", "Sans Serif"; font-size: 16.1px;">There's all these delicious details - like the bridge with the statues of Red and the Boxer, reaching for each other and being separated and then on the return trip coming back together. That that's the only thing Red restores, the bridge she created. Red's ring, which only appears after she puts on the Boxer's jacket. The figures in the containers in the final battle, which I honestly did not notice the first time. There's also this digital ghost that shows up and it's very subtle, but it shows the which direction to go which is surprisingly helpful - it's a fairly linear game, but the locations can get visually confusing. That final song, not the credit song but the one before it, that just goes builds upward while never resolving until the credits hit. Amazing.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", "Sans Serif"; font-size: 16.1px;"> </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", "Sans Serif"; font-size: 16.1px;">I love this game. I can't keep my head about talking about it in any serious fashion because I love it. I have Red as my computer wallpaper, and as the wallpaper and lock screen on my phone. The music is just... I find myself listening to even the instrumental tracks a lot, and I don't usually like instrumental music. It's perfect background for writing, or for walking between pools of lamppost light in the park at night. Doing that I feel like I'm in a sort of liminal space between worlds.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", "Sans Serif"; font-size: 16.1px;"> </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", "Sans Serif"; font-size: 16.1px;">A note for accessibility - I played with a keyboard/mouse and my fingers kind of ache for that. A controller would have been better for me, but I don't have one so *shrug* The difficulty is pretty low for that first trip through the game, and only ramps up when pursuing the achievements. There are some easy builds that make the game a breeze too(Purge + Breach + Crash FTW). I put the effort in for those achievements because I love the game, it gave me something to do and it felt fair - the achievements felt achievable and not grindy. It's a game I found it worth putting that effort into.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", "Sans Serif"; font-size: 16.1px;"> </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", "Sans Serif"; font-size: 16.1px;">I'm going to have to uninstall this game before I get sucked into yet another playthrough just to wallow in the story and the art and the music and the most shippable damn romance in gaming. I should go play Bastion now. Honestly I bounced off Bastion the first time I tried it, I didn't get sucked into the way I was with Transistor, but that was a long while ago. I have it on Steam and my 360, I wonder which would be best?</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", "Sans Serif"; font-size: 16.1px;"> </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", "Sans Serif"; font-size: 16.1px;">Anyway, some Good Videos about Transistor -</p><ul style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; font-family: "Source Sans Pro", "Sans Serif"; font-size: 16.1px;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENXToEvaCKc" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(59, 78, 83); text-decoration-line: none; user-select: auto;">Superbunnyhop's Video</a></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4h4YEQqLqtY" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(59, 78, 83); text-decoration-line: none; user-select: auto;">Games As Lit's Video</a></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gr03nRLbWos" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(59, 78, 83); text-decoration-line: none; user-select: auto;">Game Score Fanfare's Video</a></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;"><a href="https://youtu.be/ceem1ZNsFY8" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(59, 78, 83); text-decoration-line: none; user-select: auto;">8-bit Music Theory's Video</a></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;"><a href="http://https//www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGTkAVsrfg8" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(59, 78, 83); text-decoration-line: none; user-select: auto;">bonus song not on the soundtrack</a></li></ul><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=anindigomind&ditemid=443549" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2011-12-22:1191038:440003journal : too tired for e32017-06-13T05:48:13Z2017-06-13T05:48:13Zlethargicpublic0It's a hard thing to explain, but it feels good to journal again. Even though it feels like useless... hmm. useless baring of self. certainly, it has no purpose. idk.<br /><br />Tired, sore. Stayed up late-ish last night to watch American Gods, got up early today to see mom off on her road trip to the west coast. Haven't slept well lately in general, and I just hurt all over for no good reason and moving about is a challenge. Looking forward to about two weeks of managing everything on my own.<br /><br />Yesterday was for shopping. I missed the live E3 coverage, but I guess all I missed was getting attached to a really nice looking game before we all found out the creator is actual trash? Also I guess more on the new Bioware game? I'll have to check it out. I'm not focusing well on today's livestreams either - I've got a lot of catching up to do. Did watch EA's - eh? Honestly I'm not invested in anything. A Way Out has potential for neat use of mechanics. I like seeing developers making use of the medium. That dress though, totally stole the show. <a href="https://www.polygon.com/e3/2017/6/10/15776590/e3-2017-janina-gavankar-ea-play-battlefront-2">Look at the shwoosh!</a> Star Wars games though... they just make me miss Factor 5 and Rogue Squadron.<br /><br />Rec: <a href="http://www.kameronhurley.com/podcast/">Get To Work Hurley</a>, Kameron Hurley's podcast, is excellent. If you can it's super worth it to get her behind-the-scenes videos on <a href="https://www.patreon.com/kameronhurley/">patreon</a> too. Solid writing advice all around.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=anindigomind&ditemid=440003" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2011-12-22:1191038:5636Journal : good things2016-06-07T00:39:27Z2016-06-07T00:39:27Zcalmpublic0<a href="http://www.polygon.com/2016/6/6/11866698/yooka-laylee-release-date-trailer">Yooka-Laylee trailer</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.polygon.com/2016/6/6/11866048/final-fantasy-12-hd-the-zodiac-age-ps4-trailer">Final Fantasy XII trailer</a><br /><br />E3 is in *checks* let's call it 5 days. It feels like game developers are starting to get antsy. Can't blame them - getting the news out at the right time so it doesn't get drowned out by all the other news is tricky business.<br /><br />I'm excited. To be honest E3 is all that's getting me through most days right now. It's a link to happier times. I hold on to the good things that can't hurt me.<br /><br />Thinking about writing blog posts. Bloggy posts, not journaly stuff. One of those 'how hard could it be?' things. Step one - where the hell do I post the result? Here? tumblr? blogger? idk. I just want to get stuff out there, but I'm also mildly terrified of interaction. idk.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=anindigomind&ditemid=5636" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> comments