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#I REALLY wish all his other 3d sprites were like this
hrokkall · 1 year
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Leshy for the ask game?
HELL YEAH I got requests for all four Scrybes let’s go.
Favorite thing about them: I absolutely love his character as a whole. He’s a villain (and remains that way for most—if not all—of the game) but he’s still so likable just because everyone can see his genuine passion for the game he’s created. Everything he did, everything he created, every puzzle box and squeaking floorboard and hidden secret was all for the player. Inscryption the game loves the player so much—it loves them enough to trawl through the blight it’s built upon just to have even the slightest chance of looking them in the eyes and Leshy is such a good representation of that theme.
Least favorite thing about them: Again not going to say anything related to torturing the other Scrybes (even if he thought that they would eventually come around and see that it was an honor). Instead I’ll say I wish he had a full 3D model. I know it’s because he’s too damn tall but all of the other Scrybes have one (including Grimora, who is nearly the same height and has to clip through the floor to fit in that scene) but I would love to actually know what his legs look like instead of speculating based on the unclear 2D sprite. Granted I’d probably draw him with hooves anyway because it’s fun but still I’d love if he had a full body that I could import into blender to just rotate around for fun.
Favorite line: I’m not going to pick any bits from the finale because every single one of those lines hit hard, instead I’ll pick this segment
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brOTP: I already talked about Leshy and Kaycee on the Kaycee post and I’m going to try and not repeat myself too much here. So instead I’ll say I like the relationship Leshy has with his subordinates just because it’s so different from the other Scrybes’ interactions with their own underlings. Magnificus and P03’s underlings both revere their Scrybe above all else, Grimora’s all live under the same roof and are therefore likely pretty close with her, but Leshy? All of his woodsmen seem like they were just… people who lived in his forest who he decided to converse with. They’re loyal to him, sure—everyone but the Woodcarver (who isn’t one of his underlings) is 100% okay with him using their visage and controlling them for the boss fights—but in a very different way. Loyal in a way of “I live in the forest with you and the forest decided to extend a hand to me in return” rather than loyal in a “put me in the torture chamber, boss!” way. I don’t know it’s just like they’re casual friends with any reverence (or lack thereof, in the Woodcarver’s case) formed organically rather than vehemently feeling like they owe anything, intentionally or not.
OTP: Trying not to repeat myself too much so I WON’T put all four Scrybes as the world’s worst polycule here. I’m pretty sure everyone here already knows that’s my #1 favorite Inscryption ship (and probably the only one tbh because I’m not really into shipping). Instead I’ll talk about Leshy and the other three Scrybes individually (keeping it short because otherwise, like usual, we’d be here a while)
Leshy x Grimora: Classic life and death motif combo. You can’t really go wrong here. Plus, if you go by sheer quantity (and quality imo) in act 1, Insect cards are by far the most abundant, implying they may be Leshy’s favorites (plus the insect that crawls across the table that Leshy occasionally stops to observe). So making Grimora into an insect card seems to show a certain level of fondness—or respect, at very least. We already know from canon that a combined blood/bones system works very well, as do beast and death cards in act 2. Plus the mental image of Grimora bringing back animals that Leshy had gotten particularly attached to by lovingly carving their epitaphs and watching as the now-skeletal rat excitedly greets his friend again is cute.
Leshy x Magnificus: This one is a little bit funny to me just because they have no hybrid cards together and Leshy goes out of his way to gouge Magnificus’s eye out. So needless to say the divorce was messy. But in a pre-old_data sense, their dynamic would probably center around their mutual love of creation. Though their own preferences clash, they’re both huge fans of having a single unified aesthetic. They don’t want each other’s card systems near the other, but the storycrafting would be fantastic. Similarly, I don’t think a magic/blood campaign would work very well without a ton of shoehorning (it would have to be something similar to the red hart wherein the # of sacrifices made that turn power up a ruby mox card) but the visuals would be nice.
Leshy x P03: This one is equally funny to me because they’re opposites in every way possible and yet they really have a lot more in common than either of them would appreciate in canon proper. I’m personally a fan of the “overgrown technology” type aesthetic (see: co-op) so from that level I can appreciate it, but also the level of hilarity that these two would bring is incredible. Learning about the semi-canonical divorce between the robot and the forest deity was a punch in the face, but the semi-canonical marriage that it implies? The two of them going in dates in either the middle of the woods (wherein P03 complains the whole time until it spots a bird mimicking the whirring of its fans) or at the factory (wherein Leshy spends the whole time asking if they can go down to the shore because he’d love to capture that thing he swore he saw poke its head out above the waves). It would be a disaster and yet the fact that they made it work speaks volumes. I’ve already talked about a blood-energy system with co-op so I’ll skip over that part but yeah I like these two.
So anyway the four of them together are a lethal combo needless to say. It doesn’t work and yet it does and then the moment it starts to work they realize they can play god and then start fistfighting each other about it. So that’s fun.
nOTP: Again, not a fan of Leshy and Kaycee in a romantic context.
Random headcanon: I didn’t get to show it in my last drawing of him (partially because it got covered up with fur) but he has tarsal spurs on the back of his leg like an insect would. What these are used for? Good question… Seeing as in insects they’re usually on the forelegs for digging or cleaning, they’re probably just vestigial on Leshy.
Unpopular opinion: Act 1 isn’t my favorite. It’s good, for sure, but I hate when people reduce Inscryption to just act 1 and then ignore the rest of the game. Maybe that’s just because I’ve been drawing art for this game and picking apart the lore for around a year now but the other acts deserve more of a spotlight too.
Song I associate with them: Can I put Lord Huron’s entire Strange Trails album here? I won’t, I’ll narrow it down to Meet Me in the Woods (though you should listen to the whole album if you want a whole album of Leshy songs. Just saying). Other than that, Dear Dictator by Saint Motel and Solar Waltz by Cosmo Sheldrake are both pretty good options.
As a bonus, I’ll put Time in a Bottle by Jim Croce—the song he references in the Finale as he plays his last game.
Favorite picture of them: It only appears for a couple of seconds but I really like his “Deathcard”
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autumnalwalker · 1 year
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Find the Word Tag
Thank you for the tag, @void-botanist.
My words to find were sparkle, doubt, pop, horror, & confuse.
Passing the tag to @writernopal, @on-noon, @oh-no-another-idea, @nanashi23, @sleepyowlwrites, and an open tag for anyone else who wishes to join.
Your words shall be instill, physical, rational, character, & muse.
Sparkle: The Archivist's Journal, Day 62
Eventually, the girl’s parents realized what their stories had instilled in their daughter and chided themselves for not expecting this.  Afterall, had they not reacted the same way to similar stories at her age?  They sympathized with their daughter, seeing themselves in her, but having been so much a part of the world before and having seen hardships their little girl could not yet imagine as the price of those adventures, they were tired and weren’t ready to end their peaceful rest apart from the larger world.  And so, they told the girl that “One Day” they would all leave the forest on an adventure together when she was “Older.”  And in their hearts, they really did mean it, even if they had no idea when “One Day” would be and weren’t sure themselves what age “Older” was.
And so, the girl, even though she loved her parents and knew they loved her, grew frustrated with them.  “One Day” never seemed to get any closer and even though she grew older every day it never seemed to be enough to count as “Older.”
This frustration led to keeping a secret.  More than anything, the girl wanted to see the ocean.  Her forest had ponds and lakes, streams and rivers, but no sea.  That may sound strange to us who see the sea every day, but not all worlds are alike.  While it might be wondrous to us to see rain transform into tiny white crystals that float to the ground like leaves and sparkle like glass, to the girl such a wonder was merely called “winter” and was as normal as the rainy season.  And so, wishing to see the sea the girl built a boat on the edge of a river.  For months whenever she told her parents she was going out to play she would go to her boat and add more to it, until one day it was complete.
Doubt: Empty Names - 6 - Background Checks
As for her physical profile, a classic example of the other side of autogenesis.  A scarecrow of sickly skin and bone hiding under baggy clothes.  The exact kind of exaggeration you’d expect to manifest in a shut-in nerd with confidence issues.  Definitely not someone they’d be getting any fieldwork out of.  Looks like the autogenesis might even be holding back her transition.  That does manage to get a rare twinge of sympathy from him.  He’d not had that problem himself, but it’s not the first time he’s seen fear of change being impossible outweighing one’s identity.  Might be worth keeping an eye on what happens if she ever gets over those doubts; could make for an interesting rebound effect.
That said, Sullivan’s just about to finish mentally filing it all away as “boring IT tech to shove paperwork off onto” and move onto the next profile when he notices she finally sent in her equipment request last night.  About damn time.  Looking at the list, he wonders aloud what his friend told her she’d be doing.  Multiple high-end server racks.  Drones.  Projectors.  3D printers compatible with esoteric materials.  Blast-proof safety glass.  Laser cutters.  And “one small potted tree; bonsai or similar”.  Either she’s messing with him or those notes for followup need higher priority after all.  Approved in full either way.
Pop: The Archivist's Journal, Day 13
And then, in the center of the crossroads, at the edge of my lantern light I saw it.  At first I thought it was a villager, lost out in the mist like me, and I called out to them.  But then I realized they carried no lantern.  And then it turned towards me.  Its face was a featureless black plane save for the eyes - perfectly round glowing points similar to those of the nature sprite.  There was a wrongness to the thing’s movements as it approached me, alternatingly stiffly jerking its limbs and moving its whole body all at once in a smooth glide, its vaguely human form never getting more distinct despite getting closer in the mist.
I ran, of course.  And then nearly ran into another of the entities as it congealed from the mist in front of me.  Around this point I began panicking.  The obvious, rational thing to do would have been to try to get into one of the houses.  The villagers by all signs knew well enough to stay off the streets while the mist was out and had survived this long.  Of course, when you’re in the grip of a panic attack rational thought rarely enters into the equation, or if it does it’s in a distant back corner of your mind that’s screaming in frustration and despair as your body does the opposite of what it’s desperately trying to tell it to.  And so I just kept running and dodging around the shadowy figures standing around in the fog, all of them unearthly still until I alerted them to my presence after which they began following in my wake.  Thinking only of distance I blindly ran on, only dimly registering that I was making things worse by attracting attention.  Up until I blindly ran into a door.
Stumbling backwards to the ground from the impact I dropped my lantern, heard a crack, and saw the crystal pop out of its housing and roll away.  Watching it, still stunned, I saw the approaching shades smother its light.
Horror: Empty Names - 1 - Hello World
Whatever they were about to say gets drowned out by a crack of thunder that seems to be near-simultaneous with its progenitor lightning flash.  In the wake of the flash the room is plunged into darkness.  In the wake of the thunder the demon howls.  Before the howl even ends, Lacuna hears the sounds of her air mattress popping and her bedside table toppling.  Before she even reaches the door she hears a wordless shout from Road.  She’s still trying to find the doorknob in the dark when a green glow appears somewhere behind her.  She’s still trying to get her trembling hands to cooperate in undoing the deadbolts when the glow fades with a pained shriek she hopes is from the demon.  The door finally begins to open as everything goes quiet.  
Lacuna pauses.  Some part of her mind is screaming at her for being an idiot and not running.  She knows she should probably listen to that, but hope and curiosity are outweighing it.  Just like every horror character destined to die.  
Confuse: The Archivist's Journal, Day 24
As he was leaving, I suddenly remembered my musings from yesterday and stopped him to ask if he knew any stories about the Village’s founding.  The question itself seemed to confuse him.  The Village was the Village.  It had always been here.  I pointed out that things don’t just come from nothing.  Everything has a starting point.  Surely that would extend to the Village too?  He shrugged, said that he guessed so, but he was never really one for deep thoughts of that sort.  I half-jokingly said that seemed like a poor trait for someone of his occupation, and he sheepishly admitted that normally he just smiles and says whatever comes to mind and most of the time people calm down and things sort themselves out.  That’s part of the reason he was so glad I was able to help him today.
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biolizardboils · 2 years
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head’s still full of Mother EarthBound Thoughts so im gonna spill some here. (warning this’ll be super messy and also contain big honkin’ spoilers for all three games)
for context i played and beat EarthBound after it came out on Wii U, then Mother 3 in 2015. i tried Mother 1/Beginnings at some point, but sadly my immunity to Old Game Jank doesn’t extend past the mid-90's. im a relatively young Mom Fan is what im trying to say here
i havent seen anyone here talk about the vid they put out for the Switch ports?? pls watch it its so cute and in-line with the games’ humor! lets all get to know Ness!!
im still watching Curiomatic’s Mother 3 vid daily and im still noticing new details and shit. and their website's so good too?? felt!Boney has my whole heart
my brain's been on fire imagining how the other two games would look in the same style. and like. it feels criminal to ask so soon after 1 and 2 got Switch ports, but a full 3-games-in-1 remake would be so good for the series for two big reasons:
1. it could fix 1/Beginnings' Jank and tighten its translation, bringing it in line with the other two, and
2. its the one situation i can think of that would force Nintendo to localize 3. like can you imagine if they remade the whole series and then left it in Japan?? people would have their heads!
not to mention a game with a modern 3D engine would be leagues easier to edit than the sprite-based original. cus while im scared of NoA over-censoring the game as much as the next guy, there are a few things in it that could’ve been done more sensitively, and that altering wouldn’t harm the plot if done right. i doubt i need to name specifics
also on the selfish side, i just wanna know what would change in terms of visual design. i wanna see all the enemies move in battle and Pippi with beady eyes like everyone else and how they’d officially differentiate Ninten’s design from Ness’s, and most of all i REALLY wanna see official art of Beginnings!Giygas. i wish to grasp his true form so bad it makes me look stupid
not that i dont like the fandom’s agreed-on designs!! far from it, i love them!! like Giygas having red-and-black eyes as foreshadowing is genius and whoever first came up with it deserves an award
i made a party playlist in case 3 ever got localized back when i was more hopeful about it. how far back, you may ask? i included this unironically. that far lmao
one of my fave things about the series is how, despite being made in Japan, it pays homage to so many distinctly Western pop-cultural concepts that it’s instantly nostalgic to the average English-speaker. the Spielbergian coming-of-age film, the dot-eyed yet contemplative comic strip, the kitschy B-movie monsters, the King-esque entities conveying the loss of innocence, the pairing of psychedelia with an insistence on peace over war. for a funny parody of America, it’s fascinating how right it feels at the emotional level.
speaking of psychedelia, i wanna plug this amazing prog rock cover album that deserves more love. like holy shit, youd think this is how some of these songs were always meant to be played. ive never had a drug trip cus im terrified of messing up set and setting, but to have my first while hearing this played live would probably feel beautiful
speaking of more psychedelia, last month i thought Polka Dot Tail by Ween sounded super familiar, and i just realized why: it sounds like Magicant (the second one). i might try to make a mashup later idk
ive been meaning to watch a vlog of Camp Fangamer’s EarthBound Bash 2015 for years and this week i finally did it! shit looked like so much fun, and i cant think of another game series that’d make for such an immersive event. i could only find one extended video of the Mother 3 bash they did a year later, but it seems like an equally transformative event, if not more despite Lucas being a mannequin
listen....i know people have done the math and ruled it out as a possibility....but i still really like the idea of Ninten and Ana being Ness’s parents. i just think its cute and neat and also opens up some opportunities for angst (something something the fear of your kids inheriting your personal battles)
bonus points for Lloyd being Dr. Andonuts cus i think itd be funny if he was the only character to appear in all three games
while im here confessing my fan sins, lemme add that i treat Smash Bros as canon cus it gave the world such gems as Ness’s eyes being purple and Boney having leg warmer fur
man i remember first seeing Porky in Subspace and thinking he was trapped in the spider-mech thing and i had to free him.... ah, the innocence of youth
removing Lucas from Sm4sh was a bitch move but the trailer when they put him back was honestly SO worth it. like him returning Ness’s favor from Subspace?? everyone noticing he smiled more and being so proud of him?? that was the best day of my life
speaking of bitch moves im still confused by how u get Claus, Hinawa and the Masked Man’s spirits in World of Light. like what the fuck did Nintendo mean by that shit. their placement and the fights themselves are such a specific gut-punch that its hilarious. killing two gods wont bring Claus back
but also its...nice to think that Lucas got a chance to see them again. like maybe one of the other fighters who knew his deal freed them and brought them to him, and everyone let them have a moment before they fought Galeem and Dharkon. imagine Claus being all “told ya we’d meet again someday :’) let’s go beat up that angel thing together!”
also cus Smash made me so used to it, i refer to all PSI moves as PK. even the ones that are PSI in both languages, like Magnet. PK Sue me
so like... im a twin. my sister and i love each other more than anything. we played 3 together, and quickly agreed that i was the Lucas to her Claus. what happens between them in the game is my absolute worst fear. ive had nightmares since childhood with the same basic theme -- losing her to a decision i can't sway her from -- so the final boss and the "hasty brother" line after gutted us. when youre literally linked from birth, it's hard to imagine life without, and even harder to prepare for the possibility. this game forced us to do so, and it hurt like hell, but it strengthened our bond in the process.
theres already a hundred essays about it but i love how 3′s ending manages to reflect every player’s wishes. everyone’s got their own idea of what Lucas wished for, so here’s mine:
the entire planet was purified and made habitable again
all the Chimeras were split into their original animals (but some of them chose to be friends still, so there’s at least one kangaroo and one shark that hang out often)
everyone that Porky abducted from other time periods were sent back with their memories intact (so Dr. Andonuts gets to be with Jeff again and is also less likely to be employed by another asshat)
im one of those people who thinks Lucas didn’t revive anyone who died, because it doesn’t feel right after the characters spent three years coping with it. (all the power to people who disagree tho, it’s all cool!) instead, i think he wished for a new place to honor everyone they lost, resulting in a beautiful new cemetery hidden in the sunflower field outside Tazmily. strangely, it contains lots of gravestones that no one recognizes; one with a haiku written on it, ten crosses lined up in two rows of five, even one the size of a bug; and at the very back, a swirling metal statue engraved in an alien language, lying between two stones marked “XX”.
and finally, i think Lucas wished to meet whatever force was looking after his world all this time, so he could thank them personally... and thats how you, the player, ended up in the game :)
im still utterly charmed by the image of the player, struck blind from being pulled into another world, being lead by the hand (and pokes in the back) to meet Lucas,,, like its okay sweetie you can say goodbye as many times as you need, im so goddamn proud of you!!! ill see you in Smash okay???
i think thats everything i wanna say? uhhh heres a fanmix i made six years ago
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macaronnya · 3 years
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So I just saw the announcement about the EN server shutting down or at least dicontinued (hopefully just for now) and I might just burst into tears 🥲 I want to put my thoughts or rather feelings of the journy up until now on here to come down but maybe also as some form of comfort for anyone who needs it? It's very long and might have some broken english as it's not my first language so do keep it in mind please 😅
Anyways, I started A3! last year on march 7th because I saw a youtube video of people cosplaying Sakuya and Sakyo. At taht point, I already knew of A3! somewhere in my distant memories back when it was JP only. I decided to try out the game since I was getting bored of my current mobile games and the few reviews I could find of it were relatively positive. I had no idea just what a big part of my life this game was about the become 🤧
Btw I'm listening to some A3! songs right now, specifically Sakuya's 2nd character song, and it's not helping me 😢 So at the time, lockdown just started 2 days ago, which left me with a lot of time playing it and, I kid you not, I gulfed the main story down like it was the last slice of cake at home. I have 2 siblings. I think I finished it in a week or so despite it being only unlockable through leveling up, and if my memory serves me right, you need to be around lvl 75 to unlock all 4 episodes. As one can see, I was VERY invested in the story. It was just so....nice? I don't know how to exactly describe it but I was surprised by how likable everyone was. Of course I didn't hold such strong feelings for everyone back then as I do now but I was intrigued enough back then of nearly everyone, which is kind of rather rare in such types of games, no? At least for me it is, although I haven't played terribly a lot (Love Live, MLQC, Mystic Messenger).
I really like how the story actually continues through the events and how it alternated between stories exploring certain characters more (show events) and stories focusing on just them having fun. Getting to know everyone bit by bit and seeing how everyone grows closer to each other, not only within their respective troupes but the whole theater, makes me really all warm and fuzzy and it's found family, what more could you want?
Also, I really like Izumi, our dear MC 🥰 Even though she's supposed to be our self-insert, I found myself really enjoying reading her thoughts, observing her reactions to other characters' shenanigans (like her 'I do not see' to the members plan of faking their identity to bail Citron out lol) and just....her personality. Trying not to digress here but she has a lot more personality than other MCs in these joseimuke games and it makes her interactions with others not only bearable but even enjoyable. I'm not saying that this is what a perfect MC looks like or that she's superior to bland self-inserts. After all, it depends on the story, gameplay and other things. It's just a nice bonus I'm very grateful for. I mean, I got really emotional when Izumi performed with the other staff members all of the plays the actors have put out so far for the first anniversary. Her realizing she gained a new dream for her lost one just really took my heart, broke it in thousand pieces and then mended it again.
I also love A3! songs ❤ I did wonder how they would work in this franchise since it's not about idols but actors, though I guess there was nothing to worry about. I really like the duets because it's always a different duo and hearing them singing together, harmonizing with each other, complimenting each other, just fills me with undescribable joy. Of course the songs also slap pretty much every time. Even by limiting my options to 1 troupe, I still wouldn't be able to pick only one favourite (I like the majority of Winter's song tho, like Shoutai is just 🤌 and my sibling blasted Unmasked non-stop so I can't get it outta my head anymore). Gosh, I was so excited for 'Double Solitaire' since it would complete trilogy of the Hyodosakas singing together. I was really looking forward to getting all the songs and I was even saving up for Summer Troupe's 6th play.
If I had to describe the game A3! in one word, it'd be "charming". Coming to game itself, there are so many little quirks, that on their own aren't anything groundbreaking or big but together give the game its own flair. Live 2D is pretty common to see nowdays in games because it brings the characters to life through movements like 3D models. But I think A3! is able to illustrate it just as well, if not even better with their 2D sprites. Citron moonwalked by flipping the image over and sliding across the screen, Hisoka appeared out of nowhere by coming from above the screen, they do a little jump when they're happy, they go down a bit when they're sad. And that's just things with their whole sprite. The little drops when Tsuzuru finds himself in an awkward situation or is worried, the little note when Sakuya is happy, the hearts when Kazunari is lowkey flirting with Izumi, it's so cute! Or Omi's O.O face, Taichi's crying face (the usual one, not his face when he cried out of guilt of betraying Mankai), Yuki's done expression, H O M A R E AHA! They each have at least one personalized expression and also quote. Can you hear Kazunari's Yoropiko~☆, Citron's humming, Taichi's loud ass whining and scream of terror, Tsumugi's awkawrd laugh? It's brimming with life.
But also the UI (?how it looks) is joyful. The main screen's background cascading shapes changes depending from which Troupe your current character is from, the loading screen has sakura petals and a bird, the colors are very bright and saturated fitting to the overall color palette of the whole game, the little notebook during practice showing all the necessary infomation and a little sketch by the characters. It's just really charming.
As frustrating as it was, not getting halloween Tsuzuru after 110 pulls or Valentine Omi after 120, it was my first time ever understanding why gachas are called hellholes. Through my strong connections to the characters, their cards automatically appealed to me more. But the art is also so good???? Azuma is always looking flawless obviously but Omi's unbloomed Wolf card, where he is standing in the sunset looking at his camera or Kazunari's Shinobi card, unbloomed all concentrated on his panting and bloomed all shiny smiling like the fireworks in the background? Breathtaking everytime. I also appreciate it not needing multiple copies to unlock the whole backstage story.
I think I'm slowly running out of things to say, which might be good for whoever managed to come this far. I have to say though, A3! helped me through the pandemic. Being a perfect distraction to the world's chaos and more importantly my crushing schoolwork and worries for personal future. I'm a very pessimistic person but seeing the characters overcoming their hardships through the help of their to-be "family" and just being happy doing trouble, gave me a little hope and light for a bit every day. I came to cherish everyone, even those I like the least. I haven't felt like this since Mystic Messenger, which was also a game, that helped me through a difficult time. I can only wish to a shooting star, that it's not the end for the EN Server yet. While yes, the JP server is thriving and I could just switch to reading fantranslation, through my experience, my enjoyment considerably sinks playing like that and I wish to fully enjoy A3!.
Anyways thanks for reading (maybe again). Sorry for all the possible errors on the way here. I'm writing everything directly without too much thought. If you want, you can also share your experiences in the comments. It's always nice to share good memories with others.
Edit: I accidentally posted it already but I wasn't actually done 😓 When I said I had a lot to let out, I meant A LOT
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skittymon · 3 years
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Finally finished Tales of Eternia!! 
And that makes 11th tales games finished and 15th overall played in some degree (Phantasia, Legendia, Innocence, and DotNW being the ones I havent finished yet).
Once I started again in December I decided that instead of liveblogging I’d make a review at the end instead.
So here we go! I will keep this spoiler free as possible!
I’m pretty scatterbrained but I’ll try to divide this into: combat, story, characters, and other game mechanics.
Combat: So obviously, the combat is above Phantasia and Destiny’s, being made after them. I honestly have grown fond of the 2d linear style format. There’s so many different boss fights in this game that can only work in a 2d field rather than 3d. 
On the flip side, that’s not always a good thing. I count bosses like the wild dog thing in Vesperia, and Fodra Queen of Graces to be among the hardest mandatory boss fights in tales. Welp, Eternia added one to the ranks. Rem (aka Aska the light spirit) is one of the most frustrating boss fights I’ve done. Apart from constantly slowing healing itself, on the field it brings a shiny ball with it. You cannot destoy the orb, it’s there all fight, and if you touch it it hurts you. And of course it blocks the way to Rem. There is a way past it, it moves up and down so you just have to wait until its up to move past. BUT GUESS WHAT THE AI DOESNT DO. So your party will probably either be dying or constantly in pain. AND REM CAN MOVE THE ORD ANYWHERE. Also you cant physically hit Rem while its casting a spell only far away skills. So if you ever play this game just cheese it and spam variations of Sonic Blade.
Of course, on the flip side it’s every easy for you to cheese boss fights and just back them up into a corner unable to move or do anything until they die, so it evens out.
The sprite animations for the artes are gorgeous. Reid moves so fluidly in his artes, he’s honestly my third favorite protag to play as behind Yuri and Ludger because of this. The caster animations are great as well, granted it can become cluttered and hard to see in when artes like blizzard and earth shaker are used. BUT GOD DAMN I CAN WATCH MEREDY USE METEOR ALL DAY IT LOOKS SO COOL.
Nitpicks about the combat system are, Life, the reviving spell Farah has, takes to long to charge, and for Meredy and Keele to use healing artes you have to mix and match who has what craymel (spirit). There might be a guide but I didnt look beyond reddit so Life was the only resurrection spell I had. 
Last nitpick comes from the Aurora Artes. Aurora Artes are skills only Reid can use, but in order to use them you have to have health below 15% and press circle, square, and x at the same time, so it’s very easy to mess up and die. Then to use more Aurora Artes you press the same buttons repeatedly, and after you use them Reid is left with 1 hp. AND the final boss has an automatic kill skill, you have to press the buttons at the right time to activate it and keep everyone alive, or you can cheese it like I did and have Farah hold a reverse doll to revive her after she dies. Did I also mention this skill happens in phase 2 of the fight when the bosses health is less than 20,000 after starting from 300,000? If you fuck up thats like 10mins of redoing.
But to end on a better note for this section, I love the way artes are learned. You have to use certain artes a number of times before you can unlock it (I THINK abyss and vesperia and many others are like this but this is the first time I found it rewarding). I grinded like hell to get the best artes for Reid AND YOU BET IT WAS WORTH IT. Omega Demon Chaos I love you,,,,
Story: Like countless other Tales titles, the conflict comes from two worlds being at odds with each other. However this game does something that none of the other games have done with this story beat. Language barriers! It’s super cool in the first couple of hours theyre just trying to figure out how to talk with Meredy. Of course by the end this point is nearly dropped entirely, everyone else just getting the special ear ring I spent 3 hours to get so the plot can move on.
Like most tales, theres a moment you thought the story would end but BOOM the twist. I wasn’t shocked by it, but that’s because I knew who the final antagonist of the game was prior to playing it, but still it was executed well. 
Something that makes this Tales stand out is how they deal with backstory. So the main fours backstory is vital to the story and their characters but they don’t show it till like 20 hours in. It’s like if Graces you start off in main arc and learn about the childhood arc 2/3 of the way through and went “ohhhh that’s why they were distant with each other.” And other stuff about it but I won’t spoil it.
Overall a good story, though I do feel like I’m missing things either from missing some side quests, or because of no skits.
Characters: The main ones to shine are the four main characters (Reid, Farah, Keele, and Meredy), everyone else literally is either one dungeon and/or optionable. Chat does still feel like a character being the owner of the Van Elita aka means of transportation for half the game. Max and Ras tho rip. ESPECIALLY MAX. Ya know how every tales there’s the mandatory Talk Before The Final Battle? Yea well they all get one except Max. You see him, but he doesnt talk, YET THEY CRAYMELS DO.
Another odd, yet charming, thing is that there’s no big moment of character development for anyone like Luke cutting his hair, Magilou keeping the portal open, or punch in the face like Alvin. They just. Slowly change. And its really weird cause for all of disc 1 Keele is basically an unbearable asshole and he just? Learns to be a better person from everything he sees? There’s no callout or moment of realization, he just slowly learns and it’s super refreshing. 
Reid is probably one of the most relatable protagonists up there with Jude. I’m sure most of you know the “he doesn’t want to do shit lol” persona he has BUT GOD WHY HE’S LIKE THAT BABY I LOVE YOU. Farah’s personality is also explained in the backstory, so for any of you crestoria players that Farah’s backstory is really different like how Emil’s is, but the sentiment of why she’s like that is the same and stem for a similar event.
Meredy’s also great. I thought I’d get annoyed of her and her “You bet!” but god when she says it the last time at the end of the game, I was pretty moved. I wish I knew more about her backstory but I’m pretty sure a certain section of her life info was left to skits and ya know we didn’t get those till Symphonia :)))
As antagonists go, besides the Craymels who are there to test you before you get their power, there’s just two. Main boss and their lackey. The lackey is eh. You see him once at the beginning of the game, then see him destroy a  city, then one last time where you kill him. You do get his backstory and stuff but eh I’m usually not fond of tales mini villains minus Chimerad, God Generals, and Artorius’s lackeys
The main antagonist tho, I really don’t wanna spoil it but it’s hard to talk about why I’m conflicted on it without spoiling. So it’s like Destiny’s final boss but written better in some part and worse in others. So at one point it’s super emotional and pretty powerful with the message eternia wants to send but at the same points its a jrpg where you gotta kill god cause he doesn’t think humans are worth it. 
Oh one more thing thats honestly hilarious, there’s literally SINGLE animated cutscene by Production I.G in this entire game minus the op. 
Other things: the amount of mini games in this game is insane, but the amount you have to do IN JUST THE SECOND DISC to continue the plot is more than any other tales game I can recall. Some of them are fun like the card game, others like the bomb one I want to throw in a fire. 
There’s also so much Destiny pandering in this game. There’s portraits of the characters, you can collect lens, I’m 95% sure the way a certain character is done is because they wanted another Leon, you can SUMMON THE SWORDIAN USERS ARE AS AN ACTUAL SUMMON. While all Phantasia gets is the cameo battle and the Eternal Sword. I mean I didn’t mind cause I’ve finished Destiny and it’s one of my fav tales games but damn it was pretty obvious. 
EXPLORATION IS SO FUN IN THIS GAME. Mainly near the end when you have free reigns. YOU CAN DIVE UNDERWAY AND EXPLORE THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA WHAT OTHER TALES GAME LETS YOU DO THAT??? 
In conclusion: A fun game! I don’t think it was worth 133 dollars tho consider my play file was 35 hours and thats with a good chuck of side quests and ex bosses. Probably in my top 5 combat systems of tales and final villains, but not in terms of story or characters. A really hope it gets remastered soon I’d love for more people to play it.
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DIRK’S PESTERQUEST ROUTE REACTIONS AS THEY HAPPEN
spoilers etc. yada yada yada i’ve been waiting for this for fucking EVER.
this is fucking massive, for the record.
“The one and only” lmao suuuuuuure whatever you say dirk.
i fucking adore his metal scuba suit though holy SHIT
“[talking in meatspace] isn’t exactly my forte” akdfsljkadsfhksadf you bet your ASS it isn’t mr. strider. (at this point i’m assuming this is actually hal, wouldn’t be the first time that we met “dirk” and it turned out to be hal)
the power of his own “voice” is almost too much for him MY CHILD.
OH HELLO HAL. GOOD TO SEE YOU USING YOUR USUAL RED. LOVE THE THEME MUSIC CHANGE TOO. IT’S GOOD MUSIC.
i fucking KNEW it i fucking knew that was hal lmao
so in that case HI DIRK HELLO MY ASSHOLE BABY CHILD.
“The use of the speaker system is new, but it makes sense he’d up his game for interfering with relationships I’m busy forging in 3D. I guess I should go ahead and be proud of him for it.” god i really wish dirk and hal could get along but they both hate themselves and therefore each other way too much for that...
“Every line of muscle in his body is held in excruciating placidity. You’ve never seen a jaw so purposefully unclenched” dIRK!!!!
“you’ll prove it to him with your deeds. it seems like that might be his love language” BOY FUCKING HOWDY IS IT. also how did i never put that together before ofc dirk’s love language is acts of service practically everything he does is an attempt to serve his friends in some capacity and he’s SO BAD at telling them with words.
(his secondary love language is gifts, evidence: brobot and detective pony)
god i’m so excited and so nervous lmao
i love this sprite with the verrrrrry slight smile he looks so sweet.
hell yes the fucking ROCKET BOARD.
“this is a much more comfortable thing for him than the conversation was” I’LL FUCKING BET IT IS.
“with Dirk it’s almost like he’d be less penetrable without [his shades]” oh well now THAT’S an interesting thought/observation.
holy shit that’s a cute fucking smile holy shit holy shit look at that grin AHHHH I’M DYING MY BOY IS SMILING.
“Not sure how well my deep, personal beef with the imagery of the sea will land for you, but there it is.” WELL THAT CERTAINLY MAKES THAT ONE LINE FROM HOMESTUCK 2 A LOT MORE EMOTIONAL, WHICH IT ALREADY DEFINITELY FUCKING WAS.
“Ace Attorney monologue” OMFG HAS DIRK PLAYED AA??? WHO’S HIS FAVORITE CHARACTER? WHAT’S HIS FAVORITE GAME?? i mean he’s definitely got the hair to be a fucking ace attorney character especially in pesterquest lmao
OH MY FUCKING GOD IS HE HOLDING BACK A LAUGH. IS THAT WHAT THAT MOUTH IS. HOLY SHIT. HOLY FUCKING SHIT. I LOVE HIM. I LOVE THIS ALKJADSFLADHADS
“He’s leaning forward, laughing, dimples carved into his freckled cheeks. There’s a small twist in your heart about it, and you can’t place why.” A *SMALL* TWIST? A SMALL TWIST? TRY A TWIST THAT’S WRENCHING MY HEART WIDE FUCKING OPEN AND SPILLING ITS CONTENTS ALL OVER THE FUCKING PLACE.
“At least make me try and earn it first.” THAT’S THE MOST DIRK THING I’VE EVER HEARD AND ALSO FUCKING HEARTBREAKING WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK.
“I can just fold [my hand] and hope your shit works out instead.” Ah yes, dirk’s incessant and almost pathological need to be in control at work again.
“I want to be the only one in charge of endangering my own life. You got me.” oh dirk. oh honey.
“How much has this boy wanted to be known?” oh okay yeah that’s fine i didn’t need my heart anyway pesterquest, you can have it.
oh. hi ultimate dirk. i fucking knew this was gonna fucking happen.
“i can’t believe i was ever this pathetic” LEAVE HIM ALONE. (but also i know you can’t because you fucking hate yourself and it’s fucking tragic)
OH. OH OKAY WE’RE NOT JUST GONNA BE FUCKING NARRATIVE WE’RE GONNA BRING THE ACTUAL FUCKING DUDE HERE.
AND WE’RE GONNA PLAY AN OMINOUS-ASS VERSION OF "BEATDOWN” HOLY SHIT. CHRIST CAN WE GET ANY MORE HEAVY HANDED HERE????
also holy shitting christ ultimate dirk is swole. ‘twink ass bitch’ my ass, he’s at least a twunk.
“You fuck off and let people live their arcs.” NO FUCKING WAY, NOT IF HIS IS GOING TO END UP AS YOU, DICKHEAD.
“Oh fuck.
You remember it.
You remember Homestuck.”
well, probably not all of it, it’s pretty goddamn long, and very hard to remember all the details. i should know, i’m currently re-reading it.
oh no.
oh no, this looks like regular dirk but ominous “beatdown” is playing which makes me very fucking nervous.
“You cared about him before you knew every tiny fucked up detail about his life, and now, with a reminder of where his story leads leaning smugly against the railing, you find you still do.” YOU BET YOUR FUCKING ASS I DO!!!! HOLY SHIT!!!!!!
“He’s intense and pushy and profoundly complicated, and right now he is helping you to your feet, his hand steady and firm on your back as you find your balance.” I’M CRYING.
“This isn’t as simple as an evil Dirk and a good one. If you’ve learned anything from your travels it’s that everyone has the capacity for hurt inside them, and everyone the capacity for love.” I’M STILL CRYING.
“The combo of all splinters of Dirk, fermenting in his flesh container and not holding onto his shit nearly as well as he likes to pretend” an apt and succinct description of ultimate dirk.
“No, I can see it. If anyone was going to pull off an “I’m you, but stronger,” it would be all of me, combined.” DIRK I LOVE YOU SO MUCH.
“Your allegiance is not to the story, but to the people within it.” A-FUCKING-MEN MSPAR!!!
“The ends always justifies the means, Dirk.” I feel like that’s the breaking point there. IDK what’s going to happen next but that line sure was a line about philosophy, aka one of Dirk’s biggest special interests.
“[Ultimate Dirk] doesn’t have to work overtime to create more pain just so he can feel like he’s in control of how much punishment he gets and how badly he deserves it!”
oh.
oh wow.
oh WOW that’s hitting it on the fucking nose, MSPAR.
“He’s going to drown in [longing and loathing and Ultimate Dirk] if you don’t do something” STOP COMING BACK TO THAT GODDAMN LINE PESTERQUEST YOU’RE FUCKING KILLING ME HERE.
“You know how he loves -- though it’s fierce (to a definite fault), he does not do it easily.” STOP MURDERING MY HEART WITH PERFECT SNAPSHOTS OF DIRK AS A PERSON EVERY TWO SECONDS MSPAR I CAN’T HANDLE IT.
AHHHHHHHH IT’S DAVE!!! IT’S FUCKING. CANDY DAVE. I JUST. I CANNOT. HOLY FUCKING SHIT. HOLY SHIT!!!! HOLY SHIT!!!!
“you look like someone ironed the mayor so that’s a million more points in your favor” DAAAAAAVE!!!!
“Dave pulls him into a short, back-thumping bro hug which Dirk weathers like a wet cat not trusting a towel to dry him off.” AAAAAHHHHHHHH I’M FUCKING DYING I’M DYING I’M DYING HELP I’M DYING GOD HELP HOLY SHIT, FIRST OF ALL, THE SPRITE/ILLUSTRATION, SECOND OF ALL, THAT DESCRIPTION OF DIRK, THIRD OF ALL I’M FUCKING DYING
CANDY DAVE I LOVE YOU SO MUCH.
you deserve so much better than the raw hand the candy epilogue dealt you jfc.
“Bringing fucking guns to a knife fight here.” I mean, did you really expect MSPAR to play fair when the health and happiness of all their best friends is at stake, UD?
SAD ENDING IS SAD.
“Be good to that me, will you? Treat him right?”
dirk, this is yourself. you’ve never treated yourself right. ever. tbqh you probably never will. ultimate dirk is absolutely no different.
(but also this makes me wonder if we’re gonna see “Trust yourself” timeline Pesterquest Dirk showing up in Homestuck 2? That would be fucking wild I’d love to see that.)
“are we anti-ocean here”
“Oh yeah, extremely.”
YES, WE FUCKING ARE, AND AGAIN WITH THE REFERENCES TO HOMESTUCK 2 JESUS FUCKING CHRIST.
oh, of fucking course ultimate dirk’s a sore loser, he’s ultimate dirk, fucking duh.
“You did it. You got him a good end.” i fucking love that this game is literally just. explicitly saying exactly what i was freaking over and desperately wanted.
like i’m just gonna take a moment here to admit that i was really nervous that dirk would end up like candy timeline dirk and just off himself. i was really afraid that a good end just straight up wasn’t possible.
i love that it’s not. and i equally love that the game acknowledges that a FUCKTON of us really wanted to give him that.
“Maybe [Doc Scratch] and Ultimate Dirk were working together the whole time.” maybe doc scratch has been ultimate dirk this whole time. or vice versa.
“There are just so many details to remember” lmao i made that point like a dozen paragraphs up.
i.... do not recognize the text style of whoever just say “hey. we can talk about this.”
IT’S HUSSIE. HOLY SHIT. IT’S DEFINITELY 100% HUSSIE.
i....... don’t know who that is? the woman?
is this like. the person who’s been running pesterquest?
it totally is.
i don’t know who that is i don’t know enough about the homestuck machine to know who that actually is.
lmao ultimate dirk and the irl director are fighting over how incredibly self-indulgent this metanarrative is, which is fucking amazing. i kind of love this? i really kind of adore this.
i can’t help but notice that the director has blank white eyes.
i.e. the Author is already dead, yo.
“They’re just an artifact of the medium” HOLY FUCKING SHIT THIS IS FANTASTIC. I AM HAVING SO MUCH FUN HERE.
“I’d say thanks but I feel like you all got more out of it than me” I’M DYING I LOVE THIS HOLY FUCKING SHIT THIS IS SO FUCKING FUNNY.
“Stop flirting with my audience you anime ass motherfucker” LMAOOOOOOOO
“I wouldn’t look like this if you didn’t want me to” I KNOW I’M JUST QUOTING BASICALLY THIS WHOLE THING BUT LISTEN I LOVE IT, I FUCKING LOVE IT, IT’S FUCKING PERFECT, GOD. JESUS FUCKING CHRIST THIS IS SO GOOD.
“I actually let the artists have a lot of creative license” somebody’s horny for ultimate dirk.
eridan DESERVES that gender arc and i’m excited for him.
“Happy people don’t get stories told about them.” I’m sorry, I’ve read enough Domestic Fluff fanfic to tell you that’s just blatantly not true, Ultimate Dirk.
wait.
wait wait wait wait.
pesterquest is a RETCON???????????
THAT was not something i was expecting
you click “don’t” betray your friends and pesterquest just fucking closes like this is fucking undertale jesus fucking christ.
but....
i don’t wanna betray my friends.
but i wanna see what happens....
god dammit this is exactly like the murder run of undertale, i don’t wanna do it but i have to know.
“Andrew Hussie would never do this to me” yeah well, Andrew Hussie barely ever interacted with you soooooo...
and if i throw the beta in the sewer again pesterquest quits. again.
i mean, i knew it would but... *sigh*
that’s a fucking depressing ass ending.
... except that “Savior of the Waking World” still hasn’t been unlocked...
Huh.
I’m... gonna see what happens if I start John’s route over again.
oh duh, of course it’s a retcon, MSPAR touched the Homestuck juju. i forgot about that.
(a big part of me wants to look up the process of getting the true ending. but a bigger part of me wants to figure it out for myself.)
hmmm. okay so replaying john’s ending once didn’t do it.
i guess i coooooould try replaying the whole thing? that sounds. like a lot of effort.
or i could try not betraying my friends approximately five million times let’s see what happens if i do that.
i’m going to do that experimenting in another post cuz this is already huge. see ya in part two.
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lunamanar · 4 years
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Off-the-Cuff First-impressions Review: Trials of Mana
I got Seiken Densetsu 3/Trials of Mana in the mail today and am surprised by just how excited I am about it. After the admittedly predictable letdowns of the Secret of Mana “remake” and the FFVIII “remaster,” not to mention the iOS revision of the former, you’d think I’d be jaded at this point. 
But! FFVII remake is Actually Good, and so far it looks like Trials of Mana is, while certainly lower budget, also Actually Good. The voice acting is kinda meh, but not bad enough to detract from the game in my opinion, and considering they are working with SNES-era scripts (the dialogue is 99% word-for-word the same as the more recent translation of the original SD3 game, so it’s going to be a bit stilted anyway) it’s really not bad at all. 
Besides, the actual meat of the game--the world, character and monster design, and the gameplay--is extremely solid and I have had very little trouble acclimating to it. It’s fun to play, it feels good to run around and explore the world and the battles are both very simplistic in a way that is familiar to an old fart like me and very satisfying in the way they function. One of the biggest weaknesses the original game had was absolutely horrendous input lag in some areas due to 1. the sheer size of the loaded map section, such as Rolante/Laurant, 2. The number of on-screen instructions the SNES had to process during battles, particularly during fights where you had massive sprites taking up the entire screen (the awful awful wall-guardian “Genova” [harhar] is probably the single hardest boss in the game purely due to input lag/drops; when you attack an enemy, even assuming your weapon swings when you tell it to, and that’s a big ‘if,’ the monster you are attacking is actually in a state which is several frames ahead of whatever state it visually appears to be in on-screen, making it extremely difficult to time your attacks properly to both defend and do optimal damage to what should have been a relatively minor “miniboss” fight). Trials of Mana, on the other hand, has none of those problems, simply thanks to more modern technology. So far every fight I’ve engaged in has been smooth and responsive as well as very visually appealing.
And wow is this game pretty. It’s not the most amazing example of the best graphical advances in gaming history, to be sure, but I genuinely don’t think that matters, as it’s still beautifully detailed and really does look like they took the original graphics and magicked them into more modern models. The re-imaginings of each area and monster are very faithful to both the aesthetic and the layout of the original design while at the same creatively expanding on them; I've had no trouble finding my way around familiar maps or identifying the bestiary, but I have found a lot of added depth to them, such as the ability to jump down on rooftops and find hidden nooks that were just static backdrops or otherwise out of sight in the original. The areas are more layered and interactive, but very importantly, nothing is missing. Not even the dogs and cats, who still bark and meow at you if you talk to them. I feel like I’m being allowed to see and explore the original maps from angles I didn’t have access to in the past. It really makes the 16-year-old in me unbelievably happy, to be able to finally, actually see and do these things I could only wish for back then. For people who have never played it, it’s probably a very pretty, if otherwise unremarkable experience, but for me it’s the granting of a wish I’ve had for a long time, but never expected to happen. 
Similarly, I think a lot of people will look at the plot for this game and go, “...what?” Because it really doesn’t seem to have been changed at all from the SNES version, aside from a few little tweaks to the dialogue here and there to ease the transition between some sections or correct for differences in game mechanics (of which there are only a few; again, this is definitely a remake--it remains the same game with the same mechanics at its core). This can lead to some pretty awkward interactions between characters, and at times it seems pretty clear that the voice actors weren’t given a lot of direction about the context of their lines. It’s not a bad story, but it’s a very simply told one, and feels more like it’s targeting 12~16 year-olds (which it probably is, to be fair) who might not care so much about nitpicking the semantics of the plot and character motivations. Which is to say, most of the characters who are not main protagonists or villains are painfully cardboard-flat. They do what they do and say what they say because it advances the plot for them to do and say those things. Elliot falls for a “trick” that I’m pretty sure most 4-year-olds would see through. The Bad Guys are 1-dimensionally evil, wanting to either destroy or take over the world, with the possible exception of Lugar and Koren who have slightly more complicated “I’m your rival” reasons. That leaves the complexity up to the protagonists to shoulder, and while I haven’t played that far into the game yet, thus far is is beat-for-beat and shot-for-shot the same as the original, so I expect that character-building will be left largely up to the player to mentally write in, especially since the game features light/dark class-changes as a feature of its progression. (I do kiiiind of hope that your choice in class changes has a more material effect on the ending’s outcome, but I think that might be asking a bit too much from a remake of this sort.) But the somewhat archaic plot and character arcs are not surprising and for me don’t take away any of the game’s charm. Nikita is still the best, the shop owners still dance inexplicably, the fact you can play a werewolf is badass, rabites are still cute, Don Perignon is still kind of a jerk. I’m very nervous/excited to get Busukaboo and Flammie and hope they’ll be as much fun now as they were then. And the whole world is so damn pretty, I’m just glad to be there. 
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the music. I’m not sure how much of a hand Hiroki Kikuta actually had in this remake, but the synth-orchestral arrangements of his originals are excellent so far. They’re both accessible/adaptable to the game’s sudden scene transitions (”Nuclear Fusion” starts and ends just as cleanly) while being a richer version of the themes, keeping close to the original sound while making better use of all the instruments that the SNES just wasn’t capable of emulating well. It blends very well with the rest of the game and I hope that continues to be true. 
I do have nitpicks; while I know it’s a popular mechanic, I don’t like the “shift-lock” sort of dash using the left analog stick as both directional and a button. I think the camera controls are solid, but I do wish there wan a toggle-option to have the camera just follow over your shoulder wherever you run until you either run into a battle or turn it off. The character models don’t seem especially affected by anything except the most intense/pervasive lighting and sometimes feel oddly out of place, like I’m watching one of those old movies where an animated character comes into the Real World. Some of the monster designs seem cute-ified more than I’d like. And I can’t help but think that if the game can be this nice as a third-tier title for SE, what could it have been if they’d but the resources behind it that they obviously did with FF7? I understand why they didn’t, but it’s hard not to wonder what it could have been if they had.  Seiken Densetsu is one of the most fraught series in the history of home video games and the fact that it’s even still around is something of a miracle, in my opinion. After the last...four?...titles following Legend of Mana, and the disappointment that was SD2′s (second!) remake, I really didn’t go into Trials of Mana with high hopes. I have been really, honestly pleasantly surprised. Even if you’re a diehard old-schooler who really doesn’t like modern JRPGs, if you have any nostalgia left for this series, you should give this one a go. I think it translated really well to 3D models, and what little it loses in the switch, it makes up for in playability. It’s not hard to pick up, it’s easy on the eyes and ears, it’s less grind-y than the original, and it doesn’t try to be more than what it is. I’ll probably always prefer the original, of course; there are too many memories attached to it for me, too many things that were groundbreaking at the time that are now old news or completely obsolete nowadays, and the new game certainly doesn’t push any modern boundaries. But it’s worth checking out, and especially if you’ve spent 20 years feeling let down by the Mana series, this might actually be the game you were hoping for, albeit maybe a decade late. 
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daleisgreat · 4 years
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25 Years of Sega Saturn & Virtual Boy - Flashback Special!
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After the deluge of wrestling-themed entries for WrestleMania month this past 30 days, I have been pining to do another videogame anniversary special. Looking up which platforms have major milestone anniversaries this year, I noted six that stuck out. Four of the platforms (NES, Xbox 360, PSone, PS2) I have an extensive history with and they will get their own respective flashback treatment from me when their anniversaries draw nearer later this year. The other two platforms have all had lackluster or outright abysmal degrees of retail success and both I have only had limited histories with and never played on a consistent basis. Nevertheless, the time I did have with them I considered unique and I do have some fond memories of my experiences with each platform. So let us get on with this flashback special as I celebrate the 25th anniversaries of two consoles that each hit in 1995: Sega’s Saturn and Nintendo’s Virtual Boy.
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I want to begin with the platform I have played the least of these two, the Saturn. Yes, I played my Virtual Boy and its daunting 14 game library more than the Saturn. In 1995 I was still lagging a generation behind on the latest consoles. All my family had was an NES at this point and I recently got a GameBoy for Christmas of 1993 so in 1995 I was getting a lot of mileage out of my GameBoy and my parents were still hitting up garage sales for bargain price NES game for me. By the time the Saturn and PSone hit in mid-1995, I was a year away from getting a SNES which I desired more so the Saturn and PSone were not even close to making my wish list. I read about them looming in magazines like Game Players and Electronic Gaming Monthly, but truth be told I was not all that excited for the future of disc-based platforms and the advent of polygonal graphics that were about to come into fruition with 32-bit consoles. As a naïve 12-year old, the first major 3D polygonal games that hit on SNES and Genesis in the early 90s like Star Fox and Virtua Racer looked butt-ugly to me, and from trying out demo kiosks of PSone and Saturn at stores the impatient kid I was back then was furious at this newfound ‘feature’ of the latest systems having loading times. Combine that with my family having no desire to chunk down several hundred dollars for another gaming system and I was left with no cravings for the Saturn and PSone when they both hit in 1995. I had no clue of Sega’s surprise Saturn launch announced at the first E3 in May of 1995. For the unfamiliar, it was when going into that E3 it was known that both the Saturn and PSone were slated to launch within days of each other in September of 1995, but at Sega’s press conference they said right then and there the Saturn is out right now at a handful of select retailers. In 1995 the Internet was only around for a few years and not even the slightest bit ubiquitous. Computers were still a couple years away from coming down to more reasonable family friendly prices, so at this time I got all my gaming news from my monthly subscription to Game Players.
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Here is the podcast special on the Saturn I originally recorded way back in 2008. Check it out if you want to know even more about the history of the Saturn and its games. I wound up largely ignoring both the Saturn and PSone for the first few years they were out, maybe occasionally trying out an occasional store kiosk demo and that was about it. I remember the magazines at the time putting a lot of hype into Sega’s arcade ports, and console exclusives like Panzer Dragoon getting cover stories of having mind-shattering graphics, but I was not buying it at the time and stubbornly remained loyal to my 2D sprites. For the Saturn, I finally got my first real experience with it in April of 1997. I remember shortly before this time the Saturn was being pushed aggressively on TV with a special 1996 holiday bundle packaging it with Daytona USA, Virtua Fighter 2 and Virtua Cop for $199. I had no idea at the time why this ridiculous deal happened was because Sega was getting killed in sales at this point in the PSone/Saturn/N64 era and they were desperately trying to play catch-up with a hell of a value considering several months earlier in 1996 it was clinging onto its dooming launch price of $399.
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Flash forward a few months later in April of 1997 and my hometown got hit with a huge flood that forced a mandatory evacuation of the entire town for a couple weeks until the waters receded. For a couple days our family stayed at a nearby air base hangar. I believe we were planning on hunkering down there for several days until a couple days in my uncle from St. Paul surprised us and showed up and ‘volunteered’ on taking us in and refused to leave without us coming with him. My siblings and I were delighted to get out of the crowded hangar and spend time with our cousins for what ended up being a week before we were able to get back home. My cousin Royce, who was within a year of my age at the time wound up getting that Saturn three game bundle for Christmas a few months earlier and we played those three games along with the demo disc that came with the system almost every day. We must have played through Virtua Cop at least a few times, and I remember finding it a big step up from previous light gun games I was accustomed to. Daytona USA at the time did not really click with me, and while I was impressed with the graphics at the time I did not come around to checkpoint-racing games yet and was more turned off by their enforced time limits back then. On the demo disc our family got a lot of fun competing against each other in the home run derby mode available in World Series Baseball. The standout game of the pack was easily Virtua Fighter 2. It blew me away and for me it was the first game that proved not only for fighting games, but for games all together that 3D polygonal graphics and gameplay could be viable and damn fun. I knew I was a couple years late to the party by this point, but by 1997 polygonal graphics were no longer the crude, non-textured blocks and rectangles on the SNES and Genesis, but actually had some depth and style to them. I loved Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat at this point, but Virtua Fighter 2 proved to me that 3D fighters could coexist with 2D ones.
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That week with my cousin was my proper introduction to the 32/64-bit era. It would be over a decade though before I got more serious hand-on time with the Saturn. Not many friends of mine had the Saturn back home, or if they did we rarely busted it out. My friend and former podcast co-host, Matt has a mammoth collection, and I only recall us turning to the system once or twice all these years to play the charming platformer SCUD. Another friend and podcast co-host of mine, Chris also has a Saturn in his equally mammoth game collection, and until 2008 I only recall us powering it on a couple of times to play the fun co-op action platformer, Three Dirty Dwarves, which had a nonsensical, grungy vibe to its destruction. In 2008, we were a couple years into doing our videogame podcast and we loved doing console retrospectives, so we decided it was time to do one on the Saturn. I just uploaded it to YouTube and integrated it into this article for your listening pleasure! Chris knew about my limited Saturn hands-on time at this point so we decided to spend literally a whole afternoon, about four to five hours of ‘research’ playing a good chunk of his Saturn collection. About 10-15 minutes for each game for a quick refresher for what each game brought to the table. There was one though we played for about two hours straight. That was the rare Panzer Dragoon Saga Chris had a copy of. I knew about it being a collectible at this point and heard the acclaim for it being an ahead of its time RPG and professed to Chris to hope to spend a little more time with it to see what the hype was all about. I remember digging its rail-shooter action the first two games established while simultaneously mixing in RPG style mechanics and exploration. I think we both got wrapped up in it, and stuck with it a bit longer than anticipated. Suffice it to say, those opening hours stood out to me all these years later and I can see why Panzer Dragoon Saga became a hot commodity.
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Jeremy Parish did an excellent line of videos with deep dives on every individual Virtual Boy game released, including Japanese exclusives. Here is his take on the Wario's exclusive Virtual Boy game as of yet to be re-released, Wario Land. In my TurboGrafX-16 flashback, I wrote about how I procured the system at a gaming community meet-up event. At that same event there were several gaming systems hooked up for play throughout the night, and one of them was the Saturn. One of the highlights of that night was someone bringing enough multi-taps and controllers that we were able to get plenty of rounds of eight player Saturn Bomberman in. I am a fan of classic multiplayer Bomberman, but never played more than four players before, and was surprised to see the Saturn pull off an eight player version with a micro-sized map and characters in order to fit everyone on screen. It was a Bomberman experience that nothing will likely ever stack up to. I dug up a photo from the event of all of us gathered around the TV so you call can see the tech in action!
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Sadly, I never got anymore hands on time with the Saturn after this. It is one of the few major consoles that I do not own. For years I remember seeing the system for sale at our local retro games shop for around $30, but I always hesitated on it. The games I enjoyed on there Sega released better sequels on other systems, and I later got to check out some of its top ranked games like the Capcom fighting games, Guardian Heroes, Nights Into Dreams... and acclaimed shmups like Radiant Silvergun on enhanced re-releases on the Xbox 360 and PS3. There remains games exclusive to the Saturn that I always wanted to try like Die Hard Arcade, World Series Baseball ‘98, Fighters MegaMix, Burning Rangers and Shining Force III, but with retro game prices continuously going up, the time to start a Saturn collection has come and gone in my book unless I happen to stumble upon a steal of a deal. I do have one Saturn game in my collection however, and I will give props to Matt once again who gifted me his extra copy of Bug!. While Sega pulled the plug early in America on the Saturn, it comparatively fared much better than Nintendo with the Virtual Boy. It launched in America in August of 1995, and sold so poor right out of the gate that Nintendo could not have abandoned the platform any faster. Its last game, 3D Tetris, hit North America in March of 1996, only seven months after it launched and with a total of a meager 14 games officially releasing stateside. I remember seeing the hype leading up to the Virtual Boy’s launch in the magazines, and like with the initial wave of polygonal graphics, I was not sold on the concept of virtual reality. However, a couple months after that same flood hit in 1997 our local Wal-Mart had unsold Virtual Boy inventory it was desperate to get rid of by selling the system itself for $20, and games for $5 each. This was one of the first times as a kid I recall my dad abstaining from his garage sales-only videogame rule and realized the steal the system was going for. We walked out of that Wal-Mart with the system and the copy of Mario’s Tennis it came bundled with, along with copies of Golf, Mario Clash and Nester’s Funky Bowling.
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I was in the midst of spending summers on a farm at this point in my childhood for several years, and that was the summer of Virtual Boy with my siblings. I played the crap out of all four of those games. I abided by the recommended break alerts that popped up every 15-30 minutes seriously because I recall the gaming mags at the time reporting on the Virtual Boy causing eye strain after consistent use. Even with all that heavy duty play of the Virtual Boy that summer, somehow I am the only one in my family that does not have glasses. All four games we had were solid, but not mind blowing. Mario Clash I thought was a nice, fully-featured take on the classic original Mario Bros. arcade game that fleshed out that style of gameplay with about 100 stages and got so difficult early on I did not come close to finishing it. Golf was a good simulation of the sport, but it only had one course so I did not revisit it that often. I remember enjoying Mario’s Tennis a lot, but this being the debut version of that game it was more of a tennis sim with Mario characters, and had less of the wacky mini-games and power-up attacks associated with the franchise today. My siblings and I played a ton of competitive Nester’s Funky Bowling. There was not anything that funky about it other than the occasional cheerful animation from Nester and his twin sister Hester whenever you scored a strike or spare, but it was a functional enough bowling game that we had plenty of fierce rounds of over that summer. After that summer we and I got our fill of those four games and the Virtual Boy found itself in the closet for many years. Eventually I randomly dug it out and found the tripod busted, and the pack that hooked up to the back of the controller that contained the plug-in for the AC adaptor was missing. With no means of powering on the Virtual Boy, it sat in a bag forgotten in my closet for well over a decade. I will thank one Jeremy Parish for renewing my interest in Virtual Boy with his excellent line of Virtual Boy Works videos. For those that are unfamiliar with him, Parish is one of most credible members of the retro gaming press, with him hosting the renowned retro-game podcast, Retronauts since 2006 and going on to write countless books and producing chronological video series on nearly every 20th century Nintendo platform. He averages one video a week, which usually highlights one or two games and does a deep dive into its development history and then proceeds to review the game. A few years in he has already covered almost all the games released from the first years of the SNES and the first two years of NES and GameBoy.
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Throughout 2019 Parish took a detour from those three systems to focus on going through the entire VirtualBoy library, including its several Japanese exclusives. His surprise love for the platform shined through his thorough coverage for each game. It is a well-produced series and fantastic history lesson for this blink-and-miss-it platform that I highly recommend checking out by click or pressing here, especially now to learn about the first major attempt at a virtual reality platform with VR now having a modicum of success with the PlayStation VR and the Oculus Rift having made legit waves these past few years. Virtual Boy Works inspired me to track down a few more Virtual Boy games to my collection which were surprisingly going for not that much on eBay. I wound up getting Galactic Pinball, TeleroBoxer, Virtual League Baseball, Vertical Force and Wario Land. I also tracked down a replacement AC Adaptor hub and tripod stand which resulted in my Virtual Boy powering on once again! I tested out all these games briefly. I love me some videogame pinball, and Galactic Pinball has some nifty 3D tricks up its sleeve. TeleroBoxer is like Punch-Out meets Rock ‘em Sock ‘em Robots or Real Steel for the younger readers who need a more contemporary reference. Vertical Force is a competent shmup, and I wish I put more than a few minutes into Wario Land because it is a legit top notch platformer and went down as one of the few highly rated games on the system. I swear to one day make it through Wario Land! Thank you for joining me on this two part 25th anniversary special for the Saturn and Virtual Boy! Got a favorite Virtual Boy or Saturn memory of your own? I would like to hear how it compares to my tale so shoot me a line on Twitter over @Gruel. If you enjoyed this journal-style flashback special, than I encourage you to check out the links below to the specials I wrote for the Dreamcast, GameBoy, Genesis, TurboGrafX-16 and yes, even the 32-X. Thank you all once again for indulging me!
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My Other Gaming Flashbacks Dreamcast 20th Anniversary GameBoy 30th Anniversary Genesis 30th Anniversary TurboGrafX-16 30th Anniversary and 32-X 25th Anniversary
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thoughts on ace attorney: dual destinies
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wow, surprisingly it’s only been two months and we’ve already blazed through another game (faster than last time!!). i went into this one expecting the worst, but it turned out very differently. more about that under the cut: 
-everybody said this game was going to be bad. like....really really bad, but nearly everything that i’ve seen criticized exceeded my expectations, for once. i was super impressed with this game, i think it’s easily one of my top favorites now
-the graphics are one of the aforementioned criticisms, and honestly....it’s not so bad?? like at all? like, i’m a sucker for the classic pixel sprites, and i’ll stick by my preference for them, but regardless? the 3d models are nice. i like that they’re stylized to look like fully-rendered drawings, with the shading already painted on and cartoon lines. plus, the animations are so expressive!
-i really miss being able to investigate every area!! i suppose it would have been a bit excessive to have to make every single room rotatable, but part of the charm of ace attorney games is getting to point and click EVERYTHING you can find
-the music was alright. some of it was charming, some was just okay. i think aura’s theme was my favorite, though
-this game had a significant amount of filler, but overall felt both necessary for establishing characters, relationships and setting up the main storyline. the fillers were extremely fun--my favorite was turnabout academy but every case had a cast of lovable characters you just get attached to
-story progression-wise......even though there was setup in the fillers, it basically did what aai did in terms of every other case being a flashback and leading up to the present case (which were the first and last two cases). i’m personally not a fan of setting up the story this way, i kind of wish we could have more linear cases with a few flashbacks but it’s not a huge problem. just me being picky
-I MISS YOU, BOBBY FULBRIGHT. I’LL NEVER FORGET YOU YOU FUNKY LITTLE DETECTIVE
-smiles mcgoo
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-capcom spoiled us so much with lesbians in this game, like it wasn’t even subtle: juniper and athena, juniper and robin, trucy and jinxie, aura and metis......sasha too
-but speaking of things that aren’t subtle, another thing i love about this game is that it’s more obvious/up front about mental illness and neurodivergency! athena’s (at least, in my eyes) very meant-to-be autism symptoms aren’t addressed by any particular name, but we have schizophrenia and anxiety addressed by name here, as well as acknowledging the character’s deep traumas. it’s really, really great. we got a little taste of this sort of thing back in the first two aa games, but they weren’t afraid to say things here, and i’m glad for it
-i am seriously tired of the trucy’s panties joke, also can we please just ditch this gag??? i’m begging you it’s not funny or appropriate
-i’m also upset that trucy wasn’t given more lawyering time in this game!! like, it makes sense story-wise, since the entire reason she couldn’t always be present/shut down and had flashbacks mid-trial was because of her trauma and fear of courtrooms as a result, but......it’s sad that in a game mainly about her we still have to have phoenix take the spotlight. i like you a lot phoenix but like, we can have someone else be the star now
-aura and metis’s story broke my heart....not just because i’m a lesbian, but hearing how much aura cried over her death made me feel something in the pits of my heart and. ow
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-i wish clay’s history with apollo, or just his story was fleshed out just a little bit more. i have nothing against the character, but compared to metis’s death, and the rest of 5-4 and 5-5 it felt like small potatoes in comparison. i don’t feel like we got enough time to get attached to this character enough to care about him
-the phantom/”bobby” had one of the most awesome breakdowns in the entire series. i was a bit miffed because i had this part of the game spoiled a long time ago (which is my fault for not using a blacklist, though), but the payoff was still worth it
anyways....that’s all, i think. i hope you enjoyed the latest wacky attorney adventure, and that you’ll tune in very very soon for my next playthrough!
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veestormcourage · 5 years
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I’ve finally gotten around to the Ace Attorney anime
And boy am I disappointed so far!
Not sure I need spoiler breaks for an anime that’s already been out for a few years and a game that’s been out for over a decade in the states and more than fifteen years in Japan, but I’ll still pretend no one knows about the sled, so to speak.
FIRST POINT: Animation
Seriously, the animation is shit.  I’m having flashbacks to Sailor Moon Crystal.  I didn’t take a million screen caps of it like I did for Crystal, but type the following into Google and take a look: ace attorney anime bad animation.  When Phoenix bows to Grossberg, his hands did the same thing Jadite’s did, and in the very beginning when he’s apologizing to Mia for being late, again, the hands.  His hair spikes are constantly changing size, the 3D is egregiously terrible when they pan the courtroom in the first episode (not so bad when they don’t pan the model), and the gallery in the second trial (ep. 2-5) could have been made with better models back in the original game’s launch year...of the Japanese version!!!  The use of effects only in the trial of ep. 1 just highlights further what a dumb idea it was (albeit one sort of taken from the live action movie), while the whole magic screens coming from the paneling thing seems just plain dumb given at this point the setting of the games has turned around and become “present day” instead of “fifteen years into the future.” Inconsistencies with things like Mia’s boobs and Phoenix’s hair spikes aside, the actual models they came up with...are pretty terrible, actually.  Phoenix’s forehead is just plain wrong, Gumshoe’s head is all...something...Mia looks like she has an animation error instead of a mole, the whole makeup thing when Maya channeling is idiotic and kind of sexist when taken in context with the credits animation, Mia wears slight heels and is only 8 cm/3 in. shorter than Phoenix in the first place yet she’s way shorter standing next to him in court -- for that matter, Maya is 22 cm/8 in. shorter than Phoenix, yet she only seems to come to his collar.  This tends to be true in all the official art that she’s absolutely diminutive, but it’s always irritated me there as well, so I’ll just grouse about that one on the entire franchise.
On pan outs, the judge is literally a tan ball with a beard.  Contemplate that quality kwality for a second.
SECOND POINT: Sound
The use of music from the games is a lot more understated than I was expecting, which is a crying shame because the franchise’s music is beloved by fans, and has been acclaimed repeatedly for years.  When I did hear the motifs from the games, I started to feel a shred of hope for the anime.  The opening is just fluffy nonsense, generic OP stuff that will be forgotten immediately and probably skipped if VRV will stop being a pain in the ass every time I jump around. I like that VRV gives me the option of dubbed or subbed.  I also appreciate that if I go to Crunchyroll itself instead of its VRV channel, I can choose the English or Japanese names on the sub track.  I wish that option was on VRV as well, just because I find it interesting, but meh. I don’t hate the credits song, but I’m not...happy with aspects of the animation on it.  But that’s for character reasons, not technical ones.
THIRD POINT: Voicing
I’ve watched both the dub and the sub, and I have to say, I like the fan VAs better from the years of fan-dubbing of the games.  Slightly British Edgeworth and scratchy Phoenix Wright are better than either official VA.  That said, I like Japanese Wright and Maya better than English, and I was so disappointed when I heard Edgeworth’s lack of posh accent that I went immediately back to subtitles, which is a shame because this is the kind of franchise where I might have actually gone with the dub.  And yet, that shrieky “WHAT” to open Ep. 4 in English...yeah, that lost me.  Sorry, US English Maya.
FOURTH POINT: Subtitles
Just gonna say, just because they kept the English names for one of the subtitle tracks doesn’t mean they had to keep all of the localization aspects.  Hearing Maya say “miso ramen, RA~MEN!” and seeing “burgers” gets weird.  To be fair, this was similar to the dissonance I had to wrap my head around when Digimon Adventure Tri came out.
SIXTH POINT: Compression
Actually, no complaints.  I think they’ve done well with what to cut and what to keep, and using the time they have to make the characters feel as over the top as they were in the games, so far.  Little sad the cute moment where Phoenix carries Maya to the couch was lost, though.
FINAL POINT: Characterization
This section is mostly gonna be about Maya, but I’ll knock a couple other things out of the way, first.  One is that Mia sounds a lot more...motherly, than I was expecting.  Another is that it seems weird Maya heard Mia in Ep. 4 when that’s...not a thing.  At all.  The judge seems less like a doof so far, and Edgeworth’s pompous ass has yet to seem quite as pompous as it should.  Gumshoe seems even less competent than usual, though, given his weird posing when entering the scene.
Maya got to point things out during the case and show signs of intelligence, which is nice, because half the fandom has her as Phoenix’s cool sis or something akin and recognizes her common sense wisdom and the other half has Crya the burger monster.  In the games, Maya gets Phoenix to actually pay her share way less than in fanon.  Her sprites present someone who’s a lot more solid and steady than the promo art does, which I’ve never been able to wrap my head around.  I’d finish a game, unlock that final CG, and be like “wait, what?”
So then this anime comes out, and I hear her voiced, and I go, “Wait, so she is the high-pitched adorable mascot?” I’ve never understood the universal need for them in every single anime and take great joy in subversions like Kyubey and the “Fairy” guy in Mahou Shoujo Ore.  It’s not that I don’t like them when done well, it’s just, if the series isn’t fantasy, they seem to squish a female into the role.  “Mayushii-de~su.”  Like that.  So hearing Maya done like that...ew.  Just, ew.  It also makes her seem much, MUCH younger than 17.  I moved out on my own when I was 18 and hadn’t come to terms with my gender, but I wasn’t sitting there with makeup to try to be more “adult,” either.  I think most girls go through that, sure, but it’s more of a middle school thing.  Even I did, and if 13 year old me (who wore makeup every day) was told “I have a magic ray that will make you a boy” I would have thrown my compact away and asked “Can you make it look like an accident?  My parents are Fundamentalists.”  And maybe I’m wrong for bringing my experiences into this, but then again, I’m not trying to give a professional critique, but my personal review, and in the end, that boils down to what I like and don’t like, which, meh, what can I say, I’m an innately selfish creature and myself doesn’t like seeing girls pressured to use makeup to be “grownups.” Sailor Moon always did that, too, and that’s one of my all-time favorites but LORD I hate that aspect, and hate that it’s persisted across adaptations for decades.  I hate that Maya’s new look in SoJ has lip gloss, too.  Like, “Hey, we back-stepped on all the growth at the end of AA3, so how can we show she’s matured?”  “I know!  Lip gloss!”  “Perfect, give that guy a raise!”
CONCLUSION: I’m gonna go over to AO3 and read “Archeology” again because it’s the Ace Attorney characterization we all really deserved and probably still come back and watch the entire series, but I’m gonna pray really hard it improves as it goes.  Maybe it got some actual money for the sequel seasions.
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aftermathdb · 5 years
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DEATH BATTLE Review: Dragonzord vs. Mechagodzilla
Robotic Kaiju fight to see who is the true king of them all!
Power Rangers get a third round to see if they can’t net a win. This is the third 3D battle of the season too.
Oh, preemptively: Some of the screenshots might not be that great-looking. I had to use Photobox to get these on here.
Dragonzord′s Preview.
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We all know the Power Rangers. Five teenagers that banded together to fight the evil Rita Repulsa and her army of monsters. Things were going pretty well for them, until Rita hatched a plan. She would create her own Ranger with their own powers and their own zord.
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Enter: The Dragonzord. A powerful mech that can go toe-to-toe with the Megazord, and has a large plethora of powers.
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The hosts go over these powers and note that despite this large arsenal, the Dragonzord is more of a CQC mech than a long-range one.
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The Dragonzord’s pilot is Tommy Oliver. A martial arts expert who was so dedicated to Ranger work, that he wore the tights for a long time, and even mentored other rangers. Fun fact: His actor’s birthday is on the day that the episode airs for Youtube.
Tommy controls and summons the Dragonzord with a dagger that he plays as a flute, which leads into this segment:
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This goes about as well as you’d expect, and…
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I just want to say that Boomstick’s expression there is hilarious, and should become a shirt.
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I enjoy this pun unironically.
Anyways, the Dragonzord made short work of Rita’s monsters, and has even fought against the Megazord, which has a power output of over 50k megavolts.
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Also worth remembering is that the Megazord once pulled off a feat of 90 Million Newtons
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(I don’t know about you, but the whole “As determined in…” parts are really nice callbacks).
So the Dragonzord is in the same ballpark.
Now, the Dragonzord can reach escape velocity. This means that it can move at speeds over Mach 30.
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And for the era it was a part of, the Dragonzord is arguably the most durable.
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It once survived a blow worth 356.67 Tons of TNT. And shoutout to the guy who made that set piece knowing that it would be destroyed. That’s some quality work.
And what’s a rundown without feats?
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The Dragonzord has defeated the technically superior White Tigerzord, and survived a fight with the Thunder Megazord.
And it certainly stands a chance with it’s own fusion of the Mega Thunderzord… Or Dragonzord Fighting Mode… Or Battle Mode- They establish that he never really settled on a name.
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But while Tommy has lost his powers in the past, he has still fought the good fight. Even regaining his powers along the way.
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And with the powers returned, perhaps one day, so will the Dragonzord.
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Mechagodzilla′s Preview.
We all know Godzilla. The rampaging monster that decimated Japan.
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And I’m sure we all know the famous story of how he was defeated. By Dr. Serizawa’s (in)famous Oxygen Destroyer, a weapon so powerful, he destroyed himself with it to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands.
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And while Japan was subject to many giant monster attacks over the years, their special task force would handle it neatly… Until a new Godzilla showed up and started wrecking them all over again.
Without the Oxygen Destroyer, the defense squad needed a new way to fight  back. So they gathered their top scientists in robotics, microwaves, low-temperature physics, and… Cyber-Necromancy to create their own monster.
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Enter: Mechagodzilla.
While it’s not the first one of it’s kind (As Wiz notes), it’s certainly the most unique.
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So much so, that it was given it’s own designated codename of Kiryu. A combination of Machine and Dragon. Though, Boomstick opts to just call it Mechagodzilla.
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Kiryu is equipped with a wide assortment of weapons. From rockets, to maser cannons, to grappling wires, to spinning claws, a hidden blade, and most famously: The Absolute Zero Cannon. This makes it far better suited to long-range attacks. Making Kiryu a zoner.
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The Absolute Zero Cannon robs it’s target of all of it’s energy at once. Meaning that whatever it hits shatters at the atomic level.
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Kiryu is also built around the skeletal remains of the OG Godzilla, giving him all the size and strength as the King of the Monsters. It even uses cyber-DNA to give it an edge up, allowing Kiryu to preform some rudimentary actions like a simple AI. exactly like Wiz’s own Cyber-Goos3 (Spelling citationn: The commentary. There were some difficulties getting the screenshots to work, so time was needed).
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(Whether or not this is the same goose from the Terry Board Preview is unknown).
Much like the Dragonzord, Kiryu is piloted by Akane Yashiro. A hardened warrior of the Anti-Megalosaurus Force.
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According to the hosts, she’s your typical antisocial anime protagonist. Cutting herself off from other people because she has no family left, and got her squad killed on accident. Because I guess that wasn’t an overused trope back then.
Akane pilots Kiryu from a nearby jet plane. The AC-3 White Heron can fly at a speed of 930 km/hr. Together, these two have a perfect track record against Godzilla.
But, as Boomstick warns, Plot twist: Akane isn’t the only pilot for Kiryu. As it turns out, the original Godzilla is also there in spirit… Literally. Godzilla can wrestle control away from Akane, making it a rampaging monster again.
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Though, it’s strongly implied that the two have reached an understanding. Which is a good thing. Because the giant mech has some impressive feats. Like tossing a second Godzilla that clocks in at about 25000 metric tons.
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Kiryu was even fast enough to dodge the Atomic Breath, which moves at a speed of Mach 2.5.
Speaking of speed, the mech once flew an extremely large distance in a manner of minutes.
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Regardless of who is behind the wheel, Kiryu is a powerhouse. No monster has ever fought a battle against it and lived to tell the tale.
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The Battle Itself.
Animator (and some of their previous works), Tommy Oliver will be voiced by Nicholas Andrew Louie and Akane Yashiro will be voiced by Hitomi Farrell.  sprite artists, Draconic Robotics by Therewolf. Kristina lead on animation, and Chris Kokkinos on audio.
So the fight is similar to Weiss vs. Mitsuru in the sense that there’s no lead-up to the fight. The fight animation just dumps us in the middle of the battle as it’s going on.
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Tommy uses his skills to knock Kiryu down, so Akane gives some motivation.
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(For the record, these are subtitles provided by the animation. Not mine).
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So Tommy knocks down Kiryu and starts kicking him while he’s down. So Kiryu responds by using that hidden blade from earlier to get Dragonzord off of him.
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Akane ensures that all systems are go, and opts to play smart.
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Like, let’s take a moment to appreciate this animation. It’s awesome. This is stuff that they could only dream of doing, and now, it’s a reality.
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Kiryu gets some distance in, and then goes for a missile barrage. Dragonzord responds by using the head fin to blast them.
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However, the jet booster does manage a hit, and it knocks Tommy down.
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Tommy isn’t going to let some monster blast him with an attack that has a charge though, and retaliates.
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I kinda wish I could make gifsets of these, because they are awesome bits of animation that should be seen to be believed. But, that would take away from the suspense, and I’d rather people go watch the video proper than plagiarize viewership from my review. Plus, I wouldn’t be able to have sound on the gifs anyways. And the music is friggin’ awesome.
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Akane comes in to provide covering fire.
Tommy retaliates by bringing her down.
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Now, if it weren’t for the fact that Godzilla could take over, Kiryu would be done for. So the battle rages on.
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The fight remains close-quarters as both sides make impressive blows and make great counters to one another.
As an example, Mechagodzilla grapples the Dragonzord in his mouth, and starts running and pummeling him.
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Can I just say that the Run-and-Pummel is one of my favorite things to see in an action scene? It’s just really cool to see a character carrying their opponent, and either hitting them or ramming them through walls. It’s just so cool.
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Tommy then pulls the same trick he did (will do?) from Tigerzord vs. Epyon, and calls the other zords to help him out. If they look familiar, that’s because they’re the same model from Megazord vs. Voltron.
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(I won’t be showcasing any screennshots of the combining sequence, because that’s something that must be seen with one’s own eyes).
With Fighting Mode ready, Tommy is ready for round two.
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The two do battle, and go at each other. It’s a very close bout, and even over time, it’s hard to tell who has the advantage. Though, given that it’s close-quarters, the Dragonzord has an edge up.
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Tommy gets ready for his own finishing blow, so… y’know.
Finishing blow in
5…
4…
3…
2…
1…
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Verdict + Explanation.
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So, right off the bat, Tommy had the experience advantage in the bag. Given how long he’s been at the job, that was a given. But experience wasn’t enough to win the day.
In comparison, Kiryu held the advantage in weight, and had more impressive strength.
Take the best feats that both have shown, well, scaled to in Dragonzord’s case.
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In direct comparison, the Megazord’s best strength feat isn’t even half as good as Kiryu’s best feat. Meaning that Dragonzord’s best feat is also not as good. It also doesn’t help that Kiryu was also good at fighting at a distance thanks to the wider arsenal of tools he had at his disposal.
They go on to explain that while it’s hard to find the Fighting Mode’s largest output, it’s in the ballpark of the Thunder Megazord and Rita, the latter of whom destroyed an island.
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By the size of it, it clocks in at about 2.62 Gigatons of TNT. But still not as good as Kiryu’s best feats.
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The Absolute Zero Cannon destroyed the Prince Hotel New Tower building, as well as a few others surrounding it. Using the real-life measurements of the building, this means that the Absolute Zero Cannon’s power output is nearly 130 Teratons of TNT. And since Kiryu was at the center of a blast like that, it’s pretty obvious that he has the durability over Dragonzord.
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Which is thousands of times greater than anything that the Dragonzord could potentially do.
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Overall impression.
Like I said, the animation and music is friggin’ awesome. And it’s also a nice relief seeing another movie character enter the fight, since we don’t get too much of that these days.
The explanation makes sense too, aside from the Absolute Zero thing, because it feels more like they should have found the amount of energy robbed instead. It’s probably around the same thing, but still.
The jokes are pretty spot-on, and the animated segments between Wiz and Boomstick are pretty funny too.
It took a few years to see it, but it’s well worth the wait if this is the result of having to wait on seeing this matchup.
9.0/10
Next Time…
(Screenshot of the upcoming battle).
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… I have no idea as to why these two are fighting.
Is there a fight that you want me to review? - Send an ask/request, and I’ll look into it!
Do you want to read my fanfic based around DEATH BATTLE itself? click here!
Thank you for reading, and I hope to see you next time for…
Some demon shits.
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weirdmarioenemies · 4 years
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Name: Micro Goomba
Debut: Super Mario Bros. 3
I think Goombas are pretty great, but sometimes, carrying one everywhere just gets a little inconvenient, you know? I only wish there were some kind of pocket-sized Goomba I could take anywhere, like to the local newsagents. 
Well, aren’t I lucky! Check out how small this Goomba is! You can barely see the sprite! 
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For reference, here’s their sprite a bit bigger, which I took from a thumbnail on the Mario Wiki. Yup, that’s about the bare minimum of a Goomba! 
Anyway! We’ve talked about the Pile-Driver Micro Goomba before, but we haven’t talked about their parent species! The blocks are off! It’s a naked little Goomba. But Goombas are already known for being pretty wimpy, so what does the Micro Goomba add (or subtract) from the table? 
Why, they can’t hurt you at all! Rather, they only grab onto Mario somehow, and slow down his movement and jumps until you manage to shake them off. This behaviour earned them the name of Mugger Micro Goombas, to differentiate them from the Pile-Drivers, and it’s... quite concerning! Can you imagine getting stopped in a dark alleyway by a dozen of these things? And they’ve got guns, too! Just do as they say and no one has to get hurt, alright?
In this game, they actually only appear by being dropped by Paragoombas! Between this, the Blooper Nanny, and the Baby Cheep, Mario 3 sure liked having baby versions of enemies alongside their normal counterparts! Could these be larval Goombas? I’m not sure if they’re different enough to classify as such, but. I really like the idea of Goomba larvae. Or a Goomba nymph, then?
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And so the Micro Goombas show up in a whole bunch of other games, though probably not as an explicit reference. I mean, Goombas that are tiny aren’t exactly a groundbreaking enemy concept! They’ve since been called Mini Goombas, but you know, I like the name Micro Goomba better. This image is from New Super Mario Bros., which also had a Mega Goomba!
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Here’s their look from New Super Mario Bros. Wii and New Super Mario Bros. 2. I mostly think this sorta low-poly Goomba is extremely cute. It feels like a plush or something! I want ten. 
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Other notable appearances include: Super Mario 3D World, where you can blow them away with the Gamepad (adorable)! Super Mario Maker, where you can shake a Goomba to get a Micro Goomba, except you can’t actually use them in a level (what a tease)! And of course, Super Mario Odyssey, where they’re a rather fetching yellow, pictured here (Lookin’ good)! 
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Also quite funny: in Super Mario RPG, they were translated as Goombettes! Silly devs, everyone knows that the suffix “-ette” is only for girl versions of characters, like the one character named Goombette in Super Mario Odyssey (we covered her too)! But you know, part of me feels like a certain Mario enemy with an “-ette” name was quite relevant a while ago, but I can’t quite recall...
Hm, it’s probably nothing. If I forgot, it either wasn’t important, or I repressed it deep in my memories. Moving on!
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But my favorite appearance of the Mini Goomba, if it even counts, is in Mario Galaxy! You wouldn’t even think this to be a Mini Goomba, considering they’re pretty much the same size as regular Goombas and look more like an off-model version, or even an odd nod to the Goombo. But this is a separate species! Their only real difference is that they can be defeated in one hit from a spin, while regular Goombas can’t.
I know I’ve said it before... but this is so cute! It’s like, a Goomba that was selectively bred to be smaller and rounder, to be popular with young women and get carried around in their handbags. Or something. 
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Yeah, like that!
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canvaswolfdoll · 5 years
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CanvasWatches: Detective Pikachu
Well, I really want to play Pokemon now.
Not so much the actual Detective Pikachu game, because it’s burdened with a boring tutorial, and it’s just not engaging… but, like, maybe I’ll pick up the Blue or Gold versions I have on my 3DS. Poke away at my leisurely quest to finally catch them all by going through the entries.[1]
Anyways, my brother and I went to see Detective Pikachu. I left satisfied, and suspicious that any sequel will have to be a shameless cash-grab production, so let’s not hope for that.
Didn’t sit through the credits. Foxface was impatient, and I left Emi home alone with the lights out.[3] There was probably an after credits scene. Probably dancing Pikachu, from the fake leak.
Summary conclusion before the spoilery rambles: it’s fine. If you love the franchise, you’ll probably enjoy it. If you’re not a big Pokemon fan, you can skip it or see it with a fan. It’s competently adequate.
So, let’s review this thing. With spoilers! (Probably including the games. Don’t know, I write these things stream of thought style.)
The experience started when I bought the movie ticket, and was handed a promotional pack of pokemon cards along with it. I was surprised for half a second, before I thought back to receiving the Ancient Mew card when I saw Pokemon 2000 in theaters. Of course they’d give me cards to go with the movie. That’s how Pokemon movies work.
I got the Detective Pikachu card presumably everyone gets, and Jigglypuff.
Kind of disappointed to get Jigglypuff.[4]
I’ve always felt a strange relationship with Pokemon. I like the games, and do enjoy the trivia and random lore, but I’ve never absolutely loved it.[5] I’ve always felt like the franchise has a lot of potential, but never really commits. Plots could be a little meatier, the world a little more explored. A sense of wanderlust and nostalgia for a world distinct from our own that’s never really delivered.
Fanworks carry a lot of that weight, but I don’t like putting in effort for IPs that aren’t mine.
Anyways, similar deal with Detective Pikachu. Plot could use more meat,[6] world feels underexplored.
It’s based in Rhyme City, a film original locale. This provides a good excuse not to have Pokemon stored away in Pokeballs so they can mingle about the scenery, which is a good narrative handwave. However, it means we don’t get to see the locations of the games realized, the mechanics explored, and a kind of odd ‘One Pokemon per Trainer’ situation.[7] Especially since Pokemon battles are illegal in Rhyme City, making them more… well… dog-fighty.
Slash underground Fight Club-y.
Okay, to be fair, they do a good job of portraying the one on-screen combat involving Pokemon that are both willing and enjoying.
But we also miss the chance to see what an officially sanctioned Pokemon Battle looks like.[9]
Also, at no point does anyone ride a bike. One out of ten, literally unwatchable.
One thing that stuck out to me was how anime it felt. Japanese business signs filled the backgrounds, the vehicles were right-hand drive, and other subtle details really left an atmosphere of “I’m watching a live action anime!” beyond even the typical Japanifornia set media like Big Hero 6 or Legend of Korra used. Which, I suppose, helps sell the efforts to sell this as the live action Pokemon film.
Honestly, if Hollywood wants to adapt more anime, they should study this film. It understands how to portray Japan taking over the world without feeling like Blade Runner.
The movie also is very good at taking pokemon from all generations, my eye catching the fifth gen roster most often, but Aipoms, Torterras, Totodiles[10] and more are accounted for. I was worried that it’d be a genwunner pander-fest after watching the first trailer. There seemed to be a lack of Alola Pokemon, though, or at least I didn’t notice any, and they didn’t take the opportunity to reveal any Sword & Shield Pokemon.
I guess, given the choice, I’d prefer they not turn it into a Sword & Shield marketing push, but I also feel like the movie could’ve done it tastefully.
The movie is just filled with good will for the franchise, beginning with showing two friends (coded in red and blue clothes) going just outside of town to capture a pokemon (It was a Cubone! I love Cubone!) all the way to having credits showing the cast in the art style of the games, with particular nods to the lovely sprite work I miss.
As for the actual story… it’s fine. They didn’t really go out of the kids film mold, to the detriment of doing an actual Pokemon plot. There’s no bad guy team, and besides naming the rage-inducing chemical “R”,[11] not even a nod to Team Rocket. Which I think could’ve been done very easily. Just introduce Team Rocket funding somewhere, maybe having the all-consuming corporation running the city secretly funding their activities?
Is this film lighter, softer cyberpunk? Detective Pikachu might be child-grade cyberpunk. That’s cool.
There wasn’t any sock blasting twists. The red herring villain was a red herring villain; the nice seeming CEO guy was behind it all; the Dad was the Pikachu all along. It was what it was looked to be.
I will concede I didn’t see the Ditto twist coming, but mostly because I forgot about Ditto.
And, as Suede pointed out in his Pokemon anime reviews, it’s odd that what was meant to be a one-off quirk for a one-off Ditto has become a racial trait. It lends itself to pretty decent effects, but I can’t put the thought out of my mind now that it’s been pointed out.
The actual Pokemon were a nice, even mix of Uncanny Valley to just the Pokemon. Mr. Mime wasn’t notably as creepy as he was when shown in the trailer, and in fact was the center of one of the best scenes. Pikachu is adorable when his brow isn’t pulling overtime, and the Audino that pops up here and there looks like a mascot suit. It’s a good mixture.
I must suggest that, after watching the movie, go look at the merch online. Not necessarily to buy it like crazy, but just for the fun little details that can be gleaned.[12]
I hope this opens the door to more live-action Pokemon films, especially ones that will explore the world and develop the plot out more. Maybe do a PG-13 one for the older kids. Detective Pikachu was fine, but there’s a lot more that could be done.
Thanks for reading my review. To support this and my other works, consider either Patreon for early access and regular support, or Ko-fi for a one time tip. There’s much more I’d love to do, and every dollar allows me the opportunity to do more.
Now… guess I should go plod through Kanto as I deliberate on Sword versus Shield.
Kataal kataal.
-
[1] Well, I’m switching Ruby/Sapphire out with AlphaSapphire, because I don’t actually feel like going super intense with the ‘hit every generation’ thing.[2] [2] Am going to also do HeartGold, though. Because I have it, and love Johto. [3] She’s fine! And adorable as always. Just… didn’t think ahead. [4] Foxface got Lickitung. Wish I got Lickitung. [5] Maybe because I still have scars from siding with Digimon during the wars. Maybe because you don’t have to love or hate every IP. [6] Yes, it’s a kid’s film, but kids can parse a little more depth than they’re often given credit for. [7] Because, since generation six, Pokemon has been struggling to be Digimon.[8] [8] Even call them “Partner Pokemon”. Come on! [9] Maybe the sequel can be about reintroducing Pokemon Battles to Rhyme city, with Team Plasma either cameoing or as the antagonistic force. [10] Literally all my preferred starter lines of the first six generations are accounted for somewhere. Which makes me feel good. [11] Which is a stretch. [12] The neighborhood watch sign has a Patrat!
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thearkhound · 5 years
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Letters to the MSX
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Letters to the MSX (MSXにおくる手紙/MSX ni okuru tegami) is an article that was published in the final issue of MSX-FAN magazine (dated August 1995), in which the publication sent out a questionnaire to various people within the video game, computing and consumer electronics industries (from companies such as Micro Cabin, Compile, Game Arts, Sony and Matsushita), asking them about their involvement with the MSX and their thoughts about the platform, which was being discontinued from the market after 12 years in the market.
Originally I only intended to translate Hideo Kojima’s answers to the questionnaire, but then I decided to do the whole article because not only does it bring a lot of insight to the MSX culture in Japan, but it also provides a picture of how the computer industry was back in the mid-90′s and where it was heading. This is why it took me a while to publish this translation (and why I have been inactive on Twitter for almost a month now), since it was not only quite a long article, but there’s also quite a bit of technical jargon and idioms that I wanted to make sure I would get right.
Anyway, I hope that you will enjoy it.
Introduction
We sent out this questionnaire to as many companies as possible who were involved with the MSX via fax or PC. We wanted to publish the thoughts of the people who were involved during that period. We do believe this will lead to our next step.
The contents of the questionnaires are as follows. Please read them fully and compare them.
The text has been printed the way it was sent to us, but editor’s notes have also been in parts that we believe might be too difficult for some readers to comprehend. The text after the red circle is written by the editorial department to introduce the developer who answered the questionnaire, followed by their answers to each question. If the answers to question 1 and 4 given by the person in the previous section, then “same as above” will written in its place.
MSX-FAN Final Questionnaire
Company’s name
Name and current department
Job(s) during the MSX era
Most notable MSX products by the company
Your most nostalgic MSX moment and why
Words you wish to impart to MSX-FAN readers
Bonus/ Secrets, inside stories or such you wish to share
Tokihiro Naito
We can’t help but feel from reading Mr. Naito’s comment that the MSX was a machine that everyone made good use of. With such powerful talents, his games have served as an inspiration to numerous players. Before long, people learn about the enjoyment of creating games just like Mr. Naito... We feel it’s quite a wonderful chain.
T&E Soft
Tokihiro Naito, Development Division
DD Club/Pattern Editor Programming and Manual Manuscript Creation, Undead Line/Game Design. Hydlide/Game Design and Direction, Hydlide 3/Main Programming, Rune Worth/Game and Direction. I feel there were more projects (I’ve worked on), but I don’t remember any of them.
3D Golf Simulation, Hydlide series, Laydock series, Daiva, Psy-O-Blade, Rune Worth, DD Club, T&E Disk Magazine, and more
Laydock/ The truth is that I want to talk about everything I’ve worked on, but this particular title left the most lasting impression. This had an unexpectedly short development time, meaning that it was released even before the new MSX hardware. However, the developing target was pretty unstable, and with the hardware and BIOS specifications changing everyday, it led to a difficult development period. The person in charge was all (^ ^;
The MSX was a very interesting job for me. The MSX was probably the first time I was introduced to the concept of a VDP at such an early stage. Since the MSX was also the first machine I’ve ever experienced the use of sprites with, it was personally very fun. Even though MSX-FAN might be gone now, I hope many people will still use the MSX as a starting machine for programming or for making CGI.
DD Club contained a tool called SPEN, which was not a product by the company. It was actually a hobby program I designed in my home for over two years. At any rate, the name stood for Special Pattern Editor for Naito. This program was given free of charge to T&E Soft as my dedication to them./During the development of Laydock, I received a new BIOS-ROM from ASCII almost everyday, but every time the BIOS was changed it would cause the game to stop running, and we had to cool out the prototype MSX2 computer with a paper fan while programming as soon as it was overheating./ The 800 kanji fonts for the MSX1 version of Hydlide III that were on a 7x8 pixel format were in fact created by me. Were they hard to read? I’m sorry if that was the case./ There are many more unrevealed inside stories, but... (Editor’s Note 1: We this much content, we can’t publish this letter without cutting off some parts. Hmm...) (Editor’s Note 2: Hmm, I wonder if the other editor has seen that one last sentence.) (^ ^;
Akira Misoda
In the MSX world there is Micro Cabin. Nothing else needs to be said. We are grateful to them for many things. We thank them for porting Princess Maker to the MSX. And in addition to providing software for our supplemental disks, we learned many things from Mr. Nakano as the lecturer for our Picture Story & Movie Classroom articles. Producer Misoda has made an effort to backup all the above. I don’t think the Princess Maker port would’ve happened without his influence.
Micro Cabin
Akira Misoda, 1st R&D Department
Producer & Programmer of Campaign Daisenryaku. Programmer of The Tower of Cabin. Producer of Princess Maker.
Fray, Xak, Xak II, Maison Ikkoku, Urusei Yatsura, Daisenryaku, Super Daisenryaku, Princess Maker, Illusion City, The Tower of Gazzel.
This doesn’t have anything to do with the MSX version specifically, but Xak was the first game I programmed desperately after I’ve joined the company. I gave the rough source code to Mr. Nakatsu when he joined the company to produce the MSX version, but I’m still impressed that such a difficult code to understand could be ported so well.
The MSX is a hardware that has raised many people. There are quite a few people at Micro Cabin who used to be MSX users before joining the company. With the proper knowhow, you could make games on the MSX without having to purchase any expensive add-on (compared to other platforms). In that sense, it’s such a great loss that another platform that has produced game-making geniuses (!?) is disappearing from the industry. I might be exaggerating a bit, but... I really feel that way.
I’ve worked on the MSX prior to joining Micro Cabin. I did around four outsourced jobs from three different companies, and two of them were for Micro Cabin.
Yasuhiko Nakatsu
Programmers are said to stay up all night, tend to run away and are all unusual men, but there is no one who makes good products that keeps his deadlines, sleeps on time, and provides gentle guidance to everyone. We at the editorial department asked for such a person to serve as our lecturer for our picture story show articles. We are grateful to Mr. Nakatsu for everything he did to us and we apologize for asking too much of him. We are truly sorry for that.
Same as above
Yasuhiko Nakatsu, 1st R&D Department
Planning, programming, writing
Same as above.
I have many fond memories of software that came out on the MSX. Among there was this software called Su**s Gri... Oops! I’ve almost mentioned something I shouldn’t. My bad. My bad. Personally, Illusion City was my most memorable game when it comes to the most hardships I have to endure.
Thank you for publishing my articles after such a long period. For those who are not good at programming at BASIC, please look up any back issues and try your best at creating a picture story. The MSX was a machine with many ways to enjoy oneself. I look forward to future activities with the platform.
I was the one responsible for raising the memory of the A1-GT to 512Kb. Thanks to that, the machine was able to play MIDI without the burden of access time. I’m truly grateful at everyone in Matsushita.
Hitoshi Suenaga
Rather than introduce the person, I thought it would be more fitting to introduce his projects. He’s a talented genius responsible for the character designs in Micro Cabin.
Same as above
Hitoshi Suenaga, 2nd R&D Department
Xak 1, Fray, Daisenryaku, Illusion City
Same as above
Xak 1, since it was the first MSX project I ever worked on after joining the company.
I am grateful to everyone who supported our work, as well as everyone answered the questionnaire. While it’s sad that the world will go on without the MSX, I will still use it for my hobbies and personal work. In fact the character units in the 3DO version of Konpeki no Kantai were drawn on my MSX computer and then converted to the console.
If you want to be honest, if ASCII had asked for my input, I would’ve balanced out the hardware specifications of the MSX turbo R a bit more and I think the platform would’ve been around a bit longer. When I learned about the MSX turbo R’s hardware specifications after unveiling conference, I began crying on my bed... I’m serious! The MSX2 was a serviceable upgrade from the MSX1, but after that...
Katsuya Nagai
Mr. Nagai made one MSX software after the other while in Micro Cabin thanks to his love for the MSX and the effort he made to program every day and night.
Same as above.
Katsuya Nagai, 1st R&D Department
Programmed the opening and ending of Xak I. Also made the fighting minigame in The Tower of Cabin.
Same as above.
I was involved with Xak I as soon as I’ve joined the company.
Even though we are no longer making MSX games, we hope you’ll still support Micro Cabin in the future.
The Fray vs. Pixie minigame from The Tower of Cabin was ported from the PC-9801 version and I got to draw the animation patterns of a special move that was planned for the game. However, not all the animation frames could fit into the game’s memory, so I ended up using the regular patterns instead.
Naoko Arakawa
When talking about the TAKERU software vending machines, there is Ms. Arakawa. She was always full of energy when we met her during events. She even worked together with our editorial staff on the Sorcerian port, which is a project that brings us deep memories. She also worked on Sorcerian Relay, which is included in this final issue. Since it’s just a relay race game featuring characters from Sorcerian created by the editorial staff, it might not be anything special, but... We would be grateful is she re-releases more classic MSX software via TAKERU.
Xing
Naoko Arakawa, TAKERU Executive Office (sales division G)
Sales promotion of MSX software for TAKERU
Sorcerian, BURAI Vol. 2, ect.
Thanks to the news announcement from MSX-FAN, our game reprinting project attracted attention from many users, which evolved into the TAKERU Meisaku Bunko (Masterpiece Library) series. We;re now re-releasing PC-9801 and X68000 games on TAKERU as well, becoming an important pillar of our service more than ever. I think it was all thanks to the planning of MSX-FAN and our MSX users.
I truly salute MSX users for their passion, enthusiasm and creative urge. While we gathered many games for our reprint series, there were still quite a few things that left a bit to be desired (like why we didn’t include games from a certain company or why we didn’t include a particular title). There were many games that did not come out on TAKERU due to various circumstances, so we apologize for that. From now on we’ll do our best to have software reach MSX users via TAKERU, even if it’s just a few game. Please support us.
I have strong memories of sneaking out to see the A-Bomb Dome while I was en route to the MSX Festival in Hiroshima. On another occasion, I was photographed by a professional for the first time when I was interviewed by Mr. Tokita and Mr. Sasaya. The photo looked like a portrait than any normal photo. It’s one of my most treasured possessions.
Akkii
Falcon is a company that undertook a substantial role in the porting of Sorcerian that MSX-FAN and TAKERU (Brother) helped produce. Their president, Ms. Midori Ito, while working for Yamaha to promote the MSX, unexpectedly ended up becoming a programmer herself and before long she ended up marrying Mr. Kazuhiko Ito, who was employed at Micro Cabin at the time. The two ended up forming their own software development company. Answering in this section is Mr. Moribe, who was the lead graphic designer.
Tierheit (aka Falcon)
Akkii, Planning & Development Department - Development Section 2
Pixel art, debugging, intermediary with TAKERU’s executive officer, and many other jobs
Sorcerian, Sengoku Sorcerian, Pyramid Sorcerian
All of it, of course. It was the first company I’ve joined and the first job I was employed at.
The ending of Sorcerian was very anti-climatic. I’m sorry about that. Of course, the MSX is a hardware that exists because of its users. Even if this magazine will no longer be in print, the MSX scene will remain active as long as there are users, especially when it comes graphic designing (personally). Good luck!
Well there’s something I want to say, but... Oh no!
Yoshihide
I often used to go to the MSX Fair. I used to work at Osaka, bu moved back to Tokyo along with my wife last year. I want to know if the secret title was Dragon Spirit or Valkyrie.
Namco
Yoshihide, Consumer Sales Department - Promotion Division
MSX software sales and PR activities (including planning). Since there weren’t that many people, I did a bit of everything.
Return of Ishtar, Xevious: Farland Saga, Pac-Mania, ect. We also did the Disk NG series too.
For Xevious, I remember doing a bit of everything ranging from joining in the planning, production, advertising, distribution, sales and public relations.
I wish good luck to everyone involved with the MSX at Namco (including our users).
There were many games that we announced, but didn’t get released. On one hand I think it’s regrettable, but on the other hand it’s a bit horrifying.
Masamitsu Niitani
It’s because of Disk Station magazine that the MSX became an interesting world. It’s because of them that we had the Puyo Puyo series and Carbunkle. With its low-price, the fun-packed Disk Station was a brilliant plan that managed to rejuvenate an industry that has hit a rut. It was always a pleasure to deal with President Niitani himself when calling the company, even if it was the middle of the night.
Compile
Masamitsu Niitani, President
Planner, Producer, Graphic Designer, Programmer
Guardic, Madō Monogatari, Nyanpi, Golvellius, Rune Master, Adventure of Randar, Disk Station
Disk Station
Let’s walk with the times
I want to talk to Mr. Nishii of ASCII about his thoughts on the MSX.
Yoichi Miyaji
The founders of Game Arts got their start as part-timers at ASCII back in the old days. Because of their talent, they quickly formed their own company, where they gave birth to Thexder. At any rate, we had a chance to seriously think about developing for the MSX with Mr. Miyaji.
Game Arts
Yoichi Miyaji, President
Producer
Thexder, Fire Hawk, the Gyuwamburaa Jikō Chūshinha series, the Sum series
The debugging of the MSX-BASIC rom was carried out back when the founders of Game Arts were employed at ASCII. I think the BASIC was made extremely well.
I treasured the MSX like it was my own child. I did my best with the belief that the MSX was a better hardware than the Famicom (NES). It’s been more than 10 years (ed’s note: 12 years precisely), the age of the Famicom is over now and it’s time to let the MSX go too. It’s truly been a long time.
Satoshi Uesaka
Mr. Uesaka was the one who originally created the card concentration game called Card Desu as soon as MSX-FAN started including supplemental disks on each issue. It had an edit function in hopes that it would lead to a series of edited works, but not many edited versions were made and the whole thing amounted to nothing.
Same as above.
Satoshi Uesaka, Section Chief of Development
Producer, Director, Programmer, Pixel Artist, Scripter... I did many things.
Same as above.
The Sum series ended with 14 games that were released in a span of a single year.
Never forget your dreams, even when they end. (plagiarized)
Kamiji
BIT2′s president Mr. Kuribayashi was observing various creative tools for the PC-9801 one day when said that he would make his own versions to surpass them on the MSX. So he ended up making the CGI tool Graphsaurus, the FM music tool Synthesaurus and the MIDI tool Midisaurus. Without these tools there would’ve been no CGI contest on MSX-FAN and no MIDI Sandogaza column. In Mr. Kuribayashi’s place, this questionnaire was answered by saleswoman Ms. Kamiji.
BIT²
Kamiji, Sales
Accounting
Graphsaurus, Synthesaurus, Famicle Parodic
When they started putting all their efforts into the Turbo R and GT was when the MSX started sinking.
We still wanted to make MSX software, but since not many people were buying them anymore, we had to discontinue them.
Toshikazu Awano
While persistently providing software for the MSX, he also provided his invaluable insights on the MSX during the MSX Symposium (see our June 1991 issue). It seems he got into this world from the records industry, but has since be transferred into KOEI’s U.S. subsidiary and is now busy selling English versions of the Nobugana’s Ambition series for consoles.
Koei
Toshikazu Awano, Koei Corporation (of America)
Head of Sales
Nobunaga’s Ambition, Romance of the Three Kingdoms
Nobunaga’s Ambition II came out when I’ve joined the company and since it sold pretty well, it left me with a strong impression.
Our company used to sell MSX soft until very late, but when we discontinued them, we suddenly receiving porting requests from MSX users. Many of them were specifically middle and high schoolers with a strong sense of appreciation.
Tatsuo Matsuda
As someone who greatly loves the MSX beyond all else, he aspired to turn it into a machine that gives everyone the opportunity to bloom their talents. That is, even if you’re not rich or you live in a rural area, you should be able to use the MSX to awaken your hidden talent by creating CGI and music or get the opportunity to express yourself.
ASCII
Tatsuo Matsuda, Multimedia Department Promotion Manager
Promotion for MSX Sales
MSX
We have shipped over 4 million home computers to young people around the world, including Japan.
I want you to become smart Japanese people with unique personalities who could work around the world.
There are still many people using the MSX around the world. The MSX should be classified as a computer, not a game console. I’m very pleased that many people have learned about computers from this platform and have found employment through it.
Hitoshi Suzuki
Everyone who was involved with MSX has called him a genius. Without his genius, perhaps MSX wouldn’t had gotten such a good BASIC program. Nevertheless, he’s a truly wonderful person with a sense of humor who made Basic-kun as a side-project
Same as above.
Hitoshi Suzuki, Director of Digital System Division and Silicon Software Development
Listener to Mr. Matsuda’s complaints and causing uproars at parties.
I haven’t really done that much (Ed’s Note: He did a lot. Many of the programming for tools and systems used by the MSX were done by him.)
Yukiko Okada’s suicide haunted me. (Ed’s Note: At the time of her death, she was appearing in the advertising of a certain company.)
Our youth is a brief moment that only shines once. The memories that have gone through all of us at a rapid-pace will shine within me forever. And on my deathbed, I will utter “Em...Ess...Ex” as my last words.
There’s a huge mouse in Osaka. (Ed’s Note:It seems that the three main proponents of the MSX platform (Mr. Yamashita, Mr. Matsuda, Mr. Suzuki) once went to a business trip in Osaka. Nobody truly knows what happened there, but it seems that Mr. Matsuda was nicknamed Mr. Mouse after a certain incident. Don’t tell anyone, you meanie!)
Shingo Tamura
Mr. Tamura joined Sony at the midst of the audioboom. He was responsible for the famed live recording machine Densuke. Afterward, he became involved with the MSX and was in charge of the PalmTop. Even though Mr. Tamura is the section chief with a scary reputation, he’s actually a romantic who likes the stars, nature and soba noodles. We thought about what Sony means as a company with stuff such as sending mail through the internet in this day. Is it linked to their merchandising? We also wanted to emphasize the MSX’s side as a cool PC.
Sony
Shingo Murata, Planning and Development of Merchandising
Sales Chief of Planning and Development of Hardware, Software and Peripherals
The HB-55 was the first HiTBiT promoted by Saeko Matsuda. The HB-F1 was a budget-priced MSX2 computer that retailed at 32,800 yen. The HB-F1XD is an MSX2 with a floppy disk drive that retailed at 54,800 yen. In terms of games, there was The Wiz, which was perhaps a famed Sony original.
There was a software called Igo Club that was an online go game, and a Kanji Video Titler. There was also a BASIC-learning kit aimed at an industrial-level (after applying for the correspondence education, you would be sent an MSX with a handbook).
Every middle schooler who got their start on the MSX dreamed differently from Famicom owners. They could learn how to program or how to make a software run to their own accord. They continued in their creative endeavors now, even now as adults. If they can have home terminals like that in the 21st century, I think we can once again stir up some creativity. As long as people have dreams, we’ll embark on new challenges.
We tried to make and sell all kinds of products. The hardware is a business that really ought to make use of the software. With that in mind, we couldn’t make the DC machine (Ed’s note:a portable device) because the resolution was a bit overly optimistic and there were too many constraints. I would like to thank my subordinates, editor-in-chief Ms. Kitane and her staff, and my good friends at Sakurakai (Ed’s note: a liaison between multiple MSX hardware manufacturers that gathered once in every month, where they would improve on the good points, reflect on the bad ones and collaborate with each other. It was last held in May ‘95), even if they would normally be suspected of bid-rigging. And of course, everyone at ASCII. It was thanks to the MSX that I had a bond we all of the above people. And what would become of Mr. Kurami, our MSX historian at Sony who served as our walking encyclopedia? Thanks!
Naoya Kurami
Mr. Kurami is a delicate perfect fit for Sony’s corporate image. Everytime he received a call from our editorial department, he always winced momentarily whenever it was some kind of difficult call... Despite that, he seems to have what appears to be a poster of Saeko-chan...
Same as above.
Naoya Kurami, Vice Director of Planning and Development of Merchandising
Planning and Promotion of hardware, software and peripherals
Same as above
I don’t know if it can be said that its directly MSX-related, but do you know the stock-trading computer HB-T600 or the online go software Igo Club? Either way, studying stocks and studying go was a painful experience. And considering all that, the results were not quite good.
Well, for better or worse I spent the last ten years of my life working on the MSX. With this information now out on an MSX-related magazine, I feel a bit embarrassed. By the way, I own a train poster of Ms. Seiko Matsuda (advertising for our HiTBiT computers) as a souvenir from the past. I thought about selling it for a high price... I would like to thank all of editors at MSX-FAN and all of its readers. It’s been such a long time.
Hideaki Yagami
We, at the editorial staff, get the impression that the people at Matsushita are very serious and diligent. Both, their hardware and software are designed with the need to bring enjoyment to their users without betraying their expectations. Only Matsushita machines are strong against instantaneous blackouts and their PACs (Pana Amusement Cartridges) might had been a manifestation of that mentality. Under such circumstances, Mr. Yagami  (who is also skilled at skiing) was pretty good at gaining the trust of the software house (not just for the debugging meetings) and still is to this day.
Matsushita
Hideaki Yagami, Software Development Department of the Interactive Media Division
Development & Planning of Software at the Pana Amusement Production
The FS-5500F2 is famous for being the first MSX computer with 2 disk drives. The FS-A1 was a budget-pridced MSX2 that retailed 29,800 yen. The PACs were MSX cartridges containing S-RAM backup. Other products include the CF-XXX series, the FM-PAC, a Bowling System and an educational system aimed for Russia (that’s a secret)
The AshGuine series were a series of games starring the first character made by our company. We made the games all-night at the development site with the developers from the various companies involved to decide on the content of each game, their packaging and the posters.
When the MSX was brought to this world, a personal computer meant for the users something that could run the program they made, not just the packaged software they bought from a store. In today’s world, computers take many shape in order to support the needs of the world, but in spite of that it’s no longer easy to program by yourself, even if you own a PC. Even though PCs are becoming much closer to humans now, I can’t helped but feel a sense of nostalgia when the distance between them was more primitive, that is to say when a PC was just a programming tool. Back then the PC was the embodiment of a user’s dreams full of possibilities. It could be said that people who lived through the era when PCs were born are living witnesses of a valuable era that brought fruit to a trend of rapid creation and evolution. Keep those memories of freshness in mind and continue dreaming, seeking the possibilities of new challenges.
I wonder if there was any other unified effort between multiple home electronics manufacturers to promote a unified standard (MSX). MSX-FAN may have ended with this issue, but for the hardware manufacturers I think it was an era of everyone pursuing the dream of a single unified standard of PC. To all the companies that provided software, I’m truly grateful. I’m also grateful to Ms. Kitane and the rest of the editors of Tokuma for being there until the end. And finally, I would like to thank of all the MSX users who supported the platform.
Kazuaki Hiraga
Mr. Hiraga was suddenly put in charge of the MSX in a matter of months and became a familiar figure in ten years, leaving quite an impression. He has the personality you would expect. He plays Gekitotsu Pennant Race pretty well too. He also planned to lend out MSX computers to a culture festival. Thanks to that, he experienced a “ghost incident” in the Kanazawa Inn. At any rate, he held a mini-4WD competition to bring excitement to the event and played games with other users. In a sense, he was a familiar and energetic face to the MSX.
Same as above.
Kazuaki Hiraga, Software Development Department of the Interactive Media Division
As a member of the PAP, I’ve worked as a contact for various software providers and at the same time I was involved in the development of original software and peripherals (such as the PACs). I also planned  and managed nationwide events. I was Pana Amusement Club member no. 0001! By the way, the Amusement Club began business around the time Vampire Killer came out
Same as above.
At the beginning many hardware manufacturers created MSX machines, but in the end it became a fateful confrontation between Matsushita and Sony. Right now our Panasonic-branded products are selling quite well, especially our TVs and videos, but our no. 1 product in Japan is the “A1″. This symbolizes the magnitude of expectations that Matsushita applies to its products.
Looking at the current software industry, there are quite a few people who joined the industry from the MSX, so I feel it’s a big deal. in that sense, I appreciate all those people who are still passionate about the MSX and I’m eagerly awaiting even more people to become experts in the field of software development.
Thanks to the MSX, I have a nice family (ed’s note: Mr. Hiraga met his wife when she was the host of an MSX event. They now have a child together). It was also fun to go through various events nationwide and talk to representatives of software houses and magazines. Everyone gave it their best during the 4WD races in particular. (ed’s note:Mr. Naito of T&E Soft is known for using a turbo mode technique that connected batteries in a serial format.) One of the packaging illustrators for the AshGuine series was the now-famous Teppei Sasakura (who at the time was an unknown). Looking at the prices of Mr. Sasakura’s works recently, I tried to look for the original painting, but it’s nowhere to be found. Ah!
Masao Ito
Mr. Ito is an obliging person who planned out products he thought of while working on Matsushita’s hardware designs. If things are any indication, we believe he made the FM-PAC by embracing a headfirst approach. Within the people at Matsushita who supported the MSX until the end, Mr. Ito has been patiently answering various questions from our editorial staff up until this final issue.
Same as above.
Masao Ito, Planning and Selling of Foreign Software for the Interactive Media Division (I’m making 3DO stuff now).
First I worked on hardware designs. But then I acted as a jack-of-all-trades, examining the MSX standards at the same time. At the the end, I was responsible for product planning, as well as in charge of designing domestic and overseas systems.
Same as above
In Russia, I almost got arrested by the Moscow police one time after spending several consecutive nights bowling there.
The MSX was a cost-effective platform. It was useful in various ways if you knew how to use it well. While the MSX’s days are numbered, its ideal still remains true. The concept will surely be revived in the future (don’t hesitate to ask in which form).
I did quite a lot of things, but for some reason I am still an unknown in this industry. The PAC and FM-PAC cartridges were possible thanks to me! By the way, I’m still waiting to receive my own PAC and FM-PAC from the company.
Yuya Iwakiri
Mr. Iwakiri is a gentleman who organized many MSX events that gave us the chance to gather everyone. He supported up us until the end.
Same as above.
Yuya Iwakiri, Public Relations Department Editorial Department
As a professional, I’m a latecomer to the MSX when I was employed in 1989. In my private life, the first MSX computer I touched was a so-called King Kong word processor, which was a unique experience. Because I came from an advertising background, I focused on the planning and organizing of MSX fairs, where I involved in the creations of catalogs and advertisement (thinking about it though, the job was rather lonely since MSX-FAN was practically the only MSX-focused media remaining by that point), as well as the promotion and advertising of word processors (such as the UI series and the SLALA model).
Same as above.
For me, it’s perhaps the FS-A1GT, which ended up becoming the last MSX machine ever produced. The slight hopes of everyone who had an affection for the MSX, such as Ms. Kitagane, whom I have a strong rapport with, and the various celebrities (in every sense of the word) from all sorts of software house starting with Mr. Tanaka (director general of Micro Cabin), were gathered thanks  at the nationwide fairs thanks to this machine. Until the bitter end, there was hope for another model, hope for the uncertain future of the MSX... Even though I knew how it was going to end, I still couldn’t help but feel a sense of bitterness when it was over. It was like falling in love with someone you were forbidden to, like a feudal lord and a peasant or Romeo & Juliet...I thought about why I was given a job during such a moment.
There’s always one way or another to do things because of the mischief of the age. I don’t want to ponder any “what ifs”, “perhaps” and “if only”, but just like life, I still wonder if the MSX could ever return to the starting line... I’m sure everyone involved with the MSX is thinking this as well. In this age in which Microsoft is now threatening IBM’s grasp of the PC market, it would wonderful to imagine the MSX engine from Japan taking over the world.
My kids (ages 6 and 4) play all sorts of gaming platforms. The Game Boy, the Super Famicom and the 3DO. But they really like MSX games over everything else. Perhaps they inherited my preference and nostalgia for MSX games... DNA is quite a scary thing. Anyway, I’m truly grateful to all the MSX fans around the world! Until we’ll meet again.
Masayuki Takeuchi
“Study hard and play hard” is a saying that suits this person. That’s because studying and playing are truly above-average.
Same as above.
Masayuki Takeuchi, Interactive Media Division Software Development Department Promotion and Planning Section
Planning for advertising and sales promotion.
Same as above
Before PCs became widespread, we put out the first MSX word processor with a built-in printer, which was a pretty successful product. Another product we put out was the A1, a budget-priced MSX2 computer sold at 29,800 yen. In order to promote the A1 at the time, we did several publicity campaigns such as a truck that traveled all over the country and the advertising character AshGuine. They were pretty memorable ad campaigns.
I'm sorry that it’s over. However, I’m truly grateful that people still appreciate the MSX to this day.
There was a golf game from Hudson that was pretty popular where you could switch between a professional and amateur mode. There was also a shooting game called Zanac, in which I made a bet with another employee named S-kun, who offered me a yen for each point I made. He owes me 2.4 million.
Taro Sugimoto
Even though Panasonic has officially ceased advertising their MSX computers in our magazine, they continue to publish advertisement for their U1 word processors. Perhaps they did out of obligation, but I feel they cherish their users more than that. Some members of their MSX development team has since moved on to the 3DO, but they still demonstrate their power even in their word processors. Because my nickname among my seniors was also “Taro”, I would often ignore people calling me out during MSX events if they didn’t attach my surname.
Same as above.
Taro Sugimoto, I.T. Division Commercial Affairs
I was doing promotion and advertisement under Takeuchi, Iwakiri and Hiraga, all whom I’ve received regards individually. In particular I was in charge of the MSX game events that were held once in every season. Since I was employed by the sales and promotion department, I never got around to making my own product, but I did write a utility book for an A1 peripheral. As a freshman employee at the time, it was my first experience with a PC, so it was extremely memorable.
Same as above.
The above-mentioned event. While I still organize events nowadays, the MSX Festival was the basis for everything. I used to travel all around the country, ate various delicacies and became acquainted with various representatives of software publishers, including Ms. Kitane, all whom have become valuable assets to me. I still treasured the t-shirt and sweatshirt that were produced for those events.
I’m currently in charge of advertising and managing promotion for our word processors and MSX-FAN could help us out by published our ads in each issue... I think. I’m sorry.
While organizing an event in Osaka, there was lack of manpower, so I helped out while wearing a sweatshirt. I was already in my second year within the company and I ran into a college acquaintance at the venue and he asked me “you’re still working as a part-timer.” Anyway, please support our word processors.
Hideo Kojima
When one hears the name Konami, a mountain of memories pop up. Konami has been releasing software vigorously since the beginning of the MSX’s lifespan and they always had an amazing quality to them. We have wonderful memories of games such as the fun Antarctic Adventure and Space Manbow, which turned out to be a good game despite constant delays thanks to the commitment of the developers. It seems that Konami carries the philosophy during development that one has to observe games that are hits or duds, and understand why they sell or not. As a result, Konami has created the most splendid games in the world. In such circumstances, Mr. Kojima created a new kind of game with a scenario for the PC market that wouldn’t had been possible in an arcade environment.
Konami
Hideo Kojima, Development Section 5
Planning, writing, direction, and a few character designs
For Kojima: Metal Gear, Snatcher, Solid Snake. For Konami in general: the Nemesis series, the Knightmare trilogy, Yie-Ar Kung-Fu, Space Manbow, Penguin Adventure, The Goonies, and many more.
My most memorable project was the original Metal Gear. Back then I was a rookie who didn’t know to distinguish between his right and his left, so I didn’t know how to make a game at the time. I didn’t even know how to get assistance from people. I had no credibility as a planner (since my previous game proposal got rejected). I think it was pretty reckless of me to create a new type of game. I had nothing but enthusiasm to drive me.
With the MSX, there was a sense of “learning together” and “living together.” In particular, I was full of feelings that I shared with players during my youth. My game development career was never in the limelight, so I don’t know how much the sincere opinions of all my players have encouraged and supported me. Even now I’m still encouraged by the correspondences of players from those days. I think there’s some sort of coexistence that goes beyond the framework between a receiver and a sender.
Each year new talent enter the game industry. Among them are many people that choose this path by being inspired by the MSX. At the very the least they inherited a burning passion for the MSX. The users (receivers) and developers (senders) will always remember the “sensation” of that time. If they have “pride”, then I’m sure the game industry will move towards a good direction.
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tumblunni · 5 years
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Hhhh bunni legs pain accomplishment day
I HAVE FINISHED THE SHOPPING OF HELL
Tfw u only get paid 4 days before christmas and have to rush everything aaaa
It was bad enough today so i'm so glad i got it done before it got even more busy!
Misc boring essentials i bought for myself: new phone charger cos broken, new trousers cos i spilt hair bleach on my only two pairs, new shoes cos my left shoe literally snapped in half down the middle like wtf even happened there, cheap pink hair dye from a discount store cos i wanna try different colours but in a thrifty way
Now for EXCITING CHRISTMAS PRESENT TIME!!!!
First off SO MANY pc and xbox 360 games from Every Charity Shop In Cardiff, St Mellons, Rumney and Llanrumney. My sis has been trying to find some games to play but was like 'dont worry about it i can just wait til the charity shop gets something good'. So i thought i'd get some stocking stuffers via all the charity shops on my side of town. By our powers combined we will blitz the entire vale of glamorgan's discount gaming scene!!! I found SO MANY good stuff for £1/£2/£3 like holy shit i love when charity shops dont know the proper price for shit XD
speaking of which i also found a WEBCAM for £2! If its that cheap it probanly isnt great but itd still be fun to play around with! :D and the same store also had an old vintage G1 My Little Pony coffee mug in excellent condition. Oh god the nostalgia! My support worker gave me a lift to llanrumney so i had to awkwardly explain why i had an armful of weird 80s mugs and big teary eyes!
Speaking of vintage, i found this new vintage toys and games shop in cardiff called Galactic Attic! The name hooked me in and then they actually DID have pokemon inside! As well as all sorts of stuff ranging from 40s to 90s, wow! There was even a lil pile of old 90s gaming magazines in the corner, covered up by a bunch of boxes. I'm glad i noticed them! I got the announcemt issues for pokemon diamond pearl and platinum in a weird old pokemon fan magazine that i loved as a kid. Im kinda sad that nowadays we just have one official magazine fpr each console and not the wild madness of amateaur journalists failing horribly to get news from japan. Shame they didnt have Beckett Pokemon cos that one was infamous fot drawing its own terrible interpretations of pokemon sprites to avoid copyright. And speaking of terrible, they even had bootleg pokemon!! I talked to the cashier and he was like "you know those are fake right" and i was like "yeah its so nostalgic thats why i want em" and he was like "lol yeah they actually sell pretty well so i'm not mad my supplier ripped me off". It was a pretty good and awesomely terrible fake at the same time? There was this exact replica of some japanese display stand for the product and then the actual pokeball toys looked perfect BUT the mini pokemon inside were.. Really not. I am so damn happy with the surprise inside my one, surprise inside has never been more accurate! I can't take a picture now cos my phone is charging but REGICHEETO. Just..just imagine that, and whatever you're imagining it is probably worse. I love it so fuckin much. Also less hilariously there were some bootleg mini pika plushies with actually (as far as i can tell) their own unique design? They have cute lil winter scarves and an art style that reminds me of the Magical Pokemon Adventure manga. A really cute and good bootleg that i would have loved to see as a real product! The only way you can even tell its a bootleg is because there's no marking on the tail. I dunno, maybe if i still have some brown fabric in the cupboard i could fix it? Or maybe its unique tail makes it even more special! I mean there's Cosplay Pikachu with its double tail marking so maybe this is her cousin Accessory Pikachu with no markings? He just likes wearing scarfs and hats and stuff. OMG HE'S THE POKEMON GO EVENT PIKACHU!!!!!!
Along the miscness of finding a few things for myself, i also found: cute lil pokemon pencilcase, kingdom hearts blind bag, cheap copy of Fruits Basket volume 1 cos the new remake is coming out soon and i wanna Get Hype! The KH blind bag was really weird cos i didnt know they now have an entirely different set as well as the keychains i bought before. Its kind of a shame the art style doesnt match cos vexen is only in the keychains, alas! But i do really love these ones! Theyre apparantly made by funko pop but dont have the art style AT ALL, they just look like really accurate versions of the characters in mini form. Its kinda like the 'distance animation' style in steven universe? (Incidentally they also do SU ones but they missed the opportunitu to actually use the distance style, lol) I got a Sora in his kh2 outfit and i'm decently happy with that, its not one i really wanted but its not a bad one either. But i think now i've tried the fun of surprise once i'll just buy the actual ones i want off ebay later. They have roxas in his organization outfit! With a happy smile!!!
Oh oh and then EVEN MORE XBOX GAMES OF THE WILD THRIFT STORE VOID! i managed to find the whole fable series, two assassins creeds, saints row, gta, some misc shooter games and racers that she wanted but i dont know much about, mass effect 2 and ff13. I think maybe one or two others cos i cant fully remember right now. Theyre all in separate bags strewn across the room and my shoulders feel like death so i'll sort through them later.
Aaaand i wrote up like 14 paragraphs more but tumblr didnt save my draft fpr some fuckin reason and now im way too tired to do it again
Briefer summary:
* had a huge horrible panic attack getting stuck in a skyscraper shopping centre clothes place full of screaming and every perfume smell and WHY DO I HAVE TO NAVIGATE THIS HELL MAZE TO FIND THE ESCALATOR and seriously i was my most primal animalistic self and i went full fight or flight on this bitch
* had a lovely time visiting Cool Shop Grandma and rambled the story of how i met her and how we became friends but hhh too tired to rewrite. But anyway today i gave her a christmas pikachu plush as thanks for everything and cos her shop is moving on to its next location soon. She got really teary and gave me a big hug! She's gonna be at a comic con in march so i hope i'm able to go to that and see her again.
* went on a wild goose chase looking for harry potter merchandise and eventually found a gold plated replica of the movie prop version of the time turner and HELL YES my sis will love it!
* rambled about several market stalls that were cool but i can make a separate post about that in the morning when i find their contact details to advertise them
* got a plushie delibird and decided to take selfies with it everywhere to try and fight my social anxiety somehow. We went to a neat lil restaurant and had cheesy fries and a coke float!
* asked for a refund on an item for the first time ever and im proud of myself
* went off on a mystery bus trip to buy a preowned 3ds and pokemon games from a lady in an online preowned stuff facebook group and it didnt go horribly and i am glad! She was really nice and i witnessed A Good And Smart Parenting Moment and man it healed my heart and i wish i'd been raised that way. Again i'll probably ramble about the details later when im less tired, it really touched my heart seriously! And now i have MANY GIFTS FOR SIS!
* in total i was out present shopping from 9am to 8pm and i clicked my shoulder out of its socket for a split second from.all the heavy bags. Now im in a lot of aches and i need a sleeps
The End
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glapplebloom · 5 years
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Now that Darkseid and Thanos is out, let’s rank them!
Keep in mind them being low does not mean they’re bad. Its just to me, compared to the others are just so cool!
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#10 - Black Panther vs. Batman
This was a Death Battle I only looked briefly into. Like some of early Black Panther and the comic where he fought the Red Skull without his Vibranium suit. To think some people thought it can rip. Meanwhile we have done Batman twice before so its just updating to include new stuff. But the fight was impressive and I am still surprised they managed to fit in a frikkin fight with a rhino. The fight was awesome too, with a well done background and some unique choices (fighting while crouching, who said it was cheap?). Any other season and it could have been higher, so expect some big ones.
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#9 - Sora vs. Pit
I avoided researching this for one simple reason: Kingdom Hearts is nuts when it comes to plot. Heck, people were upset with Angry Joe about not considering the previous games when reviewing 3 when KH3 will most likely be people’s jumping in point. But if you do need a summary on KH and what Sora is all about, this episode does a fine job. Also a lot of fun info on Pit. But it is the animation that stands out. If you told me two animators worked on this I would be surprised because it was seamless. The fight was fun and Pit’s VA sounds pretty close to him too. And of course I do love the sprite work of those Super Smash Flash characters.
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#8 - Doctor Strange vs. Doctor Fate
Still haven’t seen Dr. Strange the movie, but my father grew up reading him. By this point, we got assignments and I wasn’t given either. But man did it look fun to look into. With so much of the wacky things they’ve done it would have been fun to look into this. And animation wise was really impressive. So many locations. So much hand drawn animations! And the finale was awesome to see.
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#7 - Jotaro Kujo vs. Kenshiro  
I wanted to research this match so badly. I was even halfway through Jotaro’s part in the Manga before I got hit with the Flu. This was going to be my excuse to get into both and I did enjoy the Jojo I did read, but now it has to wait another time. But meanwhile, the fight was fun and also included some hand drawn animation to go alongside the sprites. They both showcased some of their best move and seeing his gramps say all his quotable lines were frikkin funny. And man, Kenshiro is impressive. If the various clips online didn’t show that off, this DB pretty much explained how.
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#6 - Leon S. Kennedy vs. Frank West
While I ain’t a big time fan of their games, I always found their stories interesting. From how terrible Umbrella is to Frank’s interview with that reporter in the live action movie. So it was going to be fun to see this match researched and animated. And indeed it was. From all the wacky things they’ve done in games to how much action there is in the animation. Seeing them fight each other as well as zombies was frikkin awesome to see. And some cool lines coming from the two. After all, while Frank did cover wars, Leon’s been in them.
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#5 - Nightwing vs. Daredevil 
The First Live Action Death Battle! And they done a great job on it! Knowing the people behind it, Nightwing and Daredevil made the most sense out of all the matches since they already got those costumes made. The fight was fun and impressive from the skills the characters have to the actors ability to display them. The research was fun to look into as well, as they had some funny stuff (like Greyson’s butt cheeks having names))
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#4 - Ultron vs. Sigma  
I was rooting for Sigma, but Ultron just proved too much for my favorite virus. I helped a little here and there but not enough to be an influence. Makes me wish this was a War battle between Ultron’s Robots and the Mavericks. The animation was great, the song is pretty catchy, and Sigma’s custom sprites were fun to see in action, especially from a limited sheet like that.
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#3 - Samurai Jack vs. Afro Samurai
First drawn in house animation for Death Battle! And it did a brilliant job on making the two look so fine! I knew a whole lot about Jack, have all his pre-final seasons on DVD. Not a clue on Afro but from what I did see he still was impressive. As for the fight itself it was frikkin awesome to see Afro done in a style similar to Jack. And that ending was so impressive!
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#2 - Thanos vs. Darkseid
Talk about a finale of epic proportions. The two alone could probably take on every Death Battle competitor together and still come out on top. Heck, one of them probably could. Luckily their sights were on each other. It is still impressive how much stuff the two have done, while the current story may make Thanos look impressive, it is likely to be back to square one in the future. And even if those were included, Darkseid still reigns supreme. Animation wise was awesome, from how gigantic the battle is to how cartoony Deadpool was. Maybe in the future we will see a 3D Cartoon Battle. This was definitely a Season Finale worthy of such a title.
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#1 - Optimus Prime vs. RX-78-2 Gundam
While the finale was great, to me this match was the perfect package. From the research on both to the animation (especially for the first time using Unreal) and the thing that wraps it in a bow: the song. I still hear that track so often. This has pretty much everything a Death Battle needed. For me, it would be hard to put this up against Carnage Vs Lucy for my favorite of the season because this one has so much going for it! If you have to see one of this season, it is this match.
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