Stepos Venzny

Final Fantasy VII Remake, when the proper Jenova theme played. Props to the hours of auditory misdirect leading up to it.

“We wouldn’t just play it, of course. That song is too silly for a dramatic scene. But here is a subdued motif to remind you of it.”

“Well we have to play it now because there’s a new Jenova fight but you’re getting the respectable cinematic version.”

“Now the fight’s really getting going, you’re getting the upper hand so time to boost the epicness and heroicness during the climax. Isn’t this song so cool now that we fixed it?”

Then the synthesizer finally kicks in and it’s the most beautiful thing you’ve ever heard.

I simply cannot bring myself to care that giant corporations won’t make as much money as they used to by doing a thing I already don’t really like. If this is what the industry’s death entails, why should anyone grieve?

I like open world games when the time I spend simply being in them without any explicit objective is enjoyable. If I’m thinking “I’m bored, where’s the next task?” then there’s a problem. If I’m thinking “I wonder if I can make a boat that operates by paddling instead of using a fan…” then we’re good.

(Tears of the Kingdom’s physics don’t work that way, I’m sorry to report. Thing flailed around like it was drowning.)

Cults have intentions to exploit and manipulate. LLMs don’t.

You could argue negligence here but not malice. It’s more in line with people falling into wells.

If you limit yourself to only going into dungeons that quests send you to, you’ll have a better time. Legend tells it all the dungeons in this whole game were made by one person, so blundering into random ones tends to be really underwhelming compared to Skyrim. While that is charming for me in its own right to wander into a random dungeon and not know whether there will be anything interesting about it at all, all my best memories of this game are of the quests and the dialogue.

I can’t put Oblivion down but I keep scrapping my character. Started as a stealth build but stealth isn’t as fun as combat. Made an unarmed fighter and was very impressed with how deadly I was but ultimately decided new weapons and spells are a fun treat that I wouldn’t get to have and I regretted how wacky I made his face.

Presently I’m doing a melee/magic type and I accidentally made him look uncannily like Wynn Duffy from Justified. He’s less capable than previous builds but kind of sucking at what he does just feels right with that face.

I immediately bought the Oblivion remaster because I guess I’m that basic. They have done away with my beloved IV LIVI BLIVIO title screen and replaced it with some Doom art, and when exiting the sewer at the beginning I immediately see an Oblivion gate across the river before the point in the story you’re supposed to find them (apparently the new progression lock is that they’re present but non-interactive before then). It seems like it was made with fear that new players would react poorly to the sort of cutesy fantasy that comprises the majority of the game and it needs them to see hellfire quickly so they know it’s “actually” a cool game for cool guys. All the stranger then that they’ve added these bouncy new dialogue animations that would feel at home in The Sims.

But for all my nitpicking, it is still the Oblivion I love and the new visuals are a treat. I really didn’t expect such bold artistic swings as these wacky new heads on the Argonians and goblins or my character’s acrobatic knife moves.

I’m a Khajiit Bard named Stabby Cat who accidentally procured an armored horse because I never bought that DLC before and did not know the consequences of talking to that random Orc. I’ve leveled up twice just from sweet talking shopkeepers to get better prices from them. I crossed paths with a pair of NPCs who immediately complained to each other that they had nothing to talk about, then one thought of a topic but got shut down hard by the other’s direct refusal to participate.

Feels good to be back.

EDIT: I’ve since learned that my non-interactive Oblivion gate was a bug and not actual game design.

I don’t count Jr because he has a Jr in his name. The other two are just Donkey Kong.

Donkey Kong Country’s Donkey Kong wasn’t actually the Donkey Kong from Donkey Kong. I kinda hope this redesign is gonna be justified by saying he’s a third one.

I’m looking forward to rewatching these Duskbloods and Bananza trailers with audio sync later today.

On Wii U, upgraded Virtual Console games were like a buck or two if I’m remembering right. Probably in the five to ten range for full-price games if history’s anything to go on.

You have to pay for Welcome Tour?!

This GameShare thing ruled on DS.

Because those hundreds of hours are spent enjoying yourself.

If you look at your Subscribed page and don’t see any updates, there’s a good chance you’ll leave YouTube without watching anything.

The Home page has a higher likelihood of tempting you to watch something you hadn’t planned on.

I remember this circle art being inside the American manual.

You’ve unlocked a childhood memory. I was like twelve browsing used video games, guy at the store asked me what I liked and I said RPGs. He handed me a copy of Suikoden and said “I know it looks like absolute garbage but I promise it’s actually really good.”

At the time, my taste hadn’t developed enough to understand what was wrong with the American box art but I didn’t say anything.

I’ve never heard of this “pin” before and am fascinated by it. It does what smartphones already do but less conveniently? How did someone even pitch that in the first place?

30 is acceptable for most games but stuff where the gameplay is mainly the movement itself (platformer, racing, first person shooter) needs to hit 60. I could go lower than 30 for the visuals on a lot of games but that’s the threshold where the interface starts feeling unresponsive and that really gets to me.

Flick targeting ruled, people just didn’t give it a chance because it was unfamiliar.