Deady

Going to Guam or wherever it is in Red Dead Redemption 2 is a drag. Pretty much any “on-rails” section of a game where you go through the motions and the only point is to get through it as quickly is possible is annoying.

@DKGXX85 I’m sure Blasphemous 2 is great on switch, I played the original on Switch and loved it. I basically mentioned it because of that (I consider it a switch game I’ve bought this year) but didn’t make that clear.

Here’s the other thing I haven’t made clear: there’s something weird about the character models on every platform. They look small or thin or something compared to 11, I can’t place the oddity, but something is off. They taper. I also played 11 on switch and loved it, played it waaaay too much.

I think if you’re playing a brand new AAA PS5/XSX game on a plain old Nintendo switch you have to have realistic expectations. The argument that this shouldn’t cost the same as the other platforms doesn’t make sense. It took extra work and another company to try and cram this thing down to a shape and size that would work at all on switch. Why should it cost less than the others? Also, if it should cost less, why are the expectations as high as they are?

I’ve had my switch since launch and I love the stupid thing but at this point, it’s there for first party games until Nintendo puts out a new console. I haven’t touched it in months. (I got blasphemous 2 for PS5)

Alana describing everything as stunning? Shock. It was very not-stunning. The original game’s economy of animation isn’t quite on display here. This looks more like they tried and failed at a look rather than holding back and stylizing. I really hope this doesn’t falter at the finish line. With all that said, I love Suikoden so as long as this doesn’t release completely broken I will happily jump in.

This game could be fun for a right price, but this year has given console owners such an embarrassment of riches to experience (with more to come) that anything that isn’t absolutely amazing or perfectly keyed in to the individual player’s wavelength will disappear.

Sometimes I order delivery from two different pizzerias just to yell Mortal Kombat when the drivers arrive.

Jumping back and forth between a replay of Blasphemous (1) and armored core 6.

BLAS-PHE-MOUS! BLAS-PHE-MOUS! BLAS-PHE-MOUS! BLAS-PHE-MOUS!

The year is one, and on day one, god is done.

I know that the retail price of videogames in the US is a margin (diff between cost and price) of around $10-12 generally. Not much for retailers compared to goods like clothing, but I have to imagine if cost is that high then the margins are also pretty slim for publishers, considering marketing, printing, logistics, etc. Very high fixed costs. I’m not an expert but I know enough to be interested in finding out how much profit is actually involved in any of this.

Regardless, GDP is affected by more than just the sales and profit. Money put into the economy by consumers has a multiplicative effect, all other things being equal. Ie: Nintendo pays people to print the games, those people spend wages in the economy. We buy copies of the game, people working at those stores continue to have employment and spend money in the economy, etc. essentially: part of that $70 gets spent again and also counts toward economic growth. Weird stuff that makes sense to me in theory but I have a hard time wrapping around reality. In any case, yeah creating a billion dollar videogame might bump JP GDP a little nudge upward, but so does buying a Japanese Snickers bar. JP gdp is around $5trillion.

Midnight bathroom break economics.

Wait a minute, can you boycott a product or service you weren’t using in the first place? If you decide not to buy something because the features are lackluster for the price, that’s just a matter of being a reasonable consumer.

Blasphemous for sure. I’ll buy it day one to show love and play it by the end of the year. Sea of Stars is promising but I’ll wait for reviews and compare PS5/Switch compatibility.

Well I took a break from Zelda for Street Fighter 6 (it’s cool), then Final Fantasy 16 (first time since 12 I’ve gotten to the end of an FF and said, “that was good,” though I eventually grew to love 15) then Diablo 4, but I’m at the point in Diablo where I remember it’s not actually fun, it’s just very effectively addictive (I’m not even through the campaign) so I might go back to TotK soon.

An obscene, grotesque videogame feast as I nibble and pick at Tears, Street Fighter 6, Final Fantasy XVI, and Diablo IV. Laugh and grow fat.

If it makes you cry and cry again, just repeat, “serenity now”

I’m working the miniskirt and strappy sandals from the very beginning of the game, and nothing else. Link is a golden god. The philistines will see in time.

JCVD skin for Cage would be cool as hell and a nice way to bring that full circle. I dig Ermac and Quan Chi.

Phewwww I’m not sure why I didn’t realize that would escalate so quickly. My god. Anyway I loved MK11 and I look forward to this. The fatalities really do bother me these days though so I usually don’t use them.

I work in a retail warehouse where I spent a month and a half explaining to leads how huge this was going to be, the an entire work week making sure my shift handled every Zelda game, amiibo, etc correctly, and then spent the entire next week going through tens of thousands of lines of data to figure out how and who screwed one thing up.

It’s big.

That mug looks like it would be very hard to drink out of without making a mess.

The McQuarrie art is pretty cool. I have this game but I haven’t started it. I may want to hold off on Zelda a bit to put it off to a time when I can cherish it, I’m busy with school now. I realize at the pace Nintendo makes Zeldas and my age, I may only have four or five left in my life. I just finished bloodborne and might spend school time with skywalker lego.

No, it is not time for a Zelda 1 remake. Thank you.

I don’t look at Link as a self-insert type silent character. I posted this recently, but to me, he doesn’t speak because we already know his answer. He’ll do the right thing, he’ll do his best, he’ll help people and go out of his way to do it, he’ll never stand still when he can step forward. Link is a servant-hero with a true heart and a clear mind. I don’t see this as a weakness or being single-dimensional. It’s what makes him important to me and at this point it might make him unique.

I am really not into the VA in breath of the wild and I think the style of voice they use wouldn’t match Link. If Link does ever speak I would want it to just be a few words, possibly in a fantasy language. Like Samus in Dread.

@WaffleRaptor01 Funny my first Zelda was the original and I always thought he was supposed to Link together the pieces of the triforce in that one. I was very young.

I have all of these games in various forms across GBA, DS, and playstations. I would maybe buy digital bundle on a deep sale to have them all in one place but I’m not feeling anything in regards to this collection right now.

I had a good time, the other middle aged people and kids all around me in the theater had a good time. The music was great and the whole thing was easy on the eyes, as well. I have to believe any amount of negativity toward it is cynical or based on entirely unrealistic expectations.

There’s a movie theater out here with bar/grill service and big leather recliner chairs in the auditorium, and I’m going tomorrow evening.

I read the first paragraph and skipped to the score, I’m in.

97, 98, 01 all pretty spectacular, particularly for PlayStation owners. 92 was a great year for games and movies.

When Fire Emblem Engage came out my warehouse took in a couple thousand of the rereleased Marth amiibo, but the company had assigned a new internal SKU despite the unit itself using the same barcode as the original run, which nearly caused us to be unable to ship them day one because we could not receive them into stock. We had to wait for headquarters to resolve our support ticket and make the change on their end so we could systematically receive and prepare them for shipment.

It helps to be reminded to stay ahead of it this time around.

Just got back from trading this heap for credit toward RE4 remake, and good riddance.

I’ve never considered Link as a self-insert, I mean I’ve literally never felt that way while playing. I think Link doesn’t talk because he doesn’t have to. He’s just a person who is good and true of heart. He doesn’t speak because the people who need his help know his answer is, “Yes.” He doesn’t need to speak because the bads know he will resist them. He’s a nobody who shows up a critical moments in history while the wisest and most powerful are distracted with each other. Yeah it’s one dimensional, but there’s a lot we can infer or expand on while playing these games.

On the topic, with TP Link as the top it should be noted that that’s really the only game where anyone acknowledges how hard and unfair the whole thing really is. Midna says so, I think in the cutscene after the third prologue-ish dungeon. I argue that Zelda 2 Link is the baddest of all mammajammas though because that is the hardest Zelda and he survived it. No pants, no potions, no problem.

@KingOhger You’re totally right. I feel like this is (as other more informed commenters than I have noted) is part of the pandemic movement and questionable authority of grading companies that came from it. Million dollar Pokémon cards and NES games certainly have collector value, and could be argued to have cultural value as well. I wonder if there’s an echo chamber of value inflation, or intentional fixing and have my doubts as to whether any of these values from the recent years would actually grow as time goes on. It is unfortunate that hobby/love collectors are completely priced out of these items.

The most expensive collectible I have cost me $600, a 1962 hardcover of The Stealer of Souls signed by Michael Moorcock. Since there’s not a demand/investment market, I was able to afford this just as something for me to keep and cherish.

I have a book that was published 110 years ago of which only 1200 copies were ever printed in the world. It cost $6. Scarcity does not equal value.

Continuing a solo level 1 Wretch playthrough of Elden Ring. I’m at the last boss. It’s been fun and surprisingly manageable.

Fire emblem engage during breaks.

In the original Silent Hill there’s a puzzle in Nowhere concerning Zodiac signs and numbers. My sister and I spent hours going through her astrology books and finding different correlations and coincidences to try. Nothing worked.

Turned out the number in the puzzle just corresponded to the number of extremities in the images used to represent each zodiac. I actually called the damn tip line.

19 games. Should take about 22 years to add to the service.

@Bobb yeah but it’s coarse and rough, and it gets everywhere

Link generally but as with anything else if I have multiple files or some such I use my longtime online names and abbreviations.

They seriously brought vouchers back just to pull this move.

Zelda is life but I might actually wait a week and buy it preowned, even if it’s still over $60, just to keep a sale from ticking.

I have all the Etrians on DS, and I have Prime trilogy on Wii U, and I also have them all emulated on series x for good measure, but I might get them anyway. Sea of Stars looks really good, the demo isn’t bad from what I’ve played, I’m hopeful it’ll turn out alright. I like Layton too but I assume that is ultra early since all we got is a title.

@KateGray Thank you for bringing Madeline Miller into my life. “In the darkness, two shadows, reaching through the hopeless, heavy dusk. Their hands meet, and light spills in a flood like a hundred golden urns pouring out of the sun.”

!!!Spoilers abound for shadow of the colossus and final fantasy X!!!

@Vexx234 Here we gooooo. Well in Shadow, Wander’s beloved was sacrificed to prevent some sort of foul curse from taking hold. He goes to summon a supposed demon to bring her back, which may or may not destroy the world. In the end he succeeds in reviving her, but the church destroys him and the demon, though the curse may live in the horned children. Wander is sacrificed, unwillingly and with only sorrow and regret in his heart, never knowing he succeeded in reviving Mono.

In FFX, we find out in order to slay (for simplicity’s sake) a demon, we have to sacrifice our love interest and probably ourself in the process. We deny the church, destroy the only thing that could have stopped the demon, and still somehow manage to slay it, and save Yuna, but only by sacrificing ourself. Tidus would die either way, and chose to go forward into oblivion with an abundance of joy and love in his heart, knowing the cycle had ended and no one would ever have to make that choice again.

I love Yuna’s “I don’t like your plan” speech in FFX-2. It’s a strong commentary on the terrible things people can do when they lose hope, or convince themselves there is no other choice.

@Vexx234 You sum it up well. There was an excellent fold-out print ad in magazines back then where the cover was just Wander on a moonlit mountain path and the words, “How far will you go for love?”

I’m having all sorts of thoughts about how this and the endgame of FFX are sort of related to one another but it would be a monstrous text wall.

Clearing Link’s Awakening on gameboy as an eight year old was, oh, let’s say affecting. I was already, unfortunately, death-obsessed and that ending hit me immediately and haunted me.

When I finally escaped hell for the first time in Hades and realized I was still going to be pulled back, I had the horrible feeling of the end of Shadow of the Colossus on PS2, but I was resolved to return again and again until hopefully the end changed. I consider reuniting the lovers, Eurydice/Orpheus and Achilles/Patroclus, to count as endings as well. Especially after reading The Song of Achilles.

I would throw the beautiful and heart crushing ending of Banner Saga 1 in here as well. I thought I was saving her, and after that ending I thought, just let the world end.

If we’re cheating by using ports, Final Fantasy X and X-2 endings /still/ get me.

@RadioHedgeFund Zidane really proves to be such a true-of-heart hero in Kuja’s final moments. The sequence at the play, damn, it’s just sweet as hell.

I just want Doritos now.

As long as Link doesn’t suddenly start talking I’ll be perfectly happy.

For today’s exercise we will define courage. Courage is never standing still when one can step forward.

Ok now you

@ThisisJosh Yeah it’s a funny thing to say but I think a lot of people don’t realize just how big the average tall person is, especially tall men. Hands like frying pans, big all over, automatically strong as hell.

I wonder what they actually mean by “waist” in this case. A woman’s waist might be considered above her belly button but a man’s might basically count as the hip. The slimmer I am the higher I want my pants, but it’s pretty variable across all types. The old English pro wrestler Big Daddy probably had a 70” waist (or more, his /chest/ was 64”) but he certainly wasn’t pulling his pants all the way up there and he had little chicken legs.

Safety first. Ladders have weight limits too but I’ve never heard anybody complain about them. I work in a warehouse, not everyone can do everything, I’m straight up too short for some things and as a rule I have to ask tall people for help. If you can be too little for a ride, you can probably be too big for a ride. Keep in mind, a short person who’s way overweight would still fit on this ride. I would know.

At 5’7” I’ve weighed as little as 120 and as much as 215 (definitely obese) at various points as an adult. I don’t understand this thing some people do where every single thing is a matter of pride or community. There are people who are so desperate to be part of something that they’ll choose anything as their key identifier (looking at you, incels) just to validate whatever feature they’ve selected. If I’m 5’7” and 220, I’m shortening my life. I don’t want to join a community of people who are proud of this. Identifying as and accepting a negative that you may have the power to change is a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Real talk, as a chronic depressive who has managed not to kill himself this whole time, I despise self-fulfilling prophecies. Whatever your darkness is, you are better than it.

I’m not surprised by FE’s drop. Despite the popularity of its last few installments it’s still the sort that the primary fans get immediately and then it dies off. Especially with word of mouth on this one being less characterization, which means fewer people drawn in for home building aspect.

I expect Ragnarok will continue to be strong as PS5s are becoming more and more readily available. I wasn’t interested in Forspoken but still tried the demo with some hope and eh, it just couldn’t pull it together. Bummer but it happens. I look forward to FFXVI.

Just here to high-five you for that subheader. Later.

I once handed a partner the controller while I went to cook. She liked a town in red dead redemption 2 and wanted to walk around, she had never played it. I said, “Just don’t press R2”

Thirty seconds later - “R2?” BOOM

She “accidentally” executed an old woman on her own porch and laughed as I ran to take the controller and kill a dozen more innocent people fleeing the scene. I was a white-hat good guy damn it.