Video Games

As my busy season starts to slow down finally (for those who don't remember, I quit farming in 2014/15, did odd jobs until the fall of 2017, and went to work for an agricultural implements and services dealer, so I'm back on farm schedules), I am finally able to start taking a few minutes for myself with increasing frequency.

On video games:

I got back to playing Dragon Quest 8 on PS2 last weekend and am currently grinding levels to get all party members at least ONE max-level skill. I must say I was quite disappointed by Hero's Lightning Storm, as it turns out it DOES NOT work on metal slimes like one person I read on one FAQ said it would (and it shouldn't, as it is technically a magic effect, to which metal slimes are immune). Angelo actually has TWO skills maxed out, Bows and Staves, because I only ever put points into three skill trees with him. Jessica just needs her Stave tree maxed, although she's still two or three levels from being able to do so; as with Hero, I spread her points across all but one tree, which I don't think I'll ever do again. The game just isn't built to support generalists. And Yangus, despite leveling faster than anyone else, is still three levels from getting his first max tree in Fisticuffs. He's the one I'm worried about, as I didn't know about the possible necessity of Stainless Steal Sickle for skill grinding until it was arguably too late. So, for this game, I may just finish the "first" ending, then leave off the optional ending and do it some time in the future. My daughter and I have already started acquiring the equipment and games we need to play every story line Dragon Quest game from 1 through...whatever the most recent one is. 11 or 12.

This "required" the purchase of a Hyperkin Retron V retro gaming console. I must say, it has been everything it was supposed to be, so far. You put a Gameboy Color cartridge in the Gameboy slot after you've started the system, it copies the ROM to memory, then runs it in an emulator upscaled to 720P and properly framed, no stretching or distortion. Out of the box, it did that. We've tried four games (three Game Boy Color, one Game Boy) and they've all worked. I was most surprised that my original copy of Link's Awakening worked fine after cleaning the contacts on the cartridge, that game has literally just been sitting around through multiple moves since I was 12 or 13, something like that.

In order to continue to the next set of games (the Retron 5 will play Game Boy through Game Boy Advance games), we have also purchased a used Wii U. While there are games on the Wii U we will be playing, the intention is to install the Homebrew channel in order to run a Nintendo DS emulator on the Wii U. This will give us the ability to play all DS games through the 3DS (although obviously without the 3D effect).

Following Dragon Quest, we will move on to either Final Fantasy games or Phantasy Star games, or possibly Shining Force games. Shining Force may be a problem at this point, as some significant titles were released on Sega CD or were Japanese-only releases. I haven't had much time to research it, yet. I don't really have a problem with emulation to solve the problem...the prerequisite is that the game must be playable on the big TV while sitting in a recliner. Ergo the Retron V and and the Wii U to solve all our Nintendo needs. The Retron will cover the two Genesis/Megadrive games that were released as Shining Force 1 and 2 in the U.S., although the story is poorly adapted in SF1 and SF2 is actually SF 3, while SF2 was actually a couple of games that weren't released in the U.S. until they were updated and put on the Sega CD.

Final Fantasy will be easy. I already own the PSOne/Classics releases of Final Fantasy 1 and 2, 4 - 6, and 7 - 9; as well as 10 and 10-2 and 12 for PS2. I also own all of those (through 10 and 10-2 Remastered) on PC, as well. Final Fantasy 3 will have to be purchased for GBA or PSP. 13, 13-2, and 15 will be determined at a later date. The PSP releases are arguably the best versions, at least in most cases, as they generally have the best script adaption and HD graphics, and natively support widescreen. A PSP GO can use a Dual Shock 3 controller, and you can use a mod to connect a controller to a PSP 3000.

Phantasy Star I haven't even looked at, yet. My memory is that the games started on the Master System, and have always been a bit unique in the turn-based role playing game world. Phantasy Star Online was a massive hit in Japan, and is basically the baseline for everything that has been done with Phantasy Star since it originally debuted on the Dreamcast. But I think there were at least 4 or 5 Phantasy Star games before that.

IN other video game news:

I quit playing World of Warcraft, probably for good; or at least until gameplay changes back to support solo players. I quit playing Lord of the Rings Online (again). When I went back to it last year or the year before, whenever that was, I was able to push forward another few areas with my Ranger, plus I leveled at least one of every other type of class to Level 10 or thereabouts. I really wanted to try to get to the Moria expansion, but I just couldn't do it. I understand gameplay in the most recent expansions has changed a bit, but in the earlier expansions the focus is still on party play, and I just wasn't interested in trying to get involved in finding a group that was primarily interested in taking a non-party player along for a tour of the parts of Middle Earth I couldn't get access to on my own. I'll keep an eye on the game; it's changed ownership to a group that's basically finishing out the main content releases and polishing the game, so new game modes and refreshes of early content for all the "other" players may be coming soon.

So, while I still have a bunch of MMORPGs installed on my computer, the only one I'm playing regularly is Star Wars The Old Republic. I'm on my last original character story, the Jedi Knight. Once that's done, it's time to go back; probably to my Sith Agent, and start working through expansions. And probably completely rebuild how I play the character now that I have the experiences I've gained with all the other classes under my belt. The Agent was still the best storyline I've had, although the utter inability to follow up with the character I created in the first bit of added content (where I basically am assumed to hold the opposite opinion on one of the fundamental issues facing the Sith Empire than I the one I actually HAVE) is BY FAR the single must frustrating story element I've faced. But I haven't started that storyline with any other character, yet...so we'll see.

*Basically, my Sith Agent followed the story options that resulted in her being highly dismissive of and opposed to the current Sith regime, and supportive of a powerful Rogue Sith who believed that the Sith Pureblood rejection of anyone who wasn't Sith Pureblood or Human weakened the Empire and doomed it to fail. He set out, during the story, to take out the current leadership and remake the Empire. I'll just say the my Sith Agent was a silent but active supporter. She's a big believer in the Imperial Bureaucracy, and everything she experiences in the story re-enforces that belief. THE FIRST NEW CONTENT AFTER THE MAIN STORY ENDS assumes you opposed this guy like all the other right-thinking Sith did and you're tasked with taking him out. NO YOU DON'T get the option to secretly support him anymore, YOU'RE A SERVANT OF THE EMPIRE DAMMIT AND SITH HATE THE FAHKING ALIENS AND ANYONE WHO BOOSTS THEM UP. I tore my fahking hair out during that story.

This ended up being a lot longer than I expected. I guess I'll talk about movies and anime in a separate post. I've got a review of the Godzilla: King of the Monsters to write, and both Isekai Quartet and One Punch Man Series 2 are almost done. Plus I've finally watched The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya and Kantai Collection The Movie. Regarding the latter, I apparently zigged when most people zagged; I thought the movie was brilliant. I loved it. It was exactly what I wanted, and I enjoyed every minute of it. I gather at this point that is NOT the more popular opinion of the movie. While "like" and "dislike" are certainly subjective and not worth arguing over, a quick google of reviews brings up the same phrase over and over "not the Kantai Collection I know and love." This is probably a fair assessment from many points of view. And while I liked Kantai Collection, the series, readers here or at Wonderduck's Pond may recall that I was extremely frustrated early on because the world didn't make sense to me. I finally just let it go and enjoyed what was presented. Well, The Movie just about answered all my questions, and made the world make sense. To me. And it was a good movie and story beyond that.



Anyway, there's another review coming for that. And I really want to write up Overlord Series 2 as I did with Series 1.

Gone Home and Tacoma by Fullbright don't need to be reviewed by me. These two games are the legends of walking simulator/storytelling games. An interactive novel like Highway Blossoms may scratch a certain itch, and is certainly a deep and well told story. My recently-reviewed experience with Lifeless Planet adds jumping puzzles and massive levels to explore. But in Gone Home and Tacoma, Fullbright absolutely NAILED straightforward interaction and an immersive environment that substitutes for challenging gameplay and the fear of failure.

They also mastered the concept of subverting expectations.

There will be minor spoilers. It's a review, after all. I will warn you now that both of these games are worth playing. Either will take just a few hours.



In Gone Home, you play the role of a young woman returning home after a year spent touring Europe. The game begins with you leaving an answering machine message for your mother telling her you'll take a cab home from the airport, so she doesn't need to come pick you up. When you arrive home, on an appropriately dark and stormy night, you find the lights out and the house locked up.

Oh, incidentally this is a new house for your family. They moved in about six months ago; inheriting the small mansion from your father's wealthy, reclusive uncle. This isn't the house you lived in or grew up in, so everything is new to you. Many boxes are still sitting in closets unpacked, and some rooms show recent renovation work being done.

Checking the answering machine you find your message, and a sobbing girl calling for your sister, Sam. You have no idea what's up with that. You soon find a letter from your sister apologizing for not being here for you, and imploring you to not come look for her, and don't go looking around for explanations, especially not in the attic! Ominously, the attic entrance is surrounded by red fairy lights, which looks positively demonic in the darkened house.



The attic is locked, and so you wander the house; learning Sam's story and, if you look hard enough, a handful of family secrets hidden away in a few corners. The music is eerie, and doors constantly creak open around you...or at least they sound like they do. You are so convinced of what you're going to find at the end of the trail that the actual ending takes you completely by surprise. And it's wonderful. And it's consistent with things that you wouldn't be told in letters from home. There is one narrative trick used in order to tell the story in a slow manner, but I'll forgive Fullbright for that. It works.



Tacoma is the Tacoma, a lunar orbit transfer station. 100 years into the future, you are a data recovery contractor sent in to recover the Artificial Intelligence and all station records off of the Tacoma, following an accident that caused the station to be abandoned. You travel through the station, following promptings and directions from your employer to recover the necessary data. At different levels, while the data is downloading, you can explore and discover remnant recordings of both the last three days on the station after the accident and older files that tell you about the contracted staff who maintained Tacoma.

Moreso than Gone Home, Tacoma is framed as a mystery. An asteroid impact disables the life support equipment of the station. The regulations say the station owner will immediately dispatch a rescue ship, but the crew want some re-assurances. So does the station AI, Odin; one of the older AI's in existence. The crew doesn't trust their employer, and the player is playing the game having seen many stories of spaceship AI's murdering the crew, especially after being giving orders that contradict programming. Fullbright manages to flip the script again; and there are plenty of clues to tell you how everything is going to go if you're paying attention.



Both of these games are short, and can usually be purchased cheaply. If you haven't tried either one, then get both. They're well worth it.

Lifeless Planet is one of the better reviewed "walking simulator/storytelling" games that has come out in recent years. In fact, it's one of the few that I was really excited to play based purely on pre-release info and imagery:



Early space exploration, Soviet iconography, and the requisite "things not being what they seem" plot. Sounds like an opportunity for great sci fi!

Well, almost. Don't get me wrong, it's a good game if you like the genre. You follow a linear path through the game, gradually learning the story through the landscape and interacting with recordings and writings. The core story is pretty decent, but the creators failed in a few small but important elements. There will be spoilers here, so if you want to enjoy this game yourself (no reason you shouldn't, especially if you can get it under $10) go do that now. A slow play-through will take 8 - 10 hours. I read recently that a speed run can take as little as 90 minutes.

The Core Story:

You, "Astronaut", appear next to a spacecraft that looks similar to an Apollo Command Module. You have a concussion, and your two fellow astronauts are missing, although there are footprints leading away into the distance. Seeing as Command Modules aren't capable of takeoff, you would assume that your return to space will be handled by some other spacecraft you are unaware of. Except the narration (by yourself) informs you that the three of you were meant to land on a lush, fertile, Earth-like world and...just live there? There's no mention of colonists on the way or building settlements or anything like that. But, since the world you're on is clearly NOT lush and fertile, and in fact doesn't even appear to have much oxygen, things have clearly gone wrong.

The Subplot:

Or you're insane, which may have something to do with your missing/divorced/lost/dead wife. Here's where the story starts falling down. Astronaut doubts his sanity several times early in the game. There's the concussion, of course; but you also see visions of hospital beds with accompanying life support equipment. This visions only occur in the first two or three chapters, right up until you find out he has a missing/divorced/lost/dead wife. Then the visions stop for the rest of the game, and the subplot with the wife just disappears until the very end. Except for the Fourth Twist.

The First Twist:

After climbing over a mountain ridge and encountering a massive network of deep canyons, you come across elevated power or telegraph lines. This is one of the famous images shared from the game. Those lines lead to a small village on the rim of a canyon.



This is a Soviet Union-era village, completely deserted and even partly buried in blowing sand. The structures are all wooden, and appear to have been abandoned for at least 50 years. You find one of your missing companions, nearly dead of giant-hole-in-chest disease, which makes me wonder why I share my oxygen with him as I watch it leak out through the hole in his everything. Also there is a secret lab nearby.

The Second Twist.

In the lab, almost everything is revealed: in 1974, the Soviets discovered a mysterious portal in Siberia that instantly teleported them to this lush, fertile, Earth-like planet. They immediately began colonizing the planet; keeping its discovery secret from the rest of the world until they had become the de facto masters of this new planet. The Soviets built towns, laboratories, dams, radio towers, etc. The only problem was massive electro-magnetic interference that caused Earth power solutions to be largely ineffective.



So the Russian scientists started experimenting with the power source for the portal itself: a mysterious green moss that covered almost the entire planet. They called it "The Green Fire." They were excited when they realized they had an entire world of powerful energy that was practically unlimited! The records also indicate experiments on a person, which turns out to make no sense.

The Third Twist:

It turns out all these portals and the portal power sources are actually ancient artifacts left over from some alien race. Whatever they were, they were giants, and they're all gone, now. It's not clear whether they are from this planet or colonized it themselves, building portals across the galaxy.



The Soviets originally tapped into this technology, harvesting the excess energy. They eventually learned how to tap into the energy directly.

The Fourth Twist:

The moss isn't infinite! The Soviets cross a line and the planet begins dying. The moss dwindles, and the portals from and to Earth fail. The colonists are stranded on this world. Desperate for answers, they discover a woman who has mutated to adapt to the green moss, The scientists begin experimenting on her; injecting alien DNA to make her more powerful. Or something. And she's still alive! She's probably the Soviet woman you've been following across the landscape, who seems to want you to follow her. Did I not mention that? That's because I think you're meant to initially believe Astronaut is imagining her, because of his missing/lost/divorced/dead wife. Her footsteps create the green moss on the ground everywhere she goes, so you can follow her at night.

The Fifth-nth Twists:

The Soviets knew all along the aliens crash landed here! They found a crater and the remains of the alien ship! It was probably millions of years ago! Some of the portals are basically giant rock arches like you see in Arches National Park, meaning they must be millions of years abandoned, but others are still fully functional alien technology! The aliens are still here! They are giant Ents that live under the surface of the planet that have been trying to kill you because humans destroyed their planet! Except for them! After you supercharge the Russian Mutant Woman with the Alien Green Fire Energy she merges with one of the Ents and starts giving life back to the planet, because that was how she mutated! There's one more functional portal, and it's supposed to go to Earth! Or maybe it goes to the Alien Home World!



Oh, and your wife is dead. She fell while hiking and was already decomposing when you found her. You put her on some type of cryogenic life support in case someone finds the cure for dying and decomposing while you're gone on your 15 year+ lightspeed trip.

Relativity:

Oh, God and then there's time relativity. The Lifeless World is fifteen years away. So the astronauts are cryogenically slowed down so they don't age 15 years during the trip. So there's that. The Soviets, when they discover the portal back to Earth, realize that the Earth on the other side of the portal is something like twenty years into the future from their point of view. When the portals start to break down, the time dilation gets worse somehow. It's very hard to place where anything is in the timeline because of this, because early on it's implied there is a lot of two-way travel and communication, and then later in the story you learn that's impossible.

This applies to the alien technology as well. Things you see early on you learn later are ancient relics of the alien technology that are so old they appear to be part of the landscape now. And yet some of the alien technology is just fine.

You realize in the end that the writer either told you what he wanted you to believe at different parts of the story, or didn't ever bother to go back and check his continuity. Because the story is told slowly enough, almost everything works *in the moment*, but you realize after stepping back that many later story elements contradict earlier revelations. Not as in clarification, but as in retcon. The problem is that most of the retcons make the earlier story elements impossible. The scientists can't both not know whether the aliens were native to the planet, and also have found their crashed ship right after starting the colony.



The game attempts to explain the story in the order you experience the story, when you're actually playing through areas that affect different parts of the timeline. So the story you experience has different motivations and explanations than the story you're told. Now, I just made that sound a lot more clever than it is. In fact, I left the possibility open that it was actually a clever idea that plays with the timeline. It doesn't. It isn't. It's an issue of having to re-write things in order hide elements of the story that you're not meant to know about early on. This ends up clumsy and confusing. The "wife" subplot ends up completely meaningless. My best guess is that it was included in order to ramp up the mystery of the Russian woman, but even that seems half-hearted. I'm starting to suspect it was element of an earlier version of the story that they ended up abandoning or changing. Maybe the Russian woman was originally a phantom that lead Astronaut to safety; which is when you learn that he can't let his dead wife go. I don't know. But it doesn't work in the published version of the story.

Missed Opportunities:



So look at that image. I've been crawling through this world for a couple of hours or more at this point. I have just recently learned how the Soviets killed almost all life on the planet. A mysterious Russian woman with glowing green eyes and green footprints seems to be leading me somewhere. And after finishing an area, I come upon this view. The woman staring into a huge depression that extends to the horizon in all directions. Clearly some kind of marker stacked on the precipice she's standing on. I immediately thought "Oh, my God, that used to be an ocean!"

Maybe it was. Maybe it wasn't. The game has no opinion. Something that awe-inspiring, and the game just ignores it. Instead, when you approach the woman (after another jumping puzzle), she cliff-dives off the edge and you get transported to the next area. Oh, yes. Transported. Some areas of the game you just walk from one area to the next, but for some reason several transitions are hard cuts where you're just suddenly in a different region. I guess you're meant to believe you're at the bottom of the cliff you were just standing on, but it's not always very clear. This jerks you out of the story every time it happens. The game has you scale a sheer volcano wall at one point, there was NO REASON for hard cuts between areas!!!

In The End:

The atmosphere and design of this game are a 9/10. The music is pretty good, the graphics are good enough, the actual experience of standing the game and looking around is phenomenal. The Soviet-era architecture is fantastic. The game mechanics are good. Gameplay exists of platformer-style jumping puzzles, and all but a few areas are dead simple; present only to add just a touch of difficulty to ramp up tension at times, and engage the mind.

Disappointingly, the story is where the game fails, but not too badly. It's easy enough to ignore the fridge logic and just move through the game so you can see what happens next. In fact, I finished the game in about 9 hours over three consecutive days. It was after the second day, after going through all of the mid-game revelations and heading into the final segments, that I started realizing that the story was contradicting itself in some areas. That the timeline didn't make enough sense to help explain anything. But I didn't care in the end; it was still fun to play. The conclusion is satisfying enough, though predictable.

The failure is that it was so close to being a truly excellent story, and fell just a bit short. Still, as I already said, I recommend it. Pick it up on sale and you'll get a good ten hour experience out of it, maybe.

The second bit of cheesecake I got in Go! Go! Nippon!

The first echi encounter with Makoto from Go Go Nippon! Clear version and foggy version.

Clear

Steamy

It begins.

Friend Wonderduck sends me a message: "Have you heard of a game called Doki Doki Literature Club? It's a free visual novel. You should play it. Don't look it up first. Just download it."

He neglects to mention that it's available on Steam, so I open up Bing and do a search:



I message Wonderduck: "What kind of prank are you trying to pull?" No response. (maybe because he was at work. maybe.)

I download the game, but don't start it. He asks about it later. I tell him I haven't started, yet. "Also, I mentioned it to my daughter. She's playing it, and said I should keep the games file folder open while I play. She won't tell me why." Wonderduck tells me to make sure I play at least the first chapter by tomorrow evening. Halloween Night.

The next night, I start up the game. This is what I see:



I am worried. The next screen is this:



And finally, the game pops up this screen:



I realize now that I've been had. But so many people are recommending this game, I feel I should continue. I am watching for tells now:



I know what I'm in for now. I feel I should also point out that "Doki Doki" is a Japanese onomatopoeia; it is supposed to convey the sound of a beating heart. The connotation is fluttery excitement, but it could most literally be translated in English as "Heartbeat Heartbeat Literature Club" or maybe "Excited Heartbeat Literature Club". Or "Pounding Heartbeat Literature Club".



I won't say more, to avoid spoilers. All I will say is that the warnings at the beginning of the game aren't misleading, and aren't facetious. I'm on my third trip through the game, now. I thought it was over after the first time. It wasn't. That was when the really horrible things started. I finished that trip through the story last night.

I won. I beat the devil. I deleted files to stop the story.

And then the game started over again.

I don't know when it will end.

I don't know if it even can end.

UPDATE: I've got all the videos uploaded to a Twitch.tv collection, too:

Watch live video from FourNerdFamily on www.twitch.tv

I've finished editing and uploading Blade Kitten: Episode 1. Please note "Episode 1" is the name of the game, not the first video. There is a DLC/sequel game named "Episode 2". It is, I am reasonably sure, 100% complete including all hidden items.



I am in the process of adding all of my videos to Twitch.tv, which I suspect may be the future of gaming/let's play/video game reviews and commentary. YouTube is just getting too hostile to content creators in this area. I made light of the accusations for a while, until several acquaintances started having severe problems with YouTube basically flagging every video they upload that has a name-brand mentioned in it as "inappropriate content". It's pretty clear YouTube doesn't want gamers anymore.

I have now completed the Emi, Shizune, and Lilly arcs; all with the good endings. I'm not, unless someone provides a compelling reason, interested in the bad endings. I've picked up some hints that some of the bad endings aren't "bad" per se, just not the best ending; but I'll let it lie unless there's a reason I should explore. This will contain spoilers, so the rest is below the fold for those who haven't played yet and still intend to.

So, the first story I do in Katawa Shojou features surprise buttsecks. I figured that had to be way out on a limb in "surprising territory." But here's what I encounter in the second story:

My girlfriend, her best friend, my girlfriend's little sister, their father. He's a "consultant".

In this arc, the main character (you) Hisao's dating Shizune on the left; who is deaf. Her best friend is Misha, and Hideaki is Shizune's little sister brother. Their father, the "consultant", offers to feed me bear liver when we first meet. This game.

(I'm not done with this arc yet, but I haven't enjoyed Shizune's story as much as Emi's. I like Hideaki, though. And in this game, that makes things creepy.)