indigozeal

OK, here's the deal: I'm stuck in a huge work project - again - and had my posting aspirations derailed - again. So, again, I'm gonna go through my link backlog throughout the evening and, when I have time, post a few noteworthy entries. Such as:

- Big news in the semi-recent past of the world of Resident Evil is the discovery of an ISO of the "Resident Evil 1.5" predecessor to RE2, the version that was scrapped ~90% to completion. Well, someone's post a playthrough of what's available. I'm only halfway through it myself, but appreciated so far: the apparent presence of a shooting gallery puzzle; Ada's job change; Leon using his idle animation to smooth his hair. The redo was a wise decision, but there were some interesting set pieces in this build, like the zombies sporadically breaking through the barriers of the police station. (I would've liked to have seen what would have happened with the Marvin infection subplot. Probably the same thing that happens with all zombie infection subplots, but still.)

- This is a thin but not-bad remix of the Secret of Mana dungeon music. (Note: That account has a lot of doujin VGM remix music posted; I have to go through it myself.)

- I don't understand what any of the elements in the preview image for this Pac-Man game have to do with each other at all.

- Yume Nikki has spawned a slew of fan games where mute protagonists explore their own dreamscapes. I've seen a few gifs from Answered Prayers, and it looks intriguing visually.

- Wrong Angelique. Though you might not think that initially.
(By the way: In looking at that artist's other work, I see there's a thriving Greek mythology art community on Tegaki.)
(By the by: this is a nice Athena, and someone responded with a compliment from what I think is a guy from Dragon Warrior II.)

- Part of a portmortem on how much indie games from the creator of the terrific Cook, Serve, Delicious as he tracks sales of that title. Really honest and intriguing.

- This neat Mystic Ark montage gif of all seven Arks can't be posted on Tumblr due to size, so here.

- - The Baten Kaitos fanfic "The Broken Mirror" follows Skeed & Vallye as they investigate the assassination of Duke Calbren during a humanitarian visit to Alfard. The siblings, who are here depicted in-character as national-minded rich prigs but cast interestingly as protagonists instead of simple villains, find sympathy for the "kind, steady, peaceful" Calbren that surprises even themselves ("she'd almost liked him"), engage in Nick-and-Nora-ish banter with each other (which, er, shouldn't be right, but can anyone really say it'd be surprising given that family & Alfard in general, really), and attempt to form an uneasy working relationship with the newly-minted Duchess Melodia, whose presence in the Empire is discomfiting given recent events and, particularly in a land so dependent on technology, Melodia's affinity for the deeper magics. Lyude is not present, not mentioned, and may not even exist in the universe of the fic. The story's not close to finished, but it's got more than enough - interesting post-game politics and good glimpses at an unusual cast - to make what is present worth the trip.
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I can't say that all of the things below made me happy. Some of them made me happy. Some of them made me puzzled. Some of them left me with foreboding. All of them are definitely things.

- First thing off the bat: I mentioned Yahtzee Croshaw's "Let's Drown Out" short LP series in the previous post, but I can't recommend them as a whole; the friend with whom he's commentating doesn't bring out the best in him, and there's guaranteed to be at least one unfortunate comment or laddish "ironic" use of a slur per video. Fair warning.

- Run Button is doing a run of Silent Hill 4. Their Silent Hill videos are not the unambiguously good thing they once were, though; after posting a near-definitive blind run of 1, they stumbled through 2 and 3 and are at the point where they're kind of mentally done with the series but are persisting in going through the motions. They're not even at the stage yet where they hate the game, and they're already bogged down in iPhone talk. Oh, dear. (I'm also not sure they're doing this run blind.) But they are unequivocally going to get the bad ending, and it's going to be interesting to see them struggle with that. I just hope they pay enough attention to the game to notice.

- The extremely popular YouTubers at Game Grumps also started their own Silent Hill 4 playthrough, though it seems to have stalled out at episode #7. Their commentary is several cuts below the usual standards, though, and I stopped browsing after their channel after I hit one video where they were talking about doing cocaine? What? (The Five Nights at Freddy's videos aren't that bad, though, and are narcotic-free.)

- The Overblood games are genuinely fascinating, in a way: they're PS1 titles made by people who have certain talents but seem to be completely unfamiliar with how to make videogames, and so they put their resources into really odd aspects of production (orchestral music; voice acting that's more "normal" and less affected than what you usually get in games) but completely muff things that are totally taken for granted in more mainstream productions (like, how to make a character walk). Game Informer's LP of Overblood 2 is fascinating in a way because, on top of all of the above, the game is trying to be a rip-off of Final Fantasy VII with a more conventional Western sci-fi novel plot. Unfortunately, the execution of the LP is lacking, with some unfortunate jokes at the start, timing problems in cutscenes (supposedly caused by using European PS1 disc in a U.S. machine) that make the game more bugged than it already is, and a heck of a lot of drowning out the game. I'm really interested in what's going on here but couldn't make it through. Maybe I'll eventually just play the game myself.

- Someone linked to this Popful Mail animated music video, which apparently was a pitch for a full-blown Popful Mail anime. I think we dodged a bullet here, though - it doesn't take long to let you know where its mind is, it does not have the energy or comic timing that Popful Mail needs (every shot is held for at least twice as long as it needs to be), and the whole "timid, ordinary girl from modern world finds self-confidence in a magical fantasyland" trope would've been to a Popful Mail story what Shia LeBeouf's parents were to the Transformers movies were the Transformers movies not already ruined in the first place.
Also, Tatt is amazingly out-of-character here.

- This is a verbose but uniquely smart article about the visceral feedback we get from pressing buttons in videogames and how developers need to be cautious of how they employ that.

- Koei says that the Angelique remake is coming No, Really and released a promo pic in which, as someone on the Angemedia community astutely observed, Clavis & Julious look like they have egg heads.
(Also, the remake's tagline is apparently "Love, or duty?", which means that Ghaleon is now narrating the series.)

- In other news, the Project Scissors game, which is now titled NightCry, has released a trailer. The game looks for all intents and purposes that it is going to be a true Clock Tower in all but name, but...man, that's kind of a rough trailer, isn't it. Not that I think it'll be indicative of the game's quality, but I'm not sure it's the marketing campaign's best foot forward. (It is, unfortunately, kind of emblematic of Takashi Shimizu's output. At least what I've seen of it. I can't say I found The Grudge impressive.)

- Ending on a high note: Giant Bomb's CD-I Don't Know about These Games, Man. Jeff Gerstmann's disgust while playing Dark Castle is palpable.
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I've been following this LP of the Silent Hill cellphone games for a while and keep neglecting to mention it - which is an injustice, since it's a quality look at a unique and not unpleasant curiosity in the franchise. With their odd yet intriguing tale of the survivors of a fire in an orphanage being called back to their childhood home in their adult years, the games capture that lonely, nightmareish quality better than what I've seen of the major U.S.-made entries. The titles also feature a few disconcerting skanceways references to the main games - but the LPer discovers a fine way of coping with that.

A snippet of guitar from Kenji Eno's audio novel Kaze no Regret. Hope to hear more than this of it someday.

From a Japanese version of Ultima IV: that is one sweet bard on the cover, man. She is rocking those '80's leggings. We should aspire to such fashion prowess.

There was a guy at Game Informer whose father enjoyed Resident Evil 4. Thinking Dad might enjoy seeing how the franchise began, the guy invites his dad to play the original RE. It does not go well.

Finally: Hilarious.
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I'm not one for facecam LPs, but I've been enjoying this playthrough of the fast-paced restaurant sim Cook, Serve, Delicious. The couple at the controls have a good, easy chemistry, and they found a smart format - splitting up menu design and food prep - for going through the game. Also: the dramatic e-mail readings.

These guys are kind of doing everything wrong - they're inattentive; there're too many of 'em in the room; they have horrible priorities when it comes to weapons (get a good ranged weapon already and shut up about the fucking lightsaber, cripes); and I still think that Illbleed's gonna be way too much for them - but it's interesting to watch a playthrough of Blue Stinger, the previous title from the makers of Illbleed. It's not exactly a coherent production (big surprise), but it's neat to see little connections to the studio's best-renowned title, such as Eriko's voice actress playing a sniper and the reappearance of the Engrishy soft drink Hassy.

Two solid renditions of one of Mystic Ark's better boss-fight tracks.

Speaking of Mystic Ark: this is a beautiful fan-made poster for the game.

This site linked to my webpage! WHAT DOES IT MEAN!?

An interesting article on making games accessible to the vision-impaired. I'd thought that Soundvoyager and that one playable novel Kenji Eno did were isolated cases; now I see they were just ahead of the curve.

I know that the NES Athena has a notorious reputation nowadays, but it was markedly different from much on the market at the time with all the colorful helmets and weapons and the warps you could find and its areas where you could be an angel or mermaid and its general pastoral sweetness. I wish that cell phone Full Throttle remake/sequel mentioned halfway down this page was playable. It looks bright and cheerful yet in the same visual vein as the original. (So many neat cell phone games lost in Japan; I still remember Friends of Mana. Can't the emulation community do anything?)
Also, re: the original game: tell me that "FROM THE ARCADES: A TIGRESS!!" is not great copy. Not remotely reflective of anything in the game, but still.

Cute in a Zelda 1 way, though way too heavy to hang from your ears.

Rockstar! is one of those text games you don't see that much outside of the first PC golden age. OK, you don't see text games that much anymore period, but what I'm saying about this sim where your little pub band attempts to claw its way to fame and fortune is perhaps best summed up by a quote from the video above: "I like how there is a shortcut button for drugs at the bottom. More games need that." (Plus: the names of the other artists in the game and their work.)
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Vandrell takes professionally-rendered yet imaginative paintings of Sega Genesis games and turns them into alternative boxart. I'm especially fond of his Valis and Burning Force covers.

Arthur Wolfe recently played the distaff member of the Clock Tower series, The Struggle Within a.k.a. Ghost Head, and it turned into An Ordeal, as they say. (Sample chitchat: "I don't get this game." "There's nothing to get. It's terrible." "There is only hate.") It develops into an entertaining fiasco, though. For the viewers, I mean, not the man playing or the folks trying futilely to figure stuff out with help from multiple and apparently conflicting guides. It does so very slowly, though, as is the game's wont, so you might want to have a computer project or something on which to work while you listen. Despite Ghost Head's problems, I'm fond of its MPD-protagonist idea and many of the enemy designs, and I'd still like to see it remade with competent design and a coherent story.

Everything Wrong with the Mortal Kombat Movie in 7 Minutes or Less. I like the montage at the end. (Also: "Every fucking person on this pier is welding something right now.")

Found while I was looking for Garry's status portrait: awesome (and awesomely photographed) Ib cosplay. (Oh, and have an extra painting of Garry, too.)

I haven't played most of these games, but I've always been fond of this writeup Resident Evil plot-analysis author Thomas Wilde did ranking the difficulty of all the RE titles released at time of writing. It's a joy to see someone who knows their stuff analyze something at length.

Speaking of people who know their stuff: "Giant Bomb is entertaining!" is surely not news to most of you reading, but hey, I got on the train late. I'm fond of their Quick Looks, videos averaging about an hour long of two or three amiable and knowledgeable fellows enjoying (or not) and evaluating a recent title - anything from the latest AAA game to obscure indies. Favorites: Killer Is Dead, Hatsune Miku Project DIVA F, Ride to Hell, and Cook, Serve, Delicious, with the late & lamented Ryan Davis, through which I discovered a fast-paced, addictive restaurant sim.
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Sidequest Story is a charming attempt to tell a wordless RPG fantasy tale with effective use of color (each character is identified with a given hue, which is added to the comic's intitally-monochrome palette upon the character's introduction to the story) and a friendly pastel-sketch look. It was never given its creators' full attention and was abandoned after a paltry 58 episodes, but the first "chapter" happily provides a self-contained tale.

The Ten Steps isn't a great short film, but I appreciated its ability to deliver a halfway-decent stinger at the coda without any cheap gore. (What is it, though, with the female leads of horror short films specifically being so fragile? Louise Paxton lets a stalker just stand around in her house, that chick from that home-invasion flick whose title I forget can't even call the police by herself - she has to wait until her boyfriend gets back from work to do it for her - and while the girl here has a good reason for not wanting to go into the basement, it's still frustrating on some level to have the main narrative drive of the story be convincing a girl to work up the nerve to change a freaking fuse.)

Aisle is a text adventure where you get only one turn, after which the game ends. Interesting concept, but taking that one turn can be an issue:

>buy
(your trolley)
You don't want to buy that.

>fly to Rome
I only understood you as far as wanting to fly.

>fly Rome
I only understood you as far as wanting to fly.

>get on airplane
You can't see any such thing.

The site's Elevator does lead to many other, presumably more interactive online text adventures, though.

I have no idea why I bookmarked Bullet Butlers; I presume I thought it another notably loopy otome game, and while the title certain lives up to that billing, the plot seems to rest rather uncomfortably on some RPG-knockoff hokum about ancient floating cities and cadres of Olde Heroes fighting Wars of Legend that's a big drink of water to set up a meager butler harem story. I mention it here only to note the presence of an "Ocelot City." Raccoon not doing it anymore?

I'm not sure I'd like to play The Bridge - single-room physics-puzzle games tend to come off as a chore for me, and the character design is a bit cartoony for my tastes - but I do like the Escher-inspired pencil-drawing aesthetic of its environments.

Victorian-era illustrations of astronomical phenomena that look like they inspired the War of the Worlds movie.

I've never played a Mass Effect game, but I like the gimmick of this alien race.
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Beautiful space-themed jewelry. Also a lookbook featuring the whole collection, including pieces that are currently out of stock. I want that solar system necklace on pg. 22.

The perfect gift for the Clock Tower fan on your list. Er, one month late? Think of it as 11 months early instead!

I'd love to get something at the Tokyo Pen Shop, but I hardly write anything worth pricier stationery, I don't know the differences between the various styles, and I lose so many pens as it is. I find it hard enough to pony up for a Le Pen.

Continuing the complaints about a movie I haven't seen: this is a great discussion of what makes a movie feel "videogamey" in the perjorative sense.

The Character Assassination of Ivan Drago by the Coward Apollo Creed.

I'm impressed by the bananas + peanut butter = ice cream. But this is the second time today that I've seen a frosting-based fudge, and that's just gross. It's just gross, son!

I like the light effects on this T-shirt but find it kind of creepy in a distasteful way. (Also: I kind of like this shirt but am not sure it would work for a woman's figure; I like this shirt, but it would not work on my figure.)

This is a huge cheap shot, and I have not seen a single episode of the show in question, but I find this utterly hilarious.
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- The final fight of Eternal Darkness. It was strong both in gameplay and in sentimental value, particularly after nearly everyone met a wretched end, and did a good deal to put a satisfying capper on an experience that early on was somewhat underwhelming.

- This remix of "To Faraway Times." There's a childish hopefulness to the sound of the piece that dovetails well with the tone of Chrono Trigger's (main) ending. The sweet character themes afterward are gravy (though kudos for the chiptunes croak and the effect at the end). If the chiptune titles remain at this level of quality (HA HA HA), I dearly hope they end up replacing electric guitar as the new remixing trend.

- I'm not sure this makes me happy, exactly, but as someone who remembers the roughness, both on a technical and artistic level, of early FMV efforts, I appreciate the effort put into Stay Dead, even if one of its big setpieces can be summed up with, as supergreatfriend notes, "now it's time to have a stick fight with an undead Nazi!" The genre as a whole still sends me running, but seeing an FMV title with attention paid to cinematography and lighting and image quality is heartening.

- Someone made an Eternal Darkness status meter pendant.

- This fellow has an excellent mix of classic tracks on his jukebox.

- Oh, Dain, sweetie, no - no, you're not. You're...not.

- Forgot I had linked to this. Hilarious.
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I'm thrilled to see that someone's making Animamundi fanart, particularly of the caliber of Candra's work - bold color, strong Art Nouveau-esque lines, and a Lady Death aesthetic. She has other fanart and original work well worth checking out, if you've no problems with the frequent S&M milieu. (Er, but don't go to that Castlevania section at work, unless your boss is particularly permissive regarding scenes of Richter Belmont in various sorts of distress.)

This is just darling.

You've probably seen this already, as it's being reblogged all over, but: If children's drawings were made into toys... (I'm not sure kids mean their drawings to be so literal, but some of the toys made in this vein are incredible.)

"Boldly Gone" is a hilarious and well-drawn webcomic about one of the countless unseen Starfleet captains who aren't named Kirk.

Omigosh! It's Phantasy Star cross-stitch! Also, this.

Speaking of which: oh, Shilka, you dope.

Would you just look at the lush private interiors and glassy rainbow futurescapes this person is posting on Pixiv?

Prepare yourself for fashion eyelashes.

Yeah, that stuff about Tom Bombadil doesn't add up, does it?

There's next to nothing out there for Spy Fiction fanwise, but here's a nice pic of Billy.

A Tumblr for awesome videogame boxart. I've already gotten a few leads on possibly intriguing titles to play - Forget Me Not: Palette, Addie's Present, Yuuyami Doori (is that one related to Twilight Syndrome?)...

Oh, like you fuckers know a thing about Cut Bank. Hollywood, weren't you satisfied with that flick with Seth Green and Vin Diesel from a few years ago that tried to say tiny, tiny Wibaux was large enough to have its own sheriff? Didn't that movie use the exact same plot as this one?

Rebecca Tripp might catch your ears through her light and delicate FF4 and FF6 arrangements, but it's her themed collections of short original compositions based on the zodiac and garden flowers that truly distinguish the artist. Someone get this woman to score a game already.

Finally, Arios cosplaying as Nyx.
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Guys, guys: there is actual 7th Saga artwork on Pixiv. (Perhaps I'm the only one who cares, but *I* was thrilled.)

The self-consciously senselessly-named SharkRobot could use some serious - serious - SERIOUS quality control in their design choices, but this I Believe in Miles Edgeworth (paid for by Miles Edgeworth) shirt almost makes up for it. (P.S. I also like this Zelda button set.)

Who thought New Balance could make something this cool? Why don't we have these?

Found the indie Victorian-western-historical fantasy Shroud from some Tumblr dedicated to female warriors in respectable armor. I can't stand the Victorian era and the blurb synopsis seems to overpromise (and from the trailer, it seems they could use a little help with their fight choreography), but it looks intriguing.

Have I linked to this FF1 gamebook before? Ahh, well. Also, I ran across this title claiming to be a spinoff of a Famicom title, and when I Googled the name, absolutely nothing about the game came up but a TV Tropes article spoiling the identity of the serial killer. Ah, well, part 2.
(While we're on the subject of gamebooks: apparently, this is based on a Famicom game about a female tax collector spun off from a film by the director of Tampopo; what is this I have no freaking idea; why do they need ateji for Contra?; Vampire Hunter D's Doris Lang cosplays Simon Belmont; a Kid Icarus gamebook!)

Does this movie solve the mystery of the Toynbee tiles? Probably not, but I want to see it all the same.

If you read liberal blogs and have been confused by usage of the term "the Village," like I was for over a year, then here's a definition for you.

I like the idea behind Gourmet Gaming, but I'm unsure about the execution. They seem to be doing far better with the Costume Quest stuff, but they've also turned Thomas's biscuit into a doughnut. And who makes their Sinner's Sandwich with Chex? Harrumph harrumph.

On the other end of the culinary aisle: hey, look, it's a 6-way sprinkle shaker filled with bits shaped like cows, moons & stars, tropical fish, and dinosaurs in the appropriate confetti colors for under five bucks. This is clearly one of the finest products ever manufactured. Barring that: here, have a bucket of glucose.

Repurposed Arwen costume.

Video Game Music Daily, which just wrapped up, is an interesting and detailed examination of what makes some of the best and best-renowned videogame tracks work. (Sometimes the videogame history is a little revisionist, though, and watch for spoilers for franchises you haven't played completely, particularly Castlevania. But if you are comfortable with Castlevania spoilers, pick up that "The Silence of Daylight" violin arrangement by virt.)
ETA: Going through the archives, I see that the author is a bit overfond of empty hyperbole, and I also found this line: "It’s actually kind of funny, too, to think of Dr. Light and Mega Man as black dudes." Oh. Oh, dear.

You've probably seen this about Super Mario 3, but what the heck.

Another odd Japanese DS game that makes me wish these things didn't cost $40 to try out. These visual-novel games with sparse silhouetted graphics usually get lousy reviews, but the premises are interesting.

Finally, there are cran-blueberry Tootsie rolls! What have we done to deserve such beauty?! (Search, and you'll find watermelon, fruit punch, and strawberry lemonade, too.)
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