\(T)/ (‘~’) (o_o)

[Neyo]

What an odd situation. I actually am invested enough into these forums to open a blog.
I’ll just post random ideas/updates/jokes/reviews here. I may even act on them.
If you have any questions, you can post ‘em here. I’m more or less legally obligated to answer them.
I'm planning on posting somewhat daily, discounting weekends.

Spoiler: Hi!

 

[Neyo]

Okay, let’s do a blog post:
For an English assignment, I decided to make things ridiculously hard for myself by writing an essay on the symbolic similarities of The Round House by Louise Erdrich and an MC Escher lithograph.

I guarantee this will be painful. But it may be fun. Who knows?

 

[Neyo]

Review of Where the Water Tastes Like Wine:
Ya like being sad, kids? This was a very good game that I enjoyed a lot. The main mechanic is collecting stories (small vignettes), telling them, and letting them evolve. The artwork and music are amazing (though a little heavy on the country genre). It has three of my favorite video game characters (Rocio, Quinn, and Cassady) and also Sting(?) is here?

The overall plot is that you’ve gone into debt, and must repay that debt by collecting and retelling stories. Along the way, you meet a variety of characters from all walks of life, most lamenting the tragedy of Manifest Destiny or the injustices suffered because of it.

The music is all good, but it has a lot of country music, and keep redoing one song for each major region. Gets on the nerves a little. But it also has some great ones. Tear It Down (both versions) are really good, White Rider channels old spaghetti westerns well, and Miles of Smiles is a fun, bouncy jazz theme.

The overall tone of the story is either “what the hell”, “that’s inspiring”, or “that’s a tragedy”. It varies between stories. I feel it does capture America well, at least in its most romanticized and painful form: a land of injustices, corruption, and tragedy, but also of greatness, adventure, and legends. The characters’ arcs all mirror that.

Pacing is pretty constant, though it does become a bit of a slog near the end. Relaxed, good for turning your brain off for an hour or so. There isn’t really any excitement other than one or two stories.

Age rating of Mature is somewhat overrated. It could definitely be lowered to Teen, if it warns the player of the strong language within the game. There isn’t violence, nudity, or anything startling/visceral. Swearing is used somewhat often, depending on the character. It does use a racial slur reserved for African-Americans, but only by African-American characters discussing the topic of race. The use of cursing is never really out of character for anyone, nor is it used for shock value.

The real meat of the game comes from the characters. A cool bit about them, they were each written by a different person, as to get a diverse outlook and not tangle up a few writers in topics they knew very little about. There were certain ones I didn't particularly like, but those were either the ones who I kept messing up on, the ones who felt bland, or just privileged jerks (looking at you, Rose). They leave an air of mystery about their past, talking as if you already know what they're mentioning. The voice acting, is, overall, decent. Some characters do it better than others. You also, often, don't resolve their problems. They usually disappear, with no real closure. The closest we get to closure with one character is that they probably either died drunk in an alley or they got shot trying to tear down fencing. Also, every individual story is voice acted out, most have branching lines, and they're all voice acted. Impressive for a small indie game.

If you want in depth mechanics, you aren't really getting anything here. Stories evolve, but in set storylines. The main gameplay of collecting the aforementioned stories is just walking to a point on a map and clicking the A button. Talking to characters is straightforward, but can be a minor hassle when you haven't chosen the correct stories to fill out your log. This happened to me with Dupree. You also have a health bar, money bar, and sleep bar. The sleep one doesn't often come up or be relevant at all, money is scarce early game, and death only sets you back very little.

The artstyle in this game is really good. The 3D overworld looks pretty, like a patchwork quilt. Nothing too special, but fun to look at. The character drawings are high-quality and detailed. About half are astonishing and creative, as well as telling a piece of the character you may not know already. The stories are drawn in black and white, then a solid color is placed over them. The drawings are reused very rarely, so there are about 200-225 unique illustrations.

As a final statement, I really enjoyed Where the Water Tastes Like Wine. It was a fascinating jump into something new for me, and it was occasionally profound. Any American with a liking of video games and a patience for reading lots of text (I know the text isn't much compared to games like NieR: Automota or Disco Elysium, but shush) and should play.

This game gets a solid 8/10 shmekels from me.

 

[Neyo]

The band Poor Man's Poison is quite interesting. They're a group of friends from Hanford, California who formed a band. (I know that description doesn't make them sound interesting, but hear me out.)

They seem almost defiant towards capitalizing on their success in a way that is profitable. According to their website, they do nearly everything themselves. This includes songwriting, producing, and distributing. No third parties involved. This is commendable, as they seem to be just a group of friends who wanted to make music.

Next, their music. They claim to be inspired by "Rock, Metal, Reggae, Blues, Soul, Hip Hop, Pop, and R&B". But the result of this blended interaction is a music style that sounds distinctly like country music with Southern roots. Now, this is interesting, as this implies one of two things: 1. They're lying about the inspiration and just making country music (consciously or otherwise) or 2. The natural conclusion of this blended music style is what amounts to country. The second bit is what's more interesting. Country music was heavily invested into by Henry Ford, who hated jazz because he thought it led to drugs and sexual promiscuity and other such ridiculous things (he was both racist and conspiratorial). As such, he poured huge sums of money into country musicians as a way of combating this imagined threat to American society. Anyways, it ended up being the essential opposite of jazz on the American music spectrum. However, as a result of the jazz industry's popularity, several other genres popped up or were combined with other genres to make new ones, like Blues, Soul, and Hip-Hop.

The blending of these different styles of music resulting in country is very strange. The (thought of) antitheses of each other may have more in common than previously thought.

Anyways, I forgot where I was going with this, so check out their music. About half of it is good, the other half is insufferable. Their more recent music is markedly better (and in my eyes, with less of an emphasis on country music).

Adíos,
El Diablo Caliente

 

[Neyo]

I love Abzú. It is a stunningly beautiful feat of programming and CPU management. This is more of a review than anything, but you can also consider it an unpaid advertisement, if you wish to take a more cynical view. Anyways, let us commence!

First of all, the basic gameplay. Abzú lacks any conventional gameplay, as you're just a diver in the ocean, exploring ruins and ecosystems. You can move in a fully 3D axis, have a button to move a little faster for a short time, and can interact with specially chosen objects or attract fish around you with one button. You move from one ecosystem to another in a linear sequence. There are little collectibles scattered throughout the world, but the game doesn't really motivate you to so.

The story is completely without dialogue, and I'm not really going to tell you about it since I don't want to spoil anything and it's only 5 hours or so during a normal playthrough.

The artstyle and graphics are amazing. Like, look at this:

Spoiler: You don't lose anything clicking here

And it stays at that quality for pretty much the entire time. I really can't say anything more.

Now it's time to talk about everyone's favorite part of a game: the programming! Now, I say that, but what was achieved here was actually very cool. So the game has many, many species of fish/cetacean/turtle inside itself. All of the "lone" animals follow a more or less similar path based on whether they're predatory or not. (You can see animals eat each other, it's really cool). However, that means that the schooling fish need to be individually tracked, right? But that would take way too much processing power. So the final result is that they simply game each fish an animation to repeat, and the school as a whole follows the same general path, thus increasing the amount of fish that can exist in the game at once. Very cool. Also, it kept my PS4 from blowing itself up when I played this game, so that's a fun bonus.

The overall inspiration for the game comes from the Sumerian myth of the universal ocean. This only really effects the overall tone of the game, but it's a fun tidbit.

Finally, the soundtrack. Cheese sauce, this game has an amazing soundtrack. I was listening to it when I wrote this review, and it is incredibly ethereal. It does feel like you're taking part in some grand creation myth.

So, Abzú is an awesome game. The Steam reviews for it haunt my soul, though. They really wanted something that wasn't relaxed or artsy. Painful to look at.

9/10 shmekels

 

[Neyo]

A Short Story:

The fire had been burning for several hours by the time the fire fighters had arrived. This was a frequently fire-prone area of the city due to lack of regulations and the high usage of heat-dependent drugs. Thus, it was impressive that the fire department had arrived. The fact that it was the 31st of December was the only thing that motivated the department to show up. (The overtime pay was excellent)

There was a lone figure standing on one of the windows, outlined by a harsh orange glow. The firemen quickly pulled out a safety net that was more likely to kill the person intended to be saved than not, but it was the only alternative to nothing. The flames grew higher, the figure leapt.

200 meters...

100...

50...

25...

SPLAT

The fire crew packed up the net, slightly annoyed by the mess that now encrusted their boots. But it wasn't that bad, as they would still get paid.

"Well, fellows, seeing as that was the only known remaining individual in the building, that puts our number of fatalities during responded emergencies at 567 for this year. A new record for this district. Drinks on me when we get back." Seeing as the Administrator was normally quite stingy with the personal use of her money, the crew was quite happy on top of the overtime pay.

"Just be sure to wipe off your boots before you go inside".

 

[Neyo]

That was a cool read! Did you post it in one of the writing sections here? I liked the slightly dystopianish feel to it. Did you have any kind of inspiration for it?

I haven’t, actually. I’ll do that.
The overall tone of Brave New World and 1984 were influencing this. I’ve recently read them, and they’re pretty good (Aside from the racism present, though I can’t tell if that’s the authors’ biases or the way the built the world.)

 

[Neyo]

I had a good joke about amnesia, but I forgot it.

 

[Neyo]

A (somewhat shortened) overview of David Sedaris's book Me Talk Pretty One Day:

It's funny, but hasn't aged too well. Keep in mind that the essays are hyerbolic, and your enjoyment of it will be increased. Also, the funniest essays are near the end.

7/10 shmekels

 

[Neyo]

Cars is a fundamentally flawed franchise. I don't think this is a controversial opinion.

Essentially, the narrative doesn't have any reason to do with sentient cars, as opposed to, say, Antz, where the (main) problem the characters face is exclusive to insects (building and making a colony). With Cars, the main issue faced by the protagonist is that he can't race well, and needs to get better. This could be achieved by a human (or possibly a snail, as is the case with Turbo), and thus rendering the point of making the characters cars pointless from a puritan perspective.

However, the likely reason here is capitalism at work again. The point of Cars is that it's a franchise. The profits made by making toys of this franchise are the primary cause of the entire franchise existing at all, likely.

So....that's the issue with Cars.

 

[Fungal Plague]

Post more things like that ^^

 

[Neyo]

Post more things like that ^^

I'm going to say no to that, because I'm full of spite. Or perhaps I'm just feeling like a contrarian right now.

 

[Neyo]

I was going to write a Celeste review here, but then I realized that I had something more interesting and unique to talk about: Hunt: Showdown's Port Sulphur Band.

Now a bit of context, firstly. Hunt: Showdown is a multiplayer game that is highly competitive and has a very dedicated fanbase. It takes place in the bayou of late 1800s Louisiana. You play as a bounty hunter who must kill a mythical beast and extract themselves in a specific amount of time, in competition with other players. It has a very unique gameplay loop, and is brutally difficult. (By the way, if I make any claims that sound like I'm a old man who's been drinking rat spittle while telling stories, refer to this bit on the Hunt: Showdown website)

Anyways, the Port Sulphur Band is an in universe band that, through their songs, basically expands on the lore and tone of the game itself. Now, plenty of games have used music for tone. Celeste went for chirpy and (generally) upbeat 8-bit music and Doom has rock/metal to make you feel like a naughty donkey. But the way they expand on the lore is really cool. Take, for example, one of their first songs, Devil in the Churchyard. The way the rhythm works, it listens like a lullaby, but with exceedingly dark lyrics, warning the listener of the dangers of the world (also, a good portion of the songs have sound effects and voice acting within them, like in the aforementioned Devil in the Churchyard, where you hear a woman gasping for air while loading a gun as a pig-dog sounding creature growls). Furthermore, other songs talk about the origins or mindsets of the bounty hunters, such as It's Dark In New Orleans.

The main inspirations for their music style is using music that would exist within that world, which is late 1800s America. So piano, drums, stomping feet, and the occasional brass instrument it is. They do sometimes break this rule, but it pretty much always results in a net positive, like using an electric guitar in It's Dark In New Orleans. The motifs usually involve invoking Jesus or the Devil from Christianity from a sinner's perspective. Musically, you can definitely tell that blues, gospel, and even a bit of rock wormed their way in.

Anyways, check out their awesome music. It's on Spotify, Youtube, iTunes, and Amazon Music. Or you can just buy the game and listen to it yourself, if you don't like big conglomerates.

 

[Neyo]

Okay, now I'll write the Celeste review.

Overview: Celeste is a very good game. it's probably one of the best platformer games of all time. But I have no authority to say that, so I'll take that out of the equation. It's about climbing a mountain named Celeste. What the heck, I'll get on with the meat of the review now.

Gameplay: It just feels good to play, dude. The dash has a ton of force behind it, but moves very specific distance. The gimmicks of each level are well made and balanced. (Except the parts with wind, that's awful). The jump moves just enough to feel nice, and the stamina management is really good. Coyote time (if you move off a ledge, you can still jump, makes it very approachable. Assist mode allows nearly anybody to play. And did I mention there's no momentum cap? It makes speedruns crazy to look at, and TASs even cooler. No wonder this is a hit with the speedrun community.

Plot: You're Madeline, a young woman with anxiety and depression trying to climb a mountain to prove that you can do it. I'm not going to spoil anything, but it's really good.

Difficulty: The difficulty curve is pretty consistent, unless you go for all collectibles and side levels, which are tremendously difficult (only a few hundred people have done it at most). It stays at a moderately challenging until the epilogue, which I doubt I'll ever complete. There isn't any RNG in the game design, which is nice.

Assist Mode: This is a mode you can turn on that changes the amount of stamina, dashes, the speed of the game, and even if you die or not. This is an amazing inclusion to change the difficulty without being a prick to the player, and also allows anybody to play the game, no matter skill, age, or health conditions.

Music: The composer, Lena Raine, made the soundtrack sound all 8-bit like. I don't have anything crazy to say here, but her use of leitmotifs is really good. Each zone sounds distinct, but connected.

So, overall, great game. It's about 20 American dollars, which is a very reasonable price.

8/10 shmekels.

 

[Neyo]

Didn’t post anything today because I was trying to figure out how to overhaul the Olimar article on SmashWiki.

 

[Neyo]

Abzú lore explained (I'm sure I'm one of about 50 people who actually care about this). Spoilers for the entirety of Abzú, by the way (though it isn't really a story that can be spoiled and impact the experience). Go play it, it's like 20 bucks and definitely worth it.

Okay, so it all starts with an ancient civilization at some indeterminate point in the past. They left some ruins, including an entire underwater city which you an't explore. However, it is known that they worshiped the sharks and eels of the ocean, evidently thinking those animals either brought or needed a strange blue not-water substance.

Now, this substance (which I'll call Gatorade) has indeterminate power, but can apparently animate life, balance ecosystems, and bring immense power to the user of it. Other than that, it is unclear where Gatorade originated from, how it does what it does, and even the limits of its power. It manifests itself in seashells scattered throughout the world. Now, these shells can be collected to give the collector even more Gatorade, and thus much more power within water.

To go back to the ancient civilization, it could either harness this power or something approximating it. Eventually, they discovered or possibly created a machine (which I will call Bob Iger for simplicity's sake) capable of manufacturing technology. This is where the civilization exited the scene, either by war, self-destruction, or some other cause. Bob Iger sent out drones to possibly find and harvest Gatorade for an unknown purpose. Whatever the goal was, it succeeded, and created a robot that looked a lot like the members of the previous civilization. Bob Iger threw this diver away for some unknown reason, possibly from the other Bob Iger present in the sky at one point. Anyway, the diver goes on an adventure, and she* kills Bob Iger and his duplicates with the help of a magical great white shark.

The shark is interesting, as it also appears to be either a manifestation of or infused with Gatorade. It seems to be rather idiotic, and attacks anything alien to its environment except for the diver. This may be because the Gatorade/shark knows she is not hostile, that she looks similar to the fallen civilization, or even recognized the Gatorade present within the diver.

The ending credits of the game shows Bob Iger being taken over by algae (much like real life!), and the resulting ecosystem being at balance, with a seashell present. So Gatorade manifests itself in ecosystems that function properly. The diver and shark appear to be fine, but otherwise nothing of note happens.

Conclusion/thoughts: Wow, this is disorganized. Whatever.
*the diver is referred to as using she/her pronouns by the developers.

 

[Neyo]

Writing that paper, and by Jove, I needed to use the term "flesh ribbon" in order to accurately describe a lithograph.

 

[Neyo]

You matter. Unless you multiply yourself by the speed of light squared. Then you energy.
Stolen from Neil DeGrasse Tyson's Twitter.

 

[Neyo]

Abzú Lore Cont.
I realized there were couple things missing, and I wanted to elaborate on some stuff.

The diver looks a lot like the original civilization, and may in fact be modeled on them by the machine, or even created by the civilization and offered to the machine. The mural leaves a lot to be answered. The diver either contains, is powered by (or both) Gatorade. The diver also can communicate with marine life to a degree, through something similar to echolocation or something like a signal. Again, small details, but might be noteworthy.

When restoring an environment, the diver enters a pillar, and wind up in a strange abyss. This may be a primordial sea in which Gatorade was created and sustains itself.

Finally, the civilization appears to be based on the Egyptians and Sumerians in their worship and art style, but are based on Romans in their architecture. Not really relevant, but cool, considering the game was based on the Sumerian legend of the primordial sea.

 

[Neyo]

A hint as to what I'm working on Monday. I don't really want to do anything today due to Elden Ring releasing.