Interdimensional Observer

Portrait of Ruin is the second of the three DS Igavanias, Dawn of Sorrow and Order of Ecclesia being the other two. -PoR was also the sixth Igavania in ten years, so the approach was getting worn out for the franchise at the point of its release. Whilst not exactly the most original title (with some sprites going back to 1993's Rondo of Blood), and perhaps too easy, Portrait of Ruin is a solid Igavania. I played it to the point of overdoing it when I younger.😆 Treat it as junk food. This is what you get for not going to bed.😜 -Nice to see you've a case of Good Game Insomnia.😛

As I said before- methinks Arion was listening to the father he was used to hearing, and ignored the one actually in front of him. Or perhaps, to make Arion a little less blind, examined the two, and when deciding on how to interpret the contradictions between the fathers, fell lopsidedly in favor of the old one. Tunnel vision, people in crises of the worst kind aren't immune to it. Indeed, some disasters only get worse/happen because some people fail to see what is truly happening in front of them. (By Michalis before him and TRS Julius thereafter, Kaga seems to have liked moody wyvern princes who get into unnecessary battles.) If/when Genealogy gets remade... I haven't the faintest how they could possibly fix Coirpre. Short of turning Silvia's Dance from a class skill to a personal one, being a second refresher would maybe improve him? I also sorta like the map blockiness of Genealogy Generals. Them, Barons, and Emperors, you can see how IS was trying to back as much as possible into those tiny map tiles, to the point the classes look squished.

Tycho Brahe?😕 Does the Father's Son do.: The thing Father Dearest is implicitly telling him to do now, for the very first time. The thing that Father Dearest has whined to him about doing ...776000 times in his life? -Or die trying to do. Which of these would Daddy really want? What would truly make him happy up in Heaven? What it is that The Most Loyal Child should actually do? The answer is obvious. Arion is Daddy Issues/10. Counterfactual thought- imagine if Leif had been taken by Ethlyn instead of Altena. Travant probably would've chucked the Gae Bolg at his utterly useless skull and walked away leaving his second "son" with a fractured skull at some point.

Super Castlevania IV is basically a "narrative remake" -not that it really has any plot- of the original Castlevania. And, Dragon Quests 1-3 got Super Famicom remakes. And, there's Super Mario All-Stars, and the Japan-only BS Legend of Zelda 1 remake... ...I get it. Development costs/time were probably low enough back then, and the graphical jump from NES to SNES was pretty big. FYI- Sakurai has stated he originally wanted to leave Copy Abilities out of Spring Breeze, to imitate the original Kirby's Dream Land, but, a member of the dev team persuaded him not to. -Even though this, for Sakurai, leaves Dyna Blade without anything to distinguish it from Spring Breeze. Enjoy!😀 Hopefully!🤞

Unusually warm weather today, I sat outside and read an entire magazine to catch up on my history. Mosaic of the Roman god Oceanus, discovered in the 1980s in a 4th century AD Roman villa located in Carranque, Spain. You approve of the blue beard like rolling waves @Saint Rubenio?🌊 And Shrimpy, yes those are crustacean claws and antennae emerging from his head. ...Also read of the gold and silver treasures left behind by the historical Thracians (thought of as barbarians and warriors -for hire even!- by the Greeks, no wyverns though). The Odrysian Kingdom (480 BC-30 AD) of the Thracians being located at the intersection of modern Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria. ...And that, contrary to what certain corner of the Internet would have you believe, anime did not invent unnecessarily sexualization.😝 The late 4th century Greek Neoplatonist, Hypatia, was one of the last great philosophers of was last great Classical philosophers, and a woman at that. When Enlightenment era Europe developed a liking for this ancient lady of rational thought, she began being depicted in the 1700s & 1800s as a beautiful youthful nude woman in the classical/Renaissance/neoclassical style. -Despite the fact said sculptures/paintings are supposed to depict her tragic death at the hands of a fanatical Christian mob in 415 AD, and Hypatia was born around 360 AD, which means she would've been ~55 years of age.

Feeling between games ATM, and the aforementioned Kirby threw me in the mood to do Extra Mode in Return to Dreamland, so I've been dashing through that for the past three days, something not overly cerebral/immersion-demanding. -No intentions of doing the Arena/True Arena though. I should do the postgame world in Forgotten Land at some point. Hopefully the altered controls make them to some degree enjoyable for you. Personally... I think I might prefer PH over ST? Not entirely sure why. On the topic of infrastructure, random factoid I had read yesterday- there are 40 million miles (64.374 million km) of (automotive) roads globally, 4 million of which are in the United States.

"Angry and violent perverts when drunk", to which civilization that isn't teetotaler has that not been applied by somebody at some point?🤨 -The world hardly changes in some ways. I like the variety of other insulting descriptions too, as one mustn't brand the Other all under exactly the same label. You have to show yourself a connoisseur of xenophobia and judge nonsensically with a discerning eye.🧐 -And I haven't a clue either on which story, if any, in which Arthur was killed by Bretons. I only know the Le Morte d'Arthur version of things.

Seems like you're very much enjoying the old madness in a new bottle though!😃

Well it's derived from history (the Records of the Three Kingdoms), and history has a lot of names. 95% of people aren't generics.😄 Doesn't help China has a long history of good record-keeping and so there were plenty of historical names that were remembered when the novel got written. As for the infamous Lu Bu, from what I gather, he was a lot of bark, but no brains, and he couldn't bite hard enough to save him from his brainlessness.☠️ Nonetheless, Lu Bu barked loud enough in his short time on the Chinese stage that the Romance chose to make him famous. -I recently played the Lu Bu storyline exclusive to DW8, and I like how they spun his tale with the implicit message- "this is an example of how NOT to warlord!".😉 They chose to use him there to represent one of the many failed warlords who -due to personal flaws or luck or circumstances largely beyond their control- didn't eventually emerge as one of the Big Three.

I learned about it via Dynasty Warriors. ...Not exactly the most historically accurate of depictions.😅 -And this is the cast as of Dynasty Warriors 7 (we're now on DW9). Almost everyone is color-coded according to their faction: Purple/dark blue for Wei. Wu gets red/orange. (Minus Lu Bu the big idiot in the middle here, he's an Other). Shu gets green. (Zhao Yun directly to the viewer's left of Lu Bu is oddly mostly blue despite being Shu). Cyan means Jin. (Intentionally supposed to blend in with Wei.) Yellow is supposed to be the color of Other- those who don't belong to one of the other four- but it's less consistently applied. So much for being the squeaky-clean protagonist of the entire story.😆 As if the baby-spike wasn't already indication of that.

Filial piety taken to an extreme? -Yes, some children with overbearing parents grow up to rebel in every way imaginable. In this case however, Arion, from birth to this moment, has spent his life in the shadow of his extremely frustrated father, who inherited the unfulfilled ambitions of his ancestors, embodied in a country of dearth. He isn't a grown adult who then came to voluntarily work for Travant, and his natural instinct when faced with all the pressure from before he could even walk no doubt, was to cave in and be that loyal son. ...Altena? Okay, someone who spent almost as long under the same paternal hadopelagic pressure, and clearly hasn't been as crushed. But I suppose different people naturally react differently in the same situations. I'm not saying I like Arion as a character. I don't care for him either way. His folly I'm just not as cynical about. -Arion kinda is an Anti-Michalis. Michalis is the wyvern prince with an -unfortunately incompetent- little sister, who committed patricide. Arion is the wyvern prince with an -unfortunately incompetent- little sister, who would die for his father. I feel like this scene is kinda forced and perhaps even out-of-character for Travant (not entirely, given his Gen 1 massacre). Feels more like something that was tossed in for gameplay "fun" and some sorta-interesting way to introduce Hannibal and Priest. I've always been on Team Wei.😄 Although South Thracia is more Shu territorially, a poor smaller country with mountains at the border making it difficult to invade ...until Jiang Wei intentionally abandoned the border fortresses, smart move that was. And are we sure Seliph isn't more like Liu Shan? At least Zhuge Liang has no personality, because he has so much divine wisdom that he can't elicit mortal emotions.

Columbia was the goddess-personification of the American continents (which Europeans initially regarded as a single continent) -and later the United States- from the late 1600s to the end of the 1800s (in the US perspective). When the Big French Lady came our way in 1886, the copper-green goddess gradually replaced Columbia, and this was finalized by 1931- when the "Star-Spangled Banner" replaced "Hail Columbia" as the national anthem of the United States. Although, Columbia Pictures was so named in 1924, one of her last starring roles. (Uncle Sam appeared in the first half of the 1800s, yet it was not until the 1860s and 70s that he began gaining widespread popularity/notoriety as the embodiment of the United States/federal government. It wasn't until World War I that Uncle Sam fully replaced Columbia in war propaganda.) ...I remembered a two-page article on the history of Lady Columbia in Smithsonian Magazine *flips to the cover* from September-October last year. Just parroting what's written in it.🇺🇸🤓 Thankfully we have the regional concept of "Oceania".

I would've had no idea of that.😆 With Super Star in mind, I was reminded today that in Japanese, "Revenge of Meta Knight" is "Meta Naito no Gyakushu". "Gyakushu" being alternatively translatable as "Counterattack". Changing the English word structuring to "Meta Knight's Counterattack"... trade the blue cape for a red, add one of those helmets, and I'll leave the rest to your imagination.😜

-Nothing, I have no idea what'd even define the appearance of one. It was a joke, is all. Sorry!😅 It was seemingly a mostly peaceful(?)-looking VN, glasses girl suddenly swaps to contacts and a hella big sword, seemed kinda incongruous and as if she had become 5* pull material.

The problem with Assault was the on-foot segments are generally thought to have been insipid. While the Arwing missions/segments are liked or disliked depending on who you're talking to. If they had tightened the 3rd-person 3D foot shooter stuff, maybe Assault would've been better received. Not like Nintendo has any franchise that specializes in this kind of action. Although, this might've required divorcing these physical levels from having Arwing/Landmaster stuff built into them too. I did like Assault years ago, the presentation looked good. And the narrative -while nothing new for sci-fi whatsoever- was serious with surprising dark notes. The popularity of multiverse shenanigans in media has drastically grown in the past decade. Thus, I propose we continue Star Fox from the ending of Command, all of them. We begin Star Fox: Disorder from the perspective of the pre-Key of Destiny ending. Where Fox still can't get over his breakup with Krystal. The primary villain is Venom yet again, led by the Evil Dash from that ending. He meets internal yet underground opposition from the Good Dash from the happy ending where Amanda joined Star Fox. Kursed is out there, somewhere, struggling to redeem herself. Star Fox Gen 3- the one led by Fox & Krystal's son Marcus, also shows up in this story. As does Star Falco, and the triumphant Star Wolf from the same ending as Kursed. Also, prepare for FALCON BARREL ROLL! Because who did you think Fox & Falco met during their F-Zero days? Oh, and Pigma -since he was only fought on two endings- shows up yet again, a copy of him from every other route. Because who can truly eradicate the Aparoids? ...I never played Command, but I will give it points for giving everyone their own personal air/space fighters instead of identical Arwings and Wolfens. Style matters in sci-fi. I thought Tsukihime wasn't Servantmon? I feel like they were ruined for me at a young age. Blame Soulcalibur II and Ivy.

I know that. But the 3D capacities of the SNES were pushing the system to its limits, and graphically-limited as a result. The original Star Fox (and the scrapped-but-now-conserved Star Fox 2) was making the seemingly-impossible work, which is historically notable in its own right. Yet -from an ""objectively" good game quality" perspective- while SF64 was made for a console whose entire selling point for its existence was good 3D graphics, that, probably, for most Star Fox fans, makes it the better game. Working within restrains can produce good results, but not having restraints doesn't produce an inferior game. From your perspective, I suppose the glitz of N64 visuals doesn't do enough to overcome the sameyness with the original SF. Although, I likewise guess that some SF64 > SF1 proponents would argue that SF1 is more of a (impressive) tech demo, and that the franchise couldn't blossom until freed of the confinement to a 16-bit processor pushed to its max. An argument I see being used -with more efficacy- by the F-Zero crowd.

I wouldn't disagree that SF64 is a reboot of a one-series game (and then SF Zero appears to have been yet another reboot?). -But the original Star Fox was on the ultimately-2D console of the SNES, and 64 on the wholeheartedly-3D N64, big difference IMO. I think the choice was justified. While child-me never got past the first of the "hard route" stages of SF64, seeing them as an adult via the Internet, I would say -even as a nonplayer- that they showcase a fair deal of variety for a 3D on-rails shooter. It does seem like the genre was explored with devotion on the part of the staff who made SF64. The dinosaur-themed setting was neat, and it looked sorta nicely realistic for a 64-turned-GameCube game? ...Although the ingame world in retrospect doesn't seem all that big or lively.

...You don't have to play either.😆 I ain't forcing you. Ultra contains all the content of the original. It does have a few audio-visual tweaks: the openings to each mode is became videos instead of still-images, some UI was relocated to the bottom screen, some sprites and such were redesigned, music retouched, I think bosses were given a few more invincibility frames IIRC. However, Ultra does add a couple bonus modes and minigames. Nothing crazy, though one of them is the very first True Arena in Kirby history. It's enough that I'd say Ultra over the original KSS. I can't think of any serious downsides to Ultra. -I was just sayin' that b/c Kirby Super Star is literally the one game from the 16 and 64-bit eras that I probably adored most in my early childhood. Being at my grandparents' house, in my grandmother's bedroom, it was probably the game I was looking forward the most to play, more than even Zelda and Mario (or Goldeneye or Harvest Moon 64 -these two I enjoyed alongside my also-young relatives).😄

-That's fine, opinions and all. ...Though it's only making me brace even more for whenever/if ever you get to Kirby Super Star, the old crown jewel of that franchise. If thy judgment be lukewarm... *half-heartedly hides axe, shotgun, plastic explosives, arsenic*.😏

Is it even a Star Fox game? It's an 3D action-adventure that began its life completely devoid of anything Star Fox, and then at a suggestion of Miyamoto, Fox got thrown into it later. As a Zelda-esque game... I never actually made it past the Cloudrunner Palace as a child, but is it great or anything? Seems to be more adequate than amazing in the general "objective" reception. The Arwing segments feel tacked on too, which only makes sense given the game's development. Also, in the past year I recently rewatched some of Adventures. The first time Fox sees Krystal... whoever wrote that should be fed to a RedEye.😑

-You've trashed literally the only Star Fox game that all the franchise's fans can agree is good. So, proportionally, what you've said is more devastating than your remarks on Jugdral, Super Metroid & Prime 1, ALttP & OoT, and Persona. Impressive. ...Not like I mean to disparage for thy personal opinions. I was just wasn't expecting this out of nowhere after midnight. (I wouldn't say I have fondness for Star Fox, despite playing 64-Adventures-Assault growing up. Just some familiarity.)

If you're focusing on the action and actiony-parts of the plot, then yeah, action is for little boys. Fire Emblem is for little boys. Traditionally, female audiences have been fed/favor nonviolent material, with more of an emphasis on characters than over plot. ...And Fire Emblem has always had great big casts, who have always -accelerating with Genealogy and then skyrocketing with GBA inventing Supports- had some peaceful chit-chat. Treat the violence as the cobblestones of roads connecting the character events, not as the red manly! meat of the game. Perhaps that's the answer? -Not to overly gender-stereotype, particularly in the present day and age. (Kinda unrelated, but I have been told that within Gundam, Gundam Wing was very popular among females. For the reason that Wing was very dramatic (and having a pinch of fujoshi material), while still political and stuff and not a Dragonball parody as was G Gundam. Nonetheless, I get the last impression that there are still plenty of menfolk in the West who grew up loving Wing.) (And, within the world of JRPGs, Tales has had a strong female following. Which I can see, given its abundance of Skits and other instances of character bonding. Plus, maybe the -never gritty nor DQ-shounen- aesthetic.)

Dream of the Red Chamber was it?😛 I did see some comments last year maybe where someone questioned the placement of one character's route in the second half instead of the first. Cloudy sky and greenery makes me think Ireland.😆 The church is nice too. ...Something about the stained glass here looks very modern, and out of place. Thanks.😀 Before you open it- do what I do and wash thy hands thoroughly. Sacred tomes are not made to be touched by filth. Or follow Judaism (not like Xeno hasn't ever borrowed a word or three from the old faith) and never touch the pages themselves. I've never owned a physical art book for any game. -But I do like 'em.😄 Why can't more devs do like Odin Sphere and Okami and include free digital copies in the games?

The now-fame of Fate be making the devs think "more of a good thing is more of a good thing"? The Square problem? Not a big deal.😀 Text is only text, this peculiar medium which is interpreted by the eyes, yet replicates what is usually understood by the ears. It's a form that straddles the senses and is fully embraced by neither. Inducements of 🤢 and 😨 you can probably get away with more via text with because of that. -I guess. Hopefully it's cathartic/whatever you hope to get out of a VN!😃 Reminds me I had wanted to make a topic a few months ago, on Tellius... ...But the process of reorganizing these thoughts into something more readable for others felt like too much effort.😅

https://www.gematsu.com/2024/04/sunnyside-launches-may-24-for-pc-july-10-for-ps5-and-xbox-series I think I remember reading about this before... "It's been really important to us that the social system for SunnySide feels rewarding and immersive for everyone. We have a lot of different types of people that you can pursue friendship or romance with, and our priority from day one has been to make sure that the locked sexuality of the characters is an enhancement to the story, rather than an inconvenience for the player. With 24 romanceable characters, every player should have at least 4 different people they can romance, and at most about 14. Overall, we're really proud of the system and can't wait for players to get their hands on it and see what it's really about!" https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2023/01/exclusive-farming-game-sunnyside-shows-off-24-dateable-residents-in-new-trailer Yep. Only so many modern-day farming sims to possibly have that "locked sexuality" thing which I hadn't forgotten over a year later.😆 24 romance options sounds downright massive. *Checks my self-complied SoS & RF NPC notes*: 12 bachelor/ettes has long become the standard for both SoS and RF. A greenhorn indie doing double that... I'm afraid that the game is going to be manure as a result. Curious though I am on how it'll turn out. -Not so much on getting it myself, I'm finicky about character portraits/art style. Old beats still hit hard? As you like it? More graphic than I was expecting for this😐 (but, VN, so I get it -no holding back), the simplicity of the murder makes it more gruesome than it is. Looks very nonchalant about what they just did suggesting psychopathy?.