Wednesday, November 20, 2024

MIDI Week Singles: "Track 29" - Metal Wolf REV (PS2)

 


"Track 29" from Metal Wolf REV on the PlayStation 2 (2004-2006)
Composer: Unknown
Album: No Official Release
Publisher: PrincessSoft
Developer: PrincessSoft


I'm not usually fond of releasing a MIDI Week Single article without what I feel is the basic information like the composer's name or at least someone in the sound department.  Apparently, Metal Wolf REV is a bit of a strange one in that there are multiple Metal Wolf titles across multiple systems, most of which seem to have only been released in Japan in the early 2000s.  There was a Metal Wolf released on the Dreamcast in 2004 that was an action game of some sort by PrincessSoft (although the few screenshots and videos I've found also title this Metal Wolf REV).  The same year saw the release of Metal Wolf Chaos by FromSoftware on the original Xbox (although it's also available on Steam) which was a third-person mech shooter with the President of the United States fighting off a coup attempt by his VP.  Then in 2006, there's Metal Wolf REV which came out on the PlayStation 2 which was a visual novel from PrincessSoft.

All of that to say, I'm not sure who wrote the music to Metal Wolf REV which was released on the PlayStation 2 in 2006.  I'm not even sure what the track is titled or the context in which the song is played in the game.  I'm not even 100% sure if this is in fact Track 29 because I've found different songs playing for "Track 24" on three different sites, which is a little frustrating because the psxdatacenter says that the limited edition PS2 Metal Wolf REV has a soundtrack (different from the two song CD here) and that there's an in-game music player with all of the track names.  Frustrating.

BUT!  All of that aside, whatever track this is, if it is indeed Track 29, is a hell of a banger.  Since the PS2 Metal Wolf REV says it's a visual novel, I could only imagine this to be played either during a final cutscene or during the first part of the credits before Track 30 comes in since that's actually a song with lyrics.  There's just a little bit too much energy in this song, which is all well and good for the song itself, for it to be played during a dialogue-heavy scene, but I could very much be wrong.  So I'll just enjoy this song, whatever its official name is, even if it isn't "Track 29."



~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
The Beauty of Death it Represents

Monday, November 18, 2024

First Impressions: Classic Marathon (PC)

Classic Marathon
Systems: Windows, macOS
Release Date: May 10, 2024 / December 21, 1994
Publisher: Aleph One Developers / Bungie
Developer: Aleph One Developers / Bungie
Time Spent: 18 Minutes

Sadly, 15 minutes was all I was able to spend in Classic Marathon and if you're familiar at all with my time playing DOOM II, then that's essentially the same reason here.  I first wrote about this 12 years ago back on our other side and occasionally this still holds true.  It might have something to do with how much the hand/gun bounces while moving, something that doesn't come across in still images.  If you watch my short video below, you'll see me back out of the game specifically to see if there was a setting to reduce bobbing/wobble, but there wasn't anything specifically worded for that kind of setting, so I went back into the game to give it a second go, but only eight minutes into that run did I start to feel the first twinges of nausea, so I decided not to try to power through and quit out of the game.

This made me a bit sad because I first heard of Marathon from the third season of Red vs. Blue during a series of episodes where Church was nuked back in time and once I started getting the urge to play Halo I had looked into playing through Marathon first only to find out that it wasn't readily available on most modern (at the time) systems.  Then sometime in late 2023, there was an announcement over on Steam that the Marathon series was coming back in some capacity and as it turned out, it was a port of the original 1994 release being released for free.  You can see in the video that I did tinker a little with the controls since I wasn't about to use the arrow keys to move around and even in-game I couldn't remember how antiquated the controls were with no ducking or, I think, no manual reload button.

I do have a couple of thoughts during my eight minutes in Classic Marathon though, and that it actually felt a lot like the first stage in Halo, "Pillar of Autumn," where after a series of backstory introduction tutorials, you start fighting a bunch of aliens who've infiltrated your ship.  You then talk to a computer AI system (and yes, I read it in Cortana's voice) that gives you your objective which leads you through a series of backroom/hidden passages while making your way around the UESC Marathon.  Again, I only made it so far before I became nauseous, so I wasn't able to fully explore the ship and complete the first level.

So now that that's all out of the way, here's my 18 minutes attempting to play Classic Maraton.


I do have the other two Marathon games, Classic Marathon 2, and Classic Marathon Infinity and I'll likely give both of those a go to see if there were any updates to gun wobble/bobble.  But if I end up not playing either of the other games in the Marathon Trilogy, then I won't feel too bad (at least for about an hour if I have to stop playing) since the games were all free and I know that plenty of other people out there have been enjoying them.  Just not me because of my weak little stomach when it comes to certain first-person shooters.  


~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
Here I Stand Admit How Weak I Am


P.S.  I should probably come up with a better name than "A Stage Select Start Attempt," maybe something a little more positive, but still informing the viewer that they're not about to watch an 18-minute speedrun of an 8 1/2 hour game.  But for now, I kinda like using "Attempt" in the title in the YouTube video, but for here, I think I'll keep the "First Impressions" title too.

Friday, November 15, 2024

Emulator Hour: Unreal PT (PC)

Release Date: Not Really Known, Several Years Ago?
Systems: Windows
Publisher: Kojima Productions/ InvertedEarthTheory*
Developer: Konami/ Radius Gordello
Time Spent: 1 Hour 21 Minutes

I am somewhat loathe to say that I've now played P.T. because I haven't, which is kind of the whole point of our Emulator Hour articles.  That we're publically saying that we've played an emulated game or at the very least, played a game on an emulator for any number of reasons.  The reason for playing an adapted and rebuilt version of P.T. the way that I have is because the original P.T. was first made available on August 12, 2014, and was pulled from the PlayStation online store after a falling out between Hideo Kojima and Konami was made permanently unavailable as of May 2015.  But hooooooly shit did it make an impression.  I did not have a PlayStation 4 at the time that P.T.  was available and I'm sure as hell not going to fork over $750 for a 10-year-old console that supposedly has the playable teaser installed on it.

For several years I'd searched for an emulated version of P.T., but most of my searches led me to Unreal PT, but only in name as most of the links I came across were more than six months old and dead.  Then I read an article (I sadly can't find the article or the article that I had written about the article) going over what they (who're they?) felt were the best horror games of all time that everyone should play, and naturally P.T. was on that list, which irked me a bit because of the uber-scarcity of the original game files.  That'd be like saying that The Day the Clown Cried is the best movie of all time that everyone should see before they die.  But find a downloadable version of Unreal P.T. I did, and play it I did.  Kind of.

Very quickly, before I get into actually talking about the game, I want to preface that I know that there are two semi-available emulated ports of P.T.  There's Unreal PT that I have played, and the 'closer to the source material' P.T. Emulation 1.4 which is locked behind a Patreon paywall.  Between those two available ports, Unreal P.T. has the greatest number of differences such as missing animations, missing assets, and is potentially unbeatable.  So with all of that in mind, let's get to Unreal P.T.

Attempt #1

This was technically my second attempt playing Unreal PT, but that first time was mainly to see if the game would run on my laptop, and let me tell you, in this case, 18 frames per second was about what I was expecting.  What my point is in sharing this clip, is that I went into this without having looked anything up, although I did know, possibly through common societal knowledge that the game had something to do with a hallway and a creepy-ass woman.  I also read a while ago that the creepy woman is supposedly behind you the entire time from a game-dev standpoint and so I kept thinking that she was going to show up, which is why I kept turning around in my Attempt #2 and #3 videos, expecting her to be at the end of the hallway.

Despite not knowing how to open the door on the second loop, what threw me the most was that the door-opening mechanic was just, "walk into door and it will either open or it won't."  Maybe I'm just too used to modern first-person survival-horror walking sims where you have to click on the door to open it or press a button to trigger a door-opening action, but this just felt like I was doing something wrong.  That and not knowing what I was supposed to be looking for.  Like a picture on the ground, but we'll get to that in Attempt #2.  I feel like at the 9:40 mark you can feel me really getting frustrated.


Attempt #2

Before jumping into the game this time, I did look up a walkthrough, which was where I found out about the picture on the ground in the second loop (or is it the first loop?). However, I misremembered what I read because I thought that this had something to do with the series of pictures you collected during one of the later loops.  But upon zooming in (thanks to the RMB cue) this opened up the door to allow me to proceed through to the next loop.

During whatever-loop-that-is at the 07:14 mark, I noticed my frames per second dropped from 15-18 down to 9.  Normally this would likely mean that the game would be unplayable, but possibly because I was already used to a sub-20 fps, this didn't bother me too much.  I could still play and feel that the game wasn't absolutely broken.  It's not running great, but at least it's running.  And then I accidentally shortcutted one of the more iconic shots in the entire game, when you round the corner and see the woman standing at the end of the hallway, all because I rounded the corner too quickly and didn't stop soon enough.  But maybe that makes the event creepier since you only see her for a split second before the lights go out?  Maybe?

Just a few additional notes on Attempt #2.  Nope, do not like that bathroom one bit.  At the 10:40 mark, I paused the game because I was playing it at work on my lunch break, and at the time, there was a medication delivery that I had to handle, so I ended up cutting out about four minutes of pause screen.  That new modified radio broadcast in the second to last loop was damn creepy, as in goosebumps and all when the voice started repeating the numbers and then again during the last loop when the voice says, "Look behind you.  I said, look behind you."  And that jump scare at 14:55 legitimately got me.  Then I decided that I should turn the lights back on in my office and go back to work.


Attempt #3

This one was the doozy.  I reread a walkthrough before playing, and referenced a couple during the repeating red hallway sequence to find the hole in the wall, and once your flashlight starts to change colors each loop.  I think this might be as far as you can get in Unreal PT based on some of what I've read about this port's limitations, and I'm kinda okay with that.  The solution feels like it's on the level of Lucasfilm Games' point-and-click level of obscurity what with the number of steps into the hallway, and even having to speak a certain phrase or word for the front door to finally unlock; although I also read that that solution doesn't exist in either Unreal PT or PT Emulation 1.4, so there's that too.

The attempt had a lot of good moments in it, from seeing words appear on walls on subsequent loops, to even the amount of frustration of the red looping hallways and actually thinking that the foyer was some level of relief because it was something different.  The white screen of death was nice and in a way felt akin to the blue screen of death in Eternal Darkness.  Also somewhat being able to piece together the story of what I thought was going on was genuinely unsettling but still a fun realization; although I obviously don't know everything because I didn't see what happened immediately before the player is graced with Norman Reedus' beautifully grossly mug.  I'm also not sure what to make of the bloody talking bag in the garage after respawning the post-white screen.


I don't think that I can come away saying that I've now played P.T. for all of the reasons I mentioned way up there at the top, but I can say that I've played through the majority of Unreal PT, which might be all that will ever be available until Hideo Kojima and Guillermo del Toro are able to wrestle their vision away from Konami's copyright lawyers.  Who knows.  Either way, this was a fun emulated port of a delisted playable teaser for a game that was canceled nine years ago because someone's ego was purportedly bruised.


~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
I Admit It's Kida Eerie


P.S.  I listed InvertedEarthTheory as a publisher at the top because they are currently the only way I know of to download and play Unreal PT.

Wednesday, November 13, 2024

MIDI Week Singles: "Northpoint Nocturne" - The Elder Scrolls Online (PC)

 


"Northpoint Nocturne" from The Elder Scrolls Online on Windows, macOS, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, XBox S/X, Linux
Composer: Brad Derrick
Album: The Elder Scrolls Online Original Game Soundtrack
Label: Bethesda Softworks
Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
Developer: ZeniMax Online Studios


In the last month or so, I'd gotten back into The Elder Scrolls Online after finding out that it was working well enough on the Steam Deck to warrant a purchase when it was on sale.  During that time, I was playing in Vvardenfell, part of the Morrowind DLC, but then I accidentally started a quest that turned into what was originally the starting quest in Cold Harbor.  Following the journey through Cold Harbor, I found my character deposited in Bleakrock Isle since I had chosen to be part of the Ebonheart Pact, a location I had not revisited since I first explored this area nigh on 10 years ago when I created my first character.  

"Northpoint Nocturn" is one of the songs that plays in Bleakrock Isle. Being in that location, among snow-covered hills, with this music playing brought back heaps of nostalgia and good feelings all around as snow fell outside of the Bleakrock Trading Hall.  There was just something about this serene music with the mountains, the snow, and the forested hills and it being cold outside here in the real world makes me yearn for just over a month from now when I'll be in the snow-covered high desert of central Oregon and with any luck, sitting on a comfy couch drinking something hot and playing ESO while occasionally looking out at a snowy expanse of fir and juniper.

Just pure bliss.



~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
Instrumental


Monday, November 11, 2024

Demo Time: Sancticide (VSD)

[Disclaimer:  I received a review key for Sancticide - Demo through Keymailer, a third-party website/company that connects publishers and developers with content creators.  The game was given without promise or expectation of a positive review, only that the game be played and content be created through the playing of the game and the experience.  Unless otherwise noted, all content in the following article is from my own playthrough of this game.]

Systems: Windows, Linux
Release Date: TBD
Publisher: Sylen Studio, Red Square Games
Time Spent: 50 Minutes

Sancticide is kinda strange and I'm not sure how to feel about it or the message that I might have interpreted from only playing the demo.  You can watch the whole of the demo which is up on our YouTube channel here.

The story here, as far as I was able to gather from the 1.3 playthroughs I did, was that you're a guy in a post-apocalyptic, potentially post-rapture world that happened some years before the start of the game, and you're making your way through an area killing groups of bandits/sinners and the occasional apparition.  The story location is not made clear, although it's somewhere with exposed magma chambers, although that could have been a result of the apocalypse/rapture, but the developers, Red Square Games, are a Polish studio so it could just as well be somewhere in the Polish countryside.  You play as a guy dressed like a cross between a Romanesque Centurian Soldier, and a modern military soldier-man, with maybe a bit of zealot priest thrown in for good measure.

In the demo, your character wakes up after something potentially traumatic happened, possibly tumbling down the cliff face?  But there is a singular goal upon realizing where he is, and that's to search the campsite and kill all of the sinners.  Like, I want to know what this campsite is all about.  Are these refugees, fleeing from an oppressive religious society?  Are they an organized group that is raping and pillaging their way through southern Poland?  In typical video game fashion, nearly everyone we come across as we slaughter our way through the camp looks like they're either on patrol or patiently waiting for an attack to come from somewhere, meaning there isn't really any sign of civilian life that I noticed.

The setting itself is a mixed bag, literally.  As mentioned, there is supposed to have been some event that did something big to the world population, which is why you are a holy solider guy running around with a gladius, or whatever sword-like weapon you find along the way, but you also have the option of a machine gun in contextual situations.  There isn't a whole lot in the way of modern civilization that you see apart from broken down or derelict vehicles, bags of cement lying around, and dozens of lit candles atop a broken washing machine.  Oh, and several enemies/sinners do carry firearms.  And then on top of all that, there is a fantastical element as your character has Witcher-like magical abilities that are only hinted at in the demo, like a sonic push-like ability that drains from your magic (faith?) meter.  There are also several goblin/ghoul-like creatures and literal ghost-like shades that talk smack at you.  Maybe it's because this is a demo, but it felt like there wasn't much time to question what was going on or why you were doing what it was that you were doing, except searching the campsite and killing sinners.

I don't know if the demo ended prematurely for me because I took too much damage in a group fight, or if it was scripted to end, but I ended up nearly killed, and then you're saved by a fellow Sin Collector (as is what your savior calls you and himself), who then presumably kills the remainder of the sinners and takes you, via cutscene stills to what I assume to be is a Sin Collector stronghold ala Kaer Morhen.  The demo however ends with you spawning into a rotunda where you can spar against several collections of enemies until you want to end the demo.  I'll get back to this rotunda battle in a bit because it's intrinsically linked to my next bit.

The controls in this game were something, and I should also point out that the game ran between 12-20 frames-per-second on the Steam Deck at both medium and high graphical settings.  The camera controls and sensitivity left something to be desired as I often found that I could never rotate the camera as fast as I wanted it to, especially in close-quarter combat with multiple enemies.  The group of ghosts, the ghouls, the final battle, and the rotunda battle all felt hampered because I could not get the camera to move around as fast as I wanted.  There was also no lock-on option in combat, which combined with a slow rotation speed did not help the feel of combat.  Lastly, there was no dodge or roll option, or at least none that was either intuitive or made known to me.  I'm not saying that every one-on-one (or thereabouts) third-person adventure game needs to have a dodge/roll option and I recognize that Dark Souls has trained me well in this regard, but combat really felt like it was missing a dodge/roll action.  Yes, there was a parry button that seemed to be the combat-related skill wall that I never quite mastered, and I never learned if you're able to parry projectiles, because those bloody ghoul creatures and whatever it was that they were throwing nearly took me out of the game.

So the end of the demo consisted of a sparring battle arena where you could select what type of enemies and how many you wanted to fight in this specific rotunda; I genuinely don't know what else to call it.  I started off fighting what I knew in numbers I could handle, but eventually, I pitted myself against the maximum number of Proselytes (there being 10 of them).  But hey, I had a reticle-less assault rifle, so how hard could they really be?  I think I managed to kill one, take the helmets off of a couple, and maimed a few before I was literally gutted.  I didn't actually mind the combination of using either a sword or an assault rifle interchangeably during combat and in the right circumstances and setting, it probably could have been a lot of fun outside of the sparring arena.

So that's where I stand on Sancticide, which if you're not sure by the time you're at the end of this article, then you're in the same boat as I am.  If the game implemented at the very least lock-on targeting during combat (as if I know how easy/difficult that is to implement in a video game) and some type of dodge mechanic, then I would likely enjoy the combat a lot more than I did in the demo.  I'm sure that there is a lot more to the story and what is going on than what is in this 20-minute demo and I would be very surprised if the demo is how the game actually started.  I need to know more about these sinners before I allow myself the pleasure of gutting them with a three-thousand-year-old sword.


~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian

Friday, November 8, 2024

Game EXP: Innsmouth 22 (VSD)

[Disclaimer:  I received a review key for Innsmouth 22 through Keymailer, a third-party website/company that connects publishers and developers with content creators.  The game was given without promise or expectation of a positive review, only that the game be played and content be created through the playing of the game and the experience.  Unless otherwise noted, all content in the following article is from my own playthrough of this game.] 

Systems: Windows, Linux*
Release Date: October 25, 2024
Publisher: Raven Novels
Developer: Raven Novels
Time Spent: 6 Hours 42 Minutes

First off, we have an entire playthrough of Innsmouth 22 up on our YouTube channel here if you want to go watch that before reading the article.  But just a heads up, it runs about 6.5 hours, and it's best watched in chunks, probably not all in one go.  And apologies for the seemingly random cut-off times for the videos.  Since there werne't any specific chapters, I decided to end a video either when Lorenzo went to bed, or when I myself started dozing off.  Secondly, the developer mentioned this on the Steam page, but Innsmouth 22 exclusively uses AI-generated art.  From what I can tell, the rest of the in-game text is all created and written by Raven Novels, although as evidenced by the title, is heavily inspired by The Shadow Over Innsmouth by H.P. Lovecraft, but only in ways that we'll get to later.  Secondly, while I haven't found 

The game follows an Italian professor, Lorenzo Righi as he travels to New England for a conference for fringe and mainstream history where he takes a short trip to the small town of Innsmouth that was organized on his behalf by the group that organized the conference.  What was nice about the overall story in Innsmouth 22 was that while it was inspired by The Shadow Over Innsmouth, it is not an attempt at a direct translation or retelling of that story.  You know, an adaptation.  Because Innsmouth 22 takes place in the present day, Raven Novels immediately has to come up with reasons how and why Lorenzo would react to certain events and anomalies while carrying around a smartphone.  It's an approach that I really appreciate because I feel it's almost easier to create a period piece and limit the technology available to our main character which does increase the tension why you can't just make a phone call or look up information on Google.

Because the game only uses AI-generated art, it was sometimes difficult to gauge the actual look and feel of the town of Innsmouth, especially as the story progressed.  In the story by Lovecraft, it's described as:

    ... a town of wide extent and dense construction, yet one with a portentous dearth of visible life. From the tangle of chimney-pots scarcely a wisp of smoke came, and the three tall steeples loomed stark and unpainted against the seaward horizon. [...] The vast huddle of sagging gambrel roofs and peaked gables conveyed with offensive clearness the idea of wormy decay, and as we approached along the now descending road I could see that many roofs had wholly caved in. [...]

    The harbour, long clogged with sand, was enclosed by an ancient stone breakwater; on which I could begin to discern the minute forms of a few seated fishermen, and at whose end were what looked like the foundations of a bygone lighthouse. A sandy tongue had formed inside this barrier, and upon it I saw a few decrepit cabins, moored dories, and scattered lobster-pots.1

The Innsmouth in Innsmouth 22 is an interesting anomaly.  At first, it's described in a similar manner to the Innsmouth in the book, but as the story progresses, it is described and appears to be a more hospitable town.  While not a bustling and vibrant coastal community, there are people around here and there, although I don't recall anyone being described as having the "Innsmouth look" but regular people who just lived in a small New England fishing town.  What further confused me a bit about Raven Novel's depiction of Innsmouth was that later in the game, Lorenzo makes a comparison to H.P. Lovecraft's stories which then brings up several dozen questions about this world, mainly, is this fictional town then supposed to have just been the basis for Lovecraft's real story about a fictionalized version of the in-story real Innsmouth?  I don't know if I worded all of that correctly, but I think my point might've come across?  Yes?

There are several connections Innsmouth 22 has to the source material such as a church that isn't specifically named but we can assume that it's the Esoteric Order of Dagon as Lorenzo accidentally wanders upon a ceremony/mass one of the evenings he's in town.  There's also the character of Zadok, although here he's not the exposition dumping Zadok Allen, but instead, he's Jim Zadok who's unemployed but living on a pension who does give Lorezno a bit of history on Innsmouth, but most of that had been left to an unnamed Bartender in the previous scene.  Together they're both contextually important scenes, and I suppose that they were split up between two people to create more characters in the town, and again, this is just an adaptation.

And this is an adaptation after all.  There are references to the break into the hotel room at the Gilman Hotel, there's references to Deep Ones and Deep One Hybrids but not in such a prevalent way that they are used in the book, there's the sequence with the Bartender talking about the Marsh and Eliot families although here it is almost a variant retelling of Dagon; although thankfully it never felt that Raven Novels was trying to shoehorn in every other Lovecraftian reference.  Lorenzo does discover familial connections to But Lorenzo is allowed to leave Innsmouth halfway through the story and continue with his conference, which surprisingly, has the player sit through several minutes of multiple speakers instead of glossing over the conference itself.  

Rather than try to finish writing an exhaustive book report, I'll say that the remainder of the game there were some interesting choices as far as the story went.  There were additional revelations about Deep Ones, there was more international travel, and surprisingly considering Lorenzo's penchant for describing nearly every woman he met, there was no infidelity.  Or maybe I just made the correct dialogue and choice options to avoid that scenario?  I did greatly appreciate that there were frequent choices that I could make so it wasn't just pressing either A or ZR for the whole 6.5 hours.  Even if the different choices ultimately led to the same outcome, it was nice to at least have the illusion of agency in a visual novel.

I had several issues with the game. Most notably, because the game was originally written in Italian and translated into English, at times, it felt that the translation was not the greatest in the world.  This is not a dig at Raven Novels or an attempt at Anglocentrism as most everything was legible and I did experience a full story.  There were times when the translation though didn't feel either fully authentic or I would think, "That's an interesting way to phrase that."  Secondly, and related to this, was that there were times when there was no English translation and Italian came up on the screen.  In my head, I had created the headcanon that this happened because a character was just super excited about something and slipped into using Italian.  I'm not 100% sure if it happened with any character that would not have spoken Italian, but that was what I thought.

The last thing was the use of AI art, which I partly understand, but I found it at times distracting.  I know the generalities of what to look for when you're trying to determine if a picture is AI-generated like where lights are hung, table and chair legs, windows, light sources, etc, and since I already knew that this game exclusively used AI-generated art, I knew what I was getting into, but at times I found myself more compelled to look at a setting for things that looked off or structurally impossible.  On that note, there was a drastic change in artistic style toward the end of the game (Episode 11 if you're watching along) when Lorenzo, Tom, and Emma dive to look at the engravings at Plum Island and upon their return trip to the harbor.  It's a very different choice in art and it doesn't remain consistent for the rest of the game compared with the previous six hours.  I guess it could make sense in a Colour Out of Space sense, but here, to happen out of the blue was an interesting choice.

Overall, I thought that the weaknesses of Innsmouth 22 did not overpower what I enjoyed about the game.  I appreciate an attempt at a modern adaptation of a story that was not only written but also takes place 90 years ago and places it in a modern setting with all of the amenities and conveniences we have today.  I also enjoyed the use of music and occasional environmental sound effects, even if the music might come across as repetitive after the first hour; and it's pretty dangerous to play late at night because I think I've now conditioned myself to become sleepy whenever I hear that song now.  As far as the end of the game goes, while it was fairly abrupt, there was a certain Lovecraftian charm to it.  Once you make your final choice in the game, there are a few lines of text to read, then the game simply ends with an "End."  I'm sure that "Fine" looks a little fancier than simply "End" the same way that some films end with "Fin" instead of using English, but in English, "End" almost comes across as a placeholder or just poorly written.


~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian


P.S.  You might've noticed that around the 17-minute mark on Part 9, the aspect ratio changes, and that was because I went back and "refilmed from this point until the end, because I had dozed off while playing and I skipped through this part rather quickly.  So when I went back to the game and started it to "refilm" the game had been released and updated since the previous night, which included changing the aspect ratio along with the title screen.

P.P.S.  There were also several times when I accidentally brought up a secondary settings menu while playing, and that apparently happens when you press the Steam Deck joystick to the left in this game; so it's an in-game feature, not a bug, which confused me the first time it happened.  And to ruin some behind the scenes magic, when that happens in subsequent videos, it's because I was starting to doze off.  Sorry.


1. The Shadow Over Innsmouth by Lovecraft, H.P.
Visionary Publishing Company, April 1936


Wednesday, November 6, 2024

MIDI Week Singles: "Unhidable Anxiety" - Final Fantasy Tactics Advance (GBA)

 


"Unhidable Anxiety" from Final Fantasy Tactics Advance on the Game Boy Advance (2003)
Composer: Hitoshi Sakimoto
Album: Final Fantasy Tactics Advance Original Soundtrack
Label: Square Enix
Publisher: Square
Developer: Square Product Development Division 4


I'll be honest with you, I don't know exactly where this song happens in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance.  It's 9:42 PM on Tuesday November 5th and if you look in your history books at today's date, or if you're reading this between Wednesday, November 6th, 2024 and Wednesday, November 7, 2028, then you'll probably already know the meaning behind picking this song for today.  

The song is a lot more upbeat than you might expect considering the name of the track, so I might guess without looking it up just yet, that it might occur as you're picking which party members to send out into battle while taking into account the laws that will go into effect.  Although one comment on YouTube says that this is the song that plays after "any big story revelation" so I guess it is still relevant in more ways than one.  I don't know.  I feel kinda nauseous and not in the best of ways.

I do like this song though.  I'm just using our site and y'alls' attention as a coping mechanism and sounding board.



~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian