Monthly Update: February, 2023 (Part II)

 

I decided to split the Monthly Update article into two parts because of the way I ended Part 1, I could not think of a good way to transition to talking about video games.  So I thought the best way to do that would be to split the article up into two parts.  This was not to keep my thoughts about all of the ways that socially conservative asshats are doing harm to society in the name of religious freedoms that are not being infringed upon (you're not being oppressed, you're just an asshole).  So here we go.

Gaming-wise, I have been all over the place.  

On the Wii U, I have gotten back into Fire Emblem (The Blazing Blade) Game Boy Advance port on the Virtual Console.  I had stopped a while back because I was anxious about starting what I thought was the final battle in Eliwood's Chapter.  I actually don't know if there is another main character that the story will follow after Eliwood because now it feels like I am entering the end-end game, unlike Lyn's chapter which leads to the one-year time jump to start Eliwood's story.  I also started The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap also on the Wii U's Virtual Console as it is the next game in the chronological timeline for the Legend of Zelda series and I never played it the first time around in 2004.  I have only just started the game so I am not quite ready to write anything about it.

On the 3DS, since I finished Dragon Quest IX (read all about it here), I moved on to an unlikely game, Poochy & Yoshi's Wooly World.  Recently The Squire has gotten into the Super Mario Bros. franchise through trailers for Yoshi's Crafted World and the demo for the aforementioned 3DS game.  After playing the demo nearly 15 times and running out of the limited number of times I could play the game before it became unplayable (and honestly, playing the same two levels was getting a little old), I purchased the physical game.  I know it has been lauded as a too-easy game with little challenge, but honestly, that is kind of what I am looking for with The Squire watching on.  Plus there are short 30-second stop-motion animated movies that you can unlock every day (for 31 days) and The Squire is perfectly happy watching those a handful of times.  I also picked up Metroid: Samus Returns because after Metroid Dread, I felt like playing another Metroid game before whenever the next Metroid game gets released.

On the Switch, I have been going between three games.  I am still working through Bayonetta 3 and I am a little sad that I have not been as engaged with this game as I had hoped to be.  There is a lot that I love about the game like the music, and the variety in gameplay styles and genres, although the length of some levels taking me upwards of an hour is the biggest hurdle for me completing it last month.  I also picked up Onion Assault, the newest game from Horberg Productions (Gunman Clive 1 & 2, Mechstermination Force, Super Punch Patrol), and have been playing that over Bayonetta 3.  GoldenEye 007 for the N64 Online App was also released and after a fair amount of tinkering with the systems control settings, I have managed to find a combination of settings that feel good.  Oddly, even my usual 1.2 Solitaire settings felt strange with the C Directional buttons mapped to the right Joy-Con joystick, but I think part of it was that the trigger/fire button was mapped by default to ZL, which kind of makes sense, except the positioning of where ZL is in relation to the rest of the controller compared to the N64 controller mentally threw me off.  But anyway, it is playable although I do not know if I will be able to get back to the level of play I was at when I beat Aztec on 00 Agent.

On the Steam Deck, I have really only been playing American Truck Simulator although I have Alan Wake's American Nightmare briefly started, but I wanted to have my articles written for the main game and the DLC up before I jumped into a new title in the same series.  There are several other games I have lined up that I want to play though (hello Steam queue), but I think coming off of Alan Wake, I would like to continue that series/story while it is still fresh in my mind.  Then, after about 8.5 hours, I will get back to Dark Souls III, if only so that I can play enough to write a First Impressions article to talk about how wonky the combat and animation feel in that game compared to Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin and how much it reminds me of the combat in The Witcher III.  There, I said it.

And yeah, I still have God of War: Ghost of Sparta on the PSP that I will eventually get back to if only to say that I finished it.

So that is me leaving January behind and looking ahead into February (cue the freeze frame and cheesy 90s music from the Lifetime channels' library of slice-of-life movies of the week).

On the other media front, Conklederp and I finished the Willow series on Disney+ which I have several thoughts about but came away hoping that Kasdan is able to complete the next two chapters hinted at after/during the credits sequence.  We also started and finished 1899 on Netflix and accidentally found out who the Prince was in Dark (a previous series by the same creators) while watching a making-of documentary for 1899.  Conklederp has also been watching (and me tangentially as well) Ghost over on Paramount's streaming service.  And I am just now realizing that we have not been keeping up with the second season of The Bad Batch, and I think we will be getting into The Last of Us on HBO, which I have been torn about because it is a game that I would like to play, but has not yet been released on non-PlayStation platforms yet (March 3rd).

And also 

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian

Enduring out with Wind and Ice

Monthly Update: December, 2022

 

You know, if people could stop killing other people for living their own lives and not infringing on the rights of others while they enjoy an evening out with friends, that would be great.  Looking at you bigots of Colorado Springs.  And if people could stop murdering entire families so that they could continue a catfishing grooming scheme to sexually assault a minor, that would be great too.  Looking at you Sheriffs of Washington County, Virginia.

Say it with me now.  "Work on your transitions!"

WILLOW!  I have not actually watched the first two episodes at the time of this writing, but I would be surprised if I did not write something for next Monday (the 5th) about my first impressions of the series.  I am a little anxious about it, only because I do not want to be disappointed and I do not want it to end up being a show that only I want to watch and will have to find time on my own to watch it, because that will likely be the death knell of this series.  Mutually entertaining shows are the best, really.

November, I think I can break down my video game playing to six games (I actually started this section out with three games, but after several edits, it has ballooned to six):

Let us "briefly" break this down though.

I actually started Bayonetta 3 back at the end of October and I had planned to pull back from Dark Souls II and focus solely on Bayonetta because it's not often I pre-order a game, but then I received a copy of This Way Madness Lies, and that became my playing and writing life for about two weeks.  I then briefly jumped back into Bayonetta 3 and realized how much that game drains the battery power on the Switch, as in I can play for less than an hour-and-a-half and it will eat up around 50% of the battery power, even when the screen brightness is not turned up to 100%.  I also discovered that when the Switch is in Sleep mode, if it is not plugged in, it will drain, maybe 10% every 24 hours.  There is just something dissuading about picking up the Switch, seeing the battery power at 42% and knowing that I would only be able to play for about 45 minutes before it starts beeping at me that the battery power is at 10 and 5%.  And since I typically play in handheld mode and use the Meta Quest 2 charging cable for my phone, the Switch, and the MQ2, I often do not think about plugging the Switch back in after I unplug my phone first thing in the morning.  Yeah, yeah, I know.  I should have dedicated USB C plugs for each device and why the hell am I not just plugging the Switch back into the dock, and let me tell you it is because I do not want to walk down and back up two flights of stairs.  Yeah, uphill in the snow, both ways.

On the 3DS, I have been mostly playing Dragon Quest IX and am in full-on JRPG mode.  When I get to a new town, I hit the armor and weapon shops to buy what I can and then just grind away, leveling up and getting more of that sweet-sweet GP to buy everything else in the shops.  Usually, by the time I have bought everything that is better than what my characters are currently wearing, I have raised several levels and feel ready to head into that area's dungeon to fight the boss.  So far, I have only had to seek out online assistance to figure out where I need to go next because the game is not always clear about where that should be and there have not been many instances where you actually see the whole world map and where you are on it to get your bearings as to where you have been and where you could go next.  I also had to look up where the train is essentially parked after gathering just over half a dozen Fyggs.  But this is a lot of what I want when I think of a JRPG, although I know that there are a lot of online and StreetPass elements that I am not able to engage with that I had heard a lot of good things about when this game first came out, for the most part, this game is scratching hard on the JRPG itch

Speaking of JRPGs, on the Steam Deck, as previously mentioned, I spent some time playing and writing about This Way Madness Comes, which was a hilarious blast to play in the just over 12 hours it took me to beat the game.  And of course, there is Dark Souls II.  I recently finished off the last of the four Old Ones and am plodding my way through Drangleic Castle.  To date, I think I have died upwards of 230+ times, but I am still having a blast with whatever quality-type build I have been playing with.  I did play a bit into one of the DLC areas, but I do not feel as compelled to travel down to the bottom of Brume Tower, but at least I can just warp to that bonfire and attempt the trudge down again if Drangleic Castle starts getting to me too much.

In my off-playing sessions, when I need a break from souls, I can just drive a big ol' Semi through the highways and freeways of condensed Oregon in American Truck Simulator.  It is kind of what I like about driving games like The Crew, without the stress of having to race other cars.  Just give me some open roads based somewhat off of real-life locations that I know somewhat, and I am happy.  And any time I tip over that luscious cargo, I will just reload my save file from before I started that new job and chalk it up to having a prophetic dream about taking that curve on I-84 right after passing through La Grande too fast in the rain.

With all of the recent talk about God of War: Ragnarok, I picked up my PSP that was in our basement and strolled back into God of War: Ghost of Sparta, because these games are all the same right?  Kratos everyone in a historical setting with big'ol-honking weapons.  Granted this is a solo mission so he is not saying "BOY!" 2.3 times per hour, and I think he is looking for his missing and maybe murderous brother who is somewhere near/around/just left Sparta; at least it will be less frequent than how much people clapped/cheered during The Two Towers at Trilogy Tuesday; yes I still carry an annoyance about that audience.  Since it had been just over a literal year since I last played the game, I think it is safe to say that the story did not grab me like Chains of Olympus did, but just mentioned another handheld gaming device that I am playing.

So happy December everyone.  If you are celebrating any particular Holy Day(s) this month, then I hope you all have fun celebrating with family and/or chosen family.  If this is a particularly difficult month for you, know that there are people you can talk to, myself among them.  Unless you are a socially conservative bigot who believes that your rights are being infringed upon simply by someone else existing.  You should have no one and you should feel bad.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian

Instrumental

Star Wars Celebration Day 1

I wasn't originally going to really talk much about Star Wars Celebration going on this weekend, but then when I tuned in during the second panel for the upcoming sequel series Willow, I knew that I had to at least share a couple of screengrabs and talk about my excitement.  After the second panel with Erin Kellyman (Enfys Nest in Solo and Winifred in The Green Knight), Rosabell Laurenti Sellers (Tyene Sand in Game of Thrones), and Ellie Bamber (haven't seen her in anything), I went back and watched the first panel with Warwick Davis (Wicket in Return of the Jedi, and fricking Willow Ufgood), Joanne Whalley (Sorsha in Willow) and writer Jonathan Kasdan (Solo, and Willow).

I do not remember specifically when I first saw Willow, although I know that it was within a year after it was released in theaters, although I never saw it in theaters and I can only blame my parents for not taking me.  Maybe they thought that it would be too scary?  But I would have been eight at the time, a prime age for that kind of story.  But I first saw it some night that it was aired on TV and like our family, we taped it off of TV while pressing pause on the VCR when commercials came on so that we would not have to fast forward the commercials, but also it meant we used up less tape.  This was the only version of Willow that I knew until the 20th anniversary DVD edition was released in 2008.  Now, not only was I able to watch the entire movie, including scenes that had been cut from the broadcast version from 1989, but I could now also see the entire movie and not the "modified from the original version and formatted to fit your screen."  I have since seen Willow in a theater of sorts, as it was a desanctified church turned movie theater a number of years ago in the before-times.

There is just so much that I love about the movie Willow that anything I say will end up looking like a list.  James Horner's score is some of the best fun adventure music ever written, but at the same time has such a majestic and emotional theme for Elora Danan and the mystical world that this story takes place in.  Similar to Star Wars, you feel as if you are thrown into the middle of a world full of history and prophecy that you are able to catch up on along the way.  With a story that follows a simple character thrust into a larger world that they never expected or really wanted anything to do with.  For me, there is something special about watching Warwick Davis' portrayal of Willow, the obvious love you can feel and see between him and his on-screen family and the hope that he inspires in the other characters he meets along the way, not by being the strongest fighter or the most powerful sorcerer, but by being the most genuine to himself.  At the end of the movie when he touches the braid of hair given to him by his wife Kiaya to help him find his courage as he faces down a wall of charging cavalry.  Ughgjslhgjkdha!!

I have mentioned it before, but I have the sequel trilogy of books that take place after the events in the movie, and I ended up stopping a few chapters into the third book because I felt lost as to what was happening.  The story also felt very different from the movie and more like a story that existed before Willow and a couple of characters from the movie were placed over existing characters.  Such as Willow, who experiences a form of mental transportation and witnesses the destruction of Tir Asleen, and I think, several other areas in the world.  He then goes into exile/hiding and changes his name to Thorn Drumheller and from what I recall, very little is mentioned about other characters (including his family) or places from the movie.  It was just a little disappointing.

So when it was announced a few years back that a sequel to Willow was going to happen on Disney+, I was pretty excited, more so when it seemed like they were not going to be using the books as a source material; which does fit in line with Disney's approach to the Star Wars novels and their approach to the sequel trilogy.  And that trailer had a lot that I did not fully understand but it definitely looks like they are expanding the scope of the story and possibly exploring more of the land, but I am excited by the look of the series, although I guess that is what a trailer is supposed to do.

I think that is really all I wanted to say.  That I am very excited for this series involving characters from 34 years ago that I love, and I was very happy to see two panels of actors on the first day of Star Wars Celebration, especially when I wasn't anticipating anything but to read a couple of articles talking about highlights throughout the weekend.  But don't go expecting consistent articles to come out of Star Wars Celebration.  I mean, unless something completely unanticipated gets announced, like an Enfys Nest series, because I will definitely ride that hype train.

November 30th cannot come soon enough.

Goodtimes.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian

Old Friends

MIDI Week Singles: "Ending Theme" - Willow (NES)

 

"Ending Theme" from Willow on the Nintendo Entertainment System (1989)
Composer: Harumi Fujita
Album: No Official Release
Publisher: Capcom
Developer: Capcom

Continuing with the Ending themes for December, I wanted to use this theme from the NES game Willow.  Admittedly, I have only heard this a few times all because a neighbor borrowed the game, wrote down passwords frequently and when he returned the game, also gave me his list of passwords so I could fight Bavmorda any time I wanted to with Willow Ufgood all souped-up with the best equipment.  I never have managed to make it through Willow on my own, which still makes me kind of sad because I find it to be one of the better video game translations of a movie IP.

Kind of similar to the End Theme from Shien's Revenge from last week's MIDI Week Single, the majority of the music here is all new and not taken from earlier moments in the game.  The song does open with a slightly creepy motif that is reminiscent of the music in Tir Asleen and possibly Nokmaar Castle but at least it is keeping in theme with the rest of the music in the game.  The music is very victorious, suiting to this end of Willow's journey as the player is shown locations throughout the world that they explored while questing to save Elora Danan and defeat Bavmorda.  Then as the screen changes back to Willow's home village of Nelwyn and the credits thank Lucas Arts and Capcom, the music transitions to Elora Danan's theme from the film.  This is the only time that the music from the film is used in the game and it only lasts seven seconds, but it is right before the end of the song, so that is what sticks in my head as the song ends.

Ahh!  I love it.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
Tomorrows Turmoil Tonight

MIDI Week Singles: "Bogarda's Cave" - Willow (NES)

"Bogarda's Cave" from Willow on the Nintendo Entertainment System (19889)

Composer: Harumi Fujita

Album: No Official Release

Developer: Capcom

There are plenty of more melodic songs from Willow that I could have chosen, so why did I land on "Bogarda's Cave" (which is later used as the default cave music from that point on in the game)?  For me, it's all about what feeling this song conjures up, and that feeling is typically one based around anxiety at running into one of those annoying Zombies.  Zombies are the Eggplant Wizard equivalent in Willow, except instead of turning your character into an eggplant, they turn you into a pig (a la Bavmorda style magic, but faster) for a limited amount of time, but during that time you cannot leave the current screen, all while being shot at by said Zombie with spheres of magical energy (or it could just simply be fire).  There're plenty of hazard to run into in caves, (the Ghosts can be annoying too), but overall, I just find it to be a good "cave theme."

And I do genuinely like this song it all of its 8-bit glory.  Although if you prefer, one Josh Tobin arranged a version of this song which is featured on the arranged album, "The Wonderful World of Willow."

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

Instrumental

P.S.If you liked this song, I covered a handful of other songs that Japanese composer Harumi Fujita wrote on our other site a few years back in a Game Scores article.