@bam541 I've sorta been going through my backlog a year at a time, and I'm checking out stuff from 1997 right now. I'm really looking forward to playing AC2. I thought the arcade game and AC1 were a little barebones, and I've heard so much good stuff about the series. Hyped to check this one out if it's the prototypical entry for the rest of the games.

Finished Persona 3.

What I like:
-Menu design
-Music
-The characters' costumes
-Junpei

What I didn't like:
-The dungeon crawling
-Social links
-Characters who weren't Junpei
-How long it was

5/10

Megaman Legends

It's difficult not to be drawn in by its confident art style, breezy atmosphere, and precise sound design. Its compact open world is really beautiful too. There's a lot to get out of wandering about. But nothing erases the fact that it's cumbersome to play. Its dungeons are bland, its boss encounters are tiresome, and its level design captures none of what made previous Megaman games so compelling. And as much as I like its world (and I really do), I wish it went further in developing characters and side-quests.

It's still good---in some ways exceptional, but I think I liked it more as a sort of digital object than I did as a game.

Doshin the Giant

Nearly great. Conceptually and aesthetically its a success. It has a beautiful island atmosphere and helping villagers to grow their townships and sculpting the landscape are rewarding. I love all the animals pattering about, the Yellow Giant's theme is fantastic, and I think that it supplies some interesting frustrations that seem like a natural consequence of playing as a god character as opposed to design oversight. The problem is that it just doesn't quite feel complete. I wish villagers were capable of a little more, maybe of resistance or war. The setup is so strong, I wish it was taken to the next natural step rather than it staying in a comfortable state. The ending is disappointing as well.

I think there's reason for concern w/regards to a Half Life game having currency-driven upgrade terminals. Upgrades as a whole aren't the problem exactly (the airboat and gravity gun both get upgrades in 2), but the idea of just using a terminal to activate them feels lazy.

Let me find the parts and figure out how they fit on the gun, or help an NPC modify your weapon at a certain point in the game. This isn't just something that might be more interesting in VR, but would fit in better with the ramshackle, resistance focused storytelling of the Half Life 2 saga.

Of course the game isn't out yet, but the previews make it seem really convenient and striaghtforward, and it's unexciting to me.

I think the combat system has potential. The scorpion sentinel is a really thoughtfully designed and paced boss battle; very fun and I hope every boss builds upon this sort of structure.

I don't like the UI at all (thin, blue, indescript), and giving what should be idle chatter a cutscene treatment really kills some of the pacing. I don't mind the dialogue and character building when it's on the run or mostly optional, but stopping the bombing mission more than once so a character can go "uah!?" and take a half step back is silly given the circumstances.

Funny that the demo quelled my skepticism of the combat and arose new skepticisms in the storytelling!

Very surprised that's happening---especially for Melee. Apparently there's a long history of the Smash community and other sponsors trying to get something like this going, but it's all fallen apart due to tournament organizer disagreement and Nintendo subterfuge.

Here's hoping it turns out well!

@bam541 I'll definitely be checking some of these EVO qualifiers for MVC2. I used to follow MvC3 and SF4, but I didn't like watching the successors to either of those games. Glad to see some more competitive love for some of that good old stuff. Hopefully this means more formal support or grassroots opportunities for older games that outshine their latest iterations.

I approach JRPGs the way I approach books: one at a time, dip into it at least once a week even if only for 20 minutes or so, and try to finish it unless it gets tedious (JRPGs tend to get tedious in the back third, books usually get better; I finish more books because of that).

The days of being stoked and playing JRPGs for hours on end is over. It's been over since I was 14, they're repetitive and very derivative. I guess I manage some time around checking them out, giving them a fair shake, and completing them if I like them.

I basically don't regard or pay attention to the zeitgeist at all. I'll see new movies or play new games if they interest me, but there's so much older stuff I haven't experienced yet that I'd like to get to first. I haven't played a game from 2019 yet, I've never read a novel of my own volition written after the 1980s, and I'm more likely to see second run or restored films in theaters as opposed to new stuff. I don't know if I enjoy it more or less because I'm instantly skeptical of anyone telling me how great anything is unless I know that person really well.