Blog, Blog, Bloq

 This time around I had a few ideas of what to write about. And the one I landed on involves "Side Characters". Not to be confused with Supporting Characters, who are more involved with the main cast and overall story. So, why have I decided on something like this? Well, I thought it would be fun to talk about specific cases from varying genres. This also gives me a reason to talk about an unlikely candidate.  But to ease into the topic, I am going to use One Piece as a springboard. And the perfect character for this, is none other than Curly Dadan. The mountain bandit turned surrogate parent, is without a doubt one of the most slept on characters in the whole series. There's an argument for a more in-depth look at the character, but for now, I am going to focus on what makes her so great. ( Disclaimer : If it wasn't already apparent, spoilers for everything in this post.)  Prior to Dadan's physical debut in the Anime and Manga proper, she is casually mentioned by...

Recently, I decided to finally finish Syberia: The World Before. The fourth installment in the Syberia franchise, and the last one from series creator Benoît Sokal, before he passed away on May 28, 2021. So, it took me a minute to work up the courage to finish the game that I started two years ago. It's funny to think about this because I had only finished the original trilogy like a month or two before Sokal had passed away. The question to be asked is, why did I feel so deeply for something in such a short time? The answer lies in the writing. Syberia 1 is a point-and-click adventure game from 2002 that was developed by Microids. This first outing had some issues when it came to movement and visibility, yet the environments and characters were so enriching. It made me miss the wide usage of pre-rendered backgrounds. Not to mention the wide usage of automatons and other mechanical works that defined the series as a whole. But to get back on track, the draw for me was how engaging ...

 This time around, I wasn't sure what to do. So, I thought about it. And I came around to this idea that I had about the franchise headlined by Fred Krueger. I am just going to kind of go over my thoughts on how the scariest thing in these films is not Freddy, but the loss of access to sleep. Something that I feel was lost in most of the non-Wes Craven films.  This idea materialized as a product of my rewatches of the franchise. It is quite fascinating what you can pull out when you watch movies over and over. And the Nightmare series is a franchise that I feel has such a terrible average.  This is not really an uncommon phenomenon. Most things can't keep up with expectations or consistency. In comparison, I think that Friday the 13th blows Nightmare out of the water if we take a look at the whole. But the individual scale will always lean toward Nightmare's favor. Like, Nightmare 1, 3, and New Nightmare are leagues above anything that Friday the 13th has ever put out. Ye...

 Lately, I have just been on an action game kick. And so I decided to jump back into my Hard Mode playthrough of Killer Is Dead. A gem that came out in 2013 from Grasshopper Manufacture. The studio that is best known for No More Heroes, killer7, and Lollipop Chainsaw. But this was my first experience with the GhM style, and I was completely enamored.  According to some very handy Achievement tracking, I started playing in 2014. That sounds about right because I remember playing KID in High School. It was one of those games where I just wanted to keep going. And it stuck with me throughout all these years. I can even remember seeing the cover at my local GameStop, and being draw toward it. A title that oozes so much style that it doesn't even try to contain.  Not to mention, the game's unabashed horniness. It's both comedic and sexy. A combination that works within reason. And I think that KID nails that approach. Our main character, Mondo Zappa, is so cool that women can...

 With the release of modern Action games like The First Berserker: Khazan and Lies of P, it is becoming clearer to me that the direction of the genre is skewing hard. Only a handful of titles like Soulstice or Valkyrie Elysium seem to be leaning toward that Devil May Cry, or Ninja Gaiden-esque style anymore. And why would you? The FromSoftware formula has been working like a charm. Elden Ring is one of the most popular games, and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is being used as the blueprint despite the foundations being laid down by Team Ninja with Nioh and Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge. Obviously, this should also include PlatinumGames's Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance as well.  But I think at the end of the day, the big culprit is Dark Souls itself. This is funny to think about because Demon's Souls was just two years prior, yet it wasn't the buzzword game that its successor would be lionized as. So fourteen years later, the modern Action game has almost homogenized into the...