At some point I hope to really check in and see how I’m doing. Unfortunately a lot of other things in my life are making that difficult, because despite reviewing probably being in a better place, the rest of my life is a bit all over the place. And then of course there’s the world in general, the unending pandemic, the wanting to control things that I have no control over. So… Well, I’m still here and trying. That’s something.
I hopefully will share my full WisCon schedule soon. I think I’m on four things and the full schedule was just announced. I think I’m on just live events but I will say the online tracks do look pretty good so if you were wondering about putting in for a virtual membership imo it’s a really good idea. It’s only $40 and there’s a lot of really good sounding panels that I think I’ll be attending even while at the con physically. But yeah, more on that soon I hope.
In media, Matt and I are still watching (well, rewatching really) Vera and still loving it. Just a very good mystery series and I love Vera herself. Well acted, well written, and with a great sense of humor.
I’m also still playing Chrono Trigger, and have gotten much closer to the “end” of the game. I will admit, this game has surprised me. Especially from where it starts, there is a sense that this is going to be a fairly straightforward and standard story. Even with the time travel, there’s the implication that this is a good vs evil kind of thing, with Chrono and Co. taking on the evil Magus, who has been trying to awaken a sleeping evil. The whole setup is moving towards that, until it isn’t. Until we confront Magus and find out that things aren’t quite what they seem, and are thrown into a time when people are really abusing this incredibly dangerous entity that fell from space as a kind of power source.
The shift from classic fantasy to science fiction horror is a slow one, but also a powerful one, and I’m impressed with how the game takes chances. Most notably with killing the main character. And yes, I am spoiling this. You’ve had decades to play this game, get over it. But yeah, the brutal moment when Chrono is disintegrated is just visceral and raw and wow. I’ll argue that the pixel work is actually the more disturbing rendition, though the anime cut-scene from the PS version is nice as well. And then making you play on without your main character…I know that games have done this sort of thing before, but not really on the same scale as this.
Anyway, I really like how the game managed the tone shift, moving from fantasy sword and sorcery and dipping right into cosmic horror. It’s fun and even with the limited mechanics of the game it’s remained very challenging and mostly engaging. Some of the areas and enemies are annoying as hell and linger for too long but mostly it’s just a very good game. Indeed.
In my Marvel read, I’m still moving through Cable, now in the immediate pre-Onslaught reveals about the villain Post. Which…meh. Post was never the most interesting of villains or characters. Sort of makes sense what with having to answer to a malevolent plot hole. But so it goes. We’ll see how it pans out. Slightly better was the stuff between Nathan and Nate, Cable and X-Man. The same person of different worlds. Their interactions are interesting and I like how Cable comes off here. He’s certainly come a very long way from the earliest iterations of the character, and is now much more mature and dedicated to people rather than being aggressively first-strike about everything. After this it will be sitting down with Warren Ellis’s Excalibur, which should be fun. Indeed.
And that’s about it for now. Cheers!
I hopefully will share my full WisCon schedule soon. I think I’m on four things and the full schedule was just announced. I think I’m on just live events but I will say the online tracks do look pretty good so if you were wondering about putting in for a virtual membership imo it’s a really good idea. It’s only $40 and there’s a lot of really good sounding panels that I think I’ll be attending even while at the con physically. But yeah, more on that soon I hope.
In media, Matt and I are still watching (well, rewatching really) Vera and still loving it. Just a very good mystery series and I love Vera herself. Well acted, well written, and with a great sense of humor.
I’m also still playing Chrono Trigger, and have gotten much closer to the “end” of the game. I will admit, this game has surprised me. Especially from where it starts, there is a sense that this is going to be a fairly straightforward and standard story. Even with the time travel, there’s the implication that this is a good vs evil kind of thing, with Chrono and Co. taking on the evil Magus, who has been trying to awaken a sleeping evil. The whole setup is moving towards that, until it isn’t. Until we confront Magus and find out that things aren’t quite what they seem, and are thrown into a time when people are really abusing this incredibly dangerous entity that fell from space as a kind of power source.
The shift from classic fantasy to science fiction horror is a slow one, but also a powerful one, and I’m impressed with how the game takes chances. Most notably with killing the main character. And yes, I am spoiling this. You’ve had decades to play this game, get over it. But yeah, the brutal moment when Chrono is disintegrated is just visceral and raw and wow. I’ll argue that the pixel work is actually the more disturbing rendition, though the anime cut-scene from the PS version is nice as well. And then making you play on without your main character…I know that games have done this sort of thing before, but not really on the same scale as this.
Anyway, I really like how the game managed the tone shift, moving from fantasy sword and sorcery and dipping right into cosmic horror. It’s fun and even with the limited mechanics of the game it’s remained very challenging and mostly engaging. Some of the areas and enemies are annoying as hell and linger for too long but mostly it’s just a very good game. Indeed.
In my Marvel read, I’m still moving through Cable, now in the immediate pre-Onslaught reveals about the villain Post. Which…meh. Post was never the most interesting of villains or characters. Sort of makes sense what with having to answer to a malevolent plot hole. But so it goes. We’ll see how it pans out. Slightly better was the stuff between Nathan and Nate, Cable and X-Man. The same person of different worlds. Their interactions are interesting and I like how Cable comes off here. He’s certainly come a very long way from the earliest iterations of the character, and is now much more mature and dedicated to people rather than being aggressively first-strike about everything. After this it will be sitting down with Warren Ellis’s Excalibur, which should be fun. Indeed.
And that’s about it for now. Cheers!
---
No comments:
Post a Comment