Mini Blog!
Where I write unnecessarily long analyses of why I like stuff!
All of the posts here are excerpts from longer sub pages!
Embedded Files
(written on 7/17/24, finished on 8/2/24)
(content warning: this game has some darker themes and disturbing concepts.)
The moment I truly began to appreciate the sheer level of care and quality Crow Country was after fighting my way through a hazardous staff hallway, thinking about how annoying it was going to be to backtrack to where I needed to be, found a lever on a wall, pulled it, and realized I had just opened a secret passage to EXACTLY where I wanted to go. Not only that, but the secret passage had been visible earlier, which then filled me with this incredible feeling of picking up on something long before it was relevant. This same feeling comes into play over and over again throughout the game, and is the number one reason I love it so much. It never feels like you're being force fed information either- every connection you draw between puzzles or hint you picked up on earlier feels entirely like your own achievement instead of any kind of hand holding, something which I am immensely impressed that the developers were able to pull off so well.
I literally only had two dislikes about THE ENTIRE GAME. I don't just feel neutrally about everything else- literally every single detail and moment is so lovingly hand-crafted that it's very close to being a perfect video game the entire way through. Like, EVERY moment. They even made BACKTRACKING of all things efficient, purposeful, and varied. HOW.
Anyway it's a good game, if you haven't played it please do go buy it. Thank you!
(written on 5/29/24)
It's Undertale! You've probably heard of this game before and probably even played it. I played it a few years back, and I've been meaning to replay this game with the lens of a story writer and after making some small games of my own ever since Undertale Yellow came out (and also with word that more Deltarune chapters are fast approaching). As you can probably guess from how popular this game is: I really enjoyed it! The only low points were the handful of times it leaned too much into wacky random internet humor, but these moments were very far between. Everything else was so beautifully written, polished, and overall charming. In fact, I enjoyed this game on this revisit a LOT more than on my first one because last time I played it, I did not understand a lot of the telegraphs or strategies and thought the attacks were too unpredictable when they are not! I was just very bad at games back then! I still am bad at games actually, but less so now.
Undertale does such a great job of subverting genre tropes, both narratively and in terms of gameplay. The combat system is super creative and dynamic, and a ton of the characters refuse tradition like not buying items from you at stores or acknowledging that their overworld sprites only face one way/don't move. When you revisit various areas, they look the same as when you started, but a lot of the dialogue says that everyone either is too lazy to move or are doing things slowly it's imperceptible. One boss also has a joke about only facing towards the camera the entire time both because they're a performer and because their weak point is on their back. I was also shocked at how many game mechanics are explained in-universe in a way that actually enhance the worldbuilding. For example, food items are magical, explaining why they instantly heal. So many RPGs also have characters just increase their health points by levelling up, which I can only imagine means their skin gets thicker somehow, but Undertale provides a really good explanation for practically everything.
This game also has one of the most insane amounts of foreshadowing ever? Like my friends would tell me to backtrack through really long corridors as a joke and were equally surprised when Flowey or a new NPC was waiting for me there. And all the Deltarune hints????
Full blog post also discusses Undertale Yellow and TS!Underswap and goes into depth on Asgore
(written on 5/4/24)
Kid Cosmic has got to be my favorite interpretation of the superhero story ever. First off, it's VERY aware of all of the tropes and makes a point of parodying famous moves like tying a giant's legs together to instantly stop them and then having it not work at all. More importantly though, their powers come from the stones they have and aren't a part of them, meaning it can be taken away or transferred and the show uses this concept REALLY well. Everyone has a stone they prefer, but as it goes on they switch or combine powers circumstantially and I don't think I've ever seen anything do that to this extent. The closest thing would be a power loss or power swap episode like in Phineas and Ferb: Mission Marvel, but even then the change isn't intentional and those are about the struggles with their abilities changing or disappearing. It also turns into a funny bit where Kid Cosmic just occasionally removes his ring because he can't figure out how to stop flying.
Throughout the whole series, the characters were really enjoyable and had some great character growth. A few definitely felt a little one-note, but considering how many there actually were that's pretty reasonable. The core characters always had really good back-and forth where they argued over their own philosophies and how to proceed, and no character was ever always in the right except for Flo maybe but that's ok she was a great character. They were not the best people to receive the powers, but the show does such a good job of exploring how they stepped up to this despite their fears and inexperience and how even more experienced people might be better with the powers, but don't use them to do as much good.
I'm also really impressed by how continuously this show managed to subvert expectations. When it started, I thought they were going to settle into a status quo after establishing the team, but they just kept introducing new ideas that completely changed the direction of the plot without ever feeling random or unexpected thanks to some well-hidden foreshadowing. I think my favorite episode is the 4th episode, where they just decide to skim through a massive amount of absolutely insane events and violence and then just go back to the more typical episode format like that never happened.
I have a lot of respect for how well they were able to keep a consistently changing show that eventually reached a very fulfilling conclusion while subverting a lot of common tropes. The animation is really nice and I love the use of strong silhouettes, limited motion, texture, and color coordination to make it feel like a comic.
(written on 5/4/24)
First off, go read the entire series here because I do not think I can say anything at all about this without spoiling it. It is FREE!
This is such an interesting comic because it feels like it really focuses on the moments every other story would skip. What they do in their free time, getting groceries, talking about how they miss their friend before eventually adapting to his absence, two whole chapters just focused on boredom, and a lot of side plots all get very fleshed out while the titular character evolves entirely in the background. It's a very unique prioritization, and I mostly really like it. In a way, it reminds me of Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, where (spoilers for the show) it starts like the standard "protagonist gets a new goal as the forces of evil try to stop him" story and then goes "actually no he is just gone now and here is how all of these characters who existed primarily to support or obstruct the protagonist have to deal with not having said protagonist and find new purpose and depth." Dr. Cataclysm gets his new powers, and immediately it switches to Agrippa and Melon going to the bank and getting groceries with him just briefly appearing at the ends to remind you he's there until he isn't! It's very refreshing to not just have it be "he has powers and now watch him practice with them and gain control."
Another thing I really liked about this series was that it was really about the friendships they made and how people just need to understand each other a bit better. I know that was literally the moral of the story, but it was executed incredibly well. Even though a lot of it happens off-screen, it's still nice to see them realizing how much they have in common after they get over their initial predispositions.
I had a very interesting experience with this one where the final issue didn't initially show up in the navigation, so I thought it ended with them going to face him and leaving what he actually became and their ultimate success/failure open. The shock of just sitting there thinking, "Is that just how it ends? Wow, that's a good cliffhanger to end on and just let you fill in your own version of events." I almost prefer that to the real ending. It reminds me a lot more of OFF, where things wouldn't necessarily turn out for the best. Not that the final issue was bad, and I liked the ambiguity left in there, but I feel like having an extra page of Dr Cataclysm actually talking to the people about what they want and how they met would have helped ground him better because he's kind of on his own plane of existence and the only two people who actually asked for him to change things back where the only two who didn't actually experience the new world. Endings are hard though, and it's always entirely possible I just missed something either in my reading or in the translation.
Final thoughts: I aspire to write something this straightforward and blunt for a comedic point. Like even on the 6th page in the very first issue they're on a call and verbally say "there I left a message" "hang up" "oh right" and that's just the funniest thing to me. And when Janos wakes up as Dr. Cataclysm he just says "by the way I'm alive" to absolutely no one and I never would have thought to have a character just state that out loud instead of thinking it but it works so well. Good series.
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