<–The State of the Gamer: 7/30/20           The State of the Gamer: 8/27/20–>

A weekly post updated every other Thursday detailing my current gaming projects.  I have an account at Grouvee, which is a site you can use to keep track of your backlog, so please feel free to friend me there!

What I’m Playing

Title: Breath of Fire
Series: Breath of Fire
System: Nintendo Switch

Title: Broken Age
System: Nintendo Switch

Date Started: 7/4/20

I’m currently trying to fix Alex’s spaceship.  That’s whose song you have to use.  I noticed the notes on the wall of the fore mentioned craft.  You really have to pay attention to things in both scenarios now, which I’ve been really bad at.  I’ve been using the guide more, but trying to only do so when necessary.  I just have one more thing to do before everyone meets up again in the third chapter, and we hopefully find out what the hell is going on.

What I Played

• Picross (various versions) – I play this while watching/listening to a Zelda LP to wind down/de-stress.

What I Watched

• The Turing Test (ChristopherOdd) – Just watched the first video of this before doing this post.  I’m getting serious SOMA vibes from it more than Portal.  It’s a puzzle game in a similar vein to the latter, but there’s an eerie, creepy vibe to it especially in respect to TOM.  I’m having migraine/nausea problems with this game though.  The camera moves so quickly.
• Paper Mario: The Origami King (Olizandri) – I like the games where you don’t fight Bowser’s minions (or you don’t fight all of them).  While there isn’t a dedicated secondary character (besides Olivia who doesn’t do any direct fighting), Mario does team up with several temporary ones in each chapter.  There’s a Toad professor, a bob-omb with amnesia, and even Kamek toting Bowser, Jr.  I still plan to pick this up.  The soundtrack is epic.
• Grandia HD (Olizandri) – I watched a little bit more of this for something to do.  I really hope Oliz plays the second game, which I liked a lot better.
• The Last of Us: Part II (Christopher Odd) – Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit y’all.  There is way too much to say about this game to encompass it all here, but I am absolutely on the loving it side.  One of the better examinations I watched is from someone who didn’t even like the story that much, but he understood what it was trying to say, and I think it’s an important lesson.  I’m  someone who loves when stories are psychologically true, and TLOU is exemplary in that.  Everything everyone does makes sense from a psychological level, and so many times I found myself taking notes about how I didn’t condone the behavior, but I 100% understood it: unfinished business will torment you and hatred corrodes the container it’s carried in.  I would love to review this sooner rather than later, do one review for both games since the narratives are intricately linked.  I’ve been considering a video review.  A lot of the detractors come at it from the view of hating Abby, and…like there’s nothing I can say that’s going to convince you to like a character you hate.  A lot of shit is subjective, and if you don’t like her or don’t like the game, you don’t like them.  There’s not really a right/wrong, but some of the reasons I’ve heard are unadulterated bullshit.  The whole “SJW/woke is broke” angle for one.  I’m sorry that you’re a cis het white dude who gets to see yourself in 90-95% of all media out there and there’s something where you’re not centered.  I’m sorry you don’t understand that social justice is justice.  It’s like the people who were bitching that FFVIIR fixed some of the problematic things in the original because “no one was complaining before.”  Yeah…they were.  They just didn’t have a platform, or they didn’t feel like it would do any good/they wouldn’t be heard.  These things have always been an issue.  Your ignorance about them doesn’t erase that.  Gah, I don’t want to rant here.  I actually find it hard to watch “This is why this thing sucked” videos because they usually just devolve into tearing the thing down whereas the video I linked is nicely nuanced.  He points out problems with the narrative that I didn’t really notice but nodded along with when he did.  They didn’t bother me, but I understood what he was saying.  Anyway, I’m just rambling now.  At some point I’ll review it.

I might try to do TLOU review this weekend.  I’m at the perfect mentality for it.  It’s had time to marinate, but it’s still fresh in my mind after watching reviews/critiques of it.  Here’s hoping.  I haven’t been doing all that well with my mental health, but honestly, who the fuck has?

<–The State of the Gamer: 7/30/20           The State of the Gamer: 8/27/20–>