Games I played in 2015: Majora's Mask

2015 was a really good year for me, for a lot of reasons, but chief among those reasons was all the video games I played for the first time that year. They were all really good, and each meant a lot to me, and I've been meaning to do a post about each one of them for a while. So, I'm turning it into a series.

Today we'll start with Majora's Mask, mainly because I've been thinking about what I wanted to say about it for months and, well, I'm finally getting around to actually doing it.

Intro

As I've talked about before, Twilight Princess is my first (and favorite) Zelda! But, Majora's Mask is easily second favorite, and honestly if I didn't feel like I was betraying Twilight Princess by saying Majora's Mask was my favorite, well...

There was something about Majora's Mask and its vibe that I really loved. I don't think I've had such a positive experience with a Zelda game in a long time. Playing it was honestly just so satisfying. I have a lot of things to say about Majora's Mask, but, hey! That's what this blog is for.

If you haven't played the game: I suggest you give it a try! If you have played it? Well, I hope you read this anyway. I'm not here to sell it to you, I'm just here to talk about my experiences and what the game means to me. Maybe you'll see the game in a different light, once you're done reading!

Prelude: I Hate Time Limits (Before I played the game)

I got Majora's Mask for the first time shortly after I'd finished Ocarina. I don't remember why, or how, or whether it was a birthday present or just something I talked my parents into. I remember very vividly booting it up, though, and playing it for maybe an hour. We were cleaning the house that day, moving things around, and being only 12 or 13, I wasn't much help hauling furniture. So I sat and I played Majora's Mask. The clock was ticking down. My family was jokingly piling things around me. I couldn't find the fairy piece to restore the Great Fairy. It was well into the second day. I was getting extremely anxious, had no idea what to do, wasn't going to look up a walkthrough...

So I quit. I turned off the console, declared I hated games with time limits, didn't touch it again.

All I knew about Majora's Mask was that it was a direct sequel to Ocarina of Time, and to a lot of people, even better than it. (The fandom---or what little of it I participated in at age 13---seemed split on that idea, though.) I knew the Happy Mask Salesman was creepy. I read the Ben creepypasta.

I slowly built up an image of Majora's Mask in my head from what I had heard about it on the internet. It was supposedly the creepiest in the series. A lot of fans considered it the Best Zelda Game Ever, but most that did and who I interacted with came off as stuck-up and rude. A comment still burned in my mind is one where the author said, basically "any person who considers Ocarina better than Majora is dead wrong and a disgrace to the fandom". Then there was all the entitled clamoring for Majora's Mask 3D, and Operation Moonfall....

Let's just say my opinions on the game before playing it weren't very positive ones, and leave it at that.

And yet somehow, I was convinced

It was February 23rd of last year when I booted up Majora's Mask again to actually play it for real. Majora's Mask 3D had just released a week before. A lot of people were posting about it and the game in general. I was intrigued, though still a little skeptical. Two major things played a hand in changing my mind and giving Majora's Mask another chance.

First: A Zelda blogger on tumblr I followed at the time, guru--guru, got an ask about Majora's Mask. The ask consisted basically of "Hey, what are your thoughts on Majora's Mask? I own the game, but I've never really played it. Should I?" The answer was simple. "Drop everything you're doing and play it right now."

Second: I found a Majora's Mask fanmix that I fell in love with immediately after listening to it. It was the exact vibe of songs I love above all others, that blend of dark and haunting and entirely fantastical all at once. The mix has since been taken down (or, the site it was hosted on was, anyway) but you can still locate the tracklist here. 

I loved the mix to death. I spent an afternoon listening to it, it ended up reminding me a little bit of Twilight Princess's vibe and I went "I'm going to play Twilight Princess!!!" 

Instead I booted up Majora's Mask. I'd been warming up to it over the past week, I trusted guru's judgement, I figured it was time I tried the game again.

So I did.

Are these your expectations? cool. [dumps them in the trash]

All I expected from Majora's Mask was "Ocarina of Time but better, probably" and that didn't really set my expectations high. I can appreciate Ocarina of Time for what it is and what it did for the gaming industry but, man, it's definitely not my favorite Zelda. Maybe that's just because I hold Twilight Princess so close, but, who knows.

Anyway, all I expected from Majora's Mask was "Ocarina of Time 2", along with it to be the "creepiest" game in the Zelda series. It... It was neither of those things. It was so much more than I'd ever given it credit for, and it was so good.

My experience with it was so satisfying. Maybe it was because I'd been craving a fresh dose of Zelda for a while. Maybe it's just because Majora's Mask truly is an astonishingly good game.

I instantly fell in love with its atmosphere, the vibe it gave off, the way it made me feel. I don't think I could fully capture it in words, but anyone who plays the game knows what I'm talking about. It's not really creepy, it's not really dark. Haunting might describe the tone the best, or perhaps somber. Maybe it's a little of both? Whatever it is, I love it so much.

I think the mechanic in Majora's Mask is extremely interesting, the idea that the fruits of your efforts are erased, because you have to reset time, you have to constantly reset time. Yes, you keep the mask, you keep the item, but no one remembers you. You make it spring in the mountains, but then it's not spring anymore once you reset. Or, the road to Romani Ranch is blocked off again. Not to mention, for Link, to think about him being forgotten by the friends he's made and the people he helped, for it to be like he never helped those people to begin with. It's hard to think about, and it adds an interesting dynamic in the game.

Majora's Mask also has a different style of story to it than most other Zelda games. Don't get me wrong, I don't hate the whole "ordinary boy becomes a hero" stories, but as a veteran to the Zelda series, it's kind of refreshing to have a Link who's been through all this before.

And, though the story is ultimately about Link, for the longest time it feels like it isn't. It always feels more like it's about the citizens of Termina, and the transformation masks play into that. Most of the citizens don't see Link as Link, they see him as someone else. The Dekus see him as another Deku, the Gorons see him as their lost hero, the Zoras see him as a famous Zora---who none of them know is dead. And, by the time it is a story about Link, it's an extremely personal story about Link. It's not about him saving Hyrule (or in this case, Termina) or otherwise achieve something he was fighting for.

In Majora's Mask, he sets out in his quest in order to find Navi. Of course, he never finds her. Majora's Mask is more about him moving on---someone's even pointed out that each of the areas of the game corresponds with one of the five stages of grief. And, if you play the game, or think about the game with that in mind, you see how much it fits. It's amazing, and, maybe that's what makes the game so good.

Closing

All in all, Majora's Mask took every expectation I had for it and flipped them on their sides. My experience with this game was extremely positive. It was refreshing and wonderful experience. A part of me wants to say I wish I'd played this game when I was younger, but in reality, I don't think I'd have appreciated it as much if I'd had.

Majora's Mask is a wonderful game, it's easily among my favorite Zeldas and favorite games in general. It deserves all the praise it gets.

Twilight Princess: My First Zelda, My First Love

I've talked a little before about Twilight Princess and what it means to me, but, I've wanted to give it it's own post ever since TPHD was announced. So! Here we go.

Twilight Princess was my first introduction to Zelda, and per the theme, it's likely my favorite. (Ask any Zelda fan---their favorite is probably their first.) I played it a lot at my friend's house long before owning it, and, though all we really did was fly around Ordon and Kakariko on cuccos, I was quickly hooked. I always liked the concept of Zelda, and was familiar with the characters from Smash (Melee, specifically) and just in general being a Nintendo fan, since, uh, birth, basically.

I bought it for myself the moment we got a Wii, and at 11 years old, I was completely obsessed with the game. I didn't just play it a lot, I played it every waking moment of an entire summer. I'd play it over and over again. Once I beat it, I'd let it sit on the ending screen for about and hour, if that, then I'd restart and play it all over again from the beginning!

I know the game like the back of my hand. I have the story and its atmosphere burned into my mind. For months I'd lull my often restless mind to sleep by retelling myself the story of Twilight Princess. The village of Ordon is like a second home.

I dunno, it's hard to really articulate my feelings for this game into words any more concretely than that. So I'm gonna just! I'll just list a few of my favorite things about it. (In, uh, no particular order!)

1) Midna

I don't think anyone dislikes Midna?? She's so good. She's sassy she's snarky she's only in this for herself. Well, she starts that way, but in the end she's grown to care about the World of Light, or at the very least, Link and Zelda.

She's so great. I love her so much. She's cute and she's funny and some of the most quotable lines from the game are from her. She's one of the best partners Link has ever had, in my opinion, because she's just brimming with character and she's generally a joy to have with you. (Er, when she's not insulting you, that is.)

2) The atmosphere

Gosh, I, I love the atmosphere of Twilight Princess so much. It's one of my favorite vibes or aesthetics (harsh saturation, bright colors on a dark background / an overshadowing darkness balanced with hope and the persistence to keep moving, balanced with a story that wrenches at your chest). I dunno if I love these things so much because I always have, or because of all the time I spent in Twilight Princess's world, but, man! I love them a lot.

3) The character designs??

This is a smaller thing but, honestly, Twilight Princess has some of the best (and, strangest) character designs, especially for NPCs. Weird NPCs is a trend in all Zelda games, but you don't have quite the variety you do in other games like you do in Twilight Princess. Maybe that's just because other games don't have Hyrule Castle Town, which brims with a very large amount of colorful characters.

4) The story!!

Before this point I'd only ever played Mario games, and, while Paper Mario: the Thousand Year Door was something I'd already been exposed to, I still wasn't that familiar with games that had stories! The concept was a little strange to me, and seeing so many vibrant and complex characters was wonderful!

I love, man. I love so much of Twilight Princess's story. I love the concept of Wolf Link, of Midna, a princess thrown out of her kingdom and avoiding detection while she finds what she hopes will be her and her people's salvation. I love Zelda, a princess in mourning. I love Link---local farmhand who gets pulled into something bigger than himself.

I love traveling with Midna, gradually learning more about who she is and where she comes from. I love her character in general---which I've already said!---but I love the role she plays in the story, I love how this story is almost, above anything else, a story about her.

I love Ilia and the Ordon kids!! Colin's a gift and a sweetie. I love watching his narrative progress, as well as the other Ordon kids. I love how often Twilight Princess tugs on your heart strings.

Link manages to return from the Twilight Realm, but he's still a wolf. He has no idea where his friends are. He finally finds him, but his first meeting with them---they have no idea he's there. The Bulblin King kidnaps Colin, makes you fight for his freedom. You find Ilia, but she doesn't remember you. You save Ralis, Prince of the Zoras, but his mother is dead, all she can offer you is a gift to help you along.

There's more, there's so much more. Twilight Princess is a constant balance between light and darkness, between joy and loss, between despair and hope. You can probably argue in a lot of games that Link always keeps moving, always gets back up and keep going but it's not just Link, in Twilight Princess. It's everyone. 

Colin stands in the face of danger to protect his friends. Ilia helps a lost Zora kid despite not remembering who she is. Telma and the Resistance constantly fight for hope and freedom in a land where Hyrule's soldiers are laughably weak. Midna makes herself keep going despite all she's lost---for her, it's not because she believes in a better world, but because she has to. And that's alright.

Twilight Princess looks like this dark and edgey Zelda game on the outside because oh Link transforms into a wolf, oh it's rated Teen, oh Zelda get's freaking possessed at one point, oh the whole atmosphere of the Twilight Realm is dark but...

Twilight Princess, a thousand times over, is more a story about hope.

5) There's so much to discover!!

There's a million little things in Twilight Princess to do or to find. All Zelda games are like that, but, there's so many in Twilight Princess that stand out to me. There's the clawshot game in Castle Town (and the discovery that the guy's shady and not as kind as he seems). There's Agitha, and all the separate places you can find her. There's Corro and his birds nest of hair, there's that purple rupee forgotten in Link's basement. There are at least two hidden caves to explore in Hyrule field. There's the Cave of Trials. There's the guy with the guy with the canon and the funny little tune it plays. 

There's the two guys in Castle Town that constantly stare at each other. There's an NPC that looks like a witch. All those cats that just flock to you when you walk up to them!! There are Gorons waiting around all over the place---not just on Death Mountain, they're everywhere! That never felt like something you saw a lot, in other games.

Each character had their own story, and, it seemed really special and unique in Twilight Princess. I didn't just fall in love with the main characters, I fell in love with the minor ones, too.

There's, I dunno, probably a lot more than this, but really, just!! Twilight Princess is so close to my heart and of all the games I played obsessively as a kid I'd probably consider this one the most like Home. You ever have a video game like that? That's just home, to you? Twilight Princess is that for me.

I have so many fond memories of it, I love every detail about it (except, uh, needing to point your wiimote at the sensor bar to work half your items, lol) and I'm. Hoooo. I love it so much. 

I can't wait for Twilight Princess HD. I can't wait to return home, and to have home look a thousand times better than it ever has.

This game is such a huge part of my life and such a huge part of who I am and I don't know if I'll ever be able to fully articulate those feelings, but, hopefully you have a game like that too. A game that you know like the back of your hand, a game you'd consider home, a game that seems to make up a component of your soul.

I love Twilight Princess so much, I....

See you later......

Everything's soft and fuzzy so it won't hurt you.... right?? (Yoshi's Woolly World Review)

Well, as anyone who's played a Yoshi game might know: despite how charming the scenery is, and how cute Yoshi---and even some of the enemies!---are, well, that doesn't mean your safe. For a poor little Yoshi, there are a lot of things out to hurt you.

I got Yoshi's Woolly World for Christmas, and hoo boy, what a wonderful game. It's developed by a company called Good-Feel, which, is fitting, because it's an incredibly feel good game.

Yoshi - throwing a yarnball

I played both Yoshi's Story and Yoshi's Island (the GBA version) a lot as a kid, so Yoshi's Woolly World is kind of like going back to my roots? Well, not exactly, but, it's great to return to the world of Yoshi, regardless. Yoshi's Woolly World is a sort of blend between Yoshi's Story and Yoshi's Island, and in a lot of ways, much better than both. It feels, to me, like the Peak of Yoshi games.

The yarn style is extremely adorable and played in a lot of fun ways (unraveling walls to progress, having yarn balls instead of eggs, Shy Guys who wield crochet needles), not to mention it looks great.

The gameplay is fantastic, too! Like I said, it's something of a mix between Yoshi's Story and Yoshi's Island, though with a closer tie to Yoshi's Island than Yoshi's Story. Flowers return as collectibles, there's the same level end system and a similar---though not exactly the same---world select. The plus side? There's no Baby Mario cries grating on your ears each time you get hit.

Kamek - here to steal your yarn!!!

The plot of this one is simple: Kamek (pictured to the left) shows up and starts kidnapping Yoshi's. Worse, he turns them into their base components---spools of wool!---and takes those, intending to deliver the wool to Bowser. Your goal? Catch him before he gets there.

It's simple, but a lot of fun, and a great sit-back-and-relax kind of game! It can be pretty challenging at times (especially when trying to hunt down all the Flowers or Wonder Wools), but there are a lot of ways to make it less frustrating, and a lot of ways to have fun with it.


For example, there's mellow mode: a mode of gameplay you can swap to at any time, which gives Yoshi wings!

"That makes it too easy!!" you may cry.

Actually? No. Sure, the wings let you float indefinitely, but they don't make you go any higher. Sure, you can now fly over large gaps or spikes or lava instead of jumping from platform to platform, but, that's about all mellow mode does in the "easier" department.

Yoshi - sporting their wings!

Mellow Mode doesn't make it much easier, it just makes it less frustrating. It does exactly what it says it will do: make the game more mellow. Great for gamers who just want to boot up the game for a relaxing level of Yoshi, great for 10-year-old little sisters who've never played a Yoshi game before in their lives, great for parents who have no idea what they're doing and aren't that good with video games to begin with. (No offense, Mom and Dad!)

Plus: you know that annoying "HHHRRNRNNNGGGGG" sound Yoshi makes when they flutter jump? Mellow Mode removes it, replace with a more cheerful "bum, ba dum" humming sounds to go along with the mellowness of flight.  What a relief!


The badges are what might make the game seem "too easy" to some. But, here's the thing: if you're having a lot of trouble in a world where there's literally no ground, and you have to jump from platform to platform, there's a badge called "Fall into a Pit? No problem!" - it lets you immediately bounce back out of a pit once you fall into it.

When Yoshi wants to go fast, they
turn their feet into wheels to
pick up speed!

There's a badge that makes you completely resistant against fire and lava. Sure, that makes a lava level "too easy", but when you're there just to have fun, what's it matter? Laughing 'til your sides hurt because you bounce right off a giant fire enemy without taking damage is a lot more valuable than just beating the level through "traditional" means. The whole point of video games is to just have fun, isn't it?

There are a lot of other badges, too. There's one that makes your yarn balls bigger (helpful, kinda), one that makes you ground pounds stronger (I don't even know what the point is??), the option to give yourself unlimited watermelon seeds, fire breath, or ice breath. COOL. But, annoying, when you need to unravel a wall and first need to empty your mouth of watermelon seeds. And then, accidentally eat the watermelon again while trying to get Yoshi's tongue to latch onto the wall. Sigh.


There's also a cool multi-player mode!

Sit down with a friend (or, aforementioned little sister) and work through the level side by side! Sometimes finding hidden items becomes easier! And, sometimes, the camera only follows your little sister as she hangs back in safety and won't follow you as you actually continue the level. It's still a lot of fun, though!!

Red Yoshi eating their Green friend.

You can even eat your friend's Yoshi, and turn them into a yarnball, just like you would an enemy!

What's the point? Well, you can throw them at enemies, use them when you're out of regular yarnballs, or carry them along through a dangerous part of the level. Or, y'know, just mess with them.


The game's also got some really great music!! Every song---or most every---is as chill and relaxed as the rest of the game, some even sporting acoustic guitar for extra feel-good vibes. None of the music was, admittedly, super noticeable, but then there's the snow level music!

It's perfect! It's cute!! It's the exact sort of sound I'd expect to accompany a snow level, and starting up World 5 to be greeted by this music is probably one of the top highlights of my play through this game! Every song that goes with a snow level is really good and an absolute joy to listen to.

Finally, we have multiple Yoshi colors!

Fans of Yoshi's Island will remember you got a different colored Yoshi for each level. Fans of Yoshi's Story will remember choosing a Yoshi color to play through the level with---and if you were younger, crying when they got captured because that was your favorite Yoshi and now you have to use one of a much lamer color.

Anyway! Yoshi's Woolly World has different colored Yoshis much like Yoshi's Story does. You can select a different one to play at any time! While working through the levels, you collect Wonder Wool, and when you collect all five from each level, it gives you a new Yoshi!

There's a lot of cool colors and different designs, and even if some look a little funny (like, uh, the Shy Guy Yoshi...??) most of them are super cool or super adorable.

Here's a few of my favorites!

And, that's all I have to say about Yoshi's Woolly World!

In sum: It's a great, chill, feel good game that's perfect for when you kind of want to kick back and relax and take a breather with a video game. It's super fun, and I really love it.

A SMASHING review!!

Today I am here to do a brief review of Super Smash Brothers for Wii U (and 3DS) -- or, Smash 4, as a lot of people have come to call it, since "Super Smash Brothers for Wii U/3DS" is something of, a mouthful.

I finally bought the game -- for Wii U -- two weeks ago, just days before UNDERTALE came out, actually. I'd been wanting it, well, since it was announced, but I didn't have the money to get it for a long while (and to this day still regret deciding to get Hyrule Warriors instead of it...). I was really excited about it because they just kept adding more and more names, and more and more favorites to the roster: Rosalina, Palutena, Bowser Jr, Dark Pit, Lucina.... along with bringing both Roy and Lucas back as DLC!

It's really fun to try out all the different characters, all the new characters, and get a feel for them and some of their new movesets in the game. I spent a few nights after getting it just me against a few computers getting the feel for how Dark Pit played, and thoroughly enjoying myself, along with the concept of "Dark Pit's in desperate need of buffing his Smash skills, but wouldn't be caught dead asking Pit or Palutena for help, so goes to Mario because he's chill and won't tell anyone." (One of my favorite things about Smash is that it creates a universe in which you can imagine cross-universe scenarios like that.... and breeds the idea that all Nintendo characters just, know each other and hang out.)

Smash 4 has a lot of cool new features besides it's large roster, as well!! Team battles are now determined by a glowing outline around your character, instead of their clothes color -- which finally means you can create a team of Mario and Luigi without having to swap their trademark colors, or have an entire team of Links up against one Ganon. Or, as I had fun with the other day, just a team of a bunch of Ness's, here to, kick your butt.

8 player Smash is a lot of fun, too, and now you can really go all out with your team combinations! Or, you know, have you and up-to-7 of your friends play at once without taking turns. Or set yourself up against 7 level 9 computers. Whatever!

some of the Super Bash Sisters

One feature I particularly enjoy is the handicap feature, of all features! It lets you set specific damage to a player. The best way to use this is to set you and your friend(s) at 0% damage, and then all the computers at 300%, and see who can launch the most computers during the span of three minutes!



And, of course, one of the best features of Smash 4 is "Palutena's Guidance", which -- like the codec calls of Brawl -- lets you, as Pit, summon Palutena and more from the Kid Icarus Uprising cast to provide commentary on the fighters on your screen. As a big Kid Icarus Uprising fan, I absolutely love to see this. Listening to Palutena and Viridi and Pit and Dark Pit all talk and joke with each other again was like... coming home. It felt so good to listen to them banter again.

Smash 4 also lets you create custom Mii fighters, which I'm sure everyone knows by now! This article's a year late! Still, you can make a Mii of yourself, your friends, your favorite-fictional-characters-that-are-never-going-to-be-in-Smash, and then set them up as a Gunner, a Brawler, or a Swordsman and give them a combination of different movesets that best match who you think they are, and viola! You can smash with them all you want.

So far, I've only personally made a handful of Kingdom Hearts characters, because, uh,,,, reasons. They all turned out pretty well, in my opinion! It took some getting used to, and I had to really sit down and practice with them before I was 100% comfortable with using them, but my Mii Fighter for Kairi is easily one of my favorite characters to play as in Smash now. She's got a real good moveset.

Of course, making your favorite-fictional-characters-that-are-never-going-to-be-in-Smash into Mii Fighters could lead to something like..... this????

((original audio by prozdvoices on tumblr - here, video by shadowlink4321))

As far as... things I'm disappointed about in Smash 4, well...

I think the selection of stages is a little lackluster, and I'm definitely not paying 20+ bucks to get myself a few new stages to mess around on. Spending 8 dollars on my first real main (Roy) and then Lucas because, uh, Because is about the extent of DLC I'll ever buy for Smash 4, and the fact that you have to pay to have a better selection of stages is kind of... eugh.... Not good.


Every time I play it I find myself missing Melee (my first Smash) for some reason, and I'm not sure why? Brawl never did that to me. Maybe I've just hit the Everything's Discolored By Nostalgia age, but among all the old stages that came back I really miss Fountain of Dreams more than ever, and find myself longing for Melee's bonus points after the end of stage or match. I'd just play Melee to sate the urge, but Melee doesn't have Dark Pit or Lucina or any of the other Cool New Characters I Really Wanna Be, so it's... a dilemma. I'll probably get over it eventually.

Also I'm kind of upset there's no adventure-style mode? Melee had Classic and then Adventure, Brawl had Classic and then the Subspace Emissary, Smash 4 just has... Classic? I understand the sentiments of one of Smash's creators (I forget which...) that didn't want something like Subspace Emissary again because they were mad the cutscenes went up on line. It stinks, but I get it. I just... don't get the complete lack of an Adventure mode at all? It kinda, stinks. Melee's was nothing special. Why not give Smash 4 one like that?

Regardless! Smash 4 is a lot of fun, and I'm glad to have it.

I'll wrap this up with a few of my favorite official promo screenshots from Smash 4...

...largely showcasing Nintendo's long running gag of Peach and Link on a date as Zelda watches angrily in the distance.

(this one's from Brawl!)

A classic.

Oh.... and what's this!?

.....yup!

Bowser and Zelda everyone. The new official Nintendo ship. Deal with it.

UNDERTALE REVIEW - Best Game I've Played In A Long Time

HOWDY~! Remember last week when I told you to buy a game coming out called UNDERTALE?

Well, I'm back!! This time with a slightly-more-in-depth review now that I've played the whole game. Twice.

by victoria goog (@fridayafternoon)

UNDERTALE is an indie RPG game by Toby Fox, in which no one has to get hurt!!

It's really good!!! Oh my gosh!!! I have not played such a well constructed and well written game in a long time!!! The music is fantastically memorable and I find myself humming it half the time, the characters are so good I can't stop thinking about them, the story's so wonderful it's kept me up at night considering the full possibilities and depths of it!


I talked it up like crazy in last week's post, saying how much I loved the DEMO and how excited I was for the full game, and let me just say! The full game COMPLETELY lived up to my expectations, in fact, IT SURPASSED THEM!

UNDERTALE is funny, it's charming, it made me laugh it made me cry. And under the surface, it's either an inspiring and positive story about how violence isn't the answer, there's always another way, you don't have to fight to win. Or, it's a chilling commentary on violence in video games that makes you rethink destroying lowly monsters in RPGs just for EXP.

I've only played the Pacifist and True Pacifist routes so far (working up the courage to tackle a kill run still) but wow! They're both! Really good!!

I'm amazed at UNDERTALE for having such a deep story that you miss half of on the first playthrough, because certain things are only revealed on your second time through! And the buildup of having to go through the game two or even three (or four!) times before being lead to the True Ending is really! super! good!! It feels so great, and the ending is so wonderful and wonderfully constructed -- UNDERTALE is truly one of the best games I have played in a long time.

It also has some stellar ways of executing certain Things (I won't say what for spoilers) that absolutely took the breath out of my lungs because it was so clever and frankly, terrifying. There's a lot LOT more to Undertale than the scary stuff, but it definitely deserves some awards for being the only game to make me physically sick to my stomach with fear. And to make me cry real tears. Ten minutes after I was laughing at a ridiculous joke.

by inkerton-kun on tumblr

BASICALLY!! UNDERTALE is a really good game that I will recommend avidly and wholeheartedly to no end. I've run out of things to say without repeating myself, so, I guess I'll leave at this!

You can get it on it's website, UNDERTALE.com or on Steam for only $10!! THAT'S A BARGAIN! THAT'S A STEAL! The game is worth so much more than that.

Still aren't sure? Then sit yourself down with the DEMO and play it (it only takes 30 minutes!). If you aren't convinced after playing the DEMO once, then reset it and play through it again, making as many drastically different choices as you possibly can, and that should show you the potential of the full game!!!


UNDERTALE: EVEN MOMS RECOMMEND IT

PLEASE PLAY UNDERTALE!

UNDERTALE

Hello. I'm here to convince you to play UNDERTALE, an indie RPG game by Toby Fox.

from the UNDERTALE Kickstarter

UNDERTALE releases tomorrow, September 15 2015, on its website (undertale.com) and on Steam!

It's a charming and extremely well written game with witty dialogue and humor, along with plot twists that left me screaming for days. (Well, that's what I have to say about the DEMO, anyway. The full game isn't out yet!)

And, get this: It's only $10! What a bargain! (For music loving fans, you will reportedly be able to get the game and its soundtrack for $18! How wonderful!!)


So... What is UNDERTALE?

From the Kickstarter:

A traditional role-playing game where no one has to get hurt.

From the Steam page:

Welcome to UNDERTALE. In this RPG, you control a human who falls underground into the world of monsters. Now you must find your way out... or stay trapped forever. It'll be a perilous journey, but don't worry. Your best friend, FLOWEY, will be with you every step of the way.

Here's the Steam greenlight trailer for UNDERTALE, which was released earlier this year, and acts as a psuedo-trailer for the DEMO:

Interested yet? Maybe?

You can try out the DEMO for yourself (about 30 minutes to an hour of gameplay) and see how you feel about it from there! The DEMO is completely free, and a great experience all on it's own!! Download it here.

Just the DEMO itself has:

• great music
• charming dialogue
• the ability to fight or spare enemies, of course!
• at least four different endings based on your choices throughout it! 
• wonderful characters ft. goatmom Toriel and sad ghost Napstablook
• some great plot twists
• questionable spider bake sales
• cool puzzles

If you play the DEMO, be sure to replay it at least once for maximum enjoyment!! And, check out the instruction manual before and after you play. Trust me.

Gigi D. G., author of Cucumber Quest (a webcomic about bunny people going on an adventure, and RPG trope subversion) says this about UNDERTALE:

She also drew this (among other) cool fanart for it!!

Toriel and player character by Gigi D. G.

Personally? I had an absolute blast playing the DEMO. It took me by surprise at every turn, even on my second and third and fourth times playing it. It didn't seem to matter how many times I went through that game, and how many different strategies I tried, it always found at least one way to surprise me by the time I reached the end again.

The art and writing style remind me vaguely of MOTHER 1 and the rest of the Earthbound series, though truly, UNDERTALE is its own. I absolutely loved the characters (Napstablook is my favorite!!) and I think the music is absolutely wonderful (you can listen to the soundtrack here!).

The UNDERTALE DEMO absolutely blew my mind with how well written it was, and how fun it was to play. All I've heard is that the full game is even better. I can't wait to see for myself.


Here's the release trailer for UNDERTALE:

I'm so excited!! Please play it.


And, while waiting for it to release, check out:

The official UNDERTALE website

The official UNDERTALE tumblr

The official UNDERTALE twitter

Play the UNDERTALE DEMO!



UPDATE: NOW THAT THE GAME IS OUT AND I'VE BEATEN IT (TWICE) CHECK OUT MY FULL REVIEW FOR IT, HERE!!

Final Fantasy 八 / 8 / VIII

Just a month ago, I had the chance (and, uh, desire to) play Final Fantasy 8. Just a few days ago, I finished it.

So, here's how I feel about FF8.

Final Fantasy 8 is the 8th in the Final Fantasy series, though like every other installment in the series, it has nothing to do with previous or future titles. (If they have anything to do with each other, they have the same number slapped on them, hence 10-2 and 13-3, along with FF7: Crisis Core.) BUT, regardless of that, I'm not here to do a history lesson on Final Fantasy, or on FF8 either.

I'm just here to talk about why enjoyed playing it.


I started playing it for research purposes, actually. FtPverse, being a Kingdom Hearts fanfic (KH is a crossover between Final Fantasy and Disney, in case, you weren't aware of that either), already features the main character of FF8, Squall. Er, Leon. Y'know, this guy:

And I decided I'd really like to include Rinoa, too. So, I sat myself down to play FF8.


This was not my first time playing FF8, actually. My older sister (magik) had played FF8 shortly after I'd finished FF7, and I'd watched her play it from start to finish. I'd started to play it myself, but got as far as the part where a giant robot spider chases you through Dollet. I got interrupted for a phonecall, and by the time I was done on the phone, I decided "I never want to deal with that spider again", turned the system off, and didn't touch the game once after that.

That was four years ago.

This time around, between wanting to go through it for research purposes, flat out still owning a copy and why watch a walkthrough when you own the game, and knowing that stopping because of a giant spider at the beginning of the game was kind of dumb, I picked it back up again.

And it was a lot of fun!!! Having my sister (a huge FF8 fan) watch over my shoulder for half of it, and then tweeting about it to friends (one of whom is also a huge FF8 fan) definitely made it twice as enjoyable.


It's also, the first Final Fantasy game I've beaten since FF7 (well, and Crisis Core, but that counts as FF7). I started 10 and 12 and 13, and though I got halfway through the latter two, I just!! Lost interest. I don't know if the fact FF8's the only Final Fantasy that's been able to keep my attention since FF7 should tell you anything, but, I'm just, tossing it out there.

Anyway!! The actual "how I felt about this game" section!!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was a lot of fun. The battle style was definitely a huge plus for me, actually. "Oh, I should attack and take 5 turns of battle? Well, why do that when I CAN SUMMON SHIVA!" "Oh, I have to fight this boss battle and worry about their elemental defense? Why do that when I CAN SUMMON EDEN!!"

Definitely a lot of fun, and by the time we were at the end of disc 3, thanks to Encounter-None, I could decide "I don't want to face any more enemies, I just want to muscle through the plot"  and, I could. It was great.

I know the magic system isn't considered "the best" but I didn't find it too much of a chore, and I was having too much fun with the "summon things repeatedly with absolutely no repercussions" to really care.

Story wise, it's great, it's interesting, and while it gets a little Convoluted at points, well, so does.... every other.... Final Fantasy. (And Kingdom Hearts.) I was a huge fan of the sorceresses, and I think the whole cast of characters was really interesting? Sure, it's a Literal Soap Opera at times, but, it's fun. It's good. It's well written. Is it perfect? Nah! But nothing is.

And, here I'm gonna get into spoilers, so, stop reading if you don't want those.

The games been out for like, 16 years now.

But still. Spoilers. Watch out.


I think it's really cool and interesting how real of a character Rinoa is, how human she is. She makes mistakes, she's childish, she's flawed. But she's likeable. She's loveable. And I'm also just a huge fan of girls with Literally Infinite Power in their veins. Ha.

But Rinoa felt real well written, and so did Squall, and I can't fully articulate how I feel about their narratives, but man, it felt good. And I'm not a huge fan of Romance Plots lately, but, Squall/Rinoa felt good. It didn't feel too rushed. There was never a point where Squall stopped being extremely awkward because Wow, He's In Love! Even after it became clear to him and the players what he felt for Rinoa he was still sooooo bad at interacting in any sort of ~romantic~ way and it was really good. It was really refreshing.

Also, there's this:

So, yeah!!! I really enjoyed FF8.

I loved it's gameplay, I loved it's story, I loved it's characters, and most of all I loved joking about it with my sister / friends. It was a lot of fun.

A Splatfest Review!

Recently,  Nintendo's latest popular game, Splatoon, held an event called a Splatfest! In North America, the event took place on July 4th from midnight to midnight, and the theme was Cats vs Dogs! (Dogs won, but Cats sure gave us a run for our money with how vicious they were during Turf Wars! That's okay, the prize was only an extra Super Sea Snail, anyway.)


Splatoon is a wonderful game, and I'm sure you don't need me to give you a glorious review to know how great it is---I do plan on doing a review in the future, but today is not that day! I'm just here to talk about the Splatfest.

This was the music that played in the plaza all day, and it's really good! I've been listening to it since the Splatfest, and even though that was four days ago, I'm not sick of it yet!

For the Splatfest, it was night time in the plaza and during the turf wars, vs being day like it always is, and boy did I love the atmosphere it gave off!! Here's some pics I took.

I stayed up until 2am on July 3rd--er, into July 4th, anyway, and I think I had the most fun during those two hours! I met up with three other Team Dog squids in Turf War, and with how the Splatfest runs, we were able to stick together as a team without fear of being shuffled up with the other four members playing, because those other four were Team Cat!

I know I'll never talk to these people, or even see them again, but they hold a special place in my heart as my squid squad....

(I'm "rar!", in case that wasn't obvious!!!)

You can hear me gush about those two hours of splattin' and the Squid Squad here, on my tumblr!


Overall, the Splatfest is a really fun event, and I can't wait for another one!! I think scheduling it on July 4th might not have been the best idea, though, and I also feel like it would've been better if it had lasted two days, instead of just one!! That way, especially if you have siblings, you aren't fighting over the Wii U all day, or rushing around in the game to try and get the highest rank possible. Not to mention extended hours of play tends to lead to wrist cramps!


Some other things I think it'd be cool to see in the future from Splatoon:

1) It's probably too late, but I wish they'd update the software so that the game would have a day/night cycle! It doesn't have to actually cycle through the real times of day, but if it would change just to be night, say, when the stages change at 7pm PT, that would be cool!

It doesn't have to be a party every night, either, I just think the night-time atmosphere we got from the Splatfest was really cool, and I won't lie, I don't play often at night because it seems like a Fun Daytime Game, y'know? But maybe that's just me, and maybe that's weird!


2) I wish the Squid Sisters would hold concerts!! They're obviously famous, and supposedly famous singers, but I think they only have two songs in the entire game (maybe three), and that's including this Splatfest music! A concert once a week---or even once just a month!---would be super cool.

They'd have a stage in the plaza they'd sing on, and it'd last for through one cycle of the stages, so, four hours. Their music could play during the Turf Wars, too!

At the very least, it'd be great if some of their music could play during the Turf Wars along with the usual selection of Turf War music.


Anyway!! Those are all my thoughts about the Splatfest!! It was a really great event, and I hope the next one's soon!

I'll close this up with some carefully taken pictures of Callie and Marie during their performance.

Here's to another Splatfest!!!