The hero wakes up on the beach. He tries to remember...

[antitype]

Before reading this entry, for a laugh, go read The Anime Club. All three parts!

I've never belonged to any anime club, because most of the anime fans I've met irl have been intolerable fujoshi that I never felt compelled to meet with on any sort of regular basis. But this was also about seven years ago, and the world is a very different place

Comments

[vogdoid]

Great post!

I had a ps2 in Japan 2000-2003, & then abandoned games until getting a DS a few years ago. I've really made my peace with games thanks to the DS. I play pretty casually (there are months when I don't pick it up at all) but systematically. I've worked through Mario Kart, Picross, Ouendan, Prof. Layton etc. in an unhurried way (I quit the Zelda game midway but might get back to it). I play about 30 mins. at a time, which feels about right. Part of me would love to dive back in with a console, but for most "innovative" games, I'm just curious. An hour or two per game would be enough. I don't like games that are particularly dark or violent beyond whatever inventiveness they might display. For now, I'll stick with my little 2-screen guy.

Anyway, I'm sitting here getting caught up on some recent AQ-type music so this was the perfect thing to read. Good luck with that class!

[antitype]

You're definitely a person approaching videogames as novelty, I think, but you're also not so immersed in them that this creates an emptiness in you. Which is probably a good way to approach them. Though really, it could go just as much for anything. Several years ago I was watching so many movies at such a rapid clip that I realized I wasn't getting much out of them and I suddenly felt absolutely hollow.

I was thinking about this as I walked to class the other day, actually. How I'm fairly prone to end up obsessing over things, and when I'm not being immersed in them I go over them constantly in my mind. If I'm at work, I'll daydream of something-it's like I'm constantly wanting. And I thought, I really need to just stop that, sometimes, and let my mind be quiet and at peace. That also happens sometimes, but when the wanting really ramps up... it can be pretty harrowing.

Hey Brian, it's Shirin, I'm adding you

[vectorsplatter]

Oh man, did Basil tell you Jeff met Faithless? What are you taking in school, btw?

Hi, Shirin!

[antitype]

Haha, nope, I had no idea. I take it Jeff's writing is being met with some success...? I really ought to write him some time.

Well, since I had been planning to come back to Portland I made the mistake of waiting on signing up for classes. So for now, it's only an English class-personal writing, etc. I've been keeping an eye out for some kind of drawing class opening up, but nothing yet. Which is alright, I guess, since I'm taking some time to refamiliarize myself with doing pencil sketches, and teaching myself how to touch them up in photoshop using a tablet, etc.

Jeff really liked her

[vectorsplatter]

He wanted to rub nuts and hot chocolate all over her. :)

No, seriously, his videogame writing thing is doing okay, I guess.

English is cool. I actually had to do that same project when I was doing my general ed. stuff (introduce yourself to someone and write a paper about them). Are you still planning on moving back to Portland? It's good to start slow with school, dip your toes in the water and all that. Good luck with finding a drawing class, btw, I'm sure there'll be plenty next semester.

Re: Jeff

[bad_juice]

He is working for, uh, G4, I think? It's a staff position but not a very glamorous one. Like I think he averages one review-for-pay per month or something like that. But he flew up to Canada to do a preview of that new PS3 kart racing game that's coming out this year. So he's doing all right for himself, all things considered?

Broken Heart Pieces

[inertiacrept]

Very much enjoyed this post.

I've never played Ico but I hear it's nothing short of an existential experience and it's on my list of things to do when I can find for such things.

Hey, wasn't Gordon Freeman Anticitizen One?

I know

[antitype]

I think I've pitched Ico for you 2-3 times, now.

Hey, wasn't Gordon Freeman Anticitizen One?

Yes he was!

Glad you enjoyed reading.

Re: I know

[inertiacrept]

Actually, I think yr pitching and my receiving (ho ho ho!) of Ico is 90% of our exchanges, because I tend to get lost in the discussion of Black Metal and you've been gone for awhile, son.

I'm stuck playing Dragon Age lately, when I get around to playing at all. I know the game really isn't particularly good, certainly doesn't break any ground they didn't already thoroughly colonize with Baldur's Gate, but that simple BioWare trick of spending some time fleshing out the backstories of yr companions in a way that is funny and not Final Fantasy gets me every damn time.

I mean, take Mass Effect. That game had NOTHING GOING FOR IT besides exceptional facial rendering and the inter-group dialogue.

[ghostlight]

I've never gone back to Shadow… after I completed a few of the time-trials and then lent it out to my brother.

It's a lot like Bioshock for me, it was an excellent and incredible game, but you can only play it for the first time once.

I've gone back to Super Metriod, Secret of Mana, FFVII-VIII, and old Lucasart adventures (last year I even bought the remastered Secret of Monkey Island).
I think above all else game structure and how it interacts with what you look for in a game matters the most as to whether you ever want to go back - Bioshock is unrevisitable because it was realised so fully and aesthetically but the game progress itself was entirely determined for you. Shadow… is much the same way - there's no two ways to beat a colossus, once you know how it's a matter of refining technique alone.

DQVIII was terrible. I'm almost tempted to rate it the worst RPG I've ever bought, because I know it's not better than Vandal Hearts 2, but I'm still really angry at Vagrant Story for having such a fucking retarded combat/equip

[antitype]

Shadow of the Colossus is something I revisit only to be immersed in its atmosphere and mood. I couldn't care less about things like time trials. Some of the stunts I've seen pulled off on youtube videos (like getting the third colossus to fling Wander up into the air by the end of his club) are kind of impressive, though. The flying ones are always exhilarating (in part thanks to the music) no matter how well I know what I'm doing.

I disagree about DQVIII being terrible, but you haven't really given me anything to argue with. It was pretty refreshing to me at the time, and its sprawling overworld felt bigger and more alive (sunsets and all) than most...

[glazomaniac]

goddamn, but now i want to play all my old friends. i more or less quit video games in about 2002 or so (ff10 certainly had a lot to do with it), but now i want to revisit my old friends. i've played ff6 so many times in my life as a youngster, it's time to meet it as an older youngster.

[antitype]

You'll enjoy it, I think. Videogames might not seem to have the same sort of value as something like a great album that you can listen to again and again, mining it for new impressions and hearing it in a new context, etc.-but when you have such strong memories and feelings associated with one, well, why not? For me, a game like Shadow of the Colossus is like that. I think lj_ghostlight in his comment above describes how he only appreciates it like a gamer, exhausting its time trials and never looking back, but as I say to him, it's the atmosphere and mood I go back to be immersed in. I don't care how well I know what I'm doing when climbing the colossi-I know the lyrics to some songs by heart, too. I know every nuance of some songs. But I still go back and listen, because doing so is pleasing to me. It's like being able to take a memory and frame it, holding it up to the evening glow. We grow old so fast.

[glazomaniac]

i feel like there's probably a lot to still discover in ff6, especially with all these new translations i read about. and my memory's not what it used to be. there's certain things i've read today that i don't recal at all (what's the trick to killing the magi master? something about rasp and osmose, i think, but damn me if i can recall).

and yeah, i feel you on that. it's like my favorite books. i can read them and know every inch of them, remember every word as i read it, and still enjoy them. i can't usually reread a book immediately, but i can certainly come back to it after a short while and re-appreciate it.