Duke Revier's Grand Game Emporium

 Just in case the topic comes up again, I want this to be posted as a record of my experience with Freebird Games, why I spent so much time trying to analyze their Sigmund Corporation games despite not liking them much. The story can be summarized as such: I used to be a big fan of Freebird Games' stories, back when I was a teenager and was pursuing my B. Tech. I greatly looked forward to A Bird Story, and remember buying it day 1 and greatly enjoying it. Hell, I'm pretty sure my name is still on the betatesting credits for Minisode 1 (it's Dev J Chand, in case you're wondering ;) )! However, because of circumstances, I got busy with other affairs, and eventually lost touch with them. I returned to the fandom in late 2021 or so. I wished to try Kan Gao's games in release order, out of curiosity, as I remembered precious little about them, only that I liked them back in the day. I tried Quintessence - The Blighted Venom and enjoyed it a fair bit, despite its obvious ...

 It is fairly common in retro game communities to have people comment on how old games, especially those on consoles, were "meant" to look on CRT displays, and often throw up some blown up photos to demonstrate their point, like so: So far, they're not wrong, inasmuch as they're just stating facts about technology and the development realities of the time. Further, I respect that they're trying to combat another kind of obnoxious nostalgism, that of pixelism. Too often there are people who insist that every pixel is sacred and so should not be changed in remakes or with filters, which is obviously untrue, even without this rebuttal. Ironically, then, that's exactly where a lot of CRT nostalgics go wrong. Too many of them act like every pixel was designed specifically to look good on CRTs, and that playing them any other way is some kind of heresy. And this is where I have to step in and point out some big, gaping holes in their arguments. Like I said before, i...

After revisiting Valkyrie Profile with Elias , I think I've identified what makes it feel a little underwhelming to me. 1. Truncated characters: Most of your party members are people who have no real story or flavor outside of what their sad story paints. Which would be fine, except... 2. The mechanics make it so that most characters feel samey. The fighters have some peculiarities to their moves, the archers can shoot the enemy back row, and the spellcasters cast spells, but otherwise, most of them *feel* the same. The fighters don't have any moves beyond "hit the enemy in melee a bunch", the archers mostly just have weak variants of the one move, and every spellcaster can learn every spell in the game, with minimal difference in competence. Now, it's true that there are special moves to distinguish at least the fighters and archers. But truth is, most special moves don't get to fire in regular battles, and often can only be used once or twice, practically ...

 It's been a while, hasn't it? I finished my Star Ocean: The Second Story LP recently! Woot! It's a fairly flawed, yet extremely charming action RPG, where you get to develop people both on and off the battlefield, training them to be cooks, alchemists, jewellers and what have you. Check it out here if you're interested:  https://talking-time.net/index.php?threads/an-ocean-of-stars-or-perhaps-just-water-lets-play-star-ocean-the-second-story-completed.2967/ Besides that, there isn't much to report. I'm still continuing to learn things, and hope to be able to make something great someday. Here's hoping the next month will be more fruitful and wonderful! Take care.