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Character #7: Sonic the Hedgehog “What you see is what you get! Just a guy that loves adventure! I’m Sonic the Hedgehog!”      First Appearance: Sonic the Hedgehog (June 23rd, 1991) Bio: The coolest and fastest hedgehog to ever live, Sonic is always looking for an adventure and lives as free as the wind. Though he can be impatient and snarky at times, he has a strong sense of justice, going as fast as he can to stop the oppressive plans of Dr. Eggman on a regular basis. --- If Mario and Yoshi taught me how to follow my dreams, Sonic the Hedgehog taught me how to have fun doing it. It’s hard for me to not associate Sonic with my pre-teen to teen years, during a time where I had very few friends I could see in person. Back in Alaska I was fortunate enough to have plenty of friends that I could hang out with, but once I moved to Indiana I would start to see people less and less as time went on. By the time I was in high school, I barely made an effort to socialize with most people in my classes, a mistake I would attempt to correct during my senior year. In those days whenever I had the time, I would spend it primarily reading manga, but every once in awhile (either during study hall or the bus ride home) I would break out my iPod and listen to some sweet Sonic tunes. Listening to those awesome tracks was a nice way to help stave off the loneliness I felt, and it would always be a solid reminder of how cool and radical Sonic was. So what makes Sonic so memorable to me even today? Well, there are three primary things about him that stick out to me: -He’s fast. This one is obviously a no-brainer, but managing to go fast as Sonic is a feeling that never gets old. There’s this incredible rush you get from flying through a level as fast as you can; not only is it just fun, but it also makes you feel like a huge badass when you pull it off perfectly. Moving at the speed of sound and doing good would always be a confidence booster for me, and I don’t think that feeling will go anywhere anytime soon. -He’s cool. No matter what kind of game Sonic is in, whether it’s good or bad, one thing that will always remain an enjoyable constant is how cool he is. He’s always got a snappy quip at the ready, and rarely does he ever let some creep get the upper hand or have the final say. Towards his friends, he’s loyal and always willing to lend a hand, and though he can be impatient at times, he never gives up for the sake of his friends and the world. -He’s free. What I mean by that is that Sonic never stays in the same place; he’s always running around, looking for new things, having a good time, and just... being free. I will always admire his willingness to run headlong into the unknown, looking forward to the journey ahead and letting nothing hold him down. Sometimes it might be scary to travel on my own, but when I do, I can’t help but wonder if being this free and able to do whatever I want is what Sonic goes for every day. When I think about those three points, and how the Sonic franchise manages to nail his personality every time, it’s hard for me not to admire him. He’s become my number one benchmark for what’s cool and awesome in video games ever since I first played Sonic Adventure 2, and its this unwavering characterization that lets me come back to him every time. His devil-may-care attitude, love of life, and heroic qualities are something that I aspire to be like, and he’s been a constant influence on me from his appearances across all types of media all the way to his cheesy but memorable songs. Sonic’s presence in my life did me a lot of good, and I’ll always look forward to seeing where he runs off to next. Question: Are there any characters that you hold as The Standard that other characters should aspire to? Alf's 6th Favorite Character Teaser: Eats food off the floor ==== Game #7: Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars ”For peace to return... we must get rid of Smithy, find the Star Pieces, and repair the Star Road...”  Released: Mar. 9th, 1996 Synopsis: The Mushroom Kingdom is thrown into turmoil when invaders from another world seize Bowser’s Castle and threaten to conquer the world. Joining together with new and old allies, Mario must stop Smithy and his minions while also collecting the shattered pieces of the Star Road to restore peace to the world. Chosen Music: Goodbye Geno --- Super Mario RPG, like Yoshi’s Island, was another game that fell into my lap after years of wanting it. I remember seeing the game for the first time after a church friend let me borrow it for a little bit, and even though other Mario RPGs were out at the time, I was determined to play Super Mario RPG again. I ended up asking the friend if I could borrow the game again at any opportunity that I could, which never really amounted to anything most of the time since they would forget to get the game over to me. Eventually, the kid’s mom ended up giving me the game herself since her son didn’t seem interested in having the game anymore and she knew how much I wanted it. Looking back on it now, it was kind of dickish of me to continually hound someone for a game like that, but eh, that's all in the past now. I think part of what enamored me so much about Super Mario RPG was in its presentation. I had very little exposure to the 3D isometric perspective as a kid, having only ever encountered it in RTS games like StarCraft and Age of Empires. But Super Mario RPG utilized it in such a way that it seemed to capture me instantly from the moment I saw it. Like, yeah, the isometric perspective ultimately isn’t good for platforming and poo poo, but at the time I thought it was such a unique and clever way to present a Mario game, and I really think it helped to bring out the best in its pre-rendered graphics. The world surrounding Mario in the game was another matter entirely; it was probably the first time in the Mario series where I loved seeing Mario out of his own element. Of course, one of the things I loved about the first two Paper Mario games was how it took the concepts and species introduced in previous Mario games and expanded upon them to flesh out the Mario universe in creative and fun ways. In Super Mario RPG, a huge chunk of the game is filled with new characters, creatures, and locations never before seen in a Mario game. It was all so bizarre and wild seeing these new faces for Mario to interact with and/or trounce, but at the same time, I absolutely loved it. I never knew what to expect whenever I wandered into a new area, and that really helps to keep the experience fresh for me even today. As far as combat goes, I can forgive it for being a little unintuitive with action commands since it was the first Mario RPG to have those at all. But as a kid, I loved everything about the combat; how the entire menu was completely mapped to different face buttons, how sharing a pool of Flower Points meant you had to be smart about what you spent that FP on, and how crazy ridiculous each fight could get. Half the fun of getting into a battle for me was seeing how my new weapons would work, what kind of enemies I would encounter next, or managing to unleash an awesome special attack on a group of enemies and pulling off huge damage. This is probably also the only RPG I’ve ever played where it just feels so drat GOOD to level up, and each level up helps to make a significant difference in a fight. And even when I used to dislike the level cap being 30, I’ve come to appreciate it as a nice, easily achievable benchmark that you won’t even need to spend hours grinding for. And at the end of the day, that’s really what I loved about Super Mario RPG and I why still love it today; it’s the game that got me to appreciate the genre of RPGs. Moreso than Pokemon or Paper Mario, this game really sold me on the idea of traveling with a group of friends and getting stronger by battling lots of enemies while discovering incredible new places. What it lacks in a good story, it more than makes up for with great characters, absurdly funny writing, and lots of heart, and I think that should matter to it more than anything. And while I’ve loved Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi, I’ve always longed for a day when a new Mario RPG comes along that puts its own spin on the Mario universe like Super Mario RPG. Or if not that, then finding a way to really honor the legacy of this game (an HD re-release would be the best, but I wouldn’t mind a sequel or, hell, even seeing Geno in Smash would be cool) would be more than enough for me. Question: Have you ever received a video game from another person? Alf's 6th Favorite Game Teaser: The sequel to one of the best games I've never played
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Jun 27, 2017 01:05
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Character #6: Pit “Underling of Medusa floating before me! It’s time to atone for your crimes! I am Pit, servant of the goddess of light! And you. Are. History!”      First Appearance: Kid Icarus (Dec. 19th, 1986) Bio: An angel living in Skyworld serving the goddess Palutena, Pit always gives his best efforts to defeat the forces of darkness, even when he has no natural ability to fly by himself. Cheerful and upbeat, he has a tendency to show off at times, which, along with strange habits like eating food off the ground, causes him to be frequently mocked by the rest of the pantheon. --- Whenever I think about Pit, I think about a lot of things. I think about a guy who’s well-meaning and has a good heart, but he can be a bit of a dunderhead sometimes. I think about a guy who ends up being the butt of a lot of jokes, but who always manages to bounce back (or just takes the jokes on the chin). I think about someone who, despite whatever hang-ups he has, tries his absolute best to set things right in the end. Maybe he won’t succeed all the time, and maybe he’s not perfect, but it’s his willingness to never give up and see things through that make him what he is. In other words, I think about a guy who is remarkably similar to me. It definitely didn’t start that way when I was introduced to him through Brawl’s first trailer. At the time my initial reaction to him was “oh a new retro character, neat,” and proceeded to ogle more over Meta Knight and Wario, and basically every other new character that got revealed. Then, a couple years after Brawl came out, Kid Icarus: Uprising was announced for the newly announced 3DS, and my response was “hey sweet, maybe I’ll play the original Kid Icarus to get an idea of what it was like.” It ended up being a poor decision and I still haven’t beaten it to this day, but thankfully Uprising came along and gave Pit’s personality a complete do-over. And playing through the game was basically the moment where I fell in love with him. The thing you have to realize about Pit is that... he’s a massive dork. He’ll make up songs on the fly, he loves to just chillax in a hot spring, and he’ll eat food off the floor on a regular basis because punishing the forces of evil can’t wait, dammit! He’s good at what he does, but he also does dumb things like impulsively spring a trap to open a worthless treasure box, so it’s hard to tell if he’s really worth it sometimes. His inability to fly, coupled with his naïve personality and awkward bravado makes him such an easy target for the other gods to fling their derision towards. In fact, most of the game is just the universe constantly dogpiling on Pit for his idiotic nonsense or for just not being good enough. It’s kind of hilarious seeing what kind of stupid things Pit will say or do next that’ll earn him the ire of any gods watching. But what really draws me to Pit is his earnest heart and his unwavering determination. Wanting something that he can’t ever hope to have on his own (in his case, the ability to fly) is something I totally get, and I appreciate that it makes Pit ever grateful for the people that let him fly in the first place. Pit was also one of the first video game characters to really teach me the value of never giving up, and some of his best moments come from his overflowing determination. The entire Chaos Kin arc is absolutely fantastic at this, as it helps to affirm Pit’s resolve to set things right and step up to the plate for the sake of others. When I look at what Pit goes through and examine every aspect of his character, it’s hard for me not to draw parallels to myself. Sometimes I can be a klutz or an idiot, well deserving of mockery at times, and sometimes it may seem I won’t amount to much. But rather than dwell on it, I prefer to let things run their course, never giving up until things get better. I can’t tell you how happy I am that Pit got the makeover that he did, because not only is he fun, hysterical, and lovably dorky, but he’s someone I can compare myself to and come away thinking that we’re really similar. He’s become my favorite Nintendo character for all of those reasons, and I hope he’ll get more chances to shine in the future so that love can continue. Question: Do any characters in media just remind you of yourself? Alf's 5th Favorite Character Teaser: Makes stuffed animals ==== Game #6: Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair ”Even without a talent, you can have hope.”  Released: July 26th, 2012 Synopsis: 16 aspiring students from Hope’s Peak Academy are whisked away to an island getaway, intended to be a method for the students to strengthen their bonds with one another. But the vacation is ruined by the arrival of Monokuma, who traps the students on the island and declares a brand-new death game: the Killing School Trip! Chosen Music: Welcome to DANGAN IsLand!! --- Not long after the LP for the original Danganronpa wrapped up on Something Awful, the LP for the second game soon began and I felt my obsession with the series start all over again. I had sneaked a preview of it before the LP began and got a glimpse of the characters, and I was just drat excited to meet a brand new cast of characters (and recoil with despair when the ones I liked were killed off). So I followed the LP for a while, but as time went on I and a lot of other friends I was reading it with noticed how slowly it was updating, so we opted to find other sources that had already translated the full game ahead of orenronen. I ended up spoiling a bit of the story for myself, but when I actually read through the whole thing, I loved it a whole bunch, even moreso than the first game. So much so that it set the tone for the next three or four months of 2013 once I managed to finish reading the game in July. The era of Danganronpa Mania was something that you really had to experience for yourself, but I was thankful enough to experience it with a handful of good friends. I remember the days of regularly going onto Epic Mafia and taking part in games of Dangan Mafia, which became a regular occurrence for me throughout the summer. Most of the fun was just getting to roleplay the Danganronpa characters, but any time one of us came up with a cool and creative idea, that somehow elevated our silly games of Mafia to something incredible (my favorite games involving Nanami the Jealous Murderer and Danganronpa Noir). Eventually, we decided that we wanted to expand upon our roleplaying with an entire board dedicated to it, so I made the forum and we all got on board and had a great time before it fizzled out after 1-2 months. But even when our passion for Danganronpa roleplaying quickly dried up, it was a good time for all of us to be creative with the characters that we loved or to simply do things like share DR-related meme videos with each other. But what about Danganronpa 2, the game that started all of this madness; how does it hold up even without all that it started to prop it up? Well to be honest, there’s a lot about Danganronpa 2 that’s both better and worse than the original Danganronpa game. The story is generally more uninteresting, but the setting is great and the plot twists hit harder and heavier. The characters feel less like human beings in comparison to the first game, but their various eccentricities, individual character designs, and personality traits make them far more memorable in the long run. The cases in general and the motivations that cause them are a little weaker than DR1’s as well, and yet the penultimate case still manages to be one of the best cases in the entire Danganronpa series (the final case is also up there as well, depending on who you ask). But at the time I was reading it, the whole endgame was absolutely enthralling to me. At that point, I wasn’t really satisfied with the college I had chosen and decided to transfer schools, which brought into question where my future would even go from here. Reading that last chapter, which contained such a profound message of creating your own future, left such a genuine impact on me that it’s hard for me not to appreciate what it did for me. Even now, as I determine where my life will go from here, I can look back to the ending for this game and be reminded of how I can change my life for the better, step-by-step, until I can say I’ve become satisfied with where I am. So overall, I can’t be more glad that Danganronpa 2 entered my life when it did. The era of Danganronpa Mania is something I can say I lived through with complete confidence, mostly for all the positive memories I made in the process. It’s a game that got me to connect more with other people, and made me realize how much control I have over my own destiny. And even nowadays, when the Danganronpa series isn’t putting out a lot of great content (something I’m hoping DRV3 will fix), I can still revisit Danganronpa 2 every so often and earnestly enjoy everything that it has to offer. Question: Which games do you associate with the people you hang out with? Alf's 5th Favorite Game Teaser: Looks like it came back for more...
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Jun 29, 2017 01:25
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Character #5: Kanji Tatsumi “It ain’t a matter of guys or chicks... I’m just scared shitless of being rejected.”       First Appearance: Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 (July 10th, 2008) Bio: Known to the residents of Inaba as an aggressive punk, Kanji hides his inner emotions with his delinquent attitude, leading to him being the victim of several swirling rumors. Though he prefers to act tough, he is an incredibly sensitive individual struggling to figure out his own identity, while also having a real a knack for knitting. --- When it comes to Persona games, I’ve noticed a trend where people will gravitate towards a particular character from any one Persona game. For whatever reason, the way they’re written tends to speak to them on a level that not many fictional characters can manage to do, as if someone looked into their life and created a character that was just like them. Though my big favorite was never in Persona 4 (more on that later), I genuinely like how much thought was put into a good chunk of the cast, and the game’s S.Links do a fantastic job of balancing their own personal issues with the overall theme of reaching out to the truth. And if you were to ask me who my favorite in P4 was with all this in consideration, I can think of no one better than Kanji Tatsumi. Kanji’s entire deal is that his dad died when he was young, but not before being told by him that he needed to become strong if he wanted to be a man. His misinterpretation of what his dad meant, combined with being ridiculed for his more feminine hobbies, made Kanji angry and frustrated, and he starts acting like a punk to disassociate himself from what he likes doing. By the time you first meet him in game, he’s become somewhat notorious for being a troublemaker and beating the poo poo out of the biker gangs that plague Inaba. Even when it’s for good intentions, his aggressive attitude is immediately recognizable by everyone in town, and he’s quick to jump to conclusions whenever you and your group get involved. It reminded me a lot about my middle school and early high school years when I thought people were only out to pick on me or annoy me, so Kanji’s frustrations ended up being completely relatable to me. Then we get to see his Shadow self, which takes the form of an extremely flamboyant side of him that hates all women and only has love reserved for men. The Shadow itself is a pretty uncomfortable depiction of his sexual orientation issues, but it’s the Shadow’s yearning for acceptance that ends up making it great. It’s here that Kanji openly acknowledges that he’s convinced himself that no one will understand him, and that most of that has to do with him trying to act tough all the time to make sure no one makes fun of him for not being “manly” enough. As someone who avoided contact with other people for so long to avoid getting hurt, Kanji’s confessions really stuck out to me and helped me to see him grow as a person (punching the poo poo out of his Shadow is a fun highlight, too). But while the game doesn’t really touch on his sexuality after that (usually just as a running joke, which is disheartening to say the least), it more than makes up for that with Kanji’s S.Link. Here, he starts knitting stuffed dolls for this kid who went through the same poo poo he did, and ends up learning so much in the process. He learns that the toxic masculinity he had held onto for a long while was only serving to make himself seem worse than he actually was, and that making people understand him takes an honest effort. He even starts to take more of a shine for his knitting hobby, having started to set them up for sale at his family shop near the end of the S.Link. It’s one of my favorite S.Links in the entire series, one that I could have learned so much from if I had played P4 earlier in my life. And outside of his S.Link and his Shadow encounter, Kanji is consistently one of the best members of the team. Though he’s usually thick as a brick, he’s unusually perceptive at times and learns not to act too recklessly as part of the group (except for the hospital scene, that was just out of character for him). In combat, he’s a goddamn badass, smacking Shadows left and right with blunt objects and his awesome skull mecha Persona. It’s always a treat watching him say or do anything, and even in most of the spin-offs he gets by just fine by being himself while most everyone around him gets flanderized to hell and back. And even though we have more than enough P4 spin-off material to last a lifetime, any excuse to see more of Kanji is absolutely fine by me. Question: Is there any character in media that you love that has gone through the same struggles as you? Alf's 4th Favorite Character Teaser: Owns a crossbow ==== Game #5: Sonic Adventure 2 ”Maria... this is what you wanted, right? This is my promise I made to you.”  Released: June 23rd, 2001 Synopsis: Trouble brews in the air when Dr. Eggman reawakens Shadow the Hedgehog, a genetic life-form created by his grandfather years ago. While Shadow works with Eggman and treasure hunter Rouge to bring the world to ruin, Sonic, who has been mistaken for the villainous hedgehog, must band together with Tails and Knuckles to foil their plans. Chosen Music: Live & Learn --- Okay so to really understand why I have such a huge appreciation for Sonic Adventure 2, I need to take you back to when I first saw the game. Back to a time when I didn’t even know that such a wild and cool game could end up shaping me for years to come. Before that point, I never had a whole lot Sonic in my life growing up. The most experience I had was occasionally playing Sonic 2 at a friend’s house, avoiding Sonic CD like the plague because the American game over music is the stuff of nightmares, and seeing only a couple of episodes of the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog on TV. I didn’t even realize there was a gigantic console war going on between Nintendo and Sega in the 90’s, especially when the PlayStation had come out and I started seeing people owning a PlayStation more often than not. But it wasn’t until I was over at a friend’s house and they were showing off their fancy new Gamecube to me and my family, and they popped in a copy of Sonic Adventure 2 Battle for our viewing eyeballs. That was the first time I had ever seen the game, and it looked nothing short of amazing. It wasn’t long until I got my own Gamecube and my own copy of Sonic Adventure 2 Battle, and like, every single time I played it, either to go through the different campaigns (which I loved and helped to establish my love of different perspective campaigns) or to pick out my favorite levels over and over, I just had a blast. Any time I played a Sonic/Shadow level, I was encouraged to go for style at every turn and got rewarded for pulling off the sickest tricks and moves that I could, all while going as fast as possible to blow through each level. The Tails/Eggman levels were also tons of fun and there was a novelty to locking onto everything to get the biggest combo possible, or just tossing you into a level and saying HERE GO BLOW poo poo UP AND HAVE FUN. The Knuckles/Rouge levels tended to be more hit and miss (gently caress Mad Space forever), but just about every single one of those had really awesome music in a game already full of awesome music. No matter what the level or which parts tended to drag a little bit, the game always understood how to just deliver fun from every possible angle. And... yeah, I suppose I should talk about the Chao Garden as well. Honestly it’s amazing how much care and effort went into this silly little diversion, but I couldn’t imagine Sonic Adventure 2 being the same without it. Raising Chaos gave going through the levels a whole new purpose, because now you were searching for specific animals or Chaos Drives to increase their stats, evolve them, and make them the best at racing or karate. I also really, really appreciated how a Chao reacted to either how much you love and care for them or how much you just fuckin’ throw them everywhere; it made me really understand what goes into raising pets and how much work it takes to keep them happy and healthy. I don’t know if we’ll ever see something like that again, but they drat well better bring it back some time within the next century. But what is it about Sonic Adventure 2 that’s gotten it this high up on my list? The answer to that is pretty simple, actually; this game was something that managed to expand my horizons beyond what I thought I knew. This was a game that got me to really embrace Sonic, how cool he and his friends were, and how much fun it was to blaze through the games as each of these characters. This, of course, led to a long and turbulent series of mishaps with the franchise, but I always found myself coming back to Sonic because I was a dumb kid who liked Sonic too much for his own good (I actually owned and beat Sonic 2006, for reference). It also helped that every time they came out with a new song to accompany a new game, I would just listen to that poo poo over and over again. Like, they’re not all winners like Live & Learn, but... I love the vocal tracks, and how they managed to keep my spirits bright even through those lonely days in high school, and how they just continually reminded me of how much I loving love Sonic as a whole. And honestly, I’m okay with me liking Sonic Adventure 2 more than I should because this game has not aged well for most people. The story is hokey, physics are all over the place (though they usually feel fine to me), the two-player battle mode is just kinda there (even though I loved to just cheese the poo poo out of the all-rails level as Metal Sonic), and there’s not much to get out of it if you’re playing it for the first time as an adult. But I’ll always remember the music, the fun times, and the sheer joy of playing it, and how it’s stuck with me all this time, even today. It helped me develop a new understanding of the kind of stuff that I love, and I'd say it's responsible for how I'm still able to keep some optimism in my heart. I don’t even really need a Sonic Adventure 3 like most people are clamoring for, because I just know that nothing an Adventure 3 would do could ever top my love and respect for Sonic Adventure 2. Question: What games or pieces of media helped to define yourself? Alf's 4th Favorite Game Teaser: An existentialist game
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Jun 30, 2017 21:32
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pieces of media don't define me because im a real human being?? i don't really understand the question
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Jul 1, 2017 21:45
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fridge corn posted:pieces of media don't define me because im a real human being?? i don't really understand the question is it ok if I try defining you with a piece of media? i am going to give it a go. I am thinking photographer Andres Serrano's piece, "Immersion"
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Jul 2, 2017 08:30
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Character #4: Greggory Lee “I’m... I’m a good person, right?”        First Appearance: Night in the Woods (Feb. 21st, 2017) Bio: Mae’s best friend and partner in crime since high school, Gregg can often be found slacking off at work, but tries his best in order to secure a better future for himself and his boyfriend Angus. Often excitable, loud, and optimistic, he is nevertheless prone to experiencing huge mood swings every now and then. --- It was honestly kind of a shock to me how much I related to Gregg. Of course, out of all the characters I met throughout Night in the Woods, Gregg was the one that I gravitated towards the most. He has a charming optimism that never seems to die down, especially in some of his more hyperactive moments. It’s fun just to hang around and interact with him, like one of those old buddies that you can just shoot the poo poo with whenever you hang out with them. I also like that he’s in a gay relationship with Angus and they just have it as a gay relationship and try not to make such a big deal out of it (except for like one throwaway line near the end of the Legends scene). He’s a pal that’s always down to hang out and party with, especially if it’s with his longtime friend Mae Borowski or his boyfriend. But what I really love about Gregg is the tightrope he walks between doing what he wants and doing what’s best for his future. Once Mae comes back into town, Gregg decides that he wants to do some crimes again, like the good ol’ days, which basically amounts to stealing poo poo from abandoned cars and grocery stores to make this dumb robot with Mae. These moments with Gregg are just stupid dumb fun, but you also learn that he and Angus are saving up their money in order to move out of Possum Springs and into a better town. You can easily see how this runs at odds with his desire to do whatever he wants regardless of the consequences, but Gregg does care about providing a better future for the two of them. And then once you manage to get to the back half of the Wounds scene with him... that was when what he talked about really hit home for me. He goes on about how much he cares for Angus, who hasn’t had the best life, and talking about not wanting to lose him, and that just... really spoke to me. It reminded me a lot about how much I cared for my group of friends, and how I wanted to make sure they were doing the best they could be. Maybe I don’t do it enough, or maybe I don’t always be there when they need someone, or maybe I’m just inconsiderate like Gregg admits to being, but I care so much about the people closest to me and don’t want to see anything bad happen to them. I guess there was just some catharsis in me realizing how much Gregg’s desire to keep Angus safe resonated with my own desire to see my friends get the happy lives they deserve. Then the Legends scene happens, and everything that could have bubbled up to the surface does so very quickly. Throughout the whole scene, Angus’ mounting frustrations over Gregg’s crime activities keep spilling out no matter how much he tries to hold it in, culminating in a complete call-out over Gregg’s recent irresponsible behavior. It’s a pretty uncomfortable scene all around (only made worse by them getting a flat, then Mae vandalizing a bathroom and then puking once she stuffs herself on donuts), but it’s also one that serves as a big eye-opener for Gregg. It’s the moment where he realizes all the illegal stuff he wanted to do was seriously jeopardizing their plans for the future, and because he doesn’t want to lose Angus, he recognizes that he has to put it all behind him if he wants a better life. It’s admittedly a little less powerful than the Proximity scene with Bea, but I still love how Gregg manages to mature a bit and realize what’s best for him and Angus. And the best part about Gregg’s love and care for his friends is that it doesn’t just start and end with Angus; he cares a whole bunch about Mae as well. Even when he doesn’t get Mae’s obsession with ghost hunting later in the game, he comes to understand it as just something that she needs to do and fully supports her endeavors. He even gets a really badass moment or two in the final act where he really shows just how far he’s willing to go for the sake of his friends. Like, overall Gregg is far from being the best person in the world, but I’m hard-pressed to find many other people that love and cherish their friends as much as Gregg does. Question: Do you think you're a good person? Alf's 3rd Favorite Character Teaser: Bought a really expensive sticker ==== Game #4: Night in the Woods ”We begin and we end at night, in the woods.”  Released: Feb. 21st, 2017 Synopsis: Mae Borowski returns from college to her hometown of Possum Springs, only to find that things have changed since the coal mines closed. While she lives with her parents and reconnects with her friends, she begins to unravel a dark and terrible secret hidden beneath the town. Chosen Music: Die Anywhere Else --- Night in the Woods is a game about many things. It’s a game about the struggle against mental illness and how much it’s capable of ruining a person’s life. As someone who’s gone through life with a mental illness (Asperger’s), it never really occurred to me just how much a mental illness could impair someone, even when I’ve gone through life being mostly socially awkward. But after seeing Mae Borowski go through the whole game, especially when I started learning about her in the final act, somehow I just got it right away. It made me understand just how much power a mental illness can have over someone if they don’t learn how to control it, and going through the entire game as Mae, who makes poor decisions on the fly, really made me recognize what people with a disability like that can go through. It’s a game depicting the challenge of the modest American hometown to survive and keep business afloat amidst a staggering economy. Throughout the entire time you’re in Possum Springs, you can see just how much it’s started to decay over the years. Businesses shut down left and right, the lower and middle classes stagnate with no sign of change on the horizon, and people argue with each other over what to do to keep the town alive. No one really has any answers on what to do to ensure their homes and jobs remain, or those that do have jobs wish that there were better opportunities for them. It’s a game about an entire generation - our generation - beset by the problems handed to us by the previous generations and their yearning for a better life away from a miserable town. Gregg and Angus have grown tired of living in a barely functioning town that doesn’t even want them to leave, and are working to save up the money to move somewhere better. Bea is shackled to her job at the Ol’ Pickaxe due to her mother dying and her father having a breakdown from it, while they’re stuck in a crappy apartment and any hope of Bea going to college gets smaller by the day. Mae views the town as one of the very few places she’s comfortable being in, yet everyone around town views her as nothing but trouble (for good reason). And perhaps most importantly, Night in the Woods is a game about existence itself. Who we are, what we believe in, what we see around us, what our place is in the universe. People believing in the things they want to believe in, people trying to find meaning in the things they believe, people being disillusioned and thinking that nothing means anything to them. People trying their best to keep existing, or doing what they think is right to keep what they love and believe in from disappearing. People who believe in the existence of God, people doing what they do because they believe in a higher power, people who earnestly don’t know what God is or what God is supposed to mean to them, people who don’t believe in the existence of God altogether. I had no idea the kind of game I was going to experience when I bought Night in the Woods on a whim, but it’s imparted a great deal of things onto me. It’s taught me what a mental illness can really do to a person if left unchecked or buried for far too long. It’s reminded me how life isn’t so simple and easy for a lot of people, and how many people even today struggle to survive in a world that barely tries to help them. It’s told me that, although things may seem bleak and miserable, and you don’t know what will happen to you, going down that bleak and miserable road with the people you care about helps to dilute the pain. A game like this only comes around once for every generation old enough to connect with it, but I couldn’t be more happy that a game like this exists in our time. Question: Have you ever thought about the nature of your own existence? Alf's 3rd Favorite Game Teaser: A game that's really important to me
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Jul 2, 2017 23:09
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I didn't really have any expectations at all going into NitW and it pretty much immediately became one of my all-time favorite games. Real easily overlooked indie gem of a game that happened to come out in the same season as several stellar major releases.
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Jul 3, 2017 10:24
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Character #3: Hajime Hinata “In the end, I couldn’t do anything, though. But because of my emptiness, there are things I can do.”         First Appearance: Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair (July 26, 2012) Bio: A student at Hope’s Peak Academy who cannot recall his talent, Hajime Hinata has idolized the school all his life, firmly believing in the instant success that comes from graduating from the school. He’s short-tempered, tends to be skeptical, and worries more often than not, but his analytical skills prove indispensable in solving the various murder cases that arise. --- One of the things I absolutely love about Danganronpa 2 (aside from everything else I wrote about in my write-up for Danganronpa 2) is its protagonist, Hajime Hinata. What separates him from Makoto Naegi from the first game (who I do like even if he can be a pushover) is how much more grounded he is in reality. He’s not afraid to say things as they are, and he’s always got a great and snarky remark on hand any time someone’s being stupid or unreasonable. I also appreciate that he always looks at things realistically instead of jumping the gun, even when it sometimes makes it feel like he hardly ever loosens up around other people. But to those he does hang around, he shows a genuine thoughtfulness for the troubles they go through, and even though he might not completely understand them, he does his best to give them the right kind of advice. Hajime also has the unique distinction of being the only one of the game’s 16 students to not have a clearly specified talent (instead being labeled as Ultimate ???). While his inability to remember his talent is yet another mystery to be solved amidst the killing game, it also ties back into his huge, huge appreciation for Hope’s Peak. Ever since he was a child, he’s always admired the ability of Hope’s Peak to give instant success to anyone who graduates from the school. Part of why he attends the school to begin with is that he earnestly believes he can make his life worthwhile if he enters into their top-notch school program, learning among the best and brightest, and emerging as a successful part of society. Case 4 Spoilers for Danganronpa 2 The other part of this has to do with how he has no real talent, which he rediscovers to his horror in the middle of Case 4. The only reason he got into Hope’s Peak at all was because he managed to get into the Reserve Course, which the school created as a way to make more money by allowing less talented students to enroll. Before he lost his memory, Hajime was so indignant about having no talent that he believed enrolling through the Reserve Course would allow him to get the talent he needed to be successful in life. And even during the killing game when he has no memory of his talent, Hajime believes himself to have some kind of talent, or else he couldn’t possibly have managed to make it among all these other great and talented students. But once Komaeda fills him in on who he really is, he has to come face to face with the sobering reality: he’s nothing more than an everyday student with no talent who only got in because Hope’s Peak cut him a lucky break. And the thing you have to understand about this is that finding out you have no talent isn’t just frustrating; it makes you doubt yourself. You start asking yourself, “well what’s the point of being here, among all these talented people, if I don’t have any talent to speak of? Why am I being allowed to continue being here while everyone gets further ahead in life and my useless rear end is getting left further and further behind?” poo poo like this plagues Hajime throughout the rest of the game up until the final Case, and it’s hard for him not to feel like this even when everyone else tells him it’s fine. Like, I dunno about any of you, but as a recent college graduate who sometimes feels like I barely have any talent at all, Hajime’s struggles feel intensely similar to my own, even when I’m taking the steps to try and prepare myself for the rest of my future. MAJOR Case 6 Spoilers for Danganronpa 2 Then we get the reveal in the very last Case of the game that Hajime Hinata as he is now no longer exists. His personality outside of the Neo World Program is Izuru Kamukura, a completely different being brought about by Hope’s Peak’s desire to create a being called the Ultimate Hope, but due to Junko’s manipulations, he fell into despair and became a part of the infamous Remnants of Despair. It might seem like it comes completely out of nowhere and doesn’t really fit, but I personally love this reveal. It takes the image of a Hope’s Peak that Hajime revered all of his life and shatters it completely, leaving Hajime more disillusioned and frustrated than ever before. It makes his refusal to do anything to stop AI Junko so much more believable too, because he’s convinced that nothing good will happen if he goes through with the Future Foundation’s plans, and there’s the fact that he wants absolutely nothing to do with this big dumb battle between Hope and Despair anymore. And in his darkest hour, when Nanami manages to break through and encourage him... that’s probably my favorite moment in the entire series. She reminds him about how talent itself is never the goal, and that he’s free to take his life wherever he needs to take it as long as he believes in himself. And I will freely admit that believing in myself is something I forget to do a lot of the time, but knowing that it has the power to change Hajime’s thinking... it makes me think about how even with my lack of talent, I can still make a difference in my own life or in others’. That scene taught me how there’s so much more to life than whether or not you have the talent to be successful, and that believing in yourself is the key to creating your future. Hajime’s realization of that fact, and his subsequent rebellion against AI Junko, is something that’s stuck with me since I’ve read it and my appreciation for that moment and Hajime’s character overall has only grown stronger with the passage of time. Question: Have you ever thought you didn't have much talent for anything? Alf's 2nd Favorite Character Teaser: Is your bro ==== Game #3: Kid Icarus: Uprising ”Listen well, Medusa! Your days of darkness are numbered. Prepare to meet the light!”  Released: March 22nd, 2012 Synopsis: 25 years after her defeat, the Goddess of Darkness Medusa has returned to destroy humanity once more. With the assistance of the Goddess of Light Palutena, Pit must fight the Underworld Army and put a stop to Medusa’s plans. Chosen Music: Opening --- “Wait a minute,” anyone with even a passing knowledge of me would say, “this is supposed to be this guy’s all-time favorite game, why is it #3?” Well I’ll tell you right now that it has absolutely nothing to do with this game’s quality, and in fact it remains one of the best games I’ve ever played and ended up doing a lot for me in the long run. But somewhere along the line, my thinking had started to change, and I came to recognize the value in other games more strongly. I remembered what made me love those games, how much of an impact they really left on me, and how much they affected my life for the better. And as for Kid Icarus: Uprising, the passion for creating games I thought I once had has died down significantly over the years, which was a big part of what was inspiring about this game to me to begin with. So unfortunately, this game had to take a hit from being #1, due to how much I’ve grown and realized more about myself and from how much my passion has died down since I beat the game. To really understand what drew me towards Kid Icarus: Uprising in the first place, though, I’ll need to take you back to when I played it for the first time. The controls are going to be hit or miss for a lot of people, but I fell in love with the control scheme as soon as I got a handle on what I was doing. The simple control scheme of “move with Circle Pad, aim with touch screen, fire with L button” is so effortless, but it feels so drat GOOD in practice. Once you’ve mastered the controls, you’ll be able to do so much crazy poo poo like freely aiming at whatever dude strikes your ire and dodging whatever you can dodge (and there’s actual thought put into timing your dodges compared to Metroid: Other M where you can just dodge forever and it’s terrible). There’s so much you can do with melee attacks, shooting, dashing while shooting, shooting charged shots, and dashing while shooting charged shots that it’s kind of amazing that all these options managed to come about from such a simple control scheme. There’s also the fact that the game gives you so many options to work with and polish up your skills with whatever loadout you have. Not satisfied with your current build? Here, choose from 9 different weapon types, with each type containing a dozen different options and each weapon you collect having their own power levels and modifiers! Need an extra boost when the going gets tough? Here’s a list of dozens of different Powers designed to get you out of a jam and to help you tackle some of the game’s trickier parts! Wanna try and get better really quickly? Try your luck with the Fiend’s Cauldron and spend hearts to increase the difficulty, with victory netting you a huge bounty of incredible weapons! There are so many ways to play through the game with whatever weapons and Powers strike your fancy, and you can literally make the game as easy or as difficult as you want (ranging from 0.0 to 9.0). And then for whatever reason, I got really, really attached to the story content of the game and how it all played out. Like, the game was already full of colorful and hilarious characters and contained a cool story that I could get into, but then the end of Chapter 9 happened, to which I figured it wouldn’t be that long before the game was nearly over. But then I got blindsided by the start of Chapter 11, and that was when my appreciation for this game just skyrocketed. I couldn’t tell you how excited I was to just be playing more and more of this great game, and it continued to deliver with each chapter getting bigger and crazier than the last. It was the moment where I really started to appreciate how much better this game was compared to most action games I had played before, and helped to give me a new respect for what this genre was capable of. Then Chapter 18 happened and... that was a huge breakthrough moment for me. At the time I had played it, I had already started getting a good understanding of what I liked in stories and characters, but it was mostly confined to mediums like anime/manga, movies, and comics. But Kid Icarus: Uprising was the first time where I really started to appreciate story and characters in video games; the start of Chapter 18 was the moment that kicked that off, where I was just left utterly shocked by the end and desperately wanted to know what would happen next. It’s a big part of why I can appreciate what more games have to say nowadays with their stories and characters, and I’ve got this game to thank for helping to deliver my first real, impactful moment in a video game. So even though I can’t call it my #1 favorite game anymore... I still owe so much to Kid Icarus: Uprising. It’s a game that got me to appreciate the time and effort put into making stories and characters in video games, and how it got me started on a long journey of appreciating video games more and more. Since beating it, I’ve started to expand my horizons slowly but surely, recognizing what works and what doesn’t, and opening myself up to games that I normally wouldn’t even touch before. And if I ever feel in the mood to go back to Kid Icarus: Uprising, I know I’ll always be greeted with great gameplay, lovable characters, an awesome story, loads upon loads of content (including the multiplayer mode which is fantastic to play), and all the wonderful little touches and features that make it so uniquely a Masahiro Sakurai game. It’s a really special game to me, and I doubt I’d ever be the same without it. Question: What piece of media was responsible for helping you appreciate a story and characters more? Alf's 2nd Favorite Game Teaser: A brawl for the ages
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Jul 5, 2017 00:18
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Character #2: Junpei Iori “Ta da da da! I’m da man!”          First Appearance: Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 (July 13th, 2006) Bio: The brash and bold member of SEES, Junpei never tends to treat their Shadow-hunting activities seriously, instead focusing on the awesome powers that come with the job. Though he has all the questionable qualities of a teenager, namely his tendency to slack off and flirt with girls, he’s nevertheless a valuable part of the team. --- There are very few series that know how to create good characters like Persona. People can easily connect to these characters because of how closely rooted in reality each of them are, and how they have their own faults and weaknesses just like any other human being. What they carry deep inside themselves or what they’ve been through sometimes ends up resonating very strongly with certain individuals, to the point where they can see some of themselves in them. And the absolute best kinds of characters Persona can produce are the ones that learn from their own faults, recognize and come to terms with what they’ve been through, and ultimately change and grow to better themselves and remain close to the people around them. There are very, very few characters in a video game that I can think of that change and grow as much as Junpei. When you first meet Junpei, he’s like every other teenager at his age; cocky, overconfident, flirts with the ladies, slacks off 24/7, and always tries to make himself the man of the hour. The only difference is that he has the power of Persona, which he almost immediately loves since it makes him some kinda badass superhero. By the time you join up with SEES and start carrying out operations with them, he’s still in the phase where he wants to show off and be all like “WHO’S DA MAN” when he totally owns a Shadow, which is completely understandable for a guy like him. But once you start to show up and be the guy (or girl) in charge, Junpei’s insecurities start to surface and he internally resents having to take orders from a newbie (or a girl), leading him to make some reckless calls and carry a petty grudge early on in the game. Now I wouldn’t blame you if you think that all just makes Junpei sound like nothing but a shitlord, but it’s when Junpei starts to loosen up a bit and apologize for his actions that he really starts to grow. Again, it’s incredibly plausible for a teenager like him to behave the way he does, but it’s really great how Junpei is able to recognize his lovely behavior and learn from it. That’s what puts him way above Yosuke or even Ryuji for me; his willingness to correct himself to make himself less of a dirtbag is great, and shows a level of maturity from him before the endgame is even within reach. And by the end of the game, he’s got your back 100% of the way and proves himself to be a true bro to you and to everyone else around him. It’s a change that’s entirely believable because of how true to life it is, and it makes Junpei such a well-realized and fleshed out character that actually matures and grows and has an ARC of all things that I really wish other Persona characters of his archetype could learn from. Major Persona 3 Spoilers And of course, another big part of his character arc comes from his relationship with Chidori. It’s a very strange start to their relationship at first; Junpei tries to subtly pass himself off as the leader of SEES to impress her, while Chidori doesn’t give a rat’s rear end about him and later tries to hold him for ransom. But over the course of their time together... they earnestly start respecting and caring for each other, and Junpei in particularly tries his hardest to be there for her no matter how hard Chidori tries to push him away. It’s not until Junpei gets shot and Chidori gives up her life so that he can live, and that moment is just... one of the most heart-wrenching and beautiful moments in the whole game. Seeing Chidori sacrifice herself for him gives Junpei the resolve to be a better man to everyone around him, and whether or not she ends up surviving (depending on the version you play), the lessons Junpei learns stick with him and makes him a much better person as a result. But then when I read through Junpei’s S.Link for the FeMC in P3P... that thing drat near shook me to my core. Not only does it show how much Junpei legitimately cares for your well-being (to the point where he beats the poo poo out of some creepy stalker for your sake), but... it was like looking at myself. Looking at a person who’s barely lived their life at all, trying to just live in the moment without a care in the world and not doing anything to better themselves. Realizing that if someone like him could get his act together, improve his grades, and try to be a better person to the people closest to him... that maybe I could be someone like that, too. There’s still so much for me to do to get to a place where I can make the best use of my time, but seeing a guy like Junpei go through the same things I am and finding his answers inspires hope within me. I really didn’t think I would love Junpei to this extent before I began this project, but it’s hard to imagine him in any other spot on this list but here. He’s fun when he needs to be, realistic when he’s not feeling the fun, and he grows and changes in such a natural and beautiful way. He goes from being a complete show-off who doesn’t take much seriously, to one of the most dependable members of the team. Even in The Answer when like half the cast acts like their development never happened, Junpei sticks to what he’s learned the whole time and never once deviates from what he learned about life from Chidori. I doubt there are many people who feel the same as me, but I would not hesitate to call him one of the most realized and well-defined characters in the Persona series. Also, him being a little league coach in Ultimax is cute and a natural fit for him. Question: What's the best example of character development that you can think of? Alf's 1st Favorite Character Teaser: *gasp* The enemy! ==== Game #2: Super Smash Bros. Brawl ”Audi famam, illius...”  Released: Jan. 31st, 2008 Synopsis: The third installment of the acclaimed fighting series, Super Smash Bros. Brawl comes with more content than ever before in Smash Bros. history! Play as new third-party characters, construct your own unique stages, or take part in a brand new story mode and thwart the twisted machinations of the Subspace Army in Subspace Emissary! Chosen Music: Main Theme --- Super Smash Bros. Brawl is a game that I associate with some of my happiest memories. The first time I laid eyes on the game was back in middle school, when the first trailer landed onto the internet and showcased all-new content and characters. I remember feverishly trying to get the trailer to load and managing to piecemeal enough of it together as it was loading, and every reveal threw me for the biggest loop. I saw a lot of familiar faces and some I had never seen before, one of which being the very first third-party character to join the series and catching literally everyone by surprise. To this day, it’s still the greatest trailer that’s ever been made for a Smash Bros. game, and probably one of the best video game trailers of all time, for how it surprised us, got us hype, and effortlessly managed to capture everything that made the series great. Little did I know that that trailer was only the beginning, and the following year I would be glued to the biggest source of hype generation for a video game to ever exist on planet Earth: the Smash Bros. Dojo. There’s really no other way for me to describe just how much of a juggernaut the Smash Dojo was in terms of marketing; the simple process of doling out updates on a Monday-Friday schedule was just pre genius. Not only were we learning new things about the game itself, but every piece of new information that we’d never seen before was enough to get everyone going. Usually an update would include a really cool new feature (like a new musical arrangement or an Assist Trophy), other times it would be as simple as explaining gameplay mechanics, and sometimes we wouldn’t even know what we were looking at (I couldn’t tell you how shocked and fascinated I was by the update that would lead into the Subspace Emissary reveal). And of course, every time a new character got revealed for the roster, all of our collective socks would instantly get blown off, and our hype levels most definitely reached critical mass with the reveal of Sonic (I had to stop myself from screaming and waking up my parents when I saw that update). It was a magical time where anything was possible and you could learn all the nitty gritty details about every new feature in the game (which I wish Smash 4’s Daily Picture thing could have done nearly half as well). Then the game actually came out and public opinion of it was and continues to be divided as hell (and is arguably the reason why the Smash community has been divided ever since it came out). And I will freely admit to saying that Brawl isn’t without its problems; the revamped physics making everything slower is something I actually favor, but it’s not hard to see why Melee fans hate how slow it is and how often tripping happens. I will also admit that some of the content that’s jam-packed into the game isn’t really up to snuff, like how the Subspace Emissary ends up being a slightly worse Kirby game, or how woefully underdeveloped the stage maker tools are. There’s a lot to unpack over what Brawl does right and what it does wrong, and I can’t really fault anyone for ending up being disappointed with the final product. But whenever I played Brawl back in the day, I couldn’t help but be completely enamored by it. There aren’t many games that can claim to have as much content as Brawl does (and even fewer in the case of Smash for Wii U), and regardless of the overall quality or how well it all meshes together, I loved every single thing about it. I loved Subspace Emissary for bringing all these classic and lovable Nintendo characters together, compensating for the weak story with some incredible moments and team-ups, and making me realize how fuckin’ awesome crossover stories could be. I loved all the fanservice they were able to cram in, from the Assist Trophies and Stickers reaching into the deepest parts of Nintendo’s history, to the music covering such a wide range of memorable Nintendo songs, and even making the third-parties feel like a true part of the experience. I earnestly love and appreciate how ambitious it was in becoming the ultimate celebration of Nintendo’s entire history up to that point, and I’ve got nothing but respect for Sakurai and his team for giving it their all and making a Smash Bros. game that had something for everyone. Perhaps the most important reason why I love Brawl, though, was how it got me to meet and connect with people in a way no other game had done before, primarily through online. Playing the game on my own was great fun in and of itself, but around the time it came out, I didn’t have a whole lot of people in real life to play it with. Online, however, I was part of an active community of people, some familiar and some not, and Brawl was the biggest thing I could think of that allowed me to connect with those people. I loved those days of playing with people just for fun, or competing against each other in online tournaments, because either way I would be playing with people and growing ever closer to them as a result. Then in real life, my skill in the game was what gave me the confidence to enter tournaments for Smash Bros. on an occasional basis, either through conventions or whenever an event was being hosted somewhere locally. I never did manage to be all that successful in these small-town tournaments, but getting the chance to play the game with more people that also loved the game is something I’ll treasure forever. Super Smash Bros. Brawl is not a perfect game by any means, but the time at which it came out could not have been more perfect for me. It’s a game that got me to have a deeper appreciation for Nintendo and video games in general, and I hardly think I’d be as much of a Nintendo fan without it. It got me interacting with more people than ever before, some of which went on to be my closest friends, while other people I frequently played with made me feel like a part of a good community. And even beyond all that, there’s just so much love and care put into delivering an absolutely jam-packed Smash Bros. game that it’s hard for me to feel any real disappointment with it in the end. I’ll always love Smash Bros. and I’m always looking forward to where the series goes next, but I know that in my heart of hearts, nothing can replace the influence that Brawl had on my life. Question: Which game got you to really appreciate video games in your life? Alf's 1st Favorite Game Teaser: It matters not who you are... Death awaits you.
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Jul 6, 2017 21:55
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How come you haven't posted any screenshots of any of these games? Like if anyone else might be interested in it would be cool to know what they looked like or whatever
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Jul 7, 2017 09:52
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Character #1: Fuuka Yamagishi “I read in a book that fear is an emotion we learned to keep us away from danger. But I don’t think that you can truly live... if you’re always running away from danger because you’re afraid. By facing our fears, we feel alive...”           First Appearance: Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 (July 13th, 2006) Bio: A timid, shy girl attending Gekkoukan High School with an interest in technology, Fuuka’s reserved nature makes her an easy target for bullies. She eventually finds herself joining up with SEES, and although she isn’t directly involved in combat, she does whatever she can to ensure the survival of her squad mates. --- I have always been afraid of others. I don’t know when it started or how it got to this point, but sometime in my childhood I began talking to people less and less. Whether or not it was because of my disorder I couldn’t say, but over time I would spend less time with others, leading to several points in my life where I was barely interacting with anyone. Something about the idea of communicating with other people or people I had never known before either didn’t interest me or just... scared me. It’s always been hard for me to know how meeting a new person will go, or how their opinion of me changes over the passage of time. Sometimes I worry over the smallest things that happen in interacting with others and I get immensely scared over what they think of me after I make a mistake. I think the moment where I realized my social anxiety was my biggest obstacle was when I was in the middle of making this project. Before, I had thought that I was simply scared to think about the future and what happens after death, but that pales in comparison to how scared I am of other people. In a group setting, I worry about saying the wrong thing or getting caught in an argument between friends. In places with large crowds, I’m usually okay with blocking out their presence, but sometimes it gets to a point where all the noise and chatter gets to be too much for me, leading to me wanting to leave wherever I am just to escape. It’s hard to know when I can deal with it and when I can’t because it fluctuates a lot for me, but most of the time I’d rather be in a quiet setting than in a place with a lot of people and a lot of noise. The worst part about my social anxiety, however, is how lonely it makes me feel. There have been many different chances I could have taken, be it taking up a new opportunity or growing close to someone special, that slipped through my fingers because of my anxiety. I never know if I’ll end up being an annoyance to them, or if it becomes a bad decision for me to talk with them in the first place, so it usually results in me stonewalling myself away from those chances to avoid getting hurt. But even then, it hurts to know that I let these chances slip away because I am just so scared of how unpredictable human nature is, and even around people who I know are good, sometimes I still feel overwhelmed and need the space for myself. So I keep my real world interactions to a minimum, and all it does is make myself feel isolated and... alone. Maybe that’s why I feel such a connection with Fuuka. Fuuka is a character that feels just like me; shy, reserved, mostly keeps to themselves to avoid any form of conflict with others. Naturally, this makes her a target when a particularly nasty bully traps her in a locker, which inadvertently leaves her trapped inside Tartarus during the Dark Hour. This draws the attention of SEES, who decide to mount a rescue operation on a night of a Full Moon to rescue Fuuka from the labyrinthine halls of this towering dungeon. Then, when the Full Moon Shadows appear and prove to be too much for their current navigator to handle, Fuuka suddenly awakens to her power and acquires a Persona of her own, which happens to be perfect for navigation purposes. Following the subsequent defeat of the Full Moon Shadows, she decides to move into the same dorm as SEES, where she proceeds to help them with their Shadow hunting escapades as their new navigator. And... that’s it. There’s not much else that goes on with Fuuka, and she barely has any real connection to the story overall; she ends up just tagging along for the remainder of the game doing her navigation thing. It seems pretty odd for me to like a character that doesn’t seem to have anything going on with them, and in any other case, I probably wouldn’t have paid much attention to her. But all of that changed when I went through her S.Link. I earnestly had no idea what to expect when I started to pursue her S.Link, and I didn’t have a lot of answers from my group of friends either. Just about everyone I spoke to that knew Persona 3 told me not to waste my time with her and pursue other options instead. But of course, I wanted to go against the grain a little bit and do her S.Link on my own terms, going through the trouble of maxing out my Courage just in time for the operation to save Fuuka. Once the operation was a success and I managed to join the music club, I found myself going through Fuuka’s S.Link as soon as I could, where I was treated to a nice S.Link about helping Fuuka overcome her anxieties with cooking. Somewhere along the line, however, the S.Link became something more than just me helping her to give the confidence she needed; it started becoming a way for me to gain confidence as well. That moment where I tried to pass off the help I gave her as nothing special, only for her to remind me that I taught her something important... that was a bit of a breakthrough for me. It was a simple but effective reminder of how much influence a person can have on someone, and it helped me to earnestly appreciate the time I was spending with Fuuka. So I hung out with her even more, listening to what she had to say, listening to all her worries and anxieties and all the troubles she’s gone through. Helping someone who seemed so similar to me was a good way to reflect on myself and realize that we weren’t so different after all. Then, I reached the end of her S.Link and she opened her heart to me in a way that I’ll never forget. She confessed that she always used to quit everything that she started, and that she couldn’t believe in her own future because of that. At the time, I was worried about my own future and where I would go, so that statement left me staggered and had me mulling over what she said for the rest of the time that I played Persona 3. I had never thought that I was unhappy with where I was in my life, but... maybe what Fuuka said did ring true to me. Maybe I wasn’t really happy doing what I was currently doing, and maybe I could benefit from doing something to give myself a better future. In the years that followed after that, my life went in a direction I couldn’t even imagine. I ended up getting a job that I enjoyed and that paid more, but I ended up losing the job after a year of working with them. I started getting into the classes I wanted to take, but after a really intense period of severe loathing for everything that those classes entailed, I decided that what I wanted to do in life just wasn’t for me. I finally managed to graduate from college after a rough period of putting together my Capstone project (while getting started on this project near the end of the semester too), but I don’t know if the degree I have will even help me in the long run. Yet somehow, despite whatever anxieties I have for the future, I’m not as scared about what comes next as I once was before, and I have Fuuka to thank for helping me through those troubling times of going through college. But while I figured out my own worries for the future, the issue of my anxiety still remains. I’m better at socializing than I once was, but the though of meeting new people still scares me somewhat. I enjoy the time I spend with others and continually enjoy their company, but sometimes I still have doubts about what they think of me overall. I still wonder if I’m the best person I can be, or if I can handle being on my own amidst a sea of strangers, or even if I can do okay with hanging around people that I do know. In my darkest moments, I often wonder if I’m just doomed to live on my own, not having someone to share the joy of life with, or even just dying alone, all because I’m too scared to interact with people. But when I look at Fuuka, and I remember the time I spent with her to build up her confidence and open her heart... maybe the same could happen to me, too. There is nothing about Fuuka that I don’t relate to, from the way she keeps herself indoors, to the way she doesn’t like to speak about her family life, to how apprehensive she is to even try new things, to all the different worries and anxieties she keeps bottled up inside. I feel like all the time I spent with Fuuka and all the thinking over what she had to say was instrumental to helping me realize all this stuff about myself. How I also worry about interacting with other people and looking forward to the future just as much as she does. Her presence in my life has been a constant reminder that if I could help her to step towards the future with confidence and let go of her fear of others... then maybe I could benefit from doing the same as well. Fuuka isn’t a character that’s going to appeal to a lot of people, especially when she has so little to her or how barely involved she is within the context of Persona 3. But for helping me to realize so much about myself, and for helping to give me the confidence I needed... I don’t think I could call anyone else my favorite video game character but Fuuka Yamagishi. Question: What are your biggest fears and anxieties? ====  January 31st, 2014. It was a precarious time in my life: I had transferred universities halfway into my third year in college, settling back in with my parents after two and a half years studying in another part of the state. I had just purchased a used PlayStation 3 three weeks ago, both to take advantage of an online order being cancelled and to celebrate getting my driver’s license. My new school was still taking some getting used to (particularly the mountain of catching up I had to do in Japanese), but I was cautiously optimistic, and having a new system to play new games on was one way to help me through these times. There was one game in particular that had caught my interest at that very moment. It was a game dearly beloved by a large group of friends I frequently hung around (and still do to this day). It was a game that, while not as beloved as its successor, was still held in high regard by these friends. It was a game that had been poured over countless times by these friends in the past, for research in forum games or just because they really liked the characters and story. I was somewhat familiar with this game, having watched someone from this group streaming it a number of times back in 2013. I knew about how it handled every day life through school and forming connections with people, while blending it near seamlessly with darker fantasy elements. I was even intensely aware of how this game’s successor had a gigantic impact on someone from this group of friends, to the point where it had saved their soul and improved them as a human being just from playing it. But it wasn’t just him; the series from which this game and its successor came from was directly responsible for a number of people that I happened to know finding the will to better themselves, due to the messages imparted to them from these experiences. And now that I had the means to dive into that game and that series to see what all the fuss was about, it was an opportunity that I couldn’t say no to. This is the story of what happened after that. This is the story of my yearlong experience with that game from the moment I downloaded it onto my PS3. This is the story of how, over the course of the experience, I grew to understand what made that game and the game after it so beloved by my friends. This is the story of how I came to discover how much the game actually meant to me years later, and how it became my favorite video game of all time. This is the story of my experience with Persona 3.  The reason why it had taken so long for me to finish Persona 3 in the first place was due to a variety of reasons. The first such reason was that school was especially trying during this period, often giving me 4-5 classes to juggle per semester and keeping me away from video games most of the time. Secondly, my job situation had gone from me working roughly two days a week at my mom’s place to getting a full-time job at a Kroger immediately after school was out for the summer (which of course then became part-time work on the weekends during my next semester at school). Add to that many other things like new games coming out, my own ongoing projects, obligations with other friends, and general life mishaps and it was a miracle that I managed to even beat Persona 3 before the year was over. But every time I did play it, it would suck me right in. I would learn so much about the characters and the setting, what time to catch people for Social Links, what to say to them to bond closer to them, what to do to avoid getting on their bad side, and how I could form more connections with more people. Even within a month or two after playing the game, I could feel the effect it was having on me as I conversed with people outside of the game; even if I never finished it, its sub-goal of getting me to interact with other people more was already working as intended.  Then came the dungeon crawling itself; going through them was usually a slog, but battles were really strong. Prior to playing it, my only experience with the Shin Megami Tensei series was playing SMTIV on the 3DS, so I was well prepared for a brutal “kill or be killed” style of turn-based combat. But I actually found the combat in Persona to be a lot more fun; the protagonist was endlessly customizable with various weapons and Personas to obtain, and the All-Out Attack mechanic was a brilliant way to reward going straight for weaknesses and knocking all the enemies down. At its worst, this would usually turn each encounter into a game of weakness sniping and make the novelty wear off fast. But in some of the more creative fights (usually bosses), it challenged you to work around specific gimmicks until you were in a good position to go all-out. Still kinda wish you had control over your party members, but that represents a part of the game that I’ll get to in a bit. During the entire year that I played through Persona 3, I would continually make new discoveries about myself and other people. I discovered the deep connections some of my friends had with some of the other characters in the game (one friend in particular could relate really well to Kaz’s S. Link). I pursued the options that many had considered to be among the best in the game while making my own discoveries along the way. I learned, I grew, I was with the friends I had made through the good times and the bad, and especially when everything seemed its bleakest. I made as many people as I could happy, and it was through these bonds that I was able to overcome the unbearable darkness. And once I had finally finished the game on December 17th, 2014, after all the work I put into it and all the time I had spent with the game... I hadn’t immediately recognized the worth of the game. I thought it was an exceptionally well-made game and I could see why people loved it so much, but for some reason at that moment, I couldn’t think much else of it beyond that. Funny how that just tends to happen sometimes.  The following year, when I started playing through Persona 4, I couldn’t help but think back on my time with Persona 3. It wasn’t that Persona 4 was a bad game or anything - far from it, in fact - but I slowly started to realize what made Persona 3 so special. I thought about the themes of the game, what it was going for, and how it stuck the landing on all of it nearly perfectly. I thought about one character in particular that I identified so strongly with that they became my all-time favorite video game character (that was back in February of 2015). It was enough for me to put the game in my list of all-time favorite video games, though it was still at #3 just below Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Kid Icarus: Uprising. So now, what happened to bring this game to this position? What conclusion could I have reached to declare this game my absolute favorite game? What answer have I found that explains what this game is about and why I love it so much all in one sentence? After extensively mulling over my thoughts on Persona 3 after finishing it and while struggling to complete this project, the answer I have found is this: Persona 3 is a game about life.  People will often tell you that you’re in control of your own destiny, but for some of us, it isn’t like that. Life is crazy, turbulent, unpredictable, and seemingly random at times, forcing you to bear the brunt of whatever it brings you. You go through events and circumstances that you weren’t even prepared for, misfortunes that you couldn’t have seen coming, and tragedies that seemed designed to make your life miserable. And the absolute worst feeling is when you feel like you have no control over how these events occur or what you can do to avoid a crisis; sometimes you’re just expected to take these incidents on the chin and move on with your own existence. It sucks and it’s incredibly unfair. But that’s life. Dealing with other people is its own exercise in frustration. Some human beings out there don’t want to listen to what you have to say, being so stuck in their own way of thinking that they block out all other reason. There are those who hate others just for being different, and will gladly take the chance to ruin their reputation just for their own satisfaction. Attempting to understand and connect with someone you do know can fluctuate wildly from “easy” to “nearly impossible,” because we are all so different from each other, and no matter how hard we try, we can’t possibly understand absolutely everything about anyone. And the reality is that no matter how much you say you don’t want to be around people, being completely alone in the world is the worst situation to be in by far. It’s a sobering thing to know. But that’s life. There always things in life that we don’t want to do. At best, it’s just a tedious slog; at worst, it’s something that you don’t think you’ll ever make it through. Whenever you do something you’re not looking forward to, be it work, or school, or a hangout you begrudgingly accepted an invitation to, all you can do is act naturally and hope that it all passes soon. It doesn’t help when outside sources of stress come in to make the situation worse than it needs to be, like people being uncooperative, or a bug making you feel sick, or a situation from a while back rearing its ugly head to haunt you at every turn. It’s ugly and stressful having to do the things we don’t want to do day in and day out. But that’s life.  And yet, the biggest paradox to the ugliness and futility of life is how beautiful it is. Even if you’re not ultimately in control of where you end up, having a goal to work towards keeps you motivated and looking forward to the next big thing, all while you’re improving yourself as time passes. Even if some people can be aggravating to deal with, it’s the people that you stick with the most that end up becoming your most long-lasting friends; the kind that you laugh with, cry with, and bear the burdens of life together with to make everything more worthwhile. Even if you don’t want to do things like work or school, going through with them may give you the needs to survive, and learning from these experiences will better prepare you for the future. It’s still not a perfect solution and it’s not guaranteed to work out for everyone, but the joy of life comes from continually improving yourself and your relationship with others, helping one another through the trials and tribulations of life, and sharing experiences that will last a lifetime. In that sense, I can consider Persona 3 the ultimate celebration of life itself. But Persona 3 is also a game about death.  No matter who you are, or what you’ve done in life, death is inevitable to everything and everyone. It can happen when you’re old and frail, dying of natural causes when your body finally gives out. It can happen when you’re young and a horrible accident takes you before your time. It can happen from a disease, either when you’re in your senior years or from a horrible disease destroying you when you’re not even an adult. It can happen when an individual willingly murders another human being and forever taints their soul with their victim’s blood. It can even happen when an individual sees no point in living anymore, throwing their life away by committing suicide. For many people, death is a horrible thing to think about. Whenever someone dies, that death is felt by someone out there; whether it’s just one person who cares or the entire world that cares, everyone mourns the loss of life. Desires and regrets bubble to the surface, making people wish they had spent one more day with them or had attempted to rebuild bridges that had been burnt down. The worst aspect about death is the painful loneliness that comes with never being able to see the dead again, no matter how much you miss them. And the fact that there is not one unified idea in all of human history on what happens to us after death is far too terrifying to even think about. And the absolute scariest part about death is that no one knows when it comes or who it comes to. It could happen to you or someone you know, it could be decades down the line or within this very year, but no matter what, there is no escaping it. All that awaits us is the cold grip of death. So why speak about death when there’s no joy in discussing it? Why talk about something so horrible that it seems like there’s nothing to be gained from talking about it? Because death is part of life.  We live our lives because we want to make the most of them before we die. We want to take those precious few moments that we have on this earth to fulfill ourselves in any way we can before our time is up. We earnestly want to make a difference in the lives of others, whether it’s by supporting them in their time of need, or making things that speak to people and draw them together. We want to do whatever we can to make life better, for either a few people or a lot of people, and most importantly, for ourselves as well. Life itself is harsh and unforgiving with only death awaiting us, but if we can make the most of it through the things we do and the people we connect with, then we may be able to pass on with no regrets.  This is the ultimate lesson of Persona 3, and the one that stuck out to me the most. I couldn’t begin to tell you how many long nights and endless work hours led me to this conclusion, but after everything I’ve learned about myself through this project, it was the answer that made the most sense to me. Persona 3 was a game that taught me about the joy of life and encouraged me to take a more active role in connecting with other people. It taught me about the nature of death, how to best cope with it, and how to support those who were grieving over losing someone to death or how to deal with the looming specter of death. And, perhaps most importantly, it allowed me to come to terms with myself. It’s helped me to acknowledge my own fears and worries over the future and my own life. It’s helped me to realize my own problems with anxiety, and what I can do to help fix that. It’s helped me to recognize that no one man is an island, how everyone has their own set of worries and anxieties, and how being with friends and encouraging them allows us to bring out the best in them. And it’s helped me realize the importance of just... living out my own life. And for that reason alone, for everything it has taught me and how much of an effect it’s had on me, it’s only right for me to say that my favorite video game of all time is... Game #1: Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 “Death is not a hunter unbeknownst to its prey. One is always aware that it lies in wait. Though life is merely a journey to the grave, it must not be undertaken without hope. Only then will a traveler's story live on, cherished by those who bid him farewell.”  Released: July 13th, 2006 Synopsis: A young, teenaged orphan transfers to Gekkoukan High School for the start of a new year only to discover the Dark Hour, a period of time between one day and the next, where malicious Shadows roam. When they awaken to a newly discovered ability called Persona, they join other students with the same abilities in exploring Tartarus, a mysterious tower that appears in place of their high school during the Dark Hour. Chosen Music: Memories of You Question: Are you satisfied with your life up to this point?
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Jul 8, 2017 19:21
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This was fun to follow thank you for doing it
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Jul 8, 2017 19:53
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Alfalfa The Roach posted:Question: Are you satisfied with your life up to this point? Nah.
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Jul 8, 2017 19:54
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No Bloodborne? Wtf
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Jul 8, 2017 20:02
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This was a really neat thread. Props to you for doing this.
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Jul 8, 2017 20:44
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Help Im Alive posted:This was fun to follow thank you for doing it I clicked it expecting a laugh, but quite enjoyed this.
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Jul 8, 2017 21:10
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I read all these, great thread. My #1 character of all time is the eagle in Ninja Gaiden for the NES. You know the one.
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Jul 8, 2017 22:48
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