gen does Soul Nomad - gen ichida vs. the world (eaters)

so in lieu of the radio silence last month, aaaaand me getting kind of salty about the traffic crap i had to deal with in the last post, i think it's time for a bit of fun this summer.

things on my end seemed to have slowed down, so outside of practicing traditional drawing stuff and the frequent twitter activity, not a whole lot's been going on lately. and since i'd rather not sit here and do nothing while waiting for stuff like my birthday on July 8, Steam's summer sale, and Starbound's soon-ish 1.0 release, let's get things trucking on here again.

after mulling out how might probably roll with it, i'll be starting the Soul Nomad playthrough fairly soon. mostly will be doing it as a post-play commentary writeup since writing my thoughts on here while i play would end up being a bit cumbersome. i will be taking photos and even livetweeting bits on my twitter, but the more wordy thoughts will be reserved for after play sessions.

as for the playthrough itself, i'll be going in semi-blind. i have seen Soul Nomad's cutscenes a few times in the past, so i'm aware what goes on in the story. as far as gameplay goes, i only have a vague idea of how it works from reading the manual and bits of the strategy guide, and it's a radical change from Disgaea's gameplay. so yeah, settling into SN's gameplay will take some time.

also, don't expect entries to pop up too frequently on here. pretty sure you guys have come to expect it, but it takes a while for me to type this stuff out on here. though, for the impatient folks, you can check out my twitter for my less-than-140-characters-commentary and lowres screencaps while i play the game. amongst other things.

so yeah, pretty much how things will be going for the playthrough, but of course i can't end it off here. so what the heck is this game all about, and why'd i choose to play it?

gen's daily life - the dream is real

so last night i managed to finish my collection of sixth-generation consoles: i finally now own a Dreamcast.

i did say i had the famous 6th-gen trinity of the PS2, classic Xbox, and Gamecube (via Wii's native GC emulation), but i've been meaning to get Sega's console swansong for quite some time. why? because it's got a solid library for its time, it's the very first console of the sixth generation prior to the PS2, and it still has a cult following and devoted modding fanbase to this day.

... okay, i mostly wanted one to play Power Stone 2 after playing it at Anime Boston last year. also Jet Set Radio. and i have a revision 1 console too, so i can run homebrews and bootleg stuff on it.

but yeah, gushing aside, it's a little interesting piece of gaming history and Sega's past in the console market. there's also a good deal of decent games for the system like Shenmue and Sonic Adventure, and they're pretty cheap at around 30-50 dollars depending on where you're looking. got mine for 35: 30 for the console/cords/controllers themselves, 5 for the VMU. if you want to run homebrew/bootleg games on it, make sure the revision number is either 0 or 1; revision 2 DCs won't run bootleg discs.

while i don't have any Dreamcast games yet, i'm planning on doing some reviews of some in the future, so that's something to expect.

meanwhile, i think i'm done with console collecting for a while. a probably-10-years-long while.

probably good that i don't have any incentive to get a PS3 or PS4 or Xbox One or whatever

curiousities - The Chronicles of Jaruu Tenk

bit of a short one compared to last time, but a interesting gem nonetheless.

The Chronicles of Jaruu Tenk was developed by John Passfield and Steve Stamatiadis and released in 1999 by Gee Whiz! Entertainment. according to the help file, the game is a "screen opera"; basically a interactive virtual environment that also doubles as a screensaver if you so wish.

so yeah, it's not a "game" in the general sense of the world; there's no major goals or long-term objectives. the scale's also rather small, with it set in the titular Jaruu Tenk's house, but there are quite a few things about Chronicles that are pretty interesting for its time.

set in the world of Kombara on the island of Bloofen Jut, Jaruu works as an Observer, keeping track of volcanic activity in the region and keeping an eye out for any threats. as a visitor to the island, you can explore around Jaruu's house, talk to him and his friends, read up on the lore of Kombara, and even play games around the house with Jaruu.

gen recs - Conker's Bad Fur Day

been meaning to do an actual game recommendation for a while. it'd kind of be a stretch to say these are reviews; i find it hard to rate things on a 1-5 scale, so i just say things from my own experiences and say whether i like it or not. whether you want to check these things out is up to you.

quite a lot of video games have been described as an "experience"; to me, an "experience" is something you never really forget, whether in real life or video games. for video games, what people view as an experience really depends on who you ask; people fondly look upon platformers like Spyro and Banjo-Kazooie for their colorful worlds and cast, adventure/RPGs like Final Fantasy 7 and Zelda: Ocarina of Time for their epic scale and story, and games like Doom and Mortal Kombat for being those types of games that you played when your parents weren't around to scold you for playing violent stuff like that (or if you were particularly unlucky, you got scolded for playing them anyway).

well, it'd probably be a stretch to call Conker's Bad Fur Day as epic a story as FF7, but it's definitely got some colorful characters that also tend to use equally-as-colorful language. alongside some other things that parents would probably yell at their kids for seeing/hearing. and yet said kids still played it anyway because it had a cartoony squirrel as a playable character. also bathroom jokes. how they managed to get ahold of copies of the game is a mystery, though probably not one that's too lost to time if we have 12-year-olds playing Call of Duty and GTA and all that.

so while i work on the next segment of my Disgaea 1 manga readthrough, why don't we give this game a bit of a look-at? though keep in mind, this game is M-rated for a reason, and the warnings on both the ESRB rating and the box itself will remind you of that (front cover/back cover ; images courtesy of DKvine).

so yeah, unless cursing, cartoony bloody violence, sexual themes, and poop jokes are your bag, steer clear for the now.