Though the game was limited by the engine and tech of its time, I still think DAO is one of the greatest RPGs of all time in terms of worldbuilding and character writing. Whenever I think of the genre of classic dark fantasy, I picture these areas in Ferelden.
Just the amount of detail on this unique armor set is incredible, but I also love the mix of leather, chainmail and heavier plate metal.
I hear a lot of Dragon Age fans on here saying that Veilguard is a bad Dragon Age game but it would be good enough on its own, and unfortunately I don’t think that’s true. I’d say the only real reason why people bought the game was because of the Dragon Age title
As a classic video game fan and a Critical Role fan, this makes me happy
I loved playing VtM: Bloodlines back in the day, and it still holds up well as a gaming classic, but Blood of the Dawnwalker is what I always dreamed a modern vampire RPG could be. Just the fact that you can play a pacifist run and not drain anyone, or go full vampire and suck the blood of everyone you come across, important to the plot or no, means this game does what most open-world RPGs can't.
Also the doomsday clock that is the main questline is much less of a concern when you realize you have 30 days to get stuff done, even if you have to let go of a few sidequests here and there. Personally, I like having something there to add a bit of pressure on the player, makes the stakes seem much higher and more personal. Too many games like Baldur's Gate 3 and Cyberpunk (much as I love those games) impose stakes, but give too much freedom to the player, and after awhile it feels like the issue at hand is not as big of a problem as it was made out to be.
Edit: I will say, as someone who has an older computer, it did take some modding and hard tweaking to get the game to run properly. I’d keep that in mind before buying; it’s a very graphics-intensive game and not very well optimized like all Unreal Engine 5 games have been.
I didn’t realize as much the first time I read through the series, but Theodora was one of Darrow’s first followers. She was willing to help him before he even recruited Ragnar, before all the other Sons of Ares and low colors joined his cause. She deserved better.
Just on my annual re-watch of the show recently, and this flashback during the season 1 finale fight with Nolan and Mark made me more emotional than before. I think knowing where the show goes now and understanding the themes/tone of Invincible, this scene IMO best encapsulates all of that.
This scene was maybe one of the most horror-inducing sequences in LoK or TLA, loved how mysterious and scary Amon was (before we found out he was essentially just a super-powered waterbending prodigy).
Since the Avatar Aang movie came out, I’ve been feeling like we need more standalone films about the other members of his group during that early Republic City Era, and I’m betting I’m not the only one. I personally would love to see an adult Toph movie, about her forming the Republic City police force and becoming chief of police in the city.
I’m personally so tired of modern adaptations of old books/comics/games/cartoons and even older films constantly making fun of the source material of the movie they’re adapting. I think sometimes if used sparingly, it can work, as it does in the old James Gunn Guardians of the Galaxy films or parody films like Galaxy Quest or Spaceballs, but it feels sometimes like a lot of modern writers really dislike the source material and write in very specific jokes just to show how dumb things in the original work are. The jokes are usually not very well thought-out and often come across as more mean-spirited and lazy than actually enhancing the adaptation.
I just recently watched the newest Masters of the Universe film, and while I’m not the biggest fan of the original “He-Man” cartoons (didn’t grow up in the 80s) I still felt like the constant jokes about characters and character names felt a bit lowbrow, not to mention annoying. Every time Fisto was on screen, you can be sure there was a joke about how his name was Fisto and how he liked to “fist people”. It was maybe sort of humorous the first time, but after the third wisecrack, it was just tired. There were elements of the film that were well done in my opinion, but the overuse of this trope made watching a bit of a chore by the end of the movie.
I was re-playing the Telltale Batman series recently (one of my favorite OG Telltale games) and forgot that both Laura and Erin voiced the two most prominent female characters in the game. You can even romance Selina like you do Invisigal, convincing her to leave a life of crime and reform as a reluctant hero, and although you can’t romance Vicki (for obvious story reasons) Bruce Wayne does have the opportunity to flirt with her a few times. Pretty fun coincidence
For me, the greatest video game music is still the OST from Majora's Mask, as it hits on so many different levels. On the surface and when first listening to a few of the more basic overworld tracks (like the Clocktown or Termina Field themes), it feels very standard Zelda, with the motifs and melodies that you'd expect from such a game. But then you start listening to the Clocktown theme as it progresses from Day 2 to Day 3, and you can begin to hear the depth of the music. The Day 2 Clocktown motif is similar to the Day 1 theme, but it's far more restrained and much smaller in sound, with only a few woodwinds and string instruments utilized. The Day 3 theme is entirely different; you can still hear the original motif playing, but there's an added undercurrent of menace and urgency, showing that time is almost up, and the cheery indifference to everything going on is nothing but a facade against the coming apocalypse. The Final Hours theme, which plays as the moon finally falls on Termina, is a theme completely devoid of hope or joy, and instead is a mournful dirge or requiem that sounds the end of the world, the utter desolation and despair of the realization that the end is nigh.
There are a few other themes in the game that I think also show that depth, like the Oath to Order, which is a very solemn and haunting track that exemplifies the desperation to protect a world doomed to destruction, or the small mysterious motif that plays during the intro of the game and in the very finale, as Link leaves Termina and a father mourns the fate of his child. For a Zelda game and a Nintendo title, Majora's Mask was very mature and handled a lot of darker themes than normal, and I think the music was a big part of that.
Honorable Mentions:
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - That was one of the first big open-world RPGs I ever played, and the music was absolutely enchanting and magical in the best way, drawing me deeper into that fantasy world with just a few notes from the track "Harvest Dawn".
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Probably one of the best modern fantasy games made in the last few years, and the soundtrack is excellent in setting the mood of a violent, more gritty grimdark fantasy world than many are probably accustomed to. The OST for the Blood and Wine DLC is great too - it sets itself apart from the rest of the game by establishing a lighter and much more high fantasy tone that fits the setting.