u/ririaliali

my pookie <3

template link: https://grids.fun/t/about-me-video-game-characters-jnvpz

Favorite Character: Goro Majima (Yakuza)

Protagonist: Zagreus (Hades)

Antagonist: Renoir (Expedition 33)

Major NPC: Marina (Splatoon)

Minor NPC: Chucksters (Super Mario Sunshine)

Merchant/Shopkeeper: Shakra (Silksong)

Comic Relief: Rouxls Kaard (DELTARUNE)

Fav RPG Party: Fun Gang (DELTARUNE)

Fav Boss Fight: Lady Ethereal (Nine Sols)

Rival: Lace (Silksong)

Fav Visual Design: Tenna (DELTARUNE)

Fav Voice: Chronos (Hades II)

Fav Theme Song: Renoir - “Une vie à t’aimer” (Expedition 33)

Best Written: Kazuma Kiryu (Yakuza)

Fav Pokémon: Hisuian Zorua

this list sure makes it look like i’ve played like 3 games ever but i have biases 💀

What games did you think had a disproportionate amount of hype behind them, but ended up actually matching or exceeding it when you played them?

1. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

The way people had discussed this game as though it were the second coming of Christ meant that I obviously expected it to be good, but I never quite expected to experience one of the best stories within one of the most shockingly well-paced and satisfying RPGs I’d ever played. I still think that the glazing is a little much, to an extent — the combat loop can get a little ridiculous and one-note by the end and its level design can be a little bland — but it does what it sets out to do so incredibly well that those things hardly matter to me.

2. Sonic x Shadow Generations

I have never really been a big Sonic fan outside of playing the original Generations as a kid, and given how turbulent the quality of the games have been over the years, I half-expected that the reception of Shadow Generations might have just been heaping praise on a pretty good, competent 3D Sonic game after decades of relative mediocrity in that department. Turns out Shadow Generations is not merely “good for a Sonic game,” it’s just an incredibly fun platformer that has gotten me legitimately excited for the future of the Sonic franchise. It may be kind of a short game, but pretty much all of it was great across the board with no caveats.

1. Pharloom/Citadel of Song (Hollow Knight: Silksong)

I was already a huge fan of the first Hollow Knight and the world of Hallownest, but Team Cherry found so many new ways to contextualize game mechanics and tell the story of Pharloom through gameplay. Though there’s some controversy about the game’s difficulty, I respect that the team intentionally made parts of this game, like the tight rosary economy, complex enemy designs, and the entirety of Bilewater, rather unpleasant (at least on a first playthrough) to drive home how hostile the world is and how far it has fallen by making YOU feel the pain of living there.

2. All of Splatoon

I never expect that much in the way of complicated worldbuilding from Nintendo games, but I appreciate that literally everything in the Splatoon series is diegetic; fictional music artists wrote the OST, fictional brands manufacture and sponsor all your gear, and the multiplayer shooter gameplay is canonically a competitive sport based on wars from the past and the biggest part of Inkling culture. That doesn’t even include the single-player campaigns that flesh out the history of the Inklings, Octarians, and extinct humans that comprises the foundation of this world. Or Salmon Run, which is a shady illegal murder campaign against the Salmonids to harvest their golden eggs.

3. Cvstodia (Blasphemous)

This world feels like it was torn straight out of early Christian historical records and biblical stories all at once, despite the religion of the Grievous Miracle being “legally distinct Catholicism”. There is so much bizarre, off-putting nonsense that happens in the background lore of both games, curses upon people and locations that are so oddly specific in their causes, effects, and even numerology that they feel convincingly ripped from ancient sacred texts despite being totally original. Nearly every item you collect has the vibe of a relic from some obscure Catholic saint, not to mention that every item also has a dedicated lore description; some of these are pretty lengthy, and every one tells the story of the item or people/events related to them.

4. Kamurocho (Yakuza/Like a Dragon)

Despite being modeled after the real-life district of Kabukichō, this place has its own detailed history and story to tell. This is probably more of a byproduct of RGG Studio reusing this location in nearly every game, but Kamurocho changes in countless minute and massive ways throughout the series. Playing the games in chronological order (0-Infinite Wealth) lets you notice every shop that closes or opens, every change to the streets, and every shift in its culture; from its grimy but bustling vibe in 1988 to its cold gentrification by 2016, the place really grows up alongside Kiryu. The attention to detail is insane to the point that the entire plot of Yakuza 0 centers around the specific plot of land that will become the iconic Millennium Tower in the following games. Even better, Stranger Than Heaven is looking to flesh out the origins of the district and the Tojo Clan that held it in its grasp for so long.

ignore yakuza and silksong

1. Blasphemous
   - I don’t think I’ve ever been so blown away by a game’s art direction. Blasphemous separates itself from every other grimdark soulslike fantasy world by leaning so far into a specifically Spanish Catholic brand of horror, and being someone who grew up familiar with Catholic aesthetics and being into art history, this game’s art struck a chord like no other has for me.

2. Hollow Knight: Silksong
   - This goes for both Hollow Knight games; Team Cherry’s combination of simple yet memorable character designs with detailed, distinct environments and beautiful usage of color is a prime example for me of doing a HELL of a lot with a relatively simple idea. The fact that these games are set in ruined bug civilizations is never treated like a gimmick, and that goes a long way along with the game design to create some of the most immersive (and my personal favorite) games ever.

3. Have A Nice Death
   - The combination of the super muted Tim Burton-like color palette and comparatively super expressive character and effects animation make this game endlessly charming to me, even if I couldn’t care less about the story. I can be kind of a sucker for cartoon-spooky aesthetics, and the balance between cute and disturbing in this game is some of the best I’ve seen.

4. Pseudoregalia
   - I was born too late to have N64 nostalgia, but this game is what I imagine that feels like. The low-poly models, blurry textures, and choppy character animation make this game feel distinctly retro and dreamlike without compromising the gameplay feel at all; in fact, these are some of my favorite 3D platforming controls ever. I could waste away hours in this world and barely feel it.

5. Kirby’s Dream Land 3
   - While this is far from my favorite Kirby game, it definitely has my favorite aesthetic. The pastel colors and soft colored-pencil aesthetic are not only a super inspired choice for the limitations of SNES graphics, they also just fit the vibe of the Kirby series like nothing they’ve done before or since.

judge the list

Some of my picks:
- Dark Matter (Dream Land 2): A long fight in a somewhat janky game with erratic movement, barely-perceptible attack telegraphs, and very little room for error given that you only have 6 hit points; this one is iconic but hard for all the wrong reasons imo 💀

- Morpho Knight EX (Star Allies): One of the most aggressive bosses in the series who forces you to play way more defensively than usual due to his ridiculous damage output, but a fair and fun challenge that little else in Kirby can offer. Very stressful for the penultimate boss of Soul Melter EX, though.

- Dark Aeon Hero (Super Kirby Clash): Every later Kirby Clash boss has kind of obscenely high stats due to the action RPG-like structure of the game, so building a greater challenge upon the foundation of Galacta Knight, an already kind of tricky boss, was bound to be extremely difficult. I wish I could fight him in a more traditional Kirby game, but this fight is still very good.

- King D-Mind EX (TKCDX/Super Kirby Clash): Another very difficult Kirby Clash fight building off of an already-hard boss, this time Shadow Dedede from Triple Deluxe. The limited arena space really limits your options to deal with him, and the Clash games don’t support the same degree of invincibility frame abuse that the main series allows. The extra Dark Mind flavor involves even more fast screen-sweeping attacks than usual.

- Dark Mind (Amazing Mirror): Very long ever by the series’ modern final boss standard, and not particularly easy either. This will likely be an endurance test that you might need all the Kirbys present for.

- Rampaging Doomers (Return to Dream Land Deluxe): I did NOT expect these creatures to present as difficult a fight as they did; whenever they’re not doing their formation attacks, they fly around in patterns designed to leave the most explosive residue possible on the battlefield You absolutely have to pay attention to where you’re jumping and recognize patterns quickly just to avoid walking right into a stray hitbox.

- Meta Knight (Kirby’s Adventure): Though Meta Knight fights have kind of gotten routine at this point, the very first one still sticks out as particularly hard; he’s way more erratic and hyperactive in his movement compared to later entries, and given that you have to use the tiny-range Sword with very few hit points, contact damage is a legit threat here.

I don’t think I’ve seen any piece of fictional media that has even glanced at the potential that beatboxing has for characterization and artistic expression; though there’s a much more extensive story here and this is only one facet of Alicia’s character, it’s a little crazy that there’s almost no depictions of I know of that properly convey the depth and rigor and artistry that modern beatboxing can have.
It’s obviously relatively niche, but that’s so much untapped potential on the table 😭

1. NieR: Automata - A seemingly basic menu >!that serves as the final boss sequence in the 9S ending; genuinely one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen done with a pause menu.!<

2. Persona 5/Royal - Self-explanatory. Somehow it’s so detailed and animated with tons of high-contrast colors and inconsistent fonts that somehow never gets hard to read.

3. Balatro - Given that this game is nothing but UI, the devs did an amazing job making every action and number increasing feel positively addictive. It’s all in the small ways the cards float about and especially in the sound design.

4. Metroid Prime series - My other favorite diegetic UI; having all the necessary information displayed from inside Samus’ visor without obstructing the screen at all makes this one extremely immersive. It definitely helps that bright flashes from the Charge Shot and such let you see a reflection of Samus’ face.

tribute to my current favorite album