Just me and my thoughts

[humanallalive]

got lit on my bday, dissappointed in tha capitalization of information and the centralization of the internet oh yeah btw leaving tumblr, catch my name somewhere else idk

[humanallalive]

Working on a new project

Not too long ago an update for a particular game finally came out, and I've been waiting for it for about a year now, not because I really like the game, but in fact because I don't like it so much that I want it to at least receive a proper ending. Although I think this is the best update the game has ever got, judging by level design and plot, it wasn't the end of the story: the game is to be continued.

Even before the update I said to myself, that if this update won't be the final one, I will make a game myself, a game that doesn't repeat the mistakes that one made, a game that ends when it needs to. Which is why I'm starting work on a new game.

I'm already halfway done with writing the plot, I've got the final product in my head. Basically, a homeless dude, traveling around different cities looking to work for food and shelter, walks upon a small town. He then discovers that the town is preparing for a grand festival, where the citizens celebrate the positive changes the city has gone through and elect the new mayor. However, the people of this town only have one week to prepare for the festival. From there, this shit goes where you want it to go: no single linear story, fuckton of endings and crazy plot twists.

I'll keep posting about progress on the game, maybe even post some images. When a demo comes out, I'll definetelly post about it everywhere. Unfortunately the game reviews have to wait for now, cause I'll try really hard to focus primarily on the game.

[humanallalive]

About Yakuza Kiwami

A while ago I posted about Yakuza 0, which is an amazing game and it has inspired me to play other games in the Yakuza franchise. I wanted to play Yakuza Kiwami next, which is a remake of the Yakuza 1 for the PS1, because while playing Zero I got used to the graphics and the battle system, and it was on Game Pass. As far as my opinion goes, I think the game has it's ups and downs and I'd say that Zero was better, but Kiwami is still a great game.

The plot was really good, although it often went from not giving you any details about the story to flooding you with details and plot twists. And there were just too many characters that get introduced and then a couple chapters later they die(not to spoil anything), so the player doesn't really have time to get attached to them. If you haven't played Zero, then half the time you're just gonna sit there and say:"oh wow, a new character! wow he's cool and, oh, he died, ok..." Apart from that, Kiwami has many emotional, epic and overwhelming moments, being the criminal drama it is. Plus, I think that the main protagonist in Kiwami is better than the one in Zero. Also the cutscenes in Zero were better than the ones in Kiwami, not the contents of them but just the quality, and I know that they are just remade cutscenes from the original game, but still, the cutscenes in Zero were absolute cinematic masterpieces.

One thing that Yakuza Kiwami is better at than Yakuza 0 is side activities. I don't remember the total amount of substories, but it just felt like there were more than in Zero. Many substories even have voiced lines and even prerendered cutscenes, and the rewards can be really worth it. A great game mechanic that has been added is Majima Everywhere, and it always brings something good to the table: whether it's a tough battle out of nowhere or a ridiculous subquest or a fun minigame, it is amazing. And the reward for it is absolutely necessary to progress through the game, not that you can't beat the game without it, but it will make your overall experience a lot more enjoyable. The minigames are now worth playing, the coliseum now gives you great rewards instead of being kinda useless like in Zero. Now that I think about it, the one thing that makes side activities better in Kiwami is the great reward, but it is genuinely worth playing minigames and completing subquests.

To sum up, I think Yakuza Kiwami is a great game with great plot and rewarding side activities. I would put Kiwami just a little lower than Zero if I were to put them on a tier list, that doesn't mean it's worse, they're practically equal, it's just I liked Zero better. I definetelly recommend Yakuza Kiwami if you liked any other games in the franchise.

[humanallalive]

About Yakuza 0

This game is absolutely fantastic. I saw cutscenes and screenshots from this game on the internet and decided to play it. And it was worth every goddamn second.

The issue with japanese games is that if you don't play the franchise from the very beginning it can get very confusing, because the game expects you to know all the characters and mechanics from previous games. Yakuza 0, being the canonical beginning of the franchise, doesn't have that issue. Because of this fact, this game already became more enjoyable than most japanese games. On top of that, the plot is actually really good. It is a criminal drama with two main protagonists, that have different fighting styles, outfits, subquests and even minigames. As you play through the main story you see the two main characters' fates get tied together, until where the original Yakuza for the PS1 starts. The story gets really emotional at times and keeps you at the edge of your seat the entire time. There are breaks between some chapters, where the game opens up for you to roam around and explore, complete subquests, find collectibles, play minigames, etc. The subquests in this game and any of the games in the franchise are some of the wildest shit I've ever seen in video game history. You will have a ton of fun just completing subquests, because only a small portion of them are "go get that and bring it to me", a big portion of them use unique mechanics and force you to play cool minigames. Most of the rewards for subquests are not that good, but it's all in the process: even if you know there isn't a good reward for it, you're still going to complete a subquest just to know what crazy shit the game will pull on you. By doing subquests or reaching a high score in a minigame or doing anything you acquire completion points, which you can spend on useful mechanics or actually good weapons and gear.

The fighting system is amazing. Yakuza 0 isn't a "fighting game", it's a "beat 'em up", which means you get an immediate advantage over low-tier enemies. You can spend money that you collect on new skills you can use in combat. The smooth and polished fighting system is supplied with a ridiculously-amazing electrifying ass-kicking soundtrack, it really is the best soundtrack I've heard in a video game. Apart from 3 main fighting styles with their own music themes there is also a fourth ultimate fighting style, which you get by completing a particular minigame. This fighting style combines all attributes of the other 3 to create the ultimate ass-kicking experience. And keep in mind, that's 4 fighting styles per protagonist, you can switch to another character that has completely different styles. You can also use weapons that have special abilities, and they vary from something basic like a bat to a lightsaber or a handheld cannon. Yakuza 0 gives you infinite possibilities on how to approach an enemy.

The joy of playing this game is indescribable, you need to play this game now. I'm actually playing Yakuza Kiwami right now, which is the remake of Yakuza for the PS1, and I'm loving it. Later I'm also going to post my thoughts about it.

[humanallalive]

About Gothic

I picked this game up on steam in a bundle while it was for a really low price. The game has a lot of ups and some really big downs. It was an okay experience, overall. I wouldn't really consider it great, it was kind of disappointing.

The main story is really good. It tells you the whole story about the main protagonist going from some prisoner to a full hero and a savior of the Colony. Subquests vary from fairly serious and important to outright silly, and it keeps the game interesting as always. The BIG problem I have with the game is the progression. Gothic shines at the very beginning of the game by giving you choice: what camp do you join, what resources do you buy, what subquest do you complete first, where do you want to go, what skill do you upgrade, etc. It felt like and RPG I've never played before. And the combat system was very cool at first, giving you ability to slash, block and combo. But by the end of the game you are forced to join one of three guilds, you are forced to wield a two-handed weapon, you are forced to wear the best armor in the game, all the healing and mana potions are just given to you in a neat little treasure room, devaluing all the time you spent gathering the potions and items to prepare for the boss fight. And the final boss was kind of disappointing as well. Any boss fight can be cheesed or scummed: the minecrawler queen just needs to be slashed at a fast tempo to make her infinitely stunned, to defeat the final boss you need to stab the heart, kill the demon, teleport to safety, heal and repeat. It's just half of the good things about Gothic just ruined by bad game progression and bad boss fights. Oh yeah, the combat system doesn't work against a crowd of enemies as well.

Apart from the downsides, everything else is pretty good. The atmosphere really makes you feel like you're in the medieval times. Some characters are very memorable, many of them make you sympathize, and some of them are just nice. The inventory is divided into categories, so you always know where the correct items are. The spells are also cool: some of them are basic like fire bolt, and some are unique like sleep or telekinesis.

It's hard to decide whether this game is good or not: some downsides overpower the upsides. But I think I recommend the game. If you want an authentic RPG experience set in a medieval half-fantasy world, then play Gothic, maybe you'll like it more than I did.

[humanallalive]

About Yume Nikki

Yume Nikki is a dream emulator made using RPG Maker. I have played LSD:Dream Emulator for the PS1 before, so I was expecting something like that, but maybe more story driven or idk. And I was sort of correct, although in some areas Yume Nikki might actually be better than LSD. Never the less, Yume Nikki is an amazing experience.

This game is all bite no bark, it keeps the story minimal while giving the player absolute freedom to wander through the dream land and explore the psyche of Madotsuki, the main protagonist. The player decides the story for himself: whether to endlessly walk around or to end the game is up to you. The Yume Nikki community keeps creating new theories about the game and its characters, because the game doesn't actually tell you anything, it just gives you food for thought. Whether you enjoy the game depends on if you look at it with interest or not. To keep the story so little while delivering pure gameplay is an art amongst arts.

The estimated gameplay time is 2-10 hours, and that heavily depends on if you know what you're doing, where you're going and if you have the bicycle effect. Basically, to complete the game you need to collect all effects, which are power-ups that change your appearance and give you special abilities. The controls can be confusing and the game doesn't tell you which button activates the effect, and some effect abilities are necessary to discover new events. Also the 2d top-down view is very limiting, but that just makes the world even harder to navigate and it allows the game to throw all sorts of tricks at you without you even noticing. This sounds like a pain, but remember: this is a DREAM emulator, it is meant to be confusing, absurd, weird, creepy, etc. And plus, you can't die in the game, at anytime you can wake up, save and go back in.

Overall, Yume Nikki gives the player a full dream emulator experience. Confusing controls, hard-to-navigate worlds, absurd creatures and minimal story make up an authentic dream experience. This game is absolutely amazing and I highly recommend it.

[humanallalive]

About Sakura Beach

I'm actually running out of ideas about what to write, because it takes time to complete a game, so I won't be posting regularly, mostly when I actually complete a game or remember a cool game I played and keep thinking about.

Sakura Beach fucking sucks. It was my first time playing a visual novel(apart from finishing like half of Nekopara and uninstalling it after I felt bored), and it was not a nice time. It was less disappointing and more frustrating, in fact it was probably the most frustrating experience I've ever gotten from a game. Imagine you're playing a first-person shooter and you get placed in a room full of leaches that slowly drain your health until you're dead and you are completely paralyzed, and you get to relive that over and over again. I'll explain my frustration with this game.

In a video game you have two aspects: the story and the gameplay. If one of these aspects is lacking but the other one is really good, the game can still be considered great. However, a visual novel has no gameplay, so if the plot is bad, that means the whole game is also bad, and that's exactly the case here.

The plot feels like a mashed combination of ideas about what would happen if you get stuck on a summer vacation with two anime girls. It just feels like a set of events that have almost no connection. And the characters are just crash dummies. They don't even deserve to be called "characters", they're more of walking stereotypes. You know, you have the "generic dense dark-haired harem anime protagonist, who is a complete dumbass", the "generic big-tittied childhood friend" and, of course, the "generic angry-for-no-reason asshole bitch with equally big titties"; it sucks. So for the entire game you're stuck with braindead ragdolls failing at logical human interaction in overused scenarios, and you can't do anything. Sakura Beach does gives you choices that lead into one of three cutscenes, but the choices are so extremely obvious it's pathetic. The story is nothing interesting if you've watched enough harem anime(why on Earth would you do that?), and if the game is focused completely on plot, well, you can guess how bad it is.

The music is the classic visual novel music, no complains here; the backgrounds and the spritework are fantastic; and the game is very stable and easy to navigate. It's a solid base for a shit visual novel, it's more than disappointing.

But I'm done shitting on the game, instead I want to actually point out the problems the game had and provide solutions to avoid these kinds of problems if you're writing a story:

Structure. Sakura Beach only two point in the plot that mattered: the beginning and the ending, other than that everything else was very liquid and the event placement didn't really matter. The plot should build up some sort of tension until the very ending for the game to be a memorable experience.

Purpose. The characters in Sakura Beach didn't have any common goal or a solid purpose to be on their vacation, therefore their actions sometimes seemed illogical and random. Even if it is a relaxing beach game, the characters need a motive. Otherwise the ENTIRE story is completely pointless.

Progression. The visual novel had three main points in story: the prologue, the epilogue and everything in between; and these parts are not connected together. The plot needs to move from event to event seamlessly, or at least the progression should be logical and advance to the main goal of the characters. You can even move from one era to another or have multiple timelines as long as it's understandable to the player what is going on.

Characters. Probably one of the most important aspects, because these are the people you're gonna be stuck with for the entire game, and they better be likeable. You see, Sakura Beach failed to make likeable, interesting characters: they were forgettable, plain and dumb. Actually, they might not be dumb, maybe it's just that they have no goal or the event progression is a bit fucked, we will never know. Feel free to add complicated backstory, a ton of quirks, personality traits and, god bless you if you do this, character advancement. Just don't add too much, because it can actually backfire: characters can go from boring and forgettable to so overfilled there might not be enough time in the plot to tell everything about them or it just might be too hard to remember all the little details. Character balancing is really important, but having more than enough is already better than not having enough. The player should spend time with the characters to really know them and to see all their traits in action multiple times to really build that precious connection between the player and the fictional character to make them seem real, to resemble real-world people, not crash-dummies.

Atmosphere. Top-tier writing could entirely be ignored with some copyright free music and sprites drawn with a crayon by a toddler. One thing that Sakura Beach nails is the atmosphere of a beach episode in a high-budget slice-of-life anime. Atmosphere is also used to set the tone of the story or to sometimes screw with the player. Although not as important as the plot itself, the atmosphere is a necessary ingredient for a good game and it's what gives the player a first impression.

The sixth one fell out of my head as I was writing this. Oh well, I'm sure it was something important.

Don't play Sakura Beach, you can play it if you really want, just don't do what Sakura Beach did. I haven't played the second part yet, can somebody tell me if it's any better than the first one? I might have to write a post about it soon...

[humanallalive]

About Celeste

Celeste is a wonderful game with great atmosphere and a simple story and it made me play through the entire game even though I hate hard platformers.

The story is about a girl conquering her fears and anxieties by ascending the magic mountain called Celeste. As the story goes we meet many characters, learn about them and their backstory and develop a strong mental bond with them. Each and every character is memorable and has a distinct personality, so you won't forget about them even after finishing the game. A lot of the plot is told through dialogue and cutscenes, but you're going to spend most of your time actually playing the game. Every level has a different color palette and a specific theme that it's going for. Moreover, each level has it's own enemies, special activities and secrets. The platforming is hard and you're gonna die a lot, but there are plenty of checkpoints, so you won't have to worry about doing the entire level all over. And the reward that you get after completing the level is worth going to the next one. Celeste made hard platforming enjoyable for me, and that's a massive achievement.

The atmosphere in Celeste is fantastic and it's different for each level and each part of the every level. Color palette can go from nice pastel colours to your entire screen filled with blood red, and the music can vary from dynamic or fear inducing to almost ambient. That said, every track is great and all the artwork for each level looks nice and polished to perfection. Atmosphere alone is already enough to enjoy this game.

Movement in Celeste is different, it's not the typical WASD that many platformers use. Instead, you move with arrow keys and do special moves with Z, X and C keys. It takes one level to get used to controls and after that you can focus on refining your platformer skills. After playing the game for a long time you start to appreciate the handling and get used to the keys. Celeste teaches you how to use game mechanics and even gives you some advanced techniques, which seem broken or bugged out, but they're in fact a crucial part of completing some levels. Overall, the game has some very interesting mechanics, although still preserves the standard platforming experience.

Even if you don't like hard platformers or you're bad at them, if the game previews are enough to make you interested, you have to play the Celeste. It is one of the most enjoyable hard platformers that I've ever played and it had me at the edge of my seat the entire time. I definitely recommend Celeste.

[humanallalive]

Fear of showing emotions

A lot of people are afraid of showing their true emotions and are usually present in two states: calm and happy. I guess that’s logical, you know, because else you’ll be a pain in the ass for the people around you and some people will just get tired of your whining, but that’s some weird phobia or something idk. But some people take that to the next level by straight up lying to themselves, telling that they’re absolutely fine and happy, even though their life is falling apart. I’m not including the people who are actually capable of handling their life situation and who have an immunity for stress and so on, I’m talking about people who are willing to not take action until there’s nothing left of them, because they’re afraid to act a little sad in front of other people and because people might not like hearing about how miserable their life is and because it’s a real mood-killer. Now don’t trust yourself, because this is a deathtrap: the longer you fake happiness, the more problems you’re gonna build up and the bigger will be the impact when you realize that your life has gone to shit.

Don’t be afraid to show a little sad or to talk about your problems, you’re only going to make things harder for yourself. Be an optimist, but remember that being an optimist is not about acting happy all the time, it’s about having hope for the better outcome. Most importantly, take action, even doing a small task like fixing a hole in the wall can give you strength to take on bigger tasks in life.

Now I’m not bullying those people who are afraid of showing their true feelings. I have that fear myself, in fact my whole family has that. I’m saying that it’s something that needs to be avoided. You know, it’s refreshing to have a serious talk once in a while, because you do get tired of countless jokes and laughing. You know, just get real.

[humanallalive]

About Astroneer

Astroneer is the first game I downloaded on the xbox. I heard a lot of good things about this game and how fun it is. Well, it looked good, so I gave it a try. Not everything went according to plan and I'm going to go over the issues that made me uninstall the game before even going to the next planet. Still, I want to point out that I don't hate the game, maybe I just didn't play it the right way, so please help me if you know how to avoid some issues with the game, I have hope for this game so I might come back to it and write a proper honest review for it. For now, his is what I have so far.

The third person came is very cool, since you can observe the entire world around you. But this changes once you go into a very tight space or a crawl hole: sooner than you know, you're gonna get a face full of backpack. This is especially frustrating if you're losing oxygen and digging a hole to the surface becomes a pain in the ass.

The vehicles are very cool. The buggy does feel like an offroad vehicle that is able to conquer any terrain. But sometimes when you go too fast one of it's wheel gets stuck inside the ground. Moreover, you can't pick the vehicles up, so if a car gets stuck in pit, you have two ways to deal with it: you either build a tunnel for 30 minutes to get the car out and then never use the tunnel again or just bury the car and get a new one. It's not fun getting out of large holes in this game.

After you die the compass gets a little marker that tells you where you died. However, it only tells you the location of your last death. So if you were carrying some very important supplies or a pet and accidentally died and then died multiple times trying to get to your death point, you can forget about everything you were carrying, because you're not going to find it anymore.

So yeah, after failing to get out of a giant hole for like tenth time and losing my pet in a massive cavern I uninstalled the game.

But now to the good things about Astroneer. The game nails the atmosphere with it's music and nice vibrant colors. although the ambient sounds can get very repetitive, I don't find it annoying, in fact, it sort of blends in with the environment. The sounds are very satisfying: from sciency gui sfx to heavy machinery operating, it's so good.

There is a ton of activities you can do in the game. Astroneer throws quest after quest at you for you to never get bored. There are many modules and machines you can unlock to help with many aspects of running a base. And although the world of Astroneer is finite. With right resource management you'll never run out of resources or scrap or plants etc.

Another thing I love about this game is the modular system. Everything just fits in these cells and they can be used for operating machines or just storage. The backpack is brilliant, you need to actually manage your backpack and balance storage capacity with practicality and survivability, basically the more practical modules you install in the backpack the more likely you're going to survive but the less storage you have.

Astropedia also helps you with exploring the world and managing your base. Overall, it's a great source of information if you're just starting out.

So that's what I think about the game so far. If you know how to make some of the issues I listed affect the gameplay less, please comment. I'm not saying the game is bad, since I haven't even played half of it, but as of right now the game is unplayable for me. If I learn how to enjoy the game to the fullest, I'll come back to it and write a proper opinion. But yeah, that's that.

[humanallalive]

About Half-life 2

So I want to start off with something for the PC. By the way, I’m only gonna talk about the base game without the episode 1 and 2, although I don’t really know if it’s a good idea. But anyway, this game is something so legendary, everyone has been talking about it since the very release of the game. Two additional episodes, countless mods, insane amount of community content, even a separate sandbox game which gained it’s own following. But Half-life 2 is truly brilliant and totally deserves all the attention.

The story takes place sometime after the original Half-life. The progression feels solid from start to finish and doesn’t split up in different timelines or do any of the weird anime shit. Just like the first game, Half-life 2 has a minimal amount of cutscenes, in fact, there are only two cutscenes in the game: the intro and the ending, and the rest is pure gameplay. Although this game’s story is more mysterious than the one in the first game, it’s not bad or anything, in fact I think it’s very cool that Valve leaned in that direction. From the beginning until the end you’re constantly going to ask various questions about the world of Half-life and it’s current state. The amount of characters is perfectly balanced between having none and too many. Half-life 2 pushes the player to spend time with the characters to build a mental connection with them and all the characters are quite memorable: some are known from the previous games, others just have unique personality traits or an interesting backstory. Then there’s G-man, whose goals and motivation we will never know, and he’s just such a mysterious and alien creature that haunts you for the entire game, brilliant work. The ending is just as abrupt as the prologue: you get thrown into this world, you do your deed and you get thrown out of it, but it still provides you with little details that make you interested rather than confused. Overall, the story is great.

The atmosphere of a once normal world now controlled by a fascist biopunk xenos race is supported by many things. The music sounds very industrial, with heavy synths and bass along natural instruments like drums to show how the Combine and humanity are having to deal with each other. The palette has many pale and grim colors, again, adding to that feeling of a dystopia. Sound effects in the game have to be my favourite, I especially love the radio talk of the enemies and Overwatch that sounds human and yet is very unnatural and robotic, and the shotgun reload sound with the little spring inside the loading chamber is just extremely satisfying. You know, these surface things that you notice without even playing Half-life just make the atmosphere in this game so good.

And now it’s time to talk about the game engine. Half-life was made using Valve’s new Source engine with real physics. Game makes heavy use of the engine mechanics in puzzles or even in combat. By the end of the game you’ll have a good idea of all the things Source is capable of. Half-life is constantly making the player use it’s engine to it’s full capacity, and it’s a lot better than just walking from point A to point B and shooting bad guys. The physics in the game are top tier, pushing you to use advantage of surrounding objects and not just hide behind solid cover. Apart from some extremely rare casualties, the physics are very reliable and the object interaction works for what it’s supposed to be used. There are no wonky ragdolls that fly from across the map, the ragdolls are very stable compared to some other games. To sum up, the game engine is very reliable and stable and is very enjoyable to use.

Now to say some final words before ending this long post, the game is a MUST play: whether you want to get a blast from the past or enjoy some good game mechanics or take in the scenery of the game or get a break from all the indie pixel art and low poly games or just to know what a good game is, it is ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY for you to play Half-life 2. The game truly deserves it’s legendary status and the giant following that it has. I had no regrets choosing to play it and you won’t as well. What a good game.

[humanallalive]

New content!

Yeah, sorry about the little sad quotes that an emo kid going through a break up would put on his facebook page, but I haven't been feeling well lately. It's just that I constantly pushed myself to do something productive and saw taking a break as a shithole you won't be able to get out of, and I still agree with that statement. As a result, all my attempts at doing anything to improve myself were fruitless. It is conflicting for me to do this, but I am taking a break from all the hobbies. So now I'm going to play games all day, everyday!

Basically, a good friend of mine gave me his xbox for the summer, because he's going away for a vacation. And the best thing is: it has the game pass, so I can play all the games that don't run on my computer for free! I already have a giant list of games that I'm going to play, and I've decided to write my own opinion about every game that I play. Keep in mind, some PC games are also on the list, so it's not just something I've found on the game pass.

So yeah, stay tuned because now I'm going to post regularly because, well, now I have a reason to post!

[humanallalive]

Does anybody have the right to be better than me?

[humanallalive]

Why? Why am I not happy? I just did what everyone told me to do, they see potential in me, then why am I not happy? Why do others feel happier than me, those who don’t follow the rules? Why would someone even make the rules? Why?

[humanallalive]

Aaaand I’m back!

It’s been a while. I’m finally done with all my exams, so my summer break has officially begun. I’ve been trying to learn something new everyday, but I just haven’t been able to find myself some personal time, as I still have work to do. And it’s not like I can just say “Screw everything!” and do what I want to do, I need the money to at least get a haircut or buy some healthy food. I just need to hold on for one more day, and then I’ll be (sort of) free.

[humanallalive]

last post in a while, may come back idk, buh-bye!!!!

[humanallalive]

Busy

This month has been the busiest in my entire life. I’ve even gotten a habit of counting how many minutes my every action takes. But I do have to say, I feel fantastic.

It finally feels like my life has a meaning, like everyone around needs me. And I don’t even feel stressed out, because I still have time for walks and video games. My life has been incredible.

However, I don’t know if I’m actually happy or just distracting myself. Any day I could stop all my work and come back to that sorry state I was in a year ago. This makes me really worried. I have to have my eyes open 24/7, not anxious, but just aware.

I’m really thankful to anyone, who dedicates their time to read my posts, and a huge fucking thanks to every person, who followed me. On this account I get some really private stuff off my chest, so thank you for helping me improve myself and letting me be a part of this amazing community.