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izzy's playlists!
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2025 on Tumblr: Trends That Defined the Year
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Mike Driver
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"I'm Dorothy Gale from Kansas"
if i look back, i am lost
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we're not kids anymore.
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YOU ARE THE REASON
titsay
Today's Document
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@transparencyboo
🐲NEW VIDEO!🐲 Much noise has been made about the Japanese localization of Spyro the Dragon. An abomination that lead to inevitable failure according to western fans, but did Japan actually hate Spyro? Find out, as the mystery unravels once and for all…
[With closed captions]
Hi goats, i got myself a PS vita and I have access to the vita, psp and ps1 library are there any games you'd recommend from those consoles? I know you made a video on tearaway which I plan to play next but are there any other games?
Sorry for the late reply. Did you play Tearaway? Because that's pretty much the only one you really need to play, to be completely honest, lol.
The Town Where I Died
Is this really Paradise?
After winning a beam katana in an internet auction No More Heroes protagonist Travis Touchdown finds himself snared into a murderous competition to become the number one ranked assassin in the United States. In this bloodstained pursuit to the top he ends up fighting some of gaming's zaniest characters in bombastic battles that have to be seen to be believed. Reaching out through the fourth wall he urges us to pick up the controller and join in on the mayhem. Of course we oblige. Off we go to the garden of madness.
However in order to duke it out with the other assassins and rank up, Travis and the player have to pay an entry fee before each battle. This means that you have to earn a lot of money to even participate. In a funny juxtaposition, the expected constant spew of exaggerated violence is traded in for mundane understated tasks – which involve mowing lawns, picking up trash from the street and catching runaway cats. You have to do this a lot in-between each ranked match.
Some might say that No More Heroes intentionally wastes the player's time, and I think they'd be correct in that assessment. The tasks are not necessarily unfun, there's even plenty to choose from for variety, but there's inevitably a sense of tedium that arises from applying for jobs over and over again until you can get to the 'good part'. That's the beauty of it though, it's bold and carefree in a way video games typically aren't.
Rarely will you find a video game that so confidently and gleefully takes the piss out of the player. You came here for the crazy fights? Tough! Pick up some garbage for the next 20 minutes then we'll talk, punk. It's brilliantly sold, and we do it because we have to. I can see how this would frustrate a certain subset of gamers because it's "bad game design", but they simply don't know what's up. They're the butt of a joke and deserve it.
Perhaps No More Heroes is presenting us with a universal truth about work and life itself. We apply for and work jobs we don't really want to do so we can spend money and time doing what we're actually passionate about. We might not be able to identify with Travis' murderous disposition, but at least we can understand that he's living for 'something' besides topping up other people's cars at the gas station. In that sense, we're very much the same.
Travis also faces the uncomfortable reality in which his passion may at some point turn into work as well – just another job to be done. The other ranked assassins and the mysterious manager Sylvia talks about the profession in work related terms, while Travis himself remains driven by passion (and the opportunity to get laid). You can sense that the supporting cast has lost their enthusiasm to the grind. Is this really paradise – the place where dreams are fulfilled? Or is it just another place to die.
Right before the last ranked match Travis' motorcycle is stolen by some random goons. Without it he has to run across the entirety of Santa Destroy California to get to his destination. There's no particular reason for the game doing this. You're simply forced to briskly jog the same distance the bike would otherwise take you in under a minute.
It's hard to even call it a joke, but you're certainly the punchline.
/Alicia
It's the year of the PS3 and I played Rain
For no particular reason I have decided that 2026 is going to be the year of the Playstation 3. Luckily for me I came prepared for the occasion, because I just so happened to jailbreak our white phat model right around new years eve – waking up my girlfriend to the soothing sound of splashing waves from the long delisted Outrun: Online Arcade (2009). I bought the license for that game back when it came out and I still have not forgiven them for taking away my privileges to play it. But I digress.
Anyway, this is not a post about Outrun: Online Arcade. We'll have time to talk about that one another day. Instead I began this Sunday morning by playing the still to this day PS3 exclusive puzzle platformer – Rain (2013). While it technically hasn't been re-released on any other platform, you can however also play it through streaming on PS4/PS5 if you have a Playstation Plus Premium subscription. But who the hell has money to spend on that crap these days? Giving us no choice but to dust off our old friend the Playstation 3 to enjoy this semi-hidden gem in all its glory.
In Rain you play as a boy who finds himself whisked away to a parallel mirror world where he ends up turning invisible after chasing a girl with a similar bodily predicament. The shapeless children do however become visible again in the night's heavy rainfall, creating situations where they have to move between cover to hide from the monsters that lurk in the dark, and hopefully escape this strange dimension.
My thoughts are instantly brought to the PS2 classic Ico (2001), where similarly a rambunctious boy and a timid girl have to work together to escape a mysterious castle they've been trapped in. Both Ico and Rain clearly owe at least part of their DNA to genre defining action adventure games such as Flashback (1992), Another World (1991) and Prince of Persia (1989) in which pretty men jump and climb their way through dangerous situations. So too does Rain involve plenty of ledge climbing and pushing of boxes to reach otherwise inaccessible areas. A tried and true concept.
More importantly I am reminded of Little Nightmares (2017) and perhaps more so its sequel Little Nightmares II (2021) – both titles where lost children sneak their way across hostile environments and avoid monstrous creatures that chase after them. While the Little Nightmares franchise lays it on a bit thicker, Rain also presents a similar sort of kid-friendly horror escapade with an engrossing sense of atmosphere and melancholy.
My mind wanders further and I think of the French dark science fantasy film The City of Lost Children (1995), which me and Kiki watched on VHS not too long ago. I don't know why this movie has come up in my mind so much recently, but it seems rather fitting here. The grim European setting, the themes of nostalgia and children clashing with a misanthropic world of adults. It has everything to be a good source of inspiration for a game like Rain.
Funnily enough, I did mention to Kiki while we were watching The City of Lost Children that it gave me Little Nightmares vibes in terms of visuals, characters and settings. I said that I wouldn't be surprised if it was an inspiration for Swedish Tarsier Studios when they were making the game. And wouldn't you know it – looking it up today I found out that Dennis Talajic from Tarsier named The City of Lost Children as one of their inspirations in a Hollywood Reporter interview from 2017. I am so smart and seriously have the best eye for shit like this. I keep telling you all this and you just won't listen.
Now, I don't actually know if Rain was partially inspired by The City of Lost Children as well, but with my track record I'd say it's absolutely a possibility. Regardless, I think the sub-genre of melancholy journeys featuring lost children is worth exploring further in the future. If you like the Little Nightmares video games from Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc. then Rain for the Playstation 3 is well worth having a look at.
I hope you enjoyed my musings about a video game I played. I am making it my new years resolution for 2026 to write more long form streams of thoughts on here. Hopefully I'll do well – cheer me on!
/Alicia
My damn package will go through the five stages of grief before I receive it.
This is the Klonoa version of giving Chewbacca a medal.
Looks like we've been going for 6 years today. Happy birthday, Transparency Boo! Celebrate us, cowards!
We'll do a stream tomorrow to mark the occasion. 👻
A Pillow of Winds
A Pillow of Winds
Klonoa Video Update #3
Continuing the monthly updates on the Klonoa video with another preview of chapter two. This post is open to everyone, regardless if they're a backer or not, so have fun and enjoy. Please, consider supporting our endeavours!
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Clair de lune
August Moon
If you want a handy PDF version of Ashes to Ashley in higher resolution and with bonus material, they're now available as pay-what-you-want items on my Ko-fi page.
I Love All of My Friends Forever
She lives!
If you want a handy PDF version of Ashes to Ashley in higher resolution and with bonus material, they're now available as pay-what-you-want items on my Ko-fi page.
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