Hey hey hey what is UP everyone. Eithi back at it with another craaaaaazy roundup. I'm thinking that I should leave these a bit into the month like the one I did last time since it helps to compartmentalize the months a bit more, but the fact I've been writing is enough for me to be happy so, we'll see.

Currently Passover just passed me by and it was as boring as ever. I've been working harder on some personal projects involving audio engineering which has been pretty exciting, and I started seeing a health specialist for my weight. March's been pretty lowkey in general for me but I did finish a bunch of things I wanna talk about, so without further ado:

Games

Tetris: The Grand Master

I watched this excellent docuseries about the history of the development and community of Tetris: The Grand Master at the start of the month and it completely blew me away. The way the game explores the fundamental structure of Tetris as difficulty by just adding on the pressure of stacking strategy, without needing to resort to homebrewed rules like the Marathon ruleset appealed to me immediately, and I found myself being unable to play a couple games every day for the entire month. As of this writing I'm able to get to S2 semi-consistently and got to S3 once, and even though I don't think I'll ever be able to get to GM, I wanna keep grinding and bashing my head against it to see the future, maybe someday.

Resident Evil - Village

Resident Evil 4 is one of the most misunderstood games ever made. I know this sounds crazy to say about the RE4, one of the most popular games ever, but I'm going somewhere with this.

RE4 is a game about management in the same vein as Capcom's own Final Fight, though instead of punching people you shoot them. The crowd-control mechanics are almost identical, with the melee attack functioning as an i-frame tool to get you to deal with multiple enemies at once (similar to throws in beat 'em ups), and the shooting mechanics themselves are tailored toward this type of playstyle. You shoot the Ganados in the head or in the leg to stun them, wrangle a bunch of them up, and pummel them with a big melee hit to release that built-up tension. The encounters, therefore, are designed so you have to figure out ways to wrangle the enemies in distinct ways. Some enemies are easier, some are harder, some are not able to be manipulated like this, but you have to work in your positioning and choice of weapons into the equation. Your playstyle dictates how you approach combat, but the elements remain the same.

Village is a game that tries to do something similar, but its own camera system and lack of interesting tools and enemies makes it impossible to have a similar state to the game it's so trying to crib from. The rural European aesthetic is one thing, but the merchant, boss design (somewhat) and general linear progression split into distinct "zones" with different set pieces makes it very clear that this game is trying to be a modern RE4, and it fails at it. The guns lack weight, the enemies are sponges, and nothing really quite fits in with the action parts. Ironically, the pre-final boss part with Chris is when the combat feels at its best, and even then it's still pretty bad.

It has its moments though. I really liked the castle at the start as a snack-sized classic RE level, and House Beneviento was a thrill ride and a half; but unfortunately, nothing here helps the game come together. It wasn't awful, but it wasn't terribly fun either.

At least I beat it in 8 hours hehe.

Resident Evil (PS1-Chris Route)

And then I immediately downloaded the original version and played it on stream on a weekend. RE1 is also, in my humble opinion, not very great, but it's a lot better on the whole. The mansion is a really impressive piece of level design, as you route it out and try to find efficient ways to get items from point A to point B, all the while fiddling with the controls to manipulate zombies and run past them (or headshot them once you get the shotgun). It's a lot of fun, and the halfway boss in Plant 42 was very fun. I even enjoyed the limited inventory with Chris, since it made me have to consider items more.

But then the Hunters start to roam...

I hate the Hunters. I know they're not supposed to be fun, but I found that the way Chris has his weapons and ammo balanced over Jill's to be really disruptive of the whole thing. They're really fast and they need 4 shotgun shots to put down, which are a lot of fucking shotgun shells at that point in the game. Coupled that with two of the worst fucking bosses I've ever encountered in a videogame (the snake and the spider) I just gave up and started rewinding those fights. Thankfully the finale is really fun, even if I ran out of ammo during Tyrant and barely got him down. I'm currently playing RE2 OG which I've been finding a ton of fun too, so look forward to that.

Star Fox 64

The Mario movie marketing got me. This game is awesome. It's crazy Nintendo refuses to just make more of it with different levels, but hopefully that rumored new game is that.

Fate/hollow ataraxia

I'm of two minds about this one. I think the main plot's general story is fantastic, and a great continuation of one of the main themes in Stay Night. Angra is a hilarious, mischievous, heartfelt and beautiful character, and the additions of Bazett and Caren round it out to be one of the greatest trios Nasu has ever written. Unfortunately, I think the pacing is not very good. The night stuff is extremely vibes-based, which is cool and I like it, but also makes it so you never really get a handle on what the stakes of the story really are. Admittedly, that's part of the mystery, but I didn't find that resolution to be all too shocking since it felt quite obvious to me. Overall I'd still say this is great, and definitely worth playing after F/SN. Please play it.

Anime and Movies

Perfect Blue

You ever watch something you felt was not gonna hold up because of years of people gassing it up and saying it's one of the best things ever, so you buy a ticket at random because it's gonna play in a theatre near you and you might as well give it a shot in the best environment it could be, and then you're incredibly awe-struck at how truly good it is?

Watch Perfect Blue.

One Piece (Live action season 2)

Surprisingly better than the already pretty good first season. Everyone has a better handle on the characters and it fixes three of the most boring arcs in One Piece, AND I watched it with my dad and he really liked it, so that gets a plus from me.

Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3

Better than the manga.

Fate/strange Fake

I'm not a source reader for this, but one of my friends is and the other person I watched it with did the fansubs for it, and I could tell whenever they told me that they cut things out for the sake of making the plot move along. It's a Hype Moments and Aura series that looks incredible throughout, and is very entertaining, but I'd be remiss not to say I'm sad it went through 6 novel's worth of story to get to that point.

Akudama Drive

Kazutaka Kodaka my life is in your hands

Fate/zero (season 1|rewatch)

I'll dedicate a larger spot for it when I go back to it. Suffice it to say I think it's better than I gave it credit for.

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie

snooze

And that's it from me. See you next month!