megaTEN (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
tenshinoakuma) wrote2009-12-07 11:41 pm
tenshinoakuma) wrote2009-12-07 11:41 pm
A pretty good summary of how I've been spending the holidays
Anyone here played Ikaruga? It looks and sounds utterly fascinating (based on screenshots and art, because lol internet + Youtube) and seems more my thing than Touhou (I love me sum fighterplanes).
--
I know I've been talking about games a lot so I'll summarise my current feelings on the games I'm playing with a haiku and some tld;r:
1) The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker
Very pretty art,
Puzzles!! And Valoo is boss,
BUT SO MUCH SAILING.
The sailing was really interesting and fun to look at, actually... for the first 30 minutes. Compare my negative reaction to WW's lengthy sailing travel times to my positive reaction to Shadow of the Colossus' lengthy horseback travel times :| Also, the King of Hyrule is a jerk.
2) Metroid Prime
I love space jump, but
I keep missing the save points,
Space Pirates scare me.
Yeah the Space Pirates are kind of freakish when they suddenly SCREECH and start shooting you. Or suddenly DROP DOWN FROM THE CEILING ASDF;LKJ. I keep on getting cornered by the ones who get into melee, and unless I go all MORPH BALL, I can't do jack shit against them for some reason. I love the morph ball ♥ It feels really strange to be platforming so much in a FPS, especially when YOU CAN'T SEE YOUR FEET, but for some reason I'm... better at it in Metroid Prime than I am in actual games of the platform genre? It works surprisingly well, although I always have this little ball of fear at the bottom or my stomach whenever I have to jump over deadly lava or something; the sound of Samus' suit getting damaged is really freakish. Like claws scraping on a metal board.
Also, GODDAMNED SECURITY CAMERAS. Also, GODDAMNED BATS. Tallon IV and its numerous exploding wildlife makes me wonder how those animals survived evolution.
3) PMD2: Explorers of Sky
Darkrai really sucks,
AI is still terrible,
Darkrai REALLY sucks.
Still haven't been able to beat him. A combination of terrible type matchups, terrible luck with enemy status effects and Cresselia having really stupid AI that I can't modify to make her less stupid makes the fight against Darkrai close to unwinnable. And that's even if I get through the latter half of his dungeon without losing my Reviver seeds to 1HKOs. Yeah, being a grass pokémon in a primarily fire pokémon dungeon sucks.
4) Pikmin 2
Improved gameplay, but
if many die in a Hole,
Again, I reset.
As much as I love Pikmin 2's improvements over the original, the fact I'm limited to the number of Pikmin I bring with me into holes and the fact the game saves every floor makes me be extremely conservative with my Pikmin. And while that results in Pikmin lives being saved, it also means I reset the game whenever I lose more than 2 Pikmin on a floor. Which results in me progressing through Pikmin 2 a lot more slowly than in Pikmin.
5) Tales of the Abyss
Towards the endgame,
the game became fetch quest-like,
SO ANNOYING, CRAI.
As much as I love the characters and the general aesthetic in TotA, I have so many gameplay beefs with it it's not funny (and as I've said a long time ago, gameplay has a high weighting when I figure out whether I like a game or not). I was playing, what, 4.5 hours of TotA with a friend, starting from just before Ion reads the Planet Score, only the last 30 minutes of playing was really interesting. The last 30 minutes being LOL LUKE AND ASCH ARE BEING STUPID. And Guy punched Luke in the face. Yeah that was good, too. It's a shame that apparently lots of interesting stuff happens in the GUIDEDANGIT side-quests, which we missed because we're not playing with a guide :| I don't think I'll replay it ):
6) Tales of Vesperia
Dying from laughter,
Love all chars, but Raven best,
Improved gameplay, yes \o/ !
I can't really talk about how much I love the characters without being incoherent, because I can't point at anything specific about what makes me like them so much. But I do love them, MMMMMM Whitehorse. And I could probably go on forever about the gameplay improvements from Abyss. Except after playing Abyss, DamnYouMuscleMemory.
7) Super Smash Bros. Brawl
I still suck a lot,
But I can short-hop, wavebounce,
and zap jump! (sometimes)
I'm aware those alone don't make a good Lucas player (and man I still have a long way to go), but they're useful tools to know and be able to do. I'm still primarily working on my movement around the stage, especially with short-hopped PK Fires, because I have a tendency to do full-hopped ones by accident and... just have the fire go over people's heads ): I've been tackling Boss Battles on Intense difficulty. I've sort of been able to get up to the 7th boss semi-consistently (the furthest I've gotten was the 8th boss), but some bosses can still kill me even when I start at 0% (Porky). For some reason, I'm having issues with Crazy and Master hand, when they previously used to be my easiest. Surprisingly, Duon is really easy now !
8) Ico
Cryyy Shadows respawn,
Keep running, but where to go?
Yorda's nicked, I die.
Sob I got past the early stages of Ico because I would beat up the Shadows until they stop respawning, but where I'm stuck there's way too many of them, and they respawn indefinitely (as far as I can tell anyway; I die before then). Cute game though and gives me serious Double Arts pings. I keep thinking that if Ico lets go of Yorda's hand, she's gonna fade away; she's such a waif ;; I can't really find anything I could consider wrong with the game.
--
Man, it's kind of... satisfying? to be content with RPing. I used to think that I, as an RPer, had to be constantly striving for improvement (although this wasn't something I applied to other RPers). I still think that, to some extent, because striving to represent the character in such a way that other people feel like they're viewing canon when I'm playing out situations far removed from canon is part of what makes RPing fandom fun for me. But there came a point where this mindset was getting in the way of my enjoyment of playing.
I mean, there's still plenty of ways I can improve with all my characters, but this is where I sort of apply my effort-enjoyment principle. Which is basically, if the effort required > the enjoyment gained, it won't be done. It's like, I have a long shopping list of things I can improve, but the time and energy and worry and stress I'll expend/generate trying to improve (some of) those makes the RPing unfun ! It sounds a little like I'm content in wallowing in mediocrity, but there's a difference between striving for improvement and forcing myself to improve when there's something in my head that says NO I DON'T WANT TO.
That said, let's have a Toto related braindump with how I feel about playing him oh gods.
I've talked somewhat extensively about how difficult Toto would be to play since I'd have to remove him from the DMW scene and thus his base of comfort/knowledge/power etc. I was totes on the mark about that, but I suspect things will get easier once he gets more established with characters.
The other problem I'm having is how easy it is to regurgitate what canon's already given us, even when it's not entirely appropriate to do so. I've noticed when I'm not fully settled into a character, when responding to tags, I tend to mentally replay similar situations that happened in canon and respond in a similar manner to canon. I don't just do this with Toto; I do this with Atsuro sometimes as well, and used to do it with Joshua. I just think I do it more with Toto because he's from an ongoing canon, and I've never RPed from something like that before! I guess it's something like an unconscious fear that something similar to the new situation Toto's being put into in the RP will crop up in canon, and then Toto will react in a totally different way to how I did it and then I'll cry bitch tears over how OOC I was.
The aforementioned ease of regurgitation is really noticeable when I play Toto (at least, I feel it's noticeable) because of his few, short appearances in canon. And it's these short appearances that make certain catchphrases or blah blah blahs really easy to remember and spout whenever he talks ICly. It's really easy to throw around words like 'love' and phrases like "I'm weak now" or "I don't feel like it~" (like, Toto has a fair number of 'catchphrases', if that makes sense? A lot of what he says is short and easily regurgitatable) but am I using them at an appropriate time? Right now, Toto's speech when I play him is a little jarring, like a mismatched cut and paste job, especially when I compare it to how I play Joshua.
Basically, I need to get used to Toto more so I can actually get him to say (more) things outside the scope of canon and have it feel right while not feeling chained to what he's said in canon so far. And to do that, I need to stop thinking like 'what did he do in canon that I could use in response to this' and more like 'what would Toto do in response to this'.
Oh, and stop initially phrasing things the way Joshua would phrase them. That would help, too.
THAT SAID, it's fun playing the little creeper, and I am so glad I ganked![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
to_kill_a before someone else did, though. I'm actually kinda? surprised there's a fair number of Toto journals floating around, though as far as I know, no one else in games. I CAN TOTALLY UNDERSTAND WHY THOUGH SOB SELF WHY. HHH the only reason I haven't redone all of Toto's icons right now is because I don't want to redo them all when he gets colours he'd better get colours ;;
--
I know I've been talking about games a lot so I'll summarise my current feelings on the games I'm playing with a haiku and some tld;r:
1) The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker
Very pretty art,
Puzzles!! And Valoo is boss,
BUT SO MUCH SAILING.
The sailing was really interesting and fun to look at, actually... for the first 30 minutes. Compare my negative reaction to WW's lengthy sailing travel times to my positive reaction to Shadow of the Colossus' lengthy horseback travel times :| Also, the King of Hyrule is a jerk.
2) Metroid Prime
I love space jump, but
I keep missing the save points,
Space Pirates scare me.
Yeah the Space Pirates are kind of freakish when they suddenly SCREECH and start shooting you. Or suddenly DROP DOWN FROM THE CEILING ASDF;LKJ. I keep on getting cornered by the ones who get into melee, and unless I go all MORPH BALL, I can't do jack shit against them for some reason. I love the morph ball ♥ It feels really strange to be platforming so much in a FPS, especially when YOU CAN'T SEE YOUR FEET, but for some reason I'm... better at it in Metroid Prime than I am in actual games of the platform genre? It works surprisingly well, although I always have this little ball of fear at the bottom or my stomach whenever I have to jump over deadly lava or something; the sound of Samus' suit getting damaged is really freakish. Like claws scraping on a metal board.
Also, GODDAMNED SECURITY CAMERAS. Also, GODDAMNED BATS. Tallon IV and its numerous exploding wildlife makes me wonder how those animals survived evolution.
3) PMD2: Explorers of Sky
Darkrai really sucks,
AI is still terrible,
Darkrai REALLY sucks.
Still haven't been able to beat him. A combination of terrible type matchups, terrible luck with enemy status effects and Cresselia having really stupid AI that I can't modify to make her less stupid makes the fight against Darkrai close to unwinnable. And that's even if I get through the latter half of his dungeon without losing my Reviver seeds to 1HKOs. Yeah, being a grass pokémon in a primarily fire pokémon dungeon sucks.
4) Pikmin 2
Improved gameplay, but
if many die in a Hole,
Again, I reset.
As much as I love Pikmin 2's improvements over the original, the fact I'm limited to the number of Pikmin I bring with me into holes and the fact the game saves every floor makes me be extremely conservative with my Pikmin. And while that results in Pikmin lives being saved, it also means I reset the game whenever I lose more than 2 Pikmin on a floor. Which results in me progressing through Pikmin 2 a lot more slowly than in Pikmin.
5) Tales of the Abyss
Towards the endgame,
the game became fetch quest-like,
SO ANNOYING, CRAI.
As much as I love the characters and the general aesthetic in TotA, I have so many gameplay beefs with it it's not funny (and as I've said a long time ago, gameplay has a high weighting when I figure out whether I like a game or not). I was playing, what, 4.5 hours of TotA with a friend, starting from just before Ion reads the Planet Score, only the last 30 minutes of playing was really interesting. The last 30 minutes being LOL LUKE AND ASCH ARE BEING STUPID. And Guy punched Luke in the face. Yeah that was good, too. It's a shame that apparently lots of interesting stuff happens in the GUIDEDANGIT side-quests, which we missed because we're not playing with a guide :| I don't think I'll replay it ):
6) Tales of Vesperia
Dying from laughter,
Love all chars, but Raven best,
Improved gameplay, yes \o/ !
I can't really talk about how much I love the characters without being incoherent, because I can't point at anything specific about what makes me like them so much. But I do love them, MMMMMM Whitehorse. And I could probably go on forever about the gameplay improvements from Abyss. Except after playing Abyss, DamnYouMuscleMemory.
7) Super Smash Bros. Brawl
I still suck a lot,
But I can short-hop, wavebounce,
and zap jump! (sometimes)
I'm aware those alone don't make a good Lucas player (and man I still have a long way to go), but they're useful tools to know and be able to do. I'm still primarily working on my movement around the stage, especially with short-hopped PK Fires, because I have a tendency to do full-hopped ones by accident and... just have the fire go over people's heads ): I've been tackling Boss Battles on Intense difficulty. I've sort of been able to get up to the 7th boss semi-consistently (the furthest I've gotten was the 8th boss), but some bosses can still kill me even when I start at 0% (Porky). For some reason, I'm having issues with Crazy and Master hand, when they previously used to be my easiest. Surprisingly, Duon is really easy now !
8) Ico
Cryyy Shadows respawn,
Keep running, but where to go?
Yorda's nicked, I die.
Sob I got past the early stages of Ico because I would beat up the Shadows until they stop respawning, but where I'm stuck there's way too many of them, and they respawn indefinitely (as far as I can tell anyway; I die before then). Cute game though and gives me serious Double Arts pings. I keep thinking that if Ico lets go of Yorda's hand, she's gonna fade away; she's such a waif ;; I can't really find anything I could consider wrong with the game.
--
Man, it's kind of... satisfying? to be content with RPing. I used to think that I, as an RPer, had to be constantly striving for improvement (although this wasn't something I applied to other RPers). I still think that, to some extent, because striving to represent the character in such a way that other people feel like they're viewing canon when I'm playing out situations far removed from canon is part of what makes RPing fandom fun for me. But there came a point where this mindset was getting in the way of my enjoyment of playing.
I mean, there's still plenty of ways I can improve with all my characters, but this is where I sort of apply my effort-enjoyment principle. Which is basically, if the effort required > the enjoyment gained, it won't be done. It's like, I have a long shopping list of things I can improve, but the time and energy and worry and stress I'll expend/generate trying to improve (some of) those makes the RPing unfun ! It sounds a little like I'm content in wallowing in mediocrity, but there's a difference between striving for improvement and forcing myself to improve when there's something in my head that says NO I DON'T WANT TO.
That said, let's have a Toto related braindump with how I feel about playing him oh gods.
I've talked somewhat extensively about how difficult Toto would be to play since I'd have to remove him from the DMW scene and thus his base of comfort/knowledge/power etc. I was totes on the mark about that, but I suspect things will get easier once he gets more established with characters.
The other problem I'm having is how easy it is to regurgitate what canon's already given us, even when it's not entirely appropriate to do so. I've noticed when I'm not fully settled into a character, when responding to tags, I tend to mentally replay similar situations that happened in canon and respond in a similar manner to canon. I don't just do this with Toto; I do this with Atsuro sometimes as well, and used to do it with Joshua. I just think I do it more with Toto because he's from an ongoing canon, and I've never RPed from something like that before! I guess it's something like an unconscious fear that something similar to the new situation Toto's being put into in the RP will crop up in canon, and then Toto will react in a totally different way to how I did it and then I'll cry bitch tears over how OOC I was.
The aforementioned ease of regurgitation is really noticeable when I play Toto (at least, I feel it's noticeable) because of his few, short appearances in canon. And it's these short appearances that make certain catchphrases or blah blah blahs really easy to remember and spout whenever he talks ICly. It's really easy to throw around words like 'love' and phrases like "I'm weak now" or "I don't feel like it~" (like, Toto has a fair number of 'catchphrases', if that makes sense? A lot of what he says is short and easily regurgitatable) but am I using them at an appropriate time? Right now, Toto's speech when I play him is a little jarring, like a mismatched cut and paste job, especially when I compare it to how I play Joshua.
Basically, I need to get used to Toto more so I can actually get him to say (more) things outside the scope of canon and have it feel right while not feeling chained to what he's said in canon so far. And to do that, I need to stop thinking like 'what did he do in canon that I could use in response to this' and more like 'what would Toto do in response to this'.
Oh, and stop initially phrasing things the way Joshua would phrase them. That would help, too.
THAT SAID, it's fun playing the little creeper, and I am so glad I ganked
to_kill_a before someone else did, though. I'm actually kinda? surprised there's a fair number of Toto journals floating around, though as far as I know, no one else in games. I CAN TOTALLY UNDERSTAND WHY THOUGH SOB SELF WHY. HHH the only reason I haven't redone all of Toto's icons right now is because I don't want to redo them all when he gets colours he'd better get colours ;;
no subject
I've been playing Minatsuki since about chapter 15, with her last appearance having been the haircut. I know exactly what you mean with there being a bit of hesitance playing a character from an ongoing canon with the regurgitation thing fhajghkdfshd. Eventually I just went for it and did what I thought would be appropriate for her. As the series progressed, I was pretty shocked to see that I managed to hit upon her behaviors and personality development almost exactly.
I think the key is just understanding Toto's behaviors so far. If you've got that down, then you could easily expand upon it, and if canon throws you a curveball, you can just roll with it.
(no subject)