TonyBlue87

Today the folks over at Koei Tecmo announced Dynasty Warriors 9, which I think is actually Dynasty Warriors 15 or something if you include the in-series spin-offs. And upon hearing this news, I felt inspired to ask a question that's bothered me for awhile:

Do the people at Koei ever get bored?! They make exactly ONE type of game and just slap a different IP on it (this isn't a criticism on the games themselves; just a comment on the reality of their library). Little tweak here, slight adjustment there, but sweet chocolate biscuits how do you not become just completely drained of any creative inspiration after doing that for over a decade?

I want to see them release a Draw Poker game just to interject some sort of variety in their catalog. Of course, in their version you'd have to fight off 300 other cards so you can defeat the 4 Lord cards and add them to your hand or something.

As a man with nearly 1500 games in his Steam library (I don't want to talk about it), and an extensive collection of games from the past 30 years and beyond, I will forever have a backlog.

However, if we're gonna talk about the most recent victim, then it's definitely Nier: Automata, having been bumped for the last 80-something hours to blast my way through Persona 5. P5 grabbed me by the heart and has provided an intense "I gotta see what happens next" experience that Nier didn't accomplish. Nier certainly isn't helped by the fact that apparently the "real" story happens somewhere around NG++ and 1/2.

But I will return to 2B and 9S (hopefully), just as soon as I change what I'm assuming is the last heart.

When I set Super Mario Maker aside a few months ago, there was still a rather steady flow of levels being made and notifications coming in that someone had played one of mine (didn't actually finish it or star it, but whatever I certainly didn't question my worth as a human being every time it happened). I recently started firing it up again as my "let's play something before bed" game, and I noticed that the levels rotating in on the 100 Mario Challenge were almost exclusively Japanese. I went to the level browser and found that all the recent uploads were also Japanese. So then I went to the Mario Maker Bookmark Search Engine Why-Is-This-Its-Own-Website thing, and sure enough, Japanese levels as far as the eye can see.

I don't find it at all surprising that the game has maintained it's fanbase overseas, but is anyone around here still actively playing it or creating levels? Did we all unconsciously and unceremoniously decide to move on? Did the Switch make THAT big of a splash? Perhaps Breath of the Wild became the go-to Wii U game (it certainly did for me), and once that was done so was everything else?

Given that the last forum post on this very website was three months ago, is Super Mario Maker truly done?

I took in a double feature yesterday, sooooo....

Free Fire - 3/5

I'm a sucker for single location films. Stuff that location with a bunch of assholes taking pot shots at each other and fill in the gaps with a decent amount of wit and you have a pretty fun flick. It sometimes thinks it's cooler than it actually is, but there's a certain charm in just how inept all of these crazy people are.

Phoenix Forgotten - 4/5

I am all in on found footage as a genre; as such, I am also extremely critical when found footage films get the format wrong (too much editing, characters shifting from dumb-faced morons to sudden exposition oracles, freaking music stings). Phoenix Forgotten gets around these limitations by presenting itself as a documentary, blending DV tape home video with properly produced interview shots and investigative montages. What makes PF stand out most, however, is that you don't hate the characters. Finally, someone made a found footage movie that doesn't make you root for a bunch of idiots to get killed off. I found myself uncharacteristically invested in the fate of these teenagers, and I felt true dread when things turned sour. The last piece of any good found footage film, of course, is an earned, impactful ending; Phoenix Forgotten has that in spades.

I asked this question about 2 years ago and got nothing. Rather than resurrect a thread that was DOA, I thought I'd reach out to the community one more time.

Can anyone point me to or know of a recording of "Sing A Song" that plays as PW walks into the water? Some rather fruitless Googling only leads me to the original Carpenters recording or the La-La song that the other robots sing. Apparently a girl named Cindy Asada did the vocals for the one I'm looking for, but I didn't find anything through looking her up, either.

I think it's a really beautiful arrangement of one of my all-time favorite songs; I would be extremely grateful if anyone can help me track it down.

Referring to this, just to be clear. Should start at the 4:14 mark.

@yothatlimp: @tclangham:

I'm down to team up. I'm in PST and also available most nights and weekends.

I've got 400+ hours, sooooo I guess I could play a little bit more. TonyBlue87 on Steam, and I'm on PST with typically wide-open weekends. Slap me onto a team and I'll hit about 60% of my aerial attempts!

PhantaRaptor

A loose Latin for "Phantom Thief." And it doubles as a shitty band name!

@vx10000222: Very welcome. That game is a favorite of mine.

You could be describing The Granstream Saga for PS1.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoKMwOaBIz0