redwing42

How am I supposed to follow that mess?

To get back on topic, the morality meter in the game isn't really good/bad. Because this is the Persona team (which shares some DNA with the SMT games), it is much more of a Law/Chaos meter than a good/evil one. ATLUS generally skews towards saying that Law is over-controlling and restricts free will, while Chaos offers personal freedom but at a societal cost. The full Chaos ending is just very silly.

Also, Erica is best girl anyway. Vincent should have broken up with Katherine and dated her.

@allthedinos: Era Vulgaris is definitely a step below some of the other albums, but Rock Band made me love "3's & 7's". That song goes hard.

I thought I was going to be that guy, but two other people have already said they like Rated R better. That said, this is a really good album, but it doesn't quite keep me for every song. Mosquito Song is one of my top 3 QOTSA songs, though, and all the singles are great. I also like Gonna Leave You and Do It Again.

@shindig: Madness definitely counts, but it is an earlier generation. I'm a big fan of The Specials, whom would also fall into that category.

Hurrah for the return of the Archive! Not much for me to comment on here, but I do enjoy reading them.

I slightly cheated with picking this album. I had heard of Goldfinger before. I was definitely a ska fan and "Here in Your Bedroom" was popular enough on MTV and the radio. But THPS was the first game that made me go out and buy an album, so it fits the spirit if not the letter of the topic. That said, I haven't listened to this album in probably a dozen years or more, and I'm a very different person now than I was when I first got this album in college, so I definitely had a bit of a different look at it, even though it was like putting on an old familiar pair of slippers.

Like you might expect with an album named "Hang-Ups," the majority of the album is songs about regrets, heartbreak, and self doubt. The album starts with a very clean, very tight style that kind of disintegrates as the album continues, until track 9 "Too Late," which is easily the most emotionally charged song on the album. A couple of the remaining tracks show some composure and resolution. And then, of course, we get to the best hidden track of all times, Chicken McNuggets.

It was kind of funny to me, now a father of two, how hard "Too Late" hit me after all these years. When I used to listen to the song, it was all about the buildup and the unleashing of anger in the singer for the final verse. This time, there was a lot more to the regret of both characters in the song. None of it was particularly personal to me (it is usually songs about time that is lost and can't be regained that choke me up; e.g. "Time in a Bottle," "The Long Way Home"), but it still got to me.

I still love this album, even if it isn't my preferred style of ska. "Superman" is a legitimate classic, and I'd probably go with "If Only" and "Too Late" to round out my top three, but there are lots of solid songs on this album. Goldfinger did some pretty solid work during the pandemic, if anyone is interested. They remotely did re-recordings of some of their songs, and they still sound great.

I would bet that Nintendo will do a good job keeping that available. A couple years ago I had a Wii die on me, so I bought a replacement. I called Nintendo about trying to transfer the account over and a couple questions later, I was able to download my 2 dozen or so digital purchases on my new Wii. It was honestly a fantastic interaction for something that they could have easily done nothing for.

I ended up getting NES Remix, Inazuma 11, all three campaigns for FE Fates, Tomodachi Life, Rhythm Heaven Megamix, Zelda: OOT and MM, and a backup digital copy od Persona Q, since I don't know if I have a cart with the terrible bug in it or not. I did buy a bunch of Atlus stuff last year when they had a big sale after the closure was announced, as well. I already have regrets about not picking up the DQ games along with the rest of it, but I know that I probably won't end up playing any of these other games either. I'll just keep going back to Pocket Card Jockey any time I actually open the 3DS up.

Hadn't thought about that. Jungle would have been a good one for the list for me.

@cyrusraven: I think either works, but we aren't looking for video game soundtracks. So said video game composers would have to have an album of their original works submitted. I'm not sure where something like The Black Mages would stand.

Also my first Opeth album. I was shocked... Not only by how much I liked it, but the vast number of influences I heard(or thought I heard, anyway). There were so many bits and pieces of other acts that I lost track. It was like someone programmed an AI to make an album and they dumped all the great prog rock artists into the reference set. Not saying that they lifted sections or anything like that, but there were clearly sections where I could say "That sounds like Rush," or "This reminds me of Jethro Tull.". I also heard Frank Zappa, early Pink Floyd and Genesis, a bit of Amboy Dukes and Cream, along with some Yes and others I've forgotten now. Maybe it was just the mood I was in, but it was fun being surprised by the layers in the music.

I will say that even the harder songs were metal-adjacent at best. This was very much a prog rock album, which isn't a problem, but was not what I expected. Not sure that this will go into my regular rotation, but I am interested in seeking out more.