PhantomBand's recent activity

  1. Comment on Any popular game genres you just can't get into? in ~games

    PhantomBand
    Link Parent
    Well, I'm not really that familiar with FPS so I'm just speaking from my limited experience.

    Well, I'm not really that familiar with FPS so I'm just speaking from my limited experience.

    1 vote

  2. Comment on Any popular game genres you just can't get into? in ~games

    PhantomBand
    Link
    I'm probably forgetting or missing some, but I don't care for FPS games (idk, I just never got the appeal of just shooting at stuff in first person, and these games tend to be very minimal in...

    I'm probably forgetting or missing some, but I don't care for FPS games (idk, I just never got the appeal of just shooting at stuff in first person, and these games tend to be very minimal in terms of story and characters), anything online (I prefer to play solo, although I do love online games like MapleStory if I just got to play solo and didn't have to deal with the premium stuff) and I also don't often care much for puzzle, sports, RTS, etc.

    My main priorities in games are fun gameplay (typically turn based or action RPG type combat, platformers (including metroidvanias), hack & slash kinda stuff, etc), a nice aesthetic (basically, anime), good soundtracks, good stories and good characters. So for all of those I typically lean towards JRPGs, VNs, platformers, metroidvanias, hack & slash games, etc.

    4 votes

  3. Comment on Favorite ambient / instrumental music? in ~music

    PhantomBand
    Link
    My favorites are: Burial - Burial and Burial - Untrue; peak of the whole future garage/dubstep kinda stuff imo, wonderful, larger than life atmosphere, strong songwriting and beautiful sound...

    My favorites are:

    • Burial - Burial and Burial - Untrue; peak of the whole future garage/dubstep kinda stuff imo, wonderful, larger than life atmosphere, strong songwriting and beautiful sound design. If Untrue is a large, black and white dystopian city at night, then the debut is more like leaving said city by car and driving on the highways outside, with nothing but the night sky and distant lights of houses as scenery.

    • Anything Akira Yamaoka ever made for the first four Silent Hill soundtracks (obviously ignoring the vocal tracks here though). I think he and Burial are the only masterminds when it comes to that melancholic, nocturnal ambient sound. In my eyes their sound is also really adjacent, although Yamaoka often enters way more disturbing, horrifying areas in his music which is obvious since it's... Silent Hill.

    • Probably most stuff by Bohren & der Club of Gore. I think they're part of the same group in terms of atmosphere as Burial and Yamaoka, except I do think that Burial and Yamaoka are quite a notch above them. Still, very good stuff. What I do prefer about Bohren over the rest though is that Bohren takes a way more slow and quiet approach than them.

    • Kenji Kawai's 1995 Ghost in the Shell soundtrack. If Untrue is the sound of a dystopian city by night, then this OST is like what you'd get if you went like at least 1000 years into the future, and then realized that the city was actually Tokyo all along. The music just has this really particular mix of spiritual and sci-fi vibes (which is probably what the movie was going for as well, though I'm not entirely sure as I found it rather confusing, lol) that's highly intriguing, it's like religious hymns for a world where everyone is interconnected through some sort of Sword Art Online esque brain link into a digital world.

    There's probably more too, but I can't think of anything else atm. Sadly I never really got into most "proper" standalone ambient and adjacent stuff like Tim Hecker, Stars of the Lid, William Basinski, etc, I think I prefer my ambient and atmospheric music more... song-like? I guess? That's typically more present in soundtracks, melodies and stuff I mean.

    3 votes

  4. Comment on Hi, how are you? Mental health support and discussion thread (June 2023) in ~health.mental

    PhantomBand
    Link
    Looked back at this comment from september 2021 and I'm actually even worse off now than back then. Early on last year my dad died, and I don't have an internship or anything like that anymore...

    Looked back at this comment from september 2021 and I'm actually even worse off now than back then.

    Early on last year my dad died, and I don't have an internship or anything like that anymore either. I also feel like my energy and willpower has pretty much gone down to rock bottom, I just feel like I'm constantly tired and nothing can really revitalize that. Don't have much interest in anything anymore either.

    Kinda feel like a human tumbleweed.

    2 votes

  5. Comment on What’s something you’ve noticed about getting older? in ~talk

    PhantomBand
    Link
    As a 23 year old my main experience is that it keeps getting harder and harder to enjoy things, hardly anything just gives that "rush" that you experience when you experience stuff for the first...

    As a 23 year old my main experience is that it keeps getting harder and harder to enjoy things, hardly anything just gives that "rush" that you experience when you experience stuff for the first time during your high school years. Like, so much music and games just blew me away years ago, but now almost everything is just kinda "meh", "okay", "decent", "fine", "pretty good" and only very seldom actually great or better.

    Aside from that, it's rather weird hearing some people call me "sir" when I still feel like a kid inside. A while ago a teen couple approached me and asked me for directions, and they addressed me with "sir" which took me off guard, as I genuinely still kinda felt like I wasn't that much older than them or anything. It's kinda odd.

    3 votes

  6. Comment on BABYMETAL - Metal Kingdom (2023) in ~music

    PhantomBand
    Link Parent
    In general Japanese media just seems to be really controversial for whatever reason. Like, there's a ton of people out there nowadays who love anime, but there's also always been tons of people...

    I don't get why people dismiss more of their recent stuff as weeb trash, just because it's in Japanese. Rammstein sing almost exclusively German songs and English-speaking metal fans have largely embraced them, so it's defintiely not the language barrier...

    In general Japanese media just seems to be really controversial for whatever reason. Like, there's a ton of people out there nowadays who love anime, but there's also always been tons of people who have this really seething, burning hatred towards anything even remotely resembling it. Same seems to be the case for Japanese music and other stuff. For some reason it just incites really strong reactions, both good and bad.

    2 votes

  7. Comment on BABYMETAL - Metal Kingdom (2023) in ~music

    PhantomBand
    Link
    I really feel like Babymetal has been pulling a Burial recently. Like, initially they have this really typical, recognizable sound that draws you in to them, and then after a while they start to...

    I really feel like Babymetal has been pulling a Burial recently. Like, initially they have this really typical, recognizable sound that draws you in to them, and then after a while they start to move away from what initially made them so good and then become incredibly "ok" and utterly... dull.

  8. Comment on Year in Review: Music of 2022 in ~music

    PhantomBand
    Link
    I literally didn't find anything good this year.

    I literally didn't find anything good this year.

    1 vote

  9. Comment on What's your unpopular opinion or idiosyncrasy about video games or games in general? in ~games

    PhantomBand
    Link
    I most likely have more, but my most prominent unpopular opinion is that I dislike shooters and online multiplayer stuff like MOBAs. Shooters tend to be way too thin in terms of story content...

    I most likely have more, but my most prominent unpopular opinion is that I dislike shooters and online multiplayer stuff like MOBAs. Shooters tend to be way too thin in terms of story content (which is one of the reasons why I love RPGs) and they tend to take place in settings I don't care for like realistic war zones (though I do like Killzone's sci-fi aesthetic), and I just don't think shooting things is very fun if that's all there is to it with no plot. As for multiplayer online stuff, while I do dig MMORPGs like MapleStory, I just dislike how quickly these games turn into P2W money sinks and I prefer just playing alone and savoring the game at my own pace.

    5 votes

  10. Comment on Let’s talk visual novels in ~games

    PhantomBand
    Link Parent
    VNs definitely have a big advantage over manga due to music and voice acting, yeah.

    VNs definitely have a big advantage over manga due to music and voice acting, yeah.

    1 vote

  11. Comment on Let’s talk visual novels in ~games

    PhantomBand
    Link Parent
    PC. I played Danganronpa 1 and 2 way back on the PS Vita, but I'm 100% PC in general nowadays.

    PC. I played Danganronpa 1 and 2 way back on the PS Vita, but I'm 100% PC in general nowadays.

    2 votes

  12. Comment on Let’s talk visual novels in ~games

    PhantomBand
    Link
    As someone who doesn't love novels/books, I do have to say that I love VNs. My main problem with the former is that there's more of a "realistic" aesthetic to it (and even the more...

    As someone who doesn't love novels/books, I do have to say that I love VNs. My main problem with the former is that there's more of a "realistic" aesthetic to it (and even the more fantasy/sci-fi/etc stuff is still heavily westernized) while VNs are nearly entirely basically anime novels, which is perfect for me as a huge anime fan.

    What I enjoy most about VNs is how they offer a more elaborate experience than anime and manga while still being in the same ballpark.

    Admittedly I haven't played many yet since they're quite a time sink and I'm still an anime fan in the first place, but so far I think the Danganronpa games are definitely the peak for me.

    As for an introduction to VNs, I think Danganronpa would be a good starting point. It's a bit atypical for VNs too as there's some gameplay, which might be more friendly to most. And it's just really exciting and full of twists and turns which is probably more palatable to most than a slow paced SoL.

    Personally like I said before I'm not one for "regular" novels/books so VNs are far superior imo (though I get the impression that the general consensus is the other way around), and I wouldn't really compare them to games as games have an entire dimension of interactivity that is absent in most VNs (and VNs are far more elaborate in terms of dialogue the vast majority of the time).

    5 votes

  13. Comment on What's a video game that you really want to exist? in ~games

    PhantomBand
    Link
    A new Silent Hill game. That's all, lol.

    A new Silent Hill game. That's all, lol.

    2 votes

  14. Comment on AlbumLove recommendations thread: May 2022 in ~music

    PhantomBand
    Link Parent
    Ah ok, wasn't aware that he also did the Tales OSTs. Haven't played any Tales games yet so that should be a nice thing to look forward to.

    Ah ok, wasn't aware that he also did the Tales OSTs. Haven't played any Tales games yet so that should be a nice thing to look forward to.

    2 votes

  15. Comment on AlbumLove recommendations thread: May 2022 in ~music

    PhantomBand
    Link Parent
    Fun fact: YouTube uses Opus (a modern audio codec) nowadays, so if you're watching/listening to newer videos, chances are the audio is actually good, as opposed to the days of 128kbps mp3 audio....

    but then I realized I could probably listen to most of your recommendations on Youtube as long as I was OK with potentially worse audio quality and the occasional advertisement.

    Fun fact: YouTube uses Opus (a modern audio codec) nowadays, so if you're watching/listening to newer videos, chances are the audio is actually good, as opposed to the days of 128kbps mp3 audio. Of course, old videos still have crappy audio, though. And may I recommend uBlock Origin to help with the advertisement issue? Ads will be a thing of the past if you install it (it's a browser extension).

    Back on topic though, what would you recommend if I like the Golden Sun OST? I'm only familiar with Sakuraba through his work on that, and the whole meme with the Dark Souls boss theme.

    2 votes

  16. Comment on What's something that you're pretty sure of, but can't really prove or demonstrate? in ~talk

  17. Comment on What's something that you're pretty sure of, but can't really prove or demonstrate? in ~talk

  18. Comment on Predict the next five years in the US in ~talk

    PhantomBand
    Link Parent
    Why?

    Science fiction will become even more mainstream.

    Why?

    1 vote

  19. Comment on LittleVMills - Why Is It Always An Anime Avatar!? (2022) in ~music

    PhantomBand
    Link
    Why Is It Always Anime Avatars People Complain About!?

    Why Is It Always Anime Avatars People Complain About!?

    2 votes

  20. Comment on "...more than half of our members globally tuned into [anime] last year" - Netflix Anime Director in ~anime

    PhantomBand
    Link Parent
    Well, One Piece is quite unusual. Haven't seen the Castlevania anime, what did you like about it exactly?

    Well, One Piece is quite unusual.

    Haven't seen the Castlevania anime, what did you like about it exactly?

    2 votes