Well_known_bear's recent activity
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Comment on Nintendo raises prices for Switch, Switch 2 and NSO in ~games
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Nintendo raises prices for Switch, Switch 2 and NSO
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Comment on Star Fox Direct shadow dropped right before premiere in ~games
Well_known_bear LinkFrom a corporate perspective, I can see the thinking behind releasing this as a remake: Cheaper development cost / shorter development cycle / lower skill needed, so the A-team isn't tied up....From a corporate perspective, I can see the thinking behind releasing this as a remake:
- Cheaper development cost / shorter development cycle / lower skill needed, so the A-team isn't tied up.
- Known to be a well received game.
- This is a largely unknown franchise for kids nowadays, so there's a fresh addressable audience (particularly after Fox's appearance in the new Mario movie).
At the same time, as someone who played this to death on the N64, it's disappointing that it's not a new game. A whole new rail / open area space shooter done in the flashy visual style of Fox's introduction in the Mario movie would have been so cool!
If the rumours about the Ocarina of Time remake are true, I'll likely feel the same way about that too.
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Comment on What's your dream job? in ~life
Well_known_bear Link ParentIn addition, accepting money for labour means assuming responsibility for delivering something of a certain quality in a certain timeframe. This completely kills the fun aspect of any activity for...In addition, accepting money for labour means assuming responsibility for delivering something of a certain quality in a certain timeframe. This completely kills the fun aspect of any activity for me, and I've always turned down compensation for anything I'm doing for the fun of it.
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Comment on Do you play knock-offs of celebrated indie games? in ~games
Well_known_bear LinkI think the question is not whether the later game is similar to an earlier one, but simply whether it can provide a superior or different experience to the player. 'Knock off' is perjorative and...I think the question is not whether the later game is similar to an earlier one, but simply whether it can provide a superior or different experience to the player. 'Knock off' is perjorative and implies a case where it doesn't (e.g. copying the same assets, story, systems, etc wholesale), but just being similar to / inspired by another game might not necessarily be a bad thing - e.g.
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Harvest Moon and Stardew Valley are the same game at their core, but the latter is giving you a broader, deeper range of systems, areas, items, characters, events and so on.
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Mario Maker and Mario romhacks are using literally the same system as the 2D Mario games, but they're offering you a different experience with levels you won't see in the actual Mario games - e.g. kaizou levels.
I wouldn't play a game that completely copies another to the point where I'm essentially just playing the original game (or a worse version), but I'd be willing to at least check out a game which offered something new / better.
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Comment on Toyota built a $10 billion private utopia—what’s going on in there? in ~design
Well_known_bear (edited )LinkThe city also has a website with some more photos (and of course you can just Google Street View it, although the photos are from March 2025 and a lot of it is just construction sites). If nothing...The city also has a website with some more photos (and of course you can just Google Street View it, although the photos are from March 2025 and a lot of it is just construction sites).
If nothing else, it's in a really nice location not far from Hakone and the Izu peninsula.
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Comment on What have you been watching / reading this week? (Anime/Manga) in ~anime
Well_known_bear Link ParentI'm reading the manga for this, and at the end of each volume, there's a big bibliography of texts the author had reference to (including books on culture, history, military tactics, philosophy,...I'm reading the manga for this, and at the end of each volume, there's a big bibliography of texts the author had reference to (including books on culture, history, military tactics, philosophy, etc). They strike me as being really into the underlying material from feudal Japan and China!
My favourite part is how the characters often mix in colloquial speech from our present day, even in formal situations (since this technically takes place in the post-apocalypse future). Seeing that and other remnants from our modern day (and slowly discovering what happened to the rest of the world and why Japan has regressed to feudal times) is really neat and reminds me a bit of stuff like Boukyou Tarou.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Well_known_bear LinkBeen playing a bunch of stuff! Final Fantasy VII Rebirth I was expecting this to take me all year to finish, but the game grew on me as I went and I ended up getting invested enough to play it as...Been playing a bunch of stuff!
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
I was expecting this to take me all year to finish, but the game grew on me as I went and I ended up getting invested enough to play it as my main game in the evenings until I finished it. All up, it took me 101 hours to complete the main story, the world report and all of the sub-quests, but I passed on the more insane stuff like aceing all the minigames and clearing all the combat challenges.
- I was generally on board with all of the story changes and additional worldbuilding in this instalment except
Spoilers
the parallel world stuff at the very end. The original disc 1 finale is probably the best known / remembered scene in the entire game and having all of this cruft on top of it only serves to dilute its impact as the dramatic climax of the story.-
Also loved all the additional characterisation - everything from the large changes like the more deft handling of Cait Sith (just not having the giant moogle out at all times makes him feel like much less of a joke character) to the little touches like Yuffie singing to herself.
The only disappointment here was Vincent, who doesn't get anywhere close to the ground-up rework that Yuffie did in Intergrade and this game. He ends up as just some weirdo who decides to tag along with your party, just like in the original.
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As is often pointed out, there are too many mini-games, but none of them feel straight up bad to play in the way that many did in the original (Junon parade in the PC version... yikes) and some of them had me laughing out loud at how absurd they were while Cloud plays it completely straight (the tin can one in particular is great). Other than the card game, the chocobo racing and the piano were a lot of fun.
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The music is outstanding. In addition to all the arranges of the original game's music, there's also a bunch of great new music, including the incredible Stamp the dog theme which is a real earworm (and has its own battle remix!)
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Although I still think the combat is a bit janky and some characters feel way more responsive than others (Tifa, Red and Yuffie are great while Aerith and Barret are pretty awful, particularly with how the enemies now aggro hard to them when you're in control), the cooperative move gauge is a nice idea and incentivises you to switch around, giving each fight a bit more variety and making it feel almost like a TV show where the camera is shifting between the characters each doing their thing. The 'limit level' system could probably have used some more tutorialising as it's not intuitive and works differently from the first game, but the game isn't so difficult that building it is necessary.
Looking forward to seeing part 3.
Death Stranding
This is my second attempt at giving this game the old college try. In terms of Kojima tolerance, I've previously played MGS 1-4 (can't say I love these other than 3) and Zone of the Enders 1-2 (I do love these). I'm about 6 hours in at this point.
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Playing with a controller on a TV is a massive improvement over keyboard and mouse (as per my first attempt). The control scheme is kind of monstrous because you can do so much (much like MGS) and having the controller makes it a bit easier to develop that muscle memory.
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The UI is one of the worst I've ever had the displeasure of using. It feels like every menu prioritises looking cool and futuristic over readability, with all of the text being tiny and common functions being hidden away in multiple layers of submenus. Given how important it is to load out and set up routes, I wish they'd just put in a nice clean paper doll RPG equipment screen where you can assign luggage / resources directly to where you want it or send it to a single storage.
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The volume of talking in this game is absurd even for Kojima. It's not just the story cutscenes (of which there are of course many), but even rando NPCs will queue in line on the terminal to talk at you. Having three people lecture you in a row (often on stuff that could have just been put into the codex in the menu) and then getting a constant stream of tutorial chatter while NPCs send you follow up emails is just exhausting and makes the constant calls from Chadley in FF7 feel like light maintenance.
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The actual walking simulator part is quite fun and thinking about where you're going to tread next quickly becomes second nature and even kind of relaxing. There are genuinely cool moments like when you're hiking up a hill and the sun peeks out over the crest with a big cinematic lens flare, and it's unclear whether that was by design or something that just happened. If they'd cut everything from this game except the loadouts and walking, I could see it being a lot more compelling.
The stealth / combat parts, on the other hand, feel clunky and I'm struggling to grasp how to approach them in an enjoyable way. MULES are all right in that at worst, you can scope them out and eliminate them or easily run away, but BT encounters are particularly frustrating as they're invisible and they can fly, so half the time you aren't even sure if they have a line of sight on you and it feels completely arbitrary whether they spot you or not.
I've been told that it gets better with more unlocks, so might put in a bit more time here and there when I'm in the mood.
Mystery/horror VN about a private detective sent to investigate an island in the Aleutians where the super wealthy gather.
The fun characters (the protagonist's super awkward assistant is a standout), fast paced story, creepy horror atmosphere and great voice acting from an A-list of famous Japanese voice actors (I was genuinely surprised they could afford this cast given the rest of the production values for the game are clearly indie level) are all enjoyable, but there are a fair few rough edges too:
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Investigation is of the old school 'check everything multiple times until you can progress' design, and there's often no hint as to what the game wants you to do or even what is clickable.
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You can easily get killed by making the wrong choice, but there's no auto save. If you forget to save frequently, be prepared to slog back through all the investigation sections to get back to where you were.
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In some sections where there's a need to act quickly, there'll be a timer bar that counts down in real time. This does add some tension, but in practice it doesn't work well in a VN where the player needs to spend time reading each text box to understand what's happening.
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The main story is fine on its own, but the bonus scenario unlocked after it (which is quite substantial - maybe half the length of the main game) is a complete change in tone and goes a bit over the line in sexualising the underaged female characters. Might have been effort better spent on polishing up the main game.
Hopefully the upcoming sequel The Distant Circular World improves on those points.
PARANORMASIGHT: The Mermaid's Curse
Mystery VN about the 'curse of immortality' said to afflict those who consume the flesh of mermaids.
It's hard not to compare this to the first game because they're so similar in presentation. Reasonable people could probably disagree about which is better, although I think I prefer the first one.
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The first game has a darker tone, with the highlight being all the standoffs where you were trying to work out and avoid the other guy's curse while setting up the conditions to activate your own. This second game still has a bit of that, but most of the time you aren't in any danger and it probably wouldn't be fair to call it a horror game at all.
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If the first game is a police procedural with a lot of detective fieldwork, the second game is a historical investigation. Although you could mostly get by with skimming the files in the first game, the second game packs huge amounts of important exposition into them and there are a few sections where all you're doing is reading file after file like its Wikipedia, which completely tanks the pacing. There's also one critical scene in the game which is conveyed entirely through one such text file, which might have been for budget reasons (both games are clearly made on a shoestring budget by Square Enix standards) but kind of reduces its dramatic impact.
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This second game has a much more obnoxious set of steps needed to see the 'true ending'. Even with the hints, I got stuck on this part for a good while because the solution is so out of left field. In contrast, the true ending in the first game just required you to actually have paid attention to the plot.
Still, pretty fun as long as you're into Japanese folklore and down for reading big slabs of lore.
Mystery / horror VN about three girls who are trapped in a house and told that they can only leave after someone dies.
Short but entertaining.
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Notwithstanding the setup, the focus is more on delving into the layers of mystery behind the game and the house rather than the actual strategy of the death game - and there are a lot of layers.
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Although you'll die and have to replay sections a lot, this game has a remarkably good set quality of life features which make that painless (for the player anyhow). On top of being able to skip read text, you can also skip investigation parts entirely and rewind the text at any time, including to before choices, which is a great feature that saves you the bother of saving at each choice.
It's Ace Attorney.
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Everything from the premise to the game system is slavishly recreated here, which is fine for me since I love Ace Attorney and Capcom isn't exactly rushing to make more of those. There are a couple of tweaks here and there like being able to directly access any part of the testimony from a menu instead of going through it line by line, but overall the characters, gameplay and vibe feel very familiar.
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I'm playing in English as the original language is Chinese, but the localisation could use some work as a lot of the dialogue feels unnatural and there are a few typos here and there. Nothing that'll prevent you from understanding the case, but it does somewhat dampen the charm of the writing.
Mystery VN about police detectives with superpowers who investigate superpower-related crime.
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The premise is kind of like Rain Code in that you play as a detective without superpowers assisted by colleagues with useful skills like psychometry, but the actual gameplay is closer to Ace Attorney. As the story progresses, the game poses questions which you use your evidence file to answer. Each piece of evidence is usually a document or photo filled with statements or points of interest, so you'll have to pick out the specific statement / area which is relevant, and sometimes you'll also need to contrast two statements from different sources to establish a connection or contradiction or refute / support a statement.
It's pretty laid back in that there's no penalty for guessing wrong, but due to the information density of each clue, try to brute force a solution is inefficient and the player is encouraged to still apply some brain power.
My only real complaint is that sometimes the question you're supposed to be answering is not set out on the deduction screen at all, and you have to sort of infer it by going back into the log and checking what the characters were discussing immediately beforehand.
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Although you can sometimes spot the twist coming a mile away in the cases themselves, the overarching story is surprisingly good, with a lot of space devoted to fleshing out the setting where people (and sometimes objects) with dangerous superpowers are heavily regulated - arguably persecuted - and how this plays out for society.
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Weirdly, although this is a Korean game, it only has Japanese voice acting. The acting itself is quite good though, and the English localisation also seems pretty decent (if a bit too keen on forced British-isms).
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Comment on For $700 a month, sleeping pods make San Francisco more affordable, but at what cost in ~life
Well_known_bear Link ParentThis article reminded me a bit of this one about rental bunks in Hong Kong. The SF ones seem a lot nicer.This article reminded me a bit of this one about rental bunks in Hong Kong.
The SF ones seem a lot nicer.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Well_known_bear Link ParentIt's pretty similar to Demon Roots, but with a lot less polish. It was made earlier (so it's on a jankier and more sluggish version of RPG Maker) and the content gets pretty dark even compared to...It's pretty similar to Demon Roots, but with a lot less polish.
It was made earlier (so it's on a jankier and more sluggish version of RPG Maker) and the content gets pretty dark even compared to Demon Roots since most of the game takes place inside a prison, plus the combat has fewer interesting options (particularly in the first half when you're often not rolling with a full party).
Having said that, there's still an interesting story and fun characters, and it does fill in the gap of what the 'bad future' looks like which I found really cool, especially when you run across characters from Demon Roots in their original incarnation and see how they end up if you had made the other choice.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Well_known_bear Link ParentNever thought I'd run across someone else who'd played Demon Roots on Tildes! Although the majority of these RPG maker games on DLSite are pretty awful, I couldn't put this one down. The crazy...Never thought I'd run across someone else who'd played Demon Roots on Tildes!
Although the majority of these RPG maker games on DLSite are pretty awful, I couldn't put this one down. The crazy story and the way it's rolled out is incredible (and makes the seeing the 'true history' version of events in King Exit extra fun), as are all the nutty optional things you can do.
Using Ange is kind of game-breaking once you can get decent HP regen on her and just spam her specials, but the challenge bosses (and that brutal death game dungeon) are still a lot of fun.
I still occasionally check out these doujin games if they get buzz in Japan just for the possibility of coming across games like this.
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Comment on What have you been watching / reading this week? (Anime/Manga) in ~anime
Well_known_bear (edited )Link ParentWhat I had in mind was a 'stranger visits a different country each week with a society that has its own unusual rules' show. Kind of like if it was The ones who walk away from Omelas but every...What I had in mind was a 'stranger visits a different country each week with a society that has its own unusual rules' show. Kind of like if it was The ones who walk away from Omelas but every week it was something different.
I've seen or read all of these, but probably the only one I'd say is close to that is Galaxy Express 999 (where most of the time, it's not an actual country but an alien planet with weird sci-fi stuff going down).
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Comment on I built ProxChat - what is it? in ~tech
Well_known_bear LinkCould it be YikYak? It was similar in the 'chat with people nearby' sense and it was from around 13 years ago, although I don't think it was a web app.Could it be YikYak?
It was similar in the 'chat with people nearby' sense and it was from around 13 years ago, although I don't think it was a web app.
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Comment on What have you been watching / reading this week? (Anime/Manga) in ~anime
Well_known_bear Link ParentI feel like from about halfway (maybe earlier?) in this series, the author really just zeroed in on the central premise of 'characters who can come back in perfect health if they die' and...I feel like from about halfway (maybe earlier?) in this series, the author really just zeroed in on the central premise of 'characters who can come back in perfect health if they die' and everything else was just an afterthought to enable those scenes. The main story becomes an absolute mess towards the end, so anyone sticking around is only reading for the action and art.
I read this author's short THE POOL recently which is a much more coherent Aliens-esque (the James Cameron one) story.
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Comment on What have you been watching / reading this week? (Anime/Manga) in ~anime
Well_known_bear Link ParentDefinitely agree that the 2003 Kino anime had better composition. Just about the only things I liked better about the 2017 series were the improved animation and the stories which weren't featured...Definitely agree that the 2003 Kino anime had better composition. Just about the only things I liked better about the 2017 series were the improved animation and the stories which weren't featured in the 2003 version.
This is one of those series where I really wish they'd make more of the anime (although I can understand why it isn't exactly a blockbuster) or at least another show in the same vein. The only thing I've seen which has a remotely similar premise is Majo no Tabitabi which has a much more lighthearted tone.
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Comment on What have you been watching / reading this week? (Anime/Manga) in ~anime
Well_known_bear LinkBeen reading Junket Bank, a thriller about sharply-dressed men who gamble against each other in death games. The premise is that the protagonist works for a bank which secretly operates an...Been reading Junket Bank, a thriller about sharply-dressed men who gamble against each other in death games.
The premise is that the protagonist works for a bank which secretly operates an underground casino funded by the decadent 1%. These people show up to watch gamblers play against each other in increasingly deadly games as their winnings (essentially their 'power level') increase, while their agents (the employees of the bank who set up the matches) are also playing against fellow employees by staking their 'career time' on each match. Those who lose all of their money (or career time, in the case of employees) become seized as property of the bank.
Despite the dark premise, there's really no social commentary angle to it. It's purely dudes death gaming against each other, which I can hang with.
The series has been running for about 5 years now and there's an anime coming up for it later in October this year for anyone who'd prefer to watch that.
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Comment on What have you been watching / reading this week? (Anime/Manga) in ~anime
Well_known_bear (edited )LinkWe're nearing the end of another season, so I've been deciding on my picks for next season. Re: Zero kara Hajmeru Isekai Seikatsu S4 Still can't quite put my finger on what I like about this show....We're nearing the end of another season, so I've been deciding on my picks for next season.
Re: Zero kara Hajmeru Isekai Seikatsu S4
Still can't quite put my finger on what I like about this show. There's nothing really special about the characters or the story (much of which has been done in other series). Maybe it's how bad decisions are frequently met with actual negative consequences (even if the protagonist usually ends up just rewinding back in time) and the good guys are often outmatched and lose fights. There's a 'dark fantasy' feel to it that makes it a little edgy, even if it is otherwise filled with tropes.
BONES adaptation of the Full Metal Alchemist author Arakawa Hiromu's current serial. I've been putting off reading this in anticipation of seeing it animated so I have no idea what it's like, but I've enjoyed everything she's put out so far.
I've made a couple of attempts to get into the manga for this one but it hasn't clicked. However, I thought the Madhouse adaptation for Kaiji was fantastic and have high hopes they can do the same for this.
Honourable mentions for stuff I read the manga for:
Aggressively offbeat and weird heavy metal fantasy with a story to match. An oddly addictive read despite the incredibly messy art. The author's current serial Dai Dark is also every bit as bizarre and enjoyable.
Fantasy series with luscious art, beautiful outfits and great world building. It's kind of like if Harry Potter really dug down into the themes about the privilege of magic users over regular people and the extent to which magic that can, you know, kill people needs to be regulated even at the cost of not using it to save lives. The animation in the trailer looks excellent (by BUG FILMS which did the very nicely animated Zom 100 - first episode in particular is incredible), although it doesn't really capture the art style of the manga.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Well_known_bear (edited )LinkPokemon Pokopia Picked this up after seeing the reviews. It's pretty good! The core gameplay feels a bit like a very large open-zoned Animal Crossing. Rather than managing a cozy little island...Pokemon Pokopia
Picked this up after seeing the reviews. It's pretty good!
The core gameplay feels a bit like a very large open-zoned Animal Crossing. Rather than managing a cozy little island with 8 residents, you're the landlord to an every-expanding empire of dozens of Pokemon across a sprawling map filled with mountains, caverns and ruins all waiting to be explored, restored and/or just looted. Every second I'm playing, I feel like I'm being pulled in five directions at once with all the different things I could be doing - setting up habitats, improving existing ones, crafting items and setting up infrastructure, completing quests or just pushing outwards a little further into the massive map and maybe uncovering some cool secrets. It's a little overwhelming, but at the same time, there's no time pressure, sweaty action or any kind of fail state. None of the mainline quests are difficult to progress, and no one hassles you to do them if you want to focus on doing something else instead.
The exploration in particular is the standout for me. I love coming across ruins and having that moment of recognition where I realise what it's meant to be from the original game. More than once, I've squeezed into tiny one block gaps and thought 'there's no way the designers thought to put anything here', only to find a long secret passage leading to a neat little reward. There are gates with tantalisingly inaccessible rooms lying beyond, mysterious flooded passages and holes in soaring ceilings and hidden shrines and shortcuts all over the place, all inviting tenacious / nosy players to find a way in.
The only minor complaints that I have:
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There's a loading screen between zones. It's not a long one, but you'll see it a lot since you're incentivised to move between zones pretty frequently - your storage isn't linked, and you'll often want to go to a zone to round up some Pokemon to help out in another. I really hope there's some kind of linked chest system later on to alleviate this, or at least a much larger chest.
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This game has so much stuff in it that your chests will constantly be overflowing. Even if you have a system for organising by category, it's a real pain when you want to dump a bunch of stuff from your latest looting expedition and your chests just don't have the room, or if you're looking for one specific piece of furniture and can't remember which chest you put it in.
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There's some live service game cruft like a daily login stamp card, daily missions, daily shop items and seasonal events. I'm not really a fan of this kind of FOMO game design, but the game gives you so much in-game currency anyway that you don't really need to do any of it.
Otherwise, it's solid enough that I'm curious how the next Animal Crossing is going to distinguish itself.
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Comment on Hisense TVs show ads during normal operation in ~tech
Well_known_bear Link ParentYeah, that's the comprehensive way to do it. There are pre-made lists floating around too, but I find they don't necessarily block everything. Another option is just to block everything and...Yeah, that's the comprehensive way to do it. There are pre-made lists floating around too, but I find they don't necessarily block everything.
Another option is just to block everything and whitelist the stuff you do use. I ended up just doing this and whitelisting YouTube.
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Comment on Bravely Default Flying Fairy HD Remaster released on Steam in ~games
Well_known_bear LinkBig fan of the original game. I played the original (OK, strictly speaking, the Japanese "For the Sequel" re-release) on the 3DS and it was the closest I've ever come to feeling like I was playing...Big fan of the original game. I played the original (OK, strictly speaking, the Japanese "For the Sequel" re-release) on the 3DS and it was the closest I've ever come to feeling like I was playing a new 'classic' Final Fantasy game of the kind they used to make before FF7.
I've played both of the sequels and while the gameplay loop is still solid, I don't think either of the stories or gimmicks are as well executed as in this one.
For anyone else who loves this series and wants more while hanging out for Bravely Sword to maybe eventually come out, check out Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light on the DS. It's the progenitor to the Bravely Default series in all but name and has a very similar system and style of storytelling.
Japan (effective 25 May)
Switch 2 (JP only model) increases to JPY 59,980
Switch OLED increases to JPY 47,980
Switch increases to JPY 43,980
Switch Lite increases to JPY 29,980
International (effective 1 September)
Switch 2 (International) increases to USD 499.99 / CAD 679.99 / EUR 499.99
Amusingly, their hanafuda and other card products are also moving to 'open price'.