In the past, Jared and I talked about the Persona games and spinoffs in a two part retrospective episode. This week, to celebrate the Japanese release of Persona 3: Dancing Moon Night and Persona 5: Dancing Star Night, we decided to talk about these games as well as Persona 4: Dancing All Night in depth. Jared tells us the differences and similarities in the new games to DAN, how the new comm mode works and if it compares to a story mode, and we both get mad at a particular dance in Dancing Star Night that perpetuates our issues with Persona 5. We also talk about how surprisingly great that Dancing All Night story was and the tragedy of no FeMC or playable Koromaru in Dancing Moon Night.
Leave a CommentAuthor: Anne Ladyem McDivitt
In a tailor-made episode for the resident musou queen, Jared and I talk about Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition this week. Two of my favorite franchises, The Legend of Zelda and musou, are mashed together for this game. While this is my third time buying it, the utter joy it brings me still exists. We discuss the story, the awesome fan service, what should have been in there, and how ridiculously fun it is to take down thousands of dudes with the mashing of buttons. I also will put it on the record that Groose should have been playable, and I forgot to mention that in the podcast.
Leave a CommentThis week, Jared and I talk about two relatively recent games that have been quite controversial. Jared talks about Mass Effect: Andromeda, where he discusses the development cycle, whether it deserves all the flack it gets, and his thoughts as a fan of the series. I discuss Final Fantasy XV, which we’ve talked about a lot on the pod up to this point but had yet to actually play. I discuss the story, the issues I had, and whether or not it deserves the criticism Jared and I have directed towards it for a good while.
Leave a CommentYet again, I have convinced Jared to tackle another Zelda game. This time, we played Majora’s Mask. We talk about what’s good, what’s bad, how it compares to Ocarina, why it’s so controversial, and how Jared and I absolutely despise the Zelda timeline.
Leave a CommentIn a very on-brand podcast this week, Jared and I tackle two games very different games that serve up healthy amounts of wackiness and emotion. First, I discuss the most recent otome I have played, Psychedelica of the Black Butterfly. (Say that three times fast!) I discuss the characters, the interesting flow chart mechanic, my favorite of the guys, unexpected sadness, and how completely bonkers the story gets at times. Jared then takes over to finish talking about Yakuza 6. Jared first talked about Yakuza a bit ago, but now that he has completed the game, he talks about the rest of the story beats, playing baseball, how many people he beat up, and also a massive amount of sadness.
Spoilers for both games!
And please enjoy the art that is Jared’s cover art this week.
In 2016, I wrote a review of Ready Player One and why, as an avid video game player and a video game historian, I felt the story was a slap in the face. Since then, I have been caught up in my dissertation1, but with the recent release of the film, I felt that it would be a good idea to revisit my review. Back then, a younger, more innocent AL’s major complaints with the book involved the narrative of gamers needing to remove themselves from the system, as well as “minor issues” involving language and the need by Ernest Cline to tell us all the details of Wade’s masturbatory habits.
At one point, I was excited to read it since it seemed straight up my alley. I also admit that I was much nicer in my initial review than I feel I should have been. Revisiting the book with my pal Jared demonstrated to me that sometimes I am nicer than I should be. 2 However, with some time away from it and a revisit of the problematic writing style, the poorly written narrative, and the incessant references have solidified that Ready Player One is downright frustrating as both a novel and a supposed love letter to an era that I have spent the last seven years of my life studying.
While I no longer have the book to make specific references to it, I can say that a recent piece of satire nailed the insanely terrible writing style, as well as the annoying and at times pointless references Cline insists on throwing in at random, potentially as a Family Guy-style drive-by or more likely in an attempt to draw attention away from the fact that the novel is shallow and makes less sense than The Room. 3
I also regret the fact that I neglected to mention the horrible treatment of Art3mis throughout the book. Art3mis does an intense amount of legwork, logic, and emotional support in RPO, and in return, she is reduced to a couple tropes—Manic Pixie Dream Girl and The Prize™. In addition, Art3mis is continuously harassed by Wade due to his crush, often in ways that cross the line. She is also given a “flaw” by Cline in order to make her attractive to Wade (and readers) but not perfect, which again reduces her down to her desirability rather than who she is as a character.
Cline also clearly has never interacted with anyone who is Japanese in his life. Instead of actually doing any research on Japanese people and culture, he writes Daito and Shoto as ridiculous stereotypes. 4 This becomes especially apparent when Cline has Shoto use the word “seppuku” in reference to general suicide, whereas seppuku itself is a distinct form of ritualistic suicide in Japanese culture and history. There are other moments where this bizarre treatment of the two Japanese characters comes up, and they seem like half-hearted attempts at including them without doing any actual legwork to understand how they would speak and act in certain situations without reducing them to racial caricatures.
Many people assume that given my interests, I would be all over this film and the book. In reality, I find it difficult to enjoy the story and characters of RPO, and I think it reduces people who play video games down to really awful stereotypes that I cannot support.5 The protagonist is entirely unlikable and unrelatable. The writing style is bizarre to the point of irritation. These and other negatives are wrapped up into a reference-heavy and ultimately unrealistic dystopian video game universe6, and while on the surface it may seem like a fun romp, it turns out that it is a book that is stewed in toxic nerd culture in ways that ruin any potential it could have had.
Leave a CommentI livestreamed my dissertation defense on April 27, 2018. If you would like to watch, the video can be found below.
Leave a CommentThis week, Jared and I took a different approach to the OVA. Since I defended (and passed!) my dissertation defense this week, we decided to talk in depth about the early years of the video game industry in the United States. We discuss the very first video games, the formation and culture of Atari, women and video games in the 1980s, the video game crash, and Nintendo’s resurrection of the industry, as well as some parallels of the early industry into today. If you want a crash course on the early history of the US video game industry, look no further!
Leave a CommentHonestly, I wish I had counted how many times this series has made me cry. I know that it is a lot. I love the story, and I have since tried to locate any and all supplementary media for it. The three-volume manga run just ended in the US around a week ago, and so Jared and I decided to discuss it. We previously talked about the movie Your Name, so we don’t really dive into a detailed description of the story. Instead, we talk about what’s new, what’s different, how the manga handles certain important scenes, and how the story translates into a completely different format.
Leave a CommentOn April Fools, Toonami showed a preview of the new FLCL, and I learned that Jared had never seen the original FLCL. I previously watched it in the early 2000s, and so after a rewatch on my part and an initial watch by Jared, we decided to chat about it. Is it a product of its time? Does it hold up after 18 years? Does nostalgia have any factor into the quality? We also talk about Richard Cheese and Crystal Pepsi, because if you had any doubts of when this was dubbed, you’ll know by those references. Also, LISTEN TO THE PILLOWS.
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