For this post I will leave you with the smoothing sounds of Zora's Domain:
So after watching my roomie play Zelda: Skyward Sword (ZSS) the other day, I decided I should play a Zelda game for myself. Since it was over 5 years ago I played Zelda: Ocarina of Time (ZOoT) I thought it was about time to play the game again. After hearing some youtubers complaining about why ZOoT is a bad game I was being skeptical whether the game is as good as I remember it to be or not.
After playing around 5-6 hours I can only say this: ZOoT is one of the finest games I have ever played. The game's atmosphere is top notch. From the calm and happy themes in the towns to the darker themes in the dungeons. The gameplay is incredibly smooth, and the graphics looks great. I am btw playing the 3DS version. However, I feel like the art direction overall is very good in ZOoT. While the power of the N64 is very old, the art direction still holds to this day. All this mixed with an interesting story which takes you through two different eras makes the game a master piece. I seriously need to stop doubting Zelda games. First ZSS and now ZOoT. The Zelda games, especially those on the stationary consoles, are all extremely good.
What I like about the Zelda series is how the sequels do not make the earlier games feel old. What Nintendo does with the Zelda series is very smart. They use different graphics for each game and each game is inspired by a different culture. The culture argument do I find extremely interesting. ZOoT seems to be inspired by the middle east, e.g. the gerudos, we learn that Ganondorf is a gerudo and the original song in fire temple even had Islamic chantings. Zelda: Majoras Mask is inspired by native tribes. This one almost goes without saying, but it is very clear on the masks. Moreover does alot of the items in the game look very "tribe" like. Zelda: Wind Waker is inspired by the pacific islands. There are alot of small islands in the game and you need a boat to go from one island to another. Zelda: Twilight Princess is inspired by america. We have indians, totems, Link grows up on a ranch and there is even a old school "texas" like town in the game. ZSS is inspired by asian mythology. In ZSS there are swords with spirits, e.g. Fi, there is a bamboo cutting game and the dragons in ZSS are clearly asian inspired. Moreover does the game feel a little anime like, which is typical to japan.
Anyway, this was quite a sidetrack, but whatever. I just wanted to talk about how good the Zelda games, and I am sure you will hear alot more about the Zelda games in the future. Before I leave you I want to introduce two really cool atmospheric themes from the game, namely those from the forest temple and the water temple:
Acknowledgement: Thank you SupraDarky for adding three amazing themes from ZOoT onto your
list (SupraDarky is the guy who uploaded the music above).
(Since I post various title screens here I will not post any video game music in this post).
I will from time to time write on this blog about what I played under 2015 and what I liked the most. I thought it would be cool to kinda rank different games I played under 2015 in various categories, and what category is better to start off with than "best title screen"? A thing to note here is that I will not talk about games released under 2015, but rather games I played under 2015. In every "Best of 2015" post I will first mention some "honorable mentions" followed by my favorites. I will try to use both quriky and serious categories instead of just sticking to e.g. "best jrpg game 2015" (I will definitely make a that post though).
The title screen is the very first thing you see of a game, and hence does a good title screen give you a great first impression of the game. Something I noticed under my time as a gamer is that the games I love the most all has good title screen. Anyway let's go:
Honorable Mentions: Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate: My first experience with the Monster Hunter series was Monster Hunter 3: Ultimate (MH3U). I remember it having an interesting opening. While Monster Hunter 4: Ultimate (MH4U) may not have as good opening as MH3U, does it still have a very cool opening that ends with a badass twist. Moreover is the cgi in MH4U incredible!
Zelda: Spirit Tracks: Ah, who does not love a underrated game? Unfortunately, are underrated games often underrated since few people really like them. However I love me some Zelda and Zelda: Spirit Tracks is no different, moreover does it have a very good title screen that makes you instantly happy:
Some more honorable mentions: Zelda: Link's Awakening, Metroid: Zero Mission, Skies of Arcadia, Chrono Trigger
Best Title Screens/Openings 2015: Secret of Mana: Secret of Mana's opening is famous for the recorded sound of a whale, which in fact is supposed to cover several mega byte, which was alot for a game at the time. Its title screen, like the rest of the game is very atmospheric, with some darker sound tunes. This is very typical to Super Nintendo games, however it is awesome!
Xenoblade Chronicles X: I am just going to say this right of the bat! I love Xenoblade Chronicles X (XCX), and I am sure this game is gonna take alot of attention in these lists. I had been looking forward to this game for over 2.5 years (!!!), which felt from time to time very painful. It was love at first sight when I saw the first trailer back in E3 2013.
That said, as soon as I booted up the game and the title screen was loaded I knew I was in for a treat. I think the title screen speaks for itself when it comes to the fantastic world of Mira (the planet you are on in XCX):
Zelda: Majoras Mask: Not only does the remake of Zelda: Majoras Mask (ZMM) to the Nintendo 3DS make the game look much better, but moreover was its title screen greatly improved by the graphic overhaul. ZMM has imo a really cool title screen, where it starts out with the town and everyone is happy, but with time does it become darker and darker until the end where it's even quite psychedelic. It really sets the mood for how the game is going to be:
The Title Screen 2015: Metroid Prime 1 & 2: Since I have an extremely hard time saying that Metroid Prime (MP) is better than Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (MP2) or vice versa, I will probably write about these two simultaneously alot of time in these lists.
As soon as one starts MP or MP2 they know immediately that they are about to play an extremely atmospheric game. Be it the more "native" or "organic" atmosphere of MP or the darker atmosphere of MP2. These two title screens are not only the best title screen I've seen under 2015, but moreover two of the best title screens ever. I'm sure the title screens speak for themselves:
Acknowledgement: As usual, do I not link my own videos, hence I thank all of the youtubers who have uploaded these title screens and openings. Among these youtubers, do we e.g. have Monster Hunter's official youtube (which have of late become some kind of cat channel, lol) and GameXplain.
This song is very ambient and atmospheric. It plays shortly after you have entered below the clouds. It fits its enviroment extremely well, giving it a slightly dark atmosphere:
Just wanted to post a quick update. So yesterday I watched my roomie play Zelda: Skyward Sword (ZSS). It looked amazing: super interesting story, great atmosphere and beautiful graphics. I have not played ZSS since its release back in 2011. I remember that I thought the game was amazing after I finished it, but along the years my opinions about the game had turned for the worse. As with all games that get alot of positive reactions, there will be alot of strong negative opinions about them. I feel that maybe som of these negative opinions about ZSS made me think that the game is not that good. I mean, it is too linear for a Zelda game, Fi talks way too much about how the game works at the beginning of the game and Eldin Volcano is not such a cool place (cool, but not like Faron Woods and Lanayru Desert).
But then yesterday, while watching my roomie play the game, all these negative thoughts I had about the game disappeared, or maybe I just did not think about them while watching the game. ZSS has a super good atmosphere that immediately draws you into its world. Areas like Faron Woods and Lanayru Desert as well as all of the dungeons have all their own atmosphere. Faron Woods has that easy feel to it, and it really feels like you are wandering in a forest at daylight with the music. Lanayru Desert feels, well like a desert. It feels like a place which has been forgotten over time. Dungeons like the Lanayru Mining Facility has a similar atmosphere, well that is until you hit a timeshift stone and the whole place turns into an advanced, high tech facility. To understand this atmosphere I really think you need to play it yourself. Below is a picture of Lanayru Mining Facility:
Not only does ZSS has a really cool atmosphere, but its story is really interesting and is filled with alot of characters to get more or less attached to. The side guests in this game is actually quite fun too, and moreover does the sidequests let you interact with alot of the people in skyloft (the main village in the game). I had totally forgot that ZSS had such a good story.
And in addition to all of this, does ZSS deliver a 6 hour long soundtrack (!!!) which is beautiful composed and fully orchestrated. So let me discuss the soundtrack as a final subject in this post. The soundtrack really helps with the atmosphere. Everything form lighthearted tunes, to darker, more ambient melodies to epic boss music is in this soundtrack. Below I want to list some songs from the game, but as you could probably imagine with such a big soundtrack, is it hard to pick a favorite song. Thus I have icked some songs almost at random below, i.e. the songs below are far from the only good songs in this soundtrack. The first song is that of Faron Woods. As you can hear, does it really "sound like" a forest at broad daylight:
The last song I want to link is a boss theme. Orchestrated and epic:
Acknowlegdement: Thank you GilvaSunner and SupraDarky for uploading these tracks from the OST of ZSS. Both of these channels are very good. GilvaSunner has uploaded tons of ost's from various video games, while SupraDarky, i.e. the guy I first subscribed to on youtube, frequently uploads good video game music from all kinds of games. If you have not seen SupraDarky's channel I highly recommend it.
Here some atmospheric music to listen to while reading. I really love how goa inspired this song is:
Xenoblade Chronicles X (XCX) is without a doubt one of the games that left me with the best impression ever. Finsishing the game left me with a feeling which may only be compared to finishing a Zelda game. This feeling resembles somewhat the feeling of when something very important is missing in your life, however, at the same time you feel happy that you have finally finished the adventure which was given to you. It is a feeling only very compassionate games experience. Maybe one could question whether you beat the game or the game beat you?
For Zelda games I believe this reason follows directly from the subtleness of the story, since the story is given to the player mostly through gameplay. In general it is more about impressions and how oneself percieve the world and atmosphere around you, and not the dialogues and cutscenes. It is also from the mystery of the story, eg. why is there a temple here, who built it, etc.. It really adds alot to the your experience with the game.
Now what does all of this have to do with XCX. I mean, XCX has a story, namely that about humanity trying to survive on a planet, and the conflict between humans and ganglions. The reason behind the comparisson between Zelda games and XCX is because XCX has alot of subtleness in its story and that is what makes XCX's story one of the best stories ever that I have encountered in a video game. Below is a concept art picture of Noctilum, one of the game's many beautiful areas:
While playing XCX I could barely think about anything else except its story: As a sidenote this not so good for your everyday life or your studies, however it is still a very nice feeling to completely sink into an unknown imaginary world. I was surprised to say the least when I began reading reviews about the game after beating it. It seems most people really hated the story and saying things similar to "from beginning to end, I never liked the story". While I may be able to admit that the story is off to a slow start, the story sure does picks it up along the first plot twists. Moreover, when a game is as complicated as XCX I do not mind a slow start on the story when I have my hands full of getting a hang of the gameplay and all of the games many mechanics.
However, I think I know why people did not like the story in XCX. For one thing we have Xenoblades Chronicles (XC), the predecessor of XCX. Now do not get me wrong, I really like XC and everything about it, but XC feels like the top of the line masterpiece of fantasy jrpgs. And hence, its story is that of a fantasy jrpg. The story in XC is much more available for everyone: in due time everything is explained, there are alot of great plot twists and good characters, etc.. However the story in XCX is as different as it could get, eg. one does not play as the main character (Elma is the main character), the "real" story is subtle and hides itself under the conflict between humanity and ganglions. In fact, I have never played a game, seen a movie, watched a series, etc. that has a story similar to XCX. And this is one of the reasons why I think that XCX not only has a great story, but moreover a better story than XC (and probably the best story I ever experienced in anything).
Below this point I will discuss the story in high detail, thus spoilers! I feel like I have some explaining to do. Let us begin with the conflict between humanity and ganglion. This is probably the sole reason why many consider XCX to have a bad story. This conflict may not be as deep and complex storywise as the story in XC, however it is still a good story. However, this is not what XCX is about. XCX "real" story is in fact about the planet, Mira, itself. One of the earlier hints to this is in chapter 4, where Elma asks Tatsu which language they are speaking. We learn that every xenon (ie. every race in the world of XCX) on Mira speaks its native language, and that they hear aliens speaking in the same language as their native one. This is probably the point where I understood that it is going to be alot to the story in XCX. It is a shame though that so many has overlooked these kind of stuff while they were playing the game. Below is a picture of Elma suspecting the planet to be the reason why xenos can communicate with eachother:
In the same chapter we also learns about one of the most interesting plot twists ever, namely that all humans are in fact cyborgs with their consciousness constantly uploaded from something called the lifehold. With the explanation that follows it makes sense. Of course, you need to think about how to counter what could be generations of space travels. There is alot to this, but I want to discuss the planet and not the cyborg thing with XCX in this post. I am sure I will cme back to XCX several times in this blog. One of them may or may not cover some more on the cyborg thing.
From this point on, you will learn all kinds of things about the planet both in story missions and in side missions, and that is why XCX has an awesome story. No matter what mission you do (except basic missions of course), you will always learn more and more about the planet, and hence the story constantly develops and not only under story missions. You learn things like eg. all of the xenons seem to be stuck and moreover attracted to the planet involountarily. Some Man'ons say that they cannot leave the orbit of Mira even though they have a giant spaceship, and Elma (I think it was her) once said that Mira seemed to come out of nowhere when they were attacked on the White Whale by ganglions and needed to crash land. Moreover did Elma mention that Mira is not on any star charts and Professor B (a side charcter) even travels to the future with the time machine you help him fix in a side mission (that guy is a boss!), and when he returns he says the future holds no references to Mira what so ever. Below is a picture of Professor B, he is the one to the left:
In the next mission with Professor B he builds a new car (his time machine was a car too), which are supposed to discover all the secrets of Mira. While it is running it suddenly stops right before the secrets are revealed. Since the car (lol) was not malfunctioning it seems that the planet stopped Professor B from finding out what kind of planet Mira is, hinting the planet to have a mind of its own?
This is just mentioning a few of the weird things with Mira. They are literally everywhere in the game. As you probably understand by now is the story in XCX very subtle, but also extremely interesting and it really leaves you with alot of questions, unlike the story in XC (the story in XC is interesting, but it does not leave you with as many questions throughout the game). Now one last thing I want to mention is a part of the ending, which btw is extremely epic! At the very ending (this is not the whole ending) of the game you learn that database holding the humans consciousness is destroyed and has been destroyed ever since the humans first crash landed on Mira. It seems that the planet somewhat wants to protect all life, and thus are giving the humans their consciousness. This theory is also hinted in chapter 6 when a telethia saves you and your team, and the telethia, according to natives from Mira (L and nopons) seems to be singular creature, i.e. there exist only one of those on the planet. With all this questions about the planet Mira, I really found XCX's story to be extremely fascinating. The cliffhanger ending may be somewhat of a drag, but it will be all worth it if we get a game answering all of our questions about Mira (as well as maybe giving us ome more questions about Mira). Below is "Professor B's theme", which is a instrumental version of Wir Fliegen, i.e. the song that plays under overdrive. This song is very catchy and it feels very experimental in some weird way, just like Professor B's experiments.
Acknowledgement: I would like to thank DeoxysPrime for uploading XCX's glorious and epic soundtrack, as well as for uploading tons of different ost's from videogames I love.
Before we start, here is some nice music from the game I am about to discuss. I will probably always begin and end a post with some nice tunes. The song below gets really good about a minute in.
My first real post about a videogame do I want to dedicate to one of my favorite indie games, namely the sequel to BIT.TRIP Runner (BTR), called the BIT.TRIP Runner 2: Future Legend of Rythm Alien (BTR2). Who does not love a long title? I remember playing the first BTR on Wii together with my cousins and being completely amazed by its charm and atmosphere. However, it was not until the second game that I realised that the concept in these games are really good.
In these posts I will write in depth about a specific videogame that I like. I will try to list all the things I do not like with the game versus all the things I love about the game. This posts will probably contain spoilers, so if you have not played this game you should do it, it is a extremely good game, however it takes a while to get into its gameplay. It is totally worth it though. Anyway, let us discuss BTR2! What BTR2 did wrong
As I mentioned in my first post do I want to talk about games I really like on this blog.. It turns out I like BTR2 alot. In fact, one of the reasons why I like this game so much is because I simply cannot find anything wrong with it. So with that out of the way, let us move on to the good things with the game.
What BTR2 did well The Art and the Unique Atmosphere:
If you have played this game, or any other BIT.TRIP game, then the first thing you will probably think is something along the lines "What in the worlds is this?". The reason? Simple. The BIT.TRIP games are all unique experiences with unique atmospheres and unique gameplay. Every BIT.TRIP game out there to this day expect for BTR2 is part of the six part long BIT.TRIP Saga (available to Nintendo Wii and 3DS). Every game in this saga is exactly what the name is, i.e. a trip through bits. A picture of the first BTR game is below. As one may see does it look like 8-bit with modern resolution.. or something along those lines.
BTR2 while not be in this saga, and it may now have the same "bitty" art direction as its predecessors, however, that does not make BTR2 anyless of a bit trip. The story of the BTR2 is about Commander Video (the bitty character above) who gets hit by a relaity beam by his archnemesis (I think) and hence enters the reality. As can be seen below is the graphics in BTR2 vastly different from that in BTR:
As with the first BTR, is the background full of all kinds of moving objects, creatures, etc. which sometimes makes it very hard to focus on playing the game. This is a big part of what makes a BIT.TRIP game a BIT.TRIP game. Once you get used to this, it is impossible not to play this game and smile at the same time. The art direction in this game is one of the most unique ever in a game, and it creates an extremely thick and satisfying atmosphere to sink in to. It is simply beautiful, different and funny to look at. Moreover does BTR2's different art direction one really good thing, namely it does not make BTR a lesser version of BTR2, as is the case with many new games today, eg. Call of Duty, Assassins Creed, every sport game, etc. The Gameplay and the Soundtrack:
The best part of this game is the implemenation of soundtrack and gameplay. What may first seem like a trial and error game turns out (after several hours playing the game) to not be it. Once you get a hang of it, you are almost in a trance while playing the game. You are not able to tell what exactle you are thinking. It is probably a little of everything of what is going on at the screen. Everything from the small details in the background, to the fantastic soundtrack, to where the next obstacle is and how to counter it. While playing this game it is really hard to think about the outside world, which is one of the finer properties a game can have! And the soundtrack perfectly blends into the games atmosphere and gameplay. Mixing a background tune with the sound effects of your actions is incredibly cool.
Compared to BTR, is BTR2 much more smooth in controls. Some people argue that this is not the case, but I could not disagree anymore! There alot more feautures in BTR2 compared to BTR. Not that one expect anything less from a successor. Moreover does BTR2 provide some bonus levels which unlocks new characters, outfits, etc., as well as hidden retro stages which may be found on various levels. These bonus levels are in general a little bit harder than the rest of the stages. However, they are not impossible, so anyone who gets into the gameplay can beat them without bigger problem. Below is a screen shot of a retro stage.
As a side note (this is not a complaint), is BTR2 one of the few games where some of the unlockable characters are so disturbing to look at that it actually makes that game harder. But who does not like a challenge? Below is the reverse merman, which is clearly disturbing to look at:
Moreover, does the game let you decide which diffuclty you want, and you may change it between every level. The game does not reward you anymore if you pick a harder difficulty, which is incredible nice since then the game becomes more available to anyone.
The Boss Fights:
I do not believe one can mention this game's gameplay without mentioning its extremely cool boss fights. These boss fights have a good length as well as difficulty. It is also nice to see that they learned from the first BTR and included checkpoints between every life of the bosses. This does not make the fight tedious as they could be in BTR. Moreover, are all boss fights different quite different form eachother, e.g. the boss in the forest, where the perspective rotates and you play the game from a slightly third person angle:
or the boss which has a ranodm moveset:
Notable Tracks from the OST:
I will probably do this with most of the games I write about, namely mention one or two of my favorite tracks from the game. From this game I will leave you with the funky tune called superfunk:
With its jazzy tunes, this track is one of my favorite forest tracks ever in a video game. And the mixture of jazz and electronic is very cool.
The Verdict:
BIT.TRIP Runner 2: Future Legend of Rythm Alien is an extremely well made game, and since it is not a very long game it makes for a perfect go-to game. In my opinion it is the best indie game made to this day. If you like unique game, and platforming, then you should totally pcik up this game. I would say that BTR2 as a masterpiece among go-to games!
Acknowledgement: Most, if not all of the times, I will link to videos that are not my own, hence I will make an acknowledgement in the end of every video where I thank the people who are uploading the videos, or as in this case the music, to youtube. So thank you Soundtrakcs (yes it is supposed to be misspelled) for uploading BTR2's soundtrack.
I would like to start this blog about writing a little something about who I am, why I am blogging, etc. Let us start with what kind of blog this is. It turns out (about 21 years ago) that I am a gamer. One of my earliest memories is me playing super metroid with my uncle, which I think is quite awesome! Up to this day I still play games like crazy, hence I want to express my feelings for different kind of games I play. Therefore I have created this blog. It will be everything from video game reviews to great video game experiences to goty lists for different years and the list goes on. Basically my thoughts about various video games. Of course, since this is all my opinions this blog will probably be very subjective, which in fact is very typical to a blog. I will try to not write about games I do not like when I hate hating on stuff.
Now what kind of games do I like to play? Since I growed up with Nintendo, Nintendo games goes without saying. Underrated games overall do I find very good, mostly because they are usually very unique in gameplay, atmosphere, etc. I really do not stick to one kind of genre, but if I would chose a favorite genre I would probably chose a good backtracking game, like the metroid games, or jrpg's, even though I do not like fantasy settings overall. As you will probably notice over time do I not like shoting games and other games which try to mimic the reality too much.
Favorite game? Super Metroid has always been and will probably always be my favorite game, Zelda: Ocarina of Time do I find extremely good too, as well as jrpg's like Xenoblade and the racing game F-Zero GX. I will save the discussion for each of these games in some upcoming posts.
Well then, enough about gaming and let us move on to who I am? I am a man named Eirian Odaliss. As you can hear is the name very anonymous, hence I have chosen it. In fact I chose it through this random name generator http://www.behindthename.com/random/ , which is the same random name generator I use when I name a character in a video game. Kudos to that site I guess. Anyway, for the moment I study natural science in Sweden, my home country, and I am 2x years old (Mega Man reference ftw). Except for gaming and studies I like animals, plants and nature overall. Since this blog is not about me, but rather about my opinions on various video games I do not want to bore you with who I am. Of course, if you would like to hear more about me just comment and maybe I write some more in a future post.
Since my classmate always says that the kind of music defines who you are I better write it out. Here goes: mixed genres, never mainstream, mostly chill music with alot of melody in it and I usually do not prefer songs centered around the vocals. If I would have to chose a genre I would probably chose ambient, however progressive rock do I like too. Video game soundtracks do I usually find very relaxing, since a good video game ost (original soundtrack) has alot of melody in it.
Oh right, I almost forgot. Since this is my first time blogging, please recommend what kind of background, header, etc., I should use. If you make me one I will most probably use it.
