My Dress-Up Darling

Honestly a lot better than I thought it would be for an SoL romance anime

Also genuinely the way it talked about cosplay and the process behind her outfits was really interesting, which feels like I'm going to McDonalds for the salad but I don't mind

8/10

I'm gonna commit a felony

(The "emotions" in question being "I don't give two shits about his reasons")

10 months later and I still have people arguing with me for suggesting that this is a batshit insane thing for a world leader to casually say, serious or not

Like it sounds obvious to say "I like it when shows pay attention to details in what they're making and hire people who know these artstyles intimately", but it's a love and attention that feels rare to see

I felt this seeing Gwimbly too, like I'm pretty sure it's the only time I've ever seen a show do the "video game character in real life" thing and not only not default to """8-bit""" sprite art but actually go for a PSX inspiration

you know what people can do instead of watching the game awards this year? play unbeatable cuz its coming out two days before :)

The fact that 2 of these are collections is incredible

My favorite part was the multiple times I went to sleep at an inn and the AI would have me wake up as an entirely different character in an entirely different place like shit man I just want it to be morning this doesn't need to be a Huge Plot Point in My Adventure

I also remember I tried to cast a basic magic spell and the AI spent like 10 lines doing this grand wind up before forgetting what it was doing and getting stuck in a loop. Just getting it to recognize I could fly was like pulling teeth.

I remember years ago when I got curious and tried out AI dungeon

It kept trying to railroad me into a "king recruits you to slay a dragon and save the princess" kinda story when I was playing as a fairy. I made a mistake of looking in a mirror and it described me as a human. Never touched it again.

Ape Escape

Kinda janky, voice acting was bizarrely funny but I found it weirdly charming? VERY PS1, which obviously but there were a lot of moments that felt like "very early 3D platformer". Had a fun time, though

You could also see the skeleton what ended up becoming Astro Bot

7/10

Compare that to basically every Metroidvania since the first Metroid, where "missing a save room" is a mistake every player makes *exactly once*. After that you become more methodical in checking rooms, and eventually develop a feel for "I think there was probably a save room back there I missed"

Consider the example in that Metroid article that's making the rounds. Having a voice tell you "hey, I think you might've missed something" when you bypass a save room doesn't teach the player to look out for save rooms. It teaches them to listen for instructions.

www.eurogamer.net/metroid-prim...

"You're gonna be swimming with the fishes soon enough...Yeah, Gyarados gets really lonely and needs enrichment"

I kinda felt that with Echoes of Wisdom

Was really happy about the idea of a traditional top down Zelda but playing it felt a lot more like Tears of the Kingdom with a LA coat of paint

Which is still fun in its own right, but it also felt devoid of resistance in a way

"meaningless" might be the wrong word but the shine sprite rewards definitely feel a lot less impactful

Also the fact that the big thing that really matters for finishing the game are the Shadow Mario stages makes a lot of the side content feel kinda meaningless in comparison outside of 100%