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Author: RKasa

Happy 10th to Brainscraps

Brain Scrap House originally took the form of a short-lived column for Clidus‘ now-defunct gaming site Fantasy World XD (you can read both installments via the Old Stuff page). Later, as okamiblog was dying out, I remade it into the site you see here, which went live on May 7, 2009. Ten years and change later, during which the title was changed into the punchier “Brainscraps.net”, I’m still here, writing about (and eventually making) video games for I don’t know how big an audience. Thanks to all of my visitors over the years, whether or not I know you personally. I hope to keep doing this for awhile yet.

Brainscraps' original look.
Brainscraps’ original look. I can’t remember where I got the header image the first time around.
To celebrate this anniversary, Brainscraps has gotten a new look which was directly inspired by the site’s original Sonic the Hedgehog-themed design; for this remake, the header’s source image came from Sonic Retro. Brainscraps also now has a dedicated Twitter account,
@Brainscraps_net
, which will include announcements of new posts and projects, and should hopefully have far fewer retweets than my main one. But wait, there’s more! A Brainscraps group has been founded on Steam, primarily to house a Curator page dedicated to the many PC and Mac titles featured in the annual Gaming Selections posts. Membership is currently restricted, meaning that you must request to join or receive an invite, since I’m not sure that I have the time to moderate a forum. This might change in the future, though; we’ll see.

As for any future anniversary-related stuff, I’m planning to revisit at least one of the games covered during the site’s first year of operation. If all goes well, expect to see new writing about Startopia, Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim, and/or Halo: Combat Evolved sometime before next May (and before anyone asks, Chrono Cross is absolutely, completely, 100% out of the question). I also have a special project in the works which will be launching within the next week or two, so keep an eye out for it!

Finally, I feel like I should explain why this post is nearly a month overdue, and also why I haven’t posted at all since January. In early April, bitprophet and I moved back to the East Coast, and during the months leading up to it, we were both busy with preparations to do so. After a long, cross-country drive, we spent another month and a half setting up our new place, taking two trips (one planned and one unplanned), and dealing with other odds and ends. In case you’re wondering, I did manage to squeeze in some game time during all that, beating Bayonetta 2, Splitter Critters, and Witch & Hero III; getting roughly halfway through Disgaea 4 and Kirby’s Dream Land 2; and continuing on in Pokemon GO and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. I’ve been also trying to keep up with my manga, but my current backlog is a bit heavier than usual. I’d like to write about some of this media consumption soon, but in the meantime, a belated Happy Birthday to Brainscraps, thank you for reading, and hope that you’ll all continue to stick with both me and this site.

2018 Manga Selections

Two years have passed since my 2016 Manga Selections, and now I’m finally going to come back at you with a whole new slate of recommendations. Since that post, I’ve finished most of the manga featured in that older article, with the exceptions being the still-ongoing My Hero Academia, Wandering Island, One-Punch Man, Vinland Saga, and Yotsuba&! (all of which are still great), so the time was right. As in 2016, to qualify, I had to have read at least one volume during the past year (and therefore, the fantastic Ooku: The Inner Chambers will once again have to wait for a future installment).

To refresh your memory as to how this is all set up, the series are presented in alphabetical order, and this year, for the first time, my top three are ranked at the end. After each manga’s title is the author(s), then the North American publisher, the first year of Japanese serialization, and the number of volumes I’d read up until the end of 2018 (followed, in parentheses, by the total number of Japanese volumes). Series printed in omnibus or other special editions are denoted with an asterisk (*), but the numbers reflect the original volumes as they were first printed in Japan. Finally, all of the cover images used here came from Right Stuf or the publisher’s website.

2018 Gaming Selections

Another year has ended, and with it, another pile of games beaten. My Backloggery breakdown for the previous year once again wound up in the negative, but what else is new? I can’t speak for whether this has been a great year for gaming, as the vast majority of what I played were pre-2018 releases, though I did enjoy myself.

If you’ve read one of my past year in review posts, you know the drill: every game here is one that I’ve beaten or completed in 2018, regardless of release date. This time, in addition to my top ten and five honorable mentions, I’d like to give special shoutouts to two games.

Here’s Brainscraps Holiday Card no. 4

Four - Holiday Card 2018Though some bouts of insomnia didn’t help, I have managed to complete this year’s Holiday Card. Thus, I am happy to announce that 2018’s Holiday Card, which is simply titled Four, is now available! Four is somewhat different from previous Cards, though it shares some of their underlying spirit.

I can’t say what inspired this year’s card, as I don’t entirely know; the idea just sort of popped into my head one day. However, I suspect it was a combination of factors, including certain current events. As stated on the game’s project page, my original idea was something quite different, both in terms of concept and execution. Regarding what Four is about, well… you’ll just have to see for yourself.

This year’s engine is Twine, the famed interactive fiction tool which uses a combination of JavaScript, HTML, and CSS to enable the creation of text-based games which can be played in any browser. That said, for the first time, you can play this year’s Holiday Card without downloading anything! Here’s a direct link to the game; if, for whatever reason, you’re having trouble getting it to work, an official mirror is once again available via my itch.io page.

Hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season, and here’s wishing you all a great 2019!

ETA (Dec. 5, 2018): A small bug fix was made to Four, which will likely affect save files. The older version of the game has been preserved here, via the project’s page, but not on itch.io. Please see this post on itch.io for more details.

Platforms, Puzzles, Spinoffs, and Samurai

Ever since PAX West, I’ve kept myself busy with everything ranging from personal projects to, of course, video games. I started off September by reaching both endings of Alphadia Genesis, a mediocre indie JRPG, and completing the *Mute route of Hate Plus, the sometimes frustrating sequel to the excellent Analogue: A Hate Story. Instead of going on at length about them here, please refer to my reviews of Alphadia Genesis and Hate Plus on Steam for additional thoughts.

Some of Apotheon's flavor text.A game which I ultimately chose not to write a Steam review for, because my feelings on it are that mixed, is the action platformer Apotheon. One of the top tags on its Steam store page is “Metroidvania”, which is a wildly inaccurate descriptor. As you all probably know, the defining feature of Metroidvanias is areas that can’t be accessed without the right tools, which must be obtained in a certain order. Apotheon does have skills to collect, but most are enhancements at best, and the only real obstacle blocking off areas is the plot. In other words, this game is more Shovel Knight than Axiom Verge.

PAX West 2018: A Homecoming

The show floor at PAX West 2018.We had skipped PAX West (formerly PAX Prime) last year, and missed it terribly, so deciding how to spend our 2018 Labor Day weekend was a no-brainer. As usual, the whole process of obtaining the tickets was a white-knuckle affair—most especially and unexpectedly a few days before the show, when one of our PAX friends’ passes got lost in the mail. Fortunately, he was able to get things sorted out, and after a week of preparations on our end (including taking care of our own little emergency involving a pet sitting cancellation), we all met up in Seattle. This even included one of our group who had decided to skip PAX, but wanted to be in town nonetheless. PAX was here!

The following four days were packed with panels, games, and some delicious food, including some from longtime favorites Juicy Cafe and MOD Pizza. Downtown Seattle’s Rock Bottom Grill, our regular post-show spot, had since closed, but the Gordon Biersch in a nearby mall was a decent substitute; it was also the location of the first post-PAX Cheap Ass Gamer meetup that I organized seven years ago.