since 2009, somehow
After an extended archiving period, Cohost goes offline for good tomorrow, January 12. This post is dedicated to the makers and users of Cohost, as well as its adorable mascot, Eggbug.
Last year, I wrote a long and detailed review of the plamo I built and related tools I love on MFC. I started drafting something similar for 2024’s kits, but found the work on that post draining, so here’s a shorter piece.
For the “new”, hopefully less formal Brainscraps, I’m going to do a different format for my end of year games roundup. Everything here is a game I beat and/or completed in 2024 (the full list of those games is here). Other than that, this should be pretty self-explanatory, so let’s get to it!
Yesterday, I beat 3D Dot Game Heroes, a Silicon Studio/From Software joint filled with lots of love for the 8-bit era, and the baffling design decisions that accompany it. A brief list:
– The plot of the game is basically the same as A Link to the Past‘s, minus the alternate world. However, the design takes very little else from that classic. One excellent example: in LttP and many other Zelda games, acquiring a new piece of equipment tends to be closely followed by a section—maybe even in the same room—where you have to use it. This is basically a micro-tutorial for the player, getting them accustomed to using the new gear. There’s few, if any, such scenes in 3D Dot Game Heroes. There was even one special item that I had accidentally missed and had to go back and get later on when I became stuck elsewhere.
– On a related note, the vast majority of bosses can, and probably should, be beaten without the use of any special equipment or magic.
– The dungeon designs range from all right to boring, especially when the room layouts start to repeat between temples. A particular cave passage specifically reminded me of the largest, most tedious dungeon in Final Fantasy—not a good thing.
– Many hidden caves abound, some of them with goodies, which can be opened with bombs. However, there’s more than one where talking to the NPC will reveal their anger at you blowing up their front door and extract compensation from you, typically 20 gold. Just one of these caves would’ve gotten the point across, thanks.
– There are lots of little sidequests that require obtaining items/information and delivering them to the right people. However, much like in the NES era, most people look the same, and those giving you the info offer very little else, text-wise, in the way of identifying information.
– On a similar note, there is at least one special area in the game which would’ve been much easier to find if there had been more differentiation. Also, some rocks can be blown up, but are only very slightly different, color-wise, from the indestructible ones.
– An item called the Bestiary can be obtained and used in battle to add monsters to it. You would think that whapping a monster once would be good enough for an addition, but most require multiple hits with the thing, some needing dozens.
– The loading screens are homages to old games, and, similar to the Bestiary, there’s an in-game gallery where they can be viewed. However, not a single one will unlock there unless you’ve turned on the right setting.
The game does have its charms. Along with the chunky pixels, there’s a slight tilt-shift photographic effect at work throughout, and said pixel chunks scatter nicely when various objects are destroyed. The soundtrack is pleasant and reminiscent of old games—I particularly liked the Dragon Quest-esque save-loading music—while mostly utilizing modern sounds. Some of the writing is witty. The Producer and Developer Rooms are cute.
However, if I put some more thought into it, I could likely come up with more annoying things to add to the list that makes up most of this post. 3D Dot Game Heroes is slavish in its devotion to the 8-bit era, good and bad.
This past Saturday, I played through the walking sim Tacoma. As in other walking sims, and many other games besides, one of the things I could do as the player was browse bookshelves. Tacoma takes place aboard a space station where something had gone wrong, and there are six crew members, each with their own quarters and set of shelves. Given how much one does or doesn’t know about the books on offer can tell the player—or not—a little bit more about these characters. I found novels, nonfiction books about a wide range of subjects, and a handful of names and titles I was familiar with. My favorite find was a set of Alice Munro titles, including the short story collection Too Much Happiness; I read the title story when it first appeared in Harper’s and it’s remarkable.
While examining all these shelves, I began to wonder: if I was a character on a video game spaceship, what books would be in my quarters? I decided to come up with a few books that I’d bring along on my video game space voyage. My current reading habits lean heavily toward multi-volume manga, so with one exception (in a nod to that Alice Munro set), each of these is a single book.
Are there other books I’d bring along? Probably, but I’d have to think on those a bit more. These five, however, are my must-haves.
Last night, I finished catching up on Fist of the North Star, after being a few volumes behind. Viz’s kanzenban edition wraps up the first massive arc in Vol. 10, then the second starts with a timeskip in Vol. 11. Vol. 10 closes out with main character Ken (aka Kenshiro) facing off against his greatest rival and Hokuto brother, Raoh (aka Kenoh).
There’s quite a bit from Raoh’s point of view. Here, the reader learns that Raoh’s fear of Ken stems from the latter’s sorrowful eyes. Ken’s sorrow is shown to be the source of his strength, and the reason why he was chosen as the successor to the deadly assassination art of Hokoto Shinken. Raoh doesn’t understand either sorrow or love, which prevents him from obtaining the most powerful techniques and thus fuels his inferiority complex. His journey to become Ken’s equal leading up to their final battle is thus one of comprehension.
When I was a newbie anime fan in the early 90s, Fist of the North Star‘s reputation stemmed from its violence, with exploding heads and fountains of blood streaming from the remaining neck stumps. All of that is certainly here, and more dramatically effective than it may seem going by that simple description. Ken’s deadly acupressure often has a time delay component. He’ll strike a pressure point on an enemy, then start walking away. Said enemy will erupt in laughter, believing that Ken isn’t all that. Ken whips around, points at the enemy, then delivers his epitaph, “You are already dead.” Cue exploding head, or torso, or entire body.
Such scenes are the hooks to draw readers in. What has kept me here is Ken’s stoic compassion, his personal tragedies, and the assortment of friends and rivals who emerge throughout. Key amongst them are Bat and Rin, a boy and girl who serve as the reader proxies and accompany Ken nearly everywhere. At the end of Vol. 10, it’s their voluntary separation from Ken which gives this arc its true finality.
Rin is one of a small handful of girls and women who appear in Fist of the North Star, but isn’t the most important. That would be Yuria, the kind soul who grew up with Ken, Raoh, and their other “brothers” during their martial arts training. Yuria is the love of Ken’s life, and plays a central role early on, albeit in a stereotypical fashion. Other women don’t fare much better, mainly serving as people the men of the story wish to protect, though there is sometimes the likes of Mamiya, who is willing to fight back.
One thing that’s curious about this manga is that, throughout its post-nuclear hellscape, there are a number of people (and occasionally animals) that have become powerful giants, and they are almost always male. It’s never stated outright, but this gigantism seems to be a side effect of radioactive fallout, in addition to being a visual indicator of power. Sickness is the only other obvious symptom of radiation exposure, which leads to a different sort of drama.
Although there was one particular moment when I considered dropping the series entirely, the story made up for it with the very next volume. With Rin and Bat now grown up in Vol. 11, I’m sticking with it until the end. Fist of the North Star is certainly a product of its time, an era in Shonen Jump history which also gave us the beginnings of other classics like Dragon Ball, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, and Kimagure Orange Road. Ten years ago, I never would’ve thought I would enjoy this series as much as I have, nor would I have thought it as nuanced as it actually is at times. For all of its ultraviolence, Fist of the North Star is also tender and moving. Ken’s tears are as powerful as his fists, and his smiles, on the rare occasions that they happen, make all of the previous pages of blood and guts and agony and despair worth it.
I had been looking forward to Below for several years and promptly bought it when it launched on Steam in December 2018. However, I did not touch it at all until this past October, roughly five years after said launch and three years after its most significant post-launch update, which added the easier Explore mode. A large part of why I had held off of playing it for so long was because the conditions had to be right. I had to be in the right mood, it had to be the right time, before I started it. When this year’s spooky season started, I finally decided that it was time.