This show is based on a podcast

Animations for adults that aren’t comedy are a rare kind, especially those that seem primarily action-focused. The first television cartoon that was an action-based series, although not exactly a comedy, much to my knowledge, is the 90s animation Spawn. It was violent and sexual and contained all kinds of R-rated material — basically, it definitely wasn’t the kind of cartoon that kids would find funny. For a long time, there was no remarkable example for a non-comedy cartoon aimed at adults, until Invincible came out in 2021, rocking the critics with how spectacular it was — I thought to myself “how nice; yet another cartoon about a superhero that’s violent as hell”. At that time, I knew of two series that fell under the aforementioned category of adult cartoons, although I still didn’t think it was becoming a fad yet… until I saw The Legend of Vox Machina, which raised my hopes for more bloody cartoons in the future.

The Legend of Vox Machina is a tale that takes place in the mythos of Dungeons & Dragon, the ever-so-popular tabletop game that has been keeping nerds busy since the 70s. It chronicles the adventure of 7 mercenaries, who are collectively known as the eponymous Vox Machina, and their various quests to save humanity or whatever is happening in their world at that moment. It’s mostly what you’d expect from a show that takes place in D&D, with dragons and monsters and elves and all the other doohickeys. More so, the show is actually based on a podcast of people playing D&D, known as Critical Role. I personally don’t listen to it since my attention span can only tolerate vocals so much if there are no visual stimuli. Basically, at first glance, this show doesn’t seem too special, and the story isn’t that original either.

But it’s not so much the story of the show that attracts good scores on Rotten Tomatoes, but rather in whether the animation is executed splendidly throughout. With interesting characters, balanced pacing, and of course my favorite, some really nice choreography, it’s one big package that’s worth checking. Here’s my experience for the time being.

Dungeons & Dragons… what’s more to say?

The adventures of Vox Machina start with a podcast of people playing D&D, as I already stated, called Critical Role. I personally have no idea what it really is so we’re not gonna talk about it. It was just a starting point.

The Legend of Vox Machina, however, started in 2022 when Amazon was still trying to outperform Netflix with its streaming service, Prime Video or whatever they call it now (they keep changing the name). Though it’s still trying, they managed to add yet another hit to their catalogue. The pre-release critics were so good and Amazon apparently had such high hopes for the show that they ordered a second season before its debut. It turns out that the call was right since everybody liked it, including me.

There I was, sitting in front of the computer, because TV is virtually dead, and I watch the very first episode of The Legend of Vox Machina. A spectacular introduction to a group of misfits nobody has ever heard of, filled with explosions and gore. I’m only a minute in, and I already get the impression that I’m onto a gold standard of a TV show. But that was last year…

What happened this year was a continuation of what was happening last year. The start of the second season starts off with a bang, as the last season ended on a cliffhanger. Dragons come in from every direction, blasting every building in sight and burning all the people who are running away. Death and destruction — what a way to kick off a season. As people are fighting, I bear witness to some fine choreography as the heroes try to fend off the invading threat, although if I had to say the pacing was a bit slow, not something I was unfamiliar with from the last season. But that’s okay, because the fights were good enough. Humor was good as well as the show had some pretty good jokes to pass along, visual or otherwise, and some jokes I even remember fondly from the last season. Basically, the show is just improving, and Vox Machina has a lot more adventures to tell… if only they could’ve come faster because waiting a whole year for 12 episodes is just too much.

The characters were also charming, each in their own way. More so, their strengths and weaknesses complement each other in their demeanors, and their awkwardness, both individually and collectively, synergize to make them an unstoppable force that’s only limited by willpower.

So right now, I’m just waiting for season 3, cuz I really enjoyed season 2. More than season 1? I’m not sure, but if season 3 is better than both of them combined, then I won’t have to wonder anymore.

In Conclusion…

I probably shouldn’t be saying this at the end of the article, but I recently got a new job, so I’ll probably reduce the rate at which I write these articles. I’ll try to release as much as possible, but now that I got a second gig it’s gonna be kinda hard. Again, I’ll try… but no promises.

With that being said, I think that The Legend of Vox Machina is a really awesome show, and if you haven’t watched it yet then, you absolutely should. Because this show can be liked by both D&D enthusiasts and people who don’t know jack about D&D. It’s not so much the basis of the show but rather its delivery that makes it great.

If anything, The Legend of Vox Machina is an indication that Prime is on the right track with adding good shows to its collection, because it’s still overshadowed by Netflix. Hopefully, that won’t last long.

“QWERTY” is not an adjective

There was once a time when I enjoyed playing browser games; the kind you can find on Newgrounds. Then again, browser games for me have always been a phase that comes and goes as it pleases. Among the bajillion browser games I’ve played during my godforsaken existence, there was one that I remember fondly for its therapeutic application. Well… there were two actually, but we’re not going to discuss the other. That game was called Qwerty Warriors 2, because the first one was lackluster.

Qwerty Warriors 2 is a game with a very simple premise: Enemies moves towards you and you shoot them by typing words. Though it might sound easy, the game gets sequentially harder as you progress, constantly testing your typing abilities. I’m a relatively fast typist even today, and I play it just to mash the keyboard, a technique that can be very relaxing to some. The game can be found even today (it shouldn’t be hard to find), although I don’t know if it’ll work for anyone since nobody uses Flash anymore. But if you want to know more, then you should probably play it since the article is not about the game, but a game that’s very similar to it — and that game is called Epistory: Typing Chronicles.

Sure, Epistory doesn’t really present a new formula to anything, but the “type to kill” feature is not something that many games have executed (very few, in fact). Plus, for someone who likes to type fast, this is the ideal thing to go to… and relax… or just release your stress with the power of the QWERTY (the type of keyboard that everybody uses). It didn’t seem like much at first. Although some of the puzzles were tedious, it got better and the typing became more intricate, but I still have to see more of it… by typing, and while I type away at this article, this is what it was type… I mean like.

A story about a girl who rides a fox… I think

So, I start the game and there’s nothing too spectacular at first, as is with all games nowadays. The game then instructs me to use the keyboard to move around, and this game is supposedly controlled entirely by the keyboard, as in you’re not using the mouse. That’s fancy and all, but I don’t see anything too shiny in this game. I’m just a girl riding a fox in a world that unfolds like paper, and every now and then there’s a narrative telling you what goes on with the story. Truthfully, I wasn’t even paying attention to the story as I was trying to figure out what makes the game special.

I get to the meat of things, and also to the part where it tells me to write stuff on my keyboard. At that moment, I realized this is a typing game, and I’m like “wow I haven’t seen that before”, but since I occasionally relieve stress by typing, I quickly found this game to my liking.

I continue to play the game, never using the mouse and never paying attention to whatever story there might be. I type my way through monsters, and then I type my way through debris, and then I type to put out fires or freeze water or whatever other application there can be.

The game was quite enjoyable, mainly for its typing gimmick, which overshadowed the whole story. The puzzles, as said earlier, got tedious after a while, and no cute feature of “just typing” was able to make the puzzles any more innovative. In fact, there was this one level where I just walked around and tried to find the exit for several minutes, and all because I didn’t know where I had started from. Later on, I struggled finding my exact place on the map as I backtracked all the way to the beginning, just to see if I had to go in that direction. If anything, it goes to show that the game has level design issues, but not anything too critical.

In Conclusion…

Overall, I’d have to say that Epistory is a good game if you like to relieve stress by typing a lot, like me. If you’re not into that, I can’t promise you’ll like it. I mean, maybe or maybe not, but a game that’s only about typing doesn’t necessarily appeal to a large audience.

However, talking about this game reminded me of the times I would spend in front of Newgrounds with friends, playing all these Flash games and animations. It was a weird place, but also had a lot of cool things to discover. Alas, I don’t think I’ll ever dedicate an article to a browser game, no matter how iconic it might seem. I might… but who knows.

Anyways, next article will be more exciting… maybe.

It was a nice try

My computer is weak, and at this point, it’s not news. I’m just running out of ideas on how to write a good opening paragraph, and I can’t imagine that this is the one. Regardless, until I can afford a better PC, I have decided to look back at games that came out over a decade ago. I remembered that there was a really cool game back then, or better yet, a game that tried too hard to be cool despite how cool of an idea it is. But that’s it, it’s just a good idea, whereas in practice, it’s not always effective.

Bulletstorm is a game that introduced itself as unique by offering the player the ability to perform “cool kills”. By that I mean in-game kills that are flashy and look awesome, even though the game appears as a first-person shooter. During this game’s hype (what was of it, anyway), which was well over 12 years, I was really excited at the game’s premise and was more than eager to try out its system of “cool kills”. To me it just meant I could express my creativity in an intricate combat system. Alas, the dream did not become reality, since, as it turns out, the whole cool kill shtick is kinda rough in practice and the game is clumsy as hell.

I recently decided to revisit the game, after completing it for the first time 11 years ago, and I find the mechanics as frustrating today as I did back then. Except now I don’t have the patience to put up with the game till the end. Not that I need to, since I remember most of its events. Anyways, this is what it was like 11 years later…

At least now I don’t have to worry about old computers

Upon booting the game, I’m introduced with a familiar vanity card. The game gets to the main menu and I’m all too familiar with it, as both Grayson and Ishi, the two main characters, are standing exactly where I remembered. I take a good look at them and think “I can’t believe I used to think these graphics were high-end”. It just goes to show how technology advanced, although arguably not enough. Anyways, I start the game…

The game opens up with a cutscene I’m slightly unfamiliar with, so I’m guessing I forgot that one. The characters are using a vocabulary made up of really creative vulgarities, often combined with their off-putting sense of humor. Hearing the same jokes 11 years later, I can’t believe I used to chuckle at these childish attempts at making the protagonist appear somewhat charismatic, as if the alcoholism wasn’t enough.

So, the first hour or so is mostly introducing me to the game’s mechanics, which I’m trying to figure out how the hell to perform. Upon getting to the actual meat of the game, I try to kick some baddies into a cactus to score a cool kill. But the requirement to position myself in an angle, while the enemy constantly moves around trying to kill me, is thoroughly frustrating. I get to the point where I would rather just go for a headshot over something as complicated.

Y’see, the idea of being creative with killing your enemies in a humorous FPS is hyped up because, in theory, it sounds really awesome. However, in practice, the constant requirement to consider not only your position, but your enemy’s as well, makes this feature inapplicable. Basically, pulling any kind of creative move is hard when you lack control over the actions of the enemy, who just won’t stop moving. More so, it’s kinda difficult to explain to a computer how to use imagination to apply “creativity” in a video game, when it’s nothing but an algorithm. And it’s even harder to write several different in-program codes so that the player can have as much creative freedom as they want. I mean, some players are just more imaginative than others.

In any case, I’m baffled by how I enjoyed this game 11 years ago, but continue to play for a while to see where it takes me. I repeatedly experience the same hardship of trying to pull off a cool move when I don’t even know what I can do, and the mechanics are all over the place. So, I continue to shoot baddies until the point where I find myself wondering “how the hell did I enjoy this 11 years ago?”. I eventually decided to just stop playing wherever I was at the game, because I could no longer put up with the frustration of this whole “cool kill” bullshit. Whether my attitude would change or not, it didn’t matter anymore.

I guess some good things should stay in the past…

Do you remember Bulletstorm?

So, I guess it was just more enjoyable back then because… well… things were different. Anyways, if you remember this game, and maybe even played it, then be sure to leave your say. Then again, you can still say something even if you’re playing it now. Maybe I’ve just changed…

In conclusion…

So… Bulletstorm… I used to like it better back in the day, but times have changed. Now in retrospect, I fail to realize what I liked about it. I was really eager to try out the mechanics back then, but I guess I didn’t realize that it was all too messy. Not that it matters since it’s been such a long time. I’d prefer to just move on and let the past stay in the past, and so should you.

In any case, I have to revisit the next decade-old game… I just need to decide which game that is.

Most of the time, you’ll shoot stuff

I’ll be frank: nothing special happened this week, so I don’t have anything special to say. Then again, it’s still the first half of the week, so something interesting might still happen. In the meantime, my game library somehow got bigger, and I often find games I don’t remember downloading. Regardless, I played this one game, Wildcat Gun Machine and found it to be decently fun.

The game isn’t who-knows-what, but once you get to meat of things, you have enough enemies to shoot at. There’s also a nice arsenal to this game, but for some reason, I didn’t feel like the interchangeable weapons made enough of a difference to keep discovering them when a single weapon could suffice throughout the entire run. I still have more to say about this, but first lemme describe how it started…

I have no idea what the story is about

So, I start up the game; nothing too flashy yet. I start playing it, and I am given no context whatsoever as to the conditions that I am in. I have no idea why I’m playing as a woman with an eye-patch or why there are Cronenberg monsters roaming around. All I know is that I have a gun and I need to shoot them, and that’s exactly what I went to do.

At first, there wasn’t much excitement going around since there weren’t many enemies, and I pondered whether this easy difficulty will persist throughout the game. It didn’t, because when I got to the part where there are a lot of enemies, suddenly there were a lot of things to shoot at. Combine that with a large arsenal and you have a rainbow of explosions just waiting to be discovered. What else there is to enjoy about this “Gun Machine” is that the player becomes invincible and shoots homing bullets everywhere. This is especially important because the player will need it when things get really hard. More so, what I especially liked is the dash ability that, when timed right, can be used indefinitely to dash infinitely, although I didn’t realize this when I started the game. Also, there are a lot of enemy bullets to dodge and the difficulty just increases as you progress, so I probably wouldn’t continue playing it because I lack the patience. However, it seems that the ever-increasing difficulty becomes an issue that might get even worse when the player nears the game’s end. Not that I know since I didn’t get there.

The game seems to have no story whatsoever; you just assume the role of a really cool-looking lady. It’s possible that the story might’ve flown over my head, but the game itself offers no indication as to what’s going on. You just start shooting ugly monsters and collecting guns that are seemingly there for absolutely no reason.

That’s… pretty much it. You go around and shoot monsters with complete disregard to the story. This game has a simple design and some people would prefer it that way since it means they can just straight jump into the game without working their brains to understand the redundant plot. On the other hand, this does mean that anyone who wants a deep story won’t enjoy this game. Regardless, I have to move on to the next project… but I have no idea what that is.

Did you understand the story?

I should also mention that the levels are large and somewhat interchangeable. I mean, there is some enemy variety, but they don’t feel that much different. What about you? I mean, if you did play… this game. Also, if you figure out what the story is about, be sure to tell me.

In Conclusion…

So… this game is ok. It’s simple and maybe sometimes simple just works better, because it doesn’t require the brain to complicate itself with convoluted plotlines. This game is just about shooting stuff, and that’s all that’s great about it, even though I understand that simplicity isn’t something that everyone goes for. But hey, if you like simplicity, then try this one out.

I especially like how there are multiple guns to collect, but as I said earlier, I don’t know if it’s enough to sustain the player until the end of the game. I probably won’t get to the end, so it was fun while it lasted.

By the way, I got this game for free, courtesy of the weekly free games, and the next thing I’ll write about is yet another game I got for free, because at this point, I’m running out of ideas to write about…

Write down anything… and see what happens

Today’s technology makes you wonder if smart-enough computers have the intellectual capacity to take over the world one day. I try not to think about it too much, but until that happens, the technology of today has some fascinating gizmos that everybody can enjoy; they’re the kind that make you wonder “what kind of magic will be there in 10 years or so?”. I try not to imagine what the 2030s will look like, but that’s 7 years from now, and I’ve just found the most enjoyable program yet… and that program is called Midjourney.

Though it’s still a relatively new concept in today’s technology, 2022 will be remembered as the year that “AI art” burst into public awareness, and this new technology is very fascinating. Basically, AI art is a program that creates an entirely original piece of art based on what you tell it to do, in text form mostly. So, for example, let’s say you write “knight with a saxophone”. Based on that phrase, the AI tool will do its best to draw just that, a knight with a saxophone — the exact thing you asked for. And there isn’t just one picture, but there’s four! I immensely enjoyed playing around with this program, but the one I’ve enjoyed most is called Midjourney which, in truth, is the only AI art I’ve tried out.

The program is a real treat, and all you have to do is use it on Discord. Interestingly enough, that’s where the program can be found. And even though it’s a peculiar method, the program is very fun to toy around with. Though I haven’t had the chance to try out any other AI art programs, Midjourney is probably the only one you’ll need, and here’s why…

I spent hours on this thing

It all started when I watched a bunch of random YouTube videos, the subject of which isn’t important, because what matters is that these videos featured art using Midjourney. I quickly rushed to wonder what the hell this “Midjourney” is, and while searching for the answers, I came across this thing called “AI art”… but mainly Midjourney.

Anyways, I looked up this “Midjourney”, and I was redirected to a site that told me to open my Discord. Good thing I already had Discord, because if I had to download it especially for Midjourney then I probably wouldn’t have done so and I’d skip the entire thing altogether. Thankfully, that wasn’t the case, because I opened my Discord and I was redirected to a server featuring this “Midjourney”, the AI that draws art based on prompts you give it.

Upon entering the server, I’m told to enter one of the channels. I’m then bombarded with posts upon posts of people writing up all kinds of demands to the AI, and several pictures pop up in response. There’s a picture of a green dinosaur monster with octane render; a picture of a photorealistic couple sitting under a cherry blossom; there were even plagiaristic pictures of various popular superheroes.

As I continue to get bombarded with these posts, I type in my own prompt. What exactly I typed in first, I can’t remember. What I do remember is that I wrote something completely zany, something like “weaponized lawnmower” or “extraterrestrial blimp” or something that sounds like it came out of a sci-fi/fantasy movie. Long story short, I had so much fun typing in prompts that I completely exhausted my trial version in like 10 minutes. At first, I was like “ok no more for me then”, but then I quickly learned the agony of going through some days without Midjourney. I quickly purchased a package and subsequently returned to typing down prompts on Discord, so that I could get a bunch of random pictures that look like they came from DeviantArt. By the time I was about to quit, I generated over 200 images, and easily enough, I wanted to continue. But then I told myself that if I didn’t stop then, I’d never stop, and that’s a bad thing. Truth is, I’m in debt and I can’t waste money on AIs that generate whatever you tell them to. I mean, it was fun but you have to know when to stop.

I would love to exemplify just how awesome it is to literally write down anything and see how the program responds, but it’s just not something that can be described with mere words. My point is, go try Midjourney for yourself. It’s a real blast and the first several prompts are free, so you can try it out before deciding if you wanna pay for it or not. If you like it enough, I recommend buying a package and goofing around with whatever you want to type, just not risqué stuff because the system doesn’t allow it.

Anyways, if you find Midjourney enjoyable, then I promise that you’ll want to spend hours on it just to see how the AI reacts to whatever you type it. So… go and do it now because there’s nothing more to add.

An adventure based on curiosity

At this point, it’s quite apparent that I like to distribute the subjects that I talk about into parts, and it’s very clear with this one as well.

In continuation of the previous article, I’ll carry on with explaining how Prism Circus works. This time, I’m going to talk about what the characters are doing while they’re not fighting (known as the adventure mode), which mostly consists of the player roaming around a fantasy world. As with the previous articles, I will do my best to describe how discovery works in this grandiose game idea, and unless I’m asked a question such as “what the hell is that for”, I might forget a tidbit or two.

Anyways, this is how you’d discover stuff in Prism Circus…

Always ask around for a peculiar individual

As I mentioned in previous articles, Prism Circus primarily takes inspiration from Final Fantasy and its respective spinoffs (such as Kingdom Hearts, among others). One thing I neglected mentioning before is that Prism Circus would be an attempt at creating a “western JRPG”, if it even were to happen (which is, again, unrealistic). What does this mean exactly? It’s basically a game that’s designed like a JRPG, but isn’t actually designed by a Japanese studio, but rather by a western studio. Therefore, it’s basically a bunch of western game developers working on a game so that it looks like it came out of Japan. I don’t know if there’ll ever be a western JRPG in actuality, but that’s definitely not something in the scope of Prism Circus.

In any case, since the game is inspired by Final Fantasy, it’s only appropriate that the adventure mode would look like something from Final Fantasy, namely Final Fantasy XII, since it was around that time when I first realized Circus Legion, being the name for my imaginary project before Prism Circus.

Anyways, the player can assume a group of up to 3 playable characters, which in Prism Circus they are designed to be distinct. Regardless of how many playable characters the player has, they all roam around a giant map where they encounter enemies at random, as I’ve previously described, and virtually other elements that exist in Final Fantasy’s adventure mode.

However, where Prism Circus sets itself apart is with its feature that requires the player to search for many characters, amounting to a total of 200, by constantly snooping around and all over the game world. You go around and ask NPCs if they’ve seen anyone peculiar, because the playable characters are meant to stand out in the crowd of NPCs. Some NPCs will provide useful information; some will provide slightly less than useful information; and some will yield no useful information whatsoever. You can go around and literally ask any NPC about anyone peculiar or observe the environment and decide who has the information you’re looking for yourself. Basically, you can’t go all willy-nilly and ask everyone… well you can, but whatever works for you.

Also, there are various cities to visit and it’s not just a huge empty world like how I might have implied. Even better, there are unique interactions between the game’s many characters which are triggered depending on the situation (location, point in the story, etc.), so that’s also something to consider.

That it’s… and yes, I know this article is short, but I probably won’t continue to talk about Prism Circus since I’ve covered most of the essential details. I mean, I might have left out a system or two to describe, but I can’t put my finger on it now. I suppose I should’ve written everything down considering it’s been inside my head for quite a while. Anyways, when I come back from my vacation, I’ll be sure to return to my usual routine of playing games and then writing half-assed reviews about them.

Again, I’m sorry for the shortness, but until then, have a good one everyone.

So many mechanics… but where to start?

Hey there! So… last time I talked about a grandiose idea I have that I call Prism Circus. The thing is there’s just so much to say about it that I couldn’t have described everything in a single article. Truth is, I don’t know where the best place to start is, but I got a hunch that I should talk about the unique combat system of this dream first. I thought it would be a good idea to complete a description or two about this thing before moving on to the next subject. Is it the right call? I haven’t done this yet so… I don’t know.

Anyways, it’s something like this…

From dices to sky-high explosions

Being an idea that has been floating in my head for 16 years or so, it’s only natural that the combat system of Prism Circus would be somewhat archaic compared to today’s video games. Specifically, the combat system takes inspiration from the classic ATB battle systems that the Final Fantasy franchise has popularized during the 90s and early 2000s. In that regard, Prism Circus also relies on random encounters to engage battles. However, unlike the classical scenario, where random encounters transport you to a dedicated area where the combat takes place separated from the game’s world-roaming mode, random encounters in Prism Circus take place on the existing map. To be specific, you’re wandering around the world and there’s no enemy in sight, and then a random encounter happens where a bunch of enemies suddenly appear and start combating the player on the same map they’re roaming on. In that sense, it’s kind of like a mix between the classic ATB systems and the modern combat system that define the contemporary Final Fantasy games.

During combat, the player is prompted with several options and can control up to 3 characters against up to 4 enemies at once. From the several options they’re presented with, the player can queue any commands to be performed in order. There’s a slight interval between each command that defines each attack as an individual action.

The most basic action is “attack”, and what’s special about it is that its strength is represented by the roll of 2 dice. There are 36 different possible results, where the higher the number the stronger the attack. Similar to backgammon, getting a double (i.e., matching results on both dice) yields a special attack that damages all present enemies. When the characters become stronger later in the game, special attributes can be assigned to certain rolls that yield beneficial effects, such as always dealing a critical strike if the resulting number is 11, or cursing the enemy if the first dice lands on 4 (and basically anything else you can think of).

Prism Circus doesn’t utilize a regular magic system, at least not similar to the one in Final Fantasy. In Prism Circus, instead of casting arbitrary spells like “fire” or “thunder” or anything else basic like that, the characters can imbue their attacks with magical effects, so that magic is infused into the characters’ attacks. There are 10 elements, divided into 2 groups. The first group comprises the basic elements: fire, earth, wind, water, and lightning. The second group comprises the supreme elements: cataclysm, mineralia, bladestorm, cloudfall, and sen-creature (I know the names sound weird but there’s a ton of lore to this game). More so, the various elements can be fused into hybrid elements, allowing for a huge variety. Each element is affected by an environmental factor that alters the quality of its result, those factors being temperature, hardness of earth, wind direction, and weather. There are also special interactions, such as water attacks becoming ice attacks below a certain temperature. In addition, each character has their own specialties, elements they deal high damage with, and weaknesses, elements the character is weak against.

The other basic option is “items”, which presents the player with all of the collected items that they can use in combat, and there are quite many to collect.

Each of the 200 playable characters has 2 to 4 unique abilities that set them apart from the rest of the cast. More so, upon reaching a certain level, the character unlocks the “Skybreaker Move”, the strongest move any character can possibly achieve. And when they reach the final level of 25, each character unlocks a special feature, that’s entirely unique to them, that enhances their probability-based combat.

Prism Circus is designed in such a way so that the grinding is reduced to a minimum. That’s achieved by defining two types of levels, namely the Character Level (CL) and the Legion Level (LL). Every character has a limit of 25 CL, which increases their individual strength. Reaching level 25 CL is relatively easy and upon doing so, the LL increases by 1 per character, which eventually rounds up to a total of 200 LL. This way, the player levels up based on character discovery, rather than on killing the same monster a bajillion times with no end. Although I don’t know how this system would work in practice, I’d like to believe that it’d replace grinding… cuz I hate grinding.

Anyways, I might have left out a tidbit or two without noticing, but this is more or less how the combat in Prism Circus works. But more importantly, if there’s anything that was misunderstood, I’d be happy to answer any questions that come around. Until then, I need to contemplate the next article.

Adios!

A man can dream…

The video game industry is tough. It’s mostly people working around the clock to figure out computer codes and then organize them into a video game, and it’s not as awesome as most people initially assume when they babble about how their creative ideas will take over the industry. Because beyond the façade of digital greatness, there’s an industry that considers practicality everything else. I was once one of those halfwits, and I, too, once thought that developing video games could be a creative outlet for my talents (or lack thereof). I was wrong, since most contemporary games rely on the same tropes that people have been using since forever. But while I was young, I was under the impression that the world is in my grasp and had been brainstorming endlessly about the best video game that I can offer. Among all these ideas, most of which are now forgotten, my favorite is the idea I dub Prism Circus.

When the first sparks of imagination about Prism Circus came to me, I was probably around 15 years of age. At that point, I’d already played several video games and an idealized image of what a video game should look like slowly crafted itself inside my head. The kind of video game I wanted to see most, although I didn’t realize it at the time, was a game that had flashy visuals and animations, and that’s already something that I’ve talked about. Initial names for the imaginary project were Circus Legion and Rainbow Legion, among other similar suggestions — but I eventually decided that Prism Circus sounds the best.

In addition to capitalizing on the whole flashy animations shtick, Prism Circus, as an idea, is homage to Final Fantasy, a franchise that I was once infatuated with. Though I don’t like it as much as I used to, Final Fantasy still influences the design of Prism Circus. I think I should be more specific about what this Prism Circus is. Well… here’s my attempt at describing Prism Circus as precisely as possible.

There are a ton of characters to discover

Prism Circus was meant to encompass several different aspects that continue to fascinate me to this day, although I probably didn’t realize it at the time, as I said earlier. Prism Circus puts emphasis in its gameplay on both discovery and curiosity, in addition to flashiness and intricate visuals, which are the things that I always talk about. Let me try and be more specific…

As a start, Prism Circus has 200 playable characters to discover, collect and play as. More so, each character has a unique prologue to them, and each character has an equal chance for the player to start as (meaning that there is a 0.5% chance to start as any character). Each character has its own stats and facets that are unique to them.

In the gameplay aspect, Prism Circus is very similar to Final Fantasy, namely Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy XII, in that gameplay is separated into the adventure aspect and the combat aspect. The adventure aspect pertains to all the activities that the player takes while exploring the world of the game. In Prism Circus, however, the player collects clues, hints and riddles about the whereabouts and specifics of the many playable characters that await the player to discover, and there are a whole bunch of characters to find (200, to be precise). The combat aspect incorporates probability and clever use of abilities to overcome the opposition. There would be the familiar random encounters that the player will use to level up as they defeat more foes, as well as other in-game systems that help the player get stronger whilst avoiding grinding too much. For example, a system that increases the player’s potential by discovering more characters.

Basically, there’s a lot to describe about Prism Circus, but you can already tell that it’s quite ambitious by design, so much that it begs the question: can something like this even happen in real life? And the answer is almost certainly “no, it can’t”. As if it wasn’t evident already by the massive number of playable characters, where each has their own unique animations and visual effects. But a project of this caliber would require an inhuman budget to recruit as many animators as possible, and regardless of how many animators were recruited, it would still take several years to make. More so, there would probably also be a bunch of creative differences between the designers and the producers and whoever else had a say in the game’s design. But it’s ok that it’s just an idea, because it was never meant to be real in the first place. It would’ve been real if anyone could afford something this astronomical, but it’s too unrealistic given the scope. But hey, it was always meant to be nothing but a theory… a theory of what the best possible game from a single person could have been, were it not for the restrictions of time and money. And Prism Circus… is just one of the many grandiose ideas I’ve had, and although I really wish I could describe more of it, I’m not even sure if anyone’s that interested. Then again, if somebody were to tell me that I’m wrong and that people do want to hear the remainder of the story, then I’d be happy to drop more information on this dream. There’s a lot more to say on it, but not enough space.

So, who knows, maybe I’ll continue talking about what Prism Circus is, because there’s so much to say about it, and I don’t even know where to start. Maybe this could be the beginning of another series by yours truly about random ideas I may or may not have had throughout my life.

So, uh… stay tuned… I guess. You’ll stay tuned… right?

It’s like Grand Theft Auto… but weirder

This week was rough! I tried playing remastered versions of certain games I enjoyed 10 years ago, give or take, and I was reminded by my computer that I need to get a new one. I keep repeating the joke that it’ll eventually reach its limits and I’ll have to come up with new ways of reminding my readers that, at some point, I won’t be able to play any new games. That is, unless I get some good hardware. What did I do to combat the problem? I played the original version, not the remastered one. But what game am I talking about? I should’ve said this from the get-go, but it’s Saints Row IV.

Saints Row is a franchise that has an ambiguous reputation, depending on who you ask. This game was inspired by Grand Theft Auto, but at the same time, it allowed the player to do some wacky things not normally found in a GTA game. I’m not too sure about what the first entries in the series were. However, in the fourth entry, you play as a god amongst humans who can super-jump high into the sky and run extremely fast. The game’s arsenal is also very creative, as there are all kinds of doo-hickeys that are bound to make the player’s experience as weird as possible, such as the “Dubstep Gun” which plays dubstep when you shoot with it. And apparently you also have super powers, although I only ever got to freeze my enemies, but more on that later.

You see… in Saints Row IV, you play as the president of the United States. I’m not sure what led up to the part where you play as leader of the free world, but it’s a zany take on the whole badass president shtick that’s sure to humor at least somebody, because I didn’t laugh. Anyways, aliens are invading the country and it’s up to the president and the eponymous Saints to save the day. Anyways, during the two hours that I played it, this is how I felt…

The naked part was really uncomfortable

The game starts out with a quick recap of the events that happened in previous titles, which is natural, seeing as this is the fourth installation in the series. Since I hadn’t played any of the previous titles, I had no idea what the narrator was even talking about. The lack of footage from the previous games made it even harder to understand what was going on. Regardless, the game gets to a point where you play as an invincible super soldier, whose face is obscured by a helmet. It’s later revealed that you’re playing as the president of the United States, but I’ve already mentioned that. Interestingly, there’s a selection of presidential archetypes for the player to choose from, which will be their playable character for the remainder of the game, be it male or female. So, I picked one and proceeded to play the game for another who-knows-how-long. I was prompted with all kinds of things at the beginning that aren’t worth noting, until aliens started invading out of nowhere — and then I, as the president, had to defend the country, rather than the world at large, from invading interlopers.

So, in the next part, I find myself in some 50s-esque environment. I play along with whatever prompt I’m facing, until I get to the point where the whole thing is revealed to be a simulation (what a surprise!). I, as the president, break out of the tube that I was kept in. For the next thirty minutes or so, I run around naked with nothing but a block of pixels obscuring the sight of my privates. I shoot baddies, which are aliens, all the while wondering where I can find some pants. I progress through the level partially looking away because of how uncomfortable it is every time the president crouches. I get past the naked part, finally, and the next few minutes are accompanied by the 90s classic “What Is Love”, if there’s anybody out there that remembers that song (I certainly do). Anyhow, I ride around on a spaceship, some stuff happens, and then the president goes back into the simulation for some unknown reason. It introduces some mechanics during that part in the game, and then I just goof around until I’m ready to move on.

It was fun for 2 hours, but I’d rather play games that came out today and not a decade ago. Now, if only I had a stronger computer…

In Conclusion…

Saints Row feels like an unusual GTA experience where you use your godly presidential powers to wreak havoc on the alien empire that’s invading earth. All the while, it feels a lot like Prototype, that one game where you have an abundance of powers to play with and is a personal favorite of mine. So, if you’re looking for oldies, I recommend that one.

Anyway, Saints Row’s attempt at a story-heavy experience, loaded with comedic moments at every turn, isn’t quite bad, but I assume people today would rather just play something more contemporary, like literally any game that came out this year.

I suppose I could’ve advanced more into the game and get a more concrete opinion on what I could’ve done with it. But like everyone in this world, I’m short on time and have to use it efficiently.

Nonetheless, if you’re really bored and have nothing better to do, I suppose Saints Row IV could kill a few of your hours… or a lot.

Probably…

I recently talked about how sick I was, and while I’m not going to repeat the subject, it did give me the opportunity to slack off on the couch and browse Netflix for whatever shows there might be in its catalog from 2022. Most of it wasn’t really interesting (to me, anyways), but I did find some shows that I liked… relatively speaking. While I was exploring more of Netflix, I was particularly interested in whatever cartoons there might be, and I did find some that I somewhat enjoyed. But most of all, I was confused about how Netflix appropriately distributes its cartoons so that children don’t accidentally stumble on them… although I have seen adult cartoons only, which is probably why I have this misconception.

While I was sick, I took the time to watch several adult cartoons on Netflix, and there was quite the selection. While I didn’t get to watch most of them (naturally), I came across these 4 cartoons, completely on random, and binged on them ’til my sickness was gone. Now, seeing that all Netflix accounts on my home’s TV are owned by adults, I’m not surprised that I didn’t encounter any kids’ cartoons. Then again, it doesn’t really matter if it’s a cartoon for kids or adults, if that’s the style of contemporary animation. Then again, I don’t have too much hope for what lies in the future. Anyways, those 4 random adult cartoons, which I had never heard of before, and didn’t take the time to look up (must’ve been the fever) are: Chicago Party Aunt, Farzar, Human Resources, Paradise PD.

Now, I don’t know what constitutes animation nowadays, but this type of stuff wasn’t around when I was watching cartoons back in my day as a kid. I mean, sure, there was always that one isolated disgusting cartoon that somehow classified as kid-friendly that nobody ever liked. But today, everything just… how do I put it… takes advantage of the Netflix no censorship policy completely, and by that, I mean that they rely mostly on sexual/toilet humor to move the plot along. But despite how abrasively unattractive these cartoons might seem, some had jokes that were genuinely funny, if not a bit childish, while others had interesting worldbuilding. But… what does that imply about the future of animation?

Just more gross stuff, I guess

I am sick as a pirate after sail (have I said that before?) and bored on the couch with nothing better to do. With a wool blanket and a cup of tea, I grab the remote control and press the designated Netflix button, which leads me to the Netflix catalogue of endless movies and TV shows (apparently, they have that in the future… the button). I browse to simply pass the time and see show after show after show, movie after movie after movie. In this all-out endeavor of countless writers trying to make a name for themselves, I couldn’t quite find anything that’d interest me… So, I settled for whatever was available.

I browse the animations and find a few things that are remotely interesting, in that they seem good enough to binge on until this fever’s over. They all had different premises; one took place in Chicago while the other took place in space, and so forth. In truth, it didn’t matter who the characters were or where the story transpired, as they all felt slightly too similar in formula, despite the occasional good joke here and there. What I mean is that they all seem to base their humor on contemporary demographics, with episode subjects often focusing on adult-related topics, such as sex, drugs, alcohol and all other doohickeys. This happens so much that it sometimes feels like it’s the only appeal that these shows really have. If that’s the case, then the future of animation will probably have even less censorship and even more disgusting topics for the characters to discuss. But I guess that’s just how evolution works.

Despite the toilet humor, these shows were enjoyable enough for me to laugh at, because the situations were nevertheless hilarious, even if it was a bit difficult to overlook the overreliance on childish matters. Overall, I didn’t see too much of a difference in quality between the shows, because they all appeared largely the same to me. Maybe it’s an age thing, but I only came for the laughs — and if they got the job done, then I don’t need to bicker about “quality”.

In Conclusion…

From how things seem to be, future cartoons will contain mostly jokes appealing to adults and interchangeable premises that’ll feel like something you’ve already watched before. Despite this, since most jokes are physical and you can only get them upon sight, they tend to vary in hilarity. If the characters talk too much, then the show is probably not too funny to begin with.

As for the shows I watched, I already forgot what they were. Each of them was funny in its own way, and I’d only recommend them if you’re bored… sort of. The problem is, there’s a whole bunch of Netflix cartoons to pick from and the ones I watched are probably not the best, so I’d be recommending something that could potentially waste your time. So, I’ll just say that if you like cartoons and have run out of options, try looking for one on Netflix.

Anyways, I’m healthy again and need to get back to business… because I haven’t… yet.