Bash: A Tale of Serving Heroes (1)

I’ve decided to try putting up some of the little things I’m working on, since I seem to be unable to conjure up blog topics every week.

“Thank you for calling Bash, my name is Alexander, how can I help you?”
“I am Sir Harold of Misra and my sword isn’t working.”
“Ok Sir Harold, how isn’t your sword working?”
“It’s just not working.”
“Is it not cutting? Is it a flaming sword?”
“No, it’s not a flaming sword. And yes it still cuts fine.”
“Ok sir, so how is the sword not working?”
“If I knew I wouldn’t be calling you.”
“RRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH”
“Sir, is that a dragon?”
“Yes, I’m trying to use this stupid ice sword on this dragon, but it’s not freezing it.”
“Sir did you say it’s an ice sword?”
“Yes, I just said that.”
“And it’s not freezing the dragon?”
“Yes, I said that too.”
“Sir, ice dragons can’t be frozen with our ice swords.”
“Then what good are they!?”

Read It! – The Last Policeman

Post-apocalyptia has become almost the default setting for fiction lately.  Nuclear bombs come, wipe out all life, and then every story is about a guy, or gal, trying to knit jaw bones together to murder their way back to civilization.  Or something about teens being subjected to weird murderous trials to make serums.  I don’t know, it doesn’t always make sense.  Maybe a story about life after the apocalypse could not be about giant bombs or viruses gone crazy?  What about a world that just doesn’t care because they all know it’s going to be over anyway?  A sort of, pre-pacolypse maybe?  I bet there’s a great series of detective stories set in that sort of setting!

Spoiler warning: there totes is.

You Probably Missed: Secret of Evermore

There’s tons of classic games.  Games that stand the test of time, that are well known and regarded.  Generally considered to be games that anyone, at any time, could pick up and enjoy almost the same as someone getting the game when it first came out.  Final Fantasy, Mario Brothers, Tetris, you know the sort.

But what about the less known games?  The Soulblazers, Tiny Toons: Buster Busts Loose, or…Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine I suppose.  The less known games that were really solid, but just had bad timing, or were overshadowed by better known games, what about them?  Where’s their time in the limelight?  Well, I did just buy some limes, and don’t understand the origin of the phrase, so let’s talk about an old game!

Gettin’ Stuff Done

I may not have written as much as I’d care to over the past year or so of my hiatus, but you can bet your sweet bippy I haven’t been sitting idle either.  Between 56 games, 15 shows or movies and 16 books, I’ve been consuming fiction like it’s going out of fashion.

All with the help of lists!  Yeah, not every post here is going to be a winner.

Hiatus? More like Got a Job

So it’s been awhile since I’ve updated this blog.  A lot has happened in my life since I started it some two years ago.  I got a job, got promoted, moved, a whole slew of important things were going on.

And you know what wasn’t happening?

Writing.

As if it was hard to guess.

Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei

Doesn’t start with a Z?  And it’s two days late?

Shhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei is an anime about a wildly over reactionary high school teacher who has to teach a classroom full of anime cliches.

Come back!  It’s better than it sounds!

Yakuza (3/4)

Gangster games kind of blur together to me.  Escape prison/have dreams of money, then a guy says “do an illegal thing” and you shrug and do that illegal thing.  Plus more illegal things because mreeehhhh.  They’re always open world, feature someone who will betray you because the plot says they have to, there are drugs, mafiosos and everything just goes through the motions.

Yakuza though stands out for me though.  Why?  Because every fight ends with people spitting their broken teeth fragments out while sobbing for forgiveness into your leather shoes.  Plus it’s intensely Japanese, which is refreshing in that not once does someone reference The Godfather.

Xenogears

For those who recognize my title, congrats!  I can hear your mixture of euphoria and dread from here.  But nevertheless, I’m here to tell you about one of my favorite games, warts and all.  So join me on my little trip back to 90s jRPGs!

Man, I can hear the music now.

Warhammer 40k

It’s not really seen as cool to like Warhammer 40k by a lot of sci-fi purists.  It’s too dark and too grim and too full of BIG TUFF GUYS FIGHTING BIG TUFF BATTLES.

Honestly though?  I enjoy the stuff.

Vastness

Space is really cool.

Really, it’s super cool.  It’s actually one of my favorite “settings.”  It has pretty much all the elements of a good setting and really gives you room to tell a great story.  I’ll tell you why it’s in quotes though, since it takes a bit of talking.