Rude awakening

For awhile, my cat had a habit of poking around in my closet at night when she got bored. There’s no door on it, just a curtain that she can easily get through, and she sometimes makes a lot of noise, messing around with the stuff I have stashed there. So, I recently stacked some boxes in front, to keep her out, which worked…for awhile. The other night, she somehow clambered her way over them, and woke me up. I get up, turn on the light in there, and as soon as she saw me, she seemed to know she’d done something wrong and tried to get out…and got stuck between one of the boxes and the doorframe. When I reached over to shift the box, she panicked, and in her flailing of paws, she tore several large gashes in my leg. Which brings us to today’s word.

laceration, noun – a rough cut or tear with ragged edges

Learned from: Half-Life (PC, Mac, Playstation 2)

Developed by Valve

Published by Sierra Studios (1998, PS2 version in 2001)

Remember back when Valve made games? Pepperidge Farms remembers. And honestly, Half-Life and Diablo were the main titles that got me into PC gaming back in the ’90s. While the roguelike nature of Diablo scratched my itch for fantasy, Half-Life just looked so much better than anything else in its genre. I’d played Wolfenstein 3D a little at a friend’s house, and Doom on my 32X (arguably the worst way to play it, since it wasn’t even the whole game), and they were fun, but Half-Life looked to be doing something different; it actually wanted to tell a story, with characters, and set pieces, and weapons located in places that made sense, rather than just floating around in the air.

I devoured every article and preview of this game I could get my hands on, leading up to its release, and when I finally got my hands on it, I wasn’t disappointed. From the opening, in-game credit sequence, to the unfortunate amount of platforming during the climax in Xen, I was engaged, making my way through hallways filled with hostile soldiers and three-armed aliens that shoot lightning. And all the while, my constant companion was the voice in my HEV (Hazardous Environment) suit, giving me constant updates on just how badly beaten up I was, from suffering minor lacerations to being dosed with high levels of radiation. Sure, in the end it all added up to how much health I had left, but it felt so much more immersive.

And after that early morning run-in with my cat, I can confidently say she’d give any headcrab zombie a run for its money.

This is Anji. Don’t let her coyness fool you; she is sharp.

Cryptic messages in the Lands Between

As I write this, Elden Ring‘s DLC, Shadow of the Erdtree, drops in a little over a month, so I figured I should really get back to Limgrave and sharpen my skills. And, you know, maybe actually beat the game. Which brings us to today’s word.

baldachin, noun – the cloth canopy above a throne, or carried above an important person

Learned from: Elden Ring (PC, Playstation 4, Playstation 5, XBox One, XBox Series S/X)

Developed by FromSoftware

Published by Bandai Namco Entertainment (2022)

Early in the game, you unlock an area called the Roundtable Hold which acts as a sort of hubworld populated by a diverse array of NPCs. And in true FromSoft fashion, most of them are…ambiguously helpful at best. One of the, Fia, is a woman who came to be bound to this place due to “circumstances.” She also offers hugs, claiming she’ll receive the warmth of a warrior in exchange for what is surely a “baldachin’s blessing.” Possible minor spoiler: Hugging her might not be an entirely good thing to do.

Otherwise, Fia is pretty innocuous, and seems a rather sad figure. Not that anybody in a FromSoft game ever comes across as terribly happy, but there’s a special melancholy to her. Curiously, she doesn’t seem to have anything resembling a baldachin in her room, which makes her initial claim even more confusing. But while there’s no canopy, she does have a mirror in her room that the player can use to change their appearance, so she’s got at least some accoutrements.

Don’t let it bug you

It’s been a long, kind of weird week at work. A lot of strange transactions that I’m tempted to blame on the upcoming eclipse, the same way people blame weird behavior on the full moon. But one thing that stood out against the craziness was something as simple as a shirt one of my coworkers was wearing the other day: It was basically black, but had this interesting green and purple iridescence to it, that brought to mind a beetle’s shell. Which, after a few detours, brings us to today’s word.

carapace, noun – the shell of an insect or other arthropod

Learned from: Lunar: The Silver Star (Sega CD)

Developed by Game Arts

Published by Working Designs (1993)

For as much as I love RPGs, I never really owned many of them as a kid. Aside from this, The Ancient Land of Ys on my Apple IIGS, and if you count action RPGs like Landstalker, most of my exposure to the genre was from my local video rental store (thanks for the memories, Major Video!). And they didn’t really have a ton of Sega CD games. But I’d begged my parents for the clunky Genesis add-on (as I would again a few years later, for the 32X, much to my lingering chagrin), and I wanted to make use of it. And Lunar looked amazing, from the previews in the magazines. I think I actually had to do a mail order for it out of an ad in one of those same magazines once I’d saved up the money, because the Internet didn’t exist in any real capacity yet, and it turned out Major Video wasn’t the only place that barely carried Sega CD games.

I remember checking our mailbox every day, afraid someone would steal something that was so hard to acquire if I wasn’t vigilant. And when it finally arrived, my 10-year-old mind was blown. The sprites looked crisper, the world was huge, it had an opening cutscene–with a theme song! (Which I still mostly remember to this day, actually.) I knew I’d made the right choice in tracking this game down.

Looking back at it all these years later, objectively Lunar is a fairly run-of-the-mill 16-bit JRPG, with a questionable translation (e.g. there’s a Wheaties reference at one point), an unremarkable overall plot, and some admittedly nice art. But at the time, I had a blast exploring its vast world, filled with bizarrely modern humor. Even when I expected that world to be more cohesive and immersive than it ended up being. Case in point: the carapace armor.

This was back in the day when games still came with (occasionally well-illustrated) instruction manuals, and reading through them on the ride home from the store, or in this case, simply before playing, was part of the experience. So when I saw that carapace armor was made from “shells of bizarre creatures on the southern continent,” I got it in my head that I shouldn’t wear that armor in that area, because I thought parading around wearing the corpses of the native inhabitants wouldn’t be a great idea. It…never became an issue–though there was some equipment-based, outside the box thinking they put in toward the end of the game, in a sequence that’s one of the game’s shining moments. So I was actually sort of on to something, in a roundabout way.

It’s weird that a lot of modern JRPGs have actually regressed in how they display gear. In the ’80s and ’90s, even if equipping new armor or weapons didn’t necessarily change the look of your character, they usually had unique sprites in your inventory. Now, a lot of them just have generic helmet or sword icons, with names by them. Sad, really.

Please take me off your call list

I recently played through the first Dragon’s Dogma, in preparation for the sequel, and frankly, the game delighted me. Even with its massive amounts of janky moments, there was such an earnest heart behind it all, right down to a solid attempt at period-accurate Medieval dialogue. And I’m happy to say the sequel follows suit quite closely. Which brings us to today’s word.

roborant, noun – a tonic

Learned from: Dragon’s Dogma 2 (PC, Playstation 5, XBox Series X/S)

Developed by Capcom

Published by Capcom (2024)

Part of what I love about fantasy RPGs is that they so often unearth words that would have otherwise been lost to antiquity, and place them front and center before a modern audience. Even when the word in question somewhat confusingly sounds like slang that very same modern audience would have invented, themselves, perhaps around election season. Even though “roborant” only dates back to the 17th Century, and isn’t as period-specific as Capcom might have thought when deciding to use it, it’s still collected one hell of a lot of dust.

Here, it’s both a strong healing item, and the subject of an early quest involving a little girl who’s studying to become an apothecary, but she can’t afford a fruit roborant to further her studies. But, good ser, you are a hero, aren’t you? Mightn’t she impose upon your valiant sensibilities and kind heart, and ask you to procure one for her? Truly, what is a bit of coin, compared to furthering the education of the next generation of healers for her community?

I totally expected her to pick my pocket when I left to go pay for her school supplies. And no, I won’t spoil whether that happens or not.

Devious little reprobate, or budding credit to her community? You’ll have to find out for yourself.

I’ll take “Things I haven’t had much of for a few weeks,” for $400.

So, I caught COVID for the first time recently, and it’s really taken the wind out of my sails. Even in the aftermath. I’d hesitate to say I have “long COVID” at this point, but I’ve been dealing with some stuff, not the least of which is that I seem to be getting tired more easily than I used to. Which brings us to today’s word.

vim, noun – energy, exuberance

Learned from: Diablo (PC, Mac, PS1)

Developed by Blizzard North, Climax Studios (PS1 version)

Published by Blizzard Entertainment, Davidson & Associates, Electronic Arts (PS1 version) (1997)

The first Diablo was a formative experience for me. I’d played a few roguelike games before (from Fatal Labyrinth on the Genesis, all the way back to AD&D: Treasure of Tarmin on the Intellivision), but Diablo was the first game of its type I played that A) Had real-time combat, and B) Told a cohesive story, with NPCs and everything. It was also much more of a power fantasy than anything that came before it; despite its grimdark setting with the forces of Hell rising up to take over the world, your lone rogue, sorcerer, or warrior would be slicing through hordes of demons like butter, as magic items fell from them like rain. Well, you had a lone hero unless you ventured into the lawless, buggy, cheater-filled wasteland of online play. That was fun in its own way, but you never knew when someone was going to use an exploit to steal that shiny new sword you just found.

And man, was that gear shiny. You never knew what any monster or chest was going to drop at any given time, any more than you knew what the layout of the dungeon was going to be. That skeleton could drop just another potion, or a Diamond Battleax of the Whale could come flying out of its pile of bones. The basic-tier magic items in Diablo had stats determined by (often ridiculous) combinations of prefixes and suffixes. In the example above, that battleax would have pretty good magic resistance from the “diamond” prefix, and would give you a ton of health from the “whale” suffix.

Vim was a lesser vitality-increasing suffix. Really nothing special after about the midpoint of the game, but certainly better than a garbage item with no traits at all–or worse, something like a Rusted Breatplate of Frailty that would actually lower your defense and strength. The first Diablo was a far less forgiving game than its successors, and I will always have a soft spot for it because of that. It was nowhere near as polished or feature-rich as Diablo II, or even the recently-released Last Epoch (which is really quite good, and a much better game than Diablo IV), but it had a lot of elements the later games did away with: outright harmful items, a random rotation of quests on each playthrough, shrines whose effects were unknown until you tried them, etc. I’d say it’s still worth revisiting today, if you can put up with a bit of clunkiness.

“I am here to destroy the world! And your free time!”

I’d think up a clever title, but I’m getting over a cold

Though, in a roundabout way, that’s fitting for the word I’ve chosen today. In ages past (and depressingly, probably still today in certain regions of the world), people thought disease was caused by black magic. Predictably, a variety of protective charms and incantations were invented to try and keep people healthy. And, while not an exact correlation, it does bring us to today’s word.

apotropaism, noun - the use of magical incantations to ward off evil

Learned from: Dragon’s Dogma (PC, Playstation 3, Playstation 4, Nintendo Switch, XBox 360, XBox One)

Developed by Capcom

Published by Capcom (2012)

Dragon’s Dogma is a gloriously janky game. Combat can be a confusing mess of slow motion camera pans, characters being grappled into the ground, enemies launching 20 feet into the air from a single explosive arrow, etc. It’s like Skyrim, if all the rough edges and bizarre physics were intentional. And the fact that it embraces its weirdness with such madcap abandon actually ends up being quite endearing. I just hope the upcoming (as of this writing) sequel doesn’t try to iron out what made the original so distinct–even if it was completely overshadowed by Dark Souls when it first came out, despite being a very different sort of game.

One of those main differences is that you always have a party of up to two companions.* And these friends, called Pawns, have some of the better AI I’ve seen in a game like this. Depending on their vocation, they’ll try to restrain enemies, grab useful things from the environment to utilize in combat (e.g. explosive barrels), and if they’re a mage, they seem to have a decent grasp of when to shoot lightning, when to enchant your weapon for you, when to heal the group, etc. It’s really quite impressive.

Speaking of mages, one of the passive skills you can get for them is apotropaism, which is a mouthful that boils down to: They take reduced magic damage. No special rituals or preparations, as the word itself would have you believe; you buy it, and it’s there forever. If only warding off evil in the real world were as straightforward.

*It’s been pointed out to me that you can actually have three pawns accompanying you: two, plus your personal pawn. Just throw it on the pile of things this game doesn’t adequately explain to you, like why the backspace key is the default “save changes” button on the PC version…except when it’s the button that exits the entire game. Go figure.

The “Dark Arisen” subtitle is the “enhanced” version of the game Capcom released shortly after the original. It ruffled a lot of feathers at the time, but if you’re looking to try it out now, this is the only version of the game you’re likely to find, so no need to worry.

The reason for the season

It may not feel much like the dead of winter right now, let alone the holiday season, at least where I am. Normally, around this time of year, we’d have at least a foot of snow on the ground, that would have been there for weeks, already. In 2023? We’ve got maybe an inch, and it’s supposed to be above freezing this weekend, with rain in the forecast, most of the week of Christmas. This is not a good thing, despite how “wonderful” most of the geriatrics who show up at my job proclaim it to be; just because you’ll be dead before the planet fully goes to shit doesn’t make rain in December, north of the 45th parallel anything other than a horrible warning sign of things to come. You might even say we’ve got dark days ahead, which in a roundabout and not at all existentially horrific way, brings us to today’s word.

solstice, noun - the day in the winter or summer with the fewest or most hours of daylight, respectively

Learned from: Solstice (NES)

Developed by Software Creations

Published by CSG Imagesoft (1990)

I never owned an NES growing up, but I do remember seeing ads for this fantasy adventure game released late in the console’s life cycle. At first glance, it looks a bit like The Immortal, or the underrated Genesis game, Landstalker, with its isometric cameras angle, and fantasy setting, but upon looking up gameplay, I don’t think there’s any combat. Instead, it’s more of a puzzle game, akin to Airball, or the much-later Lumo, where you’re trying to navigate your character through a series of traps and monsters, without directly fighting them. It was, I hope, an understandable mistake to make, because the wizard on the cover was buff as hell.

These sorts of games can be fun, but watching a playthrough of it, it looks like it does share something in common with Landstalker, in that your character doesn’t have a shadow…which has to make it incredibly frustrating to line up jumps.

Touching on the subject that I originally began this post with, I’m sorry to be a downer around what’s supposed to be a happy time of year. I hope that wherever you are, things look more seasonal, and you find yourself in more of the holiday spirit. Whatever you celebrate, even if it’s just the fact that days will be getting longer, I wish you nothing but the best. Now, have a stupidly ripped wizard, to cheer you up.

The cat’s pajamas

Today I got up early to help my wife wrangle our cat, Anji, into the carrier for her annual vet visit. Historically, our cats have been quite a handful on car trips, but Anji surprised us, by hopping right into the carrier when we tossed in a treat. Things were going great, until we got to the vet, and discovered her appointment was actually next Tuesday. I have no idea if Anji will be as cooperative when we try this again in seven days, but the whole experience did bring a word to mind.

clowder, noun – a group of cats

Learned from: Akiba’s Beat (Playstation Vita, Playstation 4)

Developed by Acquire

Published by Xseed Games (2017)

Akiba’s Beat is a game that centers around a time loop, which I like. It also centers around fairly mindless, button-mashy combat, which I don’t like. The plot casts you as a “NEET,” which is a Japanese term meaning “not in education, employment, or training.” Basically, a lazy layabout who contributes nothing to society. And the biggest problem with the game (aside from the combat) is that the protagonist, Asahi, is just so damn proud of this. He’s so lazy and self-centered, that he regularly flakes out on appointments to meet up with the few friends he somehow has, and doesn’t even care. Thankfully, Asahi does start to come to terms with this part of himself once he starts repeating the same day over and over again.

See, Asahi lives in Akihabara, a sort of geek’s paradise. Gaming, idol singers, fashion, collectibles, regardless of what geeky hobbies you’re into, Akihabara is a nexus to find what you’re looking for. But for some reason, these fandoms are beginning to distort the flow of time, corrupting the world around them, and only Asahi (and a few others) are aware of the loop that keeps happening. To try and stop it, this motley crew has to identify the people whose delusions are warping reality, and fight their way through cognitive dungeons to destroy the root of the distortions. If this sounds a little familiar, it’s because Akiba’s Beat really is kinda like Persona, but with real-time combat. It’s not as polished, and it’s certainly lower-budget, but some of the characters are surprisingly likable. Like the catgirl maid.

She’s not an actual catgirl, just an employee at a cat-themed maid cafe, and she isn’t one of the folks who’s aware of what’s going on. But she’s always there to greet you outside of her establishment, with cat puns (“Welcome, meowster!”), and invitations to join her clowder. Realistically, it’s probably a bit cringe, but she helps add to the wacky, surreal atmosphere of the story.

And really, if you can deal with the bland combat, and initially irritating protagonist, *Akiba’s Beat* might be a purrfect example of a diamond in the rough.

Can you hear me now?

I had the day off today, and decided to use part of it to start one of the many, many Game of the Year contenders for 2023: Alan Wake II. And I didn’t even get into the game, proper, before it taught me a new word.

hyperacusis, noun – elevated sensitivity to sound, particularly environmental or background noise

Learned from: Alan Wake II (PC, Playstation 5, XBox Series X/S)

Developed by Remedy Entertainment

Published by Epic Games Publishing (2023)

I’d heard some cautionary tales about this games PC performance before picking it up, and it turns out there is some validity to those claims. It doesn’t run terribly, by any means, but I had to do more tweaking to get it at a decent, stable framerate than I did for other demanding games like, say, Returnal. But it was in poking around the options, that I stumbled across a toggle for a hyperacusis filter.

In the game, it seems primarily focused on reducing the amount of high-frequency background noises, like birdsong, that occur while you’re playing. So, in this instance, it seems like it’s less about reducing the amount of environmental noise as a whole, and more focused on high-pitched sounds. Either way, it’s nice to see this kind of accessibility option included, because I fully understand what it’s like to be bothered by certain types of sounds (in my case, it’s chewing noises).

I suppose I should talk a bit about the game, itself, even though I’m not terribly far yet. First things first, it would probably be a good idea to play the original Alan Wake before diving into this one. It might not hurt your experience too much, but the opening sequence involves a returning side character from the previous game, and you’d be missing a layer of the narrative by not having that past experience. Similarly, having a reference point to the town of Bright Falls, WA as it was, versus how it currently is in Alan Wake II will give you some insight that a new player might not have.

To explain, in the first game, Bright Falls was a less menacing version of Twin Peaks–there was something sinister going on in the background, sure, but the townsfolk, themselves, all seemed like genuinely okay people. If a bit odd. But in Alan Wake II? Something just feels…wrong in the town. It goes beyond some characters not fully recovering from what happened to them in the previous game, though that’s a factor too. But even in this early stage, walking through the town (as a new character, I might add: an FBI agent named Saga Anderson), I can’t shake the feeling that there’s a rot spreading just below the surface, and these people might not be the weird-but-trustworthy folks they once were. It’s a good start, and I look forward to seeing where it goes. High-pitched noises and all.

You can go in blind, but honestly the first game is still worth playing today, too.

Rwise fwom your gwave!

I really need to stop drifting away from this blog every so often. But, since this is the season associated with things coming back from the dead, I thought this was as good a time as any to get back to it. Happy Halloween, everyone!

necrolatry, noun – the worship of the dead

Learned from: Xenosaga: Episode 1 (Playstation 2, mobile, Nintendo DS, Wii)

Developed by Monolith Soft

Published by Namco Bandai (2002)

This is a strange name for a strange skill. I think only one type of enemy in the entire game uses it against you, and then only in tandem with another specific type of enemy. Necrolatry reverses how healing and damage work, on whichever character it targets, so healing skills hurt them, and attacks heal them. At first, this may seem rather pointless, until you realize the cleric-type enemies have no problem targeting your party with their healing skills, but it’s pretty hard for you to do damage to your own people, or try to cast healing on the enemy. It’s a neat trick–most certainly not a treat–and one I don’t think I’ve seen used in another RPG since.