Final Fantasy II, Final Fantasy Marathon, Videos

Final Fantasy Marathon: Oooooh, Mysidian Girl – Final Fantasy II #8

1 Comment

Most people with a passing awareness of Final Fantasy will know about the series’ recurring elements: chocobos, Cid, the various summons. However, there are a couple of things that crop up slightly less frequently, but still more than once.

One of those things is a location called Mysidia, which, on the few occasions it puts in an appearance in the series — starting with this installment — is inevitably a small settlement populated exclusively by mages. It’s typically the centre of mysterious happenings or magical doodahs, and in this case marks an important stop on the way to retrieve the Ultima Tome.

Today Firion and crew reach Mysidia, go for a little wander, then come back again because, as it turns out, they forgot something. Whoops!

Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari ST A to Z: Ultima 2

Leave a comment

Today’s game hails from the relatively early days of what would go on to become an incredibly popular genre worldwide: the RPG.

Ultima II: The Revenge of the Enchantress is often regarded as the “black sheep” of the Ultima series, but it nicely demonstrates how things worked for this type of game back in the Good Old Days… as well as makes me realise that I really had no need to feel intimidated by the supposed complexity of RPGs back when I was a kid!

The ST version perhaps isn’t the most visually impressive game you’ll see on the platform, but it does make good use of the GEM interface, and provides some solid, enjoyable adventuring action!

Find a full archive of all the Atari A to Z videos on the official site.

Green Tea Area

DEPA★PAKU: Department Store Munching

5 Comments

Japanese artist ryokuchamichi, also known as Green Tea Area, leads a double life.

Not only do they draw rather lovely ecchi art with a particular focus on squishy plump girls and silky sheer hosiery (see their somewhat NSFW Twitter), they also have a talent for paying homage to the classic 8-bit home console era with their own original games.

At the time of writing, we’ve already seen the SameGame-inspired endless puzzler Dig Dig Mine; now, get ready for DEPA★PAKU, a platformer that feels even more like a lost NES title.

Continue reading DEPA★PAKU: Department Store Munching →

Waifu Wednesday

Waifu Wednesday: Hatsune Miku

3 Comments

With this week marking the release of a new Hatsune Miku game on Nintendo Switch — and it apparently dominating the sales charts somewhat — I thought it was high time we celebrated the world’s most famous Vocaloid.

Miku is an impressive cultural icon in that she transcends context and medium; she’s a genuine superstar who crosses boundaries, brings people together and inspires a considerable amount of passion from creators and fans alike.

Where did she come from? How did this phenomenon come about? Let’s take a closer look.

Continue reading Waifu Wednesday: Hatsune Miku →

Videos, Warriors All-Stars, Warriors Wednesday

Warriors Wednesday: Finale? – Warriors All-Stars #18

1 Comment

And so, we reach the conclusion of our Warriors All-Stars adventure. Or, well, the first conclusion, anyway; this is a game with multiple endings, and a variety of paths through its overall narrative.

The ending we achieve today is not the “true” ending, but it forms a suitable conclusion to the narrative path we’ve been following. Plus you get to see some absolutely disastrous attempts at a “one-hit kill” mission; things get real messy for poor old Honoka for a while there.

This may be the end of our first playthrough of Warriors All-Stars but we’re far from done yet! There are more characters to unlock and play as, more narrative paths to explore and more hot furries to lust over. Fight. I meant fight.

Manga

Interspecies Reviewers, Vol. 3: Sweaty Horseplay

1 Comment

With its third volume, Amahara and Masha’s breakout hit Interspecies Reviewers really feels like it’s hitting its stride.

While the first two volumes (see Vol. 1 and Vol. 2) were highly entertaining, erotic and, at times, surprisingly thought-provoking, Volume 3 feels like a noticeable step up with regard to a sense of developing narrative and overall worldbuilding.

And, with the trouble the TV anime adaptation has had getting broadcast even in late-night time slots in its native Japan… the manga may well end up being the definitive way to experience this delightfully bawdy series. Let’s take a closer look at this third volume.

Some NSFW content ahead! Like, right ahead. Immediately after the jump. I warned you.

Continue reading Interspecies Reviewers, Vol. 3: Sweaty Horseplay →

Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari A to Z: Ants in Your Pants

Leave a comment

Type-in listings in computer magazines in the ’80s were more than just an opportunity to get some “free” software, with the only expense being the cost of the magazine and your time. They were also a chance to learn something.

In many cases, type-in listings were accompanied by commentary from the author explaining the processes and techniques they’d used in order to create the various functions within the program. In the case of Ants in Your Pants by Allan Knopp, published in issue 27 of Page 6, the technique in question was “page flipping” — a method of getting the computer to draw several screens in advance, then seamlessly switching between them to create the illusion of full-screen animation.

As a game, it’s fairly limited, but as a demonstration of some of the things it’s possible to do in Atari BASIC, it’s definitely worth a look!

Find a full archive of all the Atari A to Z videos on the official site.

Green Tea Area

Dig Dig Mine: Cake or Death

6 Comments

Don’t you love it when you find a happy little bonus; something unexpected on top of something you already like?

I encountered one of my own this week. I’ve been following a bunch of Japanese and Korean erotic artists on Twitter recently — partly to satisfy my bottomless libido and partly to drown out the endless negativity of Western Twitter — and I was delighted to discover that one of them is not only into drawing pretty girls flashing their pants at you (NSFW, obviously), but also into making loving homages to retro-style games.

That artist’s name? Albe– wait, no, that’s something else. That artist’s name is @ryokuchamichi, also known as “Green Tea Area”, and the first of their games I’d like to share with you is Dig Dig Mine, which you can snag your own copy of for a mere ¥200 (about $2) over on Booth, a Pixiv offshoot focusing on independently developed digital art of various forms — including video games.

Continue reading Dig Dig Mine: Cake or Death →

Announcements, Community

Around the Network

1 Comment

Good evening! It’s nearly the end of the weekend, and I feel like I’ve spent a significant proportion of it asleep. Evidently I needed it.

Anyway, that hasn’t stopped me from making a few videos and playing some more Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana, so it all worked out fine in the end.

But enough about me; you’re here to find out what you might have missed this week. So let’s look at just that! Join me after the jump.

Continue reading Around the Network →

Atelier

Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana – It’s an Alchemy Thing

5 Comments

cropped-atelier-megafeature-header-1-8868334This post is one chapter of a MegaFeature!
< Prev. | Contents | Next >

Despite being the sixth game in the series, Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana was the first to come West.

The exact reasoning behind this isn’t entirely clear, but it may be something to do with the fact that the early Atelier games were primarily abstract management simulations with RPG elements, while Atelier Iris unfolds in a manner much more like what the Western audience would have understood “an RPG” to be in 2005.

Perhaps it was assumed the West wasn’t ready for that sort of thing. Perhaps the amount of text in the earlier games made them impractical to localise at the time. Or perhaps they just sort of fell through the cracks. Whatever the reasoning, Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana was the West’s first Atelier game, so that’s where we begin our journey.

Continue reading Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana – It’s an Alchemy Thing →

The best of overlooked and underappreciated computer and video games, from yesterday and today.