mvu.one

Book Thoughts: Lord of the Rings (Trilogy)

It's been two whole months since I posted about a book, and that's because I've been listening to the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy in one go.

This was my first time reading/listening to the trilogy and I got the Andy Serkis (mocap/voice of Golum) audiobook version. He does a fantastic job giving each character a voice, and clearly tried to imitate the voices of the actors from the films.

There's not much to say about these books that hasn't been said at this point, so I want to approach this as a review of the differences between the books (specifically this version of the audiobooks) and the films.

Game Thoughts: Super Mario RPG (2024)

Today I finished Super Mario RPG. I never owned the original as a kid, but definitely rented it a handful of times in my youth. I've also played it multiple times on emulators and own a physical copy I bought years ago to adorn a shelf -- but I don't think in all my experiences I've ever made it past chasing the dinosaur after Mallow joins up. The Switch remake was a good excuse to finally cross this one off my backlog, as I'm an RPGs-in-bed kinda person.

It was exactly what it sells itself as: a 12-hour silly charming turn-based RPG featuring Mario characters. It was simple fun without much to take away, though I like to try to take something away from each thing I play.

Here I'd like to focus on the combat. While the combat system in the game is fairly simple turn-based RPG stuff, it does something a little extra for interactivity: during attacks and spells you can hit A at just the right time to increase damage, add additional effects, or even completely negate damage when the attack is directed at one of your own characters. While I can think of several RPGs with a "click button at the right time for bonus damage", I feel the addition of blocking damage is a rarer feature. While it trivialised some boss battles, it definitely kept me more engaged in even basic battles, and I think it would be an interesting feature within a more robust battle system.

On that note, there's not much in Mario RPG that's robust outside of its charm. It's really just a bog standard RPG mechanically and progression-wise -- you go to the next town, buy the only available upgrade for each character**, solve the local issue, move along.

That said, there's so much charm that it transforms a basic RPG template into a super fun experience that manages to constantly surprise (if not challenge) with silly events, weird bosses with weird abilities, and charming locations. It's a wonderful and consistently funny experience.

Overall I had a great time with the game and its cast, but I'm glad it's short; by the last area I found my party overpowered and was on the cusp of getting bored, but the credits rolled before it could sink in.

**Obvious exceptions being some of the end-game equipment and Work Pants, which are WAY too OP and make almost all other armour you can acquire in other towns obsolete.

Comic Thoughts: Dorohedoro

Last night I finished the manga Dorohedoro, which is mostly about lizards and dumplings.

I watched the anime a little while ago (it was a great time), and decided to give the manga a shot to see where the story went. Turns out the anime ends at around chapter 40, but the manga is a whole different experience.

While the anime was a fun and fairly violent romp, the manga cranked the graphic violence up to 11, throwing in all the viscera and gore they couldn't put on the medium screen.

They also cranked the nudity up while they were at it, with more anime boobs than entirely necessary. I like anime boobs as much as the next internet denizen, but at times it felt like the entire manga may have been an excuse for the author to draw nipples.

The story unfortunately spins its wheels quite a bit after the anime leaves off. It gets confusing, the pacing gets weird, and it pretty much does nothing important for the next 80 chapters. It picks up again after that, however, and finishes strong once things all click together.

Even when the story drags, the gorgeous artwork, ridiculous characters, and wild world building keep you reading. The humour stays pretty consistent throughout as well, and I was impressed how author managed to build a narrative in which the dismemberment, mutation, and even recurring deaths of some characters managed to be hilarious -- and somehow despite the easy access to healing / reviving powers they managed to keep the stakes and tension up when necessary.

It may have been too long and convoluted, but was a totally wild, hilarious, gory bit of fun with a very unique setting and very unique cast of characters.

Thoughts: Year End 2023

As 2023 draws to a close and I spend the last two weeks of the year in trash-goblin form doing nothing but playing old junk games and eating 2-3 times my daily recommended calorie intake, I reflect upon the year and the media I've consumed, and the things I've worked on.

Game Thoughts: Gravity Circuit

Today I beat what is likely my last game of the year: Gravity Circuit. This one was an impulse sale purchase, but had caught my attention multiple times over the year.

I'm normally not a Megaman player -- over the years I've dabbled in a couple titles, but generally wasn't a fan of the shooting mechanic. Megaman Zero was more of my speed (he uses a sword instead of a blaster), but those games always felt a little too hard on the difficulty side for me.

Gravity Circuit is basically knock-off Megaman Zero, but ditches the awkward sword / spear attacks for a simple punch combo that felt absolutely fantastic. Actually, every control felt exactly like it should, and starting the game I was surprised how I was instantly comfortable with the character movement and combat (with the exception of the grappling hook which I very much disliked!)

I had a blast getting through the game. The developers clearly put a lot of love into every aspect -- the bosses had little stories (just enough!) and were tough, rescuing the bots was always super satisfying, and the little base hub and skill unlocks were fun to play with.

While the majority of the game wasn't terribly difficult, I really struggled with the final couple bosses, and by the time I finally beat the last one my thumbs were sore and my heart was pounding. It took me at least 20 attempts and many experiments with different upgrades to cheese as much as possible!

Overall it's a fantastic (and gorgeous) title, and I'm glad I found time to sneak it in!

Series Thoughts: Evangelion

Last weekend I found myself with nothing pressing to do. No chores, no responsibilities -- just 2 full days of free time to engage in side projects, hobbies, and hang out with some old friends.

Instead, I ended up binge-watching Evangelion and most of the related films.

Book Thoughts: The Sunlit Man

I've just finished listening to The Sunlit Man by Brandon Sanderson, the last of his Kickstarter book series. Out of the four novels released, this was definitely in the bottom 50% for me, as while some of the content content was interesting in the grander scheme of his "Cosmere" universe, the book on its own was fairly bland.

Now, that's not to say there wasn't any action, interesting settings, or tearjerking moments in The Sunlit Man; when I say bland I mean this entirely in the context of "within Sanderson's novels". And he's got a lot of them -- by his own estimation this is his 50th novel.

Mild Spoilers after the jump.

Comic Thoughts: Goodnight Punpun

Last night I stayed up until 4 am reading the last 75 chapters of Goodnight Punpun, a manga about a cute poorly drawn bird navigating the ins and outs of childhood.

At least that's what it seemed like it was about for the first couple pages. In reality, Goodnight Punpun is a thoroughly depressing story about a boy's life as he grows, suffers through a difficult puberty, struggles with family and relationships, and grapples with serious mental health issues. It's also about the people around him struggling in their own lives and relationships.

This was a terribly upsetting work of fiction. The twists in the story are legitimately twisted in ways that weren't enjoyable at all. The awful things the characters do to each other out of desperation, out of desire, out of not knowing what else to do, are heartbreaking... yet I was compelled to keep reading, as beneath the selfishness and depression are just people trying to find happiness. The author hides gems of joy throughout, shining all the brighter for the pitch black around them.

A awful as everyone is throughout this story, they all feel very human. The downright grossness of puberty and the stupidity it enables, the longing for other people, the underlying thoughts of mothers and fathers yoked into the roles while still being their own individuals. The love and hurt and hope and betrayal that comes with living a life with other people is on raw display and, for the most part, feels believable.

There's parts of the story that I felt were unnecessarily awful to the point of just trying to shock the reader, especially near the end of the series, but I think the project as a whole was a fantastic work that was worth the read.

After being dragged through the mud and making it to the other side of Punpun, I think I can crystalize a few key sentiments out of the whole ordeal. Maybe not the ones the author meant to convey, but ones that resonates with me:

• That the longing and seeking of perfection can only ever lead down paths away from it. It's only by learning to accept the imperfect that we can move forward and find something worth keeping.
• That some wounds can't be healed, only lived with.

I'm glad I read it, and simultaneously glad I'll never have to read it again.

Thoughts: Why I Make

I've been having a very grumpy day today. Perhaps because I stayed up too long last night consuming the last 75 super cheerful chapters of Goodnight Punpun, but I think it's primarily due to a general frustration at my inability, of late, to produce anything.

My goal for the day was to visit a local Gundam store and get some black Friday deals, but the very idea of spending money on a hobby that was just for fun made me even more irritable. Why spend money on a hobby that doesn't further any of my skill towards finishing any of my projects? But then, instead of doing any projects I just sulked around the house being frustrated and indecisive.

I got pondering as to why I want so badly to do these projects. I can't think of a single time in my life when I wasn't working on some kind of personal project, yet almost none of those projects have every come to fruition. I've identified a pattern in which I tend to get hung up on some skill ceiling, then latch on to another (different) project which I feel would help improve some skill I felt I needed for the previous project. This is an infinite chain. I'll make a comic to practice art so I'll be better at character design, scratch that, I'll write a story to practice writing so my comic can be better, scratch that, I'll do a world building project to prepare better for doing story writing, scratch that I'll make a small game to try exploring some smaller scale world building, to get better at world building in general! Round and round we go.

This pattern has left me a habitual dabbler. I can draw well enough to surprise colleagues, but not consistently well enough to draw what I want. I know my way around blender, but haven't ever produced anything worth looking at. I can put together (basic) melodies, do photo editing, write code, assemble storylines. I have a wide breadth of slightly-more-than-zero skills, but none deep enough to produce anything I've felt worthy of publishing. This in turn activates the defeatist in me and a project is abandoned before it ever got anywhere meaningful.

Thing is, "Make something meaningful" is my only driving force. Since childhood I've had this constant drive to produce something, anything, that some stranger somewhere would someday feel was meaningful. To make something that someday could be someone's favourite thing, even if it was only one person. That desire, I think, may also be my blocker, as my dissatisfaction with my own abilities terminates my confidence in my projects' value, preventing me from finishing them as I begin the infinite project-hop dealth-spiral to "less meaningful practice works", which are in turn not "meaningful" enough to keep me driven.

Having read a lot of fantastic works this year, I wonder if perhaps I'm simply approaching it wrong. Many of the stories (the best) I experienced felt as if they were trying to say something, and not just exist.

I think, perhaps, that these stories and experiences that stick with people -- stories worth experiencing -- are produced by people with something to say. Something they feel they need to share or some awful thing inside of them they're determined to exorcise and trap within some artistic output. The things they need to say don't even need to be important, they don't need to be the grand ideas of philosophers or geniuses; they just need to be felt strongly enough to push the project along.

...I don't know that I've got anything I need to say that badly. I've lived a fairly simple and fortunate life, and while I've got my scrapes and scars and opinions, I've never felt so powerfully about them that I've been driven to immortalize them as art. I've just been trying to make stuff because I want to have made something.

Maybe I need to turn inward and take a look at the stuff I feel but don't say, and see if I can find any coals hot enough to power my engine. To dig deep and find something I want to say enough that I won't care if the art is crappy or my code is buggy or if people don't like what I produce.

If after my search I can't find anything worth saying, maybe I'll stop for a bit. If I'm managing to live such a peaceful life, maybe I should just embrace that for a while and stop agonizing over my lack of creative output. I could practice drawing outside of projects, play with software without a particular goal for a bit, and just enjoy life while life's good.

Or maybe -- and by that I mean most likely -- I'll have shaken off this funk by tomorrow and be back at the old death spiral.

Book Thoughts: A Desolation called Peace

After devouring the first book in the series, I have now finished book 2 of Arkady Martine's Teixcalaan series: A Desolation Called Peace.

The sequel was good! It offers a bit more cerebral sci-fi than the first book, with much deeper investigation into language, memory, and the concept of what it means to be a person -- all themes present in the first book, but brought front and centre in the second now that the worldbuilding has been established.

On paper this book is better on all fronts. The politics, the stakes, the philosophy, the drama -- without the need to explain how things work there was more room for meat. That said, I did find it a a little less engaging than the first book -- partly because I like the world building (there's still some here, but not as much!), and partly because so much of the action was happening away from the city we spent the whole first book learning about. I would have loved to see more in-city politics that what we got in the sequel!

I really enjoyed some of the new characters, and the relationship between Nine Hibiscus and Twenty Cicada was fabulously done. Developments for pretty much every other returning character were also interesting -- with the exception of the main protagonist, Mahit, who I found myself disliking more and more over the course of the novel (philosophical differences, I think).

The ending of the novel left room for more of the series without necessitating it, and I think the bulk of the story the author planned to tell has now been told. That said, with 2 Hugo awards in a row it would be a shame not to get read more stories from within in the Teixcalaan Empire.