I’ve distanced myself a lot from Kingdom Hearts III. Around the time the game released I cared a lot about being “right.” Under the scrutinous eye of a college entrance exam proctor, KH3 sheepishly turns its easel to reveal the work of a washed-up, occasionally brilliant artist. The Disney worlds rob the climax of its … Continue reading Kingdom Hearts III: Epic Winnie-the-Pooh
But some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again. Dedication for The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe; C.S. Lewis A friend of my mother's has recently adopted a child. She passed fifty years of age waiting for paperwork and disappointment to pass. Naturally she is taking special care to … Continue reading Why I Believe in Santa Claus
After a more thorough exploration of Shoreline, I stumbled across the first major discovery in this broken world. At it for hours, I knew I was onto something big in just the next room. The disheveled canopy of wires and pipes that had lost their native tongue provided sorry shelter from what was to come: … Continue reading Rain World: The Language of Loneliness
The best art infiltrates you and inserts itself as part of your fundamental makeup. It transcends memory because it starts to inform and influence your day to day life as much as your upbringing or loved ones. The earliest artistic experiences shape you the most; I'm still made up of mostly Tolkien and Calvin and … Continue reading Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (2021 Revision)
Spoilers for Everhood Welcome to Everhood, friend. "To enter this realm, you must leave your humanity. Abandon your idea of time, and accept immortality. You can leave or return as you will, compared to your current life where this is only one way out." Sorry, just something we all have to say to everyone. No, … Continue reading Everhood: An Eternal Soul’s Guide to Death and the Afterlife
"A singular disadvantage of the sea lies in the fact that after successfully surmounting one wave you discover that there is another behind it just as important and just as nervously anxious to do something effective in the way of swamping boats." "The Open Boat"; Stephen Crane Spoilers for Returnal and "The Open Boat" Despite … Continue reading Returnal: An Open Boat
Preface In keeping with the schooldays theme, I've decided to keep a diary of my time with Persona 5. This is my first Persona game -- in fact, it's my first SMT game at all. My JRPG experience thus far has been limited to a handful of Final Fantasy titles, most of the Kingdom Hearts … Continue reading The Persona 5 Diary
Diving into Megaman Battle Network lore may be a silly premise for a reflective, personal essay, but by deconstructing it I've had the chance to learn a lot about myself. These games are close to the center of the knot that forms my adult soul -- alongside Calvin and Hobbes and Tolkien. Storytelling forms a … Continue reading The Legacy of Megaman Battle Network 3
SPOILERS FOR THE WHOLE GAME Please make sure you play this game before reading. Fresh discovery is fundamental to the core experience. Welcome to the End of the Universe For the first few hours of Outer Wilds, I wasn't sure what the overarching goal would be. No objective markers or cutscenes tell the player what … Continue reading Outer Wilds: Finding Purpose
Spoilers for all sixteen Colossi from Shadow of the Colossus follow. Any Spoilers regarding the story's ending will be marked. I'm just as fascinated by the structure of a novel as by it's story, characters, prose, etc. My love for creative nonfiction likely inspired this fascination; David Foster Wallace essays like "A Supposedly Fun Thing … Continue reading The Order of Things
Spaceman Short -- A Blog 