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So...how much of the bad discourse surrounding Steven Universe is just because people were really hoping that the Gems would beat up Andy DeMayo in "Gem Harvest"?
I was astonished to learn that there was controversy around this episode, because I felt like it was just kind of a normal children's cartoon about getting along with difficult relatives; and then I looked it up and learned that it had the extremely inauspicious timing of airing right after Trump's 2016 victory, and, yeah, okay, I can understand why a children's fantasy about reconciling with your obnoxious conservative relatives and getting them to accept your alternate family structure would play rather poorly at the time.
I think that Rebecca Sugar probably assumed, like most of the world that wasn't my specific flavour of extremely online in 2016, that Clinton would crush Trump and that this episode would maybe help to smooth over divisions; but of course what ended up happening is that an episode about how you should be empathetic towards your bigoted relatives ended up airing just as your bigoted relatives were going around victoriously hate-criming people in the street.
Watching it now, though, it ends up feeling wistful more than anything. Like, yeah, sure, it doesn't work like that, and we all know that now...But wouldn't it be nice if it did? It feels like a pleasant dream.
Steven Universe is fundamentally a power fantasy—but the fantasy is being able to get through to people and heal things. The power is love instead of strength.
Tutorial out of the way, time to start the game proper.
Cappy & Mina survive the crash, and Cappy gives us our first healing flasks. As mentioned last time, I like the gimmick of having to charge up the flack by hitting enemies before you can use it. Captures some of the aggressive flavor of Bloodborne's healing mechanics without losing the positive qualities of estus flasks.
I pass like three different underlab entrances before I realize what they are or how to enter them. Had I realized what they were, they would have made for more natural episode breaks. Also apparently the blue lady mouse is alive in the first one? So maybe nobody died on the boat after all.
Right away the game looks great, sounds great, and feels... well, it feels pretty good. Does have a bit of that kind of sluggish feel that a lot of isometric/top down type 2d action games have, where the slightly slow feeling movement speed is further delayed by needing to line up your attacks cardinal-direction style. And that's on top of the delayed dodge from the dig mechanic.
It doesn't feel bad, mind you. But the overall effect does feel a lot slower than 2d platformers, especially coming so soon after silksongs lightning fast and buttery smooth and super aggressive gameplay. That's certainly not a fair comparison, but the game also feels a lot slower than Shovel Knight.
Slow isn't necessarily bad though. In theory it should lead to more deliberate, anticipatory gameplay (again, especially with that dig dodge), which was a key part of what made the original Castlevania so compelling, and while Castlevania was also a side on platformer, it's definitely a major influence here, even more so than Bloodborne.
Between Mina's old school Castlevania inspiration, Silksong likewise playing up that connection, the Bloodrayne sequel releasing this year, the recently announced Belmont's Curse game, it really does feel like we're in the middle of a Castlevania renaissance. Shame it couldn't quite line up with the heyday of the Netflix show.
woo Castlevania sub weapons. I liked them in Silksong, and I'll almost certainly like them here too. Maybe more so even, since the directionality and commitment of Mina's primary weapons are greater than Hornets, making different attack angles provided by subweapons arguably more important here.
I love the book sprite with the reading glasses when the menu is open.
I don't get why this yellow enemy recolor isn't attacking and can't be hit. No, it never once occurs to me that this might be an npc I could talk to.
I kind of suck at this game, suffering my first death pretty early on. The game sends me back to an underlab checkpoint, but I still don't realize what that is or how to enter it.
When I get back to the room I died, my... spark? soul? bloodstain? It's not there? tbh I was so engrossed in the gameplay I didn't even think about it at the time. Is there no corpse run in Mina? but then why the electric orb that comes out when I die? Not sure what's going on with that.
In the next room I finally figure out how underlabs work, which makes for as good a place as any to take a break.
Before I do though, I take a read through the in game achievements. I like that these are here, since I didn't get the steam version so don't get cheevos through that. I doubt I'll mess with achievements in this game, I'm kind of trying to break the compulsion to try for them since I don't usually have fun with that, and also while I like this game and will probably beat it, I don't think I'll like it enough to be as obsessive with it as I was with Silksong. But we'll see.
In the episode Gem Harvest, Uncle Andy comes face to face with the Gems for the first time ever. He has little to no knowledge of their typical abilities, their hardiness, nothing. It’s all new information to him.
This also extends to Steven. Beyond seeing him summon a shield out of thin air while cooking dinner, he has no idea what kind of powers this kid has. He has no idea he’s able to float when he’s in the right state of mind.
So, when he’s quickly plummeting from the sky, of course Andy literally thinks his new nephew is going to die.
Steven, on the other hand… has become the master of downplaying the reality of any danger he’s a part of. It seems to be something of a coping tactic for him? Perhaps it’s a method to assuage both himself and others of his “safety,” and that he’s “totally okay.” So when Andy pulls off a risky gambit and manages to rescue him from the sky, Steven is- habitually- all smiles and encouragement and cheer. (Can’t show the fear he felt to others, because that would be burdening them!)
Steven: “That was a close one, Uncle Andy! You sure are good at-”
Uncle Andy: “Do you have any idea what could’ve happened to you?!”
Look at that. Those words immediately sober his enthusiasm. The mask falls. A little bit of hard realization sets in. And his uncle- he’s so upset at what could’ve happened that he’s literally crying a little right now.
Uncle Andy: “What good are you to me as family if you’re-”
If you’re dead.
What good is Steven as family if he’s dead?
Y’all, it’s so, so rare that anyone in Steven’s immediate sphere of influence actually bluntly points out the inherent danger of Steven’s life, actually points out the risks he entertains sometimes on a daily basis with the lifestyle he has, living with the Gems. It’s so rare because Steven has very few people who actually exist entirely separate from the small microcosm he’s built for himself in Beach City. Even the townies are super desensitized to the existence of all this Gem related danger by now. In many respects, even his dad is.
So when Uncle Andy cuts through Steven’s jovial downplaying of what just happened, it rattles the kid. He’s genuinely not used to people calling out what could’ve been a near-death experience.
In the whole of SU, this is a very rare moment. The other one I can call to mind that strikes at a similar theme is when Priyanka tells Steven in the hospital that his adverse experiences as a child “are serious!” after he’s listing them off like they’re merely a series of harmless misadventures on a very long road trip. And it’s stuff like this that genuinely makes me wish that this character had more access to people outside his immediate sphere of influence, because honestly… if Steven had more people telling him that the things he’s going through aren’t normal, that they’re genuinely dangerous and genuinely have the potential to be traumatic occurrences, he might have been able to recognize his need for help far earlier, and far before all his muddled emotions exploded to the surface.
This is some really good commentary. It also occurs to me that since his powers usually require positive feelings to work reliably, learning to suppress negative feelings and force himself to be “happy” would actually be a necessity for his survival. So it makes total sense for it to become a conditioned response to any time he feels threatened.
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I'm not done with Aria of Sorrow... but Mina's out so it's time to play a new game, if only so I can watch some streams without spoiling myself.
Not much in this episode, just intro, reading through the entire manual (like many old farts I miss when games had instruction booklets), game settings, & the intro/tutorial section. Gameplay starts at 9:55 in the video.
Game seems fun. I like the gameboy bloodborne aesthetic. Some good ideas right up front - healing vials refilling on rest but needing to be charged by hitting enemies in particular is a brilliant innovation that captures some of the aggressive flavor of Bloodborne's rally system & blood vials while maintaining the more controlled pacing and lack of tedius farming from Dark Souls' estus.
Protagonist is exceptionally cute. I am quite partial to anthro mouse characters.
I have to assume this is the antagonist. Apparently also the patron who called us back to fix the whatever devices? So a barely disguised surprise twist villain? Not my favorite trope, but better than a sincere surprise twist villain.
Rival maybe? Some kind of bat character, I think? I expect this would be the primary antagonist throughout the game who turns out to be working for the lion guy, or maybe someone we think is a villain who turns out to be a misunderstood hero fighting against lion guy.
...
The manual is cool. Controller settings a bit odd - usually Steam automatically swaps the A/B & X/Y buttons on my switch pro pad, but not for this game? Which I guess is maybe because I got it on GoG and am only launching it through steam for steam input & recording? Not sure, this is the first game I've done that way. I'm glad it has a native linux version so I don't have to mess with lutris yet.
I'm trying to reduce my dependence on steam specifically lately. I have way too many games in that library, and any day Valve could decide to start charging subscription fees just to access them. Like, Gabe probably wouldn't allow that, but I give myself about 50/50 odds of outliving Gabe, so I can't exactly count on one guy's good graces forever. Seeing so many corporations go down the enshitification toilet has made it pretty clear how bad an idea that is, and while GoG probably can't be trusted either it at least has the pro-ownership anti-drm thing baked a bit more heavily into its bones, to the point that it would probably take a bit more time to strip it out.
Loading some custom images even has it looking nice in the steam library, and I don't even care about the lack of detailed info or steam achievements, though the lack of cloud saves to pass the game back and forth to the steam deck is annoying. Or would be if I weren't playing it on desktop to make recordings. Or will be once I give up on live blogging it.
but back to the game...
...
yeah, that feels very shovel knight. Mina's in game sprite is almost as cute as her character model.
There's a whole story set up intro sequence, on top of the 'attract mode' animation when the game launches and the story summary in the instruction booklet. The mood is very fun. "Tenebrous" is a good word.
She's even got reading glasses come on now.
Also, is that a human?
There are humans in this world, I guess. Weird, but ok. "Seafarer" isn't an actual name, so this guys not making it out of the intro segment, is he?
Oh, he's just "knocked out." Except that purple lady definitely went overboard, so uh...
Anyway, yeah, monster attacking the boat.
boat hold has basic mechanical tutorials for jumping and digging, plus picking a starter weapon.
The hammer is really cool, locking in facing while charging a big swing but letting you dodge in any direction while holding it seems like a gool mechanic. But I've had castlevania on the mind lately, so I've gotta take the whip. Daggers not as appealing due to locking you in place while you're stabbing with them.
I'm sure you can pick all three up to play around with later anyway, so I'm not too pressed about it.
Back up on deck and, yeah, I don't think these people are escaping this attack merely "knocked out cold."
The Kraken is the classic souls out-of-your-depth tutorial boss that you can totally beat but that new players are supposed to lose to so they can feel cool when they fight it again and beat it later. I like that trope.
I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing though, and am not at all used to Mina's unique dodging mechanic. You can burrow to avoid hits, but have to jump first to do it, which means there's a big delay before you get those precious i-frames, meaning you have to anticipate attacks much farther in advance than in souls games.
It's certainly a twist on the formula. Feels a bit frustrating at first, definitely an adjustment there.
Anyway, Kraken wrecks my shit then fucks off right before the boat crashes into a cliff side. The captain is another human (still weird), but this guy's got a name and a more distinct portrait, so I expect he'll survive.
That's the end of the tutorial segment though. Short and sweet, but I wasted a ton of time on the manual, so seems as good a place as any to cut things off.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
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Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
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Anya is LIVE right now
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There's this really obscure forgotten DC hero named the Heckler, who's basically buggs bunny as a superhero, not having any powers or physically strong, but just really good at pissing people off until they accidentally deal with themselves.
Now they're interesting, but the REAL star of the show is one of his villains, John Doe the Generic Man, who's this guy in a stark white suit with flat pink unshaded, untextured skin with no features or anything who talks like chatGPT and has black text over his face that explains what he's feeling at the moment. That guy is fucking fascinating.
I first heard about this guy from the "League of regrettable superheroes" Books, (The supervillain one, obviously) and He stuck with me because its such an interesting concept. not only is HE generic, but he has the power to make anything he TOUCHES generic too. I never actually got to experience his whole deal as an actual character, since this was just an info book that tells you about the character, so seeing these panels it really cool.
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snowghoul
origamiaround
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