Starlight Library

My motivation to do anything is kinda down the drain in the past month but here it is. A review that I wanted to make for a while.

Note that this is about the original version on dreamcast. Nowadays it's fairly known that the ports of this game (Titled sonic adventure DX: Director's cut) are incredibly botched. And I don't mean in slight change kinda of way: Here's it's broken textures, lot's of lower resolution textures than the original on dreamcast and a lot of artistic changes that are baffling imo. Oh and physic changes too. Which causes a ton more bugs.

So I took it upon myself to play the original on it's intended hardware: I bought myself a dreamcast and whatnot. To see and feel what the developers intended. And the difference is huge.

In the port version, I could never see myself playing the game to completion for the various reasons I mentioned. But in the original version I actually did 100% the game. Something I could had never imagined doing.

The art style, light effects and transparency effects are amazing for it's time. It's actually crazy to think that this game is only two years after mario 64???

Also for those who are into the chao garden stuff: In this version of the game it's basically a prototype of. Lot's of stuff that feels weird and jank but it was amazing to experience that too.

One of my projects as of recently is getting myself a sega dremcast console. Along a few games for it of course. One of the things I ordered was a controller and a VMU unit along with it.

A VMU (short for Visual Memory Unit) is a dreamcast memory cart with a small screen, a d-pad and some buttons. Not only it serves as data storage for the dreamcast but it was intended for you to download games on it and play them on the go! A standard one looks like this:

Anyways the one I got is a transparent blue model. After installing new batteries in it I saw there was save data still! Apparently the batteries are there only to save the internal time of the VMU (it has a clock feature independent of the save data dates) and playing the small games on it. Save data stays even when out of batteries.

Here's the save data:

It goes as following:

1&2: Virtua Striker 2 save and replay data files from: November 27 1998

3: Virtua Tennis 2K2 (?) save data from: November 27 1998

4: Sonic Shuffle data (Text being in highlight signify this data can't be copied) from : January 12 1999

5: Dead or Alive 2 save data from: February 17 1999

It would be easy to come to the conclusion that those are very old save files but NO! All of those dates are from before those games are released.

This is due to the fact that the dreamcast itself has an internal battery to keep track of the time. While this battery recharge, it only does so when the console itself it powered on; not just when it is plugged in. When you power on a dreamcast with a dead battery, the default time is november 27 1998 (the day the console was released in japan)!

So the actual little scenario that happened is this:

-Somebody got a dreamcast with Virtua Striker 2 and Virtua Tennis 2K2. The console battery was empty upon getting the dreamcast.

-Sonic Shuffle was played 2 months later!

-Dead of Alive 2 was played a little bit wee more than a month later

-This vmu got sold eventually after.

Oh my, such is the way of life who sings

Sometimes happy sometimes sad

If only I could speak of those forever caged feelings

Seen this very recently, not only because I like Markiplier but also because I liked the original game. On top of that this is an independent movie making it big. In my point of view regardless how personal views on the movie it made history by that alone.

Seen with my boyfriend...

Anyways! This movie is very unusual and I like it for it. This is a very dark movie in the visual sense. It really does feels like you are STUCK in the submarine alongside the protagonist. In an ocean of blood.

Stuff from the game has been used in creative way! I love the idea of the photo display being used as a temporary source of light. And how details about it are used in certain plot points I won't spoil.

A lot of the lore of the game has been put into a different context, in my opinion in a good way. The biggest difference being the monster.

After years of being exposed to those games in some way or another I might as well post about them.

I think both have their merit. However DST will have more polish over time due to being updated still to this day at the price of the content made with multiplayer in mind to some extend. Or a different design philosophy. Big example being most notably boss hp or similar features having completely different ways of attaining them (like lamp posts in DS vs eternal light mushlights in DST). So beware of the game you will pick!

It's surprising to see that almost nobody still discuss the potential that both games have insane sandbox potential in their own right outside of the dedicated community of said games. But if you are now interested because of this post just beware: this takes a long while to learn, master and play.

I'd say the lore of DS is good for what it was! I will not judge DST in that regard sadly because it is still ongoing and I do not like to judge an unfinished story.

This is a review I've thinking of doing for a while after playing a bunch recently because of the new update but didn't get around to because of bad stuff. And what any time to write something other than being on high dose meds. Oh well.

Anyways yes! This is a game i like but also I view as a time capsule even if it got update recently. Mostly because the "rogue like" genre of video games was in the chaotic process of defining itself with the binding of isaac as the original spear head of that. Nuclear throne however stuck to it's guns (pun intended) and never truly changed while the genre did. Does that make sense? I hope it does.

This game is fast, for the better or the worst. On one hand once a run end you can just easily start another one and there's no biggies, on the other hand you can die just as fast, It's a give or take situation for me. Sometimes I wish runs would be a tad bit longer but I wouldn't want this game to fall in one of the biggest pitfalls of this genre; very long runs.

The game weapons, characters and mutations (perks) are probably the most balanced in a rogue like. With a few exceptions here and there but overall I never feel bad about a choice or a character.

I will say though is that the game is a tad more brutal over other rogue likes. And I guess it fits it's arcade feel but I also think there's a reason why in a genre that is very popular this game isn't. It's brutal but not in the funny way that a game like spelunky will have. Once you die it's just a "oh ok..." feeling.

Also the humor is very much a time capsule of it's time in a endearing way, Y.V. Being the pinnacle of this.