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media diary - september 2024

[12/09/2024-] DISASTER REPORT 4

aiee!

while this game isn't new to me, i decided to finally pick it up on switch after a particularly massive discount. i first played it via PS4 a year and a half ago on my livestream, only to find it kinda difficult to stream, so i left it behind. i had wanted to return to it though, and the time finally came for me. as of writing i haven't yet finished it, but i've been told it isn't that long and i've played maybe half of it, so i can confidently tell you the game's solid as heck.

when i say that, i have to make it clear that it isn't technologically "solid" -- especially on switch, it's underoptimized and a little blurry and has that unreal engine on switch stink i'm more than accustomed to. despite that, it doesn't at all hinder the experience, since it's already slower-paced and when viewed on the switch's handheld screen it's seriously not that bad. this may sound like a result of the porting process, but unless you have a high-end PC this game is just like this anyway. unaccustomed players might call it bad for this, that it should be better optimized, but i don't agree.

it's pretty funny that it's like this, appealing to my passion for games that are less-than-perfect for one reason or another, and despite its undesirable performance DISASTER REPORT 4 is still a charmingly relaxed experience. for a game about horrendously fatal natural disasters, it's one of the cosiest adventure games i've played, pulling PS2-era design ambitions into a modern framework. it has little in terms of generally expected "gameplay depth", but makes up for that through its pureness, its dedication to small-scale settings that you kinda just wanna hang out in. i really wanted to talk about it in my SLICE-OF-LIFE video, but i didn't own the game and couldn't get the necessary footage or knowledge of its contents past when i tried it through a subscription last year. i can safely say now, after like 8 hours, that you should check it out if you love to hang out in collapsing urban areas and solve little problems for strangers.

[16/09/2024] A TAXING WOMAN'S RETURN

so this one is a little tough -- a few months ago i saw A TAXING WOMAN, juzo itami's comedy about a tax officer made at a time when the japanese economy was booming and thriving and seeing the effects of an economic miracle. i'm not an expert on japan's history, much less its economy, but this sequel released towards the end of the decade, and so it makes no secret of its fears regarding the stability of the economic bubble only a couple years before it burst.

since i lack knowledge on this topic at all, i wasn't entirely picking up what this movie put down, but it's sensible after such a lightweight comedy for its sequel to take a more critical approach since, i mean, it's about taxes. money and the ways its antagonists abuse it are rampantly present topics, so to nakedly commentate on how that abuse affected the real-life economy is appropriate. because of this, the sequel is overall cloudier as unfortunate realities creep into a world that was previously pretty goofy. this is still a comedy, and it is still funny, but beneath that layer is some direct confrontation of its overarching themes that results in an ending i was not anticipating.

[19/09/2024] GAMECENTER CX 1+2 REPLAY

i sorta just have to mark this as the second 2024 game i played during 2024, the other being SMTV: VENGEANCE, but i did also wanna talk about gamecenter cx more.

i talked about GCCX last month since i'd been watching an episode a day partially to destress during my month-long physical and emotional moving process and also because it's just a really fun show. at the time my copy of GAMECENTER CX 1+2 REPLAY arrived i'd reached season 15, which is a pivotal moment as the seasons from thereon get longer and have much less fansubbed episodes. i'm not FINISHED with the show, but i'm finished watching through what fans probably call the "golden age" of the series, and so the arrival of my copy of this game commemorates the end of a personal arc.

this is a remaster of the two DS games from way back in 2007 and 2009, released this year as a (late) 20th anniversary celebration of the TV show, and naturally it hasn't gotten an english release at all. initially i wasn't gonna pick it up, but after last month's self induced gamecenter mania i decided to import a copy of the special edition alongside the recently-released GAMECENTER CX CHRONICLE book that outlines the full history of the series. i'll tackle the language barriers later.

said language barrier does make it kinda hard to play this remaster, i can go through with my memory of having played the DS version already but i have yet to finish either original game anyway. for now, it's just a Cool Thing To Have, but it's more than useful for recording footage of the games, and it's nice to finally own an imported switch game. even if i am limited in using it, owning something representative of an impactful series now dear to me is pretty darn valuable. i Will cherish it, and maybe someday i'll even play it while knowing what the text says.

[30/09/2024] D

as september came to a close, i felt the urge ahead of time to get into that october mood and start checking out some horror games i otherwise probably wouldnt play. on impulse, on the Eve of October, i played D for playstation.

D is one of a chunk of pre-resident evil CD ROM horror games, the wild west of realising just how scary games can get, and it originally released for panasonic's 3DO. it's all-FMV so it made for a smooth, quick playthrough with a strategy guide open at all times. without a strategy guide, i probably would've been doomed, because D guarantees that you'll mess it up if you don't know precisely what to do. it's got a two-hour time limit, but in those two hours are So Many puzzles that use up precious seconds, even minutes, so you've almost gotta manage time as a primary resource. thankfully this isn't too hard if you follow a guide 1:1, but if you're blind or going off memory and you get lost in its labyrinthine design, you're "D"one.

i'm glad i looked up a guide as soon as i did because it's the kinda game that's impossible to improvise with. you can't reasonably figure out all its puzzles without a Lot of experimentation, and with no save feature you can't spend too much time doing anything without needing to start over. despite that, it's atmospherically and graphically just what i needed to play to set in to the seasonal mood. it's got the precise mid-90s CHEESE to clean anyone's soul with, enhanced by its silly voice acting, and holds as a gorgeous relic of its pocket era.

stay tuned..!