Close the world . open the nExthttps://closethe.world/openthenExt/feed/2023-01-02T01:52:42+00:00Chyrp/2021.01 (House)Mobile Suit Gundam: 08th MS Teamhttps://closethe.world/openthenExt/id/post/36/2023-01-18T05:07:01+00:002023-01-02T01:52:42+00:00serialexperimenter<p><img src="https://closethe.world/openthenExt/uploads/08th-ms-team.jpg" alt=""></p>
<p> <strong>What is it?</strong> Gundam One Year War OAV with some Vietnam vibes, a very good fight scene and not that great outside of that cool fight scene.</p>
<p> <strong>If You like</strong> Universal Century, Mecha, Cool fights</p>
<p> <strong>You may also like</strong> Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory, Universal Century</p>
<p>I've now watched three Universal Century OAVs and uhhhh War in the Pocket is the only good one. I really wanted to like this one, but it's just not very good. Yes the Gouf Custom is a great fight and everyone should watch it, but overall don't feel like this had much going on.</p>
<p>Shiro isn't a good protagonist, the romance is very silly and there just isn't any thematic cohesion.</p>
<p>I'm watching all of Gundam in release order and maybe no one but Tomino should have worked on Universal Century.</p>
<p><img src="https://emojipedia-us.s3.dualstack.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/thumbs/120/joypixels/340/crossed-swords_2694-fe0f.png" alt="">
2 Gouf Swords out of 5</p>
All rights reservedThe Stepfather (1987)https://closethe.world/openthenExt/id/post/35/2023-01-09T14:11:33+00:002023-01-02T01:38:16+00:00serialexperimenter<p> <img src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNDQyNDY5ZjgtNjdmMS00N2E1LTk1MDUtMDllNTY0NWQxYjAyXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTQxNzMzNDI@._V1_FMjpg_UX1000_.jpg" alt=""></p>
<p> <strong>What is it?</strong> John Locke from LOST murders his entire family then joins a new family under a new identity where his new stepdaughter is suspicious of him and people are closing in on his identity.</p>
<p> <strong>If You like</strong> Movies loosely based on real events, domestic horror, Terry O'Quinn, Terry O'Quinn's hog</p>
<p> <strong>You may also like</strong> Halloween, Cape Fear</p>
<p> Fun horror movie loosely based on real life murderer John List who murdered his entire family and then moved to join another family. Terry O'Quinn stars and does a great job as an increasingly unhinged Stepfather losing his grip on who he is currently pretending to be. </p>
<p>The wife and stepdaughter are both very well acted, but the b-plot involving people from his old life trying to find him is clumsy and the actors involved in this plot are just bad. </p>
<p>The soundtrack is a lot of fun as well, very of this era of horror synths, with some good off-kilter music during the climax and other moments of horror.</p>
<p>Terry O'Quinn's performance is great and I had a good time with the main story. His unhinged looks are appropriately creepy, and I also really enjoyed the focus on his character being obsessed with the "idea" of having a family. </p>
<p><img src="https://emojipedia-us.s3.dualstack.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/thumbs/120/apple/325/family-man-woman-girl-boy_1f468-200d-1f469-200d-1f467-200d-1f466.png" alt=""></p>
<p>4 family members out of 5.</p>
All rights reservedLaid Back Camp Season 1https://closethe.world/openthenExt/id/post/34/2023-01-04T15:08:31+00:002023-01-01T16:12:44+00:00serialexperimenter<p><img src="https://closethe.world/openthenExt/uploads/noodlecamp-41.png" alt=""></p>
<p><strong>What is it?</strong> Anime girls go camping, long shots of nature, talk about how to camp and the girls becoming friends. The protagonists are definitely gay.</p>
<p><strong>If you like</strong> Slice of Life, Anime Scenery, Gay subtext, Relaxing music.</p>
<p><strong>You may also like</strong> Azumanga Daioh, K-ON, Hidamari Sketch</p>
<p>Really enjoyed season 1 of Laid Back Camp and looking forward to watching the rest. I like being in the outdoors, though I am more of a "go back to a warm cabin at the end of the day" kind of person. It's fun seeing all the anime Japanese countryside and the characters have good chemistry.</p>
<p>The emphasis on Rin enjoying solo camping while the others are wanting to do larger group trips is nice, and I like that it stays an element with her being very into outdoors things and friends with all the members of the outdoors club, but not a member. She likes to do her own thing, but she does get closer with everyone especially Nadeshiko whos bubbly personality is a good balance for her. Also they are gay.</p>
<p>Music is really good too.</p>
<p>Really fun show, makes me want to go camping and watch season 2 to see all of the girls go on more camping trips.</p>
<p>▲▲▲▲ 4 tents out of 5</p>
All rights reservedWork Music 1/12/2022 - The Deathkillers by The Deathkillershttps://closethe.world/openthenExt/id/post/33/2022-01-12T22:55:04+00:002022-01-12T22:55:04+00:00serialexperimenter<div style="width:560px;height:315px;display:block;margin:0 auto"><iframe style="display:block;height:315px!important;" width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/1g_bSkSJSZE" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
<p>A six year old girl on vocals with her older brother on all other instrumentation, mostly an out of tune guitar as she yells punk lyrics. She's having the time of her life and I hope she grew up to be in a punk band in college cause she is into it.</p>
All rights reservedQuick Thoughs - The Wheel of Time TV Show Season 1https://closethe.world/openthenExt/id/post/29/2022-01-07T16:22:30+00:002022-01-07T15:37:59+00:00serialexperimenter<p>I'm a big <em>Wheel of Time</em> fan, it was the first big fantasy epic I read and—outside of <em>Dresden Files</em> or if you count all of the <em>Cosmere</em> books as one series—the only fantasy series of its length I've ever read. It has a lot of issues and the latter books by Jordan were not good and lost the plot a bit, he did start bringing it back home before his death and Brandon Sanderson helped finish it out well. <em>Wheel of Time</em> got me into fantasy and so I was excited to hear they were trying to make a TV show of it.</p>
<p>They did... okay. Which is a lot better than I expected. The first episode really should have been two episodes to give me more time to establish the characters and world a bit better. Like episode 1 should have ended with the trolloc attack arriving instead of them leaving town. I think the changes to Mat make sense to make him more sympathetic given whath appens in the first book. I still do not understand the Perrin wife thing, doesn't add much, would be better if it just wasn't there I think. The big change I am very unsure about is the mystery around the dragon reborn's identity. It makes Rand's character very flat in the entire season and the introduction of "the dragon could be a woman" really messes with the world. </p>
<p>I understand trying to undo some of the gender essentialism of the series and I think it's an admirable goal, but it just doesn't really work here. The series does a very job of establishing why men channeling is dangerous and why the dragon is dangerous to begin with. It takes a while to really show that and there needed to be more lay people terrified of the though of men channeling to get across why being the dragon would be so terrible. If they went with some of what happens later in the series with some more trangender characters channeling saidin despite being in a female body I could get it, but we see Egwene and Nynaeve channeling saidar throughout the season and it's still playing them up as potential dragons. </p>
<p>Still, I suppose they needed a throughline and The Eye of the World as a book is mostly setup for the world and the plot is a bit disjointed already, making it tough to adapt. I think the first few episodes are a bit weak, but it gets better and better as it goes on before nosediving towards the end, with the finale just being kind of dull and confusing even for me whose read the books.</p>
<p><strong>Goods</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>The Actors, I love most of the cast, sad they're going to recast Mat next season, but Moiraine and Nynaeve are so perfectly cast.</li>
<li>Making Nynaeve and Lan's relationship better. De-aging Lan and actually having them flirt and such in book one will make that relationship flow much better</li>
<li>The effects. I was very pleasantly surprised by how the effects looked. They did a good job with the weaves and the trollocs and faceless look pretty good.</li>
<li>Loial. I love this character and the actor and effects are good, I always pictured him as a bit more monstrous in appearance though.</li>
<li>The Tinkers. I think they handled the tinkers really well and I enjoyed their scenes.</li>
<li>The Children of the Light. They did a very good job setting them up as antagonists and I enjoyed The Questioner's actor.</li>
<li>Rand's Mom. I liked seeing her fight on the dragon mount, sets up the Aeial spear sisters as the great warriors they're supposed to be.</li>
<li>The Seanchan designs. I think the masks is a cool way of just literally having collars and chains on women in the show.</li>
<li>Loghaine. I liked the scenes with him and it adds a bit more to his character. I wonder if they'll consolidate him and Mazrim Tain for the show. Would make sense.</li>
<li>Padahn Faine. Great actor for this and I enjoy the little hints of him throughout the season, though I think for the TV audience it would have been better to make it more explicit in a middle episode that he's near the characters at various times.</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Bads</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Shadar Logoth changes. I don't love the changes they made here, the lore changes I'm ambivilent on given how much they'll need to streamline anyway, but I think there needed to be more focus on Mat's greed.</li>
<li>The finale. Just weak, it feels really quick, arbitrary and uninteresting. I hated Egwene reviving Nynaeve. I didn't like the girls doing the lightning storm to take out the trollocs I get not having Rand be dramatically revealed yet, but again the season gives what little actions and character he can have to other people. He just doesn't get to do much and he needed at least a cool scene before the end.</li>
<li>Perrin. I like Perrin in the books but I think they're doing him dirty in the show. The wife thing wasn't great and they don't setup the wolf powers enough in the show.</li>
<li>Taverren. They barely explain what this is to the audience in the show. Feel like it needed a bit more focus early on.</li>
</ul>
<p>Overall, I'm interested in future seasons. Past me would have been mad at changes, but like things have to be different for a TV show and I'm interested in seeing where this goes.</p>
<p>3 ages turning out of 5</p>
<p><img src="https://closethe.world/openthenExt/uploads/wheel-of-time.png" alt=""></p>
All rights reservedWork Music 1/13/22 - FujiGridTV Vol IIhttps://closethe.world/openthenExt/id/post/28/2022-01-03T16:38:47+00:002022-01-03T16:33:01+00:00serialexperimenter<div style="width:560px;height:315px;display:block;margin:0 auto"><iframe style="display:block;height:315px!important;" width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/4ccD-soZ4gM" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
<p>Vektroid released a sequel to one of my favorite of her old albums on New Years Eve. First listen I like it, but prefer the original, a bit more noise than I usually care for, but we'll see how I feel on future listens. I was just really excited to see she did this. I need to go through all her patreon release stuff still. Haven't listened to it all since subscribing.</p>
All rights reservedQuick Thoughts - Yakuza 6: The Song of Lifehttps://closethe.world/openthenExt/id/post/27/2022-01-07T16:21:33+00:002022-01-03T15:42:39+00:00serialexperimenter<p><img style="margin:0 auto;display:block;" src="https://closethe.world/openthenExt/uploads/yakuza-6.jpg"></p>
<p>Decided to move my media twitter thread to short media blogposts instead cause sometimes I wanna say more and I feel like it. Going to limit myself to ~250 - ~300 words though.</p>
<p>After 7 years of going through the Yakuza series with my wife, we finally finished Yakuza 6 and thus the Kiryu saga. I went into this one not expecting much because I feel like people had a lot of issues with this one on release, but I really enjoyed it. The focus on fatherhood and families as well as both blood ties and non-blood ties I think was a good note to end Kiryu's story on. I do feel that the choice to end the game on Kiryu's letter to Daigo calling him like a son is a bit unearned given his complete absence from the rest of the plot, but I really enjoyed Kiryu's relationships with the Hiroshima crew. </p>
<p>It is a bit disappointing that we don't get to see hardly any of Daigo, Haruka, Majima or Saejima in the game, because of how the story is structured. The structure of the story in general does fray towards the end as the game feels like it has three endings in a row as they didn't quite weave all of their threads together. Still, I think it was a strong finish and I really loved most of the cast, Beat Takeshi did a great job as Hirose and Nagumo was a great Rikiya 2.0. On to Like a Dragon!</p>
<p>4 out of 5 heat orbs</p>
<p><img src="https://closethe.world/openthenExt/uploads/4-heat-orbs.PNG"></p>
All rights reservedRayman (GBC) Reviewhttps://closethe.world/openthenExt/id/post/21/2021-08-16T03:10:12+00:002021-07-12T19:42:12+00:00serialexperimenter<div class="info-box" style="float:right;max-width:30%">
<img src="https://closethe.world/openthenExt/uploads/raymangbc1.jpg" alt="">
<table>
<tbody>
<tr><th>Developer: </th><td>Ubisoft Studios SRL</td></tr>
<tr><th>Release Date: </th><td>03/29/2000</td></tr>
<tr><th>Platform(s): </th><td>Gameboy Color</td></tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
<p>I really do miss the days where different versions of games would come out on different platforms. It added some interesting variety and sometimes you'd get very interesting takes on the same concept. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater for the PS1 is an amazing game, and the Gameboy Advance Tonky Hawk games were a great translation of that style of game to an isometric perspective that worked on the GBA. Now translating a platformer to a portable system doesn't require the same amount of ingenuity, but Rayman for the Gameboy Color is an interesting downport of what is a more visually stunning PS1 game to the small screen.</p>
<p>The most major change from the PS1 Rayman experience is that there are no boss fights except the final one against Mr. Dark. I am not too torn up about this as I always found the HP sponge bosses of Rayman 1 a bit dull to do after a while. Combat in general is deemphasized in this version, which is good as it does feel a bit clunky when it does come up. It felt like I had trouble making punches connect when it looked like it should have, and similarly I felt like there were some general hitbox issues on receiving damage as well. This doesn't come up too much, but it is frustrating when it does. Overall the controls are a bit muddy, but serviceable most of the time. The GBC version really de-emphasizes combat overall to focus more on platforming.</p>
<p>The level design is overally enjoyable and not as difficult as the original game.. You do still have some of the somewhat maddening "walk somewhere to invisibly trigger a change elsewhere" elements that Rayman 1 had, but I didn't get stuck on those too much. Exploration for electoon cages is the main collectible and each level has a different number of them available, indicated in the HUD at the bottom. Once you beat the game, you unlock a world map that lets you go back to the earlier levels to wrap up your collection. Like the original there are several levels based around rising water that I had a bit of trouble with when hanging from ledges was involved, but I didn't get stuck too much in this game. It's a much easier experience overall than the original game its based on, which is nice and in combination with the smaller set of levels and worlds, lets it be a bit of a breezy play through.</p>
<p>I liked the levels that mirrored the original's Band Land, called Airy Tunes in the GBC version. It captures the same feel and look as that level and has some fun new platforming gimmicks original to this game. My only major complaint is that several of the worlds are varaitions on "forest" as the theme and look a bit samey. I would have liked a few more different-looking zones to play in, but what is there is good. The game also has a secret final world once you collect all the electoon cages that serves as a final challenge as well. I played it a bit using a password to get there, because I didn't enjoy the game enough to 100 percent it.</p>
<p>The graphics attempt to capture some of the detail of the PS1 game, but it can make the screen a bit busy. I think it looks good overall, but there were a few times where I wasn't sure what was interactible or just part of the background. Rayman's sprite looks good, as do the enemies and some of the small "cutscenes" between worlds. </p>
<p>I would reccomend giving it a shot for at least a few worlds if you're a Rayman fan or looking for a platformer from the era you haven't tried before. Not the best platformer, but it was a real pleasant surprise to play a Rayman game I didn't know existed.</p>
All rights reservedRayman Redemption Reviewhttps://closethe.world/openthenExt/id/post/19/2021-07-05T16:07:31+00:002021-07-04T18:59:45+00:00serialexperimenter<div class="info-box" style="float:right;max-width:30%">
<img src="https://closethe.world/openthenExt/uploads/rayman-redemption-box-art.jpg" alt="">
<table>
<tbody>
<tr><th>Developer: </th><td><a href="https://twitter.com/Ryemanni">@Raymanni</a></td></tr>
<tr><th>Release Date: </th><td>06/19/2020</td></tr>
<tr><th>Platform(s): </th><td>PC</td></tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
<p><em>Rayman Redemption</em> is a fangame that remakes and reimagines the original Rayman title created in Game Maker Studio. <em>Redemption</em> is a surprisingly faithful adaptation for a recreation in Game Maker Studio, with the physics feeling very similar to me, only a few thingss around the rings feeling noticeably different to me. While a faithful recreation of the basic physics and gameplay, it's a distinctly different game that reimagines a more modern take on the original Rayman game. </p>
<p>The original <em>Rayman</em> is a difficult game, with the later levels and most of the bosses causing me a lot of heartache as a kid. <em>Redemption</em> smooths a lot of these out. Rayman starts with most of his powers already unlocked, you do not have to unlock the ability to punch or use the helicopter hair anymore. The most dramatic change to his moveset is in the helicopter hair which now works like in the sequels, letting you slow your fall as long as you hold the jump button down. Additionally, you start off with more lives, have more HP, have infinite continues, and level layouts are made easier for the most part. Despite some of these changes to the difficulty, it is still very difficult in the late game and the bosses still continue to be healthsponges.</p>
<p><em>Redemption</em> isn't exactly a replacement for the original game, it has a lot more differences than just a simple remake and is more of its own game. The original <em>Rayman</em> has about 18 levels, while Redemption has about 30 and the original levels have quite a few changes. The quality of these vary, but I appreciate it expanding on some of the one-off gimmicks from the original. Features like the super helicopter, bean sprouts, and moskito show up more often, and the Candy Chateau is expanded from the single level it was in the original game. I don't care for the dark level gimmicks where you only have rayman's fist providing light for the most part, but other new gimmicks such as the rainbow paint punches that create new platforms feel like they could have been in the original game.</p>
<p><img src="https://closethe.world/openthenExt/uploads/toyland.png" style="float:left;max-width:33%;padding:10px;" alt="A screenshot of the Toyland level"></p>
<p>I do at times wish there were two version of this, one that was a more faithful version of the original with the extra lives and widescreen and one that contained all of this new content. While I do like a lot of the new content — the new world Playtopia looks a bit off in some of the backgrounds, but it does fit in style to the original game — the game can feel a bit unsure of its identity at times. Some decisions, such as removing some of the minor routing choices from the game feel strange, but as a whole I really enjoy <em>Redemption</em>'s love for the original game and the series as a whole. There are new collectibles in each level and there are shops you can spend tings in. The shop with its unlockable skins (including the SNES prototype graphics) was a great addition. </p>
<p>If you enjoy the Rayman series, I'd recommend this game whole heartedly. I don't think it's a replacement for the originala or anything, but if you enjoy Rayman 1, this really scratches the itch of more content for Rayman 1. Ryemanni even made a new version of the old PC level editor that includes all of the features of <em>Rayman Redemption</em> and more. All-in-all a really cool fan project that makes me want to play the older Rayman games again.</p>
All rights reservedWork Music - 6/29/2021 - Bleeding Keytar ~ Stevia Spherehttps://closethe.world/openthenExt/id/post/17/2021-06-29T15:05:08+00:002021-06-29T15:05:08+00:00serialexperimenter<div style="width:100%; text-align:center;"><iframe style="border: 0; width: 400px; height: 472px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=3659662927/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=de270f/artwork=small/transparent=true/" seamless><a href="https://steviasphere.bandcamp.com/album/bleeding-keytar">Bleeding Keytar by Stevia Sphere</a></iframe></div>
<p>I think this is a really fun one, I like the blend of different styles for this album that still manages to sound cohesive. It's got a bit of a rock vibe on some tracks. I'm looking forward to the rest of this series from Stevia Sphere. </p>
<p><strong>Favorite Track:</strong> Surfing on Lava</p>
All rights reservedWork Music - 6/28/2021 - Music for Slime Creatures ~ Stevia Spherehttps://closethe.world/openthenExt/id/post/16/2021-06-28T22:06:52+00:002021-06-28T21:51:33+00:00serialexperimenter<div style="width:100%; text-align:center;"><iframe style="border: 0; width: 400px; height: 472px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=1091715801/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=2ebd35/artwork=small/transparent=true/" seamless><a href="https://steviasphere.bandcamp.com/album/music-for-slime-creatures">Music For Slime Creatures by Stevia Sphere</a></iframe></div>
<p>New job, new energy to update this blog again. First day here and I remembered <a href="https://twitter.com/steviasphere">Stevia Sphere</a> was doing a new project I hadn't caught up on yet and it turned out the first albums came out 2 days ago. I'm a big fan of her work, particularly her <a href="https://pinevoc.bandcamp.com/">pine voc</a> and <a href="https://steviasphere.bandcamp.com/album/light-ripples">glaciere</a> stuff. Her new project is The Rainbow series, where she does a series of seven more downtempo albums around a different concept (and presumably color). This is the first one, Music for Slime Creatures, which has a lot of chiptune in it. I'm not amazing at writing about music, one of the reasons I started doing these posts was to try to get better at talking about music, but I've mostly just written a sentence or two. </p>
<p>Still not going to write much about this one, but I will say I like that it has a mix of chiptune and non-chiptune in each track. I feel like I haven't heard much chiptune layered with other stuff where it works well and I think it was done well in this album.</p>
<p><strong>Favorite Track:</strong> Synth Gunk</p>
All rights reservedWork Music - 12/11/20 Deep Breakfasthttps://closethe.world/openthenExt/id/post/15/2020-12-11T22:03:53+00:002020-12-11T22:03:53+00:00serialexperimenter<p><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/SCJKdajjYYM" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>Really liked this album, never heard of this guy before. Not sure why the first track sounds like an ambient cover of "Call Me" by Blondie.</p>
Work Music - 12/4 - Gaia by Blank Bansheehttps://closethe.world/openthenExt/id/post/14/2020-12-04T16:55:23+00:002020-12-04T16:51:51+00:00serialexperimenter<div style="width:100%;text-align:center;"><iframe style="border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=1903280911/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=2ebd35/tracklist=false/artwork=small/transparent=true/" seamless><a href="https://blankbanshee.bandcamp.com/album/gaia">GAIA by Blank Banshee</a></iframe></div>
<p>Not a fan of this one. I don't know why my expectations were higher considering I really only loved 0 and liked MEGA. This one is more like MEGA, but idk didn't grab me. </p>
War in the Pockethttps://closethe.world/openthenExt/id/post/12/2020-11-03T03:39:12+00:002020-10-31T03:30:43+00:00serialexperimenter<div style="display:block;margin:0 auto;text-align:center;"><img src="https://closethe.world/openthenExt/uploads/831f1652b503a08eb0ca835b825bffa11.jpg"></div>
<p>After finishing the original <em>Mobile Suit Gundam</em> anime I decided to go with one of the OVAs that takes place during the events of the original series instead of jumping straight into <em>Zeta Gundam</em> and specifically chose <em>0080 War in the Pocket.</em> After the first of the very few gundam battles focused heavily on the major devastation that was caused from a mobile suit just being knocked to the ground, I knew this was the right choice. I always knew about the gundam meme. You know, the "cool robot" "war is bad" one, but <em>War in the Pocket</em> would need the meme reversed.
<div style="display:block;margin:0 auto;text-align:center;"><img src="https://closethe.world/openthenExt/uploads/screenshot2018-10-10at35306pm1.jpg" alt=""></div></p>
<p>I didn't think <em>Mobile Suit Gundam</em> was particularly subtle in its message, but <em>War in the Pocket</em> could not be more blatant. It's limited nature and attention alllows it to focus a lot more closely on what the war means to civilians. Taking place just before the side 6 episodes of the original <em>Mobile Suit Gundam,</em> familiarity with the series isn't needed to enjoy this. The show explains the important parts: there's a war, the colony is neutral, there's a federation base illegally building a super weapon, the rebels (Zeons) will violate interstellar agreements and nuke the place to stop the weapon if their small strike team can't take it out. The series follows two main protagonists, Bernie — one of the rebels on the strike team — and a boy named Al.</p>
<p>Al starts off the series running around and playing war with his friends excited at the chance to see a mobile suit battle and collect treasure from the battlefield and wreckage. When he meets Bernie after he loses his first real fight as a mobile suit pilot he is enraptured with the thriff of being involved in the war and seeing the fighting up close. As the strike team plans its guerilla attack Al inserts himself in their plans. Al's neighbor Christina who works for the federation gets involved and she and Bernie strike up a somewhat flirty relationship. I do wish Christina got a bit more screentime, but I did really enjoy the relationship between Al and Bernie who quickly become like brothers to eachother as they work together.
<div style="display:block;float:right;max-width:300px;"><img src="https://64.media.tumblr.com/2725b2bb82f3e9611b9e01d137c4bebc/tumblr_ox8s1l9ylY1ws2b8ao1_500.gifv" alt=""></div>
As the series progresses, Al's innocent joy in the cool robots and the explosions melt away as he sees more and more of the brutality of war up close. Al is the guy in the famous meme, he's a kid who is entranced by these cool robots, the explosions, the paraphenalia of war. As he sees firsthand the horror of war, people he knows dying before his eyes, his actions helping the war effort continue, he begins to lose his taste for it with later episodes showing him horrified at the site of the shell casings and pieces of bombs his friends collected, no longer interested in joining in their fun.</p>
<p><em>Gundam</em> was made to sell toys, and boys like Al are the target market for those toys. It critiques war, but it also does have to make it cool otherwise kids wouldn't buy the robots and toy weapons. It's easy to criticize <em>Gundam</em> for glorifying what it claims to critique and it is a very difficult line to draw. <em>War in the Pocket</em> does this very well though. There are two new mobile suits introduced that are variations of the Gundam from the original series and a new, blue Zaku — I do really like that blue Zaku — but they don't get much screentime and it shows the destruction and harm to civilians they cause. And I don't know if it's the much higher budget this series had compared to the original, but they seem to move more stiffly, like they are the large, metal machines they are. That may also have to do with none of the battles taking place in space, just on Side 6 and the fact that humanoid robots make less sense with gravity.</p>
<p>The series isn't too long or too short. Six episodes long, it tells a very poignant story of how war affects everyone and the loss of childhood innocence. There are a couple episodes in particular that really gutted me. The ending in particular will stick with me for a while and cleverly tied back in with the original <em>Mobile Suit Gundam</em> episodes about Side 6. It is without a doubt one of my favorite anime now and I think a good onboarding ramp to Gundam, though it may set the bar a bit too high. I'm only two series in though so I may be surprised the further I go in. </p>
<div style="display:block;margin:0 auto;text-align:center;"><blockquote class="imgur-embed-pub" lang="en" data-id="qn65upQ" ><a href="//imgur.com/qn65upQ">war in the pocket was sad</a></blockquote><script async src="//s.imgur.com/min/embed.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>
Thoughts on We Know the Devilhttps://closethe.world/openthenExt/id/post/4/2020-09-23T02:52:33+00:002020-09-22T04:08:53+00:00serialexperimenter<p><img src="https://closethe.world/openthenExt/uploads/we-know-the-devil.jpg" alt=""></p>
<p>This game is why I started this site. I wrote far too many words about it, realized it was too many words and stopped and shelved it. So I'm repurposing some of it for here.</p>
<p><em>We Know the Devil </em>is a horror visual novel that takes place over the course of 12 hours at a Christian summer camp and follows three troubled teens: the tomboy, Jupiter, who tries to always do the right thing; the shy, bullied Venus whose words can be subtly, bitingly cruel; and Neptune, the meangirl who wants her friends to stop trying so hard to be good. It's approaching the end of their time at camp and Group West knows their turn to be sent to the cabin is coming up. It's their turn to be on watch for the devil and drive him off. </p>
<p>We Know the Devil has a unique aesthetic that immediately catches your attention. While it's not uncommon for visual novels to use drawn characters and photographs as backgrounds, the black and white, rougher style of the characters works a lot better than others I've seen, and the dark, synth <a href="https://aleclambert.bandcamp.com/album/we-know-the-devil-ost">soundtrack</a> that feels out of a John Carpenter film brings it all together. </p>
<p>The story focuses on alienated teenagers, religion, social pressure, LGBT identities and repression. As you play through it, you will be asked to choose which two of the three characters will be together in a given scene, which is how the routes are handled. Not all combinations are available for every scene and you will always force one to be alone. I really related to the topics of repression and fear throughout it. If the basic concept of horror aesthetic, gay teens and a religious summer camp interests you and you haven't played it, please go check it out, it's available on steam and <a href="https://pillowfight.itch.io/we-know-the-devil">itch.io</a> ($6.66) and has a prequel demo called <a href="https://pillowfight.itch.io/we-know-the-devil">We Know the Demo</a>. </p>
<p>The Summer Camp the girls are at is never named and the game only has scattered mentions of its bigger picture. We don't get a lot of answers as to the world of <em>We Know the Devil</em> (WKTD from here on out for brevity), but we know what we need to because the story isn't about unraveling the mystery of what is this camp, we only need it as a setup. The Summer Camp has a cultish vibe, the students carry around crystal radios, wear white button down shirts with crosses that appear to be hastily drawn onto their pockets with a fabric pen. They also hear god on the radio, there's mentions of transformations and they go to a cabin to face the devil. </p>
<p>To those unfamiliar with the history of radio, the crystal radios sound even more mystical than they actually are in the game. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_radio">Crystal radios</a> were popular around 1900 as they required no external power to play the radio signals they could receive, they instead used the power of the radio signal itself for power. The crystal that Venus — who excels at working with the radio — references in the game, galena, is what was commonly used in these radios of the time. Crystal radios are simple, you need some wire, a capacitor, a crystal and some sort of earphone. They're a very interesting topic I highly recommend you look into further. </p>
<p>Brief diversion aside, even with prior knowledge of crystal radios, something is different about the crystal radios in WKTD. They are described with odd adjectives. Venus mentions their use in slicing things in the demo and each girl's radio has a different adjective associated with it. The Bonfire Captain — the only seen camp counselor — describes them as unique to each person and they connect to each of our three protagonists' personal issues. </p>
<p><img src="https://closethe.world/openthenExt/uploads/we-know-the-devil--wonderful-idea.jpg" alt=""></p>
<p>The campers tune in to hear God on the radio and — if they are not careful — they can sometimes pick up signals from the devil. The Devil lives between the frequencies, while god is always found at 109.8. God sounds like every boy you are afraid of talking to at once. God doesn't check in to make sure you're caught up to what he's talking about. God expects you to show up on time and pay attention. God has rules. </p>
<p>The kids are split into groups of three and are then setup to isolate one of the three in most activities. The demo shows that this is common across most camp activities as only two of them can compete in a dodgeball game and only two in a talent show. The kids must be cruel to each other, especially when they go to the cabin. The Cabin is where kids are sent to face The Devil. The Devil lives in the woods and one of them will be tempted by and possessed by him. The Camp sends groups to The Cabin because they believe they all have something wrong with them and want that stamped out. They pit these kids against each other, they want them to isolate one of their number so that they fall to the devil and then be stopped by the other two. The kids must know that they are wrong.</p>
<p>The game centers around this as the mechanic. You the player/reader must pick which pairing will work together at each decision point, and outside of one the seven events, you only get to pick between two of these pairings. This not only saves time on writing and makes replaying for each path a bit quicker, but also forces you to see every combination of character. You can't just stick Jupiter and Neptune together every chance you get. But because there are 7 events, you can't balance them perfectly either. Someone is always left behind until you unlock the true ending. </p>
<p>There is nothing to fear where there is two against the devil. Two people can shame and drive back The Devil. Two people can report this fall to sin and push their third back on the right path. Each path ends with the character you featured the least turning to the devil as the other two use their radios to turn them back. The isolation has caused the remaining character to turn inward on their "bad" impulses and they know the devil. T</p>
<p>As the girls turn to the devil, they undergo a graphic transformations that reflect each character before they are driven back by the other two. One of them always has to be a bit worse than the others, one of them must be a scapegoat and the other two must be good and turn them back.</p>
<p>I mostly want to talk about Jupiter. I want to talk about her in a way that really goes through a lot of the details of her plotline, so if this game interest you, go ahead and play it yourself first. It's $6.66 normally and usually is in a bundle or steam sale for less. </p>
<p><img src="https://closethe.world/openthenExt/uploads/we-know-the-devil--less-good.jpg" alt=""></p>
<p>Jupiter wants to be a good kid. She needs to be a good kid. She's supposed to be good. She can't not be good. She's smart, a good student, an athlete, and everyone else expects her to do well. She's not the kind of girl who gets sent to a camp like this. Even the jerks in Group South think she's cool. Jupiter always tries to put on a strong face. She acts like nothing bothers her, she tries to be friendly and tries to do the "good" thing without being sanctimonious about it. Jupiter makes occasional reference to her parents. Her mother is implied to be emotionally abusive. She may have been physically and/or sexually abused in the past as well. Jupiter has an extreme aversion to touching or being touched that can imply this. </p>
<p>Each girl in the game has a tic, her's is she snaps her hair tie on her wrist. </p>
<p>Jupiter has a crush on Neptune — she's a closeted lesbian who tries to lock these feelings away because it's not "good" to be gay. This is why she is at the camp. If you're not aware, snapping hair ties or rubber bands on your wrist is a form of aversion therapy often used by gay conversion camps. The idea is you snap the band on your wrist, causing you a non-serious amount of physical pain whenever you have gay thoughts. This causes you to begin to subconsciously associate your sexuality with pain to cause you to retreat from it. It's a cruel practice. </p>
<p>Jupiter really wants to be a good kid. Everyone expects her to be good, the pressure of the expectations of everyone else clearly weighs on her, particularly in her own route and the true ending. Her radio is described as heavy. I find the other character's "radio adjective" can be more directly related to how they communicate, but Jupiter's is a bit more general to the character I suppose. She feels the weight of the expectations of her parents, friends, and society. In Jupiter's ending, she, as she does through much of the game, immediately blames herself. </p>
<p>Jupiter says she liked it when she thought heaven was based on merit, where if you do good things, you can one day be good eonough to go to heaven. But she's gay. Her heart isn't "good" it's deviant. She can't be inherently good, she can only act it out. She can't go to heaven, God knows her heart has other desires. If it was about doing good things, she could make it. She doesn't have a shot at heaven now. She can act good, but she can't be good. She's inherently wrong and broken. Her mother taught her touching others is not polite, her dad told her as a girl she must protect herself from the touch of others, but she can't protect herself from her own touch. She asks what would happen if she stopped trying to stop herself from trying? </p>
<p>Throughout all the routes and especially the final route, Jupiter has trouble choosing her own happiness. She wants the devil to be real because she wants the devil to make her choose him. She needs it to not be her fault. She is too scared to make the call to be herself. She's afraid. </p>
<p>In the true ending, all the girls turn to the devil, be together and be themselves. Jupiter has the most trouble doing this though. She just can't let go and be herserlf, be "bad." She tells Neptune that she needs her to force her to join the other two with the devil becaus she's not strong enough to do it on her own. She begs them because it neerds to not be her fault. If she <em>has</em> to turn to the devil then it's okay. </p>
<p>She's scared, but she knows it's what she needs to do. She knows that if she takes that first step, she'll never be able to look back. </p>
<p><img src="https://closethe.world/openthenExt/uploads/we-know-the-devil--its-not-real.jpg" alt=""></p>
Work Music - 9/17/2020 - Shibuya-kei Jazzhttps://closethe.world/openthenExt/id/post/9/2020-09-17T14:14:20+00:002020-09-17T13:59:35+00:00serialexperimenter<p><iframe src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/playlist/6U7xPYmtrwz3RGYw7JMbvE" width="300" height="380" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" allow="encrypted-media"></iframe></p>
<p>Don't normally listen to stuff on spotify, but it is handy when just trying out new stuff. Going into the sub-sub-genres now.</p>
Work Music - 9/16/2020https://closethe.world/openthenExt/id/post/8/2020-09-16T15:10:31+00:002020-09-16T15:07:18+00:00serialexperimenter<p><iframe width="560" height="600" style="height:31em;" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/srZdDAJbHfc?start=2700" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>It's really funny hearing Dog Song played by a full orchestra.</p>
Mobile Suit Gundam First Impressionshttps://closethe.world/openthenExt/id/post/7/2020-09-10T18:22:12+00:002020-09-10T03:07:45+00:00serialexperimenter<figure><img src="https://closethe.world/openthenExt/includes/thumbnail.php?file=mobile-suit-gundam.PNG" alt=""><figcaption><p>So I started watching the original <em>Mobile Suit Gundam</em> series because I've never watched a <em>Gundam</em> before. The only mecha show I've ever watched is <em>Big O.</em> I'm liking it a lot more than I thought I would. I knew that it was about child soldiers and war being hell, but I didn't expect episode 1 to feature a bunch of corpses as a main character shakes her dead mother's body and the protagonist Amuro blowing a hole in the side of a spaceship killing people. </p>
<p>About halfway through it now and really like it. Still really holds up after all these years. The animation not so much, but I do like the characters and the overally story.</p>
</figcaption></figure>Thoughts on Hypnospace Outlawhttps://closethe.world/openthenExt/id/post/3/2020-09-10T02:34:45+00:002019-12-31T19:43:52+00:00serialexperimenter<figure><img src="https://closethe.world/openthenExt/includes/thumbnail.php?file=80b070907d4658d423dfd37a4569e3e501700b670563a1ce85c6698e3c04d75bproductcardv2mob.jpg" alt="Screen Shot of Zane's Hypnospace page"><figcaption><p><em>I started to write a Game of the Year list for 2019, but uhhhh it was July and I hadn't finished it so here are my thoughts on hypnospace broken out.</em></p>
<p><em>Hypnospace Outlaw</em> is extremely my shit. <em>Hypnospace Outlaw</em> got me to consider making this site and writing stuff on it again. It made me miss the days of the personal website. Now social media allow a cover photo and avatar at best, with tumblr being the last refuge of custom looks and feels to someone's page. <em>Hypnospace</em> is not just a nostalgia piece though, I think even those unfamiliar with the 90's/Early 00's internet can get a lot of out <em>Hypnospace.</em> It is not a simple recreation or reference to the internet of the time, but something with the "feel" of that period of the internet that captures what it is remembered for in an alternate universe setting.</p>
<p><em>Hypnospace</em> takes place in an AOL-like internet full of geocities-esque pages full of animated gifs and poor design accessed by people in their sleep using special headbands and technology we do not have today. Almost every page has autoplaying music, mostly in a simple midi-like style that many older websites had. You play as an Enforcer, a moderator of this internet and the main gameplay loop is that of a detective game, you are investigating reports of rule infractions and giving people demerits and bans for inappropriate conduct.</p>
<p>The first case you get is that of copyright infringement in "Good Time Valley," a community dedicated to the good old days full of older users. It seems the residents are using animated gifs and images of an older cartoon character named Gumshoe Gooper and the copyright holder is not happy about it. As you report the infractions of an elementary school teacher who posted drawings her students did of the character, she updates her status to express outrage at her unfair treatment. As the game progresses, this snowballs into an open rebellion as people begin to put "I Stand With Gumshoe Gooper" badges on their page. A page with american flags and patriotic midis is created to denounce the communist plot to take down Gumshoe Gooper and take away their rights to free speech as the community becomes divided over the issue. The debate bleeds over to other communities with "Teentopia"'s teenage hacker T1MAGEDDON making a satirical page about it to keep people riled up. </p>
<p>The thing I liked the most about <em>Hypnospace</em> is the characters involved weren't just there to be funny. They all have their own lives and relationships you can glean from their pages. Abby, the school teacher, is lonely after her daughter died at a young age and she lost her husband. The trial of Gumshoe Gooper's censorship causes her and another member to begin an online relationship as they bond over organizing the protest. Abby is popular in the community and is friends with an older biker who lost his wife a few years ago and they connected over their shared loss. The gooper gifs are made by a furniture salesman who lost the use of his legs in a car accident in his early twenties and uses hypnospace to communicate with people who don't just think of him as the guy in the wheelchair. Each investigation allows you to go down a rabbit hole of webrings and links to find out more about the characters and their lives.</p>
<p><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/aAwVTXrPDW0" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>Every area in Hypnospace includes its own cast of characters whose homepages give you glimpses into their lives. There's the pastor's kid in Teentopia afraid her dad is going to take away her Squisherz game because he thinks its satanic. There's a recurring washed-up musician known as "The Chowder Man" (played by internet funny guy <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGY2w6hIZWwyxasBUN7wbaQ">Hot Dad</a>) who is trying to return to popularity and is the source of the funniest songs in the game. </p>
<p>Most of the gameplay involves searching for keywords to find pages both listed and unlisted related to whatever investigation you're currently working on. This is reminescent of Sam Barlow's 2015 game <em>Her Story</em> and its computer-based search puzzle. The conceit works well enough and facilitates finding easter eggs and new pages and it helps that other mechanics are layered on top of it regarding hidden pages and areas. Collecting icons, wallpapers, themes, virtual pets and especially music tracks were really enough for me to keep engaging with every page I could find. </p>
<p>I don't have anything particularly profound to say about <em>Hypnospace</em> and its overall story arc, so I won't go into great detail about it. But the story of corporate greed and shortsightedness, teenagers desperately trying to be cool and loved and the ending really emotionally affected me in a way I didn't expect. Hypnospace does a great job of capturing that feeling of putting an image of yourself out there for others to see and how others who see this can keep an image of who you are for years to come.</p>
<p><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/INj74XRTXbM" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
</figcaption></figure>World 1 - Mushroom Kingdom of my Super Mario Maker 2 gamehttps://closethe.world/openthenExt/id/post/1/2019-07-05T21:49:59+00:002019-07-05T21:45:22+00:00serialexperimenter<figure><img src="https://closethe.world/openthenExt/includes/thumbnail.php?file=the-mushroom-kingdom.png" alt="Super Mario Maker 2 - The Mushroom Kingdom"><figcaption><p>I'm once again taking Super Mario Maker too seriously and am making a world map for my levels. This is the planned first set of levels, though I've only made up to the tank and will likely change the map a bit as I make more levels. I plan on making an interactive map with the level IDs when I'm done with this part. I have some <a href="https://www.mapeditor.org/">Tiled</a> tilesets I made this with. I also have the SMB3 tileset for the worldmap and the super mario bros deluxe map. I might switch up the style on world.</p>
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