The Backbloggery

[archived from a cohost post, originally made on may 29, 2024] for the first time in a while, I truly just do not understand what the writers of a game thought they were doing. I know what they think they were going for, but every tiring step of this game's plot is flimsily justified in ways that feel even more hollow than I expected. at the game's outset, the idea that a group of people could manipulate a nation into going to war to satisfy their personal vendetta against the emperor seemed truly absurd, but I was willing to see how they managed to justify it. they didn't even try. the idea that these five young adults would be sacrificing themselves at the end of the war to atone for their complicity in the bloodshed was also somewhat compelling. assuming, of course, they could actually explain how this would sate the populace or the state. they tried! but it makes no goddamn sense. the final gambit is going "actually, we started the war because of thes...

[archived from a cohost post, originally made on may 23, 2024] this game is infuriating. eminently breakable, and infuriating. I'm gonna be bitching under the cut, dead dove etc the partner who I burdened with the weight of playing kingdom hearts is mostly being a good sport about this but I feel bad. about making them play this game with its myriad shortcomings of design after they suffered khfm and its own cocktail of painful Bits, especially if you, as they did, try to get all the annoying trophies in one run. playing through kingdom hearts final mix on proud, without changing equipment, without being allowed to simply continue if you lose a fight, and suffering the painfully doubled damage that proud pointlessly inflicts to do the endgame grinding, even once you can swap equipment, is not how people typically fondly remember kh1. they remember playing the original game on normal! without a bunch of extra challenges tacked on! achievements/trophies are a problem, a...

[archived from a cohost post, originally made on may 20, 2024] we talked about wild arms 2 on the podcast so I'm not gonna make a big post about it. I made my points about the game fairly well on the episode, I think. game's good! I love it enough that I am genuinely considering writing a more comprehensive and accurate walkthrough than exists among the several I used to replay it