Cigar acquired: +5 intelligence, +3 motivation,grumpiness and weight gain debuffs removed. A lengthy interview article, most of which I read a few days ago, is now completely lost to me: I didn’t save the URL anywhere, it’s not in my browser history, and I forget the referring page that lead me there. How does that … How Smoking Made People Smarter
Interesting, if only for story fodder, which is in the works on my end. The Gateway Process and the Monroe Institute stuff has gotten a lot of attention recently because of all the holographic universe bejabbering, the popularity of MMPORGs and litRPG with the youngins, The Matrix, and all the official attention on UFO phenomenon. … Video: The CIA On Time Travel And The Holographic Reality – The Gateway Process
There are two Kickstarter campaigns of note, launched recently. Both have already well-exceeded their goals so the rewards will definitely be fulfilled, and there’s plenty of time left to back them. The first is Jon del Arroz’s Overmind. There’s a graphic novel and a sequel prose novel up for grabs: Ayla Rin, Agent of Terra … Overmind, The Adventures of Mongoose and Meerkat 2 Kickstarters
The actual title of this is “The Final Trial: The Champions’ Ballad,” but the game’s title is long enough and I didn’t want to hurt anyone’s attention span. This is a long and ominous-sounding one. It’s a leitmotif: it repeats the previous—I assume “previous,” because this one is titled “final”—trial tracks in the game, and … Wednesday Humpday Midday Song: The Final Trial from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
A relaxing and melodious song from MapleStory, with some nice clarinet action doing the main melody, or at least parts of it. I feel like the easy path would’ve been to use flutes for that, because forests = flutes, I guess. Instead they do some of the background harmony. The entire MapleStory soundtrack is pretty … Wednesday Humpday Midday Song: Ellin Forest from MapleStory
Some quick, amateur photos of the Lord’s handiwork.
Senko no Ronde is a weird game. It has elements of bullet hell/shoot-em-up mixed with one-on-one competitive fighting, with a strange angular (called “isometric” in design terms) perspective. Anyways, this song is typical of the soundtrack on all installments of the franchise: frantic rhythm with “slow,” flowing melodies on top of it. INOJ was one … Wednesday Humpday Midday Song: Assemble from Wartech: Senko no Ronde
Here’s where a lot of people might get tripped up, on both sides of the religion debate. The idea that a religious concept is good for people, but not so much for God, requires a little parsing. The rituals exist for men, not for God. God isn’t pleased with ritual itself, but rather, if anything, … Catacomb Resident: The Necessity of Ritual
Ubisoft made a good move getting a Anamanaguchi, an actual band who does this music normally, to do the soundtrack. The chitpune power pop style fits perfectly with the nu-retro graphics, gameplay, and character tropes of the actual game. The track I have here seems to be a slightly different than the one in the … Wednesday Humpday Midday Song: Another Winter from Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Captain America teams up with Spiderman in a race to find the Infinity Stones before Magneto and his new ally, Drax the Destroyer, do. Those, obviously, aren’t exactly the dramatis personae, but the real ones in the movie are of a certain type. Another paint-by-numbers video game adaptation for kids. Sonic … Sci-fi and Fantasy Movies and Series Reviews, Part 35
I posted about this song a while ago, so maybe it’s time to do it again. I don’t know anything about NieR or any of its variations or sequels, except for the hovering book (I’m not calling it a “grimoire” like the game does). Because of that, I can’t give a whole lot of context … Wednesday Humpday Midday Song: Song of the Ancients (Fate) from NieR
Octopath Traveler’s “Title Theme” is everything I want to hear in fantasy RPG when you start it up: symphonic, rousing, memorable, dynamic, all stuffed into two and a half minutes. Not to invoke Final Fantasy VI yet again, but that’s one thing that bugged me about its introductory music was that it was too ominous … Wednesday Humpday Midday Song: Title Theme from Octopath Traveler
I have no idea what this game is about, other than it’s some kind of space opera involving music as a magic system. This song plays during the final boss battle with a huge ship or robot, after which an entire planet is created. Looks like there are multiple endings for this game, not uncommon … Wednesday Humpday Midday Song: Ra-Ciel Reincarnation from Ar Nosurge (Ode to an Unborn Star)
The Polar Express A boy and a group of children ride a fantastical train to the North Pole. This was the first movie ever to use all-digital motion capture, which made for realistic movements in the animated human characters. I’m not quite into that type of CGI—I didn’t like it when Ghost in the Shell: … Sci-fi and Fantasy Movies and Series Reviews, Part 34
I don’t know anything about this game, nor racing games in general, except for one of the Forza Horizon installments I played a while back. I also don’t know anything about house music, which is the overall genre this song belongs to. What is going on with that weird clicky-winding sound? Club music is weird, … Wednesday Humpday Midday Song: Liquid Soul from R: Racing Evolution
A catch-all version of the NPC meme, applicable to any situation your nation happens to be in. A jaydinitto.com original.
At least in the two Xenoblade games, the night version of an area’s theme a more somber version of the day theme. Satorl Marsh’s night theme is unique in that it’s a completely different song than the day’s. I don’t play a lot of open world games that have the day/night mechanic, so I don’t … Wednesday Humpday Midday Song: Satorl, The Shimmering Marsh (Night) from Xenoblade Chronicles
Game soundtracks sometimes need better titling approaches, like this one here. They could at least give it a generic name like “Overture,” or “Theme from the Origami King,” or “Don’t Let the Previously Minor Henchman Character Fool You—He’s Gonna Add Some Hardcore Emotional Depth Later On.” Whatever. I haven’t played every blessed Mario game out … Wednesday Humpday Midday Song: Title Screen from Paper Mario: The Origami King
Demon Slayer: Mugen Train Tanjiro, his sister-turned-demon, and two other companions, meet (big breath) Demon Slayer Flame Hashira Kyojuro Rengoku on a train and encounter, uh, demons. Though it’s an asterisk achievement, Mugen Train was the highest-grossing movie of 2020 because of you-know-what screwing things up. I’m not familiar with the Demon Slayer series at … Sci-fi and Fantasy Movies and Series Reviews, Part 33
Critical response to the actual game itself is contentious, but the soundtrack is unique in that Masashi Hamauzu—and not the series’ usual, Nobuo Uematsu—was the composer. There’s a lot of moodswinging throughout the song, which I think was used primarily for boss battles or intense cinematic scenes. A good boss battle song will have ups … Wednesday Humpday Midday Song: Saber’s Edge from Final Fantasy XIII