139 reviews liked by mits
Turning something ordinary into extraordinary
Something about seeing text on screen with just purely animated images only for a sum of twenty hours sounds daunting to someone that can't focus for more than ten seconds and yet every word manages to grab my attention for most of it. Witch of the Holy Night (also known as Mahōtsukai no Yoru) feels like what happens when you the tiny things of regular life and drastic circumstances.
In terms of visual novels and pointing the complete obvious, narrative and the style of writing is complete key here in grabbing your attention and keeping it and the games manages to do that in spades for the most part. The way each grin, body language, item of the world is described manages to paint a complete picture of what's going on as you read. The voice acting is great here and really helps sell the emotions these characters feel throughout the story with hearing their anger, their triumph and their pain. There's a few slow moments during the action that I wish weren't there but after a certain point in the story, I found it hard to put down and every character in the main cast manages to get their moment in the spotlight. I just loved reading about the interactions and emotional actions during this experience, it was a great surprise but I really think Soujuurou Shizuki carries this whole experience for me, amazing character.
The art during the game was excellent, the small animation work was immaculate and the music was good too and ramped up at the right time. It felt enough that it helped paint a clear picture of the action along with the sound effects of blue bullets flying through the air too.
Never considered myself a TYPE-MOON fan and barely touching the surface of visual novels but if I can expect this type of writing from them, I might be on the look out for their other works down the line. Witch of the Holy Night is a great experience that brings a nice slice of life mix with a magical twist.
Something about seeing text on screen with just purely animated images only for a sum of twenty hours sounds daunting to someone that can't focus for more than ten seconds and yet every word manages to grab my attention for most of it. Witch of the Holy Night (also known as Mahōtsukai no Yoru) feels like what happens when you the tiny things of regular life and drastic circumstances.
In terms of visual novels and pointing the complete obvious, narrative and the style of writing is complete key here in grabbing your attention and keeping it and the games manages to do that in spades for the most part. The way each grin, body language, item of the world is described manages to paint a complete picture of what's going on as you read. The voice acting is great here and really helps sell the emotions these characters feel throughout the story with hearing their anger, their triumph and their pain. There's a few slow moments during the action that I wish weren't there but after a certain point in the story, I found it hard to put down and every character in the main cast manages to get their moment in the spotlight. I just loved reading about the interactions and emotional actions during this experience, it was a great surprise but I really think Soujuurou Shizuki carries this whole experience for me, amazing character.
The art during the game was excellent, the small animation work was immaculate and the music was good too and ramped up at the right time. It felt enough that it helped paint a clear picture of the action along with the sound effects of blue bullets flying through the air too.
Never considered myself a TYPE-MOON fan and barely touching the surface of visual novels but if I can expect this type of writing from them, I might be on the look out for their other works down the line. Witch of the Holy Night is a great experience that brings a nice slice of life mix with a magical twist.
goat
Anno: Mutationem
2022
This is just fucking Evangelion
Fortnite
2017
A cultural phenomena and zeitgeist of the mutiplayer experience
The multiplayer experience has never been so varied and open as it has been before. So many titles and genres to jump into and various ways to play them. From playing a fighting game against someone across the street to having that same match from someone across the world or gathering friends in a discord call to play "the usual" team based/battle royale game after a shift of work or getting home from school. We can even emulate consoles and play their initial local multiplayer counterpart with people from across the country, I can finally get a partner for Ratchet: Deadlocked since finding a partner will be nigh impossible in this day and age. I can't speak for everyone but from my experience talking to people online and in real life, we tend to have that "usual" title we jump into that we love despite the modern grievances that the mainline multiplayer titles have. I've essentially gone on a journey of playing Fortnite seriously for the first time this year playing every season of Chapter 4, playing Save the World to endgame and exploring the bottomless void that is Creative and what it brings to the game. There's so much to unpack and I apologize if things get extremely long winded. This is the longest I've played something other than Team Fortress 2 or Overwatch that I wanted to dedicate my thoughts to.
Crossing over
Getting a little ahead of myself and going a bit backwards at the same time, Fortnite has become this huge collaboration of media and pop culture to the point it has become part of Fortnite's identity. Despite this, I feel like there's a popular progenitor to this sort of crossing over that multiplayer shooters that somehow feels overlooked and not at the same time. My cumulative coming of age multiplayer experience has been playing Team Fortress 2 during the worst of times growing up. Valve was really ahead of times with some of the best (and worst) of things that would become huge mainstays in multiplayer experiences such as lootboxes and battle passes but that wasn't all they did. I might be wrong since I'm having trouble finding earlier examples but it was one of the first multiplayer shooters if not the first one that has collaborated with media and video game franchises bringing them into their own universe. From big names such as Assassin's Creed, Bioshock and even Alien at the time, there was something cool about playing Team Fortress 2 wearing the hood from Assassin's Creed while using the same hidden knife as a spy knife reskin. Something I've always wanted to mention is that Fortnite sort of just has this "TF2 energy" to me that feels like game isn't focused on purely a competitive spirit but more about just having fun.
Saving the World
In 2011, Epic Games announced a new project that shows off a post apocalyptic setting, cartoon artstyle and the process of building your own structures. It must have been an interesting direction to go in considering 2011's current trends in gaming, Skyrim has just released last month and Call of Duty and Battlefield are duking it out for the first person multiplayer title. I can't speak much on the earlier state of Save the World because I wasn't there and I'm sure a plethora of updates have changed the experience substantially so I'll be describing my own experience into "completing" Save The World. This consists of completely every main quest up and reaching a power level of 100 at the writing of this review. Playing Save The World is fun yet extremely grindy to say things in the most simplest of terms. The main fun factor of Save The World is the hero build variety, huge weapon variety, trap variety and how you can set up these structures and traps. There's so many ways you can tackle objectives and flexibility in how you can build death tunnels or a fort of death that really tickles the creative part of the brain for me. There's also a huge amount of weapons that do different things and I'm almost certain you'll find that exact weapon you're looking for. From hard hitting shotguns, bows that split into several arrows, bows that go through the entire map, burst rifles, light machine guns and so forth along with goofy modifiers. The same can be said about the traps too and how you can combo some of them for great effect. The only main thing I feel like that can deter people from really getting into this mode is the lack of support and how much time it's really gonna take to get into the higher echelons of the game. In essentially grinding for 6 hours a day for a month, it took me that long to finish the main quest and reach said power level of 100 and that's a huge amount of time to put into a game. The game doesn't really give you enough of anything in a proper pace to do fun things like make the traps and weapons of your liking and if you even want a specific weapon, you're going to need to find that schematic for it and level it up properly. The main things that you'll be improving and progressing is your commander (the character you'll play), a squad of survivors that server as your power level approximation, schematics for traps and weapons that need to be upgraded at certain points along with perk resources used to respec said schematics and improve the traits of them to your own liking. Getting survivors and heroes really feels reminiscent of a gacha game except you can't spend any money on trying to pull more anymore. As of the writing of this review, you can only spend in game resources to get more chances to get something and you cannot use V-bucks (Fortnite's micro-transaction currency). Doing the Storm Shield defenses is probably the most it felt like the original point of the game in that you make a huge base and defend against huge waves of enemies. I really enjoy this aspect in its most simple aspect but grinding the materials to make even more traps to my liking is already taking too much time as it is. Save The World eventually just becomes a game I play in the background while listening to a podcast or long form video.
An important thing to mention is that people who have gotten Founder's Editions of Fortnite during the early days have a special perk in that not only do they get X-Ray Tickets (the in game resource for getting llamas which are essentially lootboxes) but they also get V-bucks for every daily and mission alert as well. This is a huge incentive for a lot of people to play Save The World if you manage to become a Founder, you can technically still grab a Founder's code but the price approx for one is around the $200 USD range, if you love the game that much then it might be worth it but know what you're getting into
Addendum: Ventures
Something I once again forgot to mention is what keeps people playing after they get the max power level and the maxed schematics they want. This brings us to Ventures, Fortnite's Save the World seasonal mode in a sense. It lets players start from scratch in the simplest of terms and work their way up in a more accelerated pace in exchange for extremely hard to get endgame rewards. Ventures progression is separate but you can get evolution materials and other schematics for the main game doing this so it might be worth doing this especially for the vouchers and other hard to get stuff. It's more of a grind to take advantage of this but if you love Save The World, there's a rotational seasonal mode for you to always start fresh. There's no new seasons exactly and it's all more of a rotation of the usual stuff at this point though so don't expect much changes after experiencing Ventures after a year.
Experiences with Battle Royale: Chapter 4
I can't stress this enough that I'm fairly new to the Fortnite experience, I got into it via a friend in Chapter 4: Season 1 playing Zero Build and I was surprised which how fluid the game felt and the variety in the gameplay for each situation had. It's hard to deny that without the out of nowhere battle royale inclusion in 2017 that I wouldn't be writing this review but it's worth having a conversation about the stereotype Fortnite's multiplayer experience seems to have throughout the years with an older demographic that Fortnite is just mostly for cringy kids or something when I feel like Fortnite is more of a game for every single age group compared to other battle royales in the market. I was one of the people to quickly dismiss this game because of that association while I ended up playing Apex and Warzone, fun games in their own rights but taking things for granted in a sense. I'll talk more about this when I go over monetization. Something I've learned to appreciate about this game is that it's really easy to get people in general to play it which is a miracle in my friend groups as they vie for different titles. I'll be giving quick thoughts about every season I've played and then follow by what I like and don't like that Fortnite does in the general state of Battle Royale.
Chapter 4: Season 1 "A New Beginning"
My first foray into Fortnite and it was actually great, I didn't experience too much of this season as I got really into it at the tail end but it was just fun and ridiculous with the hammer and using Deku's Smash against buildings. Wish I had the chance to play this season more.
Chapter 4: Season 2 "MEGA"
This was where I started to get serious about the game. It was definitely a decent season due to the vast mobility options this season gave with ODM gear, the kinetic blade and the eventual Spider-Man gloves making a return. Only caveat was it felt like you had to do the same things every game to win like getting to loot island to get slurp juice and the overpowered pulse rifle, it was really giving people like a 30% extra chance of winning if you got that stuff and there wasn't much variety in the weapons this time around. It was still pretty fun and wasn't the worst thing in the world but the aesthetic was great.
Chapter 4: Season 3 "WILDS"
The lead up to WILDS was pretty cool actually but unfortunately for this year's summer season, it did not live up to the expectations the community had. The jungle biome was mixed on me as I did like that it did spice up the map layout but after enough time, it felt extremely annoying to traverse and this wasn't help but the complete lack of high mobility in the game. We've gone from ODM gear, the Spider-Man mythic and the kinetic blade to literally nothing but shockwave grenades if you're in zero build. The new weapons were extremely cheesy barring the mammoth pistol which felt really fun to use actually. The season eventually got better with the addition of previously stated weapon and grapple gloves but it felt too little, too late by the time they arrived. A few of my friends almost quit the game because of this season and we were hoping the next one would make up for it.
Chapter 4: Season 4 "Last Resort"
At the time of writing this segment, we are around a little over two weeks into the new season with the first update right around the corner so these will be first impressions. It's a huge step up from the previous season in every way. The theme of it being a heist season is immaculate, the new weapons are fun to use along with the Rocket Ram and additional ways to grab shockwaves now much alleviating the past few problems with the last season. It just feels more chaotic and varied which I feel Fortnite truly shines in this aspect. Who knows how this season will pan out but it's a strong start so far.
Fortnite always changes things up every season which I've come to really respect and it helps make each season feel really different when competitors usually just bring minor additions to gameplay or the map itself that don't really help it differentiate from each other. I do want to talk about Battle Royale's two main modes here, regular Battle Royale and Zero Build. I haven't had that much experience playing the regular Battle Royale but it's true to the original Fortnite's roots of having building as a integral part of the gameplay and one of the main things that make it different to the other battle royales. My main problem with this is that it makes the game much harder to get into than other games that mostly rely on only movement and aiming, building can probably be mastered with muscle memory if you're serious enough but a lot of people in my age group don't have the time or play other games to really commit to this idea. The main mode I usually play is Zero Build, it's essentially Fortnite without building of any kind so you rely on the map more and movement in general. Players in Zero Build are generally more tankier to make up for this but it provides a shorter skill floor so new players can get into Fortnite and not feel intimidated when they go against someone who builds an apartment complex and rely on one shot shotgun fights to really play. I got nothing against the regular mode in saying this and I'm really glad Fortnite gives people the option to really let people play how they want to play which a lot of battle royales don't even do. A huge appeal to letting new players get into Fortnite is how it handles giving players bot games, I think it really helps with keeping players playing your game if they're getting kills even if they're not human because going against a complete sweat lobby like in Apex where there's no bots unless you're starting out is not fun in the casual playlist. Battle Royale means the crown jewel of the Fortnite experience (for now at least), a lot of progression ties into this mode and a lot of the changes that each season bring also tie into it.
The endless spiral of Creative
Something Fortnite has going for itself is that it's made by Epic Games, creator of the Unreal Engine which is one of the most popular game engines used today in gaming. Whenever tech gets updated for the Unreal Engine, Fortnite is usually one of the first if not the first game to utilize this tech and this also ties into letting players create brand new game modes, maps and even games within games themselves. The most recent notable example is someone creating an Only Up! map in Fortnite and it gaining as much traction as the original game. I think creative shines the most when it creates different game modes in my opinion, you can play the Fortnite version of gun game, team deathmatch and even prop hunt with creative. The best part about this is that this also helps with progression too since it counts towards leveling up as well. If you ever felt burnt out with Battle Royale, you can probably just hop into a gun game map or join a 1v1 map if you feel like improving your gameplay. There's a lot of options here making Creative really fill out the rest of the gameplay niches people are looking for in shooting games. I wouldn't be surprised if Epic tries to make this game like Roblox and focus more in this mode in the future.
The state of progression in multiplayer games
Like every modern multiplayer game in the space, we don't or rarely have lifetime progression systems anymore due to the fact that companies want to promote consistent playtime over huge bursts and then heavy burnout later on thus bringing in the battle pass system. A brief description of the battle pass system is usually a time limited (usually seasonal) progression system that promotes you playing every day to get the most value out of it once bought in and incorporates huge amounts of FOMO (fear of missing out). If you're someone like me though (sadly), you're probably grinding like two or three battle passes at a time in different games because those cosmetics you really want are only gonna be there for a season and then they're usually gone forever. I overall do hate the notion that battle passes make playing the game feel like a second job but I don't actually mind this system as long as they respect your time which a lot of them rarely do. Apex Legends has two progression systems which consists of a lifetime one granting you legend tokens and loot boxes and the battle pass progression system that grants you the seasonal rewards once bought in. I actually like that Apex is one of the few games that still have this lifetime progression system but I don't like how much time Apex really takes for you to finish their battle passes. If you do your dailies every day and complete a huge amount of the weeklies, it would take around an average of 50-60 days to fully finish it and that's a lot of time to play to finish it and that comes from my over ten seasons of finished battle passes in Apex Legends. The worst case example for a battle pass is Overwatch 2's battle pass system. I can go on a tirade about how they screwed up Overwatch 2 but I'll just talk about how they gutted their lifetime progression system just to fall into a more modern monetization method. The only saving grace is that Overwatch 2's battle pass doesn't take terribly long to finish but their seasons are usually shorter too. The worst part is that you don't even get the premium currency back for buying it meaning you are going to be consistently spending money on a game every two months that already takes a bunch of your time. I don't like when battle passes don't pay back in premium currency because the initial benefit for companies to do battle passes is to keep you playing every day and checking out their item shops and tempting you to buy something extra. It's skins for our time playing and boosting their metrics in the end of the day.
The state of progression in Fortnite
Despite Fortnite popularizing this system, I really think they do this the absolute best in the entire medium that it's a shame nobody has really come close. Fortnite battle passes can take a very short amount of time to finish depending on the effort and you can level it up in a huge variety of ways that it's not even funny. If you just want to get levels for free without even trying, you can always do a creative exp glitch and gain 5 levels for 10 minutes of afking and 5 minutes of actual effort. Fortnite's experience system is extremely generous too with weeklies giving half or a full level for completing them. Playing Save The World or Creative just grants you a bunch of experience that it's very hard for me to not finish even with not playing much at all. For context, I've only really played a week of battle royale and a week of save the world for the new venture season, zero intention of grinding experience at all and I'm already level 140 only after two weeks of the new season starting, you only need to reach 100 to get every skin and 125 for every variation of said cosmetics not to mention that battle passes pay back 1.5x in Fortnite meaning you get an extra 500 vbucks as well. Fortnite's battle pass feels like a premium meal at a a michelin star restaurant while the other feels like grabbing some gas station hot wings that are gonna make me toilet bound for two days.
Connecting it with Monetization
Despite my praises, Fortnite does still do every cardinal sin that a modern multiplayer game does in the end of the day despite its excellent battle pass system and the respect for time. It has an item shop and it relies on an incredible amount of fear of missing out that it border on complete fervor for when new or old skins will return. This rings more true in that some of that fear of missing out ties in with media and pop culture characters like Marvel, DC or even popular anime characters. If you start Fortnite right now, you would have missed out on the chance to gain one of the most notable characters in the superhero space, Spider-Man. Spider-Man is a Chapter 3 Season 1 battle pass skin and it's a slim to very none chance anyone will ever get him again. Fortnite really feeds off this with its item shop because of how inconsistent it is. You really can't calculate when skins will come back to a science unless they're regular 30 day item shop rotational skins. This just really stings the most when you just get into the game as a new player because it feels like you're very late to a very fun party. One thing I like about Fortnite's monetization surprisingly enough is its membership program of sorts, Fortnite Crew. It's actually a great value compared to what $10-12 would get you in any other game. Usually that amount in USD would grant you just a battle pass for the season but if you buy Crew at the right time which is what a lot of people usually do for $11.99 USD, you get the current battle pass for free if you don't have it yet and the next one if it falls into the 30 day subscription window for the month, 1,000 vbucks (premium currency) and an exclusive skin for Crew Members of the month which vary in quality. I like doing this since it actually lets me utilize the shop more instead of completely ignoring it like in other games which might be what Epic is trying to do anyway. Another thing to Fortnite's strength is that the premium currency is 20% cheaper and their item shop prices are around that much cheaper for the same cosmetics of the same quality. The dollar feels like it goes a lot farther which might be a good thing, bad thing or something completely irrelevant to you because you don't want to spend money on a game like this which is fine too but it's something I noticed and had the word vomit to type out and express.
The Secret Sauce: Collaborations
If you're an older Fortnite fan, you are probably starting to hate collaborations since a common sentiment I hear online is that it ruins the storyline Fortnite has and removes more of its identity when it does. As a much newer player and more biased, I have to disagree. I know I missed out on the magical moments of Fortnite's peak but there's something really special about collaborations when they happen. It also feels like a mini event when it happens and the fandom associated with the collaboration get really excited when it does happen, having their favorite characters in a game they play a lot means a lot to players. Being able to play as Bender with Goku and Spider Gwen doing the griddy is something special. It also helps that Fortnite usually doesn't really half ass it and bring different gameplay mechanics or attention to detail in the specific cosmetics they bring. One of the best parts is that Fortnite's style really makes anything fit as well, it never feels jarring due to the artstyle being extremely flexible in that having western animation characters with realistic looking people doesn't look that bad. I hope Fortnite continues to bring some new collabs and maybe hopefully bring out something super niche just for the reaction.
What I didn't and couldn't go over
With playing as much Fortnite as I have throughout the year, there's a few things I missed or didn't feel confident enough to really go over and I'll just scramble my thoughts here. Fortnite's battle royale mode technically has a story and I can't say I'm really entranced by it despite reading up on what has happened so far but that might be an issue of Chapter 4 in general. Another aspect of this is talking about live events and concerts, I didn't get to experience any of these yet except for the Kid Laroi creative map which I thought was decent. I hope I can still experience one someday since they sound like amazing multiplayer experiences that connect the community into what's happening in the general scheme of things. There's a few specific things in Save The World I probably could've got over such as seasonal modes and modifiers such as Dungeons and Hit the Road but it would've made this smorgasbord of a review/thoughts more long winded than it already is.
Last Stop
If you actually managed to read the entire thing or most of it, thank you. There's bound to be spelling or grammatical errors and I told myself I wouldn't really write reviews anymore but I guess when you play a game for long enough, the thoughts you want to share swell up enough that it was bound to happen. I'm sorry if this review is just a long winded personal thought explosion on why I've came around on Fortnite in the past year. In a very short summary, Fortnite reminds me of why I've enjoyed TF2 in the last decade. It doesn't strictly focus on the competitive aspect of things, anyone can enjoy it and there's a certain interactivity that it has with other players that other games usually don't. From blasting someone with a Rocket Ram to starting a jug band or a train conga line in the pre-game lobby, that shit speaks to me. I'll leave you with this, see you in the internet space.
The multiplayer experience has never been so varied and open as it has been before. So many titles and genres to jump into and various ways to play them. From playing a fighting game against someone across the street to having that same match from someone across the world or gathering friends in a discord call to play "the usual" team based/battle royale game after a shift of work or getting home from school. We can even emulate consoles and play their initial local multiplayer counterpart with people from across the country, I can finally get a partner for Ratchet: Deadlocked since finding a partner will be nigh impossible in this day and age. I can't speak for everyone but from my experience talking to people online and in real life, we tend to have that "usual" title we jump into that we love despite the modern grievances that the mainline multiplayer titles have. I've essentially gone on a journey of playing Fortnite seriously for the first time this year playing every season of Chapter 4, playing Save the World to endgame and exploring the bottomless void that is Creative and what it brings to the game. There's so much to unpack and I apologize if things get extremely long winded. This is the longest I've played something other than Team Fortress 2 or Overwatch that I wanted to dedicate my thoughts to.
Crossing over
Getting a little ahead of myself and going a bit backwards at the same time, Fortnite has become this huge collaboration of media and pop culture to the point it has become part of Fortnite's identity. Despite this, I feel like there's a popular progenitor to this sort of crossing over that multiplayer shooters that somehow feels overlooked and not at the same time. My cumulative coming of age multiplayer experience has been playing Team Fortress 2 during the worst of times growing up. Valve was really ahead of times with some of the best (and worst) of things that would become huge mainstays in multiplayer experiences such as lootboxes and battle passes but that wasn't all they did. I might be wrong since I'm having trouble finding earlier examples but it was one of the first multiplayer shooters if not the first one that has collaborated with media and video game franchises bringing them into their own universe. From big names such as Assassin's Creed, Bioshock and even Alien at the time, there was something cool about playing Team Fortress 2 wearing the hood from Assassin's Creed while using the same hidden knife as a spy knife reskin. Something I've always wanted to mention is that Fortnite sort of just has this "TF2 energy" to me that feels like game isn't focused on purely a competitive spirit but more about just having fun.
Saving the World
In 2011, Epic Games announced a new project that shows off a post apocalyptic setting, cartoon artstyle and the process of building your own structures. It must have been an interesting direction to go in considering 2011's current trends in gaming, Skyrim has just released last month and Call of Duty and Battlefield are duking it out for the first person multiplayer title. I can't speak much on the earlier state of Save the World because I wasn't there and I'm sure a plethora of updates have changed the experience substantially so I'll be describing my own experience into "completing" Save The World. This consists of completely every main quest up and reaching a power level of 100 at the writing of this review. Playing Save The World is fun yet extremely grindy to say things in the most simplest of terms. The main fun factor of Save The World is the hero build variety, huge weapon variety, trap variety and how you can set up these structures and traps. There's so many ways you can tackle objectives and flexibility in how you can build death tunnels or a fort of death that really tickles the creative part of the brain for me. There's also a huge amount of weapons that do different things and I'm almost certain you'll find that exact weapon you're looking for. From hard hitting shotguns, bows that split into several arrows, bows that go through the entire map, burst rifles, light machine guns and so forth along with goofy modifiers. The same can be said about the traps too and how you can combo some of them for great effect. The only main thing I feel like that can deter people from really getting into this mode is the lack of support and how much time it's really gonna take to get into the higher echelons of the game. In essentially grinding for 6 hours a day for a month, it took me that long to finish the main quest and reach said power level of 100 and that's a huge amount of time to put into a game. The game doesn't really give you enough of anything in a proper pace to do fun things like make the traps and weapons of your liking and if you even want a specific weapon, you're going to need to find that schematic for it and level it up properly. The main things that you'll be improving and progressing is your commander (the character you'll play), a squad of survivors that server as your power level approximation, schematics for traps and weapons that need to be upgraded at certain points along with perk resources used to respec said schematics and improve the traits of them to your own liking. Getting survivors and heroes really feels reminiscent of a gacha game except you can't spend any money on trying to pull more anymore. As of the writing of this review, you can only spend in game resources to get more chances to get something and you cannot use V-bucks (Fortnite's micro-transaction currency). Doing the Storm Shield defenses is probably the most it felt like the original point of the game in that you make a huge base and defend against huge waves of enemies. I really enjoy this aspect in its most simple aspect but grinding the materials to make even more traps to my liking is already taking too much time as it is. Save The World eventually just becomes a game I play in the background while listening to a podcast or long form video.
An important thing to mention is that people who have gotten Founder's Editions of Fortnite during the early days have a special perk in that not only do they get X-Ray Tickets (the in game resource for getting llamas which are essentially lootboxes) but they also get V-bucks for every daily and mission alert as well. This is a huge incentive for a lot of people to play Save The World if you manage to become a Founder, you can technically still grab a Founder's code but the price approx for one is around the $200 USD range, if you love the game that much then it might be worth it but know what you're getting into
Addendum: Ventures
Something I once again forgot to mention is what keeps people playing after they get the max power level and the maxed schematics they want. This brings us to Ventures, Fortnite's Save the World seasonal mode in a sense. It lets players start from scratch in the simplest of terms and work their way up in a more accelerated pace in exchange for extremely hard to get endgame rewards. Ventures progression is separate but you can get evolution materials and other schematics for the main game doing this so it might be worth doing this especially for the vouchers and other hard to get stuff. It's more of a grind to take advantage of this but if you love Save The World, there's a rotational seasonal mode for you to always start fresh. There's no new seasons exactly and it's all more of a rotation of the usual stuff at this point though so don't expect much changes after experiencing Ventures after a year.
Experiences with Battle Royale: Chapter 4
I can't stress this enough that I'm fairly new to the Fortnite experience, I got into it via a friend in Chapter 4: Season 1 playing Zero Build and I was surprised which how fluid the game felt and the variety in the gameplay for each situation had. It's hard to deny that without the out of nowhere battle royale inclusion in 2017 that I wouldn't be writing this review but it's worth having a conversation about the stereotype Fortnite's multiplayer experience seems to have throughout the years with an older demographic that Fortnite is just mostly for cringy kids or something when I feel like Fortnite is more of a game for every single age group compared to other battle royales in the market. I was one of the people to quickly dismiss this game because of that association while I ended up playing Apex and Warzone, fun games in their own rights but taking things for granted in a sense. I'll talk more about this when I go over monetization. Something I've learned to appreciate about this game is that it's really easy to get people in general to play it which is a miracle in my friend groups as they vie for different titles. I'll be giving quick thoughts about every season I've played and then follow by what I like and don't like that Fortnite does in the general state of Battle Royale.
Chapter 4: Season 1 "A New Beginning"
My first foray into Fortnite and it was actually great, I didn't experience too much of this season as I got really into it at the tail end but it was just fun and ridiculous with the hammer and using Deku's Smash against buildings. Wish I had the chance to play this season more.
Chapter 4: Season 2 "MEGA"
This was where I started to get serious about the game. It was definitely a decent season due to the vast mobility options this season gave with ODM gear, the kinetic blade and the eventual Spider-Man gloves making a return. Only caveat was it felt like you had to do the same things every game to win like getting to loot island to get slurp juice and the overpowered pulse rifle, it was really giving people like a 30% extra chance of winning if you got that stuff and there wasn't much variety in the weapons this time around. It was still pretty fun and wasn't the worst thing in the world but the aesthetic was great.
Chapter 4: Season 3 "WILDS"
The lead up to WILDS was pretty cool actually but unfortunately for this year's summer season, it did not live up to the expectations the community had. The jungle biome was mixed on me as I did like that it did spice up the map layout but after enough time, it felt extremely annoying to traverse and this wasn't help but the complete lack of high mobility in the game. We've gone from ODM gear, the Spider-Man mythic and the kinetic blade to literally nothing but shockwave grenades if you're in zero build. The new weapons were extremely cheesy barring the mammoth pistol which felt really fun to use actually. The season eventually got better with the addition of previously stated weapon and grapple gloves but it felt too little, too late by the time they arrived. A few of my friends almost quit the game because of this season and we were hoping the next one would make up for it.
Chapter 4: Season 4 "Last Resort"
At the time of writing this segment, we are around a little over two weeks into the new season with the first update right around the corner so these will be first impressions. It's a huge step up from the previous season in every way. The theme of it being a heist season is immaculate, the new weapons are fun to use along with the Rocket Ram and additional ways to grab shockwaves now much alleviating the past few problems with the last season. It just feels more chaotic and varied which I feel Fortnite truly shines in this aspect. Who knows how this season will pan out but it's a strong start so far.
Fortnite always changes things up every season which I've come to really respect and it helps make each season feel really different when competitors usually just bring minor additions to gameplay or the map itself that don't really help it differentiate from each other. I do want to talk about Battle Royale's two main modes here, regular Battle Royale and Zero Build. I haven't had that much experience playing the regular Battle Royale but it's true to the original Fortnite's roots of having building as a integral part of the gameplay and one of the main things that make it different to the other battle royales. My main problem with this is that it makes the game much harder to get into than other games that mostly rely on only movement and aiming, building can probably be mastered with muscle memory if you're serious enough but a lot of people in my age group don't have the time or play other games to really commit to this idea. The main mode I usually play is Zero Build, it's essentially Fortnite without building of any kind so you rely on the map more and movement in general. Players in Zero Build are generally more tankier to make up for this but it provides a shorter skill floor so new players can get into Fortnite and not feel intimidated when they go against someone who builds an apartment complex and rely on one shot shotgun fights to really play. I got nothing against the regular mode in saying this and I'm really glad Fortnite gives people the option to really let people play how they want to play which a lot of battle royales don't even do. A huge appeal to letting new players get into Fortnite is how it handles giving players bot games, I think it really helps with keeping players playing your game if they're getting kills even if they're not human because going against a complete sweat lobby like in Apex where there's no bots unless you're starting out is not fun in the casual playlist. Battle Royale means the crown jewel of the Fortnite experience (for now at least), a lot of progression ties into this mode and a lot of the changes that each season bring also tie into it.
The endless spiral of Creative
Something Fortnite has going for itself is that it's made by Epic Games, creator of the Unreal Engine which is one of the most popular game engines used today in gaming. Whenever tech gets updated for the Unreal Engine, Fortnite is usually one of the first if not the first game to utilize this tech and this also ties into letting players create brand new game modes, maps and even games within games themselves. The most recent notable example is someone creating an Only Up! map in Fortnite and it gaining as much traction as the original game. I think creative shines the most when it creates different game modes in my opinion, you can play the Fortnite version of gun game, team deathmatch and even prop hunt with creative. The best part about this is that this also helps with progression too since it counts towards leveling up as well. If you ever felt burnt out with Battle Royale, you can probably just hop into a gun game map or join a 1v1 map if you feel like improving your gameplay. There's a lot of options here making Creative really fill out the rest of the gameplay niches people are looking for in shooting games. I wouldn't be surprised if Epic tries to make this game like Roblox and focus more in this mode in the future.
The state of progression in multiplayer games
Like every modern multiplayer game in the space, we don't or rarely have lifetime progression systems anymore due to the fact that companies want to promote consistent playtime over huge bursts and then heavy burnout later on thus bringing in the battle pass system. A brief description of the battle pass system is usually a time limited (usually seasonal) progression system that promotes you playing every day to get the most value out of it once bought in and incorporates huge amounts of FOMO (fear of missing out). If you're someone like me though (sadly), you're probably grinding like two or three battle passes at a time in different games because those cosmetics you really want are only gonna be there for a season and then they're usually gone forever. I overall do hate the notion that battle passes make playing the game feel like a second job but I don't actually mind this system as long as they respect your time which a lot of them rarely do. Apex Legends has two progression systems which consists of a lifetime one granting you legend tokens and loot boxes and the battle pass progression system that grants you the seasonal rewards once bought in. I actually like that Apex is one of the few games that still have this lifetime progression system but I don't like how much time Apex really takes for you to finish their battle passes. If you do your dailies every day and complete a huge amount of the weeklies, it would take around an average of 50-60 days to fully finish it and that's a lot of time to play to finish it and that comes from my over ten seasons of finished battle passes in Apex Legends. The worst case example for a battle pass is Overwatch 2's battle pass system. I can go on a tirade about how they screwed up Overwatch 2 but I'll just talk about how they gutted their lifetime progression system just to fall into a more modern monetization method. The only saving grace is that Overwatch 2's battle pass doesn't take terribly long to finish but their seasons are usually shorter too. The worst part is that you don't even get the premium currency back for buying it meaning you are going to be consistently spending money on a game every two months that already takes a bunch of your time. I don't like when battle passes don't pay back in premium currency because the initial benefit for companies to do battle passes is to keep you playing every day and checking out their item shops and tempting you to buy something extra. It's skins for our time playing and boosting their metrics in the end of the day.
The state of progression in Fortnite
Despite Fortnite popularizing this system, I really think they do this the absolute best in the entire medium that it's a shame nobody has really come close. Fortnite battle passes can take a very short amount of time to finish depending on the effort and you can level it up in a huge variety of ways that it's not even funny. If you just want to get levels for free without even trying, you can always do a creative exp glitch and gain 5 levels for 10 minutes of afking and 5 minutes of actual effort. Fortnite's experience system is extremely generous too with weeklies giving half or a full level for completing them. Playing Save The World or Creative just grants you a bunch of experience that it's very hard for me to not finish even with not playing much at all. For context, I've only really played a week of battle royale and a week of save the world for the new venture season, zero intention of grinding experience at all and I'm already level 140 only after two weeks of the new season starting, you only need to reach 100 to get every skin and 125 for every variation of said cosmetics not to mention that battle passes pay back 1.5x in Fortnite meaning you get an extra 500 vbucks as well. Fortnite's battle pass feels like a premium meal at a a michelin star restaurant while the other feels like grabbing some gas station hot wings that are gonna make me toilet bound for two days.
Connecting it with Monetization
Despite my praises, Fortnite does still do every cardinal sin that a modern multiplayer game does in the end of the day despite its excellent battle pass system and the respect for time. It has an item shop and it relies on an incredible amount of fear of missing out that it border on complete fervor for when new or old skins will return. This rings more true in that some of that fear of missing out ties in with media and pop culture characters like Marvel, DC or even popular anime characters. If you start Fortnite right now, you would have missed out on the chance to gain one of the most notable characters in the superhero space, Spider-Man. Spider-Man is a Chapter 3 Season 1 battle pass skin and it's a slim to very none chance anyone will ever get him again. Fortnite really feeds off this with its item shop because of how inconsistent it is. You really can't calculate when skins will come back to a science unless they're regular 30 day item shop rotational skins. This just really stings the most when you just get into the game as a new player because it feels like you're very late to a very fun party. One thing I like about Fortnite's monetization surprisingly enough is its membership program of sorts, Fortnite Crew. It's actually a great value compared to what $10-12 would get you in any other game. Usually that amount in USD would grant you just a battle pass for the season but if you buy Crew at the right time which is what a lot of people usually do for $11.99 USD, you get the current battle pass for free if you don't have it yet and the next one if it falls into the 30 day subscription window for the month, 1,000 vbucks (premium currency) and an exclusive skin for Crew Members of the month which vary in quality. I like doing this since it actually lets me utilize the shop more instead of completely ignoring it like in other games which might be what Epic is trying to do anyway. Another thing to Fortnite's strength is that the premium currency is 20% cheaper and their item shop prices are around that much cheaper for the same cosmetics of the same quality. The dollar feels like it goes a lot farther which might be a good thing, bad thing or something completely irrelevant to you because you don't want to spend money on a game like this which is fine too but it's something I noticed and had the word vomit to type out and express.
The Secret Sauce: Collaborations
If you're an older Fortnite fan, you are probably starting to hate collaborations since a common sentiment I hear online is that it ruins the storyline Fortnite has and removes more of its identity when it does. As a much newer player and more biased, I have to disagree. I know I missed out on the magical moments of Fortnite's peak but there's something really special about collaborations when they happen. It also feels like a mini event when it happens and the fandom associated with the collaboration get really excited when it does happen, having their favorite characters in a game they play a lot means a lot to players. Being able to play as Bender with Goku and Spider Gwen doing the griddy is something special. It also helps that Fortnite usually doesn't really half ass it and bring different gameplay mechanics or attention to detail in the specific cosmetics they bring. One of the best parts is that Fortnite's style really makes anything fit as well, it never feels jarring due to the artstyle being extremely flexible in that having western animation characters with realistic looking people doesn't look that bad. I hope Fortnite continues to bring some new collabs and maybe hopefully bring out something super niche just for the reaction.
What I didn't and couldn't go over
With playing as much Fortnite as I have throughout the year, there's a few things I missed or didn't feel confident enough to really go over and I'll just scramble my thoughts here. Fortnite's battle royale mode technically has a story and I can't say I'm really entranced by it despite reading up on what has happened so far but that might be an issue of Chapter 4 in general. Another aspect of this is talking about live events and concerts, I didn't get to experience any of these yet except for the Kid Laroi creative map which I thought was decent. I hope I can still experience one someday since they sound like amazing multiplayer experiences that connect the community into what's happening in the general scheme of things. There's a few specific things in Save The World I probably could've got over such as seasonal modes and modifiers such as Dungeons and Hit the Road but it would've made this smorgasbord of a review/thoughts more long winded than it already is.
Last Stop
If you actually managed to read the entire thing or most of it, thank you. There's bound to be spelling or grammatical errors and I told myself I wouldn't really write reviews anymore but I guess when you play a game for long enough, the thoughts you want to share swell up enough that it was bound to happen. I'm sorry if this review is just a long winded personal thought explosion on why I've came around on Fortnite in the past year. In a very short summary, Fortnite reminds me of why I've enjoyed TF2 in the last decade. It doesn't strictly focus on the competitive aspect of things, anyone can enjoy it and there's a certain interactivity that it has with other players that other games usually don't. From blasting someone with a Rocket Ram to starting a jug band or a train conga line in the pre-game lobby, that shit speaks to me. I'll leave you with this, see you in the internet space.
better than nocturne
Bomb Rush Cyberfunk
2023
Don't trust no white boy
Final Fantasy XVI
2023
MEDIA ABOUT THE POWER OF BONDS AND HUMAN WILL YOU WILL NEVER BE DEFEATEEDDDDDDDDDDDD
Really feels like one of the most undercooked games I've ever played. But unlike most other games that I'd describe by the same word, Loop8 really feels flawed on it's very core concept and design that I don't think giving it more budget or time would've fixed most of it's issues.
That said, I still enjoyed my time with it and even played on sessions longer than I usually do when gaming for reasons I can't really point out myself. It might be because of the extremely basic and straightforward gameplay loop which mostly consists of running around and talking to characters, which the game has quite an interesting cast of that I did enjoy spending my time with (Machina best girl). The OST as well as the setting also really blend together to make the entire experience really chill which I liked. The story itself is pretty okay and I honestly didn't even understand most of it but I did really like all the character endings and especially the epilogues which were extremely heartwarming and kind of did make me feel like the entire 20 hour run was pretty worth it.
It's extremely flawed for sure but I can't really bring myself to hate it for whatever reason despite all the disappointments I had for it when I didn't even have any expectations to begin with. I wouldn't recommend it for sure but not something I'd say I regret either. It definitely makes me more excited to eventually run through the other Shibamura games in the future too.
That said, I still enjoyed my time with it and even played on sessions longer than I usually do when gaming for reasons I can't really point out myself. It might be because of the extremely basic and straightforward gameplay loop which mostly consists of running around and talking to characters, which the game has quite an interesting cast of that I did enjoy spending my time with (Machina best girl). The OST as well as the setting also really blend together to make the entire experience really chill which I liked. The story itself is pretty okay and I honestly didn't even understand most of it but I did really like all the character endings and especially the epilogues which were extremely heartwarming and kind of did make me feel like the entire 20 hour run was pretty worth it.
It's extremely flawed for sure but I can't really bring myself to hate it for whatever reason despite all the disappointments I had for it when I didn't even have any expectations to begin with. I wouldn't recommend it for sure but not something I'd say I regret either. It definitely makes me more excited to eventually run through the other Shibamura games in the future too.
Travis Scott's 2nd LP 'Rodeo' is one of trap's most important statements to date. It never has a dull moment with blazing 808's, heavy guitars, and experimental esque production to give it's intense and confident feel to it .
Trap was having it's breakout when Travis Scott came into the rap realm and he would only continue to revolutionise it with his unique style and definition of trap music. To compliment this album greatly, Travis would have features from some of trap's greats like 'The Weeknd', 'Chief Keef', 'Kanye West' and 'Future'.
Only being released a few years ago 'Rodeo' will continue to impact music in the near future but in the mean time while people anticipate for the release of the rumoured 'Utopia' Travis' alleged 4th LP his print will be left on trap music with this splendid album for years to come.
9.2/10
favs: pray 4 love, 3500, piss on your grave
Trap was having it's breakout when Travis Scott came into the rap realm and he would only continue to revolutionise it with his unique style and definition of trap music. To compliment this album greatly, Travis would have features from some of trap's greats like 'The Weeknd', 'Chief Keef', 'Kanye West' and 'Future'.
Only being released a few years ago 'Rodeo' will continue to impact music in the near future but in the mean time while people anticipate for the release of the rumoured 'Utopia' Travis' alleged 4th LP his print will be left on trap music with this splendid album for years to come.
9.2/10
favs: pray 4 love, 3500, piss on your grave
Lumines Remastered
2018
This is kind of a personal review about a friend that's gone and looking back into some bad times so if this isn't your cup of tea then here is me giving you a warning now, thank you.
July 2020
Ex And Oh: "It really seems like the world is ending, like we're all stagnating"
Alex: "Being couped up like this has been rough for me, I was gonna travel a lot this year and this pandemic kinda shot that in the water"
Ex And Oh: "You're telling me, I never mind being stuck in one place but I just want to move on with my life, we were finally gonna meet up"
Alex: "Once this whole thing blows over, let's do that and get some pollo a la brasa bro"
Road of brightness, I will get there, and shinin
Lumines from the second you boot it always felt like a good time coming, but for me it's more bittersweet. It was one of my best friend's favorite games from the PSP's halcyon days due to his love for puzzles and the infectious fusion of music that Mizuguchi's more prominent works have been known for. Blending puzzle and rhythm puts you further into a zen like state that any other game with either or possibly can.
Ex And Oh: "Yeah I like Tetris, why what's up?"
Alex: "Heard of Lumines? It's from the dude that made Tetris Effect"
Ex And Oh: "Yeah I love Tetris Effect, waiting for the Switch version or for it to hit Steam to actually buy it, money is rough right now"
Alex: "Been playing more during my down time and haven't played it for years, the switch version is pretty cool with the rumble, you should give it a try"
Ex And Oh: "Yeah I will"
Shake your body, Shake your body, Shake your body
Despite my personal feelings, a huge variety of skins and music makes Lumines feel like a celebration in its basic challenge mode rather than an arduous climb to the top. Like the actual Tetris Effect before it, Lumines can incur the effect of seeing 2x2 blocks in life (at least for me) after a while. Even the soundtrack itself can incur good memories with how upbeat most of the soundtrack using electrical sound and calming vocals that serve as a reminder to despite attempting a moderately difficult challenge to also just take it easy and have fun.
Out for a walk, gone forever
Ex And Oh: "Hey this game is pretty sick, music is stellar and the gameplay is almost just as addicting as Tetris"
Alex: "Yeah the music is nuts, I sadly never got past 60% of the game but hearing shake your body gives me that happy rush I really need"
Ex And Oh: "Been wanting to try out more stuff and expand my horizons so thanks for showing me this, hope things are alright with you"
Alex: "I'm trying my best man"
Each run takes longer and longer demanding more and more from you to keep the board clear, a unique feature of the Switch version rumbles with the gameplay and music bringing a third sense into the mix of feeling Lumines. I feel like Lumines reflects life with its tempo changes, upbeat and faster songs to reflect the small moments of celebration and happiness and more ambient and slow paced songs to reflect the constant lull we face. Of course each life is different and each basic challenge in Lumines will always be the same but how we tackle it will always be different when we're given the same blocks.
Celebrating life, ours
Ex And Oh: "We keep losing brothers and sisters to this life, the only few people that showed me kindness are the ones to leave early"
Lisa: "im sorry man, losing a friend is never easy"
Ex And Oh: "Sorry for venting, it just keeps happening"
Beating the basic challenge left me surprising empty, all I could think about was my friend never getting the chance to even beat the basic mode. It sucks that this is all I can really remember him but a single game recommendation is just one of the many proofs in the world that he did exist, something he had trouble realizing himself and always wishing he can finally move forward in life when the world wouldn't let him. One of the many video games that can bring people together in a time that it feels like we're closing each other off.
July 2020
Ex And Oh: "It really seems like the world is ending, like we're all stagnating"
Alex: "Being couped up like this has been rough for me, I was gonna travel a lot this year and this pandemic kinda shot that in the water"
Ex And Oh: "You're telling me, I never mind being stuck in one place but I just want to move on with my life, we were finally gonna meet up"
Alex: "Once this whole thing blows over, let's do that and get some pollo a la brasa bro"
Road of brightness, I will get there, and shinin
Lumines from the second you boot it always felt like a good time coming, but for me it's more bittersweet. It was one of my best friend's favorite games from the PSP's halcyon days due to his love for puzzles and the infectious fusion of music that Mizuguchi's more prominent works have been known for. Blending puzzle and rhythm puts you further into a zen like state that any other game with either or possibly can.
Ex And Oh: "Yeah I like Tetris, why what's up?"
Alex: "Heard of Lumines? It's from the dude that made Tetris Effect"
Ex And Oh: "Yeah I love Tetris Effect, waiting for the Switch version or for it to hit Steam to actually buy it, money is rough right now"
Alex: "Been playing more during my down time and haven't played it for years, the switch version is pretty cool with the rumble, you should give it a try"
Ex And Oh: "Yeah I will"
Shake your body, Shake your body, Shake your body
Despite my personal feelings, a huge variety of skins and music makes Lumines feel like a celebration in its basic challenge mode rather than an arduous climb to the top. Like the actual Tetris Effect before it, Lumines can incur the effect of seeing 2x2 blocks in life (at least for me) after a while. Even the soundtrack itself can incur good memories with how upbeat most of the soundtrack using electrical sound and calming vocals that serve as a reminder to despite attempting a moderately difficult challenge to also just take it easy and have fun.
Out for a walk, gone forever
Ex And Oh: "Hey this game is pretty sick, music is stellar and the gameplay is almost just as addicting as Tetris"
Alex: "Yeah the music is nuts, I sadly never got past 60% of the game but hearing shake your body gives me that happy rush I really need"
Ex And Oh: "Been wanting to try out more stuff and expand my horizons so thanks for showing me this, hope things are alright with you"
Alex: "I'm trying my best man"
Each run takes longer and longer demanding more and more from you to keep the board clear, a unique feature of the Switch version rumbles with the gameplay and music bringing a third sense into the mix of feeling Lumines. I feel like Lumines reflects life with its tempo changes, upbeat and faster songs to reflect the small moments of celebration and happiness and more ambient and slow paced songs to reflect the constant lull we face. Of course each life is different and each basic challenge in Lumines will always be the same but how we tackle it will always be different when we're given the same blocks.
Celebrating life, ours
Ex And Oh: "We keep losing brothers and sisters to this life, the only few people that showed me kindness are the ones to leave early"
Lisa: "im sorry man, losing a friend is never easy"
Ex And Oh: "Sorry for venting, it just keeps happening"
Beating the basic challenge left me surprising empty, all I could think about was my friend never getting the chance to even beat the basic mode. It sucks that this is all I can really remember him but a single game recommendation is just one of the many proofs in the world that he did exist, something he had trouble realizing himself and always wishing he can finally move forward in life when the world wouldn't let him. One of the many video games that can bring people together in a time that it feels like we're closing each other off.
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