Malazan Empire: Traveller - Viewing Profile - Malazan Empire

I'm loving it, personally. It's a proper sequel - it's taken elements from botw but then added to or improved them. Obviously the base game mechanic is the same, but the new skills give you so much freedom to do things you're own way, and the game encourages creativity at every point.

There's a guy by a locked door who wants mushrooms from a cave below - immediately you assume its a fetch quest. When he doesn't want the mushrooms - you realise you're just being shown the caves. Go in, use Ascend to get behind the locked door.

Fuse is amazing. I thought it was basic at first, like stick a rock on a sword. But when I fused an enemy horn onto a specific sword, I got a whole new named weapon that does a ton of damage.

Coming from ps5 games, the controls are all over the place. But I've remapped jump to X which helps, and since I'm only playing this now I've got used to it.

Travelling through the depths is a new experience - they've taken the fromsoft 'layers' idea so you have 3 maps instead of one; sky islands, land, and depths. I'm enjoying literally digging up new lore about hyrules past.

Cannot fault it so far. Maybe I wish Zelda herself was more like the Windwaker/Ocarina ones instead of this overly dramatic one, but I suppose she wouldn't need rescuing then. She's going to have to wait anyway, I have Pony Points to collect.

I was watching an Asian channel the other night, NHK news maybe, and there was this program that just showed 72 hours in an obanyaki stall in Japan. It was just so calming, and it was notable because it's become so rare to see people just being pleasant to each other, enjoying their work, and regular customers that return each day for something made with a bit of care.

I don't need serial killer profiles, just give me a guy making stuffed pancakes.

QuickTidal, on 27 April 2023 - 02:02 PM, said:

Iirc, in one of his rare interviews before he got pissed off with it all, this is pretty much what Alec Guiness said. He just went back in to watch it; it was an uplifting escape from life on the street at the time. Obviously for many others, too.

Tsundoku, on 27 April 2023 - 01:03 PM, said:

This. Also Australian Masterchef is a bright, positive take on the whole food show thing. It's much lighter and far more tolerable than the bleak criticism and overall drab, lifeless UK/US versions.

I wonder if the state of the world in general is a factor here. When times are good, looking for something different in dark fantasy is escapism.

When you have the current global tensions, American States tipping backwards into what used to be considered as the image of a dystopian fantasy, and the slide of popular entertainment into the dark side of... everything, I guess it's natural to start looking for something light and uplifting to lose ourselves in.

Musashi is awesome by the way, just a series of stories about characters on the same path, intertwined - have you seen Samurai Champloo? I didn't realise how many things I've watched have clearly had this story as a source/influence.