Petty Reviews: SMT Nocturne

Never in my life have I simultaneously loved and hated a game so much. I’ve spent over 70 hours on Nocturne. I am SO CLOSE to the end of the game! I will beat Nocturne. I will write my full review. I can do this! I will beat Nocturne! 

Within this week or the next, I will dedicate the time to finish my playthrough. So why make a Petty Review? Two reasons. The first is I have way too many feelings right now. The second is while I may get to the end of Nocturne, the game has already beaten me. 

*Spoiler warning: I will be talking about one particular boss fight. No story spoilers*    

In Nocturne there are bosses called Fiends. You encounter them in various parts of the world as you continue the story. There a few that you automatically encounter. They are part of the story and unavoidable. However, after you defeat them the rest of the Fiend fights are optional. They only occur if you continue to progress in the optional dungeon the Labyrinth of Amala. 

For the second to last Fiend battle, you fight The Trumpeter. He has the magical ability of “Holy Melody”. Which is the most overpowered recovery spell I’ve ever seen in any video game. It’s the equivalent of that bratty kid who makes an “everything proof” shield when playing pretend. This ability allows The Trumpeter to regain all of his HP and MP in one move. ONE MOVE! Not even one full turn! After 3 or 4 rounds of combat, he will use it. There’s no escaping it. No matter how many prayers you send to RNGesus, it will happen. He will undo all your progress in one move and put you back at the start point, worse for wear. 

Up until that point the game rewarded strategies that favored endurance. As long as I could withstand attacks while doing some damage meant that you win. It didn’t matter how many turns it took. As long as I stayed alive I could win. 

Not this time. No. Staying alive wasn’t enough anymore. I had to change up the entirety of my core strategy for this fight. I knew what I had to do. I had to level up and optimize my team for damage output. 

So I did. I changed out my demon team and tried again. And failed again. My numbers weren’t big enough to win. It was at this point that I gave up. Instead of trying to “git gud” and use careful strategy, I abused Nocturne’s systems. I used one of the DLC dungeons added in to the PS4 version of Nocturne to level up fast. Within 10 minutes I went from level 66 to level 75. 

Normally, this wouldn’t feel like cheating. After all, what could be a more gamer move than cheesing the system to your advantage? However the dungeon I used wasn’t part of the original PS2 Nocturne. Doing this felt like admitting that the original game was too hard for me and I never would have beaten it without the assistance. It was demoralizing. The pride of being able to say “I’ve beaten SMT Nocturne, one of the hardest JRPGs ever.” was diminished in that moment. 

At higher levels I did more damage and was able to fuse high level demons. The third and last attempt at The Trumpeter lead to victory! It was a bittersweet victory. Since that moment I no longer cared about playing the game the “right way”. Now I look up the stats of bosses before facing them in order to pick out the best strategy ahead of time. I no longer care enough to try to face a boss blind, fail, adjust strategy, and retry. SMT Nocturne broke my patience. As much as I love this game, I just want to get to the end and be done with it. 

*This post is dedicated to all the people who put SMT Nocturne guides and walkthroughs on the Internet. I love all of you. I hope you get to eat all the pizzas, pet all the dogs, and experience every happiness this world has to offer. From the bottom of my heart, Thank you. I never would have gotten this far without you.*

*Image does not belong to me. It’s a screenshot from SMT III Nocturne HD Remaster.

Writing Prompt: Reimagine your Life

For the fun of it and to do something different with my writing I decided to do a writing prompt. I liked how it turned out and it would be a shame to let it sit in Google Docs forever. So I decided to post it here. It isn’t my typical content but it was a fun change of pace for me as a writer. I’m more used to writing non-fiction than fiction, so let me know in the comments what you think!

“If you could reimagine your existence entirely, who would you be? What world would you live in?”

In humanity’s future, perhaps a century from now or perhaps a few millennia, traveling throughout the stars isn’t as difficult as it used to be. The terraformed Mars has a population of billions. The settlement of Europa has been going on for decades. Shining cities under protective domes are scattered about the surface. 

We have discovered so many new truths about the universe and developed technologies our ancestors could only dream of. Despite our advances, we are still alone. Scientists never gave up on the idea that humanity isn’t the only form of rational life. They looked at the magnificence of the cosmos and instinctively felt, “We cannot be all there is.”

So they still try. They still research and find new ways to send messages faster, farther, louder… They shout out “Here we are! Where are you?” Many have given up their hopes of finding others, but a few stubborn hopefuls carry on. Right when the funding has dried up, those few stubborn scientists finally receive a reply. 

It’s nothing we can understand. It sounds like a whale song with clicking vowels and consonants. The whole thing has bursts of static throughout when the signal wasn’t quite strong enough. However, it was strong enough. We know where it comes from. 

All of humanity is abuzz with excitement. The Martian Congress approves plans for the longest space expedition ever undertaken. Years of preparation begin to create the massive spaceship Portunes. 

I was a fresh cadet in the flight academy when news broke of intelligent alien life. From that moment on I was determined that I was going to be one of the people who were going to meet them. I wanted to see if it was real. I hope it’s real.

I’ve always wanted to be the person who traveled far enough to see something for the very first time. This was the ultimate chance to be a part of the first crew to encounter aliens or find the truth behind the biggest red herring in history. Either way, I’d see something new. No one has ever gotten out of the Milky Way, let alone a galaxy 10 billion light-years away. It was the chance of a lifetime and I didn’t want to miss it.

When I’ve graduated and spent some years as a transport class pilot, the announcement of Captain Serenity Renolds as the Portunes is broadcasted. Soon after the call goes out for a co-pilot. I don’t think I’ve ever applied to a job so fast. Out of all candidates she chose me! It was a dream come true.

For the longest time, I never asked her why. I was afraid that doing so would pop the bubble somehow and make her realize that the whole thing was some sort of mixup. A week before the launch, I asked her to celebrate the upcoming expedition during the glitzy gala. She told me, “You’re good, kid. You know how to improvise and keep a level head when it matters. Besides, you’re a sarcastic twerp. Do you think I want to sit next to someone boring for years?”  I couldn’t help but laugh at how she phrased that and said “Thanks, I guess. Glad to know I won because I offer in-flight entertainment”. We had a short toast to “Keeping ourselves alive” and rejoined the formal mingling with the important moneybags, government people, and the scatted press. 

Today is the day. Today the Portunes launches and our expedition begins. I’m on the ship readying for lift-off. Sitting to my left is my captain, performing the last-minute checks before the countdown. This is the happiest and most nervous I’ve been in my entire life! No amount of classes, simulations, and inter-galaxy hops could ever prepare me for the sheer overwhelming scale of the expedition and the weight of history on my shoulders.

The countdown starts.

10

I can’t believe it. This is it!

9

8

7

This one moment… 

6

The start of something entirely new. 

5

Whatever is out there, we get to see and experience it!

4

3

No turning back now. 

2

1

I’m flying farther than anyone ever has. Because I want to know what’s out there. I want to see it myself. I am scared, so scared because anything could happen and it’s just us, all alone in a vast hostile space. Yet I am so, so, excited! Because… well, anything can happen!

  

*Image does not belong to me. Photo by Jeremy Thomas on Unsplash

Memoirs of a Geek: Mario Kart Double Dash

Now unlike many middle-class late 90s early 2000s kids, I did not own any video game systems. There was the family PC and that was it. 

(The story behind that can be read here)

Instead, I mooched off of the consoles of friends and family. Luckily for me, my older cousins happened to have a GameCube with several Mario games. They were only a few years older than me and lived less than a half-hour car drive away. I visited them a lot. They became my second set of brothers. 

I’ll call the oldest Teach. He had always known he wanted to be a teacher. And that’s exactly what he did. He became a middle school teacher and he’s a principal now. I’ll call his brother Preach because he has a goal of entering seminary someday and becoming a pastor. Also, Teach and Preach rhyme and that will annoy them. Aren’t I such a good little sister?

When I was in late elementary (probably?) they were in middle school, they happened to get a new game, Mario Kart: Double Dash. They had already played it a little and they wanted to show me. Right from the start, I was completely hooked on Double Dash. 

The gameplay was good of course, but that’s not what kept me playing. It was competitiveness, pure and simple. I was having fun, but I wanted to win. Preach was as competitive as I was. He was not going to sit back and make it easy for me. 

Practically every time I went over to their place I was playing Mario Kart. I had to get good and I didn’t have the advantage of owning the game. So I practiced whenever I could. Eventually, it got to the point when playing against each other I could hold my own against both boys. 

At this point, Teach stopped caring about our competition. He was fine with playing the game for fun with others around his skill level. He didn’t care about being the “best”. Preach, on the other hand, absolutely wanted to keep his position as the top Double Dash player. He played the game sporadically to keep up his skills. He was the one to hold most (if not all) of the records. Preach wanted every single trophy to have his initials. 

Thus our competition went to the next level. Instead of individual races, we measured victory by who has the most trophies with their initials. We both would play various tracks over and over again to get the highest score and the best time. Whenever we took away the other’s trophies we made it a point to show them in a “Haha! In your face!” kind of way. 

Eventually, our shared obsession over Double Dash petered out. We never officially ended our competition. It’s more like we got distracted with other things and forgot about it. Funny enough, despite how important the competition was to us for a few months I don’t remember who ended up winning. If I’m honest it was probably Preach. He owned the system and spent more time playing than I did. 

The Mario Kart Double Dash competition became one of my favorite memories with them. Fittingly, over a decade later, when my husband and I visited my childhood home the spring after our wedding, Preach gave me his old GameCube and all the games for it. I still have it and use it today. 

*Image does not belong to me. Mario Kart Double Dash belongs to Nintendo

Snyder Cut: Reactions

As we (my husband and I) were about to start watching the Snyder Cut, Shaggy suggested that I write my reactions and thoughts while watching since I had already made blog posts about it. I was hesitant to do that as the movie is four hours long. Reminding him of the run-time made him realize what a massive undertaking that would be, so he told me to forget about it. He shouldn’t have said that because I couldn’t help but think “Challenge Accepted”. 

I am never going to do this for a movie longer than two hours again. It did make the ending of the movie that much better. I was so happy it was over!

So here it is. All of the best reactions to the Justice League Snyder Cut. I’ve done a little editing to some of my thoughts on the list to make it more readable. Anything written with italics was added during the editing process to show what part of the movie corresponds with the reactions. 

If my readers have enough interest in this post, maybe I can be convinced to release the entire list. Snyder Cut Reactions: Extended Edition… Comment below! 

*This entire post is nothing but spoilers! You have been warned.* 

• As my husband pressed play he said “Let’s get this over with.” So we are starting on a high note.
• Intro
  • Dang, Superman can really yell.
  • I forgot Luthor had hair in this film. I didn’t recognize him. Shaggy had to tell me who it was.
  • Still, it’s funny, this movie starts like an anime, with incomprehensible dramatic fight scenes and lots of yelling from a shonen protagonist. 
  • Mountain scenes and dramatic orchestral music? This is a rip-off of LOTR. 
• Batman meeting Aquaman
  • Why are the townspeople just standing around staring at Batman?
  • These villagers have a lot of free time if they sing to Aquaman every time he swims out of town. 
  • Do they worship him or something? Did he start a cult by accident? 
  • Lady stiffs shirt while singing. I think it’s a full-on religion now. No wonder he doesn’t want to leave. 
• Padding
  • Clark Kent’s middle name is Joseph! I didn’t know he had one!
  • “Maybe a man who broods in a cave isn’t fit to be a recruiter.” I love Alfred. I forgot how much I loved him
  • Lois Lane is sad. Artistically sad. 
  • This is Les Mis, geez. Sad musical while staring sadly in the rain. 
• Wonder Woman’s Intro
  • Hey, I was right the kids are from a Catholic school! I knew uniforms like that belonged there
  • Could you stall the magic Lasso by telling any truth or are you forced to answer the questions?
  • Wonder Woman is still a boss. I think she’s faster in the Snyder cut. Epic fight scene.
  • “If she’s this fast why do we need the Flash” – Shaggy
  • I feel like she used unnecessary force to stop one guy. Like did she need to make a massive hole in the wall?
  • *Insert blah child admires superhero cliche here
• Amazons getting robbed 
  • Oh no, not the bugs…
  • Have you heard about our Lord and Savior the Great Darkness? 
  • Why is it boring??! Amazon warrior ladies are fighting aliens how is that boring?
  • The big bad’s “NOOO!” had real Anakin Skywalker vibes, overdramatic
  • “A lot of this feels pretentious” – Shaggy 
  • They don’t mess around when they seal off buildings. Shut it down then chuck it in the ocean.
  • The ocean failed. Alien bugs: 1 Ocean: 0 
  • Villain – Looks at the approaching cavalry. “Eh… not today.” Leaves
  • Light the beacons! Another LOTR rip off
• Villain scene
  • “It’s toxic. That’s good” *slow clap* Good villain dialog writing team
• Our first look at the suspicious lab
  • Never be a night janitor at a lab.
• Back to the Amazons
  • There’s a lot of pomp and circumstance to light the warning fires. Like, apocalyptic level threat but we take time for the ceremony. 
• Cyborg Intro
  • “I don’t know. That’s why I was studying it” – gold 
• Aquaman and the Atlanteans 
  • Aquaman commands the ocean and orchestra
  • It’s a musical! Yay! The title is I’m wet and brooding
  • “How many shirts does he have? Where does he keep them?” – Shaggy. Good question, who knows? 
• Diana and Bruce with exposition 
  • Darkseid’s power is a boom spear and an army. 
  • With technology magic so advanced and powerful, you would think they would get a better name than Mother Boxes.
  • Why didn’t the Green Lantern guy take the boxes? I saw him in the battle. Wouldn’t he be able to better understand and neutralize technology like that? I guess if he did there would be no movie
  • Atlantians and Amazons create well-guarded prison cells for the bad boxes. Humans: put it in a normal hole in the ground. “They will never find it.” 
• *Movie paused*
  • “It’s just been an hour!?” – Shaggy, Had to pause for break #1
  • We are only an hour in and it feels like we should be halfway done
• Flash’s Intro
  • Aw dog! 🙂
  • Poor dude needs new shoes and a job now 
  • Does every character get a musical??
  • He has time to grab a hot dog before saving her. Priorities am I right?
• Cyborg’s Backstory
  • “When does slow-mo become too much slow-mo?” – Shaggy. Same honestly
  • Mom and son in the car, Dad busy at the lab missing the game… is this where the mom dies in a tragic car accident?
  • Immediately after typing that “Oh it is!”
  • If you are just trying to save your son’s life why add the extra capabilities? I think he secretly wanted to upgrade a person into a cyborg. 
• Flash backstory and meeting Batman
  • Barry’s dad is in jail, so that’s two people with Daddy issues. Batman doesn’t count as he has parental issues. 
  • At least he’s not sitting in your favorite chair, right?
  • “I need friends” “Can I keep this?” “I am a snack hole” I love Barry.
  • Barry – “What are your superpowers again?” Bruce – “I’m rich.” Still the best and accurate.
  • “This is the first entire scene I wasn’t bored in. It didn’t drag on, it was perfect. If this was a TV show I would have stopped watching two episodes ago.” – Shaggy
• Diana with Bruce and Cyborg
  • Sassy Diana – “Work on a lasso too, in black.” – she knows what’s up
  • Dang her pants are super tight. Are they comfortable?
  • If burying the box didn’t work the first time, why do you think it will work now Cyborg? You may be sad and angry but you’re smarter than this. 
• Atlanteans get robbed
  • Good thing Aquaman showed up at the perfect time
  • Mommy issues… Glad we addressed Aquaman’s tragic backstory. Diana is lucky to be an Amazon.
• First Team and Villain fight
  • It’s the Eye of Sauron with a cage. 
  • We saw Part 4 flash on the screen, but somehow we both missed part 3. I thought we were still in part 2.
  • Batman is standing on top of a hooded skeleton. Symbolism 
  • Commissioner Gordon is pretty chill, His expression of just a tired “Well okay then” is really funny 
  • What is darkness supposed to smell like Diana?
  • “I’m real when it’s useful” Sigh, good work Batman
  • Ancient lamentation music playing – closed caption is good
  • 2 hours in and we finally have a cool fight with all our peeps
  • Alfred being happy that his invention works is very pure
  • Barry Allen zipping along the walls and booping Diana’s sword is cool. Too bad he tripped at the end
  • “Do I know you?” Alfred being unintentionally funny
  • Finally, this movie had some stakes and epic feel to it, with everyone fighting together
  • I’m glad Aquaman showed up to stop the flood, but I can’t help but feel he was still late to the party 
• After the fight
  • The Anti-Life Equation… That’s how I felt about math classes 
  • Steppenwolf is ugly without the armor! Ew. 
  • Darkseid needs to learn how to move on from past failures. It’s not healthy
  • Barry – “You talk to machines?”  Cyborg – “I speak to intelligence.”  Wow, what dialog
  • The Nazis found the box. Because of course, they did. 
  • Was Cyborg’s origin story always tied to the box? It made it interesting at least. 
  • Science magic! 
  • Let’s use alien technology we don’t understand to raise the dead! 
• Back with Lois Lane again
  • You know, since he died you could have told the world who he was. What would it matter now?
  • Can we get back to the plot, please? We know you’re sad but you’ll get him back soon enough. 
  • Martian Manhunter? What? What are you doing here? 
• Reviving Superman with alien necromancy 
  • “She’s 5000 years old. Every guy is a younger guy.” – Alright, that was funny. 
  • Cyborg – “I’m always dressed.” he says while stripping 
  • Why are you guys breaking into the lab when you could just call up Cyborg’s dad and get him to help?
  • Aw, good to see his dad supporting his illegal activities. “Eh he’s hanging out with Batman and Wonder Woman, it’s probably fine.” I bet he thought something like that 
  • You should probably listen to the computer AI
  • The box moves as fast as Flash for reasons
  • Barry has some powerful boops
• It’s Alive! Superman edition
  • Hey look at that, Superman’s back
  • His dad’s face when he saw the box, just what the bleep is that boy doing?
  • Here we go! Superman fight time!
  • I don’t think you’re going to win a tug of war against Superman
  • “Maybe if you shout Martha at him” – Shaggy
  • Hey, now it’s time for Lois to be useful 🙂
  • The Aquaman and Flash interaction right after he left was good. Nice display of petty
• Cyborg’s father dies 
  • It was a good idea to try to destroy the box but I think it was a desperate attempt he knew wouldn’t be likely to work
  • Cyborg now has Batman syndrome 
  • Oh… so that was his plan. Makes more sense than I thought. 
• Part 6. almost 3 hours in. I think this is the third or so break. Almost done
• Superman on the farm
  • From bad guy to idyllic farm scene 
  • I don’t think Martha would have left clothes there. She would have either packed them or donated them.
  • Henry Cavil’s lip still looks weird sometimes
  • Superman is in a better mental place. Do I care? NOT RIGHT NOW!!
  • Okay, you kissed the girlfriend and hugged the mom, let’s go save the world now ‘kay?
  • Superman – “I have to go, I was pretty angry and I don’t know if I hurt people” Gee I wonder, it’s not like you were fighting or something
• Final Battle 
  • Yay Alfred, you got the ship working! Good job!
  • Glad Flash still has a sense of humor. “With the power of love.” That man watches anime.
  • Clark and the ship, completely unnecessary padding. We don’t need to see a fashion show of his suit choices 
  • Aw, but they just finished that ship 😦
  • Off to storm the castle
  • RIP Batmobile – died like it lived, for justice
  • Bruce was pretty good with an alien gun. Are guns universal? 
  • You know it’s serious when their eyes glow
  • Don’t make Diana angry. She can and will kick your ass
  • Superman deus ex machina arrives! Though not as stupid as the original 
  • Steppenwolf has a lot of fingers! Weird
  • Don’t wear spikes if you don’t wanna stick to walls
  • Time for Flash! Come on reverse time! WOOOOOO I’m excited!
  • “Make your own future, make your own past, It’s all right now,” Nice call back to what his dad said
  • Barry boops again!
  • They did it! Yay. 
  • Aquaman is brutal he just stabbed him
  • Not as much as Diana! Geez Decapitation, no wonder it’s rated R
• Aftermath of the Final Battle
  • Oh, look at the setup for a sequel that won’t happen. The old-fashioned massive alien army invasion
  • Photo finish for photographers that aren’t there
  • How does that ship still fly?
  • Is Barry still injured or did the time travel fix him?
• Epilogue?
  • Barry – “Don’t get maced again.” Ha, his dad was so proud of him. This was a good scene. Both funny and heartwarming
  • “I bought the bank.” what a flex.
  • Now, do we get the Joker?
  • Nope, just Lex Luthor. At least he’s bald now.
  • Slade and Luthor on his ship. Nice, too bad it’s not going anywhere. 
• Dream Sequence
  • Why is it still going??!
  • Why is anything? Why is this happening? This is like an end credits scene but it’s still a movie.
  • Finally, the Joker shows up. And it had to be in this weird surreal ending
  • Somehow letting Lois Lane die creates an apocalypse. 
  • Why is Superman helping the bad buys now? Just because she died does not mean he would side with the villains. What happened?
  • It WAs OnLY a DReAM! I hate this movie
  • Martian Manhunter! Why wait until the end to have him talk to the main characters? Why didn’t he help?! 
  • Batman has seen some crap. Meeting him was just another day
• I’m so glad it over!

*Image does not belong to me. It belongs to the Justice League Snyder Cut, I did do the edit to add the text.

Running Late

Hello everyone!

We have my husband’s younger sister visiting for a few nights this week. I’ve been visiting and haven’t been a very good author. Sorry about that.

Expect to see today’s post sometime this weekend. Hopefully. If it doesn’t happen I’ll be back to my normal schedule next week!

Hope the picture of one of my cats makes up for it.

Snyder Cut: Expectations Fall Flat

Normally I would be posting another entry in my “Memoirs of a Geek” series. But it’s been a weird week. We have a wedding to go to on the weekend. We have a relative who is spending a couple of nights here. It hasn’t been one of my better weeks in terms of my mental health. 

Instead, I will post a follow-up to my original post about the Justice League Snyder Cut. I watched the Snyder Cut last Saturday. Right after the movie ended I revisited my list to see how the movie lived up to the expectations I had. 

*Spoiler Warning! Read at your own risk*

1. Making a mediocre movie longer will not make it better. Justice League wasn’t a horrible film. It was dull and suffered from what I consider lazy writing and characters. I don’t expect the Snyder Cut to improve this movie from blah to good. I think it will be a longer blah movie. 

I was correct. Making the Justice League twice as long did not change the fact that the story wasn’t good. The main antagonist was uninteresting. It took way too long to assemble the hero squad. There were several things I think Snyder Cut did better. However, the whole thing just took so long, that by the end the only thing I felt was happy to have it over. The problem is, a mediocre action film is an okay experience with normal movie runtimes. It has good moments, then the rest you can pay half attention to until the end credits. BUT when that time is extended it gets harder and harder to pay attention to something not interesting. That extra effort required to watch Snyder Cut makes it a frustrating film. Like a lecture with a professor who decides to talk about the history of calculus for 3½ hours before he uses the last 20 minutes to teach something.   

2. The movie is four hours long! That is so stupidly long for one film. There better be a legit frame with the word “Intermission” around the midpoint of the movie for snack refills and bathroom breaks. 

There was not a frame with “Intermission”. I was honestly disappointed. There were shots with Parts 1-6 throughout the film. Which is equally pretentious without the utility of a break. And if any cinematic experience ever needed a break, it’s Snyder Cut. Maybe in the extra pretentious black and white version, there is one. But I’m not watching it to find out. 

3. The Joker will make an appearance and won’t be a lame version of the character. (I already know the Joker will show up but I don’t know anything else about him.)

I like how the Joker was characterized in this. He was chaotic and unstable. There was a sense of logic despite his twisted sanity. Joker also clearly portrayed emotions, both sick joy at messing with Batman and genuine disturbance at Harley Quin’s death. This is what I had hoped for. 

4. The Joker’s role will have a significant impact on the story or at least on Batman’s backstory. 

ARRRRGGHHHH!!! You finally bring in the Joker and it’s only one scene at the end, IN A DREAM SEQUENCE!!! I was so angry at this. I’m still angry at this. You guys finally made a decent Joker and it’s just a teaser for later films which won’t happen. Sigh. 

5. The alien big bad, uh… (Google search in progress) Steppenwolf will be a more interesting villain than he was in the original. It’s too much to hope that he would be ditched entirely.

He was equally boring in both versions of Justice League. But in Snyder Cut, you get the disgusting, horrifying image of Steppenwolf without his armor. Why was this necessary? Why would you hurt your audience like this?

6. Cringey quippy dialog. It happened in the original Justice League I think it will still happen in the Snyder Cut. Hopefully, it will occur to a lesser degree or in a way that doesn’t feel as forced. Normally I like funny quippy dialog, but this movie did not do it well.

They improved this. In Snyder Cut, the quips aren’t as cringey. I think they also occur less frequently too. Either way, well done. Except for the scene when Aquaman sat on the Lasso of Truth. It might have required several leaps of logic, but it was both funny and served as minor character development. 

7. Superman will still be used as a cheap deus ex machina. I mean, the dude’s so overpowered most villains don’t have any hope of putting up a decent fight let alone winning.

I was right. He still is a deus ex machina for the final battle. Heroes are about to lose and then, Bang! Superman shows up. At least the final solution of destroying the Unity was up to Flash and Cyborg. It did improve the narrative of the last battle. 

8. Cyborg won’t be as brooding. This is more of a hope than an expectation. Because I was hoping for a Cyborg character like the one in the original (and best) Teen Titans animated series. I was supremely disappointed by this version of him. Not a single “Booyah!”… it was very sad.

Cyborg did start equally angsty and broody at the beginning and through most of the movie. In the end, he did seem to accept his new state of being. I thought his relationship with his father and the shock of his death was done better than the original. Oh, and through rewatching the honest trailer and cinema sins for Justice League, I found out I was wrong. Cyborg did say “Booyah” in the original. I forgot. I guess I was disappointed that this Cyborg wasn’t like the Teen Titans Cyborg. He is Cyborg but not my Cyborg. 

9. It’s been a while since I’ve seen Justice League, so I’m not going to remember this accurately. There is that one scene when Batman and the Flash are talking about how fear powers the enemies (or something like that). But somehow Flash’s fear didn’t do anything? It just didn’t make any sense. In the Snyder Cut, I expect that will change so it logically makes sense.

This part is gone in Snyder Cut. Clearly, they also realized the plot hole and got rid of it. Good choice. 

10. The scene of Superman attacking the rest of the heroes will be changed significantly. It felt unrealistic considering Superman’s nature. It was unnecessary drama padding out the content of the movie.

I think the length of their fight with Superman was shorter. Otherwise, it’s still unnecessary drama. Goodness knows, this film clearly needed more padding. 

11. Diana will have a bigger role in the movie. Or at the very least, her role will be more memorable. For the life of me, I cannot remember what she did.

Her role didn’t seem that different from the first time. The movie spent more time with its new characters as her story has been established in other films. Diana’s fight scenes were pretty good. 

12. Batman will still be a serious, brooding, easily mockable character.

I was right. He was an okay Batman and I had fun with occasionally mocking him. I think the character Batman is inherently mockable. It’s part of the Batman charm. 

13. I remember not liking Lois Lane in the original movie. So I hope that she will get a less annoying characterization. 

She did not. Her role was to pine for Superman until he showed up. Then once he appeared her role was supporting him. When a movie is about superheroes fighting an alien invasion, I don’t want to be constantly taken out of that narrative to see a woman dealing with grief. Understandably, she’s suffering from a deep personal loss and it’s correct to portray that. However, when the entire world is at stake, I don’t care. There are more important things to focus on. Also, her entire character was framed around Superman. It felt like lazy writing to make a female character’s importance revolve around her relationship with a guy. 

14. The Flash will make his appearance in the Snyder Cut faster than he did in the original. 

I think so? The whole thing is so much longer than the original Justice League. Plot-wise, I think Barry was introduced and became relevant sooner. 

15. Finally, I expect that my opinions on the Snyder Cut will end up offending someone. Because I highly doubt this movie will be worth all the effort it took fans to get it. Guess I’ll find out in the comments section. 

I think it’s pretty clear I didn’t like this movie. While there are parts I enjoyed for the most part I didn’t like it. Snyder Cut is an endurance test of attention and I didn’t appreciate it. It might be the movie we asked for, but it’s not the movie we deserve.

*Image does not belong to me. It is the final frame of Snyder Cut. I added the text.

Snyder Cut Expectations

The time has finally come. I finally have a weekend with no plans and a subscription to HBO Max. It’s time to set aside my entire afternoon or evening to watch the Justice League Snyder Cut. I’ve already seen the original and have been disappointed at it. So now it’s time to see if adding two hours improved it. 

I thought I would make a list of my hopes and expectations before watching the movie. Then once I’ve seen it I’ll revisit the list to recount what actually happened. I haven’t made a post like this before and wanted to try out the idea. 

1. Making a mediocre movie longer will not make it better. Justice League wasn’t a horrible film. It was dull and suffered from what I consider lazy writing and characters. I don’t expect the Snyder Cut to improve this movie from blah to good. I think it will be a longer blah movie. 

2. The movie is four hours long! That is so stupidly long for one film. There better be a legit frame with the word “Intermission” around the midpoint of the movie for snack refills and bathroom breaks. 

3. The Joker will make an appearance and won’t be a lame version of the character. (I already know the Joker will show up but I don’t know anything else about him.)

4. The Joker’s role will have a significant impact on the story or at least on Batman’s backstory. 

5. The alien big bad, uh… (Google search in progress) Steppenwolf will be a more interesting villain than he was in the original. It’s too much to hope that he would be ditched entirely.

6. Cringey quippy dialog. It happened in the original Justice League I think it will still happen in the Snyder Cut. Hopefully, it will occur to a lesser degree or in a way that doesn’t feel as forced. Normally I like funny quippy dialog, but this movie did not do it well.

7. Superman will still be used as a cheap deus ex machina. I mean, the dude’s so overpowered most villains don’t have any hope of putting up a decent fight let alone winning.

8. Cyborg won’t be as brooding. This is more of a hope than an expectation. Because I was really hoping for a Cyborg character like the one in the original (and best) Teen Titans animated series. I was supremely disappointed by this version of him. Not a single “Booyah!”… it was very sad.

9. It’s been a while since I’ve seen Justice League, so I’m not going to remember this accurately. There is that one scene when Batman and the Flash are talking about how fear powers the enemies (or something like that). But somehow Flash’s fear didn’t do anything? It just didn’t make any sense. In the Snyder Cut, I expect that will change so it logically makes sense.

10. The scene of Superman attacking the rest of the heroes will be changed significantly. It felt unrealistic considering Superman’s nature. It was unnecessary drama padding out the content of the movie.

11. Diana will have a bigger role in the movie. Or at the very least, her role will be more memorable. For the life of me, I cannot remember what she did.

12. Batman will still be a serious, brooding, easily mockable character.

13. I remember not liking Lois Lane in the original movie. So I hope that she will get a less annoying characterization. 

14. The Flash will make his appearance in the Snyder Cut faster than he did in the original. 

15. Finally, I expect that my opinions on the Snyder Cut will end up offending someone. Because I highly doubt this movie will be worth all the effort it took fans to get it. Guess I’ll find out in the comments section. 

*Image does not belong to me. It belongs to the DC Extended Universe and the producers.

Petty Reviews: Subnautica

The ocean is scary! Too scary! Humans can’t survive in that environment. We need all of our scuba gear and submarines to spend any length of time down there. Anything and everything can potentially hurt you or poison you. We haven’t even finished mapping it out and figuring out what’s down there. For all we know, Cthulhu might be napping in the dark deep down. Humans don’t belong in the ocean!  

And an alien ocean is even worse! In Subnautica you are the only survivor of a crashed spaceship stranded on an alien ocean planet. Everything is weird! Anything could hurt you! You’re a tiny fragile human in a very scary completely unknown world. The whole situation is terrifying. I hated it so much. 

I don’t know why I played Subnautica. It was one of the WORST decisions I’ve ever made. I have never, NEVER, been more scared while playing a video game. Ugh… I hate the ocean. 

The first time I went swimming it was both pretty and panic-inducing. I had to figure out how to master the controls and what would hurt me. Then my faithful computer warned me about my remaining oxygen. Drowning was a whole new fear on top of the regular scary ocean fears! That was almost enough to make me quit right then. 

Still, I thought the game deserved a more thorough try. I got to the point where I was enjoying parts of the game. The environment biomes of Subnautica are well done and interesting to explore. Despite acting like a sniveling coward every time the sun went down, I was mostly okay. 

Until… the sand-sharks… stupid evil water gremlins.

This is a subnautica sand-shark. They’re all jerkwads.

I was an hour into the game. I was starting to get frustrated with how difficult it can be to figure out where to find the correct materials. When all of a sudden I saw a big chunk of wreckage from the Aurora (the spaceship). I started investigating to find supplies and blueprints. While scanning one of the fragments laying about, I heard a loud low pitched growling. Naturally I freaked out and got the heck out of there as fast as possible, all while screaming. It was not one of my finer moments. 

What made the whole thing worse was that I didn’t see anything! I only heard something mean and then nothing happened! Absolutely terrifying! Still I mustered up what little remained of my courage and decided to try again. Because I needed that fragment scanned, gosh darn it. 

I waited for a bit just in case but I didn’t see anything. So I went down again. Much more scared than the first time, but I was there. Then the same thing happened again! But this time I saw the sand-shark coming for me! After the second round of screaming and swimming away as fast as the sea-glide could go, I said “Screw this.” and turned the game off. 

I will not be playing Subnautica ever again. It’s too scary. The ocean is way too scary. I have learned if I was ever in the position of the protagonist in this game, I would die. I would die so fast. 

SMT Nocturne: First Impressions

Today is a good day! Not only is it a three-day weekend, SMT Nocturne Remastered released today! Ever since I’ve played Persona 5 I’ve been looking into other Atlus titles. Once I discovered that the Persona series is a spin-off of the Shin Megami Tensei games, I wanted to play the original SMT games. Despite looking for years I’ve never come across a PS2 copy of SMT III Nocturne. Naturally, when the remaster was announced I was excited. This is the game that many JRPG fans have high opinions on. It is supposedly one of the hardest JRPGs ever made. I don’t know if playing the remake instead of the original is enough to graduate from casual Persona fan to hardcore SMT veteran. I’ll let the rabid fans on Reddit and YouTube figure that out. 

I didn’t know much about the game going into it. All I knew was that you watch the apocalypse happen and then you wander about trying to figure out what’s going on. I would mark this as a spoiler, but I don’t think it qualifies since the apocalypse happens so soon once the game starts.

The other thing I knew going into it is that the game isn’t joking with the “Hard” difficulty. I’m not messing with that until I see what “Normal” is like. I did download the free Merciful setting just in case. However, I’m not a wimp. I won’t use that until absolutely necessary to save my sanity. 

So far I’m about two hours into Nocturne. I’ve completed the first dungeon and have explored some of the beginning areas so far. The combat hasn’t been truly difficult yet. To be fair, I have played other Persona and other mainline SMT games. Because of this, I’m already familiar with the press turn system, skill terminology, and how to abuse enemy weaknesses. There are many random encounters so it becomes a challenge of managing your party’s HP and MP. The menu system while functional is dated. I’m almost embarrassed at how long it took me to figure out how to talk to demons. (Only in SMT does that sentence make sense without sounding like a cultist.)  Still, while at times the random encounters do feel tedious, the combat itself is pretty fun. The auto mode speeds up fights with easy low-level demons. 

The best thing about this game is the overall tone and atmosphere. Unlike many games, the protagonist (insert name here) isn’t treated like he is special or a chosen one. He’s just sort of… there. Stuck in the middle of the most bizarre and horrible circumstances immaginable trying to survive. As the game starts he is going about his everyday life when he and his friends are caught up in events that they knew nothing about. With this setup, the player naturally feels as lost as the main character. Because I too, did not know what was going on or why things were happening. 

Characters you encounter while exploring are very interesting. Along with the remaining humans, you can talk to the souls of deceased humans and demons that are loitering about. The usefulness of their information varies, but they all have different personalities that make interacting with them entertaining. This also lends itself to the subtle story telling. These characters are now a part of this new world with no explanation. It immediately drives the point home that humanity was almost entirely wiped out with only a handful of survivors left. Now this world belongs to these demons. 

The cinematic of the end of the world was honestly unnerving. There wasn’t much sound or dramatic music. Only a few characters knew what was going to happen or had a suspicion that something was going to happen. The rest of the world had no idea and life was going on as normal. Everything ended without ceremony. This added to the surrealness of the cutscene of the apocalypse. It creates a strange mixture of both cosmic horror and the supernatural. Along with a somberness of the destruction of the old world. However, there is a sense of hope and determination of surviving against the odds and the possibility to create a new version of the world.  

As of right now, I’m really loving Nocturne. I can see why it’s so well loved in its niche. I’m looking forward to what the rest of the game has in store for me. 

*Image does not belong to me. It belongs to Atlus and was posted on Siliconera

Memoirs of a Geek: It Takes Two

If you haven’t heard of it, It Takes Two is an exclusively two-player game. My husband, Shaggy, and I are currently playing through the PS5 version of the game. We are most likely halfway through. I haven’t looked up any walkthroughs or spoilers so it’s only a guess. When we finish the game I’ll probably do a complete review of the game. For now, I wanted to write about two of the funniest moments in our playthrough. 

The story of the game is unique. You and a partner play as Cody and May, a married couple on the verge of a divorce. Their daughter Rose is understandably very upset at this and ends up wishing that her parents would “become friends again” (she’s little and doesn’t understand how marriage works yet) while tears fall onto dolls she made. For unexplained reasons, this causes the souls of both of her parents to possess the dolls. Now stuck as tiny dolls in a strange version of their home, Cody and May are forced to work together to find Rose and undo what happened. 

Gameplay-wise, it’s a pretty straightforward 3D platformer with simple controls for movement and jumping. Throughout the game, you acquire and lose various tools along the way. This keeps the gameplay varied in each stage. Each player relies on the other to use their skills to get past challenges and enemies. 

I’m playing as May. At one point in the game, she gets a hammer. One of the things I had to use it for was breaking glass bottles to clear our path. There was a bunch of them in one section. So I was gleefully swinging away, smashing everything, when I accidentally hit Shaggy. At first, I was mildly worried I accidentally killed him. 

Then his character, flat on the ground said this, “Just because it can’t kill me doesn’t mean it didn’t hurt May!”

“It was an accident!” – May

“Sure, it was…” Cody sarcastically muttered. 

We both laughed at it a little. I did tell Shaggy that I did not actually mean to hit him. He knew that and said that dialog had made it worth it. Naturally, I agreed, the dialog was funny and it made hitting him that much more fun.

The other memorable moment from our playthrough was when I freaked out Shaggy. At the time, he had a gun with three nails. He used this to shoot nails into the wall so I could swing off of them and to shoot platforms to keep them in place. During one of these sections, I had to jump my way through while Shaggy was pinning platforms in place. We got to one and as soon as we realized which platform he would have to shoot, I said “Okay” and wall-jumped off. He was not prepared for me to do that so fast. At the last possible moment, Shaggy got the platform in place just before I fell to my certain death. 

As soon as I landed on the platform Shaggy told me, “Geez, that was a freaking trust fall! Just believed I was going to make it in time huh?”

I told him, “What? I knew you would get it.” I was right he did. But I did say sorry for the short notice. 

It probably would have been funny to watch that happen. I mean, I was pretty amused at his reaction. Still, it made me feel happy that he caught me, especially since he framed it in the way he did. Looks like I picked the right person to play It Takes Two with. Perhaps it is a little silly, but that successful trust fall did give me the warm fuzzies for a few minutes. That was one of those moments where I thought, “Yeah, I married the right person.”

*Image does not belong to me. It belongs to the developers of It Takes Two.