CURRENTLY PLAYING: Final Fantasy VII Remake INTERGRADE

 It has thus far been worth the wait. From the very first seconds within the title screen, I was treated to the timeless 'Prelude' piece, the quintessential Final Fantasy tune. Since I didn't play any of the 8 or 16-bit titles growing up, my first exposure to a Final Fantasy game was via the original VII game back in 1997, though I had been aware of the series before that with Final Fantasy III/VI being a prolific title in gaming mags at the time.

The combat is fast-paced and actually strategic, which I couldn't really gleam much off of from the few pieces of gameplay I watched over the years. I'll always take turn-based combat in a Final Fantasy game over an Action RPG system, but what they do here is pretty cool in how they incorporated the ATB into real-time combat. Much like Secret of Mana did way back when.

Christmas 2023

Well, Christmas 2023 has come and just about gone as of the time of this post, and as I prepare to flee Facebook where my ramblings are probably viewed as unwanted or weird, I felt it was more appropriate to publish more and more here going into the new year where I can post and ramble and not have to worry about, well, anyone reading it. 

Anyway, 

My Christmas was relatively peaceful. Christmas eve was it's usual high energy self, more so this year with my having the day off from work, so I spent a good few hours in the kitchen throwing together a cheesecake and a yum yum.

Later in the day, I went to KFC and picked up dinner. It was a fun evening, followed by the first round of gift giving where gifts bought between family were exchanged, as per the tradition. Santa Claus would too the whole event on, another tradition that our parents are ever so adamant about continuing. 

Christmas day has been far less energetic, with clouds moving in and rain beginning to fall. We opened our stuff and I began putting dinner together: A turkey and a ham, along with some vegetables. 

Without naming off everything, I did get a nice new Helluva Boss shirt, a Loona pin and some Steam gift cards, to which I used to purchase Cassette Beasts, Final Fantasy VII Remake and Coral Island. I also received Chrono Cross from a friend. 

I immediately began Cassette Beasts and am in love! Playing a brand new monster catching game on Christmas brought me back to the Christmas of 1998 when got Pokémon Red Version. 

Steam Deck in 2023

I bought the official Valve Steam Deck Docking Station for myself for Christmas, "completing" my gaming "setup". Though I seldom play on the big screen, having the official dock to output the Deck to my TV just felt like it was necessary, even if I did have to modify the grip so that the USB-C nub could fit properly.

I bought the Steam Deck from a seller on ebay back in January, just one week before putting in my notice at Food Lion. I initially bought the Deck as a companion piece to the Switch, which had been my (only) primary means of gaming since it launched in 2017. Little did I expect it to not only knock the Switch out of the rota, but to also make me reconsider any day one purchases of Nintendo consoles in the future. The Steam Deck changed gaming for me forever, refining the road that which the Switch initially paved for me.

The added benefit of being able to natively play modern releases is the expansive emulation capabilities of the Deck. I could even emulate Switch games on this thing if I really wanted to. 

I will definitely still be buying future Nintendo consoles, but I think the days of being a Nintendo-only gamer are done. My plan is to just hold off until the next Animal Crossing game launches and then pick up the next gen console, which is for sure going to be announced/released in 2024.

The Rankin-Bass Santa Claus Trilogy

Violent Night is the third film in Rankin-Bass Santa Claus trilogy, and here is why I think that is so:

So Santa Claus Is Coming To Town is an origin story; It sets Kris up as an orphan that gets taken in and raised by elves and eventually finds himself slowly becoming Santa Claus over the years.

The second film, The Year Without a Santa Claus, sees a disenchanted Kris pondering taking the year off after who knows how many years in the role of Santa Claus. Mankind becoming non believers and taking him for granted fueling his decision to take a break.

Finally, Violent Night has seen Kris spiral into a drunken, disenchanted state, echoing a lot of the same sentiments he expressed in 'Year Without' while expressing further interest in giving up the role all together, with that particular night possibly being the very last.

CURRENTLY PLAYING 🎮: Grand Theft Auto 5

It's been, oh, maybe something like eighteen years since I last sat down and played a Grand Theft Auto game. The Xbox version of San Andreas was the last game that I finished the story in while attempting to do as much as side stuff as possible and just generally submerge myself in the game world.

I started up GTA5 last night on a whim after completing Tales of Berseria as I needed a pallette cleanser, but found myself engrossed in it five hours later. I hadn't realized that the series had come so far since the PS2 trilogy days; from a story telling stand point to giving you things to actually do in the big, normally dull world.

I don't know how much I will actually do of the game by Christmas day when I pick up the Final Fantasy VII Remake, but I imagine it will be a good amount. 

My Top Ten BOOKS of 2023

 Starting last year, I started doing top ten lists for various pieces of media that I've consumed throughout the calendar year, and this year shall be no different. As usual, I tend to not consume the latest media as I'm either usually very far behind on a series as I've tended to discover it or fairly recently or just am that slow, so my lists always consist almost entirely of media from years passed; Their only qualification for making such lists like this is that I had read/watched/played them for the first time in the given year.

And so without further ado, here are my top ten books of 2023.

#10: THE RITUAL by Adam Nevill
This was the first of two books that I read this year that had connections to Norse mythology that I was unexpected but pleasantly surprised by. I'm one of those people who had been exposed to Nevill through the film adaptation of said book, and so when it came time to finally read the story that inspired the film I walked away disappointed a bit. There were some tense moments and really spooky scenes throughout, but halfway through the book takes a weird shift and does some things that the movie - thankfully - ignored for the most part.

#9: IT by Stephen King
Reading this had been a long time coming, having had it in my library since the newest film adaption came out(which I gave away to a friend and then bought the ebook version of). I knew it would be a long read, so I saved it specifically for the spookiest month of the year: October! It took me 3/4s of the month to read, but I had a blast. This was the first Stephen King book that I have read in full. A lot of which that was contained within that both adaptions have (largely) ignored was really surprising.

#8: ALIEN: THE COLD FORGE by Alex White
The last of the books I read for spooky season, somehow weasling its way in during the final week and a half of October. I've always been a big fan of the Alien series and wanted to read some literature that dove more into the universe and the Weyland-Utani company, and Cold Forge gave me just that. It wasn't groundbreaking and gave nothing new away regarding the "Xenomorphs", but it was one of the better tales in this series since Alien 3.

#7: THE SIBERIAN INCIDENT by Greig Beck
When it comes to horror, my favorite genre is definitely "parasitic alien comes to earth and causes mayhem", all thanks to John Carpenter's 'The Thing'. So when I stumbled across Beck's 'The Siberian Incident' late last year, I knew I had to read it. And wowee, it didn't disappoint on the alien side of things. I've not seen this sort of alien done in the way they did here. The Russian mafia side plot and weird brother-in-law side plots were a little odd, though.

#6: THE EMBER BLADE by Chris Wooding
I was hesitant about including this on the list at all. I was sold on the book with the promise of magic, a legendary sword, and high adventure, but I got Game of Thrones Lite. I still maintain that A Song of Ice and Fire and its rise to popularity had done serious damage to the fantasy genre that it still has yet to recover from in terms of having actual fantasy elements. But despite my grievances, I still really enjoyed The Ember Blade. Sure it wasn't what other readers had tried to sell it to me as, but what I got was still entertaining and had a cast of characters that I was mildly interested in re-joining enough that I bought Book 2 when it went on sale.

#5: THE FAULT IN OUR STARS by John Green
I picked this up after watching a few minutes of the film adaptation. I like romance in my stories, be it wholesome or tragic. The Fault in Our Stars was both and it left me like a gut punch.

#4: WORLD WAR Z by Max Brooks
The movie adaption, this was not. Not even remotely close. The book is a collection of interviews from individuals all over the globe, starting from the very beginning of the outbreak to the "end" when the world began to find itself in the new normal. 

#3: STOLEN TONGUES by Felix Blackwell
Right out of the gate, Stolen Tongues hits the reader with an extremely creepy prologue involving a talking parrot. This opening chapter set the mood and atmosphere for the book that, to the author's talent, it maintained all the way throughout. The couple at the lead of the story were so well written and worked wonderfully with each other. It's always extremely satisfying to see healthy relationships in media.

#2: WATCHERS by Dean Koontz
This book surprised the heck out of me at every turn. I loved the trio at the forefront of the story, one of which was Einstein the Golden Retriever. The early plot of a woman oppressed by her upbringing and slowly finding herself. A supportive male lead that sticks by her and encourages her. And then there was the main antagonist; The Outsider and Einstein's counterpart. Though it only appeared occasionally throughout the book and at the end for the climatic final confrontation, it was written in a way that you HAD to feel sympathy for it.

#1: HIGH MOOR by Graeme Reynolds
Taking the #1 spot for the year is Graeme Reynolds' first book in his High Moor trilogy, titled simply 'High Moor'. A little bit of Stephen King, a little of American Werewolf in London, and a lot more impending apocalypse than I anticipated. High Moor, despite only getting a 4-star rating on my GoodReads, surprised me at every turn. It began simple enough but ended in a place I had not foreseen and with the promise of much, much greater things to come. I plan to begin the next book either on the first full moon of 2024.

CURRENTLY READING 📖: By The Light of Dead Stars

So it seems those weird Facebook ads that occasionally make it into my feed have finally worked and manage to sell me on a piece of cosmic horror for me to (hopefully) close the year out before I begin the year of Brandon Sanderson - The Cosmyear, as I am referring to it as. 

Currently Playing: Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Earthblood

It isn't the best or well-developed action game I've ever played, but the novelty of playing as a Werewolf was too much to pass up. And for the $6 I paid for it during the Steam Autumn Sale, I can't complain too much.

I love it when were transformations aren't tied to the full moon and are just something they can turn into at will, bonus points for added ability to take the form of a wolf.

The werewolf form itself ticks every box on my "What my ideal Werewolf should be" checklist. It stands upright but can go on all fours if needed, has digitigrade legs, retains it's tail and as an added bonus, is able to change between agility form and power form.

Visions of Mana is a thing and I have a lot. A LOT. I want to say about it. 

MONSTER SIGHTING #39: Godzilla Minus One

So I am home now and still trying to process this movie and all that it has brought to the kaiju genre. It was absolutely 100% worth the trip through the thick fog to the AMC Theater.

Minus One was, without mincing words, a masterpiece. Not just a great kaiju film, but an amazing, emotional story set during World War 2. And when I say emotional, I mean there were legit moments of human drama that - outside the tears of joy from just seeing Godzilla on a theater screen again - were tear jerking; Human characters and plots in giant monster movies do not get better than how they were depicted in this film, period.

The auditorium was filled up with people that were legit into the movie, even the annoying elderly couple sitting beside me that literally Haha'd(literally. Not a laugh, just saying haha as a word) or gasped out loud every time the scene changed, often times for no apparent reason other than the fact that they are very easily amused. But it was during one particular scene that lasted probably no longer than 20 seconds that everyone in the room held their breath and went totally silent; Even the kids and more talkative members in the group. Everyone was one, silent, unbreathing creature during THAT scene. It was so surreal and was something I have NEVER experienced in any film ever, let alone with such a huge group of people

Godzilla himself was a monster, unlike the current ongoing Monsterverse incarnation which is portrayed more animal-like. MinusGoji is creature that only wants to kill and destroy. He knows full well that he is king and that nothing and no one is above him.

I highly advise anyone that can get to a theater that is carrying this movie to do so as soon as possible.

I'm about to witness Godzilla Minus One!!

I had originally thought that the local large format theater in town was for sure going to pick this up considering how big a fan the manager of the place is, but time ticked on and it just never happened (I blame Taylor Swift, as an FYI). I had the day requested off way in advance and everything. 

Despite the gloomy weather, I drove forty minutes out of town just to see this movie on the big screen. Ain't no way I was missing the chance to see my king on the big screen.

As of the time of this posting, I am just a half an hour away from showtime and the hype is mounting. I have never been to an IMAX theater before, nor have I ever bought a ticket where I had to reserve a seat. As the time of purchase, the auditorium was filling up fast.