Scattered Thoughts

Here are some cool things that have been on my mind lately.

• Disillusion ST is a surreal game. It embraces an aesthetic that I find particularly appealing. Apparently it features procedurally-generated levels, à la LSD Dream Simulator, but with a bit more narrative than that niche PlayStation 1 title. I’ve got some other games on the go at the moment, so I’ll wait before picking this one up for now.

• Basic Fantasy RPG is experiencing a boost in attention lately. Maybe it’s because the 4th edition of the core rules released. Probably the biggest change is dropping the Open Game License in favor of a Creative Commons license.

I’ve had a print copy of the rules since about 2018 and don’t feel the need to get a new one any time soon. Still, it’s wise that the BFRPG community has moved to the CC license.

• Maraganger, YouTuber of note, shared a list of the media she watched/read/played during 2024. Her taste doesn’t always line up with mine, yet she always seems to mention a few things that I have to pause to check out. For instance, I had to check out Denshinbashira Elemi no Koi (lit. Elemi the Telephone Pole’s Love), a Japanese stop-frame animation about a utility pole falling in love with a repairman.

• Exile I: Escape from the Pit is a computer role-playing game similar in style to some of the Ultima series. Exile is the original version of what was later remade into Avernum and then Avernum: Escape from the Pit. I like the aesthetic of Exile.

I’ve only played the Avernum: Escape from the Pit. I enjoyed what I played despite the game’s punishing difficulty. I’m generally unfamiliar with the CRPG genre aside from reading/watching others play them. I tend to find their gameplay unforgiving and abstruse. Perhaps I wouldn’t if I played more of them.

• I’ve been messing around with RPG Maker MV a bit. It reminds me of renting the PlayStation 1 RPG Maker ages ago and not being able to figure out how to make anything. I can’t remember if the manual was missing (or maybe it was just an inadequate manual for a complete newbie). All I know is that I couldn’t seem to wrap my head around how to make events. At least I was able to enjoy playing through the pre-made scenario about the Goblin who wants to be a hero.

RPG Maker MV is fun to mess around with. It’s difficult to make something interesting using only the bundled assets. About the only one that comes to mind is a parody game called “The RPG that Got Trimmed Too Much”.

In some ways, RPG Maker feels like a dead end. If someone were to spend much time making a game with any of these engines, they’d probably be better off learning how to make something in Godot or another engine.

• I’ve been slowly re-reading Stephen King’s It. I read it many years ago. Funny to see how much I have forgotten since the original read (fitting, considering how the characters forget everything that happens in the town of Derry until they return).

Hard to believe the “recent” film version is from 2017. I never saw the second part since it sounded like the people making it really fumbled the ball.

• Over the December holidays, I picked up the original Deus Ex for cheap. A friend had encouraged me to play it more than a decade ago. I think I played for ten minutes before giving up. At the time, I recall encountering a strange glitch that made the game’s interface lock-up.

This time, I made it through the first mission without issue. I even beat the first half of the second mission mostly unscathed. Unfortunately I couldn’t seem to figure out how to get through the subway section without getting hit by the enemy wielding a flamethrower or getting a bunch of the civilian hostages killed.

Determined to at least experience the story and environments first-hand, I decided to find some cheats and simply go through the game without engaging with the gameplay. It’s an interesting setting. Considering when the game was released it’s remarkable what they were able to accomplish with an engine designed for first-person shooter multiplayer death matches.

I understand the designers were going for a very specific aesthetic, but I can’t help but wish we got even just one mission that wasn’t set at night-time. I’ve only just reached the first Hong Kong mission, so maybe there’s still more variety to come.

2025-02-01

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