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Showing posts from June, 2026

The Forgotten City Review:

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Review based on patch 1.3.0 Story: After being saved from drowning by a mysterious woman named Karen ( Charon or Kherty ), the player character is asked to search for her friend who went missing in the nearby ruins. While exploring the ruins, the player stumbles into a restored version of the city during the time of the Roman Empire. The handful of residents living there - which include ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans - all follow a "Golden Rule", where if any of them were to commit a sin, everyone would be turned to gold as punishment by the gods. No one is sure what counts as a punishable sin, but the magistrate asks the player to use their status as the 'newcomer' to discover who is most likley to sin. Gameplay: The player has the ability to loop time - repeating the same day while retaining both physical objects and information obtained from the previous loop. The narrative is one that discourages violence, brute force and combat, and instead a...

Music to Level Up Your Day: Xenoblade Chronicles X, Part 1

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I don't know much about musical theory, nor am I a musically inclined person. However, I do love to listen to video game soundtracks. They can be a powerful listening experiences in their own right, or be as evocative as the scores composed for film. Each of these posts will feature a sampling of music tracks from a single game title, or series/franchise in some rare cases. A complete list of these can be found on the Video Game Music page. Composer: Hiroyuki Sawano Singers: Aimee Blackschleger, Cyua, Mika Kobayashi, mpi, Sayulee, North American Release Date: December 4, 2015 In the year 2054, a galactic war forces humanity to flee Earth aboard spaceships dubbed "arks". After being pursued by extraterrestrials for two years, the "White Whale" ark makes a crash landing on the uncharted planet Mira. Several stasis pods are ejected during the crash, of which the protagonist Cross is one of the only survivors. Rescued by Elma, the leader of BLADE (Bu...

The Procession to Calvary Review: A Bonafide Classic

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Story: The female warrior Bellona (painted by Rembrandt) is bummed-out because the holy war has come to an end and the new leader, Immortal John, has ruled that there should be no more killing - Bellona's favorite thing to do. However, the previous tyrant, Heavenly Peter, has escaped, giving Bellona one last chance to commit (legal) murder by claiming his head. Every character, object, and background has been taken from real-life Renaissance paintings and given simple animations to create a very unique 'cut-out' visual presentation. These paintings often feature absurd imagery, such as lap-dog sized pet lions, two fully nude men 'wrestling' by the beach, or people holding freakishly oversized keys. The imagery is not only interesting, but blends well with the story's dry humor written in the comedy style of Monty Python . The music is all classical stuff as well, played on screen by musicians hidden in every background. Bellona can even sing along or ap...