Indoor Prince

This year I'm refusing to let go. Luka stays.

I cannot believe Hades II is here in my hands now; the first few hours already gone in a familiar whirlwind of greatness.

Death to Chronos, indeed.

In spite of all the changes and stress that this second half of the year has brought, I'm happy to have found (out the blue) a great source of joy in finally being able to play The Beatles: Rock Band whenever I want; madly hammering the keys of an old Magic Keyboard like in the old days of Frets on Fire.

I love this game so much. The studio chatter on loading screens alone can probably cheer up the hardest days and nights.

Thank you, Dolphin people!

If Wishfield was irresistible before, my foolish brain had no chance of ignoring Persona 5: The Phantom X now.

I want to believe my childhood box of floppy disks is somewhere out there, waiting for someone who will discover inside the adventure games I pirated in my early days with a computer: the point-and-clicks I managed to understand and love back then, like Loom and The Secret of Monkey Island, and the enigmatic text parser ones, like Police Quest or The Colonel’s Bequest, that went completely over my young non-English-speaking head.

This week, luckily, I got to spend the evenings after work playing The Crimson Diamond by Julia Minamata, and now that whole mystery is what I would consider my first real experience with a text parser game. Nancy Maple rules from the start, and the ending I got left me feeling very inspired, with a desire to go back and finally play through those Laura Bow adventures I missed as a kid. Especially The Colonel’s Bequest, which I also remember finding a bit scary... but surely it’s going to be fine now!

I was young and in love with SCUMM games when I discovered Tómate un Descanso, a graphic adventure by Ciro Durán. To my surprise (and probably because we've been reminiscing a lot about our old blogging days lately), Vic stumbled upon a fairly recent retrospective of the game, including a very kind nod to the blog where I reviewed it back in 2008.

Tómate un Descanso was the first game made in my home country that I ever played. For that, and for Ciro's cool art and point-and-click humor, I tried launching it again on my PC... and it worked!

A win for game preservation and avoiding work.

I couldn’t jump straight into the Iki Island expansion; the whole of Ghost of Tsushima is worth revisiting again and again.

The broom-wielding kid in me, who could spend hours pretending to be Himura Kenshin, El Zorro, or a vagrant Jedi Knight on some stormy planet, couldn’t be more pleased with Jin Sakai's gameplay.

For now I’m just missing that flute song to summon rain at will.

Not the best season... but still, it was a year with Modrić. For as long as he played for us, that was more than enough for me.

I've been dreading this day for a while, but now the goodbye is real, and I'm just... incredibly sad; a bit existential, even. I'm sure Saturday is going to be special for him, Lucas, and Ancelotti, but if the Club World Cup somehow entered a time vortex where the games constantly loop and never end... well, I wouldn't complain.

I missed crossing rivers in Death Stranding.

Clair Obscur is going to be something special. You can feel it right away, and Val's already humming the themes.

I was looking for a fan translation of Morrowind on a Spanish forum back in 2005 when I first encountered the early screenshots of The Elder Scrolls IV... and I couldn't believe my eyes. Even more than Morrowind itself, and in a way that Skyrim never matched for me later, Oblivion has an importance in my life that’s hard to overstate. Today's reveal had my eyes widening. Again.

Disappointed (but almost done) with Dragon Age: The Veilguard, and just two days away from Clair Obscur: Expedition 33... I already see myself going in and out of the Imperial City sewers once again tonight, goosebumps and all.

Looking back on three generations of elfroot gathered over the past few months, I wonder if someday I’ll make it back to Orzammar.

Unsurprisingly, this was the beginning of a new-yet-familiar obsession with the Pokémon HOME Pokédex.

The exploration in Infinity Nikki is the closest any of these never-ending games has come to stealing my heart. If only we could wish all the FOMO-inducing stuff out of existence…

Co-op with Val has come a long way, I'd say. From sliding down snowy mountains as a wolf cub and deer in Blanc, to endure-and-surviving the waves of buffed-up spiders, goblins, ghosts, and skeletons in the dungeons of Children of Morta.

We're tough as nails now; keep 'em bosses coming.

As a foreigner, I really wish this was called Dragon Age: Exodus.

Between the Astro Bot cameos and Ueda's new teaser giving me the shivers... the new year found me dusting off a PS3 and revisiting the castle in the mist, once again.

After a month-long vacation in the US... we're finally back home! Val put up our Christmas tree in record time, and this Cloud amiibo she got for me on the trip is the perfect symbol for this year, apparently coming to an end soon.

Our new recruits from New York!

What can I say?World in a Memory hits like a truck, and the beautiful XP-era mapping, once again... does too ✧˚ ༘ ⋆｡˚.

I'll keep trying to extend Modric's contract for as long as I can in career mode, and that would be enough.

Long before the Underground, the Depths, and the Underdark... I first had to stumble around in the Deep Roads. Revisiting Dragon Age: Origins has brought back everything: the multiple days of struggle in caves and tunnels, the non-stop combat encounters, and how my 2009 computer was barely holding together during the whole dwarven plot.

But it also reminded me of the lore, and why Orzammar stayed on my mind for so long; this time, with Shale!

P.S. I need to play a dwarf noble someday.

So much joy in Astro Bot.

Out of what felt like a thousand magical highlights... maybe my strongest dork reaction came with the unexpected McDohl-bot, appearing totally out of the blue, as in a first playthrough of Suikoden II. It felt like Christmas, a birthday present, and some sort of climax to many years of playing.

I briefly went back to the great Astro’s Playroom today, and the original PSP was the last thing I found, which felt right.

Nothing left now, but a small wait...

Loboto’s Labyrinth hits a little different when recovering from wisdom teeth extraction; and from that point on... Psychonauts 2 still touches my heart like no other 3D platformer can.

I get super excited every time there’s rain in a game. Like a few days ago, with a brief storm during the Battle of Ostagar in Dragon Age: Origins, or a few hours ago, with this New Donk City tempest. Incidentally, it's also raining outside today, and it seems that we’re going to get an all-around cloudy week here.

Perfect for coffee, and dreaming up New York plans...

Good ol’ Dragon Age: Origins.

Looking at this map after Lothering, I wonder... why on earth did I go to Orzammar first on my first playthrough, fourteen years ago?

I’ve never experienced anything quite like the jump from a first-time playthrough of Final Fantasy VII into the cinematic marvel that is Final Fantasy VII Remake. The Midgar segment has my heart.

I was waiting for Shadow of the Erdtree to unlock last night when I decided to give eFootball a 2,843rd chance. It’s still upsetting to see Konami’s gameplay stuck in a pack-opening nightmare, but it seems that there are now ways to actually renew contracts...

It was pretty cool to assemble this team back together.

Plus, an honorable member.

Alright, alright... Let’s see what this is all about.

Elden Ring...

Two years after barely finishing the main quest with a Longsword, a makeshift excuse of a build, and the mimic.

Avoiding Mohg and Malenia like the plague back then has now turned into a combat trial to see if I should get Shadow of the Erdtree, or not. Since right now I can't even remember how to call Torrent, I began refreshing my memory by watching my sister fight all the bosses with a poleblade.

My Saturday plans in Kamurocho got destroyed.

Y nada más, y nada más... ♩ ♪ ♫ ♬

I was so worried about Modric that I didn’t even consider the possibility of this being Kroos’ last season.

Time is so, so cruel. Dammit.

It feels like yesterday that I was crying like a baby in front of my CRT after Zizou’s farewell game... but that was 2006, and in the 18 years that have passed since then, I haven’t seen another Real Madrid legend retire at the club. For some reason or another, everyone always leaves and ends up saying goodbye elsewhere.

Well, not everyone! And it might sound silly, but today FC 24 got way more important to me; in the same way that PES 6 is.

Gracias, Toni.

It occurred to me that this year could be last time that the old Bernabéu shows up in a new video game... so I went to sleep last night unhingedly imagining some sort of tribute to the Real Madrid players that became icons in my career saves, ever since becoming addicted to manager modes with PES 4 and FIFA 2004.

A list with this bunch, more or less:

• Antonio Rüdiger
• Arjen Robben
• Asier Illarramendi
• Aurélien Tchouaméni ★
• Ángel Di María
• Brahim Díaz
• Casemiro ★
• Cicinho
• Cristiano Ronaldo ★
• Dani Carvajal ★
• Dani Ceballos
• David Beckham ★
• Eduardo Camavinga ★
• Esteban Granero
• Federico Valverde ★
• Ferland Mendy
• Fernando Gago
• Gareth Bale ★
• Guti ★
• Isco ★
• José Antonio Reyes
• Jude Bellingham ★
• Kaká ★
• Karim Benzema ★
• Klaas-Jan Huntelaar
• Lassana Diarra
• Lucas Vázquez
• Luka Modrić ★
• Luís Figo
• Mahamadou Diarra
• Marcelo ★
• Marco Asensio
• Mesut Özil ★
• Michael Essien
• Nacho Fernández
• Pepe
• Rafael van der Vaart
• Raphaël Varane ★
• Raúl ★
• Ricardo Carvalho
• Roberto Carlos ★
• Rodrygo
• Ronaldo ★
• Rubén de la Red
• Ruud van Nistelrooy ★
• Santiago Solari
• Sergio Ramos ★
• Toni Kroos ★
• Vinícius Júnior ★
• Wesley Sneijder
• Xabi Alonso ★
• Zinedine Zidane ★★★

I would love to add Hierro ★, Makélélé ★ and Redondo ★; alas, I only play them during my sleepless Championship Manager days.

All this to say that I’m very nervous about today.

. . .

P.S. ¡VAMOS!

The Blackwell Epiphany is ten years old today.

Oddly, the five Blackwell games have been in my head a lot for the past few years days, as I think over the idea of a game I would like to make. I’ve been thinking of maybe replaying them all for a third time, not only because time with Rosa and Joey is always an awesome idea, but because this time I’ll be particularly interested in Dave Gilbert's developer commentaries.

The backer code for Eiyuden Chronicle arrived last night. Not even an hour in, the music in the first town was so pretty it made me tear up a little; in part thinking of Murayama’s fate, but also remembering how happy and excited the Kickstarter announcement made me in the middle of a now-distant 2020.

They did it.

The weekend was cold, rainy, and awesome. One of the coolest parts was seeing Val participate in a localization jam for the first time ever. She worked on a game called Not Enough Time; a title that fit perfectly with how we rushed in the final minutes before the jam’s deadline, frantically debugging syntax problems to make the game load. A classic dev story, surely.

Jude’s celebration is in the game!

We may not have seen it in real life for a while, but I’m sure another streak will come soon. Bellinghamania will resume...

...hopefully Wednesday?

In Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising... something about those balloon reactions popping above the characters’ heads unlocked many memories for me. Memories of being fourteen years old, tinkering with RPG Maker 2003, and of being wide-eyed and dreaming big with the release of RPG Maker XP. I remembered making ugly sprites in a program called GraphicsGale, and falling in love with Suikoden II’s spritesheets way before playing the game itself.

It was a beautiful indoorsy birthday yesterday; rainy, foggy, and we only briefly went outside to get coffee. My favorite moment, though, is probably somewhere between playing Haven with Val and munching on the heart-shaped brownie she made.

I love her so much.

Watching the first Persona 3 movie somehow reminded me of the beautiful Diablo 2 adaptations I used to dream about as a kid, starring a moody paladin as the hero.

P.S. I kinda wish they’d kept that dim lighting in Reload's dorm.

What on earth...

Yoshitaka Murayama has passed away.

I can’t believe it’s been three years since that super funny video pitch for the Eiyuden Chronicle campaign; three years of reading his Development Report emails. For this to happen so close to the game’s release feels cruel, and unfair.

Rest in peace, Murayama-sensei.

First date on Persona 3 Reload’s calendar turned out to be my birthday! I missed the releases of Persona 3, Persona 3 FES and Persona 3 Portable, so this one truly feels like a gift to unwrap.

Having completed our search for a new apartment in the last days of a packed January, and with Val's birthday shining bright just around the corner, we decided to kick off February with a celebratory weekend getaway to the mountains!

...a comfy cabin in the mountains, of course.

I believe it was a super happy birthday! And now that we’re back, older and less stressed... I feel like we're ready to experience the real-life version of Unpacking.

It should not be surprising that Coffee Talk ended up being Val's first game purchase ever, nor that its soundtrack is on loop now.

It was heartbreaking to learn later that Mohammad Fahmi (real writer of those in-game short stories we loved and designer of the game itself) passed away in 2022. His tribute in A Space for the Unbound was very memorable for me... but I had no idea then...

We'll play What Comes After soon. And as of today, After Love EP is one of my most anticipated games.

Both Super Mario Bros. Wonder and Super Mario RPG have some of the most beautiful ending sequences I’ve seen lately; one incredibly joyful, and the other a bit more bittersweet

First RPG of the year!

It took me 23 years to get past its once-scary first scene, but now I get why the original Max Payne was such a favorite of Vic's during our childhood; why he got so into noir stories afterward, and why his first email was victorinoxpayne.

Lil’ Val just caught our dinner for tonight. She’s going places!

Baldur’s Gate 3 opened a door to a type of game I’ve been wanting to get into ever since I failed to make progress in Icewind Dale II as a kid, and Val's Christmas gift is the perfect totem to crown it as my favourite game of the year. The amount of RPGs I want to play now is definitely not a lake, but an ocean.

This promo image for an amusement park in Japan feels like a teaser for my life in February. Fingers crossed.

Bellinghamania is fully underway, and not since Zizou was appointed manager in 2016 have I been this excited about Real Madrid's future. I needed something from video games to carry me on this wave, but I was quickly reminded of a landscape that couldn’t be more horrifying:

1. PES is dead.
2. eFootball plays well, but the online mode it promotes is awful and boring. Master League is still missing in action.
3. Football Manager is too dangerous of a drug. I should stay away.
4. FIFA FC 24 is... uh... well... not super terrible, I guess. At least when combined with this Christmas miracle.

. . .

P.S. We got our first Christmas tree today, and it was as magical as Jude Bellingham himself:

Games spent enough time in my head for the creation of this blog to feel almost inevitable. Or maybe it has to do with the year ending?

In any case, here it is! I’m not entirely sure about what the goal of these scribbles is, but for now, I hope that someday it will be fun to look back at these thoughts and remember... just how breathtaking my first playthrough of Baldur’s Gate 3 was.