It’s (Almost) Monday ! ~ Pixel
We all have preferences when it comes to gaming, it can be about the theme, the type and also the graphics. I do believe that it’s partly related to our history with gaming and how we were introduced to it.
Me, Myself and Games
My very first contact with video game was when I was around 5, my father bought a commodore 64 (I think), we would spend hours typing the code and recording it on tape, only to find out that there was an error in the code. Where ? We, of course, had no idea. I remember having played a skiing game (thanks YouTube) and that’s about it (I was 5, what did you expect ?).
My mother never liked anything intruding with the TV, so of course the commodore mysteriously disappeared and we wouldn’t get any new console before the NES, once more bought by my father when I was 8. We played Super Mario, Duck Hunt and a few others before, again, my mother wouldn’t allow me to use it because precious TV was precious.
So I traded my NES with a few games against a Game Boy first generation (the grey one.. Which STILL works) with 11 games. Had a lot of fun with Metroid 2, Tetris, Zelda Awakening and a few others which came with the console. From time to time, my mother would decide that I was playing too much (which wasn’t even true) and would confiscate it from me. Always with Tetris mind you. Only to play with it because she liked that game.
My introduction to 3D graphics was with the Playstation.. Of course, it had to be with Aerith death scene, because why not adding a good spoiler to the deal, right ? I played FF7, FF8, FF9 and then bought Valkyrie Profile and began to learn English, as the game wouldn’t be released in France before long and I really wanted to play that specific game (which is still my favorite to this day).
I bought a PS2 only to play at Kingdom Heart, and of course continued to learn English over time, got a Game Cube and 2 very rares games : The limited special edition of Ocarina of time + Ocarina Advanced + Majora mask + Zelda 1 + Zelda 2 in one box (you could only get it with a LOT of points in a Nintendo website at the time), as well as Zelda Twilight Princess.
Switched to computer with Neverwinter Nights, discovered “MMORPG” with it as you could join private servers still at the time, switched for Lineage II and met my partner who was DM on our private server at the time (hey it’s been 12 years now !).
Since then I tried a lot of other MMORPG, settled with my partner (we celebrate our 11th years in 5 days), also for FFXIV and now am trying a lot of different games on Steam.
Did you skip all this to get to the PIXEL topic ?
3D, Pixel & everything in between
If you read a little above, you now know that I went through the worst part of the 3D attempts and poor translations (FF7 is considered as one of the worst French translation existing when it comes to video game. They even translated Cloud into Clad), so I have a thing for pixel games. I also have a thing for them because I’m a pixel artist and I can’t deny that working on pixel arts from time to time (as it honestly takes forever to do what you want when you’re not a professional artist) create a bias, and I really like pixel games as much as I like good 3D games.
Nowadays there are so many in between, Pixel / 3D hybrids, low poly mix and everything is possible. Embracing it all allows to enjoy so many things.. Even though I have my limits like everybody else. I mean.. I can’t play 3D games looking like FF7 anymore.
Themes & Types vs Pixel ?
Now it also depends on the theme and the type of game. I wouldn’t be able to picture Dragon Age Pixel Art edition for example ,) !
But here are a few Pixel games you may want to give a chance, even though you may associate Pixel art to RPG maker games, old school or retro !
- Stardew Valley
Cute - RPG - Simulation - Relaxing - Building
- The Last Door - Collector's Edition
Point & Click - Mystery - Puzzle - Story Rich
- The Last Door: Season 2 - Collector's Edition
Point & Click - Mystery - Puzzle - Story Rich
- Moonlighter
RPG - Action - Dungeon Crawler - Rogue-like
- OCTOPATH TRAVELER™
JRPG - Story Rich - Turn Based - Choice Matter
- Anodyne
Adventure - Action RPG - Exploration - Retro
- Terraria
Sandbox - Survival - Exploration - Adventure
- I fell from Grace
Adventure - Dark - Choice Matter - Gore - Violent
- A Short Hike
Exploration - Cute - Funny - Relaxing - Casual
- Songbird Symphony
Cute - Exploration - Puzzle-Platformer
- Dead Cells
Rogue-like - Procedural Generation - Metroidvania
- Disgaea PC
Strategy - Turn-Based - Story Rich - Funny
- The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth
Rogue-Like - Dungeon Crawler - Gore - Action
- Undertale
Story Rich - Choice Matter - Funny - Multiple Endings
- Graveyard Keeper
Sandbox - Management - Story Rich - Dark Humor
All that to say.. Give a chance to Pixel, you may be surprised and with the mix of everything nowadays, you may even find some looking better than 3D video games ♥
What is your favorite Type of game ? Theme ? Graphics ? Is there is something that instantly gets you noping out of a game, or instantly close its preview ?
Many thanks to Trent & Ninglor03 for giving me the idea for this week’s theme ,) !
Heh, I was wondering if our conversation had anything to do with this topic. Well, copy/pasting here, I don’t tend to like pixel art games because “when I was little, that was how all games looked (if they weren’t just text), and I always wanted them to look more realistic. So now that they are / can be, I don’t typically like to go back to those days!” There are exceptions, of course. I’ve played a few pixel platformers (140 and Thomas Was Alone), I played To the Moon / A Bird’s Story / Finding Paradise. If I had infinite time, I’d play and probably enjoy Stardew Valley and Terraria. And I recently picked up A Short Hike for my kids, but I would enjoy it too, I think. Oh and I played The Order of the Thorne and probably have a few other pixel art point-and-click games in my backlog. I’ve also heard Owlboy is a great example of a pixel art game.
Oh, and as to the rest of the question…I ‘nope’ out of almost anything with an anime art style (especially if it has “anime boobs”, although I can handle some “western anime” art style), brawlers, multi-player arena games, tower defense, sports, war games, and I’m sure others.
YES ! Actually I began to write it before you answered to the previous topic so I thought that it might as well be another sort of answer. I thank you for giving me this idea, I’m like everybody sometimes my mind go blank (and sometimes I just forgot the idea I had.. Which was pretty much what happened this week, you guys saved the day !)
I didn’t play 140, the name always was oblivious to me and I don’t know, the first picture of the game doesn’t attract me ? It doesn’t press me to have a look of what it actually is ? HEY ! WE FOUND MY FIRST NOPE ! Ugly / unattractive “poster” of the game.
We’re about the same thing when it comes to nope out, though I love VN so anime style isn’t a nope for me, unless it’s obvious that the goal is to see them naked. I played a MMO PVP for really long (Lineage II) but what I disliked the most was how people would just insult each other over nothing.
I like the way it is on FFXIV, at least for the ranked PVP: There are pre-made sentences you can use to speak with people (hello - well played - Attack healer - Stop melee DPS) but you cannot write anything in party, it avoids bad attitude which is amazing and allows me to enjoy PVP again without stress.
I added “The Order of the Thorne” in my wishlist and should really play Owlboy which I have since a while in my library, thank you ♥ !
PS: You have something waiting on your Steam Messages ♥
Ahahahaha, ups! Didn’t mean to trigger that. But it’s funny to read Trent’s just like me on that front <3
I think we might have had a comodore? Bc I know we had some kinda console, before there even was the gameboy. Which both my bro and I btw got when I was 8 (he 11) and we moved back to Germany. And yeah, after that gameboy colour, Zelda games, Mario Games, Harvest Moon - which I STILL play! Well not the old ones, bc I only ever borrowed that one. But I have pretty much all off them. Which leads me to: Stardew Valley! So you see, you can totally get me playing pixel games. Just make it a Harvest Moon game and I will fall for it.
And as I said: I grew up with Monkey Island - that was before I was 8. I never ever managed to get anywhere, so I always tried by loading the saves from older family members. Still, never managed to finish it. So that haunted me for a few years until I was old enough and finally managed it \o/
Games that make me turn around? Sport games. Sport games are even worse then pixel games - and they already make me close tabs. But I won’t even open said tabs with sport games. So now you now the ultimate thing to scare me off: Get a pixely sport game! :D
By the way I just love how you met your partner and you’re still with them <3
Never worked out for me. And I dare say I had a couple of gaming romances. Oh well. Guess I’d have to start playing MMOS for that again :D
You didn’t trigger anything, you SAVED THE DAY ! Thanks to you I could write something as I forgot what I wanted to write about. Shame on me. Usually I write down stuff but not this time. Hum.
ANYWAY, I heard a lot of good about Monkey Island but never got to play it because even me make the difference between pretty pixel and old “we’re trying to get out of the pixel but in the end the rendering is awful” and you cannot say it aged as well as Chrono Trigger for example.
I don’t know enough about Harvest Moon to say it would be something I like. Is it similar to Stardew Valley ?
Regarding my partner, I think I may copy / paste something I wrote 2 years ago on my Dumblr account for the anniversary. It’s not easy to keep a good relationship, no matter where you meet your partner, if someone told you that it was because you met them in a game, tell them that a lot of people meet that way or through other media meant to help communication between people.
Out of curiosity, which MMO did you play :) ?
Nin, savior of the day! I like that :D
See, that’s why I always start my weekly update as soon as I have something to write - which reminds me, I still have to write those reviews. Tomorrow I guess :]
Yeah, no. The remakes… I don’t like them. But the first was the best anyway. Although by now I’m just over it I guess. But then again I’m not that much into Point&Click anymore anyway. Maaaaaaan, I sure turned into a picky gamer….
Uh. Yeah. Basically like Stardew Valley, although it was the start - I think? And I also think they are better. And they where for the gameboy and obv now for the DS and stuff. Gosh, the gold old harvesting times… sigh
That’s very true indeed. But meeting them via game you at least already know you’ve got something in common, so that’s nice :]
Uh. Well, I started out with WoW - thanks, my dear brother for getting me hooked up on that. And I might have spent lots of money and years in that. Also Lotro, bc… it’s Middle Earth and Lotr! Yeah, and then Swtor. Oh right and a bit of Guildwars 2. I’ve played more, but those four are basically the ones I have fondest memories off and sometimes feel tempted to go back to. Although I’m by now mostly cured from WoW - haha, that one was funny. Bc every now and then I totally forget how bored I get by the game if I don’t start raiding again, which I hated at the end bc of schedules and blaaaaa. Lotro I only ever not disliked is basically bc it’s Lord of the Rings and nothing more - so I can’t really say I’m that much in love with it. Where as Swtor… Swtor is a totally different league and I think this might actually be the one I’d be most easy to fall for. Ugh god, only writing about it, makes me miss it ;(
Ok, nope. I’m done! No more MMOs for me! I shall be totally happy and contend with single player games and the occasional mp game. That’s it! I promise!
So you’re ever tempted to go back to Lineage II?
No, I’m not tempted to return to Lineage II, I stopped the day moderators praised the bot users to have reached the max level. They knew they were botting, they would just not stop them because they were also those using the most the cash shop. That was the hard stop.
I also played LOTRO from some time, guardian who wasn’t built as expected, who didn’t have a lot of HP, who didn’t use the same armor as the other and thus had a hard time to get into the raiding community. I got taken out of pity as off tank, except that I was built STR/CON, so I had low HP, but I wasn’t taking damages, was healing myself, was interrupting and never losing the aggro. Then I had to pretend I was AFK to actually do stuff beside raiding.
I played Tera after I stopped Lineage II for good. Which manages to be more boring than Lineage II, who would have know !
I stopped Tera the DAY I stumbled into FFXIV 2.0 announce, began to play during the beta and never stopped.
I have to add that my partner tested the games at the same time as I was, we were playing a duo healer / tank to level our first character or class, we still do, it’s fun to play together. Speaking of which, knowing you like to game together it’s indeed a great thing, if someone tells you something against meeting someone in game, you can retort that it’s indeed super cool to know that you have something in common IRL, like, working on the same place or liking to dance and drink. Better than gaming for discussing and knowing better each other. Totally. ,)
That sounds pretty efficient for a tank. Good job ^^
I played as a bard. Not bc I liked healing, but bc it was fun. Also I mostly played just for myself… oh right. I had a few friends for a while who took me along into dungeons, but never really anything big. Never really was interested in that aspect of the game with Lotro.
Gosh, I loved tanking. Right, what did I say about beeing cured from WoW? I wanna TANK! In WoW. Or Swtor. Or… dammit! I’m not doing this.
Can we change the topic? :D
That is very true.
I once had a discussion with a neighbour - who obv didn’t and doesn’t understand the concept of online playing. She was complaining about a friend of hers who went off to play games with friends online instead of hanging out - which ofc would be rude. But I suggested that she maybe had a date and was expected to turn up. She just couldn’t understand why that would be in any way important and why you’d do that. And anyway why online ppl are important at all. I got rly angry at the end, bc at some point I always feel like ppl are going against me as well if they say stuff like that. And that sucks. And is stupid. And it hurts. I mean, I’ve met my best friend online. Maybe not through gaming but writing, but still. It’s the same idea in the end. I just don’t get, why somebody would think that friends irl are more important then ppl you meet online and feel close to and like hanging out with. Just bc you don’t go of an party with them or have a drink or what ever, that doesn’t make them any less friends.
Sry for ranting hide
Is there is something that instantly gets you noping out of a game, or instantly close its preview ?
There are two things that while they might not instantly make me close a preview, are things that I tend to really dislike.
The first one being early 3D game looking games, which I did not even like back when they were new. I would refer to FF7 as “that block-hands game” or things to that effect, because I found it hideous. Granted, when FF7 was released, I was already playing Quake, and Quake had far more impressive 3D models… I had a SNES growing up and I just could not stand the look of games like Stunt Race FX or Starwing/Star Fox. I did not get why people praised these games, when you had beautiful pixel art like Super Metroid, Yoshi’s Island and so on.
The second one is intentionally pixel-looking pixel art. I tend to really like pixel art like that of Owlboy, Shovel Knight and so on. But character art like this… That’s I really don’t like.
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What ? You’re telling me you don’t think that Squall is the best looking guy around ?
What do you think of Minecraft ? Is it the same problem as sword and sworcery for you ?
I don’t really mind the Minecraft look actually. It looks consistent and like it knew what it was going for. I would not say that I think Minecraft looks great or anything, just that I don’t mind the way it looks.
2 very rares games : The limited special edition of Ocarina of time + Ocarina Advanced + Majora mask + Zelda 1 + Zelda 2 in one box (you could only get it with a LOT of points in a Nintendo website at the time), as well as Zelda Twilight Princess.
I thought that only Ocarina of Time: Master Quest (which is a different disc than the compilation with Majora’s Mask and the two NES games) and specifically the Japanese version of Twilight Princess on Gamecube were considered rare. Other versions of Twilight Princess on Gamecube, as well as the 4-game compilation disc, aren’t considered rare.
(you could only get it with a LOT of points in a Nintendo website at the time)
Not everywhere, though:
“In North America, it was bundled with the Nintendo GameCube. The collection could also be obtained by subscribing or renewing a subscription to Nintendo Power,”
https://zelda.gamepedia.com/The_Legend_of_Zelda:_Collector%27s_Edition
I never realized it was distributed differently in different regions. Maybe only the European version is considered rare?
Probably a regional thing, because all those I have are either in French when they already had been translated in the past or in English, which mean they made a specific batch for France to wok on the console with the appropriate language.
I know that max 10k French version of Twilight Princess were released on Game Cube. It’s complicated to get the actual numbers (most of time people speak of 5k copies only, I was told 10k at the time and it was long ago). I know the shops only had 2 or 3 copies of it maximum, no matter the amount they would have requested.
The limited Zelda Collector was, at the time, difficult to get as you had to be part of the Nintendo Club and get 4500 stars, only 7000 copies were released which can be considered as being rare.. I think ?
So yes, indeed, if you consider the NA version and English version in general, it’s always less rare as the language is considered as being less common. Now most of games are translated in French in Europe and there will be less copies given for France and their price is still ridiculously high. While looking for the French collector version of Zelda GC, I only found one for sale for over $80 and it was a used condition one.
my mother would decide that I was playing too much (which wasn’t even true) and would confiscate it from me. Always with Tetris mind you. Only to play with it because she liked that game.
Haha, I suspected that she just wanted to play some Tetris herself :D In her defence, Tetris was a pretty damn great game in that time period. I had a hand-held thingy with Tetris on it, played the hell out of it back then :)
Speaking of poor translations and how (if) they affect you, it made me realize that I play games almost entirely in english, even the games that come with Czech localization because back when I was introduced to gaming (was like 15 y/o at that time), the czech translations were notoriously terrible. Full of egregious grammatical errors and downright badly translated parts and being a bit of a grammar nazi, that drove me fucking insane :D On the plus side, my english keept getting better and better as a result.
I’d like to say that czech translations have since improved but… not by much to be honest :D
And finally, personally I find pixel graphic very appealing. There’s plenty of games that have pixel graphic just because the devs were too lazy or too incompetent to create anything else and it really shows, but there’s also lots of great games where the devs skillfully used pixel graphic to create something beautiful and/or atmospheric. You can do wonders with pixels if you know what you’re doing :)
All in all, I never liked super-realistic graphic in games. For me, it somehow breaks the immersion rather than create it and stylized graphic just looks so much better to me :)
I play only in English now too, and to be honest, I have no idea what FFVII is about in the end. The translation was so bad that things didn’t make much sense and time passing, I simply forgot most of it.. Which is for the best, mind you ! While I remember the graphic event, I don’t remember the story itself, so playing it soon with proper graphics will be super cool !
There is only a sort of game which HAS to be pretty 3D kinda “realistic”, it’s MMORPG, I cannot immerse and roleplay on Pixel characters. Sorry Pixel, love you otherwise ^^” !
I love pixel games a lot. They make me feel nostalgic and they are usually different and interesting. I added a lot of games you mentioned to my wishlist!
OMG! I’m only reading now the past messages I missed (at 5am and on my phone as I can’t sleep, my brain’s logic is flawless) and I feel so humbled that you liked a part of my selection i_i !
This comment was deleted over 4 years ago.
I did not skip to the pixel bit. I grew up with a bunch of consoles. I had the ps ps2 and ps3 even a ps4 for a couple of days. I also had all the xboxs though original 360 and one. Then i had the handholds like the psp ds, 3ds. Even though I know my first real experiences growing up was the playstation it wasnt until my step dad that i got into gaming like shooters. Its why when i think back to my 1st gamig experiences I think of gears of war. I looked back on my achievements and those games I wouldnt even touch anymore.
1 reason i brought uo all my consoles is plain and simple they arent my thing anymore. Once i got into pc gaming I found out about the visual novels. I didnt mind reading brfore but as soon as i found out about that i got into a craze. There are just so many amazing stories out there and so many bad but unlike playing a bad game its kinda funny seeing how horrible they are! Thats why it may not be a game but visual novels have to be my favourite genre right now. Plus since getting into the pc side im finally getting to play the well loved games like borderlands and bioshock stuff I wouldnt consider buying on the xbox.
Here is a partly pixelated free VN just for you ! You probably already played it though ^^ !
Lynne
Also here is another free VN, when I saw it I thought of you ,) !
DoraKone
Actually no lynne is on my abc list so ill be playing that soon and apparently i had dorakone installed so guess ill play them both. Since you suggested those ill try to do them as early as possible
Oh and as trent just reminded me. I nope out of horrors. If it weren’t for the fact i really wanted to know how good bioshock was i wouldnt have gone near it. Im okay with them in like ib, mad father art type since its not jumpscare horror but yeah nope for that. I do also typically stay away from sports and fighters however ive been getting into the anime style ones with blazblue so its more of just the side scrolling fighters now
Lynne isn’t too long, it’s a nice little kinetic story though :) ! Take your time, play when your mind is good for it, it’s the best way to appreciate a game, but it’s true that I thought of you instantly seeing DoraKone, you’re now forever associated to Visual Novel for me. Did you see the new Indie Gala bundle by the way ?
I don’t like sport game and there is only one type of “horror” game I like, it’s more dark and stuff than zombie jumping on your face every 3 seconds and jump scare stuff. I admit I had a few jump scare on The Last Door, but the pixel art style soothed the effect and I didn’t have any nightmare of pixel crows appearing out of nowhere for example ^^ !
Yes i saw the latest bundle out from them and i owned the games. I want the dlc but not worth the price
There were a lot of visual novel bundles lately in indiegala, sexy ones mostly lol.