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I'm not sure what else to do with this blog so I'm going to try disorganizedly using it as a gaming log thing for a bit. Gonna put my video game posts - both bigger review posts and little things - under the "serpent gaming" tag.

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One of my latest gaming projects is rolling through the Final Fantasy series.

It's cool! Having played 1 and 6 a few years ago, over the last half-year I've been working my way through the first seven games in the series (and a chunk of 14, the current MMO entry). Eventually I do want to play all of the mainline entries, so that puts this somewhere around the halfway mark. Going game-by-game, seeing how the mechanics and iconography of the series evolve and are reinterpreted over time is really compelling.

But 1 is maybe my favorite entry so far. (Though 5 might be better. Tough to say.) It's an NES RPG, so you've got to set expectations accordingly - the interface is awkward, as is often the case with non-action games on NES, and the game is more focused on providing a classic dungeon crawling experience than it is a dramatic storyline.

It rules, though. (Focus on the cool mind flayers in the above image instead of the character names I removed because I named the party after some friends and myself for a stream I was doing.)

FF1 is a game filled with consequential decisions. At the start you decide the makeup of your party, which drastically affects your approach to everything, and from early on you're deciding which party members and which gear to invest in, how to save resources for long treks (which leads to some difficult choices early on - especially when taking on the iconically dangerous marsh cave, the game's first dungeon), how to handle long-term character builds for your party's mages, who can only equip a limited number of spells. (Though it must be said that mages are a little too weak in this game; one of its more unfortunate balance issues.)

The big strength of the game is that it stays consistently interesting. A lot of games in this genre - even some of the stronger ones, which is why I'm generally more of a fan of action games - sometimes have a few too many filler fights that basically just feel like padding. FF1 strikes an excellent balance where your limited resources and the high level of danger of some enemy types - usually each dungeon has a few "red alert" enemies you've got to watch for - keep you continually engaged, with every fight being important, but without the game's difficulty level being overbearing. Furthermore, despite the general perception of RPGs, especially old ones, being grindy, slow-paced games, this game moves at a good clip, never slowing down and at no point ever requiring the player to stop forward progress in order to grind.

It's great as an adventure game, too. The world is fun to explore, and it's satisfying to figure out each point of progress, with just enough nonlinearity to give you choice on which objective to tackle next and to make the process of figuring out how to solve each town's problems fun.

The story is simplistic, but the worldbuilding is pretty strong, handled with a light and deft touch that makes coming to realizations about the game's setting fun - look above to see the "floating castle" you explore near the finale. But the game is more about the narrative that forms in your head over the course of your dungeon crawling adventures than it is about an overt storyline, as later games in the series move towards. (I've liked all of the first seven Final Fantasy games but I do think the series loses something as you go further down the line and get further away from the tense dungeon-crawling fundamentals.)

I'd be remiss to post about Final Fantasy and not mention the music (which, from the games I've played, seems to get better and better as the series' famous former lead composer Nobuo Uematsu develops his skill over time). Matoya's Cave is of course a classic, and the version used in the later pixel remaster release is excellent too.) Other highlights include Town, the first of the series' heart-tugging town themes, and the mysterious, winding Mt. Gulg.

It is worth saying that the later releases of the game aren't as good as the original. The strength of the original is its tautness and, despite some oversights, the deliberate nature of its design, making resource management and decision-making important - but later versions of the game, such as the GBA or pixel remaster versions, defang the difficulty so severely that they become a little too automatic. Since the game doesn't have much in the way of an overt narrative, you aren't left with much if you take out the excitement of taking on dungeons, which is what makes your planning and character-building meaningful, on top of later releases adding endlessly refillable magic and removing the original version's strict inventory limits. Consider those releases like "digest" versions, and, if you find yourself interested in the game, look to the original NES version.

FF1 is one of the cooler RPGs I've played, and it has a particular appeal that even its immediate sequels on NES don't recapture - though they, and the SNES and PS1 entries, have their own unique values that I may have to post about as well. It has a different approach compared to what later RPGs go for, but I think its focus on making a genuine story of struggle and adventure in the player's heart makes for a longer-lasting impression, and it has to be said that the game is more easily accessible than you might expect for an old genre entry - so I'd recommend it to any open-minded RPG fan.

Anyway, here's Badman.

#serpent gaming #final fantasy #ff1 #nes

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It is imperative that you assemble a collection of tumblr mutuals who are vocal about their deeply specific, highly involved kinks that you don’t share at all. If you humble yourself with the diversity of the human experience enough you can become inoculated against reactionary puritanism permanently

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Laois feels like he is in some very specific porn-logic universe. It’s the culinary equivalent of “the only way to advance through this dungeon and saved your loved one is to have really specific weird sex you’ve always been curious about,” and he’s like “AWW TWIST MY ARM” with his dick fully out

#dungeon meshi #delicious in dungeon #maybe the best manga...

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Twitter: マグマミキサー涼森(原稿)‏ / @suzumori_521

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Sekiro is a hard game for sure. A lot of it is just a matter of learning each enemy's rhythm so you can get parries down, and using your tools and items when appropriate (the ashes and fireworks can be good for stunning enemies to give you a moment to recover or get extra hits in) but it can be demanding nonetheless.

I like Sekiro, but one thing I think is worth mentioning is that it is the hardest of the From games I've played (Demon's Souls and the three Dark Souls games) by a decent margin. If you just want to play their stuff, the easiest starting point would be Demon's Souls, but that game isn't on as many platforms so it might not be as easy to get into - otherwise, Dark Souls 1 is the next-easiest, and I'd say it's the best game they've made, so it's definitely worth checking out. Still not outright easy but it's easier (and, I think, more interesting) than Sekiro.

I really want to play sekiro, but god. It’s so hard. It’s just so frustrating. I’m at the point where I have to kill the spear guy to get the flame vent to kill the chained ogre, which is the first boss.

I know “get good” is supposed to be the main idea of fromsoft games, but it’s just so annoying. I like the concept of fromsoft games and soulsbornes and all that, I think they’re really cool.

But if I can’t play sekiro, what am I gonna do if I get Elden ring? Or how am I gonna play bloodborne? Or Dark Souls 1?

Honestly, it’s gotten to the point where I ask that I’m good enough to play these games. lol.

If anyone could give me tips for fromsoft games, it’d be very helpful, lol.

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ough i don't know whether to be having a bad time or a delight over neo-gothic so far

the uh. "four levels, rumor is five, but i don't believe it" thing hit a bit close for me, esp in conjunction with the secondary plot being a political figure campaigning to seal away the undercity once and for all

the indeterminate growth thing was a nice touch tho

#oh i've really got to go through this... the first few issues of that storyline were really cool

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i’m back on my nonsense again. what started as warmup sketches resulted in an attempt at style dupe

#batman beyond

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Concept art from a pitched Batman Beyond animated feature film — From Writer/Director Patrick Harpin (My Dad the Bounty Hunter) & Production Designer/Producer Yuhki Demers (Into the Spider-Verse, Across the Spider-Verse)

#batman beyond #inque!!

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expandable list of my favourite dialogue tags/descriptors

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Very much so! I'd say even the original Resident Evil is an excellent game that's still worth playing, though the remake is easier to buy these days. Tank controls feel weird at first, but they aren't very different from how the original RE4 controls, and once you spend time with RE1, you can see that the game wouldn't have worked without them. They're a pretty simple control scheme, so even though they take a minute to get used to, they aren't hard to use once you have.

The classic Resident Evil games do have autoaim! The games aren't so much about the shooting as they are resource management and routing, so the combat is pretty simple; just press the aim button and you'll lock on to the nearest enemy.

Is the remake of resident evil 1 worth playing? I’m weirded out by the classic camera angles and the tank controls. I’m more familiar with re 4’s over the shoulder perspective.

Also, how do you see if you shoot someone? There’s no reticle, unless it has auto aim, which would be nice because I suck at aiming in games, lol.

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Red XIII, Cosmo Canyon's finest!

#final fantasy vii #final fantasy #red xiii

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Some casual Red XIII sketches. Morning routine - stretch, get some reps in, and brood.

#final fantasy vii #final fantasy #red xiii #now that i've finished my first playthrough of original ff7 it's time to look up red xiii fanart

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Chuck Jones is the best counterexample to “the curtains are just blue” because you would not believe the amount of thought and art theory he put into his silly little cartoons

#wile e coyote #godposting

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✨ Writing slowly does not make your a bad writer.

✨ Needing to do a lot of editing on your writing does not make you a bad writer.

✨ People expressing dislike of the themes and ideas in your writing does not make you a bad writer.

✨ Writing about ideas that have been written about before does not make you a bad writer.

✨ It's okay to take it slow. It's okay to need to edit a lot. It's okay if some people don't like your themes or ideas. It's okay if your work is not completely "original"-- no one's is.

✨ Don't let yourself or other people discourage you from writing.

✨ Don't give up on your writing!

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after 3 yrs i finally tried to design a rito oc 🦩 🦩 🦩

#rito #the legend of zelda #ohh this is really good... #perfect colors and shapes #handsome bird