My Recency Bias

There are a few creative projects that I am looking forward to with unbelievable anticipation whenever they arrive: The Batman Sequel, Beyond the Spider-verse, and of course, The One Piece. The One Piece, or the One Piece remake, while it’s being advertised with a small scope and scale, has the potential to be one of the best adaptations in the history of the medium, and that is only slightly hyperbolic. This project has a lot of good going for it, like the strength of One Piece as a source material, the studio behind the production, and most importantly, time. I do have concerns about the project and some of its goals, but I seriously think this project has so much going for it, and I want to talk about why.   Really, this all boils down to time. Time is a factor with many layers in the equation: This being the right time to release a One Piece remake, the time Wit Studio can take to work on the remake, and the time cadence at which the remake project can be released. So, let’...

Part 1: The Introduction I am a big fan of mirrored comparison, because I think it is a good measure of growth for anything, especially a creative work made by the same team/studio. This isn’t a discussion to kick anyone, but by highlighting why two similar things can leave such different impacts on someone, a work is better understood and can be more deeply learned from. Does that make sense? Okay, with all that being said, all I could think about during the campaign was how much better this entire package is over Vanilla Destiny 2 and how far we truly have come in the 7 years that Destiny 2 has been active.   The part of the campaign that got make on this line of thinking was simply the funny thought “If I had a nickel for every time the Vanguard had to team up to fight a tall pale alien with a mask that conceals their face that was threatening to destroy the world while trying to harness the Travelers light, I’d have 2 nickels, which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it hap...

                                                               Part 1: The Beginning   I tried writing this review before the raid and the final story mission came out and I just couldn’t do it. It didn’t feel right, and the vibes were off to say the least. To say more, it felt like reviewing Lord of the Rings: Return of the King after the big 2 nd act battle, when our group of heroes are talking about next steps to confront Sauron, and if you review it at that point, even though everything you’ve seen has been great so far, there’s a feeling of incompleteness that comes both from the creative work and the review. All that nonsense out of the way, Destiny 2: The Final Shape is exact...

It’s difficult to quantify that often ineffable reason of why something connects with you, but by discerning and analyzing the mechanisms of how it happens is a good place to start. Like with most things I enjoy, it falls back on the tone, the world, and the characters. But before that, I think the structure of One Piece is interesting as well, because of how it circumvents its seemingly baked in issues from very early on.   When I watch Dr Stone, I see from frame one the trajectory of the show, being that the smartest high schooler in the world has to rebuild modern society with someone else’s two hands. Every part of the story is focused on either gathering supplies to rebuild society, or warring against people who wish to stop that from happening. Everything is in the service of that central goal. So, a layman might rightfully ask, “Are you telling me that One piece has 1,111 chapters and they STILL haven’t found the treasure?” It’s a fair thing to ask in good faith, and my ...

Game of the Year 2023   What better way to get into 2024 than to recap 2023, just like everyone else. I have always appreciated not only the brand new game releases that shape the discussion online throughout the current year, but also those past game releases that you finally play, and it just blows you away and almost changes your entire DNA as a capital G Gamer. So, I want my own personal Game of the Year list to reflect that. Without further ado, here is my top 10 games that I played in 2023.   10. Yakuza 0 I always heard great things, and between following the @YakuzaFriday account for years on Twitter and loving Yakuza: Like a Dragon, I knew I had to at least give it a shot. What I got out of the experience was something as equally fun, detailed, and endearing as Y: LaD, all framed around all these characters that I heard about for years but had never been formally introduced to. Kiryu and Majima’s intersecting story had many endearing twists that made their in...

  Part 1: Intro Just as I was reconsidering my Game of the Year list after playing Super Mario Bros. Wonder, Alan Wake 2 hits the entire list like an earthquake and plants down its flag right at the top of an already stacked list, during an incredibly stacked year. I could say that “Alan Wake 2 feels like *this movie director* or *this author* made a videogame”, but to do that would be a disservice to the folks at Remedy Entertainment, who’s only real point of comparison is their previous work, since no one is really doing what Remedy does at Remedy’s level of quality. Alan Wake 2, with its narrative complexity, gorgeous environment design, seamless inclusion of live action sequences, and thrilling gameplay, feels like a final form for how Remedy makes games. If it wasn’t already obvious, I was blown away by Alan Wake 2, and I’d like to explain why.   But first, a brief recap… The first Alan Wake ends with Alan trapped in the Dark Place, sacrificing himself to save his w...