The Fashion of Shirobako
2023 August 05
Note: This is a cohost post ported over to this blog. May contain typo-fixes, but is otherwise unedited.
Kindest Plays is a monthly post series (starting with this one) where I talk about the video games I played during that month and potential video game hardware shenanigans I did in order.
Games marked with [FIRST PLAY] are just that. Those are games I am playing for the first time. This month I got a lot to say about The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak and a little to say about Ghostwire Tokyo.
Games marked with [REPLAY] are exactly as they say too. Those are games I've played before and decided to replay. This month I got some words for Shadow of the Colossus, Majora's Mask, and Goldeneye.
Sections marked with [HARDWARE] are sections related to video game hardware shenanigans I was getting involved with. This month I modded some N64 controllers and tried getting Wii-Motes to work with modern PC shooters.
[FIRST PLAY] The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak (PS5)
I took a week off of work for this game. I'm a huge Trails sicko and I am still working on that big post about the series. So I'll try to refrain a bit here, but this was a really cool entry. New game engine, larger ratio of new characters, new systems, new country (and therefore new environments) in Trails' fictional continent.
Part of the new battle system is the fact that there are two battle systems and you can switch between them seamlessly outside of boss fights. You have the turn-based queue system from previous Trails games with its own little twists that each arc brings to it. And then you have a new action combat system which is simple, but does have perfect dodges. It's a cool system for this type of game. You can just quickly destroy any weaker encounters you come across without needing to do a slow and unnecessary turn-based battle. Or, you can do enough hits to stun the enemy which grants you buffs and some preemptive turns in the queue. Alternatively, switch back to real time if the enemy just needs some quick hits to go down and continue on with your business quicker. It's added complexity for sure, but I'd call it added quality of life due to how much it seeds up the process and makes preemptive stuns something you have to work for by attacking and dodging good.
The cast is wonderful. I love Van and his children who refuse to listen to him. Also this is a good entry point to the series. The first arc, covering ten previous games, is over and this is the start of something new. There are some vague references, but my roommate who knew nothing about this series and caught large portions of my playthrough was thoroughly invested. Now is a good chance to get in if you've been curious. Especially with the remake of the first game in the Trails series, Trails in the Sky First Chapter, on the way. If you like this, you can easily start at the beginning with the remake if you time it right.
[REPLAY]: Shadow of the Colossus (PS4)
I needed to rest after spending most of a 12 day period playing Trails, I was still processing it and thinking about it days later. After watching someone play a bit of Shadow of the Colossus on stream, I decided I could play that and just let my thoughts and the vibes consume me as I wander as Wander.
Game is still very good. It's relaxing to wander the world and the moments of tension when you encounter a Colossus break you out of your meditative trance at exactly the right moments. It helped reset my brain coming off of the Trails high. I don't need therapy, I need to wander the world and take down huge Colossi to fix me.
[FIRST PLAY] Ghostwire Tokyo (PS5)
This video game is a video game. Before Tango Gameworks' hit Hi-Fi Rush, they released Ghostwire: Tokyo. Which is a spooky first person rpg set in Shibuya where you hunt ghosts, yokai, etc. It has a slow start, but as you gain abilities and encounter more enemy variety, it's fun. At first I thought the game was going to be too spooky for me. I was always tense with no real release of pressure at first, but there is a wicked cool option in the game settings. You can toggle an option to "decrease horror effects." And I could not really tell you what it did, it may have made the lighting more consistent and decreased the amount of weird noises and removed increasing tense musical stings, but I'd just be guessing (and with my quick online searches, no one has talked about this setting). But that settings is something that made me able to enjoy the game.
However if you were to ask me if I would I recommend it to anyone? Probably not. It's overall mid and after playing it for quite a few hours on a Saturday, I have no urge to boot it back up to finish. I might if I don't have other games I feel like playing, but that'll be quite a while from now. If you love horror games though, check it out.
[HARDWARE] N64 Controller Mods
I was messing with my N64s (yeah I have two for some reason) to see if they still worked last month and, while they did, they are clearly on the their last legs. So I ended up buying two 8Bitdo N64 Controller conversion kits. You replace the circuit board in an N64 controller with the one in the kit, optionally replace the analogue stick with the one in the kit (it is more similar to a GameCube analogue stick), and put the attachment into the controller port. This turns your controller into a rechargeable Bluetooth and/or USB-C Wired controller that includes a rumble pack. And the cool thing is it works on both PC as a generic controller and, with the flip of a switch on the attachment, the Switch can detect it as an N64 Classic Controller. It's a nice way to modernize old controllers I had laying around.
As an aside, if anyone wants N64 controller circuit boards for whatever reason, let me know? Would feel bad about recycling working boards.
[REPLAY] Majora's Mask (N64)
With my new controllers I wanted to replay some old classics. Majora's Mask is a game I used to 100% yearly. It's my favorite Zelda. The last time I played through it was years ago via the 3DS port. All this session did was made me miss a lot of the QoL that port added. I may try to run a MM hack that adds some of that QoL to the N64 game, but there sure is a lot of just waiting and menuing in the original that has not aged well for me. Was very cool to play on an original N64 controller again though. I still have the urge to play, but not in this form.
[REPLAY] Goldeneye (N64)
I've tried replaying Goldeneye in the past. It's kinda clunky on modern controllers, mapping controls in a way to get the twin stick aiming never quite felt good. I know the canceled 360 port was leaked and allegedly feels good, but I never got around to it. But with an N64 controller in hand, it took me a few seconds, and it felt good. It's wild how much cinematography is in this game. Having NPCs and partners talk at you in engine. Their dialogue sometimes changing depending on your health levels or whether you have weapons equipped. There is one encounter in statue park where if you have a weapon out during a meeting, you are asked to drop your weapons (unequip), except that literally does drop all your weapons except for the one you start with. But if you put your weapons away before that exchange starts, the NPC mocks MI6 for not being able to avoid you weapons, which means once the encounter ends you've secretly kept all the weapons you've picked up and can escape full guns blazing. It's still clunky and the end-game has some straight up rude missions going on with it. But weirdly, I want to keep going through the story mode. It's a classic for a reason.
[HARDWARE] Wii-Motes, Dolphin Bar, and Why Steam Sucks
I had a Mayflash Dolphin Bar for a while now which allows me to connect up to 4 Wiimotes to use with Dolphin complete with pointer controls. There are three other modes that the Dolphin Bar has though.
One mimics a keyboard and mouse setup (nunchuck stick on WASD and the IR pointer as the mouse. This worked for a couple of games I tested this with, but unfortunately the modern shooters I tried this with on Steam do not like this. It would accept the mouse inputs (IR camera, A as left click, B as right click), but not any of the keyboard mappings (left stick and all other buttons). I was not sure why this was the case, but after I tried the next mode and investigated, I found out Steam was the issue.
Another mode turns the wiimote into a generic controller with the IR pointer as the right stick. And this works for a variety of games I've tested, but only when Steam is not running. Steam hates this. Steam likes to detect and try to control any controller that it detects on the system and you are unable to blacklist controllers via Steam Input's UI. The problem is Steam sees that the dolphin bar can have up to 4 wiimotes and therefore thinks it is always 4 controllers and gets confused. Disabling Steam Input for specific games does not work because the Steam Client is still being weird about the controller. So I am unable to take the Wiimote into any "competitive" online shooters at this point in time. Apparently you could, at one point in time, blacklist controllers via Steam's config file if you open it up in a text editor before launching. This method no longer appears to work. If anyone has any other ideas, I'd love to hear them. I desire shenanigans.