Patron Update: A Year End Extravaganza

Howdy everyone!

It's been far too long since I've done an update, so with the new year upon us, I figured it'd be fun to reflect on my channel's year, video by video. Before that, I just want to say the usual thank you for your continued support of my channel. Your help is what makes years like this possible, I won't ever take it for granted. Lost Odyssey was my last channel video of the year, but I think I may release a Patreon bonus video or two before the Christmas Holidays begin (at which point, I PROMISE I will really take a break)!

Video 1 - Yakuza 5

Let me begin by saying that I'm still proud of everything I've made, so if I come across as a little self-deprecating, it's because I'm my own harshest critic, you know? Well, other than that time there was a 4chan thread about me, but there's a distinction between critic and heckler. I felt that the Yakuza 5 video was a monumental undertaking in terms of writing & editing. I spent many long hours trying to figure out how I would approach all of the many (MANY) components of the game. The response to the video was largely positive, and I still get people telling me it's how they discovered my channel. That surprises me because it was somewhat "detached" from what I'd usually done at the time. I'm not sure why I decided to only review the 5th game in the series, but I don't regret doing it. Still, after it released, I felt as though something needed to change. With a few exceptions, I felt like I'd been abiding by a very strict method when it came to making videos, and that reached it's logical conclusion with the Yakuza 5 video. The format I'd been abiding by had been set in stone, so I knew that I needed to start challenging myself to not only become a better writer, but also free myself of my own self-imposed constraints when it came to content creation.

Video 2 - Skies of Arcadia

With that said, I decided to take a stab at something a little different with Skies of Arcadia. Instead of trying to reach an arbitrary video length, I went where my heart took me. In this case, that involved opening the video up with a "mini-documentary" style look at the history of the game, it's creator, Rieko Kodama, and everything leading up to release. I found myself absolutely loving the process of researching the development, and to this day, it's become a mainstay of every video I make. There's something incredibly valuable about digging up these old interviews, uncovering context that frames your experience with a game in a totally different light. Aside from that, the video is broken into two pieces. The first of which is a more "classic" style of review, talking about the plot, the graphics, and the gameplay in their own sections. The second part of the video talks about the game in a more holistic sense, going over particularities that I found fun, or added to my experience. As an aside, Skies of Arcadia is my favorite game that I've played for the channel this year. I yearn for a return to the Seven Skies... someday.

Video 3 - I Played Every RPG on the 3DO

This one was a hail Mary. That research component I loved so much about Skies of Arcadia was cranked up to 11 here. This was a true deep dive, having to purchase magazines to uncover interviews, using translation apps, digging up articles from 20 years ago. The result was a video that's still one of my personal favorite that I've made. I was really surprised by the traction the video found, given what a niche topic it is. But it turns out that a lot of people were just as curious as I was! It was a blast to uncover these nearly-forgotten artifacts of game history, many of which still drive my curiosity. What the fuck is going on in Dragon Tycoon Edge? Maybe it's better to not know. The video was also a blast to make, and I hope to make another "grab bag" style video like this soon.

Video 4 - Koudelka & Shadow Hearts

Another weird decision, putting both of these games in the same video. I'd seen that a fair amount of very intelligent YouTubers had already made a Koudelka video. I figured the best angle to approach this from would be one of comparison. Two games from the same company with vastly different circumstances surrounding their development - what shared DNA do they have? It amounted to two reviews that were shorter than what I usually do, but I think the writing (with Koudelka in particular) was a bit tighter than a lot of my videos, which I'm happy with.

Video 5 - Zelda CD-i

In light of the 3DO video doing well, I really wanted to explore something that's piqued my curiosity for years - the Phillips CD-i. My first thought was a "I Played Every RPG on the CD-i" video... but lo-and-behold, there are NO RPGs for the CD-i. In fact, as far as the "weird consoles nobody ever owned" go, the 3DO is an anomaly in how many RPGs it has. So I decided on something a bit different. In a world full of hyper-exaggerated anger over the Zelda CD-i games, perhaps I could take a more measured look? Also, not a lot of people had talked about Zelda's Adventure, and I genuinely wanted to know more about it. One thing that's always a struggle while editing is finding the right photos or b-roll footage to have while talking about certain aspects of a game. Lots of YouTuber's circumvent this by having themselves on camera during those topics. I wanted to try this, but I also wanted to make things a bit more visually interesting to show that I still cared about the quality of my videos. My girlfriend made me an awesome King Harkinian costume, and I incorporated it into the video as a bit of an experiment. It was a fun video to make, and I think it's healthy to have at least a *little* positivity on the internet over these games that almost nobody has played.

Video 6 - Golden Sun

To be totally candid with you, I'm still not entirely sure how I feel about this video. That's at least in part because I'm not entirely sure how I feel about Golden Sun. There are a lot of things I appreciate about the game, but the overall simplicity with which the story was told disappointed me. I would have liked to synthesize my opinions down into a more concrete form, and hopefully that can be amended when I take on The Lost Age (someday). I put my best foot forward in everything I do, and that includes this video, but I often think about how the result could have been improved.

Video 7 - Shadow Hearts: Covenant

This video was a struggle to write. Not because the game is overly complex or anything, but because of the cirumstances in which I wrote it. I wrote about half of the video before going on a week long road trip during the summer. When I came back, I found that my thoughts were very scattered. In addition, I also came down with an illness that turned into a sinus infection, affecting my writing negatively for weeks. I've never re-read and edited a script as much as I did with this one. By the time I was done, I had literally no idea how the video would be recieved which made me very nervous. I always have cold feet before making a video public, but that was especially true here. In the end it seems most Covenant fans were happy with it, and if nothing else it taught me about some of my own weaknesses and crutches as a writer.

Video 8 - King's Field

It's not my favorite video that I've made, but I think it's probably the best one that I've made. Like 3DO, I was unsure as to whether or not the topic would be of interest to people, and like 3DO, it certainly was (both of these are my most viewed videos)! I had an absolute blast going through these games, researching them & writing about them. I was surprised to see the lack of usual "deep dives" on these games considering FromSoftware's pedigree, aside from the fourth (and to a lesser extent, the first). Yet, I found the 2nd & 3rd games to be at least AS interesting. I lot of people tell me about how the consistently rewatch this video, and I find that incredibly gratifying. For me, a rewatchable long-form video is a rare treat, and it's awesome to provide that for others.

Video 9 - DarkSeed

A script that writes itself is a rarity indeed, but that's exactly what DarkSeed did for me. I'd always wanted to talk about this game, having watched Retsupurae cover it over a decade ago. In the beginning, I felt like my channel was exclusively a "JRPG" channel, so I couldn't work DarkSeed in there. Starting with the 3DO video, I made a conscious effort to branch out into a variety of other genres & topics. With the success of that & King's Field, I felt like I had a good opportunity to start making videos on otherwise irrelevant topics. My notes for this script were basically just me scolding Mike and babysitting him, so I could largely transfer what I wrote onto a script and fire this one out quickly. The purely comedic video is a rare one for me, and I think this video has the best like/dislike ratio of anything I've made, so I'm glad it went over well.

Video 10 - Akalabeth & Ultima I

A video that almost couldn't be more different from DarkSeed. I'd been reading a book called "Dungeons & Desktops" by Matthew Barton, in which a lot of older CRPGs are covered. He talked about Ultima's development history. I started having intrusive thoughts about covering the entire series, but kept brushing them away because that would be such a stupidly gigantic undertaking. In the end, the demons won. I decided to make it a more "episodic" series, and this would be the first. It's a much more informative style of video, with some of the usual shenanigans still in there while talking about the games proper. I'm really excited to tackle the rest of this series, and I hope my videos can be a resource for fans and non-fans alike to come share experiences and hear about the creation of the games. It also helps that I find this type of video incredibly relaxing to write & edit for me.

Video 11 - Lost Odyssey

As I approach my 30s, many of my friends are getting married, having kids & moving across the country. As a result, I've spent a lot of 2023 thinking about the passage of time and mortality. I won't say it's given me constant existential dread, but the awareness that I need to get my shit together & that I'm not invincible has visited me quite consistently. I've found a lot of meaning this year in the minutiae, going for a lot of walks, listening to music, spending time with friends and family. I don't know whether it was unconscious influence, a coincidence, or destiny, but I started thinking of a game that hadn't crossed my mind in a while: Lost Odyssey. The game touches on these subjects in a way that I found deeply affecting, and as a result the script I wrote for this video was probably one of the most personal things I've put to paper. Talking about the beauty in life, how cruel and tragic it can all be, and what defines our short existence; these are all topics that I've thought about independently of Lost Odyssey. So, the game worked as a nice platform for me to explore these topics in the context of a great RPG that's still fondly remembered. I felt a little nervous about writing so many personal thoughts, that maybe people would see it as "too sentimental". And maybe it is, but that's okay. We should all be okay with being cringe once in a while. Sometimes, what you perceive in yourself as cringe is actually just sincerity, and our post-post-post-ironic world could use more of that.

It's interesting looking back on these videos how each one represents such a specific time, and evokes a feeling in me, despite having been made across the relatively short span of a year. This channel is one of the most significant things I've done, and I couldn't be happier that you're all along for the ride with me. In the new year, the first channel video you're likely to see will be on Ultima II. Following that, I haven't decided yet, but I know for a fact that I want to cover the Shadow Tower games. There's also some offbeat old European RPGs you may or may not have heard of that I've had an itch to talk about as well. I will go where the wind takes me. Until then, thanks again, have a Merry Christmas, a Happy Hanaukah, a Capital (in the Gray Fox sense of the term) Kwanzaa, or just a nice, relaxing holiday season. May the New Year present you with exciting new opportunities, and may you always have something to be grateful for.