The Shining Nexus

Octopath Traveler (Nintendo Switch) was recently released and had very good reviews from critics around the world. It was such a surprise to Square Enix on how well it was received that they underestimated sales of its physical version and had to put out apologies in Japan for selling out its units. Twice. After putting a chunk of hours into the game myself, I can honestly say it is one my favorite RPGs, next to such classics as Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy 6. What I want to talk about in this post is the music, which is absolutely amazing. Music in video games play such an important role in setting the tone and mood, that without it, or if poorly composed, can essentially make the gameplay experience worst. One of my most beloved music tastes stem from RPGs, particularly JRPGs. Yasunori Mitsuda from Chrono Cross and Nobuo Uematsu from the Final Fantasy series to name a few composers whose music I adore. What makes Octopath Traveler so special is that it's roots is hea

This is an activity that I found myself doing sparingly on my free time. The whole point of doing this is first of all, it's a fun and relaxing activity for me, and secondly, it's to replicate the art of mapping out old video games back when the internet hardly existed. And finally, these projects gives me a reason to play old video games. Sweet. --- Trust me, you'll need this. A mapping project of Metroid for the NES. Playing on a NES Classic mini console. Metroid for the original NES is especially useful due to a lack of an in-game map and having a map available made exploring Zebes a lot less frustrating. Here I try to mark key items and door colors to help first time explorers plan their next destination, instead of aimlessly wandering the labyrinth. --- My first attempt at mapping. This was actually my first attempt at mapping. This is level 1 for The Legend of Zelda on the NES. I figured this would be a good start to practice my mapping skill

Builder games like Minecraft was never a game I got into. I’ve heard about it all over the place and its popularity was, and still is, immensensely high, but it’s core gameplay and presentation never rubbed me in the right place. Curiosity got the best of me and I decided to download Minecraft for Wii U. That experience was short lived and my attention quickly shifted back to my normal gaming pleasures. Crafting and building type mechanics never interested me, until recent games like Stardew Valley and Dragon Quest Builders. The difference with those games is that the game isn’t solely focused and designed around those mechanics, but rather an element added to the main gameplay mechanics. What you get from Dragon Quest Builders is a simplified and watered down Minecraft experience with RPG elements based in a Dragon Quest universe. It may sound strange to combine these two games together to form a hybrid experience, but that’s what Builders does and it does it well. The game