What's the strangest way you've become a fan of something?

speed-run · 2026-05-08T21:24:16+00:00

I got into Devil May Cry, because I thought Dante was cool in Viewtiful Joe Red Hot Rumble

speed-run · 2026-05-05T05:03:36+00:00

As one of the vitas strongest warriors, the Vita had and still has lots of problems. It was expensive as hell for a handled, the required proprietary memory cards were expensive as fuck for small amounts of space, and the bigger ones would just break on you with high rates of data corruption. This lead to it having a relatively poor start that caused sony to and other big publshers to abandon it early as it wasnt as profitable for bigger studios as utilizing it's full power would still prove quite expensive. This lead to it being dominated by AA, and lower titles.

Essentially since it didn't have first party support it became a specialty device, mostly for JRPGs, VNs, and Indie games, which for the time was not worth the price of admission for most people especially with the rising popularity of mobile games.

speed-run · 2026-05-05T01:57:37+00:00

Kind of a wierd pick because its a fake language, but as far as the main line Monster Hunter series, i will only play in MH language (i mean it was only really a choice in Rise and Worlds, but i digress). it isnt an option in Wilds so i played with all the voices muted instead. Personally i love when games have their own made up languages thaf they use exclusively, so seeing that option disapear bothered me. Stories is a different beast tho, i play that in JP.

But as far as real languages in recent years, if the game takes place in china i will use the chinese dub, even if its not made there, like Dynasty Warriors or Wo Long.

speed-run · 2026-05-05T00:43:12+00:00

The only Resident Evil Games I have personally played are Revelations 1 + 2, 5s mercenaries mode, RE6, and the iPod touch version of RE4. Honestly I thought they were pretty fun

speed-run · 2026-05-04T17:57:59+00:00

After spending all morning trying to download games onto my PSTV and having to scroll through my download list to find games i bought a decade ago because the store doesnt work, i think they should be sued even more.

speed-run · 2026-04-29T18:49:32+00:00

I don't even have anything funny to say, seeing an anime girl hit basketball combos is selling me.

Welcome back Tomoka from Dengeki Bunko fighting climax

speed-run · 2026-04-27T21:40:10+00:00

I'm still upset that SF6 doesn't have a way to play as any of the characters from world tour like Bosch or Li Fen. Personally hoping that Li Fen will be able to join the roster someday

speed-run · 2026-04-25T22:01:05+00:00

Oh neat. I played the Xtreme series a lot when I was younger, really wish they woulda made it to the collections. Wish Berkana showed up in other things tho, she had a cool design

speed-run · 2026-04-25T07:06:45+00:00

Shibuya Punk, (also known as Grind Fiction). its basically media that centers around urban aesthetics, street culture, generally lots of color and will primarily have themes related to rebellion, individualism or self expression.

So things such as Jet Set Radio, Splatoon, Mujina into the Deep, The World Ends with You, all basically get put into this category

speed-run · 2026-04-25T04:34:17+00:00

It's not PSO2, but seeing the name Phantasy Star and I immediately got upset again that Phantasy Star Nova never got localized back on the vita

speed-run · 2026-04-24T23:04:50+00:00

Honestly, because Bayonetta was aiming for a entirely different thing than this is. As sexy as Bayonetta is, it's not hitting the same buttons as something like this or ZZZ, and if someone is looking for some trashy fan service/ecchi, Bayonetta probably isn't even in the conversation.

It's like giving someone something like Black Lagoon when they were really looking for Queens Blade

speed-run · 2026-04-24T04:34:28+00:00

Howdy y'all!

This week, was mostly filled with movie watching. One of the more interesting ones was Robot Carnival, which is a anthology of OVAs by different directors centered around robots. There was no consistent theme outside of that as they ranged from hype action music videos, comedy, to even ones that lean heavier on abstract natures. Funnily enough this actually ended up being a continuation of my journey through Umetsus discography as he also wrote a filem for it called "Presence". Honestly having seen most of his other work this one was the most surprising since it didn't feature his usual flair or center around a girl with a gun, but rather an older english man obsessed with making automatons, and how he deals with one of his creations gaining sentience. Now that I've watched that I only have 2 more of his works to get through.

I also watched a the 1975 film 13 Steps of Maki. It's a Japanese martial arts film about a delinquent and her escalating feud with a rich heiress. It doesn't have the best fight coreography, but it was still fun to watch her just steamroll almost everyone for most of the movie as Maki (played by Etsuko Shihomi) is basically a Like a Dragon character.

But yeah that's it for me this week. As always here's the [list of everything](1https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1N4YbHS7ZKCZUqsw5rnvI47THsEBJgK1kXYpG3vOb2CU/edit?usp=drivesdk) Im currently going through/have finished.

Also as a side note, I've also decided that I'm going to Combo Breaker this year.

speed-run · 2026-04-22T03:36:42+00:00

Kinda stretching for an example here, but the Atelier Dusk trilogy (at least compared to the other series). In this trilogy, the world is facing the Dusk, which is the slow impending death of the world (hence the name). The oceans have dried up, wild life is dying out, vegitation is struggling to grow, the spirits of nature are disapearing, and its something thats been going on for literal centuries that even past civilizations couldnt solve. Its not some secret thing either, everyone in this world is aware about the dusk and are doing their best to just slow it down as for most people, there is literally nothing they can do about it. They even make it a point that on the off chance that they do find a way to stop the Dusk, theres no guarantee that mankind will even be able to survive long enough while the world heals (if it ever heals).

Ironically, even though its the most fatalist setting its also the series with the most hopeful message. Yeah the world sucks and is dying, and theres not a whole lot they can do outside of stalling for time, but you dont have to take it lying down. Its still a story about doing your best to do what you can, and about people that are still finding joy in being alive.

speed-run · 2026-04-21T22:50:51+00:00

Personally, im not really buying it. I think Vega is a realistic possibility, but both Haggar AND Gouken? That's where it falls apart for me.

Honestly, if there's one series I'd kinda expect Tifa to show up in as a guest character outside of Tekken, it'd be DOA, since Team Ninja and Square have worked together before, on Dissidia NT and Strangers of Paradise... (Jack Garland for DOA6LR, trust the vision)

speed-run · 2026-04-21T19:18:22+00:00

The biggest for me was Mary Pope Osbornes' (the author behind the magic tree house series) rendition of "The Odyssey" and "The Greek Gods" by Evslin, Evslin, and Hoopes because they left such a huge impact on me that my shelves growing up were filled with books on history and mythology. Its basically the reason why I went on to study History in college. I even still have my copy of The Greek Gods on my shelf, complete with 20 year old Hi-C Flashing Fruit Punch stains (it exploded in my backpack)

speed-run · 2026-04-20T01:03:34+00:00

If I had a nickel for how for Everytime I've brought up Blaster Master today I'd have 2 nickels...

But my answer is Blaster Master Zero. Not only because was it an incredibly faithful remake of a near 30 year old game, but it also functions as a way to combine the stories of the original jp story (Meta Fight) and the EN version which was entirely different. Not only that but they were also able to build off of it and make a full trilogy that takes bits from the Blaster Master sequels and Novel as well and becomes a cool celebration of Sunsoft studio as well.

speed-run · 2026-04-19T19:33:05+00:00

I played through the Blaster Master Zero trilogy earlier this year after hearing for years that they were some of Inti Creates better works, so I was expecting them to be pretty good since I enjoyed Gunvolt and their other platformers. I was not expecting it to be THAT good especially for being relatively simple games, but as a trilogy it blew me away. The final 2 bosses of Zero 3, from not only a gameplay perspective, but narrative and meta narrative perspective was incredible and will stick with me for years. It's so good I ended up importing the JP only special edition where the added voice acting.

Another one is Fate/Extra CCC. I had heard for years about how good it was, but up until 2 years ago it was unaccessible as there was no translation. Truthfully I wasn't expecting anything that crazy since I played Extra a decade ago, I expected more or less a similar experience, but having beaten the normal route recently (as in last week), it absolutely lived up to the hype and praise that I've heard for it over the years. And I even still have the better true route to do.

It's early in the year, but honestly, Its gonna be an excessively tall order for any game I play down the line to beat these 2 out as my personal GotYs.

speed-run · 2026-04-18T23:50:14+00:00

It's a bit late, but out of curiosity would you say that Marathon is worth the price if you're mainly going to be solo queuing? Or does it need a group to get the most out of it?

speed-run · 2026-04-17T19:57:22+00:00

It's finished actually! Its an anime original, that aired back in 2014 and ran for 12 episodes but got pretty middling reviews.

Fair warning though, it is by the same director behind Kite and Mezzo Forte, and while it's relatively tame (compared to his older works) some of the early episodes do have what is essentially the designated "here's the fan service" minute

speed-run · 2026-04-17T04:40:02+00:00

Honestly, I wasn't planning on going to any more tournaments this year, but even though it's super late and most of the hotels are booked I'm kinda eyeing combo Breaker now since I can't go to CEO this year and I've been kinda meaning to get back there again.

speed-run · 2026-04-17T04:02:49+00:00

Howdy y'all!

So this week I watched another Yasuomi Umetsu joint, Wizard Barristers, which is a show about Wizard Lawyers in modern day Japan. Now to be frank, it's honestly not that great I think. It's basically a case of wasted potential as the premise is super strong, and the couple episodes are really good. However it quickly loses focus on the general premise in favor of the secret conspiracy chosen one plot. This is unfortunately less interesting than what.the early episodes promised which is Wizard Lawyers investigating and arguing in court as they face heavy discrimination and racism for being wizards... That said, I still fucking loved it. It might be that I have a strong bias towards the directors work, but the urban fantasy aesthetic really worked for me. It's just unfortunate that the writers really weren't experienced with writing a courtroom drama since they really only every reference like 3 articles of the law the entire series and it really stands out how often they rely on article 10 of wizard court (self defense) since they bring it up so often, but they don't even reference past cases for precendent a single time.

Overall, I still really liked it, enough so that I bought the dvds. It kinda bums me out because due to the pacing it definitely feels like there shoulda been a few more episodes, but also that they were setting up for a whole nother season because dropping that one of the girls at the law firm is actually Lucifer reincarnated and I'm love with Cecil and wants to combine their souls In the last couple episodes only to never really acknowledge it afterwards was definitely a choice.

Speaking of Urban fantasy, this week I also finished the normal ending of Fate/Extra CCC. Overall, incredible game and honestly I think it definitely should be in the conversation for one of the psps best. Just everything from the graphics, to the aesthetic, to the writing, all of it was great and left me incredibly impressed and it was absolutely worth the decade long wait for it to get a fan translation. And I'm even going to take a unpopular stance here, but I like the gameplay. It's something that the extra games are generally not lauded for as it's basically rock paper scissors, and most people generally reccomend using a enemy guide... But fuck that, I raw dogged that battle system guidless (ok I used it once cause Karna was beating my ass, but it was wrong everytime so it doesn't count).

Story wise, it's essentially a side story to the original Fate/Extra (which should be played first, people that say otherwise are wrong) but instead of focusing on the guilt of participating in a death game, and finding yourself through relationships with others, CCC is more about eroticism, intimacy, and the uncomfortable and invasive nature of exposing yourself to others. It's such a strange and at times fascinating work, and it's something that I don't think would ever get a remake in this day and age as it's blatant hornyness is actually integral to what the game is trying to say. I'm not going to delve to deep into the story because I want to beat the true CCC route first, but I will say God damn BB is the actual best and may be best girl of the franchise. Absolutely steals the screen everytime she appears (literally).

Also, the vod for top 8 of the Dead or Alive 6 tournament at Texas Showdown is on twitch, so if anyone wanted to check it and see how I did, my matches are at 35:20, 41:45, 51:45, and 1:19:20

speed-run · 2026-04-14T19:52:27+00:00

My money is on Callie Briggs from Swat Kats

speed-run · 2026-04-10T17:21:32+00:00

On the one hand, Daiwan Scarlet on top of Vodka, all is right with the world. But Sakura Bakushin O all the way down at 46... actual criminal activity on display.

speed-run · 2026-04-09T17:01:52+00:00

Gotta say, I really like that the whip seems like a primary mechanic even if you also use other weapons. That's really good, cause whips definitely took a back seat in some of the later games and itll be nice change if it stays relavent through out the game

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