Snowflake challenge 2025, #15

[majoukoufu]

(Still backdated!)

Challenge #15: Talk about an unexpected joyous moment you experienced last year.

I'm going to keep it low-key and talk about some unexpected joys I got from various video games.

★ Baten Kaitos Origins: I was really, really into this ages ago, but in a way where I played it once + got so into some headcanons that when I replayed some years later (around 2016), I was shocked at how the characters in the game didn't at all resemble the ones in my memory.  I felt let down and unable to enjoy it anymore, and it really informed my feelings on wildly-divergent headcanons: they're fine if I'm doing them on purpose and with awareness, but if I'm bit really hard by something, I should replay/rewatch early to get a more solid sense of everything and keep myself from building a shrine to shadows in my heart.

Anyway, years passed with me not having anything to do with BKO, and then both BK games got a remaster recently.  Which I picked up, and found I once more really liked Origins!  The three-character party especially gives the game a lot of ability to develop everyone pretty evenly even just in the main story.  It's nice to come back to something I thought maybe wouldn't ever be able to work for me again, and instead have more fun than last time.  Also less overtly joyful but still nice to have a concrete idea how to keep that second-play let-down from happening again with something else.

★ Octopath Traveler: finally got around to this, and it was an all-around fun experience that helped me clarify some elements of game design I prefer (esp. small and tightly-designed areas), but also - THAT SOUNDTRACK.  Excellent.  A delight from start to end.

★ Tales of in general: tbh I was really worried about this series after the past few years in general (it's been a lot of little molehills for Tales), and the death of the Rays mobage in particular was worrisome even as someone who never played it... and then we got the announcement of the remasters project!  Such a relief.  Hopefully over the next few years this will pull a good chunk of classic Tales games from various eras and of various game-design sensibilities back into availability.  (And on a smaller level, they just recently announced they've got Eternia VAs coming in-person to the next TalesFes for the first time in over a decade!)

Comments

[geraineon]

I'm excited for the next Tales fes! Watching it over discord with a friend, so that'll be fun~

[majoukoufu]

Have fun! I mostly just try to find summaries, since it doesn't seem to be much of a news event anymore, but it's fun to see who the secret guests are and such, and hear how into it the VAs get.

[sarajayechan]

I played the demo for Octopath! It was a lot of fun. :D

[majoukoufu]

It's a really neat little game!

[kiestan]

i’m not super familiar with jrpgs but i’m glad you had fun with the first two :D

it’s always so exciting when old games get an updated look (i’m assuming that’s what a remaster means in this case… correct me if i’m wrong!) feels a bit like breathing life into the franchise and maybe it can potentially bring in new fans too?

hope you have a good time with the tales series when the remastered versions come out!

[majoukoufu]

With the games I've played, it does usually mean converting graphics made for SD display often on an analog-connection console to something that will display better in digital HD! For example, deciding what to change from 4:3 to widescreen vs. what has to stay 4:3 because there is no additional finished assets the camera can show (+ redesigning menus and such for larger screen area), reworking font size for readability, converting something made for an entirely different display like the Nintendo DS to a standard one-screen display + having to redesign menus and widgets around that... Sometimes I have mixed feelings about the results, but it's always interesting to look at what kind of choices are made in the process imo.

Thank you!

[deidlit]

I'm glad that your re-revisit to BKO brought back your enthusiasm for the game! :)

Tales has been such a weird thing for me for a while. I was so into it in the 2000s going a little into the 2010s, and then dropped off hard. But the remasters lately have been really exciting, and I hope it means we'll see even more classics brought back. Especially ones that we never got in the west, that would be wonderful!

[majoukoufu]

It's always nice to think maybe that's it for me and [something], and then find out that ultimately wasn't the case!

Yeah, I'd love to see some of the more obscure or long-time-since-last-release ones get in. Like technically we got Phantasia? But we got The single jankiest version of Phantasia (without skits), and then we got a phone game that isn't available anymore, so it's still basically unknown. There are SO many games I'm hoping make it in.

[lavendre]

Aww it makes so happy to hear about the remasters project! I've been really out of the loop with Tales news. It would be so cool to be able to experience older Tales entries for the first time (and for them to not be lost to time either!). I'm glad you enjoyed Octopath Traveler too, I've had it on my to-play list for sometime now haha.

[majoukoufu]

I was out of the loop myself for a while, and then tumbled back in DEEP when I fell into unexpected Destiny DC fandom hell last year.

OT is just neat! I feel like it's a game you either click with or you don't (old-school sensibilities in some ways, like it's definitely something that rewards poking around corners and that doesn't always give you the clearest hints re: some side content), but it's got a demo so you might not need to commit if you want to try it out.