Looking for review suggestions (plus updates!)
Added 2021-02-27 08:30:23 +0000 UTCHello!
I took on a big freelance project in January and because of that I've slowed down my video essay/review work and have been taking a step back and looking at big picture stuff. I'm also catching up on work on my TTRPG zine Inside Out, which I'm months behind on. So apologies for slow posting, but it's been because I've been busy with a bunch of other work and also because I didn't really have anything compelling or interesting to make a video essay/review on.
I may or may not do a video for February. I wanted to see if patrons had any suggestions for films or short video games or comics for me to cover? Either for a quick turnaround Feb video or for the future. With the stuff I've been watching or playing recently, I have nothing interesting to say about it. Like I have been playing Hades and just like everyone says it's a fantastic game but I don't really think it would be right for me to spend a 15 minute video talking about how a well-known game everyone thinks is good is good. Even if it would likely get more views than the weird obscure stuff I like to cover :). I also watched the Sweet Home show but don't really have an interesting angle on it (the first half is great, end is disappointing, might review it after another season).
I also didn't want to just keep putting videos out when I still need to slightly re-edit various Patreon roughs to post publicly, which I have been working on in the background but still need to finish up. But not putting up a video since early December is maybe too long lol
Comments
Ah cheers missed that one!
Patrick Taylor
2021-02-28 19:49:38 +0000 UTCSome indie game recommendations: melessthanthree's Lucah: Born of a Dream and scitydreamer's Slimes are both dark but very good stories that deal heavily in queerness, depression, and religious oppression (Lucah is an action game while Slimes is a JRPG). Everything from Melos Han-Tani and Marina Kittaka is great, my favorite being Anodyne 2 (it's only tangentially connected to the original Anodyne so you can skip over that if you want, though it is also worth playing), which combines a PS1-looking 3D overworld with 2D Zelda-style dungeons, it's really beautiful and surreal. I also highly recommend Nathalie Lawhead's work, particularly Tetrageddon Games and EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE OK, which are these zine-like collections of strange experiments and ideas, with a lot of love for desktop interfaces and the earlier days of the Internet (also Nathalie's games have the best pages on itch, lots of over-the-top custom CSS stuff).
Luke Beeman
2021-02-27 23:36:23 +0000 UTCI bet you'd have fascinating things to say about Mutazione.
Ian Danskin
2021-02-27 18:30:25 +0000 UTCFor Lake Mungo you're very much in luck https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apZLOY1IviA&feature=emb_logo&ab_channel=StrucciMovies
Dan Sparks
2021-02-27 16:36:25 +0000 UTCOne game that has always stood out to me as very strange, yet interesting is Yume Nikki. (.flow, one of the games based off of it, is more horror-ish and has more suggested plot, if you find YN too open-ended, but enjoy the gameplay.) It's a free game and I don't know if it would connect to you, but it's worth checking out if exploring surreal dream worlds sounds like a good time. (It also has many, many clones that are called Yume Nikki fangames.) Yume Nikki is not specifically horror in the traditional sense, but it can definitely feel uncomfortable in certain areas. I figure you might also enjoy Space Funeral and its fan sequel Earth Birth, along with OFF if you like surreal J-RPGs.
Clockwork Prince
2021-02-27 15:04:06 +0000 UTCWould love to hear your thoughts on lake mungo or session 9?
Patrick Taylor
2021-02-27 11:48:47 +0000 UTCI'd highly rate Anatomy. Possibly my favourite horror game? And it's a short one too. As for Doki Doki, I think the dating simulator aspects of it are very standard, and intentionally so. A few people I knew were raving about Action Button Reviews' 6 (!!!) hour long review of Tokimeki Memorial, which started off the genre, and so I had watched that right before playing. Don't know if you'd need to, but that's what I'm citing here. :D As for its meta-textual horror, I think Undertale and Pony Island are the two standouts it draws from, or at least has to be compared to. Undertale doesn't make that a focus though, whereas both Pony Island and Doki Doki have that as their primary schtick, and both are games you play knowing things are going to go wrong. Can't think of any spinoff/sequels.
Eóin Dooley
2021-02-27 10:06:10 +0000 UTCI am familiar with Kitty Horrorshow but for some reason have played very little if any of her games. I should definitely bump them up my list. I have never played Doki Doki Literature Club but I do have the fact that weird/violent/creepy/??? stuff happens in it spoiled? It still seems interesting though. Do you know if it has like spinoff/sequel games or games it influenced heavily/that ripped it off even? It might be fun to cover as a broader topic and play a bunch of them
Shannon Strucci
2021-02-27 09:52:57 +0000 UTCMy first thought are the Kitty Horrorshow games, *especially* Anatomy, but I've a feeling you must have played them already. Maybe Doki Doki Literature Club, as a secondary suggestion?
Eóin Dooley
2021-02-27 09:44:56 +0000 UTCDaniel Isn't Real and After Midnight both look really cool! I may have heard of the former but not the latter. In like 2010 I was hanging out with a couple of friends and staying at their place watching stuff and I was really hungry but didn't want to interrupt to ask to grab food because I was a lot more timid/polite at that point in my life. I think we watched a bunch of The Mighty Boosh and Frisky Dingo. So my memory of those shows is this weird hunger haze fever dream lol. I have always considered revisiting Boosh but haven't ever made the time!
Shannon Strucci
2021-02-27 09:31:37 +0000 UTCDaniel Isn’t Real felt like an underrated film to me as is After Midnight. I’ve recently been binging Mighty Boosh which is still one of the oddest and unique comedy series I’ve seen.
ANPRIM CEO HARRY
2021-02-27 09:26:57 +0000 UTCNever heard of it before but the blurb has me absolutely KEEN so thanks for that!
Timothy G
2021-02-27 09:20:05 +0000 UTCAh cool cool cool! That sounds interesting! Have you seen Bubba Ho-Tep? No idea how similar they are but that desc reminds me of that. And thanks!! I'd rather take a decade for FF3 than rush it :)
Shannon Strucci
2021-02-27 09:15:06 +0000 UTCi watched this in my film 101 and it’s that type of movie to me!
Adam NH
2021-02-27 09:12:54 +0000 UTCoh hell yeah now I HAVE to check it out. Meshes is one of those "watched in film school" things that had a huge impact on me, like just as much as Un Chien Andalou
Shannon Strucci
2021-02-27 09:11:04 +0000 UTCi’ve been meaning to recc it to you since you made that vid on Meshes in the Afternoon yeah!
Adam NH
2021-02-27 09:09:36 +0000 UTCTTM & FP are exactly that -- touching an interesting! I'm not a film student, so I struggle to articulate this, but Six String Samurai is the perfect combination of cool, quotable and hilarious. Elevator pitch would be... It's set in a post-Cold War gone Hot Apocalypse that the Russians won. Elvis, King of Vegas, has died and one man who looks a lot like Buddy Holly travels across the American wasteland to take his empty throne. Entirely scored by The Red Elvises who are a Russo-Californian surfer rock band. Totally understand where you're coming from on Fake Friends 3. Even if it takes you a decade or more, I'll watch it.
Timothy G
2021-02-27 09:09:09 +0000 UTC👀👀👀 that looks really cool and it seems like a blind spot on the part of my film studies profs I never saw it. Idk if they actually have anything in common but reading a short description of it reminds me of Meshes of the Afternoon, which I've always loved
Shannon Strucci
2021-02-27 09:06:27 +0000 UTCOoo To the Moon and Finding Paradise both look very touching and interesting! My brother and I got a switch recently (I had been borrowing switches before that lol) and play stuff together when he visits so they seem like a good bet for that. I have heard of Six String Samurai but have never seen it! What in particular about it do you like/find interesting? And re parasocial stuff, ages ago I did a lot of research on "real friends" and friendship bonds and so on but never really committed to that spinoff video and have also played around with a couple other ideas, one being on actual play podcasts/streams and why they're a nightmare and another even more depressing one on my own weird #metoo kind of experience and how it influenced the Fake Friends series. I have also thought about doing a video on K-pop stans and/or idol culture but that is a whole can of worms for many reasons As far as Fake Friends 3 I want to make it as a "proper" documentary and fly around the US and interview people and submit it to film festivals and stuff which is currently impossible. Which sucks because it puts me in this position of like, I want to keep my momentum but I don't want to underdeliver or compromise my plans! I understand wanting more though. I could devote my entire channel to parasocial stuff and never run out of topics to cover honestly lol. Everything just gets more insidious as time goes on
Shannon Strucci
2021-02-27 08:58:44 +0000 UTC“Sink or Swim” by Su Friedrich
Adam NH
2021-02-27 08:54:19 +0000 UTCFor short, cheap, emotionally impactful and fairly linear games that deserve more time in the sun and will give you mad indie cred -- To The Moon and its sequel Finding Paradise would be great for a dive. For a movie in a similar vein, can I suggest Six String Samurai which is old but it's also one of my favourite ever films even though it is terrible. On the bright side, it's free in full on youtube. In terms of anything content wishlist wise, I'd take more Parasocial series whether another main installment or another spinoff. I think it's such a huge value-add to the conversation. But that's probably a bit too big a project for a quick content filler.
Timothy G
2021-02-27 08:51:07 +0000 UTCOoo that all sounds cool!! Will look into both 👀👀
Shannon Strucci
2021-02-27 08:47:05 +0000 UTCJust spitballing indie games, but maybe you'd like Carrion or some of the games by Heather Flowers?
Alex Neufeldt
2021-02-27 08:43:03 +0000 UTC
