Sekrio: Shadows Die Twice Review

Sekrio: Shadows Die Twice Review

In Sekrio two highy trained warriors meet on the battle field, these two professional killers face each other in a duel to the death, where only one man can be victorious. Sword clashes against sword as sparks fly, each strike deftly deflected trough perfect training, until one warrior overextends and is struck down.
Sekrio is a game about a shinobi, a highly trained warrior and infiltration expert that refuse to die, due to plot reasons. Unlike Dark Souls, the combat is purely about timed blocking, deflecting and striking when there is an opening. So an enemy attacks five times in flurry, I have to either hold the block button down or tap when the attack is about to hit. Which is the main mechanic, perfect deflection through timed blocking builds up a poise meter, when it is full a death blow can be performed. This finisher will take down the enemy, regardless of how much vitality that is left. Most minibosses have to be struck down like this twice. Many of them can be cut down once from behind, when sneaking up on them, before the duel start in earnest. The only exception are certain grab attacks, which has to be dodged and the red kanji symbol which requires almost perfect block timing. Conveniently enough, any name enemy drops a prayer bead and four of these will upgrade the health bar.

To make murdering easier, there is a lot of skills to be unlocked and various awesome tools, such as a way to light enemies on fire or tossing shurikens. In order to unlock these skills some I have to find and then unlock through skill points, gained through killing enough enemies. The progress bar progress is cut in half along with the valet, but a gained skill point remains. The other penalty for death is that friendly npcs starts to get sick and thus cant be conversed properly with, due to their excessive coughing. This can eventually be cured indeed, but that requires a rare item, which can be quite hard to come by. Which is a bit annoying I have to admit, the only item that can be bought at any checkpoint statue, is the tags needed to use abilities. Every other item comes in limited quantities, can be looted from enemies or found all over the place. As the title implies, Sekiro can indeed die twice, first time an enemy kills me I can revive and continue to fight, or get in a sneak attack, the second time can be refilled through killing and can only be triggered a set time after the first death. Though if I die once, I’m not likely to succeed in living that long anyway. Attack power can be eventually be boosted by beating bosses and completing a mask made of three parts, and by consuming an item. Unfortunately the time on consumables is a bit on the short side.

However I think it looks really, really good graphically and runs very smoothly and it has yet to crash once, which I'm very happy about, not to mention short loading times.
The game is not without flaws though, every time an item is picked up a screen covering explanation appears and yes I can not turn it of, an intrusive tutorial popup will also come out of no where when a new status effect or game mechanic is encountered. The camera can be quite useful and behaves okay most of the time, however it’s a nightmare in small enclosed spaces when locked on, or if the enemy is running in circles. Sekiro also comes with a huge, terms of service you have to slowly scroll through when starting up the game for the first time. At least on Steam that is, which is the version I’m playing.

The music ranges from fantastic to ear grating, depending on the fight and how frustrated I’m at the time. Seriously, one of the sound tracks have elements of my cellphone tune, so I had to eventually turn it of. It’s also quite a lot of grinding to get the skill points needed to unlock techniques or to farm the material needed to upgrade the prosthetic tool skills.
Yes it is a fun and punishingly difficult game, that punishes poor timing and not taking the time to learn an enemy pattern or exploit. Many fights can be ignored or taken at another time. I had and have a great time with it, but I can’t recommend it for people who are impatient, can’t handle split timing button prompts and children. It’s a little bit bloody and some enemies are wonderfully grotesque. Replay-ability comes through several endings and new game plus and steam achievement hunting.

Zaceron

Enter Marvelous flying brick -

Captain Marvel is not a very good or interesting character, in fact I firmly believe she could be replaced by a brick and not much of any consequence would change. Mind you, this is a thing that also hold true for a lot characters when an unskilled or uninterested author write the story. It boils down to the character being an emotional black void, yet being the center of attention, love and admiration. Regardless of how much they deserve it or not. As someone I can not recall put it, if you’re not trying to break the audiences hearth, you are doing it wrong. Which is what Captain Marvel unfortunately failed to do, by being turned into a self insert fan fiction character, fueled by selfish wish fulfillment fantasy. Combine that with a boring power set and the lack of a creative use of her abilities, or any attempt at outwitting the enemy. The way she is portrait is one that is very popular among teenagers and first time authors, usually the kind loathed on fanfiction.net.

She is strong, she can fly, shoot deadly bolts of light, breathe in space and is very, very durable. To top it of she is revered and fared by the Kree since they put a lot of resources into brainwashing her and keeping her power limited. When the mind wipe eventually ends, she just moves on with her life and nothing of interest occurs afterwards. If you look away from the fact that the she stopped hunting Skrull and now they love her. Other than that she is also a very successful female test pilot in a time where such thing is a rarity and naturally the men around her is cracking gender jokes. Eventually she joins up with Nick Fury and eventually helps to establish S.H.I.E.L.D and finds the teseract collection dust. Oh and the alien cat that tags along nicks one of Furys eyes and gives him a device he can use to call her if earth is in peril. An object that would have worked wonder when Ironman nearly died above New York, which makes me wonder, where was she when the hole debacle with Thanos began? I have no idea, nor does the writer and that gives me no reason to care to write anymore about a very mediocre Hollywood experience, written by someone that got paid handsomely, that cant handle criticism and people pointing out plot holes. A long time favorite pastime of us geeks. I mean seriously, watching a movie with friends and cracking jokes and debating the story is half the experience.

What I’m not entirely sure of is how a successful blonde woman with no weakness and few emotions, are going to be a good role model for impressionable kids and marginalized minorities. Especially when the one iteration of her was apparently Muslim, and the one before that was black. Which means I should probably bring up whitewashing but that is another can of maggots and I’ve been rambling for long enough as it is.

As a reference point, this is worm a web serial and how to make a story about heroes interesting, emotional, brilliant and the main character is a girl, oh and her power is to control insects and crustaceans.

https://parahumans.wordpress.com/

Another fairly interesting female hero is Lina Inverse from the Slayers universe, especially the light novels. She is severely and more often than not pay they price for her actions.

Then there is always Skulldyggery Gentle to go by as well. Can’t go wrong with a sorceress having a living skeleton as a mentor.

Zaceron Out!

Captain Marvelous "review"

Captain Marvel is the best and strongest female character ever seen on the silver screen. She got super-powered by the all mighty fabric of reality changing mcguffin coveted by the big burly blue final boss. Not only is she a test pilot that is so well loved that she could name a prototype plane. Her love interest is a woman of color and also a perfect flawless pilot. Not to mention she got trained by a mighty warrior race in such awe of her gravitas they tried to keep her down, but Captain Marvel takes no quarter. Oh, and she can shot energy and fly in space is also in all likelihood bulletproof and borderline immortal. Being blond and attractive is also one of her virtues, who better to be the face of female representation and minorities. A black Captain Marvel is a preposterous idea. The supreme prowess of the blonde bombshell makes all opposition crumble before her might, not even spaceships and defenceless shape shifters in the guise of an old lady can escape her fist of righteousness. Everyone loves her flawless attention sucking black hole of a personality as well. Heck, she even helped establish the most powerful parahuman organization on earth. The fact that she inserted herself into the story near the end makes her the ultimate role model for any aspiring woman or girl that want to make it big and to be the very best, without being held down by toxic masculinity, the patriarchy and the man.  The only one to surpass Captain Marvel is her intelligent alien pussycat, an eye scratching ball of fluff. I have never witnessed a such a more selfcentered self insert wish fulfillment character in all my life which raises her power level to goddess like proportions. I've not seen such a remarkable female lead since the master piece My Immortal. It must be fun to make millions writing a character without flaws, vices and inner demons. Captain Marvel as portrayed by the actress Brie Larson is beyond such thing as petty cisgender while make movie critics and comic book fans, whom just wants a good story.

In conclusion a movie well worth watching, with a perfect feminist hero we need, after all there is not gender representation in mainstream media.

Zacero

Tactical Strike Terrain troubles - Dev Blog 1

I have come to the concussion that I shall make a game and start a company, but for now I’m working on the sales pitch and how to assemble the assets and picking the right engine.

I grew up on a game series known as Strike published by EA, before they become a company killer and money grubber. It’s a series of games where the player control various vehicles seen from an isometric perspective, that was until the PlayStation ear, where they become full 3d, with a very irritating camera. The presentation and the story is brilliant though, even if it is hard as nails.

A very big issue I had with the original is the way the games handle collision detection. Seriously in the first three games the helicopter was incapable of flying over buildings. It always ended in a loud smack and being thrown backwards and thus taking damage. The two on PlayStation fixed this by having the player fly at a set height, yet you can collide with other helicopters, a surprisingly rare enemy all things considered.

Another thing that can clearly be improved is the terrain, which was very bare bones and boring in the original trilogy and turned into a google earth style satellite image on PlayStation. Personally I know I can do better, I have the skills, I have the technology and the will, plus a design document. Now I just need a sales pitch for potential investors.

I’m a great big fan of strategy games, but I really loathe the style of terrain where the environment is a wavy and very smooth plain, with no tunnels and cliffs at all. At the same time I also enjoy a solid collision detection. Therefor my idea is very simple. I have to make a grid, where one square is 1/1 in size and no cliff is taller than 2 squares. In total the terrain will ideally be 4 squares height where the bottom is at sea level. I have already experimented with 3d assets, but I’ve yet to find out how to deal with such a setup in Unity.

A matrix grid is a good thing, since I will save a lot of resources by just adding square collision detection to the terrain. That being said, I’m still pondering over how to most efficiency assemble the terrain. One way is to make all the assets at once, then import the elements into Unity, or the classic world builder approach where I just make a tileset and import it into the software instead. Either way works, it simply depends on how well I can snap it to the grid. First of all I will plan out the map by assembling a square grid to tell where cliffs, water and ground is along with some ramp. Naturally I have planned pretty much all of this on paper and in a text document. The brain is very good at forgetting things, I figured out the secret though. Carry a notebook and a pencil anywhere I go, it’s good for sketches and writing down those quirky ideas.

Anyhow that is it for now and feel free to drop by my stream.

https://twitch.tv/zaceron

Zaceron

Trails and tribulations

Seriously, there is nothing more aggravating and irritating than an event which is almost impossible to reach where communication is poor. Not only did said event stream a lot of darkness and empty space the event itself did not utilize twitch properly to actually save any highlights at all. Then a random fellow comes to pester my channel about how I need written permission and it’s not a trans formative work. Which it’s not, but more a backup of the event, due to how hard it is to reach them in the first place and their refusal to archive their content. The biggest reason I saved the content was because I had to see for myself how my performance on stage was compared to the other participants and to find out where to improve. The whole mail thing is especially silly, I contacted them on their mail several months earlier to tell them that I want to help with the cosplay part. About a week before said event, they have the gall to say that I should have taken contact earlier. I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned this before in here somewhere. To top it of, it’s just now they have notified me of the nature of the video and copyright, more than a year later. On the flip side the main page information this time around is most satisfactory and have the required information needed. While I love a good show and a decent cosplay competition, I’m not entirely sure if the schedule adds up to something I want to spend time on, even if someone is expecting me, luckily if I preregister there is no entrance fee for me.

Aside from this, I have a plan. It’s a great plan, a good plan, in fact it’s the best plan. It includes the monkey king, the emperor of heaven itself, a horse and a creampie.

I’ve also finally found out how to do the #masseffect armor, without sacrificing mobility and being able to sit on a chair or in a sofa. Now I have to achieve the same with the leg armor and all the other pieces and make a gun, and quite possibly an omnitool. Though to do that feat of cosplay engineering I’ll have to figure out how to make it out of something orange and transparent. I suppose a transparent sheath lined with something orange that can bee seen through and strategic led lights.

Eventually I will start cutting out the dang samurai armor and punch it full of thread holes. I also need to write more on my stories, a couple of decent reviews and make more videos, with better content and quality. Which is very tricky, but doable. Unfortunatly for me I’m not capable of being a terrible enough of a human to exploit the worst sides of humanity and children. Oh the horrors of having a decent moral compass.

A more definite plan aside from working this season I have begun larping a lot more and there are several great ones lined up. Living roleplaying can be very, very rewarding and is a perfect place to practice acting skills and to become a different character for a while, something we all could use a year or two of. 

See you on the flip side
Zaceron

The Nordic Academy of Sorcery

A creative writing experiment based on a larp, in serious need of proofreading.


Chapter one

Being a teacher at the wonderful Nordic  academy of sorcery is an interesting job indeed. Unlike most such pretender schools over seas. We have fewer classes each year, mostly competent teachers and hardy any fatal accidents. In fact our school is the best one in the world. It comes at a price though, magic can be quite wild and very temperamental. The biggest challenge in faced with every time I have to go there is finding the way. As most people can't see, the place jumps around a lot and changes characteristics all the time. From a cozy lofted guesthouse, to a looming library or a typical school building. With a setup like this every day is an adventure and it is so much better than boring old moving British stair cases. In order for me the enigmatic Niall to get there on time, I have to use a very strange compass like device. It's a curious round thing made with wood and bone, neatly decorated with constellations and a direction needle in the middle. It never fails to point me in the right direction. Isn't magic wonderful? By now it would be dreadfully rude of me not to proudly introduce myself. I am Niall a wizard which studied magic and monster hunting somewhere to the east, two steps west and then a little bit north. Aside from being a traveling sage, I'm also a very proficient monster hunter.
Anyhow the needle brought me to an old wooden building with a fence tall as a person and thrice as long. Decorated with black roof tiles and a sturdy green double door. The good old rigid kind, that opens with a shriek and closes with a mighty thud. Inside of the gateis there is an old lofted Dutch festivity house, with an impressive array of bronze chandeliers. At the start of a semester the children is funneled through the main door like a herd of sheep waddling up the creaking stairs. The level of noise the little sprogs can muster is staggering. It came as a sweet relief when the sound finally died down, as new students was getting ready for the sorting ceremony. A meticulous ritual inherited from the British isles. It includes a magically enhanced leathery hat with a whimsy voice, with a hint of gravel.  Yes, I know what you're thinking and you're probably right, but it's hard to argue with tradition. The students are divided between three distinct houses. The blue house of wisdom Shadavar, with a fancy unicorn crest. The green scorpion of house Scorpio and the mighty red house Taurus. To me it's all semantics, but I have to admit that the in-house competition is fairly interesting in its own right. I have to admit that the point system has some merits, when it comes to making the little ones clean up. They will fall over each other to clean up a banana peel, for the sake of a golden bead.
That never worked with me when i was a child.

One of the first classes of the day was held by some odd fellow, the kind that sprouts gibberish like a running faucet. He strode into class, dressed in a plaid shirt, while wearing tattered brown pants I can't really recall his name, so I'll just go with Filikus. A class be called it, a farce is what it is. Unlikely mathematics, is apparently some odd calculus derivative, best described as writing, pencil on a pencil, with a pencil. Any further attempts at understanding it led to a fantastic failure and confusion. I only use math for certain things, like counting gold pilfered from a dragon. I can tell you some great stories about that, but I'll leave that for later.
 Slamming through the hall doors came a couple of important looking fellow all dressed in black suits. The man in the middle with the round hat unfurled a parchment. "It has come to our attention, that this school harbours an fillthy illegal were creature, a filty swine whom think he can hide from us amongst the staff." He spoke out loud, with his strict voice. "Apprehended that man." A diminutive spectacle wearing man, transformed into snarling mix of human and hog. Before darting towards the door. With a swift gesture he was brought down to the floor by the Magistrate agent with a sickening crack. While the students only.


The class was just as confused as me, but one thing was certain, he was not quite there. Especially when he went on a spiel about teaching students how to fly, by leading the class onto the second floor balcony. Where he allegedly cast a spell on some poor bloke with a tuft of brow hair. Before he unceremoniously grabbed him by the belt with the intent of throwing the child of the edge. However before I could do interrupt, another teacher intervened.

It was only doing a good job I would be lying cause when he was suffering about I could never got a hard-on sun what he was going on about