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dauntless, the girl who lept through time and buying games from a food delivery app. dauntless was the first game i wanted to talk about in this post mainly because it was the first i'd actually finished. in fact, I finished it over a month ago and sat on it because i found it hard to really think of much to say about it. it's not a very interesting game, and it's one of the more boring and bland games i've ever talked about on here. the most interesting thing about it is somehow the fact that it's shut down and unplayable. it's rare I'd ever call a game soulless because I've seen that term used as a way for entitled man-children to tell you that their toy is better than yours and that whatever you like sucks. that's lame and if you do this i don't like you. Dauntless, though, is one of the very rare times a game has ever *felt* that way for me. it takes all its inspirations and implements ideas from them but then refuses to do anything new with them. it's combat is really basic and unfun with no real hit animations and poor hit detection. it's laggy as heck and it's got one of the most confusing structures I've ever seen in a video game. it's really not got much going for it, and i think that's honestly the most interesting part of it. I think it’s cool in its own weird way that a game *can* have nothing going for it. dauntless is a monster hunter clone, but one with less hefty combat and a focus on free-to-play live servicey things, it's not a bad idea, honestly, to have something like monhun and have it be free, at least at first glance. if you think about it for a little bit, it kind of falls apart in the sense that the monetization within the game does not function in a way that makes the game work at a core level. while you can craft weapons and gear, the fact you can instead choose to just pay $10 and bypass it for loot just defeats the purpose of a game that already kind of lacks one. it really makes you wonder why you would even play at that point if you know some of the best items will be locked behind a paywall and not behind the fun monster killing. it just doesn't work. that monster killing loop is also all the game has to offer. it doesn't have a single player quest-chain at all. you have a few tutorials and then the game just throws you into the world. there are no real cutscenes, not much dialogue and basically no signposting of what to do. you're just expected to get right in and grind the mobs for no discernible reason beyond just pure gameplay. i can respect what they were going for with that, but i do have to admit it makes it a really boring experience since you don't have much to really work towards beyond making that grind loop easier. it's a game that doesn't work on almost any level. it is nice looking, though, at least. i like the rocket arena-y art style it has going on, but that's really the main positive i have to say about it. the combat is just floaty and basic. there are two or so combos per weapon and some cooldowns, but the weapon types are at least interesting, like a hammer shotgun hybrid, an ice sword, guns, duel scythes, plus some gauntlets, axes and spears thrown in, so there is variety there at least, even if i just didn't find it fun, mainly because of how little damage you as a person did to all the enemies. it felt almost impossible to do anything solo. i guess that is the point, though. moreso than MH, it is very much focused on always being around people, you'll always have other players hanging around and killing monsters so it's not always impossible, but in an empty zone, grinding can be miserable at lower levels. those zones are nice to look at, with some nice snow and mountain zones plus a few others, but they're really not fun to explore and pretty small to boot. i can't say i liked this one much at all, and it's been shut down as of the time of writing so i couldn't go back even if i wanted to, but i am glad i tried it, sometimes you need to see why some ideas don't work to really appreciate when ones do, and this was for sure a case of that for me. it is a game i can still see the appeal of to some degree. there were some real high level players, and i imagine they were having a great time soloing those monsters with high level gear, so i really can't hate too much. it was a great time for somebody even if that somebody wasn't me. the first two choices for things to talk about here are more of a deliberate choice than you might think, in that the movie kind of discusses things that are very relevant to the state of the above talked about game, that movie being the girl who leapt through time. the message of the movie is about the preservation of art for future generations, that even a seemingly unimportant piece of art, be it a painting from an unknown artist like in the movie or say, a mediocre live-service monhun clone, having these even seemingly unimportant things available can mean a lot to the right person. every game can be someone's favourite game. they can say a lot about the time they were made in and paint a better picture for the future, something that's more important, and now than ever in a time of AI driven historical revisionism. companies like visa and mastercard are attempting to control what art people can and can't access, and you can't forget based valve and based gaben who today decided to comply with said fascism! (let's see if people will finally start to realize that this company is evil yet or if steam trading cards mean more to them than artists being able to make a living off of their art) there’s also the problem regarding complete data poisoning (there was a fantastic article on pre-AI data being equivalent to low-background steel, I'll link it here: + here ). it's an important message and one that really resonated with me. it got me to cry, then and there in a crowded cinema. i saw it at a lovely local place that does amazing coffee and alcohol, and it is where i saw all of the Japan foundation movies i talked about in another recent　article. i've been there a lot recently, again for a david lynch season they have going on. they even had a standee of the twin peaks guy that i got a pic with! though if i'm being honest, i've never actually seen twin peaks. the message of the the girl who lept through time is important, and this feeling of purpose pushes me to do what i do—to curate art that means a lot to me and to let people know all the cool things they could be experiencing. sure, a neocities shill-blog might not be important, even now, but being there to push for meaningful art in this AI-slop age? i think there's value in that, and i think the movie would have agreed with me had it seen this era forthcoming. push for more people to experience the things you love. spread the word and get people into them. it's what i try to do, and i do hope people check out at least some of the things i talk about. it's the sole reason i write. oh, and the movie is great too! it's beautiful and one of the best movies to ever perfectly capture that near-summer lazy day energy, and i love how places like the school and the little shopping street look, plus the skies look amazing. it's the kind of movie you can watch endlessly just to admire how nice it looks. the animation is beautiful and super energetic with how it's cast moves around. especially things like makoto's flailing during her jumps and her failed landings. the cast is super fun and perfectly acted in both dub and sub, though i always found myself favouring the dub for nostalgia mainly. the story is amazing and the characters are some of my favourites in any movie. the romance aspects especially get me every time, and it's one of my favourite romance stories. Chiaki and makoto are both just the absolute best. the side cast, too, is pretty great, like the kosuke fanclub, kosuke himself, and the aunt, as well, is a personal favourite. she just has such a nice energy to her. i mean what else is there to be said? it's easily one of my favourite movies, and most people i talk to who have also seen it generally agree with me. it's a perfect movie, and it's one that i think will only grow to be more relevant and meaningful over time. if you missed the recent cinematic release of the movie, it is super easy to track down online, and the DVD release of it is great and affordable. it even has a pretty affordable blu ray release, plus several live-action equivalents if that's more your thing. that's something for me to check out sometime, for sure, because there's like 3 of these, and one of them is a sequel. there's an original novel, too, which seems really neat, and all of these are apparently great. i know people especially love the 80's movie. i also decided to do something a little dumb. i decided to order video games from a food delivery app. no, really. you can do this, and i did. why? for the novelty, duh, and for easy content. the money i would spend on this would be easily outweighed by being able to say that yes, i did indeed order video games from a food delivery app, and it actually worked! what helps is that they had some games i wanted and they gave me a whole 15 pound off the order, which got me one of the games and the delivery cost for free more or less. i got two games, dead island 2 and assassins creed unity, plus my roommate got spiderman miles morales, two ps5 games and a ps4 game. the selection, i will say, is very limited here. it’s limited to only the last 2 generations of consoles, so sadly i couldn't order some ps2 or psvita games, which i might very well have done. even the selection among the consoles they do have is very weirdly small. i can see online what this store has in stock, and yet they won't let me order all of those games, just the more AAA affair, and some games are very hideously overpriced, like 48 for silent hill 2, when it's less than 40 in store, but many of the cheaper games are only a pound or two above what they are in store. they also had a weird thing where the shop would go in and out of range for seemingly no reason. i still don't fully know why. so i got it ordered early at lunchtime and i sat doing my shadowverse dailies. i main havencraft and i think I've gotten pretty good with it. i had a coffee and waited around half an hour for it. and then bam, there it was, video games delivered to my door, there and then. it was a weird feeling. they ask for ID, which makes sense, but it is a little annoying. but all the games arrived fine, and they had real box art and all (something you're not always guarantee'd with cex). if the delivery was a little cheaper i'd almost recommend it, though. this is the nichest of the nichest things, and i only did it to be able to say i did it. i wouldn't have done it at all if it wasn't for the voucher i was given, so as is with the price, i can't say i do recommend it, unless you really want to be able to tell people "oh, yeah i bought this game on Just Eat", which is bragging rights that are worth having, at least to me. these three topics were very loosely connected, but it's really just a chance to talk and blog more than anything. it's nice to express yourself on the net and ramble about what happened in your life sometimes without the parasocial BS that goes on with most social media. it wasn't a great week for me here. it's a public holiday weekend where i live where things are less than great, lots of loud marching bands and drunk, angry men who can and will harass any woman unlucky enough to decide to go out. it’s a scary place to live, i have to say, so being able to get a few games and watch a movie i liked meant a lot to me this week. you have to make the best of things sometimes, whether its buying some nice things for yourself (i actually went out today and picked up some more things from this store today, i grabbed a copy of black prince and wolf girl on blu ray. it's my favourite shoujo anime, but the store clerk gave me a very disappointed look when i walked up with its box lol) or having a snack and a drink, like i'm doing now with an oat vanilla latte and some nuts while i edit and write. what's life without the little things, you know?