October 2024 media
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Metaphor: ReFantazio: I’ve never really connected with the Persona or Shin Megami Tensei games, but Metaphor is really working for me despite its similarities. Maybe that’s thanks to the charmingly overwrought fantasy setting, which pairs well with the maximalist aesthetic; maybe they’ve just finally sanded off enough rough edges for me to find my way in. Whatever the reason, I’m hooked. (And while I usually don’t have the problem some game developers describe where they can’t turn off their work brain when playing games for fun, in Metaphor’s case I can’t stop thinking about how expensive that UI looks…)
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Ys X: Nordics: The naval combat is not very good, the upgrade system is tedious, and the pacing is uneven. Most of the cast is two-dimensional at best, and after around thirty hours I can only hum one melody from the soundtrack. And yet, despite all of that, I’m really enjoying Nordics! The Ys sense of adventure is much stronger here than in the somewhat claustrophobic Monstrum Nox, and the two-character combat is a massive improvement over the recent games’ party system. If I look too closely at the individual elements they don’t always hold up, but it manages to be more than the sum of its parts.
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The Wonder of Stevie: Hosted by New York Times critic Wesley Morris, this podcast covers the albums from Stevie Wonder’s so-called classic period: Music of My Mind through Songs in the Key of Life. There are interviews with collaborators, friends, and fans, from Janelle Monáe to the Obamas. With only one hour-ish episode per album the show has to be painfully selective, so some of your favorites will inevitably get short shrift, but I really liked what they did cover. (The show isn’t exclusive to Audible, incidentally, despite appearances—look for it wherever you get your podcasts, as they say.)