PS4 Respite Glitches

While I'm not aiming to coin a new term here, it's a common enough occurrence that after years of the very interesting events that happened in-game, I kinda gave it a name and stubbornly stuck to it.

Respite glitching. In almost every occurrence, the phenomenon happens on action RPG type games (Skyrim, Dragon Age Inquisition, Assassin's Creed-- so not just itty-bitty unknowns of gaming) after repeatedly going into rest mode and waking the game again. Because the games all share epic possible game times in common, they were also more likely to be my focus for months at a time, but I think frequency seems to accelerate the issue more than time spent gaming. I imagine that something occurs, something residual in the game data, a sort of faulty bookmark that builds up and affects the game itself. Also because the fix involves simply closing out of the game's app entirely from the menu and simply loading the game again, it makes it clear that it's not an error in the game's coding but a little imp in the console's software itself.

I actually enjoy these random surprises. In Skyrim, I like the third person view where I see my character's body. When one respite glitch occurred, I would go through a door in a dungeon and my avatar wasn't there. I'd hear an odd jumbling of distant shuffling noises as I walked and eventually, I'd find my horrifically marionette-like avatar scrambling to glue itself back where it should be.

In Dragon Age Inquisition, the audio would cut out at first but if I let it go, the subtitles would eventually abandon ship too. I have quite a few little shared glitch videos from this game but this was the only one I could absolutely link to the respite glitch since respite glitches tend to creep up and get progressively worse if not wiped. I believe it also had a weird effect on the appearance of magic spells, pixelating or animating poorly.

Final Fantasy XV's magic spells were also affected in this way, but don't get me started on the shitty taste that game's shoddy story left in my mouth.

Either because I know so few people that push a game into rest mode as much as I do or most people I know constantly switch games, researching it didn't actually turn up anything particularly enlightening. It doesn't hurt the games or break them. Every time I notice the issue, there's plenty of functionality to save the game then close out to reload a perfectly functioning game. Sometimes, I go ahead and watch the issue get worse, like a snowball picking up the momentum of an avalanche, out of sheer curiosity.

I'd truly love to hear more stories from people that experience their own respite glitches. Which game and what happened? Let me know!

Secret of Mana PS4 Remaster Review

After deciding those fucking flan challenges on Kingdom Hearts 3 were not worth getting the last Keyblade or Platinum, I hopped over to an oldie but goodie: Samurai Warriors 4. Also never platinumed, but damned if I care about some of these redundant requirements they put on trophies. 

It's not a new game I was looking at next. I first played Secret of Mana on the Super Nintendo in my preteen years. It's one of the games that bonded me to one of my best friends nearly 25 years ago. We beat it many times over, at that, so while I knew going in that nostalgia was a thick rosy fog on this choice, it's only been about 15 years since I last played the original.

So how does it compare?

The music- I'm glad that it's still... kind of the same. In truth, they really could have just left it alone. I still consider the original a soundtrack masterpiece. I'm not sure what they were thinking, but the remastered music lacked all of the original emotion and was even annoying or distracting at times. I would start humming along and then some odd little noise garbage would ruin it for me.

The battles- I feel like this game was likely handed to new hires here. The original battle system had its issues but somehow they made it worse. There's this funky delay after a blow is landed and subsequent blows are piled on. You can also be nose to nose with an enemy and miss completely. For that matter, a programmed missed blow occurs often enough that the characters seem ridiculously inept. The healing delay is frustrating as well, with enemies easily killing off your character who is unable to move during the healing animation while the enemies have full reign to fuck you up. That being said, the boss strategies are still inventive as ever, even with the setbacks.

The voices- I tried them in both English and Japanese and I sincerely wish there were none, like the original. It could be experience saying this, but the dialogue feels a lot cheesier than I remember too.

The animation- I wanted to like the characters zooming in to animate during dialogue but it's some of the laziest animation I've ever seen. The mouths don't move. At all. The characters line up like a grade school play and don't do that much moving either.

The backgrounds- this is one area that was actually an improvement. The environments are beautiful, brighter and smoother. The only gripe I could pose here is that I feel more boxed in by the invisible walls here. It's like a glorified labyrinth, although that's an overstatement since this isn't a game where  you ever get stuck (at least in and of itself) because the maps are pretty simple.

The characters- adding this for those new to the game, but don't expect really deep characters here. the hero is a bumbling young man who stumbles on a legendary sword. You learn he was adopted by the village elder but little else. The ponytail wielding blond is... I don't know, the advisor to the king's daughter so some sort of nobility. She's headstrong and in love with a common though prestigious soldier and her dad convinces the king to send her lover on a doomed mission in the hopes this somehow ever works to convince a girl to marry some asshole he picked for her. Instead, she tells her dad to get bent and unofficially recruits our hero to help her. I went several years without realizing the third character is a boy. It's a Sprite that apparently lost its memory but isn't above conning people. You do find out what happened to them, just like the blond catches up to her lover and the hero... I don't know, just kind of does hero things because heroes do that. Even though I adored the game as a kid, it's mostly because the designs are fun, the music was great and the themes were interesting. The characters are just okay.

DRAGONS!- Flammie is a dragon that helps you. Not getting nearly enough screen time and, like most dragons, is pretty much a sentient vehicle that can fly where nothing else can reach. Still, very exciting to a 12 year old. 

Overall? I hate to say this but you're better off just playing the original. I'll play through this one, but I can't help but find it falls short of the original. The only real benefit is the graphics upgrade and it's just not enough to recommend it. Don't pay more than 10-20 bucks for this one either way.

Honestly, I wish they'd do a quality remake of Final Fantasy 6. They've tried to port it and dress it up half-assed many times over but it would be an absolute masterpiece if they gave it an Advent Children makeover. The amount of storytelling that went into even side stories as well as the skin-crawlingly absurd evil jester Kefka made it so. I dream about what the soap opera house bundle of emotions and humor would be with every facial expression captured. Undoubtedly, that's a game that, even with time, never fails to toss me around. Though Umaro and Gogo were tossed in as last minute characters, I imagine they could add more dimension there as well. Especially since the tale of Gilgamesh, Gogo's alter ego, is so ripe for a wild side story.