Godzilla -1 and some Gaming

[got_quiet]

My roommates wanted to see Godzilla and since I had seen a bunch of people saying it was very good, I thought fuck it, why not. I had never seen any Godzilla movie before. The old Japanese movies looked amusing but I had no interest in them, and the American movies looked bad. This movie was fine. It was good in a very, ah yes, Japanese drama, sort of way. Godzilla itself was cool, some of the action was neat, the human interest stuff was cheesy and predictable, but it was earnest enough. I'm very much not a fan of the sort of directing that goes into some of Japanese drama, where the actors chew the shit out of the scenery, and this movie had a whole lot of that. It's one of the reasons I don't spend that much time with Japanese live action even though it would be good practice for me. And I couldn't get too invested in the story because it was so paint by numbers. I found the sets and the costuming to be the most interesting part of the whole thing.

I'm not the audience for these movies.

The one thing I found endearing was how Godzilla was animated. We've come a long long way from the special effects of the first movie, but because the man in suit movement of Godzilla is so iconic, this Godzilla still had a weird, stiff gait and funny proportions. This amused me.

But I don't thing I'm seeing any more movies in the theater for a long time. We have a few nice cheap theaters nearby, they used to be 5 dollar second hand theaters before COVID fucked things up and now they're a little different but still cheap. But whenever my roommates want to go watch a movie they want to go to the fancy place a whole town over that costs 15 bucks and the scrooge in me just can't abide this so after swallowing the sticker shock twice in a short period of time it's back to library rentals and a friend's netflix for me..
 

I started playing Honkai Star Rail.

Usually after I come home from work I put on some youtube vids as I cook and eat, but lately I just haven't found anything to watch. I just keep getting recommended the exact same stuff over and over again. So one night I got annoyed enough that I decided to just install Honkai Star Rail instead. And it turns out I like the game, which is maybe a bad thing. I'm immune to the pay to win aspects off it. I just never feel the compulsion to spend at all, but I'm vulnerable to grind mechanics, and the game is full of grinds. My saving grace at the moment is because I installed the game on the console downstairs I always have a reason to stop, which is to not hog the TV when my roommates come home and want to watch their shows. So far that's worked out ok and I'm only playing during dinner, which is possible because there's a lot of dialog, and you can set it to auto forward.

I like turn based RPGs and while the combat does get grindy fast, the side quests and writing is fun. Everyone has a lot of personality, even the most long serving logistics officer in the restricted zone, an actual guy you go on multiple quests for. The worlds feel lived in, and I'm enjoying the lore and the sense of humor. I don't know if I'm going to play for any length of time. I think if I find myself giving in to the urge to grind when I have things to do I'll have to stop for my own good, but so far it's been manageable.

Another game I tried out recently is Palia, which is a F2P MMO Stardew Valley like, basically. I wasn't a huge fan. The game seems to be in something of a beta. The mechanics are not great and there are some QOL problems. Also, they made the decision to have a day night cycle in which certain characters are not available during certain times of day, which means for something like a full 15 minutes you simply can't do things you want to do. I gave the game two days of poking around but uninstalled after I was tasked with getting behind a waterfall and found myself climbing Zeldalike on an invisible wall with no way of getting off the wall except by exhausting myself. It's just too rough to be fun imo, and if I'm going to get trapped in a time suck it needs to be fun.

I also got EXTREMELY lucky with the Nu:Carnival winter event. I have my thirst for Rei set aside for an alt account and after him Quincy, Edmund and Garu/Karu are my faves, so I was ready to commit my not insubstantial hoard of gems to get all three this run. But I barely had to dip into my stores. i ended up getting 1 each to drop at nearly exactly 100 rolls, so this turned out to be both a cheap and satisfying event so far. Rei also pops up in Quincy's side story. I'm shipping the Rei/Quincy/Kuya threesome at this point. There's a lot going on there.

Also, winter coat Topper is irresistible. Look at this cutie pie.

Speaking of Nu:Carnival, the devs suddenly made an announcement that they are putting out a porn free version of the game so that they can get in on that sweet sweet iphone and android market. This has largely been met with massive ???? from the fandom because it's a porn game, but I can kind of see it. There's a lot of writing that doesn't have to do with the porn, and the stories are good without it, and the game mechanics also don't go beyond clothes being sexily destroyed. I'm curious to see where the line gets drawn, but I'm sticking to my porn version, especially since there are no account transfers and I'm a day 1 player. People are battening down the hatches for a wave of children entering the fandom, but, they were already here probably, for one, and they will still get ejected if they show themselves, for another, so I'm not too concerned.

Comments

[shadowbliss]

Yeah I'm honestly a bit split on Godzilla. I like a few of the movies and even some of the cheesy as fuck ones but among diehard fans, I seriously hear shit about how "the humans are never the interesting part" which means its a series pushing 7 decades of "giant monster fight!" - I get that as a bit of dumb fun but I'm kind of amazed that some don't get bored of that after film...4 or 5. I mean not for good but I'd NEVER marathon those films. It doesn't help that its an extreme rarity to get a monster that wasn't made prior to 1969.

That said my favourite and what makes me see the franchise as a LITTLE more than an 8 year olds "if a 3 headed dragon and a stegosaurus/T-Rex that could breathe fire got into a fight, who would win?" is the first one. I mean taking Hiroshima and the effects of that and translating it to "giant monster destroys parts of the country" is a LITTLE silly on paper but the movie portrays it extremely well.

Also if you want one of those movies but with EXTREME cheese to a point of it being one of the silliest things ever put to film - try Gamera Vs Guiron or Attack Of The Monsters (1969). Its hysterical.