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417 - Let's Talk!
🕑 Added 2026-01-26 14:19:47 +0000 UTCHELLO and welcome to another Monday Post. In this one, I once again don’t have any substantial work-related news to share, so to motivate myself to write at least something, I’m once again going to share a bunch of random things from my personal life, spiced up with random entertainment industry events that caught my attention over the week. Let’s do this!
EMOTIONAL SCENES TONED DOWN. I asked ChatGPT what was censored in the Western release of Fire Emblem for GBA, and the answer really got me depressed. Not only because so many customers were presented with what is basically a castrated fanfiction instead of the original game, but also because, to this day, there are people who work jobs and get paid for butchering other artists’ creations and selling them to the masses.
THE CHANGES WERE “RELATIVELY LIGHT”?! After that, I asked about Riviera: The Promised Land (PSP/GBA) and got an even worse response. Good lord—what is all this? That’s just evil. I planned to play this game, but there is no way I’m touching the international version. My Japanese level is far from fluent, but I would much rather play the original creation and only understand about half of what’s being said than play the fucking abomination they cooked up for the worldwide release.
SOME GOOD NEWS to cleanse your palate: the Prince of Persia remake has been canceled. Honestly, I just wish Ubisoft would go bankrupt already. The company that created so many wonderful games no longer exists—what we have now is an impostor wearing the skin of the dead Ubisoft. The sooner it ceases to exist, the better.
BY GRABTHAR’S HAMMER! Rewatched Galaxy Quest yesterday. Such a great movie. When I watched it for the first time about 10 years ago, it completely blew away my expectations. I doubt there are still people who haven’t seen it, but if you are one of them by any chance, make sure to add it to your backlog. Oh, and by the way—it was released in 1999. Yeah… try not to think about how long ago that was.
The SNOWBREAK update is dropping in a couple of days. I was really looking forward to it, but after watching the trailer, my enthusiasm kind of evaporated. I mean, I’m sure the new chapter of the story will be good, and the skins look like what you’d expect, but I can’t accept what they did to Acacia. She was one of the few girls who sat somewhere between the loli archetype and the default sex-doll body type the majority of the girls in the game have.
And her backstory was great too. Originally, she’s from our timeline, so it was easy to relate to her because she knows all the aspects of our world. And now, through some story-related mumbo-jumbo, they aged her like 10 years, and now she’s just another sex doll—and I’m really salty about it, as you can see. -_- (Also, Mia’s Chinese-themed skin is ass. Nerida’s battle pass one is fire, though.)
ROBIN HOOD: DOTC. Did you know a Robin Hood version of Defender of the Crown existed? I didn’t. I found out about it by pure accident, and wow—what a fucking awesome game it is. It’s basically your regular Defender of the Crown, but with a much heavier focus on story and cutscenes. Everything is voiced, and from what I’ve seen so far, it’s very well written. Also, I know for a fact that, just like in the original game, you can raid enemy castles to “liberate” thirsty thots—although I haven’t gotten to that part yet. #^_^#
THE GRAPHICS are fantastic too! It looks absolutely amazing on the Steam Deck (although you need to do the Skidraw +1 tweak in the settings to get rid of the blur). Along with 3D sequences, it also features a lot of beautiful hand-drawn illustrations to depict the events taking place. Anyway, as you can see, I’m very happy I found this game. England shall be conquered! By Robin Hood?! XD
THROW THE PS5 CONTROLLER ACROSS THE STREET! And on a completely random note, I want to bring up this YouTuber I watch from time to time. His videos aren’t necessarily that unique, but the way he talks—and his delivery in general—I find very entertaining. His subscriber count has been slowly growing for quite some time now, so I’d guess I’m not the only one who considers his videos enjoyable. In any case, check out BASEMENT GAMER on YouTube if you have nothing better to do—you may like his content.
THE SHOP. I uploaded a new item to the paid gallery I call the shop. It’s another blast from the past—without a PSD file, but with one WIP photo and a high-definition ink scan. Go check it out and hopefully get hit with a little nostalgia. Or, if you’ve never seen this one before, enjoy experiencing it for the first time. ^^
THE WORK. With all that out of the way, let’s talk about the work—or rather, let’s mention it quickly. Yet again, all I can say is that work is being done, and that’s about it. I’m still working on the skater girl’s events. If all goes well, I’ll be taking a break from writing this week to work on some new art assets, so maybe I’ll have something a bit more exciting to tease next Monday. Or maybe not. We’ll see how it goes.
IT’S A CONSTANT FIGHT. I think it’s pretty obvious by now that I take writing in my games very seriously. I do a ton of rewrites, cut the fat, and rewrite things again. I realize that every time text is displayed to the player, a brutal fight for their attention begins. The writer’s job is to make sure that whatever distractions, real-life chores, or problems the player has get forgotten and ignored. It’s very important not to become self-indulgent and not to take the player’s attention for granted. Of course, I’m not a professional writer or anything, and English isn’t even my first language, but I seem to have gotten by, since you guys seem to like my silly texts (which I take extremely seriously). Anyway, thank you for that, and thank you for your support. I’ll see you all next Monday. Laterz.
-Aka-
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Comments
AKAMAN
Yes, the time have changed. XD
AKAMAN
I know. UNDUB and RESTORATION patches has been my bread and butter since I gave up on modern games :)
AKAMAN
Dunno about Japan picking up the slack. The whole industry was created there and they carried it on their backs for a long time. I think, if anything, lately Japan has been doing worse and worse when it comes to games, otherwise I would still play modern Japnaes games. China and Korea yes, but yet again they work in a very small niche that they dominate. No racing games, no flight simulators, no strategy games, no RPGs. Oh, whatever, I'm too old to worry about that by now. I'll just play my ancient games and continue to work on new content for you guys :)
AKAMAN
Wise words. Seriously, well said. I shall look at it exactly that way from now on. Thanks, man!
AKAMAN
Seriously? Aw... Now you kind of tarnished his pure persona in my mind a bit. I only know him as the Basement Gamer guys and really enjoy the whole vibe. I'll try not to think about what you have described him as XD
AKAMAN
Thanks. Yeah, the writing is very easy to mess up. I see it done a lot in many other NSF games, unfortunately. ^^
AKAMAN
You made me google "Britain Silly Walks". Next time this reference comes up I will be fully prepared! XD
AKAMAN
Here is the thing: ChatGPT told me about all the censorship, but after I asked Google Gemini the same, it said that this particular game was actually a rare case of reverse censorship when Japanese version had the girls wearing towels or swimsuits during the bath scene where in the international version Atlus used the original uncensored CG that had girls way less covered. It's all very confusing. All I know is this: I hear a lot of good things about this game and I want to play it. I booted up the US version for GBA on my beloved RG35XXSP and it looks just so good. ^_^
AKAMAN
Yeah. I feel the same.
TrapHunter69
Yeah, I do the same with all the stuff I like. Just got Star Trek TNG blu-rays before it's banned for something 😀
Deonast
Never had a NEO GEO, but I've definitely seen that old advertisement somewhere, hard to forget. You know what he can keep that NEO GEO and I'll happily entertain his girl and her duel controllers :)
Deonast
Galaxy Quest, yes I remember liking that so when I saw it was out in 2024 on 4K disc I bought myself the deluxe edition with a steelbook case, art cards and other random stuff to make sure I had a copy before a studio decided they needed to alter it for future broadcast to appeal to some crazy idea of what is socially acceptable.
Jason Gentry
There are fan patches for the GBA games if you wanna use the original Japanese versions
tonicmole
The good news about the gaming industry is that Japan, South Korea and Poland are picking up the slack. I'm certain that within a couple of years they'll have push out Canadian developers which are the worst. As for localization, well, that's one good thing about AI. Many Asian developers and anime studios are looking into using AI and local translators to avoid having their work butchered.
MUPLUR
I think the Localization of the game's purpose is to drive the real gamers to the original made game, So they can play the game as it was intended. And we learn their language and culture as bonus.
basilur
I was hilariously shocked when I randomly stumbled upon Basement Gamer's other channel. It was way bigger, and he played sports video games there—and raging about them. I guess he got tired of them and started this new one, where he's acting like a completely different person (only with the same face), completely chill and talking about good console games.
MrLazare
Thanks for the shop update and the new illustration with April, always love these little trips down memory lane (and see April). And I really appreciated what you said about writing. It’s clearly an integral part of your games: the rewrites, the pacing, that very your style. They simply wouldn’t feel the same without the care and attention you put into the text. It really shows. Keep up the good work by Grabthar’s hammer !!!
Trevor Bond
Hey, if Britain can take Silly Walks very seriously, you can take Silly Writings very seriously and know you stand in good company!
Epitha
Rivera The Promise Land is a favorite of mine among the GBA games. I wasn't aware of the censorship being that high when I played it but some dialog definitely felt disjointed to the context of conversations. Still very much worth the time to play through
Zach
I don't think I will ever understand censoring video games. Or really censoring anything for that matter.
