Wolf Kanno
is a Level 99 Chocobo
Memento Mori
Site Contributor

What my brother found the most bizarre was the lack of sidewalks and the fact everyone drive their car everywhere, no matter how close. The people there also had this weird obsession with roundabouts since their town was one of the very few that had a lot of them and they kept asking him if they’re common in Poland. Spoilers: they are so they’re really nothing special here

You mean Central Europe

I’ve traveled abroad quite a bit myself, but I guess that’s easier to do when your continent co sister of plenty of smaller countries rather than three big ones. Still, I definitely want to go somewhere outside the continent some day. My brother got to visit Oregon last summer and I am very envious of him, even if he’s been a bit ambivalent about the whole thing

If you do end up coming to Europe, Poland is definitely an underrated place to visit

Yeah, it’s sad that era of experimentation is gone, but I think it’s not just SE. all this probably has to do with the fact that video games are just very expensive to make now, so it’s no surprise that big companies prefer taking smaller risk, what with the larger gaming mainstream being quite easy to satisfy.

Whenever you’re ready, man. I know for certain that my first draft won’t be ready for anyone to read it, so you’ll have to wait a while to read my stuff too.

Yeah, isn’t Hawaii the state with the largest Japanese minority? Or was it California? Either way, this game has kind of motivated me to maybe try and save up what I can to actually make a trip to Hawaii. But first, I need to write that bestselling novel Also, I don’t think Ultra Sun is as challenging as the original Red and Blue, but at the very least it’s been a very nice experience, what with the game actually forcing me to think about my party and move composition a bit, which is still much more than any game that came after Gen 1, especially the past two gens. And while it’s still not really possible to get lost and the path isn’t really non-linear, the routes are winding and interesting and make exploring this archipelago really immersive.

Real life stuff always takes precedent. I hope you get to have more time to do more of your thing this week then! As always, if you ever need a critique partner, I’ll always help out. Even if I am a bit busy and it might take me a while, I definitely wanna help.

Generations 1 through 4 were based on Japan - Kanto is based of real-life Kanto, Johto is Kansai (what with its far more traditional architecture), then Ruby and Sapphire’s Hoenn is based on Kyushu (hence the slightly more tropical vibe) and Sinnoh from Diamon and Pearl is based on Hokkaido (which is why it’s both so cold and so large). Since Gen 5, however, things get a bit different, as Unova from Black and White is based on NYC, Kalos from X and Y is France, and now Alola is Hawaii, and while Unova for example felt very much like New York through a Japanese lens and Kalos didn’t feel particularly European, it seems they’ve really done their work with Alola. People even call each other cousins and aunts and stuff, which is a very nice touch.

Glad you’re enjoying LoM again! It’s nice to come back to an old game that you don’t replay all the time only to find out it’s much better than you remember Happened to me a couple times during my FF marathon

Sorry for the late reply. It’s a lot and ivr been a bit busy

Oh yeah I’m definitely not unhappy that this idea came now. There’s gonna be a ton of rewrites anyway obviously so I am not afraid to experiment now. And your approach sounds solid - whatever you focus on at the moment, it’s important that you just keep on writing really. You’ll get to all your other projects when the time is right.

Again, both series I really wanna get into more someday, and your recommendation certainly helps. But today is not that day. Heck, who knows - I might just play them with my kid

Ultra Sun definitely feels different, and it definitely feels like a far more complete game than X or Y. I’m also very thankful that we’ve actually got an interesting plot and characters again, after how incredibly bad the previous Gen was in that regard. I’m about halfway through the main plot and so far I can feel this game is up there with the fifth generation when it comes to my favorite Pokémon experience. Also, I’ve always just really wanted to go to Hawaii and this kind of gives me that a little bit

Ah damn. Was kinda wondering what you'd think of those ^^

Random question, have you played any Falcom RPGs? Legend of Heroes franchise, Ys series, that sort of stuff?

Yeah, I guess. The character is still relevant to the book’s plot, it’s just that he probably won’t show up until waaaaay later. His importance is actually kinda reminiscent of Xeno-y plot twists, but we’ll see how much of that makes it into the final book. I am doing my best to focus on just the one story for now, though. If I keep distracting myself with other projects, I honestly don’t know when I would finish it Still, it’s hreat that you got your creative juices flowing!

I did try a Mana playthrough once but never reached Legend.
Maybe someday! Meanwhile, Pokémon Ultra Sun has been incredibly refreshing! One thing I didn’t expect is that they actually balanced the game for the fact that all party Pokémon gain exp at once, so this game is actually challenging. The lack of gyms makes the journey feel that much more new, and the setting in general is just gorgeous and feels more alive than any orevoous Pokémon region

Yeah it always did sound interesting to me, so I’d really be interested in getting more into this series when I have a bit more time.

Meanwhile, I didn’t get to write today yet, but I did draw a character today! Sometime at work I suddenly had this vision of a very specific character from my book who’s pretty much one big spoiler that I just had to draw him. It’s been a while since I’ve drawn anything but considering that, I’m pretty happy with it!