Samantha Lienhard's Blog, page 173

Tales of Xillia Made Me a Tales Fan

For years, friends have bugged me to play the Tales series. Usually Tales of Symphonia, but other titles have come up from time to time. A big-name JRPG series, well worth my time to check out... but I never quite got around to it. I finally gave the series a chance when I won a copy of Tales of Xillia.

I actually finished it back in October, but since my focus was on horror, I decided to save my review for this month.

(This post contains light spoilers, since I'll be discussing my favorite character, but nothing visible contains anything major.)
Tales of Xillia gives you the option of following two protagonists: Jude Mathis or Milla Maxwell. The story is largely the same either way, but certain scenes and sections differ depending on who you play as. I heard the story is harder to follow if you play as Milla, so I picked Jude.
For a lot of fans, Jude might be the weakest part of Xillia. He's a fairly dull protagonist. No matter whose story is clearer, the plot focuses on Milla's quest, and Jude spends a good portion of the game just wanting to help Milla. That said, it raises some interesting comparisons between Jude and another member of the cast, which I won't go into because it involves heavy spoilers.
One thing that made Tales of Xillia stand out to me was its sense of humor, and that's where Jude takes an especially good role in the story. Now, I hated the two most obvious comic relief characters (Ivar and Teepo), but beyond those annoyances, the game was quite funny at times... often at Jude's expense.

The gameplay was enjoyable. I prefer turn-based RPGs, but action RPGs are fine and Tales of Xillia handled it well. I never used Jude's evade attack, and I barely played as any other characters, but I loved using the Link System and trying to chain multiple Linked Artes together. I ignored the food system for a while because... uh... I forgot about it... but once I actually started using it, I liked that too. I'd load up on food that increased gald and experience earned from battles, and use one after the other to get as much out of them as possible--I especially tried to time it to make sure they were in effect for boss battles.
And speaking of experience and battles, the leveling Lilium Orb system reminded me a bit of Final Fantasy X's sphere grid. While FFX isn't my favorite Final Fantasy games, it's one of the few where I would level grind just for the fun of leveling up.
Instead of a typical RPG shop system, where you buy better items at locations further along in the game, all of the shops in Xillia can be leveled up by donating gald (the game's currency) or materials. As a shop increases in level, new items become available and other items are discounted. I enjoyed this little twist.
The story was pretty interesting, with twists and turns, but what made it notable to me is that it sidesteps and subverts a lot of typical fantasy and/or JRPG story elements. For example, fantasy stories tend to depict two types of kings: the scary conqueror king and the good king who takes the time to talk to each and every one of his citizens. Tales of Xillia has Gaius, who manages to be both.
Aw, if his people love him so much, he must be such a nice--EEK!Gaius is my favorite character from Tales of Xillia. This guy is so cool, there are NPCs who talk about how awesome he is and it doesn't feel forced. His #1 priority is protecting his people, and if you hurt them, you're going to suffer the full wrath of a king who will lead his army against you and possibly wipe out most of your forces by himself.
He also bumped Zacharias Barnham (PL vs. PW) and Simon Blackquill (Dual Destinies) from their top spots on my "hottest video game guys" list.
Speaking of which, we need more Gaius pictures. Fellow Gaius fangirls, this is for you.
(Hidden because of major spoilers and to spare any mortified non-fangirls reading this.)

» Click to see more Gaius pictures - click again to hide... « Certain games we'll be getting to soon enough have sparked debates about fanservice in video games. I'm in favor of it because of this. Tales of Xillia wins for best fanservice (although this screenshot isn't the best quality). And his "Absolute Domination" Mystic Arte was awesome enough normally...

But in the final battle... Even more awesome! And he's dominating away... Staring into your soul... "ABSOLUTE DOMINATION!"I really wish these images were better quality... ;)

But at least I have a Tales of Xillia 2 Gaius poster!

Don't give me that look! Being attractive doesn't make Gaius any less of a strong, fascinating character!

Moving on...

I found the majority of the characters to be interesting in their own ways, and I enjoyed exploring the world. There was a lot of treasure and loot to collect, and the collector in me wasted a ton of time at the beginning because I just wanted to fight monsters and pick up stuff.

I only have a couple of complaints. Near the end, it felt a little rushed, and a couple of subplots were never expanded on to my satisfaction. It also disappointed me that the story's major moral conundrum is neatly resolved without any real effort. Not that I wanted it to end with a choice between two bleak possibilities, but I wanted them to work a little more for their happy ending instead of just being handed a convenient third option.

Overall, Tales of Xillia was a fun experience. I'm sorry it took me this long to get into the Tales series, but now that I've made it, I'm going to stay. I'll definitely play Tales of Xillia 2, and since I already have Tales of Symphonia Chronicles and Tales of Destiny, I'll play those as well.

Join me in the comments to discuss Tales of Xillia and the series further! Which games do you recommend the most? What did you think of Xillia and how does it compare to the others? Have I lured in any Gaius fangirls?

Paranormal Activity: Motivations Matter

If you're looking for my post on Grave's End, it's right here.

The last time I watched a movie for class, the ending destroyed what was otherwise a fairly entertaining story, I mentioned that endings matter. Now I'm going to talk about how motivations matter, because when I finished Paranormal Activity, the biggest question I had was "why?" (There will be spoilers in this post.)

First: why is Micah such a jerk?

Not only do character motivations matter, but characters themselves matter. It's okay to have some jerks in the cast, but it's nice to have likable protagonists, especially if you want the audience to care about what happens to them. I didn't like Micah. At all. He started out annoying, then he became a total jerk, and as more supernatural stuff happened, he just got worse and worse. It was hard not to feel like he cared more about getting some awesome paranormal footage and/or proving he's the big macho man who can punch out a demon than he cared about Katie's well-being... or his own.

Micah makes the husband in Grave's End  look like a saint. At least that guy started out as a skeptic and then goes into denial. I can feel some sympathy for the apparent idiocy of a character who really doesn't believe anything supernatural is going on.

But Micah?? At first, there are a few shades of skepticism to him, and it's implied he doesn't really believe Katie or take her seriously. That ends pretty fast. Before long, he convinced there really is some sort of demonic entity in the house, yet he still doesn't take it seriously. He:

Refuses to let Katie call the demonologist because he's so arrogant he thinks he can take on the demon himself.Decides a Ouija Board would be the best way to communicate with the being even after the paranormal investigator specifically warns him not to try because it'll open the door and make things worse.Taunts the demon for not doing anything too bad. (I'll get to the demon's motivations in a little bit, but seriously, if you're haunted by a demon that just likes to turn on faucets, open doors, and stomp around... be happy. What kind of idiot gets upset that things aren't worse?)Keeps the camera on constantly for no clear reason except that he really likes to use the camera. (While insisting this will somehow help the problem... because having your demon on tape will be useful when you refuse to call in anyone for help.)Brings a Ouija Board into the house despite the previous warning and promising Katie he wouldn't. (As soon as he promised he wouldn't buy one, I knew he was the sort of nitwit would would take the exact wording as an excuse to borrow one.)There's more. I'm sure of it. Micah spends the entire movie being an unlikable jerk, which would be bad enough if their lives weren't at risk. Even toward the end, he's not really taking it as seriously as he should.
In short, I wanted to punch Micah for most of the movie, and kinda hoped he would get first-hand proof of how dangerous the demon was, so the movie didn't exactly make me concerned for this character's welfare.
But at least I was concerned for Katie, which brings me to my second "why." Why does she always cave to Micah? She seems to realize he's a raging idiot, yet even after she makes him promise to abide by her rules when it comes to the camera, the footage goes on pretty much as it did before, so.... what was the point of that?
She gets mad when she sees him with the Ouija Board, but she didn't really take any steps to get it out of the house, despite knowing the danger. She just orders Micah to get rid of it. Because he's proven so reliable in the past.
Reverend Trask would have livened this movie up.Katie finally takes some positive action when she decides to call the demonologist, but when he's unavailable and the investigator from earlier says he can't help, she just gives up. She doesn't look up another demonologist or call a priest or anything. And when Micah reads stuff on the Internet that says an exorcism might make things worse, she just accepts it.
She's a passive character, one who always reacts to the actions of others. In a way, this reminds me of Vicki from Dark Shadows (the TV show, not the movie), but at least Vicki was surrounded by a cast of proactive characters. All Katie has is Micah.
And the demon.
This question of character motivations doesn't just end with the human characters. My third "why" is why does the demon do the things it does?
I complained that the events in The Amityville Horror felt random and disconnected, and I praised Grave's End for having a neat explanation for the central supernatural activity. Even The Others has a solid reason for why the "ghosts" in the house do the things they do. Paranormal Activity lines up more with The Amityville Horror in that the demon's motivations are even less understandable than Micah's.
Assuming its ultimate goal was to possess Katie... why did it do most of the things it did? Did it need her to be at a certain level of fear? Was it amusing to the demon to flicker the lights or make loud noises? Did it pinpoint Micah as just the sort of moron who would ignore the expert and bring in an Ouija Board... which it could then conveniently leave a message on even though Micah never actually used the board, and write what may or may not have been "Diane" (or... Di-anne, since he said there were two Ns) in the hopes that Micah would do the exact Google search needed to find the demon's previous victim and therefore not call an exorcist?
Even if the demon did use an insane Batman Gambit like that, why did it want them to find the photo in the attic? Why did it spend the first part of the movie going upstairs in the dark, then decide it needed the light on? Why did it develop a shadow partway through?
And why, since it clearly understood what the camera was, didn't it try to stop the filming? Did the demon just really want to be a star?
Outside of all these complaints, Paranormal Activity wasn't all bad. The "found footage" style lent it a sense of realism which annoyed me at first but gradually increased my immersion. There were a few genuinely creepy moments and some good scares.
But I doubt I'll watch it again.

NaNoWriMo and 4k Words a Day

If you're from my class looking for my post on Grave's End, it's right here.

This is a strange feeling. On Saturday, we hit the halfway point for NaNoWriMo. This is the blog post where I should give you my word count and tell you how things are going with my current project. I should discuss my progress so far and what I need to do to finish in time. That's what I did last year, after all.

This year, things are a little different. The goal of NaNoWriMo is to reach 50,000 words by the end of the month. On the 15th, the halfway point, I...crossed 50,000 words.

According to NaNoWriMo, my average word count has been about 3400 words a day. For the first few days, though, my word counts were well below that. I also take Sundays off. What it really comes down to is that I've started writing around 4,000 words a day, sometimes close to 5,000.

How? A few years ago, I'd have given anything to learn how to write 4,000 words a day. Sure, I had some great writing days back then, but nothing consistent.

My Vague Guide on How to Write 3,000-5,000 Words a Day
First, I've given myself a structure to follow. When I just go through the day, writing a little bit here and there whenever I feel like it, it's hard to get a lot written. And I'm not a big fan of scheduling my writing. I'd much rather do it when the mood hits me. For this NaNoWriMo, however, I started attending morning chats with other writers from my Seton Hill University Writing Popular Fiction program. That forces me to spend a specific block of time each morning writing. I don't have time to do anything else.

And I'm not even tempted to waste the time during the chat, because we do writing sprints.

Writing sprints, word wars, whatever you want to call them, a little bit of competition goes a long way. It's not so much wanting to write more words than other people as knowing that when the timer goes off, you have to show your word count to a bunch of other people. It makes you accountable, and it makes you try your best.

Next, I type fast. It's hard to get around that one. Speed makes large word counts a lot easier to get. I never really thought about my typing speed until I started doing these writing sprints, but now it's noticeable. We do 20-minute sprints, with breaks in between. On average, I get around 1,000 words written each sprint.

I stay for 4 sprints and end the morning around 11 o'clock with 4,000 words already written. If I want to bump that up a little further for the day, I just need to work some writing in like I would have otherwise.

One other, important element...
I really love my story this year. I mean, I love my story. Even if you can type fast, you're holding yourself accountable, and you're setting aside specific times for writing, it's hard to turn all that effort into high word counts if you can't come up with the ideas fast enough. That's been my challenge in the past--using the time I'm not writing to figure out what's going to happen next.

It isn't a problem this year. I find myself thinking through the next few scenes all the time. New events just pop into my head. Writing this story isn't a chore, it's entertainment. I have to remind myself there are other things I need to do, so I can't spend all day working on it. I love my characters, and I want to see their story through to the end.

And that's just what I'm going to do.

NaNoWriMo ends on November 30. Even though I already have my 50,000 words, I'm not ending here. For me, a new NaNoWriMo challenge has presented itself: finish the first draft of this novel before the end of the month!

Grave's End: Better Than Amityville in Every Way

As you probably know, I was pretty dissatisfied with The Amityville Horror. I was willing to cut it some slack because it was presented as a true story, and even if it's a fraud, it had a "here are the facts" style that didn't work well for a horror story. Well, I'm not sure I should even give it that much credit. You see, the next book I read for class is also supposed to be a true story. Elaine Mercado's Grave's End is a better story than The Amityville Horror in every way.

I'm a skeptic when it comes to ghosts, but I'm much more willing to give this book the benefit of the doubt. For one thing, I just enjoyed reading it as a book.

Due to the nature of the book, I knew going into it that the protagonist would survive--she's the author, after all. Maybe because of that, I can't say it ever really scared me. On the other hand, it made me care about the characters. I liked Elaine and her daughters and wanted to know what was going to happen to them. I wanted things to work out and wanted them to be happy. That is one of the key things The Amityville Horror was missing, and I thought it was because the author was writing about real people instead of crafting characters. Well, Grave's End proved to me that it doesn't have to be that way.

The ghostly elements were also presented in a much better way. A lot of different supernatural events happen in this book, but they had consistency. Yes, some were unrelated, seemingly random events unconnected to the main plot, but it worked. It let me suspend my disbelief and accept this strange house where creepy things happen.

Best of all, it had resolution. By the end of the book, they know what caused the main hauntings. Prior to that, the characters' research revealed details that gave meaning to some of the sightings and events. This way, it felt like a ghost story (enough to remind me that I really need to get back to playing Fatal Frame). Pieces of the mystery were gradually revealed, and then the final revelations occurred with the "cleaning" at the end. The big revelation is pretty interesting, too. In a dark, morbid sort of way, I loved it.

Not every question was answered, and some of the answers weren't satisfactory--but what really delighted me was that Elaine commented on these things. They weren't just thrown at me in a "that's just how it is," way. Instead, I felt her uncertainty and doubts even as I felt my own. That's great, and I can't think of a better way to write a true account where things don't neatly come together in the end.

One thing did bother me, though. (And this relates to the ending, so if you haven't read Grave's End and intend to, this is a spoiler!) Near the end, Karin is pretty upset that the medium "cleaned" the house instead of just communicating with the spirits. She felt they should have been asked if they wanted the supernatural activity to stop or not. The only counterargument really brought up was that the events were scary and Elaine assumed getting rid of them was the right thing to do. Why didn't anyone mention that the ghosts wanted to move on? They clearly weren't happy, and the medium even said that they "want to go" (Mercado 151).

Other than that minor issue, I liked this one. It's believable as a true story, and even if it's false, it's a good read as a ghost story. Every place where The Amityville Horror failed, Grave's End succeeded. My faith in nonfiction ghost stories is restored.


Works Cited
Mercado, Elaine. Ghost's End: A True Ghost Story. Llewellyn Publishing: Woodbury, 2001. Print.

Announcing "Rokurokubi," a Yokai Story

Good news is followed by even better news! When I announced my contest win, I said something else exciting was on the way, and here it is: my short horror story "Rokurokubi" has been accepted for publication by Wicked Words Quarterly, to appear in the December issue.

Jinxie would be proud.
Or terrified.
Probably terrified."Rokurokubi," if that title has you scratching your head, was inspired by the yokai from Japanese folklore. Believe it or not, I owe Ace Attorney some thanks for this publication. I originally wrote this story as the final project for my class on Readings in the Genre: Monsters. One of the key instructions was that it had to be an obscure monster, rather than something common.
Around the same time, I played (and loved) Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies, so I was a bit obsessed with it. The game's second case has a yokai theme. One of the characters is even obsessed with yokai and sees them everywhere.
So, I researched some yokai. Yokai are crazy. There are so many bizarre ones... but also a lot of real creepy ones. One yokai, the hari-onago or hari-onna, appears like a woman, but each strand of her hair ends in a hook. When you get close enough, she flays you with all the tiny hooks. I really want to write a story about that one someday. But anyway, that isn't the one I picked for my final project story. I picked the rokurokubi...
...and don't rush off and look up what a rokurokubi is! Let it be a surprise when you read the story!
On the other hand, if you're interested in yokai and want to learn more about them, I recommend you pick up a copy of Matthew Meyer's The Night Parade of 100 Demons: a Field Guide to Japanese Yokai. This 224-page book features over 100 yokai, each with a full color illustration, a description, and more. It's been a fantastic resource for me, and I don't know of a better way to learn about yokai. (And speaking of yokai, here's hoping the hit game Yokai Watch makes it to the West! Bring on the localization news, Level-5!)

I'll let you know as soon as I have a release date for "Rokurokubi." In the meantime, keep an eye out for my review of Grave's End and the exciting video game reviews I have in store next!

"Numb" Won 3rd Place!

If you're from my class looking for my post on The Amityville Horror, it's right here.
All right, I asked you all to read my drabbles and vote for them in the Best of SpeckLit 2nd Quarter 2014 competition, and you came through for me! My little 100-word horror story, "Numb," (which, like all of my SpeckLit drabbles, can be read for free online) came in third place!

Thanks everyone. :) Remember, four more of my drabbles are on their way to SpeckLit, and I'll probably see if I have other 100-word stories in me.

I've also got another piece of exciting news on the way...

NaNoWriMo is taking up a lot of my writing time this month, but it's going really well. There's nothing better than when you start a new story and really enjoy writing it, and I'm having so much fun with this novel!

Since this is a short post, let's move on to something else...

Share Your Feedback

I've changed the site around a lot since I started blogging, trying to make it the best it can be. For example, I thought polls were a great addition, but they never get very many votes.

So I'm opening it up to you--what would you like to see here on the site? What would you change? Surely you have opinions. Share them with me in the comments below!

Majora's Mask 3D Is On My List!

If you're from my class looking for my post on The Amityville Horror, it's right here.
Yesterday's Nintendo Direct wasn't too thrilling, but it had a couple of standout moments, including the fulfillment of one video game wish I've had for a while. I was so excited, my intended Nintendo Direct news article focused on that particular announcement.


The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, originally a Nintendo 64 game, is being remade for the 3DS. Yes! I've wanted to play this one for a long time. A darker Zelda game with a creepy tone... it sounds perfect.
I have a confession to make, Zelda fans. Wind Waker was my first introduction to the series. I didn't play the much-acclaimed Ocarina of Time until Ocarina of Time 3D came out. And then, when I heard people discussing the possibility of Nintendo giving Majora's Mask similar treatment...
Well, I held off on buying it on the Virtual Console in case a 3D remake was announced... and now it has!
I can't wait. The trailer looks creepy, it sounds like just the sort of game I'll love, and even if some people wish Nintendo was working on new games instead of this remake, Majora's Mask 3D is one title I know is going into my games library. Just need to wait until pre-orders open up...

But you know what makes me almost more excited than getting to play Majora's Mask at last? Ocarina of Time 3D came out in 2011, and that's when people started talking about this possibility. Three years passed with no news. When this year's E3 ended with no Majora's Mask 3D, I started to give up. I still tossed out the possibility when anticipating the Nintendo Direct, but I didn't really believe it.
And it happened.
You know what ELSE happened in 2011? Gyakuten Kenji 2 (Ace Attorney Investigations 2) was released in Japan, with no plans to bring it to the West. I still campaign for its localization, but after this long, it's hard not to give up hope...
But hey, if it could happen for Zelda, maybe it can happen for Ace Attorney.
The Nintendo Direct was also missing one other thing I wanted to hear--Fatal Frame V localization. I really thought they might announce it. It's a perfect fit for the Wii U, and survival horror fans are dying to play this game! Still, its chances are better than AAI2's...
Anyway, Majora's Mask 3D, Spring 2015! It's on my list. Is it on yours?

The Amityville Horror: If It Isn't a True Story...

As you might know, I don't believe in ghosts. I'm willing to give real life ghost stories the benefit of the doubt, though, and since I do believe in the Devil/demons, I can believe The Amityville Horror is a true account.

That poses a problem. I can't review a documentary-style book in the same way I would a fiction story. I can't fault the author's characterization or the consistency of the plot. Now, there is some controversy about whether or not these things really happened. I didn't do extensive research, but Wikipedia lists several criticisms, including outright claims that it's a fictional story.

In fact, I learned in my class that the Lutz family even admitted it was a hoax once.

Still, it presents itself as a true story, so as I read it, I tried to view it as if it was one.

My feelings toward this book would be much less positive if I didn't go into it with that attitude. I never really grew attached to any of the characters or got a good sense of characterization, and I didn't feel a sense of immediacy about the plot. Rather than experiencing the story (as you do with a good book), I felt like the story was being told to me. That all ties in to the lack of horror I felt while reading it. Although reviews described The Amityville Horror as terrifying, the fear seems to hinge on your belief that these things actually happened. It's scary to think that such things are real and could happen to anyone--even you. As a story, however, it failed to scare me.

Books can be terrifying, but only if they pull you in. My lack of investment in the characters and plot left me with no dread or tension.

More than anything, the scares irritated me because of how the author handled them--exclamation points. Lots and lots of exclamation points. Now, I like the occasional exclamation point here or there, but it just tied in to my feeling that I was supposed to be scared merely because the events were real. Even if this was an account of true events, I wish the author would have put a little more care into each horrific revelation.

Still, there's a positive side to everything. This book was the proof I needed that littering my passages with exclamation points really is a bad idea. H. P. Lovecraft can get away with it, as his characters frantically scrawl down their final terrified thoughts while dying, but it doesn't work for everyone.

I'd love to critique its plot, but again, I'm limited because of its nature. I wanted to know what forces were at work in the house. I wanted to learn the dark details of the secret room and what it was once used for in the past. I wanted to understand why the various supernatural events were all so random, since the events felt more like a collection of spooky encounters rather than a cohesive story. If it's a true story, though, my objections fly out the window. Why did these things happen? Because that's how they happened. Why don't we get more details? Because the other details aren't known.

Of course, if it's a hoax... I could give them the benefit of the doubt and say that a believable hoax can't be wrapped up as neatly as a fictional story, but still, I can't help but wonder if they just plotted out their hoax badly, or didn't care enough to pay attention to the details.

With all that said, what's up with the cliffhanger ending? I like it... from the perspective of a fictional story. From the documentary perspective, were we supposed to believe the Lutzes really were haunted after they left the house, or did the author just think it would be a cool twist?

I feel like my thoughts on The Amityville Horror are scattered and rambling, and that's because I really didn't feel anything for this book at all. At least I hated Ghost Story , at least I could pin down my issues with The Others ...

I left The Amityville Horror feeling apathetic. It wasn't very good, it wasn't very bad, and I could cut it some slack if it was real, but if it's a hoax, I wish it had been at least a better story.

NaNoWriMo 2014 Begins

It has begun! I hope you enjoyed our celebration of horror, because now it's time for something else--National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo!

The goal? Write 50,000 words in November!

I finished the first draft of Penteract of Blood in October, and now I've started a brand new novel for November, a fantasy story called The Nightbringer. It's about an Inquisition and witch hunts (gee, I wonder what got those concepts stuck in my head), and I'm really excited to write this one.

For years, Amara has lived and worked in the kingdom as a law-abiding citizen, but her peaceful life is shattered when she is accused--and convicted--of being a witch. 

All witches are condemned to death. That is the law, carried out by the Inquisition, and there can be no exceptions. 

However, Amara matches the signs of the prophesied Nightbringer, a witch whose execution will bring devastation upon the world. To destroy her, she must be killed on a fabled altar no one alive has ever seen, located far to the north in a place no one has ever returned from. 

Amara's only hope is to prove her innocence before they reach their destination, but her fate is in the hands of the severe Inquisitor Gerhardt Valmer, who pursues his mission with single-minded determination. 

Worse, the journey north is riddled with threats, and it seems as though someone--or something--is determined to see them die along the way.

I stayed up on Halloween so I could begin writing as soon as November 1 hit. So far, I've written 4,276 words, which puts me slightly ahead of where I need to be. From here on out, it's a matter of persistence. I need to make sure I keep writing and never let myself fall too far behind.

I have only a rough outline, because I feel half the fun of NaNoWriMo is inventing twists and turns along the way. I can't wait to see where this month takes me and my characters.

Are you participating in NaNoWriMo 2014?

My Games This Halloween!

Happy Halloween, everyone! Not only is today Halloween and the culmination of this year's Celebrating All Things Spooky, it also marks the end of my Pokemon giveaway and the last day before NaNoWriMo!

So fellow video game fans, what are you going to play today in honor of Halloween? Here's my list...

Fatal Frame
Yep, at long last, I've finally started the original Fatal Frame. You know I love my survival horror games, and so far, Fatal Frame is no exception. I also love ghost stories, so it's a perfect match, especially with all of the ghost stuff I've been talking about lately for my class.

I started Fatal Frame in honor of the Halloween season. What better time to try out a new survival horror game, right? And while we play, we can hope for localization news about Fatal Frame V... Tweet #WeWantFatalFrame


Batman: Arkham City I know what you're thinking. Have I gone crazy or something? Batman: Arkham City is fun, but it's no horror game. Heck, Scarecrow isn't even in it!

Don't worry, I'm not suggesting you play Arkham City for the scares, although it does have some dark moments. Rather, if you're like me and just played Arkham City within the last year, you haven't gone to see Calendar Man on each of his special days yet!

Well, today's one of them. I'm off to see what gruesome story Calendar Man has to tell me in honor of Halloween, and then I'll be marking my calendar for the next holiday on his list (Thanksgiving?) so I can visit him then.

...I don't actually mark my calendar. My memory is good enough to keep track of one day a month I have to fire up Arkham City.



Bayonetta/Bayonetta 2
Maybe this one's a stretch. Bayonetta isn't a horror game, and it doesn't really have scary themes, either. But think of it this way--after candy, ghosts, and jack-o-lanterns, what do people associate with Halloween? Witches! And what is Bayonetta? A witch!

Besides that, Bayonetta and Bayonetta 2 just came out together for the Wii U, and they've been receiving stellar reviews. I couldn't stand seeing all those 9/10, 10/10 reviews for a game sitting in my backlog (also known as the place video games go to die) anymore, and I started it up this morning!

So far, it's a lot of fun. I'm a little uncomfortable with all the religious elements, and fighting angels and whatnot, but I'm willing to stick it out for the fun gameplay and give its crazy lore a chance. It's not like it takes itself too seriously... and I can't make a solid argument that it's anti-Christian when it starts out talking about Umbran Witches and Lumen Sages and kinds of other fictional things.

Plus, I'm happy knowing I've helped Operation Platinum! Tweet #OperationPlatinum



Alien: Isolation
Again??

Yes, again! I can't praise Alien: Isolation enough, and not only because it's terrifying. This is the kind of survival horror game we don't see enough of these days. Even though my progress through it has been almost painfully slow, I've loved every minute of it so far.

Its structure, mechanics, atmosphere, and scares work masterfully, and I just wish I had more time to sit down and play it. Today looks like the perfect day to celebrate horror by scaring myself some more.


And maybe, just maybe, if I find myself in the mood, I'll once again return to the one horror game I just can't beat...

Those are the videos games I've lined up for this Halloween--what about you?