Month: October 2023

Violence is everywhere. We see it in the news, movies, television shows, social media, listening to music, and playing them in a video game. Violence in video games is especially nothing new because we are used to it. Yet back in the 90s when “Mortal Kombat” was released, the parents and government tried to get the game banned for being violent when performing the “Fatality” because it was the first time it was shown in a video game format and introduced the ESRB rating system. Soon, we receive many violent games franchise nowadays such as “Manhunt”, “Grand Theft Auto”, “No More Heroes”, “Call Of Duty”, and shockingly “Mortal Kombat” as it is still a popular fighting game franchise being released and the new entry came out last month which is even more violent. You may be wondering why am I talking about violence in video games. Am I against it? No of course not, but I find it to be a very interesting topic when discussing video games. But, there is a game I want to talk about that I love to play and focus on our violent tendencies and the consequence, and that is “Hotline Miami”. Side note, there is a second game, but I like to focus on the first game alone as it was the introduction to the topic about ourselves, and quite frankly my favourite indie game. 

The story of Hotline Miami:

First thing first, What is “Hotline Miami” about? The game takes place in Miami, in 1989. You play a silent protagonist named “Jacket”, he was a veteran who fought against soviet Russia from invading Hawaii with his best friend, “Beard” in the 80s. In the game, you are tasked to take down the Russian mobster that roams around Miami by a mysterious caller. The caller will give a vague description about the location of the whereabouts as if they are ordering a pizza, and Jacket would have to follow along the plan as if he doesn’t, he will be killed. As he goes to the locations, he will don the Chicken mask named “Richard”, who represents his ego since Jacket is a mentally disturbed person who has the urge to kill after the war. 

The game has five parts with 4 chapters in each part. As you play the game, you go to the locations you are tasked with and kill the mobsters but each time you finish the job, you keep encountering “Beard” as the store clerk everywhere. But at the start of each part, you run into 3 individuals who are wearing the mask but represent Jacket’s egos. The most important ego and character that plays a big role in the franchise is “Richard”, Jacket’s persona.

Richard represents the sociopathic behaviour of Jacket and the player, but I wanna bring up the conversation you have with him at the start of chapter 2. Richard asks Jacket four questions, but the biggest question is the first one asking the protagonist and the players “Do you like hurting other people?”

As you continue, you find out you were in a coma the whole time near the end of the game, and “Beard” was dead the whole time before the game, as he was killed by a nuke launched in San Francisco by Soviet Russia when he opened up his dream store after coming home from the war. The coma showcased what Jacket did, but also misremembers details about who he killed, what he saw and what led to him being in a coma where his girlfriend whom he rescued in the previous mission, died. As he wakes up, he sneaks out of the hospital that the police are guarding to prevent Jacket from escaping. Jacket awake and on the path of revenge, storms the police station to find a man named “Richter” for putting him in a coma and killing his girlfriend. After finding him, you get the option to kill him or not. Killing him doesn’t matter as it is revealed that Jacket spared Richter since he returns in the second game and is one of the main characters. After encountering Richter, Jacket continues his task of taking down the Russian mobsters and successfully takes down everyone who runs Miami, killing the leader of the mobsters. As Jacket takes off his mask, he lights up a cigarette as he is finally at peace for a moment.

At the end of it all, you don’t feel accomplished. You questioned if it was all worth it in the end knowing what you have done. I understand this topic was a bit dark, but we don’t often talk about violence being presented in video games, and I think Hotline Miami perfectly represents it. You are left questioning yourself, and it comes back to the question that Richard asked, “Do you like hurting other people?”. 

The Music:

Before wrapping up, I like to give a quick shoutout to the soundtrack as usual. The soundtrack features a lot of music created by other artists that represent “vaporwave” as the game aesthetics is a vaporwave mix with Ryan Gosling’s movie, “Drive”. I recommend checking out the soundtrack as the playlist is available on Spotify to stream. But if you like to get a taste of what the music is, check out this track as it’s also my favourite from the game! 

Conclusion and links to the game:

Thank you for taking the time to read this blog as I share the story and implement the use of violence to enhance the story without glorifying it, and briefly going over the awesome “vaporwave” theme soundtracks. It means a lot that you stuck around reading my post and I placed the link below if you are interested in playing the game, be sure to comment down below about your favourite game or thought about “Hotline Miami”!

PC | PlayStation 3/4/5 | Xbox One/Series X/S | Nintendo Switch

The year was 2016. Everything seemed to be going downhill yet so fun at the same time, a political battle between Trump and Hilary captured everyone’s attention, Harambae, the start of YouTube’s downfall, and it was the biggest year for the controversial “GamerGate” in the gaming community. Yet, there is a game that captured everyone’s attention. What was the game? Well, it was a small indie game called “Undertale”! 

When the game first came out, its popularity blew up because of how unique everything was for being an indie game that is turned-based and the game is the definition of a “you had to be there” moment as this game was huge for gamers and non-gamers. 

The story and what makes it unique:

To summarize the game quickly as I don’t wanna give out spoilers to a short game, it is about a character named “Frisk”, he/she fell into a hole in another world full of monsters that look evil, but are quite lovely. Not getting too much into the story but I highly recommend YOU to play this amazing gem as this game has an amazing art style, story, and music. Not to mention, it was all created by one man, “Toby Fox”. – Fun fact: Toby Fox was brought in by Nintendo to create a soundtrack for “Pokemon Sword/Shield” and “Smash Bros Ultimate” to play with the creator of the game, “Sakurai”, as they brought his character from Undertale to Smash Bros.  

But there was something that stood out in this game: the option to play as a “true pacifist” as the game offers four routes to be played. In Undertale, it is encouraged you don’t hurt or kill anyone during your encounter, but instead get to know them and spare them from harm. This ranges from regular enemies to boss fights. If you complete the game without harming and killing anyone, you have completed the game as a “True Pacifist Route”, everyone lives, and it is quite a wonderful moment in the ending. There is much more I want to go into, but I think it is better to experience this on your own. But as a side note, if you do this route, you will only need to fight one boss and that is “King Asgore”, but you spare him in the end.

Did you notice how I said “Routes”? Or how I mentioned that you are encouraged to spare the monsters? What would happen if you harmed and killed the monsters?  Well, if you killed EVERYONE in each section (and you will know when you have done this), you will be completing the “True Genocide Route”. The music goes from warming and fun to an eerie ambience. You are all alone, with your thoughts, thinking about what you have done to the monsters that were living their life in peace. You have a skeleton friend in the game named “Sans” (puns on “Comic Sans”), he is a funny and very bubbly person. But in the end, you will be stopped by him in each route as you recount your action in the game, but if you did the “True Genocide”, you will have to fight him. He has 1 HP, but is considered the hardest boss in the game, and as he said before you fought him, “Do you wanna have a bad time?”. 

If you manage to beat him, you will encounter a character named “Chara”, she will jump-scare the player, kill them, and close out of your game.

Another spooky element in the game is a character named “Gaster”, you never see the character but you see his name a lot near the ending in a room full of… something. I can’t say it since it spoils the twist and ending of the game for the pacifist route. But he is up there and has many theories about people trying to figure out who he is, how he looks, and his relation to “Sans” and his younger brother, “Papyrus” (his name is also a pun of a font). For a small indie game created by one person, it has many secrets and lore packed into the game and it is quite fascinating. 

The Music:

After briefly going over the game, I just wanna say that Undertale is honestly amazing, I highly recommend checking it out. The music alone is beautiful, the game is short but very fun, and many secrets that are waiting to be found in the underworld full of fun monsters. If you have the time to check out the soundtrack, Click on this link to access the soundtrack on Spotify. But in the meantime, I wanna share my favourite soundtrack from the game that I recommend listening to. It is quite a beautiful track, and I think this song would give you a taste of what you’re getting into when you explore the rest of the soundtrack. 

Conclusion and links to the game:

If you would like to purchase the game, you can check out these links on where you can get them for your consoles! Again, thank you for taking the time to read this as I discuss the story, the uniqueness of the game and the amazing soundtracks!

Please feel free to comment about your favourite game or what you like about Undertale!    

PC | PlayStation 4/5 | Xbox One/Series X and S | Nintendo Switch 

“You are filled with Determination.”

Halloween is a very fun holiday that everyone loves to celebrate! The one holiday we wear fun costumes, watch scary films, go on a trick or treat for candies, party, and eat so much candy to your heart’s content! It is the day we focus on our appreciation for horrors, and we often indulge in the media in the spirit of Halloween, but, there is a very popular form of media to puts you in the shoes of the victim of supernatural horrors, trying to escape alive. What is it? Of course, it’s video games! But what video game will I discuss since many cover horror?… Hmm. There is “Resident Evil”, “Dead Rising”,  “Outlast”, and many more. But, there are also games with horror elements or focus on Halloween, such as “Kingdom Hearts” 1 and 2, “Pokemon” (Lavender Town and ghosts), “Costume Quest”, “Luigi Mansions” and of course “GhostBuster, the video game”! 

I got it! Instead of focusing on games where you play as someone who tries to survive, what about games where you are a supernatural being but take down demons? But what game is that? Well, allow me to introduce you to “Devil May Cry”! A fun hack-and-slash game to play during Halloween. It has horror elements as its setting, but it isn’t scary at all as you play a funny protagonist named “Dante”, a half-demon and human who loves pizza and takes the job of taking down demons as his business. There are 5 games in the franchise and 1 reboot, but we will be focusing on the most popular and my favourite DMC game, “Devil May Cry 3”!

The Story:

“Devil May Cry 3” is the prequel to the series, as we focus on an 18-year-old “Dante”. Just opening up his business and enjoying a slice of pizza, but a man named “Arkham” stops by his service shop and gives him an invitation to a party from his twin brother named “Vergil”. But Arkham’s “invitation” was just to flip his desk and vanishes as Dante pulls out his pistols. As Dante gathers all the pizza that was flung to the sky, the roof crumbles as the demon drops down and stabs the shirtless Dante. Unfazed, he pushes them out of the way and walks to his jukebox to play rock music and take down the demons as he vibes to the music. After the cutscene, you are thrown into a tutorial about how to play the game and take down the remainder of the demons. After the tutorial, you finish the opening cutscene with Dante shooting the last demon for stepping on his pizza and saying “Look like this is going to be one hell of a party!”. 

Right away, the story starts by fueling your hype and wanting more to see what else Dante will do that is cool. As you complete each level, you are introduced to many characters such as “Mary” but goes by “Lady” and is Arkham’s daughter, “Jester” who is Arkham in disguise, and Dante’s twin brother, “Vergil”. As Dante clears each level, he finally reaches the “Party” which was a trap by Vergil to steal Dante’s amulet. Both brothers haven’t seen each other for a long time, but have a strong rivalry and are ready to fight to the death as they both hate their half counterpart and don’t agree with each other. Dante despises his father (who is a legendary demon knight) and disowns his half-demon blood, but the opposite for Vergil as he despises his human mother, and disowns his half-human blood. As they fight, Vergil wins and claims the amulet from Dante. After some time, Dante awakens and enters his “Devil Trigger” form which is his demon form. Finding it cool and now more motivated, Dante jumps from the tower with style to claim back his Amulet!

As the story progresses, we soon find out Arkham is the real antagonist using everyone to obtain the twin’s father’s power using the blood of Dante and Vergil for the devil blood, and Mary for her human blood. After succeeding, Dante and Vergil put their difference aside and work together to take down Arkham, ending the fight with the iconic line, “Jackpot!”.

As the fight comes to a close, Arkham is begging Mary for help, but ashamed of her father for using her, she decides to pull the trigger. A moment that feels right for her, but soon hunts her as she continues living her life and brings it up in the 5th game. As the game comes to a close, Dante and Vergil fall to the portal to Hell to retrieve a sword that was formed after the fight. Both being rivals again, start to fight as Vergil wants Dante’s amulet to gain more power, but Dante refuses. After the final boss fight between the brothers, Vergil loses and gives up the sword to Dante and as the portal to the human world closes, Vergil tells Dante to go back home as he stays back in Hell to protect their father’s home. After the event of the game, Mary who now goes by “Lady” narrates the ending, as we see a much older Dante in his shop, and Lady agrees to work with Dante to take down demons together. As the camera pans to the outside of the shop, we see it is now called “Devil May Cry”, and leads up to the beginning of the first game. 

The Gameplay:

The gameplay is a hack and slash based around a rating system as you fight enemies, with 4 different styles of fighting. The first style is “Trickster” to utilizes evading and double jumping, the second is “Sword Master” which utilizes the special attack for Dante’s many armed blades he wields throughout the game, the third is “Gunslinger” revolving around Dante doing tricks and special attack with his iconic twin pistoles and many more firearm he gains throughout the game, and his fourth being “Royal Guard” which focuses on Dante blocking attacks but perfecting it will boost your rating score a lot to triple SSS tier if you would like to focus on rating system. Dante has two bonus styles after completing the game called “Quicksilver” (Slowing down time) and “Doppelganger” (Cloning himself). If you are playing the special edition, then you will get to play as Vergil who has one style called “Dark Slayer” which focuses on Vergil teleporting as he slashes through enemies fast in the blink of an eye. 

The Music:

As for music, it is one of the best as the Devil May Cry series soundtrack is heavily based on the hard-rock genre, and the third game takes it up a notch with iconic soundtrack such as “Devil Never Cry” and “Taste The Blood”. If you ever have the chance, I highly recommend checking out soundtracks on Spotify as it is available to stream and represent the early 2000s gaming very well. If you would like to hear a snippet of their music, I recommend checking out this video as it is my favourite track from the game!  

Conclusion and links to the game:

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog as I go through the story that leads up to the first “Devil May Cry” game, the fun and in-depth gameplay, and the rock and roll soundtrack. 

If you are interested in playing the game as a way to get into the fun franchise, then I recommend checking out these links to obtain the games for whatever platform you may be using to play your games. Remember to comment down below what your favourite game from the franchise or anything outside the franchise is!

Playstation 4/5 | Xbox One/Series S and X | Steam | Switch

P.S. The swords Dante and Vergil have were gifted by their father. Dante’s sword is called “The Rebellion” and Vergil’s Sword is called “The Yamato”.

Here’s a crazy thought, what if there’s a game about Final Fantasy and Disney characters? It sounds crazy and absurd since Final Fantasy is a JRPG that dives deep into tragic storytelling and is geared toward pre-teens to adults, and Disney is a family-friendly company that tells happy stories about whatever they can come up with that is geared toward kids. But just imagine if there is ever a game about them together… Oh wait, there is a game that’s like that, and it is called “KINGDOM HEARTS”!

For this entry, I will be talking about “Kingdom Hearts 2”, my favourite game in the franchise and why it is considered the peak of the story. Just a quick side note, do not confuse “2” for being a sequel to the first game, because although it is, it is a sequel to “Re: Chain of Memories”. Their spin-off games mislead people into thinking it is a spin-off when in reality, they play a vital role in the story. If it makes it any easier, think of the number of entries as chapters, and the games released between the number of entries are part of the chapter. So “Re: Chain of Memories” and “358/2 Days” (although released after Kingdom Heart 2) is part of chapter one and takes place after the first Kingdom Heart game that leads to “Kingdom Heart 2” (the second chapter). I am sorry if this is confusing because quite frankly the whole series after this game is so confusing that not even the fans can comprehend what’s going on most of the time. I recommend checking out the opening to the game as it covers the first game and “Re: Chain of Memories” to “Kingdom Hearts 2”.

The Story:

After the confusion, let’s dive deep into why this is an amazing game! In the first couple of hours, you play as someone named “Roxas”, a new character and takes place in “Twilight Town” during summer vacation (which they had 7 days left). As each day passes, Roxas notices how weird everything is and these creatures called “Nobody” are spawning in their home when he visits the abandoned mansion. He summons the “Keyblade”, which is the iconic weapon in the series, that surprises him and helps him take down the enemies. As he explores the mansion, he discovers an underground in the mansion that showcases he is actually in a simulator from the real world. Before he can leave the mansion, he is stopped by his best friend name “Axel”, but Roxas doesn’t recognize him since his memories were wiped. Axel pleaded with Roxas, but nothing was working. As a way to bring him back to his organization called “Organization 13”, he was gonna subdue him and summon his weapon, which led to Roxas summoning his dual Keyblade named “Oath Keeper” and “Oblivion”. Roxas was surprised he did that but didn’t know it was his during his time in the organization. After Defeating Axel, he discovers that he is a Nobody, and belongs to the real protagonist named “Sora”, who is asleep in the pod to regain his memories from the past games. After the discovery, Roxas said to Sora, “You’re lucky, looks like my summer vacation is… over”. Accepting that he doesn’t truly exist, but is the the Nobody that was formed when Sora sacrificed his life back in the first game before coming back alive. Roxas faded away, as Sora woke up from his slumber alongside Donald and Goofy. Overall, a bittersweet opening to the game to makes you cry right away before even starting the game.  

As Sora awakens with Donald and Goofy, they explore the real Twilight Town trying to understand where they are and what happened. As he meets Roxas’s friends, and bids farewell before going to “Mysterious Tower”, he sheds a single tear but does not know why since he doesn’t know Roxas’s friend well, could it be Roxas who’s crying when he resides back in Sora? As time goes on, he is in the mysterious tower with “Yen Sid” (King Micky’s mentor), given a new outfit, and is briefed about his new mission to stop the “Organization 13”, led by “Xemnas” who is the main antagonist. But since the game is long, I will be focusing on two huge moments in the game that are relevant to the game story. 

The first big moment: Radiant Garden Invasion.

As Sora travels in each Disney world, the safe area for Final Fantasy and Disney characters is attacked by Xemnas. Sora and his buddies arrive back in Radiant Garden to save the people in the town, and he isn’t alone as he is assisted by various Final Fantasy characters such as Cloud, Tifa, and Squall (who goes by Leon in the game). Not to mention, King Mickey himself. After a couple of fan services when the trios try to reach Xemnas, they are stopped by Xemnas himself. As Mickey goes to take on the antagonist, the trios are stopped by three thousand nobodies. You heard that right, three thousand! Sora tries to get them to move, but won’t budge. Sora, Donald, and Goofy separated to take on 1K each. This moment was to showcase that Sora, although a very positive and lovable character, is not to be messed with and shows how strong he is for taking on a thousand nobodies all by himself as a teenager. 

The second big Moment: Sora meets his Nobody for the first time, Roxas. 

Throughout the game, Sora encounters each organization member to take them down. But as he meets them, the member calls Sora by his nobody name, “Roxas”. Sora is mad each time for being called the wrong name, not knowing who he is and why he is called that. That is until he goes to the final world called “The World That Never Was” where everything goes down. As the trios travel in the world, time is stopped but only Sora can move. Across from him, is an individual in a hooded black cloak who belongs to the organization, but has no connection to it as they left the group in “358/2 days”. As the fight begins, you see the dual keyblade, the theme that belongs to the character… it is Roxas. It is a very emotional yet challenging boss fight, with Sora trying to understand who the hooded figure is, and Roxas trying to understand why Sora is the chosen one. As the fight comes to a close, Roxas understands why Sora is the chosen one, and Sora finally learns about his Nobody being Roxas. Before parting ways, Roxas gives his memories to Sora and vanishes permanently (until Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance as they reuinite again). Roxas became a fan-favourite character due to his tragic story, amazing soundtrack theme, and lovable personality. 

The Gameplay:

Kingdom Hearts 2 gameplay is also considered the best in the franchise due to the variety of playstyle, the rare chance of playing as King Mickey for certain boss fights, the variety of modes such as easy to “Critical mode”, and the data boss battle which you fight the Organization 13 one by one and some having its minigame during the fights. The data boss is no joke and pushes you to the limit as some you fought in “Re: Chain of Memories” (a card game) finally having a boss fight that fits the traditional gameplay, and fighting the remainder of the members who in “Kingdom Hearts 2” again but more difficult.   

The Music:

Before wrapping up, I would like to talk about the soundtrack. Kingdom Hearts as a whole is known for having an amazing soundtrack composed by Yoko Shimomura, but taken to another level of amazing in the second game. The title screen alone is iconic throughout the series for its main theme, “Dearly Beloved” playing with art showcasing the current game. It is a calming yet beautiful theme, an icon to the gaming world and an inspiration to many musical artists like XXXTentacion himself as he was a fan of the series and loved the title screen music, and J. Cole as he use Xemnas boss soundtrack for one of his earlier song. If you have the time, I recommend checking out the soundtrack as a whole and they are available to stream on Spotify as of now. But for now, if you have the time, I recommend just listening to this masterpiece of a soundtrack. 

Conclusion and links to the game:

Thank you for taking the time to read this post as I go through the parts of the game stories about Roxas and Sora, the fun gameplay, and the beautiful soundtrack that is iconic to the gaming world and musicians. If you are interested in trying out the game, check out these links about where you can get the game for the platforms you are on! 

Please comment down below on what you love about the game, or series, or simply share your favourite video game. I make sure to read the comments and get back to you!

Playstation 4/5 | Xbox One/Series X/S | PC

Heads up, I highly recommend getting them on a deal (either physical or digital) so you can get all of the games for a steep price. PlayStation for some reason is the only one to provide an “All in One” collection in both physical and digital.