Returning to Gaming, this Blog and my Art

So it's been four years since I've blogged something!

I just felt like I wanted to say, somewhere, that how awesome it feels that retro games are being recognised more seriously by my childhood darling, Sega.




A few weeks a go, Shenmue 1 and 2 got a re-release. That was a surprise! But it was more of a surprise that they didn't at least update the graphics :( I mean come on, the Yakuza series looks great, why wouldn't they? Luckily, Shenmue's graphics still look okay, but I think any update of just the polygons would've been great.

All during that, Shenmue 3 is being developed by Yu Suzuki (away from Sega, mind), where his team are struggling getting faces right, sigh. Other than the faces, the game is looking just wonderful. But, the face is what us humans connect with most, on a visual level. It just makes me wish someone at Sega Japan could help Suzuki out, and maybe give him the original 3D model files or something, even just for the greater good? I mean, he did do a lot for them back in the day (Shenmue, Virtua Fighter, Out Run, Space Harrier, Virtua Cop...).

Yesterday, Streets of Rage 4 got announced, which is huge! I just hope Yuzo Koshiro is involved in its soundtrack (I even tweeted to him and asked - but no reply). Saying that though, the reveal trailer's music doesn't sound bad:

The trailer's music was provided by Kirosen, who make music especially for advertising and animation. Perhaps, the trailer's sound has nothing to do with the final game...

And just today, I discovered EmuParadise will no longer provide ROM games through their site, which is a big bummer for those who haven't yet played the games from the last 30 years or so. However, I am sure someone out there has downloaded their entire ROM catalogue anyway:

What I find intriguing is that all this is happening now, after we've been emulating games for decades. Companies (namely Sega) are finally seeing the value in their old IPs (Nintendo have always been well in touch with their past!). Seeing a redux of NiGHTS into Dreams, Shenmue, Wonderboy and Streets of Rage 4 is showing that. The possibilities are endless now, and I'm excited with who Sega will hand their licensing over to next. They did a great job with Sonic Mania, and handed it to people who are actually passionate about Sonic - probably where their past Sonic games went wrong - namely Sonic the Hedgehog 4 - what a flop! Perhaps that was the slap in the face they needed.

Sega did disappoint me with Shenmue's lack of a proper remake, I'm not buying the game. It feels like they just released it to ride on the hype of Shenmue 3, a game that we've (fans) wanted as much as Streets of Rage 4, if not more.

This is a bit of a vent for my first post in 4 years, I guess. I've actually not been playing games much at all lately. But it's a world I've been subconsciously planning to return to once I've finished this semester (studying MA Illustration until next year).

Just a last week, the old Gamestation/Game shop I used to work at got boarded up. With destruction comes creation. The old colleagues set-up a group chat announcing that, and I reconnected with people I hadn't spoken to in five years or so. This led on to me being invited on to a couple of Discord channels, which led me on to joining a bunch others.

• Art Lounge [nice for art feedback & news]: https://discordapp.com/invite/5ZEmVWq
• Phantasy Star Fleet [nice for PSO2 updates]: https://discordapp.com/invite/pso2
• PSO2 [nice for looking for PSO2 peeps to play with]: https://discord.gg/9nHqmjH
• RadioSega [nice for Sega updates]: https://discordapp.com/invite/vpdpcDc

With that last one, RadioSega is my fave, probably because it's a closer knit community and seem really friendly. I only just re-discovered RadioSega two days a go, through the Simple Radio app on my iPad (which I discovered through my housemate). Apparently I joined RadioSega as a user in 2012 and totally didn't see their website's awesome playlist requesting system. It is awesome because I can play old Sega game music on the fly, without having through YouTube or my HDD back ups! (And with Sega waking up to certain things lately, I worry a little. I just hope they don't destroy fan ventures like these too...)

I'm going to write a bit more about Phantasy Star and my disappointment at the lack of a Western releases for PSO2, Phantasy Star Nova, Phantasy Star Saga, there's probably more... Why is Phantasy Star not getting seen to in the West? I can only imagine it's a disjointed relationship between Sega of America and Sega of Japan, and a lack of resources (they're probably still recouping finances after the Sega Saturn and Dreamcast). How frustrating it must be though, to have a company with so many fans, so many franchises, so distorted across cultures...

Well, at least Phantasy Star is doing well in it's homeland. The new IDOLA release for PS Saga looks cool, they've mastered that 2D doll-style animation (looks like it uses nodes?), and I can see elements of old enemy Dark Falz (from PSO Epsode I & II) in their designs:

Regardless of where games are being released, it's heartening that Phantasy Star (as a brand) is going from strength to strength, and overall, not deviating away from itself. Perhaps, this is what Sega of Japan are doing too with their arm of the company. Today, it really feels like Sega of America and Sega of Europe are separate entity to them. Hopefully one day, something will come along to reconnect those boundaries!

So that's what happened when I tapped back into a world I used to know so well. How am I going to get back into gaming? There are so many games I have half-finished on my Xbox 360, including Lost Odyssey, a really beautiful game. Then there's a few others, like Eternal Sonata and Vanquish and the DLC for The Evil Within. I've also thought about PSO2, but MMOs always require a certain amount of dedication, with no real end game. I think I want something a bit more substantial, a bit more satisfying. But I'm also in no real rush, and I still have some uni coursework to finish this semester. 

I've been thinking about my art as well, and where I want to take that. I've shot a couple of sketch videos on the You of Tube, the first being this one:

Naturally, I want to do more of these. I have been thinking about where to take my art over the next year or so. It's something I've also taken a strangely long holiday from, and that I'm finding my bearings on (but I'll save that story for another post).

Overall I want to get back into enjoying life as well, and gaming was part of that. But I'd like to use gaming as a leisure now, not as an escape, which I think it mostly was throughout my growing up. And I'm realising the reasons why (but again, I'll save that for another post). Games are an artistic inspiration as well of course, but finding that balance between work and play is key.

So one step at a time...