Updates & Upcoming Content

Hello everyone!

Sorry for the radio silence lately. I'm finally getting back into the groove of things a bit, so I wanted to talk about what's been going on and what my plans are.

Basically, it's been another few rough mental health months for me. I was really hoping full-time would continue working out,  but not only did it not, it ended with me putting a lot of work into content on one of my favorite games during a huge popularity boost, and ending up with two of my most underperforming videos in a long time. It was a discouraging way to end the experiment, for sure. Add to that the process of adapting to a new job (even if, thankfully, it's only part-time), and it was a bit of a whammy. Add to THAT the fact that my mother came to stay at my house while she searched for her own, which has stretched into nearly 5 months of her living in my guest room... yeah, it's been a rough time.

All of that may be an explanation, but it's not an excuse. I've been letting myself slip into comfort gaming patterns again, and not getting the work done I want to on this webseries. But I'm finding that motivation again, and hope to channel it into the content I've been planning.

So, first things first: the videos I'm currently working on.

Why Everyone is Wrong about Hope (FFXIII):
This one is mostly done, actually, and has been for a while, but it's part of another Youtuber's gigantic video essay about Final Fantasy XIII. He's finally just about done with it, meaning this video will go up soon as part of the collaboration. I look forward to telling everyone why they're wrong to hate a traumatized child!

Prince of Persia 2008 Analysis:
This is one I've wanted to do for a long time, as I find it a fascinating attempt at rebooting the franchise by reinventing its mechanical roots while trying to stay true to the broader ideas behind Sands of Time's story. While much of it works, much of it also doesn't, all capped off by an ambitious ending (at the time, at least) with a lot to talk about. It's an easy play and a lot of my ideas have been percolating for a solid decade now, so I'm working on it to ease myself back in. 

The House in Fata Morgana Analysis:
I've been excited to play this one for a long time, but man is it DENSE. Visual novels are kind of difficult to cover in this fashion in the first place, since they have a lot more purely narrative content than most games on account of being mostly words. And this one in particular has a lot going on. After taking entirely too many hours to get through the first couple chapters, I've stopped taking notes and decided to just play my first time through without the analysis process. I'll replay it after that for note-taking. This is notable because I've never committed to two playthroughs in preparation for an analysis, but I really think this one will benefit from it (even if it means a longer wait).

Christian Dominionism and/or Imperialism in Left Behind Eternal Forces:
Yeah I don't know what to call this one. But I've long been fascinated by this attempt at Christian video game development that aimed to make an RTS with non-violent options and unwittingly ended up making a "convert or die" video game. The intersection of video game storytelling and evangelical culture is obviously right down my alley, so I've finally gotten a copy of the game and I'm looking forward to giving it a critical look. 

I've got videos on other games in the early planning/consideration stages right now as well, including:
Bioshock Infinite Analysis
Sonic 06 Analysis
The Weird Anti-Corporatism of KOTOR
Final Fantasy VI or X (not sure which, the latter might be a collab)
Halo 3: ODST
Gears of War 4

And finally, I'm going to try and do more Patreon content. Watch this space later for a poll about how regularly you'd like to see small, random updates. 

Thanks, as always, for your support and patience. Even if my circumstances and emotional state make this difficult sometimes, I do genuinely love doing this and I sincerely appreciate your part in it. I hope to give you some excellent stuff in the coming days.