Author: Trafficblast

Imagine if you somehow found yourself as an NPC in the world of your favorite classic RPG adventure. Not as a monster-slayer, item-maker, or advice-giver, mind you… just as an average Joe Schmoe who’s trying to live their life as the chosen hero goes off to fight the forces of evil. Now, imagine if, upon materializing in this world, you learned that the story the game told you wasn’t entirely accurate to that world’s reality–and that the “hero” was a bumbling psychopath who can’t carry a two-sided conversation, raids townspeople’s drawers and cabinets looking for loot, and cuts down any animal he comes across in a crazed craving for EXP. What would your life in this world be like? Could you do anything to help make the world better?

This is the idea behind Moon, an “anti-RPG” originally released in Japan on the PlayStation in 1997 that has garnered much acclaim since. Though it was only available in Japanese for quite some time, Moon’s cult-classic status among gamers and developers has given it a powerful reputation, bolstered by Toby Fox of Undertale fame citing it as one of that game’s influences. With an English version finally available after almost a quarter-century, does Moon live up to the expectations? Yes, indeed–though its age certainly shows in many places.

Moon begins with a youngster playing an RPG called Moon World, which looks like a standard 16- or 32-bit JRPG. A chosen hero is going on an epic journey to recover the light of the moon from a wicked dragon, collecting gear, gaining levels, and slaying monsters while earning the adoration of the townsfolk. As the child’s mother tells them to turn off the console and go to bed, the youth suddenly finds themselves in the actual Moon World, which looks quite different from the game they were playing. A mysterious being appears and tells you that the only way to exist within the world is to find and collect love from its populace. And thus, your journey of discovering ways to appreciate the world and do random acts of kindness begins.

While it’s based on subverting many of the tropes we see in role-playing games, Moon plays out more similarly to a point-and-click adventure game. You explore environments, talk with people, collect and buy items, and solve puzzles in order to progress. Much of the puzzle-solving comes in the form of helping out the people you meet in various ways, along with rescuing the lost souls of various animals the hero has cut down in his EXP-fueled rampage. By doing this, you can collect love and increase your love level. This stands as a stark contrast to traditional advancement and leveling-up mechanics in games, which typically reward destruction and violence in the name of “doing good.” It also gives you a deeper connection to this little world, as you feel like a steward rather than an enforcer of arbitrary good-versus-evil ideology.

Having a high love level is important, because you need love in order to simply exist in Moon’s world. Time passes in this world in both a day-night and weekly cycle, with specific events happening at certain times and on certain days. However, as time passes, your love energy drains–expend it all, and it’s game over. You can recover love energy through sleeping (which also saves the game), and raising your love level increases the maximum amount of time you can be up and about before having to retreat to bed for recovery. At the beginning of Moon, you’ll barely last a full game day. These early parts of the game, where you can only act for a very short amount of time, can be very trying to get through–eating food can help you stay alive longer, but only for a bit. But by the end, you should have enough love energy to keep going for days on end.

With a higher love level, you’ll be able to see more of the surreal and beautiful landscapes of Moon. There’s an intriguingly bizarre mishmash of hand-drawn sprite graphics, re-rendered CG, and even digitized clay models to truly convey the strange otherworldliness of this plane. It’s often jarring to see these contrasting art styles placed against each other, but in this world of living rocks, twisted haunted houses, trippy mushroom forests, and robot-powered metropolises, it all begins to make sense. The resolution in the Switch version of Moon hasn’t been improved over the original, but this isn’t as much of a downside as it might sound–if anything, the blurry, low-res look actually helps the game’s dreamlike quality.

As you play through Moon and get to know its characters and locations, you’ll start to pick up on little things–quirks that make the people and creatures living in this world charming and unique. The King loves feeding birds every morning. One of the guards seems to be a huge fan of this world’s equivalent of Freddie Mercury, and his comrade goes out every few nights to get totally sloshed. There’s a music snob living in a cave who’s always trying to perfect his guitar licks when nobody’s around. A caricature of a stereotypical suburban American family lives next to a grumpy man living in a Japanese-style home. Some of these people offer obvious quests to complete, but by more carefully following their daily lives, you’ll be treated to some fun, often humorous, and sometimes very personal interactions that reward you with a great deal of love–like playing with and training old Gramby’s pet dog while she’s ill, walking in on someone doing something in secret, or helping inspire another character in their creative passion. This is part of what makes Moon such a special experience; getting to know and appreciate these characters that would be one-note NPCs in other games on a much deeper level makes you feel far more attached to this odd little world.

Moon isn’t without its issues, however, many of which are related to its interface and lack of modern conveniences. Pixel-hunting for the exact spots to interact and use items is a bit of a pain, as is navigating the menus in which you use and store items. Fast travel is extremely limited, and there’s no way to advance time quickly short of sleeping, which can make being in the right place at the right time very difficult and tedious. Finally, there are several puzzles and events–some essential to finishing the game–that have a degree of randomness and trial-and-error to them (including a few sound-driven puzzles that will be nigh-impossible for the hearing-impaired). Because of this randomness, some rather obtuse puzzle solutions, and the frequent need to wait and pass time, Moon is absolutely not a game for those with a lack of patience.

With a bit of good old determination, however, Moon’s flaws and frustrations are easily overcome. Despite being almost 25 years old, Moon remains a thoughtful, beautiful experience that has a lot to say about the static nature of video games, how the way stories are presented affects our perceptions of reality, the rewarding nature of kindness and stewardship, and how simply being a part of the world makes us important and valuable. I don’t think I’ll forget my experience in Moon World anytime soon, and should you embark on this journey and see it through to its conclusion, I doubt you will, either.

Here’s a piece of gaming trivia to impress (or annoy) your friends–Microsoft has revealed where the codename “Lockhart” came from for the newly announced Xbox Series S.

Xbox marketing boss Aaron Greenberg said on Twitter that it came from Microsoft’s longstanding tradition to use a city as a codename. For Lockhart, it’s named after Lockhart, Texas, a city famous for smoked meats and also for being “the little city with the big heart.”

“We often use cities as codenames, in this case it comes from Lockhart, Texas. They are known as ‘The Little City with the big heart,'” Greenberg said.

In addition to that, some scenes from the 1993 Johnny Depp/Leonardo DiCaprio drama What’s Eating Gilbert Grape were filmed in Lockhart, Texas.

The codename for the Xbox One was Durango, which is a state in Brazil and a city in Colorado.

The $299 Xbox Series S is slated for release on November 20 alongside the more powerful $500 Xbox Series X. Preorders for both systems begin on September 22.

While Microsoft has begun to confirm the launch details for its next-gen consoles, Sony still has not announced the price or release dates for the PS5 and the digital PS5.

We’ve gotten our hands on mock-ups for the Xbox Series S and Xbox Series X consoles, and you can see how the consoles look in a home entertainment setup here.

This week on Wrestle Buddies, GameSpot’s professional wrestling podcast, Chris E. Hayner and Mat Elfring are revisiting one of the most iconic bits of wrestling weirdness to ever happen. That’s right, it’s Shockmaster week on Wrestle Buddies–though not the way you might expect.

We’re kicking off the show by looking back at everything that happened after The Shockmaster tripped through a wall, with his helmet falling off. What you might not remember is the character didn’t end there. In fact, he had a bunch of matches and the gimmick somehow got much more bizarre.

Then, we welcome WWE superstar Adam Cole to the podcast to talk about his shared history with NXT’s Finn Balor, and whether he’s ready to move to Raw or Smackdown. Of course, given the love we have for Up Up Down Down, we had to also talk video games with Cole, and the joy of playing Uno with your friends during quarantine.

All that plus we answer your questions! New episodes of Wrestle Buddies are released every Thursday on the podcast platform or app of your choice, including Spotify, Stitcher, and Apple Podcasts.

Microsoft confirmed the long-rumored Xbox Lockhart console recently, and as expected, it’s called Xbox Series S. It plays the same games as Xbox Series X, similar to how Xbox One S and Xbox One X have the same library. But because we’ve spent nearly a year referring to Microsoft’s next generation as “Xbox Series X,” it’s suddenly a bit confusing. You can’t just say a game is coming to Xbox Series X, as we have in the past, because that suggests it’s not coming to Xbox Series S. But this all goes back to a point from last December that has seemingly gone under the radar: The new generation of consoles is simply called Xbox. Series X (and now Series S) are simply model names.

A Microsoft spokesperson stated this plainly to Business Insider in December, shortly after the Xbox Series X name was revealed at The Game Awards: “The name we’re carrying forward to the next generation is simply Xbox. And at The Game Awards you saw that name come to life through the Xbox Series X. Similar to what fans have seen with previous generations, the name ‘Xbox Series X’ allows room for additional consoles in the future.”

But because we only had one iteration of next-gen Xbox we knew about, everyone simply carried on calling it Xbox Series X. And why wouldn’t they? To simply say “Xbox” would cause confusion, because that sounds either like you’re referring to the original Xbox system or the Xbox ecosystem as a whole, spanning all generations. It’s a problem not unlike what we encountered when the Xbox One was introduced. Written out, it’s reasonably clear, but speak the words “Xbox One” aloud and you’re left in ambiguous territory where it’s unclear if you’re talking about the current generation or Microsoft’s first-ever console.

Microsoft hasn’t spoken much about this topic recently, but as noted by The Verge’s Tom Warren on Twitter, the new marketing campaign emphasizes the Xbox name over the full Xbox Series X or Xbox Series S names.

Some observers have raised concerns that the naming convention could be confusing, particularly for consumers who aren’t plugged in and might not be familiar with these consoles. Xbox One X has already been discontinued, but when a clueless parent goes to buy an Xbox system in the future, will they have trouble parsing an Xbox One S from an Xbox Series S from an Xbox Series X? A price cut to the Xbox One S (which seems inevitable) might help to further differentiate the consoles from each other, but it remains to be seen how this actually plays out.

All of this stems from the fact that Microsoft entered the gaming console business a generation after Sony, leaving it in a position where a simple numbering system simply won’t do. The company doesn’t want to be selling Xbox 4 when Sony has the PlayStation 5. But the shift to this specific “Series”-based naming convention signals Microsoft’s new approach to console generations. It’s not immediately pushing exclusive software, and it’s positioning itself to offer a more PC or phone-like arrangement, where it releases frequent hardware revisions that all have access to one library of games. (Xbox All Access also paves the way for a smartphone-style upgrade model.) Just how this plays out long-term remains to be seen, particularly if and when Sony decides to launch a PlayStation 6, but for now, prepare to deal with the idea of just calling this forthcoming generation “Xbox.”

I grew up on RPGs with turn-based battles, but I don’t play them much anymore. Too often, they’re designed for quantity over quality, leading to long strings of fights you can grind through on auto-pilot. It’s ironic, then, that Star Renegades, which applies the run-based roguelite structure of games like Into the Breach and Dead Cells to a gauntlet of turn-based RPG battles you repeat over and over again, would find a way to reinvigorate them. Tactically taxing and demanding in every moment, Star Renegades makes every turn feel like a new crossroads where the fate of the world (or at least your playthrough) hangs in the balance. Whether it elicits ecstasy or agony, it’s always exciting.

The “run” in Star Renegades is a truncated RPG quest. Your party, which begins as a trio and maxes out as a group of six, repels a multiverse-conquering invasion force. Taking a cue from Into The Breach, failing in Star Renegades prompts you to send a robot messenger to the next dimension so it can prepare to defend itself. On the journey, you move your party around world maps, level up, equip weapons and armor, learn bits and pieces about your heroes’ backstories, and, of course, fight.

Star Renegades’ RPG trappings allow its pixel art aesthetic to shine. In moving back and forth from world map to combat screen, you get to see the vibrant, colorful sci-fi world from both a bird’s-eye and ground-level view. With little room for actual narrative, so much of Star Renegades’ world and characters is conveyed through its look and feel.

Though it looks like an RPG, Star Renegades is a strategy game at heart. Every move is a tactical consideration. In combat, it’s often a matter of timing. Every turn translates to a 30-second window of time; each character has a range of attacks that take different amounts of time to complete. You can see how everyone’s moves–yours and your enemies’–will play out on a large bar at the top of the screen.

There’s a huge incentive to make sure all of your fighters attack first–enough that you’ll change your plans to be the quicker on the draw. Most attacks will also stagger their target, pushing them back on their timeline. If you push them back far enough, they won’t attack at all. Landing an attack on an enemy before they attack also causes it to “crit,” doing extra damage, staggering more, and often adding other effects. For example: One character, Senya, has a light attack that bypasses enemies’ armor and shields when it lands first. There’s a limit to how many times you can push a turn back before an enemy performs their attack, but a full turn of breathing room gives you plenty of time to do a lot of damage, so it’s worth planning around.

Keeping enemies from fighting back is also important for your long-term prospects. Every character has two life bars: health and shields. Shields regenerate after every battle, but you can only restore health on special occasions every few fights. So, more than a traditional RPG, there’s a strong push and pull between inflicting as much damage as possible and preventing any attack that might make a lasting impact.

Each of the nine characters has a unique moveset and naturally falls into a class. Their skillsets offer enough variety that you’ll find they take on specific roles depending on what combination of fighters you amass in your party. The roster isn’t as malleable as I wanted it to be, though. I found some groups to be much more viable than others, and some specific characters, like Maryadi, the “Aegis” tank, to be more or less irreplaceable. Still, there is room for experimentation and improvisation in how you combine your team’s skills, which gives you the tools you need to strategize.

It’s a lot to consider, especially when you start adding in additional considerations like elemental damage bonuses, buffs and debuffs, and other modifiers. The game diagrams how things will play out in the planning phase: The timeline shifts to reflect when an enemy will attack once you lock in a plan to stagger them. You can see arrows indicating which character or characters each fighter will hit, and highlighting someone will show how much health and shields they stand to lose. These visualizations, while helpful, can get distracting when you have a full party, though. Where many roguelites create a learning curve around muscle memory and reaction time, you build up your skill in Star Renegades by learning its many systems and how to take advantage of them.

That understanding applies just as much outside of combat. Between fights, you navigate your party around a series of board-game-like maps, not unlike the world map in an RPG. You have a limited number of moves on each map: Three sets of three moves, which are broken up by opportunities to “camp” where your party can heal and/or apply buffs for the next set of fights, and punctuated by challenging boss fights. The map clearly shows what enemies you’ll have to fight on each square and what your rewards will be for success, giving you the ability to pick a path based on what you stand to lose and gain. As with combat, there are short- and long-term considerations. You can avoid tough challenges and cruise to the boss with full health; if you do that, though, you won’t level up or get the best possible gear. If you manage to beat the boss, which is never a given, you probably won’t be able to keep up with the enemies on the next map. The only real choice, once you’re comfortable with the systems, is to take the hardest path and play well.

The biggest oversight in Star Renegades, as with most games that rely heavily on procedural generation, is that playing perfectly may not be enough. The maps, enemy placements, and rewards are randomized on every run, so you may not always get all the tools you need to succeed on any given attempt. Sometimes it’ll be obvious, like when you show up to a new world underleveled despite fighting the hardest enemies possible the round before. Other times, it’ll be more subtle, like when you reach a boss and find that certain members of your squad aren’t as capable of handling the specific challenges it imposes. It never feels great to end a run thinking you were doomed from the start.

Getting saddled with a bad run stings more in Star Renegades than other roguelites because the runs are quite long, so you invest a lot of time and energy into each playthrough. My full playthroughs up through the final boss lasted between five and seven hours apiece. That’s a lot of time to sink down the drain because of a bad roll of the dice. You steadily earn the two persistent currencies, which you use to unlock new characters and equipment, so there are incentives for playing out each run. But with only a handful of characters to buy, and only a chance of finding your new gear on subsequent runs, they are small comfort when you come off a tough beat.

And yet, I never felt apprehensive about starting over. Even with seemingly forced failures, every run I took in Star Renegades felt like a step in the right direction. Every day, on every run, I learned more about how the systems worked. I got better at picking the right gear so my characters would grow the skills that best suited my needs. Even without progress, I felt like I was getting more out of the experience.

No matter how many hours I spent in Star Renegades, every run, every battle, every turn felt like a new captivating puzzle to solve. In my experience, roguelites lose their luster when the runs start to feel the same no matter how you change things up. Even after playing for dozens of hours and having seen the vast majority of what there is to see, I never lost interest in picking apart each battle to dismantle an opponent for a turn, then another one, and another until the battle is finished. The satisfying feeling of living in the moment and conquering it never gets old.

This story originally appeared on GameSpot sister site TV Guide.​

It’s been one hell of a journey over 15 years, but we’ve reached the end of filming on Supernatural. On Thursday, Sept. 10, which marked the show’s final day of shooting, the cast and crew flooded social media with memories and special tributes to honor their time with the series. If you thought you’d finally come to grips with saying goodbye, these sentimental messages might be the thing to undo all of that.

Jared Padalecki, who plays Sam Winchester, delivered a heartfelt post that may or may not have sent us into an emotional spiral. “I write this as I head to my last day of #Supernatural… My last day with #SamWinchester,” he wrote, noting he’d have more to say later. “Obviously, my head is spinning and my emotions are stratospheric, but there’s still a bit of time left on the clock. Thank y’all SO MUCH for the incredible amount of love and support that’s been headed our way, in these final hours. It’s definitely been felt.”

Creator Eric Kripke reminisced on the first scene shot for Supernatural. Both he and Jim Beaver, who plays Bobby Singer, honored late producer and director Kim Manners in their posts.

On Wednesday, Jensen Ackles, aka Dean Winchester, posted a short video bidding farewell to the Men of Letters Bunker, which had been the Winchesters’ home for the last few years.

Misha Collins, who plays Castiel, touched on the show’s impact on his life.

Meanwhile, Ruth Connell, who plays Rowena, wrote, “We’ll meet again, don’t know where, don’t know when.”

And Felicia Day, who plays Charlie, remembered eight years of portraying the character.

Jake Abel, who plays the Winchesters’ half-brother Adam, referenced the show’s unofficial theme, “Carry On Wayward Son” by Kansas, in his tribute.

Rob Benedict, who plays Chuck, aka God, wished his Supernatural cohorts well on the last day of filming.

Briana Buckmaster, aka the lovable sheriff Donna Hanscum, shared this photo:

Richard Speight Jr., who plays the Trickster, aka the archangel Gabriel, opened up about his incredible journey on the show.

Samantha Smith, who plays Sam and Dean’s mother, Mary Winchester, shared a photo of the show’s massive cast and crew.

Julie McNiven, who plays the fallen angel Anna Milton, congratulated everyone involved in the series.

Producer/director Jim Michaels shared a few touching photos from the set.

You showrunner Sera Gamble, who served as a producer on Supernatural from 2007-2012, sent love to her former cast and crewmates.

James Patrick Stuart, who plays the Leviathan leader Dick Roman, called the experience a privilege.

Sebastian Roché, who plays Balthazar, paid tribute to his time on the show while joking about a reboot with Jensen Ackles, Jared Padalecki, and Misha Collins’ kids.

Kim Rhodes, who plays beloved sheriff Jody Mills, honored her time on the series by sharing sentimental photos and videos.

After going in hiatus amid COVID-19, production on the show’s remaining two episodes resumed on Tuesday, Aug 18. According to Ackles, those final episodes will give fans different kinds of closure.

“Episode 19 feels kind of like the season finale and Episode 20 feels like the series finale. It’s kind of a double whammy,” Ackles previously said. “There have been some adjustments made from the scripts that we were going to shoot in March to the scripts that we’re going to shoot now. We’ve had to accommodate a pandemic.”

The remaining episodes will find a reinvigorated Team Free Will working to stop Chuck (Rob Benedict) from delivering his diabolical ending, in which at least one Winchester dies. Expect plenty of familiar faces to drop by, including Charlie (Felicia Day) and Adam (Jake Abel), as we approach the end.

Supernatural returns Thursday, Oct. 8 at 8/7c on the CW. The series finale is set to air on Thursday, Nov. 19 at 9/8.

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