Gametrodon

Author: MrBlueSky

  • A Rant about Comics p2. – Grump Week

    Hey, so this post is a bit of a bummer, so maybe read Part 1, where I talk about a bunch of cool comics you should read first?

    I’ve been trying to figure out for the better part of a decade why I kinda quietly loathe most American comics, and I’ve gone through a variety of theories, ranging from reasonable to something an incel might hear and go “Hey buddy, maybe tone that one down a bit”. I’m gonna go through them here, and mention why I’ve discarded them over the years, including the most recent theory.

    Things I thought in high school

    Theory #1 – Japan is just better at comics.

    Yes, this was a thing I actually believed at one point. Look, I was probably 14. I don’t think this anymore mostly because despite how I sound about this sort of stuff, I’m not a weeb. Nationalism doesn’t really explain it.

    Theory #2 – The disconnect between artist and writer makes garbage.

    Another Highschool theory, but one I still reflect on a fair amount. The comic that made me discard this was Death Note. After all, if Japan could turn out something like that via a writer/artist collab, clearly the problem wasn’t not having the artist write the comic.

    Theory #3 – Endless reboots, weird numbering, and other stuff make it effectively impossible to actually READ a comic.

    It’s at this point I start looking inward, trying to figure out if perhaps the problem isn’t with the comics themselves, but with my consumption of them. These days if I want to read something, I know where to find it, but prior to me really understanding the internet, if I wanted to read comics, I had to actually go find them.

    Like, physically in the world.

    So, my theory was the fact that it was hard for me to ever finish a run of an American comic, given how meandering they were, as opposed to something straightforward an easy to read like One Piece, where each numbered chapter just went into the next, that this was the cause of my dislike.

    Unlike the other theories above, I think this one actually WAS true, at least at some point. But it’s not true for me as an adult.

    Theory #4 – While both Japanese manga artists and American comic book creators work in an industry that demands too much work for too little pay, the nature of ownership of a comic being different is some sort of motivating factor in quality.

    So, I moved onto kinda just blaming capitalism. It would be nice if this is the real problem… but here’s the thing: I still don’t think it is, mostly because the shit that manga artists put themselves through is not the sort of stuff you do if you “just want the money”. You gotta start by having some sort of passion for art if you’re gonna work 12 hour days for 6 days a week year in, year out, and even then, you can just fail.

    Things I’ve thought as an adult

    Theory #5 – I am an immature child, and cannot appreciate comics made for adults

    Again, another attempt at turning inwards. Perhaps, I thought, as someone raised primarily on Shonen Jump, I simply lack the maturity to read stories that aren’t intended for 14 year old boys. Perhaps I’m just not cool enough for shit like Rick & Morty, or Game of Thrones.

    Anyway, I spent part of this weekend reading all of Something Is Killing the Children, and yknow what? Nah. Fuck you. It is fact not my fault that I don’t like your slaughterhouse bullshit where we have kids and their families getting butchered by shadow monsters.

    Also, I think some of it is also that we have enough awful shit in the real world like Epstein and the protestors killed by ICE that I simply don’t have the tolerance to be pulled by the heartstrings about this fictional shit. We have real organizations that should care more about children then they actually do, and allow evil things to harm them. They’re called the Florida prosecutors office.

    And lest you think I sample unfairly: This is the shit that’s winning the Eisner for best writer.

    So no, I don’t think it’s my lack of maturity that’s preventing me from appreciating your fine writing, I think it’s the fact that I’m tired of watching kids being shredded like tissue paper in service of a narrative that doesn’t seem to do very much.

    Theory #6 – Anything I read from japan was good enough to get a translation/localization, even if it’s a shit one, so SOMEONE liked it enough, while the same is not true of American comics.

    This is one I came up with earlier this year, and I was convinced that I had finally figured it out. See, any Japanese manga I read had to be popular enough to be localized, or good enough that some fan group decided to translate it.

    This then meant that when I read manga, I was only ever reading the cream of the crop, the finest cultural exports of soft power sampled and sifted before being passed across to me. Whereas for any given American comic I picked up, I was sifting through a pile of detritus that could just as equally be someones magnum opus as it could be their way of paying rent that month.

    And, then I read a bunch of modern popular American comics like Absolute Batman, and DC KO, and there just wasn’t a single one I didn’t look at and find myself somewhat annoyed by.

    Theory #7 – Format differences mean that purely as a matter of the practical physical medium, American comic book artists and writers are working with FAR less pages then Japanese manga creators, and as a result, end up creating an accelerated (and poorer) product.

    This is the closest I have to a current theory, though realistically, it’s probably a combo of a few of the above. Something like Absolute Batman is working with 24 pages a month. One Piece (okay not all the time) gets 16 pages a week, meaning they get more then double the physical space to work with, admittedly on shorter deadlines.

    Surely then, this is the reason that stuff like Jujutsu Kaisen can spend 64 pages (4 WHOLE CHAPTERS!) on a side showdown between a literal joke character and the secondary villain, whereas DC KO can’t even spend a full 10 pages on having Superman fight Darkseid.

    One Other Quick Rant

    Theres a trope in American super hero comics that I saw crop up multiple times in my binge read over the weekend that all feel incredibly hollow these days, and I’m going to devote a small portion of this write-up to shit talking it

    The Truth will save the day!

    In short, the idea that if you can just show everyone a video of the Bad Guys doing The Bad Thing, you have won. And just.

    No.

    No it fucking won’t. It probably hasn’t had the ability to do this since 2016. Maybe earlier.

    It’s not just comic books that do this, Disclosure Day by Spielberg also has a similar ending, and The Expanse does this once or twice as well.

    It rings hollow in our age of misinformation, and it’s harder to suspend disbelief for then it is the latex skin-suits and tighty whities.

    This narrative needs to die.

    In Conclusion

    A lot of popular American comics kinda suck ass. There is no magic bullet to save the world. You should read Guts County, Hilda the 13th, Nothing Doing, and Wrestleheist.

    I’m going to go jump in some freezing water, and then play Mina the Hollower.

  • A Rant About Comics (Part 1) – Grump Week

    Grump Week is almost over, but since I’m getting all this frustration and annoyance out of my system, I figured I might as well take one last rant (okay, one of two) that’s kinda been bubbling in my system over the last few days, and smack it out onto paper. Ultimately, it’s about how I just don’t like American comics all that much, but it’ll encompass a little bit more than that.

    First, though, I want to talk about some cool shit I have been reading that I like.

    The Good Stuff

    I offer these to show that I’m not intrinsically biased against American comics. To prove that I’m giving them a fair chance, and that I’m not simply allergic to the medium. Also, because all of these rule, and you should read them.

    Hilda The 13th

    It’s a webcomic about a bunch of witches who do things with computers, with a lightly serialized story, but a strong focus on each individual comic having its own punchline. Feels like something that deserves to be in the papers. If, y’know, papers still existed, and were also okay with characters being queer. Anyway, it’s great, and you should read it.

    You can start from the beginning by clicking here.

    Guts County

    A light narrative comic about Heck, a bone farmer in hell, Chainsaw Wolf, a wolfman with a chainsaw for an arm, and their various friends/frenemies/acquaintances. Definitely NSFW, but mostly because of the punchlines, and not the art. Again, incredibly funny, and you should read it.

    Here, click this link and read it.

    Nothing Doing

    This comic summarizes very accurately how I felt being told me to be enthusiastic about AI at my last job. I got laid off from that job, along a huge chunk of my coworkers, so that the company could spend more money on AI.

    Nothing Doing has its own description, one that I think is perfect so I’m just gonna repost it: It’s a slice of life comic about loving your friends, and hating your job. It is incredibly funny, and again, you should go read it.

    Also, I’m pretty sure that putting the same link in my post multiple times is gonna screw my SEO, but I’d rather write for people instead of robots, so here’s another link to the comic.

    Wrestle Heist

    Imagine all the old wrestlers teamed up to finally give Vince McMahon what he so richly deserves: an ass beating, and stealing all of his stuff. That’s pretty much the premise of Wrestle Heist, in which a bunch of wrestlers forced into retirement decide they want payback, and start doing some Oceans 11 style stuff to get it.

    For the others I’m linking to their webpages. But for this one I’m linking to the place you can buy it, and the author’s store.

    And like. If you wanted to read it for free, you’re smart. You could probably figure out. I’m not saying that’s what I did, but I’m also not-not saying that I have atoned for my sins by purchasing the trades that were available at my local comic book store, and then pre-ordering the full collection. I think there’s a comic word for that second one, but I don’t know it, and I’m afraid that if I tried to find the term, my search engine would tell me to eat rocks.

    Anyway, I’m gonna end part 1 here, because it looks like my WordPress instance is actively dying from there being too much text in the full post. More in part 2.

  • Relic Arena – Grump Week

    Relic Arena – Grump Week

    The Autochess/Autobattler genre is kind of weird. It just showed up one day as a Dota 2 mod, got immediately yoinked by Riot for Team Fight Tactics, and then… well, then we didn’t get any more huge swings at the genre, at least on PC.

    And no, I don’t count Underlords.

    That’s not to say there aren’t any. Super Auto Pets, Storybook Brawl, Once Upon a Galaxy, and parts of games like Vivid Knight all cribbed elements of the OG autochess games, but like MOBAs before it, there are a fair number of game design choices that are less “intentional” and more “the engine already does that.” The end result? When bigger companies ripped off developed games in the genre, they took a lot of things that gave those original games their character and polished them out.

    To me, the biggest one of those changes is the focus on abstract positioning. (Okay, Nexus Amina does this, but it isn’t even out yet.)

    Enter Relic Arena.

    Most modern Autobattlers focus on upgrading characters, and choose to drop the entire concept of items that was present in the earlier games. Relic Arena goes the opposite direction. Instead of upgrading characters with abilities, the “characters” are a set of bodies. They’re just blank archetypes that can be swapped between rounds if needed.

    Here, it’s all about the items. Items taken from real history, like the Aztec Sun Stone, the Mask of Agamemnon, the Titanic… and the Porcelain Throne.

    It is a toilet. It turns into a toilet monster.

    Relic Arena is on the grump week list not because I think the game itself is particularly bad, but because… well, because I find the theme off-putting. It’s doing that “educational blurbs next to a statblock” thing I’m mostly familiar with from Age of Empires.

    The thing is, if it was just the items, I think I could handle it. I wouldn’t like it, but I’d be quietly amused.

    Except… it’s not just the items. In addition to items, at the start of each match, you pick a leader. Leaders give passive build-around benefits of some sort. And the leader selection is full of famous historical people like Karl Marx, Abraham Lincoln, Alan Turing, and Harambe, the dead gorilla from 2016.

    I know what you’re wondering, and yes. I have played most of my (very few) games as Harambe. They had a free weekend celebrating his death where he was unlocked for everyone.

    I dunno. It feels like the character select screen of a RTS from 2532, once these people are so long dead they’ve just become mythical figures, and not like… people? People whose visions of the future are actually still kinda being fought over and debated?

    I think I knew I was out when I unlocked the Native American skin for the Witch class of character. My internal monologue just went “Nah man. I’m out.”

    I’m good. I don’t want no part of this, no matter how clever your system of ordered item executions is. I don’t want to hear VTuber Abraham Lincoln in the corner of my screen talking shit when I get a killing spree.

    I. Am. Good.

    Okay, actually, while we’re talking about Harambe

    Look. Gorillas in zoos is just weird. There are a lot of animals where it’s just like, sure, whatever. Put it in an aquarium, put it in a cage. It’s not great for the animal, but it’s also not like the worst thing.

    I remember seeing a gorilla in a zoo an incredibly long time ago, and it’s stuck with me. Not because of any particular outrage or anger or anything, but just the sense of looking at it on the other side of the glass, looking at the eyes, looking at how it moved, and feeling this weird sickness in my stomach. A little part of me telling me “Yeah, no. No, this wrong. This is weird.”

    We shouldn’t keep gorillas in zoos.

  • Slay the Spire 2 – Grump Week

    Slay the Spire 2 – Grump Week

    Slay the Spire was the original digital deckbuilder as far as I’m concerned. At least, it was the first one everyone played.

    Since then, we’ve had countless riffs on the theme. Dicey Dungeons, Monster Train, X-Angels(maybe don’t click this one), Monster Train 2, and many more. I don’t think we get any of these without Slay the Spire. Some are a bit copy-paste like Across the Obelisk. Others were genuinely transformative like Inscryption.

    Now Slay the Spire 2 is here. The true sequel to the original. What does it bring us?

    Mostly more just Slay the Spire. 

    There was nothing I ever found particularly “bad” about Slay the Spire. I went a bit crazy for it, tried to persuade all my friends it was cool, and dropped out around 62 hours. It was genre-defining. Emphasis on the word “WAS”, because it’s been six years!

    I’ve gotten to ascension 10 in Slay the Spire 2, and I’ve “played” about 52 hours. The “played” is in quotes because a lot of that time was spent in multiplayer, and some some of that time was spent dead.

    I’m going to say one nice thing about Slay the Spire 2: I like that their multiplayer implementation isn’t turn-based, and lets everyone play cards freely. I would have liked it more if they hadn’t chosen to make their ascension system progress separately between single and multiplayer. 

    Here comes the new game, same as the old game.

    Games like Hades have proven that you can tell meaningful characters’ stories in roguelikes. Games like Inscryption have proven you can wrap in alternate puzzles and mechanics to deckbuilders. 

    Slay the Spire 2… does none of that. This is the level of mechanical and narrative innovation I grudgingly tolerate in Pokemon games, not what I expect from best-selling sequels to indies.

    So what do we get? There are also two new characters, bringing the grand total up to five. The Regent has an alternate resource pool that doesn’t refill between rounds and he spends for attacks. The Necromancer has a skull hand familiar that shields her. I don’t really love either of them to be honest, and as lame as it sounds, most of my time has been as the starting character: the Ironblood.

    There’s also multiplayer. A lot of my playtime was spent in multiplayer, and it was spent being dead.

    Overall

    Slay the Spire was a good game. But when I put it down, I was finished playing Slay the Spire.

    If you loved Slay the Spire, and your fundamental  problem with it was that there wasn’t enough of it, maybe this is for you. I don’t know what it says that I can play 50 hours of this, and remember virtually nothing about it. I’ve enjoyed all of the games that came after it more.

    Okay, except maybe Across the Obelisk.

  • Grump Week 2026

    Grump Week 2026

    It’s been a long time since I’ve done a themed week on the blog, hasn’t it? I think the last one was Lorcana, and before that it was Disgaea. Both were motivated by different things. In the case of Disgaea, it was blatant pandering to NIS America in the hope they would give a prerelease copy of the newest Disgaea game, and as far as I can tell, it worked. In the case of Lorcana, it was to perform some early analysis of the game and its pricing. 

    And now we have the third theme week: Grump Week. Why, you ask?

    I have been playing a pretty decent number of games over the last few weeks, and nothing has really grabbed me enough to write about. As an amateur writer, I perform my writing by entering a fugue state, and committing my mental state to paper as best I can. 

    I try to be positive about things. This does not mean that I write good stuff about things I think are waste of time and money. It means I try to focus my efforts on things that I like. Again, I don’t do this professionally, so I can decline to write about things I don’t like. 

    At least, most of the time. Dear readers, everything I’ve wanted to write about for the last few weeks has existed somewhere along the “Fuck this bullshit” spectrum. I have tried new things. I have branched out. I have played older things in the hope of finding something to review. Upon looking within, the only feelings I can find resemble spite. 

    So I’m going to give in to anger and write about some of these games I do not actually like. Also, I am going to be talking a lot of shit about things that other people really like. Often things my friends really like! Spoiler: one of these games is up for the Spiel! (And I think it’s a bit shit.)