January Archives - Immortallium's Blog

Why I’m excited about Sony games (hopefully) coming to PC

Published January 30, 2020

On the 16th of January, it was reported that Horizon Zero Dawn was coming to PC. This announcement came from sources rather than an official announcement from Sony so there is some doubt as to whether or not it is happening. Nonetheless, it has provoked the ire of many Sony fans. As a PC player, I am excited and I wish to explain why.

First off, most of my excitement actually does not come from Horizon Zero Dawn itself. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t interested though. The visual style of the game looks lovely and I have always been a fan of RPGs so getting the chance to play one of the most popular RPGs of late would be great. When I heard the news, I can remember thinking “That’s cool if it’s true.” but not giving it much more thought.

I would like to play Horizon Zero Dawn someday. However, there is a Sony property I’m more excited about.

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Yaoi and Yuri: Why It’s Worth Reading (sometimes)

Published January 27, 2020

There is no doubt in my mind that many manga fans lose interest in a series when they hear that it is either a yuri (dealing with love between girls) or a yaoi (dealing with love between guys). No doubt the primary cause is that these genres have a reputation for being smutty and near pornographic (some do cross over into that territory). However, I argue that, like with any genre, there are gems hidden in these genres and I fully believe they are worth reading. It is worth noting that the manga genre of Yaoi and Yuri were popularized…

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Makoto Shinkai: My History With His Works (And Him)

Published January 23, 2020

I was in a cinema on the night of the 15th of January. The theatre was packed with enthusiastic fans who were eager to see the double bill of Your Name and Weathering With You. It would be the fourth time I had seen Your Name and, of course, the first time I would see Weathering With You. Watching Your Name in the cinema again, though, provoked memories of when I had seen it for the first time in a cinema and how I had compared it to his other works. I’m sure like many people my age, the first…

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Western RPGs vs Japanese RPGs

Published January 20, 2020

Not only is Final Fantasy IX my favourite Final Fantasy game but it is also my favourite video game ever! Back in 2016 when I was playing through the Steam release of Final Fantasy IX, I was desperately looking for anything that analyzed and broke down the game and, to my good fortune, I found a few episodes of Dev Game Club, a podcast in which two game developers analyzed Final Fantasy IX from episodes 11 to 15. What stood out to me was that one of the developers had not played JRPGs before and found certain aspects of them…

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How Can I Read Manga Online Legally?

Published January 16, 2020

I thought I might do something a little different with this article. In “Why I Loathe Manga Chapter Reviews“, I mentioned that one of my biggest issues is the use of scanlations. The question that follows might be “Where do I read these manga legally?”. I spoke before about how I personally prefer physical releases but I cannot dispute that many people choose to consume media digitally. Therefore, I thought I might make a list of legal services where you can read manga digitally. I used to subscribe to the digital English language version of Weekly Shonen Jump. Since then,…

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Studio Ghibli: What Happened To Them?

Published January 13, 2020

There is no doubt that Studio Ghibli holds a legendary status amongst anime companies. From their first film, Castle in the Sky to their most recent film, When Marnie Was There, they have released, not only some of the best films that anime has to offer but also amongst the best that animation has to offer. From being the first (and, as of this article, only) anime studio to receive an Oscar for Best Animated Feature to being the first animation studio to win Best Picture in the 1998 Japan Academy Film Prize, their legendary status cannot be disputed. When…

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Souls-Like: A New Genre?

Published January 9, 2020

I am a big fan of the Dark Souls games. Huge fan in fact. I consider Dark Souls and Dark Souls III to be some of the best games to have been created in recent memory. As a fan of these games, it is understandable that I have tried to seek out games similar to these, the term Souls-Like being coined to describe games similar to Dark Souls. Let’s start by defining what a Souls-Like is. Being such a new term, there can be disagreements on what defines Souls-Like games but commonalities typically include: Dark Souls has undoubtedly had an…

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Why I Loathe Manga Chapter Reviews

Published January 6, 2020

When I first began making content for YouTube, there was (and may still be) a strong trend for manga youtubers to review manga chapters as they came out. I ultimately resisted this temptation and, as time went on, I began to feel repulsed by chapter reviews, viewing them as meaningless content as well as actively damaging to the manga industry. I will try to make my viewpoints clear in this article. Let us start with a question. What does it mean to review? I want you to take a moment and think about what that means. Done? To me, reviewing…

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Noitamina

Published January 2, 2020

I love the idea of Noitamina. If you’re unaware of what Noitamina is (animation spelled backwards for one), it started as an anime programming block in 2005 on Fuji TV, one of the major television networks in Japan. Its stated goal was to expand anime’s viewership by producing shows that appealed to audiences outside of the standard anime demographic. As I stated before, I love this concept. I believe that for anime to thrive, we need to expand the demographic to include more people of different ages and genders. The desire to create shows aimed at different demographics also means…

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Category: January