News:: Schooled: How I learned to love the moe

_{[They said it couldn’t be done, but here we are… That’s right, folks! I’ll write every single one of the damn Bloggers Wanted entries if I have to! Sad puppy pictures all around! There’s still time left though. The Cblogs are right over here.  Don’t make me do this by myself. After about four more of these, it could start getting weird..... - Kevin]}

I used to think that watching Akira a few times made me an anime nerd, but I had no idea how deep the rabbit hole went. When I first joined Destructoid, I didn’t even know what a catgirl was, Moe was only a character from The Simpsons, and I just assumed that arguments over waifus were a joke. Boy, was I ever wrong….. (People take their waifus/husbandos very seriously!)

That all changed when, at the behest of some forgotten Destructoid user, I decided to try out a game called Steins;Gate. It’s a twisted up, science-heavy tale about time travel, but it also doubles as the perfect introduction to otaku culture. Over the course of my playthrough, I would learn things about myself that I couldn’t ignore. Once I began to have a grasp of the terms used, I started understanding the jokes without even having to pop open the in-game glossary. More disturbingly, I was laughing at them. This stuff struck a chord with me.

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News:: Momisms and Mom Thoughts on Gaming

[It's that time yet again for 'Who Let the Blogs Out,' our series of highlighting blogs we might have missed the first go around. In this entry, Dere discusses his mom's very definite mom-isms as she does her best to encourage and comprehend this weird new 'video gaming' thing all the kids are obsessed with. Get your work featured on Destructoid's Front Page by writing a cool blog like Dere's! And be sure to discuss your parents' desperate attempts at understanding gaming in the comments below! - Wes]

I love my mother. She's a pretty awesome lady. Growing up, she did her best to keep things sane in a household with two boys that gave everyone a run for their money, a daughter that constantly pushed the boundaries of what was acceptable in our house, and a father who was at times just one of the boys. But she was always there for us and continues to be to this day.

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News:: Destiny 2's soundtrack is so good that I never want to leave the Farm

One of the best aspects of Destiny 2 is its soundtrack, and I wasn't necessarily expecting that going in; the music caught me off guard several times during the main story missions, especially early on, and it's somehow still growing on me during my many hours spent amassing new gear post-campaign.

While the sequel's narrative is a marked improvement, there were important moments that fell totally short for me -- or would have, were it not for the emotional score doing some heavy lifting.

My personal song of choice? There are strong contenders, but that's easy. It's gotta be "The Farm."

I sometimes go back to the Farm for no other reason than to chill out with this music. It's so good. Michael Salvatori, Skye Lewin, C. Paul Johnson, Rotem Moav, and Peter Schlosser: y'all killed it.

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News:: The forgotten games of Xbox

[If you ask Sony, they'll tell you that no one cares about backward compatibility. But Microsoft? This is one thing they get. Help Michael Griff talk about some hidden gems from the original Xbox that you'd like to play on your Xbox One...if you have one, that is. How did Michael find his work displayed for the Dtoid Front Page masses? He wrote a cool blog! Why don't you give it a shot? - Wes]

The crowd goes wild! After a long press briefing at Microsoft's E3 conference, fans were on their feet giving a roar of a approval. There is no doubt the star of the show was the announcement of being able to play Xbox classic games on your Xbox One hardware. I honestly was not expecting that announcement and was well taken aback by the ovation it received. But hey, with this excitement comes a chance to write about and revisit some classic Xbox games...a win-win for me!

The original Xbox was my favorite piece of hardware during the sixth console generation and had a ton of great games. Now in a twist, I'm not going to spend time talking about the Xbox greats or the cult classics that came from the black beast. I'm sure there are plenty of blogs, videos, and articles on that subject. Instead I thought it would be cool to scour my classic game shelves and play through exclusive Xbox games that I have completely forgotten about. The games we'll be looking at are by no means the best of X, but they do offer unique experiences that are exclusive to the Xbox brand...or PC. Microsoft is funny that way.

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News:: Adept vs Amateur: Octopath Traveler Impressions

Bravely Default was one of my favorite games on the 3DS. This spiritual successor to the lesser known Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light delivered in spades with its mix of classic and new. A tale of crystals and unspeakable evil, with a job system similar to Final Fantasy III and V's, then combined with the creative Brave and Default mechanics, allowing you to turn the tide of battle in a way Final Fantasy had never allowed you before.

While the former lets you do multiple actions in a single turn by spending Brave Points, the latter skipped your turn but reduced the damage taken, giving you a Brave Point on the following turn. This clever battle system made every encounter feel dynamic and fun, and clever, modern ideas like allowing you to tune the frequency of random battles also helped the player balance their own experience.

Bravely Second, however, didn't attempt to shake things up like the first game did. A lot of reused content; characters, classes and locations hurt my enjoyment of the game as a returning fan. With Octopath Traveler on the Nintendo Switch, Square Enix goes even further back with the return of sprite graphics, and further forward by creating a brand new game world to explore on a more powerful system.

What follows are reactions from an experienced Bravely player (me!) and a fool (Kevin Mersereau) to the recently released Octopath Traveler demo. There will be spoilers, obviously.

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News:: Review: Mother!

Would you like to play a game? Well, it’s a puzzle really. It starts with Mother and Him. They are set in their home, and set upon by strangers. Only one at first, but then two, four, a grieving, boisterous entourage, a cult. All of civilization.  This film starts out playful and creepy enough, before taking a deep dive into extended metaphors, biblical allusions, amongst a growing, seething crowd of ne’er-do-wells. Depending on your what you’ve eaten, and what you’ve consumed lately, Mother! might be a ripe piece of film, or a bloody, decaying carcass for you to rip to shreds and laugh at.

Whatever your take on this film is, one thing remains true: This is not a film for everyone

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News:: Yamcha, Tien, and original character Android 21 coming to Dragon Ball FighterZ

Yamcha, the lovable loser, and Tien, the guy who goes from being the most powerful character in Dragon Ball to being on par with cede lovable loser, are coming to Dragon Ball FighterZ. Yamcha comes complete with his Wolf Fang Fist and Spirit Ball, while Tien has the Dodon Ray (which Toriyama seemed to forget Tien had), Volleyball Attack, and gets some assists from Chiaotsu's telekinetic powers. Tien's Tri-Beam even drains his HP when you shoot multiple shots, reflecting his battle with Cell's ugly form. 

The most intriguing addition is the new character designed by Akira Toriyama, Android 21. According to the V-Jump scans revealing the characters (as translated by Gematsu), 21 will be heavily involved in the Android 16-focused story mode and is a scientist with "intellect comparable to Dr. Gero." 

I guess just making up new characters addresses the potential lack of women on this roster, and if there had to be an "original character (do not steal)" it might as well be one that's super cute. At least it's not another Goku. 

Dragon Ball FighterZ adds Yamcha, Tien, and original character Android 21 [Gematsu]

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News:: The Morning After: Weekend Edition

Hey, good morning! You look fabulous.

Welcome to the weekend. Apple's big hardware event dominated the week's news, but it wasn't the only thing going down. We're still dealing with the aftermath of Equifax's leak, and now NBA jerseys come with NFC tags.

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