Reflecting on Reflection

My writing output as of late has been one of a satisfying nature. I’m usually of the mind to better source old adages and or provide anecdote involving idioms of relevant worth in context, but as of this moment, my historical frame of reference fails me entirely. However, I feel as if my return to creative form reminds me of the notion that one may begin, but that does not mean one has truly started yet.


Always have an inside horse

With all of that said, while the creative faucet is certainly turned on, that does not mean it is always flowing full blast. To that point, since my writing is so heavily contingent on the games I play or the ideas I may have of those experiences there after, I am always on the hunt for worthy contenders of conceptual consequence, as not all games are created equally on the battlefield of intellectual endeavor. A further addendum to such an acknowledgment involves the generated excitement I may have when I’m able to get a little more mileage out of already played titles, as I may take another look back at what has been, in possibly new and interesting ways.


Probably for the best I keep putting off my replay of Desert Bus

I will now take a moment to reflect upon my reflecting, as I look back at the past week or so of gaming engagement, and see what distance and time has done in the name of my own attentive efforts. I’ll start off by apologizing for immediately lying to you, as I am reaching back as far as late July instead of just the past week, as I took a lengthy hiatus between my Pokémon “museum and paradox” article pairings, and returned with a non-technical review of a game named Wallachia: Reign Of Dracula. Which, as I felt the need to emphatically remind the reading audience of, was not in fact, a Castlevania game.


And if you can’t fashion your own pikes for mass impalement, store bought is fine

All in good humor of course, as I ended up enjoying the title quite a lot, inspite of Wallachia having very little to do in terms of gameplay feel with it’s apparent inspirations. Overall, a weird myriad of glitches, lack of QoL features, and a shallow variety of gameplay hurt the title, but not to the point of being irredeemable. I also find it very bizarre after the fact, and still randomly think about how you can’t quit to the title screen from the pause menu in Wallachia, you kind of just have to lie down and…slowly die to do so.


No worries guys, this is the fastest way home, I swear.

I was curious what the developer of Wallachia (Migami Games) was up to, and according to the platform formerly known as Twitter, they have a trailer for a new game coming out called Chronicles of the Wolf. The trailer looks decidedly way more Castlevaniaey, and one which you can view here:

We invite you to try a little demo of our upcoming game Chronicles of the Wolf on steam! Please try it and wishlist! Thank you so much! 🐺♥️

Download here:https://t.co/G1BxaYWL5h

We really appreciate it!#steamnextfest #Steam #SteamDeck #metroidvania #indiegame #RETROGAMING pic.twitter.com/wzxTGv79s3

— Migami Games (@Migami_Games) October 13, 2023

I also put forth the notion of whether or not in the wake of the whole Wallachia affair, in which the game doesn’t involve any actual vampiring to speak of, whether or not the vampire genre as a whole hasn’t at this point just fallen into the same stylistic trappings of either needing to be camp or parody in order to survive. Think in the vein of the B-movie paradox, where the more idealized a B-movie in quality becomes the worse it gets which makes it better?


I’m smiling just considering the absurdity

I happened upon Alisa next, and was quite happy with the luck in doing so, as I remember thinking just the day prior I should perhaps mosey on back to Raccoon City for some good old fashioned ADA, WAIT!-ing, which was the style back in the day. Alisa was a died in the wool Resident Evil clone full stop, and I loved every minute of it. Unlike Wallachia, which I did end up loving enough to get all trophies for just recently, I have yet to pick up the full copy of Alisa after my psuedo-preview of sorts, but that is solely a financial issue, and not one of resistance to the game itself, despite some fairly fucking horrific faux pas in voice acting.


Alisa’s VA work being a truly strong reminder that god is dead

The games tongue and cheek awareness is nothing short of divinity, truth be told. Looks like the developer, Casper Croes, is still releasing updates to the title via Steam, and generally has an energetic online presence in discussing the development process. Perhaps when I finally get my hands on the full game, I’ll write a follow up. If nothing else, I’m positively psyched we have arrived at the moment where 90’s era titles fall comfortably into the camp of nostalgia, and continue to do their due diligence in reminding the new generation of what games were like way back in the 20th century.


Seen here: The average age of one of my readers, likely sharing
an old story about an ancient piece of tech called the N64

Next up I stumbled upon the star-studded crossover known as Multiversus, in all of it’s unfortunate fixation on a financially fueled foundation. While I will defend the title in being of the more attractive outings during Sony’s “Free to play Festival”, the title at it’s core is a bog standard GaaS experience, and the grind wall that comes with it. I won’t go on too much more about the game, as my post from yesterday (which dlightly of inspired this one, actually), kind of broke down the nitty gritty of how you can have a fun game, but if you’re forcing your players to endlessly grind to unlock or purchase even the most basic of elements of said game, you’re going to make the player base feel like they’re choking down on what has been served to them.


Not unlike the gagging that goes on between Scooby and Shaggy
when they share a deep throat together

Shaggy is a playable character in Multiversus, by the way.

Overall, it seems as if the game has received a mostly positive response, which I tended to lean towards as well, so I feel as if everyone is kind of on the same page; not totally in love with the story beats, but has kept reading along anyways. Player First Games is still doing regular news updates over on their site as well as with new content for the game, and with it’s free to play nature, it would be very easy to pass your own judgements with no money down…just don’t expect much of an easy, bump free ride thereafter.

It’s going to be a real grind.


They really screwed the pooch on the financial aspects of Multiversus

This will now be the second time I’ve had to apologize for lying to you. Not for the attempts at implicit softcore Scooby Doo porn mind you, but in reference to my own machinations involving leaving the audience desiring more and the delightfully impactful contrast that an abrupt ending brings with it.

To be continued.

~Pashford

Rhythm and Flow

I’ve been making a concerted effort of writing on a more regular basis as of late, as I feel the need to clear my head while putting my feet to the fire in some abstract attempt at appeasing an amorphous, other worldly force that demands writing sacrifice to keep the cosmic clock ticking.


Even if that sometimes takes the form of making dick jokes
about Hanna-Barbera characters

To that point, I have been enjoying my time with Multiversus, which I wrote about recently. I casually referred to the write up as a “preview”, due to a couple of contentious factors that left me not knowing how else to refer to the article all together. The game is free to play, and always updating, so what I even experienced and wrote about may not even be 100% accurate in the future with more changes inevitably to come. As mentioned, the title is free to play, also making needless the goal of attempting to help consumers make an informed decision with their wallets, as trying the damn thing is free for fuck sake, leaving me kind of riffing on what is essentially a no-risk stakes battle of curious proportions.

It’s a shippers wet dream up in the Multiversus, honestly

That is where things get hard for me (err, not about erotic fan fiction, just to clarify), but about writing output after the fact. Back in the old days, when I use to get paid to do this, it was more just pushing myself to report news and forge through product on a regular basis with the idea of topicality and deadlines to follow. Now that I’m just writing for funsies, it’s a bit more difficult to churn through game after game, kind of changing the rhythm and flow of the whole dynamic. Not only am I not receiving product on a regular basis to go through, I’m also flat broke, so the stuff I’m going to play is free to play stuff like Multiversus, or games I’m probably already interested in, which will make the deconstructionism involved the experience probably a bit more safely optimistic, leading to possibly by the numbers outcomes of predictably obviously uninspired conclusions.

Wow, the mid-thirties something gamer is a fan of Gen 1 in the Pokémon series?
Shocking I say!

More my point than anything is that keeping a steady pacing on this kind of output can be challenging, all things considered. Where I thought by playing smaller experiences or doing previews, my hope is that I would have some kind of quicker rapport with the experience before moving on. That intention ended up being the complete opposite of what has occurred, as me not wanting to make my replay of Let’s Go Eevee “a thing”, ended up having me play multiple games to finish the Pokedex, my review for Wallachia (which is definitely not a Castlevania game) has me now hunting for all the trophies, and my quick preview of Multiversus turning into a daily jaunt of looney tunesesque proportions.

*Sweating* Gonna have to start turning tricks like it’s a back alley in Albuquerque to afford
all of the alternate skins for Mulitversus characters at this rate

More to my point, my write ups on ATE in recent days have been with the focus on something more digestible; not everything has to be a near five hour video essay on the ethical indignities involving the Sonic the Hedgehog series or a twenty six part series on the possible sexual proclivities of the Kingdom Hearts series.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that

I just don’t think I have that kind of energy within my being, truth be told. Shorter form affairs keep me well enough engaged, which ends up being a good thing, as the only way I’ve been able to make all of the writing work recently is with more free time, which is a happening that is soon to come to an end. It all works out, as I’ve been wanting to do more impromptu and decisive thoughts involving gaming, which makes the process of sharing thoughts less daunting than say, pouring fifty plus hours into a title, spending hours after that thinking about it, hours more yet writing it, and then hours afterwards lamenting I simply don’t have the time for anything except bitching about not having more time.

If only LEGO Doctor Who…if only

So yes, expect more brilliance ahead, albeit in bite sized format. I’ve tossed around ripped from the headlines as a regular go to for awhile now, and there are yet games I’ve been enjoying which I’ve been bafflingly mum about. I also teased a write up forever ago teasing Resident Evil 4, which I never got to, and since I am as if Sisyphus rolling the rock known as RE4 forever up the hill till time immemorial, I have little doubts I will refuse to struggle the steep ascent once more…

…cause you got to keep on rolling.

~Pashford

Draculas to Aliens

In my last post, I gave a run down on my thoughts involving a small indie title that was definitely not Castlevania, but most certainly still a fun romp when all was said and done. Wallachia: Reign of Dracula ended up being a solid old school run and gun…err, bow and go kind of side-scrolling action, more akin to a Contra or a Shinobi at the end of the day in stead of a Classic-vania kind of feel, but the inspiration is obvious.


An effort was made…we have not always been able to say the same so proudly.

There’s even an unlockable costume when you beat the game of Miriam from Bloodstained, a thankful collaboration and blessing from the big man IGA (credited as one of the essential progenitors of the Metroidvania genre) himself. I did get to thinking about the queerness of the affair, however, as I insistently pointed out that this game was not in fact a Castlevania title in the slightest, even though the name may allude to such happenings. Though, as we see first hand with thanks in the credits and even crossover references, Castlevania was indeed, at it’s root, this games inspirations.


And probably Xena for Elcin’s design..if Lucy Lawless was roiding like her life depended on it and shitting arrows on a regular basis.

My self-reflection on the write up did leave me with a sense of doubt on my own behalf, however, in just how accurate of an assessment I gave. How could a game so obviously drenched in reverence for Castlevania really feel nothing like the series it was paying homage to? For starters, much like this game isn’t one of the ‘Vania games, Wallachia also doesn’t feature any vampires whatsoever. Dracula is there, yes, and they even pay tribute to the Coppola Dracula film with the armor Oldman wears in the film, but he never actually does any vampiring of any sort to speak of. He does turn into a dragon as a saving throw against you, but I wouldn’t really list that under the purely vampiric behavior category, per se.


Though definitely a Dracula “Shit just got real” go to if I may say,

Wallachia also takes itself a lot more seriously than any of the ‘Vania games tend to, or at least, in reference to the ‘Vania series constant usage of old school monster movie cameos vs general atmosphere, the series has always kind of been happily camp about it’s own machinations, and we are all better for it. As I mentioned briefly at the end of my last write up, vampire media is almost seemingly made to be kind of cheesetastic or corny on some level (I might just be hungry thinking about it), doing it too seriously does end up making the premise feel like a forced marriage of ideas.


Or just a good old fashion awkward romance slathered in delusion

Obviously, the gameplay more than anything else will always be the grand divining force that puts everything into perspective, and in that regard Wallachia just doesn’t have the flow Castlevania does, though it is important to note it is also not trying to be Castlevania in a sense, so perhaps the comparison is moot. Within the realms of fitting more of the mold of an arcade archetype than a precision platformer, the focus of speed over accuracy is definitely one of the biggest characteristics that solidify the game in it’s quest to give respects to what has inspired it, but most certainly pushed it into another direction entirely.


If I squint really hard I can see the last boss fight from Wallachia

Which is kind of where I realized that diving into the topic…as I was doing it, was totally off base, as we are essentially comparing apples to oranges here when we really should have been comparing Draculas to aliens instead. Erroneously at first, we started with Castlevania as inspiration via a tough as nails action platformer, and we get to an arcade bow and go experience with Wallachia, it is almost like justifying the same set of expectations for the Evil Dead movies against Night of the Living Dead, or in this case, Interview with a Vampire to Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

There are differences.


For example: Tom Cruise

The zeitgeist changes, and with it, the aims and focuses shift with the perspective of both the storyteller and the audience in question, though more to the point, my focuses were not fixated upon the correct properties in question. With that acknowledgement articulated, I did continue to course correct the comparative process on my hands with Contra and Shinobi in mind, as the games are very much more in the vein of what Wallachia is trying to go for. Though, there is something to be said about the game leaning towards modernity with regards to merciful difficulty, and not only being more mindful of it’s level design and enemy placement, but general resource gathering and quality of life decisions that if it were without, would have likely had gamers burning it at the stake for being so antiquated.


Seen here: gamers when a retro title releases without QoL features these days

Truth be told, as fascinating as I would find it to go back and play aforementioned titles to really split hairs about where one goes right and the other goes wrong, I’m rather enjoying the replayability vs difficulty factor involved with Wallachia, so I’ll give it points for finding a way to strike that balance. While I have been guilty of pushing Wallachia through a comparative ringer this entire time, I do think the game stands on it’s own inspite of it’s flaws, and helps to remind gamers in general that we don’t always need a classic reinvented or some crazy infinitely updated triple A experience that keeps you playing forever to justify it’s existence.

Sometimes, games can just be fun. That should be enough.
~Pashford

To Err is to Human, to Suck, Vampiric

In spite of a positively excessive optimism involving my want to write with regular fervor and superbly matched candor, I have for lack of more elegant wording, sucked absolute dog shit in doing so.

They really do have video games about everything now a days...

To wit, I am back on the high horse of efficiency, which has been a matter of intense relevancy to me in the past involving producing interesting works. Or at least, horses are involved per say, no two neighs about it. Honestly, they are only tangentially related to the actual matter at hand, which is more about creatures of the night and what it is they actually do in the shadows.

It’s never quite what one imagines

Part of my efforts in pushing myself to write was downloading a new game to give me some fresh ideas with something juicy I could sink my teeth into. I think I must have been in the midst of a wild Castlevania kick, as I saw a title on the PSN called Wallachia: Reign of Dracula, and purely by my intensively honed in deductive reasoning skills, concluded it must be some Vania-esque knock off in which I could delight in. How much did Wallachia and Castlevania actually have in common?

Not a fucking lot, turns out

The dissimilarities don’t detract from an experience to be enjoyed, mind you, they just bring into serious question my own value system in terms of judgement and expectation. What we have here in Wallachia is really more reminiscent of something ala Shinobi instead of the Retrovania series, in all of the series butthole clenching levels of platforming glory.

Pictured: slightly related image

That is to say, Wallachia is more of a side scrolling hack and slash then a tough as nails action platformer, so just different speeds, really. So while I came for the bustle and hustle of Belmont boisterousness, I ended up rolling with the ninja like nonsense that followed suit. I mean, to that point, the game shares very little DNA with the Castlevania series at all, outside of sharing some lore and a villainous namesake the series has been ceremoniously lauded and proudly revered for doing all these long years…

And also sometimes not

In fact, I feel somewhat dickish in my attempts to discuss Wallachia, as it triggers within me the severe urge to gush about the Castlevania series with great gratuity, which may I remind you, has absolutely nothing to do with the game I’m attempting to discuss whatsoever.

…oh, you’re not the Belmont?…Who?…Elcin Floarea? Who the fuck is Elcin?

Right. So Wallachia, which is definitely not Castlevania, is more of a side scrolling hack and slash…to an extent. The main character Elcin is billed in game as an excellent archer, as such, she has trained so much with her bow that not only is she a deadly shot, but she has also mastered the ability to carry approximately one trillion arrows at any given time. This comes into play nearly immediately and never stops, as you will basically be shooting them from your bow every second of every day till the heat death of the universe rolls around.

What it looks like every time Elcin sneezes

So run and gun may have been a more appropriate dubbing of the style of gameplay, as the combat is mostly ranged by virtue of said hyper-arching, which does actually give the game kind of a Contra flair a little more than Shinobi upon further reflection. With the notion of either game in mind or Wallachia representing some halfway house between the two styles, my mind reels regardless thinking about just how absolutely jacked Elcin would have to be to pull back the drawstring on that bow so often and so quickly.

What I imagine Elcin looks like when she tries on her Captain America Halloween costume

Elcin’s absurdist protein regime is your gain, as it makes the flow of the fun feel pleasantly rapid fire. Since the title itself is in the vein of an old arcade romp, the levels feel reasonably brisk but always intense. Perhaps another point for house Shinobi as opposed to house Contra, as the game is mercifully yielding by old school standards, meaning you won’t be a one pump chump crying in a corner swaddling your broken dreams and your busted health bar every time you make a mistake. With a larger health point stack intact and plenty of chances to regenerate HP, you may find yourself cackling with glee at the size of your quiver as opposed to sobbing in agony in reference to your abysmally absent ability to attain an allocation of hit points in which to grant you safe passage.

What most Contra players look like after their first attempt to beat the game without using the Konami code

When all is said and done, Wallachia is kind of pleasantly straight forward. You’ve got hordes of enemies to mow down, your occasional yet psychotically over the top death machine boss to best, some fun ability crashes and upgrades to make the trial and error more fun to play with, and some competent audio and visual to wrap up the whole package with. I’ll now rein in my ceaseless compulsion to involve horses in some capacity while also having waited the whole article to finally show you a screenshot of in game footage involving Wallachia, just to see if any of you had even noticed or cared I hadn’t done so in the first place.

More like Forest of the Derailed, am I right? (Hint: you die here a lot).

And that’s Wallachia: Reign of Dracula; totally not Castlevania, but definitely still fun inspite of this. Is it perfect? Far from it…Wallachia is amazingly bare bones by most standards, and some may feel underwhelmed by the lack of gameplay mechanics or overall length. I think in the minds of many, old school doesn’t even exist beyond the realms of something as dated as Symphony of the Night, so anything cut from an older cloth will seem unfathomably primordial at this point, but for anyone who has the patience to endear themselves to the ways of the retro, Wallachia is worth the price of admission for fans of old school awesomeness, and all of it’s flawed glory.

In any case, what even are your expectations of vampire related media at this point? Between the absurdity that is the Vampire Diaries (Elena inventing new ways of how to be stupid on the daily), to the absolute brick of cheese that was Coppola’s Dracula (the one saving grace alone was Gary Oldman’s performance) with sound stagey bullshit and Californian accents found through out, you’ve got more sensible vampire related things to do?

I thought not

Carry on, and happy hunting.

~Pashford