I haven't played any more Jungle Beat. I've been focused on the Echoes of the Eye DLC for Outer Wilds. Spooky stuff and I feel like I am close to the end? It will feel good to have the game fully complete, fully known, in a way.

All this space travel doesn't mean I am not thinking about the essay though. Javed Sterritt of Good Blood, The Hyrule Journals, and Second Wind put out a new "journal entry" this very morning about the The Question No One Asks Shigeru Miyamoto. It is superb.

I always take a lot away from Javed's videos. Besides the usual studying of his technique, I came away with a question for this "Spirit of a Galaxy Game" essay. Actually, I came away with a few and they all stem from Javed leaning heavily on interviews.

The more I discovered during my research phase however, the bigger the project grew. Coming across the term “Hakoniwa” blew the walls down and opened up a whole new aspect to the research. Suddenly things weren’t only Zelda-related anymore but Japanese culture related. This made things tricky due to the fact that I’m not Japanese. I always err on the side of caution when it comes to recounting history and events that belong to a culture other than my own, and so I doubled down on my sources, cross-checking every sentence and phrase.

The end result of this dense research is a video packed with quotes and research papers. I figured the more I can get others talking for me, the more confident I can be about my thesis. You’ll find that this video contains no opinions, but is a mass delivery on what is pretty close to every mention and discussion on the subject.

This big lean on interviews got me asking the following...

• What can interviews reveal about the spirit of a Galaxy game?
• Where and when does opinion and source blend together?
• Is "spirit" definable?

Being a student of journalism, interviews are our most valuable possession. I planned on using them, but initially, I felt this was more a opinion style essay, given the inspiration for it was from my pal's review of Splatoon 3.

I don't think it has to lean one way or another. I think it will require finding that balance in the middle. Basically, turning my own essay into its own hakoniwa and being intentionally about the spacing, sourcing, and design to convey a story. Ultimately, I am figuring out how to give the video its spirit...