What's My Deal? 7/3/24
(Editorial Note: I was ready to post this newsletter last week, but then I got hit by COVID! For the very first time! So sorry if some of these observations are about a week late. Once I’ve recovered I’ll be back with another newsletter, and it might be about having COVID! Or something else. We’ll see. Anyway, enjoy this one for now!)
Hello once again!
I hope you’re all doing well. It’s been too hot in Chicago lately and I haven’t been enjoying it! I don’t function well in this heat. I’ve done several outdoor runs in 90+ degree weather over the last week, and if you can tell from the running selfies I’ve posted on Instagram, each run was a test of my iron will.
But otherwise, I’m doing pretty alright! Let’s get into what I’ve been into these past couple weeks!
ELDEN RING & DRAGON QUEST
Since the pandemic started, there’s two game series I truly fell in love with: the Souls series and Dragon Quest. And wouldn’t you know it, both series have had a pretty eventful month! I’m having a blast over here.
Elden Ring completely sucked me in upon release a couple years ago, totally by surprise. I’d never played a single Souls game before, assuming they’d be way too hard for me and I’d bounce off them quick. But I noticed Elden Ring was getting heaps of praise, and I just decided - eh, fuck it, let’s see what all the fuss was about. And after losing 150+ hours to it, I can safely say I clicked with it pretty hard!
Even after finishing it, I realized that the addiction was worse than I thought. I tried playing some other games, but nothing was hitting the same way. And then I said, fuck it! And started playing the first Dark Souls for the first time. And then Bloodborne. And then Dark Souls 2. And then Demon’s Souls… and on and on it went.
(For the record, I think Dark Souls 3 is my overall favorite, and as much as I loved Sekiro it was so tough it started stressing me out and I had to put it down halfway through. Maybe one day I’ll get back to it!)
All this to say: Elden Ring just released a new DLC, Shadow of the Erdtree. So I’m back where I started, god help me. This thing is gigantic, beautiful, and frighteningly tough in a way the base game never was. I’ve been sucked back into this game in a way that is kind of a problem. When I’m not playing it, I’m looking up guides for builds online, trying to figure out the right combination of weapons and talismans for whatever beautiful nightmare of a boss I’m going to take 150 tries to defeat. Honestly, even as I’m writing this, I’m thinking about what I’m going to do next time I play it!
It’s a problem, folks. A real problem. So if you have trouble getting ahold of me over the next month or so, you’ll know why.
So yeah, jumping back into Elden Ring means I had to put Dragon Quest XI down for the time being, as much as I’ve been loving it. But! I’m still very excited for the HD-2D remake of Dragon Quest III, which might be my favorite in the series so far (haven’t finished VII through XI yet). They gave us a lovely teaser trailer for this thing 3 whole years ago, and never talked about it again. I was worried they were going to cancel it!
But not only did the last Nintendo Direct finally drop a new trailer and a release date in November, it turns out they’re also remaking Dragon Quest I & II! Oh, what a delight.
I’ll probably get more into my thoughts about Dragon Quest III when the remake comes out in the fall. But I will say that, if you’re a fan of JRPGs at all and have never played it, I really recommend you do. DQ3 originated pretty much every single JRPG trope you can name, and thensome. If there’s an RPG you grew up loving in the 90s thru the 2000s, it inevitably took something from this game. It was such a monster hit in Japan when it came out in ‘88 that its influence can be felt in pretty much every single Japanese RPG made since. I can’t tell you how many times while playing it I discovered little things and thought to myself, “Oh, Pokemon took that!” “Hey, they did the same thing in Earthbound!” “Ocarina of Time definitely referenced that!” And on and on and on.
I’m glad DQ1 thru 3 are getting these nice, pretty remakes. There are versions of them currently available on the Switch/Steam etc, but they’re shoddy mobile ports that look like garbage and have a bunch of cut features. I played the Game Boy Color ports of the first two games, and the Super Famicom remake of 3, and as great as they are they’re not really accessible to anyone who doesn’t use emulators.
So now that Dragon Quest III is coming out on modern consoles, all my good friends who love JRPGs can play it! And talk to me, in particular, about it. I can’t wait!
COMICS
Last week Pseudonym Jones popularized a trend called “Make A Terrible Comic Day,” prompting anyone who wants to - regardless of skill level - to make a quick, shitty little comic and post it for everyone to see. I love challenges like this, stuff that forces you to silence the nagging self-critic in your head and just work on instinct. I have a hard time doing this, so it was nice to have an excuse to make something quick and dirty!
(And, as you can tell, I can’t get away from Elden Ring lately even in the art I’m making. Someone take this game away from me PLEASE)
I’ve also shied away from making autobiographical comics lately, so making a quick little one about my sweltering runs was nice. And it was heartwarming to see so many people not only posting their own little comics, many of which never actually drew before. And some of them are continuing to make more!
Folks, it’s nice. It’s a nice thing. More art in the world is simply good.
Also, the “Death of Red Ring” arc for Red Ring of Death continues. I don’t have too much more to say about it now since there’s so much more left to do! But I’ve gotta say, I’m having so much fun drawing these freaked out horrible faces. I don’t get a chance to do it much in the comic typically, so I’m really taking every excuse I can to bust them out this arc.
And speaking of that… I should get to work on the next strip right now! That’s all I have for the newsletter this week, folks! I have a draft of a newsletter I wrote about The Hornet’s Nest that I wasn’t crazy about, so not sure if that’ll be the subject of the next one. We’ll see where the next couple of weeks take me.
See you next time, and stay cool!
