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Our first showcase in the studio (!) will be Thursday, February 7th. We’ve decided the best place to do it is in the streaming room on the couches. Appropriately, I’ll be joined by Michael Damiani who has a lot to say about how streams are going to be handled in that space. I look forward to reading comments, and answering questions, about the new studio. I’m also looking forward to all sorts of stuff that has nothing whatsoever to do with our new studio, because the studio has been my life for a while now.

Apologies for not getting around to posting this in January. Anyone who was at the Showcase reward tier in January can email me (brandon@easyallies.com) and get their submissions in. This also works for any time Patreon works against you when you’re trying to get us your post. We’re exploring more ways to make that easier for everyone this year. Can’t wait to hear from you!

- Brandon


SHOWCASE GUIDELINES

No submissions will be accepted past February 7th at 12:00 AM PT.

While you retain all rights to your content, by submitting here you’re giving Easy Allies the right to show the content in our monthly Community Showcase live stream.

You may submit a comment, an image, or an audio/video file. If you’re submitting anything other than a comment, please host the file elsewhere and link it on Patreon. You can make a tweet or Instagram post with your image, or link the audio/video from a YouTube account, etc.

If you’re posting a video, photograph, or drawing, keep your comment limited to a description of the work. If you’re posting a lot of images, we will only show a maximum of 9, of our choosing unless you specify otherwise.

Comments have been known to disappear from Patreon posts, unfortunately. Double check that your post remained active before the day of the Showcase. Leaving a comment helps to keep it from vanishing. If you’re submitting text, save a copy locally in case you have to re-post.

Any text to be read should be 500 words or less. Any video should be 3 minutes or less. If the entry is longer, we will edit it down to a manageable length. We reserve the right to remove any content we find offensive.

Only one entry per month. Unless you specify what you’d like us to focus on, we’ll always use the last post from each Patron.

You may comment on any submissions, but keep original posts focused toward the Showcase so no submission is overlooked.

Comments

Anonymous

I'll keep coming

VGJunky

Note for Brandon: But can't only $10 patrons see this post? You would have to make a separate announcement that you were accepting submissions via email Real Submission: Hey boys, VGJunky here. I'm curious to see how long it takes Damiani to figure out what this song is from so I'm not including the title here. I'm confident that he'll get it despite the rough cover. Also, can I get a hint about who's going to be on the showcase next month so I can start practicing a little? <a href="https://soundcloud.com/vgjunky/test" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://soundcloud.com/vgjunky/test</a> Final word for after the song: While The Last Airbender might have had a more consistent run I personally enjoyed the overall journey and more older cast in Korra more. For me, seasons 3 and 4 topped everything from TLA and I hope people check it out. - Peace out -

Anonymous

[NOTE FOR JONES: I'd love it if you could reveal the images below with the same timing as they're linked in the text. No worries if it's too much trouble though.] --- Hi everyone. Kingdom Hearts III is real now. I have some screenshots to show you and some stray thoughts to share. No spoilers. <a href="https://i.imgur.com/b8IO0um.jpg" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://i.imgur.com/b8IO0um.jpg</a> I don't envy anyone who's trying to jump onto this series past their teens. Being young and impressionable helps a lot in forgiving its more infamous quirks, at least in my case. The baffling plot, I can roll with. The sloppy platforming, I can accommodate. But there was one thing I always wished these games would follow through on: vibes. <a href="https://i.imgur.com/dboJglT.jpg" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://i.imgur.com/dboJglT.jpg</a> The elevator pitch I give to people unfamiliar with the series is always the same: go to worlds from Disney movies and fight evil. Everyone's got their favourites from the canon, and everyone expects their iconic locations to be brought to spectacular life. But imagine the disappointment of arriving in Agrabah and finding no merchants in sight, or duking it out in the Olympus Coliseum in front of empty bleachers. This was forgiveable in 2002. Not so much now. <a href="https://i.imgur.com/LMVYqI2.jpg" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://i.imgur.com/LMVYqI2.jpg</a> So the one thing I craved going into the first truly next-gen Kingdom Hearts game was exactly that: worlds with as much bustle and energy as new hardware could allow. 20 hours in, and I can safely say that this dream has come true. The limitations still show up sometimes - a conspicuous character absence here, a lack of plot clarity there - but they're still as vivid and wondrous as the frames they first appeared in. I cannot tell you how satisfying this is. <a href="https://i.imgur.com/krutqoy.jpg" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://i.imgur.com/krutqoy.jpg</a> At this point, I'm at a loss on what else the series could do in its current form. Whatever the ending has in store, and whatever Nomura hints at in interviews, my new desire is that it makes a clean break from the action-RPG mould it has set for itself over nearly 20 years. (Personally, I wouldn't say no to a Kingdom Hearts Tactics.) It'll probably be a while before we learn what's next. In the meantime, I'm going to bask in the light of this new achievement. I hope you all do as well. Take care. <a href="https://i.imgur.com/v6PrVUJ.jpg" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://i.imgur.com/v6PrVUJ.jpg</a>

Brandon K Gann

Normally, I have a central focus when I’m writing up my comment for the showcase, but for this month? Nothing really came to me. In the past, I’ve had ideas written down and about a week or two before the post calling for submissions goes live, I pull from whatever’s in my idea bank, set aside a couple of hours at night, and get to writing, proofreading, think on it, hate it, write some more, like it, sleep on it, read it again, hate it, and repeat the process until I submit. I have an idea for next month and for those who payed attention at the end of my comment last month (so no one, haha) it’ll be easy to guess what I’ll write about. Ultimately what I decided on for today was some random facts about me (like, hypothetically speaking, describing the process of what I come up with for the Showcase). I’m not a social person, nor do I ever like sharing much about myself for several reasons, but I couldn’t think of anything else to write about. With that said, here are some things about me I feel comfortable enough to share: I have a bachelor’s degree in History with a minor in Journalism from Auburn University and a Master’s in Mass Communication from the University of South Carolina (The latter of which I regret, but that’s an uninteresting story for another time). To earn the History degree, every student had to write a 20-25 page thesis about a historical topic that makes an argument using primary sources (things that were created or existed at the time period you’re going to write about), and after stressing out about failing to come up with a topic, it was actually about this time four years ago I just happened to look at my stack of Game Informers and the divine bolt of inspiration hit me: My thesis argued how the years 2006-2007 were the most pivotal concurrent years for the United States video game industry. Please keep in mind this was written circa February to April 2015, and what holes in argument existed then are probably craters now, but I got a 97 out of 100 on that thing and it’s the one thing I’ve ever made I’m proudest of. I like to joke my degree was awarded because of it. I was born on May 13th and DOOM 2016 was the best birthday present I’ve had in YEARS (it came out that day). Outside of video games (and a whole lot about them), I enjoy collegiate sports (football and basketball primarily), Star Wars, Star Trek, and Harry Potter. I’m near-sighted. My favorite EZA content are in no order: Reactions, Hall of Greats, Game Sleuth, The Community Showcase, Trailer Jones, GOTYs, Retros, Frame Trap, Reviews, Cup of Jones, the Main Podcast, the monthly Q&amp;A, and Easy Update. My favorite song is Metalingus by Alter Bridge Finally, my favorite video game character is Auron from Final Fantasy X.

Anonymous

Easy Ally: Michael Damiani <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PxTEOQRStg" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PxTEOQRStg</a>

Anonymous

Game Dev and EZA themed project update. (Note on the EZA project. This is something intended as a gift for the allies, not something I plan on distributing or selling in any way.) <a href="https://youtu.be/YvYPG1QCdlA" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/YvYPG1QCdlA</a>

Anonymous

Just wanted to show some old art. <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Bez0b7xlOx4/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.instagram.com/p/Bez0b7xlOx4/</a> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BaFAB9gnVaM/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.instagram.com/p/BaFAB9gnVaM/</a> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BYO5hoChGb3/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.instagram.com/p/BYO5hoChGb3/</a> - Sorry if this is too late to get into the showcase. Better luck next month.

Megan Linart

Hello and Happy New Studio! Just want to start off and say your new digs look so impressive and im super super happy for you all! Well this month i have some more screenshots from some games to show you, in this bunch I have some shots from Horizon, Yakuza 0 , and The Vanishing of Ethan Carter. Hope you enjoy! Can’t wait to watch your space grow with you guys it’s going to be an exciting year! <a href="https://twitter.com/MadamGojira64/status/1041466741245861888" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/MadamGojira64/status/1041466741245861888</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/MadamGojira64/status/1072682808475312129" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/MadamGojira64/status/1072682808475312129</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/MadamGojira64/status/1072675837235879938" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/MadamGojira64/status/1072675837235879938</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/MadamGojira64/status/1072664726432288773" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/MadamGojira64/status/1072664726432288773</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/MadamGojira64/status/1089739099781632006" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/MadamGojira64/status/1089739099781632006</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/MadamGojira64/status/1087149464626839553" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/MadamGojira64/status/1087149464626839553</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/MadamGojira64/status/1086695736652255232" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"></a>

Anonymous

I have been making some silly video reviews on things in Japan <a href="https://youtu.be/WZc2w7Y63w0" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/WZc2w7Y63w0</a>

Anonymous

Greetings Jones and Damiani!! Zephyr Moon here! Happy year of the little pig! Little pig! Memes aside, for this month, I think I’ll show off a little WIP and a little experiment of how I’m going to be doing my webcomic. Featuring most of the main cast (minus one character) in their final designs! I had a pretty clear picture of how these characters would look back in 2012, just with a bit of modern touch. Sorry if it looks a little smudgy and hard to see, next month I should have this finished up and hope that my experiment is a success. <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1E8tnVENvjhqO4Q4TNFKMOnsmzPU-D3yv/view?usp=sharing" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://drive.google.com/file/d/1E8tnVENvjhqO4Q4TNFKMOnsmzPU-D3yv/view?usp=sharing</a> Hope the Sophie plush has been a good pupper! Much love and respect, Zephyr Moon P.S. Kingdom Hearts 3 still has me in tears after finishing it three days ago.

Anonymous

Is there anything more satisfying in life than turning on a console that hasn't been plugged in for over 10 years? I recently purchased a Hyperkin HDMI cable for my OG Xbox since my 4K TV only has HDMI inputs. It still works perfectly fine! So I loaded up GTA: San Andreas and with my phone took a selection of shots from my in-game photo album to share. <a href="https://imgur.com/a/ba9nNL1" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://imgur.com/a/ba9nNL1</a> Or, individual links if that's easier: <a href="https://i.imgur.com/x8kwioO.jpg" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://i.imgur.com/x8kwioO.jpg</a> <a href="https://i.imgur.com/UkGyZti.jpg" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://i.imgur.com/UkGyZti.jpg</a> <a href="https://i.imgur.com/gvF0yjW.jpg" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://i.imgur.com/gvF0yjW.jpg</a> <a href="https://i.imgur.com/HKuZsNL.jpg" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://i.imgur.com/HKuZsNL.jpg</a> <a href="https://i.imgur.com/z54p4mL.jpg" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://i.imgur.com/z54p4mL.jpg</a> <a href="https://i.imgur.com/vxqQSEt.jpg" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://i.imgur.com/vxqQSEt.jpg</a> <a href="https://i.imgur.com/Rza9QqO.jpg" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://i.imgur.com/Rza9QqO.jpg</a> <a href="https://i.imgur.com/CZnTT4w.jpg" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://i.imgur.com/CZnTT4w.jpg</a> <a href="https://i.imgur.com/OwAbTDa.jpg" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://i.imgur.com/OwAbTDa.jpg</a> <a href="https://i.imgur.com/rAH72Ms.jpg" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://i.imgur.com/rAH72Ms.jpg</a> <a href="https://i.imgur.com/XYU1dfB.jpg" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://i.imgur.com/XYU1dfB.jpg</a> <a href="https://i.imgur.com/Upa7XEh.jpg" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://i.imgur.com/Upa7XEh.jpg</a> <a href="https://i.imgur.com/4txJzKl.jpg" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://i.imgur.com/4txJzKl.jpg</a>

BeardedScotsman86

Hey Brandon and Damiani, This month I decided to keep focused on my games, rather than jump around to lots of different ones. I started strong and got the platinum in both The Crew 2 and Prototype. I then moved on to the DLC of Dragon Age Inquisition which consumed most of my time in the month. The Crew 2 is not a special platinum. The game lost all of the charm compared to the first game which I loved. It just turned into a checklist. Worst still, there is a lot less events compared to the maximum stats for a car type. So you do all the events, each giving you a few randomised parts for your car. Then you have to repeat the same events over and over to get the remaining upgrades for that car type. There was one trophy for fully upgrading any car, so I spent many hours doing the same drift event until I got enough upgrade parts. The main selling point of The Crew 1 was you could drive all over the US doing events as you go. In The Crew 2, they completely forgot about this and didn't give any incentive to drive at all. Just go into a menu, select an event, complete it and repeat. They could have removed the open world element and I wouldn't have noticed. Prototype was just as fun to get the platinum this time as it was to get the 100% achievements when I did it on Xbox 360. Dragon Age Inquisition DLC was an excellent end to the story. The only downside is they have padded out the final DLCs completion time by adding in trials that mean you have to replay some of the main story and do certain tasks like reach a location as level 5 or lower. This basically means skipping as much content as possible so you don't over level. There were 8 tasks to do overall just to extend the length of the DLC. Overall it took me 27 and a half hours to do just the trials. After all of the above, I discovered that because I own Hitman 1, I could download all the maps from the first game and use them in Hitman 2. As the prologue of Hitman 2 is free, I didn't have to pay anything to all this. So I have started going through Hitman 2 DLC. Once I finish, I should have 69 trophies without paying anything. I also started South Park: The Fractured but Whole which has been fun. Huge congrats on the studio. Looks very swish and swanky. Love and respect, BeardedScotsman86

Anonymous

Hello Brandon and Damiani! Firstly the studio looks amazing! I love the design of the set, very slick, and the streaming space is nice and cosy, congrats and well done for setting it up. Last month when I sent in my list of finished games I had Celeste at the top you made a point of the fact I hadn't added a comment about it this was because I'd decided that in order to keep to the work count I'd only write about games I'd finished since the first time I did my list. So I was all set to make this months submission a love letter to the game that became my 2018 GOTY, but then i watched your awards video and your summary of Celeste was pretty much perfect and exactly what I would want to say about it, kudos to whomever wrote that entry (friendly wager: Ben?) Instead, and since Damiani is there, here's some Tetra art I did a few months back. <a href="https://imgur.com/a/nEOGLfj" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://imgur.com/a/nEOGLfj</a> Love &amp; respect, Dave Cleland

Anonymous

Hey Damiani and Jones At the end of 2018 I pulled the trigger on a game, which - honestly- I never intended on buying when it came out. The story was (supposedly) boring, the microtransaction were insulting and its redeeming qualities were only superficial. I am - of course - talking about Star Wars: Battlefront II (2107). That being said the price point of under 10 $ was too compelling, so I had to give it a shot. Since I want to spread positivity, let’s quickly deal with the thing I liked the least: The single player content seems like an afterthought to attract more players. The story as well as the combat scenarios are boring and I the parts where you play iconic Star Wars heroes are absolute lowlights. But to be fair here: DICE has never been a Studio that was able to create great single player content (with the exception of Battlefield: Bad Company depending on how much you like humour in shooters). That being said: The multiplayer is great and the progression system is completely different from how it was when the game came out. Lootboxes are almost completely gone (with a few exceptions, i.e., cosmetic items) and instead DICE implemented a progression system that makes absolutely sense. Every time you level up a class you earn a “skill point” that you can either spend on unlocking new “Star Cards” (which are essentially perks and/or mods for your class skills) or leveling up those cards. Not all Cards are unlockable from the beginning, but you earn them by leveling up your class. This inherently keeps you switching between classes. Much more importantly almost EVERY Hero is playable from the get go - which means that if you perform well enough in a match, you always get a chance to be Boba Fett, Darth Maul, Rey or Luke Skywalker. Progression is a bit too slow for my taste, but since EA wants you to play for months, I can see the reasons for their implementation. So to everybody out there who loves Star Wars and likes shooters and ESPECIALLY you Brandon Jones: Give this game a shoot now that it has changed so mush. The game visits almost every important planet from the movies (even Star Killer Base, the Death Star and Kamino), the visuals are nearly flawless and the sound is bombastic. I spend most of my gaming time of January in Battlefront 2 and it was time well spent. Definitely worth the price of admission Love &amp; Respect Thim

Anonymous

Hey Damiani and Jones, January has been fairly quiet for me and games. I beat and then platinumed Spiderman in the first few days of the new year. I then went on to play the DLC's which I wasn't disappointed with but wasn't amazed by either. I was surprised that nobody amongst the allies mentioned the super lackluster boss-fights except for the two "combo boss-fights" which were fun. What was your take on the DLC and Boss Fights? Then came Onimusha. I enjoyed it but gave up after failing the slide puzzle once. Eh. I was stoked to see all the Arkham games on special in a bundle, so on the high after Spiderman I wanted to see where it took most of its inspiration from with new eyes and I completed Arkham Asylum in a couple sittings. Man this game mostly holds up exceptionally. Some bad close ups with PS3 era lip-sync and the "free-flow" combat no-where near as forgiving as Spiderman but damn... this is a great metroid-vania. It instantly got me itching to play Metroid Prime again. PLAY IT JONES. Finally I am at KH3. I had to give RE2 a miss, although I loved the original I just can't handle how good the sound design is in the REengine. My God I get sucked right in. I couldn't finish the demo. So no spoilers for KH3 but I am loving it although my God the cutscene editing is atrocious. Love and utmost respect. Steven.

Anonymous

Hi Jones &amp; Damiani! This was a project I started on the plane to last year’s anniversary event, but the end of the Garage Era was the incentive I needed to finish it up. Here is a quick little tour of the garage in Dragon Quest Builders (including a peek into the rafters and a research break for that Bosman-required realism). <a href="https://pasteboard.co/HZjPrmM.jpg" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://pasteboard.co/HZjPrmM.jpg</a> <a href="https://pasteboard.co/HZjQdQn.jpg" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://pasteboard.co/HZjQdQn.jpg</a> <a href="https://pasteboard.co/HZjPKjc.jpg" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://pasteboard.co/HZjPKjc.jpg</a> <a href="https://pasteboard.co/HZjQ0AE.jpg" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://pasteboard.co/HZjQ0AE.jpg</a> <a href="https://pasteboard.co/HZjQoG1.jpg" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://pasteboard.co/HZjQoG1.jpg</a>

Robert I.

The game that most surprised me in January was the Langrisser mobile game. I was completely unfamiliar with the series, but I saw the gameplay was very similar to "Fire Emblem". Unlike "Fire Emblem Heroes" with its extremely truncated map sizes, Langrisser has full sized maps, which makes all the difference. So until "Three Houses" comes out on Switch, this free to play game is jollily scratching that itch for me. I'm also excited to see that a remaster/remake version of the first two Langrisser games are coming to PS4 and Switch later this year.

Anonymous

Damiani and Jones, First, I would like to echo what many others are saying – the studio is absolutely phenomenal! As someone who has been with EZA for less than a year, it has been a delight to see the rapid growth since E3 2018. I’ve been tempted to bump up my Patreon pledge for a while now, but after saying the new studio (which far exceeded my expectations) and realizing that I spend several hours a week consuming your content, I feel confident in increasing my support. Second, I wanted to just extend my gratitude toward this channel. It’s been a rough year or so – death of a loved one, family drama, etc. Watching your content has been therapeutic and has provided me a degree of stability that was very much needed. Shoutout to Tabletop Escapades in particular – Law’s earlier episodes gave me some of the best jolly belly laughs in a while! Since this is my first showcase appearance, I think I will end with my personal 2018 GOTY list (albeit a bit late): 1. God of War – what an absolute treat! Aesthetically, this was the best game of the year. The vibrant colors and mystical landscapes, bombastic soundtrack, as well as the visceral enemy design, were just so satisfying to take in. I found the combat to have a nice difficulty curve so that I was constantly improving, although the last third felt like it leveled off too much. My only gripe is that there were too few bosses, but it appears that Barlog wanted to add more, but they ran out of time/funding. 2. Celeste – phew, what a game. The best soundtrack of the year (sorry Red Dead). One aspect I don’t think was brought up in GOTY discussions much at all was how the game was designed to subtly encourage you to keep going. Yes, the mountain metaphor for anxiety was a bit heavy-handed, but every time I got to a screen that seemed insurmountable, I would think of the previous screen I thought was too difficult. I beat that, right? So, I knew I would eventually succeed (and I did!) – this ludo-narrative resonance exemplified the overcoming of anxiety much more effectively than the story itself. 3. Red Dead Redemption 2 – Arthur Morgan and Dutch van der Linde, as well as the rest of the gang, were some of the best realized characters in any media. I can see how some were turned off by Dutch, but I loved the subtle decline of his stability from charismatic leader to despotic and delusional charlatan. The controls were indeed lacking, and there were some pacing issues, but I overall really enjoyed it. 4. Smash Ultimate – Finally a Smash entry that is definitively better than Melee! King K. Rool, Richter, and Ridley are a joy to play, and big boys are finally viable competitively! 5. Octopath Traveler – Vapid, pointless story, but great mechanics, jobs, and aesthetic. Love and respect! Nathan

Anonymous

Hi Damiani and Jones! First and foremost, congrats on the studio! I never knew y’all when you were at GT, and despite going back and watching old videos, this is certainly an amazing and welcome change! A few months back (bad memory, can’t pinpoint when) I sent in some of my EZA inspired graphic designs! This month, I wanted to direct y’all to my online store <a href="https://flexhealer.threadless.com" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://flexhealer.threadless.com</a> , where I’ve listed my favourite EZA designs and all my original designs! I wanna extend my thanks to Easy Allies and the community as a whole for gently nudging me towards the realm of graphic design because it’s something I’ve had a lot of fun learning and getting better at. Love and Respect Kit &lt;3

Anonymous

Hey Jones! Hey Damiani! Before I say anything, I'd just like to congratulate you on moving into the new studio. Gametrailers was a huge part of my life in my early teens and I'm overjoyed to see how far you guys have come after going through so much. That said, I don't really have any new game experiences to talk about this month. My wallet's still aching from the very expensive month of December, and even then I do have to admit that I'm not really into any of the big releases this January. Nothing wrong with any of them, of course, they just aren't for me, and I'm saving up for my personal most anticipated game of the year: Sekiro. As such, I'd like to ask the two of you (and the chat as well, if anyone would like to chime in with some thoughts on the matter) about something I've been thinking about a lot recently, and that is the way Nintendo's been handling content releases for Splatoon. In the Nintendo Direct of September of last year (that's the same one that announced Luigi's Mansion 3 and Animal Crossing Switch in case you forgot) Nintendo announced the Splatoon 2 Version 4.0 patch, an update that, although huge, also marked the point in which new content was going to slow down. With the patch came the announcement that new content support was officially ending in December of that year, with balance patches and Splatfests continuing until July 2019. And as the months went by that very much seemed to be the case, with the last new map, Skipper Pavilion, being released in September, and each month up to December also seeing the release of a batch of slick-looking Kensa Collection weapons. As the new year came, I think we as a community had accepted that this really was the end for Splatoon 2's content cycle. That is, until about a week ago, as Splatoon producer and infamous Squid Researcher Hisashi Nogami came on-stage at the fourth Splatoon Koshien Japanese Championships to announce that the Sheldon's Picks weapons from Splatoon 1, thought to have been replaced by the Kensa Collection weapons, were returning to Splatoon 2 at some point in the future. Additionally, "a few more updates" were also confirmed to be in the works, with details to be revealed at a later date. This is not the first time Nintendo's pulled this trick. They were initially saying that content updates were going to end summer 2018, and they did the same thing multiple times with Splatoon 1 before this, saying they were ending support at one date, only to then reveal that they were fooling us and were planning to add even more stuff. My question is this: Why on earth are they doing this at all? Wouldn't it be better to tell us the ACTUAL content plan and stick to it, or not tell us at all until we started to reach the end for real? To me, this just seems like it could potentially scare away potential customers by making them believe the game is going to "die" soon when that's not the case at all. Though, in the end, I'm not complaining. Splatoon 2 has been very important for me, and I've made some great friends through its community. Despite my frustrations with Nintendo's intentional misleading, I'm happy for everything this game gets, and I hope it keeps going for many more years. Love &amp; Respect, Small Leviathan

Anonymous

Hey Jones and Damiani! About two months ago I started working on papercraft and dioramas, and recreated the heliport on Shadow Moses Island. This month, I didn't have the supplies for another diorama to work on right away, so I decided to do something related to my first project and create a model of Metal Gear REX. <a href="https://imgur.com/a/630Zout" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://imgur.com/a/630Zout</a> (cycle through the images at whatever pace works) Considering that my first project was a lot more simple shapes and flat backgrounds, this turned out to be a ton more complicated than i thought it would be! Even now, it isn't perfectly balanced as I only realized halfway through that I would have to glue all of it together working around gravity. Anyway, I think it actually turned out a lot better than I expected too so I'm pretty proud of it. You can follow me @greenbendy and I'll post about future projects when they come up! I don't have the box yet, but I've got an idea for my next diorama that I think a lot of people will enjoy. Love and Respect, and Happy Showcase, Nora!

Anonymous

<a href="https://youtu.be/kcmSVE_HwvI" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/kcmSVE_HwvI</a> Ahoy Mr. Jones, Mr. Damiani &amp; my fellow allies. The studio is wonderful; here's to this lovely thing we all hold dear. I present this month a tune which is an undeniable classic; Bubble Man from Mega Man 2. To be clear, while I do play all the instruments you'll be hearing, sadly I have not been able to capture my own gameplay (I do give source credit in my video descriptions). To remedy that I've purchased an El Gato Camlink 4K! I haven't captured anything yet but next month the video accompanying the music will be of my own creation. <b>(No need to read the links below out loud Mr. Jones)</b> The song you'll hear shortly as well as many others are all available for free download at my Bandcamp page (<a href="http://matt-b.bandcamp.com" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">matt-b.bandcamp.com</a><a></a>). I also exist on YouTube (<a rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">youtube.com/mattb1</a>) and Twitter (<a href="https://twitter.com/mattb1_vgm" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@mattb1_vgm</a><a></a>). Just search "Matt Bollenbach" and you'll find me. I'd love to connect with and get to know more of my fellow allies. Cheers. Matt B

Anonymous

Gentlemen, I have to be honest about something, even though I've played through almost every entry in the series, I never considered the Grand Theft Auto franchise to be very fun. Don't get me wrong, Rockstar is unparalleled in their attention to detail for their open worlds, but purely from a gameplay and level design perspective I find most activities in their games to be limiting and frustrating. However, once I saw the insane GTA V mods and scripts on PC and tried them myself, the game has brought me a ridiculous amount of joy and laughter. Here's some footage from a few years back of me messing with these scripts programmed by the popular Youtuber known as Helix Snake. This is just a tiny sample of what you can do, but it focuses on the script that lets the player character move at ridiculous speeds, and that includes while you're in a vehicle. The best part is I discovered you can use this script even during cutscenes, and even though the player has to go limp for the movement to work, the lip syncing still comes through for dialogue. I like to imagine what the NPCs are saying are in reaction to these insane ragdoll movements. Just a reminder, this is GTA V so I hope you're okay with some swearing and violence, but I don't think this video has anything severe. [Also apologies the video is 8 seconds over the 3 minute limit] -Joe <a href="https://youtu.be/acShwGJum1U" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/acShwGJum1U</a>

Anonymous

January 8th, 2019 it was finally released. Our tiny little 4-year hobby project was an insane journey, always moving forward disregarding any sensibility. In 2012 we posted our game originally built between 2003-2008 to the Steam Greenlight-program (back when it was hard to get in). We had previously tried to sell it on our own website granting a whopping 25 sales in its lifetime. 3 years later Steam e-mailed us we were finally greenlit and allowed to sell our game on the store! This is our chance, we thought. We could polish the game a bit and sell it on the biggest digital store and make millions! Before we knew it, 2 years had passed and now Steam had changed its policies and EVERYONE was greenlit. A bit bummed we missed the window we released the game on the Steam Early Access program in 2017. "We're easily done in 6 months now.", we thought. That was 2 years ago. Btw, around this time Kyle showed the game on the podcast and his Tetris show as a thank you for making him the first BozWozBot! Anyway, now the really insane part. This game is the embodiment of everything everyone tells you NOT to do when making your first game. We made our own engine from scratch (to be fair, there was no Unity or Unreal for free back then), we made a game for an extremely niche audience (top-down simulation racing) and we made it in our spare time while working a regular job full-time (which meant we worked.. always). The engine once started with an unassuming window on the screen showing a single colored triangle and it's now covering (among many other things) 3D graphics, particle effects, advanced input, threaded audio and a complete UI toolkit. We couldn't just make a simple arcade game. No, we built an entire physics engine from scratch and we modeled the cars from the tires to the internal workings of a car like a full drivetrain, different engines, automatic and manual transmission and physical effects on the chassis like weight distribution and air resistance. We hand-built an AI which could race around any track, counter drifts and handle varying weather conditions. We made a weather system that managed wind, rain, snow, clouds, and fog interacting which each other and affecting the world. Around new years 2018 we made a cool trailer and bothered everyone to buy the game (marketing). Release day! Aaand... crickets. Or *insert hateful comment here*... You have a ton of fun now and then, but you work your ass off for years, you get back pain, depression and get burnt out. And you learn that the people who warned you all this time that it was stupid, was right. Well, we finally got an article on RockPaperShotgun and Nintendo approached us about a project so here's to 2019, who knows what'll happen after this Cup o' Jones! Love &amp; Respect, /Benny

Anonymous

Keep it alive! Also here's a link to the game if anyone is curious: <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/437730/Roadclub_League_Racing/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://store.steampowered.com/app/437730/Roadclub_League_Racing/</a>

Anonymous

Hello! The polar vortex has been cold, but that means I've been able to stay indoors playing Kingdom Hearts 3! I was 7 when I received the first game and a PlayStation 2 for Christmas, and it has had a resounding effect on my love of video games. A big shout to the Kingdom Hearts 3 team, especially the licensing and legal team. I can't imagine what work had to be done to make this series. Also, sorry to anyone in the last Kyle stream that I spoiled a feature. Even if it's a smaller feature, I understand wanting to experience the game completely fresh and appreciate the emotional connections other have with the franchise. With all this said, onto the art! <a href="https://twitter.com/TysonDNguyen/status/1092579599022739456" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/TysonDNguyen/status/1092579599022739456</a> Nothing too crazy this time, just some practice with NES Zelda sprites (because Damiani). I wanted to try making them resemble the official art more, as well as seeing if the sprites would still have the same charm with double the pixels. Stay warm everyone!

Anonymous

Hello Mr. Jones and Mr. Damiani. All of the Love, All of the Respect. This Month the Shenmue EZA DUB Project Continues. A weird thing where I send in lines of dialogue from Shenmue, The allies read it, we wait a month, and do it all over again. The final goal being a weird fan dub of Shenmue. Firstly, I think I can now safely say that the first episode of the DUB will officially be on the Community Showcase for August. Lining up with the release month of Shenmue 3 and (if my calculations are correct) should be the next showcase Huber is on. If not well fudge it so he’s there for the first episode. But that is not today. Today. Business is two fold. Jones, I realized there was a few more Hazuki Sensei lines I would need. A letter written to Ryo is delivered after Hazuki Sensei’s passing. But we hear Sensei’s voice read it aloud. if you’d be so kind as to read the following. Haruki-Sensei’s Letter: -“Dear Ryo…” -“Those who follow the path of the warrior…must be ready to die.” -“…in order to stand by their convictions.” -“Live for one’s convictions, die for ones convictions.” -“That is how I lived my life.” -“Ryo, it s up to you to discover your path.” -“…and follow it through” Also, you never made a single offensive fighting grunt so if you could give me one I’d appreciate. -A GRUNT Thank you sir. MR. DAMIANI, you have been cast as a six year old girl named Megumi who is currently looking after an orphan kitten (played by Ben Moore). If you would be so kind as to read the following in whatever way you see fit. Megumi: A young girl who has found a kitten. -“Hey Ryo!” -“oh…” -“You promise not the tell my mommy?” -“OK…then I’ll show you…” -“Uh-uh” -“But this kitty, see, she’s all alone.” -“Yup.” -“See, the other day when it rained.” -“A car ran over her mommy.” -“My big sister saw it. She said it was a big black car.” -“Yeah an she said it was really scary.” -“And then, me an sis, we buried the mommy cat.” -“And so now I can be the kitty’s mommy.” -“But mommy says we can’t keep the kitty at home.” -“Yeah, everybody helping out too.” -“Like Kota, Yasuo and Kayo.” -“Kitty Don’t look so good.” -“Think she’s hungry??” -“OK…” -“Wow, she’s eating!” -“It’s so sad.” -“Yamagishi-san almost got ran over too.” -“Yeah, the car was going so fast, he got shocked and fell.” -“…and hurt his backside, so now he stays home all day.” -“When i go to the candy shop, I always stop by to visit him.” -“Yes…” -“But Wait! We gotta think of a name for this kitty.” -“You Promise?” -“Bye-Bye Ryo!” Magical. Thank you. L&amp;R Your Friend and Ally, Dan Allen - Detroit, MI DONT READ- JUST FOR SHOWCASE THREAD Unfamiliar with the SHenmue EZA DUB Project? Catch up here! <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUUk-a7SquQ9QGbcBGrs6JOIGDgFWLYbA" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUUk-a7SquQ9QGbcBGrs6JOIGDgFWLYbA</a>

Anonymous

Hello all Allies! Since you enjoyed my Pop'n song last month, I now have for you the other song that I really wanted to play. This one is the same level as the last one, level 37, and it's one of my top favorites. Also, is the EZA plushie getting enough hugs? <a href="https://youtu.be/6xGxtdVJgLk" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/6xGxtdVJgLk</a>

Anonymous

Hi Jones and Damiani! First off, I have to say I love the studio. I cannot wait to see how it grows and evolves over the coming months and years. This was a tough month for me, because I lost my job. In between filling out applications, I was able to get to some video games, which thankfully kept me sane. I finished four games, Yakuza 0, Gravity Rush Remastered, Journey, and The Witcher 3. Let’s start at the beginning. I went back to Yakuza 0, ready to let it consume me, and I adored it. While I may have seen the credits at the 60 hour mark, I couldn’t stop playing, with my final playtime being over 100 hours. At least 20 of those hours were spent as the manager of a cabaret club, which I got totally obsessed with. The music, the way you would train your cabaret girls, pair them with the right customers to maximize profit, it was wonderful. Of course the story is fantastic, fighting is a blast, and Majima became one of my new favorite characters, which I didn’t expect based on how he was portrayed in Kiwami. I look forward to getting to Kiwami 2 later this year. Next, I jumped into a game that I had been thinking about for a while. Gravity Rush 1 and 2 were on sale during the holidays, so I picked both of them up. Playing through Remastered was a blast, although you could definitely feel where it’s handheld roots held it back. I’ll be getting to the sequel soon to see how they improved on the great foundation they had in place. Journey. You know Journey. I played Journey 6 years ago, offline, on my friend’s PS3. While I enjoyed that first playthrough, it always stuck in my mind that I wish I got to interact with someone else while I played. This time, I got to play with three other people and I totally changes how you approach that game, while not detracting from either. This is still a gorgeous, fun, and affecting game. And now, potentially the spiciest take I’ve had on the showcase. The Witcher 3 is disappointing. When I picked it back up, I still had pretty positive feelings from my first 50ish hours. But then it just kinda bored me. Beyond that, it felt like it ignored my romance choice, because I chose the “non-canon” option. So it kept hitting me with “She’s your destiny, you’re fated to be-” blah blah blah. Doing this for 30 hours while pretending the person you chose to romance doesn’t exist is incredibly annoying. To top that off, it suffers from Return of the King syndrome, where it drags out the ending to the point of killing the momentum. I’ll stop here before I make any more enemies. Love and Respect! Kyle “GOTYlocks” Lee

Anonymous

Hey Jones and Damiani Last month I showed the first three minutes of my pepsiman analysis, since then I've been working on two videos. The first was a video about Wandersong and why I think its the most important game of 2018, and the one I'm working on right now is about New Zealand in video games. I haven't finished the New Zealand one yet, but I do have the first 3 minutes to show you - so think of this as a special preview ;) <a href="https://youtu.be/lUmVaRGEPu8" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/lUmVaRGEPu8</a> also a huge thank you to chat for being so supportive last month, it really helped to keep me motivated :)

German Efficiency

Hallo Allies, Once again I submit something you may have already seen thanks to the phenomenal community support this video received through Twitter and the like. If you haven’t and aren’t tired of getting more insight into the minds of the Allies, I present to you: The unofficial 20 minute long behind the scenes documentary with backstage footage and interviews from the EZA Studio launch stream. For this showcase I only submit the 30 second launch trailer of course. You can find the full video on the dedicated EZA Evolved YouTube channel and in this post below. Please let the Allies know if you like this sort of content as I would gladly produce more like it in the future. Thanks for all your amazing support towards me and more importantly all the Allies. Launch Trailer Link for the Showcase: <a href="https://youtu.be/y-qeYodInzo" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/y-qeYodInzo</a> Full Documentary for those interested: <a href="https://youtu.be/M_q0m2nKIwU" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/M_q0m2nKIwU</a>

Anonymous

What’s happening Allies, Going into last summer I knew nothing about computer programming, but always thought it would be a great skill to learn. Naturally, I fueled my learning with my love of video games and used games development as the motivator, along with textbooks. After learning the basics of C++ I picked up Unity engine and to my surprise I was actually able to start making things. What I’ve submitted here is just the small piece of game I've managed so far, which I have worked on over the past few months in my spare time and is still very much in early development. And hell yeah, it’s a beat ‘em up. The 3D models are not mine, I purchased and downloaded them, however I curated and animated hundreds of them to create my own shady street filth backdrop, and played with lighting to create a foreboding street cityscape crawling with criminal trash. What I’m most proud of is the actual video game part – I built the combat system from the ground up using several pages worth of code. **queue video** <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MptiRja42TA" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MptiRja42TA</a> As you can see, despite being in 3D it still controls just like those old school beat 'em ups. The main character can throw combo punches (a combo only initiates after contacting an enemy), jump kick, wield a baseball bat, grapple enemies and throw knees to the gut, toss grenades (although you can't actually see the explosions yet), and throw balls (you won’t be throwing any balls in Streets of Rage, take that SEGA). The only sound in the game so far is that of me punching my couch. Admittedly I still need to iron out a bit of the glitchiness in the physics and animations (like the dead guys clipping into the street), which speaks to the complexity of 3D game development. I'm not exactly sure where I want to go next with this game. In order to make a full game I would either have to procure a lot more 3D assets and not have much control over the art style, or learn a lot more about creating 3D models and animations which is an entire new undertaking of its own. I would possibly be open to hearing out any offers if there are any 3D modelers in the community who sell stuff like this. I may also just switch to a 2D game to avoid the potential pitfalls of 3D modelling and physics. Or I may quit now before it takes over my life. Anyway, that's what I have for now and just maybe I can make a breakthrough towards a fully realized game sometime. Thanks for your time!

Anonymous

Hey Jones,  Damiani, and chat. Really like the look of the studio! For the longest portion of the month, I was downright stuck in a game.. So much so, that I had to reach out for help.. And Jones, you delivered! I'm referring to Dimensional Arcades 3, baby. In hindsight, I feel a little silly having had to ask for the tip (I mean, the Dali dimension discovery cutscene was right after I got the elongation gun) but my experience was better for it. Shout out to the M.C. dimension for its impressive but puzzling architecture, endless stairways, giant hammers, and time manipulation.. Can't touch this!   Ironically, when I pitched the game,  I hadn't realized the parallels to Kingdom Hearts 3. Irony not only because it came out the day of that podcast, but also because a few days prior, I started my first venture into Kingdom Hearts with the original on the 1.5/ 2.5 collection. Immediately, my progress came to a temporary standstill before I even left the station, with one of the more challenging questions I've had in recent memory: Sword, shield, or magic lol. At slightly over the halfway point, I'm really enjoying what I've gotten through. The combat is fun, but not too difficult even on proud. The soundtrack is amazing. And all the crossover elements come together in a unique way to bring to life some stunning worlds and an easily digestible story (ha! Let's see how long that lasts). I definitely will continue, but not too crazy of a pace, so will keep the impressions coming in the following showcases.   Managed to finish off the Spyro trilogy at the beginning of the month. A quick thought for each. Year of the Dragon was my favorite. Though Ripto's Rage possessed a few insanely memorable moments, such as the Scottish bagpipe playing Satyrs of Fracture Hills. And the original Spyro benefited most from the remaster, with 64 uniquely designed dragons to save. And last but certainly not least, PSVR made a strong comeback to my living room this month. Thanks largely to my close friends getting one and us having a board game / PSVR night. Beatsaber was the big one, with it actually making up the majority of my time the entire month. Improving from nervously flailing slash failing at just seeing hard at my friends place, to being decently competent on Expert and looking forward to expert plus and dlc in the close future. Astrobot was the other one, thanks to you guys and GOTY discussions. Although you can make it through most stages seated facing forward, you really do have to get up and look all around nooks and crannies for the side bots and secrets, and that is an awesome use of VR! Gives impressive sense of scale too! Maybe not quite the impact of Mario 64, but still a heck of a genre defining game. That'll do for this month. Great games are a coming. ‘til next time.

Anonymous

Hey Jones and Damiani! Congrats on the studio! The teases over the last month were totally worth it as the surprise of finally seeing it last week was incredible! Speaking of surprises, isn't it great that we already have the GOTY in January with Resident Evil 2? I haven't played a game non-stop all the way through in two sittings since I was like 20, and I'm turning 30 this year. It's insane how good RE2 is. I totally agree with Huber on Frame Trap in that the remake beautifully coexists alongside the original without ever replacing it. Kingdom Hearts III was also pretty good! As the culmination of a series I began playing when I was in middle school, it was certainly something. I was caught off guard when the game got me a little emotional in regards to characters that I've never cared much about previously. I guess it's just natural to feel that way after all these years. Finally, the biggest surprise for me in the last month was the Onimusha Remaster. I played the original game on the PS2 and hated it. I picked it up in January to give it a second chance. With the improved controls and 17 years of added wisdom, Onimusha was incredible. Combat is surprisingly fun, the map is a joy to explore, and nothing feels better than completing the nightmare arena to obtain the secret ultimate sword at the end thus making the final boss a giant chump. It was so much fun. I'm now wondering if I should get Onimusha 2 on the PS2 or wait for the remaster as Capcom said the Warlords Remaster did better than expected. Love and Respect

Anonymous

Hello Jonesiani ! First of all, congratulations for the studio ! The launch was so much fun, the studio is already above and beyond and will only improve, and you did a fantastic job ! The first batch of shows coming from the studio feels great, and I can't wait to see how things will evolve from now on ! Personal update/plug : I just finished posting 12 pieces of music on my channel, all related to a project I call Ignifugue in which I plan on incorporating a lot of original music I'll be writing. Basically every time I have an idea for music, I try to think how it would fit in this universe. Think of it as a Zelda-like fantasy universe with three peoples and potentially millenia of history, and every piece of music I write would illustrate places, characters, events, battles, etc... I try to come up with some lore for every track and put it up as the visual of the video, and we'll see how that universe expands as I write music for it. If you like fantasy video-game inspired music, why not check it out ? I put a link in my patreon post, also searching for Ignifugue on Youtube will get you to it. Now it's time for my third piece of music inspired by Tabletop Escapades ! This time, it was Brad as Birdcough who originated the melody. In Series 2 Episode 50 « At the Circus », our heroes were welcomed into Birdcough's circus by a musical number. I'd appreciate if you could play the few seconds of the episode I linked to in my post to give credit to Brad. I reworked that melody and turned it into a circus-y tune. Later on in the track, I incorporated the opening and ending themes of Tabletop Escapades, and a nod to the drum duo that happens a few minutes later in the episode between Brad « Birdcough » Ellis and Michael « Pomper » Huber. I hope everybody enjoys, and once again, congrats on the sudio ! Love and Respect, Kevin Gillet Show this first : Brad singing the inspiration for my submission (starts at 1:51, lasts 10 seconds) <a href="https://youtu.be/Ma7YW580yAw?t=111" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/Ma7YW580yAw?t=111</a> My submission : <a href="https://youtu.be/eEmH7QQGNi8" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/eEmH7QQGNi8</a> Ignifugue playlist for those interested : <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLz0R17apW8GzGj0PqlNrOv35ixC1g_H7J" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLz0R17apW8GzGj0PqlNrOv35ixC1g_H7J</a>

Anonymous

Hello Brandon and Damiani. Congratulations on the studio, I am really excited about the lights and the TV window, very good ideas. I just wanna update you on my game. COUCH VERSUS released two weeks ago on steam, if you missed last month's showcase it's a game where one player controls the hero and one player controls portals and spawns monsters. I am really happy I made the game, I enjoyed making it, and the thought of someone enjoying the game even for just a minute makes me so much happier. Currently I am working on updating the HUD. Image1:<a href="https://imgur.com/a/RqdC6iE" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://imgur.com/a/RqdC6iE</a> Image2:<a href="https://imgur.com/a/u0JypYY" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://imgur.com/a/u0JypYY</a> Also I wanted to make something that the whole EZA community would enjoy as a thankyou gift, so I thought of modding my game into something uniquely for you, and hopefully would make you chuckle. Here is a tease image:<a href="https://imgur.com/a/cmEkE7m" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://imgur.com/a/cmEkE7m</a> How can I send you a gifts package? I can't wait to make more games in my free time. love you all. L&amp;R Mubarak Alkhuzaee

Anonymous

Salutations Jones and Damiani, Congrats on the studio! It looks great! I was able to snag used copies of Dragon Quest VII and IX and have enjoyed the jovial times and jolly vibes of both of these games. I’ve barely touched IX because it has a bad habit of freezing whenever I pause the game so I been playing a lot of VII. I’m over 30 hours in and boy, were you guys right it is a sloooooooow burn. But it is perhaps the best slow burn game I have ever played. I was 3 hours into the game and there hadn’t been a single combat encounter, but that change of pace was amazingly refreshing. The colors are vibrant, the music well-done (if a little lacking in variety), the art style give super comfy vibes, and the characters are goofy, lovable, outlandish, and incredibly endearing. Granted this game was made in a different era, although it was recently rereleased on the 3DS a few years ago, but so much of Dragon Quest VII and the franchise in general feels like it is going in the opposite direction to the gaming industry and is still winning, although like you guys, I really want more people in the West to be playing these games. The Allies were the reason I wanted to get into the franchise and now that I am here, I am hardcore converted, I can’t wait to play the rest of the games in this series. I can’t wait to give more thoughts on my adventures in Dragon Quest but I have to share a story of personal gaming accomplishment (with perhaps some slight dramatic flair). Background: Last month I mentioned that I got a SNES classic. I never owned a SNES before, but my grandmother did. In the 90’s I lived only 20 minutes from my grandparents, and kid me spent many a day playing the six games my grandmother owned. Some I beat (like DK Country), some I could only progress like 30 minutes into (The Jungle Book, could never get past Kaa), but there was only one game where I could beat everything but the final boss. I racked up hundreds of wins and probably hundreds of losses, I played it every time I went over to my grandparents, but I could never beat the final boss. That game was on the SNES. That game was Super Punch Out. With a second shot at redemption, of removing the mocking specter that haunted kid me after coming so close to beating the game time and again, I set out to make sure that this nearly 20 year old rivalry was finally put to a rest. Several hours later and about 120-150 bouts later, it finally happened. As the final “TKO” flashed across the screen, I tore off my hoodie and slammed it on the floor, I danced around, shouting “I did it, I finally did it” and in the process scared my wife half-to-death. Well I'm pretty much at 500 words so I hope you enjoyed the story, thanks for the Dragon Quest love, and I with all of you a great February in your new studio! Love and Respect.

Anonymous

Hey Jones and Damiani, No Pokémon anime talk this month (what a relief). Instead, I want to comment on a few of the gaming experiences I’ve had in the past few weeks. I decided to give the new Blue Mage job in FF14 a try, primarily because the idea that you can learn spells from an enemy’s attack was an interesting concept to me. So far, I’ve enjoyed it…somewhat. It has given me a chance to re-visit old content, and I decided to take my time to level the job, as opposed to relying on others to help me power level to Level 50. If I have one major complaint with the job so far, it’s that I wish the spells had a bit more “oomph” to them, damage wise. I’m still working to unlock all the spells that are currently available, but it feels like I’m sometimes relying too heavily on 1000 Needles, which does a fixed 1k damage to a single target. At present, I have five spells left to unlock, three of which are from the 2.0 primals. Getting the primal spells have been a ridiculous grind, to the point where doing the same fights repeatedly in 2 minutes or less has become incredibly boring. RNGesus really can be unforgiving. And there is no way I’ll complete all the tasks in The Masked Carnivale. As soon as I get the last two spells from there, I’m going straight to the final boss in The Masked Carnival where hopefully I’ll come out on top. Now I want to talk about chat’s favorite multiplayer game: Fortnite. I’m so glad I chose to play some Fortnite over FF14 when I woke up on Saturday. Otherwise I would have missed out on that awesome in-game concert event from Marshmello. I was already in a match for the concert as there was a countdown timer above the concert stage when a voice came on and said “Mic check. Are you ready Fortnite players”? Or something along of the lines to that. My immediate reaction was “holy shit”, this concert thing is really going to happen. A minute left before the start time of the concert and combat was automatically disabled for all players which was great. And then the concert happens. 10 minutes long, but every second was worth it. A few quick songs were played, you had other players doing various dance emotes and jumping around on the stage. Having every player float in mid-air was awesome. How I’m currently describing the event doesn’t do it enough justice. If you haven’t done so already, just see a video of it on Youtube or somewhere else. It was quite the spectacle. It’s things like this that justify Fortnite winning EZA’s Best Multiplayer. Shame it can’t win two years in a row. Or can it? ;) Lastly, I want to briefly talk about the Dreams beta. I was lucky enough to get a code, and while I haven’t spent a lot of time in the beta, I’m nonetheless very impressed by how much one can do from a creative standpoint. Just seeing the P.T. hallway be recreated blew my mind. Once I give the tutorial videos a very thorough rundown, I’ll try my damnedest to create something that will impress others. EZA Dreams Beta stream when? That’s all I have for this month. Loving the studio and as always, keep up the good work Karl

Anonymous

Salutations Jones and Damiani, Congrats on the studio! It looks great! I was able to snag used copies of Dragon Quest VII and IX and have enjoyed the jovial times and jolly vibes of both of these games. I’ve barely touched IX because it has a bad habit of freezing whenever I pause the game so I been playing a lot of VII. I’m over 30 hours in and boy, were you guys right it is a sloooooooow burn. But it is perhaps the best slow burn game I have ever played. I was 3 hours into the game and there hadn’t been a single combat encounter, but that change of pace was amazingly refreshing. The colors are vibrant, the music well-done (if a little lacking in variety), the art style give super comfy vibes, and the characters are goofy, lovable, outlandish, and incredibly endearing. Granted this game was made in a different era, although it was recently rereleased on the 3DS a few years ago, but so much of Dragon Quest VII and the franchise in general feels like it is going in the opposite direction to the gaming industry and is still winning, although like you guys, I really want more people in the West to be playing these games. The Allies were the reason I wanted to get into the franchise and now that I am here, I am hardcore converted, I can’t wait to play the rest of this game in this series. I can’t wait to give more thoughts on my adventures in Dragon Quest but I have to share a story of personal gaming accomplishment (with perhaps some slight dramatic flair). Background: Last month I mentioned that I got a SNES classic. I never owned a SNES before, but my grandmother did. In the 90’s I lived only 20 minutes from my grandparents, and kid me spent many a day playing the six games my grandmother owned. Some I beat (like DK Country), some I could only progress like 30 minutes into (The Jungle Book, could never get past Kaa), but there was only one game where I could beat everything but the final boss. I racked up hundreds of wins and probably hundreds of losses, I played it every time I went over to my grandparents, but I could never beat the final boss. That game was on the SNES. That game was Super Punch Out. With a second shot at redemption, of removing the mocking specter that haunted kid me after coming so close to beating the game time and again, I set out to make sure that this nearly 20 year old rivalry was finally put to a rest. Several hours later and about 120-150 bouts later, it finally happened. As the final “TKO” flashed across the screen, I tore off my hoodie and slammed it on the floor, I danced around, shouting “I did it, I finally did it” and in the process scared my wife half-to-death. I know I'm close to 500 words so I'll just say that I hope the month is great to all the allies, thank you for getting me interested in Dragon Quest, and I hoped you liked the story. Love and Respect.

Anonymous

This is the second time I've posted this so if it pops up twice I apologize.

Anonymous

Hello once again Johns and Damiani Before I dive into this weeks submission I'd like to congratulate Damiani’s “The Running man” hitting 1 million views. I'm a big fan of Game Sleuth and Pop Fiction and I fully appreciate how much time can go into a single episode. If it wasn't for “The Worst Strategy Guide Ever Made” i would have never found pop fiction and my favourite episode “The Lost Nero Family” you helped my 100% one of the games i hold very close to my heart during one of the hardest times of my life and i thank you for that. In 2019 so far i have completed or am up to date with 28 series and have dropped 32 in all so here are Some highlights from January and February so far. I like to start every year with a reread this time i settled on Soul Eater and oh boy does it still hold up, it's every bit as good as the anime and then some adding way more DWMA members and villains with some of the best character progression in a Shonen i have read to date. Black Star will always be best boy and Soul Eater will always be one of my go to recommendations for new comers. I spent the vast majority of January working my way through “Trash” a 2010 serialisation. its part Black Lagoon and Leon the Professional but the story leans heavily on shock factors and over the top gore at time leading the reader to become numb,solid 7.0 The most fun i had reading last month was “The Promised Neverland” and as Shonen's go Neverland was a really engrossing read with a world i fell in love with even if i don't gel with a lot of the characters or story beats its a series i would recommend to anyone seeking a new long running series that is just starting out. 8.0 100 words left time for some quick fire “hot takes” Number 1 “To Your Eternity” only 15 chapters in but really digging the art and world so far, going to stick with it and see how it goes. Number 2 “Bloom in you” you'd think with the amount of romance i read a series like this would be right up my alley but the characters just didn't click for me. Dropped after 12 chapters. Number 3. “Giniro no Genders” is a series i originally considered dropping after the first few chapters but sensed that the story had more going on than meets the eye and after getting up to date with chapter 7 i'm happy to say I am now eagerly anticipating the next few chapters to see which direction this drama fuelled slice of life will take. That's it from me this month and as always Read what you want to read and the conversation isn't going anywhere. L&amp;R

Anonymous

Re posting for April Beatty Happy New Year and Happy New Studio, Allies!! This is my first time submitting to the showcase but I just wanted to drop a quick note to let you know how very proud I am to be supporting your family of entertainment. It's a thrill to know my little bit every month is helping you to make great things. Your passion shows through in your work and you encourage me to make steps to pursue a passion of my own. I know, Brandon, that you recently turned 40, but for me that was a few years ago. Last year, I had been starting to feel that my current, mundane place in life would be my final place ...working in a boring job doing mundane things... but 40+ is not too old to turn it around and pursue a dream. When I saw the new studio reveal I had goosebumps and happy tears streaming down my face. You have made your dream a reality and if you can do it, maybe I can too. I have always wanted to use my vocal talents to make money and with the encouragement of your enthusiasm and passion, I am taking steps to make that dream a reality. Hopefully by this time next year, I will have grown enough financially to make the trip out from Chicago to see your 4th anniversary celebration. Can't wait to meet you all in person and if you ever go "on tour" I'd love for you to make a stop in Chicago =) Take Care, Much L&amp;R @Jessie_Blu_

Anonymous

For the month of January... I didn't really play any video games. So, yea. I did go to Disney Springs however. While I there, I played the demo for Kingdom Hearts III at the Kingdom Hearts pop-up event that they had. My impressions of the demo... there were some pretty bad framerate issues. I did't know if it was the demo or how they had everything set up. Yes, I have gotten the game since and have been playing it a bunch. The framerate issues aren't as bad as the demo, but it the frames definitely drop at points. Anyhoo, I'll go more in depth of playing Kingdom Hearts III next month. Right now I am still super hyped on it, so I fear that anything I right will be positive nonsense without any real critical thinking to make whatever I type at least a little interesting. I also haven't finished yet. After waiting so long, I am happily taking my time. While at Disney Springs, I did the Ralph Breaks VR thing that they added to the VOID. The VOID, for those that don't know, is a place that offers a VR experience that is fully immersive. It is an area you walk through where what you see is replicated for you to touch and pick up, like buttons to press and guns to pick-up. They have a building at Disney Springs in both Orlando and Anaheim. There other locations as well, but you all are as just as capable as Googling as I am. Anyhoo, it was a lot of fun. I liked it a lot more than the Star Wars one. There was a part where you shoot things and rack points and get ranked at the end. My score was more than everyone else's scores combined in my group... proving that I may play too many video games. I can't wait to see how the Marvel one turns out. I also visited Epcot, the best Disney park, for the International Festival of the Arts. I got to sit in on a seminar between a graphic designer and character artist who went over the collaborative process to making merchandise that is in the parks. Not just for the parks in Orlando, but California and sometimes for the ones overseas as well. They also mentioned how they work two years out, so they get to know all the additions coming to the parks over the next two years... I can only imagine all the NDAs they have to sign. It was really neat to see samples of style guides that they create for various attractions such as the Haunted Mansion. I'm looking forward to going a few more times before the festival ends. There is just a lot of interesting seminars taking place. The food at the park for the festival was simply phenomenal as well. Always a good time. Gasparilla also happened, and as always, it was lots of fun. Finally, congrats on the studio. Looks awesome!

Anonymous

I tried this before, but it seems like Patreon ate it. Hopefully it sticks this time. If you happened to see the old post as well... eh, no idea then.

Anonymous

Wingatakus here Congrats On the Studio!!! It looks so cool! So pumped for all the great stuff you guys can do in there. Jones last month you missed a line or two from my post the whole Hey Ma I Just Won Some Manime was because I was thanking you guys for the tickets I won to go see Mirai. Thanks Damiani youre one of the greats! Tell Huber hes one of the greats too. Last month I sent some Mario Paint so this month I'll just send a real painting I did months back at a Sip and Paint. Love and Respect so excited for the new studio. Its the latest pic in the link. <a href="https://twitter.com/myawesomeideas/media" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/myawesomeideas/media</a>

Anonymous

Hello Brandon &amp; Damiani! Wow, THE STUDIO! Can you believe it? I barely can. Also, I'm not sure how to feel about it; meaning, I know it is not my accomplishment and I'm not entitled to anything given that my patronage is not enough to even buy one of the couches you are now sitting on, but it feels really great to have been part of this from the beginning and watch you guys all the way up to this point. Now, what to talk about? I don't want to get too grim, but wow, January really sucked for me. Between me getting sick, my cat getting sick, ruining my 3DS by spilling coffee all over it and Metroid Prime 4 development starting over!?? Damn! Ok, that last part is not actually that bad. I was glad enough that Nintendo came clean with it, and having Retro working on it has to account to something, right? Whenever it's ready I'm in. Now, my 3Ds, that one really hurt. Not so much for the device itself, but because all my save files are gone; at least for a while. I called the Mexican distributor to check if they could fix it, but they said I should call again in about a month, since Nintendo hadn't shipped them replacement parts for a while, there is nothing they can do right now. The save files that depress me the most are Theatrhythm Final Fantasy Curtain Call &amp; Street Pass Mii Plaza games. For Theatrhythm I've been playing for over a year trying to get all critical ratings in all songs, and since that game saves to the SD card, my progress is trapped forever. For street pass I was so close to getting A+ rating in all 150 fish species in Ultimate Angler, the only game I had something to do yet; so this blows. Given that Street pass is mostly dead already, it would be very difficult to achieve this if I have to start over. But while January was crappy, February is starting good! We just platinum Peggle 2! Our first Ps4 platinum! Unfortunately since me and the cat getting sick was a hit to the wallet, I didn't dare to get RE2 at launch as I wanted to, I'll wait patiently for it as I always do. Also, I finally made some progress in Majora's Mask. Having Damiani there, I would have loved to have it beat by the time of me writing this; but right now, I promise that I will be done with it by the next time he's at the showcase; hopefully Triforce heroes too so I have finally beat all the Zelda games prior to breath of the wild and finally dig into it like there is no tomorrow. Anyway, thanks for sticking up with my rambling, I hope next month it won't be so grim. Love &amp; Respect. César. (Studio,yeah!)

XWF Outlaw

Good Afternoon Jones, Damiani, and Chat. Apologies for missing last month's Showcase. I know some of you may remember I had some photos for DisneyWorld that I teased a couple of months ago. Thankfully, @TokyoSlim filled my space with his DisneyLand photos. Unfortunately, I don't have them again this month as I feel this month's entry is more deserving for what I have to share. But first, the games. For someone who is not too fond of fighting games The Super Smash Bros. series has been my favorite fighting series by far. Having skipped Smash 4 and 3DS I have been chomping at the bit like a Piranha Plant to jump in and play Super Smash Bros. Ultimate with friends. So much so that I haven’t even touched World of Light yet. It’s been a blast playing with new and familiar fighters and levels with an immense feeling of jolliness. Can’t wait for Joker to join the fight. But with jolliness, came dread with Resident Evil 2. Ho. Lee. F This game is good. It’s still new so I won’t go into great detail, but after a night in Racoon City, the terror wraps around you like a warm blanket. A sound design and score that rips at your nerves and engulfs you in fear. Zombies and creatures ooze with gory detail. I highly recommend this game. If you recall back in December, I finally decided to start (admittedly late) my Full playthrough of the Kingdom Hearts series. Well, between both aforementioned games and the Winter Fortnite challenges, I have been hampered in my progress to say the least. At the time of this posting I have completed Kingdom Hearts 1.5, Re:Chain of Memories ,(Sora &amp; Riku), Kingdom Hearts 2.5 and 358/2 Days. Currently I am playing Birth by Sleep. This is the first game of the series I have had not previously played before and I’m digging it so far. I have 2.8 and 3 still in shrink wrap waiting to be cracked open. I hope I can get them done before Year 3 to talk to everyone about it. And speaking of Year 3…! An announcement! On Friday, March 22, I will be organizing the 3rd Annual (Unofficial) EZA Community DisneyLand Meetup at DisneyLand in Anaheim. Any Allies traveling to LA to attend this year’s concert are welcome to attend. Meet with old friends and make new friends. Come have a blast with other allies, ride some rides, talk games, hug a Mickey, and make some memories; all on the eve of the Year 3 concert. Details can be found on the EZA forums @ forums.easyallies.com . Hope to see you there.

Anonymous

Hello there Brandon and Damiani, Brian from Happy Gaming here! I'll keep things brief because Brandon was kind enough to let me post my video that Patreon ate last month on top of the one I've made for this month. These last couple months I've been getting pretty busy with work, so I unfortunately haven't had to most time for writing for my podcast or playing games. My most recent episode is about an industry history lesson about the different ways that people who play games connect, depending on when it was that they grew up or became acquainted with games in general. The most difficult part for me about writing a podcast is always getting the first paragraph down. Hearing a recent Cup of Jones though where you said that it's usually the most difficult section puts me at ease a little bit though. Any advice from you two pros on getting into a routine when capturing and writing would be very much appreciated, as I do all of my work on my own in my free time off of another job! Aside from that I wanted to wish you two and the rest of EZA an enormous congratulations on the studio! It's very much deserved and a long time coming. You're a group whose content is always there to bring me up and never ceases to give me a genuine feeling of community and happiness in my life. But it being Valentine's month, I have to say that I couldn't do what I do without the enormous support from my girlfriend whom I love very much as well! She encourages me to follow my creative passions and never tells me what I do is a waste of time. I'm thankful to have such outstanding role models as you guys, and a loving partner who tells me I can get there. (She also recently finished her first big console game with me too, Persona 5, at 130 hours. Shout out!) Thanks everyone for the support and the positive love that you put out for others. My two videos are short showcases of some games I've played over the last little while. There are a good many left out in the three minute time limit I've worked to be under, but I hope everyone enjoys what I put together! Love and Respect, Brian from Happy Gaming First Video (from last month): <a href="https://youtu.be/NDzhII3HNnI" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/NDzhII3HNnI</a> Second Video (This month): <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ANMMIfFuWs" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ANMMIfFuWs</a>

Anonymous

Hi Allies! Longtime listener, first time showcaser! When I first became an EZA patron, I was still in grad school, working on my master's in music composition. Since then, I've been working on a few small musical projects, but this year, I'm putting all my creative efforts into writing short, bi-monthly electronic compositions. For me, it's an exercise in writing something quick, meeting a strict deadline, and focusing more on the musical substance of an idea, as opposed to getting bogged down in larger structural elements. As part of this endeavor, I want to share my creations with the community! This is the first piece I completed this year, titled Final Exam. It focuses mostly on drum patterns, but was a good way for me to remember how to use Ableton Live. Also, I love a good percussion piece. <a href="https://soundcloud.com/brian-denu/final-exam" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://soundcloud.com/brian-denu/final-exam</a> Hope you enjoy! Brian Denu (pronounced de-NU (emphasis on the NU)) (I realize this audio is longer than 3:00, but if you feel there is time to play the whole thing, by all means! My original intent was to keep them shorter than 3:00, but I've been ambitious.)

Anonymous

Happy Lunar New Year, Jones and Damiani! I have been off from work this whole week due to the holiday, lot's of gaming time! This year is the year of the pig, but don't get too excited if you are a pig - it's bad luck during your year! The only way to combat this bad luck is to wear red underwear for the whole lunar year! Also, wanted to share a fun fact with Damiani since I believe he has said before that he likes Boba Tea. I think a lot of people might assume it's a Japanese trend, but it was actually invented here in Taiwan. The Chinese name for it translates to Pearl Milk Tea. There is a tea-house here in Taichung city that claims to have started it, but another story says it was created in Tainan city. Either way it's a very popular drink here. Recently a law has been passed that tea stores can no longer provide plastic bags or straws in order to cut down on pollution. Now there are trendy cloth tea cup-holders and washable titanium straws that you can buy instead. Anyway, just thought I'd share that! Hope you guys have a great new year! Xin Nian Kuai Le! (Happy New Year!) L&amp;R – Ian, @alexander_arts

Anonymous

hello jones and damiani first time posting for the showcase,i been playing world of warcraft and kingdom hearts 3 and like to share my thoughts on both. First wow with the new raid launching 2 weeks ago and i have thought on it. its interesting content the concept is the alliance are attacking the new horde allies.The raid is spilt up into 3 wings a 3 boss intro,alliance side wing and a horde side wing where you see the other factions role in the raid through a flashback style event.The faction stuff is very cool also watching top wow guilds racing to finish top content world first has become i favorite thing i look forward to when new content roles out.Now for kingdom hearts 3 which has dissapointed me greatly for the following reasons .one the combat i thought they would have fixed the blocking by now sora block so slow and it takes forever for him to guard.2 the worlds just dont feel as good like the worlds of kingdom hearts 2 frozen bore me to tears,and pirates did not make sense it even being there.3 the dialog every time a char would appear and start talking like a char from lost or tease things like would you like to know yes i would so just say it.I wont go into ending stuff for spoiler reasons but as of now i no longer a fan of kingdom hearts series and nomura needs to stick to making a game like the mock ff versus 13 game which it i would love to play and look really good. love and respect cdjgamer

Anonymous

Hi Brandon and Damiani Last month I discussed and rated some of my most memorable games from 2018, now I’m going to talk about my two favorite games of last year. To get the rating out of the way, for me they are both tens. I picked these two games because they both did something that no other had done that year, they made me turn off the podcasts. Typically when I play games I tend to have a podcast, twitch stream or tv show on in the background. However when I was playing these games I was so invested in their story, their characters and their worlds that I shut everything else off and put my full attention into them. These are the two games from 2018 that genuinely moved me. First off: God of War This was my first time playing this series and I must say this is quite the introduction and I’m very excited in where it goes from here. While the combat is a bit too combo heavy for my personal taste, the encounters had a nice feeling of being intense and hectic but not unmanageably chaotic. The world also has a great structure, with the large central area connecting to a number of side regions making it almost feel like a Zelda world. Without a doubt the part of this game that I enjoyed the most was the story and the characters. Kratos is presented here as a person filled with grief and regret but but with a complete refusal to display it. This causes conflict with his son, Artreus, who for most of the game interprets Kratos’ pain as disappointment and seeing the two of them slowly come to understand each other and grow closer is one of my favorite plot developments in any game I have played. Next: Celeste I tend to treat games as escapism and a way to set aside day-to-day life and problems for a little bit and because of this I’m typically not expecting to get life impacting moments from games. Celeste was one of very few times a game made me confront things about myself and have to stop for a moment or two before I could continue. The funny thing about it was that it wasn’t the larger displays of depression or anxiety that hit me the most, it was typically smaller comments highlighting some sort of fairly minor bit of doubt. The game is as strong mechanically as it is narratively. The game will push you very hard and make your journey a struggle but at the same time will regularly offer encouragement and will allow you to lower the difficulty without any hint of mockery or punishment. This creates a wonderful dynamic where the game is being so hard on you because it believes it you and wants you to overcome its’ challenges, which really is perfectly fitting for a game about living with depression. Finally I just want to give a sincere thank you to the Allies and this community. I had been watching the Allies from close to the beginning but it was last year that I decided I needed to start giving support and participating in this group. This past year of writing these monthly comments, hanging out on twitch streams when I can and participating and getting crushed in the unofficial EZA discord smash tournament have been amazing experiences and I can’t wait for another year with this great group of people.

Anonymous

Dummy comment to make top ones appear

Anonymous

Hello Jones and Damiani, My posts have been about how last year my mom played her first games Final Fantasy XV and Yakuza 0. I’ve been waiting for Damiani’s appearance because she picked FFXIV next! I’m a bit short on time so rush translating my mum’s messages. Neither of us have ever played an MMO before and my mum didn’t know what an MMO was at all. I was honestly really worried about starting out and trying to play with other random people thus reached out on twitter. Was NOT expecting to be invited to a free company mainly composed of people around a similar age to my mother. They were our guardian angels. They took us in and guided us when needed but let us learn on our own in the perfect balance. My mum is closer with them than I am and group chats with them on the daily outside of the game. They’ve legitimately become her friends. It’s not just our FC; people on the Shinryu server as a whole are incredibly nice. People frequently come up and ask “how are things going?” “need help with anything?” The little leaf signifying newbies, genius. Even with how...difficult learning the mechanics was at first, learning how to play an MMO has been pure fun with the warm welcome we’ve received. My mum is 100% in on XIV now. She mains a lalafell Dark Knight and I a cat boy Astrologian. I’m not going to lie, we look ridiculous. But no regrets. She is on the road to maxing crafting + gathering and loves engaging in PvP. Her google drive now has a “FFXIV” folder where she’s moved her paper notes on the various regions, areas, and NPCs she’s met. She’s bought all the OSTs, too many moogle plushies, and happily displays the two Eorzea Encyclopedias on the coffee table. We’re really hoping an Eorzean Symphony happens again so we can go. She’s deep in now guys; it’s insane. She only has a few real grievances: - Not. Enough. Item. Storage. - Flying is fun. Aether currents are NOT. - Baby chocobos in 15 are adorable. In 14 they look like demon spawn. - “Those mounts, cost. Real. Money???” She is quite upset about the fat moogle mount (the fc is getting it for her as a birthday gift but shhh) Now the specific things she likes: - Glamours. She is ADDICTED. The true end-game. Send help. - Culinarian. Best class in the game. - Gathering and crafting are her jam. She RELISHES rolling in the gil. - Mahjong with friends. Dream come true. - The Unending Coil of Bahamut. I know, way too intense mum. - All the new friends she's made. - Being able to play with me (yes, I teared up) She still favors 15, but for the social aspects we both have never experienced anything like 14. We can’t thank our FC and the world we picked enough for their kindness. Shadowbringers here we come! Cheers!

Anonymous

Hello Jones &amp; Damiani Last month I submitted an art of Samanosuke so of course that meant I was going to play Onimusha: Warlords which still holds up except one annoying thing. Whose idea was it to put a map on L3? It really annoyed me since I always accidentally pushed it whenever I moved because my controller isn't as new as it used to be. Other than that I enjoyed it a lot, especially doing critical attacks...dopamine. Also played Tales of Vesperia and finally got to understand the plot better since my PS3 copy was only japanese and one certain puzzle I had to check back then how to write it. Been playing as Patty Fleur because she is awesome with gambling mechanics (which Don would probably approve) and fun to play as. I'm 60 hours in but sadly didn't manage to finish it yet because... Resident Evil 2 remake came out. This game is amazing and did my 3rd playthrough getting S+ rank on normal with Leon with only 30 seconds to spare on A route. I do have some complaints so here we go. SPOILERS. Claire carrying a weapon in the first place, not having a holster for it, 2nd run having same bosses in same area which totally breaks the immersion, the lab looking too high tech, Tyrant teleporting from one place to another because he's gotta block you. Probably why I prefer original over it. It's not a 10 but an easy 9 for me personally and I gotta praise VO was excellent especially Marvin's VA, expressions characters do (Leon is still campy, Claire's is motherly and her story is better), original OST and enemies. Anyway since it's The Lunar New Year, nothing is more fitting than submitting an art of the best person for it: <a href="https://twitter.com/tearjuengi/status/1093408322089304064" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/tearjuengi/status/1093408322089304064</a> See you next month Love &amp; Respect TearjuEngi

Anonymous

Valkyria Chronicles 4 and Yakuza 6 in Top 10 GOTY in forums...whhohoo

Anonymous

Dear Allies, First off, I wanted to say “Thank you” for the quality entertainment you provide. I started off watching Tabletop Adventures/Escapades, moved on to Fiasco and Easy Update and now have spread out to view at least one episode of most of your programs. Cup of Jones and the EA Podcast are enlightening and your discussions are both knowledgeable and entertaining. Your improve shows are full of character and I most love the way you are all comfortable showing your emotions, not just about the topics your discussing or the characters you are portraying, but also how you feel about each other. And then there’s Box Peek… Proof that Kyle is a creative genius and that Amanda should be considered an Honorary 10th ally. With such differing personalities one would think there would be some animosity but no, you all genuinely care about each other (first), about the quality of the content (second), your adoring fans (like myself) and then about the subjects of your programs. This love for what you are doing and respect for each other really shines through in everything that you do and I wanted to let you know you are my exclusive “go-to” for entertainment. I find your voices comforting and if I’m feeling down, any program I listen to cheers me up. I recently raised my pledge so I could further support your endeavors so my first question is this: Have you discussed changes to the pledge tiers and goals? I would love to see something between the $25 and $50 range to encourage sponsors (like myself) to eek their pledges up a little at a time as finances allow. Second, now that the studio has a permanent address and an LLC, will there be a different location to send fan mail and gifts rather than the Brandon Jones PO Box? Will allies other than Brandon offer “name”@easyallies.com email addresses to which we can send ideas and submissions, links, content etc. that we might not want to post publicly on a comments board or twitter page? Having open communication seems to be important to the Allies and fans would appreciate more ways to communicate. Lastly, will the Merch be expanded to include more recently received fan-art/t-shirt/hoodie ideas such as Busted Trifecta, Season 2 TTE catch phrases and additional Box Peek options? Will some of the items I see you guys wearing on the various programs be offered? I would love to continue to buy more merchandise to publicly support your endeavors. Again, Thank you, thank you, thank you for continuing to do what you do, and enjoy your new studio. I know we will all enjoy it with you. April Beatty @Jessie_Blu_

Anonymous

<a href="https://youtu.be/JYL0yNsq8yc" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/JYL0yNsq8yc</a> A tribute to Damiani