Musings of a Wandering Writer

Dear America, "You've won." He told me with a note of finality. There was no one left to prove my worth to. I'd risen through the ranks of being a lowly grunt who thought he knew his shit to a mid-level wiseguy saddled with too much regret and eventually reached the status of a respected professional in my craft. I was one of the guys now, but instead of confetti and fanfare I found myself wondering where to go to now, or even whether to actually believe the man. What at first seemed so simple: establishing myself as a voice to be respected, had become a white whale ever-vanishing beyond the horizon. The idea that after ten years of small triumphs; taking my licks; and plotting in vapor-filled rooms that I could now finally relax left me speechless. The only rungs left on the ladder were ones I had no interest in climbing, but now that I had time to take in my surroundings, I dwelled on whether I even wanted to stay. They say a shark cannot stay still or else they los

I have been meaning to get a review out for this one as I intend to go through the entire series. I played through most of Trails in the Sky on the PlayStation Portable (it's also available on PC), but never got around to finishing that series. Despite that, I think this series has a great deal of potential so I am very interested to see how the sequels go. For those that are new to the series, I recommend at least trying Trails in the Sky , but you don't need to play those to properly enjoy Trails of Cold Steel. 1 Where You Can Find It: I played the PS Vita version of this game and have heard that the PS4/PC versions have slight additional content in them.   General Information The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel (aka "TCS" from now on), is a turn-based Japanese roleplaying game that was developed by Nihon Falcom Corporation and published by XSEED Games on September 2013 in Japan and later in America in 2015. It is part of the long-running Legend of Heroes s

It took me a while, but I've been pretty darn excited to review this game as it's been a long-time running. Lately, all the games I've been reviewing have been old survival-horror games, so I figured I'd lighten things up with a modern game review of something a bit more light-hearted. My only experience with Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio's previous games was Yakuza 0 , however I never actually finished that one as it had some minor issues that eventually dragged it down (I might one day go back and try to beat it though). With that said, I'll likely be using Yakuza 0 as a point of reference to show how far the studio has come. 1 Where You Can Find It:  I played this one on the PS4, however it's also going to be upgraded for PS5 in the near future. As far as I'm aware, it remains as an exclusive for Sony. General Information Judgement (also known as "Judge Eyes" in Japan), was developed by Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio and published by Sega, exclusively for the

Dear America, Lately, I have been fantasizing about the joys of apathy. Whether it is work, romance, friendship, or building the perfect tabletop role-playing game, I find that I perhaps care too much. At the office, I consider part of my paycheck is that I should care about what I'm doing, but I am also a hopeless perfectionist. My coworkers get paid around the same amount as I do, but I produce the majority of work and shoulder burdens they don't. I don't really hold it against them, as I kind of admire their willingness to not give a fuck. I've spoken on Daoism before in my letters to you and that I really appreciate it, but it's an appreciation that is akin to a visitor observing a foreign land. Of the many things Daoism teaches us, it preaches going with the flow of the river of life (a nice way of saying not to give a fuck). Such a concept is kind of hard for me considering I feel like I spend most of my time either swimming upstream or attempting to build a

As mentioned in my Silent Hill review , I'm a huge fan of the Resident Evil franchise. With that being said, I'm going to keep my biases to a minimum (as always) as I review what is frequently considered one of the greatest survival-horror games of all time. My history with the Resident Evil series goes back to the original game as this was another game that I watched my older brother play before trying my own hand at it. Being under the age of ten, I had no idea what I was doing and quickly got disheartened at the sight of repeatedly seeing the protagonist get mauled by zombies/giant snakes/dogs and didn't touch the Resident Evil franchise again until the legendary fourth installment (maybe I'll review that one at some point ).  1 Where to Find It:   I played the original PlayStation version on a PlayStation Vita, downloaded from the PlayStation Store. You can also find this on PC and nearly every PlayStation system.   General Information Resident Evil 2 was

*A friend of mine recommended I add a spoilers section for reviews for those that have already appreciated whatever I’m reviewing, as well as for those that are interested in reading about the subject but don’t actually want to experience it first-hand. You’ll find the spoilers section at the very bottom of the review. Lately, I’ve been really hankering for a good horror fix, however I’d argue that many modern-day games kind of lack in that department. I’d say a lot of this is due to a lack of budget (for indie developers) or the dumbing down of big budget games that favor a lowest common denominator for mass appeal. Don’t get me wrong, there are still plenty of great games out today, but one need look no further than Dead Space 3 to see that single player horror titles just aren’t as profitable as a game that can pack in multiplayer elements with microtransaction components. With that being said, I took a trip to the past and thought I’d give a classic another try. Way back in th

Dear America, For the past several days there have been riots and protests in America and I don't know what to write. It's pretty rare for me to ever be at a loss for words, however the conflict we're facing is hardly simple. Personally, I don't like to write about politics, although I do enjoy reading about it and discussing the topic. It would seem that the festering wounds of the 2010's, which injected a heavy dose of steroids into our tribalistic tendencies, has only continued to balloon outward. I don't know what it is about the people of my generation, but we seem to have a fascination with categorizing viewpoints and putting people in boxes. This habit has the tendency of putting us in a situation where we frequently can only decide whether we are for or against something. For the most part, I try to avoid the box whenever possible. When people ask me if I'm a conservative or a liberal, my answer is routinely "I'm just Brett Calhoun." Th