Games + journaling: Legend of Mana, Legend of Tian-ding

Legend of Mana

Finished the Legend of Mana remaster last weekend! It was unexpectedly gay. The straight love triangle was bland, the straight + serial-monogamist centaur ended up single (I really liked how it was friends-to-lovers-to-friends from the siren's PoV), the clinically (and relatably) depressed boy and his tirelessly optimistic partner were extremely moving... and finally... the lesbians. The lesbians were a knight/priestess you-and-me-against-our-entire-clan storyline with a touch of yandere-ness and genderfluidity. They were the game's most important arc too and they have you going through so much Plot and tragedy before revealing that actually this is a love story.

Anyway, more thoughts here and more photos of my physical journal pages here.

The Legend of Tian-ding

In today's episode of impulse buying (the perils of browsing the discounted section of the Nintendo eshop...), I've picked up The Legend of Tianding, a 2D platformer set in Dadaocheng, Taipei under the Japanese occupation. You play the (real-life) Taiwanese folk hero Liao Tian-ding, a hot-blooded young rebel who steals from the rich, shares with the poor, and, well, gives Japanese soldiers who get in his way a thorough thrashing. Incidentally I'm also playing the murder mystery game Murders on the Yangtze River, which occurs in roughly the same time period (early 1900s), so I feel like I'm getting a more comprehensive historical education. XD

The spoken language in The Legend of Tianding is Taiwanese Hokkien. I can only understand around 10 words, but it's nice to hear in a videogame. I'm playing on story mode (which the game calls "Gentleman Thief" mode) but it's still a struggle for me. 😂 The design and interface are very nice to look at and the cutscenes have a dynamic comicbook-like style. I've uploaded some screencaps and GIFs here.