Timothy Monbleau

I get why a lot of people don't like Musous, but I do feel some write off the games faster than they should. They're not high art or anything, but I consider the genre to be balm for the soul after a hard day or if I'm just kind of feeling depressed.

Also, Origins is really quite good.

A screenshot of the character creator screen in Escape From Duckov. There is a blue duck.

I drew the duck blue because I've never seen a blue duck before and, to be honest with you, I wanted to see a blue duck.

I wasn't ready by today but I got a lot of words on this coming soon.

DQ1 HD-2D is a fundamentally different game than basically any iteration of DQ1 to this point. It'd be like saying you don't have to read Jane Austen's Emma because you watched 1995's Clueless.

A screenshot of Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake. The main character and a woman are looking at a castle in the mountains.

Holding off on a verdict until I see the end credits (twice), but I’ve been enjoying Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake. It’s so wildly transformative that you could call it a new game, but its story-driven focus on keeping hope alive is just what we need now. More to come on this soon. #blutoid

Played this all the time as a kid on the NES, so I only ever internalized it as good-yet-generic run-and-gun. Learning about who I was actually controlling literal decades later when I saw the uncensored names was such an enormous plot twist.

I thought for a second that you were saying all Pokemon starters are mid and I was preparing to write a 1,000,000 word essay.

It's crazy that my girlfriend @lunardove.bsky.social is not only an amazing and supportive partner, she can also snap some damn good photos too. I was long overdue for a new profile picture, especially now that I've got some stuff on my face.

Thank you EGM and Seanbaby for goading teenage Tim into playing this.

I'll be honest, it's not the WORST thing I've ever seen. Lunar: Dragon Song single-handedly ensured I'd never buy a game without reading reviews again, and that's coming from the man who beat the Diabetes platformer.

Been reading criticism of roguelite systems today, which I typically agree with. Absolum's take on it did manage to work for me, which I discuss here.

My advice: Spend those first 8 hours learning enemy tells and your defensive options. Gaining that knowledge is as important as the stat upgrades.

I didn't see a way to elegantly fit this into the review, but I had a note of how I find most classic beat-'em-ups kind of repetitive if I'm playing solo. So the fact that I still found this fun after beating it like 14 times speaks to that high level of design. Hope you enjoy it when you get to it!

I mean it's a valid question, how are you supposed to play a game if it might not have any graphics!?!?

Review – Absolum Before I completely gush about Absolum for approximately 3000 words (grab the popcorn for this one), we’ve got to set the stage by talking about 2020’s Streets of Rage 4. Developed by Lizardcube, G…

@timmonbleau.bsky.social is here to tell us all about Absolum and its place in the hierarchy of bemups!

maxutmost.com/review-absol...

Review – Absolum Before I completely gush about Absolum for approximately 3000 words (grab the popcorn for this one), we’ve got to set the stage by talking about 2020’s Streets of Rage 4. Developed by Lizardcube, G…

Don't sleep on Absolum. Dotemu and Guard Crush's follow-up to Streets of Rage 4 combines meaningful variety with crunchy mechanical depth, and its story about the rise and effects of tyranny inspired ~700 words of analysis out of me. Absolutely loving this, even 30 hours later. My full review below:

Hey Absolum absolutely whips and you should not sleep on it. Roguelikes are usually harder sells for me because I don't like banging my head against a wall until it breaks, but this one's fantasy beat-em-up dressings got its hooks in me.

I had the privilege of actually growing up with a TurboGrafx, so I can confirm that Legendary Axe was regarded as the system's killer app by at least my immediate family. Bonk was for the kids, the adults booted up Legendary Axe so they could exclaim "man, this game is *tough*."

A screenshot of an old blog I wrote on Destructoid. The text reads: "2: Humans Out of all the people that I have felt attraction towards over the course of my lifetime, 100% of them have been human. I’ve talked with my doctor about this, asking questions like why I was never confused by the likes of Knuckles the Echidna or Rainbow Dash, but he just told me that he wasn’t my doctor and asked if I’d like to pay for my groceries with cash or credit."

I just checked, and would you believe that I still have a copy of my fetish blog

It's not nearly funny enough to repost (the jokes were more embarrassing than any revealing truths would have been), but I can safely say I am proud of this one paragraph. #blutoid

Think that unfortunately applies to a lot of us. They never knew how good they had it with you there.

I was actually in such a deep state of despair that my soul left my body and floated outside my building.

It hasn’t come back since.

I remember talking about how I wanted to do more community soundboard stuff on the front page, since I felt that was important to the site’s identity.

Then they gave Moyse the boot like two weeks later, so I abandoned all those ideas and spent most of that weekend in my bed staring at the roof.

Played it back in the 90s when I was still but a child, and yeah combat hit hard. Kids were struggling with concepts like buffs and debuffs, so the simple system of waiting on the enemy position or charging up double/triple checks felt awesome.

Game also gave me anxiety about 1999. What a classic.

A screenshot from Blade Runner during the famous "All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain" monologue.

We never realized how good we had it when the Cblog tab was filled with everyone ranking their fetishes.

Now that's what I'm talking about

Genuinely messed up that just writing that one fake headline reminded me of the joy I used to have on that site. A sad reminder in case anyone isn't aware of just how much the place has been gutted.

If Destructoid never entered the Gamurs era, this article would have been called "New Buyout Turns Electronic Arts Into Electronic Sharts" and everyone in the comments would be complaining about how no one should buy Electronic Arts unless it's at least 50% off on Steam. #blutoid #darksiders2

A screenshot of Dragon Warrior 1 on the Game Boy Color. The hero is in a town by the weapon shop.

Doing some prep work ahead of Dragon Quest I+II HD this month, and man, Dragon Quest 1 remakes are such satisfying bite-sized games. Can’t think of many RPGs that I can play for an hour and go “You know, I’m already this far in, I might as well finish it.”

Mick AND Motoi Sakuraba on the OST. I’ve been dying to talk about Absolum all year tbh.

~15 years later and we're finally getting closer to realizing this legendary pitch. #blutoid

I'd like to clarify that Dogi does indeed belong in every single video game as Adol's husband, and Falcom did make the right call with this decision.

You gotta love Falcom's priorities.

The land of Ys, which the series is named after: Who needs it after game 2?

Funny blue hair guy that breaks a wall: Omg let's make him Adol's best friend, this is an essential part of the series' identity.

After an hour of playing Fire Emblem Shadows, I can safely say that I still have no clue what I'm playing. And based on reactions I'm seeing, I don't think anyone else knows what they're playing either.