iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Miles "Tails" Profane @cardiothinker.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Time to recommend Iruma-kun! It's fourth season just ended tho so I don't know if it counts as part of the season. A shonen where there's barely any fighting and the protagonist solves things with kindness. Seasons 1 and 3 have their slow moments but 2 and 4 are peak

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Miles "Tails" Profane @cardiothinker.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

FF8 is very special, going through it with my partner again, a game with a very original atmosphere of futuristic peace

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Miles "Tails" Profane @cardiothinker.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

This is it, every single one of these games changed the course of my life in some way or another...

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Miles "Tails" Profane @cardiothinker.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

I may have cooked too hard with this ps4 setup

A bedroom setup of a PS4 hooked up to a Samsung TV and a Stereo. Background image is Maho Akashi from mobile rhythm game D4DJ.

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Miles "Tails" Profane @cardiothinker.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

*slowly raises hand as the only one probably excited for a new version of autumn ring in gt7* it looks beautiful!!!! definitely one of the tracks that caught my attention when going back to play gt1 for the first time... so family mode... is this supposed to be this game's arcade mode? i hope so

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Miles "Tails" Profane @cardiothinker.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

We have to restore the four elemental crystals!

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Miles "Tails" Profane @cardiothinker.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

how my first time playthrough of rayman 1 is going

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Miles "Tails" Profane @cardiothinker.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

i missed drawing you so much my beautiful yoril [oc]

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Miles "Tails" Profane @cardiothinker.bsky.social · 07/06/2026

Kaser is fanfic Squall meets Noctis but he's a nice guy, Arena is the Fray Heavensward scrimblo that makes me smile all the time, of course there's ff8/parasite eve insipired setpieces and the story is as budget as u think it is but that's fine! blue on black flashy ass combat... oh i love it

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Miles "Tails" Profane @cardiothinker.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

I think I found it. The most reddit gaming post a reddit gamer has ever reddit gamed. From the laziness of the obvious comparisson, to the dismissiveness and arrogance of the most voted comment, this is what the entire website amounts to, no different from those old facebook Minions mom jokes

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Miles "Tails" Profane @cardiothinker.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

Let's make a new dissidia but it's gacha slop that you can't even play

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Miles "Tails" Profane @cardiothinker.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

I spent 3 months saving up for the tomboy knight mafuyu and I PULLED HER FIRST TRY. That left me enough gems to go for these other two. Insane luck today

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Miles "Tails" Profane @cardiothinker.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

THE HELL YOU MEAN SHINJI "SAMPLING MASTERS MEGA" HOSOE IS GONNA BE HERE TOO

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Miles "Tails" Profane @cardiothinker.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

AM I FUCKING DREAMING AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA YESSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Miles "Tails" Profane @cardiothinker.bsky.social · 08/03/2026

BEHOLD!!!!!! the greatest figure of all time

A figure of Racing Fail from DJMax Respect V alongside the cases for the PS1 game Beatmania and Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec for PS2

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Miles "Tails" Profane @cardiothinker.bsky.social · 22/02/2026

About to have the greatest video game experience of my entire life

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Miles "Tails" Profane @cardiothinker.bsky.social · 25/01/2026

Side note: The moomins is cited as an influence in the design of the world of Mana so any Moomins fans be sure to check these games out too.

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Miles "Tails" Profane @cardiothinker.bsky.social · 25/01/2026

If you reached this point, thank you for reading. I know my writing isn't the best and my ideas aren't super cohesive I'm sorry, but these two things were just on my mind and I thought maybe somebody else will find it interesting too. If I was smarter, perhaps this could have been shorter.

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Miles "Tails" Profane @cardiothinker.bsky.social · 25/01/2026

The ending of the game's story isn't unique or hits the notes it may have wanted to... but by injecting a bit of myself and like the character of the book, try to imagine and context in which all of this clicked for someone else... it ended up reaching me as well.

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Miles "Tails" Profane @cardiothinker.bsky.social · 25/01/2026

But by understanding how much did this game created a special connection to somebody, through its art, music, sense of adventure and progression, how it stood against other games and how unique it was for a time where console JRPGs were still a new concept... that's the true secret.

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Miles "Tails" Profane @cardiothinker.bsky.social · 25/01/2026

The more I tried to place myself in the context of when this game came out, through stories or anecdotes I can only try to morph in my mind to something closer to my own childhood, I can weirdly see the magic in Secret of Mana, a type of magic that may not be within the game itself...

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Miles "Tails" Profane @cardiothinker.bsky.social · 25/01/2026

Fuck it even has a random Santa appearance, just like in Narnia!

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Miles "Tails" Profane @cardiothinker.bsky.social · 25/01/2026

Credit where credit's due, Primm (Roses in my playthrough) is my favorite character. Adorable and snarky, she comes right in to punch you in the face. Props to Popoi (Bee) as well for being one of the first nonbinary JRPG player characters! And Randi is Randi.

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Miles "Tails" Profane @cardiothinker.bsky.social · 25/01/2026

When I reached the Mana tree, I had not truly undestood my mission in this world, nor truly got to know my party... but we still had a journey together, worth to stop here and reflect on how far they had come. With the main theme of the game sounding here, I actually almost started crying.

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Miles "Tails" Profane @cardiothinker.bsky.social · 25/01/2026

It's really through the game's art and atmosphere where the creators really let their voice through. Even if I wasn't invested in the story, I still had a sense of adventure and did grow to like the gameplay in spite of being outdated. It's a perfect time capsule for how JRPGs have evolved since.

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Miles "Tails" Profane @cardiothinker.bsky.social · 25/01/2026

Which in many ways the sole existence of this game is a miracle, and the fact there IS still a cohesive adventure here is admirable... even if it is a little been there done that. But still, games like these were not common at the time, FF4 was just starting to shake some expectations not yet formed

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Miles "Tails" Profane @cardiothinker.bsky.social · 25/01/2026

This is because the game was originally planned for the SNES CD-Rom add on the Playstation... yup! Featuring an ambitious story and world-trotting adventure... it basicly had to be cut by 95% in size with the cancellation of the deal.

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Miles "Tails" Profane @cardiothinker.bsky.social · 25/01/2026

The second most disappointing aspect was the story... because there wasn't one. Although with a little more flair, this really is yet again a very basic "go here, then here" quest of early JRPGs with little character developement or deep revelations like we often expect from today... but

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Miles "Tails" Profane @cardiothinker.bsky.social · 25/01/2026

But it also has some of the worst opening dungeons in any of these games I've played, where you will find out all of the games' shortcomings in regards to hitboxes, timing, balance, AI controlled party members, and having no spells at this point, I was ready to quit disappointed...

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Miles "Tails" Profane @cardiothinker.bsky.social · 25/01/2026

But you're telling me that Secret of Mana is multiplayer too? And it's an hours long RPG with tons of bosses and amazing visuals and music? How could you not be excited for this?

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Miles "Tails" Profane @cardiothinker.bsky.social · 25/01/2026

Being one of the earliest examples of an action RPG, combined with it's very kid friendly aesthetics and enemies, one can easily tell how captivating this must have been for any kid in the 90s, specially during a time Zelda was the brand new hot thing that everybody acclaimed

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Miles "Tails" Profane @cardiothinker.bsky.social · 25/01/2026

But alright, I'm finally ready to play the game that has eluded and mystified me for years... I'm greeted by one of the most glorious and ominous title screens I've ever seen or heard from an SNES game... It feels like I'm about to embark on the greatest adventure of my life. It turns out that...

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Miles "Tails" Profane @cardiothinker.bsky.social · 25/01/2026

It plays like an old school Zelda but with RPG elements, you go through menus a lot, the inventory sucks, you need to talk to NPC to know where to go, lots of dungeons... its very by the numbers. But it holds historic importance and makes me aprettiate the Game Boy..

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Miles "Tails" Profane @cardiothinker.bsky.social · 25/01/2026

This game really feels like the pre-birth of a world that isn't complete yet, what with its borred Final Fantasy sprites, moogles, and chocobos, it doesn't even have its own name yet... Something akin to the birth of Narnia in the first chronological book. Well, that's how I read it.

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Miles "Tails" Profane @cardiothinker.bsky.social · 25/01/2026

But no! I found it really fun and cozy. The simple gameplay of the gameboy benefits the adventure so much, it fuels my imagination more to fill in the blank spaces. The dialog and story are super simple, but this paints a great picture of what JRPGs were at the time.

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Miles "Tails" Profane @cardiothinker.bsky.social · 25/01/2026

First I wanted to gain an understanding of the world of Mana by going through the series in order, thankfully with Collection this would be easy... I was dubious because one of those games was for the GameBoy and I wrongly assumed it would be crap...

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Miles "Tails" Profane @cardiothinker.bsky.social · 25/01/2026

I thought that would be it for me with Mana, but then Visions is announced some years later and it looks amazing to me, something huge for JRPG fans absolutely... The game comes out and it's story isn't resonating with people. However, I told myself I still had to try the game, but...

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Miles "Tails" Profane @cardiothinker.bsky.social · 25/01/2026

I did try out Legend of Mana on the switch and while I couldn't finish the game because it was a little aimless, I was not disappointed by the gameplay and specially the artwork, holy shit, this game has such gorgeous landscapes and paint techniques that are transporting me to a true fantasy...

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Miles "Tails" Profane @cardiothinker.bsky.social · 25/01/2026

Among my many wikipedia surfs soon would I discover another JRPG classic, one with one of the most beautiful cover arts I've ever seen, and so many people calling it their favorite game of all time. Such an evocative title too... "This game must be super deep" my young preteen brain thought

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