iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Marstead @marstead.com · 20/03/2026

Just played King's Field (1994), the proto-Dark Souls. It rules. The manual's section on "Running Away" cracked me up so I made this

Top: RUNNING AWAY: It's the same as normal movement. Please, move in a direction where there is no enemy and away from the monster if you begin to think that combat is going badly. YOU DON'T NEED TO FIGHT EVERYTHING. Every time you meet a monster, you don't have to fight with it. For instance, when a monster and a treasure box are next to each other, you can take the contents of the treasure box and escape quickly. It's not 'unfair' at all, because you have chosen a way to survive. If your physical strength or such is decreased, it is best to prevent your death by not fighting strong monsters.

Below, a parody of da share z0ne's "Just walk out" meme:

JUST WALK OUT
You can leave!!!
scary skellington
scorpion
mummies
a plant
spidders
snek
some kind of tree thing
hall of harrows
chests if your quick
weird textured rooms

IF IT SUCKS... HIT DA BRICKS!!

real winners quit

Featuring the skeleton from the original meme replaced with a skeleton from King's Field (1994)

042

Marstead @marstead.com · 03/12/2025

Todd heard the perfect thing to say. He heard a thing so perfect to him, his life ended.

Achewood comic, three panels. Todd the Squirrel says "Oh... oh my god! The... The perfect thing to say, ever!" and then his head explodes

010

Marstead @marstead.com · 18/11/2025

mfs who brag about hating skyline

pointing laughing emoji with text "you are too invested in how u are perceived that u cannot fully enjoy living!"

010

Marstead @marstead.com · 10/11/2025

Yeah! He talked about it on reddit last March, it feels really cool to know the team has seen it :)

020

Marstead @marstead.com · 10/11/2025

Yeah! He talked about it on reddit last March, it feels really cool to know the team has seen it :)

120

Marstead @marstead.com · 09/05/2025

one of the best adlibbed lines in any film

Tommy Lee Jones adlibbing "I don't care." when Dr. Kimble insists he didn't kill his wife

020

Marstead @marstead.com · 01/05/2025

Something that sucks about RS3 compared to OSRS is that in RS3, you are a Very Special Hero and not a bumbling drunk moron. They stop having quests where you do something incredibly stupid and then get chewed out for it. It sucks, because OSRS is the Drunk Moron MMO. It rules!

4211

Marstead @marstead.com · 28/04/2025

It's more than just nostalgia I think. It's wild because it's like if, after we developed sculpting, people just stopped painting. Obviously indies still do but imagine if AAA studios could collectively shrink the scope even just a little bit like, good lord:

Wikipedia screenshot of GTA release schedule showing rapid releases of games until 2008-2013, after which it's been 12 years since the last big release

2313

Marstead @marstead.com · 17/04/2025

#386: Infectious Madness of Dr. Dekker This was a pretty solid eldritch interview interrogation game (sort of in the tradition of something like Her Story). They actually went to the trouble of getting a bunch of live actors for it as you act as their therapist and figure out what's happening

The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker box art

030

Marstead @marstead.com · 17/04/2025

#385: Invisible, Inc. One of the most clever titles for a game ever. Also a correct use of "Tactical Espionage". The idea of a rewindable tactical RPG is brilliant and in many ways Tactical Breach Wizards feels like a spiritual successor to this game. Very smart level design, I really enjoyed it.

140

Marstead @marstead.com · 17/04/2025

#384: GemCraft: The Forgotten A pretty early flash Tower Defense game. I think it has some interesting ideas but there is almost no intentional level design, it has the sort of levels where the designer is like "This shape looks cool!" Not uncommon for early developers, but it's rough to play

120

Marstead @marstead.com · 17/04/2025

#383: Superliminal As Contrapoints put it, it's super fucking liminal. Beautiful little puzzle game; I am always surprised at how much unique design space you can tease out of a simple perspective gimmick like this one.

120

Marstead @marstead.com · 17/04/2025

#382: Factorio This is one of like three games I beat on stream and then immediately booted up in my free time to beat again (getting the Lazy Bastard achievement). It rules. I haven't played the Space update yet but I hear it's great. Kind of embarrassing to stream your spaghetti code

120

Marstead @marstead.com · 17/04/2025

#381: Tales of Monkey Island This is the Telltale Monkey Island game and honestly I think they did a great job of recreating the vibe. The puzzles can be a bit weak -- that's definitely not Telltale's strong suit -- but the writing was great and imho that's more important for this series.

110

Marstead @marstead.com · 15/04/2025

#380: Trails of Cold Steel I feel like this game is emblematic of the rot at the heart of JRPGs as a genre: 12 hours of content stretched to 60. As a prequel, nothing is allowed to happen in the story. We have a giant ensemble cast of characters very few of whom are interesting. I can't stand it

110

Marstead @marstead.com · 15/04/2025

#379: A Short Hike A sweet little game with very Nintendo DS-inspired 3D graphics. I'd love to see more tiny games like this one. It's very funny and charming.

130

Marstead @marstead.com · 15/04/2025

#378: Tekken 5 I believe the contribution to Tekken lore of this game is that there is a guy who has Heihachi's hair but on his face and because he's Heihachi's dad he is even scarier. It's wild that Tekken seems to at once be about more grounded punch/kick fighting but then the story is insane

120

Marstead @marstead.com · 14/04/2025

#377: The Impossible Quiz Peak 2007 Newgrounds Flash humor. A lot of it is "WhOa sO rAnDoM pEnGuIn oF dOoM!" but other parts are actually extremely clever. This will sound ridiculous but I think this game is a seedling for the now-flourishing "Epiphany Puzzle"/Metroidbrainia genre?

120

Marstead @marstead.com · 14/04/2025

#376: Terraria One of the greatest games ever made, it takes obvious inspiration from Minecraft but then imposes a PvE Metroidvania progression superstructure over it that is like crack to me. Also has my favorite QOL feature in the history of video games -- quick deposit to nearby chests.

110

Marstead @marstead.com · 14/04/2025

#375: Dreamfall: The Longest Journey A great sequel to TLJ taking the story in a totally different direction. This was released in an awkward year right before the popularity of the walking sim as heir to P&C adventure, so it has a lot of "unnecessary" janky gameplay and would be better without it

110

Marstead @marstead.com · 13/04/2025

#374: The Saboteur A GTA-style open world crime game. I really don't care for Open World games terribly much but the premise here is unique enough to be worth checking it out. Set in the French Resistance during WW2, the Sin City-style B&W aesthetic looks great and it has plenty of unique missions

120

Marstead @marstead.com · 13/04/2025

#373: Katana ZERO Spiritually very similar to Hotline Miami in that it's a Murder Ballet game, where you are trying to build a sort of choreographed plan to instantly kill dozens of enemies. I liked it better than HM and found it to be much more sight-readable (where HM is about mastery)

110

Marstead @marstead.com · 13/04/2025

#372: Shadow Hearts 3 This game is BONKERS. It's a JRPG take on American history and is as weird as you'd think. It features Al Capone, his giant cat mobster friend, Machu Picchu, Area 51, an American ninja named Frank, and an immortal zombie version of Roger Bacon. Is it good? Who cares!

Shadow Hearts From the New World box art

130

Marstead @marstead.com · 13/04/2025

Emrakul! Do not beg for his forgiveness. Emrakul! Do not ask him for mercy. Let's face it, you're never gonna get him to Emrakul off

Mel Brooks in the "Inquisition" scene from History of the World, Part 1. Emrakul has been clumsily photoshopped behind him.

140

Marstead @marstead.com · 12/04/2025

#371: Skyrim I feel bad for having this take because I only played the game years after its release: I kind of hate Skyrim. I get that it's more important than it is good. To me Skyrim represents excessive streamlining of risky game features. Less risk means less "game essence" as Sakurai put it.

120

Marstead @marstead.com · 12/04/2025

#370: The Witcher 1 It's pretty crazy how much the devs pumped the scope with each Witcher sequel, as the first one is a very humble BioWare-style topdown CRPG with all of the usual benefits and drawbacks of the form. I thought it was pretty decent, though it hasn't aged super well.

120

Marstead @marstead.com · 12/04/2025

#369: Final Fantasy II I know I'm a weirdo for thinking this but I think the core concept of Final Fantasy II (XP pools for each spell/action) is brilliant. It obviously doesn't work in the OG game and has a lot of cursed incentives but I'd love to see someone try an indie modern take on FF2

120

Marstead @marstead.com · 12/04/2025

#368: MegaMari I think of the two Touhou spinoffs I played I preferred the Castlevania-like, but this take on MegaMan was pretty good--and really fuckin' hard!

120

Marstead @marstead.com · 12/04/2025

#367: Kentucky Route Zero I wish I could wipe my memory of this game and replay it. I think it has very similar vibes to Twin Peaks, and the format I played it in didn't really permit me to fully immerse myself in it. If you like walking sims and David Lynch I would give it a try.

120

Marstead @marstead.com · 12/04/2025

#366: Ratchet & Clank 3 It's probably a bad sign that I barely remember this game -- I believe it was much less frustrating than the previous two games, which is good! But is also means I just kind of blasted through it without retaining anything.

120

Marstead @marstead.com · 10/04/2025

#365: Myst I played this for the first time blind on-stream in 2020 and let me tell you it feels like a game from 30 years in the future. It holds up incredibly well, the gamefeel is incredible, the puzzles are great, the restraint is the thing I was most blown away by. Just an incredible game

110

Marstead @marstead.com · 10/04/2025

#364: A Mortician's Tale A very short, simple indie game about working at a funeral home. The story's good and I think the game has a good message about grief.

120

Marstead @marstead.com · 10/04/2025

#363: Tekken 4 The first PS2 Tekken, and the return of Kazuya? This series is pretty goofy, just an endless parade of resurrected characters who throw one another of cliffs. I guess that's true for most fighting games.

120

Marstead @marstead.com · 09/04/2025

#362: Tekken 3 This is the one with Jin? I forget whether someone gets unceremoniously dropped off a cliff in this one.

110

Marstead @marstead.com · 09/04/2025

#361: Ori and the Will of the Wisps This sequel's quite good; gorgeous visuals once again and a beautiful, Ferngully-esque story. I mentioned this for Blind Forest but it sucks that one of the main devs is such an anti-woke reactionary piece of shit. I don't really know how to square that.

110

Marstead @marstead.com · 09/04/2025

#360: MLB Power Pros 2008 It's insane that the first MLB Power Pros happened, a Persona game officially licensed by Major League Baseball (???). It's crazier that we got a sequel. It confirms no one from the MLB ever saw the original game, like how Disney has no idea what Nomura's up to with KH

130

Marstead @marstead.com · 08/04/2025

#359: Escape from Monkey Island I'm always sad to see a game go from 2D to 3D but this game survives the transition well enough. The humor and puzzle quality is still pretty high but the "Monkey Kombat" is pretty weak, especially given that it's replacing insult swordfighting.

110

Marstead @marstead.com · 08/04/2025

#358: Final Fantasy 1 The first FF is a bit rough, even if you play one of its many remakes, but I find some of its ideas very compelling. I've never attempted the "All White Mages" challenge run but it sounds funny. Something I like about FF is Sakaguchi's desire to experiment in each game

120

Marstead @marstead.com · 08/04/2025

#357: Eternal Darkness This game absolutely live up to the hype. The idea of playing through a Lovecraftian horror through the eyes of multiple historical characters is great, all of the sanity effects are very clever and Kojima-like. I hope to an indie game iterate on its spellcasting system

120

Marstead @marstead.com · 07/04/2025

#356: Warcraft 2 An improvement on Warcraft 1 but it still feels like a genre built for multiplayer. The campaign is an afterthought. Maybe it's just a problem with Western games from this era but instead of getting the "Aha, I see what you did there!" feel from levels, I was always frustrated

110

Marstead @marstead.com · 07/04/2025

#355: Helltaker The core Sokoban-like puzzle gameplay is really good and it has a lot of neat ideas, like the final boss. It does feel like an interesting example of a game that exists to serve a thriving fan art/fiction community around it, of which I am only aware of through reddit osmosis

110

Marstead @marstead.com · 07/04/2025

#354: Aviary Attorney This game is a loving parody of Ace Attorney and oh my god I wish the Ace Attorney games actually worked like this. The game is very short and concise while still being quite silly (and even having occasional serious moments!) It's 10% the length of a PW game and just as good

120