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James W

@soukoutaigi.bsky.social
181 followers 135 following 2K posts

JP-EN translator Working/worked on Mythical Hero, AZNANA, Evermaiden and secrets I talk about games a lot I'm sorry

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James W @soukoutaigi.bsky.social · 17h
Think I've enjoyed Ys Origin a lot more this time round. I've cranked it up to Hard (Nightmare scares me still) and I think that's really helped me appreciate the combat design. I like Jenocres in particular for how impenetrable it seems at first vs how it falls apart once you get how it works
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James W @soukoutaigi.bsky.social · 22h
It's been 11 years but I'm back for a rematch
A Ys Origin screenshot of the player character facing down a colossal insect with four legs, four bladed arms, a squat body, and a fanged mouth in the middle of its thorax. Onscreen text reads "Pictimos: The Grim Mantid"
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James W @soukoutaigi.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
one of the first items Ys Origin gives you is a mask (equippable at any time) that reveals secret pathways but makes all enemies invisible, which I do think is the most extraordinary act of game design villainy
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James W @soukoutaigi.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Playing Angeline Era got me in the mood to finally go back to Ys, so I'm doing that Ys Origin does not have bumpslash combat but it's been a white whale of mine for, according to my old save data...over a DECADE? That can't be right Anyway hopefully I'll beat that mantis boss this time
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James W @soukoutaigi.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Finished Angeline Era Wild game, feels like it escaped from an alternate timeline where an entirely different design paradigm prevailed in the 90s. Its bag of tricks maaaybe wears a little thin past the 12-hour mark but I had a good time with it. Played on Inferno, which was pleasantly challenging
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James W @soukoutaigi.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Having to attend a hospital appointment (non-serious) that turned out to be most accessible by a 50-minute walk BUT on the way there I'm getting to see some great dogs so who's the real winner, huh
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James W @soukoutaigi.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
A screenshot from Angeline Era. The protagonist and an old woman stand in front of a ruined house partially reclaimed by vegetation. Purple flowers bloom in the courtyard. A dialogue box reads:

Violet: "Bringing a shining idea into reality turns it mortal. It is weathered by life, and it changes."
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Spheal Posting @sphealposting.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
ok
end of evangelion poster but it's a big spheal
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oni @ NYCC i09 @largeonions.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
THE HEART OF WAR // Kasane Teto 重音テトVS Yi Xi 奕夕【SynthV Original】 「知己知彼,百战不殆」 (Know yourself and know your enemy, and you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.) 🧍‍♀️⚔️🧍‍♀️ #vocalopost #vocanew #kasaneteto #yixi
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James W @soukoutaigi.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
I need Iron Bramble so bad, I was already looking forward to it before the demo but I didn't know we were going to be playing God's Most Awful Princess
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James W @soukoutaigi.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
I feel like "actually Japanese game companies just have laws that make it harder to lay people off" usually gets deployed as like a harsh truth, but, like...yeah! They aren't morally better, it's just regulation and worker's rights! You should find that encouraging!
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James W @soukoutaigi.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Booking teamLab might be my first exposure to dynamic pricing (or at least, to a system that's so up-front about using it) and it's honestly such a demeaning thing to be subjected to that if I wasn't doing this for a friend who's visiting, I think I'd just refuse out of principle
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James W @soukoutaigi.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Finished one route (Leda) route in Fortune's Weave lotta game in this game
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James W @soukoutaigi.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
I expected to get really into A Memory Called Empire (so much so that I pre-emptively got the second book too) but it's not sticking to my brain for some reason I'm gonna keep trucking at it, I really want to like it and I suspect I will once I'm in a groove with it, but it hasn't quite clicked yet
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James W @soukoutaigi.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
(Fortune's Weave) I like that in Muu's support convos she's all "I want to learn how to be a pretry lady just like Leda" and meanwhile on the gameplay side of things I'm training this kid to punch out God and I'm starting to think she could do it
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James W @soukoutaigi.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Trying to fathom the mind of this girl I just tried to recruit in Fortune's Weave who said she wanted a token of trust before she entered my employ and then asked for three regular iron swords
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James W @soukoutaigi.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
a lot of fortune's weave's characters do feel very targeted at its existing fanbase but in this case that means it has a lot of middle-aged men who are vaguely pathetic and wet
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James W @soukoutaigi.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
I know Leda is meant to be consumed by vengeance but like, I think it would instantly make this route more engaging if she actually got to be cunning about it about it instead of Sirocco just shepherding her around and doing all the thinking
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James W @soukoutaigi.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
anyway this line is great
An Iron Bramble screenshot. A character named ORELIA, A SCEPTIC says "I can understand why a self-proclaimed 'prophet' might swallow the lies told to us. But this can't be Hell because I wouldn't deserve to be in here."
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James W @soukoutaigi.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Played the Iron Bramble demo First big takeaway is they've def. tamed the grapple a bit. It could do some wild stuff in RM once you were comfortable with it, but it had a steep learning curve. I'm sure my RM experience is helping, but it feels more controllable and easier to get to grips with here
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Spheal Posting @sphealposting.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
a blurry screenshot from pokemon rumble showing a spheal with a giant coin on its head and another spheal getting hit by another coin with the caption "the playstation can produce mind boggling effects"
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James W @soukoutaigi.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
FE hitting you with two different のじゃ women in the first five minutes is the kind of mission statement I can respect
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James W @soukoutaigi.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
You're telling me a Fortune's Weave fired this emblem?
A new boxed copy of Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave
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James W @soukoutaigi.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Finished Children of Time Really enjoyed this one. It takes a while for everything to converge, but I was amazed how much I'd grown to care by the end. The entirety of Part 6 (honestly the whole final act, but particularly Part 6) really conspired to get me with both sides of the story
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James W @soukoutaigi.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Despite ostensibly being a "quintessential Victorian-style British pub" it's quite funny how the decor, high freestanding tables and absence of chairs immediately identify this as a Hub
A screenshot from Bradyon Veda. A woman in a business suit stands against a background of a room with wooden floorboards and panelling, a handful of paintings on the walls, and a scattering of tall, round tables. A jukebox and one corner of a bar can be seen on the right hand side. The only visible chair is one barstool at the bar.
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James W @soukoutaigi.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
up next I'm gonna finally finish Bradyon Veda
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James W @soukoutaigi.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
finished Jewelry Hearts Academia playing this blind was a wild experience and I highly recommend doing the same
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James W @soukoutaigi.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
This is probably ridiculous but I'm finding drafts a genuinely convenient format to keep running notes on something I'm watching/playing/reading not to post or anything but it's a really easy way to staple screenshots together with quick thoughts in a way that's easy to come back to
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James W @soukoutaigi.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Local cryptid spotted attending social function
A large in-cinema movie poster for The Odyssey
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James W @soukoutaigi.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Reading Children of Time, I love spiders now
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James W @soukoutaigi.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
played Moonlight Duelists whoa
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James W @soukoutaigi.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
finished Mortal Shell 2. I dunno, mechanically it was well put together, artistically I wasn't very impressed, but I feel like I would have enjoyed it more if there wasn't an ineffable dudebro stink on the whole thing, an aura of passive misogyny and being into 40k for the wrong reasons
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James W @soukoutaigi.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
I quite like the environments in Mortal Shell II, but I'm kinda disappointed with how little you can actually interact with them. It's a game largely about moving past, underneath or nearby very interesting structures
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Spheal Posting @sphealposting.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
the same image of the hungry shiny spheal in pokemon sleep but I have put the metroid ravenous logo at the bottom
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James W @soukoutaigi.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
(Jewelry Hearts Academia spoilers) oh this fight - and why it happens and what it's over - is the coolest shit actually
Markus (a young blond man in white formal attire) and Veo (a long-haired youth with wolf ears and short-sleeved casual clothes) face off on a rooftop under the moon. Markus wields a decorated sword, while Veo fights bare-handed except for fingerless gloves. Black petals, barely visible against the night, swirl around Markus.

The text box reads: "His petals were pitch black now, the polar opposite of their usual pink."
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James W @soukoutaigi.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Cicadamata pretty great. Level-based platformer/movement shooter with a deliberately overwhelming hyperpop aesthetic that encourages replay and optimisatiom a la Neon White. I've dipped my toe in a few boomer shooters but this might be the one that's gotten me most in the zone
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James W @soukoutaigi.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
This is not mine but I think the best analogy for this I've encountered, the one people really seem to get in their bones, is "would you rather do an easy homework assignment yourself or edit the work of someone who did it badly"
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James W @soukoutaigi.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
You can still do it just say sike we'll all forgive you
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James W @soukoutaigi.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
KUSURIYA GAME???
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James W @soukoutaigi.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
There's still time to announce a Xenosaga trilogy port
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James W @soukoutaigi.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Tokyo Revengers in City of the Wolves?? Sure alright
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James W @soukoutaigi.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Finished Nona the Ninth I should really know to trust by now - I pick up a new book and Tamsyn Muir goes "okay total switchup time" and I go "what" and she goes "don't worry you'll love it" and I go "suuure?" and then I finish the book and go "thank you Tamsyn Muir you were absolutely correct"
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James W @soukoutaigi.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Zelda hasn't been for me for a decade so this is all so much distant thunder to me, but I do think the mainline series probably should never have had AAA ambitions. They should still be making an earnest original 2D game every other entry, it's good for the soul
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James W @soukoutaigi.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Big fan of this youtube channel about these two guys testing increasingly outlandish ways to not fall into irrigation canals www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBvA...
youtube.com
最も賢いボールの拾い方
YouTube video by ばーじぼぶ
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James W @soukoutaigi.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
I've had a temporary lull in work which a) I had to some degree planned and b) is almost certainly going to pick back up soon, but despite intending to take advantage of a much-needed break, apparently my body is reacting to the absence of certainty by stressing out my fucking gourd
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James W @soukoutaigi.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Nona the Ninth (rot13) qvq Wbua Tnvhf znxr uvzfrys n Ylpgbe jvgu gur znavsrfg fbhy bs gur cynarg Rnegu naq gung'f fbzrubj Aban abj
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James W @soukoutaigi.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Harrow the Ninth impressions go I guess (sorry for the reupload I used the wrong screenshot)
A first entry like Gideon with such a self-contained conceit is hard to follow up on - do you drop the concept entirely and write something more straightforward, or run it back a second time and accept it's going to feel contrived? Well, pshaw to both, says Tamsyn Muir, you double down and write something totally different and twice as batshit. It's a very gutsy approach for a sequel, but the result is way more my speed - I had a great time piecing together what was happening as I went along, the character writing is excellent (Ianthe is delightfully dreadful and a clean shot between my eyes, but Augustine and Mercymorn I think are remarkably convincing humans-turned-divine), and the writing style is a treat as always. I liked Gideon, but I LOVED this....And then we get to the last 5%, and this is where I feel a little burned. I don't mind cliffhangers, but this one is a tad too obtuse AND inconclusive AND seemingly pushes Harrow back into arrested development only a hundred pages after she got out. I can't complain about the setup (which, as stated, I enjoyed a lot!) but for how elaborate it was, I'm not sure my anticipation was rewarded. Maybe I'll feel better if I go back and convince myself the last 50 pages really, REALLY needed the first 450 putting Wake in the room, but at the very least, while big things happen, Harrow and Gideon are barely participants, the consequences for them are unclear, and what IS known suggests they're going back in the box for a while. I think I needed it to land on /something/ more substantial for them. As it is, after all that, they're still more or less who they were at the end of book 1.
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James W @soukoutaigi.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
someone should make a thesaurus but for words that just have the same kinda shape as the one you typed in
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James W @soukoutaigi.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
(Xenosaga) Gargoyle kinda fucked up huh
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James W @soukoutaigi.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
[finished Harrow the Ninth] Well, uh I dunno if I did good or bad on this one. I kinda did weird
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