The Twilight Realms

Pointless trivia about the Persona games. Mostly Persona 3, since that's what I've been playing recently, but I'll touch on the other games too. The first game was initially translated as the heavily Americanised "Revelations: Persona" series. Most of the names were changed and all the Japanese cultural references were removed or replaced with American ones. Fortunately, Atlus realised the error of their ways and kept the subsequent games' translations as faithful to the original as possible, in many cases even leaving in the Japanese honouriffics untranslated in the dialogue. Future remakes of Megami Ibunroku Persona had more faithful translations, though the line "Mark danced crazy!" (Mark was called Masao in the Japanese version) was kept due to its popularity (similar to Square Enix keeping the line "You spoony bard!" in better-translated remakes of Final Fantasy IV). The changing of names actually made a certain plot point make no ...

More pointless trivia about the Mario games. I've probably said most of this stuff before, but no one reads this blog anyway so I'm sure no one will notice. Shigeru Miyamoto seems to go back and forth on whether or not Mario and Luigi have a last name. Currently, the answer is yes, and it's "Mario", which means their names ARE actually Mario Mario and Luigi Mario. Which means the movie was right all along. The Super Mushrooms in the Mario games are modelled after a real life toadstool called amanita muscaria, also known as fly agaric. These toadstools have hallucinogenic properties when consumed, causing people to feel like they're growing in size. The same concept was also used in the book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, which is where Miyamoto got the inspiration from. While it's often believed and shown in parodies that Mario breaks blocks by hitting them with his head, this isn't actually the case. If you watch closely, when Mario jumps...

Nitpicks and headscratchers about Sonic the Hedgehog games. In Sonic R, why was Amy Rose in a car and the others on foot (with the exception of Eggman, who rides in his hovercraft)? Sure, she may not be as fast as Sonic, but neither are Tails and Knuckles, and they go on foot. How come Amy gets a car and they don't? The Sonic Advance games show that Amy is at least as fast as those two, so it doesn't really make sense for her to need a vehicle. How the heck can Eggman (or Robotnik, whatever) run faster than Sonic in the classic games? I get that from a gameplay perspective, it's to stop us skipping the final boss, but from a story perspective it makes no sense. Sonic being able to walk on the bottom of a body of water makes absolutely no sense. Even if Sonic can't swim, he still shouldn't be able to sink to the bottom like that unless he was INCREDIBLY dense. And if he is that dense then he shouldn't also be able to run across the surface of water, no matt...

How to apologise and (at least sound like you) mean it Apologising is a finer art than most people think, and it can be tricky to deliver an apology that doesn't sound subversive or insincere. Basic Instructions has done a few strips on this, but here's my take on how to deliver a genuine apology. First off, it helps a lot if you specify why you're apologising. Don't just say "I'm sorry", say "I'm sorry for..." It lets the other person (or people) know that you're actually putting thought into your apology. Don't apologise for how they felt, apologise for what you did. For instance, if you offend someone, don't say "I'm sorry you were offended", say "I'm sorry that I offended you". It doesn't matter whether or not you "meant" to do something, the fact is that you still did it. Saying "I didn't mean it" or something similar is just an excuse and doesn't help anythi...

More Undertale pointless trivia, because apparently I can't get enough of it. Spoilers. There are many anagrams hidden in the game. "Undertale" itself is an anagram of "Delta Rune", a symbol that appears in the game and is tied to the backstory. The True Pacifist final boss, Asriel Dreemurr, is an anagram of Serial Murderer. Alphys's name can be rearranged to spell Shy Pal, which describes her perfectly. The song "MEGALOVANIA", which plays during the battle against Sans in the Genocide run, was first used in an EarthBound ROM hack that Toby Fox made. It was then used in Homestuck before finally being used in Undertale. Undyne is based on Vriska from Homestuck in both appearance and personality. The Mad Dummy was very clearly inspired by Dio Brando from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. During its battle, it says "Foolish! Foolish! FOOLISH!" and "Feeble! Feeble! FEEBLE!", which could be translations of ...

Sometimes, naming your character a certain thing in Undertale will give you a special message. I've listed the ones I managed to find below for your amusement. Most of these are names of characters in the game. If you think I've missed any, let me know. Also, spoilers, duh. Chara - The true name. Frisk - WARNING: This name will make your life hell. Proceed anyway? Flowey - I already CHOSE that name. Toriel - I think you should think of your own name, my child. Sans - nope. Papyru - I'LL ALLOW IT!!!! Napsta/Blooky - ............ (They're powerless to stop you.) Undyne - Get your OWN name! Alphys - D-don't do that. Alphy - Uh.... OK? Asgore - You cannot. Asriel - ... AAAAAA - Not very creative...? Mercy/Murder - That's a little on-the-nose, isn't it...? Aaron - Is this name correct? ; ) Woshua - Clean name. Catty - Bratty! Bratty! That's MY name! Bratty - Like, OK I guess. Temmie - hOI! Metta/Mett - OOOOH!!! ARE YOU PROMOTING MY BRAND?...

Infocom's old text adventure games came with hint booklets (written by Infocom themselves) that were intended to help you through difficult sections of the games. Each booklet had a "For Your Amusement" or "Have You Tried...?" section which contained little extra things and Easter Eggs that you might not see from playing the game normally (though some of them would cause you to die). Since Undertale has so many secrets and Easter Eggs, I decided to make a "For Your Amusement"-type thing for Undertale. Obviously, spoilers, don't read if you haven't yet played Undertale, blah blah blah. Let's go. Have you tried... ...exiting the game during Flowey's first conversation (before the tutorial fight), then reloading and talking to him again? ...buying a Hot "Dog" from Sans when your inventory is full? Several times? ...killing Toriel, reloading the game and sparing her, then talking to Flowey after the fig...