I think Final Fantasy X may actually be the turning point on this, on at least a personal level for me. I know I loved the cutscenes in earlier FF games on the PSX, but X was the first time when the cutscenes started to feel a bit superfluous, perhaps due to a more expressing in-game rendering system.

Good call. It also facilitates multiple play styles - story-inclined folks get to play the game one way, and mechanically-inclined folks get to play the game another way. Folks like me get to have it both ways!

You should be able to turn it off in the right-most portion of the inventory menu. I know you can turn the Zora one off there.

I didn't think I'd use the Gerudo reward much, but I actually use it more than the Rito one - it's excellent for slaying large enemies, or getting you out of a tough group setting.

It kind of feels like 900 Koroks were included just to give people like me something to focus on for exploration if they complete the storyline and the shrines but still want to pop back into the game world from time to time. It's hard to imagine actually finding them all, isn't it? I've got slightly over 200, but…

It really is! I'm almost disappointed in myself for finding all of the shrines (all but two without a guide, damn it - couldn't quite pull that off), since once I beat Ganon I'll really be done. The world, as you said, is so compelling that you kind of don't want to leave it. I'm quite glad they're adding stuff to it,…

Well your snake oil idea made me laugh here at my desk, so I say go for it!

Heck yeah. I was pretty hyped, but I guess I still wasn't expecting it to be as good as it is. As things stand, it's right up there with Super Mario World as something of a perfect game for me, even though it lacks some of the cool stuff that I love about other titles (its combat is similar to, but not quite as tight…

Good to hear! I had actually entered the castle twice already: once when I thought I could handle it a few hours ago, for the purpose of exploring to see if it held any of the few remaining shrines - I was thoroughly trounced by the Guardians, despite having a reasonably upgraded armor set, and eventually needed to…

It's finally here: tonight, I finish The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. One of my fellow commentators pointed out that, with the hours my Switch is saying that I've played this game, I've averaged 4 hours a day (though, of course, weekdays have had far fewer hours than weekends and vacation days off from work).…

The only bummer is that, while Shadows In The Night represented a shocking improvement on what had come before, each subsequent release has featured a diminishment in that range. Luckily, he's compensated with more intriguing melodies on Triplicate, but I can't help having been disappointed that Fallen Angels was such…

They're actually a great comparison for Shadows in the Night and Fallen Angels, too, though in reverse: Good As I Been To You offered a broader range of source material, with the consequence that it was less consistent than its successor, World Gone Wrong, where the songs were much more similar and focused.

One thing that I find rather intriguing is how different his standards albums are. Shadows is the most thematically coherent, and one of my favorite Bob Dylan records, honestly. Fallen Angels broadens the palette, musically and vocally speaking, but ends up feeling more like also-rans that didn't make the cut for the…

Just bought the album and listened to the first track from each disc (thanks a lot, Amazon Music sorting system) - it's wildly uneven, for better and for worse. I adored Shadows in the Night, thought Fallen Angels was barely worth listening to more than once, and find this triple-set to fall somewhere in the middle.…

Your video made me laugh, thanks for sharing it. Like most video game glitch madness, it excels in humor due to the sheer casualness with which it occurs in-game. Like there's nothing more natural for this guy than phasing partially through a wall, then running into a hallway and jumping up through the ceiling.

Isn't that one of the worst parts? Where you've been through it enough times that you know it is just the kind of abstract, maddening brain thing that will only resolve itself with time, and you just have to muddle through? Ugh. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I can relate. Good luck with the struggle :)

Excellent! I made profits on more than a handful of older and newer games last year. Looking forward to finding my old copy of Shadow of the Colossus at some point and selling that off too. Of course, you better believe I felt like an idiot when I found out that I had gotten my Skies of Arcadia GC scratched all to…

It's a problem/advantage with Nintendo products. It sucks as a consumer that they never drop in price, but, on the other hand, reselling them often allows you to break even (or sometimes even profit!), plus you have a reasonably good bet that they retain their value due to the consistency of content. Definitely a…

Woke up! Woke up!

This weekend is more Breath of the Wild for me. Sounds like @Blargg and I are on the same page: I'm working to find a Rito for Tarrey Town, and also seeking about thirty remaining shrines; this has proven tricky in the Hebra region, since the tracker appears to be leading me to empty space - I assume elevation…