Yaw Amanquah
imposter syndrome
Let's Talk About 'Medabots'
Medabots is a damn good anime. Not just a good anime for a licensed product based on a video game series. Not just a good anime compared to its contemporaries Pokémon, Digimon, and Monster Rancher but genuinely compelling animated television. I say this as someone who isn't even a fan of the video game it's based on it's, just that good. Now, this doesn't mean Medabots is hiding some deeper themes or commentary that you missed when you were younger. Medabots' strengths lie instead in its sense of humor and excellent animation.
Yaw AmanquahPublished 3 days ago in Geeks
How to Make Leveling up Engaging
Progression systems are not exclusive to RPGs, but they are one of the genre's defining features. While twitch-based genres like fighting and rhythm games develop the player's reaction time, RPGs have progression systems that improve the player's avatar. Unfortunately, most RPG progression systems don't make the player feel stronger in any meaningful way and instead have arbitrary numbers that increase as you level up. An engaging progression system has significant growth that substantially strengthens the avatar and custom growth that allows the player to decide how the avatar grows.
Yaw AmanquahPublished 3 months ago in Gamers
How the 'Boktai' Series Lost Its Identity
One of my favorite video games of all time is Boktai for the Game Boy Advance. Now make no mistake the Boktai, I am referring to is the original game in the series Boktai: The Sun is in Your Hand. While I still enjoy the sequels, I believe they stray too far from the original to deliver a satisfying follow-up. So, to explain where I feel the Boktai series went wrong, I will recount what changed throughout the series.
Yaw AmanquahPublished 3 months ago in Gamers
How to Make Turn-Based RPGs Engaging
The appeal of turn-based RPGs, in my opinion, has always been how they can prompt the player to formulate strategies that achieve the most efficient use of each turn. However, this hardly describes most of the turn-based RPGs that I have played which, are often just about finding the optimal strategy and repeating it in every battle. During a conversation, I made the realization that while some people find turn-based RPGs dull, they do enjoy turn-based strategy games and deck-building card games. This discovery made me realize that maybe the reason some people don't enjoy turn-based RPGs isn't that they're turn-based but rather because they don't have engaging battle systems or enemy encounters.
Yaw AmanquahPublished 3 months ago in Gamers
How to Make a 'CoroCoro Comic' Game
My favorite video games are those that let you share the experience with other players. These instances don't only include multiplayer games but also single-player games that encourage interaction between players. I often refer to these games as CoroCoro Comic games because the manga magazine regularly promotes toys and video games that build active communities. CoroCoro Comic has featured many video game franchises, including Pokémon, Mega Man Battle Network, and Boktai. As an avid reader of CoroCoro Comic, I recognized a pattern of qualities amongst the games featured in the magazine.
Yaw AmanquahPublished 3 months ago in Gamers
What Happened to the 'Mega Man' Series?
With its long history and many games, the Mega Man series may at first appear to be a wildly successful franchise up there with Mario and Sonic. However, this isn't true of the Mega Man series as a whole with, only a few games selling more than one million copies worldwide. This fact made me wonder how the Mega Man series could be so well known but rarely be the success we would expect from a long-running franchise.
Yaw AmanquahPublished 4 months ago in Gamers
In Defense of 'Pokémon' Genwunners
As described by Know Your Meme, "Genwunner is a pejorative term used within the Pokémon fandom to describe those who only appreciate the first-generation of video games for Game Boy, namely Red, Green, Blue, and Yellow, and tend to bash the sequel titles and monsters in the franchise." Under this definition, I wouldn't be a genwunner because even though I think the first generation of Pokémon is the best, I still have an appreciation for the other games. However, even though I haven't drawn the ire of the Pokémon fandom I disagree, with the notion that it is unreasonable to prefer the first-generation over the others.
Yaw AmanquahPublished 5 months ago in Gamers
Why are 'Marvel vs. Capcom 2' and 'Super Smash Bros. Melee' Still Alive Today?
An early 2000s cross-over fighting game that is the second installment in a long-running series, very technically demanding, and has a meta-game dominated by a few top tier characters. Given that description, what fighting game comes to mind? If you answered Marvel vs. Capcom 2 or Super Smash Bros. Melee, you would be partly correct because I was thinking of both. At first glance, these fighting games don't appear to have a lot in common, but upon further inspection, they have quite a few similarities. The most significant commonality being the survival of both their competitive scenes more than a decade after their original release.
Yaw AmanquahPublished 6 months ago in Gamers
