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Harper Jay

@dreamcastaway.bsky.social

4.4K followers 530 following 810 posts

fmr. community at Double Fine Productions | ex journalist (kotaku) | blue rogue | they/she

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Harper Jay @dreamcastaway.bsky.social · May 6

I've never actually posted about this on Bluesky but over the last few years I've been novelizing the now-retro JRPG 'Skies of Arcadia," a game very dear to my heart.

The process has been gradual but I think it's a very fun read for folks looking for some adventure.

Read at: tinyurl.com/skiesao3!

An image of the three heroes of the year 2000 Dreamcast RPG Skies of Arcadia. They all gaze out at a brilliant amber sunset. From left to right: Fina, the white-garbbed mage watches the display with a soft curiousity. The fiery red-headed pirate-gal Aika sits down beside her. To her other side is the game's protagonist Vyse, a young swashbuckler with a distinctive eyepatch (actually a goggle lens) as he admires the ever-expanding horizon.

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Harper Jay @dreamcastaway.bsky.social · 2h

I feel it sneaks into even "good" spaces. Where there's certain things that kinda mark a work as preemptively dismiss-able.

And I dunno! S'like... y'gotta maybe try to meet the thing where it is. Let it honesty disappoint you or maybe surprise you?

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Harper Jay @dreamcastaway.bsky.social · 3h

This is a struggle that pops up when I cover games as well. Even if you have doubts, you need to walk up to a thing and give the honest try.

There's a lot of things I've disliked (a few I think are terrible) but that came from experience the thing and not some imagined version.

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Reposted by Harper Jay

am cosmos @amcosmos.bsky.social · 13h

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Harper Jay @dreamcastaway.bsky.social · 13h

This is a truly dizzying game. Every choice is like:

1. Confess your mistake (this will get you killed)
2. Trust the Consort of Elegance (this will also get you killed)

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Harper Jay @dreamcastaway.bsky.social · 13h

We are watching a friend in the Discord play Road to Empress and brother they just keep giving us the Osmanthus Tea That Kills You.

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HC•° @hollycircling.bsky.social · 20h

💥

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Harper Jay @dreamcastaway.bsky.social · 17h

There's one decision point in the game that I think puts pretty much all other game moral choices to shame.

It's also a very reactive narrative. Example: you can skip an entire series of battle and gain key allies if you enter the map with only the protagonist and with no weapons.

Smart stuff!

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Harper Jay @dreamcastaway.bsky.social · 17h

Speaking of which! If you’re enjoying FFT I cannot recommend Tactics Ogre enough.

It is such a BIGGER and BOLDER game both in terms of the tactics but also the directions the plot takes. Multiple narrative paths through a really amazing story.

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Harper Jay @dreamcastaway.bsky.social · 17h

S'been long enough from release I think to say that the extra character writing in Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles is really great.

If you're not, try bringing folks like Agrias or Mustadio into story fights. There's quite a lot of new writing for this version!

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Harper Jay @dreamcastaway.bsky.social · 23h

Taking time to play some more 2xKO today. I loved the alphas but never got to play as much as i wanted! It's very fun.

Very happy for the folks I know who had a hand in this one; it's easy to leap in and immediately cause a lot of havoc.

shout outs to Violet League of Legends and her dog

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Harper Jay @dreamcastaway.bsky.social · 23h

I like to put it on someone with a gun. Steal what looks good, blast away the rest!

Harper Jay @dreamcastaway.bsky.social · 1d

It was unfortunate because the central message was still good. and I think that's a generational thing but also just the fact that Mamdani simply has a better sense for what peoples' day to day is like.

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Harper Jay @dreamcastaway.bsky.social · 1d

This was the promise of the Sanders campaign as well. Time and age has perhaps blunted some of that but that was the idea at the core of that run: there are better ways.

They were so afraid of it. They are afraid you and me and the world that is possible. Which we *will* have.

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Harper Jay @dreamcastaway.bsky.social · 1d

It has been upsetting watching the establishment hurl itself at Mamdani but I think the other way to read that is that there really is a *better* politics possible and he shows that it is REAL.

We could have this.

They wouldn't fight it so hard if it wasn't achievable.

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austin_walker @austinwalker.bsky.social · 1d

This whole series has been great, and genuinely moving, despite (or because of) being polished campaign video.

It is so rare to see those techniques—with that *surety*—used to say things like this, from positions like this, with a platform like this. No hedging, here.

Makes me want to do the work

Zohran Kwame Mamdani @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social · 1d

UNTIL IT’S DONE, Ep. 4: Sylvia Rivera

In the 1970s, queer New Yorkers had been pushed to the margins of NYC. Our trans neighbors faced immense cruelty. But in Sylvia Rivera, they found a champion.

As we combat Trump’s politics of darkness, her legacy can light the path forward.

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Reposted by Harper Jay

Brendel @brendelbored.bsky.social · 1d

Well the baseball game is over but the night is young for the 38 year olds of Bluesky, and that means it’s time to take a low dose aspirin and read about Bigfoot on your iPad for 20 minutes before falling asleep

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headfallsoff @headfallsoff.com · 1d

(white person who hangs out with trans games twitter exiles on the bluesky protocol service) lotta folks from seattle here tonight

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Harper Jay @dreamcastaway.bsky.social · 1d

Started thinking about Char Anzable while walking to the grocery store and just fell to my knees in the middle of the sidewalk?

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Harper Jay @dreamcastaway.bsky.social · 1d

An award institution that's famously never gotten it wrong!

Reposted by Harper Jay

Harper Jay @dreamcastaway.bsky.social · 9d

Oh, hey! I'm *writing* again!

Let's talk about a man named named Ramza Beoulve. Let's talk about the "ease at which men are branded heretics..."

Let's talk about revolution.

www.eurogamer.net/the-revoluti...

The revolutionary politics of Final Fantasy Tactics, and why Ramza Beoulve is a hero for our times

Final Fantasy Tactics' original writer-director Yasumi Matsuno signalled the timeliness of this remake for a reason: its hero offers a model of resistance.

www.eurogamer.net

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Harper Jay @dreamcastaway.bsky.social · 2d

Which is to say that I think you should be aware of those things and care about them but if you're in that critical space it is possible to over-qualify your statements.

It's fine to like imperfect things! That's *most* things.

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Harper Jay @dreamcastaway.bsky.social · 2d

I'm watching a (somewhat critical) streamer talk about a game character they like but they got a bit sidetracked by "and yeah, this is imperfect and there's this problematic thing..."

And I applaud that awareness but I do think it's possible to get lost in that sauce too if you're not careful.

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Harper Jay @dreamcastaway.bsky.social · 2d

I HAVE TO HAVE MY ToOLs!

Harper Jay @dreamcastaway.bsky.social · 3d

me tooooo!~

Harper Jay @dreamcastaway.bsky.social · 3d

THE CART HAS OLD SAVE DATA YESSSSSSS