It’s Christmas Eve! That Magical time of year where we all see that one Ace Attorney case on every social media site, everyone is driving or flying or doing “last minute” shopping for some insane reason, and we all collectively celebrate (for those who do celebrate christmas) with some hyperspecific, deeply held, sacred tradition that only your family does. For my family it’s to make tamales btw.
We here at Story Arc don’t have anything for you today, besides holiday wishes;
DK:
For the 0th Day of Christmas (trivia fact: the 12 days of Christmas begins on Christmas Day), I bring a link to one of the best video game mods of all time: Xmas Wolf for Wolfenstein 3D. If you have a spare minute, or hour, or day on Christmas Eve or tomorrow, I highly recommend playing it. It’s hilarious, and wolfenstein 3d is a great game that doesn’t get nearly enough respect, imo. It has this bizarre, dreamlike quality, it’s all abstract in a very real feeling sense. Like you know how people use the term “liminal space” to describe anything that just feels a little odd, like the vibes are off? Transitory places, where you are between discrete locations, and when you actually look around you realize just how odd it is? That’s Wolfenstein 3D. It’s Mario 64 With Guns (and not just in a sense of both being absolutely revolutionary games). With Xmas Wolf, it all becomes temporarily grounded, with Christmas stuff everywhere. What was once a empty void, without any context, where you happily killed nazis, becomes grounded in the seasons as you pick up candy canes and kill santa’s. It’s an abandoned mall at Holiday time. Happy gaming!
https://archive.org/details/xmaswolf
Skeith:
Merry Christmas Eve everynyan! It’s me, your favorite platinum princess! 2021 has been a hard year, hell the 2020s have been a very hard decade. Some days it’s hard not to fall into a doomer mindset and just give up on everything. However despite that we’re all still here and writing well. In the coming year I promise to keep delivering articles about the video games I’m playing and hopefully spark some extra joy into your lives. Merry Christmas
I suppose I should also recommend a Christmas video game for you all to play since gaming is my trademark. So why not spend your short holiday away from work and school playing the Shenmue trilogy? It’s a short enough series to beat in the little time you have before the year ends after all.
Oh, and Sakura Wars. I can’t go too long without mentioning that on this site. It has several original Christmas songs in its enormous ost including the iconic Miracle Bell. Listen to it sometime!
Mikey:
You might be asking who the heck am I? Well, my name is Michael Gonzalez, and I have written… uh one article for the Story Arc at the moment (shoutout to the 26 people that read my article STORY ARC’S BEGINNER TIPS FOR GHOST OF TSUSHIMA (directors cut), I had a lot of fun bumbling like a doofus and I’m going to do it again). While I have more articles in the works, at this moment I don’t have much to add other than to wish you, the reader, a happy holiday. I don’t think I want to encounter the philosophical nightmare of recommending a game to you (I would have to write another tips article just to feel okay about it), so instead I would like to give a little sample of my next over-articulate piece on a recent video game, Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl. What is my opinion you ask? Well it’s darn good, and an overall improvement over the original generation four games, EVEN Pokemon Platinum (Don’t leak my IP address Pokemon Platinum fans). It’s the one other game I can go on about, and I’ve already put more hours in it than I did with 2021 not exactly Game of the Year: Ghosts of Tsushima. If you’ve never played a Pokemon game before, play this one: it’s a great entry point into the franchise and it’ll transition you well into previous switch titles such as Pokemon: Let’s Go Pikachu (Do not mention that gross dog pokemon to me), Pokemon Sword & Shield, and most likely the upcoming Pokemon Legends: Arceus. If you buy it for someone, they’ll think highly of you for your thoughtful gift. If you buy it for yourself, you will start to think highly of yourself for having such exquisite taste. You win either way, and I think that’s what Christmas should be all about.
Lynx:
Hey gamers, Merry Christmas Eve! Itsa me, ChimieLynx, Story Arc’s resident K-pop enjoyer. If you’ve gotten anything out of my previous dives into this colorful industry (you can read my thoughts on the comebacks of the first half of 2021 here if you haven’t already), you’re in luck because I have even more K-pop rants planned. Don’t be concerned, I swear I do more than watch pretty boys and girls do their funny little dances. I want to write about other epic shows and games and whatnot that I’ve been getting through as quickly as my busy college schedule and my poor mental health allows me (Stay tuned especially for an article on the subject of Hannibal, a show shaping up to be one of my all-time favorites).
I know I don’t write here much since I don’t have a lot of time or creativity, but I would love to wish anyone who may stumble upon my articles or Story Arc in general a very Merry Christmas, and if you don’t celebrate Christmas then I hope you have a wonderful day filled with good vibes anyways! If I could, I would gift you all some of my family’s delicious kolaczki (Polish cookies with fruit or cheese filling) that we make every year as appreciation for supporting our humble corner of the internet. Many thanks, friends! Stay cool, stay healthy, and keep coming back for more. That is, unless you’re fed up with me at this point. Which honestly? Fair.
Sailor:
As you can see from the helpful little tag above this paragraph, it’s me, Sailor. If you’re one of the two people that actually follows this blog regularly, first of all, let me say: thank you, I appreciate it. Given the unpaid nature of our work, the people who spare a moment to read our stuff are really the only reason we do this. So give yourself a pat on the back, because if not for you, the internet would not now tremble at the mere mention of the name “Story Arc.”
If you don’t follow this blog and this is the first article of ours that you’ve ever read, I’ll be real with you: this is a weird one to start with. I recommend you read one of our many others. Like these: The Saiyan Saga: Everything Changes: Dragon Ball Z Kai Retrospective Arc by Arc, Silent Hill 4 Deserved Better, My First Tomb Raider Game. These are all articles that my fellow writers on this site made. In the spirit of the holidays, why not spread some love their way? Or don’t. Whatever the case, I hope we were able to bring you even a little happiness this year and that we’re able to do the same next year. Happy holidays, internet person!
Jre:
Hey, y’all it’s professional ghost Jre emerging from my cave to say, Merry Christmas Eve! 2021 was a big year for me though that might not show on the website itself. A lot of growth, a lot of changes, a lot of hard conversations, and what must not be forgotten during this time is a lot of joy! I can’t promise that next year will be my grand return to writing for this site regularly or that I’ll finish a lot of projects I’ve started here, I can say for certainty that I love my fellow writers and readers of the story arc! So Happy Holidays, Happy New Year and remember Fukigen Death is the GOAT!
Oh shit, I was supposed to recommend something huh? What do I like? Wrestling and Comic Books? Tight. Do you know what gets me in the holiday mood? Horrific violence, both things I’m going to recommend today belong to the “women doing incredibly violent things” genre a particular favorite of mine. My first recommendation comes from GCW’s Evil Deeds show, Rina Yamashita vs Charli Evans. I’m not going to say much about the match itself, it’s an amazing spectacle, but before you watch it, know it’s not for the faint of heart. GCW is a hardcore promotion which means their bigger matches go far past what you expect from your typical WWE “Extreme Rules Match.” These two ladies put each other through hell with hard-hitting moves, tons of passion, and more than a moderate amount of glass. If you’re looking for something a little less intense maybe rush out to your Comic Book store and pick up Wonder Woman Historia: The Amazons #1. To be frank this is my favorite piece of media I’ve consumed all year. This book is so beautiful it’s grotesque, the sheer amount of talent and skill being used is spiritually horrifying. This lavish retelling of the origins of the Amazons is an instant classic from the first issue alone. I refuse to tell you any details about it, Go read the best comic of the year and learn about the history of DC’s greatest hero!
Burner:
Hey Guys it’s ya boy, Simpy, back at you with a guest appearance in the article equivalent to a Christmas special. I’ve been focusing on myself lately which is why you haven’t seen me much but I’ll probably pump out a new article at some point next year before skeith takes a metal bar to my skull, ya know, probably. If those of you reading this don’t know what I’m about then tl;dr I enjoy cute anime women and video games, I just think they’re neat.
Hey speaking of video games, did you know right now there’s a sale on the 3ds eShop where you can buy the Etrian Odyssey series for like 10 bucks a pop? Crazy, I know. And even more crazy is how you should totally jump on that because those games are some of my favorite jrpg dungeon crawlers on the system and feel very distinct from any other rpg I’ve played to date. The game has very fun mechanics and encourages you to try and break the combat, while also rewarding you as you explore the various dungeons in the game. And even crazier is that people who haven’t bought these games after my recommendation get hit in the knees with a bat, particularly this bat that I am currently holding. So you know go play these games, like now. Oh also Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas and junk!
Luke: Hey everyone, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Good Spirits, whatever strikes your fancy. I’ve gotten into professional writing gigs, so I haven’t been able to contribute to Story Arc as much, but I’m not disappearing entirely yet! But if you’ve been around, thanks for participating in my ramblings of all things film-related. As much as I love writing bad reviews, writing passionately about the movies I love I just better for the soul. Which is why I’ve been doing my part in staying more positive and less vocal about the things I dislike. Movies changed my life, and being able to write about them is the best gift I can ask for. I hope to be back for Story Arc soon! Be good to each other and be good to yourself. Peace!
Victiny:
I had set out to chronicle my year of games around this time in a top 10 format, but you know what game derailed my entire list making schematic? Persona. Goddamn. Five (Royal). So as I’ve gotten older I used to be crazy about squeezing value out of my 60$+ purchase for games. But now? I’m a feeble old man who can’t beat to stomach games beyond the 50 hour mark. 10? Absolutely perfect. Hell, even 20 as per JRPG standard is fine. But upwards of 110 hours for a game? That’s a beast. It taught me something though. Value the little things, take risks, and learn a bit about yourself in the process. Ultimately I had a ton of fun with what was no double the longest single playthrough I’ve had in a video game, but what I really found valuable is the experience and sense of discovery; and that’s what I want to impart this Christmas season. So go on, play 100 long games and start getting obsessed with idol gacha games (also a recent discovery of mine, I’m not ashamed to say). You won’t know until you jump.
