Watching old, old movies part 10

This has been on hiatus for almost 2½ years! I'm going through this list and here are my previous entries.

28. The Phantom of the Opera (1925)
I've wanted to see this one since I watched the 25th anniversary of the musical back in 2011. I read the novel before I watched this and this is a lot more truthful to the original novel than the musicals are. I enjoyed seeing the parallells between the musical and this movie (as well as the novel) but I especially liked seeing the references to the novel, like the Phantom's underground mansion and how he snorkled his way through the underground lake. Ofc being used to the musical the movie had a lot less oomph because there's no epic music, but the story is still the same and just like every time I watch the musical I just feel so sorry for the Phantom. He is what the cruel world made him. In 1925 when this movie was released the legend is that the women were warned to keep smelling salts with them because they were expected to faint at the face reveal. It's also said that Lon Chaney did the make-up for the Phantom by himself. This is a masterpiece.

29. The Innocents (1961)
Finally a haunted house that is haunted! I had never heard of this movie before, but it was a really good one. First thing it does is making me laugh because the uncle's attitude towards the children is so relatable. I loved the whole Victorian setting and I marvelled at the clothes of the governess and Flora. The story has two layers; the first one could be interpreted as an ordinary haunted house tale and the governess is trying to save the children from the ghosts possessing them; the other is a tale of a governess slowly losing her mind as it becomes obvious right at the end that she's the only one who can see the ghosts. I love the ambiguity! The first three quarters of the movie go by pretty slowly as the suspension builds up (I was pretty bored with it in the first half) but then it becomes oh so good. The final scene was a wtf moment for me.

30. The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)
First old-timey movie I see starring both legends Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee :3 And more will come. This is basically a remake of the Frankenstein movie from 1931, but with a little more refined storytelling. As with every Frankenstein movie I've seen it bothers me how different the monster is compared to how he is in the novel. In the novel the monster is sentient and quite intelligent, the only screen adaptations of the monster that I've so far found to mimic this have been in Penny Dreadful and Van Helsing. The conclusion of this movie is very final as both the monster and his creator are killed and disposed of.

Elder Scrolls Online: Dragonhold

The last part of the Season of the Dragon. This DLC features a new zone, Southern Elsweyr, and concludes the story of Abnur Tharn and the dragons.

It took me ages to play this. Mostly because I think Elsweyr and the Khajiit never were a favourite of mine. Abnur Tharn most definitely is, though.

The zone itself is beautiful, and the main questline is definitely really cool. But the sidequests fell pretty short imho. They were way too few, and those that were weren't engaging enough. Except for the settlement Black Heights and the exorcism side quest that can be found there. I loved the painting!

The dragons in ESO remain unimpressive imho and the dragon world boss events are usually just something to overcome along the way to somewhere else- For me they kind of give me the same feeling that randomly spawned oblivion gates did in Oblivion; mainly just a big sigh and getting it over with.

The main quest however was so cool and I enjoyed (almost) every bit of it. I just wish that it was longer or that they spent more time developing the side quests and delves.

Edinburgh

Since my planned time off this Christmas didn't go exactly to plan I ended up with a week of paid time left to use. I decided to use this week to take a well-earned holiday and go back to (probably) my favourite city in Europe.

This past Sunday I went to the airport and got on the plane. It was a very nice flight actually. I had booked business class rather than economy for once since the price differed very little, and I was all alone in my row of seats. Very nice. Both flight and tram to the city went by without a hitch. I arrived a little bit early for check-in at the hotel, but decided to try anyway and the receptionist let me check in :)

After checking in and dumping my bags I went to meet up with a friend and we spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the city and also grabbing a coffee at a random café that we happened upon. Before we went our separate ways in the evening we also grabbed dinner at a sushi place (although neither of us had sushi).

The rest of the evening was spent watching TV and talking on Discord in my hotel room.

The day after I got on a train to go visit my friend at his place and meet his dog :3 Once again we had coffee and dinner and I ended up joining his stream on twitch. Time flew by and before either of us knew it I had missed the last train back, so I ended up staying at his place.

The day after I took the train back and then spent the whole day just holed up in my hotel room; reading, watching TV and being on the Internet.

Wednesday was my last day in Edinburgh and so I spent it the way I had originally planned to spend at least two days. I went to The Elephant Café and spent about an hour in there just writing. J.K. Rowling style :) After that I took a walk through the Greyfriars Kirkyard and finally found the Tom Riddle stone :) I then walked up to the Castle and spent about an hour or so there. I couldn't come up with anything special for dinner and so I ended up going to the same sushi place I went to on my first day. But I didn't have sushi this time either. In the evening I decided to go and grab a beer or two at The Black Rose. I spent the evening chatting to the bartenders and also getting completely destroyed at the pub quiz. I stayed for a couple of songs of the ensuing karaoke night before I called it a night and went back to the hotel where I fell asleep pretty instantly.

Yesterday was going home day and once again everything went perfectly smoothly.

Dealing with backlog: Two visual novels

The Agency: Chapter 1
This is a short one, since the devs decided to make it episodic and I only ever got the first part. Not sure if I will be getting the second part. The voice acting is terrible and the puzzles are super easy, although there seems to be a story there, and I'm all about a good story!

It took me 75 minutes to complete this episode and I don't feel like it gave me much, although there was one giggle when a window broke and this guy just casually walks up and says "Hey guys it looks like my bar is being attacked". One giggle is good so I may get the second chapter just because of that.

Go! Go! Nippon! ~My First Trip to Japan~
This is a visual novel in the most literal sense. There's very little interactivity and mostly you're just following a story and watching it play out. The only thing you have any control over is which areas of Tokyo to explore.

Had I never been to Tokyo I would've found this game extremely interesting, since they go out of their way to explain everything and highlight the little differences between Japan and most other countries. Having already been there a lot of the time it was like "Yes, yes, I know. Next!"

But more than anything this game gave me amazing nostalgia feels.

Game completed: Eastshade

I got this game when I felt the need for a simple RPG and it looked very promising.

As soon as I booted it up I knew it was going to be different from what I'm used to. It's not your regular RPG or even adventure game. There's no levelling, no skills, no combat, but there's an open world to explore and quests to complete.

You're an artist travelling to the island of Eastshade. Your mother has recently passed away and she visited Eastshade several times during her life. To honour her memory you have decided to pain some of her favourite places on the island. This is the main quest of the game. Your ship sinks off the coast of Eastshade and you end up in the port town of Lyndow.

From here you're free to explore and do quests. Some areas can't be reached until you've learned how to make a raft, and later how to make a boat. Some areas can't be reached until you've gathered enough currency (glowstones) to buy a zip trolley to travel via zipline. And you can buy a bicycle to get around the island quicker. No horses or other mounts here! You have a bicycle!

You can't stay out in the freezing cold night without a coat or other means to keep warm. This is the only survival mechanic in the game but there are several ways to overcome it.

The painting mechanic is really cool and I haven't played any other game where this is a thing. Rather than people asking you to kill stuff for them (as things usually go in games) people on Eastshade asks you to paint things for them. The painting mechanic is integral to the game and the first thing the game teaches you is how to make a canvas to paint on.

I jokingly call this game the sidequest simulator because every quest in this game is what a sidequest would be in any other game. But it's a good thing. Eastshade is relaxing and nice to play and it's so so pretty.

I did notice some rendering issues with the trees and vegetation. A few times the big city wouldn't render at all and I'd fall through the map. This could be fixed by loading an earlier save. There were some bugs where mission important things wouldn't spawn, but they could all be fixed by loading an earlier save or sleeping in your tent and getting a new loading screen. Nothing game breaking.

I really enjoyed my time in Eastshade and after I finished it I discovered that the devs made another game before that, which takes place in the same world and the same island. I will be getting that later.

Play Eastshade. It's worth it.