Music in games

It's no surprise to anyone that I'm a huge fan of video game (inspired) music. I guess I don't have a preference for what kind of music it is, as long as it's somewhat video game related. What I'm getting at is that while not nearly as important as gameplay, the BGM in a game can really influence whether you feel at home in the game's world, whether or not you like the game. 
There's lots of iconic video game soundtracks out there that even the slightest fan would recognize after just a five second sampling. There are tons of amazing video game composers out there in the mix, some well known and some... not so much. One of the games with a soundtrack that's stuck with me through the years that I almost NEVER play has been Sonic R.
It's a... 3D racing game where instead of you racing cars, or, as was popular at the time, karts, you actually just race with/against the characters in the Sonic the Hedgehog universe. I never really understood why Sonic needed a car in Sega Superstars Racing. Let's face it, he can run at near-lightspeed, and he can even fly with chaos emeralds. What does he need a car for? When he goes super in that game he even ditches the car altogether. Unless he's afraid of getting tired, I don't really see a point in him driving the car at all. 
The reason I'm writing this article is because I am gonna try something a little bit different in the near future. I've been looking at my notebook and trying to decide what I want to do for the next few weeks in regards to Tuesday uploads. I played Sonic R to completion sometime in high school, and I have never played it after that, but I am 100% sure that I know all of the music to it, and it has stuck with me to this day. I'm going to start a LP of the game without commentary on my channel once I get things figured out (As we all know Win8.1 can be rather finnicky when it comes to installing older programs). I want all of you guys out there to be able to enjoy the music to this game like I do, even after all these years. 
I know that I have a lot of work to do getting to your requests and other things I've said I've done, but I'm actually really backed up on fighting game/beat-em-up videos at this point. I've got Saturday uploads scheduled ALLLL the way until September! I've got Tekken, Bloody Roar, Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 and MUGEN requests coming up, as well as some more Okamigakure-full videos! 

Stay tuned, the best is yet to come!

First giveaway went a-ok!

I actually did something people have been telling me to do for ages, and it kind of went a-ok! It didn't draw the kind of crowd I was hoping for, but I can't really complain, considering I decided to host it via Google+. Yeah yeah, I know, that was my first mistake. 
In any case, I was giving away two Xbox One Smite Beta keys, but literally only one person entered the giveaway, so if you've got an Xbox One and you're reading this, I've got a beta key, just comment or message me and I'll send it on over.
Still, one person, one winner is definitely a good start, it could have been worse, right? I actually had someone half enter, and then remove their entry, which I thought was absolutely hilarious. I've never realized some people revoke their own entry to free things. I don't have anything else to giveaway at the moment that I'm willing to part with, so you guys will have to wait and see when I do this again! I think that I'll go for a different social media outlet than G+ next time too, ha.
Unrelated to the giveaway, but the new thing within Okamigakure's core group is Evolve on PS4, so if you want to come join in on the fun, I'll be streaming it every other night over on my Twitch. Hopefully I see you guys and gals there! 

(Slight) Schedule changes!

Hey there, guys and gals! As you may have discerned from the title, this here post is going to be about some changes to my upload schedule! Nothing is changing streaming wise (You can still find me streaming every other day, usually ~8-10 PM EDT on my Twitch Channel), so no need to worry about that! This is all about dem YouTube uploads.
The small changes are coming in two-fold, really. The first change is that I'm not going to keep a limit on uploads for the week anymore, so I won't just be stopping at four uploads per week, wherever applicable. I've got a lot of footage building up and I feel like it's time to let the floodgates go! Don't worry, it won't be like last year or so, when I just uploaded like 10 videos the last Saturday of every month, the upload days will continue to remain the same. 
For those of you that don't know my existing YouTube upload schedule:

• Sunday: Vlogs/Unboxings
• Tuesday: General Gaming
• Wednesday: Twitch Highlights
• Saturday: Fighting games/beat-em-ups

The other change is that since I've been taking Twitch a little more seriously, and I have a huge backlog of highlights, I'll be changing my tune and uploading twitch highlights every Wednesday from now on, instead of every other Wednesday. I think this is a good way to bring more people over to my Twitch channel, and also to show you guys that I WILL be streaming, as regularly as possible from now on. So come on down and join me! 
I'm going to try and make sure that I have something uploaded on all four upload days each week, or, at least all three of the gameplay days. I won't be doing unboxings every week when there's no Unfair-Y Tales, so no need to worry about that. Wanted to keep y'all up to date with the happenings of my YouTube channel, so here you go! Hopefully I'll see you all around soon!

The Summer of Visits!

This summer is going to be extra strange for me, since it'll be the first summer I've basically got a never-ending slate of people visiting me! This means a couple things for you guys, as Kage_Okami's audience, besides what it means for me!
Since I'm so far ahead on uploads (at least as far as Saturday uploads are concerned at this point, anyway), I've had a lot of time to work on what I'm uploading next, as you all know. This extra time has gone a long way into planning exactly what will be coming next! I've got big streams planned in the near future, as well as more filming parties! Seems like now is just as good a time as any to start getting serious, RIGHT?!
In addition, I've been keeping the schedule up as much as possible, which has been kind of nice. I need to find my niche on Twitch, like I've got on YouTube at this point. I've been noticing lately that I could try to bring my old community back together through Twitch MUGEN streams, but the AI is so annoying! The coding, everything, just a hassle. If I'm going to be bringing back that kind of community, then I'm going to need friends to help me out! Come join me every other day on my Twitch channel and hang out! I've got big things planned, I swear!
I think that gives you an idea about what kind of big group streams are coming soon, but there will be more than you think! I'm going to attempt to get two new series off the ground in the near future, so, stay tuned to my YouTube channel, especially if you like Skylanders or Rogue Legacy. 

Streaming is going okay, for once!

It's been like two weeks and I've actually kept up with my streaming schedule, every day that I've been home! It's actually been sort of enjoyable, just having people stop by and chill out with me. That's the kind of experience I've wanted to gain from streaming, and it finally seems like it's a reality. I guess I've grown to hate streaming a little bit less than I have in the past. 
I've been working on Knights Contract every other night for a week or so now, and I think I'm about 2/3 of the way done with the game at this point. I'll probably end up streaming it on another difficulty after I'm done with Squire. I want to see if you can take your upgraded/unlocked spells with you when you move on to another difficulty! As my first complete Let's Play via stream, I think I've done pretty well with it, wouldn't you say? 
I'm working on some special multiplayer streams, so stay tuned to my Twitch channel in the near future! Now that I have time to work on things and actually plan, I'm pretty happy with myself, and I think that's already spread to my work ethic as well. 
Unrelated to streaming, but our little group has secured tickets to NYCC again this year, so if you're going to be going, let me know and we can try to meet up! 

IT'S GONNA BE MAY! Oh... I'm late.

Hey there guys and gals! I... um, I'm late again, but that's fine, right!? RIGHT?!

Anyway, wanted to catch you guys up with some more stuff that I've been working on! I'm super excited and I feel like I've finally accomplished something since I got my first payout from Fullscreen! I DID SOMETHING RIGHT IN MY LIFE GUYS, ISN'T THAT CRAZY!?
That's not what I wanted to talk to you guys at all about, this post is mostly going to be about Twitch plans for the near future. After I sat down and worked out what I wanted the next steps for YouTube to be, I went ahead and worked on what I wanted the next steps for Twitch to be! I've had that table up on my Twitch channel for ages, but I haven't actually used it, oddly enough. I figured that was something that was drastically in need of a change, so I sat down and schemed... MWAHAHAHAHAHA-- Um. I planned out what I'll be doing. 

I don't know if this is common knowledge or if it's only widely known within Okamigakure specifically, but I'm actually not a huge fan of streaming. I legitimately began streaming because of Tethrinblaze, as he would not stop bugging me about it. Streaming is something that's actually really difficult for me to accomplish as my internet is relatively subpar, and well, y'know, there is my well, "aggressively stupid" family. The likelihood of me having a stream going off without a hitch is almost in the negatives, but, I should probably give it a real shot. I would love to have a community again, like we used to have on the now retired Okamigakure forums...
So how will I accomplish this? Well, first of all I separated and planned different occasions for all of the games that are in the table currently, and then I added a few more. I've got four different planned groupings for streams: Single Player streams, Full game streams, Multiplayer streams, and Co-Op streams. If you've been keeping up with my Twitch channel, you'd see that I've actually decided to tackle Metal Slug first. I've already played through Metal Slugs 1-5 & X as part of the Metal Slug Anthology on the Wii, so that only leaves Metal Slug 6. After that I intend to change games for a while. I'm not sure yet what i'll be doing next, but I plan on streaming every other day for the foreseeable future, at least an hour a day. 

I think there's something about May, but it seems like now is the time everyone wants to start doing things on twitch, whether they be big or small. My buddy VinnyOmerta just began a 120 day stream challenge recently, and one of my favorite YouTubers, STAR_, just decided he was going to start streaming regularly as well for the foreseeable future as well over on his Twitch channel. Now just seems to be the right time to get into it, I guess! 

While you already know the games in the table, as you've probably been staring at them for months, hoping I would actually play them, I'm going to let you guys in on some of the other streams I've got planned, in addition to the games in the table. I'll let you guess which of the four groups they're part of though. 

What, you thought I wasn't going to be a jerk about it?  

Games not in the table that will be streamed in no particular order:

• Skylanders: Trap Team (PS3)
• Knights Contract (PS3)
• Star Wars Battlefront 2 (PS2)
• Blue Toad Murder Files (PS3 - I'm not sure if this will be a series of videos on YouTube or a stream, we'll see)
• EX Troopers エクストルーパーズ (PS3)

Let's hope these plans don't go awry

Look at me, actually blogging on a somewhat regular basis, WHAT IS THIS SORCERY? HAVE I BEEN POSSESSED? Possibly. Though my sister hasn't screamed "SATAN, LEAVE THIS PLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE!" in quite a while. In any case, I'd like to catch you guys up on what I spent yesterday doing.
Since I'm now just about two months ahead on uploads for YouTube, and I've got nothing left to edit, I've taken the time to sit down and plan out the next steps for my channel! In regards to Unfair-Y Tales, I chose a new 20th episode (One of my original twenty was added into another existing episode), and then went about ordering the remaining 13. Then I spent pretty much the whole afternoon working on the outlines for ALL of them. I was hella proud of myself, but I certainly didn't stop there!
I started working on my new series, (I'm just in the planning stages right now, I haven't had time to sit down and get footage) and I've got the first set of videos planned for Skylander Path Guides. I've decided that I'm going to cycle through the elements, but if I've got two of the same skylander, try to hit up both paths in one pair of videos. I was debating on whether or not to just go in alphabetical order, but I figured that would not be very fun. 
I'm going to go through all the skills in the tree when I do the top tree of a Skylander. If I've only got one of that Skylander, and I'm in the bottom tree (assuming none of my friends have the same Skylander), then I won't be touching upon all of the skills, only the bottom skills in the tree. This way, if one of us gets a Skylander later on that I've already done the bottom skill tree video for, then I won't confuse the audience by having all of the skills touched upon in the Bottom Tree video instead. The other confusing thing will be Wow Pows, so I will list in the title the version of the Skylander, so you'll know if they have a Wow Pow or not.
I was trying to decide exactly how to deal with the Skylanders, as in, where to start for each game, which Skylanders to start with... and I came up with a progression of where the Skylanders come from. It's going to go like this: Trap Team>Swap Force>Giants>Spyro's Adventure>Spyro's Adventure>Giants>Swap Force>Trap Team. Then the cycle will start anew! I have the entire first cycle planned out, so sorry if you want to put requests in... Not just yet! The Elemental Cycle is going to go like this: Darkness>Air>Undead>Tech>Magic>Fire>Water>Light>Life>Earth and it will reset when I'm done with Earth each time. When I run out of skylanders in a particular element, I will just continue onto the next element (You might have guessed that there aren't many videos I could do for Light & Darkness since there are only two different skylanders in each of those two elements). 
On the Twitch front, I've been looking at that table I've had sitting on my channel for ages, and haven't actually done anything with. I spent a bit of time yesterday planning out how exactly to have those streams go, as in, how to play those particular games. I now have a set of games that I intend to play the entire way through, games that I should do in multiplayer, and games that I should play in Co-Op. Some of those overlap in multiple sets, but at least I know now the format in which I intend to play them! This is, in addition to the other streams I have planned.
There's a lot of good stuff coming, both on YouTube and on Twitch, so stay tuned!