{"id":6799,"date":"2018-01-10T19:56:23","date_gmt":"2018-01-11T03:56:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wou.edu\/westernjournal\/?p=6799"},"modified":"2018-01-10T19:56:23","modified_gmt":"2018-01-11T03:56:23","slug":"last-years-overlooked-entertainment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/last-years-overlooked-entertainment\/","title":{"rendered":"Last year\u2019s overlooked entertainment"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Sonyclassics.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mitchell Martin | Freelancer<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s 2018, and that means there are new movies, games, television shows and albums for us to bite into. And while I sit, awaiting the release of \u201cAvengers: Infinity Wars,\u201d Season 3 of \u201cThe Magicians\u201d and for all of the Japanese RPG fans out there, \u201cDragon Quest XI,\u201d I\u2019m not ready to close to door on 2017 and you shouldn\u2019t either. <\/span><\/p>\n

Last year had some truly great films, but one film, released early on Jan. 23, did not get as much coverage as it should\u2019ve. \u201cBrigsby Bear,<\/span>\u201d <\/span><\/i>directed by Dave McCary, follows a young man named James Pope, played by Kyle Mooney, a writer for the film, attempting to create the finale for his favorite TV show. The film has a sincere tone for such a dark premise <\/span>\u2014 <\/span>James was kidnapped at a young age and raised to believed the world is irradiated, his only connection to others being a TV show called Brigsby Bear, secretly made by his kidnappers. He is rescued and introduced to society but can\u2019t seem to let go of the show. If you can get past the second-hand embarrassment you\u2019ll find a truly charming experience. Mooney’s portrayal of James is particularly enjoyable as he nails the socially awkward boy who really just wants to live happily. All in all, give this movie a watch, it\u2019s sure to warm your heart. <\/span><\/p>\n

2017 also had a ton of good music, but I think the greatest musical crime committed was the lack of hype surrounding the album \u201cThree Movements\u201d<\/span> from legendary video game composer Manami Matsumae. Matsumae has been in the video game industry for thirty years and is most famous for composing for the original \u201cMegaman<\/span>\u201d <\/span><\/i>soundtrack. As such, it\u2019s no surprise that her debut album sounds like a classic NES title you never got to play. <\/span><\/p>\n

The starting track \u201cChoose your hero<\/span>\u201d <\/span><\/i>is extremely catchy, emulating 8-bit era music perfectly. The songs act like levels in a video game, successfully using guitars and synthesizers to really invoke those memories of jumping from platform to platform and taking on the final boss. Two tracks, \u201cIntermezzo, Part 1,\u201d and \u201cIntermezzo, Part 2,\u201d stand out from the rest. They\u2019re both completely composed using piano, and have a much softer tone which bring about a calmer feel than the other tracks on the album. Overall, Matsumae has a good shot as a solo composer, and I hope she continues to put out more of her own albums. <\/span>
\n<\/span>We had a lot of great big hits in gaming in 2017, one of which is \u201cEtrian Odyssey V: Beyond the Myth\u201d<\/span> for the 3DS. The game is a hardcore old school dungeon crawler which sports map-making and as you venture up labyrinths of the giant tree Yggdrasil avoiding giant foes and slaying monsters. It has brilliant character creation, allowing you pick any hair and eye color you can imagine, 40 different voices, four races, ten classes, and ten portraits per class. The game lacks in story, but easily makes up for it in immersion by carefully playing small events around the map that help to build the world around you. Overall it\u2019s a great addition to the series and a game that should be in any RPG fan\u2019s library. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Contact the author at \u00a0mmartin17@wou.edu<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mitchell Martin | Freelancer It\u2019s 2018, and that means there are new movies, games, television shows and albums for us to bite into. And while I sit, awaiting the release of \u201cAvengers: Infinity Wars,\u201d Season 3 of \u201cThe Magicians\u201d and for all of the Japanese RPG fans out there, \u201cDragon Quest XI,\u201d I\u2019m not ready […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1030,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-entertainment"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1030"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6799\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}