Member Interviews: SnowxSakura

[Charizarzar]

Hey PSNP! After a slight delay from being on holiday, welcome back to another member interview. Our current interviewee is @SnowxSakura!

 

SnowxSakura

 

Standard Questions

How did you come up with your PSN name?
In the mid 2000s, I got into playing PC visual novels. One of the games I played was from a developer called D.O. and it was titled Snow Sakura, it really stood out with its setting and atmosphere and left an impression on me. I dropped my old username after that and started going by SnowxSakura.

 

 

What games convinced you to get your PlayStation 3, Playstation Vita, PlayStation 4, and Playstation 5?

Originally I was going to go for the PS3 for the next inevitable Star Ocean game, but when the 4th entry ended up being announced as an Xbox 360 exclusive at the time, I ended up buying that system instead. What eventually drove me into buying a PS3 was when Ar Tonelico 3 was announced for the PS3.

 

The Playstation Vita was a launch day pre-order after seeing footage of Shinobido 2, as I was a big fan of tenchu, and Uncharted Golden Abyss. The PS4 was a gift from a family member and I only had Destiny on it for awhile. The PS5 was also a gift, but Demon's Souls was the number one reason I wanted one at the time it came out.

 

What are your top 5 game series and why?

Persona is probably my favorite franchise. Everything from the stylish art, fantastic music, interesting characters and settings. It's one of the few rpg franchises I never get tired of replaying every year. My personal favorite is Persona 4, it has the most tight knit cast of characters, and a very interesting murder mystery going on in the town of Inaba.

 

 

Oneechanbara. A budget series that originally started out on the PS2 by developers Tamsoft as part of the Simple series. A stylish action game that rewards precise timing on combos to do extra damage. Z2 Chaos is the highlight of the franchise. Personal favorite is Bikini Samurai Squad.

 

 

Super Mario. One of the earlier classic platforming series that has continually evolved over the decades. It has dabbled in numerous different genres, but Super Mario World is still peak fun. The best part is how accessible the Super Mario games are regardless of your age. Personal favorite is Super Mario World.

 

 

Castlevania. This classic series is one of the earliest in the hard as nails action platforming genre. While later games in the series have had questionable design decisions, the earlier games have been exceptional, and highly replayable to this day. Personal favorite is Bloodlines.

 

 

Mass Effect. A futuristic sci-fi space opera. The games are oozing with charm, and highly lovable characters. The series has had its ups and downs, but is always up for a yearly replay. Every playthrough can be different with all of the choices you can make between the games. Personal favorite is Mass Effect 2.

 

 

What are your top 5 games and why?

Super Mario RPG: The Legend of the Seven Stars. One of the very first rpgs I played as a kid, and it was a doozy. A game co-developed between Squaresoft and Nintendo was a match made in heaven. The battle system is very unique for the SNES with its timed hits system to increase your damage, and lessen the damage you take when you defend. It has some outstanding writing that will never fail to make you laugh. Each one of the characters is enjoyable to hang around with, and truly unique with Bowser being an ally. One of the games that gets a yearly replay.

 

 

Persona 4. When this game released in 2008 in North America, it quickly became my favorite game in the franchise, after having previously played 1-3. The cast of characters is one of its strongest points, and makes them feel very lifelike. I remember the first time I saw the Mystery Food X scene, I ended up laughing for 15 minutes straight with tears in my eyes. The music from Shoji Meguro is once again top tier, although it stung a bit that Lotus Juice wasn't involved this time around. The atmosphere of Inaba and the mystery surrounding it is very gripping, and you can end up playing for hours on end without noticing the time going by. One of my yearly replays.

 

 

Star Ocean the Second Story. I purchased this on a whim at Electronics Boutique in 1999, but never got around to playing it until after I had played the fan translation of the first game in 2004. Motoi Sakuraba did a fantastic job with the soundtrack in this game, and it has one of my favorite overworld themes with the field of expel. The dual protagonist storylines were a very interesting take on the genre and greatly encouraged multiple playthroughs. The game has a rather in-depth crafting system that encouraged experimentation alongside having the appropriate skills learned to increase the success rate. The story is the standout of the entire franchise and definitely worth a play.

 

 

Lunar 2 Eternal Blue. I bought this while on vacation in 2001, and ended up playing it nearly nonstop during my time there. A port of the Sega CD title, it is very simple for an RPG released on the PlayStation in 2000. It makes up for it with its really interesting characters and story, especially the growing relationship between Hiro and Lucia.

 

 

Warcraft 3. My first entry into the warcraft series and it's my favorite to this day. The campaign was epic, and took it even higher with the frozen throne expansion. The absolute best part of this title is the custom games that people make. You had crazy things like tower defenses to survival maps, to hero mobas like DOTA. I spent the majority of my teenage years playing custom games on here. My favorite map that I still play to this day is Night of the Dead Aftermath.

 

 

Which unreleased game(s) are you looking forward to the most and why?

I would probably say Stellar Blade. I've been a big fan of Hyung-tae Kim's art ever since I discovered the Magna Carta franchise on the PS2. The flashy hack and slash action the trailer showed looks really cool, really looking forward to playing it once it comes out.

 

Do you have any other hobbies outside of gaming?

I like to assemble gundam model kits. I haven't watched the anime since G Gundam, and Gundam Wing aired on Toonami, but putting the kits together is very therapeutic. There's so many ways you can tackle them. You can straight build them, paint them, battle damage them, create dioramas for them. The possibilities of gunpla are endless. The only major downside is they tend to be rather expensive, especially the higher detailed kits.

 

Top TV shows, movies, and/or anime, why, and would you recommend them to people?

 

Scrubs. A medical comedy series from the early 2000s that is very engrossing to watch. Watching the dynamics between the characters on there is some of the best parts of the show. The friendship between Turk and JD, the animosity between the Janitor and just about everyone in the hospital. Dr Kelso acting like a total jerk, but turning a blind eye to breaking procedure if it meant helping someone he really liked. I would recommend this to anyone that likes medical shows.

 

 

Tenchi Muyo. One of the earliest anime I remember watching after Ronin Warriors. I always loved watching the interactions between the characters, and the wacky things they would get up to. The story originally started in 1993, and finally concluded with OVA 6 in 2021, moving into the War on Geminar. It has multiple spin-offs that tell different stories, with only GXP, Dual! Parallel Trouble Adventure, and War on Geminar being part of the main timeline.

 

 

Top 5 favorite music bands/group/artists/composers/OST?

1. Creedence Clearwater Revival. Growing up, whenever I went somewhere with my parents, the oldies station they'd have on the radio usually would have CCR playing.
2. Shoji Meguro, the composer for the Persona franchise, and some of the other Shin Megami Tensei spin-off titles.
3. Motoi Sakuraba, the composer for the Tales of Series, and Star Ocean, among many other numerous titles.
4. Michiru Yamane, the composer for Castlevania Bloodlines, Symphony of the Night and later Igavania titles.
5. Akira Tsuchiya, the composer for the Ar Tonelico franchise.

 

Your favorite platinum and why?

This was a pretty tough choice, but I'd probably have to say Mass Effect 2. Nothing about it is very difficult, and only requires a single playthrough. It is a very fun game coming from the jank of the first Mass Effect.

 

 

Your least favorite platinum and why?

Easily NeverDead on the PS3. It has a grindy tacked on multiplayer mode that wasn't fun to play at all. The hardcore difficulty is incredibly frustrating, and you'll spend more time collecting all of Bryce's body parts than killing enemies. Not to mention the bar to free his head from the demon that sucks his head in is so hard to hit that you'll constantly be reloading from the last checkpoint. The final boss is also very cheap on hardcore and requires multiple attempts to beat.

 

Have you ever been tempted to switch over to the Xbox/Nintendo/PC gaming ecosystems?

Not really no. While I do own the other platforms as well, I only use them for their exclusives, and PlayStation for everything else.

 

If you could have one game from any gaming generation be remade or re-released, which one would it be and why?

Red Faction 1. It was one of my favorite FPS games from that era, and I'd love to see what they could do with updated destruction physics.

 

How far are you willing to go for a platinum?

Not very far compared to when I used to actively hunt. If I really like the game a lot, I'll go for the platinum on it, otherwise I'll just beat the game and move onto the next one.

 

If you could give Sony direct feedback on business decisions in the last year, and the latest console generation, what would you tell them?

I would like them for branch out on their exclusives. It feels like every one of their exclusives lately are narrative driven 3rd person open world games, and I just don't care about those. As for the current console generation, I'd really like to see them bring more PlayStation classics, and support the PSVR2 with more first party titles.

 

What is your favorite thing about PSNP?

100% the community. It is very enjoyable chatting with people that love video games, and not have to deal with constant toxicity. The stark contrast between the users on PSNP and Gamefaqs is huge.

 

What is your least favorite thing about PSNP?

Probably the video ads on mobile that show up in the bottom right corner of the screen. It takes multiple presses of hitting the x button before they go away, and they re-appear way too frequently.

 

Is there anyone in the PSNP Community you would like to give a shout-out to and if so, why?

@Rick_Sanchez, a great friend I've been playing together with since 2011, love ya dude. @Copanele, always great talking fighting games with you. @Infected Elite, I enjoy when we talk about various games, and your takes on them. @MidnightDragon, I always look forward to reading your fun Friday status updates. @VoidVictorious and @Destructor-8, it was a ton of fun playing Castlevania with you guys.

 

PSNP Community Questions

Is your name actually Chris, or Christian, or Christopher? Cause mine is Christian!

It's Christopher, but I don't use it for anything except legal documents.

 

Why is your profile hidden? You may end up receiving way more questions if people see which games you have played.

I used to get harassed frequently by people on PSN begging me to do the developer medals trophy for them on Burn Zombie Burn. At first I set messages to friends only, but they just sent constant friend requests instead. I ended up privating my list as a last resort and the requests stopped completely after a couple weeks. After all these years I've just gotten used to it being private now, and don't really plan on changing it.

 

Did you play more Crash Bandicoot games? Which ones are your favourite?
I've played Crash Bandicoot 1, and 2 as a kid. I did try to play Crash Bandicoot Wrath of Cortex, but it ended up killing my launch PS2 with the infamous disc read error. If I had to pick, probably Crash 2. It really improved on everything the first game started, and had a way better save system.

 

What game series would you like to be revived?
Mario & Luigi. With AlphaDream shut down, and Paper Mario moved away from traditional RPG gameplay since the Wii release, it really hurts there's no longer a turn based Mario RPG (This was answered before the Nintendo Direct aired, I would still like to see Mario & Luigi get rebooted still)

 

If you had to complete either Star Ocean 4 or Final Fantasy XII which would you rather complete?
While I dislike both of these games, I would probably have to pick Final Fantasy XII. It's a much shorter game to complete, and I never beat it back when it first came out, which would give me an excuse to finally beat it.

 

Favorite moment from any video game?

When you first crash onto the ring in Halo 1. I was completely awestruck at just how incredible the environment was, and just how huge the map was for its time.

 

What non-starter Pokemon do you always go for?

Abra. A psychic powerhouse that is usually available pretty early on in the game, and can power through most of the gyms solo once evolved into Kadabra/Alakazam.

 

Favorite co-op game?

Earth Defense Force. Killing giant bugs with your friends has never been more fun. An incredibly grindy series with numerous levels and weapons that require 20+ playthroughs to get everything. High framerate is not required, only morale for the EDF!! EDF!!

 

Most painful game boosted (can be on Playstation or Xbox)?

It's a tie between FEAR 2 and The Chronicles of Riddick. They are both incredibly boring to grind due to the monotonous nature of the trophies tied to the mode. FEAR 2 was just 70+ hours of capturing a point and losing it, repeating the process until reaching 1 million exp. Chronicles of Riddick similarly took over 70+ hours for the 10,000 kills and 1,000 wins in the online mode.

 

What's your favorite weapon of choice in games? (sword, axe, staff, hammer, bow, etc)

It depends on the game, but usually it's either a sword, or an axe. I do like the non-conventional weapons in the Souls series as they give you a lot to experiment with.

 

Do you normally pick male or female when creating a character?

99% of the time I pick a male character. I'll sometimes make a female character on grindier games for a change of pace, like Earth Defense Force Iron Rain, or Code Vein.

 

How would you rate PSNP out of 10? What would you change?

A solid 8. I would like the ability for people to delete their own posts. A lot of the time you'll see posts that have been edited with just a single period, and it's just taking up space. I'd also like to be able to edit my own status updates without needing to delete them, and re-post them to fix some error.

 

What is your favorite meal?

Chinese chicken fried rice. I used to go to this one place in Nashville a lot, until it closed down due to covid. Other places I've tried just haven't been as good.

 

Do you care about leaderboard ranks? (even before the EZPZ jump stuff)

Not at all. There's no competing for the top unless you have an endless source of money to spend. Not to mention even without the EZPZ games, you would still have to play a lot of games you would normally never touch.

 

What game are you wanting day 1 coming out in 2023?

Legend of Heroes Trails into Reverie. Looking forward to seeing how the story continues on after Cold Steel 4. Also Super Mario RPG Remake, and Star Ocean Second Story R.

 

If you could only play 1 game for the rest of your life, what would you choose and why? (1 game. not a series)

Super Mario World on the SNES. I've been playing it multiple times a year since I got my Super Nintendo in 1992. The super tight gameplay and great level design mean it never gets stale.

 

Do you watch any sports?

Mainly American Football, and sometimes Major League Baseball.

   

What are your favorite 3 bands/artists?

Slipknot, Rage Against the Machine, and Creedence Clearwater Revival.

   

What's interesting in Tennessee to see?

The smoky mountains in Gatlinburg, there's some amazing old architecture there, and the views from the mountains is amazing. Downtown Nashville is also a great place to visit if you're into country music. There's some great parks to visit in parts of Nashville, as well as the zoo at Grassmere. The adventure science center is also a great place to visit.

   

What are your favourite pizza toppings?

4 cheese and mushrooms. The best part about 4 cheese is you can always add more to your pizza if you want to.

  

If you had to pick 3 games to represent 90s video games, what games would you choose?

1. Super Mario 64. It wasn't the first 3D game, but it revolutionized the controls to make it fun to play.
2. Chex Quest. A free game that came in boxes of Chex cereal that used the id Wolfenstein engine.
3. Final Fantasy VII. There were many RPGs that were released in the West before it, but 7 ended up being a phenomenon that really brought JRPGs to the masses. Every kid at school talked about it being an absolute must play, and a reason to want a PlayStation.

 

What games that are 30 years or older do you feel like has stood the test of time and why?

Pretty much everything I list will be about the sprite work, gameplay, music, or writing that makes them still very worthwhile to play to this day. Super Mario Bros 3, Super Mario World, Final Fantasy IV, Castlevania 1, Castlevania 3, Super Castlevania IV, Castlevania Rondo of Blood, Streets of Rage 1, Streets of Rage 2, Lunar the Silver Star, Popful Mail, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Ninja Gaiden 1-3 NES, Super Ghouls n Ghosts, Final Fight CD, Mega Man X, Kirby's Adventure, TMNT Hyperstone Heist, Mutation Nation, Battletoads & Double Dragon, Super Mario Kart, Zombies ate my neighbors, Sunset Riders, Aladdin SNES, Super Mario All-Stars, The Legend of Zelda: A link to the past, Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster Busts Loose, Super Star Wars and Super Empire Strikes Back, Sim City, Sim City 2000, DOOM, Mario Paint, Super Smash TV, Street Fighter II Turbo.

 

Have you ever played a game or series where you asked yourself why you didn't play or buy sooner?

Earth Defense Force. I had heard about it before when I played on Xbox, but the only thing I knew about it was that it was just super grindy.

 

Mario or Sonic the Hedgehog?

Mario. As much as I like Sonic, the inconsistent quality of its games over the decades leaves a lot to be desired.

 

What is your take on the current state of the Souls-like genre, and how do you feel about the influx of these types of games in the market?

I enjoy playing the souls style games, even though I haven't tried many of them. I welcome more high quality ones to come to PSN, especially with the upcoming Remnant 2. Fortunately the console stores haven't been overfilled with all of the crap that's on Steam. Iron Pineapple on YouTube covers a lot of the stuff that is on PC.

   

Who are your favourite male/female protagonists in gaming? Are there any you disliked?

Luke fon Fabre from Tales of the Abyss has some of the best character development in the Tales of series. Another one from the Tales series I really liked was Pascal from Graces F. Terra from Final Fantasy 6 is my all time favorite female protagonist. There are a lot of protagonists I dislike, most of the Square Enix post merger ones have been poorly written. Asbel from graces F, Haseo from Dot hack GU, Junpei from Persona 3 are some of the worst offenders.

 

Any JRPGs you weren't a fan of?

Absolutely, just some off the top of my head. Blade Dancer, Dragoneer's Aria, FF13 Trilogy, Star Ocean 3-5, FF12, Tales of Legendia, Breath of Fire Dragon Quarter, Ephemeral Phantasia, 3rd Birthday, Tales of Xillia, Mario & Luigi Paper Jam.

 

How do you feel about the evolution of the Super Mario series over the years, and which installment do you think is the best?

I think until recently, the 2D games have just played it way too safe, which in turn makes them feel way too same-y. They've also had a bad habit of re-releasing New Super Mario Bros way too many times. I'm really glad with the announcement for Super Mario Bros Wonder that they seem to be branching out more in crazy gameplay ideas. For the most part, the 3D titles have experimented more over the years. As for which I think is best, it's a tough decision for the 2D series, I want to say that it's a tie between Super Mario Bros 3, and Super Mario World. They're both absolute peak 2D Mario and have limitless replay value and fun factor. For the 3D series, it is absolutely Super Mario Odyssey. It feels like this generation's Super Mario 64, and a love letter to Mario fans in general. A must play if you own a Nintendo Switch.

 

If you could travel anywhere in the world right now, where would you go, and what would you do there?

Antarctica, I really enjoy cold weather and it's a place that not many people have set foot on. The night sky would also look amazing without any of the light pollution that most parts of the world suffer from.

   

What was the turning point or reason you stopped being a trophy hunter?

I developed a repetitive strain injury while boosting a game. It made me realize how stupid it was risking my health over something I wasn't really enjoying that much anymore. I will still sometimes get platinums in games, but it is very rarely that it happens.

 

In modernity, what do you think is one of the best set-ups to enjoy retro games and consoles? Please be specific and nerdy as possible, since we've briefly spoken about it before?

If you're playing on a flat screen modern television, the best setups would be to use a no-lag scaler, as flat panel displays have input lag on older systems. Now retro scalers also have their own problems, ones like the Framemeister and OSSC lose video sync any time a game switches resolutions from 240p to 480i. The 2 best options would be the GBSC-AIO and Retrotink 5x. The retrotink is the best bang for your buck as it supports S-video, Composite, Component, and RGB. Most of the other upscalers don't have composite or s-video inputs without buying an extra add-on for them. You can read more in-depth information here.

 

You don't want to use cheap upscalers as they tend to introduce more input lag. Bob from RetroRGB tested them on this video here:

 

 

Joe from Game Sack has tested the most well known upscalers here, and you can see where the framemeister and OSSC lose sync and show a black screen when Dead or Alive switches resolutions.

 

 

 

For the best picture, it comes down to the console itself, and what video it supports. For a large majority, HD Retrovision YpBpr component cables will give you the best picture albeit with some drawbacks as you will lose dithering on systems like the Genesis. The retrovision cables also don't work at all on a lot of modern TVs, you'll either get no signal at all, or it incorrectly interprets the signal as 480i with sync jitter.

 

Here is an ongoing compatibility list for TVs. If you have an incompatible TV, an upscaler would be needed to avoid those issues. For systems that don't have an adapter for the HD retrovision cables, you'll want to go with the next best supported video type. For consoles like the N64 and 3DO, they will support S-video which will give a cleaner picture than standard composite out. The Dreamcast is an odd one out as it supports VGA, as well as RGB and component. Newer systems like the PS2/Gamecube/Xbox/Wii already have official component cables. Most of these upscalers also have the ability to add scanlines to games, to give them a more authentic experience.

 

Of course if you have the space, a small CRT that has s-video, composite and component will trump using a flat screen with an upscaler.

 

Here are some comparison images between basic composite video that these old systems shipped with, versus using HD Retrovision component cables running through an OSSC to a capture card.

 

Genesis/Mega Drive - Castlevania Bloodlines

 

Sonic 2

 

Sega Saturnn - Akumajou Dracula X: Gekka no Yasoukyoku

 

Sengoku Blade Episode II

 

Playstation 1 - Final Fantasy 7

 

Neo Geo AES - Metal Slug 3

 

Mutation Nation

 

 

 

Super Nintendo - NBA Hangtime

 

Final Fantasy 6

 

Mega Man X3

 

What is your favorite strategy guide?

Probably the Final Fantasy 7 guide. It is the one I've used the most over the years. It helped me 100% the game on Steam back in 2014.

 

____________________________________________________________________

Thank you to all who participated in asking questions in this interview! See you soon for the next one.

Spoiler

@KenjiCBZ @Rick_Sanchez @Infected Elite @Baranov_925 @Beyondthegrave07 @CelestialRequiem

 

Edited July 17, 2023 by Charizarzar

[Beyondthegrave07]

Cool interview. Interesting to see ME2 as your favorite platinum. Personally, I can't stomach to finish the game. I just can't get into the gunplay and the loading screens are too long and too frequent. 

 

Also glad to see someone give Mario Odyssey its proper praises! I heard others call it Mario 64, but you can jump off your hat and that it wasn't very innovative. However, I think you hit the nail on the head; it's a love letter to the classic and I was absolutely blown away by it and how much you can do in that game. It really feels like the ultimate 3D Mario game.

[sepheroithisgod]

I actually remember getting the Chex Quest code, but never actually got to use it since my family didn't get a computer until the early 2000s. ME2 is a great game, but my least favorite of the trilogy. It felt like a side story between 1 and 3.

[CelestialRequiem]

I'm not sure if anyone else got notifications for being mentioned in this, but I didn't.

 

Thanks a lot for the interview!

[Rick_Sanchez]

Fantastic answers! Loved reading through them

[SnowxSakura]

Thanks for the interview! It was fun answering everyone's questions

[ZitMeatloaf]

I've missed the last few member interviews and just took the time to catch up on all the answers and questions. I really enjoyed reading yours!