Liam Triforce

How I Make My Game Console Retrospectives

While I already made a video detailing my general process in making my retrospectives, I feel my console retrospectives take far more work to create and have their own specific hurdles. Seeing as I just released my Dreamcast retrospective, I figured it would be fun to discuss how these videos differ from my regular ones, and how I go about writing something coherent around a console’s life, death, the games it was home to, and what it all means to me.

Picking a Console

Believe it or not, there is actually a bit more to my thought process here than simply “I like the GameCube.” Although, I suppose that is what drove me to make that video initially…

See, that’s the thing. I chose the GameCube for a retrospective back in 2021 because it was my favourite console, and I wanted to talk about it. I limited my game choices to those that I felt embodied the GameCube’s strengths in a general sense, and I ended the video (like I always do) with a game that helped me to deliver my thesis.

For that video, I chose Animal Crossing as the embodiment of what I had been saying throughout the video. First, I sought a pure, uncompromised experience (which was something that Metroid Dread gave me), something that reminded me of playing games in my childhood, wherein I could just pop the game into the console and start playing – no strings attached. Second, I wanted something that felt both groundbreaking and entirely distinct in its own genre, continuing on from what I felt the GameCube was best at. Ultimately, both of these points fed into my third argument: Animal Crossing reminded me to cherish every day and appreciate my routine, as time slips through my fingers evermore.

That sure does ring true, in retrospect – that video is now almost five years old as of this post…

Anyway… When I wrote that video, I had no idea that it would shape the formula that I would go on to use in the creation of all of my console retrospectives, but when it came time to write the Wii Retrospective, I had a format:

• Thesis
• Games that embody what I feel is the console’s objective, among other things that helped the console to stand out
• Final game that embodies everything I’ve talked about, and presents my thesis in a new light

This would inform how I choose each console for a retrospective. If the console I want to talk about manages to inspire me in all three of these key elements of my format, then I have something worth fleshing out.

Of course, I don’t just pick a console at random. First, a console has to speak to me on a personal level. For example, when I played Panzer Dragoon Saga for the first time, I knew immediately how to write my Saturn video. It was an insanely brilliant game, yet it remained tragically overlooked. A team’s magnum opus, cast aside and left forgotten, despite being leagues above its contemporaries and ahead of its time in numerous ways. “The best game you’ve never played,” as so many have put it. This just seemed to embody the Saturn in its entirety, as outside of Japan, few remember its best games, and those games were not “great” in a nebulous sort of way – they were amazing.

Other times, however, my thesis is not made clear to me right away. With the Nintendo DS retrospective, I just wanted to convey a lot of my fondest memories with the console. Flipnote Studio, multiplayer Download Play game nights, Pictochat – you know, the typical stuff. But just saying that those things were important to me was not really enough for it to be a memorable video. So, I played a ton of games. One of those games, The World Ends with You, was originally intended to be the game that I ended with. That game is still incredible, of course. I was going to center my thesis around that game’s message of expanding your own world by making connections, but it did not gel with anything else I was saying in the video, nor did I really feel like that applied to me in my adult life. At least, not at that point in my adult life. Instead, I ended it by focusing entirely on the system being a time capsule; a moment in time before everything changed, not just in my own life (being a cancer survivor and all that), but also because we were on the cusp of a technological revolution. It felt perfect for selling the novelty and brilliance I feel made the DS so special.

The funny thing is… Despite everything I’ve said, I think the simple answer in picking a console for these retrospectives truly is “I like [insert console here].” It’s just that I like to convey everything that makes the console special to me when I pick one, rather than just sharing a few anecdotes. Like any of my videos, I want them to feel cohesive.

Picking the Games

Once I’ve settled on a console I want to cover, next comes picking an assortment of games to play. Sometimes, I’ll put out a public post asking people to suggest games for me to check out, especially if it’s a console with a vast library like PlayStation 2 or Nintendo DS, or it’s a console that I want to learn more about, like with the Saturn.

Asking around is an important part of the process. Even with the Wii, a console I knew extraordinarily well – I still discovered new games while working on that video. A friend of mine suggested Red Steel 2, which I had never played before because I had only played the first game (which was awful and had nothing to do with the sequel). It turned out to be one of the coolest uses of WiiMotionPlus outside of Wii Sports Resort and Skyward Sword, something that I felt would only be truly rivalled by virtual reality years later. On top of that, it’s got a slick sense of style, and the combat is deep and satisfying, so it was a shoe-in for the video, as it perfectly exemplified something I wanted to discuss.

Other game choices can come out of nowhere. I play more games than I include in each of these videos, but oftentimes I receive recommendations from viewers that end up being obvious inclusions, like Sakura Wars in the Saturn video. That game was hugely successful in Japan; a key system seller, so much so that the eclectic Segata Sanshiro could only be pacified by Sakura Shinguji in a commercial for Sakura Wars 2. How could I not include it after seeing that?

Then there’s the oddly specific games I want to highlight, either because I have anecdotes to share with them, they highlight something specific about the console, or they’re just impossible not to mention. Ideally, a combination of those three things. The segment regarding licensed games in my PlayStation 2 Retrospective was a super fun way to encompass those three things. Everyone played a few licensed PS2 games back in the day. It was a core part of the experience, and that’s why I even had a segment on licensed games to begin with. For me, the majority of those were based on anime, and that’s why I chose to focus primarily on those in the video – they interested me most of all to discuss. Most of my playtime in licensed games was spent on GameCube, but those games were typically multi-platform, so the discussion there ended up being mostly PS2-centric.

Sadly, I don’t have unlimited time. I can’t play every RPG in time for a single video; I have to pick and choose what I want to focus on. Otherwise, I would have played every single game in the PS2 library from start to finish. Some exclusions can, and have, upset people. I remember getting a considerably angry comment because I excluded Gran Turismo from my PS2 video, and it always stuck with me. The truth is that A-Spec and GT4 were both on my list, and I do regret excluding them, but I’ve never had as much of an interest in those games as arcade racers like Ridge Racer or Burnout. After all, these are my videos, aren’t they? I don’t want to make something disingenuous. YouTube has enough of that kind of thing with grifters and whatnot.

Even so, if I felt I wasn’t the one to do them justice, a fleeting mention probably would have been better. Hell, as recently as the Dreamcast retrospective, I received an angry complaint from someone for not only using footage of the PS1 version of Capcom VS. SNK (a game I had barely played in the arcade), but also for saying SoulCalibur isn’t as technically deep as Tekken, which I really don’t think is that outrageous of a claim, and I love SoulCalibur – perhaps even moreso than Tekken. Tekken uses buttons for each limb, and endless combinations can lead to different moves and strings. While the latter is also true of SoulCalibur, it has horizontal and vertical slashes, a kick button, and a dedicated guard button. Despite its rich movelist, its core buttons are inarguably much easier to grasp. I always found it more accessible to casual players (accentuated by its singleplayer offerings), and I really don’t think it’s that insane of a claim, nor does it detract from the experience in any way.

It’s not worth it to go on much longer about this, though. What I say is always just my opinion; subjectivity should always be implied. The moral of the story here is that sometimes: It’s better to exclude some games, and just accept that people will get mad anyway.

…Even though I feel like I know both SoulCalibur and Tekken well enough to have that opinion. But hey – that’s what happens when you make anything. People will find a reason to hate your work.

Wrapping Up

From here, assembling the video is like assembling any other video… except far more time-consuming. I’ll have a list of games assembled and record as many of them as I can before writing the script.

My scripts coalesce only as I record games for these videos. Before even starting to record, I will only have a vague idea of what I want to make the video feel like to watch. Honestly, that goes for all of my videos to a certain extent, but that is especially true for these ones. I’ve already discussed this in the context of writing, but this is also true for editing. Assembling footage from a ridiculous number of games, especially specific moments from those games, is quite a task, and typically – I am still missing footage by the time the assembly cut is finished. Only the Zelda videos surpass just how long it takes to edit the console retrospectives, and that’s because of how specific I am with my selection and timing of clips in those videos.

Speaking on that: I see video game retrospectives as an art form of their own. I used to put down my own work and dismiss it as being derivative and dependent on the work of others, a sentiment that has bled through into my videos, but in truth – making a feature-length retrospective can and should be treated with as much reverence as any other filmmaking endeavour. I do try to put my all into telling a story atmospherically through my videos, and that’s what a lot of my favourite films and video games do. Even if the videos are made by me – typically a one-man operation (unless Max from Click In helps me out) – it’s still a creative field, and I need to be kinder to myself. It is an incredible creative outlet, and I’m so incredibly happy to be doing what I do.

That’s about all I have to say, though! Ultimately, when the videos are finished – I’m always incredibly proud of them. They take a lot of work to put together, but I’m glad they’ve been resonating. I’d be happy to answer any further questions in the comments.