Coping with Death through Elden Ring

I lost my grandma last summer. Even though my family should have been prepared for her departure, losing such a key figure in my life had a devastating effect on my thoughts. Two years of pandemic and the awareness of a brain of a 34-year-old man created a very bad mix. Tormented by the most common and human feelings about Death, I found comfort in an unexpected ally: a game that repeatedly puts the player in front of the Grim Reaper, Elden Ring.

Between the notes: A chat with The Last Guardian's Composer Takeshi Furukawa

Six years ago, I started my short but intense career as a freelance video game journalist taking courage and contacting Takeshi Furukawa for an interview. Takeshi is none other than the composer of one of the most intense and heartful soundtracks you can find in the video game industry: the score for The Last Guardian. The third game of Fumito Ueda and his team, genDESIGN, is something that never ceases to amaze me and for its fifth anniversary, I had the pleasure to have another chat with Takeshi, this time digging together behind the scene of the most iconic moments of The Last Guardian.

The following interview is a full transcription of a podcast we recorded on December 2021, spending an hour chilling together and talking about this incredible game that somehow kept us connected since its release. I have been guilty of failing to finish editing the video version all this time. Partly because my video editing skills are quite limited and a bit because a series of extraordinary events brought me here keeping me away from the keyboard for quite a while.

Ghosts and Devils: Jin Sakai, my great grandfather and me.

Ghost of Tsushima, the new IP by Sucker Punch, is finally out and now everyone can enjoy the story of Jin Sakai and his journey to save his home from the invaders. I had the pleasure to review the last big exclusive of Sony for this generation and one of the great things I experienced during the process is the many common points that this fictional adventure has with a real historical episode of my homeland. It put me in a unique position 'cause I found myself emotionally overwhelmed by a game that I approached with no expectations in this respect. This game brought back family memories shared by most of the sons of my land, some of those memories still hurt my people, others shaped a legendary legacy.