By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Most of the log is me waiting for the video to get uploaded!
After twenty-five years of existing (and of waiting, it feels like), Grasshopper Manufacture, Goichi Suda (SUDA51)'s game development studio, now has a Direct for the first time for fans and anyone else who cares to tune in! Personally, I've wanted to know what will happen with the company's projects after the tragic news of Chinese company NetEase Games acquiring Grasshopper back in 2021. Perhaps this Direct will clue us in? They did promise something would happen.
You'll notice that the Direct embed is not at the top of this article. That's because it was delayed for well over an hour. You'll have to scroll down past my rants about cursive writing (prompted by the embedded tweet) and Daylight Saving Time to get to the Direct embed, as well as my LIVE REACTION to the video, which was uploaded (significantly later than promised) but not livestreamed.Less than 24 HOURS before our premiere Grasshopper Direct!
— Grasshopper Manufacture (@Grasshopper_EN) June 14, 2023
I can’t reveal any details but I assure you… something is definitely going to happen.
Start times:
6/14 - 9pm PST
6/15 - 12am EST
6/15 - 1pm JST
6/15 - 4am GMT
WITNESS IT!🤘https://t.co/jtQ1OqFudl pic.twitter.com/e87ajEQQi0
[11:59 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Grasshopper Manufacture isn't doing a livestream, but rather, a video.
[11:59 PM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Or, I can't find the livestream.
[12:00 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Well, YouTube has nothing there.
[12:00 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: They're not tweeting anything.
[12:00 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Guess this reaction log is a dud.
[12:01 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: https://twitter.com/Grasshopper_EN/status/1669193256633237504
[12:01 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: "We're so sorry everyone, due to some technical difficulties Grasshopper Direct is running a little bit late - but we WILL be starting soon and we'll keep you updated in real time & provide the URL soon so please check back here in a few minutes!🙇♂️🙏"
[12:02 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Well, I could either wait for it to start soon or I could go to sleep.
[12:03 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: How long will it be technically difficult? I dunno.
[12:03 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: I KNEW THIS LOG WAS A DUD.
[12:04 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: WHY IS THEIR PICTURE TWEET "Something's gonna happen."
[12:04 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: NOTHIN' IS HAPPENIN'.
[12:04 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: I BLAME IT BEING WRITTEN IN CURSIVE.
[12:04 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: I'm not a fan of cursive.
[12:05 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: This will be the first (and probably only) time the word "cursive" has been used on the site.
[12:05 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: So while I have the chance... lemme tell you, as I said, not a fan of cursive.
[12:06 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: It's pretentious and difficult to read. It's not that easier to write, either.
[12:07 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Cursive is just gate-keeping.
[12:07 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: They invented a whole other way to write the alphabet / language just to drive off the commoners after they started to regret teaching common people how to read and write.
[12:07 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: You might think, as a pretentious elitist prince myself, I might be in favour of such a move.
[12:08 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: But imagine how much fewer people would read KoopaTV if the font was all in cursive. (Assuming that me writing content in cursive would take the same effort as it would in print.)
[12:10 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Well, that's my cursive rant.
[12:10 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: I dunno wot else to add.
[12:10 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: There's no video from Grasshopper still.
[12:11 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: I think the invention of typing to obliterate cursive writing use was excellent. Among other reasons why typing is good.
[12:14 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: My cursive stance is basically a liberal one. In that it's not a conservative position.
[12:16 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: I'd like to think I'm a reasonable conservative (if I am a conservative at all by now). Not every tradition must be upheld. Some things actually ARE better because of the modern era. Cursive's decline is one. Though some education systems still teach it for some reason.
[12:17 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: I haven't seen good reason for it.
[12:17 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: (Grasshopper has just tweeted the video is almost ready.)
[12:17 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: (I wonder how long it'll be.)
[12:18 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: (Almost ready means nothing.)
[12:19 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: (Especially when the prior update was "starting soon.")
[12:32 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: ...
[12:32 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Well, a whole half hour has passed with nothing.
[12:37 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Grashopper tweeted the video will be up in 15 to 20 minutes.
[12:44 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Yawn...
[12:49 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: No update yet.
[12:49 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: If I could rant more about cursive, I would, but I'm out of material.
[12:50 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: I could rant about China and blame this whole delay on them.
[12:52 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Goichi Suda just tweeted they're shooting for a "1am EDT release!"
[12:52 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: So much for 15 to 20 minutes.
[12:53 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: To be fair, the original Grasshopper tweet said the start time is 12am EST.
[12:53 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: 12am EST is equivalent to 1am EDT.
[12:53 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: (EST, or Eastern Standard Time, isn't in use right now thanks to DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME, which should be abolished, and that's been extensively covered on KoopaTV every year.)
[12:56 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: No one should be saying "EST" in their times nowadays, and anyone who does doesn't know what they're talking about.
[12:57 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: And that's part of the problem with Daylight Saving Time.
[12:57 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: There is a lot of ignorance around it, and that's why that has been allowed to fester and continue and even get worse.
[12:58 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Grasshopper has confirmed the video is not a livestream.
[12:58 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: So is this really a live reaction? I think so.
[12:58 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: This is my live reaction log to waiting for this video.
[1:01 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: It's past 01:00 EDT.
[1:02 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Nothin' yet.
[1:09 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Still nothing.
[1:12 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: One wonders what the hold up of this was.
[1:12 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Maybe they just finished the video now.
[1:13 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: They said 3 minutes left 5 minutes ago.
[1:16 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THS60cC3768
[1:16 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: OKAY LET'S GO
[1:16 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Quality 360p
[1:17 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: maybe I should wait for 720p.
[1:18 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: nah screw it
[1:18 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: It's weird anyway.
[1:18 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: The 360p could be part of the charm.
[1:19 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: James Mountain and Maddie Copp, two community managers of Grasshopper Manufacture. Maddie is dressed as Bad Girl from No More Heroes.
[1:19 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: There are Japanese open captions.
[1:20 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Maddie: People have been waiting for this so let's go. ...Yup, they definitely have.
[1:20 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: A man in a mask on a tiger claiming to be SUDA51 is thanking us and saying he was born in 1968.
[1:21 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: 25 years of HgM History montage. (When am I gonna play The Silver Case?)
[1:21 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: My eyes are droopy...
[1:21 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: There's No More Heroes 3 music.
[1:21 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Montage still going.
[1:22 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: 4 minutes done of 11.
[1:22 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Montage over.
[1:23 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: And now projects.
[1:23 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Shadows of the Damned: Remastered.
[1:23 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Yeah, this being 360p is actually pretty bad. <.<
[1:23 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: James keeps talking over Maddie. :x
[1:23 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: "Coming to All Current Platforms. Probably." ???
[1:23 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: No release date either.
[1:24 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: peach MoMoKo, a Marvel artist, is drawing 25th anniversary artwork.
 |
| I went back and took the screenshots in high-definition. I mean, it looks like a cool artwork, but they didn't even have a very zoomed in final version of it in the Direct? So who knows? |
[1:24 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: They have a video of...an ad.
[1:24 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: ...a YouTube ad.
[1:24 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: ...Like, it's not a real YouTube ad.
[1:25 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Pistol Yazuka?
[1:25 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: "The official GhM Online Shop is Now Open!"
[1:26 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Well, the shirts are cheaper than The Pokémon Company International's Team Rocket collection.
[1:26 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: There will be overseas shipping... in the near future.
[1:27 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Tadayuki Nomaru, concept artist, is opening an art exhibition in downtown Tokyo from July 22 through August 6. Well, I can't really visit that.
[1:27 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Now for a real SUDA51 remark?
[1:27 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: ...nope.
[1:27 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Well, that was useless.
[1:28 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: YouTube ad for "Electric Thunder Tiger 14"
[1:28 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: This is even more strange than what Devolver Digital does.
[1:28 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Oh, it's the real SUDA51.
[1:28 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: He was passed out.
[1:29 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: "Our next game is on-screen"
[1:30 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: But he body-blocked us.
 |
| You know, y'all said NetEase would grant Grasshopper extra resources in quality assurance. If y'all can't upload a YouTube video properly without over an hour of technical problems, where's that QA going? |
[1:30 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: I'm cold and tired.
[1:30 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: Bye.
[1:31 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: ...
[1:31 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: I'M DISAPPOINTED.
[1:31 AM] Ludwig Von Koopa: AND I LITERALLY DIDN'T EVEN HAVE ANY EXPECTATIONS.
Ludwig can't stress enough that he had no expectations watching this Direct. Anyway, what did you think of the video? What did you think of the wait leading up to the video? Do you think you're smarter than everyone who waited for the video to be live when it was promised? Was your sleep a better idea than staying up? Did you enjoy that sleep? Did you think there was anything of value in that Direct? Can you identify what Goichi Suda is standing in front of? What do you think of cursive writing and reading?
For a comparison, see the Devolver Digital 2023 log here. At least that was quirky with some substance. (SUDA51-approved too.)
Because of his poor sleep habits thanks to this live reaction, Ludwig wrote about the SLEEP 2023 professional conference.
Considering how weird the video was, do you think they really had an hour's worth of technical difficulties, or was it all staged to troll us?
ReplyDeleteI see you woke up earlier than I did. <.<
DeleteSo we're going into conspiracy territory now. Well, I do think "technical difficulties" is likely a euphemism. It's also possible that the technical difficulties were around overseas shipping not being available on their online store when they were planning to have it available when it aired, so their video editor had to edit in that rectangle disclaimer into the video and re-export it.
Just trying to decide if I should be more upset about this or Idea Factory's stream earlier this year, where they also kept fans waiting for an hour before showing a single trailer. On one hand, it was the middle of the day instead of 1 AM and it ended with an actual trailer. On the other hand, the wait was clearly intentional on their part. Actual technical difficulties would make this less annoying than if it was also a planned stunt.
DeleteWell, wot do you think of the likelihood of my possibility? That disclaimer rectangle was obviously added much later than everything else was edited.
Delete(Sleep is most important.)
It seems plausible, but would it account for taking that long? The video itself was also delayed by about a week from when it was originally announced for.
DeleteExporting HD video files can take a while, yes. :(
Delete