Introduction

The Five Ws

Who?

For those visiting this site for the first time: hello, I’m Daniel Learmouth. I run a YouTube channel where I mainly talk about Japanese retro video games. Some of my most popular reviews have been games such as the Ace Combat trilogy for the PlayStation, as well as Gran Turismo and Intelligent Qube.

What?

For a while now, I’d been thinking of setting up a blog. Or at least, one that I would actually use. In the past, I hadn’t really bothered to do so, for a myriad of reasons including, among other reasons, not really having much of an idea of things to talk about or how to talk about them.

Now, however, things are a little bit different. I want to talk about a lot of stuff all of a sudden. I’ll need to consider how I want to put everything together, but all things considered, there is a lot that I want to talk about, and I’ll be damned if I keep all of what I want to talk about in these pockets that are stuffed to the brim with things I want to talk about.

This blog will be used mainly for stuff that I want to talk about, but wouldn’t fit on the above-mentioned YouTube channel for whatever reason. Whilst my YouTube channel will be focussed on games, there may be discussion on different topics such as books, music, the Japanese language, and whatever other nonsense takes my fancy…as well as games, possibly.

When?

As for when you can expect posts on here: they will invariably be sporadic. I’ll only really be posting as regularly as I see fit. If I post on here, I’ll post about it on other socials like on Bluesky.

Where?

Here. And YouTube (see above) and Bluesky (also above).

Geographically? The most precise I’ll volunteer is Yorkshire.

Why?

I don’t know; I’m just bored as sin.

More Specifics

Games

For the longest time, video games have been my medium of choice for a variety of reasons. They a healthy form of escapism, they enable me to engage in interesting and unique worlds, and there are a lot of games that I love and would similarly love to talk about. If you want an idea of some of the games I especially love, I’d cite a few examples such as Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner, Signalis, Silent Hill 3, Gran Turismo 4, F.E.A.R.: First Encounter Assault Recon, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, and Final Fantasy VI.

In recent years, I have taken to importing Japanese retro games. My largest collections are for the PlayStation 1 and 2, but I also have a healthy selection of Super Famicom titles as well, with games for other systems too. At some point, I’ll be making a website dedicated to this collection, but this is going to take some time to get right.

I also spent about six years of my life as a student of game development at Wakefield College. Whilst I did enjoy what I was trying to do there, it didn’t come easy, and it really put into perspective just how difficult making video games is. It’s made me realise that a lot of effort goes into the conceptualisation, production, polishing and eventual release of the games I play, and my critiques try to take this into account. I may have floundered in my attempts at making games, but it wasn’t entirely for lack of effort, nor was it in vain, as the lessons I was taught still give me an understanding the medium I love.

Books

In recent years, I’ve been getting back into reading books. For the longest time, I thought I wasn’t cut out for reading; I was under the self-assumed impression that I didn’t have the patience for it, that I couldn’t keep my head stuck in a book, and that I wasn’t interested in stories. That changed in 2022 when I bought a copy of Dune by Frank Herbert, a book which I read cover to cover in the space of a few weeks. I then sought out the other Dune books by Frank Herbert and read through them, then started on some of the back catalogue that I had accrued over a few years of not actually reading them but buying them anyway. Now, I have a shelf that is packed to bursting, and everything I buy, I buy with the intent to read it.

If you want an idea of books that I like, there are quite a few that I would consider to be my favourites, but I don’t have a massive selection to draw from right now. Anyway, Dune by Frank Herbert is what got me into reading in the first place, with other books such as The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, Coin Locker Babies by Ryu Murakami, The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin, The Stand by Stephen King, and House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski standing out as stellar examples of a medium that I wished I had properly engaged in much sooner.

Music

Music is another medium that has stuck with me for quite some time, and my tastes have evolved quite a bit over the last few years especially. Whilst I am somewhat stuck in my ways and whilst the music I have listened to in all isn’t exactly going to fill the shelves of an HMV or anything, I do still have a modestly broad interest in terms of what music I enjoy listening to, and am generally open to listening to whatever. And yes, that does include country and rap. I also collect vinyl records, and boy howdy do I need more shelves for this stuff…

A few albums that I would consider to be my favourites would be the likes of Discipline by King Crimson, Blue Sky Mining by Midnight Oil, Ommadawn by Mike Oldfield, Close to the Edge by Yes, Remain in Light by Talking Heads, Laughing Stock by Talk Talk, Document by R.E.M., Songs of Faith and Devotion by Depeche Mode and Low-Life by New Order.

If it’s particular songs you’re after, then I’ll link a few: Crime and Punishment by Sheena Ringo, True Faith by New Order, In Your Room by Depeche Mode, Crush With Eyeliner by R.E.M., Living in Another World by Talk Talk, Irgendwie, Irgendwo, Irgendwann by Nena, and Well Rested by Kero Kero Bonito.

Japanese

For the last fifteen years, I’ve found myself floundering and bumbling my way through trying to learn Japanese, with some slight success in the last couple years in particular. However, my hyper-focussing on vocabulary and general neglect of paying serious attention to things like grammar has undoubtedly hurt me.

With this blog, I hope I can use this as an opportunity to hold myself to account and ensure that I can keep on learning this complex, scary, beautiful language. If I reach a stage where this blog becomes bilingual, that would be pretty funny, but it would give me an opportunity to stretch those legs.