The Driftwood

Serial Killers

The podcast Serial Killers by Parcast Network, presented by Will Trent, provides a fascinating look into the world of true crime and serial killers, examining the sociological and psychological factors that shaped these people into the monsters that they became. By referencing academic and other useful sources throughout, this entertaining, informative podcast is not something that I would classify as true crime sludge, made carelessly and without consideration for the victims. Rather, it’s a well thought-out and respectful presentation of real-life events.
—Logan Meek, Podcast Editor

Yakuza: Like a Dragon

As is traditional of the Yakuza games, Yakuza: Like a Dragon is a long, detailed story with lots of mini-games and sub-stories. This game stands out from the series in three major areas: Never-seen-before Ichiban Kasuga is the new protagonist in this spin-off game, combat is now turn-based, and audio is available in English for the first time in the series’ 15-year run. Just like all Yakuza games, this one will be more than 80 hours of gameplay with many sub-stories and minigames included.

I’d hate to ruin this massive game for anyone, so this review will be spoiler-free. Yakuza: Like a Dragon openly and honestly adapts many elements and themes of the Dragon Quest games, the 1989 RPG games which established and cemented many elements of the genre. Dragon Quest games are still being made and are still enormously popular in Japan. The protagonist, Kasuga, loves the series and is inspired by them, flatly stating he fights like they do in those games, like a hero. Therefore, combat allows the use of skills which cost “MP,” basic attacks which cost nothing and restore MP for “magic” classes, use items, flee, switch party, and guard. Unlike Ichiban’s imagination, the game is still based in reality. “MP” stands for mental points, a fire spell spits alcohol through a lighter, an ice spell throws cold liquid on enemies, etc.

The acting in this new English audio is good, sometimes excellent. Kaiji Tang, the voice of Ichiban Kasuga, is excellent at playing loud goofballs, so he absolutely nails the role. He also plays Satoru Gojo in Jujutsu Kaisen and Owain in Fire Emblem, the two roles I knew best before he was Ichiban Kasuga. Given his boisterous nature, when Kasuga weeps, it really hits hard, and Kaiji’s fantastic abilities in this performance just make it hit harder. As the co-star we have the golden voice of Greg Chun doing a deep, gruff impression of a homeless man, which almost seems like a waste of such a smooth voice, but he does sing the famous “Baka Mitai” in English, and it’s gorgeous. The minor characters of the game can sometimes be rough, and very minor talk (like overhearing conversations, dialogue from generic enemies, and store greetings and dismissals) is still in Japanese. The hidden jewel of the cast is George Takei, most known as Hikaru Sulu from Star Trek, playing Masumi Arakawa, Ichiban’s Yakuza boss. His mature voice makes his macabre character all the more authoritative and noble. Funnily, he is the only character with a trace of a Japanese accent.

Wacky and amusing, this game is fun. Enemies have funny names, so sometimes you have to fight a drunken “beerserker” or pirate-like “Pier Reviewer,” Sometimes you have to fight an excavator or a tiger by punching it. Characters ragdoll when hit hard enough, hurled into a wall or limply sliding across the pavement. Keeping up with tradition, you can have a chicken work at your company, but now you can also hire a giant roomba after you defeat it in combat.

The whole game, Kasuga’s hair is a ridiculous bush on his head. So many things, big and small, make the game good, and I would recommend it to anyone who likes story-focused and can set aside 80 hours over the course of a month or two for this game. There is, hidden away in the options menu, a glossary recounting all the events and characters you’ve encountered in the story, making it a little easier to jump back in after a hiatus. It might be a good idea to play this game before playing the new sequel, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth. Available on Xbox One and Series X/S, and PlayStation 4 and 5.

—Gage Wilson, Anime Editor 

Red Dead Redemption 2

The trouble I’ve found is that the 60-dollar standard for these types of games never really reflects the level of content you’d expect.

60 dollars, no, 70 dollars nowadays could get you something like Ubisoft’s Skull and Bones—a 2024 release with less content and quality control than its predecessor Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag from nearly 11 years ago. Suppose it’s me being picky, but if I’m dropping that much up-front? You’d best have something to offer.

So trust me when I say that this game delivers that in spades. Seeing those end credits took me and others well over 100 hours, half of which was the main campaign. Everything else? Side missions, collectibles, hunting and selling pelts, crafting specialty items, committing crimes up and down five whole in-game states—Red Dead Redemption 2 boasts a depth unparalleled these five years later. For eight months, I was shy of breaking that ever-elusive 100 percent completion—a select combination of items refusing to drop and there being, you know, over 550 different entries will do that to a first-time player.

You play as Arthur Morgan, second-in-command of the Van der Linde gang, in a fictionalized version of America set around the turn of the 20th century. No more are the days of a lawless frontier as the consequences of the gang’s risky, largely unsuccessful heists catch up to them. It’s up to the player to choose how they respond per the game’s honor system, all in service of a sprawling narrative that has made me cry more times than I can count. Since the game is a prequel, don’t worry about playing the first Red Dead Redemption to understand what’s happening.

Word of warning, however: this game’s controls are a thing of infamy. Speaking as someone who’s played this on-and-off for a year before committing to a full playthrough, I even have instances where pressing the wrong button causes me to shoot the NPC I’m trying to talk to, possibly cutting off a whole chain of random encounters and missions and incurring the wrath of the local law. Sure, some level of jank is expected for a game of this scale, but it requires the player to slow down and commit the controls to memory.

Compared to current-gen standards of 70 or more dollars that offer substantially less content, Red Dead Redemption 2 thankfully costs just a cool 60 dollars (with the occasional sale or two) for all we’ve covered here. An ultimate edition priced at 100 dollars is also available, but I recommend avoiding it—some cosmetics and a couple of side missions aren’t worth another 40 dollars for what you’d already be getting with the base game. Available on Xbox One and Series X, PlayStation 4 and 5, and Windows.

—Sasha Bouyear

For the romantics among us who like to read reviews before we shop….

The Book Bachelor: Mr. Darcy

Mr. Darcy: The original literary dreamboat. You first met him at age 10 when your mother subjected you to the 2005 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. You were pretty bored, but the dresses were pretty, and you’d had a crush on Keira Knightley since Pirates of the Caribbean.

But this isn’t about her. This is about Mr. Darcy. You don’t remember much about him from this adaptation, but he must have been pretty good, if there are this many dreamy edits of him on Google Images. Either way, he didn’t leave much impression on you until you were forced to read Pride and Prejudice for a lit class.

“Okay,” you thought, “I guess I can see the appeal.” But how much appeal can a 19th century Englishman truly hold for an enlightened, 21st-century bachelorx? How much of a heartthrob can he really be? Let’s see how he holds up after 200+ years.

Dependability:
One of the most dependable men in Regency England. Sure, he can be kind of a jerk, but at least he’s consistent about it. ★★★★★

Affection:
He gets there. Eventually. You’ll have to deal with him thinking he’s better than you for a while, though. ★★★☆☆ 

Cuddlability:
He’s too much of a gentleman to instigate, but in my heart of hearts, I know he’d be down for hugs in the name of love. ★★★★☆

Charisma:
Trick question. His lack of charisma is kind of the point. ★★★☆☆

Funness of dates:
Depends on your definition of “fun.” Stimulating intellectual conversation, anyone? ★★★☆☆

Listening/communication skills:
He starts out rough, but his ability to accept and adapt to criticism is one of his best qualities. ★★★★☆

Intelligence:
Mr. Darcy is an intellectual, for better or for worse. Some might call him pretentious. ★★★★★

Coolness:
Some might say that his being English makes him cool. Others would argue this makes him the opposite. Either way, he’s kind of a square. ★★★☆☆

Overall:
You could do worse, especially in Regency England. ★★★★☆

Books of Sad Realities

Girls and Sex
by Peggy Orenstein

Trigger warnings: Eating disorders, domestic violence, issues relating to sex.

In today’s day and age, many people claim to be progressive, yet sex is still something of a taboo. Sex is never to be discussed even in supposed “safe spaces.” And while this may seem normal, this lack of open discussion and conversation with young women and girls about sex has some devastating consequences.

Peggy Orenstein interviewed over 70 young girls and college-aged women. What she found was shocking. The overall theme is parents need to have more open and honest discussions with girls and young women about sex. To begin, due to the fact that many parents don’t talk to their daughters about sex, said children get their ideas about sex and their “sexual identity” from the media. The media, as in songs, television, and books, mainly discusses sex from the male perspective. This can lead to low self-esteem, hinder academic achievement, and in some cases, can lead to eating disorders.

Another aspect Orenstien covered was that many women find themselves pressured to have sexual relations with their partners and even friends. This is because they fear that they may look like a prude. Many women and girls have difficulty trying to not be a prude but trying not to be labeled a “slut” either. It’s a slippery slope that they feel their whole identity as a human being revolves around. Furthermore, many women, despite having negative sexual experiences, continued to have sex with the same people. This is due to the fact that they didn’t know sex is supposed to feel good for women.

Furthermore, because women only got their ideas about romance from the media, they were more tolerant of and more susceptible to getting involved in abusive relationships and unhappy marriages. Orenstein says this is because we still have this idea that women live to please and serve men. Therefore women do not recongize that they have their own needs both physical and emotional, which should and can be met. I do think this is a very important read, especially for women in college.

Maid
by Stephanie Land

If you enjoyed the Netflix show Maid, you will surely enjoy the book it was based off of. Maid is a memoir by Stephanie Land. She tells her story about how a fling in college ruined her life. She became pregnant with the child of a man who abused her: physically, emotionally, and financially. This resulted in Land making a run for it with her then three-year-old daughter.

Land wrote about her experience working as a cleaning service worker. This book, while being entertaining, opens up some themes about class dynamics. While Land struggled to survive and working herself to the bone, her clients treated her poorly. Either she was completely invisible to them, or some of her clients openly insulted and even physically abused her.

Another aspect was that Land was able to discover a lot about the personal lives of her clients simply by cleaning their houses. This was because she was able to look at their items. For example, she concluded that one of her client’s husbands was cheating on his partner as she discovered lingerie around the house that was much smaller than the client’s size. Furthermore, she recognized that said client was dealing with the infidelity by losing herself in romantic fantasy novels and smoking marajuana and cigarettes.

Another lesson that Land learned as a maid was that money did not buy happiness. Many of her clients lived sad and unfulfilling lives. Overall it is a very good book. Not only does it manage to shed light on the difficulty that poverty brings, yet it also paints a beautiful picture of what really matters in life.

—Jalaine Olks, Books Editor

Six of Crows
by Leigh Bardugo
TW: Death, drug use, violence

Six of Crows is the story of six teenagers: Kaz Brekker the demon, Inej Ghafa the wraith, Jesper Fahey the gun slinger, Nina Zenick the heart render, Matthias Helvar the Fjerdian, and Wylan Van Eck the demolitions expert in the fictional city of Ketterdam. These six teenagers live in a life of crime, and each have their own reasons for it, their traumas ranging from death, slavery, war, prison, abuse, the list goes on. In this book, they have been hired to find a dangerous drug that has been killing the Grisha, individuals with powers, and destroy it. The only problem is it’s in the land of Fjerda, the country that kills Grisha. This book is full of action, mystery, sadness, and dramatics and well worth the read.

—Kelsey Vanderpool

5 Reasons to Support Local Music

There are several reasons why you should support your local music scene. Here are a few:

1. You’ll have a source of entertainment! People living in small towns always need a place to be and something to do. Why not support a small band?
2. Local bands love the support! Going out to see live music gives that band the extra push they may need. You inspire them like they could inspire you.
3. You could meet new people and make new friends.
4. Tickets are cheap! But they help support that small local band in a big way. Your support helps keep the local bands alive.
5. Your favorite band was once in that small, unknown band’s shoes. Imagine seeing your number-one fave when they were just starting out! How cool would that be? You can say you liked them before they got big.

—Ginger Knauer

Taylor Swift Movies

When most people think of Taylor Swift, the first thing that comes to mind is her music, and rightfully so. She is an amazing musician who has made herself an icon through her profoundly relatable lyrics and wide range of genres to choose from. While she is a musician first and foremost, Swift has ventured into Hollywood a few times (six to be exact) and has been in some great projects as well as a few rougher ones (*cough cough* Cats 2019 *cough*). In celebration of her upcoming new album The Tortured Poets Department, this edition of the Driftwood will be highlighting some of the films Taylor Swift has been in that are definitely worth a watch.

The Lorax

Based on the book by Dr. Seuss, The Lorax is a musical movie that is perfect for family movie nights. The story follows a boy named Ted (voiced by Zac Efron) who lives in a world where there is no more nature and everything around him is artificial. They even have to buy fresh air in bottles because of how polluted the world has become! When Ted finds out his crush Audrey (Swift’s character), dreams of seeing a real tree, he decides he is going to get her one. He sneaks out of town to go visit a mysterious man named The Onceler, who is said to be the only person who knows what happens to the trees. The man tells Ted about the mythic creature called the Lorax who is the protector of the forest and tells him the story of where all the trees went.

Unfortunately for Ted, Aloysius O’Hare, the CEO of the biggest fresh-air retailer, finds out about his excursions outside of the city and decides he needs to stop Ted from bringing back trees and eliminating the need for people to buy his air. Will Ted be able to get a real tree, or will O’Hare get to him before he can? Available on Amazon Prime and Freevee.

The Giver

The Giver is a story about a dystopian society based on the novel of the same title by author Lois Lowry. Within this society, the citizens have no memory of the past and are controlled in every aspect of their lives. They are told who they will marry, assigned children who have been genetically perfected, forced to take daily injections for their health, and assigned what job they will have for the rest of their lives. There is no music, no art, no literature, no emotion, not even color! Their world is completely black and white.

The main character Jonas is finally old enough to get his job assignment, along with the rest of his peers. Things don’t go as he would expect when he is seemingly skipped over during the assignments. He is finally given the job of being the Receiver of Memory, a job that is very seldom assigned. With his new role, he ventures off to begin his training with a man who tells Jonas to call him the Giver. This man tells Jonas that his job is to hold all the memories of the world, including those from the time before their society. He learns of color, music, dancing, exploration, love, and so much more. The days he spends learning from the Giver start to change how he sees the world he lives in, and he decides things should go back to how they once were. Will Jonas be able to restore humanity to its more colorful and vibrant past? Why did the leaders of this society take away all the memories in the first place?

You may be saying, “Wait, you didn’t mention Taylor,” and you would be right. To tell you who she plays would be a spoiler for the movie, so you will simply have to watch and find out! Available on Netflix, Hulu, Max, Amazon Prime, and Pluto TV.