October 21, 2011

BaraGamer: Queerrilla

New Italian BaraGamer Interview!

Tell us about yourself: I’m Stefano Kerberos or Queerrilla on most social networks, and @queerrilla on Twitter. I was born in Sardinia in 1986 and I spent a large amount of my life trying to do something more than just playing videogames and loving big guys. Turns out I’m now 25, I’m taking a degree in law, and starting a career as a DJ while trying to be a good LGBTQ activist as well.

I have fond memories of my childhood mainly thanks to videogames. At age 4 I loved to draw pictures of Wonderboy III levels. I was always thinking about swords, hedgehogs, mushrooms, laser guns, magic fireballs and mighty cyborgs. Videogames taught me a lot and I will play until the very end. (When I’m not stalking guys, of course).

Offline Games: I love adventure and exploration as well as magic, leveling up and obscure stories. Zelda is awesome, first Zelda ever for me was Zelda 2. It fascinates me even if it’s the black sheep of the franchise. I like MetroidVania games from Castlevania SotN to the EXCELLENT Cave Story. I have a thing for obscure deep RPGs; MegaTen franchise is a must, SMT3: Nocturne and Persona are WAY BETTER than latest Squaresoft’s button mashing, obtuse leveling, shallow drama RPGs. Fallout 3 and Oblivion remember me of my childhood crush: ULTIMA VII.

I’m also a fan of Street Fighter Alpha 3 and Street of Rage II. I love the dirty punkish techno 90s feeling, the memories of painful ‘continues’ that sucked hard-earned 200 Italian liras at the coin-op.

Online Games: I don’t like to play online (boooo) because I’m like a cat. I’m too unpredictable and I change my mind constantly, but right now, I’m having a very good time playing Minecraft online. It’s a drug. Seriously. I’m a gamer freak, but I’m also a ‘sexual predator’ like a friend of mine used to describe me.

Favorite Bara Artists: I love love love Jiraiya. I need to buff up to look like a typical Jiraiya beefcake (like the guy from noodlesandbeef.com). I find his stories lovely, I bet he’s a great guy to hang out with. (Plus a friend of mine looks EXACTLY like a Jiraiya cub, which is awesome.)

Takeshi Matsu and obviously Tagame are great artists too. I’d also appreciate if someone helped me to find a very good illustrator called “HOS”, who had a great website that disappeared out of the blue. He had interesting FFX illustrations among the others.

Favorite Bara/Bears in Media: I dig Zangief. I spent hours looking at his bulge and hairy chest when I was a kid. Then I liked Jigen from Lupin even though he’s an otter. I also like Jet Black from Cowboy Bebop, and I have a kink for Tony the Tiger, don’t ask me why!

As for real life bears, I like Bud Spencer, Eric Cantona, and Laurence Tureaud a.k.a Mr-T from A-Team.

How’s the Italian gaming scene, are the translations accurate? The gaming scene in Italy is alive, we don’t have many developers, but we are affectionate gamers. In the 90s Italy was one of the hottest markets for graphical adventure games like LucasArts and Sierra games. We had majestic translations, proper dubbing, and some good Italian games as well.

Now we have good underground communities and forums, some good developers (check out Star Wars: Shadow of the Empire ), lovely gaymer bloggers, and yeah, we get the latest games as every major country in Europe does.

For translations; big producers always have excellent Italian translation and dubbing, but smaller companies just focus on English text and audio. Sometimes, they screw up the game royally, like Fallout New Vegas in Spanish is abysmal, while the Italian version is slightly better. Personally, I prefer the original version just to avoid issues and enjoy the game.

Why’d you find Zelda 2 fascinating? Zelda 2 is creepy. I like the creepy touch in videogames and other media and sometimes in real life too. And by creepy I mean, Zelda 2 has some very strange and fucked up things going on. You start in a temple and you see Zelda’s lifeless body, you’re overpowered but still you have to find a solution. Even the people in the villages are creepy. There’s a big bear called ERROR and a shape-shifter lady that will attempts to kill you. Plus, you can refill your hearts by cruising, young women will invite you to “relax” in their houses!

You feel really vulnerable, there’s a constant sense of danger. Enemies chase you on the map and you need to be extra careful while navigating dark caves. You can use magic and level up spells, yet you have the sense of freedom of a platformer. It’s not my favourite Zelda title and it is pretty difficult, but the creepiness of Zelda 2 will always ring a bell. The Faron Woods’ theme from Twilight Princess for example has that creepy feeling.