Mento
@gbmento.bsky.social
Videogamesm'n. I write a lot on Giant Bomb.
If I ever become one with the internet like the Lawnmower Man I'm just going to go around deleting errant apostrophes from the possessive "it's", plurals, acronyms, and numbers in everybody's posts/comments. Like the Greek gods of old I intend to get obnoxiously petty with my omnipotence.
February 5, 2026 at 1:57 AM
If I ever become one with the internet like the Lawnmower Man I'm just going to go around deleting errant apostrophes from the possessive "it's", plurals, acronyms, and numbers in everybody's posts/comments. Like the Greek gods of old I intend to get obnoxiously petty with my omnipotence.
YouTube is perhaps the only website I visit regularly that can both crash and freeze up. A marvel of technology.
Will its owners spend any of the billions that site makes on fixing it? Nah, they should spend more on AI algorithms that demonstrably don't work and then pocket the rest. Business 101.
Will its owners spend any of the billions that site makes on fixing it? Nah, they should spend more on AI algorithms that demonstrably don't work and then pocket the rest. Business 101.
February 4, 2026 at 7:56 PM
YouTube is perhaps the only website I visit regularly that can both crash and freeze up. A marvel of technology.
Will its owners spend any of the billions that site makes on fixing it? Nah, they should spend more on AI algorithms that demonstrably don't work and then pocket the rest. Business 101.
Will its owners spend any of the billions that site makes on fixing it? Nah, they should spend more on AI algorithms that demonstrably don't work and then pocket the rest. Business 101.
I've been watching someone play Mario 64 for the first time with a sense of smug superiority, since I know the game back to front, when all of a sudden he grabs one of those koopa shells inside the oysters and I'm all "wait, you can do that?".
There really is no end to that game's little secrets.
There really is no end to that game's little secrets.
January 31, 2026 at 3:19 AM
I've been watching someone play Mario 64 for the first time with a sense of smug superiority, since I know the game back to front, when all of a sudden he grabs one of those koopa shells inside the oysters and I'm all "wait, you can do that?".
There really is no end to that game's little secrets.
There really is no end to that game's little secrets.
Whenever I see Greg Bovino's name on here I keep thinking it's this guy: achewood.com/2007/11/01/t...
Halloween Candy
We got three of these.
achewood.com
January 27, 2026 at 4:06 AM
Whenever I see Greg Bovino's name on here I keep thinking it's this guy: achewood.com/2007/11/01/t...
Getting the Plat for Kena was roooooough. That game on its highest difficulty thinks it's Dark Souls and it very much is not. Great looking game though; dig the whole Kubo and the Two Strings aesthetic.
Oh, and I recorded this for anyone curious about the difficulty: www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkYT...
Oh, and I recorded this for anyone curious about the difficulty: www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkYT...
Kena: Bridge of Spirits - Woodsmith Fight (Master)
YouTube video by Mento Memori
www.youtube.com
January 20, 2026 at 5:29 AM
Getting the Plat for Kena was roooooough. That game on its highest difficulty thinks it's Dark Souls and it very much is not. Great looking game though; dig the whole Kubo and the Two Strings aesthetic.
Oh, and I recorded this for anyone curious about the difficulty: www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkYT...
Oh, and I recorded this for anyone curious about the difficulty: www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkYT...
Now that RetroAchievements has implemented Multiset compatibility I can finally unlock all 852 Dark Cloud 2 achievements in a single playthrough. Should tide me over for the weekend at least.
January 17, 2026 at 12:03 AM
Now that RetroAchievements has implemented Multiset compatibility I can finally unlock all 852 Dark Cloud 2 achievements in a single playthrough. Should tide me over for the weekend at least.
I'm glad I found out that the PS5 saves video clips of every trophy earned by default sooner rather than later. That would've filled up the ol' SSD quick.
January 16, 2026 at 3:04 AM
I'm glad I found out that the PS5 saves video clips of every trophy earned by default sooner rather than later. That would've filled up the ol' SSD quick.
In honor of his creator's passing, Dilbert's tie will be raised at half-mast today.
January 13, 2026 at 4:04 PM
In honor of his creator's passing, Dilbert's tie will be raised at half-mast today.
2025 is officially over with the last Mento's Month of the year! Shoehorned most of my GOTY content into this one, since I'd already written about them all elsewhere, plus thoughts on the season/year's anime and a dramatic finale to that Master System thing I was doing
giantbomb.com/users/4945/a...
giantbomb.com/users/4945/a...
Mento's Month: December '25
2025's final monthly round-up of reviews, articles, lists, anime musings, and other miscellany by Mento, the gaming internet's favorite son. I can just write that in an excerpt and it magically become...
giantbomb.com
January 11, 2026 at 2:35 AM
2025 is officially over with the last Mento's Month of the year! Shoehorned most of my GOTY content into this one, since I'd already written about them all elsewhere, plus thoughts on the season/year's anime and a dramatic finale to that Master System thing I was doing
giantbomb.com/users/4945/a...
giantbomb.com/users/4945/a...
The monkey power-up alone turns Astro Bot from a 5-star game to a 4-star one. Unforgivable to make speedrun courses with this garbage. (The game also has serious hitbox issues throughout but, man, that horrible ape climbing mechanic in particular though.)
January 6, 2026 at 9:53 PM
The monkey power-up alone turns Astro Bot from a 5-star game to a 4-star one. Unforgivable to make speedrun courses with this garbage. (The game also has serious hitbox issues throughout but, man, that horrible ape climbing mechanic in particular though.)
I'm finally done talking about Blue Prince in lists/blogs/whatnot and sad I never got to use the alternative title I came up with, 50 First Estates.
January 1, 2026 at 9:40 PM
I'm finally done talking about Blue Prince in lists/blogs/whatnot and sad I never got to use the alternative title I came up with, 50 First Estates.
Everyone else was writing GOTY stuff and I let the peer pressure get to me, so here's the Giant Bomb Site Moderators (a.k.a. "Those Jerks") GOTY list that I contributed to:
giantbomb.com/articles/gia...
giantbomb.com/articles/gia...
Giant Bomb Moderators' Top 10 Games of 2025
Giant Bomb Moderators' Top 10 Games of 2025 - A guest list for GiantBomb.com's 2025 Game of the Year.
giantbomb.com
January 1, 2026 at 8:50 PM
Everyone else was writing GOTY stuff and I let the peer pressure get to me, so here's the Giant Bomb Site Moderators (a.k.a. "Those Jerks") GOTY list that I contributed to:
giantbomb.com/articles/gia...
giantbomb.com/articles/gia...
As a writer, I've let go of most of my linguistic bugbears over time because the internet is largely ESL doing the best they can and I don't need to litigate every its/it's typo.
Yet using "prequel" incorrectly will always irk the hell out of me. It's a very specific word w/ very specific usage.
Yet using "prequel" incorrectly will always irk the hell out of me. It's a very specific word w/ very specific usage.
December 22, 2025 at 8:29 PM
As a writer, I've let go of most of my linguistic bugbears over time because the internet is largely ESL doing the best they can and I don't need to litigate every its/it's typo.
Yet using "prequel" incorrectly will always irk the hell out of me. It's a very specific word w/ very specific usage.
Yet using "prequel" incorrectly will always irk the hell out of me. It's a very specific word w/ very specific usage.
I hope the developers of Clair Obscur don't feel dismayed by how many people only refer to it by its subtitle, because to me that suggests everyone wants more from the series and they're only referring to this one by the subtitle to preemptively distinguish it from its sequels.
December 22, 2025 at 6:19 PM
I hope the developers of Clair Obscur don't feel dismayed by how many people only refer to it by its subtitle, because to me that suggests everyone wants more from the series and they're only referring to this one by the subtitle to preemptively distinguish it from its sequels.
While writing my year-end review I've been trying to find the right term for an apparent phenomenon where the Japanese government boosts anime/TV about raising kids to address the country's flagging birth rates, and I managed to land on "papaganda".
December 20, 2025 at 9:49 PM
While writing my year-end review I've been trying to find the right term for an apparent phenomenon where the Japanese government boosts anime/TV about raising kids to address the country's flagging birth rates, and I managed to land on "papaganda".
I hope there's a "Best Unseen Character" category for GOTY awards this year, between the jacked nudists of Expedition 60, whomever kept leaving me money in Blue Prince, and this dude (who is someone I can get into) from Avowed:
December 20, 2025 at 4:40 PM
I hope there's a "Best Unseen Character" category for GOTY awards this year, between the jacked nudists of Expedition 60, whomever kept leaving me money in Blue Prince, and this dude (who is someone I can get into) from Avowed:
After seeing folks struggle on some of its new superbosses, I think Clair Obscur's major design insight was taking Final Fantasy X as a template and (correctly) deducing that Sin wasn't the real final boss but rather it was the time when you had to perfectly dodge lightning 200 times in a row.
December 19, 2025 at 1:47 AM
After seeing folks struggle on some of its new superbosses, I think Clair Obscur's major design insight was taking Final Fantasy X as a template and (correctly) deducing that Sin wasn't the real final boss but rather it was the time when you had to perfectly dodge lightning 200 times in a row.
I'm all for some studios using genAI. With tons of games coming out every year (not to mention the backlog) it'd make things so much easier to know which of them I can safely abandon because they're made from garbage-ass lake-guzzling beep-boop slop.
December 16, 2025 at 6:11 PM
I'm all for some studios using genAI. With tons of games coming out every year (not to mention the backlog) it'd make things so much easier to know which of them I can safely abandon because they're made from garbage-ass lake-guzzling beep-boop slop.
Just under the wire before the big site transition, I managed to publish the November edition of my usual round-up of game and anime talk. Stick around for thoughts on many potential 2025 GOTY candidates along with... ALF, for Master System. Truly, time well spent.
www.giantbomb.com/forums/gener...
www.giantbomb.com/forums/gener...
Mento's Month: November '25 - General Discussion - Giant Bomb
Game of the Month: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Sandfall Interactive, 2025)Even with strong competition coming from Obsidian that I'll get into in jus
www.giantbomb.com
December 1, 2025 at 11:34 PM
Just under the wire before the big site transition, I managed to publish the November edition of my usual round-up of game and anime talk. Stick around for thoughts on many potential 2025 GOTY candidates along with... ALF, for Master System. Truly, time well spent.
www.giantbomb.com/forums/gener...
www.giantbomb.com/forums/gener...
Man, I've been playing some Blue Prince but this is not doing anything for me at all. The run-based aspect is really putting me off. I've heard it said that it grows on you once you understand it more so I'll give it a few more runs, but... well, plenty of other games came out this year.
November 24, 2025 at 4:21 AM
Man, I've been playing some Blue Prince but this is not doing anything for me at all. The run-based aspect is really putting me off. I've heard it said that it grows on you once you understand it more so I'll give it a few more runs, but... well, plenty of other games came out this year.
Credits rolled on Clair Obscur. Damn. Lot I want to say but that'll wait for a review. Yet to play much from 2025 but I can't imagine anything will surpass it as my GOTY.
Last time a French RPG made me this sad and confused was when I got ate by that giant panther head signpost in Drakkhen.
Last time a French RPG made me this sad and confused was when I got ate by that giant panther head signpost in Drakkhen.
November 19, 2025 at 2:35 AM
Credits rolled on Clair Obscur. Damn. Lot I want to say but that'll wait for a review. Yet to play much from 2025 but I can't imagine anything will surpass it as my GOTY.
Last time a French RPG made me this sad and confused was when I got ate by that giant panther head signpost in Drakkhen.
Last time a French RPG made me this sad and confused was when I got ate by that giant panther head signpost in Drakkhen.
Of all the surreal and confusing things about Expedition 33, the one that keeps me awake at night is how no-one can do basic math about the Gommage (a.k.a. Compulsory Carousel Age) mechanic.
November 11, 2025 at 4:26 AM
Of all the surreal and confusing things about Expedition 33, the one that keeps me awake at night is how no-one can do basic math about the Gommage (a.k.a. Compulsory Carousel Age) mechanic.
Look, guys, the holiday Coca Cola commercial might be super rushed AI slop this year but it was vitally important they got it on screens before November 3rd, the first day of Christmas, so what other choice did they have? They're just a tiny company, after all.
November 9, 2025 at 1:51 AM
Look, guys, the holiday Coca Cola commercial might be super rushed AI slop this year but it was vitally important they got it on screens before November 3rd, the first day of Christmas, so what other choice did they have? They're just a tiny company, after all.
Liking Expedition 33 so far but the whole time I was thinking "old French RPGs used to be way weirder and more obtuse than this, it's not really honoring its antecedents". But then I got hit with whatever this is and all was forgiven:
November 6, 2025 at 1:00 AM
Liking Expedition 33 so far but the whole time I was thinking "old French RPGs used to be way weirder and more obtuse than this, it's not really honoring its antecedents". But then I got hit with whatever this is and all was forgiven: