"And he spoke out and killed the game dead"

Recently I've gotten a bit of an TBS bug. Not the Conan variety (though thats around) but the turn based strategy game. Specifically after a hankering for old Heroes of Might and Magic I reloaded my copy of Disciples III: Renaissance.

Now Disciples III certainly took the might and magic route of battle which was a disappointment as i liked the sort of old school FF style combat of Disciples II. Also much less black and more 3D has left the series brighter and less Gothic in the ravens and makeup way and more in the "this cathedral is rather ornate" variety of Gothic. This initial change past the quite frankly beautiful drawing of Disciples II left me initially rather annoyed. But after getting more into I began to re-appreciate the design aesthetics as not being Disciples II: 3D but a sort of reinterpretation of the game.

Now while Disciples III is considerably more forgiving on its its gameplay modes, disciples' II easy mode was still particularly unforgiving, the gameplay has more or less transitioned well. Old abilities of units have different uses in new combat settings while giving many call backs to II's style of play. The music in both games has been quite nice as well heres some samples.

But.

This game has THE WORST NARRATION I HAVE EVER HEARD ANYWHERE EVER. It randomly fluctuates tone, inflects randomly, its like they has some guy do the major setups for every campaign got him to read it 3 different ways and cut it together randomly. It is i take my headset off just to not hear it.

Lets compare real quick. Heres the narrator for II- a bellowing storyteller for a dark age- it fits the game pretty well:



and disciples III:



FUCKING JEEZ. Its so bad. The unit voice acting seems random sometime and fluctuates all over from lulzy to imposing. Thats kinda expected but GOOD GOD that narration is like pooping on the craft on acting. Its also bad because the world and story are actually pretty damn well done. Also that sort of impressionistic art during those scenes is rather well done.

and guess what. Anytime you load, which in this sorta game can happen often. GUESS WHO READS SOMETHING AGAIN!

I'll add another terrible example here soon of another game ruined unless its on mute heres a hint:
it made me cry tears of blood. 

XIII-2 close to call

Now I just addressed the original XIII, it was pretty okay.

SOTC in my FF- YES MORE PLEASE

Now XIII-2 as a game is pretty rad. The combat is fun and the boss fights are impressive. There is things to do that are challenging but you can just plow through if you wish. From a game design standpoint I really have very little ill things to say for this. It feels FF. It plays like a good FF. (Though the difficulty is sorta u shaped- hard on both ends easy in the middle). And its pretty generally good. It ignores plot points for game mechanics in right amounts (alt realities fade once you choose a different one- still can be accessed because thats fun though) and the save system and gate system allow some fun things and replay. Its Technically a very solid game.

also fetishes are aptly covered

If I look for some thing ill on the story the only thing I would say is Noel and Serah don't have terribly long arcs. They have enough though and a section with noel later on was a good mix of game/story/presentation that really blew me away and energized me for the last push.


BUT

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS BELOW.





You can do a couple things for an an annoying but satisfying end. World Saved- Hero dead(FFX) its sad but we accept it. The hero is alive- Villain dead- problems left (something like AC1).
BUT- You cant freaking leave the villain alive, kill the main character, destroy the world and then have a secret ending for completion which... changes none of that.

or ever. without paying 8.99

Now the thing that was okay with X2 was that a perfect got you the super happy ending. YAY super ending YAY! This one for EVERYTHING IN THE GAME COMPLETE. Nadda.

Now two DLC gripes related to the above. first off- good end not for awhile. Secondly- PAY FOR THE ENDING!>>!>! Now if it was free DLC- honestly all is forgiven. It sorta draws out side stories etc. And side stories for pay is fine. Yah ill drop 5 bucks to see what Sazh did outside the plot during that time. Its fun. But extra money on a 60 buck game for the ending- which im gonna have to get because I sunk 60 hours into the good part of the game. Thats fucking not cool- its extortion. Its enough that a game I was like WOO YAY about is now on my THE FUCK SQUARE list. Way to ruin an incredibly enjoyable experience.

Back From Cocoon

Well i found this damn password- imagine that. And what was enough to get this going again? Why yes- its final fantasy again!


I really have some beef with XIII-2 right now. But before I get to that i figure I might as well get on about XIII first. What cell shaded fps not your thing? Wait no I'm talking about FFXIII which usually incurs spits of disgust in many gamer crowds soon as I mention it. While i do enjoy the ease i have shining my shoes because of this, I don't really agree. I actually like that game a good deal. But I understand why people feel like that. And that's what this little expo will cover.

Hey your locked up and unhappy- this is analogous

Now the biggest issue XIII has is pacing. Holy hell the first quarter of this game. Now all of this would be okay as a long intro- I can deal with the long opening (I'm looking at you KH2, yes you were bad- even if I liked Roxas), but XIII is really the worst offender I have ever seen. The reason is the lack of variety of combat early on- not the jumping between characters or setting. From a plot perspective no leveling etc should really be going on- i get that- but it took me 4 seconds to think around that. Want to introduce some battle mechanics? Give snow a riot shield- hes a sentinel now- hopes boomerang is some kind of ruin based military billy club thing. Good job we just went over two things, magic damage/sentinel style. This would have made the first section much more bearable. Instead you spam standard attack for like hours... THE HELL.

Oh look things I care about more than the death star in the sky!

Now the biggest thing you hear is the linearity of XIII. And this is a double edged sword. The controlled narrative allowed them some good character development. Regardless of what people say XIII is really good at this. I really liked and felt close to all the characters more so than a lot of other FF. Not by much mind you. But I got a good sense of them yet could still be pleasantly surprised from time to time (Sazh at nautilus for example). The problem isn't even the lack of freedom for me. Its the lack of world building. Cocoon is beautiful but all I can see is a string of set pieces because character jumps and linearity don't really give me a sense of how they connect. The lack of real shops and people causes the same thing. Well who cares maybe i like character driven stories mr world lover why don't you join green peace. Well Ill tell you why jerk. The major dilemma is what the l'cie should do. This whole time the connection cocoon is in distant flashbacks and meeting hopes dad. That's it. I was pretty ready to drop the place myself. Recall your only major interactions are getting shot at. Meeting a few kind, if ill informed people, along the way would make this a much bigger dilemma. The player would ask themselves should i really endanger this place- everyone seems happy.



These problems mostly subside by later in the game, but then its you and monsters strolling around grand pulse. Yay empty. That said feels all kinds of FF by this point. And it feels good. So yah the prettiness you encounter on the way belays these and like I said the character part of the narrative is pretty solid.

Also Sazh is fucking awesome.

So I'd recommend it (assuming you beat Lost Odyssey already.)

Final Character

There was a big discussion of the beat to death topic of which tetsuya nomura character was the best the other night online and I began to think about why one person says clouds the best while another swears for squall, terra, etc.

I think Cloud's popularity is sort of based not only on the giant sword but on his personality. Yes he is brooding and determined but what becomes Cloud's biggest trait is wrestling with who he really is. For those who dont know (ie dont read this next sentence if you dont) Clouds recollection of himself for most of the game is a created/altered memory. Cloud then has to decide if he really can finish the quest he started on. This isn't unlike many of us who play games. We often pretend to be this super determined and noble characters but then don't have the courage to follow our dreams and our ambitions. Yes getting more fit or going back to school might not seem as urgent as stopping a crazy clone but why does it seem harder often even in a hypothetical. Maybe thats why when the allure of "holy shit that sword is huge and awesome" wears off so many still like cloud. I could of course now go into way to far interpretation of Aeris as aspirations for high morality and perfection and our eventual failing (her dieing) as a depection making Tifa our mixture of earthly ideals (sexuality~) and noble but less high goals (family, friends etc). But I wont (see what I did).

This brings us to my favorite Squall. I just played back through FF8 and realized how much I had forgotten of the characters. I actually like them even better than before. 8 is above all a romance and theres one thing that makes this narrative work (forget the disc 3 bullshit)- showing squalls inner thoughts. Squall when I first played through was relate-able. Ive always been a hopeless romantic and like him I also had a really hard time letting anyone in. Even now I worry about opening up to people because of the pain of losing friends etc. A scene I had forgotten was Squall on the bridge. I don't know how I forgot because its pretty much where he lays out all his thoughts finally. Squall explains his harsh exterior is entirely out of fear and that his whole motivation is this fear of losing people he loves. It explains why he steps up when he is thrust into a position of leadership, why he tries hard at everything, and why all his text options are either begrudgingly kind or abrasive. He wants to have friends, to smile, to joke around, but he won't allow himself to get hurt. His storming out after the timber incident (I WONT BE REFERRED TO IN THE PAST TENSE) while the inverse points to how afraid he really is. Even griever is an attempt at a friend because its an idea and a thing which cant leave or get hurt.
I think I like Squall because even now after I think I really grew out of this I still worry about this and think really hard before forming real bonds with friends (can i put in the time for friendship? what if they end up hating me by really knowing me? maybe we should just be acquaintences.)

Ill go over some other ones, ff6 and neku later.

We are human, after all.

[link]
Pretty cool remix release here from blogsites of the Human After All album. Very solid electro style showing with some clubstyle hip-hop and break beats thrown in for good measure. Bootlegs have the best stuff.

In other music stuff, I really am enjoying [link] its sorta like ska+huey lewis and the news... think thats an accurate description. Also voice envy of the main singer /shakefist


I just did 20 sit ups and feel like I got kicked in the gut. Gotta get back my physique that can actually pull off Thf AFv2. Though I wonder if that thing will still fit as well its been like 3 years...

I want to do some modding to XI lately but haven't been able to. Think I am gonna try to put back in my signature deep red hair back in but who knows. Still need to make a fat carby. I was really hoping to switch this [link] for the halvung/mount zhayloam wind nosie but that SFX is shared for all zones D: also it doesn't turn off during battle D:

Finally getting some things settled for me and artico's wedding is fun. Gotta get a few life things sorted out, I haven't got a drivers license yet for example HNGGG, and a love shack/place to live for us. Other than that im counting the weeks with anticipation!

P.S. Fafnir is a jerk- I'm up for Ridill and he won't drop it. Douche Mc Dragon Pants.

DAMN THEE RENDER BAR

So im sitting at work, which I came in on Sunday afternoon @ 7pm and left at 6am the next day. Im still working on this project I singed onto for a nearby film university. For those who don't know im a video editor by trade. We are working with RED footage which is kinda cool if you haven't heard about: www.red.com

Its totally the hip indy thing to know about these days. However due to its awesomeness im sitting here waiting for the last b-roll i need to finish this quick cut (had 24hour turn around on it D:) to compile into something usable. My best friend, who some of you may know as Jaze from arts comic landed the lead so thats cool. Think this may be Pro-bono though, poor film students have to get the grants themselves and over budget means sleeping in your car. Still a Editor credit on this will be good in the long run I think.

Also I think im going to embark on an endeavor to make fat carby for artico. "Make that character exists you dummy D:<" no no an actual modded will follow her around one.

Jaze stopped by and showed me this guy, who is pretty awesome:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoFurLevE28

Its cool to see someone so into what they love too. (97% on the render AWESOME its only taken an hour and half :D)

ps- hyperlinks later when im not so burntout- work out your copypasta skills)

A disturbing Truth

Eureka Seven is an anagram of Keanu Reeves.