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Derek Barona posted:Really, at what point is anyone not expecting the mysteriously sinister looking nobleman/woman to be the evil monster in question? It's basically a test of whether you're a protagonist to try and spot them. Really now, when have nobles ever been up to any good in anything ever? If they're not monsters in disguise, they're lazy and useless, plotting things, or getting kidnapped.
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Aug 13, 2014 07:15
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Ramos posted:Really now, when have nobles ever been up to any good in anything ever? If they're not monsters in disguise, they're lazy and useless, plotting things, or getting kidnapped. Yeah, but I'm talking samurai era in particular. The local ruling lord or lady will always either be a demon, possessed by a demon, secretly killed and replaced by a demon, targetted by demons and requires protecting, conspiring with demons to kill the heroes, or absolutely useless and will probably be forgotten within ten minutes if they aren't killed by a demon attack first.
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Aug 13, 2014 07:33
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Derek Barona posted:Yeah, but I'm talking samurai era in particular. The local ruling lord or lady will always either be a demon, possessed by a demon, secretly killed and replaced by a demon, targetted by demons and requires protecting, conspiring with demons to kill the heroes, or absolutely useless and will probably be forgotten within ten minutes if they aren't killed by a demon attack first. Much of the Sengoku Period (which is the Era people most commonly think of when they imagine Samurai) was marked by a hell of a lot of corruption amongst the upper classes along with the Emperor being a figurehead who delegated real power to the Shogun. So yeah if you're in a typical samurai story the noble is almost definitely going to be evil, you'll probably have one or two nobles who are explicitly good men\women and are notable as such but all the rest are going to be either corrupt or incompetent (or both).
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Aug 13, 2014 08:47
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So this LP inspired me to go read Dororo. I'm through the first two volumes, and I'm pretty interested how closely this game will follow the manga.
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Aug 13, 2014 12:12
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"So yeah, that Mokubei guy. His entire family was murdered by the demon" This game, this commentary. 
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Aug 13, 2014 14:37
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Hellcrusher makes me think of the Fear Factory song 'Edgecrusher', but that's just me.Veyrall posted:"So yeah, that Mokubei guy. His entire family was murdered by the demon" Like I said, the original manga was essentially a beta test for Berserk: if you're not a main character, your life expectancy can be measured in single figures. That's pages, btw, not days.
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Aug 13, 2014 15:26
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If you thought manga doctor was heartless for just tossing the kid out after the first set of demons show up, wait till you learn what he actually used to rebuild Hyakkimaru with. It's probably part of the real reason why he abandoned Dororo, MW is less bleak than this what if scenario where Yoshiyuki Tomino dreamed up a Sengoku era Berserk in his Kill em All days.
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Aug 14, 2014 00:36
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Crabtree posted:If you thought manga doctor was heartless for just tossing the kid out after the first set of demons show up, wait till you learn what he actually used to rebuild Hyakkimaru with. It's probably part of the real reason why he abandoned Dororo, MW is less bleak than this what if scenario where Yoshiyuki Tomino dreamed up a Sengoku era Berserk in his Kill em All days. Sengoku era Zeta/Victory Gundam, got it.
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Aug 14, 2014 14:48
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Derek Barona posted:Sengoku era Zeta/Victory Gundam, got it. Really more Sengoku-era Ideon.
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Aug 14, 2014 14:56
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 Chapter 1: Yudai (Part 3) Encyclopedia: Prologue & Chapter 1
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Aug 14, 2014 15:54
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Crabtree posted:If you thought manga doctor was heartless for just tossing the kid out after the first set of demons show up, wait till you learn what he actually used to rebuild Hyakkimaru with. It's probably part of the real reason why he abandoned Dororo, MW is less bleak than this what if scenario where Yoshiyuki Tomino dreamed up a Sengoku era Berserk in his Kill em All days. Hyakkimaru is cursed to have demons and spirits try and kill him for his entire life. Even though the good doctor loved his weird organless slug-baby who grew up into a fine, upstanding cyborg, he had to let him go. This game seems to have cut out Hyakkimaru's flashbacks to his childhood and his first days out on the road, where he meets an extremely inspirational blind monk.
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Aug 14, 2014 16:10
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Green Intern posted:This game seems to have cut out Hyakkimaru's flashbacks to his childhood and his first days out on the road, where he meets an extremely inspirational blind monk. Well, yes and no. This will be relevant in a chapter we'll be seeing soon, so no further discussion of it for now please.
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Aug 14, 2014 16:14
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Fiendly posted:Well, yes and no. This will be relevant in a chapter we'll be seeing soon, so no further discussion of it for now please. Sure. Didn't mean to approach spoilers. During the Ogress fight, I kept thinking that you could cut the ropes around the tower. They looked pretty conspicuous to me.
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Aug 14, 2014 16:31
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Incidentally I am pretty sure those masks are called Noh masks. I think they were used in Japanese theater before kabuki and/or other forms of theater became popular, I dunno.
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Aug 14, 2014 18:05
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I always wondered how peasants suddenly grew balls whenever the big monster oppressing them dies, when the person who killed it is explicitly more dangerous than the monster was. I kinda wonder why Hyakki didn't just order them to give him shelter, and slash anyone who dissented, but I guess I'm not an RPG hero for a reason.
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Aug 14, 2014 20:02
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Veyrall posted:I kinda wonder why Hyakki didn't just order them to give him shelter, and slash anyone who dissented, but I guess I'm not an RPG hero for a reason. Hyakki's constantly hounded by demons, odds are he would've refused if they offered him shelter anyway so he wouldn't put them in danger. Plus not murdering people for being dicks isn't a high moral bar, dude.
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Aug 14, 2014 20:48
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Yeah, seems like the only way to get these people to help you is to hand them money or to stab a few and threaten violence. Hyakkimaru can't do either and wouldn't want to anyway.
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Aug 14, 2014 21:25
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Yudai's faces remind me of Japanese Kabuki masks that the actors would wear when they were playing the role of a demon but that might just be the ps2's graphics making her face look more mask like.
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Aug 14, 2014 22:33
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It's definitely more like a Nou.
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Aug 15, 2014 05:18
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Are you guys talking about my favorite kind of theatre?
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Aug 15, 2014 05:28
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Fiendly posted:Are you guys talking about my favorite kind of theatre? The best kind. Kaboom Dragoon posted:Really more Sengoku-era Ideon. At least it's not one of the later Getter Robos. Then we'd have Dororo dying every episode just because the creator admits he really just likes killing him.
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Aug 15, 2014 05:50
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Real talk: when I saw one in Japan one of the performers fell asleep on stage. No lie.
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Aug 15, 2014 08:54
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It might be the Yokai, but I can't help but feel like I've seen this part play out before.
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Aug 15, 2014 13:21
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This has got me reading the manga. The dialogue is shamelessly anachronistic, saying things like "Well, if we were in a sci-fi story, you'd be a cyborg". It is marvelous.  The cute style and the horrific grimdark setting work together really well.
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Aug 15, 2014 20:12
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The masks you're mentioning are Hannya masks.
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Aug 15, 2014 20:29
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I played this game back when it came out and really enjoyed it. I didn't realize you could replay levels though, and I also think I got stuck on the next hub area at a boss. Like... tried to beat it a dozen times then returned it to the video store stuck. Also, I assume the Dororo manga predates Tezuka's Star System by a little bit. It saddens me that there is no Black Jack appearance. The crazy doctor got around.
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Aug 16, 2014 05:03
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I think Kurosawa sums up the peasants' heel-turn nicely:Kikuchiyo from The Seven Samurai posted:What do you think of farmers? You think they're saints? Hah! They're foxy beasts! They say, "We've got no rice, we've no wheat. We've got nothing!" But they have! They have everything! Dig under the floors! Or search the barns! You'll find plenty! Beans, salt, rice, sake! Look in the valleys, they've got hidden warehouses! They pose as saints but are full of lies! If they smell a battle, they hunt the defeated! They're nothing but stingy, greedy, blubbering, foxy, and mean! God drat it all! But then . . . who made them such beasts? You did! You samurai did it! You burn their villages! Destroy their farms! Steal their food! Force them to labour! Take their women! And kill them if they resist! So what should farmers do? tl;dr: A cruel and spiteful world begets cruel and spiteful people. O Buddha, have mercy. Tupperwarez fucked around with this message at 13:51 on Aug 16, 2014 |
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Aug 16, 2014 13:48
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This happens a few times in the manga-- Hyakkimaru beats the poo poo out of an oppressing demon or slays the monster eating people and then the people throw him out of town. Often Tezuka depicts them in the most sneering, cruel bastard approach that he can muster within his art style (as Fiendly said--they ignored a dying child to evict Hyakkimaru), though there are times when it could be argued that Dororo himself fucks up the situation by stealing people's wallets/food/etc. after everyone throws a victory dance on account of dead demon. The farmers in the manga didn't have this supposedly immortal charity donator hanging around, giving handouts to their dumb asses; it at least gave them some credit: They made some bamboo ballistas and shot the Yudai-demon with bamboo skewers while helping Hyakkimaru and even crushed the demon's body with a battering ram. It was also, importantly, implied that Yudai herself (not the demon) was a recent addition to their town. The demon had for centuries destroyed any chance of prosperity in this area possessed a traveling woman just as the villagers started to make the land tillable. She helped them out three times after three attacks, so it was slightly less of a stretch anyone could not make the connection... or that they would. While I don't want to point at another particular instance of this, since I'm willing to bet money that the game will adapt that storyline... the way the peasants and farmers were blithely ignorant of Lady Yudai being up to no good is..kind of a theme in the manga? It's not an unwillingness to save themselves-- since they took up arms against Yudai and did alot of work alongside Hyakkimaru-- but that the peasants/commoners willfully ignore any implications that their superiors in societal rank could be less than legit unless it's thrown in their face. It's all part of Tezuka's social comments, obviously, and one of the most accusatory as well. Also, true story, Lady Yudai's name in the manga was "Bandai." All those salamander sigils in Yudai's mansion? They're referencing Yudai's Scourge form, which is very salamanderish.
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Aug 17, 2014 17:47
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Seems like you're getting pretty decent buffs from these body parts. Like, more to a stat (like speed or regeneration) than you even had there.
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Aug 18, 2014 01:33
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I saw the live action movie of this series many years ago. I didn't know there was game of it. Let alone that it was translated. So far it seems pretty cool.
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Aug 18, 2014 07:51
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Oh my god, the villagers voice acting in that last video "CAN SOMEONE HELP HIM?" "i don't think so" "no" "demon" "demon" "come to my house? no way" "IF IT WEREN'T FOR HIM, YOU'D ALL STILL BE SLAVES!" "so" "i don't remember any of that" "it doesn't matter now" "what does it matter" "i can't help you now, i didn't know you were a demon"
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Aug 20, 2014 00:00
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 Chapter 2: Dragon Brood (Part 1) In the Encyclopedia, I've started adding reference links to the monsters that the in-game demons are based on, so definitely keep pointing those out if you catch them. There's a lot of Demons that are agonizingly familiar but I just can't place the name of.
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Aug 21, 2014 18:26
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Flaming wheels are a surprisingly common theme in mythology. The Greeks have Ixion, the first kinslayer who abused Zeus's hospitality and hit on Hera, and was then bound to an eternally-spinning flaming wheel in Hades. In the broader Judeo-Christian canon, there are the Ophanim or 'Thrones', an order of angels who take the form of flaming many-eyed wheels. But this is probably a reference to Wanyuudo, given that they look almost exactly like the picture on Wikipedia.
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Aug 21, 2014 18:46
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Ah, the old bloodthirsty cursed sword angle. This one's a pretty common tale in Japanese media, since samurai in general are considered really good at killing to begin with, so of course one who exists for nothing but killing would have to be either awesome or crazy or possessed by demons. IIRC, it's the standard equivalent of a Berserker in their lore, a warrior who has sacrificed his humanity and sanity for raw strength and killing power. Good times.
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Aug 22, 2014 00:06
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Sure, Night Terror's got a head like a lumpy nutsack, but have you ever seen a demon with lips that kissable? I doubt it.
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Aug 22, 2014 00:08
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I don't know why all of those zombie dogs were so eager to try and eat Hyakkimaru. The guy's practically got no meat on him whatsoever. Oh sure he has a little more than he used to, like an eye and a leg, but still I'd think Dororo would make for a much more satisfying meal. Not nearly as many sharp pointy bits in the boy's body either.
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Aug 22, 2014 03:30
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Because they were demons possessing corpses, like the Deadites of Evil Dead and Army of Darkness, not zombies. :mythology101:
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Aug 22, 2014 04:17
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I love how Dororo's first reaction to coming across a demonic possessed sword is "Me wants it!"
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Aug 22, 2014 11:39
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Neruz posted:I love how Dororo's first reaction to coming across a demonic possessed sword is "Me wants it!" Dororo himself is actually a statement on how natural selection doesn't work in the realm of sengoku manga. His survival despite such bouts of gross stupidity is proof.
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Aug 22, 2014 14:11
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Honestly, for as much as I've been saying "The manga does this, the video game lacks that," this segment is really interestingly adapted from the source material. EXCEPT for the whole "Hyakkimaru must never harm another human being" bullshit, but why waste a post ranting about that? Fiendly called the game on it, and I'm sure this will come up later... The Masterless Samurai Tanosuke (as he's called in the manga in case this is later revealed) is *very* tellingly designed as one creepy motherfucker and I love it. His sword design looks vaguely like one of those dragon hilt katanas the Highlanders carried around but the first close up makes the grip look more like a screaming face. But more importantly, those scars, those eyes, those creepy flashing eyes. Good Job, game. Although... does Japan actually *have* arid deserts hanging around? I imagine there are *some* desolate places here and there and the Sengoku era probably left some barren patches, but honest to God deserts?
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Aug 22, 2014 16:10
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