|
I actually think the deepest storyline was Riku's in Chain of Memories. It was an interesting journey for the character and fleshed out Mickey a bit (from what I remember).
|
#
?
May 1, 2016 15:02
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 28, 2024 03:13 |
|
|
JazzFlight posted:It's not even just an article, it's a whole drat book! EDIT: Ugh maybe I won't do this after all. Looking at reviews online, so many of the other books from this company are more about people's personal relationships with games when they were children than anything actually interesting. I somehow forgot for a moment what a joke gaming criticism really is. Raxivace fucked around with this message at 16:07 on May 1, 2016 |
|
#
?
May 1, 2016 15:34
|
|
|
Calling them "better than you'd expect" was a bit too generous when what I usually expect is massive poo poo really.
|
|
#
?
May 1, 2016 16:32
|
|
|
HGH posted:Calling them "better than you'd expect" was a bit too generous when what I usually expect is massive poo poo really. These books probably won't live up to your lofty expectations. I remember seeing an article on some gaming site or another when they went up on kickstarter. The article said the books would discuss the development of a game and provide analysis of the stories and poo poo. The article put a full chapter from the Earthbound book, and the entire chapter essentially boiled down to "me and my brother played earthbound together after school". And that was it. Didn't even talk about the game itself, just talked about the author and his brother. It was really bad, I have no idea how they decided that was the best chapter to convince people to fund it, let alone why people donated any money based on that chapter.
|
|
#
?
May 1, 2016 17:53
|
|
|
Goddamn, I'm glad I didn't get too suckered in by the premise. When I saw some of the topics I got my hopes up. And here I thought there was some semblance of game design talk 
|
|
#
?
May 1, 2016 17:55
|
|
|
Honestly I'm a little baffled at how they wrote nearly 200 pages about Shadow of the Colossus, since it's not exactly a substantive game. EDIT: I will give them credit on the covers of their books though. Some of those are legitimately clever. Raxivace fucked around with this message at 18:27 on May 1, 2016 |
|
#
?
May 1, 2016 18:02
|
|
|
Raxivace posted:Huh, well I'll still check it out and report on it for this thread. The clash between light and darkness was like my own personal Vietnam
|
|
#
?
May 1, 2016 18:22
|
|
|
JazzFlight posted:I actually think the deepest storyline was Riku's in Chain of Memories. It was an interesting journey for the character and fleshed out Mickey a bit (from what I remember). That's kind of true, but one thing that always bugged me was that it felt like it concluded a nice ark for Riku in him dealing with his own darkness, only for him vs the darkness to continue being a thing in later games. It was most sad I think in DDD, when it seemed like they really wanted to push Riku forward to learn something and then become the keyblade master, but basically had to retread a little of the same points as what he did in CoM in fighting off his inner Ansem.
|
|
#
?
May 1, 2016 21:00
|
|
|
Ventana posted:That's kind of true, but one thing that always bugged me was that it felt like it concluded a nice ark for Riku in him dealing with his own darkness, only for him vs the darkness to continue being a thing in later games. It was most sad I think in DDD, when it seemed like they really wanted to push Riku forward to learn something and then become the keyblade master, but basically had to retread a little of the same points as what he did in CoM in fighting off his inner Ansem. Did he though? He started from "I'm not scared of you anymore" to which Ansem responded "we can't use you anymore, you've overcome the darkness." That's the exact end of his CoM->KH2 arc. Felt like a continuation to me but I am more fond of DDD than most in this thread it seems.
|
|
#
?
May 1, 2016 21:17
|
|
|
Yeah, Riku just had some niggling doubts in DDD, but he was basically over it once he realized he had to save Sora.
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2016 01:13
|
|
|
Terper posted:Xehanort resurrecting as old Xehanort instead of Terranort is my biggest gripe with the plot of Kingdom Hearts and I am completely sincere when I say this. This is fine because Old Man Xehanort is the best Xehanort although I don't know what they will do without Nimoy Raxivace posted:VEN DROWNED Holy poo poo
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2016 01:46
|
|
|
Fojar38 posted:This is fine because Old Man Xehanort is the best Xehanort although I don't know what they will do without Nimoy Disney has access to pretty much all English VA talent, so hopefully they can find a good soundalike. But it would be hilarious if they just used Cummings.
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2016 02:03
|
|
|
DrakePegasus posted:Disney has access to pretty much all English VA talent, so hopefully they can find a good soundalike. But it would be hilarious if they just used Cummings. They're going to use KH2 Aerith's VA.
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2016 02:24
|
|
|
Jsor posted:They're going to use KH2 Aerith's VA. Well, a lady Xehanort was probably inevitable
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2016 02:27
|
|
|
hopeandjoy posted:Did he though? He started from "I'm not scared of you anymore" to which Ansem responded "we can't use you anymore, you've overcome the darkness." That's the exact end of his CoM->KH2 arc. Allarion posted:Yeah, Riku just had some niggling doubts in DDD, but he was basically over it once he realized he had to save Sora. Well, I only said a little. By the end of DDD he was more like, "Oh okay you're back again Ansem? Let me just take care of you real quick". You can tell he grew but it was still the same concept of a nagging darkness trying to pull him in again that they resolve with beating his inner Ansem again. And I like DDD a lot. Though the commands aren't super well balanced when you look at how strong the Ballon spells were, and the story got nonsensical with the true ending.
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2016 05:10
|
|
|
Nonsensical story is a feature, not a bug at this point
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2016 06:21
|
|
|
Here's an example of something I wish more narrative analysis in gaming criticism was in the vein of. This article was written after Days came out but before BBS, so it's a bit outdated in some aspects, and while it's not the best bit of academic writing I've ever seen or anything it's still interesting IMO. Just compare it to the paragraph that's meant to preview that book-length analysis of friendship in KH2. Raxivace fucked around with this message at 14:10 on May 2, 2016 |
|
#
?
May 2, 2016 14:05
|
|
|
It had me at the abstract. This is the kind of thing I like to read, stuff that goes beyond the work itself and tries to talk about its representation of real-world problems just like a piece of literary criticism should. I'm not gonna completely rag on the kickstarter piece but it definitely sounded nothing like peer-reviewed academia and more like upper-level high school.
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2016 17:50
|
|
|
I know this probably isn't the place for it, but Scrooge McDuck's VA passed away  RIP Alan Young.
|
|
#
?
May 21, 2016 10:44
|
|
|
HGH posted:I know this probably isn't the place for it, but Scrooge McDuck's VA passed away
|
|
#
?
May 21, 2016 14:23
|
|
|
J-Spot posted:That's too bad. I wonder if he was involved in the Duck Tales reboot Disney is working on. Not at all, it was announced early on that they planned on recasting everyone for the reboot. Still though, he's gonna be a tough act to follow (kind of like with Wayne Allwine as Mickey). Larryb fucked around with this message at 17:03 on May 21, 2016 |
|
#
?
May 21, 2016 17:00
|
|
|
Raxivace posted:Man BBS is a bit bleaker than I remember it being. In the Final Episode's ending Aqua straight up considers suicide. As someone who really likes the plot of the series I remember thinking BBS was really drat depressing. The game hinges completely on the complete failure of all 3 characters. The series doesn't happen unless all of them gently caress up catastrophically. In a possibly universe-ending way and the worst part is it's a "Road to Hell is paved with good intentions" storyline. Terra, Aqua, and Ven are just trying to do good and look out for each other.
|
|
#
?
May 23, 2016 00:04
|
|
|
Yeah it's a bit of a downer, though not without hope.Gologle posted:Life is worth it because flying keys will kill your enemies.
|
|
#
?
May 23, 2016 00:36
|
|
|
Raxivace posted:Yeah it's a bit of a downer, though not without hope. Like I said before, that scene is about how the ~~*Power of Friendship*~~ will keep you going even in the deepest darkness.
|
|
#
?
May 23, 2016 00:40
|
|
|
Blackbelt Bobman posted:Like I said before, that scene is about how the ~~*Power of Friendship*~~ will keep you going even in the deepest darkness.
|
|
#
?
May 23, 2016 00:47
|
|
|
Raxivace posted:Yeah it's a bit of a downer, though not without hope. Even the hope was sad to me. It's been 10 years (literally) and they're all still screwed.
|
|
#
?
May 23, 2016 01:01
|
|
|
Raxivace posted:Thematically that's obviously what it's going for, but for the longest time I thought we were supposed to think the flying Keyblades actually, diegetically appeared there and killed some Heartless, and weren't just meant to visualize what Aqua was thinking about. I saw it as the keyblades saving Aqua by literally flying in and killing a bunch of heartless because no matter the distance the bond of friendship shared by Aqua, Terra, and Ventus will never diminish.
|
|
#
?
May 23, 2016 03:02
|
|
|
Started Birth By Sleep recently (the original version) and was kind of intimidated and turned off by the skill fusion system. Now it's two days later and my Terra is 20 levels ahead of the recommended requirement for the next stage and I'm cackling like a mad king atop my hoard of endgame skills.
|
|
#
?
May 23, 2016 04:26
|
|
|
I love skill fusion so much No idea why, it just hits a certain part of my brain and I'm way into it
|
|
#
?
May 23, 2016 05:07
|
|
|
If you're looking to waste an afternoon, here's a recent KH2 FM speedrun. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtP4vdmIomY It's got a lot of technical commentary (the Demyx and Stormrider fights in particular get pretty intricate) and doesn't seem to be awkward. Also Stitch is a total troll. It should have been a world record, but the game crashed once which invalidated it. HGH fucked around with this message at 13:13 on May 23, 2016 |
|
#
?
May 23, 2016 11:14
|
|
|
Oxxidation posted:Started Birth By Sleep recently (the original version) and was kind of intimidated and turned off by the skill fusion system. There's just something ridiculously satisfying about synthesizing Mega Flare way before the game ever intended for you to have it.
|
|
#
?
May 24, 2016 00:53
|
|
|
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhcqCIWc2wY Here's a 50-minute video in which a man articulates, very clearly and specifically, why he hates BBS a whole lot. You might enjoy it?
|
|
#
?
May 29, 2016 11:43
|
|
|
Amppelix posted:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhcqCIWc2wY It's a funny, well-made video with thought-out points that I actually totally agree with despite the fact I really like BBS a whole lot anyway. but my prevailing thought is still just "goddamn BB can be such a loving dork sometimes", possibly due to it being so much lore poo poo. I agree with basically everything he says about BBS's plot I just find the concept of caring that strongly about it foreign. The gameplay stuff is a far more interesting point and I also agree for the most part, commands are the only really effective option, the boss design is poo poo and it's mainly appealing because it's flashy and simple and pleases the part of my brain that likes new commands and grinding. He's not wrong! I'm still kinda just gonna roll on liking it anyway, but he's not wrong. Good video, thanks for sharing.
|
|
#
?
May 29, 2016 12:50
|
|
|
Actually, if you think about BBS as a positive feedback loop of neverending powerups, that explains why I dislike 3D so much. It breaks the goddamn loop aka the only good part of BBS! Instead of a steady feed of meaningful-seeming upgrades, you gotta put a completely unnecessary amount of effort into micromanaging your spirits to get anything at all going.
|
|
#
?
May 29, 2016 13:23
|
|
|
Amppelix posted:Actually, if you think about BBS as a positive feedback loop of neverending powerups, that explains why I dislike 3D so much. It breaks the goddamn loop aka the only good part of BBS! Instead of a steady feed of meaningful-seeming upgrades, you gotta put a completely unnecessary amount of effort into micromanaging your spirits to get anything at all going. I dunno, I felt like I had to grind a fair bit and do that board game mini game in BBS to get ridiculous skills.
|
|
#
?
May 29, 2016 20:29
|
|
|
I never felt like I had to do that Board Game much to get dumb skills, you get so many amazing ones just from playing the game
|
|
#
?
May 30, 2016 06:51
|
|
|
Baal posted:I never felt like I had to do that Board Game much to get dumb skills, you get so many amazing ones just from playing the game Yeah, the board game isn't really necessary at all.
|
|
#
?
May 30, 2016 07:00
|
|
|
Maybe not but if you play, I think it was the Cinderella one, you can get Magnet from the start of any character's story, and with some patience, you can get it up to Magnega. Even just magnera should make most of the game a joke, if only because you can clear rooms and level up real fast. Also the board game is fun
|
|
#
?
May 30, 2016 07:05
|
|
|
Amppelix posted:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhcqCIWc2wY I don't know how I feel about this since every single complaint he has about BBS is true about KH 1 and 2 as well, which he champions as Good Games (tm). Bosses are kind of brain dead? You can just spam poo poo to win? It's really easy to become actually unkillable? Sounds like KH to me.
|
|
#
?
May 30, 2016 07:52
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 28, 2024 03:13 |
|
|
It wasn't so much spamming poo poo to win was a problem, just that your other options (shotlocks, D-link) were clearly worse, which is unlike KH2, and it means you probably won't use them very much. I refuse to believe anyone used the summons in KH2 though.
|
|
#
?
May 30, 2016 08:02
|
|
