A different kind of emo

God of War 3 came out so I've been playing that instead of FF13. So I've been experiencing a different sort of emo; a testosterone, anger and rage induced kind of emo, rather than an emo which is weepy, whiny, and a fly could crush it by landing on it.

I'll continue with 13 after I complete God of War 3.

Spinning Top Cid Rain!

Yes. Because Tetsuya Nomura is C R A Z Y.

(No, actually, he doesn't have a spinning top as some sort of head ornament as according to a friend that's already finished the game.)

Emo Feelings Galore

Spoilers ahead. You should already know there'll be spoilers the more and more I progress through the game. Regardless...ONWARDS.

So, there's an emo kid named Hope whose mother was consequently killed in a beginning part of the game. He (she) blames it on Snow (the male lead) that he didn't protect her and "forced" her to fight in the war, and inevitably get herself killed which lead to her--I mean HIS sorrow. Now I understand that young teenagers don't deal with emotional situations very well. God knows that I never dealt with my emotions very well, and made pretty stupid mistakes in how I went about managing those emotions. So I guess the game is being true and realistic in portraying that Hope is a terribly meek, weak, and emotionally distraught character. He's a kid who has a father that "ran away" for whatever reason, and a mother that has double DD boobs fit in an old lady sweater that died trying to fight in a war to protect her child. I don't know about you, but if I was a kid who was so emotionally messed in the head, I wouldn't be able to combat soldiers that were trained in probably what was at least a 4 year military training program designed to educate people on how to fight in a war. Who cares about the emotionally distraught part, I probably wouldn't be able to fight them PERIOD. And certainly NOT with a boomerang. I wouldn't be able to have the WILL to fight or perserve my survival.

Ironically, there is a scene where he speaks about how much pain he's in that there's an implication of suicide. So, wait. He fights to preserve his life, but then turns around and then implies he wants to kill himself because the pain of being alone is so great? Awesome.

I'll get to the other characters soon enough just you wait.

Don't worry.

I haven't played the game tonight and yesterday night because I had to prepare for something big. Can't say what! Anna already knows what it is, and we're excited about it.

Regardless, I WILL play the game tomorrow night because Anna's out and I'll be able to play the game, get frustrated or like it in some what, and then make a (hopefully) entertaining post for you guys to read.

So don't worry, 13 hasn't escaped my wrath.

First play.

So I played the first bit of 13. I already listened and watched to the GT.com review, and as well, got a gist of how the game looked and felt from the spoof IGN.com (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MmG41Tllxo) did. Not surprisingly, the spoof that IGN.com did isn't too far from how ridiculous the game is so far. I'll leave any real final judgements till I play more of the game, however, I'm going to have to rant a bit here. Spoilers may ensue.

So I'm glad they explained how the main female lead; Lightning, actually does all her crazy acrobatics. I'm also somewhat glad the black character in the game isn't entirely Japanese and does have some sense of being actually North American. There are some shots where you swear he's really just a Japanese person trying to act black. Unfortunately, some of the things he has to say are unconvincing, as with most of the dialogue so far. It's Final Fantasy so yes, it's mellow dramatic, but does everything everybody has to say, have to be so predictable and staged? At times, there's a lull in the script where you are expecting someone to say something, but because it's rude to make sound or say something in spontaneous reaction, the characters just don't end up saying anything. It's awkward. I'm guessing perhaps the voice recording director just told them to read a bunch of lines from the script, and didn't allow any improvisation lines. Or perhaps the script didn't have a matrix of lines which the voice actors and studio could record so they could fill in the blanks when the pacing was off.

And that's another thing. The pacing is off in terms of narration. The game seems to be overly concerned with telling the viewer what's happening and being extremely literal about it. The scenes don't flow well together such as, they don't rise and fall like you think they could, but instead just play out from scene to scene. It's as if the scenes were done independently from each other, or by different people, and they stitched it together. Granted, this IS a video game, but I just played the first hour or two, and I probably watched more cinematics than gameplay. Granted, it IS Final Fantasy of a next gen nature, but I just sat through most of the combat spamming a single attack (grenades) or pressing X to input my command.

The combat I would say I'm okay with for now. I imagine it'll open up when characters get more abilities. I do like the auto battle feature which removes much of the tedium of pressing X for standard attacks, and resources for executing special attacks seem to be centred around time. So essentially, time vs attack, which I would imagine to have pros and cons. It's funny though, since enemies are seen wandering the field/world/whatever, and how you begin combat is by being within a certain distance of them, the only way I so far found to engage in combat is to touch them. I have to TOUCH them in order to fight. Other times, a boss would leap towards me, the screen would fade and switch to the combat area, and the boss would be simply standing there getting READY to attack. I know, again, it's Final Fantasy, but for such a cinematic game, you would think they would consider continuity? Perhaps they did, but felt the dramatic effect was more beneficial.

As well, what is with the character designs? Character design or actually, any sort of design is supposed to tell a story. I know, again, it's Final Fantasy and they're supposed to have outlandish designs, and it's what defines these recent generations of FF, but what happened to the foundations of design? Suppose they're trying to go for personality and emotion with each of the characters designs, but looking at them, I gather almost nothing of who they are, what their motives are, their occupation, state and condition; nothing. There's a resistance fighting against an authority in the game, and the lot of them are comprised of kids and adults that are wearing clothes are untarnished, spick and span styled hair from various Jrock inspirations, and have super model faces. Also, of those who actually volunteer to fight the authorities and carry guns, can't shoot guns too. They all seem to shoot like Rambo, but at least Rambo can hit their mark. Nobody can seem to hit anybody even though it's an advanced and seemingly "rough" world, and all the guns have laser sights on them. As well, I felt it really awkward that there still needs to be a character in the game which acts like a Jpop idol or Japanese Gravure model. And even more awkward that one of the main characters; Snow, offered a gun to a kid. All the kid did was be emo about his mother. He didn't even--let's not get into that. It'd be too much detail and too much rant. There just are so many things which aren't explained or how characters act don't seem to reflect something that's natural.

Oh yeah, the game looks really nice.

Got it.

I picked up my copy of Final Fantasy 13 from EB Games at Pacific Centre. It came with a mini guide and a poster, but I gave back the poster to the store cause I didn't feel like carrying it home and have it hanging around the apartment only to be recycled. I only have so much wall space, and space in general, and I already have more than enough stuff. Besides, if I'm going to dedicate space to anything FF13, I'd get some figures of Lightning, Odin and/or Shiva.

The purpose of this blog is really to entertain myself and see what comes out of it. I've been studying Japanese game development practices and ideologies, as well as drawing comparisons between Western game development and Japanese game development. Final Fantasy 13 is this generation's epitome of Japanese game industry. It combines the latest Japanese pop culture, Anime cliches, streamlined Japanese game mechanics, and of the similar sort. The question on a lot of people's minds is whether or not "the Japanese game developer" still has it in them. A lot of Japanese game developers have been throwing in the towel, in despair, or have opted to reach out globally for processes and ideologies. I applaud the latter. Games have been strictly regional, but with the new standards set this generation, games have a whole new meaning in the media and entertainment industry.

This blog is to explore what Final Fantasy has become, where it's going, as well as where the Japanese game industry is going in it's native area and globally.

FYI, I've played Final Fantasy 1, most of 3, 6, 7, some of 8, some of 9, 10, 12, Crystal Chronicles and most of the Ring of Fates. So yeah, I've played enough of them. 6 is my favorite.