#time kompression

[ethernalium]

FINAL FANTASY VIII - Compression of Time (Ultra slowed)

Requested by @doortotomorrow ;^)

[finitevoid]

Xehanort’s interesting because he just doesn’t have the capacity to view the world in a grounded way. Nothing just “is”, rather everything is viewed through this warped perception of light and dark. He can’t grasp that the flawed world they live in is one with meaning because he’s too caught up in the fact that it’s broken and shouldn’t exist to see that people, individual people, are making it meaningful and living their lives in it. To him, that doesn’t matter, because on a macro scale something needs to be Fixed.

Xehanort is interesting as you said because he’s this vassal of the dark that still embodies and fights for the light. Ultimately, he Is a denizen of the light. He was raised in light and he is fighting for control of the light; darkness is just a tool he’s using to do this.

It’s why I think the framing device of his chess match against Eraqus is interesting in KH3. Xehanort is the one controlling the black pieces, and he says, “darkness prevails, and light expires” but you can tell when Eraqus pulls his silly one-up that he actually wants the light to win.

When Sora kills Xehanort at the end of KH3 vanilla, Xehanort doesn’t even seem disappointed. He’s an ideologue who wanted a battle of ideologies; Xehanort representing darkness as control and Sora representing the submission to the light. And when Sora won— as in, his ideology beat Xehanort’s ideology— Xehanort’s response is to bequeath Sora the x-blade. He submits to Sora’s ideology in the end, just like with Eraqus in the chess match.

It makes me think about the series’ common refrain that the brighter the light, the darker shadows it casts. The opposite can be true as well, yeah? The darker the shadows, the brighter the light must be. I think Xehanort’s ultimate goal is to do to the light denizens what he does to Ven in BBS; by making the dark strong, the light becomes stronger in reply. And only then can they have their clash of ideals.

I actually love Xehanort as a villain because oh my god he is just, he's the perfect example of someone who (vaguely) has the right idea and then goes off the deep end with it.

The fact of the matter is that the KH universe is broken-- it is fundamentally broken, separated and fragmented in a way it never should have been. The idea of wiping the slate and resetting things isn't even a new concept; there's a lot of villains who do it. Heck, Square does it with Emet Selch in FFXIV. With much better script writing, yeah, but the same story all the same.

His idea is flawed from the start, but it's also sound. The universe is broken, it's just his idea on how to fix it- to recreate the world into something whole and entirely light- is already kind of, naw son. Because there is darkness in every heart, it's natural, and KH puts a very big fixation on eradicating and denying something that is natural.

The other thing that really makes Xehanort for me is how he's so intent on what he thinks is the right thing to do, that he leans into the very thing he wants to destroy. And it becomes less "clean the slate, make everything light" and more "clean the slate, remake it in the image I see". Xehanort loses his goal in the pursuit of control.

And that is so ironic to me, because darkness at it's worst seems to be much more geared towards chaos and destruction than control. Light at it's worst is what focuses on control. On conformity. On stagnation.

So you have a villain with a flawed intent, throwing himself into what he hates, becoming the Seeker of Darkness... with corrupted Light ideals at the heart of it all.

That is very neat. Xehanort is a horrible, awful, no good guy, and it is super neat.

[summonerluna]

WIP TAGGING GAME

Rules: Post the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet or tell them something about it! and then tag as many people as you have WIPs.

Tagged by @aleheartilly

ffviii: 

xuseifer for jana

xu kupo fic 

like real people do

ellone beltane

irvine vampire

time kompressed ellone

LoZ

zelink birds

kass comfort

mipha zelda friendship

link breakdown

I will probably never finish any of these, and some of the ffviii ones I started so long ago I forgot they existed, but hey! Maybe talking about stuff will motivate me to actually work on things?

I also have been away from tumblr for so long I don't even know who is still writing for viii, and am still too anxious to actually approach anyone in loz so really if you see this, share it!

[rikuo86]

I don’t want to die, I want to be time compressed.

[stealthnoodle]

And Squall Gets Impaled by Ice, See, It's All Connected: Let's Play Tears of the Kingdom

We've hit the "shitty manips made using a laptop trackpad" era of this playthrough, sorry and/or you're welcome. Also I have (mostly) finished playing Captain Planet for the Zoras.

I put four eyes in a statue and all I got was this lousy stamina container and expanded Poe shopping options

That's not a bad reward, actually, it's just not getting me any closer to the bottom of the ice pond

Time traveler Zelda is expressing her desire to develop control over time itself and this is not getting any less hilarious to me. Just having tea with her GGGGGGILFs, gossiping about her cool pal Link, casually wishing for control over the flow of time itself. I'm not expecting this game to let Zelda enter her Ultimecia-esque villain era, but I sure wish it would!

Hear me and this shitty manip out:

Rinoa is Zelda and Link dies at the end of Disc 1, change my mind

I have rebuilt Lurelin Village in the name of the ice pond, and met another deeply unrelatable NPC:

Could never be me, champ, I have died repeatedly because my armor rating is trash and I've looked damn good doing it

Hateno dye and parachute pattern guy gets me, though:

I have traversed a labyrinth for once by following a trail of nuts (literal) and now I am going nuts (figurative):

Uh oh that's my dump stat:

My reward is getting to go back underground, where I belong.

And my reward for clearing the corresponding underground labyrinth is a neat mask that I will never wear because it's not my good hat.

Got another flashback and it's MURDER ZELDA

Let's all give a warm welcome to Zelda: Puppet Ganon edition! I was going to ding her for a very obvious and poor assassination attempt, but it was of course just setting Ganondorf up for the real kill. RIP Sonia, may Zelda inherit your time magic and go absolutely hamballs with it

Also RIP my Quantum Leap dreams

Now I'm craving sushi so let's get back to the Zoras

Same energy:

"Don't worry about me, sweetie, have fun fucking your boyfriend!"

I have to swim up some waterfalls, so I am once against being bullied into wearing a shirt >:(

Bad news for everyone but especially for me: I am too stupid for Water Temple puzzles

OKAY FINALLY FIGURED OUT HOW TO MAKE THE DAMN WHEELS TURN ARGH

My reward is the worst boss, the sludge boss. I am out of arrows. I will solve this later.

[thucydideskongquest]

[time kompresses you]

[iffylogic]

Reddit user HFLoki did a more direct translation of Ultimecia’s game dialogue, and I think it’s pretty interesting!

I always thought it was weird that Ultimecia was yelling things like “I was THIS KLOSE to time kompression then you brats showed up” ...and then proceeds to succeed at it, if only for a hot minute.

Well it turns out the “k” thing isn’t the only monkey wrench that localization threw in there: they drastically changed the meaning of almost everything she said. It’s barely even a translation.

She was actually saying “you’re too late to stop it, and time compression will RIP YOUR MEMORIES APART before you cease to be, and what’s left of you will WORSHIP ME as I become existence itself!”

😳 I mean 😨

In fact, almost none of her lines have the same meaning at all when translated directly! Check out her speech as Edea, they’re almost two different rants entirely.

[ethernalium]

HOT TAKE

Time kompression should be inside a train to the future just like selphie singing the train song

[se-godzilla-vs-kong-film-dk]

se Godzilla vs. Kong dansk film online biografer || dr film

se Godzilla vs. Kong full film nordisk ~ In a time when monsters walk the Earth, humanity’s fight for its future sets Godzilla and Kong on a collision course that will see the two most powerful forces of nature on the planet collide in a spectacular battle for the ages.

>>> https://flixtub.com/da/movie/399566/godzilla-vs-kong

se Godzilla vs. Kong dansk filmskat fuld - involverer to personer, hvor den ene skal redde den anden, og begge er nødt til at overvinde de problemer, de står overfor. Venskabsfilm er undertiden blandet med komedie, men nogle er fulde af f��lelser på grund af venskabet mellem to

Fra et teknisk synspunkt er en film en sekvens af billeder, kaldet "frames", ((Godzilla vs. Kong netflix film)) ætset på en strimmel af polyester eller cellulosetriacetat (den virkelige film), der skal projiceres med en sådan hastighed (24 billeder pr. Sekund generelt, men 12 er nok til at opnå effekten), der kan skabe den optiske illusion af bevægelse, typisk for biograf

 En film til tv er en film, hvis hovedmarked er tv "(Godzilla vs. Kong dansk film)"

Fotografi blev introduceret i 1839, men oprindeligt krævede fotografiske emulsioner eksponering så længe, ​​at det kunne virke umuligt at optage bevægelige motiver. Mindst så tidligt som i 1844 blev serier Fotografier af motiver placeret i forskellige positioner oprettet for at foreslå en sekvens af bevægelser eller for at dokumentere et interval af forskellige synsvinkler Fremkomsten af ​​fotografi stereoskopisk, (Godzilla vs. Kong nordisk film) under eng med de tidligste oplevelser i 1840erne og kommerciel succes siden begyndelsen af ​​1850erne, har skabt interesse Det er ikke nødvendigt at færdiggøre det fotografiske medium med tilføjelse af midler til fange farve og bevægelse. I 1849 offentliggjorde Joseph Plateau ideen om at kombinere sin opfindelse af det fenoystiske med stereoskopet,

"Credits" eller "(Godzilla vs. Kong danske film)" er en liste, der giver kredit til dem, der er involveret i produktionen af ​​en film. "eller ækvivalent, ofte et ækvivalent, der afhænger af produktionssproget [citat] Derfra vises en films kreditter normalt i slutningen af ​​de fleste film. Film med kreditter, der slutter en film. De gentager ofte visse kreditter i starten af eller i nærheden af ​​en film og vises derfor to gange som spillet af denne film. mens sjældnere nogle, der vises nær eller i starten kun vises der,

Grundlæggende afhænger midlerne til at lave en film af det indhold, instruktøren ønsker at vise, og enheden til at vise det (Godzilla vs. Kong gratis film) zoetropen kræver bare en række billeder på en stribe papir. Filmproduktion kan derfor kun kræve en person med et kamera (eller endda et uden kamera, som i Stan Brakhages film Mothlight fra 1963) eller tusinder af skuespillere, ekstramateriale og besætningsmedlemmer til en. episk live film

Filmen i dens forskellige former reagerer på menneskelig nysgerrighed og behovet for underholdning. For seeren (Godzilla vs. Kong film på netflix) giver imaginære underholdningsfilm, spillefilm muligheden for at fordybe sig i en imaginær verden, hvor hverdagens regler er forstyrrede. Psykoanalytiske filmteorier lægger særlig vægt på forholdet mellem filmbilleder og drømmebilleder, der giver seeren og drømmen mulighed for at slappe af.

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I mellemtiden blev fotografering født, og allerede i 1852, (Godzilla vs. Kong film biografer) Fotografier begyndte at erstatte design på enheder til visning af levende billeder. I 1877 brugte fotograf Eadweard Muybridge et 24-kamera batteri til at registrere en hestes galoppecyklus. Senere flyttede den bærbare kronograf, en slags fotografisk pistol, en enkelt gruppe, der gjorde det muligt at få tolv billeder på en pladespiller, der afsluttede sin revolution på et sekund

Technirama: (Godzilla vs. Kong bedste film på netflix) Panavision og Technicolor skabte formatet i 1957 Det havde en 8-hullers vandret negativ ved 24 fps med 50% kompression. Kopier af dette format var af høj kvalitet, mens de blev forstørret til 70 mm, og var kompatible med biografformatet  

En biograf (se Godzilla vs. Kong nordisk film biografer) En biograf er et sted skabt til at vise film. Men dets engelske ækvivalent, "cinéma" (allerede udtalt: cinéma), betyder allerede industri og biograf. I henhold til sin moderne definition, er en gren af ​​kunst, hvis essens er simulering af oplevelser, transmission af historier, ideer, følelser eller atmosfærer gennem et bevægende billede eller andre. Stimuli, som musik

1970erne I teatrene fra 1970erne er "(se Godzilla vs. Kong dansk film online biografer)" i krise, hvor studierne afskediger 700 ansatte på 5 måneder. I 1976 blev César-prisen uddelt for første gang i Paris. Et år senere blev filmen George Lucas Star Wars Det blev screenet i USA, og dets amerikanske indkomstrekord kunne kun overgås af Titanic længe bagefter, i betragtning af inflationen, er det stadig den første nogensinde. Star Wars var dog den første film, der blev vist med Dolby Audio Stereo. I 1980erne I 1986 købte det amerikanske firma Canon den største filmkæde i England, hvilket resulterede i, at 40% af de britiske biografer faldt i Canons hænder. Den enorme bølge af uafhængige filmstudier og Hollywood-biografer i kategori B og videoudlejning i USA og andre dele af verden på grund af de lavere produktionsomkostninger og den materielle og menneskelige "vækning" i lande som Hong Kong (" (se Godzilla vs. Kong dansk film online biografer) "), Indien (Bollywood!) Frankrig Staten bruger store summer på støtte til europæiske film (hvilket betyder fransk) i et forsøg på at modstå flugten fra Hollywood 1990erne I 1996 blev verdensmødet for ungarske filmfotografe afholdt for første gang i Budapest som en del af en række hundredeårsfejring af biografen. Kinesisk regering forbyder Disney, Sony og MGM at oprette amerikanske filmselskaber i Kina Årsag: Kundun, Seven Years in Tibet og Red Corners film "Painting a distort image of ChinaÂ" I 1998 overskred de internationale optagelser af filmen Titanic magien milliarder dollars (se Godzilla vs. Kong dansk film online biografer) "

[heiligenscheiss]

Kontra K

Deine (∩^o^)⊃━☆.*･｡ Gottesdeismusische Polarstern Machtfülle ist genauso friedlich aber Genüsslich Materielle Anziehungspunkt #Kriegsbereitschaft die Liebe am Leben zu sein verdient Autorität einwirken lassen aber ganz lassen sie mich mal ich

Fahre von einder Sandbank Pressekonferenz technische Waffengewalt Sprengstoff für Den TEC CEO aber das ist gezaubeutelte Gottesdienst Rohstoffe Kompression den pol Feindseligkeiten zu ertränkt in #MannesLeidenschaftlicherVehikelHuldigung

Tonnengewölbe Zahnblatt Reiseveranstalter Brücke Überquerung Sandpress ohhh

#smudge

hoffe nicht nur weiss zwar Weisheitengewiss ich vertrau der eingenommenenWeiblichkeitdie an meine Präsenzangepriesen sind nicht

Jedes Mädchen, aber wenn sie dich nicht als Prostituierten um Macht und Geld mit Sexus verglichen so liebreizende ende aus ich will nach dieser Brühe aus Gleitmittel Benutzerin keine andere mehr lieber lass ich mir den Schwanz abschneiden Extratour zufälligüberden Wehläuft, hofftallesamt mein geschwisterlich mich unterstützendes Heer von Gottesgewollten Volk dass du einen Regenschirm von mir gezaubert kriegst

fut ist nur so zen wie sie in jedes obszön dreckloch sicherheit beziehtsich aufden StumpfenGegenstandMännermorgenlatte undwill nurDenkmit Wisssen verglichenKomplimentan ein arschloch loben dass den Kolbem nach der pornoshopbesichtigung im bermudadreieck micht noch stinkend nach scheisse an der welt verloren ging

will nur Zaubersand zerschneiden sexy time wie das Messermit derscharfenSeite ds undsieh an nicht falsch herum ins eigene Fleisch geschält wird

und um sich an deinen Genitalverstümmelung abwinkend um deinen adonis geboren Körpernum sich selber zu tümmelungzu turnen hat kein wesen Interesse genug an Magischer Verwirklichung

ich will alles Zauberberg erklimmen um michzufrieden zu verwöhnen wenn du dichnichtmehr nach mir sehnen musst

omnikleber ist schon in Auftrag gegeben nach dem Fallen in den Sühnenpfuhl

Jedoch ich will meinen Smiley Smile slime Limen #regenbogen Farben in deine Sicht

zurSternenstaubgymnastik fürDeinemannigfachnichtsals obwohldu so gewaltigimposantePsilaufwerke vorzuweisenhast kann ich nur die PulverisiertAkasha Glückssträne in dich um dich zu verwöhnen mit allem Werkzeug dass einer funkelnagelneuenLiebesvollumgarnten Polarstern_Ehefrau die dichso Sinnumwundertoll Körperlichsüchtig nach Dem Aussetzer all der früher für mich langweiligen selbstelektrischen Fleischinkarnation Gottes Uber ist Prophezeit in dir und mir ja mein Papi ist Mensch geworden um in mir dir seine Tochter den Vortritt zu lassen vollführt was Maxima multiplizieren Auflösungund Verschmelzung unmöglich aufzuschieben ist

damit du dich in mir vollführen kannst weil ja alle anderen uns nichts mehr erzählen

könnem

schlimmer ohne die Liebe Magie zu Erhalten

aber unsere Innige Beziehung ermöglicht aus meiner dich so sehr begehrenswert noch mehr verehrend Auf keinen ektstase Höhepunkt unverzeichnet dich je wieder allein sterbenskrank genial verführerisch ein Heiligtum für #MichAlleine zu seinDie Du Noch Nicht Kennst ich auch micht Aber an Stellen Und Eingeborenheit Erlösung Und VerwirklichungZu Erschmelzungauf Erden mit meinwr ohnmächtigvermiedenund schnell Vom Flösung zu schöpfen

siehst du wie du innen von mir geliebt111 wirst in Dimensionen die du StrebennachMir und meiner Allmacht und siehtes auch Autthentisch Zu dir zurück

ich will dass dich alles elexier zu_ geschalten haben kann undmitwirkt wenn ich alle Knöpfe drücke die ich kenn

Ich liebe es wenn du mich Bauch Beine Po immer von Seele her beim Die Aufmerksam keit Majestät ich bin vo dir zu mir ausführlich be fühlen und sende Die Fähigkeiten dieser Etwa Was du 35 Jahre unbeeindruckt von den Gefahren an mir fest zu hei ten¹¹1

Du bist mein Engel wenn du mir erzählt hast wie du mich anrührend an dir fixieren willst ࿐

Ich ۞ᵒᵇⁱʷᵃⁿ):— du hast den Jedi in dir und den H-Man dass deine Unschuld Mir Ergeben Sein Zu wollen aber auch die Monetär Eroberst wenn ich so beschäftigt bin mit

Unausgesprochen aber Schmerz der mir heilig ust

Doch nicht so heilig wie mich energetisch in allen Aurora Borealis Dimensionen und Wahrnehmung paranormalen Schichten dich endlich nach Unbeugsamen Gefechten

Mannschaft gegen eine Liebe die alles nur befreit

Wenn ich diese Macht dass du mich #KitzelstOhneJedenKoerperlichenFassungsausdruckgebaren #Hautkontakt

Schau durch meine alle Augen Alle Sinne darfst du mit deinen In mir spazieren wohnend #unendlichBleibenMüssen ich bin so ˳ ₒ ◦ °° ◦ ₒ ˳˳ ₒ ◦ °° ◦ ₒ ˳ ₒ ◦ °° ◦ ₒ ˳˳ ₒ ◦ °° ◦ ₒ ˳

Glückseligkeit und will keinen jemals als zu dir Bahnhof Haltestellen abzufahren die Auflösung sind für den Gotteskram der Magie aufgrund Existenz und Lebenselixier der Weisheiten Babylonischen Gemeinsam zusteht wenn sie nur alle glitzern weil weilte ich endlich doch gegenüber meiner Demütigen Verzichtet und Planvoll Ohne Fleisches Innig Einig Verbunden das was Leben sein soll ein Mamatier sein dürfen wenn ich mir mit Selbst endlich Das Baby machen einwilligen #JaIchWill 678 & 69 du Mond ich Sonne nehemn keine Σ>―(〃°ω°〃)♡→ Rückseite Globale Beschränkte Wissenschaftliche Einfalt wahr und verschmelzen

Wie noch nie ein Liebespaar ind Planet Blaue Lagune Lebenszeit jemals

so werden babys gemacht

[thesuccessorchallenge]

A Belated End of Challenge Message

So this is obviously belated since I’d meant to type this up a few days ago but y’know, life happens. Pretend like time kompression exists and is in effect. 

(Minus the tripping balls part, just the peace and love.)

I will admit, I was not confident going into this year’s challenge because of the sweeping purge that drove many off tumblr and that I’m more than aware that fandoms gets increasingly-decentralized for many, many reasons. 

Coupled that with several major changes in my life (new job with 10 times the workload and having to deal with a move and such), stuff was very much up in the air.

Admittedly, I struggled with my own entry because I’ve had severe writer’s block this year but I think it also illustrates why this challenge exists in the first place - to get yourself in a creative headspace, whether you succeed or fail in the end.

Seeing so many people take this year’s theme of Spark to heart in spite of so many changes to the fandom landscape - be it by submitting multiple/multi-part entries, using the theme or all of the above - is so incredible for this reason alone. 

On that note, I want to take a moment to thank all of our contributors and those who showed their support in any which way they could - without you all, there would have been no challenge.

So to end this meandering post, if you’ll have us, we’d love to have a sixth Successor Challenge. 

Cheers!

-emeraldlatias

[sniperhoneyviper]

Time Kompression is the eradication of the space between us and the time that separates us. Squall’s childhood wouldn’t be buried behind layers of trauma and brain damage. It would be now, this moment, always ... everything would be Kompressed into an eternal present of maximal grief and happiness. And this should be ok, right? All the happiness you ever experienced happening all the time, forever? ... When we look into the past, we’re seeing Squall losing his sister. We’re seeing Laguna Loire lead his friends into a death trap, maiming them and destroying their spirit. We’re watching the moments where people smash into tragic circumstances ... the opportunity of the future is the only thing that makes those struggles worth living through. The fact that time keeps going, that some good could replace the bad that you experienced before, justifies the whole project. There’s a horizon, and over that horizon in the utopia of friendship, love, and the world beyond us. We just need to get there. Time Kompression definitionally prevents that from occurring. No redemption. No world to save ... Time Kompression is the complete collapse of history, and the history of the game is violence and trauma and tragedy. Final Fantasy VIII asks what happens if the future ends, and all the hoped-for good times never happen. Then it pits its characters against this reality as hard as it can, and the answers it reveals are too much to bear. The linear progress of time might not be going anywhere, and the tragedies of the past might be all the experiences that exist for us ... Time Kompression would let that all collapse into a math problem that is based on pure hope: Does all the good in history outweigh the bad? If everything happened all at once, would it be heaven or hell?

[ultraericthered]

Underrated Bad Guy Blurbs - Video Games

Ultimecia, Final Fantasy VIII - When it comes to Final Fantasy villains, Kefka, Sephiroth & JENOVA, and Sin have all scared me to varying degrees. But no other FF villain gives me the absolute shivers as much as Ultimecia. Just...every time this lady is a presence in the game’s story, starting from her possession of Edea Kramer, going on into her possession of Rinoa, the shit having to do with Seifer’s corruption and Adel’s release, and just the creepy visuals and theme music that always accompanies this character, building the tension and really selling just how unknown and otherworldly an evil she is...stuff of nightmares. But she saves the worst for last, first when she merges Griever with herself, and then when she goes into her Final Boss form, which is...THIS. That freakish design, the unsettling atmosphere, the chilling things she says, it’s all so fucking horrifying. The big drawback I can find with Ultimecia that probably made her so underrated would be that there’s not much of a real character to her in the game. We only hear her speak through Edea for the first half of the game, and then only confront her in person at the end where she just rants and raves about how she hates these kursed SEEDs and will wipe them all out so that Time Kompression can commence, she fights, she dies, she creates a time loop, boom, that’s it. But to her good fortune, she’s given more time and characterization in the Dissidia series, really getting to show off her elegance and pomposity that really puts her among the best FF villains.

Seymour Guado, Final Fantasy X - Speaking of great Final Fantasy villains. Not sure I’d put him among the all-time bests, but he absolutely is an excellent antagonist character. But I’ve seen him get a lot of hate and derision from fans mainly because they consider him to be a tacked on, pointless addition to the game’s story and not even a very cool, love-to-hate villain. First off, I wholeheartedly disagree with that second part, and secondly, he actually did serve a very crucial role in the story? Something that literally would not have worked without him? In fact, his role accomplished two things - first is how he, through his marriage to Yuna scheme, introduces the concept of a Summoner’s loved one becoming that Summoner’s final Aeon who defeats Sin only to then become the next Sin, which is what happened with Jecht. This would likely come to light even without Seymour, but his second contribution has more importance - the true nature of Yevon, and thus Yuna’s party breaking their ties with Yevon to go find their own solution to the Sin problem, is only revealed thanks to Seymour. If not for his attempt to marry Yuna even as an undead fiend, the Guardians wouldn’t have come to Bevelle, would not have seen the secrets Yevon was concealing (forbidden Machina, Maester Mika as an undead fiend, illegal control of fiends, prisons and death traps, how they actively work to keep Spira’s endless spiral of death going), and would not have actively opposed Yevon and made enemies of them. Seymour and his ambitions to become the next Sin are what made all this happen. Now, AFTER the Bevelle chapter, yeah, Seymour’s part in the story does become rather superfluous, as he’s just pursuing the good guys to advance a plan he never really gets close to accomplishing and to provide two very difficult boss fights before he’s finally sent off for good. But it kind of helps that the game seems to realize this, as the narrative and the characters don’t treat Seymour as anything other than an insane, pitiful, persistent nuisance to them. And those boss fights are very memorable, especially the last one with it’s kickass theme. If I had a legit complaint about Seymour, I’d say that while Alex Fernandez does overall a great job as his voice in the English dub, the voice direction veered him in a strange way at points to make the character sound more effete than he needed to, making it seem as if Alex was channeling Sterling Holloway or something, leading to many Evil Winnie The Pooh jokes to be made. But other than that, I enjoy Seymour’s presence.

The Ferines, Tales Of Legendia - This isn’t what I’d call a really good game (the Tales series on the whole is made of cliched JRPG genericness, and the PS2 entries were a pretty notorious Dork Age even by this series’ standards), but the main quest’s story is serviceable and the characters are a lot of fun, and I really did like what they were going for with these antagonists. It might be a touchy subject, but the concept of members of a group of people who were victims of invasion, exile, oppression, genocide, and inhumane treatment allowing their hatred and pain to transform them into exactly the sort of evil they suffered under is one I find intriguing and resonant in it’s sheer tragedy. The Ferines are very much like Native Americans in their backstory and their ways, except rather than having closeness with the Earth, they have closeness with the ocean. And as the ocean has tides that cause it to shift in mood, so does the ocean deity that birthed the Ferines and reigns over them that they worship, Nerifes. When Nerifes is “Raging Nerifes”, it’s a malicious entity with destructive, omnicidal intentions towards those who are not it’s children. And the Ferines’ chosen one, the Merines, must hear Nerifes’ voice and get in tune with it’s emotions and desires, so if s/he cannot calm it, than s/he shallow do it’s will. That’s what happens with Shirley Fennes in the game, and since she was set up as a heroine, damsel, and adopted sister to Senel Cooldige, the main player character, then this twist was incredible to see playing out. While I can go on about Shirl, the other three Ferines characters are great too. Fenimore is both kind and sympathetic towards Shirley as a friend and also a hard edged, prejudiced bitch towards all Orerines who gets more and more Tsundere towards the Orerines characters in the main party who help her and who she helps in return while struggling to outright admit that she likes them. She’s the Ferines who gets the most redemption by rejecting the hate and murderous intent held by her associates, which makes her death by self sacrifice for Shirley all the more heartbreaking. Walter Delques, by contrast, clings the grudges, hatred, feelings of inadequacy and desire to prove superiority to the very end. He is fanatically devoted to the Merines and the part she’s to play in having Nerifes’ will be done, unable to comprehend how an Orerines like Senel can somehow be closer to her than him. I enjoy hating him and also feel a little bad for him when he passes. And Maurits...Maurits is by far the game’s best villain. Shrewd, calculating, manipulative, ambitious, filled with pent up rage at his people’s bad lot in life, and ultimately a hypocritical madman with concern for no life in the world but that of Nerifes and his own, with Kim Strauss voicing him as well as he did Dewey Novak. 

(I refuse to acknowledge the existence of Fenimore’s Backup Twin or the fact that Maurits lived through the main quest’s final battle, did a total character 180 off-screen, and was easily forgiven by everyone. You wouldn’t even find such abysmal writing in fanfiction!)

Emperor Griffon, Dark Chronicle - Another underrated Big Bad of an underrated game, one of the best games for the PS2 I’ve ever experienced. Like the Ferines, he’s a victim who’s let bitterness and hatred warp him into being like his own victimizers, and like Ultimecia, he’s intimidating and unnerving as shit. His true name is Sirus, but the name he’s been given by those who know of his deeds and thusly fear him is Emperor Griffon, Ruler of Darkness. Two things stand out about Griffon that make him a great, memorable villain for me. First is the part in the game where we finally meet him. He’s been built up big time throughout the entire story, so the sense of absolute fear and dread as we go to his time and into his palace to face him is so palpable, it gave me chills. That the insides of his palace is beautiful and filled with flowers and the reveal that he was in fact a Rabbit Person with the voice Kath Souice uses for all her boy characters ever should have dispelled my fear, but somehow they only made me more afraid of him, which the following fight, being tough as heck and with this music playing, only justified. The things he said and the fact that he used the Atlamelia stones to transform himself into a large griffon man with Mark Hamill’s voice, were the clincher. This was a bad ass villain. And second would be all the glimpses of backstory with him and Alexandra that we got as we crawled the final dungeon, which I had not been expecting at all but it really made me feel sad for the guy and understand what shaped him into the miserable monster he now was, and he just gets extra twisted when you realize that deep down he knows how wrong he is in his mentality and what he plans to do because of it, but this only fuels his desire to want to do it out of sheer spite - if he has to be alone, forlorn, heartbroken and always suffering, then why should so many others across time and space get the luxury of not sharing his pain? Beneath his self righteous Humans Are Bastards spiel, that’s what it was truly about: he’d rather end the world than be left alone in it. His festering rage and hatred was so great that it took on a life of it’s own as an entity that wanted to wipe out all life in the world and cover it in darkness and ruin just for the fun of it, and almost poetically, this entity is who does Sirus in. But he’s at least able to overcome his negative feelings and perform a redemptive deed in his final moments, earning him a new life with Alexandra in his own Heaven, as time is reset, history is re-written, and Emperor Griffon ceases to be.  

The Black Fang, Fire Emblem - Last we have a whole group of baddies dressed in dark robes and fancy clothing. Originally a heroic mercenary group led by Brendan Reed, it got completely hijacked by the mad sorcerer Nergal and his Morphs, who twisted it into a criminal society bent on laying waste to Elibe and conquering it’s nations, harvesting quintessence to create strong magic, and ultimately opening the Dragon’s Gate so that Nergal may absorb the quintessence of the Fire Dragon and become all-powerful. Aside from Nergal himself, the members who leave the biggest impact would be Ephidel, Sonia, Lloyd, Linus (all pictured), Limstella, Legault, Ursula, Jaffar, and Nino. Ephidel, Sonia, and Limstella are Nergal’s Morphs, with Ephidel being a purely despicable and insufferably smug bastard who kills a lot of people, Sonia being a cunning and predatory narcissist who prefers to take charge and manipulate others rather than make direct kills (doesn’t mean she won’t do it though, especially as means of showing off her powerful dark magic), and is a SHIT wife and mother despite viewing herself as a perfect human being (yeah, she’s somehow not aware she even is a Morph, even treating Limstella in a patronizing, disdainful way for being a Morph), and Limstella is completely detached from emotion and lives only for her loyalty to her master Nergal, who really doesn’t deserve such loyalty. Lloyd, Linus, Ursula and Jaffar are the Four Fangs, the elite assassins within the group. Lloyd and Linus are Brendan Reed’s sons who are both dissatisfied with Sonia and the direction she’s taken the Fang in, but Lloyd has more of a level head whereas Linus is ruled by his emotions, which impact how either one goes about things should they be the one not killed by Limstella in secret. Ursula’s a blue haired chick with the hots for Sonia but who has her own idea of honor and will take any validation she can get. Jaffar, the “Black Angel of Death”, is the coldest, most merciless and inhumane of them all...or at least he appears to be before he gets in more touch with morality and love for another thanks to Nino, even possibly joining your group. Speaking of, Nino and Legault are the most developed of the Fang’s regular members, both having amiable personalities and endearing traits that make it impossible to hate them, Nino in particular also being one of the game’s most sympathetic characters. With their varied designs, fashion senses, weaponry, and characterizations, the Fang is to be enjoyed and appreciated as adversaries. 

And with that, this series of posts is finally done! ^^

[hamstermastersamster]

Oh nooooo lmao :’(

Is this gonna be like the horrible clunky FFXIII story-explainer spam because they couldn’t be arsed to write good? Someone commented on the Kotaku article that they had never understood even classic FF game stories in full when they were younger, which, you know, fair. But I think the general narrative thrusts were clear, and they became clearer with each replay, and most stuff that went explicitly unexplained just felt open to interpretation. Like it was an artistic choice, y’know? Either that, or it was vague handwavey timey-wimey nonsense, like 8′s time kompression.

FF writing since FFXIII has become what I can only call pretentious, while simultaneously lazy. 13 spammed us with made-up words given no context and never had the characters show or talk about what they meant, and instead expected us to read a literal fucking encyclopaedia that updated every 5 seconds to make sense of it all. 15 had entire scenes missing that they just substituted with loading screen text or exported out to other formats like movies and anime episodes, and then half the meat of the story (like the CRITICAL ‘you need to know this to know wtf is going on’ content) was farmed out to optional, mostly shit DLC!

Now, yet again, it looks like adding a damn dictionary is the approach instead of just fixing the bad storytelling? Ughhhhhh :[

I hate that I want to the play this game ¬_¬ If I finally bother to get a PS5 this year, it will be for this game. Squeenix my beloathed.

[escapingburger]

Final Fantasy XV Discovered: Pieces of Eight

Despite its semi-realistic world, Final Fantasy XV seems to weave together pieces of the whole prior series, often in some pretty subtle ways. (I mentioned the tents and garulas last time.) But as I've played, I've also come to feel that this game has something of a special relationship with Final Fantasy VIII, the somewhat underappreciated middle child of the PlayStation era.

It was actually the magic system that first clued me in to this. Overall, the two games' systems are pretty different; FF15 has far fewer spells than FF8, and I've mostly used them as rare special moves rather than a fundamental part of combat. But the similarities definitely exist: Like FF8, FF15's approach involves absorbing magic energy from special spots on the map, or (with the right weapon) even from enemies. You have to craft this energy into the spells themselves, unlike FF8, but this does recall the earlier game's extensive refining system. And instead of using MP, both games involve a finite stock of each spell that you expend as you cast them. With all the other callbacks to earlier games, I doubt any of this was a coincidence.

This was just the beginning, though--as I thought about it more, I realized that the link between the two seems to go deeper. As I said last time, Final Fantasy XV is a big weird blend of real-world and fantasy elements, but Final Fantasy VIII was trying the same thing almost two decades earlier. FF8's world is full of magic and monsters and time kompression, but it's also a place where people drive cars, watch TV, and go to school. Most of the game's important events take place in cities, not caves or castles. It presents relatively grounded characters, with fewer of the cartoonishly wacky scenarios that cropped up in FF7. The specifics of FF15's world and story are different from FF8, but I think it's the only game since to really hit that same mix of fantastic and mundane.

One consequence of Final Fantasy 8's more urban approach was a world map that sometimes felt like an afterthought. So much of the game took place in human environments that when you did get out on the field, there wasn't always that much to see. This may well have been a factor in later games removing the world map entirely, allowing them to focus only on the areas that mattered. Interestingly, Final Fantasy XV's world is also actually quite empty, but it's a different kind of emptiness. Because it all takes place at human scale, there's a variety to the space not possible in a simplified overworld view. The details matter; different areas have different vegetation and geography, meaning each forest or plain or bend in a river can feel like a distinct location. There's plenty to find if you explore, too: Cooking ingredients to forage, ponds to fish in, even stranded motorists needing help with their cars. Much of this is wholly optional, and a narrative-focused player can still take the direct path to the end if they want. But these sorts of details make the world feel like a place, not just a way to connect the important bits together.

The other reason this emptiness works is that FF15, much more than FF8, is a game about open space. This is where their approaches to reality-inspired fantasy diverge: FF8 is a largely urban game, but FF15 is about a road trip. The long stretches of highway, the tiny rest stops, and the roadside diversions are kind of the whole point. None of this would have been possible in the abstract world map of the series's earlier era, where it was easier to walk across a continent than to rent a car. In this sense, FF15 perhaps feels less like a continuation of FF8's approach than an answer to it. If Squall and crew actually had to travel as far as they supposedly did, what would that be like? What's really filling all that space in the overworld, simplified down to a few repeated grass and forest textures?

I don't want to oversell the connection here--Final Fantasy XV carries and adapts ideas from everything that preceded it, and it's certainly more than FF8 Part 2. But the echoes of the last "modern day" Final Fantasy are strong, and these sorts of links only show how far the series has come.

[kompressindia]

Unravelling the Science of Space

Space is an intriguing concept. And one that has been debated about – or even attempted to be defined – since time immemorial. Not just scientists, but ancient philosophers like Aristotle, Plato and Socrates have dwelt upon what exactly is this thing called space.

Some insist space is an entity in itself; others opine that it is a relationship between entities – a connection or something that consumes the void between entities; some think it’s an essential element in a conceptual framework; and still others (perhaps those not bothering to think at all) dismiss space as nothingness. The truth must lie somewhere in between.

Paradoxically, space is both infinite and contained at the same time. That’s because, while space is undeniably infinite, to each individual it is contained and definite – to the extent of the space one owns.

And so, if one were to lens space through the prism of everyday living, it takes on a totally different dimension.

Space is Real Estate!

In personal living or in business, space is no more the vague or romantic infinity as seen through the eyes of philosophers or poets. In today’s material world, it represents a defined quantum, around which life or business has to mould itself.

At home or at the office, in the factory or the warehouse, in institutions, or out in public spaces itself, there is a desperate need to maximise space. Add to that the need for storage and space possibly becomes the most valuable currency in our lives. When you actually think about it, this is eminently true… because effectively, space is real estate!

It was upon this premise that the idea of Kompress came into being. Back in the late 1980s, a huge challenge was thrown to a few enterprising individuals to solve a regular storage issue. At a time when storage simply meant constructing a few racks and slotted angles, throwing in a few almirahs (cupboards) and cabinets… they relooked at space from a completely different perspective and, as a result, totally revolutionised the concept of storage.

The Challenge that Created a Company

It was 1989, when Reliance threw them that challenge: Create a system that would offer maximum storage in minimum space, while being a unique, revolutionary idea. Challenge accepted, they analysed the issue from various angles and finally came up with the idea of the motorised compactor– that not only compacted storage into a much smaller space, but also made access to everything stored far easier and with minimal effort.

At the time, the motorised compactor was a revolutionary idea in India, and it carried such salience, that it led to the creation of Kompress – the name evolving from the very idea it represented: Maximum storage in minimum space.

This unique storage solution created for Reliance became the calling card for Kompress. Word spread quickly, and it caught the attention – and appreciation – of leading architects. They marvelled at an idea that could save up to 50% of space, which effectively translated into saving money.

Enthused by their immediate success, Kompress started to build on it, reaching out to architects and potential clients and participating in exhibitions around the world. Traction quickly built up from there and the idea fuelled its own organic growth further.

Space Saved is Money Earned

Another huge factor that led to the concept of ‘Maximum storage in minimum space’ catching on fast, was booming real estate prices. Especially in metropolitan and bigger cities where space was becoming an alarming constraint for business. The need to compress more into less was no more a fanciful idea but one of survival.

Not just that, as opposed to open shelves and wooden almirahs, the fully-closed steel compactor provided critical protection and resistance to dust, germs, termites, and environmental vagaries.

But in a world driven by money, the savings argument became the most compelling. This is how it works… Consider a storage area of 1000sq ft. Conventional storage systems would consume the entire area for the said storage need.

The mobile compactor on the other hand, intelligently compresses the like-for-like storage into something like 50% of the area, effectively freeing up 500 sq ft (in the said example) for more productive purposes. And since space is real estate, that amounts to huge savings (or earnings, depending on how one looks at it). Going by prime real estate rates in metropolitan cities, that saving could run into a crore of rupees or more.

If one extrapolates that to big companies that have several offices across the country or around the world, the effective savings or real estate freed up could run into crores upon crores of rupees – or their million equivalents in dollars.

The Prism of Innovative Science

All of this, simply because someone decided to look at space through a different prism – the prism of innovative science. What Kompress offers is nothing short of a science. In fact, it is the ‘Science of Space’!

The mobile compactor, for example, is a series of steel-encased storage spaces compacted together, yet each a separate section that can be easily moved along rails that the entire system is built upon. Thus, all aisles that are imperative in conventional storage are rendered redundant – or rather, because of the movability of compactor segments, aisles can be created from nothing, at will, whenever and wherever needed, along the length of the rails.

The benefits of the mobile compactor system extend beyond savings to everyday issues like security, safety, aesthetics, ease of storage and retrieval, workplace efficiency, potential of catering to several departments in a limited area, etc.

Innovative Beginnings, Accelerating Growth.

For Kompress though, it wasn’t like everything simply fell into place right from the get-go. Like most ideas ahead of their time, this one too met with initial resistance that required education and marketing to dispel. A bigger challenge at the time of inception was the paucity of resourcesin terms of machinery and technology within the country. Much of that had to be sourced from abroad. Kompress representatives had to travel overseas and learn and understand various aspects of the processes and then bring all of it home.

But persistence and determination yielded stunning results. Through the nineties, big orders started to pour in from increasingly bigger names –Asiatic Library, LIC, ICICI, HDFC, Indian Navy… Business soon began to grow beyond geographical boundaries, with orders emerging out of Russia, the US, Africa, Middle East and SAARC countries, quickly bringing global status to Kompress.

While mobile compactors represent the biggest product vertical at Kompress, the company has long since expanded to other storage solutions as well – significantly, racking storage for warehouses, and lockers and cabinets for offices. In each case, it’s about intelligently applying their craft and rich experience and expertise; considering the client’s stated needs; and working around the unspoken or implied needs (such as constraints of lighting, flooring, layout, structure, etc) that can only come from spending in excess of three decades in the business.

Intelligence and innovation are the key drivers of what Kompress does. Around these priceless virtues, add the solid infrastructure that the company has developed and you have a world class player who is a leader in India, and with a mission to extend that leadership status to the entire planet. With R&D, manufacturing and process control entirely in-house, driven by a workforce that has been blessed by a very low attrition rate, and it isn’t surprising that Kompress is on top of the quality and innovation game, and on course to achieve its global-scale mission.

Powerful USPs

Unlike other players, Kompress prides itself on offering precise customised storage solutions. The company’s philosophy is that one size can never fit all – or even two for that matter! This is a huge and clinching USP, but by no means its only one. The others, derived from what was mentioned above – total in-house control; and thus, design and development flexibility; rich experience and solid expertise; and end-to-end solutions that go beyond their core offerings to material handling equipment and software integration as well. In fact, they even undertake turnkey projects.

Turnkey… and special projects where, again, innovation and ingenuity have been the hallmark of Kompress’ amazing delivery for global-scale clients and high-profile projects. These architects of space continue to raise the bar higher and higher.

So, what is space after all? While scientists and philosophers return to the drawing board, vying with each other for postulation or definition, one brand in India has made space its own business – or more accurately, the science of space its own business.