akiradanna

[akiradanna]

WARCROSS (another review) + SPOILERS

Back at it again doing reviews of game-related stories!

So this is the first I read from the writer, Marie Lu. I heard her Legend series is awesome, and it’s probably my friend’s favorite series if not one of them. I’ll try to get my hands on that.

Short review: it’s quite...alright. Not as awesome as RPO but not as bad as the Mortality Doctrine series. Might do a review of MD as a whole, but I can’t really remember the series now LOL

Yes, I’ve heard some comparisons of Ready Player One. Really, the only thing similar between those two is that they’re games and the ‘VR’- ish thing, although I believe Warcross is more AR. I don’t know, I guess it’s both? If it is 100% AR, wheelchair-bound Asher won’t be able to skate.

(Edit - I just read parts of it again, and the NeuroLink (the glasses) are supposed to be both AR and VR and it can switch modes. Pretty cool, but pretty weird, considering it can link with your brain. Also, I refuse to believe a 13-year-old made it, especially since that guy started coding at 11! He’s got to have a lot of help from his parents. Just, no way.)

Which leads me to my first problem. The characters. Both main characters are the creme de la creme in what they do. Female protagonist Emika Chen (sidenote: that’s an interesting name; isn’t Emika a Japanese name and Chen a Chinese surname?) for being a bounty hunter and a hacker, and male protagonist and love interest Hideo Tanaka for programming super futuristic glasses and an entire game (along with a team of engineers, but that was probably after the release of the glasses for the first time and a business started over it. Warcross was made before it, coming with the glasses. What??)

Thing is, they’re too good at what they do it’s unbelievable. Not in a good way. You telling me that Emika fixed a bug other engineers can’t see by figuratively looking from above? That game must have taken terabytes because of the complexity (imagine the code!). Also, when Emika fixed some code in her first meeting with Hideo, did Emika type on a real keyboard or ‘type’ with her brain? It’s impossible that some code was just like BOOM DEUS EX MACHINA or something. When I read that section, it felt like reading about a super complicated version of MIT App Inventor, which I don’t think professional games are made of. 

I kind of get Hideo’s mannerisms, why he’s acting stoic and so formal. Coming across as ‘boring’, to me, would just be a consequence. My unbelievability for his character is the invention of the glasses I mentioned earlier. Personally, I’m indifferent about his character. I don’t know whether to like him or not, especially after the ending.

Both characters have dark pasts that led them to where they are now. Their pasts are described in a lot of detail, so I quite get their motivations and all. OK that’s one of the good things about the book.

Anyway, let’s get to the romance. From the start I got a weird vibe from it (and immediately ranted about it to a friend of mine when I got to it). After reading the reviews. I think I know how to explain it. It’s the 50 Shades of Grey vibe: a lustful (kind of, since the kiss was based on a dress) relationship between an uber-rich, fine-looking boss and his worker. Come on, Emika can’t be the only genius girl Hideo has ever met. Good lord, this probably took up probably a fifth or a fourth of the novel. Also, I’m quite annoyed about how Emika’s teammates did not comment on Emika’s second ‘disappearance’ until when she is in the hospital. I thought Asher would be so worked up about it. If I were Emika, no matter how hard I’m crushing on my boss, I’d never act on it. The relationship would never be the same again. There’s a reason why dating your boss is kind of taboo in real life.

The second problem, the hack. I feel like it’s like a convenient plot device. I don’t know, I feel like it just is. I feel like the word ‘hack’ is just thrown around to show that ‘oh, she’s so awesome, she can do anything’. How did she learn to hack so quickly? I’ve got a friend who started coding at 10 who’s now turning 17, and his hacking is still nowhere near Emika’s level, though crazy good in comparison to his hacker friends. What’s more, Emika was banned from using computers for 2 years! The heck has she been doing? How has she not forgotten how to ‘hack’? 

I’ll end this on a nice note. A lot of reviews on Goodreads mentioned diversity, to which I say I agree with that and it’s not too ‘in my face’ so I’m totally fine with it. Also, it creates interesting food for thought like the Asher thing mentioned earlier.

That moral dilemma at the end, not gonna lie, it threw me off a bit. Made me a bit confused as to who to side for; I’ll side with Emika for now.

I honestly thought this would be a stand-alone book, but I heard it’s getting a sequel. Even though I think it’s eh, I’d still pick the next one up. Just curious to see where this goes. To be honest, it would have been better to make a proper ending and make this a stand-alone book.

Sorry if my thoughts seem unorganized. I just need to vent some feelings out. Thanks for getting this far.

[akiradanna]

READY! PLAYER! ONE! MASSIVE SPOILERS (FOR THE BOOK AND MOVIE BC I HAD TO)!

I barely post on Tumblr, but holy shit do I need to make a post on this one (while it’s still a hot topic lmao). Been waiting for this movie since 2016. If not for the endless references to a time I didn’t even live in, the book’s actually got a quite decent character development, world-building, and action scenes. By the way, this is the first time I’ve seen a movie of a book I know so well, which I read before watching.

Basically, the movie’s about 80s obsessed teenager Wade Watts, who literally lives in stacked caravans yet people can afford a VR headset and gloves (great priorities). The real world’s gone so bad, people escape to a massive VR game called OASIS where you can be whatever you want to be and do whatever you want to do.

Now let’s get straight to the point. Seeing as I’ve read and reread the book multiple times, I remember even the most random things that happened there. If you’ve read the book, don’t expect a copy of it. Probably about 70-80% of the movie is totally changed from the book. I’d say it’s both a good and bad thing.

The good thing is that I can enjoy some fresh content and I wouldn’t be able to guess where things are going. I liked how no one in the main 5 died (someone died in the book). And I understand why some bits were cut out - it would be boring for a movie (more later). The bad thing is...see, the problem with a movie is that it can only show so much from a book. Especially if the book is a super dense 300 plus-page novel the size of B5 paper. I’m gonna be comparing a lot with the book which some of you guys might hate and say, “you should judge the movie by purely what the movie shows!” Well you can’t 100% do that when you’ve read the book can you?

My favorite part was the second key. I thought they’d take the idea from the book, but boy was I wrong. It was a pleasant surprise. Also, the graphics were amazing. So is the playlist. The 80s were a high time for rock, my favorite music genre. Another change I like was the whole IOI scheme in the middle and final act. 

Now time to complain!

First thing, character development. I understand with so many characters and so few minutes it’s hard to pack some kind of development. I’ll take an example from the book - at the start, Wade was obese. He had zero money because he was stuck in a no-monster zone (which, like the movie, is how one gets money) and couldn’t afford to pay for coins for real money. However, Halliday, the founder of the game, was considerate enough to give EVERYONE a chance to get the egg, you just have to be clever enough (bit of a spoiler there). Like the movie, Wade was the first to get the Copper Key, and that made him mega-famous. He got rich, and with that money, moved to a better place (after the old one’s bombed), got better gear, and got himself a training program, which doesn’t allow him to play if he hasn’t done it for his morning routine. That’s character development right there! I guess the movie didn’t have enough time to stick that all in. 

The romance was a bit rushed for me (I guess I’m like the 10000th person saying this). In the book, it was pretty steady. They exchanged messages for months. This and Samatha’s reluctance to show herself led up to that awesome finale in the very last pages of the book, about not wanting to go to the OASIS. I swear, that’s the best part.

For the same reason, I thought the meetup of the characters was a bit rushed too. I quite liked the anticipation throughout the whole book about what Wade’s friends look like in person (though he didn’t get to meet Daito and Sho(to). Also what’s with the name change? I liked the whole pretending-to-be-brothers thing by having themed names (I’m pretty sure it means big and small respectively)).

What do I think of the references? Huge step up from the book IMO (it gets pretty annoying in the book especially the first chapter and somewhere in the middle), as the movie makes use of graphics it can sneakily fit like 100 characters in a scene, while some music plays in the background. Some parts did get a bit “get this?” like the book, but it’s not as annoying. 

In conclusion, nonstop action, a great interweaving of reality and the virtual world (I like how there’s conflict in both), awesome CGI and music, plot and characterization could’ve been better instead of spending screentime on the Big War. Oh yeah, I can agree that “it’s FUCKING CHUCKY!” is the best line in the entire movie.

7.5/10.

[akiradanna]

when i was younger ask.fm was the absolute shit it got banned by my school

[akiradanna]

the pedal is to a piano as distortion is to an electric guitar

[akiradanna]

saturday. 6.27. school. project bastard band.

i didn’t realize i was standing like that

[akiradanna]

i’m planning to start a music only journal that documents my music stuff like performances cuz i’ve got a lot of them

[akiradanna]

Had a lot of fun playing this :D This recording’s older, like on April or something?

[akiradanna]

Might as well start my blog on my birthday! This song is depressing as hell (yet very nice), I cried every time I play this.. Not the best that I could play...yet, as I just learned this song for 3 days. THREE DAYS.